South Africa: Former PRASA engineering services head guilty of fraud

Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) head of engineering services, Daniel Mthimkhulu, has been convicted of fraud in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson, Phindi Mjonondwane, Mthimkulu was convicted of three counts of fraud after he was found guilty of misrepresenting his qualifications to PRASA, including claiming to have obtained a Masters Degree from Wits University and a Doctorate from a German university.

As a result of this misrepresentation, the rail agency suffered prejudice in that Mthimkulus annual salary was hiked from R1.6 million as executive manager heading engineering services, to R2.8 million per annum, she said.

Mjonondowane said Mthimkulu also misled the agency about another offer of employment he had allegedly received.

In June 2010, he lied to PRASA about a job offer received from a German engineering firm, for a position as an engineering services specialist, at a salary of R2.8 million per annum.

"Consequently, PRASA made Mthimkulu a counter offer in September 2010 at a salary of R2.8 million, Mjonondwana said.

She said the State had argued in court that the agency had been duped into hiring Mthimkulu.

State Advocate James Bhengu argued that PRASA suffered prejudice, as it was induced into employing and keeping Mthimkulu in its employment under a false and fraudulent profile [and that] the court should reject his version that his Curriculum Vitae was manipulated by a third party as farfetched and strange.

His actions exacerbated the financial situation at [PRASA] that was already suffering from financial constraints, she said.

Mthimkulu is expected back in the court on 24 February.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-02-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
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The Annapolis Board of Supervisors of Elections has closed its investigation into three Eastport voters who cast ballots twice in the 2021 general election after finding all three did so by mistake.

Following the Nov. 6 general election, the elections board, which administers the citys elections, was notified by Anne Arundel County elections officials during a final ballot canvass of three instances of voters who cast ballots twice, first returning ballots by drop box and then visiting the Ward 8 polling site to vote on Election Day.

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The city elections board, chaired by Eileen Leahy, a Democrat, sent letters to each of the voters requesting they provide an explanation.

Two voters were a 93- and 95-year-old couple who told the city they had forgotten whether they had returned their ballots and appeared in person to make sure their votes counted. The third had gotten confused as to whether the ballot they received in the mail was for the same election.

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There is no action to be taken at this point, Leahy said. Weve heard from all of them and theyve all cooperated.

In a voicemail left by one of the voters, obtained by The Capital in a Maryland Public Information Act request, she explained, All I can say is I am 93 years old and I must have  I guess I forgot I had done it once  and must have and gone ahead and done it twice, adding later, Anyhow, I am very sorry and I wonder were my votes both for the same person? I am sorry I voted twice and hopefully it was for the same person.

Another voter responded to the city by email saying it was a complete accident on my part that they voted twice because they were confused as to whether the ballot they received in the mail was for the same election being held on Nov. 6.

These are different challenging times, wrote the voter, whose name was redacted. And I very much believe in our opportunity to vote for our officials  but only once.  My apologies for the mistake and I promise to pay better attention next time.

A fourth voter from Ward 7 also returned a ballot by mail and appeared on Election Day to vote in person to make sure their vote counted. Despite being told by poll workers their ballot had already been received, the voter was allowed to cast a provisional ballot. The ballot was not included in the final vote totals, Leahy said.

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The three in-person ballots from Eastport voters were counted on Election Day. The mailed ballots, along with all other ballots returned to drop boxes before Oct. 28, were also counted at the Nov. 3 ballot canvass. The three extra votes did not have any impact on the outcome of mayoral or City Council races, all of which were runaways.

A review completed by the Maryland State Board of Elections into the matter found certain records in electronic poll books were not updated, which allowed the Eastport residents to vote in person despite also returning ballots by mail. No other instances of casting ballots twice were discovered, officials said.

The poll book did not show that ballots had been received for a subset of voters who returned a ballot between the initial export of eligible voters and a subsequent pull, said Nikki Charlson, deputy administrator of the state elections board, in a statement at the time.

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The three voters were registered to the Democratic Party, Charlson said.

To prevent voters from being able to cast ballots twice in the future, the state will be implementing verification checks to make sure the final list of voter records matches the count of ballots received by the local elections board, Charlson said.

The 2021 election was the first time every registered voter in Annapolis was mailed a ballot. The new system was approved last spring and implemented, in part, in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19 at polling places.

Turnout increased by 20% in the September primary election from the 2017 election. In the general election, turnout reached 40%, the highest since 1997.
KALISPELL  Edward Lauman has lived with his son Carl Lamar at The FairBridge Inn, Suites & Outlaw Convention Center for eight years.

The 60-year-old Lauman was disabled by a stroke and a broken back, yet he serves as a caregiver for his 34-year-old son, who lives with a brain injury. The pair is among at least 100 people  according to the hotels CEO  scrambling to find housing after the FairBridge sent a note to extended-stay hotel guests informing them they would need to find other accommodations.

As many of you already know, the FairBridge Inn & Suites Kalispell, including the Annex, has been sold with a closing date of Feb. 12, read a notice from the property sent to extended-stay residents Jan. 12. The buyers require all rooms of the hotel, including the Annex, be vacated prior to the day of closing.

The buyers, meanwhile, have reportedly advised the sellers to give current occupants a longer timeframe to move out of the hotel saying they were previously unaware of the notice sent by FairBridge.

We strongly encourage you to offer the residents 90 days to find alternative housing options and/or to engage with the local housing authorities to find a more suitable and appropriate solution that works for all parties, said Ziad Elsahili, president of Fortify Holdings, in a letter to FairBridge CEO Steve Rice dated on Jan. 21.

Nowhere in our contract does it stipulate the property must be vacated in 30 days, the letter provided to the Daily Inter Lake states. ...We understand that closing is contingent upon you delivering the property to Fortify completely vacant, but we never mandated this timeline you have imposed.

Fortify, based in Portland, plans to convert the FairBridge into 250 studio apartments, according to a conditional-use permit proposal the company has submitted to the City of Kalispell. The Planning Board recently approved the permit request. It goes before City Council on Feb. 7, but such decisions are typically made on whether a proposal fits with the property, not whether people may be displaced.

Although the proposal will eventually create housing for Kalispell residents, the short-term effects will displace current residents of the extended-stay portion of the hotel.

We just dont have no place to go, said Lauman, who was born and raised in Kalispell.

Kalispells 0% vacancy rate makes finding an alternative to the FairBridge a daunting prospect to current guests, many of whom are disabled, elderly or enrolled in various forms of government financial assistance.

In the message sent to guests, FairBridge CEO Steve Rice offered a list of alternative extended-stay hotel options in Kalispell.

Its a good time of year for that, Rice told the Inter Lake. As anybody in the hotel business knows, theres lots of empty hotel rooms in Kalispell this time of the year.

But many of the soon-to-be-displaced FairBridge guests say the cost and the demand are too high at other hotels and rentals.

For Lauman and his son, their best bet looks like the back seat of Laumans pickup truck. Thats our bunk bed, Lauman said. Unless somebody opens a door somewhere.

Fortify is a wonderful organization thats purchasing the property, said Rice, CEO of FairBridge. We think that they really have a great plan, as does the Planning Board there in Kalispell, to help address the housing crisis that that market seems to be experiencing.

But not everyone is so confident in the hotels buyer.

In a public comment to the Kalispell City Council, Cassidy Kipp, Deputy Director of Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana, brought up current concerns with Fortify Holdings. She cited a November 2021 Tri-Cities Observer news story that reported Fortify had not yet completed any of its prior hotel conversion projects.

Fortify Project Manager Cameron Wagar said Fortify now has two move-in ready properties in Medford, Oregon, and Spokane, Washington.

Other nonprofit leaders in the valley have broader concerns that the situation at the FairBridge jeopardizes the community as a whole.

We are already working at max capacity, said Tonya Horn, Executive Director of the Flathead Warming Center.

Horn runs an emergency shelter with 40 beds available each night, but she said the organization turns people away nightly because there is no space left.

That is just heartbreaking, Horn said.

Adding displaced FairBridge guests into the mix will further stress the citys other emergency services like police and ambulances, Horn predicted. The additional strain could push the city over the brink of a community emergency, she warned.

The impact that this could mean on our community is huge, Horn said.

We all should stop and think about the ramifications of closing the Fairbridge Inn, wrote Matt Evans, a former FairBridge guest, to the Inter Lake.

Some guests are hoping theres still a possibility the Feb. 12 deadline will be extended. But Horn and others believe the solution is more complex than a temporary delay in the move-out date.

Horn wants to see a more coordinated approach to ensuring housing availability to a diverse range of people living in Kalispell, including low-income and disabled people like many of the FairBridge residents.

The (Kalispell) City Council are very compassionate professionals, Horn said, but she thinks there is a lot more room for cooperation among various stakeholders to open up affordable housing options in the city.

It is too late for us to do anything but bow to the powers that be, wrote Mike Dittrich, a FairBridge guest, to the Daily Inter Lake. It is not too late for everyone else.

Leaving the FairBridge might mean leaving town altogether for residents like Cheyanne Sciacqua.

Sciacqua, her fiance Anthony Morris and their six-month-old son Jordan Morris plan to relocate to Missoula if they cant find housing locally. They believe they could transfer to jobs there if they cant secure a new place to stay in the Flathead.

Its a last resort, Sciacqua said. Were still trying to find a place.

Her supervisor, Mandi Pate, sought raises from her franchisee when she learned about the fate of the FairBridge.

Theres good people there, said Pate, who supervises multiple FairBridge residents.

But without any housing availability, a raise wouldnt be enough to help households like Sciacquas.

She and Morris moved into the FairBridge in February 2020.

It was a place to call home, Sciacqua recalled.

What she discovered about the housing market then remains true of her housing search now. There is nothing, she said. You cant find anything.

Sciacqua has gone through the traditional routes to securing a rental, and she reached out to several nonprofits, but each avenue shes pursued has proven to be another dead end.

Its especially stressful as a recent mother and an owner of two dogs, Sciacqua pointed out. As a first-time parent, you try to do everything you can to provide, not only for yourself, but for them as well, she said.

Sciacqua feels some of her neighbors in the Annex are in even more dire straits than her family. Some residents dont have a car, like 72-year-old wheelchair user Alfreda Hamilton-Piland. Others have no idea where theyre going to end up, like Macy-Grey Lynn Sage, her husband, and her son, whos almost 2 years old. Still others face additional extenuating circumstances, like Amber Westphal, whose 7-year-old son Jaeson Anderson recently underwent surgery.

When one single father read the letter sent to residents, Sciacqua said, he was bawling his eyes out.

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I recently sat in awe as I listened to 94-year-old Montana Constitutional Convention delegate Wade Dahood, one of 12 remaining delegates of the original 100, talk about his convention experience 50 years ago.

From his Anaconda law office, Dahood addressed a camera and a reporter for an interview, part of a series noting and celebrating the 50th anniversary of Montanas 1972 Constitutional Convention, where the delegates drafted what is arguably the best state constitution in the nation.

Dahood, chair of the conventions critically important Declaration of Rights Committee, mostly answered questions about the important rights conveyed to Montanans by Article II. Under Dahoods guidance, the committee, and the entire convention, made the conscious decision to maintain every right Montanans had under the 1889 Constitution, then added immeasurably to those personal rights. As a result, in the 35 sections of Article II Declaration of Rights, the citizens of Montana have been guaranteed more constitutional rights than any other American citizen  things like the right of privacy, right to know, right to participate, right of individual dignity, right of suffrage, right to a clean and healthful environment, and more.

The reporter asked about the importance of the unusual alphabetical seating in the convention as a means of reducing partisan rancor. While addressing that, Dahood reflected concern about the bitter divisiveness of todays political climate, yet voiced an optimism, tempered by time and experience, that Montanans and our elected officials can return to the time of civil discourse  where we can be opponents without being enemies, where we can argue ideas yet still come together, sometimes compromising, to do what is best for our state and country  and where we can understand that we all are striving to find a common good and find good faith in the efforts of all.

Dahood, a Republican delegate, spoke eloquently about the efforts of Democratic Convention President Leo Graybill Jr. of Great Falls and the other officers to operate the convention with shared responsibilities, even though Democrats had a significant majority (58 Democrats, 36 Republicans and six Independents). Republicans like himself chaired some committees and the vice chair of each committee was the opposite party of the chair. Delegates sat alphabetically, with no aisle to accentuate partisanship. Side by side delegates sat and grappled with the issues as Montanans, not as members of a political party. Every delegates ideas were duly considered and every delegate was fairly heard.

When Dahood was asked what thing about the 1972 Constitutional Convention brought him the most pride, he didnt point to any victory on any particular issue by himself or any other delegate or caucus or party. He told the interviewers that on the final day of the convention, after 56 days of vigorous debate, the final version of the new Constitution was laid upon the desk of convention secretary Jean Bowman (Republican from Billings) and made available for the 100 delegates to sign if they so chose. He recounted how, one-by-one, every one of the 100 delegates came forward and put their signature on the document, even those who would oppose it when it was placed on the ballot. All one hundred. Tears came to Dahoods eyes as he noted the pride he felt when all 100 diverse Montanans could unite as signers to the Constitution, effectively recognizing that they had done this important job together, not as partisans, but as Montanans. Those same tears were in his eyes on March 22, 1972, the signing day, as he watched all 100 unify as Montanans.

Tears came to my eyes as Dahood described that moment from 1972, as he confirmed his continuing optimism that Montana and Montanans, perhaps even our elected leaders, can rise above the current rancor and prove once again that Montanans are the best people in the Last Best Place. I share Wade Dahoods optimism and will continue to do whatever I can to bring Montanans together, firmly advancing our political ideas, but doing so with respect and civility.

Wont you commit yourself to that and demand the same from those who ask for your vote?

Evan Barrett of Butte is an award-winning producer of Montana history videos who occasionally teaches state history.

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" " Yes  it's true  there are certain people who are exempt from paying income tax. But who are these lucky souls? NickS/Getty Images

Some people will tell you that paying income tax isn't mandatory. After all, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1040 instruction book tells readers that the tax system is voluntary. And the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Flora v. United States includes the statement that "our system of taxation is based upon voluntary assessment and payment." But does that mean no one is obligated to pay taxes?

Not so fast. The word "voluntary" as used in the Supreme Court case actually refers to the fact that our system allows taxpayers to self-assess. That is, it lets people complete the appropriate returns to determine the correct amount of tax themselves, rather than the government determining it for them [source: TurboTax]. And contrary to what some believe, the IRS isn't legally obliged to prepare tax returns for those who don't file.

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The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1913, states, "The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on income, from whatever source derived ..." Congress used this power to make laws requiring individuals to pay taxes and delegated the responsibility to administer the tax laws to the IRS.

These facts don't keep taxpayers from contesting the tax laws, with arguments based on frivolous reasons. Some contend that filing a Form 1040 violates the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Others argue that wages, tips and other compensation aren't income, but rather an exchange of labor for money. Still others have stated that they aren't required to pay taxes because the federal tax return form and instructions don't display the Office of Management and Budget control number required by the Paperwork Reduction Act.

The truth of the matter is whether you're a financial consultant or a fitness instructor, if you're a U.S. citizen or a legal resident who earns taxable income, you must file a tax return.

But does that mean everyone will pay income taxes? Not necessarily. According to the Tax Policy Center, a nonprofit joint venture by the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, around 107 million or 61 percent of tax-filing households didnt pay any federal income tax in 2021 (tax year 2020). This was a huge increase from the 44 percent of households who didn't pay the year before. The jump was because of government stimulus checks and tax credits, as well as high unemployment, all due to the COVID-19 pandemic [source: Frank]. What determines who pays and who doesn't?
President Joe Biden said on Monday that he intended to designate Qatar as a major non-NATO ally, during a meeting with the countrys head of state, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, at the White House.

I am notifying Congress that I will designate Qatar as a major non-NATO ally to reflect the importance of our relationship," Biden said. "I think its long overdue.

Bahrain and Kuwait are the only other non-NATO allies in the Gulf.

The announcement comes as the administration meets with representatives of Qatar to discuss a European energy contingency plan should Russian troops invade Ukraine, as well as their coordinated efforts to support Afghanistan following last years U.S. military withdrawal. Right now, Qatar is thesecond-biggest producer of liquefied natural gas in the world.

It opens up a whole new range of opportunities  not just with the United States bilaterally but with other allies, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing on Monday. And perhaps the application of acquisition of capabilities, as well.

Paul McLeary contributed to this report.


Outside of Hy-Vee's newest Des Moines metro store, on Monday, Sep. 13, 2021, in Grimes. The store opens on Tuesday, Sep. 14.

A popular supermarket chain announced its plans to expand into Indiana on Tuesday evening.

Hy-Vee, which operates around 285 stores across the Midwest, plans to open a store in Zionsville, according to a news release from the company.

Previous coverage: Hy-Vee wants to sell groceries near Indy, but whether shoppers will benefit is debatable

The supermarket chain is finalizing plans to secure property at the southwest corner of Whitestown Parkway and S. 700 E. in Zionsville, according to the news release.

Plans call for a roughly 150,000-square-foot store at the 26-acre site.

We are excited that Hy-Vee has chosen Zionsville as a location to put down new roots, said Zionsville Mayor Emily Styron in the news release. With their commitment to quality of service, variety of products, selection of healthy food and an in-store pharmacy, Hy-Vee will benefit Zionsville residents, our neighboring communities and visitors.

More: Carmel is getting a new grocery store

In December, the West Des Moines-based grocery retailer announced that it was preparing to embark on a major expansion that would bring new stores to four new states, including Indiana, by 2023.

Additional information related to planned Zionsville location will be announced as details are finalized, according to the news release.

Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Hy-Vee supermarket chain plans store in Zionsville, Indiana
A new restaurant opened its doors in Valdese on Friday bringing another taste of Mexico to the area. El Patron Mexican Restaurant held its official grand opening celebration on Friday and Saturday.

Fabio Vasquez, one of the restaurants owners, brings more than 16 years of experience working in Mexican restaurants to his new business.

Ive been working in Mexican restaurants for many years, he said. Ive washed dishes, been a host, cleaned tables, been a waiter, worked in the kitchen and managed. I know what Im doing, thats the reason I made my own business.

Last year, along with his brother Jose, Vasquez decided to capitalize on this experience and the relationships theyve built with customers over the years by opening a new restaurant.

El Patron serves a variety of Mexican favorites such as burritos, enchiladas, nachos and ACP (arroz con pollo) as well as a few specialties Vasquez and his team have cooked up. According to Vasquez, the best dish on the menu is the ribeye and shrimp. He said many of his customers asked for it during the grand opening because they like the way he cooks a steak.

Vasquez said the crowd on both nights of the grand opening exceeded his expectations, filling the dining room to capacity and earning him many compliments from satisfied customers.

These three days of my opening, my customers were really happy with the meal we served, he said. They give me more motivation to keep doing what Im doing. If you like what you are doing it motivates you.

Vasquez said it is also inspiring to finally be able to run his own business

Im really excited because this is my business, he said. Ive run businesses before as a manager, but now I run my own business.

Vasquez is proud of the team he has assembled to help him run El Patron. He said that everyone he has hired has experience working in Mexican restaurants and is excited to be a part of the new business. Remembering how he sometimes felt as an employee, he hopes he can be the kind of boss he would like to have had, fostering a team atmosphere and recognizing the hard work and dedication his employees show.

I talked to my employees when we started working and said, we are a team together. I am not your boss man, we are together, Vasquez explained. Im not going to be mean to anybody because Ive been on the other side, if youve been there, you know. Im not going to do this with my people.

He said he also hopes to use his new business to give back to the community by offering special deals and delivery service to police, fire departments, schools, hospitals and other public service agencies.

I used to deliver to these places at my old job, so I want to continue to do this because these people, they know me, Vasquez said. I give a deal for everybody. I try to give a discount for the police departments ... Im not trying to be a rich man; I want to have enough money and help people.

El Patron Mexican Restaurant is located at 906 S. Main St. in Valdese and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. El Patron offers sit-down dining as well as takeout and drive through service. For more information, call 828-334-3303.

Jason Koon is a staff writer and can be reached at jkoon@morganton.com
Art Noonan, a longtime Butte Democrat and a former executive director of the Montana Democratic Party, is seeking a return to the state House of Representatives this year.

Noonan is running for the House District 73 seat now held by Democrat Jim Keane of Butte, who is not seeking re-election after serving 21 years in the Legislature. Republican Jason Freeman of Butte has also filed as a candidate for the seat.

Also on the area political front, Shawn Fredrickson is seeking re-election to the Butte-Silver Bow Council of Commissioners in District 1. Of six council seats open this year, five have incumbents seeking another four-year term.

Noonan has spent 40 years in public service, including three terms in the state House starting in 2005.

As a lifelong Democrat, I have always focused on improving the lot of Montanans and particularly the people of Butte, Noonan said. My family came to Butte in the 19th century, stayed for the entire 20th century and as a family we are committed to Buttes blue-sky agenda for this century.

Republicans picked up nine seats in the Montana House after the 2020 election and now control the chamber 67-33, but Butte remains a Democrat stronghold. Keane won 65% of the vote in 2020 to 35% for Republican Marjory McCaffery.

The Standard left a voice mail with Freeman, a Republican running in District 73, seeking comments on his bid. The district includes much of central and southern Butte and some areas in Silver Bow County to the south and west.

Noonan, who is retired now, was on legislative staff in the 1970s and was an aide to Rep. Pat Williams and Sen. John Melcher when they were in Congress, working on land, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Park Service issues among other things.

He has served as executive director of the AWARE Inc. foundation that assists people with special needs, and was executive director of the Montana Democratic Party from 2007 to 2009. He was deputy director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks from 2009 to 2011.

He has also served on the Butte-Silver Bow Planning Board and the Montana Supreme Court Commission on Practices.

Keane served four terms in the Montana House from 2001 to 2008, then two terms in the Senate from 2009 to 2016, and was elected to the House again in District 73 in 2016, 2018 and 2020.

Noonan said he hoped to continue the common sense, worker, Butte Democrat representation for which the District is known.

In other area news, Republican James Kephart of Butte is running again in House District 74. He is challenging incumbent Democrat Derek Harvey, who won with 65 % of the vote in 2020 to Kepharts 35%.

Tom Welch, a Republican from Dillon, is seeking another term in House District 72 covering Beaverhead County.

Republican Marta Bertoglio of Clancy is seeking a second term in largely red House District 75 that covers most of Jefferson County. She got 68% of the vote in defeating Democrat Bryher Herak in 2020.

Republican John Fitzpatrick of Anaconda filed last week in House District 77, which has been held by Democrats for many years now. Democrat Sara Novak of Anaconda is seeking a second term after winning the seat with 53% of the vote in 2020.

On the local front, Fredrickson filed for re-election Friday as commissioner in Butte-Silver Bow District 1. Six of the 12 council seats are on the ballot this year and the only incumbent not running again is Cindi Shaw in District 11.

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A mini-stroke and a knowledgeable daughter saved one Butte womans life.

Mary Berg went to the emergency room after her legs gave out. When she arrived, her symptoms subsided and her legs were working. However, what was happening within those arteries was something that couldve been fatal, had it continued to go undetected. Luckily for this Butte woman, her daughter knew what to look for.

She saved my life, said Berg.

My husband, Mark, took me to the emergency room, and then on the way up, he called my daughter, Jennie, who is a nurse in Denver, and she told her dad that she wanted to talk to the ER doctor. So, he ran the heart test and he was quite amazed that Jennie would know that I was having a heart attack.

While leg pain is an uncommon sign of heart problems, even the more common symptoms can be surprising. Women are a little different when it comes to heart attacks  some have no symptoms, some feel indigestion, some have teeth or jaw pain, sometimes its back pain or shoulder pain and some people get a feeling of impending doom.

Deanna Montoya is a nurse at St. James and is also the chest pain coordinator. She said that since heart attack signs are so individual, the best thing you can do to prevent one is to see a doctor every year.

Having a primary care provider is huge. I think everyone needs one. Everyone should have a yearly checkup, get their bloodwork checked and cholesterol levels checked, she said.

Montoya said that was one big key that Jennie, a former St. James nurse, knew about her mother when she talked to the ER doctor that August day  she filled him in that Berg hadnt been seeing a primary care provider regularly.

In the emergency room, the team checked Bergs troponin levels and did an EKG to find out something was going on with her heart.

Berg was diagnosed with a TIA or transient ischemic attack. Its a ministroke and happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is briefly blocked. They happen when plaque builds up in the main arteries causing them to narrow and restrict blood flow.

A lot of times, if people get these plaque buildups in these arteries, theyre also getting them in their heart arteries and other arteries throughout their body, said Montoya.

Once it was determined that Berg had suffered an NSTEMI, or a heart attack, she went to The Helmsley Charitable Trust Cardiovascular and Imaging Center at St. James for more tests and a heart catheterization.

In the cath lab, the medical team is able to watch live video of Marys heart as a dye is pushed through her arteries to help determine where the narrowing or blockages are located. When necessary, the cath lab team can put in balloons or stents to expand the passage.

Bergs heart would need more extensive work. She had triple vessel disease and left main disease and would need triple bypass surgery.

Had she not had the TIA, she very well couldve died out in the community, said Montoya. So she was very lucky to actually have had a TIA and we dont really say people are lucky to do that, but in her case  it very well probably saved her life and her heart.

Finding the problem was only the beginning of Bergs cardiac journey. Next, shed go to Missoula for open-heart surgery. During a bypass, a vein graph is taken from the leg then used to form a new flow system to move blood around the blockage to the heart.

Berg was scared.

They cut your sternum. Its pretty extensive. It was probably an 8-hour surgery. I woke up and I was glad to see I was awake, said Berg. Everybody my age should probably know the signs. I mean, if youre feeling weird, just go up there. If youre feeling not right, go to the ER.

Montoya agrees, but she says that if anything is out of the ordinary, to call 9-1-1. Dont drive. She said that if you lose consciousness on your way to the hospital, even if you have a driver, they wont be much help if theyre behind the wheel. An ambulance is equipped with staff and supplies to get you there safely.

St. James had 71 heart attack patients last year, 79% of those did not use 911 and, according to the National Cardiovascular Data Registry, the numbers nationwide are very similar and havent changed much in the last 20 years  only 20% use 911. When it comes to your heart, every second matters.

The triple bypass surgery was just the beginning of Bergs cardiac journey, as she continued her recovery in the St. James Cardiac Rehab Center. They gave her reading material to learn about her heart and helped her get it stronger by developing an exercise plan. She then bought her own treadmill so she could continue the regimen at home. Six months later and Mary is walking a mile and a quarter every day.

She retired on January first and is taking life slow.

Im doing well. And thank God for St. James and for my daughter and for Deanna and everybody  they were so good to me.

McKayla Haack is a Montana native whos called Butte home for three years. Shes been sharing stories from Big Sky Country for nearly a decade and is honored to share the stories of St. James Healthcare patients and providers.

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COLLEGE PARK  A Maryland man and a Kansas man have been charged with making separate threats to kill President Joe Biden, authorities said Monday.

Ryan Matthew Conlon, 37, of Halethorpe in Baltimore County, and Scott Ryan Merryman, 37, of Independence, Kansas, were arrested last week. Conlons case was sealed until Monday. He is also charged with making threats to blow up National Security Agency headquarters.

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Merryman was arrested after he traveled from his home to Maryland. Merryman called police in his hometown last Tuesday and said he was on his way to Washington, D.C., to see the president, federal authorities said.

When a Secret Service agent called him last Wednesday, Merryman said God told him to travel to Washington to lop off the head of the serpent in the heart of the nation, according to an FBI agents affidavit.

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Merryman denied that the serpent was the President of the United States, but stated that he had information about the Book of Revelation that he was being instructed by God to give to the President, the agent wrote.

Merryman didnt have a weapon but was carrying ammunition and a spotting scope in his backpack when agents found him in a restaurants parking lot in Hagerstown on Wednesday.

The next day, Merryman called the White House switchboard and said he was coming there to cut off the head of the snake/anti-Christ, the FBI affidavit said.

Merryman made his initial court appearance by videoconference Monday afternoon. U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Meade Sargent ordered him held in custody pending a detention hearing Wednesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Sullivan said prosecutors will ask the court to keep him jailed until trial.

An assistant federal public defender assigned to represent Merryman interrupted him when he began to talk about Biden during Mondays hearing and repeatedly pleaded with the magistrate to free him. Sargent spoke of arranging for Merryman to get a mental health evaluation while he is jailed.

One of Merrymans lawyers didnt immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the charges.

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Court filings dont list an attorney for Conlon, who was released after his initial court appearance last week. U.S. Magistrate Judge A. David Copperthite ordered Conlon to refrain from using a computer or any other internet-connected devices without a probation officers permission.

Conlon is accused of sending a string of messages to the NSA and FBI tiplines threatening to bomb the White House to kill the president, blow up the NSAs headquarters in Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County and carry out a mass shooting of NSA employees. Investigators traced the messages to a phone number and Maryland address linked to Conlon, according to the FBI.

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The FBI found a Facebook account for a username of Targeted Individual T.I. with a profile picture that appeared to depict Conlon. The account included pictures of a white Chevrolet Tahoe and described the vehicle as a Gangstalker that followed him on New Years Eve.

Investigators called Conlon, who said the vehicle had parked next to him in a parking lot once and made him feel targeted, an FBI agents affidavit said.

Conlon apologized for sending threats when he becomes angry, the agent wrote.

People who refer to themselves as a targeted individual claim to be victims of gang-stalking, said Christine Sarteschi, a professor of criminology and social work at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.

They believe essentially that there is an organized group of people or organized group efforts to harm them, said Sarteschi, who wrote a 2018 journal article about targeted individuals.
Signal Peak Energy will pay a $1 million penalty and serve three years probation for health and safety violations at its coal mine 35 miles north of Billings.

Federal Judge Timothy J. Cavan sentenced the company Monday. The penalty consists of four $250,000 fines for mine violations related to environmental safety and mine worker safety.

This case holds Signal Peak Mine accountable for its utter disregard for environmental and worker health and safety standards. Mine owners provided little in the way of meaningful oversight of mine operations as long as the mines managers could meet reported safety and production goals," U.S. Attorney Leif M. Johnson said in a broad summary of the case. "That lax oversight fostered a climate of fraud, which today cost the mine $1 million in fines. In addition, mine managers lied about the mines expenses, its safety record, and other matters, which separately resulted in individual criminal convictions and charges for nine persons, including former mine vice presidents and their associates, on crimes ranging from embezzlement, tax evasion and bank fraud to money laundering, drugs and firearms violations."

The environmental violations included not getting federal approval before pumping mine waste into abandoned sections of the mine, including chemicals, unprocessed soil containing heavy metals, arsenic and lead, which were over groundwater tolerances. The pumping occurred more than once and lasted for several weeks.

At one point the waste seeped into active mine areas, causing flooding.

The workers safety violations included instructing an employee with crushed fingers not the report the injury as work-related. In that case the worker was en route to the hospital when a mine vice president called and ordered the worker to cover it up. The worker's finger had to be amputated.

In a second incident, a worker with a bad laceration was taken home by the mine safety manager instead of to the hospital. Again, the injury wasnt reported to the federal Mine Health and Safety Administration. The worker required staples when he went to the hospital the following day. The worker told doctors he had been hit in the head by a falling shelf in his garage. In truth, the worker had been injured by a rock that sloughed off a mine wall.

Signal Peak indicated it was ready to pay the fine and put the incidents spanning five years behind it. The company pleaded guilty to the charges in October. It said a small group of Signal Peak employees had broken the law without the companys knowledge and that the employees involved no longer worked for the mine.

Cavan said Signal Peak couldnt blame the actions on a few bad actors given the scope of criminal activity by mine managers. The incidents took place between 2013 and 2018. Mine officials aware of the violations, all of whom are no longer with the company, included President and CEO Brad Hanson, Vice President of Surface Operations Larry Wayne Price Jr., and Vice President of Underground Operations Dale Lee Musgrave.

Two of the men were also implicated in stealing $20 million from the company. Hanson died at his Florida home in 2020 before he could be charged. Price was sentenced to 5 years prison and restitution.

Musgrave pleaded guilty in the accident cover up in December. He hasnt been sentenced.

Neighbors of the mine reacted to the sentencing as proof that Signal Peak is a bad actor.

"The toxic culture of this mining company is very disturbing to the people of Bull Mountain Land Alliance, people who ranch and live near the Signal Peak mine. They have shown blatant disregard for the law, the environment, and their neighbors, said Steve Charter, a Bull Mountain Land Alliance founding member.

Charter noted that the mine was under new leadership, which he hoped would improve operations. A member of Northern Plains Resource Council, Charter has long argued that the mine presents a danger to his land values and groundwater.

Signal Peak's ownership traces to Global Mining Holding Co., whose corporate parents are Boich Companies, FirstEnergy Ventures, both of Ohio, plus Pinesdale LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cypress-based Gunvor Group Limited.

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ARCHIVED - Caixabank warns of massive text scam across Spain



The bank has notified customers in Spain of a new smishing scam

Phone and internet scams are unfortunately nothing new in Spain with financial institutions bearing the brunt of unscrupulous criminals, and this week Caixabank has warned of a new scheme designed to trick customers out of their hard-earned cash.

Known as smishing, the latest technique involves fraudsters sending a text message to phones purporting to be from the bank. Needless to say, once customers click on the fake link they are redirected to another site through which the scammers can access all sorts of personal, and often valuable, data.

Read also: Frequent scams used by supermarket handbag thieves

Because of the enormous scale of this particular scam in Spain, Caixabank has emailed customers about the danger. The institution has recommended extreme caution when receiving any SMS that requests access to CaixaBankNow, whatever the reason stated in the message.

How to avoid becoming a victim of smishing

No legitimate company or institution will ever ask for digital banking access codes, or other personal data, such as mobile phone numbers.

Customers should never click directly on links sent via SMS.

Clients must always access CaixaBankNow through the bank's legitimate app, or through the company's official website, and type the address directly in the browser bar.

Everyone should be wary of messages that try to convey urgency, that threaten to block the account or ones that offer prizes or special offers.

When in doubt, customers are advised to contact their local branch for advice.

Image: Archive
ARCHIVED - Dozens of new speed radars installed across Spain



Speeding surveillance will also be increased in a number of cities in Spain

The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) announced at the end of last year that it would renew its focus on slowing down drivers across Spain, and to this end, some 26 new speed control radars will be installed on Spanish roads in the first quarter of 2022.

A dozen of the cameras will be fixed radars of the kind most commonly seen in Spain, but 16 section radars will also be acquired which are capable of measuring the average speed at which a vehicle has been driving on a specific section of road. With the second type, the DGT hopes to cut down on drivers slamming on the brakes when they see a speed trap , only to accelerate above the limit once they have passed it by.

An unspecified number of drones will also be acquired this year to add to the already operational 40 that provide a unique eye in the sky for the traffic authorities.

With all of the new traffic laws coming into force during the spring of 2022 , the director of the DGT, Pere Navarro, indicated that he hopes to reduce deaths and serious injuries on Spanish roads by 50% before the end of this decade.

Special attention will be paid to city driving, with the likes of Castellon, Ibiza and Salamanca greatly increasing the number of radars to not only cut down on speeding offences but to also collar drivers committing any number of other infractions. Barcelona, however, tops the list with no fewer than 34 new cameras being installed this year, displacing Madrid as the Spanish city with the most radars.

Image: DGT
Frances Director-General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs, and Fraud Control undertook a years-long investigation to determine if vanilla sold on the market was authentic, reported Food Ingredients First. They found that 25% of vanilla products did not comply with regulations.

Per pound, vanilla is one of the most expensive commonly used ingredients, with a current price of around $170 per pound of vanilla beans. Its the worlds second most expensive spice after saffron, but weather volatility over the last few years caused global shortages of vanilla, periodically raising the price past even saffron.

Authentic vanilla is expensive because it is one of the most labor-intensive crops to produce. Vanilla beans come from the Vanilla planifolia orchid, and each plant must be hand-pollinated during a short flowering period. The orchids only grow in a small geographic area 10 to 20 degrees north and south of the equator. 75% of all the worlds vanilla comes from Madagascar, with the rest grown in Mexico and Tahiti.

The French investigation found that fraudulent vanilla-like substances were being passed off as authentic vanilla in up to one in four cases. As a result, French authorities issued numerous warnings and fines to vanilla producers, importers, distributors, and retailers.

To prevent fraud, consumers should pay attention to where their vanilla is sourced. Vanilla distributors such as Eurovanille or Flavorganics provide reputable and transparent sourcing for their vanilla products.

Link to the full article here.

This article is an associate of Okanjo, an affiliate marketing agency that helps us monetize our content. Products sold through the links in the article allow us to receive compensation and keep producing great content.

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When the U.S. Census Bureau released its 2020 data, it confirmed that Iowas population growth has been anemic. Our overall population increased by 4.7%, but the report acknowledged that most of these gains occurred in a few metros and suburbs, while 68 of Iowas 99 counties lost people. In fact, two-thirds of our counties hit their peak population in the 1950s or earlier. To add to our population issues, we are facing the most acute worker shortage in a generation. Eventually, if Iowa employers cant find qualified workers here, they will relocate elsewhere. Thats a sobering fact for those of us that enjoy calling Iowa home.

The Iowa Business Council focuses on efforts that help attract, retain and re-engage a talented workforce. We know addressing important issues such as rural broadband, affordable child care and workforce housing will play a critical role in making our state a better place to live and work. However, there is one major policy initiative that has the potential to accelerate Iowas path to a much stronger future. That opportunity is tax reform.

Iowa currently ranks 38th nationally in overall corporate and individual tax climates. To be more competitive, lawmakers must focus on providing a simple and transparent tax structure that will grow Iowas economy. Governor Reynolds proposed flat tax on individual income would make Iowa one of the 15 most competitive states to live and work in the country. Under the plan, individual rates would start gradually reducing in 2023, culminating in a 4% flat tax for all by 2026.

On the corporate side, the governors plan provides a pathway to an eventual 5.5% flat tax while codifying specific revenue performance standards and guardrails before reductions can occur. For every fiscal year in which net corporate income tax receipts exceed $700 million, the surplus will be used to lower the top line tax rate for the following year. This is a prudent approach to begin addressing one of Iowas most distressing economic realities. From a corporate rate perspective, only New Jersey and Pennsylvania charge more than we do. This is a major barrier to entry for prospective businesses that might otherwise consider locating in our state and for current Iowa businesses looking to expand.

Taken together, this tax reform proposal is great news for employees and job creators alike. Businesses of all sizes and all individuals will benefit from the new flat tax policies. If enacted, good news like that doesnt stay quiet for long. It will be a major recruitment tool for attracting businesses to Iowa, while ensuring we retain the companies that have kept our communities thriving.

Modernizing our tax system will not only save current residents hard-earned money, it will make Iowa a more attractive place to live and do business. Our state is in a strong economic position. Iowa has a $1 billion budget surplus and $1.2 billion in its taxpayer trust fund. The time is right to advance tax cuts for all Iowans.

Joe Murphy is executive director of the Iowa Business Council.

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I learned the folly of the statement never do today what you can put off until tomorrow the day before the COVID-19 lockdown in Iowa.

I remember the day well. On that day in March 2019 I and a friend went to Southpark Mall in Moline. I had not been to that mall in several years and was looking forward to going. That morning I was faced with a choice. I could go to the mall or I could find a place to get a somewhat needed haircut.

I'll just get a haircut later this week, I decided. What could possibly happen that could keep me from doing that?

Well, check out my COVID 'do in the photo that is being run with this column. Normally I dont let my hair get much longer than about half an inch. As it happens SouthPark was a weird experience  as though there was another shoe waiting to fall. It fell later that night when Illinois announced it was closing. I live close to Hy-Vee on Highway 61 and I sat there all night on my balcony and watched as cars from Illinois filled the parking lot with people hoping to stock up on items they were lacking.

Flash forward to January 2022. For some reason, it hasnt been greatly reported on in this country, but in Canada, there is a huge protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates from the government. Dubbed "The Freedom Convoy, Canadian truckers drove en mass to Ottawa, Canadas capitol, to protest the requirement for Canadian and U.S. truckers crossing the borders to be vaccinated. Ive seen reports of thousands of truckers jamming the streets of Ottawa, as well as polls showing up to 78% of Canadians support the protest. Of course, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has labeled them a fringe minority and Canadian anti-hate organizations have labeled them far-right groups. Theres something you dont see every day.

Why do I bring this up? Anyone who knows me will say that I tend to leave it up to the individual to make their own decisions about the morality of government COVID-19 mandates. Well, there are many in the United States who support the Freedom Convoy and would like to see something similar happen in this country. Weve already been having supply chain problems in this country since about the middle of last year.

For those who dont know, most grocery stores have only about a three-day supply of goods. Simply, they wouldnt have enough room for more than that. Living close to a grocery store, I can tell you that there are plenty of trucks that are in and out of that lot delivering things. I cant recall the last time that I woke up in the morning and hadnt heard a truck at the store. Long story short  just about everything bought at local stores has been on a truck at some point as part of the process to deliver it to the area.

Since that first day of the lockdown, I have become a fanatic about having some extra supplies set aside. As it turned out the grocery stores were well supplied throughout the closure, but there were some very real concerns that they wouldnt. Kudos to the grocery store personnel in the area who worked so hard when everyone else was staying home to make sure we all got food. You guys are truly essential personnel.

If a truckers protest does come to the United States, Im worried it could slow the supply chain down more than it already is. It definitely wouldnt hurt for people to have some extra supplies on hand just in case shipments start slowing down. Whatever peoples feelings are about government mandates  they still have to eat.

It may also be a good time to get to know some local food providers a little better. A quick check of the Muscatine Farmers Market Facebook may show some alternatives to getting fresh food. Although, this is the beginning of February and I doubt there will be much produced this early in the year.

The point is that in many ways we are living through COVID-19 and are living in interesting times. We are seeing many things happen in society, even one of which in the past would have defined a generation. We do need to make sure that we are ready for whatever comes next.

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The Philippine flag flies between those of Guam and the U.S. during the 121st anniversary of the Proclamation of Philippine Independence at the Guam Reef Hotel in Tumon on June 12, 2019.
Workers pack up the parasols to close the beach as Indonesia imposes emergency measures, tightening restrictions in Java and Bali as coronavirus disease cases surge in Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia, July 3, 2021.
South Africans visiting the OLX website on Tuesday morning were greeted with the message that the classifieds service is no longer available.

Not to worry, we can still help you find your new car or property, the website stated, offering links to OLX subsidiaries AutoTrader and Property24.

The site was not yet restricted for everyone in South Africa at the time of publication.

MyBroadband tested from several different Internet providers and found that we could access OLX from Afrihost fixed LTE connections and Vodacom.

Those on MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain, and Cool Ideas FTTH were blocked.

One Afrihost fibre subscriber reported that they were briefly blocked from accessing the OLX site, but they could get in when they tested again later.

OLX-owner Naspers also appears to have delisted or blocked the classified platforms apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Trying to visit the App Store page for OLX South Africa gives the error message: This app is currently not available in your region.

Similarly, the OLX South Africa Twitter account has been deactivated or deleted, along with its Facebook page.

This content isnt available at the moment. When this happens, its usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people or changed who can see it, or its been deleted, Facebook says when trying to visit the OLX South Africa page.

OLX is owned by Naspers international Internet assets division, Prosus, and is headquartered in Amsterdam.

It operates in many countries, including Pakistan, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Portugal, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

Naspers launched OLX in South Africa in 2011, competing directly with local classifieds platforms Bidorbuy and Gumtree.

OLX shut down all its African offices except South Africa on 6 February 2018, pulling out of Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya.

The classifieds platform continued to operate in these countries remotely and was acquired by Jiji in April 2019.

MyBroadband contacted Naspers for comment, which confirmed the shutdown of OLX.

A few moments ago, we discontinued our OLX horizontal classifieds platform in South Africa, as we focus our customer proposition fully on our strong property and autos verticals in the country  Property24 and AutoTrader, said Sjoerd Nikkelen, the OLX Group general manager for Asia, the Middle-East and Africa.

This is ultimately an indication of the progress we have made in South Africa over recent years and symbolic of how we as OLX Group continue to adjust ourselves.

OLX South Africa website

OLX South Africa App Store error

OLX South Africa Google Play deactivated

OLX South Africa Facebook removed

OLX South Africa Twitter removed

Now read: All the companies Naspers owns
The MTN Group raised R4.3 billion from the sale of 575 million MTN Nigeria Communications shares as it moves towards its goal of reducing its stake in the subsidiary to 65%.

The offer was the first in a series that will help the MTN Group achieve this goal and was 1.2 times oversubscribed with a total of 802 million shares subscribed for by more than 126,000 Nigerian investors.

This sale reduced the MTN Groups stake in its Nigerian subsidiary from 78.8% to 75.6%.

MTN said the offer was carried out by means of a bookbuild to qualified investors and a fixed price offer to retail investors.

A total of 661.25 million MTN Nigeria shares were allocated, made up of the 575 million shares and a clause that would allow investors to buy up to an additional 15% (86.25 million) of company shares at the offering price.

A further 4.27 million MTN Nigeria shares (0.02%) will be allocated to qualifying retail investors who hold the shares for at least a year.

MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita said that the offer was presented to the Nigerian public through the digital application platform PrimaryOffer.

We are proud that our Offer was the first Nigerian public offer to use the digital application platform, PrimaryOffer, which enabled wider investor participation across Nigeria, he said.

More than 74% of retail offer subscribers applied via the PrimaryOffer platform. Many of these investors are new market participants.

MTN Group will continue its work to deliver on its stated intention of broadening the local shareholder base in MTN Nigeria, subject to market condition and regulatory approvals, with a goal to hold approximately 65% of the business in the medium-term, he added.

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved MTNs plan to sell 575 million ordinary shares in MTN Nigeria in November 2021.

MTN Group is pleased with the launch of this public offer. This is the first step in a series of offers over the near to medium-term for MTN Group to sell-down a total of up to 14% shareholding in MTN Nigeria, Mupita said at the time.

This should result in greater ownership by Nigerian institutional and retail shareholders, and increased liquidity of the share on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

MTN Nigeria received approval to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in May 2019. At the time of publication, its shares were trading at 200.10 (R7.35).

Now read: Naspers kills OLX South Africa
Many people criticise South Africas stand at Expo 2020 in Dubai, but the government claims it is an excellent showcase of the countrys value proposition.

Expo 2020 is a world expo hosted by Dubai from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022, with nations and organisations investing in pavilions to promote themselves.

The government said South Africas participation aims to revive the economy and create opportunities for inclusive growth.

South Africa, as a participating country, will showcase its value proposition at the South African pavilion, the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) said.

It promotes trade and investment, our world-class innovative technologies, creative arts, tourism, sports, and its unique cultural diversity.

It added that the expo provides the country with an opportunity to showcase its vast and diverse array of economic, cultural and tourism opportunities to the world.

Team South Africa will also emphasise agriculture and global business services, the mining, manufacturing and advanced manufacturing sectors  all key creators of jobs that fuel economic growth, the GCIS said.

The aim is to give investors and visitors an authentic experience of what South Africa offers through virtual exhibitions to enable visitors to engage with companies in virtual discussions.

While these are noble objectives, many South Africans who have seen the countrys pavilion are not impressed.

Sygnia founder and executive chair Magda Wierzycka described the South African booth at the expo as beyond sad.

For a beautiful country like South Africa, we showcased nothing, said Wierzycka.

Many others shared this view, saying it was the worst display of any country and a far cry from the truly majestic pavilions erected by other countries.

The other countries put so much effort into their pavilions. They were intentional about what they wanted to highlight and showcase to the world, a South African living in the country said.

South Africa was so disappointing. We could have built a stunning pavilion, but the opportunity was wasted.

Judge for yourself

With conflicting views about the South African pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai, here are photos and a video of the stand so South Africans can judge for themselves.

The photos and videos were provided to MyBroadband by a person in Dubai who visited the South African pavilion.

Video of South Africas stand at Expo 2020 in Dubai
Many South African businesses are ditching their traditional landlines in favour of voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services which are cheaper and offer superior functionality.

VoIP services offer significantly lower prices than fixed lines, offer real-time call activity statistics, and make innovations like voice transcription possible.

New cloud-based VoIP products enhanced offerings even further with excellent remote collaboration tools and integration with other software platforms.

The latest business VoIP products also provide excellent flexibility and make it possible to quickly add and remove phones in an office or virtual environment.

Where traditional fixed lines can take days or weeks to install, a cloud-based VoIP system can be up and running in hours.

ICASAs recently published number portability regulations will also make moving from fixed lines to a VoIP service easier.

From 7 March 2022, when the regulations come into force, local businesses and call centres can change to a different service provider without having to change their 0800, 0860, or 087 numbers.

Many South African businesses are now migrating from landlines to VoIP services, which raises the question of who the top providers are in South Africa.

The list below provides an overview of the prominent business VoIP providers in South Africa.

Vodacom Business (learn more here)

Vodacom Business allows businesses to originate and terminate VoIP minutes using geographic (like 021 and 031) or non-geographic (087) telephone numbers.

It highlights that a VoIP service is easier than ever to manage, offers flexible and competitive call rates, and requires no capital investment.

Vox (learn more here)

Vox promises cost savings, scalability, easy setup, and increased functionality to businesses that replace their traditional phone systems with VoIP technology.

Euphoria (learn more here)

Euphorias cloud business phone system offers companies innovative and reliable technology, flexible solution, and an intuitive telephone management system.

Switch Telecom (learn more here)

Switch Telecoms range of enterprise VoIP solutions promises to reduce costs and offer customisable features which improve productivity and ensure reliability.

MTN Business (learn more here)

MTN business says their VoIP offering offers a superior quality of service, lower call costs, expedited voice data across the network, monitoring, and fraud detection to enterprises.
Before my daughter turned one, we took her to meet family in Alaska. It was an uncomfortable boarding process. The glares we received from other passengers were a silent but loud invitation to ensure the baby didn't make much noise. Luckily for all involved, my daughter flew like a champ.

I never paid much attention to the safety portion of the flight. I noticed something I hadn't before on that first flight with my daughter.

While the flight attendant demonstrated how to put on an oxygen mask, they said parents need to put their masks on before their children.

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The reason is sound. Losing cabin pressure at 30,000 feet is not immediately fatal. If a parent uses precious seconds putting masks on young children, they could lose consciousness and then be unable to help the rest. Parents have to mask up first.

I wondered if this might be easier said than done. Parental instincts might overcome reason in a moment of panic. Luckily, I never had to make that choice.

I see something similar in financial planning.

Parents with struggling adult children instinctively try to help, but this help needs to be executed thoughtfully.

I have seen loving, and well-intentioned parents decimate their financial lives to help grown children. When grown children struggle, they often can't be fixed with more money.

The single most prevalent cause for parents needing to help grown children is substance abuse. Drugs and alcohol can rob the potential of the most talented among us.

The second reason children usually ask for money is for an investment or business idea. This is less tragic than substance abuse but can be equally damaging to finances.

Parents need to have a firm grasp on their financial status to know how much they can help. When children are hurting, a parents' judgment can be cloudy; an extra pair of eyes is helpful.

Parents also need to communicate this concept with children. If they do too much at one time, it may not be in the child's best long-term interest.

Financial advisors can help in this regard. An advisor can be the bearer of bad news. On several occasions in my career, I have been the "bad guy" who told children that mom and dad couldn't invest in their business because it would put their financial well-being at risk.

Helping children is a complex and sensitive topic that must be navigated carefully. Don't walk this path alone if you don't have to; discuss things with financial advisors, attorneys, and accountants that have experience navigating those topics.

Tom and John Mills are registered investment advisers and certified financial planners. Reach them at 254-0155 or MillsWealth.com. Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through Strategic Wealth Advisors Group (SWAG), a registered investment adviser.
The City of St. Helena is inviting the community to learn more about and provide feedback on conceptual Vine Trail alignments through St. Helena via a series of online and in-person workshops and open houses.

There will be two online opportunities on Thursday, Feb. 10. The first will be from 11 a.m. to noon. The second will be from 5 to 6 p.m.

To participate in the Feb. 10 forums, go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81395337413 or use the Meeting ID 813 9533 7413.

The city will also hold two drop-in open houses at the Napa Valley College Upper Valley Campus, 1088 College Ave. The first will be from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 12. The second will be from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16.

The public may also provide input at the virtual meetings of the Active Transportation and Sustainability Committee at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, or the City Council at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 22.

The Napa Valley Vine Trail is envisioned as a 47-mile Class 1 mixed-use path for pedestrians and cyclists through Napa Valley from Calistoga to American Canyon. The Vine Trail will encourage bicyclists and pedestrians to take alternative modes of transportation.

The City Council is expected to select a preferred route on March 22 after receiving additional feedback from citizens and a recommendation from the Active Transportation and Sustainability Committee.

You can reach Jesse Duarte at 967-6803 or jduarte@sthelenastar.com.

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A Napa-raised man imprisoned for the 2005 murder of his girlfriend has received state recommendation for parole, but relatives of the victim have launched petitions and letter-writing campaigns  including appeals to the California governor  to keep the convicted killer behind bars.

The parents and sister of Nicole Sinkule have renewed their fight against the release of Eric Nathaniel (Nate) Marum since Nov. 18, 2021, when two commissioners of the Board of Parole Hearings ruled him to be suitable for parole.

Marum, a 1998 Vintage High School graduate who later earned a psychology degree at UCLA and competed in track and field for the school, is serving a 16-years-to-life sentence at Folsom State Prison. He has been behind bars since pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of the 25-year-old Sinkule, who was bludgeoned 13 times with a claw hammer Oct. 16, 2005 at her apartment in Oceanside north of San Diego.

Marum would have faced 26 years to life in prison if he had been convicted of first-degree murder at trial, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported at the time.

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Commissioners declared Marum a suitable parole candidate after he testified to his remorse for the crime, a record of counseling and therapy through a decade and a half in prison, and his plans to work as a welder and writer in Northern California if released. But the mother of Marums victim declared him to be as much a danger to her family  and to women  as ever.

What made him low-risk after two and a half years in prison, when (parole) commissioners said at his first hearing that he was a danger, that he wasnt getting it? Claudia said Monday in a telephone interview from her Cathedral City home, referring to Marums first, unsuccessful parole bid in 2019.

Sinkule spoke with the Napa Valley Register about the case after citing the possibility that Marum, if paroled, could move to Napa, where his parents still live.

Since the parole boards preliminary ruling in Marums favor, Nicole Sinkules family and friends have written letters to the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom urging him to exercise his veto power over parole rulings. Family supporters also have spoken about the case with television stations and other news outlets and pressed their case in a petition posted to change.org and the website and social media accounts of the Nicole Sinkule Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to fighting domestic violence.

Speaking to parole commissioners at the virtual November hearing, Marum described a methamphetamine addiction that drove him to violent, jealous behavior during his stormy year-long relationship with Nicole Sinkule, culminating in a drug-fueled psychosis on the night he killed her as she prepared to break up with him, according to hearing records.

Claudia Sinkule, however, discounted the role of Marums addiction and pointed to other incidents that preceded her daughters death, including a probation violation and restraining order against Marum.

I would do anything to keep him in prison, she said. Its not like it was an accident, and he killed her. He blamed it on the drugs, but he made decisions that show you that he knew what he was doing.

Marums November hearing was a battle of competing narratives about what drove his crime, whether he was truly repentant and how he could live productively if released.

During his testimony, Marum described the toll of substance abuse from his teen years at Vintage High School, through college and then into his 20s when he became addicted to meth. He then described the range of counseling he has received in prison, along with plans to draw on the welding, plumbing and other job skills learned in prison to build a living in the future.

I try to show my remorse most through my actions, he told Commissioner Norma Loza. I was horrified after I killed Nicole, and I committed to changing my life. And so I've tried to demonstrate how remorseful and how repentant I am through my actions.

"He now has self-control that he did not exhibit in 2005, added Marums attorney Tracy Lum. He's gained control of his anger, learned alternatives to violence, but most importantly, he recognizes the impact the murder of Nicole Sinkule had on others.

But prosecutors distrusted Marums ability or will to continue therapy or avoid trouble if allowed to return to society. John Cross, a San Diego County deputy district attorney, declared to parole board members that Marum blaming meth use for his violent behavior shows he has not truly owned up to his crime, pointing to previous violent acts toward Sinkule  including dragging her out of the restaurant where she worked and smashing out her apartment window.

He was being kicked out of the apartment; his stuff was stacked up in boxes outside the apartment, and she called him and said, Hey, it's over; we're done, said Cross. That's why he killed her, not the meth-induced psychosis. And it's extremely troubling that after all these years and all this programming, he still doesn't understand that.

He knew exactly what he was doing. This was planned out. He knew how to do it. It wasn't the meth psychosis that he keeps trying to blame it on.

Paroling Marum would further endanger and torment a family that has continued to live in fear even with their daughters killer locked up for more than a decade and a half, relatives argued.

I'm afraid of him. I'm afraid of being murdered, said Sinkules sister Dinette, according to the hearing transcript. Sleep does not come easy to me as my sister went to sleep and was killed. His possible release is causing me to be in prison in my mind with constant fear and nightmares. I cannot do this every couple of years, living in fear and anxiety. It has taken a toll on me and my family mentally and physically every time we go through this.

I feel my family and friends are at the risk if the inmate is released; every innocent woman that likes to take a nap is actually at risk, said Glenn Sinkule, Nicoles father. All you gotta do is lay around and take a little nap and here comes Mr. Im-A-Man after you. That's your legacy, buddy.

Reached by the Napa Valley Register on Monday, Marum's father Douglass declined to comment on the parole recommendation.

You can reach Howard Yune at 530-763-2266 or hyune@napanews.com

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Today

Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High near 80F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early. Scattered thunderstorms developing later at night. Low 66F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
The long-unprofitable Chicago Sun-Times, which sold just over four years ago for $1, has been reborn as a nonprofit newspaper with $61 million in backing through a potentially groundbreaking merger with public radio station WBEZ-FM 91.5.

The deal, which closed Monday, puts the daily tabloid and its colorful history under the banner of Chicago Public Media, the parent company of WBEZ, forming a nonprofit news organization that reshapes the local media landscape.

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Chicago Public Media raised $61 million in philanthropic support to finance the merger, with the money pledged over five years to fund the Sun-Times operation, including commitments to deepen and broaden its journalism, maintain the print newspaper and invest in a digital transformation, according to a news release Monday.

The response from the philanthropic community has been tremendous, and we are deeply indebted to this community of donors leading the way to invest in and protect journalism in Chicago, said Matt Moog, CEO of Chicago Public Media.

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Copies of the May 31 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times, ready to be delivered, at Freedom Center, at 560 W. Grand Ave. in Chicago, on May 30, 2017. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)

The proposed merger was first announced in September, when Chicago Public Media and the Sun-Times signed a nonbinding letter of intent. The Chicago Public Media board voted Jan. 18 to move forward with its acquisition.

The newspaper and radio station will operate as separate newsrooms with their own editors, but will share content and resources across multiple platforms. The combined entities will have nearly 300 employees, with no plans for staff reductions after the merger, Chicago Public Media spokeswoman Betsy Berger said Monday.

Both WBEZ and the Sun-Times will launch a nationwide search for executive editors to lead their respective newsrooms, Chicago Public Media said.

Michael Sacks, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based asset management firm GCM Grosvenor and a Sun-Times investor, helped secure the agreement to transfer the newspapers assets and committed significant future financial support, according to Chicago Public Media.

Other financial supporters include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Builders Initiative; Chicago Community Trust; Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation; Joyce Foundation; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Mansueto Foundation; Robin Steans and Leonard Gail; and an anonymous donor.

I am proud to have played a part in securing the future of the Chicago Sun-Times and honoring its great legacy, Sacks said in the news release.

Founded in 1948 by Marshall Field III, the Sun-Times has had a succession of owners, including media baron Rupert Murdoch, who bought it in 1984. Murdoch was forced to sell the Sun-Times in 1986 after acquiring WFLD-Ch. 32 because of Federal Communications Commission cross-ownership restrictions.

In 2009, a group led by former Mesirow CEO Jim Tyree rescued the Sun-Times from bankruptcy, paying $5 million in cash and taking on $20 million in liabilities.

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Wrapports, a local investor group headed by tech entrepreneur Michael Ferro, stepped up after Tyrees death to buy the Sun-Times and 38 suburban newspapers for about $20 million in December 2011. The suburban papers were sold to the Chicago Tribune for $23.5 million in 2014.

In 2017, an investor group that included the Chicago Federation of Labor bought the money-losing Sun-Times from Wrapports for $1, after Tribune Publishing was thwarted in its own bid to buy the newspaper by Justice Department antitrust concerns.

rchannick@chicagotribune.com
Israel on Monday called on Amnesty International (Amnesty) not to publish an upcoming report accusing it of apartheid, saying the conclusions of the London-based international human rights group are false, biased and antisemitic, AP reported.

Amnesty is expected to join the New York-based Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group BTselem in accusing Israel of the international crime of apartheid based on its nearly 55-year military occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state and because of its treatment of its own Arab minority.

Israel dismissed the other reports as biased, but is adopting a much more adversarial stance this time around. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has said Israel expects intensified efforts this year to brand it as an apartheid state in international bodies and hopes to head them off.

In a statement issued Monday, he said Amnesty is just another radical organization which echoes propaganda, without seriously checking the facts, and that it echoes the same lies shared by terrorist organizations.

Israel isnt perfect, but we are a democracy committed to international law, open to criticism, with a free press and a strong and independent judicial system, Lapid said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Amnestys report denies the state of Israels right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people.

Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonize Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism, it added.

Neither Human Rights Watch nor BTselem compared Israel to South Africa, where an apartheid system based on white supremacy and racial segregation was in place from 1948 until the early 1990s. Instead, they evaluate Israels policies based on international conventions like the Rome Statute, which defines apartheid as an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group.

They argue that Israels various policies in the territories under its control are aimed at preserving a Jewish majority in as much of the land as possible by systematically denying basic rights to Palestinians. Israel says its policies are aimed at ensuring the survival and security of the worlds only Jewish state.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is already investigating potential war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian militants in the occupied territories. After last years Gaza war, the U.N. Human Rights Council set up a permanent commission of inquiry to investigate abuses in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.

Israel has accused both the ICC and the U.N. rights body of being biased against it.
Civil disobedience actions resume in Yerevan

Denmark, Finland support European Commission proposal on Russian oil sanctions

Bulgaria to seek exemption from EU proposed Russian oil embargo

Biden says he is ready for additional sanctions against Russia

Switzerland braces for serious power shortage

Uruguay freezes ambassador appointment to Ankara after Cavusoglu's gesture

Czech Republic to seek exemption from proposed EU embargo on Russian oil imports

Charles Michel on the likelihood of Moldova's EU membership

Resistance Movement actions to resume tomorrow early morning

Elon Musk is invited to UK Parliament for buying Twitter

Disobedience march reaches France Square, rally starts

US crude oil shipments to Europe hit highest level in April

NEWS.am digest: Large-scale protests being held in Armenia to demand PMs resignation

Armenia Defense Minister meets with Georgian PM

UK bans imposes sanctions on 63 individuals and organizations in Russia

EU plan to completely ban Russian crude oil threatens Hungary's energy security

EU interested in expanding energy cooperation with Azerbaijan

Germany: Gradual EU ban on Russian oil imports could lead to 'supply disruptions'

Opposition demonstration reaches government residences

Aliyev insists so-called Zangezur corridor 'is already a reality'

Slovakia seeks exemption from EU oil embargo for three years

Defense Ministers of Armenia and Georgia sign cooperation program for 2022

Romanian President approves entry of Stryker Brigade and US fighter squadron into country

Dollar goes up, euro also rises in Armenia

EU studying possibility of providing military assistance to Moldova

Public demand for Nikol Pashinyan's resignation

Opposition supporters move toward Armenian parliament building

EU envoys can not agree on Russian oil

Armenia Security Council chief briefs Georgia PM on Karabakh conflict settlement process

Armenia deputy police chief says law enforcement has right detain MPs

Large-scale opposition rally starts in central Yerevan

Many teenagers in New Zealand are illiterate

AFP: EU proposes to impose sanctions on Patriarch Kirill

Arestovich says Israel could supply Ukraine with weapons Azerbaijan used in Karabakh war

Parliament speaker threatens Armenian opposition, clergy

Armenia opposition MP: Ex-President Serzh Sargsyan will not hold office in new government

Beijing closes over 60 subway stations due to COVID-19 outbreak

Bayramov, Roquefeuil discuss Azerbaijan-Armenia relations normalization process

Armenia FM meets with US National Democratic Institute president

Armenia ruling force MP: Opposition will not achieve its goal

Armenia 2nd president Robert Kocharyans son blocking road with citizens in Yerevan

Oklahoma bans almost all abortions

Number of children in Japan falls to record low

Karabakh President meets with of Free Homeland-UCA parliamentary faction members

Armenian judge waves Artsakh flag at Ironman Triathlon (PHOTOS)

There is still lot to do in 'October 27' case, says Armenia Prosecutor General

Ambassador Wiktorin to finance minister: EU ready to continue providing assistance to Armenia government

Armenia Prosecutor General admits there are difficulties in investigation of 'March 1' criminal case

Copper price is stable

3 COVID-19 new cases confirmed in Armenia

American Armenian youth hold protest rally outside Armenia embassy in Washington

Japan protests against North Korean missile

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

Microsoft urges to abandon Internet Explorer

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
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia has sent congratulatory messages to President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang of China on the occasion of the Chinese New Year.

The congratulatory message addressed to the President of China reads as follows, in particular:

"Armenia attaches great importance to the continuous strengthening and deepening of traditional friendly relations with China for the benefit of our peoples."

And the message addressed to the Prime Minister of China states as follows, in part:

"Armenia attaches great importance to the consistent strengthening and deepening of multifaceted cooperation with China based on traditional friendship, mutual trust and mutual benefit."
National Assembly speaker Alen Simonyan has signed the record on considering Armen Sarkissians powers as the President of Armenia terminated.

As a result, Simonyan has temporarily assumed the powers of the President of Armenia.

On January 23, Armen Sarkissian had announced his resignation as President.

It has become known that the parliamentary faction of the ruling Civil Contract Party willin all probabilitynominate high-tech industry minister Vahagn Khachaturyan for the post of President of Armenia.
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili has been infected with a strain of coronavirus Omicron, the Prime Minister's press service reported.

The statement highlighted that Prime Minister is fully vaccinated, feels well and continues to work remotely.

The period of isolation of those infected with coronavirus in Georgia is 8 days.

Garibashvili was tested positive for COVID-19 on 6 April, 2021, and two weeks later on 20 April it was declared that the prime minister had been recovered. At that time, he had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus, although vaccination had already been launched in the country.

The Ministry of Health explained this by the fact that only people from a high risk group - employees of medical institutions and the elderly - were vaccinated at that time.
YEREVAN.  The Investigative Committee of Armenia has completed the investigation of the criminal case on violating the rules of combat duty on November 16, 2021 at a military outpost of a defense zone which was handed over to the protection of a military unit, Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from the Investigative Committee.

Accordingly, the investigation revealed that the Azerbaijani armed forces had invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia on the aforesaid date, the said Armenian combat position had come under their control, 13 of the 21 servicemen of this combat position had been captured by the adversary, the dead bodies of two of themTaron Sahakyan and Arsen Gasparyanhad been transferred to the Armenian side on November 17 and 19, 2021, respectively. Eight of the captured Armenian servicemen were later returned to the Armenian side, whereas three others are still being held in Azerbaijan.

Major G.G., Major N.Y., and Private S.M. are charged with a felony and remanded in custody.

On January 27, this criminal casealong with an indictmentwas sent to court.
The Brazilian Attorney General's Office has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court against Education Minister Milton Ribeiro in connection with accusations of homophobia, writes Gazeta with reference to the G1 portal.

The prosecutor's office demands a criminal case against the minister - homophobia has been a crime in Brazil since 2019.

Asserting that homosexual adolescents come from dysfunctional families, the defendant discriminates against young people because of their sexual orientation and biasedly disqualifies the families in which they were brought up, stating that they are maladjusted, that is, they are outside justice, outside the legal field, said Deputy Attorney General of the Republic Humberto Jacques de Medeiros.

In September 2020, Ribeiro said that homosexuality is associated with dysfunctional families where children lack attention, and that some teenagers allegedly choose sexual orientation because of the family environment. Also, according to the minister, discussions about gender should not take place at school.

Andressa Pelanda, coordinator of the National Campaign for Education, said that speaking like a representative of the state is a crime, the government cannot mediate such a discriminatory statement.
YEREVAN.  At its meeting Tuesday, the Board of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) decided to raise the refinancing rate by 0.25 percentage pointto 8.0%, CBA informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The Lombard repo facility rate is at 9.5%.

And the Deposit facility rate is at 6.5%.
Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan paid a working visit to the Garnakar, Shahmasur, Tsmakahogh, and Haterk communities of the Martakert region, the Office of the Artsakh President informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. The Head of State inquired about the existing problems on the ground, listened to the proposals related to ensuring the employment of the residents, and discussed with them plans for the future activities. Touching upon the programs, envisaged to be implemented at the expense of the state budget, President Harutyunyan stated that the roads connecting Garnakar, Shahmasur and Tsmakahogh communities to the highway will be asphalted this year. The mentioned three communities will receive state assistance for the comprehensive solution of the drinking water problem, while for promoting the economic activity, the community residents will be provided with beehives and livestock. Other infrastructure works will also be carried out in those communities.

The President urged to use the full potential and accommodate more internally displaced families in the villages at the expense of the available housing stock. The agenda discussed in Haterk was more ambitious. The President highly appreciated the initiative of the community head in the previous year to receive 40 internally displaced families and provide them with apartments on the account of the available housing stock of the village, as a result of which the population of Haterk has significantly increased. He instructed to continue that process, taking into account the still available housing stock in the community, and the desire of the displaced Artsakh residents to live particularly in that village. Issues related to the outdoor lighting of the community, improvement of the communal roads, construction of an irrigation network, creation of new building conditions for the hospital, as well as solution of leisure and employment problems were also on the discussion agenda.
Elizabeth Todd-Breland, right, holds the hand of her 8-year-old daughter as she receives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination from Dr. Raj Mahajan at Michele Clark High School in Chicago on Nov. 12, 2021. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

Its been two years since most Chicagoans first heard about COVID-19, the virus that was about to upend all kinds of life.

Some who worried what was coming next included people who may not have been parents when reports of the coronavirus surfaced. Now many of them have babies and toddlers, and are still filled with extra worry since their children have been too young to be given vaccines that can stave off serious disease.

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After initial Pfizer trials indicated a three-dose regimen might be needed, parents hopes for a vaccine stalled.

That could change soon. After federal regulators encouraged Pfizer to request emergency authorization for its vaccine for young children, the drug company asked the U.S. to authorize a two-dose regimen for children ages 6 months to 5 years old. This new move could clear the way for shots to start as early as March.

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Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady called the news very exciting, saying that if such vaccines get approved, we could be seeing that maybe in a month or so.

Just like with older kids, some parents may feel hesitant about the vaccines, experts said.

Vaccines for older children were approved in November. And according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of CDC data, through Jan. 18, 28% of children ages 5 to 11 had received at least one COVID-19 dose. In Illinois, 38% of children ages 5 to 11 had received at least one shot.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 7 Juliana Gometz, 11, receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from medical assistant Erica Ruvalcaba at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago on Aug. 27, 2021. Gometz is participating in a vaccine trial for children ages 6-12. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Dr. Jennifer Kusma, an instructor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Lurie Childrens Hospital pediatrician, said its understandable to have questions.

It is totally normal to stop and ask a question before you do anything for your child. That is our parent instinct, Kusma said. I think its also totally normal to even have more questions for a shot for your child than you would for yourself, she said.

Pediatricians and health experts remind parents that although children do better than adults if they get COVID-19, they can still get very sick. For example, MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome, is a rare but serious complication following a COVID-19 infection. And hospitalizations of children testing positive for COVID-19 increased as the more contagious omicron variant spread in Chicago.

After nearly two years of making constant calculations for their childrens safety, many parents may have additional questions about the vaccine. Heres what we know:

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When will it arrive?

If the shots are approved in March, they could arrive in Chicago soon after. Allison Bartlett, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the University of Chicago Medicine, said that when previous vaccines for older children were approved, they arrived in Chicago the same week.

Whats the deal with two shots and maybe three?

Initially, Pfizer studied giving two doses of their vaccine to children ages 6 months to 5 years.

On Dec. 17, the company announced it would also evaluate a third dose, after children ages 6 months to 2 years showed an effectiveness similar to that among 16- to 25-year-olds, but among children ages 2 to 5 it did not.

Kusma and Bartlett suspect that while studying the third dose, the company may have enough promising data for beginning children on the two-shot approval, expecting a third shot will be needed.

What do we know about what protection might be expected from two shots, especially for children ages 2 to 5?

Even without a third shot, the vaccine should still offer some protection, Kusma said, although we will know more with more data.

The earlier a child gets the first and second shot, the earlier they could get a potential third. And with Bartlett emphasizing there have been no safety concerns, theres not a huge downside to going ahead and doing the first doses now.

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Is it the same as the adult shot?

The vaccine for these youngest kids will be one-tenth the strength of the adult shot.

How can parents get a vaccine? Will they have to go through a pediatrician, and what if they dont have one?

Information isnt yet available on exactly how the youngest children will get their shots, but pediatrician offices may offer them. For children ages 5 to 11, they have been able to get them at health centers and places like at Lurie Childrens Hospital. The city also runs family vaccination clinics.

How far apart would the shots be?

There are no official recommendations yet, but Pfizer said in its clinical data information that they would study a third dose given at least two months after the second dose.

How long after having COVID-19 should kids wait to get the vaccine?

Bartlett said there is no medical reason to wait, but that theyd recommend a child first finish their time in isolation.

Have children experienced similar side effects to adults?

In general, Kusma suggests parents might expect children to feel things like arm soreness, low-grade fevers and body aches. They have noticed fewer reports of side effects among children, she said.

How do we know a vaccine is safe long term if it was just developed?

Pfizer noted their clinical trial found no safety concerns.

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Kusma, who reads all the safety data before offering guidance to parents, said she was very reassured that, for example, officials did not bring out the vaccine for children right away. That gave me good reassurance that theyre doing all the necessary steps, she said.

She reminds her patients that her job as a pediatrician is to keep kids healthy and safe, and they would never recommend anything they didnt consider safe. I always encourage parents to come to me with their questions or go to their pediatrician and really get the information about that from someone who has that background to understand the safety profile of the vaccine.

In general, she said, It would be very unusual based on the science of how immunizations work for there to be any long-term safety effects. Thats not typically how our body responds to a vaccine. Typically any side effects we see in the immediate period in those first couple of days.

Will we need more COVID-19 vaccines in future?

Its possible, Bartlett said, for example if a variant emerges that is not well covered by current vaccines.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
YEREVAN.  The Yerevan court session on the criminal case against second President Robert Kocharyan and former deputy prime minister Armen Gevorgyanwho is now an MP of the opposition Armenia Faction in the National Assembly of Armeniahas resumed Tuesday.

The previous court hearing was rescheduled because a case of the coronavirus was reported in the family of the second president.

In the preceding session, presiding Judge Anna Danibekyan had denied the two motions of Gevorgyan's lawyers on the matter of his parliamentary immunity.

And earlier, the court had denied the motion to allow Gevorgyan to go abroad to attend the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). According to the judge, Gevorgyan could remotely attend this session. At the same time, the court had set the next hearing for January 25, the day of the aforesaid PACE session, thus depriving Armen Gevorgyan of the opportunity to even remotely attend in this session.
YEREVAN.  Tuesdays Yerevan court hearing on the criminal case against second President Robert Kocharyan and former deputy prime minister Armen Gevorgyanwho is now an MP of the opposition Armenia Faction in the National Assembly of Armeniahas been rescheduled.

Presiding Judge Anna Danibekyan informed the courtroom that statements were received from the defense lawyers.

Accordingly, attorney Hayk Alumyan is participating in the work of the dissertation defense commission at the Faculty of Law of the Yerevan State University, while reports were received from lawyers Hovhannes Khudoyan and Aram Orbelyan about their poor health conditions.

Considering that it is impossible to hold this court session without the attendance of the defense lawyers, the court decided to reschedule this hearing to February 8.

To note, the previous court hearing was rescheduled because a case of the coronavirus was reported in the family of ex-President Kocharyan.
From today, February 1, Denmark has lifted all restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nightclubs and restaurants will reopen in the country, and masks are only required when visiting hospitals. Local authorities made this decision due to the high level of vaccination - more than 60% of Danes have already received the third dose of vaccination, while less than 45% of residents in the EU as a whole have been revaccinated, AFP reported.

In Denmark, about 40-50 thousand new cases of COVID-19 are registered daily, which is less than 1% of the total population of the country (5.8 million). Local health authorities estimate that 80% of the Danish population is protected from severe forms of the coronavirus disease. The Danish Health Authority recommends self-isolation for four days only for those who have tested positive for COVID-19. All contact persons are no longer required to be isolated. Several restrictions are still in place at the country's borders for unvaccinated travelers arriving from countries outside the Schengen area, Kommersant clarifies, citing AFP.

The Danish government does not plan to return to the introduction of restrictions again, but remains cautiously optimistic.

Denmark became the first country in Europe to remove all restrictions. Since the beginning of the year, several other countries have begun to relax quarantine measures. In particular, in Austria, the lockdown for the unvaccinated will cease to operate from February, and in France, the mandatory wearing of masks on the street and the recommendation to transfer employees to remote work will be canceled.
You see in what language of sanctions they speak to Russia amid the developments in Ukraine, in the conditions when Russia has not taken any action yet. Opposition "Armenia" Faction MP Aram Vardevanyan, who is a lawyer by profession, told this to reporters Tuesday in the National Assembly of Armenia.

"They say, 'You can take such an action, thats why we are working out sanctions.' Esteemed, dear PACE, Azerbaijan has committed all the crimes of international humanitarian law in the 2020 war, and has added some actions. Have you seen any sanctions against Azerbaijan? Have you seen that in the same PACE resolution it is written that, Impose a sanction on Azerbaijan? It is written there, We think it is right that they return the [Armenian] prisoners of war. That is, they [i.e., Azerbaijan] do not return [them] for two years, and you speak to them in that language? Impose a sanction! Vardevanyan stated.

You know that there is a criminal case at the PACE, which values democracy so much, where one of their delegates was a user of petrodollars. Now it seems the amount of petrodollars has increased a lot," the Armenian opposition lawmaker added.
The process of settlement of the Karabakh issue is not over. Artak Zakaryan, a member of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and ex-deputy defense minister of the country, told this to a press conference Tuesday.

According to him, the 44-day war in the fall of 2020 has not put an end to this issue, and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) will never be part of Azerbaijan.

"Even today, it seems, being in a hopeless situation, we have a chance and an opportunity to find a way out. But the current [Armenian] authorities consisting of capitulators either simply do not see or do not want to see those ways [out]. Although it is quite possible, they are so weak and scared that they are afraid to see those opportunities," said Zakaryan.

According to the Armenian opposition member, the incumbent authorities are afraid to reflect on the aggressive policy of Azerbaijan, to raise the issue of the Azerbaijani occupation of Armenian territories, and they are even afraid to celebrate the Armenian National Army Day.

"Their representatives must come understand that sooner or later they will bear full accountability for all the failures that have been allowed. The sooner they realize their accountability and relinquish power, the easier it will be to bring the country out of the crisisrestoring Armenia's sovereign role in regional processes," the RPA representative said.
Few dishes spread as rapidly in Chicago as quesabirria tacos, a specialty born in Tijuana, Mexico, did in 2020.

But Tijuana has more to teach us about tacos than just that beefy, cheesy delight. For an inkling, visit Tacos El Rey, which opened a few months ago in the East Side neighborhood near 95th Street and South Ewing Avenue.

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The shop is run by Veronica Fabre and her family. They own two other restaurants, including Los Tacos & Desserts (8548 S. Commercial Ave.), which serves an excellent version of quesabirria. But for their third restaurant, they wanted to try something different. I like to travel a lot, Fabre said. Ive been to Tijuana a number of times, and I fell in love with the tacos and the unique presentation.

Tijuana-style tacos from Tacos El Rey, near 95th Street and South Ewing Avenue. (Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune)

The tacos do look distinctive. Instead of placing each one flat on a plate or rolling them up in foil, every taco is wrapped up tightly on one end with paper, with the other end open. Its then topped with onions, cilantro and, for an extra 50 cents, a large dollop of guacamole.

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Squint, and it almost looks like miniature Greek gyros, though food writer Titus Ruscitti rightly compared them to how In-N-Out Burger packages its burgers, leaving one side exposed.

Fabre said it is time-consuming to wrap each taco that way, but the presentation is crucial. A lot of people come just to try them because they look different, Fabre said. We have people that drive all the way from Aurora and Milwaukee to try them.

Of course, Tacos El Rey could wrap up its tacos with pieces of yarn, and I wouldnt really care unless they tasted good too. Thats fortunately not a problem.

Taco perron from Tacos El Rey ($4). (Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune)

You can find a very good carne asada taco ($3.50), but you might as well spring for the taco perron ($4), which originated near Tijuana at Tacos El Yaqui in Playas de Rosarito. Each one starts with a flour tortilla that gets topped with heaping portions of cheese, grilled steak, beans, onion, cilantro and guacamole. This one skips the distinctive paper end wrap  probably since its topped so generously, theres almost no way to politely fold the tortilla without everything spilling out.

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

Another hard-to-find menu offering is the Vampiro ($4.75), which means vampire in Spanish. A corn tortilla is toasted until crisp on a griddle, before its topped with meat, cheese, cilantro, onion, guacamole and crema.

Al pastor taco from Tacos El Rey ($3.00) (Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune)

But no visit is complete without at least a few al pastor tacos ($3). (Or so says this al pastor fanatic.) I knew it had a chance of being great from the moment I spotted the enormous trompo in the kitchen, which was stacked high with slices of marinated pork. Like all great al pastor, each bite manages to stay both slightly crispy, yet still juicy.

Fabre admits that she had some help with the al pastor. A friend of mine owns a taco shop in Tijuana, and we got to talk about the recipe, says Fabre. He told me his way, and then I added my touch. To make sure the meat tasted just right, she purchased the trompo in Tijuana.

I tried to tease out some al pastor recipe secrets from Fabre, but she said it has less to do with the recipe and more with the passion of her crew. If you make a good taco with love, it will taste good, Fabre said.

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9625 S. Ewing Ave., 773-359-6007, tacoselreychicago.com

nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com

Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.
The administration of Sochi, Russia, has decided to include in its calendar of holidays in 2022 the "Day of the victory of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Patriotic War of 2020."

Readovka periodical drew attention to the Sochi city hall's decision dated December 27, 2021 "on approving the 2022 calendar plan of holidays, memorable days, significant events and measures."

According to this document, the victory of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was scheduled to be celebrated on November 8. But this order was soon removed.

The press services of the administrations of Sochi city and Krasnodar Region could not comment promptly on the reasons for adding that date to their holiday list, nor could they explain the removal of this order.

Instead of commenting on the matter, the assistant to the mayor of Sochi, Aleksey Kopaygorodsky, commented on the respective message by the "Real Sochi" Telegram channel, according to which the information about the victory of Azerbaijan over Armenia is not reliable.

The information circulating on a number of Telegram channels that the days connected with the events of the neighboring countries are celebrated in Sochi are not confirmed. A source from the Sochi Municipality informs that it is fake news.

The Sochi administration, however, has not issued an official refutation.
The MPs of the ruling majority "Civil Contract" Faction of the National Assembly of Armenia are holding a closed meeting in the parliament, to which High-Tech Industry Minister Vahagn Khachaturyanwho is the authorities probable candidate for the next Presidentis also attending. This information was confirmed by the ruling Civil Contract Party in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

As reported earlier, NA speaker Alen Simonyan on Tuesday signed the record on the termination of Armen Sarkissian's powers as the President of Armenia, after which Simonyan temporarily assumed the duties of the President until a new President is elected.
The Armenian court denied the investigator's motion to extend the detention of former prisoner of war Aren Aramyan, lawyer Ara Karapetyan informed on Facebook.

"The former prisoner of war and soldier who fought for the homeland will be released on February 6," Karapetyan wrote, in particular.

After being taken prisoner by Azerbaijan, Aramyan was taken from Gandzak village in Gegharkunik Province of Armenia to a hospital in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, as his health condition was severe. He was returned to Armenia on November 26, 2021 and taken to the Yerevan central military hospital where he received ten days of medical treatment, but then was apprehended by law enforcement.

During his stay in the hospital, Aramyan was interviewed as an injured party.

On December 6, he was detained and became a defendant, then a motion was submitted to arrest him, and the court granted this motion.

Aren Aramyan was charged under Criminal Code Article 365, Section 3: violating the rules of military duty or military service, which caused serious consequences.
European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson will visit Azerbaijan on 4 February and the US on 7 February to discuss additional gas supplies to the EU, European Commission spokesman Tim McPhee said at a briefing in Brussels on Tuesday.

As he said, negotiations on gas supplies will continue. Commissioner Simson will travel to Azerbaijan on 4 February to participate in a ministerial meeting of the countries participating in the Southern Gas Corridor. On 7 February, she and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell will travel to the United States to participate in the EU-US Energy Council meeting.
Britain, Poland and Ukraine are working to strengthen their trilateral cooperation in the face of the threat of a new Russian military intervention, leaders of the two Eastern European countries said in Kyiv, Reuters reported.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to arrive in Kyiv later on Tuesday.

"I hope that in the near future we will be able to officially launch a new regional format of cooperation Ukraine-Poland-UK, in the context of ongoing Russian aggression, we should sign a trilateral document on cooperation to strengthen regional security," said Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Shmygal, his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki said Warsaw would help Ukraine with gas and arms supplies, as well as humanitarian and economic aid.

"Living close to a neighbour like Russia we have the feeling of living at the foot of a volcano," said Morawiecki, adding Warsaw would provide Ukraine with artillery ammunition, mortars, portable air-defence systems and surveillance drones.

Morawiecki urged Germany not to launch the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, saying it poses serious security risks.

"Through launching this pipeline, Berlin is loading Putin's pistol, which he can then use to blackmail the whole of Europe," he said.

Morawiecki said foreign ministers were "working on a potential format that could tighten cooperation on various fields between Poland, Ukraine and Britain."
Georgetown Universitys law school placed a newly hired administrator on leave Monday after he said on Twitter that President Joe Biden would nominate not the objectively best pick but a lesser Black woman to be the next Supreme Court justice.

The decision came one day before the scholar, Ilya Shapiro, a prominent libertarian, had been scheduled to assume his role as a senior lecturer and the executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, which is part of the law school.

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Shapiro, a constitutional law expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, drew a sharp rebuke from students, faculty members and alumni with his comments about the search process for the next justice. The posts have since been deleted.

In a tweet posted Jan. 26, Shapiro suggested that Biden should nominate Sri Srinivasan, the Indian-born chief judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court.

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Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart, Shapiro wrote. Even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesnt fit into latest intersectionality hierarchy so well get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?

Some had called for the law school, which is among the most prestigious in the nation and sits within a mile of the Supreme Court, to rescind its decision to hire Shapiro.

Shapiro had been weighing in on Bidens pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court to replace Breyer, who last week announced his plans to retire.

In an email to the law school, whose formal name is the Georgetown University Law Center, its dean said Monday that the university would investigate whether Shapiro had violated any of the schools policies on professional conduct, nondiscrimination and anti-harassment.

Over the past several days, I have heard the pain and outrage of so many at Georgetown Law, and particularly from our Black female students, staff, alumni and faculty, the dean, William M. Treanor, said. Ilya Shapiros tweets are antithetical to the work that we do here every day to build inclusion, belonging and respect for diversity.

In an email to The New York Times on Monday, Shapiro expressed regret over his tweets, but he maintained that they were not grounds for disciplinary action by the law school.

Im optimistic that Georgetowns investigation will be fair, impartial and professional, Shapiro said. And Im confident that it will reach the only reasonable conclusion: My tweet was inartful and undermined my antidiscrimination message, which is why I apologized. It was not, however, a violation of any university rule or policy, and indeed is protected by Georgetown policies on free expression.

In a subsequent tweet that Shapiro also deleted, he said that if Biden limited his search to Black female jurists, his nominee will always have an asterisk attached.

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Fitting that the Court takes up affirmative action next term, he added.

The Black Law Students Association at Georgetown condemned Shapiros comments, which it said were racist. The group called for the university to rescind his employment offer in a petition that was signed by more than 900 people.

At Georgetown Law, Black students are haunted by the shadow of impostor syndrome, the association said in a letter Friday to the law school. Shapiro reinforced this phenomenon by reducing Black womens accomplishments to small favors from heaven.

Some other scholars, conservatives and free speech activists rallied around Shapiro, including the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an advocacy group that focuses on First Amendment issues in higher education.

The group on Monday posted on its website a letter supporting Shapiro that it said had been signed by nearly 60 college professors across the nation.

Academic freedom protects Shapiros views, regardless of whether we agree with them or not, the groups letter said. And debate about the presidents nomination, and about whether race and sex play a proper role in such nominations more generally, would be impoverished  at Georgetown and elsewhere  if this view could not be safely expressed in universities.

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The Cato Institute referred questions to Shapiro.

Shapiro, whose hiring was acclaimed by the law school in a Jan. 21 news release, said in his email Monday that he was eager to start his new role.

Accordingly, I expect to be vindicated and look forward to joining my new colleagues in short order, he said.

In announcing the decision to place Shapiro on leave, Treanor said that Shapiro would not be on campus while the law school conducted its investigation.

Racial stereotypes about individual capabilities and qualifications remain a pernicious force in our society and our profession, Treanor said. I am keenly aware that our law school is not exempt.

c.2021 The New York Times Company
Qatar, one of the world's largest exporters of natural gas, will not be able to unilaterally fill Europe's energy needs in the event of a shortage due to the situation around Ukraine, Energy Minister said, Reuters reports.

The volume of gas needed by the EU cannot be replaced by anyone unilaterally, without disturbing supplies to other regions around the world," the minister, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, said in a statement

Kaabi issued the statement following a meeting in Doha with EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson.

He expressed hope that tensions in Europe can be resolved through diplomacy so that all suppliers can work together to ensure energy security in the short and long term.

Qatar is a key US ally in the Middle East region and a leading trade and political partner of the EU.

The United States is concerned that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine and has asked Qatar and other major gas producers in recent weeks to explore whether they can supply additional gas to Europe if Russian supplies are disrupted.

Moscow has repeatedly denied Western allegations of an impending attack on Ukraine.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan had a phone conversation with Chris Heaton-Harris, Britain's Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas, the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry informed NEWS.am.

The sides agreed that much work has been done over the past three decades to establish and strengthen bilateral relations. The sides exchanged views on further expanding the agenda of bilateral relations and intensifying the dialogue.

The sides discussed issues related to regional stability and security. Among humanitarian issues requiring urgent solutions were the return of Armenian prisoners of war and civilians detained in Azerbaijan, and the protection of Armenian religious and cultural heritage in the territories under Azerbaijani control. The sides underscored the need for a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict within the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Chris Heaton-Harris expressed the UK's support to the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

The sides also touched upon the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey without preconditions. The British side expressed its support to this process.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the US written response to Russia's security proposals.

According to the State Department, Blinken stressed " the US willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns, which we intend to do in full coordination with our partners and Allies. He further reiterated the U.S. commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances. The Secretary urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraines borders. He emphasized that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path.," the report said.

In turn, Sergei Lavrov said at the end of the conversation that the West is trying to completely forget about the key principle of the indivisibility of security, this was stated in the Russian letter to the foreign ministers of OSCE countries.

He said that the key principle of international law agreed in the Euro-Atlantic space, Western colleagues are trying to ignore, not even ignore, but completely forget, According to Lavrov, the US and NATO's reaction to the key question - about the honest fulfillment of the agreements on the indivisibility of security, which were achieved within the framework of the OSCE in Istanbul in 1999 and in Astana in 2010, was negative. These agreements, Lavrov stressed, provided not only freedom of choice of alliances, but conditioned free choice of alliances on the need to avoid steps to strengthen security at the expense of the security of others. According to him, this key principle of international law, agreed in the Euro-Atlantic space, about the inadmissibility of strengthening security at the expense of the security of others, the West is trying to ignore completely.
YEREVAN.  Zhoghovurd newspaper of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: FlyOne Armenia airline's first Yerevan-Istanbul flight will take place on February 2.

Zhoghovurd daily has learned that the airline tickets start from 90 euros, or about 50 thousand drams. We found out that there are still available airline tickets at the moment.

On February 4, the price of the airline ticket will decrease slightlybecoming 69 euros, but then it will risebecoming 90 euros again.

We have learned that among the [Armenian] citizens heading for Istanbul [on board these flights] there are also businessmen, especially traders who, as a result of the lifting of the ban on the import of Turkish goods, are ready to startby airtheir trade relations with Turkish partners.

Let us inform that as February 2, FlyOne Armenia companybelonging to the family of MP Khachatur Sukiasyan [of the ruling majority] CC [Civil Contract Faction in parliament]will start operating non-regular flights twice a week on the Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan route.

In addition, the RA Civil Aviation Committee on January 10 allowed Turkish Pegasus Airlines to operate charter flights in the Istanbul-Yerevan-Istanbul direction.

Two [Pegasus Airlines] flights are scheduled for February 2 and 5, but from February 7 to March 27, the airline will operate three flights a week. The cost of the airline ticket offered by the Turkish airline is about 54 thousand drams for February 3.
A series of unconfirmed bomb threats disrupted life at more than a dozen college campuses this week, drawing the attention of the White House and the FBI.

Of particular concern were the threats directed at historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, including at least 17 that temporarily canceled in-person classes and locked down buildings.

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President Joe Biden was aware of the threats, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a news conference Monday.

I will say that these are certainly disturbing, Psaki said. And the White House is in touch with the interagency partners, including federal law enforcement leadership, on this.

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The FBI said in a statement that it was working with our law enforcement partners to address any potential threats.

Authorities have so far not described any of the threats as credible. But school officials at many of the universities took precautions, such as sweeping campus buildings and moving to remote instruction. Some of the HBCUs have received multiple threats this year.

Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., a former police chief, said on Twitter on Monday that the threats against historically Black colleges demand a response.

As a former law enforcement officer Ill keep working to make sure our institutions and law enforcement have the resources they need to keep all of our students and communities safe, Demings said.

On Monday, at least seven HBCUs, including Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Delaware State University in Dover, Delaware, received bomb threats.

At least 10 other historically Black colleges, including Spelman College in Atlanta, reported threats Tuesday, the first day of Black History Month. The threats were made in the early hours of the day, according to several affected schools.

At least four schools issued all clear messages by midday Tuesday, including Kentucky State University; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; and Jackson State University and Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi.

Separately on Tuesday, UCLA said that all of its classes for the day would be remote out of an abundance of caution after some school staff received threats from a specific person. The school said that, according to law enforcement officials, the person was not in California and was under observation.

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Investigations were still underway Tuesday morning at several of the historically Black colleges, including those that had received repeated threats this year.

The threats are despicable, Mary Schmidt Campbell, president of Spelman College in Atlanta, said in an email to students and staff members Tuesday. They are designed to make us feel fearful and vulnerable.

In a letter to Howard students and staff members Monday, Marcus Lyles, the schools chief of police, said that while the recent threats against the university had not been credible, they were a drain on institutional and municipal resources and an unnecessary mental burden on individuals trying to learn and work on our campus.

At least eight HBCUs had also received threats Jan. 5. Many campuses were nearly empty because of winter break and the coronavirus pandemic, but dorm rooms and administrative buildings were still cleared out.

A week later, the University of Utah reported that its Black cultural center had also received a bomb threat.

The recent bomb threats at historically Black colleges and universities followed a series of unsubstantiated threats in November at several Ivy League schools as well as campuses in Ohio and California. Those threats were later deemed not to be credible.

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c.2021 The New York Times Company
The O. Wayne Rollins Foundation has committed $100 million to Emory Universitys Rollins School of Public Health. The transformative gift, which is the largest in the schools history, will establish two endowed funds: the Rollins Fund for Faculty Excellence and the Rollins Fund for Student Success.

Through sustained and visionary investment over the last three decades, the Rollins family has transformed Emorys Rollins School of Public Health into one of the finest in the nation, addressing public health needs in Georgia, across the country, and on a global scale, says President Gregory L. Fenves. Todays landmark gift will enable Rollins to reach even greater heights of impact by supporting current and future generations of outstanding and innovative faculty members and students dedicated to improving the health of all.

The Rollins Fund for Faculty Excellence will focus on recruiting and retaining distinguished senior faculty leaders dedicated to addressing the worlds most pressing public health challenges and provide early career support for gifted junior faculty members.

The gift will allow the Rollins School of Public Health to deepen the bench of exceptional faculty members in key areas where the school is recognized as a national leader, from cancer research and infectious diseases to global safe water, sanitation and hygiene, mental health and substance use disorders, and more. Additionally, in selecting recipients, Rollins will expand the faculty in departments where the school has a significant opportunity to gain national prominence.

The Rollins Fund for Student Success will expand the schools ability to provide financial support and valuable career-enhancing experiences to the nations most promising students through the Rollins Earn and Learn work-study and global field experience funds. The fund will also allow the school to support increased student interest in public health spurred by the global pandemic.

We are deeply grateful to the Rollins family for this extraordinary commitment and their enduring belief in our mission to promote health, prevent disease and save lives, says James W. Curran, MD, MPH, dean of the Rollins School of Public Health. Support from the Rollins family has been crucial to the success of our school, and their continued investment in our faculty and students has led to remarkable advancements in research and profound impact on the health of populations throughout the world.

M. Daniele Fallin, PhD, an internationally regarded researcher and educator who will succeed Curran as the new James W. Curran Dean of Public Health at the Rollins School of Public Health on July 1, 2022, echoed the importance of this gift from the Rollins Foundation.

This is a critical moment for public health in our country and around the world, says Fallin. This gift enables the Rollins School of Public Health to continue its incredible growth and impact by providing sustainable funds to support and increase an outstanding faculty while also expanding education of the next generation of public health researchers and work force.

The Rollins School of Public Health is ranked No. 4 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and No. 4 in National Institutes of Health funding for schools of public health. The school is home to six academic departments, an executive MPH program for working professionals, and, as of 2020, more than 200 full-time faculty members. The school also hosts more than 20 interdisciplinary centers and 11 dual-degree programs that bridge students to related fields such as business, medicine, nursing, law and theology. Today, more than 11,000 Rollins School of Public Health alumni are contributing to public health in over 110 countries.

My family and I are proud of the tremendous success of the Rollins School of Public Health and deeply grateful for the dedication of Dean Curran, whose leadership has propelled the school into the highest echelon of public health education and research, says Amy Rollins Kreisler, executive director of the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation. We are pleased to support the schools commitment to its faculty and students.

Philanthropic support from the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation has been pivotal to the schools success. In addition to gifts to the schools unrestricted endowment, the James W. Curran Scholarship Fund and several endowed professorships, the Rollins family has made possible the Grace Crum Rollins and Claudia Nance Rollins Buildings and the forthcoming R. Randall Rollins Building  which, when open in 2022, will expand the schools footprint to approximately 515,000 square feet. These state-of-the-art facilities are instrumental in attracting and supporting internationally renowned faculty members and exceptional students. In addition to the Rollins School of Public Health, the foundation has generously supported Emorys Woodruff Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, Winship Cancer Institute, and Candler School of Theology.
Story Highlights Confidence in government drops nearly 60 points to 28%

59% do not feel safe walking alone at night where they live

58% say corruption is widespread in their government

Feb. 1 marks the first anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar. This article is the first in a series on what life has been like for people in Myanmar during the year of turmoil since the military takeover.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- People's confidence in the government in Myanmar plunged almost 60 percentage points after the military seized power in a coup last February, dropping from 86% in 2020 to a record low of 28% in late 2021. This is the largest documented drop in confidence in the government for any country in 15 years of Gallup polling.

The sharp drop in people's confidence in their government reflects a year of turmoil in Myanmar, where most people no longer feel safe in their communities and distrust a government that they see as corrupt.

Line graph. Confidence in government among adults in Myanmar. In 2021, 28% of adults in Myanmar had confidence in their government, down from 86% in 2020, while 49% in 2021 did not have confidence in their government, up from 9% the previous year.

These data come from Gallup's latest survey of Myanmar, conducted Sept. 22-Dec. 2, 2021, as civil unrest and military crackdowns continued throughout the country. Before the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, confidence in the country's civilian government had been consistently high, never dropping below 78% in Gallup's trend since 2014.

Myanmar had been a military dictatorship from 1962 through 2011, when the government transitioned to a quasi-democracy. The country appeared to have been on a trajectory to increasingly democratic rule, until the military refused to accept the results of the 2020 elections and took over.

After initially allowing pro-democracy protests, the military's response turned brutal. It has tried to eliminate resistance along its borders, burning down homes and bombing civilians.

Security Deteriorates; Feelings of Safety Plunge

Reports of violence both by opposition groups targeting the government and by government forces targeting those groups continue to filter out of the country. With bombings and shootings almost a daily occurrence across the country, people's sense of safety has quickly deteriorated.

A record-high 59% of people in the country now say they do not feel safe walking alone at night where they live, nearly double the 30% who said the same the year before.

Line graph. Feelings of safety in Myanmar. In 2021, 39% of adults in Myanmar felt safe walking alone at night where they lived, down from 69% in 2020. Alternatively, 59% did not feel safe walking alone in 2021, compared with 30% in 2020.

Corruption in Government Reaches New High

In the wake of the coup, a record-high 58% of adults in the country say corruption is widespread throughout the government. However, since 2014, no fewer than four in 10 adults in Myanmar have said that corruption is widespread. The percentage of the population saying this is the case was on the rise even before the coup, inching upward consistently since 2017.

Line graph. Perceptions that corruption is widespread in government in Myanmar. In 2021, 58% of adults in Myanmar said corruption was widespread in government, up from 51% the previous year. 25% said it was not in, in 2021, compared with 35% in 2020.

Bottom Line

Myanmar's military has stated that it refused to accept the results of the country's 2020 elections over allegations of fraud. Previous Gallup research showed that most adults in Myanmar had confidence in their country's elections but that confidence in their military had been slipping. Myanmar's military leaders likely moved out of a sense of political vulnerability. Rather than potentially shoring up that position, confidence in the country's government as a whole has suffered.

The military's actions during the unrest that has followed the coup have likely further served to shake confidence as the security situation in the country has deteriorated. The longer the unrest continues, with widespread violence by both sides, the more this may affect the public's confidence in the government, particularly if government forces are seen to have taken part in criminal activity.

To stay up to date with the latest Gallup News insights and updates, follow us on Twitter.

For complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup's Country Data Set details.

Learn more about how the Gallup World Poll works.
New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI/NewsVoir): Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting and business re-engineering services and solutions, today announced that it has been included in Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for the third consecutive year. Tech Mahindra is amongst the 7 Indian companies to be included in 2022 Bloomberg's Gender-Equality Index (GEI). The GEI expands globally to represent 45 countries and regions, including firms headquartered in Colombia and Uruguay for the first time. Member companies represent a variety of sectors, including financials, technology, and utilities, which collectively have the highest company representation in the index. Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) is a modified market capitalization-weighted index that aims to track the performance of public companies committed to transparency in gender-data reporting. This reference index measures gender equality across five pillars: female leadership & talent pipeline, equal pay & gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and pro-women brand. Tech Mahindra is included in the 2022 list for scoring at or above a global threshold established by Bloomberg to reflect disclosure and the achievement or adoption of best-in-class statistics and policies. Harshvendra Soin, Global Chief People Officer & Head of Marketing, Tech Mahindra, said, "At Tech Mahindra, we appreciate differences based on age, ethnicity, race, lifestyle, and social status and have designed a series of programs, policies, and initiatives to promote diversity. We have endeavoured to create a psychologically safe ecosystem where associates are connected through human-centred experiences. Our progressive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies enable our associates to bring their most authentic selves and thrive in a purpose-driven workplace. This recognition in Bloomberg GEI Index for the third time in a row is a testimony of our 'intentionally diverse and naturally inclusive' philosophy that empowers everyone at Tech Mahindra to Rise." Tech Mahindra believes in 'wellness before business' and employee wellbeing is the organisation's topmost priority. With organizational initiatives focused on the health of the associates, such as 'Wellness Wednesdays', virtual coffee meets, etc., Tech Mahindra has also extended their 'Work from Anywhere' policy in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases. This provides flexibility to associates to work from anywhere. The Bloomberg GEI brings transparency to gender-related practices and policies at publicly listed companies and increases the depth and breadth of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data available to investors. The number of companies included in the GEI has increased by 10% year over year, showing a growing commitment to gender diversity and inclusion. Peter T. Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg and Founding Chairman of the U.S. 30% Club, said, "We are proud to recognize Tech Mahindra and the other 417 companies included in the 2022 GEI for their commitment to transparency and setting a new standard in gender-related data reporting. Even though the threshold for inclusion in the GEI has risen, the member list continues to grow. This is a testament that more companies are working to improve upon their gender-related metrics, fostering more opportunity for diverse talent to succeed in their organizations." As part of NXT.NOWTM framework, which aims to enhance 'Human Centric Experience', Tech Mahindra focuses on investing in emerging technologies and solutions that enable digital transformation and meet the evolving needs of the customer. Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision-makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company's strength - delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately - is the core of Bloomberg Professional Services. For more information, please visit www.bloomberg.com or request a demo. Tech Mahindra offers innovative and customer-centric digital experiences, enabling enterprises, associates and the society to Rise. We are a USD 5.1 billion organization with 141,100+ professionals across 90 countries helping 1123 global customers, including Fortune 500 companies. We are focused on leveraging next-generation technologies including 5G, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and more, to enable end-to-end digital transformation for global customers. Tech Mahindra is one of the fastest growing brands and amongst the top 15 IT service providers globally. Tech Mahindra has consistently emerged as a leader in sustainability and is recognized amongst the '2021 Global 100 Most sustainable corporations in the World' by Corporate Knights. With the NXT.NOWTM framework, Tech Mahindra aims to enhance 'Human Centric Experience' for our ecosystem and drive collaborative disruption with synergies arising from a robust portfolio of companies. Tech Mahindra aims at delivering tomorrow's experiences today, and believes that the 'Future is Now'. We are part of the Mahindra Group, founded in 1945, one of the largest and most admired multinational federation of companies with 260,000 employees in over 100 countries. It enjoys a leadership position in farm equipment, utility vehicles, information technology and financial services in India and is the world's largest tractor company by volume. It has a strong presence in renewable energy, agriculture, logistics, hospitality and real estate. The Mahindra Group has a clear focus on leading ESG globally, enabling rural prosperity and enhancing urban living, with a goal to drive positive change in the lives of communities and stakeholders to enable them to Rise. Connect with us on www.techmahindra.com. Bloomberg Media Contact: GEIComms@bloomberg.net. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI/PRNewswire): Vidhya.ai, a social enterprise, was started by an undergraduate student of Delhi University in August 2021. The mission of Vidhya.ai is to contribute towards the AI revolution by training school students, college graduates, unemployed youth, and professionals across India. Working towards its mission, Vidhya.ai has tied up with universities, schools and NGOs to proliferate the Artificial Intelligence knowhow among the students. The company is also contacting several state governments across India for collaborations. The organization has conducted seminars, webinars, workshops, and training sessions to impart artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science education among the students. So far more than 5000 students have availed the benefits of training sessions conducted by Vidhya.ai; out of them 800 students have completed advanced certification courses in artificial intelligence and machine learning. The goal of the company is to train 100000 students by 2024. Navya Jain, founder and CEO of the company, explained the objective of her company in a media conversation. "Every student in India should get an opportunity to learn artificial intelligence irrespective of socio-economic background and language proficiency. We want to break the myth that one should be an IT professional and proficient in English to develop artificial intelligence-based applications. We believe that any one irrespective of education background and language proficiency can learn artificial intelligence and contribute to the AI revolution." "Our talent lies in remote parts and villages of India. The students from these areas are closer to pressing issues such as environmental, agricultural, social, water preservation, and sanitation. Such issues can be addressed more effectively using artificial intelligence and data science algorithms. By training students, we are trying to bring technology closer to the problems and find innovative solutions to solve the problems," she added. The company has developed industry focused training programs in AI to help develop AI and data science talent. The company has developed digital content, 80+ projects on live data, and a learning platform. Using the digital platform, the organization can train the students across India at a larger scale. Vidhya.ai helps students from different socio-economic backgrounds acquire skills in artificial intelligence and data analytics. Working towards its mission of democratizing AI, Vidhya.ai has been working with universities, schools, colleges, government agencies, and NGOs, so that the students and youth in every part including the remote areas of the country can be benefitted. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament. Following are the key highlights of the annual budget: Total expenditure in 2022-23 estimated at Rs 39.45 lakh crore. Total receipts other than borrowings in 2022-23 estimated at Rs 22.84 lakh crore Fiscal deficit in the current financial year is estimated to rise to 6.9 per cent of GDP against 6.8 per cent in Budget Estimates. For 2022-23 financial year the fiscal deficit is pegged at 6.4 per cent of GDP. A target set to reduce fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26. Allocation of Rs 1 lakh crore in 2022-23 to assist the states in catalysing overall investments in the economy: fifty-year interest-free loans, over and above normal borrowings In 2022-23, States will be allowed a fiscal deficit of 4 per cent of GSDP, of which 0.5 per cent will be tied to power sector reforms. On the Direct Tax side, the budget allows taxpayers to file updated income tax return within 2 years for correcting errors. It also provides tax relief to persons with disability. Alternate Minimum Tax paid by cooperatives brought down from 18.5 per cent to 15 per cent. Surcharge on cooperative societies reduced from 12 per cent to 7 per cent for those having a total income of more than Rs 1 crore and up to Rs 10 crore. Tax relief to persons with disability: Payment of annuity and lump sum amount from insurance scheme to be allowed to differently-abled dependent during the lifetime of parents/guardians, i.e., on parents/ guardian attaining the age of 60 years. Parity in National Pension Scheme Contribution: Tax deduction limit increased from 10 per cent to 14 per cent on employer's contribution to the NPS account of State Government employees. Gems and Jewellery: Customs duty on cut and polished diamonds and gemstones being reduced to 5 per cent; Nil customs duty to simply sawn diamond - To give a boost to the Gems and Jewellery sector. A simplified regulatory framework to be implemented by June this year - To facilitate export of jewellery through e-commerce. Tariff measure to encourage blending of fuel: Unblended fuel to attract an additional differential excise duty of Rs 2/ litre from October 1, 2022. - to encourage blending of fuel. A Digital University will be established to provide access to students across the country for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at their doorsteps. This will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT formats. The Government proposed to introduce Digital Rupee, using blockchain and other technologies, to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23 for more efficient and cheaper currency management system. Indian economy is projected to grow at 9.2 per cent in 2021-22. This will be the highest among all large economies in the world. Productivity Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in 14 sectors to create 60 lakh jobs. PLI schemes have the potential to create an additional production of Rs 30 lakh crore. Entering Amrit Kaal, the 25 year long lead up to India @100, the budget provides impetus for growth along four priorities: PM GatiShakti, Inclusive Development, Productivity Enhancement & Investment, Sunrise opportunities, Energy Transition, and Climate Action and Financing of investments. The seven engines that drive PM GatiShakti are Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways and Logistics Infrastructure. The scope of PM GatiShakti National Master Plan will encompass the seven engines for economic transformation, seamless multimodal connectivity and logistics efficiency. National Highways Network to be expanded by 25000 kms in 2022-23. Rs 20000 crore to be mobilised for National Highways Network expansion in 2022-23. Contracts to be awarded through PPP mode in 2022-23 for implementation of Multimodal Logistics Parks at four locations. Railways: 2000 kms of railway network to be brought under Kavach, the indigenous world class technology and capacity augmentation in 2022-23. 400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains to be manufactured during the next three years. 100 PM GatiShakti Cargo terminals for multimodal logistics to be developed during the next three years. One Station One Product concept to help local businesses & supply chains. Agriculture: Rs 2.37 lakh crore direct payment to 1.63 crore farmers for procurement of wheat and paddy. Chemical-free Natural farming to be promoted throughout the county. Initial focus is on farmer's lands in 5 kms wide corridors along river Ganga. NABARD to facilitate fund with blended capital to finance startups for agriculture & rural enterprise. 'Kisan Drones' for crop assessment, digitisation of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients. Ken Betwa project: 1400 crore outlay for implementation of the Ken - Betwa link project. 9.08 lakh hectares of farmers' lands to receive irrigation benefits by Ken-Betwa link project. MSMEs: Udyam, e-shram, NCS and ASEEM portals to be interlinked. 130 lakh MSMEs provided additional credit under Emergency Credit Linked Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS). ECLGS to be extended up to March 2023. Guarantee cover under ECLGS to be expanded by Rs 50000 crore to total cover of Rs 5 Lakh crore. Rs 2 lakh Crore additional credit for Micro and Small Enterprises to be facilitated under the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE). Raising and Accelerating MSME performance (RAMP) programme with outlay of Rs 6000 crore to be rolled out. Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack e-portal) will be launched to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through on-line training. Startups will be promoted to facilitate 'Drone Shakti' and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS). Health: An open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem to be rolled out. 'National Tele Mental Health Programme' for quality mental health counselling and care services to be launched. A network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence will be set up, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support. Rs. 60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23 under Har Ghar, Nal se Jal. Housing for All: Rs 48,000 crore allocated for completion of 80 lakh houses in 2022-23 under PM Awas Yojana. New scheme PM-DevINE launched to fund infrastructure and social development projects in the North-East. An initial allocation of Rs 1,500 crore made to enable livelihood activities for youth and women under the scheme. 100 per cent of 1.5 lakh post offices to come on the core banking system. Scheduled Commercial Banks to set up 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) in 75 districts. e-Passports with embedded chip and futuristic technology to be rolled out. Scheme for design-led manufacturing to be launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G as part of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme. Export Promotion: Special Economic Zones Act to be replaced with a new legislation to enable States to become partners in 'Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs'. Defence: 68 per cent of capital procurement budget earmarked for the domestic industry in 2022-23, up from 58 per cent in 2021-22. Defence R&D to be opened up for industry, startups and academia with 25% of defence R&D budget earmarked. Independent nodal umbrella body to be set up for meeting testing and certification requirements. Government contribution to be provided for R&D in Sunrise Opportunities like Artificial Intelligence, Geospatial Systems and Drones, Semiconductor and its eco-system, Space Economy, Genomics and Pharmaceuticals, Green Energy, and Clean Mobility Systems. Additional allocation of Rs. 19,500 crore for Production Linked Incentive for manufacture of high-efficiency solar modules to meet the goal of 280 GW of installed solar power by 2030. Outlay for capital expenditure stepped up sharply by 35.4 per cent to Rs 7.50 lakh crore in 2022-23 from Rs 5.54 lakh crore in the current year. The outlay in 2022-23 to be 2.9 per cent of GDP. 'Effective Capital Expenditure' of Central Government estimated at Rs 10.68 lakh crore in 2022-23, which is about 4.1 per cent of GDP. Digital Rupee: Introduction of Digital Rupee by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23. Enhanced outlay for 'Scheme for Financial Assistance to States for Capital Investment': From Rs 10,000 crore in Budget Estimates to Rs 15,000 crore in Revised Estimates for current financial year. (ANI)
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 1 (ANI/NewsVoir): Kauvery Hospital Chennai, a unit of Kauvery Group of Hospitals, a leading multispecialty healthcare chain in Tamil Nadu, today announced the success of a rare Kidney Transplantation performed on a 19-year-old boy. The patient brought to the hospital was diagnosed with permanent kidney failure (End Stage Renal Failure). The team of doctors studied the patient's medical history thoroughly and concluded that a Kidney Transplant was the only option to save his life. Speaking about the patient, Dr. R Balasubramaniyam, Chief Nephrologist, Kauvery Hospital Chennai said, "The boy's kidney was completely incapable of functioning and had to be transplanted as soon as possible. We immediately checked with the family and were able to identify his own mother as the potential donor. During the routine blood tests, we found that the blood groups of the boy and the mother were different. The boy was of B blood group, while the mother was of AB Blood group. Ideally, a Kidney Transplant requires the blood groups to match, as one blood group has antibodies against another blood group. If a transplant is performed with differing blood groups (ABO Incompatibility), the antibodies present in the patient's blood would react against the antigens in the donor blood group, present not only on the red blood cells but also on the surface of all other cells including those in the kidneys. The antibodies that are provoked may lead to rejection of the organ at the time of transplant leading to an immediate failure which is known as Hyperacute Rejection." Blood Group 'A' has antibodies against 'B' and vice versa, while AB Blood Group has no antibodies and O has antibodies against both A and B Blood Groups. Explaining further about the case, "The patient's blood group was B and he should normally have antibodies against the A group in his mother's (donor) AB Blood Group. However, the test results surprised us as we found that the boy's blood group was completely compatible and did not have any antibodies against the donor blood group. We ran a few more tests such as subtyping the mother's AB blood group as we were curious to find out why this was the case." Generally, subtyping AB Blood group shows that it comprises of A1, which around 95% of the population have, and the remaining 5% have A2. "The results of our tests made it clear that the mother's blood group, when subtyped, was A2B and this was the reason for the compatibility of the blood groups. This is because the A2 subtype does not elicit any kind of antibody reactions in a B Group Individual. The second surprising factor was that the boy and his mother matched 100% on tissue typing. Tissue typing is a test that identifies a genetic background of an individual. There are two sets of three Antigens (A, B & DR) and each set is derived from one parent. The child will have three antigens (one A, one B and one DR) from each of his/her parent. When we did the genetic analysis of this boy and his mother, we found that instead of three Antigens, all six Antigens were matching," added Dr. R Balasubramaniyam. Genetic matching is important for the acceptance of an organ without getting rejected by the recipient's immune system. If the child matches to only three antigens of the parent, which is the normal scenario, there will be three antigens that are different between the child and parent. "However, in this case, all six antigens were matching between the mother and boy thereby reducing the chances of organ rejection. The reason being, both the father and mother of the patient were close relatives and they shared three common antigens. This boy took these three antigens from his father (common antigens to his wife) and three antigens from the mother that was not present in his father. In a nutshell, the boy's genetics is 100 percent similar to his mother and this enabled the kidney transplantation despite blood incompatibility," he added. Commenting on the success of the treatment, Dr. Aravindan Selvaraj, Co-founder & Executive Director, Kauvery Hospital, Chennai, said, "Kidney transplant generally requires matching of certain medical parameters between the donor and patient, and blood group compatibility stands top on that list. We were informed that many hospitals rejected the idea of accepting the mother as the donor due to differences in the blood group while the father had some cardiac issues, which did not allow him to be a potential donor. They were referred to Kauvery Hospital as we already had a history of managing Blood Group Incompatible Kidney Transplants successfully. However, this case was rare and surprising as we saw blood group compatibility between different blood groups and 100% genetic matching between the donor and recipient. This key finding can be crucial for many patients, and will help save many lives in the future. I congratulate Dr. R. Balasubramaniyam and his team for the intricate diagnosis and treatments provided thus giving a better quality of life for the young boy." This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI/PNN): BSE, NSE & MSE listed BLS International Services Ltd is a trusted global tech-enabled services partner for governments and citizens, having an impeccable reputation for setting benchmarks in the domain of visa, passport, consular, citizen, e-governance, attestation, biometric, e-visa and retail services since 2005. As per bulk deal data available on NSE, Saint Capital fund picked up 525000 shares at Rs. 217.93 on 27 January 2022. The company has recently informed the exchanges that the meeting of its Board of Directors will be held on 02 February 2022, where the board will consider and approve unaudited standalone and Consolidated Financial Results for the third quarter nine months ending 31 December 2021. The company also said that the board would consider and declare an interim dividend for the FY 2021-22, if any, and determine the record date for the purpose of the interim dividend. BLS International Ltd. works with over 46 client governments, including Diplomatic Missions, Embassies & Consulates, and leverages technology and processes that ensure data security. The Company now has an extensive network of more than 12,287 centres globally with a robust strength of over 15,000employees and associates that provides consular, biometrics and citizen services. BLS has processed over 52 million applications to date globally. BLS International adheres to ISO 9001:2015 certified for Quality Management Systems; ISO 27001:2013 certified for Information Security Management Systems; ISO 14001:2015 certified for Environmental Management Systems; ISO/ IEC 45001:2018 certified for Occupational Safety and Health; ISO / IEC20000-1:2011 certified for IT Service Management; ISO 26000:2010 certified for Social Responsibility; ISO 23026:2015 certified for System Engineering and Management Requirements; ISO/IEC 28000:2017certified for Supply Chain Management System; ISO/IEC 27002: 2013 certified for Management of Information Security; ISO 31000: 2018 certified for Risk Management; ISO 27001:2013 certified for Risk Management of Information. BLS International is the only listed company in this domain with operations in 66 countries. This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 1 (ANI/NewsVoir): Mass beauty brand Garnier, recently released the results of its second annual One Green Step Report, revealing geographical and generational differences in the environmental feelings of over 29,000 people in India and eight other countries. The survey saw 2,115 participants from India and highlighted the scale of the continuing shift towards sustainable intentions in 2022. While 91% respondents in India want to be more sustainable in 2022, not many know how. 93% respondents worry about climate change and its impact on the future of the planet. As part of the campaign, Garnier has released a video inviting people to share their own green changes in behavior and driving increased funding to the brand's long-term partner NGO, Plastics for Change. The campaign urges people to share this video with their social media community with #OneGreenStep. For every video share, Garnier will recycle 5 plastic bottles. The aim is to reach 2 million bottles. People can also go a step further and share a green step taken using #OneGreenStep, for each of which, Garnier will collect and recycle 10 plastic bottles. Garnier's website will also feature a guide to help people discover more green steps. Talking about the campaign, Zeenia Bastani, General Manager - Marketing (Garnier), L'Oreal India said, "As the world's leading natural beauty brand, Garnier has the unique opportunity to help create a positive impact on the planet by leading the way towards sustainable beauty that is accessible to all. With Green Beauty we want to shift the way the beauty industry operates, creating beauty that is good for you and the planet. The insights from our global survey show that consumers in India want to live more sustainably but aren't sure how. Many are willing to take small steps towards a greener way of living. Through our latest campaign #OneGreenStep, we want to give consumers an easy but impactful first step to begin their sustainability journey with Garnier." The Garnier Green Beauty initiative launched in India last year, is a complete end to end approach to sustainability. The aim is to transform every stage of Garnier's value chain, reducing or eradicating environmental impact in key areas of solidarity sourcing, greener and cleaner formulae, more recycled & recyclable plastic, more sources of renewable energy and more actions to fight plastic pollution. Having been committed to a world without animal testing since 1989, Garnier, has now gone further and is approved by Cruelty Free International under the Leaping Bunny program. Guided by its 2025 targets set to reduce the environmental impact of the brand's value chain, Garnier has been operating seamlessly with its green beauty goals in mind. It is a complete end-to-end approach to sustainability and Garnier has taken the following steps, locally Garnier Green Week on Nykaa: With the aim to help consumers be a part of the sustainable journey and take #OneGreenStep at every touchpoint, Garnier partnered with Nykaa to create Garnier Green Week, a celebration of sustainability, hosted on the e-tailer platform exclusively. During this period, Garnier provided consumers the chance to give back to the environment by committing to recycle 2 bottles of plastic for every product bought. Garnier Fructis Hair Food: 98% natural-origin ingredients and silicone-free shampoos and 3-in-1 Hair Masks, powered by our most potent superfruits and overloaded with nutrients to nourish, repair, smoothen or hydrate hair. Garnier Micellar Reusable Eco Pads: Ultra soft, dry make up removal pads. One 'Ecopad' lasts up to 1000 washes, thereby saving wastage of cotton pads. Garnier is the world's leading natural beauty brand, accessible to all, with the ambition to become the first truly sustainable, natural brand in the mass market. Since 1904, Garnier has been offering effective, innovative beauty products, inspired, and powered by nature and science. Natural, accessible, and sustainable, the Garnier brand is animated by its daughter brands: Color Naturals, Black Naturals, Garnier Men, Fructis, Skin Naturals. For more information, please visit www.garnier.in. L'Oreal India has been present in the country as a wholly owned subsidiary of L'Oreal S.A. since 1994. Today L'Oreal India is present in all distribution channels with 15 brands, available in mass market channels (L'Oreal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New-York, NYX Professional Makeup); in hair and beauty salons (L'Oreal Professionnel, Matrix, Kerastase, Cheryl's Cosmeceuticals); in selective distribution (Lancome, Kiehl's, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Diesel, Mugler & Azzaro). L'Oreal India employs over 1,700 people across its headquarters in Mumbai, four regional offices, two manufacturing facilities in Chakan (Pune) and in Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) and Research and Innovation facilities in Mumbai and Bengaluru. For more information, please visit www.loreal.co.in. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Hailing the Budget, Singh said, "The Budget outlines the Government's focus on Atamnirbharata and Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi's vision for development and pro-people reforms. It is a growth-oriented Budget focused on harnessing the energies of New India. #AatmanirbharBharatKaBudget

He further said, "The 68 per cent of defence capital procurement budget has been allocated towards local procurement. It is in line with the 'Vocal for Local' push and it will certainly boost the domestic defence industries."

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Union Budget in Parliament on Tuesday. (ANI)
New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI/PNN): It is amazing to see the rise of many new authors and writers at the forefront of the industry, trying to express their thoughts, beliefs, and experiences across a variety of subjects. Some have written books with the genuine intent to create that positive mindset in others through their writeups. Srilekha Kaluvakunta is one such rising name on the writer's block, who recently launched her book "Unique Thinking" in a recent event held. The book has been published by the well-recognized Indian publishing house named Blue Rose Publishers, which is known for being the fastest-growing self-publishing house in India, having given more than 3000 titles of various genres and languages. Srilekha quoted saying, "Unique Thinking is already seen as the best-thought management leadership and execution guides having the power to change the way people think by defining the ways of thinking unique and different; focused on robust practices and methods to lead people towards attaining these unique thinking capabilities." Srilekha had started writing on the Unique Thinking concept several years ago but decided to publish only two years back. It was first published in 2019 by Prowess Publishing house, and the revised edition was published in 2021 by Blue Rose Publishers. The book is about Thought Process and Thought Lifecycle Framework. Srilekha's deep analysis of people, their behaviour, and thoughts made her come up with the concept of the lifecycle of thought - from where it originates, where it ends, and everything in between. The Managing Director of Blue Rose Publishers' Syed Asad Hassan told excitingly that for him and his team, it was an absolute pleasure to publish Unique Thinking, one for being a unique book on many levels and two for having the potential to alter mindsets and dive deep into the genre of thoughts and mind. Talking more about Unique Thinking, Srilekha says that her book is about Thought Process and Thought Lifecycle, which is the first-ever defined thought lifecycle concept in the genre of thoughts and mind. Thought Lifecycle talks about the phases of thought; A thought traverses through different phases from the stage of Thought Occurrence until Thought Lapse. Thought Process forms the Thought Lifecycle Framework, which is the foundational basis for Thoughts and Mind. The writer from Hyderabad, in the future, plans to make her concept of the Thought Process a Study and Research-oriented subject to help with mind training, self-control, self-development, thought management, career guidance, and thought leadership. Besides this, her second book, Unique Quotes on Leadership and Management, was also received well. In the near future, she plans to publish her 3rd book on Karmic Essence - Theory of Relationships. Regarding Unique Thinking, Srilekha says, "The best takeaway from this book is the Thought Process Framework." Check it out on Amazon- https://amzn.to/3rGHyzf This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)
The test-to-stay policy that was intended to keep more U.S. students in school is on its way out in some states, a casualty of the monthslong omicron wave that has left school districts struggling to find enough coronavirus tests to meet their needs.

Vermont and Massachusetts are turning away from tests that are given in school and sent to labs, in favor of rapid home tests.

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Test-to-stay, endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in mid-December, was meant to allow students to stay in classrooms even if a close contact tested positive for the virus and to restore stability for working parents. Instead of isolating at home, students who were exposed to the virus could keep going to school as long as they were asymptomatic, wore masks and regularly tested negative on rapid coronavirus tests.

The policy also replaced the default plan of quarantining entire classes when there was a positive case among the students.

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At the time, the CDC said that at least 12 states had policies that allowed test-to-stay programs: Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington state. Some districts in other states also started their own programs.

Children stand inside a tent while undergoing coronavirus testing at a fire station in Washington on Jan. 14, 2022. (Tom Brenner/NYT)

Now Vermont is no longer relying on lab-based tests. In Massachusetts, public schools are being encouraged to concentrate on finding symptomatic people, to use rapid home tests and to end contact tracing altogether. Gov. Charlie Baker announced last week that districts could follow the new policy as an alternative to test-to-stay.

Dr. Westyn Branch-Elliman, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School who advises the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the states test-to-stay program, while previously wildly successful, no longer made sense. At-home testing of students would be the wave of the future, she added.

Test-and-stay was a great program for the fall of 2021. But now its January 2022, Branch-Elliman said. We have vaccines, we have antivirals and we have omicron. And all of those things mean we have to adjust our policies.

Recently, New York City replaced its previous policy of quarantining entire classes that were exposed to the virus with a new policy allowing asymptomatic students who test negative to remain in school. Public schools in the city are providing rapid at-home tests to students and employees who have symptoms or who were exposed to the virus in a classroom.

The Utah Legislature suspended school testing requirements after districts said they were unsure whether they would have enough tests to comply. Utahs state testing sites were overrun in mid-January with a surge of coronavirus cases, and Gov. Spencer Cox called on most people in the state to stop getting tested, even if they had COVID-19 symptoms.

Dr. Adam Hersh, an expert in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah who also advises schools in the state, said the program was not designed for the conditions of the omicron surge that has depleted staff and supplies of tests.

Moving away from test-to-stay is endorsed in updated guidelines from the PolicyLab at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. They suggest that schools stop requiring weekly testing for students and school workers who arent showing symptoms, to reduce excessive burden to school staff and families. Those who show mild symptoms should consider testing if tests are available.

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The Biden administration, which aims to keep schools open, has been working to increase testing nationwide. It said that 5 million rapid antigen tests and 5 million PCR lab tests would be provided each month to primary and secondary schools across the country.

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Nick Cannon confirmed on his talk show on Monday that he is expecting a baby with model Bre Tiesi. As per E! News, the 'Wild 'N Out' star has known about the news for a while but didn't want to share it while grieving his son Zen's death. "This was always in the back of my mind, like, 'What is the right time? How do I share this?'" he said on 'The Nick Cannon Show'. "I wanted to definitely respect the grieving process with Alyssa, and Bre was respectful enough--she held off making our announcements and speaking on social media." Back in July, Nick welcomed son Zen, his seventh child, with model Alyssa Scott. Five months later, the 'Drumline' star revealed that the infant had passed away after a battle with brain cancer that was first detected when they took him for a health checkup. As for why Nick wanted to confirm Bre's pregnancy, the actor said he had to speak out after photos surfaced over the weekend of sex reveal party in Malibu, California. "I didn't know what to say when I was dealing with Zen or to hold off," Nick explained. "Even right now, that it came out yesterday, that wasn't planned to talk about it. We wanted to, you know, hold on as long as we can, but it happened. We here and I'm with my family." 'The Nick Cannon Show' host is already dad to 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe, whom he shares with ex-wife Mariah Carey. He also shares 4-year-old Golden "Sagon" and 1-year-old Powerful Queen, with Brittany Bell, and 7-month-old twins, Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir, with Abby De La Rosa. The baby news may come as a surprise to some fans, as Nick revealed in October that he was going to be celibate until at least the start of 2022. But when appearing on his talk show, Nick revealed that Bre is close to 20 weeks along, meaning he decided to be celibate after learning that she was pregnant. "This is why I was like, 'Yo! I gotta get my life under control.' I felt like I was out of control," he said. "Celibacy did help me through the journey of getting one with myself, being able to deal with this, so now everybody knows why I was actually being celibate. Angela got it out of me." When asked if he is done having kids, Nick said he doesn't have a number in mind. Instead, he just wants to have "as many children as I can helpfully provide for." "I love children. I love my children," he said. "I want to be the best father I can possibly be but I'm not counting out never having more children. So, again, I love all of my children and can we stop talking about me?!" (ANI)
After news broke that Nick Cannon is expecting his eighth child, model Alyssa Scott, whose 5-month-old son with the actor died in December, has issued a statement on social media. As per E! News, Nick announced during the January 31 episode of his eponymous daytime talk show that he is expecting a child with Bre but had previously held off on sharing the news to "respect the grieving process with Alyssa." Taking to her Instagram handle, Alyssa began, "I want to thank every single person who has messaged or thought of me over the last course of these last few months. I always say Zen expanded my heart in ways I never thought possible. He filled that space with compassion, knowing I would need that most." The model went on to note, "It is painful having my son be apart of conversations that aren't in alignment with his light and legacy. It isn't something I chose for him or myself." "It's important for me to let you all know.. I am centred, I am at peace," she continued. "I look at everyone's predicament with loving eyes. I will not judge. I will consciously decide what I will participate in. I am surrounded by love. God, my mom, dad, sister, brother and daughter continue to carry me." On her Instagram Stories, Alyssa also shared that she and Nick "knew since August that Zens time on this earth would be limited. We knew he would not make it to see 6 months." "I am eternally grateful he was in the arms of the people who loved him most. I know we were fully present and with him in these moments," she wrote alongside a photo of Zen. "We love you Zen. We got you down here baby boy." Nick first shared the heartbreaking news of Zen's passing during the December 7 episode of his eponymous daytime talk show. According to the 41-year-old comedian, the infant had been diagnosed with a "pretty much a malignant, midline brain tumour," and he and Alyssa took Zen to the beach as one of the final things they did as a family before his passing. Saying that he held his son "for the last time" during that outing, Nick recalled of the moment, "Not only did we get to see the sunrise, but we got to see the sunset too." In the recent episode of 'The Nick Cannon Show', he explained that he felt the need to confirm Bre's pregnancy after photos of him and the model attending a baby shower surfaced over the weekend. "I didn't know what to say when I was dealing with Zen or to hold off," Nick said. "Even right now, that it came out yesterday, that wasn't planned to talk about it. We wanted to, you know, hold on as long as we can, but it happened. We here and I'm with my family." Nick is also dad to 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey. He also shares 4-year-old son Golden "Sagon" and 1-year-old daughter Powerful Queen with Brittany Bell, and 7-month-old twin boys Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir with Abby De La Rosa. When asked if he is done having kids, Nick shared on the latest episode of his talk show that he wants "as many children as I can helpfully provide for." "I love children. I love my children," he added. "I want to be the best father I can possibly be but I'm not counting out never having more children. So, again, I love all of my children and can we stop talking about me?!" (ANI)
With the end of 'Bigg Boss 15', actor Shamita Shetty is back to the outside world and social media as well. Post Bigg Boss, one can see her actively using Twitter snd Instagram to thank her fans for supporting her and showering her with love. She also reacted to a tweet that claims Tejasswi Prakash won the show as she's the face of Colors' upcoming show. "Why do I get the feeling that Shamita Shetty was not chosen a winner in Bigg Boss because she is Shilpa Shetty's sister. Tejasswi won the title because she is ColorsTV's new serial's new #Naagin. In my opinion actors of the channel should be disqualified," the tweet read. Reacting to the particular opinion of a Twitter user, Shamita wrote, "What can I say... except... Thank you for your love and your honest opinion. Love you." Shamita was one of the strongest contestants of Bigg Boss 15. However, she was the fourth contestant to be eliminated from the finale race. (ANI)
However, the Election Commission has now permitted political parties and contesting candidates to hold a physical public meeting in designated open spaces with a maximum capacity of 1,000 people (instead of the existing 500 persons) or 50 per cent capacity of the ground.

With regards to door to door campaign, Commission has enhanced the limit from 10 persons to 20 persons.

"The Commission has now granted relaxation for political parties to the extent that indoor meetings of a maximum of 500 persons (instead of existing 300 persons) or 50% of the capacity of the hall or the prescribed limit set by SDMA is allowed," reads the order.

These decisions were taken after Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra held a review meeting on Monday over the COVID-19 situation in poll-bound states - Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. (ANI)
The Hoysala Temples of Belur, Halebid and Somnathapura in Karnataka have been finalised as India's nomination for consideration as World Heritage for the year 2022-2023, said the Ministry of Culture. According to an official statement, the 'Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysala' are on UNESCO's Tentative List since April 15, 2014 and represent one of the highest points of human creative genius and stand testimony to the rich historical and cultural heritage of our country. Permanent Representative of India to UNESCO on Monday formally submitted the nomination bid to UNESCO, Director of World Heritage, Lazare Eloundou. "The first step is submission of the dossier to the World Heritage Centre which will do the technical scrutiny of the same," reads the note. "Once the submission is made, UNESCO will communicate back by early March. After that the site evaluation will happen in September /October 2022 and the dossier will be taken up for consideration in July /August 2023," it added. "This is a great moment for India to see the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas temples being submitted for inscription in the World Heritage List," said G Kishan Reddy, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Development of Northeastern Region. "The Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to both Vikas and Virasat. Our efforts in protecting our Virasat is evident from the work the government has been putting in inscribing both our tangible and intangible heritage and also repatriating the cultural heritage that was stolen or taken away from India", the Minister added. All these three Hoysala temples are protected monuments of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and therefore conservation and maintenance will be done by ASI. The state government will ensure the conservation of state protected monuments which are around these three monuments since it would add to the visual integrity of the place. The District Master Plan of the state government will also incorporate the buffers of all monuments and build an integrated management plan. The state government will also look at the traffic management issues to be looked into especially around the designated property. The sacred ensembles of the Hoysalas, built in the 12th-13th centuries and represented by the three components of Belur, Halebid and Somnathapura, attest to the creativity and skill of the Hoysala artists and architects who built these masterpieces of a kind never seen before or since. The Hoysala architects used their profound knowledge of temple architecture in different parts of India to their advantage. The Hoysala temples have a basic Darvidian morphology but show strong influences of the Bhumija mode widely used in Central India, the Nagara traditions of northern and western India, and the Karntata Dravida modes favoured by the Kalyani Chalukyas. Therefore, the Hoysala architects made considered and informed eclectic selections of features from other temple typologies which they further modified and then complemented with their own particular innovations. The result was the birth of a completely novel 'Hoysala Temple' form. (ANI)
According to an official statement, the duo tried to escape from a police naka (checkpoint). Noticing the suspicious movement and deliberate intention to jump the naka, police team apprehended the duo and on personal search recovered 230 gms of Heroin-like substance from Ishtiyaq Ahmad Qureshi, resident of Taad and 270 gms of the banned drug from Basharat Hussain Shah resident of Padna Taad Karnah.

"From the preliminary investigations, it has transpired that the drugs have been smuggled to this side of Line of Control by the duo in conspiracy with the Pakistani nationals," says the official note.

An FIR has been filed under relevant sections of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 in Police Station Karnah.

Further, investigation in the case is ongoing. (ANI)
As per Joint Chief Electoral Officer Pratap Singh Shah, around 95 candidates from 70 assembly seats withdrew their names on the last date for withdrawal of nomination which was Monday.

"Now a total of 632 candidates on 70 assembly seats in Uttarakhand will contest the election," Shah said.

A maximum number of 117 candidates are contesting elections from Dehradun district while the lowest number is from Champawat and Bageshwar seat where 14 candidates each will be contesting elections.

Meanwhile, BJP candidate Vinod Chamoli will continue to face a challenge from rebel Birsingh Panwar from Dehradun's Dharampur assembly in these polls.

Uttarakhand is slated to go to the Assembly polls on February 14 and the counting of the votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
Karnataka Tourism Minister Anand Singh's meeting with state Congress chief DK Shivakumar on Monday has triggered speculation about the former joining the ranks of the Congress after reportedly being unhappy with the BJP leadership. The two leaders held a closed-door meeting of about 30 minutes at Shivakumar's residence. What transpired between Singh, who arrived in a private car, and Shivakumar is still unknown. However, there are speculations that the minister might switch sides ahead of Assembly elections in the state, scheduled to be held next year. Denying any political discussions in the meeting, Shivakumar said that they held discussions related to the tourism industry in his constituency Kanakapura. "I have seen the Tunga Aarti program. I have appealed to the minister to do a similar programme at the confluence of Mekedadatu with the intention of developing tourism. The minister has assured that he would send a team," Shivakumar told reporters after the meeting on Monday. Dismissing all speculations, Shivakumar said, "If Anand Singh comes to our home, how can that be a political move? No one does that. To talk politics, we would either go to a hotel or guest house. He came to meet in person to give an explanation of a proposed program." "There was nothing else to do besides this in the meeting," he added. Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had recently claimed that some BJP leaders are in touch and are likely to join Congress ahead of Assembly polls. The meeting between Shivakumar and Singh came a few days after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai reshuffled the responsibilities of some ministers, who were in charge of their home districts and put them in-charge of other districts over which they are reportedly disgruntled. In the reshuffle, Anand Singh lost charge of the newly-created Vijayanagara district and was given charge of Koppal. Following this, he met the Chief Minister and former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. When asked about his meeting, Bommai said that there is no need to comment and added, "Ask him about it if more details are required." Highly placed sources in the BJP have said that Anand Singh was upset with the Chief Minister's decision over his appointment to Koppal as he was aspiring to be the guardian minister of the new Vijayanagara district. Notably, Anand Singh quit Congress in 2019 and was the first of the 17 MLAs at the time, which led to the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) government, paving way for the BJP regime in Karnataka. Anand Singh has been a four-time MLA from Vijayanagara (Hospet) constituency. In 2015, he was arrested in the Belekeri iron ore scam and was later released on bail. (ANI)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called on Ram Nath Kovind before presenting the Union Budget for 2022-23 in Parliament on Tuesday. She met the President as part of established tradition. The Finance Minister was accompanied by Ministers of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Bhagwat Karad and senior officials from the Ministry. Taking to Twitter, Rashtrapati Bhavan said, "Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance along with Ministers of State for Finance, Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Pankaj Chaudhary, and senior officials of the Ministry of Finance, called on President Ram Nath Kovind before presenting the Union Budget 2022-23." The Union Budget 2022 will be presented in a short while from now. The Minister carried the digitalised budget in a tablet kept inside a red coloured cover with a golden coloured national emblem embossed on it instead of the traditional briefcase or 'bahi khata' for the second consecutive year. Earlier in the day, MoS Chaudhary said that the budget will be inclusive, benefiting everyone. "Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present an inclusive budget, in line with each and every sectors' needs. It will be benefiting everyone...All sectors (including farmers) should have expectations from today's budget," he said. One of the most keenly awaited announcements in the union budget, like every year, would be related to personal taxation. In every budget income tax rates and slabs are reviewed. However, the income tax slabs have not been changed since 2014. Sitharaman will be making her fourth budget speech on Tuesday. On Monday, she tabled this year's Economic Survey, centred around the theme of "Agile approach", which forecasted India's economy to grow by 9.2 per cent during Financial Year 2021-22 and by 8-8.5 per cent in fiscal 2023 beginning 1 April. The Macroeconomic stability indicators of the Economic Survey suggested that the Indian economy is well placed to take on the challenges of 2022-23. "The combination of high foreign exchange reserves, sustained foreign direct investment, and rising export earnings will provide an adequate buffer against possible global liquidity tapering in 2022-23," it stated. Notably, India's foreign reserves crossed USD 600 billion in the first half of 2021-22 and touched USD 633.6 billion as of December 31, 2021. As per the Survey, India's merchandise exports and imports rebounded strongly and surpassed pre-COVID levels during the current financial year, indicating a significant pickup in net services despite weak tourism revenues. The Budget Session of the Parliament commenced on January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind's address. The first part of the Union Budget Session of Parliament will be held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part of the budget session will take place from March 14 to April 8. (ANI)
Ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget 2022-23, a truck loaded with budget copies arrived at Parliament on Tuesday. Earlier today, Sitharaman met President Ram Nath Kovind ahead of the Budget presentation. She was accompanied by Ministers of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Bhagwat Karad and other officials from the Ministry. Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, replacing her signature 'bahi khata', she opted to carry the documents in a tablet, which was wrapped in a red-coloured cover with the national emblem emblazoned on it. Notably, several opposition parties in the Business Advisory Committee meeting that took place on Monday afternoon chaired by the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, objected to the government presenting a paperless Union Budget and Economic Survey. Sources said that these Lok Sabha leaders conveyed to the government via the Speaker that it would be impossible to download every document from the internet, read it and process it in time for reactions. As per the sources, privy to the details of the meeting Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury floor leader of the Lok Sabha for the Congress, Sudip Bandyopadhyay from the TMC, Vinayak Raut from Shiv Sena, and Supriya Sule of NCP were some of the leaders who spoke about the subject. Sources further stated that during the meeting, the Lok Sabha Speaker asked the government to see what can be done to address the concern of the opposition MPs. It is being said that in the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told the opposition that he would take note of their concerns, although the people's budget and the survey was a huge boost to promote contactless documentation. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister is also said to have told the members that he will be speaking to the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman about their concerns. The Budget speech will begin at around 11 am today with Sitharaman beginning it with an address to the speaker of Lok Sabha. Usually, the duration of the presentation ranges from 90 to 120 minutes. On Monday, she tabled this year's Economic Survey, centred around the theme of "Agile approach", which forecasted India's economy to grow by 9.2 per cent during Financial Year 2021-22 and by 8-8.5 per cent in fiscal 2023 beginning 1 April. The Budget Session of the Parliament commenced on January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind's address. The first part of the Union Budget Session of Parliament will be held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part of the Budget Session will take place from March 14 to April 8. (ANI)
MOSCOW  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russias top security demands but said Moscow is willing to talk more to ease tensions over Ukraine.

The comments were his first on the standoff in more than a month and suggested a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine may not be imminent and that at least one more round of diplomacy is likely.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev/AP)

Yet the two sides remain unyielding in their main positions, and there was little apparent hope for concessions. Russia is expected to respond soon to a U.S. proposal for negotiations on lesser Russian demands after which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak.

[ Ukraine-Russia crisis: What to know about rising fear of war ]

Lavrov and Blinken spoke Tuesday and reiterated positions put forward by Putin and President Joe Biden. The White House said Biden and Putin could also speak once the U.S. receives Russias response.

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In remarks to reporters at a Moscow news conference with the visiting leader of NATO ally Hungary, Putin said the Kremlin is still studying the U.S. and NATOs response to the Russian security demands received last week. But he said it was clear that the West has ignored Russian demands that NATO not expand to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, refrain from deploying offensive weapons near Russia and roll back its deployments to Eastern Europe.

Putin argued that its possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if the interests of all parties, including Russias security concerns, are taken into account. I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that its not going to be easy, Putin said.

Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops along the border of Ukraine, fueling fears of an invasion. It has denied any intention to attack.

Washington and its allies have rejected Moscows key demands. They emphasize that Ukraine, like any other nation, has the right to choose alliances, although it is not a NATO member now and is unlikely to join any time soon.

Putin said the Western allies refusal to meet Russias demands violates their obligations on the integrity of security for all nations. He warned that a Ukrainian accession to NATO could lead to a situation where Ukraine launches military action to reclaim control over Russian-annexed Crimea or areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in the countrys east.

Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations, Putin said. Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?

Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the countrys Moscow-friendly president and later threw its weight behind rebels in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland, triggering a conflict that has killed over 14,000 people.

Putin charged that while the U.S. airs concerns about Ukraines security, it is using the ex-Soviet country as an instrument in its efforts to contain Russia.

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He alleged that Washington may try to draw us into a military conflict and force its allies in Europe to impose the tough sanctions the U.S. is talking about now. Another possible option would be to draw Ukraine into NATO, deploy offensive weapons there and encourage Ukrainian nationalists to use force to reclaim the rebel-held east or Crimea, drawing us into a military conflict, Putin claimed.

Speaking after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who has forged closer ties with Moscow than almost any other NATO member, Putin noted that its still possible to negotiate a settlement that would take every partys concerns into account.

We need to find a way to ensure interests and security of all parties, including Ukraine, European nations and Russia, Putin said, emphasizing that the West needs to treat Russian proposals seriously to make progress.

He said French President Emmanuel Macron may soon visit Moscow as part of renewed diplomatic efforts following their call on Monday.

In a bid to exert pressure on the West, Lavrov sent letters to the U.S. and other Western counterparts pointing out their past obligations signed by all members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a top trans-Atlantic security grouping.

Russia has argued that NATOs expansion eastward has hurt Russias security, violating the principle of indivisibility of security endorsed by the OSCE in 1999 and 2010. It says the U.S. and its allies have ignored the principle that the security of one nation should not be strengthened at the expense of others, while insisting on every nations right to choose alliances.

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In his letter, which was released by the foreign ministry, Lavrov said there must be security for all or there will be no security for anyone. And in his call with Blinken, Lavrov warned that Moscow will not allow Washington to hush up the issue.

Blinken, meanwhile, emphasized the U.S. willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns. However, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken was resolute in the U.S. commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances.

Blinken urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraines borders, Price said. He reaffirmed that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path.

Senior State Department officials described the call as professional and fairly candid, noting that if Russia wanted to prove it isnt going to invade Ukraine, it should withdraw its troops from the border and neighboring Belarus.

Shortly after speaking to Lavrov, Blinken convened a conference call with the secretary general of NATO, the EU foreign policy chief and the chairman-in-office of the OSCE as part of efforts to ensure that the allies are engaged in any further contacts with Russia.

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, Russias U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the U.S. statement about its readiness for dialogue doesnt correlate with Washington sending planeloads of military equipment to Ukraine.

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I dont know why the U.S. is escalating tensions and at the same time accusing Russia, he said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv for scheduled talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Johnson said the U.K. has a package of measures including sanctions ready to go the moment the first Russian toecap crosses further into Ukrainian territory.

It is vital that Russia steps back and chooses a path of diplomacy, and I believe that is still possible, Johnson said. We are keen to engage in dialogue, of course we are. But we have the sanctions ready.

He said he would have a call with Putin on Wednesday, noting that the Russian leader was trying to impose a new Yalta, new zones of influence in a reference to the 1945 deal between the allied powers. And it would not just be Ukraine that was drawn back into the Russian sphere of influence, Johnson added.

In other developments, Biden was expected to nominate career foreign service officer Bridget Brink to assume the long-vacant diplomatic post of American ambassador to Ukraine, according to a U.S. official familiar with the decision. Brink currently serves as the ambassador to Slovakia.

___

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Lee reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jill Lawless in London, Dasha Litvinova in Moscow, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
"Chemical-free natural farming will be promoted throughout the country with a focus on farmers' land in 5 km wide corridors along the river Ganga, in the first stage," she said.

The Finance Minister said that India's economic growth in the current year is estimated to be 9.2 per cent, the highest among all large economies.

"During Amrit Kaal, our government aims to achieve the vision for India@100 set out by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day Address," she said.

Sitharaman on Tuesday began the presentation of the Union Budget 2022-23 by expressing empathy to those who died due to COVID-19.

"I want to take a moment to express my empathy for those who had to bear adverse health and economic effects of the pandemic," the Union Minister said while presenting her fourth Budget in the Parliament.Before the presentation, a Union Cabinet meeting was held which approved the Budget 2022-23.

Earlier today, Sitharaman met President Ram Nath Kovind ahead of the Budget presentation. She was accompanied by Ministers of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Bhagwat Karad and other officials from the Ministry.

The budget session of Parliament began on Monday with the address by President Ram Nath Kovind to both Houses in the Central Hall.

The first part of the Union Budget Session of Parliament will be held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part of the Budget Session will take place from March 14 to April 8. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to two accused and denied bail to another accused in a murder case of an elderly woman, Akbari Begum, in connection with the February 2020 North-East Delhi Violence case. The Bench of Justice Subramoniam Prasad granted bail to Arun Kumar and Ravi Kumar while denying the same to Vishal Singh in an FIR 70/2020 registered at Bhajanpura police station, in the North-East district of the national capital. Akbari, a resident of the Bhajanpura area was inside her house when a mob allegedly set it on fire, thus killing her. According to the police, during the incident, while other members of her family climbed up to the rooftop to save themselves Akbari Begum could not leave her second-floor room and climb up using the ladder due to her age. She died of suffocation. FIR was registered under Section 302, 307, 396, 436, 147, 148 and 149 of IPC. Statements of police personnel, eyewitnesses and those who helped in dousing the fire were recorded to identify all those who were part of the rioting mob that set the house afire, said related chargesheet. Those who have been arrested and charge-sheeted in the case include Arun Kumar, Varun Kumar, Vishal Singh, Ravi Kumar, Prakash Chand and Suraj. At least 53 people died while around 200 people sustained serious injuries in the violence that raged for three days in North-East Delhi in February 2020. (ANI)
A Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction to investigate the root cause of the suicide of a young girl Lavanya and to issue direction to the Centre to enact a stringent Anti-Conversion Law immediately. The petition was filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who sought appropriate direction to National Investigation Agency/Central Bureau of Investigation and/or National Human Right Commission/National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to investigate the root cause of the death of 17-year-old Lavanya, who committed suicide and died on January 19, 2022, in Thanjavur Tamil Nadu. Upadhyay, in his petition filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, also sought a declaration that fraudulent religious conversion and religious conversion by intimidation, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits offends Articles 14, 21, 25 of the Constitution. He also demanded to issue direction to Centre-States to take stringent steps to control fraudulent religious conversion and religious conversion by intimidation, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits. Alternately, the Court may be pleased to direct the Law Commission of India to prepare a Report as well as a Bill to control 'Deceitful Religious Conversion' within three months in spirit of Articles 14, 21 and 25, the lawyer urged. According to the petition Lavanya, a 12th standard student of a missionary school in Tamil Nadu committed suicide by ingesting pesticides and in her dying declaration, she stated that she was tortured and pressurized to convert to Christianity by the Missionary School. Thereafter, many people have taken to social media to demand justice for the young girl, said the petitioner added that Lavanya's untimely demise is a wake-up call. "It reminds people of evangelists imperialistic goals. Indeed, it reminds people of how an elaborate plan has been used to uproot Hinduism-Secularism through time. In fact, many more M Lavanyas have been compelled to take such drastic measures as a result of such coercive-persuasive tactics, " the petition said. The petitioner has also mentioned various incidents relating to the alleged illegal practice followed by the Missionary School. "Petitioner submits that conversion is a pan India problem. So, Centre must enact a Law and get it implemented throughout India, " the petition read. (ANI)
Chandigarh administration has issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all religious places such as temples, gurudwaras, mosques, churches and others for solemnising marriages. As per the notice from the Chandigarh administration on Monday, before getting the marriage solemnised by the religious place, it should be ensured that both the boy and the girl have attained the age of marriage as per the Law and the marriage should be solemnised as per the personal laws of the boy/girl. The notice also states that religious institutes not harass or exploit couples for solemnizing their marriage. " The religious institutes shall not force to take consent of the parents of the couples for solemnizing their marriage," the notice further read while adding no hefty amount can be charged for it. At least two witnesses aged 18 years and above in relation, friends, or known to the parties are also required to attend the marriage solemnized by the religious institutes. The administration, in its notice also said that information of the couple and witnesses should be obtained before marriage solemnization, including marital status at the time of marriage. Once properly recorded/registered, as per the notice, a duly stamped and signed certificate from the religious institution by the priest who solemnized the marriage should be issued with complete details of the couple such as Name, Father's Name, Date of Birth, Residential address, Nationality, Religion, Marital Status at the time of marriage solemnization (Unmarried/ Married/Divorced/Widow/Widower), name of the witnesses, signatures of the couple and witnesses and a photograph of the couple (duly attested by the priest). "The record maintained by the Religious Institutions should be available with the authorities to be produced as and when required by any Court of Law/ Administrative Authorities or Police Department for verification," it further stated. In case of violation of the instructions by any religious institute, the Chandigarh administration warned of action by the competent authorities. (ANI)
Gurugram Police Commissioner KK Rao on Monday said, "Umesh Lohia, a private taxi driver from Gurugram's Nathupur alerted the police regarding a gang stealing newborn babies. Following which all the accused were arrested."

A case was registered on January 8 against the accused who were arrested on January 7.

According to the police, Lohia played an important part in arresting the criminals. The Gurugram Police had asked the Ola, Uber, auto and private cab drivers to be vigilant about crimes in the area and inform them if they sensed anything amiss.

"An alert Umesh Lohia sensing something suspicious drove the child trafficking gang members travelling in his vehicle with two stolen infants to the Gurugram's DLF In Phase-3 police station, thus helping the police to bust an interstate child trafficking gang", the Police said. (ANI)
The Customs duty on cut and polished diamonds and gems to be reduced to 5 per cent, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday. Presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha the Finance Minister said, "Customs duty on cut and polished diamonds, gems to be reduced to 5 per cent." Sitharaman said that the State government employees' tax deduction limit has been increased from 10 per cent to 14 per cent. "To provide equal treatment to both Central and State government employees, tax deduction limit on employer's contribution to National Pension System (NPS) account of State government employees to be increased from 10 per cent to 14 per cent, bringing them at par with central government employees," Sitharaman said while presenting her fourth Union Budget in the Parliament today. She said that at present, the Central government contributes 14 per cent of the salary of its employee to the National Pension System (NPS) Tier 1 while such deduction is allowed only to the extent of 10 per cent of the salary in case of employees of the state government. Sitharaman said that this would help in enhancing the social security benefits of the state government employees. Sitharaman began her presentation of Budget 2022 by expressing empathy with those who were affected by the adverse health and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Finance Minister said that India's economic growth in the current year is estimated to be 9.2 per cent, the highest among all large economies. Before the presentation, a Union Cabinet meeting was held which approved the Budget 2022-23. On Monday, she tabled this year's Economic Survey, centred around the theme of "Agile approach", which forecasted India's economy to grow by 9.2 per cent during Financial Year 2021-22 and by 8-8.5 per cent in fiscal 2023 beginning 1 April. The budget session of Parliament began on Monday with the address by President Ram Nath Kovind to both Houses in the Central Hall. The first part of the Union Budget Session of Parliament will be held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part of the Budget Session will take place from March 14 to April 8. (ANI)
Calling the Union Budget a "visionary budget" brought by the Modi government, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said it will change the scale of India's economy and make the country self-reliant. Shah took Twitter to express his views soon after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament. "This budget, brought by the Modi government, is a visionary budget, which will prove to be a budget to change the scale of India's economy. This budget will make India self-reliant and lay the foundation of a new India of the 100th year of independence. I congratulate Narendra Modi ji and Nirmala Sitharaman ji for this," Shah said in a series of tweets. Increasing the size of the budget to 39.45 lakh crore indicates that the Indian economy is a rapidly growing economy even in the pandemic days, the Home Minister said. "Reducing the fiscal deficit target from 6.9 per cent to 6.4 per cent is a huge achievement, I am sure India will be able to bring down fiscal deficit below 4 per cent under the leadership of Narendra Modi." The Home Minister also termed it "Aatmanirbhar Bharat Ka Budget", saying "it will be helpful in making India the world's leading economy under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi ji by exploiting the opportunities created in the global economic world after Corona". Shah further said that "PM Modi today has reduced the AMT rate in the cooperative sector from 18.5 per cent to 15 per cent and surcharge from 12 per cent to 7 per cent, ending the injustice done to the cooperative sector for decades and bringing it at par with the rest of the sectors". Noting major pointers of Budget like "Zero Budget Farming, Natural Farming, River Linking, One Station-One Product and Farmer Drones", Shah said that the Budget will play an important role in realizing PM Modi ji's resolve to make the agriculture sector modern and self-reliant along with giving benefits to our farmer brothers. "This will work to prove the resolve of prosperity with the cooperation of Modi ji," Shah said. (ANI)
In a major push to Make in India, the Centre has hiked the share of the domestic defence industry in the modernisation of armed forces with 68 per cent capital funds earmarked for procurement from local firms even as the government opened up the research and development in defence with 25 per cent funds allotted for the private sector firms. In the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Defence Ministry has been allocated Rs 1.52 lakh crore this year for capital acquisition which is around 13 per cent higher than last year's allocation of 1.35 lakh crore. Overall, the Defence Ministry has been allocated a total of Rs 5.25 lakh crore this year which is Rs 47,000 crore from the last year's 4.78 lakh crore. The allocation is around a 10 per cent increase from last year. Presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha the Finance Minister said 68 per cent of the capital procurement budget for Defence will be earmarked for domestic industry to promote Aatmanirbhar Bharat and reduce dependence on imports of defence equipment. This is up from 58 per cent last fiscal. Sitharaman announced that Defence Research and Development (R&D) will be opened for industry, start-ups and academia. Private industry will be encouraged to take up the design and development of military platforms and equipment in collaboration with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and other organizations through the special purpose vehicle (SPV) model, the Finance Minister said. The allocation of additional Rs 17000 crore for the modernisation of the armed forces would help in the growth of the domestic industry as the forces will have to spend 68 per cent of their funds for acquisition from local companies. (ANI)
According to Yogi, the new budget will fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat and help the Indian economy reach greater heights despite being badly impacted by the pandemic. "It is a progressing growth-oriented Budget. It will help the economy become the world's largest economy during the COVID period. Most importantly, the new Budget will benefit farmers, women and youth."

Yogi said that Union Budget 2022-23 would solve the long-standing demand of farmers for the increase in income. Apart from that, he stated that the Budget has provisions for creating 60 lakh jobs for youth, which would help ease out unemployment issues. "There are provisions for women empowerment in the new Budget-Mission Shakti", he said.

According to him, infrastructure has been given importance in the new Budget. 400 Bande Bharat trains would be operational. New airports, cargo and health have been accorded top priority. "The Budget will boost the country economically", he added.

On Tuesday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the second digital Union Budget. (ANI)
The Coronation Pillar Sewage Treatment Plant is one of the biggest STPs in the country. With the completion of this project, 318 MLD of wastewater will stop going into the river Yamuna, informed the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The work on the STP is in an advanced stage of completion, according to a press statement from the Ministry. The Coronation Pillar Sewage Treatment Plant in Delhi was visited on Monday by the Director-General of National Mission for Clean Ganga, G. Asok Kumar, to take stock of the ongoing construction work. This STP will treat 318 MLD of wastewater at an estimated cost of Rs 515 crore, out of which 414 crore is the capital cost, the statement read. A total of 50 per cent of the capital cost is borne by National Mission for Clean Ganga. The work on Coronation Pillar was sanctioned in December 2018 and is scheduled to be completed in February this year. Mentioning that the government has been working for the revival of Ganga and its tributaries across the country, Kumar said: "The pollution in River Yamuna has been a concern for the NGT and the Centre. The work on 318 MLD Coronation STP is nearing completion and shall be completed by February end. With the completion of this project, 318 MLD of wastewater will stop going into River Yamuna." He added that NMCG along with DJB has been working on 10 other STP projects also in the National Capital and the work went on considerably well even during the Covid-19 restrictions. These projects are being monitored by the NGT. "The work on Okhla STP, Asia's biggest STP is also going on quite well and these projects will help in restoring the Nirmalta of River Yamuna," the ministry said. Delhi, presently, generates an estimated sewage flow of 3273 MLD out of which 2340 MLD sewage is treated against the installed capacity of 2624 MLD. There is a discharge of 933 MLD untreated sewage into the river Yamuna. A total of 12 projects for the treatment of 1385 MLD sewage have been taken up at a cost of Rs. 2354 crore under Namami Gange Program in Delhi, to abate the pollution in River Yamuna. The work of building new plants and expanding the horizon of technical efficiency of old sewage treatment plants as well as laying and rehabilitating sewers is being tirelessly carried out. (ANI)
Xi Focus: Governing a people's republic for the people

Xinhua) 09:18, February 01, 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a villager's home in Fengnanyuan Village, Shizhuang Township of Huozhou City, north China's Shanxi Province, Jan. 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The snow blanketing mountains in north China's Shanxi Province has added even more festive spirit to a small village called Fengnanyuan. Red lanterns have been hung in front of villager Shi Hongbing's new house, decorated with door couplets and other auspicious ornaments.

These were what greeted a special guest of Shi -- President Xi Jinping -- just days ago.

No matter how busy Xi is, he always finds time to be with people in the countryside, especially before the Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year. Falling on Feb. 1 this year, the festival is the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar and it is a time that is traditionally spent in the company of family.

Xi is a leader with roots in the countryside and has worked his way from a village official to the country's top post. He is thus widely considered a people's leader who always puts the interests of the people above all else.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves as he attends a Chinese Lunar New Year reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

On Sunday, addressing a reception in Beijing to ring in the Year of the Tiger, Xi once again stressed "holding people close to the heart."

"The greatest happiness is to strive for the happiness of the people," he said.

DECADE-LONG TRADITION

For 10 consecutive years, Xi, as general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has made it a tradition to spend time with ordinary people during this festive season.

These trips have taken him throughout the vast country, from a border town in the north to a poverty-stricken ethnic minority village in the southwest.

He often brings festival gifts to locals, observes festive traditions such as food preparation, and chats with people about their daily lives.

"As we greet the new year, there is one thing that remains most dear to my heart. That is my fellow citizens who still live in hardship," Xi once said. "I'm seriously concerned about them and wonder how their food supplies and accommodations are being maintained, and how they are celebrating the Spring Festival."

During this year's trip to Shanxi, Xi braved the snow to visit people affected by autumn floods and learned about post-disaster reconstruction, crop replanting, and measures to keep villagers warm in the winter.

When he sat down with Shi's family, whose old dwelling collapsed in the floods, Xi asked them how they felt about living in their rebuilt house and whether they were able to get enough goods for the Lunar New Year.

"He cares deeply about our daily lives," Shi said.

Every time Xi visits people in their homes, he asks about what difficulties they still have. He even goes into details in rural life such as the access to clean toilets and the shower. He also offers advice on household waste sorting, and shows concern for students with poor eyesight.

"I remember everything they have to share with me," Xi said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a villager's home in Duancun Village, Sengnian Township of Fenxi County, north China's Shanxi Province, Jan. 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

PEOPLE-CENTERED PHILOSOPHY

Xi's Spring Festival visits reflect his people-centered philosophy for development.

He once said, "To put it simply, my governance philosophy is to serve the people and shoulder my due responsibilities."

This can be traced back to a time when Xi spent seven years as an adolescent and young adult living and working in a remote village on the Loess Plateau. Xi has said that he understands the hardships of the people because he once lived in an impoverished corner of the country.

This people-first philosophy has been put into action throughout Xi's political career. Back in 2012, when Xi was elected to the Party's top post, there were nearly 100 million Chinese people living under the poverty line. Helping these people live better lives became a priority for him.

A monumental anti-poverty campaign has since been launched on a scale unseen elsewhere in the world. Over the following eight years, China's remaining impoverished residents were all lifted out of poverty.

This marked the country's successful elimination of absolute poverty, a scourge that had plagued the Chinese people for millennia.

Bearing the people in mind, Xi led them in realizing the first centenary goal of "building a moderately prosperous society in all respects," honoring the Party's promise to the people.

Xi's people-centered philosophy also explains why he ordered unwavering efforts to save lives at all costs during China's fight against COVID-19, said Liu Jingbei, a professor at the China Executive Leadership Academy in Pudong, Shanghai.

The all-out efforts enabled China to lead the world in containing the spread of the virus, restarting work and production, and resuming economic and social development.

The people-centered philosophy is a fine Party tradition. Since its founding in 1921, the CPC has pursued happiness for the people as its mission and considered its close ties with the people as its greatest political strength.

"Putting the people first" was listed as one of the 10 "secrets" behind the Party's success when the CPC reviewed its century-long history last year.

"The Party has in the people its roots, its lifeblood, and its source of strength," Xi said while addressing a ceremony marking the Party's centenary in July 2021.

MODERNIZATION FOR 1.4 BILLION PEOPLE

Upon winning its national fight against poverty and realizing its first centenary goal, China has now embarked on a new journey of building a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful.

It is the largest modernization drive in the history of humanity.

In contrast to the polarization of rich and poor in some capitalist countries, China's path to modernization features common prosperity that ensures the outcomes of development are shared by all and allows no one to be left behind.

The pursuit of common prosperity is one of the issues that Xi has given much thought to over the past year.

"To achieve common prosperity, we must first make the 'cake' bigger and better through the joint efforts of the people, and then divide it in a fair way through reasonable institutional arrangements," Xi said at a conference that set the tone for China's economic development in 2022.

The CPC has delivered on its promise to leave no one behind in the fight against poverty, and it will also honor its word on the path to modernization.

"As long as the 1.4 billion Chinese people stay united, and the 95 million CPC members stay close to the people in pursuit of a shared future, we will surely be able to continue creating miracles on our new journey ahead," Xi said.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
Activists Tuesday called for officials to release people accused of immigration violations who are being held during the last days of federal detention at McHenry and Kankakee county jails.

The jails are expected to end their federal contracts to hold immigration detainees by Feb. 12, activists said. A new state law effective Jan. 1 prohibits such contracts. County officials had delayed the effective date while they challenged the law as unconstitutional, but federal judges ruled against them.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are deciding whether to transfer the detainees to another detention facility out of state, or to release them while they wait for court hearings.

Advocates called the detentions inhumane and costly, while McHenry County States Attorney Patrick Kenneally and county board Chairman Mike Buehler, both Republicans, called the state law hasty and politically motivated.

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Advocates held a news conference outside ICEs field office in Chicago Tuesday, asking the agency to free the detainees. Seven Democratic members of Congress from Illinois sent a letter to ICE asking it to release the detainees, along with an online petition.

Two detainees told the Tribune about their experiences in jail.

Angela Osorio, a mother of three from Colombia who lives in Cicero, finishes speaking about her experience being detained in jail at a Feb. 1, 2022, rally outside ICE's Chicago field office to demand detainees being held at the McHenry and Kankakee county jails be released. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Angela Osorio, a mother of three who lives in Cicero, said she was held at the McHenry jail from April until October, then transferred to a jail in Kansas, far from anyone she knew.

She came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2000 and overstayed, and is waiting for a ruling on her appeal of her case.

During her time in jail, she said, It changed my life, not for the good.

Detainees were kept in cells, about 6 feet by 4 feet, with a metal bunk and mattress, toilet and sink. Its like youre sleeping in the bathroom, she said.

She said she was depressed and suicidal, being cut off from her family and worried about deportation. The food was terrible, and any goods for sale in the commissary were twice as expensive as normal, and in Kansas she was held with criminals.

Alejandro Ortiz, 27, said he flew from Zacatecas, Mexico, into Midway Airport in October on a tourist visa to see his family, but officials did not accept it and took him into custody. He said that he has some issues in Mexico he didnt want to talk about, but had come on a tourist visa before and didnt anticipate any problem.

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Upon arrival at the McHenry jail, he was forced to quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the worst part was being kept in solitary confinement in his cell 24 hours a day, with no contact with anyone, except for one hour every other day when he was allowed to go into a larger common area.

Alejandro Ortiz, who immigrated from Mexico and lives in Chicago, speaks about his experience being detained in jail during a rally Feb. 1, 2022, outside the ICE Chicago field office. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

His cousin in Chicago sponsored Ortiz, promising to house and support him, and ICE released him on parole in January, pending a hearing in civil immigration court on his request for asylum due to dangers he said he faces in Mexico.

He said many detainees had to miss appointments to meet family or attorneys because the jail kept changing schedules for lockdown and free periods.

Both detainees described their experiences as very scary.

As of Jan. 21, ICE had released 34 detainees, according to Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. About 30 more remained at McHenry and 10 at Kankakee at that time, with ICE allowing 10 days for the individuals and their attorneys to submit additional information to argue for their release.

About 20 people demonstrated to release the detainees, representing Organized Communities Against Deportation, Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants, National Immigrant Justice Center and the Collaborative for Health Equity Cook County.

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Before state law ended the ICE contracts, last May, after contentious debate, the McHenry County board voted to continue to hold federal detainees, noting that the contract typically brought in around $8 million a year in federal fees. Officials said the McHenry jail is accredited with high standards for safety and humanity, and warned that ending the local jail detentions would only lead to some detainees being transferred out of state, far from their families, friends and attorneys.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on Tuesday lauded the Union Budget presented by the Central government and said that the government has allocated 35 per cent of the budget towards the development of infrastructure in the country. He said, "This is the budget of prosperous, powerful and developed India. The government has paid special attention to improve the infrastructure of the country as it has allocated 35 per cent of the total budget for it." The MP CM said, "Investment in infrastructure will lead to job creation in the country and the state will also be able to collect additional revenue." He added that Madhya Pradesh has received a gift from the Centre in the form of funding for the Ken-Betwa river linking project. "The Centre has earmarked Rs 44,000 crore for the river linking project." Chauhan said, "The budget also emphasises doubling the income of farmers and the agriculture sector will be linked with new technology." The CM added, "This is the budget for common people and it will bring prosperity in the life of the poor and the marginalised section of people." The budget has also focussed on improving education and health sectors and empowering women and youths of the country. (ANI)
Welcoming the Union Budget for FY 2022-23, industry experts said the government's renewed focus on healthcare will build stronger health systems in the country. Speaking to ANI, Biocon chairman Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said, "Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget for FY23 is well balanced with fiscal prudence and ease of doing business as the main themes. I believe the 35 per cent increase in capital expenditure for FY23 is positive and will drive the creation of much-needed infrastructure and jobs. The Finance Minister must also be commended for maintaining the fiscal deficit at 6.9 per cent of GDP in FY22." She said the Union Budget focusing on ensuring regulatory ease by promoting digital trust and digital compliance is in the right direction. "We were expecting some incentives for Pharma R&D (Research and Development) in the Budget as public investment is very low in this critical area of research and innovation, which are key for spurring exponential economic growth. The Finance Minister has assured the government's support for R&D expenditure in sunrise areas such as drones, artificial intelligence, genomics, space, clean energy etc," Shaw said. The Biocon chairman further said, "We will need to see the fine print if there is anything on pharma. The only concern I have is the absence of any fiscal stimulus for the MSME (Medium and Small Scale Enterprises) and Services sector that have borne the brunt of the pandemic with large layoffs and job losses reflected in a sharp drop in rural and semi urban consumption. The government will need to address this urgently. Overall, it was a positive Budget without any negative surprises." Vikram Thaploo, CEO, Apollo Telehealth said the Centre's focus on health and wellbeing that is has placed the first of its six pillars, is reflected in the Union Budget with the country entering the third year in COVID pandemic. Referring to the launch of the National Tele Mental Health Programme, Thaploo said it is a welcome move by the government to augment the use of telemedicine services as well as provide support to people with mental health disorders. National Tele Mental Health Program will include a network of 23 tele mental health Centres of Excellence with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) being the nodal centre and IIIT Bangalore providing technical support. "An open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem will be rolled out and it will further help in strengthening the healthcare services within the country. It will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities. The increased investment towards health infrastructure and focus on a holistic approach to health is seen as a testimony of the commitment to building stronger health systems in the country," Thaploo told ANI. KR Raghunath, senior chairman, Jindal Naturecure Institute also welcomed the much-deserved attention on India's healthcare sector in the Union Budget 2022-23. Speaking to ANI, Raghunath said, "We are encouraged by the government's renewed focus on preventive and curative health as well as the overall wellness and well-being of our citizens. An open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem will widen access to health and wellness while driving a focus on preventive health." "Also, to better the access to quality mental health counseling and care services, a National Tele Mental Health program has been announced that will further help in tackling the rising number of mental health disorders in the country. These patient-centered initiatives will play a pivotal role in the success of the National Health Mission," added Raghunath Earlier on Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the budget 2022-2023 announced the rollout of an open platform for the national health ecosystem. It will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity, consent framework and universal access to health facilities, she had stated. Sitharaman began her presentation of Budget 2022 by expressing empathy with those who were affected by the adverse health and economic effects of the COVID pandemic. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday congratulated Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her team for a 'people-friendly and progressive budget'. In his remarks after the Union Budget was tabled in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister said that the Budget is "full of opportunities for more infrastructure, more investment, more growth, and more jobs." "This will further open the green job sector. This Budget not only solves the contemporary problems but also ensures a bright future for the youth," he added. The Prime Minister said that the quest for modernity and technology in every sphere of life through steps such as drones for farmers, Vande Bharat Trains, digital currency, 5G services, national digital health ecosystem will hugely benefit our youth, middle class, poor, Dalit and backward classes. The Prime Minister stressed that the welfare of the poor is one of the most important aspects of this Budget. "The Budget aims to ensure pucca house, toilet, tap water and gas connection for every poor household. At the same time, the focus is on modern Internet connectivity also," said PM Modi. PM Modi mentioned that for the first time in the country, 'Parvatmala' scheme is being started in regions like Himachal, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and the North East. This scheme will create a modern system of transportation in the hilly areas, he said. The Prime Minister further said that along with the cleaning of Ganga, which is the centre of faith of millions of Indians, the Government will encourage natural farming on the banks of the river in five states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. This is a significant step for the welfare of the farmers and this will also help in making Ganga chemical-free, he added. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled Union Budget 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha and later in Rajya Sabha today. The Budget Session of the Parliament commenced on January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind's address. The first part of the Union Budget Session of Parliament is being held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part of the Budget Session will take place from March 14 to April 8. (ANI)
According to Bhardwaj, the Union Budget would give impetus to infrastructural development. "Budget would generate more jobs, better living amenities," said Bhardwaj.

He added that the budget has provision for better urban planning in India's megacities, with a focus on sustainable measures and public transport. "In this budget, the government has allocated more than 1,000 cr for several schemes including one to push the digitisation of cooperative societies", Bhardwaj said.

According to him, the push for the infra sector will also benefit Himachal Pradesh. "Ropeways, roads, better urban and rural infrastructure will be the outcome of this budget," he added. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that provisions of the Union Budget presented by Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, aim to make agriculture lucrative and full of new opportunities. Measures such as the special fund for encouraging new agriculture startups and package for the food processing industry will help in increasing the income of farmers, he said. More than 2.25 lakh crore rupees are being transferred into the account of farmers through MSP purchase, the Prime Minister said. PM Modi pointed out that the Budget this year has come with new confidence of development amidst the once-in-a-century calamity. "This Budget will create new opportunities for common people along with providing strength to the economy", he said. In his remarks after the Union Budget was tabled in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister said that the Budget is" full of opportunities for more Infrastructure, more Investment, more growth, and more jobs." This will further open the green job sector. This Budget not only solves the contemporary problems but also ensures a bright future for the youth, he added. The Prime Minister said that the quest for modernity and technology in every sphere of life through steps such as drones for farmers, Vande Bharat Trains, digital currency, 5 G services and national digital health ecosystem will hugely benefit youth, middle class, poor, Dalit and backward classes in the country. PM Modi stressed that the welfare of the poor was one of the most important aspects of this Budget. The Budget aims to ensure pucca house, toilet, tap water and gas connection for every poor household. At the same time focus is on modern Internet connectivity also. The Prime Minister mentioned that for the first time in the country, the 'Parvatmala' scheme is being started in regions like Himachal, Uttarakhand, Jammu Kashmir and the North East. This scheme will create a modern system of transportation in the hilly areas, he said. The Prime Minister said that along with the cleaning of Ganga, which is the centre of faith of millions of Indians, the Government will encourage natural farming on the banks of the river in five states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. This is a significant step for the welfare of the farmers and this will also help in making Ganga chemical-free, he said. He further stated that along with a record increase in the credit guarantee, many schemes have been announced in the Budget. "India's MSME sector will be greatly benefitted by the reservation of 68 per cent of the Defence Capital Budget for the domestic industry. 7.5 lakh crore rupees worth of public investment will give a new push to the economy and create new opportunities for small and other industries", he added. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled Union Budget 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha and later in Rajya Sabha today. The Budget Session of the Parliament commenced on January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind's address. The first part of the Union Budget Session of Parliament is being held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part of the Budget Session will take place from March 14 to April 8. (ANI)
After the Election Commission banned exit polls between February 10 and March 7 this year with regard to Assembly Polls, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju on Tuesday said that exit polls cannot be conducted and publicized in the state by means of print and electronic media or disseminated in any other manner in the above mentioned period. Raju in a statement said, "Under provisions of section 126 A of the Representations of the Peoples Act, 1951 "Exit polls cannot be conducted and publicized by means of print and electronic media or dissemination in any other manner starting from February 10th, 2022 at 7 AM to March 7th, 2022 at 6.30 PM." Clarifying further, he said that display of any election matter including results of any opinion poll or any other poll survey in any electronic media is prohibited during the period 48 hours, including the hour fixed for conclusion of poll in each of the phases in connection with the elections. On January 28, the Election Commission banned exit polls for five states-- Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur-- that will witness elections in the coming days. In an order dated January 28, 2022, the poll body wrote, "No person shall conduct any exit poll and publish or publicize by means of print or any other manner, the result of any exit poll." The publishing of exit polls has been prohibited from 7.00 am on February 10 to 6.30 pm on March 7- i.e. during the polling period. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. Elections to 403 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats will be held in seven phases on these dates: February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27; March 3 and 7. Uttarakhand's 70 seats and Goa's 40 seats will go to polls on February 14 in a single phase, while 117-member Punjab Assembly on February 20. A 60-member Manipur Assembly will go to polling in two phases on February 27 and March 3. (ANI)
After Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget Speech announced the launching of a national tele-mental health programme amid the COVID-19 pandemic, MD and CEO of Fortis, Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi lauded the government's move. "It is very encouraging to see the Government's attention on the mental health of the citizens. The proposed National Tele-mental Programme will prove to be beneficial for a large section of society, enabling access to quality mental health counselling," Raghuvanshi said. According to the Fortis MD, the announcement regarding the up-gradation of 2 lakh Anganwadi's and the rolling out of the digital health mission would also help in providing greater access to healthcare services and strengthen capacities. "The digital health ecosystem is an area where we would have appreciated some more allocation, especially the National Digital Health ID initiative. Despite the programme being a long-term one, I am sure that funds will be made available in the future", he said. While speaking on the National Digital Health Ecosystem, Raghuvanshi said, "The special status given to data centres is going to have an impact on the digitalization of the healthcare ecosystem, both from the insurers' as well as the providers' perspective. I think these are very positive outcomes from the health perspective. As the healthcare sector has been at the forefront of battling the COVID pandemic, it would have been great if certain allocations were enhanced." The rollout of the national tele-mental health programme comes in the wake of growing scientific evidence showing mental health issues post COVID-19 infection. The national tele-mental health programme will be operated under a network of twenty-three mental health centres under the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience (NIMHANS). (ANI)
In a solemn ceremony, the Army Commander paid tribute to Bravehearts at Dhruva War Memorial in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district today.

Lt Gen Dwivedi, who was serving as the Deputy Chief of Army Staff, succeeded Lt Gen YK Joshi in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir.

Lt Gen Dwivedi is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and was commissioned into the 18th Battalion of Jammu and Kashmir Rifles in December 1984. He has held many important positions in his career of more than 35 years and also led a battalion in the Assam Rifle Sector (Operation Rhino) of Manipur.

The Northern Command of the Indian Army looks after the counter-terrorism efforts in entire Jammu and Kashmir and protects the Line of Control in both the union territories. It also manages the Ladakh sector with an ongoing Operation Snow Leopard against Chinese aggression. (ANI)
Ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP and chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said the party will win the Dhuri seat with the highest margin in the entire state while adding that Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will not be able to reach double-digit mark. AAP has fielded Mann from the Dhuri assembly constituency. Bhagwant Mann visited dozens of villages in the area on Tuesday for campaigning. Speaking to ANI, Bhagwant Mann said, "We will win the Dhuri seat with the highest margin in the entire Punjab. In the last Lok Sabha elections, my margin in the Dhuri area was 30,000. AAP will get more than two-thirds seats in Punjab." On SAD, the AAP chief ministerial candidate said, "My best wishes to Parkash Singh Badal. He is contesting for the third time saying that this is his last election. Last time also, Sukhbir Badal had said that he would rule for 25 years but his party even did not manage to win 25 seats. This time the Akali Dal will not even reach the double-digit mark." Asked about BJP's jibe at AAP saying the party is spreading lies and there is no Delhi model, Mann said, "If this is the case, then how did we win in Delhi for the third time in a row. There is something because of which the people of Delhi vote for AAP." Punjab will go to the poll on February 20. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while addressing a rally in Ghaziabad, promised that the BJP government in UP would provide double dose ration every month to every household. "Just like a free double dose vaccination, the BJP government would also provide you people with free double dose ration every month", said Yogi Adityanath. While speaking further on vaccination, Yogi said that 135 crore people got free vaccination, free COVID care, free tests under PM Narendra Modi's leadership. "The people who mislead you on vaccines asking you not to get vaccinated saying it is a BJP vaccine, tell them since it was a BJP vaccine, you vote for the BJP only", said Yogi. Speaking about the developments in UP, Yogi said that 12 crore and 61 lakh UP people were given toilets after BJP came to power in 2017. Taking a swipe at the previous Samajwadi Party government, Yogi claimed," Before 2017, all the money meant for development works in Uttar Pradesh was confined to the walls of Samajwadi party office but when the BJP came to power, it extracted all the money. Out of which the 30,000 crores defence corridor, Delhi-Meerut rapid rail corridor is built." Yogi informed that through the rapid rail, one can easily reach Delhi in 20-25 minutes. He claimed that the poor people were deprived of the facilities under the regime of the previous governments. "Earlier girls were insecure. They were scared to come out of their houses. Now the situation had changed. Our BJP government put the criminals behind bars", stated Yogi. He further claimed that SP has given tickets to criminals. "Have you seen any riot in the last 5 years? Before 2017, there were riots every other day. Will you vote for people orchestrating riots and posing a threat to women security? No self-respecting society can support elements who are a threat to women security", UP CM Yogi Adityanath in Meerut. (ANI)
The former Chicago police officer who fatally shot Laquan McDonald in 2014 is set to be released from prison on Thursday. Ahead of his release, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday defended the Chicago Police Departments reform efforts.

Her comments came after the Tribune published a front-page story Monday reflecting on changes the Police Department has made since the release of the dash-camera video that showed Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting McDonald 16 times. Criminal justice experts said the Chicago Police Department has been slow moving in its reforms and attempts at cultural change.

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Lightfoot said the city isnt where we want to be but has made remarkable progress in a difficult time.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot attends a news conference at City Hall on Jan. 10, 2022, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Change is hard. Were all experiencing that over these last two years of this pandemic entering year three. Its hard for us to give up our old ways, our status quo, even when we know it is failing us, Lightfoot said. Its still hard for us to pivot and embrace that new mindset. We are on the right path. We are moving forward in the right way. Weve got the right leader in the Chicago Police Department to keep pushing these initiatives forward but we cant just wallow in the critics and the criticism because we are doing great things in our city.

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Lightfoot also reflected on the departments progress since Van Dyke killed McDonald, saying she was very concerned about how the city would react after viewing the video of Van Dyke shooting the teenager.

That was a very difficult and fraught time in our city and I think that many people carry the trauma of that moment and others like it with them to this very day, Lightfoot said. What I will also say is, looking back on that time right before Thanksgiving of 2015 when the video was first released, there were some things that I think helped our city move forward that came out  not the least of which I think is the level of activism across our city, many young people, many people of different generations, let their voices be heard and demanded change and there has been some change. Not enough. Not enough by any stretch of the imagination. But I think some significant things have happened and continue to happen that we need to take stock of in light of this moment.

Lightfoot noted the work she did leading Police Accountability Task Force after the shooting, as well as a Department of Justice investigation of the Police Departments practices and the City Councils passage last summer of a new civilian oversight body for police.

Asked about Van Dykes imminent release from prison, Lightfoot said she wasnt happy with the sentence he received but said that while many were not happy with Van Dykes sentencing length, Jason Van Dyke was the first police officer in 50 years who was convicted of committing a crime while on duty so lets not lose sight of that fact.

I think frankly Pastor Marvin Hunter, whos been the spokesperson and really I think the conscience for not only the family but for the city on this issue, has spoken eloquently about it, and talks and continues to talk about healing, about redemption, about accountability, Lightfoot said. I think those are the words we need to take with us in our heart when we think about this moment that we are in.

The Rev. Marvin Hunter, senior pastor of Grace Memorial Baptist Church and the great-uncle of Laquan McDonald, speaks at a press conference on Oct. 21, 2021. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Robert Boik, the Police Departments executive director of constitutional policing and reform, said in a phone interview with the Tribune that he wanted to push back on what Chad Williams, the former civilian commanding officer of the departments audit division, said in his resignation letter to Lightfoot in August.

Williams wrote in his letter that department leaders were unable to even feign interest in pursuing reform in a meaningful manner, making it impossible for me to remain involved.

Despite my efforts, both the office of the superintendent and the office of constitutional policing & reform continue to insist upon employing a check the boxes strategy that focuses on getting credit for preliminary compliance based primarily on policy edits that lack operational considerations, Williams said. Over time, the optimism I brought to this role withered in an incessant stream of discussions with the singular intent of identifying ways to move the needle by getting the percentages up to improve portrayals in local media coverage.

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Boik said that is how the consent decree is set up. It contains almost 800 paragraphs, and the independent monitor assesses progress on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis. So the department has to look at and count the paragraphs as it moves forward.

The Police Departments compliance over the last year has jumped significantly from 48 paragraphs with some level of compliance in the second monitors report to 266 in the most recent report, Boik said. He said they are expecting the next report, which is set to come out within the next month, to show the same trajectory.

But compliance is not just numbers. Theres a ton of work behind all of that compliance and all of those paragraphs, Boik said.

The amount of service training hours for officers increased from zero to 40 hours as of last year, which will continue to be an annual occurrence, Boik said. The additional training will serve to change the departments cultural as its an opportunity to reinstruct officers on an annual basis about use of force, community policing and impartial policing.

I would put our policies now up against any department in the country, Boik said. I believe we have the best practice policy, and officers have been trained on that policy, and theyre operating under that policy out in the field.

Boik said that the Chicago Police Department is a dramatically different department since the release of the McDonald shooting video, but it isnt the endgame for the department. This is because, he said, the department has made changes to how it approaches community policing and has better training on crisis intervention.

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Boik added that if anyone in the department in 2015 had said that a consent decree would be a good a thing for the department, they would have been ostracized at the time. Now it is considered a standard practice for the department and is talked about often.

When you compare the department today to where we were back in 2015, it is night and day different, he said.

The department also now has a unit that looks over every use-of-force incident for tactical and training issues, Boik said. If any misconduct is observed, that misconduct has to be investigated. The department has also made it as transparent as possible to show the public how they can file a complaint against an officer.

We do not sweep those issues under the rug. In fact, we now have an internal mechanism to bring those issues to the forefront, to ensure that theyre being addressed as promptly as possible, he said.

If it had not been for the shooting of McDonald and the reforms that came after, Boik said that he is not sure if the department would be at the forefront of best practice on use of force policy now.

Or maybe wed still be going through it, just at a slower rate, and maybe it would have caught up with us eventually, he said. I dont know. But I can tell you were happy with the path that were on. Were going to stay on the path to reform until we achieve full and effective compliance.

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When asked what the release of Van Dyke means to the department, Boik said hes focused on the Independent Monitoring Report five coming out and the work ahead of him for Independent Monitoring Report six.

I think the officers on the street are focused on whatever is on their plate today, he said.

Chicago Tribunes Madeline Buckley contributed.

pfry@chicagotribune.com

gpratt@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @paigexfry

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Twitter @royalpratt
PM Modi's virtual Atmanirbhar Arthvyawastha address is expected to highlight the vision with which the Budget has been presented this year, keeping in mind India's journey in the years ahead especially, with India looking to go 25 years ahead.

The BJP has also asked its Lok Sabha MPs to be present at the Ambedkar Centre on Janpath Road in Delhi tomorrow where the address will be telecast on a big screen.

Since the Rajya Sabha will be in session during that time, only Lok Sabha MPs have been asked to be present at Ambedkar Centre.

Apart from this, giant screens have been set up at multiple places across the country for the Prime Minister's address to be heard by the party workers.

The Prime Minister's address comes in at a very crucial juncture when the elections for the five states would soon be underway. (ANI)
Actor Alec Baldwin, who has been staying low-key ever since the 'Rust' shooting incident, is getting back to work slowly. The actor and his company, El Dorado Pictures, are teaming on the true-crime podcast 'Art Fraud', in a co-production with iHeartRadio and Cavalry Media. As per Variety, Baldwin will narrate the eight-episode series, which will chronicle the fall of The Knoedler, among the oldest and most revered art galleries in New York City. The producers promise never-before-heard interviews with the mastermind behind the long con. 'Art Fraud' is written by Michael Shnayerson and based on his Vanity Fair article. 'Art Fraud' is being marketed and distributed by iHeartMedia's iHeartPodcast Network with subsequent episodes released weekly on iHeartRadio and other major podcast platforms. 'Art Fraud' tells the story of how an unassuming woman walked through the door of the Knoedler with a canvas under her arm allegedly painted by the abstract expressionist master Mark Rothko -- the start of a 17-year relationship that would result in the sale of nearly 40 paintings from the likes of Motherwell, de Kooning and Jackson Pollack totaling more than USD 80 million that all turned out to be counterfeit. Both Baldwin and Shnayerson serve as executive producers along with Cavalry Media's Matt DelPiano and Keegan Rosenberger. Branden Morgan, senior podcast producer at Cavalry Audio, serves as producer with Zach McNees as well as Nikki Ettore and Lindsay Hoffman for the iHeartPodcast Network. Cavalry Audio's podcasts have included 'Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin', 'Daddy Issues' with Joe Buck and Oliver Hudson, 'Modasucka' with Michael Blackson, 'Can You Survive This Podcast?' with Clint Emerson, and 'Verdict', its first scripted podcast. (ANI)
Moments after the Union Budget 2022-23 was presented and Lok Sabha adjourned on Tuesday, an interesting conversation took place off the camera when Prime Minister Narendra Modi crossed the well of the House and met the leaders of opposition parties. There were evident lighter moments during the conversation amid the perpetual political battle between the treasury benches and the opposition in and out of the Parliament. The leaders whom the Prime Minister met included Congress leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Saugata Roy, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, DMK's A Raja and Navneet Kaur Rana, an independent MP who represents Amravati in Maharashtra. An interesting conversation took place between the Prime Minister and Saugata Roy, who is known for his wit as well as sharp attacks on the government. Recounting the brief conversation, Saugata Roy told ANI that the Prime Minister enquired about his well-being and then moved on to meet the other leaders. Saugata Roy referred to West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and told the Prime Minister that "he was creating a lot of disturbance" in the state and he should be removed. PM Modi, who is known for his witty repartee, responded to Roy and enquired when will the MP retire "When will you retire......," Saugata Roy said quoting the response of PM Modi. What followed was friendly witty banter between the TMC MP and PM. Recounting the interaction to ANI, Roy said he asked a second time about the West Bengal Governor's term and PM responded... "when will you retire?" The Prime Minister's remarks left the TMC leaders, especially Saugata Roy, in splits. The BJP and TMC fought a tough assembly election in West Bengal last year. The repartee came a day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she had "blocked" the state governor on Twitter for his "unethical and unconstitutional" statements. Dhankhar responded had through tweets and said dialogue and harmony amongst constitutional functionaries is the essence and spirit of democracy and the mandate of the constitution. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to central government and tech giant Google LLC on a petition moved by a YouTuber challenging the removal of his contents and permanent termination of channels. Youtuber Rachit Kaushik has challenged the removal of videos and permanent termination of his accounts by Google. Hearing the plea, Justice V Kameswar Rao issued notice and sought a reply from the respondents within three weeks. Court has listed the matter for March 30. The court will hear the petition along with one moved by a senior advocate against the termination of his Twitter account. The petition moved through Advocate Raghav Narayan and Pallavi Dubey said that the petitioner had more than ten lakh subscribers. His two YouTube channels namely "Sabloktantra" and "Truth and Dare" were permanently terminated in an illegal, arbitrary and biased manner. The plea further said that the said action was taken without specifying the grounds or reason or without providing any opportunity of hearing to the petition. There is no mechanism of hearing. The petition said the action of Google is also against the principle of natural justice. The entire process of removal of videos and subsequent appeal is based on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and there is no human intervention at all. Advocate Narender Hooda submitted before the bench that the action of Google is also incomplete derogation to the provision of IT Rules 2021 enacted by the central government. Hooda further submitted the petitioner was exercising his fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression as under the Constitution of India by using the platform. The bench asked the counsel how can he filed the petition under Article 226. He replied that the Government of India, being the custodian of the rights of its citizen has statutory duty to enforce the right and to take action against the respondent company. Advocate Mamta Jha, counsel for Google, submitted that there are community guidelines for users. Petitioner was showing objectionable content including the Shaheen Bagh and hate speeches. He was warned. Despite warnings, he continued to do that. He then started a new channel. The petitioner has urged the Court to issue direction to the government to take action against Google for not complying with the various provisions of IT Rules 2021. He also urged to direct the company to enact a mechanism and consequently constitute an independent adjudicating authority or redressal forum for redressal of grievances in a time-bound manner raised by users against the significant social media intermediary like respondent company. (ANI)
As per the bulletin issued by the Delhi health department, the positivity rate for the day stands at 5.09 per cent.

With the addition of new cases, the total COVID-19 cases in the national capital have gone up to 18,32,951 including 16,548 active cases.

As many as 4,837 people have been recovered from the coronavirus infection in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries in the city to 17,90,511.

However, the city also reported 27 deaths due to COVID infection in the last 24 hours, So far, 25,892 people have succumbed to the disease in Delhi.

A total of 1,455 patients are currently admitted to the hospital, which includes 65 suspected patients and 1,390 confirmed patients of COVID-19.

As many as 52,736 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours to detect the presence of the virus.

Under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive, a total of 77,132 vaccine doses were administered in the national capital in the past 24 hours which includes 23,327 first doses and 42,501-second doses. (ANI)
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she blocked state governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Twitter for his "unethical" statements, BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday said that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is "scared" of the Governor as he exposed the wrongdoings of their government. Speaking to ANI, Ghosh said, "They are scared of the Governor. He exposed the wrongdoings of the government. When the Governor informs the Assembly of his arrival, the Speaker leaves the Assembly. He is the Chancellor of the Calcutta University. When he goes to the university, the vice-chancellor flees from there." "When the Governor calls the District Magistrate, he does not respond, neither does the Superintendent of police. None of the higher officials responds to the Governor. Being the administrative head of the state, he needs information. When a bill is passed, it goes to him. He wants a comment on the bill. He wants to know the motive behind the bill, but there is nobody to apprise him. They stage protest against him instead,' he added. The BJP leader said that the Governor raises questions by being "well within his limits", yet the government has problems with it. "The Chief Minister uses indecent language against the Governor, he is shown a black flag in his way. This means that he is not respected. He always remains well within his limits and raises questions. But they still have problems with it," Ghosh stated. Ghosh further accused the Mamata Banerjee government of being indulged in corruption and said that it would "ruin the state". "The kind of corruption that is going on in the West Bengal government is going to ruin the state. All the projects that were initiated by the government have been halted. There is no special provision for it in the budget of the state government," he said. Ghosh further said that when the Governor raised the issues of alleged post-poll violence and the "absence of democracy in West Bengal", he was opposed for exposing the wrongdoings of the government. "The Governor raises such questions of the post-poll violence and the way the elections were held in Kolkata Municipal Corporation. There is no democracy in a state where the Opposition has no rights. When I go for the election campaign there, the police stops me. The orders of the Supreme Court are not complied with there. The laws passed by the Parliament are opposed. The Governor exposes the wrongdoings of the West Bengal government, that is why he is opposed," the BJP leader said. (ANI)
Lauding the Union Budget 2022-23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that it brings with it new energy and strength to India's development trajectory, especially at a time when the country is courageously fighting a "once-in-a-lifetime" global pandemic. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, "Today's #AatmanirbharBharatKaBudget brings with it new energy and strength to our development trajectory, especially at a time when we are courageously fighting a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic. This Budget brings more infra, more investment, more growth, and more jobs." The Prime Minister further said that people from all walks of life welcomed the budget today. "People from all walks of life have welcomed the #AatmanirbharBharatKaBudget. The youth of India see this Budget as one that will give wings to their ambitions," PM Modi stated. He added that the emphasis of this budget on futuristic technologies in all spheres is noteworthy and will benefit a cross-section of our citizens. The Prime Minister said that this budget caters to the development needs of people in remote areas, hill states, and those states on the banks of the Ganga and is in line with the government's focus on all-around and inclusive development. PM Modi informed that there are many provisions in this budget aimed at transforming the agriculture sector including ensuring credit, record (Minimum Support Price) MSP, boosting food processing, and encouraging start-ups in the sector. "I am confident that the hardworking small farmers will prosper thanks to these steps," the Prime Minister further said in a tweet. Informing about his virtual Atmanirbhar Arthvyawastha address to BJP workers tomorrow, PM Modi said, "I will be talking about today's people-friendly and progressive Budget at a program tomorrow, February 2 at 11 am. Do join the programme..." Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled Union Budget 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha and later in Rajya Sabha today. The Budget Session of the Parliament commenced on January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind's address. The first part of the Union Budget Session of Parliament is being held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part of the Budget Session will take place from March 14 to April 8. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday deferred the hearing of the habeas corpus plea of extradited gangster Abu Salem challenging his extradition by Indian authorities on March 14. Salem in his plea has claimed his extradition was illegal and liable to be cancelled because of a breach of terms by Indian authorities. Abu Salem stated that in view of the alleged breach of the terms of extradition by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Central Bureau of India (CBI), his further detention of him in India has become illegal. The bench of Justice Sidharth Mridul and Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani on Tuesday deferred the matter for March 14. The Court asked Advocate S Hari Haran appeared for Abu Salem to 'place on record' the relevant judgments and documents in referring to "how the habeas corpus petition is made out in this case." Earlier the bench had orally observed that once a court of law held Abu Salem guilty, he could not say that the custody was illegal. The bench further observed that even if initially his detention was bad in law, after conviction by a court of law, his custody does not remain illegal. The plea further stated that in view of the breach of solemn sovereign assurance given by the Respondents seeking the extradition of the Petitioner and which formed the basis of his extradition to India. Habeas Corpus petition of underworld don Abu Salem seeks court appropriate direction declaring his detention as illegal and be released and repatriated to Portugal. Last year, the Supreme Court had declined to entertain a petition of Abu Salem and said "We dismiss the plea under Article 32 with the liberty to approach High Court". In SC, the plea also sought a direction to transfer Salem from Taloja jail to Tihar jail so that amicus curiae can speak to him and procure some documents. Salem argued that the Indian authorities had violated the extradition treaty. Salem, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, had been extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005, after a prolonged legal battle. The gangster is serving a life sentence in jail after being convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts that had killed 257 and injured 713 people. He has also been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in the 2002 extortion case by Delhi Court. (ANI)
Kerala Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Chairman Sreenath Vishnu on Tuesday hailed Union Budget 2022 and said "it is growth-oriented." "The Union Budget 2022 is growth-oriented with the Government focusing on infrastructure creation in the economy, clean energy, providing impetus to education, healthcare and promoting Make in India in various ways with a firm eye on sustainability," Vishnu said. CII chairman complimented the government for its commitment towards formalizing the MSME sector through interlinking of the Udyam, e-Shram, NCS and Aseem Portals. A pathbreaking step for creating more employment opportunities in MSME Sector. The RAMP Programme rollout will be a booster for making MSMEs more resilient, competitive, and efficient. Additionally, to boost demand, an Increase in Financial Assistance to states for Capex to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore and direct transfer of MSP to farmers will benefit MSMEs both at peri-urban and at the rural levels, he said. The Budget 2022 has laid stress on a number of crucial areas of ease of doing business, such as reducing compliance burden, leveraging on the technology platform of Gati Shakti via a multi-modal approach, digitization of land records, setting up of an International Arbitration Centre, integration of skills and recruitment related portals for MSMEs, and strengthening the IBC, 2016, which will all prove to be very useful for further improvement in country's business environment. CII welcome announcement by Finance Minister for engaging startups from the AgriTech, FinTech, EduTech, and AVGC industries, that will help the country thrive economically, the release said. The 15 per cent LTGC surcharge cap is paving the way for startups to become a profitable asset class and stimulate domestic investment. Fintech businesses will benefit greatly from the government's proposal to build 75 digital banks in 75 regions across the country. This is unquestionably on the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' trail. As far as the FMCG sector - the overall expansionary nature of the budget will create an overall demand-pull for FMCG products. The various proposals for Agriculture and the Rural Sectors are similarly expected to expand demand from the rural sector. The emphasis on Skill development is expected to provide jobs and livelihoods to the youth, which again can create a demand pull for FMCG products. Provision of expanded fund for Capex growth and infrastructure will create more bins and hence more purchasing power. The Railway, Tourism Agro and Startup announcement from the Finance Ministry will have a positive impact on Kerala. The decision to develop the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) sector offers immense job potential. A task force will be set up to leverage its potential and enable it to service global demand. This will have a great impact on the employment opportunity in Kerala, he added. (ANI)
Hailing the Union Budget 2022-23 tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said that it reflects the future of "new India". The Chief Minister also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for making a people-centric budget despite the harsh impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. "I have seen the whole budget. And, I can assure you that this budget will act as a building block to the New India envisioned by PM Modi. How India will look after 25 years is envisaged in this Budget. In spite of no new taxes, allocations have been increased in several sectors including agriculture, infrastructure", Deb told media persons. He also lauded the Central government's initiatives on 68 percent reservation of capital procurement for domestic industries. "The decision of giving 68 percent capital procurement to the Domestic Industries is a big step. And, the PM Gati Shakti scheme will relentlessly keep a tab on the developments through a centralized monitoring system. I would say this budget is for women, youth, Divangyas, and above all overall development of the country", he added. Speaking on the projected GDP growth, he said, "the project's GDP growth has been fixed at 9.2 percent for this fiscal year which indicates despite the ravaging of the COVID pandemic, we are Atmanirbhar and heading towards a self-empowerment. This is a visionary budget that envisions the future of New India." Deb also highlighted the paperless presentation of the budget and said, this budget is also historic due to the way it has been presented. "Our NRI friends based out of various foreign countries must be proud to see India heading forward", said Deb. The Chief Minister also informed the media persons that PM Modi will chair a virtual meeting of CMs on budget allocations on Wednesday. "I will certainly raise the issues related to the proposals which have been already forwarded to the Center," he added. The first woman Finance Minister of the country presented the paperless budget in the parliament today for the financial year 2022-23. (ANI)
Hate crime charges were filed Tuesday against a man who allegedly smashed windows and spray-painted swastikas on synagogues and the property of a Jewish girls school over the weekend.

Shahid Hussain, 39, of Niles, faces four counts of a hate crime along with multiple charges of criminal damage and defacement, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference Tuesday. Hussains bond is set at $250,000, with special conditions that he is not allowed near any institutions affected, Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx said at the news conference.

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These acts of hate gripped the West Rogers Park community and shocked the city of Chicago, Brown said.

Hussain was arrested following a series of vandalism incidents around West Rogers Park discovered over the weekend.

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He was initially detained Sunday after a 911 caller reported hearing a suspicious person yelling antisemitic slurs and threats in the 6300 block of North Sacramento in West Rogers Park, Brown said. Detectives found Hussain matched the description of the person responsible for the property damage, Brown said.

Additionally, a member of a separate Jewish congregation was reportedly accosted near their synagogue along the same corridor of Devon Tuesday, police said.

A 35-year-old man was outside Congregation Bnei Ruven at 6350 N. Whipple St. Tuesday morning, when three people in a silver sedan approached, according to a police report. One person exited the car and verbally threatened the man, who Brown said was a member of the congregation.

Rabbi Baruch Hertz with Congregation B'nei Ruven speaks at a news conference held at the synagogue in Chicago on Feb. 1, 2022, regarding an incident that reportedly occurred there Tuesday morning. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

The people in the car drove into a parking lot and damaged the window of a parked vehicle, police said.

No injuries were reported and no one was in custody related to that incident, police said. Detectives are investigating, they added.

Brown declined to give more details on the case or comment on whether it might be related to the vandalism in the community, and said police were still looking to establish facts needed to bring charges.

Hussain was on parole for a burglaryin DuPage County and a forgery in Cook County, according to records from the Illinois Department of Corrections. He also pleaded guilty to an aggravated DUI in 2013, according to court records.

The case will be handled by hate crime specialists in the states attorneys office, Foxx said. The hate crime distinction means prosecutors must be able to establish motivation due to someones identity, she added, taking what might have been a misdemeanor property damage case to the level of an enhanced felony.

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Brown did not disclose suspected motives or the defendants mental state at the conference.

Light prevails over darkness, Rabbi Baruch Hertz with Congregation Bnei Ruven said at the news conference, as Foxx, Brown and additional police officers and rabbis stood behind him. I encourage everybody to take this moment to bring more good and more light into the world, Hertz added.

Ald. Debra Silverstein, 50th, said diversity brings strength to her ward.

That means an attack on any of us is an attack on all of us, Silverstein said. An attack on the Jewish community is an attack on the entire 50th Ward.

Hussain allegedly spray-painted F.R.E.E. Synagogue and a storage container on the property of Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov High School near the 2900 block of West Devon Avenue Sunday, according to police. He then allegedly yelled at a man nearby, a police report said.

F.R.E.E. synagogue was vandalized when someone spray-painted graffiti on the building, which has since been covered over by paint. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Hussain is also charged with allegedly smashing windows at a synagogue in the 3600 block of West Devon Avenue, and one in the 2800 block of West North Shore Avenue, police said. A man kicked out the side window of the Pulaski Park neighborhood synagogue Sunday, a witness reportedly told officers at the time.

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Hussain was not charged in additional cases of vandalism reported at Jewish businesses in the West Rogers Park neighborhood Saturday. Police are using video footage and looking to connect him with more cases, Brown said Tuesday.

Kol Tuv Kosher Foods and Tel Aviv Bakery, both in the 2900 block of West Devon Avenue, each had windows broken last weekend.

Because nothing was stolen from his store, the owner of Kol Tuv Kosher Foods described the damage as pure vandalism for the purpose of vandalism.

The window of the store was still boarded up Tuesday. The owner, Chayim Knobloch, said costs for repairs will come out of his pocket, and said he has refused financial assistance.

A broken door window at Tel Aviv Bakery on West Devon Avenue in Chicago on Jan. 31, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Knobloch found out about the vandalism after attending an early morning service Saturday morning, and was initially unable to use a phone to call for the boarding company because of the sabbath, he said.

While he said hes aware of the fact that anything could happen, Knobloch said he still feels safe in his neighborhood.

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Were nowhere near the point where we have to stop functioning, and move out, and run out of here, he said.

He praised the city for taking the crimes seriously, and said he wished he had government assistance in implementing more security measures such as a camera system.

It takes everybody hearing and everybody watching over us, Knobloch said.

Daniel Goldberg, a 35-year-old Rogers Park resident who said he frequents F.R.E.E. Synagogue, said he also feels safe in the neighborhood. He was surprised when he found out about the incidents over the weekend, he said.

But that doesnt mean there doesnt have to be some type of police presence or something else, Goldberg said.

A trio of Chicago and Rogers Park community members also held a news conference Tuesday about the attacks and called for harsher laws and sentences for hate crimes and antisemitic crimes.

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Chicago activist Raul Montes Jr. was joined by two members of the Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce, who asked elected officials to speak out and hold one another accountable.

Its a human right we have, to walk on the streets and feel safe, Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce President Bill Morton said.

The group said they had reached out to members of the West Rogers Park Jewish community but were not in contact with any synagogues Tuesday morning. They plan to organize a march if violence continues to surge, Montes said.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot was among those who commented Monday on the attacks.

Make no mistake: this attack, as well as the deep hatred and bigotry that drives other anti-Semitic acts like it, is an attack on our citys Jewish community and social fabric, Lightfoot said in a statement.
He termed the related initiatives of the Union Government as very timely and purposeful.

"The programme, 'One Class, One TV channel' announced in the budget, considering the impact of COVID pandemic, will certainly help to provide quality education to all the students without rural and urban disparity," the minister opined.

The proposal to set up a Digital University, DESH-E portal, online educational programmes, AVGS task force constitution, prominence to research and innovation will create a robust ecosystem across the country, he told.

The minister said the decision to make use of the blockchain technology to enable usage of Digital Rupee will contribute to enhancing the quality of living.

He has also welcomed the proposals of making states partners in new SEZs, creation of 60 Lakh jobs in 5 years, and extension of tax benefits for Startups for one more year. (ANI)
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said that Union Budget has a provision of Rs 1.37 lakh crore of the capital investment support for the Railways and it will help complete the stalled Railways projects. He also lauded the announcement about 2,000 km of the network to be brought under Kavach, the indigenous world-class technology for safety and capacity augmentation in 2022-23 as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat. "Indigenously-developed anti-collision technology Kavach is SIL4 certified which means there is the probability of a single error in 10,000 years. The Union Budget has a provision of Rs 1.37 lakh crores of the capital investment support for the Railways. It will help complete the stalled Railways projects," Vaishnaw said. "I thank PM Modi for a record allocation for railways. The new Vande Bharat and Kavach (indigenous tech for safety and capacity augmentation) announcement will change passenger experience. There are funds for redevelopment and modernization of stations," he added. The minister said, there are funds for redevelopment for the modernization of railway stations as well as the budget also considers the small farmers, small entrepreneurs who live in far-flung areas, tribal brothers and women volunteer organizations. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said in her budget speech that 400 new-generation Vande Bharat Trains with better energy efficiency and passenger riding experience will be developed and manufactured during the next three years. (ANI)
Former Enforcement Directorate joint director and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajeshwar Singh on Tuesday in an interaction with ANI said that he would improve governance and continue his work against mafias. Singh's name was announced by BJP on Monday from the Sarojini Nagar assembly constituency for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls. "We'll contribute to governance and to the probes launched by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He is doing great work against mafias. We need to support him. Also, we need to control growing communalism," said Singh. "I will take forward BJP's ideology of working for the future of country," he added. Over the questions being raised on Singh getting BJP's ticket just a day after resigning from service of Government of India, he said, "There is no question of political patronage. BJP is a big party. Here tickets are given on the basis of merit." Singh who had served in Uttar Pradesh police announced on Monday that his request for voluntary retirement (VRS) from the service of the Government of India had been approved.In his letter announcing VRS, Singh had mentioned that "during his tenure in ED he uncovered and investigated many scams of national ramification and public significance." "This includes the investigation carried out under my auspices -- 2G spectrum allocation scam, AgustaWestland helicopter deal, Aircel Maxis scam, Amrapali scam, Nokia Ponzi scam, Gomti riverfront scam -- in which many white-collar criminals were sent to jail," reads the letter. Meanwhile, Congress leader Karti Chidambaram took to Twitter to make a veiled attack without taking Singh's name. "Taking VRS from the ED to join BJP is like moving from the wholly-owned subsidiary to the parent company," Chidambaram had tweeted. (ANI)
"Anchored by a strong recovery in global exports, Honda 2-Wheelers almost doubled its exports for the month compared to January 2021 when it sold 20,467 units," reads the official statement.

While the calendar year 2022 has started on a positive note, the sales sentiment in Q4 FY22 continues to reflect the preceding challenges of the last fiscal year.

However, with visible signs of healthy recovery, HMSI is banking on speedy inoculation of vaccines. Dip in daily COVID-19 cases are being reported and easing of restrictions across states to help it gain momentum in upcoming quarters.

"This year's Union Budget also reflects a growth-oriented approach with an impetus on infrastructure and inclusive development. The focus on capital expenditure will pull the economy forward in unison and is expected to have a multiplier effect in the long term," said Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Director, Sales and Marketing, HMSI.

In January 2022, Honda's Shine brand achieved 1 crore customers in India, strengthened its premium sales network in northern India with its Honda BigWing outlet in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra.

The company also launched the 2022 CB300R model and the new 2022 CBR650R in two color schemes of grand prix red and matte gunpowder black metallic.

The figures were released on the same day Union Budget 2022-23 was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (ANI)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be the first speaker in the debate on motion of thanks to the President's address on Wednesday in Lok Sabha, said sources. According to sources, 12 hours have been allotted to opposition parties to express their reply to the Presidential address during the motion of thanks in Lok Sabha. Congress has been allotted one hour out of the total 12 hours of opposition parties. "Rahul Gandhi will open the debate from the side of opposition parties as Congress being the largest opposition party will get the first chance to speak," said sources. "He will speak on Presidential address, Budget and will raise the issue of spyware software Pegasus in his address," source added. Meanwhile, Congress party has also asked Youth Congress workers to protest outside parliament and raise the Pegasus issue. Earlier, when reporters asked Rahul Gandhi for comment on the Budget and presidential address, he said he will first speak in the house only. Soon after the budget was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in parliament on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to slam the centre over budget calling it "Zero-Sum Budget." "M0di G0vernment's Zer0 Sum Budget! Nothing for--Salaried class--Middle class--The poor and deprived--Youth--Farmers--MSMEs," tweeted Rahul Gandhi. Reply to the Motion of Thanks by Prime Minister Modi is likely to be given in Lok Sabha next Monday (Feb 7) and Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (Feb 8). President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday addressed the joint session of Parliament on the first day of the budget session. (ANI)
Indian Youth Congress has called a nationwide protest in state capitals on Wednesday over spyware software Pegasus issue, said Srinivas BV, IYC National President. "The manner in which the spying and blackmailing were done by Pegasus software on leaders of the opposition, on the judges, on the colleagues of the media and on other citizens makes it a serious subject, the evidence of which has now come to the fore," said Srinivas. "The Prime Minister of India was busy buying Pegasus and spying while the unemployed were stumbling and sticking to the race for 'jobs'. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had asked two questions to the government in July 2021, to which the Prime Minister did not answer but now reports are out from New York Times, and the answer is quite clear," he said. The national president of IYC said that Bharatiya Janata Party should change its name to Bharatiya Jasoos Party while demanding an investigation into the matter by Joint Parliamentary Committee. "The fundamental rights of the citizens of the country are being suppressed. The government has committed treason, played with national security. Country's opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, journalists of various respected media organizations and people holding constitutional posts were spied on," he added. "NSO (Company owning spyware software) had said that Pegasus is used by governments to fight extremism, whereas in reality it has been used against opponents of this government," Srinivas said. IYC workers will protest outside parliament in New Delhi at a time when Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is likely to raise the same issue inside the house through his reply during the motion of thanks to the President's address. (ANI)
Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa called on European Union (EU) Ambassador Androulla Kaminara and discussed the present situation in Afghanistan. Matters of mutual interest, regional security situation including the current Afghanistan situation and bilateral cooperation with the European Union were discussed during the meeting, as noted by Express Tribune. The military's media wing said that the visiting dignitary appreciated Pakistan's role in the Afghan situation and its efforts for regional stability and pledged to play her role for further improvements in diplomatic cooperation with Pakistan at all levels. Pakistan's Army chief meeting with Ambassador Androulla Kaminara comes at a time when Afghanistan is facing increased internal and external problems as most of the international donor agencies based in the European Union had freezed their funding for Afghanistan following the take over of the Taliban regime in August last year. Earlier this month, the Pakistan Army chief said that the international community's assistance to Afghanistan in averting humanitarian crises is imperative for regional peace and stability, according to Express Tribune. While on January 28, US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price had said that the United States is doing everything possible to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan and does not do anything to hinder the flow of such aid into the country. "We want to be very clear to the international community that not only are we not standing in the way of the provision of much needed humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, but we are doing everything we can to facilitate the flow of vital assistance and support to the Afghan people," Sputnik quoted Price as saying during a press briefing on Thursday (local time). (ANI)
These retired employees and military veterans of the former Afghan government led by Ashraf Ghani, who rely on their retirement pensions, said that they are struggling with economic difficulties, Tolo News reported.

Abdul Hameed, a military veteran, said that he provided service to the country for a long period. Hameed said that he is living a poor life amid the cold winter.

"I haven't received any pension yet. No one paid me my retirement pension. I was promoted to major, but they did not consider it in my retirement pension," Tolo News quoted Hameed as saying.

He is one of dozens of military veterans and former government employees who have not been paid their retirement salaries since the Taliban swept into power in mid-August last year.

"Every retired individual is the breadwinner of their families and is responsible for their families. We are old, we can't labor or go work as vendors," Tolo News quoted Mohammad Sabir, a retired man as saying.

They called on the Taliban to take immediate steps to pay the retired individuals.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated drastically since the Taliban took control of Kabul last year.

A combination of a suspension of foreign aid, the freezing of Afghan government assets, and international sanctions on the Taliban, have plunged the country, already suffering from high poverty levels, into a full-blown economic crisis. (ANI)
Three People's Liberation Army Air Force Shenyang J-16 fighter jets, one Shenyang J-16D electronic warfare plane, and one Shaanxi KJ-500 early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft flew into the southwest corner of the ADIZ, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND), Taiwan News reported.

In response, Taiwan sent aircraft, issued radio warnings, and deployed air defense assets to monitor the planes.

China has sent planes into Taiwan's identification zone every day this month except for on January 3, 9, 16, 21, 22, 26, and 29, Taiwan News reported.

It further reported "Since September 2020, China has increased its use of gray zone tactics by routinely sending aircraft into Taiwan's ADIZ, with most occurrences taking place in the southwest corner. In 2021, China military planes entered the ADIZ on 961 instances over 239 days," according to the MND.

Gray zone tactics are defined as "an effort or series of efforts beyond steady-state deterrence and assurance that attempts to achieve one's security objectives without resort to direct and sizable use of force," Taiwan News reported.

Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.

Taipei, on the other hand, has countered the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US, which has been repeatedly opposed by Beijing. China has threatened that "Taiwan's independence" means war. (ANI)
"We expect the People's Republic of China (PRC) to ensure the safety and well-being of our athletes," Sputnik quoted Psaki as saying. "They [athletes] have our full support, we are 100 per cent behind them," Psaki added.

Last year in December, the United States announced it would not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing Games due to alleged human rights violations by China.

Meanwhile, this move has been supported by several allies, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Athletes from these countries will still compete in the event, Sputnik reported.

Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics games from February 4-20. The Paralympics will take place from March 4-13. (ANI)
Cook County prosecutors agreed to the dismissal of 20 convictions connected to notorious ex-Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts and his crew, and indicated they would oppose efforts to throw out another 15 cases, attorneys said in court Tuesday.

At future court dates this month, prosecutors will agree that at least 30 more Watts-related convictions should be vacated, Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx told reporters Tuesday.

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More than 130 such convictions have been dismissed in recent years, according to the Cook County states attorneys office. Foxx said the effort was crucial to restoring trust so that citizens are comfortable cooperating with police and prosecutors.

This is integral to public safety, I cannot say it enough, she said. We ask every day for members of the community to step up and work with us  if they dont believe the system is fair and just and in fact that the system is designed to hurt them, they wont help us, and we need them.

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Judge Erica Reddick, acting presiding judge of the Criminal Division, formally vacated 20 convictions for 19 people at the end of a lengthy hearing Tuesday. The Watts era was clearly shown to be a blight on the criminal justice system, she said from the bench.

Prosecutors did not agree Tuesday to the request that 15 other convictions should be tossed out. Those cases may be headed for further hearings at which a judge will decide whether the convictions should stand.

Watts and his crew of tactical officers have been accused of orchestrating a lengthy reign of terror at the now-razed Ida B. Wells public housing complex on the South Side, systematically forcing residents and drug dealers alike to pay a protection tax and putting bogus cases on those who refused to do so.

When Watts was finally caught, in 2012, it was on relatively minor federal charges of shaking down a drug courier who turned out to be an FBI agent. Watts and Officer Kallatt Mohammed both pleaded guilty, and Watts received 22 months in prison. He was released in 2015.

Tuesdays hearing was the latest in a string of mass exonerations related to Watts and his crew, the first of which made headlines in 2017 as the countys first en-masse dismissal.

Prosecutors are committed to reviewing each case separately, rather than simply throwing out all cases with any connection to the crew, Foxx told reporters.

We have to talk about them on an individual basis, it depends on who was working on the cases, the time period were looking at, the sufficiency of the evidence, or other evidence, she said. It is a process that has been painfully slow but one that we believe must be done meticulously.

Attorneys for Watts accusers, however, told reporters they cannot see any differences between the cases that prosecutors have chosen to dismiss and maintain.

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Each one of these people has presented the same evidence of innocence, said Joel Flaxman, who represents several of the people whose cases were heard Tuesday. ... Were going to be back in court on each one of the cases, and I hope that well be able to convince the states attorney. Failing that, we will have hearings where we convince a judge of the innocence of all our clients.

Tuesdays hearing was the first of three scheduled court dates at which prosecutors will announce whether they will fight to keep dozens of Watts-related convictions intact. Further proceedings are scheduled for later this month.

The hearings are a response to an expansive joint effort last summer by attorneys for 88 people with Watts-related convictions, who filed petitions en masse asking that those cases be thrown out.

It was a bold move, seemingly intended to force Cook County prosecutors to announce a decision on the cases after prosecutors ongoing review of such convictions had, in the view of some Watts accusers attorneys, stalled out.

Prosecutors said in November they would not oppose the dismissal of five of those cases.

Since there were still dozens of cases from last summers petition that had not yet been resolved, Reddick agreed to split the list of cases into three parts, so as not to overburden the schedule.

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mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
"We can confirm we received a written follow-up from Russia. It would be unproductive to negotiate in public, so we'll leave it up to Russia if they want to discuss their response. We remain fully committed to dialogue to address these issues and will continue to consult closely with our Allies and partners, including Ukraine," the spokesperson said on Monday.

Russia's response to the United States proposal comes ahead of the telephone call scheduled for Tuesday between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

On Wednesday, the United States and NATO submitted to Moscow written responses to Russia's proposals on security guarantees.

Lavrov said the following day that the United States response left unanswered the main question about non-expansion of NATO eastward.

Moscow published its security suggestions for NATO and the United States in late 2021 as tensions flared around Ukraine. Moscow specifically requested guarantees that NATO would not expand eastward to include Ukraine and Georgia. The United States insists it will not allow anyone to slam NATO's open door policy shut.

The United States claims Russia wants to invade Ukraine. However, Russia has rejected the accusations, claiming it has a right to move its armed forces within its sovereign territory. (ANI/Sputnik)
Amsterdam [Netherlands], February 1 (ANI/Sputnik): Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he and Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra will visit Ukraine on February 1. "The situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border continues to be of concern. Foreign Minister Hoekstra and I are in close contact with our allies on this issue. Shortly before our visit to Ukraine tomorrow [February 1], I spoke today with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg," Rutte said in a statement. He also said he intends to have a conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron. According to the prime minister, the goal of all these talks is to find a political and diplomatic solution to the crisis around Ukraine, "while preparing for the worst scenarios." Russia has repeatedly rejected accusations by the West and Ukraine of "aggressive actions", stating that it does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone, and that claims about "Russian aggression" are used as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. Kiev and Western states have recently expressed concern about the alleged increase in "aggressive actions" by Russia near the borders of Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is moving troops within its territory and at its own discretion. According to him, this does not threaten anyone and should not worry anyone. (ANI/Sputnik)
Amid the Pakistan military's move to build fencing along the Durand Line, the Taliban on Monday formed a joint ministerial committee to address the problems. The decision for the formation of the joint committee comprised of several ministries was made in a meeting chaired by the Second Deputy of Prime Minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, reported Tolo News. "The objective of the joint committee is to resolve the problems along the Durand Line and address the security issues that may potentially occur in the future--or have already happened in the past--these issues should be solved via understanding," said Inamullah Samangani, deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate. The move comes after the visit of Pakistan's National Security Advisor (NSA) Moeed Yusuf visit to Kabul, reported Tolo News. A Pakistan delegation led by NSA Yusuf returned to Islamabad on Sunday evening after holding talks with several officials of the Islamic Emirate in a two-day visit. The Pakistan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the objective of the visit was to discuss Pakistan's proposals for deepening economic engagement, reported Tolo News. "During the visit, Pakistan offered Afghanistan capacity-building and training support in multiple sectors including Health, Education, Banking, Customs, Railways and Aviation, among others. Both sides also reiterated their commitment to early completion of the three major connectivity projects, CASA- 1000, TAPI, and Trans-Afghan Rail project," the statement read. "We should have established a committee that works on the removal of fencing. This is an issue that will not be solved via the formation of joint committee. This issue belongs to the decision of Afghans on both sides of the Durand Line," said Ahmad Khan Andar, a political analyst. Earlier, a video circulating on social media showed the forces of the Islamic Emirate engaged in a dispute with Pakistani militias over the fencing of the Durand Line. The Durand Line, the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is named after a British colonel from the 1890s. Albeit Pakistan and the international community recognize the Durand Line, Afghanistan has always denied accepting it formally. (ANI)
The United States Department of State (DOS) has issued a Level Four, do not travel, advisory for Belarus on Monday ordering family members of US diplomats to depart Belarus amid Russian military buildup along Belarus border with Ukraine. The DOS travel advisory asked the family members of US government employees to leave Belarus "due to the arbitrary enforcement of laws, the risk of detention, and unusual and concerning Russian military buildup along Belarus' border with Ukraine." In a key development, the DOS statement cites that the US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens living in Belarus. This is due to the Belarusian government's limitations on US Embassy staffing amid the ongoing armed conflict along the border, reported Sputnik. "Belarusian authorities have detained tens of thousands of individuals, including US citizens, for alleged affiliations with opposition parties and alleged participation in political demonstrations. US citizens in the vicinity of the demonstrations have been arrested.", read the DOS statement. Notably, US DOS issued a similar order for family members of government employees at the US Embassy to Ukraine in Kyiv. The Belarusian Ministry of Defence said the Russian troops will leave once the two militaries' joint exercises have been completed, reported the news agency. The first phase of the Russia and Belarus military exercise will last until February 9 and the two countries will hold the second phase of joint military drills from February 10-20, during which the military will practice strengthening sections of the state border. (ANI)
Last week, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) released numbers that highlighted the dramatic impact COVID-19 had on the tourism industry in the city-state. The STB release showed that the number of Indian tourists to Singapore dropped dramatically. While during the pre-COVID year, 2019, 1.42 million Indian tourists visited Singapore which dropped to 54,000 in 2021. Singapore had only 330,000 international visitors in 2021, the lowest on record. It is less than two per cent of the 19.1 million tourists who came to its shores in 2019. The year 2020 was a better year with 2.7 million visitors but most arrived in the first two months of the year before COVID forced Singapore to close its borders, said Lee Kah Whye, in an article. China, India, and Indonesia were the top three visitor source markets last year. Singapore saw 88,000 visitors from China, 54,000 from India, and 33,000 from Indonesia. During the last pre-COVID year, 2019, the top three sources of visitors was similar. Singapore drew 3.64 million visitors from China, 3.08 million from Indonesia, with India rounding up the top three with 1.42 million visitors, wrote author Lee Kah Whye. STB said that while the numbers in 2020 and 2021 represent only a fraction of Singapore's tourism performance prior to the pandemic, it is encouraged by the signs of recovery. The last three quarters of 2021 saw year-on-year growth of 221 per cent in tourist arrivals compared with the same period in 2020. That it managed to receive some visitors in 2021 was mainly due to Singapore's gradual reopening as a result of the VTL (vaccinated travel lane) scheme which was launched in September last year, added Lee Kah Whye. There was also a government grant to the tourism industry through Singapore Rediscover Vouchers (SRV) where each resident was given SGD 100 to spend on local attractions and experiences. STB reported that by the end of the SRV scheme on 31 December 2021, there were about 2.6 million SRV-linked transactions amounting to almost SGD 300 million, out of which SGD 180 million were vouchers redemptions and SGD 120 million paid in cash. To further boost the cruise industry, STB is planning for cruises to other Southeast Asian countries later in the year, said Lee Kah Whye. STB is building up a strong pipeline of MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) events this year. The most important of which is the Singapore Airshow in February. Other MICE events it is planning include Design Fair Asia 2022, Global Health Security Conference 2022, 60th International Young Lawyers' Congress 2022, World One Health Congress 2022, and Seafood Expo 2022. Also announced last week on Thursday (January 27) was the renewal of Singapore's contract to host the Formula One Grand Prix for another seven years from this year to 2028. The duration of the contract is the longest so far and STB explained in a statement that "This will give Singapore a longer runway to capture pent-up demand as international travel recovers. It also allows STB, Singapore GP and industry partners to develop new experiences to meet the evolving interests of locals and visitors." Singapore which hosted Formula One's first-ever night race in 2008 cancelled the races in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the organisers are working with relevant government agencies and industry stakeholders to refine and implement appropriate protocols to ensure the safety of fans and participants for this year's race. There were 268,000 spectators over the three days of the 2019 event, but it is unlikely to attract the same number of fans at this year's event even as Singapore is gradually relaxing its pandemic border restrictions, added Lee Kah Whye. Although a pre-departure rapid antigen test and an on-arrival PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test are still required currently, since January 23, visitors only need to conduct self-tests from day 2 to 7 of their arrival if they plan to leave their accommodation. There is no requirement for supervised tests. It is hoped that with the planned events and as border restrictions begin to lift, Singapore's tourism sector will soon recover. Keith Tan, Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board (STB), said: "While it will take time for tourism numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels, we are encouraged by the resilience of our tourism businesses, and their commitment to preserve good jobs, transform their businesses and invest in new products and experiences. These efforts will strengthen Singapore's appeal as we prepare to welcome more international visitors." "We must anticipate setbacks and challenges even as the tourism industry recovers slowly. But I am confident that the tourism industry has learnt from its experiences and is poised to recapture demand when it returns." (ANI)
Leaders of both countries discussed aspects of cooperation under the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement, signed by the two nations in 2020 and touched on various regional and international developments, issues of common concern, and international efforts to accelerate the pace of global recovery.

On Herzog's visit to the mosque, he was accompanied by Michal Herzog; Mohammed Al Khaja, the UAE's ambassador to Israel; Amir Hayek, Israeli Ambassador to the UAE; and several senior Israeli officials, reported Khaleej Times.

They were educated by one of the Centre's cultural tour professionals on the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque's noble message, which emphasises ideals of cohabitation, tolerance, and openness to cultures, as espoused by the late founder's rich legacy.

Dr Yousif Al Obaidli, Director-General of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre, accompanied the Israeli President and accompanying delegation on a tour of the mosque's halls and external corridors, reported Khaleej Times.

They also learned about the mosque's history, components, and aesthetic features of Islamic art and architecture and about the mesmerising fusion of architectural styles from different eras that reflect commonalities between cultures and unite the world through art.

On his second day of the visit, Herzog also launched national day at Dubai Expo 2020. Notably, this is the first-ever visit of the Israeli President to UAE. (ANI)
Bilawal expressed regret over the role of chairman of the Senate in passing the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2021 and said it was passed the bill "in connivance with the government," reported Geo News.

The Senate on Friday passed the SBP (Amendment) Bill 2021 amid an outcry from the opposition.

On January 13, the National Assembly passed the SBP autonomy bill along with the supplementary finance bill -- both these bills were a requirement by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

The approval of the State Bank amendment bill was necessary to ensure Pakistan's sixth review of the USD 6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFE) gets cleared by the IMF's Executive Board which is scheduled to meet on February 2 to decide the disbursement of the USD 1-billion tranche.

Gilani stepped down as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate after his absence led to the passage of the State Bank (Amendment) Bill, 2021, in the Upper House of the Parliament.

"I have submitted my resignation to my party; I do not want to be the Opposition leader anymore," Gilani said while addressing on the floor of the Senate. (ANI)
Russian special representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov on Tuesday said that the extended Troika Plus meeting will be held in Kabul this time by the end of February. As per TASS, Kaboluv added that the participating countries (Russia, the US, China, Pakistan) of the Troika Plus-extended on Afghanistan are now considering the date of the meeting in the Afghan capital Kabul, reported The Khaama Press. "Currently, we are coordinating the date of the next round of talks with our partners in the extended Troika, which will be held in Kabul by the end of February," he said. Kabulov said his country is focusing the attention of the extended troika on the completion of the inter-Afghan peace process and the participation of the international community in the inclusive post-war rehabilitation of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Taliban has not commented on the issue yet, reported The Khaama Press. In November 2021, Islamabad had hosted a meeting of extended Troika to discuss the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the war-torn nation. It has been nearly six months after the Taliban recaptured power in Afghanistan but they have not been recognized by any country yet. Taliban, who are desperate to seek international recognition, and have time and again been reminded that respect for women and human rights, establishing inclusive government, not allowing Afghanistan to become a safe haven of terrorism are the preconditions for the recognition set by the international community. (ANI)
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershnin, after Monday's consultations on UNSC issues between him and Reenat Sandhu, Secretary West in the Ministry of External Affairs, said 'it is premature to talk about recognizing the current government in Kabul'. Vershnin said, "Russian and Indian stances [on Afghanistan] are similar and identical in many respects. They boil down to the fact that now it is premature to talk about recognizing the current government in Kabul." "We expect the current Afghan leadership to fulfil the obligations they have assumed, especially with regard to the inclusivity of the government and with regard to other measures, including in the human rights area," he added. He also mentioned that it is clear that humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people should be provided, and it is being provided by both us and India. Vershnin said that the aid to Afghan people "should be continued, for reasons including that the 20-year presence of the Americans and their allies in Afghanistan that has caused the situation to become so deplorable these days, including from a humanitarian perspective." "India has been in the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member for the second year, and it was interesting and important for us to compare our notes following the results of their first year in the UNSC with regard to all issues on the agenda of the Security Council. The consultations were business-like, detailed and friendly.", said Vershnin. He further added that both India and Russia strengthen coordination and interaction on major international issues, including on international platforms - in New York, Geneva and Paris, within the UNESCO. During the consultations, the Russian side informed the Indian Side about their point of view about what is going on around Ukraine and on the tensions fanned by the Western nations, NATO and the United States. "We also touched upon issues of insuring strategic stability in this area, the more so as Russia has repeatedly voiced its point of view publicly, and we once again communicated it to the Indian friends," Vershnin said after the consultations. (ANI)
Hedge-fund billionaire George Soros has warned against investing in China which is witnessing a decline in the real estate boom, citing the example of Evergrande which is finding it difficult to pay its debts in the face of government policies designed to curb the boom. China is facing an economic crisis after a real estate boom ended with a bang last year, according to investor Soros, reported CNN. At a speech at Stanford University's Hoover Institution on Monday, Soros said that President Xi Jinping may not be able to restore confidence in the troubled industry, which has been hit by a series of defaults by developers and falling prices for land and apartments. Falling prices will "turn many of those who invested the bulk of their savings in real estate against Xi Jinping," Soros said, adding that the current situation "doesn't look promising." "Xi Jinping has many tools available to reestablish confidence -- the question is whether he will use them properly," said Soros. China's real estate boom was based on an "unsustainable" model that benefited local governments and encouraged people to invest the bulk of their savings in property, Soros said. Government policies designed to curb the boom made it difficult for indebted real estate behemoth Evergrande to pay its debts, he added. The developer is reeling under more than USD 300 billion of total liabilities, including about USD 19 billion in offshore bonds held by international asset managers and private banks on behalf of their clients, reported CNN. Government officials have been sent in to the company to oversee a restructuring, but there's little clarity about what comes next. Evergrande has appealed for more time, but some lenders appear unwilling to wait. Moreover, Soros, the legendary investor and chair of the Open Society Foundations said in September that asset manager BlackRock was making a "tragic mistake" by doing more business in China. He has criticized Beijing over its surveillance policies and a crackdown on private business. Analysts have been concerned that Evergrande's collapse could trigger wider risks for China's property market, hurting homeowners and the broader financial system. Real estate and related industries account for as much as 30 per cent of the country's GDP, reported CNN. China's economy expanded 8.1 per cent last year, but weakening growth in the closing months of 2021 suggests the real estate crisis, renewed COVID outbreaks and Beijing's strict approach to controlling the virus are taking a toll. The International Monetary Fund expects economic growth to slow dramatically to 4.8 per cent in 2022. (ANI)
In many ways, life is good for Amy Blobaum. She has a job she loves, is happily married to a Lutheran pastor-to-be and soon will give birth to her second child.

Yet over everything looms a shadow from her past.

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Blobaum, 38, was convicted of drug-induced homicide in 2015 after she shared heroin with her boyfriend. The man overdosed, and even though Blobaum sought help by performing CPR and calling 911, a Will County judge sent her to prison.

Last year, in an attempt to reduce overdose deaths, Illinois legislators tweaked the states good Samaritan law to protect people like Blobaum from prosecution. If the same thing happened today, she probably wouldnt be charged.

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Even so, Blobaums criminal record remains a burden. Her plan to become a social worker took a hit when a university wouldnt allow her to enroll in a masters degree program. And the boyfriends mother, who is the court-appointed guardian of Blobaums first child, has cited it as a reason to deny her custody.

Amy Blobaum in downtown Oregon, Illinois, on Jan 25, 2022. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Blobaum said she has recovered from her addiction and paid her societal debt for a crime that, in a way, no longer exists. Yet shes still being punished.

Im just feeling restricted, always scared, Blobaum said. A drug-induced homicide sounds pretty horrible if theyre not willing to listen to you.

Painkillers to heroin

Blobaum, who was prosecuted under her maiden name, Amy Shemberger, spent her early years in Cicero, where she began what she said was a long and troubled relationship with her boyfriend, Peter Kucinski. They had a son after Blobaum graduated from college, and in time shared a substance abuse problem, too.

Blobaum said hers began after she hurt herself working out and was prescribed a huge amount of opioid painkillers. She said she shared the pills with Kucinski, and when the prescriptions finally ended, the physical dependence she had developed continued.

To stave off a painful withdrawal, she said, she and Kucinksi bought black market painkillers before turning to a cheaper and more readily available alternative  heroin.

Pretty quickly I went downhill, Blobaum said. By 2014, I was not just snorting heroin, but I was an IV drug user. Everything you said you wouldnt do, you ended up doing.

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She was arrested twice within the span of a few weeks for drug possession and received probation for the second offense. Six days after that, on Aug. 10, 2014, she and a drug-using acquaintance set off to Chicago to buy heroin.

The details of who did what on that fateful trip are still in dispute, but the bottom line is that Blobaum returned and gave some of the heroin to Kucinski. Court records say they used it together in a bathroom at their Lockport home; their son, then 5, waited outside the door.

According to court records, Kucinski, who had also drank enough to register a .378 blood alcohol level, fell unconscious after snorting his share of the drugs. When he stopped breathing, Blobaum called 911 and started CPR. Paramedics took Kucinski to a hospital, but he was soon pronounced dead.

Three months later, Will County prosecutors indicted Blobaum for drug-induced homicide. The vaguely worded statute went on the books during the crack epidemic of the 1980s as a way to target major drug suppliers, but for years prosecutors rarely employed it.

That changed about a decade ago when opioid-related deaths began to skyrocket. But defendants have often been drug users like Blobaum, who arent dealers in the traditional sense.

Some states attorneys say the aggressive use of drug-induced homicide charges has been an effective deterrent, though several studies have cast doubt on that. Researchers in Rhode Island, for example, interviewed 40 inmates with opioid-use disorder and found that most didnt believe the law would make much of a difference.

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Its always going to be a supply and demand thing, one man said. I know that for a fact.

Blobaum pleaded guilty in August 2015. Kucinskis mother, Dorothy Kucinski, who became guardian of the couples child a few weeks before the fatal overdose, testified at the sentencing hearing about how her family had suffered following her sons death.

My heart hurts so much because Peter was taken from me long before I would have let him go, she said. The pain of not being able to say goodbye, give him a last kiss and hug  the pain is everlasting in my heart. Lives will never be the same without him for all of us, especially (for) Peters baby boy.

Blobaum gave a remorseful statement  This addiction ate both of us up in the end, she said  but the judge sentenced her to seven years in prison. She ended up serving just over four.

In all that time, she said, she didnt see her son once.

Post-prison barriers

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Ben Blobaum was just about to leave his job in prison ministry when, during his final visit to the Decatur Correctional Center, he met Amy.

She had gotten off heroin with the help of a 12-step program after Kucinski died, she said, and once incarcerated helped lead meetings with fellow inmates. She and Blobaum bonded over their Christian faith and dated via correspondence and phone calls as she served out her sentence.

Id be lying if I said (apprehension) wasnt somewhere in the back of my mind, Ben Blobaum said. But even long before Amy was released, those concerns were almost entirely allayed. I just really came to trust her and have found Amy to be one of the most honest people Ive ever met in my life.

Amy and Ben Blobaum in their home on Jan 25, 2022, in Oregon, Illinois. The couple are expecting their first child. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Blobaum was paroled in January 2020  she and Ben Blobaum married later that year  and quickly landed a job as a behavioral health technician at Northern Illinois Recovery Center, an addiction rehab in Crystal Lake.

But she soon learned that advancing in the recovery field would be difficult. She said she applied to an online program at Aurora University to get her masters degree in social work but was denied admission.

A university spokeswoman declined to address Blobaums case but said candidates arent admitted to the social worker program if their convictions would prevent them from getting licensed.

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Its not clear, though, that that would be Blobaums fate.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation allows aspiring social workers convicted of a forcible felony to seek a review of their application. If they can prove theyve been rehabilitated, the department might still issue a license. In 2020, a spokesman said, no one was turned down because of a criminal record.

Blobaum said her conviction has also impeded her effort to regain custody of her now 12-year-old son, whom she has seen just a handful of times since her release. Dorothy Kucinskis lawyer has argued in court that Blobaum remains incapable of raising the boy.

(Blobaums) course of recovery from her drug addiction, lies and deceit is a path that is inconsistent, counterintuitive and dangerous to the minor childs mental, moral and emotional well-being, the attorney wrote. In fact, (her) path of treatment and denial for the death of Peter Kucinski directly endangers the minor child.

Neither Dorothy Kucinksi nor her attorney could be reached for comment.

Retroactive relief?

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After lobbying from recovery advocates, Illinois lawmakers last year updated the states good Samaritan law to prevent people from being charged with drug-induced homicide if, like Bloboaum, they seek emergency medical aid for someone who has overdosed.

But the change came too late for Blobaum. Unlike the tens of thousands of Illinoisans arrested for cannabis-related crimes before the drug was legalized, theres no ready-made path for her to clear her record, said Ben Ruddell of the ACLU of Illinois.

I would hope thered be an openness for ways to reduce harm for people whove been criminalized, but there arent many tools in the legal toolbox to grant retroactive relief, he said.

He said Blobaum could seek a pardon from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, though other states wouldnt be bound to honor it. The better solution, he said, would be for Will County States Attorney James Glasgow to help her get the conviction vacated and expunged so that legally speaking, it would be as if it never happened.

Following an inquiry from the Tribune, a spokeswoman said Glasgow will review Blobaums file.

Blobaum said she might try for a pardon or expungement, though tight finances have prevented her from hiring a clemency lawyer. Ironically, while she thinks her conviction was unjust, she acknowledges that she benefited from her time in prison.

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But enough is enough, she said.

I dont know if I would be in a good place if it wasnt for that, but theyre also holding that against you, she said. At what point do you get to come out and say, I served my time and dont deserve punishment anymore?

jkeilman@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @JohnKeilman
A year after the coup by Myanmar's military on February 1, millions of people are resisting a return to repression and isolation and the movement has become stronger. Helen Regan, writing in CNN said that experts are of the view that the junta's attempts to gain full control are being frustrated by the Myanmar people as they carry out one of the biggest and most unified resistance movements the country has seen in its long history of democratic struggle against military rule. "It is a failed coup," said Yanghee Lee, co-founder of the Special Advisory Group on Myanmar and former UN special rapporteur for human rights in the country. "The coup has not succeeded in the past year. And that is why they are taking even more drastic measures to finish out the coup." Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a "silent strike" is planned across the country to mark the anniversary, with residents urged to stay indoors and businesses to close their doors. The military has warned it will arrest those who protest under laws such as sedition and terrorism, said Regan. As the junta attempts to forcibly bring the country under its control, it has inadvertently united many of Myanmar's diverse groups against it. The anti-coup resistance -- known as the Spring Revolution -- has caught the generals off guard by its strength and determination, said Regan. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people continue to support the Civil Disobedience Movement, which aims to destabilize the junta through economic disruption, mass boycotts of military-affiliated businesses, walkouts, and general strikes. Many people are donating what little money they have to resistance groups and initiatives, activists say. Residents have refused to pay their electricity bills as a way to avoid giving money to the junta, underground pirate radio stations are broadcasting anti-coup messages and others have prevented junta officials from taking up posts in local administrations -- a major mechanism through which the central government governs the population, reported CNN. They do this despite the daily risk of arrest, beatings and torture. "I have never seen this kind of unity in our history," said Khin Sandar, a Myanmar-based activist. "We believe that we will win this time. We never think we will lose ... Whether we die or whether you die, this is our slogan," she said. Ye Myo Hein, executive director of the Tagaung Institute of Political Studies and a fellow with the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the resistance movement has forced the military to change how it operates. "The military thought it could very easily crackdown on the resistance movement," Ye Myo Hein said. "In the past, their strategy and objective was how to control the country. Now they are focused on how to survive." (ANI)
Taking to Twitter the Additional Directorate General of Public Information for Indian Army said, "H.E. Dr Mohammed Bin Nasser Bin Ali Al-Zaabi, Secretary-General, Ministry of Defence, Sultanate of #Oman called on General MM Naravane #COAS and discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries."

Dr Mohammed Bin Nasser Bin Ali Al-Zaabi also called on Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Monday and discussed bilateral military engagement and training cooperation.

Earlier, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar and Mohammed Bin Nasser Bin Ali AL Zaabi attended the 11th meeting of the India-Oman Joint Military Cooperation Committee. (ANI)
The grants will foster scientific cooperation between Bhutan and the United States on topics including public health, food security, and climate change, according to a press release by the US embassy in India.

The research grants were awarded through USAID's Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) program.

The PEER program invites scientists in low- and middle-income countries to apply for funds to support research and capacity-building activities on topics with strong potential development impacts, in partnership with US-based researchers.

Through this program, implemented by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in coordination with the Bhutan Foundation, six Bhutanese scientists will conduct research on a wide range of development challenges.

The challenges that the program seeks to tackle include reducing deforestation and timber use, conserving water basins, saving freshwater biodiversity, promoting climate-smart agriculture, balancing human and primate biodiversity needs, and improving the quality of life and psychological well-being of people living with HIV/AIDS.

In its more than ten years, the PEER program has enabled more than 400 local researchers in 57 countries to find evidence-based solutions to development challenges in a variety of sectors and regions. (ANI)
The Pashtun nationalism across Durand Line is problematic for Pakistan as it focuses on loyalty to the clan rather than the country. Sergio Restelli, an Italian political advisor, author and geopolitical expert, in a blog post of The Times of Israel said that the Taliban is ethnically Pashtun, so the importance of a Pashtun homeland is probably more important than the control of ethnically diverse areas of Afghanistan. For Islamabad and Rawalpindi, this ethnicity-based Pashtun nationalism focused on loyalty to the clan is problematic because it contradicts religion-based Pakistani nationalism-an ethnic Pakistani-Punjabi narrative. More fundamentally, it also challenges the very raison d'etre for the creation of Pakistan from India in 1947. This also acts as a catalyst for other bourgeoning separatist movements, including the Baloch population, thereby directly threatening Pakistan's territorial integrity, said Restelli. Durand Line is a 2640-km long borderline that divides Pakistan and Afghanistan, but more importantly, separates the Pashtuns, drawing a line through the fabled Pashtunistan and dividing the Pashtuns into two countries. This has proved to be one of the most contentious issues between the two countries: while Pakistan is keen to assert the line's formality, successive Afghan governments (including the Taliban regime in its previous avatar in the 1990s) have refused to recognise this artificial line, reported The Times of Israel. They have perceived this line as an attempt to quell Pashtun nationalism, the most dominant tribe in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area. Driven by this logic, Pakistan has been making efforts to fence this border in recent years, with such efforts gathering pace in 2017 as part of its 'counter-terrorism' operations, said Restelli. Moreover, there is severe discomfort and contradiction in Pakistan now on dealing with Afghanistan and the Taliban, despite supporting them for decades. Also, Pakistan is wary of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), which gathered steam in 2018 and highlighted the flagrant human rights violations committed by the Pakistani Army during its counter-terrorism operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a former semi-autonomous territory, merged later with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Restelli. The Pakistani establishment was spooked by the possibility of traction PTM may give to Pashtun nationalism. Subsequently, Pakistan claimed to have completed fencing more than 90 per cent of the line. However, the Afghan Taliban has now decided to stand up to Pakistan's actions, with multiple incidents being reported of Taliban soldiers clashing with Pakistani Army soldiers engaged in fencing work. In one such incident, on December 23, 2021, the Afghan defence ministry asserted that Taliban forces deployed at the Durand Line had stopped the Pakistani soldiers from carrying out the fencing work. A viral video showed Taliban soldiers across the line in the Bajaur area seizing spools of barbed wire and one senior official asking Pakistani soldiers stationed in security posts in the distance not to try to fence the border again. Both the forces then reportedly exchanged fire. Interestingly, this incident happened the day when delegates of the organisation of Islamic Cooperation had gathered in Islamabad to discuss Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. The Durand Line issue is expected to be a constant irritant between the two countries in the coming days. The Pakistani Army may have bought over the top Taliban leadership over the issue, but the situation on the ground is telling a different story. Local tribes like Noorzais, Achakzais, and Shinwaris, which have inhabited the border region for centuries, will strongly resist any such agreement. Unlike the generals sitting in Rawalpindi and leaders enthroned in Kabul, these tribes have family, business, trade, and property linkages crisscrossing the Durand Line. So they have a strong interest in upholding those ties and, therefore, will push back against the Pakistani moves. So even as Pakistan wants to fence the border to contain Pashtun nationalist sentiments, its very actions may end up acting as a catalyst for those sentiments to revive strengthening the movement for a united Pashtun homeland, said Restelli. (ANI)
Afghan energy company Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), responsible for electricity transmission and generation in the country, owns Tajikistan more than USD 33 million for the electricity already supplied, Mahmadumar Asozoda, the first deputy director of Tajik energy holding Barki Tojik, said on Tuesday. Afghanistan imports an estimated more than 75 per cent of its electricity from neighbouring countries. After the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in mid-August, countries including Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, have expressed concerns about payments of electricity bills. Tajik energy holding and DABS signed a 20-year contract in 2008. In December last year, a supplementary contract was signed according to which Barki Tojik will provide the Afghan company with up to 400 megawatts of electricity per 24 hours from May to September 2022. Barki Tojik's press secretary Nozirjon Edgori told Russian news agency Sputnik that the agreement had a clause on timely repayment of DABS debts, which he said was being "gradually implemented." "Last year, more than 1.257 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity worth $56 million were exported to Afghanistan from Tajikistan. To date, the Breshna company's debt to Barki Tojik is more than $33 million," Asozoda told reporters. The Tajik energy holding is in constant contact with the DABS, Asozoda noted, adding that "the Afghan energy company has banking restrictions on the transfer of funds, in January we received only two million dollars as a debt repayment." He said that DABS promised to fully pay off the debt to Barki Tojik in February. Earlier in October, one of DABS chiefs requested the UN mission in Kabul to help the country pay its USD 90 million energy debts as part of humanitarian aid, however they received no response. (ANI)
The consular assistance includes immediate relief materials, phone calls with relatives and other forms of assistance, the High Commissioner of India in Colombo said.

21 Indian fishermen in two Indian trawlers were arrested off Kovilan and Point Pedro Lighthouse within the Sri Lankan side of the international waters around midnight on January 31, Sri Lankan Navy said today.

"Officials of @CGJaffna met the 21 #Indian fishermen and provided consular assistance including immediate relief materials, phone calls with relatives and other forms of assistance," India in Sri Lanka tweeted.

Necessary arrangements are being made to produce the Indian fishermen before relevant authorities, after directing them for Rapid Antigen Test for COVID-19, said the Sri Lankan Navy.

Previously on January 25, the Indian consulate in Sri Lanka had tweeted "Happy to learn that a court has ordered the release of 56 Indian fishermen."

External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar in a tweet commended the work of High Commissioner Gopal Baglay and his team in securing the release of the fishermen. (ANI)
Kiev [Ukraine], February 1 (ANI/Sputnik): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree, which provides for the army's increase by 100,000 people over the next three years, the creation of an additional 20 brigades and an increase in the term of service under the contract. "This decree provides for an increase in the financial support of all military personnel to a level of at least three minimum wages, the transition of Ukraine to the basics of a professional army, an increase in the term of service of contract soldiers. The development of a concept for the housing provision of military personnel, veterans and their families, a career development system for officers, as well as an increase in the number of armed forces of Ukraine by 100,000 people of the professional army over the next three years, the creation of an additional 20 brigades of the armed forces of Ukraine," Zelenskyy said, speaking at the opening of the seventh session of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday. He added that this decree will help strengthen the army. "This decree is not because the war is coming soon, this decree is so that soon and further there will be peace, peace in Ukraine. And I am happy to sign this decree in your presence," Zelenskyy said. (ANI/Sputnik)
"Hysteria hyped up by Washington is causing hysteria in Ukraine, almost to the point that people are packing their bags for the front. It's a fact," he added, reported CNN.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the Ukraine conflict was held on Monday with Norway chairing the Security Council.

"To our dismay, American media have lately been publishing a very large amount of unverified, distorted and deliberately deceitful information about what's happening in Ukraine and around it," Peskov said Monday, reported the news channel.

Commenting on the sanctions on Russia, Peskov said that the recent threat of sanctions from the United Kingdom is "extremely worrying."

Notably, Kyiv and Western states have recently expressed concern about the alleged increase in "aggressive actions" by Russia near the borders of Ukraine. (ANI)
The European Union, Amnesty International and UNAMA have called upon the Taliban to provide information about the case of two Ariana News reporters arrested on Monday. The Free Speech Hub, an organization supporting open media in Afghanistan, in a statement said that the two reporters--Aslam Hejab and Waris Hasrat--were arrested by the Taliban on Monday and so far the reasons for their arrest remain unknown. "The Free Speech Hub wants the Taliban to immediately release these two reporters and stop cracking down on freedom of expression," the statement cited by Tolo News reported. On Tuesday, Amnesty International said that the arrest of the two journalists was "unjustifiable" and called on the Islamic Emirate to release them. "Such escalating attacks on media freedom are a grave threat to the right to freedom of expression. The Taliban must unconditionally and immediately release them," Amnesty International said in a tweet. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also reacted to the arrest of the two reporters and called on the Islamic Emirate to make clear why it has arrested them and also make clear the whereabouts of women activists who went missing two weeks ago. "Mounting concern about the restriction on media and free expression. UN urges Taliban to make public why they detained these Ariana News reporters and to respect Afghan's rights," UNAMA tweeted. The EU ambassador to Afghanistan, Andreas von Brandt, also reacted to the arrest of the journalists. "Still hard to grasp why those you claim to work for justice and better governance don't respect journalists working to improve transparency, governance and justice in Afghanistan," he tweeted. Meanwhile, the data from 15 Afghan media outlets revealed that the number of women journalists associated with them has declined by 50 per cent and the media outlets were downsized since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last August. Pajhwok Afghan News collected the data over the past 20 days from 15 print and electronic media outlets. The data was obtained from Aryana TV, Zwandon TV, Tamadon TV, Aryana News, Aina TV, Arzo TV, Noor TV, China Centre, Rahi Farda TV, Ghazal TV, Aryana Radio, Sar Ahang, Ghazal, Daily Anis and Paik-i-Aftab News Agency. (ANI)
Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Insaf government under Imran Khan has brought the spotlight back on Islamabad's continued resistance against civilian and military leadership. Pakistani politicians are famous for their inability to take a principled stand. Most of them show no loyalty to any leader or party and are strangers to deeply held convictions. As Pakistanis know all too well, most of their elected representatives can sell their votes and change their allegiances at a moment's notice, according to Dawn. And yet, even dictators in Pakistan have found it difficult to suppress dissent. For one reason or the other, Pakistan's military rulers never seem to last more than a decade or so. Both Ayub Khan, the country's first military ruler, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto toured the country whipping up anti-government feelings. Also, General Zia faced protests from the people and journalists alike starting from the late 1970s till the 1980s. And then, there was General Musharraf. When he tried to sack the chief justice, thousands of lawyers marched through tear gas to get him reinstated. Despite having an army at his disposal and despite the authorities' record of torturing and even disappearing people, when Musharraf opened up the media, journalists used their new freedoms to satirise him, as reported by Dawn. More recently, the archetypical establishment party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, has also come to understand the value of resistance. Further, there are the Baloch. Even if many Pakistanis view their successive independence campaigns as misguided, there is no denying the determination of the Baloch to fight for their goals. Ever since 1947, there have been waves of violent insurgency in the province and there is no sign of it stopping any time soon, as noted by Dawn. There are various explanations as to why Pakistanis are so consistently rebellious. Poor governance means that they have plenty to protest about. Poverty means some have little to lose. State weakness means that people can hope to avoid detection. A lack of commitment to the rule of law can mean protesters enjoy impunity, as reported by Dawn. (ANI)
One may appear along the lakefront, perched on a dock or tucked away inside a city park, camouflaged in snow, waiting in silence, hungry for another meal. And all the while blissfully unaware of the large, binocular-equipped mammals lurking in the distance.

Its snowy owl season.

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And although it doesnt appear to be a boom winter for sightings, some owls are spending time in the city, bringing a bit of awe to the dreariest time of year.

Connor Sullivan, of Humboldt Park, traveled to a snowy Northerly Island last month. Sullivan, newer to birding, wasnt expecting much. But against a backdrop of the city in his binoculars sat a snowy owl  the first he had ever seen.

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It was just kind of breathtaking, Sullivan said.

Sullivan, struck by the sheer size of the bird, said there was surprise in the spotting, as well as it happening in a park that used to be an airport. He has a sabbatical coming up and plans to return to Northerly Island regularly  with a zoom lens.

I think a lot of folks feel really disconnected from nature, including myself, living in the city, Sullivan said. Until you have an encounter with, perhaps, a snowy owl, and realize you actually are much closer to nature than you think.

The birds  the males white, the females and young barred with brown, all looking out on the world with electric eyes  breed on stretches of open tundra in the Arctic. They can grow to be more than 2 feet with a wingspan double that, and weigh as much as a light bowling ball.

Their skill set includes ambushing prey with the help of sound-dampening feathers, and, when not swallowing prey whole, ripping apart their meals  mammals, birds, fish  with talons and beak.

After breeding at their summer grounds, some owls winter south, popping up along lakefronts, in prairies and, unwisely, airports.

Its a decent year for snowy owls in Illinois, said Matthew Cvetas, an eBird reviewer for years and former Illinois Ornithological Society president. Hundreds of sightings have been recorded across the state but in total are still about half of the 2017-18 season, when sightings exploded. In the prior invasion in 2013-14, Cvetas saw eight snowy owls at 31st Street Beach alone.

Irruption years, in which many of the birds are spotted south, are believed to be linked to arctic food sources, researchers say. When theres a lot of food, specifically lemmings  a hamsterlike rodent that the owls feast on and male owls may even present to a female in courtship  there tends to be more fledged owls. Those owls are then able to widely disperse, at times as far south as Texas.

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In central Illinois, they may appear in agricultural fields; the Bloomington area tends to be promising for sightings, Cvetas said. In Chicago, a handful of birds seem to be focused along the lakefront.

Postings on eBird include recent sightings at Northerly Island and 31st Street Beach. One owl perched on the Grant Monument in Lincoln Park. One birder even spotted an owl while in traffic near Navy Pier.

This is an animal that survives in really harsh circumstances  cold, barren areas, Cvetas said. And the fact that they come so far is really incredible.

The Northeast has seen more snowy owl action this season, said Scott Weidensaul, co-founder of Project SNOWstorm, which tracks snowy owls, gathering data on the nomadic birds.

My standard joke is that my friends are cooler than your friends, because I get text messages from snowy owls, Weidensaul said.

Close to 100 owls have been tagged with transmitters for tracking as part of the project. Some owls have appeared in the Midwest, including one named Fond du Lac who has traveled through Wisconsin and Michigan this season, but none of the tagged owls have been hanging around Chicago.

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Through tracking data, available on the Project SNOWstorm site, researchers have learned that owls can be highly nomadic, Weidensaul said, especially in the breeding season.

Snowy owls that are breeding in eastern Canada this year might be breeding in Greenland next year, he said.

In winter, some adult owls return to the same place. Others, not so much. Three young male snowy owls were tagged along the New Jersey coast, Weidensaul said. Two hunkered down. The other flew up and down the Atlantic all winter.

Hundreds and hundreds of miles. Why? I couldnt begin to tell you, Weidensaul said. That bird had itchy feet, I guess.

Its estimated that fewer than 30,000 snowy owls make up the global population, and its considered a vulnerable species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Natures Red List of Threatened Species.

Weidensaul said hes long argued snowy owls are among the species at most direct and immediate risk from climate change, alongside creatures such as polar bears.

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The birds face more immediate threats as well, including collisions with electrical lines and exposure to poison from eating rats. Along with tracking, researchers turn to owl corpses for clues to what killed them.

We have found by far the biggest risk to these animals when they come south is trauma, Weidensaul said. They get hit by planes, they get hit by cars, they get hit by trucks.

As far as spotting one in Chicago, the effort may require some luck. Weidensaul said the owls may stick around anywhere from all winter to 15 minutes from now.

Thats all the more reason not to scare them off; birders say poor behavior in the presence of owls is a growing problem. Tracking data shows that owls inaccessible to people largely stay put during the day, Weidensaul said.

If the owl is paying attention to you, youre probably too close, he said. Particularly if its moving around and shifting its wings and showing any signs of agitation, back off.

For a promised encounter with a snowy owl, one can head to Lincoln Park Zoo, where Stanley, an adult male who has helped hatch his share of chicks, may soon have a female companion.

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As for why snowy owls tend to gather crowds more than, say, a sparrow, some credit their presence  gumball eyes and curious heads  or their personalities. A snowy owl in Washington, D.C., fond of perching around Capitol Hill recently found celebrity. Weidensaul said he suspects our fascination may be for more selfish reasons.

They remind us of us, he said. Which may be why we assume owls to be wise, even if they, on the avian scale of intelligence, probably are not up there with parrots and crows and ravens.

Writing about a photo of a snowy owl years ago, former Tribune columnist Mary Schmich said the bird seemed to stir a similar sentiment in everyone who sees it.

It lifts a viewer out of the daily agitation, offers a small dose of peace, she wrote.

And, many say, the Harry Potter connection didnt hurt, with the young wizards snowy owl sidekick Hedwig depicted as smart, resourceful, trusted  a good friend.

Still, nothing beats the live thing  when, as Weidensaul said, Theres a little piece of the Arctic in your backyard.

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mgreene@chicagotribune.com
China poses the greatest threat to the United States in the field of economic security and innovation, stealing terabytes of data from hundreds of US companies, FBI Director Christopher Wray has said. "When we tally up what we see in our investigations, over 2,000 of which are focused on the Chinese government trying to steal our information or technology, there's just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, innovation, and economic security than China," Wray said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Monday. Wray said that the Chinese government steals "staggering volumes of information and causes deep, job-destroying damage across a wide range of industries," adding that the bureau is "constantly opening new cases to counter their intelligence operations about every 12 hours." According to FBI Director, stealing innovation isn't the only way the Chinese government shows their disregard for the international rule of law. "The Chinese government is increasingly targeting people inside the U.S. for personal and political retribution--undercutting the freedoms that our Constitution and laws promise. The kinds of people the Chinese Communist Party tends to go after are not those that a responsible government would make their enemies, refugees, dissidents, and Uyghurs, people with their own ideas, who speak or worship as their conscience dictates," he said. Citing the example of "Fox Hunt," Wray said this program that President Xi Jinping claimed in 2014 was created to stamp out corruption, but in reality, it targets, captures, and repatriates former Chinese citizens living overseas whom it sees as a political or financial threat. "Over the past eight years, the Chinese government has hauled home more than 9,000 people worldwide, bringing them back to China, where they can be imprisoned or controlled," he said. Currently, there are hundreds of people on U.S. soil who are on the Chinese government's official Fox Hunt list and many more not on the official list, according to FBI Director. "Most of the targets are green card holders, naturalized citizens, folks with important rights and protections under U.S. law." Wray also stressed that his speech concerned the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party posing the threat the FBI is addressing, and not the Chinese people. (ANI)
An arrest warrant was issued for 17 suspects that allegedly linked to the Gulen movement, which the Turkish government accused of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and attempting a coup on July 15, 2016, the governor's office of northwestern Balikesir province said.

At least 10 of the suspects were detained under an investigation into the group's "military establishment."

The suspects included three on-duty non-commissioned officers, one retired naval colonel, one retired non-commissioned officer, two resigned non-commissioned officers, two former cadets, two lawyers, one dismissed electrical engineer, and five private-sector employees.

The evidence included confessions, along with the payphone conversations of the suspects with the Gulen movement members.

The simultaneous operations by the police continue in seven cities to detain the remaining suspects.

The Gulen movement, which mainly runs schools around the world, is a community of people named after Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen. He is regarded by followers as a spiritual leader.

Ankara accuses US-based Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the attempted coup, in which at least 250 people were killed.

Turkey requests the extradition of Gulen, but the US is reluctant to extradite the self-exiled Islamic cleric, saying that Ankara has not presented sufficient evidence against him.

The Turkish government has launched a massive crackdown on suspects with links to the network after the coup attempt. (ANI/Xinhua)
China once considered a favourite investment destination for countries in the West, has now turned into a dangerous rival, according to a report in the National Interest magazine. Since 2016, Apple alone is reported to have invested USD 275 billion in China. All the world's iPhones are Chinese-made. In addition to 10,000 direct employees, Apple's extended supply chain for the manufacture of products engages more than 1 million Chinese workers. The rug has been pulled out from under the feet of Apple and all those Western investors that have built Chinese operations over decades writes Joseph Votel and Robert Saiding III for the National Interest. Further, the private sector has learned that the long-term consequence of doing business with China produces not only profit, but intellectual property theft and rapidly increasing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control over their businesses. It is estimated that the US alone loses from USD 225 billion to USD 600 billion annually to Chinese intellectual property (IP) theft. Investors in China are also in the middle of the growing sanctions crossfire between China and the West. American businesses must comply with US human rights policy under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, writes Joseph Votel and Robert Saiding III for the National Interest. However, China's Communist Party (CCP) inspired consumer boycotts, or even IP theft, but control over data happens to be main challenge for the West. Former Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger and David Feith have noted that data is "the oil of the 20th century...the indispensable resource that will fuel artificial intelligence algorithms, economic strength and national power." Through a series of laws, the CCP has asserted legal control over all data in China. Apple and other foreign firms must keep China-sourced data in centres located inside the country with transfer out forbidden. Worst of all, the Chinese government has reserved the legal right to force transfer of such data to state-controlled entities, according to National Interest. The long-term strategic implications are enormous. Data created and aggregated by Western investors in China can fall at any time under CCP ideological control. Data is essential for artificial intelligence to create new cutting-edge technologies. Unlike natural resources and population inside the borders of a nation-state, data is not readily protected by a conventional military. Data is inherently borderless and invisible, stored in Clouds and devices that can potentially be accessed and manipulated from any point in the world. Access to data is essential for democracies and markets to flourish through the free exchange of information. Chinese control of big data enables ideological dominance not only over technological innovation but ultimately over what people can read, think, and believe, writes Joseph Votel and Robert Saiding III for the National Interest. The challenge for the preservation of democratic values and freedoms is profound. The CCP could use an array of demagogic Lil Miquela's to influence and manipulate public opinion on the internet, undermining democratic values and legitimacy. The ultimate test for the West will turn out to be information war--not conventional or even cyberwar. That kind of contest cannot be fought with fighter aircraft, combat ships, and infantry. Democracy could be compromised without a shot fired, as analyzed by National Interest. (ANI)
Manila [Philippines], February 1 (ANI/Sputnik): A militant and a soldier were killed when armed clashes broke out in the province of Sulu, south of the Philippines, between the military and terrorists from the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), state media reported on Tuesday. According to the Philippine News Agency, the clashes took place in Barangay Tugas, Patikul, while soldiers were heading to the port of Jolo, where they were attacked by ASG terrorists. "We will remain relentless in our operations to finish off the ASG, and we will do our very best to bring peace in the region," Maj. Gen. William Gonzales, the Army's 11th Infantry Division commander said as quoted by the media. Abu Sayyaf militant group, which is associated with the Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, banned in Russia), was founded in the early 1990s. In February 2004, the group committed the largest terrorist act in the history of the Philippines, carrying out an explosion on a passenger ferry MV Superferry 14, killing 116 people. (ANI/Sputnik)
Singapore on Tuesday said it remains deeply concerned about the situation in Myanmar and disappointed by the lack of progress in the implementation of the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus. This comes as Myanmar reached the first anniversary of the military coup that saw the arrest of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her civilian government dissolved. "We urge the Myanmar military authorities to swiftly and fully implement the Five-Point Consensus, including by facilitating the Special Envoy's visit to Myanmar to meet with all the parties concerned," Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a statement. "Singapore also calls for the release of all political detainees including U Win Myint, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and foreign detainees and for the Myanmar military authorities to avoid actions that would be inimical to eventual national reconciliation in Myanmar. Singapore remains committed to supporting ASEAN's efforts in alleviating the humanitarian situation in Myanmar," it added. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday had said that he stands in "solidarity with the people", and for a return to an inclusive, democratic society. Guterres described the multiple crises which have resulted due to an intensification of violence, human rights violations, rising poverty and indifference to worsening humanitarian conditions by the military regime. The Burmese military overthrew the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint on February 1 last year, announcing a state of emergency, and imprisoning democratic leaders, while brutally suppressing street protests against the coup and imposition of martial law. Last Friday, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet reminded that around 12,000 remain arbitrarily detained for voicing their opposition, of which nearly 9,000 remain in custody, and at least 290 have died in detention, many likely tortured. Armed clashes have grown in frequency and intensity throughout the country, while persecution against ethnic and religious minorities has grown, including against the Rohingya. Bachelet said it was time for an "urgent, renewed effort" to restore human rights and democracy, and ensure that perpetrators of "systemic human rights violations and abuses are held to account." (ANI)
Pakistan's recently released National Security Policy has failed in its mandate to acknowledge the impact of climate change and Islamabad's ability to tackle non-traditional security threats. The NSP does not see the need to strengthen the country's institutional capacities to address the climate crisis which is both complex and multifaceted, notes News International. The NSP takes cognizance of Pakistan's acute vulnerability to the negative effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events which have increased manifold and threaten our water resources thanks to the accelerated melting of the Himalayan glaciers and climate-sensitive monsoon winds, but fails in its efforts to address it. Pakistan's Climate Change Policy, developed in 2012, has remained largely unimplemented as it was not reflected in any subsequent annual development plan. The fate of its updated version is unlikely to be any different. In defiance of repeated calls by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat and availability of funds and technical assistance, Pakistan has failed to develop its climate change mitigation and adaptation plans and strategies comprising fundable projects as reported by News International. Most regrettably, the NSP fails to mention the landmark Climate Change Act enacted in 2017 providing for an elaborate institutional structure for climate action comprising a National Climate Change Council for making policies; a Climate Change Authority for developing and implementing projects; and a Climate Change Fund to mobilise and expend funds for climate initiatives. The NSP has also failed to acknowledge the National Water Policy adopted in April 2018 with the approval of all the provinces. The non-implementation of the NWP has perpetuated inaction on urgently needed reforms for the sustainable management of our precious but fast diminishing water assets, according to News International. (ANI)
Quoting party Chairman Abdul Rauf Tatla, The News International reported that if farmers grievances are not addressed, the sowing of all kinds of crops will be stopped and a strike will be observed across Punjab alongside a sit-in in front of the Punjab Assembly.

He said that due to poor agricultural policies of current and former rulers and economic crisis, farmers were suffering from severe distress and misery.

Earlier, farmers decided to protest against the government in Multan city of Punjab province on February 14 over its recent move of revoking GST exemption from agriculture.

Speaking from Lahore, Khalid Mehmood Khokhar, president of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad on Saturday said that after so many useless meetings with the representatives of federal and provincial governments, PKI is forced to stage a protest on February 14 in Multan, followed by all districts and provincial and federal capitals, The News Internationa reported.

The PKI president also said that animals, poultry, fish and farmers' kids would be attending the protest along with farmers next month.

The recent move of the government revoking GST exemption from agriculture inputs like maize hybrid imported seed, rice hybrid seed, vegetable seed, fodder seed, all local seeds, fish meal, animal feed, soyabean, raw cotton, benola, cotton seed oil, oil cakes, agriculture machinery, fodder, fish meal, animal feed and poultry feed machinery will not only trouble farmers but also animals. (ANI)
Unknown assailants attacked two Christian priests in Pakistan's Peshawar this Sunday. They launched indiscriminate firing on the car carrying the two while they were returning from Church. Cleric William Siraj succumbed to bullet injuries and another one is being treated in a hospital. No one has claimed responsibility for the shooting. Minority institutions and experts have condemned the attack. The UK based Anila Gulzar, the spokesperson of Justice for Minority said, "When will these atrocities on minorities end? And there is no solution in sight. I believe these assailants were from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, who shot the priests indiscriminately. What is their mistake? I condemn this. Everybody knows that over a thousand girls from Hindu, Sikh and Christian communities are forcefully converted to Islam every year. They are even murdered. This is something really horrific that minorities of the country are facing today." The region has seen a surge of militant attacks in recent days. Most of them have been claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) "Minorities have no place in Pakistan. Anybody comes and treats them the way they want. They are implicated under false charges. They are even framed under blasphemy laws. There is not even a single law in Pakistan that protects the minorities in Pakistan," Gulzar added. TTP associates itself with the Afghan Taliban. Experts blame the government for remaining silent on attacks on minorities. Christians have historically been mistreated, marginalised, and attacked in Pakistan. In 2013, at least 78 people were killed in a suicide attack outside an Anglican church in Peshawar after Sunday Mass. (ANI)
China increases its coercive diplomacy as it tests the patience of the contestant participants in the South China Sea, according to a think tank. Military exercises and increased coast guard patrols in the disputed waters have brought China's ties with its neighbours to near-boiling. The Chinese Coast Guard authority was given teeth in January 2021 to enforce maritime claims, by force, if necessary. China's neighbours are naturally wary of Bamboo Capitalist's hegemony, as noted by International Forum for Rights and Security Further, more than 220 Chinese maritime militia vessels gathered in March last year at Whitsun Reef in the disputed Union Banks. Philippines and Vietnam cornered China. Photos and videos of Chinese brazenness became front-page news forcing Beijing to duck for cover from diplomatic bouncers. Quickly, China dispersed the fleet to nearby reefs only to bring them back in strength in an act of fresh assertive claims. Again, in November last year, China turned high-pressure water cannons on a civilian ship resupplying a Philippine troop on Second Thomas Shoal. Manila is said to be working on a plan to deploy Coast Guard vessels to Thitu Island in the Spratlys. It has already stepped-up patrols in the South China Sea. On the other hand, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been known for maintaining cordial ties with China, he did not mince words in ticking off China for harassing the resupply missions. Meanwhile, Indonesia's troubles with China over hydro-carbons began in July last year. As a licensed rig began drilling two appraisal wells in Tuna block at Indonesia's southern edge of the South China Sea, Chinese Coast Guard vessels approached its menacingly. And began patrolling around the rig. It went on for the next four months, as noted by International Forum for Rights and Security. Further, China also conducted a seabed survey of Indonesia's continental shelf. But as the Year 2021 drew to a close, the tide turned in favour of Indonesia. Its Maritime Security Agency completed the Tuna block drilling and declared 'victory' over China. Meanwhile, Malaysia may not see any respite from Chinese coercion, and harassment. The dragon's shadow will loom large because of its offshore operations. Only a common strategy for a more robust stance on China will help these nations to stop the Beijing bully in its tracks. Indonesia has just taken the initiative to bring together Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. It is too early to crystal gaze the outcome of the effort. One thing is clear though. The South-East Asian nations are not going to remain passive spectators and let China achieve its hegemonistic designs. Further, they are working on strengthening their defences. Some of them may even align with the US as a hedging op against the Chinese power display, as noted by International Forum for Rights and Security. (ANI)
The EU delegation to the UN in Geneva on Tuesday issued a joint statement on the first anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar, expressing concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country and calling for the cessation of violence. The military came to power in Myanmar on February 1 last year. The military coup triggered a wave of civil protests that shook the country from February-May 2021, resulting in more than 1,300 people killed in clashes with law enforcement officers The latest statement was also issued on the behalf of the foreign ministers of Albania, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK and the US. "We once again call for the immediate cessation of violence and for constructive dialogue among all parties to resolve the crisis peacefully. We reiterate our call on the military regime to immediately end the State of Emergency, allow unhindered humanitarian access, release all arbitrarily detained persons, including foreigners, and swiftly return the country to the democratic process," the joint statement said. It added that the parties are seriously concerned about the more than 400,000 people that have been displaced since the coup, the "deepening humanitarian crisis across the country" and urged the military regime to "provide rapid, full, and unhindered humanitarian access to vulnerable populations, including for the purposes of vaccination against COVID-19." They also urged the international community to cease "the sale and transfer of arms, materiel, dual-use equipment, and technical assistance" to the military in Myanmar. (ANI)
Editors note: For the latest snowstorm news, read the Tribunes updated coverage.

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Not since the Crosstown Classic of (much) warmer days has there been more at stake between the division of Chicagos North and South sides. But it isnt a Cubs-White Sox thing this time: Forecasters suggest as much as 10 inches more snow could fall in the southern half of Cook County than in the northern half.

A line will be drawn somewhere, according to meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, and wherever it eventually falls during the first round of a winter storm beginning Tuesday evening, residents can expect a dramatic difference in snowfall from one side to the other.

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Itll be an incredibly sharp cutoff. There could literally be a 10-inch difference from northern to southern Cook County, or more. Theres going to be a sharp line between the haves and have-nots, but its still tough to say exactly where the line will be, said Gino Izzi, a meteorologist with the weather service. Somewhere over a relatively short distance, were looking at an 8- to 10-inch difference in snowfall.

The first round of what could be a two-round storm is expected to drop as much as a foot of snow in some areas, leading to dangerous road conditions, particularly during the Wednesday morning commute. Much of northern and central Illinois is under a winter storm warning as forecasters track a major system moving east across the country, Izzi said.

Here is a look at the timing of the highest snow rates, which could exceed an inch per hour at times, tonight into Wednesday. Note the snow chances will continue for some areas into Thursday. #ilwx #inwx pic.twitter.com/AWbyLxjm28  NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) February 1, 2022

Chicago Public Schools tweeted at 5 a.m. Wednesday that all buildings are open for in-person classes, adding a decision about Thursday is pending.

Other Chicago-area schools and districts, particularly in the west and south suburbs, had already announced a weather-related switch to e-learning Wednesday. Those include Riverside District 96, Riverside Brookfield High School, Kirby District 140 based in Tinley Park, Orland District 135 in Orland Park and Alsip-Hazelgreen-Oak Lawn District 126.

The brunt of the storm is predicted to hit farther south. Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday issued a disaster proclamation ahead of the storm, activating 130 members of the National Guard to assist with emergency operations in central Illinois. Its the first time since a blizzard 11 years ago that the National Guard was tasked with assisting during a winter storm.

On Jan. 31, 2011, Chicago saw a rare meteorological mix of constant snowfall, freezing high winds and highly charged lightning, bringing on Snowmageddon, a storm that turned parts of Lake Shore Drive into an arctic parking lot. The storm left about 84,000 city residents without power and led to a two-day closure of all Chicago Public Schools, both airports, and nearly all ground and rail traffic.

The Guard soldiers and airmen will be assigned to 18-member winter weather platoons and equipped with tactical vehicles to assist Illinois State Police in rescuing stranded drivers.

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Maj. Gen. Richard Neely, commander of the Illinois National Guard, said since 2011 theres been GPS technology that allows the Guard to keep better track of its units.

Weve learned some lessons back then about what type of equipment, what type of ... Humvees that may not have done as well on the ice because of the weight, weve learned that, Neely told the Tribune after a news conference.

Maj. Gen. Richard Neely, commander of the Illinois National Guard, talks to reporters at the Illinois Emergency Management Agency office after Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation and activated 130 members of the National Guard to assist with emergency operations in central Illinois ahead of a winter storm Feb. 1, 2022, in Springfield. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

The Illinois Department of Transportation also is deploying more than 1,800 trucks and snowplows to clear roads across the state.

By Tuesday afternoon, flight cancellations for the coming days were rolling in at OHare and Midway airports. As of 5 p.m., 247 flights had been canceled for Wednesday at OHare International Airport and 68 flights had been canceled at Midway, according to the tracking website FlightAware. Southwest Airlines, which made up the vast majority of the Midway cancellations, said they were due to the impending winter storm.

Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Board, encouraged people to stay inside as much as possible and suggested those who are able to work remotely from home do so during the storm.

Given the predicted severity of the storm thats coming, we wanted to assure residents that well do all we can to try to ensure your safety, Preckwinkle said in a news conference Tuesday. We also wanted to arm you with information that youll be able to keep yourselves and your family safe.

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Several cities across Cook County will be opening warming centers as temperatures are expected to drop to single digits in the coming days, she said.

Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation workers fill trucks with salt on Feb. 1, 2022, inside the city's largest salt dome on Grand Avenue in West Town in preparation for the coming snowstorm. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Pritzker was set to deliver his budget address Wednesday to lawmakers at the state Capitol, but the House and Senate canceled scheduled session days due to the looming storm. Instead, Pritzker will give his noon speech in front of a smaller audience at the Old State Capitol.

The northern suburbs may not see a single snowflake during what initially had been expected to be a two-round storm. But as of Tuesday morning, the second portion of the storm was beginning to look more like a no event than a snow event, Izzi said  particularly for communities north of Chicago.

By snowfall rate  often a better indicator of a storms severity  the storm could drop as much as an inch of snow an hour in the area after some afternoon rainfall transitions to snow flurries Tuesday night, forecasters said.

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Snowfall is expected to continue through most of Wednesday, according to meteorologists. As much as 8 inches to a foot of snow could fall in the Chicago area and points south.

Widespread snow totals of 8 to 12 will make travel difficult, if not dangerous, the weather service said in a social media post. Prepare for a difficult Wednesday (morning) commute.

If youre in the area thats going to be harder hit, especially the southern suburbs, if you dont have to travel late (Tuesday) and into (Wednesday) youre better off staying off the roads and giving road crews time to plow and salt. You can also keep your fuel tank at least three-quarter filled or full and practice safe winter driving  no sudden lane changes or following too closely, Izzi said, adding both the morning and possibly the evening commute Wednesday will be heavily impacted by the snow, particularly the farther south you are.

The storm is expected to begin to taper off by early Thursday, forecasters said. Izzi said areas such as Kankakee and Joliet could bear the brunt of the second round.

The second round is kind of going to stay south and east of Chicago proper, Izzi said.

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Get all the latest weather news on the Tribunes weather page and check back for updates.

How to stay safe

 Wear multiple layers including a hat and gloves or mittens.

 Know the signs of hypothermia. Seek emergency help if someone is experiencing intense shivering, slurred speech and drowsiness as well as loss of coordination. Hypothermia is when the body loses heat faster than it can be produced.

 Keep heat at adequate levels or leave faucets open with a slight drip to prevent pipes from freezing.

 If you have to drive, keep a first-aid kit in your car.

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 Find a map and list of warming centers here. The list will be updated daily.

 Sign up for Alert Cook to receive text notifications and updates by texting alertcook to 888777.

Chicago Tribunes Stephanie Casanova contributed.

kdouglas@chicagotribune.com

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com

tswartz@tribpub.com

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jgorner@chicagotribune.com
The security personnel includes Army, Rangers, Special Protection Unit (SPU), Special Branch representatives, police and departmental security, the News International reported, adding that the personnel are for the protection of 3,355 Chinese nationals working on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects and non-CPEC projects.

Citing sources, the Pakistani publication reported that in CPEC projects, 665 Chinese nationals are working at hydropower project, Karot, Rawalpindi, 303 Chinese nationals working at Sahiwal Coal-fired Power project, 12 Chinese working at Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park, Bahawalpur, 59 Chinese at Karachi-Lahore Motorway Project and 50 Chinese are working at 660 KV Matiari-Lahore Transmission Line.

In the recent meeting with China's envoy Nong Rong and Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Bajwa, Pakistan reiterated its strong commitment to providing full security to the Chinese workers and ensuring that there will be a "safe and secure environment" for employees of all CPEC projects. (ANI)
China's drive to take actions against those accused of corruption even within the Communist Party continues as e former Communist Party chief of Chinese e-commerce hub Hangzhou, Zhou Jiangyong has been expelled from the party and accused of supporting "disorderly expansion" of private companies., as reported by the Star Online. A party corruption probe into Zhou Jiangyong, announced in August last year, has been concluded and he will be handed over to prosecutors, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) The disciplinary watchdog also accused Zhou of engaging in "family-style corruption" by helping people to secure government contracts and tax rebates in return for "huge amounts" in bribes to him and his relatives, as noted by the Start Online. Zhou also in 2017 helped his younger brother's digital company U-City United to win subway mobile payment system contracts in Ningbo and Wenzhou, it alleged. After Zhou became Hangzhou's party chief in 2019, some private investors bought a portion of his brother's company at "an obviously unreasonably high price" with the aim of courting the elder Zhou, according to the programme. . Zhou's downfall had influenced the promotions of party officials in Zhejiang - of which Hangzhou is the provincial capital - in the latest reshuffle, according to a political scientist based in Nanjing University. Earlier, in a documentary made by state broadcaster China Central Television, the elder Zhou was accused of using his power to provide funds, land and equipment for his brother's petrochemical company, and to help his brother escape criminal punishment for polluting the environment. Further, Zhou also in 2017 helped his younger brother's digital company U-City United to win subway mobile payment system contracts in Ningbo and Wenzhou, it alleged. Also, Zhou became Hangzhou's party chief in 2019, some private investors bought a portion of his brother's company at "an obviously unreasonably high price" with the aim of courting the elder Zhou, according to the programme, as noted the Star Online. (ANI)
A top Baloch leader has warned the provincial government in Balochistan that if the deal the government signed with the leaders of the 'Gwadar movement' for ending the protest is not implemented, they would organise a long march against it in Quetta. Speaking at a presser on Monday, Baloch leader Maulana Hidayatur Rehman said besides many other demands, the recovery of missing persons was also included in the accord, the Dawn newspaper reported. Analysts say that the recently-held Gwadar protests were an indication of resentment of local people against harsh Chinese policies in the region. Canada-based think tank International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) is of the view that similar agitations could break out in places like Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Myanmar. The protest started by Pakistan's Gwadar residents came to a halt on December 16, 2021, after the government agreed to the demands of the people protesting the illegal fishing of trawlers in Gwadar. The major demand was to ban the illegal fishing of trawlers at the Makran Coast and to protect the rights of fishermen of Gwadar and other areas of Balochistan, according to IFFRAS. Pakistan's Gwadar residents staged a protest demanding action against the trawler mafia by Pakistan and provincial governments. Led by Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman, Balochistan general secretary of Jamaat-i-Islami, the people of the port city launched the 'Gwadar ko haq do' movement in November last year. The protests were also against the mega-development plans of the port city as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. China's port project started in 2016 in Gwadar and since then it has gained international attention. "When international media rightly highlighted these issues as stemming both, directly and indirectly, due to unregulated Chinese investment and interference in Pakistan's economy, Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement castigating these media reports as fake news," the think tank said. "However, there is a view that the Gwadar protests could be an indication of local resentment against Chinese predatory policies in South Asia and that the day was not far off when similar agitations could take place in places like Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Myanmar, once people realize how Chinese investments were ruining their livelihoods," it added. (ANI)
China's pledge to acquire critical technology by 2025 has been under scanner despite claims by President Xi Jinping as Huawei, the country's giant telecom company which was projected to be a world leader in 5G technology has to see a decline in buyers within China and facing rejections even in Africa and Latin America, as noted by Hong Kong Post. In September 2021, speaking at a programme in Beijing, President Xi Jinping had said China would "exhaust all means" to recruit intelligent and innovative professionals from around the world to make the country self-sufficient in technology. He pledged to achieve self-sufficiency in critical technology by 2025. Today, this plan appears to be in tatters. Huawei, China's giant telecom company which was showcased as Beijing's prowess to unleash a revolution in the world with its 5G-technology, is currently lurching towards its slow and undignified death. The denial of critical technology by the US and its European allies to Huawei has made it vulnerable for rejections even in Africa and Latin America. Rather the ground reality is that the Chinese tech titan which was projected to be a world leader in 5G technology has to see a decline in buyers within China. For the first time in many years, Huawei has not been one of China's five best-selling phone brands. As per the market research firm Canalys, the top five in order are: Apple, Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi and Honor, as analyzed by Hong Kong Post. If a market analysis of Counterpoint Research, a global analysis firm is to be believed, Apple captured a whopping 23 per cent market share in China in Q4 of 2021, making it the number one smartphone brand in the country in terms of the number of devices sold per quarter. Already, the 27 European Union members have refused to have any amicable ties with China after the latter's despicable treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region and human rights violations of people in Hong Kong. The EU members are also concerned about the aggressive behaviour of China in the South China Sea. While trying to maintain its economic competitiveness and fulfill its vaunted political ambition to become a global superpower, China was found busy in stealing Research and Development secrets, patents and intellectual assets on an industrial scale, as reported by Hong Kong Post. From 2016 to 2019, China found itself embroiled in scores of trade theft accusations by the US. According to independent researcher Nicholas Eftimiades' report, Chinese economic espionage activities accounted for USD 320 billion in losses which were about 80 per cent of the total cost of intellectual property theft to the US in 2018. Despite such exposure against China and its nefarious activities in the US, the UK became the first country in the world to slap a ban on Huawei 5G technology in July 2020. It had ordered the removal of the Huawei kit from 5G networks by 2027. It also banned mobile providers from buying new Huawei 5G equipment on the suspicion that the Chinese government could use the equipment to spy on foreign entities and individuals, according to Hong Kong Post. (ANI)
According to The News International, the members of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) and activists of Jamiat Talaba Islam has staged a protest on Monday.

Thousands of protestors first stage a rally from Gandheri to Nowshera-Mardan road and then gathered outside the Pesco XEN office, according to the publication.

The protestors blocked the road and chanted slogans against the government and the Pesco for unannounced electricity load-shedding in their area. They also criticised the Pesco high-ups and the staff for not performing their duties.

The protestors later met the XEN and gave him a charter of demands and asked him to provide an uninterrupted power supply to the area.

The official assured the protestors that their problems would be resolved on a priority basis.

Earlier in January, hundreds of people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province held a rally in Peshawar against prolonged power suspensions and demanded repair of the damaged supply lines, according to a media report.

Despite the commitment, officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) were reluctant to ensure a smooth power supply to his constituency (PK-72) and the people had to face prolonged power suspensions, Dawn has quoted the Member of the Provincial Assembly Faheem Khan, who led the protesters, as saying. (ANI)
With the aim to become a major space power by 2030, China has promised to strengthen its space presence "in an all-round manner" in the next five years, according to a white paper issued published last week. The key policy document said China's space industry serves the overall national strategy. "In the next five years, China will integrate space science, technology and applications while pursuing the new development philosophy, building a new development model and meeting the requirements for high-quality development. It will start a new journey towards a space power," states the white paper, which is called "China's Space Program: A 2021 Perspective." The white paper states the space industry will contribute more to China's growth as a whole to global consensus and common effort with regard to outer space exploration and utilisation. According to the document, China puts innovation at the core of its space industry. "It boosts state strategic scientific and technological strength in the space industry, implements major space programs, strengthens original innovation, optimises the environment for innovation, achieves industrial production as early as possible, and grows China's independent capacity to build a safe space industry," it adds. In April last year, China launched Tianhe, the core module of its new space station, and sent astronaut missions to the orbiting lab shortly thereafter. The country plans to finish building the station this year, a task that will entail the launch of two other modules, known as Mengtian and Wentian, according to a prominent Space website. Moreover, China is building a space telescope called Xuntian, which will launch to the same orbit as the space station and dock with it periodically. "In the next five years, China will continue to implement its manned spaceflight project. It plans to: Launch the Wentian and Mengtian experimental modules, the Xuntian space telescope, the Shenzhou manned spacecraft, and the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft," the white paper says. It also plans to complete China's space station and continue operations, build a space laboratory on board, and have astronauts on long-term assignments performing large-scale scientific experiments and maintenance. "Continue studies and research on the plan for a human lunar landing, develop new-generation manned spacecraft, and research key technologies to lay a foundation for exploring and developing cislunar space," the document adds. (ANI)
Amid ongoing talks over plans to restart the Gwadar protest, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Balochistan Mathar Niaz Rana about the prevention of fishing by illegal trawlers. The protest which started in November last year came to a halt in December after the government agreed to the demands of the people protesting the illegal fishing of trawlers in Gwadar. The major demand was to ban the illegal fishing of trawlers at the Makran Coast and to protect the rights of fishermen of Gwadar and other areas of Balochistan. At this latest meeting, attended by top officers of the provincial government, it was revealed that the illegal trawlers have reappeared in the waters of Balochistan. According to vernacular media reports, their appearance has disappointed the local fishermen, for which they blame trawlers coming from Sindh province. Local authorities said that they are patrolling the sea but few trawlers can still enter the sea because we don't have coordination with other security agencies.Bashir Ahmed Mandai, the Deputy Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Balochistan said that their party is with the 'give rights' campaign. People are just asking for their basic human rights, relaxation in business and trade restrictions and basic facilities for the citizens, he added. A top Baloch leader has warned the provincial government in Balochistan that if the deal the government signed with the leaders of the 'Gwadar movement' for ending the protest is not implemented, they would organize a long march against it in Quetta. Speaking at a presser on Monday, Baloch leader Maulana Hidayatur Rehman said besides many other demands, the recovery of missing persons was also included in the accord, the Dawn newspaper reported. Analysts say that the recently-held Gwadar protests were an indication of resentment of local people against harsh Chinese policies in the region. (ANI)
According to the statement issued by the Ministry of Defence, Oman's Defence Ministry's Secretary-General briefed Rajnath Singh about the 11th India-Oman Joint Military Cooperation Committee Meeting (JMCC) on bilateral defence cooperation which was held yesterday in New Delhi.

The JMCC meeting was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar and Secretary General at the Ministry of Defence, Oman.

During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the progress made in military-to-military engagements, including joint exercises, industry cooperation and various ongoing infrastructure projects, according to the release.

"It was decided to identify new avenues and examine areas of mutual interest for Joint Venture in order to enhance defence industry cooperation. Conduct of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercise involving the three services and enhancing the scope and complexities of the existing joint exercises were also discussed. Both the countries agreed to work together to combat the issue of drug trafficking prevalent in the North Arabian Sea," it added.

The statement further added that it was agreed to hold the next JMCC in Oman on mutually convenient dates.

The JMCC is the apex body between the Defence Ministries of India and Oman to comprehensively review & guide all aspects of bilateral defence cooperation.

The Secretary-General also called on the three Service Chiefs and met with the CEOs of Indian Defence Industries. He will be visiting Cochin Shipyard Limited, Military Training Establishments and the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier Vikrant, during his stay. (ANI)
The China Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (CPECA) has urged the Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guaranteed (CPPA-G) to pay overdue receivables of IPPs established under CPEC, warning that the plants may go into default because of rising prices of coal in the international market, according to a media report. The issues of CPEC projects are amongst the key agendas of Pakistan Prime Minister's forthcoming visit to China, commencing from February 3, this year, Business Recorder reported. According to the media outlet, the CPEC Authority, in its presentation, has raised the major issues of CPEC energy cooperation include --overdue/receivables of Rs 250 billion, IPPs may go in default because of rising prices of coal in the international market and IPPs may suspend the operations of power plants as per suspension clauses of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). In December 2021, CPEC Authority proposed that overdue payments need to be made to the IPPs urgently as with pending claims, Sinosure, could not support new projects in Pakistan anymore, Business Recorder reported. Speaking about Revolving Account (RA) for CPEC IPPs, the sources cited by Business Recorder said that, CPPA-G has signed the opening of RA and Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) has signed Supplementary Agreement (SA) with the CPEC IPPs. However, RA has not been set up as yet, it said. Beijing has heavily invested in the CPEC as a short route that allows it to avoid the circuitous Gulf of Malacca and the South China Sea region, according to experts. (ANI)
Brussels [Belgium], February 1 (ANI/Sputnik): The European Union will provide 3.7 million euros ($4.1million) in support to 297 former employees of the European corporation Airbus in France, who lost their jobs to the coronavirus pandemic, the EU Parliament said on Tuesday. In 2020, Airbus worked out a restructuring plan in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis that entailed a layoff of thousands of employees in France. According to the European Commission, efforts by the French government helped to halve the number of job cuts to 2,246. The initiative to support dismissed workers was first proposed by the Commission in November 2021 and overseen by the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for Displaced Workers, an EU mechanism to help affected employees with careers. "The total estimated cost of the support measures is EUR4.4 million, of which the EGF will cover 85% (EUR3.7 million). Airbus will provide the remaining amount (EUR0.7 million)," a statement read. The decision to approve the allocation at France's request was made by the Committee on Budgets and based on the recognition of damage of the COVID-19 crisis on commercial aviation, and forecasts by Airbus about the recovery of the sector expected to happen no earlier than 2025. France's application concerned a total of 508 jobless people, with 297 of them expected to benefit from the funding. A total of 40 lawmakers in the committee voted in favor of the measure, one voted against it. The parliament is expected to approve the application during a plenary session in Strasbourg scheduled for February 14-17, according to the statement. (ANI/Sputnik)
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved two grants totaling 7.6 million U.S. dollars to help revive tourism in Cambodia and boost the country's rice quality and production, according to its press release on Monday.

One grant, at 3.7 million dollars, is expected to benefit 4,000 villagers through the Community Based Tourism COVID-19 Recovery Project, which covers the areas near the heritage Temple of Preah Vihear in Preah Vihear province and the Temple of Phnom Da in Takeo province.

The other grant, at 3.9 million dollars, will benefit about 22,000 smallholder rice farmers by providing additional financing for the Climate Resilient Rice Commercialization Sector Development Program in the provinces of Battambang, Kampong Thom, and Prey Veng.

"The first grant will help communities improve tourism infrastructure and customer service, which can attract more tourists and boost the local economy," said ADB acting country director for Cambodia Anthony Gill.

"The second grant will help Cambodia's rice producers increase incomes and climate resilience by addressing logistics and supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19," he added.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) recent assurance of increased investment in Jammu and Kashmir is a victory for India and a moral setback for Pakistan. Deep socio-political and maritime bonds shared by the Arab nation and India go well beyond the time even before the UAE came into existence in 1971. The middle power which holds a strong influence in the United Nations, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OPEC, and the Gulf Cooperation Council has been an all-weather ally of India in world politics, according to the Eurasian Times. Complex interdependencies in international politics have been a hallmark of many bilateral ties. But when one analyses the ties shared by India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it goes beyond the prism postulated by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye to describe the emerging nature of the global political economy in a rapidly changing world, as analysed by Eurasian Times. The UAE is also emerging as a major partner in Jammu and Kashmir's development. In the past few months, the Union Territory has signed a slew of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Abu Dhabi to build strong business relations. Further, in October 2021, the first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the two governments to develop real estate, industrial parks, super-speciality hospitals among others. In December last year, the Jammu and Kashmir administration signed an MoU with University College Birmingham (UCB) Dubai to explore potential progression opportunities through institutional partnerships with vocational colleges and universities in Kashmir. The UCB would set up an office in Jammu and Kashmir to tie up with the local educational institutions, facilitating academic exchange programmes while enabling students to secure admissions at reduced fees in the Middle East, as reported by Eurasian Times. Meanwhile, on January 5, 2022, the Union Territory signed a historic agreement with Dubai-based LuLu Group to set up a food processing & logistics hub in Srinagar. The agreement was aimed at further expanding Jammu & Kashmir-Dubai collaboration, as analysed by according to the Eurasian Times. The UAE venturing into Jammu and Kashmir is a signal to Pakistan which has been harping on the propaganda about Kashmir being a problem that needs to be settled and Muslim countries should support its argument. Earlier, Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the UAE in 30 years when he embarked on a tour of the country in 2015. He followed it up with visits in 2018 and 2019. His scheduled visit in 2022 was put off due to the rising case of Omicron in India. The two nations were supposed to sign a partial FTA (free trade agreement) after formal talks were launched in September last year between India's Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal and UAE Minister for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, according to the Eurasian Times. (ANI) .
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to follow up on the U.S written response to Russia's security proposals. The phone call comes as the situation around Ukraine has worsened over the past several months. NATO and Kiev continue to accuse Russia of building up troops near the Ukrainian border and preparing for an invasion. Meanwhile, Russia has consistently denied any plans to invade Ukraine, saying it has the right to move troops inside its territory, responding to what it considers threats to its national security. "The Secretary (Blinken) emphasized the US willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns, which we intend to do in full coordination with our partners and Allies," State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. Blinken further reiterated the US commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances. Price said US State Secretary urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraine's borders. Blinken emphasized that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path. (ANI)
Australia will host a Quad meeting of Foreign Ministers in Melbourne this month, as reported by Sky News Australia

Counterparts from India and Japan will join the US and Australia for the two-day summit, which will also discuss the crisis in Ukraine and threats to national and regional security.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute Mark Watson says the Quad reinforces the fact Australia "sits as the hinge on the Indo-Pacific".

"It means that Australia is now at the centre of an interlocking geometry of bilateral, trilateral, and quadrilateral arrangements," he said.

"It is about sending a message to China that if you're going to bully a country like Australia if you're going to undertake economic coercion and other forms of coercion, you run a risk," he added.

The Quadrilateral Security Initiative 2.0 was formed on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and East Asia Summit held in November 2017 with the proposal for the maritime alliance being mooted by Japan. (ANI)
According to a Ministry of External Affairs statement today the Crown Prince Salman conveyed greetings on the occasion of Republic Day of India.

Both the leaders expressed satisfaction that the relationship between India and Bahrain has seen continued progress in diverse sectors including political, trade and investment, energy, health, security and people-to-people contacts, the MEA release stated.

India and Bahrain are celebrating the Golden Jubilee of establishment of diplomatic relations between two countries in 2021-22.

Prime Minister thanked the Bahraini Leadership for taking excellent care of the Indian community in Bahrain during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also for looking after their social and cultural needs.

The release further stated that PM Modi conveyed his greetings to HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and reiterated his invitation to HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for a visit to India at an early date.

"Had a warm conversation with HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince & Prime Minister of Bahrain. Thanked him for the Kingdom's attention to the needs of the Indian community, including the recent decision on land allotment for the Swaminarayan temple," the Prime Minister tweeted also. (ANI)
Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt on Tuesday said the Taliban might use a recent visit of their delegation to Norway as propaganda but it in no way implies the recognition of the movement's rule in Afghanistan, reported Sputnik. "There is a risk that the Taliban will try to use the visit for propaganda purposes. But the united international community is unanimous that it is too early for formal recognition of the interim Taliban government in Afghanistan," Sputnik quoted Huitfeldt as saying. The minister also said that the Taliban must show their commitment to respecting human rights in Afghanistan including the right of girls and women to education and work on equal terms. Huitfeldt asked the Taliban to take exhaustive steps to prevent the country from becoming a centre of international terrorism again. "The meetings were discussed with Norway's allies and partner countries. They have not opposed it, and we agree that this is not and does not entail steps towards recognition," said Huitfeldt. The Foreign Minister also conveyed that none of the people that visited Oslo is on the international wanted list for terrorism. It came after deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Information and Press Department Alexey Zaitsev on Thursday said that Moscow considers the Oslo meetings as a step towards international recognition of the Taliban, according to Sputnik. In late January, the Taliban delegation headed by the Foreign Minister of the interim Taliban government Amir Khan Muttaqi paid a three-day official visit to the Norwegian capital in late January at the invitation of the kingdom. The delegation met with special representatives and envoys from the US, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and the UK. (ANI)
"Tomorrow can be the start of something truly important for Afghanistan. UN welcomes the announcement that public universities will begin re-opening 2 February to all female and male students," said UNAMA in a tweet on Tuesday.

"So crucial that every young person has equal access to education," the mission tweeted.

It came after the Taliban last week announced to reopen universities classes from Wednesday.

The Taliban's interim government's Higher Education Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani stated over the weekend that university classes would resume on Wednesday.

It is the first time that universities classes are set to reopen following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.

Male students would hold their classes starting at 7 am (local time), while female students will begin studying from 11:30 am, reported Sputnik citing a source in the ministry.

Classes will be resumed only at universities located in the country's warmer areas, while in colder areas, classes will be reopened a month later, the source added. (ANI)
"Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in Kyiv meeting President Zelensky for talks," UK Prime Minister said in a tweet on Tuesday. "The UK stands with Ukraine and will hold Russia to account for its destabilising actions in the region," the Prime Minister added.

The talks between the two sides were held in Kyiv as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to follow up on the U.S written response to Russia's security proposals.

The phone call comes as the situation around Ukraine has worsened over the past several months. NATO and Kyiv continue to accuse Russia of building up troops near the Ukrainian border and preparing for an invasion.

Meanwhile, Russia has consistently denied any plans to invade Ukraine, saying it has the right to move troops inside its territory, responding to what it considers threats to its national security. (ANI)
This article originally published in the Des Moines Register on Feb. 7, 2020.

African-Americans have contributed significantly to the building and progression of this nation, and Iowa is no exception.

Iowa is filled with a rich history of the struggles Blacks faced and the resulting triumphs. Here are 10 Black History Month facts that Iowans should know.

'No man in this territory can be reduced to slavery'

In 1834, Missouri resident Jordan J. Montgomery agreed in writing to allow a slave, Ralph, to move to the Iowa territory to earn money and purchase his freedom for $550 plus interest.

Ralph found work in the lead mines in Dubuque but failed to pay Montgomery back after five years. Bounty hunters were sent to return Ralph to Missouri, but the court proceedings were later transferred to the Iowa Supreme Court.

According to the book "Outside In African-American History in Iowa," Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Mason wrote on July 4, 1839, that Ralph "is free by the operation of law, and that he be discharged from further duress and restraint."

The court said Ralph was not a fugitive slave because Montgomery allowed him to go to Iowa, a state that did not recognize slavery. Ralph did have to repay the $550.

Clark v. The Board of Directors

Alexander Clark Sr., who helped African-American men earn voting rights in 1868, did his best to give his children a better life. A year earlier, his 12-year-old daughter, Susan Clark, was denied admission into her neighborhood school in Muscatine because of her race.

Engraved portrait of Alexander Clark, Muscatine lawyer who initiated an Iowa Supreme Court case to allow his daughter to attend the White-only public school. He also was U.S. ambassador to Liberia. Engraving by Augustus Robin, New York. Photo courtesy of the State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines.

On his daughter's behalf for her right to attend, Clark sued the Muscatine Board of Directors, explained Leo Landis, curator at the State Historical Society of Iowa.

The case went to the Iowa Supreme Court, which held that segregated schools were inherently unequal because "the law makes no distinction as to the right of children  to attend the common schools."

The decision led to the integration of Iowa schools  86 years before Brown v. Board of Education, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.

Story continues

Curley becomes first Black teacher in DMPS

Des Moines native and Drake University graduate Harriette Curley was hired as the first African-American teacher in the Des Moines Public Schools system in 1946. Curley taught kindergarten at Perkins Elementary.

Protesters at the time petitioned the board not to hire Curley. But as Superintendent N.D. McCombs noted: "She topped the list of applicants by a wide margin. The board has had a policy, in writing, for years that all boys and girls get the best teachers for the money we can pay. And they are not hired on a basis of color, creed, or nationality."

Media ownership

The (Keokuk) Western Baptist Herald newspaper is credited as being Iowa's first Black-owned publication around 1881. As detailed in "Outside In African-American History in Iowa," the paper was edited by Mrs. Amos Johnson. The paper served the community local news through 1885.

First to earn UI medical degree

According to the African-American Museum of Iowa, Dr. E.A. Carter was the first African-American to graduate from the University of Iowa Medical College in 1907. Carter practiced medicine in Buxton, a long-lost coal-mining town in southeast Iowa that has family ties to U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.

Kameron Middlebrooks, the great-great nephew of Carter, begin to learn more about his great-great uncle's legacy when he became involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"I found out he was my great-great-uncle when I was 3 or 4 years old," Middlebrooks said. "His parents were enslaved, but he still wanted to pursue his education. Carter waited tables to get himself through undergrad and medical school," the Des Moines NAACP president added.

First African-American female lawyer

Gertrude E. Rush earned her law degree from Des Moines University in 1914. Her husband, James B. Rush, who was an attorney, tutored her.

"Outside In African-American History in Iowa" documented that Rush was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1918, making her the first African-American female lawyer in Iowa.

Since Black lawyers were denied admission to the American Bar Association, Rush helped establish the Negro Bar Association, now called the National Bar Association, in 1925.

Robert Wright Sr. was a successful attorney who led the Des Moines chapter of the NAACP.

NAACP comes to Iowa

Iowa's first NAACP branch was established in Des Moines in 1915. The Des Moines chapter started with 35 members and increased to 200 within the first year, according to "Outside In African-American History in Iowa." Robert Wright Sr. was an attorney who led the chapter.

Edna Griffin and Katz Drug Store

On July 7, 1948, John Bibbs, Edna Griffin, and Leonard Hudson went to the Katz Drug Store to drink from the soda fountain but were denied service.

"I cater to a large volume of White trade, and don't have the proper equipment to serve you," said Maurice Katz, .the store's general manager.

Bibbs, Hudson, and Griffin, all members of the Progressive Party of Iowa, picketed the store with fellow party members every Saturday for two months following the incident.

During the criminal appeal with the Iowa Supreme Court, Griffin filed a civil suit in Polk County District Court for $10,000 in damages. In October 1949, an all-White jury awarded Griffin $1, which her attorney deemed a victory.

Bibbs and Hudson also went on to bring civil suits against the store, "Outside In African-American History in Iowa," said.

Protests and lawsuits piled up against the drug store and its manager. On Dec. 2, 1949, days before the Iowa Supreme Court's decision in State of Iowa v. Katz, the business surrendered.

Eight civil suits and six pending criminal charges were ultimately dismissed, and a $1,000 settlement was paid to the plaintiffs.

The building was renamed in 1998 to honor Griffin.

Iowa's first Black judge

Luther T. Glanton is credited to being the first African-American law student at Drake University, where he earned his law degree in 1942. Glanton became Iowa's first Black judge after winning the Des Moines municipal court election in 1959.

His wife, Willie Stevenson Glanton, became Iowa's first Black female legislator representing Polk County. In 1996, Glanton was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame.

William Parker was one of the first Black judges in Iowa, elected in 1963 to the municipal court bench in Waterloo.

From Miss Iowa to the Miss America competition

New York native Cheryl Browne, who attended Luther College in Decorah, took home the Miss Iowa title in 1970 and became the first Black woman to compete in the Miss America pageant.

You can learn more about African-American history in Iowa by visiting the African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids or by reading the "Outside In African-American History in Iowa 1838-2000."

Sierra Porter covers entertainment for the Des Moines Register. She can be contacted at sporter@registermedia.com or via Twitter @SierraAPorter95.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 10 Iowa Black History Month facts you should know
LOUISVILLE, Ky.  A veterinary lab services company is planning to make a big splash in Louisville.

Texas-based Ellie Diagnostics LLC is going to invest $10 million to open a national hub in Louisville, Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Tuesday.

The investment will create up to 100 full-time jobs with an average hourly wage of $33, including benefits, according to a document from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority.

The finance authority has preliminarily approved $1.25 million in tax incentives, which the company will be eligible for if it meets annual hiring and wage targets.

More: Here's how a Louisville chamber 'accelerator' is trying to help minority business owners

"Companies continue to recognize the many advantages of locating in the commonwealth, including our ideal geographic location, strong logistics and distribution presence, talented workforce and low cost of doing business," Beshear said. "Congratulations to the Louisville community on landing another great company."

Jobs at the new Ellie Diagnostics' location will include licensed veterinary technicians, laboratory technicians and medical transcriptionists. The company will use UPS' Worldport hub at Muhammad Ali International Airport as well as other couriers to deliver next-day lab results to vet clinics across the country.

Mark DeCourcy, the founder and CEO of Ellie Diagnostics, said the company is "thrilled to expand our operations in the great city of Louisville."

More: Potential Valhalla sale raises concerns of redevelopment  and loss of a Louisville icon

Our new advanced laboratory will deliver even faster turnaround times on precision lab results and further improve the diagnostics experience for veterinarians across the U.S.," DeCourcy said.

This announcement comes after Kentucky ended January with a splash, as Beshear last week announced five new projects representing $160.9 million in new investments that will create 1,003 new jobs. Those include:

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A Kroger e-commerce fulfillment center in Louisville

A Levi Strauss & Co. e-commerce distribution center in Erlanger

An 80 Acres Farm vertical farming facility in Boone County

A relocation and expansion of Confluent Health's headquarters to Louisville

A Piston Automotive facility in Louisville.

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Ellie Diagnostics invests $10M in Louisville hub, plans 100 new jobs
China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 extended festival greetings to the Chinese people with stunning video footage captured by a camera on its orbiter to snap selfies above the red planet on Monday, the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The video published by the China National Space Administration showed that the orbiter's 3000N engine, propellant tank, attitude control engine and other components were all in good conditions.

It also offered a view of the sun's reflection casting on the orbiter, a Chinese national flag shining on the spacecraft and the ice cap on the red planet's north pole.

As of Monday, the Tianwen-1 orbiter has been working in orbit for 557 days at a distance of around 325 million km from Earth.

The Mars rover Zhurong has been operating for 255 Martian days and has driven a total of 1,524 meters on the surface of the planet.

Since its launch on July 23, 2020, the Mars mission has sent back 600 GB of raw scientific data, according to the space administration.

The Tianwen-1 will soon have its first anniversary in orbit, as it reached Mars on Feb. 10 last year.
A campus law enforcement officer and a campus safety officer at Virginia's Bridgewater College were shot and killed on Tuesday, according to the school. The alleged shooter is in custody, Virginia State Police said.

The school identified the two victims as campus safety officer J.J. Jefferson and campus police officer John Painter.

"Today our campus community experienced unspeakable tragedy. Two members of the Bridgewater College family were senselessly and violently taken from us," the school wrote in an email to students and faculty. "The sadness is palpable. Words are not adequate, not nearly so, to express the grief, sadness, fear and  justifiably  the anger we all feel."

According to the school, the two men were good friends, with Painter even serving as Jefferson's best man at his wedding this year.

Bridgewater College campus safety Officer J.J Jefferson, left, and campus police officer John Painter. / Credit: Matthew Cosner / Courtesy of Bridgewater College via AP

President Biden tweeted Tuesday night that, "Another senseless shooting has taken the lives of two brave officers. Jill and I are praying for the families of those lost. Gun violence against law enforcement officers is sickening, and it must end."

Police on Tuesday night identified the suspect as Alexander Wyatt Campbell, 27, of Ashland, Virginia. He has been charged with four felonies: two counts of capital murder, one count of first degree murder and one weapons charge. Police and school officials would not comment on any relationship the suspect may have had with the school. Police said they have also recovered "multiple firearms associated with Campbell."

Police spokesperson Corrine Geller said that Campbell was reported to campus security for suspicious activity because he was "in a location he should not have been." The two officers approached him and, after a brief interaction, he shot at both officers, Geller said.

Painter was armed, but Jefferson was not, according to Bridgewater College President David Bushman.

Campbell fled the campus on foot and tried to escape to an island in Bridgewater by wading through a river, Geller said. Officers tracked him to the island, where he was taken into custody. In a statement Tuesday night, police said Campbell was suffering from a gunshot wound when he was arrested. He was treated at a local hospital and then released. It was not clear if he was shot by campus police or if the wound was self-inflicted, police said.

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Campbell was taken into custody around 1:55 p.m., roughly 30 minutes after the shooting was reported, the school said.

Officers from Bridgewater College Police, Bridgewater Police, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, Harrisonburg Police, the Augusta Sheriff's Office, Dayton Police and the FBI responded to the scene.

President Biden tweeted about the shooting late Tuesday.

"Another senseless shooting has taken the lives of two brave officers," he wrote. "Jill and I are praying for the families of those lost. Gun violence against law enforcement officers is sickening, and it must end."

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Inside look at how nurse burnout impacts overall healthcare system

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The Brown's Ruritan Community Center sits next to the Madison County Fire Station No. 12 in the background.

Signs posted at the Brown's Ruritan Center help anyone who might have information on the attempted arson that happened on Jan. 29, 2022, alert authoriteis to needed information for a possible reward.

This wall on a back entrance to the Brown's Community Center was damaged as would-be intruders beat on the wall and tried to burn the wood inside the wall.

An attempted break-in and arson at the Browns Ruritan Center on Saturday was thwarted by Madison County Firefighters at Station 12, which is adjacent to the center on McCleary Road.

But when the would-be arsonists returned to set another fire to the building while the fire fighters were still in it clearing the building, they opened themselves up to possible aggravated arson charges.

For that reason, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is assisting MCFD in the investigation.

A firefighter was at the station and heard a loud banging noise outside and saw two guys beating on the back entrance to the center and lighting a fire on the wall, said Brian Kemp, fire inspector for MCFD. The two firefighters who were on duty at the time came out and ran them off and put out the fire theyd lit.

The arsonists then went around to the other side of the building and tried to get inside and lit another fire, that the fire fighters then had to go in and deal with. It was while they were dealing with the second fire, the arsonists tried to light another fire to the building.

Another fire fighter called the sheriffs office, and their deputy chased after them through a field, Kemp said. But they mustve had a third person in a vehicle, because we think they got to Browns Cemetery Road and got away from there.

The aggravated arson investigation elevates the case to one in which a reward of $5,000 is available.

So were needing anyone who knows anything about this to let us know, Kemp said. Once we can get these guys and whoever was helping them apprehended, theres a reward for help in that.

The intersection of Browns Cemetery Road and McCleary Road is maybe 300 yards from the center, which was Browns School until it closed in the 1950s, according to Kemp. Since then, its been converted to a community center primarily used by the Browns Ruritan Club.

This is a big part of the history of Browns Community and where a lot of things happen when people get together, Kemp said. We havent been able to come up with a possible motive for this.

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We just know two men that looked to be between 18 and 20 years old were here and ran off before they could get caught. Hopefully we can track them down.

Anyone with information can call the Tennessee Arson Hotline at 1-800-762-3017.

Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: $5k reward offered after arsonists target community center, fire fighters
NEWPORT, RI  Rhode Island will expand its National Guard support at hospitals statewide, including at Newport Hospital, Gov. Dan McKee said in a news conference Tuesday.

The addition of Rhode Island National Guard troops is an attempt to help hospitals dealing with staff shortages amid the coronavirus pandemic.

McKee said 30 National Guard troops will get sent to Rhode Island Hospitals, including Eleanor Slater Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Newport Hospital and several others. Two of the 30 new National Guard troops will go to Newport Hospital.

"I am truly grateful to General Callahan and the National Guard for their consistent support in this effort and throughout the pandemic," McKee said. "This is the result of weeks of close coordination between my office, the Rhode Island National Guard, the Rhode Island Department of Health, the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency and local hospital leadership and is an important part of our strategy to support hospital staffing."

McKee said one of the National Guard troops will provide patient transportation within Newport Hospital, while the other will serve as a COVID-19 screener.

McKee also signed an executive order, allowing nursing school graduates to practice at hospitals sooner, as long as they are supervised.

The governor said he's optimistic these changes will help, but reminded people that getting vaccinated and boosted is what will help hospitals dealing with shortages the most.

"Nothing is going to provide more relief in the hospitals than keeping people out of the hospitals," McKee said.

This article originally appeared on the Newport Patch
ABC News

A day after The Views Whoopi Goldberg drew intense backlash for claiming the Holocaust wasnt about race, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told the show to fill its co-hosting vacancy with a Jewish person.

So yesterday on our show, I misspoke, and I tweeted about it last night, but I kind of want you to hear it from me directly, Goldberg noted at the top of Tuesdays show. I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention. And I understand why now, and for that, I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things.

Noting that her remarks revolved around a discussion about a Tennessee school boards decision to ban Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust, Goldberg said she now knows that the Holocaust was indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race.

I stand corrected and I stand with the Jewish people, she added before introducing Greenblatt to the show.

Well, Whoopi, theres no question that the Holocaust was about race, he proclaimed. Thats how the Nazis saw it as they perpetrated the systematic annihilation of the Jewish people across continents, across countries with deliberate and ruthless cruelty. And literally the first page of Maus, the book you were talking about yesterday, Whoopi, it opens with a quote from Hitler, and literally, it says, the Jews undoubtedly are a race, but they are not human.

He continued: You see, Hitlers ideology, it was predicated on the idea that the Aryans, the Germans were a quote, master race, and the Jews were a subhuman race. It was racialized antisemitism.

He said that while this might not exactly fit or feel differently than the way we think about race in America, as that typically revolves around people of color, Jewish people have been marginalized and persecuted throughout history.

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They have been slaughtered in large part because people felt they were not just a religion, but indeed a different race, Greenblatt added. And your platform, Whoopi, is so important, using it now to educate people to realize that antisemitism remains a clear and present danger.

Later in the interview, he also called for the program to consider someone Jewish when they finally decide to hire a permanent replacement for former co-host Meghan McCain. (The View has only had two Jewish hosts in the shows 25-year historyand none since 2016.)

Since McCains departure last year, the seat has been filled by a rotating slate of conservative guest hosts such as Condoleezza Rice, Mary Katharine Ham, and Gretchen Carlson as the program continues to audition for a full-time fifth panelist.

I know you guys believe in representation, and I know you guys work to bring all points of view, he stated. Think about having a Jewish host on this show who can bring these issues of antisemitism, who can bring these issues of representation to The View every single day.

Liberal co-host Joy Behar reacted to Greenblatts call for a Jewish host by reminding viewers that she is, in fact, not Jewish. I guess I dont count because everybody thinks Im Jewish, but Im not," she quipped. So maybe youre right, Jonathan."

Goldberg sparked widespread outrage on Monday when she repeatedly insisted that the Holocaust was not about race. Even as several of her co-hosts pointed out that the Holocausts goal was white supremacy and that the Nazis saw Jewish people as an inferior race, The View moderator wouldnt back down from her assertion.

Its about mans inhumanity to man, she claimed, adding that the Holocaust involved two white groups of people.

Goldbergs remarks prompted swift condemnation from the ADL and other Jewish groups, with Greenblatt specifically calling out the Oscar-winning actresss dangerous distortion of the history of the Holocaust.

[T]he #Holocaust was about the Nazis systematic annihilation of the Jewish peoplewho they deemed to be an inferior race. he tweeted on Monday. They dehumanized them and used this racist propaganda to justify slaughtering 6 million Jews.

Goldberg would eventually release a statement on Monday night, apologizing for the hurt she had caused with her comments. On todays show, I said the Holocaust is not about race, but about mans inhumanity to man. I should have said it is about both, Goldberg wrote, adding, The Jewish people around the world have always had my support, and that will never waiver.

In a Monday night appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was recorded before she released her apology, Goldberg essentially doubled down on her remarks while attempting to clarify them.

I feel, being Black, when we talk about race its a very different thing to me, so I said that I felt that the Holocaust wasnt about race, she declared. And people got very, very, very angry, and still are angry. Im getting all of the mail from folks, and very real anger, because people feel very differently.

She added, But I thought it was a salient discussion because, as a Black person, I think of race as being something that I can see. So I see you and I know what race you are, and the discussion was about how I felt about that. People were very angry, and they said, No, no, we are a race, and I understand. I understand. I felt differently.

Stating that she didnt want to fake apologize, Goldberg lamented to Colbert that she was very upset that people misunderstood what I was saying and are now accusing her of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

I thought we were having a discussion about race, which everyone, I think, was having, she concluded.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Whoopi Goldberg apologized on Monday for dismissing the racial motivation behind the Holocaust, hours after a number of Jewish advocacy organizations denounced The View host.

On todays show, I said the Holocaust is not about race, but about mans inhumanity to man. I should have said it is about both. As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, The Holocaust was about the Nazis systematic annihilation of the Jewish people  who they deemed to be an inferior race. I stand corrected, Goldberg wrote in a tweet.

The apology came after a number of Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, criticized Goldbergs on-air rant.

Goldberg surprised her audience and co-hosts when she argued on stage Monday that the Holocaust isnt about race.

No, its not about race, she repeated. Well, they considered Jews a different race, a co-host anchor retorted.

Its not about race, Goldberg doubled down. Its about mans inhumanity to man, thats what its about.

While most tragedies inspired by malice do obviously involve inhumanity, Goldbergs colleagues attempted to explain that the Holocaust was a fundamentally different, as Hitlers regime specifically aimed to exterminate Europes Jews, in addition to disabled and nomadic peoples.

But its about a white supremacist going after Jews and Gypsies, guest co-host Ana Navarro reminded Goldberg.

But these are two white groups of people, Goldberg said, ignoring the fact that Hitler considered the Jewish people an inferior race, not merely a religion.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and other Jewish advocacy groups rushed to Twitter to set the record straight on the history.

No @WhoopiGoldberg, the #Holocaust was about the Nazis systematic annihilation of the Jewish people  who they deemed to be an inferior race, he responded. They dehumanized them and used this racist propaganda to justify slaughtering 6 million Jews. Holocaust distortion is dangerous. #ENOUGH

Story continues

Organization StopAntisemitism slammed Goldbergs comments, accusing her of reducing the Jewish peoples horrendous plight to an ordinary human conflict.

Newsflash @WhoopiGoldberg 6 million of us were gassed, starved and massacred because we were deemed an inferior race by the Nazis. How dare you minimize our trauma and suffering! the group wrote.

StandWithUs, an organization dedicated to fighting antisemitism and defending Israel, echoed the other groups, directing Goldberg on Twitter to an article explaining the Nazis racial ideology.

The Holocaust was driven by multiple factors, and there is no doubt that one of them was Nazi racism against Jews. Nazis back then and white supremacists today consider Jews to be a different and inferior race, the group said.

More from National Review
A US Navy F-14 lifting off of the USS John F. Kennedy in the Red Sea on January 25, 1991. AP Photo

In January 1989, two US Navy F-14s clashed with Libyan MiG-23s over the Mediterranean Sea.

The F-14s downed both MiGs in what was one of several 1980s clashes between US and Libyan forces.

The air-to-air win became a headache for the Pentagon, which had to defend firing on the Libyans.

On January 4, 1989, the US Navy aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy was sailing through the Mediterranean Sea with numerous aircraft from its air wing aloft for training exercises and patrol missions  a common practice while carriers are at sea.

At 11:55 a.m., one of those planes, an E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft, detected two Libyan Air Force MiG-23s taking off from an air base in northeastern Libya and heading toward the carrier.

Two nearby F-14 Tomcats were ordered to intercept the MiGs. The air battle that followed was a victory for the Tomcats, but it soon became a headache for the Pentagon.

Mediterranean tensions

A Libyan corvette in the Gulf of Sidra after being attacked by US Navy A-6E Intruder attack aircraft on March 24, 1986. US Navy

By the late 1980s, US-Libya relations had deteriorated, driven in part by territorial disputes in the Mediterranean.

In 1973, the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi claimed almost all of the Gulf of Sidra as territorial waters and declared that any crossing of his "Line of Death" would receive a military response.

The US categorically rejected the declaration and conducted freedom-of-navigation exercises with warships and aircraft in defiance of Gaddafi's claim. Consequently, there were numerous intercepts and standoffs in the airspace and waters around Libya, some of which turned violent.

In 1981, US Navy carrier aircraft shot down two Libyan Su-22 fighter-bombers in the Gulf of Sidra. In March 1986, a clash with the US Navy left dozens of Libyan troops dead and multiple Libyan ships sunk or damaged. That April, the US bombed dozens of Libyan targets, including Gaddafi's residence, in retaliation for a Libyan-sponsored terrorist attack in Berlin.

All the while, Gaddafi continued supporting terrorist groups with training, equipment, and financing. In 1988, the situation became even more tense when the US accused Libya of attempting to build a chemical-weapons plant.

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'Good kill! Good kill!'

A US Navy F-14 taking off of the USS Forrestal as it sailed near Malta in December 1989. Dirck Halstead/Getty Images

The USS John F. Kennedy was sailing to Haifa for a scheduled port visit amid those tensions, but the carrier was not in the Gulf of Sidra. It was actually some 120 miles north, closer to Crete.

Regardless, two Libyan MiG-23s from Al Bumbah airfield near Tobruk were dispatched and flying toward its general location.

The two Navy F-14s tasked with intercepting them, call signs Gypsy 207 and Gypsy 202, arrived in radar-tracking range within minutes. Soon the four aircraft were approaching each other some 70 miles from Tobruk.

Flying at high speeds, the F-14s conducted a series of turns and lowered their altitude. The Libyans matched these turns and even accelerated to ensure they were approaching the Tomcats head on.

A US Navy F-4J Phantom II, right, escorting a Libyan MiG-23 over the Gulf of Sidra in August 1981. US Navy

As the MiGs closed in, the Americans worried they might be carrying Soviet-made AA-7 Apex missiles, which have a 12-mile range. Kennedy's air-warfare commander warned the pilots that the MiGs could be preparing to attack and gave them permission to fire if they felt the aircraft were hostile.

The Tomcats had taken position underneath the MiGs, which allowed them to use ocean clutter to confuse their radar  a tactic learned by training against secretly acquired MiG-23s back in the US  and made five more turns that were matched by their Libyan opponents.

Now less than 20 miles from the Libyan jets, the Americans armed their weapons. At 13 miles, the radar intercept officer aboard Gypsy 207, Cmdr. Leo Enwright, fired an AIM-7 Sparrow at one of the MiGs  without telling the pilot, Cmdr. Joseph Connelly, beforehand  but the missile failed to track. Enwright fired a second missile at 10 miles, which also failed.

The two F-14s then conducted a defensive split  Gypsy 207 turned left and Gypsy 202 turned right. The MiGs turned and headed straight for Gypsy 202, whose radar intercept officer, Lt. Cmdr. Steven Collins, fired an AIM-7 that hit one of the MiGs at a range of roughly 5 miles.

Observing the kill, Connelly radioed, "Good hit, good hit on one!"

Gypsy 207 then took position behind the other MiG and, after some difficulty acquiring a lock and some colorful language, fired an AIM-9 Sidewinder that brought down the Libyan fighter.

"Good kill! Good kill!" Connelly transmitted. Gypsy 202's pilot, Lt. Herman Cook III, responded: "OK, good kill."

Before returning to the carrier, both F-14s reported seeing the Libyan pilots eject and deploy parachutes.

A headache at home

The chief Pentagon spokesman Dan Howard describing the maneuvering of the F-14s and MIG-23s a day after their dogfight, January 5, 1989. Bettmann/Getty Images

Though a victory, the shoot-downs became a bit of a headache for the Pentagon and the Reagan administration.

After the incident, Libya claimed the Americans had shot down two unarmed reconnaissance planes. Gaddafi claimed it was ''official US terrorism" and called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to condemn the US's actions.

Other Arab officials, including Yasser Arafat, said the incident would negatively affect Arab-American relations and set back the Middle East peace process.

The Pentagon repeatedly defended the actions of the F-14 crews, saying the MiGs displayed "clear hostile intent" and the US jets were justified in firing. "If anything, they fired too late," Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci said.

The US Navy also released footage from one of the F-14s showing that at least one of the MiGs was armed with two AA-7 Apex missiles and two AA-8 Aphid missiles. A Pentagon spokesman said the video debunked Libya's claims about the US shooting down reconnaissance aircraft, though media reports at the time noted that the video was blurry.

A MiG-23 silhouette on a US Navy F-14A, seen in a video made after the engagement on January 4, 1989. US Navy

The Pentagon did acknowledge the MiGs never turned on their on-board radars needed to guide their Apex missiles toward the US jets.

Rep. Les Aspin, the chairman of the US House Armed Services Committee, later said that according to secret Pentagon briefings and discussions with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other government officials, the MiGs' turns were too slight to be considered hostile.

Aspin and Navy aviators interviewed at the time also raised doubts about the Pentagon's characterization of the F-14's actions as "avoidance" maneuvers. The pilots said they appeared to be standard intercept maneuvers.

Aspin did say, however, that the F-14s' actions were justified given the speed at which the MiGs were approaching and the Libyans' record of shooting first in previous engagements.

The Libyan pilots' mission remained unclear after the incident and was not likely to ever be known, Aspin said in March 1989, and while the Libyan pilots were seen ejecting and parachuting into the sea, it's unknown whether they were ever recovered.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Last November we witnessed yet another school shooting, this time at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan. It was a traumatizing experience for students and teachers  a situation made even more difficult for parents as they await news, unsure of what is happening and whether their child is safe. An event that scars a community, and leaves those in the surrounding area wondering if they, too, are in danger.

Should they stay home?

Evacuate?

As public officials, it is our sacred duty to do all we can to keep our communities and country safe, and with active shooter events and mass shootings becoming all too common, we have an obligation to act.

A way to save children

If you see something, say something  a phrase we are all too familiar within an age of violent extremism.

Its a refrain meant to remind us that it is up to all of us to keep our communities safe and that, together, we can save lives. Its a policy weve implemented in airports, train stations, and bus terminals. And its the principle behind the Amber Alert system.

In 1996, Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters worked with local law enforcement to develop the alert after the kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. Named in her honor, the AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.

We've taught kids to fear shootings. But lost sight of how uncommon they are.

According to the Department of Justice, as of Nov. 24, more than a thousand children have been rescued as a direct result of an Amber Alert.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports that in 2019 alone, 145 alerts were issued, with 142 cases resulting in the recovery of the child. Two dozen of these recoveries were the direct result of an alert  with 29 children brought home safely thanks to this alert system.

And today, cities, towns and states nationwide are making use of similar systems to keep their citizens safe.

In Providence, Rhode Island, the local government employs CodeRED system, which allows emergency officials to send notifications to residents via landline phone, cellphone calls, text messaging, email and social media.

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In Berrien County, Michigan, the Sherriff Departments Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division employs multiple public warning systems to help keep residents safe.

Alerting the public

Now, imagine if we were to use the Amber Alert system for active shooter situations  broadcasting across our towns and cities not only to keep an eye out for missing children, but also for these individuals posing great threats to our communities.

More Opinion: Get the best of our columns in a daily roundup in your inbox

A memorial at an entrance to Oxford High School in Michigan on Dec. 7, 2021. Four died and seven were injured.

As Dallas-Fort Worth responded to the kidnapping and murder of Amber Hagerman, today we are proposing that the U.S. Congress take a similar path in response to the gun violence epidemic by creating a national alert system that would support law enforcements efforts to warn and inform communities in the case of an active shooter situation.

'Don't Look Up' in pursuit of digital perfection: You might miss the end of the world.

As we saw last March, when a gunman killed eight people in three locations in and around Atlanta, a tip from the public helped lead to his arrest.

Marcus Lyon looks at flowers and other memorial items left at the scene of a shooting in Acworth, Georgia. Lyon was inside the Young's Asian Massage spa on March 16, 2021, when the shooter came in, and Lyon ducked behind a massage table to hide.

And in 2016, this type of alert system could have protected the people of Kalamazoo, Michigan, when local police had a description of an Uber driver who killed six people and had a description of his vehicle but were unable to widely broadcast this information to the public. During the lag in time between when the shooter was identified and was arrested, he picked up multiple passengers  an awful situation that could have been avoided.

Texas recently passed the Active Shooter Alert Act, otherwise known as the Leilah Hernandez bill, that would create an alert system to warn Texans of active shooters in their communities. In Michigan, then-Gov. Rick Snyder signed a law creating a shooter alert system in July 2016, just five months after the Kalamazoo shooting.

Supplying the public with this type of information can save lives, and the federal government should step in to help make sure that every community has access to the types of emergency warnings that Texans, Rhode Islanders and Michiganders do.

As we work to keep guns out of the hands of those who are a danger to themselves and others through reforms  including strengthening our background check system and enacting red-flag laws, which authorize courts to issue orders allowing law enforcement officials to temporarily remove firearms from people who appear to be dangerous to themselves or others  we must also look at solutions that will help us save as many lives as possible when the worst happens.

Our legislation, the Active Shooter Alert Act, will do just that.

David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) is a U.S. congressman from Rhode Island. Fred Upton (@RepFredUpton) is a U.S. congressman from Michigan.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Congress should create national Amber Alert for active shooter cases
 Flash

Iran's delegation to the Vienna talks on the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal has "creatively and innovatively submitted its ideas in writing," and is awaiting the U.S. response in lifting sanctions.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks at a weekly press conference, saying if the other side gives a "correct response" to Iran's "natural rights and legitimate demands" after the delegations' return to Vienna, diplomats in Vienna can "reach a reliable and lasting agreement and there will be no need for artificial deadlines," according to official news agency IRNA.

Iran is waiting for the United States to inform the other parties of the political decisions made in Washington, he said, noting that there are a number of unresolved issues in the area of removing the sanctions, which are in need of the Western side's decision.

Commenting on the latest pause in the Vienna talks, he said despite the breaks, the negotiations over the past three weeks have made significant progress in the four areas of sanctions removal, nuclear commitments, verification and giving guarantees.

He recommended the United States, in particular, focus on responding to Iran's legitimate demands and refrain from asking for anything beyond the scopes of the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The spokesman emphasized that the Islamic republic will not accept anything less than the JCPOA.

The JCPOA was signed in 2015 between Iran and major countries. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, which prompted the latter to breach the deal's restrictions one year later, and advance its nuclear programs it had put a halt to.

Since April 2021, several rounds of talks have been held between Iran and other remaining parties to revive the deal.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Amnesty International said Tuesday that Israel has maintained a system of oppression and domination over the Palestinians going all the way back to its establishment in 1948, one that meets the international definition of apartheid.

With the release of a 278-page report compiled over a period of four years, the London-based rights group joins Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group B'Tselem in accusing Israel of apartheid  both within its borders and in the occupied territories.

Their findings are part of a growing international movement to redefine the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a struggle for equal rights rather than a territorial dispute. Those efforts have gained strength in the decade since the peace process ground to a halt, as Israel has consolidated its control over the occupied territories and soured on the idea of a Palestinian state.

Israel rejects any allegation of apartheid and accused Amnesty of delegitimizing its existence and encouraging antisemitism.

Israel says its own Arab citizens enjoy equal rights. It granted limited autonomy to the Palestinian Authority at the height of the peace process in the 1990s and withdrew its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005.

But Amnesty and the other groups say the very fragmentation of the territories in which Palestinians live is part of an overall regime of control designed to maintain Jewish hegemony from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.

They point to discriminatory policies within Israel and in annexed east Jerusalem, Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by the Hamas militant group since 2007, and its de facto annexation of the West Bank, where it exerts overall control and is actively building and expanding Jewish settlements that most of the international community considers illegal.

Palestinians have accused Israel of apartheid for decades. The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and cooperates with Israel on security, welcomed the report.

Story continues

Amnesty traces such policies back to the establishment of Israel in 1948. Around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled during the Arab-Israeli war surrounding Israel's creation. They accounted for some 80% of the Palestinian population in what is now Israel. Israel barred the refugees from returning in order to maintain its Jewish majority.

The Palestinians remaining inside Israel lived under military rule until shortly before the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, territories the Palestinians want for their future state.

Today, Palestinians inside Israel have citizenship, including the right to vote, and some have reached the upper echelons of business, law, medicine and entertainment. But overall, they face widespread discrimination in areas like the job and housing markets. Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, and those in Hamas-ruled Gaza also face a crippling Israeli and Egyptian blockade.

Palestinians make up about 20% of Israels 9.4 million population. But the Jewish and Arab populations are roughly equal when including the West Bank and Gaza.

"Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued a policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony and maximizing its control over land to benefit Jewish Israelis while restricting the rights of Palestinians and preventing Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes," Amnesty said. Israel extended this policy to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it has occupied ever since.

Israel dismissed the previous reports as biased, but has adopted a far more adversarial stance toward Amnesty, accusing it of antisemitism even before the report was published.

Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonize Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Agnes Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty, rejected those accusations as baseless attacks and bare-faced lies. She said Amnesty recognizes the state of Israel and denounces antisemitism, and that accusations to the contrary are nothing more than a desperate attempt to evade scrutiny (and) divert attention from our findings.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. does not generally comment on reports by outside groups, but it rejects the view that Israel's actions constitute apartheid.

None of the reports compared Israel to apartheid South Africa, where a system based on white supremacy and racial segregation was in place from 1948 until 1994. Instead, they evaluated Israels policies based on international conventions like the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It defines apartheid as an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group.

The ICC is already investigating potential war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian militants in recent years. After last years Gaza war, the U.N. Human Rights Council set up a permanent commission of inquiry to investigate abuses against Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.

Such a commission is the most intrusive type of investigative body that the council can create, and for the first time, this one was given an ongoing or permanent mandate.

Israel has accused both the ICC and the U.N. rights body of being biased against it and of singling it out while other countries commit far worse violations.

Yuval Shany, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a member of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law, said it's highly unlikely the ICC would pursue apartheid allegations given the complexities involved.

He said the apartheid claim is extreme and quite unfounded within Israel, despite there being discrimination. The situation in the territories is much more complicated.

There you do have elements which could qualify as discrimination, segregation and oppression, given the length of the occupation, he said. But "it is difficult to distinguish between questions that have to do with security policy, with competing national claims, and what is a racist agenda.

Using the language of apartheid is "a bridge too far," he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told reporters last month that he expects intensified efforts this year to brand Israel as an apartheid state that could lead to it being banned from sporting or cultural events. He said that reviving a political process with the Palestinians would help to combat those efforts.

The peace process ground to a halt more than a decade ago, and Israel's current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, is opposed to Palestinian statehood. He heads an unwieldy coalition that includes more moderate members like Lapid and even a small Arab party.

In part because of its internal divisions, the government has ruled out any major initiatives to resolve the conflict. But several top officials, including Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, have met with Palestinian leaders with the aim of boosting the Palestinian economy and laying the groundwork for negotiations in the future.

___

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
The Crystal Symphony had been due to dock in Miami on 22 January (AP)

A Florida-based cruise company has been forced to dock another vessel in the Bahamas following a US courts request to seize a ship.

The cruise liner, Crystal Cruises, had been due to dock the 1,000 passenger Crystal Serenity ship last week before it was forced to divert for Bimini, in the Bahamas.

It follows a court ruling for the seizure of a vessel belonging to Crystal Cruises, who are accused by federal US prosecutors of failing to pay for $4.6m (3.4m) for fuel.

There are simply no words to express our deep regret and disappointment, the company said in a statement on Monday after its ship was refused entry into Aruba, a territory of the Netherlands, on Friday.

Passengers were transferred on a fast ferry to Port Everglades on Monday, some 3.5 miles south of Miami and almost fourth months before they had been due to return home.

The world voyage was cut short on the third day of the Crystal Serenitys 17 January departure from Florida amid financial trouble at the cruise liner, which is a subsidiary of the Genting Hong Kong group.

As TravelPulse reported, that was because of the US lawsuit and comes after another ship  the Crystal Symphony  was forced to divert to the Bahamas because of the US seizure order.

Passengers onboard that vessel were similarly transferred to southern Florida by fast ferry and reportedly offered reimbursement for any applicable airline change fees.

Im delighted to be off that ship, said Barry Shulman, 75, of Las Vegas, after disembarking the Crystal serenity.

All other cruises by the company have been cancelled as of 17 January to provide Crystals management team with an opportunity to evaluate the current state of business and examine various options moving forward.

Crystal Cruises referred The Independent to an earlier statement about the Crystal Serenity and said it could not comment further while legal action was pending.

Although Crystal Serenity was cleared to arrive in Aruba on Friday with all services paid for in advance and even though there are no reasonable risks or claims made against the vessel, local officials informed the company late Friday afternoon that the ship will be not permitted to dock in Aruba as scheduled, said spokesperson Vance Gulliksen.

After receiving this unfortunate news, Crystals management team spent hours conferring with Aruba officials toward a positive resolution to no avail. As a result, Crystal Serenity was forced to conclude its voyage in Bimini on Monday, January 31st where guests were transferred to Port Everglades via the Balearia fast ferry service.

Guests were transferred to an area hotel where overnight accommodations were provided by Crystal and the company will reimburse guests for any applicable airline change fees.
Ukrayinska Pravda

VALENTYNA ROMANENKO - WEDNESDAY, 4 MAY 2022, 17:33 Ukrainian defenders continue to destroy units of the Russian occupiers and their equipment with great professionalism. Source: the press centre of the DShV command [Command of the Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine] and the press service of the National Guard Details: The assault troops showed a video with the aftermath of the Russian armoured vehicles, together with their crews, destroyed by the artillery of one of the units of the D
Alexander Lea De Alejandro was recently sentenced to prison for pointing a gun at officers and other charges.

Alexander Lea De Alejandro, 30, of Denison, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for three counts of aggravated assault against a public servant.

The sentence resulted from a plea agreement with the Grayson County Criminal District Attorneys Office.

De Alejandro also received 20 years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and 10 years in prison for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. All the sentences will run concurrent and he must serve 20 years before being eligible for parole.

A news release from the Grayson County District Attorney's Office said Judge Jim Fallon of the 15th District Court accepted the plea agreement and pronounced the sentence.

On July 12, 2021, law enforcement officers from the United States Marshals Service-Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force had tracked De Alejandro down to an apartment on West Taylor Street in Sherman. De Alejandro was wanted on outstanding warrants for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder.

When the task force members entered the apartment, they were wearing distinctive police markings and announced their presence. As officers were clearing the small apartment, they approached De Alejandro at gun point. De Alejandro leveled a short-barreled shotgun at the officers who immediately ordered him to drop the weapon. An officer later discharged his weapon striking De Alejandro in the shoulder.

He was transported by ambulance to a local hospital where he was treated for his injuries. He was subsequently booked into the Grayson County Jail.

Alex De Alejandro

The warrants outstanding on De Alejandro stemmed from a shots-fired call that the Denison Police Department responded to on February 21, 2021.

Upon responding to the call near Main and East 7th Street, DPD Officers found a victim who had been shot in the chest. The victim advised officers he had been in an argument with brothers Alexander and Michael De Alejandro and was shot by them.

The victim was transported by ambulance to Texoma Medical Center and was treated for his injuries. Denison Police interviewed a witness to the shooting, recovered shell casings from the scene, and took a statement from the victim, eventually leading to arrest warrants for both brothers.

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Assistant District Attorney Nathan Young said, It was clear to law enforcement that this defendant was violent and that he was going to continue endangering the community. We are thankful he was apprehended before anyone else was hurt. District Attorney Brett Smith added, Our office has committed resources in partnership with the Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force for this very reason, to track down and apprehend violent criminals. We intend to fully prosecute those who harm or threaten to harm law enforcement.

More: After allegedly shooting at police, Denison man faces multiple indictments

This article originally appeared on Herald Democrat: Assault of public servant lands man 40 years
An Athens man who admitted Tuesday that he crashed a minivan with five children inside when driving while intoxicated has been sentenced to prison.

Everett Maurice Hackney, 31, of Athens pleaded guilty to numerous charges related to the crash when he was sentenced in Clarke County Superior Court. Visiting Senior Judge Thomas Hodges imposed a sentence of eight years with the first three years in prison and the remainder on probation.

The wreck occurred April 14, 2021, when Hackneys Dodge Caravan crashed, rolled over and caught fire as it exited the Athens Perimeter onto Atlanta Highway.

Hackneys three children, plus a niece and nephew, were all injured in the crash and none were wearing seat belts. Some of the children, all under age 14, had to be transferred to a hospital in Atlanta, according to Western Circuit Assistant District Attorney Kyle Thompson.

The indictment showed that Hackneys blood alcohol level after the wreck was .282, which prompted Hodges to remark that Hackney has a serious alcohol problem.

Assistant Public Defender David Douds agreed that his client has a problem with alcohol and that Hackney is remorseful about the wreck that injured the children.

Hodges told the defendant that once he is released from prison, he should join a group such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

More: Driver charged in fiery crash on Athens Perimeter that hurt 5 children

Related news: 3 Jackson County residents injured in 3-vehicle crash in Banks County

Hackney received a first-offender sentence, meaning if he completes his sentence without problems, he can have his felony record erased. The three counts of serious injury by vehicle and habitual violator are all felonies.

Among the probation requirements for Hackney is that he not consume alcohol and complete a DUI risk program.

Hackney also pleaded guilty to DUI, having an open container, child-restraint violations and child-endangerment charges, for which he received concurrent prison terms or fines.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens man sentenced to prison for DUI crash that injured 5 children
Bethune-Cookman University was one of at least seven historically Black universities that reported a bomb threat Monday morning, according to Daytona Beach Police.

Law enforcement implemented a campus-wide lockdown just after 4:30 a.m. Monday following a phone threat to Volusia County Emergency dispatch, police said in a release. The call also claimed that there was an active shooter threat on campus who was expected to start firing around lunchtime.

Police Chief Jakari Young said a hate group is behind the threats.

"This group, from what we can tell, it is a neo-Nazi organization going by the name of Atomwaffen," Young said during a press conference Monday.

Related: Bomb threats received at historically Black colleges and universities across US

About Atomwaffen: Neo-Nazi who led effort to threaten journalists gets 3 years

University news: Bethune-Cookman sues its former alumni association, alleging trademark infringement

Daytona Beach Police and the Volusia County Sheriffs Office searched the campus building by building for any threats, according to the release. The search ended around 11 a.m.; no explosives were found, police said.

Classes were canceled Monday and the Daytona Beach Police maintained a heavy presence on campus throughout the day, according to the release.

Daytona Beach Police is working with various law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, as investigators look into threats made nationwide at various historically Black colleges and universities, including Albany State University in Georgia; Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge; Bowie State University in Maryland; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; and Delaware State University.

The FBI "is aware of bomb threats received by some Historically Black Colleges and Universities," the agency said in a statement provided by Jenna Sellitto, an FBI spokesperson in Atlanta. "The FBI takes all potential threats seriously, and we regularly work with our law enforcement partners to determine their credibility."

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Monday's bomb scares come less than a month after a series of bomb threats were made to multiple historically Black universities Jan. 4. Six different HBCU campuses received threats during that incident. On Monday, an additional seven campuses were targeted, Daytona Beach police said in the release.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the threats were "disturbing" and added President Joe Biden had been made aware of them.

Daytona Beach Police is referring any questions regarding Atomwaffen to the FBI.

The investigation is ongoing. Young said the campus will continue to have a strong police presence.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: HBCU bomb threats: FBI investigates at Bethune-Cookman University
U.S. media extoll Chinese New Year as new page opens on lunar calender

Xinhua) 09:36, February 01, 2022

The festival is celebrated differently throughout the world, predominantly in regions with larger Chinese populations, and traditionally focuses on themes of reunion and hope.

NEW YORK, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese New Year is fastly approaching, U.S. media and news portals have posted reports about the most important Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year in accordance with the Chinese lunar calendar.

TRADITIONS OBSERVED

Although modern-day China uses the Gregorian calendar, meaning it's the year 2022 there, just like in the United States, its holidays are governed by the traditional lunisolar calendar, reported Eyewitness News on Sunday.

The Lunar New Year, also called the Spring Festival in China, falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice, which is usually between mid-January and mid-February. This year, it falls on Tuesday, Feb. 1.

"The festival is celebrated differently throughout the world, predominantly in regions with larger Chinese populations, and traditionally focuses on themes of reunion and hope," said the report.

Lunar New Year normally sparks the world's busiest travel period, as hundreds of millions travel to their hometown. On the eve of the new year, families celebrate with massive dinners hosted by their most senior members.

People perform a lion dance during the Riverside Lunar Festival celebrations in Riverside County, California, the United States, on Jan. 29, 2022. (Xinhua)

RICH CULTURE

"We've got our eye on the Tiger this Lunar New Year," reported the People magazine. "The holiday that's celebrated by almost two billion people across the world, also known as Chinese New Year and Spring Festival, is upon us!"

Though the titles can be used interchangeably, the name Lunar New Year is inclusive to other countries that refer to new year celebrations by different names. Additionally, the holiday has a longstanding connection to the moon.

"Mainly observed in multiple countries in east Asia, the holiday is filled with rich culture and tradition that centers around the hope for good fortune and prosperity," said the magazine.

The Lunar New Year falls on a different date each year, but the celebration typically lasts 16 consecutive days. This year, it starts on Lunar New Year's Eve, beginning on Jan. 31, and ends on Feb. 15, 2022, it added.

Photo taken on Jan. 30, 2022 shows the Empire State Building lit up in red for the Chinese Lunar New Year, in New York, the United States. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua)

GLOBAL CELEBRATION

The Lunar New Year is an international holiday celebrated in many Asian countries but not all. People know similar holidays in China, Vietnam and South Korea. "The United States is also home to some celebrations," reported USA TODAY on Monday.

Overall, around 2 billion people across the world will take part in the festivities. Just like how people celebrate Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 each year, "Lunar New Year allows people to put the past behind and look forward to a fresh start," according to the report.

"We want to send away all the bad things, evil spirits," Xiaohua Yang, professor and director of the China Business Studies Initiative at the University of San Francisco, told the newspaper. "This is a new start, so now we welcome it with new energy."

"In this day, for many Asian countries, Lunar New Year is perhaps the equivalent of Thanksgiving or Christmas," Eddy Keming Chen, philosophy professor and faculty member of the Chinese Studies Program at University of California, San Diego, was quoted as saying.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
 Flash

South Africa's Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Blade Nzimande welcomed the country being chosen to host one of two new Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).

ATLAS is an asteroid impact early warning system developed by the University of Hawaii and funded by NASA. It consists of four telescopes, which automatically scan the whole sky several times every night looking for moving objects.

ATLAS will provide a warning time depending on the size of the asteroid as larger asteroids can be detected further from Earth.

The South Africa-based system would monitor the Southern Hemisphere and allow for night observation when it is daytime in Hawaii.

"The construction of the two additional ATLAS telescopes, in South Africa and Chile, is now complete. They have already begun operations, and the South African telescope, Atlas-Sutherland, has already discovered its first near-earth object," said Nzimande.

He said the telescope adds to Africa's growing list of international instruments that are being hosted at South African astronomy research facilities. This will boost scientific infrastructure and research.

"It also demonstrates once again that science and technology can facilitate foreign direct investment into the local economy," he added.
Joseph Roberts in 1999 displays a picture of Dr. Robert Burt and his family. Burt had taken Roberts' tonsils out when he was 7 years old.

The Leaf-Chronicle will showcase local trailblazers, intellectuals, activists and heroes in February during Black History Month. These Clarksville legends helped to tear down racial barriers during some of the most turbulent times in American history.

Clarksville's medical history will forever align with Black heritage.

Shortly after the dawn of the 20th century, on March 6, 1906, Dr. Robert T. Burt, then 33, made medical history when he opened the city's first hospital. It was a day that eventually led to the breaking of color barriers in a town where nearly half the population was African American at that time.

And it is a day that continues to resonate today.

When Tennova Healthcare General Surgeon Dr. Ronald Atwater Jr. saw a painting of Dr. Burt hanging near the hospital's main entrance in 2019, he realized Burt's vision had come full circle.

He couldn't help but smile when he researched Burt, as the two are both African American surgeons who are Meharry Medical College graduates.

"Physicians like Dr. Burt have paved the way for my generation of physicians, and I intend to do the same for generations to come," Atwater said. "I know that as an African American physician, I represent more than just myself."

Clarksville events: What's coming up in Clarksville in January

Dr. Burt's Home Infirmary

Born in Attola County, Mississippi, on Nov. 25, 1873, Burt was the third child of ex-slaves Robert and Sylvia (Sanders) Burt, according to Tennessee State University's library data.

He was highly educated, graduating from the Nashville-based, historically Black Walden University in 1893 and Meharry Medical College in 1897. Burt's post-graduate education and work history included stints at Harvard University and the Mayo Clinic, where he observed new surgical procedures.

Burt relocated to Clarksville in the early 1900's and opened a home infirmary on Front Street, now known as Riverside Drive.

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The Home Infirmary initially stood on a hillside overlooking the Cumberland River. It was operated by Burt and several doctors and nurses, including Burt's wife, Emma, a nurse. It offered assistance to African-American patients, and it was the only hospital in town until 1916.

By 1923, the infirmary had 32 rooms with the modern conveniences of the time period, according to the TSU library. It was recognized by the National Medical Association and operated for more than 40 years, eventually offering services to patients of all races.

Burt contracted with the Black Diamond Mining Company to care for the business's African-American employees, and he treated the obstetric patients at Fort Campbell before Blanchfield Army Hospital was constructed, library documents say.

During his career, Burt performed roughly 400 procedures each year, according to Clarksville Historian Jackie Collins.

"He had a clinic for needy children, where he removed their tonsils if needed, and he performed C-sections before it became a common practice," Collins said, noting that Burt also performed brain surgery to remove a bullet from one of his patient's brains, thereby saving the man's life.

Burt ran his hospital until Clarksville Memorial Hospital opened its doors in August 1954, Collins added.

'Knocked down walls into stepping stones.'

In 2020, Montgomery County's population surpassed 220,000 residents, 20% of which are African American.

Across the nation, men and woman who identify as African American make up only 5% of physicians, according to Association of American Medical Colleges data.

For Atwater, joining the medical profession as an African American was a rigorous task. With systemic barriers and historic oppression, it's a journey that's far from easy, especially with few role models.

But Burt set the tone over a century ago in the Clarksville community, making it known that if there is a will, there is a way.

"The journey is long and tough, and it will sharpen you. Know that it is possible," Atwater said, speaking to the next generation of would-be physicians and professionals.

"Many have come before you and have created a path. They have knocked down walls into stepping stones. Keep that path worn and do not let it be overgrown by brush."

Dr. Greg Fryer agreed.

He and his wife, Erien , have owned the Clarksville-based Medical Direct Care for the past eight years.

As a physician who identifies as African American, Fryer said it feels as if he is standing on the shoulders of giants.

"And great people who have gone before me, who have helped better society as a whole despite different prejudices, discrimination ... yet they see the greater good, he explained.

Fryer said the past is key, showing exactly what a person can accomplish when following his or her dreams.

When we realize we are here to serve other people, like Dr. Burt did, it makes huge impact," he said. "It is immeasurable."

Acknowledging Dr. Burt, then and now

Burt survived the struggles Black physicians faced in his day, Collins said.

"His determination was what led to his success," Collins said. "There were some Black doctors before Dr. Burt and many after him. But he made a profound (impact) on the City of Clarksville."

Collins said Burt's achievements should be acknowledged and seen all over.

A Tennessee Historical Commission marker stands in a grass patch blanketed by snow commemorating the first hospital in Clarksville that was established for African-Americans by Dr. Robert T. Burt at the intersection of Current St and Riverside Dr in Clarksville, Tenn., on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021.

In addition to his duties as a physician, Burt was a member of the Clarksville Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Trustees at Meharry Medical College and the Examining Board during World War One, according to Collins.

He was the state chairman of the Executive Committee of the Interracial Commission and served on the Welfare Board of Clarksville.

Burt received the Rosenwald Award and Clarksville's Burt Elementary School is named in his honor. The school site includes an historical marker that notes its original name, Burt High School.

Burt's accomplishments should be taught in school, and his name should be displayed in front of Clarksville's and Fort Campbell's hospitals, Collins added.

Because Dr. Burt was an educator.

Because Dr. Burt was a believer.

Because Dr. Burt was an African American pioneer who overcame barriers and paved the way for future medical professionals in Clarksville and beyond.

A Tennessee Historical Commission marker stands in a grass patch blanketed by snow commemorating the first hospital in Clarksville that was established for African-Americans by Dr. Robert T. Burt at the intersection of Current St and Riverside Dr in Clarksville, Tenn., on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021.

Alexis Clark is a staff writer for the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle. She can be reached at 931-217-8519.

This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: Dr. Robert T. Burt: Surgeon who opened Clarksville's first hospital
A judge denied a request to dismiss a false imprisonment charge against a Black Lives Matter activist Friday, after the mans legal team claimed he was being singled out due to his race.

Amman Asfaw is charged with misdemeanor false imprisonment in relation to the July 21 protest where demonstrators blocked Highway 101 for about an hour.

He is one of seven people, including activist Tianna Arata, charged in relation to the protest.

Asfaws legal team filed an invitation to dismiss the charge Jan. 13, stating the activist was simply exercising his First Amendment right to free speech and freedom to assemble.

In a court filing Friday, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorneys Office claimed they did not violate Asfaws First Amendment rights and asked the judge to deny the invitation to dismiss the charge.

DA engaging in invidious discrimination, legal team says

In the 67-page brief, Asfaws legal team asked the presiding judge to dismiss the false imprisonment charge, alleging the district attorney is engaging in invidious discrimination by singling out one Black man who protested with about 300 other people and selectively enforcing the false imprisonment charge, noting it could hypothetically be applied to any person who was ever involved in a demonstration that temporarily blocked or slowed traffic.

To utilize a statute designed to prevent people from holding a person hostage and apply it to a Black Lives Matter activist who participates in a rally is an egregious abuse of prosecutorial discretion aimed at chilling free speech, the filing said.

Asfaws team said the activist did not impede traffic on Highway 101, but rather stood in the crosswalk at the corner of Monterey Street and California Boulevard as a moving white sedan physically pushed him out of the crosswalk until other protesters  who are not charged with crimes relating to the July 21 protest  stood in front of Asfaw to prevent the car from running him over and killing him.

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Asfaw did not intend to intimidate the driver and later thanked the driver for listening to his message, the filing said.

They said the event equated to a minor inconvenience for the driver of the white sedan and lasted about six minutes less than the time Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of George Floyd.

Asfaw previously declined the prosecutions offer to divert the charge with community service, an offer given to just five of those charged in relation to the demonstration.

He has never been arrested prior to this charge and hasnt had trouble with the law since, the filing said.

He is a first-generation American working toward a professional engineering license after earning a masters degree in electrical engineering from Cal Poly in 2021 and is invested in community service.

The filing included several letters attesting to Asfaws character and commitment to serving his community.

There is no justification to delay dismissal or order Mr. Asfaw to complete court ordered community service, the filing said.

The false imprisonment charge could jeopardize everything Asfaw has worked for in his personal and professional life, and the court should dismiss the charge in the furtherance of justice, the filing said.

Asfaw did detain motorists, prosecution says

In their 19-page response, the District Attorneys Office claims Asfaws team grossly misstates facts and that Asfaw does not have a right to unlawfully detain motorists using public roads and force them to hear his speech. They say he was not utilizing the crosswalk the entire time.

The prosecution also claims they did not single out Asfaw, but that he was simply one of the individuals the office could identify from the protest.

The District Attorneys Office initially filed charges against eight people total in relation to the July 21 demonstration. An estimated 300 people  mostly white  participated in the event. Five of those charged are people of color and three are white.

Asfaw was identified as someone who directly and actively chased down identifiable victims and refused to let them leave, the District Attorneys Office said, noting that other protesters who allegedly engaged in the same activities could not be identified.

The prosecution said the driver of the white sedan was trying to complete a turn onto Monterey Street and drive around the protesters, not run over Asfaw. They said Asfaw and other unidentified protesters blocked the car and refused to listen [to the driver] and allow them to leave.

The District Attorneys Office also states it does not discriminate because it did charge a driver with reckless driving and reckless driving causing injury for hitting two BLM demonstrators who were using a crosswalk with their car in September.

They claim charging Asfaw does not violate his First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom to assemble, and that violating the law cannot be justified by the murder of George Floyd.

The office asked the judge to deny Asfaws invitation to dismiss the false imprisonment charge, which the judge ultimately did.

A trial setting conference is scheduled for May 6.
Anthony Velleman and his wife, Debra, both of Waukesha were traveling back from a weekend in the Panamanian island of Contadora when the plane transporting them crashed. Anthony survived, with serious injuries. The bodies of Debra Velleman and Sue Bories of Illinois have now been recovered, according to an announcement on Feb. 1.

Authorities have recovered the bodies of two women, including one from Waukesha, whose plane crashed off the coast of Panama one month ago.

The families of retired school teachers Debra Velleman, 70, of Waukesha and Sue Borries, 57, of Teutopolis, Illinois, confirmed the news Tuesday. It ends a saga that began when the plane in which they were passengers went down after its engine failed Jan. 3 while they traveling back from a weekend in the Panamanian island of Contadora.

Debra's husband, Anthony Velleman, and two others were rescued shortly after the crash, with Velleman sustaining a spinal injury requiring emergency treatment at Hospital Nacional in Panama City. He was later transported to Madison for continued treatment and eventually released Jan. 20.

After initial searches failed to locate the missing women, family members had called upon federal authorities to assist in the search, though realizing that the hope of finding them alive diminished with each passing day.

In response to Panamanian authorities' announcement that their bodies had been found, the families jointly issued a statement that expressed mixed feelings over the circumstances.

"Our families welcome, with a tremendous sense of relief and gratitude, the news out of Panama this morning that our loved ones  Sue Borries and Deb Velleman  have been recovered," they said in the statement.

But that relief is also accompanied by sadness arising out of the finality of the situation.

"It is our intention  almost exactly one month following this tragic accident  to give proper thanks to all those who supported our families during this difficult time, as well as to have many outstanding questions answered by way of a swift and thorough investigation," they said. "For now, however, this finally marks the beginning of our grieving process and provides us with a path to closure."

In the statement, they specifically thanked Keith Cormican and his nonprofit organization Bruces Legacy, "for the expertise, equipment and tireless effort in successfully searching for the missing aircraft and completing this mornings recovery in coordination with and under the supervision of local authorities in Panama."

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They also thanked Walter and Bernice Abadi and family, "without whose support these results would not be possible."

However, before the recovery, both families had also expressed their frustration over the U.S. government's position on fully assisting in the search.

"We all still have the same assessment of the situation, which is that these are two U.S. citizens," said Jake Velleman, Anthony and Debra's son, in a phone interview one week after the crash. "This was a U.S.-registered aircraft manufactured in the United States. The engine was manufactured in the United States. The U.S. has some jurisdictional responsibility."

The family did draw the support of notable federal elected officials, including Sen. Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Reps. Scott Fitzgerald and Bryan Steil from Wisconsin and Sen. Dick Durbin from Illinois, who asked for State Department help in the lengthy search. They were joined by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

Funeral services will be announced at a later date, the families said.

Anthony Velleman is expected to face many months of rehabilitation as he tries to recover from his spinal injury, the families said earlier.

Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Body of Waukesha woman from Panama plane crash has been found
Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron - Michel Euler/Pool via Reuters/File Photo

A phone call with Vladimir Putin that was delayed after Boris Johnson was unable to talk due to his own partygate grilling meant the Russian president discussed the Ukraine crisis with Emmanuel Macron.

A Downing Street source confirmed that the phone call that was due to take place on Monday afternoon between the Prime Minister and Mr Putin had been postponed, but was unable to confirm when it would be rescheduled.

However, it meant that the French and Russian leaders were able to speak by phone on Monday for the second time in four days, amid intense efforts by Nato allies to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Labour claimed that the Prime Ministers diplomatic initiative was in disarray, as Mr Johnson was forced to apply all his efforts on handling the fallout from Sue Grays report into Downing Street parties.

The Prime Minister had been due to speak to Mr Putin before flying to Kyiv on Tuesday in a show of support for Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president.

However, he spent much of Monday preparing for and delivering a Commons statement in response to Ms Grays report.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman insisted there had been no settled time for the call and that they were still hoping to arrange a time with the Kremlin for the two leaders to speak.

He added that it was not unusual for the timing of calls between world leaders to change, and added that Mr Johnson had committed to come to the House to make an update following the publication of the Gray report.

Speaking ahead of his visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, Mr Johnson warned Moscow that as "a friend and a democratic partner, the UK will continue to uphold Ukraines sovereignty in the face of those who seek to destroy it".

We urge Russia to step back and engage in dialogue to find a diplomatic resolution and avoid further bloodshed," he said.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Johnson said that he intended to urge Mr Putin to step back from the brink and not mount an invasion of his neighbour.

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He said: I think that an invasion of Ukraine, any incursion into Ukraine beyond the territory that Russia has already taken in 2014, would be an absolute disaster for the world, and above all it would be a disaster for Russia.

Mr Johnson added that any Russian invasion would be bitterly and bloodily resisted by the Ukrainian people.

Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the Commons defence select committee, warned that cancellation of this call will remind Putin just how distracted Britain has become.

He told The Telegraph that any call with Putin should confirm we are rallying a Nato force to directly support our Ukrainian friends.

Plans for new sanctions unveiled

Meanwhile, Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, on Monday announced plans for legislation with new powers to sanction individuals and businesses linked to the Russian state.

She told the Commons: We will be able to target any company that is linked to the Russian state, engages in business of economic significance to the Russian state or operates in a sector of strategic significance to the Russian state.

Ms Truss added that it would be the toughest sanction regime against Russia we have ever had, as she insisted that it was the most radical departure in approach since leaving the EU.

Those in and around the Kremlin will have nowhere to hide, she added.

The UK is expected to bolster military presence in eastern Europe as part of Natos efforts to secure the region, in response to Russias massing of around 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border.

Mr Putin has denied he is planning an attack, but is demanding guarantees Ukraine will never join Nato, while calling on the Western alliance to draw back its forces in eastern Europe.

The US on Monday night ordered the family members of its government employees in Belarus to leave as it warned against travel there amid tensions over Ukraine.




HEALTH CARE

Johnson & Johnson hired Brick Street Strategy to lobby on medical supply chain issues and business process reform. Mike Copher, former Republican staff director for the House Veterans Affairs Committee, will work on the account.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association hired Bose Public Affairs Group to lobby on drug pricing issues. David Crane, former domestic policy adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), will work on the account.

The Federation of American Hospitals hired Invariant LLC to increase awareness about the private hospital trade group in Congress. Katie Wise, former legislative director for Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), will work on the account.

TECHNOLOGY

Verizon Communications Inc. hired Capitol Counsel LLC to lobby on spectrum, broadband infrastructure and corporate taxation. Jeffrey Carroll, former Democratic staff director for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will work on the account.

Intel Corp. hired Locke Lord LLP to lobby on free trade legislation, immigration reform and other issues. Sarah Feldpausch, former policy adviser at the Department of Education, will work on the account.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

BlackRock Inc. hired Daly Consulting Group to lobby on financial services issues. Justin Daly, former Republican senior counsel for the House Financial Services Committee, will work on the account.

AARP Inc. hired LXR Group to lobby on banking, consumer finance, capital marks and other financial services issues. Michael Canning, former senior policy adviser for former Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), will work on the account.
A man took his 11-year-old grandson fishing at a South Miami-Dade canal over the weekend. But he didnt use the typical squirmy bait on a hook. Nor were they looking for dinner.

Duane Smith saw a YouTube video on magnet fishing and thought it would a nice family activity for the two to try. So Grandpa and Grandson prepped a line with a 5-pound magnet and dropped it into the C-102 canal in Princeton.

They hoped to see what they could pull up from the bottom. Metal scraps, perhaps. Or maybe something valuable. The magnet could pull up as much as 2,600 pounds of material.

Their catch of the day?

Two .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifles.

We ended up with two pounds of scrap metal and 40 pounds of gun, Smith said.

If youve never heard of magnet fishing, its pretty self-explanatory. You connect a heavy magnet to a rope, hurl it into the water and see what you find on the bottom. Amazon sells a magnet fishing kit, complete with rope and gloves, for about 30 bucks.

On Sunday, Smith and his grandson, Allen Cadwalader, tried their luck at the C-102  one of the many freshwater canals that line the roadways and tree farms in South Miami-Dade. From a bridge, Smith tossed in the magnet line, and Allen helped pull it up.

After five minutes, they got their big one. One of the rifles.

I figured, since it was our first time, this was beginners luck, Smith said.

But when he threw the magnet back in, they pulled up another catch. An identical sniper rifle.

The guns were not loaded and they didnt find any ammunition.

The Barretts had so much mass, Smith said. The magnet went straight to them.

Listen to today's top stories from the Miami Herald:

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Smith and his grandson found the lower receivers of the weapons  that is, most of the gun except the barrel. The Barrett .50-caliber rifle is a semiautomatic weapon chambered to fire a large bullet designed for the M2 Browning heavy machine gun.

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The South Miami-Dade man said he was concerned that the serial numbers on the lower receivers of the weapons and the bolt of one of the rifles were filed off.

Whoever did this is not your run-of-the-mill criminal, said Smith, a 61-year-old former Army infantry officer.

Smith called the Miami-Dade County Police Department, which sent out two officers to pick up the guns.

Police Detective Christopher Thomas viewed the photo Smith took of his grandson with the guns. He said Monday it will likely take the department a while to determine if the weapons were used in a crime.

Judging by the photo, those have been there for a while. That said, it will take some time for the weapons to end up at our forensics lab. Once there, they will be processed, he said.

Smith is not convinced the guns were in the water for long. They were wrapped in plastic and he was able to scrape away most of the corrosion after about 30 minutes.

It looked like it was something that someone would want to come back for.
Two police officers were killed on Tuesday during a campus shooting Bridgewater College, a private liberal arts school in Virginia.

Campus police officer John Painter and campus safety officer JJ Jefferson were both shot during the incident. Police have captured and charged a suspected shooter after a search involving numerous officers on campus.

These officers were close friends, known to many of us as the dynamic duo. John was JJs best man in his wedding this year. They were beloved by students, faculty and staff. I hurt for their families and loved ones, as I know we all do, Bridgewater College President David Bushman said in an email to students.

Police have identified Alexander Wyatt Campbell, 27, as the suspected shooter. He has been charged with four felonies and is being held without bond in Rockingham County Jail. He arrived in jail with a gun shot wound, which police are investigating to see if it is self-inflicted or from officers.

A photographer from the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record captured the officers approaching the alleged shooter, who lay face-down on the ground in the snow.

A man was taken into custody by law enforcement following an active shooter alert at Bridgewater College on Tuesday. Photo by Daniel Lin. @DNRnews https://t.co/C5w7DlGOs1 pic.twitter.com/TQPV7A9oMW  Ian Munro - Daily News-Record (@iamIanMunro) February 1, 2022

Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin said on Tuesday he is following the situation and confirmed the shooter was in custody.

I have been briefed on the situation at Bridgewater College. The shooter is in custody and state and local police are on the scene, he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. I will continue to monitor the situation in conjunction with law enforcement.

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I have been briefed on the situation at Bridgewater College. The shooter is in custody and state and local police are on the scene. I will continue to monitor the situation in conjunction with law enforcement.  Governor Glenn Youngkin (@GovernorVA) February 1, 2022

Students recounted in horror hearing shots ring out. Kai Bowman, 21, was returning from his dorm when the shooting started.

Thats when my heart stopped, he told The Washington Post. I didnt know whether to run or hide.

The school first announced there were reports of an active shooter on campus on Tuesday afternoon.

Reports of active shooter on campus. Shelter in place, the college said, adding, This is not a test.

There was a large police presence surrounding the schools athletic complex.

The town of Bridgewater, Virginia, temporarily residents to remain where they are.

Town residents please shelter in place, it wrote on Facebook. Active shooter in Bridgewater, and we need everyone to shelter so the officers can do their work and keep everyone as safe as possible.

Police have set up crime scene tape for an area that spans multiple blocks.

College Avenue, which runs near campus, has been closed to traffic.

Heavy police on Main St. near @BridgewaterNews College. This is on College Ave. Traffic closed off. pic.twitter.com/AqgaDyuQIv  Kyle Rogers (@WHSVKyle) February 1, 2022

One town resident reported seeing a man running away from campus holding a large black duffel bag over his shoulder, before crossing a nearby river. Shortly after, two police officers arrived and did the same, before all three disappeared from view.

Whatever he had in that bag was very heavy, Ecliff Graves told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, adding, I heard one little pop... It sounded like a hand gun. I said, thats sort of weird.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta at a news conference in December. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Californias attorney general will review several investigations conducted by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department amid allegations by county officials that Sheriff Alex Villanueva is abusing his power by investigating his critics.

In a letter last month, Los Angeles County Counsel Rodrigo Castro-Silva urged Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta to take control of the "intimidating, politically motivated investigations initiated or threatened" by Villanueva.

"Sheriff Villanueva has used these investigations to discourage legitimate oversight of himself and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and to retaliate against any public official who criticizes him or the Sheriff's Department," Castro-Silva said in the Dec. 6 letter, which was later made public.

Castro-Silva pointed to several cases opened by the Sheriff's Department, including a long-running criminal investigation into allegations made by department officials that Inspector General Max Huntsman and others improperly downloaded confidential personnel records on Villanueva and others. Castro-Silva said that Huntsman made a written request for the records and accessed them as part of his oversight duties.

In a live broadcast Tuesday on Facebook, Villanueva challenged Castro-Silva's allegations. Villanueva claimed that after sheriff's investigators concluded their investigation into Huntsman and four others in November, they presented the case to the attorney general's office for possible criminal charges. The AG's office didn't respond until it informed officials of its review last week, Villanueva said.

"We want the AG to just do their job," Villanueva said. "You have our complete cooperation in these matters  all we're asking from you is to pick up the pace here."

The Sheriff's Department was also carrying out a criminal inquiry into Peace Over Violence, a nonprofit that is run by a member of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, which oversees the Sheriff's Department. The commission member has been a vocal critic of the sheriff and is associated with county Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who has clashed fiercely with Villanueva and called for his resignation.

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Both the alleged data breach and Peace Over Violence case were handled by the Sheriff's Civil Rights and Public Integrity Detail, a unit formed by Villanueva to investigate public corruption that has been accused of targeting his political enemies. Castro-Silva's formal request to Bonta came after the oversight commission in September called on the attorney general to take over any of the units cases involving elected or oversight officials.

"None of these investigations appears to have merit, despite Sheriff Villanueva's attempts to publicize them, and none has resulted in criminal charges," Castro-Silva wrote to the attorney general. "The lack of charges and the circumstances underlying the investigations strongly suggests that these criminal inquiries are designed to intimidate a watchdog agency and its employees."

He wrote that the "only way to put an end to the Sheriff's abuse of power" is for the state Department of Justice to determine whether the investigations have merit, and end them if they don't.

In a response letter last week, Bonta's office said it would review the investigation into Huntsman and others, as well as allegations by Villanueva that the county's former chief executive, Sachi Hamai, had a conflict of interest because of her position on the board of a nonprofit that helped push a proposal to the Board of Supervisors in 2020. The county paid Hamai $1.5 million after she threatened to sue for defamation.

The Sheriffs Department in July 2020 had referred the allegations against Hamai to then-California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra.

Bonta's office also said it would ask for a status report on the investigation into Peace Over Violence.

It's unclear what the reviews will entail or whether the attorney general will resolve the cases either by filing criminal charges or closing them.

In a statement to The Times, a spokesperson for the attorney general's office wrote: "We can confirm that, as requested by the county, we'll review the sheriff department's investigation into the matters you referenced. Our review will seek to determine whether any additional action regarding these matters is appropriate or required."

Huntsman on Monday praised the attorney general's move.

"Sheriff Villanuevas unlawful use of his authority to threaten and intimidate public officials has catastrophically disrupted the administration of local law enforcement for the last three years," Huntsman said. "I greatly appreciate the Dept. of Justice intervening."

Villanueva said earlier this month that the public corruption unit has investigated 24 cases. Fourteen of the cases were closed after investigators determined no crime occurred or theres insufficient evidence to make a determination," while 10 remain open, Villanueva said. He did not specify which cases are active.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
 Flash

China's UN ambassador on Monday called for quiet diplomacy instead of megaphone diplomacy on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

In a procedural vote, China and Russia voted against a Security Council open meeting on Ukraine. The meeting went ahead as 10 other members of the council voted in favor.

China opposes the Security Council's holding of such a meeting as requested by the United States. The United States, in a letter to the president of the Security Council dated Jan. 27, claimed that Russia's deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine posed a threat to international peace and security. China cannot agree with such a claim, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

"Recently, there have indeed been tensions over the issue of Ukraine. We are paying attention to what exactly is causing the tensions. Some countries led by the United States have claimed that there is a looming war in Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly stated that it has no plans to launch any military action. And Ukraine has made it clear that it does not need a war. Under such circumstances, what is the basis for the countries concerned to insist that there would be a war?" he asked.

The United States, Ukraine and relevant European countries as well as NATO are having varying forms of diplomatic contacts with Russia. The parties concerned should persist in seeking to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations. What is urgently needed now is quiet diplomacy, not megaphone diplomacy, he said.

This is the view held by many members of the Security Council, which have also made relentless efforts toward this end. Regrettably, the United States did not accept such a constructive proposal. At a time when dialogue and negotiations are under way, and concrete progress has yet to be made, the holding of such an open meeting by the Security Council is clearly not conducive to creating a favorable environment for dialogue and negotiations, nor is it conducive to defusing the tensions, said Zhang.

"China once again calls on all parties concerned to remain calm, not to do anything to aggravate tensions or hype up the crisis, and to properly resolve their differences through consultations on an equal footing on the basis of mutual respect and fully taking into account each other's legitimate security concerns," he said.

China's position on Ukraine is consistent. To resolve this issue, there is a need to return to the original point of implementing the new Minsk Agreement. This agreement, endorsed by the Security Council in its Resolution 2202, is a binding foundational political document recognized by all parties and should be effectively implemented. China supports all efforts in line with the direction and spirit of this agreement, and hopes that all parties concerned will show their positive willingness to implement the agreement, resolve their differences arising from the implementation of the agreement through consultations, and earnestly promote its implementation, he said.

The expansion of NATO is a problem difficult to circumvent in handling the current tension. NATO is the product of the Cold War, and NATO expansion epitomizes bloc politics, said Zhang.

"We believe that the security of one country should not be achieved at the expense of the security of other countries. Still less should regional security rely on strengthening or even expanding military blocs. Today in the 21st century, all parties should completely abandon the Cold War mentality and come up with a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations, with Russia's legitimate security concerns being taken seriously and addressed," he said.
Canton Police Department, Ohio

CANTON  Police have arrested a Summit County mother accused of allowing her 14-month-old daughter to ingest Suboxone.

Police were notified by Akron Children's Hospital that the child had been exposed to Suboxone around 8:30 p.m. Dec. 30 at a home in the 1100 block of 11th Street NW, according to Canton police reports.

Stark County court records show the toddler, who was born in September 2020, spent six days in the hospital.

According to Stark County Jail records, Canton police arrested the child's 19-year-old mother, who lives in Akron, at 2:45 a.m. Monday at a hotel near the Akron-Canton Airport on a felony warrant charging her with endangering children.

The woman remained behind bars Tuesday, held without bond, according to court records.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Akron mom charged after child ingests Suboxone in Canton
Federal health officials on Monday classified a dozen countries as having very high COVID-19 risk, warning U.S. travelers to avoid the destinations regardless of vaccination status.

Mexico, Anguilla, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, French Guiana, Kosovo, Moldova, Paraguay, Philippines, Singapore and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines join 116 other destinations on the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions level 4 COVID-19 risk assessment level.

Other popular destinations on the level 4 list include Canada, Italy and Fiji.

Larger countries are considered to have a very high risk for COVID-19 when they report more than 500 cases of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the past 28 days. The CDC updates its travel health advisory list every week.

Avoid travel to these (level 4) destinations, the agency says on its website. If you must travel to these destinations, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel.

Story continues below.

Travelers watch planes on the tarmac at Ronald Reagan International Airport in Washington, DC on Dec. 27, 2021.

CDC TRAVEL WARNINGS: The CDC warns US travelers to avoid more than 100 countries. Do people care?

COVID-19 IN THE CARIBBEAN: CDC says to 'avoid travel' to these 5 islands

Other recent changes to the CDC's COVID-19 travel health notice page include:

French Polynesia moved from level unknown to level 3.

Bhutan, the Gambia, Guinea and Oman moved from level 1 to level 3.

Brunei, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Liberia and Nepal moved from level 2 to level 3.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter: @bailey_schulz.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CDC says to 'avoid travel' to Mexico, 127 other countries due to COVID
Jan. 31On Saturday night, business leaders flocked to the Clatsop County Fairgrounds, some opting for waist-length crab bibs over semiformal attire.

The 149th annual meeting and banquet for the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce recognized the community service work of businesses and individuals this past year.

David Reid, the chamber's executive director, wearing a royal-blue railroad conductors' uniform to follow the event's theme of "back on track," said he was excited to be back in person after holding the event virtually last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The event had a lower capacity of 130 people, spaced out among a greater number of tables.

All went quiet for the main event, which were awards for outstanding community service.

First up was the Board President's Award, selected by 2021 president Lois Perdue, and awarded to Bridgewater Bistro for their help with the Great Columbia Crossing and communication throughout the pandemic.

Next was the Ambassador's Choice Award, which went to Hampton Lumber for its infrastructure projects, forest management and employment in the area.

Lindsay Davis, Hampton's outreach specialist and stewardship coordinator, said the award was a surprise and an honor.

"We are so grateful to have had such an impact on the community, because it's had such an impact on us," she said.

The Richard Ford Distinguished Service Award went to Brenda and Norm Hoxsey, of Spruce Up Warrenton, which cleaned up over 70 properties last year. The pair also worked to revitalize downtown Warrenton and clean up local trails and parks.

"While Spruce Up Warrenton is full of active persons, many deserving credit, these two were directly responsible for the formation and continual expansion of work by Spruce Up Warrenton and the outsized impact of their work over the past few years makes them the obvious choice for this most prestigious of awards," Warrenton Mayor Henry Balensifer said.

Story continues

Astoria Mayor Bruce Jones presented the first of two George Awards for community service, selected by both the city and the chamber.

Judi Lampi and Janet Bowler received an award for their near six-year effort to build the Astoria Nordic Heritage Park. They received a standing ovation, and Bowler called it a "shocking surprise."

"We're proud to be a part of our community," said Lampi, who added that their work would not have been possible without the 866 people who donated over $1.5 million toward the project.

Former state Sen. Betsy Johnson, who is making an independent bid for governor, presented the final George Award to someone she said she consulted with repeatedly in her work, and that she considers a personal friend.

Kevin Leahy, the director of the Small Business Development Center and Clatsop Economic Development Resources, had a bounce in his step as he approached the stage to another standing ovation.

"Growing up in this community, and looking at the names of who have won before, it's just an honor," said Leahy, who called his work in community development his dream job.

He said the award was especially meaningful to him coming from Johnson, and in front of a room full of friends and colleagues.

The final award of the night, the Applause Award, went to Chris Laman, the director of pharmacy and cancer center services at Columbia Memorial Hospital.

"His organizational skills, his knowledge of complex medical challenges, his calm leadership, and just his unflappable charm turned little old Clatsop County's vaccine rollout into a model for our entire state," Johnson said.

Afterward, Laman praised the work of over 300 volunteers that put the county in the upper rungs of state vaccination rates.

"Without the whole community coming together, we wouldn't have been able to do what we did," he said.
After two years of pandemic stasis, crime stories and a broadly battered image, Chicago is going on the offensive, launching a guerrilla marketing campaign Monday to promote itself as a more influential world city than many realize.

Created by Chicago ad agency Energy BBDO, the pro bono Chicago Not in Chicago campaign touts a long list of homegrown innovations  from the cellphone to the skyscraper  that have changed the world, but with little credit given to the city of origin.

Since its founding, Chicago has influenced the most important cities across the globe, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in an introductory video to the campaign. The high-rises, mobile phone, Ferris wheel, house music, coffee maker, soap opera and many other things were all created here in Chicago. However, only a few people know that  until now.

The campaign will live on a new website featuring quirky videos that the city hopes will be widely shared on social media. The inaugural video features a double-decker bus that descended on New York City in October to stage a tour pointing out Chicago innovations integral to the Big Apple.

In the video, the faux tour guide takes passengers past the Empire State Building and other iconic buildings, reminding them the skyscraper was invented in Chicago. Most architectural historians credit the 10-story red brick and granite Home Insurance Building, built in 1885 at the corner of La Salle and Adams streets, as the first modern skyscraper.

They next drive by the trendy Le Bain dance club where house music, born in Chicago during the 1980s, is apparently all the rage. The tour guide also mentions cellphones, which were invented by Motorola in 1973 and brought to market 10 years later with the bricklike DynaTAC. He then ticks off everything from coffee makers to softball as Chicago creations, ultimately chanting the citys name for the balance of the three-minute video as the bus rides the streets of New York.

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Michael Fassnacht, president and CEO of World Business Chicago and the citys chief marketing officer since April 2020, said the campaign will produce similar videos in other cities, starting with a London tour later this year.

If you look at big cities in the world, they could not exist without Chicago, Fassnacht said. Each of them have Chicago stories in their city.

The Chicago Not in Chicago campaign will include national advertisements in newspapers and magazines, but will rely primarily on social media to spread the word, Fassnacht said. There are also plans to put a billboard in New York, he said.

While the budget is low, it is the first comprehensive branding campaign for Chicago since the pandemic hit nearly two years ago. Like many major cities, Chicago has faced a sharp decline in everything from tourism to mass transit usage as remote work, social distancing and commercial closures made it something less than a toddlin town for many.

Chicago, which welcomed nearly 61 million visitors in 2019, fell to 16 million in 2020 and was projected to attract just under 29 million last year, according to data provided by Choose Chicago, the citys official tourism arm.

The citys image as a crime capital, which dates back to the days of Al Capone, has also flared up during the pandemic  fairly or unfairly  as Chicago saw upward of 800 homicides last year, the deadliest total since 1996, according to Chicago Police Department data and other sources.

We have been facing tremendous headwinds, Fassnacht said. We are in a little bit of a downward cycle, but Im very optimistic about our recovery.

Fassnacht said the campaign will be the first step to rebuilding Chicagos image as a tourist and business destination. He cites some improving trends in hotel occupancy, transit usage and event attendance  before omicron hit in December  as signs the city is poised for a robust recovery when the pandemic wanes.

He also sees it as a morale builder for Chicagoans, and a call to action to patronize and promote the citys attractions, such as restaurants, museums and theaters.

In headier days, Chicago had more ambitious marketing campaigns, such as Chicago Epic, a 2015 national TV commercial targeting far-flung markets such as San Francisco and Denver in a bid to broaden the citys appeal as a tourist destination. The city also extended the campaign overseas, with translated versions of the spots running in China. The multimillion-dollar campaign was created by ad agency FCB Chicago, then headed up by Fassnacht.

The new campaign has simpler goals: recasting Chicago and raising awareness for the post-pandemic future.

Its like a brand, you have to be top of mind, you have to be out there, Fassnacht said. Its never too early to promote Chicago. We should promote Chicago every single day.
TOKYO (AP)  Japanese lawmakers on Tuesday urged their government to take action against a serious human rights situation" in China, drawing a quick and angry rebuke from Beijing.

The resolution passed by Japan's lower house stopped short of naming China, but expressed concern about serious human rights conditions including the violation of religious freedom and internment in the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong"  all of which are ruled by China.

The parliamentary vote came days ahead of the Feb. 4 start of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Japan had announced a decision not to send a government delegation to the opening, following a similar U.S. move that cited Chinas human rights abuses.

The resolution urged the Japanese government to further assess the human rights situation in China and cooperate with the international community to protect victims.

Human rights hold universal values and are of a legitimate concern for the international community, the resolution stated.

China denies allegations of human rights abuses, calling them the lie of the century."

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian bitterly criticized on Tuesday the resolution as extremely vile in nature," and alleged it interferes with China's internal affairs.

This is a severe political provocation against the Chinese people, he added.

Noting WWII Japans aggression and atrocities, Zhao said that Japan has no authority whatsoever to make wanton remarks about other countries' human rights conditions.

As a military ally of the United States and a top trading partner for China, Japan has tried to balance its relations with Beijing. But conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party pushed for the adoption of the resolution prior to the Olympics' opening, despite government concerns over a possible economic backlash from China.
Architectural manager Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, 26, poses with producer David Pearce, 37, at an after-hours warehouse party in downtown LA on Nov. 13. Mr Pearce was later arrested on manslaughter charges connected to the drug overdose deaths of Ms Cabrales-Arzola and her model friend, Christy Giles. (Instagram)

The 39-year-old man charged in connection with the deaths of Instagram model Christy Giles and her friend Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault charges in court.

David Brian Pearce, of Beverly Hills, appeared in court in Los Angeles on Monday and pleaded not guilty to sexual assault charges against four more women, the district attorneys office said.

Los Angeles County prosecutors also revealed that Mr Pearce had his passport and $30,000 (22,240) in cash on him when he was arrested in connection to the November deaths of the model and her friend.

Deputy district attorney Kristine Mariano said to the judge at Mondays hearing. I do believe he poses as a threat to the public and is a flight risk.

As The New York Post revealed, the Hollywood producer had searched for countries that do not hold extradition treaties with the United States following a series of incidents involving women in Los Angeles.

His attorney had asked for his $3.4m (2.5m) bail to be overturned but that request was reportedly refused by a judge, who told the court that the 39-year-old was engages in violence  he is a serial rapist.

In terms of public safety and seriousness of the crimes, the court finds he is a threat to public safety, said judge Victoria Wilson, according to The Post.

Mr Pearce was charged with four counts of sexual assault in relation to four incidents that occurred between 2010 and 2021 in the same month as his arrest for the deaths of Ms Giles and her friend Ms Cabrales-Arzola.

The two women died of drug overdoses after being abandoned outside two different hospitals in Los Angeles last November.

Both families said neither of the two women, who had been out with friends before leaving with a group of men that reportedly included Mr Pearce, would have taken enough drugs to pose a risk of death.

Mr Pearce, a Hollywood producer and former actor, was arrested in December alongside Brandt Osborn 42, and cinematographer Mike Ansbach, 42. No charges have been filed.

Story continues

In a press release in December, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office said Mr Pearce was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in August 2010. He also allegedly raped a woman in February 2019 and two other women in separate incidents last year.

No further information was available on Monday, and the Hollywood producer is due back in court on 17 February to face the four charges.

An attorney for Mr Pearce, Jacob Glucksman, told The Independent in a statement: The allegations against Mr Pearce are very weak and pieced together solely based on circumstantial evidence. The DA has no forensic evidence and all of the witnesses have questionable stories.

Mr Pearce maintains his innocence and we look forward to our day in court when the full scope of the evidence can be presented, he added.
A congressional subcommittee has again asked the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of systemic abuses by "criminal gangs" within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

A congressional subcommittee has requested for a second time that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate allegations of systemic abuses by criminal gangs of deputies within the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department that celebrate shootings and retaliate against whistleblowers.

"The failure to address these deputy gangs not only undermines the safety and trust of the people they are sworn to protect  especially those of color  but also threatens equal justice under the law," Reps. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) wrote Tuesday in a letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. Merrick B. Garland and Assistant Atty. Gen. Kristen Clarke.

The Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties first requested in September 2020 that the Trump administration conduct a probe, but received no response.

The renewed request comes as the California attorney general investigates whether the Sheriff's Department routinely oversteps constitutional lines in its policing and follows a series of reports on the deputy groups, including one commissioned by L.A. County.

For decades, the Sheriffs Department has been dogged by allegations that gang-like groups of deputies have taken root in several stations, running roughshod over commanders and deploying aggressive policing tactics. Sheriff Alex Villanueva has been criticized for not doing enough to confront the issue.

In the past, Villanueva has denied that gangs exist within the department and has downplayed the issue, saying problems associated with the groups are instead often the result of drunken deputies getting into fights.

But the sheriff has also taken credit for addressing the problem with a policy that prohibits deputies from joining groups that promote behavior that violates the rights of others.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
 Flash

Japan on Tuesday said it would seek a gold and silver mine site on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture to be nominated for the 2023 UNESCO World Heritage list, despite vehement protests from South Korea about the plan due to the site's connections to wartime labor.

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida approved a plan to seek the listing of the Sado gold mine, meaning a letter of recommendation will be submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) by the deadline on Tuesday.

"We will engage in dialogue with South Korea and other nations calmly and politely so the value of the site as a cultural asset will be recognized," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press briefing on the matter.

"A task force will be set up by Japan to make preparations for the selection process which will include deliberations over the site's historical background," Matsuno said.

South Korea has said it was "deplorable" that Japan was seeking the listing of the mine by UNESCO, where Korean nationals were forcibly subjected to brutal labor during Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea has demanded that Japan's plan for the site to be nominated for the 2023 UNESCO World Heritage list to be immediately revoked.

Japan is hoping that a UNESCO advisory body will survey the mine site this autumn and decide around May next year whether or not it warrants adding the site to the list.

Thereafter, the World Heritage Committee will examine the advisory board's opinion in the summer.

But owing to South Korea's unwavering opposition, it could well be the case that UNESCO will ditch the screening process and call for further negotiations on the matter between Japan and South Korea.
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For anyone in the US whos been using a VPN to secretly watch the controversial Korean drama Snowdrop  and based on social media posts, it seems that tons of you are watching it that way  weve got some good news. If that method has proven too cumbersome, or if youve been frustrated at missing out entirely on this buzzy new K-drama starring one of the members of the K-pop girl group Blackpink, theres about to be a much easier way to check out this title. Its arriving, finally, in the US on Disney Plus. And that will happen in just a matter of days from now.

February 9 is the release date in the US. This follows Snowdrop, which stars Blackpinks Jisoo as well as actor Jung Hae-in, having been out for several weeks now in Disney+s Asia-Pacific territories. Whats more, it should also be noted that the series has been a top-five title in most of those countries. And thats in spite of attracting considerable controversy.

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Snowdrop Disney Plus US release date

At the heart of this drama is a romance between a university student (Jisoos character) and a North Korean spy (Jung Hae-in). And the story takes place in South Korea in 1987. That was the year of the so-called June Democratic Struggle, when mass protests forced the then-ruling government in the country to hold elections in addition to other democratic reforms. The result was, among other things, the democratic government of the present-day South Korean republic.

Jisoo plays a student who lives in an all-female dormitory. Jung, meanwhile, plays a graduate student who shows up in her room suddenly covered in blood. As a result, he proceeds to hide out for an extended period in the dormitory at Hosoo Womens University. Its not spoiling anything to add that a romance, consequently, ensues. But, as we noted, Jungs character is a man with a secret.

Story continues

As for the controversy we alluded to?

The storyline around the North Korean character set off a huge outcry in South Korea. Specifically, over his character being even tangentially connected to the countrys pro-democracy activists. At the time, that was a common charge leveled at activists  that they were spies from the north. And Korean authorities tortured, jailed, and even killed many of the activists on that basis. Many viewers were, thus, loathe to see that bogus claim seemingly legitimized in a high-profile TV series.

New K-drama could make waves

Every episode has been a roller coaster of emotions. Catch the final episodes of #Snowdrop this weekend on #DisneyPlusSG pic.twitter.com/miQgNer4gZ  Disney+ Singapore (@DisneyPlusSG) January 28, 2022

South Korean TV network JTBC released a statement defending the show early on. It read, in part: Snowdrop is a creative work that shows the personal stories of individuals who were used and victimized by those in power.

Meanwhile, one additional thing American viewers can also look forward to? Unlike the way Snowdrop rolled out weekly elsewhere, the whole thing will be available to US Disney+ subscribers right away.

Snowdrop is a heart-warming fictional melodrama about a young couple in love, and as the story unfolds, find themselves enduring an unbearable pain that one rarely encounters in a lifetime, director Jo Hyun-tak said in a statement. I hope global audiences find this heartfelt series also gripping and suspenseful as the two come to face their fate.

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
(Costa Book Awards)

The winner at this years Costa Book Awards has been named.

Former teacher Hannah Lowe has been announced as the recipient of the 30,000 prize for The Kids, a book of sonnets about teaching, learning, growing up and parenthood.

The collection draws on Lowes decade of teaching in an inner-city London sixth form during the 2000s, as well as on her own coming of age in the riotous 1980s and 1990s. It concludes with poems about her young son learning to live in contemporary London.

Judges described it as a book to fall in love with, with BBC News journalist and broadcaster Reeta Chakrabarti stating: its joyous, its warm and its completely universal. Its crafted and skilful but also accessible. Words from the judges were insightful, empathetic, generous, funny, compassionate, uplifting. You will love it!

Lowe beat the bookies favourite  bestselling novelist Claire Fuller for her fourth book Unsettled Ground.

London-based writer and lecturer LE Yates won the 2020 Costa Short Story Award, which was decided by a public vote. She has received 3,500 for her story,story, Sunblock. Runners up were named as Matthew Hurt and Lindsay Gillespie, who received 1,000 and 500 respectively.

The announcement was made at an awards ceremony hosted by presenter and broadcaster Penny Smith.

Last years winner was The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey.
Silver Ridge Elementary and Ridgetop Middle School in Silverdale have switched to online learning this week because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases at the schools  the first schools to transition to remote learning this school year in Central Kitsap School District.

At Silver Ridge, the switch from in-person to online teaching came as the COVID-19 absenteeism rate of school staff reached 10% in the past two weeks, with six staff testing positive among a total of 51 staff members at the school, said Central Kitsap School District spokesperson David Beil.

Washington State Department of Health guidelines recommend transitioning to remote learning for at least two days when the 10% point is reached, Beil said.

Silver Ridge parent Kelli Monaco got a call from the school on Monday afternoon saying that her daughter's second-grade class would close after some students and staff in the class were confirmed to have COVID-19, she said.

Around three hours later, Monaco got an email from the school's principal, who officially announced to the parents that all classes were switched to remote on Tuesday and Wednesday, she said. In addition to her second-grader, Monaco has a fifth-grader at the school.

"It was last minute, but at the same time, I don't think they really had a choice," Monaco said. "As a school, they did the best that they possibly could."

Teachers at Silver Ridge were able to send students home with their Chromebooks and other items for short-term remote learning before they left the school on Monday afternoon, Monaco said.

Being able to telework, Monaco and her partner didn't have to adjust their working schedules, though she knows that's not the case for many families, she said.

"I'm sure it put a lot of families in a predicament, but, you know, I'd rather be in that predicament than have my kids at school with COVID," Monaco said.

The school district plans to reopen the school on Thursday, Beil said.

Story continues

So far this school year, Silver Ridge Elementary School has had 10 staff members and 36 students who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to CKSD's COVID-19 tracker.

Starting Wednesday, Ridgetop Middle School will also transition to remote learning because of the COVID-19 absenteeism rate at the school, Beil said on Tuesday afternoon.

Over the past two weeks, Ridgetop Middle School has seven staff tested positive among a total of 66 staff members, according to Beil.

The school is switching to online courses from Wednesday to Friday with all after-school events and activities canceled for those days, Beil said.

The school district plans to resume in-person learning at Ridgetop on Monday.

Ridgetop Middle School has had 12 staff members and 76 students who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of this school year, according to CKSD's COVID-19 tracker.

Reach breaking news reporter Peiyu Lin at pei-yu.lin@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter @peiyulintw.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to kitsapsun.com today.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: COVID-19 cases drive Silver Ridge Elementary in CKSD to online learning
My parents were young when Black was beautiful.

They were just starting out in the late 1960s. They bought a small bungalow in a nice neighborhood once fair housing laws allowed Black people to move out of the segregated center of Gary, Indiana. They were among the first Black people to get jobs locally at Indiana Bell, mom as an operator, dad as a lineman.

They were citizens of a Gary that bustled with the pride of Black-owned businesses, the excitement of new Mayor Richard Gordon Hatchers Black city government and the idea that their generation could achieve the dreams of success that led their own parents to leave the Jim Crow South so many decades before.

I am their firstborn and their witness. But in 1972, I had no idea that history was being made all around me. That history happens every day, just in the motion of going about living. That history is personal, and that in 1972, I was at its epicenter.

I turned 4 the same weekend that the National Black Political Convention brought 10,000 activists, politicians and delegates to my city to craft an agenda that would irrevocably change the face of U.S. politics.

'Unity without uniformity': 50 years later, ideology of 1972 National Black Political Convention still resonates

The Rev. Jesse Jackson of my childhood was a young cat then, who wore dashikis and a full round Afro as he picketed for economic justice with Operation PUSH on nearby Chicagos South Side. He told us that we were Somebody and we believed him. When Nina Simone, the activist artist, sang To Be Young, Gifted and Black we knew that we were. I grew up with no idea that I should be anything less.

USA TODAY's Black History Month 2022 special edition, Black Progress, is a tribute to those who pushed for and brought about lasting change. Some, like Hatcher, Jackson and Simone, preached progress from the main stage. Others, like my parents, made change happen day by day, in the everyday living of history.

Story continues

Thanks to them, Black is still beautiful, every day.

Nina Simone performs at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, featured in the documentary "Summer of Soul." Simone introduced the song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," at the festival. She and bandleader Weldon J. Irvine wrote the song as a tribute to her friend, the poet Lorraine Hansberry, and it became an anthem for Black children all over the nation.

Issue highlights:

The National Black Political Convention was the largest such gathering in U.S. history. Reporter Marc Ramirez talked to people ranging from former Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, who remembered her parents welcoming visitors to their home, to Indiana state representative Vernon Smith, who started his political career at the convention. Mayor Hatcher was a visionary, Smith said. He saw the strength that could be amassed if we brought everyone together.

Rev. Jesse Jackson granted reporter Mabinty Quarshie a 45-minute interview to talk about how Operation Breadbasket, an economic boycott initiative of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, became Operation PUSH and his signature, lifelong organization.

It's easy to regard the Blaxploitation movies as outdated camp, but they were revolutionary for their time, reports Marco Della Cava and Rasha Ali. Through Jimmy Cliff, "The Harder They Come" introduced Jamaican culture and reggae music to the world.

The national Black History theme for 2022 is Black health and wellness. Reporter Alia Dastagir looks at the collective health of Black America and what it will take for us to heal, while NDea Yancey-Bragg talks to author Marita Golden about the dangers of the Strong Black Woman myth.

Reporters Jessica Guynn and Jayme Fraser found that despite the countrys recent racial reckoning, white and male employees remain overrepresented in positions that pay the highest salaries and benefits. Black women are concentrated in the lowest ranks of the Standard & Poor's 100.

The critical race theory battles in education today obscure the fight to include Black history and Black studies in the nations colleges in the 1960s and 70s. Educators such as Edward Beasley, Bill Keveney reports, created games that made history fun and relevant for everyone.

In 2019, USA TODAY reporters took Wanda Tucker, a descendant of the First Africans to land in the Virginia colony in 1619, to Angola. More than two years later, she writes about her second trip home to the land of her ancestors.

To get your own copy of the Black Progress special edition, visit newsstands everywhere in February or visit our online store.

Also, please take a look at our additional projects: neverbeentold.usatoday.com, 1619.usatoday.com and sevendaysof1961.usatoday.com, which has an e-book available now.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black History Month: Growing up Black and proud in 1972
On the eve of the start of two days of court hearings to hammer out which evidence should be allowed in the murder trial of Katherine Magbanua, her attorneys and prosecutors are asking for the case to be continued so a key audio recording can be analyzed.

Magbanuas Miami defense attorneys Chris DeCoste and Tara Kawass are asking Circuit Judge Robert Wheeler to continue her trial on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder in connection with the death of Florida State law professor Dan Markel.

Magbanua, 37, was set to appear before a jury starting Feb. 14. A hearing to decide whether to continue the trial has been set for 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Back story:

The joint motion to continue filed on Monday indicCIA audio forensics investigator James Keith McElveen is working to enhance audio from a secret recording of Magbanua and Markels former brother-in-law, Charlie Adelson, who prosecutors say is an unindicted co-conspirator in the alleged murder-for-hire plot.

He and other members of the Adelson family have denied any involvement in Markels death despite assertions by the State Attorneys Office in Tallahassee that the former in-laws financed the killing.

The so-called Dolce Vida recording, taken in 2016 by FBI agents at the Miami restaurant of the same name, captures a conversation between Magbanua and Charlie Adelson in which they discuss undercover agents approaching his mom about Markels shooting, which prosecutors say detail the chain of information flow about the murder conspiracy.

Much of the video is inaudible and its use in trial  Magbanua faced a jury in 2019 but her case ended in a mistrial  has been disputed with her defense attorneys calling it hearsay because Charlie Adelson is not testifying and cannot be questioned about its content.

Story continues

During Magbanuas joint trial in 2019 alongside the mother of her two children Sigfredo Garcia  who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison  only about 25 seconds of the video were allowed in court due to its poor quality.

Magbanuas defense team is asking for more time for McElveen to complete his work and believes it may end the case without a trial.

More: Prosecutor not ruling out charges for ex-in-laws in Markel case

The government hopes the end product will support their case theory whereas undersigned is confident it will contain exculpatory evidence for Ms. Magbanua, they wrote in court records filed Monday. Whatever the case, time is needed for Mr. McElveen to complete his work, which could bring an end to this case without the need for a retrial.

Pretrial court hearings are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday to determine what evidence may be excluded as well as whether alleged yet un-indicted co-conspirators in the Adelson family will have to testify. Her attorneys are set to argue that a number of video and audio recordings taken in the course of investigating the 2014 homicide should not be allowed in court.

While prosecutors are trying to bar Magbanua from suggesting in front of the jury any alternate perpetrators, her defense team is seeking to exclude wiretaps, FBI recordings and statements by Markel prior to his death about his divorce proceedings.

Magbanua is the only one of three indicted suspects in Markel's July 2014 killing whose case has not been disposed.

More:

Garcias childhood friend, Luis Rivera, testified the two men drove from South Florida to shoot Markel in what investigators say was a murder-for-hire plot. Markel was killed sitting in his car in front of his Trescott Drive home.

Rivera and Garcia are expected to testify about Magbanua.

Rivera pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 19-year sentence, to run concurrently with a federal sentence in an unrelated case, for his testimony and cooperation with prosecutors.

In September, the case was delayed till February after Judge Wheeler cited a mountain of evidence and depositions her defense team needed to wade through as well as the COVID delta surge in Tallahassee.

Previous coverage: Judge OKs delay in Magbanua trial until February 2022

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.

Never miss a story: Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat using the link at the top of the page.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Dan Markel murder: Magbanua trial may be delayed again
Correction: This report has been updated to reflect that the law firm of which attorney Craig Heidemann is a part represented a family member of a person alleged to be the victim in the current case.

A Missouri judge issued an order Tuesday granting a defense attorney's motion to withdraw from the case of Dr. David Smock, the longtime physician for Agape Boarding School who is accused of 11 felony sex crimes linked to the school.

The southern Missouri independent fundamental Baptist boarding school has attracted intense scrutiny recently due to allegations made by former students of severe physical, emotional and sexual abuse linked to the school.

Smock is accused of 11 felony child sex crimes in two Missouri counties. He was arrested with the help of U.S. Marshals in Arkansas on Dec. 28 and has been in the Greene County Jail in Springfield since Jan. 5. Eight days later, Smock pleaded not guilty to the three charges filed in Greene County.

More: Missouri Healing Arts board requests court records in Agape Boarding School doctor case

Court records show attorney Craig Heidemann asked Cedar County Judge Gary Troxell to withdraw from the case on Monday. Judge Troxell granted the order the following day.

Heidemann sent a similar motion to withdraw to Judge Ron Carrier in Greene County early Tuesday morning, Missouri court records show. That motion remained pending as this report was prepared for publication.

Prosecutor: Defense attorney's firm previously represented a victim's stepfather

On Jan. 5, a prosecutor with the Missouri Attorney General's Office filed a motion to disqualify Heidemann from defending Smock in Cedar County courts.

That motion argued that Heidemann should not represent Smock because in a separate criminal matter, Heidemann's law firm previously represented the stepfather of a person whom prosecutors identify as the victim at the center of the Smock case.

The stepfather is a "material witness" in the current criminal case against Smock, prosecutors stated. Prosecutors argued Heidemann "has a real conflict of interest" in relation to standard attorney ethics, along with case law handed down from the Missouri and U.S. Supreme Courts, if he were to represent Smock and have access to confidential files and privileged communications in the current case.

Story continues

More: 300 hours of Agape Boarding School witness interviews to be reviewed before assault cases advance

Reached Tuesday morning, Heidemann told the News-Leader he could not comment on withdrawing from the case, as a matter of professional attorney ethics.

Stacie Bilyeu remains as defense attorney for Smock, Missouri court records showed Tuesday.

Reach News-Leader reporter Gregory Holman by emailing gholman@gannett.com. Please consider subscribing to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Agape Boarding School doctor's defense attorney withdraws from case
Members of the Oak Ridge Alumnae Chapter Affair of the Heart Scholarship Gala.

The Oak Ridge Alumnae Chapter (ORAC) of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. will celebrate its annual Affair of the Heart (AOTH) Scholarship Ball on Saturday, Feb. 12, at the newly renovated Airport Hilton Hotel located at 2001 Alcoa Highway, Alcoa.

The fun-filled event will begin at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails and a Silent Auction, followed by dinner, dancing, and live music featuring the TSJ Soul Band from Chattanooga, according to a news release. The AOTH Scholarship Gala is a charity fundraiser providing financial support to young women of East Tennessee counties with scholarship funds to attend college. This event is held in collaboration with the Delta Research and Educational Foundation (DREF).

The Affair of the Heart Ball (after-five or formal attire preferred) is described as a classy social event hosted by the ORAC and DREF. This years theme is An Evening of Elegance and tickets are $65 per person. The public is invited. Masks and COVID vaccinations are required to attend. Tickets can be purchased via website at www.oakridgedst.org or via PayPal at oakridgedst@gmail.com. Donations will be accepted if you cannot attend this event. Tax-exempt donations should be written to DREF and mailed to P.O. Box 5387, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831-5387.

The Oak Ridge Alumnae Chapter promotes community programs that align with a national Five-Point Programmatic Thrust:

Educational Development

Economic Development

International Awareness & Involvement

Physical & Mental Health

Political Awareness & Involvement

Some of the local signature activities and events include Adopt-A Street Cleanup, Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy, Growing and Empowering Myself Successfully (G.E.M.S.) the Historically Black Colleges & Universities Expo, Operation Christmas Child, Susan G. Komen/ Race for the Cure, Science and Everyday Experiences, Voter Registration Drives and Social Action, according to a release.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. is a private, non-profit organization with over 300,000 women worldwide. Delta Sigma Theta established DREF as a 501(c)(3) public charity supporting scholastic achievement, public service programs, and research initiatives focused upon African American women.

Visit the ORAC Facebook page for more information at Oak Ridge TN DST. Youll want to be a part of this years Affair of the Heart Ball: An Evening of Elegance.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Delta Sigma Theta Affair of the Heart Scholarship Ball Feb. 12
John Palmer speaks to reporters on Jan. 14 after Judge Ray Wheless refused to issue a citation on Palmer's petition to have GC Judge Bill Magers removed from office.

The campaign to remove the Grayson County Judge from office was renewed this week when a petition for writ or mandamus was filed with the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas.

The document filed by John Palmer on Jan. 31 asks that the court make Judge Ray Wheless issue a citation on Palmer's request to have County Judge Bill Magers removed from office based on a driving while intoxicated 2nd charge he pleaded guilty to back in June of 2020.

Unlike in his previous filings, Palmer is represented by an attorney in this matter. He is represented by Julia D. McKinney of Denison.

Magers is still represented by local attorneys Bob Jarvis and Joe Brown, both former Grayson County District attorneys.

At a hearing earlier this year, Wheless refused Palmer's request to have the citation issued stating the state statute Palmer cited in his petition was vague as it does not define the term "intoxicated."

Bill Magers

More: Case dismissed: Case for petition to remove county judge ends

In his most recent filing Palmer asserts the Fifth Court of Appeals has the right to tell Wheless he got it wrong, order him to issue the citation and let palmer's petition have a jury hear the claims for removing Magers.

"Looks like this is an original proceeding, which means the cases are immediately given to the panel," Fifth Court of Appeals clerk Lisa Matz said of Palmer's writ. "However, depending on the case  the courts docket  it can take months before a final disposition is issued."

If it takes months, voters will have already cast their ballots in the March Republican Primary in which Magers faces challenger Bruce Dawsey to keep the county judge's seat.

No Democrat filed for the primary so whoever wins the Republican primary will be the county judge in 2023.

Early voting for the March 1 primary will be held on Feb. 14-25.

More: Petition filed to remove Grayson County Judge

This article originally appeared on Herald Democrat: Denison man takes case to remove county judge appeals court
Robert Perry, a technician with Bluewater Heating and Air Conditioning, works to complete the installation of a central air and heating unit in Pensacola on Jan. 21.

The peaceful sound of a light rain against the roof filled an attic at a personal dance studio in Pensacola.

A weak light from a window highlighted a narrow area littered with mousetraps and shotgun shells, and cast a glow on a pair of Bluewater Heating and Air Conditioning employees as they strung together wires of an HVAC system for the studio below.

"Before, I was working in kitchens doing what most people do at that age between like 18 and 21. I was working in a lot of local kitchens and restaurants. And I just needed to see a change of pace and a change of scenery," said Bluewater's owner Bryant.

Related: 5 trades you can start learning today, then start earning in one to two years

At 28, Bryant is on the younger side for someone running their own business, but he, like others currently working in skilled trades around Pensacola, said he has noticed a lack of interest from younger generations in these types of jobs.

"One thing that we've ran into is just a generation of parents that were in the trades that wanted so-called, 'better for their kids.' So, they sent them to college," said Keith Hines, assistant principal at Locklin Technical College in Milton. "And they went through higher education, so they did not follow in the same footsteps into the trades."

Hines said as people are retiring or leaving the field, younger age groups have yet to step in and fill those roles.

By the way: Pensacola labor shortage taking toll across the board

Skilled trades in Santa Rosa County: New electrician apprenticeship program coming to Locklin Technical College next year

Where has the interest in trades gone?

Typically, trade jobs are segmented by seniority and skill-level. New employees start out as apprentices, then they become a journeyman and finally, a master of their respective trade. Each rung of the ladder comes with its own pay grade and responsibilities.

"It's been drilled into even my generation, that if you want to get a good job, you have to go to school to get that job. And that's just not the case anymore," Hines said. "The trades, they pay more with zero student debt. You can go straight from high school straight to a technical college; leave there with no student debt and start immediately making $60,000 a year as an electrician or as a plumber."

Story continues

Hines pointed to areas like HVAC, electrical, plumbing, information technology, diesel mechanics and nursing as the core group of skilled trades in Santa Rosa and Escambia counties that are experiencing a gap in career interest. He, and others in the trade field, pinned that disinterest on a push toward four-year degrees and a sense of superiority over people in trades positions.

Robert Perry, a technician with Bluewater Heating and Air Conditioning, works to complete the installation of a central air and heating unit in Pensacola on Jan. 21.

Justin Deese, president at Paradise Home Services, a plumbing and HVAC company in Navarre, said it is up to people currently in the field to market the careers to a younger audience.

"I think the problem is not necessarily the generation. I think what a lot of business owners and managers and leaders and service companies have done is they're not changing their message to people for the right generation," Deese said.

Deese said he noticed younger people starting to emphasize the flexibility of a professional opportunity rather than the pay.

"I think a lot of times it's because people see trades sometimes as a kind of a last option. Like, 'Oh, they can't do anything else. You don't have any other skill set.' And realistically, some of these trades guys are some of the smartest guys I know," Deese said.

What about the pay?

Bryant said he started to get into the field in about 2014, and then, starting wages for helpers were about $9 to $10 per hour. But today, he said people just breaking in can make $18 or $19 per hour, and average workers in the field are capping out at about $45 per hour. He said more specialized workers on commercial projects can get a wage somewhere between $50 to $70 per hour.

"So before (COVID) the demand of employees was extremely high. Basically, before COVID, the trades already had a demand and they were doing sign-on bonuses before COVID hit," Bryant said. "And now, after COVID hit, people realized their worth and the trades are paying even more money."

Trever Bryant with Bluewater Heating and Air Conditioning and his apprentice, Joe Funck, install a central air and heating unit at a Pensacola home on Jan. 21.

Billy Gandy, vice president of operations at the electrical company DeGraaf Systems Inc. in Pace, said it has been difficult marketing the sustainability of working in a trade to those who do not know much about it.

"A lot of those people don't realize that it is a viable career field. It makes good money. It makes good benefits," Gandy said. "And some people just don't see it that way. They choose to forget that there are people that have to do those jobs."

And Gandy emphasized the importance of all trade jobs in creating a functioning community.

"So, it's great that you want to go to college to get a four-year degree or a six-year medical degree or a nursing degree or whatever. But you got to remember, the skilled trades are what builds the college and maintains the college," Gandy said. "They're what builds and maintains the hospital. They're what builds and maintains the shopping malls. So, you can't really have a future in one without people supporting the other."

The landscape of trade jobs here

Hines said he is noticing more people making shifts toward trade positions after they have become jaded by their original career path.

"They're either tired of the job, the job they had has disappeared or they just want better for their family," Hines said. "And they, you know, they're older, they're more responsible. They see what opportunities are out there for the trades."

Bryant said there is an emphasis in the area on price, not quality. And the developmental growth has also created an atmosphere where companies try hard to undercut each other.

"Here in the state of Florida, a lot of times customers, instead of picking the more qualified contractor, want to go with the lowest bid available. That plays a large portion into (this dynamic)," Bryant said. "Also, the new construction homes that they're building, a lot of times these general contractors want to increase profits and decrease expenses."

However, Bryant and Hines said, there is healthy mixture in the area of longtime professionals and people looking to make that career swap.

"I think that's why we see such a large student population here between the 24 and 36 range, because those students who felt they were too good for (trade jobs) in high school, have gone out, seeing what the real world of work is," Hines said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Trade professionals noticing lack of interest for open roles in Santa Rosa, Escambia
 Flash

Celebrations for the Chinese Lunar New Year are underway across the world as people from various cultures come together to usher in the Year of the Tiger, which starts on Tuesday.

The Chinese New Year is based on a 12-year Zodiac cycle of animals. In Europe, British people welcomed the Chinese Lunar New Year with a day of celebration at the National Maritime Museum in London on Saturday.

Lion dance, tai chi demonstrations, printing workshops, fanmaking, and other fantastic performances and activities designed for all ages attracted many local families to visit and enjoy the festive mood of the Spring Festival. A Chinese New Year photo exhibition was opened in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Friday featuring 65 photos, which show how Chinese people celebrate the traditional holiday.

As Australia's largest city Sydney prepares to celebrate the festival, the streets and laneways of Chinatown are being transformed into an immersive artwork for the Year of the Tiger.

Chinatown is buzzing with cultural performances, market stalls, DJs, food trucks, and lion dancers on Saturday.

In the United States, from lion dances to kung fu demonstrations, folk music performances, lantern exhibitions, street fairs and screening of Chinese movies, organizers across the country are going all out to spread joy and provide people with unique cultural experiences of this festival.

"The Chinese New Year is one of the most significant holidays on the calendar, and so we think it is important that The Huntington celebrate the holiday, bringing people together to learn and enjoy," Sian Adams, strategic initiatives director of The Huntington, told China Daily.

The California-based institution is treating visitors to a series of programs on Feb 5 and 6, including performances of scenes from The Peony Pavilion, a mask-changing show, lion dances, traditional arts, music and martial arts. The Huntington has been celebrating the Chinese New Year since the early 2000s.

"People have been so excited to be immersed in learning and experiencing the Chinese culture through performances, exhibits, and demonstrations. Everyone is appreciative, and the expressions of happiness on the faces of young and old alike, in celebrating the Chinese New Year, say it all," said Pamela Garrison, The Huntington's manager for membership events.

After a hiatus last year due to COVID-19, many museums, cultural institutions and shopping centers in New York City are bringing back in-person celebrations to ring in the Chinese New Year.

The New York Chinese Cultural Center is one of them.

"For Lunar New Year, we go out to local communities to celebrate this festive holiday. We share Chinese performing and visual arts to support Asian communities and help build cross-cultural understanding across communities," said Yen Ying, its executive director.

In collaboration with organizations such as the US Postal Service, artists from the center will put together ribbon dances and calligraphy demonstrations throughout January and February.

San Francisco's Golden State Warriors ushered in the Year of the Tiger when it faced the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday. Fans were entertained with martial arts and tai chi demonstrations. San Francisco native and former Miss Chinatown Desiree Choy also sang the national anthem.

Chinese New Year celebrations are also happening in cities such as Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Boston and Las Vegas.
A consensus could not be reached Monday night between a developer and Suburban Heights residents over what should be developed on the vacant property that was previously home to St. Michaels Episcopal Church.

Wilson Development Group decided to drop its latest application  which was spurred on by the City Commission and vehemently opposed by Suburban Heights residents  to develop a mixed-use project of up to six stories and as many as 220 residential units, including some affordable housing.

Kevin Frazier, a partner with Wilson Development Group, left the online workshop before it ended on Monday night, saying he had to leave.

Residents don't like workshop format: Suburban Heights residents unsure workshop Monday will ease concerns

Resident speaks out: Twilight Zone or City Commission? Residents ignored on development near Suburban Heights

Residents shocked: Suburban Heights residents shocked by latest plan: six-story building plus 220 homes

City officials held the workshop in the hope that the developer and residents might reach a compromise on what would be built on the former church property at 4315 NW 23rd Ave., but that didnt happen.

A sign in the Suburban Heights neighborhood warns of traffic troubles if a proposed development at the corner of Northwest 43rd Street and Northwest 23rd Avenue is approved.

Certainly we will be moving forward with something there, and something that we believe will be a benefit to the community, Frazier said before tuning out of the workshop. But we will do, as it is obviously apparent, what we are allowed to do by our right within the confines of the code.

Wilson Development Group

However, that could still lead to a dense development on the site, without any of the conditions that Wilson Development had reached with the neighbors as part of previous development proposals, such as speed tables in their community, a dividing wall between the project and homes and a conservation area, said Stephanie Marchman, an attorney hired to moderate the workshop.

Marchman said the existing office zoning allows three stories of office space by right, with no commission approval, and up to eight stories with bonuses, as well as 69 housing units and 200,000 square feet of space for office and businesses.

Story continues

I would submit to everybody thats listening that if a consensus cannot be reached tonight, we should all expect the developer to proceed with its project without any further approval of the City Commission, and without any special conditions, and develop what it can by right, she said.

Frazier could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

The entrance sign for the Suburban Heights neighborhood in northwest Gainesville.

On April 28 of last year, a hearing was held to discuss a land-plan change that would have allowed a mixed-use project requested by Wilson Development Group.

Instead, residents were perplexed when the commission threw out that request, ditched a proposed drive-thru Wilson had proposed, and advocated for a much more dense project with multi-stories and residential units.

Wilson Development had requested a one-story project that included a drive-thru, and no more than 32,000 square feet of retail sales, restaurant, financial and professional-type businesses.

But commissioners voted to direct staff to bring back a proposal for a multi-story, urban mixed-use development with commercial and retail businesses on the bottom floors and housing upstairs, including affordable units.

Several city commissioners, along with Mayor Lauren Poe, said at the time that they are seeking ways to increase population density in Gainesville to limit suburban sprawl and traffic congestion.

Long-time Suburban Heights resident Harry Shaw said Tuesday morning that even though he has concerns about what office project may now be developed under the current zoning, he is pleased that Wilson Development Group has dropped its plans for the mixed-use project with intense urban zoning.

There may not be a market for the worst thing that he could do to us under office, he said. In other words, what might be the most profitable for him under office (use) might not be so bad for us.

He said the residents are fighting this one battle at a time.

When the bear is attacking, you dont worry about the lion," he said. "You have to fight the bear, so the bear was on us. We got rid of the bear. Now we have to wait and see what comes up. But we feel that the worst that can happen now  if indeed the developer does what he can do by right under the current office zoning  wont be as bad as what the commission was encouraging him to follow through with.

Adrian Hayes-Santos disappointed

Commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos said Tuesday that he is disappointed that a consensus could not be reached on Monday night.

It is disappointing that we werent able to move forward with a project that had mandated workforce housing and a city park, and have close to 220 housing units next to grocery stores and jobs, he said. We are in a housing crisis, and unfortunately, we are not going to be able to address it with this project.

Hayes-Santos said that last year Alachua County's population increased by 6,000 people, and that new housing units are sorely needed to keep up with growth.

Weve got to find places for those people to live," he said. "Thats why were seeing rent increases and housing prices increasing. We cant just keep stopping housing from being built or prices will continue to move up with the number of people moving here.

Hayes-Santos also said the proposed conditions that were part of the mixed-use project now wont come to fruition.

When they go (to develop) by right, they are not going to build a park, they are not going to provide traffic calming devices and a bunch of other things that would have come with the other project, he said. "Those arent going to be there because, by right, they dont have to do those, and the economics (of doing that) dont make sense.

Desmon Duncan-Walker suggests land swap

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker suggested a possible land swap in which the developer would trade the St. Michael's land to the city for land the city owns in the Power District, where the multi-story project could be developed.

Andrew Persons, director of sustainable development for the city, said he could not recall any land swaps the city has had on that scale.

I think weve done some swaps where there is an infrastructure need, like stormwater, Persons said.

Duncan-Walker said just because a land swap of this scale hasnt been done doesnt mean that it shouldnt at least be explored.

I kind of believe in order to get things youve never had, youve got to do things youve never done, and we have some things that I think might lend themselves to some creativity, she said.

Mayor Poe said they are not allowed to make a decision at the meeting on issues such as a land swap because it is a workshop.

We would be negotiating with the diocese, and I dont know what their position is one away or the other (on land swap), he said. I think that the fact that it seems like the current (development) petition is probably moot that there is an opportunity to explore other options."

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Wilson Development vows to build office complex allowed under existing zoning
The Diem Association will wind down its operations in the coming weeks after selling its assets to Silvergate Bank. It's time to revisit the chief legacy it leaves behind: A more involved regulatory framework than it may have intended.

Youre reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions.

Bonum noctis

The narrative

The Facebook-backed Diem Association is shutting down operations, just two and a half years after it was revealed to the world as Libra.

Why it matters

Were talking about Diem again, not because it is interesting  I'm not saying it isn't, that's just not the point of today's newsletter  but because the regulations that will potentially be implemented as a result of this project are fascinating to think about.

Breaking it down

Where do I even start?

Diem, formerly known as Libra, has reached an untimely end. It announced last night that it will begin unwinding its businesses days after various news outlets reported that it was in talks with Silvergate Bank to sell off its assets and technology to repay investors. Silvergate confirmed the deal last night.

Under the terms of the deal, Silvergate paid $50 million in cash and gave another $132 million in Class A shares, which Diem will use to repay investors. In turn, Silvergate will get all of Diem's intellectual property and technology tooling, which it will use to help launch a stablecoin by the end of the year.

I wrote a complete timeline documenting Diems history back in April 2020, and its updated through this weeks news. You can read it here.

For a project that never got off the ground, Libra has a remarkable legacy. Arguably, every major piece of stablecoin regulation or legislation proposed over the past two and a half years has been tinged with the idea that a company, somewhere, might decide to create its own stable value currency based on blockchain technology. Weve seen this in recommendations from the Bank for International Settlements to Chinas central bank digital currency to the U.S. Presidents Working Group for Financial Markets report on stablecoin regulation.

Story continues

The House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee both plan to hold hearings on the PWG report this month. While we dont have a lot of details yet, its safe to say the hearings will be a prelude to legislation on stablecoins. Elsewhere in the world, were seeing regulators start to implement rules on stablecoins.

Diem engaged with regulators throughout its life.

"As we undertook this effort, we actively sought feedback from governments and regulators around the world, and the project evolved substantially and improved as a result," Diem CEO Stuart Levey said in a statement announcing the shutdown. "In the United States, a senior regulator informed us that Diem was the best-designed stablecoin project the U.S. government had seen."

Levey also mentioned the PWG report, saying it validated the project's "code design features," including how it addresses stablecoin transfer risks.

The thing is, the original Libra vision of a basket-backed stablecoin was dead long before the association rebranded to Diem. Today, one could draw a comparison to tether (USDT) or US dollar coin (USDC) in that they are now backed by baskets of assets, though not baskets of currencies. They arent quite the same, but they are probably similar enough. The chief concerns were how the libra stablecoin might affect financial stability, how it might be used and whether users were protected. The same questions apply to stablecoins backed by baskets containing securities or other cryptocurrencies.

The big difference  and I want to revisit this more in depth in a future issue  is that Facebook was involved. Lawmakers and regulators were aware of stablecoins, but didnt really care about them as an imminent threat.

Facebook announced Libra in a carefully managed press event. Reporters flew to San Francisco for embargoed briefings, press releases and technical documents were shared under prearranged agreements not to publish before a specific time, and swarms of reporters spent time trying to unpack what was being announced.

Libra, and later Diem, was never able to overcome Facebook's shadow, however much everyone involved with the project tried to draw a clear distinction.

For a parting thought, imagine how much regulatory brain power has been dedicated to this project over the past 30 months. It's a lot! Surreal to imagine almost.

The FinCEN rule rises

The infamous unhosted wallet rule is once again on the Treasury Departments radar. The department published its semiannual agenda over the weekend, detailing its priorities over the next six months.

The unhosted wallet rule first proposed in December 2020 was on the document, implying that Treasury (or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the ostensible sponsor) is looking at the rule.

At first blush, this would seem to be another attempt at bringing forth know-your-customer rules for self-hosted/user-hosted/what-have-you wallets. Treasury, however, may just be keeping the rule alive just in case it does want to eventually get back to wallet rules.

The rule appears in previous semiannual agendas as well, but Treasury didn't make any move on the rule last year.

The important details: Treasury bifurcated the rule in early 2021. The rule received enough comments the last time that a whole new comment process may need to kick off before Treasury can finalize or adopt the counterparty data collection provision or the overall rule as originally proposed. If Treasury just wants to adopt the currency transaction report provision (which would bring crypto reporting rules in line with current cash rules), there may not be much opposition.

What's more, I'm told FinCEN may still not want the counterparty provision in its current form.

Long story short, this rule has made a reappearance, but there's no real sign it will move forward just yet.

Bidens rule

Changing of the guard

Key: (nom.) = nominee, (rum.) = rumored, (act.) = acting, (inc.) = incumbent (no replacement anticipated)

The Senate Banking Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Federal Reserve Board nominees Sarah Bloom Raskin, Lisa DeNell Cook and Philip Nathan Jefferson on Thursday.

Its also the last week for Jelena McWilliams, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), who announced on New Years Eve that her resignation would be effective on Feb. 4.

Elsewhere:

Mastercards CipherTrace Used Honeypots to Gather Crypto Wallet Intel : Crypto analytics firm CipherTrace said it uses honey pots in a slide deck Chief Operating Officer Stephen Ryan emailed to former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in 2020, according to emails obtained through a public records request. My colleague Danny Nelson digs in as part of CoinDesks Privacy Week series.

How Binance, Coinbase and 22 Other Crypto Exchanges Handle Your Data : Another excellent Privacy Week story, this one by my colleague Anna Baydakova, looked at the privacy policies of 24 different crypto exchanges. In particular, she looked at what exchanges say about how they store personal financial data, what data they provide to third parties, what they share with governments, how long they store data and how they protect data, among other issues.

Anchorage Closes in on FDIC Crypto Custodian Deal, Documents Show: Crypto custodian Anchorage is in the final stages of bidding for a contract with the FDIC to act as the custodian and disposal vendor for digital assets held by failed banks covered by the FDICs insurance, according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by CoinDesks Sam Reynolds.

Outside CoinDesk:

( Blockworks ) Twitter rolled out its NFT (non-fungible token) integration a few weeks ago. Blockworks Morgan Chittum found that the integration checks only if someone is connecting an actual NFT, i.e. something listed on OpenSea as being a receipt on Ethereum pointing to something. It does not check to see if the NFT is an original, or if someone just saved the image of an NFT, minted it as a new NFT and connected that.

( The New York Times ) The New York Times Emily Flitter asks if crypto is in a bubble and whether it might burst. The analysis and the data are worth a read.

( Eyewitness News Bahamas ) Deltec Bank & Trust, Tethers bank, has bought another bank: Ansbacher Ltd., the Bahamas oldest bank, according to a local news outlet.

(The New Yorker) I mean, Alex isnt wrong.

Heres the deal with Tom Brady: he will not retire until his successor is confirmed by the Senate.  Jeff Greenfield (@greenfield64) January 29, 2022

If youve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback youd like to share, feel free to email me at nik@coindesk.com or find me on Twitter @nikhileshde.

You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.

See yall next week!
I think theyre pitiful and pathetic, said Samaria Rice about the Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice has announced that officials will not reopen the case of Tamir Rice, the Black boy who was fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer in 2014.

After the federal civil rights investigation into Rices death was closed in December 2020, the childs family and their legal team issued a letter to President Joe Bidens administration, and the Department of Justice, calling for the investigation into the 12-year-olds death to be reopened, theGrio reported.

Courtesy Rice family attorney

As reported by The Hill, attorneys representing Rices family penned a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting he reopen the case. They hoped the DOJ would complete a thorough investigation of the fatal shooting and bring charges against the officers involved in the young boys death.

The election of President Biden, your appointment and your commitment to the rule of law, racial justice and police reform give Tamirs family hope that the chance for accountability is not lost forever, the letter stated. We write on their behalf to request that you re-open this investigation and convene a grand jury to consider charges against the police officers who killed Tamir.

An attorney for the family was notified last week in a Jan. 28 letter that the government wouldnt be able to prove that Tamirs civil rights were violated beyond a reasonable doubt, wrote Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, the head of the Civil Rights Division.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke speaks on a federal investigation of the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department during a news conference at the Department of Justice on August 05, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The United States Supreme Court has made clear that in prosecuting a Section 242 case, an officer acted willfully if he did so with bad purpose  that is, with the specific intent to do something the law forbids  to deprive a person of their constitutional rights. After viewing, and exhaustively evaluating the available evidence in this matter, in 2020, career prosecutors determined that the federal government could not meet this high standard, Clarke wrote.

Story continues

The DOJ ended the investigation into Tamirs death in 2020 without informing the family, theGrio reported. In August 2019, the DOJ led by Attorney General William Barr unofficially shut down its inquiry into the shooting.

The pre-teen was fatally shot while playing alone in a park with a toy gun in 2014. Rice died the day after a single bullet from the gun of now-former Officer Timothy Loehmann struck him in the stomach less than two seconds after Loehmann arrived with Officer Frank Garmback, who was driving the police cruiser.

The officers were never indicted for Rices death.

Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice- who was shot to death by a police officer  speak on a panel titled The Impact of Police Brutality  The Victims Speak at the National Action Network (NAN) national convention on April 8, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Clarkes letter noted that By no means should you view the Departments 2020 decision as an exoneration of Timothy Loehmanns actions.

Clarke wrote that the DOJs decision to close the case in 2020 was based solely upon the applicable facts and law, without political input or influence, and for this reason, the case will not be reopened.

I think theyre pitiful and pathetic, and at this point no one is going to get justice when it comes to police shootings in America, said Tamirs mother, Samaria Rice, in a phone interview on Monday, per BuzzFeed.

Its disgusting I dont have an indictment for my 12-year-old son, she said.

This article contains additional reporting from DeMicia Inman.

Have you subscribed to theGrios Dear Culture podcast? Download our newest episodes now!TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!

The post DOJ will not reopen investigation into Tamir Rices death appeared first on TheGrio.
EVANSTON, IL  After more than a dozen years in operation in downtown Evanston, Vinic Wine Company will close its doors for good at the end of March, its owner announced.

Sandeep Ghaey said the market has changed since he who opened Vinic at 1509 Chicago Ave. in 2009. At the time, it was the first independent wine shop in town, he said Saturday in a newsletter announcing the impending closing.

"Some of this uncertainty can be attributed to COVID related shortages and restrictions. Weve also found it harder and more expensive to represent the wines that we value," Ghaey said.

"Weve investigated retooling our business model or relocating, but liquor laws governing transfer of inventory make either option unfeasible," he said. "We also have a new addition to our family at home, and retail hours make it hard to achieve a good work life balance. This also feels like the appropriate time to start a new chapter."

All of the shop's remaining bottles of wine will be available at discounts in the coming weeks, with many price tags at or below their wholesale price, according to the owner.

All inventory will be 10 percent off through Feb. 6, 15 percent off from Feb. 7 to Feb. 27 and anything remaining is expected to be offered for 20 percent off from Feb. 28 to March 31.

Vinic stocked nearly 2,000 bottles of wine, compared to 200 to 300 for most independent stores, Ghaey told Evanston Now, which first reported the closure.

The shop's shuttering comes just over four years since Binny's Beverage Depot opened at 1211 Chicago Ave., about 800 yards south of Vinic. At the time, Ghaey and other local independent liquor merchants voiced concerns about the competition the local chain represented.

Ghaey thanked the community for its support over the years.

"Weve enjoyed making selections for your dinner parties and celebrations. Its been a joy getting to know so many of you, and Im sure we will see each other even after the store closes," he said. "While Vinic in this form is ending, I hope in the years to come we will find a new model that will allow us to continue matching great wines with great people. In another time Id say come share a last toast, but with COVID I just ask you enjoy an extra glass for Vinic."

This article originally appeared on the Evanston Patch
Nationalist sentiments against ethnic Koreans are reportedly on the rise in Japan once again, reportedly in connection with looming elections in Seoul and ramped up missile testing in Pyongyang.



Zainichi, the Japanese term for ethnic Koreans living in the country, often wind up on the receiving end of such hatred in Japan, which in the past year has seen at least two notorious attacks that sparked fears throughout the community.



In January 2020, a Korean community center in Kawasaki received a card that threatened to exterminate Koreans in Japan, according to The Japan Times. Kawasaki is home to one of Japans larger Korean communities, and the message arrived after the city enacted the nations first anti-hate speech law.



In August 2021, seven buildings in Utoro  a district in Uji, Kyoto prefecture, home to descendants of Korean laborers in World War II  were engulfed in flames. Shogo Arimoto, 22, was charged with arson, according to Kyodo News.



Arimoto was also accused of setting fire to the offices of Mindan  a Korean union affiliated with Seoul  in Aichi prefecture. Days after his arrest, someone else smashed Mindans windows in its office in Hiraoka, Osaka prefecture, the Asahi Shimbun reported.



These things seem to come in waves and the new surge is linked to the elections, particularly in South Korea as criticising Japan is a popular position. And now we have the North testing missiles as well, so there is plenty for Japan to get angry about, Chung Hyon-suk, a Zainichi living in Tokyo, told the South China Morning Post.



While recent attacks appear reactive to current geopolitical tensions, they can be traced back to the countries colonial history. In January 2021, conflict also erupted after the Seoul Central District Court ordered Japan to pay 100 million Korean won (approximately $82,960) to each of 12 Korean comfort women who filed a lawsuit against Tokyo in 2016, according to SCMP.



Japan rejected the ruling under the principle of sovereign immunity; however, it also ruled in a 2006 case against Pakistan that a foreign government must follow civil jurisdiction unless there is a fear of sovereignty infringement, as per The Diplomat.



Kim Myong-chol, a 70-year-old Zainichi, claims Japanese people have always used Koreans as a scapegoat for their own problems, which he attributes to Koreans being an easy target.



Japanese have a special feeling of superiority over Koreans. Many of them have a hatred for Koreans and Korean culture, and that is the same attitude that they used to justify their colonial rule over the Korean peninsula in the past, Kim told SCMP.



Japans most vocal racists hail from a far-right group known as the Zaitokukai, which is shorthand for Zainichi Tokken wo Yurusanai Shimin no Kai, or Citizens Against the Special Privileges of Koreans in Japan. Its members believe that Koreans abuse special privileges by constantly painting themselves as victims of Imperial Japan.



The Zaitokukai is no longer active as a social movement, but experts believe it left a growing contingency of followers. Authors of a University of Notre Dame paper who studied anti-Korean sentiment in Japan speculate that the Japan First Party, which holds one political seat in the country, is a front that allows the hate group to perpetuate and continue hate-oriented activities.



Japanese youth seem to reflect a different story, at least in terms of general sentiment towards South Korea. According to the Mainichi Shimbun, a 2020 survey revealed that 54.5% of those under 29 reported feeling an affinity with South Korea, compared to less than 30% of those aged 60 and above.



This perceivably greater tolerance among younger generations has been attributed to Hallyu, or the rise of Korean pop culture, in Japan. Minori Fukushima, a sociologist and an associate professor at Tokoha University, suggested that young men no longer distance themselves from K-pop, unlike many who did in the past.



Lately, there have been male students at my university who dye their hair green or pink and tell me that it's the fashion of K-pop artists, Fukushima told the Mainichi. I feel that Korean culture is also making a quite increasingly favorable impression on boys.



Meanwhile, as North Korea, has increased missile testing in January, per CNN, ultranationalists are presumably unlikely to distinguish Seoul from Pyongyang.



One approach Korean Japanese have adopted in response to experiencing racism has been to assimilate by hiding their heritage. Japan does not collect data on ethnicity, according to Bloomberg, and many Zainichi have adopted Japanese names and naturalized over the years.



Still, reduced visibility does not mean the elimination of anti-Korean racism. The significance shouldnt be quantified and measured by the official size of the population, Hwaji Shin, an associate professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco, told Bloomberg.



Featured Image: A Zaitokukai demonstration in 2013. Image via Kurashita Yuki (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Story continues

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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has teed up a series of battles with activists and the state senate's Democratic majority over environmental policy in his first month in office.

Youngkin placed little emphasis on energy and environmental policy on the campaign trail, focusing largely on educational issues and COVID-19 restrictions.

But even before his inauguration, Youngkin raised eyebrows among environmentalists.

He announced plans on Dec. 8 to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an 11-state compact that requires power plants to buy credits to offset carbon emissions. Virginia had entered the group in 2021.

Youngkin has decried RGGI as a carbon tax passed on to consumers and vowed to unilaterally exit the agreement.

"Simply stated, the benefits of RGGI have not materialized, while the costs have skyrocketed," Youngkin's order states.

Youngkin's nomination of former Trump Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler as the state's secretary of natural resources also raised hackles.

Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, rolled back a number of environmental regulations as EPA chief and backed a rule that would only allow the agency to use scientific studies that make raw data publicly available.

Youngkin was initially seen as an underdog in a state that voted for President Biden by 10 points and had seen eight years of Democratic governors, giving the party a state government trifecta in 2019.

On the campaign trail, the first-time candidate emphasized his business experience and, despite accepting former President Trump's endorsement, kept him at arm's length.

Youngkin "didn't talk about the environment much at all for most of the campaign and I think there was hope ... that maybe he was going to take more of a moderate approach in a fairly moderate state," said Mike Town, executive director at the Virginia League of Conservation Voters.

Kristin Davison, a vice president at the GOP consulting firm Axiom Strategies who served as an adviser to the Youngkin campaign, told The Hill his early moves are in keeping with his vows on the campaign trail.

Story continues

"Lowering the cost of living was a critical component of Governor Youngkin's campaign and Day One Game Plan. The average Virginian would save about $52.44 per year if Virginia left RGGI," Davison told The Hill in an email.

The state utility, Dominion Energy, signed off on costs for participation in RGGI in in August, increasing customers' January bills by an average of $2.39. After his inauguration, Youngkin signed an executive order directing the state's Air Pollution Control Board to consider withdrawal. Since then, the utility has asked regulators for permission to withdraw the increase amid uncertainty.

"It is a tax on hard-working Virginians," Davison wrote. "Virginians elected Governor Youngkin to deliver on his promises, and that's exactly what he's doing."

"Withdrawing from RGGI is delivering on a promise the governor made to cut the cost of living in Virginia," Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter told The Hill. "The governor also can ensure that Virginia's natural treasures are protected for future generations. Those goals aren't mutually exclusive."

The victory over Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former governor of Virginia, turned Youngkin overnight into a GOP star - one who some think could be a future GOP presidential candidate.

That could be a factor in any number of decisions for Youngkin moving forward.

Virginia's constitution limits governors to a single term, meaning he won't be running for reelection in 2025.

If Youngkin ends up running for a Virginia Senate seat as a Republican, however, his views on climate change and health care and his ability to continue to win votes in Northern Virginia will be key.

A survey from Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling shared with The Hill showed Youngkin slightly underwater with voters two weeks into his term, and several communities in Northern Virginia have announced they will maintain mask mandates in schools despite Youngkin ordering an end to them.

The governor's mansion is a frequent predecessor to a Senate seat in Virginia - Sens. Mark Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D) are both former governors, as were former Sens. Chuck Robb (D) and George Allen (R).

Some anti-Trump conservatives have hailed Youngkin as a potential model for the future of the party in general, running on some of the same hot-button social issues that Trump frequently mined, but with an approach that appeals to rather than alienates suburban voters.

While Wheeler's association with Trump may seem like a larger threat to this image, an RGGI pullout could carry its own political risks.

Forty-five percent of RGGI revenues are earmarked for flood preparedness, which polling indicates is a high priority among Virginians. In a May 2021 poll from Global Strategy Group, 60 percent of respondents said flooding and climate change are already having a major impact on the state.

In the same poll, 68 percent of voters and 70 percent of voters in coastal areas said addressing flood risks was either one of their top priorities or an important priority.

The communities potentially affected by reduced flooding preparedness could be among the coalition that won Youngkin the November election. Youngkin won the coastal communities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach by 6 and 8 points, respectively, after both voted for Biden and for Youngkin's predecessor, Gov. Ralph Northam (D).

It remains to be seen if political headwinds against Youngkin will grow stronger, but if his popularity continues to decline, it could give Democrats, who hold a single-seat majority in the state Senate, increased political will to resist him on environmental issues as well.

During the eight years before Youngkin took office, Town said, the state saw rapid progress on environmental issues after decades of almost constant divided government.

"In the last two years ... we've been able to make significant progress on climate action," Town said.

For example, in August 2020, Northam signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which would require the state to achieve zero-carbon energy generation by 2050. The law would lead to the phasing out of the majority of coal-fired power plants in the state by 2024.

Environmental advocates, meanwhile, remain hopeful that Wheeler's nomination will be defeated, but expressed doubt that its defeat would bridge the gap between them and Youngkin on environmental issues.

"Andrew Wheeler is a tool and Glenn Youngkin is the carpenter," Town told The Hill, "and [Youngkin's] intent is to dismantle the incredible environmental protections" implemented under Democratic governance.

"However, I hope that this governor recognizes that the Senate Democrats and the general populace in Virginia and the environmental community is going to stand strong and do everything possible to defend the progress we've had," he added.

- Last updated at 9:52 a.m.
Erie's Tom Ridge, former U.S. representative, two-term governor of Pennsylvania and the first director of the Office of Homeland Security, is being honored as the 2022 recipient of the William Oliver Baker Award.

The Baker Award is the highest honor presented by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. Past recipients include Leon Panetta, former secretary of the Department of Defense and director of the CIA; George J. Tenet, former CIA director; former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates; and Susan M. Gordon, former principal deputy director of National Intelligence.

Ridge will be recognized at the William Oliver Baker Dinner on May 14 in Washington, D.C.

More: Tom Ridge, in first appearance since stroke, recalls tragedies of 9/11 but also the compassion

Established in 1984, the Baker Award recognizes extraordinary contributions to U.S. intelligence and national security affairs. Baker, who died in 2005, was a prominent scientist, former head of Bell Labs and an adviser to five U.S. presidents.

Kathleen Getz, president of Mercyhurst University, which houses Ridge's archives and named the Ridge College of Intelligence Studies in his honor, said, "The Baker Award is ideally suited to Gov. Ridge, our nation's first Secretary of Homeland Security. ... We congratulate the entire Ridge family on this momentous occasion.

Ridge, who has a home in Millcreek Township, continues to recover from a stroke on June 16.

An Army veteran, Ridge serves as chairman of the National Organization on Disability, co-chairman of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense and is a board member of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.

Contact Jim Martin at 814-881-5229 or jmartin@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNMartin.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Former Gov. Tom Ridge to be honored for work in national security
Dacia Torchia tries to avoid her basement. Especially when the foul, familiar smell creeps under the door just off the kitchen. She knows whats waiting for her at the bottom of the dark stairway.

Im in a state of denial. Like if I dont go downstairs, I dont have to deal with it, said Torchia, 55, a single mother who owns a century-old house at the bottom of a hill in Mount Vernon, New York. After heavy rains, her basement sometimes floods with dark, sludgy wastewater  8in on bad days.

Torchia isnt alone. Like many residents in Mount Vernon, she is unclear about whether underlying weaknesses in her plumbing are her problem alone, or whether the city bears some responsibility. Over the years, she said, four private plumbers have diagnosed different causes for her sanitation woes. But their suggested fixes were all too expensive. Instead Torchia opts for cheaper, temporary measures  and then braces herself until the next flood.

This majority-Black town on the outskirts of New York City has a long history of sewage problems. Until recently, Mount Vernon has said it cant afford to fix the infrastructure failures that are polluting rivers and flooding homes. The situation was symbolic, experts said, of how many lower-income or Black communities are locked in a vicious cycle: they lack basic municipal infrastructure and are unable to pay for the problems that result. They are precisely the kind of community that the Biden administration had said would benefit from sweeping infrastructure and wastewater investments.

But officials in Mount Vernon now say theyre optimistic about the citys sewage crisis. Damani Bush, the citys public works commissioner, said the Guardians reporting last year set fire to the case, and helped draw renewed state and federal interest in solving the citys sanitation problems.

After a series of meetings with environmental oversight agencies, the city has unlocked $10m in grant funding that would target areas where its pipes are known to be leaking sewage into the environment. Officials called it the biggest grant the city has received in recent memory.

Story continues

I think the sky is starting to clear a little bit, said Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard. Its not a full sunny day yet. We have a long way to go.

The money is a start  its still only a fraction of the help Mount Vernon needs. Whats left to be seen is how much the grant helps, and how long before families like the Tochias can expect to see relief.

A long time coming

Located in Westchester county, just north of New York City, Mount Vernon sits next door to some of the wealthiest enclaves in the US. The countys median household income was more than $100,000 in 2019, versus less than $60,000 for Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon also has the most Black residents of any city in Westchester; in the mid-20th century, thousands of Black residents who had been displaced from surrounding cities through urban renewal policies settled in Mount Vernon, which today has a population of 74,000.

Nearly a decade ago, the federal Environmental Protection Agency discovered that untreated human waste from Mount Vernon was spilling into the Bronx and Hutchinson Rivers, which border the city and flow south toward the Bronx. Twice, once in 2014 and then again in 2016, the agency ordered Mount Vernon to address the overflows, but the city failed to comply. In 2020, the EPA  together with the state of New York  sued Mount Vernon.

City officials estimate that overhauling Mount Vernons crumbling sewage infrastructure could cost between $100mand $200m. City officials also are still determining the scope of the problem, and estimate that about 1,000 households are vulnerable to sewage backups. Some residents say theyve had problems flushing their toilets for decades.

Last summer, the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation began working with the city to help unlock funding for infrastructure fixes, according to Bush. In December, the agency awarded the city a $10m grant to fix two sewage outfalls along the Hutchinson River, where local environmental researchers have recorded off-the-charts levels of fecal bacteria.

The city still needs more funding, manpower and equipment to completely satisfy all the orders. But officials say the grant signals a new phase of the sewage crisis, where oversight agencies work with the city instead of punishing it.

The water infrastructure challenges confronting Mount Vernon are simply enormous, said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos, who is listed as one of the parties suing Mount Vernon over its sewage pollution. He says state regulators plan to collaborate with Mount Vernon on solutions moving forward.

No shortcuts

As the city continues to lobby for cash assistance, ithas had to find temporary fixes to stop homes from flooding.

About a year ago, it installed a bypass pump in the middle of a busy street in a densely populated neighborhood. The device, which runs 16 hours a day, looks like an oversized power generator hooked up to an open manhole, and the smell of sewage is strong. Residents hate walking near it. But if it stops working, hundreds of nearby families would immediately notice problems with their plumbing, city officials said.

Last year, Mount Vernons six-man sewer crew responded to hundreds of emergency backups, while also performing court-ordered repairs. Weve completed more work in the last eight months than we have in the last 10 years, said Bush, who has served as public works commissioner since 2020.

But his crew keeps finding new weak points in the system as they try to fix old ones. Every street has its own problem. Its a lot, Bush added.

Cities can bounce back from catastrophic infrastructure failures  its happened before. The combined sewer network in Washington DC once discharged a staggering amount of untreated waste into the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers with every rain. In 2005, the city agreed to install massive tunnels deep underground that would reduce overflows by 96%. The project, one of the largest of its kind, is still under construction, 16 years later. The cost: $2.7bn and counting. Yet the effort earned DC good marks for wastewater in June, when the American Society of Civil Engineers last evaluated the citys infrastructure.

Mount Vernons sewage network services just 4.4 sq miles, a fraction of Washington DCs footprint. And the historic $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure package could bring significant relief to the citys ailing pipes: This year, the EPA will direct $428m for water and sewage infrastructure into New York states drinking water and clean water state revolving funds. The EPA has promised to give priority to under-resourced cities, as part of the plan. The agency says it already has been working with Mount Vernon on its sewage crisis and will continue to seek new solutions, despite its litigation with the city.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer, a proponent of the infrastructure package, has advocated on behalf of Mount Vernon in Washington and said through a spokesperson that he will help funding flow toward the city.

Senator Schumer will continue to work in lockstep with his federal, state and local partners to ensure the funding he secured gets to Mount Vernon and will continue to fight for more until the city has the sewer system theyve long desired and deserved, said Schumer spokesperson Allison Biasotti.

Commissioner Bush said hell continue lobbying agencies at every level of government to make sure Mount Vernon gets its fair share of the pie from the infrastructure package. The city badly needs funding for roads and bridges  sewage is hardly the only problem area, Bush noted.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he said. If we dont go for this now, there wont be another shot.
(Reuters) - Myanmar's military has struggled to consolidate power in the year since it took back control of the country by force and embarked on a sweeping crackdown against opponents to its rule.

Conflicts have reignited between armed groups and the Tatmadaw, as the military is known, while the economy has taken a big hit. The international community has sought to isolate the military government through sanctions and coordinated pressure, but there is no indication the generals will give way.

WHO IS INVOLVED IN THE POLITICAL CONFLICT?

The junta says it is fighting "terrorists" allied with the ousted government and has accused them of foreign-backed economic sabotage.

A National Unity Government (NUG), a parallel administration comprised of deposed legislators and ruling party members has called for a people's uprising against the Tatmadaw.

From exile, the NUG has sought to garner international support and be recognised as Myanmar's legitimate authority and is demanding inclusion in any peace process. The NUG is also fundraising, including via the sale of zero-interest bonds.

WHO IS THE MILITARY FIGHTING?

So-called "people's defence forces https://reut.rs/3L0IIyj" - civilians with rudimentary weapons and limited training - have popped up in many regions of the country to challenge the junta.

The militias have attacked the well-equipped army, which has been accused of responding with excessive force, including shelling and air strikes in civilian areas, causing massive displacement.

Some activists have accused troops in some cases of atrocities, including mass killings, burning villages or executing suspected militias or their informants. The junta has rejected the allegations as falsehoods.

The coup has revived bitter enmities between the Tatmadaw and some ethnic minority armies, such as the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Union, which fought the military for decades. Some rebels have declared their support for the NUG and helped train https://reut.rs/3Hi9JeA its militias.

Story continues

WHAT HAS THE IMPACT BEEN?

At least 1,500 civilians have been killed and 11,787 wrongly detained for anti-junta protests, according to the United Nations. The junta has previously dismissed similar numbers from rights groups at exaggerated.

An estimated 320,000 people have been displaced in Myanmar, and the U.N. humanitarian agency says it needs to reach 6.2 million people in urgent need of help.

Refugees have fled fighting in Chin State, the Sagaing region and Kayah and Karen states, heading into camps in neighboring India and Thailand.

WHAT IS LIFE LIKE IN MYANMAR?

Though the situation has stabilised somewhat, the coup has set Myanmar back significantly. Key sectors including health and education have been badly affected and public and commercial services have been disrupted. Power outages are more frequent and internet shutdowns have hampered businesses.

Small businesses have closed or struggled from revenue losses from the economic fallout and a lack of credit access. The kyat currency's depreciation https://reut.rs/2WP7BJi last year has driven up costs and disrupted supplies. Huge job losses have ensued, especially in construction.

The World Bank says Myanmar's economy is showing signs of recovery in exports and manufacturing, but remains critically weak https://reut.rs/3GfwE90 and 30% smaller as a direct result of the coup. It has forecast an 18% contraction for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

IS THERE A SOLUTION TO THE CRISIS?

Though the junta is struggling to govern and coming under intense international pressure, it has shown no interest in negotiating or veering from its plan to impose order and hold an election on its terms.

A internationally backed diplomatic effort by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) based on a five-point peace "consensus" agreed nine months ago has faltered, with prominent members accusing the junta of ignoring it.

ASEAN barred the generals from meetings since October and says military chief Min Aung Hlaing has shown no sincerity towards ending hostilities and allowing an ASEAN envoy to meet all stakeholders and resolve the crisis.

Western countries have imposed sanctions https://reut.rs/3s0JJhm on the military and its lucrative conglomerates and called for a ban on arms sales to Myanmar. Many multinational firms are retreating https://reut.rs/3rRywiU, most notably from the energy sector, a vital revenue source for the generals.

HOW IS THE JUNTA RESPONDING?

The Tatmadaw has acknowledged international pressure, but has vowed not to give in to it.

It has accused ASEAN of departing from its non-interference policy and of being swayed by Western powers and criticised the U.N. and its envoys of bias and interference https://reut.rs/3pIgjFn and relying on "distorted news https://reut.rs/3sb1r1U".

Despite demands to release deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta has charged her with more offences https://reut.rs/3uc4zgv and is standing by its own five-step roadmap to democracy, which has no international endorsement.

(Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony lied about his past on law enforcement job applications and on a form to renew his Florida drivers license, state investigators found after an 18-month investigation into allegations raised during a vicious election campaign in 2020.

But the sheriff wont be charged because a case involving the shooting death of a man in Philadelphia was too long ago and the records were too difficult to find, Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators and a state prosecutor concluded in a report released on Monday. The witness to Tonys statement in a more recent incident  a clerk in a drivers license office in Lauderdale Lakes  also could not reliably recall a key exchange.

Tony  originally appointed to the job in 2019 by Gov. Ron DeSantis after he suspended former Sheriff Scott Israel in the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting  could not be reached for comment Monday night. Though the sheriff, who was elected to the seat after defeating Israel in a bitter campaign that brought Tonys past to light, wont face any criminal charges he could still face an ethics investigation.

Anthony Kunasek, a special prosecutions chief for the Fort Myers state attorney who was charged with overseeing the case, concluded there was not enough to pursue a case.

As a result, this agency review is denied with the suggestion that FDLE submit all the material generated from its investigation to the Florida Commission on Ethics for review, Kunasek wrote in a three-page memo that accompanied the 20-page FDLE memo detailing the findings.

The probe by FDLE public corruption found that Tony, as a 14-year-old, was charged with murder and carrying an unlicensed firearm when he lived in Philadelphia. When the issue became public during his last campaign, the sheriff argued the case was self-defense and told the Miami Herald it was the most horrific thing I ever experienced.

FDLE investigators searching Tonys history wrote they were stymied by the Philadelphia District Attorney who refused to speak on the record, the courts, which said records of the shooting had been expunged, and Pennsylvania state police, who could not find any record of the shooting.

Story continues

They did find, however, that Tony was deceptive in a 2005 application to become a Coral Springs police officer. He answered no to a question asking if hed ever killed anyone. He also checkmarked no when asked on the Coral Springs application if hed ever been arrested for a crime, no to a question asking if hed ever fought with a weapon and no when asked if he ever injured or killed anyone.

Asked what the most serious thing he ever did was, Tony responded fighting, according to state investigators. Investigators did uncover records that showed Tony was found not guilty when the shooting case was tried late in 1993.

The FDLE report concluded that Sheriff Gregory Tony provided false information and concealed material fact...

Furthermore it was determined that Sheriff Gregory Tony made a false affidavit perjury when he knowingly and willfully swore to or affirmed the false statements he made in the drivers license application in Lauderdale Lakes in 2019.

The FDLE close-out report also included an explanation of the decision not to pursue criminal charges from the office of Fort Myers State Attorney Amira D. Fox. DeSantis had given oversight of the case to Foxs office after agreeing to a conflict of interest claim from Broward County prosecutors.

Kunasek, Foxs special prosecutions chief, wrote that the statute of limitations had run out on some allegations and there was not enough evidence to make a case over a 2019 drivers license renewal form. Despite Tonys license having been suspended in Pennsylvania about 30 years ago, the Lauderdale Lakes clerk who took the sheriffs statement couldnt testify without reasonable doubt whether she had asked the sheriff if his license had been suspended.

It precludes the state from being able to prove the criminal allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, the report concluded.

Longtime critic and police union president Jeff Bell  who Tony fired last week for making false claims about BSO lacking protection gear during the pandemic  said he was stunned by the state attorneys decision not to prosecute.

What message does this send? asked Bell. We all know what the sheriff did. You work your whole life trying to believe there is a standard of justice. Its just a double standard.

It wasnt clear who forwarded the allegations to the FDLE, though much of the information found by the FDLE report was publicized during the August 2020 primary against Israel and others that Tony won. Bell denied it was him, though the union fought hard and publicly in its attempt to keep Tony from taking office.
PANAMA CITY BEACH  After much anticipation, efforts to expand U.S. 98 in Bay County are finally underway.

According to Ian Satter, spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation, the project to widen the road from four to six lanes will be broken down into two phases  the first of which is about 60% designed and should break ground in the spring of 2023, with construction slated to last about two years.

Estimated to cost about $64 million, the first phase contains two segments that will be simultaneously constructed. One spans from Mandy Lane to Nautilus Street (about $33 million), and another runs from Nautilus Street to Richard Jackson Boulevard (about $31 million).

The Florida Department of Transportation hosted a hybrid public meeting on the proposed widening of US 98 at the Lyndell Conference Center Thursday, January 27, 2022.

Another project: FDOT installing roundabout at entrance of Bay County airport to reduce crashes

Back at last!: Grocery Outlet to replace Panama City store destroyed by Hurricane Michael

On Thursday afternoon, FDOT hosted a hybrid public meeting at the Lyndell Center in Panama City Beach for residents to get information about the development.

"This particular stretch of roadway on U.S. 98 in Bay County has been at the forefront of the Bay County Transportation Planning Organization's priorities, so being able to work with them and be able to fund this project is going to be essential to keeping traffic moving there for the people who live, work and visit (the area)," Satter said.

Satter noted the second phase stretches from Richard Jackson Boulevard to the Hathaway Bridge. It is estimated to cost about $60 million and does not yet have funding or a timeline.

At center, Ian Satter, spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation, answers questions at a hybrid public meeting Thursday at the Lyndell Center to discuss the widening of U.S. 98.

He also said one of the main reasons FDOT has broken the project down into segments, rather than constructing all the improvements at once, is because that makes it easier for his department to acquire funding from the state.

"Two of them should be starting around the same time ... (so) the good news is because those are funded and will be under construction in 2023, it will make it easier for us to be able to program and acquire funding to do that additional segment from Richard Jackson to the bridge."

Story continues

For PCB Councilman Paul Casto, the project is nothing short of being "way past due."

In the wake of a record-breaking number of visitors who flocked to Panama City Beach last year, Casto noted that the road, which often backs up during peak tourism months, is well over capacity.

The project to widen U.S. 98 in Bay County from four to six lanes will be broken down into two phases. The first is about 60% designed and should break ground in the spring of 2023, with construction slated to last about two years.

"I believe Florida is experiencing over 100 (new residents) a day (and) most of them are (moving to) coastal cities," he said. "We're not the only (area) that's experiencing this, but we are doing our best to plan for it and keep up with the growth. The widening of this road is just one example that (our traffic issues have been) moved up on the state's priority (list)."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Bay County Florida project to widen U.S. 98 to start next year
Good morning and welcome to a brand new month, folks! We are officially 8.3% done with 2022. Lets take a look at our top stories for the day.

Fall River District Fire Chief John Lynch

Fall River Fire Chief John Lynch, unlike a lot of his fire chief friends, didnt dream of a life as a firefighter. But though it wasnt in his blood, the passion for the job grew over time until it consumed him. Lynch is stepping down after nearly four decades in fire service, and shared his thoughts with us  read more about this remarkable man right here.

A Rock Street dwelling that was formerly a psychiatrist's office was bought, gutted, remodeled into a three-family home and sold about a year later for almost triple the price. The three-family home now standing at 222 Rock St. sold for $630,000 on Jan. 10, according to real estate and mortgage data company The Warren Group. We have the latest goings-on in the red-hot real estate market here.

And New Englanders are no strangers to shoveling out after a heavy snowstorm  and not just during the flurry of memorable blizzards that have blanketed the region over the years. From the Blizzard of 78 to 1993's Storm of the Century to the April Fool's Storm of 1997, many infamous winter storms have blanketed the region with feet of fresh powder. But which storm created the snowiest single day in Massachusetts history, when considering official snow observations from around the state each year? Get the answer here.

Weather

Your three-day forecast.

Join us

Not one of our beloved digital subscribers yet? You can become one right now, and join the growing team of people dedicated to preserving great local news. Its so easy -- go to HeraldNews.com/subscribenow and check out the options. For just a few cents a day, you get all-you-can-read local news, and youll be keeping local journalism alive in our community!

Check out all these stories and more at HeraldNews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: How Fire Chief Lynch's passion for firefighting was ignited
As a winter storm heads toward central Illinois, The State Journal-Register consulted the record books to find the five biggest Springfield snowfalls.

Chuck Shaffer, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Lincoln, provided the following list of the top five largest snowfalls in the capital city.

Here they are counting down to the largest snowfall:

More than 8 inches expected: Springfield area could see 8+ inches of snow, ice. Here's when to expect it

5. Dec. 24, 1915, 10.5 inches.

4. Feb. 12, 1894, 10.7 inches.

3. Dec. 19, 1973, 10.9 inches.

2. Feb. 28, 1900, 15 inches.

1. March 24, 25, 2013, 18.5 inches of snow.

Contact Royale Bonds: rbonds@gannett.com, twitter.com/@Royaleb59699722

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Top 5 largest recorded snowfalls in Springfield, Illinois history
A Florida teen won her appeal to seek an abortion without parental consent after a judge had denied the request.

The 17-year-old, identified as Jane Doe in court documents, filed the motion in Tampa after finding out she was pregnant and a doctor would not talk to her about an abortion without parental consent.

In Florida, people under the age of 18 must notify at least one parent of their decision 48 hours before the abortion and get consent or a judge can excuse them from the requirement, according to Planned Parenthood.

The teen testified that she lives solely with her father and he was against abortion except in the case of rape, according to court documents. She testified that she pays for everything outside the necessities her father pays for, has a job and wants an abortion because she is not financially stable enough to raise a child.

After Roe? Abortion rights supporters and opponents face new landscape in 2022 midterms  and beyond

Abortion: Four clues the Supreme Court is heading toward a major shift on Roe v. Wade

Her first petition was denied when the court found her intelligence was "less than average" after she claimed her grades were Bs, when her grade point average was a 2.0, according to court documents.

In the appeal, Jane Doe's lawyer, Rinky Parwani, explained a 2.0 GPA was average and demonstrated the appropriate level of intelligence.

A judge must consider several factors when deciding whether a petitioner is mature enough to terminate a pregnancy. They include: age, intelligence, emotional development and stability, credibility and demeanor as a witness, ability to accept responsibility and ability to understand and explain the medical risks of terminating a pregnancy.

According to Fox 13, the judge granted Doe's appeal and wrote, "The petitioner's testimony demonstrates that she possesses an ability to assess the consequences of her choice and the risk it entails, as well as the intention to reassess her decision after consultation with her physician."

Story continues

She testified that her boyfriend will drive her to the clinic and her boyfriend's mother, who has helped her, would pay for the procedure if she elects to have it.

"Any young teenage girl who is pregnant is already going through a huge emotional burden," Parwani told Fox 13. "What is really fundamental in this decision is the court understood that she had resources available to her to make the right decision."

Hawaii, Nevada and New York don't require any parental consent for an abortion; Georgia, Texas and Utah do. Twenty-six states plan to restrict the procedure in some fashion if the Supreme Court upholds Mississippi's ban or overturns Roe v. Wade.

Follow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida teen wins appeal to abortion without parental consent
A 22-year-old Florida man has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to charges alleging he stabbed another man to death on a Greyhound bus in November.

Drew Bennett of Panama City, Florida, was charged Dec. 10 in Waukesha County Circuit Court with one count of first-degree intentional homicide after prosecutors say he fatally stabbed the man while traveling from Milwaukee to Madison. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Bennett entered the plea Jan. 26. The court ordered forensic psychologists Melissa Westendorf and Deborah Collins to report on Bennett's mental health status.

According to the criminal complaint:

The bus driver reported an injury to a male passenger while the bus pulled off the interstate and parked in a lot on Westwood Drive in Pewaukee.

When deputies arrived, they found a man with an apparent knife wound to his neck who was unconscious and not breathing. Life-saving measures performed at the scene were unsuccessful.

After the victim, who was not identified, was declared dead, the 14 passengers on the bus were removed via a backdoor. Deputies who searched the bus observed blood spattered in several areas and found a knife sheath in the back of the bus, as well as a knife with a wooden handle that was covered in what appeared to be blood.

Deputies eventually identified Bennett as someone who was potentially involved in the incident. Bennett, who was with his grandmother, was traveling from Florida to visit his mother. Bennett, his grandmother and the victim were all sitting in the back of the bus.

Deputies later found a sharpening stone for a knife in Bennett's backpack.

The complaint noted that at the last stop before the stabbing, Bennett was seen on video getting off the bus with the knife in a sheath in his hand.

Bennett initially told police he did not stab the man, according to the complaint, but then admitted to it.

When talking about the incident, he said he heard voices on the intercom and from other passengers on the bus saying something "about a secret mission" and thought he was saving a woman and child.

Story continues

He remains in custody on $1 million cash bail and is scheduled to be in court on March 28 for a review hearing on the psychologists' reports.

Evan Frank contributed to this report.

Contact Alex Groth at agroth@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @grothalexandria.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Florida man pleads not guilty in Waukesha court after bus stabbing
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Feb. 1DAWSON  Officials with the Dawson Police Department said Tuesday that investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were still looking into the death of Annie Josie Chappell, who was discovered deceased by DPD officers at her Boundary Street home Monday when police responded to an unresponsive person call.

"There's nothing new to report at this time," a DPD official said Tuesday morning in response to a call from The Albany Herald. "The GBI is still investigating the case."

Dawson Police Chief Frank Thornton later reiterated that the investigation is ongoing and said information about the case is not being released at this time.

"We're really not ready to release any of the pertinent information: cause of death or anything else about the case," Thornton said. "All we're prepared to say right now is that the investigation is continuing."

The GBI was asked by Thornton Monday to investigate the death of Chappell, 59. When police arrived at Chappell's home at 2:22 p.m. Monday, they found her deceased inside the house. She lived alone.

Chappell's car, a 2006 Black Hyundai Elantra, is missing and police issued a BOLO (be on the lookout) for the car, which has a Georgia temporary tag (C0521643). The vehicle was seen traveling near 313 Johnson Ferry Road SE in Marietta at 12:22 p.m. on Monday.

A GBI medical examiner will conduct an autopsy.

Anyone with information related to this investigation or who has seen Chappell's vehicle is encouraged to call the Dawson Police Department at (229) 995-4414 or the GBI's regional investigation office in Sylvester at (229) 777-2080. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference at a stormwater treatment area Monday in western Palm Beach County. DeSantis was asked at the event about a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando over the weekend and lashed out at Democrats, saying they are trying to "smear" him over his administration's response to the rally.

Gov. Ron DeSantis accused Democrats Monday of trying to "smear" him over how his administration's responded to a neo-Nazi demonstration in Orlando over the weekend.

Republican leaders across Florida condemned the neo-Nazi rally, with U.S. Sen. Rick Scott tweeting Sunday that "the hateful & anti-Semitic demonstrations reported in Florida today have no place in our state."

The hateful & anti-Semitic demonstrations reported in Florida today have no place in our state. Across America, weve seen a heartbreaking & disgusting rise in hate like this. We must always condemn it & continue to stand strongly with our Jewish communities.  Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) January 31, 2022

But DeSantis didn't weigh in until asked about it during a press conference Monday afternoon in Palm Beach County, and the governor's press secretary drew attention for a tweet that questioned whether the incident was staged.

"Do we even know they're Nazis?" said DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw in a tweet that later was deleted. "Or is this a stunt like the 'white nationalists' who crashed the (Virginia Gov. Glenn) Youngkin rally in Charlottesville and turned out to be Dem staffers? I trust Florida law enforcement to investigate and am awaiting their conclusions."

More coverage: DeSantis, Democrats trade barbs over Everglades restoration, infrastructure funding

By the way: Florida GOP leaders unveil new bill with election law changes sought by DeSantis

Pushaw's tweet drew rebukes from Democrats and Jewish leaders.

"We are alarmed that @ChristinaPushaw would first give cover to antisemites rather than immediately and forcefully condemning their revolting, hate-filled rally and assault," the Anti-Defamation League Florida tweeted, adding: "We expect any public official, especially a voice for @GovRonDeSantis, to address the fears of the Jewish community thoughtfully  not with this troubling and careless approach."

Story continues

DeSantis defended his administration Monday as a strong supporter of Israel and said Democrats are using the Orlando rally to "smear me as if I had something to do with it."

"They try to play games to try to politicize, why would they do that?" DeSantis asked. "Why would they want to elevate a half-dozen malcontents and try to make this an issue for political gain?"

Democrats are trying to distract from President Joe Biden's record, DeSantis added.

The governor called the neo-Nazi demonstrators "jackasses" and said "state law enforcement is gonna hold them accountable because they were doing stuff on the overpass." It is illegal to demonstrate on a highway overpass.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democrat running for governor, took issue with the governor's reaction to being questioned about the neo-Nazi rally Monday, which focused more on Democrats than the demonstrators.

It should be easy, Ron. Condemn the Nazis. https://t.co/1BO3RZvR9u  Charlie Crist (@CharlieCrist) January 31, 2022

"It should be easy, Ron. Condemn the Nazis," Crist tweeted.

Follow Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson on Twitter at @zacjanderson. He can be reached at zac.anderson@heraldtribune.com

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ron DeSantis, Christina Pushaw respond to Florida neo-Nazi rally
Amanda Holden has paid tribute to her late son Theo on what would have been his 11th birthday.

The Britains Got Talent judge and musical theatre performer had a stillbirth in 2011, to a baby boy.

On Tuesday (1 February), Holden shared a photo of his footprints on Instagram to publicly remember her son, who she named Theo.

You would have been 11 today. Im still grateful you chose us for your journey #Theo, the TV personality wrote.

Holden shared the same photo in 2021 on what would have been Theos 10th birthday with the caption: Our gorgeous little boy not a day goes by without thinking of you.

Fans and celebrity friends alike have commented on her latest post with supportive messages.

Alexandra Burke and Stacey Dooley left heart emojis, while This Morning host Ruth Langsford wrote: Sending you love & a huge hug.

The TV star has two daughters, Lexi, 16, and nine-year-old Hollie with husband Chris Hughes.

In 2020, Holden looked back on the moment she was told that the baby had no heartbeat in BBCs Dear NHS Superstars special, while in hospital.

Luckily for us, an obstetrician was coming past and [the midwife] Jackie said to the obstetrician, Please can you go in, I cant hear the patients babys heartbeat, and then I heard this guttural screaming, she recalled.

It was the most bizarre thing thats ever happened to me because it was me. I didnt know I was doing it. I had no control over myself, I thought it was another person making the noise.
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek technology fund PJ Tech Catalyst, backed by Piraeus Bank and the European Investment Fund, has agreed to sell its market research unit Pollfish to U.S.-based marketing and consumer insights company Prodege, Piraeus Bank said on Tuesday.

PJ Tech Catalyst founded Pollfish in 2013. No financial details of the deal were disclosed.

Greece has developed a flourishing startup sector since its debt crisis, which forced tens of thousands of well-qualified young people to emigrate to seek work.

Many have since returned home with experience that has made them potentially valuable recruits for multinational employers.

The deal follows JPMorgan's acquisition of a 49% stake in Athens-based payments fintech Viva Wallet last month, which valued the entire company at over $2.0 billion.

Meta Platforms Inc, the owner of Facebook, is also close to acquiring Greek audio software startup Accusonus, a person with knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Jan Harvey)
ShaRon James

On March 3, 2022, Gunster, one of Floridas oldest and largest full-service business law firms, will hold the inaugural Florida Women in Insurance Leadership Awards Luncheon, hosted by Government Affairs Consultant ShaRon James.

Women in Insurance Leadership Awards honor female insurance leaders who are inspiring and paving the way for others. Women from every facet of the industry, across all lines of insurance and risks, have and continue to make significant contributions to Floridas insurance marketplace.

Florida Women in Insurance Leadership Awards will recognize the outstanding contributions of these women and the organizations that support them.

As a former state insurance consumer advocate, I had the unique opportunity to engage with insurance company executives and their teams around critical issues impacting the insurance industry. And, while I was at the table, in those very important rooms, there were very few women in those rooms with me. From newcomers to those with decades-long careers, we are honored to recognize women who are achieving and contributing within their companies, across the industry, and in their communities, said James.

Gunster Law Firm Shareholder Beth Keating speaks at an event held to reveal two murals of Rosa Parks and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the exterior walls of the Florida People's Advocacy Center building Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020.

Nominations for the following awards are being accepted now through Feb. 9, 2022 and can be submitted at surveymonkey.com/r/Y3Q9NB2.

Emerging Leader - The Emerging Leader Award recognizes an exceptional young woman under the age of 35 that has shown a clear commitment to and passion for the risk and insurance industry in Florida.

Leadership Pacesetter - The Leadership Pacesetter Award recognizes a woman that has taken the lead within Florida's risk and insurance industry, within her company and/or organization and continues to set a high standard of achievement for others to follow.

Lifetime Achievement - The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a woman that has made a significant impact on Florida's risk and insurance marketplace through her outstanding achievements and career contributions to the insurance industry.

DEI Catalyst - DEI Catalyst Award recognizes a company or organization within Florida's risk and insurance industry that has demonstrated its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by advancing programs and initiatives that break down barriers in the risk and insurance industry by promoting a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture.

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James hopes that through the Florida Women in Insurance initiative we will begin to build a supportive network across the state of Florida that will engage in critical discussions regarding the current state of diversity, equity, and inclusion in Floridas insurance marketplace and develop ways to move the industry forward on this important issue.

This event serves as part of Gunsters Leading Florida Forward initiative, which is aimed at empowering and improving the community at large.

Gunsters Government Affairs & Lobbying practice hosts a variety of thought leadership programs, including dynamic CEO roundtable discussions and webinar series focused on insurance trends and the impact of redistricting on Floridas businesses.

Never miss a story: Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat using the link at the top of the page.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Gunster seeks nominations for Florida Women in Insurance awards
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Upcoming

Lunch and Learn. Join Freedom 7 Senior Community Center and Denise Bilder from Ally Senior Living Consultants for a Lunch and Learn on Thursday, Feb. 3, at noon at Freedom 7 Senior Community Center, 5000 Tom Warriner Blvd Cocoa Beach, FL 32931 (Inside the Cocoa Beach Country Club). Enjoy individually wrapped sandwiches and beverages while you listen to an expert social worker discuss senior living options in our area personalized care needs, budgets, differing communities and financial resources. Our seminars are free, everyone is welcome, but RSVPs are kindly requested by email at Freedom7Seniors@outlook.com or by phone at 321-783-9505.

Clinical Research, NASH Clinical Trials and the Importance of Early Detection. Friday, Feb. 4, from 2 to 4 p.m. This is the last of our four-part series to learn about the latest scientific discoveries in Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Liver Disease and more. Presented by One Senior Place, Merritt Island Medical Research, Charter Research, and ClinCloud. RSVP is required, call 321-751-6771. One Senior Place is located at 8085 Spyglass Hill Road, Viera, FL 32940.

Revive Viera set for grand opening. Revive Viera's grand opening will be held Feb. 4-6. Revive Viera, which is a health and wellness clinic, focusing on preventative medicine and hormone optimization therapy, will be open at 10 a.m. with a ribbon cutting at noon. The first 50 patients receive a FREE 500 mL Vitamin Therapy Experience. Revive Viera believes in a synergistic approach to overall healthcare and healing. Services Offered include: Vitamin & Ozone Therapy, Booster Shots, Aesthetics, Hormone Replacement Therapy, Virtually Pain Free Laser Hair Removal, Stem Cell Therapy, Esthetician Services, Medical Weight Loss & More! Revive Viera is located at 2338 Citadel Way Suite 105, Melbourne, FL 32940. Call to reserve your spot (321) 507-4722 or go to viera@revivedx.com

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FREE Liver Scans. Monday, Feb. 7, and Wednesday, Feb. 16, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ClinCloud is offering FREE Fibroscans at One Senior Place, 8085 Spyglass Hill Road, Viera, FL 32940. Please call 321-751-6771 to schedule your half hour appointment.

Seniors and Dental Health. Ask The Doctor Lunch & Learn Series, Monday, Feb. 7, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Lunch provided by VITAS Healthcare for all registered attendees. Dr. Michael Fowler, DMD PA, General Dentistry, will present. RSVP required, call 321-751-6771. One Senior Place is located at 8085 Spyglass Hill Road, Viera, FL 32940.

Introduction to Senior Health. Top 10 Tips for Optimum Senior Health with Nurse Lisa, Friday, Feb. 11, from 10-11 a.m. In this introductory program, Lisa also will survey the audience for what topics are of greatest interest for possible future presentations. RSVP required to 321-751-6771. One Senior Place is located at 8085 Spyglass Hill Road, Viera, FL 32940.

Nutrition and Pain Management. Thursday, Feb. 17, from noon to 1 p.m. Presented by Aquatic Health & Rehab. Benefits that go hand in hand. What to do and eat, and what not to do and eat. For more information and to RSVP, call 321-253-6324. One Senior Place is located at 8085 Spyglass Hill Road, Viera, FL 32940.

Support Groups

Parkinsons Discussion Group. Wednesday, Feb. 16, from 10 to 11 a.m. Come and share ideas, make new friends at the Parkinsons Discussion Group. Bring your questions and let us discuss our experiences and feelings as we deal with Parkinsons disease. RSVP to 321-751-6771. This does NOT replace the support group that is held the first Monday of the month. One Senior Place, 8085 Spyglass Hill Rd, Melbourne, FL 32940.

Alzheimers & Dementia Support Group. Wednesday, Feb. 16, from 2-3 p.m. The group encourages caregivers to maintain their own personal, physical and emotional health as well as optimal care for the person with dementia. Sponsored by Market Street Memory Care, to RSVP call 321-751-6771. One Senior Place, 8085 Spyglass Hill Rd, Melbourne, FL 32940.

Ongoing

Line dancing class. An excellent was to stay physically and mentally fit while also enjoying the social benefits. Beginner level. Larry Wright, Instructor (321-323-4928), Wednesdays 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., $5 a class, Viera Regional Community Center, 2300 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera, Fl 32940.

Free memory screenings. The Memory Disorder Clinic at Health First, 3661 Babcock St. 2nd floor, Melbourne, FL 32901, one of 17 state-funded memory clinics, provides free memory screening to anyone over the age of 18 who is concerned about memory. Memory screenings are not a diagnosis but an important first step in the evaluation process, serving a vital role toward detection and treatment. Call 321-434-7614 for an appointment.

Zumba Gold. Perfect for active adults looking for a modified Zumba class that recreates the original moves you love at a lower intensity. Come ready to dance every Monday and Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at Freedom 7 Senior Community Center, inside the Cocoa Beach Country Club, 5000 Tom Warriner Blvd, Cocoa Beach, FL 32931. Everyone is welcome. Visit www.freedom7seniors.org or 321-783-9505 for more information. Drop in, no preregistration required.

Questions About Your Hearing? Personal Hearing Solutions, every Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at One Senior Place, 8085 Spyglass Hill Road, Viera. Sandra Wagner will be on hand to share information and answer your questions about hearing loss and solutions to it for a safe and healthy lifestyle. For more information, stop by or call 321-253-6310.

Overeaters Anonymous (OA) Meetings in Brevard County. Do you worry about the way you eat? Overeaters Anonymous may have the answer for you. For more information on the Space Coast chapter, including more meetings and contact info, visit https://oaspacecoast.org/

Cocoa Beach: 11 a.m. on Monday at the Cocoa Beach Public Library, 550 N. Brevard Avenue, Cocoa Beach

Merritt Island: 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Hobbs Pharmacy, 133 N. Banana River Drive, Merritt Island - person to person meeting or call into meeting 515-604-9755 Enter 558911#

Indian Harbor Beach: 11 a.m. on Friday at Circle Club, 230 E. Eau Gallie Blvd., Indian Harbor Beach

Indialantic: 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at Eastminster Church, Melvin Hall, 106 N.Riverside Drive, Indialantic, FL

TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly)

TOPS Chapter FL 0043 meets at 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays at the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, 3050 N. Hwy A1A, Indialantic, FL 32903, Room 101. Weigh-in begins at 3:30 p.m. Cost is $4 monthly chapter dues and new member fee is $49.78 first year only; yearly member renewals are $37. More info, call 321-271-9427 or visit http://www.tops.org

TOPS Chapter FL 0066 meets at 6:15 p.m. Thursdays at the Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library, 308 Forrest Ave, Cocoa, FL 32922. Weigh-in begins at 5:45 p.m. Cost is $4 monthly chapter dues and new member fee is $49.78 first year only; yearly member renewals are $37. More info, call 321-271-9427 or visit http://www.tops.org

TOPS Melbourne Chapter FL0164 meets on Thursdays with weigh-in starting at 8:45 a.m. and the meeting follows at 9:30 a.m. Beginning Jan. 6, 2022, the meeting place will be Wesley Methodist Church, 2075 Meadowlane Ave., West Melbourne FL (Mask optional). The new member fee is $49.78 first year only; Yearly member renewals are $37 and monthly Chapter dues $5. For more information call 720-215-8015 or visit http://www.tops.org.

TOPS Chapter FL 0307 meets at 10 a.m. Fridays St. Lukes Presbyterian Church, 1255 Knox McRae Dr, Titusville, FL 32780. Weigh-in begins at 8 a.m. Cost is $5 monthly chapter dues and the new member fee is $49.78 first year only; yearly member renewals are $37. More info, call 585-305-0626 or visit http://www.tops.org .

TOPS Chapter FL 0456 meets at 09:30 a.m. Fridays, Building C, Room 1, 625 Barefoot Bay Blvd, Barefoot Bay, FL 32976. Weigh-in begins at 9 a.m. Cost is $3 monthly chapter dues and new member fee is $49.78 first year only; yearly member renewals are $37. More info, call 321-271-9427 or visit http://www.tops.org

TOPS Chapter FL 0473 meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Roseland United Methodist Church, 12962 Roseland Road, Roseland, FL 32968. Parking provided behind building. Weigh-in begins at 6:00 p.m. Cost is $5 monthly chapter dues and new member fee is $49.78 first year only; yearly member renewals are $37. More info, call 321-271-9427 or visit http://www.tops.org

TOPS Chapter FL 0506 Meets at 10 a.m. Thursdays at the right side entrance, Faith Baptist Church, 341 Emerson Drive NW, Palm Bay, FL 32907. Weigh-in begins at 9:15 a.m. Cost is $6 monthly chapter dues and new member fee is $49.78 first year only; yearly member renewals are $37. More info, call 321-271-9427 or visit http://www.tops.org

TOPS Chapter FL 0544 Meets at 10:30 a.m. Thursdays in the Fellowship Hall, Ascension Lutheran Church, 1053 Pinetree Drive, Indian Harbour Beach, FL 32937. Weigh-in begins at 9:45 a.m. Cost is $5 monthly chapter dues and new member fee is $49.78 first year only; yearly member renewals are $37. More info, call 321-271-9427 or visit http://www.tops.org

TOPS Chapter FL 0876 meets at 10 a.m. Wednesdays, Building 2, Martin Anderson Senior Center, 1025 Florida Avenue South, Rockledge, FL 32955. Weigh-in begins at 9:30 a.m. Cost is $4 monthly chapter dues and new member fee is $49.78 first year only; yearly member renewals are $37. More info, call 321-271-9427 or visit http://www.tops.org

If you have items you'd like placed in this calendar, email Tim Walters at twalters@floridatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Health calendar: Feb. 1, 2022
LOUISVILLE, Ky.  The Louisville-area chamber of commerce is gearing up for a second cohort of its minority business accelerator.

Greater Louisville Inc. first launched the Power to Prosper Minority Business Accelerator in early 2021 with the goal of providing area business owners with training and resources to scale their business.

And following the graduation of the inaugural 12-member cohort in December 2021, GLI said on Tuesday it has opened up applications for the second round of the program, which will begin in May.

GLI President and CEO Sarah Davasher-Wisdom said the chamber is "excited to build on the success of our first Power to Prosper cohort and welcome a new group of businesses who are eager to grow their presence in our regional economy.

Based on feedback from our first group, this program provides invaluable training in areas such as finance, marketing and advertising and also helps many businesses get their foot in the door at major corporations for potential contracts," Davasher-Wisdom said.

More: Potential Valhalla sale raises concerns of redevelopment  and loss of a Louisville icon

As with the first cohort, the GLI program will rely on national consulting firm Interise's StreetWise "MBA" curriculum, which uses a peer-learning method to connect industry experts and business owners to help accelerate the growth of existing small businesses.

The program is valued at $15,000 per student, according to GLI, and applications will be open until April 1. To apply, minority businesses owners must:

Employ at least one full-time employee, besides the owner(s).

Have been in business at least two years.

Commit to attend class and complete mandatory assignments and program surveys, as requested.

For the first cohort, GLI required that applicants must have businesses with a minimum of $200,000 in annual revenue. However, the chamber's diversity, equity and inclusion team dropped that requirement this time, according to GLI spokeswoman Olivia Sievert.

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"The program is intended for growing already established small and mid-sized businesses," Sievert told The Courier Journal. "The past few years have been trying for many businesses, so our team does not want to limit participants on revenue alone but rather look at growth potential."

The Papa Johns Foundation for Building Community helped to fund the program, according to GLI.

One of the participants of the inaugural cohort was Shelby Throneburg, CEO of Eagle Steel and Metal Products. Throneburg, her father and their family purchased the remaining assets of the former Eagle Steel Products to create the new steel and metal warehousing and distribution company in March 2019.

Throneburg said both the pandemic and maternity leave she took in July 2020 after having a baby made her "feel a lot of disconnect" as a leader. Thus, when she heard about GLI's program, she said it "came at a really good time for me to reconnect as a leader and reconnect with the business."

"The most valuable thing that I took away from (the business accelerator) was how important it is to maintain a company growth plan," Throneburg said. "It's really what we spend the entire program working on and it's not something that I had created for the company before the program."

Kroger, Levi's and agritech: Here are 5 major projects just announced for Kentucky

Throneburg said her growth plan includes short-term goals, like financing options for the company, and long-term goals, such as identifying different locations for the company to expand.

Another participant in the inaugural cohort was Don Weobong, CEO of eLeaP, a software company that runs a learning management system that helps companies to manage team performance and organizational compliance. Weobong said the program's peer-to-peer learning model "piqued my interest."

"My favorite part was when we got to do presentations at the very end stage," Weobong said. "...We basically became the teachers at that point because we were talking about our businesses, what we learned, our five-year plans and so on and so forth."

As for the future, Weobong said he hopes to grow revenues within Kentucky. He said his global company earns more than 95% of revenues from outside the Bluegrass State:

"At the end of the day, for me as a small business owner, all I'm asking for is an opportunity to pitch my product," Weobong said.

To learn more about GLI's Minority Business Accelerator, click here.

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Greater Louisville Inc. opens 2nd round for minority business program
For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis - but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirus vaccine. And, despite his hospital's requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he's refusing the shots.

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

Carswell, of Hickory, N.C., acknowledged his condition is a "ticking time bomb," and said he's living every day as though it's his last. Still, he will not take a coronavirus vaccine - even if that means losing out on a potentially lifesaving transplant.

"There is not a situation in this world that I'll get a vaccine," he told The Post. "If I'm laying on my deathbed, and they tell me, 'You have a kidney waiting on you if you get this shot,' I'll tell them, 'I'll see you on the other side.'"

Carswell is not the only unvaccinated person on a transplant wait list to be denied an organ. Last week, the family of D.J. Ferguson said a Massachusetts hospital denied him a heart transplant because he refused to take a coronavirus vaccine, the Associated Press reported. In October, a Colorado hospital said it would deny a kidney transplant to a woman unless she got vaccinated against the coronavirus.

In both cases, the hospitals cited policies that require all transplant recipients to get vaccinated because of research that shows such patients are at a higher risk of dying from covid-19. Studies estimate the mortality rate of transplant patients who contract covid-19 at about 20 to 30 percent, The Post reported.

Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, which recently drew criticism for denying Ferguson's heart transplant over his vaccination status, said in a statement that there are more than 100,000 patients waiting for organs, and about half do not receive one in five years.

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"Given the shortage of available organs, we do everything we can to ensure that a patient who receives a transplanted organ has the greatest chance of survival," the hospital said. It also cited guidance from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and other organizations that recommend patients receive coronavirus vaccines before undergoing transplants.

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, the hospital where Carswell was hoping to receive his transplant, declined to comment on his case. In a statement to The Post, a spokeswoman said the hospital's vaccine policy is meant to protect transplant patients, who are at high risk for severe illness from covid-19.

"[Our] policy follows the current standard of care in the United States, which is to vaccinate all patients on waiting lists or being evaluated for transplant," the statement read, which added: "We understand that some patients may not wish to be vaccinated. In this case, patients can opt to be evaluated at another transplant center."

Carswell told The Post that he has had long history of health problems. After he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes, Carswell said he developed infections and other complications in his legs, both of which had to be amputated. He's had covid twice, he said - once in November 2020 and again this past September, which landed him in the hospital for a short time.

For the last four and a half years, Carswell said, he's battled stage-four kidney disease, and he went on dialysis in 2020 when his kidney function started to rapidly decline. For the last several months, Carswell said, he's been looking for a new kidney and found numerous people willing to give him one.

It wasn't until an appointment about three weeks ago, he said, that a doctor told him he needed a coronavirus vaccine to be eligible for a transplant. The doctor also told him his kidney donor would need to be vaccinated as well.

That was a problem for Carswell, who said he does not want to be forced to get the shot. He added that he doesn't believe in conspiracy theories about the vaccines, but remains skeptical about how they were developed.

Coronavirus vaccines have passed rigorous safety reviews and are effective in preventing serious illness and deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends anyone over the age of 5 take a coronavirus vaccine.

But for Carswell, getting a shot comes down to personal choice, he said

"It's about standing up for our rights and understanding that we have a choice," he said.

Carswell said he knows that by refusing to get vaccinated, the donor kidney he so desperately needs will remain out of reach. But he said he is willing to accept the consequences, even it costs him his life.

"I was born free," Carswell added. "I'll die free."

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(Getty Images)

A hiring recruiter sparked outrage online after posting on LinkedIn that she offered a job candidate $45,000 less than the hiring budget because the individual did not negotiate for a higher salary.

In a tweet that now has more than 215,000 likes, user @TE_AMO_COURT shared a screenshot of the LinkedIn post, which was written by recruiter Mercedes S Johnson, with the caption: There are two types of ppl in this world smh.

In the LinkedIn post, Johnson says that she offered a candidate $85,000 for a job that had a budget of $130,000. I offered her that because thats what she asked for and I personally dont have the bandwidth to give lessons on salary negotiation, Johnson wrote in her post.

The viral tweet compared Johnsons LinkedIn post to a tweet from @uhhbre, who is also a recruiter and who had tweeted about offering an individual more than the salary range theyd given. Had a junior software engineer ask for a very low salary range, she tweeted. She will be shocked when this offer comes through. We are paying your worth over here.

Twitter user @TE_AMO_COURT clarified that they included Mercedes S Johnsons full name in the screenshot in the hope that both the new hire and the CEO of her company are aware of the situation.

Many users also shared their outrage over Johnsons original LinkedIn post.

Pay equity starts with hiring managers, tweeted @BakerAntonia, while another person wrote: And these jobs wonder why their turnover rate is so high, which only cost them more in the long run. In a world full of Mercedes Johnsons, be a Briana Johnson.

There are 2 types of ppl in this world smh pic.twitter.com/dlHA3rXJWB  BOOBERELLA (@TE_AMO_COURT) January 29, 2022

Hi @journeyintotech, that doesn't seem right. If this is about a Honeywell Employee, could you please DM us more information about the post and the link to the comments? Thank you - Steve.  Honeywell (@honeywell) January 29, 2022

Some even tagged Johnsons employer Honeywell, urging them to take action, to which the company responded asking for more information.

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Johnson finally acknowledged the uproar with another LinkedIn post, that she then shared to Twitter. The purpose of that post was to empower others to not end up like this particular candidate, she explained. I want people to know their worth. I made that post at the risk of my job because its not right that many dont know what their skills are worth.

She also apologised to the candidate the post was about, adding that she deserves to be paid what shes worth from the company.

The Independent has contacted Johnson for comment.
Thunderbolt Baptist Church members hand out banh tet, a sticky rice and mung bean roll that is often dipped in sugar when eating. It is a Lunar New Year staple for the Vietnamese community.

Clusters of yellow blossoms, or hoa mai in Vietnamese, adorn the front of the Thunderbolt Baptist Church sanctuary. Forty or so members of the congregation sing along in the pews as those on stage ring in the Lunar New Year with hymns in their native language.

For Asian cultures that celebrate the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 1 this year, its the most anticipated holiday. But like many festivities, the celebration was scaled back last year due to the pandemic and hasnt quite returned to its full splendor.

More: Lunar New Year 2022: What does the holiday and the Year of the Tiger represent?

A pile of banh tet, rolls of sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, mightve stood 200 rolls high prior to the pandemic. This year, only about 40 of the treats were prepared. But that doesnt mean the holiday feeling is lost, said Christiana Phan, 22, whos been attending the church since she was a kid.

Last Sunday, everybody stayed after church and just made a whole bunch of those (banh tet). said Phan, whose father is Pastor Truc Thuong Phan, They roll them, wrap them  its like this big event.

More: Three glimpses into Savannahs Asian American community after Atlanta area shootings

Phan recalls how they would visit family and friends at their homes and feast on an abundance of homemade dishes.

We used to do a lot more of that when our congregation was bigger. Over the past few years because of COVID and the community being really strained said Phan, taking a pause, ...weve had to up security and we stream online, so its been a bit smaller.

Christiana Phan, 22, sings at the Thunderbolt Baptist Church Lunar New Year service.

Dealing with the rise in Asian hate

Phan was referring to another deadly wave: a rise in attacks against Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic that in several cases killed or severely injured elders across the country.

In addition to fears about infection, Phan said the church had to brace for possible violence and installed extra locks on their doors. The past few years have been trying for the community at large, she said.

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But the confluence of hardship also facilitated a reflection on her cultural identity.

We did a lot of adaptation; we did a lot of survival. Lots of people came here in the 1990s and their kids were born here so we were kind of just put here, said Phan.

Before: Georgia Sen. Michelle Au compelled to represent diverse community in midst of ATL shooting

The Vietnamese community in Savannah isnt as bustling as in larger metropolitan cities. Pastor Truc Phan estimates that there are about 800 Vietnamese in the Savannah area, most of whom have a refugee background rather than one of immigration.

The church was formed in the '90s and served as a home away from home for refugees who came to Savannah for asylum after the Vietnam War. As the Vietnamese congregation grew, they inherited the Thunderbolt Baptist Church, which used to be a majority English-speaking congregation, said Phan.

A lot of people here today might not come often but they know this is where they can talk with other Vietnamese people, said Phan.

A dual identity

Ngoc Quang Doan, a longtime member of the church, was one of the refugees who sought asylum in Savannah in 1992. Doan said he and his family found freedom in the U.S. Everything was big and new he recalls.

Theo Doan, 19, and Pastor Truc Phan are dressed in the traditional ao dai for Lunar New Year celebrations at the Thunderbolt Baptist Church.

For his children, growing up in an area without a lot of other Asian kids created an identity crisis.

Lydia, Doans 16-year-old daughter, said shes one of four Asian students in her high school. But shes the only one whos not a foreign exchange student.

I grew up trying to change myself, said Lydia.

Theo, Doans son, a college sophomore, agreed emphatically after his sister described hating being Asian.

I used to be so ashamed, said Theo.

The only time his culture seemed to be acknowledged was when it was the butt of a joke  when his food was being made fun of or when he was called a racial slur.

I remember my turning point  when a classmate called me" an Asian racial slur, said Theo.

That was in middle school. He realized he couldnt blend in, and, at that point, he didnt want to. I realized I shouldnt abandon my culture, he said.

For Lydia, that realization was more recent  brought about when a shooter killed eight people, six of whom were women of Asian decent, at Atlanta-area spas last March. The murders reverberated across the Asian American community as people debated whether it was another targeted hate crime.

Lydia said that compelled her to shed light on the race-fueled hate that was going on, and set out to do a story for her school newspaper.

(But) when I went to go interview people about it, nobody knew. They were like What are you talking about?, she recalled.

When her efforts to raise awareness were met with denial and censure from classmates, that became her turning point.

Racism was always so casual, I thought, Oh this is funny, I should laugh, but then I realized  people are getting hurt, said Lydia. I needed to stand up for myself  and not try to change for other people.

An array of homemade dishes at the Thunderbolt Baptist Church Lunar New Year celebration.

Lunar New Year traditions

In Vietnam and other Asian countries that celebrate the holiday, Lunar New Year festivities last for days, sometimes more than a week. Schools and businesses shut down to formally celebrate.

While that isnt the case for communities celebrating abroad, the sentiment is the same. Its a time for friends and family to congregate around food. Trays of succulent pig, rice noodles, egg rolls and marinated tofu make up the new year's spread at the Baptist church. Save for a box of fried chicken, all the dishes are homemade.

Kids and single adults are given a red envelope that contains lucky money, an allowance thats meant to wish the receiver good luck into the new year.

For Lydia, Theo and Phan, second-generation Vietnamese Americans, its also a time to reconnect with the country their parents came from.

This gives us a reason to stay in touch with our culture, said Lydia, Weve never experienced a true Lunar New Year in an Asian country, but I think this is enough to keep us still going.

All three hope to be able to one day experience the new year in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Phan said the church continues to build back their community. In the age of COVID, she said the focus has shifted to meeting the needs of those who cant make it to their in-person services. The congregation just started having meals together again, a central part of their fellowship.

Its hard to put into words, said Phan, it (celebrating Lunar New Year) makes me realize that being Asian isnt just this abstract concept. Its not just people asking me what are you and me saying Im Vietnamese. Its not even me just understanding Vietnamese when my parents speak it. Its a whole other cultural world thats outside of my own that Im also in, and we have to hold onto that.

Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at nguan@gannett.com or on Twitter @nancyguann.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Vietnamese community in Savannah celebrates Lunar New Year
The Marion County Courthouse was made with a more orange-colored stone than its sister courthouse in Fayette County, Ohio.

*Correction: Due to a reporter's error, the sentence of the defendant has been corrected to 30 months.

A man will spend at least the next year in prison after pleading guilty to attempted felonious assault in a plea deal prosecutors said reflected the wishes of the female victim not to testify.

Tyler Le Jones, who was homeless, was sentenced 30 months in prison Monday by Marion County Court of Common Pleas Judge Warren Edwards.

Le Jones' sentencing was the culmination of a complicated legal journey. What started out as a one count indictment for sexual battery grew to include two additional counts of rape, a felony of the first degree, throughout the pre-trial process.

The prosecution later attempted to add one count of aggravated assault before withdrawing it, finally adding the attempted felonious assault charge, a third degree felony  the charge of which Le Jones was convicted.

Because the victim did not wish to testify in court, the prosecution requested to have the rape charges dismissed. This led to a filing error, adding another element of confusion to the case.

The prosecution originally filed to dismiss the indictment before clarifying before the Court of Common Pleas the intention to dismiss the charges from the indictment, not the indictment itself.

In a Nov. 18 pre-trial hearing, Edwards said charges of such a serious nature could not be dismissed without presenting sufficient evidence to the court.

The twists and turns of the case point out the challenges victims face when pursuing justice for sexual crimes.

This confusing process of court proceedings culminated in a plea deal, dismissing the jury trial scheduled for Feb. 15.

Marion County Prosecutor Ray Grogan said the plea deal was made in the best interest of the victim, even if the public might not support or understand.

"To protect victims, sometimes I have to make decisions that are politically unpopular, and I'm entirely fine with that," said Grogan. "Ultimately, that's what happened in this case."

Story continues

Grogan said prosecutors found a way to see justice done because Le Jones agreed to plead guilty to attempted felonious assault.

Before announcing the sentence, Edwards said he was concerned that the sentence would not label Le Jones a sex offender because the prosecution did not pursue more serious charges.

Grogan defended his office staff, saying they fight for the best interests and wishes of each victim, who in this case didn't wish to testify.

"That can be a very scary thing to a number of victims. In an effort to protect her and in an effort to see justice done, that's why these decisions were made. None of these decisions are made lightly. We do it with great consultation with the victims. We speak with victims in every instance, and we take what they have to say to heart," Grogan said.

In front of the court, Le Jones offered a statement alongside his guilty plea, saying he hoped to one day gain the forgiveness of the victim and also be able to forgive himself.

Story by: Sophia Veneziano (740) 564 - 5243 | sveneziano@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion assault case: Tyler Le Jones gets prison after plea deal
Operation Hammer Strike Week 22 included the arrest of over three dozen suspects and the eradication of over 250 marijuana greenhouses, the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department reported.

The latest Operation Hammer Strike update from sheriffs officials revealed the recent eradication of hundreds of marijuana greenhouses in San Bernardino County.

The outdoor marijuana cultivations  many operated by suspects in the High Desert, Los Angeles County, and China  were shuttered during OHS Week 22, a seven-day period, which ended Sunday, the SBC Sheriffs Department said Monday.

During that week, a total of 256 greenhouses were found and eradicated by investigators, who mitigated one electrical bypass and one THC extraction lab, according to sheriffs officials.

Sheriff's personnel also arrested 36 suspects, with investigators seizing 52,715 marijuana plants, more than 3,575 pounds of processed marijuana, more than $51,000 in cash, and 10 guns, a sheriffs report said.

Investigators from the Sheriff's Department - Marijuana Enforcement Team, along with SBC deputies from several sheriff's patrol stations, served 17 search warrants at various locations in Adelanto, Apple Valley, Hesperia, Hinkley, Wonder Valley, Twentynine Palms, El Mirage, Walnut, West Covina, Alhambra, and Chino Hills.

The strike was launched after MET personnel received numerous complaints about large outdoor and indoor marijuana cultivations in these areas:

14000 Block of Lakota Road, Apple Valley

15400 Block of Riverside, Hesperia

39600 Block of Summerset, Hinkley

42100 Block of Friends Drive, Hinkley

42700 Block of Hinkley Road, Hinkley

4300 Block of Bagdad Highway, Twentynine Palms

83400 Block of Amboy Road, Wonder Valley

1900 Block of Slate Creek Drive, Walnut

600 Block of Butterfield, West Covina

2000 Block of Elm Street, Alhambra

1900 Block of Deer Haven, Chino Hills

Several parcels with no address in Adelanto, Hinkley, El Mirage, and Wonder Valley.

Operation Hammer Strike Week 22 included the arrest of over three dozen suspects and the eradication of over 250 marijuana greenhouses, the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department reported.

Operation Hammer Strike Week 22 included the arrest of more than three dozen suspects and the eradication of more than 250 marijuana greenhouses, the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department reported.

Suspects were cited or booked on suspicion of cultivation of cannabis, over six plants; possession for sales of marijuana, illegal water discharge, manufacturing a controlled substance, utility theft, and conspiracy.

Story continues

The investigations revealed the cannabis cultivations were not in compliance with California's Medical and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act and SBCs ordinance prohibiting commercial cannabis activity, including growing marijuana plants outdoors.

The sheriff's Gangs/Narcotics Division will continue to enforce the states cannabis laws and the county's ordinance regarding cannabis cultivation and distribution.

Persons found guilty of violating the state law and county ordinance are subject to fines, prosecution, and seizure of property, sheriffs officials said.

Property owners who are growing marijuana or are aware their tenants are growing marijuana on their properties in violation of the state law and local ordinances may also be subject to civil or criminal sanctions.

Property owners are encouraged to contact local law enforcement or code compliance agencies to confirm if cultivating cannabis is prohibited or allowed under specific regulations.

Anyone with information about the ongoing investigation is asked by the sheriff's department to contact the Sheriff's Gangs/Narcotics Division at (909) 387-8400 or NARC-MET@sbcsd.org.

Callers wishing to remain anonymous may call the We-tip Hotline at (800) 78-CRIME (27463), or you may leave the information on the We-Tip Hotline at wetip.com.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Instagram @RenegadeReporter and Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Marijuana bust: Sheriff's officials eradicate hundreds of greenhouses
Ian Blackford has denied his refusal to withdraw accusations the Prime Minister wilfully misled MPs about Downing Street parties was a political stunt.

The SNPs Westminster leader was ordered to leave the House of Commons on Monday afternoon after making the claim as MPs grilled Boris Johnson over the Sue Gray report.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle repeatedly asked him to withdraw the accusation, as it is considered against parliamentary etiquette to make such an assertion.

Mr Blackford replied: Its not my fault if the Prime Minister cant be trusted to tell the truth.

Amid raucous shouting from the Tory benches, the Speaker said: Under the power given to me by standing order number 43 I order the honourable member to withdraw immediately from the House.

Mr Blackford walked out of the chamber before the Speaker had finished, with Sir Lindsay noting: Its all right, we dont need to bother.

The Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP was asked about the controversy as he appeared on breakfast TV on Tuesday morning.

No, it wasnt a stunt, it wasnt premeditated, he told BBC Breakfast.

If I were to be in trouble because Ive spoken the truth yet the man that has repeatedly told lies, the man that has sought to cover up everything thats going on, the man that has misled parliament, sits there, he said.

Im to be punished because Ive stood up for my constituents and stood up for the millions of people in the United Kingdom that feel real anger.

I have a duty to do what I have been sent to Westminster to do.

He told ITVs Good Morning Britain he took "no pleasure in having to leave the chamber" after he refused to back down.

It seems, I have to say, slightly perverse that I'm the one that is to be thrown out of the House of Commons on the basis of standing up and telling the truth, he said.

Now, if I had withdrawn what I'd said yesterday in the House of Commons I would have been guilty of doing what the Prime Minister has done, and that would have been lying to everybody watching.

Story continues

One of these days the Prime Minister is going to have to accept that he has abused the trust that was put in him when he became Prime Minister. He should have gone by now.

And this morning, my message to Tory MPs, they're going to have to do the job because, quite simply, this man is not fit for purpose. He's not fit to be Prime Minister.

Several senior Tories came out to back the Prime Minister on Tuesday, in wake of Ms Gray's report being released and Downing Street being investigated by the police over allegations of lockdown-busting parties.

The included Scotland Secretary Alister Jack, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland: I want the right person to run this country and I believe Boris Johnson is an excellent Prime Minister.
Paige Rice, 22, an influencer and nail technician, died after a car crash in Liverpool last October. (Reach)

An influencer and her boyfriend were killed when the car he was driving at 98mph hit an oncoming taxi in a Liverpool tunnel, an inquest has heard.

Paige Rice, 22, was in the passenger seat of the Audi S3 being driven by Callum Miller, 27, when it collided with a Mercedes taxi in the Queensway Tunnel on 17 October last year.

Rice, a nail technician from the West Midlands, died in hospital a few hours after the crash, while her boyfriend died the next day.

She had been visiting him in Liverpool at the time.

The taxi driver, a man in his 40s, survived but suffered life-changing injuries to his right leg and hip.

The Audi had been travelling at 98mph when it was heading towards the tunnel, before first colliding with a Volkswagen Passat and a London cab.

It then went into the tunnel and hit the Mercedes taxi head-on.

The taxi, which had been travelling at 24mph, was pushed backwards some distance as a result of the collision.

Rices mother, Clare, paid tribute to her daughter last October after her death.

In a tribute posted on Instagram, she wrote that her daughter was the most beautiful girl, with the biggest smile, a contagious laugh and heart of gold.

She said Paige, her brother Tyler and herself would always be the three musketeers.

Read more: Distraught mum's plea after daughter's attackers sentence

Paige Rice, right, pictured with her brother Tyler. (Reach)

She wrote: Words can not describe how broken I am as her mum. I'm overwhelmed by the love being shown.

If you were a friend of Paige she would love you with all she's got and she would be there in an instant if you ever needed her.

She lived life to its fullest. She had big dreams and Paige always made things happen. Her drive to succeed was inspirational.

Paige has been my rock recently, I can barely breathe right now and I don't know how to carry on.

My house is quiet and all I want is to talk to her one last time.

An inquest at the Gerard Majella Courthouse in Liverpool on Monday heard that Rices cause of death was trauma, while Millers death was given as a traumatic brain injury.

Story continues

Coroner Andre Rebello said: "When I die, I want people to remember me for the person I am now.

Paige Rice and her boyfriend were killed in a car crash in a tunnel in Liverpool last October. (Reach)

"I don't think anyone here would ever want to be remembered for their death. It is appropriate and gives these young people dignity in their deaths if you celebrate and remember those lives that you remember in your hearts.

"Death is debilitating and covers a rollercoaster of human emotion; revenge, bitterness, love.

"Life is not measured in time, it is measured in love. So please celebrate those lives."

Rice started her own make-up artist business when she was 15.

Her mother said she had a large following on Instagram.

She told Birmingham Live: "Paige was just so full of life. She lived life to the full. She was a beautiful woman inside and out. Her smile would light up a room.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK News
Robert Whittaker before his UFC 243 defeat by Israel Adesanya (Getty Images)

Israel Adesanya has praised rival Robert Whittaker for being open and vulnerable about his mental health ahead of their rematch at UFC 271.

Adesanya secured a TKO victory over Whittaker in Melbourne in 2019, taking the UFC middleweight title from the Australian in the headline bout of the most highly-attended event in the promotions history.

Whittaker has since won three fights in a row to set up a rematch with the Nigerian-born New Zealander in another main-event clash this month.

Prior to his defeat by Adesanya, Whittaker admitted that he had been dealing with depression for many years. After the fight, the 31-year-old also opened up about experiencing burnout.

I havent heard too much about it, but yeah, good on him for being open and vulnerable, Adesanya told The Independent in an exclusive interview this week.

In a rare moment of empathy for his rival, whom he has mocked for the best part of three years, Adesanya continued: Thats what makes you strong: being vulnerable. I know this because I do this all the time, Im super vulnerable with my emotions  on-camera, off-camera.

So yeah, good on him for bringing that to the forefront. Its the first step, I guess, in getting over it or learning how to deal with it and manage it.

Accepting it and sharing it kind of gives other people permission to do the same.

Israel Adesanya (right) evades a punch from Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 (Getty Images)

Since beating Whittaker to become UFC middleweight champion, Adesanya has successfully defended the belt three times  most recently against old foe Marvin Vettori.

Prior to that match-up in June, Adesanya experienced the first loss of his professional MMA career as he was outpointed by then-light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz in March.

Whittaker, meanwhile, has earned decision wins against contenders Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum since losing the title to Adesanya.

UFC 271 will take place on 12 February in Houston, Texas.

Israel Adesanya is an ambassador for Stake.com, one of the leading and fastest-growing cryptocurrency betting and gaming operators worldwide.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP)  Israels prime minister on Tuesday acknowledged that its Iron Dome defense system is too expensive and the country is speeding the rollout of laser technology to help protect it from rocket attacks.

Naftali Bennett told a security conference that the new generation of technology -- a laser wall -- will be unveiled within a year in southern Israel. Little is known about the system's effectiveness, but the system eventually is expected to be deployed on land, in the air and at sea and send a deterrent message to archenemy Iran and its proxies.

The lasers are designed to complement Israels multilayered defenses  which include the Iron Dome and other systems capable of intercepting long and medium-range missiles and drones.

"The economic equation will be reversed; they will invest a lot and we will invest a little, Bennett told the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

If it is possible to intercept a missile or rocket with just an electric pulse that costs a few dollars, we will have nullified the ring of fire that Iran has set up on our borders, Bennett said, adding, "This new generation of air defense can also serve our friends in the region.

Israel unveiled the Iron Dome a decade ago, and the military says it has been a great success, with a 90% interception rate against incoming rocket fire during four wars against militants in the Gaza Strip.

But in his speech, Bennett said the system is limited by its high price, which is partly underwritten by the United States. Defense officials had originally planned for the laser technology to be ready in about two years.

The laser technology is intended to complement the Iron Dome and other systems to meet new threats. Bennett said someone in Gaza can fire a rocket toward Israel for a few hundred dollars, but it costs tens of thousands of dollars to intercept it. He spoke from Israel's recent experience: In May, Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets toward Israel.

Story continues

That is an illogical equation, Bennett said. We decided to break this equation.

He said that within a year, Israel's military will begin testing what is designed to become a laser wall against missiles, rockets and drones. The system could be used by Israel and other countries against threats from Iran, which has developed long-range missiles capable of striking Israel.

Israeli defense officials have spoken before about successful tests of laser defense systems mounted on aircraft with the aim of intercepting unmanned aircraft. The laser system has been described as having the ability to address longer-range threats at high altitudes regardless of weather conditions.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's police force, accused by rights groups of improperly using powerful hacking spyware, said on Tuesday it had found "anomalies" in its electronic surveillance that meant the legality of some of its information collection was debatable.

The attorney-general's office ordered a probe into police surveillance tactics on Jan. 20, citing allegations about the Pegasus spyware produced by surveillance firm NSO Group. At the time, police said all wiretaps were conducted lawfully.

But the force's deputy chief of investigations and intelligence, Yoav Telem, told a parliamentary oversight committee that further inquiries uncovered "automatic technological anomalies".

These led to the gathering of materials "over which there is a legal debate - whether they are covered by the world of secret monitoring," a transcript published by the panel quoted him as saying.

Telem, who did not provide operational details, appeared to be alluding to Israel's 1979 Secret Monitoring Law. According to Channel 12 TV, that law empowers real-time eavesdropping on suspected criminal or terrorists - whereas Pegasus had given police added access to past communications on hacked phones.

Israel's Calcalist newspaper said in an unsourced report last month that police had used Pegasus against targets including anti-government protest leaders, sometimes without the required court warrants.

That added a new domestic angle to global pressure on Israel following allegations that Pegasus has been abused by some foreign client governments to spy on human rights activists, journalists and politicians.

NSO, whose sales are subject to Israeli government approval, says it has no involvement in any way in the system's operation once it is sold to governmental customers.

A task force set up by the attorney-general's office to investigate the allegations against police is due to submit findings on July 1.

In the interim, police said in a statement, the office had ordered it to institute "immediate measures to prevent possible straying from authorised powers". It did not elaborate on these.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Steven Scheer, William Maclean)
MINSK, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Belarus is preparing to impose symmetrical tough retaliatory measures against Lithuania after Vilnius decided to limit the transportation of Belarusian potash fertilizers through its territory, Belarussian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said on Tuesday.

Golovchenko confirmed that the Lithuanian side stopped accepting Belarusian trains that transported potash to the port of Klaipeda for shipment, according to BelTA News Agency.

Lithuania has violated the intergovernmental agreement on railway communication and the provisions regulating transit issues for countries that do not have access to the sea, he said.

On Monday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko instructed the government to implement a number of retaliatory measures if the Lithuanian side bans the transit of Belarusian cargo.

Lukashenko said that Belarus is ready to negotiate with the countries of Eastern Europe, but it will not tolerate growing pressure.

State-owned Lithuanian Railways on Monday announced that it would stop transporting Belarus-produced potash after the Lithuanian government in earlier January terminated the transport agreement between its railway company and Belaruskali, which is a state-owned potash producer in Belarus.

Belaruskali, the world's second-largest producer of the crop fertilizer, was sanctioned by the United States in August last year. The discussion of a revocation of the agreement has been simmering for months in Lithuania, a firm U.S. ally. 
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Russian President Vladimir Putin have had a phone call to discuss the crisis over Ukraine and bilateral relations, Draghi's office said in a statement on Tuesday.

The two leaders agreed on the need to find a "sustainable and durable" solution to the Ukrainian crisis and to rebuild a "climate of mutual confidence", the statement said.

Draghi highlighted the importance of reducing tensions in Ukraine "in the light of the serious consequences that a further escalation of the crisis would have".

(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Crispian Balmer)
Photograph taken of James Madison University campus on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020.

HARRISONBURG  James Madison University will no longer require students or employees to obtain COVID-19 vaccinations, per a letter posted on the school's website Tuesday.

This comes just days after Virginia's Attorney General Jason Miyares said the state's public colleges and universities don't have the authority to require COVID-19 vaccines for students to enroll. That reveres a previous opinion by former Attorney General Mark Herring.

In the letter signed by multiple school officials, including JMU President Jonathan Alger, the school said approximately 92 percent of our students and 91 percent of employees were already fully or partially vaccinated.

"In light of current circumstances and guidance, and this high vaccination rate in our community, we are no longer requiring individual students or employees to obtain COVID-19 vaccinations," the letter said. "Although we continue to strongly recommend that members of the campus community get vaccinated and upload the documentation as an important measure to protect personal and public health."

The letter said that "significant and compelling medical data" has shown that vaccines are highly effective at preventing serious illness and death among those who contract COVID-19.

"We continue to review our COVID-related policies and practices given current developments, including evolving public health guidance, the local medical situation, and communications from the federal and state governments such as a recent opinion from the Virginia Office of the Attorney General among others," the letter said. "We have a collective responsibility to work toward keeping our campus safe and healthy to maintain academic progress."

Masks are still required indoors at JMU-owned and leased facilities, per the letter.

More: Old Waynesboro motel to be turned into lodge on Afton Mountain primed for tourists

More: Nitch Narduzzi puts marginalized voices in spotlight with Staunton Organizing Facebook page

Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: COVID vaccinations not required by James Madison University any longer
Jan. 31Jamestown mayor Dwaine Heinrich said a claim of sexual assault being made against him is false.

The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the allegation reported as inappropriate touching, according to Jamestown Chief of Police Scott Edinger.

A call was made to the Jamestown Police Department at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29, from 115 1st Ave. S, which is the address of the Office Bar, according to the log of calls from the Stutsman County Communications Center.

The call log said, "reports there is a male that touched her in appropriately." The call was classified as "disorderly conduct" for the type of activity on the call log. Edinger confirmed that the call was related to the mayor.

Edinger said no one has been arrested and the BCI is investigating the alleged incident because of a conflict of interest.

"It's clearly a conflict of interest when you are investigating your boss," he said. "They are going to be the impartial agency that will come in and do the investigation."

Valley News Live reported Sunday evening that it received a tip on its whistleblower hotline of a woman claiming to have been sexually assaulted by Heinrich at a local bar in Jamestown on Saturday evening.

"I have worked with a number of news organizations and most in my experience do want to at least consider if the stories have any validity," Heinrich said. "Apparently this is not the case with Valley News."

Heinrich said the claim is politically motivated because he is running for reelection.

He read a statement over the phone to The Jamestown Sun on Monday, Jan. 31, in response to the allegation. He said sexual assault is a "very serious matter."

"However, false claims of sexual assault are also very serious," he said. "This is not the first time our community has been a victim of the Fargo cesspool known as Valley News (Live)."

Story continues

Heinrich said he was at the Office Bar at about 7 or 7:30 p.m. Saturday visiting with a friend. He was there for about 15 minutes when an individual, who is the accuser, approached him and started talking and directing comments toward him.

He said the accuser was dressed in men's clothing and wore a baseball cap. He said he was not sure if the individual was a man or a woman.

"The person started getting more aggressive in tone and was making a number of complaints, comments, including things like 'I should be able to say exactly how many people work at the state prison' where this person said they worked," he said. "There were also comments about taxes and other matters. This went on for some time until I realized that this person was not interested in any type of legitimate conversation, but rather was trying to create a scene."

Heinrich said he told the accuser that the "conversation is over," handed the person a card and said, "Call me when you are sober."

"This person pushed away my attempt to provide my card and phone number and began saying that I had assaulted her," he said. "I still was not sure if this person was a male or a female but regardless there was no assault."

Heinrich said there were quite a few patrons in the Office Bar when he was present Saturday evening.

"I'm sure there were a number who saw the episode," he said. "None except the person I believe was with this person and who I believe was in on this would back up her false claims."

When a criminal justice agency such as the Jamestown Police Department requests the BCI to assist with an investigation, the requesting agency is the lead agency and retains jurisdiction over the investigation, according to the North Dakota Office of Attorney General's website. It says the BCI does not comment on active or ongoing investigations.

Heinrich has been the mayor since 2018.

Read Mayor Dwaine Heinrich's full written response to the allegation

here

.
By Kiyoshi Takenaka

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's parliament adopted a rare resolution on Tuesday on what it called the "serious human rights situation" in China, and asked the government to take steps to relieve the situation.

Japan has already announced it will not send a government delegation to the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, following a U.S.-led diplomatic boycott over concerns about China's human rights condition, although Tokyo avoided explicitly labelling its move as such.

Since taking office in October, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said on multiple occasions that Japan would not mince words with China when necessary, and in November appointed former defence minister Gen Nakatani as his aide on human rights.

The resolution, adopted by the lower chamber, said the international community has expressed concerns over such issues as internment and the violation of religious freedom in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tibet and Hong Kong.

"Human rights issues cannot just be domestic issues, because human rights hold universal values and are a rightful matter of concern for the international community," the resolution said.

"This chamber recognises changes to the status quo with force, which are symbolised by the serious human rights situation, as a threat to the international community," it said.

China's foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the resolution "ignores the facts, maliciously slanders China's human rights situation, seriously violates international law and basic norms governing international relations, grossly interferes in China's internal affairs, and is extremely egregious in nature."

When Japan launched a war against other countries, it committed countless crimes, the statement added.

U.S. President Joe Biden in December signed into law legislation that bans imports from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labour. Washington has labelled Beijing's treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority genocide.

Story continues

China denies abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer that also supplies much of the world's materials for solar panels.

The conservative wing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) sought the adoption of the resolution ahead of the Feb. 4 opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics although there were worries in the government about a potential economic impact, Jiji news agency has said.

There have long been competing views within the LDP about the approach to China. The party's more conservative wing is hawkish on China policy and seen as concerned primarily with defence issues. Other members of the party have pushed to preserve Japan's deep economic ties with its neighbour.

The parliamentary resolution called on the Japanese government to work with the international community in addressing the issue.

"The government should collect information to grasp the whole picture ... , monitor the serious human right situation in cooperation with the international community, and implement comprehensive relieving measures," it said.

The resolution did not directly use the word "China" anywhere in the text, and steered clear of such expression as "human rights violation", saying, instead, "human rights situation", in a possible nod to close bilateral economic ties.

Japan relies on China not only as a manufacturing hub, but also as a market for items from automobiles to construction equipment.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taiwan. Writing by Engen Tham. Editing by Michael Perry and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
(Getty Images)

Jason Ritter has come to his wife Melanie Lynskeys defence after she shared a candid post on social media about body-shaming comment.

On January 28, Lynskey, 44, posted a tweet detailing some of the egregious remarks shes received about her body as an actress.

The story of my life since Yellowjackets premiered, she wrote. Most egregious are the I care about her health!! people  b***h you dont see me on my Peleton! You dont see me running through the park with my child. Skinny does not always equal healthy.

On January 29, Ritter, 41, retweeted Lynskeys post and spoke out against body-shaming.

If anyone has any further unsolicited comments about *anybody* elses body, they can feel free to write them in permanent ink onto their own foreheads and swan dive directly into the sun, the Raising Dion star wrote.

The story of my life since Yellowjackets premiered. Most egregious are the I care about her health!! peoplebitch you dont see me on my Peleton! You dont see me running through the park with my child. Skinny does not always equal healthy https://t.co/W2poMmsv1p  Melanie Lynskey (@melanielynskey) January 29, 2022

If anyone has any further unsolicited comments about *anybody* elses body, they can feel free to write them in permanent ink onto their own foreheads and swan dive directly into the sun https://t.co/5UyaHmR4JS  Jason Ritter  (@JasonRitter) January 29, 2022

This isnt the first time Lynskey has opened up about her experiences with body-shaming. Speaking to Rolling Stone in January, Lynskey claimed her looks were criticised behind the scenes on Yellowjackets.

They were asking me, What do you plan to do? Im sure the producers will get you a trainer. Theyd love to help you with this, Lynskey said.

Story continues

She shared that her three co-stars, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis, all came to her defence and wrote a letter to the production team about their comments.

Lynskey also noted that when it comes to how herYellowjackets character, Shauna, looks, she doesnt want any comments to be made either.

It was really important to me for [Shauna] to not ever comment on my body, to not have me putting a dress on and being like, I wish I looked a bit better,  she explained.

I did find it important that this character is just comfortable and sexual and not thinking or talking about it, she added. Because I want women to be able to watch it and be like, Wow, she looks like me and nobodys saying shes the fat one. That representation is important.

Back in 2016, the Dont Look Up actress spoke to People about how she overcame previous eating issues.

"I was losing my mind trying to conform to something that was not physically possible for me, she explained. I was very unwell for a long time. I had eating issues and at a certain point I was like, Im not going to survive  not like I was on deaths door or anything, but I was so unhappy and my hair was falling out."

However, she ultimately found comfort and acceptance in her looks and her body.

I was like, I just need to look the way Im supposed to look and have faith that people are going to want to put someone in a film or on a show who looks like this, she said. I did have to truly become comfortable with myself, because you cant fake it.

While working on the comedy show Togetherness back in 2016, Lynskey also refused to let the show make jokes about her size.

There was one scene where I was supposed to be eating a hamburger and complaining, Im out of shape! she recalled to People about the show. I said to them, Im not going to do that because I dont want to put that out there.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  Jury questioning has been delayed for the trial of a former Kentucky police officer involved in a botched raid that killed Breonna Taylor.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Ann Bailey Smith said Tuesday that Brett Hankison has had to have unexpected minor surgery. She said Hankison has the right to observe the jury selection process and that questioning will now begin on Thursday.

Hankison has pleaded not guilty to three counts of wanton endangerment for allegedly firing wildly into the apartments of Taylors neighbors during the March 2020 raid. Taylor, a Black woman, was shot multiple times. No drugs were found in the 26-year-old emergency medical technician's apartment, and the warrant was later found to be flawed.

No officers were charged for causing Taylor's death, despite protests nationwide, with many demonstrators demanding that the officers involved stand trial for murder. That set the outcome apart from two other killings of Black people at the hands of white people in 2020 that put race relations in the national spotlight: the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police, and the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, who was chased by three men while running through a Georgia neighborhood.

Arbery's pursuers were sentenced to life in prison for murder last month, and their federal hate crimes trial is set to begin next week. Former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years for murder and manslaughter, and his fellow officers are now being tried in state court.

In the Taylor case, Kentucky's Republican Attorney General, Daniel Cameron determined that the officers fired into her apartment in self-defense after her boyfriend shot at them first as they broke into her apartment. Cameron, who is Black, acknowledged that Taylor's death was heartbreaking, but he did not give a grand jury the option of charging anyone with killing her.

Hankison, who faces one to five years in prison on each of the wanton endangerment counts, is the only officer facing any criminal charges from the raid.

Story continues

The jury selection process, which began last Friday, is expected to take weeks. Potential jurors will be asked questions to determine if they can serve as fair and impartial jurors. The pool of Jefferson County residents will be whittled down to 12 jurors, plus alternates.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Ann Bailey Smith denied a request by Hankisons attorney to move the trial out of Louisville. The attorney had argued that publicity surrounding the case would make it hard to seat an impartial jury.

___

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.
Bakery owner Mehr Dil Khan Rahmati, 58, has been handing out free bread for about three years, but said he has noticed an increase in poverty since the Taliban takeover.

Before the Taliban swept Afghanistan, he said about 500 people would wait outside his shop each day, but now, there are days where as many as 2,000 try to get a free loaf.

His service is entirely donation-based, so the amount of bread he hands out varies from day to day. People contribute what they can, anywhere from 50 Afghani ($0.50) to 10,000 Afghani ($98). The loaves he sells go for 20 Afghani ($0.20) each.

Hamena, a 14-year-old girl from Kunduz province, said it has been tough to make ends meet with her father working as a market porter and her mother sick at home. "So I come here to get some bread for my home," she said.
Jan. 31The threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine isn't just about Ukraine.

Making a stop at the Reading Public Library Monday afternoon as part of a tour of city sites, U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan took some time to discuss a trip she and 10 other House members took to the Eastern European nation last week.

The bipartisan diplomatic visit came amid rising tensions in the region, with Russia massing hundreds of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border and fears of an impending invasion on the rise.

Officials in the United States have warned that an attack on Ukraine could happen at any time and have called on Russia to back down. Moscow officials, however, have denied any plan to attack.

Houlahan, a member of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, said the threat to Ukraine's sovereignty is an immediate concern. She and other American officials fear for the people of Ukraine and are worried about the fate of the country's democracy.

But the threat doesn't end there. The situation in Ukraine, she said, threatens democracy around the globe.

"We, as Americans, should be concerned about the situation," the Chester County Democrat said. "It's very easy to be inward focused when things are hard here for so many. But it's also important to be aware of what's going an ocean away."

She said Ukraine is the "tip of the spear" when it comes to the struggle between democratic ideals and authoritarian regimes.

"Ukraine is a young and vibrant democracy," she said. "It's being threatened by Russia with 130,000 troops stationed all around them trying to violate the sovereignty of its borders and trying to tell them what alliances they can participate in."

Houlahan warned that if democracy falls in Ukraine, there are concerns that it could fall in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. And those three counties are members of the NATO alliance, which means the U.S. has an obligation to help defend them.

Story continues

"We have to have a unified response," she said, noting that economic sanctions, humanitarian aid, military support and stationing U.S. troops somewhere in the region are all possibilities that should be considered.

Houlahan said her motivation for going on the trip was to try to learn what the rest of the world was thinking  including the Ukrainians  about how the U.S. and its allies can respond to this threat.

Now that Houlahan is back, she said she hopes she can explain to the people in her community, her state and her nation why they need to care about Ukraine.

"What we do here matters there and what they do there matters here," she said. "All these events are interconnected."

A personal connection

The sovereignty of Ukraine is also important to Houlahan on a personal level.

She believes her father, Andrew Jampoler, was born there. Because he was born to a Jewish family in the midst of the Holocaust in 1942, she said a birth certificate that says he was born in Poland may not be accurate. She thinks he was actually born in a city that is now part of Ukraine.

Houlahan said an authoritarian German regime invading the country during World War II has a frightening resemblance to the possible invasion by another authoritarian regime all these decades later.

She said the current situation with Ukraine also has an eerie familiarity to previous conflicts with the then Soviet Union.

Long before coming to Congress, Houlahan served as a project engineer in the Air Force focused on ballistic missile defense at the end of the Cold War. She said the vernacular of her time in service was filled with the buzzwords of that age: sphere of influence, intercontinental ballistic missiles and mutual assured destruction.

"It was the language of my generation," she said.

But she said her travels last week to Ukraine made one thing clear: this generation might need to dust off that Cold War-era language in the face of Russian aggression and destabilization.

Houlahan's trip had two parts. Before heading to Kyiv, the delegation stopped in Brussels. They met with representatives from NATO and the European Union to discuss the security situation in Eastern Europe and the buildup of Russian troops along Ukraine's border.

"Our transatlantic partners are essential relationships and alliances that we must continue to strengthen as we coordinate and encourage unity on sanctions against Russia as well as other possible deterrent responses," Houlahan said of her visit to Belgium.

In Kyiv, the delegation met with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the security situation and reinforce support for the county's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Houlahan said her main takeaway from that meeting is that the Ukrainian people are resilient, but Moscow's dire threat to destabilize Europe through possible further invasion or other aggressive actions cannot be tolerated.

"The bipartisan trip reaffirmed our broad commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty," she said. "While we hope Russia will pursue diplomacy and dialogue as a path to peace, we were there to reassure Ukraine that we will go to great lengths to diplomatically deter and punish the aggressive path Moscow is pursuing."

Houlahan said she will continue to push for stronger sanctions and additional security assistance. She also wants to reassure NATO allies that the U.S. remains committed to ensuring their security is ironclad.

Visiting Reading

Ukraine wasn't the main reason that Houlahan visited Reading, which is part of the district she represents.

She took part in a tour of local businesses, stopping by several Latino-owned establishments to hear about how the pandemic has impacted their operations and what she can do in Congress to help. She was guided on her outing by Democratic state Rep. Manny Guzman.

Her final stop was at the Reading Public Library's main branch on South Fifth Street. There library Executive Director Melissa Adams and Reading Mayor Eddie Moran highlighted some of the important things that have been going on at the library.

Adams said the library will be using funds it received from the American Rescue Plan to start a senior telemedicine outreach program, digitize its extensive collection of Pennsylvania history, bolster its digital offerings, increase its Wi-Fi capacity so that people can use the connection outside the building and continue to provide virtual programming.

It is also offering assistance to people looking to order the free COVID-19 test kits being offered by the federal government.

"I'm so grateful to you guys for the work you do in our community," Houlahan told Adams.

Houlahan said the American Rescue Plan was designed to help fund the kind of programs and services that the library is working on, which will have an impact on the entire community.

"I'm so grateful that you are taking advantage of the resources that we have been able to provide and also being innovative in the way that you are doing it," she said.
By Praveen Paramasivam

(Reuters) - Workers at nearly 80 King Soopers, owned by Kroger Co, approved a new three-year contract, the Colorado-based chain said on Tuesday, ending a stalemate that had caused a 10-day strike at the start of the year.

King Soopers will invest $170 million in wage increases through the life of the agreement, with additional health-care investments.

The union had planned to strike from Jan. 12 until early February for better wages and working conditions but called it off on Jan. 21 after reaching a tentative deal.

Union President Kim Cordova said the deal followed several days of negotiations and the possibility of a sympathy strike by stores in California and Seattle.

A document seen by Reuters showed per-hour raises ranged between $1.23 and $5.99 in the first year. The union said over 95% of the workers will get increases of $2 or more in the first year, with around 250 pharmacy technicians eligible for the highest bump.

The union had initially sought a raise of at least $6 in the first year of the contract for all workers, while King Soopers had proposed increases of up to $4.50 based on job classification and tenure.

"Contract negotiations always involve a give and take from both sides ... you will never have a situation where one side walks away with everything they want," said Helen Rella, an employment attorney at Wilk Auslander.

The deal was accepted by 99% of workers in some locations, Cordova said, adding the union "fixed a lot of things that needed to be fixed."

But not everyone was happy with the contract.

"The raise was definitely disappointing. My biggest gripe about the contract, though, is honestly the lack of decent wages for entry-level employees," said a worker who requested anonymity.

Another worker said he was let down as the union did not meet its original goal of getting a raise of $6 per hour in the first year.

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
SANAA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition destroyed radio antennas in three military camps controlled by the Houthi militia in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday before dawn, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.

The airstrikes destroyed the radio antennas in Tabat Altelevision camp in the northern part of Sanaa and in the Aletha'ah camp in the center of the capital, as well as in the camp in the southern part of the city, the Houthi television said without providing further details.

The explosions were powerful enough to shake buildings across the capital and send shrapnel miles away.

Many houses near the stricken site suffered various degrees of damage as families hid inside from warplanes hovering in the sky.

This is the second day of the coalition's latest wave of airstrikes on Sanaa after Houthi's cross-border ballistic missile attack against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday was intercepted by the country, also a key member of the Saudi-led Arab coalition backing the Yemeni army.

Sunday's attack was the third of its kind in less than two weeks. The previous attacks killed three people and hit an oil facility in Abu Dhabi.

The Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi militia has intensified cross-border missile attacks against the UAE and Saudi Arabia after it had lost several strategic districts in central Yemen in January. 
Boris Johnsons former aide Dominic Cummings has claimed there are photographs of the Prime Minister at gatherings under investigation by police.

In a question and answer session on his paid-for blog on Tuesday, Mr Cummings was asked if there were photos that would incriminate the Prime Minister.

He said: Yes there are photos of the PM at parties under investigation. Ive spoken to people who say theyve seen photos of parties in the flat.

Meanwhile another Tory MP has called on Mr Johnson to resign over the partygate scandal and submitted a letter of no confidence in his leadership.

Peter Aldous, the MP for Waveney, said he had never taken such action before but had been put in an invidious position by repeated allegations of lawbreaking by the prime minister and Downing Street staff during lockdown.

Mr Aldous said he had given the letter to chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady. A vote of no confidence in Mr Johnsons premiership will be called if 54 letters are submitted.

The news follows the publication of a summary of Sue Grays report into gatherings held during lockdown in No10, with the senior civil servant accusing Downing Street officials of a failure of leadership.

Downing Street was forced into a U-turn on Monday after suggesting the report may not be published in full - sparking anger among Tory backbenchers.

22:00 , Matt Watts

That ends our politics live coverage for today. Please check in again tomorrow for more.

Cummings: Every day PM remains in post moral authority of Tory MPs drops another notch

19:05 , Matt Watts

Dominic Cummings said there was "no excuse for self-delusions" about Boris Johnson.

In a question and answer session on his blog, the former chief aide said "at this point the blame lies mostly with the Tory MPs".

He said: "He's obviously totally unfit for the job and every day he's left their moral authority drops another notch."

But he added: "There's lots of blame to go around beyond them, including people in no10 who have also shown a distinct lack of moral courage..."

Story continues

On Sue Gray limited report, he said: "So far as I know she's done a professional job in appalling circumstances."

Cummings: Chances of Liz Truss becoming leader probably overrated'

18:36 , Matt Watts

Dominic Cummings said the chances of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss becoming Tory leader are "probably being overrated".

The Prime Minister's former top aide said the fact that "MPs are heavily influenced by polls" would "obviously benefit (Rishi) Sunak" in any future leadership race, and said Mr Sunak pro-Brexit stance would also help him.

In a question and answer session on his paid-for blog, Mr Cummings said Ms Truss was "little known" and had "said a lot of stuff that will not be popular with members if/when they hear it". If she gets to the last 2, the combination of her support for Remain and her record will be big problems for her. Her chances are probably being overrated," he said.

He said he thought Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove "probably will" run again, while on Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, he said: "He has never been in Cabinet and it is hard to imagine Tory MPs promoting someone straight to the top job who has not been in Cabinet."

He said: "RS is obviously the front runner cos he's way ahead in the polls and unlike Truss/Hunt/TT was pro-Brexit.

"His team conceived and executed furlough in very tough circumstances, and which was one of most popular things a politician has done in a very long time. That will be a big strength when the contest comes."

Cummings: Photos of Boris at Partygate gatherings

18:31 , Matt Watts

The Prime Minister's former chief aide Dominic Cummings has alleged there are photographs of Boris Johnson at reported gatherings under investigation by police.

In a question and answer session on his paid-for blog, Mr Cummings was asked if there were photos that would "incriminate" the Prime Minister.

He said: "Yes there are photos of the PM at parties under investigation. Ive spoken to people who say theyve seen photos of parties in the flat."

He also claimed he had spoken to people who were in No 10 on November 13 2020, when there was an alleged gathering in Mr Johnson's Downing Street flat.

He said: "Ive talked to people who were in no10 on 13/11 who cd hear the party in no10 after I'd left - the press office is below the flat.

"If cops talk to people there that night, therell be witnsesses (sic) who say 'we could all hear a party with abba playing'."

He accused the PM of "lying" and added: "This could blow up terminally for him if lies to the cops but he wont be able to help himself other than say 'i dont remember' which is his default when he senses danger."

This will be a European war, says Zelensky

17:56 , Elly Blake

Ukranian Volodymyr Zelensky said any occupation of Ukraine will constitute a European war.

He told the news conference in Kyiv: The occupation of a city of territory will not happen. Unfortunately, there will be a tragedy in case of powerful escalation against our state.

And therefore Im being very open. This is not going to be a war of Ukraine and Russia.

This is going to be a European war. A full fledged war.

Zelensky: There will be high risks for anyone trying to occupy Ukraine

17:54 , Elly Blake

Ukranian Volodymyr Zelensky has issued a stark warning that there will be high risks for anyone trying to occupy Ukraine.

He said the eastern European country had prepared for bad things while responding to questions during a news briefing in Kyiv.

Mr Zelensky said: We are defending ourselves, we are defending our country. We are protecting our culture, language, traditions. And first and foremost we are protecting our people.

There will be high risks for anyone who will try to occupy even a bit of our territory. Very high risks.

He also added that Ukrainians will fight until the very end.

Russians should hear us. They should listen and understand that the war is something no one really needs. But at the same time we have not invited anyone to come and visit us with weapons in their hands.

Boris Johnson asked about partygate scandal during news conference

17:48 , Elly Blake

The prime minister was quizzed over his ability to give the situation in Ukraine his full attention while juggling the partygate scandal back home.

But he rebutted suggestions he would not be able to deal with both.

Mr Johnson said: Let me go first and just say that my focus is entirely on delivering on the priorities of the British people and they include ensuring that we are secure in our relations with our friends and allies.

There is a great deal of concern on our country on what we are seeing on the border in Ukraine.

He added that the international community should try and get over to the Russians the reality that Ukraine will fight, and there are 200,000 people who will put up a very very fierce and bloody resistance.

I hope very much that President Putin steps back from the path of conflict and that we engage in dialogue and that is what the UK is intent on producing and thats why Im here today, he said.

The prime minister also said he would publish everything that we can once the inquiries into the alleged breaking of coronavirus rules in No 10 has been finalised.

Asked at a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, whether he would commit to publishing the full Sue Gray inquiry, including the 300 images handed included as part of the probe, he said: Yes, of course well publish everything that we can as soon as the process has been completed, as I said yesterday.

Joint statement says UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine

17:38 , Elly Blake

A joint statement issued following Boris Johnsons meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined how the UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression.

(PA)

The statement, released by the offices of the Prime Minister and the president, said: The Prime Minister emphasised the United Kingdoms unwavering commitment to Ukraines sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.

The United Kingdom stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression, which threatens regional peace and security and undermines the global order. The two leaders emphasised that it is the right of every Ukrainian to determine their own future.

The leaders warned that any further Russian incursion in Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake and have a stark humanitarian cost.

It said Ukraine and the UK would work together to strengthen Ukraines security and ability to defend itself.

PM says current situation is biggest demonstration of hostility towards Ukraine in our lifetimes'

17:36 , Elly Blake

Prime minister Boris Johnson has addressed the news conference, which is taking place in Kyiv.

He said: We have to face a grim reality, which is that as we stand here, Volodymyr, today, more than 100,000 Russian troops are gathering on your border in perhaps the biggest demonstration of hostility towards the Ukraine in our lifetimes.

And the potential deployment dwarfs the 30,000 troops that Russia sent to invade Crimea in 2014.

Since that time of course, everybody knows that 13,000 Ukrainians have been killed and Ukraine has been plunged into a decade of war.

It goes without saying that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a political disaster, a humanitarian disaster, in my view it would also be for Russia, for the world, a military disaster as well.

And the potential invasion completely flies in the face of President (Vladimir) Putins claims to be acting in the interest of the Ukrainian people.

Johnson-Zelensky news conference has started

17:26 , Elly Blake

Boris Johnson and Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky are holding a news conference to discuss tensions with Russia.

It comes after talks talks in the Mariinskyi Palace on Tuesday afternoon.

President Zelensky started the conference by welcoming the prime minister to the country for his first visit, and acknowledged that it is taking place under challenging times.

He said Mr Johnson assured him of his support for the sovereignty of Ukraine.

This is confirmed by a recent decision of the British government which will bring in sanctions in case of aggression against Ukraine, he continued.

We are grateful to Great Britain for their support.

Britain and UK to hold joint news conference shortly

17:06 , Elly Blake

Boris Johnson and Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky are due to hold a news conference shortly to discuss tensions with Russia.

Senior London Tory calls for Boris Johnson resignation

16:22 , Daniel Keane

A senior London Conservative has called for Boris Johnson to resign following the release of Sue Grays report, writes Bill McLoughlin.

Following Ms Grays damning report into the numerous gatherings held at No10 and across Whitehall, London Assembly member Andrew Boff, said it was time for the Prime Minister to step down as leader.

He claimed the ongoing police investigation into the gatherings could have serious consequences in the upcoming local elections in May.

Speaking to MyLondon, he said: He is a great salesman to this country, with a proud record behind him.

Nows the time for him to hand over the reins to someone else.

Read our full story here.

Another Tory MP calls on Johnson to resign

15:54 , Daniel Keane

Another Tory MP has called on Boris Johnson to resign over the partygate scandal.

MP Peter Aldous admitted writing to the 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady to express that he had no confidence in Mr Johnsons leadership.

He tweeted: After a great deal of soul-searching, I have reached the conclusion that the Prime Minister should resign.

It is clear that he has no intention of doing so and I have therefore written to the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Backbench Conservative MPs, advising him that I have no confidence in the Prime Minister as leader of the Conservative Party.

I have never taken such action before and had hoped that I would not be put in such an invidious position.

Whilst I am conscious that others will disagree with me, I believe that this is in the best interests of the country, the Government and the Conservative Party.

After a great deal of soul-searching, I have reached the conclusion that the Prime Minister should resign. (1/3)  Peter Aldous (@peter_aldous) February 1, 2022

Pictured: PM touches down in Ukraine

15:35 , Daniel Keane

Boris Johnsons flight has touched down at snow-covered Boryspil airport near Kyiv, Ukraine.

The prime minister is expected to hold a press conference alongside his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky later this afternoon.

On an icy airfield, Ukraine rolled out the red carpet for the arrival of the prime minister as he was met by a military ceremony in temperatures around 0C.

(PA)

Savile victims call on PM to withdraw attack on Starmer

15:11 , Daniel Keane

Victims of Jimmy Savile called on Boris Johnson to withdraw his attack on Sir Keir Starmer, a lawyer who represented some of them said.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse and public inquiries at law firm Slater and Gordon, said: I echo the widespread disgust at what we saw and heard in the House of Commons yesterday as Boris Johnson tried to distract from the Sue Gray update.

As one of the lawyers who represented many of Saviles victims, I can confirm that these allegations against Sir Keir Starmer are completely unfounded and unjustified.

Sir Keir did more than any other director of public prosecutions to advance the rights of victims.

No DPP can control every decision.

The Crown Prosecution Service was much better under his leadership.

Victims of Savile I have spoken with today have told me that they want Johnson to withdraw these comments and apologise and I call upon him to do that right away.

School pupils will still need to wear face masks in class, says Sturgeon

14:46 , Daniel Keane

School pupils will still need to wear face coverings in class, Nicola Sturgeon has said, though the point where the requirement is dropped may be approaching soon.

The First Minister said her advisory sub-group on education met and considered the issue last week.

She told MSPs: It concluded that although we may be close to the time when face coverings no longer need to be worn in the classroom assuming current trends continue, we have not yet reached that stage.

No-one wants young people to have to wear face coverings in the classroom for a moment longer than necessary.

But given the current uncertainty about infection trends in the immediate future, and the relatively high levels of Covid in the younger age groups, continued caution is prudent at this stage.

IOPC report uncovered appalling behaviour, says Cooper

13:59 , Daniel Keane

Labours shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the Independent Office for Police Conducts report had uncovered appalling behaviour by officers.

She said: This kind of abuse, racism, misogyny, bullying and disrespect is a disgrace and should never have any place within policing, where the highest standards must always be maintained. It must be rooted out swiftly wherever it is found.

While the IOPC has made important and welcome recommendations and some action has been taken, this does not go far enough. There needs to be action by police forces to ensure that training and vetting are improved, that a strong culture of respect is always maintained, and that the use of social media is reviewed and, where necessary, overhauled.

Police officers across the country work incredibly hard every day to keep communities safe and that is why it is so important that high standards are always maintained.

The Home Office must not stand back and leave it to individual forces. Ministers need to take responsibility for ensuring the highest standards are always met across policing and must ensure the College of Policing and police forces work together on the action needed.

PM did not discuss partygate during Cabinet

13:36 , Daniel Keane

The Prime Minister did not discuss the partygate scandal during a Cabinet this morning, writes Rachael Burford.

Downing Street said Boris Johnson addressed the House [of Commons] for up to two hours yesterday and then spoke to his own MPs at length on this issue.

He added: The Cabinet this morning was focused on the situation in Ukraine and the domestic priority of levelling up.

PM taking daily Covid tests during Ukraine visit

13:09 , Elly Blake

Boris Johnson will be taking daily Covid tests during his visit to Ukraine after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tested positive for the virus.

The Prime Minister is expected to arrive in Kiev this afternoon to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and discuss the escalating crisis in the region.

Liz Truss is missing the trip after testing positive for Covid on Monday evening.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: "Obviously [Mr Johnson] has seen the Foreign Secretary a number of times, hell continue to take daily Covid tests in line with the current rules."

The PM is also expected to hold a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday afternoon.

It was rescheduled from Monday after Mr Johnson was forced to spend two hours in the Commons addressing the partygate scandal.

No 10 cannot be allowed to hide results of police investigation, says Angela Rayner

13:05 , Elly Blake

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said the public had the right to know if Boris Johnson is fined over the partygate row.

I cant believe this needs saying. The public have a right to know if the Prime Minister is found to have committed an offence by the police.

Number 10 said they would publish the full report. They cannot be allowed to backtrack or hide the results of the police investigation.

I can't believe this needs saying.

The public have a right to know if the Prime Minister is found to have committed an offence by the police.



Number 10 said they would publish the full report. They cannot be allowed to backtrack or hide the results of the police investigation. https://t.co/s7POt2y5jR  Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) February 1, 2022

PM stands by Jimmy Savile comments directed at Keir Starmer

13:02 , Elly Blake

Downing Street said Boris Johnson stands by his comments in relation to Sir Keir Starmer and the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: The Prime Minister stands by what he said in the House.

The spokesman declined to repeat the Prime Ministers assertion, arguing that it would clash with the principle of civil service impartiality.

As a civil servant it wouldnt be right for me to repeat something which relates to a political aspect of the Prime Ministers work.

Meanwhile, Sir Lindsay Hoyle said procedurally nothing disorderly occurred when Boris Johnson alleged Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile.

But the Commons Speaker told MPs: I am far from satisfied that the comments in question were appropriate on this occasion.

No 10: No plans for a reshuffle following Sue Gray report

12:55 , Elly Blake

Downing Street said there were no plans for a reshuffle as part of Boris Johnsons response to the Sue Gray report.

The Prime Minister is set to shake up his No 10 operation following concerns raised in the report about the fragmented and complicated organisation at the heart of government.

But the Prime Ministers official spokesman indicated that would not lead to changes in ministerial posts.

No 10 refuses to guarantee it will tell public about partygate' fines

12:35 , Elly Blake

The public may not be informed if No10 staff are fined for breaches of Covid laws.

Downing Street officials said it would for the Met to decide whether to make information public or not.

Fixed penalty notices for Covid law breeches are often dealt with under the single justice procedure, where rulings are made by a magistrate sitting with a legal adviser and not in open court.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: "It will be the Met that sets out what they see fit at the conclusion of their work and I would not seek to set out what that may or may not be."

PM to hold phone conversation with Putin tomorrow afternoon

12:23 , Daniel Keane

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to hold a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday afternoon.

The call was rescheduled after Mr Johnson was forced to spend time addressing the Westminster partygate saga on Monday.

Elsewhere, the PMs spokesperson confirmed he would hold a press conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky this afternoon.

Pictured: PM heads for Ukraine

12:09 , Daniel Keane

Boris Johnson is en route to Ukraine, where he will urge Vladimir Putin to step back from the brink of war.

(REUTERS)

(AP)

PM boards flight to Ukraine

11:47 , Daniel Keane

Boris Johnson has boarded his flight to Ukraine where he will meet president Volodymyr Zelensky against the backdrop of Russian aggression.

His trip also comes amid a deepening crisis surrounding allegations of lockdown-breaching parties in No 10.

The Prime Minister was travelling on a chartered plane from Stansted with staff and a small pool of journalists.

Dorries announces sector vision review to be published

11:26 , Daniel Keane

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has announced a sector vision review to be published in the summer.

Opening the Creative Coalition Festival 2022, Dorries revealed she was intending to spend close to 50 million to support creative business across the UK.

She said: This will form the foundation for an ambitious, creative industries sector vision which we are hoping to publish in the summer.

The sector vision will have four key objectives, to ensure the UK creative sector is globally competitive, inclusive, environmentally sustainable and embedded within communities up and down the country.

Ill be bringing my own clear priorities into this vision, I know it has to focus on improving accessibility.

We have to do better at making sure people from deprived backgrounds instinctively feel that the creative industries are for them too.

Disgraceful Met Police must be overhauled, says report

11:05 , Daniel Keane

Scotland Yard must overhaul its culture of sexism, racism, bullying and homophobia after a damning report uncovered officers disturbing jokes about rape, writes Josh Salisbury.

The police watchdog issued the force with 15 recommendations after an investigation into misconduct at Charing Cross Police Station.

Operation Hotton was sparked in March 2018 and found text and WhatsApp messages between officers which were highly sexualised, discriminatory or referred to violence, which officers often defended as banter.

They included one sent by a male officer to a female colleague saying: I would happily rape you.

The conclusions are particularly damning in the aftermath of the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, 33, by Met firearms officer Wayne Couzens last March.

Read our full story here.

Tory MP calls on Johnson to withdraw Savile smear aimed at Starmer

10:48 , Daniel Keane

Tory former Cabinet minister Julian Smith said the Prime Minister should withdraw the false and baseless smear that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

Sir Keir was director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013, but is not thought to have been involved in decisions relating to sexual offence allegations against disgraced entertainer Savile.

Responding to Mr Johnsons claim, the MP tweeted: The smear made against Keir Starmer relating to Jimmy Saville yesterday is wrong & cannot be defended.

It should be withdrawn. False and baseless personal slurs are dangerous, corrode trust & cant just be accepted as part of the cut & thrust of parliamentary debate.

The smear made against Keir Starmer relating to Jimmy Saville yesterday is wrong & cannot be defended. It should be withdrawn. False and baseless personal slurs are dangerous, corrode trust & can't just be accepted as part of the cut & thrust of parliamentary debate.  Julian Smith MP (@JulianSmithUK) February 1, 2022

Boris has become a distraction from UKs problems, says Blackford

10:29 , Daniel Keane

The SNPs Westminster leader has claimed that Boris Johnson is a distraction from the mounting problems facing the country.

Ian Blackford told Sky News: The man is a distraction. He was supposed to have a conversation yesterday with President Putin, but what hes doing is hes spending time in meetings in Downing Street trying to get Tory MPs from coming back from the cliff edge of putting in motions of no confidence in him.

We face a mountain of challenges, and all we are talking about is a Prime Minister who simply cannot behave, cannot show that he has what it takes to give leadership at a time of crisis.

Whether its the pandemic, whether its a cost-of-living crisis, whether its a security situation, he needs to recognise he is the problem.

Watch: PM broke the rules, lied about breaking them and should resign, says Starmer

10:06 , Daniel Keane

Blackford says wilfully misled attack was not political stunt

09:53 , Daniel Keane

Ian Blackford has denied his refusal to withdraw accusations the Prime Minister wilfully misled MPs about Downing Street parties was a political stunt, writes Michael Howie.

The SNPs Westminster leader was ordered to leave the House of Commons on Monday afternoon after making the claim as MPs grilled Boris Johnson over the Sue Gray report.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle repeatedly asked him to withdraw the accusation, as it is considered against parliamentary etiquette to make such an assertion.

Mr Blackford replied: Its not my fault if the Prime Minister cant be trusted to tell the truth. It wasnt a stunt, it wasnt premeditated, he told BBC Breakfast.

If I were to be in trouble because Ive spoken the truth yet the man that has repeatedly told lies, the man that has sought to cover up everything thats going on, the man that has misled parliament, sits there, he said.

Our full story here.

Starmer: PM is too focused on saving his job to address cost-of-living crisis

09:36 , Daniel Keane

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said that prime minister Boris Johnson is too focused on saving his own job instead of the cost-of-living crisis.

He told BBC Breakfast: So many people are worried about issues such as their energy bills, which are going through the roof, and the Prime Minister is spending all of his time saving his own skin.

We now know that he had a meeting planned with the Chancellor last week to discuss energy bills, but that was cancelled because he was having meetings to save his own job.

You know, I think theres a real frustration that the Prime Minister is distracted from the things that are concerning people and those energy bills are a real cause for concern.

There will be economic costs for Russia if they invade Ukraine, says Raab

09:19 , Daniel Keane

Britain has warned Vladimir Putin that there will be economic consequences if Russia invades Ukraine, deputy prime minister Dominic Raab has said.

It comes as a mass build-up of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border sparked fears that an invasion could be imminent.

Pressed on how the UK would respond to Russian military action, Mr Raab told Times Radio: The critical message that Vladimir Putin needs to be getting and is getting because of the role that this prime minister has taken is: There will be severe economic costs if he pursues an invasion of Ukraine.

Wait for the Met report, says minister

09:08 , Daniel Keane

Boris Johnson has made a sincere apology about parties held in Downing Street, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack has said, but urged people to wait for Sue Grays second report and the Met Police investigation.

Mr Jack told the BBCs Good Morning Scotland he does not think we should get ahead of ourselves and decide in determining what was a work event or a leaving party or anything else or indeed a party in its own right - we have to wait until the outcome of this report.

He said Boris Johnson welcomed the investigations, and added: He was very apologetic yesterday for what happened on his watch. He doesnt seem to pass the buck on that.

He understands people made huge sacrifices throughout the pandemic, and he, as I say, he was very sincere in his apology.

Mr Jack said there a number of events where Mr Johnson was not present, adding: When the cats away, the mice were playing.

Raab defends PMs failure to speak with Putin

08:50 , Daniel Keane

Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab has defended Mr Johnsons failure to speak with President Vladimir Putin as tensions rise on the Ukraine border.

He told Sky News that rescheduling between talks between two heads of government happens all the time and that call sheets dart around the place because they are balancing things.

He said: This Prime Minister is the one who has been leading the transatlantic response, with the United States, with European allies, with the most robust approach on sanctions, providing support.

He is going out to Ukraine to see the president of Ukraine.

Labours shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said the delayed call showed there were real-world consequences of having a prime minister fighting for his political survival.

PM missed call with Vladimir Putin as he addressed MPs over partygate

08:33 , Daniel Keane

Boris Johnson missed a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he faced a grilling by MPs over the partygate scandal.

The prime minister was forced to cancel a conversation with Mr Putin on Monday afternoon following the publication of the Sue Gray report, which accused Downing Street of failures of leadership over a series of parties held during lockdown.

A Downing Street source told the Telegraph the call with Mr Putin had been postponed, but could not confirm when it would take place.

Mr Johnson will fly to Ukraine on Tuesday in a show of support for President Volodymyr Zelensky amid mounting tensions on the border with Russia. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken last week warned an invasion was imminent as the Kremlin continued its military build-up.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Johnson had urged Mr Putin to step back from the brink and warned that an invasion of Ukraine would be an absolute disaster for the world.

However, the publication of Ms Grays report on Monday diverted the prime ministers attention away from the Ukraine crisis as prepared for a Commons statement.

Partygate scandal doing great damage to the party, says Tory MP

08:20 , Daniel Keane

The partygate scandal is doing great damage to the Conservative party, a former Cabinet minister has warned.

Tory MP Andrew Mitchell told BBC Radio 4s Today Programme: I think this is a crisis that is not going to go away and is doing very great damage to the party.

It is more corrosive in my judgement than the expenses scandal was and it will break the coalition that is the Conservative Party.

Mr Mitchell said an awful lot is going on beneath the surface.

He went on: I think the problem is that Boris is running a modern government like a medieval court, you need to rule and govern through the structures, through Whitehall, through the cabinet for National Security Council.

Many of us thought he would govern in the way he did when he was Mayor Of London, through being a chairman of a board, running a very good team - that is not what has happened here.

Daily roundup

08:06 , Daniel Keane

Good morning and welcome to the Evening Standards live politics coverage.

Heres a rundown of the latest news from Westminster:

- Boris Johnson has the overwhelming backing of Tory MPs following the publication of the Sue Gray report, deputy prime minister Dominic Raab has said. A brief summary of the report, released on Monday, found that failures of leadership in Downing Street had resulted in the series of parties which took place in Downing Street during lockdown

- Tory MP and former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell announced he no longer had confidence in Mr Johnson, saying on Tuesday that he was running the Government like a medieval court

- The prime minister will fly to Ukraine on Tuesday morning amid mounting tensions on the border with Russia. He will urge Russian President Vladimir Putin that any incursion into Ukraine will be met with heavy sanctions

Raab defends discredited Savile claim directed at Starmer

07:54 , Daniel Keane

Dominic Raab defended Boris Johnsons use of a discredited claim that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

Asked if he would withdraw Mr Johnsons claim, the Deputy Prime Minister told Times Radio: Its not for me to do that.

What I would say is its part of the cut and thrust in the Chamber.

In the Commons during debate on the Sue Gray report, Mr Johnson claimed Sir Keir, the former director of public prosecutions, used his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
Jan. 31LONDONDERRY  A woman in her 30s was seriously injured in a sledding accident Sunday afternoon and flown to Boston for medical treatment.

Rescuers with the Londonderry Fire Department had to carry the woman from a remote location on Mack's Apples property, according to Battalion Chief Bo Butler. The spot is popular for sledding.

Butler said firefighters and paramedics provided advanced life support treatment and brought the patient to St. Peter's Church, where a Boston medical helicopter landed.

She reportedly hit an unexpected bump and was unable to move her lower body after the accident.

Her condition was not known Monday.

Butler noted that it was a busy afternoon for Londonderry first responders, who also managed three other emergencies  including a gas leak  during the sledding incident.
CONVENT, La. (AP)  A Louisiana man has been convicted of battery on a police officer for biting a sheriffs deputy who tried to arrest him in May 2020.

Justin Stout, 40, of Paulina could get up to five years in prison at his sentencing Feb. 24, prosecutors told news agencies.

Prosecutors said Stout fought with St. James Parish sheriffs deputies who were called to deal with a dispute in a child custody case, and that the deputy who was bitten required medical treatment. A stun gun subdued Stout, according to prosecutors.

A parish jury convicted him last week before Judge Tess Stromberg.
After more than 20 years of traveling the globe, becoming who some say is the most recognized and trusted woman in travel television, Samantha Brown finally visited Louisville last summer on her first trip to Kentucky.

Over several days, she filmed an episode featuring our city and the Bluegrass for PBS two-time Emmy Award-winning series Samantha Browns Places to Love.

After visiting more than 70 countries in her career, what did she think of our home?

I caught up with Brown by phone ahead of the episode, which will air Saturday on PBS. Of course a travel show host is going to have nice things to say about a place theyre featuring, but you know what? Her enthusiasm for Louisville and Kentucky was genuine.

Growing up with a background in acting, and hearing about our celebrated arts and theater scene, Louisville was just this place to go if you were an actor, she says.

How refreshing is it to hear Louisville thought of as an arts destination? (I mean, we all know that, but I can tell you from my far humbler jaunts around the globe that most people mention a certain fast-food chicken purveyor in the same breath as Louisville.)

Samantha Brown, host of PBS' 'Samantha Brown's Places to Love' travel show, visited The Muhammad Ali Center during an upcoming episode highlighting Louisville and Kentucky.

But it was Muhammad Alis legacy, particularly the Muhammad Ali Center, 144 N. Sixth St., that elevated Louisville to world-class destination status in her mind. He may have belonged to the world, but we claim him, and the museum honoring him helped draw Brown here. That, and bourbon  her husband Kevin, whos the producer of the show that created together, is a huge bourbon fan, she says.

You may like: Bourbon for beginners: 5 tips to help anyone become a bourbon aficionado

Weve wanted to do Louisville, Kentucky for a long time because of its history, Brown says. But shes not stuck in our storied past. Its stepping into the more modern age as being a real city of the moment as well, she says.

Whats appealing about this shows format, and her approach, is that she takes the tropes of a destination and looks for new ways of telling those stories. And she accomplishes that by highlighting the folks who live and work and play there.

Story continues

What I love about the show is it really is seeing a destination through its people, she says.

So the process always begins with what is it known for? she explains. And how can we show that in a different perspective?

Samantha Brown, host of PBS' 'Samantha Brown's Places to Love' travel show, visited Old Friends Retirement Farm for an upcoming episode highlighting Louisville and Kentucky.

To wit: it's absolutely known for horses, for the Kentucky Derby, she says, but instead of the standard-issue footage of hats bobbing around on Kentucky Derby day, she featured the Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farms, where she chats with founder Michael Blowen for a unique lens on the industry synonymous with Kentucky.

That approach continues, with a tour of Buffalo Trace Distillery where local legend Freddie Johnson shares the history behind the bourbon boom  including putting to right any misconceptions that early producers were just old whiskey guys with guns and dogs, in funny hats. Not so, he says. They were structural engineers, biochemists, arborists, he explains.

This look back at the postcard-perfect aged rickhouses is contrasted with the modern facilities and approach of Bardstown Bourbon Company, where Brown learns she can sip barrel-proof bourbon like a champ  and finally grasps what bourbon's all about, anyway.

You may like: How a once-in-a-lifetime bourbon tasting experience made me stop taking things for granted

Samantha Brown, host of PBS' 'Samantha Brown's Places to Love' travel show, visited the Buffalo Trace Distillery and had a chance to visit a rickhouse with longtime guide Freddie Johnson during an upcoming episode highlighting Louisville and Kentucky.

I mean, my husband has explained bourbon to me for like 10 years, and all of a sudden Dan [Callaway, vice president of hospitality] comes along and I'm like, I get it, OK!

While they couldnt spend all 23 minutes of the shows airtime on bourbon  Brown was particularly impressed with the art program at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, and dedicated time to that as well as to Louisville Stoneware, 732 Brent St.,  they had to shine a light on Bourbons Bistro, 2255 Frankfort Ave.

When her husband came to scout Louisville for the show, she explains, Jamar Mack of KOBBE, Kentuckys Original Black Bourbon Enthusiasts, took him to Bourbons. (And heres where its particularly fun to look at ourselves in the mirror of a travel show.)

That night he was like, you won't believe the night I had, she says. As a bourbon enthusiast, he found his Mecca.

Those of us living here probably take for granted that any day of the week we may see bourbon celebrities just out living their lives, but for someone not from here to run into what Kevin called big people in the bourbon industry, thats a big deal.

And it was a slice of Louisville life that shows in many ways who we are as a city.

Samantha Brown, host of PBS' 'Samantha Brown's Places to Love' travel show, samples from the barrel at Bardstown Bourbon Company with Jamar Mack and Dan Callaway for an upcoming episode highlighting Louisville and Kentucky.

Brown was only here for a few days, but its clear she did her homework and took seriously her job of finding out  and showcasing  what makes us tick. Kudos to her for getting below the surface.

You may like: Meat Loaf's last 'Ghost Hunters' appearance set to air on Discovery+. Here's how to watch

Louisville is this city that has such history, she says, and yet is very sophisticated. She was struck by how much passion people have but observed that were laid back.

People are just really at ease with themselves, she says. You come to Louisville, and all of a sudden you feel that energy and, and it's really lovely. You really felt that kind of raw spirit.

I'm so excited to do Kentucky and Louisville for the first time, she says. What travelers need to realize is that at every destination, there's a soul of that place. That comes from the people, and you need to get to know the people.

Tell Dana! Send your restaurant Dish to Dana McMahan at thecjdish@gmail.com and follow @bourbonbarbarella on Instagram.

'Samantha Brown's Places to Love'

WHAT: Samantha quickly learns at the start of her journey that Kentucky is synonymous with Bourbon. Her first stop is the Buffalo Trace Distillery where Samantha talks about its rich history with third-generation employee Freddie Johnson. She then stopped by Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farms, where she meets founder Michael Blowen to chat about horse racing and his mission to save these horses' lives. With many interesting and exciting stops along the way, Samantha finishes her trip in the Bardstown aka the Bourbon Capital of the World to sample whiskey and talk more about the history of bourbon.

WHEN: Feb. 12, at 1:30 p.m. on KET and Feb. 14, at 3 p.m. on KET2.

HOW TO WATCH: on PBS, check local listings for exact date/times

Samantha Brown's Top 3 Kentucky Experiences:

Visiting the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, 2075 Clermont Road, a 16,137-acre arboretum, forest, and nature preserve located in Clermont, Kentucky.

Experiencing The Muhammad Ali Center, 144 N. 6th St., that celebrates the life of the greatest of all time boxer who was born in Louisville.

Having a drink at Bourbons Bistro, 2255 Frankfort Ave., nestled in historic Clifton in a building dating back to the 1870s. With a selection of more than 130 bourbons, including a barrel selection program, Bourbons Bistro is Louisvilles foremost bourbon bar.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: 'Samantha Brown's Places to Love' PBS travel show visits Kentucky
TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP)  A Macon County judge is scheduled to consider arguments this week in a legal fight over a Confederate monument that has stood for 116 years in mostly Black Tuskegee.

Circuit Judge Steven Perryman has set a hearing for Thursday in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Macon County and some residents against the local and state chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which erected scores of rebel monuments across the South in the early 1900s.

FILE - A Confederate monument in Tuskegee, Ala., is shown with its base wrapped in tarps on June 12, 2020. A Confederate heritage group is fighting an Alabama county's lawsuit that could lead to the removal of the rebel monument in the heart of nearly all-Black Tuskegee. Circuit Judge Steven Perryman has set a hearing for Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022 in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Macon County and some residents against the local and state chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which erected scores of rebel monuments across the South in the early 1900s. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

The lawsuit, filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray, argues that Macon County wrongfully gave a square to the Confederate group for the statue and a segregated, whites-only park in 1906. A decision in favor of the county could lead to removal of the monument, which features a statue of a Confederate soldier and has been the subject of on-and-off protests for decades.

How do we teach history?: Selma history teachers examine the way kids learn the Civil War

Bills: Alabama bills would make it a felony to move, deface or alter historic monuments

But the United Daughters of the Confederacy contends it owns the 2-acre (0.81-hectare) square legally, and the land is open to everyone. An attorney for the group said members want the monument to remain and have asked the judge to throw out the county's lawsuit, which was filed last year.

Perryman, writing in a court order, said he will consider the Confederate groups request to dismiss the case and other motions during the hearing.

The monument was erected at a time when white supremacy reigned and pro-Confederate groups across the South were erecting Civil War memorials to honor rebel troops and portray the cause of the slave-holding South as noble. Hundreds of rebel monuments were taken down in recent years as they came to be seen as symbols of racial oppression against Black people.

While a 2017 Alabama law meant to protect rebel monuments imposes a $25,000 penalty for removing or altering any monument that's been in place for 40 or more years, the county filed suit anyway to take down the statue.

Former Mayor Johnny Ford used a saw to damage the statue in July in hopes it would topple over, but it didnt and the county sued. The United Daughters of the Confederacy spent several thousand dollars on repairs, its lawyer said.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Macon County Judge to hear suit over Tuskegee Confederate memorial
Frankie Jacquez, of Farmington, was a San Juan County Adult Detention Center inmate who died on Jan. 26 at San Juan Regional Medical Center while seeking medical treatment.

FARMINGTON  A Farmington man being held at the county jail died in late January after seeking medical treatment for three weeks at a Farmington hospital.

Frankie Jacquez, 54, died on Jan. 26 at San Juan Regional Medical Center while being held at the San Juan Adult Detention Center, according to San Juan County government spokesperson Devin Neeley.

Jacquez's death was listed in court documents tied to his felony drug conviction from 2019. His jail booking card filed on Jan. 27 listed the defendant as deceased.

He requested to be transferred to the hospital on Jan. 3 and was transported that day, according to Neeley.

The county could not release medical information tied to Jacquezs transfer or death, citing privacy laws.

More: San Juan County jail inmate died at hospital after medical emergency

Neeley said the San Juan County Sheriffs Office is not treating Jacquez's death as a suspicious death and won't be investigating it as he died at the hospital.

Jacquez was booked into the county jail on Oct. 15, after a bench warrant was issued for his arrest nearly two years earlier on Oct. 31, 2019.

The defendant was accused at the time of violating his probation on a possession of a controlled substance conviction from April 2019.

Jacquez failed to report to his probation/parole officer on Oct. 4, 2019 and couldnt be located afterward by the parole office.

He was given a one year, four month and 17-day sentence to the New Mexico Department of Corrections during a Dec. 23 court hearing in Aztec District Court, according to court documents.

Jacquez was awaiting transfer into the state prison system at the time of his death.

His death is the third death since August the Daily Times has reported.

Ramona Bitsilly, 39, of Farmington, died on Aug. 22 and Jon Dayish, 40, of Farmington, died on Sept. 20.

County officials said Bitsilly and Dayish both died of medical emergencies, according to The Daily Times archives.

Investigators previously said there was nothing to suggest that either Dayish or Bitsillys deaths were caused by any suspicious activity.

Story continues

Joshua Kellogg covers breaking news for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4627 or via email at jkellogg@daily-times.com.

Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e

Female inmate died at county jail following 'life saving' measures, officials say

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: San Juan County inmate dies after being hospitalized for three weeks
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the amount of money prosecutors said was involved in the credit card scam. It was $500,000.

A 33-year-old man bought luxury items from high-end retail stores like Chanel, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent in a more than half-million-dollar credit card scam in California, prosecutors said.

Trace Jevon Jones, of Los Angeles, was sentenced to four years in federal prison on Jan. 31 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Central District of California said in a news release

From 2016 to 2018, Jones led a half-million-dollar scheme by fraudulently using American Express credit cards to buy high-end goods, the news release states.

An attorney for Jones did not immediately respond to McClatchy News request for comment.

Jones and five others would contact American Express pretending to be the account holder, prosecutors said. Then the six people would ask the company to send them a replacement credit card without the real account holders permission, according to court documents.

They would intercept the credit cards by getting the delivery information, court documents show.

Once they had the credit cards, Jones and the others would make lavish purchases of bags, shoes, jewelry and other items at luxury stores in Costa Mesa, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, prosecutors said.

Jones spent thousands of dollars per purchase at stores including Chanel, Gucci, Barneys, Fendi, Balenciaga and Goyard, court documents show.

He made a $16,647.38 purchase at a Gucci store in Costa Mesa, documents show.

He was ordered to pay $521,128 in restitution to American Express.

Other defendants in the case have been sentenced for their role in the scheme.

Terry Ellis Jr., 40, was sentenced to two years in prison.

Davion Raymone Ellis, 32, was sentenced to three years.

Cherelle Daire Beal, 31, and Miranda Clare Hensley, 31, were ordered to serve three years of supervised release after getting credit for time served.

Jonathan Randall Ross, 33, is scheduled to be sentenced.

Story continues

Fancy toilets and electric guitars used to defraud Amazon out of $300,000, feds say

Texas post office worker stole public funds by using fake refunds, feds say

Deputy stole thousands after inserting himself in older womans business, feds say
Credit -

During a recent virtual roundtable sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, Lady Gagawho has said that she prepared for her performance as a vengeful wife in House of Gucci by, among other things, speaking with an Italian accent for monthscaught her fellow panelists off-guard with an imploring speech. After apologizing for being silent for most of the event, she thanked her colleaguesJennifer Hudson, Kirsten Dunst, Kristen Stewart, Tessa Thompson, and Penelope Cruz, all perfectly poised and cordoned off in their little Zoom squaresfor speaking so openly about their work, and then explained her problem: I feel like I am such a masochist when I work, and I am totally unhealthy and completely detached from real life, other than what I choose to put in my toolbox as an actor, she said. Im always thinking, when the movies over and Im a bag of bones going home, there has to be this other way for me to tell stories without abandoning myself.

Gaga needs this book, and fast: Isaac Butlers The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act.

Method acting is mysterious to those who have never studied it, and sometimes even to those who have. Acting can be magical, but its not magic: there are all sorts of techniques and modes of preparation that an actor can use, some of them exploratory in a beneficial way and othersthe kind, it seems, that Lady Gaga has been employingdeeply unhealthy and perhaps even dangerous. Butlers lively, well-researched and marvelously readable book isnt just for actors, but also for anyone who loves watching them. Most in need of it is anyone who has ever announced authoritatively, at a cocktail party or anywhere elseand, sadly, my personal experience tells me these people are plentifulthat Method acting is when you actually become the character.

That, as Butler explains early on, is exactly what the Method isnt. But before he gets deep into the complexity of what it is, he explains where it came from. What we now think of as Method acting was born at a lunch meeting in Moscow on June 7, 1897, a lunch between two theater professionals that stretched through the night, because neither of these men, ablaze with the passion of their ideas, could stop talking. During that 14-hour lunch, a theater director and teacher named Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and an accomplished actor best known by his stage name, Konstantin Stanislavski, hammered out a plan for a new Russian theater, one that would replace the staid and weary theatrical tradition of the time. Their brave and vital creation would come to be called the Moscow Art Theater, and cradled within it would be a mode of training for actors, developed by Stanislavski, known as the system.

Story continues

Read More: David Oyelowo on the Role That Made Him a Method Actor

The core idea of Stanislavskis teachings was perezhivanie, which, as Butler explains, loosely translates to experiencing, or maybe more accurately, re-experiencing. Perezhivanie has a strong correlation to the idea of sense memory, the one Method precept that nearly everyone has heard of: the practice of using a memory, the feeling of a particular moment of the actors own personal experience, to summon a truthful connection with their character, and with life. But even then, Butler takes care to clarify, in a gentle smackdown to all those cocktail-party know-it-alls: Experiencing does not mean to fully become the character, or to lose sight of the self. Instead, the actors living consciousness and the fictional consciousness of the part they are playing meet.

So how did Stanislavskis systema mode of teaching, and thinking, that was so integral to this innovators life that he never even capitalized the word, as if not wanting to desecrate it by turning it into something so banal as a trademarktransmute into what we know today as the Method, a discipline by which actors reach deep into themselves to shape characters that, ideally, reach us just as deeply? Who were Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner, and what connectedor dividedthese three eminent teachers associated with the discipline? Was Robert DeNiros weight gain for Raging Bull true Method acting, or something else? And is the Method still a viable regimen for actors, or has its usefulness run its course?

Butler, a teacher of theater history and performance who was a professional actor as a child, answers all of those questions in The Method by weaving a story that keeps us asking, And then what happened? Thats no small feat in a book whose goal is to trace the history of an often controversial and sometimes rather opaque set of performance principles.

More from TIME

Yet Butler pulls it off, by painting vivid portraits of the people who breathed life into those precepts. We learn that the system came to the U.S. from Russia quite literally on a boat, carried by acting teacher and future Hollywood director Richard Boleslavsky and his wife, Natasha, as they fled post-Revolution Russia, by way of Boleslavskys native Poland, for America. We learn about the many, many fights and feudsbetween Nemirovich and Stanislavski, between Adler and Strasbergthat came to shape, in ways both subtle and bold, what we think of as Method acting. And we learn how the Method, flowering from the seeds of Stanislavskis system, came to be the defining American acting style of the 20th centuryrepresented by famous standard bearers like Marlon Brando, James Dean and Marilyn Monroeeven as it was dogged by a central question: Was this mode of training just mumbo-jumbo, or a truly useful path to the truth of a performance?

Read More: Will Smith Tells Disturbing Story About Jared Leto from Suicide Squad Set

Butler acknowledges that were still asking that questionbut that very inquiry is part of the Methods vitality and resilience. The point of The Method is that the system and all that grew from it shaped the last century more than weve ever stopped to give it credit for. Far from just a grid of rules for performers, Method acting is, Butler writes, a transformative, revolutionary, modernist art movement, one of the Big Ideas of the twentieth century. Like atonality in music, or modernism in architecture, or abstraction in art, the system and the Method brought forth a new way of conceiving of human experience, one that changed how we look at the world, and at ourselves. In fact, what we think of as modern American actingthe unruly inventiveness of Joaquin Phoenix, the introspective grandeur of Viola Daviseven if its not Method acting, still owes a debt to the Method and its adherents: from them, we learned to appreciate and even expect performances that feel committed and real, that breathe. The Method is a rich book, highly entertaining but also gratifyingly specific, about the point of connection between actor and observer, the lightning flash between us and them that, when it happens, is impossible to adequately describe or explain. If its grand, its also granular, a gift of humility drawn from an actors ego. No wonder Stanislavsky couldnt bring himself to capitalize that S, to use a big letter in the service of such an intimate thing.
by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Israeli President Isaac Herzog's potential visit to Turkey this month would pave the way to restore ties between Turkey and Israel and help revive a pipeline project to ship Mediterranean gas to Europe, experts said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he expects his Israeli counterpart to travel to Turkey in February during an interview with local private broadcaster NTV on Jan. 26.

"This official visit could open a new chapter in relations between Turkey and Israel," Erdogan said, adding that he was "ready to take steps in Israel's direction in all areas, including natural gas."

Such a visit would be a breakthrough in the frozen relationship between the two countries, analysts stressed.

"Realpolitik dictates that both Turkey and Israel need to have normal relations and get along with each other," Hasim Turker, academic coordinator of the Ankara-based Bosphorus Center for Asian Studies, told Xinhua.

"It seems that there is a convergence of opinions in both countries to this regard, which is beneficial for the energy security of the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe," he said.

"The Israeli President visiting Ankara would of course be extremely significant. Israeli and Turkish leaders have not had such high-level contact in more than a decade," Batu Coskun, an independent researcher on Israeli affairs, stressed for his part.

He noted that ambassadorial appointments on both sides are expected right before the visit to show that relations have been "restored" in a diplomatic sense.

Coskun insisted that both parties have to make concessions on thorny issues in order to mend ties.

"The big question is whether both sides would agree to overcome drastically divergent views and whether Turkey and Israel would establish mechanisms to sustain the relationship in moments of crisis," he said.

Ties between the two regional powers have frozen after the death of 10 people in an Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla carrying aid for the Gaza Strip in 2010.

In a more recent spat in 2018 when the United States moved its embassy to Jerusalem, Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador from Ankara.

However, the two countries have been working on a rapprochement in recent months, with Erdogan, a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, holding telephone talks with Herzog and other Israeli leaders.

The Turkish leader said last week that he was prepared to work with Israel on reviving a project to deliver Mediterranean gas to European clients via Turkey.

His remarks came after the U.S. dropped support for a rival pipeline project, the EastMed pipeline, involving Israel, Cyprus, and Turkey's neighbor and rival Greece.

Ankara has strongly opposed the project, which was supported by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

"Israel would always want to keep a working relationship with Turkey, the first Muslim majority country that recognized the Jewish state soon after its foundation," said Tulin Daloglu, a journalist and expert on Turkey-Israel relations.

She stressed that both parties need to think hard about the future of their relationship, and indicated that "if the visit materializes, we'll have to see what the Israeli president's messages will be and how Erdogan will welcome him."

Turkey's more assertive foreign policy in recent years has witnessed its deteriorating ties with a number of countries including Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Greece, and some Gulf states.

In 2020, Ankara introduced a foreign policy shift towards mending its ties with the Gulf States, Egypt, and Israel to end its regional isolation, which is seen as detrimental to its energy ambitions.

"Turkey's steps towards breaking its isolation in the region would also benefit its former rivals, including Egypt. This could be a win-win opportunity for Turkey, Israel, and Egypt," Turker argued.

One major hurdle to the Turkish-Israeli rapprochement, according to the observers, will be the Turkish government's ties with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). Israel claims the militant group directs attacks from headquarters in Istanbul.

According to the reports of Turkish and Israeli media, Turkey has moved recently to limit Hamas activity on its soil, deporting several of its members. 
MAPLEWOOD, NJ  Hello, Maplewood! Here are the most important things going on today in town. At the end are some links to sign up to get future Maplewood daily digests several times a week.

First, today's weather:

Cloudy. High: 46 Low: 38.

Here are some of the top stories in Maplewood today:

Code Yellow At Columbia High School 'De-Escalated Quickly' (The Village Green) COVID Cases Are Declining In Maplewood And South Orange (TAPinto) Police Looking Into Three Robberies Of Maplewood Women A Week Ago (NJ.com) Final Snow Totals For Essex County Towns (Patch) Payne has $400k cash-on-hand for re-election bid in NJ-10 (New Jersey Globe)

Today's Maplewood Daily is brought to you in part by our friends at GoodRx  the best way to save money on your prescriptions. GoodRx helps you locate the lowest prices for medications at local pharmacies, so you're not overpaying. Works for pet medications too! To see how much you can save, go to GoodRx.com.

Today in Maplewood:

Maplewood Community Board on Police - Maplewood Township Meetings (7:30 PM)

From Around The Web In Maplewood:

Maplewood Village: "Happy Taco Tuesday!Snag this cute sign at No. 165 then get yourself some tacos from Cactus Charly or Scratch taco to celebrate!#tacotuesday #tacos #njfoodie #giftideas #homedecor #interiordesign #maplewoodnj #maplewoodvillagenj #shop..." (Instagram)

Maplewood Village: "#snowday in Maplewood Village - a perfect day to fill your belly with warm food from one of our great eateries!@bakerstreetmarket @gpjuicery @arturos.nj @codakitchenandbar @chutzpah_kitchen #wildgingerthai@mapleleafdinernj #mtfuj..." (Instagram)

Trinitas Regional Medical Center: "The NJ Department of Health and the Trinitas HIV Counseling and Testing department is joining forces to sponsor a "Know Your HIV Status" testing event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, February 11 at 654 East Jersey St., Elizabeth, Room #16..." (Facebook)

Alzheimer's Association Greater New Jersey Chapter: "Thank you, Elizabeth, for joining the fight to #ENDALZ. Let's hope next year we'll be rooting for the NY Jets!" (Facebook)

Alzheimer's Association Greater New Jersey Chapter: "Thank you to Senator Bob Menendez Director of Constituent Services, @JeremyJulis, for meeting with our advocates, @monks_doreen, @JeannieCastells, Dani Micale and @a_kagolden today to hear how Alzheimers has impacted their lives. With y..." (Facebook)

Alzheimer's Association Greater New Jersey Chapter: "Happy Lunar New Year! We hope that the year ahead brings joy, luck and happiness to you and your family. If you need us, our 24/7 helpline is available through the holiday, including our interpreter service in more than 200 languages. Ca..." (Facebook)

Trinitas Regional Medical Center: "Today launches American Heart Month. We know its important to focus on heart health every month of the year. As the most important muscle in our body, the heart pumps nutrient-rich blood, helping us function and giving us life. At RWJBa..." (Facebook)

Alzheimer's Association Greater New Jersey Chapter: "During #BlackHistoryMonth, we're honoring those who have shown great courage and tenacity in the face of obstacles set before them. Join us in celebrating the many trailblazers who have made and are making a difference in the fight to en..." (Facebook)

South Orange-Maplewood Adult School: "Learn how to put together a great resume that employers will love and will get you job interviews. Multiple strategies will be discussed such as the use of keywords and how Applicant Tracking Systems work, how to address gaps in your wor..." (Facebook)

South Orange-Maplewood Adult School: "Last chance for tickets!   www.somadultschool.org We could all use a little Utopia right now, and David Byrnes AMERICAN UTOPIA is burning down a brand new house on Broadway! If you want to rediscover the joy of live music, community..." (Facebook)

Arts Ed NJ: "@phsdancenj Nothing like A Lil Party for MONDAY MOTIVATION PARAMUS DANCE IS BACK !! Awesome way to kick start Semester 2 w / a Lil Party !! Full Company Rehearsals R Back! N On ! Day 1 !! Done way back only once in 2017 & started to ..." (Facebook)

South Orange-Maplewood Adult School: "Happy Chinese New Year! " (Facebook)

Joseph from Nextdoor's Community Team, Nextdoor New Jersey: "#Snowcrew Angels needed for Winter Storm - While snowstorms are exciting for many of us, for neighbors who are elder, injured, or have a disability (especially those with fixed incomes), snowstorms can cause a great deal of anxiety and p..." (Nextdoor)

Nextdoor Neighbor, Valley of Maplewood: "In search of teen who would like to walk/play with an active one in half year old adorable doggie, Benny, after school a couple of days a week for about an hour. - My husband and I work from home and the afternoon playtime really helps u..." (Nextdoor)

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About me: Hi! I'm a lifelong New Jersey resident. I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the 1990s and now live in North Jersey. I've written for the Washington Post and Atlantic.com. I've also published two novels, one of which was adapted into a nerdy romantic comedy that's currently streaming on Netflix (called Carrie Pilby). I believe in the power of local journalism to do so much good in large and small ways. Reach me at caren.lissner@patch.com

This article originally appeared on the Maplewood Patch
BALTIMORE  Bowie State Universitys campus closed Monday as a result of a bomb threat, officials said. The school in Prince Georges County was among several other historically Black colleges to receive threats Monday.

After a campus-wide search, no explosives were found, and the campus was cleared at about 1:30 Monday afternoon, Maryland State Police said.

A university lockdown was lifted a short time later, said Bowie State spokeswoman Cassandra Robinson, and students and staff were able to move about the campus. The threat forced classes online for the day, and forced the university to make plans to feed students stuck in on-campus residences.

Just before 6 a.m., the Bowie Police Department received a phone call with the threat, according to a news release from Maryland State Police, which is leading the investigation.

Explosive detection dogs were used to conduct a full search of campus, according to the state police news release. Officials from the state police Criminal Enforcement Division were on hand, alongside representatives from the Office of the State Fire Marshal and a number of other law enforcement agencies.

While the credibility of the phone call is in question, Maryland State Police take all bomb threats seriously and will conduct a thorough investigation, read the news release from state police.

Around 9 a.m., the Maryland Transit Administration advised that MARC Penn Line trains would not stop at Bowie Station due to the policy activity.

As many as five other historically Black colleges also received bomb threats Monday morning, including nearby Howard University, according to a CNN report. A Washington Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson told CNN that no explosives were found at Howard. Jan. 5, Howard University was among three campuses that received bomb threats, but no explosives were located.


Living in East Asia as an expatriate, I always felt a deep loneliness during holidays in the same way that I know many of our international students here at MSU feel during the long winter break.

Jennifer Wargo

However, even though I could not surround myself with family, I could feel a change in the air during the new year holiday in China and Korea. Everything goes quiet yet feels brilliantly powerful, like the sun rising on a snowy morning. Theres the promise of a new year free from evil, theres hope and theres a deep joy.

One new year in northeast China in the early 2000s found me on a bus to a friends home. Their flat bustled with first cousins  she had no siblings like so many of her generation  and was filled with the aroma of frying garlic, ginger and leeks. The whole family dove in to help wrap the dumplings (jiaozi), and everyone was laughing. The cousins went for a walk together, reminiscing  I tagged along. They played board games with dad. We ate (and ate and ate!).

FROM USA TODAY NETWORK: Hey Tiger, good luck! We'll need it.

On the bus ride home, I looked out over the empty streets of Tianjin. It looked like a war zone with all the yellow smoke from firecrackers meant to scare away anything evil from the new year. It sounded like one too  Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!  not far from the bus and also far away, the sounds lit up the night. They were everywhere. The food, the hustle, the togetherness  and yet it wasnt my holiday. I was an observer, thankful to be let in for a glimpse of the warmth of the holiday.

This week, many countries in East and Southeast Asia will celebrate the lunar new year. In fact, many in our local community will celebrate as well  including multiple celebrations at MSU and in the area, some virtual, some in person.

February 1 marks the first day of the new year, following the first new moon. The holiday continues for about 15 days until the first full moon, and many cultures end the festival with another celebration  for example, the Lantern Festival in China.

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There are many customs and traditions for different cultures that are important during the new year. For example, in South Korea, many people will practice sebae, a custom of filial piety manifested by a deep, traditional bow to elders, wishing them a happy new year. Young people will receive spending money as a good wish in return.

More from opinion

In China, families gather and make dumplings and other traditional foods together. In many countries, people use the new year as a time for a deep cleaning, making homes clean and fresh from evil going into the new year.

These are only a few examples of traditions; there are many more in China, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, and beyond. Overall, it is a time of hope for prosperity and blessing, fellowship with family, and a fresh start in the new year.

Moving into the Year of the Tiger, you may hear Happy Chinese New Year, Happy Korean New Year, or a whole host of other greetings. However you choose to celebrate, I wish you the happiest of new years.

Happy Lunar New Year to all, and may the Year of the Tiger be filled with the tigers strength and prowess as we fight the pandemic, anti-Asian hate, divisive geopolitical rhetoric and many more struggles.

In China, there is a common phrase: fu daole, or blessing is poured out. May the Year of the Tiger be filled with blessings for all.

Jennifer Wargo is the deputy director for the Office of China Programs at Michigan State University; she came to MSU in 2016 after eight years of teaching, four of those in South Korea and China followed by four years at Grand Ledge High School.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Happy Lunar New Year, a fresh start for the new year
Milan City Treasurer Sara Finch explains financial situation to council at recent Milan City Council meeting.

MILAN -- The Milan City Council was forced to raise the water and sewer rates immediately after learning the citys water fund balance was starting to get behind.

The problem is that the council failed to raise water and sewer rates in 2020 and 2021, and now it is necessary to raise the rates all at once.

If we do nothing, the water fund will run out of money, Sara Finch, Milan City Treasurer, said during a recent Milan City Council work session.

The last time we raised rates was in 2019, Finch said. Its something we should do annually to make sure we are on top of it.

The water and sewer funds within the City of Milan are treated as separate accounts, and the funds are not mixed with other city funds.

According to Finch, if an individual homeowner has trouble with a bill from the city, we can set up payment plans, she pointed out.

Steve Mann, Milan city attorney, made it clear to the council. We have to catch up, he said. Last audited, there was a deficit in the water and sewer fund. The rate increase is to resolve the deficit.

Did we know we were operating the water fund at a deficit in 2020? asked Councilman Dave Baldwin.

Yes, replied Finch.

A report by Police Chief Donald Tillery, Interim City Administrator, showed that residential water rates have been $2.44 per 1,000 cubic feet. The new water rate as of Feb. 1, 2022 will increase to $4.09 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Residential sewer rates have been $6.45 per 1,000 cubic feet. As of Feb. 1, the sewer rate will be 8.47 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Tillerys report indicates the rates need to increase annually by an average of 13% every year to catch up to actual costs by 2026.

Mayor Kolar said later that his own water/wastewater bill has been about $230 per quarter. He lives with his wife, two teenagers and a dog. They are taking showers and, in the summer, they are watering the lawn.

According to Kolar he has been paying about $230 per quarter for his city water and sewer bill. With the increase, he expects to pay about $280 every three months.

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Thats an extra $17 per month, he said, adding that the rate increase is essential. When our short-term financials are solid, we can finance our long-term debts more favorably.

We have to be smart with our financials, he said, referring to the city. We have long term bonds but weve been paying way too much. But we cant refinance them until we can prove we are healthy in our water and sewer fund.

Martha A. Churchill is a contributor to The Monroe News.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Milan City Council raises water, sewer rates
A researcher points to seismic data displayed on a computer screen in 2008 in St. Louis. A 4.0 magnitude earthquake in southeast Missouri last November was a wake-up call for those living in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, says Jeff Briggs, Missouri State Emergency Management Agency Earthquake Program manager.

When a 4.0 magnitude earthquake occurred Nov. 18 about 4 1/2 miles south of Williamsville in southeast Missouri, it was even lightly felt in Columbia.

This was the most severe earthquake for the region since 1991 and was a wake-up call for those living in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, said Jeff Briggs, Missouri State Emergency Management Agency Earthquake Program manager.

The smallest earthquakes people generally feel are 2.5 magnitude. Earthquakes of 4.0 magnitude can cause moderate damage, with the largest in the 8.0 magnitude range, which is what happened at the New Madrid Seismic Zone in late 1811 and early 1812.

The New Madrid region sees about 200 small earthquakes per year, the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance reported.

Missouri's earthquake risk

"(We want to) outline the earthquake risk centering in southeast Missouri. It is one of the largest active seismic zones," Briggs said

Reports after the November earthquake in southeast Missouri noted car alarms were activated, photographs wobbled on walls, dishes were broken and a couple of buildings had structural damage, Briggs said.

"It was more of a scary event, more of a wake-up call for people in southeast Missouri than it was an extremely damaging event," he said.

If a similar earthquake were to happen in the region like those from from 210 years ago, the damage would be extreme throughout Missouri and the Midwest, Briggs said.

"We want people to be aware of the risks and to know how to prepare, because when that really big one does happen, we want to minimize the risks," he said.

The New Madrid Seismic Zone sees regular activity. The majority of earthquakes over the past six months measured between 1.0-2.0 magnitude, according to a recent earthquakes map from the University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information.

New Madrid Seismic Zone an enigma for researchers

There are at least two schools of thought regarding the New Madrid Seismic Zone, said Eric Sandvol, professor of geological sciences at the University of Missouri and vice chair of the Missouri Seismic Safety Commission. Sandvol has an emphasis in geophysics, tectonics and solid earth processes.

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Some people believe there is no longer a chance for earthquakes as severe as those in 1811-12, while others believe we are about due for another major earthquake, he said.

"Those are both extreme positions," Sandvol said. "I understand both arguments. The problem is we don't understand these earthquakes. They are probably the most enigmatic earthquakes on the planet."

An October 2009 impact study conducted by the Mid-America Earthquake Center, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, notes if the three fault segments in the seismic zone rupture in a single event, it could result in a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.

An estimated 715,000 buildings in an eight-state region would be damaged, including 130 hospitals. There possibly would be as many as 86,000 casualties and direct economic impacts of $300 billion within the region, the study found.

The New Madrid Seismic Zone is unique, though, because by all accounts it should not even exist in the first place, Sandvol said.

"The (fault) is not even supposed to be there, according to standard plate tectonic theory," he said.

There are interesting theories as to why earthquakes happen in this seismic zone, but they are not yet well-supported by evidence, Sandvol said.

It is a bad idea to give predictions about when a major earthquake event could happen, he added.

"That is the main message to know. These are not like your typical earthquakes in California or Japan or Tonga," he said. "Because we do not understand the (New Madrid) earthquakes very well, that is why there is a wide range of opinions on them."

The majority of earthquakes occur at the edges of large and relatively rigid tectonic plates because of their motion against each other, Sandvol said. In the case of New Madrid, it is in the middle of a tectonic plate.

"You are nowhere near a plate boundary," Sandvol said. "So where is that (earthquake) energy coming from?"

Other regions have seismic zones that aren't near plate boundaries, but there are more easily defined reasons for earthquakes happening there than at New Madrid, he said.

Limited resources available to explain New Madrid earthquakes

So if there are so many conflicting opinions on why New Madrid has earthquakes, is more research being done to explain their cause?

The answer is both yes and no.

Research is being done on the New Madrid Seismic Zone, but the degree to which it is done is limited based on funding availability.

"Doing science can be an expensive thing," Sandvol said. "The (United States Geological Survey) and its Earthquake Hazards Program is always underfunded."

Sandvol has seen funding resources decline over the past 10 to 15 years. The Earthquake Hazards Program in fiscal year 2021 saw a budget reduction of $24.5 million.

Most of the research on New Madrid is older, but that does not mean there is not any new research done, he added.

This includes surveying land movement on the sides of the fault zone to see if there is an accumulation of energy. There also is the general earthquake monitoring system.

Sandvol's research involves earthquake imaging, similar to a medical CT or PET scan.

"We take pictures of the inside of the earth and we want to look and see if we can see something interesting about the structure inside New Madrid," he said.

He was a co-author on research into what is known as site amplification. Areas with softer soil, such as near a river, will feel a more severe ground shake than areas closer to hard rock.

The City of New Madrid's southern border is the Missouri River. The 1811-12 earthquakes caused it to flow backward.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Southeast Missouri earthquake in November 2021 prompts safety seminars
A number of Mount St. Mary students were planning a walkout at the school Tuesday  protesting what many have described as a culture of sexual abuse and administrative coverups at the school going back nearly a decade.

The Oklahoman detailed some of the allegations of events at the Catholic high school in Oklahoma City after speaking with multiple current and former students.

The investigation into the school performed by The Oklahoman reveals multiple incidents of alleged abuse of students, by students, and at least one allegation of abuse by a coach.

Since The Oklahoman published its story, additional allegations of assault at the school have been made known to the newspaper.

'We were all children': What we know about allegations of sexual abuse of students at Mount St. Mary

Incidents of alleged abuse on school property include a male student masturbating in front of a female student, a female student forcibly moved into a stairwell where she was kissed and groped against her will, a sexual assault on a school bus returning from a baseball game, multiple male athletes groping female students at school, and an adult coach slapping a female student's buttocks as she entered a classroom.

The scandal came to public light after the school's principal, and a former Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, Talita DeNegri resigned on Dec. 29.

At the time, the school issued a letter saying an independent investigation revealed the school had failed to take action "consistent with its core beliefs and values" regarding allegations of sexual harassment and assault of a student, according to letters sent to donors, families and alumni by Board of Trustees Chairman Daniel Carsey.

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, which is a co-sponsor of the school, later said in post to its website that DeNegri resigned after an independent investigation revealed The Mount administrative leadership failed to take action in response to reported allegations of sexual harassment and assault by students against other students.

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Other than an initial statement made to, and published by, The Oklahoman, DeNegri has declined further comment.

More: Mount St. Mary parents demand answers following reports of sexual assault at school

Instead of calming the campus community, DeNegri's resignation after 19 years in the post prompted several alleged victims, parents, alumni and at least one former teacher to call on more administrators to be removed from their positions, saying school leaders have for years fostered a toxic environment in which reports of sexual abuse were covered up and victims themselves were blamed.

In a letter obtained by The Oklahoman nearly a month ago, more than 140 alumni and others wrote to the board, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and Mercy Education System of the Americas, voicing dismay and frustrations with the letter Carsey wrote to the school community.

The walkout comes nearly a month after the letter was delivered, as many still feel the school has done an inadequate job in addressing concerns raised in letters to the school.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Mount St. Mary OKC students plan walkout to protest sexual abuse
GENEVA (Reuters) - At least 1,500 people are known to have been killed in year-long protests against the coup in Myanmar, with thousands more possibly killed in the armed conflict, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

At least 11,787 people were unlawfully detained in Myanmar in that period, including 8,792 who remain in custody, U.N. human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said.

Myanmar's ruling junta has disputed past estimates of the death toll made by rights groups.

Shamdasani announced the figures for arbitrary detentions at a U.N. briefing in Geneva, adding: "This is for voicing their opposition to the military, whether in peaceful protests or through online activities even."

"We have documented 1,500 people who have been killed, but this is in only in context of protests," she said, adding that they included 200 "killed due to torture in military custody."

"This 1,500 does not include people who were killed due to the armed conflict...We do understand that they are in the thousands," Shamdasani said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay)
Chinese envoy calls for quiet diplomacy on Ukraine

Xinhua) 09:39, February 01, 2022

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, speaks at a Security Council high-level open debate on climate and security at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

The United States, Ukraine and relevant European countries as well as NATO are having varying forms of diplomatic contacts with Russia. The parties concerned should persist in seeking to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations. What is urgently needed now is quiet diplomacy, not megaphone diplomacy, a Chinese envoy said.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's UN ambassador on Monday called for quiet diplomacy instead of megaphone diplomacy on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

In a procedural vote, China and Russia voted against a Security Council open meeting on Ukraine. The meeting went ahead as 10 other members of the council voted in favor.

China opposes the Security Council's holding of such a meeting as requested by the United States. The United States, in a letter to the president of the Security Council dated Jan. 27, claimed that Russia's deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine posed a threat to international peace and security. China cannot agree with such a claim, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

"Recently, there have indeed been tensions over the issue of Ukraine. We are paying attention to what exactly is causing the tensions. Some countries led by the United States have claimed that there is a looming war in Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly stated that it has no plans to launch any military action. And Ukraine has made it clear that it does not need a war. Under such circumstances, what is the basis for the countries concerned to insist that there would be a war?" he asked.

The United States, Ukraine and relevant European countries as well as NATO are having varying forms of diplomatic contacts with Russia. The parties concerned should persist in seeking to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations. What is urgently needed now is quiet diplomacy, not megaphone diplomacy, he said.

This is the view held by many members of the Security Council, which have also made relentless efforts toward this end. Regrettably, the United States did not accept such a constructive proposal. At a time when dialogue and negotiations are under way, and concrete progress has yet to be made, the holding of such an open meeting by the Security Council is clearly not conducive to creating a favorable environment for dialogue and negotiations, nor is it conducive to defusing the tensions, said Zhang.

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, speaks via video link at the Third Committee of the 76th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in New York, Oct. 21, 2021. (China Mission to the UN/Handout via Xinhua)

"China once again calls on all parties concerned to remain calm, not to do anything to aggravate tensions or hype up the crisis, and to properly resolve their differences through consultations on an equal footing on the basis of mutual respect and fully taking into account each other's legitimate security concerns," he said.

China's position on Ukraine is consistent. To resolve this issue, there is a need to return to the original point of implementing the new Minsk Agreement. This agreement, endorsed by the Security Council in its Resolution 2202, is a binding foundational political document recognized by all parties and should be effectively implemented. China supports all efforts in line with the direction and spirit of this agreement, and hopes that all parties concerned will show their positive willingness to implement the agreement, resolve their differences arising from the implementation of the agreement through consultations, and earnestly promote its implementation, he said.

The expansion of NATO is a problem difficult to circumvent in handling the current tension. NATO is the product of the Cold War, and NATO expansion epitomizes bloc politics, said Zhang.

"We believe that the security of one country should not be achieved at the expense of the security of other countries. Still less should regional security rely on strengthening or even expanding military blocs. Today in the 21st century, all parties should completely abandon the Cold War mentality and come up with a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations, with Russia's legitimate security concerns being taken seriously and addressed," he said.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI  Teachers can pick up free COVID-19 cleaning supplies from Ocean State Job Lot, starting this week. The Rhode Island-based company is offering the supplies as a way of saying thank you to educators, including at the North Kingstown location at 5957 Post Road.

From Thursday through Feb. 16, teachers, school management, and school support personnel can pick up hand sanitizer, hand wipes and disinfecting wipes from any OSJL store. All items will be free of charge, with no limit on quantity while supplies last. No other purchase is necessary.

"We are so appreciative of the educators who continue to be in the classroom teaching kids throughout the pandemic," said Marc Perlman, the company's CEO. "With the omicron variant, as well as cold and flu season, we want to make sure that teachers have the hand sanitizers, hand wipes and disinfecting wipes necessary to help keep themselves and their students safe and healthy."



Proof of employment with a photo ID will be required at checkout. Documented homeschoolers are eligible for the promotion. See more details on the company's website.

Patch reporter Rachel Nunes contributed to this report.



This article originally appeared on the North Kingstown Patch




The NAACP on Tuesday sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to file federal civil rights charges against the white Chicago police officer who fatally shot Black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014.

Former officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to six years and nine months after his conviction in October 2018 for the killing of McDonald, who was 17 at the time. Van Dyke is set to be released from prison on Thursday after serving less than half of his prison sentence.

In the letter, NAACP President Derrick Johnson urged Garland to "provide your commitment to move forward with appropriate and applicable federal charges based on the Federal Grand Jury findings and other relevant evidence," in the letter obtained by The Hill.

"Given the egregious nature of his crime, the NAACP believes that at a minimum, the murderous officer should be charged with a federal civil rights violation under Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242 - Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law," Johnson added.

He added that over its 113-year history, the organization has "seen unfair and inequitable favor given to law enforcement officers who unjustly take the lives of members of the Black community and have fought fervently in opposition to such favor."

McDonald's family has pushed for federal charges to be filed against Van Dyke.

"I just want justice, the right justice," McDonald's grandmother Tracie Hunter said last week.

"I'm not going to rest or be satisfied until this man does his rightful time," Hunter also said, adding that the time served by the former officer was "a slap on the wrist."

The Hill has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

McDonald died after he was shot 16 times by Van Dyke.

The shooting was followed by a Justice Department investigation into the Chicago Police Department, which found that the department routinely used excessive force and violated citizens' rights, especially among minority groups.
In the largest opioid settlement for Native Americans, the country's three major drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson will pay up to $665 million to the tribal communities devastated by the public health crisis, which has killed them at a disproportionate rate compared with non-Natives.

More than six months after finalizing similar terms with states, counties and cities for $26 billion, McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen reached a deal to pay $515 million over six years to the federally recognized tribes while Johnson & Johnson would distribute $150 million in two years, according to court documents filed Tuesday. More than 400 tribes sued the companies, claiming they were inundated with highly addictive painkillers manufactured by J&J and shipped by the distributors without regard for the clear signs of abuse and death. The companies deny wrongdoing, saying they complied with federal drug laws.

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"This is epic," said Lloyd Miller, one of the lead attorneys representing a third of the litigating tribes. "The need is just too great in Indian Country. This settlement is a real turning point in history."

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that its "actions relating to the marketing and promotion of important prescription opioid medications were appropriate and responsible," adding that the drugmaker no longer sells prescription opioids in the United States. The three distributors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma announced in September that it would receive $75 million, which is a part of the funds from the major three drug distributors.

The deal also comes months before the first federal opioid trial for a Native American tribe, with the Cherokee Nation's lawsuit against CVS, Walgreens and Walmart starting in September in Oklahoma federal court.

Story continues

This resolution speeds up the process of getting funds, as the sprawling opioid litigation throughout the country has taken years to reach courtrooms. The money from this deal would go toward programs that aid drug users and their communities - a help to tribal governments bearing severe financial burdens for the health care, social services, child welfare and law enforcement resources expended during the opioid crisis. About 15% of funds will go toward attorneys' fees.

Miller said that tribal leadership had to weigh possibly earning more money after years of trials and appeals vs. receiving the much-needed funds within a month of finalizing this deal. "They've got tribal citizens who are suffering and need relief," he said, "and that factors more than anything in the final calculus."

For the tribes to receive the full amount from the companies, 95% of the litigating tribes must agree to settle, as well as at least 14 of the 17 non-litigating tribes of more than 5,000 members for the distributors' deal.

Nationwide, from 2006 to 2014, Native Americans were nearly 50% more likely to die of an opioid overdose than non-Natives, according to a Washington Post analysis.

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In 2020, Tristan Lewis and Andrew Smith were grappling with the tumultuous year. In January, Kobe Bryant died. In March, COVID-19 shuttered the country and transformed daily life. In May, George Floyds murder sparked Black Lives Matter protests nationwide. As the two men faced life, they realized they needed something to help boost their well-being.

We were going through a lot of different traumas, Smith, 32, a financial advisor in Chicago told TODAYs Al Roker. We needed to do something that was going to be good for our mind, our body and our soul.

The Healing is based in Chicago and hopes to help men work through trauma that may be hindering their personal growth. (TODAY)

They approached a yoga teacher and asked if theyd teach a class one Sunday. That session made a huge impact on the 20 or so Black men attending.

Multiple guys came up and told Andrew and I, This is something I didnt realize I needed, Lewis, 36, an information technology employee in Chicago, told TODAY. We realized that we tapped into something in that moment.

Soon that one-off class became a regular class and Smith and Lewis created The Healing, a space dedicated to Black men to achieve their best selves, holistically.

Generationally, theres been a lot of stigmas and stereotypes when it pertains to Black men being vulnerable or even just what a Black man is supposed to be, Lewis said. There is something encouraging when a guy can show up and lower his shame and be open and honest about exactly where he is in his life. And I think normalizing that behavior has definitely had an impact on guys in our community.

As the yoga classes grew, Smith and Lewis invited therapists to offer more support to participants, mostly Black men aged 25 to 38.

It opened up the door for us to talk about the issues that were going through. It opened up the door for us to be transparent and to be vulnerable, Smith said. The practice as a whole brought more brothers into the fold.

But just being around one another helped many people, including Smith and Lewis.

The two founders of The Healing are now studying to become yoga instructors themselves. (TODAY)

I was incredibly surprised  One of the things that I needed was community, Smith said. I needed to be around my brothers.

Story continues

Since starting classes, theyre both studying to become yoga instructors.

Theres a lack of Black men teaching yoga, Smith said. When you enter into a room as a Black man, youre scanning the room real quickly and seeing who is there who looks like you.

In an odd way, the pandemic helped Smith and Lewis get where they are now. They hope to expand their reach by partnering with Black businesses and other organizations and even donating to the city, like they did with their holiday toy drive.

I think what the pandemic offered was a sense of stillness that I dont think we would have had  if the pandemic didnt shut things down, Lewis said.

Related:
Happy Wednesday, Rancho Bernardo-4s Ranch! Let's get you all caught up on what's happening locally to start today off on an informed note.

First, today's weather:

Sunshine. High: 66, Low: 39.

Here are three of the top stories in Rancho Bernardo-4s Ranch today:

Shut out of your local Starbucks? Wondering why so many stores are closed, or offer limited service? COVID-19 may be the answer. Employee shortages are rampant, and stores are operating on limited schedules. Some are offering drive-up services only. Wondering if your local store is affected? The best way to find out is by going to the "Starbucks App" to check. To learn more: Click into parenthesis, then click the link. (CBS News 8) It's 2022, Year of the Tiger (4720), and the 4S Ranch Library is celebrating the Lunar New Year. The SD Lucky Lion Dancers will give an outdoor performance open to the public. Come enjoy this cultural event suitable for adults, kids, and teens. To learn more: Click into parenthesis, then click the link. (Facebook) With hundreds of thousands of children trafficked in all 50 states, it generates $810 million each year. It is the second largest underground black-market industry in America. The typical victim is just 15 years old. Saved In America helps parents and law enforcement locate missing and runaway children, those most vulnerable to exploitation. Their mission is to locate your child. If you or someone you know is a victim of sex trafficking, please contact the Human Trafficking Hotline 888-373-3788 or the Saved In America TIP Hotline 760-348-8808. To learn more: Click into parenthesis, then click the link. (SanDiegoMetro.com)

From our sponsor:

Today's Rancho Bernardo-4s Ranch Daily is brought to you in part by our friends at GoodRx  the best way to save money on your prescriptions. GoodRx helps you locate the lowest prices for medications at local pharmacies, so you're not overpaying. Works for pet medications too! To see how much you can save, go to GoodRx.com.

Story continues

Today in Rancho Bernardo-4s Ranch:

From my notebook:

North San Diego Business Chamber: "North San Diego Business Chamber welcomes Cloud Creek Systems to our 5-star organization." (Facebook)

4S Ranch Library: "Our February books of the month will be available with no wait starting tomorrow! 'Wedding Date': Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist." (Facebook)

Are you an Airbnb or Vrbo host ? "Do you own or manage a vacation rental in San Diego? Sign up now for email updates on short-term rental licenses." (Sandiego.gov)

4S Ranch Friends of the Library : "Here is how to become a member of the Friends of the 4S Ranch Library, just a small contribution gets you membership for the whole year and helps us make a big impact in the community by supporting your local library. Let's make 2022 a great year, thank you!" (Facebook)

Free smoke alarms for seniors are available through The Burn Institute. (Burn Institute)

More from our sponsors  thanks for supporting local news!

Events:

Announcements:

Loving the Rancho Bernardo-4s Ranch Daily? Here are all the ways you can get more involved:

Send a friend or neighbor this link so they can subscribe

Get your local business listed in front of readers

Send me a news tip or suggestion at RanchoBernardo@Patch.com

Now you're in the loop and ready to start this Wednesday! I'll catch up with you bright and early tomorrow with a new update.

 Bettyann Pernice

This article originally appeared on the Rancho Bernardo-4s Ranch Patch
MEXICO CITY (AP)  The number of migrants detained in Mexico surged 78% in January from a year ago, Mexicos National Immigration Institute said Monday.

It said 16,740 migrants, mainly from Central America, were detained between Jan. 1 and Jan. 30. That compares with the 9,406 people detained without proper documents in the same period of 2021.

It was unclear if the number of migrants was less last year because of last winters brutal coronavirus surge.

Children and youths under age 18 made up 14.5% of the migrants detained, and a total of 780 were found to be unaccompanied by family members, the agency said.

Of the 16,740 migrants, 6,297, or 38%, were from Asia, Africa, Europe or other parts of the world outside the Americas.

Migrants smugglers in Mexico have recently been trying some innovative methods, including ferrying migrants for hundreds of miles on the backs of motorcycles or smuggling them in vehicles with fake logos.

Last week authorities said eight motorcycles, each with a driver and a Cuban migrant riding on the back, were stopped at a checkpoint in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco about 180 miles (300 kilometers) from where they had set out. They were headed for the northern state of Coahuila, more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away. The drivers were detained, and the migrants turned over to immigration officials.

Those detentions came just days after 28 Nicaraguans were found crammed inside a fake ambulance painted with logos from a government health agency. The vehicle was stopped in Mexico's Pacific coast state of Oaxaca.

Immigrant traffickers in Mexico general try to smuggle migrants in buses or freight trucks. The trucks are often painted with the logos of well-known companies to try to avoid scrutiny.

Migrants found in such circumstances are usually returned to their home countries, unless they are the victims of a crime.




New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) subpoenaed the General Services Administration (GSA) this week, requesting records concerning how the agency chose former President Trump's business to lease the federally owned Old Post Office Pavilion in Washington, D.C., for his hotel, The Washington Post reported.

James's inquiry, which is part of a probe into Trump's business, is seeking information about whether Trump secured the lease after exaggerating his net worth, two people familiar with the matter told the Post on the condition of anonymity.

Included among the documents that James requested was reportedly a scorecard the GSA used to rank Trump's bid against other developers who hoped to lease and redevelop the historic building. According to the Post, the information included in that record could aid James's effort to establish a pattern of the former president presenting his business partners, insurers and banks with false information in order to obtain other deals and loans, the Post noted.

The Hill has reached out to James's office for comment.

Trump was selected by the GSA for the project in 2012 and opened the hotel in 2016. He did not sell his stake in the lease following his election, despite calls from Democrats to avoid conflicts of interest, the Post noted.

He is now aiming to sell his lease on the hotel, which could earn his business nearly $100 million in profits, according to the Post.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee in October raised similar concerns regarding whether Trump misled the GSA in the process of making the deal. At the time, committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) contacted GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan and alleged that Trump "concealed hundreds of millions of dollars in debts from GSA when bidding on the Old Post Office Building lease," the Post reported.

Maloney and Connolly also called for an investigation into the deal, according to the news outlet.

Story continues

In a recent interview, Connolly rejected the idea that the issue should be let go.

"If [Trump] walks away from this laughing all the way to the bank with a $100 million profit, we will have debased the whole concept of enforcing conflict of interests laws and ethics," he said, according to the Post.

--Updated at 12:28 p.m.
The political life of Nashville Davidson County ended tragically on January 24, 2022, after more than 230 years of distinguished leadership.

Nashville was born at Fort Nashboro on the banks of the Cumberland River. She became the state capital, hosted the Union Armys supply depot during the Civil War, witnessed victory for womens suffrage, and led the non-violent Civil Rights movement, all while transforming herself into a business and tourist mecca.

Andrew Jackson was Nashvilles godfather, raising her near his Hermitage mansion  Tennessees first major attraction  while he was building the national Democratic Party. His influence is controversial but Nashville always remained Democratic.

Jim Cooper: Thank you for your service, Congressman Jim Cooper | Editorial

When Nashville and Davidson met

Nashville married her childhood sweetheart, Davidson County, in 1962, when Nashville went Metro. This happy marriage between tenant and landlord enabled both Nashville and her husband Davidson to live up to their full potential.

Nashville always differed politically from her neighboring cities; after all, she was a Union fortress during the Civil War. Middle Tennessee benefited, however, from the dynamic couples wealth, universities, arenas and airport.

As she matured, Nashville never ceased laboring to promote equity and justice. Nashvilles idealism made her great.

Hear more Tennessee Voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns.

Nashville had many offspring but the most famous is country music, born at the Ryman Auditorium. Siblings include Nashvilles publishing, insurance, hospitality, barge, and health care industries.

The younger automobile and software industries were adopted after Nashvilles biological children were grown.

Sign up for Latino Tennessee Voices newsletter: Read compelling stories for and with the Latino community in Tennessee.

Sign up for Black Tennessee Voices newsletter: Read compelling columns by Black writers from across Tennessee.

Story continues

Gerrymandering attack defied Nashville's will

Nashvilles death resulted from a fatal struggle with a jealous General Assembly. This wasnt their first fight; Nashville had previously sought several restraining orders.

One of the last conflicts occurred during a special session that prevented Nashville from protecting the health of her own residents. This unprovoked assault caused needless misery and death, crippling Nashvilles reputation as healthcare capital. Last-minute intervention by the states business and hospital community was unable to save her life.

Nashvilles husband of 60 years, Davidson County, survived the attack but was gerrymandered by Tennessees legislature for the first time in state history. Davidson is being forced into a nursing home because he can no longer speak.

Neighboring rural counties are usurping Davidsons 230-year role in Congress. In express violation of Nashvilles will, the Tennessee towns of Clarksville, Cookeville, and Columbia are stealing Nashvilles legacy from her rightful heirs.

Closed casket due to disfigurement and dismemberment. Burial at City Cemetery. Memorial service to be held at a date to be announced.

Congressman Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, serves Tennessee's District 5 in the U.S. House of Representatives.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jim Cooper writes an obituary for Nashville's political life
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) - Snowboarders from Australia and New Zealand praised the man-made snow after inspecting the slopestyle venue in Zhangjiakou before the events commence later this week.

"The snow is actually amazing, the man-made stuff. I think because of how cold it is you have to be really aggressive with how you ride," Zoi Sadowski Synnott, a Kiwi gold medal hopeful in the slopestyle competition, said on Tuesday

"The snow is super grippy here," said 23-year-old Australian snowboarder Matt Cox, who is set to make his Olympic debut.

"Also ... because usually when you get to man-made snow and you rip into an edge, for instance, it slides out on you pretty easily, but with the cold temps here, it's dreamy snow."

The Beijing Winter Olympics will be the first Games to use almost 100% artificial snow, deploying more than 100 snow generators and 300 snow-cannons working flat out to cover the ski slopes.

Responding to the controversy over the environmental impact of producing and using man-made snow, the official Xinhua News Agency said: "Beijing 2022 organizers have vowed to deliver a sustainable and eco-friendly Games. In line with this commitment, snowmaking at some of the Beijing 2022 venues is anything but detrimental to the environment."

The Olympic snowboarding competitions start on Feb. 5 with qualifying rounds for the women's slopestyle event.

(Reporting by Winni Zhou and Mari Saito, Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
LINDSEY PARNABY

The deposition of a former key staffer for Prince Andrew could be devastating if he confirms that the prince met Virginia Giuffre, a legal expert has told The Daily Beast.

Robert Olney is believed to have run much of Andrews diary in the years during which Giuffre alleges in her suit that the prince raped her, and he is likely to have intimate knowledge of his movements over the years in question.

He is now likely to be asked to testify in the civil case being brought against him by Giuffre, who accuses Andrew of raping her three times.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has written to U.K. authorities asking them to seek the co-operation of Olney, now a senior executive at Britains Civil Aviation Authority. The judge has imposed an April 29 deadline for his cooperation.

Can Prince Andrew Convince a Jury This Picture Is Fake?

Olney could decline to accede to the request, as the court doesnt have jurisdiction over people who are U.K. residents. When his name was first revealed as a person that Giuffres team wanted to depose, his wife told reporters: Im sorry, but Rob is not going to say anything, hes got nothing to say.

In the early days of the case, Andrew was widely criticized for hiding behind his mothers skirts after he appeared to attempt to dodge service of legal papers by moving between various royal residences.

The Daily Beast has been told by sources in Andrews camp that they strongly dispute this characterization of events and say he has never attempted to evade proper service or frustrate the litigation.

Christopher Melcher, a legal expert based in Los Angeles who is a partner at Walzer Melcher, told The Daily Beast: Prince Andrew faces much greater risks than to his reputation. If Robert Olney were to volunteer to be a witness, it could be devastating to his former employer in the civil case and any criminal action that might follow. The jury in the civil action will have to determine who is telling the truth, and Mr. Olney might confirm that Prince Andrew was present at times claimed by Virginia Giuffre. Those details may be all the jury needs to find for Ms. Giuffre.

Story continues

If Mr. Olney maintains his silence, the jury should not hear about the efforts Ms. Giuffres attorneys made to secure his cooperation, unless there is proof that Prince Andrew discouraged Mr. Olney from cooperating.

Prince Andrew on Collision Course With Royals, Who Want Him to Settle With Virgina Giuffre, Not Seek Trial

This means that Olney, a frequent figure by Andrews side when the prince was in his pomp as roving trade ambassador for the U.K., could hold Andrews fate in the palm of his hand.

Andrew took on the role of trade envoy after retiring from the Royal Navy in 2001 and was nicknamed Airmiles Andy for what some critics saw as an excessive appetite for luxury foreign travel. He stood down in 2011 as the extent of his links with the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were beginning to be exposed.

Olney, who worked for the prince as an equerry until 2004, was frequently listed in the official court circular as being in attendance to the prince on foreign trips, including high-profile missions to destinations including the U.S.

Kaplan has now asked the U.K. courts to request they ask Olney to be available to Giuffres team, who have said they want to question Olney about Andrews travel to Epsteins homes and about any communications with Epstein and his accomplice, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

Rachel Fiset, co-founder and managing partner of Zweiback, Fiset & Coleman, told The Daily Beast: It is very difficult for Olney to be compelled to testify as a UK resident, so he has the luxury of deciding if he would like to appear for testimony. If he chooses to testify, he will take an oath to do so truthfully that makes untruthful testimony a crime. If his goal is to help the prince, the decision will likely hinge on what he can truthfully say about the allegations in the complaint and Prince Andrews whereabouts at the time. If he believes the Prince has nothing to hide and would like to defend him, he will likely appear. If, however, he does not believe he can offer truthful testimony that absolves Prince Andrew of the allegations, he may choose to sit this one out.

Giuffres lawyers have also had rubber-stamped their request to seek to depose a woman who says she trod on Prince Andrews toe in the Tramp nightclub when he was allegedly with Giuffre.

Prince Andrew, who denies all the allegations, has claimed he was at a Pizza Express on the night in question with his young daughters.

However, Shukri Walker says she remembers seeing Andrew and Giuffre in the London nightspot after apologizing to him for stepping on his foot.

Andrew has also been granted assistance in two requests his side have made to seek to depose overseas citizens, including Giuffres husband Robert and her psychologist Dr. Judith Lightfoot.

Lightfoot, documentation shows, will be asked by Andrews team to discuss the theory of false memory.

Again, as non-U.S. citizens they are not under any obligation to consent to the depositions.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
MANILA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Philippine soldiers have clashed with suspected terrorists in the southern Philippines, leaving two dead, including a soldier, and two wounded, the military said on Tuesday.

The military said fighting broke out on Monday morning in Patikul, a remote town in Sulu province, as the government troops track down a group of Abu Sayyaf terrorists.

One of the terrorists was also killed, the military said, adding that the two wounded soldiers are in stable condition.

Major General William Gonzales, commander of the military's joint task force in Sulu, said the troops in the region are "on high alert as the troops conduct pursuit operations" in the area.

Last week, a soldier was also killed, and two soldiers were wounded after terrorists allegedly opened fire at a military truck traveling in Patikul town.

The military has launched on-and-off offensives against the Abu Sayyaf Group, a loose band of bandits that has carried out deadly bombings and kidnappings in the remote and poor southern Philippine provinces of Sulu and Basilan since the early 1990s.

The group has preyed on foreign tourists, small entrepreneurs, farmers and fisherfolks from the Philippines and neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia. 
A student has died and another was injured in a shooting outside of a school in Richfield, Minnesota, police said. Two suspects have been arrested.

Police responded to South Education Center Tuesday afternoon and found the two students on the sidewalk. They were taken to a local hospital, where one student died of his injuries. The other remains in critical condition, Richfield Police Chief Jay Henthorne said Tuesday at a press conference.

"Our hearts are with the families, students and the community impacted by this horrendous and tragic event," Henthorne said.

The school was placed on lockdown, as were nearby schools. Authorities did a sweep of the school and the surrounding area and determined there was no threat, the police chief said.

Two suspects were arrested when police executed search warrants at two different addresses shortly after 6 p.m. local time, Richfield police said in a statement. A handgun was also recovered. No further information about the suspects was provided.

"This is a terrible tragedy and loss," Superintendent Sandra Lewandowski said. "We're deeply saddened by this incident and will do everything we can to support the families, classmates and staff in whatever way possible."

Local and federal officials are actively investigating the incident.

Undeniable: The Truth to Remember

Impact of Trump's "Muslim Ban" 5 years later

Tom Brady officially announces retirement after 22 NFL seasons
Donald Trump elicited predictable horror from critics when he promised at a weekend rally that, if elected president in 2024, he would consider pardoning anyone convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. If I run and if I win, he said, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. . . And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.

His critics werent just liberal voices, but also conservatives. I dont want to send any signal that it was OK to defile the Capitol, said Sen. Lindsey Graham. Former Nixon aide John Dean made a stronger point, calling the statement the stuff of dictators.

Its also  in its own way  an idea with real echoes in American history. Several American presidents, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, used their power to pardon rebels and traitors. But dont be fooled: their goal was precisely the opposite of Trumps. Their idea was that forgiveness was sometimes necessary to heal the republic and preserve its rule of law. Trumps idea is something else entirely: that anti-American behavior is fine for anyone sufficiently loyal to Trump.

The origins of the presidents power to pardon those who take up arms against the U.S. can be traced to the origins of the Constitution itself, and specially to Alexander Hamiltons dogged determination to ensure that it would provide for a unified and energetic executive power. Central to Hamiltons vision was the belief that the president, not Congress, should possess the absolute right to grant clemency.

A substantial part of his case rested on the view that clemency would be especially important during, and after, insurgencies and rebellions.

As he explained in Federalist 74: The expediency of vesting the power of pardoning in the President has, if I mistake not, been only contested in relation to the crime of treason.... [T]here are often critical moments when a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquility of the commonwealth; and which, if suffered to pass unimproved, it may never be possible afterwards to recall.

Story continues

Hamiltons linking of the pardon power and times of domestic discord drew on a line of thinking that can be traced to similar discussions in Great Britain during the 16th century reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Those discussions focused on whether the monarch would need the assent of Parliament to grant pardons to traitors or rebels. Hamiltons position reflected the resolution of that debate in favor of leaving that power to the head of state.

It wasnt long after he wrote Federalist 74 that Hamiltons view of the wisdom of pardoning traitors and rebels would be put to the test. On Nov. 2, 1795, President George Washington used the presidents clemency power for the first time to pardon two men who had participated in the so-called Whiskey Rebellion, the first major instance of civil strife to take place after the ratification of the Constitution.

Washington intervened to prevent the hanging of two Pennsylvania farmers and distillers who were convicted of treason for taking part in violent resistance to the collection of an excise tax on liquor. The tax had been championed by none other than Hamilton, then the secretary of the Treasury.

As Washington reported to Congress in an address delivered barely one month after the pardons: The misled have abandoned their errors because of his willingness to show every degree of moderation and tenderness which the national justice, dignity, and safety may permit.

President Abraham Lincoln also followed the Hamiltonian playbook when he used his pardon power during the height of the Civil War. As Andrew Glass described it in POLITICO: During his presidency, Lincoln issued 64 pardons for war-related offences: 22 for conspiracy, 17 for treason, 12 for rebellion, nine for holding an office under the Confederacy, and four for serving with the rebels.

Lincolns successor, President Andrew Johnson, carried on Lincolns effort to heal the wounds of war when, on Dec. 25, 1868, he granted a complete and unconditional pardon to all and to every person who directly or indirectly participated in the late insurrection and rebellionfor the offense of treason against the United States. He restored to them their full civil rights, including their right to vote and with that hoped to alleviate some of the sting of their defeat.

This bold exercise of presidential prerogative was, in Johnsons hands, not simply a noble act. It also was motivated by his hope that the blanket pardon would serve as a bulwark against the possibility that freed Blacks might be able to obtain significant political power in the post-Civil War South. One could hear a nod to this history in Trumps Texas speech.

The Hamiltonian practice of showing mercy toward people who take up arms against the United States was carried on by President Theodore Roosevelt, who pardoned Servillano Aquino y Aguilar in 1904. Aguilar was a leading figure in armed hostilities against Americans in the Philippines, and Roosevelt hoped that pardoning him would calm tensions.

Fast forward to 1977, and we can see President Gerald Fords use of the pardon power to heal the nation not just in his controversial pre-emptive pardon of Richard Nixon, but in his less well known grant of clemency to a Japanese-American woman named Iva Toguri, the notorious Toyko Rose. Toguri had been charged with treason for broadcasts aimed at undermining American morale during World War II. Ford showed her mercy as a belated gesture of reconciliation with Japanese-Americans who had been persecuted for purported disloyalty during the war.

From Washington to Ford and beyond, presidents have taken seriously Hamiltons injunction to use the clemency power to restore tranquility to the commonwealth. Not so Donald Trump. His gesture would literally stoke division for his own gain, rather than helping quiet any unrest  precisely the opposite of the way the Founders saw the pardon.

To date, 768 people have been charged with crimes arising from the events that unfolded as the Congress met to count the Electoral College votes for president and vice president. They include 11 people charged in January with seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government. Investigations by the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 and the U.S. Department of Justice are likely to lead to more arrests and indictments.

During his term in office, President Trump frequently used his presidential pardon power to help loyal allies skirt the legal repercussions of serving his personal interests  Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort and others. His dangling the possibility of pardons last week does much the same thing, and also throws red meat to his base, stokes their continuing sense of grievance and deepens divisions, which has been his stock in trade since his entrance into public life. Its perfectly in keeping with his playbook  and a complete betrayal of the vision of the presidents clemency power which has served America well for so long.
The great uprising against comedian Joe Rogan led by a small posse of over-the-hill rockers has ended in surrender before it really got started. Rogan, whose Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Spotify attracts one of the largest audience in the medium (an estimated 11 million listeners), bowed to Neil Young and Joni Mitchell in a Sunday evening video communique in which he apologized for being Joe Rogan, promised a more conscientious and balanced approach to his future shows, and Spotify likewise promised higher Covid-19 standards. I am going to do my best in the future to balance things out. Im going to do my best, he said. I pissed you off, Im sorry.

Last week, Young and Mitchell, as well as lesser light Nils Lofgren, pulled their music from Spotify to protest the half-baked declarations on vaccines and the pandemic made by Rogan and his guests. You can have Rogan or Young. Not both, Young had informed Spotify. While Rogans conciliatory message might not persuade Young and company to return to Spotify, it will likely shift the criticisms of his free-form show  which is as likely to cover martial arts, evolutionary psychology, Hollywood, politics, drugs, the Dark Web or whatever fire is currently burning in Alex Jones fevered mind as it is to offer commentary on Covid-19  frbom boiling to simmer.

What Rogans call for a cease-fire wont end is the calls for the censorship or deplatforming of sub-orthodox voices like Rogan and other controversialists. To date, no notable rock n roller has fired at Substack for hosting Covid outliers like Joseph Mercola, Alex Berenson and Steve Kirsch, but its only a matter of time. Campaigns like Youngs against Rogan  either he goes or I go  are defensible, of course. Nobody should be in a position to tell Young what the proper home for his music is. Nobody should tell you that you have no right to cancel your Spotify account (or cancel your daily newspaper) as an act of protest. But Youngs public and messianic urge to mute a speaker, his attempt to protect other people from speech he deems harmful, cuts against his own career-long devotion to free speech.

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Young has long made protest against the status quo his trademark. He decried the Kent State massacre of 1970 (Ohio), he condemned racism (Southern Man), he celebrated the joy of illegal marijuana (Homegrown), and at one misguided point, he erected his own monument to misinformation, the anti-GMO concept album The Monsanto Years (2015). In 2001, after 9/11, he seemed ready to trade civil liberties for the illusion of safety when he backed the passage of the Patriot Act. Even though we have to protect freedoms, it seems were going to have to relinquish some of our freedoms for a short period of time, Billboard quoted him saying at an award ceremony. Whats unsettling about Young's current crusade is the one-time free speech warrior has decided to impede another speakers access to speak in the marketplace and, by extension, limited your access to hear them. A generation ago, somebody should remind Neil, it was Washington insiders like Tipper Gore and her Parents Music Resource Center who were stifling pop music expression with their Comstockery.

The good news about Youngs move to marginalize Rogan is that it wont work. Thats magical thinking. Even in our times, when tolerance for speech thats considered misinformation or offensive is reaching a new dipping point, censorious blow-ups like Youngs accomplish little. The markets for speech are too wide and too decentralized for any boycott to disturb. Rush Limbaugh easily survived an organized boycott against him in 2012 after he called a college student a slut. Tucker Carlson has sailed his ship of foolishness past a couple similar boycotts over the years to no lasting damage. Laura Ingraham, too, has outlasted the boycotters, as has Carlson and Ingrahams network, the Fox News Channel, whose advertisers have been targeted by the boycotters.

You dont have to be a fan of Rogans 12-year-old show (Im not) or a Fox viewer (I mainly watch out of professional duty) to view the calls for boycott or de-platforming as attempts to suppress controversy and dissent in favor of samethink. By trying to mute Rogan, Young and his ilk seem to be saying that some ideas  even the stupid ones about vaccines and Covid that Rogan has endorsed  are so powerful that they will displace good public health ideas and that Rogan is guilty of inspiring Covid deaths. This, of course, is preposterous. About 85 percent of adult Americans have taken at least one dose of the vaccine, since it became available just a year ago. The idea that Rogan has blood on his hands because he entertains doubts about the vaccine is like blaming certain books in school libraries for convincing kids to have sex, change their gender, take drugs or be racist. Young and the book banners dont share a lot  his battle is against one speaker  but the spirit of his campaign is uncomfortably close to the banners because both amount to restricting expression in favor of the ideas they prefer. There is no national medical emergency that requires a Neil Young power chord to shatter it.

The pathologies of bunk can be found in almost every popular medium in existence. If were going to purify the web by chasing off vaccine cranks, dissidents, deadenders and refuseniks  whatever you want to call them  shouldnt we also purge daily newspapers of astrology columns, which espouse potentially harmful nonsense, too? How about interrupting flat-earth discussions, the alternative medicine crowd, the Myers-Briggs test, homeopathy and other manifestations of the scientific fringe? This is both bad news and good news. Its bad news because youd like to think a greater number of people in an educated society would abandon easily falsifiable ways of thinking over time. But its also good news because it demonstrates that, in general, our devotion to public discourse supersedes our nature to throttle thoughts we vehemently disagree with. Fundamentally, our culture recognizes that free and open debate, with all of its inconveniences, benefits when it allows the free exchange of heretical thoughts, even the nutty vaccine ones Rogan showcases.

The thing about bunk is that often its a demand-side phenomenon, not just a supply-side one. The standard human appetite for convenient, reductionist theories tends to soar during times of crisis as people seek easy explanations for the hard problems. Why anybody at this late date would still reject the vaccine is beyond me, but vaccine resistance would persist even if Rogan vanished. How much of the blame can be assigned to Rogan is unknowable, but given that the average age of his largely white and male audience is 24, and younger people tend to resist the ravages of Covid, it cant be that significant. How many people base their health priorities entirely on a podcast that occasionally discusses Covid? Spotifys promise to add content advisories to Rogans shows that discuss Covid-19 and Rogans vow to add medical disclaimers to his show and interview mainstream vaccine sources to counter the controversialists is a good sign, and something he should have done from the beginning.

The unsurprising thing about Youngs move on Rogan is that it will probably lift the fortunes of both men. Young has a new album out that the dispute will promote. Also, according to Billboard, Young will lose about $754,000 a year from sacrificing his Spotify streams but Apple has capitalized on the furor by placing a Neil Lives Here opening page on its app, so hell probably make up a good part of the difference there. Meanwhile, Sirius XM has announced the return of Youngs station on its dial. The publicity cant help but drive new listeners to Rogan, too, and encourage casual listeners to return and hear what the man has to say for himself.

It doesnt always work out this way, but sometimes, just sometimes, attacks on speech only enhance it.

*******

According to Ted Gioia, an artist would have to generate 23 billion streams to earn as much ($100 million) as Spotify is paying Rogan. Send your streams to Shafer.Politico@gmail.com. My email alerts would like to be a podcast when they grow up. My Twitter feed was once a vlog, if you remember those. My RSS feed maintains its allegiance to AM radio.
Conservative parents and school officials are driving a new wave of book bans, ostensibly in an attempt to battle Critical Race Theory, which is not taught in K-12 schools.

One parent in Texas is reportedly trying to convince her the Katy School District to remove a book about former first lady Michelle Obama because it promotes reverse racism against white people.

The Katy School Board has gone on a banning spree, bending to the will of complaining parents targetting books focused on LGBT+ and non-binary youth. Many of the books that have already been banned, including Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez, Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, and Losing the Girl Book 1 by Mari Naomi, were targeted because they include descriptions of sex and other mature content. The books also include LGBT+ characters.

One parent asked the school board in November why they are sexualising our precious children, and complained that the inclusion of LGBT+ narratives in books is causing children to question their gender identities and sexual orientations.

Why are our libraries filled with pornography? she asked.

Sexuality is not the only subject matter conservatives parents have complained about; they are also calling for books discussing racism to be banned.

According to NBC News, one parent at the Eanes Independent School District in Austin reportedly wanted Ibram X. Kendi's book How to be an Antiracist to be banned and to be replaced by The Bible, which itself contains descriptions of sex, incest, graphic violence, rape, war, murder, torture, and a scene in which a protagonist calls on bears to maul 42 children who called him bald.

One of the most notable recent book bans targetted Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, a retelling the Holocaust focused on mice  who stand in for Jews  and cats, who play the role of the Nazis. A school board in Tennessee recently banned the book after parents complained it contained nudity and depictions of children being killed.

The push to ban books is an outgrowth of conservative culture war talking points advanced by Republican lawmakers and right-wing media figures. Over the past year calls to stop teaching Critical Race Theory  which examines how historical events and societal structures and institutions are viewed by and affected oppressed peoples  became popular in right-wing media and among Republicans campaigning for public office.

CRT is not generally taught in K-12 schools; it is often a component of higher education historical and sociological study. The anger at CRT eventually grew into a larger effort by conservatives to control school curriculums, which includes banning books and intrusive legislation in some areas that would allow parents to watch live streams of their children's classrooms.
Carol Gokee, co-director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, addresses the media on Monday, January 31, at the Sam Gibbons United States Courthouse in Tampa, Florida after Leonard Peltier tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. (Screenshot of press conference)

Earlier today, the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (ILPDC) hosted a press conference outside the Sam Gibbons United States Courthouse in Tampa, Florida, demanding that he be immediately released to either a more adequate facility or home. Peltier was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Friday and is currently in the maximum security prison facility in Coleman, Florida.

On Friday morning, I spoke with Leonard on the phone and he was stressed. He had been sick all night long, he was coughing and could hardly breathe, said ILPDC co-director Carol Gokee during a press conference.

Gokee updated the public on Peltiers status, including that Peltier was in isolation for 14 days and that if conditions worsen, hell be transferred to a hospital. She also shared that she asked Peltier how he thinks he may have caught the virus. She says he reported to her the prison guards werent wearing masks.

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Peltier, 77, is Anishinaabe, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota, and Lakota. Peltier has spent more than 46 years in federal prison for the conviction of the murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. Peltiers conviction has been challenged for decades by lawyers, organizations, politicians, and former judges. He suffers from kidney disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, and his health has been a concern of supporters for years.

If Leonard Peltier dies in prison, God help us, said Gokee.

ILPDCs co-director, Jean Roach, a survivor of the FBI shootout that left three dead in, spoke of the genocide of Native people and what she said are double standards that Native people have to live through. Were tired of the genocide, Roach said during Mondays press conference.

Story continues

A long-time advocate for Peltiers release, she spoke to the public of the federal governments treatment of Native people by reminding those in attendance of the murders of some of Indian Countrys most renowned leaders.

A long time ago, they killed our leaders Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and also put them in prison, said Roach. Theyre doing the same thing to Leonard Peltier.

Roach also spoke of the effects COVID-19 has had on Native communities. The numbers for COVID are high for our people, she said. We want Leonard in a hospital immediately.

Others have taken actions since they have heard of Peltiers positive COVID-19 case on Friday.

As Native people and public servants, we understand fully the sense of urgency our loved ones are faced with regarding COVID, said North Dakota Representative Ruth Buffalo to Native News Online. Add inhumane living conditions, and prison guards who dont follow CDC guidelines, it is a recipe for disaster.

Buffalo, a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota, is the first Native American woman elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives and currently the Vice Chair of the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators. On Monday, she organized a letter asking for the immediate release of Leonard Peltier to President Biden, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Director of Federal Bureau of Prison Michael Carvajan, and Southeast Regional Director of the Bureau of Prisons J.A. Keller..

We request that Mr. Peltier be immediately released to serve the remainder of his sentence in extended home confinement or hospital care, recognizing the increased infectivity of the Omicron variant among the general and incarcerated populace, said the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators letter on Monday.

Two days ago, the ILPDC started a petition on change.org asking for signatures supporting to hospitalize Leonard Peltier and to demand President Joe Biden grant Peltier clemency. As of this press time, more than 3,300 people have signed the petition asking for Peltiers release.

Even if Mr. Peltier had not been convicted under contested circumstances, his advanced age, ill health and the amount of time hes served ought to be enough to reconsider his circumstances, said Buffalo of Peltier. We are beyond the stage of making an example, and sheer human compassion and clemency urgently needs to be considered. Continued imprisonment is surely a death sentence.

About the Author: "Darren Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe) is a freelance journalist and based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, where he also contributes to Unicorn Riot, an alternative media publication. Thompson has reported on political unrest, tribal sovereignty, and Indigenous issues for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Indian Country Today, Native News Online, Powwows.com and Unicorn Riot. He has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Voice of America on various Indigenous issues in international conversation. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in Criminology & Law Studies from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "

Contact: dthompson@nativenewsonline.net
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin





Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has informed seven GOP governors that their state's National Guard members must be vaccinated against COVID-19, the latest in the ongoing dispute between Republican leaders and the Pentagon over the mandate.

Austin sent nearly identical letters last week to each of the governors who in mid-December asked him to drop the mandate, saying he had no power to implement it to Guard members, who are under state authority.

In his response, Austin said he had the power to implement the mandate "regardless of duty status," adding that concerns over the vaccine "do not negate the need for this important military readiness requirement."

Failing to comply "will lead to a prohibition on participation in drills, training, and other duty conducted under title 32 and will jeopardize the member's status in the National Guard," the Pentagon chief said.

Austin mandated vaccinations for the military in late August but left it up to each service to implement their own deadlines. Air National Guard members had until December to be inoculated, while Army National Guard members have until June 30 to comply.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) was the first to publicly oppose the mandate in November, when he asked Austin to exempt his state's National Guard from the mandate.

Stitt later appointed a new adjutant general of the Guard, who wrote a memo stipulating that no member was required to get the shot.

Austin turned down that request, and the state of Oklahoma then unsuccessfully sought to have a federal court enjoin the mandate.

At issue are two federal laws that outline control of the National Guard. Under Title 32 of the U.S. Code, governors control the Guard unless they are mobilized for federal duty.

But under Title 10, the president can mobilize the Guard, placing it under federal authority.

Austin sent letters to Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R), Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R), Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R), Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R), all of whom signed on to a letter in mid-December asking him to drop the requirement.

Story continues

He also sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who separately sent a letter in protest of the mandate and then sued the Pentagon, seeking to block it.

Dunleavy joined Abbott's litigation last week.

In the letters to Abbott and Dunleavy, Austin said he couldn't comment further on the "substance" of their concerns due to the ongoing litigation.

"COVID-19 takes our Service members out of the fight, temporarily or permanently, and jeopardizes our ability to meet mission requirements," he wrote.

"To ensure that we maintain a healthy and ready military force capable of accomplishing our mission to defend this Nation and to protect the American people, vaccination against COVID-19 is an essential military readiness requirement for all components and units of the military," he continued.
Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne at NBC's America's Got Talent season finale at CBS Studios in Los Angeles in September 2011. (Noel Vasquez/Getty Images)

Piers Morgan has blasted Whoopi Goldbergs controversial comments about the Holocaust and questioned if she will "lose her job" like his friend Sharon Osbourne did following her own race row.

Goldberg, 66, sparked outrage on Monday when she claimed on US talk show The View that the Holocaust "wasn't about race" but instead about "man's inhumanity to man".

The Oscar-winner made the claims, which she has since apologised for, during a discussion with her co-hosts Joy Behar, Sara Haines and Ana Navarro about a Tennessee school board choosing to ban Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust.

Reacting to Goldberg's statement, Morgan tweeted: "WTF? This is insane. The extermination of 6 million Jews wasnt about race???"

Watch: Whoopi Goldberg draws criticism for Holocaust comments

Referring to Neil Young and Joni Mitchell's boycott of Spotify over COVID disinformation, a move then followed up by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, he added: "Will any rock stars or renegade royals now boycott Whoopi Goldberg and/or ABC for this dangerous misinformation?"

Morgan then tweeted: "Sharon Osbourne was fired from The Talk for defending me against a fake charge of racism.

Read more: Piers Morgan accuses Adele of 'disappearing up her celeb backside'

Whoopi Goldberg said on The View yesterday that the Holocaust 'wasn't about race', which for Jewish people is about as racist a comment as anyone could make. Bet she doesn't lose her job."

Last year, Osbourne made a dramatic exit from US chat show The Talk following a heated dispute with co-host Sherri Shepherd live on-air during which she defended Morgans remarks about Meghan Markles televised interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Sharon Osbourne was fired from The Talk for defending me against a fake charge of racism.

Whoopi Goldberg said on The View yesterday that the Holocaust wasnt about race, which for Jewish people is about as racist a comment as anyone could make.

Bet she doesnt lose her job.  Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 1, 2022

Indeed, there has been strong outrage following Goldbergs statements after she said: "Let's be truthful about it because the Holocaust isnt about race. No. Its not about race."

Story continues

When her co-hosts countered Goldbergs argument, the Sister Act star doubled down and added: "But youre missing the point! Youre missing the point. The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley.

"Lets talk about it for what it is. Its how people treat each other. Thats the problem."

Whoopi Goldberg at Edinburgh TV Fest. (PA)

She added: "It doesnt matter if you are Black or white because Black, white, Jews, Italians, everybody eats each other. So is it  if you are uncomfortable if you hear about Maus, should you be worried  should your child say, Oh my God, I wonder if thats me?

"No. Thats not what theyre going to say. Theyre going to say, I dont want to be like that.

As the episode then went to a commercial, Goldberg repeated: To learn about mans inhumanity to man, however it exposes itself.

Following the immediate wave of backlash, Goldberg released a statement to apologise for her incorrect statement and to take accountability for her error.

"I should have said it is about both," she wrote. "As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, 'The Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people  who they deemed to be an inferior race.' I stand corrected.

"The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I'm sorry for the hurt I have caused."

Watch: Whoopi Goldberg apologises after claiming Holocaust 'isn't about race'
BERLIN (Reuters) -Police said their search of a school in the northern German city of Hamburg on Tuesday yielded no unusual findings after earlier concern an armed youth may have entered the building.

"We can give the all clear for the time being," the police said on Twitter. "The investigations on the ground will continue though. The pupils can now leave the area."

Police had earlier said it was not clear whether the armed person had entered the school in or was only passing by.

More than 1,300 students attend the Otto-Hahn-School Hamburg's Jenfeld district, a secondary all-day school, according to its website.

Police had asked parents, worried about their children, to wait at a parking lot close to the school as long as the school area was sealed off.

Germany has strict laws which require gun-holders to fulfil criteria on age and weapons expertise to obtain a firearms license.

In 2009, a 17-year-old killed 15 people in the southern town of Winnenden near Stuttgart in a shooting spree that started at his former school. The country's worst school shooting was in April 2002, when a gunman killed 17 people, including himself, at a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt.

(Reporting by Zuzanna Szymanska, Riham Alkousaa and Sarah Marsh, Editing by Maria Sheahan, Peter Graff and Angus MacSwan)
VIENTIANE, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Business operators from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar are now using the China-Laos Railway to import and export goods to and from China and beyond, according to a Lao official.

Local daily Vientiane Times on Tuesday quoted Vice President of the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Daovone Phachanthavong, as saying that more goods are being shipped between China and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member countries through the railway.

"I think Laos' economy will improve this year now that the Laos-China Railway is in use. Businesses in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar are increasingly engaged in trade with China using the railway," he said.

"I have been hired to transport goods between China and these four ASEAN countries. In addition, many people in ASEAN countries, particularly Thailand, want to travel on the railway and visit Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang once the COVID-19 outbreak has subsided."

"I am sure that when the pandemic wanes and travel restrictions are lifted, many Chinese people will also visit Laos and other ASEAN countries, and will use the railway, which will directly benefit hotels, restaurants and other businesses in the hospitality sector," Daovone said.

Opening for service in December 2021, the China-Laos Railway has opened up the possibility of extending export routes to Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Europe.

"Many companies are considering investing in Laos because goods from ASEAN countries can now be sent to Europe through the Laos-China Railway," Daovone said.

"Rice and coffee from Laos have been shipped to Europe by rail, which saves a lot of time compared to sea transport."

The China-Laos Railway has so far transported more than one million passengers and 500,000 tons of cargo including 100,000 tons of cross-border goods since it became operational in December 2021.

The China-Laos Railway is a docking project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy to convert itself from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub. 
The right to an abortion is under threat, and Republicans in the Florida Legislature are riding that momentum right through long-established law. Newly proposed legislation would ban nearly all abortions in Florida after 15 weeks, a direct assault on the right to privacy established in Roe v. Wade. A 15-week abortion ban ignores the realities of many women facing this choice and reeks of hypocrisy from the party that claims to revere the rule of law.

The bills under consideration in the current legislative session, Senate Bill 146 and House Bill 5, would ban doctors from performing abortions after 15 weeks unless the health of the mother is at risk or if there is a fatal fetal abnormality. Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision, established the right to an abortion up until the point of fetal viability, which occurs around 24 weeks. After that, the court held, states could regulate abortions.

Floridas proposed 15-week ban makes no pretense about violating the precedent established in Roe. In fact, its a political gamble, banking that the new conservative supermajority on the nations high court will soon strike down Roe v. Wade and allow such bans to stand. While that might be a prudent bet, its a slap in the face to the rule of law.

Whats more, the proposed bills make no exceptions for cases of rape or incest because, as Senate bill sponsor Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, claimed, 15 weeks is plenty of time to obtain an abortion under those circumstances. Plenty of time to escape the traumatic situation that led to a forced pregnancy. Plenty of time to come up with money for the procedure. Plenty of time to arrange transportation, time off work and, in many womens situations, care for their other children. And dont forget: Minor girls are victims of rape and incest too. Stargels callous, ill-informed stance is indefensible.

Yet Stargel calls the approach measured, which has a ring of truth considering the lengths to which some states have gone to obstruct abortion access. Last year, lawmakers in Texas passed the most restrictive abortion law in the country, prohibiting the procedure after a fetal heartbeat is detected, generally around six weeks. Thats often before many women even know theyre pregnant and hence before most abortions are performed in Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the law to take effect, a clear and chilling sign that reproductive rights are in deep peril in this country.

The two bills in Florida are modeled after Mississippis 15-week abortion ban, which the high court is set to rule on soon. A decision in that case could well undo the protections established in Roe v. Wade, setting back decades of progress that have made abortion a safe procedure, reduced the stigma around the need for it and given women alone the right to decide what happens to their bodies. Floridas Republican legislators have seized this uncertain moment to put women on notice that their rights are in the crosshairs.

Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Editor of Editorials Graham Brink, Sherri Day, Sebastian Dortch, John Hill, Jim Verhulst and Chairman and CEO Paul Tash. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for more opinion news.
Feb. 1The Stillwater Area Public Schools board is seeking input from residents as it searches for a permanent superintendent of schools.

The school board, which has hired the Minnesota School Boards Association to assist with the search, has compiled an online survey for district residents to share thoughts on what qualities and attributes they are looking for in a permanent superintendent. Answers can be submitted until Feb. 10.

MSBA officials also are holding a virtual question-and-answer session about the search at 4 p.m. Tuesday; questions can be submitted in advance or during the Zoom session.

The new superintendent would start work on July 1.

Interim Superintendent Malinda Lansfeldt said in December that she plans to apply for the permanent position.

Lansfeldt, former principal of Afton-Lakeland Elementary School, took over as interim superintendent after former superintendent Denise Pontrelli was ousted from the position in June 2020. Lansfeldt was originally hired to fill a one-year term, but her term was extended.

The Stillwater school district has about 1,100 employees and 8,200 students in 10 schools.

For more information, go to stillwaterschools.org/our-district/school-board/superintendent-search.
Bank of England pound sterling FTSE 100 markets - REUTERS/Toby Melville//File Photo

Sterling and the FTSE 100 both pushed higher as sentiment remained bullish ahead of the Bank of England decision later this week.

The pound rose 0.5pc against the dollar to $1.3503, recording its third straight day of gains.

Markets are fully pricing in an interest rate rise to 0.5pc this week, with as many as five increases by the end of 2022. Speculation is also mounting that the Bank could signal the plan for winding down its pandemic bond-buying programme.

The FTSE 100 was up 1pc at close, with miners and banking stocks leading gains.

06:03 PM

Wrapping up

Thanks for following us today, we are now closing the blog. Before you go, have a look at the latest stories from our business reporters:

06:01 PM

Activist targeting Unilever appointed to Janus Henderson board

The activist investor stalking Unilever has won a board seat at fund manager Janus Henderson after pushing for an overhaul of the business. Hannah Boland reports:

Nelson Peltz is joining the board of the investment company less than two years after his business Trian Partners revealed it owned a stake of more than 10pc. Ed Garden, another executive at Trian, will also take a board seat. The appointments are likely to be closely watched at Unilever after it emerged last month that Mr Pelttz had built a holding in the business amid demands for a major shake-up and possible sale of assets. Richard Gillingwater, chairman of Janus Henderson, said: "We look forward to benefitting from [Trian's] deep industry experience, fresh perspectives, and valuable insights as we search for a new chief executive and evaluate growth opportunities and expansion into new markets and products."

Story continues

05:41 PM

FTSE 100 holds gains

After a cold start to the week, the FTSE 100 has recorded another strong performance, shaking off the fears from a week ago over the military situation in eastern Europe.

Markets across Europe outperformed their Wall Street counterparts as they soared upwards. Traders once again seem more focused on US monetary policy than on a potential war between Russia and Ukraine.

London's main index was 1pc higher at 7,535 at close.

"European markets have got off to a strong start to February, after last night's push back by a number of Federal Reserve officials, who poured cold water on some of the hawkish narratives being put out with respect to the Federal Reserve's hiking timeline," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

05:20 PM

'Smart' electric scooters that stop if ridden recklessly come to Britain

Electric scooters that automatically stop when being ridden recklessly or on footpaths will be brought to British roads in a world first for the "smart" technology. James Titcomb has more:

Superpedestrian, an American company that styles itself as the Volvo of e-scooters, plans to bring the technology to a trial programme in Nottingham in the spring before taking it to cities in the US and Europe. It has also raised $125m (93m) to expand. The technology, designed to make the devices safer, comes as scooter companies try to prove to ministers that they are not dangerous. The Department for Transport has approved trials from scooter hire companies in cities across the UK amid hopes that they could help cut down on traffic and emissions, and are considering fully legalising them. The use of privately owned scooters remains illegal.

Read James's full story here

05:03 PM

Amazon doubles UK parcel lockers to take pressure off delivery staff

Amazon has doubled the number of its UK parcel lockers as it tries to take pressure off delivery workers, the Financial Times reported.

Lockers are usually placed in car parks, petrol forecourts and outside retail outlets so people can collect their online shopping there instead of booking home deliveries.

With the e-commerce trend accelerating during the pandemic, parcel deliveries surged 50pc to 4.2bn in the financial year to March 2021, according to Ofcom, straining logistics operations of many online retailers.

04:45 PM

Ethiopian Airlines flies Boeing 737 MAX for first time since 2019 crash

Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa

Ethiopian Airlines has today flown the Boeing 737 MAX for the first time since a crash nearly three years ago killed all 157 people on board and triggered the global grounding of the aircraft.

Flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi plunged six minutes after take-off into a field southeast of the Ethiopian capital in March 2019, five months after a similar crash in Indonesia left 189 people dead.

The twin disasters and subsequent scrutiny of the 737 MAX's faulty flight handling system - known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) - amounted to the worst crisis in Boeing's history.

State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, the jewel of the economy of Africa's second most populous country, had long said it would be the last carrier to use the single-aisle jets again.

It said this week that the decision to resume 737 MAX flights came after "intense recertification" by regulators in the United States, the European Union, China and Ethiopia. It also provided a list of 35 other carriers that have also begun operating the jet again.

04:26 PM

Carlyle Group becomes first Wall Street's major private equity firm to set green goals for portfolio companies

Private equity giant Carlyle Group is requiring all its portfolio companies to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

It's the first major private equity firm to join its Wall Street peers, such as Goldman Sachs, in making the climate pledge.

About three quarters of the Washington-based firms majority-owned companies in the private equity, power and energy sectors will be in line with net-zero goals by 2025,. That would not cover a specific category of emissions that companies cant control in the same way as those generated by their own operations.

Carlyle said it expects to bring the emissions of all its investments, including those that companies dont control directly, to net zero by 2050. It will also push new majority-owned portfolio companies to set Paris-aligned climate goals. It will monitor their work and press them to collect more data on how theyre getting to the targets.

04:10 PM

Handing over

That's all from me today  thanks for following! Handing over now to Giulia Bottaro.

04:07 PM

Marks & Spencer and Aldi call a truce in Colin the Caterpillar cake war

Colin the caterpillar, left, and impostor Cuthbert the Caterpillar, right

There's been a major development in the Colin the Caterpillar war. Laura Onita serves up the details:

Marks & Spencer has settled a copyright row with Aldi over its Colin the Caterpillar cake after the German discounter altered the appearance of a lookalike version. The spat between the two retailers made headlines in April when M&S logged a legal claim against the German discounter after it began selling a cake called Cuthbert the Caterpillar, which looked similar. The companies reached a confidential agreement out of court on Nov 5, legal documents show. They declined to comment on the terms of the settlement. M&Ss roll-shaped cake first went on sale more than 30 years ago. It is made of chocolate sponge and buttercream encased in a chocolate shell and dotted with multi-coloured chocolate buttons. Last year, Marks claimed that Aldi infringed its trademark and demanded it stop selling the Cuthbert cake and not sell any similar products in the future.

Read Laura's full story here

03:25 PM

US job openings rise unexpectedly

US job openings rose unexpectedly in December while the quits rate decline slightly, suggesting labour demand held up despite a surge in Covid cases.

The number of available positions rose to 10.9m from 10.8m in November, according to Labor Department figures. This was ahead of economists' expectations.

The so-called quits rate edged down marginally to 2.9pc from a record 3pc in the previous month, suggesting a high degree of churn in the jobs market.

The figures show vacancies remained high in the final month of 2021 despite temporary business closures as omicron tore through the country.

While openings may fall in January, economists expect the impact to be short-lived as employers increase headcount amid stronger consumer demand.

December 2021 #JOLTS:



 Job openings 'little changed' at 10.9 million



 Quits rate at 2.9%, private sector down to 3.2%



 Layoffs down to a new all time low of 0.8%  Nick Bunker (@nick_bunker) February 1, 2022

03:03 PM

KPMG partners handed 20pc pay rise to almost 700,000

KPMG partners - REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

Partners at KPMG have been handed their biggest payday since 2014 despite a tumultuous year in which the firm was embroiled in a string of scandals.

Simon Foy has more:

The big four accounting and consulting firm paid its 571 partners an average of 688,000 last year, up by a fifth on 2020. The chief executive, Jon Holt, was awarded 1.7m, while chairman Bina Mehta took home 879,000. Its 14,700 staff also shared a 100m bonus pool after the firm was boosted by a surge in demand for its dealmaking advice. The pay bump came after KPMG faced one of its most turbulent years. In February, its former UK chief resigned after telling staff to stop moaning and playing the victim card about working conditions. Since Mr Holt took over in April, KPMG has been handed a 13m fine for having a deeply troubling conflict of interest in its role in the sale of Silentnight to a US private equity firm. It had been eyeing the mattress maker as a potential client while deliberately pushing the company into insolvency. It was also pulled up by the accounting watchdog over the quality of its banking audits and dropped out of bidding for public sector contracts following criticism from the Cabinet Office.

Read Simon's full story here

02:40 PM

Wall Street slips at the open

US stocks drifted as markets opened, with investors focusing on comments from Fed officials and more corporate results.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones were little changed, while the Nasdaq dipped 0.2pc.

It comes after four Fed officials said they'd back interest rate rises that didn't damage the economy, bringing some calm back to markets. Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil and UPS both posted positive results.

02:07 PM

Gas prices tumble as Russia steps up supplies

Natural gas prices plunged after Russia stepped up supplies via a key route through Ukraine.

The European benchmark slumped as much as 12pc, while the UK equivalent was down 11pc as deliveries into Slovakia returned to normal.

Russian supplies have remained curbed in recent weeks, so higher flows are taking the pressure off prices alongside milder weather and higher wind output.

Still, Russian flows via Poland into Germany remain suspended, and geopolitical tensions over Ukraine are still running higher.

01:52 PM

UK inks fresh CO2 deal amid shortage fears

UK CO2 CF Industries - DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS

Britain's carbon dioxide industry as agreed another deal to ensure stable supplies amid concerns factory shutdowns could lead to shortages of food and drink.

It comes after an initial agreement with CO2 producer CF Industries signed last year came to end, prompting fears the industry could be plunged into crisis.

The gas, which is produced as a by-product of fertiliser, has a range of uses from fizzy drinks to packaging and stunning animals before slaughter.

The Business Department said:

The deal will enable CF Fertilisers Billingham plant to continue to operate while global gas prices remain high. It means key sectors, including food processing and nuclear power, are ensured supplies of CO2. In the longer term, the Government would like to see the market take measures to improve resilience, and we are engaging on ways this could happen.

12:57 PM

Private equity firms mull $25bn bid for Novartis division

Two private equity firms are said to be mulling a joint bid for the generics unit of Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis, in what could be one of the biggest buyout deals ever.

Blackstone and Carlyle Group are weighing up a deal for the Sandoz business, which could be valued at $25bn (18.5bn), Bloomberg reports. Other private equity firms are also said to be in the running.

Novartis last year said it was reviewing options for Sandoz, which makes generic drugs. The business has struggled against tough competition, with sales stagnant at $9.6bn in 2020.

12:41 PM

Oil holds near seven-year high ahead of Opec meeting

Oil prices have dipped slightly but are holding close to a seven-year high ahead of a meeting of producer cartel Opec later this week.

Benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.4pc, while West Texas Intermediate fell back below $88 a barrel.

Oil has surged to its highest level since 2014 amid robust demand, limited supply and worries about a conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

While most analysts expect Opec to maintain its supply increases, Goldman Sachs warned the recent price surge could mean the group may deliver more than expected.

12:24 PM

Tesla to disable 'rolling stop' feature

Tesla rolling stop self-driving - David Zalubowski

Tesla has recalled more than 53,000 cars to disable a feature in its self-driving software that could cause vehicles to roll straight through a junction.

Tesla has released an over-the-air software update that disables the so-called rolling stop feature after discussions with US authorities, Bloomberg reports.

The company is going to send letters to the owners. Tesla said no accidents had been reported.

12:07 PM

US futures dip as FTSE rallies

Wall Street is set to open lower this afternoon as US stocks miss out on a broader market rally.

Futures tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq were little changed, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones both fell 0.2pc.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 is holding its gains of 1pc, with miners and banking stocks leading the way.

11:56 AM

Historic bookshop Blackwell's up for sale

Blackwell's bookshop - Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The family behind historic bookseller Blackwell's are said to have put the company up for sale for the first time in its 143-year history.

Blackwell's, which opened its first store in Oxford in 1879, has appointed advisers to oversee a sale after scrapping plans to transfer ownership of the business to employees, Sky News reports.

Discussions with prospective buyers are said to have been underway for some time, with a deal possible in the coming months.

Blackwell's, which is one of Britain's oldest bookshops, now trades from 18 stores and online. It also trades under the name Heffers in London, Cambridge and Edinburgh.

11:43 AM

What to expect from this week's Bank of England meeting

Another interest rate rise looms, as rapidly rising prices catch central bankers off guard.

Russell Lynch has dug into the challenges facing members of the Bank's MPC when they meet later this week to decide on interest rates.

Read the full story: Inflationary tsunami leaves the Bank of England high and dry

11:32 AM

Watchdog struggles to hire lawyers as salaries soar

The competition watchdog is struggling to attract qualified staff because of soaring salaries in a booming private sector, its boss has said.

Dr Andrea Coscelli said the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) needed to hire more staff to ensure that it exercised its post-Brexit powers, but that it's proving difficult to fill some jobs.

He told MPs: "For mergers, antitrust and digital it is a bit tougher, because the private sector market is very hot at the moment in those areas.

"As you know there's very significant M&A [mergers and acquisitions] activity and salaries for lawyers have increased very significantly. We have civil service pay scales  we've had a pay freeze over the last 12 months  so it's not super easy."

He said this was "a risk" for the CMA going forward.

11:24 AM

Mobile network Three unveils 12.6pc pay rise

Mobile operator Three has announced pay increases of up to 12.6pc for around 2,500 employees in its retail stores.

The new wages, which set minimum hourly rates at 10.13 nationwide and 11.40 in London, take pay above the National Living Wage.

This doesn't include bonuses averaging 25pc of base salary, which will continue to be paid to all staff.

Three said it was currently recruiting for 100 vacancies at its retail stores, including in central London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow.

11:06 AM

Eurozone unemployment falls to record low

Unemployment in the eurozone fell to a record low in December in a sign the bloc's labour market is holding up despite restrictions to curb Covid infections.

The unemployment rate declined to 7pc last month, down from 7.1pc in November and the lowest rate since records began.

German data earlier today also showed an unexpectedly strong decline in jobless claims, marking a much-needed to boost to the country's ailing recovery.

10:45 AM

Nicola Sturgeon's transport officials don't want to travel to the office

Nicola Sturgeon Scotland - Fraser Bremner - Pool/Getty Images

Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of failing to lead by example after it emerged Holyrood officials running Scotlands rail and roads plan to go into the office as little as one day a week after the pandemic.

Oliver Gill has the story:

Civil servants in Ms Sturgeons devolved transport authority want to work from home for three to four days a week, according to a Holyrood filing. Meanwhile, only 5pc of staff at Transport Scotland went into the office at some point between the start of the pandemic and the end of November, details released under Freedom of Information laws also disclosed. The filings come with Ms Sturgeons administration poised to nationalise Scotlands railways at the end of March. With the operation of the railways coming on to the public balance sheet, UK taxpayers will pick up the financial shortfall for running train services if passenger numbers do not return to pre-pandemic levels. Alternatively, service cuts could be introduced to balance the books.

Read Ollie's full story here

10:32 AM

Expert reaction: Manufacturing robust but concerns linger

Rob Dobson, director at IHS Markit, says UK manufacturing showed "encouraging resilience in the face of the omicron wave".

Causes for concern remain, however, as new orders growth slowed, exports barely rose, staff absenteeism remained high and manufacturers' ongoing caution regarding supply chain disruptions led to the beefing up of safety stocks. There was some positive news on the supply chains front. Although pressure on vendors remains severe, and still sufficient to stymie output growth and cause difficulty in obtaining required inputs, supplier lead times lengthened to the lowest degree since November 2020 to suggest that the current period of abnormal stress has hopefully passed its peak, despite the surge in cases linked to omicron. This also lessened the upward pressure on prices, with input costs and output charges both rising at less elevated rates in January.

10:28 AM

Manufacturing output rises at fastest pace in six months

Manufacturing output and employment strengthened at the start of the year as companies responded to improved order intakes, rising backlogs of work and addressed shortfalls in capacity.

While supply chain issues continued to hold back growth, there were signs these had passed their peak, and price inflation eased slightly.

The IHS/Markit PMI fell slightly to 57.3 in January, down from 57.9 the previous month. The slight dip reflected slower growth of new orders and a further easing in the rate of increase in vendor lead times.

Production volumes rose for the 20th successive month in January. The rate of expansion accelerated for the third month running to its highest since July 2021.

 Latest data for the UKs manufacturing sector pointed to another strong expansion with the #PMI at 57.3. Strong upticks in output and employment underpinned growth. Sharp price pressures persisted, however, but the rates of inflation eased. Read more: https://t.co/6EwHKMCoBg pic.twitter.com/LOj7wweGmt  IHS Markit PMI (@IHSMarkitPMI) February 1, 2022

10:11 AM

Tesco: Changes will simplify our business

Jason Tarry, chief executive of Tesco UK and Ireland, said the job cuts would help the supermarket chain operate more simply and efficiently.

We operate in a highly competitive and fast-paced market, and our customers are shopping differently, especially since the start of the pandemic. We are always looking at how we can run our business as simply and efficiently as possible, so that we can reinvest in the things that matter most to customers. The changes we are announcing today will help us do this. Our priority now is to support our impacted colleagues through these changes and, wherever possible, find them alternative roles within our business.

Read more: Tesco pulls the plug on Aldi challenger  and more deli counters

09:57 AM

Expert reaction: Consumers could get nervy as rates rise

Karim Haji, head of financial services at KPMG, says rising inflation and rate rises will soon feed in to lending.

The lag in the data means were not looking at the full impact of some of the recent macro developments, such as the interest rate hike and rising inflation, though there is already evidence of higher rates on mortgages and personal loans. With the housing market still buoyant  particularly outside the M25  there is the prospect of another strong year in 2022. Yet if lenders feel forced to pass on a further interest rate rise on Thursday to borrowers, consumers could get nervy, cooling the market. From a household finances perspective, the personal loan interest rate is the measure to watch this year. Typically, unsecured loans are the ones consumers default on first and a rising rate would be a sign that banks are worried about the gloomier consumer outlook.

09:53 AM

Consumer borrowing holds up despite omicron

Consumer borrowing remained resilient in December as Brits shrugged off concerns about the omicron and rising inflation.

Unsecured lending rose by 831m last month, according to new Bank of England figures. That's double the pace economists had expected.

New mortgage approvals surged to 71,015, defying forecasts for a drop as the housing market kept up its pace.

Despite Omicron and falling retail sales, consumers' net borrowing was positive in December. pic.twitter.com/85tUWhuNRh  Keith Church (@keithbchurch) February 1, 2022

09:45 AM

Two-thirds of Brits suffer cost-of-living crunch

Two-thirds of adults in Britain have reported a rise in their cost of living in the past month, with energy prices playing a growing factor in the squeeze on household budgets.

A survey by the ONS found that 79pc of those who experienced higher costs cited increased gas and electricity bills as a cause.

Energy costs rose considerably in October after Ofgem raised the price cap by 12pc. Consumers are braced for an even bigger surge in prices in April, when the next increase comes into effect.

66% of adults said their cost of living had gone up in the month to Jan 2022 



Of those:



 87% said the price of their food shop had increased



 79% said gas and electricity prices were a factor. pic.twitter.com/hoFVqjE3Nj  Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) February 1, 2022

09:39 AM

Pound rises with Bank of England in focus

Sterling rallied against a weaker dollar with morning with focus firmly on the Bank of England's meeting later this week.

Markets are pricing in another 25 basis point rise in interest rates when the MPC meets on Thursday, with as many as five rate rises in total this year.

Traders also have an eye on Boris Johnson's future as prime minister, though it's become clear his position rests on the outcome of the Met's investigation, which could take weeks or even months.

The pound rose 0.3pc against the dollar to $1.3487. Against the euro, it was up 0.1pc at 83.48p.

09:24 AM

Cineworld starts talks with Regal shareholders

Cineworld Regal shareholders - Henry Nicholls

The problems just keep mounting for Cineworld. Away from its 700m Canadian court battle, it's also embroiled in a row with former shareholders in its US business Regal.

The cinema group said in September it would pay $170m (126m) to shareholders who were disgruntled with the price they received following the takeover in 2017.

Cineworld said it's now kicked off talks with the shareholders. To facilitate the talks, it's obtained undertakings to waive off any default arising from non-payment of obligations due to creditors, including certain holders of the company's guaranteed convertible bond due 2025.

The company, which is also facing a C$1.2bn (700m) fine over its botched takeover of Cineplex, said it hoped a deal could be reached in the period afforded by the waivers.

09:13 AM

UBS jumps as it boosts share buyback

Shares in UBS jumped this morning after the investment bank ramped up its buyback programme on the back of better-than-expected results.

Switzerland's biggest lender beat forecasts for revenue and profit and said it will buy back almost $5bn (3.7bn) of shares this year  almost doubling its buyback programme. Shares rose as much as 7.4pc.

However, UBS booked a $740m charge in the fourth quarter relating to a $2bn tax penalty it's fighting in the French supreme court. The provision adds to the $505m the bank has already set aside to cover possible costs.

09:01 AM

Two in three bankers could be back at London offices

Pret Index return to the office - Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Time for an update from the closely-watched Pret Index, which gives us a tasty sense of how the return to the office is going.

Sales of cappuccinos and tuna baguettes grew faster in London's financial districts last week than in any other area in the UK after banks hauled staff back to the office.

The index, compiled by Bloomberg, showed transactions are now at 68pc of pre-pandemic levels in the City and Canary Wharf  the highest figure for almost two months.

It comes after the Government dropped its work from home order, prompting the likes of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Barclays to tell their bankers to get back to their desks.

Pret chief executive Pano Christou predicted sales could hit 90pc of pre-pandemic levels on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. However, he said Monday and Friday would be more subdued as bankers opt to work from home around the weekend.

08:50 AM

Virgin Money upbeat despite mortgage lending hit

Virgin Money has struck an upbeat tone on the outlook for the UK economy, even as it revealed a hit to mortgage lending since the end of the stamp duty holiday.

The group reported a 0.5pc fall in mortgage lending to 57.8bn in its first quarter to the end of December. It blamed the end of the stamp duty relief from October, as well as tough competition in the sector.

Virgin Money also said business lending dropped 2.2pc to 8.3bn in the quarter as demand remained "subdued" and as the Government's Covid support schemes began to wind down.

But the bank upped the full-year outlook for its net interest margin  a key measure of profitability for retail banks  and cheered a more buoyant outlook for the wider UK economy.

It said: "Despite the uncertainty posed by new variants and concerns over inflation, the strengthening backdrop and easing of Government restrictions give some scope for greater optimism about the pace of the recovery."

Shares rose 0.2pc following the update.

08:39 AM

Irn-Bru owner raises prices as inflation bites

Nicola Sturgeon and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a can of Irn-Bru

The company behind Irn-Bru and energy drink Rockstar is hiking its prices as costs increase.

AG Barr said it was paying more for raw materials, packaging and energy bills, forcing it to cut costs and increase prices for consumers.

Still, this didn't stop the London-listed firm from lifting its profit forecasts for the full year. Sales for the year to the end of January are set to hit 267m  up 17.5pc on last year and beating pre-pandemic levels.

This came despite the omicron outbreak, which led to the closure of pubs, bars and restaurants.

Roger White, chief executive of AG Barr, said:

We have remained fully operational throughout the year, producing high-quality products and providing strong business support to all of our customers. We have delivered an excellent financial performance against a volatile backdrop, whilst at the same time delivering on our strategic priorities.

08:29 AM

FTSE risers and fallers

The FTSE 100 has got off to a positive start for the month, pushing up as much as 1pc in early trading.

The gains are being led by mining stocks including Anglo American and Glencore. Rio Tinto has shrugged off a shocking report into workplace culture to rise 2pc.

Banks including HSBC are also providing some positive momentum, tracking higher yields and expectations of another Bank of England interest rate rise later this week.

The domestically-focused FTSE 250 was up 1.1pc, with travel and leisure stocks leading gains.

08:22 AM

Joules tumbles as higher costs hammer profits

Joules profit retail fashion

Joules has plunged in early trading after the upmarket fashion brand said its profits would fall well short of expectations.

The London-listed retailer had forecast full-year profit of between 10m and 12m, but has revised this down to just 5m.

It blamed a sharp decline in footfall due to the omicron outbreak, delays to stock arrivals due to supply chain troubles and rising costs in freights, duties and distribution.

The company's distribution centre costs more than doubled  1.2m above expectations  while wage costs were also higher, although they have since reduced.

As a result, bosses said it would increase prices in its spring-summer collection.

Shares dropped as much as 34pc.

08:15 AM

Grocery inflation rises to 3.8pc

Supermarket prices have grown 3.8pc over the last year, adding an extra 180 to the average household's grocery bill.

Grocery inflation over the last four weeks rose 0.3 percentage points from December, in the latest sign of how the cost-of-living crisis is hitting consumers.

It came as the latest data from Kantar showed a 3.8pc fall in grocery sales in the 12 weeks to 23 January, though sales remain 8pc higher than in the same period in 2020.

Shoppers began to return to their pre-pandemic habits. with more socialising, a return to the office and city centres and more visits to brick-and-mortar stores.

Sales of no- and low-alcohol and plant-based products also soared as Brits embraced Dry January and Veganuary.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said:

Prices are rising on many fronts, and the weekly shop is no exception. Like-for-like grocery price inflation, which assumes that shoppers buy exactly the same products this year as they did last year, increased again this month. Were now likely to see shoppers striving to keep costs down by searching for cheaper products and promotions. Supermarkets that can offer the best value stand to win the biggest slice of spend.

08:05 AM

Expert reaction: Property market refuses to squeak

Lucy Pendleton, at estate agent James Pendleton, says there are no signs of a slowdown in the market just yet.

The pips are being squeezed on all sides but for now the UK property market just refuses to squeak. Weakening affordability remains the elephant in the room, with deposits requiring a higher chunk of annual pay than ever before. Add this to the soaring living costs, low stock availability and the prospect of more interest rate rises, and you can expect things to cool down. With a roaring 2021 behind us it was tempting to believe January would be the month after the circus had left town. But with annual growth revving back up to full throttle, it seems reports of this hot markets demise have been greatly exaggerated. As supply improves, it will have a sobering effect on prices. Yet while the rest of the UK may take a breath after the record highs of the last 12 months, London, the unlikely poor relation, should be getting back to pre-pandemic business as usual.

08:02 AM

FTSE 100 opens higher

The FTSE 100 has gained ground at the open after bucking the wider trend on global markets to close higher in January.

The blue-chip index rose 0.7pc at the open to 7,513 points.

08:01 AM

House market posts strongest start to year since 2005

Away from the drama at Rio Tinto, there's yet more evidence of the UK housing market boom.

House prices registered their strongest start to the year since 2005, surging 11.2pc year on year to 255,556. That's up 0.8pc since December.

It's the biggest January jump for 17 years. However, a looming cost-of-living crisis means the property market is facing a slowdown, with higher interest rates, taxes and energy bills all hitting household finances.

Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide, said:

Reduced affordability is likely to exert a dampening impact on market activity and house price growth, especially since household finances are also coming under pressure from sharp increases in the cost of living.

07:51 AM

Report piles fresh pressure on Rio over culture

Rio Tinto scandal Aboriginal Juukan Gorge Australia - RICHARD WAINWRIGHT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The damning report comes less than two years after the world's second biggest miner was embroiled in a controversy over its destruction of ancient Aboriginal caves in Australia.

Rio apologised for blowing up the two Juukan Gorge sites  burying a record of life dating back more than 40,000 years. The scandal sparked the resignation of former chief executive J-S Jacques, while chairman Simon Thompson also plans to step down.

The latest controversy over workplace culture now threatens to stoke fresh investor unrest.

07:40 AM

What's Rio doing about it?

The report outlined 26 recommendations that will inform how the FTSE 100 miner prevents and responds to discrimination and unacceptable workplace behaviour.

Rio said it will implement all these recommendations, with a focus on three main areas:

A commitment from the companys leadership to create safe, respectful and inclusive working environments to prevent harmful behaviours and better support people in vulnerable situations. This includes improving diversity.

Ensuring the companys camp and village facilities are safe and inclusive. This includes making sure the company is applying the same safety and risk processes that it uses to prevent harm in operations to create a safe environment for all employees and contractors.

Making it as easy and as safe as possible for all people to call out unacceptable behaviours, highlight issues when they happen and receive support. This includes introducing early intervention options and improving how the company responds to formal complaints in the workplace.

07:36 AM

Rio Tinto's response in full

Jakob Stausholm, chief executive of Rio Tinto, said:

The findings of this report are deeply disturbing to me and should be to everyone who reads them. I offer my heartfelt apology to every team member, past or present, who has suffered as a result of these behaviours. This is not the kind of company we want to be. I feel shame and enormous regret to have learned the extent to which bullying, sexual harassment and racism are happening at Rio Tinto. I am determined that by implementing appropriate actions to address the recommendations, and with the management teams commitment to a safe, respectful and inclusive Rio Tinto in all areas, we will make positive and lasting change and strengthen our workplace culture for the long term. I am grateful to everyone who has come forward to share their experiences as we go about this vital work.

07:34 AM

Rio Tinto publishes damning report

Good morning.

We kick off the day with a jaw-dropping report from Rio Tinto into its workplace culture, which has revealed sexual assaults, harassment, racism and "systemic" bullying.

The Anglo-Australian miner revealed that 21 women have experienced actual or attempted rape or sexual assault at its mines over the last five years.

More than a quarter of women experienced sexual harassment at work, while almost half of all employees suffered bullying. Meanwhile, racism was found to be widespread across its operations in Australia and South Africa.

The eight-month study, conducted by former Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, surveyed more than 10,000 employees.

5 things to start your day

1) Women hold just 30pc of seats on UK boards, lagging France and Italy Progress is slow as UK stands 9th globally for gender diversity, according to Deloitte

2) Nicola Sturgeon's transport officials don't want to travel to the office Transport Scotland's civil servants demand to work from home for up to four days per week

3) French demands for 'wet' signatures spark lengthy Dover delays Companies have faced hold ups as most documentation is produced digitally

4) Tesco pulls the plug on Aldi challenger  and more deli counters Supermarket abandons its budget food chain Jack's, which had just 13 stores and lacked economies of scale, say analysts

5) Top investor backs Vodafone boss after activist investor swoops in Abrdn says management has support of shareholders following revelation of Cevian Capital

What happened overnight

Asian markets rose in limited trade Tuesday following another strong lead from Wall Street fuelled by a rebound in tech firms, while comments from Federal Reserve officials eased concerns that it will embark on an aggressive phase of policy tightening.

The Nikkei 225 was up 0.3pc at 27,078.48, while the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were both closed for a holiday.

Coming up today
Tensions between Russia and the U.S. over Moscow's troop build-up near Ukraine spilled into the United Nations Security Council on Monday, with both countries accusing each other of provocation.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said there was "no proof" Moscow was planning military action against Ukraine, and blamed the West for hyping the threat of war.

They themselves are whipping up tensions and rhetoric and are provoking escalation.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield countered that its the threat of Russian aggression thats at issue, not Americas desire to deter a military conflict.

Our encouraging diplomacy is not provocative.

[WIPE]

REPORTER: What exactly do you think you accomplished at the Security Council meeting?

And at the State Department, spokesman Ned Price was challenged by a reporter about whether the Security Council merely provided another forum for discussion, without any action.

PRICE: The point today Matt, to come to your question, is to continue to shine a spotlight on what we are seeing.

[FLASH]

REPORTER: Did the Security Council actually do anything?

[FLASH]

PRICE: If the criticism is that were engaging too robustly in diplomacy, if were being too transparent, that were being too consistent in what were saying, that is criticism that we will accept.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Britain said they are prepared to punish Russian elites close to President Vladimir Putin with asset freezes and travel bans if Russia enters Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the British warning "very disturbing," and said it made Britain less attractive to investors and would hurt British companies.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to travel to Ukraine on Tuesday where he said he will urge Moscow to "step back from the brink."

Also on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to speak by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Protests Continue Despite Military Vehicles Presence

Protesters hold banners and shout slogans while marching past Myanmar military soldiers who arrived to guard the Central Bank overnight on Feb. 15, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar. The U.S. Embassy in Myanmar told Americans in Myanmar to "shelter in place" in an announcement after military movements and reports of possible interruptions to telecoms. Armored vehicles were seen on the streets of Myanmar's capital, but protesters turned out in force despite the military presence. Credit - Hkun LatGetty Images

The U.S. imposed new sanctions on senior leaders of Myanmars military junta on Mondaythe eve of the one-year anniversary of their overthrow of the countrys democratically elected government and imprisonment of its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The U.S., joined by the U.K., and Canada, announced sanctions on officials who helped prosecute Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the National League for Democracy. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was arrested in the Feb. 1, 2021 coup. Myanmar courts have sentenced her to a total of six years in prison as of Jan. 10but she faces additional charges.

Washington also slapped penalties on the scion of the Kyaw Thaung family, who the New York Times reported has strong ties to the Myanmar military and helped it procure equipment. The sanctions also targeted a Myanmar government agency responsible for procuring arms for the military, which is known locally as the Tatmadaw.

But activists and Myanmar watchers say that the targeted sanctions will do little to deter a brutal regime that is increasingly isolated from the West and determined to put down resistance to its rule with violent repression. More than 1,500 people have been killed in encounters with the junta across the country, according to human rights group Assistance Association of Political Prisoners.

I think its fair to say that the West has had little leverage in Myanmar both politically and on the ground since the coup, says John Nielsen, Senior Analyst at Danish Institute for International Studies and former Danish Ambassador to Myanmar.

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Pro-democracy protesters have long called on the international community to find ways to cut off the juntas revenue streams. And since last years coup, several Western firmsincluding energy giants TotalEnergies of France and Chevron of the U.S.have vowed to pull business out of Myanmar due to human rights abuses in the country.

Read more: Myanmars Artists Are Continuing to Resist from Abroad

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and other members of the Tatmadaw were already under sanction by the U.S. and other nations. Human Rights Watch has urged the United Nations Security Council to impose a legally-binding global arms embargo on Myanmar.

But in addition to punitive measures, Burmese exiles say the international community must work to protect people suffering under the juntas rule. London-based Burmese activist and scholar Maung Zarni says neighboring states should open their borders to Burmese refugees who flee from the Tatmadaw.

They are also wary of dialogue with the military leaders, which neighboring countries including some members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), favor. Nay San Lwin, a co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, a global network of Rohingya activists and allies, says many Burmese protesters feel such talks will only serve to cement the coup-leaders legitimacy.

Read more: Risking Everything. Myanmar Activist Talks About Her Fight

But not everyone is shunning the Tatmadaw. Russia has been criticized for warming up to Myanmar post-coup, continuing to sell arms and its officials attending junta-led events. China also has ongoing dealings with Myanmar, but has taken a more ambivalent stance: It urged to restart the democratic process in the Southeast Asian country while engaging with both the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed forces. Chinas primary objectives in Myanmar is to ensure stability at the borders and get access to the Indian Ocean through an economic corridor from Kunming to Rakhine. They will work with any party in the conflict to accomplish these objectivesand that is in essence what they are doing, Nielsen says.

Jason Tower, Director for Myanmar at the United States Institute of Peace, says there must be a regional approach to the crisis, as companies closely aligned with the junta operate in neighboring states. If the U.S. and allies can convince Myanmars neighbors, including Thailand and India, to crack down on these firms, it could have a dramatic effect on the cash flowing to military leaders.

But the window for such action may be closing. Cambodia has taken over chairmanship of ASEAN in 2022. And Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Senno friend of democracyhas given a conditional invitation the Myanmar coup leader. Last year, the nine countries barred the Myanmar juntas representative from attending its meetings.

Increasingly many activists say they cannot rely on the international community to support their cause of restoring a democratic government in Myanmar. They are putting their faith in ethnic minority militias that have long fought the Tatmadaw, and the Peoples Defense Forcean armed group composed of members of Myanmars exiled shadow government and pro-democracy protesters. If we want to be free, we have to fight for ourselves, says Zarni.
by Nurul Fitri Ramadhani

JAKARTA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia is ready to welcome more Chinese cars, including electric vehicles (EVs), to enter its automotive industry this year, after the wholesales of cars from its biggest trading partner recorded a significant increase throughout 2021.

Chery and BYD are two Chinese automotive brands that are ready to hit Indonesia's market, the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo) said, adding that they will add the three Chinese brands that have enlivened the car industry to Southeast Asia's largest emerging market, namely Wuling, DFSK and MG.

Gaikindo's Secretary General Kukuh Kumara said on Monday that Chery would offer three SUV (sport utility vehicle) cars - Tiggo 4 Pro, Tiggo 7 Pro, and Tiggo 8 Pro - under PT Chery Motor Indonesia.

The Chinese brand is not a newcomer in Indonesia's car industry as it first entered the country in 2006 under Indomobil Group, selling city cars and Tiggo SUV, before it closed in 2013.

PT Chery Motor Indonesia's Marketing and Product Director Qin Gang said a statement on Monday that Chery had gained popularity and been recognized in the global market in recent years, so he was confident that the brand would make a profit in Indonesia's market as well.

He said that to date Chery has exported its vehicles to more than 80 countries and recorded a total of 10 million users worldwide. The automotive company also has 10 factories and 1,500 dealers and outlets overseas.

Meanwhile, BYD would focus on EVs and it would not only offer low-priced EVs to the market but also plan to build a production facility in Indonesia, according to Kumara.

"The plan will be highly welcomed by Indonesia's automotive industry as the country is currently on the track to push the production of EVs," Kumara said.

Indonesia is on the way to pushing EV usage in a bid to support environmentally-friendly transportation, and the country has allocated 120 billion rupiahs (8.3 million U.S. dollars) to speed up the construction of EV infrastructures for 2022 and sought more investment.

Indonesia aimed to have more than 2.1 million electric motorcycles and 2,200 hybrid or electric cars on its roads by 2025.

Kumara said Indonesia has become a lucrative market for automotive products in recent years as the ratio of vehicle ownership in the country was still very low compared to other Southeast Asian countries, yet it has a large population of over 270 million, the fourth largest in the world.

In Indonesia, Japanese cars still dominate the market, but Chinese cars are getting more popular. Data from Gaikindo showed that the total sales of cars in 2021 reached 887,200 units, with Japan's Toyota still topping the list, followed by Mitsubishi.

China's Wuling ranked eighth on the list, making it one of the most popular Chinese cars in Indonesia, with the total sales reaching 25,546 units in 2021, up 288.5 percent from 2020. DFSK sold 2,933 units and ranked 12th before South Korea's Hyundai and Kia.

Indonesian news outlets reported that Chinese cars would be a strong competitor of Japanese cars as they could attract consumers in the country with their relatively cheap prices and advanced features. 
The Anderson County Sheriffs Office agreed to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of a teenager who was unarmed when she was mauled by a police dog and shot five times by deputies.

The sheriffs officer agreed to pay $700,000 in the shooting of the 16-year-old girl, according to a statement from the Strom Law Firm.

Attorneys Bakari Sellers, Jessica Fickling and Ben Crump handled the case.

If law enforcement officers can shoot a scared 16-year-old girl who had no weapon and posed no threat, then it can happen to anyone, Crump said in the statement. This is a win for our client and a win for justice.

In August 2020, the teenager was a passenger in a car with a 21-year-old man who drove away from the scene of a non-life threatening car crash, the lawyers said.

While being chased by Anderson County deputies, the 21-year-old crashed, according to the lawyers. The man and the teenager got out of the car and went into a nearby wooded area. The deputies sent a police dog after them. The dog began mauling the girl, the lawyers said. The 21-year-old shot and killed himself.

Deputies opened fire without clear line of sight, according to the lawyers. The teenager suffered a shattered tibia and femur as well as wounds to her feet, neck and back.

The deputies also shot the and killed the police dog in their blind firing, the lawyers said.

I hope this is a wake-up call to the Anderson County Sheriffs Office, said Fickling. Any person applying for a hunting license knows not to shoot at something you cant see. It isnt too much to ask for law enforcement to abide by the same standard.

Crump has been in the national spotlight for representing families of police shooting victims such as 14-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, and Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri. Crump also represented the family of Trayvon Martin, 17, in Sanford, Florida.
By Dawn Chmielewski

(Reuters) - The executive producer and host of Gimlet Media's Science Vs podcast said she would devote her fact-checking show exclusively to contradicting misinformation on other podcasts carried by parent company Spotify.

The announcement by Wendy Zukerman builds on protests by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and others against Spotify's Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. They say Spotify is not doing enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19 misinformation.

Zukerman posted a copy of an email she sent to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, in which she said she considered the platform's support of Rogan a "slap in the face," after she spent months encouraging her listeners to move to the service because of its support for her fact-based science podcast.

Spotify acquired Gimlet Media in 2019.

Zukerman wrote that Rogan's interview with Dr Robert Malone, an infectious disease specialist who has become well-known among anti-vaccine Americans, took vaccine information "repeatedly out of context" and lacked scientific evidence that contradicts his claims - a topic a forthcoming Science Vs episode will address.

She said that Spotify's platform rules do not go far enough to address the problem.

"Until Spotify implements stronger methods to prevent the spread of misinformation on the platform, we will no longer be making new Science Vs episodes, except those intended to contradict misinformation being spread on Spotify," Zukerman wrote in an email to Ek that she posted on Twitter.

Rogan's interview with Malone prompted a protest by rock star Neil Young, who said he did not want his music on a platform that promoted "false information about vaccines."

He added, "They can have Rogan or Young. Not both." Folk music star Joni Mitchell removed her music to support Young.

Rogan apologized in an Instagram video post on Sunday and pledged more balance on his show. Spotify said it would add a content advisory to any episode with discussion of COVID.

Story continues

Reuters could not immediately reach Gimlet or Spotify for comment. Zukerman's post appeared on her verified Twitter account.

Spotify acquired Gimlet as part of an investment in its podcast business, an expansion of audio content that was underscored with its subsequent deal in 2020 to bring Rogan exclusively to the platform in a reported $100 million deal.

(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski; Editing by Robert Birsel)
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM)

This story was last updated at 3:54 p.m.

New Mexico's junior U.S. Senator, Ben Ray Lujan, 49, is recovering from surgery at UNM Hospital in Albuquerque after suffering a stroke on Thursday, his office has announced.

Lujan's chief of staff, Carlos Sanchez, said the senator felt dizziness and fatigue Thursday morning and was evaluated at Christus St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Santa Fe.

After being referred to UNM Hospital, doctors found that Lujan had suffered a rare cerebellar stroke, an event in the cerebellum structure located in the back of the brain.

He underwent decompression surgery to ease swelling, his office said, and remains at the hospital where he was said to be "resting comfortably and expected to make a full recovery."

More: Snow showers expected in southern New Mexico as winter storm system brings freezing temperatures

U.S. Senator Ben Ray Lujan addresses reporters outside La Clinica de Familia during a visit to Las Cruces on Tuesday, May 4, 2021.

His office said that constituent services and office hours remained active and requested privacy for the senator's family.

Lujan, a native of Nambe Pueblo in Santa Fe County, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009 through 2020, rising in the leadership ranks to be the fourth-ranking Democrat under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In 2020, won the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by fellow Democrat Tom Udall. Lujan was sworn in for his first senate term in January 2021.

My thoughts are with Senator Ben Ray Lujan and his family. Im so glad to hear that he will make a full recovery. We look forward to his quick return to the Senate. https://t.co/vDSXG6JF72  Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 1, 2022

His recovery could affect business in the U.S. Senate, where his party barely holds a majority as the body is split evenly between Democratic and Republican members with Vice-President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, holding a tie-breaking vote.

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No information was available on how long Lujan's recovery might take or exactly how soon treatment began after his symptoms appeared.

He was stricken on Jan. 27, ten years almost to the exact day since Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois suffered a major ischemic stroke on Jan. 23, 2012. Kirk returned to the U.S. Capitol nearly a year later.

The Republican Party of New Mexico and I are saddened to learn of Sen. Lujans stroke, and we wish him a speedy recovery," state GOP chairman Steve Pearce stated in a news release Tuesday afternoon. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Senator and his family during this difficult time.

UNM Hospital, which has been operating under crisis standards of care since last fall due to overwhelming patient loads during the surges of COVID-19 cases, was certified a year ago as a comprehensive stroke center by the Joint Commission, which accredits U.S. health facilities and programs. At that time, UNM reported the hospital was treating 400 strokes per year.

According to the National Institutes of Health, strokes in the cerebellum account for one to four percent of all brain strokes, with dizziness and vertigo common symptoms. The cerebellum is involved in balance, motor control and coordination.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.

Keep reading:

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico U.S. Senator Ben Ray Lujan recovering from a stroke
COLORADO CITY  Through his attorney, Shawn Adkins has entered a plea of not guilty on two charges related to the death of 13-year-old Hailey Dunn, according to the Mitchell County District Clerk's office.

The plea was included in a document filed by the attorney to waive Adkin's arraignment hearing scheduled this week.

More: Mother's boyfriend Shawn Adkins indicted in connection with Hailey Dunn killing

A Mitchel County grand jury Dec. 30 indicted Adkins on the charges of murder and tampering with physical evidence with intent to impair a human corpse.

Texas Rangers arrested Adkins on the charges June 14 in Big Spring.

In earlier court documents from the 32nd District Court in Sweetwater and filed in Mitchell County, Adkins is accused of fatally striking Dunn in the head with an unknown blunt object. He then allegedly concealed Dunn's body to hamper the homicide investigation.

The DPS and Texas Rangers are seeking tips in solving the death of Hailey Dunn.

The Colorado ISD eighth-grader was reported missing by her mother, Billie Jean Dunn, on Dec. 27, 2010. The teen allegedly had left the day before to go to a friend's house but never arrived.

Dunn's remains were found in March 2013 about 30 miles northwest of Colorado City near Lake J.B. Thomas in Scurry County.

Shawn Adkins

At the time of the teen's disappearance, Adkins was the live-in boyfriend of Dunn's mother.

Dunn's disappearance became a missing person case in January 2011, according to Reporter-News archives.

Early in the investigation, law enforcement officials named Adkins the primary person of interest, according to Reporter-News archives.

Laura Gutschke is a general assignment reporter and food columnist and manages online content for the Reporter-News. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Shawn Adkins enters plea of not guilty in Hailey Dunn murder case
The roadway up to the railway station sits empty in Mandalay, central Myanmar





Opponents to the military rule in Myanmar held "silent strikes" on Tuesday, marking the one-year anniversary of the coup that quashed efforts toward democracy.

Activists urged people to remain inside and to keep businesses closed despite the possibility of arrests, jail and a seizure of businesses, according to Reuters.

"We might be arrested and spend our life in jail if we're lucky. We might be tortured and killed if we're unlucky," youth activist Nan Lin said to the news service.

Witnesses also reportedly said an explosion took place during a procession of military supporters, killing two people and injuring over 30 others.

Additionally, state media announced that the state of emergency imposed at the time of the coup would be extended for six more months following threats from "internal and external saboteurs" and "terrorist attacks and destruction," Reuters reported.

The U.S., Britain and Canada imposed new sanctions on the military and called for a stop in arms sales to Myanmar on the one year anniversary of the coup.

"Since the military coup of February 1, 2021, the people of Burma have stood firm in rejecting military rule and calling for their country's return to the path to inclusive democracy," the State Department said, adding that the regime has killed almost 1,500 people and detained 10,000 others.

"We will continue to target those responsible for the coup and ongoing violence, enablers of the regime's brutal repression, and their financial supporters," Brian Nelson, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence for the Treasury Department also said. Nelson noted that the U.S. would support Myanmar in seeking "freedom and democracy."
Jan. 31PIERRE  The South Dakota Legislature is looking to take on human trafficking by advancing four separate bills, one of which will soon seek the signature of Gov. Kristi Noem.

Of the four bills, one would disqualify those convicted of a felony human trafficking charge from operating a commercial vehicle within the state, while others would expand protections of trafficking victims, establish protections for child survivors and require police officers be trained to prevent trafficking.

Senate Bill 28 has made the most progress. That bill  which would bar individuals convicted of a felony under South Dakota's codified laws surrounding trafficking or under United States Code from driving commercial vehicles  has passed two committees and both chambers of the state's bicameral legislature without a single vote in opposition.

Under federal regulations, all states must have the ability to bar individuals convicted of a trafficking felony by Sep. 23, 2022, according to Jane Schrank, director of the driver licensing program for the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.

"There's nothing that needs to be said about this," said Myron Lee Rau, a representative for the South Dakota Trucking Association. "This is a horrible crime ... There needs to be something that we can do about this."

No opponents testified against the bill in the Senate Transportation Committee, where the bill originated. It was passed unanimously in that committee and the Senate floor, as well as in the House Transportation Committee. On Monday, the House of Representatives unanimously approved the bill.

SB 28 will head to Noem's desk for her signature. If signed, the bill will become law in July 2022.

In addition to SB 28, three other bills are currently floating around the Statehouse, seeking to provide further protections for the victims of human trafficking.

House Bill 1218, introduced to the House and referred to a committee on Thursday, aims to include victims of human trafficking in the legal definition of an abused or neglected child.

Story continues

By updating the definition to include human trafficking victims, it requires mandatory reporters to forward suspected trafficking incidents to supervisors or authorities, includes victims in social services provided to abused and neglected children and expands who could be eligible to receive county-funded services.

HB 1218 has not seen committee hearings, discussion or votes yet, but is likely to undergo initial discussion in the coming days or weeks.

Beyond the inclusion of trafficking victims as abused and neglected children, House Bills 1220 and 1221, which complement one another, are tailored to increase the responsibilities of law enforcement officers and agencies in sniffing out human trafficking and providing protections for victims.

One bill would require police officers to attend biannual trainings to increase their skill of identifying, investigating and overall handling of human trafficking violations, while the other would require them to immediately contact social services and the statewide coordinator for human trafficking whenever an officer believes a child has been engaged in trafficking in any way.

Both bills, sponsored by Rep. Jon Hansen, R-Dell Rapids, have yet to be assigned to a committee.

According to the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, 32 states reported at least one human-trafficking offense to the National Corrections Reporting Program in 2019. Among those states, 614 state prison admissions in 2019 were for a human trafficking offense.
ANKARA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish police on Tuesday detained at least 10 suspects over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016.

An arrest warrant was issued for 17 suspects that allegedly linked to the Gulen movement, which the Turkish government accused of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and attempting a coup on July 15, 2016, the governor's office of northwestern Balikesir province said.

At least 10 of the suspects were detained under an investigation into the group's "military establishment."

The suspects included three on-duty non-commissioned officers, one retired naval colonel, one retired non-commissioned officer, two resigned non-commissioned officers, two former cadets, two lawyers, one dismissed electrical engineer, and five private-sector employees.

The evidence included confessions, along with the payphone conversations of the suspects with the Gulen movement members.

The simultaneous operations by the police continue in seven cities to detain the remaining suspects.

The Gulen movement, which mainly runs schools around the world, is a community of people named after Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen. He is regarded by followers as a spiritual leader.

Ankara accuses U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the attempted coup, in which at least 250 people were killed.

Turkey requests the extradition of Gulen, but the U.S. is reluctant to extradite the self-exiled Islamic cleric, saying that Ankara has not presented sufficient evidence against him.

The Turkish government has launched a massive crackdown on suspects with links to the network after the coup attempt. 
NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand (Reuters) - Thai pig farmer Jintana Jamjumrus, 75, suspected two years ago that her herd had been infected with African swine fever when dozens of animals died after developing symptoms.

But the Thai government insisted up until last month that the deadly viral pig disease - which has killed hundreds of pigs in Europe and Asia - had not entered Thailand.

The official government confirmation of the presence of the disease set off a political firestorm, with one opposition lawmaker accusing the government of a years-long cover-up. A deputy agriculture ministry denied the accusation.

"There's no way they (authorities) didn't know. Pigs died all over the country and they still said no outbreak. Why the cover-up?" Jintana said.

The Thai government has now detected the swine fever in 22 areas in 13 provinces and culled more than 400 pigs in affected smallholder farms, said Bunyagith Pinprasong, director of the Bureau of Disease Control and Veterinary Services.

Bunyagith said authorities culled almost 300,000 pigs deemed at high risk of the disease between 2019 and 2021, but it was not detected in any of their samples.

Most pig deaths were due to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), he added.

By the time Thailand confirmed the first ASF outbreak last month, nearly 100,000 smallholders, or those rearing up to 50 pigs, had disappeared, leaving just 79,000, government figures on the livestock industry show.

Small farmers' herds were halved to 1 million pigs, accounting for the bulk of the loss in the national herd, which stands at 10.85 million, down 17% from last year's 13.1 million, the data shows.

The reduction in livestock has pushed domestic pork prices to an all-time high. Retail pork prices in Bangkok rose to 215 baht ($6.47) per kilogram on Jan. 11, the highest daily average in the commerce ministry's database, which dates back to 2001.

"It wouldn't have gone this far with more smallholder farmers still in the market to counterbalance the power of big corporates," said Sittichai Suksomboon, a 55-year-old pig farmer.

Thailand last month suspended live pig exports until April to shore up the domestic supply. Bunyagith said the government planned to offer smallholders new piglets at discounted prices, but acknowledged it would take up to 10 months to ease the supply shortage.

(Reporting By Patpicha Tanakasempipat)
File: Judges at the High Court in Edinburgh rejected the appeal against extradition of three US citizens accused of a violent attempted kidnapping in Virginia in 2018 (PA Wire)

A court in Scotland has denied the appeal of three US citizens and said that there is no bar to their extradition to stand trial for an alleged attempted violent kidnapping in 2018 in Virginia.

Valerie Perfect Hayes, 41, Gary Blake Reburn, 58, and Jennifer Lynn Amnott, 36, fled to the UK in August 2018 after the attempted kidnapping of five children in a Mennonite Community in Dayton, Virginia, said the press release by the US State Attorneys office for the Western district of Virginia on Monday.

The trio face charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping involving children, conspiracy to kill witnesses among others and each faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted.

I am grateful to see the extradition process proceeding, United States Attorney Christopher R Kavanaugh was quoted as saying in the release.

This community was shocked when these events occurred and the underlying plot was uncovered.

Court documents show that the Ms Amnott and her husband Frank had become friends with Ms Hayes in 2014 who claimed to work for the US government including services for the intelligence community.

In 2018, Ms Hayes who was living with her boyfriend Mr Reburn in Maryland, contacted the Amnotts who were then living in Florida and said that three of her children had been kidnapped and were being held by two separate Mennonite families in Dayton.

Ms Hayes asked the Amnotts to assist her with recovering the three children along with two other children.

She also promised the Amnotts that if they helped her they could keep one of the other children as their own as they could not conceive their own children.

The Amnotts, Ms Hayes and Mr Reburn then planned to travel from Maryland to Dayton, Virginia to kidnap the children from two separate homes.

They also planned to kill the parents of the children to aid the kidnapping.

Ms Amnott had remained in Maryland to look after Ms Hayes other children but remained in touch with the group on the phone.

Story continues

Authorities thwarted the attempted kidnapping at the first house in Dayton after the police were called in when the childrens mother escaped.

Mr Amnott was taken into custody while Ms Hayes and Mr Reburn returned to Maryland where they reunited with Ms Amnott.

Subsequently the trio then escaped to Scotland.

While Mr Amnott pleaded guilty in 2019, the other three were arrested in Scotland pending extradition to the US.

On Friday, Scotlands senior most judge Lord Justice General, Lord Carloway, said: The crimes, which the appellants have allegedly committed, are extraordinary.

The judge said that there is no bar to the trios extradition even though further appeals remain, reported the BBC.

It should require some obvious and serious form of ill-treatment to bar the extradition to a country such as the United States for the crimes of conspiracy to murder parents and steal their children, he said.

The case is being jointly probed in the US by the FBI and the Rockingham County Sheriffs Office. The Department of Justices Office of International Affairs is also providing support.

Although we expect further appeals, the Department of Justice will never stop working to bring those charged back to the United States to face justice, Mr Kavanaugh said.
Tom Brady's retirement announcement made no mention of the New England Patriots.

Brady thanked members of the Bucs, their owners, fans, and his family in his announcement.

Brady left the Patriots on bad terms, but the two sides have only said kind things since.

Tom Brady's official retirement announcement didn't mention the team he was on in the first 20 years of his career.

In a message posted to Instagram on Tuesday, Brady announced his decision to officially retire from the NFL after reports of his intention to retire came out on Saturday. His agent and family denied them, and as of Monday, Brady said he was still thinking about it.

Brady's announcement was a long message that thanked many people from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but it did not mention the New England Patriots.

Video: How Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen make and spend their fortune

Here's a list of those he thanked in his message:

Buccaneers teammates

Buccaneers fans

The city of Tampa and St. Petersburg

The Glazer family, which owns the Buccaneers

Bucs GM Jason Licht

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians

Bucs coaches and staff

Alex Guerrero, Brady's trainer and business partner

Don Yee and Steve Dubin, his agents

Brady's parents and siblings

Gisele Bundchen and Brady's kids

And that's it.

In the post, Brady does mention playing for 22 years. And he says the friendships and relationships he made in the NFL will last.

Still, it is eyebrow-raising that Brady did not mention the Patriots, their fans, Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels, or the Kraft family.

Things did not end well between Brady and the Patriots. His relationship with Belichick fractured in later years, and Brady grew resentful of signing short, team-friendly contracts and rarely receiving praise from Belichick.

Still, publicly, Brady has only said kind things about his time in New England and vice versa.

When Brady left the Patriots, Robert Kraft said Brady was like a son to him.

Belichick also released a statement calling Brady the greatest quarterback ever after Brady joined the Bucs in free agency.

Story continues

When Brady and the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl last season, the Patriots even congratulated Brady on Twitter.

After the Buccaneers beat the Patriots in Week 4 of the 2021 season, Brady and Belichick reportedly held a private meeting  a sign that Brady's departure didn't totally destroy things.

Perhaps Brady has a bigger tribute and goodbye planned, but for now, the lack of mention of a team he spent two decades and won six Super Bowls with is certainly jarring.

Read the original article on Insider
A proposed Greenfield cell tower would be taller than the Empire State Building.

Is a tower more than 1,300 feet tall coming to Greenfield?

If it is, it'd be news to the company that owns the tower and another that performs work for cellular companies on such towers, not to mention City of Greenfield officials.

According to a Dec. 13 Federal Aviation Administration obstruction evaluation, a 1,321-foot tall structure is proposed for an area on the west side of South 35th Street a few blocks north of West Cold Spring Road in Greenfield.

The report was turned up by a Gannett journalist in Wisconsin doing research for a story on wind turbines.

The web page containing the proposal says "for information only," noting that the proposal has not yet been studied, and study outcomes will be posted at a later date.

Obstruction evaluations are aeronautical studies conducted by the FAA for any objects that might affect the national airspace, air navigation facilities or airport capacity to ensure the safety of air navigation.

Like a tower the size of the Empire State Building in suburban Milwaukee.

More: An Ethiopian-style coffee shop is being proposed for Greenfield Avenue in West Allis

More: Greenfield and West Allis are looking into a plan that would combine the cities' fire departments

The proposal involves a request to alter the height of a communications tower already in place at the location, according to FAA Public Affairs Officer Tony Molinaro.

He said the initial obstruction evaluation was completed in 1997, and the FAA analysis for the current request is in progress.

But 1,321 feet?

For comparison's sake, the U.S. Bank Center building in Milwaukee is 600 feet. The Eiffel Tower is 984 feet.

The Empire State Building, not including the tip, is 1,250 feet.

When asked about the figure, Molinaro said the height of the structure in 1997 was 131 feet and the proposed new height is 1,321 feet, but he did not know what the current height is.

He didn't say anything about the 1,321 figure being in error.

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"It may have been raised in the interim between 1997 and today," he said about the height of the structure. "I dont have access to documentation until the analysis gets further along and the documents are placed on the website."

The tower in question, according to latitude-longitude coordinates and a map linked in the Dec. 13 proposal, is on the west side of South 35th Street, about halfway between West Cold Spring Road and West Howard Avenue.

It's the site of an American Transmission Co. tower, one of many carrying power lines in an east-west corridor there, and has cellular infrastructure at the top.

According to ATC, the current height is 120 feet. We Energies says their records show the height is a bit more than 126 feet.

The tower was built in 1955, according to ATC.

An ATC spokeswoman said tower modifications are being studied by ATC and that any potential changes to the tower are contractual between We Energies and the cellular provider.

But a change in tower height is not on the radar screen, said ATC spokeswoman Jody Lau.

"While ATC is studying the height and structural load, we are not aware of any significant proposed changes to the tower height," Lau said.

A representative with We Energies, which works with cellular companies and performs work for them on ATC towers, said We Energies is not aware of a significant proposed change to the tower height.

The cellular equipment on the tower belongs to Verizon, We Energies spokeswoman Amy Jahns said, and questions about cellular infrastructure upgrades should be directed there.

Emails and phone calls to Verizon representatives were not returned.

City officials in Greenfield were unaware of the proposal.

"Are you serious?" Greenfield Mayor Michael Neitzke said in response to a reporter's question about it. "So it's that much taller?"

Community Development Manager Kristi Porter also said she had heard nothing about it.

Porter said the only new construction project planned in Greenfield near Loomis Road is Cobalts office building, just north of Layton Avenue, with a height of 132 feet, 6 inches.

Contact Bob Dohr at 262-361-9140 or bob.dohr@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BobDohr1.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tower taller than the Empire State Building is proposed in Greenfield
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump and his family on Tuesday called a civil investigation of their business practices "selective prosecution," arguing that an email by New York state's top prosecutor to her supporters showed she was motivated by politics.

The Trumps are trying to stop Attorney General Letitia James from forcing Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, to testify in the probe into whether their family business misrepresented the value of its assets for financial benefit.

Neither Trump nor his children have been accused of criminal wrongdoing. James' three-year-long civil probe is separate from a criminal inquiry now led by new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg into the Trump Organization's business practices.

Lawyers for Republican Trump said in a court filing that James, a Democrat, was targeting the former president because of her "dislike of his speech and political views" in an effort to "interfere with his political ambitions." Trump, who left office last year, has not ruled out running for president again in 2024.

James is running for re-election in November. Trump's lawyers cited an email James' campaign sent her supporters on Jan. 9, after she had subpoenaed Trump and his children, stating that Trump "might win" in 2024. She said in the email that the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol "may be traced back to one person: Trump himself."

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington, motivated by Trump's false claims that the November 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden was stolen from him through fraud.

"There can be no stronger basis for a claim of selective prosecution than the evidence presented herein," the Trumps' lawyers wrote, calling the email "extraordinary, unprecedented and frankly appalling."

In a statement, James called the filing a "baseless attempt" to "evade accountability."

Story continues

"Throughout the three years of this investigation, they have never questioned our legal authority until Donald J. Trump himself was subpoenaed to testify," James said. "As with every investigation, we will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead."

James has been investigating whether the Trumps inflated real estate values to obtain bank loans, and reduced values to lower tax bills. In one example, she said Trump's annual financial statements said an apartment he personally owned in Trump Tower was 30,000 square feet, when it was in fact a third that size.

During a political rally in Texas on Saturday, Trump called for protests against prosecutors in New York and Georgia investigating him and his company.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Howard Goller and Grant McCool)
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

Donald Trump will never stop reminding us of how dangerous a prospect another four years of him in the White House would be. (If only he had been impeached, convicted, and barred from office over inciting a riot!... Oh, wait.)

"If I run and if I win, we will treat [the Capitol rioters] from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly," Trump declared at a rally in Texas on Saturday night. "And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly."

On Jan. 6, some of the horde that ransacked the Capitol justified their behavior by declaring, Our president wants us here. In floating the possibility of pardons, Trump reaffirms their belief that they were doing his bidding.

To be sure, Trump accidentally made an important point about treating them fairly. As its unlikely the 45th president will ever pay any legal price for inciting a riot that temporarily halted Congress certification of the election, it hardly seems fair for his ground troops to be punished for following his orders. Indeed, the lesson many are likely to take from the whole Trump presidency could be summed up in Nixonian terms: When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.

America First MAGA Tough Guys Are Modern-Day Neville Chamberlains

Speaking of Nixon, if it wasnt clear before this weekend, it should be now: Donald Trumps presidency makes Watergate look tame.

Watergate, in hindsight, was a botched third-rate burglary, that turned into an attempted White House coverup. Trumps presidency, in contrast, involved numerous impeachable offenses, two actual impeachments, several serious attempts to strong-arm officials into overturning the 2020 election, and (lest we forget) the denouement: the incitement of an attempted insurrection.

And yet, the outcomes are very different. Watergate toppled a president and sent several of his top men to jailincluding chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, assistant in charge of domestic affairs James Ehrlichman, and White House Counsel Chuck Colson (among others).

Story continues

It took them a while, but by the time Nixon resigned, Republicansboth in office and to a large extent, in the general populationwere ashamed and appalled by Watergate. Though Nixon was later pardoned by his successor, President Gerald Ford, there were real consequences for his actions.

By contrast, Trumps attempt to overturn the 2020 election results has been generally dismissed or defended by Republicans. And about 70 percent of Republican voters incorrectly believe the 2020 election was either definitely or probably illegitimate.

Rather than being forced (as Nixon was) into the political wilderness, and his party plunged into a deep-cleanse of soul-searching, Trump remains the most likely GOP nominee for president in 2024. Meanwhile, most of his accomplices have either completely skated or were pardoned by him. In the event Trump is re-elected in 2024, the people who rioted in the Capitol, threatened to hang Mike Pence, and attacked police officers will likely be pardoned, too.

Consider the moral hazards. Such an action would send a clear signal that raw power, rather than the rule of law, is what mattersand that defeated presidents get one free shot at attempting a coup.

Watergate hastened some wide-ranging good government ethics reforms. But arguably more importantly, it chastened a generation of political staffers and operatives. This is not to say that there wont always be very many skeevy, bad actors plumbing the depths of D.C. politics, but post-Watergate you always knew that if you crossed the line, there would be a price to pay. You might be humiliated. You might be fired. You might even do time.

Trumps attempt to steal the 2020 election failed because enough people close to the levers of poweradvisors, staffers, bureaucrats, etc.thought better of it. This is partly because (a) some were law-abiding patriots who value the Constitution, and (b) some feared there would be ramifications for breaking the law.

Nixon didnt have some of the advantages Trump has enjoyed, such as a major cable news outlet dedicated to supporting him and an army of disinformation propagandists on the internet. Worse still for Tricky Dick, the GOP of 1974 still had the capacity for shame, as well as the courage and will to hold powerful people accountable.

If Trump and his accomplices go scot-free, future staffers and bureaucrats may well reason that just following orders is the path of least resistance. If Trump were president again, and he follows through on his pardon pledge, what would be the disincentive for any of his supporters considering political violence?

Trumps Arizona Speech Proves His Shock Comic Act Has Jumped the Shark

Think about this way: Trump is still inciting his supporters and dehumanizing his political adversaries.

Although it received less attention than his other remarks this weekend, Trumps speech Saturday night also featured criticism of the New York State attorney general, the Manhattan district attorney, as well as Fulton County (Georgia)s district attorney, all of whom are investigating him. Trump urged supporters to organize protests against them, saying, These prosecutors are vicious, horrible people. Theyre racists and theyre very sick. Theyre mentally sick....

This isnt normal political rhetoric, and weve already seen the folly that was Take Trump seriously, but not literally.

Thats why justice needs to be served for the crimes committed. Someone needs to go to jail. Someone has to pay.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

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Happy Wednesday, Phoenix! Here's everything you need to know in town today.

First, today's weather:

Plenty of sunshine. High: 63 Low: 40.

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Here are the top three stories in Phoenix today:

Three men were shot on Monday evening in two separate shootings in Phoenix. Two of the three men died. 31-year-old Joshua Hernandez Jr.was shot near the intersection of 16th and Roosevelt Streets and was pronounced dead. Less than an hour later, 42-year-old Adam Martinez was shot near 35th Avenue and Van Buren Street and was later pronounced dead. (Phoenix Patch) According to Phoenix Police, 25-year-old Steven Jentz cut at least one catalytic converter from a vehicle on Jan. 31 near Central Avenue and Encanto Boulevard. Jentz admitted to being involved in multiple catalytic converter thefts and was booked into jail, accused of burglary, attempted burglary, and trafficking stolen property. (FOX 10 News Phoenix) As the transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues its spread in Phoenix, the federal government is offering free N95 masks to Phoenix pharmacies. Masks will be available at pharmacies offering COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. (Your Valley)

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Today in Phoenix:

Coffee with the Cop/Webinar - Paradise Valley Town Hall (7:30 AM)

National Crepe Day - The Crepe Club (9:00 AM)

Grow Play Learn - Foothills Branch Library (10:00 AM)

Gentle Reads Book Discussion Group - In-Person or Via Zoom (10:00 AM)

Walk-in Wednesdays Open Mic Night - Tempe Center for the Arts (5:00 PM)

Story continues

From my notebook:

Meet the new furry friends who are ready to be adopted from the Arizona Humane Society ! (Facebook)

According to the City of Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department , February is the 8th annual Graffiti Free Phoenix Awareness month ! Learn how you can help your community fight vandalism. (Facebook)

The Phoenix Planning & Development Department is celebrating Black History Month by sharing ethnic heritage story maps, tracing the history and contributions of African Americans in Arizona through historic properties. (Facebook)

More from our sponsors  thanks for supporting local news!



Featured businesses:

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You're all caught up for today. I'll see you around!

 Nicole Fallon-Peek

About me: Nicole Fallon-Peek is a journalist and copywriter with a degree in Media, Culture and Communication from New York University. She has served as a freelance reporter, managing editor, copy editor, and editorial director for a variety of B2B news outlets. She currently co-owns and operates content creation agency Lightning Media Partners.

This article originally appeared on the Phoenix Patch
TALLINN, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games mascots "Bing Dwen Dwen" and "Shuey Rhon Rhon" won the hearts of Tallinn residents at the Chinese New Year celebrations on Tuesday.

Alongside traditional sculptors, dragon dancers, drummers and fire show from the Estonian side, Chinese culture was also displayed on the screen instead of performed live on-site due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gifts from the Chinese embassy in Estonia also attracted crowds at the Town Hall Square during the 13th Chinese New Year celebrations in Tallinn.

The woman who received "Bing Dwen Dwen" made a "hand heart" gesture to express love, while another who received both mascots smiled while displaying them.

Chinese Ambassador to Estonia Li Chao, and Tallinn Mayor Mihhail Kolvart offered their best wishes to Estonian athletes for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Li applauded the strong development of bilateral relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Estonia more than 30 years ago.

He voiced the expectation for a post-pandemic exchange of visits from representatives of various fields in the two countries to be resumed as soon as possible.

The Estonian national team for the Beijing Winter Olympics consists of 26 athletes, who will compete in eight disciplines.

The celebrations were organized by the Culture Department of the Tallinn city government, and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.

The Chinese New Year falls on Feb. 1 this year, which is the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese zodiac. 
(Reuters) -The U.S. antitrust review of Microsoft Corp's $68.7 billion proposed acquisition of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard Inc will be handled by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Bloomberg News reported https://bloom.bg/3ALk2Fm late on Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The FTC, instead of the Justice Department, will investigate whether the takeover will harm competition, the report said.

In a bid to toughen merger guidelines, the FTC and the Justice Department had last month jointly said that industries had become increasingly concentrated and a surge in merger filings in 2020 and 2021 signaled the situation will worsen.

Days later, the FTC voted unanimously to sue to block arms maker Lockheed Martin's proposed $4.4 billion purchase of rocket engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings over antitrust concerns.

Microsoft, Activision and FTC did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The deal announced by Microsoft in January is its biggest-ever and is set to be the largest all-cash acquisition on record. It will bolster Microsoft's firepower in the booming videogaming market where it takes on leaders Tencent Holdings Ltd and Sony Group Corp.

Meanwhile, Sony said on Monday it will acquire Bungie Inc, the original creator of the "Halo" videogame and developer of "Destiny", in a deal valued at $3.6 billion, the latest in a wave of consolidations sweeping the gaming sector.

Microsoft has so far avoided the type of scrutiny faced by Alphabet Inc and Meta Platforms Inc, but this deal, which would make it the world's third largest gaming company, will put the Xbox maker on lawmakers' radars, said Andre Barlow of the law firm Doyle, Barlow & Mazard LLC after the deal was announced.

Reuters previously reported that Microsoft would pay a $3 billion break-fee if the deal falls through, according to a source familiar with the matter, suggesting the company was confident of winning antitrust approval.

Microsoft and Activision gave themselves until June 2023 to complete the transaction.

(Reporting by Shivam Patel and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Arun Koyyur)
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, leaves the U.N. Security Council before Ukraine's ambassador speaks on Monday. (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

A stormy, angry session of the United Nations' highest body on Monday heightened deep global rifts and raised new accusations about the Russian troop buildup around Ukraine, with the American and Russian sides harshly accusing each other of escalating the conflict.

The United States, backed by most Western countries on the 15-nation U.N. Security Council, requested the meeting and quickly came into bitter confrontation with Russia, backed by China. Russia accused Washington and its Western allies of "whipping up hysteria" and contended that Moscow had no aims to again invade Ukraine.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., characterized the crisis over the former Soviet republic as dangerous for Europe and the United Nations.

"Russias aggression today not only threatens Ukraine," she told the assembly. "It also threatens Europe. It threatens the international order this body is charged with upholding."

Thomas-Greenfield revealed that in addition to the more than 100,000 forces that Russia has amassed along its border with eastern Ukraine, Moscow has begun to deploy what will amount to some 30,000 troops, armed with ballistic missiles and heavy weaponry, into Russian ally Belarus  just two hours north of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.

That information, State Department officials said later, is based on U.S. intelligence reports but the officials would not publicly elaborate. While Russia has confirmed moving troops into Belarus for drills, the number that Thomas-Greenfield gave was higher than previously mentioned.

"What would it mean for the world if former empires had license to start reclaiming territory by force? This would set us down a dangerous path," Thomas-Greenfield said. Her use of the term "former empire" might have been a dig at Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom reestablishing his nation as a Soviet-style power is said to be the dream that motivates many of his actions.

Story continues

Russia quickly, and angrily, denied the report of thousands of troops pouring into Belarus.

The Biden administration is "whipping up tensions and rhetoric and provoking escalation," said Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the U.N.

"There is no proof" that Moscow is planning aggressive military action, Nebenzia said, turning to Thomas-Greenfield. "You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen, you are waiting for it to happen."

Russia has repeatedly portrayed the military buildup, now flanking two sides of Ukraine, as routine exercises.

Nebenzia also condemned the U.S. over a 2014 popular revolt in Ukraine against a pro-Russia president who finally fled the country. U.S. support led to the installation of "true Nazis, radicals and Russophobes" in the Kyiv government, Nebenzia said. Russia portrays the protests and political upheaval of 2014 as an illegal, anti-Moscow coup.

After all the Security Council members gave statements, the American and Russian envoys asked to retake the floor, where they continued sparring.

"The provocations are from Russia, not from us," said Thomas-Greenfield, who contended she could not let Nebenzia's falsehoods go unchallenged.

The Russian criticized what he said was Washington's refusal to look at past years of Moscow's diplomacy involving Ukraine, such as 2014 protocols meant to establish a cease-fire with Russia-backed separatists who seized parts of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. But the rebels remain in the area and continue to battle Ukrainian government forces.

Then Nebenzia said he had a scheduling conflict and walked out  just before the Ukrainian ambassador spoke as the council's invitee.

The acrimonious Security Council session wasn't expected to produce a resolution or even a joint statement, but it was a chance to portray unity among allies supporting Ukraine and the search for a diplomatic path to ease tensions. It followed several weeks of intense meetings of officials from the United States, Russia, Ukraine and most of Europe.

Another such effort happens Tuesday when U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will speak by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. They will discuss U.S. responses to Russian demands, and Moscow's reaction to them. Russia submitted written responses to Washington on Monday, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic efforts.

But U.S. officials all but admit that many of the diplomatic steps underway are empty motions until Putin weighs in. "His response is the response that matters the most to us," State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday.

The Biden administration, seconded by the United Kingdom, is planning to levy harsh sanctions against Russia if it invades Ukraine, as it did in 2014 when it illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula. This time, U.S. officials say, the punishments will hit the pocketbooks of Putin's closest oligarch cronies and possibly the president himself, and rather than be ratcheted gradually will go full-bore from the start.

"We have developed specific sanctions packages for both Russian elites and their family members if Russia further invades Ukraine," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. "The individuals we've identified are in or near the inner circle of the Kremlin and play a role in government decision-making, or at a minimum complicit in the Kremlin's destabilizing behavior."

She said many of the targets were "particularly vulnerable" because of deep financial ties with the West. Some of the sanctions being considered would bar targeted Russian people and entities from international banking systems.

Washington sanctioned senior Russian figures after the 2014 invasion, including the heads of some of the country's largest oil and minerals firms, all tightly allied with Putin. Nothing has forced Putin to back down.

At the start of the Security Council session, Nebenzia argued against opening the meeting to public view, saying airing the proceedings only played into the West's "propaganda." Thomas-Greenfield scribbled notes furiously as he spoke. "This is not about antics; this is not about rhetoric," she shot back.

Ten countries voted to open the meeting, and two wanted it held in secret: Russia and China. Three in the 15-country group abstained.

Washington in the last month has increased military aid to Ukraine, including antitank weapons. The Pentagon warned Friday that Russia had built up the resources to fully invade Ukraine.

The U.S. has urged its citizens to leave Ukraine and has removed some diplomats and their families.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed back against these measures. He is keen to have U.S. and Western military support and urged sanctions be slapped on Moscow before any invasion, but he fears sowing panic among Ukraine's citizens. Reports from Kyiv said authorities there on Monday arrested pro-Russia operatives planning violent demonstrations to undermine the government's stability, another purported tactic used by Putin.

Times staff writer Eli Stokols contributed to this report.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Ukrainian soldiers ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images

Ukraine's army may have trouble transitioning from low-level conflict with Russian-backed separatists to full-scale war with Russia, a New York Times report published Tuesday claimed.

According to the Times, the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine, which began in 2014 and has killed more than 14,000 people, "is fought mostly with rifles, machines guns, rocket propelled grenades, mortars and artillery systems dating to the 1970s or earlier." Ukrainian tactics, which focus on infantry-heavy trench warfare, are seen as equally outdated.

The United States, United Kingdom, and Eastern European NATO members have all sent high-tech anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, but Ukrainian troops have little to no experience using these weapons in combat.

The more than 100,000 troops Russia has massed on Ukraine's border would enjoy a number of advantages over Ukrainian forces, including air superiority and more modern weapons. Forbes suggested last month that "infantry packing anti-tank missiles, scurrying across a network of trenches and bunkers, are central to Ukraine's defense plans" but that Russia could use fuel-air explosives to neutralize these fortifications.

Fuel-air weapons, Forbes explained, "burst over their targets, spreading a fuel vapor, before exploding and igniting the fuel and creating a pressure wave that's twice as powerful as that from a conventional artillery shell." Defenses like trenches reportedly don't protect against the effects of fuel-air explosives.

Ukrainian forces on the eastern front operate mostly out of trenches soldiers dig for themselves. The Times reported that the entrenched position their reporters visited was covered with plastic sheeting.

The Times writes that Ukraine's forces are in "far better shape than in 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula," but remain "decidedly old-fashioned."

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Britain Prince Andrew (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The US judge in Prince Andrews sexual assault case has lodged a formal request with the High Court in London for testimony from a former assistant to the Duke of York.

Robert Olney could give a sworn statement about the duke's relationship with the late financier and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein as part of the upcoming civil trial.

Hepreviously served as Prince Andrew's equerry, an officer of the Royal Family who attends or assists members of the family.

The New York judge overseeing the case - brought by Virginia Giuffre - has asked Mr Olney to be questioned about the duke's contacts with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

He has written letters to both the Senior Master of the Queens Bench Division and the Australian Attorney General to request their assistance in acquiring evidence for the civil claim filed by Ms Giuffre.

Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in prison in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial.

A New York jury in December last year found Maxwell guilty of grooming underage girls.

Ms Giuffre claims the duke sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17 while she was being trafficked by Epstein.

Andrew, 61, has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him.

Lawyers for Guiffre say Mr Olney's name and phone number appeared in Epstein's contacts book, suggesting he could have knowledge of their relationship and "relevant information" about the duke's travel to and from Epstein properties.

Judge Lewis Kaplan said that if his request was accepted, Mr Olney should be questioned about any communications that concern Ms Giuffre.

Andrew claims he has never met Ms Giuffre.

Court documents reveal the judge has also sent a request asking for a statement to be taken from Shukri Walker, who has claimed she saw the duke at Tramps night club in London in March 2001 with a young woman who may have been Ms Giuffre.

Ms Giuffre is suing the duke for damages in her home country of the US, claiming she was trafficked by disgraced financier Epstein, Andrews friend and a convicted sex offender, to have sex with the royal when she was 17, a minor under US law, at Maxwells London home in the early 2000s.

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The duke is also alleged to have sexually abused Ms Giuffre during a visit to Epsteins private island, Little St James, and on a separate occasion at the financiers Manhattan mansion.

He denies the allegations.

In letters to the Australian Attorney General, Judge Kaplan requested assistance in obtaining testimony from Ms Giuffres husband Robert and her psychologist Dr Judith Lightfoot.

The judge asked for Mr Giuffres testimony to include how he met Ms Giuffre, his discussions with her about Andrew, her alleged childhood trauma and abuse, and her relationship with Epstein and Maxwell.

The letter requests Mr Giuffres testimony also include all claims Ms Giuffre has made against the duke, her alleged emotional and psychological harm and damages, her role in trafficking and recruiting young girls for Epstein and the Giuffre households finances.

In a separate letter to Dr Lightfoot, Judge Kaplan has asked her evidence to include Ms Giuffres medical treatment, her diagnosis of Ms Giuffre, matters discussed during their sessions, and claims made about Andrew.

Testimony is also sought from Dr Lightfoot about her opinions of the alleged psychological harm suffered by Ms Giuffre, theory of false memories and the consequences of her childhood trauma.

Andrew previously took the dramatic decision to face his accuser in court and become the first member of the modern royal family to submit to being cross-examined over serious allegations.

David Boies, who is representing Ms Giuffre in her lawsuit against Andrew, said his client and legal team were looking forward to confronting the royal about his denials.

Judge Kaplan has requested that the testimony of all four witnesses be completed by 29 April.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  The U.S. military launched interceptor missiles during an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels that targeted the United Arab Emirates during a visit by Israel's president, the second-such time American troops have opened fire, officials said.

The acknowledgement by the White House and Pentagon late Monday represent a widening American involvement in Yemen's yearslong war, a conflict that President Joe Biden declared nearly a year ago has to end.

While the U.S. has ended offensive support to the Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of Yemen's exiled government, their involvement in defending the UAE comes as the rebel Houthis have declared Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi a target. Al-Dhafra hosts some 2,000 American troops and has served as a major base of operations for everything from armed drones to F-35 stealth fighters.

Speaking from the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. military "responded to an inbound missile threat on the UAE.

This involved the employment of Patriot interceptors to ... (support) efforts by the armed forces of the UAE, Psaki said. I would say we are working quite closely with them.

At the Pentagon, press secretary John Kirby said that U.S. Patriots were fired, but it was the Emirati surface-to-air missiles that actually engaged the targets.

Asked if that would include targets outside of Al-Dhafra, Kirby said:  If we can help defend our Emirati partners, were going to do that.

Biden also mentioned the attack on the UAE at the White House during a visit by Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, saying that America will have the backs of our friends in the region.

The Emirati military, as with a similar attack last week, did not acknowledge that the American military opened fire. The autocratic UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, has threatened criminal charges against anyone filming an attack or outgoing interceptor fire.

Story continues

The UAEs state-run WAM news agency reported Mondays interception, saying the attack did not result in any losses, as the remnants of the ballistic missile fell outside the populated areas. It wasnt immediately clear where the remnants fell, though American Patriot missiles are thought only to be deployed at Al-Dhafra.

The attack came just before Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit to Dubai Expo 2020.

A Jan. 17 attack on Abu Dhabi by the Houthis killed three people and wounded six at an Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. fuel depot near Al-Dhafra.

The war in Yemen has become the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Saudi-led airstrikes using American-made bombs have killed schoolchildren and civilians. The UAE paid off local al-Qaida fighters to avoid fighting and controlled prisons where torture and sexual abuse were rampant. Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi rebels have employ child soldiers and indiscriminately laid landmines during the country's civil war.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP)  A U.S. government agency said Monday that it is pausing $450 million in assistance to the West African nation of Burkina Faso, where mutinous soldiers overthrew the democratically elected president last week.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent U.S. agency that provides grants and assistance to countries that meet standards for good governance, said its decision came because of the uprising against President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

Burkina Faso military officers claim to have suspended the constitution and dissolved the government and national assembly, the agency said in a statement. These actions contradict MCCs commitment to democratic governance and upholding the rule of law, principles that underpin the agencys rigorous criteria for selection.

The military junta didnt immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.S. aid pause.

The Biden administration has not yet made a determination if the events in Burkina Faso amounted to a coup and the agency's pause in aid was the first action taken by the U.S. in response to what happened. Under U.S. law, if the State Department determines a democratically elected government has been ousted by unconstitutional means, all non-humanitarian U.S. aid must be suspended.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. was still reviewing what happened but in the meantime had decided to put a hold on most assistance.

Its too soon for us to get into specifics in great detail, but weve called for restraint by all actors as we carefully review the events on the ground for potential impacts on our assistance, he said.

The U.S ambassador to Burkina Faso, Sandra Clark, told The Associated Press that the U.S. was calling for the release of Kabore and others who were detained and for the return to constitutional order in the country.

The United States is the largest international donor to the war-weakened nation, giving nearly $213 million in 2020, according to its government website. In addition to humanitarian and development aid, it provides military assistance such as air support, surveillance and intelligence to French forces, which intervened against jihadists in the Sahel, and intermittent training to Burkina Fasos security forces.

Story continues

Next steps for Burkina Faso is that its a very unstable situation at the moment, and there is slim likelihood that the coup leadership is going to secure approval or support from the international community, said Elizabeth Shackelford, senior fellow on U.S. foreign policy with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former U.S. diplomat.

Saying military support has not helped the situation, she said the U.S. and its partners should put more time and money into strengthening institutions to foster democracy in a region that is being overrun by coups and public support for them.

The pause in aid comes on the heels of Burkina Faso being suspended from the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS and the African Union.

A delegation from ECOWAS visited the country earlier this week and told the military leaders they need to transition quickly back to constitutional rule if they want its support. More decisions from the bloc are expected after a scheduled summit Thursday in Ghana.

Burkina Fasos new leader, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba came to power promising to stem jihadist violence that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 1.5 million people. However, he hasnt detailed plans for how he will beat back the jihadists better than the previous government.
People visit the pre-Columbian Mayan archaeological site of Tulum on October 30, 2021.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and State Department are urging Americans to "avoid travel to Mexico" due to "very high levels of COVID," but that's not the only warning for travelers who may be looking ahead to Spring Break.

Last week, U.S. consular authorities in Mexico reminded Americans to be careful when traveling to several top vacation spots after two Canadians were killed at a luxury hotel in Playa Del Carmen.

"In light of recent security incidents and criminal activity in popular tourist destinations including Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, and Tulum, U.S. citizens are reminded to exercise increased caution when traveling to the state of Quintana Roo," The U.S. Consulate General Merida wrote in a travel alert posted days after the Jan. 21 shooting. "Criminal activity and violence may occur throughout the state, including areas frequented by U.S. citizen visitors."

The incident was preceded by several others in recent months, including the October deaths of a California woman and another tourist caught in an apparent gang-related crossfire in Tulum.

CDC TRAVEL WARNINGS: The CDC warns U.S. travelers to avoid more than 100 countries. Do people care?

"The Department of State's first priority is the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas," Karin King, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Citizens Services at the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, said in a statement. "U.S. citizens should always take stock of their personal safety and security when traveling overseas."

Tourists are reminded to check travel advisories and alerts for any country they plan to visit, be aware of their surroundings, avoid crowds, monitor news, review personal safety plans, write down the contact information for the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate and reach out if they need help.

"As always, we urge U.S. citizens to enroll with our Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, STEP.state.gov, to receive important messages about their destination, including timely alerts and updates to travel advisories," King told USA TODAY.

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Quintana Roo was already on a list of over a dozen places in Mexico where travelers were urged to "exercise increased caution" because of crime.

"Criminal activity and violence may occur throughout the state, including in popular tourist destinations," King said.

Despite the warnings, Gustavo Flores-Macias, associate vice provost for international affairs at Cornell University, considers travel to Mexico to be "generally safe."

"(The shootings) are certainly something to keep an eye on. I don't mean to trivialize the gravity of what happened," Flores-Macias told USA TODAY. "But there are tens of millions of people that visit Mexico every year  and these events, they are very shocking, but fortunately they're not particularly prevalent. This is still something that occurs very rarely."

Flores-Macias noted that risks vary across regions in Mexico. He suggests travelers "do their homework" and research their lodgings location and look up previous guests' reviews before booking.

"As with all destinations, people have to be careful when they travel," Flores-Macias said. "Certainly there's a lot of variation in terms of crime and violent crime in Mexico."

Data from the country's Secretary General of National Public Security show homicides in Quintana Roo are higher than surrounding Mexican states' but trending downward. The homicide rate in Quintana Roo was 28.1 per 100,000 people in December 2021, down 59% from a peak in July 2018.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mexico travel: Americans urged to 'avoid' visiting, exercise caution
A Ukrainian serviceman shakes snow off a bullet riddled effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Luhansk region of Eastern Ukraine





President Biden's warnings of imminent Russian aggression are clashing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's efforts to project strength, urge calm and inspire confidence in Kyiv's ability to defend itself.

Russia has homed in on that gap in messaging to paint the West as stoking hysteria and inciting conflict in the region, part of a larger campaign that the Biden administration and foreign policy experts warn are in fact part of Moscow's attempts to create a pretext for invasion as a defensive action.

Zelensky on Tuesday appeared to sharpen his rhetoric in warning Russia against instigating a war, underscoring European solidarity with Ukraine following the announcement of a key security arrangement with the United Kingdom and Poland.

"It's an important statement - that Russians should hear us, they should listen and understand that war is something no one really needs," Zelensky said in Kyiv.

"I'm being very open. This is not going to be a war [between] Ukraine and Russia. This is going to be a European war, a full-fledged war," he warned.

The Ukrainian president's statements appeared to signal a shift from his message last week in which he accused Washington and the media of instigating panic. Zelensky reportedly said he told Biden in a phone call last week it was a "mistake" to raise the alarm of a large-scale war.

Jim Townsend, adjunct senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security, said Zelensky's rhetoric reflects a frustration that Kyiv is being caught in the middle of a larger conflict between the U.S. and Russia.

"He doesn't want to come across to Moscow or anybody as looking weak, like he's panicky. ... He wants to look in control," Townsend said.

"From Kyiv, it looks like you've got the U.S. and Russia pounding on each other rhetorically, at least, and he's kind of caught in the middle, and I don't think he likes that feeling of being caught in the middle."

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Andrij Dobriansky, spokesman for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), a nonprofit advocacy organization, said the differences in messaging distract from the reality of close coordination between Kyiv and Washington.

"From what we understand, in terms of the MFA [Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs] and State Department, as well as the [Department of Defense] and Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, they're all on the same page," Dobriansky said.

Still, Russia sought to exploit those differences during a tense meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday, when the envoy from Moscow accused the U.S. of stirring up agitation, citing Zelensky's comments urging calm.

"You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen, you're waiting for it to happen, as if you want to make your words become a reality," Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzia told the U.S., quoting the Ukrainian president as saying, " 'We do not need this panic.' "

State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the messaging coming from Washington is not an "effort to sow panic. ... To the contrary, all of this is an effort to deter an invasion."

But some Russia experts say the U.S. strategy for raising alarm goes beyond preparation and instead could incite Russian President Vladimir Putin to take action to prove his strength on the global stage.

"Perhaps Putin will feel that, to prove his manhood and deprive Biden of bragging rights at having somehow made him change his mind, he will need to use force (at least in limited amounts) to maintain his perceived machismo," Michael O'Hanlon and Omer Taspinar, fellows with the Brookings Institution, wrote in an op-ed for The Hill.

"If we credit ourselves with dissuading him from an action he was nearly certain to take, he may conclude that we are either taunting him or reaching incorrect conclusions about our own power. Better to acknowledge our uncertainty."

Critics of the Biden administration's foreign policy say the president's decision to waive sanctions on a pipeline expected to bring gas from Russia to Germany, Nord Stream 2, contributed to an environment of weakness that has allowed for Putin to pose a threat to Ukraine.

Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who traveled last week with a bipartisan delegation to Ukraine, said he heard the notion "time and time again" that Putin's massing of an estimated 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border was because he "senses an environment of weakness."

"Our CODEL [congressional delegation], we were unified in our resolve and support for the Ukrainian people, for defending their homeland, but it's easy to be unified when it's imminent," he said. "Deterrence is not something that happens at the last minute, deterrence happens day in and day out."

Nevertheless, the Biden administration is betting that a package of harsh economic sanctions, being readied in the U.S. and in coordination with allies and partners in Europe, will serve to deter Putin from launching any type of incursion into Ukraine.

This includes sanctions on individual Russians who are "in or near the inner circles of the Kremlin and play a role in government decision making or are at a minimum complicit in the Kremlin's destabilizing behavior," a senior Biden administration official told The Hill.

Other measures are likely to include blocks on U.S. exports of key technologies to Russia that are critical in areas of artificial intelligence, defense and aviation. The administration is also weighing sanctions on Russian financial institutions that are likely to prove so severe that U.S. and European economies would also feel the negative impact.

Congress is also looking to quickly push through legislation that would spell out more clearly, and authorize, sanctions that Biden can impose.

"We are in the midst of finalizing two pockets of things - one is Nord Stream 2-related sanctions and pre-invasion sanctions, and we keep working to fine-tune that to get to common ground. I think we can and will," said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow, who met with Ukrainian officials earlier this week as part of a high-level American delegation, said the combined actions of the Biden administration - from providing defensive assistance and coordinating economic sanctions - is likely weighing on Putin's decisionmaking of whether to invade.

"Deterrence is still working," Vershbow said, according to the Atlantic Council, which helped carry out the delegation's visit.

"I think Putin is constrained by the direct costs of the invasion itself, whether it's a large-scale invasion or a smaller one. He has to reckon with the possibility of material losses, human losses and economic costs," he said, adding that Russia's ongoing participation in diplomacy signals a pathway towards de-escalation.

Dobriansky, of the UCCA, called for the Biden administration to implement sanctions on Russia now, in particular to keep raising the stakes for Moscow's ongoing occupation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014.

"The fact that so many violations of international law have already occurred ... the stakes need to keep being raised from the international community's side," he said.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  As the Chinese government tightened its grip over its ethnic Uyghur population, it sentenced one man to death and three others to life in prison last year for textbooks drawn in part from historical resistance movements that had once been sanctioned by the ruling Communist Party.

An AP review of images and stories presented as problematic in a state media documentary, and interviews with people involved in editing the textbooks, found they were rooted in previously accepted narratives  two drawings are based on a 1940s movement praised by Mao Zedong, who founded the communist state in 1949. Now, as the partys imperatives have changed, it has partially reinterpreted them with devastating consequences for individuals, while also depriving students of ready access to a part of their heritage.

It is a less publicized chapter in a wide-ranging crackdown on Uyghurs and other largely Muslim groups, which has prompted the U.S. and others to stage a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics that open Friday. Foreign experts, governments and media have documented the detention of an estimated 1 million or more people, the demolition of mosques and forced sterilization and abortion. The Chinese government denies human rights violations and says it has taken steps to eliminate separatism and extremism in its western Xinjiang region.

The attack on textbooks and the officials responsible for them shows how far the Communist Party is going to control and reshape the Uyghur community. It comes as President Xi Jinping, in the name of ethnic unity, pushes a more assimilationist policy on Tibetans, Mongolians and other ethnic groups that scales back bilingual education. Scholars and activists fear the disappearance of Uyghur cultural history, handed down in stories of heroes and villains across generations.

Theres much more intense policing of Uyghur historic narratives now, said David Brophy, a historian of Uyghur nationalism at the University of Sydney. The goalposts have shifted, and rather than this being seen as a site of negotiation and tension, now its treated as separatist propaganda.

Story continues

Sattar Sawut, a Uyghur official who headed the Xinjiang Education Department, was sentenced to death, a court announced last April, saying he led a separatist group to create textbooks filled with ethnic hatred, violence and religious extremism that caused people to carry out violent acts in ethnic clashes in 2009. He may not be executed, as such death sentences are often commuted to life in prison after two years with good behavior.

Details about the textbooks were then presented in a documentary by CGTN, the overseas arm of state broadcaster CCTV, on what it called hidden threats in Xinjiang in a 10-minute segment. It included what amounted to on-camera confessions by Sawut and another former education official, Alimjan Memtimin, who got a life sentence.

The Xinjiang government and CGTN did not respond to written questions about the material.

Drawings from the textbooks are presented as evidence Sawut led others to incite hatred between Uyghurs and Chinas majority Han population.

In one, a man points a pistol at another. The image is flashed over an on-camera statement by Memtimin, who says they wanted to incite ethnic hatred and such thoughts.

But both men in the drawing are Uyghurs. One, named Gheni Batur, holds up a gun to a traitor who had been sent to assassinate him. Batur was seen as a peoples hero in a 1940s uprising against Chinas then-ruling Nationalist Party over its repression and discrimination against ethnic groups, said Nabijan Tursun, a Uyghur American historian and a senior editor at Radio Free Asia.

The Communists toppled the Nationalists and took power in 1949. Mao invited then-Uyghur leader Ehmetjan Qasimi to the first meeting of a national advisory body and said, Your years of struggle are a part of our entire Chinese nations democratic revolution movement. However, Qasimi died in a plane crash en route to the meeting.

Despite Maos approval, this period of history has always been debated by Chinese academics, Brophy said, and the attitude has shifted more and more toward hostility.

Another element in the story came to the fore after a series of knifings and bombings in 2013-14 by Uyghur extremists, who were angered by harsh treatment by the authorities.

The Uyghur movement had briefly carved out a nominally independent state, the second East Turkestan Republic, in northern Xinjiang in 1944. It had the backing of the Soviet Union, which had real control.

A recently leaked 2017 document, one of a trove given to an unofficial Uyghur Tribunal in Britain last September, shows that a Communist Party working group dealing with Xinjiang criticized elements of the uprising.

The Three District Revolution is a part of our peoples democratic revolution, but there were serious mistakes made in the early stages, the notice said.

Blaming interference by the Soviet Union, it said that ethnic separatists infiltrated the revolutionary ranks and stole the right to lead, established a splitting regime, ... and committed the grave mistake of ethnic division.

The document still said that Qasimi should be respected for his role in history.

The CGTN documentary, though, singles out a photo of Qasimi wearing a medal that was the symbol of the second East Turkestan Republic. It shouldnt appear in this textbook at all, Shehide Yusup, an art editor at Xinjiang Education Publishing House, said in the documentary.

Another textbook illustration, drawn from the same period, shows what appears to be Nationalist solider pointing a knife at a Uyghur rebel sprawled on the ground.

Both stories come from novels by Uyghur writers published by government publishing houses. One of the writers, Zordun Sabir, is a member of the state-backed Chinese Writers Association. The textbooks themselves were published only after high-level approval, said Kunduz, a former editor at the Xinjiang University newspaper who uses only one name.

When the textbooks were reviewed in 2001, the Uyghur stories hardly got any attention, said Abduweli Ayup, a Uyghur linguist who as a then-graduate student translated some of the stories into Chinese for the review.

Stories that portrayed the Nationalists as the enemy were not considered controversial. Instead, the Uyghur editors worried about foreign stories, said Ayup, an activist who now lives in Norway, such as a line from a Tolstoy story and a Hungarian poem.

Another story cited by CGTN goes back to the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until 1912. Yusup, the art editor tells CGTN: This is the legend of seven heroic Uyghur girls. Its all fabricated. Han Chinese soldiers trapped them at a cliff and they jumped to their death to defend their homeland. Its meant to incite ethnic hatred.

But the soldiers were not Han, they were ethnic Manchu who founded the Qing Dynasty in 1644. The text of the story visible in the CGTN documentary says so, reading in part, The Manchu soldiers started to climb Mount Moljer from all sides. Maysikhan (a leader of the Uyghur girls) saw the Manchus clambering up the mountain and told the girls to roll rocks down at them.

The story is based on a local rebellion against the Qing Dynasty. A shrine dedicated to the seven girls stands in the Xinjiang city of Uchturpan, which partially funded it. Epics, articles and dramas about the story are popular.

For the Chinese government to praise the uprising and then criminalize the inclusion of the story in textbooks is shocking, Tursun, the historian said.

From even earlier, officials have been increasing the amount of instruction in Chinese in Xinjiang, especially after ethnic clashes in 2009 in Urumqi, the regional capital, said Minglang Zhou, an expert on Chinas bilingual education policies at the University of Maryland.

Xi, as China's leader, has stressed the consolidation of the nation, a move away from the one unified nation with diversity promoted by his predecessors, Zhou said. He sees diversity as a threat to a unified nation.

Kunduz lamented that her son, growing up in Urumqi, studied more in Chinese than in Uyghur. They want to assimilate us, they want us to erase us, she said from Sweden, where she now lives.

To this day, her son speaks Chinese better than Uyghur.
HAVANA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese community in Cuba celebrated the Lunar New Year on Monday abiding by COVID-19 safety protocols.

In Havana's Chinatown, streets and businesses along the road were adorned with red lanterns, one of the most famous decorations used by the Chinese in festivals that symbolize a prosperous business and a thriving life.

Images of martial arts performances by instructors and students from the Cuban School of Wushu and Qigong were also displayed on big screens installed in the iconic San Fan Con plaza.

Roberto Vargas Lee, the president of the school, told Xinhua that the Chinese community in Cuba would keep united during the Year of the Tiger.

"China inspires us to continue working hard for a better future," he said. "The Spring Festival is a clear expression of the richness and diversity of Chinese culture."

The celebration, which was held online last year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, also included traditional lion dance performance.

"With these artworks, we want to express the strength of Chinese culture, traditions and customs," said Cuban painter Alexis Gonzalez. 
Here's a roundup of recent incidents and announcements from Ventura County agencies:

Victim identified in fatal Highway 118 crash

The Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office released the identity of a man killed last week in a crash along Highway 118.

The victim was identified as Brian C. Mull, 52, of Simi Valley, the Medical Examiner's Office said.

The crash at 6:26 a.m. Friday occurred on Highway 118 just east of Price Road in an unincorporated area north of Camarillo and west of Somis.

Mull was driving a GMC Yukon SUV westbound when, for reasons still under investigation, he crashed head-on into a box truck headed eastbound, according to California Highway Patrol.

The crash killed Mull, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the truck, a 48-year-old man from Los Angeles, suffered minor injuries.

The collision caused authorities to shut down Highway 118 in both directions for several hours Friday as they investigated and cleaned up the crash.

California Highway Patrol personnel investigate the scene of a fatal crash that closed Highway 118 west of Somis Friday morning, Jan. 28, 2022. The incident spilled diesel and automotive fluids requiring cleanup that extended the closure into early afternoon.

Man spotted inside home arrested

VENTURA  Ventura police arrested a 59-year-old man Sunday when he was spotted on video inside an East Ventura home, authorities said.

Officers were called to the 6300 block of Hunter Street around 3:30 p.m. on a report of a possible burglary in progress, according to the Ventura Police Department.

Cmdr. Sam Arroyo said police had been called to the home at least twice before in the last week after the same man, apparently known by the caretaker, had been seen on video. In surveillance footage Saturday, the man was allegedly seen taking laptops, Arroyo said.

The man had apparently returned to the home Sunday when he was taken into custody.

The man was on probation at the time of his arrest, allowing police to search the Ventura motel room where he was staying, police said. Officers found items they believed to be stolen.

The man was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor drug possession and multiple felonies, including residential burglary, possession of stolen property and possession of ammunition and a large-capacity magazine, records show.

Story continues

He was booked into Ventura County jail Sunday and scheduled to appear in Ventura County Superior Court Tuesday, according to jail records.

Oxnard police said they confiscated this loaded 9-millimeter Glock-style Polymer gun during a traffic stop Friday afternoon. The gun is considered a ghost gun because it lacks a serial number.

Traffic stops lead to 4 arrests, 4 seized guns

OXNARD  Oxnard police since Friday have arrested four people and seized what amounted to four guns during multiple traffic stops.

A 20-year-old Oxnard man on probation was arrested Friday at Bard Road and Simpson Drive, according to the Oxnard Police Department. Officers said they also confiscated a 9-mm Glock-style polymer gun, which is considered a ghost gun because it lacks a serial number. The man faces multiple felony gun offenses.

Two 18-year-old Oxnard residents were arrested at First and Marquita streets early Saturday morning after another traffic stop, according to police. Police said they seized a loaded 9-mm handgun and an unloaded .22-caliber revolver. One of the teens faces felony gun charges while the other faces misdemeanor gun charges related to the unloaded firearm.

A 19-year-old Oxnard resident was arrested late Saturday night after a traffic stop at Fourth and A streets.

Police said they found a loaded 9-mm magazine in the man's pocket, the slide portion of the handgun in a compartment under the steering column and the handgun frame under the front passenger seat. The pieces comprise a firearm, police said. The gun was reported stolen out of Oxnard in July. The man was arrested on suspicion of various felony firearm-related charges.

Man spits on Simi Valley officer during arrest

Simi Valley  Police said they arrested a 20-year-old Simi Valley man for spitting on an officer after he was accused of having an unregistered and loaded firearm in his possession.

Simi Valley police said the arrest began during a traffic stop around 9 p.m. Jan. 20 in the area of Guardian Street and Tapo Canyon Road.

Patrol officers initially pulled the suspect over after witnessing him use a cellphone while driving. The driver was later found to be in possession of an unregistered, loaded firearm. While he was being placed under arrest, the suspect spat on one of the officers, according to police.

On Jan. 24, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office filed charges of carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle with the special enhancement of not being listed as the registered owner, a felony, as well as misdemeanor battery upon an officer.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday and is due to appear in court next for an early disposition conference at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to online court records.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura County news: Highway 118 crash victim named, local arrests
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Verizon Communications Inc plans to turn on around 2,000 additional towers in February in the next phase of its C-Band 5G deployment after talks with U.S. regulators, sources said.

The new phase comes after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday it had agreed that Verizon and AT&T could safely turn on more 5G towers in a deployment that has been disrupted by aircraft safety concerns.

Verizon turned on about 5,100 towers in January and will be able to turn on about another 2,000 in February, the sources said, adding that the total could rise as aviation buffer zones are refined.

Concerns that the new towers could interfere with sensitive airplane electronics delayed the C-Band 5G deployment, initially planned for early December. Verizon agreed in January to not deploy about 500 towers near airports.

The company said in January it would initially offer its 5G C-Band service to about 90 million people and promised to expand that to more than 100 million by March 31.

Verizon said Tuesday it had met the 100 million goal as of Feb. 1 and intended "to exceed that goal."

It declined to comment on the number of new towers being activated, but said it remains committed to "very productive discussions with the FAA and others".

The FAA said Friday new data had allowed it to "more precisely map the size and shape of the areas around airports where 5G signals are mitigated, shrinking the areas where wireless operators are deferring their antenna activations."

Based on the new revised exclusion zones, Verizon is expected to be able to deploy about 14% of the 500 towers held up in January, or around 70 towers, the source added.

The FAA is working on a subsequent version of the buffer zones that wll allow Verizon to turn on additional towers.

The FAA declined to comment on how many towers Verizon would turn on in February.

(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Richard Pullin)
Democrats on a Senate committee in Virginia moved toward blocking Andrew Wheeler from being the next secretary of natural resources in the state. (Photo: POOL New via Reuters)

Democratic state senators in Virginia took a first step Tuesday toward blocking Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trumps controversial second head of the Environmental Protection Agency and a former coal lobbyist, from becoming the states top environmental official.

A Senate committee that considers gubernatorial nominees voted 9-6 along party lines to remove Wheelers name from a resolution approving Gov. Glenn Youngkins (R) Cabinet appointments.

But, as The Virginian-Pilot reported, it may not be the end of the line for Wheelers nomination. His name could ultimately be added back to the resolution on the Senate floor. All it would take is a single Democrat in the narrowly divided state Senate voting with Republicans.

Tuesdays vote adds to what has proved to be a contentious confirmation process, in which scores of current and former EPA employees urged Virginia lawmakers to vote against Wheeler, citing his record of gutting environmental rules while at the helm of the federal agency.

Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke called Wheelers nomination dangerous for Virginias future.

Governor Youngkin has said time and time again he would like to bridge the partisan divide and work together for Virginias next generation, Locke said in a statement following the vote. However, his choice of Trump alum Andrew Wheeler for the position of Secretary of Natural Resources proves his unwillingness to bring properly qualified officials into our government.

Youngkin tapped Wheeler to serve as his secretary of natural resources in January and, in the face of mounting public pressure, maintained he was the most qualified person for this job.

Democrats, who hold a 21-19 majority in the state Senate, signaled last week that they were united in their opposition and had the votes to sink Wheelers nomination. But one member of the party, Sen. Joseph D. Morrissey, revived what seemed like a doomed nomination, telling The Washington Post after Wheelers appearance before a Senate committee last week that he was very much open to confirming Youngkins Cabinet pick.

Story continues

At that hearing, Wheeler defended his legacy and said hed become a lightning rod because the press did not cover positive things during his tenure. He also blamed Congress for his own inaction on climate change, arguing he was dealt a very limited hand to confront the global threat since Congress hasnt passed more stringent laws to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

After listening to Wheelers testimony, Morrissey told the former EPA chief that he was very articulate and persuasive.

Environmental groups accused Wheeler of trying to rewrite history.

In Virginia, governors Cabinet nominees typically sail through confirmation. But Wheeler, who played an outsize role in the Trump administrations industry-friendly deregulatory push, emerged as a uniquely controversial choice. More than 150 former EPA employees; dozens of environmental groups and AFGE Council 238, a union that represents more than 7,500 EPA employees nationwide, all sent letters calling for Virginia senators to oppose Youngkins choice.

In response to mounting criticism, more than 130 of Wheelers former colleagues at EPA and elsewhere sent their own letter defending his record and dismissing previous letters as highly biased and unsupported.

In a statement following Tuesdays vote, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said the governor is disappointed that the committee put partisan politics over the selection of an experienced public servant who would prioritize cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and James River.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...




A key committee in Virginia's Democratic-majority state Senate has removed former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Andrew Wheeler, GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin's nominee for secretary of natural and historic resources, from a list of Cabinet nominees, signaling the legislature may reject a state Cabinet nominee for the first time in 16 years.

The state Senate's Committee on Privileges and Elections voted in a party-line 9-6 vote to remove Wheeler from the list of nominees, Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D) confirmed on Twitter. "Virginia needs a SNHR [secretary of natural and historic resources] dedicated to addressing the very serious issues of environmental protection and climate change."

Wheeler's nomination raised the ire of environmental activists, who noted his history of rolling back environmental regulations under the Trump administration. Democrats, who hold a two-seat majority in the state Senate, suggested they would block his nomination soon after the news broke.

This would make Wheeler the first Cabinet pick rejected in the state since 2006, when the legislature rejected Daniel LeBlanc, then-Gov. Tim Kaine's (D) nominee for secretary of the commonwealth.

The removal of Wheeler's name does not by itself defeat the nomination. The former EPA chief could be added to the list again via a floor amendment during a full Senate vote. However, the vote suggests that Wheeler did not win state Democrats over last week in a largely cordial hearing, during which he emphasized his belief in climate change and said his environmental record has been distorted by the press.

If Wheeler receives a single Democratic vote, Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R) would have the power to break the tie in his favor. State Sen. Joe Morrissey (D) on Friday told The Hill that he felt Wheeler "acquitted himself well" during questioning. Morrissey, who has broken with the majority in the past, said he would consult with experts in the weeks ahead before making a decision.

Morrissey is not a member of the Committee on Privileges and Elections.
The social media post proves that any commitment to create space for Muslim women is performative at best (GC Images)

A few days ago, Vogue France shared a message that bamboozled some Muslim women and infuriated the rest of us. In a since-amended Instagram caption, the high-end fashion magazine shared a picture of Julia Foxs arrival at Paris mens fashion week, writing: Yes to the headscarf! Swipe left for your recap of Julia Fox and Kanye West style journey at the haute couture shows in Paris this week.

Fox wore a black trench coat, sunglasses and a black headscarf. The caption has since been edited.

The social media post casually celebrating a headscarf not worn by a Muslim woman was grating because it proves that any commitment to create space for Muslim women is performative at best  and as with many other industries, has led to hollow representation for our community.

This is an industry that is not committed to actually making Muslim womens lives better in any way, or allowing them a voice  yet is still profiteering from them and their images. The real appeal for the fashion industry when it comes to Muslims is the global Muslim pound or dollar.

Yes, the headscarf was not a political revolt by the people at Vogue France, it was proof of an industry willing to continue being ignorant to the real lives of Muslim women. It feels like the fashion industrys only investment in our lives is the contribution from our pockets  they dont care about the way Western governments are diminishing our rights. Is it a shock to see a white woman being treated differently? Not at all.

Frances war against Muslim women has been persistent: they have had their rights thrown away, bit by bit, and people have largely stood by and let it happen. In 2004, France banned the wearing of hijab in state schools  in 2010 there was a niqab ban in most public spaces which was punishable by fines or citizenship classes.

Research by the open foundation documents the lives of 32 women who wore niqab before the ban in France. After it came in, the study shows, their lives got worse.

Story continues

In 2019, there was a law introduced that prohibited mothers who wore a hijab from accompanying their children on school trips. In July 2021, an EU court ruled that EU companies can ban employees in certain contexts from wearing a headscarf. More recently, the French Senate voted to ban sports players wearing headscarves during competitions.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

France has institutionalised its islamophobia  singling out Muslim women, separating them and trying to erase their rights to their own bodies. These same rights are sacrosanct for many feminists in the West, but have been made optional when it comes to Muslim women.

Maybe, when the world watches what is happening in France, it sees singular reports  but what I see, as a Muslim woman, is France forcefully undressing us and moving us around like puppets. Society will never find us enough until we abandon our faith altogether.

While touting the French values of liberte, France has hacked at the autonomy of Muslim women; demanding people see the hijab as oppressive, and the legislation around it to be an act of mercy and empowerment by the French government. It is neither.

In fact, this is the weaponisation of secularism (laicite) and the legitimisation of Islamophobia. Those who are not Muslim are allowed to embody Muslim or modest clothing in France, and those who are Muslim are told that if they do so, they will be fined or shoved away from public life.

Vogue Frances commentary is at best, unhelpful, and at worst, only contributes to the problem.
Actor Moses J. Moseley has died. He was 31. (Photo: Paul Archuleta via Getty Images)

Actor Moses J. Moseley, known for his role on The Walking Dead, has died. He was 31.

Hes going to be missed very deeply. Everyone loves him. Everyone who met him fell in love with him the moment they met him. He was always smiling, his manager Tabatha Minchew told HuffPost. Were all still trying to process whats happening.

She said his body was found in Stockbridge, Georgia, southeast of Atlanta in Henry County. Police are investigating the circumstances around the death, according to TMZ, which first reported the news.

TMZ said a family member reported that they hadnt heard from Moseley since Jan. 23 and filed a missing persons report Wednesday. The family member said he died of a gunshot wound, the tabloid reported.

The Henry County Police Department was not available for comment.

Moseley starred on The Walking Dead as one of Michonnes pet zombies from 2012 to 2015. His other projects included roles in HBOs Watchmen and the 2013 film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House cyber security official will meet European counterparts this week to discuss the threat of cyber attacks against Ukraine by Russia, the White House said.

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, will meet European Union and NATO officials in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss "deterring, disrupting, and responding to further Russian aggression against Ukraine," the White House said.

Neuberger will then travel to Warsaw and meet her Polish and Baltic counterparts, the White House said.

The trip will include discussions with eastern flank NATO allies and virtual meetings with German and French officials, with the goal of preparing for cyber attacks and supporting Ukraine.

The visit comes after a massive cyberattack warning Ukrainians to "be afraid and expect the worst" hit government websites in mid-January, leaving some pages inaccessible and prompting Kyiv to open an investigation.

Kyiv believes a hacker group linked to intelligence in Belarus, a close ally of Russia, carried out the cyberattack using malware similar to that used by a group tied to Russian intelligence.

Russia has massed more than 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, spurring fears of war. Although Russia denies it is planning an invasion, it is demanding sweeping security guarantees including a promise NATO never admit Ukraine.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Robert Birsel)
New Study Reveals Enormous Generation Gaps in How Evangelicals Like to Give to Charity

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Infinity Concepts

Feb. 1, 2022



EXPORT, Penn., Feb. 1, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- Evangelical Protestant donors under age 40 are extremely different from their older counterparts  and especially when compared with evangelical donors 70 and older.



The findings are detailed in The Generation Gap: Evangelical Giving Preferences. The study of over 1,000 American evangelical Protestants was released today by Grey Matter Research and Infinity Concepts.



Fifty-eight percent of evangelical Protestants give money to charities or ministries outside of their church. These donors were asked their preferences in eight different areas regarding giving. In every one of those eight areas, preferences vary substantially by age.



Overall, evangelicals favor the following:

Giving domestically more than overseas (46% to 27%, with the remaining 27% expressing no preference)



Trusting an organization until it proves unworthy of their trust over doubting an organization until it proves it is trustworthy (48% to 33%)



Supporting organizations they already know rather than learning about new organizations (58% to 28%)



Supporting a small number of causes over a wide variety (58%to 31%)



Supporting a small number of organizations over a wide variety (62% to 27%)



Doing research on an organization over giving "when it feels right" (53% to 33%)



Doing advance planning regarding their giving over donating "spur of the moment" (47% to 34%)



In giving locally versus beyond their local area, preferences are split (37% to 36%)

However, the study found that younger donors usually see things very differently. For instance, they prefer overseas over domestic, want to spread their money around to more organizations and causes, and like to learn about new organizations more than older donors.



Mark Dreistadt, founder and president of Infinity Concepts, summarizes younger evangelical donors as unique compared to other age groups. "Younger donors have a much more international focus. They seek variety in their giving. They're less trusting but do less planning or research. Unlike older donors, younger donors are a mix of perspectives rather than a strong common voice. Not only that, but they feel less strongly about their perspectives than do older donors."



Ron Sellers, president of Grey Matter Research, notes older people are still the core donors for many organizations. But, looking toward the future, many ministries and charities are making a strong push to reach younger donors. "What leaders need to realize is that they can't effectively reach the 35-year-old donor with the same strategy they used to reach their 65-year-old donors," Sellers explains.



The report states it's unknown whether younger donors will change their perspectives or carry some/all of these unique perspectives with them as they age into being core donors for non-profits. But Dreistadt and Sellers both say if younger donors remain consistent in their preferences it may mean the landscape becomes quite different for organizations.



"Organizations may need to provide more variety in programs and messaging in order to retain these donors," Sellers says. "They may find it harder to attract people who value variety to monthly donor programs or long-term relationships, but there may be more opportunities for short-term growth. Non-profits and ministries may need to focus more on building trust rather than assuming it already exists. Marketing and messaging may need to have a more emotional focus for people who give spur of the moment."



Dreistadt adds, "In short, if younger donors stay consistent with their current preferences, the fundraising landscape may be considerably different in the future."



CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL REPORT



For interviews contact:

Ron Sellers, Grey Matter Research: ron@greymatterresearch.com, 602-684-6294, or



Karen Hepp, Infinity Concepts: karen@infinityconcepts.com, 724-930-2809

Definition of "Evangelical Protestant"

This study uses the definition of "evangelical" favored by the National Association of Evangelicals, based on four key spiritual beliefs.



The Authors:

Infinity Concepts is America's premier Christian brand communications and fundraising agency serving clients worldwide.



Grey Matter Research is a marketing research and consumer insights company with extensive experience serving the charitable and faith-based sectors.



SOURCE Infinity Concepts



CONTACT: Ron Sellers, Grey Matter Research, 602-684-6294, ron@greymatterresearch.com;

Karen Hepp, Infinity Concepts, 724-930-2809, karen@infinityconcepts.com


A baby was born almost 30,000 feet in the air on a transatlantic flight from Ghana to Washington DC on Sunday. Screengrab (NBC News)

A woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy at 30,000 feet, onboard an 11-hour transatlantic United Airlines flight on Sunday.

The pregnant woman was travelling from Accra, Ghana, to Washington, DC, and was not due till late February, when she went into labour.

A spokesperson for United Airlines said that our crew was amazing, they acted quickly, assisted the medical professionals on board, and ensured everyone stayed safe throughout the flight.

A Ghanaian doctor  who now practices medicine in the US  was joined by a former nurse-turned-flight attendant and another nurse from Dayton, Ohio and they together helped the woman deliver a baby in the business class section of the plane.

Dr Stephen Ansah-Addo  a dermatology resident at the University of Michigan  quickly jumped into action when he heard the call for any doctors on board.

Dr Ansah-Addo told ABC News: "I couldnt believe it was happening. But I was trying to stay calm.

Woman gives birth on United Airlines Flight from Ghana to US.



A Ghanaian doctor practising in the United States of America, was the hero of the day when he delivered a baby on a flight en route to the US from Ghana. pic.twitter.com/yu6bNmoB7h  Zhikay Ikejunior (@zhikayikejunior) January 31, 2022

To cut the umbilical cord, the team didnt have any clamps, so they used a string to cut it.

The doctor said: This is someone that really needed help, because there was nobody else there. This is the kind of medicine where you can make a difference in peoples lives.

United Airlines said in a statement that the delivery was uneventful. Paramedics met the mother and child when the flight landed almost after 12 hours in Dulles International Airport in Washington DC. They were then taken to a local hospital.

The spokesperson added: And we were especially thrilled to see the plane land with one extra, especially beautiful, customer onboard.

One United employee greeted the new mother with a balloon and a card that read On behalf of the United team at Washington Dulles, congratulations on your baby boy!

On Monday, the airline said that both the mother and the baby boy were doing well.
With ice, snow, wind and extreme cold predicted to impact parts of Texas and New Mexico this week, Xcel Energy is offering tips to conserve energy, stay safe, report outages and stay informed when severe weather strikes.

According to a news release, Xcel Energy has increased staffing levels and put operational plans in place to make sure key employees, including line workers, are available and able to respond to outages that may occur due to severe weather. Arctic air is expected to settle into the region late Tuesday and persist into Saturday morning, with temperatures dropping to near or just below zero in some parts of the area Friday morning. Several inches of snow could fall in eastern New Mexico and in the Texas Panhandle between Wednesday and Friday, with some areas of freezing rain and sleet impacting the southern Panhandle.

Xcel Energy logo

Xcel Energy power plants have been readied for cold weather and the company has increased its import capabilities over the past decade, taking advantage of its connection with the Southwest Power Pool to ensure enough power will be available to meet the expected high demand. Xcel Energy is not part of the ERCOT grid that serves a majority of Texas electricity customers.

The storm comes near the one-year anniversary of the deadly Texas freeze last February.

Take steps to save

There is a nationwide increase in the cost of natural gas, due to supply and demand pressures. Xcel Energy purchases natural gas at wholesale, and the cost of the natural gas provided to customers and used to generate electricity is passed along to customers without markup. With these higher natural gas prices, an average residential customer in Texas and New Mexico who uses the same amount of energy this winter as last winter will see an increase in their bills.

Making a few small changes in energy use habits can lead to a more comfortable home and help customers save money.

No-Cost Ideas:

Let the sunlight in and keep the cold out - Open blinds to take advantage of the sun's warmth during the day but close them at night to insulate against the cold air outside.

Lower your thermostat - During winter months, set the thermostat between 65-70 degrees while you are home, and 58 degrees when you're away. A programmable thermostat automatically adjusts the temperature based on your routine and could help you save on heating costs.

Make sure exterior doors are fully closed - A major source of a homes heat loss is from exterior doors that are left cracked open or not latched.

Use fans to your advantage - During colder months, run ceiling fans clockwise, so the warm air near the ceiling is forced down.

Keep your oven's heat where it belongs - Use your oven light or timer to avoid opening it often while you cook; each time the door is opened even for just a few seconds, the temperature drops 25 degrees. Put lids on your pots and pans while cooking to speed up cooking time and keep the heat where its needed most.

Story continues

Low-Cost Ideas:

Lower your water heater's temperature or insulate it - The proper temperature for a water heater is 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and by lowering it 10 degrees, you can save 3 5% on your water heating costs; you can also insulate it to maximize efficiency.

Keep filters clean - Dirty furnace filters reduce airflow, requiring your furnace to work harder and use more energy. Change the filter once a month during the winter to reduce your heating costs by 5-15%.

Don't let the heat escape - Affordable window sealing kits can be found in most local home improvement stores and can help you save. Have your home evaluated for leaky ducts, drafts around doors and windows, fireplace dampers, and other places where air might escape.

Improve insulation - Improving the insulation of walls, crawl spaces, floors, and heating ducts is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to reduce energy costs, saving you up to 10% on your monthly energy bill.

Customers can take part in one of Xcel Energys energy efficiency programs to save even more. Information can be found at www.xcelenergy.com.

Report your outage

Customers can help Xcel Energy get a jump on power restoration by reporting outages. Customers have several ways to report outages.

Xcel Energy mobile app available on iOS and Android

Online at xcelenergy.com/out

Text OUT to 98936 to report an outage, or text STAT to the same number to check the status of a power outage.

Call 1-800-895-1999 and follow the promptsthe automated phone reporting system lets customers report outages in less than 60 seconds.

Stay informed

If outages occur, its important for customers to have access to the most recent updates about their power restoration. Customers can stay informed by visiting the Xcel Energy website or by downloading the mobile app available on iOS and Android. Additionally, the website hosts an outage map that displays information on the number of customers out and anticipated time for restoration. Customers can also stay informed by following Xcel Energy on Facebook and Twitter.

Other ways customers can prepare, stay safe

Stay away from downed power lines. Always assume an electric line, even one that is on or near the ground, is energized and therefore dangerous. Never, under any circumstance, touch or move a downed power line. If you come across a downed power line, leave the area and report it immediately by calling 1-800-895-1999.

Build a home emergency kit. Xcel Energy recommends assembling an easily accessible kit that can be used in the event of a power outage. Useful items may include:

Xcel Energy phone numbers - 1-800-895-1999 for residential or 1-800-481-4700 for

business

Battery-powered radio or television

Flashlights

Batteries

Backup phone chargers

A phone that does not require electricity

Non-electric alarm clock

Bottled water and nonperishable food

Manual can opener

First aid kit

Extension cords (for partial outages)

Manufacturer's instructions on how to manually open power-operated doors (e.g.,

garage doors)

Heating safety. If using a space heater, take care to ensure safety as more than 65,000 home fires are attributed to heating equipment each year in the United States, according to the Electrical Safety Foundation International. When using a space heater, make sure the heater has the label showing it is listed by a recognized testing laboratory, and read the manufacturers instructions and warning labels. Additionally, inspect heaters for cracked or broken plugs and connections; dont use it if they are frayed, worn or damaged. Never leave a space heater unattended. Turn it off when leaving a room and dont go to sleep with a space heater on.

Observe food safety. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, food safety is directly related to the temperature of the food. To maintain refrigerator and freezer temperatures, keep doors closed as much as possible. A full freezer will stay at freezing temperatures for approximately two days and a half-full freezer approximately one day. Visit the USDA website for more information.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Xcel Energy offers winter heating, energy saving tips ahead of cold
Hunter Biden and his father, Joe Biden. Photo by Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program USA

The NYT sued the State Department on Monday, asking it to hand over emails mentioning Hunter Biden.

Lawyers for The Times say the department is stalling giving them emails requested under FOIA.

The Times appears to be investigating whether officials helped businesses with links to the US government.

The New York Times sued the State Department on Monday, seeking access to US embassy emails that mention President Joe Biden's son Hunter, court filings show.

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, lawyers for The Times requested access to emails sent by officials at the US embassy in Romania between 2015 and 2019 that contain keywords including "Hunter Biden," the filings show.

Politico first reported the existence of the lawsuit.

In the filings, lawyers for The Times said the State Department was stalling in answering a series of requests made under the Freedom of Information Act by the Times reporter Kenneth P. Vogel from June.

The FOIA requests, which were included in the filings, suggested The Times was investigating whether US officials helped grant political favors to private businesses.

Per the lawsuit, one request dated June 7 asked for records relating to:

"The possible improper use of federal government resources to assist and advance private business interests with connections to United States government officials." "The possible evasion of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by those private business interests." "The nonenforcement of FARA by the federal government in relation to those private business interests."

Vogel had also asked the State Department for emails containing the keywords "Rudy Giuliani," and "Tony Bobulinski," Hunter Biden's former business associate. Former President Donald Trump sent Giuliani to Ukraine ahead of the 2020 election to investigate Biden's business history in the country.

Critics of President Biden, such as Trump, have long sought to dig up dirt about Hunter Biden from his business dealings in China and Ukraine.

Story continues

An investigation by GOP senators in November 2020 found no evidence of corruption.

Hunter Biden announced in December 2020 that the Justice Department was investigating his taxes relating to his work in China and receipt of a 2.8 karat diamond from a Chinese businessman.

In October 2020, the New York Post reported the existence of an email in which an advisor working with Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden served as a board member, thanked him for offering to set up a meeting with Joe Biden. Joe Biden described the report as a "smear campaign."

A spokesperson for The New York Times told Insider: "As a routine part of their reporting, New York Times journalists regularly seek potentially newsworthy information from a variety of sources, including from the US government through FOIA requests. We're hopeful the government will promptly release any relevant documents, and as always we are prepared to pursue our request through a lawsuit if necessary."

A State Department spokesperson told Insider the department could not comment on active legal proceedings.

Read the original article on Business Insider
RICHMOND  Two Henrico County fathers appeared Friday night on the popular Shark Tank television program seeking an investment in their Blowzee device that allows people to blow out candles without spewing germs and spit all over a birthday cake.

But entrepreneurs Mark Lareau and Mark Apelt didnt get the $100,000 for 20% of their business they were seeking. In fact, they didnt even get any offers.

What Lareau and Apelt got instead was national recognition. One Shark gave the two entrepreneurs accolades for creating a really smart product while another gave them a ton of credit for taking an idea and inventing a solution.

Their Blowzee product also sold out within 2 hours after the program aired on the ABC television network Friday night.

Being on Shark Tank gave their product validation, Lareau said Monday.

This was huge. It essentially was the equivalent of a multi-million dollar ad campaign, he said. It opens up a whole new set of options. This thing started as a little adventure hobby by two friends and we are astounded and humbled that it went this far. Were just excited to see where it goes next.

The entrepreneurs wouldnt say how many Blowzee products were sold online on Amazon on Friday night, but Lareau said it was more than the 1,200 units sold in the first five months after the business was created last March. Those 1,200 units generated about $12,000 in sales, Lareau told the Sharks.

When you sell through Amazon, our phone buzzes every time you get a sale. So were watching the show [Friday night] and our phone starts buzzing and buzzing and buzzing and buzzing. We think we sold out before the West Coast show finished. It was just a crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy response, Lareau said Monday.

An order for more product has been placed, but Lareau said it will take about 90 days before the shipment arrives in the U.S.

The Blowzee is available for purchase for $11.99 on the companys website, on Amazon and at Ukrops Market Hall at Horsepen Road and Patterson Avenue in Henrico and at Libbie Market on Libbie Avenue in Richmond.

The two fathers also have received more than 700 emails, and growing. They range from people who Lareau said took the time to write about how they love the product, to those who made suggestions such as changing the color. Some emails were from people who may want to invest or from some stores that want to carry the product.

It remains to be seen but weve spent the last three days going through and trying to sort through all these emails and theres a lot of them. Im sure theres some gold in there, he said.

Lareau and Apelt came up with the idea for the Blowzee after attending a childs birthday party in January 2020, where they saw the birthday boy spit all over the cake when trying to blow out the candles.

Instead of blowing directly on the candles, a birthday boy or girl blows into the Blowzee device, which activates a switch connected to a lithium battery-operated fan that blows clean air to extinguish the candles. The air blown into the Blowzee is directed back toward the user instead of toward the cake.

Apelt told the Sharks a study in the Journal of Food Research found blowing candles out on a birthday cake increases the amount of bacteria on a cake by an average of 1,400%.

Daymond John, one of the Shark Tank stars, told Lareau and Apelt he wished Blowzee had been around when he was growing up. I had a kid who lived next door to me. His name was Crusty Craig because he had this white build up around his mouth. I refused to go to Crusty Craigs birthday parties, he said.

Businessman Robert Herjavec applauded Lareau and Apelt. I think you have done an amazing job, Herjavec told them on the show.

What a great lesson for everyone at home. All joking aside, this is a pretty complex product to design and build everything for $2,000. They used people all around the world. I actually like it. I actually think you are on to something, but you have to develop other things to really create a business.

But Herjavec later questioned whether consumers would buy the Blowzee more than once. I would buy it once. I dont know if I would buy it again. I wish you all the best. You didnt blow it today.

Investor Mark Cuban gave Lareau and Apelt a ton of credit for creating the product. You are what Shark Tank is all about. You have an idea, you sort it out with all of your friends  do they like the idea and will it work? Then you go through the whole hassle of getting it done. Thats the American dream, Cuban said.

The challenge, though, is youre still not a company but a product. Thats just not enough for me to make an investment right now, he said.

Lori Greiner, considered the queen of QVC, suggested the Blowzee packaging needed adjusting so the words blow out candles without germs are in big bold lettering at the top.

This is a product that is really smart, but it is not something you use every single day but for special occasions, she said. It is a great business for you guys. It just is not really an investment where I can sink my teeth into it.

Kevin OLeary, often called Mr. Wonderful, was brutally honest to Lareau and Apelt. I hate this very very much, and Im out, OLeary said.

The other Sharks booed him.
Dirty Dancing is returning to Mountain Lake Lodge, the Southwest Virginia resort where Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey filmed the iconic romantic movie in 1986.

But this time, its coming back in reality TV form with The Real Dirty Dancing Competition, premiering on Fox on Tuesday at 9 p.m.

In the reality TV series, eight celebrity contestants like professional wrestler Brie Bella and actor Corbin Bleu from High School Musical will compete to be named the best "Johnny" and "Baby" dirty dancers.

Known as Kellermans Mountain House in the movie, the nearly 200-year-old Mountain Lake property is now a modern resort in the center of a 2,600-acre nature preserve, and regularly celebrates its Dirty Dancing legacy.

Viewers will see many resort venues inspired by the movie in The Real Dirty Dancing Competition, including the Stone Lodge, the Harvest Restaurant and Patio, the Gazebo for salsa lessons and Babys cabin, the fictional Houseman family home.

"Viewers will be delighted to see familiar scenes and backdrops at this iconic Virginia property, while they watch their favorite stars relive some of the most memorable moments from the film, Rita McClenny, president and CEO of Virginia Tourism Corporation, said. Such as the infamous lake lift scene, of course.

The crew filmed on site at Mountain Lake Lodge last summer for six weeks.

They filmed with a full operating resort behind them. We were sold out. Weve been very busy throughout the pandemic. People feel safe coming to the mountains, lots of fresh air, outdoor recreation and cabins, Heidi Stone, CEO of the lodge, said.

But things havent always been so rosy at Mountain Lake Lodge.

Shortly after Dirty Dancing filmed at Mountain Lake in 1986, the owner died and created an endowment to own and operate the resort.

For decades, nothing happened and the resort began to fall into decline. It was beginning to look like the resort might even close in the early 2000s, Stone said. I came about a decade ago to help refurbish, rebrand, rebuild and see if we could save Mountain Lake.

While she couldn't provide a specific figure, Stone said "several million dollars have been reinvested in the property over the past 10 years.

On the show, Stone said that viewers will see "a modern mountain lake lodge. The movie didn't showcase much of the property. We're also a bird sanctuary. In the summer, we have thousands of hummingbirds. The reality series shows much of the natural beauty of the property that you might miss in the film."

Fans of "Dirty Dancing" continue to flock to Mountain Lake Resort for nostalgic weekends of romance. Weve seen many proposals and weddings here, Stone said.

Since the movies release, the resort has been hosting Dirty Dancing weekends where guests get to experience activities inspired by the movie, from dance lessons and guided tours of film locations, to parties, lawn games, scavenger hunts and screenings of the film. Dirty Dancing weekends typically sell out a year in advance, Stone said, with this year's sessions fully booked.

This week, in honor of the premiere of The Real Dirty Dancing Competition and the 35th anniversary of the movie, Mountain Lake Lodge will be releasing reservations for Dirty Dancing weekends in 2023. Reservation can be made at www.mtnlakelodge.com or (540) 626-7121.

Mountain Lake Lodge is located in Pembroke, Va., about a three hour and forty minute drive from Richmond.

The Real Dirty Dancing premieres Tuesday and will run through Feb. 22 on Fox at 9 p.m. The show is hosted by Stephen tWitch Boss and features six more celebrity contestants including Tyler Cameron, Cat Cora, Howie Dorough, Antonio Gates, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes and Loni Love. More information at https://www.fox.com/the-real-dirty-dancing/.
District 7 representative on the Bedford County School Board, Martin Leamy, announced his resignation, effective Monday.

In a public statement posted on his Facebook page, Leamy said he has steadily been taking on more roles with several volunteer organizations during the past year, and has found himself overcommitted.

Leamy said in his statement he had been considering stepping down from the school board for "many months." He chose to wait until the new board was seated and settled following last Novembers elections, in which two newcomers were elected to the board.

"I believe there is no time like the present to step down to allow another to serve as District 7 Representative. To all who supported me over the years, I thank you deeply," Leamy said in his statement.

Ryan Edwards, public relations coordinator for Bedford County Public Schools, confirmed Leamys resignation.

Applications for a new District 7 school board representative soon will become available and be accepted as the board seeks to fill the vacancy. The district includes Liberty High School, and the Goode area.

The school board chair Susan Kirby, who represents District 6, and vice chair Marcus Hill of District 4 are scheduled to meet with the division's attorney Wednesday to discuss next steps, Edwards said in an email. More details will be forthcoming after this meeting.

 Shannon Kelly

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For most of her professional career, JoAnn Martin told the story of Lynchburg directly from City Hall, spending not quite 40 years calling that building her workplace.

It was actually 39 years and 11 months, she quickly chimed in about her tenure working for the city during a recent interview.

Martin recently retired after many years of working as the public information officer for Lynchburg, but she didnt start out telling the stories of Lynchburg to staff and residents.

I first started working down in City Hall with the treasurers office, which is really a state position. I worked there for a couple of years, I was very bored, because theres not much going on in the treasurers office. And after about two years I applied and received the position at the information desk, Martin said.

But prior to actually working at the information desk, Martin didnt know much about the position.

It wasnt something that I grew up dreaming about doing, really. When I worked in the treasurers office  I was planning on being an accountant, she said.

Quite frankly, when I started working there, I didnt know much about the city either. But when I got the job at the public information desk and started interacting with more citizens, and with departments, and learned more about each one, that was the spark for me.

That spark led Martin to establish Lynchburgs Department of Communications and Engagement in 2000, seeing a need to inform the public on happenings around the city.

Martin got her training on the job by just asking her boss for opportunities to hone her skills in things outside of her regular job description.

I would tell her, I really would like to learn about writing articles for the newsletter. Id really like to learn more about photography. And she was really open with me about learning all of that on the job, she said.

So that was what really told me, This is something I can do. Thats when I knew this was it for me in communications.

Under Martins leadership, the department won awards from the Virginia Municipal League, the City and County Communications and Marketing Association, and the National Association of Government Communicators.

However, it wasnt always easy for Martin, working as an Black woman in a public sector job. That was one of the many challenges she faced as she climbed from working in the treasurers office to becoming the citys Director of Communications and Marketing.

I think one of the biggest things is that there werent many people of color in City Hall when I started. There were very few. We have, of course, more now, probably not the number we should have, but that was one of the major things.

That wasnt the only obstacle that she had to overcome. Martin also said there wasnt a real playbook for the position when she took over, as there had only been maybe three public information officers in the citys past.

The other thing was a lot of on-the-job training because it was really blazing a new path ... so it was really up to me to create it to what it should be and what I felt like, in talking with departments, what it needed to be.

Martin, a lifelong Lynchburg resident and E.C. Glass graduate, credited her parents for teaching her to always have excellence in whatever I did, and to always do my best, which probably led to me working more hours than I should have.

Its a little hard for me to talk about myself, but ... I wanted to make sure that I left the office of the department better than what I found it, and I think I was able to do that with the help of a lot of great staff.

Martin also reflected on all of the good times she had working in the position.

She had chances to meet many politicians who came through Lynchburg, but the one that stands out to her from over the years was meeting Barack Obama during his August 2008 presidential campaign stop, where he spoke at a town hall at E.C. Glass.

[Obama] was campaigning in Lynchburg and because I was the public information officer, I got the inside track with Secret Service and got to see everything that goes into something like that. That was one of my favorite experiences.

But according to Martin, her favorite thing was just interacting with the people in Lynchburg, who left an impact on her life.

The people who have left the most lasting impression are just regular folks in Lynchburg. Especially people like [Former Lynchburg Mayor] Carl Hutcherson [Jr.] and others that worked through the civil rights movement and made great sacrifices, Martin said.

So even though Ive met several governors and President Obama and others, those are the people that have the biggest impact because they are home. They are working to make life here better for everyone.

Making life here better for everyone was Martins goal from day one.

She held programs such as Citizens Academy, where Lynchburg residents could come in every Thursday and learn about the city departments.

One thing that I have always held firm to was that people are taught about the United States government and state government, but they rarely know anything about local government, which to me is the most important branch of government because it affects everybodys day to day life.

Martin said through the Citizens Academy program, some have graduated and gone on to hold roles on various boards or commissions in the city.

She also introduced the State of the City address, modeled after the State of the Union and State of the Commonwealth speeches given out yearly by the president and the governor of Virginia.

For all of her work over nearly 40 years, Martin was recognized at Lynchburg City Councils Jan. 11 meeting by Council and city staff as well, thanking her for a job well done.

Lynchburg Mayor MaryJane Dolan told Martin at the meeting, I have never encountered a time where you have not been responsive, even as Ive had last-minute, terrorizing calls that I need this now. You have always, with enthusiasm, gotten right on it for me. And I thank you for that.

At-large Councilwoman Treney Tweedy added, Ive known JoAnn since 1999, I think, when I first started with the city schools as the PIO. And I was just a young, wide-eyed person who had all these thoughts and ideas and JoAnn said, Yeah, really?

You are a stellar communicator, exemplary in what you do and how youve done it for 40 years ... and you have made a lot of council members look better than we should have on council, Tweedy said.

Martin, at the end of the ceremony, was presented with a key to the city for her years of work.

Yeah, right. Thats never going to happen, she said when asked what her younger self would have said if somebody had told her she would one day receive a key to the city.

I would not have ever believed that. And again, I am very appreciative of it, but that was not my endgame.

For Martin, the endgame was making Lynchburg a better place for the people that live here.

We shine the brightest ... when there is like a disaster or challenge and everybody forgets what socio-economic situation they are in, what race they are, all of that, and we really become one, she said.

Martin said she hopes that one day Lynchburg can do that on a daily basis, and that the city shouldnt have to experience the challenges or disasters to come together.

A former assistant to the city manager told me one time that Lynchburg is kind of like a cruise ship. It can change direction but it changes it slowly ... but I love Lynchburg and its people. And I just want the best for the community.

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You know that feeling when youre riding a fancy brand-new rollercoaster and youre literally being smashed and banged around from side to side and never know what to expect next? Well, as cheesy as it sounds, I can think of no better analogy to describe my college experience  a rollercoast
RICHMOND  U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, seeking a second term, has raised $518,278 to run in the newly redrawn 5th District, which includes most of the Lynchburg region.

Dan Moy, a retired military officer and adjunct professor at the University of Virginia, is challenging Good for the Republican nomination, but hasnt filed a campaign report because he recently announced his candidacy.

Lewis Combs, a Charlottesville attorney, had led Democratic contenders in fundraising to challenge Good, but he recently dropped out of the race.

We are confident that our campaign could raise the funds and field the organization needed to run a campaign, Combs said in a statement Saturday. However, I could not truthfully assure our potential donors that there is a pathway to victory in the general election.

Josh Throneburg, a minister and small-business owner in Charlottesville, now holds the fundraising lead among Democrats, with more than $270,000 raised. Thomas Warren McLellan, a farmer in Albemarle County, has raised $11,000. Shadid Ayyas, previously a Democratic candidate in the 5th, now is running in the 10th District, where he has raised $119, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

The fundraising numbers in the 5th District dont include Andy Parker, the father of a television journalist shot to death with her cameraman during a live interview in 2015. Parker declared his candidacy last week. He lives just outside of the district in Henry County.

Locally, the newly redrawn 5th includes Lynchburg and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Campbell and Nelson. It also includes a portion of eastern Bedford County. The new district will take effect with the results of this years congressional midterm elections.

Watch Now: Good stumps in Amherst ahead of county's folding into redrawn 5th District On a trip Friday to Amherst, U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-5th District, had lunch with a group of supporters in a county he is seeking to soon represent in a newly drawn district that includes eight new localities.

 Richmond Times-Dispatch

 Richmond Times-Dispatch
Virginia Tech will no longer require that students be vaccinated for COVID-19, a decision prompted by an opinion by new state Attorney General Jason Miyares.

Miyares, a Republican, issued his legal opinion last week, saying students should not be required to have vaccinations, reversing one of his predecessor, Democrat Mark Herring.

In a communication to the campus Monday afternoon, Virginia Tech President Tim Sands wrote that the attorney generals' opinions are what the school uses to make its decisions.

"Consequently, Virginia Tech will no longer require students to be vaccinated as a condition of enrollment or in-person instruction, effective immediately. Federal regulations may still require students who work in specific settings to be vaccinated, receive the booster when eligible, and upload their health information," Sands wrote.

Continuing, Sands wrote: "We continue to encourage everyone in our community to be vaccinated, get a booster dose as soon as youre eligible, and report any updates to your vaccination status to the university. Vaccines remain our best protection against COVID-19 and boosters are an important tool in combatting the omicron variant. Masking and public health protocols remain fully in place. We will discontinue mandatory testing for students, but will continue to provide voluntary testing and strongly encourage testing if you are symptomatic or have been exposed to COVID-19."

Students should coordinate with Schiffert Health Center for testing, according to Sands' statement, and employees should work with their local health care provider or the Virginia Department of Health.

Sands wrote that Virginia Tech is "fortunate that our university community has a very high percentage of vaccinated faculty, staff, and students, which positions us well to maintain operations through the semester."

Sands also wrote he hopes the university can keep serious illness "in check" with cases "likely peaking in the local New River Valley health district."

Ending the statement, Sands wrote: "As we approach two years of the pandemic, we have made great progress on a full return to campus, and I am proud of how far weve come together. I also understand that managing the impact of COVID-19 on our daily lives has taken a toll on everyone. Your physical and mental health is an important part of your learning experience and academic success. Please continue to take care of yourself and each other and utilize the resources available to you as we navigate the weeks ahead."

With the new Republican administration in Richmond issuing orders and opinions rolling back vaccination requirements for K-12 and higher education, schools boards and college leaders are now faced with decisions to act accordingly, or to challenge the changes.
The lower house of Japan's parliament on Tuesday adopted a resolution expressing concern over Uyghur and Hong Kong human rights, just days before China opens the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The statement, however, stopped short of directly criticizing China and did not even mention the country by name. The phrase "human rights violations" in an early draft was also changed to "human rights situation" -- striking a far more cautious tone than similar resolutions from the U.S. and Europe.

"In recent years, the international community has expressed concern over the serious human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tibet, Southern Mongolia, Hong Kong and other areas, including violations of religious freedom and forced imprisonment," lawmakers said. "Since human rights have universal value and are a legitimate concern of the international community, human rights issues should not be confined to the internal affairs of a single country."

The resolution is aimed at clarifying Japan's position to China before the Olympics kick off on Friday. Some in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party were dissatisfied with the revised wording. It was far more restrained than a resolution from the French parliament, for example, which deemed the treatment of Uyghurs "genocide."

But others emphasized the significance of the resolution itself. A previous attempt to propose one in last year's parliament session was abandoned after party members could not reach a consensus.

The Japanese lawmakers said their statement "recognizes that the change of the status quo by force, symbolized by the grave human rights situation, is a threat to the international community." They said Japan needs to demonstrate a stance that is acceptable to the world.

China, for its part, denies all accusations of human rights abuses.
The Japanese government is exempting hundreds of foreign students from an entry ban imposed in late November. More than 100,000 others remain locked out of the country.

Education Ministry officials say about 400 can now come to study because it serves the public interest and is a matter of urgency. A total of 87 foreign students with Japanese government scholarships have already been exempted.

Authorities imposed the ban, which effectively blocks entry to non-resident foreigners, at the end of November in light of the Omicron coronavirus variant. It's scheduled to run through February.

Scholars and students have been urging the government to ease the restriction.

Officials across Japan confirmed over 80,000 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday. 804 people are in serious condition, up 21 from Monday.
On Tuesday, First Interstate BancSystem Inc., parent company of First Interstate Bank, and Great Western Bancorp Inc., parent company of Great Western Bank, completed a merger, according to a press release from First Interstate.

All Great Western branches will continue to operate under the Great Western Bank name as a division of First Interstate until May, when they will be branded as First Interstate branches. First Interstates headquarters will remain in Billings, Montana.

This is an historic day for our 54-year-old company, said Kevin Riley, First Interstate president and CEO. We are excited for this partnership with Great Western and believe our expansion into this new footprint will continue to build shareholder value over the long term. As a result of this transaction, First Interstate truly becomes the premier community banking franchise in the West.

Immediately following the closing, Great Western was merged with and into First Interstate Bank. The conversion of bank systems and branches is expected to occur in May. After this conversion, Great Western Bank branches will be branded as First Interstate Bank branches.

Karlyn Knieriem and Scott Erkonen will join the combined holding company as chief risk officer and chief information officer, respectively. In addition, five directors from GWB have joined the combined holding companys board of directors, effective immediately: James Brannen, Frances Grieb, Thomas Henning, Stephen Lacy and Daniel Rykhus.

Over the coming months, First Interstate will provide Great Western clients with comprehensive information relating to the conversion of their accounts in May. Until then, clients will continue to be served through their respective branches, websites and mobile apps.

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St. Albert Catholic School kicked off Catholic Schools Week Monday with a tribute to first responders.

In keeping with Mondays theme of Celebrate Your Community, school officials presented $200 checks to each of the four local agencies: The Council Bluffs Police Department, Council Bluffs Fire Department, Pottawattamie County Sheriffs Office and Iowa State Patrol District No. 3. The money will go to charities or programs the agencies support.

You put your lives on the line every day  and we appreciate that greatly, said Anne Rohling, president of St. Albert Catholic School.

Rohling thanked agency representatives for the work they do to protect the community and noted that there are St. Albert alumni among their ranks. Students with parents at the event stood with them during the presentation.

We appreciate your support for St. Albert, she said.

Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh also expressed his appreciation for first responders.

In his remarks during the dedication of the First Responders Public Service Plaza on July 4, 2018, Walsh noted, Those men and women see things we dont want to see. They experience things we dont want to experience.

The Rev. Chuck Kottas, priest at St. Peters Catholic Church and canonical administrator for St. Albert, offered a prayer for first responders, noting that they are sometimes in difficult situations. He asked that they be protected.

Catholic Schools Week continues today with more activities, including a public open house from 5:30 to 7 p.m. A special session for new and prospective families will be offered from 5:30 to 5:45 p.m. in the auditorium, and a pre-K roundup will be held from 5:30 to 5:50 p.m. in the elementary gym. Kindergarten roundup will be held from 5:50 to 6:10 p.m. in the elementary gym. A fifth-grade presentation will be given from 6:15 to 6:40 p.m. in the auditorium. Pre-K and kindergarten enrollment packets for the 2022-23 school year will be available at the open house.

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The French Development Agency (AFD) celebrated on Monday, January 31, 2022, in Rabat, 30 years of cooperation with Morocco, a period during which it mobilized 7.6 billion for development projects.

During a ceremony, co-chaired by the French ambassador to Morocco, Helene le Gal, and the director of AFD in the Kingdom, Mihoub Mezouaghi, the French institution welcomed its dense and diversified partnership , with Morocco since 1992.

The agency recalled having supported many Moroccan projects relating in particular to the sectors of water, energy, transport, and agriculture. This cooperation has expanded to support public policies in the areas of education, employment, governance and cultural industries.

According to the AFD group, Morocco was, during this period, the first partner of its financial commitments, among its 120 partners, in the world. Today, the French development agency is delighted to continue supporting Morocco in its transition towards a more inclusive development model.

The AFD director in Mihoub Mezouaghi told the media on the sidelines of the ceremony that the agencys activity in Morocco has reached a record level of 610 million commitment in 2021, confirming the groups positioning in support of the Kingdoms key reforms.

The year 2021 has seen the implementation of major structuring projects, Mezouaghi said, noting that the Agency supports in particular the reform of the Kingdoms social protection which will reduce inequalities in access to health care by accompanying the integration of 22 million additional people in the Compulsory Health Insurance (AMO) scheme.

It also backs the national strategy +Forests of Morocco 2020-2030+ whose objective is to preserve and strengthen the ecosystem services of the forest and national parks while developing local employment (ecotourism, agroforestry), he added, stressing that the Agency has also strengthened its support for the implementation of gender budgeting, a structuring policy in favor of equality.

After recalling that one third of the Agencys 2021 commitments support social sectors and the fight against social inequalities, Mihoub Mezouaghi said that AFD has diversified its offer by backing the Kingdom on innovative projects, including the implementation of a State Startups device within the Moroccan administration.

Referring to the various projects with impacts for Moroccans, the official highlighted the more than 150 projects financed by the AFD Group, since 2010, for access to water, sanitation and energy, in the social sectors, agriculture and biodiversity, transport, social and solidarity economy, or in favor of gender equality.

He pointed out that by the end of 2021, the projects supported by the agency have enabled the enrolment of 31,000 students, including 14,000 girls, the professional integration of 95% of the young people trained in the Institutes under Delegated Management, the saving of 1 million tons of carbon emissions, access to a sustainable sanitation service for 240,000 people as well as the commissioning of a tramway in Rabat and Casablanca for 1 million users (44% of whom are women).
The French ambassador, Joel Meyer, has 72 hours to leave Mali. The governments statement was just read on ORTM, the national television station: This decision follows the hostile and outrageous remarks made recently by Jean-Yves Le Drian and the recurrence of such remarks by the French authorities with regard to the Malian authorities, despite the protests that have been made many times.

In recent days, in the French media, the head of French diplomacy had judged illegitimate the transitional authorities and denounced their flight forward. He also considered that the Russian group Wagner was already at work in Mali and that it was protecting the authorities in exchange for the exploitation of Malis mineral wealth.

These comments were considered contrary to the development of friendly relations between nations. Finally, the Malian authorities reaffirmed their availability to maintain dialogue and pursue cooperation with all of its international partners, including France, but in mutual respect and on the basis of the cardinal principle of non-interference.

The French government also expressed Frances solidarity with Denmark, whose military contingent was expelled from Mali last week because it had not obtained all the necessary authorizations for its deployment. Unfounded motives, the French government said.
Morocco stands out as a model of democracy in Africa and a key partner of the European Union in the fight against illegal migration, terrorism and extremism, said Member of the European Parliament Andrey Kovatchev.

Commenting lately the European Peoples Party (EPP) program Lets focus on the MENA Region, Mr. Kovatchev said he visited the North African Kingdom just after the democratic elections of 2021 which led to the victory of the liberal RNI party over the moderate Islamist PJD party, affirming that government alternation unfolded smoothly as in any democratic country.

The EU cooperates closely with Morocco in various sectors including economy, trade, security, migration and energy, added the MEP, stressing Morocco is poised to become the best partner of the EU in renewable energy, especially in green hydrogen.

During the last five years, Morocco foiled nearly 300,000 illegal migration crossings to the EU, and about 500,000 during the past decade, underlined Mr. Kovatchev, calling on the European bloc to deepen its strategic partnership with Morocco and support the Kingdom which deploys nearly 80,000 coast guards to prevent illegal migration attempts to Europe.

Regarding the fight against radicalization and terrorism, the Member of the European Parliament commended Morocco as a very important partner for the EU.
The union of secondary education, the general federation of higher education and scientific research, both members of Tunisias powerful workers union UGTT, have called on the government to release their January salaries.

Monday the federation of higher education and scientific research condemned the delay in the payment of university lecturers salaries.

In a statement, the federation argued that the situation has been detrimental to the academy in view of their obligations towards the bank or in relation to their daily expenses and the difficult economic situation in the country, especially the increase in prices.

The government Monday hiked by 3 per cent the price of fuel.

The federation also announced planned strikes or demonstrations to denounce the salary issues.

Also on Monday, the union of secondary education indicated that teachers of basic education have not been paid either.

Ikbal Azzabi, member of the union, told local radio Mosaique fm that the situation is a humiliation for teachers.

Tunisia is struggling to raise the necessary funds to finance the 2022 national budget standing at TD47.166 billion (around $16.4 billion) including a $2.8-billion deficit.

Foreign lenders are reluctant to help the North African country which has turned to local banks.
Libyas Premier Abdulhamid Dbeibah Monday told Al Jazeera network that the Speaker of the House of Representative (HoR) is trying to bring back division and fragmentation to the country, adding that his government will continue its work until the holding of elections, Libya Observer reports.

Dbeibahs accusations came after Aqila Saleh on Monday said HoR started to accept candidates paperwork for the position of the Prime Minister and the selection of the winning name to replace on February 08.

Dbeibah has come under scrutiny by a group of Libyan politicians who accuse him of corruption and taking advantage of his position.

September last year, the HoR gave a vote of no-confidence to Dbeibahs cabinet but the latter has managed to stay on the job after the High Council of State; the upper house headquartered in Tripoli, rejected the motion.

Dbeibah also vowed to stay in his position until the holding of elections after it had paved the way for all needed electoral process measures, Libya Observer notes.

He added that he had contacted all international parties and they had all assured him of their opposition to attempts to create a new transitional period by Saleh.

The oil-rich country failed to hold UN-backed December 24 presidential elections over several issues. Both Dbeibah and Saleh were candidates.
Moroccos autonomy plan for the Sahara offers a lasting and realistic political solution which guarantees to the local Saharan inhabitants the collective and individual rights, said the Italian Centre for International Studies (Ce.S.I)

In an analysis on the Sahara regional conflict, the Centro Studi Internazionali said the autonomy initiative is propped up by ambitious socioeconomic development projects and backed by major Western countries including the United States, Italy, Germany, France

This initiative should be the focus and the meeting point for all parties to the Sahara conflict, underlined the study, recalling the UN Secretary Generals appeal for realism and a spirit of compromise to move forward in the settlement process.

The supportive stands of Germany and Italy to the Moroccan autonomy plan will help to advance towards a lasting political solution and will strengthen the mission of UN envoy for the Sahara Staffan de Mistura, said the Italian center for studies on international relations.

During his latest tour to the region and consultations with the parties to the Sahara conflict, the opportunities offered by the Autonomy plan for an enduring resolution of the Sahara issue and stability of the region were discussed, added the Rome-based think-thank.
A 38-year-old North Platte man was sentenced Monday to 12 to 14 years in state prison in a pair of criminal cases.

In a Lincoln County District Court, Anthony D. Nunnenkamp received a 10- to 12-year sentence for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. The charge stems from a Sept. 10, 2019, incident for which he was initially charged with six felonies.

He was credited with 606 days served.

Nunnenkamp also received a two-year term for felony escape on July 8, 2020, when he walked out of the Lincoln County Detention Center. Colorado law enforcement officers returned him to Lincoln County in early April 2021.

The sentences for the two cases will run one after another.

Before he was sentenced, Nunnenkamp told Judge Michael Piccolo that he took responsibility for his actions, and he apologized to his family.

Also Monday, a May 10 jury trial was scheduled for William H. Stanback. The 43-year-old Greeley, Colorado, man is charged with first-degree murder. He is accused of killing his fiancee, Kimberly Ermi, and disposing her body in a retention pond in North Platte in March 2020.

The trial is scheduled to run for four days.

Kerec M. Gilmore, 39, who has charges in three separate cases, is scheduled for a three-day trial that begins May 10 as well.

The cases range from to a forgery charge to domestic violence and violation of a protection order.

In other cases Monday (defendants are from North Platte unless otherwise noted):

 Andrew T. Roepke, 21, was sentenced to 300 days in jail for both possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person as well as tampering with physical evidence.

Both sentences will run at the same time and stem from a Aug. 23 incident. He was credited with 58 days served.

Roepke, who pleaded guilty Oct. 18, will also serve nine months of post-release supervision for the weapon possession charge.

 Jimmy F. Sipes, 47, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine in two separate cases involving incidents on Sept. 17 and 24, 2020.

Two additional, separate cases were dismissed in the plea agreement.

Sipes was sentenced to 240 days in jail in both cases, and the terms will run at the same time. He was credited with 104 days served.

 Timothy C. Dike, 26, pleaded no contest to possession of methamphetamine on June 19.

He was sentenced to 240 days in jail and credited with 61 days served.

 Benjamin Z. Brown, 26, pleaded guilty to failure to report a change of address as a registered sex offender.

A felony charge of theft by unlawful taking in a separate case was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Brown was sentenced to 240 days in jail and credited with 53 days served.

 Steven R. Whitbeck, 35, pleaded guilty of shoplifting, $500 or less, on Sept. 18.

Two separate county court cases were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Whitbeck was sentenced to 90 days in jail and credited with 53 days served.

 Shawnda D. Petty, 44, admitted to a violation of her probation terms in June.

Petty was sentenced to two years of specialized substance abuse supervision for each of the initial charges of driving under the influence and transporting a child while under the influence.

The terms will run at the same time.

 Seth W. Jackson, 33, pleaded no contest to charges of resisting arrest and possession of methamphetamine.

A charge of tampering with physical evidence from the June 14 incident was dismissed, as was a separate criminal case, as part of the plea agreement.

Jackson was sentenced to 24 months of Specialized Substance Abuse Supervision probation.

 Lucas Partain, 36, pleaded no contest to charges in four separate cases, including a felony count of theft by unlawful taking, value of $500 to $1,500, on Aug. 26.

Partain also pleaded no contest to burglary in a separate case that stems from an incident last September, as well as counts of possession of methamphetamine and theft by shoplifting, $500 or less. The last two cases stem from an incident in November.

A fifth case was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Partain is scheduled to be sentenced in the four cases March 28.

 Dustin E. Smith, 42, admitted to violating the conditions for participation in the problem-solving court program.

Smith is scheduled to be sentenced March 28 for the initial charge of possession of methamphetamine Aug. 23.

 Grover L. Huey, 45, pleaded guilty of possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person Dec. 2. Two other misdemeanor charges were dismissed, as well as the lone charge in a separate case as part of the plea agreement.

He is scheduled to be sentenced March 28.

 Jason A. Janas, 46, pleaded not guilty to a felony count of second-degree assault on Sept. 29.

A March 28 status hearing was scheduled.

 Luke H. Schwartz, 41, pleaded not guilty of methamphetamine possession on Dec. 4.

A March 14 status hearing was scheduled.

 Kyle J. Martyszenko, 34, of Ogallala, pleaded not guilty of possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person. The felony stems from a Nov. 5 incident.

A March 28 status hearing was scheduled.

 Timothy J. Cooper, 35, pleaded not guilty to felony counts of resisting arrest and third-degree assault of an officer or health care professional.

A Feb. 28 status hearing was scheduled.

More by Tim Johnson

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An application for a subdivision north of North Platte brought forth a long discussion Monday about safety at the intersection of U.S. Highway 83 and Suburban Road.

The Lincoln County commissioners approved the application by Wesley and Kelly Kudera for Kudera Administrative Subdivision. Although the application met all the requirements for a subdivision under the current zoning, which is a TA-1 Transitional Agriculture District, Commissioner Kent Weems raised concerns about safety at the intersection. Weems voted against the application that passed 3-1. Commissioner Jerry Woodruff was absent from the meeting.

Planning Administrator Judy Clark said the subdivision would split an existing 8.23-acre lot into two lots. She said in a transitional agriculture district, lot sizes can be as small as 3 acres.

Weems said officials at the Department of Transportation District 6 indicated to him that no traffic study has been done on that intersection, which is near the Highway 97-83 junction.

Having lived north of it for 40-plus years, my concern has always been that left turn at the top of that hill, he said. Its very dangerous.

Chairman Chris Bruns said he agreed with Weems and understood the concern, but he looked at the situation from a different point of view.

In the same breath, I have a concern that in our county we do have a housing shortage, Bruns said.

Commissioner Micaela Wuehler said she has traveled all over Nebraska and has seen numerous roads with similar situations.

I feel that the residents need to accept the responsibility (for safety), Wuehler said. If they build there, theyre going to be aware of it and they have to take extra measures of caution for themselves.

She said there are other options for access to that area.

I would hate to deny room for development and growth because of something like that, Wuehler said, although I know there is a concern for safety on that road.

After the decision to approve the application, Gary Garrison and others who either live in the area or have property nearby voiced their concerns about the safety issue as well. The agenda item was not a public hearing, but Bruns gave Garrison time to express his thoughts.

The commissioners approved an interim interlocal agreement with the city of North Platte for shared highway superintendent duties. Bruns said the city is willing to consider an interim interlocal agreement for the county to use the services of city engineer Brent Burklund.

The board empowered Deputy County Attorney Tyler Volkmer to negotiate the terms of a temporary agreement.

Bruns said the problem is theres not a whole lot of people who have a Class A superintendent license, or Class B for that matter.

Volkmer said the county needs someone who can sign off on the one- and six-year road plans, which requires a Class A superintendent license. Burklund has a Class A license.

The board voted to begin advertising for a permanent highway superintendent in a legal notice as well as other advertising sites across the state.

In other action Monday:

 The board tabled entering into an agreement with Brent and Kara Reeder for a temporary construction easement and purchase of property for the Sutherland Bridge construction project.

However, Lyle Minshull, who owns property at 7117 Prairie Trace adjacent to the property in question, brought documents and maps indicating he is the owner of the Reeder property.

I have retained an attorney to go for adverse possession on it, Minshull said. My grandfather, my uncle, mother have farmed this ground since 1945.

Minshull asked the board to table the agreement until he can get the ownership of the property ironed out. The board agreed.

 The board also tabled action on a negotiated bid with Winston Michael Contracting Inc. for construction of a salt shed for the Lincoln County Department of Roads.

 Paul Grieger of D.A. Davidson and Co. spoke to the commissioners about refinancing of the 2017 series bonds. Grieger said the savings a short time ago would have been nearly $170,000, but Monday morning that savings had dropped to about $140,000. The board asked him to gather information and bring it back for further discussion.

 Region 51 Emergency Management Director Brandon Myers presented his quarterly report.

 The board authorized Bruns to sign a proposal from Nebraska Fire and Safety Equipment for an IP communicator. An IP network is a communication network used to send and receive messages between one or more computers.

 The commissioners approved a designated liquor permit by Skyline Liquor LLC for a fundraiser Feb. 18 at Harbor Lights by the Business and Professional Women organization.

More by Job Vigil

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Chinese navy ships carrying relief supplies depart for Tonga

Xinhua) 09:50, February 01, 2022

A staff member disinfects tractors on a ship delivering relief supplies to Tonga, Jan. 28, 2022. (Photo by Wang Lei/Xinhua)

GUANGZHOU, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- A flotilla comprised of two ships of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy departed from a port in south China's Guangzhou City Monday to deliver China's disaster relief supplies to the South Pacific island nation of Tonga.

This relief mission follows China's delivery of multiple batches of emergency supplies to Tonga, which was hit by disasters resulting from a massive volcano eruption earlier this month and its ensuing tsunami.

Weighing approximately 1,400 tonnes, the latest supplies include mobile homes, tractors, electricity generators, water pumps, water purifiers, food and medical supplies. 

Members of People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy fasten tractors on a ship delivering relief supplies to Tonga, Jan. 30, 2022. (Photo by Xue Chengqing/Xinhua)

Relief supplies are transferred onto a ship waiting to depart for Tonga, in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 30, 2022. (Photo by Xue Chengqing/Xinhua)

Relief supplies are transferred onto a ship waiting to depart for Tonga, in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 29, 2022. (Photo by Xue Chengqing/Xinhua)

Relief supplies are transferred onto a ship waiting to depart for Tonga, in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 30, 2022. (Photo by Xue Chengqing/Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on Jan. 28, 2022 shows relief supplies being transferred onto a ship waiting to depart for Tonga, in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. (Photo by Yin Zheng/Xinhua)

A ship loaded with relief supplies departs from a port in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, for Tonga, Jan. 31, 2022. (Photo by Zhou Yancheng/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
The question brought a look of joy to his face as Bishop Joseph G. Hanefeldt visited students at McDaid Elementary School Tuesday.

As he took a few minutes to visit with students in individual classes, Hanefeldt asked if there were any questions for him. One second grader asked him if God had a mother and a father.

God has always been, Hanefeldt told the student. He wasnt born, so He didnt have a mother and father because He has always been.

Each year in celebration of Catholic Schools Week, Hanefeldt travels across the state to celebrate Mass and meet with youngsters in schools within the Grand Island Diocese.

Hanefeldt said Catholic Schools Week celebrates the good things the schools are able to accomplish.

In Catholic education is an environment in which you not only can learn about various subjects we all have to learn, but to add faith to that, integrate faith into other subjects, Hanefeldt said. Its really important. It starts at home, but this can reinforce what happens at home. Catholic school is where faith flourishes.

He said in the world today, where there are many challenges, its important to have that avenue where faith is taught.

I think so much of the world is needing hope, Hanefeldt said. I think with uncertainty in life, no matter what the uncertainty is, we all need hope.

To instill that in young people early on, he said, is vital to their spiritual growth.

I think to put it in their hearts that the Lords always with us as it says in the Gospel, Hanefeldt said. The hope in Him when we dont know where else to turn or whats next is important for them to know.

More by Job Vigil

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On the morning her son died, Donna Faye Kiger fixed his lunch  a promise she made in the last conversation she would ever have with him.

John Mark Hendrick, 32, was starting a new job with a painting company, and Kiger said she wanted to make sure her oldest child had enough food to make it through the day.

It would be hours before she would learn that two Davidson County sheriffs deputies had shot her son to death, shortly after the mother and son last spoke on the morning of March 26, 2020. The shooting happened after a car chase, in which Hendrick was a passenger, that crossed three different counties and lasted several hours.

The deputies  Barry Lee Bartrug III and Matthew Jacob Shelton  said they had no choice but to use deadly force. They allege that the driver, Charles Justin Boothe, Hendrick and another passenger, Deven McKay Mathis, failed to follow commands and that Boothe made a movement toward the deputies.

Kiger filed a lawsuit on Aug. 27, 2020 in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of North Carolina against Bartrug and Shelton. Late last year, the lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount of money.

A month after the suit was filed, Garry Frank, the district attorney for Davidson County, cleared the deputies, concluding that their use of force was not excessive, and sought indictments against Boothe, the driver in the chase, for first-degree murder and other charges.

Under what is known as the felony murder rule, prosecutors allege Boothe is responsible for Hendricks death because he committed another felony  assaulting the two deputies with his car  when Hendrick was killed. Under the felony murder rule, Boothe could be found guilty of murder, even though he didnt fire the gun that killed Hendrick.

Kiger said the settlement isnt enough. She wants the deputies, who are now back on active duty with the Davidson County Sheriffs Office, to be held accountable in the criminal justice system.

He didnt do anything wrong that day, Kiger said about her son, who was the oldest of her four children. He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Nine seconds

Kiger said she talked to her son for the last time sometime after 12:30 a.m. on March 26, 2020. She told him she would take him lunch  the roast she had cooked for dinner the night before and some drinks.

According to authorities and to the lawsuit, Hendrick was in the front passenger seat of a car Boothe was driving at 2 a.m. that morning.

Mathis was in the back seat. Boothe had just dropped off Mathis girlfriend at her house, and the three men were on Lewisville-Clemmons Road near Peace Haven Road in Clemmons. As the light turned from green to yellow, Boothe accelerated and ran through the intersection.

The car Boothe was driving was also stolen, according to arrest warrants for Boothe.

A Forsyth County sheriffs deputy tried to pull Boothe over for running through the light, but Boothe would not stop, the lawsuit said. The deputy gave chase, driving just above the speed limit, the lawsuit said.

Hendrick and Mathis begged Boothe to stop, the lawsuit said. Boothe refused, telling them he wasnt going back to prison. So the chase went through Forsyth County, with other deputies joining in.

Boothe soon entered Guilford County, where deputies there took over the chase, but as Boothe drove into Thomasville in Davidson County, Guilford County deputies decided it wasnt worth it to continue a chase into another county over a traffic issue, John Vermitsky, one of Kigers attorneys, said.

According to the lawsuit, Hendrick and Mathis were essentially hostages. They had both called 911, asking deputies to back off so they could get out. Boothe also called 911, saying he would let Hendrick and Mathis out if officers would stop chasing him, the lawsuit said.

As the chase entered Lexington, Davidson County sheriffs deputies did what is known as a pit maneuver where they crashed into Boothes car and then blocked it in, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleges that Defendants Bartrug and Shelton exited their patrol vehicles and immediately began firing on the vehicle driven by Boothe, firing at least three to six shots into the passenger side of the vehicle.

All of these vehicle shots were fired towards the passenger seat, with one striking Hendrick in the forehead, killing him instantly, the lawsuit said. No warning was given before firing the deadly shots, nor was any attempt taken to avoid targeting the passengers who were clearly kept in the vehicle against their will. Instead the force was deliberately used against Hendrick, killing him and seizing the vehicle.

Kiger said she listened to the 911 calls. According to the calls she heard, the deputies never gave any commands and they started shooting within nine seconds.

The lawsuit alleged that Hendrick was maliciously executed.

Kiger said that when she finally heard from Davidson County Sheriff Ritchie Simmons about what happened to her son, he told her that they were playing a cat and mouse game with deputies, referring to Boothe, Hendrick and Mathis.

Simmons declined to comment on the allegations in the lawsuit. The shooting was not captured on body-cameras or dash cameras. The only body-camera footage came from Forsyth County sheriffs deputies who came to the scene after the shooting.

At the time of the shooting, the Davidson County Sheriffs Office did not have body or dash cameras. Simmons said there was no money for them until a $125,000 federal grant came through months after the shooting. The county had to provide matching funds. The department now has 62 body cameras for deputies who work at the jail and on patrol and who work in the departments Traffic and Criminal Enforcement Division. The department has 10 dash cameras. The department has 161 sworn officers.

The Winston-Salem Journal made a public request to County Attorney Chuck Frye for the 911 calls. Frye said in an email on Jan. 19 that he had received the request. In an email on Thursday, Frye cited state law in saying that there are certain circumstances where public records can be withheld, such as the pending criminal charges against Boothe. He said he had asked the Davidson County Sheriffs Office about its position on releasing the 911 calls. Frye did not provide any updates on the 911 calls on Friday.

Vermitsky said what stood out to him was that once the chase entered Davidson County, there was an immense escalation of the situation. The deputies had all the information they needed to get Boothe later; instead, they chased after the three men over a traffic infraction, Vermitsky said.

Frank, the district attorney, said he reviewed the SBI report and concluded that the deputies use of force was not excessive.

My review of the SBI report indicated that the conduct of the officers didnt merit any criminal charges in my opinion, he said.

Patrick Flanagan, attorney for the deputies, reiterated that the SBI investigated and turned over its report to Frank, who did not pursue any criminal charges against the deputies. He declined further comment.

Both deputies claimed what is known as qualified immunity, a legal concept created by the courts that shields law-enforcement officers from civil liability in most cases. Qualified immunity, Vermitsky said, represents a high legal bar because in many cases, the officers cant be held liable unless the court has previously ruled on the same set of facts.

If there has not been a court case with the same set of facts, the officers are not on notice, he said. The law just says they can do it and you get one free pass.

According to an October 2021 Washington Post analysis, at least 35 state bills seeking to end qualified immunity have failed.

The settlement, Vermitsky said, represented a small amount of justice for Kiger.

Unfortunately, all we have in civil systems is money, he said. We cant force reforms. I was glad that some measure of accountability was taken through force by the settlement happening . This was about getting some small measure of justice.

Everything went dark

It would take hours before Kiger found out what happened to her son on March 26, 2020. At noon that day, she got a call from someone asking if she had talked to her son. That person told her that her son had been involved with something. Kiger said she started making some calls. She called hospitals and the local jail. She called her son.

When she called Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, she said she was told her son was there having a procedure. Kiger said she and her husband drove up to Winston-Salem, where they were told Hendrick wasnt there. She wasnt allowed in the hospital because of the hospitals COVID-19 safety protocols. Then one of her daughters called and told her that there had been a shooting. One of the security guards came out, and she told him what she had heard. The security guard took her to a different part of the hospital. Someone called her and told her that her son had been shot.

The security guard was able to confirm it to her husband and her ex-husband, Hendricks father. They were told Hendrick was at Lexington Memorial Hospital. Everything around me just went dark, Kiger said. I could see everybody but I couldnt see anybody. I just fell to my knees and screamed.

Kiger is holding onto the memory of her son. Hendrick was the oldest of four children  two sons and two daughters. And they were all close, Kiger said. Hendrick grew up in Winston-Salem and attended Parkland High School. He went to Forsyth Technical Community College to try to attain a GED. He didnt finish but he was about to start a new job at a painting company. He was very family oriented, Kiger said. We were all just really close. Thats why she woke up early on March 26, 2020, to fix her son some lunch for his first day on the job he never got a chance to get to. Thats why, she said, she is continuing to push for justice for her son. She wants the deputies who shot her son in prison. She said she wants accountability. Vermitsky said Kiger wants a fair investigation and a fair prosecution. Theyve taken a part of my heart away, Kiger said. Its just a piece of me thats missing that will never be whole again, that will never be put back together again.
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Beginning this month, Auburn University is waiving admission application fees for students from eight of Alabamas Historically Black College and Universities, or HBCUs, interested in pursuing post-graduate studies in one of the universitys more than 190 graduate degree programs.

Designed to encourage enrollment in graduate school, the waiver program is one of several efforts the university is undertaking to strengthen its academic partnerships with HBCUs and encourage diversity in graduate education across the state. The waiver program follows Auburns recent initiatives with students at HBCUs, including a partnership with Tuskegee University and The Future Scholars Summer Research Bridge Program.

Alabama maintains more HBCUs than any other state in the U.S., providing a critical role in educating the next generation of diverse professionals. On average, 70 percent of Americas Black doctors earned a degree from an HBCU, with 50 percent of Black engineers and teachers and 35 percent of Black lawyers pursing undergraduate and graduate degrees. By creating additional opportunities for academically talented students, the waiver incentivizes students to remain in Alabama and consider Auburn University for graduate school.

Creating more pathways for students to attend Auburn graduate programs will strengthen our university and add incredible value to our community, said George Flowers, dean of the Graduate School. We need the states top talent in our programs and are looking forward to deepening our relationships with HBCUs to better identify, open doors and welcome students who are interested in continuing their education here at Auburn.

Eligible HBCUs include Alabama A&M University in Huntsville; Alabama State University in Montgomery; Concordia University in Selma; Miles College in Fairfield; Oakwood University in Huntsville; Stillman College in Tuscaloosa; Talladega College in Talladega; and Tuskegee University in Tuskegee.

We are excited to work with the Graduate School on such a meaningful initiative to incentivize students from HBCUs in our own backyard to consider Auburn for post-graduate programs, said Taffye Benson Clayton, associate provost and vice president for inclusion and diversity. This partnership is one of a number of ways we are working to advance Auburns commitment to proactively work to eliminate barriers facing underrepresented community members and build a diverse campus community.

For general questions about Auburns Graduate School, applicants can visit the official Graduate School website or email gradadm@auburn.edu. For more information on Auburns commitment, initiatives and progress toward building a diverse, equitable and inclusive campus, visit the Office of Inclusion and Diversity site and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion page.
To help professionals and practitioners in various industries safely manage pesky particles, NFPA has developed six standards.

Earlier this year, after an industrial manufacturing explosion in Singapore killed three and injured seven more, NFPA Journal put out a timely piece entitled Dust Disaster and an NFPA Learn Something New video that answered the question, What is a Combustible Dust Explosion?

Speaking to NFPA Associate Editor Angelo Verzoni, Alexander Ing, one of the Associations hazardous chemicals engineers, explained that combustible dusts are created when finely divided solids are turned into smaller pieces. We see this with metal manufacturing where chipping and grinding are commonplace, chemical processing plants when raw materials are turned into plastics and during agricultural manufacturing when grain or products are often converted into a flour or powder, as was the case in Singapore.

Ing pointed to the dust explosion pentagon, which is an expansion of the fire triangle as it relates to dust to set the stage for what might have happened in that February incident. The fire triangle starts with fuel, oxygen and an ignition source. If the three elements are present at the same time, you can get a fire. For example, if a pile of potato starch is exposed to a sufficient ignition source, fire can erupt on the top of that pile because that is where the surface area of the potato starch interacts with oxygen and all three elements of the fire triangle are present. If that same pile is dispersed into the air, a flash fire can be started from it. And, if that pile is dispersed in an enclosed space, that is considered confinement, which allows pressure to build as the gases rapidly expand during the reaction.

So, a dust fire can occur if the three elements of the fire trianglefuel, oxygen and an ignition sourceare present and an explosion can occur if you add dispersion and confinement to the three elements of the fire triangle. So, how common are combustible dust incidents? According to the 2021 Mid-Year Combustible Dust Incident Report generated by Dust Safety Science, there were 51 fires and 28 explosions reported globally in the first six months of the year. These incidents caused 44 injuries and eight fatalities, with two incidents causing more than $1 million in losses. The data shows that wood processing, wood products, agricultural activity and food production typically make up a large portion of the overall fire and explosion incidents, but from January through June this year, the other category of industries made up 45 percent of the injuries and 37 percent of the fatalities reported. Other settings include facilities that deal with pulp, paper or ethanol, and include places like high schools and educational facilities.

A running tally of recent incidents on the Dust Safety Science site indicates that there were 12 fires or explosions around the world in October alone. These incidents wrought varying degrees of havoc on facilities and resulted in employees being evacuated, response resources being called in, water supplies being tapped, operations coming to a halt and export schedules being affected. To help professionals and practitioners in various industries safely manage pesky particles, NFPA has developed six standardsone that covers the fundamentals of combustible dust and five more addressing commodity-based considerations:

*NFPA 652, Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust, which lays out the basics of things that are common throughout the dust world

*NFPA 654, Standard for the Prevention of Fire and Dust Explosions from the Manufacturing, Processing, and Handling of Combustible Particulate Solids, which generally handles chemical dusts

*NFPA 61, Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Dust Explosions in Agricultural and Food Processing Facilities, which generally handles agricultural and food dusts

*NFPA 484, Standard for Combustible Metals, which generally handles combustible metals

*NFPA 664, Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Explosions in Wood Processing and Woodworking Facilities, which generally handles wood dust

*NFPA 655, Standard for Prevention of Sulfur Fires and Explosions, which handles the size reduction and handling of sulfur

This fall, a new training program also debuted. It applies the guidance found within the 2019 edition of NFPA 652. NFPA tapped into an expert training advisory group to glean specialized industrial knowledge and input for the training that is set in a grain mill. The three modules cover different forms of dust, proactive preventative measures to be taken to reduce risk and the impact that compliance has on protecting people and property. Completion of a dust hazard analysis (DHA) is emphasized in NFPA 652 and the DHA needs to be reviewed and updated every five years. Therefore, trainees are required to identify potential risks, perform a DHA and then implement the recommendations put forth in the DHA during the training.

The three-part NFPA 652 Combustible Dust (2019) Online Training Series entails Combustible Dust Safety Awareness, Combustible Dust Hazard Evaluation and Combustible Dust Controls and Safeguards modules that feature engaging videos, interactive simulations, informative case studies and other educational enhancements. The training trio benefits manufacturing personnel as well as engineers, designers, health and safety leaders, loss control/facility risk/safety specialists, facilities managers, insurers, inspectors and code enforcers.

And finally, if you are not familiar with all the great research that NFPA generates to inform audiences about persistent threats and emerging hazards, it is time to visit the Applied Research section on our website and the microsite for the Fire Protection Research Foundation, the research affiliate of NFPA. The Foundation issued a report last December on the Variables Impacting the Probability and Severity of Dust explosions in Dust Collectors because, as the NFPA Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem outlines, one of the best ways that organizations, including NFPA, can invest in safety is by prioritizing research.

Combustible dust can wreak havoc on facilities, if prescriptive and proactive steps are not being taken by key personnel. That is why NFPA standards, training, content and research exist. Are you taking full advantage of the insights and information found in these resources?
The Long Road to Now: The Evolution of Safe Work

OH&S takes a look at the most important events that have helped to evolve occupational health and safety since the inception of the publication.

Relating health issues to occupations and their environments goes back further than you think it does. In fact, the first known instance of correlation between health and work was in fourth century BC when Hippocrates noted lead toxicity in workers of the mining industry. Since then, there has been a long road of scientists, physicians and researchers who have spent time analyzing work environments and the impact they have on a humans health and wellness.

As a celebration of Occupational Health & Safetys 90th anniversary, a milestone discussed on page X of this issue, we will be dedicating an article in each issue of 2022 to take a historic look back on some of the most important safety and health topics. To kick off our anniversary coverage, we will be taking a look at the events that have helped to form the safety industry as we know it now. As sometimes the most important lessons are learned from history.

Creating the Roadmap

Its hard to imagine a time when air conditioning, PPE and OSHA didnt exist but at the turn of the 19th century, workers were battling harsh conditions in workplaces throughout the world. There had been some movement to recognize and heal workers who had fallen ill due to occupational exposures, but little had been done in the way of prevention.

One of the first industries to begin to see federal regulation was the mining industry which passed the first mine safety statute in 1891. The statute, however, only applied to coal mines and did little to protect workers as it only established minimum requirements for ventilation and prohibited operators from hiring children under the age of 12.

The late 1800s saw some actions that hinted towards change for the better. For example, the first recorded call by a labor organization for a U.S. occupational safety and health law is heard in 1867 and in 1896 the National Fire Protection Association was founded to prevent fires and write fire safety codes and standards. Overseas, Great Britain passed a workmens compensation act for occupational injuries in 1897something that would take until 1916 to pass in the United States.

This article originally appeared in the February 1, 2022 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
Wondering if your facility may have combustible dust? In some cases, less than 1/4 inch layer of dust can explode or ignite. Here's a demonstration of how to collect and ship a sample to a lab for testing. Every plant, in industries including food, pharmaceutical, wood, agricultural, cosmetic, petrochem, plastics, manufacturing, and more, can be at risk. Testing is inexpensive and can help to determine which collection units are best suited to your plant. Contact us with any questions at [email protected] or 630-323-8750. more

A potential combustible dust hazard sample arrives at Fauske & Associates, LLC lab and we are ready to start the testing process. We cover how the sample arrives, focusing on examples of material sent to us that we are unable to test or sample that was shipped in a way that damaged the sample in transit. We also show the sample that has arrived in an appropriate form of packaging that ensured the safe transit of the material. Once we have received the material, it is time to prep the material for testing according to the clients request per standards such as NFPA 652. We wrap up by showing the Explosibility Screening or Go/No Go test in the Modified Hartmann Tube and the Combustibility Screening Test of another material. www.fauske.com, 1-630-323-8750, 1-877-FAUSKE1 more
With or without the IEAs roadmap to net zero, this year could see an uptick in new drilling

WoodMac VP for exploration: The majors are still exploring and say much less about it than they used to

The International Energy Agencys Net Zero by 2050 roadmap, issued last year, has become something of a textbook example of bad timing. Just four months later, the agency said the world needs more investment in oil exploration because of dwindling OPEC spare production capacity.

Besides these mixed signals, the agency also lashed out at OPEC+ last year, accusing it of keeping the global oil supply artificially tight to keep prices high. At first glance, one might think the worlds most influential energy body, per the FTs Tom Wilson, does not really know what its talking about. Yet Big Oil does not care about that. Big Oil is drilling. Its just not talking about it.

The majors are still exploring and say much less about it than they used to, Andrew Latham, vice-president for exploration at Wood Mackenzie, told the FTs Wilson this month. You have to be a real specialist sector watcher to know these kinds of things [because] they dont talk about it.

According to the consultancy, a total of 798 appraisal and exploration wells were drilled last year, which was about the same as was drilled a year earlier. It was also substantially less than what was drilled in 2019, at 1,256 wells, but the drop was, according to Latham, connected to the pandemic.

This means that, with or without the IEAs roadmap to net zero, this year could see an uptick in new drilling, especially given the strength of oil demand, as admitted by that very same IEA to have exceeded market observers expectations.

Shell struck a potentially major deposit in Namibia earlier his month, according to reports. It wasnt the company that announced the find. It was Reuters, citing unnamed sources in the know who said the government of the southern African country would make an official announcement this week.

Exxon continues to make find after find offshore Guyana. The latest update came earlier this month and was about plans to start pumping from a second platform in the Stabroek Block, which would boost the countrys oil output three times. Meanwhile, the supermajor has also announced plans to become a net-zero company by 2050.

French TotalEnergies, formerly just Total, has been particularly active in new oil well drilling, even as it also ramps up renewable energy expansion. The French company drilled the most new exploration wells last year, according to Wood Mac data cited by the Financial Times, coming ahead of both Exxon, which was second, and Norways Equinor, which came in third.

For Exxon, it is mostly business as usual. The company has some activist shareholders on its tail but no court rulings obliging it to shrink its oil output, unlike Shell. It is perhaps this fact that makes the Shell case especially interesting. The supermajor was ordered by a Dutch court to slash its emissions footprint by 45 percent within ten years last year, and it said that its production had peaked anyway back in 2019.

Yet Shell is drillingand not just drilling but doing it in a frontier region with no well-developed infrastructure or oil industry of any sort. This means higher investments should the find be confirmed. Why is Shell doing this?

Reserve replacement is one reason. Even with plansand an obligationto produce less oil in the future, the company is not completely giving up its core business. Oil demand, regardless of various forecasts, looks like it still has a few good decades in it. The costs of new wind and solar installations are rising, the supply of critical minerals and metals is limited, and new mine lead times are even longer than the lead times for offshore oil wells. This doesnt bode well for the renewable revolution, but it does bode well for oil and gas demand.

Another reason is oil prices. With these higher, drilling in new underexplored regions becomes more affordable. With Brent crude at $91 per barrel, exploration is a lot more attractive than it probably was with Brent at $40, not least because high oil prices strongly suggest demand is exceeding supply.

Carbon Tracker earlier this month published a report warning that new oil and gas exploration could result in stranded assets worth $500 billion because over the long term, oil demand would perish. Yet the same organization last year forecast a continued slump in the costs of wind and solar power, and that did not exactly play out, just a year after the report, so whether or not these assets will indeed be stranded remains a wide open question.

Big Oiland small and medium oil, toois doing what any business would do in the current environment. Said environment suggests that the demand for Big Oils products is strong. Naturally, they would try to respond to that strong demand by producing as much as they can to satisfy it. But they wont talk about it as openly as they used to before. Instead, they would highlight their investments in wind, solar, and EVs while quietly drilling to ensure there will be enough oil for tomorrow and the day after.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Frontera Energy struck oil in the Corentyne Block offshore Guyana, the company said this week.

"Initial results from the Kawa-1 well are positive and reinforce CGX and Frontera's belief in the potentially transformational opportunity our investments and interests in Guyana present for our companies and the country," said Frontera board chairman Gabriel de Alba.

"Kawa-1 results add to the growing success story unfolding in offshore Guyana as the country emerges as a global oil and gas exploration hotspot," he added.

Indeed, Guyana has turned into the brightest star in the oil universe lately after Exxon and its partner Hess made a string of discoveries in the Stabroek Block, unlocking reserves of more than 10 billion barrels of crude.

Since it first struck oil offshore Guyana, the U.S. supermajor has made more than 20 discoveries; the latest two announced earlier this month.

"Both discoveries increase our understanding of the resource, our continued confidence in the block's exploration potential, and our view that the many discoveries to date could result in up to 10 development projects," said Mike Cousins, senior vice president of exploration and new ventures at Exxon t the time.

It was thanks to Exxon's discoveries that Guyana became an oil exporter a couple of years ago and has further ambitions in this respect as production grows. This month, the daily average is seen rising threefold to 340,000 bpd after Exxon puts into operation a second floating production, storage, and offloading vessel.

Frontera, meanwhile, which is exploring the Corentyne Block through subsidiary CGX, plans to spud a second well in the block in the second half of the year.

Guyana, meanwhile, is in talks on an oil alliance with neighbors Suriname and Brazil. Reuters reported last month that the three were discussing building infrastructure that would help them better share their energy and natural resources.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) posted its largest quarterly profit for Q4 in seven years, while its full-year 2021 cash flow from operating activities jumped to the highest since 2012 as oil and gas prices soared.

Exxon reported on Tuesday fourth-quarter 2021 earnings of $8.9 billion, or $2.08 per share assuming dilution, resulting in full-year earnings of $23 billion, or $5.39 per share.

Earnings per share excluding items came in at $2.05, ahead of the $1.94 per share forecast of the analyst consensus in The Wall Street Journal.

Cash flow from operating activities jumped to $48.129 billion for the full year, which was the highest level since 2012, Exxon said in a statement. The cash flow last year was more than enough to cover capital investments, debt reduction, and dividends.

Starting this quarter, Exxon launched share repurchases as part of the previously announced buyback program of up to $10 billion over the next 12 to 24 months. It also plans to spend between $21 billion and $24 billion this year, compared to the $16.6 billion spent last year.

Exxon's production in the Permian increased by nearly 100,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day in 2021, with improved capital efficiency, the corporation said, adding that "The focus remains on continuing to grow free cash flow by increasing recovery through efficiency gains and technology applications."

"We've made great progress in 2021 and our forward plans position us to lead in cash flow and earnings growth, operating performance, and the energy transition," chairman and CEO Darren Woods said.

Before the earnings release, Exxon said it was streamlining its business structure by combining chemical and downstream companies and centralizing technology and engineering, and other support services, in order to reduce costs and boost effectiveness.

Exxon will relocate its corporate headquarters from Irving, Texas, to its campus north of Houston in a move expected to be completed mid-year 2023.

Following the release of the Q4 results topping expectations, Exxon shares were up 1.4% pre-market on Tuesday.

Last week, Chevron (NYSE: CVX) reported for 2021 a record-high free cash flow and its best annual earnings since 2014, thanks to rallying oil and gas prices and the economic rebound last year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
There is a glimmer of hope for the U.S. here if it were hoping to influence the Mansuriya project as it has not yet been signed despite being finalized.

China has continued to press home the geopolitical advantage given to it in Iraq following the official end of the U.S.s combat mission in the country on 9 December 2021 with the conclusion of three huge deals, all focused on the oil sector. However, crucially for the U.S.s ongoing interests in the Middle East, there may still be scope to change the eventual outcome of the development contract for the giant Mansuriya gas field and associated projects. Last weeks finalization of the 25-year deal for the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) to take a 49 percent share in the Mansuriya field, with the remainder held by Iraqs state-own Midland Oil Company, followed the initial announcement of the deal in April 2021 that surprised many, given Russias longstanding interest in gas development projects in that region of Iraq. From the Chinese and Russian perspective, though, their activities across the Middle East  and also in other geopolitically sensitive areas in which the U.S. also has an interest, notably Asia-Pacific  is not a zero-sum game, as analyzed in depth in my new book on the global oil markets.

An informal agreement was put in place at the beginning of 2021 that, for Iraq, China would have first refusal on developing a number of key oil and gas sites, one of which was Mansuriya, while Russia would have the same first refusal in other sites across the region, a senior oil and gas industry figure who works closely with Irans Petroleum Ministry exclusively told OilPrice.com. This is part of a broader policy of co-operation defined by the idea that in any country that may require military intervention to extend the Sino-Russian axis that may prompt confrontation with the U.S. - notably Syria - Russia takes the lead, whilst for any other countries, in which only money is required, China takes the lead, he added. However, given the military strategic importance of Mansuriya to Russia - and, by default, to China - several Russian companies will also be present on the Mansuriya development working alongside Sinopec, principally on the technical and equipment side, he underlined.

Extremely close to the Iranian border, and just north of Baghdad, the Mansuriya gas field has an estimated 4.5-4.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in place, with plans to increase production to at least 320 million standard cubic feet (Mmscf) per day, making it a very valuable gas deposit in and of itself. Its broader significance to Russia  and, by extension, to China  is twofold. First, Iraq had previously always sought to offer the three fields of Mansuriya, Akkas, and Siba together as one development package. These three sites form a skewed triangle across southern Iraq, stretching from Mansuriya near the eastern border with Iran, down to Siba in the south (extremely close to the key Iraqi Basra export hub), and then all the way west across to Akkas (extremely close to the border with Syria).

Second, this triangle was to have been linked in with a transit route running all the way from Basra to Syria, with much of it disappearing into Iraqs lawless wasteland Anbar province, a place so violent and unpredictable that it was even avoided where possible by Islamic State. This route is the one that the U.S. military used to call the spine of Islamic State, where the Euphrates flows westwards into Syria and eastwards into the Persian Gulf, extremely close to the border with Iran. It remains of vital strategic importance not just to Russian operations in Syria, and elsewhere in the region, but also to several elements of Chinas One Belt, One Road land and maritime routes.

Related: U.S. Rig Count Rises Along With Crude Prices

This is precisely why, in September 2019, a preliminary contract between Russias Stroytransgaz and Iraqs Oil Ministry was signed to develop the hitherto virtually unknown Block 17, as the Block is right in the middle of this spine. Along the spine running from east to west are the historical ultra-nationalist and ultra-anti-West cities of Falluja, Ramadi, Hit and Haditha, and then were into Syria, and a short hop to the ports of Banias and Tartus that are vitally important to the Russians, and the listening station near Latakia, said the Iran source. The Russian presence, or Chinese one if managed with Russia, would also allow for the build-out of the Iran-Iraq-Syria oil and gas pipelines system, and the free movement of hydrocarbons products  or anything else - either south to the markets of Asia or to the East coast of Africa or west to the Mediterranean and beyond.

The caveat here, though, for the U.S. is that although this Mansuriya deal is scheduled to run for 25 years minimum, with options on both sides for five year extensions every five years, it may yet still be derailed. At the ceremony last week, the Oil Ministry was careful to highlight that although the deal with Sinopec has now been finalized  following April 2021s announcement  it has not yet been officially signed, and that it would not be signed before a new government in Iraq is formed. This clearly leaves the way open for the U.S. to come in with a few offers of its own, of the type that we have seen in recent years, involving several major U.S. corporations offering big money to Iraq for various deals, said the Iran source.

Increasing the pressure on the U.S. to step in on this vital gas field development project  and the additional projects that go with it, linked to the spine of Iraq  the Oil Ministry announced two other huge deals with China companies last week. According to a statement from Iraqs Oil Ministry, the foundation stone has now been laid for the US$594 million crude oil processing plant at Block 9 in the Al-Fayha oil field in Basra Province. Oil Minister,

Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail, said that the development is important for the production of light oil, with a target for this project of up to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, along with 135 million standard cubic feet per day of gas at a future stage for electricity production. The development of the field was started in 2014 by the Kuwait Energy Company (KEC) and then picked up by the little-known Chinese company, United Energy Group (UEG), following its acquisition of KEC in 2018. Kuwait Energy Basra  an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of UEG - has entered into the US$594 million engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contract with a Chinese consortium consisting of China CAMC Engineering and CNOOC Petrochemical Engineering.

Just prior to this announcement came another that the Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) signed an US$880 million engineering, procurement and construction contract with Iraqs Missan International Refinery Company to build the 150,000 bpd Missan Refinery Project. According to local news reports in 2019, the Missan International Refinery Company itself was formed by a little-known Swiss-Chinese consortium comprised of Swiss industrial firm Satarem (15 percent share) and Chinas Wahan (85 percent share). The refinery project originally broke ground in 2016, with an estimated cost of US$6 billion, which, according to Iraqs then-Deputy Minister for Refining, Deiaa Jaafar, would be funded by the Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank. At the time, Iraq was looking to move ahead with another three refineries, in addition to Missan, comprising the 300,000 bpd Nassiriya refinery, the 150,000 bpd Kirkuk refinery, and the 140,000 bpd Karbala refinery. According to the comments from Iraqs Oil Ministry last week, the project will now be completed with the next 54 months.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A cyber attack on a German oil storage and logistics firm has impacted Shells oil supply chain in Germany, where it is rerouting supplies to alternative depots, the supermajor said on Tuesday.

Shell was able to reroute to alternative supply depots for the time being, a spokesperson for Shells German unit, Shell Deutschland GmbH, said in a statement on Tuesday as carried by Reuters.

A few days ago, oil supply and logistics firms Oiltanking Deutschland GmbH and oil trading firm Mabanaft, both of which are subsidiaries of Hamburg-based group Marquard & Bahls, were victims of a cyberattack that affected their IT systems.

The companies discovered on Saturday the cyber incident and launched an investigation into it with the help of external specialists, Oiltanking Deutschland and Mabanaft said in an emailed statement cited by The Associated Press.

Oiltanking GmbH Group continues to operate all terminals in all global markets, but the German operations of Oiltanking Deutschland GmbH were operating with limited capacity.

The companies are working to restore operations to normal as soon as feasible, but in the meantime, the oil logistics and supply chain in Germany has been affected, including oil logistics at the local operations of supermajor Shell.

All systems of loading and unloading tanks operated by Oiltanking Deutschland in Germany are being paralyzed, German business daily Handelsblatt reported on Tuesday.

Oiltanking Deutschland is one of the largest independent providers of tank space for oils, chemicals, and gases worldwide, according to Handelsblatt. Oiltanking Deutschland has 11 tank farm locations in Germany.

The German unit of Mabanaft has also declared force majeure for the majority of its inland supply activities in Germany, the statement from the firm cited by AP said. Mabanaft is an importer, wholesaler, and supplier of gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, heating oil, and other petroleum products.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Union Pacific Railroad will purchase 20 battery-electric locomotives, marking what the company said will be the largest investment in battery technology by a U.S. railroad.

The locomotives, which use no fuel and have no emissions, are expected to be fully delivered by late 2024, according to the Omaha-based company. U.P. will test the locomotives in Nebraska and California rail yards before wider deployment.

They will immediately be put to work in rail yards where they will be tested for performance in cold and warm weather, Maqui Parkerson, the railroads vice president of labor relations and sustainability, said in a statement. The hope is that lessons learned from this test phase will get us closer to technology that could be used reliably for long-haul service.

The company will spend about $100 million on the locomotives and necessary updates to yard infrastructure. Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company, will supply half of the locomotives, and the others will be purchased from WabTec Corp. Both companies will manufacture the locomotives in the U.S.

The announcement builds on previous sustainability commitments by U.P. In December, the company announced that it plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 26% from its 2018 levels by 2030, the Associated Press reported. The company also committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Were committed to actions that reduce Union Pacifics environmental footprint as we work toward our ultimate goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, Lance Fritz, U.P.s chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement.

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PAPILLION  A $75,000 Google data center community grant has advanced the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorials efforts to create a memorial that remembers the past and educates the future.

On Jan. 26, the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation announced the grant for the two-acre statewide memorial that honors the 396 Nebraskans Killed-in-Action during the Vietnam era.

Groundbreaking for the memorial is expected this spring near the SumTur Amphitheater, just south of 108th and Highway 370 in Papillion. It is scheduled to open on March 29, 2023, also known as Vietnam Veterans Day.

We are pleased to have the support from Googles local data center team for this memorial, which will be a meaningful addition to the entire state. The memorial is important to veterans and all Nebraskans, NVVMF President Tom Brown said in a press release.

NVVMF was created in 2019 by a group of Vietnam veterans who saw the need to create a memorial honoring all Nebraskans lost in the Vietnam War. It is estimated that by 2030, almost half of the Nebraska Vietnam War era veterans living today will be deceased.

Googles regional head of external affairs, Dan Harbeke, said the companys grants support eligible organizations and initiatives in local communities. To date, Google has awarded over $2 million to Nebraska schools and nonprofits.

We are so happy to offer our support, yet humbled by the opportunity, Harbeke said in a release. It is an honor for us to commemorate those who served and to be a part of remembering their legacy.

The memorial includes an Honor Wall and a UH-1 Huey Helicopter flown in Vietnam. Throughout the memorial, 11 obelisks will create a historical journey through the events of the Vietnam era. QR codes will allow visitors to learn about individual soldiers.

It will also feature the United States flagpole and flags representing the branches of the military, benches, and greenspace for reflection and rest.

More about the Nebraska Vietnam Memorial can be found at nvvmf.org. A virtual tour of the memorial can be viewed here: youtube.com/watch?v=tIojlxVQQMM.

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Nebraska may have reached the peak of COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant, but the sharp decline in cases is not yet providing relief for the states hospitals.

Even as cases fell statewide last week, the average number of Nebraskans hospitalized with COVID-19 during that time rose 7% from 693 to 739.

Jeremy Nordquist, president of the Nebraska Hospital Association, said Monday that hospital officials hope to talk about turning the corner on the pandemic in the weeks ahead.

But were certainly not there yet, he said during a briefing by Nebraska hospital leaders.

Last weeks COVID-19 hospitalization numbers lagged only those recorded during the November 2020 surge. Hospitalizations typically lag infections by a week or two, meaning that more could be on the way.

Some relief for hospitals is expected to come with the opening of three skilled nursing sites that will provide places to send patients well enough to be discharged but not yet well enough to go home. The first of the facilities is slated to open Tuesday in Lincoln, followed by others in Omaha and Grand Island. The state is tapping federal COVID-19 relief dollars to provide up to 98 beds among the three locations.

Brett Richmond, president and CEO of Methodist Fremont Health, said he was wary of predicting what the coronavirus will do next.

I think were yet to see the impact of what we hope has been a peak in cases throughout the state, he said. So well keep our fingers crossed. But were prepared for those numbers to continue to go up from a hospital perspective over the next couple of weeks.

Richmond also noted that cases may have peaked in eastern Nebraska but may not have reached their apex in the central and western parts of the state.

Daily figures show that the omicron wave peaked in Nebraska on Jan. 19. It has peaked nationally, too, as all but 10 states saw declining numbers last week.

Cases were down 46% in Douglas County last week and 43% in Lancaster County. But cases were still rising in 13 Nebraska counties, most of them counties with low vaccination rates in the north-central, south-central and Sandhills regions.

Bill Calhoun, CEO of Kearney Regional Medical Center, said Mondays counts suggest that the hospital is no longer diverting patients as it was much of last week. Respiratory clinic patient volumes have also decreased. Both suggest a reduction in omicron cases.

But he and the other hospital officials said they continue to face the strain of caring for COVID-19 patients and others amid staffing struggles exacerbated by the pandemic. Calhoun said COVID-19 patients have taken up 30% to 40% of the hospitals capacity in recent weeks. Because of physical constraints, the hospital has opened three trailers on its grounds, one for respiratory therapy and two for COVID-19 treatment infusions.

Transfers to other facilities continue to be challenging, he said. A couple of weeks ago, the hospital swapped a patient who needed less-intense care for an acutely ill COVID-19 patient at a smaller hospital. That hospital had reached out to 70 facilities in five states to try to get a bed for the patient at a facility that offered a higher level of care.

Nordquist said state health officials have warned that the BA.2 subvariant of omicron has stopped peaks in some countries from falling as fast as they would have otherwise. Health officials dont know what that might mean here. So were keeping an eye on it, he said.

But in Nebraska as a whole, case counts in the monthlong omicron surge are now coming down almost as steeply as they rose, according to a World-Herald analysis of federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

The state saw 22,302 new cases during the week ending Thursday, down 24% from 29,141 the previous week.

The milder omicron strain is still proving deadly, with 97 deaths added to the states toll last week  one of the highest tolls of the pandemic.

Widespread omicron cases have also resulted in peak hospitalization numbers among children, locally and nationally. On Thursday, 28 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the metro area. Thats believed to be a pandemic peak for pediatric cases. The number was down to 22 on Sunday.

Chanda Chacon, president and CEO of Childrens Hospital & Medical Center, said her hospitals numbers have been in the double digits for eight weeks or more and are about four times higher than at any other point in the pandemic. Every day, the hospital sees two or three children who are there for surgeries test positive for the virus, indicating a lot of asymptomatic infections in kids.

While almost 62% of Nebraskans are fully vaccinated, more than a dozen rural counties still have rates below 30%. The lowest is McPherson in the Sandhills at 14%. Douglas, Sarpy and Lancaster Counties have rates between 64% and 65%. The U.S. average is 64%.

Nebraska administered 24,000 vaccine doses last week, including 5,000 to people who were receiving their first shot. Total doses in Nebraska eclipsed the 3 million mark last week.

The state death toll last week was the seventh-highest of the pandemic and brings the total number of Nebraskans killed by the virus to 3,666. Nebraska has now reported some 435,000 total cases, equaling more than one-fifth of the states population.

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Receiving a call about day care or school closure has become commonplace for parents today because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some say the omicron variant has made it worse.

Many parents have found themselves scrambling at the last minute to find help with kids who are suddenly home. Oftentimes, no help is found.

Two weeks ago, Zach and Rachel Stanko of Omaha received a call from their day care letting them know that there had been a COVID exposure in their 5-month-old daughters infant classroom, and that it would be closed for the next nine days.

It was a first for the new parents.

The couple, who work from home, were able to juggle their jobs and take care of Sadie.

When she was napping, wed power through some work, and when she was up, wed kind of take turns with her, Rachel said. It was a lot of back and forth  work, work, baby, baby, rinse and repeat.

Rachel said she would set up Sadies activity mat and toys behind her desk while she worked.

Overall, the couple feel they handled it well despite not having outside help, Rachel said.

By the final two days, I was feeling stressed, but I tried to maintain some perspective on the situation, she said. Shes a great baby, and my husband helps so much. It wasnt ideal and, sure, I didnt shower for three days, but we did fine.

Omahans Cole and Erika Buffington are no strangers to the day care closure call, either. They have received four of them so far, with the most recent happening in January. Their 2-year-old son attended day care only seven days in January and now wont be able to go back until this month.

Their first quarantine from day care lasted 21 days. This last time, it was for 10 days. Like the Stankos, only their sons classroom at day care was closed.

Only the children that were in his room the day of the exposure had to stay home for the 10 days, Erika said. Teachers did not have to quarantine.

Nebraska added 22,302 new cases for the week ending Thursday, down 24% from 29,141 the previous week, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even as cases fell statewide last week, the average number of Nebraskans hospitalized with COVID during that time rose 7%.

Locally, in Douglas County, the states most populous, cases were down 46% last week.

Erika said that its very hard to work at home with a toddler, but that they came up with a system that helped make it less stressful. Together, the couple alternated who stayed home with their son.

One thing that helped, both couples noted, is how flexible and understanding their jobs were to their situations.

They all understood and knew we were still getting our work done, said Rachel, who is a copywriter in the communications and marketing office at Creighton University. And she made for a cute distraction on my Zoom calls.

As the pandemic has worn on, Erika said shes torn on feeling like shes becoming accustomed to these types of disruptions.

The late-evening calls we receive to tell us our child cant come to day care the next day and for the next two weeks makes it very stressful, she said.

However, since their son has had to be out of day care more than once because of an exposure, the couple now has a plan in place and know how they will handle it.

It doesnt make the situation any easier, but more bearable, Erika said.

Lydia Navarrette, who runs an in-home day care called Special Angels south of downtown Omaha, has had to close down seven times since the start of the pandemic. Each time is tough, she said, but the first two times were awful.

I didnt even know where to start, and I was trying to watch my mom at the same time, making sure she didnt get sick, Navarrette said of her mother, who is 91.

She feels like a pro now, even though she still hates when it happens.

Too much cleaning, washing and disinfecting everything, she said. And worrying about my day care families. I worry so much about the kids.

Navarrette said she has considered retiring from day care altogether because of the pandemic.

Each time I had to close, Id say, This is it. Im done. Its not worth getting sick or dying over. Especially my mom, she said. But then Id have these two or three parents beg me not to close. Theyd say, Please wait until my kids are in school. What could I do? This has been hard for sure, but Im trying to keep my day care safe.

She said most of her parents are understanding about the closures, though she has dealt with the occasional unhappy parent.

That was upsetting for me, she said. Its not like I wanted to close. I lost money every time I closed.

Navarrette added that she never charged parents when she had to shut down.

At least four of the times I had to shut down, I got money from the state, she said. I knew a lot of my parents had to find and pay another day care so I know it was hard for them, too.

Other day cares have continued to charge parents despite being closed, though some cut rates in half. The Stankos continued to pay even when their daughter didnt attend day care.

Still, the parents say they are continually thankful for their childrens day cares and their hard work during these tough times.

As past workers in education and child care settings, we are empathetic and supportive of our sons day care while they navigate through these times, Erika said.

Rachel said their work means so much to parents today.

I know they just want whats best for the kids, she said. Its a challenging balance of safety and patience, trying to create some normal.

Erika said they have tried to take the challenges presented to them and turn them into positives. Even though its hard and frustrating working from home with a toddler who needs lots of attention and help, Erika said its a joy to be with him.

The time we get with him (in quarantine) is additional time we get to physically be with him, she said. Receiving those additional hugs and kisses, and being able to watch him grow, is how we take those challenges and turn them into positives. We are continually telling and showing him how important he is to us and how much we love him.

Rachel, who has known parenthood only during a pandemic, said it has been, at times, lonely and isolating.

We try our best to be safe and stay connected with family and friends and to create happy experiences for our daughter, she said. I do worry how all this could affect her, but Im blessed to be a parent  no matter what time in history.

For parents out there dealing with similar situations, the moms had some advice  including taking things one day at a time and taking lots of deep breaths.

We, as parents, will get through these hard times. Dont be afraid to reach out to friends and family for help, Erika said. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. It is OK to take a mental day off to recover and reboot so you can continue being the best parent for your children.

Rachel noted that some of the best advice she has ever received about parenting is simple: Give yourself grace.

Ease up on yourself, were all doing the best we can.

<&rule>
LINCOLN (AP)  Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson endorsed Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers on Tuesday as his replacement once he leaves office next year.

Hilgers, of Lincoln, announced in December that he would run for attorney general in this years election. Peterson, a fellow Republican, has said he wont seek a third term in office.

Mike has the temperament, skills and principles to be an outstanding attorney general, Peterson said in a press release from the Hilgers campaign.

Hilgers has secured endorsements from Gov. Pete Ricketts, Lt. Gov. Mike Foley, several members of Nebraskas congressional delegation and former governors. Hes running in the Republican primary against Jennifer Hicks, a conservative activist from Peru. Another candidate is Larry Bolinger, running under the Legal Marijuana NOW Party. No Democrats have filed to run.

Hilgers, of Lincoln, was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2016 and became the legislative speaker in 2021. He works as a private practice lawyer and ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 2014.

Hilgers founded the law firm Hilgers Graban, with offices in Lincoln, Omaha and several major U.S. cities.

<&rule>
A 37-year-old Omaha man accused of fatally shooting a 46-year-old man last week told authorities he fired several shots at the man, a prosecutor said Monday.

William T. Snoddy was charged Monday with first-degree murder and two firearms charges in connection with the death of Daron Hunter.

Just after 11 p.m. Thursday, Omaha police found Hunter with multiple gunshot wounds inside a car near 45th Street and Laurel Avenue. He was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he died.

The next day, police arrested Snoddy. A prosecutor said Monday that witnesses identified Snoddy as being at the scene as well as a vehicle that he was in.

When interviewed, Snoddy told police that he had fired a gun several times at Hunter, the prosecutor said.

Hunter is the citys third homicide this year  all the victims have been men, and all have been fatally shot.

Snoddy served more than a year in jail after he was convicted of strangulation in 2018.

He also was convicted of robbery, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony and operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest in 2004. He served about 15 years in prison on those charges.

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Adrianne Kruger, a junior studying education at Wayne State College, testified to a state panel Monday about the test that's left her and other would-be teachers frustrated and discouraged.

A tearful Kruger told members of the Education Committee that she's tried for years to pass the basic skills test that Nebraska requires to enter a teacher prep program, without success.

"I personally have spent almost $850 trying to pass one test," she said. "That $850 could have gone toward my tuition, books, or even personal bills."

Her story was among several stories of frustration shared at the hearing on three bills that would either eliminate the test or allow alternative methods for would-be teachers to demonstrate basic math and English skills.

It was clear from the steady stream of supporters for the bills that the idea of ending the test has gained steam among some lawmakers, educators and professors at teachers colleges. Support has been boosted by a teacher shortage that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

School districts across Nebraska and the nation are struggling to hire and retain enough teachers, paraprofessionals, nutrition service workers, bus drivers and more.

Supporters of the proposals said eliminating the test would boost enrollment in teacher prep programs overall and among students of color, who they said are overrepresented in the failure rate.

Previous attempts to relax the testing requirement met with opposition from Gov. Pete Ricketts over concerns that the state was lowering the bar to enter the profession.

But at this hearing, proponents dominated the discussion.

Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha told the committee that the test is "an expensive hurdle" that's not serving prospective teachers or the education system.

"A standardized test does not and should not determine what type of teachers they will be in the classroom," he said.

Vargas' bill, Legislative Bill 960, would eliminate all basic skills testing, as well as content testing that prospective teachers take later in their academic career in their chosen area of expertise.

Sen. Carol Blood's bill, LB 690, would not eliminate testing but would allow applicants to demonstrate basic skills competency by taking certain coursework as determined by the Nebraska Department of Education.

Blood said she would rather give educators a choice instead of doing away with testing.

LB 1218, an Education Committee bill introduced by Chairwoman Lynne Walz and designated a priority bill, would strike the requirement for a basic skills test and provide other ways for candidates to prove competency.

According to Walz, the bill would ensure that educators from other states have a path to joining the profession in Nebraska. It would allow an applicant to demonstrate basic skills with a college admission examination, college coursework or successful employment experiences, including student teaching.

The bill also contains a provision for $1,000 in loan forgiveness for students who intern for a semester in a Nebraska school.

Tim Frey, dean of the College of Education at Doane University, shared stories of well-qualified students who ran up hundreds of dollars in costs and months of delay while repeatedly taking the test.

Recent data show that over half of the students entering Doane's undergraduate teaching program did not pass at least one of the three test areas on their first attempt, he said.

"On average, it took 3.9 attempts for those students to pass the Praxis Core if they did not pass on their first attempt, and it cost those students an average additional $360," he said.

In the past three years, 18 prospective teachers left the Doane program when they were unable to pass the test, he said.

For decades, Nebraska has required applicants to pass a basic skills test for admission to an approved educator preparation program.

The test is also required to apply for a teaching certificate.

In 2014, the Nebraska State Board of Education adopted the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators as the admissions test for teacher prep programs.

The test, a product of Educational Testing Service, replaced the Praxis I Pre-Professional Skills Test the state had used for decades.

The old test was built on what educators in the 1980s believed that teachers should know and be able to do.

The new test proved harder. Some applicants struggled with it, especially the math.

Even as Nebraska students struggled, their performance was better on average than their peers in other states who took the same test.

Three years ago, members of the Board of Education tried to eliminate the basic skills test but backed off when Ricketts signaled that he didn't want to lower the bar for entry.

Jenni Benson, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, testified Monday in favor of ending the test.

Benson said the test presented an obstacle to her daughter, Joy, who is pursuing a degree in early childhood education.

Her daughter has struggled to pass the test despite having an associate degree in early childhood education and experience teaching in Head Start and as a paraeducator in the Lincoln Public Schools, she said.

After multiple tries, she passed the math and reading sections but has yet to pass writing, Benson said.

"She has trouble with timed tests, and she's about to give up," she said.

Benson said the test doesn't help students to become a qualified educator. "They just cost a lot of money," she said.

Benson noted that David Steiner, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, reviewed Nebraska's teacher prep approach for the Nebraska Department of Education and recommended that Praxis Core not be used as an entrance exam.

Steiner, she said, concluded that they are expensive for applicants who take them multiple times and have not been shown to correlate with teaching effectiveness.

At least 17 states use the same tests and same passing scores as Nebraska either to enter a teacher prep program or for certification.

Passing scores are 156 on the reading portion, 150 in math, and 162 in writing for a total of 468. A student can pass with a composite score of 468 on all three portions of the test, as long as no single test score is more than one point below the score for that subject.

The math test had been the most troublesome section for Nebraska students until 2019, when ETS changed the test.

The company reduced the emphasis on algebra and geometry and increased the emphasis on statistics, probability and data interpretation and representation.

That boosted the passing rate substantially in Nebraska. For example, 88% of University of Nebraska-Lincoln students passed in 2020-21, compared with 62% in 2018-19. The University of Nebraska at Kearney and the University of Nebraska at Omaha saw similar jumps.

Since that change, Nebraska students have had the most trouble with the writing test.

For instance, at UNO in 2020-21, over 90% of students passed the math test on the first attempt and almost 93% in reading, but in writing, just over 78% passed on the first try.

Kruger said a bilingual friend of hers struggled with the writing portion, even though she passed reading and math.

"She felt many times, when she failed the Praxis, she wanted to give up on education," she said.

According to Kruger, the friend feels that this test doesnt determine whether someone's going to be a great educator but instead who knows basic skills better than others.

Kruger said another friend, a mother of three who works three jobs, has passed the math and reading parts of the test but has been trying to pass the writing portion for more than four years. The friend has now taken the writing portion 10 times at a cost of $900, she said.

Kruger said she's had to change her own plans because of the test. She said she recently submitted an application to be an interdisciplinary studies major in education and family studies just so she could graduate on time.

Michelle Warren, an associate professor of Spanish at UNK, said she's been preparing future educators to teach Spanish in the state.

Many students in her upper-level courses are from first-generation immigrant families and the first to attend college, and they struggle on the test, Warren said.

"In no way are these students from immigrant families less intelligent or less prepared," she said.

They excel in campus leadership, earn high GPAs and take advantage of tools available to them, like extra study sessions and tutoring, Warren said.

"I have watched dozens of students become frustrated," she said.

Warren said it's important not to discourage the state's young professionals and to get them in the classroom.

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One hundred and thirty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a long-expected decision in the Boyd-Thayer Nebraska governorship contest.

In its decision, the high court declared James E. Boyd a citizen of the United States and of Nebraska and restored him as Nebraska's governor with all political and official rights.

In 1890 voters elected Nebraska's first Democratic governor, Boyd, in a very close race. The outgoing governor, John Milton Thayer, contested the results. He refused to leave office until the Legislature settled the matter.

He posted guards at his office. Boyd was forced to take his governor's oath at a notary's office. The Legislature later decided that Boyd was the rightful governor.

After Boyd, who was born in Ireland, won the Legislature's support, Thayer then challenged Boyd's citizenship. The question ultimately hinged on whether Boyd became a citizen when his father was naturalized, even though Boyd was legally an adult by then.

The Nebraska Supreme Court advised that Thayer let Boyd take office until it ruled. It ultimately ruled in Thayer's favor, and Thayer returned to office.

But the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling that Boyd wasn't a citizen, and Thayer left the governor's seat for good.

Here's a look at the 10 most recent governors of Nebraska.
LINCOLN  Nebraska lawmakers will have the chance to debate workplace vaccine mandates and exemptions, after Legislative Bill 906 advanced out of committee Monday.

Members of the Health and Human Services Committee voted 6-0, with one abstention, to send an amended version of the bill to the full Legislature.

The vote came after State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair said he would fight any attempted change that could blow up the carefully crafted compromise amendment. Hansen introduced LB 906 and has named it his priority for the year.

The way its in the bill is the way I want it to be, he told colleagues. It took a lot of work to get everyone here.

LB 906, as introduced, would allow employees to be exempted from a workplace vaccine mandate by filling out a state-produced form and declaring that they were refusing the vaccine because of their strong moral, ethical or philosophical belief or conviction.

The amended version would cover virtually all employers, not just those with 20 or more employees. It would apply only to the COVID-19 vaccine, not all vaccine mandates. It would provide for medical exemptions, with a written statement from a doctor or other health care provider.

And it would require that employers provide exemptions to people who declare on a state form that the vaccine conflicts with their sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance.

Under both versions, employers could require unvaccinated workers to be tested regularly and to wear masks or other protective equipment, a provision that Hansen said was important to protect unvaccinated workers.

With the amendment, most potential opponents, including the Nebraska Hospital Association; the Nebraska Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes and assisted living facilities; and the Nebraska, Omaha and Lincoln Chambers of Commerce took neutral positions on the bill.

Nebraskas chief medical officer supported the amended version of the bill, but the Nebraska Medical Association remained opposed.

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Jim Pillen and Charles W. Herbster, frontrunners in the Republican primary race for Nebraska governor, are facing criticism for failing to commit to an upcoming debate hosted by two local news outlets.

Editors at KMTV and The World-Herald have been planning a debate among the top four Republican candidates, aiming to broadcast the debate live before early voting starts for the May 10 primary. KMTV took the lead on coordinating and communicating with the campaigns.

Geoff Roth, news director at KMTV, reached out to the campaigns for Pillen, Herbster, State Sen. Brett Lindstrom and former Sen. Theresa Thibodeau on Dec. 28 to schedule the event for March 21.

The email included a tentative set of rules: A journalist from each outlet would serve as moderators, it says, and ask serious, issue-oriented questions. The candidates would each get a minute to respond, and there could be follow-up questions. Any candidate whos personally attacked would have a chance to respond.

The candidates would not be allowed notes or prepared statements, the rules read, but could take notes.

Roth said he received the Lindstrom campaigns acceptance within a week and Thibodeaus a few days later. But he never heard back from Herbster or Pillen after that email or a follow-up.

Last week, Roth said he called both campaigns. Pillens never followed up, he said, and Herbsters said the date wouldnt work. When Roth asked for alternative dates that would work, the staffer cited a busy schedule and also never followed up, he said.

At that point, Roth said organizers made the assumption that neither wanted to participate. So, he emailed the Lindstrom and Thibodeau campaigns Monday to tell them the event was on hold.

In the three years that Ive been the news director here, weve done several debates, he said, noting congressional and mayoral races. And weve never had top candidates running for a major office just not accept a proposal to do a debate.

Thibodeau was quick to condemn her opponents apparent dodge in a statement posted to Twitter.

Jim Pillen and Charles Herbsters unwillingness to participate in an open debate proves that they cannot adequately address the critical issues facing our state, she said.

As candidates who seek to lead Nebraska, we are responsible for communicating our positions to the voters. Pillen and Herbsters refusal begs the question: If they are incapable of a public debate, are they committed to addressing the concern of Nebraska voters.

In the statement, Thibodeaus campaign said the two frontrunners wouldnt debate unless questions were provided in advance. However, Roth said that was never part of the discussion  their unwillingness to commit was interpreted to mean they didnt accept.

Lindstroms campaign said in a statement that the senators focus remains solely on the people of Nebraska  not any political distractions.

We look forward to upholding our commitments by participating in the debates ahead of us, answering the tough questions directly and meeting with the great people of our state throughout the campaign and beyond to share our message of a New Generation of Conservative Leadership, campaign manager Tori Mahoney said.

Sen. John McCollister of Omaha also weighed in on Twitter on Tuesday, saying he agreed with Thibodeau.

If you cant handle unprompted questions, youre not cut out to be Governor, he said.

Pillen was questioned about the decision not to debate at a press conference in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday morning. He was there to announce another big-ticket endorsement, this one from the Nebraska Farm Bureau. Gov. Pete Ricketts recently endorsed Pillen at a similar press event.

Pillen, a University of Nebraska regent and livestock producer, earned the organizations endorsement after a survey found Farm Bureau counties resoundingly supported it, President Mark McHargue said.

Asked about the decision not to debate, Pillen mentioned debates at a Farm Bureau forum in December, a Cow Country Gubernatorial Forum at Hyannis High School in January and another forum coming up this week in Lincoln.

Were getting our message out across the state, he said. And were getting it out eyeball-to-eyeball.

In a prepared statement after the press conference, campaign manager Kenny Zoeller said the two forums Pillen has participated in so far didnt provide questions in advance.

Jim is the only candidate in this race to have campaigned in all 93 Nebraska counties, Zoeller said. We have never requested questions in advance as a condition of participation in a debate, and any assertion to the contrary is false.

He said Pillen is focused on meeting voters and listening to their questions and concerns directly, and that would remain the campaigns scheduling priority.

Herbster campaign manager Ellen Keast also said the campaign never asked for questions and said they technically never declined to participate in the debate. Asked if they were willing to participate in the debate, Keast said she had no comment.

Among other gubernatorial forums held so far was a town hall in Weeping Water that Pillen and Herbster did not attend, and a Lincoln County Cattlemen forum that Herbster attended but Pillen did not, according to news station KNOP. Herbster and Pillen also did not attend a forum in November hosted by the Independent Cattlemen of Nebraska, according to the online news site Sandhills Express.

The state GOP announced in October that it would hold three debates but has not announced any details since.

The NEGOPs focus is on supporting local candidate forums sponsored by our county parties. We have forums coming up in Sarpy County, Scotts Bluff County, Washington County, and Southeast Nebraska. We encourage candidates to participate and party members to attend as many as possible, NEGOP Chairman Dan Welch said in a statement Tuesday.

Thursday, the Nebraska Chamber is hosting a forum in Lincoln for which candidates have been provided questions in advance. All four of the candidates are slated to attend, along with Democratic candidate Carol Blood and another Republican candidate, Breland Ridenour.

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Nebraska lawmakers are weighing a bill that would widen stretches of U.S. Highway 81 and Nebraska Highway 20 through the state.

The Legislatures Transportation and Telecommunications Committee took up Legislative Bill 1274, a proposal from Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, during a hearing Monday.

The bill requires the Nebraska Department of Transportation to plan, design and purchase rights of way for portions of the two highways.

Flood, whose district includes Madison County and southern Pierce County, proposed widening the portion of Highway 81 that runs from York to Columbus, as well as the stretch from Norfolk to Yankton, South Dakota.

The proposal would expand Highway 81, which runs north and south through the state, from two lanes to four along those stretches.

The bill, Flood said, has the support of senators along the corridor.

It would also expand Nebraska Highway 20, which runs east and west through the state, between Highway 81 and the Iowa border to a four-lane divided highway.

Expanding Highway 81 is in the best interest of the state, Flood said. It would help relieve a congested stretch for tourists heading to Lewis and Clark State Recreation Area on the Nebraska-South Dakota border, as well as for truckers hauling livestock or grain.

Several attendees spoke in support of both proposals, saying that the highways are essential corridors in the state and that the expansions would benefit nearby communities. Others said redesign is needed to reduce crashes along crowded stretches of both highways.

John Selmer, director of the Transportation Department, spoke in opposition to the proposal. He said it would be unwise to direct the department away from completing other parts of the expressway system.

The Highway 81 portion from York to Columbus, which is part of the states expressway system, is already in the planning phase, Selmer said, and is slated for completion in 2035. The Highway 20 project is not part of the expressway system.

The states expressway program, launched in 1988, was designed to connect every Nebraska community larger than 15,000 people to an Interstate with a four-lane, divided expressway. It was projected to be completed in 15 years. But Selmer said Monday that about 160 miles of the 600-mile system remain undone.

The committee also held a hearing on LB 999, sponsored by State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, who has proposed building a bridge over the Missouri River to alleviate truck traffic in North Omahas Florence neighborhood.

The bridge would connect North 16th Street in Omaha with Interstate 680 in Iowa, diverting traffic that now uses 30th Street through Florence.

The area has been the subject of several studies over the years. Wayne said federal grant money is available for projects like this.

Selmer also spoke against that proposal, saying it may be better suited for the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency to apply for grants. He also questioned who would take ownership of the bridge, as it would cross the state line.

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The Westside Community Schools have long been known as a strong Omaha-area school district whose residents offer admirable support for public education.

Westsides board has a longstanding reputation for community-minded, drama-free, stable leadership. Some other school boards have been marked by sharp divisions, even taking dozens of ballots to merely agree on a board president, but Westside usually resolves any differences without acrimony.

Similarly, the Westside community has done well with potentially controversial issues. In a string of special elections in the past few decades, for example, Westside voters have approved higher property taxes than would be allowed under the states property tax levy limit. Many residents voted no and some elections have been close, but they generally havent been harsh or partisan.

So it was a little jarring when one Westside community member in January sent a widely shared text urging residents to vote for certain candidates in the current school board contest in order to get critical race theory out of the schools. Westside voters on Tuesday will advance four candidates to the May election, when two winners will be chosen.

It was surprising to see national politics being injected into a local school board race. And the fallout is a reminder that we dont need to turn every election into a culture war battle.

The two Omaha citizens who will eventually be elected to join four others on Westsides board may never have to weigh in on the merits of critical race theory, an academic construct that has little to do with day-to-day education in K-12 schools.

Theyre running for the school board to set broad policy to govern Westsides staff and student body. To approve budgets and tax rates. To decide whether to ask voters to approve a bond issue. To select a superintendent.

Shoehorning manufactured controversies that were stirred up at the national level into the local management of school districts is unnecessary and wrong. Its not helpful to bring to local schools the vitriol that infests national politics.

And it risks causing good people to decide who needs this when it comes to serving in public office.

As one Westside High senior wrote in a recent Public Pulse letter, creating partisan drama detracts from providing students with more learning resources, opportunities and technology.

Why waste our energy focusing on one pseudo-problem instead of coming together to make our school district better? Isaac Persky asked.

As it turns out, the controversy has contributed to a pre-election shakeup in the board election, leaving fewer choices for voters. Nine candidates had been running in mid-January when the text message urged support for four people who would give us a chance to get the critical race theory bulls- (white shaming) out of the schools. Five candidates have since withdrawn from the race, including all four who were named in the text message.

Some of the former candidates said the text message was irrelevant to their decision to drop out, but at least one indicated it was a factor.

It would be irresponsible of me to continue a campaign that hasnt even started yet if its going to create a divide in this community, said one who was named in the text message but said he knew nothing about its origin.

Another candidate who dropped out said: I realized the level of politics involved in a school board election, and it is not how I want to spend my time and talents.

The man who sent the text message has since apologized, saying he was speaking for himself and not the candidates he was backing.

Tonight, Westside voters will attend a district caucus to cast their ballots. The format echoes the democracy of a New England town hall meeting and encourages the idea that community members are coming together to run their schools.

These days, we could use fewer partisan fights and more coming together.
Revitalize downtown

The planned Mutual of Omaha tower and three-mile streetcar are exciting and, hopefully, keys to revitalizing downtown and near downtown Omaha. These developments show vision on the part of our city leaders, both in government and in business. I hope plans for the new main library (and downtown branch?) are just as visionary: location, facilities, services and programming.

What happened to plans, presented in 2018, for a new southwest Omaha branch library? Currently the Millard Branch Library, by far the busiest branch in Omaha, is the only branch south and west of the Swanson Branch Library at 90th and Dodge.

Clara G. Hoover, Omaha

Presidential debates

The Republican National Committee is seriously considering barring its candidates from presidential debates. This is the strongest indication yet that Trump plans to run in 2024.

Trump was asked too tough questions in an NPR radio interview last month, and he couldnt take the heat so he ran out of the kitchen. He cannot take the chance of having to take similar action in the middle of a presidential debate. The RNC announcement is simply spadework for protecting against this on down the line.

James Kelly, Omaha

Prison coverage

The series of articles on Nebraskas prison overcrowding/staffing problems has been excellent. The scope of the reporting has been invaluable. It is my hope that our legislators and administrators will use the information and perspective that the articles provide to make informed decisions regarding this longstanding problem. Thank you for this important contribution to finding a solution.

Jude Lessmann, Omaha

Convincing issue

When I worked in a retail store, promotions and raises were based on convincing customers to sign up for the stores credit or debit card. We werent trained on how to convince them to do it. Many customers called it nagging, harassing and relentlessness and never came back. Or they would go to the cashiers who knew not to ask. I also knew not to tell people to vote for a certain candidate. If you cant convince someone to get a store card or change their mind on politics, they wont budge on a huge issue like pandemic safety. Ive learned not to convince someone who wont be convinced.

Rhonda Hamilton, Omaha

Library questions

Interesting isnt it? It looks like the library will be torn down. Before the ink is dry, Mutual of Omaha is ready to build. It has looked like a done deal from the start. The majority of the letters to the Public Pulse are against the tearing down, as are the people appearing before the city council. In addition, they have had better ideas about what to do with the library than the city has. I think having a beautiful main library with books, programs, the latest in technology, the administrative offices, and archives say more about what is important to a city and its inhabitants than a skyscraper that we are suppose to be impressed by because it will be the tallest building downtown.

Could someone check and make sure Shopko is not in the flood plain since they want to move the administrative offices and archives there. My understanding is it is in the flood plain.

It may be time to elect the library board rather than have them appointed by the mayor. They need to be responsible to the people and not the mayor.

Why havent we heard more from the librarians? Are they afraid to speak up?

And why do we have to pay to park at the public library?

Judy Gacek, Omaha

Mask mandate

Thank you, Lindsay Huse for stepping up and doing the correct thing to help slow the COVID-19 spread and hospitals filling over capacity. Its unfortunate that we have low vaccination rates in Nebraska. We are stressing our health care workers to the limit and beyond. I was in my local Hy-Vee store recently and only saw one person unmasked, before the mandate there were maybe 20% masked at most. That shows mandates work. Remember this is only temporary. I cant believe our attorney general and governor filed a lawsuit to overturn the mandate.

Also, a great article by John McCollister (Midlands Voices, Jan. 16). I have been a life-long Republican, but I sure dont understand this party anymore.

Bill Voss, Omaha
Within weeks of a Tennessee school district moving to ban "Maus," a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel depicting the horrors of the Holocaust, readers are propelling it to the top of best seller lists more than 30 years after it was first published.

The hardcover edition of "The Complete Maus," which includes parts one and two of Art Spiegelman's opus, is topping Amazon's list of best-selling books, holding the No. 1 and No. 2 slots at different times Monday morning. Parts one and two of "Maus" hold the third and ninth spots on the best sellers list respectively.

(As of publication time, "Maus" has not appeared on the Amazon Charts, the site's weekly list of books that are read and sold the most through the platform. The best seller list CNN is citing is updated hourly.)

On January 10, the McMinn County, Tennessee, Board of Education removed "Maus" from the eighth-grade English language arts curriculum, citing "rough, objectionable language" and a drawing of a nude woman.

"Maus," which was initially serialized and then published in two volumes in 1986 and 1992, is a blend of historical fiction and memoir that follows Spiegelman's Jewish parents in 1940s Poland, from their early experiences of anti-Semitism to their internment in Auschwitz. It depicts Jewish people as mice and Nazis as cats.

Spiegelman told CNN last week he was still trying to "wrap [his] brain around" the ban.

"I think they're so myopic in their focus and they're so afraid of what's implied and having to defend the decision to teach 'Maus' as part of the curriculum that it led to this kind of daffily myopic response," he said on CNN's "New Day."

Banning books from being taught in schools can lead readers to seek out the book in droves. Angie Thomas, author of "The Hate U Give," an acclaimed novel about a Black teen who witnesses her childhood best friend's killing at the hands of police, said last year that after a Texas school district banned the novel from schools in 2017, residents bought "tens of thousands of copies in a week in that same district."

Controversy can also prompt readers to revisit other works by an author. After Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced six books by the iconic children's author would not longer be published because of their offensive content, a slew of Dr. Seuss titles soared to the top of Amazon's best sellers list. (Notably, none of the discontinued books were among the best sellers.)

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

CNN's Chris Boyette contributed to this report.

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BLOOMINGTON  A Winter Storm Warning will take effect Tuesday evening in Bloomington  and snow crews are preparing for significant snowfall.

The major storm will settle into Central Illinois with heavy rain leading into heavy snow, meteorologists said.

The National Weather Service on Monday issued the storm warning that includes McLean, Tazewell, Champaign, Peoria and Woodford counties. It takes effect at 9 p.m. Tuesday and lasts until 6 p.m. Thursday, which is expected to be the duration of the storm.

A brief period of sleet and freezing rain may accompany the heavy snow expected to arrive Tuesday night, said Pantagraph meteorologist Matt Holiner.

The transition from rain to snow Tuesday night is the "trickiest part to this forecast," Holiner said. When does it change to snow for various locations across the state?

Bloomingtons conditions are expected to change rapidly with a "pretty quick transition from rain to snow, said Holiner, chief meteorologist for Lee Enterprises Midwest. Then theres going to be a whole lot of snow.

Snow removal crews in Bloomington-Normal and across McLean County are preparing for the winter weather by reviewing equipment to ensure its ready once precipitation starts Tuesday.

We are actually working today and tomorrow to go over the equipment and make sure everythings ready for winter operations that we expect to start sometime overnight Tuesday, said Ryan Otto, Normals director of public works and engineering, of the towns 30 pieces of snow removal equipment. With the significant amount of snowfall, we will make sure that we have all of our manpower and equipment thats available ready for the storm.

Outside the city, County Engineer Jerry Stokes said he expects Thursday to be the worst day for McLean County's country roads, considering high winds that are expected to cause drifting and blowing snow.

Stokes said his crew was checking over the countys 18 tandem trucks equipped with snow plows and weeks that are each responsible for clearing about 20 to 25 miles of county roads.

We have plenty of salt, plenty of chloride; our crew is healthy, he said, noting the crew maintains 366 miles of county highways. We are staging our V-plows in certain territories in case we have to bust through some high drift locations.

Otto said his crews will monitor the storm to change their plan as they see fit, but with the forecast indicating rain will fall before snow, they will hold off on applying salt or brine solution because if the rains going to come in, itll just wash it off.

Stokes added that his crews might not apply salt until Friday, depending on snow accumulation and wind.

Nearly a foot of snow is expected for McLean County, though farther south ice will be a bigger concern, Holiner said.

Although measurable ice is not a concern for Bloomington-Normal, Mattoon and Decatur will experience the slick conditions.

Holiner said the weather models predictions range from 5 to 16 inches of snow in Central Illinois. Along with the amount of snow, the other concern includes the high winds expected at nearly 30 mph. Blizzard conditions start at 35 mph.

Its safe to say, from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening, theres going to be travel problems across Central Illinois, Holiner said. Travel should be avoided.

The frigid conditions come the same week of heavy snow further east.

Heavy snow also had residents in Virginia, Massachusetts and elsewhere on the East Coast digging out over the weekend, when a powerful nor'easter triggered blizzard conditions.

The Connecticut State Police had 1,200 calls for service Saturday alone, the department said. As many as 100,000 customers without power were reported.

More snow is expected there on Friday.

Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.

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NORMAL  Supplies were flying off the shelf as Bloomington-Normal residents prepare for a snow storm expected to sweep through Central Illinois.

With meteorologists calling for upwards of 17 inches of snow, local hardware stores are selling out of items such as snow blowers and shovels.

"With each forecast being revised closer to the day, people start thinking this is for real," Brian Aiello, store manager of Ace Hardware in Normal, told The Pantagraph on Tuesday afternoon. "The phone has been ringing nonstop."

Ace Hardware, 204 E. College Ave., started Sunday morning off with 150 snow shovels and around 16 snow blowers, but by Tuesday afternoon the store was completely sold out of both.

Aiello said it was the busiest the store had been before a winter storm since January 2019, but sales in terms of dollars and units have already far exceeded that event.

It was kind of like a Christmas atmosphere with all the people and the phone ringing off the hook," Aiello said. "Everybody has been in a good mood, nobody has been crabby or upset. I think they expect people to be running short this time of year.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a disaster declaration Tuesday afternoon ahead of the winter storm, which is expected to spit out 11 to 17 inches of snow in Bloomington-Normal, according to National Weather Service estimates.

The declaration activated around 130 members of Illinois National Guard to assist with providing resources to deal with the heavy snow, ice and blizzard conditions.

Pritzker also directed the Illinois Emergency Management Association to coordinate a statewide response, which will include deploying 1,800 Illinois Department of Transportation trucks and equipment and upping Illinois State Police patrol to assist stranded motorists.

Winter weather forecast

Rainfall began around 2 p.m. Tuesday and was expected to transition into a wintry mix and eventually snow between 9 p.m. and midnight, said Chuck Schaffer, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Lincoln.

Snow will begin accumulating quickly after the rain ends, and by 6 a.m. Wednesday, McLean County is expected to have 3-6 inches of snow on the ground.

Accumulation will continue throughout Wednesday with a break in the snowfall possible in the afternoon before another round starting in the evening, Schaffer said.

The snow on Thursday will become lighter through the day, tapering off into light snow or flurries in the afternoon hours, he said, noting most snow accumulation will end Thursday morning.

With a Winter Storm Warning in effect Tuesday night and extending until 6 p.m. Thursday, emergency services are asking residents to prepare for the weather and avoid driving if possible.

In a Facebook post, the Randolph Township Fire Department in Heyworth asked residents in Heyworth and Randolph Township who own snowmobiles to contact the department if they are willing to help during an emergency when travel could be difficult.

The McLean County Emergency Management Agency recommends having an emergency kit ready with batteries, flashlights, a radio, medications, pet supplies, portable charges, water, food, a charged cell phone and extra winter gear like coats, blankets, hats and mittens.

If travel is necessary, the EMA says to stock vehicles with a shovel, window scraper, cat litter or sand to help with traction and some to alert people if assistance is needed, like flares, flags or reflective warning triangles.

Bloomington and Normal will enforce parking bans starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Other communities, including LeRoy, may enforce parking bans at differing times through the duration of the storm.

In Normal, parking is not permitted on any streets until 5 p.m. Friday. Residents without their own parking can use the parking lots at the towns parks.

Bloomingtons parking ban will be in effect on snow routes until further notice. Residents who do not live on snow routes also are encouraged to park off the street.

Snow removal crews across the county are prepared to head into the storm as accumulation begins, expecting the worst road conditions on country roads Thursday because of high winds.

Itll be getting windier as the storm goes along, Schaffer said. On Wednesday, gusts will be 25-30 mph, increasing to about 35 mph Wednesday night. Thursday will be the windiest with gusts around 40 mph.

The wind will move in from the north, creating more blowing and drifting hazards on east-west oriented roadways, Schaffer said.

Drivers are asked to slow down, give plows and salt truck drivers space and avoid passing them.

Bloomington residents can follow snow removal progress online at cityblm.org/services/snow-removal-status-map.

Illinois drivers may also find updated road conditions at gettingaroundillinois.com/winterconditions.

Warming centers

Emergency services are advising people to find shelter and avoid exposure to the elements during the storm.

Several warming centers are available in McLean County on a temporary basis for those in need when temperatures are dangerously low.

They include the 24-hour TA Truck Stop in Bloomington, the Normal and Bloomington public libraries during open hours, Walmart on Market Street, Meijer on College Avenue and Uptown Station until the last train at 9 p.m.

Surrounding communities also have warming centers, often at firehouses and police departments. Metcom's non-emergency number  309-888-5030  can be used to connect with those who can assist with warming needs outside the Twin Cities.

Restocking supplies

Ace Hardware was potentially one of the last spots to pick up a shovel or snow blower other than a few other nooks and crannies around town, Aiello said. By the time some customers were entering the store they had already visited a few stops.

Tad McClellan of Normal was purchasing one of the last four shovels available at Ace before the store sold out. McClellan said he had already visited Menards and Home Depot before coming to Ace.

They just didnt have any," said McClellan. "There werent a bunch of people running around frantic or anything looking for them  there just isn't any there. You wouldn't tell that there is a storm coming I guess by going to the stores. People are just casually walking in and looking for them and leaving.

Ace Hardware is also preparing to bring in a second truck of supplies early Wednesday morning. Though there won't be any additional snow blowers, Aiello said the store is restocking about 120 shovels as well as additional items needed for weather-proofing.

Trucks are expected to arrive around 10 a.m. Wednesday, but Aiello said people should call the store at 309-454-5413 prior to hitting the roads. The store is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

We dont know whats going to happen in terms of power outages, so were going to have some other supplies like flashlights and batteries and all the things that go with that, said Aiello. "We will do everything we can to help them get what they need."

Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.

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One of two East St. Louis preschool workers accused of making children stand naked in a closet as punishment for misbehavior in 2019 has pleaded guilty in St. Clair County Circuit Court to one misdemeanor and four felonies, including aggravated battery and unlawful restraint.

Shavonda L. Willis, 44, of Fairview Heights, accepted a plea agreement on Friday, 10 days before her jury trial was set to begin.

Mary M. Agbehia, 29, of South Holland near Chicago, was the other woman who worked for the federally funded Head Start program operated by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis. She lived in Edwardsville at the time.

Agbehia pleaded guilty to five felonies in July, three days before her trial was set to begin.

Willis originally had been charged with 10 counts, including:

Four counts of aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony, related to allegations that she touched a girl with an object used to pretend she was giving the children an injection.

Five counts of unlawful restraint, a Class 4 felony, related to allegations that she ordered children to remove their clothing and stand in a closet.

One count of failure to report child abuse or neglect, a Class A misdemeanor.

Willis pleaded guilty on Friday to three counts of unlawful restraint, one count of aggravated battery and the misdemeanor, according to Chris Allen, spokesman for the St. Clair County state's attorney's office. The other five charges were dismissed.

"The case is currently set for sentencing on April 19," Allen said.

Willis couldn't be reached Monday. Timothy Hunsaker, the St. Louis attorney who's representing her, didn't respond to requests for comment.

SIUE and Head Start representatives declined to comment.

Class 4 felonies can result in one to three years in prison. Class 3 felonies can result in two to five years.

Agbehia originally had been charged with eight counts, including:

Two counts of aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony, related to allegations that she took off a boy's shirt and a girl's clothing.

Five counts of unlawful restraint, a Class 4 felony, related to allegations that she ordered children to remove their clothing and stand in a closet or hold hands in the air for an extended period.

One count of failure to report child abuse or neglect, a Class A misdemeanor.

Agbehia pleaded guilty in July to two counts of aggravated battery and three counts of unlawful restraint, according to court records. The other three charges were dismissed.

Judge Zina Cruse sentenced Agbehia in September to one year in prison and 24 months of probation.

Agbehia had to register as a violent offender against youths for 10 years. She can't have any contact with the victimized preschool students or be in a profession involving children under 12 years old.

On March 18, 2019, SIUE Police Chief Kevin Schmoll reported that a Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center supervisor had alerted police four days earlier that a teacher was making children ages 4 and 5 stand in a closet naked with the door open for five or 10 minutes before they could put their clothes back on and rejoin class.

This form of punishment reportedly had been used for about a month and a half and involved at least four children who had misbehaved by talking or not listening. A boy in the class of 20 children told his mother.

"This is 1) inappropriate and 2) illegal," Chief Schmoll said at the time, noting there were no signs of physical or sexual abuse.

Three detectives were sent to the center to investigate as soon as police were notified, he said. The Department of Child and Family Services was contacted to interview the children.

The university put Agbehia and Willis, who weren't named publicly at first, on paid administrative leave. St. Clair County officials announced on May 1, 2019, that criminal charges had been filed.

At the time, SIUE Human Resources Director Bob Thumith used the words "crystal clear" to describe the backgrounds and criminal records of Agbehia and Willis that were checked as part of the university's screening and hiring process.

Agbehia reportedly was hired in 2016, and Willis was hired in 2013. The women went through "extensive" training on dealing with children, along with the rest of the staff, according to Thumith.

"I can't explain it," he said at the time. "We've done everything in our control in terms of training ... codes of conduct, codes of ethics, handbooks always prescribe behavior which is prohibited by Head Start regulations and even common sense."

Head Start programs like the one in East St. Louis are federally funded and offered to families who otherwise couldn't afford preschool to get their children ready for kindergarten.

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Chicagoans have the chance to see the original 13th Amendment along with other Civil War-era artifacts until Friday at Heritage Auctions Chicago, 222 W. Hubbard St.

In honor of Black History Month and Abraham Lincolns birthday, Heritage Auctions, a multinational auction house, will have some of the rarest artifacts of the Civil War era on display before the historical items head to Heritages Dallas headquarters for bidding.

The Chicago preview will include vaulted lots of 530 artifacts from the Lincoln era.

Those who want to take a chance at keeping a copy of the original 13th Amendment or other collectibles such as letters written by Abraham Lincoln and an engraved pocket knife once owned by the 16th president will have the opportunity to do so.

People can bid interactively on our website, said Curtis Linder, a director of Americana at Heritage in Dallas and an expert in collecting areas of Americana, political memorabilia and the Civil War.

On Feb. 12, Lincolns birthday, bidders can also attend the auction in person in Dallas, or dial in by phone.

The auction will be online only on Feb. 13.

Both events start at 11 a.m.

Linder highlighted some of the Civil War-era artifacts that will be up for action.

Among them is the original 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution signed by more than 109 members of Congress.

The one-page document is on parchment in the manuscript with a ruled border marked Duplicate at the heading, according to a description on the website.

Some of the text and signatures are hard to read as the vellum used for the documents absorbed the ink. Four faint senators signatures, including Charles Sumner and John P. Hale, are written on the left margin.

We have a letter written here by Abraham Lincoln to the Army of the Potomac, which is the Union Army, Linder said.

He said the letter was written after the Union Army was defeated at the Battle of Fredricksburg. The Union Army, Linder explained, believed the Confederates were a ragtag bunch but were proven wrong in Fredricksburg, Virginia, when the Union Army had twice the number of casualties compared with the Confederate army.

So, Lincoln wrote this letter to the Army of the Potomac just basically saying youre still a great army, the country is proud of you (and) you will prevail, Linder said. He knew he had to do something like that to build their morale back up because they were expected to win in that battle.

Linder said it is one of the most historic letters Lincoln penned.

Another collectible is from the United States Sanitary Commission, an agency that aided families of soldiers who died or were wounded. The group supported families by helping with finances, food and boarding.

Between 1863 and 1865, an event called the Sanitary Fair would take place in populated cities including New York, Chicago and Boston to help raise funds for the commission.

In 1864, Lincoln went to the Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia.

There, a gentleman presented him with a beautiful pocket knife with beautiful engravings on the blade, Linder said.

The knife, which will be up for auction, will come with a letter from Lincoln thanking the gentleman who presented the gift to him.

So when you hold this knife in your hand, youre holding something that our 16th president held at one time, Linder said. When someone buys something like this, it may not be seen for another 50 years. You may never know.

Linder explained that some buyers may pass their collectibles on to their children and they can get passed along from generation to generation without any public viewing.

Others may set up a private display for their local area.

When someone wins something from our office, they take possession of it and then some people donate things to museums and other institutions while other people build their own museums, Linder explained. Most people put it in their collection and they put it in a safety deposit box or they frame it and put it on the wall and they enjoy it that way.

But for now, Chicagoans have a few more days to see the public display before the historical items become private possessions.

For those interested in visiting Heritage Auctions to see the Civil War-era artifacts, the office will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

All are welcome to our office on Hubbard Street, Linder said.

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Tazewell County Treasurer Mary Burress is the latest Republican to announce a bid in Illinois new 87th House District, setting up a Republican primary challenge for the open seat.

Burress joins Dr. Bill Hauter, a doctor and Tazewell County Board member from Morton, in the race to represent parts of DeWitt, Logan, Macon, McLean, Sangamon, Tazewell and Woodford counties.

Ive worked with elected officials on both sides of the aisle at the county and municipal levels to make government accountable to its citizens, Burress said in a press release. My sound judgement will translate to the General Assembly.

Burress touted her fiscal responsibility in her campaign announcement. Tazewell County has balanced its budget in each year of her three terms as treasurer, she said. She promised to reject any pay increases and the state legislator pension plan.

Burress said she also plans to support law enforcement and increase transparency in education policy if elected.

For far too long Illinois politicians have used budget gimmicks and bad accounting to get by, she said. Our state is simply not working.

The House race will not be Burress first bid for the Illinois General Assembly. She first ran in Illinois State Senate District 46, winning the Republican nomination but ultimately losing to incumbent David Koehler, D-Peoria, in the general election.

The new 87th House District covers much of the area currently represented by state Rep. Keith Sommer, R-Morton. Sommer represents the 88th District, which includes many rural areas between Peoria and Bloomington-Normal.

Illinois primary election is scheduled for June 28 and the general election for Nov. 8.

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BCM Ghana Limited has assured its customers of its commitment to providing excellence in its operations across West Africa.



The company indicates it is addressing complaints of financial malfeasance against its senior staff and pledged all curprits will face prosecution.



Read statement below:

Your browser does not support iframes.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The Accra Regional Police Command has busted 11 persons in connection with a syndicate behind recent robbery attacks, as well as mobile phone and bag snatching in Amasaman and its environs in the outskirt areas of Accra.

The 11 were in two groups  one of them a gang of seven that included three teenagers, and the other a gang of four.



The Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Idi Seidu, said the command stepped up operations to arrest the situation when it received complaints about some unidentified men on motorbike snatching phones and bags at knife point and in some cases at gun point in the area, while others attacked and robbed their victims in their homes.



The police first arrested Nicky Forson, 18, a student, and Yeboah Philip, aka Blackee, 19, a commercial bike rider, riding a motorbike with registration number M-21-GS 4142 on January 27, 2022. A machete was found hidden on the motorbike.



During interrogation, the suspects admitted being phone snatchers and led the police to arrest their accomplices, including Francis Agbasa, aka Nmani, 22, and also a commercial biker rider; Wonder Nii Obodai, aka Jahkid; Richard Mensah, 25, a disc jockey; Emmanuel Mensah, 23, a metal fabricator, and Prince Agyei, 38, a mason.



It is a syndicate that operates around Achimota, Amasaman, Nsakina, Obeyeyie and other areas. They usually attack their victims on lonely roads, and when they snatch the phone they have a person who is able to decode it even if it is locked, and another person who buys the stolen items and sells them, DCOP Seidu said.



He said the two persons suspected to be behind the decoding and buying of the stolen phones were yet to be arrested.



Gang of four



DCOP Seidu said on January 29, 2022, the CID operations team saw some four persons at James Town about 5:30 a.m.



When they were searched, the police found three pairs of scissors, two pieces of roof patch, six assorted mobile phones, and a Samsung laptop, among other items, on them.



DCOP Seidu said the four  Ernest Atorwordorweh, 20; Awudu Bala, aka Danko, 31, and Nigerians Micheal Solomon Okorou, aka Day-by-Day, 23, and Bright Benjamin, 26  were arrested on suspicion.



During interrogation, he said the suspects were found to be linked to a case in which a woman was robbed after she had been threatened with a machete at Nsakina moments earlier.



The suspects, he said, later led police investigators to some homes, mostly around Obeyeyie, Amasaman and Nsakina, where they had stolen mobile phones by using the roof patch.







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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Eight out of the 12 suspects arraigned at an Accra Circuit Court in connection with the recent violent clashes between two youth groups at Nima and Mamobi have been granted bail.



This was after the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Dennis Terkpetey, amended the charge sheet to include Farouk Dawda, who was arrested recently.



In the new charge sheet, the suspects have been charged with conspiracy to riot with weapons, rioting with weapons and causing harm.



Eight



The eight are Abdul Gafaru Mahama, Atarouwa Bassam, Abdul Mumuni Gariba, Mohammed Saabi Barinu, Bashiru Ganiru, Illiasu Salim, Ibrahim Moro and Issah Seidu.



They were admitted to bail in the sum of GH80,000 with two sureties each.



As part of the bail conditions, they are to report to the police twice a week.



Two remanded



Meanwhile, Aziz Suleman and Farouk Dawda aka Omoni were denied bail after the prosecution had argued that granting them bail would interfere with investigations.



The two, together with the eight who were granted bail pleaded not guilty to the charges when they appeared at the court presided over by Ms Rosemary Baah Tosu.



Ali Awudu, aka Bombo, and Ibrahim Husain, aka Kumodzi, are said to be on the run.



They are to re-appear on February 15, 2022.

Source: graphiconline.com









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Focused on its quest to help eradicate the challenge of schools under trees, and improve enrollment at the basic school level, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), through the GNPC Foundation, has inaugurated a new 6-unit classroom facility for Kutunase Presby Basic School in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa district of the Central Region.



At a ceremony to hand over the facility, the Executive Director of the Foundation, Dr. Dominic Eduah noted that the school block, like the many others funded by GNPC across the country, is an investment in Ghanas future. He said the Foundation places great importance on education and hence its commitment to supporting communities and schools in dire need of infrastructure.



He said, education remains a key avenue to developing minds and ensuring Ghanas development does not suffer retardation. He added that the support does not only provide improved teaching and learning space for teachers and pupils but also helps in making quality education delivery accessible to all children. He charged the schools authority to exercise a proper maintenance culture to ensure its longevity.



Paramount Chief of Breman Traditional Area, Odeefo Amoakwa Buadu VIII, who was the special guest of honour, praised GNPC for its partnering role as a development agent implementing projects that directly and positively affect the lives of people in deprived communities.



Mr. Solomon Mamphey Bafo, headmaster of the school, recounted the schools deplorable state which had hampered teaching and learning. He expressed the schools appreciation for the support and assured that the facility would be put to its intended use and under proper care.



The District Chief Executive Officer of Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Hon. Lawrence Edutuah-Asiaw, said government is committed to making quality education accessible to all Ghanaians and commended GNPC for augmenting governments developmental efforts in not just his district but also in every corner of the country.



Chairman of the occasion and chief of Kutunase, Nana Odom Asirifi III, said it was important that communities such as his felt the benefit of Ghanas oil activities and pleaded with GNPC to sustain its support to helping improve the lives of people in his community.







Source: Peacefmonline.com









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If you are a school administrator in Ghana and looking to simplify or minimize the manual and cumbersome administrative processes in your institution, a school management software could be your solution and eKool has a tried and tested platform just for you.



eKool School Management System which is operating in 6 countries has made a significant impact by reducing pupils absenteeism. It has also increased parental involvement in school processes and lessened administrative duties for teachers and school heads by 50%.



Indeed, in an era where almost everything is virtual, a suitable school management system is key in ensuring there is an effective learning and teaching experience to achieve quality education.



Therefore, as school administrators increasingly look to digitize their processes, a school management system such as the eKool comes in handy by providing a 360-degree function and experience for schools. This improves their administrative duties and ensures the productivity of all stakeholders including teachers, staff, students, and parents.



The software makes the lives of pupils and parents simple and convenient.



For parents, assessing all the important information of your pupils just got easier. Parents can simply track and monitor if their child is in class or not, their assignments, scores etc.



eKool brings better learning results for pupils whose schools have signed onto the platform. This is because the platform gives the pupil the chance to do advanced preparation anywhere at any time based on the teacher's notes and comments. Imagine, you driving through the long hours in traffic? All these hours, your child can productively make good use of the time by communicating with their colleagues on assignments and also may opt for group discussions on topics treated at school. How convenient!



Commenting on its convenience, Tanel Keres, the CEO from eKool says that teachers get to report activities instantly on the eKool software which helps to enhance communication.



Its easy for teachers to share scores of their pupils with their parents without having to wait till the end of term or an Open Day. This system incorporates student performance analytics and information on grades. With this, parents can access their performance and know their strengths and weaknesses and be able to take any actions if need be, he added.

The system also makes for well-structured teaching, learning and other class management activities that gives way for teachers to save on the average 45 minutes a day, resulting in more teacher-pupil contact hours a month to teach. This is achieved by inputting the students data into the system only once  no duplication of work and reports are generated automatically.



For the schools management and leadership team, eKool serves as a platform to give you the ability to monitor all the schools activities and reporting functions such as teachers activities, staff records, pupils profile and their parents, admission tracking among other key elements.



This and more are available when you use eKool school management software. In the age of progress, no industry wants to be left behind, certainly not the educational institutions. Developing children academically can be a little overwhelming and require such technological resources to make the process easy and efficient.



So why wait, call eKool now on 055 340 0663/020 813 8099 or visit their website and sign up for a trial today on signup.ekool.com.gh.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, has cautioned the 'Operation Clean your frontage' task force to only operate in the mandate given to them.



The Operation Clean Your Frontage initiative aims to enforce sanitation regulation within the Greater Accra region as part of the Make Greater Accra Work programme being championed by the Regional Coordinating Council.



In an interview on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', the Minister who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso Central Constituency said the members of the task force made up of over 3,000 people will be trained by the Ghana Armed Forces but "at the same time we've told them that they're not soldiers and they're not going to be trained as soldiers and they can never be soldiers".



The Greater Accra Regional minister further indicated that the initiative is backed by law and urged Ghanaians not to flout it.



Listen to him in the video below









The "Operation Clean Your Frontage" was introduced by the government as part of measures to better the sanitation situation in Accra.



The initiative, being championed by the Greater Accra Regional Minister, is under the auspices of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council and the Lets make Accra work agenda.



"A person who undertakes any commercial or industrial activity shall ensure that the drains and frontage of that premise up to the middle of the road are clean and kept neat at all times."



Also by the national law, "any person who fails to keep the above standards contravenes section 296 sub-section 18 of Act 29/60."





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Since its inception in 2019, the Sunyani Regional Office of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission has incorporated social media into its activities, which has had a positive impact on its operations over time.



"The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mrs. Mami Dufie Ofori, has tasked staff of the Commission to intensify the projection of its good works through the use of social media and other platforms," the Regional Manager, Mr. Patrick Antwi, said in a statement issued to the media. The Commission is moving toward digitization in its operations, and the Regional Office is following the Executive Secretary's lead.



At the 5th Ghana Energy Awards (GEA) for the Energy sector in 2021, the Executive Secretary received the digital leadership impact award. Mrs. Ofori was given the award for her vision of digitization as the future of the Commission's regulatory mandate. She was instrumental in the Commission's acquisition of cutting-edge technology such as the PURC Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) and the PURC Data Base Management System (DBMS), and she is now pushing for staff to effectively use social media in their work.



When the Sunyani Office was established in 2019, five (5) WhatsApp platforms were initially created, but the number has now increased to twenty-seven (27). Major stakeholders (NEDCo & GWCL) are represented on these platforms, which are made up of consumer groups. The platforms aid in disseminating pertinent information and serve as channels for receiving and resolving complaints. In the years 2020 and 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and movements were restricted, these platforms supplemented the Commissions operational activities. This had an impact on public education programs, and as a result, social media was used as a novel way of reaching out to utility customers.



The Sunyani Office oversees the Ahafo, Bono, and Bono East Regions, and have created these WhatsApp platforms with district assemblies, the media, youth groups, and corporate institutions, among others." These platforms are also used by the Regional Office to monitor the quality and reliability of service delivered to consumers by regulated utilities. Voltage fluctuations, power outages, no water flow, pipe bursts, billing, metering, unlawful disconnections and non-reflection of payment are all examples of issues reported via these platforms. Complaints are submitted either as text messages, images, or videos, and are handled by the Commission's regional office.



"Members of the WhatsApp platforms have also been educated on relevant Legislative Instruments (LIs), utility issues as well as the rights and responsibilities of utility consumers. The utilities representatives on the platforms also easily communicate with consumers about power outages or water rationing schedules. The Commission has benefited from the creation and use of the WhatsApp platforms in terms of improving the quality of service delivery in communities. These platforms have also brought consumers closer to the Commission" Mr. Antwi said.



In his closing statement, the Regional Manager mentioned that the Sunyani Office is aware of how much social media has evolved and will make every effort to utilize it effectively in their operations. He further reiterated the PURCs mandate to continue to serve the interests of both consumers and regulated utilities.



The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission was set up as a multi-sectorial regulator by the Government of Ghana in October, 1997 under the Public Utilities Regulatory Act, 1997 (Act 538) as part of the utility sector reform process to regulate the provision of utility services in the electricity and water sectors.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Dean of the School of Performing Arts and Linguistics Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Kofi Agyekum, has called on President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to intervene in the UTAG strike.



UTAG and the National Labour Commission (NLC) will on Thursday battle out their case in court as UTAG has refused to comply with a directive by the NLC to call off their strike.



The University lecturers have laid down their teaching materials until their demands are met.



They complain about poor conditions of services and want the authorities to heed their grievances or they stay on their strike action.



The Universities across the country risk being closed if the lecturers do not resume work.



Briefly reacting to the impasse, Prof. Kofi Agyekum, popularly called ''Opanyin Agyekum'', noted that it is about time the President and the National Peace Council played their roles in the dispute settlement.



''I plead with the President to step in. This is the time we need the National Peace Council. I know when it's tough and the parties cannot reach a concensus, the National Peace Council steps in to settle the dispute," he said on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo''.







Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.
An Accra High Court has ordered counsel for Manasseh Azure, Edwin Appiah, Sulemana Braimah and Media Foundation for West Africa to furnish it with their affidavit in opposition to an application for contempt of court initiated against them by the Lighthouse Chapel International (LCI).



This was after the court presided over by Justice Harriet Akweley Quaye had indicated that the court had not received its copy of the statement of defence which counsel for the defendants, Samson Anyenini, said was filed last Friday, January 28, 2022.



Appearing before the court, Kwaku Paintsil, counsel for LCI indicated to the court that he was informed by the defendants counsel that they had filed their affidavit in opposition but added that the plaintiff had not been served.



He therefore, inquired from the court whether it had been provided with its copy of the statement of defence and Justice Jane Akweley Quaye answered in the negative.



The court was expected to give directions in the matter but was unable to do as it did not have the affidavit in opposition.



Mr. Paintsil also requested from the court if could take a look at the defendants copy and give directions but the trial judge said she cannot give directions without having the response.



She therefore, ordered counsel for the defendants to ensure that the court gets its copy of their affidavit in opposition and subsequently adjourned the case to February 14. 2022.



The Church cited the three for publishing what it described as publishing highly prejudicial articles and commentaries as well as made conclusive statements of facts on unresolved issues which are yet to be determined by the High Court.



The motion which was filed by Kweku Paintsil of Goshen Chambers on behalf of the church is urging the High Court to commit the respondents to prison for contempt of court for the publications.



LCIs application for contempt of court against Manasseh and the other defendants stems from separate suits initiated by six former pastors of the church over Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions.



They are also seeking a compensation to cover some alleged investments they made in schools, churches of the LCI and for rental of cars while in the service of LCI as well as monies they spent on accommodation.









Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A former Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has said former President John Dramani Mahama refused to build the the Asomdwee Park where the Late Professor John Evans Atta Mills was buried.



The Founder of the Atta Mills Memorial Institute says he is waiting for a one-on-one encounter with Mr Mahama to confront him on this. matter. John Mahama deliberately REFUSED to build Asomdwee Park & whether he likes it or not, the Atta-Mills Institute has begged President Akufo-Addo to build it  and it is being built to the glory of God. Atta-Mills Institute will not die ooooo!!!! President Akufo-Addo thank you, he tweeted.



He added I am waiting for a, one-on-one with John Mahama.



As part of the 10 years anniversary for the late Professor Mills, Former President Mahama is expected to launch the John Evans Atta Mills (JEAM) Memorial Heritage, a non-profit, independent, non-partisan organisation anchored in Professor Mills passion and commitment to inclusivity, transparency, accountability and his relentless quest for peace and a better society.



According to a statement issued by the Governing Board of the JEAM Memorial Heritage and signed by Board Chairman Alex Segbefia, the Memorial Heritage will be launched at the Cedi Conference Centre at the University of Ghana on February 1 2022, under the theme: The man John Evans Atta Mills  10 years on.



There will be thematic presentations by Professor Akua Kuenyehia, former President of the International Criminal Court, the Hague, Professor Francis Dodoo, a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana and four-time Olympian and Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye, a former Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies, the statement added.





I am waiting for a, one-on-one with John Mahama.  Samuel Koku Anyidoho (@KokuAnyidoho) January 30, 2022

















Source: 3news.com/twitter









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Aspiring Regional Youth Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Godwin Nayaw Bamiah Yombu has reiterated the need for Ghanaians to rally behind governments decision to implement a 1.75% levy on all electronic transactions.



He said, through the levy, government will be able to mobilise revenue to improve the countrys road infrastructure while providing job opportunities for the teeming number of unemployed youth in the country.



Godwin Nayaw Bamiah Yombu also added that the levy will help in reducing the countrys reliance on debt.



The E-levy will provide government with revenue to build more roads, provide more jobs and opportunities for the youth and reduce our dependence on debt, Godwin Nayaw Bamiah Yombu exclusively told Kwaku Dawuro on Anopa Nkomo on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7



Godwin Nayaw adds to efforts by government to sensitise Ghanaians on the relevance of the levy and why it must be passed. In this regard, government is also holding a town hall meeting to engage citizens on the E-levy Bill and solicit the citizenrys support.



However, the Minority in Parliament have affirmed their readiness to kick against the Bill, despite the arguments from government.



According to the Minority, government has failed to manage the revenue accrued from previous taxes, and thus the e-levy will not address the countrys revenue challenges.



The Minority have also argued that if passed, the Bill will make life difficult for many more Ghanaians and collapse small scale businesses.

Source: firstnewsroom.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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Mali's military leaders have expelled the French ambassador to the country over what they called "outrageous" comments made by the French foreign minister about the transitional government.



Relations between France and Mali, a landlocked country in West Africa which is one of the world's poorest nations, have deteriorated since the army seized power in August 2020.



Tensions increased further this month when the military junta reversed an agreement to arrange elections in February and vowed to hold power until 2025.



Tensions continue to mount in recent weeks as Malis interim president, Col Assimi Goita, solidified his control and showed reluctance to uphold international agreements.



The French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said last week that Malis leadership was illegitimate and takes irresponsible measures.



The Malian government summoned the French ambassador, Joel Meyer, on Monday, January 31 and said he had 72 hours to leave the country, according to a Malian government statement announced on state television.



This measure follows the hostile and outrageous comments made recently by the French minister of Europe and foreign affairs and the recurrence of such comments by the French authorities with regard to the Malian authorities, despite repeated protests, the statement said



The statement did not specify which comments it was referring to.



This latest episode in the diplomatic crisis between Mali and its foreign partners comes days after the Malian government ordered Danish soldiers deployed in the French-led Takuba military operation to leave. The representative for the Economic Community of West African States was also expelled from the country earlier this month after sanctions were imposed on Mali.



French Defence Minister Florence Parly accused Mali's rulers of stepping up "provocations" against his country.



Western powers are also concerned about Russia's growing involvement in the former French colony.



Moscow reportedly sent military advisors in recent weeks to bolster local security forces in their fight with jihadist insurgents. Unconfirmed reports say hundreds of Russian mercenaries are also operating in the country.



France, which intervened in 2013 to support the government against the jihadists, plans to reduce its own troop deployment.



France stepped in in 2013 after Islamist militants overran parts of the north. With the help of France, Mali's army has recaptured the territory, but militants are waging an increasingly bloody insurgency across the Sahel region.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Heavy gunfire was heard on Tuesday February 1, the capital of Guinea-Bissau near the presidential palace where a cabinet meeting was being held amid fear of a Coup.



Armed men surrounded the government palace, where President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam were believed to have gone to attend a cabinet meeting.



The state broadcaster reported that the shooting has damaged the government palace, which is located close to the airport, and that invaders are holding government officials.



Al Jazeeras Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar in neighbouring Senegal, said it was unclear whether the gunfire was the presidential guards trying to protect the president, or if there was an attack on the government palace.



The whereabouts of the president and the prime minister remain unknown at this time, he said.



People were seen fleeing the area, the local markets were closed and banks shut their doors, while military vehicles laden with troops drove through the streets, according to AFP news agency.



If confirmed, this would be the second coup in West Africa in as many weeks after the military seized power in Burkina Faso last week.



The West African regional bloc ECOWAS condemned what it described as an attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau, which has a history of political instability.



ECOWAS is following with great concern the evolution of the situation in Guinea-Bissauwhere military gunfire is taking place around the government palace, the organisation said.



ECOWAS condemns this attempted coup and holds the military responsible for the safety of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and members of his government.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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" " A sunset scene of red lanterns decorates the Chinese temple Thean Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This temple is famous for its celebration of Chinese New Year. Mongkol Chuewong/Getty Images

Every year between late January and the third week of February, more than 20 percent of the world's population plunges into a period of feasts, festivities and fireworks. This mega-holiday goes by the names Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year or Asian New Year. It's celebrated in mainland China and in many other Asian countries, as well as by people of Asian heritage around the world, and it's one of the richest of all holidays in its variety of customs and traditions.

New Year in the West is celebrated for only one day, and, of course, the evening before. Traditional Chinese New Year, on the other hand, lasts two weeks. The holiday once had a close connection to Buddhist, Taoist and folk religious practices, but like many Western holidays, it is now mainly a secular celebration. There are many different ways to celebrate: Some, like paying honor to ancestors, are based on age-old traditions, while others, like watching a traditional gala on television, are very modern. Chinese New Year is a time to enjoy good times with family, to cultivate luck and to extend wishes of prosperity in the coming year.

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The celebration of the Lunar New Year is based on a calendar that originated in China in the 14th century B.C., which, in its earliest form, was connected to the Chinese agricultural cycle [source: History.com]. Early spring, when Chinese New Year takes place, was the time farmers began to prepare for planting. The last day of the year was also when the landlord came by to collect the yearly rent for farmers' land. Peasants who managed to pay it had reason to celebrate [source: Gao]. Before gunpowder was invented, they made loud noises by tossing sections of bamboo into a fire -- the heat caused these primitive firecrackers to explode with a bang.

In 1912, the Nationalist Chinese government started to play down the celebration of the Lunar New Year. Officials renamed it Spring Festival and urged citizens to use the Gregorian calendar prevalent in the West, which recognizes New Year on January 1. However, many Chinese still clung to the traditions connected with the lunar year. Then, the holiday was banned completely after Communists took control of China in 1949. New Year customs connected with religion and superstition did not fit with Communist dogma and were discouraged by the state [source: Rabkin].

The celebration of New Year in China began to revive in the late 20th century, when the Chinese government began to liberalize its rule. Today, Chinese workers get a week-long holiday that extends through the first half of the Chinese New Year period, and they have returned to celebrating the holiday in a big way [source: History.com].

But how are the exact dates of Chinese New Year determined each year? Read on to the next page to find out.
" " A statue of Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, stands outside the historic Mormon Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. George Frey/Getty Images

The fast-growing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims more than 16 million members worldwide, yet remains one of the least-understood religions on the planet. Even though the Church outlawed polygamy more than a century ago, many people still think Mormons can have more than one wife. And a lot of folks still confuse Mormons with Jehovah's Witnesses and the Amish. (Which are the ones who don't dance again?)

To help set the record straight about Mormon beliefs and practice, we spoke with Matthew Bowman, the chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University and the author of "The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith."

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Myth 1: It's Called the 'Mormon Church'

Since the church was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, the official name has always been The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But Bowman says that from the start, detractors and critics began calling the controversial new sect "Mormons" or "Mormonites," an insult directed at the "Book of Mormon," an ancient book of scripture translated and published by Smith.

But what started as a derogatory slur was soon embraced by church leaders like Brigham Young, who said that church members should be proud to be called Mormons.

"There's a long history of Christian denominations being tagged with a name by outsiders and then eventually adopting it," says Bowman, including Methodists who were criticized as "overly Methodical" in their piety and Baptists who were ridiculed for their belief in full immersion.

In recent decades, though, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has distanced itself from terms like "Mormon," "Mormon Church," "LDS Church" and other nicknames, because it says they detract from Jesus Christ as the true center of Mormon belief.

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Myth 2: Mormons Worship Joseph Smith

Without Joseph Smith, there would be no The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and for faithful Mormons, Smith was a prophet on par with Moses. But that doesn't mean that Mormons "worship" him, Bowman says.

The history of the Mormon church begins this way: In 1820, when Smith was a 14-year-old farm boy in upstate New York, he retreated to a forest grove to ask God a pressing question: Which was the right church for him to join? To Smith's shock and amazement, his prayer was answered by two angelic figures, who identified themselves as God the Father and Jesus Christ.

During this miraculous visitation, known as the First Vision, Smith was told not to join any existing church, but that the true Church of Jesus Christ would be restored through him. After receiving and translating the Book of Mormon, which describes Jesus Christ's ministry to the ancient people of the Americas, Smith was conferred with important priesthood authority that had been lost after the death of the apostles.

Smith was the first prophet of what Mormons believe is Jesus Christ's true restored church, which is organized like the ancient church with prophets and apostles. Brigham Young was the second prophet of the restored church and the line of prophets has remained unbroken through today. The current prophet is Russell M. Nelson.

Smith was fiercely persecuted for his claims and teachings, and was eventually killed along with his brother by a violent mob when he was only 38 years old. Smith's martyrdom, like those of early Christian apostles and saints, made him an even more beloved and revered figure to the Mormon faithful.

"Joseph Smith is important," says Bowman. "He's a prophetic figure who has brought the mechanism of salvation back to humanity through the priesthood and ordinances like baptism, but that's not the same as worshipping him."

It took 117 years for the church to grow from 6 members to 1 million (in 1947). But it reached the 2-million member mark just 16 years later and has been growing ever since. Today, you'll find some 16 million Mormons all over the world, not just in the U.S.

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Myth 3: Mormons Aren't Really Christians

In the 1980s, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints debuted a new logo with the words "Jesus Christ" in a much larger font. The Book of Mormon was also given a subtitle, "The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ." Both of these moves were in response to the persistent myth that Mormons aren't Christians.

Bowman says that at the heart of this misunderstanding is a legitimate question: What does it mean to be a Christian?

"The broadest and most inclusive definition of a Christian is someone who believes in Jesus Christ," says Bowman, and by that definition Mormons are clearly Christians.

The earthly ministry and eternal role of Jesus Christ as the savior of mankind are the focus of Mormon doctrine and worship, and faithful members strive to cultivate a personal relationship with Christ through scripture study and prayer.

" " The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and church leaders gather in the Conference Center and at the start of the 186th annual general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on April 2, 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah. George Frey/Getty Images

But there are also narrower definitions of Christianity where Mormon beliefs can be problematic. In Catholicism and mainline Protestantism, for example, there's the belief of the Trinity as a single Godhead manifested as three persons: God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In Mormon teachings, based on the Book of Mormon and other revelations and visions received by Joseph Smith, the Godhead is not a Trinity, but rather three separate and distinct beings acting with one will and purpose.

Bowman says that some evangelicals also take issue with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of its teaching that certain sacraments and ordinances are necessary for salvation.

"For evangelicals, salvation is less about professing belief or performing ordinances than it is about having a spiritual conversion experience, what's known as being 'born again,'" says Bowman.

Another problem some other Christians have with the Mormon church is the fact that it holds the Book of Mormon to be sacred scripture alongside the Bible. The Latter-day Saints response to that is that the Bible itself doesn't say that "all revelations from God would be gathered into a single volume to be forever closed and that no further scriptural revelation could be received."

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Myth 4: Mormons Practice Polygamy

Polygamy, also known as plural marriage, was a central practice for Mormons in the 19th century, but the church outlawed it in 1904 and anyone suspected of practicing polygamy today is excommunicated.

In 1840, Joseph Smith received a revelation directing church members to reinstate the ancient practice of plural marriage (the biblical King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines) as a way of quickly growing the faith's numbers. Since plural marriage was illegal in the United States, Mormons became an outlaw people and the subject of bitter persecution, driven from place to place until they finally found sanctuary in the wilds of Utah, which wasn't yet a state.

In 1890, as Mormons were lobbying Congress to admit Utah as a state, the then-prophet of the church Wilford Woodruff promised to end the practice of plural marriage in the faith. And in 1904, polygamy officially became punishable by excommunication from the church.

The ongoing confusion about Mormons and polygamy is that there are splinter sects living in Northern Mexico and rural parts of Arizona and Utah who continue to practice polygamy and call themselves the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. These groups, which often dress in 19th-century garb and live in isolated compounds, are separate and distinct from mainstream Mormons.

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Myth 5: Mormons Can't Drink Caffeinated Beverages

Faithful Mormons do their best to live by a set of health and lifestyle rules known as the Word of Wisdom. The original Word of Wisdom was a revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1833 after he prayed about the use of tobacco among church members. The answer Smith received was that men and women should not only avoid tobacco, but also alcohol and "hot drinks," which were interpreted as coffee and tea. Meat was also to be eaten "sparingly," only in times of winter and famine, and then always with thanksgiving.

In the original revelation, the Word of Wisdom was less a rule than a "principle with promise"  the promise being physical health, wisdom and knowledge to those who follow its guidelines.

"For much of the first decades of the church, the Word of Wisdom was considered good advice, something that good saints might do who wanted the promises in the revelation," says Bowman. "But there are instances of members not following it, in part because it wasn't seen as a formal commandment or injunction. The first wagon train that left for Salt Lake City carried coffee with it."

In the early 20th century, as polygamy ended, Bowman says that the Word of Wisdom took on a new significance as a way of maintaining social boundaries between the Latter-day Saints and outsiders. Eventually, adherence to the Word of Wisdom's injunctions against alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea (but not meat) became a prerequisite for full activity in the Church.

Over time, both Mormons and non-Mormons alike wondered why coffee and tea had made the no-no list, and the consensus was that it must be the caffeine, which can be an addictive substance. So, it became a cultural norm, at least in Utah, for Mormons to avoid caffeinated soda as well as "hot drinks."

While Church leaders haven't exactly given their "blessing" to Coke and Pepsi, they have reiterated that coffee and tea are the only drinks explicitly prohibited by the Word of Wisdom. Even Brigham Young University, the church-owned college, now sells caffeinated sodas in its student dining halls.

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Myth 6: Mormons Wear 'Magic Underwear'

This one is only half mythical. Mormons who have gone to an LDS temple do wear special undergarments, but they aren't magical.

Large and ornate LDS Temples are different from the smaller, plainer chapels where Mormons hold their Sunday services. At 168 Temples around the world, worthy church members over 18 years old can receive essential ordinances for salvation. When someone goes to the temple for the first time, they receive the temple "garment," which is a pair of special underwear  top and bottom  with religious significance.

For Mormons, the garment is supposed to act as a daily reminder of important covenants made in the temple. It's not supposed to have any magic powers, even though Bowman says Mormon folklore is full of such stories. The hotel magnate Bill Marriott, a member of the church, once told "60 Minutes"that his sacred undergarments had saved his life in a freak boating accident.

"The boat was on fire. I was on fire. I was burned. My pants were burned right off me. I was not burned above my knee. Where the garment was, I was not burned," said Marriott. "My undergarments were not singed."

Bowman gets why non-Mormons think it's weird to wear special underwear, but in the context of world religions, Mormons aren't odd at all.

"Most religious traditions require some sort of special clothing," says Bowman. "Yarmulkes in Judaism, headscarves in Islam, some Hindus have a spot on their forehead, Turbans for Sikhs. Mormons are more typical than not."

Now That's Interesting For many people, their first encounter with Mormons might be seeing two guys dressed in white shirts and ties riding bikes around town. The dress code is required by the church for full-time missionary work. But the bikes are just an easy way to get around town. In some places, public transportation or a car may be used instead.

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Originally Published: Apr 20, 2020
" " The post office in Seaside, Florida, might be quite possibly the prettiest post office in the U.S. Dean Fikar/Getty Images

The United States Postal Service (USPS) needs help, stat. Plunging mail volume has beleaguered the USPS for years, along with a rising debt load. Don't believe us? Check out these operational statistics from 2010 to September 2019, most of which paint a dismal picture for this beloved American institution [source: USPS]:

Total mail volume decreased from 170.9 billion units to 142.6 billion.

Roughly 87,000 career employees were lost.

Retail customer visits dropped from 1 billion to 812 million, while total retail revenue dropped from $17.5 billion to $12.7 billion.

Annual operating revenue increased, but only slightly, from $67.1 billion to $71.1 billion.

Shipping/package volume doubled, from 3.1 billion to 6.2 billion units, one bright spot.

What's going on? The USPS exists as an independent establishment of the executive branch of the U.S. government. It receives no tax dollars for its operations. Instead, its revenue comes from the sale of stamps and other service fees. But it's not the decline in mail volume that is crippling the Postal Service, for it actually generates enough revenue to cover its operating costs. The main issue is its employees. Or, more specifically, its future retirees.

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In 2006, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act became law. Part of this law required the USPS to prepay its employees' future pension and health benefit costs, a huge financial burden. To wit: In fiscal year 2019, the USPS lost $8.8 billion, 83 percent of which was due to these prepayments. Just as notable, almost no other governmental entity is mandated to do the same [source: Katz].

Back in 2006, the requirement didn't seem as onerous as it would become. The George W. Bush White House insisted on adding this requirement assuming that the Postal Service would be making billions in profit and it didn't want the Treasury Dept. to be on the hook for making the pension payments, reported the Washington Post. A bipartisan Congress went along with it to get the bill (which was initially about streamlining postal rate increases) passed. This was just a couple of years before the Great Recession and the widespread availability of the smartphone, both of which helped mail volume to sprial down.

The USPS has tried marketing campaigns, selling merchandise and expanded Sunday package delivery, among other measures, to combat these steep costs. But financial problems persist. Can anything help? Let's find out how the United States Postal Service works in much more depth.
COMELEC Commissioners Rowena Guanzon (left) and Aimee Ferolino. (Photos: Rowena Guanzon/Facebook; Screenshot of Aimee Ferolino video/Facebook)

The ongoing infighting particularly between Commission on Elections (COMELEC) commissioners Rowena Guanzon and Aimee Ferolino has been entertaining, to say the least. Filipinos live for these dramas; the more character attacks, the more amusing the show gets.

In the red corner is Guanzon, presiding commissioner of the COMELEC's First Division, who previously disclosed that she voted to disqualify presidential aspirant Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. due to "moral turpitude" for failing to pay income taxes in the 1980s.

She said in a text message to a reporter from Rappler, Even an ordinary Filipino knows that when you dont pay your tax, thats bad. He did not pay his taxes four times. And when he was convicted, he did not even pay the fine... That's a ground for disqualification under Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code."

In the blue corner, meanwhile, is Ferolino, who Guanzon accused of delaying the release of the COMELEC's First Division's decision on the high-profile Marcos cases (Guanzon even went as far as saying that there is a politician who influenced her opponent in this match to delay the resolution, although she did not name the said politician). Guanzon is set to retire from the COMELEC on Wednesday (February 2), so her vote to disqualify Marcos Jr. would be invalidated. This is why she is pressuring Ferolino, the ponente or the writer of the ruling, to finish the writing of the decision already.

Ferolino answered Guanzon's accusations through a written response on Monday, where she explained the supposed delay, "I am judiciously scrutinizing all the attached evidence and understand the substance of these documents so that these will be rightfully appreciated in the process of penning the Ponencia." She also argued in a separate letter to COMELEC Chairman Sheriff Abas: Why rush when this Commission decides cases on the merits and not for publicity or to accommodate and please anybody or everybody?

Story continues

Generally, all Ferolino is saying is that she is entitled to more time to process the cases.

This saga has shown that COMELEC is unequipped to come up with a solid decision on a special election case... The fact that Guanzon and Ferolinos bickering has continued to develop while the disqualification cases remained unresolved in the COMELEC desks shows this inefficiency.

While Ferolinos argument may seem as though she is just doing her job right, the COMELEC rules can not directly support her statement.

Section 8, Rule 18 of the commission's Rules of Procedure specifically states that any case heard by a Division shall be decided "within ten (10) days from the date it is deemed submitted for decision or resolution, except in special actions and special cases which shall be decided or resolved within five (5) days." Disqualification cases, like those filed against Marcos Jr. before the COMELEC, are considered special cases.

This means that there should have been a decision already by January 14 or 15, as the cases were deemed submitted for resolution on January 9 or 10. But alas, it has been 16 days already (as of this writing) and no decision has been released yet.

FILE PHOTO: Akbayan members stage a protest outside the COMELEC National Office in Manila, Philippines on November 04, 2021, and demand the election body to disqualify Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. in the 2022 presidential election based on his 1995 tax evasion conviction. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is the son of late President and dictator Ferdinand Marcos. (Photo by Dante Diosina Jr/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

While this new drama has been entertaining, we should not lose sight of what the ending of this storyline should be: COMELEC finally having a decision on the Marcos disqualification cases which, again according to COMELECs rules, are considered special cases.

Because of this ongoing political infighting, COMELECs reputation and integrity have again been put into question and scrutiny by the public; Ferolino even said this herself in her written response to Guanzon, where she said, "I am asking you to spare the Commission from all these controversies because you are destroying the credibility of the agency which you claimed to have previously served with integrity and candor". If the commissioners cannot even meet halfway during the process, and if they are following different laws and principles based on their arguments, how can we trust that the final decision is sound, upright, and honorable?

Ferolino may say that there is no delay but COMELEC rules (particularly Section 8, Rule 18 of the commission's Rules of Procedure) show otherwise  there is now an obvious delay in the release of the decision.

COMELEC is not new to these issues... Shouldnt the commission have a better grip in handling cases like these by now? If what they say about the agency being fair and square is true, then they should be able to handle their commissioners and their cases, and not the other way around.

This saga has shown that COMELEC is unequipped to come up with a solid decision on a special election case  the disqualification of a presidential aspirant with tax evasion cases, for example. They have all the rules and guidelines, and yet they are clearly unfollowed.

The fact that Guanzon and Ferolinos bickering has continued to develop while the disqualification cases remained unresolved in the COMELEC desks reveals this inefficiency.

The COMELEC must have a sense of urgency when it comes to special cases like this one. Their playbook says this, too  that is why they said that special casesshall be decided or resolved within five (5) days  but as we say in Filipino, Gawa, hindi salita (Actions, not words). The written law may be nice, but the enactment of this law is what makes it a law.

COMELEC is not new to these issues. Disqualification cases, for one, are nothing new. Shouldnt the commission have a better grip in handling cases like this by now? If what they say about the agency being fair and square is true, then they should be able to handle their commissioners and their cases, and not the other way around.

The law must be upheld. But in this case, whats upheld is the time and comfort of the commissioners, as though they have the privilege and all the time in the world to work at their preferred pace, even while the integrity of the elections is compromised.

The ongoing bickering only destructs the already-tainted reputation of COMELEC, while the supposed subject of the issue, Marcos Jr., is happily watching the drama from afar. He knows by now already that the storyline is going in his favor.

Juju Z. Baluyot is a Manila-based writer who has written in-depth special reports, news features, and opinion-editorial pieces for a wide range of publications. He covers cultures, media, and gender. The views expressed are his own.

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This undated photo provided by the Archaeological Park of Paestum shows a view of the excavations in the Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia, near Naples, Italy, where ruins of a painted brick wall and ancient warrior helmets at a site that might be a forerunner of a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena on the acropolis of one of Magna Graecia's most important city were found. Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, that two well-preserved helmets and remains of what was apparently a rectangular building, along with vases carrying the Greek inscription "sacred" and metal fragments believed to have been pieces of weapons were unearthed. Credit: Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia via AP

Archaeologists in southern Italy have discovered ancient warrior helmets and the ruins of a painted brick wall at a site that might have been a forerunner of a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, officials said Tuesday.

Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said the remains dug up at the popular tourist site of Velia were found on what had been an acropolis of one of Magna Graecia's most important cities. Velia is 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Paestum, a much-visited site of ancient Greek temples.

The recently completed excavation at Velia unearthed a pair of helmets in good condition, the remains of a building, vases with the Greek inscription for "sacred" and metal fragments of what possibly were weapons, the culture ministry said.

State Museums Director Massimo Osanna, who formerly had long directed excavations at Pompeii, Italy's most celebrated excavated site, said the area explored at Velia probably contained relics of offerings made to Athena, the mythological Greek goddess of war and wisdom, after a key naval battle in the nearby Tyrrhenian Sea.

In the 6th-century B.C. battle of Alalia off the coast of Corsica, Greek forces were victorious over Etruscan forces and their Carthaginian allies.

Velia is famed for being the home of an ancient Greek school of philosophy, including philosophers Parmenides and Zeno. It was part of Magna Graecia, the area of southern Italy colonized by Greek city-states. The settlement at Velia occupied an upper part, or acropolis, of the area as well as hillsides, and was surrounded by a wall. The city's ancient name was Elea.

This undated photo provided by the Archaeological Park of Paestum shows an ancient warrior helmet found in the Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia, near Naples, Italy, where ruins of a painted brick wall and ancient warrior helmets at a site that might be a forerunner of a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena on the acropolis of one of Magna Graecia's most important city were found. Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, that two well-preserved helmets and remains of what was apparently a rectangular building, along with vases carrying the Greek inscription "sacred" and metal fragments believed to have been pieces of weapons were unearthed. Credit: Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia via AP

This undated photo provided by the Archaeological Park of Paestum shows an ancient warrior helmet found in the Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia, near Naples, Italy, where ruins of a painted brick wall and ancient warrior helmets at a site that might be a forerunner of a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena on the acropolis of one of Magna Graecia's most important city were found. Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, that two well-preserved helmets and remains of what was apparently a rectangular building, along with vases carrying the Greek inscription "sacred" and metal fragments believed to have been pieces of weapons were unearthed. Credit: Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia via AP

Velia's founding dates to about 540 B.C. by colonists from Asia Minor.

Franceschini said the discoveries yielded by the Velia excavation underscored the importance of investing in archaeological research to reveal "important pieces of the history of the Mediterranean."

Explore further Italy taps German archaeologist to oversee Pompeii ruins

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
One protein (in gray) docking with another protein (in purple) to form a protein complex. Equidock, the machine learning system the researchers developed, can directly predict a protein complex like this in a matter of seconds. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Antibodies, small proteins produced by the immune system, can attach to specific parts of a virus to neutralize it. As scientists continue to battle SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, one possible weapon is a synthetic antibody that binds with the virus' spike proteins to prevent the virus from entering a human cell.

To develop a successful synthetic antibody, researchers must understand exactly how that attachment will happen. Proteins, with lumpy 3D structures containing many folds, can stick together in millions of combinations, so finding the right protein complex among almost countless candidates is extremely time-consuming.

To streamline the process, MIT researchers created a machine-learning model that can directly predict the complex that will form when two proteins bind together. Their technique is between 80 and 500 times faster than state-of-the-art software methods, and often predicts protein structures that are closer to actual structures that have been observed experimentally.

This technique could help scientists better understand some biological processes that involve protein interactions, like DNA replication and repair; it could also speed up the process of developing new medicines.

"Deep learning is very good at capturing interactions between different proteins that are otherwise difficult for chemists or biologists to write experimentally. Some of these interactions are very complicated, and people haven't found good ways to express them. This deep-learning model can learn these types of interactions from data," says Octavian-Eugen Ganea, a postdoc in the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and co-lead author of the paper.

Ganea's co-lead author is Xinyuan Huang, a graduate student at ETH Zurich. MIT co-authors include Regina Barzilay, the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and Health in CSAIL, and Tommi Jaakkola, the Thomas Siebel Professor of Electrical Engineering in CSAIL and a member of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. The research will be presented at the International Conference on Learning Representations.

Protein attachment

The model the researchers developed, called Equidock, focuses on rigid body dockingwhich occurs when two proteins attach by rotating or translating in 3D space, but their shapes don't squeeze or bend.

The model takes the 3D structures of two proteins and converts those structures into 3D graphs that can be processed by the neural network. Proteins are formed from chains of amino acids, and each of those amino acids is represented by a node in the graph.

The researchers incorporated geometric knowledge into the model, so it understands how objects can change if they are rotated or translated in 3D space. The model also has mathematical knowledge built in that ensures the proteins always attach in the same way, no matter where they exist in 3D space. This is how proteins dock in the human body.

Using this information, the machine-learning system identifies atoms of the two proteins that are most likely to interact and form chemical reactions, known as binding-pocket points. Then it uses these points to place the two proteins together into a complex.

"If we can understand from the proteins which individual parts are likely to be these binding pocket points, then that will capture all the information we need to place the two proteins together. Assuming we can find these two sets of points, then we can just find out how to rotate and translate the proteins so one set matches the other set," Ganea explains.

One of the biggest challenges of building this model was overcoming the lack of training data. Because so little experimental 3D data for proteins exist, it was especially important to incorporate geometric knowledge into Equidock, Ganea says. Without those geometric constraints, the model might pick up false correlations in the dataset.

Seconds vs. hours

Once the model was trained, the researchers compared it to four software methods. Equidock is able to predict the final protein complex after only one to five seconds. All the baselines took much longer, from between 10 minutes to an hour or more.

In quality measures, which calculate how closely the predicted protein complex matches the actual protein complex, Equidock was often comparable with the baselines, but it sometimes underperformed them.

"We are still lagging behind one of the baselines. Our method can still be improved, and it can still be useful. It could be used in a very large virtual screening where we want to understand how thousands of proteins can interact and form complexes. Our method could be used to generate an initial set of candidates very fast, and then these could be fine-tuned with some of the more accurate, but slower, traditional methods," he says.

In addition to using this method with traditional models, the team wants to incorporate specific atomic interactions into Equidock so it can make more accurate predictions. For instance, sometimes atoms in proteins will attach through hydrophobic interactions, which involve water molecules.

Their technique could also be applied to the development of small, drug-like molecules, Ganea says. These molecules bind with protein surfaces in specific ways, so rapidly determining how that attachment occurs could shorten the drug development timeline.

In the future, they plan to enhance Equidock so it can make predictions for flexible protein docking. The biggest hurdle there is a lack of data for training, so Ganea and his colleagues are working to generate synthetic data they could use to improve the model.

Explore further A deep learning model rapidly predicts the 3D shapes of drug-like molecules

More information: Independent SE(3)-Equivariant Models for End-to-End Rigid Protein Docking. Independent SE(3)-Equivariant Models for End-to-End Rigid Protein Docking. openreview.net/forum?id=GQjaI9mLet

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
Principle of production of structural colors from nematic clay double layers (DBLs). (A) Schematic of the 2D lamellar structure of synthetic Na-fluorohectorite (Na-FHt). Na-FHt spontaneously forms nematic phases of single 1-nm-thick nanosheets [single layers (SGLs)] when immersed into water. (B) Schematics of protocol for production of nematic phases of double 2-nm-thick layers (DBLs). (C) Structural colors obtained from SGL aqueous suspensions at zero ionic strength. (D) Structural colors from DBL aqueous suspensions at zero ionic strength. The clay concentrations are given in volume %. (E) Principle of reflective structural coloration obtained from a lamellar Bragg stack suspension. Each lamella is semitransparent, reflecting part of the incoming white light that then interferes constructively according to Bragg-Snells law, thus enhancing a single color that is both dependent on the layer distance and the angle of observation (iridescence). A dark background absorbs the white light that is transmitted through the whole stack. Only the DBL case is shown in the sketch. Credit: Science Advances.

In a new report now published on Science Advances, Paulo H. Michels-Brito, and a team of researchers in physics, inorganic chemistry, and physical chemistry in Germany and Norway, showed how bright non-iridescence structural coloration could be easily and rapidly achieved from two-dimensional nanosheets of clay mineral.

Structural colors can originate from clay mineral nanosheet solutions via constructive interference of light after reflection and scattering from nanostructures with periodicity comparable to visible light wavelengths. The scientists improved the brightness enormously by using double clay nanosheets to optimize the clay refractive index that can otherwise hamper structural coloration from such systems.

By varying the clay concentration and ionic strength, the structural colors could be precisely and reproducibly regulated to readily obtain non-iridescence. Such clay-design nanosheets can be embedded in recyclable solid matrices to simultaneously provide tunable, vivid colors, mechanical strength and stability to open a previously unknown region for sustainable colors.

Structural coloration in nature and in the lab

Structural colors result from photonic waves that interfere constructively after reflection and scattering from nanostructures with distances comparable to wavelengths of visible light. The mechanism of structural coloration is fundamentally different from the absorbance of dyes or pigments. For instance, with structural colors the material could be semi-transparent, where the color spectrum may be tuned by adjusting the nanostructures.

This mechanism can be combined with light-absorbing dark pigments as noted with major biological coloration mechanisms seen in nature; featured on birds, marine animals, some mammals, insects and certain plants. The concept of structural coloration has also sparked enormous interest in the industrial sectors, including L'Oreal's photonic cosmetics and Morphotex to represent bioinspired designs.

However, the abundance and time taken to fabricate the concept are major limitations for upscale industrial applications. Structural coloration relies on iridescence, for example the feathers of bluebirds and butterflies can be mimicked using colloidal particles. In this work, Michels-Brito et al. devised a method to produce structural colors from nematic clay double layers (DBLs). The team chose synthetic sodium-fluorohectorite (Na-FHt)  a synthetic clay mineral with superior quality relative to structural homogeneity, narrow charge distribution and a large aspect ratio, which the team characterized as materials properties.

Tunability of strutural color by adding water in the suspenstion. In half of the quartz cuvette is inserted a clay double layer suspension with a light blue color. The other half is filled with water. After mixed with the syringe needle, the sample presented a wide range of structural color. This diversity of structural colors are a result of the incomplete homogenization of the suspension, which resulted in regions with different concentrations across the sample inside the cuvette resulting in a broad range of structural colors. Science Advances, 10.1126/sciadv.abl8147 The experiments

The researchers tuned the Na-FHt to water ratio and nanosheet separations based on the wavelength range of visible light, where the photonic Bragg stacks covering the whole spectrum of colors could be produced rapidly and easily. The suspended single layers gave rise to smooth and bright colors. However, the team could improve the brightness and noniridescence of the structural colors by applying double layers (DBLs) of two suspended single layers pinned together.

As a direct biomimetic analog to this mechanism, Michels-Brito et al. compared the Loliginid squids, due to their capacity to tune their structural colors via osmotically driven changes. Structural coloration from the DBLs (double layers) relied on strong electrostatic repulsion between cofacial (lego-like) clay nanosheets to separate them to various distances by simply adding the right amount of water and choosing the wavelength that interferes constructively.

The scientists described the constructive interference of white light from individual nanosheets by using the Bragg-Snell's Law. Accordingly, the observed color depended on the layer distance and the angle of observation (iridescence). The team regulated nanosheet separation by tuning the clay concentration in suspensions in flat quartz cuvettes with a 1 mm path length to show the possibility of rapidly tuning structural colors by adding water into the solution.

Characterization and control of structural colors from nematic clay DBLs. (A) Structural colors of the R1 and R2 ranges (fig. S6 shows the birefringence). (B) RSP for R1 range. (C) RSP for R2 range. (D) RSP maxima (with error bars) versus volume % and the linear fit. (E) RSP maxima (with error bars) versus volume % and the linear fit. Details of how the RSP maxima were determined and how the errors were estimated from these fits are explained in fig. S7. (F) d-Spacing (with error bars) versus volume % obtained from R1 and R2 ranges and linear fit. (G) RSP maxima versus ionic strength and corresponding observed structural colors. (H) CIE (Commission Internationale de lElcairage) diagram of the first-order colors. (I) Effect of dark and white backgrounds, respectively. Credit: Science Advances .

Noniridescent structural colors from nematic clay DBLs. (A) Structural colors at different angles (5 and 30). (B) Sketch of structural order that would give iridescent colors and sketch of possible factors of disorder that, in combination, may explain the observed noniridescence color. Credit: Science Advances.

Optimizing the technique for industrial applications

The double-layer presented two different structural color changes, where the effective refractive index could be determined using small-angle X-ray scattering and reflective spectrophotometer data. Since electrostatic interactions governed nanosheet separation, the colors could be tuned by varying the ionic strength.

For example, by increasing the ionic strength of a red double layer solution, the team could blue-shift the structural color due to decreased nanosheet separation, owing to increasing electrostatic screening. During the study, all samples unexpectedly appeared non-iridescent to the eye. After close inspection, they noticed slight differences in the brightness of the colors based on the angle of view. The noniridescence of the nematic clay solutions resulted from a combination of local disorders relative to nanosheet bending and wrinkling, and turbostratic organization in the plane of nanosheets.

Michels-Brito et al. studied the samples in fixed space quartz cuvettes where sealed samples sitting 'on the desk' for more than four to five days showed some iridescence. For samples prepared in saline, such degradation times were shorter in the order of two days due to sedimentation of the solutions, which modified the colors. The team rapidly recovered the colors by gently shaking the cuvettes. These timescales of two-to-five days provided sufficient gaps to fix the noniridescent nature of structural colors in a transparent matrix for subsequent industrial roll to roll processing for pigment fabrication. The films can be reduced in thickness below 1 mm to form colors in 200 m thick solutions.

Na-Fluorohectorite structure. The orange octahedral sites (pink sphere) contain magnesium partially substituted by lithium. The octahedral sheet is sandwiched in between the blue tetrahedral sheets. The tetrahedral sites (dark blue spheres) contain silicon. The light blue spheres are fluorine, and the red spheres are oxygen. The green spheres are the interlayer cations, typically Na+ from the synthesis. Credit: Science Advances.

Outlook

In this way Paulo H. Michels-Brito et al. presented a system that accounted for the sustainability and abundance of clay minerals for upscaled applications across various areas ranging from pigments in cosmetics to healthcare, as well as windows and tiles. The outcomes of this study on synthetic clay can be transferred to natural clays, where vermiculite presents itself as the most suitable candidate to upscale the concept.

The team envision including exfoliated clay nanosheets in small amounts to polymer matrices, including biodegradable biopolymers and hydrogel matrices for structural enhancement to tune the mechanical strength and stability of the resulting composites. The results have high impact in cosmetics and personal care applications to form more sustainable and recyclable formulas, to also achieve the goals of a circular economy.

Explore further Structural colors, without the shimmer

More information: Paulo H. Michels-Brito et al, Bright, noniridescent structural coloration from clay mineral nanosheet suspensions, Science Advances (2022). Paulo H. Michels-Brito et al, Bright, noniridescent structural coloration from clay mineral nanosheet suspensions,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl8147 Minxiang Zeng et al, Iridescence in nematics: Photonic liquid crystals of nanoplates in absence of long-range periodicity, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2019). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1906511116

 2022 Science X Network
Credit: Paul Einerhand

By 2080, around 70% of the world's oceans could be suffocating from a lack of oxygen as a result of climate change, potentially impacting marine ecosystems worldwide, according to a new study. The new models find mid-ocean depths that support many fisheries worldwide are already losing oxygen at unnatural rates and passed a critical threshold of oxygen loss in 2021.

Oceans carry dissolved oxygen as a gas, and just like land animals, aquatic animals need that oxygen to breathe. But as the oceans warm due to climate change, their water can hold less oxygen. Scientists have been tracking the oceans' steady decline in oxygen for years, but the new study provides new, pressing reasons to be concerned sooner rather than later.

The new study is the first to use climate models to predict how and when deoxygenation, which is the reduction of dissolved oxygen content in water, will occur throughout the world's oceans outside its natural variability.

It finds that significant, potentially irreversible deoxygenation of the ocean's middle depths that support much of the world's fished species began occurring in 2021, likely affecting fisheries worldwide. The new models predict that deoxygenation is expected to begin affecting all zones of the ocean by 2080.

The results were published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.

The ocean's middle depths (from about 200 to 1,000 meters deep), called mesopelagic zones, will be the first zones to lose significant amounts of oxygen due to climate change, the new study finds. Globally, the mesopelagic zone is home to many of the world's commercially fished species, making the new finding a potential harbinger of economic hardship, seafood shortages and environmental disruption.

Rising temperatures lead to warmer waters that can hold less dissolved oxygen, which creates less circulation between the ocean's layers. The middle layer of the ocean is particularly vulnerable to deoxygenation because it is not enriched with oxygen by the atmosphere and photosynthesis like the top layer, and the most decomposition of algaea process that consumes oxygenoccurs in this layer.

"This zone is actually very important to us because a lot of commercial fish live in this zone," says Yuntao Zhou, an oceanographer at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and lead study author. "Deoxygenation affects other marine resources as well, but fisheries [are] maybe most related to our daily life."

The new findings are deeply concerning and adds to the urgency to engage meaningfully in mitigating climate change, says Matthew Long, an oceanographer at NCAR who was not involved in the study.

"Humanity is currently changing the metabolic state of the largest ecosystem on the planet, with really unknown consequences for marine ecosystems," he said. "That may manifest in significant impacts on the ocean's ability to sustain important fisheries."

Evaluating vulnerability

The researchers identified the beginning of the deoxygenation process in three ocean depth zonesshallow, middle and deepby modeling when the loss of oxygen from the water exceeds natural fluctuations in oxygen levels. The study predicted when deoxygenation would occur in global ocean basins using data from two climate model simulations: one representing a high emissions scenario and the other representing a low emissions scenario.

In both simulations, the mesopelagic zone lost oxygen at the fastest rate and across the largest area of the global oceans, although the process begins about 20 years later in the low emissions scenario. This indicates that lowering carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions could help delay the degradation of global marine environments.

The researchers also found that oceans closer to the poles, like the west and north Pacific and the southern oceans, are particularly vulnerable to deoxygenation. They're not yet sure why, although accelerated warming could be the culprit. Areas in the tropics known for having low levels of dissolved oxygen, called oxygen minimum zones, also seem to be spreading, according to Zhou.

"The oxygen minimum zones actually are spreading into high latitude areas, both to the north and the south. That's something we need to pay more attention to," she says. Even if global warming were to reverse, allowing concentrations of dissolved oxygen to increase, "whether dissolved oxygen would return to pre-industrial levels remains unknown."

Explore further Secret life of sponges

More information: Hongjing Gong et al, Emerging Global Ocean Deoxygenation Across the 21st Century, Geophysical Research Letters (2021). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Hongjing Gong et al, Emerging Global Ocean Deoxygenation Across the 21st Century,(2021). DOI: 10.1029/2021GL095370
University of Cincinnati anthropology student Louis Herzner, bottom, and anthropology professor Kenneth Tankersley use a scanning electron microscope to study iron and silicon-rich microspherules collected at ancient Hopewell sites. Credit: Larry Sandman

The rapid decline of the Hopewell culture about 1,500 years ago might be explained by falling debris from a near-Earth comet that created a devastating explosion over North America, laying waste to forests and Native American villages alike.

Researchers with the University of Cincinnati found evidence of a cosmic airburst at 11 Hopewell archeological sites in three states stretching across the Ohio River Valley. This was home to the Ohio Hopewell, part of a notable Native American culture found across much of the American East.

The comet's glancing pass rained debris down into the Earth's atmosphere, creating a fiery explosion. UC archeologists used radiocarbon and typological dating to determine the age of the event.

The airburst affected an area bigger than New Jersey, setting fires across 9,200 square miles between the years A.D. 252 and 383. This coincides with a period when 69 near-Earth comets were observed and documented by Chinese astronomers and witnessed by Native Americans as told through their oral histories.

The study was published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.

UC archeologists found an unusually high concentration and diversity of meteorites at Hopewell sites compared to other time periods. The meteorite fragments were identified from the telltale concentrations of iridium and platinum they contained. They also found a charcoal layer that suggests the area was exposed to fire and extreme heat.

In his lab, lead author Kenneth Tankersley, a professor of anthropology in UC's College of Arts and Sciences, held up a container of tiny micrometeorites collected at the sites. A variety of meteorites, including stony meteorites called pallasites, were found at Hopewell sites.

University of Cincinnati anthropology professor Kenneth Tankersley uses a magnet to show how micrometeorites collected at 11 Hopewell sites contain metals such as iron. UC's analysis found they also contain high levels of platinum and iridium. Credit: Michael Miller

"These micrometeorites have a chemical fingerprint. Cosmic events like asteroids and comet airbursts leave behind high quantities of a rare element known as platinum," Tankersley said. "The problem is platinum also occurs in volcanic eruptions. So we also look for another rare element found in nonterrestrial events such as meteorite impact cratersiridium. And we found a spike in both, iridium and platinum."

The Hopewell people collected the meteorites and forged malleable metal from them into flat sheets used in jewelry and musical instruments called pan flutes.

Beyond the physical evidence are cultural clues left behind in the masterworks and oral histories of the Hopewell. A comet-shaped mound was constructed near the epicenter of the airburst at a Hopewell site called the Milford Earthworks.

Various Algonquin and Iroquoian tribes, descendants of the Hopewell, spoke of a calamity that befell the Earth, said Tankersley, who is Native American.

"What's fascinating is that many different tribes have similar stories of the event," he said.

"The Miami tell of a horned serpent that flew across the sky and dropped rocks onto the land before plummeting into the river. When you see a comet going through the air, it would look like a large snake," he said.

"The Shawnee refer to a 'sky panther' that had the power to tear down forest. The Ottawa talk of a day when the sun fell from the sky. And when a comet hits the thermosphere, it would have exploded like a nuclear bomb."

A magnet holds tiny micrometeorites collected from sediment samples taken from an ancient Hopewell site. Researchers say this evidence points to a comet airburst that devastated parts of the Ohio River Valley more than 1,500 years ago. Credit: Michael Miller

And the Wyandot recount a dark cloud that rolled across the sky and was destroyed by a fiery dart, Tankersley said.

"That's a lot like the description the Russians gave for Tunguska," he said of a comet airburst documented over Siberia in 1908 that leveled 830 square miles of forest and shattered windows hundreds of miles away.

"Witnesses reported seeing a fireball, a bluish light nearly as bright as the sun, moving across the sky. A flash and sound similar to artillery fire was said to follow it. A powerful shockwave broke windows hundreds of miles away and knocked people off their feet," according to a story in EarthSky.

UC biology professor and co-author David Lentz said people who survived the airburst and its fires would have gazed upon a devastated landscape.

"It looks like this event was very injurious to agriculture. People didn't have good ways to store corn for a long period of time. Losing a crop or two would have caused widespread suffering," Lentz said.

And if the airburst leveled forests like the one in Russia, native people would have lost nut trees such as walnut and hickory that provided a good winter source of food.

"When your corn crop fails, you can usually rely on a tree crop. But if they're all destroyed, it would have been incredibly disruptive," Lentz said.

University of Cincinnati anthropology professor Kenneth Tankersley poses in front of a table of ancient stone tools in his office. Tankersley has studied ancient cultures across North America. Credit: Michael Miller

UC's Advanced Materials Characterization Center conducted scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry of the sediment samples. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was employed at the University of Georgia's Center for Applied Isotope Studies. The U.S. Geological Survey provided stable carbon isotope analysis.

Despite what scientists know, there is still much they do not, Lentz said.

"It's hard to know exactly what happened. We only have a few points of light in the darkness," he said. "But we have this area of high heat that would have been catastrophic for people in that area and beyond."

Now researchers are studying pollen trapped in layers of sediment to see how the comet airburst might have changed the botanical landscape of the Ohio River Valley.

Co-author Steven Meyers, a UC geology alumnus, said their discovery might lead to more interest in how cosmic events affected prehistoric people around the world.

"Science is just a progress report," Meyers said. "It's not the end. We're always somewhere in the middle. As time goes on, more things will be found."

Explore further Vast patches of glassy rock in Chilean desert likely created by ancient exploding comet

More information: Kenneth Barnett Tankersley et al, The Hopewell airburst event, 16991567 years ago (252383 CE), Scientific Reports (2022). Journal information: Scientific Reports Kenneth Barnett Tankersley et al, The Hopewell airburst event, 16991567 years ago (252383 CE),(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05758-y
Credit: Shutterstock

One month into 2022 and the debate on cryptocurrency is already heating up, with calls for regulation causing a rift between jurisdictions that are "crypto friendly" and those that aren't. Which will determine the future of the market?

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko has reportedly signed a roadmap to regulate crypto operations in Russia. The news comes after Russia's central bank published a consultation paper that proposed a blanket ban on crypto-related activity in the country.

The paper, titled Cryptocurrencies: Trends, Risks, and Regulation, states "a wider adoption of cryptocurrencies creates significant risks for the Russian financial market." It says non-state-based currencies pose a threat to citizens' well-being, through loss of investments as a result of market volatility, scams and cyber attacks.

Jurisdictions have grappled with the idea decentralized digital currencies provide an alternative to sovereign currencyand thus pose a threat to central banks' power over monetary policy.

Although Russia has stopped short of completely stifling operations inside its borders, the latest events follow a broader trend of nations struggling to embrace cryptocurrency. Future bans or regulations will determine the future of the industry.

Crypto ban or crypto friendly?

China has banned cryptocurrency trading multiple times. An outright ban on crypto mining last year was a massive loss to the industry, as most crypto mining happened in China.

Mining involves running software on computer servers to solve cryptographic algorithms. This process validates transactions and maintains a shared record of transactions across the blockchain network. People who participate, the "miners" are automatically rewarded in cryptocurrency.

Mining is an international industry, and large capital outlay goes towards the land, power and infrastructure needed to set up mining warehouses.

The mining ban in China drove miners to sell or ship their equipment overseas and invest capital in friendlier jurisdictions, particularly the United States. One consequence was the strengthening of the network, as mining operations were diversified. As such, future bans may have less of an effect on the market.

Currently, most Bitcoin mining occurs in the US, Kazakhstan, Russia, Canada, Malaysia and Iran. Some networks face great challenges. In Kazakhstan, for instance, power has reportedly been rationed away from miners to conserve energy during electricity shortages, forcing miners to leave the country.

Reports estimate this will cost Kazakhstan's economy US$1.5 billion (or A$2.14 billion) over the next five years, including US$300 million in tax revenue.

Crypto isn't entirely 'anonymous'

Crypto has come a long way since Bitcoin's anonymous launch in 2009. There are now thousands of cryptocurrencies, with an estimated total market cap of US$1.66 trillion (about A$2.36 trillion).

It's often stated, including in the recent report from Russia's central bank, that the anonymity of cryptocurrencies enables illegal activity such as money laundering, terrorism financing and drug trade.

This isn't entirely true. In fact transaction history on public blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum (the largest by market capitalisation), is public.

Many governments (including those of Australia and the US) collaborate with large private blockchain analytics firms to monitor citizens' crypto wallet addresses and transactions. They do this to mitigate risks of money laundering and tax evasion.

Contrary to popular belief, most cryptocurrencies aren't anonymous; they are pseudonymous. If a person's identity is linked to their wallet address via a central touch point, such as a cryptocurrency exchange or an email, that wallet is traceable to the individual.

Research (commissioned by Zcash but carried out by the Rand corporation) found there isn't widespread illicit use of "privacy coins" preserving users' anonymity.

Policy will determine future directions

Cryptocurrency continues to become increasingly mainstream as an investment asset class, technological infrastructure and a social experiment in non-state-based infrastructure.

With this, crypto communities hold growing influence in public policy debates. For example, crypto advocates were able to slow down a major federal government infrastructure bill in the US last year.

Yet jurisdictions are choosing different pathways regarding policy and regulation. Some such as China and Russia view it as a fiscal and ideological challenge to sovereign monies. Others view it as an opportunity for innovation, investment and economic growth.

As different approaches emerge, 2022 may be a defining year for both the crypto industry and those competing to either ban or welcome it.

Past examples suggest countries that welcome crypto networks reap economic benefits through innovation, investment, jobs and taxes. Business benefits of adopting crypto as a digital asset include access to new demographics and technological efficiencies in treasury management.

At the same time, the effects of policy and regulation on the industry demonstrates cryptocurrency isn't a completely decentralized thing that exists only on the blockchain.

Australia's position

In the competition to limit but benefit from cryptocurrency, Australia has emerged as a potential destination of "crypto friendliness." A report published in October by the Senate Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre looks favorably on cryptocurrencies.

It proposes market licensing for crypto exchanges, streamlined taxation arrangements and a regulatory structure for "decentralized autonomous organizations," or DAOs. These function using the same philosophy of self-governance as decentralized cryptocurrency networks, using blockchain technology and cryptocurrency tokens to manage participation and enforce rules.

Australia's choice is to capture the enormous economic potential of decentralized digital assets. How this will impact the national economy remains to be seen. But if history is a lesson to be learned from, we can expect policy to shape outcomes.

Explore further Russia's central bank calls for crypto crackdown

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Atomic clocks at ESA's mission control determine new 'space time.' Credit: European Space Agency

Since November 2021, ESA's satellites and ground stations have been running on a newly defined, incredibly precise "ESOC time." Measured by two atomic clocks in the basement of the ESOC mission control center in Germany, this new time determination will bring wide-reaching operational benefits for all ESA missions, making new feats possible in space while adding to our global definition of "now."

"What's the time?" You ask, simply enough.

"Correct to how many decimal places?" ESA mission control replies. "Our atomic clocks are now accurate to within 5 nanoseconds, with respect to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)."

You walk away, perhaps slightly irritated. Why on Earth would anyone need to know the time to within a few billionths of a second? Well, if you've ever traveled by car, used online banking, a mobile phone, or watched TV, you've likely reaped the rewards of atomic timekeeping.

Literally no time like the present

As Einstein discovered, time is relative; the time on a clock depends on how fast it is moving or how far it is from a massive body, such as its altitude above the surface of Earth. As such, clocks on the top of a mountain read slightly differently to those at the bottom of the ocean, and remarkably one twin speeding through space ages at a different rate to their initially identical sibling on Earth.

Because of this, it is in fact impossible to know the exact time 'right now' anywhere other than your precise location. Comparing clocks at two different locations takes time: imagine asking a Martian for the time on the Red Planetit will take about 14 minutes for your message to arrive and the same again to get their response. By the time you receive their message, it's out of date.

This may not have mattered centuries ago, but our modern world relies on a shared conception of the present moment. Enter, "paper time."

Paper time

Before trains, different local regions defined their own, independent time defined by the movement of the Sun.

As people began speeding from one location to another, a coordinated time was needed so that train drivers wouldn't need to continuously update their clocks as they passed from region to region, and passengers knew the time when they arrived at their destination. This led to the creation of "Greenwich Mean Time" in 1884, the mean solar time counted from midnight by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

By the mid-20th century, atomic clocks revealed that melting ice sheets, earthquakes and the natural motions in Earth's crust, oceans and atmosphere create day-to-day variations in the time it takes for Earth to spin on its axis. In 1967, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) was adopted, incorporating measurements of Earth's rotation with averaged readings from around 400 extremely precise, local, atomic clocks around the world.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) was adopted in 1967 and uses both atomic clocks around the world and measurements of Earths rotation. It is adjusted every so often by leap seconds to account for the difference between the definition of the second and the rotation of Earth, keeping UTC in conjunction with the apparent position of the Sun and the stars. Credit: TimeZonesBoy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

"About 90 'time laboratories' around the world generate local realizations of UTC, which are monitored continuously," explains Erik Schoenemann, Navigation Engineer at ESOC and responsible Project Manager.

"On a monthly basis, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures just outside Paris, processes the results issued by all those laboratories to retrospectively calculate a weighted average steered to the definition of the SI second and adjusted every now and then with the addition of 'leap seconds' to correct for the rotation of the Earth, UTC. This combined time is defined as a paper clock as it only exists in theory, and can only be discovered after-the-fact, with a lag of about six weeks."

ESOC o'clock

Since 2012, ESA's ESTEC technical center in the Netherlands has contributed to UTC with its atomic clocks located in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Now, the Agency's ESOC mission control center is officially adding its measurements to the mix, with the combined measurements from the two sites being dubbed "UTC(ESA)".

"The time previously provided by ESTEC was under laboratory conditions and not used by our ground stations or missions. The main difference now is that we generate an 'operational time,' ready to use immediately for all missions, without interruption," explains Werner Enderle, Head of ESA's Navigation Support Office at ESOC.

"ESOC time will have a significant influence on our abilities. Providing a direct link to UTC for all our missions will allow for significant new features and developments which weren't previously possible," adds Sinda Mejri, frequency and timing expert at ESOC.

"This really will make a big difference, and it's all down to the brilliant work and collaboration between teams at ESOC, ESTEC and our ground stations."

Time is of the essence

Time itself is considered part of the critical infrastructure in many countries, or at least having access to a precise, reference time.

This universal time is used for weather forecasting, by pilots flying through different time zones, spacecraft operators flying missions in space, as well as much of the vital infrastructure that underpins our economies and societies from the stock exchange to the internet.

ESA missions will also benefit, from the Agency's fleet of Earth observation satellites to orbiting observatories like Gaia, deep-space missions like Solar Orbiter and in particular, future missions to the moon.

In fact, lunar operations will depend on interoperable GNSS timeprecise, lunar access to an agreed 'now,' allowing for multi-mission, multi-user operations on and around the moon. ESA has recently been charged by the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems with proposing potential concepts for such an interoperable GNSS time, which could also be used for lunar missions. The recent UTC determination at ESOC is a fundamental step towards the goal.

Not only does 'ESA time' help improve the accuracy of UTC worldwide, but it means all the Agency's missions, now and in the future, home and away, will benefit from an immediate, precise answer to the seemingly simple question, "what time is it?"

Explore further Deep Space Atomic Clock moves toward increased spacecraft autonomy
Fraction of the ocean surface annually experiencing extreme heat, grouped by a, Northern Hemisphere and b, Southern Hemisphere and Indian ocean basins. The Point of No Return (PoNR) occurs when each series surpasses and remains above 50% (dashed grey line), or when the historical baseline of extreme heat becomes normal. This first occurs in 1998 in the South Atlantic basin and for the global ocean occurs in 2014. Credit: Tanaka and Van Houtan, 2022, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

New Monterey Bay Aquarium-led research reveals excessively warm ocean temperatures driven by climate change are the new normal. The study, published today by PLOS Climate, establishes that more than half of the ocean surface has exceeded a historical heat extreme threshold on a regular basis since 2014.

And it is these heat extremes, researchers say, that increase the risk of collapse for crucial marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and kelp forests altering their structure and function, and threatening their capacity to continue to provide life-sustaining services to human communities.

Researchers conducted the study by mapping 150 years of sea surface temperatures to determine a fixed historical benchmark for marine heat extremes. The scientists then looked at how often and how much of the ocean surpassed this point. The first year in which more than half of the ocean experienced heat extremes was 2014. The trend continued in subsequent years, reaching 57 percent of the ocean in 2019, the last year measured in the study. Using this benchmark, just two percent of the ocean surface was experiencing extremely warm temperatures at the end of the 19th century.

"Climate change is not a future event," said Dr. Kyle Van Houtan, who headed the research team during his tenure as chief scientist for the aquarium. "The reality is that it's been affecting us for a while. Our research shows that for the last seven years more than half of the ocean has experienced extreme heat."

"These dramatic changes we've recorded in the ocean are yet another piece of evidence that should be a wake-up call to act on climate change," he added." We are experiencing it now, and it is speeding up."

The study grew from separate research into the history of kelp forest changes throughout California. Van Houtan and team discovered that sea surface heat extremes, which are key stressors for canopy kelps, needed to be quantified and mapped along the California coast throughout the last century. The researchers then decided to expand the investigation beyond California to better understand the long-term frequency and location of extreme marine heat across the global ocean surface.

Using historic records, aquarium scientists first determined the average temperatures for the ocean's surface over the period spanning 1870 to 1919. Then they identified the most dramatic ocean warming that occurred during that periodthe top two percent of temperature increasesand defined that as "extreme heat." The team then mapped the extremes over time, examining whether they occur regularly or are becoming more frequent.

"Today, the majority of the ocean's surface has warmed to temperatures that only a century ago occurred as rare, once-in-50-year extreme warming events," Van Houtan said.

The researchers say the new normal of extreme heat across the majority of the ocean's surface is further evidence for the urgent need to drastically reduce emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, which are the driver of climate change.

"When marine ecosystems near the tropics experience intolerably high temperatures, key organisms such as corals, seagrass meadows, or kelp forests can collapse," Van Houtan said. "Altering ecosystem structure and function threatens their capacity to provide life-sustaining services to human communities like supporting healthy and sustainable fisheries, buffering low-lying coastal regions from extreme weather events, and serving as a carbon sink to store the excess carbon put in the atmosphere from human-generated greenhouse emissions."

Explore further New study puts disparities of climate change on the map

More information: The recent normalization of historical marine heat extremes, PLOS Climate, journals.plos.org/climate/arti  journal.pclm.0000007 Journal information: PLOS Climate The recent normalization of historical marine heat extremes,
Credit: Mee Ko Dong, Shutterstock

New research conducted as part of the EU-funded LIFT project has shown that ecological practices are the way forward for Europe's farmers. Carried out at LIFT project partner Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), United Kingdom, it suggests that such practices help farmers increase their profits and meet sustainable agricultural goals.

The research involved the economic assessment of four different ecological management practices maintained on livestock farms in Scotland. Data was collected from 31 livestock farms as part of a survey of Scottish farmers held in early 2020.

The economic impact of the different ecological practices was then analyzed using a farm-level economic model called ScotFarm. The model is based on the assumption that all farm activities are interlinked and serve to maximize the farm's profit.

Proposed measures: the pros and the cons

As reported in a news item posted on the "FarmingUK" website, the study sought to gain insight on whether economically feasible management practices would result in better uptake by farmers. They discovered that two potentially easy-to-adopt measures, namely converting some farmland into an ecological area and reducing farm inputs, could result in up to a 7 % increase in farm profits. However, ecological approaches such as setting aside farmland to plant trees and switching to an organic farming system require capital investment, making it challenging for livestock farmers without any financial support.

"The Scottish government has put forward a long-term Climate Change Plan to achieve a cleaner, greener and healthier Scotland by 2032," stated Dr. Shailesh Shrestha of SRUC in the same news item. "Adaptation of agro-ecological management practices by farmers is a potential approach to support these plans. However, a critical issue is the economic impact of adoption of these practices. Our research provided a snapshot of the economic impacts of a number of ecological management practices and economic challenges farmers face in adopting those practices on farms. However, a better understanding of the economic feasibility of these agro-ecological management practices would be very useful in maximizing the uptake of these management practices by the Scottish farming community."

Agriculture needs to meet the world's changing consumption and environmental needs. A better understanding of ecological principles is changing people's views on how farms function. However, as interest in ecological practices grows, we need to establish what they will contribute to farming, how they will be best implemented and how willing farmers will be to adopt them.

The LIFT (Low-Input Farming and TerritoriesIntegrating knowledge for improving ecosystem-based farming) project has sought to determine the benefits of ecological farming in the EU and to understand how socioeconomic and policy factors affect the adoption, performance and sustainability of ecological management practices at various levels, from a single farm to an entire territory.

Explore further Regenerative grazing improves soil health and plant biodiversity

More information: LIFT project website: LIFT project website: www.lift-h2020.eu/
Credit: Oregon State University

Healthy-looking ochre sea stars have minimal genetic difference from those displaying symptoms of sea star wasting syndrome, say Oregon State University researchers who examined whether genetic variation was the reason some animals went unaffected during an epidemic of the deadly disease.

Without genes promoting resistance to wasting syndrome, the iconic Pacific Ocean sea star's ability to persist through future outbreaks is in greater doubt, the scientists say.

Findings were published in Molecular Ecology.

Also called the purple ochre and known scientifically as Pisaster ochraceus, the ochre sea star saw its populations hit hard for three years starting in 2013 by a wasting syndrome epidemic that scientists believe to be the largest marine wildlife disease event in history.

Wasting syndrome affected populations of 20 species of sea stars ranging from Baja California to the Gulf of Alaska, including P. ochraceus, considered a keystone speciesone on which other species in an ecosystem lean heavily. The ochre sea star was pummeled over a large portion of its range. Along the Oregon coast, for example, the researchers note that populations underwent declines ranging from 50 percent to 94 percent.

The interplay between climate change and disease is threatening wildlife species as never before, said Oregon State's Andrea Burton, particularly when the result is rapid and extreme drops in population.

"A changing climate is causing the ocean to warm and those rising sea water temperatures are putting more and more stress on marine ecosystems," said Burton, who led the genetic variation study. "As a result of that stress, marine diseases have become more prevalent over the last few decades. Disease outbreaks cause changes in ecosystems' community structure and the age distribution within species. A lot of marine taxa have suffered severe declines in population because of outbreaks."

Burton, a Ph.D. candidate in integrative biology, and OSU collaborators Sarah Gravem and Felipe Barreto examined a total of 200 individual purple ochre to look for genetic variation between healthy specimens and sick ones. The sea stars were collected from six sites on the central Oregon coast in 2016, when apparently normal sea stars and wasting sea stars were both common at each site.

"Our reasoning was that a sick sea star and healthy sea star nearby were likely exposed to similar conditions, so maybe the ones that looked healthy had some type of genetic predisposition toward resistance or tolerance to sea star wasting syndrome," Burton said. "It was a unique chance to compare apparently normal and wasting individuals from the same time and place during the sea star wasting syndrome epidemic."

The scientists took note of observable disease symptoms based on a six-level ranking protocol, ranging upward from twisting arms to deflation, lesions, missing arms, loss of grip on rocks and finally disintegration or "melting." Only animals with none of those symptoms were considered healthy.

"Through a number of genomic techniques, we found that genomic differentiation between normal-looking and wasting sea stars was very low," Burton said. "With little genetic variation to propel adaptation, we definitely have even more concerns regarding how this species of sea star will fare in future outbreaks."

But while a genetic basis for wasting syndrome resilience is probably weak, researchers did identify a list of genomic regions with some association with disease resistance, she said. Those parts of P. ochraceus DNA may have small but cumulative effects in determining how a sea star does in the face of wasting syndrome and thus should be studied further, Burton added.

"Assessing the potential for natural population resilience is a huge piece of predicting the long-term prospects for affected species and all of the species and communities they influence," she said. "Some marine species are suitable for selective breeding but many others are not, so examining genomic variation in natural populations can help answer the question of whether a species has the genetic makeup to withstand diseases on its own."

Explore further Long-term monitoring reveals effects of sea star wasting along Oregon coast

More information: Andrea R. Burton et al, Little evidence for genetic variation associated with susceptibility to sea star wasting syndrome in the keystone species Pisaster ochraceus, Molecular Ecology (2021). Journal information: Molecular Ecology Andrea R. Burton et al, Little evidence for genetic variation associated with susceptibility to sea star wasting syndrome in the keystone species Pisaster ochraceus,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/mec.16212
There's a growing need to attract a new generation of farmers. Credit:  Budimir Jevtic, Shutterstock

Most farm managers in Europe are nearing retirement. There is a need to revitalize rural areas in Europe and crate opportunities for younger people. Social scientists are scrutinizing the problem of rural decline, highlighting success stories and policy actions and tracking paths back to a more prosperous countryside.

Farming is an ancient profession. But a problem in Europe is that the farmers themselves are getting old. From the more than ten million farm managers, one-third were over the age of 65 in 2016. Another one-quarter were 55 and over, while only 11 percent were under 40 years of age.

It is clear that rural areas need to halt population declines and attract new generations. To turn back the tide and regenerate rural areas, social scientists are unearthing how and why some rural areas are growing and performing better than others.

This will reveal how farming can seed a new crop of young farmers, as well as encourage green shoots in rural communities, and transform them into more attractive places to live and work.

"Farmers are getting old and mostly male. About 13 percent of farmland is managed by female farmers," said Willem Korthals Altes, land development professor at TU Delft in the Netherlands. "There is also an issue of declining rural regions, and this all needs new policies."

Specifically, Professor Korthals Altes has examined the aspirations of young people in rural and urban areas in 12 different countries and looked at what actions could be taken to attract newcomers to the countryside as part of the four-year EU-wide RURALIZATION research project. Prof. Korthals Altes and his team have interviewed about 2,000 young people in 20 regions of the EU about their hopes for the future. One surprise was that many people, in cities and the countryside, would like to live in rural areas, often for quality-of-life reasons.

The project aims to identify paths to overcome population and economic decline in rural Europe and seed new opportunities. Right now, the picture painted by statistics is bleak. The EU lost 11 percent of its farmland between 1993 and 2013, while farms themselves are getting bigger and fewer, which contributes to job losses. "If we look at just the overall statistics, what we found is sad," said Prof. Korthals Altes. "So we looked for positive examples that we could learn from and also highlight positive practices."

Specific case studies have been published, such as an agro-tourism farm in rural Poland set up by newcomers from Warsaw to grow organic crops and run ecological workshops, a community-owned farms group in the Netherlands and a silkworm farm with mulberry trees in Italy.

Growing trends and recommendations

Rural trends identified in the project included a rise in alternative food systems such as organic farming due to greater environmental awareness. There were also evolving gender roles in private and working life and diversification of farm business and diversification of rural economies. Two other trends were digitisation of economic activity and the rise of online markets, which can open the gate to new business opportunities in rural regions.

Newcomers into rural areas may be especially important for economic revival, because of their higher education, wider network of contacts and tendency to innovate, the study found. It also revealed that organic production has increased significantly in most countries, and that this is one of the most important alternative forms of renewal.

The "young farmer problem" is more marked in some countries than others. Just 3.3 percent of farm managers in Cyprus and 4.2 percent in Portugal are under 40, while the figure is closer to 20 percent in Poland and Slovakia. The problems in one country do not match exactly those in another.

But one common barrier for new entrants to agriculture is access to land, and there is a lack of policies to support people who want to begin farming. "We find policies related to the modernisation agenda of farming, but not much about new entrants to farming," said Prof Korthals Altes. The project reported on some 64 access to land practices, from partners to the project, that can contribute to rural generation.

No EU Member States have elaborate policies and legal arrangements for providing access to land, says Korthals Altes. "The per hectare direct payments that a farmer gets for holding the land in good agricultural condition are in most EU regions higher than the rent, which works out negatively for new entrants," notes Korthals Altes. "It is a better retirement plan to keep your land with the direct payments, than to rent it out to new farmers." Nonetheless, under changes to the new Common Agricultural Policy announced last December, there will be additional support for young farmers' income, such as national authorities having to direct 2 percent of local income support to them and young farmers being prioritized to receive basic payments.

Korthals Altes now plans discussions with stakeholders and for the project to draw up recommendations for rural renewal that local governments and agencies can tap into.

The most obvious recommendation is to make a future in agriculture attractive to young farmers and new entrants. However, a lack of interest among young people to work in the farming sector is a common phenomenon for developed economies, and many don't look on farming as a prestigious career option, according to Dr. Ilkay Unay-Gailhard at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Germany. "When we ask the young people about their image of farming, they state its low income, hard physical work and low prestige," she explained.

No lack of interest

But this should not be misunderstood as a lack of interest in agriculture, as seen in the frequent protests by young people against industrial farming practices. "We know digital communications influence the social behavior of young people and they show more support for ecological farming," said Dr. Unay-Gailhard. "But we don't know how they influence their choice of farming as a career option."

Awarded an EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellowship for her a research project Young Farmers, she will interview dozens of young farmers in the US and in Germany about their personal history and about how digital communication messages influenced their career option. She believes that there is a lack of positive role model images of farmers, and absence of "farmer and mother" as a role model in family farms.

Dr. Unay-Gailhard will also talk to government agencies and non-profit organizations about the use of new media toolssuch as interactive online portals, blogs, online agricultural communication and public engagement campaigns and social media servicesto assist those at the start of their career and those who might transition towards farming. Career paths are no longer as planned and predictable, and career trajectories can change course. "Young people these days can follow rising opportunities," said Dr. Unay-Gailhard.

Also, how farms are run is shifting. Advanced digital technologies and robotics are making inroads on some farms, and young farmers may be motivated by the more high-tech, innovative approaches to farming.

Dr. Unay-Gailhard will recommend to government agencies and farm organizations ways to communicate digitally with young people. The hope is that young people will have better access to information on agricultural careers, and reconsider the benefits on offer from a rural career and lifestyle.

Explore further Farming practices good for the environment and the farmer's pocket
Figure 1. Schematic representation of the setup used for learning in evolutionary processes. (a) Agents that can replicate and learn. Examples include microbes, animals, and humans. (b)(d) Schematic illustrations of the model. (b) Type switching  of the agents. An agent at time t1 first determines its type based on the strategy . The colors of the agents other than gray represent the expressed types. The color of the environment represents the state. (c) Replication of the agents. An agent produces ek(x,y(t1)) daughters, depending on the type x and the environmental state y(t1). The environmental state y(t1) independently follows Q(y). (d) Learning by the agents. After replication, the daughters inherit strategies updated by a given learning rule L. Credit: https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.013069

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo studied the impact of learning from ancestors on the rate of natural selection, and found that the evolutionary process can be accelerated, which may assist in the design of future evolutionary algorithms.

The unique wildlife of the isolated Galapagos islands has long been heralded as living proof of evolution. Powered by the evolutionary process of natural selection, species can improve their fitness over time and adapt to changing environments. Although heritable changes in offspring are traditionally thought to occur due to random genetic mutations, there is increasing evidence of mechanisms that might allow the experiences of one individual to be passed on to the next generation. An especially intriguing example is non-genetic influences, known as epigenetic modifications to genetic material. However, the effect of these non-random heritable changes has not been adequately explored.

Now, a team of researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo has used a mathematical model to examine the implications of intergenerational learning. In a study recently published in Physical Review Research, they have envisioned populations of agents that reproduce asexually, with each agent randomly choosing a trait that determines reproductive success. The probability of expressing a certain trait is called a strategy. In the model, "ancestral learning" can occur when inherited strategies are influenced by past information of an ancestor's trait. The instructions of ancestral learning need to be simple enough to be plausible within real biological systems. For example, they might be related to epigenetic traits, or the concentration of proteins or mRNAs inside a cell when it divides. "Individual organisms clearly benefit from being able to sense their current environment and choose adaptive behaviors. We considered what would happen if organisms can obtain past information of their ancestor's behaviors," explains first author So Nakashima.

Through numerical validation and theoretical analysis, the team found that learning was able to speed up the evolutionary process. This research serves as a theoretical framework for defining and assessing the impact of learning on the process of evolution.

Future work may focus on genetic and evolutionary algorithms in computer science, which are a class of powerful tools for optimizing complex problems. These approaches simulate the evolution of a population of candidate solutions. The better performing solutions in each generation are more likely to be selected and reproduce, sometimes with simulated mutations. "Our model and theory demonstrated that ancestral learning could, in fact, accelerate the evolutionary process," says senior author Tetsuya J. Kobayashi. By understanding the interplay between learning and natural selection from random changes, this research may lead to improved comprehension of the roles of learning in evolution, as well as more efficient hybrid algorithms that combine reinforcement learning with evolutionary searches.

Explore further Algorithms mimic the process of biological evolution to learn efficiently

More information: So Nakashima et al, Acceleration of evolutionary processes by learning and extended Fisher's fundamental theorem, Physical Review Research (2022). journals.aps.org/prresearch/ab  RevResearch.4.013069 So Nakashima et al, Acceleration of evolutionary processes by learning and extended Fisher's fundamental theorem,(2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.013069
A Norwich man was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl analogues on the dark web and firearm offenses, according to federal authorities.

Barry Duclos, 43, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in Bridgeport to a total of 170 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, federal authorities said in a statement.

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Federal authorities, citing evidence introduced during his trial, said that, between about September 2017 and February 2018, Duclos operated a vendor page on the dark web Dream Market, and using the alias 1NOLEFB1, advertised the sale of fentanyl analogues there. He then used the U.S. Mail to ship fentanyl analogues to customers who paid for the drugs using Bitcoin, federal authorities said in the statement.

On Sept. 21, 2017, a 39-year-old man in Tennessee fatally overdosed after using cyclopropyl fentanyl he ordered from Duclos, federal authorities said in the statement.

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Duclos was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on Feb. 12, 2018 and a search of his home at that time revealed a YHM rifle with multiple magazines, two of which were extended magazines, federal authorities said in the statement. Investigators also located and seized fentanyl and carfentanil from the residence, along with a computer used by Duclos to access Dream Market, federal authorities said.

Duclos was convicted in state court, in February 2001, of sale of narcotics and, in March 2017, of third-degree larceny and it is a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce. federal authorities said in the statement.

A jury found Duclos guilty on July 30, 2021 of seven counts of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of fentanyl analogues; one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and carfentanil; one count of possession of ammunition by a convicted felon; and one count possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Duclos has been detained since his arrest.
Microwave brightness temperature on top of visible reflectance for Hurricane Harvey before its landfall in Texas. Credit: Penn State

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey stalled after making landfall over coastal Texas, pouring down record rainfall, flooding communities and becoming one of the wettest and most destructive storms in United States history. A new technique using readily available data reduces forecast errors and could improve track, intensity and rainfall forecasts for future storms like Hurricane Harvey, according to Penn State scientists.

"Our study indicates that avenues exist for producing more accurate forecasts for tropical cyclones using available yet underutilized data," said Yunji Zhang, assistant research professor in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at Penn State. "This could lead to better warnings and preparedness for tropical cyclone-associated hazards in the future."

Adding microwave data collected by low-Earth-orbiting satellites to existing computer weather forecast models showed improvements in forecasting storm track, intensity and rainfall when using Hurricane Harvey as a case-study, the scientists said.

"Over the ocean, we don't have other kinds of observations underneath the cloud tops to tell us where eyewalls are, where the strongest convections are, and how many rain or snow particles there are in those regions, except for occasional reconnaissance aircraft that fly into some of hurricanes," Zhang said. "This is very important for later predictions of how intense storms will be or how much rainfall hurricanes will bring."

The research builds on the team's prior work that improved hurricane forecasts using data assimilation, a statistical method that aims to paint the most accurate picture of current weather conditions. This is important because even small changes in the atmosphere can lead to large discrepancies in forecasts over time.

In the prior work, scientists with Penn State's Center for Advanced Data Assimilation and Predictability Techniques assimilated infrared brightness temperature data from the U.S. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-16. Brightness temperatures show how much radiation is emitted by objects on Earth and in the atmosphere, and the scientists used infrared brightness temperatures at different frequencies to paint a better picture of atmospheric water vapor and cloud formation.

But infrared sensors only capture what is happening at the cloud tops. Microwave sensors view an entire vertical column, offering new insight into what is happening underneath clouds after storms have formed, the scientists said.

"This is especially important when a hurricane matures in later stages of development, when pronounced and coherent cloud structures exist and you can't see what's going on underneath them," Zhang said. "That's the time when hurricanes are most dangerous because they're very strong and sometimes already approaching landfall and threatening people. That's when the microwave data are going to provide the most valuable information."

Combining assimilated infrared and microwave data reduced forecast errors in track, rapid intensification and peak intensity compared to infrared radiation alone for Hurricane Harvey, the researchers reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. They said assimilating both sets of data resulted in a 24-hour increase in forecast lead time for the rapid intensification of the storm, a critical time when some storms quickly gain strength.

Assimilating the microwave data also led to a better understanding of the amount of water particles in the storm and more accurate rainfall totals for Harvey, the scientists said.

"Rainfall predictions are extremely critical for preparing the public for hazards and evacuations," Zhang said. "If we have a better understanding of how many rainfall particles there are in the storm, we have a higher likelihood of more accurate forecasts of how much rainfall there will be. Based on that, we will have more advanced guidance on how people should react."

The scientists said additional work is needed to improve the model's microphysics to simulate water and ice particles more realistically.

This study is based on work by former Penn State Distinguished Professor Fuqing Zhang, who led the project at the time of his unexpected death in July 2019.

"When our dear friend and colleague Fuqing Zhang died, the thread of ideas that wove together our ongoing combined infrared and microwave radiance data assimilation experiments unraveled," said Eugene Clothiaux, professor of meteorology and atmospheric science and a co-author of the paper. "We came together over an extended period of time to reassemble the thread as best as possible."

Also contributing from Penn State were Steven Greybush, associate professor; Xingchao Chen, assistant professor; and Man-Yau Chan, Christopher Hartman and Zhu Yao, graduate students.

Several former Penn State doctoral students, postdocs and faculty also contributed: Scott Sieron, support scientist at I.M. Systems Group; Yinghui Lu, associate professor at Nanjing University in China; Robert Nystrom, postdoc at the National Center for Atmospheric Research; Masashi Minamide, assistant professor at the University of Tokyo; James Ruppert, assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma; and Atsushi Okazaki, assistant professor at Hirosaki University in Japan.

Explore further Data assimilation method offers improved hurricane forecasting

More information: Yunji Zhang et al, EnsembleBased Assimilation of Satellite AllSky Microwave Radiances Improves Intensity and Rainfall Predictions for Hurricane Harvey (2017), Geophysical Research Letters (2021). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Yunji Zhang et al, EnsembleBased Assimilation of Satellite AllSky Microwave Radiances Improves Intensity and Rainfall Predictions for Hurricane Harvey (2017),(2021). DOI: 10.1029/2021GL096410
Sensory hairs on the surface of fruit fly (Drosophila) antennae, where UC San Diego scientists mapped the insects energy-efficient olfactory system. Credit: Cora Xing

The distinctive smell of a flower the unmistakable aroma of coffee the dangers linked with inhaling smoke fumes. Sensory systems have evolved to provide us with immediate, finely tuned information about the world around us, whether they are colors processed through our visual system or certain pitches interpreted through our hearing.

This barrage of information is processed by our sensory systems. Scientists have uncovered maps that depict how sensory neurons are arranged based on their function to effectively process such information. This kind of functional map, however, had not yet been identified for the sense of smell. University of California San Diego researchers have now described such a smell sensory map in fruit flies. On the surface of fly antennae, where odorous chemicals are detected, the scientists have discovered how the fly olfactory system is organized, and why.

This new map was published January 28, 2022 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a team lead by graduate student Shiuan-Tze Wu from the laboratory of Biological Sciences Associate Professor Chih-Ying Su. The study details how the fly's olfactory receptor neurons, the components that sense smell, are organized within the sensory hairs.

"We are constantly being bombarded by hundreds of odorous chemicals in our environment," said Su, the corresponding author of the study. "We have described a peripheral mechanism that has allowed the fly to make sense of such overwhelmingly complex stimuli."

The image depicts 3-D models of a pair of compartmentalized ORNs reconstructed based on serial block-face electron microscopy. The blue neuron promotes egg-laying, while the orange neuron inhibits the same behavior. Credit: Quintyn McKaughan

The researchers provide evidence that the fruit fly's olfactory system, which Su described as simple yet elegant, is structured to give the insect the ability to make quick assessments of odors in an unusual way that circumvents synaptic communication, which is metabolically expensive. Rather, the insect's olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) communicate through electrical interactions with nearby ORNs. This offers an energy-saving, "metabolically cheap" way to process "meaningful odor blends without involving costly synaptic computation," the researchers note in the paper.

The study describes how compartments with two ORNs are arranged to detect cues with opposite meanings for the fly. Such cues either promote or inhibit certain behaviorsto quickly and efficiently assess complex odors in their environment.

"This arrangement provides a means to both evaluate and shape the countervailing sensory signals relayed to higher brain centers for further processing," according to the paper.

When sensors are arranged in an arbitrary manner (top), conflicting odor information may confuse animals; while a valence-based organization, as in fruit flies, can selectively transmit positive or negative valence odor information (to effectively guide behaviors). Credit: Johnatan Aljadeff

In this study, the Su lab collaborated with UC San Diego Neurobiology Assistant Professor Johnatan Aljadeff, who built a mathematical model which explains how electrical interactions help in extracting relevant information.

"In asking questions about the functional meaning of this organization, we found that nature has chosen a specific way of structuring this sensory assay," said Aljadeff. "If we can understand the principle of this type of processing, there could be future engineering applications." Aljadeff is funded by a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award to investigate such questions.

Wu, the first author of the study, is proud to be part of the team that made this fundamental discovery. He marvels at the elegance of the system by which fly ORNs compute countervailing cues and points to parallels in the way that visual systems contrast color shades to help us perceive the difference between red and green, for example.

Explore further Findings bridge knowledge gap between pheromone sensitivity and courtship
MUSE RGB image of the nebula around NGC 1313 X1. Credit: Gurpide et al., 2022.

Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT), French astronomers have performed spectroscopic observations of an ultraluminous X-ray source known as NGC 1313 X1. The observational campaign resulted in the detection of a shocked-ionized bubble, an X-ray photoionized nebula and also two supernova remnants around this source. The findings were published January 23 on arXiv.org.

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are point sources in the sky that are so bright in X-rays that each emits more radiation than 1 million suns emit at all wavelengths. They are less luminous than active galactic nuclei, but more consistently luminous than any known stellar process. Although numerous studies of ULXs have been conducted, the basic nature of these sources remains unsolved.

NGC 1313 X1 is a ULX in the spiral galaxy NGC 1313 at a distance of some 13.85 million light years away from the Earth. The ULX is located in the northern part of NGC 1313, within the inner radius (about 3,100 light years) from the nucleus of the galaxy. It has a persistent unabsorbed luminosity in the 0.310 keV band above 8 duodecillion erg/s, with a mean luminosity of around 11 duodecillion erg/s.

Previous observations of this source have shown that it is one of only a few ULXs known to experience powerful winds with relatively high velocities. This indicates that NGC 1313 X1 harbors a supercritically accreting source, whose nature still remains unclear. It is assumed that such winds are powerful enough to produce huge bubbles (with a size of over 300 light years) sometimes seen around ULXs.

A team of astronomers led by Andres Gurpide of the University of Toulouse in France, now reveals that NGC 1313 X1 is indeed surrounded by an ionized bubble, what was suggested by previous studies. The new finding is based on spectroscopic observations of this ULX using VLT's Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument.

MUSE observations found that NGC 1313 X1 ionizes a region about 1,473 by 867 light years in size, via extreme ultraviolet (EUV)/X-ray excitation and shocks. This bubble is roughly centered around the ULX, and evidence for shock ionization can be clearly seen in its outer edges.

Studying further this shocked-ionized bubble, the researchers estimated that the shock velocities should be between 160 and 180 km/s. They calculated that an average and continuous outflow power of around 2045 duodecillion erg/s over a timescale of some 450,000 to 780,000 years is required to inflate this bubble.

Moreover, the astronomers detected an extended X-ray photoionized nebula, estimated to be 456 light years in size, in the interior of the bubble. Its elongated shape may indicate the presence of jet activity in this nebula.

The study also identified two supernova remnants (SNRs) coincidentally close to the ULX bubble. The researchers estimate that the two supernovae exploded between 24,000 and 34,000 years ago, and had initial explosion energies at a level of about 0.5 sexdecillion ergs.

Explore further Ultraluminous X-ray sources in NGC 891 investigated by researchers

More information: MUSE spectroscopy of the ULX NGC 1313 X-1: a shocked-ionised bubble, an X-ray photoionised nebula and two supernova remnants, arXiv:2201.09333 [astro-ph.HE] MUSE spectroscopy of the ULX NGC 1313 X-1: a shocked-ionised bubble, an X-ray photoionised nebula and two supernova remnants, arXiv:2201.09333 [astro-ph.HE] arxiv.org/abs/2201.09333

 2022 Science X Network
Physicists Carina Belvin (left) and Edoardo Baldini work in the MIT lab of Professor Nuh Gedik. They and colleagues have found a new way to manipulate magnetism in a material with light. Credit: Tianchuang Luo

With the help of a "playground" they created for observing exotic physics, MIT scientists and colleagues have not only found a new way to manipulate magnetism in a material with light but have also realized a rare form of matter. The former could lead to applications including computer memory storage devices that can read or write information in a much faster way, while the latter introduces new physics.

A solid material is composed of different types of elementary particles, such as protons and neutrons. Also ubiquitous in such materials are "quasiparticles" that the public is less familiar with. These include excitons, which are composed of an electron and a "hole," or the space left behind when light is shone on a material and energy from a photon causes an electron to jump out of its usual position. Through the mysteries of quantum mechanics, however, the electron and hole are still connected and can "communicate" with each other through electrostatic interactions.

"Excitons can be thought of as packets of energy that propagate through a system," says Edoardo Baldini, one of two lead authors of a paper on the work in Nature Communications. Baldini, now a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, was an MIT postdoctoral associate when the work was conducted in the laboratory of Nuh Gedik, an MIT professor of physics. The other lead author is Carina Belvin, a doctoral student in the Gedik group.

"The excitons in this material are rather unique in that they are coupled to magnetism in the system. It was quite impressive to be able to "kick" the excitons with light and observe the associated changes in the magnetism," says Gedik, who is also associated with MIT's Materials Research Laboratory.

Manipulating Magnetism

The current work involves the creation of unusual excitons in the material nickel phosphorus trisulfide (NiPS 3 ). These excitons are "dressed" or affected by the environment that surrounds them. In this case that environment is the magnetism. "So what we found is that by exciting these excitons we can actually manipulate magnetism in the material," Belvin says.

A magnet works because of a property of electrons called spin (another, more familiar property of electrons is their charge). The spin can be thought of as an elementary magnet, in which the electrons in an atom are like little needles orienting in a certain way. In the magnets on your refrigerator, the spins all point in the same direction, and the material is known as a ferromagnet. In the material used by the MIT team, alternating spins point in opposite directions, forming an antiferromagnet.

The physicists found that a pulse of light causes each of the little electron "needles" in NiPS 3 to start rotating around in a circle. The rotating spins are synchronized and form a wave throughout the material, known as a spin wave. Spin waves can be used in spin electronics, or spintronics, a field that was introduced in the 1960s.

Spintronics essentially uses electrons' spin to go beyond electronics, which is based on their charge. The ability to create spin waves in an antiferroelectric material could lead to future computer memory devices that can read or write information in a much faster way than those based on electronics alone. "We are not there yet. In this paper we've demonstrated a process that underlies coherent domain switching: the next step is to actually switch domains," Baldini says.

Rare Form of Matter

Through their work, the team also demonstrated a rare form of matter. When the physicists exposed NiPS 3 to intense pulses of light, they found that it turned into a metallic state that conducts electrons while maintaining its magnetism. NiPS 3 is ordinarily an insulator (a material that does not conduct electrons). "It is very rare to have an antiferromagnet and a metallic state in the same material," Belvin says.

The physicists believe this happens because the intense light causes the excitons to collide with each other and break apart into their constituents: electrons and holes. "We are basically destroying the excitons, so that the electrons and holes can move around like those in a metal," Baldini says. But these mobile particles do not interact with the localized electron spins participating in the spin wave, so the magnetism is retained.

Baldini describes the experimental setup as a "playground for observing many-body physics," which he defines as "the elegant interplay between different bodies like excitons and spin waves." He concludes, "what I really liked about this work was that it shows the complexity of the world around us."

Other authors of the paper from MIT are Professor of Physics Senthil Todadri, Ilkem Ozge Ozel (Ph.D. '18), Dan Mao (Ph.D. '21, now at Cornell University), Hoi Chun Po (postdoctoral fellow '18-'21, now at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), and Clifford Allington (a graduate student in chemistry). Additional authors are Suhan Son, Inho Hwang, and Je-Geun Park of the Institute for Basic Science (Korea) and Seoul National University; Beom Hyun Kim of the Korea Institute for Advanced Study; and Jae Hoon Kim and Jonghyeon Kim of Yonsei University.

Explore further Physicists detect a hybrid particle held together by uniquely intense 'glue'

More information: Carina A. Belvin et al, Exciton-driven antiferromagnetic metal in a correlated van der Waals insulator, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Carina A. Belvin et al, Exciton-driven antiferromagnetic metal in a correlated van der Waals insulator,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25164-8
Probability of deliquescence for calcium perchlorate salts and formation of liquid water at 23 hours local Martian time, averaged over an entire Martian year. Labels mark the largest surface features and most important landing sites on the planet. Credit: Pal & Kereszturi 2022, Icarus

Planetary scientists from Konkoly Observatory in Budapest have modeled the emergence of salty but liquid water on the surface of Mars. According to the results of Bernadett Pal and Akos Kereszturi, late night and early morning hours during Martian spring and summer could be ideal times for the process to occur, with conditions being more favorable in the northern hemisphere. They examined how effectively hygroscopic salts, which have an affinity to adsorb or absorb water vapor from the atmosphere, enter solutions to form brines.

Liquid water is one of the main features we search for in pursuit of the discovery of life (as we know it) outside of Earth. Our neighboring planet, Mars, once had larger amounts of liquid water, but due to its lower gravity and lack of global magnetic field, large amounts escaped into space. The remaining water on Mars is mostly present in the forms of water vapor and ice. Because of the cold (-60C on average) and the low air pressure, even if ice melts, it quickly sublimatesturning into vaporrather than remaining as a stable liquid on the surface.

However, salty solutions can remain liquid at much lower temperatures. Perchlorates, which aid the liquefying process (such as calcium perchlorate: Ca(ClO 4 ) 2 ), have been found by both the Phoenix lander and later by the Curiosity rover. During this process, called deliquescence, the salt takes up enough water from the atmosphere to turn into a liquid solution. Several laboratory research projects here on Earth study deliquescence, which is an important process in many areas from food science to agriculture.

In-situ experimental data is not yet available for Mars, however; as such, the main method of research currently is computer modeling. The European ExoMars program will investigate the deliquescence process on Mars, for the first time, in 2023. The Russian Kazachok lander platform carrying the Rosalind Franklin rover will house the HABIT (HabitAbility: Brine Irradiation and Temperature) instrument containing the BOTTLE experiment (Brine Observation Transition To Liquid Experiment) to inspect deliquescence. This experiment, in which Hungarian scientists are also involved, will examine the brine forming capabilities of multiple salts. For liquid briny solutions to form, salt-specific minimum temperature and relative humidity levels must be met. Magnesium perchlorate and calcium perchlorate, the salts modeled in this study, remain liquid at around -70C if relative humidity is high enough.

Artists impression of the compontents of the ExoMars mission, the Rosalind Franklin rover and the Kazachok lander (in the background) on he surface of Mars. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

"I can't wait for the first results of the ExoMars BOTTLE Experiment. I've been working on modeling the possibilities for liquid water formation on the Martian surface for years, and we will be able to learn a great deal from the first true experimental results there," Ms Bernadett Pal, a graduate student working at Konkoly Observatory of the Research Centre of Astronomy and Earth Sciences, and the lead author of the study published in the journal Icarus, explained.

According to the results of the Hungarian scientists, when simulating a whole Martian year, both hemispheres can become ideal for calcium perchlorate deliquescence from the local spring through late summer. The highest chance is expected at late night until the early morning hours, Martian local time. Looking globally at the whole planet, almost anywhere north of 30N latitude can be ideal for brine emergence late at night, while in the early morning hours the large basins (Acidalia Planitia, Utopia Planitia) are promising. An additional important result is that at the planned landing site of the ExoMars rover, Oxia Planum, both the late night and early morning hours seem ideal for liquid brine formation. In the southern hemisphere, a small amount of liquid could emerge following the receding polar ice cap.

"The recent work by Ms. Pal and Dr. Kereszturi provides important insights into the potential to form brines on Mars, which is very relevant to understanding Mars' biologic potential. Additionally, vetting expectations of where and when brines can form and showing that such conclusions are independent of the type of climate model used, like was done here by comparing to my own work published in 2020, makes these findings robust," said Dr. Edgard Rivera-Valentin, NASA early career fellow at USRA LPI, who was not part of this research. "Their detailed work looking at seasonality and diurnal effects furthers the field by providing important information for future missions to Mars and their experiments, like the BOTTLE experiment on board the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover," they added.

Explore further Confirming liquid water beneath Martian south polar cap

More information: Bernadett D. Pal et al, Deliquescence probability maps of Mars and key limiting factors using GCM model calculations, Icarus (2022). Journal information: Icarus Bernadett D. Pal et al, Deliquescence probability maps of Mars and key limiting factors using GCM model calculations,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114856
Credit: Christa Dodoo, Unsplash (CC 0, creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Preprinting, the sharing of freely available manuscripts prior to peer-review, has been on the rise in the biosciences since 2013 and experienced a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, expediting the dissemination of timely research. But how do preprints relate to the final peer-reviewed papers? Two new studies publishing in the open access journal PLOS Biology February 1st took different approaches to explore how preprints posted on bioRxiv and medRxiv compare with their published versions.

One study, led by Dr. Jonathon Coates of Queen Mary University of London, manually compared over 180 preprints to their published versions in the first 4 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The other study, led by Mr. David Nicholson of University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, used machine learning and textual analytics to explore the relationships between nearly 18,000 bioRxiv preprints and their published version.

Concerns over the quality of preprints have existed since the emergence of preprinting in the sciences. As Coates notes, "Approximately 40% of the early COVID-19 research was first shared as a preprint and these were used in policy and public health decisions. Therefore, knowing the quality of these preprints is vital in having trust in science at a time when many are attempting to erode that trust". Analysis of public scientific preprint repositories also has the potential to illuminate many previously hidden details of the peer-review process.

Coates and his colleagues compared all the COVID-19 preprints posted and published within the first 4 months of the pandemic and found that over 83% of COVID and 93% of non-COVID-related life sciences articles do not change from their preprint to final published versions.

Comparing the entire bioRxiv corpus to eventually published versions, Nicholson and colleagues found that many differences appear to occur from typesetting and the addition of supplementary materials; there were only modest changes in the linguistic characteristics of most manuscripts during the peer-review and publication process.

Furthermore, Nicholson and their team created a website that uses their machine learning tool to recommend potential journals that publish linguistically similar articles that can be found at https://greenelab.github.io/preprint-similarity-search/.

Dr. Casey Greene of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, a co-author on the Nicholson et al. study, adds, "Collectively, our studies both provide evidence supporting the reliability and use of preprints both during a global pandemic and for general scientific outputs. Examining preprint-publication pairs provides an opportunity to study the process of peer review and taken together our results should provoke a rethinking of the role and prominence of peer-review in the current publication system."

Coates adds, "With such a large proportion of early COVID-19 literature shared as non-peer reviewed preprints it is essential to know if those studies are reliable or not. By manually comparing the preprints to their peer reviewed, published, versions we show that over 83% of COVID-19 and 93% of non-COVID preprints are reliable and trustworthy."

Explore further How preprints accelerated science communication during the pandemic

More information: Brierley L, Nanni F, Polka JK, Dey G, Palfy M, Fraser N, et al. (2022) Tracking changes between preprint posting and journal publication during a pandemic. PLoS Biol 20(2): e3001285. Brierley L, Nanni F, Polka JK, Dey G, Palfy M, Fraser N, et al. (2022) Tracking changes between preprint posting and journal publication during a pandemic.20(2): e3001285. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001285 Nicholson DN, Rubinetti V, Hu D, Thielk M, Hunter LE, Greene CS (2022) Examining linguistic shifts between preprints and publications. PLoS Biol 20(2): e3001470. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001470 Journal information: PLoS Biology
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

How might a nation protect its citizens in times of disaster such as earthquakes or war? New research in the International Journal of the Built Environment and Asset Management looks at the concept of "safe hubs." Spaces to which people might flee during an acute or ongoing incident that takes them a place sufficiently far from the danger zone.

Hesham Salim Al-Rawe and Ali Jihad Hamad of the Engineering Technical College of Mosul at the Northern Technical University in Mosul, Iraq, suggest that crowded places such as cities and city streets make people especially vulnerable. Often there is nowhere for the people to flee a lethal event nor any route by which they might make their escape.

The researchers point out that cities such as Tokyo, Los Angeles, Jakarta, and many others have high-rise buildings designed specifically to be resilient in the face of earthquakes, but there are still enormous risks of being trapped in a city even if the buildings remain standing. The team has taken the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, as a case study to examine the concept of safe hubs and the routes that might be followed in the face of disaster to reach them.

Given that cities often have underground structures and conduits far below the surface that are essentially safe from events occurring above ground to some degree, it would seem that they might offer an escape route to a safe space beyond the city center and away from the present danger. There are other considerations that must be taken into account before a strategy based on deep underground tunnels might be implemented, such as the possibility of collapse of subterranean structures or the flooding of tunnels, for instance.

Nevertheless, when faced with a major disaster that might lead to many deaths, there are risks and benefits that must be balanced. A typical powerful earthquake might lead to tens of thousands of deaths whereas allowing many more people to escape to a safe hub with a much smaller risk of death during their escape would balance the equation in favor of that approach, it might be said.

There remains much work to be done in working out how to implement the underground realm as a potential escape route in vulnerable cities but the team suggests that, as our city population densities grow and more and more buildings reach for the skies, for future generations, finding safe hubs beyond the built environment to allow them to escape disasters, such as earthquakes could be an important part of their way of life.

Explore further Seas are now rising higher than some buildings' underground garages

More information: Hesham Salim Al Rawe et al, Safe hubs during earthquakes and emergency events, International Journal of the Built Environment and Asset Management (2022). Hesham Salim Al Rawe et al, Safe hubs during earthquakes and emergency events,(2022). DOI: 10.1504/IJBEAM.2021.120484
An aurora appears over Uppsala, Sweden, in late January, 2022. Such phenomena can result when plasma jet occur in Earth's magnetosphere. Credit: Kjell Carli/KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Even though Earth's magnetic field shields us from solar wind and space weather, it doesn't always offer complete protection. Researchers have discovered a new mechanism in Earth's space environment that can allow solar particles to slip through the planet's first line of defense.

The constant interaction between Earth's magnetic field and the sun's supersonic particles sometimes results in small-scale plasma jets that can weaken the barrier's protection against space weather effects, which not only produce glorious aurorae, but can also cause disruption of power grids and satellite communications.

Publishing in Nature Communications, researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm identified and explained the mechanism by which these high pressure jets occur when the speed of supersonic solar wind is blunted by the bow shock of Earth's magnetosphere.

Lead author Savvas Raptis, a doctoral student at KTH, says that the results can apply universally. "The findings could be fundamental in shocks," Raptis says. "They may also exist in other similar plasma environments, which can be found everywhere in universe, from astrophysical objects to other planets, as well as here at Earth."

As plasma travels at supersonic speed toward Earth, it crashes into the magnetic fieldwhich emanates from the planet's coreand slows down abruptly, forming a bow shock. Beyond this point lies a transition zone known as the magnetosheath. That's where compressed and heated plasma remains relatively uniform for the most part, but where downstream and upstream waves and particles interact and evolvesometimes giving way to new phenomena. One consequence of this dynamic is the formation of jets with dynamic pressure greater than that of the solar wind itself.

Using the instruments aboard NASA's four Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) satellites, the researchers followed the formation of these downstream jets from the bow shock, and traced their origin as a direct consequence of the upstream wave evolution and the bow shock reformation, Raptis says.

Raptis says focusing on small-scale research is necessary to understand the details on how the space environment of Earth is configured. "Most research in recent decades has focused on the large-scale changes caused by macroscale phenomena connected to solar activity," he says. "But as we discover more and more smaller-scale phenomena, we see that environments such as the Earth's bow shock and associated phenomena like magnetosheath jets play a very important role."

He says the research also underlines the importance of missions like MMS, which in 2015 launched four spacecraft into Earth's orbit to travel in tetrahedral formation around the planet and enable high-resolution observations of the magnetosphere at work. KTH researchers such as Raptis's co-authors Tomas Karlsson, professor of plasma physics, and researcher Per-Arne Lindqvist contributed to the MMS mission with the design of components, and they continue to perform research on the data the mission produces.

"We were able to observe previously unexplored parts of the Earth's surrounding space environment," Raptis says. "We showed how useful such space missions are for understanding and explaining nature. The evolution of shocks and how it is connected to the generation of jets is a necessary piece to understand the Earth's space environment."

Explore further New research deepens understanding of Earth's interaction with the solar wind

More information: Savvas Rapitis et al, Downstream high-speed plasma jet generation as a direct consequence of shock reformation, Nature Communications (2022). Journal information: Nature Communications Savvas Rapitis et al, Downstream high-speed plasma jet generation as a direct consequence of shock reformation,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28110-4
Animal rights charity, Four Paws, says 359 tigers were exported from South Africa from 2011-2020.

South Africa's legal lion breeding has spawned a tiger farming industry for commercial exports, potentially posing a threat to the species already in decline, an animal welfare group warned Tuesday.

Breeding lions for commercial hunting and for bone exports towards Asia is legal in South Africa, but in recent years tiger breeding for similar purposes has become more common.

A report by global animal rights charity, Four Paws, showed that 359 tigersalmost a tenth of the global tiger populationwere exported from South Africa from 2011-2020.

Around 255 of them were sold to zoos.

Tigers are not native to South Africa and enjoy no legal protection in the country, the organisation said.

There were "loopholes that were allowing the business model to change," Paws's wildlife expert Kieran Harkin told AFP.

"The market being in Asia was already there, demand was there, so it made perfect sense for the (breeders) to move over to the tiger, which was again even more lucrative than lions," he said.

South Africa has no official count of its tiger population.

Four Paws is asking South Africa to halt the commercial breeding of all big cats, whose populations are declining partly due to trade to Asian countries.

"We are asking South Africa to stop supporting that trade... and be a defender of the wildlife, and not perpetuating the trade in species on the decline," Harkin said in an online interview from London.

He accused South Africa of flouting international laws that dictate that tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts.

South Africa's government promised to give a comment later on Tuesday.

As the largest exporter of big cat parts, South Africa is being urged to "reverse that role and take on a leading position in protecting wildlife... iconic species," Harkin sad.

Fiona Miles, director of Four Paws in South Africa, called for national legislation and international agreements to be "re-examined since they are clearly not working".

She warned in a statement that unless the threatened species were protected, "we put all big cat species at risk of one day, only existing behind bars."

Explore further South Africa approves export of 800 lion skeletons this year

 2022 AFP
At the national Australia Day ceremony in 2021, Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke of the contribution by frontline workers during the pandemic. He mentioned health workers, the defense forces, the police and farmers, as well as "the truck drivers, the wholesale and the retail workers keeping our supermarket shelves stocked."

In his 2022 Australia Day speech only defense personnel and health workers got a mentionpossibly due to the disappearing government support for retail and logistics workers during the Omicron wave.

With Omicron crippling supply chains and businesses being forced to shut due to lack of staff, eligibility rules for the last remaining COVID-related support payment (the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment) have been tightened, and the payments available cut.

The definition "close contact" has been weakened and tens of thousands of workers have been made exempt from isolation protocols by now being classified as "essential."

Many frontline workersnamely those on casual contractsare facing the toughest circumstances since the the pandemic began.

With no right to guaranteed minimum hours, sick leave or the other entitlements, those employed as casual workers or as subcontractors are likely to lose incomeeither due to having to take time off to get tested or self-isolate, or because their workplace hasn't got enough staff to stay open. There is also a much higher proportion of casual workers in the retail sector, than in the Australian workforce as a whole.

Our research on the effects of the pandemic on income and conditions for workers between March 2020 and September 2021 shows 55% of those working in retail, fast-food and distribution were forced to take time off work for COVID-related reasonswith a significant percentage losing income as a result.

During this time just 1% of retail workers were diagnosed with COVID-19, and the the financial support available included the lockdown-specific COVID-19 Disaster Payment.

Now, with infection rates running significantly highera quarter of Coles warehouse staff, for example, have been reported absent due to COVID-19there's less support.

Casual retail workers thus face losing hours, being put at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, and dealing with abusive customers over mask, QR code and other requirements.

What our survey showed

The purpose of our survey of nearly 1,160 retail, fast-food and distribution workers was to gauge how the pandemic had affected employment and income.

Credit: The ConversationSource: Australian National University & University of Sydney

Polling company Ipsos conducted the survey in September 2021, during the peak of Sydney's Delta wave (which sparked suburb-based lockdowns in mid-July 2021) and the start of Melbourne's Delta wave (with the Andrews government declaring a lockdown on August 5, 2021).

The survey was nationally representative. About 61% of respondents were women, 44% were younger than 30, and 19% were from a non-English-speaking background. About 39% were permanent full-time, 21% permanent part-time and 38% casuals (45% of women were casual, compared with 22% of men).

Because it was nationally representative, about 40% respondents were not in an lockdown area (NSW, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory) at the time of the survey. This make the results even more stark compared with now.

From March 2020 to September 2021, 55% of retail, fast food and distribution workers had to take time off for a COVID-19 related reason:

1% did so due to having COVID-19. Of these, about a third said they took unpaid leave.

7% did so due to being a close contact of someone with COVID-19. Of these, 51% of permanent workers and 78% of casuals took unpaid leave.

11% took time off because they had COVID-19 symptoms. Of these, 45% of permanent workers and 91% of casuals took unpaid leave.

10% were absent due to working at an exposure location. Of these, 27% of permanent workers and 60% of casuals took unpaid leave.

30% took time off because they had to take a COVID-19 test and isolate while waiting for a result. Of these, 42% of permanent workers and 89% of casuals took unpaid leave.

Clearly while very few workers were actually sick with COVID-19, it had a significant affect on livelihoods. This a key point to reflect on now more workers have COVID-19 and an even larger number are (or should be) isolating.

Short shift for precarious work

At the time of our survey the risks of catching COVID-19 were relatively small, even for essential frontline workers.

Omicron has substantially increased that riskalong with the risk of losing work hours.

Registering a positive result is the only way ill, casually employed workers can access extra support when they aren't able to work. But getting a testand results has been difficult, with workers in NSW and Victoria only been able to officially register positive RAT results since January 10.

The Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment is still available to those who don't qualify for employer-paid leave. But to qualify you must be directed to isolate and stay at home due to having tested positive or been in close contact with someone with COVID-19.

You also only qualify for the full $750 a week (for two weeks) if you lose 20 hours or more of paid work a week. If you lose 8-19 hours, you get $450 a week. If you lose less than eight hours, you get nothing.

This highlights the precarious and unsustainable position of Australians employed on casual contracts, especially those in the retail, fast food and distribution sector. Many unwell or at-risk precarious workers are likely to have gone without income while they struggle to get access to tests or lose paid work for other reasons.

Explore further Workplace transmissions: a predictable result of the class divide in worker rights

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Iran's iconic tower flashes red for Chinese New Year

Xinhua) 10:24, February 01, 2022

The Azadi Tower is illuminated to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 31, 2022. The iconic Azadi Tower in Tehran flashed red on Monday, a color associated with good luck and happiness in China, to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Chinese Embassy in Iran/Handout via Xinhua)

TEHRAN, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The iconic Azadi Tower in Tehran, Iran's capital, flashed red on Monday, a color associated with good luck and happiness in China, to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 1 this year.

With the Chinese and Iranian national anthems playing in the background, the national flags of the two countries were flying on the top of the tower, while the main body of the landmark was illuminated in red.

Slogans in Chinese and Persian, such as "happy Chinese New Year," "warmly celebrate the 50th anniversary of China-Iran diplomatic ties," and "ancient civilization Iran welcomes you," appeared in turn.

Another theme of the light show was to wish the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics a success. The emblems of the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics were projected onto the tower, and a promotional video for the Beijing Olympics was played during the event.

Chinese Ambassador to Iran Chang Hua said the light show represents Iran's good wishes for the Chinese Lunar New Year and the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.

"It has fully demonstrated the profound friendship and bonds between peoples of both countries," he said.

Chinese Ambassador to Iran Chang Hua (5th R) and Iranian representatives pose for a photo in front of the Azadi Tower during a light show to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 31, 2022. The iconic Azadi Tower in Tehran flashed red on Monday, a color associated with good luck and happiness in China, to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Chinese Embassy in Iran/Handout via Xinhua)

The Azadi Tower is illuminated to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 31, 2022. The iconic Azadi Tower in Tehran flashed red on Monday, a color associated with good luck and happiness in China, to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Chinese Embassy in Iran/Handout via Xinhua)

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
The Biden administration and Illinois two U.S. senators marked the second year of captivity for a former U.S. Navy diver from Lombard abducted by Taliban associates while working in Afghanistan.

Mark Frerichs, a 59-year-old civil engineer, remains missing despite early searches and rescue attempts by American intelligence agencies and armed forces following his sudden disappearance from Kabul in late January 2020. Frerichs is believed to be in the custody of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.

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Mark Frerichs, a Lombard native who was kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2020, poses in an undated photo. (Charlene Cakora)

In a statement released on Sunday, the president demanded that the Taliban release Frerichs, but gave no indication of whether his administration was negotiating the terms of his release.

Threatening the safety of Americans or any innocent civilians is always unacceptable, and hostage-taking is an act of particular cruelty and cowardice, President Joe Biden said in a statement to mark the second anniversary of the kidnapping on Monday. The Taliban must immediately release Mark before it can expect any consideration of its aspirations for legitimacy. This is not negotiable.

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The statement came as Afghanistan faces a thorny humanitarian crisis following the U.S. withdrawal in August. The Taliban quickly seized control of much of the country and the foreign aid that been flowing into the country largely halted, putting at risk the lives of millions of Afghans, who could starve or freeze to death.

Frerichs family has expressed frustration over the slow pace of diplomats working for his release. His sister Charlene Cakora, who couldnt be reached for comment Monday, released a statement saying that her family is grateful for Bidens words. But what we really want is to have Mark home, she said. We know the president has options in front of him to make that happen and hope Marks safe return will become a priority for him personally.

In a joint statement released Monday, Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, both Illinois Democrats, said the U.S. would do whatever it can to secure his safe return from the Taliban.

Securing the safe return of potentially the only remaining U.S. hostage of the war in Afghanistan, a Navy Veteran who served this nation honorably, is an urgent matter and we were glad to see President Bidens statement acknowledging the situation and forcefully calling for Mark Frerichs immediate release, Duckworth and Durbin said in the statement. Our attention must be devoted to continuing to push on every reasonable lever to secure the safe return of Mark Frerichs to his family.

Frerichs, who graduated from Glenbard East High School in Lombard and trained to be a diver during his six years in the Navy, spent more than a decade in Afghanistan working on numerous civil engineering projects, according to his family.

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Mark is a civil engineer who was helping with construction projects for the benefit of the Afghan people when he was taken captive, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement over the weekend. Despite his innocence, he remains held hostage by the Taliban and its affiliates.

Frerichs was taken captive by someone who met with him in Kabul under the false pretense that they would hire him on a project, according to his family and U.S. officials. Navy SEALs and U.S. intelligence agencies assisted in trying to locate and free Frerichs, including a raid by Navy commandos days after his Jan. 31, 2020, abduction, but his trail went cold, an Associated Press investigation found.

In May 2020, the FBI released a poster in multiple languages seeking information on Frerichs kidnapping, the same month that an AP investigation found no public indications that Frerichs had been part of the peace negotiations with the Taliban.

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According to published reports, the Taliban has offered to exchange Frerichs for Bashir Noorzai, a convicted Afghan drug trafficker who is serving a life sentence in the U.S.

In a Washington Post op-ed published last week, Cakora appealed to Biden to do whatever was necessary to bring her brother home, including exchanging him for Noorzai.

I understand Noorzai is a convicted criminal, and I cannot speak to whether he deserves to be released. But I know we have held him for more than 16 years and that others who have done a lot worse have been sent home. Its normal for prisoners to be returned after wars end, she wrote.
OSE Immunotherapeutics Announces Acceptance of the US Investigational New Drug (IND) Application Obtained by Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., its Partner in Transplantation, for CD28 Antagonist VEL-101/FR104

Details Category: Antibodies Published on Tuesday, 01 February 2022 10:36 Hits: 1745

Based on the global license agreement signed in April 2021, this first milestone triggers a 5 million payment from Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to OSE Immunotherapeutics.

NANTES, France I January 31, 2022 I OSE Immunotherapeutics (ISIN: FR0012127173; Mnemo: OSE), today announced acceptance of the IND obtained by Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for a clinical trial with VEL-101/FR104, a CD28 antagonist monoclonal antibody fragment. This trial will be sponsored and conducted by Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in the United States.

This important milestone has been achieved by Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. as part of the global license agreement signed in April 2021 under which Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. obtained from OSE Immunotherapeutics worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize FR104, a CD28 antagonist monoclonal antibody fragment, for all transplant indications. Under this agreement, acceptance of the US IND application has triggered a milestone payment of 5 million from Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to OSE Immunotherapeutics.

In parallel, OSE Immunotherapeutics retains all product rights to develop FR104 in autoimmune diseases.

Dominique Costantini, Chief Executive Officer of OSE Immunotherapeutics, comments: We thank Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for this first key achievement which demonstrates their commitment and strong belief in the potential of this first-in-class CD28 antagonist as an innovative immunosuppressive treatment and marks a major step in enlarging the products development in transplantation. The milestone payment, in line with our business model, will reinforce our cash position to advance our immuno-oncology and immunity & inflammatory pipeline.

About Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an Asahi Kasei company, is a fully integrated specialty pharmaceutical company committed to improving the lives of transplant patients. Headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA, Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is focused on the direct commercialization of immunosuppression medications in the US, expansion of partnerships for markets around the world, and acquisition of assets utilized in transplant patients and by adjacent medical specialties. For further information, please visit www.veloxis.com.

About Asahi Kasei

The Asahi Kasei Group contributes to life and living for people around the world. Since its foundation in 1922 with ammonia and cellulose fiber business, Asahi Kasei has consistently grown through the proactive transformation of its business portfolio to meet the evolving needs of every age. With more than 40,000 employees around the world, the company contributes to sustainable society by providing solutions to the world's challenges through its three business sectors of Material, Homes, and Healthcare. Its healthcare operations include devices and systems for acute critical care, dialysis, therapeutic apheresis, transfusion, and manufacture of biotherapeutics, as well as pharmaceuticals and diagnostic reagents. For further information, please visit www.asahi-kasei.com.

ABOUT OSE Immunotherapeutics

OSE Immunotherapeutics is an integrated biotechnology company focused on developing and partnering therapies to control the immune system for immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. Its balanced first-in-class clinical and preclinical portfolio has a diversified risk profile:

Immuno-Oncology first-in-class products

Tedopi (innovative combination of neoepitopes): the companys most advanced product; positive results for Phase 3 trial (Atalante 1) in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer patients in secondary resistance after checkpoint inhibitor failure.

Other ongoing combination trials sponsored by cooperative clinical research groups in oncology:

Phase 2 in pancreatic cancer (TEDOPaM), sponsor GERCOR.

Phase 2 in ovary cancer, in combination with pembrolizumab (TEDOVA), sponsor ARCAGY-GINECO.

Phase 2 in non-small cell lung cancer in combination with nivolumab, sponsor Italian foundation FoRT.

(innovative combination of neoepitopes): the companys most advanced product; positive results for Phase 3 trial (Atalante 1) in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer patients in secondary resistance after checkpoint inhibitor failure. Other ongoing combination trials sponsored by cooperative clinical research groups in oncology: Phase 2 in pancreatic cancer (TEDOPaM), sponsor GERCOR. Phase 2 in ovary cancer, in combination with pembrolizumab (TEDOVA), sponsor ARCAGY-GINECO. Phase 2 in non-small cell lung cancer in combination with nivolumab, sponsor Italian foundation FoRT. BI 765063 (OSE-172, anti-SIRP mAb on CD47/SIRP pathway): developed in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim in advanced solid tumors; positive Phase 1 dose escalation results of BI 765063 in monotherapy and in combination with ezabenlimab (PD-1 antagonist); ongoing expansion Phase 1.

(OSE-172, anti-SIRP mAb on CD47/SIRP pathway): developed in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim in advanced solid tumors; positive Phase 1 dose escalation results of BI 765063 in monotherapy and in combination with ezabenlimab (PD-1 antagonist); ongoing expansion Phase 1. OSE-279 , anti-PD1  advanced preclinical stage.

, anti-PD1  advanced preclinical stage. BiCKI: bispecific fusion protein platform built on the key backbone component of anti-PD1 combined with a new immunotherapy target (for example: BiCKI-IL7, preclinical stage) to increase anti-tumor efficacy.

Immunity & Inflammation first-in-class products

OSE-127/S95011 (humanized monoclonal antibody antagonist of IL-7 receptor): developed in partnership with Servier; positive Phase 1 results; ongoing Phase 2 in ulcerative colitis (sponsor OSE) and ongoing Phase 2a in Sjogrens syndrome (sponsor Servier).

(humanized monoclonal antibody antagonist of IL-7 receptor): developed in partnership with Servier; positive Phase 1 results; ongoing Phase 2 in ulcerative colitis (sponsor OSE) and ongoing Phase 2a in Sjogrens syndrome (sponsor Servier). FR104 (anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody): licensing partnership agreement with Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in transplantation; ongoing Phase 1/2 in renal transplant (sponsored by the Nantes University Hospital); US IND obtained by Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for a clinical trial; Phase 2 planned in an autoimmune disease indication.

(anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody): licensing partnership agreement with Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in transplantation; ongoing Phase 1/2 in renal transplant (sponsored by the Nantes University Hospital); US IND obtained by Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for a clinical trial; Phase 2 planned in an autoimmune disease indication. OSE-230 (ChemR23 agonist mAb): preclinical stage therapeutic agent with the potential to resolve chronic inflammation by driving affected tissues to tissue integrity.

CoVepiT: a prophylactic second-generation vaccine activating cytotoxic T lymphocytes against COVID-19, developed using optimized epitopes from SARS-CoV2 viral proteins, epitopes non impacted by multi-variants. Shows good tolerance and very good level of T cell immune response. Results from 6-month memory T cell responses expected Q1 2022.

For more information: https://ose-immuno.com/en/

SOURCE: OSE Immunotherapeutics
HARTFORD  A third person has been arrested in connection with a Christmas Eve burglary that took place at a residence in Hartford.

Thomas W. Sumter, 55, of Albany, was arrested after an investigation was conducted by the Washington County Sheriff's Office into a home invasion that resulted in the arrests of Dominic Lashway and Cassidy Leroux earlier this month.

Police allege that Sumter, Lashway, and Leroux entered a home on Route 196 on Dec. 24 and assaulted a male victim before taking cash and credit cards from the residence and fleeing.

Sumter was arraigned at Washington County Centralized Arraignment court where his bail was set at $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond.

The Sheriff's Office was assisted by the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force.
All four candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, say they will remain in the race, regardless of the outcome of redistricting.

Wilton, the home town of Ezra Watson, one of the four candidates, would be drawn out of the district where Stefanik would be the incumbent, under a proposed redistricting plan that the Senate and Assembly are expected to vote on later this week.

Watson said Monday he will continue to campaign, and, if elected, would move into the district.

Candidates are not required to live in the district to run, only to live in New York and live in the district at the time they take office,

So, well cross that bridge when we get to it, Watson said. Theres a lot of lovely homes and property up there.

Matt Castelli, another candidate, actually lives and is registered to vote in the town of Saratoga, which would remain in the revised district, not in Wilton as The Post-Star previously reported. His campaign post office box is in Wilton, said Isabel Sheperd, of his campaign staff.

The proposed maps make it even more clear: We need a candidate with the background and experience that can appeal to voters across NY-21  someone who has national security experience and someone who understands the values of working families in this district, said Castelli, a former CIA counterterrorism official, in a statement.

The other candidates are Bridie Farrell, a political activist and former competitive skater from North River, and Matt Putorti, a lawyer from Whitehall.

The district lines are what they are, Farrell said in a statement. Either way, I live well within the district as currently configured or contemplated. I am looking forward to running a vigorous and relentless campaign against Elise Stefanik because it is time for a change in the North Country.

Stefanik is not commenting on the proposed redistricting plan, at this point, said Alex DeGrasse, a senior adviser.

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A new congressional redistricting plan that would separate Glens Falls and Queensbury from the rest of Warren County is an attempt by Democrats to punish U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, said Glens Falls Republican Chairman Michael Borgos.

Im afraid its a deliberate attempt, successfully it would appear, to remove her from Glens Falls, where her district office is located, he said.

Warren County Democratic Chairwoman Lynne Boecher, who supports the plan, said its time for a new approach to congressional districts that focuses on common characteristics instead of geographic boundaries.

I do think its time for a change, and if everything stays the same, it stays stagnant, she said.

Under the plan, which the state Senate and Assembly are expected to vote on later this week, Glens Falls and Queensbury would be drawn into a reconfigured congressional district in which U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, would be the incumbent.

Moreau, Wilton and Saratoga Springs, among other Saratoga County municipalities, also would be part of the district.

The rest of Warren County and all of Washington County and the towns of Corinth, Hadley, Edinburg and Saratoga, and part of Stillwater, would be drawn into a reconfigured congressional district in which Stefanik would be the incumbent.

The reconfigured district in which Stefanik would run for re-election would still have a Republican enrollment advantage.

Some suggest the Republican enrollment advantage might even be greater in the reconfigured district.

But Borgos said that many of Stefaniks key supporters live in Glens Falls and Queensbury.

I think its a deliberate attempt to isolate her from where she has a strong base, he said.

A portion of Fort Drum, a key focus of Stefaniks attention, remains in the new 21st Congressional District, and a portion of the base was redrawn into the new 24th District.

Stefanik has no comment on the redistricting plan, at this point, said Alex DeGrasse, her senior adviser, on Monday.

Tonko said in a statement that he is satisfied with the proposed reconfiguration.

While were disappointed to have to say goodbye to our friends in parts of Albany and Rensselaer counties, were thrilled to introduce our campaign for higher wages, clean energy, voting rights and other progressive issues to more voters in Warren and Saratoga counties, he said. Early in the process, we stressed the importance of keeping Capital Region communities together for a unified voice in Congress. This map reflects a district that does just that.

Chairmen of boards of supervisors in Warren, Washington and Saratoga counties, all Republicans, said separating Glens Falls, Queensbury and Moreau into a separate congressional district would be counterproductive to regional collaboration.

Its very disappointing, said Moreau Supervisor Todd Kusnierz, a Republican who chairs the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors.

I think thats unfortunate, said Warrensburg Supervisor Kevin Geraghty, a Republican, chairman of Warren County Board of Supervisors. We have one county. We try to be one county.

Fort Ann Supervisor Sam Hall, a Republican, chairman of the Washington County Board of Supervisors, said he does not know enough details about the proposed plan to speak specifically, but in general he supports keeping the Glens Falls region whole in a common district.

I think that the district should remain as it is, quite frankly, he said.

Boecher said Glens Falls and Queensbury are more urban in character than the northern towns in Warren County.

She said it makes sense for Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs, both revitalized small cities, to be in the same congressional district.

Listen  Glens Falls and Queensbury are very different from Hague and Horicon, she said.

Borgos, the Glens Falls Republican chairman, does not agree.

Glens Falls had always been the Gateway to the Adirondacks.  Weve always been part of the North Country, he said.

Kusnierz said that while Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs may have aspects in common, the characteristics of Moreau, which is more agricultural, are more like those of Washington County.

Certainly, the town of Moreau does not have big-city demographics, he said.

Geraghty said Glens Falls and Queensbury and the northern Warren County towns have more common interests than differences.

I think its important that we have one voice to speak for all of us, he said.

Boecher, the Warren County Democratic chairwoman, said Republican supervisors resistance to the proposed redistricting plan is partisan motivated.

They want to keep it the same because they want to keep the Republicans in control, she said.

Tonko does have a reputation for doing a great job representing his constituents, Kusnierz said.

Im sure we could foster that relationship, he said.

But, if, as many expect, Republicans take control of the House in November, Tonko, if re-elected, would be in the minority, while Stefanik, if re-elected, would be in the majority.

Kusnierz said the redistricting plan has ramifications statewide, not just locally, as it is expected that Republicans could lose as many as three House seats in New York, if the plan is adopted.

If the plan passes the Senate and Assembly, is signed into law and withstands any legal challenges, candidates would run in the new districts in November.

Congressional district boundaries are redrawn every 10 years, based on the latest census.

The state Legislature took over the redistricting process after it rejected two proposals that the states Independent Redistricting Commission proposed.

One plan was drawn by Democratic members of the commission, and the other plan by Republican members of the commission.

After the plans were rejected, commission members said they were not able to reach agreement on a consensus plan.

The legislative map drawing committee is expected to release a proposed plan for new state Senate and Assembly Districts later this week.

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SARATOGA SPRINGS  A commemoration ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War will take place on March 29 at 7 p.m. at the Saratoga-Wilton Elks Lodge at 1 Elks Lane.

The event is free and open to the public, and veterans who register in advance will receive a special lapel issued by the U.S. Department of Defense. Anyone who wishes to attend must register no later than March 25.

Proof of vaccination is required upon registration.

The event is coordinated by The Friends of the New York State Military Museum in conjunction with the Capital District of New York Chapter of the Association of the United States Army and will honor the service of all Vietnam War veterans who served during the period of the war, which lasted from Nov. 1, 1955, through May 15, 1975.

The program was launched in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama, and the commemoration and recognition activities will continue until 2025.

Each veteran in attendance will be presented with the lapel and be given an opportunity to say a few words.

The event will also honor the spouses of deceased veterans, who will receive a Surviving Spouse pin.

To register, contact Bob Van Pelt at 518-210-2868 or by email at bvpcsm@aol.com.

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Warren County Health Services reported 147 new COVID cases on Monday, from data recorded Sunday and Monday.

The county reported a decrease in hospitalizations. The report stated 16 residents are currently hospitalized with 11 vaccinated patients and two in critical condition.

Over the last five days, the county has recorded 446 positive test results, which is a decrease in the number of new COVID cases.

The seven-day rolling positivity rate has dropped to 10.9%.

The New York state vaccine tracker stated as of Monday, 51,189 county residents have received one dose of the COVID vaccine and 47,775 have completed the vaccine series.

Warren County Health Services will hold its next public booster/first dose vaccine clinic Tuesday at the Warren County Municipal Center.

Additional school clinics:

Feb. 2 at Glens Falls Middle School

Feb. 3 at Queensbury High School

Feb. 4 at North Warren Central School

Washington County

The Washington County Public Health Department reported a total of 416 active COVID cases on Monday.

Hospitalizations increased by two over the weekend. Sixteen county residents are currently in the hospital.

The New York state vaccine tracker stated as of Monday, 40,936 county residents have received one dose of the COVID vaccine and 38,516 have completed the vaccine series.

The seven-day rolling positivity rate was down to 10.9% on Monday.

According to New York state COVID data, on Sunday 32 positive results were recorded out of the 272 COVID test administered.

The Washington County Public Health Department team announced late last week that, in coordination with Quadrant Biosciences, the county will host a COVID-19 testing site featuring PCR tests at the Washington County Burgoyne Avenue Campus at 1153 Burgoyne Ave. in Fort Edward. Testing will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. by appointment only.

The county will hold a #Vaxtoschool event on Thursday at the Whitehall Central School District on Buckley Road in Whitehall. The clinic will offer the Pfizer vaccine for ages 5 and up and the Moderna vaccine for individuals 18 and older. First, second and booster doses will be available.

Statewide

On Monday, New York state COVID data indicated 5,115 positive cases were identified out of the 91,557 residents tested on Sunday.

State data indicated hospitalizations across New York have gone down recently. The data stated the seven-day average for new admissions per 100,000 was at 4.37. The state website reported 506 new hospital admissions on Sunday.

As of Monday, 16,187,597 New Yorkers have received one dose of the vaccine and 14,380,208 have completed the COVID vaccine series.

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Members of the 108th Wing, out of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, joined the 177th at Naval Air Station Key West, participating from Jan. 8 in a series of related training events. The last participants of these events are scheduled to return late this week, New Jersey National Guard Maj. Agneta Murnan said in a news release.

The 177th is based at Atlantic City International Airport.

Agile Combat Employment, or ACE, are sets of combat functions the Air Force wants to implement as it looks to shift to having multi-capable airmen as a means of giving the U.S. military what commanders hope will be an edge against enemies.

ACE calls for creating multiskilled personnel who can perform multiple job functions, from refueling aircrafts to rearming them.

Members of the 177th were first in the Keys before flying across the water to Puerto Rico, fighter wing Commander Derek Routt said.

Over the time down south, members of the 177th were given several tasks, including refueling aircraft to travel to Puerto Rico, something Routt said is key to what the fighter wing does when it flies between remote locations.

The 177th, Routt said, is dedicated to engaging enemies in both air-to-air and air-to-ground fighting, sometimes forcing them to quickly relocate when theyre outside South Jersey.

That relocation can be complex, which is why, Routt said, the fighter wing is working to make its airmen generalists to perform multiple jobs.

From the beginning of when they come out of training, theyre taught a specific job, Routt said of the shift to multi-capable airmen.

The drills in Americas southern territories come as the United States finds itself amid boiling tensions in the East, as Russia has, for several weeks, continued to move troops to its border with Ukraine, bulking up for what many fear could be an invasion.

The exercises arent linked to the U.S. diplomatic conflict in the East, National Guard Brig. Gen. Patrick Kennedy said.

Its really a focus on, after all the years, being prepared at the level of readiness to answer the call, regardless of where the hotspot in the world is, Kennedy said.

Routt said 96 separate job titles maintain the fighter wings operations. Having more generalists at the base, specifically younger airmen, will make U.S. military operations more agile moving forward.

Having multi-capable airmen available helped the fighter wing last year when it was leaving Afghanistan, Routt said.

The 177th, Routt said, was one of the last units to leave the country when President Joe Biden chose to end the decades-long war the U.S. had spearheaded since 2001, a military operation that involved rescuing thousands of Afghan refugees.

Routt said the 177th departed Bagram Air Force Base while military personnel were closing it ahead of Americas deadline to leave the country. Some of the fighter wings planes had to make an emergency return to the base while it was closing, where it was shorthanded with troops with knowledge of how to restock the plane.

Having multiskilled airmen, however, helped them take off from the base once again and head home.

Its really our junior airmen that are the backbone of that program, Routt said.

Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin

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WASHINGTON  Former state lawmaker Bob Andrzejczak was appointed by President Joe Biden to one of the U.S. Department of Agricultures leadership positions last week.

The former New Jersey senator and assemblyman will be the new executive director for the departments Farm Service Agency in the state.

Andrzejczak did not return a request for comment Monday.

Andrzejczak is one of seven newly appointed administrators for the USDA and Small Business Administration. The appointees have been selected by Biden as a part of his plans to help rebuild communities ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and other economic disparities, the White House said.

Andrzejczak, a Democrat, previously served a First Legislative District assemblyman in the New Jersey Legislature, later being appointed to the open Senate seat after now U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, vacated it after winning a seat in Washington.

In Trenton, Andrzejczack chaired the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, closely working with New Jerseys agriculture community.

Andrzejczak later lost his election bid in 2019, to now Sen. Michael Testa, R-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic.

Andrzejczak grew up in Cape May County, attending Lower Cape May Regional High School before joining the U.S. Army and being deployed to Iraq.

During his second deployment in the Middle East, Andrzejczak was severely injured when his convoy was attacked, prompting doctors to amputate his left leg and sending him home for a two-year recovery at Walter Reed Medical Center, in Maryland.

Andrzejack holds a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his efforts during his service in the Middle East. He also was awarded Army Achievement medals, an Army Good Conduct medal, a National Service of Defense medal, a Global War on Terror medal, an Iraq Campaign medal with a Campaign Star, an Army Service Ribbon, and a Combat Infantry Badge, according to the New Jersey Democrats.

Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin

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TRENTON  A Cape May County Prosecutors Office investigator is accused of abusing his power to investigate a minor car crash, according to an indictment from a state grand jury, Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew Bruck said.

Detective Sgt. Robert P. Harkins Jr., 49, is charged with official misconduct, tampering with public records or information, and falsifying or tampering with records.

The Wildwood Crest resident is currently suspended, Bruck said.

Investigators allege that Harkins illegally initiated and conducted an investigation into a minor motor vehicle crash involving one of his family members that happened in a Middle Township stores parking lot. Harkins independently probed the incident between December 2019 and January 2020, Bruck said.

Harkins tried to investigate the crash and identify the other driver, who allegedly left the scene without exchanging insurance credentials.

Investigators claim Harkins did not document his actions with the Prosecutors Office and instead used an outdated general investigation report to prevent a review by his bosses, Bruck said. Harkins allegedly issued a subpoena to the store where the crash occurred, used his Prosecutors Office affiliation to request information from state agencies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and ultimately provided his investigative findings to township police, Bruck said.

Middle Township police originally were investigating the crash and reported Harkins actions to his employer, Bruck said.

Deputy Attorney General Brian Uzdavinis is prosecuting the case for the Office of Public Integrity and Accountabilitys Corruption Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Peter Lee and OPIA Deputy Director Anthony Picione, Bruck said.

The second-degree official misconduct charge carries a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison  with a mandatory five-year period of parole ineligibility  and a fine of up to $150,000. The third-degree charge of tampering with public records carries a sentence of three to five years in prison, with a mandatory two-year period of parole ineligibility, and a fine of up to $15,000. Fourth-degree charges carry a sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, Bruck said.

Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin

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In an effort to get at the roots of structural and historic racism, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving has granted seven Capitol-region organizations $25,000 each to advocate for policy changes in state and municipal housing laws.

This marks the first-time the Hartford Foundation has bankrolled lobbying by nonprofits and community members.

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Erika Frank, senior community impact officer at the Hartford Foundation, said fair housing was chosen as the first lobbying funding target because housing has a very long history of inequitable policy.

That has really contributed to the segregation we see in our communities today and the racial wealth gap. There has systemically been exclusion for many people in our community in the housing markets. The root cause is policy, she said.

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She added that the funding is really focused on supporting our mission and strategic goals, which include dismantling structural racism and enhancing opportunity.

Frank said adding nonprofit lobbying to the foundations funding cycles has been a long-term goal. That goal started in 2014, when the Hartford Foundation became a registered lobbyist in the state. After experiencing lobbying firsthand and getting to know other lobbying entities, the foundation chose to fund lobbying organizations.

We need to support programmatic intervention in the capacity of nonprofits. We do that. But in order to really ramp up the rate of change we need to see  we know that policy is the next step, she said.

Elysa Gordon, vice president for community impact, said funding policy also will allow members of the community to bring their lived experiences, their voices, more directly into discussions of housing.

The Connecticut Fair Housing Center is one of the funded organizations. The center was among community organizations who last year successfully led a push for statewide Right to Counsel legislation, guaranteeing legal representation for people threatened with eviction. The grant will support advocacy to push for full funding for Right to Counsel.

We are meeting with tenants to hear about their experiences in housing court once they received an eviction notice, talking about what would have been different if they had had an attorney teaching them how to put together testimony, said Erin Kemple, executive director at the Connecticut Fair Housing Center. We are trying to get people ready to testify and talk with legislators about continuing the Right to Counsel.

Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. >

Kemple said the full funding, and the community members lived-experience testimony, is crucial to persuade legislators.

One of the things people have to have is a place to live. It affects every party of a persons life, their ability to get health care, where their kids to school, where they go grocery shopping, where they go to church. Someone in danger of being put out of their house risks losing all the positive things that go along with a home, she said.

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Another grantee is the Partnership for Strong Communities, which will use its grant to expand the membership of its HomeConnecticut Campaign, an advisory committee originally formed in 2006, which promotes policies that increase access to stable, quality, affordable housing.

Kiley Gosselin, executive director at the Partnership for Strong Communities, said that the board needs more diverse voices, both more racially diverse and more diverse in their housing-related experiences.

It was originally made up of members of other sectors outside of housing advocacy, such as education, business, municipal leadership, Gosselin said. The thinking was over last year and a half is that we need more voices, tenants, tenant advocates, people in the landlord community, to give a wide variety of perspectives, to decide what to do differently, what direction we should be going in.

Other fundees are:

Center for Latino Progress Transport Hartford Academy, to push for Transit Oriented Development in the affordable housing plans of the towns of West Hartford, Newington and Windsor.

Center for Leadership and Justice, which successfully added its No More Slumlords advocacy to Hartfords housing code, to train city residents to advocate for the launch of that licensure program.

Hartford Land Bank, Inc., which will advocate for a state funding mechanism for the redevelopment of small multi-family homes.

Open Communities Alliance, will advocate for the Fair Share Zoning Campaign, which would assign affordable housing goals to every Connecticut municipality.

Regional Planning Association/Desegregate CT, which advocates for Transit Oriented Communities, reducing minimum lot size requirements, and streamlining zoning bureaucracy.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.
CAPE MAY  Meghann Wallace  now Meghann Licari  said she would have made it to Our Lady Star of the Sea for her wedding Saturday regardless.

She and Nicholas Licari had canceled their wedding twice before because of COVID-19, and they were not going to let a snowstorm stand in their way this time.

Still, she and her family were deeply grateful for the citys efforts to clear a route for their guests to reach the Catholic church on the Washington Street Mall. That included her 93-year-old grandmother.

We would have gotten to that church. But it definitely would not have been so magical, Licari said Monday evening.

She and her new husband had just completed the long ride back to the Boston area, which also saw a couple of feet of snow dropped by the big storm.

Some guests canceled because of the storm, Nicholas Licari said, with people planning to attend from Florida, South Carolina and other far-flung locations. Several guests from Long Island ended up canceling at the last minute as that area received serious snow, he said.

WATCH NOW: Recapping the Blizzard of 2022 The Blizzard of 2022 brought the biggest snow in 12 years, blizzard conditions to the Jersey

But others just came to Cape May a little earlier so they were in town before the snow began to fall late Friday. It snowed through the night and much of the day Saturday, tapering off before the ceremony at 1:30 p.m.

Local police and firefighters helped the Department of Public Works clear a route for the wedding and a walking path to the church. A local limo service made a series of trips from the hotel to shuttle people who were unable or didnt want to walk several blocks in the cold and snow.

We basically made sure there was a route from the Congress Hall Hotel to the church, said Mayor Zack Mullock. He said that took place after emergency routes and other vital areas were cleared and passable. Once those were done, police, fire and public works got a path cleared on Lyle Lane.

It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing, said Valerie Sorensen, the mother of the bride. Her family is from Cape May. She now lives nearby in Lower Township, south of the Cape May Canal. She stayed home with her dog and her daughters dog, rather than staying over at the hotel the night before the wedding.

She said the Lower Township crews also came by and made sure she had a route from her house to the church, and that neighbors and friends also helped clear cars and pathways in the deep snow. The storm dropped more than a foot of snow on the Cape.

Sorensen said she had not contacted the municipal officials, but rather the city reached out to her to see what they could do to help. She sees it as one of the benefits of living in a small town.

Ocean City Humane Society crew stays through the storm to care for animals OCEAN CITY  Many dogs love the snow. Somewhat fewer cats do. But both want to be fed and lo

Both Mullock and her daughter attended Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic School, although not in the same year. That was before the school consolidated with St. Raymond a decade ago and later joined with St. Ann Regional School to form Cape Trinity Catholic. In 2020, that in turn joined with Wildwood Catholic High School to form Wildwood Catholic Academy after a million-dollar fundraising effort aimed at saving the schools.

Mullock on Monday credited the efforts to the police, firefighters and the city public works crews. Knowing the pandemic derailed previous plans meant the crews wanted to make sure the wedding went ahead this time.

Its a big day, he said. It was a neat thing.

Meghann Licari is in pharmaceutical sales, while Nicholas Licari works in sales for medical devices, including those used for minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. Both are 29.

Theyd been engaged for 2 years, with their first wedding date set for last January. It was always planned for Cape May.

Her family owned Wallaces Whalers Cove Bar and Restaurant and other businesses in the area.

Meghann said she was praying for snow on her wedding. She loves the snow and said her father, Bob Wallace, loved snow as well. He died in May. She knew it was a long shot on the Jersey Cape, where most years, snow is unusual.

Not this winter, though.

Contact Bill Barlow: 609-272-7290 bbarlow@pressofac.com Twitter @jerseynews_bill

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Former state Sen. Dawn Marie Addiego, D-Burlington, Camden, Atlantic, who switched to the Democratic Party in 2019 after years as a Republican elected official, was approved by the Senate on Monday to become Burlington Countys superintendent of elections.

Addiego lost her 8th Legislative District seat in the Red Wave election of 2021, replaced by former Assemblywoman Jean Stanfield, R-Burlington, Camden, Atlantic. She in turn replaces former Superintendent of Elections George Kotch. Her salary will be more than $94,000.

In a five-minute voting session, two other appointments were approved. They were the appointment of former Sen. Christopher Kip Bateman, R-Hunterdon, Somerset, Middlesex, Mercer, to be a paid member of the board of Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey, replacing Joseph Kyrillos; and former Assemblywoman Linda D. Stender, D-Middlesex, Someset, Union, to be an unpaid member of the New Jersey Historic Trust, replacing John D. Hatch.

Republican team gives LD2 united voice for first time in 15 years For the past 15 years, the highly competitive 2nd legislative district has sent a mix of Rep

The short duration of the meeting prompted one senator to call out, Are they all going to be like this?

Senate President Nick Scutari, who took up the post in January after longtime Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Salem, Gloucester, Cumberland, lost reelection, shot back, Its a new day, Senator. Its a new day.

More money was spent in the 8th District races in 2021 than in any other district in the state, at $8.5 million, according to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. The 2nd District, covering the heart of Atlantic County, was the next most expensive at $7.7 million.

In both districts, Democrats heavily outspent Republicans, but Republicans swept both the Senate and Assembly races.

REPORTER: Michelle Brunetti 609-841-2895 mpost@pressofac.com

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MAYS LANDING  The public will have the chance to learn more about plans for the Lake Lenape Dam next week.

Atlantic County and Hamilton Township officials will offer two presentations from the countys design consultants at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The presentations will provide insights about the Lake Lenape Dam Rehabilitation and Spillway Reconstruction project. The public will be able to comment on the proposal, county spokesperson Linda Gilmore said Monday.

The county and township are working with the state Division of Dam Safety, the state Department of Environmental Protection, the state Historic Preservation Office, the state Pinelands Commission and others to complete the project, Gilmore said.

The township has had its eyes on several projects to rehabilitate the dam and the neighboring Wheaton complex, which once used the dam while serving as a cotton mill. The building later housed a glass and plastics manufacturer before closing in 1940.

The project includes improvements to the dams powerhouse that controls water levels and improvements to the dams structure.

The dam was acquired by the township in 1978, and Atlantic County several years later became a co-owner to share the financial burden with the township.

Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin

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CAMBRIDGE, Ill.  Two California residents appeared in Henry County Circuit Court on Class X felony cannabis trafficking charges after state police found 124 pounds of black-market marijuana in their RV on Nov. 17 on Interstate 80.

In a joint preliminary hearing, Judge James Cosby found probable cause to believe Wei Fu Li, 63, of Rowland Heights, Calif., and Chunmei Xiao, 40, of Rosemead, Calif., committed felonies.

Illinois State Police Sgt. Sean Veryzer testified he pulled the RV over for improper lane usage  crossing the right shoulder line  and lack of headlights in the rain at 11:59 a.m. just east of Geneseo. Veryzer's K-9 alerted on the vehicle and the drugs were found in three false compartments, one in the RV's closet, the second under the bed and the third in the rear floor.

Doug Wade of the Black Hawk Area Task Force interviewed the three occupants, and Xiao admitted to packaging the marijuana and giving it to the other two. Li said he was going on vacation in Chicago, coming from Los Angeles and San Francisco, but he did not answer questions about the marijuana. The driver, Wei King He, said he was driving at the time of the stop but that the other two had also driven the RV and they were paying for the fuel.

Troopers also found a white powdery substance in a bag on the passenger side midway back on the kitchen table area. Because of the current policy of the state police, field tests on controlled substances are typically not conducted by patrol units because of the dangers of fentanyl exposure, but it was sent to the lab for further analysis, according to Veryzer.

Pre-trial hearings on March 24 were set for the two. Both entered pleas of not guilty and are seeking jury trials.

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A teachers job fair for both Illinois and Iowa is scheduled for Feb. 14 in Bettendorf.

The fair will run from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency, 729 21st St. in Bettendorf, according to a news release from Mississippi Bend. It's open to teachers, prospective teachers and school districts from both Illinois and Iowa.

Those looking for jobs are asked to bring a copy of their resume, and licensure information for Iowa and Illinois will be provided.

Those interested can register at www.mbaea.org. Click "More Details" under the job fair banner.

Anyone with questions, is asked to contact Dawn Meier at 563-344-6411 or dmeier@mbaea.org.

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Rock Island is about to embark on a major, multi-million dollar renovation and redesign of its downtown district.

Included in the plans will be the installation of an Arts Alley, an urban dog park, reconstruction of the Great River Plaza, streetscaping and construction of a pedestrian gateway between the downtown business district and Schwiebert Riverfront Park.

City Council members approved a resolution during the Dec. 20 meeting to direct $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the project with another $1.5 million in Tax Increment Financing District revenue. City leaders also applied for a matching $3 million grant from the State of Illinois Rebuild Downtowns Capital Grant Program, bringing the total to a possible $7 million for the project.

Jack Cullen, Rock Island downtown director for the Quad Cities Chamber, said the downtown revitalization was part of the city's 2015 downtown revitalization plan and included projects requested by residents through public input.

"It's exciting to be able to take pieces out of this (plan) and implement them to make downtown improvements," Cullen said. "We hope this will accelerate our recovery from the pandemic, support the existing businesses and encourage investment. We are in the process of finalizing the scope of what can be done with the $4 million (in funds) secured and also identifying phases of the project."

Cullen said they would find out if the city had been approved for the Rebuild Downtowns grant in mid-April, in addition to an Illinois Tourism Attraction grant that was also applied for. Construction will begin this spring and is expected to be completed in 2024.

Although downtown Rock Island encompasses about 2% of the citys total land area, it holds more than 6% of the citys total land value and generates about 9% of its sales tax and 54% of hotel tax revenue.

Plans also include the creation of a public-private downtown place management organization and a special service area that would support it financially.

Great River Plaza

Cullen said the first project to be tackled would be reconstruction of the Great River Plaza, which is the 2nd Avenue pedestrian mall. The large, cement stage that has hosted decades of outdoor concerts will be removed and so will the large, circular cement planters and other existing structures in order to make the plaza more pedestrian friendly.

Outdoor dining spaces will be installed along with enhanced lighting, small park areas with trees, seating and repainted pedestrian crosswalks.

"When the Chamber started its partnership with the city in terms of providing place management services last spring, it was communicated to us that the plaza was the priority of the council," Cullen said. "That's how this all began. I would say the plaza is the core focus area, but the improvements will definitely expand out from there.

"We have a downtown Rock Island steering committee that has helped guide these plans. We surveyed business owners and property owners on or adjacent to the plaza, and all of them agreed that it needed to be updated and modernized. It's 50 years old. But the majority of them wanted to see it continue as a pedestrian mall and plaza."

Arts Alley

The renovation and activation of Arts Alley in the 1700 block of 2nd Avenue will feature works by local artists, events, new murals, pop-up vendor stalls, street performance spaces and interactive art installations.

The Arts Alley will be an extension of the pedestrian area off of the Great River Plaza and will include an overhead art installation.

In terms of streetscaping throughout the downtown area, new landscaping, signage and security cameras will be installed. Plans are in place to replace lamp posts with ones that match some of the existing black lamp posts already installed in portions of the city.

Urban Dog Park

Illinois Casualty Company has offered to donate land adjacent to its business and $100,000 dollars toward the development of an urban dog park in the 300th block of 21st Street.

Arron Sutherland, president and CEO of Illinois Casualty Company, is also chairman of the Downtown Rock Island Steering Committee, which has helped guide plans for the downtown improvements.

"I have a lot of employees at ICC who are dog lovers," Sutherland said. "I thought maybe we could do something for the community that employees of the business could also use. As we kept researching, I found out this was one of the top items that communities get gauged by; these modern dog parks are very popular.

"With all the things Jack (Cullen) is doing to revitalize the downtown area, I thought the dog park would fit in and be a draw for people to come downtown."

Gateway to Schwiebert Riverfront Park

The city's goal is to create a more pedestrian-friendly pathway between the downtown district and Schwiebert Riverfront Park. At the same time, the city will be reconstructing 1st Avenue, making it easier for people to cross the road between the two areas. In front of Schwiebert Park will be a standing Rock Island monument sign.

"We think these downtown improvements we have planned really complement that work," Cullen said.

"It's an exciting time for downtown Rock Island and I think it will continue to get more exciting over the next five years as we see these changes come to life."

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SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a disaster declaration Tuesday in anticipation of a winter storm that could dump more than one foot of snow across wide swaths of central and southern Illinois.

Pritzker, in a press conference at the Illinois Emergency Management Agencys operations center in Springfield, also announced the activation of 130 Illinois National Guard members to assist state agencies with the storm response.

I want to assure county and local officials and everyone in the path of the storm that my administration will provide resources every step of the way," Pritzker said. "... We are ready to assist anyone in any community that is in need. We are one Illinois.

State officials compared the possible snow event to the Snowmaggeden blizzard that rocked the state in 2011, which left motorists stranded on highways across the state.

The message was clear: do not travel unless it is absolutely necessary.

If you don't have to go out in this weather, stay at home, said Illinois State Police director Brendan Kelly. This will free up state resources to handle emergency calls  and we're going to be getting those emergency calls.

Illinois National Guard troops will be deployed to a handful of state police districts across the state to assist with the rescue of stranded motorists.

The Illinois Department of Transportation will deploy more than 1,800 trucks and equipment to plow and treat roads and respond to emergencies.

The storm has already caused disruption to what was supposed to be a major week on the state legislative calendar with Pritzker expected to deliver his combined state of the state and budget address to state lawmakers at the Capitol Wednesday.

However, the House and Senate canceled scheduled session days for the rest of this week, citing the "difficult if not impossible" driving conditions.

The governor's office announced that Pritzker will plow ahead with a live speech on Wednesday, but instead deliver it at the Old State Capitol in downtown Springfield in front of a much-smaller audience.

"I was excited to have the legislature back in and be able to speak to a live audience," Pritzker said. "... But nevertheless, here we are. And what I am excited about is delivering the message and, of course, it will be delivered to the people of Illinois, and all the legislators no doubt will be tuning in."

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DES MOINES  The dough on your Caseys pizza could be rolled by a 16- or 17-year-old worker if a new proposal is passed into state law.

The Iowa-based gasoline and convenience store company has proposed legislation that would make it legal for 16- and 17-year-old workers to operate dough rollers. That is currently prohibited by state law, even though federal regulations permit the practice.

Were famous for a lot of things, but one of them is our pizza, Tom Cope, a lobbyist for Caseys, said during a legislative hearing on the proposal Monday at the Iowa Capitol.

Caseys began offering pizza in the mid-1980s and since has become the fifth-largest pizza seller in the country, according to the company. Cope said many other states where Caseys has stores, including Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri, have laws that match the federal regulation that permits 16- and 17-year-olds to operate dough rollers.

Cope said the proposal could help Caseys  and any other business that rolls its own dough on-site  address a shortage of workers.

Like any other employer across the state of Iowa, were really struggling finding employees, he said.

Concerns were raised during the hearing that the legislative proposal does not contain the federal language that states those 16- and 17-year-olds cannot set up, adjust, repair or clean pizza dough rollers  only operate them. Cope said Caseys would be comfortable adding that language to the bill.

The three state lawmakers on the bills panel  two Republicans and one Democrat  said they could support the bill with that amended language. I think with the workforce shortage were having, 16- and 17-year-olds do the pizza, safely of course is important, said Sen. Dawn Driscoll, a Republican from Williamsburg.

The proposal, Senate Study Bill 3072, advanced and is now eligible for consideration by the full Senate.

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ST. CLAIR COUNTY  A Kansas City area man was charged Monday with robbing a woman and shooting her in the head in the parking lot of her Belleville employer on Jan. 12.

St. Clair County State's Attorney Jim Gomric's office charged Ki'Juan Calhoun, 24, of 3502 North West 71st Terrace in Gladstone, Missouri, with armed robbery, aggravated battery with the discharge of a weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Police say Calhoun approached the woman as she was stepping out of her vehicle in the parking lot of a commercial building in the 9200 block of West Main Street shortly after 8 a.m. He displayed a handgun and demanded her purse, police say.

After a struggle, police allege, Calhoun shot the woman once in the head and fled west on foot with her purse, iPhone and some cash.

The woman was treated at an area hospital with a non-life threatening injury.

Belleville Police Capt. Mark Heffernan said the investigation has been complex because it involved several local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

But detectives were able to locate the vehicle Calhoun allegedly used to get away in Collinsville and discovered that it had been reported stolen in Gladstone, Missouri, Heffernan said.

"Detectives were able to identify the suspect who lived in the Kansas City, Missouri suburb of Gladstone," Heffernan said. "The suspect was taken into custody on January 22 in the Kansas City area reference to unrelated charges.

"Search warrants were executed and investigative leads were followed from January 22 until today, which led to charges in the west Belleville case."

Calhoun was extradited to Illinois and is being held at the St. Clair County Jail in lieu of $750,00 bond.

Heffernan thanked the St. Clair County State's Attorney's office, Illinois State Police Metro East laboratory, Gladstone Police Department, Clay County, Missouri detention Center, the U.S. Marshals Service Great Lakes Fugitive Task Force, and the Marshals Midwest Fugitive Task Force for assisting in the investigation.

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The Connecticut state police shooting range in Simsbury is scheduled for improvements to prevent flooding. (Mark Mirko/The Hartford Courant)

At least one prominent Simsbury resident is working to reverse the states decision to improve the frequently flooded police shooting range in town rather than build a new one elsewhere.

Bob Patricelli, a former president of Cignas health care group, is trying to build community awareness that Connecticut taxpayers could end up spending more than $10 million to put the ranges buildings on stilts to protect against future flooding.

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Its the wrong plan in the wrong place, Patricelli said Monday. This is not a NIMBY issue, its a matter of getting the state police the kind of training facility they need.

Selectmen are expected to take up the issue at a meeting this month, and Patricelli is hoping a vote condemning the idea would help the case for Connecticut to find a different location altogether.

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The Connecticut state police firearms is shown in a merged panoramic photo relative to adjacent fields. Photograph by Mark Mirko | mmirko@courant.com (Mark Mirko/The Hartford Courant)

First Selectman Wendy Mackstutis said the selectmen have all been receptive to signing a letter against the plan; a copy will go to Gov. Ned Lamont.

From the towns perspective, the question is Is it good to have it there? We think it negatively impacts residents, businesses and the environment, Mackstutis said.

Some opponents of the plan fear that discarded shell casings are a pollution risk to groundwater and the nearby Farmington River, which has flooded the ranges buildings more than a half-dozen times in the past decade.

And you can hear the sounds of guns throughout the town, even at one of the elementary schools, she said.

Connecticuts bond commission last spring authorized $2 million to design improvements for the range, which was built before zoning and has been unpopular with neighbors for decades.

One of the various floods that have damaged the state police shooting range in Simsbury. (Courtesy of state of Connecticut)

The chief complaint has been the noise from troopers shooting practice, which can include automatic weapons fire.

State officials have had no success finding a new location, though.

Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. >

East Windsor residents objected to preliminary talks about moving the range to their town seven years ago, and Glastonbury residents celebrated in 2013 after persuading the state to drop plans for relocating there.

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In 2015, about 50 homeowners in Willington protested at the state Capitol when the state was eying a Ruby Road property, and even formed a community group called Unwillington. The state department of emergency services ultimately gave up on that alternative, and since then has abandoned another option  rural Griswold  after running into local opposition there, too.

State police have been pressing for a modern indoor range with related training resources for years. The Simsbury facility is too small and outdated, they said in 2018, and suffers the costly problem of being in a floodplain.

Thats more than a brief inconvenience. The facility has been flooded several times in the past 15 years, each time resulting in anywhere from $40,000 to $300,000 in damages as well as costly rescheduling of training and trooper recertification sessions, police said.

But the latest state plan is for up to $10 million to rehab buildings in Simsbury and put them on pillars more than 10 feet high to keep the building safe from future floods. The plan would provide about 5,200 square feet of building space on less than 13 acres.

A 2018 photo showing the layout of the current shooting range in Simsbury. (Courtesy of state of Connecticut)

Just four years ago, the state police and the department of administrative services were proposing a 55,000-square-foot training center for Griswold with parking for 125 cars. That property was 200 acres.

Thats what they need, thats what the state should do: Build a large indoor facility with pop-up targets and simulations, Patricelli said.
Our nation finds itself in perilous times. We are confronted with a pandemic for which we have a cure. Yet far too many have chosen to ignore or reject it. Largely as a result, our hospitals and clinics are stretched to the breaking point, and at this writing more than 860,000 of our fellow citizens have perished. Put in perspective, this is almost double the number of Americans killed in all of World War II; and 100,000 more than all those who died in the most bloody past conflict in our nations history, the Civil War.

Meanwhile, crises due to climate change have become almost routine. From devastating tornadoes throughout the Heartland last December, to devastating forest fires destroying whole towns in California, to polar air masses paralyzing Texas, extreme weather in 2021 alone generated $20 billion-plus disasters.

But the perils we face go beyond health and climate crises. On the political front, we have seen an extreme sort of partisanship organizing nationwide against citizens right to vote. More than 18 states with Republican majorities have already adopted legislation to limit such things as early voting, voting by mail, and even giving water to voters waiting in long lines to vote. These limitations stand to hurt mostly working folks, the elderly, and others who rely on generous voting rules to exercise their franchise.

Why would legislatures take such seemingly undemocratic measures, particularly when the 2020 election was among the fairest and most inclusive in our nations history? Largely because of false claims of voter fraud peddled by the sore loser of our last presidential election. Despite bi-partisan election commissions across the country affirming Donald Trump lost by over 7 million votes and courts rejecting over 60 lawsuits asserting his false claims, GOP leadership appears keen to support Trumps lies about voter fraud.

If this isnt bad enough, this same former president goaded his more rabid following to stage a violent attack on our nations capitol in January, 2021 to prevent the orderly transfer of power prescribed by the Constitution. By any reasonable definition, Donald Trumps actions on Jan. 6 in urging the violent overthrow of our government amounted to treason.

Thus, we have a lying, frequently bankrupt and treasonous individualwho became president solely because of an anachronistic electoral college despite losing the popular vote in 2016 by more than million votescalling the shots for a major political party. In an equally bizarre twist of affairs, even some of those most directly threatened in January, 2021, like Kevin McCarthy of California, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, now eagerly bow to Trump while back-pedaling on their earlier statements critical of his actions on Jan. 6.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, packed with at least two new justices appointed through highly partisan machinations, recently undercut President Bidens attempt to curb the pandemic by mandating vaccines for large employers. In what has to be one of the more reckless and irresponsible judicial actions in memory, the Supreme Court seemingly ignored a health crisis thats killed more than 860,000 of our fellow Americans by striking down a vaccine mandate that could have finally helped bring this crisis under control. The court thus prolonged the problem and furthered confusion among the states left to follow vastly different approaches to Covid, such as weve seen locally between Illinois and Iowa. Theyve also confounded an already overburdened public health care system as well as large employers with figuring out how to manage to the Covid crisis.

And if all this wasnt bad enough, two Democratic senatorsJoe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizonain an equally bizarre insistence on bi-partisanship, have refused to go along with federal voting rights protections they claim to support unless Republicans agree to them. One wonders under what rock these two senators have been hiding while the Republican juggernaut on voting limitations has rolled across the land, disdainful of Democratic concerns or votes.

Yes, we do live in perilous times.

Yet, the problems are all of our making. They can likewise be resolved by us. It will take a firm rejection of the falsehoods, seditious, and dishonest political attitudes promoted by certain national figures. It will also take Democrats and others of good faith standing together as determinedly as Republicans have, only to protect our constitutional rights rather than to undermine them.

And, yes, we do need to work together for the well-being of our country. But collaboration is a two-way street. Both parties need to embrace it. Absent this, a degree of partisanship in defense of our democracy needs to be practiced as aggressively as partisanship has been by those seemingly opposed to it.

Mark W. Schwiebert, a lawyer, is a former mayor of Rock Island and an occasional columnist.

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Summit Carbon Solutions wants permission to use eminent domain to build a carbon dioxide pipeline through 30 Iowa counties in Northern and Western Iowa, according to a permit application filed with the Iowa Utilities Board.

This means the Ames-based company doesnt have all the voluntary easements from property owners to build 681 miles of pipeline, and now is asking the board for permission to use private property with payment, but against owners wishes.

It is uncertain at this time whether and to what extent the right of eminent domain will be required, Summit said in the application, which was filed Friday. The company says it lists which properties it plans to condemn in an exhibit, but that exhibit is not included with the public filing.

The board will decide whether the CO2 pipeline  designed to transport the greenhouse gas from ethanol and fertilizer plants to an underground sequestration site in North Dakota  fulfills a public use necessary to qualify for using eminent domain.

Summit is one of three corporate groups  the others are Navigator CO2 Ventures and ADM/Wolf Carbon Solutions  that want to build CO2 pipelines through Iowa to underground sequestration sites in neighboring states.

The companies hope to gain billions of dollars in federal tax credits for carbon sequestration and to share in the proceeds for higher ethanol sales on the West Coast if Midwest ethanol plants can reduce their carbon footprints.

The Summit pipeline would span five states  Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota  and remove about 12 million tons of C02 from the atmosphere annually to an underground cavity for it to calcify and become part of the rock, according to the company.

The carbon steel pipe would range in size from 4 to 24 inches in diameter and be built at least 4 feet underground, the application states. The pipe would be installed with three methods: open-cut trench, boring and a horizontal directional drill.

The route would include 645 secondary highway crossings as well as railroad crossings, the application states.

Summit would gather CO2 as a gas at ethanol plants, pressurize it so it becomes liquid and then transport it through the pipeline at pressures ranging from 1,200 to 2,150 pounds of force per square inch. Summit would sequester between 8 and 12 million metric tons of CO2 per year, Chris Hill, director of environmental and permitting, told The Gazette last month. The company is collecting information now to decide how many injection wells it will need in North Dakota.

The Net Zero America report by Princeton University says that for the United State to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050, part of the solution is underground sequestration. But some environmental groups and scientists say it would be better to capture CO2 from industries  like steel or jet fuel production  with greater longevity than ethanol.

Environmental groups spoke out Tuesday against the Summit pipeline application.

Since these pipelines have been announced, I have yet to speak with a single landowner who is supportive of the project, Jessica Mazour, conservation program coordinator for the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, said in a statement.

Despite what Summit wants the public and our state legislators to believe, the opposition is widespread and diverse. We are Republicans, Democrats, farmers, environmentalists, young, old and everything in between. When unlikely allies can come together like this, we know this isnt a Republican or Democrat issue  its a right or a wrong issue. Its pretty clear this is just plain wrong.

The group pointed to dozens of opposition letters filed by citizens as well as 15 county Boards of Supervisors filing formal objections to the use of eminent domain for the project.

The Linn County Board of Supervisors has opposed use of eminent domain for the Navigator project, which is slated to pass through Linn and several other Eastern Iowa counties. Navigator has said it expects to file its permit application in late spring or early summer.

Summits leadership team is well-connected to prominent Republicans and Democrats.

 Bruce Rastetter, a former president of the Iowa Board of Regents and a donor to Republican candidates, leads its parent company, Summit Agricultural Group.

 Jake Ketzner, a former chief of staff to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, is the vice president of government and public affairs for Summit Carbon Solutions.

 Terry Branstad, the six-term former Republican governor of Iowa and former U.S. ambassador to China, is senior policy adviser. As governor, he appointed two of the three Iowa Utilities Board members and chose Reynolds as his lieutenant governor.

 Jess Vilsack, the son of U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, is Summits general counsel, Mother Jones reported earlier this month.

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The Supreme Court decision that killed the federal vaccine-or-test rule for large businesses is a defeat for employee health and safety. But even aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government doesnt devote sufficient resources to protect workers in high-risk environments.

The agency that monitors workplace conditions, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, has the authority to send investigators to workplaces known to expose workers to occupational hazards and, if warranted, issue citations and levy substantial fines on business owners.

Yet, OSHA has only sparingly applied this authority to some of the countrys most dangerous workplaces.

Meatpacking plants, factories and greenhouses employ many of Americas lowest paid and most vulnerable workers. Many are immigrants and people of color laboring in crowded or otherwise hazardous conditions. The pandemic has shown how the front-line, essential work done by this brown-collar workforce is critical to keeping the economy and communities going. Yet on top of being at high risk of COVID-19 illness and death, these workers have always been exposed to higher occupational health and safety risks than those in other industries.

Long before the pandemic, greenhouse workers  such as those handling the hothouse tomatoes that brighten many American salads  suffered from a slew of health and safety violations, including lack of protective gear for handling toxic chemicals and lack of water breaks in temperatures above 100 degrees. When COVID-19 hit, greenhouses in Cochise County, Arizona, for example, did not require virus-related precautions, as my clinic learned while providing legal services to workers.

OSHA investigations are virtually unheard of in these and comparable workplaces. An October congressional hearing on COVID-19 infections and deaths among meatpacking workers at the countrys top five meatpacking companies revealed that at least 59,000 meat industry workers were infected with the virus during the first year of the pandemic and 269 died as a result. Among the horrors recounted at the hearing were stories of workers being given just one mask each and having to pull it down or remove it when it became spattered with blood.

While the hearing highlighted COVID-19 risks at these plants, the work conditions of meatpacking  such as rigorous production quotas, crowded spaces and continuous repetitive motion with little respite  have long been hazardous, causing accidents, musculoskeletal disorders and exposure to chemical and biological hazards. Nevertheless, there was little accountability for these and other high-risk workplaces even before the pandemic.

One reason for this lack of enforcement is that OSHA does not have enough investigators. As of 2020, the agency had fewer investigators than at any time since 1975. This limits it to investigating a tiny fraction  under 40,000 annually  of the approximately 7 million workplaces OSHA is supposed to oversee. Even in 2004, when OSHA conducted substantially more investigations than it does now, the probability that a covered workplace would receive an investigation in any given year was below .001.

In 2020, the National Employment Law Project estimated that, at current staffing levels, it would take OSHA 165 years to inspect each of the workplaces under its jurisdiction just once.

But there is another, subtler reason OSHA does not issue more citations to high-risk workplaces: Like many agencies, it relies on worker complaints to determine which places to investigate.

The most vulnerable workers, however, rarely complain because of the ever-present threat of retaliation. Employers are known to punish those workers who dare to assert their rights with demotion, termination and immigration enforcement. This makes it unlikely that those workplaces most inclined to violate OSHA rules will be investigated and penalized.

And worker complaints do not always resolve safety concerns. In July 2020, meatpacking workers at a Maid-Rite plant in Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against OSHA alleging it failed to protect them following an imminent danger complaint they had submitted about their work conditions, to which the agency first responded with a letter asking Maid-Rite to address the problem itself. (OSHA later investigated and a federal judge dismissed the complaint, though workers reportedly planned to appeal.)

The pandemic and the recent Supreme Court ruling  which did recognize OSHAs power to regulate hazardous workplaces  offer the agency an opportunity to re-focus limited resources on the health and safety of Americas most vulnerable yet essential workers.

This will not be simple or happen overnight: It will require OSHA to increase its ranks and engage those states that have their own workplace health and safety agencies but are not adequately enforcing the law.

But there is one change OSHA can make immediately: Regularly investigate the industries most likely to harm workers even in the absence of worker complaints. The pandemic proved that the welfare of the nation is inextricably connected to the health and safety of essential workers.

Shefali Milczarek-Desai is associate professor of law, director of the Workers Rights Clinic and co-chair of the Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona. @shefalimdesai Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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BLOOMINGTON  A Winter Storm Warning will take effect Tuesday evening in Bloomington  and snow crews are preparing for significant snowfall.

The major storm will settle into Central Illinois with heavy rain leading into heavy snow, meteorologists said.

The National Weather Service on Monday issued the storm warning that includes McLean, Tazewell, Champaign, Peoria and Woodford counties. It takes effect at 9 p.m. Tuesday and lasts until 6 p.m. Thursday, which is expected to be the duration of the storm.

A brief period of sleet and freezing rain may accompany the heavy snow expected to arrive Tuesday night, said Pantagraph meteorologist Matt Holiner.

The transition from rain to snow Tuesday night is the "trickiest part to this forecast," Holiner said. When does it change to snow for various locations across the state?

Bloomingtons conditions are expected to change rapidly with a "pretty quick transition from rain to snow, said Holiner, chief meteorologist for Lee Enterprises Midwest. Then theres going to be a whole lot of snow.

Snow removal crews in Bloomington-Normal and across McLean County are preparing for the winter weather by reviewing equipment to ensure its ready once precipitation starts Tuesday.

We are actually working today and tomorrow to go over the equipment and make sure everythings ready for winter operations that we expect to start sometime overnight Tuesday, said Ryan Otto, Normals director of public works and engineering, of the towns 30 pieces of snow removal equipment. With the significant amount of snowfall, we will make sure that we have all of our manpower and equipment thats available ready for the storm.

Outside the city, County Engineer Jerry Stokes said he expects Thursday to be the worst day for McLean County's country roads, considering high winds that are expected to cause drifting and blowing snow.

Stokes said his crew was checking over the countys 18 tandem trucks equipped with snow plows and weeks that are each responsible for clearing about 20 to 25 miles of county roads.

We have plenty of salt, plenty of chloride; our crew is healthy, he said, noting the crew maintains 366 miles of county highways. We are staging our V-plows in certain territories in case we have to bust through some high drift locations.

Otto said his crews will monitor the storm to change their plan as they see fit, but with the forecast indicating rain will fall before snow, they will hold off on applying salt or brine solution because if the rains going to come in, itll just wash it off.

Stokes added that his crews might not apply salt until Friday, depending on snow accumulation and wind.

Nearly a foot of snow is expected for McLean County, though farther south ice will be a bigger concern, Holiner said.

Although measurable ice is not a concern for Bloomington-Normal, Mattoon and Decatur will experience the slick conditions.

Holiner said the weather models predictions range from 5 to 16 inches of snow in Central Illinois. Along with the amount of snow, the other concern includes the high winds expected at nearly 30 mph. Blizzard conditions start at 35 mph.

Its safe to say, from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening, theres going to be travel problems across Central Illinois, Holiner said. Travel should be avoided.

The frigid conditions come the same week of heavy snow further east.

Heavy snow also had residents in Virginia, Massachusetts and elsewhere on the East Coast digging out over the weekend, when a powerful nor'easter triggered blizzard conditions.

The Connecticut State Police had 1,200 calls for service Saturday alone, the department said. As many as 100,000 customers without power were reported.

More snow is expected there on Friday.

Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.

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The owner of the marijuana dispensary in Milan is making plans to build a grow operation on his cannabis campus.

Matt Stern, owner of Nature's Treatment of Illinois, NTI, said he expected to get approval from the state in the next 30 days on his license for his craft grower's license.

Meanwhile, Stern is in talks with village officials in Milan about buying about 12 acres adjacent to NTI for construction of the facility.

"At this point, I know we'll get one," Stern said Monday of the new license. "We still need council approval, but we're in a position to make an offer (on the land).

"If it goes through, we would pour footings and foundations in March or April."

A 20,000 square-foot building will be needed, he said, and he plans to build in such a way that the property could accommodate future expansions. The operation will bring about 50 jobs, he said.

Milan's 12 acres nearly was sold in 2019, but the buyer's plans fell through, Village Administrator Steve Seiver said. The sale price was $500,000 for the two multi-acre parcels.

"He (Stern) has represented to us that they believe they will be successful on the licensing," Seiver said Monday. "We will be talking with council.

"Stay tuned because it is happening quickly."

Illinois originally issued 21 licenses for cannabis cultivation  one for each of the Illinois State Police's identified districts. The Quad-Cities is in District 7, and the local license holder is Green Thumb Industries, or GTI, in Rock Island.

"Ours is a smaller facility than GTI," Stern said. "We're restricted."

The GTI grow operation is about 66,000 square feet and produces both recreational and medical marijuana. The difference between a cultivation center like GTI and a craft grower's license like the one Stern hopes to get is size, according to the state.

In a recent update to village trustees on the possible sale of village-owned land, Seiver offered several reasons to support the development.

"The advantage of selling the lots to Stern is to get property tax, energy consumption and employment," according to village board minutes. "The village is taking in a large amount of Cannabis Tax, which is keeping taxes down for residents.

"If Illinois issues more cannabis licenses and Iowa adopts a law that allows growing and sale of cannabis, Mr. Sterns business would likely suffer. If he invests in this property the likelihood that he would move his business is more unlikely."

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Murder charges have been filed against a Colona man who police say battered a 14-month-old girl on Thursday and who died of her injuries about 2 p.m. Sunday.

Rahsaan Malik Strawder, 38, of 710 4th St., is charged in Henry County Circuit Court with two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated battery to a child, according to electronic circuit court records.

Murder is a Class M felony under Illinois law that carries a prison sentence of 20-60 years and can be extended to life under certain circumstance.

Aggravated battery to a child is a Class X felony that carries a prison sentence of six to 30 years.

Strawder made a first appearance Friday in Henry County Circuit Court. He was charged at that time with aggravated battery to a child, according to a news release issued Friday by Colona Police Chief Mike Swemline.

Strawder was being held in the Henry County Jail on a bond of $1 million, 10%.

Strawder is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Henry County Circuit Court.

According to Swemline's news release, Colona Police were notified by the Moline Police Department on Thursday of an aggravated battery to a child that had occurred in Colona. Moline had initially taken the report believing that the incident had occurred in Moline.

Colona Police detectives met with investigators from Moline. Interviews were conducted by both agencies.

A search warrant was obtained for Strawders home. The Illinois State Police Crime Scene Unit processed the scene.

The child was flown to OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria with complications.

Neighbors both across the street and directly next door to the home where Strawder was living and where police spent considerable time after his arrest said they never saw a baby there. They said he moved in with a woman already living in the home last May. When the woman moved out, they said, another moved in.

Strawder was on parole from the East Moline Correctional Center at the time and is a registered sex offender.

He was incarcerated in the East Moline Correctional Center after being convicted in 2016 of robbery and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm in Kane County, according to Illinois Department of Corrections electronic records. He was released from prison and placed on parole on June 25, 2021, or about seven months ago.

Strawder is required to register as a sex offender. He was convicted in 2002 in Kane County of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim age 13-16. The victim was 16 at the time, according to the Illinois Sex Offender Registry.

An across-the-street neighbor in Colona said she was aware he was a registered sex offender, but a next-door neighbor said he didn't know.

Strawders criminal history also includes convictions for aggravated arson, residential burglary and fraud, according to Illinois Department of Corrections electronic records.

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A roundup of legislative and Capitol news items of interest from Monday:

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION: A stool and a trash can were props at a subcommittee hearing Monday on legislation requiring Iowa employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers.

The stool would allow a pregnant woman to sit and the trash can would accommodate her morning sickness, ACLU-Iowa representative Pete McRoberts told the House State Government subcommittee considering House Study Bill 603.

The bill, which now advances to the full committee, would require reasonable accommodation, but not accommodations that would impose an undue hardship on employers, McRoberts added. HSB 603 has broad support from labor unions, health care professionals, the bar and a variety of employers.

The bill is similar to Senate File 485, which won support from a Senate Labor and Business subcommittee last week. The Iowa Association of Business and Industry, which along with the National Federation of Independent Businesses opposes both versions, questioned the need for a state law given existing federal regulations.

However, McRoberts said the federal law applies to considering pregnancy in hiring and firing decisions.

He and others said they prefer HSB 603 because the Senate version would create two positions in the state labor commissioners office at a cost of about $300,000 a year.

ANTISEMITISM DEFINED: Legislation requiring law enforcement, prosecutors and courts to consider a widely used definition of antisemitism when determining whether there has been a violation of law of policy prohibiting discriminatory acts was approved by the House Judiciary Committee, but not without dissent.

Democrats on the committee had questions about the approach majority Republicans were taking to require consideration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, but not put the definition in Iowa Code.

I dont understand how putting a reference to this definition in Iowa Code makes anything better for any class of person, said Rep. Mary Wolfe, D-Clinton. Its crazy to say this is about showing that we understand antisemitism is broader than what we have in Code, but dont put the language in the Code.

House Study Bill 538 was approved 15-4. Those who voted no said they may support the bill if they get more information before it is debated on the floor.

UNCLAIMED PROPERTY: State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald will present Habitat for Humanity of Central Iowa with a $200 check for the funds it recently claimed through the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt as part of his observance of National Unclaimed Property Day at the Capitol from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Habitat will share its story to get the word out about unclaimed property and help the program return more dollars.

INTERNET BLOCKING: The House Education Committee approved House File 2052 to allow schools to limit or block social media access from their own Wi-Fi servers if they so choose.

The bills sponsor, Rep. Garrett Gobble, R-Ankeny, a teacher, said it will solidify current practices.

The creeping in of social media, the cyberbullying that goes with it, the distraction that goes with it, is a burden on teachers and students, he told the committee.

In his experience, its not unusual for students to be on social media platforms during class.

Although some districts already limit or block access to platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, Gobble said other schools are concerned about accusations of censorship.

Rep. Tracy Ehlert, D-Cedar Rapids, also a teacher, encouraged her caucus to vote for the bill. It was approved 19-1, with Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Orange City, voting no. It now goes to the full House.

HEARSAY EXCEPTION: The House Judiciary Committee approved an exception to hearsay rule for the admissibility of evidence in cases of physical or sexual abuse of children and people with intellectual, cognitive or developmental disabilities.

House Study Bill 522 would allow out-of-court statements by a victim regarding the offense to be admitted into evidence under some conditions, said Rep. Megan Jones, R-Sioux Rapids. Before passage, it was amended to clarify when the victim would have to testify.

If testimony is admitted under the conditions allowed in the bill, jurors will be instructed it is for them to decide the weight and credibility of the statement. In determining that, the age, maturity and disability should be considered.

Jones offered an amendment to clarify when the victim would have to testify. Rep. Mary Wolfe, D-Clinton, encouraged an enthusiastic yes on the amendment and a less enthusiastic yes on the bill. It passed unanimously.

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Neil who? You can imagine the snickering from some quarters of the tech world after rocker Neil Young demanded in a now-deleted post that music-streaming platform Spotify choose between hosting his music or popular podcaster Joe Rogan  whom he accused of spreading COVID-19 misinformation.

Young (with 6 million monthly listeners on Spotify) has many classic albums to his name, but hes no Taylor Swift (54 million) when it comes to streaming success. When Spotify chose to drop his music by request, its likely most users found out by reading the news rather than desperately searching for Heart of Gold.

However, it would be a mistake to shrug this off as just another episode in Spotifys occasional tussle with talent, similar to when Swift removed and reinstated her music on the service or to Youngs temporary boycott in 2015 over its audio quality (which coincided with his promotion of music service Pono).

Even if Young and Spotify patch things up, the situation highlights how the platforms headlong expansion into podcasts (its deal with Rogan is worth more than $100 million) is dragging the firm into murky territory. It now has to contend with issues of polarization and misinformation that are usually associated with social media.

Just as tech firms such as Meta Platforms Inc.s Facebook or Alphabet Inc.s YouTube find themselves in hot water over responsibility for content, including false COVID information that the U.S. government says is killing people, Spotifys hunger for a slice of the booming podcast market exposes it to far bigger fights than choosing what to listen to over brunch.

An open letter by 270 medical specialists recently accused Spotifys lack of a clear disinformation policy of letting Rogan get away with promoting vaccine falsehoods and cheerleading the untested use of ivermectin to cure COVID. These are battle lines over public health, not whether to play Almost Cut My Hair at full blast. And the fact that Spotify funds Rogans podcast makes it hard to respond as a neutral figure.

Mark Mulligan, an analyst at research firm MIDiA, tells me this feels like a Facebook moment for Spotify. While hardly Cambridge Analytica, whats happening is reminiscent of the past decades pressure on social networks to face up to their responsibility over the media they host.

Spotify will have to confront hard decisions about its target audience and brand identity when it comes to podcasts. It has so far catered to a wide range with stars like Michelle Obama and Kim Kardashian alongside Rogan, and chased the kind of celebrities who can fire up the crowd in the way that music from the Woodstock generation once did.

The dream of serving all filter bubbles, from vinyl junkies to COVID truthers, now looks fragile. Given that regulators in the U.K. are already looking into the lopsided economics of music streaming, and Europe has new legislation in the pipeline to increase oversight of platforms, Spotify should consider getting ahead of the curve by toughening up its own policies regarding the content it produces  even if that means more cost.

This is already happening, but more can be done. Spotify says it has detailed content policies in place and removes information that poses a direct threat to public health, and has removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID. Separately, dozens of Rogans past interviews with conspiracy theorists and alt-right figures were reportedly cut when the podcaster joined the platform. Beyond more transparency and explicit guidelines, Spotify could also help counter misinformation using its social audio discussion app, Greenroom. Take-downs arent the only answer, as Leiden Universitys Sophie Veriter has argued.

Cynics will argue that Neil Youngs stance is a little convenient for someone who already sold half his catalog rights to Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd (for a reported $150 million) and who is going on tour. Spotify is also an easy target for artists, labels and rights holders hoping to extract more value from streaming platforms in the future. Podcasts are among the winners of the streaming wars, creating more competition and angst among artists.

But this is a fight that goes beyond economics. Feeding polarization may seem hip today, but advertisers can be fickle and Spotifys current user base of 381 million might be more easily swayed than Facebooks billions of customers who have kept their accounts open through every scandal. Especially if the next big critic of Spotify carries a bigger name  like Taylor.

Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the European Union and France. He worked previously at Reuters and Forbes. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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As we are all preoccupied with our personal burdens of the moment  angst, dread, worry, caducity, fatalism, confusion, dizziness upon standing, etc.  we often don't have the time or energy to get the whole story when it comes to media consumption.

That's why I am here re-channeling the apology from Amelia King, the death threat-slinging dental hygienist from Virginia who warned the Page County school board this month that if her children were required to wear masks, she would "bring every single gun loaded and ready," to the next meeting.

"I'll see y'all Monday," she said.

Well Amelia is sorry.

"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 explained through an email to a board member. "My sincere apologies for my poor choice in words."

Let's take that at face value then. OK, Amelia, I knew you didn't mean that school board members trying to make difficult decisions directly affecting the health and safety of all children might get slaughtered in a barrage of gunfire if that decision didn't go your way.

But even more common in the past few days are threats to public officials by people who are not sorry at all, no sir.

There is no apology so far from Chad Stark of Leander, Texas, arrested there for explicitly threatening election officials in Georgia.

"Georgia Patriots it's time to kill (Official A) the Chinese agent  $10,000," is just one of the brainstorms Chad posted on Craigslist (thanks Craigslist!) on Jan. 5 of last year, as part of a plan to take Georgia back from "lawless treasonous traitors," (the worst kind).

Nor is there a Stark apology for writing that it's time to "put a bullet in the treasonous Chinese (Official A), then we work our way down to (Official B) and the local and federal corrupt judges."

There's no indication from Mr. Stark that he was speaking metaphorically or figuratively or hyper-exuberantly or in any way other than what should result in the violent death of Georgia election officials trying to do their jobs, the hard work of  what was it called?  democracy.

Mr. Stark's arrest was the first for the Justice Department's Elections Threats Task Force, which figures to become the fastest growing entity in the entire bureaucracy before long.

But you're still far more likely to get a standard "misquoted," "quoted out of context" or "blown out of proportion" plea from the likes of Stark than you are from fading Republican rage agent Newt Gingrich, whose imperviousness to shame has withstood decades of hot public scrutiny.

Newt last week wandered onto Maria Bartiromo's Fox News platform, where no lie should fear scrutiny, to snarl at the Jan. 6 Committee in worn out didactic rhythms that stopped just short of the week's bullet talk.

"I think when you have a Republican Congress, this is all going to come crashing down," said the one-time House Speaker. "And the wolves are going to find out that they're now sheep and they're the ones who are in fact, I think, fac(ing) a real risk of jail for the kinds of laws they're breaking."

Such as . . . oh, he wasn't asked. But he was able to say the Jan. 6 Committee was "literally just running over the law, pursuing innocent people," adding that "it's basically a lynch mob."

We could get into the advisability of Gingrich defending the rights and liberties of people who would attack the U.S. Capitol and kill people including police officers in an attempt to overturn an election, or we could point out that it was an actual lynch mob that erected a gallows intended for then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, but really, most everyone with a brain stopped listening to this guy during the 2012 presidential primary season when he said, "I expect to win the (GOP) nomination."

Hint: He didn't.

Of course, for obvious reasons, Donald Trump didn't stop listening to him. In fact, by most accounts, Gingrich was among the final three candidates Trump considered as his running mate in 2016, along with Pence and Chris Christie. If it had been Newt Gingrich handling Pence's ceremonial vote counting duties Jan. 6, we might be in an even more frightening place already.

It's instructive, if not reassuring, that when Gingrich was running for president only 10 years ago, establishment Republicans considered him too "erratic" for the office. Four years later, they nominated Trump, who on the erraticism ladder makes Gingrich look like the late Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Regarding Gingrich's freshest lunacy, Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 Committee, provided a badly needed You Are Here locator:

"A former speaker of the House is threatening jail time for members of Congress who are investigating the violent attack on our Capitol and our constitution. This is what it looks like when the rule of law unravels."

Yep. And you get people threatening to kill each other in public forums. Some don't even apologize.

Gene Collier writes for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 2022 PG Publishing Co. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Gov. Ned Lamont stands with one of his most important appointees, Josh Geballe, the state's chief operating officer. Geballe is leaving the administration in an election year for a new job as senior associate provost at his alma mater, Yale University. Photo by Christopher Keating.

HARTFORD  Josh Geballe, one of the most important players in Gov. Ned Lamonts administration, is leaving the administration for a top job at Yale.

For nearly two years during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Geballe became one of the key faces of the administration as he answered numerous questions from reporters about vaccines and masks on live television. After Lamont, Geballe was among the most powerful leaders in state government.

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As the coronavirus was spreading, Lamont decided to replace the public health commissioner at the time. Geballe essentially became the public health commissioner, filling a large role.

Lamont and Geballe, who both attended graduate school at Yale at different times, forged a close friendship during the long hours as they made crucial decisions during the pandemic.

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Its been a little like a war with all the incoming over this last couple of years, Lamont told reporters at a news conference in Hartford. If youre going to be in a foxhole, you want to be in a foxhole with Josh Geballe. He was the first guy I talked to at 6:30 in the morning and the last guy I talked to at 10:30 at night.

At Yale, Geballe, 47, will take over as senior associate provost for entrepreneurship to help coordinate the talent of faculty and students as they create start-up businesses and jobs in and around New Haven. The position is designed to help enable Yale research to have the greatest possible impact on the world by overseeing the Office of Cooperative Research in a university-wide effort.

As a fellow business entrepreneur, Lamont mentions Geballe far more often than he mentions other commissioners during speeches to various audiences, including business groups.

During the frequent pandemic press conferences, Lamont constantly referred detailed questions about the coronavirus to Josh  to the point that conservative critics on the radio and elsewhere said that Geballe was doing much of the administrations work.

With the title of chief operating officer, Geballe commanded a wide portfolio and still held the title of commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services  a key, behind-the-scenes state agency that is involved in everything from hiring state employees to purchasing hundreds of cars for state troopers. He helped carry out the administrations policies along with Lamonts chief of staff, Paul Mounds Jr.

Lamont noted that Geballe and his colleagues also kept the operations running smoothly in the low-key, little-noticed administrative services department.

Purchasing ... in the political world, its sort of not that important, Lamont told reporters. If you come out of the business world, these are key functions to get right to give people confidence that their state is doing it right. Under Joshs leadership, DAS has gotten it right.

Geballes departure will be a major loss that leaves a hole in the administration during an election year. His various duties will be handled by other state employees, particularly Michelle Gilman, who currently serves as deputy chief operating officer. She has been nominated to the position of DAS commissioner.

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Gilman, 51, was hailed at the news conference as a dedicated, steady hand in state government who previously worked for the state comptroller and then has been Geballes deputy for the past two years. She will be paid $190,000 per year as commissioner.

In May 2020, Lamont fired public health commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell, who had been given a reduced public role and was not as visible as Geballe on the coronavirus at a crucial time when businesses and residents were searching for information on issues from retail closures to mask mandates.

As a behind-the-scenes player, Geballe said he does not foresee himself running for political office, noting how hard Lamont works.

My grandfather told me to never say never, but Im as close to never on that one as you could possibly  No, I dont think so, Geballe said. Ive also developed an incredible appreciation for how hard his job is  the degree to which every day is a new challenge from every possible direction and how you have to be constantly making decisions with imperfect information and dynamics that are constantly shifting.

Created in 1982, the office has already helped 60 venture-backed startups during the past six years, as well as more than 1,600 patents over the past 40 years, according to the university.

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Its something of a dream job for me,' said Geballe, a former IBM executive who has spent part of his career in startups and cutting-edge technology.

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com
A recent letter suggesting the Interstate-74 bridge be named in honor of Abraham Lincoln, does not mention that the first span of the old bridge was dedicated in December 1935 as the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge to honor World War I veterans. The governors of Iowa and IllinoisClyde Herring and Henry Hornerattended the dedication. They "expressed the sentiment that the bridge stands as a most fitting and permanent memorial to the World War veterans in whose honor it was dedicated."

The second old span was completed in 1960. The Memorial Bridge designation was lost to "I-74 bridge" when the interstate system came through in the early 1970s. In addition, there is an Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge, just 85 miles east of LaSalle. That bridge, built in 1987, carries Interstate 39 over the Illinois River.

A monument with plaques from the 1935 and the 1960 dedications of the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge was removed from its location on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River during the construction of the new bridges. A staff member at the Interstate 74 Iowa-Illinois Corridor project office told me that the monument would be in storage until the new bridges were completed. I was assured there were plans for it to be re-installed.

To restore the bridge name to Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge honors not only the veterans of World War I, but also the rich history of this Mississippi River crossing.

Elizabeth M. Roseman

Moline

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The Rapid City Area Schools Board of Education will meet at 5:30 p.m. today in the Rapid City Council Chambers, at 300 6th St. This location updates the one posted last week on the school districts website.
With an eye toward expanding research space, South Dakota Mines is seeking up to $5.25 million in state funding for the Board of Regents to acquire  on behalf of South Dakota Mines  the Ascent Innovation center located on the university's campus.

The request takes the form of Senate Bill 97, introduced by state Senator V. J. Smith (R-Brookings). The Ascent Innovation building is currently owned by Elevate Rapid City.

We rent about 12% of the floor plan there, said South Dakota Mines President James Rankin. We could probably fill that building up if we owned it.

Rankin said the university is currently using the space for the research work of Arbegast Materials Processing and Joining Laboratory, which draws funding from the U.S. Department of Defense.

We just need more space  for them and for many other projects, Rankin said.

The Ascent Innovation center opened in 2006. Elevate Rapid City now also operates the recently opened David Lust Accelerator Building, described on Elevate Rapid Citys website as an invitation to join a community of small business owners, entrepreneurs, students, freelancers, and city residents dedicated to bringing their ideas to life in Rapid City.

Rankin envisioned the Ascent Innovation center complementing the work of the David Lust Accelerator Building, with the Ascent Innovation center providing a place for technological research and the David Lust Accelerator Building helping a young company in other ways, such as entering the marketplace.

For a startup company, oftentimes you need assistance, he said, referring to the work of the David Lust Accelerator Building. You need somebody whos been an entrepreneur before, somebody who knows how to work through the system. Thats why Elevate Rapid City and the David Lust Accelerator Building are so important.

Rankin noted research projects underway at the university that he suggested could be well-suited to the Ascent Innovation center.

We have bioprocessing work that were doing with South Dakota State (University), which would take ag products and timber products and turn them into new bioproducts for marketing, he said.

He noted other projects, as well, such as research focusing on disrupting the illicit economy, or criminal economic networks, using technology. He said South Dakota Mines is working with SDSU, the University of South Dakota and Dakota State University on that project.

Were crowded into other places on campus for those and other projects, he said.

Rankin also described possible areas of scientific exploration in the coming years, such as nanotechnology and biomedical research.

Biomedical research, Rankin said, can contribute to regenerative medicine and other scientific advances.

Mike Ray, communications manager for South Dakota Mines, noted the breadth of nanotechnology research.

Nanotechnology is a broad field that could have many applications, Ray said. It could help revolutionize treatments for cancer, and it could help in the creation of new batteries or other energy storage devices.

Ray also mentioned that nanotechnology can, among other things, help create new materials that can improve the efficiency of solar cells.

Rankin added, The nano and the biomedical are just two areas (of many) on campus.

Rankin explained the sorts of renovations that the university may conduct within the Ascent Innovation center if the bill is passed. He mentioned safety measures designed for fields such as chemical engineering, chemistry and the material sciences.

It could be things like electrical symptoms or HVAC, he said. Its more infrastructure changes than cosmetic changes.

As for the timeline, Rankin said the current bill possesses an emergency clause.

If passed and signed by the governor, we would be able to start moving forward right away, he said. I think before we do any of the renovations, well have to do some planning.

Rankin stressed that current university research includes a range of contributors, including research scientists, graduate students and undergraduate students.

Youre seeing research that involves faculty members and students, he said. Youre seeing research that there will probably be innovations coming out of. Those innovations will often turn into a startup company which we want to locate in South Dakota  which means more jobs in South Dakota so that more of our graduates can stay in the state once they earn their degrees.

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With 13 additional COVID-19 deaths reported Monday, January 2022 became the deadliest month since January 2021. There were 290 deaths in January 2021. The highest total since then was December 2021 with 152. The deaths reported Monday brought this January's total to 164.

The deaths include three women and 10 men. One was in his 40s, two in their 50s, two in their 60s and eight were over 70. Pennington County reported three deaths to bring the county's total to 310 since the pandemic began. Marshall County recorded two deaths and Jones County recorded its second death overall. Other deaths were reported in Butte, Corson, Dewey, Oglala-Lakota, Moody, Union and Walworth counties.

There have been 2,650 deaths in South Dakota since the pandemic began in March of 2020.

With 1,030 new infections reported between Thursday and Friday at noon, active cases in the state dropped by 1,408 to 32,239 overall. There are 393 patients in South Dakota hospitals with COVID-19. That is down 19 from Friday's report. In the Black Hills region, hospitals are treating 75 patients with COVID-19.

Pennington County led the state with 176 positive tests but active infections here still dropped by 192 to 5,555. Minnehaha County saw another decline in active cases to 7,180 with 139 new infections reported Monday. Lawrence County recorded 52 new infections and there were 40 in Meade County. Butte County recorded 26 positive tests and there were 18 in Fall River County. Oglala-Lakota County recorded 12 new infections and there were 11 in Custer County.

Brown County reported 59 new infections and there were 43 in Codington County. Lincoln County reported 38 positive tests and there were 31 in Beadle County. Clay County had 29 new cases and there were 25 in Davison, 24 in Union, 23 in Brookings, 22 in Todd, and 20 in Corson counties.

Yankton and Roberts counties each added 18 new infections and there were 16 in Charles Mix County and 14 in Hughes County.

Of the 1,030 new infections, 225 were in children under 19 and 102 were in people over 70.

There were 27 new infections reported Friday evening by the Rapid City Area Schools. According to Friday's RCAS update, there are 189 students out with COVID-19 and 37 staff members.

In addition to the active infections, there are 149 students and one staff member required to quarantine.

Rapid City Central High School has 32 active cases and Rapid City Stevens has 17 active cases.

Six other schools have at least 10 active infections  Wilson Elementary (19), Rapid Valley Elementary (15), Knollwood Elementary (12), West Middle (12), Rapid City High School (12), and Canyon Lake Elementary (11).
State Sen. Helene Duhamel, R-Rapid City, announced Tuesday her intention to run for re-election to the District 32 Senate seat.

Duhamel was appointed by Gov. Kristi Noem to fill the seat in December 2019 after Alan Solano resigned from the state Senate. She was elected to a full term in November 2020, defeating Democrat Michael Calabrese with 64% of the vote.

It is my great honor to serve and represent my fellow citizens on the big issues that impact every one of us  water, wages, workforce housing. I ask for your continued trust and support in my role in the state Senate, Duhamel said in her re-election announcement. I promise to work hard, listen to all sides of an issue, and do my best for the great state of South Dakota.

Duhamel serves as a majority whip in the state Senate, vice-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and sits on the Joint Legislative Procedure, Senate Legislative Procedure and Senate State Affairs committees. She also had a seat on the 2020 Senate Redistricting Committee and the Marijuana Interim Study Committee.

In the 2022 legislative session, Duhamel is the prime Senate sponsor of 13 bills and has signed on as a co-sponsor of 22 pieces measures, mostly dealing with medical marijuana regulation. She has also championed legislation related to strengthening laws for sexual assault victims.

Duhamel's signature piece of legislation for the 2022 session is SB 85, which would begin the appropriation of $10 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to fund a study on constructing a waterline from the Missouri River to western South Dakota. It is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

If the water project is approved, the estimated cost would be $1.87 billion to address future water needs in the Black Hills and western South Dakota.

Duhamel is a fifth-generation South Dakotan and a former news broadcaster. She is the public information officer for the Pennington County Sheriff's Office.

South Dakota's primary election is scheduled for June 7.

Contact Nathan Thompson at nathan.thompson@rapidcityjournal.com.

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The 2022 edition of the Rodeo Rapid City PRCA rodeo officially began on Monday as the big mans event, steer wrestling, grabbed the spotlight at The Monument. Seventy steer wrestlers were on hand for the 10 a.m. slack, each hoping to produce a pay window-worthy bulldogging talent effort.

None did so better than 39-year-old veteran bulldogger Blake Knowles, as his 3.8-second catch-and-tip run early in the round withstood all challengers, an effort Knowles credited to experience and some helpful advice from a fellow competitor.

I was fortunate enough that the steer was one of the NFR steers, and so I asked Stetson Jorgensen if he remembered him and he gave me some info, said Knowles, a five-time NFR qualifier. When you have first-hand knowledge of a steer, especially on the better end, you can make a good plan and that always helps.

"That steer was a good dance partner, and I knew I just had to do my job, and Eli Lord let me ride his horse up here today. Eli is a heck of a cowboy and always has great horses so I knew from that point the ball was in my corner to take care of business.

Busy with home and ranching activities, Knowles has not been out much of the young season, and the few trips he's made havent been very successful. With that, the Heppner, Oregon man is hoping that a high finish in Rapid City may provide impetus toward earning another NFR appearance come December.

Ive only been to two rodeos and I didnt have any luck, and Im just hoping to get some momentum going here at Rapid City and feed off that into the rest of the winter. It would definitely be great to win here, but there about 60 guys left here who will have a lot to say about that.

Badlands Circuit champion Cameron Moorman (Glen Ullin, ND) had the second best run of the day, stopping the clock in 4.0 seconds. Nick Guy, a Sparta, Wisconsin man who competed in college rodeo at National American college in Rapid City, shares third spot with Ty Allred (Toole, UT)  matching 4.1-second trips. A South Dakota man, Landon Richard Sivertsen from Ree Heights, tipped his steer in 4.4 seconds and shares fifth with Slick Pickerill (Raymond, IL).

Closer to home, Eli Lord from Sturgis executed a solid 4.5-second run and sits seventh currently. Though with four performances remaining in the rodeo, his effort will likely come short of pay window status, Lord found a positive in the days run.

Im happy with it. That steer was run for the first time, and I was able to get a good start and get him tipped over, and I was on a young horse that Sperry Horses owns that theyve sent with me for a while. Lord said. My good horse is in Fort Worth, so I flew back and rode her, and Im really happy with the way shes been working lately. Ive been bringing her along slow, working with her at home and taking her to some smaller rodeos and Im planning on having her with me and riding her a lot more.

Lord, who has finished 20th in PRCA world standings the last two years, is hoping to move into the top 15 this year thereby securing a trip to the NFR.

Im planning on going hard this year. Ive got a great group of guys who have entered with me and Im hoping it goes really well, Lord said. Ive only been to three rodeos so far. I did okay at Denver and am doing good at Fort Worth right now where Im up in the wild card round on Wednesday. Ive won a little bit and the way Fort Worth is set up hopefully I move on to the semifinals.

Rodeo Rapid City continues on Tuesday as tie-down ropers take center stage at Summit Arena in a 10 a.m. morning slack.

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Montana has now lost 3,000 residents to the COVID-19 pandemic. On average, 2.4 people are dying daily from COVID-related illness in the state.

More people have died in Yellowstone County than any other county with 486 deaths. Cascade, Flathead and Missoula counties follow with 291, 228 and 199 respectively.

In the last seven days, 15,086 cases were added to the state dashboard. Total active cases reached 18,607.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control published data reflecting the effectiveness of booster doses on health outcomes in those who are infected with COVID.

In October to November 2021, when the delta variant was surging in Montana, unvaccinated individuals had 13.9 times more risk for infection and 53 times the risk of COVID-associated death compared to fully vaccinated and boosted individuals. Compared to fully vaccinated individuals without a booster, risk for infection and death was four times and 12.7 times higher.

COVID cases were lowest in fully vaccinated and boosted individuals compared to fully vaccinated without a booster.

Booster doses made the most significant improvement in people over age 65, according to the CDC.

Vaccination rates remain low in many counties in Montana with Garfield reporting only 24% of the eligible population as fully vaccinated. For those ages five to 11, only 3% are partially vaccinated. There are no fully vaccinated individuals in this age group. Powder River and McCone counties follow, with 28% and 27% fully vaccinated, respectively.

The third week of January brought more COVID cases in children than any other point in the pandemic, accounting for an 87% increase from the previous week. The most recent state data reports 19 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children following a COVID infection.

Vaccination for the entire eligible population has stagnated with 54% fully vaccinated.

The weekend brought an uptick in COVID inpatients for both St. Vincent Healthcare and Billings Clinic. At this time, both hospitals are caring for more Yellowstone County residents and fewer out-of-county residents. During the delta surge, both hospitals cared for large numbers of out-of-county and out-of-state patients.

Billings hospitals are caring for 87 COVID patients with 18 in the intensive care unit and eight on ventilators. There is a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals hospitalized, more so than during the delta surge that stretched from late summer to the fall.

Of those currently hospitalized, 34 are fully vaccinated and 53 are unvaccinated. The increase of vaccinated patients in hospitals indicates the need for a booster shot in order to stave off the omicron surge. Those who are vaccinated in the hospital are less likely to need ICU-level care, according to Nancy Iversen, director of patient safety and infection control at Billings Clinic.

Were seeing everything other states went through, Iverson said.

Some co-infections of influenza and COVID have started appearing in the state, but so far have not resulted in hospitalization, according to Chief Medical Officer at St. Vincent Healthcare Dr. Chris Spoja.

The most dangerous co-infections so far have been in pediatric patients who are battling both COVID and respiratory syncytial virus. St. V's has cared for about 12 of these patients and had to send about half to larger hospitals in Denver or Salt Lake City, Spoja said.

Despite the continued risks, people are pushing back against masking and vaccinating, Spoja said. But were not through this yet.

So far, the pandemic is following a typical progression for viruses where variants become more contagious but less severe.

Were another step closer to endemic, Spoja said, but added that right now mitigation measures are still needed to protect the immunocompromised, those who cannot be vaccinated, and the elderly.

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Its become a semiannual hurdle for colleges in Virginia: when classes begin, thousands of students return to campus, and a rise in COVID-19 cases follows.

Thanks to omicron, the start of the spring 2022 semester has been no different. But this time, as colleges see their cases rise, they are ending the policies that require students and employees be vaccinated.

At least four universities  Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and George Mason  announced Monday they had ended their student vaccine requirements, in light of an opinion released Friday by Attorney General Jason Miyares saying they werent legally entitled to.

The decisions come about two weeks after an executive directive from Gov. Glenn Youngkin effectively ended vaccine requirements for the employees of state colleges.

For some students, campus has become a tense environment. Colleges largely started their semesters on time, and many classes have been in person.

A decline in college cases should come soon, mirroring the trend in the state at large, said Dr. Noelle Bissell, director of the New River Health District in Southwest Virginia.

And as colleges strip away their vaccine requirements, she said its worth remembering that mandates for college students arent as effective mitigation tools as once thought.

College students, Bissell said, are, overall, a very low risk population for COVID.

At VCU, there have been 744 positive tests this semester as of Wednesday, when the university last updated its figures. Among symptomatic individuals who took a test, 66% tested positive.

The student population is 95% vaccinated, and the staff are at 97%. VCU has about 29,000 students.

VCU is teaching half of its classes in person this semester, up from about one-third last semester. Twenty-one percent are a mixture of in-person and online, and 28% are fully remote.

At the University of Richmond, 214 students have tested positive this semester. So have 120 employees, according to the schools dashboard.

Most of them have experienced mild or moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all, three UR administrators wrote to students and staff last week. UR has filled almost half of its isolation and quarantine space.

Not required to follow directives from the governor or attorney general, UR has kept its vaccine mandates in place for its approximately 4,000 students and its employees.

Most classes are in person this semester, but the university is allowing faculty to conduct some online for a short period of time if a significant number of students are unable to attend in person. A university spokesperson declined to say how many classes have done so.

While cases have risen, the environment on college campuses hasnt been as bad as the 2020-21 school year.

In the fall of 2020, the first semester in which students returned to campus, there were jumps in cases all across the state. James Madison University saw more than 500 cases in the first week, leading university leaders to close the campus for a month.

The spring 2021 semester began during what was  before omicron  the worst wave of the pandemic. VCU delayed the start of in-person classes by a month. In total, there were about 20,000 COVID cases on Virginia college campuses in the 2020-21 school year, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch survey of college data.

In fall 2021, students returned to college largely with vaccine mandates in place. Several universities, including UVA, Virginia Tech and William & Mary, removed students who didnt comply. VCU later removed students who wouldnt take the shot and wouldnt undergo weekly testing.

Cases didnt shoot up at the beginning of that semester. Instead, they climbed slowly the first month of classes as the delta variant took hold in Virginia. But altogether, the fall 2021 semester was markedly better than the previous two. Large universities saw their case counts in the hundreds instead of the thousands.

Because cases have gone up everywhere in the state in January, health officials expected them to increase on college campuses, too, Bissell said. As statewide cases begin to decline, so will cases on campus.

We do expect the curve to start coming down, and thats across the board, she said.

The rise in on-campus cases isnt a great worry. College students often dont transmit the virus outside of their campus community. And because college students tend to be young and healthy, they are less likely to experience prolonged effects of the virus.

Omicron has shown that vaccine requirements arent as an effective tool as once thought, Bissell said. Early in the pandemic, cases spread fast on college campuses, and it made sense to require the vaccine there. At the time, there was a hope that the vaccine would prevent transmission.

But omicron is spreading to vaccinated students, and many college students have a level of immunity from already having contracted the virus. Those who do get sick are less likely to develop a serious condition.

Israel is highly vaccinated, boosted and masked and is still struggling to control the spread of omicron, Bissell said, showing that not much can be done to stop this variants spread. And attaining a level of zero COVID simply isnt possible.

So its up to each student and staffer to conduct his or her own risk evaluation, Bissell said. Some students fear their risk is too great.

Gian Tigreros, a junior at VCU, has persistent pain in his shoulder. When heat and Advil didnt work, his orthopedist prescribed a steroid, methylprednisolone, which temporarily suppresses his immune system.

Unwilling to attend class with a suppressed immune system, Tigreros stopped taking the steroid, causing the pain in his shoulder to return.

It just hurts all the time, he said.

He takes five classes this semester, and all five are in person. Except for his class in welding  a theater design class  his studies could be conducted over Zoom, he said.

He has petitioned VCU to add a hybrid component to every class, and last week he led a protest of about 35 students. But VCU has held to its policy, which allows professors to decide the format of each class.

His welding teacher has been understanding, Tigreros said, giving him breaks when he needs them.

Atticus Johnson also takes five in-person classes this semester. One professor announced that more than three absences this semester would trigger a penalty, and if a student is sick, a doctors note is required.

But Johnson wonders what shell do if she wakes up with symptoms  seek a COVID test and wait three days for the result, begin quarantining or attend class? VCU instructs its students to stay home if they feel ill.

We know its spreading on campus, she said.
This article was originally posted in January 2019.

The story of Groundhog Day in Virginia is both fascinating and bizarre.

The interesting tales began in Richmond in 1914 when there was a Groundhog Day hoax at the state Capitol.

A 1958 Times-Dispatch article recounted the hoax that occurred when Some state official, with a decided sense of humor issued a news release that on Feb. 2, 1914, at noon, a groundhog would emerge from beneath the pavilion that housed a statue of Henry Clay on Capitol Square. (This statue is no longer in place at the Capitol.) On Groundhog Day, an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people assembled by the pavilion to watch for the groundhog. The rumored groundhog never appeared, and eventually the unhappy crowd dispersed  concluding the successful prank whose organization remains a mystery.

In the decades that followed, local scientists studied Groundhog Day in Virginia to decipher how truthful the rodents prediction skills were. Richmond weathermen were not fond of competing with the groundhog on making weather predictions and one year the government even forbade acknowledging the groundhogs prediction altogether.

On Feb. 2, 1985, Times-Dispatch staff writer Albert Oetgen compiled some of the highlights of Groundhog Day in Virginia as follows:

1932: The Bureau of Biological Survey at the U.S. Department of Agriculture issues a statement outlining its exhaustive study of groundhogs. It says the earliest anyone had even seen a groundhog in any year was Feb. 7, and that was down in North Carolina, where it gets warm earlier. The bureau, clumsily exposing its regional biases, goes on to say that the groundhog legend is a superstition that must have originated in the Southern States.

1936: A Richmond weatherman, asked whether the groundhog saw his shadow, replies seriously, Today, skies above Richmond were completely covered by alta-strata clouds.

1936: A biology professor at the University of Toledo conducts a serious, government study of the groundhogs ability to predict weather. He concludes that the theory is preposterous because changes in the endocrine system are a controlling factor in the hibernation of a groundhog, and everyone knows endocrine systems and weather systems are unrelated.

1937: A weather bureau spokesman calls Groundhog Day a lot of sentimental twaddle.

1939: The Richmond office of the U.S. Weather Bureau announces that it can prove the groundhog legend to be false. It produces analysis of six winters showing that three times as much snow fell in the years that the groundhog didnt see its shadow. A close reading shows, however, that the report was fatally flawed. The forecasters didnt determine whether the bulk of the snow came before or after Feb. 2.

1940: Members of the Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries put the groundhog in their list of protected species, drawing the ire of editorial writers in Staunton, one of whom opines: In their delightful naivete, they have been victimized by some rare humorist, and predicts that groundhogs will soon overrun the countryside.

1942: Reports of what the groundhog did or did not see are not allowed to be published because long-range weather forecasting is forbidden by military censors. Writing about Groundhog Day might give aid and comfort to the enemy, a Washington bureaucrat says.

1943: A man who calls himself a junior meteorologist in Richmond declares gravely, Well have killing frosts up to March, no matter what the groundhog saw.

1946: A Richmond weatherman says smugly, We dont even know that there is a groundhog.

1947: The chief of the U.S. Weather Bureaus extended forecast division says flatly, Scientifically, there is no basis whatsoever for the groundhog legend.

1954: The groundhog was caged in Capitol Square so everyone could watch him make his annual Groundhog Day weather prediction. But he killed himself trying to get out of his cage at the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

1957: A Byrd Field weatherman says the groundhog legend is nonsense. He then recites the following forecast, in a monotone, no doubt: Fair tonight, increasing cloudiness tomorrow, followed by rain or snow. (This was before forecasters said things like a 50% chance of snow, which assures them of being correct if it snows, and correct if it doesnt snow.)

1960: A reporter politely asks an official government weather forecaster to speculate on the groundhog legend. No, the forecaster replies.

1961: An amateur meteorologist in Richmond betrays other practitioners of the black art of forecasting when he responds to a reporters routine Groundhog Day inquiry by saying, with unusual honesty, Watch out. Anything can happen.

1976: A Richmond News Leader editorial growls that no self-respecting groundhog would dare leave his burrow on a bluster-chilly day like this.

1977: The day after a sunny Groundhog Day, the News Leader runs an angry, one-line editorial demanding Impeach the Groundhog.

1980: A professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University tells The Associated Press that if the groundhog shows its face on Groundhog Day, it will not be checking on the weather. The first thing groundhogs do every spring when they come up and start to get active is to search for a mate, he says confidently.
A Senate committee toppled a pillar of Gov. Glenn Youngkins tax reform package on Tuesday, scuttling a proposal to require local governing bodies to take public actions up to a voter referendum if rising real estate assessments result in higher property taxes.

The Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee voted 12-4 to kill Senate Bill 620, proposed by Sen. John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, to carry out Youngkins campaign promise to slow increases in local real estate taxes by requiring voter approval if rising property values would result in a higher effective tax rate.

Deputy Secretary of Finance Charles Kennington called the proposal a pillar of Governor Youngkins Day One game plan, but Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, joined with Democrats in rejecting the idea, which he said he would prefer to include in a broad study of state and local tax policy over the next year.

I had hoped some of these major initiatives were going to be pushed into a study, Hanger said. So next year, we could come back and not day one, but under this governors tenure, we could do some major tax reforms.

Senate Finance Chair Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, said she does not know whether a joint subcommittee on tax policy will be created, but if so, then this will be a topic.

Cosgrove initially proposed to require a local voter referendum if a locality sought to increase real estate tax revenues by 1 percentage point or more, based on assessed property values and the real estate tax rate. As assessments increase, so do taxes, unless the locality lowers the rate to offset the rise.

We all know that real estate assessments have gone through the roof, he said.

The same bill is being carried in the House of Delegates by Del. Tara Durant, R-Stafford, whose victory over former Del. Joshua Cole, D-Fredericksburg, helped Republicans regain control of the House.

Faced with opposition by local governments, Cosgrove offered a substitute bill that would establish a scale of actions that governing bodies would have to take for transparency to voters, based on the size of the proposed tax increase.

Its a graduated transparency bill, he said.

Under the substitute bill, local governing bodies would hold a public hearing, as they do now, if real estate taxes rose by up to 1 percentage point because of higher assessments.

If they rose by up to 3 percentage points, a majority vote of the governing body would be required. A two-thirds vote would be necessary for an increase of up to 5 percentage points.

Above that, voter approval would be required for taxes to increase.

Local governments rely on real estate taxes for most of their revenue, but Stafford County Commissioner of Revenue Scott Mayausky said the system for raising them is poorly understood by taxpayers and local media reporting on local tax policy.

The governing body applies the tax rate to the assessed value of property, based on a rate per $100 of value.

If youre on an annual cycle and your board keeps the rate the same and your assessment goes up, then thats a tax increase, Mayausky said, adding that the bill would shift attention back to the rate.

Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, a close ally of the governor, warned that the state needs to do something to focus attention on assessed property values, both for real estate and vehicles.

I think this and the car tax are going to be pretty big hits on working families, Newman said.

Jordan Miles, chair of the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors, asked state legislators not to intervene.

Leave it up to us, the localities, to make these decisions, Miles asked.

Hanger said that for him to support these restrictions on local taxing authority, it would have to be in tandem with a commitment for the General Assembly to adequately fund core services back to local government.

Thats where the pressure is, he said. They have to do this because many times we dont meet our responsibilities back to local government.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, ended last year with $3 million in the bank to defend her congressional seat, now anchored in Northern Virginia instead of the Richmond suburbs, in midterm elections to determine political control of Congress.

The redistricting of Virginias congressional map, decided by the Virginia Supreme Court in late December, has tripped up the timing of campaign fundraising for this years elections in the states 11 congressional districts, but the political field is beginning to take shape.

Spanberger lives outside of the new district in western Henrico County, but congressional representatives dont have to live within the districts they represent. She has not said whether she plans to move into the new district with her family or, if so, where.

In the 7th, one of the premier battleground districts in the midterm elections, only two Republican contenders filed campaign reports for the fundraising period that ended Dec. 31  state Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, and political newcomer Derrick Anderson, according to figures posted by the Virginia Public Access Project.

Anderson, a Spotsylvania County resident with a military record with U.S. Army Special Forces, reported raising more than $289,000 for the campaign and about $212,000 in cash on hand. Reeves, in his third term in the Senate, raised more than $250,000 and ended the year with about $225,000 in the bank.

Both contenders had head starts because they had declared their candidacy in the old 7th Congressional District, which included the suburbs of western Henrico and Chesterfield counties. Other Republican candidates declared their candidacies after the filing period because of the late, dramatic change in district boundaries.

Two of them, Yesli Vega and Gina Ciarcia, live in Prince William County, which holds the largest batch of voters in the new district. Vega, a former Manassas police officer, represents the Coles District on the countys Board of Supervisors. Ciarcia is a longtime educator of parochial and homeschooled students.

Gary Adkins, a retired U.S. Air Force officer who lives in Stafford County, also did not file a report for the quarter.

Del. John McGuire, R-Goochland, the only other potential Republican contender to file, reported raising $176,414 during the period, but he hasnt said yet whether he will run in the new district, which doesnt include his home in Goochland. His county is now part of the new 5th District, represented by Republican Rep. Bob Good.

Good, seeking a second term, raised $518,278 to run in the new district, which, in the greater Richmond area, also includes part of Hanover County, plus Powhatan, Louisa, Amelia and Nottoway counties.

Dan Moy, a retired military officer and adjunct professor at the University of Virginia, is challenging Good for the Republican nomination, but hasnt filed a campaign report because he recently announced his candidacy.

Lewis Combs, a Charlottesville attorney, had led Democratic contenders in fundraising to challenge Good, but he dropped out of the race last weekend.

We are confident that our campaign could raise the funds and field the organization needed to run a campaign, Combs said in a statement on Saturday.

However, I could not truthfully assure our potential donors that there is a pathway to victory in the general election.

Josh Throneburg, a minister and small-business owner in Charlottesville, now holds the fundraising lead, with more than $270,000 raised. Thomas Warren McLellan, a farmer in Albemarle County, has raised $11,000. Shadi Ayyas, previously a Democratic candidate in the 5th, now is running in the 10th District, where he has raised $119, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

The fundraising numbers in the 5th District dont include Andy Parker, the father of a television journalist shot to death with her cameraman during a live interview in 2015. Parker declared his candidacy last week. He lives just outside of the district in Henry County.

Other battlegrounds

Democratic incumbents have raised millions of dollars to defend their seats in two other battleground districts.

Rep. Elaine Luria, D-2nd, has raised about $2.86 million in her bid for a third term in a district that has become more Republican under the new redistricting map approved by the court.

Luria could face a stiff challenge from state Sen. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, who has raised more than $665,000, the most of any Virginia congressional challenger in the last quarter.

Other contenders seeking the GOP nomination in the district are: Jarome Bell, who has raised $327,557; Tommy Altman III, with $145,384; and Andy Baan, with $17,080.

Democrat Neil Smith also has announced his candidacy to challenge Luria for the nomination. He did not file a campaign report.

Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-10th, has raised more than $1.1 million in her bid for a third term in the 10th District, a Democratic-leaning area of Northern Virginia that includes all of Loudoun, parts of Prince William and Fauquier, and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

Prince William Supervisor Jeanine Lawson has raised $535,118 for her campaign. Other GOP candidates for the seat are: Mike Clancy, with $211,916; Theresa Ellis, with $60,148; John Beatty, with $53,741; and Ayyas, who shifted from the 5th to the 10th.

Three other Republicans have declared their candidacy in the 10th but havent filed campaign reports: Caleb Max, grandson of former Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th; Paul Lott Sr.; and Brandon Michon, a Loudoun man who declared his candidacy last week on Fox News after helping lead a parent revolt against the county school board. He said Tuesday that he has raised $100,000.

Wittman, McEachin

In the Richmond area, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, raised $752,000 for re-election in the new 1st District, which includes western Henrico and western Chesterfield counties under the new map. He currently faces no challengers in the heavily Republican district.

Rep. Don McEachin, D-4th, raised almost $450,000 for his bid for a fourth term representing a district that includes Richmond, parts of Henrico, Chesterfield and Charles City counties, and the Tri-Cities area.

Two candidates are vying for the Republican nomination in the 4th: Leon Benjamin, a Richmond minister who lost to McEachin by more than 90,000 votes in 2020 and has raised $85,000 for his second bid, and Mike Dickinson, a perennial candidate who hasnt filed a campaign report.
A group of parents of students with disabilities filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against Gov. Glenn Youngkin, alleging his executive order allowing masks to be optional for schoolchildren violates the Americans With Disabilities Act and other federal law.

The lawsuit is the third filed against Youngkin and state officials since he issued the executive order on Jan. 15, the day he was sworn in.

The children of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit have such illnesses as cancer, cystic fibrosis, asthma, Down syndrome, lung conditions and weakened immune systems that make COVID-19 more dangerous for them. Because of that, the parents allege that Youngkin, Attorney General Jason Miyares and other officials are excluding their children from access to a public education.

The Executive Order shows a reckless disregard for students with disabilities across Virginia, Kaitlin Banner, the deputy legal director of the Washington Lawyers Committee, said in a news release. The Order prevents schools from taking reasonable steps to make sure their students can go to school and enjoy the same educational experiences as their friends.

The lawsuit states that universal masking in schools allows students with disabilities to attend school safely during the pandemic.

Students with disabilities need in-person schooling even more than other student groups, and they must be able to receive their instruction and services safely, the lawsuit states.

The first lawsuit against Youngkins mask order was filed in the Supreme Court of Virginia three days after he was sworn in. A group of Chesapeake parents alleges Youngkin doesnt have the power to suspend a 2021 state law that requires schools to adhere to federal COVID-19 mitigation guidance as closely as possible; that guidance currently recommends masking.

And then a week ago, seven school boards, including Richmond, filed a lawsuit against Youngkin in Arlington County Circuit Court also arguing that the state Constitution gives local school boards  not the governor  the power to determine school safety rules. Oral arguments in that case are scheduled for Wednesday.

Youngkin and Miyares assert that a different state law gives parents rights to make decisions about their childrens education and health. Youngkin has said previously that he expects his order to stand up in court.

On Monday in South Carolina, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled to keep mask mandates in specific school districts. The ruling allows for students with disabilities to continue attending school, according to the ACLU of South Carolina.

The Virginia order divided school districts across the state. Some opted to make masks for children optional, as the governors order directs. Others decided to keep their rules requiring masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Chesterfield Countys School Board voted last week to make masks optional, prompting some parents to keep their children home and some teachers to call in sick. In the capital region, masks are also now optional in Hanover County schools, but required in Richmond and Henrico schools.

Lindsey Dougherty, a Chesterfield parent mentioned in the lawsuit, has a 10-year-old son who has asthma, an autoimmune disorder and a Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder associated with Streptococcus .

Her son, a fifth-grader at Enon Elementary, is currently not attending school and will stay home until a universal mask mandate is back in school. His younger sister, who also attends Enon Elementary, was pulled out of school for the safety of her brother.

Without the mask mandate, Doughertys son is at risk of contracting and becoming seriously ill from COVID-19, according to the suit.

The families mentioned in the ACLU lawsuit are from across the commonwealth, including Albemarle, Bedford, Fairfax, Manassas, Loudoun, Chesapeake, York, Henrico and Chesterfield. Not all of these public school districts have rescinded the mask mandate.

Children with underlying medical conditions are more at risk for severe illness from COVID-19 compared with children without underlying medical conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as stated in the lawsuit.

In Henrico, where masks are still required for all students, Elizabeth Burnett joined the lawsuit for her 11-year-old son who has chronic lung disease and is immunocompromised. If Henrico rescinds the mask mandate, Burnett will have to decide between risking his educational progress by withdrawing him from school or keeping him in school, putting his health at risk.

A 10-year-old who attends Southeastern Elementary School in Chesapeake City remains in school despite the mask mandate being rescinded. With fellow students not wearing masks, the health and safety of the student, who has Type 1 Diabetes, are at risk, the lawsuit states. His family asked for him to be seated 6 feet away from unmasked students but the request, according to the lawsuit, was refused by the schools assistant principal, who asked for further medical documentation.

Patrick Wilson pwilson@timesdispatch.com; (804) 649-6061; Twitter: @patrickmwilson Follow Patrick Wilson 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
Democrats on a Senate committee on Tuesday removed lightning-rod Cabinet nominee Andrew Wheeler from a list of appointments working its way through the legislature, pushing new GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin closer to being the first Virginia executive in 16 years to have such a choice rejected by the legislature.

Youngkins choice of Wheeler to be Virginia secretary of natural resources was immediately met with a backlash earlier this month by Democrats and environmental groups because of Wheelers record of trying to roll back environmental protections as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under former President Donald Trump.

A governors Cabinet choices are subject to General Assembly approval. The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted 9-6, on a party line vote, to remove Wheelers name from a resolution that now goes to the full Senate.

Governor Youngkin has said time and time again he would like to bridge the partisan divide and work together for Virginias next generation, Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke of Hampton said in a statement. However, his choice of Trump alum Andrew Wheeler for the position of Secretary of Natural Resources proves his unwillingness to bring properly qualified officials into our government.

Mr. Wheeler will not protect  but instead will destroy  our efforts to move away from fossil fuels, maintain air and water quality, and prevent further global warming. His nomination is dangerous for Virginias future.

Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter said: Andrew Wheeler is a highly qualified individual with an extensive background on natural resources and issues critically important to Virginians. The governor is disappointed that the committee put partisan politics over the selection of an experienced public servant who would prioritize cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and James River.

In 2006, Republicans defeated Daniel LeBlanc, then-Gov. Tim Kaines nominee for secretary of the commonwealth.

Wheeler, of Alexandria, did not apply for the job, but served on Youngkins transition committee handling energy issues and Youngkin offered it to him.

The Union of Concerned Scientists in 2019 created a list of 80 Trump administration attacks on science and called Wheeler a driving force behind many.

Three former EPA administrators who served under Republican presidents expressed concerns in 2019 about Wheeler.

And a group of former EPA employees wrote a letter to Virginia senators expressing concerns about Wheeler, which Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, made note of when Republicans asked why Wheelers name was being pulled.

We think that members of the governors Cabinet ought to be people that unite us as Virginians, and certainly the secretary of natural and historic resources ought to be one that we have confidence in, Deeds said.

Wheeler got support in a letter sent to Virginia senators on Sunday from other EPA employees who worked with him and support his nomination. The letter was coordinated by Mandy Gunasekara, a former Trump EPA official who in 2019 started an anonymously funded group to promote Trumps energy agenda and then rejoined the agency in 2020 as chief of staff under Wheeler.

The letter defended Wheelers commitment to clean air and water:

All told, over the course of Mr. Wheelers career, he has improved the lives of millions of Americans through his steadfast commitments to a better, healthier environment.
The town of Windsor said the Virginia Attorney Generals Office used flawed data to support a lawsuit accusing its police department of operating in a discriminatory way against Black motorists.

The town filed a motion this week asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed by previous Attorney General Mark Herring in December.

The lawsuit claimed that 14 months of traffic stop data showed that Black drivers accounted for about 42% of the Windsor Police departments stops  about 200% to 500% more than would be expected based on the number of Black residents who live in the town and surrounding county.

Windsor police also disproportionately searched more vehicles driven by Black drivers than white drivers, even though Black people do not make up the majority of the towns or the states population, the lawsuit claimed. Black residents account for between 9% to 22% of Windsors population, and about 22% of Isle of Wight Countys population, according to the lawsuit.

In the response, filed in Isle of Wight County Circuit Court, the town said the Black population percentages stated in the lawsuit were incorrect but didnt provide corrected numbers. The response also claims that the lawsuit erroneously assumes that only residents of Windsor and Isle of Wight county travel through the area, and that the percentage of traffic or investigatory stops of Black residents should be proportionate to the racial make-up of the two localities, without considering other factors.

Herrings office filed its lawsuit in late December, just two weeks before the two-term Democrat left office. He was defeated in November by Jason Miyares, a Republican from Virginia Beach. Miyares has not yet said whether he plans to continue pursuing the case.
To ease Virginias shortage of nurses, Virginias community colleges are asking state legislators for $26 million over two years to double the number of their nursing graduates.

Without an investment to boost nursing programs, the Virginia Community College System wont be able to fill high-demand nursing jobs by training more workforce-ready graduates, said Dr. Patti Lisk, dean of Nursing & Health Technologies at Germanna Community College.

VCCS officials and Virginias health-care administrators say the states nursing industry is in crisis, made worse by the strains imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hospitals, physician practice groups and facilities for assisted living, long-term care, behavioral health, and skilled nursing have a critical shortage of nurses in the commonwealth, VCCS spokesman Jeff Kraus said Monday. This crisis has been coming for many years, although COVID-19 has compounded the impact and stressed the provider network in ways that have further highlighted the lack of nursing capacity. Simply put, this is a crisis that transcends geography, provider types, and healthcare settings, leaving a nursing workforce that cannot meet Virginias needs.

If the General Assembly approves the colleges request during its winter 2022 session, $2 million of the state increase would go to Germanna, which serves eight localities in the Culpeper and Fredericksburg areas.

Germanna has one of the largest and most respected nursing programs in Virginia, and the VCCS plan would roughly double its size. Nineteen of Virginias 23 community colleges offer RN training programs.

State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Powhatan, and Dels. Cliff Hayes, D-Chesapeake, and Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax, introduced budget amendments to ramp up the Virginias nursing capacity. All three are members of the legislatures Joint Commission on Health Care, which has endorsed the colleges proposal.

The nations critical shortage in nurses is fueled by a spike in baby boomers retirements overlapping with a wave of nurses exhausted by the COVID-19 pandemic who are leaving the profession, according to health-care administrators and Georgetown University.

Within six years, the Virginia Employment Commission projects the commonwealth will need more than 10,000 more nurses7,746 registered nurses and 2,550 licensed practical nurses.

If the community colleges cant increase their training capacity, the system will fall well short of that many nursing graduates.

In 2019, the Virginia Community College System graduated 1,593 candidates for nursing licensure examinations.

If the legislature funds its initiative, by 2028, the community colleges will increase Virginias nursing workforce by 3,500 graduates each year, Ellen Davenport, the VCCS assistant vice chancellor, said Monday. That would include 1,700 additional registered nurses, 1,000 more licensed practical nurses and 800 more certified nursing assistants, Davenport said.

The project would also provide salary increases on par with national averages and market-based compensation for current nursing faculty, the addition of new faculty members at competitive salary rates, and renovation of the colleges nursing laboratories and the equipping of new ones where nursing programs are offered, Davenport said.

In 2020, Germanna produced 176 nurses, including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nurse aides, Dr. Lisk said. The VCCS proposal would increase that to 432 nurses per year, she said.

Germannas share of the additional state appropriation would add evening and weekend programs and rent space for expanded training. Nurse training would increase at Germannas Locust Grove Campus in Orange County and its Barbara J. Fried Center in Stafford County.

To meet statewide demand and provide a path to high-paying health-care jobs, the community colleges propose to expand capacity by renovating and equipping new nursing labs in seven regionsNorthern Virginia, Hampton Roads, the greater Richmond metropolitan area, Southside Virginia, Southwest Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Fredericksburg, Culpeper and Stafford area.

The community colleges estimate they will also need to increase classroom capacity and buy new equipment to accommodate the greater enrollments.

Each year, Virginia community colleges admit more than 2,000 new students seeking associate of applied science in nursing degrees. Another 1,400 are admitted into Licensed Practical Nursing and Certified Nurse Aide programs.

More than 3,000 of the people who apply to these programs are left on waiting lists or turned away each year because of the limited number of spaces available, according to the Virginia Community College System. Many of these students come from historically underserved and low-income communities.

Virginias health-care workforce comprises 10 percent of all jobs in the commonwealth.
Using one's judgement

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Regarding the discussion about Senate Bill 2, which would require school principals to report "certain enumerated acts that may constitute a misdemeanor offense" to law enforcement: Principals should continue to use their best judgement on whether or not to involve police in misdemeanor-level incidents.

Law enforcement shouldn't ever have to intervene with small conflicts that may happen on school grounds, especially since schools are required to report incidents of misconduct to the parents of any students involved. When addressing a student's actions, principals should look to support students with counseling opportunities and extra educational guidance rather than going straight to the police.

Furthermore, overly harsh punishments such as suspension and expulsion only make it more difficult for penalized students to keep up with their schoolwork, which can lead to more problems in their future. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, students who end up in the juvenile justice system have more difficulty returning to schools, and many never graduate from high school. Strictly punishing students for minor offenses can violently affect their future. Because of such consequences, Senate Bill 2 should not pass.

Olivia Long.
Like many modern observances, Groundhog Day can trace its origin from a few different directions.

Feb. 2 is Candlemas. It is also celebrated by many Christian churches as a feast day, known by names such as Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and many sources suggest that candles were introduced in the celebration of the feast during the fifth century.

Even before that, Feb. 2 marked Imbolc, a Gaelic festival recognizing the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

Through the centuries, songs and poems developed around the event, similar to this English verse of legend:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Come, Winter, have another flight;

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Go Winter, and come not again.

Through time, celebrations and folklore evolved and spread across Europe, ultimately becoming tied to the animal world. In Germany, if a badger or hedgehog saw its shadow on Candlemas, winter was expected to continue.

German settlers brought their folklore to the New World, and a similar animal was found to continue the tradition: a groundhog.

Several groundhogs, from Sir Walter Wally in North Carolina to Chattanooga Chuck in Tennessee, have gained popularity. But in Virginia, the groundhog stories are not quite as neat and tidy.

On Feb. 2, 1914, a practical joke led a couple thousand people to gather on Capitol Square to watch for a groundhog that never appeared. In 1954, before making his prognostication, Virginias official groundhog killed himself trying to get out of his cage at the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

The most famous groundhog resides in the small western Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney, where they have been celebrating this tradition since 1887. Phil is such an icon in Pennsylvania, that the state uses a groundhog in its lottery ads (Keep on scratchin). Though, to keep the two creatures distinct from one another, the advertisers named their groundhog Gus.

Whether Phil has been correct over the years is a matter of perspective and how one subjectively defines winter.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the record keepers in Punxsutawney, Phil has forecasted six more weeks of winter 105 times since 1887.

The debates and discussions are all good fun. After all, how do you define an early spring or a continuation of winter? One straightforward method uses average temperatures for the months of February and March. If the average temperatures are above normal for those months, it would qualify as an early spring, and vice versa.

Using that method, Phil is right about 40% of the time. Perhaps thats not the best track record. But in the end, it doesnt matter; we love our folklore and how it ties us to the natural world.

And we love a reason to celebrate. The parties will continue every February on those cold Pennsylvania mornings, with people coming together to celebrate winters annual turning point, just like their ancestors did centuries ago.
In this image taken from Windsor Police video, a police officer uses a spray agent on Caron Nazario, an Army lieutenant who is Black and Latino, on Dec. 20, 2020. (AP)

The town of Windsor said the Virginia Attorney Generals Office used flawed data to support a lawsuit accusing its police department of operating in a discriminatory way against Black motorists.

The town filed a motion this week asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed by previous Attorney General Mark Herring in December.

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The lawsuit claimed that 14 months of traffic stop data collected by the Attorney Generals office showed that Black drivers accounted for about 42% of the Windsor Police departments stops  about 200% to 500% more than would be expected based on the number of Black residents who live in the town and surrounding county.

Windsor police also disproportionately searched more vehicles driven by Black drivers, even though Black people do not make up the majority of the towns or the states population, the lawsuit claimed. Black residents account for between 9% to 22% of Windsors population, and about 22% of Isle of Wight Countys population, according to the lawsuit.

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In its response, filed in Isle of Wight County Circuit Court, the town said the Black population percentages stated in the lawsuit were incorrect, but didnt provide corrected numbers.

The town also claims the lawsuit erroneously assumes that only residents of Windsor and Isle of Wight county travel through the area, and ignores the fact that the main road in town  Route 460  is a major thoroughfare.

A 2019 Virginia Department of Transportation Study reported that Route 460 carries about 17,000 vehicles a day, or about 6.2 million each year, according to the towns response, which was written by Richmond attorney John Conrad. The lawsuit also ignores warnings posted on the Virginia Community Policing Act Data Collection website about how the presence of a major thoroughfare in an area can skew data collection, the response said.

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In making these erroneous and conclusory allegations Plaintiff has attempted to put blinders on this court and by stating conclusions that are totally untrue, Conrad wrote in the court filing.

Herrings office filed its lawsuit in late December, just two weeks before the two-term Democrat left office. He was defeated in November by Jason Miyares, a Republican from Virginia Beach. Miyares said through a spokeswoman Tuesday that the lawsuit remains pending and he had no comment on it at this time.

Herrings investigation of the towns traffic stops was conducted in response to a 2020 stop involving Army Lt. Caron Nazario, a Black and Latino man who had guns drawn on him and was pepper sprayed by two Windsor police officers. The police actions were taken after Nazario told the officers he was afraid to step out of his vehicle because he feared they might harm him.

[ Related coverage: Police videos like the Windsor one that went viral usually stay secret in Virginia ]

The incident was captured by the officers body cameras and the footage became the basis of a lawsuit filed by Nazario against the officers last year. The Virginian-Pilot was the first to report on the lawsuit and release the body camera footage, which quickly went viral.

The attorney generals lawsuit seeks several remedies, including a court order barring Windsor Police Department from engaging in discriminatory law enforcement activities, court-ordered policy changes in the department and selecting a third party to monitor it at its own expense to ensure compliance with the Virginia Human Rights Act, Virginia Public Integrity and Law Enforcement Misconduct Act, and the U.S. Constitution.

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It also seeks a civil penalty of $50,000 for each proven violation of the Virginia Human Rights Act.

Jane Harper, 757-222-5097, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
RICHMOND  Dirty Dancing is returning to Mountain Lake Lodge, the Southwest Virginia resort where Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey filmed the iconic romantic movie in 1986.

But this time, its coming back in reality TV form with The Real Dirty Dancing Competition, premiering on WFXR (Channel 21/27) on Tuesday at 9 p.m.

In the reality TV series, eight celebrity contestants like professional wrestler Brie Bella and actor Corbin Bleu from High School Musical will compete to be named the best Johnny and Baby dirty dancers.

Known as Kellermans Mountain House in the movie, the nearly 200-year-old Mountain Lake property is now a modern resort in the center of a 2,600-acre nature preserve, and regularly celebrates its Dirty Dancing legacy.

Viewers will see many resort venues inspired by the movie in The Real Dirty Dancing Competition, including the Stone Lodge, the Harvest Restaurant and Patio, the Gazebo for salsa lessons and Babys cabin, the fictional Houseman family home.

Viewers will be delighted to see familiar scenes and backdrops at this iconic Virginia property, while they watch their favorite stars relive some of the most memorable moments from the film, Rita McClenny, president and CEO of Virginia Tourism Corporation, said. Such as the infamous lake lift scene, of course.

The crew filmed on site at Mountain Lake Lodge last summer for six weeks.

They filmed with a full operating resort behind them. We were sold out. Weve been very busy throughout the pandemic. People feel safe coming to the mountains, lots of fresh air, outdoor recreation and cabins, Heidi Stone, CEO of the lodge, said.

But things havent always been so rosy at Mountain Lake Lodge.

Shortly after Dirty Dancing filmed at Mountain Lake in 1986, the owner died and created an endowment to own and operate the resort.

For decades, nothing happened and the resort began to fall into decline. It was beginning to look like the resort might even close in the early 2000s, Stone said. I came about a decade ago to help refurbish, rebrand, rebuild and see if we could save Mountain Lake.

While she couldnt provide a specific figure, Stone said several million dollars have been reinvested in the property over the past 10 years.

On the show, Stone said that viewers will see a modern mountain lake lodge. The movie didnt showcase much of the property. Were also a bird sanctuary. In the summer, we have thousands of hummingbirds. The reality series shows much of the natural beauty of the property that you might miss in the film.

Fans of Dirty Dancing continue to flock to Mountain Lake Resort for nostalgic weekends of romance. Weve seen many proposals and weddings here, Stone said.

Since the movies release, the resort has been hosting Dirty Dancing weekends where guests get to experience activities inspired by the movie, from dance lessons and guided tours of film locations, to parties, lawn games, scavenger hunts and screenings of the film. Dirty Dancing weekends typically sell out a year in advance, Stone said, with this years sessions fully booked.

This week, in honor of the premiere of The Real Dirty Dancing Competition and the 35th anniversary of the movie, Mountain Lake Lodge will be releasing reservations for Dirty Dancing weekends in 2023. Reservations can be made at www.mtnlakelodge.com or (540) 626-7121.
This is a very simple story.

A Blacksburg woman wanted a new deck to replace one thats more than 30 years old. She went to Lowes in Christiansburg and contracted with the home improvement retailer to have one built.

Myungshin Yoon did that on March 16. She also paid Lowes $32,600  in advance.

Yoon, 75, hoped the 58-foot by 14-foot deck would be finished by the time she and her husbands four grandsons visited from North Carolina last summer.

Her husband, Virginia Tech Professor Roe-Hoan Yoon, has taught mining-engineering in Blacksburg since 1978, Yoon told me. The Yoons built the house 37 years ago. After their children were grown, Myungshin worked for a spell in a university library.

The Yoons are getting up in their years, though, and they anticipate selling the home at some point in the future. A chief reason they wanted a new deck was they feared the old one might discourage potential buyers.

But the project had problems from the beginning.

The Lowes assistant manager who helped Yoon on March 16 told her  in writing  that work on the deck would begin within 30 days. He also told her, in writing, that construction would take no longer than 150 days. That put the completion date in August.

But the lumber wasnt delivered until late in June. The Yoons were out of town at delivery time. When they returned to Blacksburg June 23, the couple found a huge pile of wood blocking their driveway. They couldnt use the driveway until September, Myungshin Yoon said.

The subcontractor for Lowes began work sporadically in July, she added. That was roughly four months after the contracted start date. Its now more than 300 days since the contract signing. The deck remains unfinished.

Though it appears mostly complete and sturdy, the imposing structure failed the most recent Town of Blacksburg building inspection on Jan. 13. The inspection report cited four deficiencies.

A guardrail remained unattached. The deck lacked some required bracing. The ground at the decks bottom stair to the Yoons back yard was uneven. And the subcontractor had used substandard-length nails in hanging the decks joists.

On a deck, people walk on boards that are directly on top of the joists  so its desirable for the joists to be secure. Theyre supposed to be hung with 3-inch-long nails. But whatever nails the subcontractor used were shorter.

Its something we write up with some regularity, said Blacksburg Building Official Sam Sapienza. Its an easy miss for guys in the field. They have to remove the nails and replace them with longer ones, or structural screws.

There are eight too-short nails per joist, Sapienza said. He was unsure of the number of joists. The decks a big one, though.

Yoons a member of a womens club at Virginia Tech that does whitewater canoeing. She said shes kept her fellow canoeists regularly updated on the decks tortoise-paced construction. At one point, one of Yoons fellow canoists suggested she contact me.

When Yoon did, in a Jan. 20 email, her subject line read, Need help!

They failed every safety inspection by [the] Blacksburg town specialist. They do not answer my phone calls, Yoon wrote.

I have not heard from the contractor as usual. The store manager at Lowes was not much help. I dont know what to do. Can you help me, please?

The first person I consulted on this matter was Roanoke County Circuit Court Clerk Steve McGraw. Thats because early in 2020, McGraw hired Lowes for a small kitchenette job in the Roanoke County Courthouse.

He paid three months in advance. But when construction day came, Lowes didnt have the necessary counter McGraw had ordered. And separately, McGraw had hired a plumber and electrician for the same job that day. So Lowes rushed to install a temporary counter on time, McGraw said, then returned a month later when the company received the correct one and swapped them out.

During that process, McGraw developed a contact in Lowes Executive Customer Excellence Department in Charlotte, North Carolina. He gave me her name and number, and I called about the Yoons deck on Jan. 21. I left a voicemail.

When I hadnt heard back by Jan. 24, I wrote to Ronda Harlow, director of Lowes Executive Customer Excellence Department. Aside from the basic background, I attached images of the Yoons contract and the most recent inspection report. The email posed three questions:

Why has it taken Lowes so long to build a $32,000 deck?

When will it be finished in a way that passes inspection?

What went wrong with this project?

I asked Harlow to respond by noon Thursday . She didnt. So Thursday afternoon I sent an email to Marvin Ellison, Lowes CEO. I copied him on the email and documents Id sent Harlow.

Can you tell me when I can expect a response from Ms. Harlow? I asked. I would appreciate that greatly.

Ellison forwarded my email to Pedro Chen, assistant manager in Lowes Executive Communications & Positioning Department. Chen emailed me Friday. He asked for Yoons contact information.

I gave it to him  it was on the document I had forwarded to Ellison and Harlow. And that was it. Chen offered no answers to any of my questions. I told him this column would be published Tuesday.

In the meantime, someone else at Lowes customer service contacted Yoon on Jan. 25. She said that guy promised her the job would be done by Feb. 2.

This past Thursday, a Blacksburg building inspector met at the Yoons home with the subcontractor who built the deck, Sapienza told me. They went over the deficiencies, which were first flagged by the town of Blacksburg during an inspection in September.

Sapienza estimated the joist repairs would take a couple of guys a couple of days, if they were well organized.

At least we got somebodys attention, eh?

Yoon also wants Lowes to replace the couples wheelbarrow. The subcontractor broke it when he was building the deck, she said.

She told me shes very grateful for trying to advocate for her. Once the deck is finished, she said, shes going to invite me to Blacksburg for a home-cooked Korean meal, which sounds delightful.

It might be a while before I can enjoy that, however.

Monday morning there were no carpenters in sight at the Yoons home when I spoke with her.

They cant finish the deck unless they show up, she said.

Contact metro columnist Dan Casey at 981-3423 or dan.casey@roanoke.com . Follow him on Twitter:.

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CHRISTIANSBURG  A Montgomery County man pleaded guilty Monday to exposing himself to two girls at the Shawsville OldTown Fields recreational track and was sentenced to serve four years behind bars.

Walter Franklin Morgan, 36, of Elliston was arrested in 2020 after two girls reports of a man exposing himself to them launched a law enforcement search.

According to Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Rachel Shraders summary of the evidence during Mondays hearing in Montgomery County Circuit Court, two sisters, ages 13 and 9, were riding bikes around the Shawsville track when they noticed a man watching them and acting strangely.

The children stopped riding when a pedal broke on one of their bikes, and the man approached to ask them questions, including if a woman who was in the facilitys parking lot was their grandmother. Both girls saw that the mans genitals were hanging out of his pants, Shrader said.

The girls ran to the parking lot with the man following them. They told the woman there that they were being chased, and she took the girls to the home of an off-duty sheriffs deputy, Shrader said.

Security cameras at nearby Shawsville Middle School captured an image of the mans truck, and soon, the sheriffs office issued calls for help identifying him.

Morgans family contacted investigators to say that he had confessed to exposing himself, and that he had taken the girls bikes to an area off Bradshaw Road and hidden the clothes he had been wearing in the woods. The truck was his fathers, Shrader said.

Morgan already was listed on the Virginia Sex Offender Registry due to 2007 convictions in Montgomery County for sexual battery. The registry also listed a 2015 conviction in Fairfax County for using a communication system to propose a sex act to a child.

Defense attorney Chris Kowalczuk of Roanoke agreed that Shrader had accurately described the case against his client, and Judge Robert Turk found Morgan guilty of two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child age 15 or younger.

Turk sentenced Morgan to 10 years in prison on each charge, to run consecutively for a total of 20 years, then said that after Morgan served four years, the rest would be suspended.

The judge ordered that Morgan be supervised by the probation office for five years after his release, with another five years of unsupervised probation to follow.

Morgan is to undergo any sex offender treatment that the probation office recommends, and cannot have any contact with the two girls or their families, Turk said. Morgan also cannot have any direct or indirect contact with any other minors for the duration of his time on probation, the judge said.

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RADFORD  Two women were abducted Jan. 10 from a grocery store parking lot in Radford, taken to Henry County, and sexually attacked for hours, Commonwealths Attorney Chris Rehak said Monday.

The description of the womens ordeal came during a bond hearing in Radford Circuit Court, where Deshawn Kiree Tucker, 29, of Dublin, was appealing a general district court decision to deny him bond.

Tucker, whose first name is spelled Dashawn in jail records but Deshawn in court documents, is charged with two counts of abduction with intent to defile. His case is connected to rape, sodomy and human trafficking charges filed against two men in Henry County, prosecutors there said.

A woman who also is sought by Henry County authorities was arrested Friday in North Carolina, the Henry County Sheriffs Office confirmed Monday.

At the Radford hearing, Rehak outlined the Jan. 10 incident that led to Tuckers arrest and Judge Joey Showalter said that he also would deny bond. Having heard a list of Tuckers prior felony convictions, Showalter said that due to the nature of the allegations, Tucker should be considered a threat to the community.

Tucker is scheduled to appear in Radfords General District Court on Feb. 17 for a preliminary hearing.

Rehak said Tuckers arrest followed a Jan. 11 text received by the Henry County Sheriffs Office in which a woman said that she had been abducted and raped repeatedly, and that her friend was locked in a garage.

Summarizing the case, Rehak said that at about 8 p.m. on Jan. 10, two women were told to go to the parking lot of the Food City store in Radford. They arrived in a silver sedan, he said.

Security video shows that a black sedan soon arrived and that there was a 20-minute conversation between the two cars occupants. The black sedan may have blocked the other car, Rehak said.

Then a red SUV arrived. Tucker was in it, Rehak said. The women were threatened and told they were going for a ride, and got into the SUV, he said.

They were taken to Pulaski County, then to Floyd, then to Henry County, Rehak said. At a location that Rehak described as the Henry County-Martinsville area, the women were ordered to perform sexual acts on three men.

One woman refused and was locked in a garage. The other woman was sexually assaulted, Rehak said.

Later the two women were taken to a home in the same area where both were sexually abused, Rehak said.

Tuckers attorney, Robert Canard of Radford, told Showalter that his only comment about Rehaks outline of the incident was that the womens sedan had not been blocked at the Food City parking lot.

Later Monday, prosecutors in Henry County said Tuckers case is tied to accusations against Waylon Allen Cox, 36, of Fieldale, who is charged with sodomy and human trafficking; and Bobby Ronell Helms Sr., 43, also of Fieldale, who faces three counts of rape and two of sodomy.

They have preliminary hearings on Feb. 14 in Henry County General District Court.

Awaiting extradition from North Carolina is Patricia Inman, the Henry County Sheriffs Office said. Inmans age and community of residence were not immediately available. She also is accused of human trafficking, the sheriffs office said.

Martinsville Bulletin reporter Bill Wyatt contributed information to this story.

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Bumps along the campaign trail during a trip to Texas last week have not derailed Kimberly Lowes Republican bid for U.S. Congress in Virginias Ninth District, she said this week.

Im getting attacks from the left and the right, said Lowe, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem. So I must be doing something right.

Accusations of assault arose last Friday surrounding a scuffle involving Lowe and officials at the National Butterfly Center, a wildlife sanctuary located on the United States southern border in Mission, Texas. The center has been a focus of right wing-based conspiracy theories, one claiming the center is involved in sex trafficking.

Video of the altercation previously available on Lowes campaign social media was removed due to a police investigation which has since cleared her of wrongdoing, she said. Police in Texas did not respond to requests for an account of what happened at the sanctuary.

Im getting death threats and everything else from this crazy stuff, Lowe said. Press from everywhere has been contacting me.

The resulting coverage in local and national media caused Lowe to be excluded from the We Stand America rally, a border security event that she drove from Virginia to attend with her children.

They removed me from the event because of what I had done, Lowe said. Whats cool is that shows I was making waves. Im such a danger, because I was exposing the truth of whats happening.

The event website said illegals are beholden to their Marxist overlords, and advertised among its speakers was former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to the FBI (and was later pardoned by then-President Donald Trump), and the rock n roll 2020 Republican candidate for president, Ted Nugent.

Its obviously a political attack, Lowe said of the Butterfly Center happenings. Thats just smoke and mirrors to detract from whats really happening at the border.

Meanwhile, the Butterfly Center closed over the weekend for what it said were credible threats from the United We Stand rally.

As for her rejection from the three-day border security rally, Lowe said: It tells me that those people are there for themselves, and not to save the country. Theyre just there for their power, and theyre not there for the right reasons.

She said people coming to cross the United States southern border represent a humanitarian problem that should receive bipartisan support.

Its not a safe journey, Lowe said. Its not humanitarian in any way, shape or form.

She said it is easier for people to cross into the United States illegally than it is for them to enter through legal methods.

Its just allowing anybody to come into the country, Lowe said. There has to be better immigration laws.

Lowe is running against Griffith in a race to be decided in a June primary. Griffith seeks his seventh term in Washington.

Through 2021, Griffiths campaign fundraised about $278,000, whereas Lowe raised about $28,000, according to data made available Tuesday from the Virginia Public Access Project.

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RICHMOND  A Senate committee toppled a pillar of Gov. Glenn Youngkins tax reform package on Tuesday, scuttling a proposal to require local governing bodies to take public actions up to a voter referendum if rising real estate assessments result in higher property taxes.

The Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee voted 12-4 to kill Senate Bill 620, proposed by Sen. John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, to carry out Youngkins campaign promise to slow increases in local real estate taxes by requiring voter approval if rising property values would result in a higher effective tax rate.

Deputy Secretary of Finance Charles Kennington called the proposal a pillar of Governor Youngkins Day One agenda, but Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, joined with Democrats in rejecting the idea, which he said he would prefer to include in a broad study of state and local tax policy over the next year.

Next year, not day one ... we can do some major tax reforms, Hanger said.

Senate Finance Chair Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, said that if a joint subcommittee on tax policy is created, then this will be a topic.

Cosgrove initially proposed to require a local voter referendum if a locality sought to increase real estate tax revenues by 1 percentage point or more, based on assessed property values and the real estate tax rate. As assessments increase, so do taxes, unless the locality lowers the rate to offset the rise.

The same bill is being carried in the House of Delegates by Del. Tara Durant, R-Stafford, whose victory over Del. Joshua Cole, D-Fredericksburg, helped Republicans regain control of the House.

Faced with opposition by local governments, Cosgrove offered a substitute bill that would establish a scale of actions that governing bodies would have to take for transparency to voters, based on the size of the proposed tax increase.

Its a graduated transparency bill, he said.

Under the substitute bill, local governing bodies would hold a public hearing, as they do now, if real estate taxes rose by up to 1 percentage point because of higher assessments.

If they rose by up to 3 percentage points, a majority vote of the governing body would be required. A two-thirds vote would be necessary for an increase of up to 5 percentage points.

Above that, voter approval would be required for taxes to increase.

Local governments rely on real estate taxes for most of their revenue, but Stafford County Commissioner of the Revenue Scott Mayausky said the system for raising them is poorly understood by taxpayers and local media reporting on local tax rates.

The local tax rate is applied to the assessed value of property. If you assess annually and your assessments go up and the rate stays the same, then thats a tax increase, Mayausky said.

Jordan Miles, chairman of the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors, asked state legislators not to intervene.

Leave it up to us, the localities, to make these decisions, Miles asked.
My wife and I are very involved in prison ministry.

We volunteer at a transition house that helps people coming out of prison get back on their feet.

Weve had the opportunity to know returning citizens who have turned their lives around, often after serving substantial time in incarceration for doing something, even they now say, was foolish.

We also see the scars created by our prison system, which is focused more on punishment and retribution than on rehabilitation.

About a quarter of those in prison have mental health problems, and all four of the residents in the transition house I volunteer with have psychological and emotional damage.

Many times, unaddressed mental health issues landed them in prison in the first place, and damage done in those institutions can make their recidivism more likely.

There is no doubt that the way our criminal justice system treats people in prison can create or exacerbate mental health problems.

One of the worst practices in Virginias prison system is to hold people, for long periods of time, in solitary confinement.

The United Nations defines the holding of people in solitary confinement for more than 15 days as torture. This means, by globally recognized humanitarian standards, the commonwealth of Virginia tortured more than 3,000 people in the fiscal year 2021.

Around the country, and here in Virginia, correctional institutions mask the practice of solitary confinement by re-branding the actions with different names.

In Virginia, the Department of Corrections claims it doesnt use solitary confinement. A few years ago, the term for the practice of isolating people for extended periods was switched from solitary confinement to restrictive housing.

Changing the name of a damaging practice doesnt change of practice nor the damaging effects of that practice. Whatever the name, isolating people for long periods of time changes isolation from a protective practice to a practice of torture.

The Department of Corrections claims it has implemented new approaches for reducing the use of long-term isolation, but thats not what pastors, family members, and former inmates tell us.

The Department of Corrections October 2021 report to the General Assembly states more than 5,000 people were put in isolation. Almost half the people, 48%, had some level of mental illness.

The Department of Corrections report says 1,445 people spent 15 to 29 consecutive days in isolation. Also, 1,748 people were in restorative housing, formerly named solitary confinement, for more than 30 consecutive days.

This is torture and would be called torture if it were reported in any other country.

I have talked to former inmates who have spent much longer than 30 days in isolation, whatever it is called.

Last year, members of the General Assembly sought to limit the use of solitary confinement in Virginias prisons. The bill was killed primarily because the Department of Corrections resisted any changes to its policies and threw a huge price tag on the bill.

The Department of Corrections said it would need 332 new staff position to reduce solitary confinement, even though there are only 800 people in solitary at any given time (5,000 over the course of the year).

These inflated numbers are clearly designed to stop consideration of more humane policies.

The General Assembly is reconsidering policies to limit the use of solitary confinement and our new delegate, Del. Jason Ballard, R-Giles, serves on the subcommittee that will be the first to consider the bill, House Bill 1291.

I am reminded that in the Bible, Hebrews 13:3 says, Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourself were suffering.

Virginia should, at least, limit the mistreatment of those in prison by limiting the use of solitary confinement so limiting the damage caused by that practice.

Eventually, we all pay a price for this torture, through increased mental health care in jails and prisons and continued care once people try to return to their/our communities.

Smith, retired from an international community development career in south Asia, volunteers with the Virginia CARES program of New River Community Action and the NRV Reentry Council, a network of agencies that help people coming back into the community from incarceration.
" " The Atlantic Ocean meets the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America at Cape Horn, but ocean currents are constantly flowing around the globe and, yes, the waters of the world's oceans do mix. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

You might have seen a video like this before: a ship out in the open ocean approaching a distinct line of water. On one side of the line the water is dark blue and clear, and on the other it's greenish and silty looking. Many of these videos explain that this is the separation line between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans  a place where they claim water defies all its own laws and refuses to mix.

But as you can probably guess, water doesn't mix with itself in every situation, all over the world, and then start acting like two positive ends of a magnet in the place where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans come together between South America and Antarctica. So, yes, the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific definitely do mix. But what's going on in these videos?

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Ocean Boundaries

The Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet in the Drake Passage, which is a 528-mile-wide (850-kilometer-wide) bottleneck of ocean between South America and Antarctica. It's a turbulent little spot, feared by mariners since it was first discovered in the 1500s.

It makes a lot of sense that a cartographer long ago looked at a map of the gigantic Atlantic and Pacific and decided the Drake Passage would be the gateway from one to the other. Drawing a little line on a map between Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of Chile, and the Antarctic Peninsula was just the simplest way to do it.

But the boundaries of oceans are pretty arbitrary, just like neighborhoods in your town. There's nothing really different about the waters to the east and west of the longitudinal line drawn by that guy looking at a map somewhere in Europe hundreds of years ago. But there are lines out there in the ocean  they're just not the kinds cartographers find very useful.

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Ocean Fronts

"We have to think about two things when we're considering this question: what's happening at the surface where people are seeing these lines of different color or turbidity, and what's happening under the surface?" says Sally Warner, a professor and physical oceanographer at Brandeis University.

Although these videos probably aren't doctored, it's unclear where they were filmed. Of course it's possible they were taken in the Drake Passage, but they could also be showing something happening in a completely different part of the world.

Ocean fronts are masses of surface water that have different temperatures or salinity. Fronts out in the open ocean can be extremely sharp, and they can sometimes come together in a way that looks like two flavors of ice cream sitting next to each other in the carton.

For us landlubbers, the easiest place to see this is where two rivers flow together, or better yet, where a river flows into the ocean. River water is often very silty by the time it makes it to the ocean, giving it a chocolate milk look, which contrasts sharply with the dark water of the ocean it feeds into. Not only that, river water is fresh and ocean water is salty, giving them different densities. If you're crossing over a bridge or out in a boat, it might seem as if the river water remains separate from the ambient water of the ocean. They are definitely going to mix eventually  it might just take a day or two to blend completely.

There are places all over the world where fronts of waters come together creating visible lines in the surface water. As with the fresh waters from a river meeting and visibly tangling with the salty ocean waters, fronts of different temperatures can create clear delineations in the open ocean. For instance, at the equator, you find tropical instability waves, where colder waters from the north and south meet the bathwater of the equator and create visible delineations in the water.

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Atlantic-Pacific Mixing

The waters of the Atlantic and Pacific definitely do mix, and according to Warner, they may mix more than waters in most places in the world's oceans.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is a band of water that travels all the way around the globe, hugging pretty close to Antarctica. It's got a pretty clear shot on its entire journey, with the exception of the tight spot it has to squeeze through at Drake Passage. This makes the waters of this particular spot in the ocean very turbulent.

But if there's a visible line in the water anywhere in the area, it most likely has to do with waters of two different temperatures coming together:

"The water around Antarctica is colder than the water to the north. Probaby what people think is delineating the Atlantic water from the Pacific water is more likely a front that's delineating the colder water from Antarctica from the warmer water in the north."

Now That's Interesting A Snopes.com article debunks the videos allegedly showing the spot where the Atlantic and Pacific refuse to mix, claiming that they are actually taken in the Gulf of Alaska, where the plume of sediment-laden water fans out from glacial rivers.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who was sworn in earlier this month, is also a vocal advocate for vaccination efforts, though he opposes vaccine and mask mandates. (Steve Helber/AP)

CHARLESTON, W.Va.  Warning of hospitals and other health providers facing an urgent staffing crisis, the Republican governors of Virginia and West Virginia on Monday asked the Biden administration for a limited waiver to the federal vaccine mandate for health care workers.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled the federal government can proceed with the rule, which covers most health care workers in the U.S. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice acknowledged in a letter Monday that the legal process had left the rule in place but asked for relief for rural and state-run facilities.

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The governors proposed such relief could come in multiple forms, such as broader conscience exemptions, flexibility on enforcement or a six-month delay in implementation. Without such flexibility, they wrote, the rule will compound existing staffing shortages.

The impact in Southwest Virginia and throughout West Virginia will be particularly acute. In these rural areas, access to lifesaving care could be threatened and we may displace a generation of healthcare professionals in a region already battling health disparities, the letter said.

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It was sent Monday to Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Justice said at a COVID-19 briefing Monday that while the mandate can be met at hospitals in more populated areas, it is putting an additional level of strain on our rural hospitals that is just destroying us.

Justice, who has been a constant bullhorn for vaccinations since the start of the pandemic, announced in December that West Virginia will use $48 million in federal stimulus funding to aggressively recruit and train nurses over the next four years.

The National Guard has also responded to the staffing shortage by sending hundreds of trained members to help at dozens of hospitals along with some long-term nursing and psychiatric facilities.

We cant afford to lose anybody. We cant absolutely afford to be firing people, Justice said. We should be respectful of their values. But we should encourage them in every way to be vaccinated. Nevertheless, we cant shut the hospital down. Thats all there is to it. he said.

Justice also said Monday he has not received a substantive response from the CDC on his request from early January for West Virginians to receive a second booster shot.

About 52% of West Virginia residents are fully vaccinated against the virus and about 61% have received at least one dose. West Virginia has seen the five highest confirmed weekly virus cases during the pandemic in the past five weeks, including nearly 17,700 last week, according to state health figures.

In addition, a record 1,700 people are currently hospitalized for the virus, 69.1% of whom are unvaccinated.

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Overall vaccination rates are higher in Virginia, where about 79.1% of the population has received at least one dose and 68.8% are fully vaccinated. The commonwealth has also broken case count and hospitalization records during the latest surge due to the highly contagious omicron variant.

Youngkin, who was sworn in earlier this month, is also a vocal advocate for vaccination efforts, though he opposes vaccine and mask mandates.

Daywatch Weekdays Start your morning with today's local news >

He was scheduled to meet Monday afternoon with officials from Ballad Health  a system that serves a swath of northeast Tennessee, southwest Virginia, northwest North Carolina and southeast Kentucky  at a hospital in Abingdon. A spokesperson said he planned to discuss the letter with staff there.

Ballad CEO Alan Levine, who has been advising Youngkin on Virginias pandemic response, has previously been outspoken about staffing concerns arising from the mandate.

Last week, the health system said it would allow workers who had tested positive for COVID-19 but were asymptomatic to keep working under certain circumstances.

The federal mandate ultimately will cover 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 facilities. Health care workers in about half the states face a Thursday deadline to get their first dose of the vaccine.

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It is taking effect first in jurisdictions that did not challenge the requirement in court. Virginia, which until mid-January was under Democratic control, is among them.

___

Rankin reported from Richmond.
FLORENCE, S.C.  The Florence Flamingos and Carolina Bank Monday announced a partnership for the Tools for Teachers Program to assist in providing resources for fifth-grade teachers and students at Florence 1 Schools.

The program is designed to give back to schools through rewarding both participating students and teachers.

We are excited to launch our first community program with the fifth-grade classes in the Florence 1 School District, Flamingos president Cameron Kovach said. We chose fifth graders specifically because it is a big transition year for them before heading into middle school.

Every participating student will receive items for the classroom through the program, provided by the Flamingos and Carolina Bank.

We know that teachers open their own pockets to pay for school supplies in their classrooms, Kovach added. Through this program, we want to help them provide more items for their students.

At the end of each academic year, each fifth-grade teacher at the participating schools will choose five students as Flockstars, based on parameters set up at each school. Those parameters could include attendance, behavior, grades, winners of spelling bee contests or even test results.

The Flockstars will be presented with a certificate and four tickets to the Flamingos game on June 3. At the game, each of the Flockstars will be recognized on the field for their accomplishments in the classroom. The students who are chosen to attend the game also will receive a Flamingos hat and be treated to all-you-can-eat offerings for the game.

Meanwhile, the program also will honor the participating teachers.

Each teacher from the participating schools will receive two tickets to a Flamingos game, where they will be honored on the field. Also, one teacher from each of the participating schools will be entered to receive a scholarship from the Flamingos to help with general classroom supplies.
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
 Federal judge rejects binding sentencing federal plea deal for men who killed Ahmaud Arbery | Main | Fourth Circuit panel upholds a "quirk" in Virginias sex-offender registry against various constitutional challenges 

This official press release, fully titled "CFPB Report Shows Criminal Justice Financial Ecosystem Exploits Families at Every Stage: Report Finds Products and Services Rife with Burdensome Fees and Lack of Choice," summarizes a notable new publication from the government agency tasked with safeguarding consumer financial products. Here are excerpts from the press release, which includes a link to the CFPB's new report:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today published a review of the financial issues facing people and families who come in contact with the criminal justice system. The report, Justice-Involved Individuals and the Consumer Financial Marketplace, describes an ecosystem rife with burdensome fees and lack of choice, and where families are increasingly being forced to shoulder the costs. It walks through the financial challenges families encounter at every stage of the criminal justice process, and the ways in which providers  often for-profit private companies  are leveraging a lack of consumer choice and their own market dominance to impose hefty fees at families expense.

Many incarcerated individuals and their families pay exorbitant fees for basic financial services, said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. Todays report describes how private companies undermine the ability for individuals to successfully transition from incarceration.

Contact with the criminal justice system is extremely common in the United States. In 2019, 2.1 million adults in America were in jail or prison, another 4.4 million were under community supervision (such as probation), and 1 in 3 adults  or 77 million Americans  had a criminal record. Those figures do not reflect the family members and friends who often provide financial support to people who have been arrested, incarcerated, or released from jail or prison, and who are also affected by shoddy financial products and services entwined in the criminal justice system. The burdens of the criminal justice system  and its financial impacts  fall most heavily on people of color, and women and people with lower incomes of all races and ethnicities. Surveys have repeatedly found women, and specifically Black women, disproportionately shoulder the costs of staying in touch with loved ones in prison and paying court-related debt for family members, sometimes spending up to a third of their income on such costs and even forgoing basic necessities for themselves.

Todays report examines the financial burdens that can occur from arrest to incarceration to reentry. It shows that as soon as families come into contact with the criminal justice system, they are confronted with numerous financial challenges, and that for-profit companies are embedded throughout. Specifically, the report raises issues about:
 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports on "Criminal Justice Financial Ecosystem" | Main | Different perspectives one year after Measure 110 took effect decriminalizing low-level drug possession in Oregon 

February 1, 2022

Fourth Circuit panel upholds a "quirk" in Virginias sex-offender registry against various constitutional challenges

Though Justice Scalia passed away nearly six years ago, I still recall him preaching the simple (and perhaps controversial) idea that the Constitution does not always invalidate stupid laws. (Here is an account of a speech he gave 20 years ago at Princeton university where he said "the Constitution sometimes requires upholding a law that does not make sense.") The late Justice came to mind today when I saw the recent Fourth Circuit ruling in Doe v. Settle, No. 20-1951 (4th Cir. Jan 28, 2022) (available here). Here is how the lengthy unanimous panel opinion in Doe starts and concludes:

Two months after he turned 18, John Doe was caught having sex with his 14-yearold girlfriend. Given the facts of his arrest, Doe may well have been charged with carnal knowledge of a child, a Class 4 felony that prohibits sex with 13- and 14-year-old children. But instead he was charged with and pleaded to a lower-class felony, taking indecent liberties with children, which only prohibits behavior like propositioning a child for sex. Does plea may have gotten him a shorter prison sentence, but due to a quirk in Virginia law, it also led to worse treatment by Virginias sex-offender registry. Both crimes generally put an offender on the highest tier of the registry for life, but there is a narrow exception to that rule. When an offender is less than 5 years older than his victim, he may be removed from the registry in time. But that mitigating exception only applies to carnal knowledge, the crime with the higher sentencing range, and not to indecent liberties. So while Doe may have felt lucky to only be charged with indecent liberties, given the potential for a lower prison sentence, that plea ended up condemning him to worse treatment on the registry. Because of that oddity, Doe will spend the rest of his life on Virginias sex-offender registry with no hope for relief. Doe  now in his 30s  sued Colonel Gary T. Settle, Superintendent of the Virginia Department of State Police, hoping to persuade a court to remove him from that registry and its burdens. Doe argues that the registry and the 5-year-gap provision violate multiple constitutional principles. In his Fourteenth Amendment equal protection claim, Doe asks us to consider why an offender convicted of having sex with a child, as Doe might have been, should be treated better than an offender convicted only of propositioning a child for sex, Does actual charge. In his Eighth Amendment claim, Doe asks us whether a lifelong registration requirement is an appropriate sanction for a single nonviolent crime committed by a high-school student. Both appeals present significant issues of fairness, but at bottom, they ask us to question the wisdom of the Virginia legislature and its sex-offender registry. That is not our place. When the Constitution is invoked, our place is to determine whether state laws comply with the specific dictates of that document. And Virginias sex-offender registry complies with the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. So we affirm the district courts dismissal..... If an 18-year-old man in Virginia has consensual sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend, and the next day, sends her a text message asking her to do it again, he will have committed two crimes. But under the letter of the law in Virginia, only one of those crimes will place him on the worst tier of sex offenders on the registry with the rapists and the murderers: the text message. That may not make much sense. But our Constitution presumes that even improvident decisions will eventually be rectified by the democratic process. See Cleburne, 473 U.S. at 440. The judiciary is not meant to revise laws because they are clumsy, unwise, or  even in some cosmic sense  unfair. In cases like this, courts are asked to make judgments about what is inside and what is outside the precise lines drawn by the Constitution. And whatever else they may be, Virginias sex-offender registry and its narrow Romeo-and-Juliet provision are constitutional. Accordingly, the district courts judgment is AFFIRMED.

February 1, 2022 at 04:18 PM | Permalink

Comments

Being a judge sometimes requires you to swallow a pill you want to gag on, and this is such a case. The state law makes little sense, but making little sense is not a violation of the Constitution. Since legislatures have the sole authority to write statutes and courts have no writ to amend them, the decision here was correct.

The writing judge, incidentally, is Julius Richardson, for many years an AUSA in South Carolina and the prosecutor who, may God be praised, got the death penalty for Dylann Roof. Perhaps Judge Richardson should say he "identifies" as a black woman and make President Biden's list for SCOTUS.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Feb 1, 2022 5:05:05 PM

If the state law makes little sense, then perhaps the disparate treatment isn't a rational means of achieving a valid government interest.

Posted by: Bob Jenkins | Feb 3, 2022 2:27:35 PM

"And whatever else they may be, Virginias sex-offender registry and its narrow Romeo-and-Juliet provision are constitutional."

Actually the only reason the Court believes this to be constitutional is due to the faulty 2003 Alaska ruling there the Supreme Court used faulty data and superstition to pretend that sex registries do not violate ex-post facto because they do not constitute "punishment," but only instead "safety."

The Court should reverse itself (almost 20 years later) using valid information, but will it? Until then atrocities like in this case will continue to destroy America.

Posted by: restless94110 | Feb 4, 2022 7:52:55 PM

Not only do such atrocious rulings have an overall destructive effect upon our society, they specifically wreck havoc upon actual human beings (as well as their families), and often for the remainder of the life of the wrongdoer with NO opportunity for redemption. The shame is truly on the other side - jurists, prosecutors, opportunistic politicians, media, law enforcement, and all those 'good citizens' intent on the impostition of needlessly unending retribution. It is way past time for a change.

Posted by: SG | Feb 4, 2022 10:41:08 PM

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Reuters

India expects to raise up to $2.7 billion through an IPO of Life Insurance Corp of India that opened to retail and other investors on Wednesday, more than two years after the government raised the prospect of taking the giant company to market. New Delhi had hoped to raise up to $12 billion for the 3.5% stake in the country's largest insurer, but after missing a series of deadlines, it will achieve only a fraction of the amount. The 66-year-old insurance behemoth is expected to list on Indian stock exchanges on May 17 amid volatile market conditions, having missed last year's IPO frenzy.
Myanmar witnessed silent strikes on the anniversary of the military juntas takeover of the government even as a court said on Monday that the trial of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the election fraud case will start on 14 February.

Streets in some of the countrys main cities were deserted as activists asked people to stay indoors and businesses to close in a silent protest against the junta on the first anniversary of the military takeover.

Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi was arrested last year on 1 February along with other elected leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) as they were accused of rigging the elections by the military generals.

Ms Suu Kyi is on trial in more than a dozen cases that collectively carry a maximum sentence of more than 150 years, and has been sentenced to a combined six years in detention by a court in the capital Naypyitaw.

The 76-year-old has denied these charges.

The United States, the UK and Canada also imposed new sanctions on Myanmars military after a year of protests. Ms Suu Kyis arrest and the subsequent takeover of the democratically elected government by the junta was widely met with massive protests all across the country.

One year since Myanmars military overturned a democratically elected civilian Government, human rights & humanitarian crises continue to deepen.



The @UN will continue to mobilize immediate action to address the desperate needs of the people of Myanmar. https://t.co/RmIT449Ihn  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 31, 2022

On Monday, youth activist Nan Lin was quoted as saying by Reuters: We might be arrested and spend our life in jail if were lucky. We might be tortured and killed if were unlucky.

Close observers of Myanmar and its political landscape say that charges against Ms Suu Kyi are basically meant to deter her from returning to politics in the country.

Story continues

It has been a long year for the people of #Myanmar who have had their courage & resilience tested daily. Nonetheless, they have prevailed. ND-Burma looks back on the main events which have brought us to today. There must be justice & accountability!

 https://t.co/kz9vF1lTN0 pic.twitter.com/hZkn0IvxLJ  Network for Human Rights Documentation - Burma (@NDBurma) February 1, 2022

The trials in cases against her and other leaders are taking place behind closed doors and defence lawyers have been put under a gag order by the military junta.

Reuters reported that military ruler Min Aung Hlaing on Monday extended a state of emergency imposed at the time of the coup for six months to facilitate promised elections amid threats from internal and external saboteurs and terrorist attacks and destruction.

Military authorities in Myanmar arrested more than 70 people in the past three days for promoting the action on social media, the state-run Myanmar Alin newspaper reported.

It was also reported that business owners had been warned that their properties could be seized if they paid any heed to the activists calls for protests. They warned that protesters could also face long sentences, Reuters reported.
Sailors man the raiSailors man the rails as the USS Harry S. Truman prepares to deploy from Naval Station Norfolk on Dec. 1. (Jonathon Gruenke/Daily Press)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin says he wants to give military retirees in Virginia a substantial tax break. Its an idea that deserves support in Hampton Roads and across the commonwealth.

Helping veterans by giving them a tax break on their retirement was a frequent refrain while Youngkin was on the campaign trial. At his first address to a joint session of the General Assembly after he took office, the governor called for phasing in a tax subtraction on retirement pay, beginning with $20,000 for the 2021 tax year and reaching $40,0000 by tax year 2024.

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That will inflict a considerable hit on Virginias revenue collection; Youngkins request estimates a loss of $287 million in fiscal year 2023 and $228 million in fiscal year 2024. His budget amendments do not specify how to offset those revenue losses, so it would be on lawmakers to figure it out.

None of that should be a deal-breaker. While it might be challenging to adopt Youngkins proposal as is, the goal is worth lawmakers working to find a common-sense compromise to give our vets a break.

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Virginia is at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to keeping veterans in the commonwealth, despite being the place where tens of thousands serve. It is not among the 26 states which dont tax military retirement at all, or the nine which offer partial exemptions, or the nine states which have no income tax on any residents.

Things got even worse last year when North Carolina made all military retirement tax free. Thats a problem especially in the Hampton Roads area, because retirees can choose to live across the line in fast-growing areas of North Carolina because of the tax break but still be close enough to take advantage of military and veterans facilities here.

Why exempt retiree benefits from state income tax? First, because its the right thing to do.

Those who stay in todays all-volunteer military long enough to retire choose a life that requires sacrifices from them and their families. They know that doing their duty could mean sacrificing their lives for our country. Even those who never see combat spend 20 or more years living up to stringent standards of responsibility, honor and discipline.

They deserve our thanks and respect, and that doesnt mean just words. A tax break on their retirement pay is a tangible way to show our gratitude.

Beyond those considerations, giving a tax break to military retirees can be good for the state, despite the immediate lost revenue.

Daywatch Weekdays Start your morning with today's local news >

Virginia benefits in many ways from the presence of those who have pursued military careers long enough to earn retirement benefits.

Many people who retire after 20 or more years in the military are still relatively young  many of them under 50  and ready to become vital members of the work force. These men and women have valuable experience and a work ethic thats hard to beat. They become educators, executives, first responders or contractors working with the military, valuable contributors to Virginias economy.

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Quite a few military retirees start small businesses, boosting the local economy with jobs and taxes.

Studies suggest if enough new military retirees move into a state, the revenue they generate can soon make up for that loss through a tax break. Our veterans also bring more to Virginia than money. Many put their leadership experience to work in the community.

Without this tax break, Virginia is behind the times. For now, only Congressional Medal of Honor recipients qualify for an exemption in Virginia.

Thats how Virginia earned the dubious distinction of being listed in Kiplinger financial magazine last August as one of the 10 least tax-friendly states for military retirees. Thats not the kind of publicity we want.

Exempting some level of retirement pay, as the governor proposes, would be one way to level the playing field. It is well worth the effort and would make a powerful statement about how Virginia values veterans.
SIOUX CITY -- Tim Duax, branch chief of the U.S. Attorney's office in Sioux City, has been named acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.

Duax replaces U.S. Attorney Sean Berry, who announced his retirement, effective Monday.

"I am honored to serve the people of the Northern District of Iowa in the capacity of acting United States Attorney. By faithfully enforcing the law, we help make our communities safer places to live, work and raise families," Duax said.

Experienced in prosecuting child exploitation cases and violent crimes, Duax has been an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Iowa since 2007 and has served as the Sioux City branch chief and first assistant.

Prior to 2007, Duax served for four years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Arizona in the Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Section in which he prosecuted cases involving violent drug trafficking organizations and other organized crime.

Before joining the Department of Justice, Duax spent six years in private practice and 10 years as a prosecutor in the Maricopa County Attorneys Office in Arizona. He graduated from the Arizona State University College of Law in 1989 and received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in 1986.

Berry retires after more than 30 years with the Justice Department, beginning his career as a federal prosecutor in 1989, when he joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. After 10 years in Los Angeles, Berry moved to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa, prosecuting complex fraud cases and child exploitation cases for 20 years. Berry served as acting U.S. Attorney and U.S. Attorney on multiple occasions when there was no presidentially appointed U.S. attorney in the district.

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SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man has been arrested and charged with shoplifting thousands of dollars of merchandise on several occasions from Fleet Farm.

Ken Mayeaux was booked into the Woodbury County Jail Thursday on two counts of second-degree theft and two counts of third-degree theft.

According to court documents, Mayeaux stole or attempted to steal numerous items from the Sioux City store at 5858 Sunnybrook Drive on at least seven occasions dating back to August 2020.

Complaints filed in Woodbury County District Court show that on four occasions in August 2020, Mayeaux removed drills and impact wrenches worth more than $2,000 from their packaging, concealed them and left the store without paying for them. The thefts were captured on the store's surveillance video cameras.

Three other thefts are more recent. In each case, Mayeaux is accused of putting items into his cart, covering them with his jacket and leaving the store before being confronted by a loss prevention employee.

Those alleged thefts include items totaling $797 on Jan. 24, five items totaling $1,167 on Jan. 26 and 10 items totaling $1,912 on Jan. 27.

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SIOUX CITY -- Kristi Franz, executive director of the Sioux City Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau, anticipates that RAGBRAI kicking off in Sergeant Bluff this year could have a direct economic impact of $3 to $5 million on the tri-state region.

"We are thrilled that RAGBRAI has picked Sergeant Bluff to kick off their 49th annual ride across Iowa," she said Monday. "As one of our community partners with Explore Sioux City, we will anticipate a huge economic impact, not only for Sergeant Bluff, but for the greater Sioux City region, as well."

Organizers for the 49th Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa announced on Friday night that the cross-state ride would kick off in Sergeant Bluff on July 23 and go through Ida Grove, Pocahontas, Emmetsburg, Mason City, Charles City, West Union and Lansing.

The selection of Sergeant Bluff marks the second straight year that the ride will start in Siouxland. Le Mars was chosen for ride's kickoff in 2020, but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers kept Le Mars as the starting point of last year's ride.

Franz said she will be working with the City of Sergeant Bluff, RAGBRAI organizers and other community partners around the state to make this year's RAGBRAI kickoff the best yet. She said Sioux City metro restaurants, bars and retail businesses will see a "big uptick" in visitors during and leading up to RAGBRAI's kickoff.

"Also, you're indirect impact that comes from the suppliers of the goods and services that the hotels and restaurants offer to guests, so it's a big boom for the whole region," she said.

The SCRCVB, which Franz heads, focuses on bringing in new events and marketing Sioux City as a destination for tourists, conventions and sporting events. The bureau has established several partnerships within the region, including the cities of Sioux City, North Sioux City and Sergeant Bluff.

Member hotels in those communities levy a 1.65% lodging fee paid by guests to finance the SCRCVB, which, in turn, recommends that visitors stay at those properties that voluntarily collect the fee.

Franz said she hasn't heard of Sioux City hotel rooms being snatched up for the event, since the announcement was just make a few days ago, but she said she wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

"I'm sure there's a lot of participants, as well as spectators that are going to want to get rooms as early as they can, so it wouldn't be surprising that people would start booking now," she said.

RAGBRAI traces its roots back to August 1973, when a Des Moines Register feature writer/copy editor teamed up with a Register columnist to bicycle across the state, from west to east, documenting the 412-mile ride in the newspaper.

The first ride began in Sioux City with an estimated 300 riders, of which 114 are believed to have made it all the way across the state. A number of additional riders joined the ride on the leg between Ames and Des Moines.

From there the ride ballooned in popularity.

The average RAGBRAI route is 468 miles and usually has stops in eight towns, including the beginning and the end.

After leaving Sergeant Bluff, riders will stop overnight this year in Ide Grove. Two other Northwest Iowa cities -- Pocahontas and Emmetsburg -- also will be overnight stops on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

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Karimnagar: Employees and customers of the Mudra Agriculture and Skill Development Society are worried over the shutdown of its branches, one after another, after frenzied collection of deposits from many through its employees here.

The society was launched on 12 April 2017 and it got registered under the multi-state co-operative society act 2002 with its headquarters at Nallakunta in Hyderabad and Rama Dasappa Naidu as its chairman.

It had the professed aim of improving the financial condition of the poor or ordinary people in rural areas. It opened around 15 branches in the old Karimnagar district and built a staff-strength of about 200.

The society collected Rs 1.5 lakh from each of these employees in the name of a security fund and gave them bonds with an assurance that the society would become a state-owned bank and all of them will become permanent government employees. They were promised a salary of Rs 20,000 per month.

Later, the society reduced the salary to between Rs 8.000 and Rs 12,000 and the employees were asked to reach out to the public and bring customers to the society. The society promised its customers a high rate of interest, some three per cent more than what the well-established banks offered.

Several employees, to protect their jobs, worked hard to enlist customers and deposits for the bank even by telling them that the society is linked to the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana and the KCR Sahakara Runa Bhavanam.

The employees of Ramadugu branch in this district alone collected around Rs 40 lakh in deposits from customers. The employees say they were unaware that the society was not affiliated with any government scheme. For the past few months, the society stopped paying salary to the employees as also the interest to its customers and rents to the offices that functioned from private buildings.

Some of the branches in Karimnagar, Peddapalli, Godavarikhani and Srirampur areas were abruptly closed, much to the surprise of the employees themselves. In some areas, this happened after the society did not pay rent to the building owners for many months. Some of these owners, thereon, seized the furniture etc.

Last week, one Yennam Sai Krihna Reddy who joined as a trainee accountant in the society at Christian colony near Court chowrasta in the heart of the city committed suicide by hanging from the fan at his house, unable to face the pressure exerted by the customers who deposited around Rs 28 lakh in the society at his instance. This, after the office remained closed for two months.

Another victim, Bhaskar Rao of this district, told Deccan Chronicle that his wife joined as an employee with the society in the hope it would become a state bank. She deposited Rs 1.5 lakh to get the job. The society initially paid her Rs 10,000 per month as salary and gave her fixed targets.

To reach the target, me and my wife collected `22 lakh from our relatives and friends and deposited this in the society. For the past few months, my wife is not getting the salary and the directors are also missing these days.

He added, After learning that an employee committed suicide, our relatives and friends are after us to get their money back. We are in deep trouble and facing mental tension. We hope the government would intervene and settle the problems for once and for all.
New Delhi: In his first address to Uttar Pradesh voters after the announcement of the election schedule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday targeted the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) without naming it, saying when Western UP was burning due to riots, those in power were celebrating. Mr Modi also cautioned voters that the BJPs opponents, who have dangai soch" (rioters' mentality) are waiting to take revenge from those who voted them out in 2017.

In the BJPs poll plank in the region, 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots is one of the main issues, which had created a major divide between Muslims and Jats in the region. While Muslims are considered the SPs vote-bank, Jats have been firmly backing the BJP since 2014. The BJP also named Union minister S.P.S. Baghel, a former close associate of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, as a candidate against the SP chief from Karhal Assembly seat, considered an SP stronghold.

We are putting all our efforts to transform UP, but they are waiting to take revenge from you. Those who are given tickets by them are its proof, revenge is their ideology," said the PM. Mr Modi also hailed the development work done in the state by the Yogi Adityanath-led government.

Mr Modi, who addressed his first virtual rally Jan Chaupal, covering 21 Assembly constituencies in five districts -- Baghpat, Shamli, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur  said five years ago muscle men and rioters used to be the law unto themselves in Uttar Pradesh but the BJP government taught them the law.

Five years ago, houses, land, shops of poor, Dalit, deprived, backward were forcefully occupied by Samajwad There were reports of exodus. Today everyone, including farmer, employees, businessmen, women are safe. Those mafias and bad elements, who used to think they were above law, have been taught the law by the BJP government, said Mr Modi.

Insisting that the first-time voters are with the BJP, Mr Modi said the people will once again bless the BJP for its kaam (work) and their karname (exploits)," Mr Modi said and took a dig at the SP chief for his earlier remarks against Indias Covid vaccine and believing in superstition.

Those who fear losing power because of a superstition and avoid visiting Noida, which is a land of youths aspiration, how can they lead the youth Those who have no trust in their own countrys vaccine and spread rumours against it, can they value the talent and innovation of the youth, said the PM.

In UP, the first phase polling will be held on February 10, the second phase on February 14, the third phase on February 20, the fourth phase on February 23, the fifth phase on February 27, the sixth phase on March 3 and the seventh phase on March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
Let's get caught up with today's COVID-19 news for Feb. 1, 2022.

Pfizer asks FDA to allow COVID-19 vaccine for kids under 5

Pfizer on Tuesday asked the U.S. to authorize extra-low doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5, potentially opening the way for the very youngest Americans to start receiving shots as early as March.

In an extraordinary move, the Food and Drug Administration had urged Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to apply earlier than the companies had planned.

Anti-vaccine protest in Canada spurs outrage

In a scene at odds with Canadians reputation for niceness and rule-following, thousands of protesters railing against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions descended on the capital over the weekend, deliberately blocking traffic around Parliament Hill.

Some urinated and parked on the National War Memorial. One danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A number carried signs and flags with swastikas.

In the aftermath of Canada's biggest pandemic protest to date, the demonstrators have found little sympathy in a country where more than 80% are vaccinated.

Woman pleads guilty in $1.2M pandemic unemployment scheme

A Massachusetts woman who along with an accomplice submitted 100 fraudulent claims for COVID-19-related unemployment assistance that resulted in more than $1.2 million in payouts has pleaded guilty, federal prosecutors said.

Audri Ford-Victory, 61, faces up to 20 years behind bars when she is sentenced on June 1, the U.S. attorney's office in Boston said in a statement Tuesday, but under terms of a plea agreement she is expected to get prison time at the low end of sentencing guidelines.

Check out more top COVID-19 news here:
SIOUX CITY -- At the Sioux Gateway Airport on Tuesday morning, Jim Pillen, was on hand to receive a campaign endorsement from the Nebraska Farm Bureau. But agriculture was far from the only thing the Republican candidate for Nebraska governor touched on during his 20 minutes at the podium.

In front of a banner stamped 36 times with his name, Pillen, a University of Nebraska regent and pig farmer, told a small crowd of staffers and local media members that he wanted to: "protect" adolescent minds, "attack" property taxes and solve problems without the "federal government's invasion."

On the children front, Pillen, who tweeted in January he would "ban Critical Race Theory in Nebraska classrooms," said the state board of education in Nebraska had been "hijacked" by a "very far left mind." He then alleged "grossly inappropriate sex education" was being taught in the public school system.

"It's a parent's job. It's parents' jobs to decide how and when they're going to have those conversations," Pillen said.

Per the Lincoln Journal Star: In June 2021, while speaking specifically about Critical Race Theory, which is intended to look at how inequities can disadvantage groups of people based on their race, Pillen said he preferred "teachers and professors focus on 'facts and common sense Nebraska values.'" Within the article, Pillen did not explain what specific values those were.

Does having kids matter in Nebraska governor race? Pillen and Herbster disagree Nebraska gubernatorial candidates Charles W. Herbster and Jim Pillen are trading barbs over the importance of parenthood as a qualification to be the state's next top executive.

While discussing property taxes, Pillen told those in attendance the issue is one affecting all Nebraskans.

"Whether you own a commercial property, whether you're renting a home or whether you're buying a home, it's affecting all of us. We have to get that solved," Pillen said. However, he didn't go further on what the best solution would be and his website issues page only says: "We need to limit the growth in spending by local taxing entities and modernize our tax structure..."

During the question and answer segment of the event, Pillen was asked about the topic of Second Amendment sanctuary states and cities. Such government entities are ones with language intended to oppose any restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms. A Des Moines Register story from July 2021 noted that such ordinances and laws don't trump federal decisions.

"We can solve our problems and we don't need the federal government's invasion of having us solve our problems. Nebraskans are innovative, entrepreneurial and great thinkers. We can solve our problems without having the federal government's intrusion," Pillen said.

At the beginning of the event, Mark McHargue, president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau, said the agency polled people about whether or not they should get involved in the race and, if they did, who they should back.

"They said, Jim Pillen is the guy to do that job," McHargue said. McHargue then mentioned Pillen's experience as a pig farmer and said that he values agriculture. Pillen started the business with his dad and it now has more than 1,000 employees.

"It's important that as we think about how we're going to grow Nebraska, we have a governor who understands that AG has to be a critical part of that conversation," McHargue said.

Statewide primaries in Nebraska are set for May 10. According to Ballotpedia, Pillen is one of six GOP candidates vying for the chance to succeed current Gov. Pete Ricketts. In Sept. 2021, Nebraska State Sen. Carol Blood became the first Democrat to announce her candidacy.

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DES MOINES  The dough on your Caseys pizza could be rolled by a 16- or 17-year-old worker if a new proposal is passed into state law.

The Iowa-based gasoline and convenience store company has proposed legislation that would make it legal for 16- and 17-year-old workers to operate dough rollers. That is currently prohibited by state law, even though federal regulations permit the practice.

Were famous for a lot of things, but one of them is our pizza, Tom Cope, a lobbyist for Caseys, said during a legislative hearing on the proposal Monday at the Iowa Capitol.

Caseys began offering pizza in the mid-1980s and since has become the fifth-largest pizza seller in the country, according to the company. Cope said many other states where Caseys has stores, including Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri, have laws that match the federal regulation that permits 16- and 17-year-olds to operate dough rollers.

Cope said the proposal could help Caseys  and any other business that rolls its own dough on-site  address a shortage of workers.

Like any other employer across the state of Iowa, were really struggling finding employees, he said.

Concerns were raised during the hearing that the legislative proposal does not contain the federal language that states those 16- and 17-year-olds cannot set up, adjust, repair or clean pizza dough rollers  only operate them. Cope said Caseys would be comfortable adding that language to the bill.

The three state lawmakers on the bills panel  two Republicans and one Democrat  said they could support the bill with that amended language. I think with the workforce shortage were having, 16- and 17-year-olds do the pizza, safely of course is important, said Sen. Dawn Driscoll, a Republican from Williamsburg.

The proposal, Senate Study Bill 3072, advanced and is now eligible for consideration by the full Senate

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DES MOINES  Individuals with a bachelors degree and three years of work experience would have a faster route to getting a teachers license under a proposal introduced by Republicans in the Iowa House.

Those workers would need to get 15 credit hours of teacher education and then work in what would amount to a yearlong internship, Iowa Rep. Dustin Hite, a Republican from New Sharon who chairs the Houses education committee, told reporters Monday at the Iowa Capitol.

Hite said he is not aware of any data that shows a shortage in the states education workforce, but that he and his legislative colleagues hear about it from their local schools. He said it is difficult to determine if any shortage in education workers is different from the overall workforce shortage, which is impacting Iowa and most other states.

When we hear from our schools, what theyre telling us is they are having a hard time finding not only teachers, but bus drivers and lunch personnel, janitors. You name it, theyre having a hard time filling it, Hite said. We have schools telling us that 10 years ago, 20 years ago youd have hundreds of people apply for an elementary job, and now you might get six. And for high school jobs, you might have one now.

Mike Beranek, the president of the Iowa State Education Association, the states largest public teachers union, called the House Republican proposal  and others they have offered  a welcome start, but not everything that educators need from the state.

Beranek said his organization supports the alternative licensure program proposed by Hite, another proposal to eliminate the standardized test needed to acquire a teaching license, and a proposal to increase the number of teachers-in-training who are eligible to apply for a state grant program.

We are very concerned about the idea of recruiting and retaining our educators here in the state, Beranek said Monday. So while these are positive moves in the right direction, we cant forget the importance of fully funding our schools and making sure our classrooms arent overcrowded.

Republicans hold agenda-setting majorities at the Iowa Capitol. House Republican leaders have said they expect their school funding proposal to be published later this week.

Gov. Kim Reynolds, in her budget proposal, proposed a 2.5 percent increase in state funding to K-12 public school districts over the previous year.

Historically, K-12 funding increased an average of 5 percent annually over the first 38 years under the states current state funding formula, according to data from the states nonpartisan fiscal analysis agency. Since 2011, when Republicans gained at least a portion of control over the state lawmaking process, the average annual K-12 funding increase has been 1.9 percent.

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Chinese pandas celebrating 3rd Lunar New Year at Moscow Zoo

Xinhua) 11:45, February 01, 2022

MOSCOW, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Two giant pandas from China, Ruyi and Dingding, who have been living at the Moscow Zoo since 2019, will enjoy a "festive atmosphere" while celebrating their third Chinese New Year in Russia.

"Zoo staff will make large cardboard toys in the shape of tigers for the pandas, as well as place spruce and fir trees decorated with ice candies with vegetables and fruits inside," zoo head Svetlana Akulova told Xinhua in a recent interview.

She said it would be possible to watch how the pandas celebrate the Lunar New Year not only in person at the zoo, but also online through a live stream on the zoo's official social networks.

The pandas are very popular among visitors, many of whom are already familiar with the personalities of the Chinese guests, according to Akulova.

"Dingding is pickier and moodier, while Ruyi is like an explorer and can sometimes be a bit of a trouble-maker," she said.

"Our employees already recognize these regular visitors and are always happy to answer their questions. There was even a time when a child brought his soft toy panda and introduced it to Ruyi and Dingding," Akulova said.

"I am glad that the Moscow Zoo has chosen to participate in the international program for giant panda preservation, protection and research," she stressed.

Akulova noted that it was significant how "the cultural values of one country, that are portrayed through national symbols, could be accepted and loved in another," especially the giant pandas, which are "definitely the living embodiment of Chinese culture."

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy had given such an assurance to employee unions during his recent interactions with them on the 11th Pay Revision Commission (PRC) implementation.  DC Image

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government has issued an ordinance to raise the age of superannuation for all state government employees to 62 years from the present 60 with effect from Jan. 1, 2022.

Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan promulgated the ordinance on Jan. 30 by amending the Andhra Pradesh Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Act, 2014. This ordinance is called Andhra Pradesh Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 and it shall be deemed to have come into force from Jan. 1, 2022.

Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy had given such an assurance to employee unions during his recent interactions with them on the 11th Pay Revision Commission (PRC) implementation.

The state published the ordinance in its gazette here on Monday. It said there was significant improvement in the average life expectancy compared to the scene in 2014. WHO had reported that the global average life expectancy in 2019 was around 73 years and the average Indian lived up to 70 years with improved health conditions.

Moreover, the state government wanted to utilise the experience and expertise of the senior employees. Hence, it proposed to enhance the current age of superannuation to 62 years from 60 years to all state government employees covered under AP Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) Act, 1984.

The state government amended the same act in 2014 to enhance the age of superannuation to 60 years from 58 years with effect from June 2, 2014.

The employees who were supposed to retire at the age of 60 years by Jan. 31 were tensed up in recent days as no official word about raising the retirement age came from the state government. This confusion had stalled the preparation of their pension papers by the concerned departments.
MADISON, Wis.  A Nebraska man was arrested for inappropriately touching a University of Wisconsin student at a campus residence hall early Sunday, university police said.

Maxwell D. Sanders, 19, of Omaha, was apprehended at a different residence hall around 3:20 a.m. after assaulting the resident at a southeast dorm, police said in a statement. Sanders might have also assaulted other residents at the dorm, police said.

Sanders had been invited to campus by a friend and is not affiliated with the university. After the assault, Sanders tried to go into other rooms at the dorm before leaving the premises and going to the second residence hall where his friend lived, police said.

Sanders was taken to the Dane County Jail on tentative charges of fourth-degree sexual assault and disorderly conduct, police said.

Police asked any other victims to contact police at 608-276-2677.

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The turkey vulture, Betsy Finch said, had no business being in Nebraska in January.

Stunned by the cold, it was transported to the Raptor Conservation Alliance rehabilitation center in Elmwood, where it will stay until springs warmer temperatures arrive.

Weve already gotten 20 birds in for 2022 and January isnt actually one of our busy months, she said.

That busy start follows a record 2021 in which Finch, husband Doug and a crew of volunteers cared for 664 birds at their five-acre farm, which includes three large outbuildings and several large flight pens.

Injured eagles, red-tailed hawks, owls and northern harriers have found refuge at the nonprofit. Extreme weather, wind storms and drought, as well as encroachment by humans, are to blame, Finch said. Collision injuries are the most common.

Finch thinks one of two snowy owls at the facility might have been clipped by a car. Rehabilitation time could be three to six months.

One of the newest residents, an adult eagle, was caught in an illegally baited trap. A Nebraska Game and Parks game warden was called in, who then brought it to one of Finchs volunteers. He took it to the Bellevue Animal Hospital, where it was cared for by Dr. David Gordon.

It might have a happy ending. A dozen birds are permanent residents because they cant survive on their own in the wild. Other nonreleasable birds are donated or transferred to other organizations or nature centers such as Fontenelle Forest for display or education.

Its doing great, Gordon said. Its eating for Betsy.

Keeping more than 50 animals fed with rats and mice or fish for the eagles is one of the most difficult parts of the job for Finch, who has been caring for injured raptors for 46 years, 26 of them at Elmwood.

Its not just the expenses involved for the nonprofit, but the daily effort, too.

Going out in a blizzard to feed and take care of birds is not the fun part, Finch said. Some need to be fed more than once a day.

Its a calling for Finch, who said she began when her Lincoln Audubon group was looking for volunteer work in the 1970s. She started organizing state and local permits, food supplies and housing for raptors.

Once we got the birds in, I got so interested and I stayed with it, she said. Its really very rewarding for me.

Her rescue is unique, she said, in that it has volunteers spread all over the state, who come together to relay injured birds to the facility.

Staff from Omahas Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium and Lincoln Childrens Zoo, as well as volunteer veterinarians like Gordon, provide care for the birds.

Dr. Christina Ploog from Henry Doorly said theyve been working with the rehabilitation center for more than 10 years, providing physical exams, radiographs, wound management and fracture repairs.

Our team enjoys supporting Betsys efforts in providing outstanding care to injured raptors, and we are always thrilled to hear that a patient has been returned to its natural habitat, she said. These opportunities allow our veterinary staff to give back to the community and to the ecosystem we care so much about. It is an amazing feeling to know that you helped an injured bird be released back into the wild.

Finch hasnt slowed down despite turning 75 this week. She knows she needs to develop a plan that keeps a steady supply of funds coming in to feed and care for the birds as well as finding an eventual replacement. As much as she loves it, she doesnt want to be doing this when shes 90.

We had so many birds this year I havent been able to work on any of that, she said.

As well as the veterinarians and volunteers, she said Doug has been a big support through the 21 years of their marriage. They met when his son did an Eagle Scout project at the facility.

There are ups and downs to their efforts. Theres the amazing part when a once-injured bird is released and the challenging part when a raptor has to be euthanized because its injuries are too great or its in pain.

If someone cant do that, they have no business in rehabilitation, Finch said. You always have to do whats best for the bird.

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Now is not a good time to go to war with Russia.

The United States just ended a 20-year lost war in Afghanistan five months ago, returning the ragged country to the Taliban's control.

Still suffering from the pandemic and rocky politics, we need to get our own house in order.

Ukraine is just not worth it, I'm not sorry to say. It does not belong to the European alliance, NATO, and has a shady reputation for corruption, as President Joe Biden declared bluntly when he was vice president.

I might add that we need a major course correction in dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who understands America a lot better than we understand him. This is how he outplays us every time.

Seizing on a weakened president and divided moment for American democracy, Putin has heightened tensions by building up military exercises encircling the Ukrainian border. This is unnerving, to be sure. Is this Putin's revenge, a long time coming?

Fears of a Russian land invasion are rising, as it's well-known Putin deeply resents the loss of Ukraine when the Soviet Union fell apart. We can and must do everything possible to reach a diplomatic solution.

Better yet, take it to the United Nations. Isn't that what it's for, peacekeeping and justice in an unruly world? Let Russia defend itself in an international court or forum.

But you can see the voluble retired generals amping up on cable, the Pentagon alerting the 82nd Airborne amid 8,500 "response troops" for NATO, while Congress is out of town leaving the president to act freely -- and rashly -- without authorization. Ordering our embassy families home is another step in this weary dance of war by both sides.

I hope Secretary of State Antony Blinken has the chops to deftly deal with seasoned and wily old Russian counterparts. I think he does.

It's not like America hasn't helped Ukraine. Under former President Donald Trump, we recently sent Ukraine a staggering $400 million in military aid for its ongoing shadow war with Russia. That's a good chunk of President Biden's Build Back Better agenda.

Putin has to be handled carefully and respected as a shrewd adversary. He cannot be dismissed outright as an evil force, even if the former KGB agent does commit cagey, evil deeds.

The worst of these was interfering in the 2016 presidential election in Donald Trump's favor. Trump was putty -- or puppet -- in Putin's hands

Ukraine's brash leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, is acting as if his nation is entitled to the protection of the transatlantic alliance. No, it's not, and there should be no vague promises about entering NATO's "open door" someday soon.

Zelensky was on the world stage during Trump's first impeachment for bribery, way back in 2019. Speaking on the phone, Trump demanded "a favor though." He wanted Zelensky to announce an investigation into his likely opponent, Biden, and his son Hunter, in return for the $400 million.

Very nice. Zelensky was apparently willing to go along, as he desperately wanted a White House visit. I remember the hearings all too well. Trump also trashed the distinguished American ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, for being too tough on Ukrainian corruption. He drove her out of the country.

Great Britain is champing for a showdown with Russia over Ukraine. If they want to fight that battle, let our best ally do it. But the United States should be on the side of seeking peace.

Oh, there are larger concerns at stake. The national security establishment -- including pundits -- is searching for something to do without a war.

Ukraine could be just the beginning of Russia reclaiming its old sovereignty and land mass, so they say.

Here's something for the experts: rethink NATO enlargement. We made a strategic error back in the 1990s, by crowing that America "won" the Cold War. Enlarging NATO with Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic (former Soviet bloc nations) was seen as taunting and threatening the humbled Russia.

We didn't need that. Then-President Bill Clinton's top diplomats could have simply stated the Cold War "ended," and what a blessing that was, writ large, for the world.

Gloating and expanding East was rubbing salt in a young Putin's wound -- which hasn't healed yet.

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson has inspired a new following from the extreme right, including some members of Congress, by asking: Why take Ukraines side instead of Russias? The arguments are vast for defending the sovereignty of democratic Ukraine, and most American adults should need no reminders why containing Moscows expansionist desires is essential for U.S. national security.

Carlson seems to be exploiting Americans exceedingly short memories and attention spans as he articulates a new Republican philosophy that is the exact opposite of everything the partys iconic leader, Ronald Reagan, stood for. Carlson proposes embracing Russia as an ally and effectively excusing all of its past transgressions  of course including Russian President Vladimir Putins help engineering Donald Trumps 2016 presidential election.

Why is it disloyal to side with Russia but loyal to side with Ukraine? Carlson asked on his show last week to the applause of several GOP members of Congress. The reception was more chilly in 2019 when Carlson stated: Why do I care [about]  what is going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? And Im serious. Why do I care? Why shouldnt I root for Russia? Which I am.

Heres why. Putin was born and raised a communist, and actively assisted in the Soviet Unions global expansion as a foreign intelligence officer. While he was rising through the ranks to become a KGB lieutenant colonel, Russia invaded Afghanistan, spawning four decades of upheaval and terrorism. Despite the Soviet Unions collapse, Putin has never given up on reviving Moscows expansionist empire. Destabilizing Ukraine is key to that goal. Putin has armed and trained a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. In 2014, insurgents and their Russian military advisers downed a Malaysian jumbo jet, killing all 298 people aboard.

That same year, Russia seized the strategic Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Reports from Ukrainians living in Crimea today indicate heavy levels of political oppression persist. Dissent is crushed, and criticism of Putin is punished harshly  just as it is everywhere else where Putin rules.

But apparently Carlson thinks thats just swell.

Putin has a habit of killing, poisoning, maiming or imprisoning his most vocal critics. When the United States works around the globe to isolate repressive regimes such as those in Iran, Syria and Venezuela, Putin boosts their military with economic aid.

Carlsons apparently a big fan, as are memory-deprived GOP U.S. Reps. Matt Rosendale of Montana, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Paul Gosar of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, to name a few.

Putin does all he can to stifle democracy, kill off his opponents, sabotage U.S. foreign policy and interfere with other nations sovereignty  including Americas. And Carlson has the gall to ask: Why shouldnt I root for Russia? Perhaps Fox News should consider hosting

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Last year, the FBI launched a recruiting campaign with a head-scratching trope taking center stage: the so-called crazy wall. Youve seen it many times beforesome sort of a criminal or terrorism investigation that uses a corkboard with photos, Post-its, maps, and other paraphernalia attached to it, tied together by red string held aloft by thumbtacks. If you stare at it long enough, you can solve the crime or stop the terrorists.

This string theory trope is now firmly established as part of our common understanding of ploton television, in movies, in a Lego police station set, in video games, and, of course, the famous Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia meme that will likely outlast the cooling of our sun. At least one real-life serial killer in Australia fashioned a yarn-connected spider wall that connected pictures and Post-its of his victims together.

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Despite its ubiquity, the trope feels terribly dated. If youll closely examine the FBIs modern recruiting website, its wall has Polaroid photos attached to the corkboardas if investigators wander around crime scenes with a technology whose parent company went bankrupt in 2001 (and has now been resurrected by social media influencers).

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Certainly, its a visually striking attribute usable for anything from genius mind at work to very complicated situation to crazy obsessed person,  as Anne Ganzert put it in her 2020 book, Serial Pinboarding in Contemporary Television. But no one can quite pinpoint when this trope emerged. The earliest version of it seems to have come from the 1979 BBC production of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which had an understated series of red lines connecting photos to a calendar in one episode. Its unclear how it might have taken off from there.

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Heres the bigger problem: Neither the FBI nor the CIA has used pinboards to solve investigations in a generation or more. I was a counterterrorism analyst at the CIA years ago, and I attest that Ive never tacked yarn, crimson or otherwise, to a wall to figure out who was related to whom, ever. I never placed handwritten notes, photos, cellphones, or anything else onto a complicated wire diagram. Even if I might have wanted to, I was never allotted the wall space required for such an endeavor.

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Neither did anyone I spoke with who had lengthy histories at the CIA. Larry Pfeiffer, who served as the chief of staff to former CIA Director Michael Hayden, said, Im really not sure from whence that comes. Gail Helt, who joined CIA in 2003, said, I definitely never used the yarn on a corkboard method. When asked why not, she said, Yarn on a corkboard is just unwieldy. Imagine if every analyst tracked their issues that way. Youd need to add extra office space just to accommodate it. Also, its kind of dumbanyone could alter your work. Contrast this with the pinboard Jessica Chastains analyst character uses to catch Osama bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirtymeant to be a true-to-life examination of the pursuit of al-Qaidas chief. There is clearly a disconnect between how Hollywood views the intelligence world and what real intelligence officers actually do.

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Alma Katsu, who spent decades as an analyst with the CIA and NSA, noted the agency used tools that can handle millions of nodes and use very advanced physics models to help draw relationships that allow analysts to make nuanced assessments of the quality of relationships between those nodes. When pressed about yarn tucked away in secret supply cabinets, she replied that she didnt even have it to decorate doors at Christmas. Tracy Walder, a former CIA officer and FBI special agent, noted, The only corkboard [at the FBI] was in the employee lunchroom, which contained Chinese takeout menus.

This is not to say there isnt significant link analysisa way to visually connect relationships among people, places, and things using linesperformed on computers, but what we see on television and movies does not exist in real life. Companies like Palantir and i2 Analysts Notebook have made a killing over the last 15 years selling link chart technologies to the intelligence community (even if, in the case of the former, the relationship has cooled).

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But does the crazy wall phenomenon have some connection to the real world of police and intelligence investigations? For the most part, no. The NSC does use a board and yarn, but spends too much time meeting about what color yarn to use for it to ever work, joked former National Security Council official Perry Blatstein. Still, retired FBI special agent David Gomez suggested there was something like the string theory phenomenon in the FBI to better visualize evidence prior to the normalized use of computers. He said that in early 1987, when he helped investigate the Dupont Plaza Hotel firean arson case in Puerto Rico that claimed almost 100 liveshe and his colleagues had the case up on butcher paper on the wall until the unit dedicated to computer link analysis flew in from Washington.

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More to the point, this trope might have been an outgrowth of real-life Mafia investigationsand the eventual need to explain it to a wider public. As the FBI generated information on the Commission during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, it helped to have link charts and diagrams showing which mob boss was connected to whom.

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Perhaps the place where it was lodged in the publics imagination was in February 1985, when a puckish U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani announced the indictments of the heads of New York Citys Five Families while standing in front of a large link chart. In another photo from that era, the mob bosses and their photos were attached to a large chart showing the hierarchy of bosses, underbosses, and soldiers. Mug shots and thumbtacks. The board appears made of cork, of course. Giuliani didnt use red yarn, however.

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Nowadays, some might chalk up the explosion of this trope to prestige television and cinema trying to advance a complicated plotline. This is why journalist Richard Benson in 2015 called our age the Post-it Procedural. For example, the Baltimore detectives in The Wire, now almost 20 years old, tried to crack a complicated drug ring using a board to pin up all the photos, press clippings, and index cards with information on the suspects. The boardand the data flowing in from the detectivesbecame the focal point of the investigation and the show, helping the audience to know who and what was important. If it was on the big board, it mattered. As Phil Gyford, who runs a Tumblr named Crazy Walls dedicated to curating this trope, suggested: For a police investigation, it makes visible all the suspects, evidence, and locations in a way that looks better than people standing in an empty room talking or looking at a computer screen. Its a handy visual shorthand.

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Indeed, Donna Cline, a longtime film illustrator and technical adviser on television productions like Bones, The X-Files, NCIS, and CSI, noted that theres an inherent tension between telling an engrossing story and adhering to an accurate portrayal of the methods used. Screen time is everything, Cline said. Its a prop thats extremely useful to get a concept across very quickly.

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Furthermore, there are the oppositional forces at work between the depth of the story the writers want to tell and the more practical issues of budget and time on the set. Basically, with one pop like that, Cline noted, you can tell the audience, Look at all the factors they have been examining. You cant do that with a file or with a screen. In any case, she reiterates that perhaps audiences shouldnt take things on screen, even those that appear to strive for accuracy, too seriously. She notes that directors and artists manipulate reality on-screen constantly from color to lighting. It isnt arbitrary, she says. It looks different from realitybecause it is.

Ultimately, the FBIs current recruiting efforts notwithstanding, yarn on a corkboard is not used in the real-life world of stopping terrorists and breaking up criminal enterprises. As Gail Helt noted, its intelligence, not arts and crafts.
This article was published in partnership with the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for its newsletter, or follow the Marshall Project on Facebook or Twitter.

One telling of Terence Andrus story  the version that prosecutors focused on when they convinced a jury to send him to death row  begins in 2008, when the 20-year-old, high on PCP, tried to steal cars in a Houston suburb and ended up shooting and killing two people.

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Since then, his lawyers have been telling a story that starts much earlier, writing in court filings about the parental neglect and psychosis that marked his childhood. Four years before the murders, the state had a chance to help him, when he was arrested for robbery and sentenced to a juvenile prison, which aimed, on paper, to provide the 16-year-old with education, treatment, and skills.

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Instead, Andrus was exposed to gangs, dosed on psychotropic drugs and tossed in solitary confinement more than 77 times, sometimes at his own request. In a separate scandal, shortly after he left, the state overhauled its juvenile prison system after revelations that the Texas Youth Commissions top administrators were sexually abusing some of the youths in their care.

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Andrus case is the most recent example of a narrative familiar to legal and medical experts, in which a victimizer was first a victim of a dysfunctional and abusive juvenile institution run by the state. Prosecutors often weaponized these childhood traumas, saying that the state tried all these things to help and it didnt work, so these boys are just inherently evil, explained historian Bill Bush, author of Who Gets a Childhood?: Race and Juvenile Justice in Twentieth-Century Texas. Its dishonest.

The Marshall Project found a dozen cases of death row prisoners who previously spent time in youth lockups. Most were in Texas, where such facilities have been plagued by abuse for decades. In October, federal prosecutors announced a new round of investigations into all five of the states youth prisons.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has been unsympathetic to death row prisoners in recent years, declining to stop any of the 13 executions pursued by the Trump administration. So it was all the more notable when, in 2020, the court ruled in Andrus favor, ordering a Texas state court to reconsider his claims. Andrus has argued that his original trial lawyer failed to adequately tell jurors about his past. The state court pushed back, ruling against Andrus. Now, his lawyers are asking the justices in Washington to intervene again.

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In a recent interview, Andrus did not seek to excuse the actions that got him to death row. But he talked about a court hearing five years ago that featured testimony about his time in youth prisons. I had never connected the dots, he said. But thats when I knew it essentially had a big influence on my mind and how it worked.

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Sitting nearby, his lawyer Gretchen Sween said she felt physically ill and complicit as a voter and taxpayer, hearing what he was subjected to in juvenile prisons.

Lawyers in other cases have come to similar conclusions about how juvenile institutions contribute to crime. When John Grant was executed in Oklahoma last October for the 1998 murder of a prison worker, his lawyer Sarah Jernigan wrote in a press release of how Grant had stolen to provide for his impoverished siblings as a child. He was sentenced to a juvenile facility and faced beatings, rapes and extended periods in solitary confinement, all of which exacerbated his mental illness, and set him on the eventual path to his crime. We must not forget Oklahomas hand in this tragic story, Jernigan concluded.

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The U.S. has been locking up kids for more than a century, generally with bad results. According to Bush, the historian, the first reform schools, started in the northeast in the 1830s, aimed to rehabilitate troubled city kids through communion with nature.

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In practice, they became work farms riddled with violence and abuse.

Across the country, that model eventually gave way to training schools, with some additional classes. We see, again and again, kids reporting that when they get out of these training schools, they were much angrier and more violent than they were when they went in, Bush said.

In the 20th century, many states moved towards youth prisons. In Texas, kids started coming forward to tell the media about what Bush described as exotic torture and abuse. Many joined a sprawling 1971 class action lawsuit that aimed to end the use of corporal punishment and solitary confinement.

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The case coincided with a national trend away from incarceration; more children were placed in group homes that emphasized treatment. Then came the War on Drugs and nationwide fears of teenage superpredators. The pendulum swung back: more juveniles incarcerated, more stories of abuse.

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It was the same problems over and over again, Bush said. The reasons the feds are investigating the Texas Juvenile Justice Department right now are the same reasons people were trying to make changes in the 1800s, and the 1940s, and 15 years ago. The institutions themselves cant be reformed.

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Researchers have long found that incarceration, for both children and adults, can actually increase the likelihood that they will commit more crimes. A 2015 study examined 35,000 juveniles arrested in Chicago over 10 years, finding that those incarcerated in their youth were less likely to finish high school and more likely to end up in prison as adults. This punitive treatment of youth confirms their self-identity as criminals and increases their anger, trauma, and reliance on physical force, explained University of Texas professor Michele Deitch in a 2017 defense affidavit for death row prisoner Juan Ramirez, who tried to escape gang involvement as a teenager before he was sent to a youth prison dominated by gang violence.

In an affidavit from another case, a former youth prison counselor said he periodically checked the Texas death row roster, looking for children hed worked with years earlier.

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Another death row prisoner, Teddrick Batiste, was arrested while in high school for joyriding  stealing cars  and sent to a juvenile facility, where, according to an ex-girlfriend, he learned more and better ways to steal cars. He spent time at Sheffield Boot Camp, hundreds of miles from his family and friends in Houston. According to Charles Rotramel, CEO of a juvenile support nonprofit, he had to beat up people to avoid being beaten up himself. He left with post-traumatic stress, hypervigilance and a diminished sense of self-worth.

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In a 2013 court affidavit, Rotramel said that with different institutional responses, it was likely that Batistes life would have taken an entirely different trajectory. At 23, he gunned down Horace Holiday during a 2009 robbery outside a gas station in order to steal his Cadillac, and he was sentenced to death.

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Before he ended up on death row, Clinton Young spent several years in Texas juvenile prisons and saw how they sometimes fostered violence.

We had unmet needs, so we would engage in delinquent behavior to meet those needs, he told The Marshall Project when he called from county jail to talk about his time in the gladiator units of the Texas Youth Commission. Its a place where violence is a form of communication, he added. There was nothing to do but beat the hell out of each other.

After getting out, Young said, it was hard to relate to regular people  and in less than a year he got into meth and ended up back behind bars. After two decades on death row, last year a court overturned his death sentence due to prosecutorial misconduct and he has since been released on bond as the state decides whether to retry him.

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Like many on death row, Terence Andrus suffered extensive trauma from a young age. When the Supreme Court ordered a lower court to revisit his case, the justices opened with the fact that his mother started selling drugs out of their apartment when he was 6 years old. According to court records, she soon turned to sex work to support her spiraling drug addiction and left her five children to fend for themselves, frequently without food. By 12, Andrus was head of the household. He cleaned for his siblings, the court wrote, put them to bed, cooked breakfast for them, made sure they got ready for school, helped them with their homework and made them dinner.

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But Andrus was struggling. Hed been diagnosed with affective psychosis, and hed started selling his mothers pills at school, in an attempt to earn money to help his family. When he got caught, he landed on probation. Then, he fell in with some guys who enlisted him in a robbery. He later said he was the lookout, although police believed he held the victim at gunpoint. He was sent to a Texas Youth Commission facility, where, court records say, Kids banged on the steel doors of their cells to demand attention, as the guards blasted classical music to drown out their pleas.

At one state school, Andrus recounted a spare room set aside for kids to assault each other. We were supposed to be having group, but it was essentially a fight club, he said. They even put newspaper over the windows.

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Given the constant chaos, Andrus frequently asked to be sent to solitary confinement, where the staff would take his shoes and books and all his belongings. You have a little thin mat and your thoughts, thats it, he recalled. The cells were dimly lit, because the tinted windows blocked out the sunlight. The walls were often covered with semen from bored boys whod been there before. To avoid touching the mess, Andrus wrapped his shoeless feet in toilet paper.

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By the time he got out, he was always on high alert. After you put on a defense for so long when you get out in the world, you automatically cringe at everything, he said.

Soon, Andrus withdrew into himself. He considered suicide and turned to drugs. I started popping ecstasy like it was candy, he recalled. According to court records, on Oct. 15, 2008, he smoked PCP-laced marijuana before attempting two carjackings. In the parking lot of a Kroger grocery store, he fatally shot Avelino Diaz, whose wife was inside buying milk, and Kim-Phuong Vu Bui, who was in the passenger seat of another car. Her husband, the driver, was wounded.

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The Fort Bend County district attorneys office, which pursued the death sentence against Andrus, declined to comment on the case and ongoing litigation.* But at the 2012 trial, assistant district attorney John Hawkins portrayed the discussion of social factors as an effort to evade blame. At some point in time in our life, we have to take responsibility for our actions and the results of our actions, Hawkins told the jury. It would have been nice if he was raised by a doctor with $250,000 worth of income every year. Well, guess what? Not everybody is. In recent court filings, the district attorneys office accused Andrus of attacking guards and pursuing a reign of terror while in jail awaiting trial.*

Now, with his case in front of the Supreme Court, Andrus hopes that the people who have power over his fate will be more compassionate. I just want them to understand and to have the same mercy and empathy that they would have for their loved ones, who have been influenced by their circumstances and environments, he said, peering through the visiting room glass. I want them to see me for me, and not this crime.

Stories like Andrus will continue to emerge as state officials set execution dates  a dozen are on the books for the rest of 2022  and the condemned ask governors to show mercy. Every client I have had experienced this pivotal moment, where an institution that was meant to protect and care for him, broke him in a way that he could not come back from, said Elizabeth Vartkessian, executive director of Advancing Real Change, a group of investigators who work with defense teams arguing for less-severe sentences. What did we think was going to happen when this kind of violation occurs to a child?
Ketanji Brown Jackson may sit at the top of President Joe Bidens Supreme Court short list, but until she gets the nod, shell keep plugging away at her current gig: a judge on the nations second highest court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This court has long served as a springboard to SCOTUS, which may be one reason Biden elevated Jackson to it in June. While Jackson authored myriad opinions during her eight years as a trial court judge, she had not written a single opinion for the D.C. Circuituntil Tuesday, when she made her debut in AFL-CIO v. Federal Labor Relations Authority. The case emerged from a sharp dispute between the Trump administration and organized labor over the rights of federal unions to negotiate their working conditions. And in her lucid, concise opinion, Jackson delivered an unqualified win to union rights.

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The roots of Tuesdays decision lie in President Donald Trumps takeover of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, or FLRA, an agency that oversees labor-management relations for 2.1 million federal workers (and their unions). Trump established a 21 majority on the agencys board by installing two Republican union-busters, Colleen Duffy Kiko and James T. Abbott. Toward the end of Trumps presidency, Kiko and Abbott issued multiple general statements of policy overturning decades of case law protecting collective bargaining. These policies aggressively limited unions ability to negotiate matters that did not come up in formal bargaining, including new demands and restrictions from management.

Jacksons first D.C. Circuit opinion involves one such statement from Kiko and Abbott about when, exactly, managers trigger their duty to bargain. Federal law compels agencies to bargain collectively over any condition of employment that affects working conditions. In 1985, however, the FLRA created an exception for de minimis changes, which are so trivial that they do not merit attention. So, for instance, an agency can reduce the number of reserved spots in a parking garage where space is always available without bargaining first. But if an agency wants to make it more difficult for its employees to get reimbursed for cellphone calls on work-related travel, itll need to go to the bargaining table. This de minimis rule encourages managers to err on the side of negotiating meaningful new work requirements instead of imposing them unilaterally.

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Kiko and Abbott decided to replace this standard with a much more stringent rule: Managers, they declared, need only bargain over workplace changes that have a substantial impact on employment conditions. Its not entirely clear how this standard would cash out in the real world, but Kiko and Abbott implied that it would inherently favor government efficiency over workers rights. Its easy to envision managers attempting to pile on extra hours, limit telework, cut comp time, and slash benefitsanything not required by the latest union contract could be fair game. This standard encourages managers to find loopholes in the contract, ramming through new demands unilaterally by insisting that they arent truly substantial.

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A group of unions sued, and on Tuesday, Jackson agreed with them that the FLRAs move was arbitrary and capricious in violation of federal law. She framed the case around one simple question: Was the boards departure from precedent support by a reasoned analysis? It was not, she explained, for several reasons. First, the boards criticism of the de minimis standard failed basic logic: It simultaneously asserted that this test invariably triggered a duty to bargain and produced wildly unpredictable results.

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In lieu of flashy prose, Jackson leaned on wry understatement and pith.

It is not at all clear, Jackson continued, how the standard could be unpredictable if it always leads to the same outcome. Yet that is how the FLRAs policy statement reads: the existing standard both purportedly subjects every minor decision to review and is unworkable because it is impossible to predict.

The FLRA board put forth several examples of the old standards alleged inconsistency; for instance, one temporary change to a new office was deemed de minimis, while a permanent change to seating assignments was not. But, as Jackson explained, closer inspection reveals that these divergent results are readily explained by distinguishable contexts. In each case, there was a rational justification for differing outcomes, a key factor that rendered a managers decision more or less than trivial. Or, as Jackson put it: To describe these decisions is to distinguish them.

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Next, Jackson turned to the boards refusal to engage candidly with the FLRAs 35-year history applying the de minimis standard. Kiko and Abbott claimed that the agency never explained the basis for the test. But their characterization of this precedent is misleading. In reality, the agency adopted the test because Congress passed a new law that was more protective of collective bargaining, forcing the agency to expand employers duty to bargain. It is not, as the board declared, inconsistent with the purposes of laws protecting federal unions.

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Third, Jackson rejected Kiko and Abbotts claim that a substantial impact test would somehow draw a brighter line. The board failed to provide a comparative analysis of the two standards, and there is no obvious reason to expect that labor unions and employers will disagree less frequently about what counts as a substantial impact. All the FLRA provided was a bald assertion that, in its view, the new test would work better. Jackson declined to defer to this determination, explaining: There is nothing technical about the predictability assessment that the FLRA makes here, and we are not bound by the FLRAs conclusory and counterintuitive assertions about the consistency with which its new standard is likely to be applied in subsequent adjudications, especially when the record contains no factual basis for making such a forecast.

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And thats pretty much it. Nothing flashy, nothing heated, just a clear and straightforward application of the law in a manner that happens to produce a major victory for federal unions. Its not much different from her writing on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, though it lacks the biting maxims (presidents are not kings) that Jackson occasionally deployed on the lower court. In lieu of flashy prose, Jackson leaned on wry understatement and pith.

On the district court, Jackson exhibited a deep understanding of labor law, as well as a refreshing lack of antipathy toward unions (all too common among her Trump-appointed colleagues). At this inflection point for labor, as millions of Americans demand better working conditions and fight the decline of unions, she brings important expertise to the bench. Biden vowed to be the most pro-union president ever, and placing Jackson on the Supreme Court would certainly help to cement that legacy.
On a recent episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick spoke with Judge Nancy Gertner about Justice Stephen Breyers announcement that he will retire from the Supreme Court at the end of the term and the political maelstrom already brewing around the confirmation fight over whoever will be named his successor. Gertner is a former federal judge and a member of the White Houses Supreme Court Reform Commission, and shes known Breyer for decades. A portion of their conversation, which has been condensed and edited for clarity, has been transcribed below.

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Dahlia Lithwick: I want to start with Justice Breyer. I noted when I first heard the news that he was stepping down that here is this last judge who just refused to be partisan, and he wouldnt be pushed out by the left, because it would politicize the court, and he wouldnt accede that what the right wing of the court was doing was political, because right to the end he insisted that the court is apolitical, that justices are not junior varsity politicians in robe. And he lived on this knife edge of always wanting to protect the court as an institution but also wanting to protect the liberal values, his own legacy of what he had put into place. And at the very last second, maybe Im being unfair, but this announcement in Januaryhe didnt wait till the springto give the Biden administration lots of runway to replace him feels like its ultimately a really political act.

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Nancy Gertner: I dont think he had a choice. He is all that you described. He is an institutionalist. He wanted to believe that the court, as an institution, was apolitical. His book last year was timed perfectly so that he could make that point over and over again. But I dont think he had a choice. I think that the Ginsburg model of someone who was making contributions to the court up until the very end but who ultimately dies in the Trump administration and winds up being replaced by someone who is her polar oppositehes an institutionalist on the one hand, but he was deeply political on another. He was an aide to Sen. Kennedy. His vision was moderation on the one hand; on the other hand, lets split the difference and lets have a rational system, which was very political because it was trying to walk a thin line between all of the political fires that were going on.

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He had no choice but to retire at this point. He is 83. The only thing I wonder about is whether there was a moment when he saw the new conservative majority grabbing cases, intentionally undoing a 60-year legacy of not radical stuff, and he saw them not just dealing with this stuff as it arrived. They were aggressively reaching out to undo cases from the past 40 years. I wonder what he felt when he saw that happen, and whether that was the trigger, but I think it was bound to happen no matter what anybody said. I knew it was going to happen; you knew that it was going to happen. It was only a question of when.

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Its interesting, because Im thinking about some of his questioning, even in the Dobbs argument, the most recent 15-week Mississippi abortion ban, and some of his questions in that oral argument were about the legitimacy of the court. Its clear that the thing that was dispiriting to him wasnt just that the court is drifting ever rightward. It was between the way the shadow docket is operating; the ways in which the court was reaching out to take questions that were not properly before it, and then willy-nilly saying, eh, precedents maybe overrated; the way we were hearing in Dobbs that in a sense he was fighting this two-front war where he really does feel that the nine justices are the sole guardians of the reputation, the integrity, the independence of the court.

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And that almost pained him more than the rightward driftthat the court was, for lack of a better word, crapping all over centuries in his mind. He always goes back to the Trail of Tears and the court didnt have legitimacy and let Justice Marshall enforce it. He really sees this as an existential moment for public regard for the court. And that seems to be breaking his heart more than the end of Roe and the expansion of gun rights.

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Well, I think thats right. One of the things that I struggle withIm writing a memoir about judging, which is very difficultis that you temper your politics the minute you walk on the bench, and if you are an appellate court judge, you have to deal with the other two guys on the panel.

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This is a court that doesnt have to deal with anybody. Thats the horrifying point. Theyve got a clear road to do whatever the hell they want to do with precedent. I think thats what he saw. They dont have to struggle with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and him. And thats a ultimate legitimacy issue. They can reject precedent. They dont have to struggle with what the usual standards are for cert. They dont have to struggle with anything.

And he saw that not just in the destroying of a liberal legacy. Because although I believe that he has liberal instincts, I wonder sometimes if the institution mattered more to him than the outcomes. And here were people who were undoing the institution. The affirmative action case that they just took: There is no reason to take it except to undo affirmative action. The law was settled. There was no division among the circuits that only the Supreme Court could resolve. And therefore the only purpose of taking it is to undo decades of settled precedent. Dobbs: There was no reason to take that except to undo Roe v. Wade.

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There are standards for what the Supreme Court may take, and this court is ignoring those standards. And they have four reliable votes to do whatever the hell they want to do, which is not judging in any way, shape, or form. So I wonder what it must feel like in those conferences when he sees that it really does not matter what Kagan, Sotomayor, and he say to this group at all.

Look, Ive been covering the court for 20 years and I remember when he and Justice Scalia would go around on their multicity concert tour, and I remember likening them to Justice Grover and Justice Oscar, and theyd wave their Muppet-y hands in the air, and Justice Breyer would talk about workability and pragmatism, and Justice Scalia would grouse about originalism and strict constructionism, but they really loved each other. And they really started from a premise of deep respect and regard for the other.

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And they had to deal with each other.

There were stakes.

They had to account for the others view. And these guys dont.

He has a skill set of working the levers, the thing that we associate with maybe Justice Brennanthat he could get OConnor, that he could get Rehnquist. I interviewed him just over a year ago and he was so careful to say, Credit is a weapon. You dont want to get credit; you just want to get results. And he learned that even if you hate each other, you find a point of mutual interest and you do the deal.

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And so you subordinate your big ego, and you get the deal done. And what youre saying is all of those skills just matter not at all. They clatter to the ground now, because you can do the deal, you can concede. Weve seen in the last couple of years, he and Justice Kagan make concessions and get nothing in return. And he had this one superpower, which is deep mutual respect, enduring friendships, and relationships. I think he thought right to the end that as long as were nice to each other around the lunch table, maybe I can get some outcomes, but it was very clear that stopped working for him.

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Its being nice, but it was also the legitimacy of the court depended on appealing to reasoned decision-making. What does that mean? Well, there are specific standards for cert. Are there divisions in the country as between courts of appeals? Is it a matter of public importance? There were standards for cert, and once Amy Coney Barrett joined the court, those dont matter. The driving force is not does this meet the standards for cert? The driving force is do we think this was the right decision? And so, yes, hes incredibly civil. He really is a warm and wonderful human being. But the institutional issue, the principles that drive the court, that all of them are supposed to adhere to, really dont matter with this group.

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I thought I was as cynical as the day is long, but even I have been surprised at how easily they have cast off, not just the usual precedents, but the notion that theyre going to be on the court for decades. This conservative majority is really entrenched. They can take their time and be respectful of the institutional issues, but theyre not taking their time. They are ripping all of these precedents completely asunder.

And thats got to have been shocking to him. Before Amy Coney Barrett got on the court, I was tracking all of the decisions that talked about precedentall these wonderful Kagan descents. And you thought that it was only about abortion, but it wasnt only about abortion; it was about everything. And thats got to have been incredibly heartrending to him and really troubling.

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Lets talk for a minute about the politics of this confirmation fight, because it seems to me a couple of things, none of which bode well. I would think youve got a 63 supermajority, as you say, probably for 30 years. Its hard to imagine absent court repair, court reform, and court expansion that this isnt a supermajority for a very long time. In which case you take the win, I would think. You just say, Hey, Biden is going to put someone on the court, and theyre going to be smart and qualified. OK. We still have a 63 court. As you said, we dont even have to negotiate with them, because theres only three of them. Theyre going to lose.

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And yet in the short amount of time since weve heard that Breyers stepping down, were already getting full-on racist attacks on the not-yet-named Black woman that Biden has pledged to put on the bench. Lets talk about the ways in which this needs to turn into critical race theory, affirmative action, Black women are inherently not qualified, This is not representative of how tiny the number of Black women in the judiciary are.

It feels to me as though given the choice between going high and saying, of course, all of these women on the short lists are eminently qualified, and redoing this tawdry battle about how Theyre just not that smart, Theyre just not that impressive, Joe Biden is a chump for making this promiseeven though Ronald Reagan made the near identical promise when he nominated Sandra Day OConnor.

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Why make the choice to use this to just fuel the fire? It feels to me as though the inevitable result, if you start by tweeting that theyre not smart, is that you get what you have now directed at Sonia Sotomayor, which is if you start with the predicate that this woman who graduated summa cum laude from Princeton, Phi Beta Kappa, one of the smartest by any measure candidates for the court, and 20 years later, theyre still calling her stupid and she lives with that. Is this just seeding the ground for decades of calling whoever this woman of color is stupid for the rest of her career?

I think thats right. That is a drumbeat that weve been living with. Frankly it was women generally, and now its women of color. Its a drumbeat that we have been living with for the longest time. Its very interesting that when Amy Coney Barrett was appointed, there was not a drumbeat that youre looking not just for any qualified women, you were looking for a qualified woman with Federalist Society pedigree. And that was a very narrow group. No one was to talking about that.

The women who have been named are superb, absolutely superb. And its really late in the day to say that the effort to find a qualified Black woman is an effort to find a less qualified judge, because the pool is long and deep nownot as wide as white males who look like all the others, but thats because theres still very few women judges in general proportionately, and its still fewer African American women, but the pool is deep. And the women who have been named are certainly qualified.

To hear the entire discussion, listen below, or subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Opposition claims the government is involved in a plan to train Ukrainian insurgents in Slovakia.

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One sentence in a New York Times story from last week stirred the political scene in Slovakia and prompted the opposition to accuse the government of planning the training of Ukrainian insurgents in the country.

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The New York Times wrote in its January 14 story on the potential US backing of Ukrainian insurgents in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, citing administration officials, that the US government's plans to help Ukrainian insurgents "could include providing training in nearby countries that are part of NATOs eastern flank: Poland, Romania and Slovakia, which could enable insurgents to slip in and out of Ukraine."
They will come into force on February 4.

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Several changes await people who decide to enter Slovakia starting this Friday, February 4.

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Our paywall policy: The Slovak Spectator has decided to make all the articles on the special measures, statistics and basic information about the coronavirus available to everyone. If you appreciate our work and would like to support good journalism, please buy our subscription. We believe this is an issue where accurate and fact-based information is important for people to cope.

Every incomer older than 12 years and two months will be required to fill in the eHranica online form and present the confirmation to the police officers or regional public health officials when asked (cross-border commuters and selected groups, like truck drivers and train/bus/plane crews, are exempt).

People then have to enter self-isolation that will be shortened from 10 to five days, if they have no symptoms (people coming to Slovakia before February 4 still have to self-isolate for 10 days). This means that people who arrive in Slovakia on February 4 have to self-isolate until February 9 (included). They can start moving freely on February 10.

They can also end their isolation sooner if they receive a negative PCR test result that can be taken as soon as they enter the country. Yet, the Public Health Authority (UVZ) warns that given the expected surge in new cases, testing capacities may be exhausted and it will be more difficult to get a date for a PCR test.

People who are fully vaccinated or those who have recovered from Covid in the past 180 days will be exempt from self-isolation. The cap for the validity of vaccination will be shortened from one year to nine months from February 4.

How to travel to and from Slovakia during COVID-19 Read more

The requirement to self-isolate also does not apply to people holding a diplomatic passport if their foreign trip is linked to the performance of their functions and duties.

Moreover, the UVZ cancelled the list of at-risk countries where first Omicron cases appeared with special rules for those coming from them. This means all incomers will have to stick to the abovementioned rules.

At the same time, a PCR test will no longer be required when arriving from the UK.

Fully vaccinated and recovered People are considered fully vaccinated if: at least 14 days have passed since receiving the second shot of a two-dose vaccine, but no more than nine months after the final jab;

at least 21 days have passed since receiving the jab of a single-dose vaccine, but no more than nine months from the final jab;

at least 14 days have passed since receiving the first shot of a vaccine that was administered within 180 days since recovering from Covid, but no more than nine months from the final jab. People are considered recovered from Covid if no more than 180 days have passed before entering the country.

More on the coronavirus developments in Slovakia:
There were not enough MPs to open the session of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

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General Prosecutor Maros Zilinka was supposed to explain his recent trip to Moscow, where he attended the celebrations of the anniversary of the establishment of the Russian prosecutors office, to the members of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

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Yet, the session, initiated by the coalition MPs, lacked enough MPs to declare a quorum. As a result, Zilinka decided to leave and not answer the questions of the present MPs about what he thinks about the crimes of the Vladimir Putin regime and the reasons for putting his Russian counterpart Igor Krasnov on the EU sanctions list, the Sme daily reported.

Zilinka admitted when speaking to journalists that he did not discuss the criminal accusations against the Russian government when visiting Moscow. He added he can imagine cooperating with Russia when it comes to revealing cyber-crimes, even though the Russian secret services are suspected of cyberattacks on Slovakia, among others, Sme wrote.

General prosecutor signs Moscow cooperation agreement with sanctioned Russian counterpart Read more

A sign of disrespect

The parliamentary committee needed one more member to reach a quorum; there were only seven out of 15 members present. The session was not attended by most opposition MPs, and MPs Martin Borgula and Adriana Pcolinska of the junior coalition party Sme Rodina. Sme Rodina nominated Zilinka to the post of general prosecutor.

Pcolinska explained to Sme that the party members agreed on not politicising Zilinkas trip to Moscow.

Zilinka considers the fact there were not enough MPs to reach a quorum a sign of disrespect towards the General Prosecutors Office.

I see no reason for acting responsively towards those who despise the General Prosecutors Office, he said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

He stressed he violated no regulations, including sanction-related ones, when travelling to Russia, adding that the top prosecutors of Slovenia and Belgium, as well as the representatives of other European prosecutors offices, were also present. In addition, at every meeting he attended, he highlighted the importance of lawfulness and the observation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, he added.

General prosecutor damns defence deal, challenges Heger governments foreign policy Read more

Yet, as the Dennik N pointed out, the representatives of the other prosecutors offices present at the celebrations were of lower ranks.

He went on to say he signed no agreement there, but rather a plan of cooperation between the Slovak and Russian prosecutors offices. When asked why he wants to suppress cyber-crime with Russia, even though the Kremlin is suspected of committing these crimes, he said that he is currently working on legal cooperation with Italy and asked whether this should be stopped only because Italy is a cradle of the Mafia, as reported by Dennik N.

Zilinka rejected the links between his visit to Moscow and his objections towards the defence deal with the United States, submitted just days before his departure, claiming it was only a coincidence.

Differing stances of coalition and opposition

Speaking to the press after the committee session, several coalition MPs who were present criticised Zilinka for leaving and not answering questions. In their opinion, even though there was no quorum, the general prosecutor could have stayed and talked to them. They referred to a similar situation, involving Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korcok (SaS nominee), who decided to stay despite the committee's lack of a quorum.

On the other hand, MP Marian Kery, who represents the opposition Smer party, said the coalition would be able to open the session if all of its MPs who are a part of the committee came, as reported by TASR.

Originally, Zilinka was supposed to explain his trip at the session of the parliamentary constitutional and legal affairs committee, scheduled for February 1, but in the end, the programme changed.
Used cars made up a 44.6 percent of all the passenger cars registered in Slovakia in 2021. (Source: Sme)

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Read in this story Why do more people buy used cars in Slovakia?

What is behind the thriving import of used cars from western Europe?

When will the registration scheme change to include environmental factors?

Rejuvenating the national car fleet is one opportunity countries have to curb their greenhouse gases emissions. But unlike other European countries, Slovakia has so far failed to put more environmentally-friendly motor vehicles at an advantage.

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Instead, the registration fee scheme in place at the moment only takes the engine size into consideration. On top of that, the older the car, the lower the registration fee. While the government has promised to change the registration fee scheme and emphasise environmental factors, its plan has not materialised.

As a result, we are importing scrap and Slovakia is turning into Europe's scrapyard, said Alexander Matusek, chair of the Slovak Automotive Industry Association (ZAP), in mid-January as he presented an overview of the Slovak automotive industry in 2021.

ZAP statistics indicate that in 2021, the import of used passenger cars into Slovakia kept increasing, unlike the purchases of new vehicles. While the registration of new vehicles decreased by 0.79 percent or 605 cars year-on-year to 75,700, the import of used cars was up 3,846 cars (6.3 percent) year-on-year, to 61,032.

Even though Slovakia is a global car-manufacturing powerhouse, boasting the highest automobile production per capita in the world year after year, most of these cars are exported to more wealthy markets.

Chip crisis partly to blame

Experts partly cite the chip crisis that halted car production lines as the reason behind the increase in imported used cars.

Buyers do not want to wait for the supply of a [new] car after the crisis extended the waiting time for some models by as long as one year, Juraj Smatana, state secretary of the Environment Ministry, told The Slovak Spectator. To prevent waiting, people opt for a readily available used car.

Another factor is Slovakia's registration fee scheme.
Flight operators suspended some flights due to problems caused by Omicron.

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Problems caused by the Omicron variant of coronavirus, which cut back several flight connections between Bratislava airport and the world, are ceasing for now.

Bratislava airport announced that the number of the flight connections doubled in February 2022 compared to last month.

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The flight schedules of most routes are thus slowly returning to normal, said Zuzana Drobova, spokesperson for Bratislava airport.

Planning a trip by plane? Check the entry conditions carefully Read more

Measures in several countries flying from Bratislava, such as the UK and Denmark, are to be further relaxed in February. This means that air traffic hit by the Omicron wave should begin to gradually recover, she added.

Ryanair flies to 14 destinations

The low-cost air carrier Ryanair operates 14 direct connections from Bratislava airport as of February. The company's planes fly to Brussels, Copenhagen, Bologna and Eindhoven every Monday and Friday.

A flight to Dublin is available to travellers every day but Friday. The connection to London Stansted flies five times a week, to Birmingham three times a week and twice a week to Leeds Bradford and Manchester.

There are also connections with Milan (Bergamo) four times a week and to Rome (Ciampino) every Tuesday and Saturday. Travellers can use the connection to Malta (each Wednesday and Sunday), the Spanish island of Lanzarote (each Saturday) and Kyiv (Boryspil) on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays.

Covid impacts travelling abroad. This is what you should prepare for Read more

Four connections have a stop in Milan  Cagliari, Catania, Porto and Valencia. The luggage is dealt with at Bratislava airport.

The low-cost Wizz Air company has two direct lines in February from Bratislava airport. It flies five times a week to Kyiv (Zhuliany) and three times a week to London Luton.

I firmly believe that the renewal of these routes, which the airlines are returning to the offer, is only the first in a series of good news for the airport this year, and that all 2022 will be good for air transport. People will once again to travel to different parts of the world more easily, said managing director of the airport, Dusan Keketi.
Strengthening the defence at Slovakia's eastern border is in the nation's interest, the president says. Novavax vaccines should arrive to Slovakia in February.

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Good evening. The Tuesday, February 1 edition of Today in Slovakia is ready with the main news of the day in less than five minutes. We wish you a pleasant read.

General prosecutor asked about his trip to Moscow

General Prosecutor Maros Zilinka (Source: SME)

MPs wanted to ask General Prosecutor Maros Zilinka about his recent trip to Moscow on two parliamentary committees. Neither had a quorum and was able to start the session.

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While Zilinka left the meeting of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee on Monday, he stayed to answer the questions of MPs on parliamentary constitutional and legal affairs.

Zilinka admitted when speaking to journalists that he did not discuss the criminal accusations against the Russian government when visiting Moscow. He added that he can imagine cooperating with Russia when it comes to revealing cyber-crimes, even though the Russian secret services are suspected of cyberattacks on Slovakia, among others, the Sme daily wrote.

Zilinka rejected the links between his visit to Moscow and his objections towards the defence deal with the United States, submitted just days before his departure, claiming that it was only a coincidence.

Flights from Bratislava to double in February

Illustrative stock photo (Source: Archive of Sme)

The airport in Bratislava is offering approximately twice as many scheduled flights in February as it did in January.

The flight schedules of most airliners are slowly returning to normal after flight suspensions and restrictions.

Measures in several countries where flights are made from Bratislava, for example in the United Kingdom or Denmark, are set to be further relaxed this month.

Ryanair will operate a total of fourteen direct flights from Bratislava as of February, Wizzair will operate two.

Coronavirus and vaccination news

(Source: Sme - Marko Erd)

14,643 people were newly diagnosed as Covid positive out of 31,595 PCR tests performed on Monday. The number of people in hospitals is 1,663 people. 20 more deaths were reported on Monday. The vaccination rate is at 50.88 percent, 2,798,166 people having received the first dose of the vaccine. More stats on Covid-19 in Slovakia here.

out of 31,595 PCR tests performed on Monday. The number of people in hospitals is 1,663 people. 20 more deaths were reported on Monday. The vaccination rate is at 50.88 percent, 2,798,166 people having received the first dose of the vaccine. More stats on Covid-19 in Slovakia here. The new vaccine by the Novavax company should arrive in Slovakia on February 21 , said Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky on the Expres Radio talk show Brano Zavodsky Live. A total of 340,000 vaccines should arrive to Slovakia. Decisions on how it will be used and combined will be held in the upcoming days.

, said Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky on the Expres Radio talk show Brano Zavodsky Live. A total of 340,000 vaccines should arrive to Slovakia. Decisions on how it will be used and combined will be held in the upcoming days. Quarantine for incomers to Slovakia will be shorter as of February 4 . At the same time, a PCR test will no longer be required when arriving from the UK.

. At the same time, a PCR test will no longer be required when arriving from the UK. The administration of monoclonal antibodies against Covid should be stopped in about a week, the Health Ministry expects. "Currently, monoclonal antibodies are administered to patients with the Delta variant of the coronavirus," spokesperson Zuzana Eliasova said. Several Czech professional medical societies have recently pointed out that the available monoclonal antibodies do not work against the Omicron variant.

Photo of the day

As you find yourself on the top of Klokoc, you will see a cross with nails. These nails are the sorrows of the people who have come before. Read more about hike here.

Feature story for today

Dual education is nothing new in Slovakia. Today, industrial companies, retail chains, IT companies, and providers of logistics services as well as companies in the hospitality sector offer educational opportunities for their future employees.

Dual education helps companies achieve top marks Read more

If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy our online subscription. Thank you.

In other news

Vaillant Group development centre in Skalica will broaden the team of 67 developers by another 17 experts . According to the head of the centre, Peter Havlik, the centre is looking for development specialists, mechanical and electrical designers, project managers and shift coordinators.

. According to the head of the centre, Peter Havlik, the centre is looking for development specialists, mechanical and electrical designers, project managers and shift coordinators. Strengthening the defence of the eastern border of Slovakia, as well as the entire eastern wing of NATO by Allied forces, is in our own interest , according to President Zuzana Caputova. She stated that Slovakia is discussing with Ukraine what the country currently needs. She also called on people not to lose a sense of justice, to keep calm and to distinguish between facts and propaganda.

, according to President Zuzana Caputova. She stated that Slovakia is discussing with Ukraine what the country currently needs. She also called on people not to lose a sense of justice, to keep calm and to distinguish between facts and propaganda. US President Joe Biden has chosen American Ambassador to Slovakia, Bridget Brink, as the new ambassador to Kyiv . She should arrive to Ukraine at a time of increasing tension with 130,000 Russian soldiers at the Ukrainian-Russian border, according to CBS news. Ambassador Brink remains focused on advancing the relationship between the United States and the Slovak Republic, as US Embassy to Slovakia spokesperson Tara Hall, told The Slovak Spectator.

. She should arrive to Ukraine at a time of increasing tension with 130,000 Russian soldiers at the Ukrainian-Russian border, according to CBS news. Ambassador Brink remains focused on advancing the relationship between the United States and the Slovak Republic, as US Embassy to Slovakia spokesperson Tara Hall, told The Slovak Spectator. HBO announced that March 8 is the date the streaming service HBO Max will be launched in Slovakia . The service will replace HBO GO and it will also showcase the films and TV series of Warner Bros, HBO, DC, Cartoon Network and Max Originals. The service will cost 6.99 per month, customers of HBO GO paying a third less.

. The service will replace HBO GO and it will also showcase the films and TV series of Warner Bros, HBO, DC, Cartoon Network and Max Originals. The service will cost 6.99 per month, customers of HBO GO paying a third less. Another alternative energy supplier in Slovakia has collapsed . Following Slovakia Energy, BCF Energy, Smart Energy Contractor SEC and Twinlogy, Greenlogy is no longer able to supply its customers with natural gas . As of the first day of February, Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel (SPP) has taken over 112 offtake points as a last resort supplier.

. Following Slovakia Energy, BCF Energy, Smart Energy Contractor SEC and Twinlogy, . As of the first day of February, Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel (SPP) has taken over 112 offtake points as a last resort supplier. Four countries have submitted bids for tracked technologies for the armed forces. These are Hungary, Sweden, Spain and Poland. The Ministry of Defence addressed a total of 33 countries.

Do not miss on Spectator.sk today

Payback period of an investment flat in Bratislava is 26 years Read more

From a petrol station to a bowling alley, Bratislava approves new monuments Read more

If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.
https://sputniknews.com/20220201/church-of-sweden-raises-eyebrows-by-protesting-mining-as-spiritually-unsustainable-1092651043.html

Church of Sweden Raises Eyebrows by Protesting Mining as 'Spiritually Unsustainable'

Church of Sweden Raises Eyebrows by Protesting Mining as 'Spiritually Unsustainable'

The Church of Sweden has emphasised its own push toward becoming climate neutral by 2030 and urged the authorities to take "moral responsibility" and decide... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

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The Church of Sweden has penned an open letter to the government, taking a stance on the issue of prospective mining in Kallak, Norrbotten County in the northernmost part of the country  in a move that social media has labelled mundane and unbecoming.In the letter signed by Lulea Bishop Asa Nystrom together with Archbishop Antje Jackelen, the Kallak mine is called "spiritually unsustainable", despite northern Sweden already being rich in mining pits."Who will pay the price for what the government calls the green transition?", the signatories write in their letter.Furthermore, the representatives of the Church of Sweden list various arguments against the mine urging the authorities to take "moral responsibility" for what they called a threat to "spiritual and public health"."The Church of Sweden has an ambitious roadmap with the goal of achieving climate neutrality for our own operations by the year 2030. We are thus strongly committed to a green transition. On a theological basis, we work with a fourfold concept of sustainability: ecological, economic, social, and spiritual-existential. The mine in Kallak is in conflict with all four dimensions of sustainability", the letter maintained.The church's representatives also emphasised the ethnic dimension because present-day Jokkmokk municipality, where the prospective mine is located, has been a core area for the indigenous Sami people "long before Sweden became a nation".On social media, however, many were unimpressed with the Church of Sweden having a say on secular affairs."Who will pay the price if the mine is not opened?", one user queried, reversing the opening line of the letter."So the Church of Sweden would rather mines be opened in Congo with children as labour? Unfortunately, that is the alternative. But when did the church become so political? Scary...", another individual mused."It's getting so ridiculous when an archbishop is so desperate to be seen. Everyone knows that the green shift will require mineral mining. There are no arguments here on the larger issue and definitely nothing that calls for church interference", another netizen maintained.The Kallak Iron Deposit is one of the largest of its kind in Sweden, identified in the 1940s and thought to contain millions of tonnes of ore. While in 2014, local authorities said no to further mining in Kallak labelling it as "ancestral lands" for the indigenous community, the Swedish state's geology decision-making body overruled the county, leaving the government with the final say in the matter. Those in favour of the mine say it will provide hundreds of jobs to the local community otherwise marked by depopulation and economic woes.At over 5 million worshippers, the Church of Sweden is Europe's largest Lutheran denomination. Formerly a state church, it is known for its liberal views on numerous social issues, including its staunch support of feminism, sexual minorities, and migrants.

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https://sputniknews.com/20220201/fire-at-north-carolina-fertilizer-plant-forces-thousands-to-evacuate-amid-fears-of-major-explosion-1092668902.html

Fire at North Carolina Fertilizer Plant Forces Thousands to Evacuate Amid Fears of Major Explosion

Fire at North Carolina Fertilizer Plant Forces Thousands to Evacuate Amid Fears of Major Explosion

The city of Winston-Salem is evacuating 6,500 people from their homes, inmates at a nearby prison and university students after a fire broke out at a... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T21:28+0000

2022-02-01T21:28+0000

2022-02-01T21:27+0000

north carolina

explosion

fire

massive explosion hits beirut's port, leaving dozens dead and thousands injured

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Nearly 2,500 homes have been evacuated so far, as well as 220 inmates from Forsyth Correctional Center, and students at Wake Forest University. The university canceled Tuesday classes and opened three other campus sites in order to shelter the evacuated students. Inmates were moved to the Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville, while the city has opened the education building at the Winston-Salem fairgrounds to shelter evacuated citizens.Winston-Salem Fire Chief Trey Mayo and his team were called to the scene on Monday at 6:45 p.m. local time. Residents, including Mayor Pro Tempore Adams, reported hearing a tremendous boom coming from the facility as the fire trucks made their way to the site.While roadblocks have been put in place, residents within a mile of the fire are being urged to leave their homes for an evacuation effort which will last up to 48 hours. The reverse 911 call went out to households at 6 a.m. on Tuesday once it was discovered that the facility holds somewhere between 300 and 600 tons of explosive ammonium nitrate.Right now, the fire is still active, and there's still potential for explosion. We're asking all the citizens to evacuate the area for a 1-mile radius around it. We do not know the full extent of the time we'll be here. It will not be anytime soon that we'll be leaving, Winston-Salem Fire Department Battalion Chief Patrick Grubbs said early Tuesday.Chief Mayo compared the harrowing situation to a fire which broke out in Texas in 2013, when a fertilizer plant caught fire, killing 15 people and destroying 120 homes. However, unlike the current blaze, the Texas explosion only had 240 tons of ammonium nitrate, according to Chief Mayo.Additionally, in early August of 2020, devastation occurred when a fire broke out in Beirut, Lebanon, at a port warehouse that held 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate and killed over 200 people in one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. Drone images have already shown official images of small-scale explosions at the site in North Carolina.Grubbs has said that there are currently no fire staff directly on the scene. However, a fire truck remains in place dousing the explosive fire with water while the department assesses the disastrous situation using drones. Some 90 firefighters and 150 emergency personnel are working to address the potential explosion while evacuating the surrounding area.Mayor Allen Joines provided an update this morning, saying that evacuation efforts will likely be put in place for a while as officials have warned of poor air quality caused by the fire. They urge people to avoid being outside for extended periods at a time. According to the mayor, several local hotels and restaurants called the citys office asking if they could provide any assistance in helping those who have been evacuated. Mayor Pro Tempore Adams has said people should stay away from the scene, but should contact the Red Cross for more information if they would like to help.

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north carolina, explosion, fire, massive explosion hits beirut's port, leaving dozens dead and thousands injured
https://sputniknews.com/20220201/french-gas-giant-total-could-resume-huge-mozambique-project-in-2022-after-insurgency-driven-hiatus-1092668297.html

French Gas Giant Total Could Resume Huge Mozambique Project in 2022 After Insurgency-Driven Hiatus

French Gas Giant Total Could Resume Huge Mozambique Project in 2022 After Insurgency-Driven Hiatus

French gas and petrol giant Total has announced its intention to restart a massive offshore gas project on the Mozambican coast after a dangerous insurgency... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T20:34+0000

2022-02-01T20:34+0000

2022-02-01T20:33+0000

mozambique

africa

total

liquefied natural gas (lng)

daesh

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"When I will see that life is back to normality, which means having some state services and population, then the project can restart," TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne told reporters in Maputo on Monday following a meeting with Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi.Total declared force majeure on the Afungi Liquified Natural Gas Plant project in Mozambiques northern Cabo Delgado province in April 2021 after Islamist rebels sacked the nearby port city of Palma - their second such attack on a major town. In response, Nyusi summoned help from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc as well as Rwanda, both of which deployed thousands of troops to the province to fight the rebellion.Several private military contractors had also previously furnished security forces in the region, but as Sputnik reported, their brutal treatment of the local population only deepened animosity toward Nyusis government, 2,000 miles to the south. Maputo was forced to hire them after accepting loans from the International Monetary Fund that forced the country to severely restrict its budget in order to pay back the loan.Nyusi also tapped help from the United States, European Union, and former colonial ruler Portugal, all of which supplied a small number of experts to train the Mozambican armed forces in new tactics.Known locally in the Muslim-majority province as Al-Shabab (the youth), the Islamist rebels are unrelated to the Somali group of the same name, but have declared their affiliation with Daesh*, although many analysts doubt the claim goes beyond an attempt to increase attention for their cause. Their rebellion began in 2017 and the conflict has killed at least 3,500 people and displaced 700,000. Cabo Delgado is one of Mozambiques poorest provinces, and the recent gas projects, along with a massive ruby mining operation in the West, have put extensive pressure on local residents, who already feel forgotten by Maputo.The multinational force has largely succeeded at recapturing much of Cabo Delgado, and Al-Shabab have retreated westward into Niassa province and established a new base of operations. On Monday, Mozambican national police announced they had killed another key rebel leader: Tuahil Muhidim, a Tanzanian.Mocimboa da Praia is a town of 30,000 in southern Cabo Delgado, which the rebel forces captured in August 2020. The two nuns were kidnapped from Mocimboa da Praia after its capture and held for several weeks before being released. Mocimboa da Praia was recaptured almost exactly a year after its fall.The gas reserves off the Cabo Delgado coast were discovered in 2010 and are the largest south of the Sahara. Total isnt the only gas company trying to tap them, either, though: ENI and ExxonMobil operate the Coral Sul project, and a third, unapproved project called Rovuma, between ExxonMobil, ENI, and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) would be the largest of the three. Together, the Cabo Delgado gas projects total more than $50 billion; Mozambiques GDP is just $13 billion.ExxonMobil also suspended operations last spring, but did not declare force majeure. ENIs Coral Sul project, entirely offshore, is the only one of the three thats remained on schedule, with its massive floating deep water facility arriving in position in early January.Totals Afungi project was originally expected to begin pumping gas by 2026, but Rystad Energy warned after Totals and ExxonMobil put their projects on hold that the delay is likely to cause an liquified natural gas supply crunch later this decade.*Daesh (also known as the Islamic State, IS) is a terrorist organisation outlawed in Russia and many other states

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mozambique, africa, total, liquefied natural gas (lng), daesh
https://sputniknews.com/20220201/israel-accuses-amnesty-international-of-inciting-anti-semitism-for-labelling-it-apartheid-regime-1092651427.html

Israel Accuses Amnesty International of Inciting Anti-Semitism for Labelling It 'Apartheid' Regime

Israel Accuses Amnesty International of Inciting Anti-Semitism for Labelling It 'Apartheid' Regime

Israel has asked Amnesty International to withdraw an upcoming report by the group, accusing the UK branch of the organisation of "being corrupted by racism... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T06:52+0000

2022-02-01T06:52+0000

2022-02-01T06:52+0000

international criminal court (icc)

yair lapid

amnesty international

israel

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anti-semitism

uk

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The Israeli Foreign Ministry has launched a blistering pre-emptive attack on London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International over a yet-to-be released report which describes Tel Aviv's policy towards the Palestinians as falling under the category of "apartheid".The report by Amnesty International is scheduled to be released on Tuesday. But its embargoed version has supposedly been leaked on social media. Among its several recommendations, the paper compiled by Amnesty reportedly calls for international sanctions and an "arms embargo" against Israel over its policy towards the Palestinians.While Amnesty has on several occasions criticised what it calls Israel's "institutional discrimination" against the Palestinian population, it has never classified Tel Aviv's policy as falling under the category of "apartheid", which the Rome Statute of 2002 described as a "crime against humanity".The Foreign Ministry further said that the upcoming report "once again" showed that "anti-Semitism is not just a part of history", but also part of "today's reality".Tel Aviv has also claimed that Israel is a "strong and vibrant democracy that grants all its citizens equal rights, regardless of religion or race".In a video statement, Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid accused Amnesty of quoting "lies spread by terrorist organisations"."Israel is not perfect, but it is a democracy committed to international law and open to scrutiny, with a free press and strong Supreme Court", Lapid stated.Lapid further questioned why Amnesty hadn't declared Syria, Iran, or any "other murderous regime" in Africa or Latin America as an "apartheid state".US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price, while refusing to comment on Amnesty's upcoming report, said that Washington would never use the "language" mentioned in the leaked document.Alleged war crimes committed by Israel and the Palestinians since June 2014 are already the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC). Israel has said that it won't cooperate in the investigation.

https://sputniknews.com/20220106/west-might-not-like-house-demolitions-but-israel-doesnt-have-any-other-options-1092054849.html

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Dhairya Maheshwari

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international criminal court (icc), yair lapid, amnesty international, israel, palestine, apartheid, anti-semitism, uk
https://sputniknews.com/20220201/minsk-says-nothing-threatens-diplomats-from-us-or-other-nations-in-belarus-1092655736.html

Minsk Says Nothing Threatens Diplomats From US or Other Nations in Belarus

Minsk Says Nothing Threatens Diplomats From US or Other Nations in Belarus

MINSK (Sputnik) - Neither US diplomats nor diplomats from other states are in danger in Belarus, foreign ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz told Sputnik on... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T08:38+0000

2022-02-01T08:38+0000

2022-02-01T08:38+0000

belarus

ukraine

us

diplomats

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On Monday, the US State Department ordered the departure of family members of American government employees in Belarus "due to an increase in unusual and concerning Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine".Washington has been claiming that Russia plans to "invade" Ukraine and even advised Americans to depart the country as soon as possible. Moscow denied those allegations, calling them scaremongering and accused the US and its allies of planning a provocation against Russia in Ukraine.

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belarus, ukraine, us, diplomats
https://sputniknews.com/20220201/photos-us-navys-f-35-stealth-fighters-seem-to-be-rusting-on-south-china-sea-voyage-1092648254.html

Photos: US Navys F-35 Stealth Fighters Seem to be Rusting on South China Sea Voyage

Photos: US Navys F-35 Stealth Fighters Seem to be Rusting on South China Sea Voyage

Lockheed Martins F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is notorious for its myriad failings despite being a technically advanced and expensive aircraft. Having already... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T00:26+0000

2022-02-01T00:26+0000

2022-02-01T00:24+0000

south china sea

us navy

rust

uss carl vinson

f-35c

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Recent photos from the US Navys latest deployment to the South China Sea yielded some unexpected information about the Navys most advanced aircraft: they seem to be rusting.The photos come from the USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln, two Nimitz-class supercarriers that have been carrying out flight operations in the South China Sea over the last few weeks. Both warships deployed with 10 F-35Cs on board, a version of the stealth aircraft optimized for the rough-and-tumble life of being launched off the front of a carrier by a catapult during takeoff and yanked to a halt when they land on the back. Another six F-35Bs, the vertical takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) version of the jet, are onboard the USS America, an amphibious assault ship not far away in the Philippine Sea.However, it was The Drives The War Zone that first noticed the brown markings that seem to be on top of all the F-35Cs on the ship among the dozens of photos published on the Pentagons Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) media hub.But that couldnt be rust, right? After all, the F-35 is a highly advanced aircraft, made out of futuristic lightweight materials that disguise its silhouette from radar screens, costs $78 million each, and just generally looks really expensive. It wouldnt be made out of plain old iron, would it?Every US stealth aircraft has used it, including the SR-71, B-2, F-117, F-22 and the F-35. Chinas J-20 likely uses it, too. However, only the carrier-borne B and C variants of the F-35 have ever come anywhere near the briny foam so infamous for accelerating the oxidation of iron.One might assume that Lockheed Martin would plan for such a problem, but considering the plethora of failings in its design the defense giant would also have been expected to anticipate - such as not handling being struck by lightning or vibrations caused by flying above the speed of sound - the defense giant overlooking the effects of seawater on its stealth paint seems less far-fetched. On the other hand, it might simply not be that much of a problem beyond being an eyesore.

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south china sea, us navy, rust, uss carl vinson, f-35c
https://sputniknews.com/20220201/qatar-taliban-agree-to-resume-evacuation-flights-from-kabul-1092663474.html

Qatar, Taliban 'Agree to Resume Evacuation Flights From Kabul'

Qatar, Taliban 'Agree to Resume Evacuation Flights From Kabul'

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Qatar has agreed with the Taliban movement (under UN sanctions for terrorist activities) to resume chartered evacuation flights from the... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T14:52+0000

2022-02-01T14:52+0000

2022-02-01T14:52+0000

kabul

evacuation

qatar

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A chartered Qatar Airways evacuation flight carrying US citizens - the first one since the suspension of evacuations last November - took off from Kabul last Thursday, NBC reported, citing sources.According to Al Thani, as cited in the report, a new agreement between Qatar and the Taliban provides for two flights from Kabul per week operated by Qatar Airways, allowing foreigners and Afghans willing to leave the country to do so.The sides are also negotiating a deal to allow one flight per week to Qatar operated by Ariana Afghan Airlines, the top diplomat was cited as saying.The Taliban took over Afghanistan last August, which led to the collapse of the previous government and mass evacuations from the Kabul airport. As crowds amassed at the airport and the area was hit by two terrorist attacks, the Taliban ordered all foreign evacuations to end before August 31. Later, evacuations resumed.

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kabul, evacuation, qatar
https://sputniknews.com/20220201/russian-president-putin-and-hungarian-pm-orban-hold-meeting-in-moscow-1092657145.html

Russian President Putin and Hungarian PM Orban Hold Press Conference in Moscow

Russian President Putin and Hungarian PM Orban Hold Press Conference in Moscow

The agenda of the talks includes cooperation between Moscow and Budapest in various areas, such as regional security, healthcare, gas supplies, and nuclear... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T12:16+0000

2022-02-01T12:16+0000

2022-02-01T16:34+0000

viktor orban

russia

vladimir putin

hungary

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hold a press conference after the meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. During the talks, they discussed cooperation between the two nations, including the production of the vaccine Sputnik V in Hungary and the Paks II nuclear power plant project.Follow Sputnik's Live Feed to Find Out More!

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Putin and Orban Hold Joint Press Conference After Meeting in Moscow Putin and Orban Hold Joint Press Conference After Meeting in Moscow 2022-02-01T12:16+0000 true PT37M37S

Russian President Putin and Hungarian PM Orban Hold Meeting in Moscow Russian President Putin and Hungarian PM Orban Hold Meeting in Moscow 2022-02-01T12:16+0000 true PT14M58S

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https://sputniknews.com/20220201/slovakia-says-its-ready-to-help-strengthen-nato-on-eastern-flank-if-necessary-1092654111.html

Slovakia Says It's Ready to Help Strengthen NATO on Eastern Flank If Necessary

Slovakia Says It's Ready to Help Strengthen NATO on Eastern Flank If Necessary

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Slovakia is ready to help in strengthening NATO in Eastern Europe, Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said. 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T07:03+0000

2022-02-01T07:03+0000

2022-02-01T07:11+0000

slovakia

europe

nato

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On 3 February, an agreement on military cooperation between the United States and Slovakia will be signed in Washington. It will allow the US to use several Slovak military airfields and other military bases free of charge. The agreement will be valid for 10 years, with the possibility of subsequent renewal or termination. The document provides for the allocation by the US of $100 million for the modernisation of the nation's defence infrastructure.Slovak opposition parties and politicians have protested the proposed draft agreement with the US, and Prosecutor General Maros Zhilinka found 35 inconsistencies with national legislation in it. A group of retired prominent politicians asked Slovak President Zuzana Caputova to send the draft agreement to the Constitutional Court for scrutiny, but she declined.Last week, CNN reported that the US and its NATO allies are discussing the deployment of additional troops to the alliance's eastern flank, anticipating a potential escalation in Ukraine. According to the report, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary are among the countries considering deploying additional forces.

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slovakia, europe, nato
https://sputniknews.com/20220201/trump-blasts-democrat-bid-to-curb-vps-power-over-election-endorsement-1092665948.html

Trump Blasts Democrat Bid to Curb VP's Power Over Election Endorsement

Trump Blasts Democrat Bid to Curb VP's Power Over Election Endorsement

A "discussion draft" unveiled on Tuesday by three senior Democrat senator would amend the law to state explicitly that the vice-president's role in certifying... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T18:59+0000

2022-02-01T18:59+0000

2022-02-01T18:59+0000

donald trump

nancy pelosi

mike pence

us

us congress

sen. joe manchin (d-west virginia)

amy klobuchar

susan collins

joe biden

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Donald Trump has slammed an attempt by Senate Democrats to limit the power to challenge election results which he urged his vice-president Mike Pence to invoke last year.The former president laid into his opponents on the "Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors" on Tuesday after two rival draft reform bills to the 1887 Electoral Count Act emerged this week.Trump said the move vindicated his assertions that Democrat Joe Biden only won the November 2020 presidential election thanks to widespread ballot fraud.He said the motive of the bills  one backed by Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins  was "so that a Vice President cannot ensure the honest results of the election, when just one year ago they said that 'the Vice President has absolutely no right to ensure the true outcome or results of an election'."A "discussion draft" was unveiled on Tuesday by independent but Democrat-allied Maine Senator Angus King (I-Maine) Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois.It would amend the law to state explicitly that the VP's role in certifying the electoral college votes was only ceremonial  which constitutional pundits say the existing act already does. Meanwhile another group of 16 senators led by Collins and West Virginia's dissident Democrat Joe Manchin met on Monday night to discuss their proposal, and will reconvene on Friday to examine progress on a draft.There is little love lost between Collins and Trump. She opposed the property tycoon's 2016 run for the presidency and refused to say how she voted in 2020.On Sunday Collins told ABC News it was "very unlikely" she would support his heavily-mooted third bid for the White House in 2024. That was after Trump slammed senators "like Wacky Susan Collins" for trying to amend the 1887 legislation.Trump also pinned blame for the January 6 occupation of the US Capitol building  as Congress, presided over by Pence, certified the state-by-state results  on his rivals."If it were sent back to the legislators, or if Nancy Pelosi, who is in charge of Capitol security, had taken my recommendation and substantially increased security, there would have been no 'January 6' as we know it!" he wrote on Tuesday."The Unselect Committee should be investigating why Nancy Pelosi did such a poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!" Trump stormed.

https://sputniknews.com/20220130/biden-should-defend-us-border-instead-of-obsessing-over-ukraine-trump-says-1092613694.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220201/uk-partygate-saga-should-bojo-brace-for-tough-times--1092659560.html

UK 'Partygate' Saga: Should BoJo Brace for Tough Times?

UK 'Partygate' Saga: Should BoJo Brace for Tough Times?

On Monday, Boris Johnson said that he was "going to get on" with his job after an investigation into a string of parties held at his official residence in... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

2022-02-01T12:19+0000

2022-02-01T12:19+0000

2022-02-01T12:19+0000

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With UK senior civil servant Sue Gray's report on the alleged lockdown parties at Number 10 released on Monday, the main focus now shifts to a Metropolitan Police probe into the matter after detectives revealed that they had obtained at least 500 pages of evidence and about 300 images taken at purported Downing Street social gatherings between 2020 and 2021.In a previous phone call to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Gray made it clear that she expected her findings to be published in full once the police had completed their own inquiry.Gray's report accused No 10 of serious failures of "leadership and judgment" over some parties, where the document claimed "excessive quantities" of alcohol were consumed. So the question arises as to what may come next in this "partygate" saga, especially given that the senior civil servant's report disclosed scant details about the purported parties.Will the Names of Specific Lockdown Rule-Breakers Be Revealed?Yes and no, because typical police procedure allows the Met not to name individuals who are issued with penalty notices. The British law enforcement agency earlier suggested that they are not going to make an exception in the "partygate" case.Is There a Chance of Finding Out What Exactly Happened at the Alleged Number 10 Parties? There is such a chance given Johnson reversing his drive not to commit to publishing Gray's full-blown report after the conclusion of the police probe.There are reports the embattled prime minister is not in a position to veto anything Gray would like to reveal, and she earlier said she thinks that ordinary Britons deserve a complete account of the Downing Street parties.Will Johnson Face Leadership Challenge Over 'Partygate'?The scenario that enough Tory MPs will submit letters to the chairman of the Conservative Party's 1922 Committee to trigger a confidence vote is possible, but not likely.On Monday, just one more Conservative lawmaker came out to say that he no longer supports Johnson. Other MPs will most likely wait for the publication of the results of the Met's investigation.Late last week, The Independent reported that British Chancellor Rishi Sunak is preparing a potential Tory leadership bid as he believes the "partygate" scandal could be "unsurvivable" for Johnson. The newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying that Sunak is putting the finishing touches on a PR-led leadership campaign, including a draft version of a campaign website inspired by his weekly No 11 newsletter and marketing strategy.In the latest development, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Sky News that Johnson cannot answer specific questions about the alleged Number 10 parties because he does not want to prejudice the police probe into the issue."If he does start answering specific questions that have been referred to the police, he will be accused, in fact fairly and rightly, of prejudicing or preventing or interfering in that investigation", Raab asserted.

https://sputniknews.com/20220131/johnson-pledges-change-following-interim-partygate-report-1092641519.html

https://sputniknews.com/20220128/boris-johnson-report-on-downing-street-parties-to-be-published-in-full-1092573352.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220201/un-security-council-holds-meetings-on-ukraine-crisis-ethiopia--eritrea-unite-for-china-cooperation-1092648709.html

UN Security Council Holds Meetings on Ukraine Crisis; Ethiopia & Eritrea Unite for China Cooperation

UN Security Council Holds Meetings on Ukraine Crisis; Ethiopia & Eritrea Unite for China Cooperation

The UN Security Council is meeting on the Ukraine crisis as the US argues with allies over the probability of a Russian invasion. 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

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UN Security Council Holds Meetings on Ukraine Crisis; Ethiopia & Eritrea Unite for China Cooperation The UN Security Council is meeting on the Ukraine crisis as the US argues with allies over the probability of a Russian invasion.

Scott Ritter, former UN weapon inspector in Iraq, joins us to discuss Ukraine. Ritter discusses his latest article in which he says that Russia has a well-reasoned plan to force the issue on their border security demands. Meanwhile, the US is fighting with its "allies" over sanctions and the probability of a Russian invasion in Ukraine.Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor in economics and politics at St. Mary's College in California, joins us to discuss the US economy. The pandemic economy has pushed rents up 40% in some cities. Also, the Federal Reserve is considering fiscal maneuvers that may create the dynamics for a deep recession.Rafiki Morris, organizer for the All African People Revolutionary Party, fine artist, and coordinating committee member for the Black Alliance for Peace, joins us to discuss Africa. Several of the recent coups and coup attempts in Africa were done by US-trained military personnel. Also, the US-trained Sudan military strongman who took over the government is now meeting with US State Department personnel as he names his new government.Nick Davies, peace activist and author of "Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion of Iraq," joins us to discuss Ukraine. Nick Davies and Medea Benjamin have penned an excellent piece in which they fill in the blanks about the Ukraine crisis that have been conspicuously left out by the mainstream media.Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to discuss the Middle East. Iran's foreign minister has condemned recent attacks on Baghdad's airport, arguing that they can destabilize the country. Also, the US is hanging on to its occupation in the Middle East, but imperial overstretch is making it more difficult for the empire to continue its quest for hegemony in the oil-rich region.Greg Palast, investigative reporter, joins us to discuss an oil spill in the Amazon. Indigenous environmental defenders are protesting a recent pipeline burst in the equatorial Amazon that has spewed crude oil onto the banks of the Coca River. Up to 60,000 people live downstream from the location of the spill and they depend on the river for living.Yolian Ogbu, member of the Black Alliance for Peace and Horn of Africa Pan-Africans for Liberation and Solidarity, joins us to discuss Ethiopia. The US is dipping its hands into the fragile political situation in Ethiopia. Meanwhile, the government of Ethiopia is working together with the government of Eritrea to enhance economic cooperation with China.Robert Fantina, journalist and activist, joins us to discuss Israel. The US Congress is working to enshrine President Trump's landmark Abraham Accords deal with Israel. Many security observers find it remarkable that, while promoted as a road to peace, the deal seems to be centered around weapons sales.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

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https://sputniknews.com/20220201/us-estimates-6600-american-citizens-resided-in-ukraine-in-october---state-dept-1092649621.html

US Estimates 6,600 American Citizens Resided in Ukraine in October - State Dept.

US Estimates 6,600 American Citizens Resided in Ukraine in October - State Dept.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Biden administration estimates that there were some 16,000 US citizens in Ukraine as of October, including approximately 6,600 US... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

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In October, the estimate was that there were 6,600 US citizens residing in Ukraine, Price said during a press briefing on Monday. Now our embassy also estimated in October, before Russia's military buildup began, that at any given point in time, there could be 16,000 US citizens, tourists and visitors in Ukraine.The administration assesses that this number is much lower today, several months later after multiple US government advisories to leave Ukraine amid an alleged threat of Russian aggression, Price added.Last week, The US embassy in Kiev issued several warnings advising US citizens to leave Ukraine due to the unpredictable security situation and recommended a number of possible destinations.In recent months, Western countries have accused Russia of a troop buildup near a border with Ukraine with plans to attack its neighbor. Moscow has dismissed the claims, which it considers to be a pretext for NATO military deployment on Russia's borders and plans to expand further eastward.The tensions escalated since last week, as NATO began deploying additional troops to the Russian-Ukrainian border in anticipation of the alleged invasion. Russia said it deems the move to be a pretext for a provocation and for Kievs plans to sabotage the Minsk agreements on the resolution of the conflict in the Donbas breakaway region.

https://sputniknews.com/20220131/biden-us-desires-diplomacy-but-ready-no-matter-what-happens-if-ukraine-tensions-worsen-1092644731.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220201/us-holds-largest-multinational-naval-exercise-in-middle-east-tests-fleet-of-drones-1092664961.html

US Holds Largest Multinational Naval Exercise in Middle East, Tests Fleet of Drones

US Holds Largest Multinational Naval Exercise in Middle East, Tests Fleet of Drones

US Strategic Command also launched Global Lightning military drills, which involve testing the latest model of America's nuclear war plan. Last year, these war... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

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The Pentagon launched the IMX/CE (International Maritime Exercise/Cutlass Express) 2022 joint naval drills with more than 60 allies on 31 January, the US Fifth Fleet announced. Taking place in the Kingdom of Bahrain in the Middle East region, these war games were attended by 9,000 servicemen from the US and its allies, and involved 50 warships.This year's IMX/CE naval drills are focused on testing drones and the work of artificial intelligence in various military scenarios, according to the Fifth Fleet. The military also called IMX/CE 2022 the "largest multinational naval exercise".The multinational military force will extend over 14 different training scenarios, although the vice-admiral would not expand on details. The exercises will be held in the Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and northern part of the Indian Ocean and will last until 17 February.The multinational war games coincided with the "stress test" of the latest US nuclear war plan by the country's Strategic Command. The force will not fire any missiles, but the exercise will test its readiness to use nuclear weapons in various scenarios, which exclude Mutually Assured Destruction and suggest multiple exchanges of weaponry. Last year these drills, dubbed Global Lightning, were based on the hypothesis that the US would be deterring Russian aggression against Baltic states using nuclear weapons.

https://sputniknews.com/20220130/us-conducts-nuclear-weapons-use-war-games-amid-continuing-tensions-with-russia-over-ukraine-1092625158.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220201/us-state-dept-orders-diplomats-families-to-leave-belarus-amid-concerning-border-tensions-1092649440.html

US State Dept. Orders Diplomats' Families to Leave Belarus Amid 'Concerning' Border Tensions

US State Dept. Orders Diplomats' Families to Leave Belarus Amid 'Concerning' Border Tensions

The United States Department of State (DOS) has issued a Level Four, do not travel, advisory for Belarus "due to the arbitrary enforcement of laws, the risk of... 01.02.2022, Sputnik International

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2022-02-01T02:23+0000

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The travel advisory, issued on January 31, came in conjunction with the DOS ordering the departure of family members of US government employees from Belarus. The state department cited Russian military activity along the border with Ukraine and the unpredictability of the situation as their chief concerns. The DOS order also cited the US government's already limited ability to provide US citizens emergency services due to the Belarusian government's limitations on US Embassy staffing, as the potential of an armed conflict intensifies those concerns. Concerns over Covid were also mentioned. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a Level Three travel health notice for Belarus, indicating a high level of Covid in the country. Belarus and Ukraine share a 674-mile border. According to reports, Russian troops have been steadily entering the former country. Russian and Belarusian officials say the build-up is to complete joint military exercises focused on defense. On January 27, the Belarusian Ministry of Defence said the Russian troops will leave once the two militaries' joint exercises have been completed. The second phase of their joint exercise is set to take place between February 10 and 20. On January 23, the US DOS issued a similar order for family members of government employees at the US Embassy to Ukraine in Kiev.The January 23 travel advisory for Ukraine also cited Russian military activities on the Ukrainian border as their primary concern.

https://sputniknews.com/20220123/us-state-department-officially-orders-diplomats-families-non-essential-staffers-to-leave-ukraine-1092472680.html

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Don Lease II, a farmer and rancher from Banner County, launched his District 48 state senate campaign at a Friday meet-and-greet in Scottsbluff.

Lease, a farmer and rancher from Banner County, credited his time in the Nebraska Strong Recovery Project with starting his desire to run for office.

That created a passion in me for the people in this area, basically. Now Id like to see how else I can enable them, help them to pursue better things, he said.

The Recovery Project was a 15-month statewide endeavor where outreach workers worked with community groups to help people during the coronavirus pandemic.

We just tried to help people cope with COVID as best we could, connect them with resources in their local communities. And a lot of it was just to encourage people, Lease said.

Lease based his campaign around a few different goals, one of which was improving education without raising property taxes.

Property taxes are assessed whether you make money or not...its not negotiable, theres nothing you can do about it. So thats not a good funding source for education, he said. He instead pushed increased programs to help kids develop basic skills such as reading and writing early on.

These programs would be similar to existing Sixpence programs offered by Scottsbluff Public Schools, which provide disadvantaged parents with early childhood development assistance.

We want to be teaching those kids like parents used to teach their kids to be socially aclcimated by the time they get to be five and go to kindergarten, Lease said. That gives them a great leg up, a great head start in kindergarten. The thing we need to do is use these things as efficiently as possible.

Lease also encouraged businesses and schools to partner in trade programs. He said theres a shortage of well-paying jobs such as electricians and mechanics, and that businesses and schools should get kids excited about entering these fields. Lease said it would help bolster the workforce and make students skilled in multiple fields.

Additionally, he encouraged a greater focus on substance abuse intervention programs and mental health services.

Mental health is part of the substance abuse factor. If we can keep people from drinking beer at 14 or smoking marijuana at a young age, the longer we can push that forward past adolescence, the less damage it does. Now it still does damage, so we dont want people to abuse substances...so we need to figure out how to do prevention, he said.

During his volunteering with the Recovery Project, he said he noticed how the pandemic and lockdowns particularly impacted the elderly and children. Their socialization skills suffered because they were unable to interact with many other people.

Sometimes we need to talk with somebody and a lot of our issues could be solved if we had some kind of peer counseling set up, he said.

The final facet of his campaign is aiding first responders, who he said fulfill a basic need for society. He said they can be supported through thanks and providing their equipment needs. In rural areas, like most of District 48, it can be hard to attract volunteers for emergency services.

If you think of the dwindling number of younger people that are in these rural communities, it becomes very difficult to handle this, he said. Were going to eventually need to address ... different types of interlocal agreements to try to solve these problems with emergency services.

He also stressed the need for additional workers, good school systems and affordable housing.

Volunteering over 15 months created a great awareness in me about the different parts of our society, Lease said. ...Itd be an honor to go down and do the things they want me to do and the things Nebraska needs. If elected, this would not be Leases first political position, as he served for six years on the Banner County school board.

District 48 is currently represented by John Stinner, who is unable to run again, having reached his term limit. During the latest redistricting session, the district expanded south from Scotts Bluff County. It now envelops Banner and Kimball Counties as well. Currently, Lease joins Brian Hardin as a candidate competing for the District 48 seat.

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GERING - The Gering Fire Department held its annual W.H. Templar Awards Ceremony on Jan. 21, when we honor length of service, top responders and our firefighter of the year. This year was very special as we recognized an individual for 50 years of service to the Gering Volunteer Fire Department.

In 2021, we recognized 10 top responders that committed the most time for the fire department, the 10 individuals that committed the most hours attending trainings, fire prevention activities, meetings and calls. Our Top Ten are Lieutenant Andrew Lehr, Adam Sauer, Assistant Chief Darrell Vance, Tim Milton, Tim Maxcy, Lieutenant Chris Perales, Miranda Wiebers, Captain Grant Severson, Assistant Chief Jeff Vance and Assistant Chief Troy Cowan.

During the ceremony, the past president recognized three individuals for length of service awards. Lieutenant Brett Walter and Julie White were recognized for five years of service; firefighter Colin Borgman was recognized for 10 years of service and the highlight was recognizing Jim Lawson for 50 years of service. Lawson received his ax and commemorative photo collage. Shortly after, Mayor Tony Kaufman also recognized Lawson for 50 years of service with the Key to the City of Gering.

Lawson has served as president, captain and assistant chief at the Gering Fire Department. He also has served on many state boards and is a NSVFA past president. Lawson continues to teach at Nebraska State Fire School, which he has attended 48 years consecutively.

The highlight of the evening was to recognize one firefighter that went above and beyond in 2021. The department recognized Tim Milton as the 2021 Firefighter of the Year for his dedication to training, meetings and call response. Tim Milton spent over a week in Montana as a Gering firefighter on a large Type 2 fire. He also received his Firefighter 1 and Hazmat Operations certification in 2021.

Over 90 people were in attendance from five different agencies from the state of Nebraska. Gering Fire Department is appreciative of all winners and participates. Here is to 2022.

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Police Chief David Addison announced Tuesday morning that he will retire from his position on May 31 after three years in Statesville.

It has truly been an honor and a pleasure, Addison said during his regular appearance on The Billy Buck Morning Show. My goal is to look for other ways to serve the county and the city.

Addison said there are bigger things he wants to do in the county and to do that, he needs to step down from his current position.

Weve made a lot of progress in the city. Our crime is down, and I work with some incredible people. The staff, the sworn and non-sworn personnel at the Statesville Police Department is incredible, Addison said. I couldnt have asked for a better group to work with.

With the announcement of Addisons retirement, City Manager Ron Smith plans to run a recruitment and assessment process with the intention of having a new chief on board prior to Addisons last day according to Public Affairs Director Nancy Davis.

In his time with the Statesville Police Department, Addison dealt with the challenges of policing during a pandemic, a push from social justice and increased police accountability, and a high-profile set of shootings that killed one child and injured two others.

Property crime rates decreased since 2019 and violent crime went up, but at a lower rate than compared to similar-sized municipalities, according to Addison in his last formal update to the city council in October. He said in March the next crime report presented to city council will show crime is down.

He said he will take the rest of the year off after May, but is keeping his options open for whats next when asked on Tuesday. He said he isnt moving and loves it here.

In the appearance on the morning show, he was joined by Ron Smith and Davis. Smith said Addison was his best hire since he took over as city manager.

This was the guy we needed at the time, and he has done a lot and exactly what we needed, Smith said.

Addison began in April of 2019 after 22 years of serving with the Durham Police Department.

The police chief is originally from Pennsylvania and earned an associates degree in engineering from the Community College of Philadelphia and a bachelors degree in information technology from the University of Phoenix. In 2016, Addison earned a law degree from North Carolina Central University and was admitted to the N.C. bar that same year.

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When his phone started to buzz, Clinton Baker muted the ringer and let the call roll to his voicemail.

He wasnt really screening his call, though.

His move to the mute button was in deference to his surroundings.

Im in my tent next to a church, Baker whispered when he returned the call. I can still hear the music inside. When the service is over, Ill call you back.

I dont want to bother anybody.

True to his word, the weary 48-year-old rang back an hour or so later. Baker had a story to tell, not for himself, but for others who may be considering following the same dark path that had nearly led him to take his own life by the side of a lonely mountaintop.

I had a dry hose stuck inside my Jeep next to the Appalachian Trail, he said. A hiker saved my life. God had his hand on me.

Hard not to notice

David Merritt was seated in the choir loft at Hope Moravian Church when he saw Baker and his Great Dane wander into a recent Sunday service and quietly take a seat in the back.

Its hard not to notice a man and his dog coming into a church, Merritt said.

He didnt get a chance to speak to Baker. I was busy doing something for the worship leader, Merritt said. But I saw his backpack. Im not into the whole hashtagging thing, but I did see #suicidesux.

Baker slipped away before he could ask, but the slogan stuck in Merritts head. How could it not?

Through the modern miracle that is a Google search, Merritt gleaned enough to learn that Baker had been walking across the country since before the Pandemic to try and raise awareness about suicide prevention.

What he didnt know  and couldnt not without spending time talking to Baker  was that this solitary trek was as much self-healing as warning others about suicide and offering hope.

Hes a good guy, said Rob Harris, a volunteer with the Homeless Coalition in Statesville. He stayed with us last week. Hes got a story for sure. Hes been through a lot.

Most of that resulted from personal loss, much more than most can begin to imagine. Almost one after the other, Baker buried three brothers, his father, a nephew and finally, his mother.

Obituaries and death records confirm the details. Some of the deaths resulted from accidents, others from illnesses, both sudden and gradual. And watching helplessly as the family tree withered just got to be too much for one man to handle.

It kept adding up, Baker said. But Im fighting to be here, trying to do something positive, help others and maybe help myself live my life.

The loss of his father and a younger brother led Baker to the side of the Appalachian Trail in his native New Hampshire in 2010, Baker said. He parked his Jeep, ran a hose from the tailpipe to the cars interior and waited for carbon monoxide to relieve his pain.

A random through-hiker trying to cover some miles as darkness gathered found him and called for help.

I took my own life, said Baker, deliberately choosing the present tense so as to indicate that an old path had run its course and a new one was about to open up.

As he travels, Baker sometimes can be seen wearing a yellow sign on his back with the words Dont kill yourself and the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255). He wrote the slogans #suicidesux and #stopbullying on his pack.

All of that in the event that he happens to encounter someone in crisis who may be looking for a sign, divine intervention or any reason not to attempt suicide.

I really believe its helped some people, he said. Whether I know it or not.

Church families

Not unlike the fictional Forrest Gump, Baker walked out of his house one day and just kept going.

It was before the lockdowns, Baker said.

He didnt have any set goal other than crossing the country and, if possible, let a few people know that help is out there if need be. Hes not sure exactly how many miles hes walked; he only knows that its a lot.

To keep family and friends up to date, Baker set up a Facebook page that he updates with video and a location as he walks from town to town lugging his gear in a pull cart.

He started out with another canine companion, but that one died in Oklahoma. So he picked up another, the Great Dane he named Watonga after the town where he came across the stray.

He settled into something of a routine after making it cross country and heading more or less back to a home base.

For showers and re-charging his phone, Baker sometimes stays in KOA campgrounds or seeks out truck stops. To eat, he relies on the kindness of people he meets along the way. We can go two or three days on $20, Baker said.

Unlike others whove undertaken similar journeys to raise awareness for various causes, Baker neither seeks sponsors nor solicits money. Hes open about discussing suicide and its costs, but not to the point of proselytizing. I dont want people to think Im there for money, he said. So I usually just take off after the service.

He mostly speaks when spoken to, answering questions with direct answers and offering parts of his story when listeners are truly engaged.

Many times, Baker said he finds himself heading to churches.

Part of the reason is practical. No No trespassing signs, he said.

Some of it was to help him cope with yet another crushing loss, the death of his mother Shirley in 2021.

That helped, he said. Plus the people are usually pretty nice.

Thats what Baker found in Statesville a week or so ago as he passed through on his way toward Winston-Salem. He met Harris, who invited him to rest for a couple days in the emergency shelter at the Cochran Street Bible Church.

It was interesting timing, Harris said, because when I met him, it was the one-year anniversary of my niece committing suicide.

That experience led the men to longer conversations. Harris learned, for example, that Baker has hiked the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail twice, so theres no worry about whether Baker can handle either distance or solitude.

Harris learned, too, what Merritt observed a few days later at Hope Moravian  that Baker truly enjoys the feeling of family and community often found in small congregations.

I think he likes connecting with a spiritual message and socializing with other Godly people, Harris said.

Baker confirmed that during a phone conversation from inside his tent.

I like the fellowship really, he said. God has me on this journey. And it can be lonely out here so I like to check in.

As for where and when his mission ends, Baker knows only that its coming.

I believe in God, he said. Hell tell me. Right now Im just not sure.
Emporia, KS (66801)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. Rainfall will be locally heavy at times. Low 53F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. Rainfall will be locally heavy at times. Low 53F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
When Russell Hedrick started farming in 2011, he thought it would just be a part-time gig, something he would do during his days off as a full-time firefighter.

As he acquired more land and the farm demanded more attention, he switched over to farming as his sole profession in 2015. He now oversees more than 500 acres of land in North Carolina and Georgia, including about 300 acres in Catawba County.

Hedrick, 36, is a first-generation farmer, the first in his family to make a career out of developing crops for market. He did, however, gain some experience in the field early in life.

He traces his interest back to his childhood when he would help his mill worker grandfather, who owned some cattle.

I was essentially his tractor buddy and rode on a step board of a tractor making hay and that kind of got me interested in going into agriculture, Hedrick said.

In a little more than a decade in farming, Hedrick has already received accolades for his work. Earlier this month, he was recognized as having the highest soybean yield in the state  117.1 bushels per acre  by the N.C. Soybean Producers Association.

Hedrick credits those yields to a set of techniques he refers to as regenerative farming. One emphasis of the approach is the use of cover crops such as cereal rye or crimson clover outside of the peak growing season to recycle soil nutrients.

Hedrick sees his position as a newcomer to agriculture to be an advantage.

I didnt know how to run a combine, he said. I didnt know how to run a corn planter, and if somebody told me an idea that I thought was valid, I was willing to try it because we didnt have that backdated knowledge of how somebody else did it before us. As times change, so do techniques.

Hedrick recently discussed the ups and downs of farming, his desire to share knowledge about farming with others in the profession and his involvement in the busy business of making bourbon through his association with Conover-based Foothills Distillery.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

On his relationship with Conover-based Foothills Distillery:

We won the Innovative Young Farmer Award, and I think the Hickory Daily Record actually published that and (distillery founder) Zack (Cranford)s dad just saw the article and Zacks dad was the first person to contact me.

He said, Hey, my sons opening up a distillery. Would you be interested in working with us? We heard that you farm a little differently.

I just went over there with some of my grains and explained to (distillery co-owner) Tim (Weaver) and Zack why they were different. With the grain varieties we farm, we can get a higher return of alcohol per run versus traditional farmers.

Just really started really organically like that.

Since Tim passed away, Zacks needed help every now and then. Ive been over there a few times, either helping grind or making sure we move stuff around.

Its a busy business to be in, making bourbon.

On his desire to assist others in the business:I guess our plan moving forward for the future is, we do a lot of research with N.C. State, the University of Georgia. Were really looking to help other farmers understand return on investment.

Were putting on one-day field days  ones in Hickory and ones going to be in Wilmington  where were bringing some of the leading world experts in fertility management, crop management in for farmers to be able to come.

Im willing to share anything we do on our farm with other farmers because I want to see them succeed just like we have.

On his favorite part of being a farmer:

Just being outdoors. Its something new every day.

Both of my parents work in furniture factories, and I dont think I could go to the same spot and do the same thing every day.

And being out in the outdoors, being able to take Emma, my daughter, with me and kind of see that spark in her eyes.

She likes to pick corn, and for her to be 8 years old and to be able to run a combine is pretty neat to me.

On his least favorite part of being a farmer:

The weather.

It doesnt matter if we put hundreds of hours into picking the right seed, putting out the right fertilizer.

We could do everything in our power on time but 2015 here we had 4 inches of rain from March to September and a lot of farmers here in the state really got hurt with that drought.

Youre always dependent on the weather. Everything that can go bad in farming is outside of your control.

On coping with the uncertainties of farming:

I think most farmers just learn to let go of it.

You prepare the best you can. You work as hard as you can and you pretty much leave the rest of it up to faith.

Kevin Griffin is the City of Hickory reporter at the Hickory Daily Record.

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Business

L G Electronics is betting on the digital healthcare business after scrapping its money-losing smartphone line last year.



The conglomerate announced Thursday that it had launched a pain relief home device, called MediPain, as its latest healthcare product.



LG Electronics said that the machine, which is designed to intercept the transmission of pain signals in the brain, had won the approval of South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as a medical device.



After the device's launch in South Korea, the company will seek approval from other countries.



The company, which manufactures computers, TVs and home appliances, pivoted toward the medical device sector after it stopped producing mobile phones in April 2021.



LG Electronics released an advanced X-ray detector using artificial intelligence last June. It also signed a partnership in October with KAIST, South Korea's top engineering university, to set up a digital healthcare research center.



LG was originally a juggernaut in the cellphone business, once competing with cross-town rival Samsung Electronics. In 2010, it took third place in the global market in terms of sales, following Nokia and Samsung.



Yet, the company failed to catch up with its rivals in the transition to smartphone products, the paradigm shift prompted by the advent of the Apple iPhone in 2007.



As a result, LG Electronics recorded more than $4 billion in deficits in the mobile phone business between 2015 and 2020, which forced the firm to leave the market.



"After stopping its smartphone production, LG appears to put forth great efforts to find new cash cows," Seoul-based business tracker Leaders Index CEO Park Ju-gun told UPI News Korea.



"To become a genuine powerhouse in the digital healthcare market like GE and Siemens, however, LG needs to tap into the business-to-business market. I am not sure how much LG is ready for that," he said.






States and localities are continuing to drop their mask mandates here in the U.S., but places like Hong Kong and South Korea are seeing the opposite trend. Here's that and more COVID news.
A Cowlitz County judge charged in 2020 with driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol in Kelso has pleaded guilty to reckless driving. Cowlitz County District Court Judge M. James Imboden, 49, of Kalama, was sentenced in Clark County District Court to 40 hours of community service, which has already been completed, court records say.

A state commission that reviews judges behavior has not issued any reprimands for Imboden, whose term ends in December 2022.

Plea

In his guilty plea, Imboden said he is innocent of reckless driving, and pleaded guilty to avoid trial. He was ordered to pay $545.50 in fines and court fees. He said he plans to run for re-election and learn from the traffic violation.

I would like to express my deep regret and remorse for my behavior in 2020 which led to my plea to a charge of reckless driving, Imboden said. I have always tried to do the best I can and set an example to others as a leader and role model. I failed in that regard on this occasion and for that I sincerely apologize to my family, friends, colleagues, and the community. I take full responsibility for my actions, and I am committed to learning from this lapse in judgment.

Imboden served on the bench as an elected judge for about 15 months before his arrest. He is the Cowlitz County District Court presiding judge, meaning in addition to hearing cases, he oversees the courts administrative and financial services and acts as the courts spokesperson, according to the state.

District Court covers matters such as misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor cases, including DUIs and reckless driving  thats why Imbodens case was sent to Clark County.

Consequences

The Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct has not recommended Imbodens removal to the state supreme court.

Executive Director Reiko Callner said inquiries are private until a suspected violator admits to the findings or contests charges. She said the organization typically waits to investigate issues until after criminal proceedings end.

Some judges, like Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Marybeth Dingledy, have been convicted of DUIs, reprimanded with community service by the commission, and continue to serve, according to the Commission on Judicial Conduct.

History

Imboden was pulled over April 17, 2020, after police received a report of a driver speeding, nearly hitting vehicles and running a red light over the Allen Street Bridge in Kelso.

The officer said the judges movements appeared slow and uncoordinated, and the smell of alcohol was emitting from the car, according to a police report. Imboden denied he had been drinking and refused to give a breath sample, the report says. The passenger, who was also the owner of the car, had been drinking, Imboden said in the report.

Imboden substituted for District Court judges in 2017, according to his statement in the 2018 Cowlitz County Voters Guide. He previously heard cases like probate and uncontested matters as a hired Cowlitz County Superior Court commissioner, and left the position around the time he was elected as District Court judge, said Cowlitz County Superior Court Administrator Chad Connors.

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The Cowlitz County commissioners Tuesday approved contracts for emergency repairs on Rose Valley and Headquarters roads damaged by winter weather in late December and early January.

Crews already have completed repairing the snow and rain damaged roads, said Susan Eugenis, county engineer.

The commissioners approved contracts with Lakeside Industries totaling about $292,500 to repair both roads. The board also approved a $125,215 contract with Advanced Excavating Specialist LLC to repair a culvert on Rose Valley Road damaged by snow and rain runoff. The water overwhelmed the culvert and started eating away at the embankment, Eugenis said.

The commissioners also approved $60,000 for engineering and right-of-way acquisition for a slide repair on Cathlamet Road, off Ocean Beach Highway just east of the county line.

In other business, commissioners approved:

an agreement with Otak Inc. not to exceed $360,600 for engineering and environmental permitting services for the Allender Road Stillwater Creek fish passage project. The Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board funded 85% of the agreement. Eugenis said the culvert is a barrier for fish and the 1953 bridge has restricted load ratings.

a professional services agreement with Lower Columbia CAP for a permanent supportive housing group home program for six chronically homeless residents, in a 2-1 vote, with Commissioner Arne Mortensen opposed. The one-year agreement not to exceed $96,280 is funded by document recording fees.

contracts with Daniel Morgan, Kevin Blondin and Edward DeBray for representation of indigent defendants with criminal offenses in Cowlitz County Superior Court. The county Office of Public Defense contracts with outside attorneys to represent defendants in cases when in-house attorneys have conflicts, said Tina Rider, office manager. The attorneys will each accept 120 felony-equivalent assignments in 2022 for $10,000 per month and will bill the county for trial services.

an interlocal agreement with Washington State University to pay $54,045 annually for WSU Extension services in 2022 and 2023.

a change order for $21,885 with Firing Range Services for lead abatement in the decommissioned firing range in the Hall of Justice basement that crews are converting into storage for the Sheriffs Office.

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As of about 10 a.m. Tuesday, the state Department of Health's free COVID-19 test kits were out of stock.

Cowlitz County may be starting to see COVID-19 cases level out at a very high rate, according to the state Department of Health data.

The countys seven-day rate of new cases dropped slightly to 1,163 per 100,000 people from 1,244 per 100,000 people. The case rate is about double the high recorded in the fall.

Cowlitz County recorded 484 new cases over the weekend, bringing the total to 20,238. The county has recorded 307 COVID-19 deaths. PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center had 28 COVID-19 patients as of Monday morning.

Wahkiakum County reported three new COVID-19 cases Monday, bringing the total to 297, with 21 potentially active. The county health department considers cases with a positive test result in the last 21 days to be potentially active.

Statewide, cases appear to be decreasing after hitting an all-time high of about 1,720 case per 100,000 people from Jan. 8 to Jan. 14. Washingtons most recent complete case rate is about 1,543 per 100,000.

The state Department of Health on Monday reopened its online portal for residents to order free at-home COVID-19 tests. Residents can place one order of four or five free tests per household at www.sayyescovidhometest.org or by calling the states COVID-19 hotline, 1-800-525-0127.

When the state launched the website on Jan. 21, the first stock of 1.4 million tests were all claimed within eight hours, according to the department. About 340,000 households ordered the tests, and the department expects to serve 120,000 households with this second batch.

Tests are expected to arrive within a few days of the order, according to the department.

Increasing access to rapid tests is an important part of slowing the spread of COVID-19, because when more people use home tests, theyre able to limit their contact with others when they test positive, Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary of health, said in a statement. Knowing your status is key  if you test positive, you should stay home from school or work.

The Cowlitz Family Health Center is distributing free at-home test kits and KN95 masks to patients and community members throughout the week. The schedule of where and when tests are available is on the Family Health Centers Facebook page and attached to this story.

People also can 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.

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The Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed just minutes after takeoff in March 2019.

Ethiopian Airlines on Tuesday flew the Boeing 737 MAX for the first time since a crash nearly three years ago killed all 157 people on board and triggered the global grounding of the aircraft.

Flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi plunged six minutes after take-off into a field southeast of the Ethiopian capital in March 2019, five months after a similar crash in Indonesia left 189 people dead.

The twin disasters and subsequent scrutiny of the 737 MAX's faulty flight handling systemknown as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS)amounted to the worst crisis in Boeing's history.

State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, the jewel of the economy of Africa's second most populous country, had long said it would be the last carrier to use the single-aisle jets again.

In a statement to AFP this week, the airline said the decision to resume 737 MAX flights came after "intense recertification" by regulators in the United States, the European Union, China and Ethiopia.

It also provided a list of 35 other carriers that have also begun operating the jet again.

Tuesday's flight was initially set to head to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, but bad weather forced a route change to a four-hour "scenic flight" in Ethiopian airspace.

The trip involved passing near Mount Zuqualla, an extinct volcano, on the way towards the Bale Mountains before returning to Addis Ababa.

Airline and Boeing representatives on board, along with US ambassador Geeta Pasi, were offered champagne and a three-course meal featuring doro wat, a spicy chicken stew.

White sheet cakes bore the words "ETHIOPIAN B737 MAX RETURN TO SERVICE" in black icing, and women ululated in joy as they were cut just before the plane's descent.

2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash.

'Open wound'

For some who lost loved ones three years ago, however, the day was less than festive.

The victims of the Flight 302 crash, the worst in Ethiopia's history, hailed from more than 30 countries, with the largest number from neighbouring Kenya.

Virginie Fricaudet, president of an association of French victims' families, said she expected Tuesday's milestone to be painful.

"What I find very difficult for us is that this day of the first flight, there will be a communique about the flight and all of the VIPS who are on board, but for the families who lost loved ones there is just an open wound," Fricaudet said.

She lost her brother in the disaster, which claimed the lives of nine French citizens.

"We are now three years from the crash, the plane has been recertified, the life of the 737 MAX is going well. But the families don't have compensation. Nothing has happened for the families."

Boeing has reached an agreement with the victims' families and accepted responsibility for the tragedy, according to legal documents filed in November in Chicago, where the company is headquartered.

The proposed agreement did not mention specific sums, as jurors will be responsible for assessing amounts.

Darren A. Hulst, vice president of marketing at Boeing who was on Tuesday's flight, told AFP he had no information on compensation.

The victims of the crash hailed from more than 30 countries.

"I am not involved in that part, so I probably can't comment other than to say our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who lost their lives," he said.

"We've worked tirelessly since then to make sure this aircraft is among the safest aircraft in the world."

Easing tensions

Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's leading carrier, had four of the 737 MAX jets in its fleet at the time of the 2019 crash.

Tensions between the airline and Boeing soared in the immediate aftermath, with Ethiopian pushing back on suggestions the tragedy resulted from pilot error.

On Tuesday, representatives from both companies denied there was any lingering bad blood.

Asked about the relationship now, Ethiopia's acting chief commercial officer Esayas Woldemariam Hailu told AFP: "The crash does not define it."

The airline's decision to wait as long as it did before flying the 737 MAX again was "really commendable", said Yeshiwas Fentahun, who was president of Ethiopia's independent pilots' association in 2019 but is no longer with the company.

The loss of the flight crewincluding its youngest captain, Yared Getachewwas traumatic for all employees, he said.

"There were pilots who were close to the people who lost their lives in the accident, and it's really hard to say if everyone has moved past that experience," he said.

"But I believe it's a reasonable time for most of us to move past that experience."

Explore further Boeing agrees to settle with Ethiopia 737 Max crash victims

 2022 AFP
The hydrogen fuel cell and transportation company Hyperion Companies Inc. announced Tuesday that it will move its global headquarters to Columbus.

Hyperion in a news release said it will create 680 new jobs over six years and invest nearly $300 million in a headquarters, research and development center and manufacturing operation in the city.

Hyperion was founded in Columbus in 2011 before moving its headquarters to Orange, California, in 2014. The company plans to refurbish the former Columbus Dispatch printing plant for manufacturing hydrogen fuel cells, which along with electric batteries are viewed as a key solution to reducing climate-warming carbon emissions in the transportation industry.

Hyperion CEO Angelo Kafantaris said the company is focused on building advanced green hydrogen fuel cells for a number of applications.

"With its ability to store mass quantities of electric energy, hydrogen has tremendous long-term, zero-emission potential for the energy sector, and will be one of the most powerful tools in reducing carbon emissions on a global scale," Kafantaris said.

Fuel cell production is expected to begin in 2023.

Hydrogen produced from carbon-emitting natural gas and coal has long been used in manufacturing processes. Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy from sources such as wind and solar to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Green hydrogen currently represents a small fraction of worldwide hydrogen production.

Tuesday's announcement comes days after computer chip manufacturer Intel Corp. announced it would build a $20 billion technology hub outside Columbus.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said Hyperion "will bring a fresh wave of investment and activity that will create opportunities" for the city.

Explore further Estimating the future cost of hydrogen fuel for transport in India

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Wireless charging of a retail robot at a test site. Credit: Prasad Jayathurathnage / Aalto University

A new power transfer technology makes it possible to conveniently charge devices without using any wires or plugs. Warehouse robots, kitchen appliances, and even phones or laptops can receive power anywhere over the charging area, and because the power transfer continues even while the device is in motion, this technology could one day power electric vehicles while they're on the go.

The basics of wireless power transfer have been in place for some time, but existing systems are not able to charge devices placed anywhere within a large area. Using a single large transmitter to cover the entire area leads to unwanted electromagnetic exposure and means that the power flow to individual devices cannot be controlled. If many small transmitters are used, the receiving devices must be in a known position, and the transmitter and receiver have to be precisely aligned. This means the system either has to use fixed charging locations or incorporate position sensors, communication protocols, and processing to track the location of each receiver.

Researchers at Aalto University have tackled these problems, developing a power transfer technology that works regardless of the position and orientation of the transmitter and receiver. The key idea is to arrange the transmitters in a grid with the current in neighboring transmitters running in opposite directionsfor example, a clockwise loop in one transmitter and counter-clockwise loops in its neighbors.

This creates a chessboard-like grid of 'positive' and 'negative' transmitting coils with a magnetic flux between them. A receiver above the grid of transmitters captures the magnetic flux between positive and negative transmitters, which generates an electric current to charge the device.

"The beauty of our method is that it's very simple yet quite sophisticated," says Prasad Jayathurathnage, the postdoctoral researcher who led the project. "We don't need a high-end processor or lots of computations to make the transmitters intelligent. At the end of the day, it's all an electromagnetic system, and our approach was to figure out how we could detect the receiver's presence and position electromagnetically."

Credit: Aalto University

Because the presence of a receiver triggers the power transfer, the system can work without any positional tracking and communication between the receivers and transmitters. This also means that power is only transferred to the receiver, rather than the entire area being energized, and it makes it possible for several devices to be charged simultaneously.

Tiling transmitters together produces a charging area of the desired size and shape. A subset of the transmitters is then activated at lower power. "That's basically a searchthe transmitters are listening for a receiver," explains Shamsul Al Mahmud, a doctoral student in the project. If power transfer to a receiver begins, the neighboring transmitters switch from being off into an alert mode, primed to transfer power if the receiver appears over them.

"With this configuration, we had almost constant efficiency and constant power received regardless of the receiver's position and orientation," says Ishtiaque Panhwar, a researcher involved in the project, and the power transfer continued smoothly even as the receiving device moved around.

The technology has been tested with commercial warehouse robots in cooperation with Finnish firm Solteq Robotics, and Jayathurathnage also leads the project Parkzia, a project funded by Business Finland. The project aims to commercialize this new technology for industry and transport. "Taking this technology out of the lab and seeing it work in the warehouse was an exciting moment for me personally," says Jayathurathnage. "I was finally bringing the product of ten years of research out of the lab."

More familiar applications can also improve our daily life. "Take kitchen appliances, for example," says Jayathurathnage. "At the moment, you need to put a rice cooker or a blender at a particular spot for it to get energy. But with our technology we can make the whole kitchen counter a source of power for appliances or even phones, but the electromagnetic field is only generated under the devices."

Although the technology is essentially ready for real-world applications, it still needs commercial packaging and certification. In the meantime, Jayathurathnage's team will continue to refine and improve this technology. One of their goals is to boost the power levels from about 1 kW to around 20 kW so that the technology could be used to charge electric vehicles. "There are pilot projects on electrifying roads across the world," says Jayathurathnage. "Electric vehicles are a really great application of this technology."

Explore further New type of wireless charger can charge multiple devices simultaneously

More information: Shamsul Al Mahmud et al, Large-Area Free-Positioning Wireless Power Transfer to Movable Receivers, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (2022). Shamsul Al Mahmud et al, Large-Area Free-Positioning Wireless Power Transfer to Movable Receivers,(2022). DOI: 10.1109/TIE.2022.3144591
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A proposed takeover of German chip supplier Siltronic by Taiwan's GlobalWafers has fallen through after the German government failed to give its approval by a Monday night deadline.

The Economy Ministry said Tuesday that it was unable to conclude in time its examination of the deal, worth nearly 4.4 billion euros ($4.9 billion), citing in particular antitrust approval by Chinese authorities that was granted only last week.

GlobalWafers said that the takeover offer "will not be completed and will lapse" after the inconclusive end of the 14-month review process. The company said in a statement that it "made extremely far-reaching remedy proposals and commitments to address the concerns of the German government and repeatedly offered its willingness to discuss alternative solutions."

Munich-based Siltronic, which has about 4,000 employees in Europe, Asia and the U.S., makes silicon wafers used in chips for electronic devices.

The German government scrutinized the proposed deal under rules tightened in recent years that require authorities' thorough examination of major investments or takeovers in some sectors by companies from outside the European Union.

The failure of the deal comes after supply bottlenecks for chips and other components have been a concern in Europe over recent months.

Explore further Taiwan's GlobalWafers in talks to buy German rival Siltronic

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.


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The American Red Cross is known for responding to disasters, but AJ Renold, executive director of the American Red Cross Heart of Texas chapter, said they would much rather prevent disasters if they can.

Home fires are the No. 1 disaster the Red Cross responds to nationwide, Renold said. We responded to, I think, 323 home fires last year in my chapter. My chapter covers Brazos Valley, Waco and Killeen, but thats almost one a day.

In one week in January, she said, there were 11 residential fires in the Brazos Valley, Waco and Killeen area that make up the chapter. Last month, Renold and chapter volunteers assisted families displaced by an apartment fire in Hearne.

The Red Cross is ramping up its education and training programs after they were paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Renold said. One of those outreach events is being organized with the apartment manager in Hearne and Robertson County Emergency Management.

The Red Cross and first responders from Hearne and Robertson County will host a barbecue to increase awareness about fire safety Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Columbus Village Apartments on Riley Street in Hearne, the site of the January fire. The Red Cross will be on hand to provide information about fire safety and preparedness and also to check fire alarms.

In addition to hosting educational sessions, she said, the Red Cross also offers services to install and test fire alarms and help families develop an escape plan in the case of a fire.

We can't prevent all fires, but most of them can be prevented that we see, she said.

Renold said it is important to let children hear the fire alarm, so they know what it will sound like and then practice getting out of the house and to a meeting point. It is something that takes a lot of repetition, she said, because it is a scary situation that can trigger peoples fight or flight response.

Oftentimes we've seen it's kids that are alerted first or hear it first, and then if they know what to do, they go wake up the parents. If they don't know what to do, they go and hide, she said.

Renold emphasized the importance of families having a designated meeting spot.

We don't want people going back into the home, if at all possible, she said. "If people go out multiple entrances to get out of the fire, you may think a loved one is still in and go back in. And that's where we see  usually when people die in a fire, it's because of smoke inhalation, and it can happen really fast. So having that one meeting spot is like the easiest thing you can practice.

She said people typically have less than two minutes to get out of a house fire, especially in older homes, and the two key life-saving factors are having working fire alarms and an established meeting spot.

College Station Fire Department Capt. Stuart Marrs said another tip to staying safe in a fire is to keep doors closed.

The fire in a New York City apartment complex that killed 19 people in January was so deadly, he said, because people left their doors open, which allowed the smoke to fill the building.

The smoke is what got the people, Marrs said. It wasn't heat and flames; it was smoke. So what we say is close before you doze, and if you evacuate a building, shut all the doors you can behind you. Shut every door you see.

Closing  not locking, but closing  doors, he said, creates more survivable spaces in an apartment complex, commercial structure and hotel, while also helping keep the hallways clearer for firefighters when they arrive.

Buildings are designed to control fires if the doors are shut, Marrs said. If the doors and windows are open, that fire can breathe and it grows, and its a huge problem for us when we get there. If the doors are shut, almost we're dealing with a smoldering fire thats just dying by the time we get there. If the doors are open, it's breathing, its churning, its chugging, its dangerous.

Renold said the Red Cross program Our Homes Made Safer involves volunteers contacting people they have worked with in the past to make sure they have working smoke alarms and a plan in case of a fire, and to offer to help them with that if needed. Volunteers then work to reach others in the community.

The organization has programs designed to teach children how to be prepared and stay safe in an emergency.

The Pillowcase Project, she said, is used when there is time to prepare, such as before a hurricane or if a brush fire is approaching.

The Pillowcase Project is thinking about the things that you need to take with you, and they should fit in a pillowcase, Renold said. It can be overwhelming to think, Oh my gosh, I have to get all the stuff out of the house. You don't have time to move out of your house.

For a child, it might include a stuffed animal that can be comforting, or medication. For adults, it can be files and documents, such as drivers licenses, passports, insurance documents, titles to property, health information and birth certificates. It is important to know where those items are and practice getting them.

To volunteer with the Red Cross or to find more information about training and educational programs, go to www.redcross.org or contact Renold at anjuli.renold@redcross.org.

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Joe Bidens promise two years ago during a debate in South Carolina about a future pick for the Supreme Court will create undue pressure, at least temporarily, on his nominee to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.

Heres what then-candidate Biden said: Im looking forward to making sure theres a Black woman on the Supreme Court, to make sure we in fact get everyone represented.

With Breyers announcement that he will step down, Biden now gets to perform what is arguably a presidents most important task  and to make good on his campaign promise, which he confirmed the other day.

Selecting a Black liberal would be an excellent move, since conservative Clarence Thomas has been the courts lone Black justice for the past three decades. A fourth woman also would be a welcome addition.

This all sounds good, so whats the problem?

The problem is that selecting a nominee to serve on the highest court in the land is supposed to involve an exhaustive process to find the most qualified person, regardless of gender or race.

In practical political terms that is not always the case, but for the good of the nation and the nominee it should at least appear that way.

If you flatly eliminate all men and all non-Black women, you dismiss about 93% of the population. Logically and mathematically, you cant promise that the best justice will necessarily come from just 7% of the population.

She very well might. But you shouldnt announce that two years before beginning a search.

Im sure when Joe Biden made his promise he had the best interests of the nation at heart. But he was also trailing in his effort to win the Democratic presidential nomination and desperately needed a win in South Carolina, where six in 10 Democratic voters are Black. Prior to the debate, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina urged Biden to make the promise.

Biden isnt the first to make such a pledge: In 1980 Ronald Reagan promised to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. A year later Reagan nominated Sandra Day OConnor as the first female justice.

I believe that nominating justices isnt just a matter of picking the best individual candidates, but also making sure the composition of the bench is balanced. The historical absence of women in Reagans era, and of Black women in Bidens time, makes it legitimate to focus on such criteria. But with such perspective comes controversy.

Bidens likely choices include Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, who clerked for Justice Breyer; Justice Leondra Kruger of the California Supreme Court; and Judge J. Michelle Childs of the Federal District Court in South Carolina.

Any of them might be the best for the job, but each will be confronted by the fact that the president cut the field by 93% before making his choice. If nothing else, thats ammunition for Bidens opponents.

A few weeks after making his South Carolina pledge, candidate Biden said in another debate, I commit that I will in fact pick a woman to be vice president. His on-stage opponent that night, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, wouldnt guarantee hed pick a woman, saying, In all likelihood I will.

Bidens pledge, leading to his selection of Kamala Harris, prompted pushback from conservatives such as Washington Examiner columnist Kaylee McGhee, who wrote that Bidens choice will be seen as the most inclusive option, rather than the most accomplished.

Whoever replaces Breyer, one of her first challenges will be to help decide whether affirmative action should continue as practiced in college admissions. The court recently agreed to weigh whether race-conscious admission practices at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are lawful. Present law is rooted in a 2003 decision that said it is permissible to consider race as a factor to achieve racial diversity at schools.

The Supreme Court needs a Black woman. Its unfortunate that she will face the unintended consequence of having to refute those who assert that a political battle in South Carolina got her the job.

Peter Funts new memoir, Self-Amused, is now available at CandidCamera.com.
Details have emerged about a previously undocumented malware campaign undertaken by the Iranian MuddyWater advanced persistent threat (APT) group targeting Turkish private organizations and governmental institutions.

"This campaign utilizes malicious PDFs, XLS files and Windows executables to deploy malicious PowerShell-based downloaders acting as initial footholds into the target's enterprise," Cisco Talos researchers Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura said in a newly published report.

The development comes as the U.S. Cyber Command, earlier this month, linked the APT to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

The intrusions, which are believed to have been orchestrated as recently as November 2021, were directed against Turkish government entities, including the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), using weaponized Excel documents and PDF files hosted on attacker-controlled or media-sharing websites.

These maldocs masqueraded as legitimate documents from the Turkish Health and Interior Ministries, with the attacks starting by executing malicious macros embedded in them to propagate the infection chain and drop PowerShell scripts to the compromised system.

A new addition to the group's arsenal of tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) is the use of canary tokens in the macro code, a mechanism the researchers suspect is being used to track successful infection of targets, thwart analysis, and detect if the payload servers are being blocked at the other end.

Canary tokens, also known as honeytokens, are identifiers embedded in objects like documents, web pages and emails, which, when opened, triggers an alert in the form of an HTTP request, alerting the operator that the object was accessed.

The PowerShell script subsequently downloads and executes the next payload, also a PowerShell script that resides in the metadata of the maldoc, which, in turn, acts as the downloader for a third, unidentified PowerShell code that's ultimately run on the infected endpoint.

In a second variant of the attacks observed by Talos, the PDF documents with embedded links were found pointing to Windows executables instead of the Excel files, which then instrumented the infection chain to deploy the PowerShell downloaders.

What's more, the researchers said they found at least two different versions of the executable delivered by the adversary targeting the telecommunications sector in Armenia in June 2021 and Pakistani entities in August 2021, raising the possibility that MuddyWater may have engaged in multiple attacks as part of one long continuous campaign.

The disclosure also follows the release of a Private Industry Notification (PIN) by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last week, detailing the malicious cyber activities of an Iran-based cyber company named Emennet Pasargad, which was tied to a sophisticated influence campaign orchestrated to interfere in the 2020 presidential elections.

"These actors are highly capable and motivated to perform their espionage activities," the researchers concluded. "With new techniques such as canary tokens used to track successful infection of targets, MuddyWater has proven their adaptability and unwillingness to refrain themselves from attacking other nations."
Eva Grassau's encounter with COVID-19 started with a notification from her son's child care center.

A case had been identified in his classroom, and Leo, 2, had been exposed.

The next day, Jan. 15, the youngster woke with a fever and cough. "I thought, 'Oh, great, here we go,' " said Grassau, who lives in Bennington.

Leo tested positive for COVID-19 at a doctor's office that day. Later that afternoon, Grassau's husband, Bobby, began feeling ill, with a cough and headache. Both Grassau and her husband are fully vaccinated and boosted.

Several days later, Grassau and her 4-month-old daughter, Elouise, began feeling ill. Baby Elouise ran fevers for several days and suffered from congestion and a terrible cough.

Grassau said the disruption caused by the family's outbreak has been frustrating. But she's still glad that she is vaccinated and boosted. An oncology nurse who works with vulnerable people, getting the shots was important to her. She also plans to vaccinate her children when the shots are approved for kids under 5.

"I feel like it kept my symptoms fairly mild," she said. "I think it was worse for my children who were not vaccinated. They seemed to be sicker, and that makes me sad."

Breakthrough infections like the ones the Grassaus experienced have increased among the vaccinated  including the boosted  as the highly transmissible omicron variant has swept through Nebraska. Omicron, with its 50-plus mutations, has the ability to evade some of the immunity provided by prior infections and the vaccines, researchers say.

The breakthroughs have some people questioning the value of the vaccines in protecting people, as well as the nation's reliance on vaccines as a tool in the fight against COVID-19.

But health officials say the vaccines continue to protect many people from infection. More importantly, they're providing significant protection against serious illness and death.

Many of the breakthrough cases among the vaccinated are relatively mild. And increases in breakthroughs are to be expected as more of the population is vaccinated. No vaccine, experts say, is 100% effective at preventing infection.

"What the vaccines are really doing is preventing hospitalizations and deaths," said Dr. Anne O'Keefe, the Douglas County Health Department's senior epidemiologist.

In Douglas County alone, the number of vaccine breakthrough cases among fully vaccinated residents increased by 10,555 between Jan. 13 and Thursday, according to the Health Department's COVID-19 dashboard. The percentage of breakthroughs among fully vaccinated residents increased from 5.8% to 8.6%.

O'Keefe said the department reports the percentage of vaccinated people who have had a breakthrough infection to show how rare they are in that group. The percentages are based only on cases among fully vaccinated people, not on all cases.

Of all breakthrough infections, 70% are in people who were vaccinated at least six months before. Boosters are recommended after that time to address waning immunity from the original series.

Only 96, or .026%, of the almost 373,000 fully vaccinated Douglas County residents have died of COVID-19. O'Keefe said 85% of those deaths were in people older than 65. All of those younger than 65 had a severe underlying condition. Deaths among the vaccinated make up a similarly small percentage of total coronavirus-related deaths in Nebraska.

Dr. Mark Rupp, chief of the University of Nebraska Medical Centers infectious diseases division, said data recently released by state health officials demonstrate the vaccines' ongoing protection.

In December, Nebraskans who were fully vaccinated and boosted were 46 times less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who weren't fully immunized, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Nebraskans who were vaccinated but not boosted were 11 times less likely to be hospitalized than those who weren't vaccinated.

"That's strong information to suggest to people that vaccination is still protective but it is not necessarily preventing some of these breakthrough mild cases that we're seeing so frequently," Rupp said.

Part of the reason, he said, is that the omicron variant is so much more transmissible than past variants and appears to have a shorter incubation period.

"I think the virus is able to get a foothold and cause illness more quickly than the immune response is able to completely prevent illness," he said.

Recent studies support the importance of vaccination and of boosters, in particular, in protecting against the worse effects of omicron. One recent study published by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that the extra shot is 90% effective in preventing hospitalization with omicron. Another study posted by the agency found that cases and deaths were lower among people who had received a booster compared with those who were fully vaccinated but not boosted. Boosters provided the greatest gains in protection to people 65 and older.

"As the variants have shifted and the vaccines are not quite as effective, we're seeing people have breakthrough infections but continuing to have prevention of the more serious manifestations of illness," Rupp said. "Severe illness, hospitalization and death are still very well prevented through vaccination."

By and large, the patients in the hospital fighting for their lives continue to be those who are not vaccinated, he said. Most hospitalized patients who are vaccinated are very old or have compromised immune systems. In October, the CDC authorized fourth shots for the immunocompromised.

"The vaccine overall continues to be people's best bet," Rupp said.

Dr. Renuga Vivekanandan, chief of infectious disease at CHI Health and Creighton University, said most cases among the vaccinated are not as severe.

"The goal is making the illness milder," she said of the vaccines. "With omicron, you hear it's milder. I think it's milder for the patients who have received the vaccines."

Rupp said questions about the vaccines' effectiveness may come down to what people want vaccines to do.

"In a perfect world, you would want it to completely prevent any sort of acquisition of disease or illness," he said.

The COVID-19 vaccines initially held up well against symptomatic infection. But researchers learned that their effectiveness waned over time. The virus also developed ways of escaping human immune systems.

While they're no longer preventing all illness, Rupp said, the vaccines give people a head start that allows them to mount a response more quickly and ward off serious illness, hospitalization and death.

In the final analysis, Rupp said, that's what you really want from a vaccine.

"We're still pleased with the response (with regard to) serious illness," he said, "but I don't want folks to have an unrealistic expectation of the vaccine."

According to the Jan. 21-24 Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index, 72% of vaccinated Americans surveyed were satisfied with the protection the vaccines provide from catching the virus and 81% were satisfied with the protection the shots provide from serious illness or death.

Recent studies point to other benefits. The vaccines appear to reduce the incidence of long COVID-19, which has manifested even in people with mild cases. In children, Rupp said, vaccination prevents the rare inflammatory syndrome known as MIS-C, which also tends to occur in kids with mild cases.

At the same time, treatments effective against omicron remain in short supply nationally, with available doses prioritized for those who don't mount adequate immune responses even with vaccines. The Food and Drug Administration has pulled authorization for two commonly used monoclonal antibody therapies because they aren't effective against omicron, which now makes up 99% of infections in the U.S.

Meanwhile, omicron's ability to break through vaccine protection has added to workforce woes for hospitals, nursing homes, schools and businesses. For many, the infections have occurred despite months of best efforts to avoid the virus.

Grassau said she had been back at work after maternity leave for only two months when the family became ill. She has no paid leave left to cover her time in quarantine. Co-workers with young children also are feeling the burden, she said, both financially and socially.

While the CDC recently changed the isolation requirement for COVID-19 to five days, she said, young children like her son can't mask effectively, so recommendations call for them to remain out of child care centers for 10 days. The family had to quarantine after another day care exposure just before Christmas.

Grassau knows that the infections will protect her children for a time, but she still worries that another exposure will mean more missed work and school.

"The more we vaccinate and protect ourselves and other people, this will end," she said.

For Ann Gray, a nurse at an Omaha-area long-term care facility, the positive COVID-19 test result she received on Jan. 17  her first of the pandemic  came as a shock.

She was fully vaccinated and boosted and had been careful with her protective gear throughout the pandemic.

"I cried," she said. "I was so traumatized because I made it through the whole, whole pandemic."

But she had few symptoms, mostly a bit of a headache.

"I'm fine," she said. "That's what I need to remember."
Central Platte Natural Resources District is moving forward on a new education center.

The CPNRD board last week authorized the building committee to proceed with the design and bid requests for an education center/office building at the Prairie Silver Moores project, west of Grand Island.

The project is estimated to cost $5 million, and may be as high as $8 million total.

Were looking at getting it started, sending it on to JEO (Consultants) to put a plan together as far as a building plan so we can take a look at that, board member Barry Obermiller said. If their estimates come in where we think it should be, well go ahead and let it go out to bid.

The new site would be located at the intersection of Capital Avenue and Schauppsville Road, south of where CPNRD put soil that was removed for detention cells that were built to protect Grand Island from a 100-year flood.

It is not known what the specific design costs will be, Obermiller said.

Theres going to be a base cost. We dont know what that is yet, he said. Once it starts and that goes out to bid, that money will run in with the project. It can be anywhere from $100,000 to design it, and maybe $500,000 for the construction manager to run it.

CPNRD was inspired to pursue the project after completing its Prairie Silver Moores project, which aims to reduce flooding in the Grand Island area.

A new building would use $1.7 million in project funds from the Nebraska Natural Resources Commission for the PSM project.

The commission approved the decision.

A $1.5 million match set aside by CPNRD for that project will be used for the new facility.

The current Kaufman Avenue CPNRD site has a valuation of about $2 million, Obermiller noted, which will go to the project after it is sold.

Our estimate so far, weve taken our high numbers and added 20%. Thats where the $8 million is right now, he said. Were looking at being in that building for another $3 million. We can probably do that without increasing our tax-ask. Theres not going to be another time we can do that.

A new office is needed, CPNRD board member Lyndon Vogt told The Independent in October. CPRND has outgrown its current location.

Were landlocked where were at, he said. We dont have room to put up any more shops or storage or add on to what we have here.

The building committee also had considered a nearly $4 million remodel of the existing CPNRD office on Kaufman Avenue.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has expressed interest in helping to see such a facility come to fruition, as UNL students then would be able to do work in the Grand Island area, Vogt said.

We have an over 600-acre detention cell there that is all wetlands, and for a lot of their natural resource and ag students it would be a great place to do some research, he said.

CPNRD board member Doug Reeves emphasized the importance of taking care with these plans.

Were never going to have the chance to do this again, having that money out there, he said. I also think we have a chance to push the education part of this pretty hard.

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A grand jury has completed the reviews of the deaths of eight inmates, half of whom had COVID-19, and found no criminal wrongdoing.

Three of the men  David Fredrick Munsey, Robert Lewis and Jaime Rivera Jr.  had refused the vaccine when the prison offered it, according to transcripts filed recently in the Lancaster County District Court.

Nebraska State Patrol Investigator Amanda DeFreece said Munsey, 59, declined vaccination on July 15, and died of COVID-19 less than a month later, Aug. 12, at Bryan West in Lincoln.

He had just started serving a 12- to 24-year sentence out of Box Butte County on child pornography charges.

State Patrol Investigator Henry Dimitroff said Lewis, 61, initially declined, too, then asked for the vaccine after he tested positive, which by then was too late.

Lewis spent three days on a ventilator at Bryan West before he died Sept. 10.

He had been serving a two- to three-year sentence out of Platte County for possession of methamphetamine and attempted possession of a deadly weapon, and had been eligible for parole in August.

Jaime Rivera Jr., 38, who was serving 20 to 30 years for attempted sexual assault of a child, died at Bryan West the same day as Lewis.

Dimitroff said Rivera ended up on a ventilator with pneumonia and respiratory failure due to an underlying condition brought on by COVID-19.

DeFreece said a fourth inmate, 40-year-old William Lassek Jr., was admitted to the hospital eight days after testing positive at the prison, previously called the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center, and ended up on a ventilator. He died there Aug. 12.

Lassek was serving 70 years to life in connection to a murder in Douglas County.

In addition to the COVID-19 related deaths, the grand jury also reviewed the deaths of three other prison inmates and one county jail inmate, all of whom had health issues, including:

* Michael Kirchhoff, 58, who died of a brain aneurysm, suddenly collapsing on the yard at the Nebraska State Penitentiary on May 22. Prison workers attempted CPR but couldn't save him. He had been serving a 10- to 12-year sentence out of Lancaster County for possession of methamphetamine, with a habitual criminal enhancement.

* Patrick Russell, 64, who had lung cancer and died April 25 at the hospital. He was serving a sentence of 110-126 years for first-degree murder in Douglas County.

* Xavier Valentine, 22, who had been diagnosed earlier in the year with an inoperable brain tumor and died Aug. 18 at the hospital. He had been serving a 10- to 30-year sentence out of Douglas County for second-degree assault and a gun charge.

* Nuha Farid, 51, who died at the hospital Sept. 13. Lancaster County Sheriff's Investigator Jeremy Schwarz said Farid had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer before going into custody at the Lancaster County Department of Corrections. He was awaiting sentencing for an armed robbery at a gas station in Lincoln.

The grand jury heard the cases on Nov. 30, and a transcript of its findings later was filed with the court. Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Dan Zieg said the panel reviewed a total of 35 deaths of people in law enforcement custody last year, which was double a "normal" year.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSpilger
A 22-year-old Chilean woman, believed to be part of a traveling pickpocket crew that hit Sams Club in Grand Island on Dec. 14, was bound over Monday to Hall County District Court.

Amanda Matamala Contreras allegedly used a credit card stolen from Colorado to purchase $3,300 worth of gift cards from Sams Club.

She is charged with unauthorized use of a financial transaction device in purchasing items worth $1,500 to $5,000, a Class IV felony. Shes also charged with first-offense identity fraud and false reporting, both misdemeanors.

In her visit to Sams Club, Grand Island Police believe Contreras was accompanied by at least one man and possibly two.

At Contreras preliminary hearing Monday morning, GIPD investigator Bryce Collamore said during the course of the past year, he had been assigned about 10 similar cases  in which pickpocketed credit cards were used to buy gift cards from Sams Club.

On Dec. 14, Sams Club called GIPD to report three people acting suspiciously. The suspects matched the description of previous suspects whod been seen on surveillance video, Collamore said.

A male and a woman later identified as Contreras could be seen on the surveillance video purchasing the gift cards Dec. 14, Collamore said.

The credit card they used had been stolen a few days earlier from a woman who was shopping at a T.J. Maxx store in Fort Collins, Colo.

Contreras, who was apprehended near Diers Avenue and State Street, presented a drivers license-type card from Puerto Rico, Collamore said. She identified herself as Sophia Diaz Rivera, the name of the woman on the ID card.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent, who arrived on the scene, said the Puerto Rican ID card was fake.

Contreras eventually told Collamore her real name and said she was from Chile. She said she was in Grand Island on vacation, Collamore said.

Authorities found that Contreras flew from Santiago, Chile, to Miami in early August, Collamore said.

The male who was with her in the checkout line was seen getting into a black SUV and driving away. Police have identified that man, but he has not been apprehended, Collamore said. He has multiple warrants for his arrest.

GIPD chased another man, who headed east on foot toward Conestoga Mall and Walnut Middle School. The pursuit took an hour and a half, Collamore said, but ended unsuccessfully when the suspect disappeared in between houses. Its not certain that he was involved in the theft from Sams Club.

The suspects were not successful in stealing the gift cards.

Dana DeSimone, representing Contreras, asked Collamore if the defendant actually was seen on video swiping the credit card.

Because of the camera angle, Contreras could not be seen actually swiping the card. But her movements indicated that she was using the machine, Collamore said.

Unlike Walmart, Sams Club does not have a camera above each of the self-checkout lanes, Collamore said.

In response to another question from DeSimone, Collamore said Contreras was not in possession of the credit card from Fort Collins. But she did have another credit card, which had been reported stolen, a few days earlier than the other theft, from a Trader Joes in Colorado Springs.

Contreras, appearing via video from jail, did not speak during the preliminary hearing.

The prosecutor is Deputy Hall County Attorney Stephen West.

Hall County Court Judge Arthur Wetzel scheduled Contreras District Court arraignment for 9 a.m. Feb. 15.

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The Nebraska Department of Transportation on Monday supported a proposal from Sen. Lynn Walz of Fremont to authorize the department to enter into public-private partnerships in an effort to speed up highway construction.

Walz said her bill (LB1016) is designed to try to achieve "accelerated completion of the expressway system."

But the department expressed opposition to another bill, introduced by Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, that would require the state to accelerate long-delayed expressway construction in northeast Nebraska.

Flood's proposal, contained in LB1274, would direct the Department of Transportation to plan, design and purchase right-of-way for four lanes of U.S. 81 north between Norfolk and the South Dakota border and south between Columbus and York, along with a four-lane connection of U.S. 20 between U.S. 81 and the Iowa border.

Flood described the long-delayed projects as critical for agriculture, business, truck traffic, highway safety, economic development and tourism, providing access to Lewis and Clark Lake and Niobrara State Park.

"It's a chance to be super-visionary," he suggested.

"It's a huge opportunity for growth and a chance to bring young people home," he said.

"I was in eighth grade when Gov. Kay Orr and the Legislature approved development of a divided, four-lane expressway system," Flood told the Legislature's Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, arguing that it's far past time to finish the task.

The bill attracted supporting testimony from a host of officials and residents from northeast Nebraska.

"It's a real growth opportunity," Eric Gerrard said, speaking for the City of Norfolk and Mayor Josh Moenning, and "it's been postponed too long."

John Selmer, director of the Department of Transportation, told the committee he believes it is "unwise to begin directing DOT away" from its current planning for completion of the four-lane expressway system envisioned in 1988.

That system is designed to connect communities with a population of 15,000 or more with Interstate 80, he said, and it is now more than 70% complete, with 160 miles to go.

The legislative proposal would "allow projects to leapfrog projects already programmed," he said, and "place specific projects at the head of the line."

Selmer, however, supported the Walz proposal, suggesting that the private sector "could give us some ideas" and that, in turn, perhaps could lead to "some time savings."

Walz said the bill would provide "more tools in the tool box."

Several people who testified at the public hearing alluded to the collaboration with the private sector that has led to accelerated construction of the South Beltway in Lincoln as a potential model.

Construction of the beltway, a freeway linking U.S. 77 southwest of Lincoln to Nebraska 2 southeast of Lincoln, began in 2020 and is scheduled to be completed next year.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon
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Paris, TX (75460)

Today

Thunderstorms likely in the morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 73F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 54F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
At least 27 Illinoisans have been charged so far in the Capitol breach, an ongoing investigation that has been described by prosecutors as the largest criminal investigation in the countrys history.
CARBONDALE  In the summer of 1969, Kathryn Kerrs boss, SIU Carbondale Archivist Ken Duckett, assigned her a task outside her job as a clerk on the sweltering sixth floor of Morris Library.

One day each week, he requested, Kerr was to grab her camera, take a university car and go document life in local small towns.

At first glance, the young woman was unqualified for the job. Shed gotten her first photo experience just a few months before, in a spring semester intro class.

We were flying under the radar. He would check out the car in his name, and turn the keys over to me. Id bring it back and hed turn it back in, she said. I suspect if anyone had known what I was doing there might have been protest, because the university had its own photographers already.

But in other ways, she was perfect for the job.

She grew up in a poor farm family in Buncombe. She understood small town manners and how to talk to people.

I wanted the people in those photos to know I wasnt an outsider, so much as one of them, she said. I think Duckett was aware of that. He must have trusted me.

Duckett didnt give Kerr much in the way of creative direction.

He said, 'just go take some photos and Ill tell you what I like,' she remembers.

And, to her knowledge, Duckett never used or exhibited the photos.

But 50 years later, they are generating some buzz.

They were rediscovered by Aaron Lisec, a Research Specialist at the SIUC Archives, who published the first batch on the 50-year anniversary of the day Kerr made her first photo trip, to Harrisburg.

Those Harrisburg photos have been shared hundreds of times, as have the other Kerr collections Lisec has published to the Morris Library Facebook page from Vienna, Anna, Marion, Benton, Golconda, Elizabethtown, Pinckneyville, El Dorado, Carmi, Mount Carmel, Dongola and Centralia, with more still to come.

I knew I was sitting on a goldmine, but I didnt know what kind of reception theyd get, Lisec said of the photos. It took off amazingly. Its been the biggest response Ive gotten to anything Ive posted on the library page.

Kerrs captions were minimal, but the social media audience has filled in the blanks, with dozens of users chiming in to identify the people and places in the photos, and share their memories.

A lot of the responses were people tagging each other in the comments, saying things like, Isnt this your dad? Lisec said. That took off.

Last week, just hours after Lisec posted Kerrs Centralia collection, a Facebook user found her parents in one of the photos, showing a family sitting in a diner.

She commented and said didnt have many pictures of her family, so I sent her the photo, Lisec said. That has happened like half a dozen times. It's so nice to be able to provide those memories.

On the street, Kerr said, her focus was on capturing everyday occurrences like women washing clothes at the laundromat, families out to eat, kids in class at Vienna High School.

Or Bible school, and filling stations and older men sitting out on stoops and park benches.

Over the summer and early fall of '69, Kerr shed her nervousness and fear of bothering people. She learned when to blend into the background to get a candid shot, and when it was better to engage with her subjects. She honed her photographers patience, waiting for the right shot.

When I look at the photos, Im amazed because I think I did good work, she said, and it was extremely farsighted of Duckett to make the assignment.

Fifty years later, Kerr knows she caught a historically important moment: the economic heyday of Southern Illinois small towns, before Walmarts and strip malls replaced bustling sidewalks and town squares.

Back then, the interstate was new and didnt go far, she said. All of the roads that people traveled on went through these little towns, so there were always people. Now you can go from Carbondale to anywhere and bypass them. And their businesses are practically gone.

At the same time, Kerr has seen civic life change.

Television and A/C have changed the way people interact, she said. You dont sit on the porch in the evening anymore.

Kerr can empathize with the stream of nostalgic comments that Facebook viewers leave on the photos.

But her experience reminds her some change is for the better.

I couldnt wait to get out of there when I was growing up, she remembers. It was an awful struggle to get up and do well in this world, and it was not a good place to be a young woman. Some of that stuff just needed to fade.

Kerr and Duckett put the project on hold when she went back to school in the fall of 1969. It was resumed by another photographer in 70 and 71, pictures Lisec says are forthcoming.

Kerr worked a variety of careers, but never returned to documentary photography.

She wasnt sure shed ever see her pictures again, until the Harrisburg series popped up on her Facebook feed in April.

I had always hoped they were still in the archives and in retirement I wanted to ask after them, she said. Im thrilled with what Aaron has done.

Kerr lives in Bloomington now, but still returns to Johnson County regularly to visit her sister in Vienna.

On a recent trip to Southern Illinois, she met with Lisec for lunch.

Like him, she says her favorite thing about the old photos is the meaning theyve had to other local people.

And both agree some kind of public display is in order, whether a photo exhibition or a publication of some kind.

The interest these photos have gotten, its incredible, Lisec said. It has been encouragement to keep it up.

The university has continued to capture the stories of Southern Illinois in recent years, through Professor Dan Overturfs Small Town Documentary class.

The biennial class, which began in 1996, has sent student photographers to document about 90 communities, including Sesser, Crab Orchard, Golconda, New Harmony, Indiana, Tamms, Christopher, Cypress and Fayetteville, in 2018.

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The S.C. Senate has approved a bill that would allow the City of Orangeburg to move the Confederate monument from Memorial Plaza, but the bill likely faces a bumpier ride in the House.

Even so, Sen. Vernon Stephens, D-Bowman, said, I believe the bill will pass.

Theres been conversation with a Confederate group, and theyre in favor of that monument being relocated to a Confederate cemetery. I dont see that as being an issue, he said.

The Heritage Act of 2000 forbids changing or removing any local or state monument, marker, school or street erected or named in honor of the Confederacy or the civil rights movement.

Orangeburg City Council unanimously passed a resolution on June 30, 2020, calling for the immediate removal of the monument once it is authorized by the S.C. General Assembly.

The Senate bill sponsored by Stephens and Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, would allow the city to relocate the 33-foot granite statue to the Pioneer Graveyard in Orangeburg.

The 129-year-old Confederate monument was designed by Theo Markwalter of Augusta, Georgia. Its topped with a bronze replica of Capt. John D. Palmer of the Hampton Legion.

The Pioneer Graveyard, also known as the Old Pioneer Cemetery, is a burial site for Confederate soldiers located at the Old Dixie Club Library, also known as Dixie Hall.

Upon its relocation, access to the monument would remain open to the public.

The bill states that the proposed new location is, a historic landmark and resting place for Confederate soldiers (and that) under the exigencies of this particular case, the General Assembly has a logical basis and sound reason for enacting this legislation.

The bill passed the Senate on Jan. 20 before being sent to the House. It was introduced and read for the first time on Jan. 20 before ultimately being referred to the Orangeburg County Legislative Delegation, where it still remains.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to have the bill placed on the House calendar for consideration, which would have required unanimous consent.

It didnt go to a standing committee. It went to the Orangeburg delegation, and we did that because the chances of it being reported out and put on the calendar was better coming from the delegation than from having it reported from a committee. If it had gone to one of the standing committees, it would have died an even quicker death, Cobb-Hunter said.

Cobb-Hunter said the bill has since been stalled in the Orangeburg County Legislative Delegation.

The bill has gone nowhere. I tried to recall it from the Orangeburg delegation and put it on the calendar. There were objections to doing that. I spoke with two of the Republicans who objected to try to see what their concerns might be, Cobb-Hunter said.

They indicated two things. One, they didnt trust the Senate and are suspicious of anything that comes from the Senate. The second was their concern about whether there was support for this move in the Confederate community, she said.

Cobb-Hunter said she was not even aware of the bill until Hutto informed her that the bill would be coming over to the House.

He indicated there was support for it from all the players involved, that the Daughters of the Confederacy had agreed to move it to the Confederate cemetery, she said.

A Republican lawmaker asked Cobb-Hunter whether proof of support could be provided in writing, she said.

I told him that was something we could certainly look into, Cobb-Hunter said.

The lawmaker said on Thursday that he wasnt sure if he would lend his support to the bill even if support was provided in writing, she said.

That, to me, means that there is going to be resistance whether there is support in writing or not, Cobb-Hunter said.

While Cobb-Hunter doesnt object to the Senate bill, she wishes she had known about it sooner.

It would have been nice on something as controversial as that to have notice. I was under the impression that the affected stakeholders had reached a consensus, and I dont know if thats the case. Thats what I was told, that where was consensus in moving it to the cemetery, she said.

Stephens said, Sen. Hutto mainly has been in contact with the two entities. Ive been in contact with the (Orangeburg) City Council, and city council has gone on record as wanting to move the monument to that particular cemetery.

When contacted for comment about the bill, Hutto said in a text message that he was isolating because of COVID and preferred not to speak on the bill until he finishes his recovery.

In the meantime, Stephens said the bill would not conflict with the Heritage Act as long as lawmakers agree.

Stephens continued, From going back and reading through the Heritage Act, I dont see theres any provisions in that that prohibit what were doing.

The South Carolina Supreme Court in September 2021 ruled that the Heritage Act is legal. But in the same ruling, the justices struck down a requirement that two-thirds of the General Assembly must approve a move or name change.

A lawsuit also calls for the removal of the Confederate monument from Memorial Plaza, but had been on hold while awaiting a decision in a separate case.

Orangeburg attorney Skyler Hutto, who represents plaintiffs seeking removal of the monument, has said the lawsuit can now move forward. Hes the son of Sen. Hutto.

The Orangeburg City Council also unanimously passed a resolution on June 30, 2020 to rename John C. Calhoun Drive. Stephens doesnt think the issue will be taken up in future bills.

Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow "Good News with Gleaton" on Twitter at @DionneTandD. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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(TBTCVN) - Ban Can su ang Bo Tai chinh a giao tang thu them 5.000 ty ong, nang chi tieu phan au cua nganh Hai quan nam 2017 len 295.000 ty ong. ay la muc tieu rat thach thuc, oi hoi trong 3 thang con lai cua nam 2017, nganh Hai quan phai phan au moi thang thu at 27.118 ty ong.
Sau khi giam nhe trong phien giao dich au tien sau ky nghi le 30/4 - 1/5, ty gia trung tam USD ngay 5/5 co phien giam sau toi 10 ong moi USD. Trong khi o, ty gia USD tai mot so ngan hang thuong mai lai co xu huong tang, hoac ung gia so voi ngay hom truoc.
A person charged with a crime committed while under the age of 18 can still be tried in juvenile court even if they are an adult when charged, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The petitioner who brought the appeal, a man charged with sexual assault for an alleged incident that took place when he was 17, will now see his case go back to district court in Teton County. There, a judge can now decide whether it should be transferred to juvenile court, which would seal proceedings and protect his identity.

Thomas Fleener, one of the petitioners attorneys, said that he asked district court judges around the state how they would rule on cases like these and found they were split. Half would have tried it as an adult, since the charges were brought against an 18-year-old, and half would have sent it down to juvenile court.

This case is extremely important for juveniles in Wyoming, said Fleener. It creates consistency among various district courts, so that folks that are similarly situated are treated the same, which they should be.

According to court documents, the man was charged for allegedly groping a female friend when he was 17 years old. More than a year later, after he had turned 18, the incident came to light and he was charged as an adult in 2020.

When lawyers moved to transfer his case to juvenile court in January 2021, shortly before his arraignment, court filings state the judge determined he should be tried as an adult since the charges were brought against him after he turned 18.

The state supreme court ruled on Monday that his case should have been transferred. Going forward, it ruled, cases under the same set of circumstances should start in juvenile court, where a judge can assess the allegations to decide whether to charge the accused as an adult.

We have concluded that the juvenile courts concurrent jurisdiction depends on the offenders age at the time of the offense and not at the time of charging, the ruling states.

The court ruled that the provision of Wyomings Juvenile Justice Act concerning jurisdiction is ambiguous, but relied on a pair of other rulings (one federal, one in Pennsylvania) to set the precedent.

I think it really speaks to the main purpose of treating juveniles differently, Fleener said. I mean, the reason why states have juvenile justice acts is because kids are different ... their minds arent fully developed.

That doesnt mean that all cases involving crimes committed by someone under 18 should be sent to juvenile court  minors in Wyoming can be tried as adults depending on the seriousness of the crime and the discretion of the court. But the cases should at least start in the juvenile court, the justices ruled, before a judge can decide whether to transfer it to a higher circuit and make the charges public.

Follow city and crime reporter Ellen Gerst on Twitter at @ellengerst.

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CHEYENNE  Wyomings Speaker of the House has asked that a fellow legislator respond in writing to allegations that he does not live in the district he was elected to represent.

On Friday, House Speaker Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, said in a public statement that he received a complaint from the Secretary of States office initially filed with that office by the Wyoming Republican Party, requesting attention regarding allegations that the residence of Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, may render him unqualified to serve the remainder of his term.

Barlow cited Article 3, Section 10 of the Wyoming Constitution, which states that only the House of Representatives is qualified to judge whether a member possesses the necessary qualifications to be elected to or continue to serve in the House of Representatives.

As such, the Secretary of State has properly referred the complaint to us, Barlow said.

Barlow said he is conferring with House leadership and Legislative Service Office legal staff on the manner in which to proceed, under the Wyoming Constitution and the Rules of the House of Representatives.

Additionally, I have requested Representative Zwonitzer respond to the allegations in writing, Barlow said Friday. Once I have received his response, and understand the options available for resolving this matter in an appropriate and expeditious manner, I will propose a course of action.

Last week, Zwonitzer told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that he and his family own multiple properties in House District 43, which he was first elected to represent in 2005.

While he did sell a house in HD 43 in early 2021 and purchased a residence in HD 10, he said he has been living in town at an apartment building he also owns.

We have an apartment complex, and so throughout the last year, after I did sell my house in 2021, we did move four blocks away to an apartment, Zwonitzer said.

Zwonitzer said he was planning to put together an affidavit over the weekend to have notarized and submitted to Barlow by the middle of this week.

I trust in the process and fully believe I am in compliance with the state Constitution and state statute regarding my residency, Zwonitzer said Friday. I will do anything asked of me, and if the process continues after my statement, if there is any further issue, I will work within the process to address it.

The complaint was brought to the Wyoming Republican Party last weekend at its Central Committee meeting in Douglas.

Carbon County Republican Party Chairman Joey Correnti IV said he brought his concerns to the Central Committee after weeks of hearing from people who were concerned about Zwonitzers residency. He said he ultimately decided to bring his concerns to the party when considering the role Zwonitzer plays in the ongoing redistricting process.

The complaint letter was signed by Wyoming Republican Party Chairman Frank Eathorne and included attached maps under the label evidence of potential gerrymandering.

Zwonitzer serves as the co-chair of the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee, which has been tasked with the states decennial redistricting process following the 2020 Census.

Correnti has often commented during committee meetings this winter. According to meeting minutes dated Aug. 16, Correnti, who serves as chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party Statewide Redistricting Committee, proposed a general plan for redistricting with a county-line focus that pushes back against the one person, one vote principle and would require a constitutional amendment, meeting minutes read.

What we are planning to bring forward is a posture, not an entire plan, mostly an equation, that leans back towards the original constitutional language, he said at that meeting. I would like to speak to a county-wide focus. It is something we are going to stand hard on.

According to a memo from the Wyoming Legislative Service Office presented to the committee early on in the redistricting process, the U.S. Supreme Court has found that state legislative districts are required to be substantially equal in population under the Equal Protection Clause.

The court has specifically considered whether the Senate of a state could be determined by county boundaries, similar to the allocation of two U.S. senators to each state, despite substantial population deviations between the states.

However, it found that unlike an entire state, political subdivisions of states, like counties and cities, never were and never have been considered as sovereign entities, the LSO memo read. The Court then went on to say that: Since we find the so-called federal analogy inapposite to a consideration of the constitutional validity of state legislative apportionment schemes, we necessarily hold that the Equal Protection Clause requires both houses of a state legislature to be apportioned on a population basis, according to the LSO.

On Dec. 28, Correnti addressed the committee, asking for an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution.

Carbon County has very little argument. We have the population we have, and we have always needed to share with another county, he said. The one problem I have is that none of the plans have ever come to the people of Carbon County. We have not had any public meetings. It is basically, we are going to do whatever makes the northwest corner and southeast corner work the best.

I will come with the ask that the Wyoming Republican Party Statewide Redistricting Committee has had at every meeting since the beginning, Correnti said. If this process is going to continue to go ahead in the manner it is, based on the judicial relief, I would like to see a resolution drafted by the LSO to adopt an amendment to the constitution making this process what our constitution says we are going to do.

That, he said, is draw lines based on county boundaries.

Zwonitzer often spoke about how the redistricting plan should shift based on 14th Amendment principles of one person, one vote, as delineated by the most recent census data.

Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, also said during the redistricting process that he has heard the argument that states are miniature versions of the U.S. Constitution, but that that argument has failed at every single level.

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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.
The Point is to Change the World, a collection of writings by Guyanese political activist Andaiye, was in the spotlight on Thursday, the first day of the 2022 Bocas Lit Fest, which kicked off with a series of virtual events.

Thursdays conversation centred on Andaiyes writings and legacy.

Journalist Sunity Maharaj said while Andaiye left a legacy through her work, she also used her platform to be open and honest about every aspect of her life, including her battle with cancer.
A Barrackpore woman returned to her house in the early hours of last Saturday and found an i
The issue of school violence has resurfaced with such an intensity that it has the nations 
Talk about patience.

Tucson teen Joshua Thai has been waiting two years to cash in on his prize after winning the junior division of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestras 2020 Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition.

Two years is easily five in kid years.

This weekend, Joshua, now 15, gets to play with the community orchestra under the baton of Music Director Linus Lerner, his prize for winning the Vanek competition endowed by the late arts patron.

Joshua will perform the third movement of Polish composer Henryk Wieniawksis Violin Concerto, a piece he was set to perform in the 2020-21 season that was canceled courtesy the pandemic.

Josh, a sophomore at Quest for Education and Arts, began studying violin at at age 7 and by 11 he was playing with an orchestra, debuting with the Arizona Symphonic Winds under the baton of Laszlo Veres.

He adds the Vanek competition win to a growing list of contest prizes that includes back-to-back first place finishes in Colorados Rocky Ridge Music Center concerto competition that earned him a shot performing with the faculty there. In 2019, he participated in the prestigious HeifetzPEG program, studying with Bela Horvath.

His performance with SASO this weekend is a rehearsal of sorts for his recital at Carnegie Halls Weill Recital Hall in the spring as part of the Progressive Musicians Competition.

The Wieniawksi concerto is on a program that includes the return of South Korean violinist Edwin So Kim performing Beethovens Violin Concerto.

This is Kims fourth appearance with SASO after his 2013 debut playing Tchaikovskys breathtaking workout Concerto in D major. He also performed Beethovens Triple Concerto in 2015 and the challenging and heaven-sent

Elgar Concerto in 2017.

The orchestra will perform the concert twice this weekend  at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, at

DesertView Performing Arts Center, 39900 S. Clubhouse Drive in SaddleBrooke; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6, at St Andrews Presbyterian Church, 7575 N. Paseo del Norte in Oro Valley.

Tickets for SaddleBrooke are $30 through tickets.saddlebrooketwo.com and $25 for Oro Valley through sasomusic.org/buy-tickets.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch

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PHOENIX  The Arizona Supreme Court has restricted the right of private individuals dragged into, and defamed, in political disputes to sue.

In a 4-3 ruling Tuesday that sets precedents, the majority of justices cited First Amendment concerns about free speech.

The ruling acknowledged that current state Sen. Wendy Rogers made statements during her 2018 congressional campaign about Steve Smith, her Republican primary foe, that also implicated the modeling firm for which he worked, the Young Agency. Neither the agency nor its owner Pamela Young played a role in the campaign, the majority acknowledged.

But Justice Clint Bolick, writing for the majority, pointed out that Young was not named in the radio commercial at issue, which called Smith a slimy character whose modeling agency specializes in underage girls and advertises on websites linked to sex trafficking.

He said politicians have wider latitude than individuals about what they can say without committing slander or libel. That leaves Young without a legal remedy, Bolick said.

None of this is meant to disparage Youngs grievance, the justice wrote, noting she asked to stay out of the political fray.

It is not uncommon for friends, family, supporters and professional associates of candidates and public figures to be swept involuntarily into the political maelstrom, and it is essential for defamation remedies to be available in meritorious cases, Bolick continued. But in public debate, we must tolerate insulting, and even outrageous, speech in order to provide adequate breathing space for the freedoms protected by the First Amendment.

Tuesdays ruling most immediately is a victory for Rogers. Since her 2020 election to the state Senate, the Flagstaff Republican has been at the forefront of efforts to overturn results of the presidential race, impose new restrictions on voting, and promote unrestricted possession of firearms. She has also fought vaccine mandates and proposed the use of Bitcoin as an official state currency.

Justice Ann Scott Timmer, in writing the dissent for the minority, said there are larger implications from the precedent being set.

In its zeal to shelter political mudslinging under First Amendment freedoms, the majority abandons private individuals caught in the crossfire and effectively displaces the jury in cases involving implied defamation against unnamed, yet readily identifiable, people, Timmer wrote. She said the question of whether Rogers speech harmed Young should have been decided by a jury.

As to the majoritys argument that the decision protects free speech rights, Timmer wrote, This view effectively weaponizes the First Amendment against innocent bystanders ensnared by often-vitriolic political campaigns, disregards well-established precedent, and is unnecessary for protecting political speech.

Timmer also said the majority got it wrong in saying the fact that the commercial did not cite Young by name protects Rogers from being sued.

Some listeners could understand the contested statement as meaning Young Agency was complicit in sex trafficking girls, indisputably a defamatory communication, she wrote. Timmer also asked what the point was of mentioning the agency in the commercial, if the point was to attack Smith.

The radio ad aired by Rogers came as she sought to be the 2018 GOP nominee for Congress, saying only she  and not Smith  could defeat incumbent, Democrat Tom OHalleran. Rogers won the primary but lost the general election.

Following the election, Young sued, charging defamation and false light invasion of privacy because of the commercial.

A trial judge rejected Rogers bid to dismiss the case but the Court of Appeals sided with her. That led to Tuesdays ruling.

Bolick acknowledged that someone claiming defamation need not actually be identified by name.

It is enough that there is such a description of or reference to him that those who hear or read reasonably understand the plaintiff to be the person intended, he wrote. A statement can lead to litigation if it implies a clearly defamatory meaning, Bolick said.

He also said that Young, as a private figure, does not need to prove a statement was made with actual malice. Thats the standard set for defamation lawsuits by public figures.

But he also noted that Young does not dispute the factual nature of the claim: that Smith works at a modeling agency that specializes in underage girls, and that the agency advertises on websites that had been linked to sex trafficking. Instead, Bolick said, her case is built on Rogers implication that Young is complicit in sex trafficking of children.

The campaign commercial is more reasonably understood to imply that Smith is slimy because he makes a living off exploiting children as models and goes so far as to advertise his sketchy business on questionable websites, Bolick said, calling that a far cry from any reasonably understood inference the agency itself is engaged in sex trafficking of girls.

Sex trafficking girls makes one a criminal, the justice said. Making a living in a seedy business makes one slimy, which is exactly what the advertisement alleges that Smith does.

All of that, Bolick said, compelled the ruling that Young has no legal remedy in Arizona courts.

To allow a defamation action to proceed where the publication is a political advertisement directed at an opposing candidate, where the plaintiff is unnamed in the publication, where the challenged statement is conceded to be true, and where the alleged offending implication is not obvious, would not only chill free speech in this case but also open the floodgates to litigants who are aggrieved by perceived indignities visited upon them by politicians, he wrote.

He acknowledged that in such lawsuits the question of whether someone has been defamed is generally left to a jury. But Bolick said jurors  unlike judges  do not have an obligation to protect free speech.

Moreover, allowing the claim to proceed, even if it ends in a verdict for the defendant, exposes the candidate to costly litigation and potentially embarrassing discovery, he said.

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PHOENIX  State senators took the first steps Monday that would erect new hurdles in the path of Arizonans to propose their own laws and constitutional amendments.

On a 4-3 party-line vote, Republicans on the Government Committee approved a measure that says that petitions circulators have to actually read out loud the 200-word description on every ballot measure to anyone who wants to sign.

In the alternative, SB 1094 would require that signers be given sufficient time to read the description before being able to put pen to paper. But nowhere in the proposal is that defined.

If the language is not read out loud, or it is determined that there was not enough time, a judge is required to declare that signature invalid.

Separately, the same panel approved SCR 1025. It changes the requirements to qualify for the ballot.

The Arizona Constitution now says that anyone seeking to propose a new law must get the signatures equal to at least 10% of those who voted in the last gubernatorial race. That is currently 237,645.

This proposal by Sen. Vince Leach, R-Tucson, would set that percentage requirement in each of the states 30 legislative districts.

Ditto the 15% requirement for constitutional amendments.

Leach said the current system results in circulators concentrating on getting all the signatures they need in Maricopa County.

You will see all kinds of people gathering signatures at Frys in the metropolitan Phoenix and the Valley area, he said. But I never see one at my Frys in Oro Valley.

And that, he said, is not surprising, comparing it to what Willie Sutton reportedly told a reporter when asked why he robs banks.

Because thats where the money is, Leach said.

This measure, he said, will ensure that rural interests get a voice on what goes on the ballot.

On the flip side, however, is that SCR 1024 effectively could give residents of one legislative district  which could be as small as some neighborhoods  veto power over everyone else getting a chance to vote on certain measures.

Leach, for his part, questioned the likelihood of that ever happening.

Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, who is the author of SB 1094, said his goal is not to make it harder to put issues on the ballot.

Instead, Mesnard said he is trying to end spin-filled signature gathering where circulators seeking to attract signers may be providing people with inaccurate information about exactly what the initiative proposes.

Nothing in his bill would block circulators from saying whatever they want. But what it would do, Mesnard said, is ensure that people have the opportunity to hear the official summary and decide for themselves if this is something they care to support.

Enforcement, however, is another matter.

He said that could take the form of someone filing a complaint with a court saying that certain circulators were not complying with the law and that any signatures they gathered should not be counted. But Mesnard said he does not see judges in this state making such wholesale decisions.

For example, he said, a would-be signer could tell a circulator he or she already is familiar with the measure, whether having actually read it or through news coverage. Mesnard said the key is that the circulator has made the offer to read it aloud or give the person the time to peruse the summary.

If the petition gatherer has done that, then I think they have complied with the law, he said.

Itll be exceedingly difficult for someone to say, Well, I watched them and the person just glanced at it and then they signed it, no way they could read it that fast,  Mesnard said. I dont think a judge is going to go for that.

Both measures now need approval of the full Senate and, eventually, the House.

But Leach faces an extra hurdle.

The signature requirements for initiatives are part of the Arizona Constitution. And the kind of changes he wants would need voter approval at the next election before taking effect.

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In a city where tenants make up nearly half the population, Tucsonans are reacting with fear and anger to news of huge rent hikes at a seniors citizens apartment complex.

But city leaders are helpless to stop abusive price-gouging under a state law that prevents local governments from setting limits on how much landlords can charge, Mayor Regina Romero said.

The mayor said she has been getting an earful from city residents since the Arizona Daily Star reported on a San Diego apartment-flipper who has raised rents by 50% or more at several Tucson apartment complexes, including the former seniors complex at 1511 N. Craycroft Road where some tenants say they are being forced out because they cannot afford to stay. The new owner has not responded to numerous requests by the Star for comment.

Some of the calls to city hall are from seniors renting elsewhere in Tucson who worry they might be next, Romero said.

We need the state to create policies that protect vulnerable residents from obscene rate hikes, or they need to untie our hands so cities and towns can do something about it, Romero, a Democrat, said in an email interview.

Municipal governments are closest to the problem and should be able to act on these issues without state interference.

Republicans who control the states legislative agenda say rent control is not the answer. Absolutely not, Arizona House majority leader Rep. Ben Toma said in an email interview.

Toma, who owns a Century 21 real estate brokerage, said rent control would not fix the underlying problem: a pressing shortage of affordable housing because the states population has for years been growing faster than its housing supply.

He blames local land-use rules. Cities and towns have prioritized construction of single-family homes over apartment projects, which can be controversial because of neighborhood concerns about aesthetics and increased density, he said.

As housing demand increases in Arizona, so should supply; otherwise the problem will simply continue to compound, Toma said. He said there is bipartisan support for changes, and he expects several bills to be introduced this session to address housing affordability throughout the state.

But talk of future fixes is of little comfort to Tucson tenants currently caught in the squeeze. Some are facing rent hikes much higher than 50%, public records and other documents show.

Rents are rising by as much as 77% at the former Colonia de Tucson, a west-side complex occupied by seniors and families recently purchased by investors from Los Angeles and Chicago for $7.8 million with $300,000 down, land transfer records show. The previous owner, a Miami-area investor, paid $4.9 million for it 18 months ago.

A two-bedroom, one bath unit that used to rent for $675 will soon rent for $1,195 at the 84-unit complex at 1335 W. St. Marys Road. The new landlords are offering short-term leases for $950 a month  a 40% increase  until the new higher rate kicks in later this year, tenant notification letters show.

Single mom Laura Gallego, 33, a nail salon technician with three children ages 2 to 9, said she cannot afford the increase. Two of her neighbors, older tenants in their 70s and 90s, are in the same situation, she said.

Its scary, said Gallego, a Tucson native. I havent been able to sleep, and I dont know what to do.

Even the property manager said shes uncomfortable with the 77% increase.

Ann Diaz, president of Arizona 1st Realty Management, said the complex where Gallego lives was run down, and the new owners are in the process of making improvements.

The previous owner was operating at a loss, she said, and the new rent is comparable to what other landlords are charging in the area.

Even so, I feel really bad, Diaz said. But I dont set the rents; the owners do. Ive been hired to do a job, and if I dont do what my clients ask me to do, Ill be replaced by someone who will.

Diaz, who owns a handful of small Tucson rental properties, said she has not raised rents because I love my tenants. But she predicted more big rent hikes are ahead for city residents who live in buildings where current rental rates are well below market rates.

Mark Stapp, a real estate expert at Arizona State University who is opposed to rent control, said theres no short-term fix for the affordable housing shortage.

If I started building an apartment project today it would take two years until the first person could move in, he said in a phone interview.

State and local leaders need to work together on solutions, he said, because lack of affordable housing affects the overall health of communities and could also jeopardize efforts to bring new jobs and employers to Arizona, he said.

Affordable housing is a critical economic development issue, not just a social issue, he said. It doesnt make us a highly desirable place when a greater percentage of the population finds itself in this situation.

+3

Contact reporter Carol Ann Alaimo at 573-4138 or calaimo@tucson.com . On Twitter: @AZStarConsumer

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China's software sector revenue, profit grow in 2021

Xinhua) 11:46, February 01, 2022

An automated installation demonstrates house building at the Intelligent Industry & Information Technology Exhibition Area of the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's software and information technology sector sustained sound growth momentum in 2021, with revenue and profit maintaining steady expansion, official data showed.

There were more than 40,000 companies in the sector with an annual revenue of more than 5 million yuan (about 784,363 U.S. dollars) last year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Those companies reported combined revenue of nearly 9.5 trillion yuan, up 17.7 percent year on year.

Specifically, information technology services registered rapid growth last year, with the revenue rising 20 percent year on year to more than 6 trillion yuan, 2.3 percentage points higher than the average level of the whole sector.

The software sector's combined profits rose 7.6 percent year on year to nearly 1.19 trillion yuan last year.

In 2021, China's software exports came in at 52.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 8.8 percent year on year, MIIT data showed.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
Editor's note: This story was originally published on Nov. 30, 2021.

Leer en espanol

Benny Galaz is the son of a miner. He grew up in Nacozari de Garcia, Mexico, a small town whose wealth was extracted from the copper, silver and gold deposits in its narrow hills. His dad would spend weekdays under the earth. As a manager, he would emerge on Friday night just to be called back in to handle an emergency on Saturday morning. Benny, off from school, would be permitted to tag along, transported through a shaft into a pitch dark world operating in parallel to, and fueling, the city of his mother.

There came a day when his dad asked to take him out of school to come to the mine. The CEO of the mining company was flying in from Mexico City. The CEO was bringing his son with, so Bennys dad would do the same.

Benny understood this was not a typical visit to the mine when they were waiting outside. The young secretaries who were typically confined to desks and only seen from the waist up were standing in a line. He saw their beautiful skirts for the first time. Everyone was waiting around a big green circle with a white H in the middle.

The secretaries had to hold their hair down as winds picked up in an unnaturally confined space, like a tornado made just for them. Benny didnt know what was coming down from the sky, but his father would soon tell him it was a helicopter.

The big man in a suit exited from the helicopter doors and embraced everyone, including Bennys father. He shook Bennys hand, and told his dad he should be proud. The boss son stood at a distance, like he was judging us for being from the countryside, Benny said. But his father, the more important man, treated everyone like a friend.

I knew from that day on that I wanted to have a helicopter, he said.

Today, Benny is an important man. He wears crisp collared shirts that are patterned, appearing more casual than his ambition really makes him. When he was 21, he was selling a thousand Sonoran dogs a day out of a cart he named, in a pinch, with his and his wifes initials. Decades later, hes still expanding. As we spoke, he occasionally took a handkerchief out of his pocket to gently dab at the sweat on his brow throughout a conversation, recalling Marlon Brando.

Benny owns BK Carne Asada and Hot Dogs. The restaurant has two locations, one on the south side, the other on First Avenue, with another on the way at Park Avenue and 19th Street. He also owns El Berraco, a submarine-themed seafood restaurant. I wanted something people couldnt imitate, he said. Seafood is harder to copy than a Sonoran dog.

He is sensitive about this intellectual property because he staked his legacy to something that is replicable. A Sonoran dog will always have the same ingredients. What makes it different is in the little details, the special methods each person brings. But principally it is something very simple and easy to recreate.

He first learned about Sonoran dogs as a kid in Nacozari, Mexico. He remembers very distinctly the day that the Sonoran dog cart came to town.

He was still a schoolkid. He would leave Nacozari to go to high school in Tucson, where he was born. When he returned to Nacozari, he knew he wanted to make Sonoran dogs, too. When he put his cart into practice, though, he realized the town wasnt big enough for two vendors, so he decided to take the concept back to Tucson.

I thought, Sonoran dogs and carne asada, these are two things that were everywhere in my hometown and hard to find here at the time, he said.

But when he got to Tucson, he was confronted with the strict bureaucracy of the city health department. Luckily, the director at the time spoke Spanish. He talked me through the process on how to run my cart safely. You have to keep the beans at the right temperature, the bacon at the right temperature, or people can get very sick, the inspector told me.

So I took the specs home and I used the side of a CD jewel case as a ruler to get the lines all straight, he said. I built out the cart with a water heater placed underneath the beans to keep them warm. The inspector was impressed, and Xeroxed my plans. Then, whenever anyone would come up to the inspector asking about how to get a hot dog cart certified, he would give them the document I made. Benny told this story with some chagrin. He sees those specs as his own, and they are now freely and commonly plagiarized.

To make matters more sensitive, many of Bennys former employees now run Sonoran hot dog joints of their own  a narrative thats part Willy Wonka, part The Godfather.

A man from my hometown came to Tucson to open a hot dog restaurant on South Fourth Ave., Benny said. I found out and came in to congratulate him. When I dropped by, he was very pale, like someone who just got caught. He was scared because he was located so close to BK, so he didnt want to tell me. But I was proud of him for opening his own business. I wanted to talk to him about his ambitions, his dreams.

The language of dreams comes to Benny from motivational speakers like Tony Robbins. He has been attending leadership conferences for the past six years and incorporated their messages into every conversation we had. It is natural for him to feel like these methods work, because he is already the kind of person the people who go to motivational speakers aspire to be.

I bought a helicopter a number of years ago, he said. I used it on my ranch down in Sonora. My friends and I would use it to hunt wild boars, he said. But we had too much fun, he said with a mischievous smile. So I sold it.

In the not-yet-released documentary about BK that he commissioned, no helicopter is mentioned. Instead, the video imagines BKs future at Park and 19th: fully automated ordering, with an account that will remember your preferences and make suggestions; software that films employees work for social media promotions and records each individuals output in pounds of carne grilled like stats in a video game; drones that will deliver BK across town and eventually the country. Its part of a campaign with the slogan #ThinkOutsideTheGrill.

When I started, if you were brown, or Mexican, you couldnt buy property north of 22nd Street, he said. That isn't the case anymore, and Benny is proof of that. He has two restaurants above the line and is working on a third outpost. He imagines his influence extending nationwide, if he finds the right partners for franchising.

A few years ago I was at a leadership conference in Orlando, and afterward I decided to go to Disney World. I had never been, he said. When I was at Epcot, this international theme park, I found a stand that sold the hot dogs of the world.

I ordered a Chicago dog and asked the attendant which hot dog was their favorite. He said, Actually, its the Sonoran dog, from Tucson. And I told him, Thats me.

Below are 26 spots on Tucsons south side and in South Tucson to get a Sonoran hot dog. Sometimes hours can vary between social media pages and Google listings, so check ahead of time. If were missing your favorite spot, let us know: elueders@tucson.com.

Check out the first part of this series, a list of midtown Sonoran hot dog spots, here.

Aqui Con El Nene

Location: 65 W. Valencia Road

Hours: 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, closed Sunday

For more information, check out their website.

Editors note: Their midtown Tucson location is in our first Sonoran dog roundup.

Aqui Con El Pariente

Location: 1060 E. Irvington Road

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 6-11 p.m. | 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday | 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. Saturday | Closed Sunday

For more information, check out their Facebook page or call 520-273-2423.

BK Carne Asada & Hot Dogs

Location: 5118 S. 12th Ave.

Hours: Sunday-Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. | Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. | Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

For more information, check out their website. Their central Tucson location is in our first Sonoran dog roundup.

Delicias Mexican Grill

Location: 4581 S. 12th Ave.

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. | Friday-Saturday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 7-2 a.m. Sunday

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Dylans hotdogs & quesadilla

Location: 4129 E. 29th St.

For more information, check out their website or call 520-448-8145.

El Chencho Hotdogs

Location: 3207 E. Ajo Way

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Pro tip: Ask and they might write your name on your hot dog with mayo.

El Guero Canelo

Locations: 5802 E. 22nd St. | 5201 S. 12th Ave.

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. | Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. | Sunday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For more information, check out their website.

El Kora Hotdogs

Locations: Lot on the southwest corner of Irvington Road and Park Avenue | S. Swan Road #3 | 6028 S. Sixth Ave.

Hours: Irvington and Park, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily | Swan, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays, 3-10 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday | Sixth, 1-11 p.m. daily

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

El Movimento Hotdogs

Location: 772 W. Irvington Road

Hours: Noon to 11 p.m. daily

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

El Pacotote

Location: 1055 E. Irvington Road

Hours: Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

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For more information, check out their Facebook page.

El Perro Loco Hot Dogs

Locations: 3051 E. 36th St. and 3800-3818 S. Valley Road

Hours:

Valley Road: Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. | 2-11 p.m. Sunday

36th Street: Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. | Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

El Teo Hotdogs

Location: 3095 E. Irvington Road

Hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday | 1-9 p.m. Sunday

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Hot Dogs Mercado

Location: 3924 S. Sixth Ave.

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 7:30 p.m. to 12 a.m.

For more information, check out their Facebook page or Instagram.

Hermanos Hotdogs, Tacos

Location: 7889 E. 22nd St.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily | Closed Sunday

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Hot Dogs Los Chipilones

Location: 4775 S. 12th Ave.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

JV Querobabi Hotdogs

Location: 5713 S. Country Club Road

Hours: Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday | Closed on Sunday and first Monday of each month

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Pro tip: Their tree-shaded courtyard eating area is worth the haul to Drexel and Country Club. 50 cents off dogos on Friday.

La Carreta Rosa

Location: 3085 E. Valencia Road

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Los Hacen Dogos

Location: 6718 S. Nogales Hwy.

Hours: 5-11 p.m. daily | Closed Sunday

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Monster Sonoran Hot Dogs

Location: 1439 S. Fourth Ave.

Hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For more information, check out their website.

Oops Hot Dogs

Location: 502 W. Ajo Way

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 10-12 a.m. | Friday-Saturday, 10-1 a.m. | Closed Sunday

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Romeros Sonoran Hot Dogs

Location: 5333 S. 12th Ave.

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 5-11 p.m. | Friday-Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Ricositos Chile Dogos

Location: Southeast corner of Ajo Way and Randolph Avenue

Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 9-12 a.m. Saturday | Closed Sunday

For more information, call 520-603-5393.

Sammy El Sinaloense Sonoran Hotdogs

Location: 4733 S. Campbell Ave.

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 3:30-10 p.m. | Friday-Saturday 3:30-11 p.m.

For more information, check out their Facebook page or Google Maps site.

Editors note: There is a discrepancy between the Google Maps address and whats on their Facebook page. For the right directions, go to the linked 4733 S. Campbell Ave.

Super Hotdogs Obregon

Location: 4902 S. 12th Ave.

Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. | Friday-Saturday, 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Tacos y Hot Dogs El Manantial

Location: 953 E. 36th Street

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. | Monday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

For more information, check out their Facebook page.

Taqueria La Esquina

Location: 4876 S. Sixth Ave.

Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. | Friday-Saturday, 11-1 a.m.

For more information, check out their website.

La Estrella reporter Claudia Bungard contributed to this story.
The Owasso post office could serve as a new namesake for a fallen local veteran.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, Feb. 1, passed a bill to rename the building, located at 1233 N. Cedar St., after Tech. Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts, a 28-year-old Oklahoma Air National Guardsman from Owasso who was killed while deployed overseas in March 2020.

HR 1298  sponsored by Rep. Kevin Hern and co-sponsored by Reps. Frank Lucas, Tom Cole, Markwayne Mullin and Stephanie Bice  proposes to reestablish the Owasso postal station as the Technical Sergeant Marshal Roberts United States Post Office.

We owe him (Marshal) a debt of gratitude we can never repay, Hern said in a news release. Renaming the Owasso post office in his honor will ensure the community he loved and served will always remember his selfless bravery and bring his legacy to future generations.

The measure to rename the post office pays homage to Roberts sacrifice, which came in the line of indirect enemy fire while stationed at Camp Taji in Iraq on March 11, 2020.

Serving with the 219th Engineering Installation Squadron, Roberts was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve about 20 miles north of Baghdad when his unit was hit with a rocket attack.

The engagement claimed Roberts life and that of another American soldier, along with a U.K. service member and two Iraqi Security Forces members. Fourteen others were wounded, including Oklahomas Tech. Sgt. Ariel E. White.

The Owasso post office will stand as a somber reminder of the brave Oklahomans who have given their lives to protect us at home and those who continue to fight for our freedoms, Mullin said in the release. We will never forget Tech. Sgt. Roberts, and I am proud to support this legislation to honor him.

Cole added, This community tribute will ensure his (Marshals) incredible patriotism is remembered and continues to inspire generations of Oklahomans to come, and I was proud to co-sponsor the resolution to make it possible alongside our states delegation in the House.

Since his death, Roberts name has lived on through the inspirational efforts of others. The Oklahoma Air National Guard in March 2021, for example, dedicated a facility at the Tulsa Air National Guard Base in his remembrance. Eight months later, a 4-mile stretch of Oklahoma 20 between Owasso and Claremore adopted the fallen soldiers namesake.

HR 1298 was introduced to the 117th Congress in Feb. 2021 after previously being introduced in the 116th Congress by all members of the delegation. The bill still needs to pass the U.S. Senate and be signed by the president before the post office is renamed.

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For 75 years, Smokey Bear has been telling Americans that only we can prevent forest fires  or, for the past 21 years, wildfires.

But as enduring as the mascot  and the message  have been, many people still associate fire safety with camping.

In reality, a growing number of people, including many in Sand Springs, are living where wildfires are a real risk, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

In 2018, more than 58,000 fires burned nearly 9 million acres across the U.S., the NFPA says. More than 25,000 structures, including 18,137 residences and 229 commercial structures, were destroyed.

And although wildfires in places such as California and, recently, Colorado tend to make big headlines, the threat is absolutely a local one, too.

In 2020, the Sand Springs Fire Department responded to 155 fire calls, a third of which were grass or brush fires.

City Fire Marshal Mike Nobles explained that Sand Springs is part of what is referred to as a wildland-urban interface, a transitional area between wilderness and land developed by human activity, where a created environment meets or intermingles with a natural environment.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, human settlements in the wildland-urban interface are at a greater risk of catastrophic wildfire.

It definitely poses a unique situation for us, Nobles said. There are things that are unique to wildland firefighting as opposed to structural firefighting.

We can simulate structure fires in a fairly controlled environment, he said, but aside from prescribed burns, simulating wildland fires is difficult.

Although wildfires can occur anytime, OSU Extension fire ecology specialist John Weir said Oklahoma very definitely has a fire season.

We typically see more wildfires occur from November to the first of April, due to our plants going dormant, he said. Theres nothing green or actively growing, so its very flammable.

The driest period is December through February, said Weir, who is a volunteer firefighter in Orlando, Oklahoma.

Everyone says summers are hot and dry, but we get our most rainfall May through July.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a little more than half of Tulsa County, a sliver of Creek County and nearly all of Osage County are currently experiencing severe drought.

Thirty-two counties in Oklahoma, including Creek County, are under countywide burn bans at present.

But nearly the entire western half of the state is experiencing extreme drought, and the western half of the Panhandle is suffering under exceptional drought conditions, the most dangerous category.

Couple all that dry weather with the states notorious wind that comes sweeping down the plain, and you have the makings of a potential disaster.

Wildfires tend to be driven by big windy days, Weir said. Wind dries things out, but it also adds oxygen. Thats why you get big fires.

Weir said the western part of the state has been drier this year, with some areas having gone more than 100 days since theyve received even a quarter-inch of rainfall.

But the eastern part of the state is catching up, he said. Were getting drier all the time. And here lately, weve had quite a few high-wind-event days.

Weir said the biggest risks to communities are always along those edges where native areas such as forests and grasslands exist.

And then once you get that fire into a community, you have a different set of fuels, such as houses and other structures, he said.

Weir said homeowners play a crucial role in keeping their homes from becoming fuel for fires, with the first five feet around the house being the most important.

Whats right there next to your house thats flammable? What type of vegetation or landscaping do you have around your house? he said, noting, for example, that evergreen trees burn hotter than deciduous ones.

Does that canopy come over your house?

Weir said homeowners should never stack firewood up next to the house and should keep decks free of debris.

Farther from the house, keep things mowed down short, he said. Keep trees pruned up, and dont plant big clusters of trees.

And during times of high wildfire danger, keep garage doors closed so that embers dont blow in, he said.

Nobles said residents can never have enough education about fire prevention, but that doesnt mean the information is always well-received.

It opens my eyes every time I go talk to groups about wildland-urban interface stuff, he said, recalling a recent presentation.

We got along great, but what I had to tell them, they didnt want to hear: Some of the beautification we do is anti-firewise.

Nobles said firefighters need homeowners help.

Thats one of those things we really want people to take to heart, he said. Unfortunately, sometimes theres only so much we can do.

If we have homes that are cleared off  where we can make a stand around that home, we love that.

He said firefighters often hear homeowners complain that fire crews drove past their burning home only to save another one farther away.

Sometimes we unfortunately have to make those decisions, Nobles said. My best guess would be they werent defensible.

If homeowners have a defensible space, it gives us a fighting chance.

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Today in Oklahoma, parents fall into two camps. One camp has the financial resources to move to another school district or independently pay for private school if a local district isnt working out for their child. The other camp must endure problems and hope things somehow improve because those families dont have the finances to get their children out of a geographically assigned school.

But Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat wants to level the playing field and provide all Oklahoma parentsfrom all walks of life and all parts of the statethe ability to send their child to any school of their choice, including private schools.

Senate Bill 1647, by Treat, would create the Oklahoma Empowerment Account (OEA) Program and provide all Oklahoma families with a state account that could be used to pay for a range of education services, including private-school tuition. The money in the account would be based on the per-pupil state-funding allotment already dedicated for a child.

Thats revolutionary. For the first time, Oklahoma would fund students, not buildings, when it comes to education.

Under Treats bill, every dime now allotted for K-12 education will continue to go to education. Not one penny will be cut. But instead of giving bureaucrats control, Treat would put parents in charge.

While most school employees do their best to serve all children, we know there are circumstances where that is not possible. How many of us know a child who was relentlessly bullied at school? In some cases, those children attempt suicide if they cannot escape, yet our current system forces many families to endure a childs abuse if they are not wealthy.

Then there are children with special needs who would be better served in a school dedicated to such students. And many families would like their children educated in an environment where religious and moral values are part of the curriculum along with English and math.

Treats bill would not force anyone to put a child into any school. Instead, it would give parents the choice to send their children to any school the parents believe serves those children.

Contrary to what the bills opponents claim, the only way a school district can lose money is if local families choose to exit from the school. And if numerous local families dont feel a school serves their children well, why should they be forced to send their children and tax dollars there? That would be like requiring people to use the same mechanic even if he never fixes your car.

Despite ever-increasing taxpayer expense, Oklahoma typically lands near the bottom of state rankings on educational outcomes. Treats bill could not only reverse that trajectory, but also make Oklahoma a national leader in the education metric that matters most: parent empowerment.

Jonathan Small serves as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (www.ocpathink.org).
MONDAY, Jan. 31, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- It's crucial to keep preschoolers away from screens and other sources of light in the hour before bedtime if you want them to get a good night's sleep, researchers say.

That's because even a little bit of light exposure can trigger a sharp drop in the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, according to the research team at the University of Colorado Boulder.

"Our previous work showed that one, fairly high intensity of bright light before bedtime dampens melatonin levels by about 90% in young children," said study first author Lauren Hartstein. She is a postdoctoral fellow in the university's Sleep and Development Lab.

"With this study, we were very surprised to find high melatonin suppression across all intensities of light, even dim ones," Hartstein said in a university news release.

For the study, Hartstein and her colleagues had 36 healthy children, aged 3 to 5, wear a wrist monitor that tracked their sleep and light exposure for nine days.

For the first seven days, parents kept the children on a stable sleep schedule to normalize their body clocks. On the eighth day, the researchers placed black plastic on the windows and kept the lights dimmed in the children's homes to create an environment with minimal light.

On the last day of the study, the children were asked to play games on an illuminated table in the hour before bedtime. The table's light intensity varied between children, ranging from 5 lux to 5,000 lux. (One lux is defined as the light from a candle that is about 3 feet away.)

Saliva samples revealed that melatonin was 70% to 99% lower on the night when children were exposed to the light table than on the previous nights with minimal light, the study authors said.

There was little-to-no association between how bright the light was on the last night and the declines in melatonin levels, according to the study published recently in the Journal of Pineal Research.

The findings showed that melatonin fell an average of 78% in response to light at 5 to 40 lux, which is much dimmer than typical room light. Even 50 minutes after the light was turned off, melatonin did not rebound in most of the children.

Why are children so sensitive to light?

Because children's eyes have larger pupils and more transparent lenses than adults, light streams into them more freely, the researchers noted.

"Kids are not just little adults," said senior study author Monique LeBourgeois, an associate professor of integrative physiology. "This heightened sensitivity to light may make them even more susceptible to dysregulation of sleep and the circadian system."

The study authors pointed out that half of children use screen media before bed, and said these findings are a reminder to parents to turn off electronic gadgets and keep light to a minimum before bedtime to help children get a good night's sleep.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on healthy sleep habits.

SOURCE: University of Colorado Boulder, news release, Jan. 25, 2022

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
A Cherokee County man has been charged with first-degree murder after three bodies were found on his land over the weekend, the Cherokee County Sheriffs Office reported.

The bodies of Deanna Tippey, Quinley Lamb and Brian Shackleford were discovered Friday evening on land at 25182 E. 770 Road in Cherokee County, about 5 miles east of Tahlequah, according to an affidavit.

The owner of the land, Robert Lewis, 61, was charged Monday in Cherokee County District Court with three counts of first-degree murder.

On Friday, Lambs brother was searching for his sister with Lewis ex-girlfriend when they found a hole covered by leaves with a body in it, according to the affidavit.

Lewis ex-girlfriend had previously called Lewis asking him where Lamb, Shackleford and another man were. Lewis reportedly told them they were at his residence but that they are gone and wont be seen again, according to the affidavit.

Lambs brother and Lewis ex-girlfriend also discovered two Arkansas IDs, one for Lamb and one for the other man about whom Lewis ex-girlfriend had asked.

After discovering the body, Lambs brother called 911. He and Lewis ex-girlfriend led Cherokee County deputies to the hole, where deputies found a womans body, according to the affidavit.

Lewis had told a Tahlequah police officer to whom he was related that he killed two people, the affidavit states.

The Tahlequah police officer told Cherokee County deputies he learned that Lewis was at a casino in Tahlequah, and the deputies arrested him there.

Lewis later admitted to investigators that he killed three people  Lamb, Shackleford and Tippey  the affidavit says.

Tippey, who was Lewis girlfriend, was buried by herself  it was her body detectives first found  and Lamb and Shackleford were buried together away from Tippey, according to the affidavit.

According to a news release from Jack Thorp, Cherokee Countys district attorney, identification of the bodies is preliminary.

Lewis is being held without bond and has a hearing scheduled for March 1.

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Tulsa police made their final arrest Friday in a human-trafficking case they say reached as far as Oregon and involved the use of violence to force victim compliance.

Court affidavits allege that Nathaniel DeWayne Washington led a criminal organization that used social media to recruit vulnerable women into prostitution, provided transportation for their commercial sex work and kept all money derived from the appointments, and that he and Christopher Reshard Dalton used violence and the threat of violence as a means of control over their victims.

Investigators with the Tulsa Police Departments Human Trafficking & Vice Unit were first clued into Washingtons activities in 2019, when an undercover member of their unit was recruited via Facebook to be an escort, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The messaging promised travel and equally-divided profits and indicated that provisions and protection would be provided, the affidavit states.

In 2021, two victims told police their experience with Washington and Dalton was different.

One told police she traveled out-of-state twice with Washington to Louisiana and Iowa and that he forced her to work as a prostitute throughout the trips to pay her way. He kept any money she earned and controlled her drug supply, and he beat her severely if she withheld any of her earnings or threatened her with violence if he suspected that she had, she said.

Despite his repeated attempts to recruit her further, she stopped working for him due to his violence, she told officers.

Another woman told police Washington, whom she had known for longer than a decade, had offered to get her away from a troubled life in Louisiana and provide her with stability.

Police allege in the affidavit that Washington sent Dalton to pick up the woman and bring her to Tulsa and that on the way back, Dalton told her she was going to be Washingtons hoe (sic), the affidavit states.

When she told him she would not, she said Dalton beat her with a pistol. Her injuries were still evident when officers interviewed her, an investigator wrote in the affidavit.

Once in Tulsa, she said, Washington put her up in a motel room near Admiral Place and Memorial Drive and told her to start walking to and from the corner store, where he said trucks would pick her up and she was to charge $40-$50 for commercial sex acts and give the money to him.

She said she refused, and Washington told the motel staff to evict her and refused the womans requests to take her back to Louisiana or to a shelter. According to the affidavit, he also lamented that she had been in Tulsa for three days and hadnt made him one dollar.

When investigators arrived at the motel, the owner told them Washington had been banned from the property that morning as he was trying to use the staff as his personal security. With the owners permission, investigators reviewed the motels registry and found that Washington had rented a room 64 times in a span of 90 days, the affidavit states.

Staff members told police Washington had put up multiple women in his usual room there and had moved others among other motels.

Thus far, police have identified four adult victims Washington is alleged to have trafficked  at least three of whom were trafficked across state lines to Louisiana and Oregon  and further investigation indicates that the criminal organization could have been operating in six states, the affidavit states.

Both Washington and Dalton have ties to Louisiana, but the two were most recently living in east Tulsa.

Police arrested Washington, 33, on the night of Jan. 19, and Dalton, 40, on Friday morning.

Both remained in the Tulsa County jail Monday with bail set at $500,000 on charges of human trafficking, kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and possessing a firearm after a felony conviction.

Washington was arraigned Wednesday after attaining counsel and entered a plea of not guilty. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for mid-February. Dalton is expected in court in early February, according to jail records.

Featured video: U.S. hits 17 nations on human trafficking

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A dangerous winter storm is expected to slam the area Wednesday and Thursday, with ice up to a half-inch thick, up to 2 inches of sleet and up to 8 inches of snow, a senior forecaster said.

This is a very strong cold front with a lot of moisture on top of it, said Steve Piltz, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Tulsa.

You may want to get all the necessities you need and plan on being stuck for a couple of days.

A winter storm watch is in effect for all of Oklahoma except the Panhandle and seven southeastern counties from late Tuesday night until Thursday night. The watch extends over more than 1,000 miles across eight states, from northern Texas to parts of Michigan and Ohio.

Piltz said the watch likely will be upgraded to a warning sometime Tuesday.

He said that as of Monday, forecasters did not have enough confidence to say exactly how much or what kind of wintry precipitation will fall in specific areas, given that the storm system was in southwestern Canada. It will sweep into the western and central U.S. in a matter of days, he said.

The path and speed of the system will be better known by Tuesday, he said, giving forecasters a better idea of amounts and types of precipitation.

Initial models showed Tulsa right on the line between sleet and snow, he said.

If that holds true, you could have a scenario in which places like Bixby and Broken Arrow get 2 inches of sleet, and northwest Tulsa gets 6 to 8 inches of snow, he said.

Its looking like Tulsa is going to be in the sleet/snow area, where areas south could see a lot of problems with ice.

The bottom line is that this is going to be a major winter event, he said.

The precipitation will begin as rain as early as Tuesday night in some areas and then transition to freezing rain, sleet and snow on Wednesday.

Precipitation will fall in the area Wednesday and Wednesday night, with possibly a second round on Thursday afternoon, he said.

Wednesday into Thursday appears to be the best timing for the worst of it, he said.

The weather service also said the cold blast will bring very dangerous wind chill values Wednesday night into Thursday.

Theres going to be a lot of wind, Piltz said, adding that travel likely will become difficult. Youre going to have a lot of blowing and drifting snow, especially in areas outside of the city.

The city of Tulsa has 63 truck-mounted salt spreaders and 51 truck-mounted snowplows, along with 210 drivers and support staff for treating streets.

It also has about 10,000 tons of salt and is receiving additional material, the city said in a news release.

The city is responsible for treating the Gilcrease and L.L. Tisdale expressways and arterial streets. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority are responsible for treating U.S. and state highways and turnpikes.

After a snow or ice storm begins, the goal is to make expressways and arterial streets safe and passable as soon as possible, the citys release says.

Public Service Company of Oklahoma, which provides electric power for most of the Tulsa metro area, said it is preparing for possible weather-related outages across its service area, including portions of western, southeastern and northeastern Oklahoma.

Storm management processes have been activated and will remain in place until the threat has passed, the company said.

PSO is coordinating with local emergency management authorities, while continuing to monitor the forecast for weather related impacts. We will continue to provide information updates as the situation unfolds. If you have questions related to your PSO power (call) 888-218-3919.

The National Weather Service said that this cold spell, while quite intense, is not expected to match the magnitude or duration of the February 2021 event.

Skies should be clear by Friday, but highs are expected to be only in the upper 20s, forecasters said.

The cold temperatures may allow fallen snow and sleet to stay on the ground for a few days into the weekend, forecasters said.

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Thirteen Tulsa firefighters have sued the city of Tulsa in federal court, claiming their employer has failed to pay overtime wages as required by law.

The lawsuit claims the city is violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act in two areas of overtime pay to firefighters.

The lawsuit names the city of Tulsa, Mayor G.T. Bynum and city of Tulsa Chief Operating Officer Jack Blair as defendants.

The Mayors Office and the City of Tulsa have a legal and moral obligation to compensate our Firefighters in accordance with federal law, corresponding state statutes, and the terms of our union contract, Tulsa International Association of Fire Fighters Local 176 President Matt Lay said in a statement. Their continued failure to do so has done great harm to the hard-working men and women of the Tulsa Fire Department.

We are hopeful that the Court seeks to address these wrongs and that the original plaintiffs listed here, along with all Tulsa Firefighters, will ultimately be paid the amount that the City is unlawfully withholding from them.

Tulsa has about 700 firefighters.

One of the areas at issue deals with payment since at least April of so-called regularly scheduled overtime work.

The firefighters also claim that the city is often late in paying firefighters overtime when they work extra due to staff shortages or when otherwise needed.

The civil complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, seeks a judgment finding that the city of Tulsa willfully violated federal and state labor laws, an accurate accounting of all unpaid overtime, liquidated damages equal to their unpaid compensation, interest on unpaid compensation and attorney fees.

In keeping with its policy regarding pending litigation, the city of Tulsa declined to comment about the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says Tulsa firefighters typically work overtime as part of their duties but that since April the city has failed to pay the overtime.

Firefighters work an alternating schedule of 216 hours during one 27-day period, followed by working 192 hours the following 27-day period.

The threshold for overtime for firefighters is 204 hours during a 27-day work week.

As such, plaintiffs are regularly scheduled to and do in fact work beyond the 204-hour overtime threshold under federal law, the lawsuit states.

However, in or about April 2021, Defendants ceased paying Plaintiffs FLSA overtime for their regularly scheduled overtime work, according to the lawsuit.

The alleged stoppage of regularly scheduled overtime pay coincides with a ransomware attack that crippled the city of Tulsas computer systems, although whether that was a factor is unclear.

The firefighters also claim that the city is unreasonably delaying overtime payments to those who work extra shifts due to staff shortages or other reasons.

In August, city councilors were told about staffing shortages that had caused about 20 firefighters to be asked to work overtime each day, making for 48-hour shifts followed by 24 hours off.

The lawsuit blamed Tulsa Fire Department management with failing to timely submit overtime payment requests for processing, claiming that payment can be delayed for months in some cases.

While unrelated, the lawsuit comes after an arbitration panel in December chose the citys proposal over one proposed by the firefighters union to settle contract negotiations between the two.

The city and the firefighters union, IAFF Local 176, entered arbitration after the union declared an impasse in negotiations in September.

The citys proposal, which Bynum said provided for a historic increase in pay, includes a 4% retention bonus for firefighters who worked through the pandemic.

The ruling will result in raises ranging from 4% to 12%, depending on length of service, as well as the one-time 4% bonus.

The union had sought an across-the-board increase of 11.1%, at an annual cost of about $6.1 million. An analysis determined that the citys offer will cost about $5.4 million a year.

Firefighters named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Joshua D. Lamb, Eric D. Acosta, Zachary G. Allphin, Norita M. Bridges, Craig C. Deerinwater, Tim B. Downie, Jeffrey A. Harper, Heather D. Perkey, Ronald Steward, Darren L. Thames, Michael D. Ward, Nicholas L. Wilson and Lay.

Featured video: Tulsa firefighters hold after the fire event following fatal blaze

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City officials on Tuesday urged residents to prepare to stay put during the winter storm that is predicted to blanket Tulsa in a wintry mix the latter half of the week.

The storm is expected to coat the area Wednesday and Thursday with ice up to a half-inch thick, up to 2 inches of sleet and up to 8 inches of snow, plus strong winds, a National Weather Service in Tulsa forecaster warned Monday.

Gov. Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency Tuesday evening for all 77 Oklahoma counties.

Stitts executive order temporarily suspends requirements for size and weight permits of oversized vehicles transporting materials and supplies used for emergency relief and power restoration.

Tulsa Area Emergency Management Director Joe Kralicek said winter precipitation is one of the more difficult aspects of weather to predict, as a temperature difference of one-tenth of a degree could be the difference between a heavy rain storm and a heavy snow storm. As of Tuesday, though, the storm was seeming to trend toward more snow and less ice  more like an average snowfall event, he said.

The Tulsa area averages 8.7 inches of snowfall a year, and although low temperatures are expected to drop into the single digits, meteorologists dont foresee extended subzero temperatures.

Last Februarys extended cold snap saw at least two homeless people die on the streets and multiple water main bursts throughout the city.

Your best option during the storm is to just stay out of it, Kralicek said during an online city briefing. Stay indoors; stay warm; stay safe.

Those who must get out and drive in the conditions are urged to plan for the challenge.

Realize when theres snow on the ground, everythings probably going to take three times longer, Kralicek said, adding that some roads will be limited to one lane while crews work to clear them.

Just because you have four-wheel drive doesnt mean you have four-wheel stop, he said, asking drivers to give snow plows and salt trucks extra room.

Widespread power outages are not anticipated due to limited ice in the forecast, Kralicek said, but its best to prepare to be without power. Seal off unused rooms, close blinds and curtains; wear lots of loose, light layers rather than one big, bulky coat; and never use a gas stove to heat a home, because the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is greater than the dangers of the cold.

Customers should reach out to their utility in case of outages and downed power lines; Public Service Company of Oklahoma and OG&E said additional contractors will be standing ready. OG&E provides electric service in Sapulpa, Glenpool, Bixby, Muskogee and parts of Jenks, and PSO provides electric service in Tulsa and other areas.

PSO also announced that it took recent action to secure fixed-price fuel for power plants and prepare generating facilities for adverse weather, according to a news release.

For those without a home, Housing Solutions outreach teams are working to get them inside or supply them with necessary means of survival, said Becky Gligo, the organizations director, adding that A Way Home for Tulsa partners are in need of sleeping bags, blankets, hand warmers, hats, scarves and gloves.

Established shelters will be allowing individuals to stay during the entire storm, and warming centers will be available for those who lose power or need a warm place to stay at the John 3:16 Mission, the Salvation Army and the Tulsa County Emergency Shelter, Gligo said.

Groups with available building space and volunteers are needed to shelter homeless individuals, especially those with pets, Gligo said, as the new low-barrier shelter planned to for the old Avalon Correctional Services building at 302 W. Archer St. is still waiting on final contracts to begin work. The nonprofit will provide necessary training and supplies to equip hosts for the few-days stay. Those interested may email outreach@housingsolutionstulsa.org.

Anyone worried about a person they may see living outdoors may also use an outreach form on housingsolutions.org to dispatch a team with services in 30 to 60 minutes. A medical emergency or life-threatening situation, however, should be addressed by calling 911.

After the storm, individuals are urged to be cautious when outside and take breaks when working outside, as there is often an increase of slip-and-fall and heart attack emergency medical calls after such a winter weather event, Kralicek said.

Tim McCorkell, the citys street maintenance manager, said crews are prepared to work the roads with 60 trucks with salt spreaders, 46 of which also have snow plows, along with several smaller trucks with snow plows.

Crews are scheduled to begin 12-hour, around-the-clock shifts starting at 2 a.m. Wednesday and continuing throughout the weather event. With rain likely to start the storm, McCorkell said roads will not be prepped with a brine solution but will later be salted with some of the 11,000 tons of salt the city has on hand.

Crews are assigned to 35 specific routes totaling approximately 1,770 lane-miles, which is about the same distance as driving from Tulsa to San Francisco, the city said in a statement.

Spreading and plowing routes are prioritized based on traffic counts; once the main streets are cleared and conditions permit, selected residential streets may be treated based on traffic and steepness.

During winter weather response, the citys first focus is to clear arterial streets for emergency responders. After arterial streets are clear, the focus moves to residential or collector streets near hospitals, schools and areas with steep hills. The routes can be viewed at cityoftulsa.org/winterpreparedness.

Featured video: How Tulsans should prepare for winter weather

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Vladimir Putin appears to have waited until after former President Donald Trump left office for his Ukraine adventure. Logically, had Trump been Putins puppet, that adventure would have taken place three or four years ago.

Apparently the strings Putin used to control Trump only existed in the minds of Trumps domestic political opponents.

That was Hillary Clintons big lie. This big lie fostered something called the resistance that threw sand in the machinery of Trumps presidency at every opportunity.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff and his impeachments were outcomes of this big lie. The political division in this country is a result of Clintons big lie. The Ukrainian American that was Schiffs star witness was part of the resistance. He was obviously a patriot, but more to Ukraine than his adopted country.

Now President Joe Biden, whose exit from Afghanistan was as badly handled as any enterprise ever undertaken by an American president, is huffing and puffing at Putin.

We are going to find ourselves in another war led by the least capable president this country has ever had. The Democrats were very clever in all of these machinations. But utterly lacking in wisdom.

Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to tulsaworld.com/opinion/submitletter.

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We know the real purpose of trying to use state employees to represent teachers in our classrooms is to allow the parents to go to their jobs. Good for income and business. Not so good for the students.

Of course, the root problem is our Legislature as a whole will not consider education as a priority in Oklahoma. Top 10? How about 47th.

I know several fine legislators who are all for improving Oklahomas education, but they are in the minority. Until we solve the root problem, substitutes and fleeing teachers will continue.

Everyone who is not a teacher, raise your hand if you want to go from your everyday job into a room of 20-plus students, whether it be first grade through high school. Lets see. One, two, three  is that it?

Teachers are not ordinary people. They are extra special, with birth talents that most of us dont have. No matter how much college is offered, you cant make a teacher out of everyone. Somehow they are hard-wired to want to go in every day to educate what will become our future.

As important as a degree, teachers have the deep-down desire and ambition to do this incredibly difficult job.

Be sure to vote for truly pro-education candidates. Candidates must have a plan and a way to fund it. Talk is cheap; dont fall for it.

Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to tulsaworld.com/opinion/submitletter.

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Indonesia's holiday island of Bali will start welcoming back travellers from all countries from later this week, officials said on Monday, more than three months after announcing it was open to selected nationalities.

Though Bali officially opened to visitors from China, New Zealand, and Japan among other countries in mid October, there has since been no direct flights, Tourism minister Sandiaga Uno told a briefing.

The reopening follows similar announcements by Thailand and the Philippines, which put quarantine waivers on hold in December over initial uncertainty about vaccine efficacy against the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The decision comes despite a steady rise in Indonesia's COVID-19 cases this month, despite having brought outbreaks under control in the second half of last year. Health authorities have attributed the increase to Omicron.

Known for its surfing, temples, waterfalls and nightlife, Bali drew 6.2 million foreign visitors in 2019, the year before COVID-19 struck, but tight pandemic border restrictions devastated tourism, which is usually worth 54% of its economy.

Singapore Airlines said on Friday it would resume flights to Bali from Singapore starting on Feb. 16.

Senior minister, Luhut Pandjaitan, said from Feb. 4 international visitors who were vaccinated against COVID-19 would still be required to do between five and seven days of quarantine.

Last week, Indonesia opened two islands close to Singapore to visitors from the city-state.

According to Ida Ayu Indah Yustikarini, an official at the Bali Government Tourism Office, the island has been receiving foreign visitors in the past few months via the capital Jakarta, but there were no official numbers available.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday gave full approval to Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine for people age 18 and older, making it the second fully approved vaccine for the virus.

The Moderna vaccine has been authorized for emergency use in the United States since December 2020, and will now be sold under the brand name Spikevax. Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 shot using similar technology received full approval in the United States last year for people aged 16 and older after also first gaining emergency authorization.

Nearly 75 million people have already received Moderna's two-dose vaccine in the United States, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The public can be assured that Spikevax meets the FDAs high standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality required of any vaccine approved for use in the United States," Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement.

Moderna's vaccine is cleared for use in more than 70 countries, including Canada and the European Union.

In June 2021, the company asked for its vaccine to be authorized for use in 12- to 17-year-olds, but the FDA has yet to respond.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines have been linked to rare cases of heart inflammation called myocarditis, particularly among young men.

Some studies have suggested that Moderna's vaccine is more likely to cause the side effect than the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.

In October, Moderna said the FDA was evaluating the risk of myocarditis after vaccination and that the review was delaying authorization of its vaccine in adolescents.
On the occasion of the Lunar New Year holiday, Noriyuki Shikata, cabinet secretary for public affairs at the Japanese Prime Minister's Office, spoke with Tuoi Tre News about the areas where Japan-Vietnam relations are expected to flourish in 2022.

Noriyuki Shikata told about the economic, cultural, defense, and security partnerships between the two countries. He also discussed Prime Minister Kishidas new form of capitalism, as well as the ways in which Japan plans to help Vietnam shift to green energy.

Looking ahead to the new lunar year, what do you expect our two countries to achieve in terms of economic, cultural, defense, and security partnerships?

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

On the occasion of the New Year, I would like to wish the Vietnamese people health, happiness, and the further development of Japan-Vietnam relations.

Last November, Prime Minister Kishida welcomed Prime Minister Chinh as the first foreign guest to visit Japan since the Kishida government came into power. "Vietnam is an important partner in achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific, and I am confident that Japanese companies in Vietnam and Vietnamese working in Japan will play an important role in the economic revival of both countries after COVID-19, Kishida said during their meeting.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (left) and his Japanese counterpart Kishida Fumio in the official visit last November. Photo: VGP

Looking ahead to the period after COVID-19, I would like to make 2022 a year in which we will deepen the ties between our two countries by realizing the cooperation affirmed by our two leaders.

Cooperation on measures against COVID-19 is at the top of our priority list. Japan, again, provided COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam last month, bringing the total amount of vaccines supplied from Japan to Vietnam to nearly 7.32 million doses.

As for the economy, Japan will work hand in hand with Vietnam to achieve an economic revival after COVID-19. Japan will promote cooperation in digital transformation and supply chain diversification. Through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), both of which came into effect on January 1, Japan will strengthen its economic ties with Vietnam.

On the national security front, Japan deployed Ground Self-Defense Force officials to Hanoi for about three weeks s in December 2021 to help prepare for the Vietnamese Army's participation in the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) as part of an agreement made between our two heads of state in November 2021. I look forward to further strengthening defense cooperation between Japan and welcoming a new period of peace and stability for both the international community and the region.

Next year, in 2023, the two countries will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. In 2023, an opera named The Princess Anio will be performed. The opera is based on the story of a Vietnamese princess and a Japanese merchant who lived during the Shuinsen Trading Period, known in Vietnam as thoi Chau An Tuyen, during the first half of the 17th century. I hope this year will be a year of further mutual understanding and friendship between the Japanese and Vietnamese people through such cultural exchanges.

At the Japan-Vietnam 2021 Summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his hope for the success of Prime Minister Kishida's economic policies for growth and distribution. Can you tell us more about this "new form of capitalism" that Prime Minister Kishida is promoting?

We face a number of challenges, including climate change, the digital transformation of society, a widening of the income gap and an increase in poverty, a chronic lack of medium- to long-term investment, inequalities between urban and rural areas, challenges to democracy due to a shrinking middle class, and unforeseen emerging tensions in geopolitics and geoeconomics.

Against this backdrop, the Kishida government will strive to lead the economy and society into a new era while protecting the universal value of democracy. In other words, the goal is the "Great Transformation of Liberal Democratic Society."

To achieve this, government, industry, and labor leaders must work together to generate massive momentum and create a tide of history for a global paradigm shift in politics.

Japan is determined to lead the global trend with this "new form of capitalism" and will provide concrete examples of how capitalism can evolve as Japan assumes the G7 presidency next year.

The central policy in this effort is to create a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution. That is, we emphasize a distribution strategy that ensures that the fruits of growth serve as a catalyst for investment in our human resources and for wage and income increases.

The Kishida government believes that the pursuit of growth is absolutely critical, but without proper distribution, there will be no investment in the human resources needed to drive subsequent growth. We plan to ensure that, as a result of this growth, there is sufficient investment in the human capital needed to close the cycle.

At the last years summit, Prime Minister Kishida paid tribute to an announcement made by Vietnam at COP26 that it would become carbon neutral by 2050 and pledged Japan's full support for Vietnam's energy transition initiative. What role does Japan want to play in achieving carbon neutrality in Asia?

The issue of climate change highlights the negative aspects of capitalism: market failures due to placing excessive importance on efficiency, lack of sustainability, and environmental inequalities between rich and poor countries, to name a few. This priority problem can be overcome by realizing a new form of capitalism.

At the same time, it is also an opportunity for a new field of growth that is attracting global attention. In Japan, the public and private sectors will at least double their investments in this area to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 46 percent by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. We see this sector as the engine that will both realize decarbonization and generate growth for a new era.

Another important point is that Japan will use its technologies, systems, and expertise in hydrogen and ammonia, as well as in other areas, to contribute to the decarbonization of the world, especially Asia, and to take the lead in technical standards and international infrastructure development together with other Asian countries. Our goal is to work with like-minded countries in Asia to create a community that can be called the "Asia Zero Emissions Community."

Just as the European Union began as the European Coal and Steel Community during the Cold War, Japan envisions an "Asia Zero Emissions Community" in Asia where both geopolitical and geo-economic challenges are increasing. This community would become a platform to advance related efforts, such as international joint investment in the development of zero-emission technologies and hydrogen infrastructure, joint financing, the standardization of related technologies, and the establishment of an Asian emissions trading market.

When Prime Minister Chinh visited Japan in November 2021, I responded in a question in your newspaper that "Japan-Vietnam relations are at their best today" and that "we are aware of Vietnam's enormous potential for future growth."

This year, Japan and Vietnam will continue to work together to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and revive our economies. Looking ahead to next year, which will be a milestone for our two countries given that it will be the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, we hope that 2022 will be a year of great development in our bilateral relations.

Finally, this year's zodiac sign of the tiger includes the meaning "new trends emerge and will bring great growth." In 2022, we hope that the COVID -19 pandemic will subside significantly and Japan-Vietnam relations will continue to make great progress.

We wish you all a very happy new year.

Kishidas 30 notebooks It is said that Mr. Kishida has about 30 notebooks containing comments and appeals from the Japanese people. Can you tell me more about this? Prime Minister Kishida makes a point of listening to the voices of the public. Since becoming prime minister, he has organized small group talks and visited medical facilities, Japanese pubs, and places affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake to hear the voices of the people. Regarding the "Kishida notebooks," the prime minister commented as follows in last Novembers issue of Bungei Shunju magazine that "I have been keeping these notebooks since the Liberal Democratic Party lost power in 2009, more than ten years ago. I have about 30 notebooks now. People often ask me to take notes on the spot, but it's difficult to talk to people while I am taking notes. I just listen on the spot and then write down what impressed me after I talk or before I go to bed. Sometimes, I take quick notes after the person leaves, too."

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Here are todays leading news stories:

Politics

-- President Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent the best greetings to all Vietnamese people throughout the nation and abroad via national television on the eve of the 2022 Lunar New Year.

-- Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited and extended Lunar New Year greetings to the Party Committee as well as authorities and people of Hanoi on Monday night.

COVID-19 Updates

-- The Ministry of Health documented 12,674 COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the national tally to 2,275,727, with 2,022,450 recoveries and 37,777 deaths.

Society

-- It is expected to be rainy and chilly with chances of sleet and frost on high mountains in northern Vietnam, and sunny with high temperature in southern provinces on Tuesday, the first day of the 2022 lunar year, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

-- Fireworks were lit by residents in many areas across Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Ha Tinh, and Nghe An Provinces in north-central Vietnam on the 2022 Lunar New Years Eve despite authorities efforts to prevent the illegal action.

-- Police in north-central Thanh Hoa Province confirmed on Monday they had arrested a 38-year-old woman for allegedly beating to death her creditor before hiding the victims body in a biogas pit.

Business

-- Vietnams industrial production index (IPI) in January rose by 2.4 percent year-on-year, the Vietnam News Agency quoted the General Statistics Office as saying.

Sports

-- Vietnam will battle with China in their 2022 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifier at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi at 7:00 pm on Tuesday. The game will be aired on VTV5 and VTV6 channels as well as FPT Play.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Despite being busy at work, health workers at the COVID-19 treatment facility of a major Ho Chi Minh City hospital were still able to mark the Lunar New Year (Tet) with various activities including lighting fireworks and cooking banh tet.

Dozens of doctors, nurses, and volunteers were on duty at the COVID-19 resuscitation center of University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City on Monday night.

Most patients at the facility are no longer infected with COVID-19 but still need treatment for their lung damage, a doctor stated.

Health workers cook banh tet to mark the 2022 Lunar New Year at the COVID-19 resuscitation center of University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre

Many of them were still on ventilators, while some others were healthy enough to welcome the Year of the Tiger.

Among 18 patients at the resuscitation center, 14 still need breathing support, but their conditions are not too concerning, said Dr. Le Minh Khoi, deputy director of the center.

Health workers at the venue decided to organize several joyful activities so that they and their patients could enjoy a cheerful Lunar New Years Eve while being away from family members.

Health workers light incense at the offering table to welcome the 2022 Lunar New Year at University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre

As the clock marked 0:00 on Tuesday, the health workers lit fireworks to mark the 2022 Lunar New Year.

They also cooked banh tet (cylindrical glutinous rice cake filled with green bean paste and pork), chicken soup, and beef to celebrate the special moment, as well as lit incense at the offering table to wish for a safe and healthy year.

Health workers pose for a photo to welcome the 2022 Lunar New Year at University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre

Doctors care for a patient at the COVID-19 resuscitation center of University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre

Health workers cook various dishes to celebrate the 2022 Lunar New Year at University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre

Dr. Le Minh Khoi, deputy director of the COVID-19 resuscitation center of University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City, gives lucky money to health workers at the facility. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre

Health workers show the banh tet they have cooked. Photo: Tu Trung / Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Residents in Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City gathered at local hot spots on Monday night to welcome the 2022 Lunar New Year in a quiet but cheerful way amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In Ho Chi Minh City, many people flocked to Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in District 1 to mark the Lunar New Year as well as to visit this years Nguyen Hue Flower Street.

The flower street, which is open from January 29 to February 4, was temporarily closed on Monday night as the large number of visitors posed a high risk of COVID-19 transmission.

However, residents were still able to take a stroll along the other sections of the pedestrian street and had a joyful celebration.

Municipal authorities had also canceled their Lunar New Year fireworks performances this year as part of the local pandemic prevention and control measures.

People have a stroll along Nguyen Hue Walking Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, January 31, 2022. Photo: T.T.D. / Tuoi Tre

A street artist draws a portrait of a young woman on Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, January 31, 2022. Photo: T.T.D. / Tuoi Tre

Residents enjoy street food and drinks on Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, January 31, 2022. Photo: T.T.D. / Tuoi Tre

In Hanoi, the absence of a pyrotechnic display and countdown event did not stop citizens from having a cheerful Lunar New Years Eve.

Many headed to such famous destinations as Hoan Kiem Lake and Hanoi Old Quarter in brisk weather to pose for a photo and take a walk with their loved ones.

Most eateries and shops were also closed as of Monday night.

My family decided to remain in Hanoi instead of going back to our hometown this Tet due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Le Thu Hoai, 37.

Although there is no fireworks, we still headed to Hoan Kiem Lake to mark the special moment.

Residents pose for a photo at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, January 31, 2022. Photo: Q.The / Tuoi Tre

People visit Ngoc Son Temple at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, January 31, 2022. Photo: Q.The / Tuoi Tre

Residents pose for a photo at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, January 31, 2022. Photo: Q.The / Tuoi Tre

In central Da Nang City, the Tet flower street by the Han River and APEC Park attracted a lot of people on Lunar New Years Eve.

The dry and slightly chilly weather created a perfect atmosphere for locals to welcome the Year of the Tiger.

People visit the Tet flower street by the Han River in Da Nang City, January 31, 2022. Photo: D.C. / Tuoi Tre

People visit the Tet flower street by the Han River in Da Nang City, January 31, 2022. Photo: D.C. / Tuoi Tre

People visit the Tet flower street by the Han River in Da Nang City, January 31, 2022. Photo: D.C. / Tuoi Tre

Residents visit APEC Park in Da Nang City, January 31, 2022. Photo: D.C. / Tuoi Tre

Residents visit APEC Park in Da Nang City, January 31, 2022. Photo: D.C. / Tuoi Tre

Residents visit APEC Park in Da Nang City, January 31, 2022. Photo: D.C. / Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Every Cloud Productions co-founders Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger have announced that they are stepping back from day-to-day operations at the company, but will continue in advisory roles.

Head of Business Affairs Drew Grove has been appointed as CEO, with Mike Jones as Head of Content and Shraddha Gatiya as Finance Director.

Fiona Eagger, said: Deb and I are thrilled to be handing over the reins to our trusted team who have been such an important part of the companys success. Succession planning is important and we are excited to infuse our beloved company with new energy and vitality as we devolve our responsibilities to an advisory capacity, whilst retaining rights and roles in our key properties.

Deb Cox, said: As a company weve always sought to increase female representation on screen as well as behind the camera and to create screen career opportunities in regional communities. We think its equally important to support new talent to step into leadership roles and to provide mentoring and business opportunities to the next generation of screen creatives. Its exciting to know that Every Cloud will continue in the very capable hands of Drew, Mike and Shraddha.

Fiona Eagger added, As well as our colleagues in the company, weve had the good fortune to work with so with great people in our industry and we thank them all for their support, collaboration and brilliance. Wed particularly like to thank and acknowledge Film Victoria, Screen NSW and Screen Australia, as well the other State funding agencies, who do so much to foster and support companies such as ours.

Drew Grove, Every Clouds new CEO, said: Its an exciting time for screen production in Australia and Mike, Shraddha and I  with Deb and Fionas support  will take advantage of expanding market opportunities, while continuing to further exploit the companys existing and very successful suite of brands including both Miss Fisher and Ms Fisher series. We have an exciting development slate and are looking forward to seeing these terrific projects on screen.

This changing of the guard comes as Every Cloud marks the 10th anniversary of Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries which first hit screens in 2012.

Ms Fishers Modern Murder Mysteries and A Sunburnt Christmas are both nominated at the upcoming Screen Producers Australia Awards, and attracted four 2021 AACTA nominations.

The company will continue to operate from its headquarters in Stephen Street, Yarraville.
Tyler, TX (75702)

Today

Variable clouds with strong thunderstorms. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High 77F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms before midnight. Low 57F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Bueno has accepted the invitation of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to visit Ukraine in the near future. At the same time, he clarified that there are no intentions to evacuate family members of employees of the Spanish Embassy in Kyiv.

"Bueno responded to the call of the head of Ukrainian diplomacy to make a visit to Ukraine in the near future to demonstrate solidarity with the Ukrainian people against the background of aggressive actions by the Russian Federation," the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported following a telephone conversation between the ministers.

Kuleba informed Bueno about the security situation in connection with the concentration of Russian troops near the state border and in the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. The minister particularly focused on the non-military dimensions of Russian aggression, including Russia's attempts to undermine the economic and financial stability of Ukraine.

Bueno, in turn, assured of Spain's full support for Ukraine's efforts to restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity through political and diplomatic means. The ministers coordinated steps on the negotiation process with the Russian Federation within the framework of network diplomacy designed to keep the Russian Federation in line with diplomatic negotiations and force it to de-escalate.

The Spanish Foreign Minister said that at this stage there were no intentions to evacuate family members of employees of the Spanish Embassy in Kyiv.
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
Burkina Faso's military junta claimed Monday that it had restored the constitution and has appointed its coup leader as head of state, following its suspension from the African Union.

The junta "ensures the continuity of the state pending the establishment of transitional bodies," it said in a statement, adding it had lifted the suspension of the constitution.

A new 37-article document guarantees basic civil liberties, including the freedom of speech and movement, which is outlined in the constitution, according to the statement.

The junta, named the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (MPSR) "ensures the continuity of the state pending the establishment of transitional bodies."

It named junta leader Lt Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba as president of MPSR.

No timeline was given for the transition period.

The head of the armed forces, Gilbert Ouedraogo, is also vacating his position.

The AU announced earlier today that it was suspending the West African country until it returned to constitutional order after a coup last week ousted democratically-elected President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The AU announcement on Monday came after the 15-nation regional bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended Burkina Faso.

The head of the United Nations office for West Africa and the Sahel, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, arrived in the capital, Ouagadougou, on Monday to assess the situation on the ground and meet with representatives. He is part of the joint delegation with ECOWAS.

There is no indication whether this announcement by the junta was carried out before or after meeting with Annadif and ECOWAS members.

ECOWAS currently has suspended three member countries: Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso. All have experienced military takeovers in the past year-and-a-half.

Sankara trial back on

Meanwhile, in a statement issued by the military tribunal on Monday night, the long-awaited trial over the 1987 assassination of former president and pan-African icon Thomas Sankara will continue on Wednesday.

Story continues

A court in the capital, Ouagadougou, suspended proceedings on Monday.

After years of uncertainty, the trial opened last October in an effort to find out what happened during Sankaras final days.

After taking power in a military coup in 1983, Sankara pushed for a self-sufficient Burkina Faso, eschewing foreign aid in an effort to build the country without western interference.

While meeting at a ruling of the National Revolutionary Council on 15 October,1987, Sankara and 12 officials were gunned down.

The country was taken over by one of his closest associates, Blaise Compaore, who remained in power for 27 years until he was deposed by a peoples uprising in 2014.

He is one of the 14 people on trial of which two, including Compaore, are being tried in absentia.

The former head of the country has been charged with harming state security, complicity in murder, concealing bodies and witness tampering.

Compaore has continually denied that he had any part in Sankaras murder.
JACKSON, Mich., January 11, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MiraMed Global Services, Inc. (MiraMed), a leader in healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions, announces it will be attending the 23rd HFMA Western Region Symposium being held January 16th  19th in Las Vegas at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.

The HFMA Western Region Symposium is all about connecting individuals who work in hospitals, health plans, physician practices and others in healthcare settings by creating an environment to educate, connect and motivate! They are tackling the future of healthcare through agility, resilience and innovation.

MiraMed Global Services is the premier global provider of business process outsourcing solutions to healthcare organizations nationwide, partnering with hospitals, health networks, physician practices and related industry service organizations to provide customizable solutions, uncover and capitalize on hidden financial opportunities, improve productivity and ultimately increase profits.

Tony Mira, Chairman and CEO of MiraMed Global Services, says:

The last few years have been a challenge, especially for those of us in the healthcare industry. Covid has affected the way we do business, how we interact, the timeline of our A/R functions and the ability to treat patients. As Covid wanes and waxes, it is important to stay current with the latest developments in our industry, and the HFMA helps us to do just that. We are excited to be a part of this symposium, and we look forward to participating in this exciting network opportunity within our industry.

Visit MiraMed Global Services in Booth #508 at the 23rd HFMA Western Region Symposium.

About MiraMed Global Services

Headquartered in Jackson, Michigan, MiraMed Global Services stands as the premier global provider of business process outsourcing solutions to healthcare organizations nationwide. MiraMed partners with hospitals, health networks, physician practices and related industry service organizations to provide a broad portfolio of customizable solutions, uncover and capitalize on hidden financial opportunities, improve productivity and ultimately increase profits. MiraMed has offices in Jackson, MI, Chicago, IL, Birmingham, AL, Thousand Oaks, CA, Walnut Creek, CA, Boston, MA, Dearborn, MI, Portland, OR, Dallas, TX, Chennai, India and Manila, Philippines.

Story continues

MiraMed pairs healthcare industry experts with world-class processes, infrastructure and technology to deliver meaningful and measurable results. This proprietary model enables sustainable change by delivering complete, customizable and enhanced revenue cycle solutions devised to meet a client's own unique financial and organizational needs.

If you would like more information, please go to http://www.miramedgs.com or email info@miramedgs.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220111005808/en/

Contacts

Lori Imboden

Tel: 517-787-7432

Email: info@miramedgs.com
(Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is closing in on a free transfer to Barcelona.

Aubameyang is poised to sign a six-month deal at Barcelona, with the option for an additional year, to finalise his Arsenal exit.

The striker flew to Spain on Monday morning to seal what was initially expected to be a loan switch to the Nou Camp, but his 350,000-a-week contract proved to be a stumbling block.

Now, though, Aubameyang is closing in on a permanent move to Barcelona after a breakthrough in talks.

Arsenal are expected to make a healthy saving on Aubameyangs wages, which explains why they have allowed him to leave on free transfer with 18 months still left on his contract.

The Gabon international has not played for the Gunners since December and he has since been stripped of the captaincy.

Aubameyang was also left out of the clubs mid-season trip to Dubai and he instead stayed in London to train alone.

Clubs in Saudi Arabia had shown an interest in signing him, but he was keen to play in one of Europes top leagues.

Juventus had also shown an interest in Aubameyang, but Barcelona have firmed up their approach and are now set to sign him.
FILE - Protesters hold portraits of deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an anti-coup demonstration in Mandalay, Myanmar on March 5, 2021. Myanmar court on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 sentenced ousted leader Suu Kyi to 4 years for incitement, breaking

A nationwide strike in Myanmar has marked the one-year anniversary of the army's seizure of power, as sporadic protests and violence raised further international concern over the struggle for power.

Photos and video on social media showed that a countrywide "silent strike" had emptied streets in Myanmar's largest city of Yangon and other towns as people stayed home and businesses shut their doors in a show of opposition to army rule.

Clashes and violence were reported as well as the country faces an insurgency that some UN experts now characterise as a civil war.

Local media said an explosion killed at least two people and injured dozens at a pro-military rally in a town on the eastern border with Thailand. The cause of the blast was not clear.

The military's takeover on February 1 last year ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party was about to begin a second term in office after winning a landslide victory in the previous year's November election.

Widespread non-violent demonstrations followed the army's takeover, but armed resistance arose after protests were put down with lethal force. About 1,500 civilians have been killed but the government has been unable to suppress the opposition.

The anniversary attracted international attention, especially from the US and Western nations critical of the military takeover.

President Joe Biden called for the military to reverse its actions, free Ms Suu Kyi and other detainees, and return Myanmar on a path to democracy.

The US on Monday imposed new sanctions on Myanmar officials, adding to those already applied to top military officers.

The measures freeze any assets the listed officials may have in US jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them. Britain and Canada announced similar measures.

A statement from the office of UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres highlighted "an intensification in violence, a deepening of the human rights and humanitarian crises and a rapid rise of poverty in Myanmar", which it said required an urgent response.

Story continues

Pro-democracy flash mob marches were held in several places before the start of the strike in the early morning hours, when clashes with police and soldiers are less likely.

Local media reported ongoing violence on Monday, with at least six bombings believed to have been carried out by resistance forces in Yangon.

Another bombing took place early on Tuesday at a police station in Myitkyina in northern Kachin state, where a seven year-old boy living nearby was killed by a stray bullet when police shot at a car fleeing the scene, reported The 74 Media, a local online news outlet.

Opposition militants carry out daily guerrilla action, while the military engages in larger assaults in rural areas, including air strikes, which are blamed for many civilian casualties.

Despite tight security in cities including Yangon, Mandalay and Sagaing, young protesters including Buddhist monks held spirited but peaceful protests at dawn, carrying banners and chanting anti-military slogans.

Many also held up three fingers, the resistance salute adopted from The Hunger Games movie that has also been used by pro-democracy demonstrators in neighbouring Thailand.

Authorities had threatened shopkeepers with arrest if they closed for the opposition strike, but those that were open on Tuesday appeared to have few if any customers.

Since last week, the government had issued official warnings in state-run media that anyone taking part in the strike could be prosecuted, and face imprisonment and the confiscation of their property.

Dozens of business owners who had announced they planned to be closed were arrested, according to reports in the state-run newspaper Myanma Alinn Daily.

The military-installed government initiated other measures to try to undercut the strike.

In Yangon and Mandalay, city administrators scheduled special events, including a cycling contest, to try to draw crowds. City workers in Yangon were told to attend during strike hours, according to leaked documents posted on social media.

Several pro-military demonstrations, widely believed to have been organised by the authorities, were also held.

In Tachileik, a border town in Shan state in eastern Myanmar, an explosion at a pro-government rally killed two people and injured at least 37 others, according to a reporter with the online local Tachileik News Agency.

The reporter said most of the marchers were ex-soldiers or villagers brought in for the demonstration.

No one has claimed the blast.
DOHA (Reuters) -Qatar, one of the world's top natural gas exporters, will not be able to unilaterally replace Europe's energy needs in case of a shortage due to the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, the emirate's minister of state for energy said on Tuesday.

The volume of gas needed by the EU cannot be replaced by anyone unilaterally, without disturbing supplies to other regions around the world," the minister, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, said in a statement.

"Europes energy security requires a collective effort from many parties.

Kaabi issued the statement after a meeting in Doha with the European Unions Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson.

Kaabi expressed hope that "tensions in Europe can be resolved diplomatically, so that all suppliers can work together to ensure energy security for the short- and long-terms".

Qatar is a key U.S. ally in the Middle East region and a leading trade and political partner of the EU.

The United States is concerned that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine and has in recent weeks asked Qatar and other major gas producers to study if they can supply extra gas to Europe if Russian flows are disrupted.

Keeping our contractual word is sacrosanct in Qatar,'' said Kaabi, implying that it will not be possible to divert to Europe gas shipments already contracted for delivery to other countries without their consent.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli;Editing by Alison Williams, William Maclean)
Edwin Poots (Mark Marlow/PA) (PA Archive)

Agriculture minister Edwin Poots is unlikely to return to Lagan Valley to contest his current Assembly seat in Mays Stormont elections, it is understood.

On Friday night party officers selected Diane Forsythe as the candidate for South Down, ahead of Mr Poots, who was attempting to switch to the constituency.

However, a source close to Mr Poots said that he is unlikely now to return to seek the nomination in Lagan Valley and will instead look to the partys executive to overturn the recommendation made in South Down.

The source said: He has made his decision to run in South Down, and he is sticking by that. He has no intention of going back.

Meanwhile, DUP MLA Jim Wells has said he would consider running against the party in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections if Mr Poots is not selected as its candidate in South Down.

Mr Wells, who has been deselected by the party, said he currently had no plans to run, but would not rule out the step if the DUP party executive endorses Ms Forsythe as their candidate for the area.

Mr Wells has expressed confidence that the party executive will overturn the decision and install Mr Poots as the candidate.

Mr Wells said he had first approached Mr Poots about running in South Down after he was not chosen to go forward and contest the seat at the elections which will take place in May.

Minister for Agriculture Edwin Poots (Liam McBurney/PA) (PA Archive)

In an interview with the PA news agency, he said: I did an interview on December 20, which didnt go well and I think I knew that my goose was cooked after that.

Just after Christmas I received an email to say that I hadnt been selected.

The nature of the questions indicated to me that I was in a bit of a struggle and I knew that there was another candidate and I came to the conclusion that I wasnt going to make it, so then I approached Edwin Poots.

Edwin has behaved completely impeccably throughout.

I had been talking to Edwin Poots about his situation (in Lagan Valley) and I approached him and he put his name forward for South Down.

Story continues

The DUP currently faces an electoral headache in Lagan Valley with three of the partys biggest names potentially running in the same constituency where it currently holds two seats.

Mr Poots and First Minister Paul Givan currently represent Lagan Valley, while party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said he will also seek a return to Stormont in the constituency.

This led to Mr Poots seeking to switch to South Down, and the decision by party officers on Friday to instead endorse former Westminster candidate Ms Forsythe.

I thought it was important that we had an experienced candidate and they don't come much more experienced than Edwin Poots

Jim Wells

Mr Wells said: I am absolutely mystified as to why he (Mr Poots) wasnt selected.

I thought it was important that we had an experienced candidate and they dont come much more experienced than Edwin Poots.

I just assumed that he would be selected. Four times a minister, former party leader, former party vice chairman, so therefore I was absolutely gobsmacked on Friday night when he wasnt.

When asked if he would consider running as an independent, Mr Wells said: I certainly will not be running against Edwin Poots. I am determined to get Edwin Poots selected at the central executive committee, and then Ill be campaigning for him.

DUP party officers have chosen Diane Forsythe as their candidate for South Down (Brian Lawless/PA) (PA Archive)

When asked what he would do if Ms Forsythe is confirmed as the DUP candidate for South Down, he said: The phrase I have is: no plans to run as an independent, but I will keep options open.

Asked to confirm that he was not ruling out running as an independent, he said: I would consider it, but I have no plans at the minute to run as an independent.

Mr Wells said Mr Poots had been left disappointed by the outcome of Fridays meeting.

He added: He is hurt because it was done in a blaze of publicity.

That disappointment then turned to resolve and he said he is absolutely going to take this to the decision-making body.

Nobody has been selected for anywhere yet, these are simply recommendations to the ultimate decision making body.

They will decide who the candidates are, nobody else.

He added: It is absolutely imperative that we get that experienced candidate in the field. He will win South Down, I am absolutely confident he will win that seat.

Jim Wells, DUP MLA for south Down, during an interview where he talks of being deselected by the partys as a candidate for the upcoming May Northern Ireland Assembly elections. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday January 31 2021. See PA story ULSTER DUP Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

I think there is a DUP seat there but I would want the candidate to have the experience and also to have the same vision of the DUP that I have.

I think the chances are enhanced if Edwin Poots is the candidate.

Speaking of Ms Forsythe, he said: She doesnt have the same view of the way forward as I have, it is as simple as that.

Edwin would be more traditional and would be old-fashioned DUP, which I am.
Joe Biden has shown that he cannot goad the EU to block Vladimir Putin successfully if he does roll over the Ukraine border.

This test of leadership reveals how unconvincing the leader of the free world is, with almost no leverage at all. The loss of the UK in the block makes it hard for Washington to look any better than it did with Afghanistan.

Joe Biden cannot convince allies to move

An unnamed international relations expert says that Washington cannot get enough support for Ukraine amongst most members of the EU. They are not confident of the US in the face of the Kremlin's looming presence, reported the Express.

What has happened so far is bloc members are not united as the Kremlin turns the screws on the borders, with the US wincing. London has allowed the transport of anti-tank weapons for Ukrainians, with other shipments of equipment as well, cited Al Jazeera.

The Politico says that Berlin wants to lessen tensions with Moscow, even not siding with the US and EU members to cut off Russia for the SWIFT international payments system. Open saying to Joe Biden that Germany wants another approach.

But the US president railed against Olaf Scholz and branded his country for choosing a more prudent option. As a free state, it has the right to decide what to do, not listen to the US president who lost Afghanistan.

He will not allow the loss of energy which is the driver of Germany's economy, which needs Russian natural gas. Vladimir Putin is one step of Joe Biden, and the chancellor knows who to follow.

Read Also: Russian Navy Live-Fire Drills in the Baltic Sea Causes NATO To Shudder, Adds Tension To Western Provocation

Biden even begged the OPEC and other energy producers to increase production but was snubbed.

The Nord Stream 2 is vital to Russia needing the favor of Germany to continue the building of the natural gas pipeline and passing Germany and bypassing Ukraine as routes to channel the energy.

Biden is not effective, and his envoy is ignored by France, which has largely ignored the US, and France does not care.

EU nations press for diplomacy

Last Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron was not keen on the White House and summarily dismissed it. He said that Europeans must take the lead in dealing with Russia, not which is one of many repudiations marring the reputation of America.

He told the European Parliament that coordination with the US is good. Instead, Europeans could resolve it in the end, not some guy in the White House.

Last month, Washington said that sending troops to Ukraine as a non-NATO member is out of the question. There are plans to send US troops if the Russians run ram shod over the Ukraine border.

Confusing statements about how to act only show that Putin is in control and has sown confusion in NATO, with the help of Joe Biden's alarmist statements making an invasion easier if it happened.

David Dunn, whose specialty at Birmingham University is international politics, says he is amused at the no military assistance for Kyiv or anywhere.

No one wants to see a clash at the Ukraine border by any means, for the US and Russia. Joe Biden is shortsighted in understanding what drives the European nations.

He does not realize that Moscow is better prepared than the bloc and will lose in a conventional conflict. Adding that Joe Biden is failing and Vladimir Putin could gain Donbas without firing a shot, but Washington does not seem to see it.

Related Article: Russia Launches Secret Missile, Military Jets in Test Flight as NATO Allies Practice Drills in Black Sea

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
President Nguyen Xuan Phuc. VNA/VNS Photo

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has sent the best New Year greetings to all Vietnamese people throughout the nation and abroad on the eve of traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.

This is an excerpt from his message:

Fellow countrymen, comrades, and soldiers,

The Year of the Tiger has approached. At this sacred and emotional moment, on behalf of the Party and State, and the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, I would like to extend my best regards and New Year wishes to fellow countrymen, comrades, and soldiers nationwide, and overseas Vietnamese.

I also wish people all over the world a new year of peace, friendship, prosperity and happiness.

It's been 80 years since late President Ho Chi Minh wrote his New Year greetings in the newspaper "Viet Nam oc Lap (Independent Vietnam) in the Year of the Horse in 1942. Although the history has turned new pages, the spirit of solidarity, compassion, perseverance, and self-sacrifice of Vietnamese people have never changed.

In 2021, in the most challenging moments, we witnessed many beautiful images, bright examples of kindness and sacrifice for the community of people of all strata in society. They were doctors, nurses, soldiers and volunteers who did not mind dangers and left behind their families, parents and children to work in pandemic-hit areas; the old people who gave all their savings to support the national COVID-19 prevention and control fund; teenagers and children who drew beautiful pictures and wrote touching poems an letters expressing their dreams, sentiments towards doctors and nurses, as well as belief in Vietnam's strength amid the pandemic.

At this moment, there are still Vietnamese people on the frontlines of the pandemic fight; soldiers who are on duty day and night to maintain security and order, protect border areas and islands; or those working hard in many sectors and unable to celebrate Tet with their families.

The Party, State and people always appreciate their efforts and responsibility for the community and society. The nation remembers the sacrifices of compatriots and comrades, and respects contributions of Vietnamese expats abroad to the homeland, as well as support from international friends.

These challenges further forge the strength of unity, will and determination, deserving the heroism of our forefathers during the countrys multi-thousand-year history of national construction and safeguarding.

I wish you all a new year full of health, peace, success and happiness.
Food distribution times, sites

The Central Texas mobile food pantry will distribute free food this week. The distribution will include a variety of fresh and staple foods. Distribution sites and times are:

Wednesday  10 to 11 a.m., Veterans Affairs clinic, 4800 Memorial Drive; 10 to 11 a.m., Word of Life Family Worship Center, 193 LCR 412, Groesbeck.

Friday  10 to 11 a.m., First United Methodist Church of Mart, 701 E. Texas Ave.; 10 to 11 a.m., Kosse Community Center, 200 W. Adams St.

For more information, call 512-684-2509.

Medicare information session

An information session on Medicare will take place Feb. 17 from 9:30-10:30 a.m. at the Area Agency on Aging, 1514 S. New Road.

Anyone with questions about the federal program is encouraged to attend.

Robertson DRT meets

The Sterling C. Robertson Chapter of the Daughters of Republic of Texas meets at 1 p.m. Thursday at the First United Methodist Church downtown campus, 1300 Austin Ave.

Call 254-855-8151 for more information.

Vaccination clinics set

The Waco-McLennan County Public Health District is hosting free COVID-19 vaccination clinics this week. All vaccines will be available. Parents or a consenting adult must accompany minor children to receive the vaccine. Walk-ins are welcome, and registration is available for a scheduled appointment at covidwaco.com.

All clinics are open to the public. The schedule is as follows:

Tuesday  La Vega High School Cafeteria, 555 N. Loop 340, 4:30 to 7 p.m.

Wednesday  Pilgrims Pride, 2500 E. Lake Shore Drive, 1 to 5 p.m.; Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, 1624 Wooded Acres Drive, 9 a.m. to noon; South Waco Elementary School, 2104 Gurley Lane, 4 to 7 p.m.

Submit printed or typed items to Briefly, P.O. Box 2588, Waco, 76702-2588; or email goingson@wacotrib.com.
The Waco City Council on Tuesday will consider giving $1 million of its American Rescue Plan allotment to McLennan Community College, which was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

An interlocal agreement would allow the city to give the money to MCC to support its job training efforts while offsetting the college's pandemic-era revenue losses due to depressed enrollment and loss of state funding.

All their courses and job training they do help support the local economy and improving economic impacts for residents and attendees of the college, said Nicholas Sarpy, director of the city's office of management and budget.

The city has been promised $34.7 million from the federal coronavirus-related stimulus package approved last March. Under the funding formula, a portion of the money is reserved for offsetting public revenue lost due to the pandemic.

The U.S. Treasury finalized guidelines in January for how municipalities should apply for and use ARP funding, giving applicants the choice between calculating their revenue loss or taking a standard allocation of up to $10 million. The city chose the $10 million standard allocation, $1 million of which will go to MCC.

The city plans to spend a total of $1.5 million of the American Rescue Act allotment on job training, including the MCC contribution.

MCC, which has an enrollment of about 8,500, has also received American Rescue Act funding to provide direct financial aid to needy students.

The city of Waco's ARP allotment was divided into four categories: Costs of responding to the public health emergency and its economic impacts; premium pay for essential workers during the pandemic; replacing lost public sector revenue; and making investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.

Sarpy said cities were directed to use 2019 as their model year to determine how much revenue they lost because of the pandemics interference, but Sarpy said it wasnt clear what transactions cities should count and what should be excluded.

There are some questions about what all needs to be included, based off the guidance the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Census Bureau has provided, Sarpy said.

For example, it wasnt clear if the city assuming control and sole ownership of the Waco Metropolitan Area Regional Sewerage System in 2019 should be counted.

Based on the guidance that was available at the time, when we were originally doing the taxation, we had two polar opposite extremes, Sarpy said. Based on those, we determined the safest course for the city was just to do the standard allowance.

Also at Tuesday's meeting, the council will review an informal report about several affordable housing developments seeking low-income housing tax credits through the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Interim Community Services Director Raynesha Hudnell said all of Wacos applicants are applying for 9% tax credits, which require developers to compete with each other. Each development will request resolutions of support from the council, which will increase their overall score when TDHCA evaluates them.

Potentially, the construction for all of these units, if they receive the award from the state, will begin sometime in 2022 or early 2023, Hudnell, said.

Hudnell said she will be back with requests for resolutions of support from the city for each of the developments during the planned Feb. 15 city council meeting. The proposals are as follows:

Tejas Housing Group proposes to build The Enclave, containing 88 housing units, 74 affordable units and 14 for market-rate, at 2500 Lake Shore Drive.

CSH La Salle Avenue Lofts Ltd. seeks to build a 108-unit development at 1700 La Salle Ave, with 92 units earmarked for affordable housing.

Palladium USA International Inc. and Riva Switzerland Inc. propose a 132-unit development at 705 S. 5th Street with 84 affordable units and 48 market-rate units.

The Waco City Council will meet at 3 p.m. Tuesday for a work session followed by a 6 p.m. business session the Bosque Theater inside Waco Convention Center, 100 Washington Ave. To register ahead of time to speak on agenda items or during the hearing of visitors, register at www.waco-texas.com/council-speaker.asp, by emailing CSO@wacotx.gov or by calling 254-750-5750.

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One of Russia's advanced S-550 Missile System is meant to blunt NATO attacks, and the allies have been accused of provocation by the Kremlin. The surface-to-air missile is designed to knock out ICBMS and attack satellites in orbit.

Fears of invasion have been countered by experts who do not believe it. Instead, it is a hybrid war to get what the Kremlin wants without firing a shot.

Russia pressures NATO

A top US official in the United Nations alleged that the 100,000 troops of Vladimir Putin are there for invasion, but the Kremlin has contested this.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said the comments are pre-empting the Monday Security Council meeting, reported the Express UK.

According to her, the Russian had troops along the Ukraine border, with some in Belarus accusing Moscow of escalating despite the diplomatic paths taken.

Other than numerous troops, Moscow tested a new weapon called a 'Star Wars' missile by several publications in the UK, cited the Daily Mail.

Russia's missile could outclass US

According to sources that TASS reported, the high-tech S-550 is already in service with the frontline Russian forces.

The missile could attack and destroy a target that is way above the earth, like low earth orbit satellites, nuke warheads, and hypersonic weapons detected by its sensors.

First tested in November 2021, the missile got tested with the Kremlin in a succession of wargames that made the west shudder should it be practiced to run over Ukraine. But NATO has a lot to worry about with the S-550 Missile System deployed.

Read Also: War Fears Heighten as Russian Ballistic Nuclear Submarines Are Seen in the Baltic Sea While NATO Has Drills

A Russian Ministry of Defense Official said that the advanced missile battery had passed the pre-requisite Trials by that time.

Russian S-550 missile system

Brigades armed with missile technology have been deployed as tensions rise on the border, including the US banging the war drums.

Russian commanders call the development of the weapon better than the west and Chinese technology, with advantages as a mobile strategic defense system for Moscow to use.

It took a decade to make the weapon system capable of striking hard to hit fast-moving targets. It gives Russian forces an unprecedented advantage over most militaries.

Before, it was called Nudol by name when it was under development. On November 15, the S-550 is supposed to have demolished a satellite.

Defense sources say the weapon is an operation and given its current name as it is known by now.

The S-550 is thought to be the one tested in 2020 at the Sary-Shagan testing site in Kazakhstan, a video of the test was recorded.

A week ago, the Russian army drilled for chemical warfare training based in the Southern Military District in the Crimean region. Other systems like the Iskander-M got tested in the Western Military District, lying on the Ukraine border.

The Iskander can be armed with nukes, called Stone by NATO, and is a short-range ballistic missile armed with more than one warhead.

Conflict at the Ukraine Border from 2014 in Crimea has raised tensions. The US is guilty of provocations and does not consider the recommendations of the Kremlin.

Washington still pushes an invasion is in the works but cannot even get the support it needs,

Moscow's S-550 Missile System is a threat to NATO, but the US is only making everything worse, and the Biden administration has proven to be muddling things, not resolving it. Another example of less than effective foreign policy.

Related Article: Russian Navy Live-Fire Drills in the Baltic Sea Causes NATO To Shudder, Adds Tension To Western Provocation

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(CNN) -- The world's first all-electric passenger aircraft is preparing to take flight.

The Alice, a plane developed by Israeli company Eviation, went through engine testing last week at Arlington Municipal Airport north of Seattle. According to Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay, the Alice is just weeks away from its first flight.

With battery technology similar to that of an electric car or a cell phone and 30 minutes of charging, the nine-passenger Alice will be able to fly for one hour, and about 440 nautical miles. The plane has a max cruise speed of 250 kts, or 287 miles per hour. For reference, a Boeing 737 has a max cruise speed of 588 miles per hour. The company, focused exclusively on electric air travel, hopes that electric planes that can fit 20 to 40 passengers will be a reality in seven to 10 years.

A prototype of the aircraft, which debuted in 2019, has been going through low-speed taxi tests since December and will attempt a high-speed taxi test in the next few weeks. In these tests, the aircraft is sent down the runway at different speeds to test its own power and allow ground teams to monitor systems like steering, braking and anti-skid. Though the company initially aimed for the Alice to take flight before 2022, poor weather conditions in the Pacific Northwest at the end of the year hindered testing.

Eviation has developed three versions of the prototype: a "commuter" variant, an executive version, and one specialized for cargo. The commuter configuration in testing holds nine passengers and two pilots, as well as 850 pounds of cargo. The executive design has six passenger seats for a more spacious flight, and the cargo plane holds 450 cubic feet of volume.

All of this is possible while reducing maintenance and operating costs of commercial jets by up to 70% , according to the company.

The electric aviation space is already growing more crowded with both startups and established aviation companies. NASA gave $253 million in September 2021 to GE Aviation and magniX to bring the technology to US fleets by 2035. Boeing is investing $450 million in Wisk Aero, a company building an all-electric, autonomous, passenger aircraft, and Airbus has been working on its own electric aviation endeavors since 2010.

According to industry experts, the largest obstacle for electric aviation becoming the norm in passenger jets is the battery.

"The stumbling block is the battery technology just like with cars, but more so in airplanes. This is because with airplanes, the concern is the weight," said Ross Aimer, CEO of Aero Consulting Experts. "As soon as we have better battery technology, which I suspect will be in two or three years, that's when all these electric airplanes will eventually come."

Twelve Alices are on order by international shipping company DHL, anticipated to be delivered in 2024. These planes, out of DHL Express's global fleet of more than 280 aircraft, are set to be used as cargo carriers making shorter distance trips. "Our aspiration is to make a substantial contribution in reducing our carbon footprint, and these advancements in fleet and technology will go a long way in achieving further carbon reductions," said Mike Parra, CEO of DHL Express America, in an interview with CNN Business.

Eviation has announced purchases of its proposed fleet by DHL and commuter airline CapeAir and says there are several more to be announced once Alice's first flight occurs. CapeAir's proposed fleet of Alices are expected to enter service in 2023 on routes connecting Boston, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Hyannis.

While we seem to be getting closer to battery-powered air travel for some functions, not everything is nearly ready to go. Cross-ocean flights and jumbo jets are still years beyond the current science, for one. But the most pressing concern for electric aviation is regulation. The FAA has yet to put forward any clear guidelines or regulatory framework for electric airplanes, which fall under the category of Advanced Air Mobility, though Eviation says its is actively working with the FAA to achieve certification for production by 2024. "Some certifications could require the FAA to issue special conditions or additional airworthiness criteria, depending on the type of project. Determining qualifications for these aircraft is an ongoing process," according to an FAA spokesperson.

Electric aviation proponents predict Alice and electric planes like it becoming as commonplace as any other means of transportation. "It really integrates aviation into the fabric of transportation, of our commuter life. It does so while being sustainable, and through being economically viable," said Bar-Yohay. "Once we start seeing planes like this, the entire way we look at where we live, how we commute, how we go on vacation, will change. It will be a high-speed train without the rail."

But electric aircraft big enough to rival large passenger jets may still be a ways off.

"The first step would be to try these in a commuter market or charter market," said Aimer. "Then eventually, if that works well, you're going to have passenger jets. For that we need Boeing or Airbus to come out with a actual electric airplane. I would see that in about 10 years."

The-CNN-Wire

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It's looking more and more like Lincoln and other parts of Nebraska may have reached a peak in COVID-19 omicron cases, but hospital leaders say it could be a week or two before hospital numbers see the same peak.

As of Friday, the daily case average for Lancaster County for the week was 506, compared with nearly 646 the previous week, which set an all-time pandemic record.

Statewide, the number of cases in the seven-day period ending Friday was 14,609, a more than 45% decline from the previous week, according to the state's COVID-19 dashboard.

Some of that decline was due to a drop in the number of COVID-19 tests performed, but the statewide test positivity rate also showed a significant decline, to 21.1% last week, down from 26.4% the previous week.

"There does appear to be some evidence that cases maybe have peaked in Nebraska in the last handful of days or a week at the most," said Brett Richmond, president and CEO of Methodist Fremont Health.

But Richmond pointed out that hospital numbers usually lag behind case numbers by a week or two, and he said officials are prepared to continue to see numbers stay steady or even climb over the next couple of weeks.

"I think we're yet to see the impact of what we hope has been a peak of cases throughout the state," he said.

Statewide COVID-19 hospital numbers dropped to 739 as of Sunday night, down from a 13-month high of 767 on Friday. However, that number has been above 700 daily since Jan. 18.

On Friday, Lancaster County recorded its highest total of COVID-19 patients in more than a year, and Douglas County last week set a pandemic record for the number of patients with the virus in its hospitals

"Hospitalizations in Nebraska still remain at a very high level," said Jeremy Nordquist, president of the Nebraska Hospital Association.

He said that in the weeks ahead, hospital leaders look forward to being able to talk about "turning the corner" when it comes to patient numbers related to the latest surge, "but we're certainly not there yet."

Some officials have noted that peaks in case numbers may occur at different times in different places across Nebraska.

Dr. James Lawler, co-executive director of the University of Nebraska Medical Centers Global Center for Health Security, said Sunday on Nebraska Public Media's "Speaking of Nebraska" television show that he believes cases have peaked in Omaha, Lincoln and most of eastern Nebraska, but there are other parts of the state that are yet to reach a peak, although they will soon.

"Then the question will be how quickly will we come down and how far will we come down," Lawler said.

As of Saturday, the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. had declined 32% from a week earlier, although some states that had the earliest surges have seen much bigger declines. In New Jersey, for example, cases are down 70% over the past two weeks, according to the New York Times.

Bill Calhoun, CEO of Kearney Regional Medical Center, said he has seen anecdotal evidence of a slowdown in COVID-19 activity in his area. One sign is that the hospital is now off of diversion status, meaning it's able to take transfer patients. Another is a 20-30% drop in volume at its respiratory clinics.

Those data points, Calhoun said, "would suggest that we're seeing a reduction in the number of omicron cases."

The omicron variant has hit children harder in terms of case numbers than previous variants, and Chanda Chacon, president and CEO of Childrens Hospital & Medical Center, said the hospital in recent weeks has seen no sign of a letup in cases, with record numbers of COVID-19 patients.

The hospital had 18 COVID-19 inpatients Friday, a number that had fallen to 13 on Monday, but Chacon said Children's has been averaging double-digit numbers of patients daily for the past 8-10 weeks, which is three to four times more than the number of patients it had before the latest surge.

She said positivity rates from COVID-19 tests at the hospital and its clinics have ranged from 35%-44% over the past four weeks, "which is also the highest we have seen since the beginning of the pandemic."

Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who three years ago placed a moratorium on executions, now is moving to dismantle the United States' largest death row by moving all condemned inmates to other prisons within two years.

The goal is to turn the section at San Quentin State Prison into a "positive, healing environment."

"We are starting the process of closing death row to repurpose and transform the current housing units into something innovative and anchored in rehabilitation," corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters told The Associated Press.

California, which last carried out an execution in 2006, is one of 28 states that maintain death rows, along with the U.S. government, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. While other states like Illinois have abolished executions, California is merging its condemned inmates into the general prison population with no expectation that any will face execution anytime in the near future.

Oregon similarly transferred its much smaller condemned population to other inmate housing two years ago.

Newsom, a Democrat, imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019 and shut down the state's execution chamber at San Quentin, north of San Francisco. Now his administration is turning on its head a 2016 voter-approved initiative intended to expedite executions by capitalizing on one provision that allowed inmates to be moved off death row.

"The underlying motive of the administration is to mainstream as many of these condemned murderers as possible," said Michael Rushford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which backed the initiative. "Our objective was to speed up the process."

He added he doesn't think victims are happy with the administration's decision.

"They're moving condemned murderers into facilities that are going to make their lives better and offer them more amenities, while the victims still mourn the death of their family member," Rushford said.

Corrections officials began a voluntary two-year pilot program in January 2020 that as of Friday had moved 116 of the state's 673 condemned male inmates to one of seven other prisons that have maximum security facilities and are surrounded by lethal electrified fences.

They intend to submit permanent proposed regulations within weeks that would make the transfers mandatory and "allow for the repurposing of all death row housing units," Waters said.

The ballot measure approved six years ago also required condemned inmates to participate in prison jobs, with 70% of the money going for restitution to their victims, and corrections officials said that's their goal with the transfers. By the end of last year, more than $49,000 in restitution had been collected under the pilot program.

Newsom's proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 seeks $1.5 million to find new uses for the vacant condemned housing.

It notes that death row and its supporting activities are in the same area as facilities used for rehabilitation programs for medium-security San Quentin inmates. The money would be used to hire a consultant to "develop options for (the) space focused on creating a positive, healing environment to provide increased rehabilitative, educational and health care opportunities."

San Quentin's never-used $853,000 execution chamber is in a separate area of the prison, and there are no plans to "repurpose" that area, Waters said.

California voters supported the death penalty in 2012 and 2016, though legislative opponents have said they hope to put the issue before voters again in coming years. An advisory panel to Newsom and lawmakers, the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code, in November became the latest to recommend repealing the death penalty, calling it "beyond repair."
As many will know, the Hawker Typhoon is one of the rarest production fighter aircraft from WWII, with only one known complete survivor in preservation today. The Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group is working very hard to change this situation, and is presently endeavoring to rebuild Hawker Typhoon Mk.Ib RB396 using the original rear fuselage from this aircraft as a stating point. Sam Worthington-Leese is spearheading this project, and he wrote the following report describing how the projects faring presently, so without further ado here is Sam!

On November 25th we made another visit to Airframe Assemblies on the Isle of Wight to check out progress with RB396. This time there were ten supporters who responded to the invitation in our October eNewsletter, with one member showing real dedication, having traveled all the way from Edinburgh for the opportunity to get eyes on RB396s rear fuselage.

Special thanks must go to Wightlink ferries who again covered the cost of our group making the crossing. After discussion with Dave Hands, who has been organizing these visits, Wightlink pledged their future support to bring RB396 back home to the mainland when the rear fuselage is complete. Indeed, the company will feature a short write-up about the project in their own newsletter, which is great to see.

Chris, one of the engineers at Airframe Assemblies, was again our host for the tour. Chris has been very involved in the rebuild of RB396s rear fuselage, so for those in our group who hadnt previously made the trip to see RB396, he ran through the processes and materials they use and also discussed the Hawker Typhoons drawings in detail. Chris focused in particular on the engineering around Frame K (the aft-most bulkhead joint in the Typhoons rear fuselage section) and the wartime modifications which Hawker made to stiffen up this area. Even though it was a late model Mk.Ib with the redesigned tail, there was clear evidence that RB396 had these modifications included in its manufacture. Chris ran through the additions of the fish plates and referenced the drawings they are using. Our group kept the questions coming, and all went into fine detail. It made such a difference to see the actual frame area as well as the drawings, so it was easier to understand how it all went together, and how the wartime changes affected the overall design. Each member of our group was fascinated by this discussion.

Airframe Assemblies has made excellent progress in the areas of the vents, flare chute, and viewing window. Other areas of progress with the project include the maintenance access door and the spring-loaded foothold.

One guest asked Chris: How does it feel taking something from a drawing to a finished assembly? He responded by saying: Its very satisfying, but it seems a shame to paint it as it looks so good as bare metal! On that note, it is worth mentioning that when complete, the rear fuselage will be painted in primer only at this stage. Interestingly, when we had the primer paint professionally color-matched, we discovered that it was not of a standard shade, so we have had to have the paint mixed especially for the our rebuild yet another small, more costly, and ultimately mostly unseen step we have taken in our effort to make this rebuild as authentic as possible.

As for the final paint scheme which RB396 will wear when she is complete, we havent decided that yet. There are many ideas for the livery, and we will cross that bridge when the time is right, but we will certainly entertain supporter opinion regarding the options, and maybe even conduct a vote; time will tell. For now, we are focusing on the immediate next steps in the rebuild, and our efforts to raise the funds required  There is little point in discussing paint schemes when we still have to raise 4.5million to just to arrive at that position! What we do know, however, is that we intend for RB396 to represent all Typhoons and their crews  both air and ground, so the scheme selected needs to represent that consideration.

Supporters were also taken to see the Tempest fuselage upstairs. Chris went into depth on how frames are sometimes made from two extrusion pieces which are not symmetrically opposite  so the remanufacturing process is very expensive. He also explained how similar the Typhoon fuselage section they were working on was to the similar unit in the Hawker Tempest  almost identical, in fact.

We received feedback on the visit from our band of supporters: A small note to say a very big thank you for all your help/assistance in organizing the visit on Thursday. Really enjoyed it, it was great to meet the people involved & see the work done so far. Gives a good feeling that progress is being made & by the right people. It also brings home the enormity of the whole project. Now Ive seen the work firsthand I am so impressed with how AA goes about the work and records absolutely everything. I had no idea the choice of material was so important and so difficult to find. Thank you for arranging yesterdays visit. Great day out, really enjoyed seeing the progress on our Typhoon and talking to the very enthusiastic staff of AA.

The supporters on this visit were first to see some newly machined parts for the rebuild, these being in the shape of three of these end fittings for Frame A, as seen above. These are the brackets which affix the front of the rear fuselage onto the rear of the cockpit. If you follow us on social media, then you will have seen the question posed a few weeks ago  how much do you think these cost?

For background, we owned a complete and original set of more than four of these fittings, and only four are required. Unfortunately, only one of our pieces passed the requisite airworthiness tests which means that we had to have three made. The originals were used as patterns, however, the new ones had to be made from drawings created from the originals. Coupled with that expense were all the associated stress analyses, new drawings, certification and then find a machine shop which could turn them around at short notice (the shop chosen by AA made them in three weeks, as opposed to a three-month usual turnaround), and factoring in that it was a small batch  so, how much do you think they cost?

The answer is 15,462! This will give you some idea as to why the overall build cost for rebuilding RB396 will be ~5.5 million

The latest time-lapse video of the rebuild is up on our YouTube channel. If you havnt already, please do subscribe to the channel and have a look through all of our other videos. It is our intention to document as much of the rebuild as we can and the videos will be uploaded to the channel.

Visits such as the recent journey to Airframe Assemblies, and receiving behind-the-scenes access to the rebuild, are just one of the many benefits associated with being a project supporter. Subscriptions start at the Bronze level, from just 25 per year. The 2022 Bronze package has just opened up for new sponsors and runs until December 31st, so now is the perfect time to join. Alongside visits such as these, supporters receive regular updates (this progress update was shared directly to them, with much more associated information in December) via the regular eNewsletter, advanced notice on future events and visits, supporter-only merchandise (including the opportunity to purchase material taken from RB396s rear fuselage) and discounts on the online shop. But the best benefit to joining is the knowledge that you are supporting the rebuild of this unique combat veteran which some have called the most important warbird restoration in the world.

Support tiers commence at Bronze and increase to Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond, depending upon how much you are able to contribute. Rewards and benefits increase substantially in line with contributions. For those looking for a lower but regular contribution, there is the Sabre Club which is 2 per month and for which you receive regular updates on the project. Details of all the options are available in the Support Us section of the website.

Many thanks to Sam Worthington-Leese for this latest update. Anyone who wishes to help the Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group with their mission to resurrect an airworthy example of Britains finest WWII-era ground attack aircraft should click this link!
A corruption monitor has discovered that a grand jury subpoena was issued 17 months before the 2020 election for Hunter Biden's bank transactions involving the Bank of China, raising fears that voters were not aware of harmful information about then-candidate Joe Biden.

According to court filings, the Department of Justice ordered JP Morgan Chase to produce details of any overseas financial transactions involving Hunter, his uncle James Biden, and former business associates Devon Archer and Eric Schwerin during the last five years.

Associates, Hunter Biden receive a subpoena in 2019

The document, which targets the financial relationships between the four men and the Bank of China, was obtained by the anti-corruption organization Marco Polo, which was formed by former Trump administration staffer Garrett Ziegler. On May 15, 2019, Delaware's US Attorney David Weiss issued the subpoena. Hunter's father, Joe Biden, was running for president at the time.

Hunter reportedly put his laptop at a Delaware repair shop for five weeks before the subpoena was issued. The legal document mentioned a total of 15 enterprises controlled by Hunter and his partners.

Hunter's spokeswoman could not be reached for comment on Sunday night. Hunter said last year that he is being investigated for alleged tax evasion; and in April, he told "CBS This Morning" that he had no intentions to plead guilty. In a statement provided by his father's presidential transition team, Hunter Biden revealed the investigation.

The bank is required to appear at the J Caleb Boggs federal courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 25, 2019, to offer testimony and answer by that date. The bank's response to the subpoena was not immediately known. JP Morgan has responded to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.

In light of DOJ standards on the matter, US Attorney Weiss held off on investigating measures that may appear to become a campaign issue, according to Politico. It is criminal for a financial institution to warn a customer that they are subject to a subpoena, according to a letter from Weiss, per New York Post.

Read Also: Donald Trump's Secret Play To Install Him as Speaker of the House To Oust the President and Vice President

Hunter Biden hires an ex-Chinese government researcher as assistant

According to a book released this week by Peter Schweizer titled "Red Handed," emails seized from Hunter Biden's computer supposedly reveal he recruited the secretarial services of a former Chinese government researcher, JiaQi Bao.

Bao worked as a research assistant for the Chinese government's National Development and Reform Commission after receiving a government scholarship at Tsinghua University. According to Schweizer, she subsequently moved on to work for OneGate Capital, a Shanghai-based financial business with connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

After doing business with Patrick Ho, the secretary-general of the Chinese energy firm CEFC, Bao was assigned to Biden in 2017. The FBI detained Ho on bribery allegations in November 2017 after Biden identified him as the "spy head of China" and a former Hong Kong home affairs secretary.

The book claims that Ho was detained after attempting to make a "bold operation" including "channeling unlawful contributions to UN ambassadors through a network of intermediaries, wealthy, and suspected spies," according to Schweizer. After his 2017 arrest, Ho was sentenced to three years in jail in 2019; but Bao continued to work for Biden.

According to the author, the secretary built a strong connection with Biden and gave him advice on everything from "energy agreements to his father's presidential campaign," as per Fox News.

Related Article: Donald Trump 'Fake Electors': House Select Committee Investigating 2020 Elections Case

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
DES MOINES (AP)  For decades, crowds gathered to see the latest Hollywood films at the Ingersoll theater, a west side landmark in Des Moines, and later to take in both professional and amateur performances during its years as a dinner theater.

But for the last eight years, the brick structure with its original  though peeling  art-deco marquee has sat vacant.

The historic building at 3711 Ingersoll Ave. is now at a crossroads. A potential buyer has emerged that wants to restore the theater as a performance space. Yet when Des Moines permit and development staff recently toured the 83-year-old building at the potential buyer's invitation, they found several holes in the roof and interior water damage from rain and snow. Staff now will seek a formal inspection to determine whether the building remains structurally sound.

"The roof of the dinner theater is in awful shape. You can see daylight through it," said Cody Christensen, the city's permit and development administrator. "It is dilapidated  it needs work."

At first glance, the structure, with its 1930s-era steel frame and concrete masonry walls, remains strong. Pending the inspection, Christensen said it doesn't appear to be a danger to the public

The building likely can remain as is for about a year before it becomes a threat to neighboring properties or passersby, he told the Des Moines Register. At that point it could be declared a public nuisance, which  if repair work isn't completed as ordered  could lead to demolition.

"The Ingersoll Dinner Theater is at that point where something needs to be done or more drastic things could happen," said City Council member Josh Mandelbaum, who represents the ward that includes the Ingersoll Avenue corridor.

Since 2009, Lee Family Properties has owned the commercial strip that includes the Ingersoll and adjacent yet separate buildings that house Greenwood Lounge, Manhattan Deli and Lovan Salon + Spa. The owners historically have been unwilling to sell or fix up the property, despite earlier being declared in contempt of court for not addressing code violations filed by Des Moines.

The Des Moines Register attempted to contact Lee Family Properties, but a phone number listed for the company rang unanswered.

Built in 1939 by Des Moines businessman and theater operator A.H. Blank, the single-screen Ingersoll theater is a rare local example of a Depression-era movie theater. It was one of the first in central Iowa built specifically for movies with sound rather than silent films.

It was converted into a dinner theater in 1978, and for 26 years hosted plays and business gatherings.

The building was later home to several restaurants and music venues, none if which survived for long. It has been empty since 2014.

In 2015, the Des Moines Rehabbers Club, a group of preservation advocates, named the Ingersoll one of the most endangered buildings in the city. The list aims to draw attention to neglected buildings with historical value.

"I think you could make a pretty good case that the Ingersoll theater has architectural significance and played an important place in the development of Ingersoll Avenue as a commercial district," said Steve Wilke-Shapiro, one of the founders of the club and owner of Sequel Architecture.

Over more than a decade, Ingersoll Avenue between Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and 42nd Street has been the target of more than $100 million in commercial and residential investment. A years-long streetscape project began in spring 2020 that includes a total reconstruction of the roadway, new storm sewers, buried utilities, widened sidewalks, upgraded bus stops, new pedestrian crossings, elevated bike lanes and landscaping.

In recent years, several new businesses have opened near the Ingersoll theater, including boutique bar The Bartender's Handshake, vintage and modern clothing store Preservation, new age shop Enchanted Mystical Boutique, Loyal Sons Barber Shop and house plant store Renovation Jungle.

"They're all relatively new and the type of businesses that our community wants to see more of and wants to support," Mandelbaum said. "And having that sort of gap the next block over is one of those things that if we can fix that, it will only make that area more attractive and help the existing businesses as well."

He added there are "very few properties" on Ingersoll Avenue "that are in disrepair like (the theater) is."

Saving the Ingersoll has long been a concern of city staff, but its private ownership means there are limitations to the inspection process unless a formal complaint is filed or the building can be entered legally.

In 2016, Lee Family Properties was found to be in contempt of court for failing to address citations for exterior zoning code violations. The city wanted the owners to pave a parking lot, change some curbs and sidewalks, and add streetscaping similar to that on other parts of Ingersoll.

The case applied to the theater and the vacant former AG Food & Gas Mart at 3625 Ingersoll Ave.

A judge eventually authorized the city of Des Moines to complete the work, charging Lee Family Properties nearly $142,000.

Now that city staff has gotten a look inside the Ingersoll theater, Des Moines will request a formal interior inspection, said SuAnn Donovan, deputy director of Neighborhood Services. If Lee Family Properties doesn't comply, Des Moines will obtain a search warrant to gain access.

Once inside, inspectors will officially determine whether the structure is sound or poses a danger to the public. They also will inspect things like electrical connections and plumbing. (The inspectors would look only at the theater. City staff say they don't have any formal complaints from the bar, deli or salon tenants that would trigger an inspection.)

"Declaration of a public nuisance comes when a structure is so deteriorated and damaged that it wouldn't be safe for someone to be inside of there," Donovan said.

But that could muddy a sale, complicating financing and title transfers at a time when the potential buyer has approached Lee Family Properties to buy and restore the theater.

"When a property like this is on the verge, but there is a party who is interested in making repairs and improving it, we oftentimes work with those entities to get that moving," Christensen said.

Even if the theater were to be declared a public nuisance, the owner or buyer could file a renovation agreement with Des Moines that spells out a timeline for repairs needed to stabilize the property and bring it up to code.

"The goal in most cases is not to take the structure down; it's to get the structure repaired," Donovan said.

Mike Ludwig, the city's deputy director of development services, said any new owner would have to replace the ceilings and walls and bring up to code the building's electrical, heating and air conditioning systems  regardless of whatever damage rainwater and snow is causing.

The potential buyer, who declined to comment when reached by the Register, has plans for a historical remodel and is considering applying for state and federal historic tax credits to restore its original mid-century charm. To comply with historic standards, a developer could, for example, determine whether the building's green glazed brick, which originally ran along the bottom of the exterior, is still behind the stone that's there today, said architect Wilke-Shapiro. It also could restore what he called the "character-defining" marquee, which has been slightly altered over the years, and the lobby that leads viewers or concert-goers to the theater space.

Ingersoll Avenue is in an urban renewal district, meaning Des Moines also could help with financial incentives, though negotiation wouldn't happen until "we have more specifics on an actual reuse of the property," Ludwig said.

But those discussions are a long way off. It's imperative the theater get a new roof as soon as possible to prevent further damage, city leaders say.

"It's important to recognize they're not going to be showing movies or having a band come in in six months," Wilke-Shapiro said. "So stabilization as a first step is going to be super important  making sure that the building doesn't deteriorate further while all this background work is going on."

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CEDAR FALLS  A collection of block-headed marionettes dangles from the ceiling on strings in a corner of the University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art. At first glance it may be hard to separate one marionette from another in Meeting by UNI art professor Jeff Rufus Byrd. Each marionette is made from wood and wears a suit, but their uniformity is interrupted by their colorful, individualistic neckties.

Across the gallery, odds and ends are set in concrete in a long row of hip-roofed tool boxes, a mixed media installation by Tim Jorgensen. Nearby, a piece of graphite is pulled across a paper by a weighted plumb bob powered by a disco ball inside an 11-foot-tall aluminum frame in Dan Perrys drawing machine sculpture.

Its an entirely new piece, Perry said, and made over the course of just one week. Its one of those things where I challenged myself to make something completely new and gave myself a deadline to make it using the tools and items that I had. The disco ball motor I had from an older piece that no longer exists, said Perry, a UNI sculpture faculty member and coordinator of the public art incubator in Cedar Falls.

The frame with its architectural details, including a steeple top, allowed Perry to use woodworking skills to shape the aluminum using a carbide saw. Its bolted together so it will come apart if I want to change something. The plumb bob is cast in resin, explained Perry, who is known for his often large-scale metal sculptures such as Culminata, a stainless steel and heat-colored stainless steel sculpture that stands near UNIs Rod Library.

Colorful lighting  sorry, no glittering effects  draws attention to the plumb bob as it moves rhythmically across paper. Its been interesting to watch people engage with the piece because with a tall piece, people usually look up. With this piece, theyre looking downward at the drawing.

These artworks and others are among more than a dozen pieces featured in the 2022 Department of Art Faculty Exhibition, now through Feb. 25. The exhibition is a formal presentation of recent accomplishments by the faculty in the UNI department of art.

Students need to see and appreciate the creative lives of their professors, said UNI Gallery of Art Director Darrell Taylor. The exhibition features a variety of art created by UNIs art faculty, including paintings, printmaking, graphic design, sculpture, collage, photography, video, mixed media, art history scholarship and installation art.

Its probably the 15th or 16th faculty exhibit since Ive been here. Originally it began as an annual show, then became biennial. The show would have taken place last year, but we featured UNI professor of arts Jo Ann Schnabel and her former UNI ceramics student alumni. She retired from teaching at the end of 2021, so we moved this show into the new year, Taylor explained.

Like any artists, our faculty members continue to work on their art and maintain professional careers, and displaying their work shows the need to create doesnt end when you leave school. It also allows students to see how their faculty creatively expresses themselves in different ways, he said.

In addition to Byrd, Perry and Jorgensen, featured artists are Noah Doely, Alexandra Dooley, Tim Dooley, Ken Hall, Soo Hostetler, Wendy Miller, Riva Nayaju, Elizabeth Sutton, Bryan Van Donslear and Aaron Wilson.

All events are free and open to the public. Visitors must wear masks and socially distance while attending gallery events. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday and by appointment. The UNI Gallery of Art is located in the Kamerick Art Building.

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WATERLOO  A Waterloo man has been arrested for allegedly breaking into a womans apartment and threatening her with a knife over the weekend.

Julius Eugene Grulkey, 50, of 309 E. Second St., was arrested for first-degree burglary. Bond was set at $25,000.

Authorities allege Grulkey forced his way into the womans apartment at 76 Mulberry St. shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday, punched her in the face and threatened her with a knife.

Officers responding to the attack found Grulkey in the area of the building, and discovered two knives in his pockets.

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Weather Alert

...MORE WINDY DAYS ON THE WAY, WITH COLDER TEMPERATURES AND RAIN/SNOW SHOWERS FOR MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND... --Thursday and Friday-- * A pair of systems brushing through the region will bring gusty winds both days, with even stronger winds possible on Friday. Winds will bring travel difficulties both in the air and on the ground. Travel restrictions for high profile vehicles are possible. Check with CalTrans/NDOT for the current road information. Please see the latest hazard text products for the latest information on anticipated wind speeds. * Area of blowing dust are possible both afternoons downwind of the Carson Sink, possibly affecting portions of I-80, US 50, and Highway 95. In addition, backcountry and ski recreation could be impacted along with choppy conditions on area lakes. * A few light showers with minimal liquid totals are possible in far northern Nevada and northeast California. --Mother's Day Weekend into Early Next Week-- * It will remain breezy throughout the weekend, with a secondary max in wind speeds on Sunday due to a strong cold front. This front will usher in a much colder air mass and high temperatures on Mother's Day will be 15-20 degrees below normal. * There will be rain and snow showers with the front, but again, liquid amounts will be minimal. There are solid chances for snow levels to fall to all valley floors by Sunday evening, which may catch many off guard, though it is hard to get snow to stick to roadways in lower elevation valleys this late in the spring. * Well below normal temperatures and chances for light showers will continue into Monday and Tuesday next week. While still some uncertainty due to winds and cloud cover, it's possible we could have frost and freeze concerns Sunday and Monday nights.

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 9 PM PDT THURSDAY... * WHAT...Southwest winds 20 to 35 mph with gusts up to 55 mph expected. Wind prone areas may experience gusts in excess of 60 mph. Southwest winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 45 mph and waves of 2 to 4 feet expected on Pyramid Lake. * WHERE...Greater Reno-Carson City-Minden Area and Western Nevada Basin and Range including Pyramid Lake. * WHEN...From 11 AM to 9 PM PDT Thursday. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects and high profile vehicles will be prone to tip over. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. Blowing dust may locally reduce visibility downwind of dry lake beds and sinks. Small boats, kayaks and paddle boards will be prone to capsizing. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Travel restrictions for high profile vehicles are possible. Check with NDOT for the latest on road conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Now is the time to secure loose outdoor items such as patio furniture, holiday decorations, and trash cans before winds increase which could blow these items away. The best thing to do is prepare ahead of time by making sure you have extra food and water on hand, flashlights with spare batteries and/or candles in the event of a power outage. Check lake conditions before heading out on the water and be prepared for a sudden increase in winds and wave heights. Consider postponing boating activities on the lake until a day with less wind. &&
Washington and London declared on Monday that, if Russia invades Ukraine, they are prepared to punish Russian elites close to President Vladimir Putin by freezing their assets and prohibiting them from traveling to the country.

After the Russian buildup of soldiers near Ukraine fuelled fears of conflict, Britain urged Putin to "drawbacks from the edge" and warned that any intervention would result in penalties against firms and people connected to the Kremlin.

US, UK to sanction Putin associates

London will be given greater powers to punish corporations linked to Russia, according to British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, described the British warning as extremely troubling, saying it would make Britain less appealing to investors and undermine British businesses.

As a result, London has been the preferred destination for a flow of money from Russia and other former Soviet republics after the fall of communism in 1991. The United Kingdom has long been urged to be more vigilant in dealing with illicit cash flows.

In the United Nations Security Council, tensions between Russia and the United States were displayed on Monday. The discussion on Moscow's army build-up allowed for a public confrontation over the problem.

According to Russia's envoy to the United Nations, there was "no proof" that Moscow planned to launch a military attack and that Russia has repeatedly denied such claims and never corroborated the West's claim that 100,000 troops had been deployed to its border, according to Reuters.

During the first public meeting of the UN Security Council since the crisis in Ukraine came to a climax, the US and Russian ambassadors to the UN exchanged rhetorical punches on Monday. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American equivalent of Russian envoy Vasily Nebenzya, has been accused of "megaphone diplomacy" and "whipping up hysteria" over a possible Russian invasion.

"Imagine how uncomfortable you would be if you had 100,000 troops on your border," Thomas-Greenfield told Nebenzya, referring to Russia's sizable presence along its western border as a "danger to peace and security," and stating that the council was formed to confront Moscow's intimidating actions.

Nebenzya reaffirmed the Russian government's claims that it intends to invade Ukraine and blamed the US for the crisis's escalation. By rejecting a resolution to have an open meeting, Russia and China sought and failed to keep events behind closed doors.

Albania, Brazil, Ghana, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates joined the United States, United Kingdom, and France as the other three permanent members of the Security Council. Kenya, Gabon, and India all abstained, as per New York Post.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin has New Weapons To Defend Russia if NATO Decides to Strike From the Ukraine Border

UN Security Council adjourns without action

The United Nations Security Council gathered for the first time on Monday to examine the issue following months of tensions over Russia's enormous force buildup on Ukraine's borders - adjourning after over two hours of open debate.

Despite the fact that there was no action or even a unified statement during the conference, the US and Russian diplomats exchanged barbs, blaming each other for the crisis's escalation.

On three sides of Ukraine, including in Russian-annexed Crimea and Belarus, Kyiv's northern neighbor and a strong Kremlin ally, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has collected over 100,000 troops, heavy equipment, and artillery.

By calling a vote among the Security Council's 15 member nations, Russia, which is supported by China, attempted to prevent the session from progressing. It was opposed by Russia and China, with three nations abstaining; but it was approved by 10 countries, ABC News reported.

Related Article: US, Russia Still Open for Diplomacy on Ukraine Tension, But Britain Warns On Cyber Attacks From Moscow

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
If you will be the caregiver

Of the estimated 53 million family caregivers in the United States, nearly 1 in 5 experience significant financial strain. I am one of them.

Out-of-pocket expenses wiped out my savings. I lost my income when my employer let me go at the end of family medical leave. Suddenly, my family could not pay our mortgage or other fixed monthly bills, like student loans. We weren't making ends meet in the day to day and certainly weren't saving for the future. Years later, we are still nowhere near where we want to be for our projected retirement goals.

Younger caregivers are more likely to feel more financial impacts, like reduced savings, additional debt and trouble covering expenses. But caregivers in their 50s and 60s are most likely to deplete their savings, right on the cusp of their own retirement.

So whether you become a caregiver at age 35 or 65, you have to account for your personal financial strength when you undertake the job. Mitigating the impacts and pitfalls that caregivers face will help you maintain future security.

Understand your expected contributions

Knowing what your care recipient will expect  or need  from you is the first step. Figuring things out during a medical crisis can result in hasty decisions. Although people can be uncomfortable talking about money, it's a necessary conversation. If you work together, you may find ways to minimize your personal outlay.

Secure your future financial strength

If you have been saving toward your own retirement, it's important to preserve those assets.

I can't stress this enough: Learn which bills you are  and are not  responsible for. For example, you are not responsible to pay another person's medical debts. Be sure you have the proper legal documents in place so you can help your care recipient without assuming any of their financial obligations.

Think twice before tapping your own retirement accounts to cover expenses. Your retirement accounts are protected assets; taking money from them early or unnecessarily can come with tax consequences, penalties and a reduction of your future well-being.

Weigh the advantages of continued employment versus stepping away to take on caregiving. People experience lost wages, pensions and benefits when they are caregivers during their working years.

If you are deliberating reducing your work hours (and, therefore, work pay) or are leaving the workforce to take care of a loved one, run the numbers. Will paying for help provide you more job security and assets in the long run? This may require a change of employment, possibly to an employer who offers caregiver-supportive benefits, like paid family leave or respite care.

Whether you're thinking about caregiving or being cared for, a family plan that includes financial matters is helpful for everyone on both sides of the equation. Fewer than half of caregivers surveyed in 2020 by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving reported that their care partner had created plans for future care, and only 2 in 5 caregivers had such plans in place for themselves.

Caregivers whose care partner has done this planning report less overall caregiver stress. And who couldn't use less stress?

Starting family conversations about expectations, objectives and abilities to contribute is a good first step. Working with a qualified financial adviser, insurance professional and elder law attorney, you can create a comprehensive longevity strategy that will make a more comfortable retirement for you and your family, no matter what the future holds. And just maybe it can include that RV, too.

Editors note: This article, published Nov. 20, 2020, has been updated with more recent data on caregiving costs.

Amanda Singleton is a recipient of CareGiving.com's national Caregiving Visionary Award and serves caregivers across their life span through her law practice. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

En espanol

The contributions, achievements and sacrifices of Black Americans throughout U.S. history are something to celebrate.



Our current monthlong celebration of that rich legacy has its roots in Negro History Week, which historian Carter G. Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland, founders of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, or ASALH), initiated in February of 1926. They chose the second week in February as a nod to the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Over time the celebration evolved, with President Gerald Ford officially recognizing February as Black History Month in 1976.

Each year a theme is chosen for the month by the ASALH. This year, the theme is Black Health and Wellness.

During Black History Month there are many ways to pay homage and recognize triumphs while reflecting on what still needs to be done, says Rodney Coates, a professor at Miami University who teaches critical race theory and ethnic studies. Coates encourages people to recognize both national figures and local heroes who have made an impact within their communities.

But Coates says there is still room to do more. He wants Americans to truly embrace Black History Month the way many embrace other cultural holidays, such as St. Patricks Day.

I think that part of the reason for celebrating this from the beginning, but even now, is to highlight this is not separate from the American experience, he says.

Coates would like to see more national festivities and celebrations. When we think about what is American, it is the blending of all of these rich cultures, he says. When we celebrate all of what we are, we are even greater than we are when we only celebrate small pieces.

Here are some ways to observe and enjoy Black History Month.
Minnesota Attorney General's Office

Nationwide testing firm slapped with lawsuits in Minnesota and Washington state



Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a consumer protection lawsuit last month against two companies that allegedly collected and processed samples from state residents for COVID-19 testing but failed to deliver results or delivered results that were falsified or inaccurate.

A third allegation: Some Minnesotans reported receiving test results from the companies despite never having submitted a sample for testing.

One defendant had been operating more than 300 testing sites across the U.S. but announced a day after the suit was filed that it was suspending operations indefinitely, pending the resolution of federal and state inquiries and claims, a company spokesperson said in a statement.

The defendants are the Center for Covid Control, LLC, and Doctors Clinical Laboratory, Inc., housed at the same address in suburban Chicago.

USA Today reported that Washington states attorney general sued the two firms on Jan. 31. The center had operated in at least 26 states and processed more than 80,000 tests a day. It is now the subject of probes by federal authorities and several states, the paper has reported.
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Canada's anti-vaccine protest with truckers and sympathizers had blocked streets in Ottawa for two days with incidents that weren't peaceful.

Authorities have reported incidents of vandalism, with a few demonstrators setting tempers to flare. The protest is under control except for those stray incidents in the streets noted by the police.

Vaccine mandate is not welcome

Countless truckers and those against the vaccine mandates have gathered on the street to let the government know their sentiments.

Ottawa police stated that a contingent of police has managed to keep everything under control in the afternoon. The protestors' movement is more orderly than chaotic, reported VOA News.

Most of the instances with high risk were turned down a notch without arresting any of those involved. But the sheer number made it very difficult with fewer officers handling the protests. Fears stretching police resources were expressed.

I am sickened to see protesters dance on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and desecrate the National War Memorial. Generations of Canadians have fought and died for our rights, including free speech, but not this. Those involved should hang their heads in shame.  General / General Wayne Eyre (@CDS_Canada_CEMD) January 29, 2022

The war memorial getting defaced by individuals and a few city officials getting harassed, with a few NGO volunteers cause some anger. As a response, an investigation would clarify these incidents, citing the National News.

Anger caused by the war memorial denigration

Wayne Eyre, chief of the country's Defense Staff, posted on Twitter his feeling how the memorial of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was treated disrespectfully by protestors dancing on the sacred grove. He added the people who did that should be ashamed.

Last Sunday, the barricades of the Canada anti-vaccine protest were in place to block vehicles from going into the surrounding area of the war memorial; several cars were towed that were parked illegally.

Read Also: Joe Biden Abandons Britain in the North Ireland Protocol, Threatens Similar Appeasement in Favor of the EU

Protestors were harassing a homeless organization,' Shepherds of Good Hope' had its workers bothered because they wanted a hot meal during the chilly weekend.

Organizers have said they did give free meals to the protestors to lessen the tensions on that occasion. They added it made it hard to do their work at that time.

It started in western Canada a week ago when truckers joined a convoy to drive from Vancouver to the capital of Ottawa. Drivers were up in arms about the vaccination needed for them to enter the US-Canada border.

The US and Canada had made the mandate required during mid-January. Soon after, trucks were in the capital by Friday, with more convoys coming in from elsewhere. Anti-vaxxers were also coming in to add to the hated mandates enforced by the government.

Overall, Ottawa became gridlocked as the government's policies' discontent was made clear; they were against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

He was infected for COVID-19, and in isolation, his family is billeted in a secret location in the capital as protests flared.

But, the crowds weren't as big but were the ones most vociferous about the vaccine and the anger it brought forth.

In Canada, the vaccination rate is 82% from aged five years to older for SARS-CoV-2. It is already at 90% for adults, despite vaccine hesitancy.

According to the Canadian Trucking Alliance, which represents the most Canadian truckers; said most were jabbed already. They are not for the protests in the capital of Ottawa.

The Canadian anti-vaccine protest has some incidents here and there, but opposition to requirements has made tempers flare; mandates are seen as oppressive by many.

Related Article: Conservative GOP Lawmakers Oppose Vaccine Mandates That Are Considered Tyrannical, Say These Should Not be Funded

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.


Finalises Investment and Supply Agreement with KORE Power

Brisbane, Feb 1, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - NOVONIX Limited ( ASX:NVX ) ( FRA:GC3 ) ( OTCMKTS:NVNXF ), an advanced battery materials and technology company, today announced the execution of definitive transaction agreements and closing of its investment and supply agreements with KORE Power, Inc. ("KORE Power") to advance and strengthen the domestic lithium-ion battery supply chain.The execution of the binding and definitive transaction agreements, including a Securities Purchase Agreement and Supply Agreement, closed in accordance with the terms set forth in a non-binding letter of intent entered into between NOVONIX and KORE Power, as announced by NOVONIX on January 24, 2022. Under the terms of a Securities Purchase Agreement entered into between NOVONIX and KORE, NOVONIX has purchased 3,333,333 shares of KORE Power common stock ("Shares") at an issue price of USD $7.50 per share, representing approximately 5% of the common equity of KORE Power. The aggregate offering price for the Shares of USD $25,000,000 has been paid in a combination of 50% cash, funded through NOVONIX's existing cash holdings, and 50% through the issue of 1,974,723 of ordinary shares in NOVONIX ("NOVONIX Shares") calculated at a price using a 5% discount to the 20-day VWAP ending three trading days prior to closing date."The completion of this transaction with KORE Power marks an important step towards establishing the domestic battery supply chain as the first large-volume contract of battery-grade synthetic graphite from a US-based supplier," said Dr. Chris Burns, NOVONIX Co-Founder and CEO. "More than ever, the United States and its neighbours are realizing the importance of building a sustainable and energy-secure future. Our partnership with KORE Power is a testament to our commitment on executing on our phased growth plan and bringing large-scale production of high-performance battery synthetic graphite to the United States.""With our relationship with NOVONIX, we have secured the leading U.S. domestic supply of synthetic graphite anode materials and related technology for our U.S. manufacturing facility which will manufacture up to 12 GWh per year of battery cells for e-mobility and energy storage solutions", stated KORE Power Co-Founder and CEO Lindsay Gorrill.An Appendix 2A has been lodged with ASX today with respect to the NOVONIX Shares issued to KORE Power. The NOVONIX Shares have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States, until such time as the Novonix Shares have been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 or pursuant to an applicable exemption from registration, which is expected to be for a period of six months. KORE Power has agreed to the application of a holding lock under the listing rules of the ASX until such time as the Novonix Shares have been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 or may otherwise be sold in the United States.As part of the transaction, NOVONIX and KORE Power have also entered into a binding Supply Agreement, under which NOVONIX will become the exclusive supplier to KORE Power's U.S. large scale battery cell manufacturing facility. NOVONIX will begin supplying graphite anode material at a rate of 3,000 tonnes per annum ("tpa") beginning in 2024, and ramping up to approximately 12,000 tpa in 2027, subject to customer requirement. The Supply Agreement is for an initial term of five years, with automatic renewal for a subsequent five-year term. This is NOVONIX's first significant volume offtake agreement as the company expands its production capacity at the new Riverside facility towards the target of 10,000 tpa of production capacity in 2023.About KORE PowerKORE Power, Inc., is the leading U.S.-based developer of battery cell technology for the clean energy industry. With clients in energy storage, e-mobility, utility, industrial and mission-critical markets, KORE Power provides the backbone for decarbonization across the globe. Optimized by its battery management system, KORE Power designs and manufactures its proprietary NMC and LFP cells, VDA modules and packs. Through the construction and operations of its large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S., KORE is positioned to operate at 12 GWh per year capacity. The facility (the "KOREPlex") will operate with net-zero carbon emissions through strategic partnerships and solar and storage co-generation.KORE Power's differentiated approach provides customers with direct access, unparalleled service, superior technology and Tier 1 product availability. Focused on building sustainable communities, clean energy jobs and green economic expansion, KORE Power is proud to offer a functional solution to real-world problems and fulfill market demand to deliver a zero-carbon future. The KOREPlex is expected to come to Buckeye Arizona and be the anchor to the development of the Sustainable Valley by the end 2023.About NOVONIX Limited

NOVONIX Limited (ASX:NVX) (FRA:GC3) (OTCMKTS:NVNXF) is an integrated developer and supplier of high-performance materials, equipment and services for the global lithium-ion battery industry with operations in the USA and Canada and sales in more than 14 countries. NOVONIX's mission is to support the global deployment of lithium-ion battery technologies for a cleaner energy future.




Quarterly Activities Report

Perth, Feb 1, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - On 17 November the BPH Energy Limited ( ASX:BPH ) advised it had completed an investment of $2,271,450 in investee Advent Energy Pty Ltd (Advent) under Advent's Offer Information Statement that took BPH's direct shareholding in Advent to 36.1%.The Company held its AGM on 29 November. All resolutions were passed on a poll.On 30 November 200,000 share options with an exercise price of $0.20 expired unexercised.On 7 December the Company requested a Trading Halt in accordance with ASX Listing Rule 17.1 pending an announcement to be made by the Company with respect to the participation of Advent in a Farm Out Agreement. The Company's shares were placed in Voluntary Suspension on 9 December at the request of the Company. The Voluntary Suspension was extended to 7 February 2022.Significant activities by the Company's investees' during the December 2021 quarter were as follows:Advent Energy Pty Ltd ("Advent")A Letter of Intent was issued by Advent to Weatherford Australia Pty Ltd for the provision of Liner Hanger & Expandable Equipment for the upcoming Seablue-1 exploration well. In addition, Calls for Tender were issued by Advent for the provision of Drilling Fluids & Solids Control Equipment, Materials and Services, and for the provision of Directional Drilling, Measurement While Drilling and Logging While Drilling.On 16 December the Company advised that the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, had announced that the Federal Government would refuse the joint venture's applications to extend the PEP 11 Permit for gas exploration in the offshore Sydney Basin. Permit participants Advent and Bounty Oil and Gas ( ASX:BUY ) have now received official notification of refusal from the National Offshore Petroleum Title Authority (NOPTA) and have lodged a submission seeking a review of this decision.PEP11 interests are: Advent Energy 85 %Bounty Oil and Gas 15%On 30 December 2020 Advent lodged an Offer Information Statement (OIS) with ASIC for a non-renounceable entitlement issue of two (2) Shares for every three (3) shares held at an issue price of $0.05 (5 cents) per Share to raise up to $6,525,108, further amended by a Supplementary OIS dated 30 June 2021 and a Second Supplementary OIS dated 20 October 2021. The Offer was partially underwritten by related party Grandbridge Securities Pty Ltd (ABN 84 087 432 353) (AFSL 241057) up to $2,271,450 and sub-underwritten by BPH up to $1,445,710. In addition, BPH agreed to sub-underwrite up to an additional $825,740 being a total amount of up to $2,271,450. The total amount raised to date by Advent under this OIS is $2,507,575 including the investment of $2,271,450 by BPH as noted above.Note post quarter endAdvent Energy's 100% subsidiary Onshore Energy ("Onshore") made an application for suspension and extension of the permit conditions in EP386 which was not accepted by the Department (DMIRS). Onshore sought a review of the decision by the Minister of Resources who responded setting out a course of action in relation to that decision which Onshore is following. Onshore Energy Pty Ltd lodged an appeal against this decision with the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) The matter will now be referred to the WA Supreme Court.*To view the full Quarterly Report with Cashflow, please visit:About BPH Energy Limited

BPH Energy Limited (ASX:BPH) is an Australian Securities Exchange listed company developing biomedical research and technologies within Australian Universities and Hospital Institutes.

The company provides early stage funding, project management and commercialisation strategies for a direct collaboration, a spin out company or to secure a license.

BPH provides funding for commercial strategies for proof of concept, research and product development, whilst the institutional partner provides infrastructure and the core scientific expertise.

BPH currently partners with several academic institutions including The Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research and Swinburne University of Technology (SUT).


VCEX (Venture Capital Exchange) Newest Offering

Perth, Feb 1, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - VCEX Pty Ltd is pleased to announce its latest two companies' capital raise share offerings for Aviation H2 Ltd and SGR Systems Pty Ltd.About Aviation H2An Australian-owned and made company funded by Liberty Energy Capital. We are revolutionising the aviation market through technology that makes green hydrogen-powered aeroplanes a possibility for an industry contributing a significant amount of CO2 to global emissions.A rare opportunity to be a part of an Australian first technology set to redefine aviation standards and decarbonise an industry worth over US$330 Billion. Aviation H2 team of world-renowned engineers expect to have a green hydrogen-powered plane in the skies in the next 18 months.About SGR SystemsA gold recovery company building & running gold recovery systems to target stranded and small high-grade resources which historically are too small for larger mining companies and not possible for small operators to effectively recover.SGR systems is a prospector lead small scale mining company already producing gold - Many companies explore and list grams per ton (gpt) on resources in the ground. Hardly any ever get to the production stage of producing viable gold from the numbers tied up in the ground.Our approach has been hands-on to achieve exploration AND produce gold at the same time tied to the exploration of the lease. A fresh approach has been undertaken to target historic workings which have produced good gold & by getting a leg-up from the old-timers - as a starting point to process what they left behind - explore where they stopped and expand with modern machinery the ability to recover gold.The first plant has been installed and in operation for the past 5 months producing gold while further drilling, exploration and development of the ground is underway. Not only giving a cash flow but increasing our understanding of the ground, ore & metallurgy from a working platform of small test pits and bulk sampling.About VCEX

VCEX Australia, is designed to offer services for companies to raise capital and trade shares without listing on the main stock exchange. It is developed with a direct digital connection to ASIC and - as an automated ASIC (agent #43969) - can issue shares and make changes in real time between ASIC and all VCEX corporate information, not least the register of members. Our built in Neo-banking function allows for real time funds transfer between parties.


BRV to Acquire Express Virtual Meetings from Symbio Holdings

Sydney, Feb 1, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Boardroom Ventures (BRV) announces an agreement to acquire the Express Virtual Meetings (EVM) business from ASX listed Symbio Holdings Limited ( ASX:SYM ).There is a clear demand for high quality end-to-end live streaming solutions for critical stakeholder engagement and there is a market need for supply chain consolidation to ensure robust delivery at scale.Express Virtual Meetings is an Australian-owned and operated provider of conferencing solutions with 20 years of experience and has been a Leader in managed virtual meetings & video events.The combination of the Boardroom Media** integrated communication technologies with the core EVM telecommunications capability will deliver a secure hosted suite of communication tools to our corporate customers.More than 3500 Express Virtual Meetings and Boardroom Media clients will continue to benefit from the high quality communication services they are familiar with. Acquisition creates a natural synergy between the companies broadening the product range and offering access to additional communication services.In addition, Boardroom Ventures and Symbio sign a strategic partnership with Symbio powering a fast growing Boardroom communication platform globally.William Canty, CEO of Boardroom Media commented on the news:"Boardroom Media has built a reputation of excellence in creating and supporting comprehensive communication solutions for critical stakeholder messaging. A strategic relationship between Boardroom Media and EVM allows EVM to focus exclusively on what matters most - creating and deploying innovative solutions for Australian and international organizations that deliver superior end user experiences."Andrea Goding, CEO of Express Virtual meetings commented:"This is an exciting next chapter for EVM. Our business services enhanced by the Boardroom communication platform create many new scenarios for clients while allowing us to bring our trusted native communication services to an expanding client base."Rene Sugo, CEO of Symbio Holdings Limited commented on the news:"Boardroom Media is an exciting company with ground-breaking products and services, and the combination with EVM provides a strong combination for ongoing success. I look forward to a long term partnership between Symbio and BRV as both companies focus on their core expertise and tackle global market opportunities."About Symbio Holdings Limited

Symbio Holdings Limited (ASX:SYM) is a software company changing the way the world communicates. Symbio's technology replaces old-fashioned telecom networks with software, making it faster and easier to deliver modern cloud-based communication services, unlocking endless new applications for calling, messaging and phone numbers.

Symbio is the backbone for the global cloud communication industry. Over 500 service providers - from telecom start-ups to the world's biggest software companies - rely on Symbio for the connectivity, quality and expertise they need to solve complex communication challenges.

Headquartered in Sydney, Symbio powers billions of calls and messages each year, owns networks in three countries and employs over 450 staff worldwide.

For more information about Symbio visit www.symbio.global
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.  A woman and her husband have been arrested in the connection with the death of an 11-year-old boy at a Scottsdale hotel, police said Monday night.

They said 51-year-old Stephanie Marie Davis and 33-year-old Thomas James Desharnais were both jailed on suspicion of first-degree murder and two counts of child abuse.

Police said Davis was the boys biological grandmother and was being held on a $3.5 million cash bond while Desharnais cash bond was set at $1.5 million.

It was unclear Monday night if either Davis or Desharnais has a lawyer yet who can speak om their behalf about the case.

Police said they received a call about a juvenile who was unresponsive and not breathing around 5 p.m. Sunday.

They say the boy had significant injuries and was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

His name wasnt immediately released by police, who didnt provide any information on how the boy may have died.
WASHINGTON  When President Joe Biden met with U.S. governors at the White House on Monday, he was the only one given a glass of water  lest anyone else remove their mask to take a drink.

The president was seated more than 10 feet from everyone, including Vice President Kamala Harris and members of his Cabinet.

A White House staffer who was wearing a surgical mask when Biden entered the room was quickly handed an N95 version.

These are just some of the extraordinary efforts on the part of the White House to keep the president from getting COVID-19, even though hes gotten both of his regular vaccinations and his booster.

Its no surprise that unusual steps are taken to protect any president. But the strict precautions could also threaten to undercut the Biden administrations own efforts to tell Americans  especially those who are vaccinated and boosted  that they can get on with something closer to their normal lives in the face of the omicron wave.

And its emblematic of the messaging challenges surrounding the administrations approach to COVID-19 as the virus becomes endemic, familiar and somewhat controlled but still menacing, with hard-to-follow guidelines often unevenly implemented.

For months, Biden aides have fretted that the people who are most protected against COVID-19 remain the most cautious, a dynamic they view as a drag on the nations economic and psychological recovery.

When the highly transmissible omicron variant hit, Biden said it was a cause for concern, not cause for panic.

In recent weeks, his aides and science advisers have highlighted study after study showing the strong protection offered by the COVID vaccines against the variant and reassuring vaccinated people they can go about their daily lives. At a Jan. 19 press conference, Biden declared: We have the tools  vaccines, boosters, masks, tests, pills  to save lives and keep businesses and schools open and rejected the notion that still-widespread restrictions reflect a new normal.

It will get better, he promised.

Since even before Biden was elected, his aides have gone all-out to protect the now-79-year-old president from potential infection. He spent much of the 2020 campaign season holding remote events from a studio in the basement of his home, venturing out for travel in a bubble of frequently tested aides subject to an array of restrictions.

That caution continued well after he was fully vaccinated and living at the White House. The president has held up his administrations fidelity to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines as a virtue, after they were regularly flouted by former President Donald Trump, who became seriously ill after contracting the virus.

As the nations virus response and vaccination campaign has become increasingly politicized, White House officials have expressed both political and policy concerns over a possible Biden infection. Though the vaccines are highly effective, a breakthrough case could erode public confidence in the shots and be used as a political cudgel against a president who was elected to bring an end to the pandemic.

Biden himself has at times taken a more relaxed approach to restrictions.

When the CDC last May surprised the White House by easing its guidelines on indoor mask-wearing by fully vaccinated individuals, Biden sought to publicly model the policy for the rest of the nation. He was meeting with vaccinated Republican lawmakers when the change was announced and led the group in removing their masks.

But that CDC guidance proved to be premature and was reversed over the summer, because vaccinated people could still transmit the virus, potentially endangering the tens of millions of Americans who are still unvaccinated.

When the delta strain surged last fall, the White House strengthened its testing protocols for everyone close to Biden  restrictions that had been lessened once aides were fully vaccinated and case counts began to fall nationally. In-person meetings were once again curtailed. Aides began increasing the distance between Biden and even vaccinated-and-tested individuals as a precaution, reminiscent of his earliest days in office.

In early January, as the nations capital led the country in per capita COVID-19 cases, White House press secretary Jen Psaki highlighted the very strict precautions taken to keep Biden and Harris safe, including mandatory mask-wearing and daily testing for those coming in contact with them.

She also said the White House had taken to limiting gatherings to under 30 people. But there were nearly 40 participants named by the administration  as well as two dozen members of the press  at Bidens Monday meeting with the governors.

Psaki said the administration takes extra precautions any time the president removes his mask to speak to a group. She noted that the nation continues to set records in reported cases and hospital admissions.

The presidents view is that right now we still need to keep our heads down and stay at it to fight what is still surging in parts of the country, she said. But we do have the tools to get to a point where it does not disrupt our daily lives.

Biden, aides say, has relished opportunities outside the White House when he can engage in the sort of political glad-handing that has been suppressed by the pandemic. And in public, hes chafed at some of the precautions, saying that the first thing he aims to do differently in his second year in the White House is Im going to get out of this place more often.

Hes hardly alone in his impatience.

On Monday, seated across a large gap from Biden in the East Room, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the chair of the governors association, appealed for the government to more clearly define a pathway out of the pandemic.

We need the CDC to help us to have the right standards to end this pandemic and move to more endemic status, he said. We want to go from today to more normal.

The night before, the president and first lady Jill Biden did attend the black-tie National Governors Association dinner at Mount Vernon. Biden spoke, but he didnt stay for dinner.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  A sweeping elections bill designed to automate some voter registration and allow 16-year-olds to vote in local elections wont get its first committee hearing until Wednesday  the halfway point of the session.

The proposal, Senate Bill 8, was initially set to be heard by the Senate Rules Committee on Monday, but it was postponed after a scheduling conflict, triggering some concern by supporters about the possibility of running out of time.

To reach Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams desk, the bill must clear two Senate committees, the full Senate and then navigate the House and its committees by Feb. 17, the end of the session.

Time is always challenging in a 30-day session, said Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, a Santa Fe Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill. Having said that, this bill is a top priority.

Its appropriate for the bill to get a thorough vetting in the Senate Rules Committee, he said, but he is hoping for a quicker pace after that.

A hearing on the proposal was postponed after the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Democrat Daniel Ivey-Soto of Albuquerque, had a scheduling conflict and was absent while presenting a bill in another committee.

Republican committee members were also absent.

Lawmakers said they are preparing to consider amendments to the legislation  including a proposal by Sen. Katy Duhigg, an Albuquerque Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, that would ensure a student identification card is acceptable for same-day voter registration.

Thats already the law, but a separate elections bill working its way through the Legislature, Senate Bill 6, calls for requiring a drivers license or similar government ID.

Ivey-Soto said theres plenty of time to hear Senate Bill 8  the elections bill backed by Wirth, Duhigg and Lujan Grisham  and he expects a hearing and possibly a vote on it Wednesday.

I dont see any time crunch, he said.

Its routine, he said, for a committees schedule to change. A committee vote on one of his own bills, Ivey-Soto said, was postponed last week, creating Mondays scheduling conflict.

More than a dozen supporters of Senate Bill 8, in any case, attended Mondays meeting of the Senate Rules Committee.

In an interview, Sam Oliker-Friedland, chief counsel at the Center for Secure Elections and Modern Elections in Washington, D.C., said the proposal has the potential to sharply increase voter registration in New Mexico, as back end automated systems have in six other states.

New Mexico can be an example to the region and make sure its citizens have all the protections they need in the absence of federal action, said Oliker-Friedland, who worked in the Department of Justice under the Obama and Trump administrations.

Senate Bill 8 would allow 16-year-olds to vote in local elections, establish a permanent absentee voter list and restore the voting rights of felons who arent incarcerated.

It also would make some changes intended to automate some voter registration. People who show a passport or provide other information proving their eligibility to vote would be automatically registered when they complete a transaction at the Motor Vehicle Division or similar state office.
Senior UN official calls for dialogue to defuse Russia-Ukraine tensions

Xinhua) 11:47, February 01, 2022

UN Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo briefs a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Ethiopia at the UN headquarters in New York, Nov. 8, 2021. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

"We, therefore, welcome the steps taken so far by all involved to maintain dialogue. We urge and expect all actors to build on these efforts and to remain focused on pursuing diplomatic solutions by engaging in good faith," UN Undersecretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- UN Undersecretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo on Monday called for dialogue to defuse the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

It is reported that over 100,000 troops and heavy weaponry from Russia are positioned along the border with Ukraine. Unspecified numbers of Russian troops and weaponry are also reportedly being deployed to Belarus ahead of large-scale joint military exercises in February on the borders with Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states. NATO members are reportedly planning additional deployments in Eastern European member states, and NATO has advised that 8,500 troops are now on high alert, DiCarlo told the Security Council in a briefing.

"Accusations and recriminations among the various actors involved in the ongoing discussions have created uncertainty and apprehension for many that a military confrontation is impending," she said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has made clear that there can be no alternative to diplomacy and dialogue to deal with the complex, longstanding security concerns and threat perceptions that have been raised. He has expressed his strong belief that there should not be any military intervention in this context and that diplomacy should prevail. He has been equally explicit that any such intervention by one country in another would be against international law and the UN Charter. His expectation is that all sides contribute to avoiding confrontation and to creating conditions for a diplomatic solution to end this crisis, said DiCarlo.

"We, therefore, welcome the steps taken so far by all involved to maintain dialogue. We urge and expect all actors to build on these efforts and to remain focused on pursuing diplomatic solutions by engaging in good faith," she said. "We further urge all actors to refrain from provocative rhetoric and actions to maximize the chance for diplomacy to succeed. Achieving mutual understanding and lasting, mutually acceptable arrangements is the best way to safeguard regional and international peace and security in the interests of all."

Photo taken on Sept. 14, 2020 shows the outside view of the United Nations headquarters in New York, the United States. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

The United Nations is closely following the ongoing diplomatic discussions on the future of European peace and security architecture among representatives of Russia, the United States, NATO members, the European Union, and the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe. The United Nations hopes the outcome of these talks will strengthen peace and security in Europe, including for Ukraine, she said.

No one is watching the current diplomatic efforts more than the people of Ukraine. They have endured a conflict in eastern Ukraine that has taken over 14,000 lives since 2014 and that tragically is still far from resolution. It is painfully obvious that any new escalation in or around Ukraine would mean more needless killing and destruction, said DiCarlo.

She stressed the UN secretary-general's appeal to all concerned to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and continue on the diplomatic path, saying the United Nations stands ready to support all efforts to that end.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
Scientists came upon compelling proof that Woolly Mammoths may have existed earlier due to genetic evidence contradicting prior findings.

These hairy mammals dominated the landscape as the most prominent animals during that epoch.

Evidence was found in 2010 when scientists took permafrost cores from the Alberta University in a gold mine located in the Yukon Central of the Klondike.

Ancient DNA of woolly mammoth

Paleogeneticists of the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre used new genomics techniques to know how global fauna megafauna had reached its peak about 12,7000 years ago in Ancient North America. They examine the preserved DNA of the ancient animal.

Over millennia when these sediments were set, it would be the repository of what biological residue and DNA of animals and plants preserved in the permafrost.

Microfossils from an ancient ecosystem that included bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals remain like a snapshot of the earth in that epoch as far as 13,000 years ago. SciTech Daily reported the mammoth steppe would be an amazing place to begin.

One of the questions is how these environments got organized and why large animals like mammoths seem to be the most affected since the 18th century. Looking at environmental DNA would answer knowing how large animals perished.

Genetic evidence of the woolly mammoth's existence

Examination of the components of biological matter and incomplete DNA consists of 99.99 percent of the sample. Choosing the archaic plant and animal genetic data left to know the mechanics of how the mammoth-steppe ecosystem crashed.

The technique used would determine and organize whatever is left of the genetic proteins. All the DNA segments were traced to the genetic evidence and changes of what animals and plants were alive, including the woolly mammoth about 30,000 years ago in the middle Yukon.

Read Also: Ancient Wolf Head Preserved Perfectly by the Permafrost in Siberia Amazes Scientists at the Unexpected Discovery

According to Cambridge University Press, What was found based on evidence is that mammoths were still thriving later than thought, about 3,000 years earlier.

A wider net was cast to expand the findings to 21 earlier permafrost cores at four areas in the Klondike regions in question, about 4,000 to 30,000 years ago.

Technologies available now can determine organisms to microfossils that organisms stemmed from that reassembles these fragments into genomes to investigate how they evolved, based on the sediment.

Examination of the data shows that both the horse and these ancient pachyderms were alive in the Klondikes about 9,000, or to 5,700 years back. They were assumed to have disappeared by 7,000 years before.

But the ancient sediment with the genetic and environmental data might be wrong, and the study will not assume the results are correct.

It is deemed that mammoth species could not persist into the middle of the Holocene. Based on the evidence, findings show that these giant hair pachyderms were alive 5,500 to 4,000 years back on the Arctic islands.

Scientists in the Centre for GeoGenetics in Copenhagen came across more data that Alaska is where horses and the ancient pachyderms lived about 7,900 years ago. In Siberia, an amazing 3,900 years.

Overall, the lineages of the woolly mammoths and the steppe bison were in the same sediments, and they were living in the same place at the same time. But speculation exists the megafauna were alive in the Bronze age when pyramids were built.

Such compelling findings show these large mammals existing later than thought opens up the idea if more genetic evidence is dug up, there could be examples of the more ancient creatures walking alongside mankind.

Related Article: Bioscience Firm Considers Reviving Extinct Woolly Mammoth from DNA Remnants From 4000 Years Ago

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Charlene Pyskoty has done Bernalillo County taxpayers a seven-figure favor by openly questioning the need for millions more in improvements to the countys already over-budget new Downtown Albuquerque headquarters.

The District 5 Bernalillo County commissioners reservations about spending another $4.7 million on a project that has already more than doubled its initial cost projection of $33 million had the proper chilling effect last week. The commission took no final action on the proposal Jan. 25, instead voting to defer a vote until a later meeting.

Commissioners should recognize the potent Taj Mahal symbolism in play. The countys motto, Were more than you think, takes on a whole new meaning when you consider how cost overruns have dominated spending on capital and debt service on this project.

The proposed work comes just five months after the county moved into the former Public Service Company of New Mexico building, 415 Silver SW, at Alvarado Square. The move consolidated about 800 government employees and a number of functions that were previously scattered across multiple sites.

After spending $68 million readying the building for the move, commissioners are being asked to green-light another $4.7 million to replace windows, create three new exam rooms for an on-site medical clinic for employees and their dependents, finish work spaces on the buildings seventh floor and add more security cameras and features.

While some of this may be justified, its wrapped in the enigma of a forever design-build contract and punctuated with at least one egregious example of wasteful spending. Do we really need a giant Bernallilo County seal to adorn the buildings unique sloping exterior wall  and be illuminated with color-changing lights  at a whopping $331,000?

Granted, thats a drop in the bucket compared to sunk costs, but if it doesnt add value to the work environment of county employees or the services county residents receive, why spend it? Thats money that could go to new fire stations or a sheriffs substation  since public safety projects are purportedly the countys highest priority.

And lets not forget the Alvarado Square project has already contributed cash to the public art collection in the state. The states One Percent for Arts Program takes 1% of the cost of capital projects (or a max of $200,000) and sets it aside for the purchase of art in public places. Rather than a giant lit-up version of county letterhead, how about something unique from a local artist to signal where you do county business?

During last weeks meeting Pyskotys prudence meter kicked into overdrive as she voiced concern about the constant (Alvarado Square) change orders asking for millions of dollars and that the county keeps giving the jobs to the projects original contractor, HB Construction, rather than putting them out to bid. She suggested finally wrapping up the Alvarado Square design-build contract, reflecting on a conversation she had with the county attorney when the project was starting a few years ago.

I asked  When does it end? When do we know were done? And I remember (he) said something like, It ends when you say it ends,' Pyskoty said last week. My feeling is maybe, for me, it ends tonight.

Whether the changes are prudent or needed should be a matter of robust debate, and county staff have made decent arguments in support of some of the spending. For example, the windows are approaching the end of their lives, and installing new ones will reduce the countys energy expenses and aid an active county grant request for ballistic window coating. Given last falls vandalism, in which gunshots shattered several panes of glass and shuttered business operations for days, that makes sense.

As for going out to bid on every change order, there is an upside to maintaining the design-build contract with HB. The county doesnt want other contractors doing anything that might void HBs warranties on the initial work.

But that debate needs to happen, and Pyskotys central question of when does it end? deserves an answer before more work is added.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
The 2022 regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is up and running. This year, state legislators will convene in the Roundhouse for 30 days. By law, the main focus for lawmakers is to craft a state budget and, this session, they have plenty to work with, thanks to increased oil and natural gas production, federal pandemic relief funds and a boost in consumer activity.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham also encourages legislators to pass important laws that benefit New Mexicans by placing her priorities on the legislative call, or agenda. We can all support the governors initiatives that emphasize public safety to fight crime statewide, protect businesses and industries from higher taxes, pay raises for educators, eliminating a tax on Social Security, and initiatives to support New Mexico businesses and diversify the states economy.

Which is why we are surprised by the governors message to the Senate to consider Senate Bill 54 and HB 127. These bills are intended to stop a project that is important to economic development in southeast New Mexico. There is a partnership between the Eddy Lea Energy Alliance and Holtec International on the proposed HI-STORE Consolidated Interim Storage Facility for spent nuclear fuel. The temporary, safe, secure facility is a critical step in the final disposal process, as recommended by a Presidential Blue-Ribbon Commission, which was commissioned by then-President Barack Obama.

If passed and signed into law, SB 54 and HB 127 will undo years of careful study and evaluation, including the work of many individuals in Eddy and Lea counties who have demonstrated that our region is well-equipped and has the knowledge to support the nuclear energy industry. SB 54 also has the serious negative unintended consequence of halting certain activities at the WIPP site, and in the national labs in Albuquerque and Los Alamos.

I was one of four individuals to sign a letter to Gov. Lujan Grisham requesting that she not place SB 54 on the legislative agenda as it will harm our local economies. My fellow signers, Eddy County Chairman Steven McCutcheon, Hobbs Mayor Sam Cobb and Lea County Commissioner Jonathan Sena, all stressed support for the proposed ELEA/Holtec facility because of its safety and security. We would not have invited Holtec to southeast New Mexico if we believed otherwise.

We are steadfast in our belief that the project and the oil/gas industry can co-exist in our region. While the oil/gas industry is very robust today and is responsible for New Mexicos windfall surplus in the state budget, we want to continue to diversify our economic opportunities. Consolidated storage is a proven safe, secure storage facility that will provide over 350 well-paid jobs, as well as infuse $3 billion in capital investment to our area.

We all share the governors vision for diversifying our economy, supporting projects that foster thoughtful economic development in our communities and building a stronger, brighter future for our state. Thats why we strongly urge the governor to reconsider her Senate message, and that state legislators do not pass SB 54 or HB 127.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A divided New Mexico Court of Appeals on Monday reversed a District Court ruling and reinstated a second-degree murder charge against an Uber driver who fatally shot a passenger in 2019.

Attorneys for Clayton Benedict, 34, plan to appeal the decision to the New Mexico Supreme Court, attorney Raymond Maestas said Monday.

The 2-1 Court of Appeals opinion ordered the case sent back to the 2nd Judicial District Court with the second-degree murder charge reinstated.

Benedict was initially charged with second-degree murder and an alternative count of voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of James Porter, 27, on the shoulder of Interstate 25 on St. Patricks Day in 2019.

Benedict was driving for Uber when he picked up Porter and a friend from a Northeast Albuquerque bar. Prosecutors allege that an argument escalated after Porters friend threw up in the back seat of Benedicts car.

Benedict pulled over to the side of I-25 and ordered the two out of his car. Benedict later told detectives he opened fire after Porter threatened to run him over with his own car, according to court testimony.

Maestas said in a written statement that Benedict has the natural human right to defend himself against the craziness and chaos of a person with toxic levels of ecstasy and nearly triple the legal limit of alcohol who was about to run him over with a car.

Attorney General Hector Balderas, whose office handled the appeal, said Monday he was pleased that the Court of Appeals got it right and I look forward to this going to a jury to decide.

At a preliminary hearing in August 2019, District Court Judge Neil Candelaria found that evidence in the case supported only the manslaughter charge. The ruling was appealed.

On appeal, Benedict argued that the Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction to consider the appeal because the District Court did not dismiss the charge of second-degree murder, but merely diminished it to voluntary manslaughter.

Court of Appeals Judge Jane Yohalem, writing for the majority, rejected the argument and ordered the case remanded to District Court with the second-degree murder charge restored.

The lower court dismissal appeared to be based on its finding that the evidence was not sufficient to convict (Benedict) of second-degree murder, but only sufficient to convict of voluntary manslaughter, Yohalem wrote.

This decision should be made by a jury, she wrote.

In his dissent, Court of Appeals Judge Gerald Baca wrote that a District Court judge had the discretion to determine probable cause to charge a criminal defendant.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  With the 30-day legislative session nearing its halfway point at the Roundhouse, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams agenda is  with a few notable exceptions  getting a lukewarm reception from lawmakers.

While some education-related measures have advanced, a high-profile hydrogen development bill stalled in its first assigned committee last week and a package of crime-related proposals is encountering skepticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Several tax measures backed by the Democratic governor have also hit political quicksand at the Capitol  at least for now.

House Minority Leader James Townsend, R-Artesia, pointed out Democratic lawmakers voted last week to table a GOP-backed bill dealing with exempting Social Security retirement income from taxation.

Thats despite the fact Lujan Grisham had expressed support for the proposal during her State of the State address on the sessions opening day.

I dont think she meant half of what she said in her speech, Townsend said in an interview. I think its an election year and shes trying to feint one way and go another.

However, a spokeswoman for the governor cautioned Monday much can happen in just under three weeks time and said some of Lujan Grishams agenda items should not be counted out despite slow starts.

In addition, bills backed by the governor dealing with increased teacher salaries, tuition-free college and upping the in-state preference for New Mexico companies bidding on state contracts have all advanced at the Roundhouse, Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett said.

There are always ebbs and flows to the legislative process, stops and starts, and thats nothing new, Sackett said. She also said the Governors Office would continue working with legislators in an attempt to move Lujan Grishams initiatives forward.

Meanwhile, one top-ranking lawmaker pointed out the fate of most bills wont be decided until the final days of the session.

Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said she thinks most of the proposals pushed by the governor will end up winning approval.

She may not get a couple of her proposals, but I think shes going to get the majority of them, Stewart told the Journal.

However, the veteran lawmaker said some of the crime bills and the proposed Hydrogen Hub Development Act, which could still be revived, might end up falling short. I think many of us just think we need to slow down on this to get it right, Stewart said, referring to the legislation to put New Mexico at the forefront of hydrogen energy development. We make mistakes when we rush into something this impactful on our environment.

Run for reelection influences agenda

This years 30-day session is playing out in a key election year in which Lujan Grisham is seeking reelection to a second term.

At least seven Republicans have announced they plan to seek the GOP gubernatorial nomination, with whoever wins set to run again Lujan Grisham in the Nov. 8 general election.

Given that backdrop, the governor has added bills to the legislative session agenda dealing with trimming the states gross receipts tax rate and making it easier to keep defendants charged with violent crimes in jail until trial, among others.

Its largely up to the governor to set the agenda for the shorter legislative sessions that happen in even-numbered years, though budget and tax-related bills can be filed by any legislator.

After her State of the State address, Townsend responded to Lujan Grishams speech by saying, I thought for a minute she actually became a Republican for this years election cycle.

Meanwhile, Senate GOP floor leader Greg Baca of Belen said progressive groups are publicly opposing some of the governors key initiatives during this years session, including the hydrogen legislation.

The governor has obviously seen polling demonstrating that Republican-led policies to cut taxes, fight crime, and improve education are popular with New Mexicans, Baca said in a statement. Unfortunately, she cannot seem to convince her Democratic colleagues in the Legislature to join the Republican initiatives.

But Lujan Grishams agenda has received backing from several members of the states congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., who stepped down from her legislative seat last year after winning election to Congress.

In a statement, Stansbury said the governor has a clear vision for our state, centered on growing our economy, educational opportunities for our children, protecting our public health and tackling our biggest challenges in infrastructure, the economy and community well-being.

Governor has utilized friendly legislature

During her first three years in office, Lujan Grisham was successful in getting many of her high-profile initiatives through the Legislature. That list includes the 2019 Energy Transition Act, several measures granting financial relief to New Mexico residents and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and last years proposal to legalize recreational cannabis for adult users.

That measure, however, was passed in a special session called by the governor after falling short in the 60-day regular session.

Of course, it hasnt hurt the governors cause that Democrats hold sizable majorities in both chambers. They currently outnumber Republicans by a 44-24 margin in the House and by a 26-15 margin in the Senate. There is one independent legislator in both the House and the Senate, and the House currently has one vacant seat after Rep. Brittney Barreras of Albuquerque resigned last week. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said the budget will be a major focus for his chamber in the second half of the session. A budget plan is expected to clear the House and reach the Senate later this week.

One item to watch for, he said, is a $100 million proposal  backed by the governor  to establish a new fund for recruiting, hiring and retaining police officers.

Thats certainly a big piece of the discussion, Wirth said.

The official midway point for this years session is Wednesday, which is also the deadline for filing legislation. The 30-day session is set to end Feb. 17.

Journal Capitol Bureau reporter Dan McKay contributed to this report.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico has only one-third the number of public defenders it needs to effectively represent people charged with crimes, according to a report by the American Bar Association and a nationwide accounting firm.

The state would need to hire an additional 602 attorneys to meet national norms and standards, the analysis shows.

The shortage may require defense attorneys to triage cases, prioritizing some clients, while neglecting others, according to the two-year study.

Every day, attorneys must face the choice of what not to do or which clients to ignore, the report said.

When public defenders have too many cases, they must either triage by focusing on a select group of clients at the expense of others, or they must spend less time than they should on every clients case, it said.

Bennett Baur, New Mexicos chief public defender, warns that the heavy caseload increases the odds that people may be wrongly convicted, or plead guilty to a crime they didnt commit.

When you dont have the time to spend on cases, often you dont know what you missed, Baur said. Criminal defendants dont know how to tell their story. They dont know whats legally important.

Flushing out key details and developing a solid defense takes time and often requires multiple visits with a client, which may be impossible if public defenders have too many cases, Baur added.

It could certainly lead to us not finding out about witnesses, he said. It can certainly lead to us not having information to advocate for them in other ways, such as for a lesser offense or some sentencing mitigation.

The Law Offices of the Public Defender (LOPD) is the states largest law firm. It serves clients who cannot afford to hire private attorneys and represents at least 80% of New Mexicans charged with criminal offenses.

The study was conducted jointly by Moss Adams, one of the nations largest public accounting firms, and the American Bar Association Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense. It was funded partly by a $50,000 state appropriation.

The study analyzed LOPD staffing and caseload data, and compared that with nationwide norms and standards developed by the American Bar Association and other professional groups.

It found that New Mexicos 295 full-time public defenders and contract attorneys take on just over 60,000 new adult criminal and juvenile cases each year. On average, each attorney must handle 203 cases per attorney each year.

This would equate to only 10 hours per case, be it a trespass, a DWI, a sexual assault of a minor or a homicide, the study said.

To meet nationwide professional standards, New Mexico would need 897 full-time public defenders, it said.

New Mexico is the sixth state to undergo a public defender workforce analysis in partnership with the American Bar Association. A similar study of Oregons public defense system issued this month found that Oregon had just 31% of the full-time public defenders it needs.

The report does not show the results of other studies, nor indicate how New Mexico compared with other states.

Henry Valdez, director of the New Mexico Administrative Office of the District Attorneys, said the report reflects understaffing and underfunding throughout the states judicial system. I, for one, am not surprised that the public defenders are underfunded, as are district attorneys offices and the courts, Valdez said.

LOPD is this year asking lawmakers for a nearly 11% budget increase to pay for 29 additional staff members, including eight attorneys.

The requested $6.15 million increase would also provide an additional $2.65 million to pay attorneys who work under contract with the public defenders office, according to the agencys budget request. LOPDs current budget is $58.4 million.

LOPD has district offices in only 13 New Mexico counties and relies on contract attorneys in the remaining 20 counties. But LOPD has had trouble hiring contract attorneys in recent years because of low pay rates, Baur said.

Matthew Chavez, who until recently headed the public defenders office in the 12th Judicial District in Otero and Lincoln counties, said virtually all the public defenders in the 12th district handle at least 100 open felony cases at a time. One attorney in his office recently had 166 felony cases, he said.

Thats many, many times over any national standard for effective assistance of counsel, said Chavez, who now heads the public defenders office in the 2nd Judicial District in Albuquerque.

An overburdered public defender system ultimately harms everyone, he said.

It harms the community at large because we are on the forefront of getting members of our community mental health and substance abuse treatment, and even assisting with their issues of indigency, he said.

Public defenders also serve as protectors of civil liberties and as a brake on abusive police practices, such as illegal searches, Chavez said.

One of our primary functions is to enforce the constitutional rights of the public, he said. If theres not enough public defenders with enough time to remedy constitutional rights violations, the police dont feel any pressure to improve their practices.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

An effort to plug and clean up hundreds of orphaned and abandoned New Mexico oil and gas wells is poised to take off with an influx of $43.7 million.

New Mexicos governor and congressional delegation announced Monday the state would receive the hefty sum as part of the federal Infrastructure and Jobs Act, which was passed last fall with bipartisan support. All of New Mexicos Democratic representatives voted for the bill, while Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-N.M., voted against.

Currently, the state cleans up about 50 oil and gas wells a year, at a cost of about $54,000 each. Money from the infrastructure bill will help ramp up those efforts.

The investments in this program are a win-win, protecting the environment and public health, while also providing good-paying jobs in our rural areas, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a news release. I am grateful to our congressional delegation for getting this funding to the state.

When an oil and gas operator goes out of business, wells may become orphaned or abandoned and the responsibility of cleaning up the site can fall on the state. Abandoned wells can leak planet-warming gas and pollute groundwater.

There are about 1,700 abandoned or orphaned wells spread throughout the state, according to New Mexicos Oil Conservation Division.

The New Mexico share is part of $1.15 billion that the White House on Monday announced was soon heading to states to address tens of thousands of orphaned oil and gas wells across the country.

This is the first portion of about $4.7 billion included in the infrastructure bill that will be directed at remediating old and abandoned wells.

A Department of Interior analysis found there are more than 130,000 documented orphaned wells in the United States, according to a report by Reuters.

Orphan wells are an enormous source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 86 times more potent than CO2. With this new funding, were putting our traditional energy workers to work solving a major climate challenge,said Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., said in a news release that, during a visit to a school near an orphaned well, she said she could taste the metal in the air.

This funding will both protect the environment and create good-paying jobs for New Mexicans, she said.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  A contrite Santa Fe burglar, caught in the act Sunday afternoon, apologized to the homeowners and gave them $200 for the window he broke to gain entry before walking off. Jewelry left on a counter was untouched.

The suspect apparently slept in the home, bathed, ate food and drank beer before the owners returned to their Vereda Serena residence and found the man in a back room, according to a Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office report.

A duffel bag and an AR-15 scoped rifle was next to the suspect, but he did not threaten the homeowners. He picked up the items and left, dropping $200 on a living room chair on his way out, saying it was reimbursement for the window he broke, the report said.

The owner said the male was extremely embarrassed and apologetic about the situation, the report states.

When asked why he was in the home, the man said his family was killed in east Texas and he was running from somebody.

The suspect told the owner he was driving, but said his vehicle broke down 100 miles outside of town.

The suspect walked away through a ditch and a thorough search of the area by two deputies failed to locate him.

The report noted that larceny to the homeowners property totaled $15. The man is described as being mid- to late-20s, 6 feet tall, and wearing a blue jacket and baggy jeans. The case is under investigation.

Apologetic burglar leaves $200 for broken window

Eats food, drinks beer, takes nothing
FARMINGTON  When Dine writer Daniel Vandever was promoting his first childrens book, he saw kids who struggle with language and literacy skills during various speaking engagements.

What he witnessed helped shape his second book, Herizon, a wordless picture book that follows the journey of a Dine girl as she helps her grandmother retrieve a flock of sheep.

The book, which won an American Library Association award in January, promotes critical thinking and language development by having the reader create their own narrative derived from illustrations by Dine artist Corey Begay.

Because theres no set language, which can be bias in a sense, theyre always right in how they tell it or interpret it, Vandever said about Herizon.

The main character and her grandmother were based on Vandevers memories of being at his grandmothers sheep camp, where his female cousins tended to chores inside the home, while he and his male cousins were outside herding sheep.

These actions maintained traditional gender roles, he said. But he wants Herizon to show female empowerment through the girls journey, which is helped by a scarf she receives from her grandmother.

I think that transfer of the scarf to the little girl is representative of intergenerational strength and knowledge, Vandever said.

The book includes an authors note, a discussion guide, and an explanation of themes and images depicted in the story.

Begay became involved with Herizon after Vandever approached him with the concept. They have known each other since Vandever worked on his first book, Fall in Line, Holden!

Begays colorful illustrations help drive the storys narrative and keep Vandevers vision of using no words intact.

It was important to work with someone whose strength is in their art, the author said.

Herizon won the 2022 American Indian Youth Literature Award for best picture book from the American Library Association, the oldest and largest library association in the world.

The American Indian Youth Literature awards are presented biennially and were established to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians and Alaska Natives, states the ALA news release.

Vandever took Herizon to several publishers, but opted out of offers because they wanted to add text to the story, so he self-published the book in 2021.

Self-publishing kept the value and integrity of the book in place, and shows that Native Americans can write and produce their own stories, he said, adding the award was gratifying.

I think in todays digital age, you dont have to do things a certain way or have to rely on certain individuals for you to get your voice out there, he said.

More information about Vandever and Herizon is online at www.southofsunrisecreative.com/herizon.
AUSTIN, Texas  Airlines canceled hundreds of flights Tuesday, governors urged residents to stay off roads and schools closed campuses as a huge swath of the U.S. braced for a major winter storm that was set to put millions of Americans in the path of heavy snow and freezing rain.

The approaching blast of frigid weather, which was expected to begin arriving Tuesday night, put a long stretch of states from New Mexico to Vermont under winter storm warnings and watches. More than a foot of snow was possible in Michigan, on the heels of a vicious noreaster last weekend that brought blizzard conditions to many parts of the East Coast.

It will be a very messy system and will make travel very difficult, said Marty Rausch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

The projected footprint of the storm extended as far south as Texas, where nearly a year after a catastrophic freeze buckled the states power grid in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history, Gov. Greg Abbott defended the states readiness. The forecast does not call for the same prolonged and frigid temperatures as the February 2021 storm and the National Weather Service said the approaching system would, generally, not be as bad this time for Texas.

No one can guarantee that there wont be any outages caused by demand on the power grid, Abbott said Tuesday. But what we will work to achieve, and what were prepared to achieve is that power is going to stay on across the entire state.

In November, Abbott had, in fact, made a guarantee for winter: I can guarantee the lights will stay on, he told Austin television station KTBC.

Abbott, whose handling of last years blackouts is a top line of attack for Democrats as the Republican seeks a third term in 2022, said thousands of miles of roads in Texas will become extraordinarily dangerous over the coming days. Energy experts said the forecast this week, although below freezing, should not pose a challenge for Texas grid.

The question has always been if we get a repeat of last year, would the power stay on? And this is nowhere near a repeat of last year, said Doug Lewin, an energy consultant in Austin who has criticized Texas response to the blackouts as insufficient.

Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights in the U.S. scheduled for Wednesday, the flight-tracking service FlightAware.com showed, including more than half taken off the board in St. Louis. In an effort to stay ahead of the weather, Southwest Airlines announced Tuesday that it would suspend all of its flight operations Wednesday at St. Louis Lambert International Airport and Thursday at its Dallas Love Field hub.

Around the country, were planning to operate a limited or reduced schedule from some cities in the path of the storm but will make adjustments to the schedule as needed, Southwest spokesman Dan Landson said.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson declared a state of emergency as school districts and universities shifted classes to online or canceled them entirely.

Chicago OHare International Airport also canceled more than 100 departing flights, and airports in Kansas City and Detroit were also canceling more flights than usual.

Illinois lawmakers canceled their three scheduled days of session this week as the central part of the state prepares for heavy snow, ice and high wind gusts in the region.

The National Weather Service said 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of snow was expected by Thursday morning in parts of the Rockies and Midwest, while heavy ice is likely from Texas through the Ohio Valley.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the weather service said 8 to 14 inches (20 to 36 centimeters) of snow was possible in parts of Michigan. That includes Detroit, where the mayor activated snow emergency routes and city crews were expected to work 12-hour shifts salting and plowing major roads.

In Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt has declared a statewide state of emergency as the winter storm approaches. That suspends requirements for size and weights permits of oversized vehicles transporting materials and supplies used for emergency relief and power restoration. The declaration would remain in effect for seven days.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, where up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) of snow and sleet are forecast but little ice, emergency management director Joe Kralicek said the event is not expected to cause large-scale power outages based on an ice index used by the National Weather Service.

We could see some power outages, however, its also suggesting that they be limited in scope and nature and very short term in duration, Kralicek said.

Becky Gligo, director of the nonprofit Housing Solutions in Tulsa said teams are working to move homeless people into shelters ahead of overnight lows that are expected to drop into single digits by Friday night.

___

Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York, Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Ken Miller in Oklahoma City, John OConnor in Springfield, Illinois, Terry Wallace in Dallas and Jeff Martin in Woodstock, Georgia, contributed to this report.
MOSCOW  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russias top security demands but said Moscow is willing to talk more to ease tensions over Ukraine.

The comments were his first on the standoff in more than a month and suggested a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine may not be imminent and that at least one more round of diplomacy is likely.

Yet the two sides remain unyielding in their main positions, and there was little apparent hope for concessions. Russia is expected to respond soon to a U.S. proposal for negotiations on lesser Russian demands after which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak.

Lavrov and Blinken spoke Tuesday and reiterated positions put forward by Putin and President Joe Biden. The White House said Biden and Putin could also speak once the U.S. receives Russias response.

In remarks to reporters at a Moscow news conference with the visiting leader of NATO ally Hungary, Putin said the Kremlin is still studying the U.S. and NATOs response to the Russian security demands received last week. But he said it was clear that the West has ignored Russian demands that NATO not expand to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, refrain from deploying offensive weapons near Russia and roll back its deployments to Eastern Europe.

Putin argued that its possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if the interests of all parties, including Russias security concerns, are taken into account. I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that its not going to be easy, Putin said.

Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops along the border of Ukraine, fueling fears of an invasion. It has denied any intention to attack.

Washington and its allies have rejected Moscows key demands. They emphasize that Ukraine, like any other nation, has the right to choose alliances, although it is not a NATO member now and is unlikely to join any time soon.

Putin said the Western allies refusal to meet Russias demands violates their obligations on the integrity of security for all nations. He warned that a Ukrainian accession to NATO could lead to a situation where Ukraine launches military action to reclaim control over Russian-annexed Crimea or areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in the countrys east.

Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations, Putin said. Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?

Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the countrys Moscow-friendly president and later threw its weight behind rebels in Ukraines eastern industrial heartland, triggering a conflict that has killed over 14,000 people.

Putin charged that while the U.S. airs concerns about Ukraines security, it is using the ex-Soviet country as an instrument in its efforts to contain Russia.

He alleged that Washington may try to draw us into a military conflict and force its allies in Europe to impose the tough sanctions the U.S. is talking about now. Another possible option would be to draw Ukraine into NATO, deploy offensive weapons there and encourage Ukrainian nationalists to use force to reclaim the rebel-held east or Crimea, drawing us into a military conflict, Putin claimed.

Speaking after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who has forged closer ties with Moscow than almost any other NATO member, Putin noted that its still possible to negotiate a settlement that would take every partys concerns into account.

We need to find a way to ensure interests and security of all parties, including Ukraine, European nations and Russia, Putin said, emphasizing that the West needs to treat Russian proposals seriously to make progress.

He said French President Emmanuel Macron may soon visit Moscow as part of renewed diplomatic efforts following their call on Monday.

In a bid to exert pressure on the West, Lavrov sent letters to the U.S. and other Western counterparts pointing out their past obligations signed by all members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a top trans-Atlantic security grouping.

Russia has argued that NATOs expansion eastward has hurt Russias security, violating the principle of indivisibility of security endorsed by the OSCE in 1999 and 2010. It says the U.S. and its allies have ignored the principle that the security of one nation should not be strengthened at the expense of others, while insisting on every nations right to choose alliances.

In his letter, which was released by the foreign ministry, Lavrov said there must be security for all or there will be no security for anyone. And in his call with Blinken, Lavrov warned that Moscow will not allow Washington to hush up the issue.

Blinken, meanwhile, emphasized the U.S. willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns. However, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken was resolute in the U.S. commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances.

Blinken urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraines borders, Price said. He reaffirmed that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path.

Senior State Department officials described the call as professional and fairly candid, noting that if Russia wanted to prove it isnt going to invade Ukraine, it should withdraw its troops from the border and neighboring Belarus.

Shortly after speaking to Lavrov, Blinken convened a conference call with the secretary general of NATO, the EU foreign policy chief and the chairman-in-office of the OSCE as part of efforts to ensure that the allies are engaged in any further contacts with Russia.

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, Russias U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the U.S. statement about its readiness for dialogue doesnt correlate with Washington sending planeloads of military equipment to Ukraine.

I dont know why the U.S. is escalating tensions and at the same time accusing Russia, he said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv for scheduled talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Johnson said the U.K. has a package of measures including sanctions ready to go the moment the first Russian toecap crosses further into Ukrainian territory.

It is vital that Russia steps back and chooses a path of diplomacy, and I believe that is still possible, Johnson said. We are keen to engage in dialogue, of course we are. But we have the sanctions ready.

He said he would have a call with Putin on Wednesday, noting that the Russian leader was trying to impose a new Yalta, new zones of influence in a reference to the 1945 deal between the allied powers. And it would not just be Ukraine that was drawn back into the Russian sphere of influence, Johnson added.

In other developments, Biden was expected to nominate career foreign service officer Bridget Brink to assume the long-vacant diplomatic post of American ambassador to Ukraine, according to a U.S. official familiar with the decision. Brink currently serves as the ambassador to Slovakia.

___

Lee reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jill Lawless in London, Dasha Litvinova in Moscow, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
According to authorities, two nurses on Long Island, New York, reportedly made fake COVID-19 vaccine cards and submitted the fraudulent vaccinations in the state's database in a scam that netted over $1.5 million.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office announced on Friday that Julie DeVuono, 49, the owner and operator of Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare in Amityville and her staff Marissa Urraro, 44, were arrested on Thursday.

New York nurses charged for faking vaccine cards

Both women were charged with forgery in the second degree, as per NBC News. According to the press release, DeVuono was also charged with first-degree presenting a fraudulent instrument for filing.

The New York State Department of Health provided COVID-19 vaccinations, vaccine cards, and medical syringes to DeVuono, a nurse practitioner, and Urraro, a licensed practical nurse, according to prosecutors.

They reportedly faked official documents to show that an undercover investigator was given a vaccination on one or more occasions although they never received the injection. DeVuono and Urraro are also accused of falsifying data in the New York State Immunization Information System (NYSIIS).

Prosecutors claimed that the fraudulent vaccine cards cost $220 for adults and $85 for children. During a search of DeVuono's house, law enforcement investigators recovered $900,000, as well as a ledger detailing their gains of more than $1.5 million from November 2021 to January 2022, according to the news release.

Per CBS New York, DeVuono allegedly paid $220 for adults and $85 for children to submit false information into the New York State Immunization Information System, generating $1.5 million in only three months.

Read Also: Michigan Teenager Arrested for Felony Murder, Armed Robbery After Returning to Crime Scene Amid Investigation

New York Gov. Hochul made faking vaccine cards a criminal offense

Although the government delivered vaccinations and syringes to the practice, patients never received a vaccine. According to the New York Daily News, when police searched DeVuono's house in Amityville, they discovered $900,000 in cash, some of it hidden in NYPD-issued helmet bags, raising suspicions about her husband Derin, a police officer from Brooklyn's 60th Precinct.

Both nurse practitioners have been charged with forgery, and DeVuono has been charged with submitting a fake instrument. Both ladies were pictured leaving Suffolk County Court on Friday, where they had pleaded not guilty to their charges and were freed without bail.

Derin is apparently being investigated internally to discover if he was involved in his wife's shady company. Derin had forfeited five vacation days in 2020 after being accused of flying a penis-shaped flight route in an NYPD jet as a member of the force's Aviation Unit in 2017.

The news comes just days after parents marched in a Parents Rights Rally on Long Island where many parents withdrew their children out of school to protest the wearing of masks.

Furthermore, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, 63, made faking vaccine cards a criminal offense. Falsifying vaccine cards will now be a misdemeanor in the state while tampering vaccination cards using a computer will now also be a crime.

Related Article: Georgia Nurse Arrested After Stealing Lottery Tickets to a Woman Fatally Shot During Robbery

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NEW YORK  Whoopi Goldberg was suspended for two weeks Tuesday as co-host of The View because of what the head of ABC News called her wrong and hurtful comments about Jews and the Holocaust.

While Whoopi has apologized, Ive asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities, ABC News President Kim Godwin said in a statement.

The suspension came a day after Goldbergs comment during a discussion on The View that race was not a factor in the Holocaust. Goldberg apologized hours later and again on Tuesdays morning episode, but the original remark drew condemnation from several prominent Jewish leaders.

My words upset so many people, which was never my intention, she said Tuesday morning. I understand why now and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things.

Goldberg made her original comments during a discussion on the show Monday about a Tennessee school boards banning of Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Nazi death camps during World War II. She said the Holocaust was not about race  its about mans inhumanity to other man.

I misspoke, Goldberg said at the opening of Tuesdays show.

The flare-up over Goldbergs remarks this week highlighted the enduring complexity of some race-related issues, including the widespread but strongly contested notion that only people of color can be victims of racism.

Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments, Godwin said in her statement.

The View brought on Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League and author of It Could Happen Here, on Tuesday to discuss why her words had been hurtful.

Jewish people at the moment are feeling besieged, Greenblatt said.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, praised Goldberg for being outspoken over the years on social issues but said he struggled to understand her statement on the Holocaust.

The only explanation that I have for it is that there is a new definition of racism that has been put out there in the public recently that defines racism exclusively as the targeting of people of color. And obviously history teaches us otherwise, Cooper said.

Everything about Nazi Germany and about the targeting of the Jews and about the Holocaust was about race and racism. Thats the unfortunate, unassailable historic fact, he said.

Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, linked Goldbergs remarks to broader misconceptions of the Holocaust, Jewish identity and antisemitism.

In her error, she was reflecting a misunderstanding of Jewish identity that is both widespread and dangerous that is sometimes described as erasive antisemitism, said Marcus, who is the author of The Definition of Anti-Semitism.

It is the notion that Jews should be viewed only as being white, privileged oppressors, he said. It denies Jewish identity and involves a whitewashing of Jewish history.

Marcus referred to the use of anti-Jewish stereotypes about being powerful, controlling and sinister, coupled with downplaying or denying antisemitism.

Jill Savitt, president and CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, offered a measured view of Goldbergs comments.

No one can get into Whoopi Goldbergs head,  But I think what shes trying to say is that the Holocaust is about hatred. Its about inhumanity. Its about what human beings will do to one another that is inhumane, Savitt said.

Complex issues demand more than placing blame, she said.

I think people are not as quick to give anybody the benefit of the doubt these days, which is a shame because in order to work through painful, complicated, difficult issues, especially painful histories, Savitt said, we could give each other a little more grace because people are going to make mistakes or theyre going to say things that offend.

In Israel, being Jewish is rarely seen in racial terms, in part because of the countrys great diversity. Yet Jewish identity goes far beyond religion. Israelis typically refer to the Jewish people or Jewish nation, describing a group or civilization bound together by a shared history, culture, language and traditions and deep ties to Jewish communities overseas.

On The View Monday, Goldberg, who is Black, had expressed surprise that some Tennessee school board members were uncomfortable about nudity in Maus.

I mean, its about the Holocaust, the killing of 6 million people, but that didnt bother you? she said. If youre going to do this, then lets be truthful about it. Because the Holocaust isnt about race. No, its not about race.

She continued on that line despite pushback from some of her fellow panelists.

The U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington responded to Goldberg with a tweet.

Racism was central to Nazi ideology. Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder, it said.

That tweet also included a link to the museums online encyclopedia, which said the Nazis attributed negative stereotypes about Jews to a biologically determined racial heritage.

Savitt said while Jews are not a race, Nazis made Judaism a a race in their effort to create a racial hierarchy that borrowed this, it should be said, from the American conversation about racial superiority and eugenics.

On Twitter, there were several calls for Goldbergs firing, where it appeared caught up in the familiar debates between left and right.

Greenblatt said the talk show, in the market for a new co-host following last summers departure of Meghan McCain, should consider hiring a Jewish woman to keep the issue of antisemitism in the forefront.

___

AP Television Writer Lynn Elber in Los Angeles, AP Writer Ron Harris in Atlanta and correspondent Luis Andres Henao in Princeton, N.J., contributed to this report.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.  Jury questioning has been delayed for the trial of a former Kentucky police officer involved in a botched raid that killed Breonna Taylor.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Ann Bailey Smith said Tuesday that Brett Hankison has had to have unexpected minor surgery. She said Hankison has the right to observe the jury selection process and that questioning will now begin on Thursday.

Hankison has pleaded not guilty to three counts of wanton endangerment for allegedly firing wildly into the apartments of Taylors neighbors during the March 2020 raid. Taylor, a Black woman, was shot multiple times. No drugs were found in the 26-year-old emergency medical technicians apartment, and the warrant was later found to be flawed.

No officers were charged for causing Taylors death, despite protests nationwide, with many demonstrators demanding that the officers involved stand trial for murder. That set the outcome apart from two other killings of Black people at the hands of white people in 2020 that put race relations in the national spotlight: the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police, and the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, who was chased by three men while running through a Georgia neighborhood.

Arberys pursuers were sentenced to life in prison for murder last month, and their federal hate crimes trial is set to begin next week. Former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years for murder and manslaughter, and his fellow officers are now being tried in state court.

In the Taylor case, Kentuckys Republican Attorney General, Daniel Cameron determined that the officers fired into her apartment in self-defense after her boyfriend shot at them first as they broke into her apartment. Cameron, who is Black, acknowledged that Taylors death was heartbreaking, but he did not give a grand jury the option of charging anyone with killing her.

Hankison, who faces one to five years in prison on each of the wanton endangerment counts, is the only officer facing any criminal charges from the raid.

The jury selection process, which began last Friday, is expected to take weeks. Potential jurors will be asked questions to determine if they can serve as fair and impartial jurors. The pool of Jefferson County residents will be whittled down to 12 jurors, plus alternates.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Ann Bailey Smith denied a request by Hankisons attorney to move the trial out of Louisville. The attorney had argued that publicity surrounding the case would make it hard to seat an impartial jury.

___

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.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

The state Senate Conservation Committee passed a bill Tuesday that would restart the chile labor incentive program and help ensure there are enough seasonal laborers to harvest New Mexicos iconic crop.

Senate Bill 157, sponsored by Las Cruces Democrat Sen. Jeff Steinborn and Elephant Butte Republican Sen. Crystal Diamond, would direct $2.2 million of federal pandemic relief funds to extend the wage boost program.

Steinborn said the funds would address labor shortages in the chile industry.

Theyre challenged right now for workers, just like a lot of other labor areas, he said. Its completely possible  and has happened  that some of these crops would not get harvested at all (without the funding).

The New Mexico Department of Agriculture distributed $2.8 million last year from the American Rescue Plan Act to chile farmers under a plan from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Funds supported wage increases for more than 3,000 chile workers, according to the NMDA.

The program was suspended in early December after the state Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers have the authority to allocate ARPA funds.

Charlie Marquez, a New Mexico Chile Association lobbyist, said farmers had originally expected the program to have an early spring deadline.

Each of these farmers actually paid the expense with an understanding that they were going to be reimbursed, so they were left holding the bag, Marquez said.

The program enabled many farmers to boost wages to $19.50 an hour, up from $15 an hour.

The bill would require employers to demonstrate how the money was distributed to employees  an important provision, according to Felipe Guevara, an attorney with the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty.

Because agriculture workers tend to earn very low wages, this program could have a significant and positive effect on many workers employed by the chile industry, but only if the increased wages are actually passed on to the workers, Guevara said.

Eight senators voted to pass the bill, with Sen. Joseph Cervantes recusing himself from the vote. No one spoke in opposition.

The bill now heads to the Senate Finance Committee.

Theresa Davis is a Report for America corps member covering water and the environment for the Albuquerque Journal.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., suffered a stroke in New Mexico last week and is recovering after surgery at an Albuquerque hospital, according to his chief of staff.

Lujan is expected to make a full recovery, Carlos Sanchez, the chief of staff, said in a news release.

But any prolonged absence would have national implications since Senate Democrats, who are joined in caucus by two independents, are evenly split with Republicans, making every vote critical for passing future legislation or the upcoming Supreme Court nomination.

The senator started to feel dizzy and fatigued Thursday morning and checked himself into Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, Sanchez said. He was transferred to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, where it was determined he had a stroke in the cerebellum, which affected his balance. A decompressive surgery was performed to ease swelling, according to the release.

Strokes in the cerebellum, located toward the back of the skull, are rarer than strokes in the cerebrum, which is the top part of the brain, according to Johns Hopkins Medicines website. The cerebellum helps coordinate muscle action and control, fine movement, coordination and balance.

Lujan, 49, is resting comfortably, Sanchez said. He said Lujans offices will remain open.

Adan Serna, a spokesman for the senator, said Lujan has been able to talk with staff and he hasnt suffered any paralysis or loss of speech.

Lujans medical team will be releasing more details about his condition in the coming days, Serna said. The senator and his family would like to thank the wonderful doctors and staff at both UNM Hospital and Christus St. Vincent Regional Hospital for their excellent care during this time, Sanchez said. Senator Lujan looks forward to getting back to work for the people of New Mexico. At this time, he and his family would appreciate their privacy, and ask for your continued prayers and well wishes.

Lujans office didnt respond to questions Tuesday about why it waited five days to inform the public of his stroke. Serna said there currently isnt a timeline for when Lujan is expected to be released from the hospital.

Proxy voting isnt allowed in the Senate, which is evenly split, with 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats who are joined in caucus by two independents. That means Lujans absence will have an immediate impact if hes not able to return in time for any votes.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that two previous senators in recent memory suffered strokes that led to prolonged absences.

My thoughts are with Senator Ben Ray Lujan and his family, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Twitter. Im so glad to hear that he will make a full recovery. We look forward to his quick return to the Senate.

Lujan last Wednesday held a virtual roundtable on cleaning up orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells in the state.

He had been scheduled to make a public appearance last Thursday, the same day he went to the hospital. He was to appear at the Albuquerque International Sunport with Sen. Martin Heinrich, Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Mayor Tim Keller and other officials to talk about future projects there funded through a federal infrastructure bill. That event was postponed after Stansbury tested positive for COVID earlier in the week.

His official Twitter account was active on Friday.

Happy Friday. Our next Supreme Court justice will be a Black woman, the account tweeted on Friday. Lujans office didnt say if those tweets came from the senator or someone on his staff.

Lujan was elected to the Senate in 2020 and his term runs to 2027. Prior to that, he represented northern New Mexico for six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He is the son of the late Ben Lujan, a longtime member of the New Mexico House of Representatives.

News of the senators condition triggered an outpouring of support. It also appeared to come as a surprise to some of his colleagues.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, the No. 2-ranking Democrat in the chamber, reportedly expressed shock and said he didnt know about Lujans stroke when asked by a reporter, according to The Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based news agency that covers national politics.

My thoughts are with @SenatorLujan, who I am fortunate to count as both a colleague and a friend, Heinrich said on Twitter. I know that all of my fellow Senators and our constituents in New Mexico join me in sending our best wishes to him, his family, and his staff.

U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., was among those offering similar sentiments.

We are lighting a candle and sending both our prayers and our love for the quick recovery we know this wonderful, brilliant, and strong Senator for the gente will have, she wrote on Twitter.

State GOP Chairman Steve Pearce said he and the state Republican Party were saddened to learn of Lujans stroke and wish him a speedy recovery.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Senator and his family during this difficult time, he said in the statement.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  New Mexico spending would surge to nearly $8.5 billion  a record high  under a budget plan approved by a House panel Tuesday that sets starting teacher pay at $50,000 per year, provides salary increases for state workers and leaves roughly $400 million available for tax cuts and rebates.

However, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham suggested she would not sign off on the budget bill in its current form, noting it does not include enough funding for some of her top priorities.

The budget must include additional funding for the transformational investments in New Mexicos future that our families deserve, including in higher education, public safety, hunger and health care delivery, Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett said in a statement.

The governors opposition could mean amendments intended to address areas of concern are made to the bill before it advances to her desk for final approval. The 30-day legislative session ends Feb. 17.

Meanwhile, the spending bill in its current form also calls for unspent federal relief funds to be targeted at road repairs around New Mexico  including construction of a new border road in Santa Teresa  and expanding two college scholarship programs so that qualifying students would not have to pay tuition costs for the next several years, among other projects.

This is a major opportunity for the state of New Mexico, said Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, chair of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, during Tuesdays hearing.

The committee voted 15-3 in favor of the spending plan, House Bill 2, with three House Republicans casting no votes, but three other GOP committee members joining with Democrats to vote in support.

It now advances to the full House, which is expected to vote on the measure this week.

With New Mexicos coffers bulging due to increased oil and natural gas production, and an uptick in consumer spending, the budget bill would increase state spending by roughly $1 billion  or 13.8%  for the fiscal year that starts in July.

That proposed spending growth  it would mean a 50% growth in state spending over the past 10 years  prompted unease among committee members, even though the spending plan would set aside about $2.6 billion in cash reserves in case projected revenue levels do not materialize.

This is clearly a revenue high tide, but we all know the tide goes in and the tide goes out, said Rep. Phelps Anderson, a Roswell independent who nevertheless voted in favor of the budget plan.

Other lawmakers expressed concerns about the sustainability of the states rise in spending, given the historic volatility of oil prices and a huge infusion of federal dollars intended to help states and local governments absorb the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Im blown away by the budget, said Rep. Randal Crowder, R-Clovis, who voted against the measure. It seems to fill every need of everybody.

But a Lujan Grisham spokeswoman said some of the governors initiatives would be shortchanged, or not funded at all, under the budget plan, among them a plan to earmark $150 million for a new rural hospital fund.

In addition, the spending plan in its current form would appropriate $5 million for law enforcement officer retention bonuses. The governor has called for creation of a $100 million fund to recruit and retain law enforcement officers around New Mexico.

Focus on teachers, state workers

Much of the proposed spending growth under the bill approved Tuesday would go toward higher pay for teachers and state workers.

Specifically, about $130 million would help raise starting teacher pay in New Mexico to $50,000 annually  minimum pay levels for more experienced educators would also be raised  and establishing a $15-per-hour minimum wage for all school employees.

Meanwhile, school districts that agree to extend their school year by 10 additional days would get even larger salary increases. But the extended learning option would not be made mandatory under the bill.

State workers would also get pay raises under the spending plan, after proposed salary increases were pared back last year.

The compensation increases would average 7% for state employees, but some employees would be in line for even larger raises. For instance, State Police officers would get nearly 16% salary raises in an attempt to retain veteran officers.

Lujan Grisham called for the teacher pay raises in December, saying the move would bring New Mexico in line with the national average.

The salary increases are also targeted at helping the state recruit and retain new teachers amid a recent spike in educator retirements.

The governor herself spent part of a day last week filling in as a kindergarten teacher at a Santa Fe elementary school after announcing a plan to make it easier for state workers and National Guard members to become licensed substitute teachers.

Budget bonanza leads to tax relief

The spending plan also includes earmarks for New Mexicos unspent share of $1.7 billion the state received under the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

Among the big-ticket expenditures would be $145 million for a popular lottery scholarship program.

If approved, legislative officials say that would mean all tuition costs for higher education students who qualify for the scholarship would be covered for the next five years.

A separate Opportunity Scholarship initiative proposed by Lujan Grisham would also get $53 million in federal relief funds, which could be used to assist adult students at community colleges who do not qualify for the lottery scholarship, as well as other students.

Marc Saavedra, executive director of the New Mexico Council of University Presidents, said the funding infusion would benefit students on tight budgets and the states entire higher education system.

The bottom line is we support as much financial assistance for our students as possible, Saavedra told the Journal.

Meanwhile, the states budget bonanza could also lead to tax relief for New Mexico residents, as the budget plan moving forward would allow for up to $400 million in tax reductions to be absorbed.

A tax package being crafted in the House could include a cut in the states gross receipts tax rate, among other provisions.

The spending plan would also earmark $10 million for low-income state residents, with payments of $750 for each eligible household.
A year before the massacre at Pittsburghs Tree of Life synagogue, a security director from the citys Jewish federation came to the house of worship to train its religious school staff and rabbi on how to respond to violent situations. At the time, Stephen Weiss thought it was unnecessary.

But Weiss, then a teacher at the synagogues religious school, attended the training, where he was taught to avoid being easily seen by an active shooter and strategies to get away from dangerous areas. Both lessons proved useful in 2018 when a gunman entered the synagogue and killed 11 people in the nations deadliest antisemitic attack.

That training is what saved my life, he said. As the shots rang out, Weiss, 63, said he was able to sneak away, alert another congregation that met in the building and eventually escape outside through a side door.

Currently, the Jewish Federations of North America, or JFNA, is aiming to give Jewish communities across the country similar training and know-how to help them respond to security threats. The organization has embarked on an initiative, called LiveSecure, to bolster security in Jewish communities by launching new security programs or enhancing ones they already have.

The push comes amid heightened fears about the vulnerability of Jewish institutions and antisemitic incidents. The Anti-Defamation League counted 2,024 cases of harassment, vandalism and assault in the U.S. in 2020, the third highest on record since the Jewish civil rights group began tracking incidents in 1979.

The ultimate goal of JFNAs initiative is to raise $126 million across the federations network over three years, and ensure all 146 communities where Jewish federations are currently located have security hubs, up from 45 today. JFNA itself is aiming to raise $54 million of that, a majority of which is earmarked for local Jewish federations who also raise their own funds.

The initiative launched in October, but the rollout was sped up following the 10-hour standoff at a Colleyville, Texas synagogue last month, where four people were held hostage by a gunman voicing antisemitic conspiracy theories. A JFNA spokesperson said the organization had raised around $40 million before the hostage standoff. Following the ordeal, more donations came in from philanthropies and other significant donors, but the organization still hasnt reached its $54 million fundraising goal.

Ideally, we were going to wait until every penny was raised to begin the granting process, said Julie Platt, JFNAs national campaign chair. Were not going towe dont want to wait for another minute, or another incident.

Local federations, both in the U.S. and Canada, will be able to start applying for matching grants for security needs on Feb. 10, according to the spokesperson. Some of the money  $18 million  is slated to go to Secure Community Network, or SCN, one of the entities Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker credited with providing him the training that helped get him and three other hostages out safely in the Texas incident. According to Michael Masters, the national director of SCN, the organization trained more than 17,000 people last year.

Hanna Shaul Bar Nissim, a deputy director at Ruderman Family Foundation and a scholar of philanthropy in Jewish communities, said though conversations about securing Jewish institutions have been happening for a long time, the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue was a watershed moment that led to a surge in fundraising for better security.

Philanthropies, like the Jim Joseph Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Philanthropies have pitched in to support LiveSecure. But success is not just reaching fundraising goals, said Bar Nissim. But actually, over time, making sure the use of these funds is the most impactful.

Public dollars are at play, too. The federations and other advocacy groups are currently lobbying Congress to double funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, a $180 million program administered by Federal Emergency Management Agency and given to nonprofits the agency considers high risk of terrorist attack.

Part of the push behind LiveSecure is to help more synagogues, Jewish summer camps, schools and other institutions attain the federal grants, which can be competitive. Last year, nonprofits requested nearly $400 million in funding for security cameras, and other equipment and security needs, far more than the amount appropriated for the program.

Funding for the grant has increased over the years, and the push to bolster the program even more has received bipartisan support. But extra funding isnt budgeted and an additional $100 million earmarked in the Build Back Better Act is currently stalled in Congress.

Meanwhile, states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey have launched their own versions of the grant.

Josh Kashinsky, executive director of Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon, said his synagogue was approved for a grant from the federal government for security and is currently vetting vendors to modify its building to make it safer by adding lighting, cameras and more secure entrances.

Its been hugely helpful to make significant capital improvements knowing that some of them are funded, that we can proactively improve security, Kashinsky said.

Though all nonprofit institutions are eligible to apply for the government grant, some in the congregation are uneasy about accepting the funds.

There are members of our community, who are also, sometimes ideologically, a little uncomfortable about us receiving federal money for this purpose, because of the larger questions of separation of church and state, Kashinsky said. Were aware of the potential issues there. But, at the same time, because our elected leaders have decided to make this money available to us, it also feels like it would be irresponsible to our community to not pursue receiving some of this funding, even if some of our community might object to the concept that that funding was made available to religious institutions overall.

Local federations also fund community safety directors across the country, who serve as liaisons with area law enforcement agencies and help with training and vulnerability assessments.

None of us individually would have been able to have a professional at this level be able to work on behalf of security for the community, Kashinsky said. Its also allowed for a lot more trainings to happen within our community  on everything from first aid to situational awareness trainings, and other sort of responses.

The shifting priorities for security are on display in the buildings themselves. At Congregation Beth Israel, which was founded in 1858 before Oregon was a state, most people dont come in through the grand entrance of big glass doors and floor-to-ceiling windows any more because access there is now limited for security reasons. Most people enter through a small door that was originally designed as a staff entrance.

We can see there was a time when security was not as high a priority, Kashinsky said. I imagine today that building wouldnt be designed with glass being the major feature there.

____

AP Business Writer Glenn Gamboa contributed to this report.

____

The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Instagram Celebrity

The 'Certified Lover Boy' artist trends on Twitter as his meme goes viral shortly after the 'We Found Love' hitmaker reveals that she and her partner are expecting their first child.

Feb 1, 2022

AceShowbiz - Drake gets dragged into Rihanna and A$AP Rocky's pregnancy news. The "Certified Lover Boy" artist has become a trending topic on Twitter shortly after his ex announced that she's expecting first child with her boyfriend.

Following the release of Rihanna's baby bump pictures, many social media users took to the blue bird app to make memes about the "One Dance" hitmaker and speculated over how they think he is taking the pregnancy news. One Internet user wrote, "Drake seeing them pictures of Rihanna Pregnant with A$AP baby," adding a meme of the rapper.

A separate person tweeted, "Drake after finding out Rihanna is really pregnant with Asap's child," along with a short clip of himself saying, "What do you mean breathe breathe? Don't tell me to breathe. I can't be. Bring me a shot. Bring me a shot." A third chimed in, "Drove to Rihanna's house to cry outside the gate and rake was already here wtf."

"Drake tweeting from his burner: You won, A$AP Rocky. Enjoy parenthood. I hope it makes you happy. Dear lord, what a sad little life, Rocky," a fourth quipped. "You ruined my life completely so you could have her child & I hope now you can spend Paternity leave having lessons in grace and decorum."

Internet users trolled Drake on Twitter following Rihanna's pregnancy news.

Rihanna left social media users shook after photos of her baring her baby bump while taking a romantic stroll with her soon-to-be baby daddy in New York City landed online on early Monday, January 31. During the outing, Rihanna made no effort to hide her pregnant belly, letting it show from her bright pink coat which was partly unbuttoned without a shirt underneath despite the freezing weather.

In one of the snaps, the pair looked so in love as they were all smiles while looking into each other's eyes. Another showed the former A$AP Mob member sweetly planting a kiss on his girlfriend's forehead while putting one of his arms around her shoulder.

Upon learning of Rihanna's pregnancy, a number of the couple's celebrity friends and fans took to social media to share congratulatory messages. Cardi B shared the photo of the couple on her Instagram Story and wrote, "OMG!!!! Congrats @balgalriri," adding a string of red heart emojis.

Also congratulating Rihanna was Nicki Minaj. Alongside the close-up snapshot of the soon-to-be first-time mom, the "Super Bass" raptress penned, "Congratulations RIH!!!!!!!!!" Camila Cabello, in the meantime, gushed, "She is a work of art. Congratulations!!"

BIA tweeted, "OMFG RIHANNA IS WITH CHILD IM GOING TO BE AN AUNT THANK U GOD. Congrats sis I'm soooo happy!!!!!" Meanwhile, Zara Larsson said, "Omg Rihanna," along with a slew of crying and red heart emojis.
Instagram/WENN/Avalon Celebrity

Meanwhile, British TV host Piers Morgan, who is known for being critical towards the pair and a vocal anti-vaxxer, calls the Duke and Duchess of Sussex 'disingenuous clowns.'

Feb 1, 2022

AceShowbiz - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle earned backlash after they urged Spotify to make changes amid COVID-19 misinformation controversy involving Joe Rogan. Right-wing people, both in the U.S. and America, slammed the pair and one of them was Candace Owens.

The conservative public figure wrote on Twitter, "Everyday Harry and Meghan wake up and think 'how can we make millions more people around the world hate us?' " She went on to wrote, " 'Oh, I heard Joe Rogan has 50 million unique listeners - let's write an open letter indicating our inherent self-importance, and demand Spotify begin censoring him.' "

"Next up from Harry and Meghan--a one on one sit down with Oprah declaring that Truckers everywhere are racist to their 75% white and extraordinarily wealthy son," Candace added. Further shading the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, she concluded, "A brief follow up from Harry and Meghan-- 'But we just want our privacy'."

Candace Owens slammed Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.

Tom Fitton, president of conservative foundation Judicial Watch, tweeted, "Breaking: Foreign national Prince Harry, and family member of foreign head of state, wants to censor @JoeRogan and millions of other Americans."

Piers Morgan, who is known for being critical towards the pair and a vocal anti-vaxxer, wrote, "If anyone knows about 'spreading disinformation', it's these two disingenuous clowns & their sycophantic media lickspittle."

Piers Morgan critized the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Meanwhile, Sky News journalist Nick Stylianou tweeted, "This is an interesting angle on the current issue Harry & Meghan have with Spotify, which is that the platform paid them 18 million in December 2020 to deliver original podcasts but published nothing in 12 months and now Spotify is having to take over production to make content."

A spokesperson for Meghan and Harry's charity said in a statement on Sunday, "Since the inception of Archewell, we have worked to address the real-time global misinformation crisis. Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of rampant mis- and disinformation every day."

The rep continued stating, "Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all-too-real consequences of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform. We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis."

"We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does," the statement concluded.
Movie

After nearly 50 years of hiding, Leatherface returns to terrorize a group of idealistic young friends who accidentally disrupt his carefully shielded world in a remote Texas town.

Feb 1, 2022

AceShowbiz - The face of madness returns. On Monday, January 31, Netflix released the first trailer for "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", a sequel to the 1974 horror classic.

The trailer opens with a group of people moving to Harlow, which is described as a "ghost town," as they hope for a fresh start. They later find the carefully shielded home of serial killer Leatherface, and that is the beginning of the horror.

The serial killer later makes his return, hunting down the area's residents with his infamous chainsaw.

At one point, he traps some young folks inside a bus. Instead of being afraid, they all put up their phone as they are ready to record any crazy thing he may do. "Try anything and you're canceled, bro," one of them warns Leatherface. Unfortunately, such warning doesn't work too well on the serial killer, who proceeds to brutally kill them.

Netflix's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is directed by David Blue Garcia and produced by "Evil Dead" and "Don't Breathe" filmmaker Fede Alvarez, which is keeping anticipation high among horror lovers.

The new movie stars"Eighth Grade" breakout Elsie Fisher, [cSarah Yarkin], Mark Burnham, Jacob Latimore, Moe Dunford, Olwen Fouere, Alice Krige, Jessica Allain and Nell Hudson. "After nearly 50 years of hiding, Leatherface returns to terrorize a group of idealistic young friends who accidentally disrupt his carefully shielded world in a remote Texas town," the set-up reads.

As for the details of the new storyline, it reads, "Melody (Sarah Yarkin), her teenage sister Lila (Elsie Fisher), and their friends Dante (Jacob Latimore) and Ruth (Nell Hudson), head to the remote town of Harlow, Texas, to start an idealistic new business venture. But their dream soon turns into a waking nightmare when they accidentally disrupt the home of Leatherface, the deranged serial killer whose blood-soaked legacy continues to haunt the areas residents --including Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouere), the sole survivor of his infamous 1973 massacre who's hell-bent on seeking revenge."

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre" premieres on February 18 on Netflix.
The US State Department ordered family members of staff at the US Embassy in Belarus to leave the country as well as advised American citizens to refrain from traveling to the eastern European country where an "unusual and concerning" build-up of Military forces takes place.

In an updated travel advisory issued on Monday, per CNN, the State Department told US citizens located or considering travel to Belarus "should be aware that the situation is unpredictable and there is heightened tension in the region" brought by "an increase in unusual and concerning Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine."

The advisory said that US citizens are "strongly advised against traveling to Belarus" because of the "severely limited" ability to provide routine or emergency services to Americans in the country due to " Belarusian government limitations on US Embassy staffing."

The development came as the UN Security Council conducted a meeting addressing the rising Ukraine tensions on Monday.

According to US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US government has obtained information that Moscow plans to assemble more than 30,000 troops at the Belarus-Ukraine border by early February, with 5,000 already positioned in the area.

Last week, the US State Department had ordered the departure of employees from the US Embassy in Ukraine because of the "continued threat" of a Russian invasion. However, the decision was criticized by the Ukrainian administration.

Russia-Belarus Military Exercises Relocated

Over the weekend, Russia announced the relocation of its scheduled naval exercises with Belarus off the coast of Ireland as Dublin raised concerns, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

The exercises were supposed to be held on February 3 to 8 240km (150 miles) off southwestern Ireland in international waters but still within Ireland's exclusive economic zone. But Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney objected to the war games amid the rising military tension "in the context of what's happening with and in Ukraine."

The fact that they are choosing to do it on the western borders, if you like, of the EU, off the Irish coast, is something that in our view is not welcome," Coveney said.

Ireland is not a member of NATO, but it is among the 27 nations comprising the European Union.

On Saturday, the Russian Embassy in Ireland posted a letter from Ambassador Yuriy Filatov on Facebook, saying that the military exercises will be moved outside Ireland's exclusive economic zone and committed to "not to hinder fishing activities."

Read Also: UN Security Council Meet To Address Ukraine Crisis; US Vows To Pressure Russia

Belarus is Ready for War

Russia has started sending thousands of its troops into Belarus in preparation for the upcoming combat exercises this week. Though the move concerns the US and its European allies, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko assured that war would only happen if "aggression is committed against Belarus" or "ally" Russia.

"If our country faces an aggression, there will be hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers here, who will defend this sacred land together with hundreds of thousands of Belarusians," Lukashenko said in a national address, per Politico.

According to the Russian defense ministry, soldiers, two battalions of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, and a Pantsir missile system are already set in the eastern European nation to conduct joint military drills this week.

Related Article: European Union Might Suffer Crisis as the Belarus Border Needs Special Measures To Address the Situation

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
When it comes to hair fall, women try anything and everything to make it stop. And they generally look for solutions in all the wrong places. Himalaya uses this insight for the new communication for its hair fall solution.

Sushil Goswami, General Manager Marketing - Hair Care, The Himalaya Wellness Company, says, We are the leading herbal hair care brand in India, and we take great pride in solving every hair problem, naturally. With this campaign, our aim is for Himalaya to become our consumers' first choice for their hair problems.

Conceptualized by 82.5 Communications, Bangalore, the campaign shows a young, confident girl celebrate her victory by showing off her beautiful, gorgeous hair. And rightly so!

After all, her hair wasnt always like this! Theyd gone through a phase of experimentation, where the girl tried multiple solutions, on her hair, to make them stop from falling. But to no avail. Until she came across Himalaya Anti-Hair Fall Solution.

Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, 82.5 Communications, India, says, I like the fact that we have turned 'showing off' on its head, literally. Our protagonist can bask in the glory of her beautiful hair in her moment of victory because of the effectiveness of the brand she's discovered- reducing her hair fall by up to 96%, an impressive figure that's contributed to her impressive mane.

The film encapsulates the growing anxiety in a woman going through hair fall  her relentless quest for an efficacious yet safe solution that works makes her try myriad suggestions, solutions, and people. Yet, it does little but add to her frustration and woes.

Anirban Mozumdar, Chief Strategy Officer, 82.5 Communications, India, says, This ad film answers the consumers need for efficacy with a proven claim  coming from the powerful herbal and natural science of Himalaya. Today, consumers are more aware and informed than ever before - hence, strong product advertising with proof from scientific research appeal to an informed, knowledge-seeking mindset.

Sangeetha Sampath and Ravikumar Cherussola, Group Creative Directors, 82.5 Communications, South, further elaborate, Our aim was to deliver the message succinctly yet emphatically. Capturing the frustration of trial-and-error, the woes of experimentation and the benefits of Himalaya Anti-Hair Fall Solution were some of the key moments for us.

CREDITS

Client  The Himalaya Wellness Company

Brand  Himalaya Anti-Hair Fall Solution

Agency  82.5 Communications Pvt Ltd

Chairman & Chief Creative Officer  Sumanto Chattopadhyay

Co-Chairman & Chief Executive Office - Kapil Arora

Chief Strategy Officer - Anirban Mazumdar

Sr. Vice President & Branch Head, Bangalore - Naveen Raman

Group Creative Directors  Ravikumar Cherussola, Sangeetha Sampath

Creative Controller - Vaishali Jain

Planning Director  Sai Karthik

Client Services Director  Supreeth Murthy

Group Account Manager - Nancy Jain

Director  Anish Dedhia

Production house  RogerThat Production
In the last 10 years, PR has taken a different dimension, especially after the entry of social media and the rapid shift to digital, especially in the pandemic period. At the same time the industry has been facing stiff challenges, moreover client expectations have also increased, with more emphasis being given to digital and online reputation management. The industry has undergone a radical shift and the current times have pushed the industry to change gears.

In conversation with Adgully, Nimmi Sebastian, Head - Corporate Brand & CSR, Tesco Bengaluru and Tesco Business Services, speaks about how CSR activities have come to the fore in the pandemic times, enhance corporates engagement strategy, role of PR for CSR initiatives and more.

You joined Tesco about a year back. Whats the mandate given to you on the PR and CSR front for Tesco and what are some of the challenges that you are facing?

In 2021, the Tesco Group purpose was revised after an extensive and exhaustive process. Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day is a reflection of our commitment to a sustainable future. It is, therefore, imperative for all our actions and endeavours, not just our CSR activities, to align with our global purpose. Obviously, the biggest challenge to meaningfully living that purpose has been Covid. While technological enablement has been relatively easy in a work scenario, moving meaningful CSR activities to the digital domain has been incredibly challenging, because digital inclusion has mostly been the preserve of urban India. Delivering meaningful, impactful change to underprivileged communities, who do not have digital access, has required a shift in strategic thinking.

How is your company adapting to digital? What are some of the steps taken by you to keep pace with the rapid digital transformation and how do you plan to leverage digital for your engagement strategy?

Agility has been critical. With Year 3 into the pandemic, our ability to move projects, engagements and resources to a digital world was only about how fast we could do it. Adapting to digital from a corporate sense was far simpler, the toll it took on the NGOs, however, was far greater. CSR is about the impact we create in communities and the society at large and this was challenging with no physical on-ground support. While we grappled with the how tos in Year 1, we also leveraged our expertise in technology to help our NGO partners bridge the gap. Consistent communication, agility and adaptability, in my opinion, are how we will enhance our engagement strategy.

CSR today forms an important part of the overall vision and mission of any organisation. How are corporates embracing CSR today, especially after the pandemic?

Indeed CSR, and all that the term encompasses, has evolved considerably in the recent past. There is no question whatsoever that we are at an inception point in history. Climate change is the single greatest challenge we now face and it behooves companies to take on the onus of responsibility for not just their own people, but for the society and the planet as a whole. What Covid has done is to exponentially accelerate that process of taking responsibility and action. What was sometimes seen as a feel good set of initiatives, has become imperative. And if it wasnt enough that its an ethical obligation, consumers, employees and society at large demand it. From implementing zero-waste systems to energy efficient campuses and offices to reducing or offsetting carbon footprints  organisations are finding myriad ways in which to give back to both society and the planet.

How do CEOs view CSR initiatives? Are they open to investments in CSR campaigns and do they value the importance of CSR for the company?

Many CEOs take a deeply personal interest in CSR today. It is a chance to create meaningful change and that resonates at both a personal and institutional level. To view them as campaigns is somewhat limited, in my opinion. CSR is about genuinely having a positive impact on ones society and in recent times there has certainly been a shift from viewing it as a financial obligation to an impactful social opportunity.

What is the role of PR in CSR campaigns? How do corporates leverage CSR activities through PR?

Id say that arguably the biggest and most positive role of PR for CSR initiatives is to help motivate organisations across industries to match and outdo each others efforts. If we can inspire more companies to strive to greater heights in giving back to society, ultimately people and the planet win.

Any memorable CSR campaigns that you can share as a good case study and which did wonders for the brand?

At Tesco, our commitment to CSR and the planet goes far beyond campaigns. In line with our global commitment, as mentioned above, we aim to reach net zero in our group-wide operations by 2035. From upskilling local youth from marginalised communities to empowering local farmers  ours is a long-term view to help uplift society as a whole.
Publicis Health has announced the appointment of Anindya Banerjee as the Head of Creative for the unit. Anindya will lead the creative mandate for the unit, evolving their creative offerings while managing growth, strategy and communications output for the agency. His appointment comes on the heels of an impressive streak of new business wins for the agency. He will report to Dorelle Kulkarni, Senior Vice President, Publicis Health.

Anindya is a seasoned creative with diverse experience in advertising, marketing, and communication. He has held senior leadership roles across various agencies and crafted award winning campaigns which have gone on to win several accolades at world stages. With over 20 years of experience in the advertising and communication space, his expansive experience will fuel the organizations creative services.

Welcoming Anindya to the agency, Dorelle Kulkarni, Senior Vice President, Publicis Health said Publicis Health has had tremendous growth momentum in the past year and this is reflected in both our new business wins and our body of work. To keep up this momentum it is important to have a leadership team that brings a diverse perspective and open new avenues for us. Anindya comes with the perfect knowledge of craft and experience which will be invaluable in propelling Publicis Health to the next phase of growth. I look forward to us working together.

Adding further Dheeraj Sinha, CEO & Chief Strategy Officer  South Asia, Leo Burnett, Publicis Health & Publicis Business said Publicis Health has had a fantastic run last year, onboarding some of the biggest brands in the health and pharma industry. It continues to play a pivotal role for our growth plans and to that end we are committed to bringing on board the best in class talent to the agency. Anindyas diverse background will bring a unique perspective to agency and I look forward to some great work in the future.

Adding further Anindya Banerjee, Head of Creative, Publicis Health on joining the agency, said The scourge of Covid and its terrible aftermath has shown how important health is in the overall well-being of people. I believe health and wellness are going to be the engine drivers of the industry going forward. In that context, Publicis Health is once in a lifetime opportunity for me to be in the right place at the right time.

Anindya joins Publicis Health from FCB Ulka where he was an Executive Creative Director, where he worked on some of Indias biggest brands including the award winning Times Out and Proud campaign for LGBTQ rights in India. He has worked across several Indian and international brands throughout his tenure with various agencies crafting award winning hybrid 360 campaigns.
TVS Raider recently collaborated with Josh Talks to encourage Gen Z to raise their voice against Violence Against Women. This collaboration is a part of the brands ongoing campaign Fight For Whats Right to urge an end to violence against women. The campaign has been conceptualised and executed by Kinnect.

TVS Raider and Josh Talks have launched an online and offline activation campaign via workshops in colleges across the country. The workshops aim to dialogue with Gen Z, making them aware of this issue and equipping them with toolkits to raise their voice against it. These workshops will impart knowledge on legal and social recourse that our young boys and girls can take to fight against it.

Josh Talk Session:

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These workshops will be conducted over the next two months in select colleges such as Amity University, Vishwakarma University, JD Birla Institute, JD Birla Institute etc., across India. All attendees will be given certificates of participation from Josh Talks and TVS Raider to encourage participation. They will also be signing a pledge to support and propagate the cause by visiting this site.

Elstan Rebello, Vice President, Kinnect Bengaluru, added, The need to educate and enlighten the youth on violence against women in any form is now more than ever. TVS Raider with Josh Talks has designed a very effective module to educate the right audience with the right content about bringing in change towards women equality.

Josh Talks has been working consistently towards promoting women's safety and health, and we are excited to partner with TVS Raider & Kinnect Online to organise these virtual workshops. We stand with the TVS Raider philosophy to educate the youth to fight for whats right & eradicate instances of violence against women. We are looking forward to engaging with the students and hope to see significant strides made in this direction, said Varun Khera - Head of Servicing, Josh Talks
Alton, IL (62002)

Today

A steady rain in the morning. Showers continuing in the afternoon. High 66F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. Low 58F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
More Evidence Pot Use in Pregnancy Is Bad for Baby
eVTOL-aircraft developer Lilium has sent one of its latest technology demonstrators to a site in Andalusia, Spain for flight testing at higher speeds over longer distances.

The fifth generation of eVTOL aircraft demonstrator, called PHX2 has arrived at the ATLAS (Air Traffic Laboratory for Advanced Systems) Flight Test Center in Villacarrillo to conduct its high-speed testing flight testing campaign over longer distances, in a way not possible at its site in Germany.

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The PHX2 eVOTL aircraft carries five passengers, has a range 250km (155 miles) and a cruise speed of 280km/h (175mph) at an altitude of up to 3,000m (10,000ft). The aircraft uses 36 ducted fans integrated into the wing flaps to provide thrust vector control to maneuver the aircraft through its different phases of flight. According to Lilium the proprietary technology also provides advantages in payload, aerodynamic efficiency and a lower noise profile.

Lilium said it chose ATLAS for high-speed flight testing because it provides optimal infrastructure and enables the aircraft to fly over a large, unpopulated area while transitioning fully into high-speed wing-borne flight. Modern facilities and support from CATEC (Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies) has also been instrumental in setting Lilium up for a successful flight test campaign.

In addition, Lilium has appointed a chief test pilot, Andrew Strachan. Prior to joining Lilium, Strachans 30 year career has seen him serve in the UKs Royal Air Force and then as a test pilot and later chief test pilot at Leonardo Helicopters.

He said, Im thrilled to join Lilium at such an exciting moment in the companys growth. As someone who has been influenced by aviation since childhood, its inspiring to be part of a company driving the next phase of sustainable, aeronautical technology.

Alastair McIntosh, chief technology officer at Lilium said, We are excited for this next high-speed testing phase to begin in Spain and to welcome new chief test pilot Andy Strachan who is an incredible addition to the Lilium team.
According to billionaire George Soros, China is in the midst of an economic crisis following a real estate bubble that stopped abruptly last year.

President Xi Jinping may not be able to restore trust in the struggling sector, which has been rocked by a string of developer defaults and declining land and apartment prices, the billionaire warned in a lecture at Stanford University's Hoover Institution on Monday.

Soros warns against investing in China

According to Soros, China's real estate bubble was built on an "unsustainable" paradigm that rewarded local governments and encouraged individuals to put their money into property. Government regulations intended to cool the market made it harder for Evergrande, a heavily leveraged real estate colossus, to repay its loans, he noted.

The developer is saddled with more than $300 billion in total obligations, including $19 billion in offshore bonds held on behalf of customers by international asset managers and private banks. Evergrande has been fighting for funds to repay lenders for months, as per CNN.

Per NDTV, government officials have been dispatched to the corporation to oversee a reorganization, but nothing is known about what will happen next. Evergrande has requested additional time, but some lenders do not seem ready to wait. The firm said on Sunday that receivers had been appointed over a Hong Kong block of property that it had pledged as security against a $520 million loan last year.

Furthermore, in September, George Soros, the famed investor and head of the Open Society Foundations, claimed that the asset management BlackRock was making a "tragic mistake" by expanding its operations in China.

He has chastised Beijing for its surveillance measures and anti-business policies. Analysts have expressed fear that Evergrande's failure might cause larger problems in China's real estate market, harming homeowners and the financial system as a whole. Real estate and allied sectors contribute up to 30% of the country's gross domestic product.

Last year, China's GDP grew by 8.1%, but slowing growth in the last months of 2021 shows the real estate crisis, fresh COVID outbreaks, and Beijing's stringent approach to virus control are taking a toll.

George Soros pumps $125 million into super-PAC

Meanwhile, this election season, Soros is donating $125 million to a super PAC to support Democratic candidates and causes in the midterms and beyond. The 91-year-old, who built his wealth in hedge firms, has been supporting political campaigns through the Democracy PAC since 2019, funneling $80 million through it throughout the 2020 election season.

The midterm elections this year, which will determine who controls the House and Senate for the rest of President Joe Biden's term, are projected to set new expenditure records. Super PACs are mostly to blame for the growth.

They can raise as much money as they want from corporations, unions, and people to spend on campaigning for or against politicians. Super PACs, unlike ordinary political action committees, are not authorized to give directly to lawmakers or collaborate with their campaigns.

Alex Soros, George Soros's son, will lead the PAC. The money makes Soros one of the most prominent contributors in this election year, which is sure to enrage conservatives, as per Daily Mail. The Hungarian-born financier has long been invoked as a symbol of aristocratic liberalism. Conspiracy theories linking him to a Jewish web of influence have spread from the darkest corners of the internet to right-wing news outlets.

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
"Currently, there is year-on year growth in these areas and with this sustainable demand on the HNB." Mr Goddard said that there was a historic overspend of 2.115m [$2.84M] brought forward from the former Northamptonshire County Council which disbanded in April 2021, and that there was already an added 300,000 [$406,000] overspend for this financial year, which is expected to grow further. He said: "We're having to use high-cost out-of-county special school placements because our special schools are full and that's causing expenditure. There's ongoing growth in the number of EHCPs across the system.

The government's Department for Education funds schools using its Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) which is split into four portions - one of those is known as the high needs block. The report to Schools Forum members said: "In recent years there has been considerable growth in pupils identified as having SEND and in those requiring an EHCP, pupils requiring alternative provision and pupils requiring specialist provision. This shows no signs of abating . "As a result, many local authorities have found that the high needs block has been insufficient to fully meet identified needs. 

There is an ongoing increase in the number of Education, Care and Health Plans (EHCPs) administered in the county and North Northants Council's education department is also having to deal with a 2.1m [$2.8M] hole in the special education budget inherited from Northamptonshire County Council - plus an overspend of 300,000 [$402K] and rising in this financial year. "Our special schools are running at a very high level of capacity," he said. "Many actually are over capacity as tribunals are requiring them to take over their published number to admit (PAN). 

A funding squeeze and a lack of places for some of the north of the county's most vulnerable school pupils are causing significant budget pressures for education bosses. Because many of our special schools and mainstream units are running at, or over, capacity, children are having to be educated in out-of-county schools that have spaces, which come at an eye-watering top-up cost.

The story painted a pretty bleak picture of the cost the county council is facing.

Subtitle: The north of the county's high needs budget has a deficit 2.3m [$3.1M U.S.]

The Northamptonshire Telegraph ran the story, North Northants pupils forced into expensive out-of-county placements as special schools are full to bursting.

This week it was one from the U.K.

By Anne Dachel Every week when I look through the stories Ive collected on Loss of Brain Trust , I search for the one that really got my attention.

Just like in the U.S., disabled students have a right to a free and appropriate education, and if the local county school cant provide it, the council has to pay for out-of-area schooling.

This year's NNC budget for out-of-county placement top-ups was 7.2m [$9.8M], but projections show the actual cost may be as high as 9.3m [$12.6M] - a 2.1m [$2.8M] difference. Hatton Academies Trust chief executive Rob Hardcastle said that 86 per cent of the overspend was coming from these placements and asked whether it was being caused by capacity issues, or because we didn't have the specialisms needed in Northants.

Mr Goddard said: "We are always going to need to use out-of-county specialist placements because we simply can't meet the needs of every child locally.

"However, our special schools are full and as such in order to ensure school children are not left without a school place for longer than is absolutely necessary we have to use the higher cost ... placements more than we'd want to.

The ending was really ominous:

Amid rising numbers of children who needed EHCPs, the committee heard there had been 'deep concerns' around high needs funding, which was introduced in 2017. The education sector told the committee that the funding levels were 'unsustainable' and had not kept pace with increasing demand. Dave Hill, Executive Director of Children, Families and Learning at Surrey Council, told the committee: "Unless we can address the issues about SEND funding, the whole system will implode at some point.

The scary part of this is that reporter Kate Cronin never asked why there is ongoing growth and unsustainable demand in special needs places in schools in Northampton.

Simply put, why are they more disabled children filling the schools?

Its the obvious factor behind all the rest of the story, sadly, its never talked about.

They just need to increase funding and build more schools.

And be prepared, next year the numbers will increase.

There was also a story from the London borough of Hillingdon with some pretty strong language. The piece was titled, Labour says school special needs debt is more than council reserves.

That was a little bit of an understatement compared to the facts of the situation.

Labours spokesperson Cllr Kerri Prince claims the council is trying to get a Government bail-out to avoid bankruptcy.

She says a cumulative deficit of 38m [$51M] by the end of March in the high needs education budget is more than the council has in general reserves.

Travistock (SW England) Here the council is also dealing with soaring costs.

The boss of Devon County Council has described the funding system for special educational needs as broken as the authoritys total overspend looks set to rise to almost 90 million [$122M].

It seems theres futile attempt to kick the can down the road.

The Government has told councils to put overspends for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) into separate accounts for three years until April 2023, while it develops a new plan to fund provision. It means Devons effective debt on the service  currently forecast to reach 88 million [$119M] by April  does not currently count towards its main revenue figures, However, the council is concerned about what will happen when the ring-fencing arrangement ends next year.

Its not just Devon.

Dr Norrey described it as a national problem. He said the Government were expected to publish a consultation paper on changing the system based on the experience of the fact that this is a broken system. It doesnt actually work. It doesnt deliver what parents and carers want and financially it is unsustainable across the country.

We were left with a warning.

However, Councillor Alan Connett (Lib Dem, Exminster & Haldon), leader of the opposition, expressed concern about the debt figure, warning: 88.1 million [$119M] is more than 50 per cent of the councils free reserves  it is a significant deficit that the council is carrying.

Meanwhile, they keep building special schools costing millions while officials couldnt be happier.

Stockton (NE England) A new school for autistic children is completed. Cost: $1.7M.

Were told its hugely exciting and the local council is delighted.

Albrighton (Central England) Plans to convert a farmhouse into a residential special school have been approved. It will help meet the demand at a cost of $2.4M.

It will provide for 18 children. Were also told it will create up to 65 jobs.

Fakenham (E. England) A new autism school is open. Its part of a $162M program to address the ever-increasing demand for specialist education places across the county.

It has a capacity for 100 children.

The programme will create 500 additional new special education places.

IRELAND

Aughnacliffe A local school added a $13,000 autism classroom.

County Offaly A school announced the opening of a sensory room.

the room will be used by students who require sensory breaks due to sensory dysregulation.

The room will provide a calming environment for those whose sensory systems may become overwhelmed with the day to day encounters in school life.

County Cork Parents are desperate for secondary school places for their autistic children.

Parents and children in Cork feel as if theyre falling off the edge of a cliff making the jump from primary to secondary school when it comes to those with special education needs, a local TD has claimed.

The most important figure provided by the NCSE is that 193 primary schools have ASD provision for students and only 70 are available at post-primary level.

News from the U.S. is limited and not really earth-shaking when comes to autism/special ed.

There was a notable exception. A story from Brooklyn, NY was a dose of reality.

There is a new six story yeshiva for 150 autistic students being considered. The rabbi in charge said that parents had been reaching out to him asking him to open the school.

The need is growing, autism is growing according to CDC.



Anne Dachel is Media Director for Age of Autism.
Small-acreage niche farmers now have an option for insurance for their farm goods like their row-crop neighbors. Whether many will take advant
GLENDIVE, Mont.  C & B Operations LLC, the John Deere dealership in Glendive, has had a presence at the GATE show since the shows beginnings  both outside and inside.

In 2020, C & B presented a new John Deere tractor pulling a hay baler outside for producers to check out, as well as a new tractor front loader inside the GATE show.

John Deere has had a booth every year for the entire 44 years of the GATE show, said Drew Milne of C & B. We have maintained long-lasting customer relationships with our producers in the region, and we look forward to the GATE show.

According to Drew, C & B Operations sells a full line of John Deere equipment, including lawnmowers, gators, tractors, hay equipment, as well as forage and harvesting equipment, including combines.

C & B also has small equipment from Honda and Stihl, and they handle skid steers, mini excavators, and compact wheel loaders.

C & B Operations services its products and provides a full parts department for its John Deere customers and producers.

C & B Operations LLC, started with one location in 1988, in Gettysburg, S.D., when Dan Cronin and Rod Burwell purchased the local John Deere dealership to support the farmers, ranchers, and local community when the owner suddenly passed away, Milne said.

Since then, C & B has evolved to become one of the largest and most recognized John Deere dealership groups, operating 37 stores in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

C & B continues to build on their original commitment and they honor Dan Cronin and Rod Burwell through the name, vision, and mission, Milne explained. Today, C & B remains family-owned and led by Rod Burwells sons, Peter, Blake, and Michael.

In 2021, C & B expanded into the Material Handling and Powersports division with eight material handling locations in Iowa, Louisiana, and Alabama, and one power sports location in Okoboji, Iowa.

The Burwell and Cronin fathers started the company and grew it on the same values that continue to be honored today: honesty, ethics, and hard work, Milne concluded.

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A fertilizer plant with hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, caught fire, forcing over 6,500 people to flee their homes.

The fire at Weaver Fertilizer Plant on North Cherry Street began Monday night. Authorities urged residents within one mile of the plant to evacuate and stay away from their homes for up to 48 hours, according to a report by Reuters.

According to Winston-Salem fire chief Trey Mayo, there was a large quantity of ammonium nitrate exposed to intense heat and can cause an explosion. The situation has prompted the firefighters to abandon the fire fighting operation.

An Extremely Dangerous Situation For Firefighters

Mayo estimates that the fertilizer facility contains around 300 to 600 tons of ammonium nitrate. He added that access to the product was restricted as the building had collapsed.

"We could not flow enough volume of water into the area where that ammonium nitrate is stored to be reasonably certain that we could keep it cool enough to prevent a detonation," the chief firefighter said.

On August 4, 2020, nearly 2,750 tonnes of incorrectly stored ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut's harbor, killing over 200 people, per Al Jazeera's report.

Around 2:00 a.m., as the risk of an explosion grew, the first batch of firefighters drove through the area, urging inhabitants to flee to safety.

"Don't wait for something to happen. Something has happened. Now is the time to get out," Mayo tweeted during that period.

INCIDENT UPDATE - Riding through area within 1 mile radius of 4440 Cherry St. alerting residents of fire and evacuation. If you know someone in the area please advise them of hazard. #WSFire .107 pic.twitter.com/Cv6swGS38Z  Winston-Salem FD (@cityofwsfire) February 1, 2022

Based on the press release of the Winston-Salem Police Department, the 4400 block of Cherry Street from North Point Boulevard to Indiana Avenue was closed, Emergency crews responded to the fire around 8:20 p.m., and the area remains closed.

Related Article: At Least 2 Dead in North Carolina as 170,000 People Are Left Without Power Due To Powerful Winter Storm

Evacuation May Take Longer

Meanwhile, the administration of Wake Forest University released a statement advising some students in off-campus housing to leave their residences voluntarily.

"Because of a fire at 4440 N. Cherry Street, the Winston-Salem Fire Department is asking for voluntary evacuations by residents within a one-mile radius of that address. That includes off-campus housing north of Polo Road between Cherry Street and Long Drive," the statement reads, per NBC DFW.

However, those with on-campus housing are not included in the evacuation.

The university advised that anyone in the vicinity who can evacuate, whether faculty, employees, or students, should do so and stay with friends or family outside the one-mile radius if possible.

Wake Forest University has also started developing long-term plans for individuals who do not have another option, which will be announced at the soonest time possible.

Evacuated students and school personnel could stay in campus buildings such as Wellbeing Center, Benson University Center, and ZSR Library.

Evacuees may bring a sleeping bag, pillow, and blanket to be comfortable if the situation lasts longer. If the evacuation is in effect for several hours, evacuees may want to consider taking only their essential belongings.

Students on campus or residing outside the one-mile radius are advised to stay indoors and keep their windows closed.

Authorities also advise motorists to avoid the area. As of present writing, there were no injuries have been reported.

Related Article: More than 13% North Carolina Gov't Employees Subject to Suspension Without Pay After Failing To Provide Proof of Vaccination

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
For a businessman desperate to sell cars in China and to get back in good graces with the authorities, opening a storeroom in a place declared off-limits by much of the civilized world might be wise in the short term. This business gamble signals to the Chinese, We believe you  so in return believe in our product.

This seems to be Teslas conclusion after announcing a showroom opening in Chinas Xinjiang province. Precisely here President Joe Bidens administration and human rights organization have condemned Chinas totalitarian rulers for a genocide against the Uyghur Muslim population.

With his wager, Teslas high-profile owner, Elon Musk, has elevated the voltage risk of wading into a human-rights outrage that has disrupted other Western companies.

Now United States government policy and rare bipartisan congressional wrath have Musk and Tesla in the crosshairs.

Musks short-term move may have long-term implications.

In Xinjiang, Chinas Communist tyrants have reportedly detained over a million Uyghurs and other members of Muslim minority groups in political reeducation camps. The vast region remains enveloped in a repressive security blanket, where Muslim residents suffer strict controls in daily life.

Chinese officials have praised Teslas choice, a shift from their criticism of the company and Musk over the past year. Tesla heralded the new showrooms opening on an official account on Chinese social media site Weibo. On the last day of 2021, we meet in Xinjiang. In 2022, let us together launch Xinjiang on its electric journey! Tesla cynically announced.

Harsh criticism came in response from across the political spectrum.

By doing business in China's Xinjiang Province, where millions of Uyghur Muslims are being held in concentration camps and forced labor facilities, Tesla is supporting genocide, the anti-Israel Council on American-Islamic Relations tweeted.

Given recent American policy decisions, the showroom inaugurations timing is startling. Last month Biden signed the overwhelmingly bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which bans imports from Xinjiang unless companies can prove that they did make their products with forced labor.

The acts author, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member, made his disappointment with Musk abundantly apparent. Right after President Biden signed Sen. Rubios Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law, Tesla opened a store in Xinjiang, he tweeted. Nationless corporations are helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up genocide and slave labor in the region.

In a letter to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk, Democrats Bill Pascrell and Earl Blumenauer, who chair two House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee subcommittees, expressed similar sentiments. Your misguided expansion into the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region sets a poor example and further empowers the CCP [Chinese Communist Party government] at a fraught moment, they wrote. The two representatives also expressed a deep interest in exploring ways to improve U.S. national security imperiled by the offshoring of our industrial capacity and undermining of our national security by contributing to labor abuses.

During a recent press conference, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki also made the Biden administrations ire unmistakable.

Weve been clear about our views on the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, she said. As weve said before, companies that fail to address forced labor in their supply chains and other human rights abuses face serious legal, reputational, and consumer risk, not only in the United States but in Europe and around the world.

Human Rights Watch says that China has detained one million Uyghur Muslims in re-education camps. Here beatings, forced labor, medical experiments, and coerced abortions typify the abusive camp regimen.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin accused Tesla showroom critics of hypocrisy. They carry out economic coercion and political repression against China under the guise of human rights, he propagandized.

Why Tesla opted for currying favor with Beijing is obvious.

According to reports, Teslas Electric Vehicle sales in China are shrinking. In 2021, Tesla's Chinese market share of battery and plug-in electric vehicles fell to about 7 percent from 9 percent.

Unhappy with Musk for a variety of reasons, in 2021 the Chinese government ordered a recall of almost all 285,000 cars Tesla has sold in China to address an alleged software flaw. Simultaneously, the Peoples Republic of China banned Tesla from some government facilities over concerns of data transfers to the United States.

According to Sina Tech, Tesla has more than 200 stores in China and opened Teslas first factory outside the United States in Shanghai in 2019. The new showroom in Xinjiangs capital, Urumqi, is Teslas 11th in northwestern China. Other foreign auto brands, including Volkswagen, General Motors, and Nissan, also have Urumqi showrooms.

Yet these firms are not Tesla. The high-profile company and the high-flying Musk are much more prominent offenders in the eyes of many. Scott Paul, president of the American trade group Alliance for American Manufacturing, was blunt: Any company doing business in Xinjiang is complicit in the cultural genocide taking place there. But Teslas actions are especially despicable. Consumers and citizens should remember this in future product and policy choices.

Andrew E. Harrod holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a JD from the George Washington University Law School and is admitted to the Virginia State Bar. He is a Middle East Campus Watch Fellow and a fellow with the Lawfare Project and can be followed online at @AEHarrod.

Photo Illustration by Monica Showalter with use of images by Einstraus, via Wikipedia // CC BY-SA 2.0, and PXHere // CC0 public domain.
Dear liberals: are you wondering right now that the walls are closing in? First, it was Trump: bought and paid for by the Russians. Then it was the open and fair election of 2020 that armed insurrectionists, inspired by the defeated President Trump, dared to challenge. Then it was anti-vaxxers insulting the scientists and experts at the FDA and the CDC and the NIAID. Now, just up the road, we have uncouth anti-vaxxer Canadian truckers surrounding Parliament Hill in Ottawa in another attempted insurrection. Eh?

And that is saying nothing about riots and mayhem in the streets of our European allies.

What is going on? Why dont the science deniers accept the science and the life-saving vax mandates devotedly worked out by our educated experts?

Oh dear, liberal friends. Where shall I begin? Yet Im sure you know all this, being educated experts and all.

Back in the day, Moses came down from the mountain with the Tablets and the first thing he did was rout all the misinformers and disinformers that were worshiping a golden calf.

Then there was England in the time of Milton, Anthony Esolen writes, when the government licensed books to make sure that untrained minds were not corrupted by bad books. Dont forget the notorious Index of the Catholic Church and the suppression of Galileos heliocentric science. No misinformation allowed!

In the French Revolution, they renamed and repurposed the Cathedral of Notre Dame into a Temple of Reason, presumably to cure religious believers of their superstitious disinformation.

But that was in the old days, before the rise of the modern educated class and its wise dispensation of knowledge and expertise from the academy, the university, and the media.

Now, whenever the educated class has power, it ruthlessly curbs disinformation it judges to be counterrevolutionary, privileged, or racist-sexist-homophobic.

The curious thing is that, starting no later than Kant, the most advanced thinkers have doubted our ability to have the absolute knowledge that would license rulers and their intellectual experts to control the trajectory of knowledge.

So why do our rulers work so hard to control speech in the public square?

There is one occasion where speech control makes sense, and thats when theres a war on. Or, to put it another way, if you want to control speech then you cant do better than start a war.

If the Germans are outflanking the left-wing of the French army in Flanders, you cant do better than accuse the Germans of Belgian atrocities. If the middle class is getting restless, what with a generation of aligning U.S. manufacturing wages with the developing world, then it stands to reason it is a bunch of racists and xenophobes.

But at some point, the war excuse wears out its welcome. Thats because of science. See, the latest thing in science is not reason and logic, its not that everything is relative, or that the answer to all your questions is evolution. Nor is it experts agree.

The latest wizard wheeze is emergence. Somewhere, somehow, somebody does something different. IBM comes calling on some tech kid for a microcomputer operating system, and the tech head buys one on the street for $50,000 and starts Microsoft. A butterfly flaps its wings and starts a hurricane. And it could be a thing: a rock falls off a cliff and dams a river.

Notice that in emergence we do not necessarily know why the tech head, animal, or thing has changed the world. Thus, emergence replaces the issue of free will and conscious action versus instinct or unconscious action and the concept of agency. Even a bacteria seems to act with agency.

Gosh, why arent our liberal friends all demanding an emergence revolution to replace the current rigid rule of the experts?

We know why. Its the science. Way back in 1962, when Thomas H. Kuhn wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he asserted that science only changes when the old generation of scientists dies off. He forgot to add: ruling classes.

The only way that politics changes is when the old generation of rulers becomes totally decrepit and is good for nothing more than going out for ice cream. And then dies off.

Our liberal friends are dying off. Their God is dead. But our liberal friends are still in the decadence phase of the Nietzschean descent into hell, still licking the ice cream cone and not realizing that it is the lick of death. And nihilism is yet to come, and the terror of the eternal recurrence.

Will our liberal friends ever experience the revaluation of all values, like Phil Connors in Groundhog Day, and buy life insurance, and help old ladies, and catch kids falling out of trees, and take piano lessons, and finally win the love of the lovely Rita Hanson?

I dont know. Hey, its coooold out there.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.

Image: PxHere
Passengers of United Airlines Flight 997 witnessed a miracle up above the clouds as a woman delivered a healthy baby boy amid an 11-hour flight from Africa to the United States.

The mother began experiencing contractions while traveling from Accra, Ghana, to Washington, D.C. She wasn't expected to give birth until late February, but she went into labor halfway over the Atlantic.

Coincidentally a physician was among the passengers of the flight. Dr. Stephen Ansah-Addo, a dermatology resident at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Ansah-Addo heard the call for a medical professional, and he adhered right away. Then he was joined by two professional nurses: a passenger from Dayton, Ohio, and a United flight attendant.

They made a makeshift emergency room behind the business class area using blankets and towels as the mother's contractions got stronger and more frequent.

After an hour, Dr. Ahsah-Addo felt the baby's head, but he was "trying to stay calm."

"I couldn't believe it was happening," he told ABC News.

A few pushes later, a healthy baby boy was heard crying onboard. But then they faced another challenge-- they could not find a clamp to cut the umbilical cord, which was solved as the team resorted to using a string.

The baby was born on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, cruising at an altitude of around 30,000 feet. Per Newsweek, the plane took off at 11:45 p.m. on Saturday local time and landed at around 5:30 a.m. the next day.

Read Also: US Airlines Warn 5G Mobile Phone Signals Will Cause 'Major Disruption', 'Economic Calamity'

A Rewarding Experience

Dr. Ansah-Addo said such a situation made him realize the significance of his profession.

"This is someone that really needed help, because there was nobody else there. This is the kind of medicine where you can make a difference in people's lives," he said.

"The delivery was uneventful other than being at 30,000 feet," United Airlines said in a statement.

According to a United representative, the mother and her new baby were transported to a local hospital after disembarking.

From a Fellow Passenger's Point of View

Tiani Warren was among the passengers of United Flight 997. She was returning to Los Angeles after a three-week trip to Ghana. She witnessed the intense medical drama during the flight that brought her mixed emotion.

Warren shared she was asleep when she heard a moaning that got her out of her seat. Then she saw the woman on the floor being attended by a nurse. It took her around a minute before realizing the emergency, per CNN.

"I was literally counting her contractions -- seven to 10 minutes apart. I was, like, freaking out. Oh, my God," she said.

Warren noted that half of the passengers did not know the situation. Plus, the plane experienced turbulence during the flight that increased the tension, prompting her to pray over the woman crying in pain. Moments later, the baby came out.

"It's beautiful. It was a little sketchy at first, but God is good. This is unreal. ... I'm in shock right now. This is crazy," she posted on Instagram.

Related Article: Former Boeing Executive Allegedly Concealed Aircraft Technical Issues That Led to the Deaths of 346 People, Federal Grand Jury Says

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
One of the existing mysteries is why actors and celebrities, whose job is to misrepresent people and actions, are taken seriously when they pontificate on political, social, and economic events. The most recent example is the outburst of support from film professionals speaking out in support of Emma Watson, the British actress born in Paris, who shot to stardom as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter movies and has become a well-known actress.

Watson, an outspoken feminist who has declared Barack Obama as one of her heroes, issued an Instagram post, illustrating a pro-Palestinian political rally featuring Palestinian flags, overlaid with the words, Solidarity is a verb. This somewhat bizarre and puzzling statement was apparently derived from the work of Sara Ahmed, a British-Australian scholar of feminist theory, lesbian feminism, and postcolonialism, a theorist who argues that the struggle for womens equality is related to other causes. This scholar enlightened us, if obliquely, that Solidarity does not assume that struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future.

The obfuscated utterance by Emma Watson, among other things a member of the Free Palestine Movement was accused of being anti-Semitic, though it was not a vivid political declaration, but kindly critics were led to suggest that her proper role was to return to Hogwarts for the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter film. Magic may work in the wizard world of Harry Potter, but so far has not ended the bigotry against Israel.

The usual Hollywood suspects, fellow members of Free Palestine, came out in support of Watson. First, it is important to point out that almost all these more than 40 suspects from the film world are always willing to support a cause or petition that is anti-Israeli in nature but apparently do not discern any problems from the other 92 countries in the world that deserve censure. They included Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, Maxine Peake, Charles Dance, Ken Loach, Jim Jarmusch, Viggo Mortensen, and Michael Malarkey. These intellectual giants helped us understand the mysterious statement that Solidarity is a verb, which they interpret as meaningful solidarity with Palestinians struggling for their human rights under international law.

These intrepid celluloid warriors oppose injustice anywhere in the world and stand with all those seeking an end to oppression. Sadly, their view of injustice in the world, and indeed their political knowledge of the world, does not appear to go beyond the actions and existence of Israel. Unobserved are the countless instances of that injustice: the Uighurs in China, the Kurds in Turkey, women in Pakistan, Christians in Syria, the Rohingya in Myanmar, Alexei Navalny in Moscow, or the terrorist actions of Hamas.

The Hollywood warriors are prone to fight the wrong war, involved as they are with their limited and biased view, making no effort to investigate prejudice and lack of solidarity in general. At a minimum they might be conscious of the address of Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 13th year of his four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2021 that this colonial regime, Israel, that has been established on our land will disappear, regardless of how long it takes.

A study funded by the European Union found that Palestinian textbooks used to educate public school children in PA administered regions contain rampant anti-Semitism and violent references in the texts. This is important because textbooks are crucial in influencing the images of history and of peoples in the minds of young people.

Some Middle Eastern countries -- Jordan, Tunis, Morocco, even Egypt -- have reformed educational texts and removed objectional anti-Jewish material, but not Iran or Syria which call for total struggle or jihad, or the Palestinian Authority, PA.

The PA had reneged on an agreement with the EU to revise its academic curriculum in 2021 and, instead, has promoted new material that features hateful language and violent imagery. It introduced new material with worse content than before. The children are now told that Jews are devious and treacherous, and that Israelis when they are mentioned are Satans aide. Students are asked to discuss the repeated attempts by the Jews to kill the prophet Muhammad.

Israel is not mentioned in geography classes. In history classes, the focus is on Jewish control of international events through the money and power of Jews. Students are instructed to engage in jihad, which is the private obligation for every Muslim, and to remove Jews from Palestine. Incitement is virtually always present in Palestinian Authority textbooks.

The report examined 156 textbooks and 16 teachers guides. The critique is unqualified. The PA incites more than a million children to anti-Semitism, hate, and violence.

The teachings are weird. Schoolchildren are informed of a connection between the deception of Jews in the early days of Islam and the behavior of Jews today. Jews are cunning. Israel removed the original stones of ancient sites in Jerusalem and replaced them with ones bearing Zionist drawings and shapes. The textbooks are full of negative attributions to Jews, all allegedly pernicious.

The prejudice is pervasive, not simply in subjects such as history, political studies, or religion, but in other subjects, such as mathematics using a picture of Palestinians hitting Israeli soldiers with slingshots to illustrate Newtons second law of motion.

Math is also taught by counting the number of martyrs in each uprising. Students are encouraged by the result of their own martyrdom: seventy-two virgin brides will greet those who die as martyrs.

In geography, the State of Israel, always referred to as a Zionist occupation, is erased.

A number of members of the European parliament have called for the withholding of aid to the PA over the books which preach anti-Semitism, incitement, and the glorification of violence and terrorism. It is astonishing that funds have been given by the EU for the Palestinian educational program that has encouraged hatred and violence, instead of promoting a peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel. The policy of the EU should be to limit funding to the PA educational system unless it drastically changes the educational curriculum, and focuses on genuine solidarity. Perhaps the EU might finance a film starring Emma Watson, or Susan Sarandon, portraying this point of view. After all, theyre only actors, not ideological combatants.

The most up-to-date feature in any revised PA textbook should be the news of the appointment in Israel of Osali Abu Assad to a senior judicial position. She had been appointed as a Northern magistrates court judge in 2012. Ten years later in 2022, she has been appointed Israels first female Muslim district court judge. Up to now, there had routinely been Arabs, all Christian, on the high court, and the next person is likely to be a female Muslim. Will Hollywood film the ceremony? Or will Emma Watson or Susan Sarandon play the role of this gifted Palestinian woman, an example of Solidarity in Israel?

Image: claudia gabriela marques vieira
On Sunday, January 23, there was a march and rally in Washington, D.C.: "Defeat the Mandates: An America Homecoming." On Monday, January 24, Senator Ron Johnson hosted a panel discussion where about a dozen of these same doctors shared their personal testimonies.

These are not doctors just plucked off the street, but professionals from all over the country who are tops in their particular field. One doctor is the CEO of a medical organization with over 17,000 medical and scientific members. The mainline media called their narratives a "false narrative."

Listen to what these doctors had to say.

"Let doctors be doctors; let the doctor and patient determine the treatment, not the government."

"The men who founded America were not professional politicians, but farmers, shop people, and land-owners."

"It was a serious mistake to let government officials control health care rather than doctors and nurses, who really knew what was happening."

One doctor pointed out that the things that were important to him were his wife, his kids, and his grandkids. He insisted we take a stand for our grandkids.

"Don't let them vaccinate your kids. While vaccinating may have seemed like a good idea at the start of the pandemic, vaccinating kids makes no sense. Children have natural immunity, rarely catch the flu, and more rarely pass it on to others. Many have suffered because of the vaccinations."

"Vaccinating children has had very negative results. Some, especially the boys, have had permanent heart damage. Some girls became sterile."

"If your child is injured because of the introduction of an unproven vaccine, you have no remedy: drug companies are no longer liable for drug failures. "

One doctor shared how he was working in the emergency room of a hospital and was seeing a lot of success by treating with off-label drugs. The hospital banned those drugs and would not let him use them. He then had no way to save his patients.

One doctor pointed out that the drug companies along with the CDC, the NIH, and the FDA are pushing very expensive drugs and resisting the early use of much cheaper drugs. These off-label drugs, when used at the right time and with the right dose, are very effective, and they cost only pennies.

"It is evident that there is a lot of fraud in the health care business, which is a terrible tragedy."

"Following the protocol of Dr. Fauci and the CDC has cost a lot of unnecessary deaths."

"The common prescription was to send the patient home until he turned blue, and then bring him to the hospital. The patient was given dangerous drugs, and often he died because the proper treatment was not available, or it was too late."

The rally took place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. One doctor pointed out that another American shared his "dream" on that very spot in a 1963 rally.

One doctor pointed out the importance of having "Integrity, Dignity, and Community," traits that seem to be lacking to us today. He pointed out the importance of a little kindness and good works.

Several doctors pointed out how our Constitution has served us well for over two hundred years, but it is gradually being eroded. The American Constitution has no provision for the abandonment of our rights because of a medical emergency. They pointed out that the action by the CDC and other health officials is leading to tyranny.

"These vaccines are still experimental; they have not yet been proven or approved for general use."

"The vaccines that were developed two years ago for the Covid 19 virus are not effective at all against the omicron variety of the flu."

"Masks do no good. They do not keep you from getting the disease or prevent you from giving it to another person. The virus is many times smaller than the mesh in the mask and the virus goes right through it."

"Children need to be free of masks. Young children learn to talk by watching your face. The expression on a face often says as much as the words communicated, and this is impossible when wearing a mask."

"We were told to lock down and isolate for two weeks to flatten the curve, so hospitals would not be overwhelmed. Almost two years later and that directive is still in place in some locations. Hospitals were waiting for a great influx of covid patients. But it did not happen. Often the hospitals were almost empty and doctors were sent home."

"We were told that the answer was a vaccine: Then it was a booster; Then a second booster. Evidence makes it clear that vaccines do not prevent you from catching the virus, nor do they prevent you from giving it to another."

"Natural immunity is far more effective than any mask or vaccine could ever hope to be. Natural immunity lasts a lifetime and vaccinations wear off in just a short while."

"Most hospitals insisted that all staff had to be vaccinated. They made no provision for natural immunity, or for immunity that resulted from having covid. Unless the person was vaccinated he was terminated. This made no sense, as hospitals, which were already short of staff, were made even shorter. Medical professionals, who had been treated like heroes during the height of the pandemic were later treated like domestic terrorists if they refused to be vaccinated."

One doctor pointed out the importance of personal choice. All medical decisions need to be made between the doctor and the patient. The patient always has the choice of seeking a second opinion if he is not satisfied with the diagnosis. Patients need to regain control over their bodies and what is put into them. That needs to be their choice, not that of any government official.

The common theme of the medical discussions was "protect your children; protect your rights." Our rights are being gradually taken away from us. This has got to stop.

One doctor pointed out an old maxim: "Let truth loose; it will defend itself."

Another doctor pointed out that one province in India could not get vaccines so they used off-label drugs. The result was that they had far fewer fatalities than other locations around them.

Several doctors quoted part of the Hippocratic Oath, which says: "First, do no harm". The medical profession has traditionally been committed to protecting the patient and not doing any harm. Politicians have placed doctors in a position where they cannot possibly care for their patients as they ought to.

One doctor concluded by offering hope: "We shall get through this." "There is hope in the future. Stop thinking about the past. You cannot do anything about it. Think of the future and what you can do about it."

Several doctors asked those who attended the rally to go home and take action to open the eyes of those around them. Many forms of mass communication have been shut down; doctors have been removed from certain platforms. But the truth must get out. Otherwise, we will only have tyranny.

Jim Hollingsworth has a master's degree from Pensacola Christian College. He receives mail at jimhollingsworth@frontier.com. He has written four books: Climate Change: A Convenient Truth, Cortez: A Biography, The Ancient Culture of the Aztec Empire, and Abortion Compassion, available where books are sold.

Image via Pixnio.
One of the things few Americans understand is that the Arab nations despise the Palestinians. Nevertheless, for their own reasons, whether religious or political, the Gulf nations have reliably supported the Palestinians for decades. Things are changing in the Middle East, though, and when the editor-in-chief of the Arab Times writes an op-ed saying the Palestinians are ungrateful wretches and that it's time to dump them, people may start paying attention.

A lot has changed for the better in the Middle East, despite Obama and because of Trump. Obama caused enormous destabilization across the Middle East, which spilled into Europe, when he relentlessly supported Iran, ignored his own red line in Syria, did nothing to stop ISIS's spread, and supported the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Spring. All of this terrified the more stable Gulf States, which started viewing Israel not as the universal Muslim enemy, but as a potential ally against Iranian dominance, ISIS, civil wars, and Muslim Brotherhood extremism.

Things changed even more when Trump embarked upon his Abraham Accords. They opened the way for nations wary of revolutionary Islam to open ties with Israel, a stable ally that would bring enormous trade opportunities. And while Saudi Arabia hasn't formally entered into the Abraham Accords, its fear of Iran and its fight with the Houthi rebels, who are Iran's proxy, has also made it amenable to dealing with Israel. As the old Arab saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

All of this is helped by the fact that none of the Middle Eastern Arabs likes the Palestinians. There's a reason that Egypt built a wall against them. And there's a reason that, even though the land the Palestinians claim in the West Bank is technically part of Jordan, in accordance with the 1924 League of Nations division of the land, the Jordanians don't want them, either. Stable Muslim nations view the Palestinians as communist troublemakers.

The view that the Palestinians are more trouble than they're worth got a boost from the Arab Times, an important newspaper in Kuwait. The editor-in-chief, Ahmed Al-Jarallah, who has long tried to get the region to make peace with Israel for reasons of stability, argues that it's time for the Gulf Nations to jettison the Palestinians entirely.



Image: Celebrating the Ramallah lynching. This happened in 2000, but it's a photograph that perfectly encapsulates what Israel and the Gulf Nations are dealing with. YouTube screen grab.

In his editorial, he reminds the Gulf Nations that, while they have been good friends to the Palestinians, often to their cost, they have received nothing in return but grief:

When they [the Palestinians] are happy, they curse the Gulf leaders and people. When they are angry, they use all of the defamatory and abusive words in their dictionary against us. We, the Gulf nationals, overlook all that by sending them aid. We also participated in all the Arab wars for defending the right of the Palestinians for self-determination and the establishment of an independent state on the 1967 borders. We are the only ones who rescued them in the year 1970 when they launched their war on Jordan. The late Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah evacuated their leader Yasser Arafat from Amman. The Arabian Gulf states, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, boycotted oil export to the Western countries during the 1973 war. [snip] [In return] They stood with the Iranian Houthi aggressor against Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. They slandered and cursed the leaders and governments of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries because they did not mourn the assassination of the head of the terrorist snake Qasem Soleimani. Didn't Mahmoud al-Zahar refer our people as homosexuals for this reason, and Ismail Haniyeh launched an attack on them during which he used extremely vulgar talk against us in his eulogy?

Al-Jarallah makes it clear that he has no love for the Israelis, whom he calls "the occupiers." Nevertheless, he says the sick relationship the Gulf States have with the Palestinians, one that earns them abuse in exchange for sacrifice, must end:

Enough is enough! The camel's back has been broken from the burden of grief we endure due to the ingratitude of the Palestinians. They have been encouraging terrorism against us, issuing calls to kill us, and raising slogans such as "The path of liberation passes through Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Manama, Riyadh and Doha", while they are trying to lose the bearing. All the Gulf states should normalize relations with Israel due to the fact that peace with this most advanced country is the right thing to do. Let the foolish fend for themselves.

A few years ago, I would have said Al-Jarallah was whistling into the desert wind. However, the changed dynamics in the Middle East make me believe that increasing numbers of people will pay attention to what he is saying, rather than dismissing him as a lunatic and heretic.

Hat tip: Don Surber.
The Lancet, published since 1823, is universally recognized as one of the top medical publications in the world, though it damaged its reputation by publishing and then subsequently retracting a study attacking the use of hydroxychloroquine as a therapy for COVID. Still, the retraction was the right thing to do, and it is hardly unprecedented in the history of academic and medical publishing.

In an article published January 19, The Lancet throws cold water on those merchants of panic who wish to use COVID as an excuse to rob people of their civil rights.

"COVID-19 will continue but the end of the pandemic is near" is the title of the article by Christopher J L Murray. It makes the point that has been made on these pages: omicron is far more contagious and far milder than previous variants, which is what happens when epidemics start to die down. (Footnotes removed for ease of reading.)

The world is experiencing a huge wave of infection with the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Estimates based on Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) models suggest that on around Jan 17, 2022 there were 125 million omicron infections a day in the world, which is more than ten times the peak of the delta wave in April, 2021. The omicron wave is inexorably reaching every continent with only a few countries in eastern Europe, North Africa, southeast Asia, and Oceania yet to start their wave of this SARS-CoV-2 variant. The unprecedented level of infection suggests that more than 50% of the world will have been infected with omicron between the end of November, 2021 and the end of March, 2022. Although IHME models suggest that global daily SARS-CoV-2 infections have increased by more than 30 times from the end of November, 2021 to Jan 17, 2022, reported COVID-19 cases in this period have only increased by six times. Because the proportion of cases that are asymptomatic or mild has increased compared with previous SARS-CoV-2 variants, the global infection-detection rate has declined globally from 20% to 5%. Understanding the burden of omicron depends crucially on the proportion of asymptomatic infections. A systematic review based on previous SARS-CoV-2 variants suggested that 40% of infections were asymptomatic. Evidence suggests that the proportion of asymptomatic infections is much higher for omicron, perhaps as high as 8090%. Garrett and colleagues found that among 230 individuals in South Africa enrolling in a clinical trial, 71 (31%) were PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2 and had the omicron variant and no symptoms. Assuming this prevalence of infection was representative of the population, the implied incidence compared to detected cases suggests that more than 90% of infections were asymptomatic in South Africa. The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey estimated a point prevalence of PCR positive SARS-CoV-2 infection of 685% for England on Jan 6, 2022. Hospital admission prescreening of individuals without COVID-19 symptoms in the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, WA, USA, did not exceed 2% throughout the COVID-19 pandemic but exceeded 10% in the week of Jan 10, 2022 (Murray CJL, unpublished). In addition to the much larger proportion of asymptomatic infections, in the USA the ratio of COVID-19 hospitalisations to detected cases hospitalised has declined by about 50% in most states compared with previous peaks. The proportion of COVID-19 patients in hospital who require intubation or are dying has declined by as much as 8090% in Canada and South Africa. (snip) The impacts of future SARS-CoV-2 transmission on health, however, will be less because of broad previous exposure to the virus, regularly adapted vaccines to new antigens or variants, the advent of antivirals, and the knowledge that the vulnerable can protect themselves during future waves when needed by using high-quality masks and physical distancing. COVID-19 will become another recurrent disease that health systems and societies will have to manage. For example, the death toll from omicron seems to be similar in most countries to the level of a bad influenza season in northern hemisphere countries. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the worse influenza season during the past decade in 201718 caused about 52 000 influenza deaths with a likely peak of more than 1500 deaths per day. The era of extraordinary measures by government and societies to control SARS-CoV-2 transmission will be over. After the omicron wave, COVID-19 will return but the pandemic will not.

(Emphasis added.)

Hat tip: James Lewis.
The Facebook group "Convoy To DC" has already garnered 103.9K followers, up from 67,000 on Sunday, based on media reports. It was inspired by the massive demonstrations across Canada that have sparked similar protests around the world, notably in Australia and the Netherlands. While the group has not set a date for the protest, its leaders suggested it will start in California and travel to Washington, D.C.

In Canada, thousands protested the mandates, while in the States, COVID cases plummeted 30% over the past week. While some experts refer to the distant future and vaguely talk of the COVID crisis ending sometime this year, many others are expressing the opinion that they are done with COVID. Others are asking: "Are We at the End of the Pandemic?"

The Freedom Convoys are certainly showing that the people are fed up with the COVID political oppression, and they want to get back to what was normal before the crisis.

D Parker is an engineer, inventor, wordsmith, and student of history. He's also a writer in the communications field and a longtime contributor to the NOQ report.

Image via Pixabay.
Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas evidently has contempt for his fellow Cabinet members in the Biden administration.

A former ICE agency adviser, Jon Feere, observed this as Mayorkas was giving his spiel:

The Secretary of Homeland Security is telling foreigners to ignore the Secretary of State.



His message: Lie to consular officers, don't abide by the terms of your visa, and stay as long as you want because the State Dept and all of its employees are not to be taken seriously. https://t.co/2Uo6uoj4yo  Jon Feere  (@JonFeere) January 31, 2022

Mayorkas was making his typically forked-tongue spiel to assure illegals they have nothing to worry about:

Unlawful presence in the United States will alone, not be a basis for an immigration enforcement action...

What Feere, a former Homeland Security adviser in the previous administration, was referring to is that immigration is a two-way agreement. Foreigners who seek to enter the U.S. sign on to obey U.S. laws when they enter, promise not to come here with plans for staying and promise to leave when their visas expire. That's a contract and condition for getting the visa, and such contracts are the basis for entering any country that practices rule of law. That one is done by the State Department.

There are others just as worthy of note. Illegals who turn themselves in to the Border Patrol in order to get free meals, housing, and transportation to their destinations of choice in the States also agree in their "Notice to Appear" or "Notice to Report" statements in order to be kept out of detention. At last count, only about 40% of them do it, meaning the remaining 60% don't, showing their contempt for the Border Patrol and U.S. law.

Mayorkas is basically saying illegals can ignore the Border Patrol, too. It's even possible to argue that when they get into the States and start to work, they can ignore the IRS as well because, according to Mayorkas, there's no fear of deportation. All of these fall or may fall into the Mayorkas category of "unlawful presence in the United States will alone, not be a basis for enforcement action."

This is quite a bite of power for Mayorkas, given that he rules that illegals are more powerful and important than any of these agencies of the government.

What's more, he was lying. In his statement, he suggested that illegals who break into the country but commit no further crimes will not be deportable. That gave the impression that he was laying down conditions, however low the bar, to declare that illegals who stay out of jail for being a plague on society won't be deported. The reality is that illegals can do pretty much anything they want and not be deported. There is no "alone" in that Mayorkas statement. The sorry deportation statistics are but one indicator.

With Mayorkas running Homeland Security, illegals in fact are free to kill people here and still face no deportation worries at all. A recent case cited by the Washington Times, about how Mayorkas's Department of Homeland Security insisted on lifting a stay of deportation on an illegal in Texas who drove drunk, killed a teenage girl, and fled the scene in a hit-and-run, is making the rounds among the criminals in the illegal-American community.

Heriberto Fuerte-Padilla, an illegal immigrant [sic], was driving drunk in 2020 when he smashed into the car driven by a Texas teenager, killing her. He tried to flee the scene, but police caught up with him. The Homeland Security Department initially said it wanted authorities to pick him up and deport him once Texas punished him, but then it changed its mind. Under rules issued in September by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Fuerte-Padilla doesn't qualify as a priority anymore. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also told Texas that it was canceling deportation requests  known as "detainers"  on other illegal immigrants [sic], including some who pleaded guilty to felony charges of evading arrest or had convictions for drunken driving, drug possession or domestic assault injuring a family member.

Even killing someone in a hit-and-run isn't good enough to get an illegal deported, because Mayorkas has declared them "not a priority" but effectively a protected class. They have neither the State Department nor the Border Patrol, nor the basic law on drunk driving or hit-and-run killings, to worry about whatsoever, because they will never be deported.

Isn't it about time this guy got impeached or busted or fired or deported from his job, given his abuse of power? Congress needs to be circling him now, and surely the State Department should be speaking up about this unconscionable incursion on their turf. Mayorkas is power-mad, and he's got to go.

Image: Twitter screen shot.
I don't think it can be said often enough that the leftist establishment's dismissal of all early treatments for COVID in favor of vaccines, followed by hospitalization when people are in extremis, will go down as the greatest slaughter of Americans since the Civil War. Whether driven by politics, profit, or the power that vaccine mandates have given them, the entire leftist establishment dismissed ivermectin as a "horse dewormer," making it almost impossible for doctors to prescribe it. Yet a Japanese study shows that, in fact, ivermectin is both "safe" and "effective."

Because COVID appeared in America during an election year, Democrats and other leftists could not allow Trump to deal with it successfully. That meant they had to slap down any possible treatments and keep the focus on ruinous lockdowns, ineffectual masks, and chimerical vaccines. Any early treatments were dismissed as poisonous. Instead, we were told there was nothing to be done about COVID until we were near death, at which point going to the hospital might save us  especially if we got incredibly expensive, toxic, minimally effective Remdesivir.

When Trump mentioned the possible efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an old, stable, safe malaria medicine, it was instantly shouted down as a deadly fish treatment. That came as a surprise to me because, several years ago, when I was going to Cambodia, Kaiser's travel nurse automatically prescribed HCQ as a prophylactic to prevent my getting malaria. Although I'm the person who always gets the side-effects, I had no problems with HCQ (plus I didn't get malaria).

Then, when word began to emerge from Africa, Latin America, and India that ivermectin, a truly magical anti-parasitical that has changed life across the third world for the better, the establishment instantly tagged it as a "horse dewormer." And once again, Americans were denied a safe, effective early treatment for COVID.

Mind you, these medicines weren't just subject to derision. The FDA refused to authorize them for COVID treatment. Vast HMOs, usually headed by leftists, also refused to allow them to be used in an off-label way. Not only did Meryl Nass, a physician in Maine, have her license suspended for prescribing ivermectin and HCG, but the medical board demanded that she undergo a psychiatric evaluation to get it back.

To understand what was going on, imagine a situation in which you develop an infection  say, a urinary tract infection (UTI). Currently, you're uncomfortable, and it's getting worse. You contact your doctor, seeking an antibiotic.

To your surprise, the doctor tells you you can't have the antibiotic because it might upset your stomach. Instead, the doctor says you should wait until you're running an incredibly high fever, have agonizing abdominal pain, and are beginning to hallucinate. At that point, head to the hospital, and your doctor will see about treating you. Oh, and he'll treat you with an industrial-strength antibiotic that has a 75% chance of permanently damaging your liver and kidneys.



Image: Ivermectin (seized in Austria, a vaccine mandate nation, lest it help people recover) by the Bundesministerium fur Finanzen. CC-BY-2.0.

What you really should do, says your doctor, is get a shot against future UTIs. Never mind that you're generally very unlikely to get a UTI or that UTIs are easily treated in their early stages. He also tells you to ignore that the shot won't actually stop you from getting UTIs. What's important is that it might lessen the chances of your going septic. Maybe. And don't worry about the fact that the shot might damage your heart and increase your chances of cancer. And for God's sake, stop whining...

To add insult to the profound injuries the establishment has inflicted on the American people, with more than 800,000 deaths attributed to COVID, a Japanese study confirms that ivermectin was always safe and effective:

A Japanese conglomerate has found that the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin is effective and safe for the treatment of the coronavirus Omicron variant, according to a phase III clinical trial. Kowa Co. Ltd., a conglomerate with interests in trading, hospitality, and electronics, along with health and medical applications, issued a press release (pdf) on Jan. 31 stating that ivermectin has been found to be effective against Omicron. Kowa representatives didn't respond to a request for comment by press time. The company, working with Kitasato University based in Tokyo, said that ivermectin has the "same antiviral effect" on all "mutant strains," including Alpha, Delta, and Omicron. Kowa added that ivermectin suppresses invasion of the virus and inhibits its replication.

(UPDATE: Epoch Times, to which I've linked, has added the following update: "Correction: This article has been updated to make clear the findings released by Kowa were based on non-clinical trial data. The Epoch Times regrets the error.")

This is like Dorothy discovering that her ruby slippers always had the power to return her to Kansas. However, they wouldn't work as long as she wasn't ready to believe.

We cannot resurrect those who died or remedy the lives destroyed thanks to the establishment's murderous determination to prevent Trump from being re-elected. But one day, when (if) American life returns to normal, the people most responsible for denying treatment to Americans (I'm looking at you, Dr. Fauci) must be put in the dock and tried for crimes against humanity.
To White House spokesweasel Jen Psaki, Americans' concerns about violent crime are a laughing matter.

Get a load of her eye-rolling mockery about the popularity of Fox News's Judge Jeanine Pirro, whose monologues about violent crime have drawn her a huge audience:

As violent crime continues to surge across America, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki mocks Americans discussing the consequences of Democrats'soft-on-crime policies.



What does that even mean? - Psaki said while holding back laughter. pic.twitter.com/oRXyuPeEh0  House Republicans (@HouseGOP) January 31, 2022

Here's my transcription of her wisdom on the matter:

Do you remember the four boxes that you had, that we had on all the TVs, right?  that's on my TV right now? So right now, just to give you a sense, there's CNN  Pentagon: As many as 8,500 troops on heightened alert, OK, true, same on MSNBC, CNBC is doing their own thing about the market, and then on Fox is Jeanine Pirro talking about soft on crime consequences. I mean what (giggle), what does that even mean? So there's an alternate universe on some, uhh, coverage. What's scary about it is a lot of people watch it if you look at Fox on a daily basis. I mean...

She mocked. She guffawed. She chuckled.

Psaki was mocking Pirro's weekend Justice with Jeanine, which was a high-enough-rated show that Fox promoted her to a new role co-hosting their number-two-rated prime-time show, The Five.

Pirro is a former judge who would know a thing or two about violent crime, to say the least.

But more to the point, Psaki was mocking the interest Pirro's show drew in its focus on violent crime, mocking and dismissing it as a non-issue. "I mean what (giggle) what does that mean?"

Apparently, it's unimportant to her. Smash-and-grab robberies, open-air looting, prominent philanthropist shot dead by a cat burglar in her security-guarded home in Beverly Hills, UCLA grad student knifed dead by a bum on parole in Los Angeles, woman pushed in front of a moving subway by another bum in New York City? Young rookie police officers brazenly shot dead by a criminal who belonged in jail in New York? We aren't supposed to be concerned? How about the fact that people avoid downtown areas at night and plan trips based on whether they're likely to be assaulted? How about the closed-down stores, based on the monster quantity of shoplifting?

Nobody should be worried?

What's scary about it is a lot of people watch it if you look at Fox on a daily basis. I mean...

That's what's scary? To normal people, it's the prospect of being pushed in front of a subway or being knifed while working alone in a ritzy furniture store. To Jen, the only scary thing is that people may hear about it and talk about it.

Speaking of "alternate universes," Jen, here's a column from John Kass that she obviously missed:

The story gripping America is violent crime. It is the most important story out there now, and nurtured by woke rogue prosecutors in big cities across the country, many of them supported by leftist billionaire George Soros and other wealthy political donors like him. From murders to mob action, to those videos of looters and smash-and-grabs in high-end retail outlets right before Christmas, from innocents, including bus drivers beaten to a pulp by street mobs, to politicians blaming the victims and the citizens avoiding the downtowns out of fear. It's all of a piece. The increase of violent crime is the number one issue in America. People might not talk about it publicly at work, lest they be accused of some social sin. But they do talk about it when they're alone, in their cars, in their homes, at dinner with their families. You can see it in headlines across the nation, including this one just the other days from ABC News: "It's just crazy': 12 Major Cities Hit All Time Homicide Records: 'It's worse than a war zone around here lately,' a police official said."

Kass calls it a genie that's been let out of the bottle by Democrats themselves, who have unleashed the crime wave by letting criminals out of prison, declining to prosecute thugs, and calling to defund the police.

The Democrats don't want to hear about rogue prosecutors, the lack of arrests and the lack of prosecutions, the violence that it breeds. They don't want to hear about repeat violent offenders terrorizing good people. All of this makes them rather uncomfortable. They'd much rather gaslight you, and tell you violent crime is in your imagination, or blame it all on COVID and hope you'll just forget that they were the ones who planted the seeds.

That's exactly what Psaki is doing. Kass had her number even before she spewed her mockery.

What it shows is that for occasional tears and flapdoodle about crime coming from the White House, when there's no avoiding it, they are a cold, hard lot in private and couldn't care less about violent crime or Americans' concerns about it. They see Americans' concerns about crime as "narrative" being spoon-fed to gullible Fox viewers instead of American viewers choosing which shows they'd like to watch, which shows recognize their realities, which happen to be Fox shows. They even laugh about it.

Judge Jeanine now knows that the Bidenites are listening to her as they spew their mockery. They just don't want Americans listening to her. They think violent crime is something funny.

Image: Twitter screen shot.
The state of Florida and its governor, Ron DeSantis, have been under attack by the media, bureaucrats, and Democrat pols since the start of COVID for two reasons: DeSantis has given the public much more freedom than what the power-hungry politicians and bureaucrats want them to have. And because they consider DeSantis a potential presidential candidate in 2024. Results certainly don't matter.

Deaths and hospitalizations have gone up throughout the country, so it is no big deal that they are also going up in Florida.

I thought two things in this article were interesting. Florida has had a lot of freedom, and few mandates, and yet it is 13th in the country in deaths per million.

Also, the ICU beds are clearly not overwhelmed in Florida by COVID patients, vaccinated or unvaccinated, with only 19.81% of ICU beds occupied by people with COVID.

Florida's coronavirus deaths spike to 470 in week; cases up 7.7% to 429,311

First-time positivity rate drops to 29.3%; hospitalizations' 8,914 highest 4 months In deaths per million, Florida is 2,903 (13th in nation) Of the 259 hospitals reporting, 19.81% of the available beds are occupied with coronavirus patients. The total beds in use: 49,257 (83.15%). The previous day 256 hospitals reported.

Here are some important facts we don't seem to see:

New Jersey has the 10th oldest population and 353 deaths per 100,000 population.

New York has the 20th oldest population and 338 deaths per 100,000 population.

Michigan has the 12th oldest population and 322 deaths per 100,000 population.

Massachusetts has the 15th oldest population and 317 deaths per 100,000 population.

Pennsylvania has the 7th oldest population and 316 deaths per 100,000 population.

All of the above states had younger populations than Florida and higher totals. They also had more strict mandates, which shows that the masks and other mandates that reduced freedom for the people are not the solution to reduce deaths.

Florida has the 5th oldest population and 300 deaths per 100,000 population.

Why would we ever require vaccines for truck drivers or anyone else when vaccines don't prevent getting the virus or spreading the virus?

Why would we require masks when states without the mask mandate do as well as or better than states that have the mandate?

Why do the media continually state or imply that ICU beds in hospitals are almost completely used by COVID patients when it is not true?

Only two states had over 50% of ICU beds used by COVID patients: Delaware, which says 86.59% of ICU beds are in use and 56.76% of those are for people with COVID, and Washington, which says 78.38% of ICU beds are in use and improbably says 100% of those are occupied by COVID patients.

Here are some percentages of ICU beds occupied by people with COVID.

New York 34.6%

Arizona 31.23%

California 31.13%

Florida 24.28%

Louisiana 27.86%

Michigan 32.38%

Why do the media send so much intentional misinformation to scare people when the factual numbers are so readily available? The answer is clearly that facts don't matter; the public has to be indoctrinated to believe there are few beds available for anyone and the vaccine is the cure.

81% of ICU beds in use nationwide: How each state stacks up

Maybe Neil Young and Joni Mitchell should remove their music from any platform that spread disinformation from Anthony Fauci, China, the CDC, the NIH, and the WHO the last two years. That should be all platforms.

Here is some of the misinformation that has been spread intentionally or unintentionally, and no one censors these "experts" who pretend every one of their pronouncements is based on science. That is pure BS:

WHO in January 2020: COVID will not spread human to human.

Dr. Fauci in February 2020: The virus will cause minuscule problems in the U.S.

CDC in March 2020: The disease will easily spread off surfaces. That lie was corrected in May.

CDC in March 2020: Children must be separated by six feet in schools. Later they said three feet was OK, which means there was never any science justifying the six feet.

CDC in the spring of 2020: Plexiglas needs to go up to stop the virus. Later it was determined that Plexiglas could cause more harm than good. That means there was never any science to justify the original pronouncement. How much money was wasted?

How much physical, mental, and financial damage has been caused to children for all the misinformation that kept schools closed at the behest of teachers' unions?

Most of the media, Fauci, and others in the spring of 2020: It is an unproven conspiracy that the lab was the cause of the virus. How much damage has been caused because Fauci and others lied to bury the story? How many deaths may have been caused because the U.S. funded the Wuhan lab? Why don't Pelosi and the Justice Department care?

It would be helpful if journalists, musicians, and royals did a little research before they sought to destroy and silence people they disagree with.

Repeating talking points from so-called "experts" who willingly spread misinformation takes zero intelligence.

Joe Rogan points out that a lot of what has been classified as misinformation is now recognized as true.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.
For anyone who doesn't watch the mainstream media, what's happening in Canada has been one of the most exciting things in the two years since COVID left China and turned most of the world's Western politicians into tyrants. Across Canada, outside the despotic confines of Justin Trudeau's brain and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, people are galvanized by the 45-mile-long truckers' convoy that drove into Ottawa in pursuit of liberty. The Canadian opposition, however, although given a golden political opportunity, had nothing to say for a week, only stirring itself on Monday to a few weak pieties. Jordan Peterson gave them a solid scolding for their dismal performance.

Unsurprisingly, Sundance, at The Conservative Treehouse, noticed that Canada's conservatives couldn't bestir themselves to capitalize on the truckers' inspiring stand. He grouped their passivity with the silence of conservative leadership in Australia, Canada, and the U.K. I would add that we can say the same about most congressional "conservatives" in America.

The way I see it, across the Western world, so-called conservatives come from the same class as the leftists. They've all been to the same schools, and, even if the conservatives oppose socialism when push comes to shove, they all share the same disdain for the working people who make the world go. Photo ops are one thing; letting the "little people" be around them unmasked and unjabbed is another thing entirely. And of course, a lot of these politicians are cowards, whether moral or physical (or, as we see from "Brave" Sir Justin, the Runaway Prime Minister, both).



Image: Jordan Peterson. YouTube screen grab.

But back to Canada's cowards...sorry, conservatives. Here's Sundance:

As the working class Canadians rally behind their blue collar truck drivers, the invisibility of strong, opposing voices to the leftist government they are challenging is brutally obvious. It is almost painful to watch this play out. Where are the men of courage? And, that question has nothing to do with gender. I generally try to stay out of the issue of questioning representative government in other nations; however, when you see the people of Canada crying for freedom, trying desperately to take back their individual liberty, there comes a time when all the free people of the world have no more tongue to bite.

Sundance includes a video of Pierre Poilievre, who is apparently a conservative, scolding Trudeau for having bad form. I got bored quickly and have no idea if he ever got around to defending the truckers and their call for freedom.

One famous, articulate, brilliant Canadian also noticed the pathetic, near invisible response from conservatives as their countrymen, peacefully (no arrests at all in Ottawa) are going to the mat for the liberties they grew up with before COVID gave Trudeau the ability to turn theirs into a prison country. That man is Jordan Peterson. In a short video made while traveling, he tells Canada's ostensibly conservative political leaders that it's time for them to step up and seize the day:

I'm sorry to say this to Jordan Peterson, but I doubt they will. The absolute best tweet to comment on Western leaders' active opposition to or frustrated silence with ordinary people's protests against COVID restrictions is from Kurt Schlichter. And while Kurt tags the socialists, what he says applies to Canada's, and most of the West's, political class, across the spectrum:
Marwan Kheireddine runs AM Bank with an entrepreneurial spirit. His door is always open and you won't find him wearing a suit unless he has a meeting at the central bank. He's usually sporting jeans and a T-shirt so he can dive in and make major deals with ease. With a vested interest in the private sector, Marwan Kheireddine brought Virgin Megastore to Lebanon, introduced credit cards to the region, and is passionate about supporting startups in the Lebanese market and working with young entrepreneurs. He also served as a minister of state in the government of Lebanon from 2011 to 2014.

In 2014, AM Bank pioneered a project under Circular 331."We are very proud to be the first bank to launch the pilot project under Circular 331, as it set a precedent in the ecosystem of entrepreneurs and the evolution of banks as a whole," Kheireddine said of the Banque du Liban initiative that dropped $400 million into the Lebanese enterprise market.

Although the banking mogul is often asked for business advice, Marwan Kheireddine admits he rarely offers any.

Skip the Business Tips

"I typically don't give advice because in my culture, when you give advice, you become financially more responsible because you've given the advice," Marwan Kheireddine says. "I have found over the years that the best formula would be to explore options with whoever is asking you for advice and to try and shed light on something that maybe they don't see."

The founding member of Young Arab Leaders finds it easy to influence people because of his position and it's something he doesn't take lightly.

"If someone comes and asks me about a project, I can easily influence their decision and tell them, 'Go do that,'" he says. "And I did that in the past and regretted it because when I say 'Go do that,' I assume that they will know how to do that. A lot of people went to do it and didn't know how to and they failed."

Inspire Others To Make Their Own Decisions

Experience taught Marwan Kheireddine that he shouldn't offer counsel. "I would rather explore options with whoever asks me for advice and then let them decide," Marwan Kheireddine says. "Let them make the decision. They are responsible for that decision. At best, I would've acted as a consultant to them. So I don't like offering advice now."

Twenty years ago, Marwan Kheireddine says it was a different ballgame. "Back then, I would offer advice to anyone in a split second," Marwan Kheireddine recalls. "But I realized that not everyone is structured in the same way. Not every person has the same abilities. Not every person would understand it the way you mean it. So I prefer to explore options with anyone asking me for advice and then let them decide on the best course of action that suits them."

Leadership Skills Must Be Nourished

When it comes to leadership, Marwan Kheireddine offers a unique perspective. "I think with leadership, you develop skills and nurture leadership. You have to have it. You can't really learn it," Marwan Kheireddine says. "I think you can learn what needs to be done to be a leader because you can read that in books and take courses on it. But I think you need to have some leadership skills to start with."

Marwan Kheireddine's first encounter with leadership began when he was a Boy Scout. As a youngster, he moved up the troop ranks and tinkered with his first experience with being in charge. It instilled a strong sense of motivation in him and an urgency to inspire others.

"I learned how to manage people and how to talk to people," Marwan Kheireddine says. "But then, I developed all of that through education and experience."

Never Stop Learning

Marwan Kheireddine remains committed to continually furthering his education.

"Until this day, there's rarely a year that passes that I do not take some form of a course that expands my education," Marwan Kheireddine says. "Nourishing your brain is really important."

Marwan Kheireddine also advises those seeking to strengthen their leadership skills to learn from professors in the classroom and experts in one's chosen field.

And when one studies at world-leading institutions, he believes one has two advantages. "Obviously the professors who are teaching you are very good in their field, but more importantly, the people with whom you interact, who are sitting in the classroom, are all running companies that are typically larger than yours," he says. "They're all older than you and you learn so much by being with them in the classroom, by being in study groups and going over case studies."

Marwan Kheireddine estimates he has conducted around 500 case studies on 500 successful companies over the past two decades. "In these studies, you go into detail, where you learn and meet the CEO and you have interactions with them. Learning is a continual process. And I believe in that wholeheartedly and I will continue to do it."

Surround Yourself With the Best People

Although Marwan Kheireddine says he hasn't had one specific mentor, he does have multiple mentors he consults for specific needs.

"In terms of leadership, for example, I go to a specific guy that I look up to for his leadership skills," Marwan Kheireddine says. "I'll speak with different people who work for me. While I didn't have one specific mentor, I have an inventory of skills in my head where I know where to go for specific reasons. I don't have a one-stop shop. I have 10 people that I go to and they all mentor me in something that they are much better at than me."

Strengthen Your Public Speaking Skills

In addition to leadership workshops, Marwan Kheireddine has offered Lebanese youth priceless wisdom while teaching at the American University of Beirut. Marwan Kheireddine taught financial and business courses at the university for 20 years. Connecting with his students is something Marwan Kheireddine remains passionate about. Some have even gone on to work for him. The experience of teaching brought Marwan Kheireddine deep satisfaction. He often runs into students he mentored when he's at the airport or out doing business in Lebanon, and it's a feeling that brings him great joy. Great leaders should also have strong public speaking skills, according to Marwan Kheireddine and that's another bonus of working in the classroom.

"Teaching really helped me develop my public speaking skills," Marwan Kheireddine says, "I can speak about complex issues in a very simple way. And I learned that standing in front of students over 20 years."

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Whoopi Goldberg (born Caryn Johnson and most decidedly not Jewish), de-Judaized the Holocaust, a strikingly antisemitic act. After a deserved uproar, she apologized, but that's not good enough. Just as Sharon Osborne and Roseanne Barr got fired for offending racial shibboleths, Goldberg needs to go.

Goldberg, a staple on The View, a show in which several inane left-wing women loudly opine about the issues of the day, dismissed the Holocaust as a uniquely Jewish event and, essentially, said a lot of people died during World War II, so the Jews shouldn't make it all about themselves. And by saying it was a White-on-White crime, she obliquely asserted an argument I've heard from Blacks, which is that Blacks suffered slavery for centuries in America, so the Jews shouldn't make such a big deal about the few years of the Holocaust.

On Monday's The View, the harridans...er, ladies were talking about the misreported claim that a Tennessee school district censored Art Spiegelman's overrated Maus, which is essentially a comic book about the Holocaust (and yes, I have read it, and I came away feeling that it was a barely acceptable allegory). In fact, the school approves of teaching about the Holocaust. It simply believed that the book was so graphic that it was age-inappropriate for middle-schoolers. The false narrative served its purpose, though, by calling red-staters antisemites.

Whoopi's antisemitism, though, was open and obvious. She said explicitly that the Holocaust wasn't about race, saying, instead, "This is White people doing it to White people," and "It's not about race. ... It's about man's inhumanity to man. ... These are two groups of White people[.]"

Falsely claiming Maus was "banned" by a school in Tennessee, Whoopi suggests they actually enjoyed the idea of killing 6 million Jews. "The killing of 6 million people, but that didn't bother you?"

Behar agreed, calling the citing of nudity in the book for 8th graders a "canard." pic.twitter.com/vJ5HwlLMsi  Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 31, 2022

First, Jews are a race, and I've got the DNA evidence within me to prove it. Second, Hitler was determined to destroy an entire race, and part of why he lost the war was that he was so fanatically dedicated to the task that he diverted troops, trains, and other war materiel from the eastern front to continue the job. So successful was he that he managed to murder 75% of European Jewry and would have murdered 100% if his military defeats hadn't stopped him. That's about race.

Second, this is part of a leftist practice of "de-Judaizing" the Holocaust. If you go to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, you will discover that the tour feeds into a room that manages to blend the Holocaust, a unique evil in history, into just a general display showing how people are mean to each other. In the same way, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect in New York has become an all-purpose "people are mean" place. (I wrote about all that at length here, so I won't repeat myself.)

Third, this is part of a pattern that sees radicalized Blacks dismiss the Holocaust because it competes with their slavery narrative. For them, acknowledging the Holocaust's unique place in modern Western history diminishes slavery's evils. This ignores that, while Blacks were terribly and immorally abused in an institution as old as mankind, they were not liquidated with the goal of erasing them from the Earth.

Fourth, as Ben Shapiro points out, painting the Jews as privileged White people is a way simultaneously to erase actual antisemitism and make the modern leftist version permissible:

The intersectional argument is that Jews are white people, and that Jews are disproportionately successful thanks to "white supremacy." Because racism is "animus plus power," and Jews are powerful because they are white, anti-Semitism from non-white supremacists isn't bigotry.  Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 31, 2022

This logic is also why the Left will embrace and/or justify radical Islamists who wish to destroy the State of Israel rather than siding with a liberal democracy that includes a significant Muslim minority.  Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 31, 2022

The attempt to abstract the causes of the Holocaust from Jew-hatred to "man's inhumanity to man" is actually a way of obscuring and covering for anti-Semitism.  Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 31, 2022

By the way, while Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League did call Whoopi out on her miserable statement, keep in mind that, under his aegis, the ADL has also been de-Judaized. It too uses "privilege," rather than race, to define racism.

Whoopi apologized for what she said:

Not good enough. Roseanne Barr's show was taken from her because she tweeted out a picture of Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett in what was seen as a racist context. Roseanne apologized profusely and explained (probably accurately) that she didn't know Jarrett was Black. But Barr was conservative, so Hollywood locked her out.

And just last year, Sharon Osborne was kicked off The Talk (a View redo) because she dared to support her friend Piers Morgan, who had said, accurately, words to the effect that Meghan Markel is a self-centered, whiny narcissist. Osborne was instantly guilty of racism by association and, despite profuse apologies, she was gone, too.

I hope to see Whoopi Goldberg on the unemployment line by the end of this week. She deserves no less than to be unceremoniously booted to the curb despite her mealy-mouthed apology.

Image: Whoopi Goldberg (edited in befunky). Twitter screen grab.
Back in the 19th century, eastern India was separated from the west by an impenetrable belt of trees made up of mostly thorny plants such as the Indian plum and prickly pear, as well as bamboos and babool trees. They formed a man-made barrier, more than a thousand kilometers long, that snaked all the way from Layyah in Punjab (now in Pakistan) to Burhanpur, on the banks of Narmada.

Photo: Richard Barnes/Shutterstock.com

The Great Hedge of India was planted by the British in the 1840s to strengthen the Inland Customs Line that the colonial rulers set up to exploit one of the most basic ingredients of every Indian foodsalt. Historically, salt was produced on the west coast of India along the Rann of Kutch, a vast salt marsh on the northern extreme of Indias coastline on the Arabian Sea. On the east coast, salt was obtained extensively along the coast of Orissa. Because salt production was restricted to the coastal areas, nearly ever empire that ruled across the country, dating back to Chandragupta Mauryas time (1st century BCE), enforced a salt tax on imports of this commodity into the interior of the country, as a way to increase the states revenue.

By the late 18th century, the British East India Company had a stranglehold on Indias salt trade. The salt works were leased out to the highest bidders, who in turn had to sell salt to the Company at a fixed rate. The East India Company then sold the salt in the open market at greatly inflated prices that very few could afford. This forced many people to stealing from warehouses and others to smuggling salt from the princely states which remained outside of direct British rule. In order to curb this salt smuggling, a series of custom houses and barriers were constructed across major roads and rivers in Bengal to collect tax on traded salt as well as duties on tobacco and other imports. Eventually, this Inland Customs Line extended all the way into Punjab in the north.

The original custom line was constructed out of thorn bushes, cut and piled up high. Some of them took root and by 1868, there was already a green barrier 290 kilometers long. Allan Octavian Hume, Commissioner of Inland Customs from 186770, took note of this fact and realized that it would be far more economical to maintain a live hedge than a dry one. Hume, who was also a botanist, began experimenting with different types of shrubs taking into consideration the different soil and rainfall conditions. The hedge was composed mainly of Indian plum, babool, karonda and Euphorbia. In arid places where nothing else would grow, hardy plants like prickly pear was used. Where the soil was poor, ditches were dug and filled with better soil. Embankments were built in areas that were prone to flooding. Trenches were built to bring water from nearby wells.

Before long, the hedge had grown into a formidable barrier 12 feet high and 14 feet thick at places. Humes successor, G. H. M. Batten, strengthened the barrier by building stone walls and ditches where the land was too barren for the hedge to grow. At its greatest extent, the hedge was at least 1,300 kilometers long. Maintaining the hedge turned out to be quite a task. In 1869 alone, the customs men dug 2 million cubic feet of earth and carried over 150,000 tons of thorny material for the hedge. For all the time and effort that went into building and maintaining the hedge, it was only partially successful. Smugglers forced their way through the hedge with herds of salt-laden camels or cattle. Others threw sacks of salt over the hedge. According to records, between 1877-78, more than six thousand smugglers were apprehended illegally crossing the barrier. An even bigger hurdle was to trade and free travel across the subcontinent.

By the 1870s, the hedge had become a nuisance. Lord Mayo, who was the Viceroy from 1869 to 1872, took the first steps towards abolition of the line, instructing British officials to take control of salt production so that no revenue was lost when the custom line was taken out. A series of financial reforms were introduced that equalized tax across the country and made smuggling unprofitable. Finally, the Inland Customs Line was abandoned in 1879.

The price inequality in salt due to the salt tax led to salt deprivation in millions of Indians living across the Hedge. In regions where price was higher, people consumed less than half of what the average person took west of the line. According to the British governments own records, the barrier directly affected salt consumption, reducing it to below the level that regulations prescribed for English soldiers serving in India. Salt deprivation might have contributed to many diseases worsening health and hindering recoveries. After the Inland Customs Line was abolished, salt consumption grew by 50 percent between 1868 and 1888 and doubled by 1911.

Although the hedge was abolished, salt tax itself did not go away. It remained a controversial subject throughout Indias long fight for independence. The salt tax was finally abolished in October 1946 by the Interim Government of India, just ten months before India gained independence.
Near the end of World War 2, the Allied forces arrested ten German scientists who were thought to have worked on Nazi Germany's nuclear program and housed them together at a bugged country house called Farm Hall in Godmanchester, near Cambridge, England. For six months from July 1945 to January 1946, a team of operators listened to and recorded their conversation in the hope that the scientists would divulge information that would help the Allied determine whether Germany had worked out the intricate details needed for making a working nuclear bomb, and if not, how close they got into making one. The operation was nicknamed Epsilon.

Farm Hall, where the ten German scientists were incarcerated.

The ten scientists who were under observation were Erich Bagge (developed a method to enrich uranium, an essential step to making a nuclear device); Kurt Diebner (the administrative director of the Nazi German nuclear weapons program); Walther Gerlach (co-discovered, along with Otto Stern, the spin quantization in a magnetic field, the SternGerlach effect); Otto Hahn (discovered nuclear fission, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry); Paul Harteck (worked on uranium isotope separation), Werner Heisenberg (known for the uncertainty principle, he was the principal scientist in the German nuclear weapons program); Horst Korsching (worked on isotope separation); Max von Laue (discovered the diffraction of X-rays by crystals); Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker (was one of the first scientist who recognized that nuclear weapons could be built soon after Otto Hahn made public his theory of nuclear fission); and Karl Wirtz (worked on nuclear reactor design).

Top row (L to R): Werner Heisenberg, Paul Harteck, Max von Laue, Otto Hahn

Middle row (L to R): Erich Bagge, Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, Walther Gerlach, Horst Korsching

Third row (L to R): Kurt Diebner, Karl Wirtz

Shortly after they were rounded up and interned at Farm Hall, Kurt Diebner expressed concern that the house might have hidden microphones installed for listening, an idea which Heisenberg naively dismissed. Microphone installed?, he asked rhetorically, Oh no, they're not as cute as all that. I don't think they know the real Gestapo methods; they're a bit old fashioned in that respect.

The most fascinating thing about these conversations is the insight they give into the minds of ten individuals, each weighing for himself a variety of competing loyalties, to humanity, to science, to his country and duty, to his group, to his family and to his career.

The greater part of these conversation revolved around determining how much fissile material was needed before it can possibly undergo a nuclear explosiona value known as the critical mass. None of the scientists had the vaguest idea what the critical mass is for uranium-235; their guesses ranged from a few kilograms to several tons. Heisenbergs own estimate for the critical mass was all over the place. On 6 August 1945 he was heard saying much more than 50 kg, but he was prepared to accept values as large as 500 or even 5000 kg. He then admited to Otto Hahn that he never worked it out properly. A week later, having tackled the problem a bit more seriously, he arrived at a critical mass lying between 20 kg and 210 kg.

It was clear that Heisenberg's miscalculation of the critical mass for a nuclear explosion was of crucial importance for determining German nuclear energy policy during the war. Heisenberg was of the opinion that a nuclear bomb could not be made during the duration of the war, and that conclusion was received with welcome relief. Heisenberg may well have thought that it was not worth spending effort on an accurate calculation before he had better knowledge of the nuclear parameters. Heisenberg, as well as the rest, were probably greatly relieved by the conclusion that there would be no bomb within the duration of the war, thus absolving them from very difficult decisions.

Farm Hall in Godmanchester, England.

In the evening of August 6, when news of the first atomic bomb was relayed to the incarcerated scientists, they were completely staggered. At first they refused to believe it and felt the Americans were bluffing.

All I can suggest is that some dilettante in America who knows very little about it has bluffed them in saying "If you drop this it has the equivalent of 20,000 tons of high explosive" and in reality doesn't work at all, said Heisenberg.

I am willing to believe that it is a high pressure bomb and I don't believe that it has anything to do with uranium but that it is a chemical thing where they have enormously increased the speed of the reaction and enormously increased the whole explosion, Heisenberg added.

When they heard the official announcement at nine oclock, they still could not believe their ears. Otto Hahn was completely shattered for he felt personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, as it was his original discovery (nuclear fission) which had made the bomb possible.

I didn't think it would be possible for another twenty years, Otto Hahn admitted.

He turned to Heisenberg and said, You're just second-raters and you may as well pack up, to which Heisenberg agreed.

They are fifty years further advanced than we, Hahn remarked.

I'm glad we didn't have it, reckoned Karl Wirtz.

I think it's dreadful of the Americans to have done it. I think it is madness on their part, Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker weighed in.

One can't say that, Heisenberg countered. One could equally well say "That's the quickest way of ending the war.

The discussion then turned to why Germany was not able to accomplish what the Americans and the British had. Horst Korsching commented on the immense cooperation a project of such scale required. That would have been impossible in Germany, he said. Each one said that the other was unimportant.

WEIZSACKER: How many people were working on V l and V 2? DIEBNER: Thousands worked on that. HEISENBERG: We wouldn't have had the moral courage to recommend to the Government in the spring of 1942 that they should employ 120,000 men just for building the thing up. WEIZSACKER: I believe the reason we didn't do it was because all the physicists didn't want to do it, on principle. If we had all wanted Germany to win the war we would have succeeded. HAHN: I don't believe that but I am thankful we didn't succeed HEISENBERG: It is possible that the war will be over tomorrow. HARTECK: The following day we will go home. KORSCHING: We will never go home again. HARTECK: If we had worked on an even larger scale we would have been killed by the "Secret Service". Let's be glad that we are still alive. Let us celebrate this evening in that spirit. HEISENBERG: The point is that the whole structure of the relationship between the scientist and the state in Germany was such that although we were not 100% anxious to do it, on the other hand we were so little trusted by the state that even if we had wanted to do it it would not have been easy to get it through. DIEBNER: Because the official people were only interested in immediate results. They didn't want to work on a long-term policy as America did. WEIZSACKER: Even if we had got everything that we wanted, it is by no means certain whether we would have got as far as the Americans and the English have now. It is not a question that we were very nearly as far as they were but it is a fact that we were all convinced that the thing could not be completed during this war.

Heisenberg expressed irritation that he couldnt work out how the Americans had managed to build the bomb. I find it is a disgrace if we, the Professors who have worked on it, cannot at least work out how they did it, he growled.

These fellows have succeeded in separating isotopes. What is there left for us to do?, Wirtz asked.

What depresses me is the thought that all the work we may do in Germany will, so to speak, fall into the laps of other people, Korsching lamented.

The scientists also discussed the scenario where Germany had invented the bomb first.

WIRTZ: The result would have been that we would have obliterated London but would still not have conquered the world, and then they would have dropped them on us. WEIZSACKER: I don 't think we ought to make excuses now because we did not succeed, but we must admit that we didn't want to succeed. If we had put the same energy into it as the Americans and had wanted it as they did, it is quite certain that we would not have succeeded as they would have smashed up the factories. WEIZSACKER: One can say it might have been a much greater tragedy for the world if Germany had had the uranium bomb. Just imagine, if we had destroyed London with uranium bombs it would not have ended the war, and when the war did end, it is still doubtful whether it would have been a good thing.

The scientists also expressed concern about their families and where they might land up after they are released, and whether they would be allowed to return to Germany. Some expressed desire to work for the British or the Americans, and settle in Britain. I would have no pangs of conscience in making neutron sources for the Americans, said Korching

All ten scientists were released from detention on January 3, 1946, after which they were allowed to return to Germany.

Paul Harteck left for Hamburg where he became director of the chemistry department at the University, a position he held until 1950. Harteck them moved to America and became a resident professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice, first before the war in 1937 and the second time in 1952.

Kurt Diebner set up a private Institute for Measuring Instruments in Hamburg, and later became a member of the supervisory board company that oversees exploitation of nuclear energy in ship building and shipping.

After his incarceration, Korsching worked at the Max-Planck Institut fur Physik (MPIP).

Gerlach returned to Germany and became a visiting professor at the University of Bonn. A year later, he became a professor of experimental physics and director of the physics department at the University of Munich, of which he was also the rector.

Max von Laue went back to being acting director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut fur Physik (KWIP) which became the Max-Planck Institut fur Physik. Laue also became an adjunct professor at the University of Gottingen.

Bagge became Professor in Hamburg, later Professor and Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Kiel, Germany. He was also Head of the Gesellschaft fur Kernenergieverwertung in Schiffbau und Schiffahrt (GKSS) near Hamburg.

Weizsacker became director of a department for theoretical physics in the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Gottingen. Later, he became head of the Max Planck Institute for the Research of Living Conditions in the Modern World in Starnberg. He researched and published on the danger of nuclear war, what he saw as the conflict between the First World and the Third World, and the consequences of environmental degradation.

Karl Wirtz worked at the Max-Planck Institut fur Physik, and then he became a professor at the University of Gottingen.

After his return to Germany, Heisenberg became the director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics. Heisenberg together with Hermann Rein was instrumental in the establishment of the Forschungsrat, a research council whose goal was to promote the dialogue between the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany and the scientific community based in Germany.

Otto Hahn took over the presidency of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft from the ailing Max Plank. Hahn also secured Max Planck's agreement to lending his name to the Society, which then became Max Planck Society. After the war, he became a vocal opposer to the use of nuclear energy for military purposes. He saw the application of his scientific discoveries to such ends as a misuse, or even a crime.

# Charles Frank, Operation Epsilon: The Farm Hall Transcripts
A Packed Summer 2022 ahead for Telugu Cinema:- The new release chart of Telugu cinema is out after the makers of RRR announced the new release date. Most of the announced films are biggies and every film needs a comfortable theatrical run for at least two weeks to recover its investments. A two-week cap is very important and mandatory considering the financials involved. But the makers of several films announced their dates without even calculating the economics. Bheemla Nayak is planned just a week after RRR release. This will surely turn out to be a dent for both the films as they would lose the revenues. Acharya and F3 are releasing in a gap of a day and both these films are made on a big budget and they are carrying huge expectations. One of them will have to walk out of the race and find a new release date.

The exhibition industry is struggling because of the pandemic and the low ticket pricing GO in Andhra Pradesh. Before the issues are resolved, the new chart of release dates is out. One film postponement would alter the release dates and the entire chart would be disturbed. Most of the announced films will hunt for an alternate release date to avoid clash. It would be quite tough for the distributors to accommodate theatres for all the biggies and they would not be able to shell out huge amounts in these tight schedules. It is clear that the entire chart of releases would change soon. For now, it is a matter of releasing a new poster and there would be major reshuffles very soon.
(Image source from: timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

Ram Charan's new film is based on Time Travel:- Mega Powerstar Ram Charan is eagerly waiting for the release of RRR and the actor is relaunching himself in Bollywood with this film. The film's success is quite crucial for the actor as he has pan-Indian projects lined up in the coming years. The actor signed a big-budget entertainer in the direction of Shankar and the film also delivers a social message for the society. Ram Charan plays a IAS officer in this actioner and the film is aimed for Sankranthi 2023 release. Kiara Advani is the heroine and Dil Raju is the producer of this untitled flick.

Ram Charan also signed a film in the direction of Gowtam Tinnanuri. The film is said to be based on time travel and Ram Charan travels to the future. Gowtam's idea was quite impressive and Charan gave his immediate nod. The shoot of the film starts later this year and the hunt for the leading lady is currently on. Some top technicians are roped in for the project that will be produced jointly by UV Creations and NVR Cinema. The movie will have its theatrical release during the second half of 2023. Gowtam is eagerly waiting for the release of Jersey featuring Shahid Kapoor in the lead role.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed an order boosting Ukraine's military by 100,000 troops over three years, with greater pay for servicemen, as European support for his standoff with Russia grows.

However, Zelenskiy encouraged legislators to maintain calmness to avoid disorder. He clarified that the move is not a preparation for an upcoming war, "but so that soon and in the future, there will be peace in Ukraine."

Russia has moved not less than 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders and recently sent thousands of soldiers and military hardware to neighboring Belarus for its scheduled military exercises this month. Though, Moscow denies plotting an invasion of Ukraine.

Currently, Ukraine's army numbers are around 250,000, which is much lower in comparison with Russia's overall strength, around 900,000 troops.

Read Also: US, UK Sanctions Target Vladimir Putin Associates if Russia Invade Ukraine; Kremlin Accuses Washington of Stoking Hysteria

Ukraine Got the Support of the West

However, according to Reuters, Ukraine has the support of European countries Poland and Britain in case Russia pursues military aggression.

During a visit to Kyiv, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki assured that Ukraine would receive supplies of weapons, bombs, air-defense systems, and humanitarian assistance from Warsaw.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was scheduled to meet with Zelenskiy later in the day, as part of the West's efforts to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to "find a diplomatic resolution and avoid further bloodshed." The US and Western countries disapproved of the demands of Moscow to reject Ukraine from ever becoming a member of NATO and to pull out the coalitions forces from eastern Europe. The Kremlin reiterated that Putin would respond "when he considers it necessary."

Despite the growing deployments of Russian troops around the Ukraine border, Zelenskiy has consistently opposed US and NATO allies' warnings that Russia may strike Ukraine at any time. He also warned those who take advantage of the ongoing crisis.

"You can despise ... the government, the president, but you can't despise your own people, sow panic in order to reap political gains, keep people in a state of alarm," Zelenskiy told Ukrainian lawmakers.

Russia Continues To Grow Its Forces

Meanwhile, the Pentagon alleged that Moscow has continued to grow its forces around its border with Ukraine, per CNN.

According to Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, additional Russian forces moved in around Belarus and the border with Ukraine over the weekend. He added that Russia was boosting its "naval activity in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic" by adding more ships and naval exercises to boost "capabilities they have at sea, should they need it."

In line with Pentagon's findings, Ukraine's military intelligence service reported last week that Moscow was deploying mercenaries, tanks, and mobile battery units and around 7,000 tonnes of fuel to the area.

Moreover, the US government earlier accused Moscow of sending operatives into eastern Ukraine, possibly to conduct a "false flag operation" that could give Russia a pretext for a military attack. But Kremlin had denied such allegations and provided military support to the separatists, as per Al Jazeera.

Yet, Russian politician Andy Turchak, a top official of the ruling party that supports the Kremlin, said last week that weapons should be dispatched to assist the two regions "deter a military aggression, "clearly being prepared by Kyiv."

Related Article: US State Department Starts Pulling Out Families of Embassy Personnel in Belarus Amid 'Concerning' Russian Military Activity

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
This illustration photo taken in Los Angeles on Jan. 27, 2022, shows a person holding the graphic novel "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. A school board in Tennessee has added to a surge in book bans by conservatives with an order to remove the award-winning 1986 graphic novel on the Holocaust, "Maus," from local student libraries. ()
Anniston, AL (36206)

Today

Partly cloudy. High 89F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 1 - An Ancona court in Tuesday issued the second ruling in seven months that a tetraplegic patient should be give access to assisted suicide under a landmark Constitutional Court sentence regarding DJ Fabo.

The man, 'Antonio', has been ordered to recieve information on how he can end his life, after last June's similar decision for 'Mario', a man who has been tetraplegic for 11 years, said the Luca Coscioni right-to-die association.

Association chief and Radical Party member Marco Cappato was acquitted in December 2019 after he helped 40-year-old blind and tetraplegic Italian ex-DJ Fabiano Antoniani, better known as DJ Fabo, take his own life at a Swiss clinic in 2017.

The Constitutional Court had ruled the previous September that assisting suicide is lawful in some cases, in a landmark ruling in Catholic Italy, where the Church is firmly against assisted suicide.

photo: Cappato (ANSA).


Algeria: prosecutor wants 20-yr sentence for former minister Trial in absentia kicks off, charged with corruption

(ANSAmed) - ALGIERS, FEB 1 - The public prosecutor in the Algerian court of Sidi M'hamed on Tuesday called for former energy minister Chakib Khelil to be sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption, said Algerian news agency APS.



Khelil was in office for 10 years under the presidency of Abdelaziz Bouteflika who then fled abroad.



APS said the prosecutor called for 10 years in jail for Mohamed Meziane, former head of the public hydrocarbon giant Sonatrach, who is a defendant in the same trial.



The recommended prison sentences come with heavy fines and the seizure of all Khelil's properties, as well as those of his family.



APS said the prosecution also asked the court to confirm the international arrest warrant issued in 2019 against the former minister, who fled abroad.



Khelil and Meziane were indicted with other co-defendants for corruption in the case of the Arzew gas complex, located in the northwestern Algerian city of Oran.



They are also charged with granting undue privileges, abuse of office and violation of laws and regulations of the markets, APS said.



Khelil is being tried in absentia while Meziane is serving a prison sentence in Algeria in relation to another case.(ANSAmed).




Morocco: appeals court calls for 10 years for Raissouni Charged with sexual abuse, known for critiques of those in power

(ANSAmed) - RABAT, FEB 1 - The Casablanca Court of Appeals has called for 10 years in prison for Moroccan journalist Souolaimane Raissouni.



Raissouni was a columnist at the now-shuttered Moroccan daily Akhbar Al Ayoum and was sentenced in first instance to five years for sexual assault.



He is known for his critical tones towards power and the authorities, saw the request for his prison time increase in the appeals court, where the next hearing is set for Monday.



Raissouni has been in prison since 2020, when a young man came forward with accusations of abuse.



The journalist has proclaimed his innocence and said he is convinced he is being "persecuted for his opinions." He went on a hunger strike for 122 days between February and June 2021, which kept him away from the courtroom where the first part of the first instance trial was taking place.



All requests for his release were rejected, including one from the organisation Reporter sans frontieres.



Raissouni remained impassive in the courtroom during Tuesday's hearing in Casablanca, as the prosecutor showed evidence he said was "irrefutable proof of guilt", that of the "courageous statements" made by the alleged victim, including "messages and audio recordings between the two", which prompted the prosecutor to ask for double the sentence imposed by the first-instance judge.(ANSAmed).




BEIRUT - Two Syrian children froze to death at two refugee camps in the Idlib region in the country's northwest, which is outside of government control and close to the border with Turkey, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Tuesday.



It said a seven-year-old child froze to death during the night, despite receiving emergency medical treatment, and a two-month-old baby girl died of hypothermia.



Another child died of cold on January 23 in one of the refugee camps in the Syrian northwest.



Including the deaths reported Tuesday, a total of six children have frozen to death in the past four weeks in the country's northwest.



In recent days the UN Humanitarian Coordination Office (OCHA) expressed concern about freezing temperatures throughout northern Syria, where about four million civilians have been living for years both inside and outside refugee camps.



The majority of these refugees are women and children who urgently need humanitarian aid.


ROME - The Jesuit refugee service in Rome, Centro Astalli, is calling for an end to Italy's Memorandum of Understanding with Libya.



The agreement was signed five years ago to prevent migrants from coming to Europe.



However, Centro Astalli said, according to international sources about 82,000 people have been intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard over the past five years and forcibly returned to the country they were trying to escape from.



"Libya today, as it was then, is not a safe country," Centro Astalli said.



"Systematic violations of international conventions on asylum and respect for human rights are widely documented".



"In these five years at Centro Astalli we have listened every day to the stories of those who managed to arrive alive in Italy, relying on traffickers," said Father Camillo Ripamonti, Centro Astalli president.



"This is a minimal percentage of the many who have tried in vain to cross the Mediterranean, mostly very young men and women. Many bear the signs of torture, and they speak of friends, relatives, and children who died of starvation or were killed in front of their eyes. The women we assist are almost all victims of violence and torture. Italy, supporting the policies of European closure, continues to be complicit in an atrocity," he said.



Centro Astalli is calling for an end to the agreement and for investing resources to evacuate migrants from Libya, as has been done in the past for small numbers of vulnerable people.



It is also calling for legal and safe entry routes to Italy, such as humanitarian channels, and stable and structural resettlement programmes for significant and proportional shares of asylum seekers and refugees managed by national governments with the support of the United Nations and NGOs; adequate entry quotas for migrant workers, not only for labour, but for real chances for reception and integration on a continent of 450 million inhabitants that in 2021 welcomed less than 200,000 migrants, according to Frontex data; and a widespread search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean, "until the yoke of traffickers is broken, with planned and structural management of migratory flows into Europe".
The Chinese technology company OPPO is rumored to release a cheaper alternative to Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3. In addition to this, the anticipated device is also expected to release in the third quarter of 2022.

OPPO Will Launch Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 Competitor

According to Digital Trends, the recently launched OPPO Find N is a well-received Galaxy Z Fold 3 challenger, and the company appears to be going all-in on the folding category.

Additionally, it seems that the Chinese technology company is working on a flippable phone to compete with Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 3. Several reports stated that the rumored OPPO device will be less expensive than the Samsung hinged device, making it more accessible to Chinese and foreign consumers.

Unfortunately, it will also be yet another device unavailable in the United States.

To further emphasize the OPPO flip phone leaks, tipster Mukul Sharma claims through his Twitter account that the OPPO flip phone will be available in the third quarter of 2022, per 91 Mobiles.

However, we are not sure if the release date is for a China-only or global release. While the name of the foldable smartphone has yet to be revealed, it is expected to be released under the OPPO Find line.

91 Mobiles also furthered that the Chinese firm is also planning to release another foldable smartphone, possibly a successor to the OPPO Find N. The current foldable has a lot going for it, including a compact design that fits nicely in the hand and allows for a usable front display.

However, this resulted in a square shaped foldable display that can't accommodate as much contents as the Galaxy Z Fold 3. There's no news on whether the replacement will keep the design language, but we expect it to be based on the same compact framework.

Read Also: Apple Now Supports Unlisted Apps: How to Request a Link for an Unlisted App

Since there is no specific specs and details released yet about the rumored OPPO flip phone, tracing back the previous OPPO Find N launch could help us identify the things to expect for the upcoming smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 Vs. OPPO Find N: Design

Android Headlines explained that the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the OPPO Find N are both built of metal and glass, yet they have very different looks. The Z Flip 3 is a clamshell-style foldable with a horizontal hinge that folds vertically.

Meanwhile, the OPPO Find N works in the other direction, opening up like a book, similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The two devices are comparable in width when folded, however the OPPO Find N is significantly shorter at all times.

Furthermore, the OPPO device features a display camera hole on both screens, however the Z Flip 3 only has one on the main screen due to its thin secondary panel.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 Vs. OPPO Find N: Display

The main display on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is 6.7 inches fullHD+ (2640 x 1080). That is a flat Super AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate.

It does support HDR10+ video and has a max brightness of 1,200 nits.

That display features a camera hole in the middle, while the secondary display is a 1.9-inch Super AMOLED panel with 260 x 512 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate.

For the OPPO Find N, it has a 7.1-inch primary display with a resolution of 1920 x 1792 pixels. That is a 1,000-nit LTPO AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 120Hz refresh rate.

Its secondary display has a resolution of 1972 x 988 pixels and measures 5.49 inches. Surprisingly, the second panel is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and is curved on the right side.

The top-left corner of these two displays has a display camera hole.



Related Article: Worried About Your Samsung Galaxy S21 Battery Draining Fast? Major Reasons, How to Fix It
MANSOURA - Patrick Zaki's trial has been adjourned until April 6, the Egyptian University of Bologna student himself told ANSA.



Commenting on the news, Amnesty International Italy spokesman Riccardo Noury said it's "still an enormously long wait for Patrick to finally have his freedom".



"April 6 is a recurring date. In 2020 and 2021 there were other hearings on the same date. We hope this is the last day that Patrick will go before a judge and now we must wait, support him and accompany him in this long wait towards what we hope will be the last hearing," Noury said.
(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, 01 FEB - Cruise ships are returning to Tunisia, after a forced two-year pause due to the Covid pandemic, said the Tunisian tourism ministry in a statement.



It said the first cruise ship will dock at the port of La Goulette on March 23.



It foresees the arrival of 38 cruise ships in the event of an improvement in the health situation at a global and national level.



The return of this type of tourism and its preparations were the focus of a working session coordinated by Tunisian Tourism Minister Mohamed Moez Belhassine, with the president of the National Chamber of Tourism Transport, Slim Ben Jaballah, also in attendance.



The last cruise ship to dock at the port of La Goulette was the Amira on November 14, 2019, carrying 1,090 passengers, of whom 646 were German tourists. (ANSAmed).


The Princess Royal has praised engineers for rising to the challenges of the pandemic.

Anne, marking the announcement of the winner of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, recorded a message of thanks to the engineering industry.

The princess is following in the footsteps of her late father the Duke of Edinburgh with her interest in the field, and once said had she not been a royal, she would have been an engineer.

As part of today's #QEPrize2022 announcement, HRH The Princess Royal shared a message of thanks to engineers who have risen to the challenges of the pandemic, working tirelessly to develop new drugs and vaccines. @RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/r1w1OUdb9k  Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize) (@QEPrize) February 1, 2022

In the video message, Anne said: The Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact the lives of billions of people around the globe, requiring us to adapt flexibly and swiftly to the ever evolving challenges it presents.

But as is always the case, engineering rises to these challenges. Without their efforts, life during the pandemic would have been very different.

She hailed the work of medical engineering and the speed at which vaccines have been delivered safely and effectively, saying it was incredible to witness the developments.

The Princess Royal and the Duke of Edinburgh (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Anne added: Covid-19 has illustrated just how much the world relies on engineering and engineers in all areas of our lives.

Throughout the pandemic, the response of the engineering community has been extraordinary.

From the first months, where rapid deployment of testing systems and ventilators provided vital assistance to healthcare professionals, to the maintenance of a global communication infrastructure, every facet of engineering has played a part.

The 2022 winner of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering is Japanese engineer Dr Masato Sagawa for his pioneering work on the worlds most powerful permanent magnet.

The #QEPrize2022 is awarded to Dr Masato Sagawa for the discovery, development and global commercialisation of the worlds strongest permanent magnet, which has been transformational in its contribution towards enabling cleaner, energy saving technologies. https://t.co/jVdVouoped pic.twitter.com/JTvIk9J366  Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize) (@QEPrize) February 1, 2022

The breakthrough  a sintered neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) magnet  has contributed towards cleaner, energy-saving technologies and is now used in mobile phones, microphones, MRI scanners, electric vehicles, wind turbines and robots.

The annual prize champions bold, groundbreaking engineering innovation which is of global benefit to humanity.

Anne said the award recognised those who showed ingenuity, resilience and collaboration.

The princess missed Christmas with the Queen at Windsor after having to isolate when her husband Admiral Sir Tim Laurence tested positive for coronavirus.
Two nurses working on Long Island, New York, are accused of forging Covid-19 immunization cards and inputting them into the state's database, a scheme that allegedly netted more than $1.5 million.

Julie DeVuono, 49, and Marissa Urrao, 44, who worked at Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare in Amityville, were arrested for selling bogus vaccine cards that would land in the New York State Immunization Information System database.

DeVuono is the owner and operator of the clinic.

The duo allegedly asked their victims $220 per adult and $80 per kid, which started in November 2021.

According to a CNBC report, the undercover detectives told prosecutors that they were given vaccine cards at the pediatric office on "one or more occasions."

The duo then creates records to indicate that a vaccine was given despite never administering any.

Further, the report also said that officers were able to seize $900,000 during a probe on DeVuono's residence.

They also discovered a ledger detailing over $1.5 million in proceeds from the operation.

DeVuono and Urraro are each being charged with one count of second-degree forgery.

Aside from that, DeVuono is also being charged with an additional count of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree.

In an NBC report, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said that as nurses, DeVuono and Urrao should have known that it is important to have legitimate vaccination cards as they also play a vital role in protecting public health.

Read Also: Telegram App Scam: Beware of Fake Vaccine Cards For Sale!

DeVuono's Husband Is Under Probe

Derin DeVuono, a New York Police Department (NYPD) officer and husband of Julie DeVuono, is being probed for his alleged involvement in the vaccine scam where his wife Julie played a part.

According to Gizmodo, Derin DeVuono is now being investigated by the NYPD's internal affairs division to see if he was involved in funneling illegal business to his wife's clinic.

When asked for a comment on the report, Gizmodo said the NYPD did not respond on whether Derin DeVuono has been suspended or if he is facing any other disciplinary action from the department.

Meanwhile, New York Daily News reported that in 2020, Derin DeVuono lost five vacation days after he was accused of piloting an NYPD spy plane on a penis-shaped flight path in 2017 when he was a member of the department's Aviation Unit.

Aside from the threat of the virus itself, the pandemic has also exposed people to different kinds of vulnerabilities, ranging from online or cyber-threats to scams like this.

In another article, Gizmodo reported that forgeries of vaccine cards appeared to be homemade as templates become widely accessible online.

Moreover, the report indicated that officials have seized over 6000 forgeries in September 2021, which has proved that forgery has become a lucrative business opportunity.

It is good to know that such activities are abruptly being detected.

While it is true that the pandemic is still posing a lot of uncertainties two years after it started bringing havoc, resorting to something illegal is not the solution.

Related Article: COVID-19 Omicron Variant Causes Surge in Related Scams: How to Avoid Fake Tests and Phishing Attacks
Boris Johnson will reaffirm his support for Ukraine with 88 million of aid for the country as he urged Russia to avoid further bloodshed.

The Prime Minister will meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyon on Tuesday, and has committed money from the UKs Good Governance Fund to help support stable governance and energy independence.

As well as supporting transparency and anti-corruption initiatives, some of the 88 million announced will go towards efforts to reduce Ukraines reliance on Russian energy supplies.

Mr Johnson said: It is the right of every Ukrainian to determine how they are governed. As a friend and a democratic partner, the UK will continue to uphold Ukraines sovereignty in the face of those who seek to destroy it.

We urge Russia to step back and engage in dialogue to find a diplomatic resolution and avoid further bloodshed.

It comes as more than 100,000 Russian troops were amassed on the Ukrainian border, and Russia President Vladimir Putin has so far resisted calls to deescalate tensions.

Downing Street said that since 2015, British Armed Forces had trained more than 22,000 Ukrainian troops, and that the UK also defends the rule of law in the country by helping to reduce corruption.

But Mr Johnson, on his visit to Kyiv, is expected to discuss a full range of strategic UK support on offer.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced plans for legislation with new powers to sanction individuals and businesses linked to the Russian state, in light of the aggression in Ukraine.

We will be able to target any company that is linked to the Russian state, engages in business of economic significance to the Russian state or operates in a sector of strategic significance to the Russian state, she told MPs.

The Ukrainian Embassy in London (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

This will be the toughest sanction regime against Russia we have ever had and it is the most radical departure in approach since leaving the EU. Those in and around the Kremlin will have nowhere to hide.

Ms Truss was due to join the PM on the trip, but tested positive for coronavirus on Monday evening.

The UK is also expected to bolster military presence in eastern Europe as part of Natos efforts to secure the region.

But British and Nato combat forces are not expected to be deployed in Ukraine, which is not a member of the alliance.

Around 100 British personnel are involved in a training mission in the country.

Mr Putin has denied he is planning an attack but is demanding guarantees Ukraine will never join Nato, while calling on the Western alliance to draw back its forces in eastern Europe.
Navalny (Photo: Sundance Film Festival)

We knew there were going to be some blockbuster documentaries premiering during 2022s primarily virtual Sundance Film Festival, with W. Kamau Bells four-part series We Need to Talk About Cosby digging into the legacy of the disgraced comedian and Evan Rachel Wood opening up about the abuse she suffered at the hands of shock-rocker Marilyn Manson in Amy Bergs Phoenix Rising.

But it was Sundances secret screening, the late-breaking doc Navalny that ultimately ruled the festivals non-fiction offerings, winning the Audience Award on Friday.

Navalny was announced so late  five days into the festival  because of its highly sensitive subject matter. Directed by Daniel Roher (Once Were Brothers), the film presents an intimate look at Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, social media sensation and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin who survived a poisoning attack in 2020 widely believed to have been orchestrated by the Kremlin.

As Roher noted introducing the film, Navalnys premiere at the festival was bittersweet considering the politician has been imprisoned under highly dubious circumstances for the past year.

I want every single human being on the planet Earth to know the name Alexei Navalny, Roher said during a post-screening Q&A. I want that name to be associated with a grotesque injustice being perpetrated by the Russian state against a man who survived a murder attempt and then was arrested for merely surviving. I want there to be a global outrage and outcry because of Alexeis detainment, and I want people to stop doing business with the Russians, and I want there to be reasonable expectations for Navalnys release.

Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny is seen on the screen in court as he appeals his prison sentence for being "prone to extremism." (Photo: Anna Ustinova\TASS via Getty Images)

Also present at the Q&A was Alexeis daughter, Dasha Navalny (also known as Daria), a psychology student at Stanford who provided a brief update on her fathers wellbeing.

We are doing good, considering everything. Our primary thinking with this movie coming out is that we want Alexei to be released, she said. My dad is doing OK, but excited to see the movie if he ever gets to.

Navalny arrived at Sundance with distribution already intact  CNN Films and HBO Max will release at a date to be announced later in 2022  as did We Need to Talk About Cosby (which premiered Saturday on Showtime) and Phoenix Rising (HBO will premiere it in two parts sometime this year).

But as usual, there was a slew of acquisitions, topped by Apple TV+s $15 million purchase of Cha Cha Real Smooth, writer-director-star Cooper Raiffs buzzy dramedy in which he plays a bar mitzvah party starter who strikes up tender relationships with a young mother (Dakota Johnson) and her autistic daughter (Vanessa Burghardt). Other big-ticket sales included the sexual discovery story Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Fox Searchlight for $7.5 million) and the Akira Kurosawa remake Living (Sony Pictures Classics for $5 million), which generated major kudos for, respectively, Emma Thompson and Bill Nighy. Stephanie Allynne and Tig Notaros thirty-something coming-out comedy Am I OK? (also starring Dakota Johnson, who had quite the fest), meanwhile, went to Warner Bros./HBO for a reported $7 million.

Price tags aside, these were our favorite films screened at Sundance 2022 (listed in alphabetical order), along with their release info:

Descendant

In exploring the discovery of the sunken Clotilda, the last known slave ship to arrive in the U.S. (more than half a century after the trafficking and sale of human bodies was outlawed) in Alabamas Mobile River, documentarian Margaret Brown also turns the lense on the people of Africatown, known descendants of the enslaved people on that ship, in this phenomenally illuminating and profound history lesson. In turn Descendant makes one of the most striking arguments for reparations ever put on film, the people of the industrial-surrounded Africatown still being victimized by the same wealth and racial power structure today that existed in the 19th century. The argument but that was hundreds of years ago doesnt cut it here.  K.P.

How you can see it:Descendant was acquired by Netflix and Barack and Michelle Obamas production company, Higher Ground, and is expected to be released later this year.

Dual

The Last Duel is so 2021  this year the only duel that matters is Karen Gillan vs.  Karen Gillan? The Guardians of the Galaxy scene-stealer headlines Riley Stearnss dryly hilarious sci-fi picture Dual as Sarah, a young woman who makes the dubious decision to clone herself after being misdiagnosed with a terminal illness. That decision only grows more dubious when the cloned Sarah tries to claim the originals friends and family as her own, setting the stage for a government-mandated duel to the death. Good thing that Sarah Prime has an expert in bad behavior  former Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul  as her trainer. Filled with the same deadpan humor and casual bursts of violence that distinguished Stearnss previous film, 2019s The Art of Self-Defense, Dual has the goods to be a midnight movie staple.  E.A.

How you can see it: RLJE Films is certainly betting on Dual's future cult following, picking up the movie in a reported seven-figure deal with a release date TBD.

Emergency

Emergency (Photo: Sundance Film Festival)

If we were looking for reference points to describe Carey Williamss darkly comedic thriller it would go something like Superbad meets Very Bad Things meets The Hate U Give. But that movie math doesnt do justice to this freshly conceptualized (its script won K.D. Davila the screenwriting award), hilariously executed film. A pair of Black college students (Donald Watkins and RJ Cyler) and their Latino roommate (Sebastian Chacon) find a white girl passed out in their house, but are too afraid of what the cops might do to them if they call 911. A night of very funny hijinks and razor-sharp social commentary ensues in a film youll be hearing much more about in the months to come.  K.P.

How you can see it:Emergency opens in theater May 20 before premiering on Amazon Prime Video May 27.

Fire of Love

Better cue up your Elvis playlist, because Sara Dosas instantly acclaimed documentary Fire of Love made festival-goers temperatures rise. Working with hundreds of hours of archival footage shot by late volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, the film tracks their decades-long marriage to each other and, more importantly, to the art and science of filming erupting volcanos. Scored to Nicolas Godins majestic score and filmmaker Miranda July whimsical narration and featuring some of the most spectacular nature photography youll see, Fire of Love is a visual experience that cries out for the big screen.  E.A.

How you can see it: National Geographic will make sure general audiences see it big. The nature giants documentary arm  which previously released 2018 Oscar-winner Free Solo and this years Oscar hopeful The Rescue broke a heated bidding war by writing a seven-figure check to acquire the film with a theatrical release on the horizon later this year.

Fresh

Fresh (Photo: Sundance Film Festival)

Fresh is absolutely one of those movies youll want to know as little as possible about heading into, so well just tease this as the plot: It follows a single white female (Daisy Edgar-Jones) tired of the dating game who thinks shes finally found Mr. Right in Sebastian Stans plastic surgeon, only to find very, very, very disturbing things about him. American Psycho comparisons may abound, but its only like American Psycho if you watched that film in a state of infinite unease, nervously devising ideas in which ways one of Patrick Batemans victims could escape and savagely murder him. Stan (Marvels Winter Soldier) is a glorious creep, Edgar-Jones (Normal People) proves shes the real deal and director Mimi Cave has made one of the best psychological thrillers in years with this nerve-wrackingly tense instant genre classic.  K.P.

How you can see it:Fresh was acquired by Fox Searchlight and will stream exclusively on Hulu beginning March 4.

Gods Country

Thandiwe Newton plays a college professor in the mountainous northwest battling grief over her mothers death and institutional racism at the university when she confronts hunters trespassing on her land. The battle escalates to unpredictable peaks in this slow-burn thriller from director Julian Higgins (who co-wrote the script with Shaye Ogbonna) that keeps things taut until its explosive ending. But our biggest takeaway is: Give Thandiwe Newton more leads. She gives a fiery yet still understated performance that was one of the fests very best.  K.P.

How you can see it:Gods Country is still seeking U.S. distribution.

Living

Heres how Bill Nighy plans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Love Actually next year  winning an Oscar. Richard Curtiss 2003 rom-com hit made the veteran British character actor as recognizable as Keira Knightley, and now Oliver Hermanuss Living is almost certainly going to inject him into the 2023 awards race. An English-language version of Akira Kurosawas 1952 classic Ikiru, the film stars Nighy as a civil servant in post-World War II era London whose quiet life is upended after a doctor diagnoses that he has mere months to live. Adapted by acclaimed novelist, Kazuo Ishiguro  whose past tear-jerkers include The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go  Living will give Anglophile audiences a good cry.  E.A.

How you can see it: Living was bought by Sony Pictures Classics for a reported $5 million price tag. But that number is a drop in the bucket compared to the awards attention that Nighys lovely performance is sure to attract when the movie opens in theaters this fall.

Nanny

Talk about your smooth moves: While Cooper Raiffs Cha Cha Real Smooth was the early favorite to win Sundances coveted Grand Jury Prize, Nikyatu Jusus haunting debut feature Nanny took home that honor instead. And festival audiences couldnt ask for a more surprising  or deserving  winner. A rich fusion of African folk legends and American domestic horrors, the film features a breakout star turn by Titans fan favorite Anna Diop as a Manhattan nanny whose eccentric new employers (Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector) complicate her plans to bring her young son to New York from her native Senegal. Look for it to pop up at additional festivals throughout the year where its taut pace and timely socioeconomic commentary will confirm Jusu as a fresh new filmmaking voice to watch.  E.A.

How you can see it:Nanny is still seeking U.S. distribution, though a deal is likely in progress considering its big Grand Jury win.

Navalny

Daniel Roher scored tremendous access to one of global politics most intriguing figures, Alexei Navalny  the charismatic lawyer-turned-opposition leader in Russia who has used his powerful presence on social media to lead a growing revolution against the nations controversial leader, Vladimir Putin. Navalny, of course, barely survived a poisoning attack likely as a result, and tells Roher  and by expansion, the world, through this exceptionally crafted doc  his story while in Germany recovering from the assassination attempt. You wont find a more jaw-dropping sequence in any documentary this year than when Navalny poses as a Kremlin official and calls a man they suspect was involved in the poisoning, only to listen in shock as he admits and replays the entire murder plot. If you were even slightly distrustful of Russias leadership before, wait until you view Navalny.  K.P.

How you can see it: CNN and HBO Max will distribute Navalny later in 2022.

Phoenix Rising

Nearly one year after Evan Rachel Wood first named Marilyn Manson as her abuser, the Westworld star revealed more frightening details about her four-year relationship with the goth rock musician in Amy Bergs two-part documentary Phoenix Rising. The film puts Wood front and center as she explains how her complicated family history, not to mention her early experiences in the film industry, left her susceptible to Mansons grooming. In one particularly harrowing scene, the actress recounts being essentially raped on camera by the singer while shooting a music video. (Manson has denied those allegations.) But Phoenix Rising is also about turning trauma into triumph, as Wood helps spearhead a movement to challenge existing court statutes for abusers and encourage other survivors to share their stories.  E.A.

How you can see it:Phoenix Rising will air on HBO in two parts in March.

We Need to Talk About Cosby

We Need to Talk About Cosby (Photo: Sundance Film Festival)

The next time youre not sure whether you should finish a demanding project, just remember that W. Kamau Bell stuck with We Need to Talk About Cosby and got the explosive docuseries into Sundance. I thought, Maybe this is just going to go away, because its so challenging,' the comedian admitted to Yahoo Entertainment about his acclaimed four-part re-evaluation of Bill Cosbys life and legacy in the wake of Cosbys 2018 conviction on sexual assault charges. But Bell proves hes more than up to the challenge, assembling a wide range of historians, comedians and former Cosby collaborators to talk about his subjects pioneering career, while also leaving plenty of room for a number of Cosby accusers to share their devastating accounts of what was happening behind closed doors.  E.A.

How you can see it:We Need to Talk About Cosby is currently airing on Showtime.

Speak No Evil

Christian Tafdrup's nasty and damn-near nihilistic horror film is equal parts unsettling and blackly hilarious. When a Danish family agrees to an extended vacation with a Dutch couple at their remote home, the visitors ignore all the obvious warning signs that they should ... well, get out. What is it about people that compels us to remain in obviously dangerous situations than risk being direct and impolite? Thats the question at the center of this twisted flick, which explores the dark side of human nature in bracing ways, provided you can deal with the sheer brutality of it all.  Brett Arnold

How you can see it: Take the trip with Speak No Evil when it hits the Shudder streaming service later this year.
Brazen freight train thefts have spiked in Los Angeles, with images of looted packages and abandoned containers capturing headlines and captivating social media  and putting pressure on California Governor Gavin Newsom to address conditions even he likened to "a third world country."

The thefts have sparked a war of words between law enforcement and Union Pacific (UNP), which owns the railroad and has called for stronger deterrence. But the growing problem has become a rallying cry for at least one local official, who is calling for stiffer penalties against criminals exploiting a weak link in the nation's supply chain crisis.

Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview that he's "never seen anything like this. We're seeing more chaos with fewer consequences for those who are committing these acts."

The issue has become more of a problem during the past three months  raising new criticism around L.A. County's no cash bail policy, which has worsened the problem by making it easier for thieves to get released  if they get charged at all.

In a letter to the LA County District Attorney last month, Adrian Guerrero, UP's director of public affairs, noted that rail thefts have skyrocketed by 160% in the county over the past year. On average, 90 containers were compromised every day, the company said.

As a local elected official representing the port of Los Angeles, whenever there's a threat to divert cargo away from this region, it's a threat to our local economy, Buscaino said.

'What the hell is going on?'

California Governor Gavin Newsom visits the site where multiple train looting has occurred along the freight train tracks in Los Angeles, California U.S., January 20, 2022 . REUTERS/David Swanson

Amid a surge in smash and grab retail thefts plaguing California, the train crisis caught Newsom's attention, who in late January visited tracks strewn with garbage. The governor promised statewide coordination as law enforcement and prosecutors pursue petty thieves and organized criminals who have been raiding cargo containers.

"The images looked like a Third World country," Newsom told reporters. "What you saw here in the last week is just not acceptable. So, I took off the suit and tie and said I'm coming because I couldn't take it. I can't turn on the news anymore. What the hell is going on?"

The thefts have exposed a rift between UP and local law enforcement. In a letter released last month, L.A. County DA George Gascon shifted blame on the company for doing "little to secure or lock trains," while insisting the number of cases involving the rail company fell last year. Meanwhile, according to LAPD Deputy Chief Al Labrada, UP has significantly decreased law enforcement staffing.

Gascon, a progressive former San Francisco top prosecutor who was came into office in 2020, insisted that it was very telling that other major railroad operations in the area are not facing the same level of theft at their facilities as UP."

Yet the company defended itself, saying it has "brought in dozens of special agents from across our 23-state network into the Los Angeles area, starting last year. But these agents cannot totally supplant the expertise and investigative skills of the LAPD, especially when it comes to organized theft of cargo," a spokesperson from UP told Yahoo Finance in an email.

Gascon's progressive policies, however, have him facing a recall effort that was officially approved by the Los Angeles County Registrar on Thursday. The effort was spurred by some of his orders that included the elimination of sentence enhancement charges, zero-bail policies and not prosecuting juveniles as adults for many crimes.

'This needs to stop'

Meanwhile, the cargo looting has taken on an added dimension of risk. While most of the stolen property are consumer goods, more than 80 newly manufactured guns were among the items stolen recently, local police officials said last week.

The pilfered firearms included at least 36 pistols and 46 semi-automatic shotguns that were taken from a burglarized container car in August and bound for Tennessee, LAPD said. Only two of those weapons have been recovered thus far, they said.

And last month, Yahoo Finance discovered that one stolen package was addressed to Oregon State Police from BPS Tactical Inc., a custom Law Enforcement gear company.

Buscaino told Yahoo Finance that the prosecutorial response needed to be more stringent. It's about holding people accountable and whether it's installing heavy duty locks or when someone is caught by committing the theft, they need to be prosecuted."

Buscaino is seeking more transparency on package thefts from UP, while directing the Chief Legislative Analyst to report on thefts that include arrests made, whether the cases were referred for prosecution by the City Attorneys Office, District Attorneys Office or U.S. Attorneys office.

Measures would also include bolstering police presence in the area, and preventative measures to deter thefts and trespassing.

Buscaino blasted "finger pointing" between the company and law enforcement officials, adding "I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the letters being sent to various departments and entities, let's get everyone at the table."

While Union Pacific agents have made hundreds of arrests, the company said the partnership with local and state law enforcement, and elected pubic officials is necessary.

The railroad company has been working with its clients to enhance security, testing drones and other high-tech tools. But "criminals [are] out there who are countering the drone deployment by knocking 'em down or shooting 'em down," Buscaino told Yahoo Finance.

"This needs to stop. This is an embarrassment to our city [and] our county," he added.

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

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A guard stands watch over death row cells at San Quentin prison in 2015. (Los Angeles Times)

Nearly three years after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that halted executions in California, the state is accelerating an effort to move incarcerated people off death row and into other prisons.

California voters in 2016 approved Proposition 66, an initiative to speed up executions in the state's complicated death row system. Another provision of the ballot measure allowed for death row inmates to be housed in other prisons, where they are required to work and pay 70% of their income to registered victims.

That effort, called the Condemned Inmate Transfer Pilot Program, has moved more than 100 people off death row at San Quentin State Prison and the Central California Womens Facility and into other locations, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Those who are incarcerated on death row are typically transferred into facilities holding people serving life without parole. The men have been transferred to one of seven other prisons; women were rehoused in another section of the women's facility.

The state agency plans to introduce permanent regulations to expand the two-year pilot, which expired Saturday, and transition it from a voluntary program into a mandatory effort. That will "start the process of phasing out the use of dedicated death row housing in the state," said department spokesperson Vicky Waters, who added that it "would allow for the repurposing of all death row housing units" at the two facilities.

"For the first time in Californias history, eligible death-sentenced individuals may be housed in general population areas where they can have more access to job opportunities enabling them to pay court-ordered restitution to their victims when applicable," Waters said.

The Associated Press first reported the change Monday.

But it could be another two years before the permanent program is fully implemented, Waters said, and those on death row will not be resentenced. Housing placements are also determined on a case-by-case basis, and they factor in behavior and safety needs. Waters said the program has so far been successful. More than $49,000 in restitution had been collected for victims by the end of 2021.

"There have been no safety concerns, and no major disciplinary issues have occurred," she said.

Greg Totten, chief executive of the California District Attorneys Assn., called the program expansion an "administrative function" that lets the state agency keep death row inmates in high security while they work.

"This is an administrative decision. It's not a policy decision on capital punishment," Totten said.

Newsom also included $1.5 million in his January budget proposal to put toward determining how death row housing canbe repurposed.

The new regulations, along with Newsom's budget plan, build on the governor's broader ambition to keep California an execution-free state.

Two months after taking office in 2019, Newsom issued an executive order placing a moratorium on executions; California has not executed prisoners since 2006 after a series of legal challenges to its method of lethal injection. The order at the time affected 737 inmates on Californias death row.

Newsom ordered the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison to be shuttered and suspended the states efforts to devise a method of lethal injection that would pass constitutional muster.

The governor argued that the death penalty discriminates against defendants who are poor, mentally ill, Black or Latino. He also has argued that people incarcerated on death row in California and in other states have been exonerated, proving that innocent people faced the threat of wrongful execution.

"I think premeditated murder is wrong, in all its forms and manifestation, including government-sponsored premeditated murder. I don't support the death penalty, never have," Newsom said during a Monday news conference. "I think there's other ways to hold people to account. Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole being foundationally one of them."

Support for capital punishment continues to dwindle among Californians, with more voters favoring abolishing the death penalty, according to a 2021 UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.

Of those surveyed, 44% said they would vote to repeal the death penalty, and 35% favored allowing executions, with 21% undecided. The poll also found that 48% of California voters supported Newsoms executive order imposing a moratorium on executions in California, compared with 33% who opposed his decision.

There has been talk of creating a constitutional amendment on the 2022 statewide ballot to ban executions, a proposal under consideration in the California Legislature.

California has 694 people on death row: 673 men and 21 women.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Mourners carry the body of Omar Assad, 78, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

JERUSALEM (AP)  The Israeli military said Tuesday it would reprimand a senior officer and remove two others from leadership roles over the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian who was dragged from a car, bound and blindfolded after being stopped at a checkpoint.

It said the soldiers believed Omar Asaad, who has U.S. citizenship, was asleep when they cut his zip-ties and left him face-down in an abandoned building where he had been detained with three other Palestinians last month. The other detainees said they did not know he was there until after the army left.

It's unclear when exactly Asaad died. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead after the other detainees found him unconscious.

The investigation concluded that the incident was a grave and unfortunate event, resulting from a moral failure and poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers, the military said in a statement. A separate criminal investigation by the military police is still underway.

Asaad had extended family living in the United States. The State Department had expressed concern over his death and called for an investigation. Two members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation called on the Biden administration to investigate.

The Israeli military says it thoroughly investigates such incidents. But rights groups say Israel rarely holds soldiers accountable for the deaths of Palestinians. Even in the most shocking cases  and those captured on video  soldiers often get relatively light sentences. Palestinians say they suffer systematic mistreatment living under military occupation.

A Palestinian autopsy said Asaad died of a heart attack caused by psychological tension due to the external violence he was exposed to. It said he suffered from underlying health conditions but also found bruises on his head, redness on his wrists from being bound, and bleeding in his eyelids from being tightly blindfolded.

Asaad was stopped at around 3 a.m. on Jan. 12 at a temporary checkpoint in his home village of Jiljiliya, in the occupied West Bank. The military said he did not have any form of ID and refused to cooperate with the security check." Its investigation found there was no use of violence apart from when (Asaad) was apprehended after refusing to cooperate.

It said the soldiers did not identify signs of distress" when they released the detainees a half-hour later. They assumed that (Asaad) was asleep and did not try to wake him.

The military said the commander of the battalion will be reprimanded and that the platoon commander and company commander will both be removed from their positions and barred from commanding roles for two years.

A cousin of Asaad who lives in the West Bank said the army's response was totally unacceptable" but that there was nothing the family could do unless Asaad's relatives in the U.S. take further action. The cousin asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said the army's statement was adorned with empty words and that the soldiers involved received the faintest of rebukes. It criticized senior Israeli commanders for leading a regime of Jewish supremacy, one in which the human life of Palestinians has no value.

Asaad was born in Jiljilya but spent about 40 years in the United States. He became a U.S. citizen before he returned to his home village in 2009 to retire with his wife, Nazmia, his family in the U.S. told The Associated Press. They spoke before the military released its findings.

Mourners pray by the body of 78-year-old Omar Assad, a Palestinian who has U.S. citizenship, during his funeral at a mosque, in the West Bank village of Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, Jan. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the territory, but its 2.5 million residents live under Israeli military rule. Israeli soldiers often carry out nighttime raids, which they say are necessary for arresting Palestinian militants, and set up temporary checkpoints where Palestinians are stopped and searched.

Asaad's nephew, Assad Assad, said his uncle and aunt left Jiljilya for Chicago in 1969 in hopes of finding better work. They moved to Milwaukee in 1974 and prospered, opening convenience stores and a restaurant, he said. Their last name is spelled different ways in English.

They were among dozens of Jiljilya residents who have returned to the village over the years to build retirement homes, Assad Assad said.

They built mini-castles to retire in, he said. Very quiet, all you see is olive trees. At night, because were high in the mountains, you smell the orchards of oranges.

Omars nephew and his son, Hane Assad, both described him as a philanthropist who was the life of the party. Hane Assad told the AP his father would often hand out money to the poor.

He just loved everybody, no matter what race you were, what culture you came from, he said. He just saw you as a human being.

His favorite dish was maqluba, a mix of rice and meat  and he loved playing cards, Assad Assad said. He was coming home from playing cards with a cousin when the soldiers stopped him, he said.

Hane Assad said his mother and father were set to visit him at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia, before his father died. Assad said his father was too old and weak to fight anyone, let alone a group of soldiers.

He was very weak, Hane Assad said. He walked with a cane. It takes him five minutes to get to the car, the way he walks. He doesnt have the power of 30 soldiers ... The military said we left and he was fine. It doesnt make sense.

Assad said hes always afraid when he returns to Jiljilya because the Israelis who operate the checkpoints are rude and disrespectful. He said he was once detained for four hours on the way to his grandmothers funeral. The troops laugh at his American citizenship, he said.

Every time we got stopped Dad would say whatever they ask for, give it to them. Just be calm. Plenty of times we got pulled over and I never saw him fight, Hane Assad said. I cant believe they did that to my dad. Almost an 80-year-old man. All the soldiers there couldnt handle him? This is uncalled for. You dont treat no elderly person like that.
Sydney streets decorated with zodiac lanterns to celebrate Chinese New Year

12:26, February 01, 2022 By Hanyue Li ( People's Daily Online

Chinese zodiac lanterns - Tiger (Photo/Hanyue Li)

SYDNEY, Jan. 31 (Peoples Daily Online)  The Sydney Lunar New Year Festival kicked off on Jan. 29, 2022. As part of a series of Chinese New Year events, George Street in Sydney, Australia has been decorated with Chinese zodiac sculptures and lanterns to celebrate the Year of the Tiger.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
In this Nov. 3, 2021 file photo, Financial Supervisory Service Governor Jeong Eun-bo speaks at a meeting with the leaders of financial holding firms here in Seoul. Joint Press Corps-Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung



Major financial groups are crying foul over regulators' pressure on banks to expand the allowance for bad debt, as they fear the move will hamper the momentum for stock growth, an industry official said.



Starting this year, bank shares soared on expectations of additional earnings growth thanks to the Bank of Korea's (BOK) unwavering signal for more rate hikes this year.



But the growth of bank stocks hit a snag after the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) urged lenders to expand their bad debt allowances, citing possible economic shocks caused by soaring debt shouldered by households and the self-employed. The bad debt allowance refers to a provision that banks assemble to brace for scenarios in which some of their borrowed money cannot be retrieved.



The pressure comes as a negative signal to the banks, as the regulatory pressure will end up reducing dividend offerings to their shareholders, despite banks' record earnings growth in 2021.



The stock prices of the major financial holding firms are thus on the decline in line with this regulatory pressure, according to data from the Korea Exchange.



Shares of KB Financial Group, the nation's largest financial holding company, reached a three-year high of around 62,000 won in early January, but the price has since plunged to around 57,000 won per share as of Jan. 25.



The stock movements of other financial firms also showed a similar pattern during the period. The stock price of Shinhan Financial Group also reached nearly 40,000 won in early January, but fell by around 5 percent in around two weeks. A similar scenario was also the case for two other major financial holding groups, Hana Financial Group and Woori Financial Group.



Earlier expectations were that banks would be able to extend their momentum for a rally this year due to the planned rate hikes from the Korean central bank and the U.S. Fed. As the loan-deposit margin is the key profit source of banking groups, such rate hikes will increase their earnings, thereby enhancing shareholder returns.



But with watchdogs putting the brakes on such plans, bank shares are feared to go back into their boxed-in range, despite the seemingly rosy external business conditions for them, according to industry sources.



"Expanding dividends to shareholders should be one of the top priorities for banks at a time when they are reaping record earnings," an official from a major commercial lender said. "Listed firms can rev up their stock value through a stronger set of shareholder return policies, but continuous regulatory hurdles cloud that outlook."



Retail investors here also have the tendency of purchasing or selling bank shares with a focus on how much in dividends they can receive each year, so this latest regulatory pressure does not enhance banks' stock value, he added.





In this Sept. 10, 2021 file photo, Financial Services Commission Chairman Koh Seung-beom, third from right, poses with leaders of financial holding firms here before holding a conference in Seoul. From left are Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung, Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai, KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo, Koh, Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung and NH Financial Group Chairman Son Byung-hwan. Joint Press Corps-Yonhap
A Royal Navy warship has begun monitoring two Russian naval vessels as they transit through the English Channel, as Boris Johnson met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky amid what the pair described as ongoing Russian aggression.

The French military said on Monday that it had monitored two Russian ships, the Soobrazitelniy and the Stoykiy, and had now handed over the responsibility to HMS Argyle, a Type 23 frigate, and the US Navys USS Roosevelt.

#Atlantique | Le 30/01, le patrouilleur de haute-mer commandant Blaison a accompagne 2 fregates  la Soobrazitelniy et la Stoykiy dans les approches . Il a ensuite passe le relais a la fregate  Argyll et au destroyer  Roosevelt.@MarineNationale @RoyalNavy @USNavy pic.twitter.com/b7b3lB7T7f  Armee francaise  Operations militaires (@EtatMajorFR) February 1, 2022

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence described the tasking as a normal response, adding: As part of a unified response with our allies, the Royal Navy monitor the presence of Russian naval ships as they transit through the English Channel.

Tass, Russias state news agency, reported on January 24 that the two Russian vessels had left Kaliningrad to conduct combat exercises.

HMS Argyll has been tasked to monitor two Russian vessels (Royal Navy/PA)

A joint statement issued following Mr Johnsons meeting with Mr Zelensky outlined how the UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression.

The statement, released by the offices of the Prime Minister and the president, said: The Prime Minister emphasised the United Kingdoms unwavering commitment to Ukraines sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.

At a joint press conference with the Ukrainian president, the Prime Minister warned Russia that the United Kingdom will hit Moscow with sanctions the moment the first Russian toecap crosses further into Ukrainian territory.
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North Korea's military launches a guided missile from an unidentified location, Jan. 25. The United States stated Monday that it was trying to find a diplomatic means to address the 'North Korea problem' while pushing for 'different steps' to hold the country responsible for its recent series of ballistic missile launches. Yonhap



The United States stated Monday that it is trying to find a diplomatic means to address the North Korea problem while pushing for "different steps" to hold the country responsible for its recent series of ballistic missile launches.



"Even as we seek to find ways to address this challenge diplomatically we're moving forward with different steps to hold the DPRK responsible and accountable," Ned Price, spokesperson for the State Department, said during a regular press briefing, using the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.



He was responding to a question about a series of missile launches by Pyongyang this month.



On Sunday, North Korea fired an "intermediate-and long-range ballistic missile" toward the East Sea, the seventh in a series of missile tests in January.



"Of course the DPRK's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program, this is a challenge that is long standing," the official added. "It is a challenge that has vexed successive administrations. We have developed an approach that at its center seeks to find a diplomatic means by which to achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."



He also cited the Joe Biden administration's own sanctions on eight North Korean individuals and entities supporting the Kim Jong-un regime's major weapons programs.



"We are continuing to discuss this challenge in the U.N. as well," he said.



The Pentagon also said it still believes that diplomacy is the "right way" to deal with the Kim regime, with the U.S. government willing to have dialogue without preconditions.



It urged Pyongyang to stop those provocations, abide by U.N. Security Council resolutions and quit "threatening" its neighbors in the region.



Speaking to reporters, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby voiced concern about the North's "advancing" ballistic missile program, as the secretive regime learns from missile launches.



"That is why again we are focused on making sure that we have the right capabilities available to us and to our allies in the region," he added. "Until a peaceful denuclearization of the peninsula, we have an obligation to be ready and that's what we're focused on right now." (Yonhap)


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YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. The year 2022 got off to a resonant start through the well-attended Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, and, having, over these past few years, come to engage with and understand somewhat that ancient, but land-locked, civilization, Armenia, I was particularly glad to learn that Armenia fielded a strong delegation which was present and active at Sustainability Week. The driver for this has been Armenia partnering with Abu Dhabis Masdar renewable energy company to help it go green, embrace Decarbonization - which is so necessary if Humanity is to put a brake on the warming of the planet.

The unlamented year of 2021 has been a trial for much of Humanity, which has confronted both the Covid-19 Pandemic and the harsh impact of Climate Change.

On a personal level, I spent the year working from home, not in travel by airline, but interacting via Zoom, or Skype. It never used to be like this! In earlier years, I traveled widely.

In 2010, I paid my first visit to Abu Dhabi. As the President of Cape Breton University, I was accompanying the Premier of my Canadian Province, Nova Scotia, on a trade mission to the region. We two were privileged to meet with the Executive of ADNOC, the national oil and gas giant which has recently joined with Masdar, the globally recognized power in renewable energy.

I well remember one particular interaction. The CEO of ADNOC told us that the company now met all appropriate international standards, for the industry and for responsible companies.

In response, I offered the hope that before too long, ADNOC would not only meet international standards but would play a key role in developing the standards. To me, developing standards, meeting them, and imagining more and better, this is the core of innovation, whatever the industry, oil and gas, solar energy, or wind power. And Innovation can be social as much as it can be technological.

When I became a university president, I was aware of the need to contribute to the strengths, values, and traditions of the local community, and foster its engagement with the world around it, through innovation wherever possible.

Throughout this time, I traveled extensively, including visits to Abu Dhabi. Much of the travel was related to a development of great significance to me.

The university had on its staff key individuals with experience in the oil and gas industry. This we built into a vibrant partnership with ExxonMobil, who then asked that we create a private company with which Exxon could develop formal ties. We did, and our company became Exxons Go-To provider for LNG training. And it was this skill set which led to my meeting with ADNOC.

I was, at the time, not only handling the partnership with ExxonMobil, but busy establishing a centre on sustainability in energy and the environment, and I was able to introduce its key people to faculty at the then Masdar Institute, uniquely a Solar-powered facility initiated by the Masdar company, which is now operating in Armenia, in Greece, and in a number of other countries. I know little about developments in Greece, but became quite familiar with Armenia in recent years, and will shortly comment on the experience.

My interaction with the Masdar Institute led, when I retired from the university, to my being invited to Abu Dhabi to lead Masdars 2014 BP Seminar on Innovation.

My interest in renewables and innovation has continued and is very much on my mind today.Our university was the first in Canada to install its own full-size wind turbine, and I find it hard to imagine a future without the best-informed use of all Renewables, particularly those readily available, such as Wind and Solar, and those under rapid development, especially Green Hydrogen.

Concerning Armenia, I am on record as advocating that the linkage between Renewable Energy and Innovation should be central to achieving governments stated intention to foster a high tech economy for Armenia, which would have to be partnered by an embrace of education and training.

I am convinced that Masdar, the company behind the creation of the Masdar Institute, could stimulate this.

And hopefully this would stimulate a necessary engagement with ESG across the Armenian economy, and, indeed, globally.

My abiding commitment to ESG, full regard for the Environmental, Social, and Governance impacts of action, is what propels me to pen these thoughts. And prompts me to admit that, unlike some corporate figures, I do not think of ESG as simply advanced Risk Management, but as the opening up of prospects for purposive dialogue between and among stakeholders which can enable companies and communities to achieve great things, to the benefit of all.

Garnering perspectives is always useful, and can be vital. Real ESG can help, fostering innovation, and necessary change, while, yes, sustaining tradition, established ways profoundly necessary in society.

This was starkly underlined recently when a teenage high school student in the US embarked on a summer camp internship at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, and was assigned the task of examining data, searching the universe for solar systems with two stars. Three days into the programme, he spotted a blip in the data, which indicated the presence of a previously unknown planet.

It reminded me of an earlier experience at my university. We had initiated a programme of delivering our courses not just on campus but on-site in communities which were home to Canadas First Nations or indigenous peoples.

A professor took her class to the Art Gallery in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia. There the students were asked to look at a piece of art, and be prepared to discuss it. Among the exhibits were a number of sculptures created by the French artist Auguste Rodin.

The professor noticed one young student peering intently at a bronze Angel, about twelve inches tall. He looked annoyed, and she asked him why.

This Angel, he said, could never fly; it has two left wings.

Well, our professor was intrigued, enough to contact the foundry in Paris where the Angel had been cast in bronze one hundred years earlier.

The foundry management checked, and checked again. The student was correct, the Angel was cast with two left wings. And though it had been on tour across the world many times, and viewed by perhaps one hundred million people, no-one ever had noticed the error.

That was left to a student from an isolated, poor community, where reviewing art was not a common occurrence. Real ESG, propagated and genuinely deployed alongside education and skills training for Humanitys engagement with the challenges confronting it, can and must figure strongly in our common future.

Energy companies are obviously key to overcoming great challenges, and will hopefully guard against compounding them. Communities the world over have suffered in this past year, from floods and fires, droughts and disease, and, very often, conflicts and confusion between communities and companies.

I began to realize the importance of genuine interaction between companies and communities quite some time ago, and felt its salience in difficult situations from Africa to Latin America. My experiences in Armenia added to this, and sharpened my understanding of the interaction of issues which arose as major projects were undertaken.

And it was while I was in Armenia that my engagement with China re-emerged. In 2018, while I was leading a panel reviewing the ESG commitment of an extractive company in Armenia, I was privileged to be called on to draft guidelines on Labour rights and relations to be issued by Chinas Ministry of Commerce for Chinese extractive companies operating abroad. And in the same year, I visited China at the invitation of the China-Europe Association for Trade and Economic Co-operation. I took part in a fascinating conference on Automotive development, which in turn led to my writing in the China Daily.

In it I proposed the creation of an Electric Vehicle highway between China and Europe, which would itself call for the experience and ingenuity of the world of Masdar, and perhaps its Armenian partner.

A new Silk Road indeed, and thinking of it takes me back to my first visit to Armenia, when I was lucky to stop at a fourteenth-century caravanserai, built to house the intrepid travellers between China and Europe, building global trade and economic co-operation!

I hope that the partnership between Masdar and Armenia will, in fact, impact positively on not only development in Armenia, but also on international co-operation, so vital today.

And partnerships such as this will surely multiply in coming years; witness, for example, the entry of ADNOC itself into part-ownership of Masdar, alongside the founding entity, Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, and TAQA, the countrys national energy company. Powerful entities capable of meeting the target of 100 GW by 2030, and going beyond it. And also impressive is the news that Saudi Aramco is to invest almost US$1 billion to acquire 30% of the Sudair 1,500 megawatt solar project which is due to come on line in 2022, a pivotal year for us all.

A recent study undertaken by university researchers in the UK, Europe, and the US established that Solar panels installed on half the worlds rooftops could, in fact, meet our planets entire electricity demand. And reduce our carbon footprints.

Responsible companies in the Solar power universe, particularly those also engaged with water issues, such as desalination and the achievement of Green Hydrogen, with are going to be essential to meeting the challenge of Climate Change, and they will very likely have major impacts on necessary innovation, including those in education and social progress.

They could also impact on Humanitys response to disease, including, of course, Covid-19 and its variants.

Research has shown that, in Africa, great volumes of vaccines are wasted due to unreliable power for storage. In 2020, the vaccine alliance, Gavi, supported the provision of solar powered refrigeration in the DRC, and this had an immediate impact on the vaccination rate.

Though Covid-19 might soon recede, we know that other coronaviruses will likely be in our future, and low-cost solar PV, a strength of Masdar, will be essential to defeating them.

Renewables are essential now, let alone in the future, and without a determined focus on how to manage them, and avoid the negative relations between companies and communities which, for example, too often cripple developments in mineral extraction, will we achieve the Sustainability which was the beacon shining in Abu Dhabi just a few weeks ago?

And this approach would, will, necessitate skills development with many spin-offs, among them Innovation in every sense of the word. At my university, and in my community, I fashioned an exhortation: We must Sustain Tradition and Foster Innovation.

Since my visit to the Masdar Institute, I have always thought this suited Abu Dhabi just as much as it suited Cape Breton, and it certainly suits Armenia! The pathway for Sustainable Development would be strengthened if the recently expanded Masdar, a hugely important partner to an Armenia that also has much to contribute to just how humanity meets the challenges facing it, works to meet and define international standards in both the broad world of Renewable Energy AND the needed world of Purposive Dialogue through the embrace of ESG.

John Harker



John Harker is a world-renowned conflict resolution, social engagement and international development expert. He was Nelson Mandelas special advisor and helped him set up South Africas National Development Agency. He has served as Executive Director of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers, representing Canadas diplomats and trade commissioners as well as Advisor to the Chair of the International Labour Organizations (ILOs) Governing Body. More recently he has served as president of Cape Breton University, where, among other things, he created the Centre on Sustainability in Energy and the Environment, a campus in Cairo and an office in Beijing, in partnership with Chinas National Development Research Council (NDRC). Here is a fuller biography: https://developmentcorridors.org/team/john-harker/
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. US President Joe Biden is planning to pay an official visit to Japan in the second half of May this year, TASS reports citing Yomiuri daily.

According to the report, the sides have already started to agree over the exact dates of the visit.

It is also reported that Bidens trip will be adjusted to the summit of the leaders of Japan, US, India and Australia, the Quad security dialogue.

According to the daily, Biden is also planning to visit South Korea during this trip. Bidens visit to Japan will be the first since assuming office and the first visit of the US President to that country since May 2019.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida / AP-Yonhap





The Japanese government on Tuesday sought the UNESCO World Heritage listing of a gold mine, according to a local media report, despite strong protests from South Korea over its connection to wartime forced labor.





Following approval from the Cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the Tokyo government submitted a letter of recommendation for the gold and silver mines on Sado Island ahead of the deadline, Kyodo News said.





Last Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to nominate the mine on Sado Island for the 2023 UNESCO heritage list despite South Korea's strong protest.





The South Korean government immediately expressed "strong regret" over the decision and called in its ambassador to Seoul Koichi Aiboshi to lodge a protest.





The government recently launched a task force involving officials and experts to respond to Tokyo's move, describing it as an attempt "to cause conflicts with member states and politicize UNESCO."





More than a thousand Koreans were forced into hard labor at the mine on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture.





The move is expected to deepen diplomatic rifts between Seoul and Tokyo over shared history.





Many South Koreans believe Japan has yet to apologize sincerely for its atrocities during its 1910-45 colonization of Korea and offer appropriate compensation for victims.





The Sado mine originally operated as a gold mine in the 17th century, but it was turned into a facility to produce war-related materials, such as cooper, iron and zinc, during World War II. It was completely shut down in 1989.





According to historical documents, as many as 2,000 Koreans were forced into hard labor at the mine. (Yonhap)


YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. The TUMO Center for Creative Technologies will do everything to boost the activity of its branch in Stepanakert, the Republic of Artsakh, Director of TUMO Marie Lou Papazian said in an interview to ARMENPRESS.

She said that before the 2020 Artsakh War, the TUMO Center in Stepanakert had nearly 1000 students, but now their number is approximately 600.

We are adding three boxes in Martakert, Askeran and Martuni. Each TUMO Box allows to provide around 320 teenagers with education in technology and designing fields annually. We are creating a link between the TUMO Box and the Center. Thus, we will probably approach our previous number, 1000 students or more, she said.

Explaining the activity of TUMO Boxes, Marie Lou Papazian said that students pass the stage of self-study in a box located in their city, but for participation to practical courses they visit a nearby TUMO Center or join them online. The Center provides transportation for their visit to TUMO. In order for the students to get easy to the Box from school, these boxes are installed near educational facilities.

There will be programs also for adults. We are working on it so that trainings are held in Artsakh also for the elderly people twice a week, even communication with the universities and programs abroad, she added.

In order to again boost the activity of the TUMO Center in Stepanakert, they are organizing outdoor film-watching free of charge. They accept not only students, but also guests.

Knowing Artsakh and our youth there, I am sure that the previous activity will be restored. Students there have always been very active and strong and have been interested in TUMO. I am confident that that activity will be restored and the number of students will also grow compared to the past, the Director of TUMO said.

Fortunately, the TUMO building in Stepanakert has not been damaged during the war. They are trying to keep the electricity and internet connection. They are thinking of installing a generator so that the Center will always have an internet connection and electricity.

Marie Lou Papazian also talked about the real losses.

We have suffered the biggest losses in Stepanakert, but we will always remember our youth. Their investments in our defense further motivates us and makes us more confident in our works. No matter how much we regret, how much we are hurt by the losses, it gives us strength and confidence not to be back down from our programs, she added.

The TUMO Center for Creative Technologies is a free-of-charge educational program that puts teens in charge of their own learning. Its learning program is made up of self-learning activities, workshops and project labs that revolve around 14 learning targets.

TUMO has Hubs in Yerevan, Dilijan, Gyumri and Stepanakert and work is underway to open centers in Koghb and Masis. TUMO Boxes are already operating in the towns of Berd and Gavar. A third TUMO Box will open soon in the town of Sevan. Outside of Armenia, there are centers in Paris, Beirut, Moscow, Tirana and Berlin. Hubs will soon open in several other cities around the world.

Reporting by Karine Terteryan
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will visit Armenia February 2-3 to further develop, enhance and intensify the bilateral relations between Armenia and Austria.

The Armenian-Austrian relations underwent significant progress in the recent years, the Armenian foreign ministry said in a statement ahead of FM Schallenbergs visit. Austria, as a EU-member, is of key importance for Armenia. The strengthening of cooperation between the two countries is important also in terms of partnership in multilateral formats. Austria is one of the few countries whose government provided grants for over four years to improve the condition of the Syrian-Armenians in Armenia. The rich bilateral Armenian-Austrian agenda includes partnership in trade-economic, educational areas, cooperation in the parliamentary level, support programs, sector of development of specialized skills based on firm legal-contractual framework.

Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Austria were established on January 24, 1992.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. Russia is thoroughly analyzing the U.S. response to its European security proposals, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, adding that it has already become clear that the US has disregarded Russias fundamental concerns following crunch talks between the two sides, RT reports.

Putin said that the American response is lacking any adequate considerations of three key demands put forward by Russia, including a demand that NATO not expand further to the east. The Russian President was speaking during a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Moscow.

Washington only focuses on nations right to freely choose the manner of ensuring their own security, including through alliances they deem necessary, the Russian president said. However, he argued that the US disregards another key principle of European security, which says that no nation should be allowed to enhance its own security at the expense of another's.
Weather Alert

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EDT THIS MORNING... * WHAT...North winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 20 kt. * WHERE...Chesapeake Bay main channel north of Smith Point VA, Chester River to Queenstown MD, Tangier Sound and the inland waters surrounding Bloodsworth Island, Choptank River to Cambridge MD and the Little Choptank River, Tidal Potomac from Cobb Island MD to Smith Point VA, and Eastern Bay. * WHEN...Until 10 AM EDT this morning. * IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller vessels, should avoid navigating in hazardous conditions. &&
Nancy Carolyn Roberts Chappell, 71, a native and lifelong resident of Crossett, died Wednesday, April 20, 2022, at her sisters residence in Hamburg. She was a 1968 graduate of Crossett High School and a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Monticello School of Nursing. She worked as a  Read more
Centre cites security reasons but doesn't give details, says editor

The Centre's move drew the ire of many including the ruling Left party and the Opposition Congress (Wikipedia)

Thiruvananthapuram: The Union Government on Monday barred the telecast of Malayalam news channel MediaOne citing "security reasons", but the Kerala High Court stayed the implementation of the order for two days.

The Centre's move drew the ire of many including the ruling Left party and the Opposition Congress, both condemning the decision and terming the move as "undemocratic".

"The telecast of MediaOne channel has once again been disallowed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, citing security reasons. The Government has not been forthcoming with the details," Pramod Raman, the Editor of MediaOne, said in a statement here.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the ban was a serious matter and it was the responsibility of those who believe in democracy to protect Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, which grants the freedom of speech and expression.

"Freedom of expression is an integral part of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. It should not be violated. There should be room for diverse opinions otherwise democracy itself will be in danger. Society needs to be vigilant to ensure that Article 19 is not violated," Vijayan said.

The chief minister in his statement said the reason behind the ban on telecast was not clear and a Constitutional solution should be reached.

The order of the Information and Broadcasting ministry, as shared by the MediaOne channel shows that the Ministry of Home Affairs had denied security clearance to the channel, under Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited, for renewal of permission.

The order says that a show cause notice was issued to MediaOne to which the channel replied that they were unaware of the "grounds of denial of security clearance" and requested not to initiate further proceedings.

"Since the Ministry of Home Affairs has denied the security clearance. The channel cannot be allowed to operate (sic)," the order read.

The media house later in the day challenged the order before the Kerala High Court which put on hold its implementation for two days.

While putting on hold the order, Justice N Nagaresh also sought the Centre's stand on the plea moved by Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd which operates MediaOne channel.

Senior advocate S Sreekumar and advocate K Rakesh, who represented the media group, told the high court that the channel was not involved in any anti-national activity and urged it to direct the ministry to withdraw the order.

Speaking to PTI, Rakesh said the ministry's order was received around 1 PM on Monday and by 1.45 PM the plea was filed and by 3 PM permission was granted for urgent hearing of the matter. He confirmed that the court put on hold the order till Wednesday, the next date of hearing.

Assistant Solicitor General S Manu, who appeared for the ministry, said he opposed the plea and sought time from the court to get appropriate instructions from the Centre.

Therefore, the court listed the matter on Wednesday and till then put on hold the implementation of the order, he added.

The ruling CPI(M) condemned the ban and said it was part of the union government's agenda to control the media.

"The Union government is trying to control media houses one by one. The ban on telecast of MediaOne was part of the union government's agenda to control the media. The decision is condemnable," it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly, V D Satheesan slammed the I&B move.

"The banning of telecast of MediaOne channel without citing any reason was undemocratic. This is against natural justice. The Union government has a responsibility to cite the reason behind the ban. The government is trying to implement the agenda of Sangh Parivar which has been intolerant against unpleasant truths," he said.

He said the ban amounts to attack on media freedom.

MediaOne, along with another Malayalam News channel, Asianet, was briefly suspended for 48 hours over their coverage of communal violence in Delhi in 2020, with the official orders then saying they covered the violence in a manner that "highlighted the attack on places of worship and siding towards a particular community".

"Channel's reporting on Delhi violence seems to be biased as it is deliberately focusing on the vandalism of CAA supporters," the ministry order on Media One had said, adding, "it also questions RSS and alleges Delhi Police inaction. Channel seems to be critical towards Delhi Police and RSS."
The President made it a point to underline the initiatives taken for the welfare of minorities, particularly Muslim women, and the farmers

New Delhi: In a mega election year where the BJPs political fortune is under litmus test in five states, President Ram Nath Kovind highlighted the development work done by the Centre, lauding the social security and social justice initiatives taken up by the NDA government.

The President made it a point to underline the initiatives taken for the welfare of minorities, particularly Muslim women, and the farmers. He mentioned the growing defence capabilities that indicated Indias preparedness on the border front, in his joint speech to Parliament ahead of the Budget Session on Monday.

The speech that began with a protest from the Opposition parties, who were keen to flag the Pegasus snooping and some other issues, saw the TRS members skipping the event.

The President lauded the government and the MPs for their collective effort in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. We are in the third year of the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus. In these years, the people of India have displayed profound faith in the democratic values, discipline and sense of responsibility, said Kovind even as he patted the health and frontline workers for making Indias vaccination drive biggest example of success in the world.

Citing the philosophy of Constitution framer Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the President said, My government considers ideals of Babasaheb as its motto. My government believes in the mantra of antyodaya, which encompasses social justice, equality, respect and equal opportunities. Therefore, in the policies of the government, top priority is being given to villages, the poor, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and backward communities. This spirit of India is clearly reflected in the selection for Padma awards in recent years. In a diverse country like India, dedicated people across the country are engaged in the service of the nation. They reflect the strength of India.

Treating sons and daughters as equals, my government has also introduced a Bill to increase the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 years to 21 years at par with menThe government has made a beginning to liberate the society from the manifestly arbitrary practice of triple talaq by making it a criminal offence. Restrictions on Muslim women from performing the Haj only with Mehram have also been removed. While about three crore students from minority communities were provided scholarships prior to 2014, my government has provided scholarships to 4.5 crore such students since 2014. This has led to a significant reduction in the school dropout rate of Muslim girls and an increase in their enrolment, the President said.

Talking about the farmers, Kovind said the government has been working continuously to empower the farmers and the rural economy. He underlined that despite the pandemic, farmers produced more than 30 crore tonnes of food grains and 33 crore tonnes of horticulture produce in 2020-21 and the government made record procurement to match the record production. He said the small farmers have benefited from the new changes in the crop insurance scheme as more than Rs 1 lakh crore have been given as compensation to about eight crore farmers. He added the government is also making investments at an unprecedented level for developing infrastructure required near farmlands.

The President mentioned the ongoing infrastructure development in the border areas to strength countrys security. In this regard he said the Border Roads Organisation has constructed a transport-worthy road at 19,000 feet, the highest altitude for such a road, at Umling La Pass in Ladakh and now even the most remote villages like Demchok in Ladakh, Joling Kong in Uttarakhand and Huri in Arunachal Pradesh have been connected by modern roads.

Talking about the defence sector, the President said special focus is on Make in India especially in defence production to make country increasingly self-reliant. He said 87 per cent of all approvals for modernisation of armed forces in 2020-21 were from Make in India category. Similarly, in 2020-21, preference was accorded to Make in India category in 98 per cent of equipment related contracts. He said 209 military-equipment will not be purchased from abroad and more than 2,800 type of defence equipment will be manufactured domestically. In this context he mentioned a contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the manufacture of 83 LCA Tejas fighter aircraft.

The President underlined the progress made in Ladakh, Jammu-Kashmir and the Northeast. Just a few months ago, a settlement was reached between the Central Government, the State Government of Assam and the Karbi groups to end the decades-old conflict in Karbi Anglong. This has ushered in a new chapter of peace and prosperity in the region. Due to concerted efforts of my government, the number of Naxal affected districts in the country has also come down from 126 to 70 today, Kovind said.

Talking about the neighborhood, President said despite the challenging conditions in Afghanistan, the government airlifted a number of its citizens and many Afghan Hindu and Sikh minorities from Kabul. We also brought back two swaroops of the Holy Guru Granth Sahib safely amidst difficult situations. From the humanitarian point of view, India is helping Afghanistan by delivering medical supplies and food-grain, he said.
by Li Qiang

A report published by Peking University notes that the United States is still ahead in artificial intelligence, information technology and the aerospace technology. Decoupling brings disadvantages to both sides, but more to China. So far, Xi Jinping has not responded to the US boycott of Chinese hi-tech giants.

Beijing (AsiaNews)  China risks losing the tech war with the United States, this according to a report by Peking University Institute of International and Strategic Studies.

Released on Sunday, the paper notes that China lags behind the US in strategic hi-tech sectors, such as artificial intelligence, information technology and aerospace.

The technological decoupling launched by Donald Trump and confirmed by his successor Joe Biden will cost both sides. However, according to Chinese academics, it will be more damaging to China than the United States.

Hi-tech decoupling is now a de facto reality in key technologies, especially artificial intelligence and microchip production. Low-tech industries have been spared so far.

The row over hi-tech is an integral part of the geopolitical conflict between the two powers. The United States does not want China to use US knowhow to become a technological powerhouse.

Peking University experts also note the US has succeeded in creating a technological alliance of democracies to isolate China.

Because of this cartel, China has problems importing key parts and technologies for high-tech industries, as well as attracting talent from abroad or getting its own young people trained in the United States.

That Beijing is in trouble is evinced by its weak response to US punitive measures against Chinese tech giants.

This is the case when the Trump administration formally designated Huawei as a threat to national security in June 2020. Since then, the Chinese company has not been able to sell its products in the US, and cannot do business with US companies.

In addition, Washington has introduced a sanction regime for foreign companies that sell technology, notably microchips, to banned Chinese companies.

The same thing happened last week with another Chinese hi-tech giant. Citing the threat of espionage, the US Federal Communications Commission decided to block the activities of China Unicom national security.

In October, the same ban hit China Telecom, without provoking any real response (retaliation) from Beijing.
by Alessandra De Poli

More than 400,000 people have been displaced. Children have not been to school for two years. The fighting is no longer limited to certain regions, but is everywhere. The testimony of a priest from the diocese of Taungoo to AsiaNews on the Church's assistance activities: "Loikaw is a ghost town, people are running away without being able to take anything. We try to help, but it is increasingly complicated".

Yangon (AsiaNews) - A year has passed since the coup d'etat that shook Myanmar. On February 1, 2021, the Burmese military junta ousted the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and took control of the country. The civil disobedience movement, which was harshly repressed by the regime, has been joined by ethnic militias: some, after remaining silent for years, have taken up arms again and today the fighting is no longer limited to certain regions, but "is everywhere".

This is the scenario described to AsiaNews by Fr William Htoo, secretary of the diocese of Taungoo, in one of the regions hardest hit by the conflict. "Many young people who were going to university and dreaming of brilliant careers have seen their future vanish from one moment to the next," explains Fr Htoo. "The children no longer go to school, they have been at home for two years," he continues. "Young men and women have joined the militias to fight against the army. There are hundreds of thousands of displaced people throughout the country."

The resistance shows no sign of surrendering. A silent strike was planned for today in protest against the generals: people are locking themselves in their homes, not going to work, the streets of the larger cities are empty. The civil disobedience movement has disappeared from the news, but it is still active and opposes the soldiers in the same way as militia guerrillas fight in the forests.

Just before Christmas, the military bombed Loikaw for the umpteenth time. Located inKayah State it is home to most of Myanmar's Christians. Sources on the ground tell us that the city has now emptied, it simply no longer exists.

The latest figures from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, speak of at least 406,000 internal refugees. The most significant increase was recorded in December 2021 due to the clashes in the south-east of the country: in Kayah, Kayin, Shan and Mon States there are almost 220,000 people defined as "internally displaced" by the UN. Another 32,000 have fled to India or Thailand in the last year.

Fr Htoo confirms: "Many are preparing to go abroad, trying to leave the country and find a job outside because there is less and less work and more and more poverty here.

"There is a lack of food and medical care," he continues. "A large number of health personnel have left State hospitals because they do not want to work with the army, but private hospitals are too expensive. The local Church is in the front line in providing assistance, but it cannot meet all the needs. Thefts and robberies are increasing because people are dissatisfied and living is more and more difficult. The Church is trying to show a way, but it is getting more and more complicated."

Anyone who needs help is welcomed in the diocese. At least 10,000 people have passed through Taungoo in recent months.

"People run away without taking anything, they only think of their own safety. If there are no soldiers on the streets, some people will travel three or four times to try to get something back. Local nuns and priests buy food and phone cards and visit the villages "if only to give some moral support to the population".

In this context, the pandemic is the least of the worries: "Before the coup d'etat, there was great apprehension, but then the pandemic took a back seat".

Fr Htoo laughs as he recounts this, making us realise that the people of Myanmar do not have the luxury of stopping fighting against the military junta to deal with a health crisis. The will to resist the regime is stronger: "All the families have been infected, even many nuns and priests have had it. There is no possibility of doing swabs. In the villages where you eat a lot of chilli peppers you realise you've been infected when you can no longer smell or taste it.

Despite all the despair he has seen over the past year, Fr Htoo still smiles. Because in Myanmar, our sources explain, even though anarchy and total chaos may reign, the country is held together by the people's spirit of solidarity.

A year has passed since the coup. How long will this civil war go on?

"Simplifying as much as possible, we can say that there are two groups, the civilians and the military. Both want to control the country, but neither wants to give in and surrender. Negotiations are inconceivable at this time," says the priest. "Everyone is praying for peace and for this political crisis to be resolved, but it will take time to rebuild the country and above all the spirit of the people".
by Dario Salvi

Last year, more than 18,000 foreign workers were expelled, including 11,000 men and more than 7,000 women. The government wants to encourage domestic employment in a country where the ratio of migrants to locals is 70:30. Dependence on oil and the lack of reform efforts. The role of women in a perspective of growth and freedom.

Milan (AsiaNews) - In 2021, Kuwait deported 18,221 foreign workers - including 11,177 men and 7,044 women - with more than 257,000 migrants having to leave the country permanently. This trend emerged in recent years and accelerated with the Covid-19 pandemic, exploited by the government to encourage a change of employment in favour ofmore or less qualified local labour. This process has involved both the public and private sectors, and has been exacerbated by the collapse in oil revenues and a tax burden that has become unsustainable at times.

The reasons for expulsion include expiry of residence permits, involvement in crimes or violent acts, attempted suicide or violation of the curfew imposed to limit cases of coronavirus. In the middle of last year, the Ministry of the Interior also ordered the expulsion of workers with regular residence permits who were 'guilty' of promoting or participating in protests or who had violated the public interest, security or (Islamic) morals othrough their behaviour. However, the clamp down has resulted in a sudden lack of manpower and risks hindering the growth of the hydrocarbon industry and sectors not directly linked to black gold.

Oil and lack of reform

Located at the top of the Persian Gulf, the small state borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and went from being a British protectorate to an independent nation in 1961. Today it is an emirate governed by a constitutional monarchy with an economy largely based on the extraction and export of oil, whose reserves represent 6% of the world total.

In spite of the ample resources deriving from the proceeds of the black gold, the country has not yet been able - as Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have - to diversify its economy. On the contrary, the general private industry sector remains poor, while public employment abounds, accounting for most of the workforce and comprising about 74% of the total number of citizens. Internal tensions within the government, exacerbated in the last two years by the restrictions imposed by Covid-19 and their impact on the oil industry, are among the reasons that have blocked the drive for reform.

The majority of migrants in the Gulf have work permits ranging from one to three years. They come from South and South-East Asian nations, North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa and most have left their families in their country of origin. Not only men, but also women who find employment as maids or semi-skilled professionals in hospitals (especially nurses), restaurants, offices or security agencies.

Even today, companies impose heavy constraints on economic migrants who want to travel with their families. In these countries, including Kuwait, the main challenge is not the lack of work but the so-called Kafala system, which requires every worker to have a 'sponsor' to obtain a permit for a fixed period of time. This procedure makes migrants legally dependent on others and leaves them prone to abuse (physical and sexual) and violations, arbitrary confiscation of passports, late payment, forced labour and, in the case of domestic workers, forced confinement within the home.

In Kuwait, they often live in overcrowded facilities and have no access to medical care and assistance. Immigration centres and prisons are used to lock them up in precarious hygienic conditions and, when they lose their protector, they end up being hired by drug traffickers or in the prostitution market; those who try to escape are imprisoned or deported.

Despite this, the economy continues to rely on foreigners to the extent that the government has signed agreements with nations of origin in South and South-East Asia. And sectors that have seen a significant outflow of migrant workers face serious labour shortages. Another significant proportion is in the oil industry, which is beginning to show the first signs of crisis, to the extent that the target of 3.5 million barrels per day (from the current 2.5 million) by 2025 is at risk.

Then there is the chapter of domestic workers, who currently represent 22.8% of the workforce: in 2021, more than 41,000 of them left Kuwait permanently, leaving gaps that are difficult to fill.

The evolution of the market

The government's policy of "Kuwaitiisation" also involves the choices of entrepreneurs and employers in the private sector, who are called upon to hire fellow citizens at the expense of immigrants. One of the first objectives is to redress the long-standing demographic imbalance, where three million expatriates account for about 70% of the total population.

Locals talso need to be encouraged to accept certain types of employment considered 'inferior' in terms of social status and remuneration. The perks - in terms of salaries and taxation - of civil servants compared to their private sector colleagues are many. In recent months, day care centres for children have sprung up, raising the rank of the operators from domestic servants to educators and pedagogues, making it more attractive to local women. The contribution of women to the world of work remains low and, in general, women receive lower salaries and have lower career prospects than men, especially in the public sector. This makes it essential to open up career opportunities in the private sector.

An easing of social pressure and of the limits imposed by realities in which Islam is in the majority, especially among the Gulf countries, would allow more outlets for the pink universe called to contribute - with a second salary - to the family economy. Kuwaiti women would also be able to fill more roles in the legal, retail and private health care sectors, currently dominated by foreigners.

The consequences would also include a decline in remittances abroad, with more capital being reinvested to support domestic spending and boost the economy. Analysts and experts predict that the government, guided by social and fiscal reasons, will continue with policies aimed at replacing foreigners with locals, trying to reverse the current ratio of immigrants to natives. The forecasts are confirmed by the progressive increase in deportations and the migrant issue as a central theme of domestic policy for the five-year period 2022-2026.

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U.S. President Joe Biden / AFP-Yonhap





U.S. President Joe Biden is considering a visit to South Korea in late May after a new president is inaugurated in the Asian country, according to a news report Tuesday.







Biden is pushing for a trip to Japan for a Quad summit with his Japanese, Australian and Indian counterparts in the latter half of May, the Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese daily, reported, citing multiple government sources.







It would provide Biden with a chance to make his first visit to South Korea as U.S. president, especially as a new president is scheduled to take office, May 10. (Yonhap)


by Nirmala Carvalho

The suicide of a girl in a hostel run by the Franciscans of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is being used to fuel accusations of conversion. The case is now in the hands of Indias Central Bureau of Investigation, but according to the local school board no complaints were ever filed against the nuns. Meanwhile, in another district, two nuns were attacked by Hindu radicals. For Archbishop Felix Machado, Hindu nationalists have cleverly constructed a narrative and found ways to carry it out against Christians.

Chennai (AsiaNews)  Sr Sahaya Mary, a 62-year-old member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, will remain in prison. She was arrested in connection with the suicide on 19 January of a girl at a hostel run by the Sisters in Michaelpatti, a village in Thanjavur district (Diocese of Kumbakonam).

Hindu nationalists have been exploiting the tragedy, which stems from the girl's troubled relationship with her family, in order to accuse the nuns of pressuring the girl to convert.

They rely on a video that went viral in which the girl mentions being asked to convert two years ago, which she refused to do.

The nuns application for bail was turned down by the Madras High Court in Chennai, which referred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's federal investigative agency.

The court also asked that the phone with the video, which belongs to the member of a Hindu nationalist group, be taken as evidence.

For its part, the local school board recently issued an official report stating that no complaints of forced conversions were ever made against the Franciscan-run school. In Tamil Nadu, the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart are also known as Pondicherry Blue Sisters.

For the past 178 years, since the beginning of our congregation, we have remained steadfast in our vision and mission through our witnessing life, selfless heart and humaneness, said Provincial Superior Sr Firmina Mary, speaking to AsiaNews. We continue to empower the womenfolk who are under the oppression of male chauvinism.

Sister Sahay Maria is still in jail. We are getting overwhelming support from the public, especially from non-Christians, she explained. The tragic death of this girl staying in our hostel had nothing to do with the charges of conversion.

The superior noted that the girl, who comes from a poor family, was marked her mothers suicide a few years ago over misunderstandings with her husband.

After this she came under strong psychological pressure from her stepmother; for this reason, she was welcomed in the hostel, where Sr Sahaya Mary took care of her as she has done for decades with other girls.

For the past few months, she was tormented with the thought of going back home after the 12th standard examinations, and face her step-mother, Sr Firmina Mary explained.

The girl became panic-stricken and her anxiety troubled her with inconsolable grief and drove her to commit suicide. We are terribly shocked by the death of this student.

This panic is at the root of the tragic death, which left us in shock. And now we are saddened to see this affair used to tarnish our reputation and that of our sister.

For Archbishop Felix Machado, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), Hindu nationalists have cleverly constructed a narrative and found ways to carry it out, and do not give people a chance to defend themselves.

In fact, the climate of hatred thus created is spreading. For instance, two nuns were harassed by some elements in Tamil Nadus Pudukkottai district, the prelate told AsiaNews.

They were on their way to help someone, but some 20 to 30 people stopped them, accusing them of trying to convert people to Christianity.

Ultimately, They want to eliminate Christianity, he lamented.
In today's headlines: China claims Covid-19 cases in the Olympic bubble still manageable; a New Zealand journalist takes refuge in Kabul after Wellington denies access to her home country; new record for public debt in the Philippines; Bali will reopen to the world.

PAKISTAN

The Express Tribune reports that Prime Minister Imran Khan will seek a billion loan from China during his visit to Beijing for the Winter Olympics. Over the weekend, the Prime Minister gave interviews to Chinese media in which he criticised Western governments for their positions on the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the Muslims in Kashmir.

JAPAN - SOUTH KOREA

One of the many historical disputes between Tokyo and Seoul has been rekindled. Today, the Japanese government decided that it will try to include the gold mine on the island of Sado in the UNESCO World Heritage list. According to South Korea, this is an attempt by Japan to hide the use of the mine as a place of forced labour during the colonisation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

CHINA

Despite an increase in the number of infections, authorities in Beijing said that the number of cases of Covid-19 related to the Winter Olympics is still at a controllable level. The Organising Committee has recorded 200 cases since 23 January in the "bubble" that separates all event personnel, including athletes, from the public.

AFGHANISTAN - NEW ZEALAND

Charlotte Bellis is a New Zealand journalist who was denied permission to return home to give birth, so she returned to Afghanistan, where she had been working for the past year. To contain the spread of Covid-19, Wellington imposes a 10-day quarantine in special facilities upon return. Due to high demand, many were denied access. Bellis and his fellow photojournalist, having documented the withdrawal of US troops from Kabul, were in possession of visas for Afghanistan.

INDONESIA

The island of Bali will reopen to tourists from all over the world starting next week. Although Indonesia had already reopened its borders to visitors of certain nationalities, there were still no direct flights. A similar announcement was made by Thailand earlier in the day. Covid-19 cases continue to increase but the economies of Southeast Asian countries need the tourists.

PHILIPPINES

The Philippines closed 2021 with a public debt of 11.7 trillion pesos. The ratio of public debt to gross domestic product stands at 60.5%, higher than 54.6% in 2020. The Treasury said it is "still within the sustainable threshold as the economy continues to recover from the effects of the pandemic". Raising financial obligations will be a major issue for the next president.

IRAN - CHINA

The Iranian Council of Ministers approved the opening of a Chinese consulate in Bandar Abbas, Iran's main commercial port. The foreign ministers of the two countries said that a long-term Sino-Iranian collaboration has now begun, but according to Al Monitor much in the future will depend on the outcome of the nuclear negotiations.

RUSSIA

Russia has decided to pay pensions and social services to citizens of the separatist Ukrainian republics of Donbass, Donetsk and Lugansk, who have received Russian passports. Meanwhile, due to internal disagreements over the partition of Muscovite subsidies, the local puppet governments elected in 2018 have disappeared altogether.
In its latest statement, the Bishops' Conference outlines the decision by the Church to divest from companies investing in "destructive" energy. For Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara, Conference vice president, this heeds the teachings of the Laudato Si encyclical by Pope Francis.

Manila (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Philippine bishops have decided to refuse donations from environmentally destructive" industries, including mining, this according to a non-acceptance policy presented in a new pastoral statement on ecology released last Saturday by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) following a two-day plenary assembly.

In their statement, signed by CBCP President Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, the prelates note that the pause imposed by the pandemic on industrial and economic activity encourages us to reflect on the decades of polluting practices our Common Home has had to suffer at the hands of humanity.

This is especially important in a climate-vulnerable country like the Philippines, battered by multiple tropical storms including some declared to be the deadliest in the world from 2013 to 2021.

The new policy will be implemented in all dioceses, Bishop David explained at a press conference. Our people need to be very critical, especially our parish priests, he said. While we have several needs in our pastoral work, let us not compromise the welfare of our environment.

This follows the decision two years ago by the Bishops Conference to prevent the financial resources of Catholic organisations from being invested in mining projects.

Financial resources must be used solely for the Common Good, Integrity of Creation, and the Glory of our Creator, the statement goes on to say.

The bishops also urge banking institutions that fund coal, fossil gas and other "destructive" energy resources to limit and ultimately end their involvement in these activities.

The Church intends to fully divest its assets from financial institutions and corporations invested in said ecologically-harmful activities by 2025, the statement adds.

For CBCP Vice President Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara, the Conferences mission is to take up the challenges set forth in Pope Francis call to treat the planet as our common home.

We are committed to advance the teachings of the Laudato Si and be bearers of hope in the face of an ecological crisis, following our Lord Jesus, the letter says.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Unlike the government, the opposition wants a parliamentary resolution condemning Russia's aggressive policy as well as supporting Kiev. The executive wants to follow a less confrontational line towards Moscow.

Moscow (AsiaNews) -The Georgian opposition continues to fight over the draft parliamentary resolution in support of Ukraine, threatened with invasion by Russia. The opposition has begun collecting signatures to modify the text to be approved. Unlike the text prepared by the majority Georgian Dream party, the resolution seeks to add an explicit condemnation of Russia's "aggressive policy".

Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani spoke on behalf of the majority, arguing that the Georgian authorities should adhere to diplomatic standards. Among the opposition parties most active in collecting signatures is Droa ('It's time').

Leader Elena Khostarija says the opposition realises that 'the risk of invasion also threatens Georgia, while our government says nothing about the problems that Russia has been creating for a long time for our country, Ukraine and the whole world'. Khostarija notes that the whole world is mobilising to defend nations like Georgia, and that "the silence of power" in her opinion is a "historical shame".

For the government, on the other hand, the behaviour of the oppositions, starting with the former ruling National Movement party, founded by the imprisoned president Mikhail Saakashvili, seems shameful. The deputies of the Georgian Dream repeat that they do not accept criticism from those who lost territories in the 2008 war with Russia, as one of them, Aluda Gudusauri, says: "We have not heard any serious arguments from our opponents, only political chatter."

Gudusauri adds that "the [government] resolution is written according to the criteria of diplomacy, and it is not acceptable for this to be questioned by those who when in government lost not only territories, but also the lives of many of our heroes."

Zalkaliani also wished to point out in an interview with Palitra News that while respecting diplomacy one can also criticise Russia when necessary, and that Georgia is considering the possibility of evacuating some Georgian diplomats from Kiev, as Washington has already done.

"I spoke about this with my Ukrainian colleague Dmitrij Kuleba," explained the Tbilisi foreign minister, "and I assured him that our embassy in Kiev will continue to work at full capacity, in constant relations with all Ukrainian institutions. We stand by our Western partners, and we will ask Russia to demonstrate with facts that it has no intention of invading Ukraine".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went on to say that "as far as the Russian Federation is concerned, there will be no war. We do not want war, but we will not allow our interests to be ignored and trampled underfoot'. The President of the Republic of Georgia, Salome Zurabisvili, also met with journalists and expressed the hope that "Russia will not resort to aggression, as it did in its time with Georgia".
Best Eco-Friendly Travel Essentials

The Best Eco-Friendly Travel Essentials to Cut Your Carbon Footprint in Half

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

Its widely known that traveling  especially by plane  isnt exactly the most eco-friendly or sustainable activity. But there are certain practices and habits that you can foster in order to cut down your carbon footprint and cancel out or offset carbon emissions. This could be by taking vacations closer to home, donating to a carbon offsetting projects, or making a more conscious effort to be as close to zero waste as possible on your trip.

RELATED: Sustainable Home Design

Looking for easy and effective product switches to make while traveling? Below, weve rounded up a handful of practical and eco-friendly travel essentials thatll help you become a much more sustainable traveler. From zero-waste luggage to reef-friendly sunscreen, heres what youll want to add to your earth-friendly packing list:

STATE Smith Zero Waste Backpack

STATE Smith

You might think that any old travel bag will do just fine  but the Smith Zero Waste Backpack by STATE will be your best bet if youre in the market for a replacement. Made from a zero waste pattern  a design practice that consists of leaving no waste behind  this practical and eco-friendly backpack features a laptop sleeve that fits up to a 15-inch laptop, a main compartment thatll fit everything from books to sneakers, and a front pocket for keeping all your little essentials easily accessible.

$98 at StateBags.com

SKYWAY Glacier Bay Carry-On

SKYWAY Glacier Bay

Made from recycled PET plastic produced in such a way that it saves on energy and reduces carbon emissions, the SKYWAY Glacier Bay carry-on bag was made for the stylish eco-conscious traveler in mind. The contemporary carry-on design comes in a handful of slick colorways and boasts a scratch-resistant finish thatll keep it looking brand new for years to come.

$80 at Amazon.com

Mumi Reusable Zip Up Bags

Mumi

Mumi design's Reusable Zip Up Bags are an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic zip up baggies  and can easily work for packing snacks for the flight, storing your shampoos and other items you dont want to leak into your luggage, or even as an alternative to restaurant doggie bags. The double lock closure of the mumi zip-up bags give it an airtight, leak-proof seal, so you wont have to worry about leakage the way you do with some plastic zip bags.

$19 at Bloomingdales.com

Air Company Hand Sanitizer

Air Company

There are hundreds of hand sanitizers to choose from these days  but Air Company might be your best bet if youre looking for an eco-friendly option to throw in your carry on bag. Air Company converts carbon dioxide into hand sanitizer (among other items  like vodka and perfume). The 50 ml bottle is small enough to pass through TSA but still more than enough to get you through a vacation. Note that Air Company also donates a 3-pack for every 3-pack sold to a climate-centered non-profit organization.

$25 at AirCompany.com

Spongology by Spongelle Olibanum Travel Buffer

Spongelle Olibanum

Crafted from 100% biodegradable soy and cotton, the Olibanum Travel Buffer offers a much more eco-friendly approach to personal hygiene on the go. The travel sponge already has body wash inside of it, which allows you to skip the plastic travel bottles or disposable minis in your hotel room. Spongelle is also vegan-friendly, cruelty-free, and made in the United States.

$15 at Spongelle.com

LARQ Self-Cleaning Water Bottle

LARQ

The LARQ Self-Cleaning Water Bottle is a game changer when it comes to staying hydrated while traveling  and not just because it helps you cut back on wasteful plastic bottle consumption. The LARQ uses a special UV technology to clean and purify water, removing up to 99.999 percent of viruses and bacteria, and allowing you to enjoy safe drinking water wherever you go. Spend most of your time in cities with clean drinking water in abundance? The LARQ bottle is still worth it: the self-cleaning bottle also ensures you wont have to deal with moldy or stale water, even if you go months without washing your bottle.

From $75.62 at Amazon.com

KeepCup Brew Cork, Reusable Glass Cup

KeepCup Brew

Theres no way youll ever see us giving up our morning Starbucks before boarding those red eye flights  but a reusable coffee traveler, like the Barista-designed KeepCup, not only gets plastic and paper cups out of the landfill but will actually save you 10 cents off your hot or cold beverage.

$28 at Amazon.com

DEVICO Travel Utensils

DEVICO

Youd be surprised by how practical a set of compact travel utensils can be; whether youve found yourself with a bag of takeout that doesnt have utensils at the bottom or you simply want to avoid the plastic-wrapped disposable options available with in flight meals, a set of utensils will help cut back on your overall waste while also saving you from finding yourself forkless.

$13.99 at Amazon.com

Doboli 2 Pack Reusable Metal Straws

Doboli

Iced coffee drinkers will want to take a second look at the reusable metal straws by Doboli. This super convenient pack of two telescopic straws actually packs down to the size of a carabiner, allowing you to easily keep a straw available on your key ring or backpack.

$6.99 at Amazon.com

Sun Bum Original SPF 50 Sunscreen Lotion

Sun Bum

Whether youre traveling to a coral reef destination or not  youll want to make sure you pack reef-friendly sunscreen. Hawaii, Key West, parts of Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Aruba, Bonaire, and Palau each have a ban on sunscreens with oxybenzone and octinoxate in order to protect their oceans. The Sun Bum Original SPF 50 Sunscreen Lotion is an excellent eco-friendly option that is also hypoallergenic and cruelty-free.

$15.99 at Amazon.com

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Most Popular Hairstyles for Men

The 5 Trendiest Mens Hairstyles of 2022, According to a Celebrity Stylist

Perhaps the easiest way to rock a new look is with a haircut. It doesnt have to be dramatic or extreme, but growing out your mop or chopping it off can significantly enhance your personal style in a way that you didnt think possible.

For some lock inspiration and to predict the trendiest mens hairstyles of 2022, we consulted Amy Komorowski, perhaps the most recognized celebrity mens hair stylist in the business who works with A-list clients like Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac and Andrew Garfield.

RELATED: A Primer on Choosing the Right Shampoo & Conditioner for Your Needs

Check out her expert picks, both familiar and new, below.

5 Popular Hairstyles for Men Right Now

Shag

If you held onto the long locks you grew out during quarantine, it may be in your best interest to style them into a messy, yet refined shag.

The shag is a more stylized cut [than a mullet], but still soft and with an ease to it, says Komorowski. Its also perfect for straight or wavy hair and all you need is a little surf or texturizing spray to style it.

One of our favorite texturizing sprays on the market is IGK Beach Club Volume Texture Spray. Not only does it keep your hair in place without the shine and crunch of gels and sprays, but it also smells like youve literally stepped out of the ocean in Hawaii with tanning oil on your skin and exotic flowers nearby.

Natural curls and texture

Its not just women who can get self-conscious about their curly hair or the upkeep it requires to maintain it. Komorowski encourages men to celebrate the curls and texture they were born with and own all aspects of their natural beauty.

I love seeing guys embrace their curly hair and natural texture, she shares with AskMen. I think well be seeing a trend of moving away from overly-styled and sharp barber styles to more effortless, natural hair.

Celebrities like Jaden Smith, Charlie Puth, and Leslie Odom, Jr. are great examples of men who have ditched the blow dryer or even keratin treatments to knock this look out of the park.

Buzzcut

A classic buzzcut will help you when you're looking to start entirely from scratch. You should, however, ask yourself a few important questions before reaching for the clippers and bidding adieu to months (and sometimes years) worth of hair growth.

Were seeing the resurgence of the classic buzzcut, reveals Komorowski. Its a great way to revamp your whole look and start fresh for the new year.

Once the hair is gone, youll still want to rely on a barber or stylist to shape whats left so that it frames your head and doesnt go rogue (i.e. down the nape of your neck).

Choppy fringe

Bangs are bangin, but not when cut straight across without layers to create the appearance of 90s-style bowl cut. Instead, opt for a choppy fringe where the overall cut is short, but there is textured length left in the front.

This longer hair can be swept to the side or worn more like a Caesar cut, recommends Komorowski. Dont think bangs, but more of a textured fringe and style it with a matte paste or a bit of a shiny pomade. This cut was seen all over the Fashion Week runways for 2022."

Loose and lived-in

If Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, or Jared Leto are your hair inspirations, youll want to opt for a look that Komorowski calls loose and lived-in.

Its soft, flowing waves worn either short or on the longer side and not overly-styled or done, she explains. The effortless look is tidy enough so it doesnt look like you just rolled out of bed.

Theres something to be said about caring without caring that oozes an undeniable sex appeal.

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San Angelo, TX (76909)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning, then becoming mostly sunny late. High 89F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low around 60F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
A foreign visitor waits to take a COVID-19 test before entering Korea at Incheon International Airport, Jan. 23. The government intensified quarantine regulations on visitors to control the cross-border spread of the Omicron variant. Yonhap





By Lee Hae-rin







People living in foreign countries to study, work or for various other reasons, have been suffering from the fallout of the pandemic which has entered its third year without any visible signs of an end in the foreseeable future due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.







Some feel very homesick because of travel restrictions following the suspension of non-stop flights to their home countries.







Indians living in Korea are one of the groups of people who are finding it tough to travel back to their home countries after the outbreak of COVID-19 three years ago. Non-stop flights between the two countries were suspended in March 2020, while there are few signs of them resuming in the near future. India is one of the 25 countries that saw non-stop flights to and from Korea get suspended after the outbreak of COVID-19.







On top of the pandemic-driven travel restrictions, Indians, particularly those who are here to study, have been feeling the pinch due to soaring airfares.







"All their savings are spent on just making one round trip visit because the flight tickets cost somewhere near 1 million?to 1.5 million won one way," Kislay Kumar told The Korea Times. "This means that a couple with one child making a round trip between Korea and India has to spend around a minimum of 6-9 million won."







Thus, many people who want to go home had no choice but to stay here for the past two years because of expensive airfare, according to Kosame Saikiran, an Indian national studying for a master's degree in Korea.







Transit flights through Dubai and Doha also leave the passengers more vulnerable to being exposed to the virus during the long layover.







Domestic airplanes are parked at Incheon International Airport, Oct. 10, 2021. Newsis





As of 2021, nearly 10,000 Indians are living in Korea on various visas.







The mounting anxiety and complications during the pandemic seem to have triggered the spread of misinformation within the foreign community regarding Korea's border control and entry regulations.







"(We are told that) only some particular visa holders, like people who have either an F-6 visa - the marriage visa - and if I'm not wrong, some long-term visa holders are allowed (to board on a flight to Korea)," an Indian national said, asking not to be named. "(I heard) that happened in June 2020."







"So many chartered flights which fly from India to Korea can only have a few visa holders. They cannot have everyone on the flight. So these are the restrictions that we are going through and these people are left to travel via Dubai and Doha," he said, adding that the soaring prices of chartered flights are a major concern.







What the source said was inaccurate. Airlines denied such regulations had ever been imposed on visas. Carriers follow the government's regulations on entry, transit and quarantine and have never placed restrictions on particular visa holders of Indian nationality, an official at an airline told The Korea Times.







The Immigration Contact Center of the justice ministry confirmed this, saying there has been a temporary restriction on foreign nationals entering Korea after transiting through nine African countries when the Omicron variant started to spread. But India has not been subject to the restrictive regulation.







The Embassy of Korea in India said it follows the visa regulations set by the justice ministry and has been restricting the issuance of short-term visas for tourism and visits since the outbreak of the COIVD-19 pandemic. Long-term visas, on the other hand, are being issued just like pre-pandemic times.







"The restrictions on the issuance of short-term visas are seen necessary to the country's quarantine policy against the coronavirus and are expected to return to the original state once the pandemic situation improves," the embassy said in an email interview with The Korea Times.







The foreign residents and authorities alike wish for the resumption of direct flights between the two countries. Since 2021, India has been signing air transport bubble agreements with major partnering countries, including Japan and the United States, to bring back direct flights. But Korea has not signed the agreement yet.







However, it remains to be seen if airfares will return to "reasonable" levels that passengers remember from the pre-pandemic times, even when the direct flights resume.







The recent rise in airfares is universal and resulted from changing supply and demand conditions, according to the airline industry. The demand and availability of international travel have gone down, while the airlines face operating costs that remain constant.







"The airlines need to follow the posted price set by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, thus cannot raise the fare arbitrarily," explained an airline official who wished to remain anonymous.







"The fare has not been raised over the posted price by the transport ministry," said another employee from a domestic airline. "When the demand for international flights was high before the pandemic, there were several promotions and discounts available that offered a wide price range to customers, which are no longer available. Therefore, the airfare could seem even more expensive from a passenger's point of view," the airline official added.


Athens, TX (75751)

Today

Variable clouds with strong thunderstorms. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 54F. Winds light and variable.
When a vintage car is stolen , the owner can only hope that whoever took it has not destroyed the locks and will not damage or destroy the vehicle once their joyride is over. The 1967 Shelby GT500 that was stolen from a locked facility on January 7, 2022, in Tulsa, was reportedly worth around $200,000. The sum is nothing when compared to the feeling you get when someone steals things from you.Having been left without a vehicle many years ago, as well as having my garage broken into a decade ago, I can confirm that losing things you own to thieves is infuriating, to say the least.The worst part is when you are a bit of a hoarder and are unsure what they took from your garage. Let us not mention the baffling feeling of going to an empty parking spot and discovering that the vehicle you left behind is gone.Now, after going to the police, it is wise to take a look through the Facebook marketplace, as well as websites where people can buy and sell second-hand items. If you owned something distinctive, or at least something that you can identify, it is worth taking a look at.In the case of the owner of the 1967 Shelby GT500 from Oklahoma, Tulsa Police received dozens of tips from people about the vehicle and potential suspects. Three weeks after the theft, a 20-year-old suspect was identified and arrested, but there was still no sign of the vehicle.Fortunately, people have called in anonymously and tipped police officers regarding suspicious activity. Three days later, Tulsa Police recovered the stolen Mustang from its lair after performing an aerial search.The stolen 1967 Shelby GT500 was in a "very rural area" near Mounds. The same property also had a stolen sedan, as well a stolen dump truck on it, Tulsa Police noted. Two suspects who were also involved in the heist have been charged, but the investigation is still ongoing, and police officers expect more arrests in this case, KoamNewsNow notes.The worst part is that the GT500 was found to have "a lot of damage." The good news is that its engine is intact, and the gearbox looks to be still there, but that is just a minor joy in a sea of sorrow.Sadly, the same cannot be said about its body, which was left without a hood, door, and a front fender. The vehicle was returned to its owner, but it will take months to be restored to its initial condition, if not longer.
It was there where Barrett-Jackson held its mammoth start of the year auction and where a large bunch of special Mustangs flocked to be admired and sold.Among them, this here Grabber Orange Mach 1. Not any Mach 1, but part of the limited series Ford made back in the late 1960s to support the release of pace cars for American Raceways Inc. A series that has come to be known down the ages as the Twister Special The run of Mustang Twisters was limited by Ford at 96 units back then, and they were all supposed to be powered by the mighty R-code 428ci (7.0-liter) Super Cobra Jet engine. Because not many such powerplants were sitting around on the factory floor, the carmaker ended up fitting the SCJ in just half of them, with the other half being gifted with the 351ci (5.8-liter) Cleveland.The one sitting before our eyes, a star at the above-mentioned auction, is one powered by the Cobra Jet, packing the vast majority of its original sheet metal, and having a number of awards to its name.The car looks so shiny because it got restored back in 2014 by a Minnesota-based garage, and that helped a lot in setting the final selling price for the thing: someone paid $231,000 for this Twister Special.That means, at least for a while, this particular machine will be off the market, but dont expect that to last too long, because profit is what drives the collectors market.
kW

kWh

AMG

For the base model, if we can call it that, the Affalterbach brand is asking at least 196,897.40 (equal to $220,261) in Germany, whereas the Edition variant could be yours from 218,674.40 ($244,398).The icing on the cake is the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 , which pumps out 639 ps (630 hp / 470) at 5,500-6,500 rpm and 900 Nm (664 lb-ft) of torque at 2,500-4,500 rpm. The electric motor, backed up by a 6.1battery, generates 204 ps (201 hp / 150 kW) and 320 Nm (236 lb-ft), and the combined output and torque are rated at 843 ps (831 hp / 620 kW) and in excess of 1,400 Nm (1,033+ lb-ft).Hooked up to a nine-speed automatic transmission and 4Matic+ all-wheel drive, the assembly enables a 0 to 100 kph (0-62 mph) acceleration in 2.9 seconds. The GT 63 S E Performance can hit the 200 kph (124 mph) mark in less than 10 seconds after setting off and will keep pushing up to 316 kph (196 mph). The average fuel consumption is 7.9 l/100 km (29.8 mpg-US), and the car, which has a curb weight of 2,380 kg (5,247 lbs), emits 180 g/km of CO2.Some of the standard gear includes theRide Control+ suspension, AMG Dynamics, and ceramic brakes. The Edition model is available in the Green Hell Magno paint finish, with 21-inch wheels, and brings the Night Package and Night Package II to the party, as well as the Aerodynamics, and Exterior Carbon packages, all of which bear the signature of AMG. Exclusive Nappa leather is on deck too alongside the contrasting topstitching. The AMG Performance seats are optional, together with the black piano lacquer trim or carbon accents.
PHEV

For the last few months, Travis Scott was a persona non grata after the tragedy at the Astroworld Festival, where eight people were killed in a stampede during Scotts set. His name is currently on several lawsuits, and both he and his partner, Kylie Jenner , have been laying low since the tragedy. But now Scott has been seen out in public for the first time in a long time.The rapper was out and about in Los Angeles, California, behind the wheel of his neon green Ferrari SF90 Stradale, and security followed him around during his joy ride.Travis Scott has a big car collection, and that may be a requirement when youre dating a Kardashian/Jenner. In fact, the rapper has so many cars he doesnt even remember them all.But he does remember his neon green Ferrari SF90 Stradale , because its the Italian brands firsthypercar, and its as beautiful as its powerful. Under its hood, there is the company's 4.0-liter V8 which is working alongside three electric motors. The twin-turbocharged engine puts out 769 horsepower, while the three electric motors add another 217 horsepower, taking it to a total of 986 horsepower (1,000 ps).According to the Maranello-based brand, the SF90 Stradale can reach 62 mph (100 kph) from a standstill in only 2.5 seconds. Of course, the performance doesnt come cheap, as it has a starting price of over $500,000 (427,200).Besides the SF90 Stradale, in Travis Scotts garage, you can also find a Ferrari 488 and a LaFerrari, which you can check out in our gallery. He also previously bought a black LaFerrari for Kylie Jenner, so they can match cars.
The Beta Technologies team has a serious background in logistics and technology, and its board of directors includes Will Roper, the former U.S. assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics, who was at the forefront of the Agility Prime program. This innovative project has demonstrated the U.S. Air Forces commitment to sustainability and electric aviation for various purposes.After a previous contract with the Air Force, Beta Technologies has recently secured a new contract with the U.S. Army, thats looking to use the Alia 250 eVTOL as a sustainable solution for cargo and logistics. According to Future Flight , Army engineers will be involved in future flight tests in order to evaluate the aircrafts range, altitude, payload, and endurance limits.Alias design was inspired by a bird, the Arctic tern, known for its outstanding ability to migrate further than any other bird, close to almost every continent. With a 50-foot (15 meters) wingspan and boasting a 250-nautical mile (287 miles, 463 km) range, Alia is meant to perform long-range flights carrying either passengers or cargo with zero emissions. Its equipped with air-cooled motors that were designed and developed in-house, claiming to offer high torque density and redundancy.The Alia 250 has already conducted several successful flights between the companys headquarters at the Burlington International Airport in Vermont, and Plattsburg, in New York, the longest one adding up to 205 miles (329 km).Whats unique about this eVTOL manufacturer is that it has also developed a series of charging solutions, including a Rapid Charging System that can be used for land-based electric vehicles as well. It can operate at airports, or as part of a Charge Pad, for off-airport operations, and it can also integrate with on-site solar power systems.While the U.S. Army will be testing its capabilities for future logistics missions, the Alia 250 is also aiming for type certification by 2024. Commercial partners, such as UPS, have already agreed to add this eVTOL to their fleets in the future.
By Nam Hyun-woo







The presidential candidates of rival parties are churning out promises of massive social overhead capital (SOC) projects such as underground railroads, expressways and new airports, in what appears to be a desperate outreach to voters in affected regions with Korea's presidential election now less than two months away.







However, doubts remain over the feasibility of those projects, as the candidates are not coming up with detailed ideas on project financing and execution during their tenure.







Ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, center, is briefed by rescue workers during his visit to a collapsed construction site in Gwangju, Jan. 27. Joint Press Corps





On Jan. 24, ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung announced an assortment of pledges for Gyeonggi Province, which focused on improving traffic conditions in the region surrounding Seoul.







As part of the pledges, Lee said he will review a project to take the Yangjae-Dongtan section of Gyeongbu Expressway underground. That section sits on the southern outskirts of Seoul and is one of the most heavily travelled roads when outbound from the capital.







Three days earlier, Lee promised to develop an underground section of the Hannam-Yangjae section of the expressway, which frequently experiences heavy congestion. On Jan. 14, he pledged plans to take Gyeongin Railway and Gyeongin Expressway underground, both of which link Seoul and Incheon.







Lee's election camp said those projects will improve connectivity between Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.







Main opposition People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, left, is briefed by an official at a traffic control center in Sejong City, Jan. 22. Yonhap





Main opposition People Power Party (PPP) candidate Yoon Suk-yeol has also made similar promises.







On Jan. 16, Yoon unveiled a plan to take various railways and expressways underground. This includes a 32 kilometer section of Gyeongbu Railway, a 27 kilometer section on Gyeongin Railway and a 13.5 kilometer section of Gyeongwon Railway, which connects Seoul and Wonju in Gangwon Province.







Yoon also promised to take underground sections of Yangjae-Hannam and Gyeongbu Expressways, and secure 600,000 square meters of land.







While making similar promises, the two sides are also making comparable assumptions on the costs of their projects.







According to Lee's camp, it will cost up to 24 trillion won ($20 billion) over the next 15 years for his underground expressway and railway projects. Yoon's camp also assumes that 23.85 trillion won will be needed for the underground railways and an additional 3.3 trillion won to excavate the underground expressway areas.







Yoon's camp said the government can cover approximately 18 trillion won of the costs by commercializing the newly secured land, thereby easing the financial burden for those projects. Lee's side also applied a similar rationale for its financing plans.







This map shows ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung's proposal to extend high-speed GTX railways linking Seoul and Gyeonggi Province cities. Courtesy of Lee Jae-myung election committee

However, questions remain over the feasibility of those promises, since they are ideas that candidates in past presidential elections have considered at least once, yet failed to pass state feasibility tests.







Rebuilding the Gyeongin railway underground was initially requested by Seoul, Incheon and other municipalities in 2008, and promised by former President Park Geun-hye and incumbent President Moon Jae-in during their respective presidential campaigns.







However, the proposals have failed to pass feasibility tests and have been subject to other political conflicts due to their costs and anticipated difficulties in securing alternative transportation means during the construction period.







In 2015, the governments of Incheon and Gyeonggi Province requested Korea Railroad Research Institute to analyze the construction of a part of the Gyeongin Railway underground. The institute assumed the cost would be approximately 7 trillion won and the cost-benefit ratio stood at 0.74.







Although the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport requested another study last month to take a part of the Gyeongin Railway underground, it remains uncertain whether the study will produce a different outcome.







Against this backdrop, the candidates are promising to exempt the Gyeongin Railway project from the state feasibility test, demonstrating their intentions push ahead regardless of the costs.







"When the presidential race reaches its final stage, policies promised by different candidates will be indistinguishable," Lee said, while announcing his idea of taking a part of the Gyeongin Railway underground. "What matters the most is who has the commitment and capability to realize these promises. I, whose commitment and capabilities are proven, will realize these projects."







Korea requires a project worth more than 50 billion won with more than 30 billion won financed by the government to be subject to a state feasibility study. However, the President can exempt the test for projects such as building government complexes, educational facilities or improving existing infrastructure through presidential decrees.







An aerial view of Heuksan Island, South Jeolla Province / Courtesy of Ministry of Environment





Candidates' pledges on airports also face doubts over their feasibility.







So far, Lee has promised his support for plans to build new airports in the Saemangeum area of North Jeolla Province, Heuksan Island in South Jeolla Province, Ulleung Island in North Gyeongsang Province, and Gadeok Island near Busan.







He also advocated ideas to build airports covering southern Gyeonggi Province and North Gyeongsang Province.







Yoon is also taking a similar stance by giving nods to almost all regional municipalities' demands for airports. When he visited South Chungcheong Province on Jan. 21, he promised a new airport in Seosan.







In question is the feasibility of the new airports. According to Korea Airports Corporation, which manages all airports in the country except for Incheon International Airport, 13 out of 14 airports it manages suffered losses in 2020. Of them, 10 airports, except for Jeju, Gimpo, Gimhae and Daegu, have suffered losses for five consecutive years.







Incheon International Airport, which is run by Incheon International Airport Corporation, saw a 428.8 billion won loss in 2020. The loss expanded to 778.3 billion won last year.







Amid the declining demand for regional airports, it also remains uncertain whether those projects can pass feasibility tests. The Heuksan Island airport project was also a campaign pledge of Moon, but has yet to even select its operating body because the cost-benefit rates have been moving between 0.78 and 4.38 depending on the analysis.







A 2013 study by the Ministry of Economy and Finance showed the project's cost-benefit rate standing at 4.38, but the number declined to 2.6 when the transport ministry tested it in 2017. It further plummeted to 0.78 in a most conservative scenario analyzed in 2020.







"Sadly, the feasibility of such SOC promises is not the priority for candidates," said Park Sang-byeong, a professor at Inha University Graduate School of Policy Science. "An election is the same as fighting fire with fire. If your rival comes up with an unrealistic but attractive pledge, you can't help but roll out a similar and more attractive one, in order to win the competition. Feasibility and other realistic concerns will come after you win the election."


Build to maximize efficiency and environmental performance, the 777-8 features design improvements, including a new carbon-fiber composite wing and new, fuel-efficient engines. Tonnage-wise, the aircraft offers a payload capacity almost identical to the 747-400 Freighter, with a maximum structural payload of 118 tons.As for its range, the new Freighter will be able to cover 4,410 nautical miles (8,167 km). With such abilities, customers dont have to make that many stops and theyll experience a reduction in landing fees on long-haul routes. Boeing claims the cargo airplane comes with a 25 percent improvement in operating costs, as well as efficiency and emissions.The 777-8 Freighter, which is the newest member of the 777X widebody family, will be built at Boeings Everett, Washington factory, in which the company invested over $1 billion to support the production of the 777X airplanes.A record-breaking deal was just signed between Boeing and Qatar Airways, with the latter being the 777-8 Freighter launch customer. The two have been in business together since the airline began operations, 25 years ago.As part of the recently signed agreement, Qatar placed a firm order of 34 jets and options for 16 more, with the total value of the purchase amounting to over $20 billion. It may sound like a lot of money, but then again, Qatar Airlines is one of the largest cargo carriers in the world. The deal was signed at the White House, with both Boeings CEO and President Dave Calhoun and Qatars Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, being present.Also as part of the agreement, Qatar Airways will convert 20 of its 60 777X family orders to the 777-8 Freighter.As stated by Boeing, the first delivery of the new freighter is scheduled for 2027.
EV

This change is the latest in a string of similar reshuffles for the German brand, after it had already announced the spin-off of its truck and bus division roughly a year ago.The company started off as Daimler-Benz AG back in 1926, although the Mercedes brand (named after the daughter of an automobile entrepreneur who worked with Daimler) was trademarked a lot earlier, in 1902.We have a real chance to raise the multiple, said CEO Ola Kallenius during a recent interview, without naming a specific target valuation for his company, which is now worth just under 77 billion euros ($85.7 billion), as per Reuters According to industry analysts, even a massive premium carmaker like Mercedes-Benz can only grow so much  given the relatively small size of the luxury market. This is why a strategic shift is necessary to the point where investors start seeing the German brand as anmanufacturer and tech giant.Investors could start viewing Mercedes as a Lucid Motors or Tesla type and start to give it an EV multiple, said Tom Narayan, a European auto analyst with RBC Capital Markets. But Lucid and Tesla get to start at 100% EV. For Mercedes you have to convert your existing ICE business to EVs. That may be a limitation on how far the multiple could go near-term.Meanwhile, Daniel Schwarz, a management director at Stifel, stated that such valuations reflect the belief that German brands had to go on the defensive so as to protect their market share from the likes of Tesla Teslas valuation is based on the assumption that Tesla will win market share from German manufacturers, who dont have a comparable revenue growth potential, he said.
The Falcon 6X serial number five was ferried to Little Rock from France, where the Merignac production facility is located  thats where all the Falcon business jets complete initial assembly. For such an advanced aircraft, cutting-edge production technologies and equipment had to be implemented. The completion process will be carried out in a state-of-the-art hangar that was specifically designed for the companys advanced models, and the digital tools include a virtual plateau where any aircraft component or system can be displayed. Designed to accommodate up to 16 passengers, the Falcon 6X flaunts the highest and widest cross-section of any business jet, with a cabin height of 6.6 feet (1.98 meters), a width of 8.6 feet (2.5 meters), and a 40.4-foot (12.3 meters) length. Another remarkable feature is that it boasts the highest percentage of window area in its class. No less than 30 extra-large windows flood the cabin with natural light, and theres even an industry-first skylight that adds natural light to the galley area.The Falcon 6X cabin is also presented as the quietest one, and highly comfortable, thanks to a comfortable pressurization level thats maintained even when cruising at high altitudes. Plus, the air inside is refreshed on a regular basis, creating an environment that is ten times cleaner than todays most advanced office buildings. In terms of performance, this advanced business jet can fly almost anywhere in the world and is even capable of landing at challenging airports that cant typically be accessed by large business jets.The advanced Falcon 6X business jet , powered by the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW812D engine, is expected to enter into service by the end of this year.
Its been nearly a month since we covered ND Woodworking Arts superb Rolls-Royce Boat Tail , a scaled-down, wooden version of one of the most expensive cars in the world. His kid-size wheeler is first and foremost a piece of art, but you can also hop in it and take the wheel if you want to go for a laidback, battery-powered ride. Now the artisan comes back with a fresh video that shows us how he made the lights and the hood ornament for the Boat Tail.A little background on this guy, first: hes from Vietnam, his name is Truong Van Dao (also described by his fans as a pure genius, God, or the best YouTuber in the world), and ND Woodworking Art is his YouTube channel, one that is continuously growing, with over a million subscribers and counting.This guy makes the most amazing miniature vehicles, most of them out of wood, all tributes to some of the most iconic wheelers ever made. The Boat Tail is just one of his projects, but you can also find on his channel replicas of the Ferrari GTO 250, Lamborghini Sian Roadster, Bugatti Centodieci, to name just a few. And lately, he also got into restoring old, worn-out bicycles.Back to his latest behind-the-scenes video, it is simply satisfying to watch. Truong Van Dao crafts Rolls-Royce s lights and ornamental sculpture with enviable mastery.For those who dont know it, that forward-leaning woman with her arms outstretched, who sits proudly on the hood of nearly every Rolls-Royce car out there, is called The Spirit of Ecstasy and has been the automakers official mascot since 1911. It is one of the most recognizable and famous car symbols and, according to Rolls-Royce , it embodies beauty, luxury, style, and perfection.The video below can teach you how to make your own budget-friendly Spirit of Ecstasy, so well leave you to it.
For full journalistic disclosure, the images and names of the boat and its crew have been redacted to protect Operational Security and the families who serve. That being said, Amelia Island is home to most of the Civil Servants who refit each submarine after it returns from patrol. Because the Ohio Class submarine fleet can easily spend 3 months lurking in the deep, they return home in need of three months off and with a mountain of dirty laundry.Planned in the 1970s, we initially had 8 subs near Seattle, and 8 here at Kings Bay, Georgia . Each one has 4 torpedo tubes and 24 Trident Missile tubes. These missiles are advertised as having a range of 7,500 miles (12,000km) while carrying 14 examples of the W76 warhead. Each warhead is rated at 100 kilotons, making it almost 10x hotter than Hiroshima. With 24 missiles x 14 bombs each, each Ohio Class submarine can wipe out every populated city on Earth, taking us back to the iron age.Thankfully, common sense has dropped the power of bombs and missiles on both sides, until recently at least. Thats why our 4 oldest subs have been converted to carry SEALS into shallow waters by trading their nuclear missiles for Tomahawk cruise missiles.With that out of the way, a family friend who oversaw the Trident Refit Facility was able to get me onboard for a Tiger Cruise. This is a 24-hour shakedown cruise for civilians and contractors so they can see the fruits of their labor. So, at 3 AM we drove through 4 layers of razor wire protected by Marines of increasing rank. This base is comprised of 16,000 acres of pristine Georgia waterfront. The St Marys River forms the border between Florida and Georgia, and it is over 96 feet deep. Thats why King Ferdinand and Isabella prized these islands for navigable plantations.Growing up here, we all take submarines for granted. Spending a day playing inside Fort Clinch , these beasts of steel pass by at incredible speeds with officers of the deck in Full Dress. This has all changed in recent years, with subs heading to sea surrounded by support ships. They are protected by the meanest SEAL teams you have never heard of.The morning was spent learning the ropes of how air is made, how to cook gourmet meals, and how to launch the food waste overboard. We were stalked by dolphins who love to eat leftover veal, pizza, and lamb. Our submarines have the best food in the world because they volunteer to live in a can for three months. Around noon, Commander Seth Paradise allowed me to stand watch, as I took soundings of our depth and used the periscope to confirm nobody was in our neighborhood.Because submarines are most vulnerable on the surface, we were heading East at around 45 mph (72 kph). The continental shelf is nearly 36 miles out, so subs race in and out of port under air cover from Jacksonville . Once sonar and radar confirmed we were alone, the order was given to dive.This is a minute of complete concentration for everyone, as a missed step could sink us. The lights go from white to red, and a deafening rush of air is heard escaping from the ballast tanks. The floor falls away as we drop like a rock into the abyss, and we quickly reach 300 meters (984 ft). Once there, I was allowed to grab the wheel for a few drifting sessions, making use of 35,000 horsepower.I launched a few fake torpedoes (water slugs) and simulated launching 24 Trident missiles in a Weapons Drill. If you have the opportunity to drive a $9 Billion dollar office building, I highly recommend it. So heres to the officers, crew, and Civil Servants who keep us safe, as they remain the first and the last line of defense.
SUV

Analogies between 4x4s and soft drinks aside, before the days when every company sold an Jeep and Land Rover found two completely different ways of providing what is essentially the same product. That being four-wheel-drive off-roaders with all the road manners of a passenger car with the ability to climb any mountain and cross any stream. That's the line they used to advertise Land Rovers back in the day, at least.To find the genesis of both Jeep and Land Rover, one needs to take a trip in time back to the very earliest days post World War Two. There's a common misconception that Jeep and Land Rover as they exist today had their origins in this war. But this is false, as the term "Jeep" referred to a number of different vehicles made by a multitude of manufacturers at that time.Both the American and British armed forces utilized designs for the first vehicles to be given the Jeep moniker during the war. These early Jeeps were designed by both the Willys Company and Ford. Although they were produced in factories all over the Allied nations. It wasn't until after the war that civilianized military 4x4s began to find their way into the consumer space.In the case of Land Rover, this genesis occurred in 1947, as a 4x4 exclusive manufacturer under the umbrella of the larger Rover Company, based in Solihull, in the West Midlands. The goal was simple, to build a dependable civilian off-roader that could do three times the work of a horse on a farm at three times the speed. All while also being easily modified into a battle-ready design at a moment's notice as a secondary priority, as was being able to withsand a 45 degree incline, this was later abandoned.The "Series" editions of the Land Rover accounted for the bulk of production from the 1948 model year for a staggering 37 years. In a time before Great Britain had fully recovered from the Second World War, especially economically, expensive facelifts and refreshes simply weren't possible. The very earliest Series I Land Rovers used the very same Jeep chassis the Rover group was trying to compete with.This by very deliberate design, the Series I's chief designer Maurice Wilks was all too conscious of the dire economic situation. As steel was in extremely short supply, the body panels were made from aluminum instead and painted Army Green, thanks to an Army surplus. The design made its debut in the spring of 1948 at that year's Amsterdam Motor Show, just three years after the end of the war.To say Land Rover saved Rover Group from extinction wouldn't be hyperbole in the slightest. Even American GIs serving in the UK grew to love these early Land Rovers. With gas and diesel four-cylinder options, these 50 and a bit horsepower 4x4s would grow to be adored by one and all. Within a single human generation, from the First Series One, Land Rover was competing with Jeep on American soil and doing remarkably admirably.Meanwhile, Willys-Overland had the exact same eureka moment Maurice Wilkes had across the Atlantic with the Land Rover. Legend has it that the company was mulling over a civilianized version of the Willys Jeep before the war was even finished. None of these original "Civilian Jeeps" survive to the present day, but their designation of CJ-1 set a precedent for one of the most respected passenger vehicles in American history.For seven generations (eight, if you count the extended wheelbase CJ-8 ), the Jeep CJ represented the pinnacle of American 4x4 capabilities. A scarcely believable four separate companies accounted for their production from 1944 until 1986, a staggering 42-year run. But as the sands of time crept ever further, it was time for both companies to evolve.Land Rover's response to the turn of the 1970s was to unveil their Classic Range Rover, which was to become the stalwart of the company for the next 50 years. Meanwhile, Jeep and their Grand Wagoneer would evolve into the American icon, the Grand Cherokee.In 1987, the Range Rover made its formal debut in North America. It was a complete success. Five years later, the Grand Cherokee 4x4 climbed the steps to the Huntington Palace Convention Center in Detroit and straight through a plate-glass window in front of the awaiting press.The two titans of the industry, one in Britain and one in America, have been duking it out on the global stage ever since. Today you can buy specialized versions of both the Range Rover and the Grand Cherokee to serve any purpose you may have.Not to mention all the special editions of the Defender and the Wrangler, the spiritual successors to the Series I and the CJ. You can even have a high horsepower track monster in the form of the Range Rover SVR and the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk.And there are always special military versions of both, in the form of the M1161, the last in the line of military Jeeps and itself based on the Vietnam era M151 Jeep. Admittedly, it isn't made by the makers of the road-going Jeeps, but a Jeep it indeed is regardless.As for Land Rover, their Defender-based Wolf light utility vehicle reminds us that even today, these two companies have military DNA that they aren't at all reluctant to be boastful about and all the power to them. Because frankly, who the heck knows where the British auto industry would be without them?But which of these two off-roading icons would you rather put in your garage? Let us know in the comments down below. Check back soon for more from Land Rover Month right here on autoevolution.
kW

VTOL

Koenigsegg chose the name for this motor inspired by physics. Quark is the only particle to experience all four fundamental forces (electromagnetism, gravitation, strong interaction, and weak interaction). As its unique design would not fit any current classification for motors, the Swedish company coined a new one: it is a raxial-flux motor.It is not clear how the company managed to present an engineering piece that joins the high torque of axial-flux motors with the high power of radial-flux designs. Well probably have to ask Dragos-Mihai Postariu about that. The Romanian engineer is Koenigseggs Electric Motor Design Lead.According to him, the Quark was designed to bolster the low-speed range of the Gemera, where you need it, for brutal acceleration. Summing up, it gives Koenigseggs hypercar a big power surge followed by a continuous record-speed push to 400 kph without any torque or power losses.In the Gemera , the Quark delivers a peak torque of 600 Nm (442.5 pound-feet) and 250(335 hp) of peak power. You may brag that you have already seen stronger electric motors, but we dare you to tell us how much they weigh. The Quark is a 30-kilogram (66.1-pound) machine. According to Koenigsegg, it can get even lighter without the extra driveline functions for the Gemera: below 28.5 kg (62.8 lb).The company said that because the plan is to sell the Quark for anyone willing to use this electric motor. Koenigsegg thinks it would be great for applications other than automotive, such as aerospace,, and marine.The Quark is not the only electric product Koenigsegg is willing to sell to other brands. It also has David. This 6-phase SIC (silicon carbide) inverter was named after the Biblical character, and makes a lot of sense on the Terrier, another one of the Swedish brands goods.This electric drive unit joins two Quarks with a David. Being a 6-phase inverter, David has three phases for each electric motor, allowing them to operate with only one inverter. Thats another weight-saving measure. We only wonder if it will be easy to service Terrier in case anything goes bad with its David.Koenigsegg named this drive unit Terrier because it is small, energetic, and fearless, just like the dogs that are included in this breed. If simple math is enough to reveal the numbers Koenigsegg did not disclose, energetic is a euphemism: the Terrier could deliver 1,200 Nm (885 lb-ft) and 500 kW (670.5 hp).That would only work if there were no losses in the drive unit. However, Koenigsegg mentions that it used small low-ratio highly efficient planetary gear sets on it, which may bring those numbers down.Despite that, imagine that much power and torque in something that weighs a little more than 75 kg (165.4 lb): 60 kg (132.3 lb) from the two Quarks, 15 kg (33.1 lb) and Koenigsegg knows what else. It may be even lighter than 75 kg, considering that putting them together may have offered new opportunities to save weight.Well now wait for Koenigsegg to announce who are its first clients or partners willing to get these motors and inverters. Startups will probably enjoy selling a car with a Koenigsegg signature on them for much less than a Koenigsegg would cost.As you can see, electric cars are a work in progress. Apart from motors, batteries also offer a lot of room for improvement. New ideas such as those the Swedish company presented only make EVs more inevitable than before, and thats good news unless you would rather take a bus or ride a bicycle to go everywhere.
SUV

Aston Martin just announced their new DBX707 version. It is described as the worlds most powerful luxury. But the distinction about this ride being of the premium variety was not by will, and rather by constraint. This is simply because the worlds most powerful SUV is none other than Dodges Durango SRT Hellcat. With 710 horsepower.And it turns out that not even Jeeps older Grand Cherokee Trackhawk needs not to worry about the new British high-performance knight. Aston Martin gave us 707 ps (metric horsepower), which translates to 697 horsepower. Anyway, it is not like the aftermarket world did not have answers even if there were more ponies...Now, it seems that we are dealing with a Grand Cherokee Trackhawk that is all show and no extra go. Courtesy of Atlanta, Georgia-based Road Show International and their ubiquitous RS edition transformation. But what a show! Probably you wont even need the extra go when equipped with a 6.2-liter supercharged V8 packing 707 hp and capable of hitting 62 mph/100 kph in a mere 3.5 seconds, anyway!Perhaps its better to just subtly stand out in any high-performance crowd. With help from a Nardo-wrapped exterior colorway. One that is richly contrasted by orange details. And a set of gloss black powder 24-inch Forgiato Designs forged wheels. Which also features orange accents, of course. Theyre very important.After all, the Hermes interior is slightly more in your face... We are just going to let the gallery pictures speak a thousand orange upholstery words! As for the rest of the highlights, those include many other black accents. Or the JL Audio sound package, 15 mm (0.59 inch) lowering system for better stance and handling. Along with some ceramic coating protection.
After it had been locked in storage for over three decades under previous ownership, this '79 MY Honda CB750K 10th Anniversary Edition was finally blessed with the restoration it deserved in 2021. For starters, the specimens 5.3-gallon (20-liter) fuel chamber saw an internal overhaul, while its Comstar hoops received a premium pair of Battlax BT46 tires from Bridgestone.The front brake was fitted with a new caliper, modern pads, and a rebuilt master cylinder, among other goodies. Moreover, the traditional drum module worn by the creatures rear 17-inch wheel has been serviced using fresh shoes. Up in the cockpit, you will find hollow-stem aftermarket mirrors and youthful rubber grips adorning the OEM handlebar.As far as the powertrain mods are concerned, the engines carbs and valves were massaged to optimize its power delivery. The current owner went about flushing the motor oil, while the air filter and spark plugs have also been replaced for good measure. In terms of mileage, this special-edition CB750K shows a little over 1k miles (1,600 km) on its five-digit analog counter.Hondas classic head-turner is powered by an air-cooled 749cc inline-four mill, with dual overhead camshafts, four constant-velocity Keihin carburetors, and sixteen valves. At about 9,000 spins per minute, the engine can deliver up to 77 horses, along with 48 pound-feet (65 Nm) of twist lower down the rpm range. This force travels to the bikes drive chain through a five-speed gearbox, resulting in a top speed of 124 mph (200 kph).The Japanese legend is looking for a new home at this very moment, and you may register your bids on Bring a Trailer until Sunday, February 6. For now, the top bid is placed at about 1,500 bones, but you can be absolutely certain that it wont be meeting the reserve. The last CB750K 10th Anniversary Edition weve seen on the BaT website was sold for $24,000, so make of that what you will.
COE

Back then, Europe was recovering after WWII, and Britain had to get back on track with its industry. The Rover Company was on the brink of extinction among other carmakers. Its factory in Coventry was bombed during the war, and production was moved to Solihull, near Birmingham, where the management tried to create a small, affordable vehicle. But it was too expensive to produce them.Meanwhile, Maurice Wilks, Rover's chief engineer, had an American Willys Jeep, a leftover from the war. He enjoyed that car so much that he came up with the idea of producing a British version of it. Moreover, since the agricultural vehicles were in high demand, he proposed to the company's management a vehicle that could suit both purposes: a tractor and a family car.The idea was good, and got the green light. Work on the project started in 1947 and, by 1948, the first prototype was ready: the Land Rover Series I . It was built on top of a Willys chassis, and fitted with an engine carried over from a Rover P3.Steel was among the short-list of materials rationalized for rebuilding the British economy, and Wilks came up with a great idea. The aircraft factories still had aluminum in large quantities (previously needed for the Spitfire ), and nobody wanted it. So, Rover made Series I from that. Moreover, there was an abundance of light-green paint leftover from the war, so the carmaker took that too.The body panels were flat and barely bent into the corners, thus production cost was kept low. Its fenders were placed way in front of the radiator, so the vehicle had the engine compartment protected. Also, the headlights were installed inside the grille for the same reason.While the initial project featured a center-mounted driver post, the final product had the driving post moved on the right side of the vehicle and accompanied by two other seats for passengers. In the back, there were two side-mounted, inward-facing benches. Under the hood, there was a small 1.6-liter gasoline engine. The gearbox featured a PTO (Power Take-Off), which allowed the mounting of agricultural machinery.The first pre-production vehicle of the Series I was registered in January 1949 with the HUE 166 plates . That was the beginning of one of the most incredible vehicles ever made.By 1950, the carmaker understood that the 1.6-liter engine was outdated, and introduced a 2.0-liter powerplant. It was not a beast, but since the car was light and featured a 4x4 transmission with a two-speed transfer case, it could conquer any terrain. Its 80" wheelbase was appropriate for the initial needs. Moreover, there were no taxes, since it was registered as an agricultural vehicle. Still, it had a mandatory maximum speed of just 30 mph (48 kph).By 1957, the Series I grew and sported an 86" wheelbase, and a new, 2.0-liter diesel engine was installed. Yet, it was already evident that the Series I needed an upgrade. That came in 1958 with the Series II, which was built on a chassis with an 88" wheelbase for the SWB, and a 109" one for the LWB.A special mention goes for the 1962 Land Rover Forward Control (FC), which was actually a(cab-over-engine) version of the Series IIA. This allowed for a bigger transport area, and was used by the army to transport troops or equipment. However, it didn't last too long, Rover producing less than 2,500 units. The FC version was resumed in 1966 based on the Series IIB vehicle with improved engines and drivetrains . Yet, it was not a highly successful model, but mainly purchased by authorities and armies.With the Series II, Land Rover became a worldwide-known name. It started to assemble vehicles in Australia, South Africa, and Belgium. It became a trendy vehicle bought by farmers, lords, business owners, and even Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain . It was a car with no social status. That characteristic was transferred onto the third generation, the Series III, which was introduced in 1971 and became the vehicle of choice for armies around the world. It was used by the U.N. Forces to help people in conflict areas, saving them from starvation and famine. It also became the first of the Series models to feature a V8 engine. With the Series III , Land Rover moved into new territory. This car was more advanced and featured a redeveloped chassis, and became the most produced version among the Series I/II/III vehicles, with over 440,000 units delivered worldwide. Worth mentioning is that during its production period, between 1971 and 1985, Land Rover reached the one-million cars produced. Like the Series II, it was available with an 88" and a 109" wheelbase, with a soft or fixed roof, with three or five doors. But it was still built from aluminum, like the original 1948 HUE 166.These simple off-roaders were not only rugged, but also easy to fix. In those times, nobody complained about them. They were not luxurious by any standards, yet they were not meant to be like that. Land Rover conquered the world with them, and there is a legend that says that 1/3rd of the newly discovered lands in Africa met the first automobile in the form of a Land Rover. By 1985 though, some new rules and regulations forced the carmaker to introduce a new lineup.And that didn't bore the "Series" nameplate anymore. It was simply named Land Rover Ninety or One Ten. But that's another story for the Land Rover Month here, on autoevolution.
Crown Princess Mary of Denmark visits the Koldinghus to open the exhibition "Mary and the Crown Princesses" in Kolding, Jan. 31. AFP-Yonhap





Denmark became one of the first European Union countries to scrap most COVID-19 pandemic restrictions Tuesday as the Scandinavian country no longer considers the outbreak ''a socially critical disease.''







The reason for this is that while the Omicron variant is surging in Denmark, it's not placing a heavy burden on the health system and the country has a high vaccination rate, officials said.







Denmark has in recent weeks seen more than 50,000 daily cases on average while the number of people in hospital intensive care units has dropped.







The most visible restriction disappearing is the wearing of face masks, which are no longer mandatory on public transportation, shops and for standing clients in restaurant indoor areas. The authorities only recommend mask use in hospitals, health care facilities and nursing homes.







Another restriction that is no longer required is the digital pass used to enter nightclubs, cafes, party buses and to be seated indoors in restaurants.







''I dare not say that it is a final goodbye to restrictions. We do not know what will happen in the fall. Whether there will be a new variant,'' Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish radio.







The health authorities urged Danes to get tested regularly to keep an epidemic surveillance and if needed, ''react quickly if necessary,'' as Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said last week.







The Danish government has warned that Denmark could see a rise in infections in the coming weeks and said that a fourth vaccination shot might be necessary.







The restrictions were originally introduced in July but were removed about 10 weeks later after a successful vaccination drive. They were reintroduced when infections soared.







In 2020, Denmark became one of the first European countries to close schools because of the pandemic and sent home all non-critical public employees. (AP)


A Russian scientist that had been arrested in the summer of 2021 was recently charged with espionage by German prosecutors, Euronews reports. Ilnur N. had been working as a research assistant for a science and technology professor at a Bavarian University while also acting as a spy, since at least 2019. The focal point of this activity was the Ariane rocket, which is the main European vehicle for space launches.Apparently, the suspect would have regular meetings with Russias SVR foreign intelligence service representatives, sharing information about the various stages of development of the Ariane rocket, as well as other products related to airspace research. For now, the prosecutors still have to decide whether they will take the case to trial or not. But the official charges prove that theres a real competition when it comes to space launch-related technology, especially since new players, such as the UK, are trying to catch up with the ones who have traditionally dominated space exploration.According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the Ariane 5 rocket can be described as the workhorse of Europes independent access to space. The Ariane program has been successful for over three decades, and the latest version of the rocket is seen as one of the most reliable launchers in the world.Considered a major technological evolution for the European rocket program, Ariane 5 is comprised of a core stage, with two side boosters, an upper stage, and the payload fairing. The cryogenic upper stage is powered by a liquid-propellant engine for 6.6 tons of thrust, while the Vulcain 2 engine of the core stage provides 140 tons of thrust.The powerful European rocket whose secrets are apparently coveted by Russian spies was recently used to launch the famous James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at the end of last year.
NHTSA

FSD

Rolling stops  AKA California stops  mean that the car does not entirely stop at red lights or stop signs. That is illegal in some parts of the U.S., such as Texas. Just imagine the conversation Tesla had withon January 10, 2022. Either Tesla did not know it was deliberately breaking the law in some States of its biggest market, or it just decided to move ahead with the idea. You decide which alternative is worse.This is the second recall Tesla has to issue due to. The first one was submitted to NHTSA on October 29, 2021, and it had to do with false forward-collision warnings. They caused what is already known as a chronic Tesla issue: phantom braking.The second recall will be solved like the first one was: with an OTA (over-the-air) update. They should start to be deployed in early February 2022, AKA right now. The 2021.44.30.15. firmware release will be the first to begin disabling rolling stops. However, the company states that later releases may also take care of this. If your car has already received it, it should have a different description text for the affected FSD driving modes.Tesla said that 53,822 vehicles were affected. That is possibly the number of cars that have full access to FSD at this point. Tesla said it had nearly 60,000 EVs with FSD at its earnings call, which shows it was exaggerating the numbers for investors.All four Tesla Models are involved with the recall. Tesla did not describe how many of each are included in the recall, which would let us know how FSD is distributed. However, it made clear that only Model S and Model X units produced after September 9, 2016, have the beta software. Tesla hackers and fans of the brand may be able to explain why.
HMAS Adelaide had a string of bad luck at the beginning of this year. While on its way to the disaster-hit island nation, it was first affected by an epidemic outbreak, by January 25. Next, the Australian Department of Defense confirmed that the vessel recently suffered a power outage. The situation is under control now, with civilian specialists on their way, in order to assess the affected systems.Wanting to clear some of the misinformation that was circulating, the DoD stated that back-up power had been effectively activated and that neither food supplies, nor the refrigeration and sanitation systems, have been affected, and that air conditioning was also operational on most parts of the ship. In other words, the power outage wasnt as damaging as some of the media reported, and the Navy vessel will be able to continue its support operations for the Tonga government.Because of the epidemic outbreak onboard, HMAS Adelaide has provided humanitarian relief without any personnel leaving its decks. According to The Age , the three helicopters that it carries were deployed for contactless delivery of supplies.HMAS Adelaide is an amphibious assault ship, also known as Landing Helicopter Docks (LHD), which are the largest ships ever built for the Australian Navy. They are considered one of the worlds most advanced amphibious air-land-sea deployment systems. HMAS Adelaide III is also equipped with advanced radars, communication capabilities, and surveillance systems, plus defensive systems. In addition to helicopters, it also features purpose-built watercraft for transporting troops and supplies in places with no fixed port facilities.The Australian DoD also stated that the onboard personnels safety remains the highest priority. After all, they must first be safe in order to be able to help the people of Tonga.
HP

This ultrafast responder also has some cool accessories installed, which bond well with the environment it`s currently in. You guessed right, it`s in the United Arab Emirates!Expo 2020 Dubai began in late January 2022 because of the restrictions imposed by the current health situation. These two years of waiting have amassed into an impressive show of progress and courage. The participants were more than ready this time. While many other presentations were impressive, the queen of this whole event was this internal combustion engine ambulance provided by Lykan. It is shaped like a car from children's dreams that is meant for the track, not to save lives. Nonetheless, it`s here and it will serve its purpose in Dubai.Dubbed the HyperSport Responder, this incredible vehicle developed in the UAE can travel comfortably with three passengers (one specially trained driver, one doctor, and one patient) at 400 kph (249 mph) and it can achieve 100 kph (62 mph) in less than 2.8 seconds. There are only seven of these Lykan built for the entire world, but this one is already in use for those who will need it the most.The Emergency Health Services from Dubai have confirmed that the Hyper Ambulance has a price tag of 3.170.223 (approx. $3.570.511) and it boasts 440 diamonds that can be found on the LED headlights. The interior of the car is broidered with gold, has holographic controls for the navigation and it even connects to a special satellite for instant communications.The engine has flat-six configuration and the car is rear-wheel-drive only. Data shows that maximum power - 750 PS (740) - is achieved at 7100 rpm.If the Hyper Ambulance looks somewhat familiar to you, then you must have seen Fast & Furious 7. This appeared there for the first time and now it will live its life in the service of the public.
The 2022 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro fetched $550,000 at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, over the weekend, and when the gavel dropped, the 2022 Tundra Capstone was at $700,000. Thus, the two brought in well over $1.2 million, which will benefit the Toyota U.S. Paralympic Fund.A first-of-its-kind program launched by the automaker, it supports Team USAs Paralympic athletes, and to date, more than 430 have received their support, with contributions from all over the country, including Kaitlyn Verfuerth, who joined the company at the event both nights.I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would help Toyota auction off a Tundra for $550,000!, said Verfuerth. These funds will go directly to help Paralympic athletes train, have proper equipment, and have access to the best coaching. This type of support is life-changing, and I cannot thank Toyota enough for helping me go more places than Ive ever imagined.In addition to the truck, the winning bidders will also receive a trip for two, hosted by Toyota, to Park City, Utah, to support the Team USA athletes competing at the Paralympic Winter Games. Moreover, the engine covers will be signed by chief engineer Mike Sweers, and an exclusive framed print of the original truck sketches, from the marques North American Design Studio in Calty, signed by President Kevin Hunter, and exterior designers Chung Lee and Adam Rabinowitz, will round off the offering.As for the auction-winning trucks , these wont be available immediately, as Toyota will ship them to their rightful owners, who literally paid a fortune for them, this spring.
You probably have a few subscriptions loaded on your credit card, not a big deal, right? Well, you might soon add your vehicles camera, heater, or navigation to that list.According to a survey conducted by McKinsey , 46% of consumers already pay for an online streaming service, and 15% have an annual subscription to an e-commerce service.In December, Japanese automotive giant Toyota found themselves in a pickle when news broke that they would be charging their loyal customers a monthly subscription for their key fobs remote starting feature.BMW also created a buzz announcing it would charge its consumers a yearly subscription fee of $80 for Android Auto and Apple Car services. Thats not all. They even hinted at doing the same for some of its basic comfort features but later backed down.Ford came out strongly and stated that subscription for heated seats is not their approach. However, CEO Jim Farley told investors that the services could bring in an additional $20 billion annually by 2020. He said subscriptions would make their way to Ford products, customized as software, charged for the usefulness of data, Motor1 reported.You have to give credit to Tesla, who already made in-roads with subscription services. They are also the first automaker to popularize software updates even after their vehicles have left the production plant.Tesla initiated the subscription model with its FSD (full Self-Driving) package that costs $199 per month, initially offered at a $10,000 one-off fee. Tesla owners still have a chance to cancel their subscriptions.Over the last few years, auto manufacturers have set up plans to transform the industry from a product industry to a product and service industry. As we move to electrification, the notion of new tech may pose new opportunities for manufacturers to rip maximum benefits from subscription offering connected services.
A millionaire tycoon found himself in hot water after filming himself reaching a speed of 259 mph with his 2.5million Bugatti supercar on a German motorway. German prosecutors confirmed that 58-year-old Radim Passer could face two years in jail as he is being investigated for participating in an alleged illegal race down the A2 between Berlin and Hanover.

Passer invited scrutiny when he posted a video of himself racing online. He said that he undertook his stunt with the Bugatti last year on a six-mile, three-lane strip of road. Passer noted that he had 'visibility along the whole stretch' as he drove his Bugatti, which can do 0-124 mph in just 6.5 seconds.

Passer maintained that 'safety was a priority' during his stunt, but the video clearly shows his car passing other vehicles in the blink of an eye, demonstrating the Bugatti's terrifying speed. The light in the video suggests the clip was taken during twilight.

Did Passer participate in a banned car race?

Police authorities in Saxony-Anhalt said that a file had been passed to prosecutors, with spokeswoman Doreen Guenther saying that they are looking at the possibility of a banned car race. Passer's troubles with the law is big news not only in Germany but also in the Czech Republic where he resides. He is the 33rd-richest individual in the Czech Republic with a net worth of 226 million.

Passer's stunt with the Bugatti has sparked outrage in Germany, with safety campaigners calling for speed limits to be introduced on the autobahn. There are currently no restrictions when driving on the autobahn outside urban areas.

Related Article: Bentley to Launch First EV in 2025: Will Invest $3.4 Billion to Make Brand Fully Electric by 2030

Transport ministry blasts Passer for driving stunt

The transport ministry in Berlin issued a statement regarding Passer's Bugatti stunt, saying that it rejects any road traffic behavior that leads or can lead to endangering road users. The transport ministry added that all road users must abide by the rules of the road traffic regulations.

The ministry cited the first clause of the legislation, stating that "anyone participating in traffic must behave in such a way that no other person is harmed, endangered or obstructed or inconvenienced more than is unavoidable under the circumstances."

The ministry took aim at Passer after he was seen taking his hands off the steering wheel while celebrating his race win as the car slowed down. According to the ministry, the law clearly states that drivers can only drive so fast if the vehicle is constantly under control.

Despite Passer's boast, the Czech businessman set only the third fastest speed down the autobahn. The record belongs to racing driver Rudolf Caracciola, who hit 268.8 mph in a specially-modified Mercedes Benz back in 1938. Caracciola clocked just half-a-mile an hour quicker than his rival Bernd Rosemeyer, who was driving an Auto Union. The racing duo had the motorway shut down during their showdown.

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A Myanmar soldier looks on as he stands inside city hall after soldiers occupied the building in Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 2, 2021. Reuters-Yonhap





At least 1,500 people are known to have been killed in the year-long protests against the coup in Myanmar, with thousands more possibly killed in the armed conflict, the United Nations human rights office said Tuesday.







At least 11,787 people were unlawfully detained in Myanmar in that period, including 8,792 who remain in custody, U.N. human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said.







Myanmar's ruling junta has disputed past estimates of the death toll made by rights groups.







Shamdasani announced the figures for arbitrary detentions at a U.N. briefing in Geneva, adding: "This is for voicing their opposition to the military, whether in peaceful protests or through online activities even."







"We have documented 1,500 people who have been killed, but this is in only in context of protests," she said, adding that they included 200 "killed due to torture in military custody."







"This 1,500 does not include people who were killed due to the armed conflict...We do understand that they are in the thousands," Shamdasani said. (Reuters)


The State Department ordered the family members of U.S. government staff in Belarus to evacuate on Monday, citing the "unusual and concerning Russian military buildup along Belarus border with Ukraine."

Why it matters: The advisory comes just over a week after the State Department ordered a similar evacuation from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, prompting the Ukrainian government to accuse the U.S. of causing a panic over the threat of a possible Russian invasion.

U.S. officials have warned that Russia may be using joint military exercises inside Belarus as cover for an invasion of Ukraine from the north, potentially allowing Moscow to target nearby Kyiv.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned Monday that the U.S. has evidence Russia plans to add an additional 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border by early February.

What they're saying: "Due to an increase in unusual and concerning Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine, U.S. citizens located in or considering travel to Belarus should be aware that the situation is unpredictable and there is heightened tension in the region," the State Department said in a travel advisory.

"The U.S. governments ability to provide routine or emergency services to U.S. citizens in Belarus is already severely limited due to Belarusian government limitations on U.S. Embassy staffing."

Go deeper: What Putin's Ukraine options look like
U.S. officials have received a written response from Russia's government to the American proposal on de-escalating Ukraine border tensions, the State Department said on Monday.

Why it matters: The letter comes ahead of a Tuesday phone call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and as an estimated 100,000 troops from Moscow amassed at Ukraine's border raise concerns of an imminent Russian invasion.

What they're saying: "We can confirm we received a written follow-up from Russia," a State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

"It would be unproductive to negotiate in public, so well leave it up to Russia if they want to discuss their response," the statement continued.

"We remain fully committed to dialogue to address these issues and will continue to consult closely with our Allies and partners, including Ukraine."

The intrigue: It's unclear whether Russia's written response was delivered before or after Monday's United Nations Security Council meeting  which saw Russian and U.S. officials trade barbs over the Ukrainian crisis.

Blinken has said the U.S. proposal offers the Kremlin "a serious diplomatic path forward, should Russia choose it," notes the Washington Post, which first reported news of the response.

Meanwhile, Moscow is taking a pessimistic stance publicly, with Lavrov saying last week that the Biden administration's written answers to Russia's security demands did not contain a "positive response" to the Kremlin's top priority: a freeze on NATO expansion.

Worth noting: The State Department ordered the family members of U.S. government staff in Belarus to evacuate earlier on Monday, citing the "unusual and concerning Russian military buildup along Belarus' border with Ukraine."

Editor's note: This article has been updated with further details and context on the U.S. written proposal.
The largely ceremonial post became vacant after President Armen Sarkissian unexpectedly announced his resignation on January 22, citing a lack of constitutional powers. Sarkissians successor is to be elected for a seven-year term by the Armenian parliament controlled by Pashinians Civil Contract party.

Pashinian indicated on January 23 that he will replace Sarkissian by a figure loyal to him but did not name any candidates. Armenian media outlets reported over the weekend that the prime minister and his political team have decided to nominate Khachatrian.

Khachatrian did not deny the reports when he spoke with journalists. He said he meets the qualifications of the job spelled out by the Armenian constitution.

In these circumstances I could presumably be on the list [of presidential candidates] given that Im a member of the current government and the [ruling] political team, he said.

Under the constitution, Sarkissian will be formally relieved of his duties unless he withdraws by Monday night his resignation letter submitted to the National Assembly. In that case, parliament speaker Alen Simonian will serve as interim president of the republic pending the election of a new head of state, which should happen by the beginning of March.

Khachatrian, 62, is an economist who had served as mayor of Yerevan from 1992-1996 during former President Levon Ter-Petrosians rule. He was a staunch political ally of Ter-Petrosian until agreeing to join the government last August.

Ter-Petrosian has been highly critical of Pashinian since Armenias defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan, branding the premier as a nation-destroying scourge. The ex-president has also slammed several members of his entourage who took up senior state positions over the past year.
The Supreme Judicial Council, a state body overseeing Armenias courts, allowed the authorities on Monday night to seek an arrest warrant for the judge, Boris Bakhshiyan, on charges that were initially not made public.

The Office of the Prosecutor-General shed light on them on Tuesday evening following statements in support of Bakhshiyan made by a senior judge as well as lawyers and opposition politicians.

In a statement, the office said that Bakhshiyan, who works at the court of first instance of southeastern Syunik province, baselessly ordered the arrest of a defendant in an ongoing trial presided over by him. It said the unnamed defendant was arrested for not attending a court hearing for legitimate reasons.

Meanwhile, Armenias outgoing human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, said that he has received a letter from Bakhshiyans lawyers alleging that the criminal proceedings are an illegal encroachment on the judges independence.

According to Tatoyan, the lawyers believe that the case is connected with his decision to release another individual from custody.

On January 26, Bakhshiyan agreed to release Ashot Minasian, a prominent war veteran and opposition activist, on bail.

Minasian was arrested on December 1 one year after being charged with plotting to kill Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and overthrow the Armenian government and illegally possessing weapons. The National Security Service dropped the coup charges later in December.

Lawyers critical of the government claim that Pashinians administration is also punishing Bakhshiyan for freeing last fall two other opposition figures based in Syunik. They were arrested last summer on separate charges rejected by them as politically motivated.

Aleksandr Azarian, the chairman of the Union of Judges of Armenia, also expressed serious concern over the case, linking it to Bakhshiyans professional activities.

A spokesman for Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian insisted on Monday that the move to arrest Bakhshiyan has nothing to with the release of Minasian or the other oppositionists.

There are no grounds to allege political persecution, the official, Gor Abrahamian, told RFE/RLs Armenian Service.

The statement released by the prosecutors accused Bakhshiyans lawyers of misleading the public.

One of those lawyers, Arsen Sardarian, said the arrest decision that landed his client in trouble was made in early December. He said the fact that the prosecutors waited for nearly two months to indict the 36-year-old judge only proves that the latte is prosecuted in retaliation for freeing Minasian.

The prosecutors need a court permission to arrest Bakhshiyan. As of Tuesday evening, it was not clear when they will submit a corresponding petition and initiate court hearings on it.
BioMed X team RSC (RNA Splicing in Cancer) to continue its research on the identification of novel approaches to exploit tumor-specific RNA splicing alterations for targeted cancer therapy

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany to acquire IP rights in project results

HEIDELBERG, Germany, February 01, 2022 / B3C newswire / -- German independent research institute BioMed X announces today the extension of its collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in the research project RNA Splicing in Cancer (RSC). As a result of the successful research work to date, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has decided to acquire the IP rights in the project results and to continue the project for another year. The goal of the extension is to further validate novel potential drug targets based on these results.

This research program marks the partners fifth joint project in oncology and is already the second program to be extended beyond the originally anticipated 4-year timeframe. Since the inception of the BioMed X Institute in 2013, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has initiated and supported a total of eight different research groups at BioMed X, also in the fields of immuno-oncology, and autoimmunity.

The RSC research program was launched at the BioMed X Institute in 2018. Emerging data indicated a critical dependency of several subtypes of cancer on a molecular mechanism called RNA splicing. The team was identifying key molecular mechanisms that generate mRNA splicing abnormalities in cancer. Such aberrant splicing can lead to constitutive activity of oncogenes, reduced expression of tumor suppressors, or drug resistance. The goal of the project was to identify novel approaches to exploit tumor-specific RNA splicing alterations for targeted cancer therapy.

By employing omics technologies in combination with mechanistic cellular biology, we have investigated how mRNA and protein isoform expression shapes the complex pathophysiology of tumor cells. Our goal within the next year will be to identify additional cancer-specific vulnerabilities for targeted therapies based on our results, says Dr. Alexandra Duarte who previously worked as Postdoctoral Researcher in the research group and now assumes the role of a Group Leader in the final phase of project RSC.

Dr. Christian Tidona, Founder and Managing Director of the BioMed X Institute: The continued success of our collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany demonstrates BioMed Xs growing expertise in cancer research and further deepens our trustful partnership. At the same time, the promotion of Dr. Alexandra Duarte to Group Leader in this crucial final phase of team RSC demonstrates how our innovation model is empowering the next generation of top researchers to advance their careers.

About BioMed X

BioMed X is an independent research institute located on the campus of the University of Heidelberg in Germany, with a world-wide network of partner locations. Together with our partners, we identify big biomedical research challenges and provide creative solutions by combining global crowdsourcing with local incubation of the worlds brightest early-career research talents. Each of the highly diverse research teams at BioMed X has access to state-of-the-art research infrastructure and is continuously guided by experienced mentors from academia and industry. At BioMed X, we combine the best of two worlds  academia and industry  and enable breakthrough innovation by making biomedical research more efficient, more agile, and more fun.

Contact

BioMed X

Bettina Rohmann-Lawrenz

Communications Manager

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

+49 151 20 19 29 86

Keywords: RNA Splicing; Oncogenes; Neoplasms; RNA, Messenger; Drug Resistance; Alternative Splicing; Intersectoral Collaboration; Academies and Institutes; Drug Discovery; Biomedical Research; Drug Discovery; Academies and Institutes; Germany

Published by B3C newswire


You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter.
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Federal Corrections Officer Union leaders and elected officials are and demanding change following a fatal fight between federal inmates in Beaumont that prompted a nationwide prison lockdown.

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley called on elected officials to take immediate action to address a shortage of corrections officers in a statement on Tuesday.

The violent attack at USP Beaumont that resulted in the death of two inmates is a vivid reminder of the dangers faced by every correctional officer and employee who works in the Bureau of Prisons, Kelley said. As the exclusive union representative for federal correctional officers and staff, AFGE has long warned that the chronic understaffing of our prisons is jeopardizing the lives of both workers and inmates.

The statement was issued in response to the lockdown, which started after Andrew Pineda, 34, and Guillermo Riojas, 54, were killed in a gang-related fight involving multiple inmates  including members of the MS-13 street gang  at the United States Penitentiary, Beaumont.

Two additional inmates were taken to a local hospital for further medical assessment and treatment. Other than COVID-19-related shutdowns, last time the entire system was closed was shortly before the Jan. 2021 inauguration of Pres. Joe Biden.

Related: Two inmates die after fight at Beaumont prison

While no employees were reportedly injured in this most recent attack, they may not be so lucky next time, Kelley continued. Our elected leaders must take immediate action to ensure all federal prisons have the staff and resources they need to safely carry out their duties.

AFGE Local 1010 President Parker Strong said the federal prison complex in Beaumont has had a staffing problem for nearly five years, due in part to past hiring freezes, a former warden seeking a promotion and a former U.S. President that made it nearly impossible to keep up with staff attrition.

Once you stop hiring and not keeping up with that attrition, you cant ever  at least in this area  we cant compete with the other agencies in this area to ever get back up, Strong said.

Strong works as a corrections officer in the low-security prison on the complex. He started in 2014 when there were about 440 total correctional officers. Now, he estimates there to be a total of about 320 correctional officers complex-wide.

According to agency numbers, the Beaumont complex is short about 65 correctional officers between all four institutions, which includes the USP Beaumont facility where the fight occurred. However, Strong said local union information shows the shortage is closer to the 100 mark.

This has been a battle that we have been fighting for several years now trying to get ahead of it, and there is just no catching up, Strong said. Because if you go work at Port Arthur PD and make starting out what we at the bureau top out at. That is our biggest issue is that we cannot compete in the area.

Strong could not confirm the exact number of inmates at the complex. However, he said most of the institutions are pushing full capacity.

According to the website for the Federal Bureau of Prisons there is a total of 153,293 total federal inmates. Of that, 134,604 inmates are confined in BOP-operated facilities, 6,279 inmates are confined in privately managed facilities and 12,410 inmates are confined in other facilities.

A December 2021 breakdown from the Bureau shows a total of 36,739 staff members.

At the complex in Beaumont, the BOP website reported 1,570 male offenders at the Beaumont low security federal correctional institution, 404 male offenders at the accompanying minimum security satellite campus, 1,467 male offenders at the medium security FCI and 1,372 male offenders at the Beaumont USP facility.

In February 2021, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced a national hiring initiative, which reported that it successfully hired 4,000 new employees in 2020. The bureau also intended to hire thousands more last year.

Despite the hiring promotion, Strong said the problem is that Beaumont is still is not competitive enough for pay.

In the last year, we have only been able to increase our staffing about 4%, which is nothing, Strong said. That is just the correctional services side. So, that is not even strictly correctional officers that is any department that is under correctional services has increased about 4%.

The local union is working with Congress to address the staffing issue, including on the Pay Our Correctional Officers Fairly Act. The bill was introduced in October 2021 by U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, Texas-14, joined by Reps. Clay Higgins, Louisiana-3, Brian Babin, Texas-36, Rick Crawford, Arkansas-1, Matt Cartwright, Pennsylvania-8, Don Bacon, Nebraska-2, Pete Stauber, Minnesota-8, and Jefferson Van Drew, New Jersey-2, to revise locality pay rates for employees of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Deeply troubled by the loss of life and thankful that no correctional officers were harmed, Weber said in a statement released Tuesday regarding the deadly fight in Beaumont. Weber said his office was awaiting more information from officials at the facility and the Federal Bureau of Prisons; and, that his office has offered assistance.

"While instances of prison violence are not always avoidable, staffing shortages across the federal system  and especially at the Federal Correctional Center (FCC) in Beaumont  contribute to dangerous working conditions that endanger the lives of guards and inmates alike, Weber said in the statement on Tuesday.

The BOP Reform Caucus member said he has worked to address the staffing shortages by introducing the bill, also known as H.R. 5761, which he said, will make wages more competitive for BOP employees at FCC Beaumont and throughout the nation.

The statement said Weber, Higgins and Babin sent a letter to BOP Director Michael Carvajal on September 29, 2021 addressing the staffing issues at FCC Beaumont.

To date, I have not received a response from Director Carvajal, Weber said in the statement.

"If the underlying issues that plague the BOP are not addressed, I am afraid that we will continue to see instances of violence throughout the federal prison system, Weber said. I will continue to work with my colleagues on the BOP Reform Caucus to address these concerns, and I call on Director Carvajal to fulfill his duty as Director of the BOP to take immediate action to secure our prisons and to work with Congress to solve the staffing problems."

Strong said the bill would increase the correctional officers pay. The union is also pushing for 25% retention pay  which only one federal prison institution in the country has obtained, he said. Currently, he said there is a 10% retention and recruitment bonus, which comes out to about $5,000, for correctional officers to remain competitive with the state.

He said the bill would make Beaumont correctional officers pay more competitive with local law enforcement and allow the facilities to hire more staff, make prisons safer and reduce inmate populations.

Pay your correctional officers and the safety inside the institutions will get better. Because if we dont have the staff, everybody is working doubles, he said.

Strong said the incident on Monday was not due to staff shortages, but instead inmate politics.

However, there is nothing saying that something like this couldnt be flipped where they went after a staff member and at that point, I would say it would be due to staff shortages, Strong said. Because staff are tired, staff become complacent because they are tired, not doing things at the top level that they should be doing stuff at because they are overworked.

The two inmates, who died on Monday, are just two of seven who have died in Beaumont federal prisons over the past year.

Related: Third COVID-recovered senior inmate dies at Beaumont federal prison

Last year, the U. S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons reported that a USP Beaumont inmate died after he was found unresponsive on Aug. 9. Michael Fossler, 33, suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to the hospital where the department said hospital staff pronounced him dead. Fossler only had one-quarter of his sentence remaining, according to defense attorney Jon Evans.

Rafael Salas, 40, was found unresponsive at the Beaumont Medium security prison on Sept. 8.

In 2021, three senior FCI Beaumont Low inmates died after being cleared as COVID-recovered, including Lee Cormier, 71 on Dec. 28; Armando Ramirez, 71 on March 27; and Robert Neal Hatchell, 63, on Sept. 6.

No other inmates or staff were injured or killed, the department previously said in its release.

Related: Federal inmate dies with just one-quarter of sentence remaining

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
Two inmates at the United States Penitentiary Beaumont died Monday after a gang-related fight that morning.

The federal prison system has been put on a nationwide lockdown as a result of the fight, according to the Associated Press. Other than COVID-19-related shutdowns, last time the entire system was closed was shortly before the Jan. 2021 inauguration of Pres. Joe Biden.

Andrew Pineda, 34, and Guillermo Riojas, 54, were taken to a local hospital for life-threatening injuries sustained during the fight between multiple inmates and were later pronounced dead by hospital staff, according to a news release from the U. S. Department of Justices Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Two additional inmates were taken to a local hospital for further medical assessment and treatment.

The altercation involved members of the MS-13 street gang, two people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The people could not discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

According to the release, around 11:30 a.m. Monday, multiple inmates were seen fighting and staff immediately securing the area. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified of the incident.

"No staff or other inmates were injured and at no time was the public in danger," the release said.

Pineda was sentenced to more than 6 years for racketeer-influenced and corrupt-organizations conspiracy in the Central District of California and had been in custody at USP Beaumont since February 2021.

Riojas was sentenced to 38 years for carjacking and interference with interstate commerce in the Eastern District of California and had been in custody at USP Beaumont since May 2013.

The lockdown impacts more than 120 federal prisons across the country.

The Beaumont facility is high security and currently houses 1,372 male offenders.

olivia.malick@hearst.com

twitter.com/OliviaMalick
Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images

A Texas man was arrested after he threatened his high school daughter's bullies with a pocket knife, according to an arrest affidavit pulled from News Channel 6. Thomas Brown, from Wichita Falls, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on January 27.

The arrest affidavit stated Brown's daughter told him that girls at her high school were bullying her, and on Thursday she called him and said several girls were chasing her. He went to meet her at an intersection near the high school, according to the court records.
If you asked taxpayers to pick their least popular federal agency, the Internal Revenue Service would be a consistent answer.

No one likes paying taxes, and the IRS often irritates people because of the complex tax code and sketchy service. While every governmental agency should be effective, this criticism is unwarranted for several reasons.

First, its not the IRSs fault that the tax code is complex  and often illogical. A nation that can put the James Webb space telescope into orbit around the sun and see back to virtually the dawn of creation ought to be able to devise a tax code that is fair and straightforward. And while many people and even business owners do manage to file their own tax returns each year, many others just give up in frustration and head for a tax preparer with a folder stuffed with receipts and documents.

But the IRS doesnt determine the tax code  Congress does. And voters have begged Congress for decades to simplify the tax code. Yet neither party has shown much willingness to do so, either because its too big of a job or they like the fact that their donor groups have a favorable little provision and dont want it changed. Until that happens, look for the tax code to remain about as impenetrable as a coded message from Vladimir Putin to the commanders of his troops massed on the Ukrainian border.

But even with those fundamental problems, theres something very simple and cost-effective that Congress could do to speed up tax refunds, put more ears on phones to handle taxpayer calls and  most important of all  catch more tax cheats. That would be, ironically, giving the IRS more money to hire the employees it needs to do these things.

If the IRS had received the extra $80 billion allocated for it in the Build Back Better bill, which was stopped recently in the Senate, the agency estimates it would bring in an additional $175 billion in taxes that arent collected now either through errors on tax returns or outright tax evasion. Thats not a good deal, its a great deal.

Democrats arent right on every issue, but they realize the logic of this. Republicans, who arent wrong on every issue, are dead wrong on this. The GOP has fought for years any attempt to increase the IRS budget. In fact, they have cut it back whenever they had a chance.

The best thing you could say about this stubborn refusal is that Republicans believe the IRS has enough money now and that government agencies are always whining about their need for more money  which they are.

The more cynical view is that some GOP congressmen want to protect the wealthy people and corporations who donate to them from a higher chance they would be audited.

States that produce the most federal tax revenues 1) California - 13.25% 2) New York - 8.56% 3) Texas - 8.21% 4) Florida - 5.90% 5) Illinois - 4.56% 6) Ohio - 4.06% 7) Pennsylvania - 3.99% 7) New Jersey - 3.94% 8) Massachusetts - 3.37% 9) Washington - 2.82% 10) Minnesota - 2.88% Source: DyerNews.com See More Collapse

Whatever the reason, it makes no sense  politically or financially.

Contrary to popular assumption, very few tax returns are audited. The current rate is about 0.5%, or 991,168 returns, which is even less than the paltry 0.9% in 2010 for 1.7 million returns. Why the decline? Simple. When Republicans controlled Congress and the presidency over the past decade, they reduced IRS audit resources by 28%. With fewer auditors and computers to check the flood of 240 million returns, more errors  and fraud  slip through.

All of this makes a chronic problem even worse  frustrated taxpayers who cant get an IRS employee on the phone when they need to discuss something and more confusion about the usual changes from year to year, like how to declare the money that parents received under the new child-subsidy program last year. Last year, nearly 60 million people called or visited an IRS office.

Biden and Democrats are planning to break up the Build Back Better bill into more digestible chunks, and theres a chance that the IRS might get more to do more. That would ironically be one of the best decisions to come out of Washington in years.

If nothing else, Congress should give the IRS the extra $80 billion and see how much it improves tax collection. If the change is at or close to the $175 billion that the IRS promises, the additional money should be built into the agencys budget. If the numbers come up short, the bump-up should be rescinded.

Keep in mind we are not talking about a tax increase. And while a few legitimate errors are uncovered during audits, the people who really dont want this to happen are those who deliberately cheat.

In the words of independent Maine Senator Angus King, Why is it fair to working Americans who pay their taxes to allow people who can afford fancy lawyers and accountants to cheat? Im not talking about tax avoidance. Im talking about outright cheating, hiding income.

Hes right, and the unnecessarily tight IRS budget should tick off every lawabiding taxpayer. As in business, sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

TTaschinger@BeaumontEnterprise.com
The above editorial was published Jan. 31 by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Its views are its own.
South Africa: Schafer welcomes return to full-time school attendance

Western Cape Education MEC, Debbie Schafer, says schools in the Western Cape will be ready to welcome all learners from next Monday.

In a statement on Tuesday, the MEC said the department has welcomed Cabinets decision for all schools to return on a full-time basis.

We met this morning with Minister Motshekga, and the plan is that schools should be ready to receive all learners from Monday next week. This will give them time to make all the necessary arrangements, Schafer said.

Schafer said she was extremely pleased, as they have been calling for this development.

The time lost in school has implications not only for academic progress but also aggravates societal issues such as learner pregnancies and the risk of dropping out of school. Parents have had to make alternative arrangements whilst trying to work, or if they cannot, their children are left unattended, adding to safety risks.

The MEC said she also raised the issue of mask-wearing for children be reconsidered following a number of requests from parents and it was agreed that the matter will be processed through the Council of Education Ministers for recommendations and consideration.

As always, we will rely on expert evidence when making decisions in this regard.

On Monday night, Cabinet decided that primary, secondary and special schools should return to daily attendance. The regulatory provision for social distancing of 1 meter for learners in schools will also no longer be mandatory.

In the coming days, the Ministers of Health and Basic Education will issue directives reflecting on this new approach.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-02-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Spring Festival celebrated across China

Xinhua) 17:25, February 01, 2022

Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2022 shows a view of the Potala Palace square decorated with Spring Festival elements in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Xinhua/Chogo)

Children pose for a photo with festive decorations in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Jan. 31, 2022. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)

Citizens purchase red lanterns at a festive fair in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Jan. 29, 2022. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Photo by Liu Yufei/Xinhua)

Citizens take photos with festive decorations in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, Jan. 31, 2022. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Xinhua/Wan Xiang)

Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2022 shows a red lantern at the Potala Palace square in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Xinhua/Chogo)

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
Rohingya women and children wait on a Bangladesh Navy ship in Chittagong port to relocate to Bhashan Char Island, Jan. 30, 2022.

Bangladeshi government officials on Tuesday dismissed an NGOs report alleging that authorities are using force and intimidation to compel Rohingya to move from crowded refugee camps in mainland Bangladesh to an isolated island.

Citing interviews with refugees and representatives of international humanitarian groups, the Fortify Rights group on Sunday reported patterns of coercive and involuntary transfers, including needless family separation.

Its cruel and inhumane to separate these families of genocide survivors. The government should cease any additional transfers to the island until all human rights and humanitarian concerns have been resolved and genuine consultation and informed consent is assured, Ismail Wolff, the NGOs regional director, said in a statement.

He was talking about Bhashan Char, a tiny, low-lying island in the Bay of Bengal whose resident population is made up almost exclusively of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Fortify Rights had earlier made similar allegations about refugees being made to go to the island against their will, but that was before U.N. officials became involved in humanitarian activities there.

Bangladeshs refugee relief and repatriation commissioner challenged Fortify Rights findings.

The statement might have been prepared based on wrong information. We are relocating Rohingya people to Bhashan Char from Coxs Bazar with their full consent, Shah Rezwan Hayat told BenarNews.

He called on Fortify Rights and other groups concerned about Rohingya to visit the refugee camps before commenting on the alleged treatment of the refugees.

The Rohingya population in Bhashan Char could have been much higher had we used force to bring them here. The activities of relocation are taking place in the presence of representatives of many NGOs, International Organizations and United Nations agencies, he said.

Bangladeshs government has set up housing for 100,000 people on the island to alleviate pressure on the refugee camps in and around Coxs Bazar district on the mainland that house about 1 million Rohingya. About 21,000 have relocated to the island since December 2020.

In its report, Bangladesh: Prevent Coercive and Involuntary Transfers of Rohingya Refugees, Fortify Rights said it interviewed 10 Rohingya, including two on Bhashan Char.

It alleges that aid organizations in Coxs Bazar district shared documents showing recurring threats, coercion and intimidation against Rohingya prior to transfers to Bhashan Char in December 2021 and January 2022. The report did not include the documents.

I was shaking out of fear

Fortify Rights also alleges that Bangladesh authorities beat a Rohingya man who obstructed efforts to move others to the island, and confiscated documents from his family before forcing him to Bhashan Char, where he is separated from his wife and children.

Without naming her, Fortify Rights quoted the mans wife: I was shaking out of fear when they took my familys [documents].

I saw my husbands face was swollen from the beating, she said. I want my husband to come back home. I do not want to go to Bhashan Char.

Hayat, the refugee commissioner, said he was not aware of any efforts to use force to split families.

According to Fortify Rights, a 27-year-old Rohingya man said that, in mid-December, government officials brought in about 25 thugs to coerce refugees to prepare to move to the island from the mainland.

They brought sticks with them, and some women were beaten. Before they [authorities] left the camp they said, we will bring the crane and gasoline along with us tomorrow. If you are not ready to go tomorrow [Dec. 17, 2021] with the sacks given to you, we will either break your shelters and burn them or drag you to the truck, the man told Fortify Rights.

Bhashan Char concerns

As early as December 2020, Fortify Rights called on the Bangladesh government to halt Bhashan Char relocation efforts over concerns that the island was isolated and flood prone.

Not one refugee should be moved until all human rights and humanitarian concerns have been resolved and genuine informed consent is assured, Wolff said at the time.

More recently, the NGO called on the government to ensure the Rohingya are protected, have access to education and freedom of movement. It released a statement on Dec. 20, 2021, a day after U.N. Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews traveled to the island during a week-long visit in Bangladesh to meet with government officials and Rohingya leaders.

In October 2021, BenarNews obtained a copy of a memorandum of understanding between the Bangladesh government and UNHCR. The MoU, which was not made public, would allow the U.N. agency to set up humanitarian operations on Bhashan Char and allow those on the island to move more freely.

The U.N. relief agency UNHCR did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a BenarNews request for comment.

Rohingya speak out

Meanwhile, a Rohingya who moved to Bhashan Char from the Ukhia camp with his wife and four children in December 2020 said he had tried but failed to sail from the island on three occasions.

I came here for a better life than in Coxs Bazar, but I found a different life here. I have a good house, but the medical system and the food supply system are very poor, Jahirul Islam told BenarNews. I am living here with my family like prisoners.

A Rohingya who lives at a camp in the Teknaf sub-district said he feared camp leaders were working with authorities to get people to move to the island.

A few of my neighbors and relatives have been shifted to Bhashan Char. They told me the conditions are not good there, Md. Nur told BenarNews. I am concerned that the authorities are regularly asking camp leaders regularly to give names of people to send them to Bhashan Char. Sometimes, they pressure our leaders in this regard.

Abdur Rahman in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, contributed to this report.
Indonesian Rabbi Yaakov Baruch (right) speaks to a member of the Jewish community at a synagogue in Tondano, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, Feb. 17, 2017.

Indonesian Muslim groups, including an influential scholars body, are demanding the closure of a Holocaust museum that opened last week, with some saying it is part of Israels attempts to normalize relations with Jakarta and its occupation of Palestinian lands.

The first permanent exhibition and museum in Indonesia devoted to the memory of victims of the Holocaust opened in North Sulawesi province on Jan. 27, and is housed inside Indonesias lone synagogue.

The opening occurred amid reported Israeli overtures to establish ties with the worlds largest Muslim-majority nation. Indonesia, a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, has long refused to open diplomatic ties with the Jewish State.

We demand any exhibition be stopped and the museum be cancelled discontinued, said Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, the head of foreign relations and international cooperation at the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the countrys semi-official Islamic authority.

According to reports in the Israeli press, the museum-cum-exhibition is curated by the Jerusalem-based Yad Vashem  also known as the World Holocaust Remembrance Center  and one of its representatives attended the opening virtually.

The decision to allow the museum in Indonesia was not wise and could cause communal friction at a time when Israel is still occupying Palestinian lands and mistreating Palestinians, Sudarnoto said.

The exhibition at the synagogue in West Tondano regency was inaugurated in the presence of North Sulawesi Dep. Gov. Steven Kandouw and the German ambassador to Indonesia, Ina Lepel. Its opening was timed to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Hidayat Nur Wahid, deputy speaker of the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) and a lawmaker with the faith-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said the museum was an attempt by Israel to whitewash its occupation of East Jerusalem and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

He described Israels treatment of Palestinians as a form of apartheid and racism.

It turns out that the museum in Tondano is the result of a collaboration with the Yad Vashem Israel Museum, whose director is a major figure in Israels illegal settlements in the West Bank, Hidayat told BenarNews.

I suspect it is part of manoeuvres to pave the way for the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and Indonesia.

Yaakov Baruch, an Indonesian businessman of Dutch Jewish descent who is the rabbi at the synagogue, said the museum was created in part to defy growing anti-Jewish sentiment in Indonesia, and claims by some people that the Holocaust never happened.

I want to emphasize that this is not true. Indonesian people may hate Israel but they must not deny the bitter and dark history of a nation (Jews). With this Holocaust Museum, I want to show that racism and hatred cannot be tolerated at all, a news report quoted him as saying.

Officials at the North Sulawesi provincial government could not be reached immediately for comment.

Indonesia will side with the Palestinian people

Indonesias Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, has confirmed reports that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during meetings with officials in Jakarta in December, had discussed the prospect of Indonesia normalizing ties with Israel.

Indonesia has insisted it will not establish diplomatic ties with Israel until there is a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict acceptable to both sides.

The Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi conveyed Indonesias consistent position on Palestine, that Indonesia will side with the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice and independence, Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the foreign ministry, told BenarNews last month.

Last month, Israeli media reported that a delegation of Indonesian health officials visited Israel and met there with Israeli officials in an effort to learn how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Indonesias COVID-19 task force and the health ministry denied that their officials had gone to Israel, while the Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of such a trip.

Prevent things that are not desirable

MUIs Sudarnoto said Indonesias Jewish community should understand the objection to the museum.

Jewish communities and the descendants of Jewish people everywhere, including in Indonesia and North Sulawesi, should also see fairly, clearly the brutal acts that have been perpetrated by Israeli Zionists against the Palestinian people since 1948, Sudarnoto said.

Sudarnoto said local representatives of the MUI and other Islamic organizations had been in communication with the local government and the tiny Jewish community in North Sulawesi.

The goal is to prevent things that are not desirable Jewish community leaders there are willing to meet with MUI representatives. I think this is a good step, to resolve the issue in a persuasive way, Sudarnoto said.
Youths participate in a rally calling for the arrest of the countrys anti-graft chief over corruption allegations, in Kuala Lumpur, Jan. 22, 2022.

Southeast Asian parliamentarians are urging Malaysia to stop the harassment of opposition lawmakers and political activists, after police hauled up several MPs for their involvement in anti-corruption demonstrations.

It is worrisome to see the Malaysian government use state machinery to intimidate opposition members, Philippine Sen. Risa Hontiveros, a member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) group, said in a statement late Monday.

The governments reaction to legitimate peaceful protests calling for accountability in public office should not be to harass those demonstrating, but instead investigate their concerns, she said.

Demanding accountability and answers for corruption allegations is crucial in a democracy, and authorities must not impede that.

APHR noted that in its 2021 annual report Parliamentarians at Risk, it had found that legal harassment of opposition MPs in Malaysia had risen alarmingly alongside a crackdown on free speech.

APHRs latest statement referred to a rally, demonstration and other events in January, where members of youth political wings and lawmakers demanded the resignation or arrest of the countrys anti-graft chief Azam Baki over corruption allegations.

Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Baki is under scrutiny for shares he bought that allegedly compromised the integrity and credibility of the anti-corruption body, APHR said.

With Malaysia recently dropping five places in Transparency Internationals Corruption Index rating, there has been a widespread public outcry demanding accountability for the MACC chief and for genuine institutional reforms to be implemented, APHR said.

A few days after a Jan. 22 rally against Baki, police began summoning federal and state lawmakers to give statements explaining their presence at the anti-corruption events.

Among those summoned were Fahmi Fadzil, Maszlee Malik and Maria Chin Abdullah, lawmakers from the Peoples Justice Party (PKR).

Police claimed they were investigating them under the Peaceful Assembly Act and the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act.

Fahmi said he and others were asked questions about their involvement in handing over a memorandum, which contained eight demands including Bakis suspension, and for a royal inquiry into his purchase of shares. He said he cooperated during the interrogation, but added that such protest and demonstrations were needed in a democracy.

The public needs to see the role of their MPs who raise the voice of the people inside and outside Parliament even if we give our full cooperation, he told reporters.

About 20 questions were asked by the police regarding involvement in the memorandum handover assembly, including their role and capacity, the identity of the organizers, the purpose of the assembly and whether standard operating procedures (SOP) were followed, Fahmi said.

PKR lawmaker Nurul Izzah Anwar said this was clearly political intimidation.

We see the abuse of the countrys asset, which is the police that is supposed to be used to investigate and solve peoples problems, she told a local television channel.

We know that there are variety of problems affecting Malaysia and this form of political intimidation is something we cannot tolerate. Home Minister please end this form of intimidation.

APHR said that in a democracy citizens will demand accountability. In such a situation, APHR said the police should guard peoples rights, not intimidate.

We stand in solidarity with our fellow parliamentarians, and remind the Malaysian government that a police force should be used, not to harass and intimidate government critics, but to protect and respect the peoples right to protest and free speech, Hontiveros, the Philippine senator, said.

Authorities must immediately end these threats, and use the state apparatus to hold those in public office accountable to the people.

Nani Yusof in Washington contributed to this report.
A Lao human rights activist living in Thailand and detained since Saturday under threat of deportation to his communist homeland was released on bail on Tuesday under strict travel restrictions, he told Radio Free Asia.

Khoukham Keomanivong, a U.N.-recognized refugee, was convicted Monday in a closed-door Thai trial of overstaying his visa and was being held pending deportation to Laos, where he faces arrest for his advocacy work he says he has refrained from for more than two years.

Khoukham declined to provide details about the conditions of his release, citing restrictions imposed by Thai authorities.

What I can say right now is that Ive been bailed out with the help of a human rights lawyer and the U.N. I can only sleep and stay in and travel to certain restricted areas, and I cant travel to the provinces, Khoukham said. The U.N. has been coordinating with me and the authorities ever since I was held in the immigration detention center.

A founding member of the rights group Free Laos, set up by Lao workers and residents in Thailand to promote human rights and democracy in their home country, Khoukham said he had ended his political activities long before his arrest.

I stopped my political activities more than two years ago after getting my UNHCR card, Khoukham said, referring to the U.N. document recognizing his status as a refugee in Thailand.

One of the conditions of my obtaining that card was that I end my involvement in politics. The problem of my arrest arose because some individuals saw some old stories online and reported them, he said.

If I now have to go to a third country, Ill go. But if Im given a choice, and if theres more security for me here in Thailand, Id prefer to stay here, he said.

Tough on critics

Laos deals severely with dissidents who call for democracy and respect for human rights in the one-party communist state, and Lao dissidents living abroad have been harshly punished after returning or being forced back to Laos.

Three Lao workers who criticized their government on Facebook while working in Thailand disappeared in March 2016 after returning to Laos to renew their passports.

Somphone Phimmasone, his girlfriend Lod Thammavong, and Soukane Chaithad were later shown on television making what appeared to be forced confessions and were charged with criticizing the Lao government online while working abroad and for taking part in a protest outside the Lao Embassy in Thailand.

Somphone was sentenced to a 20-year term, while Soukane was sentenced to 16 years and Lod was handed a 12-year sentence.

In August 2019, Lao democracy activist Od Sayavong, a friend of Khoukham, vanished under mysterious circumstances in Thailand after posting a video clip online criticizing the government. Listed as a person of concern by the UNHCR because of his advocacy for democracy and human rights, his whereabouts remain unknown. He was 34 at the time he went missing.

Thailand has hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war, natural disasters and human rights violations in neighboring countries.

Human rights groups, however, criticize Thailands authoritarian government for recent cases in which it returned refugees and asylum-seekers to China, where they face torture, persecution and other rights abuses.

In November 2021, Thai authorities arrested and deported to Cambodia two activists from the banned political opposition after Cambodias Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the arrest of one of them over a poem criticizing the strongman ruler on Facebook.

In early 2019, Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat was arrested by Thai Royal Police and handed over to Vietnamese police, who took him across the border into Laos, and from there back to Vietnam.

Nhat, who had been a weekly contributor to RFAs Vietnamese Service, was sentenced in 2020 to 10 years in jail for abusing his position and authority in a decade-old land fraud case.

Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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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Business writer

Tony Dobrowolski's main focus is on business reporting. He came to The Eagle in 1992 after previously working for newspapers in Connecticut and Montreal. He can be reached at tdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com or 413-496-6224.
The grim topic among Jewish leaders: How to keep sacred spaces safe with antisemitism on the rise
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Facts about St. Valentine

Unfortunately, because St. Valentine lived more than 1700 years ago, we dont have many solid details on his life. Because, as mentioned before, we dont have 5600 Greek manuscripts corroborating the evidence and details of his life, as we do have for the New Testament, we have only some skeletonic facts about the life of this Saint.

First, we do know that St. Valentine lived during the mid to late 3rd century. As a refresher in church history, this was a period of intense persecution in Rome prior to Constantines reign in Rome in the 300s AD where he legalized Christianity.

We know that St. Valentine was working as a Roman priest during the reign of an emperor named Claudius, as explained by David Kithcart in this article. The emperors nickname, Claudius the Cruel, can give readers a hint at some of the persecution Christians may have endured under his rule. Whats more, many Romans experienced some persecution under the emperor as well.

As stated in the History.com article linked above, Claudius likely believed that the reason the Roman army wasnt as formidable as possible was because husbands wanted to stay at homes with their wives and families instead of fighting in wars.

To combat this, Claudius made marriage and engagements illegal in Rome to sway male soldiers to stay in the Roman army and not worry about a significant other back home.

Valentine, a proponent of marriage, especially Christian marriage, married many couples in secret.

When Claudius II discovered him, explains Kithcart, he sentenced Valentine to a three-part execution: beating, stoning, and then a beheading. Most believe St. Valentine was killed during the year 270 AD, but some have debated whether his death happened during one of the surrounding years.

Valentine has since become a patron Saint of Love, and actually, a patron saint of beekeepers, explains this article from World Vision, since bees are often equated as an aphrodisiac.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Elijah Hail
Key Scriptures about Purpose

The world offers numerous ways to find meaning. It defines purpose in terms of power, pleasure, wealth, intellect, and other things King Solomon called vanity (Ecclesiastes 1:14). The Bible teaches that life is meaningless apart from fearing and obeying God (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

Key Old Testament scriptures reveal important truths about Gods purposes.

No purpose of God can be thwarted (Job 42:2). Believers can humbly ask God to show them His ways and lead them (Psalm 25:1-9). God will fulfill His purposes for His children (Psalm 57:2; 138:8). Every day of a persons life was laid out before birth (Psalm 139:16). God wants to guide believers along the best pathways, advising and watching over them (Psalm 32:8).

Key New Testament passages also instruct about Gods purposes.

God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Believers are to do all things for Gods glory (1 Corinthians 10:30). In fact, Gods chosen people have been predestined according to His plan and purpose that they might be for the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:11-12). God prepared good works for every believer to do (Ephesians 2:10). God will complete His good work in believers, and He works in them to act in accordance with His good purpose (Philippians 1:6; 2:13).

What Is Our Purpose as Believers?

As noted earlier, the Bible teaches there are both general purposes and individual purposes for believers.

In short, general purposes for the believer are to be made alive in Christ, to be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ by Gods grace through faith, and to do the good works God prepared in advance for them to do (Ephesians 2:1-10; Romans 8:29; 12:1-2; Titus 2:14; 3:8). General purposes also include such things as seeking to know God and fellowship with Him, learning to obey and serve Him, being good stewards of His creation, bearing spiritual fruit, loving others, sharing the gospel, and making disciples.

Believers discover their individual purposes as they seek God and study His Word, will, and ways. God designed each person as an individual creation, and His purposes unfold to transform every area of life. Purposes may be given for a specific time, such as with the prophets. Or God may give certain abilities, giftings, or callings for particular events, such as with Josephs preparation to preserve people during a famine, or Esthers purpose in rescuing her peoplea calling for such a time as this.

In studying the lives of other Bible characterssuch as Abraham, Noah, Deborah, Ruth, David, and Marywe can find unique ways Gods people fulfilled His purposes for nations and the whole world.

There are special callings, such as when Paul said he was set apart for a special purpose (Galatians 1:15-16); but clearly, the Bible teaches individual purposes are enhanced throughout the church through different spiritual gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit to every believer.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Prisci
(The Center Square)  Law enforcement officials are pointing to a new law passed by the Washington Legislature last year as the likely cause for an uptick in reports of stolen vehicles.

Steve Strachan, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, told KIRO News that automobile thefts state-wide have increased from 2,000 to 2,500 per month to 3,000 to 3,500 per month since the law took effect last July.

The word is out and people know about this and its leading to brazen disregard for the law, he added.

A provision in House Bill 1054 put restrictions on how and when a law enforcement agency can engage in a vehicular pursuit.

Police chases can only occur if there is probable cause to believe that a person in the vehicle has committed a violent offense or a sex offense or is driving under the influence of alcohol or if the person poses an imminent threat that is considered greater than the safety risk of a pursuit.

A supervising officer must consider alternatives to a pursuit and must take into consideration issues such as speed, weather, traffic, road conditions and whether there are minors in the vehicle.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jesse Johnson, D-Federal Way, also made it illegal for a police officer to use a chokehold or neck restraint and required police departments to return military equipment such as armed vehicles, armed helicopters and tanks to the federal agency from which it was acquired.

Throughout the last year, I worked with community leaders, families of victims of police violence, law enforcement officers, police reform advocates and my fellow lawmakers in an effort to lift up all voices and hear all sides, Johnson said in a statement when the bill was passed. We must demand that protecting human life is law enforcements highest value.

In a statement from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs last July, Strachan said Pursuit policies are now strictly limited, and pursuits are categorically prohibited for most criminal offenses. There is a concern that this could increase reckless driving, traffic fatalities and the apprehension of fewer suspects.

Police Chief Matt Brown told KIRO that vehicle thefts in Port Orchard, west of Seattle, are up five-fold.

A witness in Port Orchard recently posted a video to social media showed a driver in a suspected stolen vehicle ramming a police car before escaping.
Eight nuclear reactors at six sites have been shut down permanently in the Great Lakes region.

Of them, only one, Big Rock Point in Charlevoix, has been fully decommissioned. All that remains on its 500 acres are eight spent fuel tanks, and the federal government has deemed the land safe for unrestricted use.

Its common for closed nuclear plants to be considered abandoned, according to Jerry Nappi, the director of corporate communications at Entergy, a company that owns multiple plants,

Commercial nuclear power plants are not abandoned. By law, there are trust funds for each commercial reactor in the country, Nappi said. Those funds can only be used for approved decommissioning, dismantling and remediation purposes.

Proper decommissioning takes approximately 30 years to complete.

Some plants, such as the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert, have experienced multiple accidents.

Most recently, in 2019, Palisades had a leaky refueling tank that drained 79 gallons of slightly radioactive water into Lake Michigan, said the Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC).

According to the NRC, although the amount of radioactive waste was so minuscule it did not cause any damage to the water quality or environment, it still raised concerns about the overall safety of procedures at nuclear plants like Palisades.

The NRC says that production of nuclear power is harmless to the environment when done correctly. It is only when mishaps, like those at Palisades occur, that damage can occur.

Entergy has announced that it will close Palisades this spring.

Val Gent, a senior communications specialist at Palisades, said the closure decision was made from a business standpoint.

The closure of Palisades is part of Entergys business strategy to exit from the wholesale nuclear generation business and move to being a pure play utility company, Gent said.

Gent said Entergy will transfer ownership of Palisades to Holtec International for decommissioning after the permanent shutdown and reactor defueling.

Florida-based Holtec International builds equipment for nuclear plants and handles waste management and the proper decommissioning of plants.

As with Palisades and Big Rock, many other old nuclear plants are located right along the edge of the Great Lakes.

Can decades old, unused plants have a lasting effect on the nearby water and its environment?

According to the International Joint Commission, the best-known effect the generation of nuclear power has on water quality in the Great Lakes is the production of radionuclides, which are radioactive atoms.

The United States and Canada created the International Joint Commission to manage and protect the waters shared by the two countries.

While radium, radon and uranium are the most common radionuclides, tritium is the most common one in the Great Lakes. Most radionuclides occur naturally at low levels and pose no threat to human health, experts say.

U.S. lawmakers said the plan fails to prioritize the health of the Great Lakes and the 40 million residents who depend on it for clean drinking water. U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint, heads a 20-member, bipartisan group calling on the Biden Administration to stop the Canadian government from being able to store waste in the Great Lakes Basin.

Its estimated that Canada plans to store 57,000 tons of highly radioactive material in the Great Lakes Basin, according to a report by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization.

In an October 2021 public statement about the ongoing legal battle between U.S. and Canadian officials regarding the future of Enbridges Line 5 pipeline, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer accused the Canadian government of adding even more risks to our waters.

Despite concerns expressed by U.S. government officials, farmers and landowners in the basin, Canada is still moving forward on the project.
The nations police officers under attack, wages rise for US workers, most voters want Joe Biden to consider All Possible nominees for the Supreme Court, the Black Lives Matter Organization buys a Communist Mansion in Canada.

Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, how progressive policies are harming American schools.
Digital transformation has been a prevalent topic over the past few years - and has been particularly important to note during this time that Covid-19 pushed us into.

Image supplied: Jacques de Bruyn, MD at Flume

Tell us a bit more about your work and what your day-to-day looks like

How did you end up on this career path?

What is the best method to use when making people aware of your brand?

Lets talk a bit about digital marketing - what do you think it has to offer for businesses?

What challenges can digital marketing help businesses overcome?

What do you predict for 2022, in terms of digital marketing and how digital marketers work?

What advice would you give to anybody who is in the process of digital transformation?

We spoke to Jacques Du Bruyn, the digital marketing and PR MD at Flume, about digital marketing and transformation in business - and why it is important.South African digital agencies are noticing an upswing in the amount of international business knocking at the door for digital marketing services, especially development work. This is exciting and certainly something that South Africans should work collectively to embrace to build our industry together and ultimately create jobs locally, said Du Bruyn.On some advice for businesses going through digital transformation, how you can make people aware of your brand effectively, and the challenges digital marketing can assist with, Du Bruyn has some nuggets of wisdom to shareThe definition of work has changed for me personally over the years. When Flume was a small agency, work was defined by how many social media posts I put live on any given day. Today as a medium-to-large sized agency work is defined as leadership.About how I contribute to the growth of my staff, the agency and our clients. Day-to-day is therefore largely spent investing in people, investing time into meeting with clients and selling Flumes services to potential new clients.My grandfather worked in advertising and I always knew that it was something I wanted to do.As a young boy, Id always been fascinated by the ads in a print magazine. I even created my own. I didnt study digital marketing per se at university, but platforms and technology have always intrigued me and it, therefore, seemed the obvious route to combine my love for marketing with technology.Frequency. The more people see your brand the more itll be top-of-mind. Its a fairly simple concept yet we as marketers tend to overcomplicate it and overthink it.Theres so much that digital marketing can offer businesses. First and foremost it lowers the barriers of entry.A small business can enjoy success by marketing online, not only big brands and spenders. The other two compelling items are the ability to target quite specifically a specific target market and the ability to gather and understand data in order to make smarter decisions, faster.Digital marketing can help businesses overcome the challenge of wastage. Traditional media has a degree of wastage in that we cannot guarantee that only the intended audience will engage with the communication.Whereas with digital marketing we can quite specifically target the audience that we intend to reach and engage with the message, and not that, we can keep refining the targeting criteria daily.The trend weve noticed as an agency is that businesses are far more interested in integrating their digital marketing efforts than trying to focus on single-channel tactics. There was a time when the channel was the hero; brands scuttled to be on social media.However, there is a growing awareness that integrating all digital channels, platforms and technologies is what ultimately drives success online. This will inevitably change the way marketers work in that they will have to start thinking more laterally about digital technologies.First, take a step back and understand the business readiness. Digital is necessary but businesses arent always ready to transform.Employees need to be ready to handle the new processes and systems that arise from a digital process. For instance; building e-commerce probably makes sense for a B2C business but if the employees aren't trained to handle the new processes that arise from digitising a returns process then it can do more harm than good.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, entrepreneurs have had to face a new reality. While some businesses closed due to the pandemic, others changed the way in which they operate, introduced new products and services, and embraced new ways of reaching their clients.

Bridgit Evans, director at SAB Foundation. | Source: Supplied

Briefly tell us about the SAB Foundation.

How has your work at the SAB Foundation been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic?

Looking into the new year, what entrepreneurship trends are we likely to see?

With regards to business funding, what is the outlook for 2022?

What would you like to see changed in the current local entrepreneurship landscape?

What are your plans as the SAB Foundation for the year ahead?

What advice will you give to an upcoming entrepreneur?

As we start the new year, new entrepreneurship trends shaped by the pandemic continue to emerge - from new technologies and innovations to ever-changing customer demands and societal shifts.Bridgit Evans, director at the SAB Foundation, believes that while the pandemic may have forced many businesses to close and provoked an unprecedented downturn in the global economy, it also opened up a whole lot of new opportunities, in particular, doing business differently.I chatted to Evans about the SAB Foundation and how it supports local entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurship and business funding trends for the year ahead and beyond.The SAB Foundation is a component of the South African Breweries Black Economic Empowerment ownership scheme that was established in 2010. The foundation focuses 100% on different kinds of entrepreneurship and our key beneficiaries are women and youth in rural areas as well as persons living with disabilities.We have three broad programmatic areas. The first one is economic empowerment through farming where we look at big, collaborative farming initiatives in disadvantaged areas. The second area we focus on is general entrepreneurship, where we try to find entrepreneurs from across the country.In the first phase, we try to help people start businesses. In the second phase, we have an 18-month long business development programme where we take in between 60 and 70 entrepreneurs a year and we put them through this programme of developing their business skills. We then assign them a mentor and also give them R200,000 grant funding each to help transition those businesses and help them become more commercially viable.We look at businesses outside major metropolitan areas and test them from seed to scale. So, if businesses perform very well in that programme and we can see that there is an opportunity to create a lot of jobs, we then will look at funding them again. Our relationships with entrepreneurs never end.The last area that we focus on is social innovation. For us, social innovation means business solutions to social problems. Our main programme is the Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards, held annually. We are looking for businesses that are trying to solve South Africa's biggest social challenges and we believe that if we help those businesses excel, they can even become the new way that the country deals with an old problem.We look at innovations in education, health, food and affordable housing. The awards prizes start at R200,000 and go up to R1.3m.It hasnt impacted us as a foundation, but it has impacted our beneficiaries. Entrepreneurs have had some very difficult times and many of them have really struggled.Business right across the country has been very, very tough in the last few years. We made R30m in Covid-19 relief funding available to make sure that the businesses we had already invested in didn't close down as a result of the pandemic.I think there have been a lot of trends that have developed around Covid-19. While it's been very tough on many businesses, it has also opened up a whole lot of new opportunities, in particular, doing business differently.Weve already seen that through our Social and Innovation Awards. There is quite a big emphasis now on delivery. Buying and selling things online has become a huge industry since the beginning of Covid-19 and that requires a whole new sector of delivery. The roads are just filling up with motorbike drivers and delivery vehicles. So yes, weve seen that industry explode over the last few years.We've seen some interesting trends develop, for example, during Covid-19, we saw a lot of companies close, particularly in the hospitality sector, but we also had brand new ones open. The other interesting trend that Covid-19 has brought is the ability to work in a different city or town to where your office is located. What we have already seen and what I think we are still going to see, is opportunities for entrepreneurs.So, in 2022 I'm hoping it's going to be a time of rebuilding and growth, and it's not going to be easy for entrepreneurs as theyve lost so much. Many of them are hanging on by a thread and I really do hope that as the world eases and people feel at ease around Covid-19 and hopefully vaccines start to become more widespread, people will be less fearful around spending.It is difficult to say. I think South Africa has an environment where there is an enterprise development space where companies and government are putting a lot of money into small businesses, and then youve got the banks and venture capital. Unfortunately, there is a big gap between these two.New businesses really struggle to get growth funding from traditional sources of finance, but I think funding entrepreneurs is not going to go away. It is only going to grow because the government and everyone recognises that it is the only thing that's going to really create jobs. I don't think it's going to be an easy funding environment because everyones spending has been tough.Well, I think there is a big missing middle when it comes to funding. Many entrepreneurs have no problem accessing, as I said, enterprise development funding as part of the corporate responsibility and Black Economic Empowerment. But when it comes to them accessing funding from big companies, they are really struggling. The banks are not playing the role they are supposed to play in terms of developing small businesses. I would like to see that gap start to close.As the SAB Foundation, we are now trying to access other finance ourselves so that we can lend into that market because we understand that the risk is not nearly as great as people think it is. We feel that if we could have great relationships with these entrepreneurs, this would also mitigate the risk.We are now going to access, hopefully, other finance so that we can lend big amounts of money to small businesses.One of our biggest plans is to lend bigger amounts to entrepreneurs and run specific innovation challenges around particular issues. In 2021, for the first time, we ran an innovation challenge around reducing harmful consumption of alcohol and this year, we are going to run it again.Our long-term dream is to take the model that we've developed successfully over the last 11 years, particularly in the social innovation space, and see if we can raise the funding to offer that opportunity in other African countries.My advice to young entrepreneurs is to really try and access as much business support as they can. One of the reasons why I admire entrepreneurs so much is because they have so much courage and confidence that they believe that they can sometimes do what other people think is impossible. That's what makes them so impressive.On the other hand, they often don't see the need for mentorship when they need it. To any young entrepreneur, find other successful business people in your area and ask if they could mentor you. Also, take advantage of the many opportunities South Africa has to offer for start-up entrepreneurs.
Forex derivative platforms are popular tools that enable South Africans to invest and access diversified financial markets. They have also unfortunately been identified as a space where scammers and fraudsters ply their trade.

Source: Supplied. Khwezi Financial Services' Cape Town head office.

An ethical and transparent trading platform

Almost 10 years in the making

ODP licensing requirements

The Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) is cracking down on these platforms by creating a regulatory framework for the supervision of entities that operate in the Over-the-Counter (OTC) derivative market.Khwezi Financial Services has officially become a FSCA-licensed South African-owned forex platform and can now offer OTC products on forex, indices and commodities for trading."This is the kind of progress that we should be celebrating together as a nation because getting approved by The FSCA is a great achievement that many forex platforms (local and global) fail to achieve," a spokesperson for the company said.Khwezi Financial Services is providing a safe, secure, and accessible environment to trade.There are numerous unethical forex trading platforms in South Africa, but the FSCAs regulation aims to clean up the industry. Its purpose is to regulate OTC derivatives markets in South Africa through a new regulatory framework to reduce the risk and create a safer environment for those taking part in the market. This aligns South Africa with the G20 obligations to regulate the OTC derivatives market.The regulation requires brokers to perform enhanced due diligence on their clients, as trading speculative financial products are high risk. It will also enforce strict capital adequacy measures and various other requirements.The onus is on the broker to submit an end-of-day transaction report to a central repository. These reports provide transparency to the FSCA, ensuring that all forex trading clients are treated fairly and that brokers are operating responsibly.Monty Barnard, chief operating officer of Kwezi Trade, says: "We are pleased to be identified by the FSCA as one of the leading and competent forex trading platforms in South Africa. This shows that we are not a fly-by-night organisation. We are here to stay and will continue to deliver a consistent and dedicated service to our clients."Khwezi Trade, a division of Khwezi Financial Services, is an authorised financial services provider, established in 2013. It is a proudly South African regulated forex broker with a category 1 and category 2 Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) licence and has now become the first South African-owned forex trading platform to have an Over the Counter Derivative Provider (ODP) licence.Although some financial service providers are licensed under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (FAIS Act), this is not enough; they also need to be licensed as ODPs in order to trade as Contract For Difference (CFD) providers.The FSCA has instituted this regulation because of the substantial risk to the public in instances where entities and individuals act as issuers of derivative products without adequate financial reserves, risk management systems, or knowledge. The regulation is an ongoing effort to remove FSPs that are prepared to act outside of the law.Khwezi Trade provides South African traders with a safe trading environment using both state-of-the-art online, desktop and mobile trading platforms. The company exemplifies exceptional compliance standards as a forex broker with FSCA-authorised representatives and a management team that holds over 60 years experience in the forex and CFD industry.ODP licensing requires Khwezi to:* Meet the operational capital requirements.* Maintain and hold sufficient capital and reserves in the Republic of South Africa proportional to the risks relating to the business as the derivative provider.* Meet the fit and proper requirements of honesty, integrity and competency.* Show the ability to maintain the operational ability to fulfil the responsibilities imposed by the Act.* Possess financial soundness of the business and members of its controlling body.* Meet risk management and internal controls.* Have established an effective compliance function with systems and controls in place to promote and monitor its regulatory obligations.* Have an adequate business continuity plan with proper record-keeping.Co-founder and managing Director of Khwezi Trade, Mark Wurr, says, "After being involved in the Forex/CFD online trading business for more than 20 years, I welcome the more stringent regulation that the licence brings. It will certainly help eradicate the unethical providers that seem to have crept into the market over the years.''Khwezi Trade offers Rand-based forex and CFD trading accounts, providing safeguarding of client funds through segregated third-party administrative bank accounts. Unlike foreign brokers, clients trading money does not go offshore, but remains within the borders of South Africa, and this complies with the South African Reserve Bank laws.The FSCA reminds the industry that extra care should be taken when dealing with any platform. One level of assurance is to check whether the provider is registered with the FSCA as an FSP or ODP. All ODPs need to be licensed by the FSCA.
If 2021 taught us anything, it's that we can do with all the help we can get to make it through another year of this new crazy-that-we-now-call-normal. So, Chicken Licken SoulBites has returned to serve some fresh Nuggets of Wisdom, packed with all the entertaining advice Mzansi needs to survive 2022 with our sense of humour intact.

Directed by Greg Gray of Romance Films, in collaboration with Joe Public United, the new burst of Nuggets has seen Chicken Licken return to its top trending spot on Twitter, this time with an extra tongue-in-cheek surprise. The first film stars one of South Africas most talked-about figures: celebrity artist, Rasta. Playing the role of a prospective police sketch artist being interviewed by a police chief, we follow the hilarious consequences that could come ofheeding the Nugget of Wisdom:The second film helps the nation navigate safely to the end of its Januworries with a sage new Nugget of Wisdom: no matter how tempting your cash-strapped inclination might be not to do so One of the biggest rewards of collaborating with Chicken Licken is the opportunity not only to serve the growth of the brand, but in many ways, of the nation as a whole. By creating common ground that gives us all permission to laugh together  even at ourselves  we can draw people together, rather than driving them apart, says integrated chief creative officer, Xolisa Dyeshana, Joe Public United.As promised, SoulBites Nuggets of Wisdom will continue to roll out into February across media channels, to help South Africans laugh their way out of trouble and keep things running relatively smoothly for a  dare we say it? 2022.#SoulBitesTwitter: @ChickenLickenSAFacebook: Chicken LickenYouTube: Chicken Licken SABrand: Chicken LickenGroup Chief Creative Officer: Pepe MaraisIntegrated Chief Creative Officer: Xolisa DyeshanaIntegrated Creative Director: Assaf LevyIntegrated Senior Copywriter: Michelle McKennaIntegrated Senior Art Director: Alexa CranerIntegrated Copywriter: Tlhogi SwaratlheIntegrated Art Director: Ovayo NtlabatiCreative Business Director: Amber MackeurtanAccount Manager: Sinethembe SkondeHead of TV & Radio: Di ColeDirector: Greg GrayExecutive Producer: Helena WoodfineLine Producer: Shannon McDougallDirector of Photography: Adam BentelProduction Art Director: Will BoyesStylist | Costume Design: Bridget BakerHead of Research: Maghiel van DorssenPrincipal Actors: Rasta, Mpho Molepo, Sne DladlaEditor: Ricky BoydEditing Company: Deliverance PostVisual Effects: Jean du PlessisPost-production: Chocolate TribeAudio & Sound Design: Stephen Webster, Ricky BoydSound Studio: The WorkRoom
Government calls for citizens to isolate and quarantine again, reinstates contact tracing

The Western Cape Government Health has reinstated its previous policy regarding Covid-19 contact tracing, quarantining, testing and isolation.
The High Court has dismissed an application against a state emergency power tender that aims to end years of debilitating electricity shortages, the government said on Monday, 31 January.

Source: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

Alleging interference by senior energy officials that tainted the process to procure 2,000 megawatts (MW), South African firm DNG Energy sought to overturn a March 2021 decision picking several preferred bidders, including Turkey's Karpowership."The court decision enables the government and Eskom to finalise its governance and regulatory approval processes to conclude financial close with ... preferred bidders by end March 2022," an energy ministry statement said, welcoming the decision.Besides Karpowership, which operates a fleet of powerships and will provide ship-to-shore electricity when eventually anchored at three coastal sites, Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power and other firms such as Oya Energy and Umoyilanga Energy were also shortlisted.The ministry said it expected that selected projects will be operational and ready to augment generation capacity a year after financial closure. The government expects the projects to inject around R45bn into South Africa's economy.However, the chief executive of DNG Energy, Aldworth Mbalati, said the company had reviewed the High Court judgment and considered there to be ample grounds for an appeal.
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Washington Post via MSN - January 23 2022

U.K. accuses Russia of scheming to install a pro-Kremlin government in Ukraine

by Paul Sonne, John Hudson, Shane Harris

The British government on Saturday accused Russia of organizing a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, as the Kremlin masses troops and materiel near the Ukrainian border in what Western officials fear is an impending military assault on the neighboring nation. The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office gave relatively little information about the intelligence unveiled Saturday other than to say that the Russian government was considering trying to make a Russia-leaning former member of Ukraines parliament, Yevhen Murayev, the countrys new leader. 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, U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement, calling on Russia to de-escalate and pursue a path of diplomacy. 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, Truss said. British authorities also said they had information showing how Russias intelligence services maintain links with numerous former Ukrainian politicians. Some of those former Ukrainian politicians are in contact with Russian intelligence officers planning the attack on Ukraine, the British government said.

Washington Post via MSN - January 29 2022

U.S. and allies debate the intelligence on how quickly Putin will order an invasion of Ukraine  or whether he will at all

by Shane Harris, John Hudson, Ellen Nakashima

Last week, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss publicly accused Russia of organizing a plot to install a pro-Moscow government led by a former member of Ukraines parliament. The intelligence underlying that revelation, which also linked some former Ukrainian politicians to Russian intelligence officers involved in planning for an attack on Ukraine, was collected and declassified by the United States, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The Biden administration asked the British government, which vetted the intelligence and was confident in its accuracy, to publicly expose the Russian plotting, the people said. U.S. intelligence has assessed that Putin has underestimated how costly an invasion could be in Russian lives lost and in the devastating effects of sanctions on Russias economy, according to officials familiar with the information. Intelligence analysts also have concluded that Putin is being misinformed by his own circle of advisers, who appear unwilling to confront him with the full consequences of military action.

Not only came the fake 'intelligence' from the U.S. instead of the UK, it was also totally sucked from a thumb. As is the alleged 'intelligence assessment about a misinformed Putin.

If you want to know how an 'invasion' of Ukraine by Russia would look like read

Ukraine and Russian escalation dominance: A Fiction

at the Sakers site. Yes, it is a fiction. The 'rules of targeting by Russia would realistically be less harsh than NATOs. But the time frame of a some five days long war, mostly by stand-off missiles, seems quite realistic to me.

Oh, by the way, for me as a German the best paragraph in the later WaPo piece is this one:

For its part, Germany also remains skeptical of an imminent Russian invasion. At this stage, Berlin sees no indication that Russia will move into Ukraine immediately, a senior German official said. Evidence that Moscow plans to act quickly may exist, but if the United States possesses it, it hasnt shared it with the Germans, the official added.

U.S. 'intelligence'.

What a joke.
LAWYERS FOR A FORMER Venezuelan military officer, who tried to topple President Nicolas Maduro in 2020 with the help of American former soldiers, have claimed that senior officials in the United States Central Intelligence Agency were aware of his activities at the highest levels. The court case centers on Major General Cliver Alcala Cordones, a retired member of Venezuelas Bolivarian Army, who is being tried in a Manhattan court. Alcala is accused of being a member of a drug smuggling ring that worked closely with Colombian terrorist organizations to smuggle over 250 metric tons of cocaine to the US.

Prior to his arrest for drug trafficking, Alcala had been living in Colombia since at least 2019, from where he allegedly masterminded the so-called enfrentamiento en El Junquito (El Junquito raid), or Operacion GEDEON. GEDEON refers to a failed coup plot against Maduro, which was carried out on May 3 and 4 by a group of up to 60 armed men. It is alleged that the coup was launched from Colombia with the support of Silvercorp USA, a private security group led by Jordan Goudreau, a Canadian-born former sergeant in the US Green Berets. At least six coup plotters, who participated in the first phase of the operation, are believed to have been killed by the Venezuela military. Many more were arrested before being able to reach a network of safe houses that had allegedly been set up their supporters inside Venezuela. At least two of the arrestees, Airan Berry and Luke Denman, are American citizens and former soldiers.

On January 28, the Associated Press reported that lawyers for Alcala have filed a letter that claims his efforts to overthrow the Maduro regime have been well known to the United States government. This is because these activities were reported to the highest levels of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, and the Department of the Treasury, according to Alcalas lawyers. The letter provides no details about which officials in the US government allegedly knew about Alcalas activities. In an accompanying document, however, the lawyers for the accused are seeking documents and information containing relevant communications between a number of US officials, including former Attorney General William Barr, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, senior White House officials, as well as the CIA station in Colombia.
The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) Africa has launched its inaugural study examining the state of the PR and communications industry in Africa.

The flagship study, conducted by Reputation Matters, will gather demographic data on the industry and investigate issues including perceptions of PR in business, ethics, talent, and the pandemics impact.

The survey comes on the eve of PRCA Africa celebrating its one year anniversary. Since launching, the worlds largest professional PR association has expanded its presence across the continent with members joining from agencies, in-house teams, and as freelancers.

The survey takes a few minutes to complete and all responses will remain anonymous.

PRCA Africa Chair Jordan Rittenberry said:

The State of the African PR Landscape report will greatly benefit PR and communications professionals in Africa. What we do know is that were in one of the most exciting and vibrant parts of the world for PR and communications. But where are the opportunities for growth? And what ethical challenges do we still need to confront? This is an opportunity for us to gather in-depth analysis on how the industry is really tracking and to inform PRCA Africas policy priorities for this year and beyond.

Reputation Matters Managing Director Regine le Roux said:

Prioritising public relations and finding ways to secure a seat around the boardroom table has always been of keen interest to us. With this research the PR industry will be able to learn from each other and find ways to grow together. There is so much knowledge and lessons to be shared with each other across the continent.

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While restrictions limiting the number of people allowed to attend funerals across Pennsylvania due to the COVID-19 pandemic are long gone, funerals for people who died from the virus and related complications continue.

People thought it was going to get better and it didnt, said Dino Cantelmi, who owns funeral homes in Bethlehem and Fountain Hill. I dont know, I feel that we know more about it now than we did back then, but were still having COVID-related deaths and funerals.

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We definitely have slowed down as far as the number of deaths, he said. But theyre still there. It didnt go away.

The federal government last year stepped in to help offset COVID-19 funeral costs through a reimbursement program. However, Pennsylvanias applications are still lagging well behind the death toll. While officials have said the program is running smoothly, Lehigh Valley funeral directors pointed to some of the programs rules and limitations as reasons why there arent as many applications as deaths.

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Pennsylvania lands squarely in the middle of states when it comes to the number of applications submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reimbursement of COVID-19 funeral expenses, according to data from the agency.

As of early December, of the almost 34,000 people who died from COVID-19 across the commonwealth, only about 15,000 applications were submitted to the agency. Of those, more than 10,000 have been approved, with an average reimbursement amount of about $6,500.

Deaths are still rising. As of Thursday, the state reached another pandemic milestone, surpassing 40,000 COVID-related deaths.

The program, announced by FEMA in March and launched the next month, provides financial assistance for COVID-19-related funeral expenses incurred after Jan. 20, 2020. Assistance is limited to a maximum of $9,000 per funeral.

Since its launch, theres been one major change to the program. In June, agency officials widened their policies to allow reimbursement for deaths in the early months of the pandemic.

At one point, they had specific dates if they passed from COVID, but now theyve opened it up, Cantelmi said. In other words, theres not really a deadline anymore, because its still very relevant.

There is no deadline for applications.

Applications must be completed and submitted by surviving family members, extra steps that grieving people might not have the patience, time or knowledge to complete, funeral directors said.

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We kind of guide the families if theyre not sure what to do, Cantelmi said. Unfortunately, if we could do it for them, we would, but were not allowed to. The family actually has to have paid for it and then they get reimbursed.

The 1988 Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act does not recognize funeral homes or other businesses as eligible recipients of federal funds, according to FEMAs website, putting the onus on surviving family members to seek reimbursement themselves.

This also means that money is sent directly to the surviving family member who applied, who is responsible for paying the funeral home upfront.

[ FEMA COVID-19 funeral assistance wont bring loved ones back, but it can help with the costs of an unexpected death, Lehigh Valley funeral directors say ]

Kathleen Ryan, executive director of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association, citing feedback from members, said residents are applying and, if qualified, receiving funds. Asked if there have been issues reported with the application process, she said she hadnt heard of any.

Unlike other pandemic-related assistance programs, such as the states Emergency Rental Assistance Program, FEMAs funeral reimbursement program does not have an online portal for applications. But that can be a good thing in this instance, said James Eirkson, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association.

The one thing I think that they did that was smart was everybody who applies, it starts with an in-person phone call, so that the people applying can get their questions answered, Eirkson said. Its a personal, interactive process from the beginning, and then people can send in their materials, their application and all their documents afterwards, once they once they work through that.

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So, thats what I think its been a nice process where they get all their questions answered, and theyre sensitive to the fact that, you know, all the implications of this and what people have gone through.

But there are some drawbacks to the program, too, that limit the number of people who would qualify for assistance. For example, if a person pre-pays for their funeral costs, they dont qualify for reimbursement, even if they die from COVID-19.

Any source of payment designated specifically to pay for a funeral prior to death is considered a duplication and is not eligible for reimbursement, according to FEMAs website.

The vast majority of people who have died from COVID-19 are older, with 86.9% of Pennsylvania deaths occurring in people ages 60 and up, according to state data. Residents 70 and older make up 70.9% of deaths.

Say your grandmother had a pre-arranged funeral at a funeral home, went into a nursing home and died of COVID in the nursing home, said Julie Weir-Morton, owner of Robert Weir Funeral Home in Allentown. [Surviving family] will not be able to apply because it was a pre-arranged funeral that she prepaid.

Older people are more likely to have pre-paid for their funerals, while those in their 40s to 60s dont as often, she said.

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It seems as though the younger people, the people that were anywhere from 40s to 70s, were hardest hit, because they didnt own cemetery plots and they werent pre-arranged, she said. And thats, I guess, where FEMAs coming from to provide them with this helpful money.

Residents should feel comfortable reaching out to their funeral home, where directors can help guide them through the application process, Cantelmi said.

Just like any like ministry, my funeral directors here have a calling and they genuinely care about people and families, as I do, he said. Although we cant apply for it, you know, wed be happy to show them what they need to get everything through to get the funds to help, because even though it might not be a hardship to some, it definitely is to others.

Residents can call FEMAs COVID-19 funeral assistance number, 844-684-6333, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to start an application.

Morning Call reporter Molly Bilinski can be reached at mbilinski@mcall.com.

We rely on the support of our subscribers to fund our journalism as we continue to cover the coronavirus crisis. If youre not already signed up, we hope you will consider subscribing. Already a print subscriber? If you havent already, please activate your digital access.
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Germany-China trade hits record high in 2021: Destatis

Xinhua) 17:26, February 01, 2022

BERLIN, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China is expected to remain Germany's most important trading partner in 2021, for the sixth year in a row, as the turnover of trade between the countries reached a record high, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Monday.

Exports and imports between China and Germany from January to November 2021 were up 14.7 percent year-on-year and climbed to 222.3 billion euros (248.4 billion U.S. dollars), already exceeding the previous year's level, according to Destatis.

"China's importance for German foreign trade has risen sharply in recent decades," Destatis noted, stressing that "China has been Germany's most important foreign trade partner since 2016."

Imports from China in the first 11 months of 2021 even increased 18.6 percent year-on-year, reaching 127.1 billion euros, according to Destatis. Data processing equipment, electrical and optical products, electrical equipment and machinery were the most important import categories.

At the same time, goods exported from Germany to China increased by 10 percent to 95.2 billion euros, according to Destatis. Main export products were motor vehicles and parts, machinery, data processing equipment as well as electrical and optical products. (1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars)

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
A bipartisan group of Lehigh County voters asked a federal court for an emergency injunction Monday to stop the Lehigh County Board of Elections from certifying Novembers results on Tuesday.

According to the filing, plaintiffs Linda Migliori, Francis J. Fox, Richard E. Richards, Kenneth Ringer and Sergio Rivas are among the 257 Lehigh County voters who did not write a date next to their signature on their mail-in ballots return envelope.

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In addition to asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to delay the certification, it asks the court to ensure the 257 ballots are counted.

State appeals court judges determined the ballots should not be counted in early January because the 2019 state law that enacted universal, no-excuses vote-by-mail requires mail-in ballots to be dated. The state Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear an appeal to that ruling.

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The Lehigh County Board of Elections plan to vote to certify the election results 1 p.m. Tuesday. Lehigh County Chief Clerk Timothy Benyo did not say whether the suit would affect Tuesdays vote when reached via email.

[ Lehigh County judge candidate appeals to Pa. Supreme Court in fight over counting undated mail-in ballots ]

In the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the five voters, plaintiffs argue that discarding the ballots amounts to disenfranchisement that will cause irreparable harm.

Witold Walczak, an attorney for the voters according to the filing, could not be reached for comment.

The presence or absence of the date is immaterial to the integrity of the ballot, verification of timely delivery to the Elections Board, or any other important facet of the voting and tabulation process, the filing reads.

The plaintiffs argue that discarding the undated ballots violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

First Call Daily Leading local stories delivered on weekday mornings >

The undated ballots could affect the outcome of a close Lehigh County judges race, where Republican David Ritter leads Democrat Zachary Cohen by just 74 votes. Had the court ruled to count the 257 undated ballots, the results may have swung in Cohens favor.

Adam Bonin, Cohens lawyer, declined to give a statement about the lawsuit but said that Cohens legal team supports it. Robert Daday, a lawyer for Ritter, could not be reached for comment.

The county board of elections voted unanimously Nov. 15 to count the ballots, a decision that was upheld later that month by County Judge Edward Reibman. But in early January, a panel of Commonwealth Court judges ruled 2-1 to discard the 257 undated mail-in ballots.

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The Commonwealth Court ruled last week that the 2019 law allowing the mail-in ballots is unconstitutional.

Morning Call reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at 610-820-6681 and liweber@mcall.com.

This story has been updated to reflect the certification vote is scheduled for 1 p.m.
OTTAWA  Manitobas most prominent federal Tory has hitched her wagon to the trucking convoy camped outside Parliament Hill, likening a fringe minority who toted swastikas to the Indigenous protesters who downed the Queen Victoria statue in Winnipeg last summer.

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OTTAWA  Manitobas most prominent federal Tory has hitched her wagon to the trucking convoy camped outside Parliament Hill, likening a fringe minority who toted swastikas to the Indigenous protesters who downed the Queen Victoria statue in Winnipeg last summer.

"Contrary to some, there are thousands of passionate, patriotic, and peaceful Canadians on the Hill right now, who just want to be heard," PortageLisgar MP Candice Bergen said Monday in the Commons, causing an uproar.

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/SEAN KILPATRICK Conservative Party Deputy Leader Candice Bergen.

This past weekend, thousands of Canadians arrived in the capital as part of a rally with a stated goal of protesting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers, though the organizers have been linked to far-right groups who want to overthrow the government.

In any case, Manitobans who made the 2,100-kilometre drive to Ottawa have shared a range of opinions with the Free Press, from those calling for a rebalancing in how to prevent novel coronavirus spread, to others spouting violent conspiracy theories.

The most media attention has focused on protesters who held signs with Nazi symbols, danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, demanded meals from a soup kitchen, and affixed protest signs to the Terry Fox statue downtown.

Contrary to some, there are thousands of passionate, patriotic, and peaceful Canadians on the Hill right now, who just want to be heard.  PortageLisgar MP Candice Bergen in the House of Commons, Monday

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau argued those elements represent the views of those whose trucks have been parked in the precinct since Jan. 28.

"Freedom of expression, assembly and association are cornerstones of democracy. But Nazi symbolism, racist imagery, and desecration of war memorials are not," Trudeau told reporters Monday morning, saying hed refuse to meet with the group.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/JUSTIN TANG The door of a pickup truck with an expletive towards Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participates in a cross-country convoy in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Friday.

Bergen, who is deputy head of the Conservatives, called on Trudeau to "extend an olive branch," arguing a true leader would rise above the division.

"All Canadians want to see a leader who will work to heal rifts not dismiss, name-call and gaslight," said Bergen, who at one point had to apologize for accusing a fellow MP of lying, which is forbidden in the chamber.

On the first sitting day in six weeks, Bergen had MPs on both sides of the House fuming when she drew a parallel between those bearing swastikas and people who set churches ablaze last year, amid revelations of unmarked graves at former residential school sites.

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/SEAN KILPATRICK Conservative member of Parliament Candice Bergen: "We all condemn hateful and destructive acts by a few, at any protest."

"We all condemn hateful and destructive acts by a few, at any protest," she said.

"Whether its beheading the statue of Queen Victoria in Manitoba whether its burning churches, whether its wearing blackface, whether its Hezbollah flags or Nazi flags, we all condemn this. But Im not talking about that."

Trucker convoy in Ottawa People and vehicles fill Wellington Street near Parliament Hill during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, in Ottawa, on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS) A person holds a copy of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions on Parliament Hill. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) A person pumps their fists as they stand on top of a transport truck after arriving on Wellington Street in front of on Parliament Hill. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) Supporters wave flags on an overpass in Kanata, Ont., as a trucker convoy making its way to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to participate in a cross-country truck convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19 and vaccine mandates passes by on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (FRANK GUNN / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP Protesters hold signs thanking truckers and promoting freedom of choice on Parliament Hill. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press) - People surround the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions in Ottawa, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang - A statue of Terry Fox is defaced with an upside down Canadian flag and a protest sign as demonstrators participating in a cross-country truck convoy protest measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19 by gathering on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. A British Columbia mayor says the defacing of a statue has ignited disbelief among residents in the national heros hometown, and hes calling on them to channel their frustration into doing something positive. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld - Protesters participating in a cross-country truck convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19 and vaccine mandates walk near Parliament Hill. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press) - In this photo taken using a drone, vehicles of the protest convoy are seen parked on the Sir John A. Macdonald parkway leading in to downtown Ottawa, Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. Residents of the national capital are again being told to avoid travelling downtown as a convoy of trucks and cars snarl traffic protesting government-imposed vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions. (ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP A helicopter emblazoned with an expletive against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flies low over East Block and Parliament Hill. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) - Protesters stand in front of Centre Block at Parliament Hill protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press) - A person wearing a Monopoly Man mask holds a sign during a rally against COVID-19 restriction. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) - Protesters participating in a cross-country truck convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19 and vaccine mandates gather near Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld - Trucks reached Parliament Hill as part of a convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press) - A counter protester holds a sign promoting vaccines as others wave flags during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions on Parliament Hill. (Justin Tag / The Canadian Press) - Supporters wave signs and flags on an overpass in Kanata, Ont., just as they wait for a trucker convoy making its way to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (Frank Gunn / The Canadian Press) - A person holds a sign for the "Freedom Convoy." (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) - Canadian and Quebec flags are flown upside down as protesters participating in a cross-country truck convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19 and vaccine mandates gather near Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP A helicopter with its underbody emblazoned with an expletive against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flies low over Parliament Hill during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, in Ottawa, on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP Trucks are parked on Metcalfe Street as a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, continues in Ottawa, on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang - Nathan (Jacko) Jack, an Australian living in Toronto, waves flags in front of trucks that are parked in front of Parliament Hill as a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, continues in Ottawa, on Monday, January 31, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle - Trucks are parked on Metcalfe Street as a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, continues in Ottawa, on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. Police havent reported any violence at the ongoing Ottawa rally against vaccine mandates and other government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions, but critics warn that conflating the absence of bloodshed with "peaceful" protest downplays the dangers of this weekends demonstration. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang - A man who removed the tires from his pickup truck stands in front of West Block on Parliament Hill as a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, continues in Ottawa, on Monday, January 31, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle - People stand and cheer on top of a logging truck parked on Wellington Street near Parliament Hill during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, in Ottawa, on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP

Liberal minister Dan Vandal was visibly aghast in the chamber.

"You cannot compare this to the frustration and the anger felt by the people who are recovering Indigenous bodies, and being angry about it," Vandal told the Free Press afterwards.

"The three main leaders would like to overthrow our democratically elected government, and here is Candice Bergen and the Conservative party asking us to sit down with them. Its just embarrassing on their behalf."

Freedom of expression, assembly and association are cornerstones of democracy. But Nazi symbolism, racist imagery, and desecration of war memorials are not.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Another Manitoba Tory took a different approach, saying little about the convoy but expressing outrage Saturday at flags with swastikas on the Hill.

"These symbols evoke the darkest evils in history. They should not be taken lightly, and should never be normalized," tweeted Marty Morantz, a Conservative who represents CharleswoodSt. JamesAssiniboiaHeadingley.

Justin Trudeau says hes feeling well after testing positive for COVID-19 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted Monday that hes tested postive for COVID-19. Posted: 9:06 AM Jan. 31, 2022 Trudeau posted on Twitter that he got the positive test result Monday morning. He has been in isolation since last Wednesday. Read Full Story

"Voices like these must always be condemned  never defended or explained away," he said. "They must be condemned when they wear yellow Stars of David, which suggest a moral equivalency between safe vaccines and the slaughter of six million Jews."

Meanwhile, before trucks reached the Hill, Tory MP Ted Falk (Provencher) was the sole elected official to show up at a Jan. 17 truckers protest that temporarily slowed traffic at the Emerson border crossing. Manitoba RCMP said the demonstration was repeated Monday morning at the U.S. border post.

Falk, the only MP among the 338 to not disclose his COVID-19 vaccination status, argued Monday the media is focusing too much on extremists on the Hill.

"It is always unacceptable when someone desecrates a national monument," he wrote on Facebook. "They are a handful of individuals who do not represent the thousands of truckers who are lawfully and peacefully protesting."

Voices like these must always be condemned  never defended or explained away. They must be condemned when they wear yellow Stars of David, which suggest a moral equivalency between safe vaccines and the slaughter of six million Jews.  Conservative MP Marty Morantz

Vandal said the real unifying message would be for all MPs to side with the estimated 90 per cent of truckers who have been fully vaccinated, and tell the rest to hit the road.

"Theyve made their point, its time to go home; theyre causing more harm now," he said. "As this continues to drag on, the more harm theyre going to cause to the fine people of Ottawa."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
An inmate who was part of an incident that caused more than $16,000 in damage to Brandons jail, two days before he was set to be released, was sentenced to time served Monday afternoon.

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An inmate who was part of an incident that caused more than $16,000 in damage to Brandons jail, two days before he was set to be released, was sentenced to time served Monday afternoon.

Daniel Garvey-Rodriguez, 24, pleaded guilty to mischief over $5,000 for his role in a Nov. 15, 2021 incident at the Brandon Correctional Centre. At the time, he was finishing a jail sentence from a previous incident.

Crown attorney Yaso Mathu said the jails supervisor called Brandon police to report inmates had tried to breach the outside wall of the Delta unit at approximately 10:30 p.m. that day.

There was extensive damage to the walls of two cells, including a large hole in the wall above a window and a hole in the wall between cells, Mathu said.

A police officer who came to the jail to investigate reported the inmates tried to chip out part of the wall with a broken-off table leg, and there was garbage and broken concrete all over the floor of the cells. Mathu said the officer also reported the cells camera had been covered with a white substance.

A correctional officer noted in an incident report he heard banging coming from the accuseds cell, Mathu said. The officer looked through the cells window and could see a shelving unit had been removed and thrown into the common area.

Another correctional officer said Garvey-Rodriguez "flipped him off" through the window before covering it up, Mathu told the court.

In total, the inmates caused $16,107.49 in damage to the cells, she said, adding she didnt have separate totals for both cells.

She recommended a total of six months in jail for the crime, noting Garvey-Rodriguez pleaded guilty as a party to the crime and he was not the main offender.

Garvey-Rodriguez is originally from Cuba and has come into conflict with the law since moving to Canada, said defence lawyer Jonathan Richert.

He argued Garvey-Rodriguez didnt take part in damaging the cell wall directly, but acknowledged he did cover the cells camera and encouraged his co-accused. Garvey-Rodriguez also wasnt part of the "cockamamie" plan to escape by taking chunks out of the wall and denies causing any of the property damage.

"He would have wanted to put in his next 48 hours and get out of that institution. Instead, hes been there since," Richert said.

The time in jail was difficult for Garvey-Rodriguez, he said, adding he spent significant "hard time" in segregation during COVID-19 restrictions.

Richard recommended a sentence of time served in jail for the crime, as his participation was low level and his co-accused caused the damage.

Speaking to the court via video, Garvey-Rodriguez apologized for his actions and said he didnt want to take part in damaging the cells.

"If I could walk out of there, if I had a key to open up the door and walk out of all this, I would have, but I was locked in on the range," he said.

Judge Patrick Sullivan said the incident potentially put jail staff in danger and caused disruptions for other inmates. He also questioned why Garvey-Rodriguez would participate at all so close to getting out after a previous sentence.

"The expression came to mind, Mr. Garvey-Rodriguez, when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes, and here you are now in custody, 76 real days longer than would have been necessary than if you had just kept to yourself," Sullivan said.

Sullivan sentenced him to a total of the equivalent of 114 days time served in jail and to pay $3,500 in restitution to the jail.

 dmay@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @DrewMay_
Chief of Police Todd Lemoine, Mayor Bob Fritz pictured with three of the new police officers; Officer Nathan Leenerts, Officer Andrew Boillot, and Officer Billie Kregel, who is a canine handler, and new K9 Officer Ginger.
At Friday mornings Board of Visitors (BoV) meeting, JMU leadership announced recognition with a new national university status, heard from President Jonathan Alger in his Presidential report  including on mental health in the community following a string of localized tragedies  and covered updates in the Virginia General Assembly legislative session and on COVID-19.
Want to praise someone or get something off your chest? Darts and Pats is the place to do it.
Thousands of Belgian federal employees will be given the legal right to ignore work calls or emails outside of business hours from Tuesday.

Belgium has passed a new law, which comes into effect on February 1, that grants 65,000 civil servants the right to disconnect at the end of the working day.

European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. Credit:iStock

A memo from the Belgian minister for public administration Petra De Sutter said the law was being put in place to combat excessive work stress and burn-out.

This is the real disease of today, Ms De Sutter said in the memo.
Kiki Devine is revelling in a new title: vogueing consultant. But at the same time, there is a weight of responsibility: to strike a pose that does justice to history.

The stylised dance genre of vogue  which evolved in the late 1980s out of Harlems ballroom scene and got a glimpse of the mainstream in Madonnas 1990 song Vogue and the Paris is Burning documentary  has been bubbling away ever since, evolving into an elaborate subculture known as Ball, centred on exhilarating take-no-prisoners dance battles.

Strike a pose: Kiki Devine and Kikki Temple. Credit:Simon Schluter

My main responsibility is to keep the legacy as authentic as possible, says Devine. If we dont keep this history clear and the traditions going, we lose all the work that the pioneers in the beginning have done for us. Their survival, their stories  we want to pay homage to them, whenever were vogueing, whenever were creating balls. We wouldnt be here without them.

Devine, mother of House of Devine, has taken this sense of history into consulting for And She Would Stand Like This, the Australian premiere of a 2017 drama by New York playwright Harrison David Rivers that adapts Euripides classic The Trojan Women into Ball culture, reimagining the ancient Greek characters as queer bodies of colour.
Former corporate titan Ron Brierley has had his jail sentence for possessing child abuse material slashed after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal heard he is in seriously declining health and there have been difficulties treating his ailments in custody.

In a decision on Tuesday afternoon, Justices Robert Beech-Jones, Ian Harrison and Des Fagan quashed a prison sentence imposed on Brierley in October last year and resentenced him to a maximum of 10 months behind bars with a non-parole period of four months.

Ron Brierley arrives at court to be sentenced in October 2021. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The judges had been told about the 84-year-olds declining health in custody, including the inability of prison health services to change dressings on a large wound after Brierley had a skin cancer cut out of his leg.

Although medical advice was for Brierley to spend three weeks in hospital after the surgery, which required a skin graft, he was instead sent back to his cell and had to rely on another prisoner for assistance. This resulted in the stitches breaking, the court heard.
The Lehigh County Board of Elections will not certify votes in the narrow race for the last of three seats on the Court of Common Pleas while a lawsuit by voters whose ballots were disqualified is pending.

Chief Elections Clerk Tim Benyo said the board met Tuesday afternoon and voted to make its initial certification of the results and would normally issue the final certification after five days. The board agreed, however, to delay final certification while a federal judge decides on a request for a court order requiring the county to count 257 ballots disqualified because the voters who cast them did not include the date next to their signatures.

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According to an agreement filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Allentown, lawyers for the county and the voters will have until Feb. 15 to file papers detailing their positions and a hearing will be scheduled later in the month.

The lawsuit, filed Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, seeks a preliminary injunction to require the county to include the disputed ballots in its final tally of the Nov. 2 election results.

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In the race for one of three seats on Lehigh County Court, Republican David Ritter has a 74 vote lead against Democrat Zachary Cohen. The 257 disputed ballots could include enough votes for Cohen to give him the lead.

The race for the court seat has been in limbo since Ritter challenged the boards decision to count the undated ballots the week after the election. Later that month, Lehigh County Judge Edward Reibman ruled that the ballots should be counted, but a Commonwealth Court panel last month reversed his decision.

The ACLU lawsuit was filed after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined last week to review the Commonwealth Court decision.

Morning Call reporter Peter Hall can be reached at 610-820-6581 or peter.hall@mcall.com.
An e-scooter rider is fighting for his life with head and internal injuries after colliding with a vehicle on the Gold Coast.

Emergency services were called about 7.30pm on Tuesday to busy Bermuda Street at Burleigh Waters.

E-scooter riders need to adopt the mindset of a motorbike rider or cyclist to stay safe, says QAS senior operations supervisor Adam Flory. Credit:Lydia Lynch

The man, in his 30s, was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a critical condition, with the High Acuity Response Unit and critical care paramedics on board.

QAS senior operations supervisor Adam Flory said the man was receiving CPR before paramedics arrived.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette DAth fears aged care homes do not have adequate staffing and not enough residents are receiving a booster shot, as another 10 people died of COVID overnight in the state.

Of those deaths, eight were in aged care homes.

Ms DAth said she would write to the federal government about her concerns with aged care issues, including the rate of boosters in aged care residents and shortages of PPE and RAT tests.

Im hearing from people who say theyre begging managers of aged care facilities to bring people in to vaccinate their loved ones for boosters, she said.
A Christian college that provoked public uproar for its controversial contract forcing children to accept gender roles could lose funding and be subject to anti-discrimination action within days.

But Queenslands Attorney-General, Shannon Fentiman, has warned a Morrison government proposal could still give Brisbanes Citipointe Christian College, and other schools, the power to discriminate against students based on their gender identity and sexuality.

The contract states the Citipointe Christian College would enrol students only on the basis of the gender that corresponds with their biological sex. Credit:Citipointe Christian College

The college has been referred to Queenslands Non-State Schools Accreditation Board, which ensures all schools meet the criteria required for state funding. It would consider at its Thursday meeting if the college was in breach of a requirement that students be treated equally.

Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall had warned religious schools that the state Anti-Discrimination Act did not allow them to discriminate against enrolled students because of their sexuality or gender identity.
Queenslands Education Minister, Grace Grace, has promised a swift response to complaints about Citipointe Christian College requiring students to agree to specific gender roles and denounce homosexuality - a move she described as unacceptable.

The college, in south-eastern Brisbane suburb Carindale, had been warned by the Queensland Human Rights Commission that forcing existing students to comply with the controversial contract would probably amount to unlawful discrimination.

Education Minister Grace Grace is a big supporter of the LGBTIQ+ community.

Since issuing the contract on Friday  which includes a list of Christian beliefs in an attached Declaration of Faith and states those who do not agree to fundamental doctrinal precepts could be excluded from the school  principal Brian Mulheran has refused to speak publicly other than releasing a statement defending the policy.

A visibly emotional Ms Grace, who on Tuesday told reporters she was the parent of a non-binary child, said the Education Department had received complaints and the actions of the college would be examined by the Non-State Schools Accreditation Board. The board meets on Thursday.
Millions of school students have returned to classrooms this week after two years of interrupted learning thanks to COVID-19.

Students in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra will be provided with free rapid antigen tests, while in other states students will need to monitor for symptoms and test if symptoms appear.

There are new rules around masks, too. Teachers will have to monitor mask use, as well as behaviour and teaching the curriculum.

There are hopes schools will, in the main, stay open, with NSW and Victoria no longer treating school and workplaces as close contacts for the purposes of contact tracing.
The Liberal, National and Labor parties have strengthened their financial positions ahead of this years federal election, with big money flowing from the resources and pharmaceutical/medical sectors.

But the source of the vast majority of funding going to political parties and campaigners is hidden from the public under existing disclosure laws, with just $17.9 million worth of individual donations declared compared with the almost $177 million received by parties.

The Coalition has strengthened its coffers ahead of the next election, last years donations figures show. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Political parties are only required to disclose details of donors who give more than $14,300. The data released on Tuesday by the Australian Electoral Commission also doesnt include any donations made since July 1.

The 2020-21 financial year figures show the Liberal and National parties attracted almost $84 million in donations and other funding, a $15 million boost on the previous year. At the same time, Labor collected $67 million, which was $12 million more than the previous year.
Kyiv: Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West on Wednesday AEDT of ignoring Russias security concerns and deliberately creating a scenario designed to lure it into war.

In his first direct public comments on the Ukraine crisis for nearly six weeks, a defiant Putin showed no sign of backing down from security demands that Western countries have called non-starters and a possible excuse to launch an invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking for first time directly on Ukraine crisis in six weeks. Credit:AP

Its already clear now ... that fundamental Russian concerns were ignored, Putin said at a news conference with the visiting Prime Minister of Hungary, one of several NATO leaders trying to intercede with him as the crisis has escalated.

Putin described a potential future scenario in which Ukraine was admitted to NATO and then attempted to recapture the Crimea peninsula, territory Russia seized in 2014.
Washington: Donald Trump has started the year with a fundraising war chest of $US122 million ($171 million), giving the former US president a significant head start should he decide to run for office again in 2024.

But Trump is also facing a widening civil investigation into his business, raising doubt about whether he will be an asset for the Republicans or a millstone around the partys neck as it heads towards the midterm elections in November.

Despite being out of the White House for more than a year, federal electoral filings show that Trump continues to dominate GOP fundraising, with the kind of cash reserves that are virtually unheard of for a former president.

Donald Trump tells a rally in Texas on Saturday that if re-elected, he would consider pardons for people charged with criminal offences in connection with the attack on the US Capitol. Credit:AP

Trumps campaign announced the haul on Monday night, local time, ahead of filing the latest takings with the Federal Election Commission. According to the data, his political committees raised more than $US51 million over the second half of last year, with more than $US122 million cash on hand in total.
ANZ has appointed Natalie Smith as general manager of retail broker, responsible for continuing to build, grow, and transform the banks retail broker business.

Smith is based in Melbourne and will commence in the role in late February. She will report to Katherine Bray, managing director of retail.

Smith, currently head of ANZs commercial bank transformation, is highly regarded for her ability to deliver large complex programs, with a strong focus on customer and banker experience.

Smith has outstanding leadership skills coupled with a deep understanding of the power of using customer relationships and data to help drive growth, Bray said. There is no doubt she will be a terrific addition to both ANZs retail and broker business, and quickly establish herself in the countrys burgeoning broker industry.

With more than 25 years of experience in the banking sector, Smith played a crucial role in building the banks specialised industry model for businesses in the health sector across Australia. She also has experience serving on ministerial advisory bodies such as the Aged Care Financing Authority.

Prior to joining ANZ, Smith held senior roles at NAB and ABN AMRO Bank, in Australia and the United States.
Lawrenceville, VA (23868)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. High around 75F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy during the evening followed by cloudy skies overnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 57F. Winds light and variable.
The children of Joseph Santos, the New Jersey man killed by a police officer while his family celebrated a birthday at Dorney Park, will receive part of a $950,000 settlement ending their lawsuit against the officer and South Whitehall Township.

According to a copy of the settlement obtained by The Morning Call through a Right-to-Know request, Santos fiancee, Juliana Valenzuela, who administered his estate, agreed to end the federal civil rights lawsuit Sept. 14. According to court documents, the money will be split between Santos two adult sons and 11-year-old daughter, with a share going to the Karoly Law Firm for fees and costs. It is one of two lawsuits against the township and police officers that concluded with settlements in September.

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Attorney Joshua Karoly said he is pleased the settlement brings closure to Santos family.

While no amount of money will bring back a loving father to his three children, hopefully, this settlement will provide some support to the family Joseph left behind, Karoly said.

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Santos, 44, of Hasbrouck Heights, was shot five times in the stomach July 18, 2018, as he walked toward police officer Jonathan Roselle on Hamilton Boulevard. Roselle had been dispatched for a report of a man interfering with traffic, and witnesses later reported Santos was banging on the windows of passing cars asking for help. He had been at Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom across the street, celebrating the birthday of Valenzuelas twin sons.

Although Roselle told dispatchers that he would wait for backup to deal with Santos, he got out of his cruiser and shot Santos, who was walking toward the officer with his hands raised. Roselles admissions to another officer who arrived shortly after the shooting that he had f--ed up, and that he didnt know what to do were captured on Roselles police body camera, which he believed was switched off, according to court documents.

Video of the shooting taken by a bystander circulated widely on the internet and drew national attention. After a state police investigation, District Attorney Jim Martin found Santos shooting was unjustified and Roselle was charged in Lehigh County Court with voluntary manslaughter. He was found not guilty after a trial in early 2020.

Valenzuela sued in U.S. District Court in July 2020 alleging Roselle and the township violated Santos constitutional rights by using excessive force and failing to provide medical assistance after he was wounded.

Last Call Daily Get top headlines from The Morning Call delivered weekday afternoons. >

Karoly said when the suit was filed that he intended to show Roselles actions were not those of a reasonable police officer and that the township was deliberately indifferent to the danger to the public caused by its lack of supervision, training and discipline in the police department.

When you get that statement that he didnt know what to do, there couldnt be more of a hit-you-in-the-face  admission than that, Karoly said.

Karoly did not return a call Tuesday. Attorney Joseph Santarone, who represented Roselle and the township, said the settlement will be paid by the police departments insurance company and the decision to end the case was made to avoid the uncertainty and risk of a trial. The settlement agreement says none of the parties admitted wrongdoing.

The plaintiff in another federal lawsuit against South Whitehall and a former police ended her lawsuit in September. The woman claimed officer Kyle Golden raped her while on duty as he assisted her after she was kicked out of a township hotel in 2019. According to court records, the woman dropped her claims against the township the same day as a judge ordered the case dismissed due to a settlement with Golden.

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The township denied a Right-to-Know request by The Morning Call for the settlement document, saying that the settlement was between the plaintiff and Golden. Although Golden was sued in his official capacity as a police officer, the township said it was not a party to the settlement and did not have the document. The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records sided with the township in an appeal.

Goldens lawyer has not previously returned calls about the case.

Morning Call reporter Peter Hall can be reached at 610-820-6581 or peter.hall@mcall.com.
Bryan, OH (43506)

Today

Cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 62F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Rain showers in the evening will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low around 50F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
: witnessed a marked drop in Covid-19 cases as 35,035 sample tests yielded 6,213 fresh infections in the 24 hours ending 9 am on Tuesday.

The daily positivity rate dipped to about 18 per cent.

The latest bulletin said 10,795 infected persons got cured while five others succumbed in the state.

The number of active cases came further down to 1,05,930, the bulletin said.

The state had reported 5,879 fresh cases on Monday.

The gross Covid-19 positives today touched 22,82,583, recoveries 21,62,033 and deaths 14,620.

In 24 hours, the highest number of 903 fresh cases came from Krishna districts and the lowest of 86 from Vizianagaram.

Guntur district registered 830, East Godavari 731, Kurnool 679, West Godavari 642 and Visakhapatnam 518 cases.

The remaining six districts added less than 500 new cases each.

Chittoor, Guntur, SPS Nellore, Prakasam and Visakhapatnam reported one fresh fatality each in a day.

(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 Tuesday termed as absurd a order making it compulsory to wear a mask while driving alone in the context of COVID-19 and asked why the decision was still prevailing.

It is a order, why don't you withdraw it. It is absurd actually. You are sitting in your own car and you must wear the mask? the bench said.

Why is this order prevailing? Take instructions, a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh told the counsel.

The observation by the bench came when the counsel representing the Delhi government shared an incident of a man being challaned for not wearing a mask while sitting in his car along with his mother and sipping coffee with windows up.

During the hearing, senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, said the high court's single judge order of April 7, 2021, which had refused to interfere with the Delhi government's decision to impose challans for not wearing a mask while driving a private car alone, was very unfortunate.

Somebody sitting in the car with rolled-up windows and being challaned for Rs 2,000. That single judge order is very unfortunate, he said, adding that when the DDMA order was passed the situation was different and now the pandemic is almost over.

When the bench reminded him that the initial order was passed by the Delhi government which was then challenged before the single judge, Mehra said be it the order of the Delhi government or Central government, it is a bad order and needs to be revisited.

When he said the division bench should set aside the order, Justice Sanghi said it can only consider the issue when the order will be brought before it.

If that order is bad why don't you withdraw it, the bench said.

The single judge's 2021 order had come while dismissing four petitions by lawyers who had challenged the imposition of challans' for not wearing a mask while driving alone in a private vehicle.

It had said that wearing a mask while driving alone in a private vehicle is compulsory in the context of COVID-19 and had described the face covering as a suraksha kavach', or protective shield, against the spread of the infection.

The lawyers, in their pleas, had contended that the District Magistrates who were vested with the powers to impose fines could not have sub-delegated the powers to others.

Disagreeing with the contention, the single judge had said that the definition of 'authorised persons' being inclusive and expansive in nature, District Magistrates were also vested with powers to further authorise any officers to issue challans.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had told the court that it has not issued any direction asking people to wear masks in a car when they are alone and that health is a state subject and the Delhi government has to decide on it.

The Delhi government had told the court that wearing masks while driving an official or personal vehicle was made compulsory through an office order in April 2020 and it remained in force.

It had also said a private vehicle was held to be a public place by the Supreme Court.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The government has announced that it is launching a guidebook to simplify and enable the adoption of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging in parking lots of shopping malls in the city, a move aimed at promoting clean energy.

The document, to be launched on February 4 by the Dialogue and Development Commission of (DDC) and World Resources Institute (WRI), India, guides shopping mall owners in understanding the importance and assessing the scope for EV charging.

It also details the processes involved for effective decision-making and sets out the way forward for the planning and implementation of EV charging stations in parking areas of the malls, the government said in a statement.

The guidebook launch event will be attended by Jasmine Shah, Vice-Chairperson, DDC Delhi, Amit Bhatt, Executive Director (Integrated Transport), WRI India and members of various shopping mall associations in .

The city government announced the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy in August 2020, with the aim to promote the adoption of in the city and to make Delhi the EV Capital of India. The policy aims to improve Delhi's air quality by driving the transition to so that they can reach 25 per cent of all new vehicle registrations by 2024.

In line with this vision, the has taken several steps, including providing subsidies on purchase of EVs, directing all commercial establishments with a parking capacity of 100 or more vehicles to reserve 5 per cent of their parking space for EVs with suitable chargers, and the launch of a single-window facility to enable the installation of EV charging points in private and semi-public spaces in the city.

The single-window facility has made the installation of EV charging points in Delhi very convenient and charging points can be installed in malls or any commercial area for as low as Rs 2,495 for slow chargers.

The government said Delhi is witnessing a rapid transition to . Between September and November 2021, EVs accounted for 9 per cent of the vehicle sales in Delhi, while the national average was 1.6 per cent.

DDC Vice Chairperson Shah said: "Under the vision set by CM Arvind Kejriwal of making Delhi the EV capital of India, the has taken many pioneering steps to promote adoption of EVs and build charging infrastructure at mass scale. By launching this step-by-step guidebook, the Delhi government aims to become the first state government in India to make shopping malls an integral part of the EV movement."



"Mall owners are crucial stakeholders in the development of Delhi, and therefore, by setting up EV charging points, malls will be contributing towards ensuring a clean and pollution-free Delhi. We want shopping malls in Delhi to set the benchmark for malls across India. Availability of EV charging infrastructure at shopping malls will go a long way in making people feel more confident to adopt EVs and will create an enabling environment for a transition towards EV," he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi government Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that its Excise Policy of 2021 will continue beyond March 2022 and there will not be any "new change" in it for the next financial year.

The statement was made before a bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Talwant Singh hearing a batch of petitions challenging the policy.

Senior counsel Parag Tripathi, appearing for one of the petitioners who is a liquor wholesaler, said there was an urgency in the matter as all will be over after March 31 with the policy coming to an end.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, informed the court that the policy came into operation on November 16 last year and the petitioner's stand with respect to the expiry of the policy was not correct.

There will be no new change now. This (policy) will continue. This change came after 30-40 years, stated the senior lawyer who further submitted that the Supreme Court also did not interfere with the implementation of the new regime at the interim stage.

The court took the Delhi government's stand on record and directed the parties to file their written submissions in the matter.

Senior advocates Tripathi and G Tushar Rao, who represented another petitioner who is a retailer, argued that the new policy facilitated monopoly and was discriminatory.

Several petitions are pending before the high court against the New Excise Policy on the ground that it is illegal, unfair, arbitrary and violative of the Delhi Excise Act, 2009.

In July, the court had refused to stay the new Excise Policy on the petition by Readymade Plaza India Pvt Ltd which contended that the new regime would lead to complete monopoly of the few big players.

The Delhi government has however defended the Excise Policy 2021, saying it would generate optimum revenue and ensure ease of doing business while eliminating cartelization, proxy players and monopoly.

In its response to the pending petitions, it has said that privatization of government liquor vends and re-distribution of all liquor vends equitably across the capital would most certainly lead to a manifold increase in free competition and overwhelm existing cartels in the market.

Asserting that the citizens of India have no fundamental right to trade in liquor, the government said that the Excise Policy 2021-22 was formulated in larger public interest and since it is a matter of economic policy, it does not warrant judicial interference.

Licence regarding home delivery of liquor has been in existence since long and would now result in less overcrowding outside the liquor store/shops, it has added.

The matter will be listed for next hearing in February.

(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 schools in from classes 1 to 12 reopened on Tuesday after being shut following the third wave of the Covid-19 infection. The state Health department has, however, issued stringent Covid protocols to be implemented in schools.

The Public Health department in a circular on Monday said that all teachers and non-teaching staff in schools must take two vaccine doses. The eligible students must also ensure that they have taken at least one dose of the Covid vaccine.

Schools and colleges are directed to adhere to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour such as wearing of masks, ensuring social distancing, washing of hands with soap water as well as sanitisation of hands regularly.

The state Health department has urged the school management to daily disinfect the campuses twice a day. Students and staff members must be screened before they enter the campus and if anyone is showing signs of fever and cold, they should be made to undergo an RT-PCR test.

Those who are undergoing the RT-PCR test must be kept in quarantine till the test results are out and if found positive must be isolated and ensure Covid protocol is followed, the Health department said.

The Health department has directed teachers and students staying in containment zones not to attend school until the Covid situation improves. Employees at higher risk, including pregnant women and older employees with comorbidities, must take extra caution while coming to schools.

Health Minister, Ma Subramanian told IANS, "The Health department has recommended the government to give the go-ahead to reopen schools as the Covid-19 cases are dipping to ensure that proper Covid protocols are followed in schools."

However, several parents are reluctant to send their children to school.

Haritha Kumari, a bank employee at Adyar, told IANS, "I have decided that my daughter will not attend classes. While school management and health department will say several things, practically we know that these won't be adhered to. Children will not wear masks and may even exchange one. My daughter is a primary class student and the school need not have opened classes at least for children from classes 1 to 5. If the government allows online classes it's well and good, otherwise also I won't send my child. She is more important than her studies."

--IANS

aal/khz/skp/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States, the world's top natural gas producer, has asked Qatar and other major producers to divert gas supplies to Europe if attacks and the United States imposes sanctions on .

Russia, which supplies around a third of Europe's gas, has amassed some 120,000 troops near its neighbour but denies plans to invade .

Any interruption of supplies because of an attack would worsen the existing crisis caused by a global shortage of oil and gas.

WHERE DOES EUROPE STAND?

Europe's natural gas supplies from are mostly delivered through pipelines and since October last year have been well below seasonal levels.

Flows in 2021 through Russia's three main pipelines to Europe totalled 37,409 gigawatt hours/day (GWh/d) Refinitiv Eikon data showed, down from 41,263 GWh/d in 2020 and 49,431 GWh/d in 2019.

European storage stocks are around 19 billion cubic metres (BCM) below their five-year seasonal average, according to Platts analytics, despite other sources of supply being close to maximised over recent months.

Platts Analytics expects that even if Russian flows continue, European stocks will be near record lows at the end of winter, leaving little scope to absorb a further supply shock.

European liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports hit a record high in January at 11.8 bcm, compared with a previous record in November 2019 of around 9 bcm. Nearly 45% of the LNG imports were from the United States.

HOW MUCH CAN QATAR HELP?

Qatar, a top LNG producer, has little spare supply as most of its output is locked into long-term contracts.

Qatar's nameplate LNG export capacity is 106 bcm. Luke Cottell at S&P Global Platts expects that to rise to only 107 bcm, capping Qatari exports.

It could produce more by deferring second-quarter maintenance, but its Asian contracts still limit its ability to supply Europe.

Traders estimate Qatar's output breaks down into 90%-95% long-term contracts and 5%-10% spot contracts.

Long-term, point-to-point contracts, such as those from Qatar to China or to Japan, could be amended to release supplies for Europe, but any Asian customers that agree would want compensation.

Industry sources and analysts expect Qatar to divert only 8%-10% of its LNG to Europe, and even this will take time as it takes longer to ship LNG from Qatar to Europe than to Asia.

Qatar plans to grow its LNG output by 40% with its North Field expansion project, but it will not produce until 2026.

CAN DESTINATION CLAUSES BE ENFORCED?

Qatar is asking the European Union to restrict resales of gas outside the continent to stop traders reselling at a profit, if it wants Qatar and other major gas suppliers to provide emergency supplies. read more

The EU sees free trade of gas as essential to security but major producers and some gas consumers say the reforms of the last two decades have led to complexity and higher prices.

Some traders also re-route Qatari gas to Asia for profit.

"Since the price rally in Europe, Italy appears to have diverted several Qatari cargoes to higher priced markets, with fourth-quarter imports from Qatar down by seven cargoes from 2020," Felix Booth, head of LNG at energy intelligence firm Vortexa, said.

Industry sources said Doha would not be able to control the final destination in return for delivering excess supply because once gas reaches Europe, any previous restrictions on its destination are not enforceable and owners can reload it on to new LNG carriers.

Morten Frisch, senior partner at Morten Frisch Consulting, said regulations in Britain and most EU countries do not prohibit the reloading of LNG cargoes to countries outside Europe.

The European Commission said on Monday it would not comment on the details of discussions with partners on gas supplies.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES IN EUROPE?

Steady flows of LNG to Europe have already pushed up utilisation of 30-day average regasification capacity - that converts super chilled LNG back to natural gas - to 75% from 51% in early January in Western and Southern Europe, Rystad Energy said.

This means Europe has limited regasification and storage capacity to absorb further flows of LNG.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
American oil and gas energy giant Exxon Mobil has announced that it will relocate its headquarters to the country's energy capital, Houston, from its current Dallas suburb Irving, saying it will enable closer teamwork to accelerate and increase value delivery.

The move is scheduled to be completed by mid-2023, the company said in a statement, becoming the largest Fortune 500 company in the metro area of .

The company said the relocation will enable closer teamwork to accelerate and increase value delivery.

"We greatly value our long history in Irving and appreciate the strong ties we have developed in the North Texas community," said Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer.

"Closer collaboration and the new streamlined business model will enable the company to grow shareholder value and position ExxonMobil for success through the energy transition," Woods said.

The arrival of Exxon's top brass and over 250 workers will further bolster Houston's standing as the nation's energy capital, attracting more energy investment and corporate relocations to the region, area leaders said.

Exxon is the world's largest public oil company with some 72,000 employees.

In response to the announcement, Mayor Sylvester Turner said that the move will bring a strong workforce and wealth of resources.

Exxon Mobil's move further solidifies Houston's position as the Energy Capital of the World.

Exxon Mobil is a key participant in our Energy Transition Initiative, and we look forward to working with the company as we continue to position Houston to lead the energy transition to a low-carbon future, said Bob Harvey, CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, the city's economic development group.

"We are excited and looking forward to the opportunities. This move is bound to further strengthen business ties between India and energy capital of the world' Houston," said Jagdip Ahluwalia, founding secretary/executive director, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston (IACCGH).

The US and India announced the Strategic Energy Partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in June 2017 which has emerged as a cornerstone of expanding bilateral ties.

India is among the top five largest markets for the US crude oil and the US liquefied natural gas. Indian firms have concluded several contracts for sourcing crude from the United States and are expanding their investments in the US energy sector.

ExxonMobil said it is transforming its business structure to be organised along three lines effective April 1 - ExxonMobil Upstream Company, ExxonMobil Product Solutions and ExxonMobil Low Carbon solutions.

ExxonMobil said it is on track to save more than USD 6 billion in structural costs by 2023 by combining chemical and downstream business and centralising technology and engineering services.

Exxon becomes the 25th Fortune 500 company to call Houston home, and its relocation marks the third Fortune 500 headquarters move to the Houston area in as many years after HP relocated to Houston from San Jose in 2020 and NRG Energy relocated from Princeton in 2021.

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Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has said that will strengthen its ties with the Palestinian Authority despite no intention to negotiate a peace deal with it.

The remarks were made at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, in response to a no-confidence motion over Gantz's meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in recent months, Xinhua news agency reported.

Although the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will not negotiate a peace deal with the Palestinian leadership, "must keep a diplomatic horizon" with the Palestinians and the ties with the Palestinian leadership "will get stronger and deeper," Gantz told the parliament.

Coordination and frequent talks between and the Palestinians "are critical for our security, for the future of our children and how our state will look," he said.

"The years-long weakening of the Palestinian Authority ... has strengthened Hamas and hurt Israel's security," the Israeli minister added. The Palestinian militant group Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority forces from the Gaza Strip in 2007 and has since controlled and ruled the coastal enclave.

In late December of 2021, Gantz and Abbas met at Gantz's home in the city of Rosh Ha'Ayin in central Israel to discuss economic and security issues. A day later, Israel made a series of gestures to improve relations with the Palestinian Authority, including the transfer of 100 million new shekels' ($31.5 million) worth of tax payments that Israel has been collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

Gantz and Abbas first met on August 30, 2021, in the first face-to-face meeting between the Palestinian president and a senior Israeli official since 2010.

Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war and kept its control over the territory despite criticism.

--IANS

int/shs

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Multiple historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the US received bomb threats, according to media reports.

On Monday, the police responded to Maryland's Bowie State University, Washington, D.C.'s Howard University, and at least four other HBCUs around the country for bomb threats, reports Xinhua news agency.

Bowie State University tweeted it will be closed temporarily on Monday "due to a bomb threat on campus", adding that employees will work remotely while classes will be virtual.

Campus police reportedly responded to a bomb threat made by phone to Howard University at around 4.30 a.m. Monday.

No threats were found and an all-clear was given later.

It is the second time this month that a number of HBCUs received bomb threats that in some cases led schools to relocate students, faculty and staff while searches were performed.

On January 5, at least three HBCUs, including Howard University, received bomb threats.

Nothing was found on any of the campuses that received threats, university officials said.

HBCUs are institutions of higher education founded to educate African-American students.

In the 19th century, when many colleges and universities in the US refused to admit African-American applicants, HBCUs offered them a route to higher education.

--IANS

ksk/

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With the goal of empowering workers across the state, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry has launched a list of employers that violate state labor and workplace safety laws.

Jennifer Berrier, secretary of the Department of Labor & Industry, visited the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 375 building in Allentown on Monday to announce the launch of the Worker Protection and Labor Law Non-Compliance List. Berrier was joined by members of IBEW Local 375 and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 542 as well as state Rep. Jeanne McNeill, Lehigh County Commissioner Geoff Brace and Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk.

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This is for all organizations regardless of the business they do  we are holding everyone equally at task, Berrier said.

Created by Governor Tom Wolfs Worker Protection and Investment Executive Order, the online list will be updated weekly and identify businesses that have violated various worker-centered laws, including those pertaining to labor, workers compensation and unemployment compensation. Wolf had previously talked about the list when he visited IBEW Local 375 in November as part of a statewide tour where he discussed his plans for workers.

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Berrier said workers nationally have more power than ever, with more open job positions than there are unemployed people. The primary goal of the list is to further empower Pennsylvanias workers and allow them to be more selective when looking for their next employer.

If youre applying for a job with an organization thats on this list, maybe you want to think twice, because if theyre not upholding their legal responsibilities, how do you know youre working for an employer whos looking out for you? Berrier said.

Organizations end up on the list if the departments administrative adjudication process concludes a violation has occurred and that organization has repeatedly failed to meet its obligations under the law, Berrier said.

Last Call Daily Get top headlines from The Morning Call delivered weekday afternoons. >

The first list, uploaded Monday, names 11,800 businesses, which is about 4% of all Pennsylvania businesses, Berrier said. Included on the list are a large number of Lehigh Valley businesses, with nearly all violations related to the states unemployment compensation law. Statewide, Allentown had the fourth-highest number of businesses that violated unemployment compensation laws with 168. Bethlehem had 76 businesses in violation of unemployment compensation laws and Easton had 49.

Depending on the type of violations, employers listed will be removed if they:

Pay off outstanding liens, fines or fees.

Enter bankruptcy proceedings.

Enter an approved payment plan with the state.

Pay owed back wages in full to employees.

Make restitution payments as ordered.

Provide proof of workers compensation coverage or proof of exemption from workers compensation coverage.

Berrier said inclusion on the list will not prevent contractors or employers from applying for state contracts or grants.

Though theres not any statutory teeth for agencies to decide they dont want to contract with these individuals, it puts it on agencys awareness so they know who they are doing business with, Berrier said.

James Reilley, president of IUOE Local 542, said the list is a start.

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There are billions of federal infrastructure dollars and aid thats coming to Pennsylvania, Reilley said. The legislature needs to pass laws that will end the waste, tax insurance fraud and abuse by a few bad actors so that Pennsylvania workers and taxpayers will receive the most benefits from that infrastructure funding.

Morning Call reporter Leif Greiss can be reached at 610-679-4028 or lgreiss@mcall.com.
Oil slipped on Tuesday from seven-year highs, with prices pressured by speculation that producer group OPEC+ could decide to boost supply by more than flagged previously as well as expectations of a rise in U.S. inventories.

While the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, together known as OPEC+, has been expected to maintain its policy of gradual production increases at a meeting on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs said there was a chance of further steps.

"We view growing potential for a faster ramp-up at this meeting, given the pace of the recent rally and the likely pressure from importing nations," the bank said in a Jan. 31 report, adding that expectations remained "evenly balanced" between an accelerated response and a status quo increase.

Brent crude was down 63 cents, or 0.7%, at $88.63 a barrel by 1430 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 55 cents, or 0.6%, to $87.60.

Oil was also pressured by expectations that this week's U.S. supply reports will show an increase in crude stockpiles. Analysts expect stocks to have risen by 1.8 million barrels.

The first of this week's two supply reports, from the American Petroleum Institute, is out at 2130 GMT. [EIA/S]

Brent and U.S. crude had hit their highest prices since October 2014 on Friday, at $91.70 and $88.84 respectively. They gained about 17% in January on a supply shortage, political tensions in the Middle East and between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

undershot its promised output boost in January, a Reuters survey found, and the rally was expected by other analysts to persist. [OPEC/O]

"The oil market is currently unreservedly bullish," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. "It is tension, the perception of tight supply and the cold winter that are the most important factors behind the strength."

Rising differentials in the physical crude market imply concern about tight supply, Varga said. One of the North Sea crudes that underpins Brent, Ekofisk, was bid on Monday at its highest in more than a decade.

(Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Gavin MaguireEditing by David Goodman)

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Over 3.5 million child Covid-19 cases were reported in the US in January, marking "a dramatic spike" during the Omicron variant surge, according to a new report.

The report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association released on Monday said that more than 11.4 million children in the country have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.

Nearly two million of these cases have been added in the past two weeks.

For the week ending January 27, over 808,000 additional child Covid-19 cases were reported in the country, said the AAP, adding child cases this week remained "extremely high", triple the peak level of the Delta surge in 2021.

This marked the 25th week in a row child Covid-19 cases in the US were above 100,000.

Since the first week of September 2021, there have been almost 6.4 million additional child cases, according to the AAP.

--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.)
US President met Emir of Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani on Monday where they reaffirmed their mutual interest in promoting security and prosperity in the Gulf and broader region.

Both sides ensured the stability of global energy supplies, supporting the people of Afghanistan, and strengthening commercial and investment cooperation said White House in a statement.

The President and the Emir welcomed the signing of a USD 20 billion deal between Boeing and Airways Group, which will support tens of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

In recognition of the strategic partnership between the United States and Qatar, which has deepened over the past 50 years, the President informed the Emir of his intention to designate as a Major Non-NATO Ally.

(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 South African government has relaxed isolation rules for asymptomatic COVID-19 positive people and removed the one-meter social distancing requirements at schools, as the country exits its fourth wave of the .

Announcing the changes on Monday evening, the Presidency said in a statement that the Cabinet had approved the changes to the Adjusted Alert Level 1 COVID-19 regulations after receiving updates on the management of COVID-19 in from both the National Command Council (NCCC) and the President's Coordinating Council (PCC).

remained at the lowest Level one of its five-level lockdown strategy during the fourth wave, which was largely driven by the new Omicron variant during its peak holiday season in December and January.

The discovery of the Omicron variant was first announced by in November, causing irreparable harm to the country as over 20 countries announced travel bans overnight in what President Cyril Ramaphosa had called a knee-jerk reaction.

The ban cost South Africa millions of rands in revenue from tourists in its peak summer season.

"The information gathered through the system used by the Department of Health has reported that South Africa has exited the fourth wave nationally, the statement said, adding that the decisions would be implemented with immediate effect based on the trajectory of the pandemic and the levels of vaccination in the country.

The amendments no longer require those who test positive but have no symptoms to isolate. Where there are symptoms after testing, the isolation period has been reduced from 10 to seven days.

Contacts do not have to isolate unless they develop symptoms.

"The rationale for these amendments is informed by the proportion of people with immunity to COVID-19 which has risen substantially, exceeding 60-80 per cent in several sero-surveys, the Presidency said.

that have been under strain for the past two years to implement social distancing regulations have also heaved a sigh of relief.

At some schools, learners were attending classes on alternate days as not all learners enrolled could be accommodated at the same time.

Primary, secondary and special will return to daily attendance. The regulatory provision for social distancing of one metre for learners in has also been removed, the Presidency said as it called on citizens to maintain the protocols of masks and social distancing in public.

The statement also appealed again to those who have not been vaccinated yet to do so urgently.

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Amid the military's move to build fencing along the Durand Line, the on Monday formed a joint ministerial committee to address the problems.

The decision for the formation of the joint committee comprised of several ministries was made in a meeting chaired by the Second Deputy of Prime Minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, reported Tolo News.

"The objective of the joint committee is to resolve the problems along the Durand Line and address the security issues that may potentially occur in the future--or have already happened in the past--these issues should be solved via understanding," said Inamullah Samangani, deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.

The move comes after the visit of Pakistan's National Security Advisor (NSA) Moeed Yusuf visit to Kabul, reported Tolo News.

A delegation led by NSA Yusuf returned to Islamabad on Sunday evening after holding talks with several officials of the Islamic Emirate in a two-day visit.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the objective of the visit was to discuss Pakistan's proposals for deepening economic engagement, reported Tolo News.

"During the visit, Pakistan offered capacity-building and training support in multiple sectors including Health, Education, Banking, Customs, Railways and Aviation, among others. Both sides also reiterated their commitment to early completion of the three major connectivity projects, CASA- 1000, TAPI, and Trans-Afghan Rail project," the statement read.

"We should have established a committee that works on the removal of fencing. This is an issue that will not be solved via the formation of joint committee. This issue belongs to the decision of Afghans on both sides of the Durand Line," said Ahmad Khan Andar, a political analyst.

Earlier, a video circulating on social media showed the forces of the Islamic Emirate engaged in a dispute with Pakistani militias over the fencing of the Durand Line.

The Durand Line, the border between and Pakistan is named after a British colonel from the 1890s. Albeit Pakistan and the community recognize the Durand Line, has always denied accepting it formally.

(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 United States and Britain are prepared to punish Russian elites close to President with asset freezes and travel bans if enters Ukraine, Washington and London said on Monday as tensions also spilled over at the United Nations.

Britain urged Putin to "step back from the brink" after the Russian build-up of troops near stoked fears of war, and warned any incursion would trigger sanctions against companies and people close to the Kremlin.

"The individuals we have identified are in or near the inner circles of the Kremlin and play a role in government decision making or are at a minimum complicit in the Kremlin's destabilizing behavior," White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said planned legislation will give London new powers to target companies linked to the Russian state.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the British warning "very disturbing," saying it made Britain less attractive to investors and would hurt British companies.

"An attack by a given country on Russian business implies retaliatory measures, and these measures will be formulated based on our interests if necessary," Peskov said.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, London has become the haven of choice for a river of money from and other former Soviet republics. Transparency advocates have long called on Britain to be tougher about illicit financial flows.

PUBLIC FACE-OFF

Tensions between and the United States were on display at the United Nations Security Council on Monday where the U.S.-requested meeting on Moscow's troop build-up allowed for a public face-off over the crisis.

Russia's U.N. ambassador said there was "no proof" Moscow was planning military action and that Russia had never confirmed the West's assertion that it had amassed 100,000 troops near its neighbor.

Vassily Nebenzia said U.S. talk of war was "provocative," that Russia frequently deployed troops in its own territory, and that Ukraine's crisis was a domestic issue.

"The provocation's from Russia, not from us or other members of this council," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

China urged all parties to not aggravate the situation and said it did not view Russia's troops near the border as a threat.

Although Russia, which seized Crimea from in 2014 and backs pro-Russian rebels fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine, denies planning further incursion, it is demanding sweeping security guarantees including a promise NATO never admit .





It sent a follow-up to a written proposal made by the United States last week, according to the State Department. Washington did not comment on Monday on the content of the response, saying "it would be unproductive to negotiate in public."

Meanwhile, leaders are continuing their diplomatic push with phone calls and meetings to try to defuse the situation.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set travel to Ukraine on Tuesday to meet with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

On a call between French President Emmanuel Macron and Putin, the pair said they wanted to maintain a dialogue on implementing the Minsk agreements regarding Donbass, a region of eastern Ukraine where Moscow has backed separatist fighters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to speak by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, a State Department spokesperson said.

RUSSIAN MONEY ABROAD

Opponents of Putin have long urged the West to clamp down on Russian money, though oligarchs and Russian officials continue to flaunt wealth at Europe's most luxurious destinations.

"Putin's cronies will no longer be able to use their spouses or other family members as proxies to evade sanctions," said a senior Biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Sanctions would cut them off from the financial system and ensure that they and their family members will no longer able to enjoy the perks of parking their money in the West and attending elite Western universities."

Britain has already imposed sanctions on about 180 people and 48 entities since Russia annexed Crimea, including six people it says are close to Putin. The sanctions allow Britain to bar people from entering and to freeze their assets.

The European Union, many of whose members are in NATO, has also threatened "strong political consequences and massive economic costs" for Russia over any new incursion into Ukraine.

Some NATO countries, including the United States and Britain, have sent arms to Ukraine, although they have ruled out sending troops there to fight.

Poland said it had offered neighboring Ukraine tens of thousands of munitions, and was awaiting a reply. The White House on Monday accused Russia of surging troops into Belarus, which is hosting Russian drills and borders both Poland and Ukraine.

Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies weakens the West's hand, and the United States has asked top gas producer Qatar and other major exporters to study whether they can supply more to Europe.

U.S. President Joe Biden met with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Monday at the Oval Office and said he planned to designate the Middle Eastern nation a major non-NATO ally.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The key benchmark indices are likely to start trade on a buoyant note on hopes of a growth-oriented Union Budget, and as also world bounced back from last weeks sell-off. As of 07:30 AM, the SGX Nifty futures quoted at 17,510 indicating a likely gap-up of 150 points on the NSE benchmark index. Meanwhile, here are the top for trade on Tuesday.

Earnings Watch: Adani Ports, Indian Hotels, Indoco Remedies, Neuland Laboratories, Simplex Mills, Sona BLW Precision Forgings, Sutlej Textiles, Tech Mahindra, Triveni Turbine, TTK Prestige and VIP Industries are some of the companies to announce December quarter results today.

Tata Steel: Tata Steel Long Products (TSLP), part of Tata group, bagged a majority stake in Neelachal Ispat Nigam (NINL), giving a strong push to the governments privatisation drive, at an enterprise value of Rs 12,100 crore. Tata Steel owns a 74.91 per cent stake in TSLP. READ MORE



Tata Motors: The auto major pared its consolidated loss on a quarter-on-quarter basis in the September-December 2021 as better availability of semiconductors helped Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) ramp up production, the company said on Monday. The Tata group flagship reported a net loss of Rs 1,451 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2021. This is narrower when compared with a Rs 4,415-crore net loss in the September quarter. Meanwhile, JLRs order book hit a record of 155,000 units, up 30,000 sequentially. READ MORE



The countrys largest pharma company posted a 11 per cent YoY rise in consolidated revenues to Rs 9,814.2 crore in Q3FY22, riding on strong growth in its key  India and the US. The US market contributed 30 per cent to Sun Pharmas overall turnover. READ MORE Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) reported 48 per cent YoY spurt in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,805.09 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2021. Revenue from operations surged 35 per cent YoY to Rs 117,702.59 crore. READ MORE Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) reported a 63 per cent YoY decline in third quarter net profit as it booked inventory losses. Net profit in October-December stood at Rs 869 crore when compared with Rs 2,355 crore for the same period a year ago. Sales rose 33.7 per cent YoY to Rs 1,03,080 crore. READ MORE Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) reported a 19 per cent YoY growth in third quarter net profit at Rs 5,860.80 crore as the rise in refining margins negated the fall in marketing margins for keeping petrol and diesel prices unchanged despite rise in cost. Revenue from operations rose by 34.7 per cent YoY to Rs 1.98 lakh crore. READ MORE Realty major saw its net profit fall 16 per cent YoY to Rs 379 crore in Q3FY22 from Rs 451 crore in Q3FY21. The companys revenue from operations, however, stayed flat at Rs 1,550 crore. The slip in profit was on account of an exceptional item related to an investee company defaulting on a debt obligation of Rs 224 crore. READ MORE The company has scheduled its board meeting on February 03 to consider the proposal for raising funds by way of preferential placement/ preferential issue of securities.

KEC International: The company reported 35.2 per cent YoY decline in consolidated net at Rs 94 crore for the quarter ended December 2021 as against Rs 145 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income was up marginally at Rs 3,340 crore from Rs 3,289 crore.

Adani Total Gas: After winning a bid to supply gas to 14 additional cities, Adani Total Gas on Monday said it would invest Rs 20,000 crore in the city gas sector in the next eight years. The company is now the largest city gas distributor catering to 52 areas. READ MORE



UPL: Agro-chemical firm UPL reported 24.89 per cent YoY growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,179 crore for December quarter 2021-22. Revenue from operations grew 23.78 per cent YoY to Rs 11,297 crore. READ MORE



Venus Remedies: The companys Q3FY22 net profit dropped 51.5 per cent to Rs 5.65 crore when compared with Rs 11.66 crore in Q3FY21. Total income grew marginally to Rs 125.56 crore from Rs 123.77 crore.

GIC Housing Finance: The company posted a 25.5 per cent YoY rise in Q3 net at Rs 76.53 crore for the quarter ended December 2021 as against Rs 60.98 crore in a year ago period. Total income, however, was down 6 per cent YoY to Rs 292.98 crore.
Shares of Motors on Tuesday declined nearly 4 per cent after the company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,451.05 crore for the third quarter ended December 2021.

The stock fell 3.66 per cent to Rs 498.55 on the BSE.

On the NSE, it dropped 3.68 per cent to Rs 498.65.

On Monday, Motors reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,451.05 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2021, dragged down by the impact of semiconductor shortage on its British arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,941.48 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Its consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 72,229.29 crore in the third quarter as against Rs 75,653.79 crore in the year-ago quarter, it added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The issue received bids for 212.87 crore shares as against 12.25 crore shares on offer.

The initial public offer (IPO) of Adani Wilmar received bids for 212,87,80,550 shares as against 12,25,46,150 shares on offer. The issue was subscribed 17.37 times.

The non-institutional investors (NII) category was subscribed 56.30 times. The qualified institutional buyers category was subscribed 5.73 times. The retail investors category was subscribed 3.92 times.

The issue opened for bidding on 27 January 2022 and it closed on 31 January 2022. The price band of the IPO was fixed at Rs 218-230.

The IPO comprised of fresh issue of equity shares worth up to Rs 3600 crore. The objectives for the fresh issue are capital expenditure of Rs 1900 crore, repayment or prepayment of outstanding borrowings for Rs 1058.9 crore, funding strategic acquisitions and investments for Rs 450 crore and general corporate purposes.

Ahead of the IPO, Adani Wilmar on 25 January 2022, finalized allocation of 4,08,65,217 equity shares to anchor investors at an allocation price of Rs 230 per share, aggregating to Rs 939.89 crore.

Adani Wilmar is among a few large FMCG food companies in India to offer most of the essential kitchen commodities for Indian consumers, including edible oil, wheat flour, rice, pulses, and sugar. The company's products are offered under a diverse range of brands across a broad price spectrum and cater to different customer groups. Essential commodities, such as edible oils, wheat flour, rice, pulses and sugar, account for approximately 66% of the spend on essential kitchen commodities in India.

The company has 22 plants are strategically located across 10 states in India, comprising 10 crushing units and 19 refineries with an aggregate designed capacity of 8,525 MT per day and 16,285 MT per day, respectively, as of September 30, 2021. Out of the 19 refineries, ten are port-based to facilitate use of imported crude edible oil and reduce transportation costs, while the remaining are typically located in the hinterland in proximity to raw material production bases to reduce storage costs. The company's refinery in Mundra is the one of the largest single location refineries in India with a designed capacity of 5,000 MT per day. In addition to the 22 plants it owns, it also used 36 leased tolling units as of September 30, 2021, which provided with additional manufacturing capacities.

The company intends to further expand its distribution network with an omni-channel approach. It aims to expand its online reach in India from current 25 cities to 100 cities in the next few years. It also aims to have more than 40 Fortune Mart stores opened across India in the next few years.

Adani Wilmar reported a net profit of Rs 357.13 crore on sales of Rs 24,874.52 crore in six month ended September 2021.

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Auto stocks: Auto stocks will be in focus as auto companies will start announcing monthly sales numbers for January starting from today, 1 February 2022.

Tata Motors: The auto major's consolidated net loss stood at Rs 1,451.05 crore in Q3 FY22 as against a net profit of Rs 2,941.48 crore posted in Q3 FY21. Consolidated total revenue from operations fell 4.52% to Rs 72,229.29 crore in Q3 FY22 from Rs 75,653.79 crore posted in Q2 FY21.

NTPC: NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), a wholly owned subsidiary of NTPC has acquired 5% stake in Power Exchange of India (PXIL).

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL): The company reported consolidated net profit of Rs 2805.09 crore in Q3FY22 against Rs 1900.63 crore in Q3FY21. Total income increased to Rs 118291.14 crore from Rs 88027.16 crore.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL): The company reported consolidated net profit of Rs 1352.99 crore in Q3FY22 against Rs 2373.71 crore in Q3FY21. Total income increased to Rs 103966.50 crore from Rs 78324.98 crore.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL): The company reported consolidated net profit of Rs 6261.40 crore in Q3FY22 against Rs 4102.37 crore in Q3FY21. Total income increased to Rs 200518.48 crore from Rs 148643.26 crore.

DLF: The realty major reported consolidated net profit of Rs 379.49 crore in Q3FY22 against Rs 449 crore in Q3FY21. Total income increased to Rs 1686.92 crore from Rs 1668.22 crore YoY.

Tata Steel Long Products: Tata Steel Long Products said that it has been identified as the winner of the bidding process to acquire a 93.71% equity stake in Neelachal Ispat Nigam (NINL).

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The list of problems worsened by the pandemic is long.

It swamped our antiquated and fraud-susceptible unemployment system. It burned out workers in already understaffed hospitals and nursing homes. It crushed vulnerable families. It broke weak links in supply chains.

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State officials rushed to correct many of those problems, throwing a lot of money and resources at them.

So when will they recognize how badly the pandemic has exacerbated the problem of cybercharter school funding and do something about that?

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Enrollment at cybercharters in Pennsylvania skyrocketed during the pandemic. The bloated costs to school districts and taxpayers now is nearly $1 billion a year.

Lawmakers are derelict in their duties if they cant see how ridiculous the funding formula is for cybercharter schools.

Under state law, they are paid at the same rate per student as traditional charter schools.

But cybercharters dont have the same buildings, supplies and infrastructure to pay for. They also can have fewer teachers, lowering personnel costs.

In total, their costs are about 25% to 30% less than brick-and-mortar charters, according to various research. A study by Education Voters of Pennsylvania estimated cybercharters are overpaid $250 million annually.

How can that possibly be justified? Its such a waste of our limited education dollars.

And its only getting worse.

Enrollment in Pennsylvanias 14 cybercharters grew 59% from 2020 to 2021, from 38,300 students to nearly 61,000. Thats according to a report last month from Children First, a progressive-leaning childrens advocacy organization in Philadelphia.

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Pennsylvania has become the cybercharter capital of the nation, according to the report, with more full-time cybercharter students than any other state.

With the jump in enrollment, the bill to taxpayers was an estimated $980 million last school year, 40% more than the previous year.

The return on taxpayers investment hasnt been great, the Children First report notes.

All 14 cybercharters scored below the state average on the 2018-19 English and math assessments. And all were flagged as needing support under the states School Improvement and Accountability plan.

As Ive written before, reforming cybercharter school funding is the obvious starting point for reforming the charter school system in Pennsylvania.

Gov. Tom Wolf repeatedly pleaded with legislators to fix the system. His calls were ignored. Instead, the Republican-controlled Legislature doubled down on its support for nontraditional schools, including more tax breaks for funding private schools.

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[ Paul Muschick: Why we should blow up Pennsylvania charter school system and start over ]

Fixing the cybercharter school problem is simple. Just come up with a funding formula thats in line with their actual costs. And make it universal.

School districts now pay different rates, based on what it costs them to educate their students.

Last year, a cybercharter would have received $10,183 for a student in Upper Darby and more than twice as much, $22,322, for a New Hope-Solebury student, according to Children First.

The report notes how the price inequity creates incentives for cybercharters to advertise and recruit in districts with higher tuition rates.

Legislation pending in the state House and Senate would set a statewide cybercharter tuition rate, $9,457. Tuition would be higher for special education students.

That amount still seems generous, as some school districts are running their own cyberschools with per-pupil costs of $5,000 or less.

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But it would be a starting point for discussions  if legislative leaders allow discussion to occur. Both bills have been stuck in committee for nearly a year, with no sign they ever will emerge.

The House bill has 75 co-sponsors, including 14 Republicans. Thats a start toward bipartisan support.

If other GOP lawmakers need inspiration, they should be comforted knowing that even some within the charter school industry agree on the need to fund cybercharters differently.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and education advocacy group 50CAN have called for funding based on actual costs of educating virtual students.

Children First made other recommendations in its report, too. I agree with a few.

With many school districts having their own cyber schools now, they shouldnt have to pay for their students to attend a cybercharter. If students want an online education, they should take it from their home district if its offered.

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I disagree with another recommendation from Children First  to adopt a pay-for-performance system for cybercharters, tying pay to students completion or mastery of courses.

That isnt the answer.

Funding isnt withheld from traditional public schools when students dont succeed. Funding for cybercharters shouldnt be tied to performance, either.

But its not unreasonable to reduce their funding to reflect their lower expenses.

Taxpayers shouldnt have to live with this costly side effect of the pandemic, for which there is no cure.

Morning Call columnist Paul Muschick can be reached at 610-820-6582 or paul.muschick@mcall.com

[ Enough about charter schools and racism. Heres what we should be discussing. ]
The two-wheeler maker's total vehicle sales declined 15% to 3,63,443 units in January 2022 over January 2021.

Sequentially, total vehicle sales rose 0.27% in January 2022 over December 2021.

The company's total domestic sales declined 12% while total exports fell 16% year-on-year last month.

Bajaj Auto's total two-wheeler sales fell 16% to 3,23,430 units while total commercial vehicles sales fell 1% to 40,013 units in January 2022 over January 2021.

On a consolidated basis, the auto maker's net profit declined 16.70% to Rs 1429.68 crore on 0.86% rise in net sales to Rs 8805.50 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Q3 December 2020.

Bajaj Auto is ranked as the world's fourth largest three and two wheeler manufacturer and the Bajaj brand is well-known across several countries in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, South and South East Asia.

Shares of Bajaj Auto fell 0.34% to Rs 3542.75 on the BSE.

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Bharat Forge Ltd is quoting at Rs 750.25, up 2.07% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 15.71% in last one year as compared to a 19.95% spurt in NIFTY and a 9.33% spurt in the Nifty Auto index.

Bharat Forge Ltd gained for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 750.25, up 2.07% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 1.33% on the day, quoting at 17570.4. The Sensex is at 58819.36, up 1.39%. Bharat Forge Ltd has risen around 5.54% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Auto index of which Bharat Forge Ltd is a constituent, has risen around 4.65% in last one month and is currently quoting at 11703.5, down 0.62% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 4.25 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 12.54 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark February futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 750.55, up 1.67% on the day. Bharat Forge Ltd is up 15.71% in last one year as compared to a 19.95% spurt in NIFTY and a 9.33% spurt in the Nifty Auto index.

The PE of the stock is 41.43 based on TTM earnings ending September 21.

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The state-run coal major's offtake stood at 60.8 million tonnes (MT) in January 2022, growing 13.6% as compared with 53.6 MT recorded in the same month last year.

The company's coal production rose 6.7% to 64.5 million tonnes (MT) in January 2022 from 60.4 MT in January 2021.

On a sequential basis, the production jumped 7.14% while offtake rose 0.16% in January 2022 as compared to December 2021.

Coal India (CIL) supplies to coal fired power plants of the country, enabling the company to reach 441.4 mlllion tonnes (MTs) during April-January of FY22. This is a volume increase of 83 MT, representing 23% growth as compared to 358.20 MT despatch of corresponding period last year.

As per the company's press release, CIL's current coal despatch trend to power sector indicated that, by the closure of FY22,the company shall surpass the previous high of 491 MT supplied to thermal power plants in FY19. CIL also aims to overtake the ongoing fiscal's off-take target of 548 MTs to power sector.

During the referred period, the company supplied around 80 MT more coal to all its customers as the tatal off-take evinced a steep increase to 542.4 MT, registering 17% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth. Total off-take during same period last year was at 463 MT.

CIL produced 478 MT of coal till January 2022 of the current financial year, which is a 25 MT jump as against 453 MT during same period last year, posting 5.5% Y-o-Y growth.

On a consolidated basis, the PSU coal major's net profit fell 0.6% to Rs 2,932.73 crore on 9.3% increase in net sales to Rs 21,292.50 crore in Q2 FY22 over Q2 FY21.

Coal India is a coal mining company engaged in the production and sale of coal. As of 31 December 2021, the Government of India held 66.13% stake while Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India held 11.01% stake in the company.

Shares of Coal India advanced 2.13% to end at Rs 163.15 on BSE.

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After a gap-up opening, the key benchmark indices are trading with strong gains in early trade ahead of the Union Budget 2022. The Nifty is trading above the key 17,500 mark.

At 9:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 644.15 points or 1.11% at 58,658.27. The Nifty 50 index advanced 173.5 points or 1% at 17,513.90.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.66% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.99%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,884 shares rose and 701 shares fell. A total of 72 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 3,624.48 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 3,648.65 crore in the Indian equity market on 31 January, provisional data showed.

Union Budget:

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for the Financial Year 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha at 11:00 am today. The copy of the Budget will be laid on the Table of the Rajya Sabha soon thereafter.

This is the fourth budget to be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament. For the Budget-2022-23, the Finance Minister had held several pre-budget consultation meetings with stakeholder groups including economists, agriculture and agro processing industry, trade union and labour organizations, financial sector and capital markets, industry, services and trade, social sector, infrastructure and climate change sector. Sitharaman had also held pre-budget consultation with finance ministers of states and union territories for the budget.

GST Collection for January 2022:

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of January, 2022 is Rs 1,38,394 crore. Of which CGST is Rs 24,674 crore, SGST is over Rs 32,000 crore, IGST is over Rs 72,030 crore and cess is Rs 9,674 crore. Finance Ministry said the highest monthly GST collection has been Rs 1,39,708 crore in April 2021.

The revenues for the month of January this year is 15% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. The Ministry has expected that the positive trend in the revenues will continue in the coming months as well.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Tata Motors declined 3.21%. The auto major's consolidated net loss stood at Rs 1,451.05 crore in Q3 FY22 as against a net profit of Rs 2,941.48 crore posted in Q3 FY21. Consolidated total revenue from operations fell 4.52% to Rs 72,229.29 crore in Q3 FY22 from Rs 75,653.79 crore posted in Q2 FY21.

DLF fell 0.42%. The realty major reported consolidated net profit of Rs 379.49 crore in Q3FY22 against Rs 449 crore in Q3FY21. Total income increased to Rs 1686.92 crore from Rs 1668.22 crore YoY.

NTPC rose 0.6%. NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), a wholly owned subsidiary of the company announced that it acquired 5% stake in Power Exchange of India (PXIL).

Global markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading higher on Tuesday, tracking stocks on Wall Street as they surged for a second session. Markets in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore are closed for a holiday.

US stocks surged for a second day Monday to wrap up a rough January, as investors snapped up some of the tech shares that have been battered all month.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Parliament today, 1 February 2022. The Budget is going paperless this year again with the government concerned about safety issues posed by the spread of the new variant of the coronavirus.

The goods and services tax (GST) collection crossed the Rs 1.30 lakh crore-mark for the fourth time as the government collected Rs 1,38,394 crore in gross GST revenue for January 2022, the finance ministry said on January 31. Revenues for January 2022 were 15% higher than GST revenues in the same month last year and 25% higher than the GST revenues in January 2020, the ministry said.

SGX Nifty:

Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could surge 156 points at the opening bell.

Global markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading higher on Tuesday, tracking stocks on Wall Street as they surged for a second session. Markets in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore are closed for a holiday.

US stocks surged for a second day Monday to wrap up a rough January, as investors snapped up some of the tech shares that have been battered all month.

Domestic markets:

Back home, benchmark indices ended with strong gains on Monday, tracking positive global cues. The S&P BSE Sensex, surged 813.94 points or 1.42% at 58,014.11. The Nifty 50 index soared 237.9 points or 1.39% at 17,339.25.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 3,624.48 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 3,648.65 crore in the Indian equity market on 31 January, provisional data showed.

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When Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi got a note within the first 10 minutes of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamans Budget speech, he thought a bit. Then he conferred briefly with his colleague, minister of state, Arjun Meghwal.

More whispered consultations with Bharatiya Janata Party whip in the Lok Sabha, Rakesh Singh followed. Singh scurried to clusters of BJP MPs sitting in the middle of the Treasury benches. What it was all about was clear a few minutes later when the volume of applause from the Treasury benches suddenly increased. Unaccountably, the biggest applause was reserved for the finance ministers announcement that a new task force that will look at ways to build domestic capacity and also to serve the global demand in the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector. The announcement of a tax on cryptocurrency also elicited loud applause although many, like Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Ritesh Pandey (Ambedkarnagar), who has been educated at Welhams and later the European Business School, London, looked disappointed and met the announcement with a crestfallen smile.

The finance minister was a model of tranquility and calm while presenting the Budget, unlike past occasions, and received warm accolades from both Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister . Her decision to read a truncated version of a Mahabharat verse met with sarcastic remarks from Dayanidhi Maran (Chennai Central), commenting the Budget was for Hindi and UP. Similar comments were made when Sitharaman announced facilities for GIFT City, that the Budget was for Gujarat, not India. Interestingly, the finance minister demonstrated she was woke when she referred consistently to the assessee as she: There will be a trust reposed in the taxpayers that will enable the assessee herself to declare the income that she may have missed out earlier while filing her return.

But a surprise was in store after she had read the speech. Rather than plunge into the gaggle of his own colleagues who were angling to somehow shake him by the hand, the PM, for the first time since 2014, crossed over to the other side to meet Opposition MPs. Kya Adhir databiyat theek hai na? he asked the Leader of the Opposition, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury (Berhampore), who later told Business Standard that the PM would sometimes cross over to the Opposition before the beginning of a session but this was the first time hed done it after a Budget.

The PM asked Farooq Abdullah (Srinagar) (who was kept in long detention by the central government two years ago) whether he was okay. Abdullah just nodded and turned away. He asked DMK leader A Raja (Nilgiris) a question. CPI M leader N Premachandran (Kollam) repeated a complaint he had made at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) the previous day  that hard copies of the Budget had not been given to MPs. But this is so much easier, the PM replied in English jovially. He clapped Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy (Dum Dum) on the shoulder, advising him to look after himself. Congress President Sonia Gandhi did not attend and Rahul Gandhi, who read the on a tablet, left the House before it was completed. It is possible that the PM may not have been as cordial if Gandhi had been present.

The colour of Budget day 2022 was ochre, with the palette of the saris worn by the women MPs ranging from peach to sienna. The finance minister wore brown and pink, to present the shortest shes ever made.
Tech giant is reportedly testing adding Lens to desktop Search on the web.

Lens is primarily a visual lookup tool for mobile devices, but it is been branching out to Chrome. The next expansion could see Search on the desktop web add Lens, reports 9To5Google.

According to a user browsing with Incognito Mode, Lens on google.com appears in the search field next to the voice microphone.

The visual search tool is using the latest, whole-bodied camera icon that the Google app also uses.

In adding to the Search bar everywhere, Google is very much increasing the prominence of Lens, the report said.

Meanwhile, a different gray camera icon today is only found in images.google.com, while the results page already lets you run a Google Lens query, it added.

Tapping invites the user to "Search any image with Google Lens", with the ability to "drag an image here" or upload via the standard file picker."

The image appears at the left, while Knowledge Panels (when available) appear at the top-right followed by a grid of "Visual matches". Lens.google.com also lets you upload another image and search for something else.

Google Lens is coming to desktop as Apple's platforms increasingly offer similar visual lookup tools, the report 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.)
Pennsylvania school funding replacement is about to become headline news. Within the next few months, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court will rule on the inequitable funding lawsuit originally filed by six Pennsylvania school districts in 2014.

Updates of the court proceedings can be found at the Public Interest Law Center website. It is likely the court will direct the legislature to fix the funding system.

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The depth of disparity, worst in the nation, is beyond comprehension. It makes a mockery of any attempt to explain how this funding system was allowed to promulgate.

To demonstrate how unbalanced school funding has become, the range of local revenue as a percentage of total school funding for each school district ranges from approximately 10% for Duquesne City School District to 85% for Lower Merion School District.

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Another way to look at this is revenue per student from local revenue by dividing the amount of local revenue by the number of students. Reading School District local funding per student is roughly $2,500 while Lower Merion is about $24,000.

Fortunately, state Rep. Frank Ryan is about to introduce the solution, a revised version of House Bill 13.

Robert S. Kistler

Towamensing Township
The crypto ecosystem has welcomed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's proposal for a 30 per cent tax on digital assets for legitimising bets on the assets considered as very risky by the RBI, even as a law on regulating such activity is awaited.

In her Budget Speech, Sitharaman has proposed the tax on income generated at the sale of any digital asset without any deductions, amid a growing proliferation of assets like Bitcoin even as the regulatory structure on them remains unclear.

"India is finally on the path to legitimising the crypto sector in India," Nischal Shetty, founder and chief executive of crypto exchange WazirX, said.

With a majority of banks refusing to provide any financial services to crypto investing after the RBI's repeated pleas of concern to the government, Shetty hoped that the clarity offered by the government will remove ambiguity for banks and make them provide financial services to the crypto industry.

Crypto exchanges raised over USD 638 million last year from venture capital investors as investors made a beeline, despite the lack of regulatory clarity on the matter. The exact amount of crypto investments by Indians is unclear as there is no way to gauge those.

"Prima facie, it seems digital currencies will be taxed akin to speculative income at 30 per cent flat on a gross basis.

"Further, the introduction of TDS (tax deducted at source) on cryptotransfers will enable the government to better monitor crypto transactions," Amit Singhania, partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, said in a statement.

However, Pranay Bhatia, partner and leader for tax and regulatory services at the consultancy firm BDO India, seemed to have differing views, saying tracking such transactions in the absence of a central regulator might be challenging.

In the absence of a law on cryptos, which was scheduled to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament itself, the regulatory aspects on crypto investments are as yet unclear.

Bitcoin rewards app Gosats co-founder and Chief Executive Roshan Aslam said, "While we eagerly wait for the crypto Bill, we expect positive and well-thought regulations going ahead, which are strongly needed for consumer protection."



Sumit Gupta, co-founder and chief executive of crypto exchange CoinDCX, termed the Budget as "forward-looking and inspirational".

"Taxation of virtual digital assets or crypto is a step in the right direction. It gives much-needed clarity and confidence to the industry. India's focus on digital innovation and the promotion of blockchain technology is welcome," he added.

However, accounting and tax-focused firm N A Shah Associates' founding partner Ashok Shah called the move a "deadly blow" to the virtual digital ecosystem.

"Proposed measure is a stiff provision and will adversely impact investment and dealing in digital assets. It also needs to be seen whether non-fungible tokens shall be included in its definition.

"Provisions related to TDS will lead to unintended complications. The identity of the payee is difficult in the digital assets trade. If the PAN of the payee is not available, there could be a TDS (tax deducted at source) of 20 per cent. Tax on the gifting of the virtual digital asset will act as a dampener," he said.

Meanwhile, industry players also welcomed the announcement to introduce central bank digital currency in FY23, which the RBI was intending to launch by the end of 2021.

Kashyap Mahavadi, founder and chief executive of fintech Dinero, said that with the introduction of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) and legitimising cryptos, India is now bringing out a revolution in financial systems.

(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.)
Despite the global Covid pandemic that is far from over, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamans Budget 2022-23 did not see any significant increase in the allocation towards the health sector, unlike last year when she had announced a 137 per cent increase in health and wellbeing expenditure.

While Rs 5,000 crore has been earmarked for Covid vaccination support to states for 2022-23, FY22s Revised Estimate shows a spend of Rs 39,000 crore on the vaccination drive that has covered over 75 per cent of the adult population since its launch on January 16, 2021.

Over the Revised Estimates, the total budget in 2022-23 has increased 0.23 per cent to Rs 86,200 crore. Health experts see this Budget as a signal of a shift to a post-pandemic phase by the government. The drop in allocation for vaccination may also indicate that the government feels that adequate jabs have been administered.

The Budget has given a nod to certain areas within health but we need to spend a lot more on the health workforce. The government is signalling through this Budget that Covid is no longer a threat, said K Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India.

According to Budget documents, a lower requirement for vaccination has led to a decline in the earmarked medical and health spending from Rs 74,820 crore in the ongoing fiscal year to Rs 41,011 crore in the next year.





ALSO READ: 'Ayushman Bharat Health Infra Mission will prepare India for future crisis'

Sitharaman, acknowledging the plight of those who suffered the adverse health and economic impact of Covid, said with the accelerated improvement of health infrastructure over the past two years, we are in a strong position to withstand challenges. She also said: We are in the midst of an Omicron wave, with high incidence but milder symptoms. Further, the speed and coverage of our vaccination campaign has helped greatly.

There has been an increase of over 7 per cent in the allocation towards the National Health Mission. Pardhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana has also seen an allocation increase from Rs 7,400 crore to Rs 10,000 crore. The health infrastructure mission, too, has seen its budget go up from Rs 315 crore to Rs 978 crore.

The finance minister announced a National Tele Mental Health Programme, taking a cue from the rise in mental health problems in people of all ages due to the pandemic. This will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and the International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore providing technology support, she said.

The move will support private players and start-ups in this segment to increase the current coverage of the locations, including tier-2 and tier-3 cities, to provide advanced health-care facilities in these areas, said Vikram Thaploo, CEO, Apollo Telehealth.

Theres been almost an 80 per cent rise in consumption of digital health-care services after Covid-19. The post-pandemic era is likely to witness a significant increase in digitised health-care that needs nourishment with solid governance.





The government will also roll out an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem comprising digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity, consent framework, and universal access to health facilities. Upgradation of 200,000 anganwadis and the rolling out of the digital health mission will also help provide greater access to health-care services and strengthen capacities. Digital health ecosystem is an area where we would have appreciated some more allocation, said Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO, Fortis Healthcare.

Though the industry welcomed these announcements, the Budget dashed the hopes of many who were expecting the health sector to see a big jump in allocation. We thought that the only silver lining out of this (pandemic) would be that the current state of health-care facilities in the country would attract the attention of the government And we will see a big push towards health-care spending, at least to the promise of 3 per cent of GDP. Unfortunately, we haven't heard much on health-care and education in this Budget, said Shuchin Bajaj, founder of Ujala Cygnus group of hospitals.

Analysts at ICRA said the modest allocation towards the sector would make it challenging for the government to meet its target public sector health-care investment of 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025.

The manufacturing industry seemed disappointed with the Union Budget 2022-23 as well. Rajiv Nath, CMD of Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices said he was expecting the government to adopt measures to boost domestic manufacturing of medical devices  an industry that is 80-85 per cent import-dependent. Sadly the has no strategic stated measures to boost domestic manufacturing. The government relied on domestic manufacturers when imports got disrupted during the Covid-19 crisis, he added.

Former health secretary K Sujatha Rao said: Such disdain for these human capability sectors... is simply being irresponsible.




Delhi Deputy Chief Minister on Tuesday said the Budget 2022-23 presented by the Modi government is "extremely negative" for the national capital and betrays the farmers of the country.

The central government not only reduced allocation for minimum support price (MSP) but also cut down the number of beneficiaries in the Budget. The government has also failed to double the income of farmers as was promised, he said.

Contrary to expectations that the government will raise the income tax limit, Sisodia said, the government did not provide any relief to the pandemic-hit middle class.

He further criticised the Budget for having no measures to boost health infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sisodia, who is also the Delhi finance minister, alleged that the Budget is against the new education policy, which states that the government will increase expenditure on the sector. However, the allocation has been brought down from 2.64 per cent of the total outlay as compared to 2.67 per cent last year.

The overall financial allocation for the education sector for 2022-23 has increased to Rs 1.04 lakh crore from Rs 93,224 crore (Budget estimate) in 2021-22.

School education outlay for 2022-23 is at Rs 63,449.37 crore, nearly Rs 9,000 crore more than 2021-22.

The deputy chief minister said the Budget set aside Rs 69,421 crore for municipal corporations in the country but not a single penny has been given to Delhi's civic bodies.

Delhi's share in central taxes has remained Rs 325 crore for 21 years. The city government had sought that it be raised this time, he said, adding that the Budget is "extremely negative" for the national capital.

(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.)
For the rural sector, the Budget was focused largely on creating tangible assets such as roads and houses in villages while at the same time slashing the Budget for the flagship MGNREGS by a 25.51 per cent against the revised estimates of FY22.

Being a demand-driven scheme, there is every possibility of a further topping up of the MGNREGS during the next financial year as it has happened in the current fiscal year, where the revised estimate has been raised to almost Rs 98,000 crore as against a budgetary estimate of Rs 73,000 crore during the year due to strong work demand.

For the sector, there was not much in terms of allocating funds for major schemes but some focus was on creating a digital ecosystem in farming and also shifting farmers towards oilseeds and pulses.

A big disappointment for farmers was in terms of not getting a hike in the direct benefit transfer scheme of PM-Kisan, for which the Centre allocated Rs 68,000 crore in the Budget Estimate of FY23, marginally up from the Revised Estimate of FY22.

With elections in major agriculturally crucial states of Punjab and UP, which have been the hotbed of the recent farmers agitation against the three laws, just round the corner, expectations were that the finance minister might increase the amount of money distributed under the programme from the current Rs 6,000 per annum, but it seems she resisted it.





For other schemes in the farm sector, allocations for the crop insurance scheme and the interest subvention programme for short-term credit were maintained largely at their previous levels. For promoting domestic oilseeds production, the Budget allocated Rs 600 crore in FY23 under the broader umbrella programme of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

According to the Budget documents, the programme aims to increase the production and productivity of oilseeds in the next five years starting from 2020-21 until 2025-26 from 36.10 million tonnes to 54.10 million tonnes.

The productivity is targeted to be raised from 1,254 kg per hectare to 1,676 kg per hectare.

Additional oilseeds area of 3.5 million hectares (from 28.79 million hectares to 32.31 million hectares) will be brought under oil seeds cultivation, the Budget document said.

The Budget for the and allied activities rose by a nominal 2.5 per cent in FY23 compared to the revised estimate of FY22.

For the rural sector, the Budget allocation saw a drop from Rs 2,06,948 crore in FY22 (RE) to Rs 2,06,293 crore in FY23 (BE).





The government has still not fulfilled the written assurances on which the farm unions had agreed to suspend the movement. In such a situation, the farmers will be left with no choice but to resume the farm movement, said Avik Saha, president of the Jai Kisan Andolan.

D Narain, president, Bayer South Asia and Global Head of Smallholder Farming, welcomed the Budget.




India doubled down on its commitment to boost spending, as it expects the benefits to trickle down to the economy staging a world-beating recovery from the pandemic.



This budget continues to provide impetus for growth, Finance Minister said in Parliament in New Delhi on Tuesday. Benchmark stocks were trading up 1.3% at 11 a.m. in Mumbai, as she started presenting the annual spending plan for the fiscal year beginning April.



The budget is one of the most keenly watched economic events with businesses, investors and Indias 1.4 billion people looking to it for direction on policy and spending priorities. Boosting government expenditure on infrastructure, creating jobs and increasing productivity are key to the countrys sustained recovery from the pandemic-induced contraction last fiscal year.

Sitharaman said her budget proposals will directly benefit the countrys youth, women, farmers, as well as public and private investment.

The budgets approach is driven by seven engines, Sitharaman said, listing roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways and logistics infrastructure as the key areas. All seven engines will pull forward the economy in unison complemented by energy transmission, IT communication, water and sewerage sector and social infrastructure, she said.

Gross domestic product is seen growing by 9.2% -- the quickest rate among major economies -- in the current year ending March, with her ministry expecting the performance to be repeated in the next year with an estimated 8%-8.5% expansion.
India is set to present an annual budget topping $500 billion Tuesday, in one of its most keenly watched economic events seen pivotal to sustaining the nations recovery from pandemic-induced disruptions.



Finance Minister is expected to channel more spending toward policies that create jobs, boost manufacturing and also benefit the poor. The growth-boosting focus may leave the government with a budget shortfall equivalent to 6.1% of gross domestic product in the year beginning April, analysts predict.

While the fiscal deficit forecast is narrower than the 6.8% gap targeted for the current fiscal year, its far wider than the shortfall seen in pre-pandemic years. Sitharaman is expected to propose borrowing a near-record 13 trillion rupees ($174 billion) to bridge the gap when she presents the budget at 11 a.m. in New Delhi.







Higher spending through the pandemic has brought India on the cusp of regaining its worlds fastest-growing major economy title from China in the current fiscal year. The government has the fiscal space to spend money on asset creation, and keep the economy on track for another year of world-beating 8%-8.5% expansion, the finance ministry said in a report Monday.

The finance minister will likely continue her reliance on income from sale of state assets to boost revenue, although theres no guarantee of success. Her plan to list Life Insurance Corp. of India -- the countrys premier insurer with nearly $500 billion in assets and a valuation estimated as high as $203 billion -- in the current year is yet to come to fruition.

Other key numbers to watch for in the budget include projected increase in tax collections, dividend from the central bank and state-run companies, any changes in import levies as part of the governments plan to boost manufacturing, and allocation toward subsidies, particularly for fertilizer makers.

Markets and investors would be closely monitoring the budget for any progress on a plan to include Indias debt in the global indexes as it hinges on a tax waiver to overseas investors. They would also be looking for clues on the governments stand on the use and regulation of crypto assets.
Reforming the 16-year old SEZ (Special Economic Zone) Act will boost exports, enhance competitiveness and remove anomalies in a sector that has been overlooked since the withdrawal of direct tax benefits, said officials at manufacturing firms and export promotion council.

The legislation was framed under different circumstances and a lot has changed since then. Rules are complicated and there is also a need to make it World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatible, they said.

The government will rewrite a new law to replace the existing (SEZ) Act as it seeks to enhance exports, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

According to Anil G Verma, executive director and president, Godrej & Boyce the reforms in customs administration will support both the as well as other manufacturers in the domestic tariff area. Our are vulnerable to both disruptions in the global supply chain and also the emphasis on domestic sourcing that we increasingly see overseas.

The proposed new legislation for with states as partners coupled with heightened emphasis on the seven engines under PM Gati Shakti initiative should pave way for a new India that is recognized for its Speed, Productivity and Scale; thus, boosting the countrys overall investment attractiveness and export competitiveness, said Baba N Kalyani, chairman and managing director, Bharat Forge.

Kalyani headed an expert committee to review the SEZ policy and submitted its report in November 2018. It recommended significant changes in the SEZ policy. It included the formulation of separate rules and procedures for manufacturing and service SEZs.

To enable ease of doing business in SEZ units, the government will also undertake reforms in customs administration of SEZs and make it fully IT driven and function on the Customs National Portal with a focus on higher facilitation and with only risk-based checks. This reform shall be implemented by 30th September 2022, the finance minister said.





SEZs not only aid foreign investment, but are export hubs as well. Companies operating in such zones get tax sops from the government and also pay lower tariffs when the goods are exported and not sold outside these zones.

The new legislation will enable the states to become partners in Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs and will cover all large existing and new industrial enclaves to optimally utilise available infrastructure and enhance competitiveness of exports, Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.

The department of commerce has already taken inputs from the industry and export promotion council. The process of drafting the new legislation has already begun and should be done in a few months.

We welcome the government's attention for resolving long pending issues through a new Act. EPCES will be working closely with the Department of Commerce, Department of Revenue, State Governments along with SEZ developers and units and other stakeholders in framing the new legislation, Bhuvnesh Seth, chairman of export promotion council for EOUs and SEZs said.

The SEZ Act along with growth in the IT sector catalysed the development of the commercial real estate sector during the last decade and new SEZ changes are keenly awaited, said Amit Bhagat, CEO & MD, ASK Property Investment Advisors.
The has been allocated Rs 2,600 crore in Budget 2022-23 for the construction of non-residential office buildings of the Central Vista project, including the Parliament and Supreme Court. This is Rs 767.56 crore more than Rs 1,833.43 crore given in the last fiscal.

The redevelopment project of the Central Vista -- the nation's power corridor -- envisages a new triangular Parliament building, a common central secretariat, revamping of the three-kilometre Rajpath boulevard that stretches from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, a new prime minister's residence and a new Prime Minister's Office as well as a new Vice President's Enclave.

A sum of Rs 2,600.99 has been been allocated for the construction of non-residential office buildings, including the Parliament and Supreme Court of India. For residential purposes, the ministry has been given Rs 873.02 crore.

Six infrastructure firms, including Tata Projects Limited, L&T Limited and Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Limited, are in the race to win the contract to construct the Executive Enclave, which will house the new PMO, Cabinet Secretariat, India House and National Security Council Secretariat.

According to the proposed plan, the Executive Enclave will come up on the south side of the South Block in plot number 36/38 in the high-security zone in Lutyens' Delhi.

Last year, Larsen & Toubro Limited had been awarded the contract for the construction and maintenance of the first three buildings of the Common Central Secretariat.

Tata Projects Limited is constructing a new parliament building while Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Limited is executing the redevelopment work of the Central Vista Avenue stretching from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the India Gate under the Central Vista redevelopment project.

In November last year, Jharkhand-based infrastructure firm Kamladityya Construction Pvt Ltd had been awarded the contract for constructing a Vice-President's Enclave.

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The government has allocated a greater share of the budget to than has been the case for nearly two decades.

refers to money that is spent on building assets like roads, buildings or other such assets. The majority of the budget goes in revenue expenditure which includes money spent on paying salaries and interest payments among others.

This years budget has allocated Rs 7.5 trillion to . This is 35.4 per cent higher than the previous years figure of Rs 5.5 trillion. It works out to 19.02 per cent of the total expenditure of Rs 39.45 trillion. The last time that the capital expenditure share touched a similar figure was when it came in at 19.32 per cent for the financial year 2004-05 (FY05).

The allocation is higher than some analyst estimates.

We expect that government will continue to improve the quality of expenditure, and focus more on capital spending than revenue spending. We thus estimate a 15% jump in capex to Rs 6.4tn in FY23. The direction will be roads and railways as in the past, said the 24th January Bank of Baroda India Economics report authored by chief economist Madan Sabnavis, and economists Dipanwita Mazumdar and Sonal Badhan.

The economic survey had mentioned that capital expenditure had earlier been affected by restrictions and labour availability. This changed as restrictions eased in the second half of the financial year 2020-21 (FY21). The momentum has continued in FY22, according to the survey.

The capital expenditure shows an increasing trend over the first three quarters of 2021-22. During April- November 2021, the capital expenditure has grown by 13.5 per cent (YoY), with focus in infrastructure-intensive sectors like roads and highways, railways, and housing and urban affairs. This increase is particularly substantial given the high YoY growth in capital expenditure registered during the corresponding period of the previous year as well, it said, noting that states had been incentivised to increase capital expenditure.

A January 18, 2022 India  Economics and Strategy report from global financial services group Morgan Stanley noted that state governments capital expenditure showed a sharper recovery than the central governments expenditure. Central government capital spending was growing at 26 per cent over the previous year, while it was 51.1 per cent for state governments.

The central governments efforts to nudge states through incentives has aided in contributing to the recovery in capex spending by states, said the report authored by economists Upasana Chachra and Bani Gambhir; equity strategist Ridham Desai, strategist Min Dai, equity analyst Sheela Rathi.

The economic survey had added that the final figure is also likely to be aided by the fact that more spending typically takes place in the second half of the year.

It is noteworthy to mention that there is a strong seasonality in capital expenditure by the Government. A large proportion of capital spending takes place in the second half of the year, which is not being captured with the available data, it said.

The focus so far this year has been on roads, railways, housing and urban affairs, it said.






India's finance minister on Tuesday said the central bank will introduce a digital currency in the next financial year using blockchain and other supporting technology.



"Introduction of a central bank digital currency will give a big boost to digital economy. Digital currency will also lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system," said on Tuesday while presenting the federal budget.

India's central bank has voiced "serious concerns" around private cryptocurrencies on the grounds that these may cause financial instability.



ALSO READ: 2022 Union Budget Highlights

The Indian government has also decided to levy 30% tax, the highest tax band in the country, on income arising out of digital assets, Sitharaman said.

However, losses from sale of digital assets cannot be offset against other income, she added.

Industry estimates suggest there are 15 million to 20 million crypto investors in India, with total crypto holdings of around 400 billion rupees ($5.37 billion). No official data is available on the size of the Indian crypto market.

New Delhi has been mulling tough regulations around digital currencies in India for several months.

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American companies having a foothold in India and those planning to expand their business in the fastest growing economy of the world expect tax parity in the annual budget to be tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the head of a top India-centric US business advocacy group said.

Mukesh Aghi, president, US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) said the American companies have high expectations from what Sitharaman would present in her fourth annual budget on Tuesday. The US companies, he noted, are very keen on investing in India as they believe that the fundamentals of the economy remain strong in the country, offer a big market and they would like to diversify given the Chinese risk factor.

They (US companies) are looking at tax parity. For example, e-commerce companies that have equalisation levy, that needs to be done away with. They are looking at lowering of tariffs. It is good for India also because domestic companies become much more competitive and efficient, he told PTI in an interview on Monday.

American companies, Aghi said, are looking at more investment in India's infrastructure. They also want the labour laws and land acquisition process streamlined, he observed.

Because ease-of-doing business is still very critical in the minds of these investors. They spent a lot of time putting in an application for more land or water so that has to be sorted out, he said.

The USISPF chief further said the US companies, from a long-term perspective, expect from the annual budget a sense of predictability, transparency and concentrated process. These are the critical questions raised inside a boardroom when a company is planning to invest million or billions in India, he added.

I think it is important that the tax regime, for example, do not behave like tax terrorism, but behave more like tax partners. If you look at any US company at the moment, there will be some kind of tax issues with the authorities," he said in response to a question.

Aghi added that it is important that corporate taxes are in line from a global perspective. They do not have extra taxes, which makes these companies' cost of manufacturing itself more expensive, he said.

He said Sitharaman has been transparent and her confidence has gone up in handling the economy and the budget itself.

Asked about the expectations of Indian Americans from the budget, Aghi said certain reforms in the regulations and taxations related to start-ups in India would help them create a better atmosphere and bring in more investment from the diaspora.

What we are seeing is more and more Indian Americans are funding startups, he said, noting that India produced 44 unicorns last year and there are over 10,000 startups blossoming in India.

It is important to allow these startups to list in the US as the capital and access is much easily available in the US, so valuation gets better, he said, adding that taxation reform is essential on options granted to employees. An early taxation on such options makes it less attractive, he argued.

India has a tremendous success story of startups. It is the third largest ecosystem in the world. That shows the zeal and the spirit of entrepreneurs in India.. they are willing to go out into an environment in which they can get better.

At the end of day, startups are job creators, and they are innovators. The combination is critical for India to sustain 8.5 to 9 per cent economic growth for the next 10-15 years, Aghi added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader on Tuesday said the Union budget failed to meet the expectations of farmers, women and people at large.

"I did not have much expectations from this budget but the country's farmers, women, and the general public were expecting more. Their expectation has gone in vain," Siddaramaiah, who is Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, said reacting to the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The Congress leader said he had expected announcements of some special programmes to promote health, education and agriculture in particular which "did not happen".

According to Siddaramaiah, a budget should be something that addresses problems such as hunger, poverty, unemployment but there were no signs of any steps taken in this direction.

Accusing the government at the Centre of being pro-corporate, he said the reduction in taxes on corporate bodies will result in more taxes on ordinary citizens.

pointed out that the budget estimates that GDP growth will slow down over the next year from 9.2 per cent to eight per cent.

The subsidy money for farmers' fertilisers was 1.40 lakh crore this year which has been reduced to 1.05 lakh crore in the next fiscal, said. He predicted that this will increase the cost of fertiliser.

Speaking about Bengaluru, he said there was no allocation for the much-awaited suburban railway project in the city.

Siddaramaiah also charged the Basavaraj Bommai government in Karnataka with failing to bring grants to the State.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday approved the Budget 2022-23, sources said.

The Budget will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a short while from now in the Lok Sabha.

The Budget documents usually include the finance minister's speech in Parliament, highlights, annual financial statement, finance bill containing tax proposals, memorandum explaining the provisions in the financial bill, and macroeconomic framework statement.

They also include the medium-term fiscal policy cum fiscal policy strategy statement, outcome framework for schemes, customs notification, implementation of previous Budget announcements, receipt budget, expenditure budget and statement of budget estimates.

(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.)
Invoking a verse from the epic Mahabharata, on Tuesday announced steps to further simplify the tax system and promote voluntary compliance.

Leader of the Opposition also invoked the Mahabharata to hit out at Sitharaman and claimed that the budget was not meant for 'Eklavya', the prince of Nishadha, a confederation of jungle tribes.

"The king must make arrangements for Yogakshema (welfare) of the populace by way of abandoning any laxity and by governing the state in line with Dharma, along with collecting taxes which are in consonance with the Dharma," Sitharaman said quoting from Shanti Parva in Mahabharata.

She said drawing wisdom from the ancient texts, the government continued on the path to progress.

"The proposals in this budget, while continuing with our declared policy of stable and predictable tax regime, intend to bring more reforms that will take ahead our vision to establish a trustworthy tax regime," the minister said.

Kharge claimed that the budget only catered to the rich.

"As I understand, this budget is for Arjun and Dronacharya and not for Ekalavya. There is nothing for the poor in this budget," Kharge 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.)
Finance Minister on Tuesday proposed to issue sovereign green bonds to mobilise resources as part of the government's borrowing programme.

She said that outlay for capital expenditure has been stepped up by 35.4 per cent to Rs 7.5 lakh crore in FY'23.

Effective capital expenditure will be Rs 10.68 lakh crore, or 4.1 per cent of GDP, in 2022-23, the finance minister said, adding public investment must take the lead to pump prime private investment and support demand.

The finance minister also said that a world-class university will be allowed in GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) IFSC (International Financial Services Centre) free from domestic regulation.

International arbitration centre will also be set up in GIFT city to provide faster dispute resolution, she added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The industry on Tuesday welcomed the Budget's focus on the sector, including developing infrastructure and expanding the role of technology.

"The Budget presented against a backdrop of a strong rebound of the economy has set the foundation for taking on a sustained higher growth trajectory during the 'Amrit Kal' towards India @100," Syngenta India Chief Sustainability Officer K C Ravi said.

The emphasis on digital infrastructure for infusion of technologies in public private partnership (PPP) mode will be the need of the hour in the next 25 years to combat the serious threat of climate change, he opined.

"Another significant announcement is the emphasis on use of Kisan Drones for crop assessments, land records, spraying of insecticides and micronutrients, which will be a game changer for the agriculture sector. The implementation of Ken-Betwa link worth Rs 44,605 crore covering 9 lakh hectares addresses the critical need of augmenting irrigation capability," he noted.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented the Budget 2022-23 in Parliament that proposed promoting Kisan Drones, chemical-free natural farming, and public-private partnerships for the delivery of digital and high-tech services to farmers across the country.

Godrej Agrovet Managing Director Balram Yadav said it is a balanced Budget that is focused on infrastructure boost, supporting the agriculture sector with incentives and technological fillip.

The decision to revise the syllabus of agricultural universities, and use of Kisan drones for crop assessment, digitisation of land records, and spraying of pesticides is a step in the right direction to modernise the farm sector, he said.

Dhanuka Agritech Group Chairman R G Agarwal said the government's focus on augmenting infrastructure via the Gati Shakti plan and focus on the promotion of usage of drones for various farm activities is a welcome step and would immensely help the agriculture sector.

"However, it would have been also apt had the Finance Minister... reduced GST and customs duty rates on some of the agro-chemicals products, which would have reduced the overall cost for the farmers," he added.

Bayer South Asia President and Global Head of Smallholder Farming D Narain said the announcement in this year's Budget on strengthening the delivery of digital and hi-tech services to farmers through the public-private partnership model will go a long way in improving the scaling up of agri value chains and help Indian farmers reap the benefits of technological advancements.

Rallis India (a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals) MD and CEO Sanjiv Lal said the government took important steps to boost the agricultural sector and it clearly reflects in the Budget proposals.

"The budget has been well thought through aiming to reduce the country's dependence on imports of oilseeds through a comprehensive scheme to increase domestic production.

"In addition to this, the exemption is also being rationalized on tools for the agri-sector which are manufactured in India. Lastly, the announcement of the fiscal year 2022-23 being the International Year of Millets bring a new ray of light for the farmers," he added.

The Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) welcomed the announcement made by the finance minister for a comprehensive scheme to increase domestic production of oilseeds to reduce the country's dependence on import of edible oil.

"We are also given to understand that financial outlay for increasing oilseed production is likely to be adequate to have a meaningful impact .This initiative should go a long way in helping reduce our dependence on edible oil imports, which are likely to be around Rs 1.5 lakh crore during the current year and would be in line with our Prime Minister's vision of Atmanirbharta," SEA added.

FMC India president Ravi Annavarapu said provision for capital allocation towards aid for agri and rural start-ups, FPOs and Custom Machinery Hiring Centres for farmers will enhance access of small holder farmers to affordable mechanization.

Samunnati Agro Director Pravesh Sharma opined that the theme of this year's Budget seems to be incentivising a forward-looking vision for agriculture.

"I appreciate the government's stance to continue the MSP regime, however, the key would be involving the private sector for building efficiency in MSP procurement. We also expect the government to come up with practical solutions to address the pending demand of farmers to provide a legal guarantee of MSP," he noted.

Licious co-founder Vivek Gupta said, "I am also hopeful that the co-investment model, facilitated through NABARD to finance start-ups for agriculture and rural enterprise will unlock more opportunities there."



The capping of the surcharge on the long-term capital gains payable on financial assets, at 15 per cent, is good news for investors in equity shares of start-ups, he added.

AgriBazaar co-founder and CEO Amith Agarwal said one of the key initiatives which will have a ripple effect for the rural economy is the announcement of laying of optical fibre line in villages under the BharatNet project under PPP in 2022-23.

"Similarly, promoting chemical-free natural farming in India is a big step in ensuring healthy produce for Indians and making our agriculture export-ready. Especially for premium markets like Europe, the USA, Japan, etc. Additionally, it will reduce the input expense of the Indian farmer, resurrect soil health, and ensure we take care of mother nature," he added.

IG International Director of Finance and Operations Tarun Arora said the focus on agriculture is much needed for a country like India.

"However, we were hoping there would be more on the cold chain facility as it's integral to the perishable supply chain as well. Overall, it is a Budget with an aspiration to revive the economy, which will bring further growth to the economy," he added.

Asitava Sen, Chief Executive Officer, CropLife India, said, "It is extremely delightful to witness the inclusion of Kisan Drones in the Union Budget 2022-23. The government's push towards digitalization of agriculture coupled with the focus on hi-tech services would enhance rural entrepreneurship and infuse youth back in the farmlands, boosting the income of the farmers.

(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 is always the big policy announcement and the first for the year. In fact, it lays down the path for all players as the tax laws and expenditure patterns are revealed. Doing it in February has the advantage of the government being in a better position to execute the expenditure plans, especially capex. This Budget will go down as one which does a little of everything, which is a good way to go about it.

First, the deficit number is critical because as has been seen in the past that the government has stuck to the FRBM rules even during the pandemic times, and has been complimented by overseas agencies for not going in for rapid fiscal expansion. At 6.4 per cent, the fiscal deficit is on track to the 4.5 per cent mark to be reached by FY26. The borrowing this year will continue to be high at Rs 14.95 trillion (net of Rs 11.18 trillion) and put pressure on the market. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has a task on hands, and this time it will be different as we can expect private credit demand to pick up. Hence liquidity management will need a different approach as this is the time when we are talking of rewinding.

The main area of interest after the deficit is the capex part. Agreed, capex has to be driven by the private sector and states also have to pitch in to make the investment wheel turn. The government has provided for an aggressive Rs 7.5 trillion, which is a good number from its side and keeps to its commitment which is now taken to be axiomatic. This is good news again for the cement and metals sector in particular, with roads and railways to dominate. The challenge is to ensure that this amount is spent on time and that the government does not wait till the last quarter of the fiscal (Q4) for implementation.

The tax front is revealing. Quite clearly, the government does not see any merit right now to provide any major sops and what has been provided is just about at the periphery. In fact, it may be argued that the government has not brought in any new tax that could have meant higher outflows from the upper sections. The assumption here appears to be that growth would be robust enough to garner the revenue that would be earned this year. It is a fairly good assumption and should be backed by a more nuanced approach to lockdowns in case of any new wave of Covid. One can be sure that there will be more waves though the exact timing and intensity will be a guessing game.

This time one can say that the government is focusing more specifically on SMEs, hospitality, digital oriented industries, telecom, housing in particular. The disinvestment piece will require some comment. The FM did mention that the disinvestment of LIC will happen. However, credit is not taken for these receipts in the revised estimates nor is it included in the FY23 projections. Quite clearly out of prudence the government has kept it out of the calculations. The divestment target for FY23 is Rs 65,000 crore, which is reasonable. The government will, however, have to take a critical decision on which units would qualify for the same.

The interesting thing here is that the food subsidy level is down  meaning no more free food and the allocation for agriculture is marginally higher. There has, hence, been no attempt at populism given the Elections coming up, which is a good sign.

On the whole it can be said that the FM has managed all the aspirations creditably given that there were too many demands and an equal number of constraints.

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Madan Sabnavis is the chief economist at Bank of Baroda and author of "Hits & Misses: the Indian Banking Story". The views expressed here are his own.
Finance Minister on Tuesday said Rs 60,000 crore has been allocated to provide tap water connections to 3.8 crore households in 2022-23.

Presenting the Union Budget 2022-23, she also informed that the government has decided to extend the period of incorporation by one year up to March 31, 2023, for startups to avail tax incentives.

The finance minister also said the government proposes to increase tax deduction from 10 per cent to 14 per cent on contribution in NPS (National Pension System) by the state government to employees.

(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.)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that spectrum would be auctioned in 2022 to facilitate the rollout of 5G mobile services by private telecom operators. Despite this, the telecom sector is projected to contribute almost 27 per cent less in revenues to the government during FY23 year-on-year.

This, coupled with an expected decline in dividend from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), would result in a 14 per cent fall in non-tax revenues at Rs 2.7 trillion during 2022-23 compared to the Revised Estimates of Rs 3.1 trillion in the current financial year.

Spectrum auction, along with licence fees from telecom operators, is expected to fetch almost Rs 72,000 crore for the government during the current financial year, which is 33 per cent more than the budgeted Rs 54,000 crore.

However, it is pegged at Rs 53,000 crore for 2022-23, which is 27 per cent less than the Revised Estimates (RE) of the current financial year.

ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said telecom operators prepaid some of their deferred liabilities in the current financial year.

The government had announced a four-year moratorium on paying adjusted gross revenue (AGR) with effect from October, 2021. The moratorium is an optional scheme and the company that decides to avail of it will pay interest at the rate of the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) plus two per cent.

The deferment is basically on the payment of spectrum purchased in past auctions, excluding the auction in 2021.

Nayar said, Given that moratorium was offered on spectrum and AGR payments, it is likely that the BE for FY23 assumes some inflow of upfront payment towards the proposed 5G spectrum auctions.

Bank of Baroda Chief Economist Madan Sabnavis said the telcos paid their dues this financial year because of which revenues to the government rose. However, because of AGR calculations, the payout would be less from the next financial year.

For instance, in December 2021, Bharti Airtel prepaid its entire liability of Rs 15,519 crore from its 2014 acquisition of 128.4 MHz spectrum. The move may help the company save around Rs 3,400 crore in interest expenses.

RBI paid around Rs 99,000 crore to the government in the current financial year. The dividend payout was for the financial year 2020-21 paid in May, 2021. This dividend payout constituted almost all of the Rs 1.01 trillion from the RBI, nationalised banks and financial institutions.

The dividend from the RBI, nationalised banks and financial institutions is pegged at around Rs 74,000 crore for FY23, lower by 27 per cent compared to the expected in the current financial year.

Sabnavis said this may be due to the excess liquidity as the RBIs net income falls as it sucks liquidity out.

Similarly, dividend from public sector units (PSUs) is expected to slip by 13 per cent at Rs 40,000 crore in the next financial year compared to Rs 46,000 crore expected in the current financial year. PSUs are projected to give less in the current financial year compared to the budgeted amount of Rs 50,000 crore.

However, it is more than the almost Rs 40,000 crore paid in 2020-21. In a way, PSUs are expected to give as much dividend to the government in the next financial year as was paid in the Covid-affected 2020-21.

Devendra Pant, chief economist at India Ratings, said the dividend from PSUs appears to be slightly conservative for 2022-23. In case, there is slippage in expenditure, this may act as a buffer.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday raised capital expenditure (capex) by 35.4 per cent for financial year 2022-23 (FY23) to Rs 7.5 trillion over the Budget Estimate (BE) of FY22 to continue the public investment-led recovery of the pandemic-battered economy.

Capex in the Revised Estimates (RE) for FY22 bumped up to Rs 6.3 trillion due to settlement of Air Indias debt amounting to Rs 51,971 crore before it was handed over to the Tata group. However, keeping that aside, the governments capex in FY22 is set to fall short by Rs 3,496 crore in RE as against BE. In the first nine months of FY22, capex spending by central government ministries stood at 70.7 per cent, still lower than 75 per cent a year ago.

However, the government seems to have realised the constraints on capex by central government ministries and hence Rs 1 trillion out of the Rs 1.2 trillion additional capex allocation in FY23 will be special assistance as loan to states for capex during the year.

Sitharaman said capital investment holds the key to speedy and sustained economic revival. Capital investment also helps in creating employment opportunities, inducing enhanced demand for manufactured inputs from large industries and MSMEs, services from professionals, and help farmers through better agri-infrastructure. The economy has shown strong resilience to come out of the effects of the pandemic with high growth. However, we need to sustain that level to make up for the setback of 2020-21, she said.

To encourage innovative financing, the government will now incentivise important sunrise sectors such as climate action, deep tech, pharma, and agri-tech through thematic funds for blended finance, where the governments share will be limited to 20 per cent and the funds will be managed by private fund managers.

The government will award contracts for implementation of multimodal logistics parks at four locations through public-private partnership (PPP) mode in FY23. One hundred PM GatiShakti cargo terminals for multimodal logistics facilities will also be developed during the next three years.

The Budget also encouraged innovative ways of financing and faster implementation for building metro systems. Multimodal connectivity between mass urban transport and railway stations will be facilitated on priority. Design of metro systems will be reoriented and standardised for Indian conditions.

Sitharaman said the virtuous cycle of investment requires public investment to crowd in private investment. At this stage, private investments seem to require that support to rise to their potential and to the needs of the economy. Public investment must continue to take the lead and pump-prime the private investment and demand in 2022-23, she added.

To incentivise private capital, Sitharaman said measures will be taken to enhance financial viability of projects including PPPs. Enhancing financial viability shall also be obtained by adopting global best practices, innovative ways of financing, and balanced risk allocation, she added.

Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh asked the finance minister on Twitter: In FY22, GoIs capex in the first eight months is 50 per cent of what is budgeted for the same year? How to ensure capex of Rs 7.5 [trillion] in FY23 will be spent?
Taxpayers were expecting some relief in the Budget in the form of a change in the tax slabs or a hike in the deductions under Section 80C, 80D, or Section 24. Even as none of those expectations materialised, there were a number of benefits on other fronts.

File updated tax return

The Income-Tax (I-T) Department will introduce a new updated return, which is expected to help those taxpayers who have committed mistakes in filing their returns. They will get an opportunity to correct their error by paying additional tax and filing a new return within two years from the end of the relevant assessment.

Says Sameer Jain, managing partner, PSL Advocates & Solicitors: This will allow people to voluntarily disclose and pay more tax. He adds that hopefully it will also result in reduced tax litigation.

NPS: Parity for state govt employees

The FM has proposed to increase the tax deduction limit from 10 per cent to 14 per cent on contribution to the National Pension System (NPS) account of state government employees.

At present, the central government contributes 14 per cent of the salary of its employees to NPS tier-I. This is allowed as a deduction. However, this deduction is allowed only to the extent of 10 per cent in the case of state government employees.

This will strengthen the social security net since all state governments will have to consider increasing their NPS contributions to 14 per cent now, says Sumit Shukla, chief executive officer (CEO), HDFC Pension Fund.

Benefit for the differently-abled

The FM has proposed to allow payouts to the differently-abled dependants for whom their parents/guardians have bought an insurance policy during the lifetime of the latter, provided they (parent/guardian) have attained the age of 60. Until now, tax deduction to the parent/guardian was permitted only if the lump sum payment or annuity was paid on the subscribers (parent or guardian) death. Says Balachander Sekhar, CEO and co-founder, RenewBuy: This will boost the sentiments of the specially-abled and their family members.

Adds Naval Goel, founder & CEO, PolicyX.com: The payment of annuity or lump sum to the differently-abled dependant during the lifetime of the parent/guardian will give assurance to policyholders that the purpose of the money put in an insurance policy has been fulfilled. They also wont have to worry about claim settlement.

Surcharge on LTCG capped

The FM has capped the surcharge on long-term capital gains (LTCG) payable at 15 per cent for all assets. Earlier, the surcharge on LTCG was capped at 15 per cent only for listed shares and units. LTCG on other capital assets could go as high as 37 per cent.

This proposal will benefit taxpayers in the higher tax slabs and those within the start-up community. Says Gopal Bohra, partner, NA Shah and Associate: It will lead to considerable savings for taxpayers.




The Budget proposals on capital expenditure, MSME sector, and digital banking will boost growth and promote job creation, say experts.

Among other things, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a bigger Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget, with higher spending on highways to affordable housing with a view to firing up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic.

Commenting on the Budget announcements, Shyam Srinivasan, MD and CEO, Federal Bank, said 35 per cent increase in capex for infra development, 65 per cent defense capex for local companies, tax incentives for startups, new cargo terminals all indicate the refreshingly clear and well-structured aspiration of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Sanjeev Krishan, Chairman PwC in India was of the view that Budget 202223 continues to provide much-needed relief to the COVID-hit MSME sector. The revival of MSMEs is critical both from growth and employment perspective, and these measures are geared towards building a vibrant MSME sector, he said.

Kapil Mehta, Co-founder, SecureNow Insurance Broker said the main benefit of the budget for insurtechs is the emphasis on MSMEs and future growth. There are a host of measures aimed at small business, ranging from credit guarantee schemes to improving the ease of doing business, that help MSMEs navigate economic uncertainty, he added.

Founder and CEO Tushar Aggarwal, Stashfin was of the view that support announced for digital payment and banking will be welcomed by the sector. He said building awareness of digital payments and promoting financial literacy is critical to India achieving the vision of a USD 1-trillion digital economy.

Dhanuka Agritech Group Chairman R G Agarwal said the government's focus on augmenting infrastructure via the Gati Shakti plan and focus on the promotion of usage of drones for various farm activities is a welcome step and would immensely help the agriculture sector.

"However, it would have been also apt had the Finance Minister... reduced GST and customs duty rates on some of the agro-chemicals products, which would have reduced the overall cost for the farmers," he added.

On the government's proposals, Omkar Rai, Ex-DG, STPI said the has all the ingredients needed to make India the world's biggest startup ecosystem. The extension of the incorporation period for eligible startups will certainly give a boost to this segment, he said.

Rishad Manekia, Founder and MD, Kairos Capital said the taxation along with the introduction of an Indian CBDC in 2022 gives a much clearer idea about the way forward for the blockchain ecosystem in India and how the government is thinking about this space.

Ujjwal Singh, CEO and President, Infinity Learn said the extension of the PM eVIDYA initiative 12 to 200 TV channels will give the segment the requisite boost.

Piyush Gupta, CEO, Polytrade expects that in near future the government will continue to support and encourage digital currencies that will propel the GDP to USD 5 trillion as envisaged by the government.

Manish Chandra Co- founder and Director RailRestro said the announcement of 400 Vande Bharat trains is an encouragement for more public-private partnerships in the Indian Railways and this will help unlock the underlying opportunities in the sector for maximum growth, revenue generation and job creation.

Ajay Srinivasan, Chief Executive, Aditya Birla Capital said the capex-heavy budget has reiterated focus on public investment to modernise infrastructure over the medium term.

"The overall focus is clearly to nurture growth and support the economic recovery," he said.

Sunil Gupta, MD and CEO, Avis India opined the EV ecosystem will benefit from a battery-swapping strategy that will be implemented alongside interoperability standards.

Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar.com opined India will now join a handful of nations to launch its own blockchain currency.

George Alexander Muthoot, MD, Muthoot Finance said the announcements relating to MSMEs and thrust on digital banking will further go a long way in supporting the economy.

Tarun Chugh, MD and CEO, Bajaj Allianz Life said the overall budget had two positive highlights one is on the infrastructure push and the other on how systematically the government is prioritising digitisation and building the eco-system.

A Sakthivel, President, FIEO was of the opinion replacement of SEZ Act with a new legislation to meet the requirement of a dynamic sector of international trade and transparent and risk based customs administration of SEZ will make special economic zones an engine of and employment creation besides exports.

The textile and handloom industry exports would get a further boost by providing exemptions on items such as embellishment, trimming, fasteners, buttons, zipper and lining material, Pawan Gupta, Founder and CEO of Connect2India, 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.)
New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI/PRNewswire): Healthways Dairy & Foods Pvt Ltd, one of India's emerging dairy companies, after embarking on successful milk operations in Gorakhpur and neighboring areas in September 2021, has seen further fruition with its new world-class fresh milk and milk products manufacturing facility in Gorakhpur being functional on 27th January 2022.

Healthways has once again lived to its policy of providing only good milk to its consumers as the launch of Gorakhpur plant will cut down the journey of milk and make fresh, hygienic milk and dairy products easily accessible for people of Gorakhpur and neighboring areas. The new facility which houses equipments with latest technology to manufacture and pack milk and other value added products was inaugurated by Healthways CEO, Dr. Mahesh Chand Tiwari and this step of Healthways is a natural progression to serve the purpose of providing a sustainable business model; while enhancing the milk productivity in the region.

With the opening of facility, Healthways is happy to offer consumers the highest standards of safety and nutrition by using the best-in-class technology that the world has to offer. Healthways has its own manufacturing facility in Gulaothi & Sandilla as well. The Company is committed to uphold the best in food safety and quality measures to ensure availability of safe, wholesome and nutritious milk as every drop of milk being processed is passed through rigorous testing protocols of quality checks.

Speaking on the occasion, Healthways Managing Director Narendar Nagar, said, "Healthways' No Compromise' philosophy reflects at every stage of its value chain, from sourcing healthy feed for healthy cattle, providing veterinary support, paying competitive prices to farmers, running beneficial schemes for their upliftment, applying cutting-edge technology to manufacture, to delivering healthy products fresh at retail outlets. He further added, "Our success mantra is a sound upstream chain comprising consistent quality deliveries enabled with innovation and ethics that pours goodness, everywhere."

Healthways Dairy & Food products Pvt. Ltd. is tremendously inspired and motivated by rich legacy of our founder, Late Choudhary VedRam Nagar, a pioneer in Dairy industry who was guided by the fundamental value of delivering quality.

Narendar Nagar, Managing Director of Healthways Dairy & Food products Pvt. Ltd. inspired by this rich legacy and having 20 years of rich dairy experience in family business started new age dairy brand "Healthways" in 2018. The Healthways Milk & Food Products Pvt Ltd. is one of the emerging dairy groups in the country with a range of international standard dairy products. Healthways Dairy is driven by the ethos of serving the farmers as well as consumers on a common platform by providing right remuneration to milk producers and offering quality and safe products to consumers. Healthways Dairy has always been a front runner in offering quality and nutritious milk and food products to its consumers and its brand promise of "No Compromise" makes it adhere to stringent quality parameters of procuring, manufacturing, packing and delivery.

Website: (https://www.healthwaysdairy.com)

Social Media Links:

Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/healthwaysdairy)

Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/_healthwaysdairy_)

Twitter: (https://twitter.com/_Healthways)

This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 1 (ANI/NewsVoir): It is common knowledge that businesses today must prove their trustworthiness to garner clients, but what if we tell you that this relocation company not only has to prove its reliability but also its own identity!

Here's the story of Leo Packers and Movers, a company that has been fighting to prove its genuineness for over a decade.

History of the Company

What started as a transport company in the '60s for defence personnel, transformed into a packing and moving company in the '70s when the banks got nationalized and civilians started to relocate, thus was born(https://leopackersandmovers.com/packers-and-movers-bangalore?utm_source=referral & utm_medium=press-release & utm_campaign=article2-feb2022) Leo Packers and Movers. "The true success of our business lies in how we've trained and retained our staff. Ours is a human resource intensive business; client experience rests on the shoulders of our relocation crew as they are the ones who are on the field with the customers, delivering quality service and building relationships. We pay utmost attention to ensure that our staff is well taken care of. We take pride in the fact that we have staff working with us for over 20 years," says Managing Director, Dilip Shah.

The Unique Problem of Companies Impersonating Leo's Identity

Over the years, as Leo's reputation has grown, it is faced with a unique problem - the problem of fraud imposters. These are unregistered, unethical, unprofessional companies that "copycat" Leo's identity. From copying the trademarked name and registered logo to creating fake social profiles and business listings to booking similar website domains to running ads that mimic Leo's digital presence - these fraudsters have done it all. "There was this one instance in 2016, where Leo was offered to present to the board of a leading MNC in India for their employee relocation. To my astonishment, there was another person calling himself "Abhay Shah, owner of Leo Packers". Later, upon questioning the impersonator fled the scene," recounts Abhay Shah, Director Leo Packers and Movers.

For Leo, the issue does not end here. These fraud companies provide poor service to clients with delays, damaged goods and unprofessional dealings. Some even resort to pilferage, holding items hostage for additional fees and taking 2-3X the payment. Needless to say, this has cost Leo a loss in reputation, generated negative publicity on social media, blogs and online communities and has caused significant financial and emotional headaches to clients who were looking for service from the original Leo packers.

Leo has undertaken multiple initiatives both on the online and offline front. A few fraud companies have shut-shop thanks to the support from local police and lawyers. However, new players emerge each day. "Keeping pace with impersonating companies is a task for us at Leo. In fact, in 2020 we undertook a series of activities to clean the internet of fraud Leos. We claimed all our custom social profile URLs, flagged umpteen fake business listings, issued a public caution notice, applied for US trademark certificate, created (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MuAfNMHOI) videos, ran ads, emailed to all customers who had fallen prey to frauds on how to file a complaint and what steps to take, etc. However, there are still issues that create confusion in the market. Take for instance Google map listings, despite our best efforts we are unable to claim these and they continue to drive traffic to impersonate companies. Additionally, some companies use domain names that mimic ours - (https://leopackersandmovers.com)," says Abhay.

The company has launched multiple online efforts on the issue of frauds and scams that are prevalent in this industry. The latest campaign, #NotThisLeoPackers, is a Public Service Announcement in the form of a jingle. The domain (https://www.originalleopackers.com) has also been purchased solely to educate and create awareness. "While we undertake multiple initiatives as a company to protect our brand and safeguard prospective clients, the need of the hour is stronger enforcement of rules and regulations with quick turnarounds from concerned authorities in the country," says Abhay.

A Final Word of Caution

Individuals ought to protect themselves from scams and fraudulent moving companies:

1. Carefully research before hiring a moving company

2. Review the company website and its authenticity

3. Check out their customer reviews

4. If possible, visit their office

5. Specifically, to find the original Leo Packers and Movers: Ask for the company Trademark, GST registration, shops and establishment certification, PAN card and most importantly check whether the website is (https://www.originalleopackers.com) (with no misspellings in the domain name and .com in the top-level domain) and whether the logo is that of a lion with briefcase and shoes.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI/NewsVoir): India's first-ever season style book 'The Class of 2006: Sneak Peek into the Misadventures of the Great Indian Engineering Life', written by management professional Akash Kansal, was launched virtually amidst one of the biggest book launch ceremonies of the year at IIT Kanpur & Delhi Technological University on 30th Jan, 2022.

The book was released on Amazon Kindle by talented Indian film actor, writer, director, and producer R. Madhavan, who has starred in hit movies like 3 Idiots, Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein, and recently seen in Decoupled streaming on Netflix.

Madhavan was joined by eminent dignitaries: Alok Kansal, General Manager, Western Railway; Ravinder Bhakar, CEO CBFC, MD-NFDC; Tanuja Kansal, President, WRWWO; and Monika Meena, Mrs. India Worldwide Popular 2018 and Director, K Sera Sera Productions.

'The Class of 2006: Sneak Peek into the Misadventures of the Great Indian Engineering Life' consists of 18 different episodes, each with a Learning Box, and is definitely a good read to reminisce the times spent in college, especially for MBA, Engineering college students and aspirants.

Speaking about the book and the idea behind it, Akash Kansal said, "The book is a new age fiction book written with a self-help bias and capturing the changing trends of content consumption by the younger generation of India as well as globally too. The book aims to cover the different real-time life experiences and stages of college life which seem very usual but unknowingly impact our character DNA and mindset. The book will give you a major throwback to your own college life experiences with your fellow classmates and life-time friends. Not to miss a comedy drama ahead!"

Speaking at the launch on some of the stories depicted in the book, R. Madhavan said, "I really resonate with the idea of college life being a key pillar in work life and career both. Students should read this book because they have been deprived of the learnings of living in a college community due to the Pandemic life. I see the book converting into a movie and becoming a big success like 3 Idiots."

The book will be available to millions of readers worldwide through Amazon (amzn.to/3qwiGLt) and has been economically priced for maximum reach. In India, the e-book will be available at INR 99 through a special trial offer. The book had received positive response within the pre-order stage and got figured among top 50 books on Amazon within 2 days of its pre-launch.

"We are really buoyed by the positive response to the Kindle version and are in active talks with leading publishing houses for the paperback version. There are more seasons in the pipeline, and we are also exploring the option of converting it into a web-series soon," Kansal concluded.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

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New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI/Oswaal Books): Students have been eagerly waiting for the upcoming Karnataka SSLC class 10 board exams.

Karnataka Board has released the timetable for the board exams on 26 January 2022. According to this timetable, the exams will start from 28th March 2022 and will go on till 11th April 2022. Students can download the time table and Sample papers for exams 2022 at (https://sslc.karnataka.gov.in)

This has given a clear idea to the students about the estimated time that they have in hand for enhanced preparation. To give an idea about the exam pattern, the Karnataka board has even released the model test papers on 27 January 2022.

These model test papers will help the students prepare in the right direction for the board exams. Moreover, they will also help them get acquainted with the marking scheme.

Steps to download sample papers

Students can follow these steps to download the model test papers in a hassle-free manner.

1. Firstly, visit the official website of the Karnataka board to find the model test papers. You can use the URL sslc.karnataka.gov.in

2. Once opened, the first page to encounter will be the Homepage. Students should move to the "Documents" section from the Homepage and then select SSLC

3. In the drop-down section under SSLC, click on the "Question Papers" tab

4. This will prompt the user with the new page where the user can see the title "Model Question Papers". As soon as the user clicks that link, he/she will encounter another link titled "Model Question Papers of 2021-22 SSLC Examination"

5. Students should click that link to download the model question paper for the board exams

6. Students can even download the question papers in the pdf format and later have them in printed format for practice.

The date sheet is available on the official website of the board and students can easily access it.

The students must appear in the exams for all 6 subjects. For the language subjects, the maximum marks are 125 and 70 is the minimum score to pass these exams.

Whereas, on the other hand, the maximum marks will be 100 and students need to score 30 in each subject to pass the exam.

By seeing the dates of exams, it is pretty evident that students have approximately 1-2 months to have enhanced preparation.

Below are some of the key tricks that students can adopt to see a magnanimous change in their study routine and ultimately score well in board exams.

Tricks to score high with chapter-wise preparation

1. Possess question banks

Students should get the question banks at the earliest to kick start their preparation. They are the greatest pool of questions.

Students should refer to these question banks after preparing every chapter. This will help them prepare the important questions for that chapter from an examination standpoint.

In addition to that, it will make a stronger grip for students on a chapter-wise basis. And, they can evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in due time.

2. Make a schedule

Students are well-versed with the date sheet of the exams. They can use this as a stepping stone to designing a meticulous timetable.

A proper schedule will help them channel the time in the true sense. Students should give proper time to every subject in the timetable. Moreover, there should be a sufficient number of breaks to stay motivated.

3. Solve practice papers

Practice papers are the key to getting clarity about the exam pattern that students will encounter on the day of the exam.

Students should solve an ample number of practice papers after completion of the syllabus. This will also help overcome the fear of the type of questions that students will encounter on the day of the exam. Students can also complete their preparations with Oswaal Karnataka SSLC Sample Question Paper Class 10 for Exam 2021-22 where they will get best preparation material for upcoming exams and will also get some benefits like:

* Latest Board Examination Paper with Scheme of Valuation

* Strictly as per the latest syllabus, blueprint & design of the question paper.

* Board-specified typologies of questions for exam success

* Perfect answers with Board Scheme of Valuation

* NCERT Textbook Questions fully solved

* Previous Years' Board Examination Questions

Here is the recommended link for Karnataka SSLC Sample Question Paper Class 10 for Exam 2022, click here (https://bit.ly/3s4j9nz)

4. Practice time management

Time can act either as a friend or either as a foe on the day of the exam. Students need to maintain accuracy with the speed to score well in the exam.

If the students know everything and are still unable to complete the exam in time then there is no use of that knowledge.

To avoid such problems on the day of the exam, students should practice solving the sample papers in the stipulated time only.

This will give them the feeling and the pressure of the exam. So, ultimately it will help them score well in board exams.

(https://bit.ly/35ux2DM) Wish to know the importance of sample papers in the board exams? Read the Article to learn!

Conclusion

Exam dates are out for the upcoming Karnataka SSLC class 10 exams.

Students can easily download the date sheet from the official website. The syllabus for every subject is already uploaded on the official website.

Students can easily download it.

For further updates, keep on checking the official website and stay tuned!!

All the Best!!

This story is provided by Oswaal Books. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Oswaal Books)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI/ATK): One of India's leading firms for providing efficient grooming experience, Manhood has yet again launched a brand new product named, (https://menhood.in/product/menhood-grooming-trimmer-2-0) Menhood Trimmer 2.0, designed to provide an effortless and smooth experience to customers across.

Menhood is a reputed and premium-grooming company dedicated towards helping men maintain their personal hygiene through superior-quality products. The company has a wide range of products that are simply designed for men, helping them in maintaining their basic hygiene through regular grooming.

The firm is also committed towards raising awareness about the importance of using men grooming products as there are a lot of taboos associated with it. Thus, the firm is on a mission to fight the taboo and help educate men through precision-grade products for their most prized possessions.

Speaking about the newly launched product, the founder, says "We wanted to create a product, which men can use without having any second thoughts. Due to lack of information and the taboo around men's grooming, we neglect the basic hygiene. We from Menhood aim to fight this taboo and educate all men through our precision-grade items for our precious possessions.

Currently, we are concentrating on designing some brand-new products. We are planning to make products that will offer an excellent grooming experience to men. As the founder, I can guarantee that the products we produce in future will be great ones."

Listed below are some of the additional features offered by the product. Some of the remarkable features include:

Skin Protection Technology

The Menhood grooming trimmer has skin protection technology that prevents skin from cuts and bleeding. The blades are made of ceramic to prevent unnecessary cuts and can also be replaced with new ones, as they are durable.

Waterproof Design

The waterproof design of the product helps in ensuring hassle-free trimming without any rusting or damage.

Enhanced Body

The trimmer additionally comes up with a textured design to have a good grip while grooming. The textured grip enables smooth shaving without slipping.

Power Indicator Display

Another important USP is the power indicator display that shows when the trimmer is completely charged, or if it needs to be plugged in an outlet. The "battery life indicator lights up on its own once you switch on the device.

Adjustable Guard

The adjustable guards provide a lot of flexibility, while you are up for grooming. One can adjust the guard according to the length of the hair they wish to trim. The guard also stops the blade from making contact with the skin.

Power Circuit

The trimmer has a 2nd-generation power circuit. This means, no matter how many hours you use the device, it will stay charged. But the unique part about this power circuit is that it doesn't let the device become overcharged.

The firm is currently focused on adding new products to their exquisite range to cater to the ever-growing industry and expand its horizons across the global market.

This story is provided by ATK. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/ATK)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gurugram (Haryana) [India], February 1 (ANI/NewsVoir): We hail the new budget and the capital infusions for the MSME sector which will benefit greatly from the extension of the ECLGS by another year and from eased logistics through railways.

The emergency credit line has greatly helped MSMEs to restart operations by giving them additional working capital support and it is noteworthy that the additional credit will be providing some respite to the micro and small enterprises in the hospitality sector which took a battering in the pandemic.

The MSME sector, while contributing greatly to the GDP is also extremely vulnerable, and so it is heartening to see that the government is rolling out the Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance (RAMP) programme for strengthening MSME capacities.

A step forward for the "Make In India" brigade, the extensions of the customs duty exemption on steel scrap and the additional allocation for PLI in solar PV module manufacturing is an exciting move as the MSMEs warm up to the alternative energy sector. The tax exemption for startups will go a long way in incentivizing inception and recovery for them post the third wave of COVID.

This entrepreneurial budget seeks to resolve the issue of cumbersome compliances which have long been an ask of an industry that battles bulky paperwork year after year. 'One Nation, One Registration' is a landmark move which will ease this issue and lay the foundation of Ease of Doing Business 2.0. Fusing of the Udyam, e-Shram, NCS and ASEEM is yet another win for the entrepreneurial sector as it is an important move towards formalizing the economy and providing some much-needed transparency in a data opaque sector.

A budget that is fintech centric is very relevant in the times of rapid digital adoption and we are hopeful that the paperless e-bill systems will largely ease the issue of delayed payments of the MSMEs of India. We are positive that this Budget will go a long way in accelerating Ease of Doing Business for the backbone of the economy. We look forward to heralding the "Amrit Kaal" with these measures which will hopefully see MSMEs catapulting to the forefront of the Indian economy.

The first 'Buying Club' for SMEs in India, Power2SME, financially backed by Nandan Nilekani, Inventus Capital Partners, Kalaari Capital, International Finance Corporations (IFC) and Accel Partners, began operations in 2012.

Committed to empowering SMEs by increasing their profits, Power2SME focuses on reducing purchase prices for SMEs and enhancing productivity. Power2SME enables SME clients to focus on their core business of driving growth and expansion, while taking on the role of sourcing input raw materials at the most competitive price points across multiple products in categories such as Metal, Commodity Polymer, Engineering Polymer, Chemicals, Paints, Solar, Yarn etc. The company, today, has 12 offices spread across the country, with a team of 200+ employees across India. Power2SME works with established and trusted suppliers such as SAIL, TATA Steel, ESSAR Steel, JSW, Rathi Steel, Victor Exim, Balaji Enterprise, POSCO Steel, Apollo Pipes, JSL, and many more.

For more information, please visit: (http://www.power2sme.com).

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Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], February 1 (ANI/PNN): Prahlad Rai Agarwala, Executive Chairman of the Rupa Group, has been awarded the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian honours of the country.

Agarwala has been selected for the Padma Shri for distinguished service in the field of trade and industry.

The recognition is another feather in the cap of the visionary industrialist, under whose leadership the Rupa Group has emerged as the indisputable number one knitwear brand in India. The Group's range of knitted garments spans innerwear to casual wear.

"It is a privilege to be named alongside some of the biggest and most respected names in the fields of art, public affairs, literature and education, trade and industry for the Padma awards. I have received several awards over the years, and each one is special, but the Padma Shri award is the most special honour. I extend my gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the honour," Agarwala said, reacting to the honour.

The Padma Shri recognises Agarwala's accomplishments as a visionary corporate leader and philanthropist and his immense contribution to trade, industry, and society. He is the driving force behind the Rupa Group and has led the Group with a great deal of success and aplomb for over four decades. He has also played a critical role in the growth of the Indian hosiery industry.

This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kolhapur/ Pune (Maharashtra) [India], February 1 (ANI/PRNewswire): Star Localmart, the retail arm of Sanjay Ghodawat Group (SGG), celebrates the opening of its 50th store, marking a significant milestone for the company.

With strategically placed locations across Maharashtra and Karnataka, it is delighted to mark the launch of its 48th, 49th, and 50th stores in Uttamnagar-Pune, Narhe-Pune, and Vivekanand-Kolhapur, respectively. The inauguration of its 50th store at Kolhapur was graced by the presence of Sanjay D. Ghodawat, (Founder & Chairman - SGG) along with other prominent dignitaries.

"Our growth is a testament to the efforts and ingenuity of the entire Star Localmart family. I am proud and thrilled to witness such a response and acceptance by the customers. Throughout its growth, Star Localmart has remained true to its mission - to change and nurture the lives of consumers - one neighborhood at a time. We hope to continue our commitment to elevating the retail experience for customers around the country," said Sanjay D. Ghodawat, the Founder & Chairman of SGG.

Living up to its novel idea of a 21st century retail franchise model by empowering local resources, Star Localmart aims to enhance the lives of consumers with great discounts, quality products, and excellent customer care that ensures an unparalleled experience. Its concept stands out since it generates local employment, space for local companies to exhibit their products and promoting local entrepreneurship.

To mark this occasion, Shrenik Ghodawat, Managing Director - Ghodawat Consumer Ltd. said, "The opening of Star Localmart's 50th store is a proud moment for all our stakeholders and employees. This past year has led us to achieve incredible feats that promises our customers an exquisite shopping experience. Understanding the fact that consumers seek a shopping environment that promises hygiene as well as ease and convenience, we hope to continue expanding our footprint in towns and villages across the country."

Star Localmart currently operates 50 retail stores across parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka like Kolhapur, Pune, Sangli, Ichalkaranji, Ratnagiri, Miraj, Belgavi, Bagalkot, and other locations. Along with seeking to generate 25,000 employment opportunities, it aims to launch 3000 stores by FY25. Star Localmart is an exceptionally proficient one-stop shopping destination for consumers looking for high quality and low-cost daily shopping needs like grocery and other domestic requirements.

Sanjay Ghodawat Group (SGG) is a prominent Indian business conglomerate that has a presence in various high-value business verticals. Aviation, Consumer Products, Education, Energy, Mining, Realty, Retail, and Textiles are some of its key business domains. SGG was founded in 1993 and since then it has witnessed impressive growth under the splendid stewardship of its Founder and Chairman- Sanjay Ghodawat.

It has a strong base of millions of customers globally, an employee strength of over 10,000, and a student base of over 16,000. SGG is moving ahead with great vigor and bringing significant changes in people's lives with its wide range of high-quality products and services.

This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)

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Burley, ID (83318)

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New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI/SRV): ZYRO, one of the nation's most reliable and renowned digital payment service providers, is all set to upgrade its service offerings for business concerns.

The updated pay in and pay-out services provided by ZYRO will be serving as a one-stop solution to all kinds of amount transfers, enhanced management of inflow and outflow of funds for the business firms.

One of the major highlights of the ZYRO platform for businesses is the simple yet super effective dashboard. The dashboard makes use of enhanced graphics and provides constricted but well-detailed data that the user wants to know at a glance.

The software is designed with the help of Gen-Z technology, which can be easily picked up within no time. The platform also provides the best in the class safety and security measures without complicating the daily operations of the business.

ZYRO understands that certain businesses may have to be functional 24x7 on all 365 days. The software is set to offer all of its services without any breaks. The advanced payment processing system can handle the transfer of bulk amounts within seconds.

This remarkable initiative by ZYRO is highly anticipated to be a huge success among the business concerns of all kinds and sectors. The unique and wide variety of services provided by ZYRO will also be a great addition to the active functional business firms to easily and efficiently manage their day-to-day inflow and outflow of funds.

Business firms operating in the contemporary scenario is in dire need of something more that will enhance their business activities and save them time, effort and money. They are usually engaged in a constant lookout for the key to saving the trio effectively without any further disposal of valuable resources.

One of the biggest highlights of the ZYRO platform is that it provides the user with all kinds of updates and notifications in real-time. In this way, the business will never miss out on any necessary update on the transaction processed or fund transferred.

Enhancing the notification feature, the ZYRO platform also offers the users an additional feature that will automatically remind the user about all the types of payments that are due. The funds can be transferred with a single click.

The smooth and highly user-friendly interface of the software makes the managing of different accounts a walk in the park. Multiple virtual accounts can be created in the platform with the click of a mouse and assigned the roles by filling in the details within no time.

These user profiles come in handy whenever a transaction needs to be made or scheduled for a specific date. These accounts can be created and even deleted after use to prevent the interface from becoming hectic.

Another important highlight of the ZYRO software is the detailed reports provided by them for the virtual accounts and the transactions made. It includes the creation of invoices, adding data to the passbook, unique reports for different kinds of transactions made, etc., delivered by the software itself.

These real-time reports are highly beneficial for accounting and calculating purposes that need validation. The firm can also earn instant cashback and other rewards by using ZYRO. As the platform offers a minimal failure rate in transactions, the smoothness in its operation is maintained thoroughly.

ZYRO Pay-in/Pay-out Feature will be a great addition to the business venture, especially the ones in need of enhanced management and control over their daily transactions. The platform will be adding more features to make the job even more hassle-free for the business concerns.

To know more visit - (https://myzyro.com)

This story is provided by SRV. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)

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It appears that the JRDs silent prayer has been answered. Last Thursday, the airline took off from the government s runway and landed in the founders fold, shedding the air of lethargy too.

The government gave the airline back to Tatas after about seven decades -- a period marked by inefficiency which plunged the airline into a huge debt. As on August 31, 2021, the airlines total debt was Rs 61,562 crore. also had about Rs 15,000 crore excess liabilities towards unpaid fuel bills and other operational creditors.

But as takes off to reclaim its lost glory under the Tata Group, it will face turbulence in the form of major challenges that need to be addressed.

For one thing, the Tatas have taken over the airline at the worst possible time. According to media reports, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and high fuel costs, Indias airlines are forecast to be headed for their biggest-ever loss of over 20,000 crore rupees in this financial year.

The airline never made a profit since its merger with Indian Airlines in 2007-08. In fact, it reported a loss of 7,017 crore rupees in FY21.

Now that they are back in Air Indias cockpit, the Tatas aim to provide enhanced in-flight services and improved on-time performance.

They also have to foster corporate culture among the airlines employees. According to a business daily, issues such as older aircraft and inferior cabin products also need to be addressed.

Next comes the upgrade and maintenance of the fleet. While has a fleet of 141 aircraft, a mix of narrow and wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft, the airline has agreed to hand over only 118 of them in fly-worthy condition to Tatas.

Air India also faces a severe shortage of parts and engines for the 787 fleet.

Tatas have found that at any given time, there were at least five 787s lying unused due to the unavailability of engines.
Chinese ambassador extends new year greetings to Chinese workers in Cuba

Xinhua) 17:38, February 01, 2022

HAVANA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Cuba Ma Hui sent his best wishes to Chinese workers in Cuba on the occasion of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Chinese embassy in Cuba said on Sunday.

"At the time of the Chinese New Year, most Chinese working overseas will miss their families, their home as it's an occasion for family reunion, so I came here to wish you a Happy New Year," he said during a visit to an operation site of Chinese Greatwall Drilling Company in Matanzas on Friday.

Noting that China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades and good brothers, the ambassador said that China-Cuba relations are of special significance.

Maria Hernandez, head of business and public relations at the central division of Cupet, Cuba's national oil company and main partner of the Chinese drilling company, told Xinhua that the Chinese company has demonstrated high professional standards.

"Up to date, Greatwall has helped us a lot, not just in main and difficult wells, but also in production and in assessment and in teaching the workers new ways of drilling and fulfilling oil operations," she said.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- While 90 percent of power is back on Tonga's main island, repairing the undersea cable linking the island nation to the outside world is taking longer than expected, a UN spokesman said on Monday.

On the main island of Tongatapu, 90 percent of power has been restored and efforts continue to clean up ash and to distribute aid to people in need, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

However, UN teams report that the damage to the underwater communications cable is greater than estimated, with repairs to communications expected to take longer than originally anticipated. Work continues to repair communications on the other islands as well, he told a regular briefing.

The spokesman said the world body provides satellite phones to allow government staff to communicate.

He said UN teams based in Tonga and Fiji continue to support recovery after the massive volcanic eruption on Jan. 15, which affected more than 80 percent of Tonga's population of about 100,000. The International Organization for Migration said more than 1,500 people remain displaced.

The UN Children's Fund is shipping from Fiji to Tonga sanitation supplies, such as latrines, helping more than 1,000 families. The World Health Organization works with the government and partners on psychosocial health, water and air safety and the World Food Programme assists on the food front, said Haq. 
Rialto Fire Chief Sean Grayson is returning to his hometown of Nevada City, California to serve as its next chief executive. The Nevada city council appointed him manager on Jan. 26. His start date is Feb. 28.

Grayson has held numerous leadership positions in Rialto, including city manager, public works director, and community services director. He has a Bachelors in business administration and a Masters in public service leadership.

Nevada City is at the crossroads of history and progress; and I cant think of a better place to serve or to call home, said Grayson, as quoted by YubaNet.

Nevada City is about a 500-mile drive north of Rialto. It has a population of around 3,200 and a total budget of $11 million.
BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson of China's top legislature on Tuesday voiced firm opposition to the adoption of a so-called resolution concerning China's human rights conditions by Japan's House of Representatives.

The so-called resolution grossly interfered in China's internal affairs and gravely violated basic norms governing international relations, said You Wenze, spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress.

Such a move undermined the political mutual trust between the two countries and seriously disrupted the improvement and development of China-Japan relations, the spokesperson stressed.

"We firmly oppose Japan's political manipulation under the pretext of 'human rights'," You said, noting that any attempt that interferes in China's internal affairs and undermines China's interests will be met with resolute responses.

To respect and protect human rights is an important principle of China's Constitution and the political, economic, cultural and social rights of Chinese citizens are fully realized, You said.

"Chinese people are in the best position to judge China's human rights condition," the spokesperson stressed, urging Japan to reflect on its records of violating human rights in history. 
In what seems to be a regular occurrence at this point, Mazda has announced a product stoppage anew at their Japanese factories this May.
Local students perform martial arts during a ceremony to mark the Chinese New Year at the Shaolin Temple in Lusaka, Zambia, on Jan. 31, 2022. The first-ever Shaolin Temple in Zambia held a ceremony to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival. (Photo by Martin Mbangweta/Xinhua)

by Elias Shilangwa

LUSAKA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The first-ever Shaolin Temple in Zambia held a ceremony to mark the Chinese lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival.

The ceremony, held on Jan. 30, on the outskirts of Lusaka, the country's capital, attended by the Chinese community in Zambia and some local people, was characterized by a display of Chinese Kungfu by local students and their masters.

The audience was later taken on a conducted tour of the facilities before taking part in a Buddhism ceremony. Fireworks, the burning of incense and the ringing of the bell characterized the event.

Yan Tao, one of the masters, said the Spring Festival was an important period in the Chinese calendar as it signals the end of a year and the start of a new year.

He said the Temple decided to hold the ceremony in keeping with the Chinese tradition and as a way to appreciate the previous year and the New Year.

The Temple opened its doors to the public and started conducting its training in January, with an initial 15 local students.

Apart from teaching them Chinese Kungfu, the students are also being taught the Chinese language, culture which includes how to prepare Chinese dishes.

Victoria Nakazwe is a 22-year-old student who has decided to start learning Chinese martial arts at the Temple and is so far happy with what she is learning.

Nakazwe, who has always dreamt of learning Kungfu after watching Chinese Kungfu actors in films, said she intends to use the knowledge acquired to open her own school and impart the knowledge to others.

"I have always liked Kungfu since my childhood. Whenever I watched the movies and watched the Chinese actors, I always wanted to be like them," she said.

She has since encouraged other young people, especially girls, to consider learning Kungfu, as it will not only help them to have self-defense but to be disciplined as well.

She further said she is enjoying the teachings on how to prepare Chinese food.

Justina Banda, 22, says she decided to join the training because she has always loved Chinese Kungfu.

Banda, who has been undertaking Chinese training for the past year, said she decided to join the training at the Temple because she wanted to perfect her skills and become a trainer of her colleagues in the future.

Construction works of the Temple started in April 2019 and were completed in July 2021. Four monks from the Shaolin Temple in China are at the Temple to conduct the teachings.

Yan Lun, the headmaster of the Temple, said the objectives of the project include teaching Shaolin Kungfu, Chinese culture, helping understand the African culture as well as enhancing the China-Africa friendship. 

A local student performs martial arts during a ceremony to mark the Chinese New Year at the Shaolin Temple in Lusaka, Zambia, on Jan. 31, 2022. The first-ever Shaolin Temple in Zambia held a ceremony to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival. (Photo by Martin Mbangweta/Xinhua)

People ring a bell during a ceremony to mark the Chinese New Year at the Shaolin Temple in Lusaka, Zambia, on Jan. 31, 2022. The first-ever Shaolin Temple in Zambia held a ceremony to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival. (Photo by Martin Mbangweta/Xinhua)
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards talks to the media, July 21, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. Louisiana's top GOP lawmaker weighed taking legislative action Monday, Jan. 31, 2022 against Gov. John Bel Edwards for "gross misconduct and the highest level of deceit" in his response to the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene. House Speaker Rep. Clay Schexnayder's comments followed an Associated Press report that showed the Democratic governor was informed within hours that troopers arresting Greene engaged in a "violent, lengthy struggle" yet he stayed silent for two years as state police told a much different story to the victim's family and in official reports: that Greene died from a crash following a high-speed chase. (AP Photo/Melinda Deslatte, file)
A crane at the N.C. State Port towers over the nearby private docks Monday at the Morehead City waterfront. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to conduct a monitoring project of the Morehead City harbor with funding secured from the bipartisan infrastructure package passed last fall. (Mike Shutak photo)
Glen, NH (03838)

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Some clouds early. Mostly sunny along with windy conditions during the afternoon. High 61F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph..

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Carroll, IA (51401)

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Rain showers in the morning will evolve into a more steady rain in the afternoon. High 53F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

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This has taken me to consider that my reporting should be solutions-based  in other words, not to just identify that theres a problem in the industry, but to talk to experts about how this problem needs to be addressed, Kamel said.

Thousands of airline employees pilots, flight attendants, gate attendants, and ground crew  were furloughed or terminated as travel shut down early in the pandemic. Those whose jobs survived had erratic schedules and concerns for their own health when flights resumed, and they often had to deal with a surge in uncooperative or even combative passengers while in the air. Stressful jobs became even more so, leading to anxiety and depression for many.

For her fellowship project, Kamel looked at the mental health of those in the commercial airline industry.

Journalist Deena Kamel has spent the last year looking at the mental health of airline employees. Kamel, a 2020-2021 recipient of a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism , is a business reporter at The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi whose beat focuses mainly on aviation and transportation. As Rosalynn Carter fellows, she and a cohort of journalists received resources and guidance to pursue the mental health topics of their choosing. The idea is that knowledgeable reporting on mental health issues can help reduce their stigma.

The travel industry was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Business and leisure travel stopped abruptly and have yet to fully recover. While many of us wondered last year when we might take our next airplane trip to visit far-flung family and friends, those who work in the airline industry feared for their jobs and health.

Kamel said a study done in the United Kingdom found that members of the airline industry were more likely to suffer problems with mental health than the general public. About 58% of cabin crew surveyed were likely to suffer from moderate depression, compared with 23% of the U.K. general population, the study found. Many interviewees told Kamel they were reluctant to report mental health problems out of fear of losing their jobs or future opportunities.

Regulators do not require airlines to provide any mental health support for their employees. In fact, employees with mental health issues fear being discovered and deemed a safety liability for their employers, so they hide their conditions and dont seek help, Kamel said.

A lot of people said, just as airlines have to make their planes airworthy when they start flying again, they also have to make their people airworthy by helping them cope with mental health issues, Kamel said.

Kamel said her year as a fellow changed the way she approaches her job.

The fellowship has really got me thinking about ways of covering business news and my beat as an aviation reporter while also tackling mental health issues, she said. What that has meant is finding mental health angles that I previously had not thought of more and more asking questions related to mental health, where relevant. Im also conscious of the need to keep doing this beyond the year of the fellowship because it adds an extra layer of depth and understanding to the reporting, which Ive really come to value.

Its changed the way she approaches life, too.

On a personal sphere, doing the fellowship in the year that weve had has really helped me to talk the talk and walk the walk, Kamel said. Its really got me thinking about my own mental health journey, dealing with issues of anxiety and depression and being able to seek help for that, whether thats talk therapy, meditation, breath work, whatever was needed to tackle this head on, having the courage to talk about it with more people, and finding there is less shame around doing so.

Kamel is currently finishing up her research and reporting, which will culminate in a two-part series for The National. The reporter said she started out expecting to tell a doom-and-gloom story.

But it really wasnt at all, she said. People will surprise you with their resilience.

Related Resources

Applications Open for 2022-23 Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism

Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism
Photo: Canadian Press Trucks line up on the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, Ont. as they enter the United States on Wednesday Oct. 21, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

The federal vaccine mandate has disqualified 8,000 to 16,000 Canadian truckers from crossing the Canada-U.S. border, leading a shortage food at the grocers

In many parts of the country, Canadians report a growing number of empty store shelves. Its also happening in the United States and many other parts of the industrialized world.

Before the COVID-19 Omicron variant arrived, empty shelves were visible but few shoppers noticed. They were sporadic in the fall as supply-chain woes continued, and our food industry was essentially experiencing supply-chain fatigue. After many months of dealing with public health protocols, labour issues and higher input costs (which tends to create more tension across the supply chain), something had to give.

Due to its viral viciousness, Omicron made matters worse. From farm to store, most food companies have been operating with 20 to 30 per cent fewer people available to work. And most of the time, the labour involves perishable goods. For many farmers, processors and retailers, waiting just isnt an option.

The storyline for January 2022 at the grocery store wasn't the same as it was in March 2020. Far from it. Most worrying, supply-chain issues were the driving factor behind food shortages and rising costs  not consumer demand.

Almost two years ago, shortages of toilet paper and food resulted from consumer panic, coupled with a collapsing food service industry. This time, supply-chain challenges are driven by Omicron, winter weather and, of course, public health measures at the border.

Nevertheless, while Omicron was a gut punch to the food industry, vaccine mandates for truckers are robbing the industry of the oxygen it desperately needs.

Canadians likely underappreciate how critical the border is to North Americas food security. Whether youre for or against global trade, Canada has an unforgiving northern climate, along with a moderate population size living in one of the worlds largest geographic areas. Unless a sector builds a significant competitive advantage  and some have  its difficult to produce food in Canada while maintaining consumer affordability.

The vaccine mandate disqualified 8,000 to 16,000 Canadian truckers from crossing the border; on the American side, about 125,000 drivers cant cross. With such a significant shortage of drivers, food access will undoubtedly become an issue.

Food will likely continue to be brought across the border, but we should expect it to be more costly. Motivating truckers to cover the Canadian market will likely come at a price. Reports suggest that getting a truck to cover the Canadian market is 25 per cent more expensive than it was just a few days ago.

Higher logistical costs, like anything else involving the supply chain, will catch up to consumers. Thats the reality of supply chain economics. And with fewer drivers, major buyers will be prioritized over smaller ones. Many processors will have a harder time getting the ingredients they need to manufacture the food we buy every day, on both sides of the border.

With food distribution, short-sighted government interference can generate market failures, more disruptions and more empty shelves at the grocery store.

However, the food industry has dealt with a lot over the past several decades. The pandemic has been challenging, but the industry has continued to execute and deliver the goods, despite some government-level lack of forethought.

The regulatory environment has always been a pain for the food industry and always will be. The pandemic is no different. So Canadians shouldnt underestimate how resilient our food industry is. Consumers may not always find what they want, but they will always find what they need at the grocery store.

The trucker convoy (in part) against vaccine mandates at the border has raised more than $8 million. The convoy arrived in Ottawa on the weekend. Its supporters blame news outlets for the collective COVID-19 hysteria, as its called. Truckers have every right to protest but transporting goods is what we need them to do. The convoy isnt likely to make much of a difference.

Meanwhile, Canadian consumers should know they will be fine. Operations across the supply chain are incredibly choppy but consumers will continue to find what they need, albeit with fewer choices.

Some of the choppiness is policy-induced, but it is what it is. Still, expecting perfection at the grocery store for the next little while would be unreasonable.

Sylvain Charlebois is senior director of the agri-food analytics lab and a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: The Canadian Press Craig James, former clerk of the British Columbia legislature, leaves B.C. Supreme Court during a break from his trial in Vancouver, B.C., Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. The former deputy clerk of the B.C. legislative assembly says she received assurances from other senior government officials about the validity of a retirement allowance before returning her portion. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The former deputy clerk of the British Columbia legislative assembly told a trial that before she returned a retirement allowance she had received assurances from government officials that it was a valid claim.

The $258,000 retirement allowance that her then-boss, former clerk Craig James, received in 2012 is the largest among several payments that are subject to criminal allegations of misspending that James denies.

The B.C. Supreme Court trial has heard outstanding claims to the 1984 benefit were paid out to protect the legislative assembly from liability and that the auditor general's office raised concerns about the substantial payments in 2013.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd, who was James' junior at the time but now holds the top title of clerk, told the court that when she became concerned about her eligibility for a $118,000 payment, she approached both then-Speaker Bill Barisoff and George McMinn, James's predecessor.

Ryan-Lloyd testified under cross-examination that McMinn told her she should trust James if he had consulted both a lawyer and the Speaker, while Barisoff said her eligibility was based on "sound legal advice."

She previously testified that she returned the funds in 2013 after James didn't give her a copy of a written legal opinion supporting the payouts even though she'd asked several times for the information.

Ryan-Lloyd has said she felt "uncomfortable" with the large payment and that it was "not right."

"After speaking with Mr. McMinn, you spoke with Mr. Barisoff and he assured you he was supportive to terminate the retirement benefit and had legal advice you were eligible. The Speaker gave you the impression this was the correct step to take and he was a careful steward of public funds, is that fair," defence lawyer Gavin Cameron asked Ryan-Lloyd.

"Yes," she responded.

She did not try to contact the lawyer consulted by James directly, she said.

James has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud over $5,000 and three counts of breach of trust by a public officer.

The allegations stem from his time serving as clerk, a role likened in court to the CEO of the legislature, from 2011 until he was placed on administrative leave in 2018.

The Crown is arguing the case against him rests on three main areas: his claim to the retirement benefit, the purchase with public funds of a trailer and wood splitter, and travel expense claims.

The court has heard the $3,200 wood splitter and $10,000 trailer were purchased in the name of emergency preparedness so they could be used in case of an earthquake or other disaster to build fires, shelters and remove debris.

Crown prosecutor David Butcher has argued that their storage at James's home would make them "utterly useless" in case of emergency at the legislature.

One of James's neighbours, James Cassels, testified Monday that he saw both a trailer and wood splitter on the property across from his home.

He said he never saw or heard the wood splitter being used by James.
(Kelowna-Lake Country Conservative MP) Tracy Gray is representing everything that is wrong with politicians and has shown us that all any of them do is (complain) about the other (party).

Give us an idea about how to fix the problem. Work like an adult, with people you dont like or respect, towards finding solutions to the issues that we, as Canadians, are facing.

Im not fond of (Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau or (Conservative leader Erin) OToole either.

Tim Lyons
Re.: MP slams protest coverage (Castanet, Jan 31)

I think it's time we all finally admit (Kelowna-Lake Country MP) Tracy Gray is an embarrassment to the whole of Kelowna and, by extension, Canada.

Gray was walking through the protests happening in Ottawa, mingling with folks who are carrying Nazi flags and claiming that only some of these people are bad.

I'm just spitballing here but if Nazis see your rally as a safe place to express their political opinion, then you need to re-evaluate your stance.

This is something Gray refuses to do. She is taking a page right out of the (former U.S. president) Donald Trumps playbook and attacking the media. She is arguing right now that the media shouldn't be focusing on the negative, as if the public shouldn't know that these protesters are carrying Nazi flags, desecrating national landmarks and harassing a soup kitchens staff.

Gray is also trying to spin a false narrative that half of these folks were vaccinated. The protesters telling her that they're vaccinated doesn't mean that they're really vaccinated.

Let's be real here, this was an anti-vaccine mandate rally. The protesters are trying to feign bipartisanship to make it seem like this isn't a fringe issue. Well, here's a newsflashabout 90% of Canadians are vaccinated. Anti-vax is a fringe belief.

George Stevenson
THE Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) has written to prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa asking her to explain utterances she allegedly made in 2018 suggesting that Chief Justice Luke Malaba was captured.

Mtetwa is alleged to have made the remarks while talking to fellow lawyer Tinomudaishe Chinyoka as they left the court chambers where she had represented the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) which was demanding a public broadcast of opposition leader Nelson Chamisas challenge to the presidential election results.

Chinyoka represented the State in the matter.

In a letter dated January 24 this year, LSZ asked Mtetwa to explain herself after Chinyoka lodged a complaint to the lawyers body.

In the attached complaint, it is alleged that sometime in August 2018 you attended a hearing in the Chief Justices

Chambers at the Constitutional Court. The complainant was acting on behalf of his Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa in an application filed by Misa Zimbabwe, read the LSZ letter.

It is alleged that you were the legal counsel for the applicant. It is further alleged that on your way out of the chambers, you shouted: This is a case that I do not mind losing because we all know that the Chief Justice is captured. It is alleged that these words cast serious aspersions on the office of the Chief Justice and the Judiciary.

LSZ said Mtetwas professional conduct pointed to a possible contravention of section 23(2)(a) of the Legal Practitioners Act (Chapter 27:07) as read with by-law 3(20) and (21) of the Legal Practitioners (Code of Conduct) By-Laws Statutory Instrument 37 of 2018.

She was ordered to respond within 14 days, failing which the matter would be forwarded to the LSZs disciplinary and ethics committee.

In his letter, Chinyoka said Mtetwas remarks had cast serious aspersions on the independence and integrity of Chief Justice Malaba, and the Judiciary.

Mtetwa yesterday said she would respond to the letter accordingly.

Yes, I received the letter and I will respond to it accordingly. I have 14 days to respond to it, Mtetwa said. Newsday
Photo: The Canadian Press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes part in a joint press conference with Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. Johnson arrived in Kyiv for scheduled talks with Zelenskyy amid rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia. (Peter Nicholls/Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russias top security demands but said Moscow is willing to talk more to ease tensions over Ukraine.

The comments were his first on the standoff in more than a month and suggested a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine may not be imminent and that at least one more round of diplomacy is likely.

Yet the two sides remain unyielding in their main positions, and there was little apparent hope for concessions. Russia is expected to respond soon to a U.S. proposal for negotiations on lesser Russian demands after which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak.

Lavrov and Blinken spoke Tuesday and reiterated positions put forward by Putin and President Joe Biden. The White House said Biden and Putin could also speak once the U.S. receives Russias response.

In remarks to reporters at a Moscow news conference with the visiting leader of NATO ally Hungary, Putin said the Kremlin is still studying the U.S. and NATOs response to the Russian security demands received last week. But he said it was clear that the West has ignored Russian demands that NATO not expand to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, refrain from deploying offensive weapons near Russia and roll back its deployments to Eastern Europe.

Putin argued that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if the interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account. I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that it's not going to be easy, Putin said.

Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops along the border of Ukraine, fueling fears of an invasion. It has denied any intention to attack.

Washington and its allies have rejected Moscow's key demands. They emphasize that Ukraine, like any other nation, has the right to choose alliances, although it is not a NATO member now and is unlikely to join any time soon.

Putin said the Western allies refusal to meet Russia's demands violates their obligations on the integrity of security for all nations. He warned that a Ukrainian accession to NATO could lead to a situation where Ukraine launches military action to reclaim control over Russian-annexed Crimea or areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in the country's east.

Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations, Putin said. Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the country's Moscow-friendly president and later threw its weight behind rebels in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, triggering a conflict that has killed over 14,000 people.

Putin charged that while the U.S. airs concerns about Ukraines security, it is using the ex-Soviet country as an instrument in its efforts to contain Russia.

He alleged that Washington may try to draw us into a military conflict and force its allies in Europe to impose the tough sanctions the U.S. is talking about now. Another possible option would be to draw Ukraine into NATO, deploy offensive weapons there" and encourage Ukrainian nationalists to use force to reclaim the rebel-held east or Crimea, drawing us into a military conflict, Putin claimed.

Speaking after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who has forged closer ties with Moscow than almost any other NATO member, Putin noted that it's still possible to negotiate a settlement that would take every party's concerns into account.

We need to find a way to ensure interests and security of all parties, including Ukraine, European nations and Russia," Putin said, emphasizing that the West needs to treat Russian proposals seriously to make progress.

He said French President Emmanuel Macron may soon visit Moscow as part of renewed diplomatic efforts following their call on Monday.

In a bid to exert pressure on the West, Lavrov sent letters to the U.S. and other Western counterparts pointing out their past obligations signed by all members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a top trans-Atlantic security grouping.

Russia has argued that NATO's expansion eastward has hurt Russia's security, violating the principle of indivisibility of security endorsed by the OSCE in 1999 and 2010. It says the U.S. and its allies have ignored the principle that the security of one nation should not be strengthened at the expense of others, while insisting on every nation's right to choose alliances.

In his letter, which was released by the foreign ministry, Lavrov said there must be security for all or there will be no security for anyone." And in his call with Blinken, Lavrov warned that Moscow will not allow Washington to hush up the issue.

Blinken, meanwhile, emphasized the U.S. willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns. However, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken was resolute in "the U.S. commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances.

Blinken "urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraines borders, Price said. He reaffirmed that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path.

Senior State Department officials described the call as professional and fairly candid, noting that if Russia wanted to prove it isn't going to invade Ukraine, it should withdraw its troops from the border and neighboring Belarus.

Shortly after speaking to Lavrov, Blinken convened a conference call with the secretary general of NATO, the EU foreign policy chief and the chairman-in-office of the OSCE as part of efforts to ensure that the allies are engaged in any further contacts with Russia.

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the U.S. statement about its readiness for dialogue doesn't correlate with Washington sending planeloads of military equipment to Ukraine.

I dont know why the U.S. is escalating tensions and at the same time accusing Russia," he said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv for scheduled talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Johnson said the U.K. has a package of measures including sanctions ready to go the moment the first Russian toecap crosses further into Ukrainian territory.

It is vital that Russia steps back and chooses a path of diplomacy, and I believe that is still possible, Johnson said. "We are keen to engage in dialogue, of course we are. But we have the sanctions ready.

He said he would have a call with Putin on Wednesday, noting that the Russian leader was trying to impose a new Yalta, new zones of influence" in a reference to the 1945 deal between the allied powers. "And it would not just be Ukraine that was drawn back into the Russian sphere of influence, Johnson added.

In other developments, Biden was expected to nominate career foreign service officer Bridget Brink to assume the long-vacant diplomatic post of American ambassador to Ukraine, according to a U.S. official familiar with the decision. Brink currently serves as the ambassador to Slovakia.
Photo: The Canadian Press New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh responds to a question during a news conference, Dec. 7, 2021 in Ottawa. Singh is preparing to give his backing to a bill decriminalizing the possession of drugs for personal use this week, in a bid to prevent overdoses and toxic drug deaths. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The federal NDP hopes to push the government to take stronger action on the opioid crisis with a new private member's bill decriminalizing the possession of drugs for personal use.

Leader Jagmeet Singh is putting his weight behind the bill, tabled by his NDP colleague Gord Johns, decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs including cocaine and heroin.

Singh says changing the law will make it easier to help drug addicts, treating them as people with a health problem, rather than criminals. He says 20,000 Canadians have died of an overdose over the last five years.

A private member's bill, especially when put forward by an opposition MP, has a lower chance of surviving the legislative steps to become law. NDP MP Don Davies introduced a similar bill last year which fizzled out.

But the party hopes this legislation will be debated and possibly even put to a vote, after Johns came in fourth in a random draw to determine the order of precedence for private member's bills in this Parliament.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created his new cabinet last fall, he established a new mental health and addictions minister, Carolyn Bennett, and tasked her with forming policies to tackle a spike in opioid addiction.

Maja Staka, a spokeswoman for Bennett, says the government is committed to improving safe supply and using resources to divert people who use drugs away from the criminal justice system.

The government is currently reviewing an application by British Columbia to remove criminal penalties for people who possess small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use.
Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has alleged that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and the federal government is responsible for the current gas crisis.

KCCI on Monday blamed Prime Minister Imran Khan for the continuing winter gas crisis in Sindh that is inflicting Rs 41 billion manufacturing losses a day on the city's industrial sector, as noted by Business Recorder.

The KCCI also held Hammad Azhar, Federal Minister Ministry for Energy, Petroleum Division responsible for the prevailing gas shortage in Sindh, which it reckons, is also causing Rs20 billion export losses per day to the country from Karachi.

The KCCI also set an ultimatum of 72 hours for its protest in front of the SSGC office in the city, if gas supplies did not restore to industries.

"Prime Minister Imran Khan should take notice of the gas crisis," that brought Karachi's industrial units on the verge of permanent closure, Zubair Motiwala, Chairman, Businessmen Group told a joint news conference at the KCCI.

Earlier, the gas cuts to the city's industrial units now have been for over 100 days during the winter season, he said adding that the key input shortage is causing troubles for the manufacturing sector to meet its international export commitments on time, besides paying off banks loans, according to Business Recorder.

Karachi's industrial need for gas stands 39 per cent and it can be filled through Sindh's production share alone without burdening or exhausting other such resources.

Gas supply pressure is low to reach industries properly, he said adding that the input utility crisis brought the city's manufacturing sector growth to stagnation that holds back 20 million job. He also called the federal government "non-serious" to heed Karachi-based exporters' concerns on gas cuts, as noted by Business Recorder.

(ANI)
As Hong Kong has no military of its own, the local authorities may request China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) garrison for aid in preserving public order, bringing the city under Beijing's tight control, reported Singapore Post.

In a recent key development, according to China's military, the PLA garrison in Hong Kong will be led by the former chief of internal security in the Xinjiang province Major General PengJingtang's.

Xinjiang is the region where China has incarcerated hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in political re-education centres.

According to a government press release, Peng met Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who told him that her government would work with the garrison to "jointly safeguard the nation's sovereignty, security, and development interests and help maintain the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong", reported The Singapore Post.

Notably, Protesters and dissidents in Hong Kong are being labelled "terrorists", according to critics and this appointment of Peng may imply a tougher stance on alleged terrorist activities in Hong Kong.

Not only this but even the candidates who were not loyal to Beijing were forbidden from standing in the local Legislative Council elections.

After anti-government protests in 2019, China enacted a National Security Law on Hong Kong resulting in the arrest, intimidation, and exile of most opposition figures, reported Singapore post.

Many media organizations were also being raided by the authorities following employee detention and asset seizures.

(ANI)

Also Read: Joe Biden tells emir he will make Qatar major non-NATO ally
After a blizzard of omicron coronavirus cases buried New York this winter, shattering holiday plans, hammering hospitals and weakening workplaces, the sun is poking out over the pandemic, Gov. Hochul said Tuesday.

This winter surge is melting away, Hochul said at North Central Bronx Hospital, hailing a statewide daily case count that plunged by 92% in three weeks, and a daily city positivity rate that descended to about 4%. The numbers are trending down.

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But even as she celebrated beautiful sights reflected in recent COVID tallies, the governor noted the job is not yet finished, continuing to call for vaccine shots for kids and booster jabs for adults.

Hochul, whose statewide indoor mask mandate remains in effect after a court temporarily upheld it on Monday amid a legal challenge, reaffirmed that the government will continue to take the virus seriously.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul (Don Polllard)

This is not saying its over, Hochul said. I still want more New Yorkers to get that second dose.

More than 60% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 have not received a single shot, according to state data. Childhood vaccination rates have remained stubborn even as authorities press parents to immunize their kids.

The mask mandate, implemented in mid-December, is set to expire on Feb. 10.

On Monday, Hochul hailed a decision by the state Supreme Court Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department, that maintained a stay of the mandate pending an appeal of a ruling in Nassau County last week that had struck down the mask rule.

People wear masks at an indoor mall in The Oculus in lower Manhattan, New York on December 13, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The one-page Monday decision gave the state the option to continue enforcement until at least March 2 as the legal battle churns.

State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Rademaker had ruled last week that Hochul lacked the authority to implement the mandate without legislative approval. But a state appeals court judge, Justice Robert Miller, granted a stay the next day.

On Monday, the governor issued a statement underscoring her efforts to keep New Yorkers safe.

Hochul said Tuesday that she would not rule out extending the mask mandate beyond Feb. 10. She has already pushed back the end date twice; initially, the mandate was set to lapse on Jan. 15.

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Im going to continue having conversations with the heads of hospitals and continuing our conversations with school superintendents, Hochul told reporters. Were not prepared to throw in the towel and say were done fighting COVID.

Still, the picture in hospitals  which Hochul said has been her greatest concern during the winter wave  has improved dramatically in recent weeks. The states COVID hospitalization count dropped by about 40% in the final two weeks of January.

Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. >

Hochul added that the state was in a much better place and said of the ultimate expiration for the face covering rule: We know its coming.

She said she would consult with health experts in Washington on the decision.

New York States total coronavirus death toll climbed by more than 4,800 in January, a devastating figure that dragged the states overall pandemic ledger above 66,000.

Daily death rates are dropping as the omicron storm recedes. Hochul announced 122 additional virus fatalities on Tuesday. Were still losing New Yorkers, the governor said.

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But rates of hospital admissions and deaths trail behind new cases, and health experts are hopeful that rapid declines in new infections will give way to a brighter phase of a pandemic that has scarred the states psyche.

The statewide daily test positivity rate, which peaked above 23% in early January, has dipped below 6% in recent days.

We believe were finally turning the corner on the winter wave, Hochul said. Were going to continue preparing, though, for whatever the future brings. That is our responsibility. Always prepare for the worst and be happy when its not that bad  just like you prepare for a big snow storm.
AfriSam executive calls for responsible cement manufacture

01 February 2022

Hannes Meyer, cementitious executive at leading cement producer AfriSam, calls for improved an circular economy, responsible manufacturing practices and a level playing field for South African cement producers on carbon emissions.

To produce this valuable resource, we must start with mining our own deposits. We then process the ingredients through complex technologies that demand considerable financial investment and expertise, he says.

The range of products that result must form part of an intricate supply chain before arriving where it must be used, he says. Almost the entire value chain, however, is local  creating market demand and local job opportunities all along the way.

In addition to the basic requirements of the cement business, South Africa's cement producers are also mineral rights holders who must comply with mining regulations, which includes Social and Labour Plans," he added. "In addition to normal business legislation, we must go the extra mile to promote development in and around the communities where we operate.

Added to the industrys responsibilities, he notes, is the growing pressure on all South African businesses to reduce carbon emissions. However, the governments recent carbon tax has created a further imbalance in the market that disadvantages local players. With the wholesale import of cement from countries unencumbered by a carbon tax, there is no level playing field for responsible local manufacturers who are often undercut by imports not governed by our rules, he says.

The danger of further weakening the South African base of responsible manufacturers, he says, is that the country will need to rely mainly on its own internal capacity if it wants to generate inclusive and sustainable economic growth into the future. With government hoping to raise infrastructure expenditure, there must be strong local construction expertise and products to implement these projects.

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South African cement imports up 19% in 11M21

ICR Newsroom By 01 February 2022

Cement imports into South Africa surged to their highest level in 2021 as they reached 161,555t in November despite the government drive to use domestically-produced product and banning imported cement from public sector construction projects.



In October 2021 imports were significantly lower at 34,964t, down from 151,452t in the previous month.



In the 11M21 imports volumes expanded 18.7 per cent YoY to 1.097Mt with product coming mainly from Vietnam and Pakistan.

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hosting an open house of the Washington, DC temple. The temple, an iconic landmark on the Capital Beltway, has undergone a multiyear renovation. It will now be open for public tours for the first time since 1974, prior to being rededicated.The temple will close to the public after it is rededication on Aug. 14. The rededication was originally scheduled for June 19 until it was moved back to accommodate more public tours.Public tours will begin April 28 from 9 a.m.-9 p.m.daily, excluding Sundays. According to officials, within two weeks of inviting the public to come and see the renovated temple, nearly 50 percent of the available parking reservations were filled, and many more people have expressed interest.In response to the publics historic demand to participate in the open house, the First Presidency has decided to extend the open house, as needed, to accommodate all who have a desire to come have a welcoming, safe and orderly experience in this sacred place. We are thankful for the friends and neighbors who are helping to make this open house possible, the First Presidency said in a released statement.Tours are free and tickets are not required. However, a free parking ticket or free shuttle ticket is required to access onsite parking or the free shuttle from the Forest Glen Metro Station. Free parking and/or free shuttle reservations can be made online at www.DCTemple.org Officials said "The Lord has always instructed His people to build temples. The Church has 265 temples  operating, under construction or announced. A temple is a House of the Lord  a sacred place of worship where those who enter learn more about Gods plan of happiness and about Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Isaiah invites, 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in His paths' (Isaiah 2:3)."In temples, individuals make promises to walk in the ways of the Lord, marry for eternity and unite their families forever. In temples, individuals also seek greater direction for their lives and perform baptisms and other ordinances for their loved ones who died without receiving these blessings."This is why temples are holy places. After the open house in which the public may enter and view the rooms, temples are set apart for members who are committed to living gospel standards. Members in the greater Chattanooga area are assigned to the Atlanta temple district, but anyone may participate in the Washington DC open house. We invite all to come and see.
Georgia state health officials reported on Monday there have been 97 additional deaths due to the coronavirus. The current total is 27,595.

There are 18,185 new cases reported on Monday, as that total reaches 1,842,500 confirmed cases of coronavirus.



Hospitalizations with the virus are at 103,032, which is an increase of 526 since Friday.

Here are the numbers by county:



Catoosa County: 11,687 cases, up 143; 108 deaths, up 2



Chattooga County: 5,040 cases, up 83; 101 deaths



Dade County: 2,375 cases, up 21; 23 deaths



Walker County: 12,689 cases, up 145; 153 deaths, up 1

Whitfield County: 26,357 cases, up 314; 346 deaths, up 1
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Monday delivered his fourth State of the State address and presented budget and legislative priorities to a joint session of the General Assembly.

Key highlights are noted below, and the full speech as prepared for delivery can be found on the Governors website. A budget overview can be found here.

Due to Tennessees conservative fiscal management, the state has one of the strongest budgetary positions in history. The proposed $52.6 billion budget includes strategic investments in K-12 education, higher education, improving transportation infrastructure and more.

Tennessee stands as a beacon to the rest of the country for how we can change lives when we control the size of government, prioritize efficiency, and make smart and responsible investments," said Governor Lee. "I am proud to propose a budget and America at Its Best policies that reinforce freedom, innovation, exceptionalism and optimism."

Governor Lees address included a bold vision for updating K-12 education funding. This new approach will set aside dollars for each student, based on their individual needs, paying particular attention to students with disabilities, rural students, low income-students, and students with other priority needs. Governor Lees FY23 budget proposes more than $1 billion in new, recurring education spending for public schools across Tennessee.

Additional notable highlights from Governor Lees FY22-23 agenda include:

K-12 Education



Committing to crafting an updated K-12 education funding formula

$750M recurring increase for new K-12 education funding formula

Since new formula will not commence until FY24, these funds will be utilized in FY23 for: CTE improvements in all high schools and middle schools($500M), moving all 14 public schools out of flood plains ($200M) and GIVE and SPARC grants ($50M)

Proposing a new law that will ensure parents know what materials are available to students in their libraries

Proposing new legislation to make computer science and coding available to every high school student in Tennessee.

$2.5M to expand the Future Workforce Initiative

Formalizing a partnership with Hillsdale College to expand their approach to civics education and K-12 education in Tennessee

$124.7M to provide a well-deserved increase into the teacher salary pool

$25.5M in recurring funding to continue successful summer learning camps

$16M recurring and $16M nonrecurring to the Charter Schools Facility Fund to increase the number of high-quality Charter Schools

Higher Education



$90M to fully-fund the outcomes-based formula, enabling a zero percent tuition increase for public universities

$200M for TCAT infrastructure investments to help double the skilled workforce by 2026

$72M to complete the Oak Ridge Innovation Institute, a partnership with the University of Tennessee to invest in data science and technology, advanced materials, and outcomes-based applications

$6M to establish the Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee

$50M to a Carnegie R1 research fund at the University of Memphis, matched by private donors, to sustain the Universitys R1 designation

$250M in infrastructure improvements at Tennessee State University to mitigate life-safety issues and help improve academic and student campus buildings

$170M to invest in a statewide Enterprise Resource System for the University of Tennessee and the Locally Governed Institutions, permitting more streamlined access to information aimed at better serving students in 21st century educational settings

$75.2M to increase the 4-year HOPE Award to $5,100 per student, per year, and the 2-year HOPE Award to $3,200 per student, per year

Four percent salary pool increase for higher education employees to ensure they attract and retain the best employee base possible

Safe and Secure Tennessee



Adding 100 Highway Patrol Troopers, 20 Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agents, and 25 Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Forensic Science Personnel

Directing the Department of Safety and Homeland Security to create a plan so every house of worship in Tennessee can receive high-quality safety training

$355.6M in a Multi-Agency Law Enforcement Training Academy

$28.4M to fully fund the Correctional Officer salary changes

$66M for the TN Law Enforcement Hiring, Training, and Recruitment program

$179M to complete full construction of Tennessee Advanced Communications Network coverage, ensuring full mobile connectivity across all Tennessee for emergency communications and law enforcement

$150 million to create the Violent Crime Intervention Grant Fund





Rural Tennessee



$82M to reimburse public hospitals for uncompensated care, primarily in rural communities

$26M for Rural Opportunity Grants, helping to get communities ready for corporate investment

$55M to increase access to services across each of the Medicaid Pathways to Independence programs





Healthy Tennessee



$25.5M to provide adult dental benefits for 610,000 Tennesseans eligible for TennCare

$11.8M toward a multiyear commitment to recruit and retain dental providers, as well as provide much-needed dental care for prosthodontic services

$18.6M to attract over 150 new primary care residents

$7M for substance abuse clinical treatment and addiction recovery programs





Supporting Families



Expanding TennCares Health Starts Initiative to put an even greater emphasis on maternal health and holistic care for mothers and children

Expanding funding for relative caregiver placements for children in foster care

Establishing a childcare support program for all foster families, regardless of their DHS eligibility

Infrastructure Modernization



$619M to accelerate projects listed in the IMPROVE Act and invest in transportation projects to ensure economic opportunity

$3.5M to support the Transportation Equity Fund

$4M to enhance litter cleanup on Tennessee highways





Growing Tennessee



$103M for the FastTrack program, ensuring the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has the tools to recruit and retain top companies to call Tennessee home

Formalizing a long-term strategy to develop the Clinch River Nuclear Site





Beautiful Tennessee



$40M to invest in environmental cleanup, including National Priority List sites

$28M to eliminate the deferred maintenance backlog at State Parks

$25M for West TN River Basin projects

Asset Management



$2.541B for higher education and general government capital improvements over the next several years

$214.8M for capital maintenance, ensuring deferred maintenance is addressed within current capital assets

Good Government



Developing the State of Tennessee Excess Property Strategy (STEPS) to eliminate excess state real property and reduce the costs associated with owning unneeded real estate

Reducing employee headcount at departments by five percent without making layoffs


Governor Bill Lee proposed more than $1 billion new recurring funding for K-12 public education in Tennessee during his fourth State of the State Address, including a proposal for a new student-based public education funding formula, innovative school models in middle and high schools, new school buildings to get classrooms out of floodplains, and a $125 million increase for teacher compensation.

Tonight, we heard Governor Bill Lee propose historic investments totaling more than $1 billion for public education to support a comprehensive, responsible plan for improving outcomes for Tennessee students, said Commissioner Penny Schwinn. Governor Lee has made clear his commitment to ensuring high academic expectations on outcomes for Tennessee students by proposing investments that will make it possible to provide the best for all and put all students on a pathway for success.

Governor Bill Lees budget proposals for K-12 public education includes a $750 million investment in public education and for a new student-based funding formula to invest in Tennessee students, a $500 million investment in Innovative School Models in Tennessees middle and high schools, a $200 million investment in communities that have public schools located in floodplains, a $125 million increase in teacher compensation funding, and $32 million in facilities funding for public charter schools.

Officials said, "In his annual State of the State address, Governor Lee committed to proposing a student-based K-12 public school funding formulaimproving the way Tennessee funds public schools for the first time in more than 30 years.

"Crafted with input from thousands of Tennesseans, the proposed funding formula would allocate funding to districts according to the needs of individual students and will provide greater public transparency around how state funds are spent to support student learning and success.

"Building upon the states strong commitment to ensure Tennessee is future workforce ready, Governor Bill Lee is proposing an historic investment to bring innovative school models programs to every high school and middle school in the state, helping ensure students are better prepared, earlier on, to make decisions about their futures.

"By expanding Tennessees Innovative School Models aimed at building readiness and preparing students for success after high school, more students will have opportunities to participate in participate in innovative local programs aligned to Tennessees highest-demand skills and careers."

"The future of innovative programs to boost student readiness is now brighter than ever, said Dr. Jean Luna, Chief of Student Readiness, Tennessee Department of Education. Through reimagining the high school experience, expanding access to courses, and engaging younger students in career exploration, we will continue to build our pipeline and keep our states workforce strong.

Officials stated, "Over a weekend in August 2021, several middle Tennessee counties were severely impacted by devastating flooding that destroyed lives, homes, buildings, and schools. Fortunately, classrooms and schools that were filled with feet of water within minutes were generally empty.

"Tennessee is committed to providing our students with safe and modern facilities to grow and learn. Governor Lee is proposing $200 million in funding toward contributions to communities that want to relocate public schools in floodplains and get their classrooms out of risk of predictable catastrophic flooding.

"Risk of flood is more predictable than other natural disasters like tornadoes or hurricanes, and floodplains outline where risk of damage can be expected. Currently there are 14 public schools in Tennessee in a floodplain susceptible to being severely damaged or destroyed by future flooding.

"With the use of state and one-time federal relief funds, Tennessee has the opportunity to proactively address anticipated risks to our students and schools and help rebuild schools in locations not susceptible to predicted flooding."

Our state is committed to ensuring our students are able to learn in safe and modern school buildings and classrooms, said Shannon Gordon, Chief Operating Officer, Tennessee Department of Education. We want to minimize the impact of future flooding on our school buildings to keep our students and educators safe and focused on learning and accelerating achievement.

Governor Lee has proposed an increase of $125 million to the amount of state funding available for teacher pay increases for the coming fiscal year.



He said, "Educators are important to the success of our schools and success of our students. In classrooms every day, Tennessee teachers rise to the occasion to meet the needs of all students and provide them with a quality education."

Officials said, "Governor Lee continues his commitment to supporting public charter schools by allocating $32 million in facilities funding for Tennessee's charter schools."

Additional resources on the Governors State of the State address can be found here.
Battling back from a 13-point deficit, the No. 7/5 Lady Vols defeated Arkansas 86-83 in overtime Monday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.



Tennessee (19-2, 8-1 SEC) found key offense from a number of contributors, Jordan Horston scored 24 points, Rae Burrell was clutch down the stretch, sinking 17 of her 21 points in the second half and overtime. Tamari Key got it done at the line, making a career-best eight free throws in a 14-point night.



Horston's energy showed on both ends of the floor as she pulled down 11 rebounds and tallied 40 minutes on the floor, a career-high. It was Horston's 10th double-double of the year, entering tonight only 26 players in Division I had 10 or more double-doubles and only eight play at Power 5 programs.



Another big night came from Sara Puckett of the bench. The freshman logged 10 points and a career-high 10 boards, nine coming on the defensive end, for her first career double-doubles. She blocked two shots, her first game with multiple swats at Tennessee.



Tennessee kicked into gear in the fourth quarter, taking its first lead of the game with 7:46 left in the fourth quarter. The Razorbacks (14-7, 4-4 SEC) hung around as the teams went back-and-forth with six lead changes and four ties in the final period of regulation. The Lady Vols owned the boards, pulling down 60. Monday night's contest marked the first SEC game with 60 rebounds or more since the Lady Vols had 62 against Ole Miss on Feb. 6, 2003. It also marked the first time since the 2013-14 season the Lady Vols had three games with 60 or more boards.



Arkansas' offense was powered by Amber Ramirez who scored 29 points on 9-of-17 shooting and 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.



The first quarter was a battle with both offenses creating chances and converting through some tough defense. The Lady Vols made an offensive push in the middle of the period, going on a 10-3 run lasting four minutes and 39 seconds. Six different Lady Vols also got in the score column in the period.



Tennessee's offense was held in check in the second quarter, scoring 13 in the frame, but the defense kept it to within three possessions. Alexus Dye gave the Lady Vols some momentum going into the half as she tipped in a put-back layup as the horn sounded, cutting the Arkansas advantage to 41-32, at the break.



The Lady Vols started to find some offensive rhythm in the middle of the third quarter, scoring in three straight possessions. Puckett knocked down a 3-pointer with 66 seconds left in the quarter to put some life in the Big Orange faithful heading to the final frame. Horston found her offensive flow in the quarter, sinking nine points while Jordan Walker added five rebounds out of the backcourt.



Tennessee exploded to start the fourth, Walker knocked down a trey with just under eight minutes left in the game to tie it, then Burrell intercepted a Razorback pass and took it to the rack for the first Lady Vol lead of the game. The fourth finished with both offenses trading blows as there were six lead changes and four times the game was tied up. Key's strong night at the line was on display as she drained two clutch free throws with 26 seconds left.



The Lady Vols take to the road for a two-game swing, starting with Florida on Thursday with tip-off scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Tennessee returns to Rocky Top next Thursday to host Missouri at 6:30 p.m., tickets are on sale now at AllVols.com.
The city's director of communications, Mary Beth Ikard, is leaving after a short tenure.

She was appointed to the post in early August.

Officials said she is "pursuing other opportunities."

Ms. Ikard previously was the director of sustainability for Mayor John Cooper and the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. She was originally appointed in 2015 by then Mayor Megan Barry to advance policy on transit and transportation, in addition to sustainability.

Prior to working in the mayors office, for more than five years she led communications for the Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization - the lead policy, planning, and funding authority for surface transportation throughout the greater-Nashville region. She also directed communications and marketing for Governor Phil Bredesens Books from Birth Foundation, where she generated support for county affiliates of Dolly Partons Imagination Library. While at Katcher Vaughn and Bailey Public Relations, she also worked on BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessees health-prevention programs for children and youth. She began her career in the press office for the late Indiana Governor Frank OBannon, and then moved into public affairs for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

Ms. Ikard holds a B.A. in Journalism from Indiana University and Accreditation in Public Relations, and is an MFA candidate with the Sewanee School of Letters.

Ellis Smith is moving back into the role of working directly with the news media.
When people ask what I do for a living, I tell them that Im a realtor. While most people have an idea of what that entails, they may not be aware of all that happens behind the scenes  property reports, market reports, inspections, lender and appraisal communications and many more daily routines in keeping our clients on track whether they are buying or selling a home. Something a little trickier that I am quickly learning to grasp is the role as President for Greater Chattanooga Realtors.Greater Chattanooga Realtors is the local realtor association representing more than 2,500 members in our area.We service Hamilton and Sequatchie counties in southeast Tennessee and Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties in northwest Georgia. Greater Chattanooga Realtors is the voice for real estate in the greater Chattanooga market and the surrounding areas. Our mission is to promote the highest ethical and professional standards and cooperation among its members; provide products, programs and services to meet the evolving needs of the real estate industry and consumers; and advocate for private property rights and community involvement.That last sentence in our mission statement is especially important to me, as it conveys what realtors do for consumers beyond a real estate transaction  advocate and engage in the conversations and decisions related to polices impacting all property owners, whether commercial or residential. Individually and collectively through our governance process, realtors take an active role in advocacy, regardless of party affiliation.Through our staff and volunteer-driven Governmental Affairs Committee, we monitor proposed policies and legislation for issues that might affect property rights and values, positively or negatively. Its not uncommon to see realtors engaging in the weekly City Council or monthly Regional Planning Commission and County Commission meetings. Realtors travel to the state and national capitol for this exact purpose on our annual Day on the Hill and whenever the need presents itself when issues arise that need our attention.Im thrilled to be returning in person for this years Realtor Day on the Hill, where we will join realtors from across the state to visit with our elected officials at the state capital. And in May, Greater Chattanooga Realtors will travel to Washington D.C. to meet with our federal officials. Getting this one-on-one time with officials is how realtors ensure the needs of property owners across the city, county, state and nation remain top of mind. Our officials know that realtors see the community from a unique perspective, and we appreciate the opportunity to work alongside them.So, what do we talk about during these visits? On the national level, realtors are watching legislation related to tax reform, natural disasters, mortgage and rental assistance and flood insurance, to name a few. In addition, realtors advocated for increased housing access to homebuyers by letting them utilize FHA loans, which they had not been able to do in the past.During our upcoming Nashville meetings, our conversations will touch on a variety of topics important to property owners, such as broadband access, tax relief for disabled veterans and victims of recent natural disasters, opposing impact fees on residential development, monitoring building and construction standards, and legislation regarding subdivision regulations. This list touches on just a few of the issues realtors are monitoring in more than the 80 proposed bills for the upcoming session.Leadership is not easy, but our roll representing the public and are industry is worth the effort. No member in a leadership or voluntary role for Greater Chattanooga Realtors is compensated for their time or efforts. We lead because we know our industry is stronger when we work together on behalf of all our neighbors, whether they own or lease their home or business. Through our advocacy efforts, Greater Chattanooga Realtors continues to be the voice of real estate in the greater Chattanooga area. Thats Who We R.
For Blacks in America, education has been a key thread in the long struggle for equality and justice since the Emancipation Proclamation.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the U.S. Supreme Courts landmark decision that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in 1954, seemed to have removed a major barrier to improving education for people of color. But more than half a century later, along comes a new threat with the potential to censor the teaching of Black history and race. Its couched in the growing attacks on Critical Race Theory (CRT) by parents, politicians, and organizations across the United States.

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People protest outside the offices of the New Mexico Public Education Department's office, Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, in Albuquerque, N.M. The education department proposed changes to the social studies curriculum that critics describe as a veiled attempt to teach critical race theory. Supporters say the new curriculum, which includes ethnic studies, is "anti-racist." (Cedar Attanasio/AP)

The Fair Fight Initiative  a Savannah, Georgia-based nonprofit founded by lawyers with decades of experience in civil rights litigation and social justice advocacy  defines CRT this way:

Fundamentally, CRT is an approach to holistically studying U.S. policies and institutions, with a wide focus encompassing such subjects as criminal, legal, employment, housing, health care, and education, among others. In plain terms, CRT suggests that racism is part of a broader pattern in America. At the highest level, CRT posits that racism is implicitly woven into our laws, including the nature of policing and law enforcement in our communities.

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Opponents, however, are reinterpreting CRT and turning it into a lightning rod used against how history, race and inequality are taught in public schools.

R. LHeureux Lewis-McCoy, associate professor of sociology of education at New York University, distinguished CRT from the distorted version thats generating a lot of fear this way: CRT is actually a school of thought and theories that come out of critical legal studies [and] involve looking at the role of race and citizenship, he said. It is very different from what people are protesting against.

The author of Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban Schooling, Lewis-McCoy said there is a campaign to suggest that any education about race is CRT, that CTR pins racism solely on whites, and that inferiority is being taught to students of color  all of which is inaccurate.

But the falsehood appears to be gaining traction, with threatening consequences for Black education.

In the conversations that Ive had with people at different school districts, different parents, even different teachers, there is a fear that any kind of conversation about race and racism will be struck down and mislabeled CRT  and, dependent upon the state and district that you are in, could be banned, warned Lewis-McCoy.

As of January this year, 32 states had introduced bills or taken other steps that would restrict teaching CRT or limit how teachers could discuss racism and sexism, according to Education Week.

In a suburban district outside Atlanta, Georgia, a ban on CRT has effectively ended any teaching conversation about racism, inequity, actual diversity, and justice.

[So] instead of being able to talk about the full rich and true and honest history of this country, we are left trying to tell a story that is narrow; trying to tell a story that doesnt include oppression, that doesnt include racism, said Lewis-McCoy. And so, my concern is that people will respond to the fear-mongering that has been around this issue of CRT and use it to wilt away the little programming we already had that addresses Black lives, Black issues and Black needs.

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New York City public schools, numbering more than 1,700 and with a little more than a million students, seem safe  for now. But with CRT opponents circling and a Black mayor in office, Zakiyah Ansari, New York City advocacy director of the Alliance for Quality Education, foresees an intensified assault on the citys public schools instruction.

We saw it begin with the pushback against former school Chancellor [Richard] Carranzas equity and implicit bias training for teachers, said Ansari, whose organization pushes for antiracism in education. We saw the pushback  how white parents really came after him. I think that was the beginning of this, and now here we are full throttle in the midst of this fake attack on CRT.

Concerned parents and organizations like Ansaris are fighting back. Through their advocacy, $23 million was allocated by the city for anti-bias education for local teachers. In addition, $200 million more in city funds is in the pipeline to create a culturally responsive curriculum by fall 2023. And recently, the city earmarked $10 million for a K-12 Black studies curriculum.

For the students already denied an accurate and inclusionary look at American history, alternative resources include:

The National Archives African American Research page, which holds a wealth of material documenting the Black experience. archives.gov/research/african-americans.

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 Pulitzer Center, whose K12 education programs and resources connect teachers and students with underreported global news stories and the journalists who cover them. The goal is to cultivate a more curious, informed, empathetic, and engaged public. https://pulitzercenter.org/education/k-12-programs-and-resources/k-12-education-news

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The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, one of The New York Public Librarys renowned research libraries and a leading cultural institution devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of material focused on African-American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. Visit nypl.org/locations/schomburg

The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. One of the only wax museums in the U.S. dedicated to the preservation of African-American history, this museum offers one of the most enlightening and educational experiences around. baltimore.org/listings/the-national-great-blacks-in-wax-museum/

The Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, which may soon be the home of Confederate monuments removed from Richmond, including an enormous statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee. blackhistorymuseum.org/

In addition, the International African American Museum of Black history is scheduled to open this fall on a historic site in Charleston, South Carolina. Its being constructed where Gadsdens Wharf, the disembarkation point of up to 40% of all American slaves, once stood. For information, call (843) 872-5352.

We cannot allow our past history or things that have happened to Black or Brown communities before them be whitewashed and taken out of our history, said Ansari. That is what part of this narrative is about.

For more of the Daily News Black History Month 2022 coverage, visit nydailynews.com/new-york/black-history-month/
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee welcomes Jill E. McCook as its newest United States magistrate judge. Magistrate Judge McCook took her oath of office Monday in a private ceremony in Knoxvilles Howard H. Baker, Jr. Courthouse.

She succeeds Magistrate Judge H. Bruce Guyton, who retired after serving the Court since 2003. A public investiture will take place in the coming months.

Magistrate Judge McCook has worked as an attorney for the Tennessee Valley Authority for the past four years. Previously, she was in private practice, served as a law clerk to District Judge Thomas A. Varlan, and was an adjunct professor in legal process at the University of Tennessee College of Law.

She earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Washington & Lee University School of Law and is a member of the bars of both Tennessee and New York. District judges appoint magistrate judges for terms of eight years. They have authority to issue warrants, to conduct preliminary criminal proceedings, such as initial appearances and arraignments, and to hear cases involving petty offenses committed on federal lands. In many districts, magistrate judges handle pretrial motions in both civil and criminal cases. While district judges try most civil cases, magistrate judges may also preside over civil trials if all parties consent.

Magistrate Judge McCook joins Chief Magistrate Judge Susan K. Lee and Magistrate Judge Christopher H. Steger in Chattanooga, Magistrate Judge Debra C. Poplin in Knoxville, and Magistrate Judge Cynthia R. Wyrick in Greeneville.






The Chattanooga Police Department is asking members of the Hispanic population of Highland Park to be cautious after the area has seen a string of burglaries. CPD spokesman Jeremy Eaves said there were over 30 robberies in the month of January, and that 19 of those victims were Hispanic/Latino residents in the Highland Park area.

Most of these crimes are where the victims are at their house or are in their vehicle, and theyve just got home from work or church or maybe are just hanging out in the driveway talking with friends, investigator Kendon Massengale said.

Theyre being approached by suspects who produce guns, and some have been injured and theyre having their property taken by force.

Investigator Massengale said there have been two arrests made so far and that law enforcement has warrants for a few other suspects. He said all of the suspects have been black males and said there is a broad group of people suspected of committing the robberies. He said the suspects take whatever the victims have on their person.

Most of these are happening in the evening-time til about midnight when its dark, investigator Massengale said. We just want everyone to be extra aware when they arrive at their homes or are taking out the trash or doing something outside. Be aware of your surroundings.

Spokesperson Eaves said that the Hispanic community in the Highland Park area has a reputation for being distrustful of law enforcement, which could be a reason they are being targeted in this string of robberies. He said the robbery division is now focusing almost exclusively on these robberies.

Weve increased patrols in the most heavily impacted areas, he said. The robbery division is quite singularly focused on this right now, and thats not a group of individuals Id want to have the sole attention of. We have some other investigative units that are assisting them, and there are plans in the works to begin to deploy even more resources.

Lily Sanchez is a spokeswoman for La Paz, an organization promoting inclusion of the Hispanic and Latinx community in Southeast Tennessee according to their website. Ms Sanchez said CPD reached out to the organization, and that the two have partnered to help officers communicate with the Hispanic community.

What we focus on now is trying to get our Latino and Hispanic police officers and other police personnel in front of these people, Ms Sanchez said. We film videos and streamline communication between the officers and the community. CPD actually reached out to La Paz, because we were not aware of the situation. Were very glad that we have open communication with the police department so we can address issues like this.

Spokesperson Eaves said CPD has a bilingual victim advocate for those who want to speak to law enforcement, and that this person can be reached at 423-643-5149.
The CBS comedy Bob Hearts Abishola has one of the most unique names in television. Folake Olowofoyeku plays the Nigerian Abishola, but the characters name comes with more than just a unique sound. Co-creator Gina Yashere selected several names for Chuck Lorre to choose for Bobs (Billy Gardell) love interest.

Folake Olowofoyeku as Abishola | Cliff Lipson/CBS via Getty Images

Writer Al Higgins originally planned to give Folake Olowofoyekus character the name Lupita instead of Abishola

When Lorre, Al Higgins, and Eddie Gorodetsky first came up with the show, they knew they needed help. They found comedian Gina Yashere, who came from two Nigerian parents.

They were like, We need a Nigerian female comedian to help us create this thing. Al and Eddie just kind of, went away and just typed into Google. My stand-up came up, me talking about my mom on stage in London somewhere, and they were like Get her over here for a meeting!' Yashere said on The Wendy Williams Show.

Gina Yashere helped bring in writers and real Nigerian actors to play characters. In addition, she also helped them iron out details, specifically Abisholas name.

Yashere told the TCA (Television Critics Association) crowd that co-creator Al Higgins erroneously pitched the name Lupita, and the comedian was quick to shut him down over why that wouldnt be proper nomenclature for the area, Cinemablend reported.

To assist the situation, Yashere compiled a list of Nigerian names for her fellow co-creators to choose from for Folake Olowofoyeku.

They chose the name Abishola, which means born to wealth and born to guide

Yashere presented the others with her list. If they planned to have Nigerian characters and even film in Lagos, she wanted the culture represented right.

So I was like, Here is a list of Nigerian names. Pick one of these,' Yashere said. And we settled on Abishola, which is a nice name. It had a nice meaning which means born to wealth, born to guide, look after wealth.'

Just to add: 'Abishola'  'A-bi-se-o-la'  is an interesting Yoruba name. I've never met/seen anyone with that name though. Only Abisola (A-bi-si-o-la).



Anyone know any Abisholas?  tolu ogunlesi (@toluogunlesi) May 17, 2019

Yashere kept in mind that the name had to work for American audiences since the show would air primarily for an American audience. However, fans got used to the Abishola name and her accent.

Yes, Yashere continued. Beautiful name and not too complicated for the American palate once you get used to it.

Chuck Lorre likes how it contrasts with Billy Gardells simple-sounding Bob name

While Yashere liked the name Abishola for the meaning, Lorre commented that he liked how it stood in stark contrast to Bob Wheelers name. While Abisholas family has Nigerian names, Bob has brother Doug (Matt Jones) and Christina (Maribeth Monroe).

And its such a stark contrast to the monosyllabic Bob. Its a lovely, melodic, poetic name, Lorre said about Abisholas name. Bob is a sound.

On Abisholas side of things in the CBS sitcom, her Aunti Olu and Uncle Tunde go by nicknames to make things easier on American audiences and actors. Almost all American characters call Tony Tambis Chukwuemeka Chuey.

He stars in many CBS shows like the new comedy #BobHeartsAbishola, but how well does Matt Jones know Matt Jones? Watch him take the Matt Jones Challenge then watch the Bob  Abishola series premiere Monday, 9/23, at 8:30/7:30c on CBS. pic.twitter.com/RpsBDago89  CBS (@CBS) September 18, 2019

Matt Jones has confessed he has trouble saying co-star Folake Olowofoyekus name.

However, Abisholas name gave the CBS sitcom a unique title that sets it apart even more from other shows on broadcast TV.

RELATED: Has Bob Hearts Abishola Won Any Awards or Earned Nominations?
Before Outlander, Caitriona Balfes modeling career was transitioning into her acting career. Balfes first screen credit would be 2011s Super 8, but she appeared as a model in The Devil Wears Prada and started auditioning. Looking back on her modeling days, Balfe remembered the moment she decided it was time to try something else.

Caitriona Balfe | Starz

Balfe appeared on The Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter podcast on Jan. 31 to discuss her movie Belfast. When discussing her early days as a model, Balfe revealed the moment that made her finally quit modeling. Outlander Season 6 is coming March 6.

Before Outlander, being a model was not so glamorous to Caitriona Balfe

Balfe left school in Dublin, Ireland at 19 to try modeling. She worked for the Ford agency and did campaigns for brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton. However, Balfe said modeling got old and she remembered the specific job that was her last straw.

RELATED: Outlander: The Most Dramatic Scene in Season 5 Had This Major Distraction, Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe Say

I know exactly that moment, Balfe said on Awards Chatter. I got booked to do a catalog in Dallas, Texas. And the producer/whatever that was running it, he had a bell. Every time he felt like we had enough pictures of this particular outfit, he would ring his bell. And then we were supposed to run, get changed and get a new outfit on.

The reason that bell destroyed Caitriona Balfes soul

Balfe had traveled the world and worked runways before, so she was used to the pressure of modeling. However, the bell was just too much.

I think that was just the most soul-destroying moment of my life, Balfe said. I was like, What am I doing here? You literally feel like a clothes hanger. So that was the moment I think I was like Right, time to re-evaluate all of this.

Catriona Balfes modeling job wasnt all bad

Modeling served its purpose for Balfe. She made money and transitioned into acting, where she landed her role on Outlander in 2014. Balfe still has some fond memories of modeling, although she doesnt miss it.

RELATED: Outlander Stars Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan Reveal the Worst Parts About Working with Maggots

There was a lot of pounding the pavement, a lot of rejection, a lot of what am I doing with my life but then also every so often you would get these cool jobs that you would travel to Morocco, Balfe said. I went and did a three month stint in Japan. Cool things like that so I look back on that time and I have to be very grateful for the life experience I got. It was kind of amazing, for 19, to be able to travel the world that way.

In addition to the travel, Balfe made a lot of friends modeling.

Working with creative people was really amazing and also I made friendships among the girls, Balfe said. I think people dont understand the camaraderie thats in that business as well. People think its bitchy young girls pitted against each other and thats not my experience. I have lifelong friends that I met back in those days. Those are the things I cherish. I loved the theatrical nature of doing runway. Doing the big McQueen shows or the Chanel shows, they were always these spectacular events and really cool.

RELATED: Outlander Author Diana Gabaldon Once Threw Major Shade at Game of Thrones Author George R.R. Martin
The music streaming platform Spotify and Joe Rogan have responded to listeners and artists complaints about the platforms lax coronavirus vaccine misinformation policy.

The drama started when Neil Young wrote an open letter to his management and record label. He wrote that he wished to remove his songs from Spotify because of Rogans podcast. Young felt The Joe Rogan Experience spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. Many more artists have joined Young in protest.

Joe Rogan | Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images

Spotify removed Neil Youngs catalog after Joe Rogan controversy

On Jan. 24, Young posted a since-deleted open letter on his website asking his management and record label to remove his catalog from Spotify. He doesnt want to be on a streaming platform that allows podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience to spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine.

So Young gave Spotify an ultimatum: him or Rogan.

I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines  potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them, Young wrote (per Forbes). They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.

With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the worlds largest podcast and has tremendous influence. Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.

On Jan. 26, Spotify decided to remove all of Youngs songs. In a statement obtained by NPR, a Spotify spokesperson wrote, We want all the worlds music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators.

We have detailed content policies in place and weve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neils decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.

Meanwhile, Young urged his fellow artists to join him. He also reiterated that he didnt want to censor anyone. I sincerely hope that other artists can make a move, but I cant really expect that to happen, he wrote. I did this because I had no choice in my heart. It is who I am. I am not censoring anyone. I am speaking my own truth.

Artists like Jonie Mitchell and Nils Lofgren have joined Young so far. Even Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have shown support.

RELATED: Howard Stern Calls on Meat Loafs Family to Advocate for COVID-19 Vaccines Following Singers Death

Spotify will be adding a content advisory for podcast episodes that talk about COVID-19

Previously, Spotifys CEO, Daniel Ek, said that the company would not dictate what creators can say on the streaming platform. Ek once compared Rogan to really well-paid rappers, saying Spotify doesnt dictate what they put in their songs either.

Now, Ek has responded to the complaints from listeners and artists in an open letter. We know we have a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users, Ek wrote (per the New York Times).

In that role, it is important to me that we dont take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them.

So, the streaming platform plans to compromise on this controversial issue. Ek said that Spotify would add a content advisory notice to any podcast episode that discusses COVID-19. It will direct listeners to a Covid-19 hub with facts and information. There will also be links to health authorities like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and news sources.

Spotify is also publishing its platform rules, which address dangerous, deceptive, sensitive and illegal content. Theyve also removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic.

RELATED: Why so Many Rock Stars Are Selling Their Music Catalogs: It Is a Great Time to Sell

Rogan has also responded to the controversy

Now, Rogan has also commented on the complaints in a nearly 10-minute video on his Instagram. He said hell try to balance things out on his podcast in the future.

Rogan also said hes open to having more experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones. He added: My point of doing this is always just to create interesting conversations and ones that I hope people enjoy.

However, the debate will continue. The New York Times wrote, The dispute over Rogans podcast has ignited new debate over questions about free speech on the internet and about political polarization in the coronavirus era.

Technology and social media platforms, like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, have been widely accused of playing a prominent role in spreading untruths about the virus and the vaccines to prevent it. But some free speech advocates have also defended those outlets for allowing open debate, and services like Facebook and YouTube have touted their records of taking down what they view as clear misinformation.

Misinformation has always been an issue on social media, but the hard part is finding a middle ground. Hopefully, Spotify and Rogans decision to compromise will please everyone.

RELATED: Joe Rogan Adopted His Stepdaughter Kayja Rose After Her Dad Died in a Car Accident
Romance is in the air at Hallmark Channel. The network has several new movie premieres scheduled for February 2022. The Loveuary programming event includes the second and third movies in Hallmarks new Wedding Veil trilogy as well as a brand-new movie featuring Sopranos alum Lorraine Bracco.

The Wedding Veil Unveiled airs Feb. 12 on Hallmark Channel

Autumn Reeser, Alison Sweeney, and Lacey Chabert in the Hallmark Chanel movie The Wedding Veil | 2021 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Allister Foster



RELATED: Kevin McGarry Reveals How His Character in The Wedding Veil Is Different From Nathan on When Calls the Heart

In The Wedding Veil, which premiered in January 2021, three college friends find a magical wedding veil thats said to bring love to the person who possesses it. Avery (Lacey Chabert) found the man of her dreams in the first movie in the series. In The Wedding Veil Unveiled, its Emmas (Autumn Reeser) turn. After receiving the veil from Avery, she heads to Italy, where she plans to research its origins. While there, she falls for Paolo (Paolo Bernardini), a member of a local lace-making family.

An encore presentation of The Wedding Veil airs Saturday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel. The Wedding Veil Unveiled premieres Saturday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.

The Wedding Veil Legacy airs Feb. 19

The Wedding Veil trilogy wraps up on Feb. 19 with The Wedding Veil Legacy. It stars Days of Our Lives alum Alison Sweeney as Tracy, the last of the three friends to get the veil and the one who is most skeptical about its supposed powers. Will the veil help Tracy find her true love or will she end up marrying the wrong guy?

The Wedding Veil Legacy premieres Saturday, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.

Welcome to Mamas airs Feb. 26

Hallmark closes out February with Welcome to Mamas. The brand-new movie stars Wynonna Earps Melanie Scrofano as a woman who inherits an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn from her friend Mama (Bracco). She teams up with a master chef, played by Daniel di Tomasso, to relaunch the restaurant and make her loved ones proud.

Welcome to Mamas premieres Saturday, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.

Cut, Color, Murder airs Feb. 6 on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

Monarch Beauty Salon owner Ali hears all the town gossip  but when a beauty pageant turns deadly, can she find the truth? #Sleuthers, get ready for lights, glamor and betrayal in the all new Signature Mystery #CutColorMurder with @julie_gonzalo and @RyanMcPartlin Sunday 9/8c! pic.twitter.com/HZvqa0WGkA  Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (@hallmarkmovie) January 31, 2022

Hallmark has pulled the plug on a couple of its mysteries series recently, but that doesnt mean its given up on the genre entirely. The new movie Cut, Color, Murder stars Julie Gonzalo as a savvy hairdresser named Ali who teams up with detective Kyle Crawford Ryan McPartlin) to clear the names of those she loves when a beauty pageant creator is found dead.

Just like any good murder mystery, everyones a suspect, McPartlin said in a behind-the-scenes video for Hallmark. This is the most fun Ive had in a long time.

Cut, Color, Murder premieres Saturday, Feb. 6 at 9 p.m. ET on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

Check out Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Facebook!

RELATED: Matchmaker Mysteries: Danica McKellar Reveals Hallmark Mystery Series Has Ended
In cooperation with an international team at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea, theoretical chemists Dr. Chandan Das and Professor Lars Schafer from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB) have constructed a molecular gyroscope that can be controlled remotely by light. They also succeeded in characterising the rotational movements of this synthetic nanomachine with computer simulations. The authors describe their findings in the journal Chem, published online on 18 January 2022.

Navigating aircrafts and satellites

Machines enclosed in a cage or casing may display interesting properties. For example, they can convert their energy input into programmed functions. The mechanical gyroscope is one such system  an intriguing toy with the ability to rotate continuously. Some practical applications of gyroscopes include aircraft and satellite navigation systems and wireless computer mice, to name but a few. In addition to the rotor, another advantage of gyroscopes is their casing, which aligns the rotor in a certain direction and protects it from obstacles, describes Lars Schafer.

At the molecular level, many proteins act as biological nanomachines. They are found in every biological cell and perform precise and programmed actions or functions within a confined environment. These machines can be controlled by external stimuli. In the lab, the synthesis and characterisation of such complex structures and functions in an artificial molecular system presents a huge challenge, says Schafer.

Constructed like a ship in a bottle

In collaboration with a team headed by Professor Kimoon Kim at the Institute for Basic Science in Pohang, South Korea, the researchers have succeeded in enclosing a supramolecular rotor in a cube-shaped porphyrin cage molecule. Typically, fitting a completed rotor into such cages is complicated by the limited size of the cage windows. In an effort to overcome these limitations, the synthetic chemists in South Korea developed a new strategy that first introduced a linear axis into the cage, which was then modified with a side arm to construct a rotor. Its reminiscent of building a ship in a bottle, illustrates Chandan Das, who, together with Lars Schafer, performed molecular dynamics computer simulations to describe the rotational motion of the rotor in the cage in atomic detail.

Our collaboration partners made the intriguing observation that the movement of the rotor in the cage could be set in motion and also switched off again by light as an external stimulus, just like with a remote control, describes Schafer. The researchers accomplished this by using light in the UV and visible range to dock a photo-responsive molecule to the cage from the outside and detach it again.

How the molecular gyroscope moves

But how does it work, and what movements does the molecular gyroscope perform after its switched on in this manner? Molecular dynamics computer simulations show that the rotor molecule in the cage exhibits stochastic dynamics, characterised by random 90-degree jumps of the rotor side arm from one side of the cube to an adjacent side, as Chandan Das explains the results of the theoretical calculations, which can thus elucidate the spectroscopic observations.

The researchers hope that the concept of encasing molecular nanomachines in a molecular cage and remotely controlling their functions will contribute to the understanding of how biological nanomachines work and to the development of smart molecular tools.
For the uninformed New Yorker, immigrants from the Caribbean nation of Haiti may seem to be newcomers, but the term certainly doesnt apply broadly: Haitian immigrants have been making their voices heard and achievements noticed for hundreds of years.

In this light, the recent co-naming of the MTAs Newkirk Avenue subway station to Newkirk Avenue-Little Haiti and 18th-century-born Pierre Toussaints notable ascent towards sainthood in the Catholic Church should be no surprise.

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The Newkirk Avenue "Little Haiti" subway station. (The Haitian Roundtable)

Facing political oppression and economic hardship at home, Haitians came to the U.S. in sizable numbers in the 1960s and 1970s, with migrants and their descendants settling in South Florida and a number of Northeastern cities, including New York. But Haitian roots in the Americas run deeper.

West of New York, the first known permanent, non-indigenous settler in the area that would become present-day Chicago was a Black trader named Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who arrived in 1790. He was believed to have come from the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which became the independent nation of Haiti after the revolution in 1804.

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The achievement of Du Sable, called the founder of Haiti, was recognized in Brooklyn last fall when a portion of Brooklyns Flatbush Ave. was co-named Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable Blvd.

Another street co-naming pays tribute to an 18th-century New Yorker who is making history today  by progressing toward sainthood. Last April, a section of another borough thoroughfare, Church Ave., was co-named Pierre Toussaint Blvd. to honor a New Yorker whose caring in the 1700s still resonates strongly today.

An effort to honor his memory with canonization and sainthood has been making progress in the Catholic Church. Toussaint was declared Venerable in 1996 by Pope John Paul II, a move in that direction.

In 1968, New Yorks John Cardinal OConnor introduced Toussaint for canonization, and in 1989 and his remains were moved from St. Patricks Old Cathedral in Lower Manhattan to St. Patricks Cathedral in midtown  the only lay person buried among the citys cardinals and archbishops.

Pierre Toussaint

Born a slave, Toussaint came to New York in 1797 when his owners fled the rumblings of the Haitian Revolution. After becoming the most popular hairdresser in the city, he used funds from his hard-earned fame to help others. His generosity and selflessness seemed boundless. While still a slave in New York, he paid for the freedom of others before his own, and helped his slave masters destitute widow, who let him keep much of what he earned.

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Toussaint was known for sharing whatever he had. For example, he risked his health and safety to help the sick and dying in New York during a yellow fever outbreak. According to the Archdiocese of New York, Toussaint also raised funds for the citys first Catholic orphanage  and is called the father of Catholic Charities by many. Among his philanthropic pursuits was raising money for the citys first school for Black children, and helping to fund the building of a Roman Catholic church that became Old St. Patricks Cathedral on Mulberry St.

And his giving extended outside New York. He provided funds to the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, the first successful Roman Catholic sisterhood established by women of African descent, which today boasts the oldest continuously operating school for Black Catholic children in the U.S.

Today in New York, the street co-namings, and the elected officials who propose them, are signs of current Haitian happenings in New York.

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Recently, recognition was given to the vibrant Haitian-American business and residential communities of Brooklyn with the renaming of the Newkirk Avenue subway station on the No. 2 and 5 lines. Haitian-rooted state Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn (D-Brooklyn) presented the legislation, which led to the name change last November.

Legislators such as Bichotte Hermelyn, former Brooklyn City Councilmember Mattheiu Eugene (who first introduced the Pierre Toussaint name change legislation while serving the citys first Haiti-born Councilmember in 2019); Haiti-born Councilmember Rita Joseph, who represents Eugenes former district, and former Manhattan Deputy Borough President Rose Pierre-Louis reflect the Haitian communitys increased and successful participation in civics and the electoral process.

In 2018, with help from then Brooklyn Councilmember Jumaane Williams, Bichotte Hermelyn got sections of the Flatbush and East Flatbush neighborhoods and part of Church Ave. designated Little Haiti. Along with that change, part of Nostrand Ave. was co-named Toussaint LOuverture Blvd., in honor of the Haitian general who led the successful Haitian Revolution.

For more of the Daily News Black History Month 2022 coverage, visit nydailynews.com/new-york/black-history-month/
Graveside services will be held Saturday May 7, 2022, 1:00pm at the Alex Cemetery, Alex, OK. The family will receive guests following the service at the Alex Community Center.
When George Liele set sail for Jamaica in 1782, he didnt know he was about to become Americas first overseas missionary. And when Rebecca Protten shared the gospel with slaves in the 1730s, she had no idea some scholars would someday call her the mother of modern missions.

These two people of color were too busy survivingand avoiding jailto worry about making history. But today they are revising it. Their stories are helping people rethink a missionary color line and, as National African American Missions Council (NAAMC) president Adrian Reeves said at a Missio Nexus conference in 2021, challenging the idea that missions is for other people and not for us.

African Americans today account for less than 1 percent of missionaries sent overseas from the US. But they were there at the beginning.

We have a representation problem, Reeves said. But when we share with the Black church their history and legacy in missions, it makes it easier for them to connect.

That was Noel Erskines experience too, when he discovered Lieles name in the archives of the Great Britain Baptist Missionary Society. The Emory University historian said that growing up in Jamaica, he didnt really think missionaries could be Black.

We always associated missionaries with white people, he said. Theyre a stranger to the culture. Were not sure of motives.

British missionary William Carey is often called the father of modern missions. Adoniram Judson has been titled the first American missionary to travel overseas. But both Liele and Protten predated them. Their stories add depth and complication to the sometimes too-simple narrative of ...

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A Church of Pakistan lay pastor was gunned down and a priest wounded by unknown assailants as the leaders drove home from a worship service on Sunday in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar, where Christians had suffered their deadliest attack in the countrys history nearly a decade earlier.

Church of Pakistan Bishop of Peshawar Humphrey Peters said that William Siraj, 75, was shot and died instantly in the ambush in the Gulbahar neighborhood, while Patrick Naeem, 55, sustained a bullet wound but was in stable condition. A third church leader in the car was unharmed, he said.

The Protestant church leaders were returning from All Saints Church parish when two gunmen riding a motorcycle intercepted their car and opened fire on them, Peters said.

Siraj received one bullet in the forehead and one on the arm and died instantly, while Rev. Naeem received a bullet wound in the hand, he said. Its a miracle that Rev. Naeem and another priest escaped the volley of bullets.

The assailants fled the scene unchallenged, according to witnesses, Peters said.

Siraj was a senior lay leader and led worship at three different parishes while Naeem was the priest of the All Saints Church parish, Peters said.

Image: Edits by Christianity Today

Siraj had lost his son-in-law in the gun-and-bomb attack on Peshawars All Saints Church in 2013, in which over 70 worshippers were killed and 100 others were wounded, Peters said. He is survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter. This is a very tragic loss for our church.

The church leader said that security agencies had issued no terror alerts for the area since the Christmas season.

The last time we were notified about a security threat was during Christmas days, Peters said. This brazen attack has shocked the entire community, and we demand justice and protection from the government.

Anglican Church of Pakistan President Azad Marshall strongly condemned the targeted killing of the church leader and called for enhanced security measures for Christians across Pakistan.

Though no outfit has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, it looks like the handiwork of anti-Pakistan militants, Marshall told Morning Star News. Our people have been targeted several times by militants in recent years, and there has been a broader increase in violence since the Pakistani Taliban ended a ceasefire with the government last month.

Church leaders were concerned when the government announced peace talks with the militants had broken down, he said.

As soon as the talks broke down, we have witnessed a sharp increase in terror attacks both on civilians and security forces, Marshall said. Its important that our armed forces should contain the terror threat before it spirals out of control again.

Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Mahmood Shah also condemned the attack and directed police to find the culprits as soon as possible. In a press statement, Shah offered his condolences to the Christian community and the family of the deceased and said he prayed for the swift recovery of the injured priest.

Addressing reporters at the scene of the crime, Peshawar Police Chief Abbas Ahsan said the attack on the Christian community was tragic. There were two assailants in what he called a terrorist attack, and an investigation is underway, he said.

Ahsan said that police have identified perpetrators of previous attacks targeting minorities and that the same will happen in this case.

We are determined to protect our minorities, the police chief said, adding that officials from the Counter Terrorism Department and Peshawar police had been formed to investigate.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf provincial lawmaker Wilson Wazir said that the deceased pastor did not face any threats and was coming and going freely.

Police are investigating the incident and will reach the perpetrators soon, he said.

Pakistan Peoples Party Sen. Sherry Rehman also condemned the attack.

Terrorism that targets anyone, especially for their faith, is heinous and must be fought against with the full force of [a] clear, concerted policy and state power. No compromise, no equivocation, she said in a tweet.

Pakistan had the second-highest number of Christians killed for their faith, behind Nigeria, in Open Doors 2022 World Watch report, with 620 slain during the reporting period from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021.

Pakistan had the fourth-highest number of churches attacked or closed, with 183, and overall it ranked eighth on the list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
Biden to allow trans-identified men in women's prisons, reversing Trump-era ban 'except in rare cases'

The United States Department of Justice has unveiled new guidance allowing male inmates at federal prisons to be housed with female prisoners.

The DOJs Federal Bureau of Prisons outlined changes to the "Transgender Offender Manual" in a 14-page document released Jan. 13. The stated purpose of the update is to ensure the Bureau of Prisons (Bureau) properly identifies, tracks, and provides services to the transgender population.

Specifically, the changes remove language inserted into the "Transgender Offender Manual" by the Trump administration. The Trump administration required the Transgender Executive Council to use biological sex as the initial determination for designation of trans-identified inmates. According to the Trump administrations approach, implemented in 2018, the designation to a facility of the inmates identified gender would be appropriate only in rare cases.

The aforementioned language has since been removed from the "Transgender Offender Manual." Additional language removed from the manual includes a statement declaring that training materials and current information on the management of transgender inmates will include information concerning best practices for maintaining the safety of transgender inmates, while also ensuring security and good order in Federal prisons and the safety of staff, inmates, and the public.

In addition to removing the language added to the "Transgender Offender Manual" by the Trump administration, the Biden administration now requires prison personnel to address trans-identified inmates using their preferred pronouns. Under the Trump administration, prison staff had the option to decide whether to address trans-identified inmates using pronouns that matched their chosen gender identity. Now, prison officials will have to either refer to trans-identified prisoners by their last name or the pronouns associated with the inmates identified gender.

Deliberately and repeatedly mis-gendering an inmate is not permitted, the guidance states.

In the absence of the Trump administration guidance assigning biological sex as the primary determining factor for the placement of a trans-identified prisoner, the designation of such inmates to prisons that either match their biological sex or chosen gender identity will be done on a case-by-case basis. The manual stresses that a transgender or intersex inmates own views with respect to his/her own safety must be given serious consideration.

The document also contains an entirely new section outlining the process trans-identified inmates must go through when seeking so-called "trans-affirming surgeries." Trans-identified inmates now have the option to submit a request for surgical intervention to their prisons warden.

Additionally, the document defines gender as a construct used to classify a person as male, female, both, or neither, adding: Gender encompasses aspects of social identity, psychological identity, and human behavior. The definition makes no mention of the role human biology plays in determining gender. The definition, one of several included in the "Transgender Offender Manual," remains unchanged from the Trump administration.

Female inmates in California have expressed opposition to a recently enacted law that allows the placement of male inmates who identify as female in womens prisons, citing concerns for the safety of the female inmates in light of the biological differences between men and women.

One female prisoner recalled an interaction between a young female prisoner and a trans-identified man in the prison yard. He spoke of getting it on with the women and he had no intentions of getting rid of his penis, she reported.

These guys have been overheard saying to one another, Stick to the plan. What exactly is the plan? she asked. We are not certain. I will not be surprised [when] the first female gets pregnant.

Another female inmate, who has suffered sexual abuse, gang rape, rape by co-defendant, [and] domestic violence, wrote about the horror of having to wait for a possible sex offender with a penis to be housed in a cell with me. She also feared being the only one left alone in the cell with someone who [has] 25 percent more muscle than me.

The Womens Liberation Front, a feminist group, publicly shared letters from these women expressing their concerns and fears as part of its effort to preserve single-sex prisons.

Just before the Bureau of Prisons unveiled the document containing updated guidance on how to deal with trans-identified inmates, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the Preventing Violence Against Female Inmates Act. His legislation would forbid the Bureau of Prisons from using asserted gender identity to house inmates of one sex with inmates of the opposite sex and would withhold federal funding from state prisons that house prisoners based on their stated gender identity as opposed to their biological sex.

President Bidens plan to house male and female prisoners together will put women in danger, Cotton said in a statement. Documented cases prove that placing men  including ones who identify as female  in womens prisons puts female inmates at increased risk of sexual assault. My bill will stop the presidents ill-conceived plan and keep men and women separated in federal prison.
Why the freedom convoy has captivated a nation

Thousands of Canadians in Ontario, especially Toronto, gathered on highway overpasses yesterday to support truckers as they head to a rally in Parliament Hill in protest of vaccine mandates.

I was one of the tens of thousands of Canadians across Toronto supporting the Freedom Convoy.

Though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the truckers are just a small, fringe minority with unacceptable views, there were probably 5,000 people at the overpass that I was at yesterday.

One of the people on the highway was an elderly woman from a formerly communist nation. I was standing on a snowbank on the overpass when I saw her struggling to climb up. So I extended my arm to help her up, giving her a better view of the convoy.

On a bitterly cold day in Canada, the elderly woman eagerly climbed on top of a snowbank on a highway overpass to watch trucks drive by.

She had a smile on her face the entire time.

She was probably thinking what one man later said to me: Ive been waiting for something like this for 2 years  for 2 years!

COVID has killed many people  including a friend of mine named Alan. He died after he became infected with COVID pneumonia. I cried as soon as I heard the news. Alan loved me, and I loved him.

I dont want anyone to suffer from COVID. And I dont want anyone to suffer from vaccine mandates either. The two are not mutually exclusive.

COVID has killed many people. However, that isnt an excuse for the government to kill our spirits.

Canadians are suffering through a virus that threatens some of us and a government that threatens us all.

Weve suffered through multiple  and in some provinces ongoing  lockdowns.

Canadian pastors have suffered criminal charges, millions of dollars in fines, and even time in prison for disobeying the government to obey God.

And especially, we have one of the most extreme vaccine mandates in the world. Its almost impossible to maintain a job or attend a post-secondary school  even if a person works at home or takes online courses  without getting the vaccine.

In Quebec, unvaccinated Canadians are banned from shopping at Walmart and other large grocery stores. The Premier of Quebec has also announced unvaccinated Quebecois people will be penalized with a significant tax.

Across the country, unvaccinated Canadians are banned from restaurants, movie theatres, concerts, gyms, some trains, and planes.

Many of you know the vaccine mandates for air travel is the reason why I was forced into wrestling with my conscience and getting the vaccine just days after I had COVID. Justin Trudeau essentially gave me an ultimatum: if I didnt get the vaccine, I wouldnt get a wife.

In some ways, the most depressing thing about the vaccine mandates isnt the vaccine mandates themselves  its the overwhelming support or apathy for these oppressive mandates, even while many Canadians suffer over them.

For 2 years, Canadians have been instructed to trust the experts. Though they violate the truth, facts, and justice  many people continue to religiously devote themselves to experts.

But its become obvious that when many people say trust the experts, they actually mean trust the elite.

They really mean we should trust people who are not members of the small, fringe minority. They mean we should trust people with the only acceptable views. They mean we should trust the supposedly select group of people in our society with superior intellect and superior abilities.

They mean people like Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party. They mean people like Erin OToole and the Conservative Party. They mean people like Theresa Tam and public health officials.

Thats why a group of Canadian truckers have captivated our country and the rest of the world. They are not the experts. They are not elitists. They are just a small, fringe minority with unacceptable views. They are just average Canadians.

In other words, they are like thousands of weary Canadians who gathered on highways to support them. They are like the millions of unvaccinated Canadians who have been betrayed by elitists.

They want what that elderly woman and I immigrated to Canada for  they want what Canada used to stand for: freedom.

Originally published at Slow to Write.
Michael Youssef says blaming tragedies on sin is 'pagan thinking,' says it's natural to question God

Megachurch pastor and author Michael Youssef advised his congregation Sunday not to give in to false guilt when asking God why a tragedy occurs, insisting that questioning God is OK. But, he warned listeners not to believe that all tragedies are caused by sin, a mindset that he says is found in some churches today.

For the third sermon in a multiple-part sermon series titled The Visible Hand of the Invisible God, the 73-year-old founder of The Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia, insisted that the storms of life arent always caused by sin and warned against pagan thinking.

He warned that this type of thinking impacted disciples during Jesus time and some of His followers to this day.

Youssef directed the audience to John 9 when the disciples asked the Messiah why a man was born blind.

The disciples questioned Jesus if the man was born blind because he had sinned or if his parents had sinned. Jesus replied in John 9:2-3: It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

How do you sin in the womb? Youssef preached, reiterating that this man was born blind. This type of erroneous thinking is even prevalent in some churches today. Jesus said: neither him nor his parents. Its just that God would be glorified in this.

We are very quick to draw conclusions about other members of the body. We are quick to pass judgment on other members of the body. We are quick to connect dots. These dots dont even exist, Youssef emphasized. We are quick to tie all sin to calamity. Thats wrong.

The Egyptian-born preacher said another thing that happens in society and culture today is that many are angry with God because of the tragedies happening in their own lives.

Frequently, he said, people in these scenarios might not even acknowledge God or believe in God. But in times of calamity, they become furious with Him.

Youre fighting someone who doesnt exist? Youssef said he once asked someone he talked with who didnt believe in God but was angry with God.

Over his nearly four decades of pastoring, Youssef said that congregants often take their anger out on him when they are angry with God.

In households, Youssef said he has noticed that when a family member is angry with God, they tend to take out their frustration on the godliest member of the family. This happens because anger is often accompanied by guilt, which causes them to act a certain way.

All the anger that we see from people who are in a homosexual lobbying group or the transgender lobby; Im not talking about those who are caught up in the lifestyle who really dont know how to get out; Im talking about those who are expressing anger, and they are hell-bent on teaching that stuff to our children as young as 5 years old, Youssef reasoned.

That comes out of guilt. That anger is out of guilt. They are created in Gods own image. And they know what theyre doing is contrary to creation.  And that's guilt; they dont know it. Their burning with guilt, Youssef proclaimed. [They] show anger towards God because God is invisible, and they vent on Gods children  the believers  call them bigots, call them every name in the book.

Sometimes, the guilt that people experience is due to the death of others, which always brings guilt to the surface.

When a loved one dies, Youssef said, people tend to wonder what they should have done or what they should not have done or what they should have said or what they should not have said.

The pastor has seen people grieve at funerals not only over the loss of their loved ones but also over their sense of guilt and failure in the face of the inevitability of death for everyone.

Youssef assured that God is not the author of evil, but he permits tragedy to happen to His Children to allow for His glory to be displayed. And while there are tragedies, he said, there are always blessings.

At the beginning of the sermon, he said he often finds that blasting of lifes storms and the blessing of God sort of go hand-in-hand almost.

Lifes high and low, they are close companions, he said. The triumph and the tragedy often follow each other.

He finds that lifes tragedies are always accompanied by blessings because God specializes in restoring fragments of life into something more beautiful and more meaningful.

Most of us have been through some storms in life. Some have experienced storms that are very shattering.  And yet many of us can testify to the fact that with the blasting of the storms of life, there was a blessing from the Hand of God, he said.

Our God specializes in remaking beauty out of ash. Our God specializes in giving garments of praise instead of sackcloth, he preached. God is not through with any of us yet. If youre sitting here breathing, God is not through with you yet. Hes got some great plans for you. (33:58)

Youssef assured that people should not feel guilty when they question God.

The question why is very natural.  Dont let a legalist tell you, Oh, you should not question God. All of the great heroes of the Bible  it would take me a day to name them all  all have asked why, Youssef explained.

In Judges 6, Youssef said that when the Midianites were desecrating Israel, Gideon asked God why He allowed this to happen.

And when Job, who was a man of wealth with a large family who had considerable influence, lost his fortune and family overnight, he asked God why he was not stillborn.

He added that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, questioned God while dying on the cross: Why have you forsaken me?

Please do not put yourself under false guilt when you ask why. When you see your highest dreams [being] crushed, when you see your highest hopes crash, when you find yourself hanging upside down in life as it were, [the] natural question is why. Its OK, Youssef rationalized.

This question pounds on the doors of Heaven a million times a second  from hospital beds, from lonely bedrooms, from graveyards, from pillows that are stained with tears, from places where individuals and families are experiencing their own private Gethsemane. And God hears them all, and God receives them all, and God answers them all.

He said that God hears a person questioning why right away, and other times, He will not seem to hear the question immediately and will not respond for many years. Youssef said God will sometimes say: wait until you come home to glory.

While many people know, experience and live in Gods abundant blessings, the pastor said that life often takes a turn that is unexpected and often tragic.

Youssef said there have been several times he experienced an unexpected series of events in his life that was Gods blessing and then Gods blasting.

In March of 1964, Youssef said he went through a period when he turned away from God because he was running away from Gods calling on His life. Despite what he described as his period of rebellion, on March 4 of that month, Youssef said he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ.

And the joy and the ecstasy  yes, it is ecstasy and the joy of my salvation  I was on high, Youssef recounted. In July of that year, my mother, who risked her life to have me [and] had prayed me into the Kingdom, died at the age of 55.  Gods blessings and lifes blasting.

On another occasion in 1990, Youssef said his church had been active for a few years, and he had witnessed the amazing blessing of God, and many souls were coming to Christ every week. The church had been growing in leaps and bounds. But over two weeks, he watched his 15-year-old hovering between life and death in the Childrens Hospital Intensive Care Unit.

And soon, God intervened and heard the prayer of the congregation, and He was so gracious to us, and she came out of [the] hospital, and we rejoiced in Gods blessing, Youssef said. The following week, we checked my wife into another hospital nearby for a serious operation.

You see, Gods blessings and lifes blasting go hand-in-hand. Im never going to tell anyone how I prayed during those weeks because it will not edify you.  I didnt even tell my wife. I didnt tell anybody, he continued.

But the thing that I can testify to you today is that God did not fall off his throne because of my sorry prayer. He didnt. Hes still on the throne, he added.

Youssef said it was amazing grace that in the middle of his sorry prayers, he felt the love and embrace of the Lord in ways he never had before.

Its the grace of God, he said. Gods blessings and lifes blasting all at the same time.
Kirk Cameron, Kendrick Brothers team up to make pro-life film about adoption

Actor Kirk Cameron and the filmmaker brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick have reunited for a new feature film titled "Lifemark" that celebrates the sanctity of life.

Tens of thousands of pro-life activists and politicians gathered at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., last week for the annual March for Life. Cameron was a guest speaker at the event, and during his speech, he spoke about the upcoming film.

"I hope that you have a chance later this year to see the movie 'Lifemark' that is based on a true story. It is a story that is so much better than anything we ever could have scripted, Cameron said.

The forthcoming film marks the first time the 51-year-old actor and the Kendrick brothers will reunite since collaborating on the 2008 film Fireproof."

The makers of Fireproof, Courageous, and War Room and I have teamed up to bring this film that highlights the value and preciousness of life in the womb and the beauty of adoption, explaining how one life can impact so many, Cameron declared.

The Growing Pains actor shared with the audience why the topics of adoption and protecting life are so important to him.

This issue of life is very personal for me, he shared. My wife is an adopted child. Chelsea was one doctor appointment away from not existing.

Our first four children are also adopted, and if my wife, Chelsea, had not been born, our two natural-born children would not exist either," he continued. "So my six children and my wife are here as a result of loving, compassionate and courageous people like you who are marching today at the March for Life.

In April 2021, Alex Kendrick shared news of the film on his Instagram page.

Its been 14 years since we shot the movie 'Fireproof.' Were excited to be working with Kirk Cameron again on this new feature! he wrote.

Cameron serves as executive producer for "Lifemark" and also plays the role of the adoptive father.

"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," the actor told The Christian Post in a recent interview.

"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 past post that included a photo of both Kendrick and Cameron, the actor is seen in character sporting grey hair.

The film crosses two decades, so we get to see him age almost 20 years, Alex Kendrick explained. Its a true story with lots of action, humor and heart!

While attending the 28th annual Movieguide Awards in 2020, Kendrick shared more about the forthcoming film.

We're very excited about that, and it's a true story, and it's going to grab your heart. We love it. Kendrick told CP at the time, adding that he and his brother love the subject matter and what's going to happen as a result of it.

We think it's a very timely movie, he said.

Though the brothers typically make original content such as War Room, the pro-life film was brought to them by a friend, he revealed.

"We normally do write our own movies, but this one was so powerful when we read it and we saw how it was very timely for today's culture, Kendrick added.

As we began researching a way to shoot it, it became very obvious the Lord was opening the door to do it, he added.
Matt Chandler-led Acts 29 launches bold funding initiative for church plants

To further its mission of planting Gospel-centered churches across the United States and around the world, the Matt Chandler-led Acts 29 has announced a bold new initiative, giving up to $50,000 to new churches started through its sponsorship in 2022.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Acts 29 Executive Director Brian Howard said the church planting network hopes to plant 30 churches this year. Each church plant will receive two $25,000 gifts within two years. The first sum will be gifted to assist with start-up costs, while the second will be awarded once the now-established church reaches a certain funding metric.

One of the things that Acts 29 has not historically done is the direct funding of church plants, Howard explained. We've always done peer-to-peer church plant funding, where a church comes in and relationally connects with another church, or maybe connects with another church in their general area. While that kind of thing is still going to happen, we're also investing $750,000 this year, initially in North America, in the U.S., and likely Canada, and then we hope to eventually be able to expand this internationally as well.

Currently, there are 724 churches in the Acts 29 network, spanning 44 different countries, and there are more than 500 candidates and applicants looking to join the network. Acts 29 describes itself as a diverse, global community of healthy, multiplying churches characterized by theological clarity, cultural engagement, and missional innovation.

The new initiative, Howard said, is essentially a church planting mutual fund, adding: Our churches are giving a certain percentage of their budget into a common fund, and then we are doing as an organization, as a network of churches, a really robust assessment process, and were going to fund everybody who makes it through that assessment process.

The assessment process, which typically takes about six months, is given to ensure every church affiliated with Acts 29 aligns with the networks doctrinal and missional values, he posited.

We have 11 core competencies that we feel like make for a successful church planter, and were going to go through those core competencies, we're going to ask a lot of questions about those core competencies, Howard explained. You're going to go through a couple of interviews, both as a church planter and a church planting couple and essentially, it culminates in a three-day assessment conference.

This is a process that has been developed over years, and we have five full-time people that work on it all the time, and we will assess and then fund the approved church planters that come all the way through that process.

Already, Acts 29 has asked churches in their network to voluntarily commit extra dollars from their missions and outreach budgets to help churches  and the response has been really, really positive.

There's a church in the Los Angeles area that is raising $200,000 to try to fix up their property, Howard said. They've got some problems in their parking lot and some broken plumbing lines have to be fixed because it's damaging the property. So they're having to raise $200,000, and theyre tithing off of that. They raised $75,000, and they called me and said, We'd like to give $7,500 to this new church planting initiative.

Churches are excited to participate; theres not a good argument for why we shouldnt do this, he continued.

In 2014, Chandler, pastor of the Texas-based Village Church, assumed the role of president of Acts 29, and Howard became executive director of the network in May 2020  just months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

But despite the pandemic, Acts 29 saw significant success.

In 2021, Acts 29 Espanol and Acts 29 Urban were launched to start and grow Gospel-centered churches in diverse contexts. Also in 2021, Acts 29 announced a new partnership with Grimke Seminary, a diverse, reformed seminary solely devoted to training pastors for church ministry.

Howard explained that the network is dedicated to planting churches that are contextual to the places where they are. For example, in Winnemucca, Nevada, a city largely made up of miners, Acts 29 planted a church that meets in coal mines in the middle of the week instead of in a traditional setting.

If you're planting a church in an inner-city context in the United States, you're having to deal with space issues and in political issues, he contended. If you're planting a church in a suburban area, it may be somewhat traditional still. We do not have one model; what we do is try to empower church planters and church planting teams to plant in a way that makes sense in their context.

We want to teach the Bible, we want to help people be in community, we want to serve our communities, and its going to look different depending on the context, Howard continued. We dont provide a model, but we assess basic competencies and then send people out the plant in their contexts.

Though the message of the Gospel never changes, the way its spread  and the manner in which churches are planted  is ever-changing, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. Howard told CP that the churches the network planted several years ago are not the same kind of churches were going to be planting when church attendance is down by 20%, 30%, 40%.

We're still figuring out what the future looks like, he said. I think right now we have probably more questions than answers. Were engaging in, what does the future of the church look like? What does the future of church planting look like? A lot of the churches that we planted three years ago weren't necessarily preparing for a new environment, and they're having to pivot at the last moment. Theyre having to find different places to meet, figure out how to reach a community that is afraid to come to church, those sorts of things.

But whatever the future holds, Howard stressed that Acts 29 is really excited in terms of where we want to go.

We are super excited to continue to live in community with each other, to continue to plant churches together, and to continue to see people come to Christ because were planting churches, he said.

We've expanded outside of the U.S. to Europe and Australia and New Zealand and India and Latin America and Africa and Southeast Asia. We are no longer a network of just pastors or church planters. We're a global network of churches that are planting churches. We're excited about the mission that we get to be a part of.
A California man connected to the Boogaloo Boys extremist group was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for hoarding homemade ghost guns and a stockpile of ammunition in his Manhattan Airbnb rental.

Kurt Therkelsen, 40, kept his mohawked head low and said nothing when he was sentenced in Manhattan Supreme Court.

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Therkelsen was arrested by the joint FBI-NYPD terrorism task force on Dec. 15, 2020, after cops and agents found two operable and untraceable ghost guns in the Airbnb he was staying in on First Ave. in the East Village.

The two 9-mm. pistols were made with metal and polymer parts Therkelsen bought on eBay and other websites. Police also found 11 high-capacity magazines, body armor, other gun parts, ammunition, tools for assembly and a T-shirt that said, kill cops.

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Members of the "Boogaloo Boys" joined other gun rights advocates in front of the Virginia State House on Jan. 18, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Prosecutors said Therkelsens California rap sheet meant he couldnt legally own a gun. A search of his cell phone turned up evidence of his affiliation with the Boogaloo Boys.

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The Boogaloo Bois are a loosely connected group who espouse violent anti-government sentiments, according to the Justice Department. The term Boogaloo itself references a supposedly impending second civil war in the United States and is associated with violent uprisings against the government, the DOJ explained.

Therkelsen, of Eureka, Calif., pleaded guilty to weapons possession in December.

The rise of ghost guns has become an increasing concern for state and federal law enforcement officials because theyre made without a serial number. People can easily buy parts online without going through a background check.

The internet provides a simple workaround to important gun tracing measures: with a few clicks, you can purchase the components for untraceable firearms, and have them delivered to your doorstep, said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Combating gun violence in our city is my top priority as district attorney, and ceasing the flow of ghost guns is a crucial piece of that puzzle, added Bragg, who last week announced his appointment of the Manhattan DAs first gun violence prevention prosecutor, Peter Pope.

We will tackle gun violence on all fronts to restore much-needed safety in our communities.

Seized ghost guns at the Queens District Attorney's office on Dec. 9, 2021. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

In January, federal prosecutors indicted an alleged Rhode Island ghost gun manufacturer, Robert Alcantara, who sold more than 100 untraceable firearms  and even posted a YouTube video of himself shooting a DIY Glock.
Amazon delivery provider pays $50K for firing Christian employee who refused to work Sundays

An employee for a delivery service in Florida who was fired when he refused to work a Sunday shift to attend worship service has won an anti-discrimination case against his former employer.

Tampa Bay Delivery Service, an Amazon delivery service provider based in the Tampa Bay area, will pay $50,000 in relief and oversee changes to its workplace environment to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought the complaint on behalf of an unnamed worker who had been fired when he attended church instead of his shift.

According to an EEOC statement, the delivery service had scheduled the employee for a shift on a Sunday even though he had made it clear earlier that he could not work Sundays.

The EEOC argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on religion and "requires employers to reasonably accommodate an applicants or employees sincerely held religious beliefs unless it would pose an undue hardship."

The consent decree resolving the lawsuit was approved by a federal judge.

In addition to the $50,000 the delivery service will pay in relief, the company must also train staff to avoid religious discrimination and appoint a religious accommodation coordinator.

We commend Tampa Bay Delivery Service for working collaboratively with EEOC to resolve this lawsuit, said Robert E. Weisberg, the regional attorney for the EEOC Miami District.

The companys willingness to address EEOCs concerns will help in preventing future employees from being forced to choose between employment and a religious belief.

The EEOC filed the complaint last September in the U.S. District Courts for the Florida Middle District. Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell presided over the case.

In 2019, 60-year-old Haitian immigrant Marie Jean Pierre was awarded $21 million in punitive damages after being fired from her job as a dishwasher by the Conrad Hotel in Miami.

Pierre worked at the hotel from 2006 until 2016. She was fired for refusing to work on Sundays even though she had gotten coworkers to cover her shifts by trading workdays with them.

I love God. No, I cant [work on] Sunday because Sunday, I honor God, said Pierre in an interview with local media outlet NBC 6 South Florida in 2019.

The hotel had claimed that Pierre had been dismissed for misconduct, negligence and unexcused absences, alleging that the company was unaware of her reasons for not working Sundays.
Churchgoers more likely to invite people to in-person services than online worship: Barna

Churchgoers are more likely to invite friends and family to in-person worship services than online worship experiences, according to the Barna Group.

In a report posted on Barna Wednesday from its new journal, Five Changing Contexts for Digital Evangelism, the research organization analyzed the openness of Churched Adults and Churched Christians, collectively known as churchgoers, to inviting family, friends, and acquaintances to worship.

Churched adults were defined as those who've attended church within the past six months but might not identify as Christian. Whereas churched Christians were defined as those who've attended within the past six months and self-identify as Christian.

Barna found that 61% of churched adults and 64% of churched Christians responded that they would be open to inviting someone to an in-person worship service.

By contrast, 38% of churched adults and 40% of churched Christians responded that they would be open to inviting someone to a digital worship service.

Barna also found that people who attended churches that blended digital and in-person ministry were more likely to be open to inviting someone to a digital service.

Those who attend a church which successfully blended digital and in-person ministry even before the COVID-19 crisis are almost twice as likely to say they actually prefer inviting someone to online church rather than to in-person services (48% vs. 29% of those who did not attend a church that engaged congregants well both digitally and physically pre-pandemic), noted the research group.

More familiarity with digital and hybrid environments seems to accompany more confidence in bringing others into that space.

Both categories had only 20% of respondents say they would be open to inviting a family or friend to an in-person conversation group for conversations about the Christian faith.

The idea with the least support, getting 12% acceptance from both categories, was inviting a family or friend to a digital, one-on-one spiritual conversation.

Research for the report was drawn from Barnas 2020 Digital Church study, conducted online from Sept. 1-15, which had 1,302 U.S. adults and a sample error of 2.5 percentage points.

The report also found that 25% of respondents were sending out fewer invitations to church during the pandemic, while 61% were sending out the same number as before, and 14% were sending out more.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, large numbers of churches in the U.S. canceled their in-person worship and switched to online offerings.

Since then, many churches have reported larger numbers of viewers for their online worship than they received for their in-person services pre-pandemic.

For example, in March, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, had a record 4.51 million views for Joel Osteens sermons once they were posted to social media.

This broke our previous record of 4.17 million in November of last year when we broadcast Kanye Wests Sunday service from Lakewood," a spokesperson from Lakewood told The Christian Post at the time.

Multiple New Zealand churches, including Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul, reported higher viewership for their online worship during their lockdown than in-person attendance for their services.

After the Easter season, we began doing Zoom services, and these were again well received. A large number of our older folk were already used to zoom as many people here have relatives elsewhere in the world, said Pixie Rowe, spokeswoman for the Cathedral, in an earlier interview with CP.
Matt Chandler-led Acts 29 partners with Grimke Seminary to equip diverse church-planting pastors

In a society rife with biblical illiteracy and moral relativism, the Acts 29 church planting network has partnered with Grimke Seminary to train church planters in theological clarity and cultural engagement.

On Thursday, Acts 29, led by Matt Chandler, announced the partnership with Grimke Seminary, based in Richmond, Virginia. A reformed seminary devoted to training pastors for church ministry, Grimke is named after Dr. Francis Grimke, a biracial man born a slave but was later freed, becoming a pastor and a leading advocate of civil rights.

Together, Acts 29 and Grimke Seminary have three shared pillars:

 Theological clarity: Acquire the knowledge and understanding necessary for a faithful Christian life in all personal relationships and vocational endeavors.

 Cultural engagement: Cultivate a Christ-like heart for the lost and develop the habits of life that promote personal engagement with the people Jesus died to save.

 Missional innovation: Develop the observation, analysis, and application skills necessary for fruitful Christian ministry in a variety of contexts.

Grimke and Acts 29 have the shared mission of building up pastors from all walks of life to serve any and all communities throughout the U.S. and the world, said Chandler, who's also the senior pastor of the Village Church. Im thrilled about this partnership and the fruit it will bear in coming years.

Seminary founder Pastor Doug Logan, who also serves as an associate director of Acts 29 and has 25 years of urban ministry experience, stressed that theology was not meant to stay in the academic realm.

As Christians, we are called to apply our faith to our work and to our daily lives to reach our neighbors and our communities. It is with that heart to help the church that we started Grimke Seminary. We are Gospel-centered, theologically-driven practitioners leveraging our experience to help equip the next generation of church planters.

The partnership comes on the heels of a new Barna report revealing that moral relativism is the majority opinion of Gen Z, with most teens and young adults holding to the belief that many religions can lead to eternal life.

[The] simple fact of the matter is, moral relativism hasn't just crept into the worldview of Gen Z, said Jonathan Morrow, director of cultural engagement and student discipleship at Impact 360 Institute. It is now the majority opinion.

Thomas Schirrmacher, the newly elected secretary-general of the World Evangelical Alliance, told The Christian Post that the biggest crisis facing the evangelical, global church today is the growing lack of biblical literacy worldwide.

Our biggest problem is that Bible knowledge is fading away, Schirrmacher said. This is the utmost problem we have beyond all theological differences, financial problems, and political questions."

Robust theological training of pastors and church leaders, he said, is a critical part of combating this growing problem.

[Its] extremely important, he stressed. Because if evangelicals don't know the Bible any longer, it doesn't make any sense that we are a Bible movement. We have nothing else. We have no pope, we have no structure that keeps us together, no matter what we believe. We need to sit down and study the Bible, know the Scriptures, and be properly equipped for ministry.

Brian Howard, executive director of Acts 29, told CP that while COVID-19 posed unprecedented challenges for the church at large, church plants are ideally situated to reinvent and innovate.

They're not usually burdened by a lot of structures, he said, adding that coming out of the pandemic, churches may be a little bit more decentralized.

I dont think well rely as much on facilities, he said. We've learned that our job is not to get people to our building, but our job is to take Jesus to people. When they can come to our building, great, but if they can't, we still have to take Jesus to people.
Silver lining in the dark cloud': Closure of public schools creates challenges, opportunities

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, many public schools in the United States remain closed for in-person instruction. While some experts assail the prolonged widespread closure of public schools for causing students to experience declines in mental health and academic performance, others see a blessing in disguise that will empower alternative forms of education.

When the coronavirus pandemic was declared in March 2020, schools around the world ceased holding in-person instruction. Many school districts transitioned to virtual learning, where students would meet with their teachers via digital platforms such as Zoom. The widespread closure of public schools continued in most cases for the remainder of the 2019-'20 school year.

When the 2020-'21 school year began, many school districts in the U.S. continued to conduct classes entirely virtually or embraced a "hybrid" model where students attend classes in-person for part of the week while distance learning the rest of the week. While only a small number of school districts offered full, in-person learning for all students at the beginning of the school year, that number has expanded as the year progresses.

The extended closure of public schools in the U.S. has had negative effects on American students. Still, it might have opened up other opportunities for education in the long term, according to experts who spoke with The Christian Post.

Education Week has kept track of the reopening statuses of member districts in the Council of the Great City Schools. This collection of school districts, featuring some of the largest school systems in the country and one in Canada, contains more than 8.2 million students. It accounts for 15% of the total public school enrollment nationwide.

While 56 of the 75 districts included in the Council of the Great City Schools currently offer some type of in-person instruction, a significant number of them have not offered widescale in-person learning for any part of the school year, which is well into its second semester.

Portland Public Schools, the largest school district in Oregon, has not opened for in-person learning this year. The district will implement a hybrid option for students in kindergarten through fifth grade in early April and a hybrid option will begin for older students later that month.

Other districts that have yet to hold in-person learning this school year but will offer it in some form before the conclusion of the academic year include Sacramento City Unified School District in California, Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, Kansas City Public Schools in Missouri, and Long Beach Unified School District in California.

Richmond Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in Virginia, will remain completely virtual for the duration of the second semester. School districts in Fresno, Oakland and Santa Ana, California, have yet to open for widescale in-person learning this school year. But they have opened classrooms for select groups of students, such as those enrolled in classes for students in which English is a second language and special education programs.

Four people who shared their perspectives on the consequences of the widespread closure of public schools include a senior official with a conservative-leaning think-tank, the author of a book detailing her experience educating her children during the coronavirus pandemic, the president of a coalition of Christian schools and universities, and the author of a book urging parents to pull their children out of public education.

Consequences of widespread public school closures

According to Hadley Manning, the policy director for the Independent Women's Forum, who has extensively studied the consequences of school closings, the widespread closure of public schools "has exacerbated some existing inequalities in our educational system."

In an interview, Manning said that while many families have the "means and resources to put together a homeschooling pod, hire a private tutor, put the children in private school or to make other arrangements," students who come from families who lack the aforementioned means and resources "have been working essentially on their own at home through virtual learning, which the data would suggest is no replacement for in-person schooling."

David Dockery, the president of the recently formed International Alliance for Christian Education, echoed Manning's concerns.

"I think students from strong families, particularly  where both parents are educated  there will be strong efforts to ensure that those students are taken care of and almost a homeschooling approach provided, he said.

"But for so many families ... both parents working, both are busy, not able to provide the care and instruction needed for the students who are missing that from their teachers, I think we don't know the impact of that at this time, but it's certainly a concern for all of us.

Dockery, the chancellor of Trinity International University in Illinois, said he's concerned for students in primary school, saying that in-person instruction for elementary grade students is vitally important.

Emily Greene, the author of School, Disrupted: Rediscovering the Joy of Learning in a Pandemic-Stricken World, who researches and writes about education, creativity, the neuroscience of learning, agreed with Dockery.

"It doesn't take an advanced degree to realize that [the] format of [online] learning is not how young children learn, she said.

Manning expressed concern for "children who have essentially lost a year of education because their school system has been closed and they haven't had access to good alternatives. She warned that "those children may face a real education deficit."

"I think that would be ... a totally reasonable expectation to see the education gap widening between children who are advanced and who continued to advance during the pandemic and children who probably have seen some backsliding."

"It's pretty common knowledge that over the summer months, when schools are typically closed, you see some sort of regression educationally among students who are out of school for the summer, but this is like a summer that has lasted for 12 months, she continued.

"One of the biggest failures with virtual learning is that you can't make kids show up," Manning remarked. "For example, in Boston, only half of the students showed up for online instruction on any given day."

"The question of school closure is much bigger than an academic question," she said. "It's a question about what's best for children broadly speaking, not just in terms of their progress on reading, writing and arithmetic, but their social and emotional development, their mental health, and their ability to have a safe place to be during the day."

Manning also spoke about the mental health impacts of the widespread school closures and the accompanying social isolation.

After citing reports about "higher numbers of youth reporting depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms" and suicide attempts, Manning maintained that it was hard to get concrete mental health statistics because the U.S. has a "delayed reporting system" when it comes to suicide rates.

In Japan, which Manning said "has one of the fastest data capturing systems in the world when it comes to suicide rates," previous data from the fall showed an 80% increase in the suicide rates among women.

"There's an impact certainly on the mental health of our young people, our children and also I would say on parents because there is that additional layer of stress that comes with trying to educate children at home while also continuing to provide financially for the family, she contends.

Many families depend on two incomes, and so that math doesn't work out. Two full-time jobs plus the job of overseeing virtual education at home is too much for many working parents," Manning said.

Another unintended consequence of keeping schools closed for in-person learning, Manning asserted, relates to the reporting of child abuse because "the school system is a very important part of our child abuse reporting mechanism in this country."

"Aside from parents, family members, pediatricians, teachers and school counselors are some of the most important people in preventing child abuse or stopping child abuse, Manning stressed. And so we've lost that with the widespread closure of public schools."

Opportunities presented by widespread public school closures

Lt. Col. Ray Moore is the chairman of the board for publicschoolexit.com, a website designed to provide resources for parents seeking to withdraw their children from public schools.

Moore, an Army Reserve chaplain and an outspoken critic of contemporary public education, sees a silver lining in public schools' widespread closure and the accompanying adaptation of virtual learning.

With many parents at home with their children, they have the opportunity to listen to what they are learning at school.

"The public school curriculum is coming into their living rooms, and some of it is just terrible, borderline pornography, he asserted. They teach sex education in ways that are not compatible with Christian teaching. And the parents are seeing on the computer in their living rooms, and they're just horrified."

Moore said that in some districts, public schools are trying to get parents to sign a document saying that they will not look at the curriculum that their children are getting in their living room.

[Its] pretty amazing that they would go that far," Moore told CP.

For example, a Tennessee school district asked parents to sign a waiver promising not to listen to or monitor their children's virtual learning sessions due to concerns about "confidential information about a student being revealed."

The district later issued guidance that would allow parents to "assist their children during virtual group lessons with permission of the instructor."

"They are fearful, the public school people are fearful that the parents will discover what they've been doing to harm the children, and they are in fact discovering it, Moore concluded. The system's out of control. It can't correct itself.

Moore elaborated on the content that some public school children have been exposed to in school, including lessons related to the Black Lives Matter movement, transgender ideology and critical race theory, which he described as "viruses that have attached themselves to the education system."

In addition to slamming the "anti-Christian" philosophy that has infiltrated some public schools, he reiterated that the U.S. and other nations find themselves in "a 100-year moment for private Christian schools and homeschooling."

While acknowledging the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moore said that the widespread closure of public schools has provided "an unprecedented opportunity for K-12 Christian schools and homeschools to really accelerate and grow exponentially."

Moore pointed to studies finding that a significant share of students who attended public schools before the pandemic might never return to the state-run schools when the pandemic comes to an end and in-person learning resumes on a mass scale.

Although Dockery was "expecting an enrollment decline of perhaps deep significance because of the coronavirus," he told CP that "overall our enrollment has maintained health.

The level has been better than what we expected, and there are a handful of schools that even have shown increases for which we are both surprised and grateful, Dockery said.

Greene agreed with Moore that the widespread closure of public schools was "a long-overdue disruption of a very outdated education system" that triggered "the most robust period of innovation in the entire history of education in America."

She told CP that "American society and American parents have relied on outsourcing their education to schools for 100 years and in a blink, we experienced how fragile that framework is."

"Parents started opening their mind for new ways for children to learn, which is so exciting," she recalled.

Greene cheered one new method of learning: the increased establishment of "learning pods," a form of homeschooling where a group of parents and their children band together, and each parent would teach the children a specific subject.

She also disagreed with the notion that children learned less during the widespread closure of public schools than they would have if they were attending school for in-person learning.

"Many families experienced this completely new vast expanses of free time during the pandemic and the things that parents and children did to discover new talents and passions, new interests and curiosities in this free time might very well lay the foundation for their future careers, Greene added.

"The way that families got outside in new ways during the pandemic, there's a completely new path of learning for many kids who go to public schools and get 20 minutes of outside time per day. There was a verifiable explosion in making things, in hands-on making things, meaning people who never picked up a needle and a thread started making things with their kids. People who never baked cookies all of a sudden were making sourdough starters, and it goes on and on and on.

Greene concluded that if the insight was available to measure how our kids actually grew during the pandemic, we might discover that they learned more than they would have in traditional schools."

Moving forward

The experts who spoke with CP shared their thoughts on what they think the state of American education will look like following the pandemic and what changes they would like to see regarding education in the U.S. going forward.

Manning predicted that following the pandemic, Americans will "have a greater appreciation for the importance of education. Not simply as a means for educating children but as a means for learning social skills and allowing peer-to-peer interaction." She also expressed hope that "many of these bills that have been proposed in state legislatures to allow for greater school choice" will become law.

Specifically, Manning would like to see policies enabling "all families to have an education savings account that is funded by the state and allows them to direct their education dollars to public schools, private schools, homeschool pods or other education models.

Manning favors the implementation of a "robust school choice policy" that extends beyond "people who have the resources" and "the financial security that supports alternative methods."

Dockery hypothesized that following the pandemic, "parents will take more responsibility for the education of their children" and "Christian education in various forms" will "expand and be strengthened."

He told CP that he believes society has learned a new level of flexibility that will lead to new levels of innovation for the days ahead."

"I think we have learned that online education is here to stay," he added. "I think we have all learned how to use online learning, and we will continue to do so, making it not an auxiliary option but a significant part of our educational offerings, Dockery said.

So yes, I agree that the changes that have been implemented during the COVID season will likely remain with us, but I think our schools have adjusted well to the hybrid model, and we'll be healthy and maybe even stronger as a result of it."

With the expansion of homeschooling following the pandemic, Moore suggested that "it's possible the public school system will begin to implode and unravel and ideally collapse."

He surmised that such a scenario would allow the U.S. to "revert back to a private, free-market, Christian and home education, which was the original American model for the first 200 years of American history."

"Public education is a socialistic model in education. And socialism never works, Moore asserted. It always is very self-destructive, and it's not working now in education. So public education is pretty well dysfunctional, and a lot of people know it."

Moore envisioned an America where parents and churches were working together by "rescuing the children" from public schools, believing that such an arrangement would lead to the home transforming into a "biblical learning center" that "strengthens marriages" and ends up "revitalizing the family."

Greene praised the rise in parental engagement that has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic. She expressed hope that when the pandemic is over, people will not forget that "ultimately, the people who are most responsible for our children's education are the parents." She warned that "without the parents' voice in the revitalizing of our education system in this final moment, things will simply regress into status quo.

So this is the time for people to stay engaged and speak up and not just slide back into outsourcing our children to schools, the author said.
SBC Executive Committee names interim president amid fallout from attorney-client privilege vote

Willie McLaurin has been selected as the interim president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Conventions Executive Committee amid an investigation on how the leadership body handled sexual abuse reports.

Executive Committee officers announced the selection of the 48-year-old McLaurin on Tuesday, according to Baptist Press, the official news service for the SBC.

McLaurin served on the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board for 15 years before joining the Executive Committee in January 2020, where he serves as the vice president for Great Commission relations and mobilization. He also served as executive pastor at Greater Missionary Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, and senior pastor at Greater Hope Baptist Church in Union City.

Our EC staff is committed to serving our Convention well, McLaurin stated. Jesus last words to us in Acts 1:8 should be our first priority as a network of churches. My prayer is that we will continue to put a laser-sharp focus on cooperation and collaboration.

I want to express deep appreciation to Chairman Rolland Slade and the Executive Committee officers for entrusting me with the opportunity to serve, he added. It is an honor to partner with Southern Baptists in advancing the mission of winning the world to Jesus.

The move comes as the Executive Committee is undergoing an investigation into whether leaders mishandled sexual abuse complaints within the denomination.

Last October, former SBC President Ronnie Floyd resigned from his position as head of the Executive Committee in opposition to the committees decision to waive attorney-client privilege as part of the investigation.

The committee voted 44-31 on Oct. 5 to allow Guidepost Solutions, which is conducting the investigation into how the convention handled sexual abuse claims within SBC churches, to review privileged communications between committee members and others as requested by SBC messengers and the Sexual Abuse Task Force.

What was desired to be leveraged for the advancement of the Gospel by those who called me here, I will not jeopardize any longer because of serving in this role, stated Floyd in a letter sent to the committee.

Due to my personal integrity and the leadership responsibility entrusted to me, I will not and cannot any longer fulfill the duties placed upon me as the leader of the executive, fiscal and fiduciary entity of the SBC.

Other members of the committee also resigned in response to the vote, as did the SBCs general counsel, attorneys James Guenther and James Jordan of the law firm Guenther, Jordan & Price.

We simply do not know how to advise a client, and otherwise represent a client, with the quality of advice and representation the client must have, and in keeping with the standard of practice our firm tries to uphold, when the client has indicated a willingness to forego this universally accepted principle of confidentiality, stated the legal team.

The investigation was prompted by a 2019 report from The Houston Chronicle documenting hundreds of abuse cases in Southern Baptist churches over decades. In September, the Executive Committee voted to fund the investigation up to $1.6 million.

Some committee members expressed concern about waiving attorney-client privilege for the investigation, citing risks to the conventions insurance and that it could make the denomination susceptible to lawsuits.

The committees attorneys warned that maintaining local church autonomy would protect the SBC. Jordan and Guenther argue that the committee voted to waive the privilege without understanding the effect it could have on the convention.

The attorney-client privilege has been portrayed by some as an evil device by which misconduct is somehow allowed to be secreted so wrongdoers can escape justice and defeat the legal rights of others, the attorneys wrote. That could not be further from the truth.

In his comments to Baptist Press, McLaurin said he hopes to restore trust to the committee, adding that No network of churches is without challenges.

Slade, elected as the first black chair of the Executive Committee in 2020, told Baptist Press that McLaurins focus will be to regain the sense of trust of Southern Baptists.
Seattle police officer shares benefits, challenges of bi-vocational ministry

Seattle Police Officer Noah Winningham served on the frontlines amid the violent riots that engulfed the city last year. During his breaks, he prepared the sermon he would preach on Sunday as the lead pastor of Sufficient Grace Church  a sermon on oppressed people meeting Jesus.

As both a pastor and a police officer, I was able to preach that sermon the following Sunday with a unique context and voice that no other pastor can give, Winningham told The Christian Post.

I was able to speak about the sin of when oppressors oppress, and then also about the sin of the violent reactions and the rioting and looting. When people heard it, the weight of my words carried something drastically different because I had stood in the middle of what had happened.

Though he believes hes exactly where God calls him to be, the father-of-four never set out to be a bi-vocational pastor, especially in Seattle. It was a series of unlikely events  and an undeniable calling from God  that led him to plant Sufficient Grace Church in South Hill in the fall of 2019.

Sufficient Grace Church is a part of the Acts 29 Network, which includes more than 800 other churches worldwide. The Matt Chandler-led organization offers church leaders decades of experience-proven training, guidance, and tools for planting churches designed to grow and thrive.

My wife and I knew God didnt want to take me out of the police department, because especially in this area, there arent many Christian police officers, Winningham explained. Among police officers, theres a huge suicide rate, there's a huge alcohol abuse rate and massive depression. We knew God wanted me here.

Yet we saw the massive need in our area for another Gospel-proclaiming church. And I felt like God had given me the ability to lead that charge. It was a long process, two years, in fact, of us wrestling with how those two callings would work together. But we both walked away saying, OK, not only does God want me to plant a church, God wants me to do both.

Serving as a bi-vocational pastor has undeniable challenges, Winningham said, particularly as both pastors and police officers statistically have high burnout rates. To maintain his mental, emotional and spiritual health, he surrounds himself with biblical support, from his wife and the elders at his church to weekly meetings with a Christian counselor.

Its interesting getting yelled at for hours and then preaching from the book of John on the weekend, he said, adding that he was recently diagnosed with PTSD as a result of his law enforcement work.

Im still unpacking a lot of the stuff I saw during the riots.

But his dual calling provides him with numerous opportunities to minister in his community in a deeply personal way, like when his friend and fellow police officer Alexandra Lexi Brenneman Harris was tragically killed in July.

Ive been through plenty of super scary fights, I've been through really terrible suicide scenes. The guys will come to me and ask, Why did God let this happen? No other cop is able to speak to that. They know Im not a bystander who is stepping in to talk about platitudes about who God is. Ive been right there with them," he said.

I do believe that being a cop makes me a better pastor and being a pastor makes me a better cop, he continued. God has guarded my ability to mentally shift and step in between worlds. Its felt very Gumby-like at times, getting bounced back and forth. But God has really protected me.

Winningham is among a growing number of bi-vocational pastors in the United States. A 2019 study from Barna found that one-quarter (26%) of pastors are bi-vocational, currently holding some other kind of (paid or unpaid) role in addition to pastoring.

Barna found that though some pastors serve in bi-vocational ministry out of financial necessity, most had non-financial motivations like personal fulfillment or having other outlets for their gifts.

Winningham noted that, particularly in the West, many Christians have a narrow perspective of what the Church should be. But God, he stressed, can do whatever He wants with a ministry. He challenged other young pastors struggling with dual callings to remember that it doesnt have to be an either-or. It can be a both.

God can call you to two things, he said. I think that can be really beautiful and used in mighty ways. There are different versions of ministry. I think we get locked into an American version of what being a pastor is, but it doesn't have to look like that to God. There are a lot of different versions of ministry that maybe don't look like a traditional Church in America.

Just because its hard doesnt mean God isnt calling you to it, he added. God calls us to hard things because He wants us to rely on Him. He will give you the fuel to navigate your ministry situation.

When it comes to church planting, Winningham stressed the importance of partnering with other churches and ministries for support and accountability.

Trying to plant without some sort of support system around you, I think, is a trajectory for that burnout and catastrophe, he said. I chose to partner with Acts 29 because not only am I theologically aligned with them, but I've got a network of guys that I can reach out to for help or questions, I've got a network, I have funding help. Dont do it alone.

As far as his own future goes, Winningham said he doesnt know where God is going to take me, adding: Ten years ago if you would have told me that I'd be a cop, I wouldn't have believed you. So if you told me I'd be a plumber in five years, I'd believe you."

But looking back at his story and unlikely career trajectory, Winningham said he sees Gods faithfulness clearly, and trusts He will place him exactly where he needs to be.

My hope and my prayer are that I will continue being in ministry with Seattle Police Department, as well as leading this church as the lead pastor, he said.

But I also understand that if this becomes too mentally taxing on me, then I'm willing to make a change. But as long as I'm keeping things balanced, and God is still somehow charging my engine where I have the energy to keep doing what Im doing, then I want to keep going and minister where I am.
Sweet Brooklyn pastor found murdered at home where son confessed: 'I slit her up'

Tracey Sydnor, a beloved Brooklyn mother who was appointed as the administrative pastor of The Cathedral of Hope Upper Room Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant just over two months ago, was found stabbed to death in her home Saturday. Her 40-year-old son admitted that he "slit her up," the New York Police Department said.

"What happened is I slit her up," Kenji Francis, the 61-year-old pastor's son, allegedly admitted to officers at the family home in East New York, where she was found in a pool of blood with cuts all over her face just after 2 p.m. on Saturday, The New York Daily News reports.

She was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Prosecutors said Monday that Sydnor, who was found by her brother, was stabbed at least 15 times. Investigators also retrieved a knife from the crime scene they believed to be the murder weapon.

Francis has no history of crime or mental illness but was ordered to be held without bail by a judge in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Monday.

An unidentified source told The NY Daily News: "It seems like he just snapped."

At around 10 a.m. Sunday morning, services at the Upper Room Baptist Church proceeded as usual, according to a Facebook Live broadcast. Less than two hours later, Senior Pastor J. Carl Henderson announced Syndor's passing in a post on the social network. Henderson's post was also shared by the church.

"Please keep the Sydnor, Francis, Chambers and Upper Room Family in prayer as we mourn the loss of our Mother, sister, cousin, friend and Executive Pastor. Pastor Tracey Sydnor," the announcement said.

Henderson also thanked members of the public for their support in another statement on Sunday.

"I've literally got dozens and dozens of missed calls text, and inbox messages. Thank You! On behalf of myself and our church as well as the Sydnor family! I have no words or conversation please keep all affected in prayer," he said.

Henderson did not immediately respond to a call from The Christian Post on Tuesday.

Terrence Reed, Sydnor's lifelong friend, told the NY Daily News that "not one bad thing" can be said about the late pastor.

"She was the glue that kept everything together," Reed said. "She was full of life and full of love; she loved singing and dancing. She was a sweet lady."

Ernest L. Ward III remembered Sydnor as an inspiring and supportive personality. In a statement, Ward called her "a true angel on earth."

"This one hurts different," he began on Facebook.

"From the age of 14 until now, Pastor Tracey Sydnor has been a consistent presence in my life. She's always been so supportive and is definitely a member of Ezra's village. I remember a few years ago her telling me that she found out that she was in the same Bible class as my sister Jovan Davis. She talked about how sweet and smart Jay was and how she'd keep an eye out for her," Ward added. "Tracey's voice was memorable I often reminisce about the songs she led. A true Angel on earth has returned home."
Abortion is all about business for Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloombergs recent opinion piece in his self-aggrandizing Bloomberg News, A Defining Moment for the Roberts Court, might be a message to the Supreme Court in deciding Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health if it werent so laughable. The self-proclaimed defender of womens rights has a well-documented paper trail of treating women as chattel.



His notorious attitude of demeaning pregnant employees, even recommending she kill it, carry the marks of a misogynist exemplifying how powerful men have used the Courts decision in Roe v. Wade to their advantage.

Men like Bloomberg championing abortion have one goal in mind. And its not advancing women.

Nearly a half-century since the sexual revolution ushered in a fateful decision by Chief Justice Warren Burgers Court, young women have been the victims of Roe v. Wade, not its beneficiaries. Men, on the other hand, have reaped the benefits. Once a societal effort to support women facing unintended pregnancies, putting the fathers of their children in the seat of responsibility, Roe became the get off free card for promiscuous men, pimps, abusers, and callous employers holding the promotion key. As a result of the Roe decision, U.S. law wouldnt pass the barbarian test in progressive European countries.

Liberal feminists who railed against misogyny in the sexual revolution have aligned with the misogynists. Theyve given Bloomberg a kitchen pass from facing his tawdry record, including in the 2020 presidential primary, presumably because his company was shaking down corporate CEOs to jump on the reproductive rights bandwagon. Full page ads in the New York Times pledge allegiance to abortion rights  what irony that the same companies signing the ad were among the worst for offering paid leave for new mothers.

If the reputation of the Roberts Court is on the line as Bloomberg argues, it would do well to reject the demands of a politically motivated, money-waving male chauvinist aided and abetted by henchwomen arguing they are entitled to Roe as settled law.

Here is the unsettling reality that should be heard after 49 years of Roe v. Wade: The devastation that a decision legitimizing and normalizing abortion has wrought on American women. Making women singularly responsible for a pregnancy; telling a pregnant woman that being a mother is incompatible with personal success; declaring that a pre-born child is no more human than a blob of tissue and simply dispensable before viability; lying that abortion is safe and bears no consequence; rejecting the intrinsic worth women possess as bearers of life in the womb.

Sensing weak knees among the nine robed, Michael Bloomberg stands with a hammer in hand daring the Roberts Court to cross him and unrelenting abortion activists who have shown they will storm the halls and hearing rooms of the U.S. Senate and make life miserable for any Justice who dare deny them abortion.

Today, no national Democrat can advance a view other than abortion on demand until birth unless they are willing to risk the wrath of NARAL, Emilys List, and Planned Parenthood. And few are.

On the other side is a majority of Americans who support significant limits on abortion, a view that the Biden Administration and Democrat majority in Congress continue to pridefully ignore. For them, snuffing out the innocent lives of pre-born children for any reason is a price worth paying to keep the unwanted off the planet and for women to self-actualize. Its a false choice that millions of women have confronted and are now wracked by the wounds they bear for aborting their babies. Who embraces them with love and compassion? Not a beaming Michael Bloomberg, but the weeping Creator of life, who remembers the slaughter of innocents over 2,000 years ago by a rogue regime consumed with retaining political power.

Yes, this is a defining moment for the Roberts Court, but its not the Courts reputation that is on the line; it is the Courts view of the living. Whose voice will they heed  the voice of the powerful or the innocent?
Presbyterian Church USAs top official should resign

Dr. J Herbert Nelson II, the highest official in the Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA), should resign. Not just because he is morally blind. Not just because he is hypocritical. But because his raging indifference to violent acts of Jew-hatred are legitimized by his own radical politics thinly wrapped in theological tinder.

In his statement of only 500 words to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Nelson devoted a full two paragraphs to what he called the immoral enslavement of Palestinians by Israel. Not a single word about 1 million Uyghurs in Chinese governments concentration camps, or a word of solidarity for the hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians braving yet another winter in tents whove been crushed by Assads brutalities against his own nation; stoic silence about the public executions and repression of women and gays in Iran by its terror-exporting mullahs; nothing about shoving an entire population back to the Middle Ages by the Taliban in Afghanistan; no mention of his own Christian brethren, whose churches are destroyed in China, or his co-religionists regularly slaughtered in Nigeria by ISIS and allies.

Enslavement? The charge is an obscenity on top of a lie. It belittles the pain of the ancestors of black Americans who suffered from genuine slavery. Only a person with cataracts of hatred against Jews could use such a term to describe Palestinians. Fact-checking quickly shows that West Bank Palestinians enjoy a lower unemployment rate (18%) than neighbors Lebanon (27.4%) Syria (82.5%) Iraq (23%) and Egypt (32.5%) (Source: CIA World Factbook). Life expectancy is better than all its neighbors and comes close to Saudi Arabia. Both infant and maternal mortality rates show West Bank Palestinians to be better off than all, or most, of their neighbors. (We presume that by Palestine/Israel, Nelson meant the West Bank. If we include Arabs within Israel, the overall figures are far better.)

Palestinians do suffer  but their real masters are the kleptomaniacs of the Palestinian Authority who line their own pockets with foreign aid money, pay tens of millions to the families of terrorists in its pay-to-slay program, and enslave (not too strong a word to use here) small children by teaching them that their highest calling is to become martyrs. If the Palestinians are slaves, then what about the rest of the Middle East, where conditions are worse? Is Israel the slave master there as well?

When Nelson asked that the Jewish community in the United States would influence  the U.S. government in ending the immoral enslavement, he gave a shout-out to the ugly conspiracy theory that is feeding so much of the recent explosion of anti-Semitism around the world, and in the U.S.: Jews have too much power, especially over the American government.

Nelson and his word-meisters must be too busy concocting their verbal attack to notice terrorist Malik Faisal Akram screaming at Jewish hostages in a small synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. He was explicit about his plan. Jews have power. They control the U.S. government. They can order the release of convicted terrorist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, AKA Lady Al-Qaeda, who is held in a U.S. military installation near the synagogue he attacked. While convicted only of attempted murder of U.S. servicemen, she had major plans for mass-casualty events on American soil  which her training in neuroscience from an American university would help pull off. And Lady al Qaeda used her trial to make sure the world would know she was a raving anti-Semite.

Akram predicted that his death would not be in vain since it would open the doors and inspire Muslim youth to gain her release, by violence if necessary.

Dr. King, wrote Nelson, continuously preached a Gospel of justice, so that all people could live in dignity. Nelson remembered to omit what Martin Luther King actually did say about Israel, two weeks before his tragic death as recalled by future Congressman John Lewis: I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality. And Lewis remembered these words by King, I solemnly pledge to do my utmost to uphold the fair name of the Jews  because bigotry in any form is an affront to us all.

We witnessed when PCUSA was the first mainline denomination to vote for sanctions against Israel  a move opposed by many, if not most, of the rank and file at the time. We recall our wonderful partnership with some true servants of justice for all in PCUSA. In the decades that followed, PCUSA has gone off the rails, and lost hundreds of thousands of members, including most of our friends.

Some brave souls continue the struggle from within as Presbyterians for Middle East Peace. Its time for other Christian leaders to help the faithful who refuse to use Zionism as a dirty word. Sadly, Nelson and others like him are so blinded by their bigotry that neither a terrorist attack on a synagogue nor raging violent anti-Semitic acts will stop their unholy crusade.
Pope Francis tells parents of kids who identify as LGBT not to 'hide in an attitude of condemnation'

Pope Francis has called on parents of children who identify as LGBT to accompany them and not hide in an attitude of condemnation.

Speaking before a general audience Wednesday, the pontiff discussed the four dreams of St. Joseph. He remarked that God does not promise us that we will never have fear, but that, with His help, it will not be the criterion for our decisions. Francis emphasized that Joseph experiences fear, but God guides him through it, adding: The power of prayer brings light to dark situations.

At this moment, I am thinking of so many people who are crushed by the weight of life and can no longer hope and pray, he said. I am thinking, too, of parents who are facing their childrens problems: children with many illnesses, children who are sick, even with permanent illnesses  how much pain is there  parents who see different sexual orientations in their children; how to deal with this and accompany their children and not hide in an attitude of condemnation.

While the pope touched upon so many parental problems in his remarks, his comments advising parents to accompany their children who identify as LGBT received particular attention. Critics saw the comments as the latest example of mixed messaging coming from the Vatican regarding the contentious topic of human sexuality.

In a 2020 documentary, the pontiff asserted that homosexual people have a right to be in a family. In addition to suggesting that they are children of God and have a right to a family, he appeared to express support for the creation of a civil union law.

Upon receiving criticism, a Vatican official insisted that the pontiff's comments were edited and missing necessary contextualization. According to the Vatican Secretariat of State, Pope Francis was referring to particular state religions, certainly not the doctrine of the church, which he has reaffirmed numerous times over the years.

Last year, several months after the controversy surrounding the popes comments about civil unions, the Vaticans Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a statement proclaiming that It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage. The statement indicated that the Catholic Church cannot bless unions between persons of the same sex because they exist within the context of a union not ordered to the Creators plan.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which contains all the churchs teachings, teaches that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and under no circumstances can they be approved. The Catechism calls on those who have same-sex attraction to practice chastity just like all the baptized.

Additionally, the Catechism maintains that individuals who are attracted to members of the same sex must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity and that every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. This wording in the Catechism is very similar to the popes encouragement to avoid an attitude of condemnation when it comes to individuals who identify as LGBT.

However, another action taken by the pope last month also raised eyebrows. He wrote a letter to a Catholic nun who had previously been banned by the Vaticans Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith from doing any pastoral work related to LGBT people because her ministry and efforts to reach out to the community did not accurately portray the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts and the objective disorder of the homosexual inclination. However, the pontiff thanked the nun for her closeness, compassion and tenderness.

In addition to his messaging on LGBT issues, Francis stance on the Traditional Latin Mass has also angered many Catholics. Last year, the pontiff published an apostolic letter imposing restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, which many Catholic Churches across the world continue to celebrate more than a half-century after most churches began to conduct masses in the local vernacular.

Francis cited a desire for church unity when calling on bishops who lead dioceses where Traditional Latin Masses are held to set aside locations where the faithful adherents of these groups may gather for the eucharistic celebration (not however in the parochial churches and without the erection of new personal parishes). In addition to implying that church facilities could no longer hold Latin masses, the guidance instructed bishops not to allow the establishment of new groups that celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass.

The apostolic letter received swift backlash and more than 36,000 Catholics have signed a petition designed to Show Pope Francis the Latin Mass will survive any suppression in the six months since it was published. According to the Latin Mass Directory, there are currently 651 Catholic churches in the United States that celebrate at least one Traditional Latin Mass at some point during the week.
A Queens priest has been stripped of his clerical collar after a Catholic Church review board substantiated claims of misconduct, officials said Monday.

Not only was the Rev. John OConnor forced to step down as pastor of St. Gregory the Great in Bellerose, he was completely removed from the ministry upon the recommendation of an independent panel investigating allegations in a lawsuit against OConnor.

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Rev. John OConnor (courtesy Brooklyn diocese)

The board had been investigating claims made in a Child Victims Act lawsuit filed against OConnor on Aug. 13, 2020. This probe turned up new evidence concerning a March 2000 accusation detailing inappropriate internet communications with teenagers while assigned at St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn, the board said.

OConnors removal from the ministry means that he is no longer permitted to celebrate Mass publicly, cannot exercise any public ministerial duties and cannot live in an ecclesiastical residence.

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His name will also be added to the list of credibly accused priests on the Diocese of Brooklyn website.

Queens Catholic churches are part of the Brooklyn diocese.

St. Gregory the Great in Bellerose, Queens (Google )

After the 2000 accusation, the Brooklyn diocese placed OConnor on leave to allow him to receive treatment from May 2000 to August 2001. He returned to ministry in the diocese in August 2001, and continued treatment through 2005.

Officials from the diocese, including Msgr. Sean Ogle, visited St. Gregory the Great on Sunday to inform parishioners of OConnors removal.

The overall sentiment was one of great sadness, Msgr. Ogle told the Tablet, the diocese newspaper. Several parishioners said the only thing we can do is pray for everyone involved.

In a letter to parishioners, Bishop Robert Brennan announced that Msgr. Edward Ryan, who OConnor had succeeded as pastor, will serve as the temporary administrator of the parish.

I am aware this news is disturbing and even devastating to many, Brennan said. I encourage us all to stay vigilant in our commitment to protecting our children and youth.

The diocese investigation followed a lawsuit filed against OConnor, the church and the diocese by a 36-year-old plaintiff who said OConnor started abusing him in 1996 when he was 12.

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According to the lawsuit, OConnor would drive several altar boys, including the plaintiff, to dinner and a movie. When OConnor was alone in the car with the boy, he would massage the boys neck and shoulders before proceeding to move his hands along the boys leg and groin, the lawsuit alleges.

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The priest would then fondle the boys penis over his clothes, the lawsuit said. The boy was confined to the passenger seat, the lawsuit said, and could not avoid the touching or escape the sexual abuse.

The lawsuit also attacks church officials for allegedly concealing the abuse and moving OConnor around from parish to parish.

The plaintiff says that because of the abuse, he has suffered chronic mental health issues, which have required and will require counseling and other treatment.

OConnors attorney, Frances Hatch, declined to comment.

OConnor was ordained on June 23, 1993 and completed post-graduate studies in Rome before serving in Brooklyn and Queens.

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New Yorks landmark Child Victims Act went into effect in 2019. The new law adjusts statute of limitations timelines so that victims of long-ago sexual abuse can sue for damages.

Under the new Child Victims Act, people who were sexually abused as minors can file civil lawsuits up until the age of 55. Before the new law was enacted, victims had to file their complaints before turning 23.
(Bloomberg) -- Oil edged higher as investors await OPEC+s move at its meeting this week, while Exxon Mobil Corp. said it expects to grow production in the Permian basin by 25% this year.

West Texas Intermediate futures were trading above $88 a barrel. Most analysts expect expect OPEC+ to maintain its supply increases, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warned the recent price surge could mean the group may deliver more than expected. Traders are also watching an arctic blast set to hit Texas this week that may freeze oil and natural gas production areas, potentially causing another supply shock.

Crudes recent surge has been supported by a tight global market and geopolitical concerns over Ukraine, even though Russia has denied it plans to attack its neighbor. While most analysts expect OPEC+ to maintain its supply increases, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warned the recent price surge could mean the group may deliver more than expected.

Demand signals and the risk of an escalating Russia-Ukraine crisis are likely to be discussed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies when they convene on Wednesday. The group is expected to ratify another 400,000 barrel-a-day increase for March, although there have been signs in recent months the alliance has not met its production target in full.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Exxon reported that will boost spending on new oil wells and other projects by as much as 45% after posting the biggest profit in almost eight years.

Exxons report is a turning point for the company and indicative of shift in the industry, said Ed Moya Oandas senior market analyst for the Americas. The ceiling for oil prices further out will be a lot lower as oil giants will take advantage of these high prices.

The wintry weather headed for Texas so far looks less likely to lead to a repeat of last Februarys cold snap that triggered catastrophic blackouts and left more than 200 people dead.

Oil has roared higher over the past year as energy consumption continues to bounce back from the hit caused by the pandemic. Thats depleted inventories and underpinned a bullish backwardated pricing structure, with near-term contracts commanding a premium to those further out. Banks including Goldman Sachs have forecast crude will hit $100 a barrel this year.

Despite its warning about an surprise OPEC+ move on production, Goldman Sachs said it remained bullish on oil. Stockpiles are incredibly tight, and given the strength of demand theres a need for sharply higher prices, the banks analysts wrote in a Jan. 31 note.

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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As a major hub of the Spanish-speaking community east of Conroe, its vital to have the Deerwood Community Center up and running and fully functioning.

During the pandemic, volunteers with the Deerwood Community Center Coalition have regularly used the center for food pantry deliveries to car lines, community gatherings when workable during the pandemic, as a healthcare hub and as a vaccine distribution location.

When Winter Storm Uri left burst pipes and damage to the building in February, it was a major blow to the center that brings the often under-served community together.

Up until last month, the restrooms have been unusable.

Theyve been using the trailer, but its been hard because the bathrooms werent usable, said Maria Banos Jordan, a founder of the Texas Familias Council which has partnered with the Deerwood Community Center Coalition on various projects over the past several years. That really limited having anything on the premises.

On YourConroeNews.com: Deerwood food drive continues to aid community

Because the volunteers have been unable to gather as much as they used too, Jordan said they had concerns about raising the money to fix the damaged trailer.

The Texas Familias Council, through funding from the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, put a plan in action to get the center fixed. They had already been working at homes in East Montgomery County that received freeze damage in February and damage from Tropical Storm Imelda in September 2019.

They took their plan one step further to secure funds for the Deerwood Community Center as well.

The Texas Familias Council which was founded in 2011 by Jordan and trusted community partners as a response to the challenges of Latino families in this region helped complete a renovation of the Deerwood Community Center in January.

With nearly $21,000 in grant funding, the council helped repair the bathrooms, pipes, walls and flooring, front windows, two doors and leveled the trailer.

All of these repairs have become vital in the winter months as the weather has driven vaccination events inside. On Jan. 15, volunteers administered 65 flu and COVID-19 vaccines at the center as a part of the Poder de Salud/Power of Health program.

Jordan said the volunteers have made many strides in recent years, even with the obstacles of the pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic, coalition volunteers partnered with the Texas Familias Council and Creative Outreach to host weekly food drives from the center.

They have since partnered with the Montgomery County Food Bank to host food pantry drive-through events. The most recent mobile food pantry distribution took place on Jan. 22 at the center.

As the council members and coalition volunteers strive to meet the needs in the community, they have found health and access to healthcare as one of the greatest needs expressed by the residents.

Especially in communities like Deerwood, the pandemic has uncovered issues like diabetes and hypertension, she said. We see higher death rates from COVID-19 in our population due to uncontrolled diabetes and uncontrolled hypertension.

On YourConroeNews.com: Texas Familias Council recognizes library outreach coordinator

And things like language barriers, different cultural approaches to medicine, social media misinformation and rapidly changing information has added an extra layer of difficulty as Hispanic communities navigate the pandemic and vaccination.

To help bridge this gap, the council has recently invited Dr. Pamela Ferry with the Lone Star Family Health Center out to the Deerwood community to help with the healthcare needs of its residents.

Four about four months, Ferry has been conducting monthly wellness visits at the center to answer questions and share information about health issues that impact the residents.

Most recently on Jan. 22, she conducted a session addressing mental and emotional health at the center.

With the trust that she has built, the program is really starting to take off, Jordan said. The volunteers and community have become a hub for not only Deerwood residents but for the local Latino community as well.

Once the current omicron variant wanes, Jordan hopes to have an event at the center celebrating the renovation.

For more information on the Deerwood Community Center Coalition, visit https://www.facebook.com/deerwoodcommunitycentercoalition. For more information about the Texas Familias Council, visit https://www.facebook.com/Texasfamiliascouncil.

shernandez@hcnonline.com
An off-duty NYPD officer who filmed himself hurling racist insults at another driver knocked the man out cold during his hate-filled attack, Brooklyn prosecutors said Monday.

Riggs Kwong, 50, was hit with hate crime charges in the one-sided Jan. 15 melee at Ocean Parkway and Church Ave. in Kensington, where he beat up off-duty Uber driver Abdul Motalab, 32, after calling Motalab Muhammad and a terrorist in a mock Arab accent, according to prosecutors.

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NYPD officer Riggs Kwong after his court appearance in Brooklyn Supreme Court. (Noah Goldberg/New York Daily News)

Kwong knocked Motalab to the ground and repeatedly punched and kicked him while continuing to scream racial epithets at his victim. When Motalab finally stood up and tried to walk away from his attacker, Kwong attacked one last time, prosecutors said.

Thats when the defendant throws the final blow towards the victim and knocks the victim out, said Assistant District Attorney Samantha Perlstein.

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Kwong pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon in front of Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Raymond Rodriguez and was escorted out of the courthouse by six NYPD officers.

The two drivers began fighting after Motalab cut Kwong off while Kwong was trying to make a turn onto a service road.

Kwongs racist taunts prior to the beating was captured on cell phone footage he took himself, prosecutors said.

Im trying to make a left turn here on the service road and this terrorist is terrorizing me, he said on his video. Youre upset because I didnt let you make a U-Turn, Mr. Mohammed ... Al Qaeda, terrorist, ISIS.

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The encounter escalated when Kwong spat on Motalab, who spat back but never threw a punch, prosecutors said.

Six people called 911 during the daytime clash and all reported that Kwong instigated the fight, Perlstein said. But when Kwong called the cops, he claimed that Motalab hit him first, according to prosecutors.

His statement wasnt backed up by video evidence, which shows that Motalab never raised a fist to Kwong, prosecutors said.

We have no tolerance for hate-motivated violence in Brooklyn, and the alleged conduct is especially reprehensible because the defendant is a law enforcement officer, said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez in a statement.

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Kwong was immediately suspended after the incident from his job working at the 70th Precinct. The 18-year NYPD veteran and father of three was released without bail, though prosecutors asked a judge to set bail at $35,000.

Kwong declined to comment on the charges to the Daily News.

Motalab was charged with driving under the influence and pleaded not guilty.
Two people landed behind bars for attempting to smuggle more than 700 rounds of .50 caliber ammo into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, according to an arrest affidavit.

Samantha Coronado and Rigoberto Arturo Gonzalez Jr. were arrested and charged with export and attempt to export ammo.

A red Nissan Titan arrived at about 11 p.m. Saturday at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers conducting outbound inspections identified the driver as Coronado and Gonzalez as the passenger, both U.S. citizens.

Both declared they did not have weapons, weapon parts, ammo or more than $10,000 in cash. Coronado stated she was traveling from Laredo to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. A K-9 unit then alerted to possible contraband within the tailgate of the vehicle. CBP officers referred the vehicle to secondary inspection.

Further inspection of the vehicle resulted in the discovery of 730 rounds of .50 caliber ammo within the tailgate.

Homeland Security Investigations special agents responded to take over the case. Coronado and Gonzalez allegedly agreed to provide post-arrest statements.

Coronado and Gonzalez both stated they entered the United States on foot today because they were hired to drive, transport a vehicle from Laredo, Texas to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Coronado and Gonzalez both stated they knew the vehicle contained ammunition, but they did not know the caliber and quantity, states the affidavit.

Both admitted they expected a payment for transporting the vehicle into Mexico, according to court documents.
China's Mars orbiter sends back selfie video on Lunar New Year eve

Xinhua) 17:43, February 01, 2022

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 extended festival greetings to the Chinese people with stunning video footage captured by a camera on its orbiter to snap selfies above the red planet on Monday, the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The video published by the China National Space Administration showed that the orbiter's 3000N engine, propellant tank, attitude control engine and other components were all in good conditions.

It also offered a view of the sun's reflection casting on the orbiter, a Chinese national flag shining on the spacecraft and the ice cap on the red planet's north pole.

As of Monday, the Tianwen-1 orbiter has been working in orbit for 557 days at a distance of around 325 million km from Earth.

The Mars rover Zhurong has been operating for 255 Martian days and has driven a total of 1,524 meters on the surface of the planet.

Since its launch on July 23, 2020, the Mars mission has sent back 600 GB of raw scientific data, according to the space administration.

The Tianwen-1 will soon have its first anniversary in orbit, as it reached Mars on Feb. 10 last year.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Bianji)
A devotee of a Sarah Lawrence College cult leader recorded him beating a victim in a Manhattan hotel and served as a madam in his sick sex ring, prosecutors charge in new court papers.

The role of Isabella Pollok  who was indicted alongside Lawrence Ray in 2021 for serving as his trusted lieutenant in the creepy cult  was thrown into sharp relief in a Manhattan Federal Court letter filed Monday. Prosecutors wrote that Pollok stood apart from other young victims, giving the most detailed description yet of her alleged participation in Rays scheme.

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This undated file photo provided by the U.S. Attorney's office shows Lawrence Ray. (HONS/AP)

In contrast with the other college roommates who became the defendants victims, Pollok became his trusted lieutenant within the Enterprise, acting as his lead agent in carrying out extortion, sex trafficking and money laundering for the benefit of the Enterprise, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote.

Pollok, 30, was so committed to Ray that she arranged prostitution dates for one of his victims  and then reveled in Rays beating of that same victim, prosecutors wrote.

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Pollok communicated about client appointments, hotel addresses, and transferring profits, Sassoon wrote.

Sometimes the funds earned from the victims prostitution were directly deposited into Polloks bank account, the feds said. She used the money to pay for expensive meals, purchases at luxury stores and nights at five-star hotels, according to court papers.

Pollok and Ray, 62, also forced the victim to record sex with the johns, prosecutors said.

They required her to record these sexual activities and then provide (Ray) with the recordings, which the defendant would threaten to post and disseminate when he was unhappy with (her), Sassoon wrote. The defendant often would lock (her) out of their residence and not allow her to come back inside until and unless she provided a recording showing that she had had sex with a stranger.

In one disturbing episode, Ray allegedly assaulted the same victim at a Midtown hotel on Oct. 16, 2018, prosecutors said.

Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. >

Pollok was not only present, but recorded a portion of the incident, mocked [the victims] suffering and gleefully recounted the incident later that morning, the prosecutor wrote.

A sign along a hedge row marks the campus of Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, N.Y., Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. (Luke Sheridan/AP)

Prosecutors did not disclose further details about the alleged assault, which they seek to introduce at trial.

The new details are the most shocking examples yet of how Ray allegedly manipulated a small group of brainwashed students he met through his daughters college friends. Prosecutors say Ray maintained a stash of compromising information on his followers to keep them in his orbit.

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In a bizarre twist, Ray served as best man at former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Keriks 1998 wedding. The two have since had a falling out.

Rays attorneys argued that none of the forced prostitution allegations should be admitted at trial because they are not relevant to any of the charges.

Without any connection to a count, the evidence serves merely to try to portray Mr. Ray as a generally bad guy, Rays defense team wrote.

Ray will go on trial for racketeering, forced labor and other charges in early March. Pollok, who was arrested in early 2021, is scheduled to go on trial this summer.
A man was fatally shot on a Brooklyn street corner Monday afternoon, police said.

A man was fatally shot on Remsen Ave. at E. 51st St. in Brooklyn Monday. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Cops found the victim, whos believed to be in his 20s, with multiple gunshot wounds at the corner of E. 51st St. and Remsen Ave. in East Flatbush about 2 p.m.

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Medics took him to Kings County Hospital, but he couldnt be saved.

Police investigated the scene after a man was fatally shot on Remsen Ave. at E. 51st St. in Brooklyn Monday. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Police have made no arrests, and the victims name was not immediately released. Cops were initially looking for two men who fled in a silver BMW.
On Thursday, commodity.com, a commodities investment website, released a report highlighting the risks automation poses to workers in cities around the U.S. including a number of metros across the Lone Star State.

As the report points out, machines may offer a number of advantages compared to human workers. So, what percentage of workers are at risk of automation in Midland and how does this compare to other metros?

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of these technologies as well as others, many of which can be used to perform tasks that humans used to do, reads a portion of the report. Machines do not call out sick or spread disease and can replace workers to aid in social distancing.

Workforce automation risks across US and Texas

To establish these estimated risks, the report takes into account data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and a University of Oxford study. Nationally, Nevada and South Dakota had the highest share of workers with a high automation risk, according to the report, accounting for 48.4% of Silver State workers and 46.9% of the Mount Rushmore State workers. Among states, Texas ranked No. 25 overall with 42.5% of workers determined to have a high automation risk.

Among large U.S. metros, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area was the only Lone Star metro to crack the top 15 at No. 13, with 42.8% of workers in the area having a high risk of automation, including a total of 1,046,720 workers, according to the report. An additional 21.5% of workers in the area were determined to have a "medium" risk of automation and this risk was described as "low" for 35.6% of workers in the North Texas area.

Midland and Odessa

Among small U.S. metros, Midland is ranked No. 40, with 47.2% of workers having a high risk of automation, according to the report, representing 34,310 Midland workers. An additional 21.1% of Midland workers have a "medium" risk of automation and the risk of automation was described as "low" for 31.7% of workers in the area.

Odessa is ranked No. 14 among small metros with 50.3% of workers having a high risk of automation (24,960) and this risk is described as "medium" or "low" for 21.6% and 28.1% of workers, respectively.

Data trends and automation

Together, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and the University of Oxford study show a "correlation between the risk of automation and annual median wages," according to the report. As an example, the report states that "gambling dealers," an occupation listed with a 96% automation probability, have a median wage under $24,000 annually, while chief executives take in an annual median wage of $186,000 and have an estimated automation risk of 1.5%.

The risk of automation for a specific job or city will vary across industries, but some positions may be comparatively more readily automated. As the report states, "while some jobs and tasks, especially those that require creativity and interpersonal skills, are not conducive to automation, many others are.

Citing a 2019 Brookings study, the report said "jobs in office administration, production, transportation, and food preparation are the most at risk of automation," as these positions are more conducive to automation because they involve either routine, physical labor, or information collection and processing activities.

The future of workforce automation

In late 2019, the World Economic Forum published a report stating that about half of "current work activities are technically automatable by adapting currently demonstrated technologies." The organizations 2020 Future of Jobs Report found that 43% of respondent businesses indicated they are set to reduce their workforce due to technology integration" and estimated the amount of time spent on current tasks at work by humans and machines would be equal by mid-decade.
Jacksonville Police

ACCIDENTS

 Gary L. Defrates, 77, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of failing to yield right of way after his vehicle and one being driven by Angela D. Madden, 51, of Winchester collided at 1:43 p.m. Monday at North Main and West Walnut streets.

 Patricia L. Baptist, 80, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of disobeying a traffic control device after the car she was driving and one being driven by Roselinde H. Bettis, 65, of Waverly collided at 9:30 a.m. Monday at Lincoln and West Morton avenues. Bettis was treated at Jacksonville Memorial Hospital for muscle soreness, according to police.

 Gorden E. Smith, 67, of Meredosia was cited on a charge of following too closely after a three-vehicle crash at 12:21 p.m. Sunday in the 2200 block of West Morton Avenue. According to a police report, Smith's vehicle hit the rear of a vehicle being drive by Angela M. Bergschneider, 51, of Waverly, who was stopped and waiting to make a turn. The impact pushed Bergschneider's vehicle into the opposite lane, where it and a car being driven by Dorson D. Lee, 25, of Greenfield collided.

THEFTS, BURGLARIES

 A bicycle was stolen between 3:30 and 3:49 p.m. Monday from the 400 block of East Morton Avenue.

Brown County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Adam T. Rice, 57, of Virginia was arrested at 7:35 a.m. Sunday on a domestic abuse charge at Irish House Hotel at 883 Illinois Route 99 in Mount Sterling.

Pike County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Ryan T. Brown, 34, of Barry was booked into Pike County Jail at 12:54 p.m. Jan. 25 on a petition to revoke or modify bond.

 Larry J. Carter, 55, of Commerce, Texas, was booked into Pike County Jail at 2:20 a.m. Friday on a petition to revoke probation.

 James E. Martin, 45, of Griggsville was booked into Pike County Jail at 5:03 p.m. Sunday on a battery charge.

 Adam M. Burton, 38, of Lamar, Missouri, was booked into Pike County Jail at 11:07 p.m. Jan. 24 on a charge of driving under the influence.

 Skyler F. Pitzer, 36, of Louisiana, Missouri, was booked into Pike County Jail at 5:07 p.m. Friday on an aggravated assault charge.

 Austin S. Crowder, 27, of Pittsfield was booked into Pike County Jail at 2:23 p.m. Jan. 24 on charges of lewd phone harassment, battery, electronic harassment/obscene proposal, driving under the influence and driving while license is revoked or suspended and on a petition to revoke probation.

 Parker E. Clark-DeJaynes, 19, of Quincy was booked into Pike County Jail at 3:14 a.m. Sunday on a charge of operating an uninsured motor vehicle.

 Kirk M. Beumer, 26, of Sheridan, Indiana, was booked into Pike County Jail at 1:58 a.m. Jan. 24 on a charge of unlawful use of a weapon.

Pittsfield Police



ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Zachary P. Banfield, 28, of Pittsfield was booked into Pike County Jail at 8:01 p.m. Jan. 24 on a charge of driving while license is revoked or suspended.

 Jacob L. Holtz, 26, of Pittsfield was booked into Pike County Jail at 6:29 a.m. Jan. 26 on a charge of possession of methamphetamine.

 Sierra D. Sydney, 26, of Pittsfield was booked into the Pike County Jail at 10:21 a.m. Jan. 26 on a charge of possession of methamphetamine.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
A young man stabbed to death outside a troubled Brooklyn bar over the weekend was following in his fathers footsteps as a carriage horse driver.

Anthony DOnofrio, 22, of Bensonhurst, was a mainstay among the citys carriage horse driver community since he was 8 years old.

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He was a good friend, and a good friend with me. A son, and a friend, said his father, Giuseppe DOnofrio. So what can I say? All I did, I worked for 22 years, tried to get him a good education, send him to pilot school, and send him into a carriage license.

He was devoted to his job, working at two stables in Midtown and volunteering on a farm in Pennsylvania for retired carriage horses, his friends said.

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Anthony D'Onofrio (Obtained by Daily News)

He was a great kid, hardworking. He was such a funny kid, he was always making us laugh, said friend and fellow carriage driver Adrian Marrs. Every single person in the industry today, were all just brokenhearted. Its hard not to cry.

DOnofrio was knifed to death during a brawl involving about 10 men early Saturday in the middle of a snowstorm outside Catrinas Mexican Grill on Third Ave. in Bay Ridge. A second man, also 22, suffered a deep gash to his head in the 3:45 a.m. clash.

Anthony D'Onofrio, 22, was pronounced dead at NYU Langone Hospital after he was stabbed in the chest at Catrinas Mexican Restaurant at 7316 Third Ave. in Brooklyn on Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Kevin Cuatlacuatl, 19, has been charged with murder. He awaits arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court.

From what I understand he was trying to do the right thing and break up the fight, Marrs said of DOnofrio.

DOnofrios father questioned why Cuatlacuatl, who was underage, was at the bar.

I mean, the kid shouldnt even be in the bar, he said. My son is gone, thats all I wanted to tell you, and he will not be replaced. Even if they give him the electrical chair, it will not replace my son.

Tributes to DOnofrio poured in on social media sites after his killing, with one YouTube user putting together a video in his memory.

The unforgettable memories I made with this beautiful soul will never be forgotten. He was a kind, loving, goofy, and loyal person, wrote one friend, Francesco Paolo Riccobono, on Facebook. He showed me so much integrity in the last holiday season, working so hard and being committed to his word.

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DOnofrio loved his job and had an easy rapport with people and animals alike, his friends recalled.

Weve all known Anthony since he was about 8 years old, said Robert Boyle, Good with people and good with animals, which is a combination you dont really come across that much. ... All his customers loved him, he took time with them. Even when he finished the ride, hed spend a half an hour still talking to them.

Anthony D'Onofrio on his horse carriage. (Obtained by Daily News)

He was also working on getting a pilot license, Boyle said.

Hes a lovely guy, said carriage driver Idris Bilgi, 40. Its a pity that he had to go so young.

DOnofrio would always make sure to ask his co-workers if they wanted anything whenever he stepped out to get a cup of coffee, Bilgi said.

There was no badness in the kid, I can tell you that, said another driver, who only gave his name as Elio. He liked cars and motorcycles. ... I heard he jumped out of plane, so I dont think he had fear. He liked the challenge.

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The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

Its a tragedy, he added.

Catrinas has long been a trouble spot in the neighborhood, said City Councilman Justin Brannan, who joined state Sen. Anthony Gounardes to demand the State Liquor Authority shut the place down.

We have repeatedly raised examples of underage drinking, illegal drug use and drug sales, noise complaints, alleged sexual assaults and other violent incidents taking place inside and directly outside the premises, they wrote to the SLA on Monday. A pattern of any one of these things going unaddressed would be unacceptable; the fact that they have all occurred regularly without consequence is simply beyond comprehension.

The SLA has hit the bar with multiple charges over the past 18 months, including a half-dozen charges from last March for failing to comply with the conditions of its liquor license and failing to supervise a disorderly crowd, Brannan said.

A 19-year-old man has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. Why was a 19-year-old man even in the bar in the first place? the letter reads. If the SLA truly has zero tolerance for violent bars that threaten the safety of their neighborhoods and strain police resources, then SLA must take emergency and immediate action here for exigent circumstances.

SLA officials said they are working with the NYPD and reviewing the bars background, though the business is still entitled to due process in its pending cases.

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The SLA opened an investigation following the tragic stabbing death on Saturday and we are working closely with the NYPD to obtain all necessary reports regarding this incident, SLA spokesman William Crowley said Monday.
Matt Wolfe has always enjoyed taking things apart, repairing them and putting them together again. It started as a hobby when he was in high school and helped his girlfriends father who was a mechanic. Today, he is still enjoying troubleshooting equipment; however, instead of vehicles, Wolfe is now helping banks and other financial institutions with their cybersecurity issues.

Since graduating from Midland College in May 2020 with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Information Technology, Wolfe has been employed in the computer field.

I had only been out of Midland College for a couple of weeks, when I landed a job working for Idea Public Schools at Travis Elementary as the campus computer technician, Wolfe explained. There was no on-the-job training. They just gave me a campus and said, Youre the computer expert. I was supposed to have all the answers when something computer-related went wrong. I guess I didnt disappoint. I found myself using Google to help find the answers. Of course, knowing what to enter in Google to find the answers is a skill in and of itself.

Midland College was not the first institution of higher education that Wolfe attended. After high school graduation in 2005, he trained in mechanics at Wyoming Technical Institute in Laramie, Wyoming.

Wolfe had joined the Army Reserve as a junior in high school at age 17 in 2003. Then, in 2008 when he completed Wyoming Technical Institute, Wolfe transferred from reserve to active duty Army as a heavy equipment mechanic. He was mainly stationed at Fort Hood but he also spent 15 months in Afghanistan in 2008-2009.

Being a mechanic in the military meant that I was always on a tight deadline to get a piece of machinery repaired in all sorts of conditions, Wolfe said. At times, it got pretty stressful.

When Wolfe was honorably discharged from the Army, the oil and gas industry lured his wife Brittany and him to Midland. Wolfe obtained a job working for Pioneer.

Working in the oilfield is hard and dangerous, Wolfe said. The money was good, but I was working 90 hours per week and pretty much missed seeing our daughter Harper grow up during the first two years of her life.

The family decided to move to New Mexico, and Wolfe ventured into the entrepreneurial world. He started a car dealership that didnt work out due to vehicle theft and other issues. So, Wolfe then decided to try his luck at digital marketing, mainly freelance work building sales funnels and Facebook Ad campaigns for clients. At this time, he also became interested in cryptocurrency.

When the family moved back to Midland, Wolfe decided to pursue his interest in the cyber world with formal training, and he started taking computer classes at Midland College.

Fortunately, as a military veteran, I was able to get tuition assistance through the GI bill, Wolfe explained. It was nice to be able to pay for school and also have a housing allowance. It really launched me into a better place.

Wolfe continued to pursue his investments in bitcoin finances, which led to an interest in the stock market. He said that during the first few months of the COVID pandemic, he made a profit on his investments and was able to purchase his first home.

On Oct. 4, Wolfe started a new position working for CoNetrix Technologies satellite office in Midland. He is the managed service providers network engineer for the Permian Basin and is responsible for providing computer networking and cybersecurity support to banks and other financial institutions.

It really is a job that combines my passion and knowledge for computers with my interest in cybersecurity and finance, he said. Im a little bit of a help desk administrator, systems administrator and network administrator. I travel to various banks throughout the Permian Basin and help with all sorts of computer and network issues. Im getting to experience Information Technology in a different way than when I as a computer technician at Travis Elementary.

Wolfe credits the training he received at Midland College with his ability to troubleshoot various types of computer issues. He said that two faculty were especially instrumental in giving him the knowledge and skills he needs to perform his job well.

Joe Bontke taught me the fundamentals of computers  how the hardware works, Wolfe said. Then Marty Villarreal taught me all about computer networking. Theres always something new to learn in Information Technology. Joe and Marty provided me with the building blocks I need to keep current with technology so that Im successful in my career.

Matt was a very driven and dedicated student, Bontke said. He came to MC with clear goals about the direction that he wanted to pursue when he finished the IT program. In fact, Matt is continuing his education at Western Governors University pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance. Matt is destined to do great things, and I am happy that the IT program here at MC was able to help him start, strive and succeed.

Villarreal agreed, Matt was an exceptional student -- someone who thinks outside the box. He kept his instructors on their toes. His class discussions about cryptocurrencies and blockchain were voluminous. Matt had several job offers in the community and was employed as soon as he graduated. Another MC success.

I would advise anyone who enjoys hands-on learning and troubleshooting problems to give Information Technology a try, Wolfe said. Its easy to get overwhelmed when you are just thinking about it, but as soon as you dive into it, things will start to come together. Its been less than two years since I graduated from Midland College, and Im already enjoying a very successful and rewarding career that allows me time to spend with my family.

--

Rebecca Bell is the executive director of Institutional Advancement at Midland College.
Shelly Borgstedte

Position: Assistant to the Registrar

Shelly Borgstedte moved to Midland in 1994 and a few years later moved to Martin County in the Stanton area where she and her husband Ashley own property. Coincidentally, Ashley is also employed at Midland College. He is currently serving as the interim police chief for the college.

Shelly was first employed at Midland College from 2000-2002 as a horticulture instructor. She returned in 2019 working for the vice president of Information Technology. Her current position is assistant to the Registrar.

Borgstedte has a certificate in Business from Texas A&M Commerce. She obtained both her bachelors and masters degrees in agriculture-related fields from Tarleton State University. She rides horses and is queen of the Stanton chapter of the 40 Something Cowgirls.

How did you get involved in education?

I went to college to be a county extension agent and received a call from a colleague that Midland College was looking for someone to teach in their Horticulture program. After teaching at Midland College, I then taught Horticulture in the prison system for Howard College for several years before returning in an administrative role to Midland College.

What is your favorite thing about Midland College?

I love the people whom I have met at the college. Each department is like a family, and Im proud to be part of the whole MC family.
naphtalina/Getty Images

The entire federal prison system went on a nationwide temporary lockdown Monday after two inmates were killed and another two were injured during a fight between gangs at a facility in Beaumont, Texas, about 90 minutes east of Houston.

The altercation involving members of the MS-13 Los Angeles street gang happened at USP Beaumont prison around 11:30 a.m. Monday, according to the Associated Press, after officers at Beaumont witnessed a group fighting and responded to secure the area. The killings of two inmates, Andrew Pineda, 34, and Guillermo Riojas, 54, led to a lockdown of more than 120 facilities across the U.S. due to concerns over retaliatory violence at other prisons. During this time, prisoners across the U.S. have been kept in their cells and visits have been canceled.
Marilee Wood, a Houston woman who saw through the creation of the Metropolitan Transit Authority and later went on to preserve one of the Hill Country's most famous water holes, was killed by a driver while walking home in Montrose earlier this month. She was 83.

Wood had just left from visiting with her granddaughter around 5 p.m. Jan. 16 when she was struck, said her adult son Stephen. Wood was walking east along Harold Street, just south of Westheimer, when she attempted to cross Dunlavy Street to make the final leg of the walk home. That's when the driver of a Mazda CX-3 turned south on Dunlavy from the opposite side of Harold Street and hit Marilee while she was in the crosswalk, Houston police said.

Wood was rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she died Jan. 25.

"She had a pretty interesting life," said Stephen in a brief phone call. "It was certainly cut short before its time. She was 83, but she wasn't ready to go yet."

Houston police identified the driver as Lauren Basler, a 25-year-old Montrose resident. She was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, according to a police report.

"I know there's a criminal investigation going on," Stephen said when asked about the collision. "I think the police and the DA should do whatever they think is appropriate. It's not going to bring her back. It wasn't done on purpose, I'll say that much. Beyond that, how negligent the driver was, I don't know. I don't think it helps to speculate."

Wood's legacy as a change agent in Houston and Texas will live on, however. Born in the Bayou City in 1938, she became an integral part of the history of several communities near and far. While working for Mayor Roy Hofheinz in the 1970s, Wood helped draft and champion a referendum that would eventually lead to the creation of the city's Metro public transit system, according to friend and colleague Jon Breeding.

Once Metro was created, Wood began working as a secretary to transit system's administrative board, eventually working her way up to director of public affairs for the organization. In that role, she headed marketing for the new public agency and handled requests from Houston media about city transit. Far from complacent, Wood would set her sights on further challenges.

Margarita Martinez

After leaving Metro in the 1980s, Wood began working with private developers and volunteering for progressive issues, including with the American Civil Liberties Union. By the 1990s, she and her surviving husband, Tevis Grinstead, were ready to find a second home outside the city. They decided on Wimberley, a small community about 30 miles southwest of Austin, Texas. There, the two purchased property along the banks of the Blanco River, her son said.

Near her new home was Blue Hole, a local swimming hole frequented by locals and travelers. At the time of her arrival, the popular summer hideout had caught the attention of Austin-area real estate developers who wanted to buy and convert the land into a heavily residential area. Blue Hole's days appeared numbered until Wood got involved.

Wood, Grinstead and several others worked to incorporate the tiny village into an official municipality, with the full power of the government in their corner to protect Blue Hole. By 2003, She was a city council member and helped convince Wimberley local Peter Way to buy up the land before the developer could  a long-shot plan that panned out. Way purchased the property and agreed to hold it for no profit and sell it back to the city after officials had enough time to fundraise.

"This is big enough that 50 years from now when Austin and San Antonio grow together on I-35, we will have a little oasis in the country," Wood told the Chronicle at the time. She was right. As the years went on, the Blue Hole was preserved and the space around it was transformed into Blue Hole Regional Park. There, the amphitheatre is named in honor of Wood and Grinstead.

"There are those individuals in life that spend their lives making the world better," said John Breeding, her longtime friend and colleague. "I think Marilee used her mind and her insight to do that for Houston, perhaps even Wimberley and beyond."
Palo Alto Colleges mission is to inspire and empower our diverse communities for leadership and success. With 85% of Palo Alto College students identifying themselves as part of an ethnic or racial minority group, we encourage our diverse community to draw inspiration and guidance from the past to help shape our future.

In celebration of this years Black History Month, Palo Alto College kicked off the celebrations on Feb. 1 with a virtual event named Painting with a Twist  We Are In This Together.
A man shot in an ambush as he walked up a Brooklyn stoop was killed on his 45th birthday, heartbroken relatives and friends said Tuesday.

Ahmad Perkins, known to his friends as Excel, was shot in the head as he vaulted up four steps leading to a multifamily home on Empire Blvd. near Lamont Court in Crown Heights about 10:40 a.m. on Monday, police said. It was Perkins birthday.

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Ahmad Perkins (Obtained by New York Daily News)

He worked in a hospital and was a dad, friends said.

I grew up with homie  he was family... he was probably the most influential person from my block during the 90s, longtime friend Eli Malach wrote on Facebook. If you were from Brooklyn and you aint know him personally, nine times out of ten you were taking part of something that he started.

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This is f----d up, Malach added. How you die [at] 40 sumthin after bangin all them years?

Police responded to the fatal shooting of a man won the porch of a Crown Heights, Brooklyn, house Monday. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Perkins car, a BMW SUV with tinted windows and North Carolina license plates, was double-parked and idling outside the home when first responders arrived at the murder scene, police sources said. Perkins fell to the ground on the porch and died there in a pool of his blood.

His car was double-parked and its still running, a neighbor said. Someone was waiting for him.

No arrests have been made.

Perkins lived in Red Hook, Brooklyn, but grew up in Crown Heights not far from where he was killed, friends said. His mother was too grief-stricken to talk with a reporter Tuesday as word of his death spread.

Police responded to the fatal shooting of a man on the porch of a Crown Heights, Brooklyn, house Monday. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Perkins had an extensive criminal history and was sentenced to prison four times beginning in 1998 for charges that include assault, drug possession, weapons possession and criminal possession of a false instrument, court records show.

His last prison stint ended in December 2018 and his parole ended in April 2021, officials said.

Hasshan Batts grew up with Perkins and is now executive director of Promise Neighborhoods of Lehigh Valley, a Black-led community organization focused on improving the lives of children and families in Pennsylvania.

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Ahmad Perkins (Obtained by New York Daily News)

He was scheduled to do a radio show Tuesday morning about the impact of gun violence when he heard the news about Perkins.

Maybe 40 of us grew up together and theres about five of us left, Batts said of his peer group growing up in Brooklyn. Its horrific.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

He was loved, he was a phenomenal guy, Batts said of Perkins. He was one of the people who influenced me to do what I do. . . . He was a leader, bringing support to the youth and mentoring them. . . . He loved his community.

Vanessa Johnson, who grew up with Perkins, couldnt fathom how his mother was handling her sons death.

This morning I hugged [my child] a little longer with thoughts running through my head about the world he will potentially live in, she wrote. My heart goes out to Ms. P., another mother burying her son due to gun violence.

Ahmad Perkins with his mother. (Obtained by New York Daily News)

Ahmad Perkins thank you for always being genuine and loving, she added.

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Johnson also addressed the gunman along with anyone trying to use violence to solve their problems.

To the shooters out there, learn how to deal with the issues you are facing, [learn] to overcome the barriers youre facing, and, most importantly, your life is way more valuable than for you to have a target on your back or go to jail, she wrote. If you dont think no one loves you I do  let me help heal you and guide you; its not too late.

With Ellen Moynihan
In the early 20th century, Lew Hing bucked the odds to become one of the wealthiest Chinese immigrants in America. His business acumen allowed him to amass wealth and political power that few other Chinese Americans had at the time.



"My great-grandfather, in spite all of the systemic racism, and they eventually took him down by the way, for him he said they didn't care who wasn't white as long as the color of money was green," explained Bruce Quan Jr., Lew's great-grandson. He authored a book about Lew and his family's history in America entitled "Bitter Roots: Five Generations of a Chinese Family in America."

But being a successful Chinese businessperson at the turn of the last century also put a target on his back. By the time Lew died in 1934, he was forced to liquidate the majority of his business holdings, leaving him stripped of the wealth he spent his whole life earning.

Born in China, Lew Hing was only 11 years old in 1869 when his family sent him by boat from Canton to San Francisco's growing Chinatown to help at his eldest brother's goods store. Lew was one of many Chinese migrants who came to the United States a year after both countries signed the Burlingame Treaty, which allowed free migration between the two nations. America was looking for labor to help build the transcontinental railroad, and China was looking for protection for its nationals in the United States.



Despite the systemic racism and discrimination, the young Lew was able to find a path to power and respect in the San Francisco Bay Area. After arriving in the U.S., Lew's business skills helped his eldest brother's shop in Chinatown. One thing Lew understood even at an early age was to become a truly successful businessman in America, he would have to sell goods that served not only the Chinese community but also the majority white population in America as well.



On top of working at his brother's shop, Lew learned how to speak fluent English at a missionary school (schools run by churches that taught both English and Christianity) to help the store with U.S. Customs when shipments arrived from China. Through this work, he became good friends with P.W. Bellingall, a white San Francisco businessman who had an import-export business.

In 1872, Lew's brother traveled back to China to visit his family, but tragically his ship caught fire and sank off the coast of Japan. At 14 years old, Lew Hing was now in charge of his brother's store without other family members supporting him in the United States.



Lew continued to run his brother's store while expanding his business opportunities. He focused on canning, a developing industry at the time, where food items could be preserved and shipped around the world. With Bellingall's help, Lew took a job at a canning company where he learned everything he could about the industry.



Eventually, he developed his own canning method and in 1888 opened the Pacific Fruit Packing Company with other Chinese investors. Lew gave his cannery a non-Chinese name to hide its origins, Quan wrote in "Bitter Roots."

The cannery quickly proved successful. It eventually grew to occupy four buildings on Stockton Street. However, its success attracted the attention of the Bay Area media, which spread unsubstantiated rumors that Lew abused and treated his white workers poorly.



After several years of negative press, Lew finally decided he had enough.



"He sold the cannery in 1902 because of all of the racial problems that he was encountering with the media in San Francisco," explained Quan. "He went off to China, ostensibly to retire, in 1902. He came back in 1903 and, with his longtime attorney W.A. Richardson, started to think about opening a cannery in Oakland."



For his second attempt at running a canning company, Lew had learned his lesson: He needed prominent and connected white businesspeople to help him succeed and appear as the face of the company. Richardson introduced Lew to brothers William and James Rolph. The Rolphs owned a shipping line and were prominent members of the San Francisco business community. Their political power grew substantially several years later when James became the mayor of San Francisco.



In 1904, Lew had Richardson incorporate his new company, the Pacific Coast Canning Company, in Oakland. Although most company shareholders were Chinese, the majority of Pacific Coast Canning Company's public officers were white and included his old friend Bellingall. "He did that deliberately so that he could disguise who the real owners were of the cannery," Quan explained.



The only non-white officer on the board was Lew Hing himself.

The cannery's location by the Southern Pacific railhead in West Oakland at the corner of 12th and Pine Street was the perfect location to can fruits and vegetables and have them ready to ship around the country or by boat around the world. Lew's company made a lot of money for him and his business partners. By 1907, Lew Hing was considered to be, if not the wealthiest, then one of the most affluent Chinese Americans.



By 1914, the Pacific Coast Canning Company was the largest single employer in Oakland, with more than 1,000 employees during the height of the canning season. The company profits grew even larger throughout World War I thanks to the political connections of Mayor Rolph. He helped secure Pacific Coast Canning Company a large contract supplying its canned goods, transported on Rolph's shipping line, to feed the starving civilian population of German-occupied Belgium. That program was run by Herbert Hoover, a logistics savant, who would later become the president of the United States. Few Europeans receiving the canned goods could imagine the food, labeled the Buckskin Brand adorned with a white cowboy, was from a company owned by a Chinese immigrant.

While Lew focused on his cannery, he was also active in several other businesses. He helped open the Canton Bank of San Francisco, which provided banking and financing to other Chinese companies and the Chinatown community. He was also a partner in the China Mail Steamship Company that transported goods and passengers between China and the United States. Lew even expanded his business interests into Mexico, opening a cotton plantation in Mexicali and providing supplies to U.S. General Frederick Funston's army in Mexico.

Besides taking care of his own family, Lew was instrumental in attempting to help grow the wealth of the Chinese American community.



"His impact was felt, but largely not documented," explained Oakland Chinatown historian Roland Hui, who is also working on a book about Lew Hing's legacy. According to Hui's research, Lew was a force behind the scenes in Chinatown but rarely accepted official titles with Chinese benevolent associations, the de-facto power brokers in the community.



"Lew Hing had a track record of charity work," Hui discovered in both Oakland and San Francisco.



After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the headquarters of the Chinese Six Companies, also known as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association that effectively ran Chinatown, were destroyed. They decided to build a new building on Stockton Street, and Lew was the biggest community donor. According to family lore, Lew housed and fed thousands of San Francisco's Chinatown residents who became homeless after the earthquake. He bought tents and let them live on the land of his Oakland cannery.



"Oakland's Chinatown was always smaller, but it always had a strong relationship with San Francisco's Chinatown," explained William Wong, an Oakland-born journalist. He authored "Oakland's Chinatown," a photo book documenting its history.



"What really grew Oakland's Chinatown was the 1906 earthquake," Wong added, as many refugees from San Francisco moved permanently to Oakland.

Lew's business successes also allowed him to gain powerful political friends. A few years after the earthquake, he moved his family to a large house along Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland. It was extraordinary considering segregation confined most Chinese communities to Chinatown's borders. By 1921, he was also able to build a house for his children too.





Lew also received a sheriff's badge to help him move freely throughout California without the worry of being accosted by the police. He carried letters from prominent political officials vouching for his character, which were effectively "get out of jail" letters.



In 1922 when the Chinese Hospital decided to build on Jackson Street in San Francisco, Lew Hing's company donated $5,000 from him and his company to finance the construction. When the Chinatown YMCA on Stockton Street was built in 1924, Lew Hing's donated $4,250, the largest individual donor for the project, which led to the pool being named after him. For decades it was the only pool available in Chinatown for its residents. Lew also was focused on funding education opportunities, founding Chinese schools in San Francisco and Oakland.

Eventually, Lew Hing's businesses empire grew to over 30 companies where he was either a partner or owner. But as his political and economic power grew, Lew eventually found some poor business decisions by his white business partners eroded his political alliances  and once again left Lew with a target on his back.



Lew and his business partners at the China Mail enlisted Rolph's shipbuilding company to fix a fire-damaged ship to double their capacity. However, unbeknownst to China Mail, that company faced financial difficulties and underbid the contract to repair the boat. Cost overruns from the Rolph shipbuilding company ran into the millions of dollars. It eventually led to a tug-of-war for the shipbuilder's overstretched financial resources at Canton Bank, which financed China Mail's loans. Some of the more conservative financial investors at Canton Bank blamed Lew and other board members for their problems after he asked for additional financial funding to keep the bank alive.



Aggrieved business partners allegedly drew up a "death list" with Lew's name at the top. The danger to his life required Lew to always leave home with bodyguards in tow for the next several years.

No longer in a lucrative business relationship with the Rolphs, Lew increasingly found himself without the political cover of his white friends.



"My great-grandfather was really frustrated with people that had turned their backs on him from the larger society," said Quan. "They eventually took him down in the 1920s."



The first domino to fall was when China Mail Steamship Company went bankrupt in 1923. A few years prior, the Jones Act had been passed by the federal government. The act promoted American-owned ship lines over foreign or permanent resident-owned lines, including China Mail. Quan also noted that shipments from China into the United States often included illegal goods, such as illicit drugs like opium. If American customs officials discovered illicit goods on a ship, they could be levied hefty fines for the prohibited transport.



Most shipping companies could appeal the fines and reduce them to a mere pittance of the original amount. However, the China Mail Steamship Company received no lenience from the government. Piled-up penalties forced the company into bankruptcy.



"Laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the Alien Land Act of 1913 and the 1917 Asiatic Barred Zone slowed down the immigration of colored people  but what could be done to drive away those already in California?" Quan wrote in his book "Bitter Roots." "One way was to strangle their economic development opportunities."



"The other three [largest Lew companies] all collapsed around 1926, which makes me believe that there may be something working against him," noted Hui.



Canton Bank was liquidated in 1926 to cover its mounting debts despite a desperate move from Lew to save the bank by moving funds from the Pacific Coast Canning Company, according the Quan. However, this put him in legal jeopardy when stockholders reported him to the California Attorney General about the improper use of company funds. Running out of money and with few other options to avoid prosecution, Lew was forced to sell his major investment, the Pacific Coast Canning Company, to white competitors the same year and shutter his cotton plantation in Mexico.



"He probably lost everything besides his house and his shareholdings of two lottery businesses in Oakland," Hui said.



Distraught that his business empire was dismantled, Lew became increasingly bitter until his death in 1934 at his Oakland home. Despite losing most of his fortune by that point, his passing was well documented by the press.



Lew's hometown paper, the Oakland Tribune, featured his obituary. Their headline read, "Noted Chinese Romantic Life Comes to end." Meanwhile, the New York Times also had an obituary about Lew Hing with a matter-of-fact subhead: "Lew Hing-Chin Dead in California at 77: Chinese Immigrant Boy Became Noted Captain of Industry on the West Coast."



The final paragraph of the Times obit read: "In recent years, he had been retired from active business, dividing his holdings among his son Lew Gow, Thomas C. Lew, and Ralph Lew. His sons and wife were with him at his death."
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Correction officers who abused sick leave during the Rikers Island staffing crisis should be fired because their egregious behavior does a disservice to both detainees and colleagues, the former No. 2 at the Correction Department tells the Daily News.

Stanley Richards is back at the Fortune Society following a six-month stint as first deputy correction commissioner that was marked by thousands of staff calling in sick, nearly crippling the agency.

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Stanley Richards, Senior Vice President at The Fortune Society (Seth Wenig/AP)

Heres the tragedy when officers abuse sick time: There were many officers who came to work every day, and I felt for them. And there were officers who really were sick and they get painted with the same brush, Richards said in a wide-ranging interview.

We need to come down on officers abusing the system. The union should be saying to those who abuse the system, we want you out of the department. They havent said that. They have said they want more officers. Fine, but thats at the expense of other officers doing triples, and thats a real travesty.

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Richards served more than two years at Rikers as a young man in the 1980s and then built a career with the Fortune Society, an organization lauded for its work with the previously incarcerated.

Stanley Richards, then the executive vice president at the Fortune Society, speaks at a City Hall press conference in 2019. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

His comments come after The News exclusively reported that hundreds of correction officers were caught abusing the sick leave system as Rikers descended into what many critics have described as a humanitarian crisis. Some officers were busted partying while claiming they were too sick to work.

When Richards was appointed to his prominent post on June 30, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was uniquely qualified to transform our jails. But critics questioned his lack of experience in jail operations.

Richards said the questions never deterred him. The most important thing that I did was show and appreciate the humanity of everybody, he said. I think the officers felt heard and valued. As far as incarcerated people, I think people thought, Wow my life doesnt have to be this. 

Rikers Island (Seth Wenig/AP)

His exit on Jan. 14 appears more amicable than that of other high-level Correction Department officials asked to resign as Mayor Adams and Commissioner Louis Molina take over the troubled agency.

Former Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi has been vocal in his criticism of the jail unions, which have found a more sympathetic ear in the new administration. A top jails investigator, Sarena Townsend, told The News she was fired after resisting Molinas demand she get rid of 2,000 pending disciplinary cases.

Richards encouraged Adams to move even swifter in shutting down Rikers Island, which he said actually provides weapons to inmates as it falls apart.

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Many of the weapons we found didnt come from the outside, they were made out of the facility, he said. I saw a piece of plexiglass sharpened into a 13-inch shank. The facilities are old and falling apart. Ive seen high school locker rooms better than the ones the officers have.

NY1 anchor Errol Louis, Senior Counsel on Civil and Human Rights for Google Malika Saada Saar and Executive Vice President of the Fortune Society Stanley Richards speak during at the Concordia Annual Summit in 2018. (Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summi)

Adams has expressed support for replacing Rikers with new borough jails, though many of those plans face challenges in court.

Richards said every problem in the Correction Department is rooted in staffing. He argued that a similar absence rate in the NYPD, FDNY or Sanitation Department would create a public outcry. But Rikers, he said, is out of sight, out of mind.

Of the roughly 7,700 correction officers employed by the city, on Jan. 17 some 2,685 officers  about 35%  were out sick, on medical monitoring that barred them from working with detainees or absent without leave. The agency says staffing levels are improving.

Richards recalled additional officers taking as long as 20 minutes to respond to fights among inmates.

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Thats why we need to close [Rikers] and bring it front and center so theres transparency. No more operating in the dark because that hasnt worked, he said.

He said he harbors no ill will toward the correction officers union.

I just disagreed with their unwillingness to work with us. I thought the unions had a loud voice to bring officers back and reduce violence and absenteeism, he said.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

The union, however, is happy hes gone.

The real tragedy here is that Stanley Richards stood idly by while our officers and nonviolent inmates were getting assaulted daily, and instead of using his bully pulpit as the first deputy commissioner to speak out, he remained silent, Correction Officers Benevolent Association President Benny Boscio said.

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While I regularly visited countless officers in the hospital who were seriously injured, neither Richards nor Schiraldi were anywhere to be seen. [The Correction Officers Benevolent Association] is thankful that the new leadership of our department is prioritizing safety and security ahead of a political ideology.

Richards also said the new Risk Management Accountability System replacing solitary confinement hasnt gotten a fair shake. Adams, like de Blasio, has used executive orders to delay its implementation.

It is now the law of the land. ... At some point, this administration is going to have to deal with that reality, Richards said. We have to change the rhetoric that says people are not going to be held accountable. Thats just not true.
Three teens  two of them already facing gun raps from recent arrests  have been charged after a gang-related shooting inside Brooklyns Kings Plaza mall sent shoppers scrambling for cover, police said Tuesday.

The shooting wounded two boys.

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Timothy Briggs, 19, Jaheim Covington, 19, and Omarion Harvey, 18, were captured fleeing the Kings Plaza Shopping Center at Flatbush Ave. and Avenue U in Mill Basin after shots rang out inside the Laced Up sneaker store, cops said.

The three teens had two guns on them, one of which Briggs allegedly had just used to blast away at a group of six teens he and his friends were arguing with.

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Briggs was out on $25,000 bail for a reckless driving, reckless endangerment and gun possession arrest. He allegedly led police on a high-speed chase along Surf Ave. in Coney Island and on the Belt Parkway on Nov. 16, blowing through multiple red lights as he evaded police.

When cops finally caught up with Briggs he had two pistols in his jacket pockets, according to court documents. Cops also learned he was driving on a suspended license.

The Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

Covington also has a criminal record and is two weeks away from being sentenced for his role in an Oct. 29, 2019, Brooklyn shooting, court records show.

During Mondays clash, Briggs fired 10 shots at his rivals, according to cops. One bullet hit a 14-year-old boy in the leg. A second boy, 16, suffered a graze wound to the leg.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

It wasnt supercrowded, but there were people in [the mall], NYPD Assistant Chief Michael Kemper said during a press conference Monday. I would categorize it as outrageous ... outrageous behavior. Ill leave it at that.

The youngster shot in the leg ran across the street to a nearby halal store when everyone scattered. Medics took him to Maimonides Medical Center where he was treated and released. The teen who suffered a graze wound was treated at Kings County Hospital.

Briggs is from the Bronx, cops said. Covington and Harvey live in Brooklyn.

Cops charged Briggs with two counts of attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and weapons possession.

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Covington was allegedly carrying the second gun and was charged with reckless endangerment, weapons possession and possession of a large capacity gun clip so his weapon could hold more bullets, cops said.

Harvey was charged with reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct.

The suspects arraignments in Brooklyn Criminal Court were pending Tuesday.
A look back at last month's Provincial Nominee Program updates from across the country.

Canadas PNP immigration results for January 2022 A look back at last month's Provincial Nominee Program updates from across the country.

Canadas PNP immigration results for January 2022 A look back at last month's Provincial Nominee Program updates from across the country.

Canadas PNP immigration results for January 2022 A look back at last month's Provincial Nominee Program updates from across the country. Alexandra Miekus Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canadas Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) are off to a strong start in 2022 with more than 4,500 invitations to apply for provincial nomination issued last month.

The PNP is an immigration program jointly administered by the federal, provincial, and territorial governments. It offers Canadian provinces and territories the opportunity to create their own immigration streams to better meet their labour market needs and economic development objectives.

Canada introduced the PNP in 1998 to spread the benefits of immigration more evenly among provinces and to encourage immigration to smaller provinces and less populated areas of the country. Today, the PNP accounts for a significant share of economic immigration to most provinces and territories in Canada. In fact, many smaller Canadian provinces such as Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan depend on this program to meet their demographic and labour force needs. Between now and 2023, PNPs alone are expected to result in more than 80,000 immigrants per year being admitted as permanent residents.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

Express Entry-linked PNPs

Most participating provinces and territories have at least one PNP stream that is aligned with the federal Express Entry system, which is Canadas management system for three immigration programs: the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), and the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).

Express Entry-linked PNP streams, also known as enhanced PNPs, allow a province to select candidates who have profiles in the Express Entry pool and invite them to apply for a provincial nomination.

In an effort to reduce the backlog and processing delays currently affecting permanent resident applicants, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has temporarily paused issuing Express Entry invitations to FSWP, CEC, and FSTP candidates. However, given the importance of the PNP for the provinces and territories, IRCC has ensured that Express Entry invitations for PNP candidates continue to be issued, as usual, every two weeks. Last week, Canadas Immigration Minister, Sean Fraser, reiterated the governments commitment to continue inviting PNP candidates.

In January, IRCC held two draws and invited 1,428 PNP candidates in total under Express Entry. The latest draw, held on January 19, issued a record of 1,032 Invitations to Apply to provincial nominee candidates.

Alberta

In January, Alberta released the results of two draws held through the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program. The province invited 150 candidates to apply for a provincial nomination on December 14, and another 250 candidates on January 5 under the Alberta Express Entry stream.

On January 13, the Government of Alberta also introduced a new Accelerated Tech Pathway for tech professionals from Canada and overseas. Candidates need to have a job offer or be currently working for an Alberta-based company in an eligible tech occupation, and they have to meet the criteria for the Alberta Express Entry stream.

British Columbia

Through the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program, the province invites the top-scoring provincial candidates on a weekly basis. Invited candidates may apply to Express Entry British Columbia, Skills Immigration, as well as the Tech stream. These programs are some of the most active in the country.

In January, the province invited a total of 714 candidates to apply for a provincial nomination.

Manitoba

Manitoba issues invitations regularly through the following three streams: Skilled Workers in Manitoba, Skilled Workers Overseas, and International Education Stream. Last month, the province held draws on January 14 and January 27 with a total of 758 Letters of Advice to Apply issued of which 166 were sent to candidates who had a valid Express Entry profile.

Ontario

Ontarios Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) held three large draws last month. The first draw took place on January 11 with the province issuing 1,084 invitations to apply under the Employer Job Offer Category to Foreign Worker, International Student, and In-Demand Skills stream candidates. The following day, on January 12, the province held another draw inviting 502 candidates with work experience in 18 targeted occupations and who may qualify for Ontarios Express Entry Human Capital Priorities stream. Lastly, on January 27, Ontario invited 1,032 candidates through the Ontario Express Entry Skilled Trades Stream.

In total, Ontario invited 2,618 candidates to apply for a provincial nomination, more than any other province.

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island Provincial Nominee Program (PEI PNP) draws are prescheduled and held once a month. This years schedule was released by the province on January 1. The first PEI PNP draw was held on January 20 and invited 121 candidates from the Labour Impact and Express Entry streams and 11 from the Business Impact stream.

Saskatchewan

On January 6, Saskatchewan held a draw in the Entrepreneur category inviting 51 candidates. The following week, on January 13, the province held a draw through two sub-categories of the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) Express Entry and Occupations In-Demand issuing a total of 104 invitations to apply for a provincial nomination.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
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Oklahoma City, OK (73106)

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Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms in the morning. High 66F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

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A 64-year-old woman died Tuesday after the driver of a gray Chevrolet rammed into her at a Brooklyn intersection, police said.

The woman, whose name was not yet available, was crossing Foster Ave. at E. 17th St. in Flatbush just before 7 a.m. when the car struck her.

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The victim was pinned under the vehicle when first responders arrived, according to preliminary reports.

NYPD Highway Patrol officers investigate the scene at E. 17th St. and Foster Ave. in Brooklyn Tuesday. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)

EMS rushed the woman to Kings County Hospital, but she could not be saved.

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A 57-year-old woman driving the Chevrolet remained at the scene. No criminal charges were immediately filed.

The NYPD said its investigation was ongoing.

Video obtained by Streetsblog shows the woman standing at the corner for several seconds before crossing the street. As she crossed, the Chevrolet SUV made a right turn and slammed into her.

Once again, a driver of a big car has killed a Brooklyn resident as they tried to cross the street. We are heartbroken and outraged. We send our condolences to the loved ones of the deceased, said Danny Harris, the executive director of street safety advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.

2021 was the deadliest year on New York City streets since 2013. Brooklyn had 85 fatalities, far above its Vision Zero-average of 61 per year, Harris said.
Over nine years have now passed since the kidnapping of British photojournalist John Cantlie in Syria, a hostage of the Islamic State group. That no real news of Cantlies fate has been forthcoming for years is disturbing.

Cantlie was abducted on November 22, 2012, along with his friend, American journalist Jim Foley, as the two returned from a weeks-long reporting trip to the rebel-held provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. En route back to the Turkish border and safety, their taxi was stopped and both men were forced out and made to lie on the ground by a cell of secretive foreign jihadisat least one of whom Cantlie had seen earlier that day, in an internet cafe in rebel-held Binnish.

Come with us, it will only take five minutes, they were told. Nothing was heard of the pair until 2014, when Foley popped up on an Islamic State propaganda video to be murdered by a British jihadi who subsequently became known as Jihadi John. It was the first in a series of grisly televised murders that prefigured a full-scale global war on the Islamic State and its territory in Syria and Iraq.

A number of things were disturbing about that initial kidnap. It took place a full six months before the official launch of the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) in Syria, and was an unheralded portent of the groups growing prowess. Just as disturbing was how little real journalism was published to shed light on Cantlies journey through the fledgling Islamic Statefrom his initial capture in November 2012 in Northern Syria through the experience of seeing his fellow hostages murdered on camera and his subsequent forced labor as a propagandist for the terror group in Syria and Iraq from 2014 onwards.

In large part, thats because from the outset the British Foreign Office, working together with some of Cantlies family, quietly leaned on editors and journalists in the UK and internationally to enforce an informal information blackout on Cantlies kidnapping. Editors and journalists, including me, were persuaded that publishing anything about Cantlie would put his life in imminent danger. The reason given was that since Cantlie had been abducted and then released by a near-identical group in July the same year, and subsequently given evidence which led to the arrest of a British doctor, to publicize his new kidnapping would spark the ire of his abductors.

That information blackout lasted until Cantlie popped up on Islamic State propaganda videos in 2014. My own story for GQs July 2019 issue about what happened to John Cantlie has just been published online, a full two and a half years after its publication. That delay was the direct result of intervention from the British Foreign Office and its head of counter-terrorism, I was informed, which persuaded the magazines editor that publication online, and presumably its perusal by Islamic State leaders in Iraq and Syria who dont hold a subcription to the printed mag, would put Cantlie at immediate risk.

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Anthony Loyd, a veteran war correspondent for the Times of London, whos been investigating the Cantlie story for the last year as part of an upcoming podcast for the paper, traveled to Mosul to find out more about Cantlies fate. He told me that for a long time the Foreign Office stymied reporting around Cantlie, without ever explaining with credible detail their reasons for doing so.

I consider the blackout that followed Cantlies kidnapping on November 22, 2012 to have been counterproductive and wrong. Cantlies kidnappers knew how to use Google, which meant that they quickly found out that hed been taken by their friends before and given evidence against a Brit; interviews with released European journalists, for my book Hunting Season, confirmed that.

The only consequence of the blackout was to help spread a false story that both Cantlie and Foley had been kidnapped by the Syrian regime and were being held incommunicado in Damascus. (This was not helped by a corporate investigation that reached the same, incorrect, conclusion.)

If everyone had known that Foley and Cantlie were being held and brutalized by British jihadis in rebel-held Idlib during the crucial first six months of their captivity, there would have been more chance of pressuring mainstream rebel groups in northern Syria to get them out. Pressure on rebel groups had successfully led to the release of Cantlie and his Dutch photo-journalist friend Jeroen Oerlemans during their earlier kidnap.

Moreover, the Western journalists still traveling into rebel-held Idlib would perhaps have thought twice about doing so (even though Cantlie did not). Nearly two dozen more journalists and aid workers were kidnapped after Cantlie and Foley by the Islamic State. Many would have been deeply surprised to find Foley and Cantlie not in Damascus but in their shared Islamic State jail.

When the Islamic State formally contacted the families of the hostages in December 2013, it threatened them not to talk to the media or there would be consequences. But I dont believe that either the British government or journalists should have bound themselves by that prohibition. To me, that meant the British government handed the organization a valuable propaganda gun to fire at a time of their choosing, when they executed some of their hostages on camera.

All the evidence, as my GQ piece argued in 2019, suggests that Cantlie died during the assault on the Islamic State in Mosul in northern Iraq in late 2016 or early 2017, possibly as the result of a coalition air strike. But the British government has argued, as recently as 2019, that he may be alive.

Theres a growing realization that hes likely dead, said Loyd. Even the most simple legwork done by journalists in the field following in Cantlie footsteps, investigating his fate, interviewing some of those who met him, and working alongside Islamic State, has revealed that no similar legwork was done by the Foreign Office.

Its possible that a government that had failed to get one of its citizens back was happy to kick the can of finding the unfortunate Cantlie some years down the road. For some parts of the British state, official secrecy simply remains a knee-jerk response.

The families of those abducted are often told not to talk to the press. But they should think twice. States have their own interests. Hans Dyer, whose brother Edwin was kidnapped and eventually killed by al-Qaeda in the Sahara in 2009, told me that the Foreign Office told him not to talk to anyoneno option, no reasoning. I was kept in the dark; I wasnt pushy enough. I trusted them and I didnt interfere I was even told that the issue might cause embarrassment to the government in the impending election.

Theres also a strong public interest in knowing the realities of foreigh policy. The truth is a complicated jigsaw puzzle; if you squirrel away pieces of it, before long, the whole thing doesnt make sense.

Information blackouts, and heavy-handed attempts by governments to persuade journalists and their editors not to publish, are bad for journalism. Its not only an issue of press freedomwild speculation and dangerous conspiracy theories quickly fill an information vacuum.

For some years now the British Foreign Office has been setting itself up as a beacon of media freedom internationally. But media freedom begins at home, and with trusting journalists to do their job.

James Harkin is Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism in London, and the author of Hunting Season

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

James Harkin is director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism in London, and the author of Hunting Season
SAO PAULO  Part of a major expressway collapsed on Tuesday above a construction site in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo where Spains Acciona SA was excavating a tunnel for a new subway line. No casualties were reported.

Television images showed a lane of the Marginal Tiete expressway caving into a widening pit alongside the construction site of the tunnel under a nearby river for the planned Line 6. The Sao Paulo state metro operator said on its website that tunnels dug for the new subway project had been flooded.

Public safety officials said all 50 workers were able to get out of the tunnel and only two were treated for contact with dirty water that gushed through the site.

We dont know if a water main was damaged by the excavation or if it was the bed of the Tiete River, the fire brigades Captain Andre Elias said in a statement.

Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria said in a press conference at the site that a sewage collector of the water utility company Sabesp was hit, which caused the accident.

Earlier, he said on Twitter there had been no victims and the Spanish engineering group was asked to work with municipal authorities to reopen traffic on the expressway and resume work on the metro line as soon as possible.

Andre De Angelo, Accionas country director in Brazil said in the same press conference that there was no collision between the excavator and the sewage collecting networks.

We are looking for the causes now. It probably has to do with the rains, with erosion, because the tunneling machine was three meters away from this collector, so there was no collision.

Acciona said in a statement it has taken all required contingency measures after the disaster. The company is managing construction of the new metro line in a public-private partnership with Sao Paulo state and is expected to start operations by 2025.

Shares of the Spanish renewable energy and construction group erased gains and fell nearly 2% after the collapse.

Municipal traffic authority CET said on Twitter around midday that it had reopened two lanes of the Marginal Tiete running past the site, but miles of traffic remained backed up.

The planned 15-km (9-mile) line, one of the largest infrastructure projects under way in Latin America, will join the Brasilandia district of northern Sao Paulo to the city center.

Acciona won the contract worth 2.3 billion euros ($2.59 billion) to develop and run Sao Paulos Line 6 in October 2020.

Since setting up operations in Brazil in 1996, Acciona has worked on water treatment plants in the northeast and developed 200 km of the BR-393/RJ highway.

Its other recent transportation projects in recent years include metro lines in Barcelona, Dubai and Vancouver.
A Kansas City-area man has pleaded guilty to an arson and insurance fraud scheme that allegedly destroyed three houses from 2013 to 2019.

Wandale J. Fulton, 40, was accused of conspiring with six others to buy houses, create fake lease agreements, and burn the structures down to collect on inflated insurance claims. The group is also accused of defrauding a credit union by obtaining fraudulent car loans.

Fulton pleaded guilty on Thursday of one count of conspiracy to use fire in the commission of wire and mail fraud, one count of arson in the commission of a federal felony, and one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Missouri. In the plea agreement, Fulton admits that he was in possession of unregistered firearms despite being a convicted felon.

Prosecutors say the conspirators tried to defraud insurers out of $500,000 during the six-year period, but netted only $300,000.

According to an indictment handed down in 2019 and amended in 2020, Fulton established a company called Global Consultants in 2013 and used it to purchase properties from the Land Bank in Kansas City, Missouri.

Another conspirator, Jeremy Woods, was purportedly the owner of Global Consultants, but Fulton actually was in charge, prosecutors say. In August 2013, one of their co-conspirators renegotiated the mortgage on a home in Kansas City to prevent foreclosure. The unidentified conspirator then purchased a $130,000 insurance policy with Farmers Insurance.

The house was destroyed by fire in December 2014. Investigators determined the cause was arson. Nevertheless, Farmers paid $127,586 on the claim, most of which was used to pay off the mortgage. The unidentified conspirator, however, received a $14,409 payment from Farmers for destroyed personal property that actually never existed, the indictment says. Fulton was allegedly paid $7,000 from the insurance proceeds.

Fulton also filed a claim for purported vandalism to his own house in Lees Summit, Missouri in 2015. He told American Family Mutual Insurance Co. that three furnaces, three air conditioning condensers, a computer, a commercial lawn mower, a snow blower, tools, nine interior doors, toilets, furniture, a television and clothing had been stolen from his home. The house was going through foreclosure at the time.

Fulton stated on the claim that the total loss was $250,000 to $300,000. But Farmers refused to pay the claim after Fulton did not appear for an examination under oath, according to the indictment.

Also in 2015, Woods, doing business as Global Consultants, paid $25,000 for a house in Kansas City. He purchased an insurance policy from Foremost Insurance with coverage of up to $106,000 for the dwelling and $6,600 for lost rent.

Woods and Fulton drew up a false rental agreement that made it appear they had rented the home to Kirk Proctor for $550 per month. Proctor purchased a renters policy from Nationwide that paid up to $50,000 for the contents of the home.

The house was destroyed by fire on Jan. 2, 2017. Investigators determined a flammable liquid had been used to torch the home. Global Consultants filed a claim for a total loss of the structure. Proctor also filed a claim to Nationwide seeking $47,623 for the contents of the home. The insurer paid $1,500 for temporary housing.

Proctor never lived at the home, according to the plea agreement. An investigation revealed that Missouri Gas Energy had never turned on service to the house. Proctor withdrew his claim after Nationwide told him it was under investigation.

Woods attended an examination under oath as part of Foremosts claims process, but he discontinued questioning after two hours. Foremost then denied the claim.

In 2016, the team purchased another Kansas City home from the Land Bank for $500 and purchased a $177,677 policy on the building. The home was destroyed in a suspicious fire in July 2017.

Nationwide paid $1,000 for rent payments that allegedly been lost and $44,500 to demolish the house and remove debris. The insurer later paid $138,500 for the total loss of the structure.

Prosecutors say the fraud team also defrauded Heartland Community Credit Union by using fraudulent documents to obtain a total of $121,150 for six car loans.

When Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents searched Fultons home they discovered three unregistered weapons, leading to an additional charges of possession of firearms by a convicted felon. Fulton had been convicted of manslaughter in 1999 and sentenced to 12 years in prison, but that sentence was suspended after he served only 120 days, according to court documents.

Proctor and Woods entered into plea agreements with federal prosecutors last September, court records show. They have not yet been sentenced.

The other three alleged conspirators were not identified in court documents.
A visitation will be held on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 at the MMS- Payne Funeral Home Chapel from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Family will greet friends from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Grace Ann Harrison passed away on April 26, 2022 at the age of 76 years old. Grace Ann was born to Dryden and Joan Carman 
If a visitor to Israel had the time to take a month to really get to know the country, I would recommend the period that has just concluded  from Passover through Israeli Independence Day. Its Israel in a nutshell. And it also happens to be a time of year when most of the days are picture-
A Missouri parent who fought for the ban of LGBTQ-themed books from school libraries is now facing a felony charge of second-degree child molestation.

Ryan Utterback, a 29-year-old father from Gladstone, Mo., is also facing a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree domestic assault, and a misdemeanor charge of furnishing pornographic material or attempting to furnish to a minor in a separate case, KMBC-TV reported.

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Late last year, Utterback participated in a school board meeting in which he advocated for the banning of certain books from North Kansas City school libraries.

Some of the books were deemed pornographic by the Northland Parent Association.

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Among them, there were two critically acclaimed titles: All Boys Arent Blue, George M. Johnsons collection of essays about growing up Black and queer; and Fun Home, Alison Bechdels graphic novel that was adapted into the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name in 2015.

A video of the meeting shows Utterback holding two enlarged pages of Fun Home, while Jay Richmond, president of the parents association, speaks out against the books.

The books were temporarily removed from four high schools in North Kansas City in October 2021, but have since returned to the shelves.

The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. >

In November, after some students spoke out against the ban in another meeting, Utterback explained to KMBC why he was advocating for the ban.

You know, I definitely understand their struggles. Its not lost on me, he said. Those conversations are to be had at home and only I have the intimate understanding of what is and isnt appropriate for my children.

On Thursday, Utterback appeared at the Clay County Courthouse for a hearing, the outlet reported.

One of the charges he faces involves a child younger than 12, whom Utterback allegedly fondled in December 2020, according to a probable cause statement.

In a separate incident, Utterback allegedly stuck his finger through a ripped hole in a teenagers jeans and proceeded to rub the teenagers leg.

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A separate case alleges that Utterback used his cellphone to show pornographic videos to a child, who according to a probable cause statement, was 4 years old at the time.

Utterback is expected back in court on March 10.
Charges against a former high school teacher accused of having sex with a student were reportedly dropped when the two of them got married.

An assistant prosecutor in southwest Missouri told the Joplin Globe that the case against Baylee A. Turner, 26, had been dismissed following her marriage to the pupil with whom she was suspected of having sex with in January 2019. Because spousal privilege now applies, prosecutors can no longer compel the English teachers former student to testify against his wife.

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Baylee A. Turner (Handout)

Amid pressure from the school board, Turner had previously resigned her position and surrendered her teaching license, the Globe reported. The fling allegedly began in Turners first year at Sarcoxie High School. She had previously worked for two years at a Missouri middle school.

The name and age of the groom have not been reported. Its against state law in Missouri for a teacher to have sexual relations with a student, regardless of that pupils age. The Globe reports that a half-dozen young educators have been accused of having sex with students in recent years.

[ Five alarm crisis as 55% of teachers surveyed plan to quit early ]
Clinton, IA (52732)

Today

Rain showers in the morning will evolve into a more steady rain in the afternoon. High 57F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

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Showers early, becoming a steady rain late. Low 48F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  The tandem of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte and their senatorial line-up have secured the endorsement of megachurch leader Apollo Quiboloy, a spiritual adviser of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Quiboloy, the founder of the controversial Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), The Name Above Every Name, said he supports their candidacy "100 percent."

He also prayed over Sara Duterte and UniTeam's two senatorial candidates, Harry Roque and Jinggoy Estrada, during the send-off ceremony for the "Mahalin Natin Ang Pilipinas Ride" at the compound of Quiboloy's church in Buhangin, Davao City on Tuesday.

Quiboloy, a self-proclaimed "appointed son of God," was indicted for child sex trafficking and other charges in the United States.

RELATED: Quiboloy charged with sex trafficking in US

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, California filed sex trafficking charges in late 2021 against Quiboloy and other officials of his church for allegedly coercing underaged girls and young women to have sex with him under threats of eternal damnation.

They also outlined KOJCs soliciting operations, which supposedly gave rise to additional criminal conduct, including forced labor, labor trafficking, document servitude, marriage fraud, and money laundering.

KOJC's legal counsel called the indictment "another vicious attempt to bring down" Quiboloy.

Meanwhile, Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez and wife Leyte 4th District Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez also announced their formal endorsement for Marcos' presidential bid.

In a social media post, Mayor Gomez said among the presidential aspirants, Marcos was the only one who helped the city "during disasters and difficult times."

"Madaling lapitan, madaling kausapin," he added.

[Translation: Easy to approach, easy to talk to.]
Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan is seeing a shrink at 1 p.m. Tuesday to keep himself in tip-top shape  and hes not ashamed of it.

Warrior heart. No stigma, the four-star general tweeted alongside a photo of a calendar page.

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The bold gesture was picked up by military site Task & Purpose, which spoke to the head of Air Mobility Command.

Mental health is simply health, Minihan said. There can be no stigma in my headquarters, command, or family.

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A November statement from the White House noted that more than 65,000 veterans have died by suicide since 2010. That is higher than the number of Americans killed in combat in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. The White House listed improving mental health care as a key factor in driving down that casualty rate.

Gen. Mike Minihan (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Feedback on Minihans tweet was largely positive, with several Twitter users claiming they wish this kind of transparency was commonplace when they were in the military.

Moved beyond words, wrote one Twitter user. This is what leadership looks like.

The U.S. Air Force was first among the nations military branches to announce the dismissal of service members who refused to get vaccinated in December.

Minihans disclosure gave comfort to at least one military dad. A Twitter user claiming to be a retiring sergeant-major called Minihans tweet one of the coolest things on Twitter today.

[ Tucker Carlson shamed by military brass for mocking feminine U.S. troops ]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1) - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon on Tuesday said she has already divulged to Senate President Tito Sotto the identity of the senator allegedly meddling in the disqualification case against Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos.

"I already named him to Senate President Sotto. The public will just have to wait on that," Guanzon told a forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

Guanzon has hogged headlines the past few days after dropping hints that a "powerful" politician was interfering in Marcos' disqualification case - particularly in the delay of the release of the First Division's resolution.

Guanzon said she and Sotto have agreed to further discuss the matter.

"So let it be in the Senate, where I have protection under privileged communication," she added.

Sotto, for his part, confirmed that Guanzon has already identified the senator, but said he does not have "direct knowledge" yet of the accusation.

Speaking to CNN Philippines later in the day, Guanzon expressed openness to cooperate with the Senate if the chamber decides to investigate the matter.

"If a senator will challenge me to divulge (the name), if I am subpoenaed by the Senate, then I will go, even if by that time I will already be a private citizen. Because it is the Senate who should hear this," she said.

Guanzon earlier revealed she had voted to disqualify Marcos from the 2022 presidential race, citing his non-filing of income tax returns, among others. She also accused fellow Commissioner Aimee Ferolino - the ponente - of delaying the resolution, a claim the latter had denied.

READ: Comelec chair won't interfere in Guanzon-Ferolino dispute

Guanzon admitted there is some risk to her security due to these recent developments, but stressed she was "doing this for the country."

She also issued an appeal to the Marcos camp.

"If you did not have a hand in this, sir, you should issue a statement," Guanzon said. "You should issue a statement, also for my protection."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  COVID-19 infections in Metro Manila may now be about twice as high as what is being reported by the Department of Health, OCTA Research said on Tuesday.

"If they are reporting 2,000 cases daily in NCR (National Capital Region), that would translate to roughly 4,000 cases if you include antigen test kits and unreported cases," OCTA Fellow Guido David told CNN Philippines' The Source.

Citing a lower positivity rate of 0.6% from the recent random antigen testing conducted by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) on 343 passengers of the Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit last Jan. 26 and 27, David noted that this is a significant decrease compared to his estimate early January.

He said that last month, new cases in Metro Manila were around 10 times higher than reported numbers based on DOTr's random testing on Jan. 12 and 13. Around that time, there was a 12.4% positivity rate among the tested passengers.

David tweeted on Monday that Metro Manila's reported cases from Jan. 20 to 29 was about 46,000. The capital region has a population of 14 million.

"This means that the actual number of cases, which include asymptomatic and symptomatic cases not tested, and those tested with antigen but not reported, could be 1.8 times higher than the official numbers reported by DOH, with a 5% error margin," he said.

David added that this could mean that apart from the decreasing new cases, there is also a downtrend in the number of unreported cases in the region.

Metro Manila is among the areas under moderate risk as of Jan. 31 with the downtrend in infections, but David said the goal for the region is to reach below 10% within two weeks from the current 17% positivity rate.

David also said the random uptick of cases in Metro Manila ranging from 2,000 to around 4,000 infections over the past days could be due to backlogs. But the COVID-19 watchdog will have to wait a few more days to monitor any changes.

OCTA earlier said "the worst is over in most parts of the country," since most areas have already reached the peak in their surges.

Metro Manila and some provinces have already de-escalated to Alert Level 2 until Feb. 15.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised against traveling to the Philippines amid the threat of COVID-19.

The Philippines joined the list of nearly 130 countries under Level 4: COVID-19 Very High category, which means the country has recorded more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

Also added to the highest risk CDC category for travel are Anguilla, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, French Guiana, Kosovo, Mexico, Moldova, Paraguay, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Singapore.

Although the U.S. CDC has advised against traveling to Level 4 countries, it noted that passengers who must travel to these areas shall be vaccinated and up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines.

The country has started to log over 1,000 new daily cases starting Dec. 30 last year. But since Jan. 5, daily figures rose again to five digits.

On Jan. 15, the country recorded its highest daily count with 39,004 fresh cases. Since Jan. 25, its daily new COVID-19 cases have declined to below 20,000.

The national government earlier decided to again accept fully vaccinated foreigners from non-visa required countries for tourism and business purposes starting Feb. 10.

It also lifted the facility-based quarantine for fully vaccinated international travelers.
Delaware Shakespeare was able to host its Summer Festival in 2021, but like many arts organization, the group has been hard hit by the pandemic. They will now receive funding to help them recoup financial losses and recover from pandemic impacts.
The Coastal Point is a local newspaper published each Friday and distributed in the Bethany Beach, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Millville, Dagsboro, Frankford, Selbyville, Millsboro, Long Neck and Georgetown, Delaware areas.
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Columbia, SC (29201)

Today

A few clouds from time to time. High 89F. Winds light and variable..

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Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 68F. Winds light and variable.
Year of the Tiger Chinese New Year's Eve, which refers to the last day of the last month of the lunar calendar, is the most important day of the Spring Festival for many Chinese. Many people who work in other places come back to their hometown on this day to spend the Spring Festival with their families. On New Years Eve, the whole family gets together to have family reunion dinner, watch Spring Festival gala, play firecrackers, worship ancestors, and stay up late. The elders give New Year gift money to children. People paste New Year pictures on the walls, red couplets on doors and paper-cuts on windows to express good wishes to New Year. The dinner on Chinese New Years Eve New Year's Eve is an occasion for Chinese family to gather for annual reunion dinner.Every family will prepare dishes with auspicious meanings, usually chicken, fish, lotus root and other dishes for the New Year, which is also the expectation of a better life in the coming year. Dumplings are an indispensable dish for families reunion dinner throughout the country. Many families would make dumplings at home. There are all kinds of fillings, such as pork, prawnsand beef. One interesting tradition is that people would wrap a coin in dumplings, and whoever eats the dumpling would have good fortune in the coming new year. Family enjoys reunion dinner Red couplets On New Year's Eve, people buy couplets in the shops and post them inside and outside their houses. The themes of the red couplets are health, wealth and good luck. House Cleaning In China, thorough cleaning is the most important part to welcome the New Year. On the New Year's Eve, people clean their homes to sweep away ill fortune and prepare to bring in good luck. The custom in Hefei is that on the morning of this day, the elders of the family bring the younger ones to worship the ancestors. The ancestor worship itself is the custom of inheriting filial piety. For the New Year's Eve dinner, people would eat preserved meat. After the dinner, everyone gathers together to watch the Spring Festival Gala and staying up until the next day. These are the traditions of Hefei, which symbolize that all bad lucks will be swept away and good fortune will approach.
Home free after his sexual assault conviction was overturned, Bill Cosby wants to keep it that way.

Lawyers for the once-beloved actor asked the Supreme Court Monday to reject an appeal from a Pennsylvania prosecutor who wants the higher court to take another look at his criminal sex assault case.

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in June to overturn Cosbys conviction, saying that he was denied a fair trial when Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman ignored a promise made by her predecessor, Bruce Castor, not to charge him if he agreed to testify in a civil suit brought by his alleged victim, Andrea Constand.

Cosby, 84, walked out of jail a free man on June 30 after three years behind bars.

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Bill Cosby departs the Montgomery County Courthouse on the first day of sentencing in his sexual assault trial on September 24, 2018 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

The Commonwealth fails to identify a single case from any court that conflicts with the Cosby decision, his lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, wrote in a 19-page filing Monday.

In short, the Commonwealths petition offers no compelling reason for this Court to disrupt the state supreme courts decision which is legally uncontroversial and based on a rare, if not entirely unique set of circumstances unlikely to occur again in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or elsewhere.

Current Montgomery County DA Kevin Steele filed a petition with the Supreme Court in late November, asking the justices to review the decision and right what we believe is a grievous wrong.

The Pennsylvania courts ruling, Steele wrote, set a dangerous precedent.

A prosecution announcement not to file charges should not trigger due process protections against future criminal proceedings because circumstances could change, including new incriminating statements by the accused, the prosecutors office argued.

The iconic TV dad has settled multi-million dollar agreements with at least eight women over sexual assault allegations, but only Constands case led to criminal charges after she accused him of drugging and assaulting her at his home in January 2004.

In order for the case to get revisited by the Supreme Court, at least four of the nine justices would have to agree to hear it.
Discovering appropriate housing accommodations is a crucial part of the collegiate experience. At Penn State, theres a growing list of housing options students can explore to make their college experience a little more enjoyable.

From the independence provided by Eastview Terrace to the renovated allure of East Halls, Penn State has a wide array of options for students with varying needs. For the benefit of the university's LGBTQ student population, the university even offers a special living option in Watts Hall.

When it comes to moving off campus though, accommodations for LGBTQ students become practically nonexistent. These students are able to take advantage of on-campus resources, but LGBTQ-centered housing is simply not a widely available option in the State College area.

One nonprofit housing cooperative that accommodates upward of 10 people a year called Houseasaurus focuses on upholding its shared values of social responsibility, environmental sustainability, queer positivity and egalitarianism within the house and the State College area, according to its website. However, beyond this housing opportunity, many LGBTQ students still feel they are left in the dust.

Julia Biertempfel has lived in the same apartment complex since her junior year of college. Now into the second year of her graduate program, Biertempfel (graduate-biorenewable systems) said shes experienced a clear difference in living on and off campus as a queer student.

While Biertempfel said living in a dorm doesnt automatically provide a safety net for LGBTQ students, she said navigating on-campus environments often felt more safe than those off campus.

I definitely feel its a little less safe farther from downtown, Biertempfel said. Ive had some problematic neighbors in the past who were very homophobic I know my apartment complex cant control that, but it didnt create a very safe atmosphere  on campus, I always feel safe in my identity.

Unlike on-campus dorms where students can report inappropriate language and unsafe actions to a resident assistant or dorm manager, Biertempfel said she has felt theres no one she can really turn to in her own building. When she heard people using homophobic slurs outside her apartment complex, for instance, Biertempfel said she had to simply ignore the situation.

MORE LIFESTYLE CONTENT

For one student, living off campus was an eye-opening experience. Anton Aluquin said since moving off campus, he believes State College can be unsafe for queer and trans students.

Aluquin (junior-immunology and infectious disease) said walking in groups at night is often a must in order to feel safe navigating downtown State College at night. He said theres never a certainty of how people will act toward queer people in this town.

Finding connections with fellow queer people is another downside to living off campus, Biertempfel said. Though she found a welcoming community through on-campus clubs and activities, Biertempfel said she hasnt been able to find that through off-campus activities.

Biertempfel said theres a general lack of conversation with the people in her building, which has made it hard to connect with people, especially other queer people.

I feel like it's a lot harder to find common ground with people, Biertempfel said. Unless someone is visibly queer, I am never going to knowyou just assume you dont have any common ground being queer.

Aluquin said he believes community building in collegiate settings is often easier when there is a proximity factor.

The close distance between dorms provided a greater opportunity to build friendships and find other queer people, Aluquin said. However, he also said no longer having that proximity factor gave him the chance to find a more authentic group of people he can feel safe with.

Due to the span of the greater State College area, Aluquin said he understands why others may have a difficult time finding the right community. While campus and downtown State College can provide access for connecting with people, Aluquin said he believes going outside of this walkable community can be isolating for some.

One organization working to make State College a more accessible and safe environment for the LGBTQ community is the Centre LGBTQA Support Network.

Pia Smal, co-chair and a founding member of CLSN, said via email that Pennsylvania remains one of the only northeastern states that doesnt provide specific protections for queer and trans people, ultimately making discrimination in work, housing and other areas a reality for [the LGBTQ] community.

Smal said while the borough has attempted to mitigate this by providing more specialized protections, there is still work to be done to make the community a more accepting place for queer and trans people to live.

Our work is not yet done until all community members feel safe to live their lives free of harassment and discrimination, Smal said. While the Human Rights Campaign ranked State College among the best in the nation for LGBTQA+ protections for the third consecutive year, without state protections, LGBTQA+ community members will continue to face discrimation.

Co-chair of CLSN Kerry Wiessmann said via email that she believes the surrounding community beyond State College remains a very conservative area and is just part of the reason hostility in the community remains prevalent.

Though she said the organization is still growing, it continues to remain a safe space for queer and trans students and community members. She said she believes as CLSN continues to grow, so too will the community grow more affirming.

Smal said going forward, CLSN plans to continue building community by providing opportunities for people in the community to get involved in making State College a safer space, year round.

CLSN currently offers several support and social groups, and it has plans for future fundraising and educational events, a Pride event for June and a goal to create an LGBTQ community center, Smal said.

We cannot do this alone, and we cannot do this without allies, Smal said. We would love to hear more about students' experiences in the community and encourage both students and community members to engage, volunteer and financially support the work that we do."

A positive factor of living downtown is the freedom it can provide, Julian Mintz said. Having the opportunity to live with people you know are accepting, having your own room to hang a Pride flag and being able to more freely express yourself are experiences Mintz (graduate-physics) said they have experienced or have heard other queer and trans friends experience.

Mintz said even having their own bathroom, a space they dont have to worry about sharing with people who may not be accepting, has been a positive of living off campus.

With a plethora of resources provided for queer and trans students on campus, Mintz said figuring out how to get to campus to utilize these resources has been a minor challenge with living off campus.

Though the walk is inconvenient, Biertempfel said living off campus hasnt changed her desire to be involved in the on-campus queer and trans communities. From going to activities held by the Jeffrey A. Conrad Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, to attending meetings for LGBTQ student organizations, Biertempfel said its important people stay involved, no matter where they live.

Biertempfel said any LGBTQ students thinking about moving off campus should take the time to find people who they feel comfortable being themselves around and should stay on the lookout for spaces they feel safe in.

It helps to have a roommate who can have your back, Biertempfel said. Schools already stressful enough, you gotta reserve your stress for where it counts check out local resources  what's around you  you may be surprised to find a space where you belong.

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State College Mayor Ezra Nanes issued a proclamation Tuesday declaring February 2022 Black History Month in the borough.

Nanes said each year, Black History Month is given a theme, and 2022 will be focused on "Black Health and Wellness," highlighting black scholars and medical practitioners in Western medicine as well as other ways of knowing throughout the African diaspora. The 2022 theme considers activities, rituals and initiatives that Black communities have done to be well.

Black History Month will serve as a "celebration" of achievements made by the community and a way to "honor the central role African Americans have played in our history."

I encourage all community members to celebrate our diverse heritage and culture and to continue our efforts to create a world that is more just, peaceful and prosperous for all, Nanes said.

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Dosk, a Philadelphia-based DJ and producer who has toured the East Coast and Europe, announced Monday via Instagram he will perform on the first night of THON Weekend 2022 at Penn State.

As part of the announcement, Dosk, who has previously performed at THON, said he will select a THON organization to donate up to $500 to based on a raffle he outlined in the post.

Participants in the raffle must tag a THON organization or someone involved in THON in the post's comments, share the post to their Instagram story and follow Dosk on the platform to be eligible to win. For every comment, the DJ said he will add 10 cents to his total donation until it reaches $500.

The post has garnered 1,420 likes and over 5,800 comments as of 7 p.m. Monday.

Dosk said he's honored to be a part of raising money and awareness for the kids."

MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE
Kyleigh Hager said shes felt tossed around since shes already had four different academic advisers despite being a sophomore at Penn State.

Its really stressful getting switched constantly, Hager (sophomore-biobehavioral health) said. Being undecided [at first], they just threw me wherever most of the time, and I dont think thats fair.

At University Park, each college has an advising center where students are assigned to specific academic advisers.

As for how Penn States advising could be improved, Hager said having a more diverse selection of advisers would allow students to find someone they could personally connect with.

If we had more advisers, we could have more times for students to choose from and for them to get more time with their advisers, Hager said. [Penn State] can get more diverse with [its] advisers because I feel like you dont click with everyone.

Hager said she believes it would be nice to have more of an option for choosing advisers to connect with.

As for Femi Ajao, hes gone to his adviser looking for academic guidance and support for issues back home  only to be given email addresses of other people for him to contact.

There needs to be some improvement, especially when it comes to getting information about your classes, Ajao (senior-economics) said. Its not like youre asking them questions that are out of their realm.

Yet, Ajao said Penn State advisers are a necessary resource for students, even though he said there could be major improvements when it comes to forming connections with students.

If the first week of school, everybody had to meet with their adviser at least once, I think that would make students have to have some sort of connection with them, Ajao said. I can see students being a lot more comfortable talking to their advisers.

Ella Farley said shes had both good and bad experiences with her advisers.

After failing to form a connection with her first adviser, Farley (freshman-biobehavioral health) said she finally clicked with her current one.

MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE

She reached out immediately, Farley said of her new adviser. She would send a follow-up email, and she was more genuinely concerned.

Farley said her new adviser has a different attitude when it comes to approaching students  by being available and seeming to want a genuine connection with the students she advises.

Caroline Siegel said experiences with her academic adviser have been really helpful.

Hes been really helpful and really opening and welcoming to me since Im a freshman, Siegal (freshman-earth science and policy) said.

Despite her overall positive experience, she said she understands there are students who arent as lucky when it comes to the advisers assigned to them.

Its probably personality and willingness to help the students [that makes a good adviser], Siegal said.

For Erin Miller, Penn State advising hasnt been a resource shes used often, but her experience was pretty positive.

I had to drop a class and [my adviser] was really helpful finding one to fill in that space, Miller (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said.

For Miller, a good academic adviser helps you as an individual in your pathway  rather than having a generic one that everyone has to follow.

Mary Sergeant, academic adviser for the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, said a common issue students have with academic advisers is not being able to form a personal connection.

For Sergeant, it takes a certain type of person to be an academic adviser, and its students who struggle when they cant form a bond.

Being an adviser, youre there wanting to help no matter what, Sergeant said. Is it that way for everybody? Some advisers, its just a job  drop in from eight to five, I come in, I go home. Ive worked with people like that I get the bad rap because there are advisers like that.

Sergeant said some advisers are missing out on a great opportunity to meet with Penn State students.

Currently, Sergeant said shes working on university committees to improve connections for students who are coming from Penn States commonwealth campuses.

Overall, Sergeant said academic advisers can serve as a resource for students, and they offer a lot of knowledge regarding classes, resources and school policy.

[Students] are paying a lot of money, and were here to help you, she said. You might as well try to see it through.

MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE
Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday.
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More than 24 hours after a Virginia boy disappeared, police made a shocking announcement: investigators were heading in a different direction after new evidence emerged.

We dont believe that 4-year-old Codi wandered off and we dont believe that he was abducted, Hampton Police Chief Mark Talbot said at a press conference Tuesday morning, referring to Codi Bigsby.

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Codi Bigsby. (Hampton Virginia Police)

Cory Bigsby, Codis father, said the boy went missing Monday morning around 9:06 a.m., according to the Virginian-Pilot. However, police said their new evidence was in conflict with Codis parents and others initial statements to police.

Cory Bigsby told police the boy was asleep at 2 a.m. but was not in the home when he woke up in the morning. He said he called the police after searching the home.

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The evidence that we have does not completely match the stories that we have received at this point, Talbot said.

Though the police have new evidence, their priority remains finding Codi.

We will work as if hes out there waiting for us to find him, Talbot said. The chief added that the Codis parents do not live together, but police had spoken with the boys mother.

Talbot said the FBI and volunteers are assisting in the search.

Codi is described as 3-feet tall with black hair. He was last seen in black clothes wearing flip flops.

A police spokesperson said there was not enough information or criteria met to issue an Amber Alert, but that the situation was fluid.

If there is anybody who has any knowledge of the last time Codi was out and about in the city of Hampton or elsewhere, we want to know, Talbot said. We are interested in speaking to anyone who has ever seen him, but in particular, if we could focus our attention on the time that extends from around noon this past Sunday up until yesterday morning at 9 oclock.
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
Boomtown 2022: How to live your best life in Columbia over 50

Columbia makes repeated appearances on lists ranking cities as good places to live. It is perhaps an even better place to mature and retire. A strong health care network, reasonable housing prices, a vibrant, engaged community and an appealing downtown help create an attractive location for all generations, but especially for those over 50. Read more stories.

Read the e-Edition
Danville, IL (61832)

Today

Rain likely. High 58F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 56F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
An uncontrolled blaze ripping through a fertilizer plant in North Carolina early Tuesday triggered evacuation orders for thousands of people because fire officials fear chemicals at the site could cause a massive explosion.

The fire inside Winston Weaver Company fertilizer plant on the northside of Winston-Salem was initially reported before 7 p.m. on Monday.

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At least 90 firefighters, along with close to 150 personnel, between the police department, emergency management and other agencies, spent the following two hours battling back the flames, according to fire battalion chief in Winston-Salem, Patrick Grubbs. They were forced to retreat, however, after the fire spread to a rail car onsite containing ammonium nitrate, which presents a risk of explosion.

The chemical compound, often used to make fertilizer, can fuel fires in some circumstances, particularly under extreme heat.

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Grubbs warned that there would be a lot of smoke and poor air quality in the city of about 250,000. He also noted that it could take some time to contain the blaze.

Right now, the fire is still active, and theres still potential for explosion, he told reporters during an early-morning press conference on Tuesday.

We have trucks, fire trucks going down every road on the (public address) system. Were going door to door in some places and hitting target communities trying to get everyone out of the area.

Early Tuesday morning, authorities rode through neighborhoods and knocked on doors asking residents within a one-mile radius of the fertilizer plant to leave their homes. According to the Winston-Salem Fire Department, the evacuation zone has nearly 6,500 people across 2,497 households.

Most of the campus of Wake Forest University is just outside the evacuation zone. Students have been urged to stay inside their dorms and classes were canceled on Tuesday. School officials noted just one one campus housing building was within the area under threat.

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Vinton, IA (52349)

Today

Rain likely. High 56F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Showers early becoming a steady light rain late. Low 47F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
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Apple has introduced a new layer of protection to its existing two-factor authentication (2FA) system, making it a little harder for phishing attacks to successfully steal valuable authentication credentials.

Given that Apple, PayPal, and Amazon were the top three brands used for successful phishing attacks last year, according to a recent Jamf report, this matters.

Phishing costs billions and is bad for business

Phishing is a huge problem. The scale of these attacks shot up during the pandemic. The FBI Internet Crime Report 2020 revealed that phishing attacks affected 241,342 victims in 2020, up from 114,702 in 2019, with adjusted losses of more than $54 billion. Verizons 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report confirmed that 36% of data breaches that year involved phishing.

That Jamf report confirmed threat actors to be targeting work-focused cloud services such as Office 365 or Google Workplace to penetrate overall enterprise security. No surprise that Apple users are targets, given that Apple is on course to becoming the most widely deployed enterprise tech hardware.

Its easy to dismiss phishing attacks based on the utterly unconvincing attacks most people frequently find in their in-box. Thats unwise. While some attempts may be stupid, the ones that succeed most are smart enough to exploit existing security protections.

Some are highly targeted, socially engineered attacks aimed at individuals or people from a certain firm. Using a combination of target research and convincing fake communications, criminals seek to undermine the security of their targets.

What Apple has done to protect users better

To help secure its users, Apple has provided a two-factor authentication (2FA) system in which a user attempting to access a service on an unfamiliar device is required to enter their ID information and make use of another known device to provide an additional authorization code.

The company relatively recently improved its 2FA system with a feature which would automatically recognize a 2FA code and enter it into the relevant approval field (autofill). This made 2FA much more user friendly and means many now use this protection regularly. (It also now offers a built-in 2FA code creation tool.)

The problem is that some phishing exploits have sought to exploit autofill to steal logins and 2FA codes. Apples latest response is a system under which the 2FA code will also include the URL of the website it is intended to be used for. If the site you are on is different from the site the 2FA code recognizes, autofill will not work.

This typically happens if you click a link in an email to take you to a site that purports to be a trusted site and try to login to your account. What happens is that, armed with your account details and the 2FA code, criminals may also be able to jump inside your data. Thats a slight simplification, but it shows the risk.

Heres what is different about Apples new 2FA messages, which should appear with macOS Monterey, iOS 15, and iPadOS 15.

Old message: Your Apple ID code is 123456. Dont share it with anyone.

Your Apple ID code is 123456. Dont share it with anyone. New Message: Your Apple ID Code is: 123456. Dont share it with anyone. @apple.com #123456 %apple.com.

You can be certain some very smart people will already be figuring out how to undermine this protection, but it helps. Fooling some of the people some of the time is the lifeblood for attacks of this kind.

What to do if your business is attacked

Another recent Jamf security report told us that 29% of organizations had at least one user fall for a phishing attack in 2021. It also said one in 10 users fall victim to phishing attacks on remote devices.

So, what should your company do if its security is breached? Michael Covington, vice president for portfolio strategy at Jamf, shared a response plan:

If you fall victim to an attack such as phishing, the first thing you should do is assess the damage. Take note of the PII that was handed over as part of the attack. The second step is to fix what is within your control - this might mean changing passwords, cancelling impacted bank cards, and calling the credit bureau. The final step is to share your experience. Dont be ashamed.

Covington advises businesses to adopt a no-blame culture in their response to attacks:

If you are in the IT or security team and an employee reports an incident to you, do not ridicule or shame those who fall victim, this will only discourage others from bringing forward important information that can help mitigate further damage.

It isnt always obvious when you or your systems have been attacked. Attackers are good at covering their tracks, he said. Some examples of things to look out for are: Device crashes, mystery apps, links or attachments in emails or messages, missing text, or apps that dont work right. These are often the first clues that something is going awry.

Education is always critical, of course: Dont click links in emails to access secure sites  enter addresses in the browser manually. And, most importantly, if your Apple device doesnt let you use autofill to enter your 2FA code, dont override it, as you may be under attack.

Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolics bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
A veteran firefighter with nearly 22 years of service was fatally shot as he responded to an early-hours dumpster fire in California.

Capt. Vidal Max Fortuna died at a Stockton hospital on Monday around 11 a.m., hours after he responded to reports of a blaze in the area of Washington and Aurora Sts. just before dawn. He was 47.

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This is my worst nightmare as a fire chief. This is a very, very sad day for this fire department, Stockton Fire Chief Rick Edwards told reporters during an emotional press conference. My message to my firefighters is to be strong, my heart breaks with you but we will get through this.

Vidal was one of several firefighters fighting the dumpster blaze, which broke out shortly before 5 a.m.

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Captain Max Fortuna (Stockton Fire Dept.)

As firefighters were extinguishing the fire, gunshots were heard, according to a press release from the Stockton Fire Department.

Fellow responders immediately provided EMS care and transported Vidal to a nearby hospital, but he was pronounced dead a short time later. He is survived by his wife and two adult children.

A 67-year-old man has been detained in connection with the shooting and a firearm was recovered at the scene, said interim Police Chief Jim Chraska. Detectives are still working to determine a motive and what exactly led up to the shooting, he said.

Vidals death marked the first loss the Stockton Fire Department has experienced since two firefighters died in a 1997 building blaze.

Captain Max Fortuna was one of our heroes, he is a hero, said Mayor Kevin Lincoln.

This is a sobering reminder of the many sacrifices our firefighters make, day in and day out, in service to our community. His leadership, his commitment to our city, is reflected here by his brothers, sisters, his community showing relentless support.
Congratulations, abidjan911.com got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site:

Abidjan911.com scored 91 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 4.5/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2 Apr 2014, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

abidjan911.com is very popular in Facebook and Twitter. It has 116 twitter followers. Furthermore its facebook page has 1575 likes.

This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the abidjan911 homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if abidjan911 has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the abidjan911 homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the abidjan911 homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the abidjan911 homepage on Delicious. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the abidjan911 homepage on Twitter + the total number of abidjan911 followers (if abidjan911 has a Twitter account).

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE Abidjan 911 - La plateforme du citoyen DESCRIPTION Actualites Abidjan : Abidjan911.com est une plateforme qui repond a un besoin d' informations et de communication des populations sur la thematique citoyenne KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS avril, avril 2014, 2014 laisser un commentaire, 2014 laisser un, laisser un commentaire, 2014 laisser, laisser un



The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE HTML 5.0 CHARSET AND LANGUAGE French (France) UTF-8French (France) DETECTED LANGUAGE French French SERVER Apache (PHP/5.2.6-1+lenny16) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux

Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Character set and language of the site. The language of abidjan911.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Type of server and offered services. Operative System running on the server.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for abidjan911.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK FOUND FACEBOOK PAGE www.facebook.com/abidjan911com DESCRIPTION Abidjan911.com est une plateforme qui repond a un besoin d'information et de communication de la population sur la thematique citoyenne. LIKES 1575 PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT 152 PAGE TYPE Society/culture website TIMELINE PAGE TIMELINE

The URL of the found Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The type of Facebook page.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK FOUND TWITTER PAGE twitter.com/#!/abidjan911 DESCRIPTION http://t.co/HSrq3nFTB5 est une plateforme qui re pond a un besoin d'information et de communication de la population sur la the matique citoyenne. ACCOUNT CREATED ON 12 Dec 2012 LOCATION TWEETS 1125 FOLLOWERS 116 LISTED 1
Avidaqueeuquero.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 29 Mar 2014, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

The total number of people who shared the avidaqueeuquero homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the avidaqueeuquero homepage on Twitter + the total number of avidaqueeuquero followers (if avidaqueeuquero has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the avidaqueeuquero homepage on Delicious. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the avidaqueeuquero homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if avidaqueeuquero has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the avidaqueeuquero homepage on StumbleUpon.

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE Meu Blog | Um otimo site WordPress.com DESCRIPTION Um otimo site WordPress.com (by Karina Liss) KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS wordpress, meu blog, search, meu blog um timo site, blog um timo site wordpress, um timo site wordpress , meu blog um timo



CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The title found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE HTML 5.0 CHARSET AND LANGUAGE Breton UTF-8Breton DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER nginx OPERATIVE SYSTEM

The language of avidaqueeuquero.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Operative System running on the server. Type of server and offered services. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Character set and language of the site.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for avidaqueeuquero.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND

Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The type of Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The URL of the found Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND
Imeili.com scored 42 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 21 Jan 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

The total number of people who shared the imeili homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the imeili homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if imeili has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the imeili homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the imeili homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the imeili homepage on Twitter + the total number of imeili followers (if imeili has a Twitter account).

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE  DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS , ,  OTHER KEYWORDS com www,



The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE CHARSET AND LANGUAGE English (United States) GB2312English (United States) DETECTED LANGUAGE SERVER Microsoft-IIS/6.0 (ASP.NET) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003

Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Type of server and offered services. The language of imeili.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Operative System running on the server.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for imeili.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

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The URL of the found Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The type of Facebook page.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND
The Justice Department has decided it will not reopen its investigation into the fatal 2014 police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.

The department notified Rices family after they petitioned multiple times in 2021. One of the letters Rices family sent was co-signed by dozens of constitutional, criminal and civil rights law experts who said the boys shooting by two Cleveland cops deserved extra scrutiny.

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Demonstrators block Public Square on Nov. 25, 2014 in Cleveland during a protest over the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. (Tony Dejak/AP)

On Nov. 22, 2014, Rice, who was Black, was playing by himself with a pellet gun outside a recreation center when Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback arrived at the scene. Within seconds, Loehmann had shot and killed Rice.

A 911 caller had told the dispatcher that the person with the gun was probably a child and the weapon looked fake, but that information was not relayed to the two officers.

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Federal prosecutors in late 2020 said they would not bring charges against the officers, blaming poor quality video of the shooting.

Samaria Rice marches with supporters on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021 in Cleveland, during a rally for her son Tamir Rice, who was killed by police in 2014. (Ken Blaze/AP)

The decision comes in the midst of a federal trial for three of the police officers involved in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and after a federal judge on Monday rejected a plea deal for two men who were recently convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.

Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. >

U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland has said multiple times that the department would shift toward a focus on civil rights issues and police reform.

The departments civil rights division told Rices family that the 2020 decision to not charge the officers who killed the boy was not an exoneration, but the case would still not be reopened. Federal prosecutors, working under the Trump administration and then-Attorney General Bill Barr, did not charge the officers. They also never faced charges in Ohio after a grand jury was convened, though Loehmann was fired and Garmback was suspended.

Tamir Rice, 12, plays with a toy gun before a Cleveland police officer killed him. (Cudell Recreation Center video)

Los Angeles civil rights attorney DeWitt Lacy, who was not involved in this case, told the Daily News, Its a totally unlawful shooting, theres no question about that.

But whether it reaches the level of a federal hate crime, Im uncertain. Of course, there are more than likely prejudices and stereotypes in that particular officers decision to shoot, but objectively Im not sure how a prosecutor could show how it was based on racial animus.

The decision is the latest in a string of federal prosecutors not charging police officers who have killed Black people, including Daniel Pantaleo, who choked Eric Garner to death in Staten Island but was not charged in 2019, and Darren Wilson, who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.

Curing a defective state process  in this case, one that appears to have been impermissibly slanted to protect local white law enforcement officials from accountability in the shooting death of a young black child  is consistent with the fundamental purpose of the federal civil rights laws and squarely within the mandate of the DOJ, legal scholars wrote on behalf of Rice.

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Congratulations, kuwarebeta.com got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site:

Kuwarebeta.com scored 79 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 4/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 18 Dec 2012, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the kuwarebeta homepage on Twitter + the total number of kuwarebeta followers (if kuwarebeta has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the kuwarebeta homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the kuwarebeta homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the kuwarebeta homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if kuwarebeta has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the kuwarebeta homepage on StumbleUpon.

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS



The title found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE CHARSET AND LANGUAGE DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache/2.2.22 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.22 OpenSSL/1.0.0-fips DAV/2 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 (PHP/5.2.9) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux

Character set and language of the site. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Operative System running on the server. The language of kuwarebeta.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Type of server and offered services.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for kuwarebeta.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND

The URL of the found Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The type of Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who like website Facebook page.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND
Corsicana, TX (75110)

Today

Variable clouds with strong thunderstorms. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High 76F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Mainly clear skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 57F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
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The 1990s were a golden age for kids television, and not just because Pete and Pete created a wardrobe template for every 2000s hipster.

Wellsville Productions The Petes were Williamsburg before Williamsburg was Williamsburg.

Basic cable boomed, with Nickolodeon shows like Rugrats, All That, Hey Arnold!, and Ren and Stimpy busting out of the tired Saturday morning cartoon mold that dominated childrens TV for decades.

But those shows provide more than nostalgia. Yesterdays Nick producers are running the world now (All That creator Brian Robbins is now running Paramount Pictures, for Pete and Petes sake.) And many of the shows that 90s kids grew up on have had a profound influence on todays most popular comedy. Here are four lessons that 90s kids shows taught the comic minds of today.
One student was fatally shot outside a school in Minnesota on Tuesday afternoon, and another student was critically wounded.

Suspects fled the scene outside South Education Center in the south Twin Cities suburb of Richfield, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. No arrests have been made.

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The victims have not been identified.

South Education Center in Richfield MN. (Google )

Police arrived on the scene around 12:05 p.m. to find the students shot on the sidewalk in front of the school, according to local ABC affiliate KSTP. Both students were rushed to a nearby hospital, where one was pronounced dead and the other remained in critical condition Tuesday night.

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Cops have not publicly speculated on a motive for the shooting.

South Education Center, which serves students from pre-K to age 21 in special education and alternative learning programs, was locked down after the shooting, local CBS affiliate WCCO reported. The lockdown was lifted after police failed to find the shooting suspects, and students were released to their parents.
Crossville, TN (38555)

Today

Partly cloudy early. Scattered thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. High near 80F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 63F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Mayor Adams to city workers: Get vaccinated or get lost.

The Adams administration has alerted nearly 4,000 unvaccinated municipal employees  including cops and firefighters  that they will lose their jobs if they do not get their coronavirus shots by the end of next week.

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Adams shot across the bow came in letters issued to the affected workers this week informing them that they have until Feb. 11 to get inoculated.

FDNY firefighters and other protestors gather outside Gracie Mansion in Manhattan, New York on Oct. 28, 2021 to protest the city's coronavirus vaccine mandates. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

Speaking at City Hall on Monday, Adams said the ultimatum is about safety and argued that city employees have had long enough to comply with the municipal workforce vaccine mandate, which took effect Nov. 1.

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Safety is not only to stop the bullet, a knife or some other item. Safety is COVID. COVID is taking lives, the mayor said. There must be rules, and we must follow them. The rule is to get vaccinated if you are a city employee.

The roughly 4,000 workers at risk of getting the boot fall into two categories, according to data provided by City Hall.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams attends a graduation ceremony for correction officers at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

The first category comprises about 1,000 workers hired after Aug. 2  the date when former Mayor Bill de Blasio first announced the municipal mandate  who have yet to present proof of receiving a second vaccine dose.

The remaining nearly 3,000 are unvaccinated and have been on unpaid leave since Nov. 1 without electing to receive city-provided health benefits.

Unvaccinated workers who have been on leave but elected to get city-backed health insurance are not affected by next weeks deadline and can stay in their unpaid employment status at least through June 30, according to City Hall. It was not immediately clear how many workers are in that category.

Front page for Oct. 29, 2021: City facing crisis as FDNY, NYPD, Sanit crews set to stay off the job due to the COVID vaccine mandates. (New York Daily News)

It was also not clear which agencies the 4,000 targeted employees work for.

However, in a potential clue, no NYPD, FDNY or Correction Department unions came to agreements with the city that would have allowed their members to elect to keep their health benefits while on vaccine-related unpaid leaves.

Meantime, the NYPD and the Correction Department have the lowest vaccination rates of all the municipal agencies  both at 88% as of Jan. 26, the latest reporting window, according to city data.

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The FDNY has a slightly better rate, with 95% of its members having received at least one shot as of the same date, the data shows.

Some moderate Democrats who have otherwise been supportive of Adams were disappointed by his firing threat.

I understand the health point of view, but I think its kind of drastic to do to first responders whove done a lot for the city, said City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens). I think we might look back years from now and say we made a mistake. I just think its a mistake. ... If they want to jeopardize their life, thats their decision. We dont want to be a nanny state.

City workers who cant get vaccinated for health or religious reasons are able to file so-called reasonable accommodation requests  and Adams encouraged anyone with a legitimate claim to do so.

Put in for a waiver, put in if you for some reason cant comply and well look at it, Adams said Monday.

People gather to protest vaccine mandates for city workers at City Hall Park in Manhattan, New York on Nov. 3, 2021. (Michael M Santiago/GettyImages/Getty Images)

This weeks termination escalation from the Adams administration comes amid a slowdown in vaccinations among city workers.

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As of the Jan. 26 data set, 95% of the citys more than 370,000 workers have gotten at least one shot  the same rate as when de Blasio left office Jan. 1.

Thats in spite of the fact that the omicron variant triggered a massive COVID-19 outbreak last month.

The omicron resurgence has since subsided, and the citys daily test positivity average dipped to 4.26% on Monday, down from 22.31% on Jan. 2.

Firefighters rally outside then-Mayor Bill de Blasio's residence, Gracie Mansion in Manhattan, New York to protest the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city workers on Oct. 28, 2021. (Jeenah Moon/AP)

But death rates  which tend to lag behind infection spikes by a few weeks  remain high, with 122 New Yorkers dying from to the virus Monday, including 59 in the city.

Public health experts have repeatedly found that available coronavirus vaccines are highly effective in decreasing the risk of being hospitalized or killed by COVID-19, but some skeptics insist individuals shouldnt face pressure to get shots.

Staten Island Councilman Joseph Borelli, the chambers Republican minority leader, pointed to recent federal data suggesting that immunity acquired from an infection may be effective in protecting against omicron as reason to not enforce mandates.

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Its just absurd that we arent considering this reality, and instead living in a hyperpolitical echo chamber of COVID madness, Borelli said.
The Log4j vulnerability crisis that erupted in late-2021 heightened the security worlds awareness of supply chain risks in free and universally deployed open-source software. Following an intense holiday season push by admins and cybersecurity professionals to track and remediate the Log4j flaw, the White House held a meeting of industry leaders to discuss improving open source software security.

In a sign that the tech sector is stepping up efforts, the Linux Foundation and the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) have announced the Alpha-Omega Project. Backed by $5 million in initial funding from Microsoft and Google, the project seeks to improve software supply chain security for 10,000 open-source software projects by systematically looking for undiscovered vulnerabilities in open-source code and then working with project maintainers to get them fixed.

Alpha will target critical projects; Omega will identify flaws in 10,000 projects

The Alpha part of the project will target and evaluate the most critical open-source projects to help organizations improve their security postures. The projects will be selected based on the work by the OpenSSF Securing Critical Projects working group using a combination of expert opinions and data, including the OpenSSF Criticality Score and Harvards Census analysis identifying critical open source software.

For those projects, Alpha team members, initially composed of paid professionals funded under the initiative, will provide tailored help so that organizations can understand and address security gaps. That help can consist of, for example, threat modeling, automated security testing, source-code audits, and support with remediating vulnerabilities that are discovered.

The Alpha team will also track a series of important metrics providing stakeholders with a better understanding of the security of the open-source project they depend on. The team will further issue a transparent, standardized view of the projects security posture and compliance with security best practices.

The Omega part of the initiative will use automated methods and tools to identify critical security vulnerabilities across at least 10,000 widely deployed open source projects using a combination of people, technology and processes. Omega will have a dedicated team of software engineers continually tuning the analysis pipeline to reduce false-positive rates and identify new vulnerabilities. Although both Alpha and Omega will launch with paid staff members, the initiative hopes to leverage a broader constituency of volunteers ultimately.

Initiative aims to fill a gap

Brian Behlendorf, general manager of the OpenSSF, tells CSO, We realized that there was a gap when it comes to a set of needs, which I think really came to the fore with the call a few weeks ago with the White House. Although motivated by Log 4j, The meeting thought to ask these deeper questions about how is it that the open-source community writes code and where are useful places for support for better interventions to help mitigate the chances of a future Log4j. Then once they happen, how do you respond to them in a more graceful manner?

To meet the needs [of the spectrum of open-source software security projects], there are two things you need, Behlendorf says. You need better tooling and better automation to try not just to determine the security posture of a large number of projects en masse, but also to ask questions, to try to discover new facts about those projects.

Secondly, You can't just roll in with a 300-page thou shalt kind of like white paper on how everyone needs to run their open-source projects because every open-source project is different. Behlendorf says a more hands-on approach is required. You need to walk in and say: Have you done threat modeling? And here's how you might think about it.

A human approach to securing open source

Michael Scovetta, principal security project manager at Microsoft, highlights the importance of a human approach in the Alpha-Omega process. He tells CSO that having people engaged on a highly collaborative basis is an essential component of the Alpha projects, the most critical ones.

What Omega definitely is not is a machine that runs tools and then throws findings back to the open-source developer, he says. In a much lighter touch way, what the open-source developer for an Omega project would receive from us is we would engage them only when we find a critical vulnerability that needs their attention, and we would be there to help them to some extent in remediating it.

Michael Winser, group product manager at Google, says that an essential outcome of the initiative, aside from fixing open-source software flaws, is the element of education that comes along with those fixes. One of those sorts of meta outcomes is we're learning how to do this, he tells CSO. The industry as a whole is still figuring out how to have a proper security stance. We're going to start scaling our approach and learning from that scaling and working with other parts of the OpenSSF, other groups and foundations, and open-source maintainers to understand how we can essentially lift everybody up a few inches at a time to make our security better industry-wide.

SBOMs are vital drivers of open-source software security

Separate from the announcement of the Alpha-Omega initiative, the Linux Foundation has released a report entitled Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) and Cybersecurity Readiness, which addresses the relationship between open-source maturity and SBOM readiness. Based on a survey of 412 organizations worldwide, the report finds that 98% of the organizations surveyed say they use open-source software.

More importantly, the report finds that SBOM innovators are more likely to use open-source software without conditions, not because they are most risk-prone but because they simply have a more comprehensive and sophisticated culture around the use of open-source software.

Stephen Hendricks, vice president of research at the Linux Foundation, tells CSO that 66% of the organizations surveyed said that SBOMs are equally important to open-source software as closed-source software, while 20% said SBOMs are more important for open source.

The reality here is that youve got two-thirds of the organizations saying SBOMs are important whether they are open source or not, Hendricks says. Everybody wants to know what the bill of materials is; everybody wants to know about vulnerabilities. There is a lot of open-source software that goes into closed-source software, and with pretty much every organization using open source, its important to get open source right, but its important to get all software right.

Open-source security is critical to overall cybersecurity

The Alpha-Omega project and the Linux Foundation survey underscore the growing refrain among industry practitioners that getting open-source software security right is a critical driver of overall cybersecurity. Speaking at the inaugural Secure Software Summit held last week, Dan Lorenc, founder and CEO of Chainguard, said, Open-source software is part of everyone's supply chain, whether they know it or not. So, understanding the security of open-source software is pretty critical to understanding the broader supply chain security problems that we're facing.

Abhishek Arya, principal engineer and manager of Googles Open Source Security Team, said, As new vulnerabilities come in, we need to understand these security risks and be better prepared to handle them. We need to understand that open-source software is not free. It looks so, but it comes at a massive security cost. Much of open-source software is developed by volunteers in their free time where security often comes last in their priority list.

Rob Tompkins of the Apache Software Foundation stressed the need to preempt future Log4j-type security issues with more secure production practices: First things first, remediate your production environment. Fix your production software, please, please, please. I can't stress it enough.
The first case of a potentially more infectious COVID-19 subvariant, dubbed BA.2, has been identified in Connecticut, a top researcher said this week.

The BA.2 variant, which was detected in a patient in Fairfield County, is of the same lineage as omicron, according to Nathan Grubaugh, associate professor of epidemiology of microbial diseases at Yale New Haven Health.

The omicron variant, which first was reported in South Africa in November, has quickly swept across Connecticut the past two months, driving up infections and hospitalizations in one of the worst waves in the nearly two-year COVID-19 pandemic.

I dont think we know enough about it, Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday when asked about the new subvariant.

Right now, our infection rate is going down, our hospitalizations are going down. The trends are really good. But I couldve told you that in November before omicron. Give us a couple of weeks and we will have a much better idea.

On Wednesday, Connecticuts daily positivity rate dropped to 10.93 percent with 2,795 COVID cases found among 25,568 tests. Hospitalizations dropped by a net of 100 patients for a total of 1,346.

Grubaughs lab at the Yale School of Public Health has done the lions share of COVID-19 genomic sequencing in the state since the pandemic started. He said though only one case of the omicron subvariant has been identified in Connecticut, there are probably many more unidentified infections.

BA.2 is not a distinct variant by itself, but is a direct relative of omicron, otherwise known as BA.1.

BA.2 is out competing BA.1 in South Africa and throughout Europe. It is more transmissible, Grubaugh said. So it is going to be the dominant lineage of omicron.

BA.2 has already been identified in several states, and last week, Denmark-based research institute Statens Serum Institut, said the subvariant comprised almost half of the COVID cases in the country.

In Norway, state public health officials said 611 cases of BA.2 had been identified as of Jan. 19.

This edition of omicron is growing strongly compared to the original omicron, BA.1, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said. The properties of the virus are not known other than that it is more contagious than BA.1.

It is not yet definitively known if BA.2 is more virulent than its predecessor.

What we've seen from European countries and South Africa, is that there's no difference in how deadly it is, said Tom Balcezak, chief medical officer at Yale New Haven Health.

Though BA.2 is a direct descendant of omicron, Grubaugh said the two viruses are as distinct from each other as if they were separate variants.

The divergence between BA.1 and BA.2 and the spike protein is about the same as the divergence between alpha and delta, he said. Just because they share a common ancestor, it's a very long evolutionary branch and so far, BA.2 is the most divergent lineage of SARS-CoV-2 yet detected.

Grubaugh said the World Health Organization, which designates Greek letters as names for coronavirus variants, may decide to give BA.2 its own designation.

The fact that BA.2 is so closely related to omicron does offer some good news. The two variants share mutations on what Grubaugh called the receptor binding domain of the spike, meaning BA.2 is not likely to be worse for vaccines in terms of infection.

Balcezak said he does not expect BA.2 to alter treatment for COVID, though its impact is not yet clear.

There's no difference with regard to the vaccine, whether the vaccine is effective or not. There's no difference in treatment protocols, he said. So we don't think that there's going to be a material difference because BA.2, but we simply just don't know yet because we don't have enough information.

Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare, similarly said it should not make a difference for treatment.

From a clinical standpoint, it doesnt make a single difference for us  all omicrons we can treat, Wu said.

For Wu, worth watching is whether evades detection from COVID-19 tests.

It looks like it deserves close attention because of its ability to evade detection. But right now, its not something we are worried about. Clinically, it doesnt present any differently, Wu said.

Grubaugh said he does not expect BA.2 to cause another wave, similar to the effect omicron had, in part because the strain spread so rapidly across the state.

If you're infected with BA.1, you're probably going to be protected against BA.2, Grubaugh said. We just had a lot of infections and a lot of people have acquired a lot of new immunity that should suppress BA.2.

I think that the biggest impact that it's going to have is it's going to slow the decline in cases, he added. I don't think it's going to create another little peak.

Staff writers Nicholas Rondinone and Mark Zaretsky contributed to this story.
A state task force led by Connecticut's Department of Public Health on Monday said it has identified 157 schools in the state most in need of help as officials grapple with a crisis in youth mental health brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The schools are spread across 21 cities and towns, with Waterbury, Bridgeport and New Haven having the highest numbers of schools lacking adequate health care, including mental health services, according to the working group.

The task force have not yet named the 157 schools. Members of the group said they will not release the full list until they finalize a series of accompanying recommendations theyre preparing for legislators, which they expect to do in another week.

The report is going to provide to legislators an identification of where the need is, and how we might be able to address that, Ann Gionet, co-chair of the working group and a program supervisor at the Department of Public Health, said during the meeting Monday.

The group was formed under a legislative mandate to investigate where Connecticut students could benefit the most from the addition of health care inside their schools, with a focus on mental health needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their efforts will help inform state legislators about where to consider bolstering state support at a critical time.

This past fall, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in childrens mental health, saying children and families across our country have experienced enormous adversity and disruption.

In Connecticut, hospitals have reported high numbers of children in crisis showing up to emergency departments. In October, Connecticut Childrens Medical Center in Hartford reported their numbers tripled. Grades have also fallen, especially for students that continued learning in a remote, or even partially remote, environment, according to state data released in the fall.

Michael Testani, superintendent of Bridgeport Public Schools, on Monday agreed with the assessment that schools in his district need help confronting mental health issues students are facing.

The behaviors that were seeing amongst our children are really concerning, Testani said. Kids in our city were suffering from trauma-related mental health issues prior to the pandemic, but this is at a whole new level.

The Bridgeport school system has been able to bolster what it can offer to students using pandemic relief dollars from the federal government, but Testani said he worries the one-time funds are not enough to carry the district through the crisis.

I dont think were going to be able to address the needs of children in that short a period of time, he said.

Iline Tracey, superintendent of New Haven Public Schools, said in a statement the district pressed legislators for more support for its mental health services last year and would welcome any aid.

Tracey said the district would greatly benefit from the addition of funding and school-based health centers, which are on-site clinics typically run by a community health center.

The absence of school-based health centers was a critical factor in the analysis the task force conducted to identify the 157 schools in need.

The coalition began by looking at hundreds of public, charter and magnet schools as well as technical high schools in Connecticut that do not have such a center.

Some of those schools are in greater need of additional support than others, so the analysis took into account whether these schools reside in areas that lack health care providers. It also weighed whether the area is considered socially vulnerable.

The resulting list of schools are considered the highest-need. In eight of the 21 towns, the state is currently not investing any money into school-based health centers.

Roughly 300 school-based health clinics are already operating in Connecticut, with the Department of Health contributing state funds to 90 across the state.

The demand on mental health services at these centers has increased during COVID-19: Together, the state-funded clinics recorded about 70,000 mental health visits during the 2020-2021 school year, up from about 49,000 during the previous academic year.

The national School-Based Health Alliance is aware of about 3,000 school-based health centers around the country, a spokeswoman said. Connecticut ranks among the states with the highest number of such centers per capita. But the unmet need is still great, the spokeswoman said in December.

Perhaps less so in CT, but even in affluent communities the needs for mental health services are greater than ever. she said.
Prescriptions of Paxlovid, an at-home, oral treatment for COVID-19, are underway in Connecticut and will increase in volume in the coming weeks and months.

The drug, a 5-day course of pills, was developed by Pfizer and was shown to prevent hospitalization and death in a high percentage of cases in early studies  but it must be started before a patient develops severe symptoms.

Here is information you need to know about whether you may be eligible for Paxlovid, how to get it and how it works.

What is Paxlovid?

Paxlovid is the trade name for a pair of anti-viral medications developed by Pfizer, which are taken together; nirmatrelvir and ritonavir. The course is three pills, twice a day, for five days. It works by inhibiting the enzymes in cells that allow the COVID-19 virus to multiply. A study of 2,246 COVID patients showed those who took Paxlovir were 88 percent less likely to be hospitalized or die than those who took a placebo.

Why cant it just be given to everyone who tests positive for COVID-19?

Paxlovid is authorized for people with a high risk of severe COVID who test positive and have mild or moderate symptoms, not severe symptoms. It must be taken within five days of the onset of symptoms. If youre sick enough to need to go to a hospital, doctors will not prescribe it for you.

Can anyone with early symptoms of COVID-19 take Paxlovid?

No. The medication is limited to high-risk patients. That means typically people who are at least 60 years old and have an underlying health condition that may worsen COVID, such as chronic lung disease, diabetes, obesity and many other so-called co-morbidities. It is authorized for emergency use for people ages 12 and over who weigh at least 88 pounds. Anyone younger than 60 must have a significant health issue that makes a severe case more likely to develop.

Can my family doctor prescribe Paxlovid?

Not yet directly, although that may change. Currently, Connecticut hospitals and large health care providers have a small number of courses for their patients. Until the medication is more widely available, your doctor would need to refer your case to the infectious disease unit of one of the hospitals or health centers that has Paxlovid on hand. For example, you could be referred to Stamford Hospital, where the new outpatient COVID-19 treatment center would contact you. Our staff is trained to triage all the patients for the appropriate treatment, said Dr. Asha Shah, director of infectious diseases at Stamford Health. Some pharmacies linked to nursing homes also have a supply.

Who should not take Paxlovid?

Patients with severe kidney or liver disease may be ineligible. Paxlovid also may cause serious or even life-threatening side effects in patients who are taking a list of other medications  including some drugs for heart disease, cancer and HIV. Your doctor may recommend suspending those medications during the time you are taking Paxlovid. Side effects of Paxlovid even without those other medications include altered sense of taste, diarrhea, high blood pressure and muscle aches.

How is Paxlovid being distributed and who is paying for it?

The federal government ordered 20 million courses of Paxlovid at a cost of more than $500 per course. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is allocating it to states. Connecticut allocations are being coordinated through the state Department of Public Health and the Connecticut Hospital Association, and in some cases directly to health providers. Pharmacies cant buy it directly yet. Connecticut has received 2,500 to 3,000 courses and shipments of about 900 come in every two weeks.

When was Paxlovid approved?

It is not yet approved as a regular drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization on Dec. 22, and shipments followed immediately.

In some states, Paxlovid is in huge demand with shortages. Why is that not happening in Connecticut?

Hospitals in Connecticut have prescribed Paxlovid to relatively few patients because of the dangers of drug interactions and the very tight time frame, the first five days of symptoms. Patients with mild symptoms often do not come forward fast enough for Paxlovid to work, and if they wait for a positive PCR test, its probably too late. UConn Health, for example, had prescribed it to about 20 people as of Monday. We need to do what we can to get this medication out to patients who need it, said Dr. David Banach, epidemiologist at UConn Health and John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington. At Hartford HealthCare, Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist, said Monday, We are very strict with the criteria but we have opened up that criteria in the last ten days.

If Paxlovid is in short supply and more people come forward, will vaccinated patients have priority?

On the contrary, unvaccinated patients are more likely to receive Paxlovid because they are more likely to become very sick and die. Doctors do not punish people because of the health choices they have made.

How is Paxlovid different from other COVID treatments?

Its expected to be the first widely available, widely prescribed medication that patients can take at home. Mercks similar drug, molnupiravir, was authorized by the FDA at the same time but has shown less effectiveness in studies. Monoclonal antibodies must be given by intravenous infusions. An alleged treatment, hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, was initially granted emergency authorization by FDA in early 2020 for coronavirus disease but later revoked after studies showed it was not effective  although some doctors still prescribe it.

Will insurance cover Paxlovid after it is widely available? How much will it cost?

Those questions are not yet answered and it may depend on your health plan. Pfizer issued a statement saying it will price the drug in different countries according to their wealth, meaning the United States will pay more, as is the case with most drugs for a variety of reasons. Pfizer said it is committed to working toward equitable access to Paxlovid for all people.

Where can I get more information?

The FDA announcement with numerous links is here. Pfizers general release is here. Pfizers fact sheet is here. The NIH guide to drug interactions with Paxlovid is here. Pfizers statement about the U.S. contracts is here. Hearst Connecticut Media coverage is here. National stories about the rollout and possible shortages are here and here. A Yale Medicine report on the Merck version is here.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
President Biden hosted a friendly sitdown with two key senators from each party to discuss his forthcoming nomination of a Supreme Court justice to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.

Sounding a conciliatory note, Biden told Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday that he takes seriously the obligation to receive advice from both sides of the aisle in the Senate about the future nominee.

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Im serious when I say Im looking for the advice of the Senate as well as consent, Biden said, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and the two senior lawmakers.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., right, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking member, to discuss the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Along with a couple of jokes about their shared experience handling several Supreme Court nominations, Biden told the senators that he wants to get as much input as possible as he begins his consideration process.

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The president reiterated that he plans to name a nominee, which he has said will be a Black woman, by the end of February.

Most Democrats have vowed to move quickly to confirm the pick, the first justice picked by a Democratic president since Justice Elena Kagan was selected by President Barack Obama in 2010.

Biden gave no clues about who might be at the top of his list, although some insiders have floated a list of a dozen names, with the smart money being on Washington, D.C., federal appeals court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

He mentioned the Ninth Amendment, which says that rights are not explicitly enumerated in the Constitution and are often interpreted as supporting abortion rights.

Im looking for a candidate with character, with qualities of a judge in terms of being courteous to the folks before them and treating people with respect, as well as a judicial philosophy that is more one that suggests that are unenumerated rights to the Constitution, Biden said.

The White House is pushing back hard against Republican criticism that Biden is acting improperly by promising to appoint the first Black woman to serve on the nations highest court.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) called the vow an insult to Black women, and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) says it means the future justice will be considered a product of affirmative action.

But White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the GOP had no objection when Republican presidents appointed white women to the highest court.

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She quoted Cruzs strong praise for President Donald Trump when he promised to pick a woman ahead of his selection of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. President Ronald Reagan made a similar vow about picking a female justice.

Not only were there no complaints about choosing a nominee from a specific demographic ... there was widespread praise, Psaki said, suggesting the GOP lawmakers were upset because the nominee will be a Black woman.
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COVID-19 hospitalizations, driven to a near-record pandemic high in the past month, may be slow to decline given the spread of the omicron variant, an expert said Monday.

This is going to be a long tail. This is going to be a long saw-tooth pattern, Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare, said of the decline in hospitalizations, which could rise and fall day-by-day.

Over the weekend, Connecticut saw a net decline of 141 COVID-19 patients in the hospitals for a total of 1,051, more than 400 fewer than last Monday, state data shows. The positivity rate through the weekend was 7.33 percent with 3,330 new COVID-19 cases found in 45,449 tests.

However, the arrival of a new omicron subvariant known as BA.2, which has been dubbed as stealth omicron because of its suspected ability to avoid testing, may influence the rate of decline, Wu said.

I think omicron by itself was going to contribute to a longer tail, especially since we are in the winter season, Wu said.

Wu said theres a trend across the Northeast, among the first parts of the nation hit by the omicron variant, in declining hospitalizations.

We do know that other parts of the country are still experiencing some surges and deaths do unfortunately remain high, not just in the state of Connecticut, but also across the country, Wu said.

Despite what Wu described as the number of hospitalizations coming down very nicely, he cautioned that an overall look still shows that this metric is much higher than it has been earlier in the pandemic.

For example, we have a total of 334 patients in the hospital across HHC at this point, thats still high, even though the numbers are down from the mid-500s. Even though its dropped almost 40 percent, its all relative because they are still high, he said.

While the number of patients has dropped, it still remains nearly triple the amount of people in Connecticut hospitals in December, just before omicron swept through the state.

With hospitalizations and other key metrics still high, officials and health care providers have continued to stress an urgent need for residents to get vaccinated and receive a booster shot. Both, they said, have shown a substantial result in minimizing the severity of COVID-19 infections, despite a growing rate of fully vaccinated patients in the hospital.

The emphasis should really be placed on getting boosted at this point, Wu said. The studies are clearly showing your protection, not just necessarily from just getting omicron, but its main purpose is avoiding severe hospitalizations at this point.

Gov. Ned Lamont, whose emergency powers end in about two weeks, took steps in January to increase boosters among those working directly with patients. He first issued an executive order mandating that nursing home employees get a booster shot. He then issued a similar mandate for those working in hospital settings.

Thats how we keep our hospitals safe, Lamont said in January. Thats how we have the capacity to take care of each and every one of you.
An Easton man was sentenced to 30 years in prison after recording his repeated sexual abuse of a child, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Court documents show Robert McGuire, 42, of Easton ,sexually abused a child between the ages of 6 and 8 nearly daily between February 2019 and June 2020. He then took photographs and videos of the sexual assaults, according to the records.

The investigation also revealed McGuire sexually assaulted another child at least once, court documents said.

Authorities learned of the alleged abuse on July 1, 2020, after two children were admitted for examinations for sexual assault and trauma at Yale New Haven Hospital, according to previous reports.

The Easton Police Department arrested McGuire on July 10, 2020, on related state charges. McGuire turned over passwords for two tablets and his cell phone. On one of the devices, police found more than 50 photographs of the alleged abuse, according to previous reports.

On June 8, 2021, McGuire pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of production of child pornography.

A federal judge in Hartford sentenced McGuire Tuesday to 30 years in prison followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, according to Leonard Boyle, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

McGuire is also facing state charges of employing a minor in an obscene performance, two counts of first-degree sexual assault, two counts of risk of injury to a minor and one count of possession of child pornography. He has pleaded not guilty to all of those charges, previous reports state.

He has a disposition hearing scheduled for Feb. 9 for his state charges, according to court records.

To report cases of child exploitation, visit www.CyberTipLine.com.
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BRIDGEPORT  A small college known for arts and design is now seeking to set students up for jobs that pay.

Paier College announced on Monday new programs in web and mobile application design, citing increased demand for the field. The college is also partnering with The Hispanic Coalition to provide scholarships for Bridgeport residents interested in those careers with federal COVID-19 aid from the city.

The additions come as Paier has carved out a niche for itself among art schools for commercial arts and employment opportunities  including a name change from Paier College of Art last March to reflect an expansion of degree offerings.

Weve been stretching the word art, said Joseph Bierbaum, the president of Paier College, whos overseen the growing colleges move from Hamden to Bridgeport.

The web and mobile design programs will cover a variety of interrelated topics, from content to back-end development, and aesthetic design to user interface and usability. Students can take classes in computer graphics, photo digital imaging, and multimedia, webpage and web application design.

The entire scope of what youre utilizing on your device is what were preparing students to create, Bierbaum said.

Paier has also tapped Div Pithadia, a seasoned chief technology officer at several technology startups and companies, to lead the new programs as the first chair of web and mobile design and development. Pithadia took inspiration from his young daughter, who he said learned to paint on her iPad, rather than a canvas.

This is the new medium, Pithadia said. A lot of those technologies are not difficult  theyre just intimidating.

Representatives from the college suggested that welcoming approach is central to the programs design. Students can elect to pursue certificates, which could have them in the program and out to a high-paying job within six months, or work toward an associate degree, depending on their goals and needs.

Careers in application development, web development and systems software development statewide are expected to increase more than 20 percent from 2018 to 2028, school officials said citing the Connecticut Department of Labor. The colleges latest programmatic additions could help assist with that rapid expansion, they said.

This is big growth, said Bierbaum, the college president, who added they also looked at labor statistics throughout the New York metro area. We know theres big need in the areas where our market comes from, and where our market goes back to live.

Paier also has plans to make these programs more accessible. On Monday, the college also announced a partnership with The Hispanic Coalition to create scholarships  funded by a grant from the City of Bridgeports American Rescue Plan Act funds.

In our conversations with Paier College about how we could best help residents of the City of Bridgeport, we determined that creating a scholarship for a program that could have them career-ready in an in-demand field in less than a year would be the most impactful use of the funding, said Victor Lopez, executive director of The Hispanic Coalition.

Lopez said one scholarship recipient began classes this semester, while an additional 16 students will go through the program by the end of the year.

My administration is dedicated to providing a significant portion of Bridgeports ARPA funding to workforce development, said Mayor Joseph Ganim of Bridgeport. We are fortunate to have great partners like the Hispanic Coalition and Paier College who are eager to work with us and support our residents as they gain the skills they need to pursue new job opportunities.

Other leaders throughout the state had high hopes for the programs, and how they may impact the state and its future workforce.

The jobs of tomorrow are based around innovation, information, and education. Paier College is leading the way by preparing higher education students in Connecticut for these jobs, said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, who represents southwest Connecticut, in a statement.

With many companies planning to call the 4th District home and its rapidly growing reputation as a hub for tech startups, this pipeline of talent will help meet the need for young people interested in careers in tech, he said.

The Connecticut Board of Governors of Higher Education approved an associate degree and certificate in mobile application design, and a certificate in web application design. The college was also approved to offer the programs by its national accreditor.

As I speak with business leaders around the state about the areas where we need talent, web and mobile development is often at the top of the list, said Timothy Larson, executive director of the Connecticut Office of Higher Education. The approval of these new programs at Paier College will seed the pipeline of talented future leaders in our state by providing our students with additional opportunities to prepare for these in-demand careers.

Students can enroll in the six-month web application design certificate program now, while the mobile application design coursework will be offered beginning this fall.
In honor of National Unclaimed Property Day, Im excited to share that my office has rolled out several major improvements to the states unclaimed property system. If youre unfamiliar with unclaimed property, it is lost or forgotten assets which, by law, must be turned over to the office of the treasurer if the holder of the assets cant locate the rightful owner for three years or more. Some examples include unclaimed wages, savings and checking accounts, stocks and bonds, or forgotten utility deposits after moving to a new home.

My office administers Connecticuts unclaimed property program, which was established a century ago as a consumer protection program. Im proud of the progress weve achieved since I came into office in 2019. In fiscal year 2020 the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators annual report ranked Connecticut second in the nation in the rate of return of unclaimed property.

But theres always room for improvement. Accordingly, we are continuously seeking ways to make the program better. To ensure more money is put back in the hands of its rightful owners, weve advanced into the second stage of our administrative upgrades that began last February.

If youve ever tried to search your name at www.CTBigList.com in the past year to see if you have unclaimed property in Connecticut, you will already be familiar with our 2021 enhancements. These improvements allow you to visit the website, look up your name and file a paperless claim. Using the website, you can file a claim 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We continue to also provide residents with a toll-free customer service number (800-833-7318) to speak to a live representative during normal business hours. Since then, weve seen claims increase by over 30 percent, demonstrating greater accessibility for individuals to file a claim.

But we knew we could go further to make the program even more user-friendly. The first exciting announcement is our robust cloud-based system that allows the publication of properties under $50. Our new digital tool will now allow owners to search for all properties of any value that have a name and address using CTBigList.com.

Secondly, the new system also allows users to check the status of their claim online. It is as simple as entering the claim number in the Check the Status of a Claim section that is found under the Claiming Property pull-down menu at CTBigList.com.

Third, Im happy to share that we will soon be replacing the burdensome notarization requirement with an online acknowledgment that will provide rightful owners with an even more streamlined and fully paperless process. We will continue to require identification while eliminating this step, maintaining a secure process, while increasing efficiency for families and businesses seeking to retrieve their money.

Fourth, weve expanded our fast-track processing parameters. Fast-track processing is for single-owner property claims currently with a value of $1,000 or less. The fast-track threshold will be raised to $2,500 on July 1, 2022. Fast-track processed claims are approved in less than a week, followed by a check in the mail in just a few days.

Our fifth and final update is expanding our community outreach to increase the use of these new enhancements. This includes establishing a working group with municipalities to expedite the return of municipal unclaimed property. We plan to work closely with the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, the Connecticut Council of Small Towns and a variety of community organizations to help people find out if they have unclaimed property using CTBigList.com at the grassroots level.

As we continue to live through unprecedented times where every dollar counts for thousands of Connecticut residents, I want to make sure this process is as secure, transparent and as user-friendly as possible. Plus, theres a good chance that you or someone you know has money currently safeguarded by the states unclaimed property system. I highly encourage you to take a minute today to use our online system or call our customer service number to find out if you have unclaimed property. Thanks to this state program, rightful owners are guaranteed the ability to recover their unclaimed property forever.

Improvements have clearly paid off since I came into office in 2019. Im proud that its now easier for rightful owners to retrieve their unclaimed property than at any point in the century-old history of the program. However, our work continues. We intend to seek further enhancements by advocating for new policies that would require legislative action.

Shawn Wooden is Connecticut state treasurer.
Former President Trump has cut his first ad for David Perdue in his battle to oust Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in a Republican primary.

Accusing Kemp of being weak and disloyal, the twice-impeached president called on his MAGA supporters to back Perdue in what is shaping up as a marquee matchup in the midterm elections.

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He also reupped his familiar bogus claim that Democrats somehow stole the presidential election in the Peach State  and Kemp failed to stop them.

The Democrats walked all over Brian Kemp. He was afraid of Stacey The Hoax Abrams, Trump said, referring to the voting rights activist who is all but certain to be the Democratic nominee.

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Former President Donald Trump (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Brian Kemp let us down, Trump added. We cant let it happen again.

Kemps campaign is reportedly spending $150,000 to air the 30-second TV spot in some Georgia markets as the onetime allies launch what is shaping up as a scorched-earth primary battle.

Trump praised Perdue almost as an afterthought, calling the former U.S. senator an outstanding man.

Hes tough. Hes smart, Trump said. He has my complete and total endorsement.

He later bragged that anyone who wants to win a Republican primary should think twice about crossing him.

The power of the Trump endorsement is far stronger today than ever before  it is virtually unblemished! Trump said in an email statement.

Former Sen. David Perdue (R-Georgia) (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

The former president has been livid at Kemp since the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election when Kemp and other GOP officials in Georgia refused to join his campaign to overturn President Bidens narrow victory.

[ Trump amplifies call for imprisoning Georgias GOP governor in escalation of failed election fight ]

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger rebuffed Trumps bullying demand that he find enough votes to overturn Bidens 12,000-vote edge. Trumps brazen effort is now the focus of an Atlanta grand jury criminal probe into election tampering.

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Perdue lost his bid for reelection in a Jan. 5 runoff election against Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.)
Minnesota recently hit a milestone  2022 marks year four of the Credit Union Awareness initiative. As the first state to launch in January 2019, weve been working hard to move the needle. We built momentum, paused and re-tooled for COVID, and rebuilt again. At our 2021 league planning session, we took a hard look at how to continue. Honestly, it felt that enthusiasm for the program was waning. In the end  we resolved to strengthen our commitment to the initiative  and heres why. Its working.

The goal of this research-based effort was to grow awareness of credit unions as the best financial partner for consumers. Digital media ads drive consumers to the YourMoneyFurther.com website to learn more about the advantages of credit unions. In Minnesota, we supplemented the digital tactics with out of home efforts such as billboards and event marketing. And three years in, we are seeing the initiative make strides in boosting consumer consideration of credit unions.

Our independent research has shown:

Campaign ad recall among our target demographic increased from 29% 2019 to 43% in 2021.

Consumer familiarity with credit unions has increased 10 points from 2017 to 2020.

Consumers indicating they are likely or very likely to join a credit union increased 13 points from 2017 to 55.2% in 2021.

In addition to increasing consumer attitude indicators, we are seeing membership growth in Minnesota as well. NCUA has noted while overall membership in credit unions has grown, as of 3rd quarter of 2021 membership declined at the median, with about 55 percent of federally insured credit unions having fewer members at the end of the third quarter than a year earlier. Over the past 3 years, Minnesota credit unions grew more than most credit unions across the country, ranking in among the top fifteen states, seeing positive growth every quarter. The number of credit union members as a percentage of the population of Minnesota grew from 30.7% in 2018 to 34.5% in 2021 and the rate of growth remains at an historically accelerated pace.

We recognize that this initiative isnt the only factor in the positive growth we are seeing, however, we are confident it is a factor and a pillar we can build upon if we work together and sustain the efforts weve begun. Our independent research confirms that this collaborative, comprehensive effort does make a difference. A collective, sustained, national initiative gives all of us a broader opportunity to encourage more consumers to engage in the tremendous value credit unions bring to our communities.

To perpetuate the movement, we need more, younger and diverse members. Awareness is great, but its not enough. We need to continue the journey and move consumers from knowing about us to acting on that knowledge; shifting our strategy from an awareness focus to consideration and conversion; and aligning the messaging with our advocacy and financial inclusion efforts.

We know credit unions are the best financial choice for consumers, and we need to continue to make sure all consumers know that as well.
A quick web search will pull up thousands of articles about how to leverage partnerships between credit unions and fintechs. Websites tout how theyll help reach new members, expand your market, and serve members. Thats all well and good, but I want to talk about the area of a credit union that doesnt get too much hype.

Im talking about the back-end operations teams, technology, and processes that keep credit unions running. These critical elements combined are the unsung heroes. They carry a monster weight on their shoulders to ensure all the gears are turning in the right direction so each of the necessary functions of a credit union are all operating like a well-oiled machine.

However, there are roadblocks that can cause a credit unions operations to become rusty and overworked. Alternatively, even if things are working smoothly, are they operating at their peak performance?

Lets take a look at some of the most common roadblocks credit unions face when trying to create efficient operations and discuss what your credit unions operations teams can do to become the organizational heroes they deserve.

Cost and Time Challenges

Operations teams often turn to new technology to help improve the lives of the members, employees, and systems. When considering creating or deploying new technologies, cost and time are often the biggest barriers credit unions face.

Uptech, an app development company thats created web experiences for companies like Dollar Shave Club, said that software development can cost anywhere between $50K-$250K, depending on the complexity of the software and systems.

If anyone has ever remodeled a home, you know that once you start your demolition, you tend to find all the issues that lie beneath the surface. The same is true with costs associated with creating new technology. Once your teams begin the development process they can quickly discover that itll take more than the allotted time and budget.

You might have a need or want for a better backend process today, but how do you plan for future scalability while managing costs. A credit union may opt to over-spend on hardware to support future development; however, you dont want to buy more than you need. This would be like purchasing a monster truck when youre better off with a minivan.

How can a credit union combat the inevitable cost dilemma? By successfully leveraging outsourcing relationships, your credit union can benefit from having a partner to help shoulder the burden of high development costs. Your outsourcing partner will do the heavy lifting to provide you a polished, final piece of technology that should be easy to deploy and increase your operational efficiencies.

Current Labor Market Impacts

Because of the pandemic and other economic factors, its no secret the labor market is ultra-tight. In a 2021 survey of HR professionals, 74% said they are struggling to hire qualified talent. There is already a gap in the number of IT jobs available to qualified candidates, which many organizations are struggling to fill.

If your credit union decides to develop new technologies and processes in-house, youll need IT professionals fluent in software development, engineering, networking, and possibly hardware infrastructure, depending on the project. Each of these skillsets were difficult to recruit for prior to the Great Resignation, and even more so now and into the future.

Without a team of IT experts in-house to guide and develop the new technologies, it will be difficult to meet the projects expectations. According to a McKinsey Digital report, large IT projects, on average, run 45% over budget, 7% over on time, and 56% end up delivering a final product of lower value.

Labor stresses arent going away any time soon, and its one more consideration to take into account when your credit union is looking to improve their operations with technology.

Technology That Simply Works

In our 2021 Economic Review and 2022 Forecast for Financial Institutions white paper, former senior leader of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Blake Hastings, said, Labor supply will continue to tighten in 2022 and become a barrier to faster growth. He went on share how credit unions can find ways to adapt to the ongoing labor market, Financial Institutions will need to look at all their human capital-intensive activities and consider automated or outsourced solutions.

Time, cost, value, and having the right staff are monumental challenges to deploying new technology that can help streamline your credit unions operations and member experiences. Operations teams want technology that simply works, without breaking any current processes, dealing with lengthy integrations, or worrying about how to adhere to compliance standards.

At SWBC, our focus on providing the Total Solution for risk management, payments, and income generation includes some of the best-in-class technology. We incorporate automated processes like electronic data interchange (EDI), robotic processing automation (RPA), omnichannel communication for your members (text, IVR, email, call, and mail), a comprehensive online reporting platform, and business rules within our products and services so your credit union doesnt have to. Leveraging technology from valued partners is your operations teams super power. Show off your powers and enjoy the hero life.

Learn more about our Total Solution for credit unions.
Funeral Service for Brenda Joyce Wright, 71, of Cullman, will be 3 p.m. Friday, May 6, 2022 at Northbrook Baptist Church. A viewing will be on Friday from 2-3 p.m. prior to the service. The visitation will be 5:30 - 8 p.m. Thursday night, May 5, 2022 at Cullman Funeral Home. Rev. Keith Warde
Former President Trump wants Congress to investigate ex-Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Trump lost.

Instead of investigating the storming of the Capitol by a mob of his violent supporters, Trump said the House select committee on Jan. 6 should probe Pences decision to obey the Constitution and affirm President Bidens victory.

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(Congress) should be investigating ... why Mike Pence did not send the votes back for recertification or approval, the twice impeached president said in an email statement. It has now been clearly shown that he had the right to do so!

Then-President Donald Trump (left) and then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence (right) (John Minchillo/AP)

The broadside amounts to Trumps fiercest and most direct attack yet on Pence, his onetime loyal lieutenant turned potential rival.

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Trump remains bitterly angry at Pence for rebuffing his demands to join his unconstitutional effort to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to Biden.

He is now openly defending the effort to overturn the election and even suggesting that Pence did something wrong by obeying the law and presiding over the counting of the electoral votes from the states on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Vice President  could have sent the votes back to various (state legislatures) for reassessment, Trump declared.

The former president has seized upon the bipartisan effort to clarify and reform the Electoral Count Act as a way to re-litigate his grievances about the election he lost.

[ Trump claims ex-VP Mike Pence had power to overturn election ]

Constitutional scholars nearly unanimously reject Trumps claim, noting that it would effectively give a sitting vice president the power to keep himself and a sitting president in power even after losing an election.

Pence won the enmity of Trumps loyal army of MAGA supporters by agreeing to preside over the electoral count on Jan. 6.

Trump urged his supporters to march on the Capitol and fight like hell to prevent Congress from certifying Bidens election. They responded by storming the citadel of American democracy and forcing Pence and lawmakers to flee for their lives.

The extremist mob chanted Hang Mike Pence and even set up mock gallows to prepare for his assassination.

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While the violence unfolded, Trump refused for hours to do anything to stop the attack and even tweeted criticism of Pence for supposed disloyalty.

The House committee has recently interviewed Pences former chief of staff, Marc Short, and other aides, suggesting that Pence is quietly cooperating with the probe.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee chair, said he expected to ask Pence himself to testify before the end of January, but so far, that has not happened.
The University of Oregons Monitoring and Assessment Program has expanded its testing capabilities to allow for limited COVID-19 testing for individuals with mild viral symptoms, UO announced on Jan. 10. The expansion followed a week of the highest recorded COVID-19 case numbers in the UO community since March 2020.

Lane County Public Health is also partnering with the Oregon Health Authority to host vaccine booster clinics at Autzen Stadium starting Jan. 27. No appointments are needed and the clinic will be open daily from noon to 7 p.m., according to a UO community-wide email sent Jan. 24. MAP testing has also nearly doubled daily testing appointments starting this week.

UO created MAP in the spring of 2020 to develop and expand the universitys testing capacity for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to MAPs official website. The program now has a testing capacity of about 4,000 tests a week, according to its official website details on the expansion.

University communications wrote that people with mild viral symptoms, resembling a common cold, can be tested on the west side of McArthur Court at the ticket booths off University Street. Asymptomatic individuals should register for a testing appointment through the online registration process, as walk-ins are permitted, but may have longer wait times, as registered participants have priority. Testing is available Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Brian Fox, MAPs executive director, said the increased testing capacity will help ease access to testing for the community during an increased time of COVID-19 cases.

The need for additional testing options in our community at this time is clear, Fox said. Throughout the pandemic, our programs mission has been to expand access to free, highly accurate PCR testing to both UO students and employees and other Lane County residents. This expansion is another step towards that goal.

UO spokesperson Saul Hubbard said MAP was established specifically to support both the needs of the university and Lane County communities during the pandemic.

The MAP team has seen a significant increase in sample collections and sample processing this year, averaging 9,000 samples per week processed during the first two weeks of January, Hubbard said. During winter term, we are collecting as many as 1,300 samples per day at McArthur Court and averaging 800-900 most days, including walk-ins. During fall term, MAP was collecting around 400-500 samples on an average day.

Student Samantha Hamilton said the MAP testing expansion is helpful for making testing more accessible, but that the process of setting up an appointment was confusing.

I was a little bit confused about the registration process because it listed online that it was strictly walk-in, Hamilton said. So its a bit odd that we have to do registrations.

Despite the confusion, Hamilton said the expansion is a lot better because it serves symptomatic testers. In her previous experience with COVID-19 testing, she said she had to leave campus because of the lack of symptomatic testing. She said a registration system for symptomatic testers could improve the process.

I think having some sort of registration for symptomatic testers would be really nice, just so that we dont have to deal with the line and possibly more exposure, Hamilton said.

UO has additional COVID-19 testing information available online, as well as information for exposure scenarios.
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New Zealand Dollar Outlook:

The major NZD -crosses are not performing as well as they ought to be , considering the strength in equity markets and in commodity prices.

Technical indicators suggest momentum remains bearish, setting up sell the rally opportunities in both NZD/JPY and NZD/USD rates.

According to the IG Client Sentiment Index , the New Zealand Dollar has a mixed bias in the near-term.

Significant Underperformance

The New Zealand Dollars stretch of weakness appears on track to continue. After losing around -5% against a basket of major currencies in November, the rebound in December was offset by another decline around -4% in January.

On one hand, the Kiwis weakness has to do with rates markets getting too far ahead of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which has left the New Zealand susceptible to policy disappointment. On the other hand, the instability seen in risk markets at the start of the year has exacerbated an already weak trend in the Kiwi.

In the near-term, despite a torrid rebound in global equity markets coupled with a weaker US Dollar (via the DXY Index) over the past two days, the New Zealand Dollar has not been able to keep pace. In and of itself, this is a bad omen: a weak currency has only produced a feeble rebound in an easier environment, leaving it vulnerable to further downside in the immediate future.

NZD/JPY RATE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: DAILY CHART (March 2020 to January 2022) (CHART 1)

At the start of 2022, NZD/JPY rates failed to hold above the ascending trendline from the March 2020 and August 2021 lows, and the subsequent attempt to climb back above said trendline failed again in the middle of the month. Since January 14, the pair has closed below its daily 8-EMA every session; even the rebound seen at the start of this week produced a long upper wick, hinting at sustained selling pressure.

NZD/JPY rates are still below their daily 5-, 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope, which remains in bearish sequential order. Daily MACD is continuing to trend lower below its signal line, while daily Slow Stochastics are nestled in oversold territory. Opportunities to sell rallies against the daily 8-EMA  the area around 76.00 where Decembers double bottom was established  should be seized as the pair is now back within the descending channel from April to October 2021. The failed bullish breakout attempt hints at a deeper setback towards 72.00 over the coming weeks.

NZD/USD RATE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: DAILY CHART (January 2021 to January 2022) (CHART 2)

Like their NZD/JPY counterpart, NZD/USD rates have closed below their daily 8-EMA every session over the past two weeks, and bearish momentum remains strong. Still below its daily EMA envelope, which remains in bearish sequential order, NZD/USD rates are still in sell the rally mode. Daily MACD is trending lower below its signal line, while daily Slow Stochastics are holding in oversold territory. The immediate target lower is 0.6467, the 50% Fibonacci retracement of the 2020 low/2021 high range. Only a close above the daily 8-EMA would invalidate this perspective.

IG Client Sentiment Index: NZD/USD RATE Forecast (January 31, 2022) (Chart 3)

NZD/USD: Retail trader data shows 70.47% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders long to short at 2.39 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 2.37% higher than yesterday and 10.77% higher from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 16.77% higher than yesterday and 9.50% lower from last week.

We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests NZD/USD prices may continue to fall.

Positioning is less net-long than yesterday but more net-long from last week. The combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a further mixed NZD/USD trading bias.

--- Written by Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Senior Strategist
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's UN ambassador on Monday called for quiet diplomacy instead of megaphone diplomacy on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

In a procedural vote, China and Russia voted against a Security Council open meeting on Ukraine. The meeting went ahead as 10 other members of the council voted in favor.

China opposes the Security Council's holding of such a meeting as requested by the United States. The United States, in a letter to the president of the Security Council dated Jan. 27, claimed that Russia's deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine posed a threat to international peace and security. China cannot agree with such a claim, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

"Recently, there have indeed been tensions over the issue of Ukraine. We are paying attention to what exactly is causing the tensions. Some countries led by the United States have claimed that there is a looming war in Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly stated that it has no plans to launch any military action. And Ukraine has made it clear that it does not need a war. Under such circumstances, what is the basis for the countries concerned to insist that there would be a war?" he asked.

The United States, Ukraine and relevant European countries as well as NATO are having varying forms of diplomatic contacts with Russia. The parties concerned should persist in seeking to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations. What is urgently needed now is quiet diplomacy, not megaphone diplomacy, he said.

This is the view held by many members of the Security Council, which have also made relentless efforts toward this end. Regrettably, the United States did not accept such a constructive proposal. At a time when dialogue and negotiations are under way, and concrete progress has yet to be made, the holding of such an open meeting by the Security Council is clearly not conducive to creating a favorable environment for dialogue and negotiations, nor is it conducive to defusing the tensions, said Zhang.

"China once again calls on all parties concerned to remain calm, not to do anything to aggravate tensions or hype up the crisis, and to properly resolve their differences through consultations on an equal footing on the basis of mutual respect and fully taking into account each other's legitimate security concerns," he said.

China's position on Ukraine is consistent. To resolve this issue, there is a need to return to the original point of implementing the new Minsk Agreement. This agreement, endorsed by the Security Council in its Resolution 2202, is a binding foundational political document recognized by all parties and should be effectively implemented. China supports all efforts in line with the direction and spirit of this agreement, and hopes that all parties concerned will show their positive willingness to implement the agreement, resolve their differences arising from the implementation of the agreement through consultations, and earnestly promote its implementation, he said.

The expansion of NATO is a problem difficult to circumvent in handling the current tension. NATO is the product of the Cold War, and NATO expansion epitomizes bloc politics, said Zhang.

"We believe that the security of one country should not be achieved at the expense of the security of other countries. Still less should regional security rely on strengthening or even expanding military blocs. Today in the 21st century, all parties should completely abandon the Cold War mentality and come up with a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations, with Russia's legitimate security concerns being taken seriously and addressed," he said.
Gunfire erupted outside the government palace in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau early Tuesday, leading to fears of yet another coup in the region.

However, a tweet posted on President Umaro Sissoco Embalo's account Tuesday afternoon claimed he was fine and the situation was under government control.

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President of Guinea-Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo arrives for a dinner at the Elysee Palace as part of the Paris Peace Forum, in Paris, Nov. 11, 2021. (Michel Euler/AP)

Embalo was inside the government building when the bullets started flying in the capital city of Bissau, according to local media reports. He was apparently meeting with members of his cabinet at the time.

The exact details of the attack on the government building remain unclear, but sources told the BBC that at least one person, a police officer, was killed.

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If Embalo were to be forcibly removed from office, it would be the fourth coup in West Africa in the past nine months. Military takeovers also occurred in Burkina Faso last week, Guinea in September 2021 and Mali in May 2021. The Mali takeover was that nations second coup in nine months as the military battles an Islamist rebel group in the northern half of the country.

Embalo, 49, rose to power in Guinea-Bissau in 2019. He was declared the winner of a presidential election by 54% to 46%, but his opponent challenged the results in the countrys top court. Rather than waiting for a decision, Embalo decided to start forming a government anyways, and the outgoing president did nothing to stop him.

The Economic Community of West African States, a regional political group, condemned the reported coup and demanded the military ensure Embalo's safety. However, ECOWAS also slammed the coup in Burkina Faso, but that didnt stop the military from taking over anyways.

Guinea-Bissau won independence from Portugal in 1974. Since then, the country has seen four successful coups and at least a dozen failed attempts.

With News Wire Services
FILE  In this Feb. 2, 2020, file photo, Groundhog Club co-handler Al Dereume holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, during the 134th celebration of Groundhog Day on Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa. Due to safety precautions regarding COVID-19 transmission, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club has said there will be no public attendance for the 2021 event. However, the clubs inner circle will make the trek to Gobblers Knob on Tuesday, Feb. 2, for the 135th celebration that will be broadcast via television, internet and live-streamed. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger, File)
The interview took place under conditions of the strictest secrecy. In his winter years, a national treasure was facing searching questions from police about historic claims of child sex abuse.

It was October 2009 and it seemed Sir Jimmy Savile might finally have to pay for his crimes. Four women had come forward to allege he had attacked them, two saying they were just 14 at the time.

It was one of the most explosive police interviews of the year  and you might reasonably expect that the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) would have been closely involved in checking that the case was being handled properly.

So who was the prosecutorial chief at this time? Step forward, Sir Keir Starmer.

Although there is no evidence he was personally involved, as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) between 2008 and 2013, Keir Starmer was ultimately responsible for the controversial and, in retrospect, entirely wrong-headed decision not to bring charges against the serial paedophile Jimmy Savile (pictured) in 2009

Contrite

Although there is no evidence he was personally involved, as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) between 2008 and 2013, the man who today runs the Labour Party was ultimately responsible for the controversial and, in retrospect, entirely wrong-headed decision not to bring charges against the serial paedophile Savile in 2009.

This was the murky background to Monday's angry session in the House of Commons, when Boris Johnson yelled over the dispatch box that Starmer spent most of his time as DPP 'prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile'.

The first claim passed without objection: it is a matter of record that Starmer presided over the arrests of dozens of journalists as part of Operation Elveden, which investigated payments made by a tiny number of reporters to police and public officials.

But the suggestion that Starmer, by virtue of being head of the CPS, somehow missed an opportunity to prosecute Savile for his monstrous crimes horrified the House, earned the Prime Minister a rebuke from Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle (who said he was 'far from satisfied that the comments . . . were appropriate') and stunned Boris's own backbenchers.

Former Tory chief whip Julian Smith declared that the 'false and baseless personal slur . . . cannot be defended', while others accused the Prime Minister of peddling a lurid far-Right conspiracy theory.

Were they right to do so?

The 'conspiracy theory' falsely holds that, as head of the CPS, Starmer personally blocked Savile from being charged for child sex offences. But that is not what Boris claimed.

Instead, he alleged that Starmer 'failed to prosecute' Savile. And since Starmer ultimately ran the public body that made the decision not to charge Savile, the Prime Minister's claim, however incendiary, seems hard to dispute, even if Starmer himself was not the CPS's 'reviewing lawyer' or directly involved in Savile's case.

In 2011, two years after those police interviews, Savile died, aged 84. In 2013, the true scale of his depravity came to light: he had raped at least 34 women and girls and sexually assaulted up to 450, including children as young as eight.

A shaken Starmer, then still DPP, set up an inquiry chaired by Alison Levitt QC. This concluded that at least three prosecutions against Savile would have been possible in 2009 if 'police and the prosecutors' had taken a different approach. (Levitt also blasted the CPS for deleting all records of the Savile case from its systems in 2010.) The report did not indicate that the DPP himself had been involved but Starmer, deeply contrite, said: 'I would like to take the opportunity to apologise for the shortcomings in the part played by the CPS in these cases.'

Boris Johnson yelled over the dispatch box that Starmer spent most of his time as DPP 'prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile'

Starmer is often praised by the liberal commentariat for his 'forensic' legal mind. But his five-year reign at the CPS was characterised by a litany of failures, missed opportunities and other scandals. Remarkably, Jimmy Savile is not the only dangerous sex criminal in whose case the CPS under Starmer's watch seems to have blundered

So is he finally to blame for the failure to bring Savile to justice?

That depends on whether you believe the person at the top of an organisation ultimately bears responsibility for mistakes that happen on his or her watch. And on that score, Starmer's own position could not be clearer.

Leadership, he has opined, 'is about taking responsibility'. Only yesterday, he said: 'The culture of an organisation is set from the top.'

Yet this high-minded stance, so useful when savaging the Prime Minister for presiding over the chaos of so-called Partygate, doesn't appear to cut both ways as far as he is concerned.

Blundered

Last night, Tory MP Mark Jenkinson told me: 'If Starmer demands the buck stops 'at the top' when it comes to the PM and running Downing St, he can't feign outrage at the same standards being applied to him when he ran the CPS. He is quick to claim credit for prosecutions there, then distances himself from the catalogue of failures he also oversaw.'

Quite. And 'catalogue' is hardly an exaggeration.

Starmer is often praised by the liberal commentariat for his 'forensic' legal mind. But his five-year reign at the CPS was characterised by a litany of failures, missed opportunities and other scandals.

Remarkably, Jimmy Savile is not the only dangerous sex criminal in whose case the CPS under Starmer's watch seems to have blundered.

Take the 'black cab rapist' John Worboys, who was convicted in 2009 of 19 offences against 12 women.

After Worboys's trial concluded, 75 more women came forward to allege he had attacked them. Yet prosecutors were apparently unmoved by their claims and took no further action.

Almost a decade later, in 2018, the High Court overturned the Parole Board's decision to set the serial rapist free, after some of those 75 alleged victims challenged Worboys's release.

Bizarre

Worboys was subsequently sentenced to two additional life sentences for attacks on four other women. If Starmer had prosecuted when the new allegations came to light after Worboys's first trial, other victims might have been spared reliving their ordeals.

In July 2009, Starmer caused yet more controversy when he declared that up to 70,000 criminals should receive cautions or on-the-spot fines rather than facing prosecution, to save court time and money. Cold comfort to the victims!

To this, we might add the one-time DPP's failure to prosecute the police officer who pushed newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson, who died in 2009 during the G20 protests in London. Starmer admitted that Mr Tomlinson had been assaulted but said there was 'no realistic prospect' of securing a conviction, due to conflicting medical evidence as to the cause of death. Mr Tomlinson's family reacted with fury and despair.

Then there was Starmer's bizarre decision in 2013, on advice from his senior legal adviser, not to pursue a male primary school teacher in Wales who had sent explicit sexual material to a 'confused' 16-year-old boy who later committed suicide.

Any DPP would struggle to keep up with every detail of the vast number of matters handled by the CPS. But if Starmer is so quick to blame Boris for everything that happens on his watch, it is surely only right he should apply the same merciless standards to himself. Pictured: Then Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer at the CPS headquarters in 2013

The local Welsh prosecutor said the area CPS 'was satisfied [that] both the evidential and public interest criteria had been met'. But, she added, 'the principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions has taken a different view'. The late boy's mother said she was 'disgusted' by the decision.

Or consider the now-infamous 'Twitter joke trial', in which the defendant, Paul Chambers, wrote on the social network that he intended to blow a local airport 'sky high' after learning his flight had been cancelled owing to bad weather.

A string of public figures and legal experts came to his support, but to no avail. The CPS spent 18,000 of taxpayers' money ensuring a conviction.

After Worboys's trial concluded, 75 more women came forward to allege he had attacked them. Yet prosecutors were apparently unmoved by their claims and took no further action

When Mr Chambers appealed, the CPS wrote to him saying they no longer saw a public interest in pursuing him.

'Mr Starmer was prepared to put me through the worry of yet another hearing, waste yet more taxpayers' money and waste the time of the Lord Chief Justice,' said Mr Chambers, whose conviction was eventually overturned in the High Court. (A CPS spokesperson denied Starmer had been a decision-maker in the case.)

Of course, any DPP would struggle to keep up with every detail of the vast number of matters handled by the CPS. But if Starmer is so quick to blame Boris for everything that happens on his watch, it is surely only right he should apply the same merciless standards to himself.

Then again, this is the man who adopts a painfully holier-than-thou tone when discussing rule-breaking in Downing Street, but has refused repeatedly to apologise for swigging beer with Left-wing party chums during lockdown last year. So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by his brazen double standards.
Products featured in this Mail Best article are independently selected by our shopping writers. If you make a purchase using links on this page, DailyMail.com may earn an affiliate commission.

If you find that life is too short to squeeze into restrictive shapewear but you'd like to prevent your thighs chafing against each other in dresses and skirts, then you may be happy to hear that there is a middle ground.

Undersummers are helping us to embrace our curves and celebrate our thighs with their game-changing Shortlette collection.

Designed to be worn as underwear but the same length as shorts, the confidence-boosting Shortlettes are seam-free to prevent against the dreaded thigh rub that can leave our skin in pieces.

Undersummers shortlettes are seam-free to prevent thigh-chafing but shoppers love how comfortable and un-restrictive they feel

But although they're smooth and sleek like shapewear, that's where the similarities end as there's no need to fight to get into them or feel like your circulation is being restricted with compression.

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They're so comfortable that some shoppers are ditching their Spanx forever after wearing Shortlettes a few times.

'My life has changed since I found these,' wrote one of the thousands of reviewers who have rated the shorts five stars on the Undersummers website. 'I feel so much more confident and comfortable when I wear a dress and skirt. Thank you Undersummers.....goodbye Spanx!'

Thousands of shoppers have left glowing reviews for the 'life-changing' Shortlettes on the Undersummers website and you can save 10 per cent with the code UNDERS10

There are five different length options available so you can mix and match depending on your outfit and on the weather

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Shoppers also love how they're available in different lengths starting with a five-inch hotpant which allows you to wear mini-skirts and progressing to a knee-length nine-inch full coverage short.

Made from soft, slinky material, the shorts stay in place so that you never have to worry about rolling or slipping.

The website offers a super helpful fit guide so that you can find your perfect size, whether that's Small or 5X-Large.

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Some reviewers find them so cute and comfortable that they rock them as loungewear, with one writing: 'The colors are so cute that you can wear them around the house, especially now while working from home. You can look super cute with a long shirt and Undersummers.'

Developed by entrepreneur Carrie-Rae Munson, the Shortlettes were born out of necessity.

'Undersummers Shortlettes were created out of my own personal need for comfortable thigh protection,' explains Carrie-Rae. 'I have always had thick thighs that rubbed, thus never wore dresses. It was too uncomfortable to have my thighs sweaty and rubbing together.

When I moved to Houston, Texas, the climate made wearing dresses and skirts a necessity, as I couldn't wear shorts to work as a teacher. To solve my issue, I created Shortlettes.'
The last thing we need when a situation goes awry is a touch of comic irony - but sometimes that's exactly what we get.

Social media users from around the world have shared snaps of hilariously ironic situations, with the best examples collated in a gallery by Bored Panda.

One photo captured the disastrous moment a fire extinguisher set ablaze while another showed a chocolate bar named 'denied' aptly getting stuck in a vending machine.

Meanwhile a third revealed a Vincent Van Gogh mug with a broken handle where his ear should have been.

Here, FEMAIL shares some of the most eye-opening photos...

Social media users from around the world have shared snaps of the universe enacting 'Sod's Law' in the most hilarious ways, with the best examples collated in a gallery by Bored Panda (pictured, one freshly graduated pup chose the worst piece of paper to rip to shreds)

One photograph shared by a social media user captured the disastrous moment a fire extinguisher set ablaze (pictured)

Meanwhile this seagull, believed to be in the US, made one tourist chuckle when he was caught sneaking a drink of water from a bowl of water

Falling like dominoes! One Briton was left chuckling over one ironic moment after noticing a series of mopeds for the pizza company had been knocked over

One parent, in an unknown location, noticed their pram was slightly wobbly, before realising their tyre had been popped by a Satan badge

I'll swap you the lead for the pram! One person in Spain was left bemused after spotting a toddler on a leash and a puppy being pushed along

Thankyou for driving carefully! This car wreck in the UK was unfortunate timing after it happened next to a huge road sign

When a Shell advert was placed over that of an old Cif advert on a London tube train, who could have known that it would create a perfect explanation for environmental activists to use

One Los Angeles establishment, who were very proud of their inspection rating, got callously outed by a free roaming cockroach

To be frank, the last thing artist, Vincent Van Gogh, needed from beyond the grave was a mug handle falling off where his ear should have been

Is that REALLY an appropriate vehicle to transport prisoners in? One person was left howling after they spotted officers in the US were using the 'Escape' to move criminals around

Out of reach! A pharmacy in the UK showed a lack of sympathy for people in need of medication to cure their back pain after placing the products on the bottom shelf

A lorry driver who wanted to prove they're always 'finding new ways' was photographed creating their own delivery route

A Canadian branch of Subway appeared to be advising customers to eat at the cafe next door with arrows and their tagline 'eat fresh'

Better luck next time! A vending machine, believed to be in the U.S, left one chocoholic disappointed when they were 'denied' a snickers bar
Queen Rania has shared a heartwarming tribute on social media to mark the 60th birthday of her husband King Abdullah II.

The mother-of-four, 51, shared a video of King Abdullah II serving Jordan just hours before releasing a stunning new portrait of the couple together yesterday.

She captioned the Instagram post in Arabic, simply writing: 'My heart is home to a king...'

Queen Rania also expressed love for her family with a photograph of their son Prince Hashem who shares the King's birthday.

Queen Rania of Jordan shared a touching tribute to King Abdullah II (pictured) on Instagram to celebrate his 60th birthday

The mother-of-four gushed that her 'heart is home to a king' in the caption of the post, which has since racked up over 233,000 likes

Queen Rania appeared to have coordinated with King Abdullah II for their portrait as the couple both opted to wear white.

The glamorous royal styled her sleek brown hair into voluminous waves, while completing her look with a pink lip gloss and matching blusher.

King Abdullah II also looked polished as he accessorised his look with a striking black watch.

Queen Rania who grew up in Kuwait met the royal by chance at a dinner party in 1993.

They are parents to Crown Prince Hussein, 27, Princess Iman, 25, Princess Salma, 21, and Prince Hashem, 17.

Queen Rania embraced her youngest son Prince Hashem (pictured) in a portrait taken to mark his 17th birthday

Queen Rania wished her youngest son a happy birthday in the caption of a photograph showing them together.

She wrote: 'My prayers for you never leave my heart.. May your years be filled with love and light. Happy birthday, Prince Hashem'

Crown Prince Hussein also shared a well-wish to his father, writing: 'We celebrate 60 years with you as a father, a mentor, and a leader; 60 years of your unwavering dedication to serve your people. Happy birthday, Your Majesty'

Alongside a snap taken alongside his brother, he penned: 'My dear brother Hashem, wishing you a very happy birthday'

Crown Prince Hussein posted a sentimental snap to wish his younger brother (pictured) a happy birthday

Many people have taken to Instagram wishing King Abdullah II a happy birthday and showing their admiration for the Jordanian royals.

One person wrote: 'My Lord protect you and prolong your life, may God keep you healthy and well, may God bless your work and your offspring'

Another said: 'May your heart and those in it be happy... Your Majesty and His Majesty, may God protect you, make you happy and grant you success'

'May God protect you,' a third commented.

A fourth added: 'A lifetime God willing, with health, safety and happiness'
Over 200 years ago, the Gerrymander, a salamander-like legislative district, was mocked in a newspaper cartoon. The Massachusetts governor at the time, Elbridge Gerry, had put his signature on a plan to redistrict a state Senate in 1812 in order to benefit his party and create additional seats. The Boston Gazette presciently baptized the grotesque redistricting a new species of monster. It has been just that ever since.

New York City congressional map (New York Democrats)

The once-a-decade freak of nature reveals itself unapologetically and prepensely in 39 state legislatures. The process of redistricting is a blighted affair marked by political meddling and backroom dealmaking in which parties attempt to maximize the number of seats they can win while also securing the incumbency of the current occupants. Attempts to create independent commissions, such as recently in New York, often fail to produce district lines that can be agreed upon. When an impasse occurs in New York State, the decision reverts back to the Legislature, which has now finessed a vagarious map of 26 congressional seats.

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There is a better way to reduce, or entirely eliminate, political manipulation in order to draw fairer boundaries and rebuild trust with the electorate: automate redistricting with artificial intelligence.

Technological advances over the past decade have made it easier than ever for AI to generate lines much more effectively and less arbitrarily than partisan stakeholders. Research that has studied machine-learning algorithms for redistricting shows the potential for what these tools can do. AI models can consider inputs such as race, and identify the extent to which the quality of a map has been affected by gerrymandering, or whats referred to as the efficiency gap. Oftentimes the practice of packing (clustering certain voters together to limit their influence to a single district) and cracking (separating blocs across districts to dilute their voting strength) are distinctly obvious. Other times, the manipulation within a map is so subtle that an eyeball test wont reveal a salamander-like district, requiring those asymmetries to be identified through the use of an algorithm or in statistical tests.

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There is a precedent for computational redistricting. In 2019, North Carolinas state Senate moved to use a lottery machine to select a handful of maps from 1,000 AI-drawn maps. Whats more, while the Supreme Court has unfortunately ruled that partisan gerrymandering is constitutional, it hasnt ruled out the use of technology in making these delineations, so long as state legislatures allow the computers to take over. Open-source software such as AutoRedistrict can allow mapmakers to meet criteria including geometry and equality such as contiguity, compactness proportion, minimal partisan influence and the elimination of racial gerrymandering.

With the algorithm in public view, it offers transparency to a previously murky process. The added benefit, of course, is that long and grueling legal battles that cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year and add to institutional trust deficit can likely be reduced or altogether eliminated if the process for electoral cartography is improved.

At present, institutional efforts in the New York State Senate to retain power have drawn up a proposal for a congressional district that sinuously winds through the Upper West Side making its way through Brooklyn all the way to Bensonhurst. Is it fair for these communities with dissimilar needs to be joined together as incongruously as the shape of a serpent? Would any elected official be capable of best representing a district drawn as arbitrarily?

On WNYCs The Brian Lehrer Show Tuesday, Sen. Mike Gianaris, deputy Senate majority leader and co-chair of the Legislative Task Force on Reapportionment and Redistricting, avoided the question of why AI cant be used to help draw up electoral maps. Computer models can make the districts make sense more than any partisan player can.

Computational design for redistricting bestows impartiality as much as it can, and provides clarity via input variables to any otherwise political process. New Yorks move to create an independent commission may have been a good-faith attempt to eliminate biases or it may have been a smokescreen. Come what it may, when democratic processes are marred by conspicuous wheeling and dealing, it erodes confidence in legislatures and Congress.

While it still can, New York should scrap its current redistricting proposal and bring in nonpartisan researchers to provide fairer, AI-drawn maps for districts so that constituents can be better served.

Skandul is a technology policy advisor and writer, and the founder of Capitol Foundry, a digital innovation firm.
A nurse who wanted to enhance her natural pout with fillers has revealed how the simple procedure saw her almost 'lose her face' when tissue in her lip began to turn black and die just days after the cosmetic treatment.

Paige Bellinger, from Jonesboro, Arkansas, visited a beauty practice close to where she lives to get 0.5ml of filler injected into her top lip for the first time last August.

However, hopes of an enhanced smile quickly turned into an expensive medical drama when the cosmetologist administering the filler 'met with resistance' while filling the upper right side of Paige's lip - and a white spot formed on the skin.

The 26-year-old nurse says she now knows that the white spot is a tell-tale sign of a vascular occlusion - the blood supply being cut off - and thinks the filler was injected into a blood vessel by mistake.

Scroll down for video

Paige Bellinger, 28, a nurse from Arkansas, visited a beauty practitioner to enhance her top lip, which she felt was 'disproportionate' to her bottom lip, in August last year

The cosmetologist administering the filler 'met with resistance' while filling the upper right side of Bellinger's lip - and a white spot formed on the skin, which days later turned black and started to crust

The nurse has now shared shocking photos of her ordeal in a bid to warn others about the risk of complications with filler. The cosmetologist who injected Paige's lips has been contacted for comment.

After her lip filler appointment, on 6th August last year, Paige says she immediately suffered from intense pain and swelling as well as noticing that the right side of her top lip looked suddenly pale.

Explaining why she wanted the procedure done in the first place, Paige said: 'My top lip is a little bit disproportionate to my bottom and I have this really big 'm' shape that I just do not like so I thought maybe we can even it out.

'When she initially put the needle in the right side she met some resistance and I kind of winced and she said 'sometimes one side will be a little tougher than the other'.

However, while some swelling is anticipated, Paige says she was soon experiencing severe pain.

'That day my lips were super painful - I could hardly talk, I couldn't smile and I messaged her about it several times and she was just like 'that's normal, you just need to massage them'.

She was advised by the clinic which administered the treatment to simply use ice to reduce the swelling - but the pain of her lip was so bad she had to visit an Urgent Care centre

How Bellinger looked before the treatment; she says she was unhappy with how big her bottom lip was naturally compared to her top lip and wanted to even things out - but was left facing expensive treatment to reverse the damage

Before: How Bellinger's lips looked before she had 0.5ml of filler injected into her top lip

Despite expressing concerns and sending multiple photos of her swollen and painful lips to the beauty clinic over the next few days, the practitioner told Paige that her lips looked 'totally normal'.

Messages show the practitioner repeatedly brushed off her concerns and told her to just ice and massage the area to help the swelling go down, reassuring Paige that her symptoms were 'normal'.

She says that it was clear something was wrong because the skin had turned white but was told it happened sometimes and not to worry.

However, she decided to go to urgent care two days later when she noticed a delayed capillary refill when she pressed on her lip; a doctor gave her a steroid injection hoping it would reduce the swelling and restore the blood flow.

The following day, when her symptoms persisted, she was given another steroid injection and prescribed antibiotics and an antibiotic cream due to concerns her lip had become infected.

The nurse pictured taking a selfie at work following treatment to dissolve the filler in her lip

I went in the Hyperbaric chamber and when I got out they said I needed to go and get my filler dissolved immediately because the pressure had dislodged my filler... Paige Bellinger

After multiple hospital visits, she claims a doctor finally confirmed five days after her appointment that the filler had most likely been injected into a vein and was starving her lip of oxygen.

When her symptoms worsened again, she says a wound care specialist finally confirmed that she had suffered a vascular occlusion and sent her for emergency treatment the next day, less than a week after the initial appointment.

In efforts to restore blood flow and 'save her lip and face', Paige then underwent treatment in a pressurised chamber.

Paige explains: 'The doctor said if I wanted my lip at all I was going to have to get into a Hyperbaric chamber to restore blood flow.'

Paige then underwent a total of ten hours in a Hyperbaric chamber, split over five sessions, using oxygen at a higher atmospheric pressure to see if the blood supply could restore around the filler.

Unfortunately this wasn't the case and the pressure actually dislodged the filler, further cutting off blood supply to her nose and chin and meaning she had to have the filler dissolved immediately, or risk 'losing half her face'.

Paige said: 'I went in the Hyperbaric chamber and when I got out they said I needed to go and get my filler dissolved immediately because the pressure had dislodged my filler.

Pain: The 26-year-old says the infection in her lips hurt so much she thought she might 'pass out'. Right: How her lips look now, with the filler removed - but left with scar tissue

WHAT IS A HYPERBARIC OXYGEN CHAMBER? Traditionally used to help divers recover from decompression sickness, hyperbaric oxygen chambers contain air that is pressurised at a level up to three times higher than normal. The pressurised air can help promote faster healing and lets the lungs inhale more oxygen than they normally would. The additional oxygen is then carried through the blood around the body, fighting bacteria and promoting faster healing. Advertisement

'It had cut off blood supply to my nose and chin as well so I was in danger of losing half my face - you could see the whiteness around the top of my mouth.

'So then I was panicked because I didn't want to lose my nose and chin as well, on top of my lips.

'I went to get it dissolved immediately which was probably the most painful thing I've done in my life.

'They ended up having to do a dental block on me because it was so painful I was shaking and was afraid I was going to pass out because it hurt so bad.'

Thankfully after dissolving the filler, blood flow was restored and further Hyperbaric chamber treatments saved Paige's lip.

But after the traumatising experience and being forced to fork out almost 4,500 ($6,000 USD) on doctor's visits and treatments, she has been left 'angry' that the cosmetologist has failed to take responsibility.

The practitioner in fact blamed Paige for the complications, saying she 'didn't follow aftercare instructions' and 'got a steroid shot before she had time for them to settle'.

The nurse, who has been put off filler for life, now hopes to encourage others considering getting filler to thoroughly do their research to avoid the same fate she suffered.

Paige said: 'It makes me angry that she hasn't taken responsibility for it.

'If I hadn't continued to go from provider to provider then I could've been in a lot more trouble and the next person she does this to might not know the signs and there's no telling what could happen to them.

'The scab came off after about three weeks and I'm fully healed now, but I still have some lumpy scar tissue in my lip. I will never get anything done ever again.'
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A grandmother has been dubbed Britain's most loyal guest after returning to the same hotel for 80 years.

Anne Dunn, 82, first visited the three-star Colwall Park Hotel in Malvern, Worcestershire in 1942, aged two, and has returned almost every year since, sometimes several times a year.

The grandmother-of-seven, who lives in Lichfield, Staffordshire, some 62 miles from the 200-a-night hotel, first visited with her father, who worked as the hotel's accountant in the 1940s, then continued the tradition with her husband, John, for almost 60 years until his death last year. Now she visits with her daughter and puppy, Bronte.

'We used to go for every holiday, from Christmas to Easter and even the summer holidays,' said Anne, who estimates she's spent 20,000 on hotel stays over her lifetime.

'It is real value for money and we love going back there each year. The place is my home away from home. I just love staying there.'

The hotel was built in 1904 by racecourse owner Roland Cave-Browne, who wanted an elegant country retreat for racehorse owners competing at Colwall Green, a nearby racecourse that closed in 1939.

It is thought that in the early 1940s, when Anne first visited, it was owned by the Scott-Bowen family, who also ran the racecourse until its wartime closure.

It is now owned by independent hoteliers Helen Rogers and Huw Watson, who took over the business from the Levitt family in 2014.

Loyal guest: Anne Dunn, 82, pictured, first visited the three-star Colwall Park Hotel in Malvern, Worcestershire in 1942, aged two, and has returned almost every year since

Fond memories: The grandmother-of-seven, who used to visit with her own parents and now goes with her daughter, estimates she's spent a total of 20,000 staying at the hotel. Pictured, Anne (right) at the hotel as a little girl with her accountant father and baby sister

Home away from home: Anne lives in Lichfield, Staffordshire, some 62 miles from the 200-a-night hotel, pictured today

Childhood memories: The Colwall Park Hotel, pictured in the late 1950s, as Anne would have seen it in childhood

Anne recalled enjoying the family feel of the hotel when she was a young girl.

The mock Tudor building has hardly changed in appearance since it was built more than 100 years ago.

Anne continued: 'The family who ran the hotel had a son who was the same age as me, so I always had a friend to play with when I stayed at the hotel.

'I was too young to fully realise the impact of the war but what I can remember is that the family was always so welcoming and made every visit very special for our family.

'I remember there was a bookkeeper there called Miss Mack who my father worked closely with. The old ledgers are still kept in the hotel.

'I had a look the last time I visited, and they have them on display. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane.

Purpose built: Horse drawn carts outside the hotel, which was built in the early 1900s. This postcard is not dated

Almost unchanged: The hotel was built in 1904 by racecourse owner Roland Cave-Browne, who wanted a country retreat for racehorse owners competing at Colwall Green, a nearby racecourse that closed in 1939. Above, the hotel in the 1920s

Historic: The hotel was originally built to service Colwall Park racecourse, pictured, once a racing hotspot in the West Midlands. The racecourse closed at the start of the Second World War. The site is now farmland

Humble beginnings: The early days of the hotel, captured in an undated photograph that shows how little it has changed

Celebration: The hotel has remained at the centre of the local community for more than 100 years. Above, schoolchildren and revellers parade past Colwall Park Hotel (seen in background) as part of King George V's Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1936

Steeped in history: Revellers outside Colwall Park Hotel, left, during King George V's Silver Jubilee in 1936

New era: The Colwall Park Hotel, right, remained unchanged in the 1950s, when Anne continued to visit as a young woman

Holiday destination: Visitors arrive at Colwall Park Hotel in this 1959 photograph shared on the hotel's Facebook page

'Christmas in the hotel was always so special. They made the whole hotel beautiful with festive decorations, and in particular, the old ballroom was magical to look at.

'The team used to arrange a Christmas party for the children, where local children and visiting children were all invited.

'One year, for New Year's Eve, it was my job to look after my little sister, she's seven years younger than I am. My parents had dressed her up as a little fairy and I had to pull her around on a sledge. I have so many memories over the years.'

Anne spent many happy years at the hotel with her husband John, who she married in 1963. Following his death in June 2021, Anne has continued to visit with her daughter Emma, 53, and puppy Bronte.

She continued: 'My husband died in June last year but we have kept on going to the hotel, but now with my daughter.

Tradition: Anne visited the hotel with her husband John, pictured in the Malvern Hills. The couple were married from 1963 until his death in June 2021

Family favourite: Now Anne visits the hotel with her daughter Emma, pictured, and her puppy

Stunning retreat: Today Colwall Park is a boutique hotel with sumptuous, well-appointed rooms like the one above

Cosy setting: The hotel boasts a country restaurant, complete with a roaring fire and dark wood detailing

Wedding venue: Colwall Park also hosts weddings. Brides and grooms have use of bedrooms like the one above

'One of my most treasured memories is when I visited the Edwardian ballroom and met artist Dame Laura Knight when I was eight years old.

'She had moved into the hotel following the death of her husband. It was Christmas time, and my parents had given me an autograph book, so when I saw Dame Laura, I asked her to sign the book for me.

Personal treasure: Anne kept a drawing done for her at the hotel by Dame Laura Knight

'She took my autograph book and sat down at the desk in the room and sketched me a picture of a clown with the dipping pen that was on the desk. I stood by her and watched her do it, it was wonderful, and I still have the picture framed in my living room today.'

Many years later, Anne wrote a letter to Dame Laura, who died in 1970 aged 92, and the pair renewed their friendship.

Anne added: 'I was reading about her many, many years later, and it prompted me to write to her.

'She was in her very old age then, and I just wanted to remind her how pleased I was with the picture that she drew for me, and that I still had it all those years later.

'She wrote back to me saying that she did remember this little girl standing by watching her draw, so that is a very happy memory I hold dear from my time at Colwall Park.'

Anne has already booked to stay at her favourite hotel this Easter.

She added: 'No matter how many time I've been to Colwall Park, I always look forward to my stays.'

A spokesperson for the hotel said: 'As the hotel's longest returning guest, Colwall Park has been an integral part of her life that she has shared with friends and family over so many years.

'Through sharing her trips with her children in her later years, she continues to spread the warmth she feels when visiting Colwall Park with her loved ones, and now with her new puppy too.'
A woman who says she was conned by a serial fraudster who posed as the son of a billionaire Israeli diamond merchant to swindle women he dated out of thousands of pounds has said she refuses to give up on love despite her 'painful' experience.

Cecilie Fjellhoy thought she had finally met her prince charming in 2019 when she matched on Tinder with 'Simon Leviev' - a supposed handsome billionaire playboy who organised a private plane to take them to Bulgaria from London on their first date.

Fjellhoy, 29 at the time, was a Norwegian graduate student living in the British capital when she was swept off her feet by the self-proclaimed, 'Prince of Diamonds', then 28.

However, the fairytale romance soon turned sour when Fjellhoy was left in over 200,000 of debt, she says, because of Simon, who was actually Shimon Hayut, a convicted conman who served three years in Finnish prison for defrauding several women in order to fund his lavish lifestyle of private jets, fast cars and luxury hotels.

He would shower women he met on the dating app with lavish trips and gifts, using money he had taken from other victims. He would then ask for more funds under the guise of needing to protect his identity due to security concerns.

His victims have now shared their story in The Tinder Swindler, a new Netflix true crime documentary which is premiering on February 2.

Speaking on ITV's Lorraine ahead of the show's release, Fjellhoy admitted she wasn't going to give up on love - and explained that she had been victim-blamed and called a gold-digger after sharing her story.

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Cecilie Fjellhoy (pictured) thought she had finally met her prince charming in 2019 when she matched on Tinder with 'Simon Leviev' - a supposed handsome billionaire playboy who organised a private plane to take them to Bulgaria from London on their first date

Fjellhoy (pictured with Hayut), 29 at the time, was a Norwegian graduate student living in the British capital when she was swept off her feet by the self-proclaimed, 'Prince of Diamonds', then 28

Israeli playboy Shimon Hayut lured in trusting women by claiming he was Simon Leviev, the son of businessman Lev Leviev, who has an estimated $1billion net worth. He called himself the 'Prince of Diamonds'. He was arrested in July 2019 in Greece, above

Fjellhoy said: 'I think what happened was so extraordinary and it was such a weird and movie like what it was, and I didn't want to put that on other men, it's not other men's fault what he did to me.

'And he's taken so much from us. I didn't want him to take that part of me, that truly believes in love and I'm still trying but it's been painful.'

Fjellhoy, who appeared on the programme alongside another of Hayut's victims Pernilla Sjoholm, admitted that after sharing her story, she was victim-blamed.

'We kind of knew it might come, but to be called a gold-digger for giving out money, like we said, we must be the worst gold-diggers in history.'

Fjellhoy, who is now bankrupt in the UK but whose loans are mostly in Norway, says she was conned out of more than 200,000 by Hayut.

'The thing is that they are very smart about it,' she told presenter Lorraine Kelly. 'He doesn't ask for money the first time, it's more security of the name.

'I know it's the same thing but when you're in it, he's asking "I can't use my cards, like they're going to track my name, can I use your card?" So that's how they started it.'

Speaking on ITV's Lorraine, Fjellhoy (pictured) admitted she wasn't going to give up on love - and explained that she had been victim-blamed and called a gold-digger after sharing her story

Fjellhoy, who is now bankrupt in the UK but whose loans are mostly in Norway, says she was conned out of more than 200,000 by Hayut (pictured)

Sjoholm added: 'He's very smart in what he's doing, especially he knows how to play his character, depending on who's he with, he adapts his personality, and adapts his entire persona.'

She continued: 'I sort of think it's not the worst part that he did, the money, the money really affects you but it's also about what it does psychologically to you, and breaks you down.'

Sjoholm said that she shared the story in the hope of taking away the victim blaming, adding: 'We really want to take that away, you should accuse the criminal and not the victim.'

Israeli playboy Hayut lured in trusting women by claiming he was Simon Leviev, the son of businessman Lev Leviev, who has an estimated $1billion net worth.

In reality Hayut was a serial fraudster who used his charm to prey on unsuspecting singletons using online dating apps, earning him the moniker the 'Tinder swindler'.

Hayut was eventually arrested and imprisoned in December 2019 at Tel Aviv Magistrates Court, according to The Times Of Israel, but released the following May, after serving five months of his 15-month sentence.

Fjellhoy, who appeared on the programme alongside another of Hayut's victims Pernilla Sjoholm (pictured), admitted that after sharing her story, she was victim-blamed

Presenter Lorraine (left) pictured with Cecilie Fjellhoy (centre) and Pernilla Sjoholm (right)

According to an investigative report by Norways Verdens Gang newspaper, Hayut conned women in Norway, Finland and Sweden out of hundreds of thousands of dollars using a Ponzi scheme.

He would shower women he met on the dating app with lavish trips and gifts, using money he had taken from other women. He would then ask for more money under the guise of needing to protect his identity due to security concerns.

Hayut told Fjellhoy that he had to travel constantly for work and that it was hard for him to visit her in London due to threats from working in the diamond business, it has been reported.

The conman first asked Fjellhoy to take out a line of credit for him in her name just four weeks into their relationship, claiming that it was a security measure due to threats against him.

He spent the money on plane tickets, hotels and dinners that were booked under her name to throw off suspicious 'enemies'.

'One of the main reasons why he needed it was protectionhe needed my name as a cover, he said,' Fjellhoy told Nightline in 2019. 'I know it sounds crazy...[but] why would he have this giant guy with him if he didn't need the protection?,' she said, apparently referring to a bodyguard.

Fjellhoy said Hayut promised to pay her back but, as the weeks rolled by, her balance went up and up.

Hayut (pictured with Fjellhoy) was eventually arrested and imprisoned in December 2019 at Tel Aviv Magistrates Court, according to The Times Of Israel, but released the following May, after serving five months of his 15-month sentence

She claims that she filled out documents for an American Express platinum card on his instructions and he told her to file an income of 200,000. The alleged conman assured her no one was going to check it.

Fjellhoy told Norwegian news site Verdens Gang that she took the handsome young Israeli at his word. She took out huge loans for the card and claimed Hayut was soon maxing out the limit.

Hayut spent two million Norwegian krone ($224,220) in just 54 days and was racking up bills on paying for his two assistants, his bodyguard and flights across the world.

Her money was being spent on Louboutins in Bangkok, on Gucci in Barcelona, at the Ritz Carlton in Berlin and the Conservatory in Amsterdam.

'I had to be put into a hospital. Psychiatric ward,' Fjellhoy told Nightline.

'Because of suicidal thoughts because I thought my life was over, like I didn't see a way out. You've lost your boyfriend but he didn't just dump you, he never existed, he was never your boyfriend.'

During the sentencing hearing, the conman (above) told the court he was 'sorry about everything' and promised to 'pay my debt to society'

A Finnish woman, identified by the initial, 'D', said Hayut had conned her out of 45,000 euros ($49,000).

'Im a single mom to a daughter and I gave him all the savings I had. Its a disgrace that they released him from prison. I hope he gets the coronavirus. I hope he dies. Thats better, so he wont hurt other women,' she told Channel 12.

'Hes a bad person, and I havent been able to rebuild my life because of him to this day. Myself and some other women filed lawsuits against him with the European Court of Justice and submitted complaints against him with Interpol.'

Hayut was arrested in the summer of 2019 in Greece in a joint operation between Interpol and Israel Police, according to The Times Of Israel.

During the sentencing hearing, the conman told the court he was 'sorry about everything' and promised to 'pay my debt to society'.

He was also ordered to pay his victims $43,289 and to pay a fine of $5,771 under the terms of a plea deal.
In the final part of our serialisation of his new profile of Nigel Farage across the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, the distinguished political biographer MICHAEL CRICK tells fascinating stories of the former Ukip leader's formative years . . .

Few places feel more English than the village of Downe in Kent  the county of cricket, orchards and hops. Churchill's country home, Chartwell, is six miles away.

Even closer is the runway at Biggin Hill, from where RAF Hurricanes and Spitfires fought the Battle of Britain.

This is Nigel Farage country.

The master of political upsets in the 21st century grew up here. To this day he lives just a mile down the road. Through all the turmoil of his life, personal and political, this part of England has always been home.

As a boy, he lived in a Victorian cottage backing onto the Down House estate, which for 40 years had been the home of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution challenged the conventional wisdom of his day and outraged his contemporaries  just as, in his day, the rebellious Farage upset the political Establishment.

Nigel Farage, from Kent, is one of the master of political upsets in the 21st century. 'Hitler Youth' claims have been hanging over his school days

His father was the flamboyantly named Guy Justus Oscar Farage, who had married Barbara Stevens, five years his junior.

Guy, a City stockbroker, was always dapper with expensive pinstripe suits from Savile Row, handmade shoes, silk ties, a bowler hat and umbrella. He was full of charm. Like father, like son.

Nigel, born 1964, adored his father but saw little of him. Guy spent nearly all his time and much of his money in the Square Mile, causing strains in the marriage as Barbara was left to bring up Nigel and his younger brother Andrew pretty much on her own.

Nigel was five when his parents split up. His father, an alcoholic, left home and for a while things got so bad that the boys were prohibited from seeing him. But he turned himself around, kicked the booze and started afresh. (He is still alive, in his 80s.)

Nigel's time at Dulwich College was not only colourful, but illuminates his subsequent life and career. It shows the contradictions in his character: the ultra-rebel who tries to provoke, stand out and show off, yet is also keen for recognition by those in authority, the man who wants both to join the established order and yet also bring much of it down.

Farage  or 'Farridge' as he pronounced it then  made an immediate impact. 'He was very confident, articulate, forthright, a real character,' says a classmate, Peter Petyt. He and Petyt formed a successful debating team.

Nigel's time at Dulwich College was not only colourful, but illuminates his subsequent life and career

'He was entertaining and witty,' says Petyt. 'Quite a lot of the time he spoke without notes. We won virtually everything.'

The supremely self-assured Farage was forever putting himself forward to speak. He didn't care which side he was on in debates. He'd offer to propose a motion and, when rejected, would then put up his hand to argue the opposite. Even at this early age, he is remembered as being highly political.

The day Harold Wilson resigned as Prime Minister in 1976, the 11-year-old Farage went into class singing The Sun Has Got His Hat On at the top of his voice. But his Right-wing views could get out of hand. This was the era when the neo-fascist and racist National Front became prominent, and another classmate, Stuart Dunbar, remembered Farage 'having a thing about it'.

'He would run into classrooms and chalk 'NF' on the board though obviously that was his own initials as well.' He also made racist remarks. Dunbar recalls: 'Whether that was attention-seeking, just to wind people up, I don't know. But it really was a major thing for him.

The Farage of these early days was something of a yob. He dressed untidily, his behaviour anti-social. If there was trouble, you could bet Farage would be at the heart of it

'I remember asking him once why he said those things, why he didn't like black people?' What was confusing was that Farage got on really well with a fellow pupil named Paul who was black.

The Farage of these early days was something of a yob. He dressed untidily, his behaviour anti-social. If there was trouble, you could bet Farage would be at the heart of it. As he got older, he and his mates would meet in the groundsman's hut at lunchtime and sit smoking or drinking beer.

He was threatened with expulsion after being caught having a water fight in the lavatories.

But in his mid-teens, almost overnight, he radically changed his style, morphing from a scruff into a dandy in a double-breasted blazer and a boater, immaculate creases in his trousers. One account has him walking round with an old-fashioned cane and hiding a box of snuff from teachers.

Many of Farage's contemporaries agree he was simply a Conservative Right-winger, an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, Keith Joseph and Powell

He may have been following fashion; it was a time when the TV series Brideshead Revisited and the film Chariots Of Fire were influencing public school culture. But he had found his distinctive Farage look.

A boorish arrogance went with this new look. Once, a senior boy who helped out in the school library was stamping pupils' books in and out when Farage started kicking off. 'He was being loud and adopting a 'What are you going to do about it, then?' attitude.'

As Farage got older, so his rebellious streak grew. 'I suppose I was a bit of a wind-up merchant. I always questioned authority,' he says. But he had also found a role model.

Top-rank politicians often visited Dulwich to talk to the boys but the one who made the greatest impression on him was Enoch Powell  a long-standing opponent of Britain joining the European Community but probably best known for public opposition to non-white immigration, as exemplified by his notorious Rivers of Blood speech in 1968.

Powell 'dazzled me for once into awestruck silence', Farage later said. He instantly became one of his great political heroes for championing unfashionable causes and challenging conventional wisdom.

'Whenever I encountered interventionist authority, I was at the forefront of the dissidents,' he says. 'Whenever I encountered unthinking acceptance of doctrine, whether about the news or history, I challenged it fiercely. Whatever my own views, I would champion any damsel in distress against the dragons of prejudice.

'This was not mere puppy play-fighting. I had discovered in myself a passionate loathing for received opinion.'

Top-rank politicians often visited Dulwich College (pictured) to talk to the boys but the one who made the greatest impression on Farage was Enoch Powell, probably best known for public opposition to non-white immigration, as exemplified by his notorious Rivers of Blood speech in 1968

Yet despite his challenges to authority, not long after Farage's 17th birthday, David Emms, the Master  the school's head teacher  surprisingly appointed him a prefect for his final year.

The decision caused uproar. The adult Nigel Farage has always loved Dulwich College. He is an assiduous attender of alumni events, where he sometimes turns up in an Old Alleynian (the special name for its Old Boys association) blazer with its garish stripes and brass buttons.

The school, though, has a delicate love-hate relationship with him. On one hand, he's among its most famous Old Boys. On the other, the school can't hide some discomfort with his public reputation and how he represents an outlook and politics which many staff and alumni abhor. This became an issue even before he left. In the staff room, his appointment as a prefect set off a furious debate.

'It became enormously heated,' recalls former English master Bob Jope. 'A significant number of staff, young and old, from various departments, expressed concern. The accusation was that he had voiced views that were not simply Right-wing but racist. Not the views that a school should tolerate.'

Allies of Farage say Jope's criticism stemmed from his own personal Left-leaning outlook  described by one old boy as a 'lovable hippy type, a crusty of his time' who sang in a teachers' rock band called Breaking Class. Farage mocked him and others like him as the 'Bob Dylan set'.

But the main opposition to Farage's promotion was from young English teacher Chloe Deakin. She wrote a lengthy letter to the Master saying she was 'not acquainted with NP Farage  happily so because judging from reports I have received he is not someone with whom I would wish to be acquainted'.

She'd heard that he was a publicly professed racist with neo-fascist views.

Another colleague had described how Farage and others at an Army Cadet camp marched through a quiet Sussex village late at night shouting Hitler Youth songs.

She told Emms: 'I've often heard you tell our senior boys they are the nation's future leaders. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that these leaders are enlightened and compassionate.

'I am by disposition, tolerant; and in politics, moderate. But I find it distasteful that a boy such as Farage should have bestowed upon him the prestige of office and authority.'

Her letter made no difference. The head stuck to his decision. He said later in his defence: 'I thought of him as a naughty boy who got up the noses of the teaching staff for his chirpiness and cheekiness. I think it was naughtiness rather than racism. I saw good in him and considerable potential and I was proved right.'

His deputy Terry Walsh told me there was a strong Left-wing element among staff and Farage liked to wind them up by adopting an extreme Right-wing facade. He agreed Farage sometimes expressed support for the National Front, or the even more extreme neo-Nazi British Movement. 'He did it because he knew it would rile them. But I don't think he ever believed it.'

The adult Farage dismisses the accusation about Hitler Youth songs as 'completely silly'. He didn't know 'the words' of such songs, he said.

As for racist remarks: 'Yes, of course, I said some ridiculous things  not necessarily racist things, it depends how you define it.' Yes, he had been excluded from class 'dozens of times' and, he said, he might simply have been winding up his critics.

'Was I a difficult, bolshie teenager who pushed the boundaries of debate further than perhaps I ought to have done? Yes. Have I ever been a member of any extremist organisation, Left or Right? No.' He thought the outrage among some staff was because they deplored 'my spirited defence of Enoch Powell'.

Many of Farage's contemporaries agree he was simply a Conservative Right-winger, an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, Keith Joseph and Powell.

But there are several whose memories go well beyond that. They accuse him of being significantly racist or anti-Semitic. One Jewish ex-pupil recalls a climate in which it wasn't unusual to hear anti-Semitic or racist comments.

'I got it,' he says. 'Kids from India or Pakistan got it.' He remembers Farage sidling up to him and saying: 'Hitler was right,' or 'Gas 'em.'

But then he heard Farage explaining his own surname may originally have been Huguenot the Protestant sect who fled from persecution in Catholic France in the 17th century. 'I said to him: 'So you are also from a family who came to this country under threat of genocide.'

'He said: 'Yes.' And I said: Isn't your attitude to Jews and Blacks out of kilter?' And he replied: 'I suppose so.' He was quite capable of being reflective, and intelligent and quite charming. And you see that now, absolutely.'

The fellow pupil had relatives murdered in the Holocaust. He 'despised' Farage, he says, but he 'never entirely hated him' as a person. 'I just avoided him thereafter.'

He didn't feel bullied by Farage. 'I might have done if he had acolytes bearing down on me as a group. But he had no clique; he wasn't a classic bully with his gang.

'He was very much a loner. 'Of course, he was provocative, but he was provocative to everyone. He was eccentric, slightly mad, a nutter, as David Cameron later said, a fruit-cake.'

Another Dulwich Old Boy expressed similar views in an anonymous letter to a newspaper. He remembered Farage fondly  for the terrific breakfast his mother cooked when he stayed at his house and the way he 'enchanted people at school, teachers and fellow pupils alike'.

Yet he also recalled Farage's 'keen interest' in his initials being the same as the National Front, and how he doodled the NF symbol on his school books.

He remembered Farage frequently crying 'Send 'em home', citing the former British fascist leader Oswald Mosley and singing a song which went 'gas them all, gas 'em all, gas them all', to the tune of Bless 'Em All.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a political opponent attacking Farage under cover of anonymity. Yet the writer said he thought Farage had been 'absolutely right to challenge the EU' robustly.

Another contemporary, Nick Gordon Brown, remembers Farage as: 'A very vocal National Front supporter. He always referred to 'our black and brown friends'. He used to talk about voluntary repatriation.

'There was a Jewish lad he was horrible to. With Jewish schoolmates, he made no secret of his distaste for them. What you see now, is what he was like then.'

David Edmonds, who was in the same class as Farage when they were 15, says: 'He was a deeply unembarrassed racist. He used words like 'w**s' and came out with the usual anti-Semitic tropes.

'We could never be friends, but I didn't dislike him. He relished rubbing people up the wrong way. But I think that his far-Right politics, his racism and English nationalism were also quite firmly ingrained. He had the sense that England was being destroyed by waves of immigrants. The idea he wasn't a racist is 100 per cent incorrect.'

Fellow pupil Tim France says Farage openly supported the extremist British Movement and recalls him chanting 'BM, BM. We are British Nazi men', and even giving Nazi salutes. 'He consciously and vocally positioned himself as a very extreme Right-winger. This was when he was 18.'

But the picture is confused. Old Boys from his time probably divide fairly equally. For everyone who recalls Farage voicing extreme views, another will say they heard nothing untoward.

'He never said anything racist or insulting to people,' says Jonathan Mayne. 'I don't think he was malicious. He was unconventional and said things that were not everyone's cup of tea. He was larger than life and also quite self-deprecating in his humour.'

Nor does Jon Benjamin think Farage was anti-Semitic. 'Being Jewish, I think I'd remember that.' Ian Oakley Smith says: 'Nigel's views at the time wouldn't be exceptional, so they probably didn't stand out as much as they would today.'

Farage's response to these allegations of racism and anti-Semitism at school is dismissive: 'I thought all of the far-Right parties/movements to be ludicrous/barmy/dangerous. There were some hard-Left masters and several of us thoroughly enjoyed winding them up. Terms of abuse thrown around between 15-year-olds were limitless; there were no boundaries. I think red-haired boys fared especially badly.'

Accusations racism would continue to dog Farage throughout his political life. One of the most bruising allegations was from Alan Sked, who founded and led the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) until forced out by Farage. He says that just before the 1997 General Election, Farage suggested it was time to drop the policy of banning former National Front members from being Ukip candidates. An affronted Sked rejected this, to which Farage apparently replied that they shouldn't 'worry about the n****r vote. They will never vote for us.'

I interviewed hundreds of people for my book on Farage yet nobody else recalls him using such racist language at any time after leaving Dulwich College. Nor do any interviewees recollect him saying anything even close to such words  yet many of them dislike him and are highly critical in numerous other ways.

The Eurosceptic journalist Richard North, who worked closely with Farage and then subsequently fell out with him, rejects the idea he's an 'out-and-out' racist, though says he was 'locked in aspic' from the time of World War I.

'He was racist in a Churchillian sense, in that he believed in the superiority of the white Englishman  King and Empire.'

It's important, too, to remember that Farage counts as one of his greatest achievements as Ukip leader that he kept the party from forming a far-Right alliance with the British National Party, as some members urged him to do.

By the mid-1990s the BNP had emerged as the main force on the extreme Right of British politics, a successor to racist and neo-Nazi groups such as the League of Empire Loyalists and the National Front.

'There were lots of people saying to me at that time, 'You've got to do a deal with them,' Farage recalls. 'We were being beaten by them regularly in local elections, so there was huge pressure on me.' In 2017, he proudly said: 'I destroyed the BNP, who genuinely were anti-Jew, anti-Black. I said to their voters, if you're holding your nose and voting for the BNP as a protest, don't.

'Come and vote for me. I'm not against anybody. I just want us to start putting British people first. And I almost single-handedly destroyed the far-Right in British politics.'

As he neared the end of his time at Dulwich, most pupils planned to go to university. His mother was desperate for him to do the same, dreading him following his father into the City.

But Farage's mind was made up. 'I don't want to be a scruffy student, I want to be out there,' he remembers thinking. 'I couldn't wait to get cracking.' He headed to the Square Mile and joined a firm of traders on the London Metal Exchange.

On the day he left school in 1982, one of his teachers told him: 'Nigel, I have a feeling you will go far in life, but whether in fame or infamy, I don't really know.'

Farage replied: 'Sir, as long as it's far, I don't care which.'

Adapted from One Party After Another by Michael Crick, published by Simon & Schuster, 25.  Michael Crick 2022. To order a copy for 22.50 go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937. Free UK delivery on orders over 20. Promotional price valid until February 13.
Dwarf actors have continued to criticise Peter Dinklage for labelling Disney's Snow White remake as 'backwards' - as they suggest he is 'taking away dream roles' from little people.

Dylan Postl, who played Hornswoggle the leprechaun in WWE for 10 years and has also acted in The Muppets, appeared on ITV's This Morning via video link today to discuss Dinklage's recent complaints.

Dinklage criticised Disney for remaking the 1937 film, questioning: 'Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box? I guess I'm not loud enough.'

In response, the American studio said it is 'taking a different approach' with Snow White's seven companions and has been consulting with members of the dwarfism community throughout the early stages of production.

However, US-based Postl said Disney's decision to 'rethink' the characters could take 'dream roles away', while viewers shared their sadness and fury at the seven dwarfs being 'cancelled' in the classic film.

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Dylan Postl (pictured), who played Hornswoggle the leprechaun in WWE for 10 years and has also acted in The Muppets, appeared on ITV's This Morning via video link today to discuss Dinklage's recent complaints

Dinklage (pictured) criticised Disney for remaking the 1937 film, questioning: 'Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box? I guess I'm not loud enough.'

In response, the American studio said it is 'taking a different approach' with Snow White's seven companions and has been consulting with members of the dwarfism community throughout the early stages of production. Pictured, the 1937 film

Postl said: With what Dinklage said and his comments, he's taking dream roles away that were made and set in stone for seven dwarf actors. Actors that dream of being in a Disney film.

He added: By being progressive in his mind and what he was trying to do and says he is trying to do, is really doing the opposite and taking dreams away and potential roles from seven dwarf actors - I think it's a shame.

It doesn't make any sense to me that we are taking one person's voice for the whole community.

Postl agreed that it was 100 per cent a shame that Dinklages voice was the only one representing the dwarf community.

He went on to add: I can argue too, he has been in major roles from Game of Thrones to Elf, but what were they cast as? They were little people dwarf roles; those cheques cashed just fine. He knew what he was getting himself in for there.

Bodybuilding dwarf Choon Tan, 27, from north London, who has featured in Snow White productions, and also appeared on the show, also shared his displeasure at Dinklages comments.

However, US-based Postl said Disney's decision to 'rethink' the characters could take 'dream roles away', while viewers (above) shared their sadness and fury at the seven dwarfs being 'cancelled' in the classic film

Bodybuilding dwarf Choon Tan (pictured right), 27, from north London, who has featured in Snow White productions, and also appeared on the show, also shared his displeasure at Dinklages comments

Choon (pictured) said: It can have a knock-on effect to other productions that are scared to employ people who are little and or who have dwarfism in fear of being attacked or derogatory.

Choon said: It can have a knock-on effect to other productions that are scared to employ people who are little and or who have dwarfism in fear of being attacked or derogatory.

He added that the dwarfs are heroes in Snow White and are not made out to be anything less.

How Disney's classic cartoons became 'sensitive viewing' Disney in 2020 began slapping racism warnings on some of its most iconic movies, including Peter Pan and The Jungle Book, to alert viewers to sensitive scenes. The media conglomerate believes some of its older cartoons contain outdated racial or ethnic stereotypes, and now opens some films with a disclaimer. It reads: 'This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures.' Movies with warning include the 1970 musical comedy The Aristocats, 1955 canine love story Lady and the Tramp and 1960 adventure Swiss Family Robinson. In relation to The Aristocats, Disney warns viewers about a scene where one cat, voiced by a white actor, yells out stereotypical Chinese 'words' while playing the piano with chopsticks. Peter Pan viewers are warned that Native Americans Indians are referred to as 'redskins'. Disney says scenes in which Peter and The Lost Boys dance in native American headdresses are a 'form of mockery and appropriation of Native peoples' culture and imagery.' The Jungle Book has also been highlighted, namely for its depiction of the ape King Louie, which was accused of perpetuating a stereotype of African Americans. Elsewhere 1941 release Dumbo comes under fire for its references to racist segregationist laws in the deep south, as well as its use of affected African-American voices. The lead crow in the film is also called Jim Crow - a reference to the segregation laws in late 19th and early 20th Century America. Lady And The Tramp has been placed on the list due to its perceived stereotyping of Asians courtesy of Siamese cats Si and Am, while a dog pound features canines with largely ethnic names and accents Advertisement

Concluding his argument, Postl said: This is a role made for me and our community, for the first time ever. I can't be Superman, or Spider-Man or Captain America. I can be one of the seven dwarfs.'

Viewers were quick to take to Twitter on the subject, with one person writing: 'So the snowflakes want Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs banned?! What next?

'Dumbo? Offensive for folk with big ears? There's no business like woke business.'

Another said: 'It's called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the clue is in the name!'

A third added: 'This is so sad, another result of cancel culture.'

A Disney spokesperson said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter: 'To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community.

'We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.'

The response came after Dinklage blasted Disney for remaking the 1937 film and shared he was surprised by the casting of West Side Story breakout star Rachel Zegler as Snow White.

'Literally no offence to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White  but you're still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' Drinklage, 52, told Marc Maron on his WTF podcast.

'Take a step back and look at what you're doing there. It makes no sense to me. You're progressive in one way and you're still making that f***ing backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f*** are you doing man?'

Disney said the film, which is still years from release, will have cultural consultants, just like its life-action remakes of Aladdin and Mulan did.

The studio also claims it has been working on reimagining the dwarf characters since its earliest production stages.

Disney did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Dinklage was promoting his new movie Cyrano on the podcast with Maron where they were discussing 'wokeness' when he discussed the Snow White reboot.

'Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box? I guess I'm not loud enough,' Dinklage questioned.

He added he didn't know what studio was remaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but he recalled, 'they were so proud of it.'

'All love and respect to the actress and all the people who thought they were doing the right thing. But I'm just like, what are you doing?' he added.

The original animated film (pictured) was based on an 1812 fairy tale from The Brothers Grimm, though the dwarfs in that story lived in a cottage, not a cave

Dinklage has a form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, which affects bone growth, causing him to have shorter limbs.

He said the story of Snow White can still be told, but it needs to be updated to reflect today's standards.

'If you tell the story of 'Snow White' with the most f***ed up, progressive spin on it? Let's do it. All in,' he stated.

WHAT IS DWARFISM? Dwarfism is general term used to cover a swath of conditions that result in the medical term of restricted growth. There are two main types of restricted growth: Achondroplasia is a DSS type of dwarfism and is the most common cause of the condition. As well as having short stature, some people with restricted growth also have other physical problems, such as bowed legs or an unusually curved spine. However, most people don't have any other serious problems. They can often live a relatively normal life and have a normal life expectancy. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

The original animated film was based on an 1812 fairy tale from The Brothers Grimm, though the dwarfs in that story lived in a cottage, not a cave.

Dinklage's concerns were shared by some charities, including the Restricted Growth Association in the UK.

'I very much stand with Peter Dinklage on the disappointment and irritation towards Disney for the remake of Snow White,' Rhonda Cutmore, a member of the association, told The Telegraph. 'As a 46-year-old woman with restricted growth, this story has always had a negative impact on me. Not just the physical characteristics, but the labelling of 'Dopey' and 'Bashful', were not helpful in the playground.

She added: 'People with restricted growth are in majority born to average height parents - they never live in gingerbread houses, have little bear beds nor live in homogeneous groups together.'

Dwarfism writer Steph Robson said she hoped film producers make an effort to avoid stereotypes in its retelling of the classic movie.

'It is my hope that the latest live action remake, and Disney, will, at the very least go some way to redress the decades of the one-dimensional stereotypes that our disability continues to experience, especially within arts and cultural settings,' she told the outlet.

The story has also been criticised as being ableist for portraying the dwarfs with lesser intelligence and Snow White seeing them as children.

Zegler will star alongside Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen with Marc Webb directing from a script by Greta Gerwig and Erin Cressida Wilson.

Oscar-nominated producer Marc Platt, who also worked on Disney's live-action rendition of The Little Mermaid, is set to produce the film.

Meanwhile, Dinklage will next be seen in American Dreamer with Shirley MacLaine, Danny Glover, Matt Dillon and Danny Pudi, which is in post-production.

He has a number of projects currently filming like Hitpig, The Toxic Avenger and Brothers.
Prince Charles appeared in good spirits as he attended multiple engagements in London today.

The heir-to-the-throne, 73, headed to the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception in central London this evening, where he visited the Iconographer Dr Irina Bradley's 'Metamorphosis' icon exhibition.

During the tour, the Princes of Wales, who donned a smart blue suit for the occasion, was gifted an icon of Saint Corona by the iconographer.

Earlier today, Charles and Camilla, 74, joined celebrations for Lunar New Year in Chinatown.

Charles even appeared to lead crowds as he drummed on the head of a tiger, while beaming in delight.

Prince Charles, 73, headed to the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception in central London this evening, where he visited the Iconographer Dr Irina Bradley's 'Metamorphosis' Icon exhibition

Earlier today, The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, 74, donned red scarves to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Chinatown

Charles sported his signature navy blue suit today for his busy day of engagements.

Tonight, he headed to Mayfair to tour the exhibition, where he was welcomed by Dr Irina as well as Father Dominic Robinson.

He admired the different icons' in display and talked to a few attendees, including a seven-year-old girl whose icon was on show, and a women who read him a poem written by her husband.

The heir-to-the-throne, who appeared deeply interested by the icons in the exhibition, also took in the splendour of the Church during his visit.

Dressed in a smart navy suit, Charles talked with Dr Irina Bradley and her loved ones as he prepared to tour her exhibition

The heir-to-the-throne was led into the church by Father Dominic Robinson, left, with whom he exchanged a few pleasant words

The Prince of Wales spoke to Clara Green, seven, left, next to her icon painting of Archangel Michael during his visit

Earlier today, him and Camilla joined crowds in Chinatown to ring in the year of the Tiger.

They both wore scarves with the Chinese symbol 'Zhong' - which literally translates as 'middle' but is also used to represent China in Chinese characters.

The royal couple shook hundreds of hands as they pushed their way through the crowds, with the lions and musicians in front of them.

In one local restaurant they were invited to try their hand at calligraphy. They wrote a Chinese symbol for harmony in what calligraphy expert Dr Chan Cheng said was intended as an auspicious gesture to bring them happy lives together.

You make it look very easy! said the prince admiringly.

Dr Irina was there to answer the questions of the future king as the two took a look at the exhibited artworks

Carol Henderson, right, got a standing ovation from Charles after she read him a poem written by her husband Stewart

De Cheng had written a message on a red piece of paper. It included the prince and duchesss names, said their visit was an honour, and expressed his hope that the coming Year of the Tiger is a good one.

His assistant Dr Liangwei Zhu said afterwards that the ritual of the couple writing side by side would bring them happiness in their lives together.

The visit was designed as a boost to Londons Chinese community, whose businesses have suffered in Covid lockdown and whose members have endured rising racist abuse as a result of the pandemic.

The Prince joined a meeting, including senior police officers and leading figures in the community, about the serious impact of hate crime.

He heard how one police officer of Chinese heritage, PC Caleb Lau, suffered 12 incidents in the last year.

Charles said he was particularly interested to hear how the UK is better than many other countries at recording hate crimes, with numbers appearing to rise as more incidents are taken seriously by police.

Charles was welcomed by Dr Irina, left, as well as the Church's religious staff, some of which were wearing masks

While he watched the icon's on show, Charles took in the beauty of the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception

The extraordinary thing this country seems to do is more recording, he said.

As he emerged from his discussion to make a second walk down the street, the lion performers, having taken off their costumes, each shook him by the hand as the Prince asked them whether anyone had offered them a drink after their exertions.

Gesturing to the drum, one asked him: Do you want to try, Your Royal Highness?

Charles barely paused before accepting a drumstick to hit the large percussion instrument, laughing at the surprised reaction of those around him.

The duchess, meanwhile, continued walking through the main street with a dancing lion and drummers in front of her, stopping briefly outside the Loon Fung supermarket.

And she spent several minutes talking to staff and volunteers at the Chinese Information and Advice Centre.

It was established in 1982 and provides free legal advice and advocacy to disadvantaged and marginalised in the UK Chinese community.

She also praised the centres volunteers, telling them: What would we do without our volunteers? The country would collapse. You are doing brilliant work.

She was offered Chinese sweets and dried fruits, which bring good fortune, and tried some Chinese tea, declaring: I never say no to a nice cup of tea, delicious. I do like your tea pot. It is very smart.

Edmond Yeo, chairman of the Chinese Information and Advice Centre, who hosted the Prince and Duchess for the visit, said he was so proud of the community reaction to the royal visit, which he proclaimed so exciting it was unthinkable.

We have genuine love for the royal family, he said. The institution of the family is very important in Chinese culture so the Royal Family is very important.

It [the visit] was difficult to contain - everyone wanted to know, who are the VVVIPs? The reaction was amazing, Im so proud of everyone.

The Lunar New Year - beginning on February 1 - is the start of a two-week celebration and is the most important holiday for millions of people around the world.

Charles was particularly eager to learn about three icons put on show at the Church's altar tonight

Dr Irina, left, gifted Prince Charles with his very own icon of Sainte Corona, which is invoked as a patron of money, but was invoked by Christians during the coronavirus pandemic, due to her name

Prince Charles and Camilla donned festive red scarves as they joined celebrations for Lunar New Year in London today

The Prince has already issued his congratulations to those celebrating the new Lunar Year, the Year of the Tiger, in Clarence Houses first official message on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Lunar New Year - or The Spring Festival - is arguably the most important celebration observed in China and through east and southeast Asia.

It signals the beginning of spring, and the start of a new year according to the Chinese lunar calendar.

The Spring Festival is not celebrated just in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong - it's also one of the most revered holidays across countries with large Chinese populations in Asia, such as Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Korea.

There are 15 days of celebrations.

Charles even appeared to lead crowds as he drummed on the head of a tiger, while beaming in delight

Unlike Western astrology, each sign of the Chinese zodiac 'rules' over an entire year, bringing with it particular energy to everything that occurs over the next 12 months.

The 12 animals - the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig - have a chance to 'rule' every 12 years, bringing with it particular fortune for those born under that sign.

Charles was born in the Year of the Rat, 1948 - while Camilla celebrates in the Year of the Pig as she was born in 1947.

Today will no doubt be a joyful celebration in the central London district with restaurants serving traditional Chinese meals.

The area - between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square - has also been decorated with red paper lanterns and firecrackers - which are said to ward off evil.

Many people - including Camilla- are wearing red as it signifies good luck, prosperity and vitality.

The Prince of Wales, 73, and Duchess of Cornwall, 74, looked delighted as they joined crowds in Chinatown

Charles sported his signature navy blue suit with a spotted tie while Camilla opted for a red dress with black boots

They both wore scarves with the Chinese symbol 'Zhong' - which literally translates as 'middle' but is also used to represent China in Chinese characters.
Ivanka Trump has worn many hats over the years, from entrepreneur to First Daughter to senior White House advisor - but on Monday morning, she focused her efforts on her duties as a mom while completing the school run with two of her three kids in Miami.

The 40-year-old, who shares three children with her husband Jared Kushner, also 40, was pictured driving her daughter Arabella, 10, and son Theodore, five, to school at the start of the week, putting on an effortless display in a pair of green leggings and a cozy black sweater.

Ivanka went makeup-free for her early-morning outing and had her blonde hair pulled back into a messy low ponytail, while her two kids were both seen sporting uniforms from the local Jewish school that they have been attending for the past year, since the family relocated to the Sunshine State.

Mom-of-three Ivanka was pictured carrying a reusable coffee cup and her laptop as she climbed into the front seat of a large black SUV, which was parked outside of the luxury oceanfront Arte Surfside building, where she and her family have been residing for the past 12 months.

Mom on duty: Ivanka Trump went makeup-free on Monday morning as she stepped out in Miami to take two of her three children to school

Low-key: The 40-year-old sported a casual ensemble for the school run, opting for a pair of green leggings, a cozy black sweater, and a pair of black-and-white sneakers

Ready to learn: Her oldest child, daughter Arabella, ten, was seen following closely behind her mother, wearing her navy school uniform and carrying a large rainbow tie-dye backpack

Fully loaded! Her younger brother Theo, five, was carrying several bags, including a large black backpack and an Under Armour lunchbox

While Ivanka kept her look very low-key and casual, Arabella and Theo injected a little bit more color into their ensembles.

Eldest child Arabella jazzed up her navy school uniform with a rainbow tie-dye backpack and a pair of high-top Nike sneakers, while her younger sibling donned a pair of neon yellow sneakers, and carried a large black backpack and an Under Armour lunchbox.

Theo also wore a yarmulke - a traditional cap worn by Jewish men - and there were several white tassels hanging from underneath the bottom of his shirt, which appeared to be tzitzit - the fringes that hang from all four corners of a tallit, a prayer shawl worn by Jewish men.

Both youngsters also held face masks in their hands, and Theo, who is the youngest of the three Kushner siblings.

Ivanka and her children were escorted out of the building by a burly-looking man who appeared to be a member of security; he was seen holding open the building's front door with one hand while holding up his other arm in a protective motion as they made their way to their waiting SUV.

There was no sign of Ivanka's older son, Joseph, eight, or his father Jared, who celebrated his 41st birthday just a few weeks ago.

Ivanka looked somewhat downcast and pensive as she made her way to the car with her kids, who have been pictured on a number of outings with their parents over the past few weeks - most recently on January 19, when the whole family was seen departing the Arte Surfside building with several suitcases.

Taking charge: Ivanka climbed into the front of a large SUV that was waiting outside of the luxury oceanfront building where the family has been living since last January

Back to the grind: Arabella opted for comfortable yet cool footwear in the form of some white high-top Nike sneakers

Bold: Theo meanwhile chose a more colorful pair of neon yellow sneakers as he made his way to school

Although it was unclear where the family-of-five was headed, it may well be that they were looking to get some peace and quiet amid ongoing furor over New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation into the Trump Organization.

Hours before Ivanka and her brood were pictured leaving for their trip, James filed a court document in which it was revealed that the former First Daughter was given the option to buy a luxury apartment from the Trump Organization for a third of the value listed on company financial statements.

The details were released in a court filing as part of an attempt to persuade a New York State judge to allow James to compel Trump, his son Donald Jr. and daughter Ivanka, to testify under oath.

James' probe is ongoing - and is taking place as Trump is positioning himself for a potential run to try to recapture the White House in 2024.

On Tuesday, it was exclusively revealed by DailyMail.com that Trump and his family have accused James of breaking state laws for a politically motivated 'fishing expedition' in a fiery court filing.

The legal complaint, filed by Trump's lawyers in New York, claims James was hell-bent on prosecuting the Trumps even before she got into office or saw any evidence against them, and has used her AG investigation into the family firms to raise money for her political campaigns.

The lawyers say she breached the New York constitution by colluding with the state's former District Attorney Cyrus Vance to run parallel criminal and civil cases, which they claim precludes the chance for a fair trial in either.

Family vacation? Ivanka and her family were last seen on January 19, when they were pictured leaving their Miami condo building with several suitcases

Both Ivanka and Jared looked to be in good spirits during the outing, despite it coming just hours after NY AG Letitia James issued a subpoena request for the former First Daughter

The Trump family also claims James broke Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules which ban campaigning on the promise of a criminal investigation.

The documents are the latest in a bitter legal battle between the leader of the Republican Party and the outspoken and ambitious Democrat AG.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com Ivanka's brother Eric slammed the NY AG as 'vicious' and said she should be 'disbarred and removed from office'.

'This is the opportunistic targeting of a political opponent during a campaign year,' said Trump's younger son.

'Letitia James is not working on behalf of the Attorney General's office, she is working for the DNC and using the resources of the State of New York to further her own political ambition.

'This conduct is an embarrassment to New York. Last week an 11-month-old girl was shot in the face on New York streets, crime is absolutely rampant, homelessness is through the roof, two brave law enforcement officers were just executed and 1.9% of New Yorkers have fled the state in the last 12 months. Yet Letitia's sole focus, and all the resources of her office, remains on getting Donald Trump  the leader of the Republican Party.'

For the most part, Ivanka has chosen not to comment publicly on the ongoing investigation - nor has she involved herself in her father's ongoing political work, choosing instead to hunker down in Miami with her husband and children, while also launching her own charitable food donation initiative earlier this year.

The former First Daughter returned to Instagram for the first time in eight months on January 18 to launch the program, which is part of a collaboration with billionaire Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya.

Last month, Ivanka returned to Instagram for the first time in eight months to tout a new food donation program she has launched in collaboration with the billionaire founder of Chobani

Ivanka spent a day last month handing out fruits and vegetables in Rochester

Ivanka shared several images of herself during a trip to Rochester in upstate New York, where she spent a day handing out fruits and vegetables to families in need.

'Thank you to our many incredible partners and volunteers who helped feed tens of thousands American families across Idaho and NY, with fresh, nutritious, locally-sourced produce and dairy this holiday season,' she wrote.

The partnership with Chobani founder Ulukaya  who is estimated to be worth $2.3 billion according to Forbes  is surprising considering his criticism of Ivanka's father at the beginning of his term.

In an internal memo leaked to CNN in 2017, Ulukaya, took issue with Trump's travel ban from predominantly Muslim countries.

'This is very personal for me,' Ulukaya, a Kurd from Turkey, wrote. 'As an immigrant who came to this country looking for opportunity, it's very difficult to think about and imagine what millions of people around the world must be feeling right now.

'America has always been a symbol of hope, tolerance and diversity  and these are values we must work very hard to uphold,' he wrote, offering to help employees whose families were impacted by the ban.

The criticism goes in both directions. In 2016, some far-right conservatives called for a boycott against Chobani over Ulukaya's practice of hiring refugees.

Yet Ivanka appears to have a cordial relationship with Ulukaya, and referenced a lunch she shared with him last year where the pair planned their food-donation initiative across New York and Idaho.
A book of sonnets drawing on a decade of teaching at an inner-city London sixth form has been named 2021 Costa Book of the Year.

Poetry collection The Kids is by poet and university lecturer Hannah Lowe, who teaches creative writing at Brunel University London.

Tackling themes such as learning, growing up and parenthood, the work draws on Lowe's experience as a teacher during the 2000s as well as her own coming-of-age during the 80s and 90s.

BBC News broadcaster Reeta Chakrabarti, chairman of the judging panel, said: 'After a long and passionate discussion that reflected the quality and complexity of all five books, one winner emerged.

'Hannah Lowe's The Kids is a book to fall in love with - it's joyous, it's warm and it's completely universal. It's crafted and skillful but also accessible.

Poet and university lecturer Hannah Lowe's collection of sonnets The Kids has been named the winner of Costa's Book of The Year Award 2021

'Words from the judges were 'insightful', 'empathetic', 'generous', 'funny', 'compassionate', 'uplifting'. You will love it.'

Her tome concludes with poems about her young son learning to navigate modern London.

The announcement was made on Tuesday at an awards ceremony in London hosted by presenter and broadcaster Penny Smith.

Lowe beat the bookmakers' favourite, bestselling novelist Claire Fuller's fourth book Unsettled Ground, to win the overall prize of 30,000.

It tackles themes such as learning, growing up and parenthood, the work draws on her experience as a teacher during the 2000s as well as her own coming of age during the 80s and 90s

The other three category winners in the running were Former newspaper editor John Preston for Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell, a biography of the media mogul, British-Ghanaian short story writer and photographer Caleb Azumah Nelson for his first novel, Open Water.

Meanwhile children's author Manjeet Mann was also in the running with her second work of young adult fiction, The Crossing.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Costa Book Awards, which are the only major prize open solely to authors living in the UK and Ireland and celebrate books in five categories - first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children's book.

Shortlisted authors, each of whom received 5,000, were selected from 934 entries.

Marking the anniversary of the awards, each author also receives a certificate featuring traditional hand-printed elements using a vintage press merged with digital production techniques.

Costa Book of the Year nominees, from left to right: Claire Fuller, with her book, Unsettled Ground, Caleb Azumah Nelson, with his book, Open Water, Manjeet Man, with her book, The Crossing, and winner Hannah Lowe with The Kids

Jill McDonald, chief executive of Costa Coffee, said: 'On behalf of all of us at Costa Coffee, many congratulations to Hannah Lowe for winning the 2021 Costa Book of the Year in this, the awards' milestone anniversary year.'

The ceremony also saw LE Yates named winner of the 2021 Costa Short Story Award The London-based writer and lecturer won the public vote and 3,500 for her story, Sunblock.

The Mermaid Of Black Conch by Trinidadian-born British writer Monique Roffey was named Book of the Year for 2020.
A Thai man cut off his penis with a pair of scissors during a frightening cannabis-induced psychotic episode.

The life-changing injury occurred after the unidentified 23-year-old smoked 2g of marijuana  the equivalent of six joints  in two bong rips.

Prior to his self-amputation, the man had quit using cannabis use for three months after being a frequent user for two years.

Two hours after smoking the drug for the first time in months, he began to have a painful erection unrelated to any sexual stimulation, which can be a side-effect of smoking cannabis.

During his hallucination, the man grew paranoid that the head of his penis looked 'distorted' while examining himself to identify the source of the pain.

In an attempt to eradicate the problem, the man decided to use a pair of scissors to 'trim' the skin of his penis before amputating it completely, leaving a 2cm stump and a 5cm laceration in his scrotum.

Incredibly, the man then waited two hours before seeking attention from medics at a hospital in the city of Chiang Mai, after the bleeding failed to stop.

Doctors briefly considered reattaching the man's penis, but it was found to be too fragile and contaminated with ants.

And the psychosis was so intense he experienced visual and auditory hallucinations for about two weeks during his recovery.

The harrowing tale was revealed in a medical case report by the doctors who treated him.

It comes just weeks after Thailand effectively decriminalised cannabis.

The 23-year-old-man suffered psychosis after smoking 2g of cannabis from a bong. After experiencing a painful erection the man started 'trimming' the skin of his penis with a pair of scissors eventually amputating it entirely and leaving a 2cm stump

What is cannabis-induced psychosis? Psychosis is a mental health condition where people lose some contact with reality. This might involve seeing or hearing things that other people can't and believing things that are not untrue. Cannabis is one of the drugs that can induce such a state, others include speed, meth, cocaine, LSD and ecstasy. People experiencing psychosis are at higher risk of self-harm and/or suicide. While there isn't an exact figure on the risk of developing a psychotic illness from using cannabis certain factors are known ton increase the risk. These include: Starting to use cannabis at a young age

Smoking stronger types, such as skunk

Smoking regularly, and for a long period of time

Those who have a family history of schizophrenia Advertisement

Detailing the case in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, Dr Theerapon Tangsuwanaruk said medics briefly considered reattaching the severed penis.

However, he said the man's penis was too severely damaged and a possible infection risk for this to go ahead.

'The distal penis was deemed too dirty and fragile for reconstruction,' he said.

'The amputated distal part of the penis was contaminated with ants and had fragile dorsal veins.'

After surgery to clean the wound and stop the bleeding, the man was interviewed by a psychiatrist.

Urine tests taken from the man confirmed the presence of THC, the psychoactive chemical in cannabis responsible for giving people the sensation of feeling 'high'.

The psychiatrist found the man was suffering from both visual and auditory hallucinations, such as seeing shadows move and hearing animal noises like birds chirping and insects buzzing.

He was also found to be coherent but, delusional, with a restricted emotional range.

However, professionals deemed that he was not suicidal and diagnosed him as having suffered from substance-induced psychotic disorder.

After a two-week stay in hospital the man was able to urinate while seated and reported that the hallucinations had ceased.

Dr Tangsuwanaruk said a planned surgery to extend the length of the man's remaining penis did not go ahead as the patient had moved away.

The original source of man's erection pain remains a mystery but, Dr Tangsuwanaruk said it may have been a case of priapism, a painful erection lasting longer than four hours.

However, Dr Tangsuwanaruk said an official diagnosis for priapism in this patient's case is impossible due to the self-amputation before the four-hour mark.

The NHS advises anyone with an erection lasting longer than two hours to call 999 or go to A&E as it can cause permanent damage to the penis.

Cannabis-induced psychosis is a known potential side effect of using the drug, though self-genital mutilation as result is rare.

Smoking cannabis can cause mild hallucinations generally, as well as sense of anxiety but this is normally not psychosis.

The authors of the most recent case reported said that while the true prevalence is unknown, there have been about 100 cases of substance-induced psychosis resulting in self-genital-mutilation within the past 20 years.

However, they added that the severity of psychosis people can experience after using cannabis depends on the amount of THC consumed.

Skunk  which makes up most of the cannabis sold on Britain's streets  contains more THC than traditional strains.

It is purposely created by dealers aiming to make the most potent strain of the drug possible in order to maximise their profits.

While the medics did not detail exactly when the case occurred, Thailand is currently undergoing a cannabis revolution.

Last week it became the first country in Asia to decriminalise marijuana though its use as a recreational product is still a grey area.

It followed Thailand removing cannabis, the plant species to which both marijuana and hemp belong, from the list of illegal drugs under Thailands narcotics laws in December 2021.
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Covid continues to recede in the United States, and after weeks of surging cases nationwide, daily counts are starting to trend in the right direction nationwide. As of Tuesday morning, 41 U.S. states are now recording declining daily Covid infections over the past two weeks. Those that are continuing to see cases grow are generally less dense states where it took longer for the Omicron variant to take hold.

Overall, the U.S. is recording a 36 percent decrease in cases over the past seven days, averaging 469,770 per day, down from 736,221 a week ago. It is the first time since January 3 that the daily case average has dropped below a half million, a milestone in the drop in cases being recorded by the country.

The east coast states that fueled the record Omicron surge during December and early January - causing cases to peak around 800,000 per day last month - are now fueling the sharp decrease in cases as well.

New York and New Jersey far outpaced the rest of the country when Omicron first arrived in the U.S. at the end of last year. Both states are now recording declines of over 70 percent over the past two weeks, though, as the variant quickly ran its course after burning through New York City and nearby areas.

Other east coast states in the mid-Atlantic and New England that suffered early surges are seeing cases come down as well. Maryland is currently the leaders in case decline among U.S. states, recording a 75 percent drop over the past two weeks.

Case declines are now spreading into the Midwest as well, showing the variant burning out even among states that experienced the secondary Omicron wave. Wisconsin has experienced a 71 percent drop in cases over the past two weeks, with Ohio also recording a sharp drop of 67 percent.

Experts predicted a quick decline in cases in early January, as Covid generally runs on two month cycles. Cases also began to show signs of tapering off in major population centers like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles in the early weeks of the new year.

Falling case counts in recent weeks has also loudened calls to lift remaining Covid related mask and vaccine mandates still in place in some parts of America.

Dr Scott Gottlieb, former director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and current board member at Pfizer, said on CNBC's Squawk Box Monday that people would not be willing to continue to abide by these restrictions as cases decline.

'Society isn't going to tolerate these things in perpetuity. The mitigation we've adopted has to be used to deal with epidemic peaks, not be a constant way of life,' he said.

'We are going to have to be willing to withdraw these mitigations.'

A precedent has been set as well, with some of the countries that were struck hardest by the Omicron variant already laying out plans for post-pandemic life.

Earlier this month, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of all pandemic related restrictions, including the end of mask mandates, some capacity restrictions, and work from home orders. Testing requirements for Britons to return to the nation will be dropped in the coming weeks as well.

This comes after a miraculous turnaround for the nation that was struck early by the variant, and was struck so hard some officials feared the nation's hospital system would be overwhelmed.

The UK is averaging just under 90,000 Covid cases per day as of Monday morning, a far fall from the peak of over 180,000 cases earlier this month.

Denmark was among the hardest hit nations in the world by Omicron in December as well. Cases in the country are still steadily rising, up to 45,000 per day, they are clearly cresting and deaths have remained low for the Nordic country throughout the pandemic.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced last week that Covid was no longer a 'socially critical sickness' and that the country will end all pandemic-related restrictions on February 1.

Deaths from the virus are still rising in the U.S., though, as the metric often lags behind cases by a few weeks. America is suffering 2,452 Covid deaths everyday, a 12 percent increase over the past week and the highest average since February 2021 - the tail end of the pandemic's deadliest surge yet.

Every single state along the east coast, and every state east of the Mississippi river is currently recording a decline in cases over the past two weeks. 15 states have seen their daily case averages slash in half over the past two weeks.

In New York, cases jumped ten-fold last year when Omicron arrived, and New York City emerged as a global Omicron hotspot in mid-December.

The variant seems to have burned out since then, though, with cases declining 73 percent over the past two weeks - and nearly 50 percent over the past week alone.

A cluster of states in New England that suffered large case numbers despite high vaccination rates are starting to see their surges come to an end as well. Rhode Island had the highest infection rate in America during the mid-January despite having vaccinated 79 percent of its population.

The Ocean state seems to have gotten its outbreak under control since then, though, with cases down 68 percent over the past two weeks.

Vermont is the leader in vaccination rate, with just over 79 percent vaccinated , is also recording a 66 percent case decrease after weeks of surging cases late in 2021.

Connecticut (68 percent case decline) and Massachusetts (67 percent) are also recording sharp case decreases over the past two weeks after surges earlier this winter.

Case declines have now spread nationwide. Oklahoma, one of the final states that was still seeing an upward trend in cases recently has finally shifted to the other side, with cases now decreasing 16 percent over the past two weeks.

Many of the the last remaining states that still have cases trending upwards are concentrated in the northwest region of the U.S. Montana is still the leader in case growth, suffering a 61 percent increase over the past two weeks. Neighboring Idaho (43 percent increase), Wyoming (31 percent) and nearby Washington (18 percent) are also seeing cases tick upwards.

Alaska, a state over 1,6000 miles from the U.S. mainland, is seeing cases jump by 20 percent over the past two weeks as well.

While case growth seems to be moving to the northwest, the nine U.S. states recording more than one daily Covid death per every 100,000 residents are along the east coast, in the Midwest or southwest.

Ohio is still the leader in daily Covid deaths, with 1.32 of every 100,000 residents testing positive for the virus every day. Neighboring Indiana is second, with the Hoosier state recording 1.19 deaths per 100,000 residents. New Jersey, among the states with the largest fall in cases over the past two weeks, is still logging 1.03 Covid deaths every day for every 100,000 residents.
Moderna has launched a trial of a HIV vaccine which uses the same breakthrough mRNA technology harnessed for its Covid jab.

The US pharmaceutical giant has recruited 56 volunteers who do not have HIV to test its jab.

The first participants were dosed up at George Washington University last month, officials revealed.

There is currently no cure for HIV, which affects approximately 100,000 Britons and 1.2million Americans. Although there are prevention drugs, they need to be taken daily.

Having a one-time shot that offers lifetime protection could be a breakthrough for the disease that has claimed millions of lives.

Moderna has recruited 56 Americans aged 18 to 50 who do not have HIV to test its vaccine, with the first volunteers receiving the injection at George Washington University last month. The HIV jab uses the same mRNA technology used it the pharmaceutical giant's Covid injection

WHAT IS HIV? HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that damages the cells in your immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections and disease. AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged by the HIV virus. While AIDS cannot be transmitted from 1 person to another, the HIV virus can. There's currently no cure for HIV, but there are very effective drug treatments that enable most people with the virus to live a long and healthy life. With an early diagnosis and effective treatments, most people with HIV will not develop any AIDS-related illnesses and will live a near-normal lifespan. Source: NHS Advertisement

Moderna is testing two different jabs that are expected to give instructions to the body's cells to produce a protein that is found on the surface of HIV particles.

This should train the immune system to recognise that protein and develop neutralising antibodies that protect against a range of different HIV strains.

Professor David Diemert, an immunologist at George Washington University, said: 'The Covid pandemic really demonstrated the success of mRNA vaccines.

'And so the path from discussing its application for HIV to a Phase I clinical trial happened at an accelerated pace.

'With these new mRNA vaccines, we're on the cutting edge of innovative vaccine strategies for HIV.'

Moderna is also developing an mRNA vaccine for seasonal flu, as well as a combined annual Covid and flu booster jab.

Despite 40 years of research since HIV was first identified, a vaccine has been elusive.

But scientists around the world, including at Oxford University, are trialling jabs in the hopes of preventing infection and curing the disease.

Moderna's trial, which it is running in partnership with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), will determine if its vaccine triggers neutralising antibodies.

This immune response is 'widely considered to be a goal of HIV vaccination and this is the first step in that process', Moderna said.

Dr Mark Feinberg, head of IAVI, said the search for a HIV vaccine 'has been long and challenging'.

He added that new tools, such as Moderna's mRNA technology 'could be the key to making rapid progress toward an urgently needed' jab.

Results from IAVI's trial of one mRNA vaccine  called mRNA-1644  last year found that the jab triggered an antibody response in 97 per cent of participants.

And lab tests have found antibodies can neutralise a broad range of HIV variants and protect against infection, Moderna said.

The latest trial will test the effectiveness of this jab again and whether a booster jab  called mRNA-1644v2-Core  strengthens the immune response.

A total of 48 participants will receive one or two doses of the mRNA-1644 vaccine, with 32 people from this group also receiving the booster jab.

Another eight participants will receive a booster jab alone.

Scientists will monitor the group for six months to measure their immune response, HIV status and vaccine safety.
Accidental drug overdoses may have cost America's young generations lost over a million years worth of life during a five year period from 2015 to 2019, a new study finds.

Researchers from Ohio State University, in Columbus, gathered data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to find the number of years of life lost from children and teens aged ten to 19 who died of an accidental drug overdose.

By comparing age of death to the average life expectancy, they found the age group suffered 200,000 lost years of life. When the study age was extended to 24 years old, they found a total of 1.2 million years of life lost.

Drug overdoses have become a massive problem for health officials in the U.S., and this study does not account for a period of time during the Covid pandemic where record overdose deaths were recorded. It appears that crisis is affecting the nations youth as well.

Researchers found that 1.2 million years of life were lost from accidental drug overdoses among Americans ten to 19 years old from 2015 to 2019. Around 200,000 of those lives were lost among people ten to 19 alone

'Our findings represent an unacceptable preventable mortality burden for adolescents and young people in the U.S.' researchers wrote in the study, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.

In total, 3,296 people between ages ten and 19 died from an accidental overdose from 2015 to 2019, with the figure jumping to 21,689 for ages ten to 24.

Using 2017 Social Security Administration data, researchers estimated how long each of these children would have lived on average had they not overdosed.

The figures were them combined, giving a harrowing looks as to how much life was extinguished.

'Prior research has identified polysubstance use, psychiatric comorbidity, and unstable housing as relevant risk factors for unintentional drug overdose in this age cohort,' researchers wrote.

The pandemic exacerbated these factors for the young as well. With the pandemic brought on a surge of people suffering from depression and anxiety caused by the uncertainty and disruptions to every day life that came with Covid, and coping with a mass casualty even that has killed over 800,000 people.

Children and teens in particular have reported to have been effected by schools closures and sudden social isolation.

These mental health issues affected everyone, and combined with the disruption of treatment for drug addictions due to Covid, overall overdose deaths, among all age groups, ended up surging during the pandemic.

From April 2020 to April 2021, the U.S. recorded a record of 100,306 drug overdoses, with more than 75 percent being attributed to opioids. It is the first ever 12 month span where the U.S. recorded more than 100,000 overdose deaths.

More than 100,000 Americans died from an overdose from April 2020 to April 2021, the most ever recorded in a 12 month span, as the pandemic exacerbated the nation's drug abuse issues (file photo)

While data from this study does not include the pandemic, it is possible the figure would be higher if the study included 2020 and 2021.

The research team writes that health officials should do more to prevent drug abuse in the U.S. and curb the crisis.

'Our findings suggest that further resources are needed to mitigate these factors,' they wrote.

'The present study should inform future mortality reviews among adolescents and young people, as well as ecologic interventions involving family, school, and community, in unintentional drug overdose prevention and substance use treatment.'
Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, have officially submitted data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to have its vaccine authorized for use in children aged six months to four years old.

The company announced the move on Tuesday afternoon, following reports earlier in the day that the regulatory agency was urging them to submit an application soon.

Despite the push from regulators to expand eligibility for the shots to include young children, the controversial move would make the U.S. the only nation to jab children under one years old for Covid.

It would also make the U.S. the world's lone nation to approve the Pfizer vaccine for children under five. Some doubt the shot is needed for people that young due to the little risk they face from the virus.

Pfizer has submitted data to the FDA in a bid to get its Covid vaccine authorized for children aged six months old to five. If approved, the U.S. will be the only country in the world vaccinating children under the age of two for COVID-19 (file photo)

Some experts doubt whether the shot is needed in children under the age of five due to the little risk they face when they catch the virus, and the fact that people who are vaccinated can still catch and transmit the virus anyways. Pictured: A child in Southfield, Michigan, receives a shot of a COVID-19 vaccine

The vaccine regimen for young children will include two doses of three micrograms each. For comparison, the jab for people 12 and older is 30 micrograms, and the shot for kids five to 11 is 10 micrograms.

A third dose was added for younger children in December, when early clinical trial results showed that kids aged three and four were showing little immune response to just the two doses.

This initial application filed by the New York City-based company only includes the first two shots, with the third expected to be submitted later.

'Data on a third dose given at least 8 weeks after completion of the second dose are expected in the coming months and will be submitted to the FDA to support a potential expansion of this requested [authorization],' the company wrote in a statement.

'Ultimately, we believe that three doses of the vaccine will be needed for children 6 months through 4 years of age to achieve high levels of protection against current and potential future variants,' Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said.

'If two doses are authorized, parents will have the opportunity to begin a COVID-19 vaccination series for their children while awaiting potential authorization of a third dose.'

Dr Cody Meissner (pictured), the chief of pediatrics at Tufts Children's Hospital and member of VRBPAC, is unsure whether the virus poses enough of a risk to young children that it is necessary to vaccinate them

Trials included 4,500 children aged six months old to five, nearly a tenth the size of the 43,000 participant trial used for the company's bid to have the shot initially authorized for adults in late-2020.

Not all experts agree the shot is necessary, though.

Dr Cody Meissner, the chief of pediatrics at Tufts Children's Hospital in Boston and a member of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), doubted whether the vaccine is needed for group which already suffers such low risk of hospitalization or death from Covid.

'I think we're rethinking the way we looked at this question, because even though people are appropriately vaccinated they are still able to become infected and transmit the virus to susceptible people around them,' Meissner told DailyMail.com.

'So this is a little bit different than many other infectious diseases such as measles, or mumps, or rubella. If you're protected from infection with the vaccine, then you're not going to transmit it to other people.'

'But that's not the same setting with [this virus].'

The VRBPAC is a committee made up of outside experts that advises the FDA on decisions such as vaccine approval.

He noted that deaths among young children from Covid have remained very low. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), young children make up less than 0.1 percent of Covid deaths in America.

A study from last year performed by researchers at the University of Utah found that 50 percent of youth Covid cases are asymptomatic - and that was before the more mild Omicron variant emerged.

The move would make the U.S. the country with the youngest minimum vaccination age.

Only two other nations, Venezuela and Cuba, jab children as young as two, and four others - Bahrain, China, Chile and the United Arab Emirates - jab kids as young as three.

None of the countries use the Pfizer vaccine on children, with all opting for either China's Sinopharm shot or the Cuban Soberena vaccine.

Meissner says he would agree with use of the vaccines in younger children if it was done the way that countries like the UK and Sweden approved the shots for the five to 11 age group.

In those countries, an average, healthy, child is not eligible for the shot. If they have a condition that puts them at serious risk from the virus, though, then they are allowed to get it as an extra level of protection.

Outside of children with serious comorbidities, he does not think there is a basis to approve the jab in the younger age group, and he especially fears green-lighting the shot will open the door for preschools and other facilities to institute vaccine mandates for young kids.

'If people are really going to follow the facts, and follow the science, which everybody claims they're doing ... they come to the opposite conclusion,' he said.

'The burden of disease in children under five years of age is so low.'

He compared the situation to young children wearing masks in U.S. schools despite there being little evidence for their need.

Meissner said that, more than anything, he does not want their to be any 'surprises' in how the shot can effect children - similar to how officials were blindsided by the discovery that the J&J vaccine causes blood clots in some young women.

Myocarditis, heart inflammation, has been a concern for younger, male, recipients of these mRNA vaccines like Pfizer's and Moderna's as well.

'We don't have any experience with these [mRNA] vaccines in young children ... I'm very hopeful that they will turn out to be equally safe and equally effective [as they were for adults], but we don't know that,' he said.
Mark Carney has added to the roster of jobs he has taken on since stepping down as Bank of England governor in 2020.

The 56-year-old Canadian economist will be a senior counsellor at consultancy firm Macro Advisory Partners.

He will advise clients on issues such as cryptocurrencies, the post-pandemic economy and the outlook for global trade, the group said.

In demand: Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney will be a senior counsellor at consultancy firm Macro Advisory Partners

The British-American consultancy has worked with firms including Apple, Glaxosmithkline, Bank of America, Mastercard and PwC.

Carney has taken up a series of roles since his tenure at the Bank ended.

He is the United Nations special envoy on climate action and finance  a job tasking him with persuading banks and investors to stump up billions to tackle global warming.

On his Linkedin profile he is listed as vice chairman at Brookfield Asset Management, a board member at fintech firm Stripe, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Pimco and the World Economic Forum.

Carney, who was governor at the Bank from 2013 to 2020, served as Boris Johnsons finance adviser for the Cop 26 climate change summit last year.
BAE Systems is on the hunt for space companies as it races to bolster its satellite communications work.

The FTSE 100 defence giant is looking at bolt-on takeovers as it develops cutting-edge programmes such as the Tempest project to design the next generation of fighter jets.

Air combat is becoming increasingly reliant on space technology and communications.

Future air combat: BAE Systems is looking at bolt-on takeovers as it develops cutting-edge programmes such as the Tempest project to design the next generation of fighter jets

An industry source said: BAE has been sniffing around and looking at space companies that could further its military work, not commercial.

BAE exited some work in this area previously but now knows that for future combat aircraft such as the Tempest programme  there is a heavy reliance on space for communications.

The source added: I think theyre looking at small, niche companies for now, possibly university spin-offs.

Its about having the knowledge of how to manage communications and other capabilities with satellites which means they wont have to be reliant on someone else.

BAE bought In-Space Missions, a small British satellite company, for around 13million last year.

The most recent government survey of the UK space industry found more than 45,000 people were working in the 16.4billion sector.

Mark Boggett, chief executive at space investment group Seraphim Capital, said there is a rich crop of home-grown firms that are becoming targets for both British and overseas buyers.

Boggett said: I believe theres a large number of UK companies that will be caught up in a wider consolidation.

A recent report by Oxford Economics found that BAE generated more than 10billion for UK GDP in 2020, equivalent to 0.5 per cent of the entire British economy.

A spokesman for the group said: We dont comment on speculation. We continue to consider investments in value-enhancing acquisitions.
Cleo Smith's mother has revealed her daughter's first words after she was reunited with her parents after her horrifying 18-day kidnapping nightmare - 'Hi, mummy'.

The four-year-old made global headlines late last year when Western Australian Police found her in a house at Carnarvon, 900km north of Perth, more than two weeks after she disappeared from a camping ground.

Footage of a detective carrying her out of the home to safety along with audio of the little girl telling officers 'my name is Cleo' rapidly went viral as the world rejoiced over her miraculous rescue.

Shortly after being recovered, officers took the four-year-old back to her distressed mother Ellie Smith and stepfather Jake Gliddon.

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Cleo Smith's mother Ellie (pictured) has revealed her daughter's first words when the pair were reunited following the four-year-old's 18-day kidnapping ordeal

Cleo (pictured) made global headlines late last year when Western Australian police found her in a house at Carnarvon, 900km north of Perth, 18 days after she disappeared from a camping ground

Despite her terrifying ordeal, the toddler was upbeat - and very excited to see her parents.

'[She said] "Hi mummy!''' Ms Smith said.

Mimicking her daughter's enthusiasm, Ms Smith said 'Hi baby!' back.

Details about the emotional reunion were revealed in a preview of a 60 Minutes segment that will air on Sunday as Ms Smith and Mr Gliddon share their family's story for the first time.

Channel Nine reportedly offered the pair a $2million contract for the exclusive tell-all interview, which is believed to be an Australian television record. The deal is also believed to include a Stan mini-series or documentary and stories across their websites and newspapers.

In another snippet of the program, Ms Smith tells seasoned reporter Tara Brown she felt 'powerless' after waking to find her eldest daughter missing from her tent.

'I had to hope that she was close to me, but she wasn't,' Ms Smith said.

'It was just nightmare after nightmare.'

The sensational interview is expected to recount the toddler's disappearance and the successful search efforts and investigation that led to her recovery on November 3.

While her parents will relay their hellish experience, Cleo is not expected to front the cameras, according to the West Australian.

The four-year-old Carnarvon girl's disappearance and recovery made global headlines as people around the world celebrated her miraculous rescue (pictured)

The deal is the highest amount paid for a television interview since Channel Nine paid Beaconsfield mine disaster survivors Brant Webb and Todd Russell $1million each in 2006 to recall their two weeks trapped in the underground mine.

Ms Smith and Mr Gliddon's decision to speak has sparked controversy, with WA Police - who are still in the process of prosecuting Cleo's abductor Terence Kelly - describing the TV special as 'highly inappropriate'.

It is understood police will not be providing any information to 60 Minutes or taking part.

Several officers close to the investigation told the publication the timing of the mini series is 'highly inappropriate for any episode to be airing prior to completion of the judicial process'.

The episodes are also set to be aired on streaming service Stan while the case remains before the court.

One source told the Western Australia it was 'almost contempt of court' for the program to air.

Cleo Smith (pictured recovering after her 18-day ordeal) is not expected to feature in the interview

The deal has also caused a stir within the ranks at Nine after WA-based reporters were denied the chance of sitting down with the family, in favour of Brown.

Due to the state's border closures, Brown, who lives in Sydney, was unable to travel to Western Australia and was forced to conduct the interview over video calls.

The cost of the segment, which is reportedly a quarter of 60 Minutes' annual budget, further stoked outrage after the network recently underwent budget cuts.

The four-year-old's story captured hearts around the world who braced for the worst outcome and celebrated when she was extraordinarily found.

Bids for the sensational story began almost immediately after Cleo was found, with nine beating Channel Seven's Spotlight program to secure the deal.

Cleo was holidaying with family on October 16 at the Blowholes campsite, about 80km north of Carnarvon, when she vanished from her tent.

She had woken about 1.30am and asked for water but when her parents got up at 6am the little girl was gone.

Mother Ellie Smith and stepfather Jake Gliddon pictured appealing for information during a press conference while the four-year old was missing

An land, air and sea search failed to find any trace of Cleo. Five days after she went missing police announced they believed Cleo had been abducted and offered a $1million reward.

Cleo quickly became perhaps the most recognisable four-year-old in Australia and within two weeks her smiling face would become famous around the world.

On November 3 police found Cleo alive and well inside a locked house at Carnarvon just minutes from her family home.

Her abductor Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, who was not known to Cleo's family, pleaded guilty to a single charge of child stealing on January 24.

The case will now be adjourned to the Perth District Court on March 20, where he will eventually be sentenced but ultimately avoid a criminal trial.

Kelly is yet to enter a plea to other charges.

My Name Is Cleo will premiere on February 6 at 8.30pm on Channel Nine and 9Now.
Boris Johnson's Global Britain foreign policy has forced military chiefs to scrap equipment programmes worth 2billion - enough to build two new Royal Navy warships - MailOnline can reveal.

The Prime Minister signalled a post-Brexit change in policy in March last year with a huge shift in emphasis from conventional forces to cutting edge warfare, with investment in space and laser weapons.

He also raised the limit on the number of nuclear warheads from 180 to 260 in the face of increasingly belligerent activity by Chin and Russia in the integrated review of security, defence, and foreign policy.

But as Mr Johnson visits Ukraine amid a show of materiel support for Kyiv as Vladimir Putin threatens an invasion, a report shows how huge sums appear to have been written off.

The Ministry of Defence's annual review for 2021 shows that 'earlier retirement of assets cost more than 1.4 billion. Additionally, cancelling procurement programmes for equipment no longer required cost 545million.

The combined loss of almost 2billion would be enough to pay for two Daring Class Type 45 destroyers at 1billion a time.

The MoD said the figures were 'accounting adjustments' and highlighted increased military spending announced in the review.

But shadow defence secretary John Healey said: 'The MoD is a uniquely failing department, yet ministers have taken no serious steps to secure value for taxpayers' money since the last annual reports.

'This scale of waste is unacceptable. Ministers are failing British Forces and British taxpayers.'

The Prime Minister (pictured in Ukraine today) signalled a post-Brexit change in policy in March last year with a huge shift in emphasis from conventional forces to cutting edge warfare, with investment in space and laser weapons.

The Ministry of Defence's annual review for 2021 shows that 'earlier retirement of assets cost more than 1.4 billion. Additionally, cancelling procurement programmes for equipment no longer required cost 545million.

The combined loss of almost 2billion would be enough to pay for two Daring Class Type 45 destroyers at 1billion a time (HMS Daring pictured)

Shadow defence secretary John Healey said: 'The MoD is a uniquely failing department, yet Ministers have taken no serious steps to secure value for taxpayers' money since the last annual reports'

The 100-page Integrated Review set out the Government's view of Britain's place in the world after Brexit.

It declared: 'We will move from defending the status quo within the post-Cold War international system to dynamically shaping the post-Covid order.'

There will be a 24billion rise in spending on defence as the UK moves into the 'new frontiers' of space and cyber-warfare.

The review also paved the way for cuts to conventional forces, with the RAF set to lose 24 Typhoon jets and its 14 Super Hercules transport planes.

The Royal Navy is said to be facing the loss of two submarine-hunting frigates, HMS Montrose and HMS Monmouth, as well as its 13 minehunters, which are due to be replaced by drones.

And British Army commanders are expected to have to say goodbye to 10,000 personnel, four infantry battalions, 77 tanks and 760 Warrior fighting vehicles.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: 'An additional 24 billion is being invested to ensure our Armed Forces have the equipment they need to meet the threats of the future.

'These write-offs do not represent actual cash losses but accounting adjustments. We take tough decisions to replace old equipment and halt programmes that no longer fit requirements.'

The Ministry of Defence was last month accused of blowing 13billion of taxpayers money over the past decade on a litany of delayed or scrapped programmes.

A wide-ranging 'dossier of waste' compiled by Labour claims that the cash was blown on cancelled contracts, projects that went over-budget and investments in programs that later had to be written off.

The opposition claims that the amount wasted since current Defence Secretary Ben Wallace took over in 2019 is 4billion, enough to build four new Type 45 destroyers for the Royal Navy.

Among the cash spent was 5.7million on earplugs for personnel later found to be unsuitable for use on military operations.

It comes at a time when the MoD has complained of a funding black hole of up to 17.4 billion, with cuts to the British Army's manpower and tank forces.
The subvariant of Omicron rapidly spreading in the UK is a third more infectious than its ancestor strain, real-world data shows.

A study in Denmark, where BA.2 is already dominant, found people infected with the sub-strain are 33 per cent more likely to pass it to others than those with Omicron.

The analysis of 18,000 people also found BA.2 is also better at infecting vaccinated and booster-dosed people than its parent strain (BA.1).

But, crucially, there was no extra risk of being hospitalised compared to the original Omicron, which was already intrinsically weaker than past variants.

The findings explain why BA.2 has started to outcompete Omicron in the UK  accounting for one in 30 cases last week  and is seeing rises across the continent.

Since the arrival of Omicron, seen as a turning point in the pandemic because it is highly infectious but very mild, experts have claimed the virus will likely continue to evolve to become incrementally more transmissible, but less severe.

Denmark has been Europe's BA.2 epicentre, where the subvariant outstripped the original Omicron strain in a matter of weeks in January and accounts for 82 per cent of all infections.

The sub-strain is seeing more gradual rises in other countries. Despite the huge increase in cases, Denmark deemed the strain such a non-threat it ended all Covid restrictions today.

Death rates in Denmark have remained low, below that in Italy, France, Portugal and the UK  despite having the highest case rate of any major European nation.

BA.2  which evolved from the original BA.1 Omicron strain that is currently dominant in the UK  has quickly taken over in Denmark, which has second highest case rates in Europe currently, behind the Faroe Islands. Graph shows: The cases per million people in Denmark, Portugal, France, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK

Death rates in Denmark have remained low, below Italy, France, Portugal and the UK despite having the second highest case rate in Europe, behind the Faroe Islands

Denmark scraps most Covid restrictions Denmark today became one of the first European Union countries to scrap most pandemic restrictions as the Scandinavian country no longer considers the Covid outbreak 'a socially critical disease.' The reason for that is that while the omicron variant is surging in Denmark, it's not placing a heavy burden on the health system and the country has a high vaccination rate, officials have said. Denmark, a nation of 5.8 million, has in recent weeks seen more than 50,000 daily cases on average while the number of people in hospital intensive care units has dropped. The head of the Danish Health Authority, Sren Brostrm, told Danish broadcaster TV2 that his attention was on the number of people in ICUs, rather than on the number of infections. He said that number had 'fallen and fallen and is incredibly low.' He said 32 of the coronavirus patients are in ICUs. Several weeks ago, it was up at 80. The most visible restriction disappearing is the wearing of face masks, which are no longer mandatory on public transportation, shops and for standing clients in restaurant indoor areas. Authorities only recommend mask use in hospitals, health care facilities and nursing homes. Another restriction that no longer is required is the digital pass used to enter nightclubs, cafes, party buses and to be seated indoors in restaurants. Advertisement

Experts from Copenhagen University, Technical University of Denmark and Statens Serum Institut (SSI) looked at 8,000 households between December and January as part of the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

They found a 39 per cent chance of transmitting the virus to someone else in their household within a week, compared to a 29 per cent risk with BA.1.

This, the researchers said, amounted to a third higher risk of infection from the new subvariant.

They concluded BA.2 is 'inherently substantially more transmissible' and its immune evasion could 'further reduce the protective effect of vaccination'. Jabs are still expected to hold up against severe disease.

The finding is significantly lower than the estimate given by the SSI over the weekend, when it said BA.2 could be one-and-a-half times more infectious than BA.1.

The study also showed that BA.2 was relatively better than BA.1 at infecting vaccinated and booster-vaccinated people, indicating greater 'immune evasive properties' of the subvariant.

But vaccines still played an important role, the study underlined, since both booster-vaccinated and fully vaccinated individuals were less like to get infected and transmit either subvariants, compared to those not vaccinated.

Denmark has the second highest case rate in Europe, with 748 per 100,000 people in the country testing positive yesterday.

It is only behind the Faroe Islands (1,386 per 100,000)  a a self-governing archipelago of the Danish Kingdom  and was above France (497), Germany (183) and the UK (128).

But its death rate has continued to remain low, with 0.3 people per 100,000 dying with the virus yesterday, up just over a third in a week.

The rate was lower than France and the UK, which both saw 0.4 victims per 100,000 people.

Denmark's health officials remain unconcerned by the country's high case rate, today becoming one of the first European Union countries to scrap most pandemic restrictions

The Scandinavian country no longer considers the Covid outbreak 'a socially critical disease', officials said.

People are no long required to wear face masks in shops, restaurants or on public transport.

Social distancing measures and limits on the number of people allowed at indoor gatherings have also been dropped.

The highly infectious BA.2 variant (orange) already makes up 3.4 per cent of all new Covid infections in England, official data showed today. Graph shows: The proportion of all Covid cases made up by different variants over time

Graph shows: The rate at which BA.2 (yellow dashed line) has grown compared to Omicron (green line) since the fifth case of either variant was found

BA.2 had an increased growth rate compared to BA.1 in all regions of England, the UKHSA said. The growth advantage of the new variant is 'substantial', the health agency claimed. Graph shows: BA.2 growth in different regions in England up to January 17

The study also confirms preliminary analysis from England, which showed BA.2 appears to have a substantial growth advantage over the original Omicron.

The UK Health Security Agency found that 3.4 per cent of all UK cases were BA.2 in the week up to January 16 - the most recent date - with the rest mostly its parent strain.

But experts have warned people not to become panicked by the strain's apparent higher transmissibility, arguing it should have little impact on Britain's trajectory out of the pandemic.

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, previously told MailOnline: 'As far as I can discover there is currently no evidence that BA.2 causes any more severe disease than the other Omicron variants, though it is early days.

'As far as I can judge the consensus is that BA.2 will become the dominant variant sometime in the next month or two though the clinical significance is not going to be that different from other omicron variants.

'So I don't think it changes anything too much, though it will provide a bit of a bump in the round back to normality.

'I don't think this will lead to a substantial difference to our current threat estimates but as I say still early days.'

Unlike the original Omicron, BA.2 infections can only be confirmed through lab analysis rather than a PCR, which has made tracking its spread more difficult and seen it nicknamed a 'stealth' variant.

But its rapid spread means it still stands out from other lineages that don't carry an 'S gene deletion', which acted as a proxy for spotting the original version of Omicron.
Last year a network of corrupt officials was uncovered many of them with access to government databases of personal records of all Belgian citizens

They offer customs officers 50k-80k a time to hide containers carrying drugs cargos or swap them for legitimate ones before seizures are made

Law enforcement officials and port workers have been targeted by gangs with huge sums of money in return for allowing drugs containers through

Chief prosecutor Franky De Keyzer likened the war on drug gangs to being 'a cat-and-mouse game' where criminals battle to stay a step ahead of the law

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An Albanian gangster with a fake British passport was shot dead outside his Antwerp home amid a bloody war for control of the Belgian city's lucrative drug trade, which has seen it become Europe's cocaine capital.

Beldar Muca, was shot six times as he returned to his flat on Saturday night, just yards from a police station, by two hit men who are still on the run with authorities claiming that it bore all the hallmarks of a contract killing.

Muca, 39, captured on CCTV in 2016 using a handgun to shoot at police, had been in Antwerp for the past two years operating as a key member of an Albanian drugs gang in the port city which has emerged as the epicentre for cocaine smuggled into Britain and the rest of Europe from South America.

Traditionally known for its diamond trading, Antwerp is being overrun by Albanian gangsters with the city's streets awash with cash as the police fight a losing battle to stop the drugs cartels.

Albanian gangster Beldar Muca (pictured on CCTV shooting at police in his native Albania in 2016) was shot six times on Saturday night as he made his way home in Antwerp, Brussels

Muca (left), a career criminal who carried a fake British passport, was executed close to a police station by two hit men who are still on the run with authorities claiming that it bore all the hallmarks of a contract killing. A poster was put up near the sport where he was murdered (right) appealing for witnesses to come forward to police

Muca (above) was as a key member of an Albanian drugs gang in the city which has emerged as the epicentre for cocaine smuggled into Britain and the rest of Europe from South America

Police in Antwerp appear powerless to stop drugs gangs who have their tentacles of influence and money spread right across the city trying to corrupt and influence public officials

The money generated from the multi-billion pound cocaine industry has corrupted those in powerful positions with a wide range of public officials arrested.

The latest round of arrests included a chief inspector accused of feeding information to criminal gangs and even a hospital administrator suspected of looking up addresses for dock workers who could be bribed with corrupt payments.

Gangsters like Muca target those in positions of power by delving into every aspect of their lives, whether they are in debt and if they have every missed a mortgage payment who may be weak or vulnerable to offers of cash.

Muca's assassination on Antwerp's lawless streets shines a light on the city's cocaine trafficking problem, which has been described as a 'tsunami' that has blighted it with endemic corruption and violence as drugs money is used to 'buy' police, customs officials and port workers to enable the illegal trade to flourish.

Last year saw a record 90 tonnes of cocaine worth 13 billion Euros being found at Antwerp's sprawling port but the seizures, which are the highest in Europe are thought to account for only ten per cent of the cocaine smuggled through the city.

Violence has exploded in the city with grenade attacks and drive-by shootings, but local officials claim that of greater concern is the way the influx of cocaine cash has impacted the city.

Bart De Wever, Antwerp's mayor protested that wealthy businesspeople backed by drugs money, were seeking to infiltrate and influence Antwerp's politics.

One law official described how 'pitta and barber shops sit empty' but on paper, register huge profits while property prices in Antwerp are also rising because of money from the drugs trade, pricing out legitimate customers.

Last year, Mr De Wever was placed under 24/7 police protection following claims that drugs gangs wanted to assassinate him.

He told MailOnline: 'Antwerp is the first port of call for European trade with America. We are proud of this strong trade relationship, which creates close ties between our city and Latin America. In recent years, however, cocaine traffic has increased exponentially. The consequences of this are very tangible, especially for port cities.'

He added: 'And unfortunately, source countries like Colombia suffer the consequences as well. The impact of organised crime and criminal money is undermining the fabric of our society.'

The city is awash with drugs imported from South America and transported across Europe. This is the moment customs discovered a stash of cocaine, part of 90 tonnes found last year

Customs officers are being bribed between 50,000 to 80,000 per shipment to turn a blind eye to containers filled with drugs or to swap them for legitimate ones before seizures are made

Antwerp is spread over 47 square miles and has emerged as the epicentre of Europes trade in cocaine partly because it has long been a gateway port for goods imported into Europe from South America

Antwerp - spread over 47 square miles - has emerged as the epicentre of Europes trade in cocaine partly because it has long been a gateway port for goods imported into Europe from South America.

Its existing shipping links meant that Columbian drug cartels increasingly decided to use it as an global hub to import cocaine destined for lucrative markets in Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

The increase in supply is also meeting the growing demand for cocaine in Europe where it is increasingly seen as being more socially acceptable.

Crackdowns on drug barons in the US where the demand for cocaine flourished from the 1980s have also led to cartels seeking out new markets.

The well honed operations of gangsters able to corrupt workers and officials to help move cocaine out of Antwerp, has made the city even more attractive to the cartels.

Its convenient position, next to the Netherlands where much of the imported cocaine is cut and packaged before onward, distribution, is also a factor.

Much of the port area is criss-crossed by roads which are open to the public, making it easier for drug gangs to try and recruit workers as they head to and from work.

Kristian Vanderwaeran, Director General of Belgium's Customs said international gangs were spending 'huge sums' on trying to plant informants and corrupting local politics, despite the record cocaine seizures

MailOnline spent nearly two hours driving around the port last week, stopping to examine giant mountains of shipping containers, without being challenged once.

Sources revealed that workers have received approaches in the past at the De Bus cafe which is in the heart of the port and is built around the carcass of a traditional red British bus, with a destination sign for East Grinstead.

Law enforcement officials and workers at Antwerp's port have been targeted by drugs gangs with huge sums of money in return for providing information or allowing containers laden with tonnes of cocaine to go through.

According to sources at the port spoken to by MailOnline, traffickers offer anything between 50,000 to 80,000 a time.

Some crane operators are thought to have been illicitly paid thousands of Euros to hide containers carrying cargos of the drug or swap those containing cocaine for legitimate ones before seizures are made.

Customs officers describe a favourite 'Trojan horse' style tactic where smugglers hide for days in containers stored on the docks before emerging to pick up cocaine, with port staff helping them.

The problem has become so severe that CEPA, the association for Antwerp port employees released a video about the dangers of its members being approached and offered bribes.

The animated video warns staff to avoid wearing clothing which could identify them as being port workers when they are outside work, and to avoid talking about their jobs in places like bars and restaurants. It also tells them to be aware of people trying to strike up conversations with them and submitting friend requests from fake social media profiles.

Last year, following a series of raids as part of Operation Sky, one of Belgium's biggest anti-drugs operations, a network of corrupt officials was uncovered many of them with access to government databases of personal records of all Belgian citizens.

Antwerp is known for its diamond stores (above) but money laundering businesses are popping up, 'pitta and barber shops' that sit empty, but on paper register huge profits

Sources revealed that workers have received approaches in the past at the De Bus cafe (pictured) which is in the heart of the port and is built around the carcass of a traditional red British bus, with a destination sign for East Grinstead

Others arrested included dock workers such as crane operators, stevedores and those involved in shipping administration.

More than 200 homes were raided simultaneously across Belgium with 48 suspects arrested including three lawyers in Antwerp and civil servants. Huge amounts of cash, diamonds, jewellery, luxury cars and guns as well as fake police uniforms were also seized.

Those detained included customs officers with security clearances allowing them to see which containers at the port had been identified as potentially carrying cocaine.

Some were said to be infiltrators who were among the 341 extra customs officers taken on as a result of the increased controls needed after Brexit. It was alleged at the time that officers had received money for tip offs, which enabled containers to be swapped with legitimate ones before seizures were made.

One of the most high-profile arrests was that of a chief inspector in the Belgian police, known only as 'Dario L' due to Belgium's strict privacy laws, a 30-year-old bodybuilder, who was accused of supplying information from police databases to an associate who then passed it on to drug gangs. He and his associate 'Alain D.R.' have been charged with participation in a criminal organisation, corruption and violation of professional secrecy.

Ten workers from shipping firms, as well as forwarding and security companies at the port were also arrested after messages were analysed showing they were working with drugs criminals. One female port worker - a 28-year-old member of staff at shipping firm MSC known only as 'P.C.' was accused of passing information to gangsters linked to the trafficking of 1.3 tonnes of cocaine.

Among those also arrested was 'Natalie D', 41, an official in Belgium's tax office and 'Femke G', a hospital administrator who was used by drugs gangs to look up addresses of dock workers so that they could be visited and offered corrupt payments or threatened if they did not co-operate.

Last year, following a series of raids one of Belgium's biggest anti-drugs operations, a network of corrupt officials was uncovered. Among those arrested included a female port worker (above) - a 28-year-old member of staff at shipping firm MSC known only as 'P.C.' who was accused of passing information to gangsters linked to the trafficking of 1.3 tonnes of cocaine

Also arrested was a hospital administrator called 'Femke G' (above) who was allegedly used by drugs gangs to look up dock workers' addresses so that they could be visited and offered corrupt payments or threatened if they did not co-operate

The most high-profile arrest was that of a chief inspector in the Belgian police, called 'Dario L' (above) 30, a bodybuilder, who was accused of supplying information from police databases to an associate who then passed it on to drug gangs

Prosecutors are demanding that the 24-year-old receives an 18 month jail term, despite her claims that she was not a member of a criminal organisation.

One said during a court hearing: 'Looking up an address seems harmless, but one has to realise that you cause a lot of misery to innocents.'

Kristian Vanderwaeran, the Director General of Belgium's Customs said international gangs were spending 'huge sums' on trying to plant informants and corrupting local politics, despite the record cocaine seizures.

He said earlier this month: 'They look to the weak, the poorest ones, ones who have problems privately, those who are spending too much money.'

Nordin El Hajjioui, 34, is suspected of being a major player in Antwerp's drugs industry

Antwerp's chief prosecutor Franky De Keyzer likened the war on drug gangs to being 'a cat-and-mouse game' where criminals battle to stay a step ahead of the law.

One suspected big player in Antwerp's drug scene is Nordin El Hajjioui, 34, who was born in the city and now lives in Dubai where he has so far managed to resist efforts to deport him back to Belgium.

Known as 'Dikke Nordin' or 'Fat Nordin', he has an Interpol red notice against him which states he is wanted for weapons and drugs offences, and participation in a criminal organisation 'as a leading person'.

Joris Van Der Aa who reports on Antwerp's drug trade as a journalist and columnist on Gazaet Van Antwerpen, told MailOnline that traffickers were always on the lookout for workers and people in law enforcement who were poor, in debt or had other vulnerabilities.

He said: 'They will turn up at bars in the port to talk to workers, but they also use Facebook and Instagram to recruit. And some groups just use violence to force you to co-operate.

'They need someone who can locate a container at the terminal. You need a crane chauffeur who can place your South American container next to an EU container which is also owned by the criminals. Then they can switch the coke between the containers. The EU containers are never searched because they don't cross borders.'

He added: 'Our prisons are filled with crane chauffeurs and stevedores who were corrupted by the coke mafia. Port workers are arrested almost every week.'

Johan Vermant, a spokesperson for Antwerp's ruling Cabinet, told MailOnline: 'Infiltration within the public sector and private companies, like shipping and port companies, come with the amounts of criminal cash that accompany the drug traffic and the influence of organised crime. It's the well known story of intimidation and corruption whereby key figures are threatened or bribed  and often a combination of the two.'

Known as 'Dikke Nordin' or 'Fat Nordin', El Hajjioui, he was born in Antwerp and lives in Dubai. An Interpol red notice against him which states he is wanted for weapons and drugs offences

He added: 'We have seen arrests in private companies, customs and police services, the judicial and administrative departments, and legal services like lawyers. The infiltration is cause for concern, which is why we have been asking for increased awareness about the issue for years.'

The bulk of the cocaine being shipped into Antwerp is believed to be from Colombia where drug cartels have targeted Europe as their 'primary destination' as they see now see it as a more lucrative market than the US.

Antwerp has traditionally enjoyed historical trading links with South America, importing a variety of goods from coal and minerals to coffee and orange juice, which makes it easier for cocaine to be hidden within them.

Law enforcement officials claim that the majority of cocaine shipped through Antwerp is then processed in Holland, from where it is distributed across Europe.
Nancy Pelosi's son listed himself as the owner of a flop house tied to a fraud and bribery scheme prosecuted by the FBI, in documents newly unearthed by DailyMail.com.

In the documents, Paul Pelosi Jr. signed statements that he was the property owner, 'the party legally and financially responsible for this proposed construction activity' and agreed to 'abide by all applicable laws and requirements that govern Owner-Builders as well as employers.'

And they even show Pelosi Jr., 53, applying for one of the very same permits that building inspector Bernie Curran and 'permits expeditor' Rodrigo Santos have been indicted for.

The Department of Building Inspection (DBI) form, signed by Pelosi Jr. and dated December 7, 2017, is a 'smoking gun' that evidences the House Speaker's son's close links to the high-profile public corruption criminal case.

Curran and Santos are due in federal court in San Francisco this week.

DailyMail.com revealed last week Paul Pelosi Jr. is involved in an FBI investigation into San Francisco officials. He's pictured with his mother, top Democrat Nancy Pelosi

Now DailyMail.com has obtained smoking gun documents that tie him to the fraud and bribery scheme. In one document, Pelosi signed statements that he was the property owner, 'the party legally and financially responsible for this proposed construction activity'

Prosecutors claim Santos arranged for his clients to donate thousands of dollars to Curran's favorite non-profit - a rugby club - in exchange for him turning a blind eye to violations and which would deny their buildings city permits. One such person, identified only as Client 9 in charging documents wrote a $1,500 check to the club to help remove violations from the squalid residential hotel on Utah Street.

Last week DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Pelosi Jr. was interviewed by feds in San Francisco over the hotel which was owned by his former girlfriend Karena Apple Feng.

There was already some suggestion that he could be the mysterious Client 9. The discovery of the new documents heighten that speculation.

Text messages obtained by the feds allegedly show Santos and Client 9 brazenly discussing a bribe to Curran's favorite charity to help grease the permit process.

'I will forward the address to Curran. He will abate it,' Santos, 63, allegedly wrote to his client in September 2017.

'Please drop off a check payable to Golden Gate Youth [Rugby] Association for $1k. Bernie's nonprofit.'

'With pleasure,' Client 9 replied, and later sent Santos a picture of a $1,500 check with the message: 'made the donation and it is being sent today.'

The check was never deposited by the club, and prosecutors have not accused it of any wrongdoing. It is unclear why Client 9 sent $1,500 rather than the suggested $1,000.

The charging documents describe Client 9 as 'an individual working on behalf of the owners of the property located on the 1300 block of Utah Street'.

There is one permit in the DBI system at that address, signed off by Curran on December 7, 2017  and the application number matches the number Pelosi Jr. wrote on his 'smoking gun' documents obtained by DailyMail.com, dated that same day.

The documents are the latest in a growing pile of evidence suggesting the Speaker's son is Client 9.

Documents show Pelosi Jr., 53, applying for the very same permit that building inspector Bernie Curran and 'permits expeditor' Rodrigo Santos have been indicted for

Court documents reveal a client, identified only as 'Client 9', donated money to encourage Curran to remove violation notices against this squalid Mission District 'hotel' - linked to Pelosi Jr. and his ex-girlfriend

Santos's clients were not named in documents, but Pelosi Jr. was reportedly trying to get permits and remedy code violations for the troubled building at 1312 Utah Street at the time - suggesting that could be the mysterious Client 9

The property was known to have a long history of dangerous permit violations, according to documents

Curran, 61, told DailyMail.com that Santos introduced him to Pelosi Jr. in the Department of Building Inspection offices, telling Curran that Pelosi Jr. was a friend with whom he went jogging.

San Francisco permit expediter Rodrigo Santos (pictured), a former president of the San Francisco Building Inspection Commission, is alleged to have arranged for his clients to donate thousands of dollars to building inspector Bernie Curran's non-profit in exchange for permits. He was indicted for fraud in November

An anonymous building inspector claimed in an interview with San Francisco news site Mission Local that in 2018 Pelosi Jr. met with him several times and was trying to 'get rid of Notices of Violation' on the property at 1312-1314 Utah Street.

Pelosi Jr.'s ex-girlfriend Nicole Bulick, 46, told DailyMail.com that the FBI's interest in his involvement in the troubled Utah Street property began in 2017, and that he was interviewed three times.

Pelosi Jr.'s business associate Naveen Singha, who acted as a consultant for him on the sale of 1312 Utah Street, also said he was interviewed by federal agents about the Speaker's son around May 2019.

And the former owner of the property, Karena Feng, said she was interviewed by the same agents over several months, about 1312 Utah Street and Paul Pelosi Jr.'s involvement.

Emails and subpoenas for records back up their claims.

Earlier this month a DailyMail.com investigation revealed Pelosi Jr., 53, has been linked to five previous federal probes. This ongoing criminal case is the sixth.

As well as tying Pelosi Jr. to an alleged criminal scheme, the December 2017 DBI form also raises serious questions over how he came to own, or own a share of, the multi-million-dollar building.

Feng, who was previously in a romantic relationship with Pelosi Jr., sued him in 2019 claiming he conspired with a now-convicted lawyer and fraudulent realtor to steal the property from her.

Pelosi Jr. and the other defendants denied the claims, Feng's case was dismissed in 2020 on technical grounds, and she has not refiled.

Pelosi Jr. was recorded as the listing agent on a 2015 contract in which Feng sold the property for $4million, though she claimed her signature on it was forged.

He was also listed as chief financial officer of Feng RE Inc, Feng's company which held the flop house, in 2015.

Pelosi Jr. (pictured with ex-girlfriend Karena Feng) was involved in an FBI investigation into an alleged bribery plot by two San Francisco officials who are accused of taking money in exchange for turning a blind eye to violations at a property owned by Feng

Pelosi Jr.'s business associate Naveen Singha, who acted as a consultant for him on the sale of 1312 Utah Street, also said he was interviewed by federal agents about the Speaker's son around May 2019

In an August 2016 email to Feng, Pelosi Jr. claimed that he owned 20 per cent of Feng RE.

But when Mission Local asked him about the property in 2018 he lied, at first denying ever having held any stake in Feng RE.

'It's not my business,' he told the paper. 'I never got paid. I never expected to get paid.'

When confronted with documents showing he had been an officer of the company, he reportedly changed his story to the paper, claiming Feng gifted him 20 per cent equity in the building on his birthday but he refused the offer - contrary to his claims in his August 2016 email to Feng.

When contacted by DailyMail.com for comment, Pelosi Jr. said he had another incoming call and hung up. He has not responded to any written messages.

The alleged bribery over Utah St. permits is one of several bungs that prosecutors claim Santos arranged for Curran to push through permits for his clients at other properties.

Curran and Santos deny wrongdoing. They are next due in court on February 4.

The recently fired building inspector is livid, claiming he knew nothing about Santos's alleged scheme or checks to charities and said he has acted professionally and ethically his whole 40-year career.
A furious wife has discovered her husband bet their family's savings on cryptocurrency and lost $57,000 when it dived.

'Sally' wrote to financial expert Scott Pape, known as the Barefoot Investor, after she found out her husband lost the money their family of five was saving to move house.

She said they had separate bank accounts but each 'vaguely' knew what the other was spending.

However, Sally recently found out her husband hadn't been completely honest with her.

Sally wrote to Scott Pape (aka Barefoot Investor) for advice on how to financially recover after her husband lost $57,000 to cryptocurrency investment

She believed her husband invested money in shares but instead he sold them last year and began trading in crypto.

Sally's husband lost $57,000, money their family of five was 'relying on' to upsize from their three-bedroom home.

'I cannot believe he'd be so stupid, I just want to KILL him. He thinks the market will come back and wants to hold on. What say you?' she asked.

Unfortunately, the only advice Mr Pape could offer was damage control.

Mr Pape, who has previously been criticised for his disapproval of crypt, said the couple needed to 'work as a team' by avoiding investments and saving hard until they recover

The Barefoot Investor said he is against 'happily married couples' holding separate accounts as they should be a 'team' in financial endeavors.

As for recovering the lost funds Mr Pape simply recommended better saving habits.

'Don't invest your short-term savings in the share market or a digital beanie baby  keep it in your savings account,' he said.

'The only way to win from here is for you two to clean up the mess together.'

Finally Mr Pape offered simple advice on investing in crypto.

'Finally, if you're asking me where the crypto market is going, I have absolutely no idea in the short term,' he said.

Mr Pape said he sees crypto collapsing 'when Dogecoin is valued at zero' but has previously been accused of 'costing his followers' for 'old fashioned' beliefs in the crypto sector

'Yet I do have a rough yardstick on when we'll see the bottom: When Dogecoin is valued at zero.'

Mr Pape has been criticised in the past for his distrust in crypto with some labelling him 'old fashioned'.

In a December newsletter, Mr Pape was asked why he was so against crypto as advice-seeker 'Chris' accused him of 'costing his followers' for having his 'head in the sand'.

'Who doesn't want a 17 per cent return from staking coins? Crypto and DeFi (Decentralised Finance) are the future. The Barefoot Investor is the past. Wake up. You're embarrassing yourself,' Chris wrote.

However Mr Pape assured Chris he was 'wide awake' and carefully watching the volatile currencies' ups and downs.

'The only difference is that I havent made it part of my belief system, as so many other people seem to have,' he wrote.
Jen Psaki quipped that those who are worried about 'soft-on-crime policies' are living 'in an alternate universe,' but it's little wonder why the White House press secretary is seemingly unfazed by the nation's crime wave: she lives in one of the safest, most expensive counties in America.

In the tree-lined suburb of Arlington, where many lobbyists, government officials and choose to raise their children, the average price of a single-family, detached home was $1,258,648 as of December.

And in 2020, Arlington County, Virginia was deemed the safest city in the U.S., according to national data compiled by Money Geek.

Psaki and husband Greg Mecher bought the Arlington home they share with their two young children in 2019 for just under $1.7 million.

Speaking on Pod Save America, Psaki said last week that while CNN and MSNBC were focused on Ukraine-Russia tensions, 'On Fox is Jeanine Pirro talking about soft-on-crime consequences, I mean, what does that even mean?'

'There's an alternate universe on some coverage,' Psaki said. 'What's scary about it is a lot of people watch that. They think that the president isn't doing anything to address people's safety in New York and that couldn't be further from the truth.'

In 2020, Arlington County, Virginia was deemed the safest city in the U.S., according to national data compiled by Money Geek. Above is a row. of homes in Arlington, none of which belong to Psaki

Psaki then seemed to imply Americans care more about 'what's happening in their lives' than crime spikes.

'People care more about what's happening in their lives than what's necessarily happening in every cable news chyron every day,' she said.

'Americans are less concerned about conflict abroad because they're worried about what's going on in their own communities. And it's the responsibility of our elected leaders to address those very real concerns. Jen Psaki's flippant comments completely disregard the concerns of millions of Americans,' Arlington County GOP spokesperson Matthew Hurtt told DailyMail.com of the press secretary's comments.

Of course back at home in Arlington, the violent crime rate, expressed as violent crimes per 100,000 is far less than the U.S. average.

In 2020 Arlington had a violent crime rate of 144 crimes per 100,000 people. The U.S. had an average of 398.5 per 100,000 people, according to FBI figures.

Arlington has a population of 238,643, according to the 2020 census.

In Washington, D.C. the violent crime rate is 1,034 per 100,000 and in New York, N.Y. it is 580 per 100,000.

The four categories of violent crime as determined by the FBI are murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

The total crime rate is 1,567 per 100,000 residents in Arlington, while D.C.'s is 4,635 and New York's is 2,580.

Pirro shot back at Psaki saying she is so 'locked up' in her 'ivory tower' that she is out of touch with Americans.

'She wants to know why I'm talking about the consequences of soft on crime,' she stated. 'Well, I'm talking about the consequences of the Democrat, liberal, progressive, leftist, soft-on-crime, criminal-loving, victim-hating group that has made a decision that no bail, no jail and that criminals arethey should be privilege and that social justice and rogue prosecutors should not be a part of the criminal justice system.

'Jen, are you so locked up in your ivory tower that you have no idea what Americans really care about and what they're concerned about?'

Arlington had just 16 reported incidents of carjacking in 2020, a whopping increase from its one lone incident in 2019. There were three incidents of murder - up from two in 2019 - 210 incidents of aggravated assault and 906 incidents of simple assault.

The total number of 'crimes against persons,' which includes abduction/kidnapping, all forms of assault, murder, rape, manslaughter, abduction/kidnapping, intimidation and other sex offenses, was 1,348 in 2020.

Crime in Arlington rose in 2020 after a dip in 2019

Violent crime in the U.S. rose from 2019 to 2020

Psaki did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile in New York City, there were 485 murders in 2021, 17 more than the 468 reported in 2020.

Washington, D.C., saw a thirteen percent increase in homicides in 2021 at 226.

At least 16 major cities across America broke a record for homicides in 2021.

Meanwhile, 28 police officers across the nation were shot in the month of January, compared to 17 in January 2020 and January 2021.

On Monday in Arlington, there were nine reports of larceny, one report of unlawful entry, five reports of fraud, one report of assault and battery, one report of fugitive from justice, one report of graffiti, one report of suspicious circumstances and one report of disorderly conduct.

Major cities across the US have observed carjackings spike by up to 510 per cent in a 'disturbing' trend some are attributing to lax punishment and a shift in driving habits.

In Washington, D.C., where Psaki commutes to work every day, there was a 153% increase in carjackings in 2020 from the previous year, and in 2021 another 18% increase after that.

In Chicago, 1,849 carjackings were reported last year - a 510 per cent increase from the 303 vehicular hijackings in 2014, according to city data. Last year's figure represents a 30 per cent increase from the 1,413 cases reported in 2020.

Asked about the comments in her daily briefing Monday, Psaki said: 'What I was speaking to was a chyron on Fox News, since you raised it, that suggested this administration is soft on crime with no basis.'

Police officers staff a cordon following an armed attack in the yard of the Diyanet Center of America in Washington DC

A subway platform was roped off on Jan. 22 after a victim was stabbed on the L and F subway line

'In the American Rescue Plan there was additional funding to support local cops programs, something that every single Republican voted against,' she said. 'President Biden has proposed a significant increase in local cops programs in his budget more than the prior president,' Psaki continued.

'Thats a fact. So if those facts are uncomfortable Im sorry for people who feel they need to be critical, but the president has been a longtime advocate of addressing crime, hes never been for defunding the police. Our Department of Justice has increased funding, has put in place support for strike forces.'

President Biden is traveling to New York City to meet with Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday to discuss gun crime.
A former student of a Brisbane Christian college that condemns homosexuality as immoral has spoken of the trauma he experienced while attending the school.

Jared Mifsud, 30, a dancer and performer, posted an emotional video to Facebook in the wake of the scandal surrounding the decision of Citipointe Christian College to ask parents to sign a contract that describes homosexual acts as 'destructive to human relationships and society'.

In the video, Mifsud, who attended the college at Carindale in Brisbane's south-east from Year 1 through to 12, graduating in 2009, said he knew he was gay from an early age but was repeatedly told while at school that homosexuality was a sin.

Jared Mifsud receiving an award during his days as a student at Citipointe Christian College at Carindale in Brisbane

A section of the contract which states that homosexual acts are 'sinful and offensive to God and is destructive to human relationships and society'

'When you are told by one of your teachers, "don't let them turn you", what else is a student supposed to do?' Mr Mifsud asks in the video.

'I went and got the girlfriend, I hid from who I was for so long because of that fear and trauma.

'The language used in this contract is abhorrent, it's disgusting, it's demeaning, it is going to destroy people's lives.

'When you compare homosexuality to bestiality and paedophilia, what kind of message are you trying to send, because it's not the message that Jesus was trying to preach.'

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Mr Mifsud said he recalled that a form of enrolment contract had always been part of attending the school but it had only previously dealt with teachings of faith.

'Previous contracts required parents acknowledge the fact it is a religious school, there will be religious teachings, students will be expected to attend chapel, those kinds of things,' he said.

'But there was never this black and white discrimination in the contract, that's a brand new thing.'

Mr Mifsud while a student at Citipointe, where he said one teacher told him, 'Don't let them turn you' and he was constantly told homosexuality was a sin

Mr Mifsud is now a dancer and performer based in Brisbane. 'Above all my heart goes out to students currently at the school. Its already hard enough being someone different,' he told Daily Mail Australia

Mr Mifsud said hearing about the new contract, which the college has asked parents to sign just a week before Queensland schools return on Monday, February 7, had raised old memories of attending the school and being told homosexuality was a sin.

'It's surprised me a little how this whole situation has brought up a lot of trauma I thought I had repressed,' he said.

'Each grade at school would attend a weekly chapel service and they would have guest speakers.

'Nine times out of ten, homosexuality would be mentioned and you were told every single day you were going to hell for this sin, it was very much a recurring theme.

'I thought I had worked through that trauma but seeing this contract come out in the last couple of days, I've been transported back to the 16-year-old Jared who felt so trapped and alone and scared, and didnt know what to do or who to turn to.'

'Each grade at school would attend a weekly chapel service ... nine times out of 10, homosexuality would be mentioned and you were told every single day you were going to hell for this sin,' Mr Mifsud said. Pictured: Citipointe students gathered around a cross at the college

Mr Mifsud said at least five other ex-students from his year had since come out as gay, and he know students both in the year above and below who were also now living their 'true lives'.

He believes the Federal government's yet-to-be-passed Religious Discrimination Bill has emboldened the Christian college to use the language it has in the new contract.

'Technically under that bill they can say this and have zero repercussions,' he said.

'Above all my heart goes out to students currently at the school. Its already hard enough being someone different.

'My biggest hope is that they realise they're loved and supported and we live in a day and age when that is possible.'

Former Citipointe Christian College student Felicity Myers is seen outside the college during an impromptu rally on Monday

A group of ex-students, including Mr Mifsud, draped the fence of the college with pride flags on Monday

Mr Mifsud and other ex-students of the college staged an impromptu rally outside of the school yesterday, draping its fence with pride flags.

His experience at Citipointe comes as video emerged of a current student of the school being consoled by a parent over the drama created by the contract.

'I've been there for so long,' the child cries, asking if they will need to leave their friends behind.

'I'm not gay, I'm not transgender, I dont plan to be, but for those who are, its terrible,' the child tells the parent.

A teacher and parent at the school, Helen Clapham Burns, also told The Project she had resigned from the college on Monday saying she couldn't continue to work for a school that would do that to children.

'At the beginning of enrolment and during enrolment, if they don't adhere to this we terminate the enrolment. I can't work for an organisation that does that to kids,' Ms Burns said.

'The extra element of being a queer kid in a Christian environment is you think you're going to hell. I don't even know how you walk through the day with that.'

The 'declaration of faith' contract includes homosexual acts among a list of other forms of 'sexual immorality', including adultery, fornication, bisexual acts, bestiality, paedophilia and pornography, that are 'sinful and offensive to God'.

It also states that the college will only acknowledge biological sex, not gender, and asks parents to agree with this statement or face exclusion of a student.

'Failure to agree to the terms will afford Citipointe Christian College the right to exclude a student from the College who no longer adheres to the College's doctrinal precepts including those as to biological sex,' it reads.

Citipointe Christian College's principal, Pastor Brian Mulheran (pictured) said the school had tried to be 'clear and transparent' about its Christian beliefs in the new enrolment contract

In an email to parents sent late last week, the school's principal, Pastor Brian Mulheran said the contact was designed to be 'fair and transparent' about the Christian beliefs the school had always held.

Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace has referred the Citipointe contract to Queensland's Non-State Schools Accreditation Board and Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman.

Ms Fentiman has since encouraged parents and students to make a complaint to Queensland's Human Rights Commission if they feel they have been subject to discrimination.

Ms Grace said at a press conference on Tuesday that the state's Human Rights Commissioner, Scott McDougall, had now 'warned' the college that it could not contract out of its legally binding commitments under discrimination legislation.

She also said the Non-State Schools Accreditation Board will meet on Thursday to discuss the school's contract.

Legal opinion varies on whether the school, as an independent educational institution, is entitled to discriminate on the basis of a person's sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.

President of the LGBTI Community Legal Service, Matilda Alexander, told ABC Brisbane this morning she believes the contract is unlawful under Queensland's own Anti-Discrimination Act.

Meanwhile, a change.org online petition seeking to have the contract rescinded has currently attracted close to 100,000 signatures.

'Citipointe is using their religious beliefs to openly discriminate against queer and trans students, as well as threatening to take away their education,' states the petition, started by another ex-student of Citipointe, Bethany Lau.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Citipointe Christian College for comment on Mr Mifsud's claims.
Former Vice President Mike Pence's top aide testified before the House committee probing the January 6 Capitol riot last week, a Monday report revealed.

Marc Short served as Pence's chief of staff from March 2019 through the end of this term. His hearing with the House select committee could signal Pence's former White House team's willingness to cooperate with the investigation.

Short testified for hours in-person at the Capitol last Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. It followed a subpoena and months of discussions between Short's attorney Emmet Flood and lawyers on the committee.

The panel is still unsure if Pence will testify but the committee is in early talks with his legal team seeking some form of cooperation.

Multiple sources claim Pence would prefer his aides act as a 'proxy' so the former VP doesn't have to appear.

Obtaining Short's testimony comes as the panel tries to get to the bottom of an alleged pressure campaign by then-President Donald Trump and his staff to get Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections.

Pence, as vice president and therefore president of the Senate, did not have the power to overturn the elections as Trump thought. His role in the certification process is to oversee Congress as it votes to uphold the Electoral College votes from each state, which ultimately ended up declaring Biden the winner.

Trump, it's reported, believes Pence could have unilaterally stopped Congress from certifying Biden's win, which the former president still claims was 'rigged' in an election riddled with 'fraud.'

Former Vice President Mike Pence's White House Chief of Staff Marc Short quietly testified last Wednesday before the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, a source told CNN

It's still not clear if Pence (right) will testify before the committee as they try to get to the bottom of an alleged pressure campaign by then-President Donald Trump and his staff to get Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections

The 45th president has repeatedly blamed his No. 2 for his election loss.

In a Sunday evening statement, Trump bluntly admitted for the first time that he was trying to use Pence to overturn the election result.

He pointed to efforts on Capitol Hill to change the Electoral Count Act, including firming up language to make clear the vice president is only there to count votes and can't override the will of the voters.

'Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away,' Trump wrote in his statement from his Save America PAC email. 'Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!'

Trump argued, 'If the Vice President (Mike Pence) had 'absolutely no right' to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election?'

Pence is speaking at the Federalist Society gathering in Florida this week and a source familiar with his thinking says he may respond to Trump's statements about him at that forum.

Trump said in a Sunday statement it's clear Pence could have overturned the election. He pointed to efforts on Capitol Hill to change the Electoral Count Act, including firming up the language to make clear that the vice president is only there to count votes and can't override the will of the voters

Vice presidents also act as presidents of the Senate when they are in office. They cannot override the Senate certifying presidential election results as reported by the Electoral College. Pictured: Pence on Capitol Hill for the election certification on January 6, 2021

A source close to Pence said of the potential to 'overturn' the results: 'There was a lot of pressure, but we always knew we were doing the right thing.'

Short was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and was also part of a White House meeting two days prior.

Before testifying last week, Short has already supplied subpoenaed documents to the committee, one source told CNN. This included a memo from Trump aide Johnny McEntee comparing the former president to Thomas Jefferson.

Another source familiar with Short's cooperation said it's typical witnesses will hand over additional documents when they testify before a congressional panel.
Hero tradies have rescued a crying baby locked inside a car as temperatures soared by shattering the window with a hammer.

Aaron T posted footage of the dramatic rescue on TikTok saying police asked him and his workmates for help after finding the toddler was trapped.

As Queensland police crowded around the car trying to get to the child, one of the tradies made a hole in the driver's side window and reached in to open the door.

The child was freed and was unharmed thanks to the quick action of police with the assistance of Aaron and his colleagues.

A man smashes a car window (pictured) to help rescue a crying baby trapped inside

'The police asked us to come over and crack the window because we had our tools on us. So we broke the driver side window, the furthest from the baby,' he recalled.

'The kid was in there for a minute, but once he was out he got a paddle pop into and he was all good.'

Aaron posted a second video explaining what happened after his first video led to comments blasting the parents as unfit.

'Parents that leave their kids in the car should not be parents!! This makes me sick that parents could do this to their babies!' one wrote.

But Aaron asked viewers not to jump to conclusions and blame the baby's parents for what happened.

'It's not the parents' fault. It was a freak accident, could have happened to anyone,' he said.

But some commenters on the TikTok site not only blamed the parents, but also the man who helped rescued the baby, accusing him of endangering the child.

This was despite the police specifically asking Aaron and his colleagues to break the window as they lacked the tools to do it safely.

'Smashing the windows where the kids sat was a silly move,' one wrote.

'What a dud, could've used a glass breaking tool, what if all the little glass specs went into the baby's eyes,' another added.

A tradie (pictured) warned people not to jump to conclusions after he posted a video of smashing a car window to help rescue a baby locked inside

Following a similar incident in 2018, NSW Police explained to parents how dangerous it was to leave children alone in a car.

'There is a risk of being abducted if they are left alone in a car, even if the car is locked,' police said.

'On a typical summer day, the temperature inside a car (even with the windows rolled down a little) can quickly rise above 50 to 60C.

'Even on a relatively mild day, the temperature inside a car can get above 40C.'

In such temperatures, there would be a risk of heat stroke, dehydration and seizures which could lead to death.

Queensland police told Daily Mail Australia there was no record of a complaint relating to the incident.
Mining magnate Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest is about to fund another expensive, high-tech foray into one of the deepest parts of the ocean off the West Australian coast.

The Fortescue Metals Group chairman has formally cemented a partnership between his philanthropic Minderoo Foundation and the University of Western Australia.

Under a five-year funding deal, scientists will explore the submerged fractures of the east Indian Ocean, six kilometres below the surface, a water depth known as the Hadal zone.

Mining magnate Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest is about to fund another expensive, high-tech foray into one of the deepest parts of the ocean off the West Australian coast

The centre, to be launched by Dr Forrest on Tuesday, already has a major expedition under its belt, a research trip to the to the Wallaby Zenith Fracture Zone off WA's mid-west coast early last year.

The centre's founding director, biologist, engineer, explorer and author Alan Jamieson says the footage from that submersible visit is otherworldly.

'On the very bottom it is soft white sand but there were a lot of animals, it is very diverse and then along the escarpment, which is a 600-mile-long wall, about 2000 metres high, there were things there I still don't understand,' Professor Jamieson says.

'It's going to take a long time to unpack it in terms of what's going on geologically.'

Dr Forrest believes the deep sea holds the key to unlocking many of the questions about life on earth in terms of biodiversity, ocean processes including currents and circulation, and human impacts such as climate change.

'We know a lot about the top 2000 metres and then as you get deeper, our understanding becomes less and less,' he said.

Marine researchers from the Minderoo Foundation in Exmouth, Western Australia

'It's Minderoo Foundation's aim to fill in the gaps for that deepest 50 per cent of the ocean so we can better understand how to treat the ocean as a whole and understand what it is telling us about the pressure we are putting on it.'

The Indian Ocean is the world's third-largest ocean, spanning more than 70.5 million square kilometres.

It accounts for almost 20 per cent of the world's ocean area but with an average depth of almost four kilometres, it's the least understood of the world's five named oceans and little is known about the species that call it home.

University of Western Australia Vice-Chancellor Amit Chakma said the aim was to progressively and comprehensively unearth the Indian Ocean's secrets, by mapping the ocean floor, and characterising and discovering new fauna and marine species.
Charlise Mutten's grieving family has been rocked by a new tragedy - as her classmates return to school with 'one less little friend'.

Just weeks after nine-year-old Charlise was allegedly murdered by her stepfather and dumped in a barrel, Daily Mail Australia can reveal her baby cousin is fighting cancer.

Two-year-old Ryder Mutten was diagnosed with cancer just days shy of Christmas and is preparing for his third round of chemotherapy.

'It's been a hard few months, to say the least,' Beau Mutten, Ryder's father and Charlise's cousin, told Daily Mail Australia.

As the young parents were navigating Christmas and the New Year with a sick baby, they learned the horrifying news that Charlise had vanished while visiting her mum and soon-to-be stepdad in the Blue Mountains.

Two-year-old Ryder Mutten was diagnosed with cancer just days shy of Christmas and is preparing for his third round of chemotherapy

Charlise Mutten (above) has been remembered as spritely, kind and intelligent by her classmates

On Tuesday, Charlise's friends returned to Tweed Heads Public School for the first day of term - and for the first time since learning of Charlise's death

The school notice board reads good, true, beautiful, the school motto and a timely reminder of qualities possessed by nine-year-old Charlise, who was known as a spritely and bright student

On Tuesday, Charlise's friends returned to Tweed Heads Public School for the first day of term - and for the first time since learning of Charlise's death.

Charlise's absence weighed heavily on the school community, with counsellors on hand and a special assembly held to pay tribute to her.

Kindergarteners bounded through the gates for their first day of big school while older kids hung back with a little trepidation, hugging their parents and making arrangements for the after-school pick-up.

Deputy Mayor Reece Byrnes arrived at the school to pay tribute to Charlise and her friends.

'It's a sad day, and this school returns with one less friend, one less special little human. It's a tragic day for her friends, the school community and her teachers who had watched her grow up,' he said.

Parents and community leaders have commended Tweed Heads Public School for how theyve handled the tragedy

Studetns bounded through the gates for their first day of big school while older kids hung back with a little trepidation, hugging their parents and making arrangements for the after-school pick-up

Ryder's mother Melissa Sakiri told Daily Mail Australia she lived her 'worst nightmare' when doctors revealed the cancer diagnosi

The school notice board reads good, true, beautiful, which is the school motto and a timely reminder of qualities possessed by nine-year-old Charlise, who was known as a spritely and bright student.

Her body was found in a barrel on January 18. While still processing the brutality of her alleged murder themselves, parents of her school friends sat their kids down to discuss her death before they inevitably heard about it inside the school gates.

It was a really hard conversation, Miley, whose son is in grade two at the school, told Daily Mail Australia.

He kept asking what happened, and I dont really know what to say to that. You cant tell them too much but also need to tell them the truth.

Miley explained to her son that Charlise had died, and wouldnt be coming back to school. She said she didnt feel the need to go into any further details.

Parents and community leaders have commended Tweed Heads Public School for how theyve handled the tragedy.

Two newsletters were sent out in the days after Charlises body was found, and counselling services are being provided by the school.

We can just book our children in, Miley said.

Two newsletters were set out in the days after Charlises body was found, and counselling services are being provided by the school. Its understood the school will also hold an assembly on Tuesday to discuss Charlise and her legacy with students

'It's been a hard few months, to say the least,' Beau Mutten, Ryder's father and Charlise's cousin, told Daily Mail Australia

A fundraiser has been established for little Ryder Mutten's fight against cancer. Funds raised will go toward helping his parents cover the cost of his rising medical expenses

They can go during school to see a counsellor and talk about it. It should help them, its so sad.

Its understood the school will also hold an assembly on Tuesday to discuss Charlise and her legacy with students.

Another mother, whose son Jye was in Charlises grade 3/4 class last year, remarked at how resilient children are at his age.

He was heartbroken, she said. He told me Charlise was the smartest kid in his class. We talked about it and then we came down to drop off flowers and be at the vigil.

Hes doing okay. I think he understands the best he can. Its tragic but I think most of the kids are holding up.

A third mother, Zoe, said she was dreading telling her son of Charlises death after theyd both followed her disappearance on the news.

When she was still missing, the boy, who was in Charlises class, told his mum she wouldnt have went off by herself, shes too smart for that.

Charlise (above) was raised by her grandparents Deborah (pictured with Charlise) and Clinton Mutten

Charlise (pictured) had been staying at the Wildenstein property with Stein and her biological mother over the New Years-Christmas holidays when she first went missing

Doctors found tumours 'in multiple places all over Ryder's little body' including his stomach, neck, face and legs, which is now starting to spread into his bone marrow, Ms Sakiri said

He is so sad but he is really good after our big conversation, and giving him some understanding.

He amazes me how intuitive he is and how easily he can comprehend certain information.

Arrangements are yet to be made for the nine-year-old's funeral and the family have been subjected to fake GoFundMe appeals from fraudsters trying to cash in on the tragedy.

A GoFundMe has meanwhile been established for little Ryder Mutten's fight against cancer.

Funds raised will go toward helping his parents cover the cost of his rising medical expenses.

Ryder's mother Melissa Sakiri told Daily Mail Australia she lived her 'worst nightmare' when doctors revealed the cancer diagnosis.

'My father passed away from aggressive, rare cancer,' Ms Sakiri said.

Young mourners held candles as they stood outside the gates adorned with bunches of flowers, balloons, cards and photos of Charlise

Pictured: Young girls leave tributes for Charlise after a candlelit vigil was held outside the front gates of the Tweed Heads Public School

On the day police revealed they'd found Charlise's body, devastated mourners held a candlelit vigil for the schoolgirl - leaving tributes outside

'Ryder's next lot of chemotherapy is going to be very intense and stronger with a lot more side effects.'

The toddler's 'awesome mullet' has started to fall out in response to the chemotherapy

Doctors found tumours 'in multiple places all over his little body' including his stomach, neck, face and legs, which is now starting to spread into his bone marrow, Ms Sakiri said.

Little Ryder was diagnosed with neuroblastoma and he's spent the last month bravely receiving treatment in Western Australia.

'It was a total shock to us... This whole situation came out of the blue... I wish this nightmare would end,' she said.

'This has really turned our world upside down and changed everything.'

Beau's aunt and uncle Deborah and Clinton Mutten had custody of nine-year-old Charlise and raised her on the NSW/Queensland border.

The double tragedy for the family comes as Charlise's friends and local community try to come to terms with the monumental loss.

Justin Stein (pictured) drove to his mate Jason Tucker's squalid Surry Hills housing flat and stayed for a few days until the 'shocked' 31-year-old was arrested by police for alleged murder

They held a candlelight vigil on the day police revealed they'd found her body as a way to give her friends and peers closure.

Young mourners held candles as they stood outside the gates adorned with bunches of flowers, balloons, cards and photos of Charlise.

A message on the school's notice board read 'don't count the days, make the days count' with the school releasing a statement on Wednesday morning.

'Charlise was a much loved member of our school who brightened all our days, every day,' the statement read, adding the school community was 'absolutely devastated' by the news.

It was accompanied by a touching photo of the nine-year-old holding a literacy award she had received at the end-of-year presentation day.

The memorial was later removed by Red Cross volunteers, who will instead use the flowers and cards to create a lasting tribute for Charlise.

A tribute to Charlise Mutten at a candlelight vigil held by the Tweed Heads Public School following the nine-year-old's tragic death in Blue Mountains on January 11

Kallista Mutten (above) seen at Wildenstein after having a 'medical episode' which resulted in her being taken to Katoomba Hospital where she remains as police wait to formally interview her about her daughter Charlise's death

A school spokesman said flowers that were left at the tribute site will be blended and given to Charlise's grandparents to use as they wish. A memorial book is also being made for them.

'The book will be a lasting memorial of the spontaneous and thoughtful memorial which developed at the site,' principal Peter Nichols said.

'Thank you for the cards, flowers and other items placed at our fence - every one of them acknowledges how much we all loved Charlise and how much we will all miss her.'

Mr Byrnes said the local council would also consider lasting tributes in Charlise's honour, including potentially naming a street after her.

'There's no greater loss than the loss of a child, and everyone in our community feels the weight of that.'

Charlise's mother Kallista Mutten (pictured) required hospital treatment after her daughter's death
Australia's home affairs department wants to have more oversight over social media algorithms, to help combat online abuse.

Representatives from the department - responsible for cyber security and social cohesion - will front a parliamentary inquiry into online safety on Tuesday.

The inquiry is part of the federal government's proposal to introduce laws that would force social media platforms to take down offending posts and, in some circumstances, reveal the identity of anonymous posters.

Tuesday inquiry is part of the federal government's proposal to introduce laws that would force social media platforms to take down offending posts and, in some circumstances, reveal the identity of anonymous posters (stock image)

In its submission to the committee, the department referenced former Facebook employee Frances Haugen who told the United States Senate last year digital platforms are - sometimes knowingly - promoting harmful and divisive content through algorithms and prioritising company growth over public safety.

'The department has significant concerns about the far-reaching consequences that persuasive design and algorithms have for both individual users and social cohesion more broadly,' the submission said.

Home affairs is in the process of developing regulations and will look at how other jurisdictions manage this issue.

This includes improving the transparency and oversight of how tech companies use algorithms and compelling them to disclose internal data.

In January, employees from Meta - the company behind Facebook - told the committee safety was at the core of the business.

Policy head Mia Garlick said any reports Facebook put profits above the safety of their users were 'categorically untrue'.

The committee, which will also hear evidence from the AFL, is due to present a final report to parliament by mid-February.
Anti-vax protesters inspired by large rallies in Canada have gathered outside the National Press Club ahead of Scott Morrison's major speech on Tuesday.

About 50 protesters outside the building waved flags - including banners supporting Donald Trump - and chanted 'remove Scomo', 'no more boosters' and 'we will not comply'.

It comes a day after Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Government is considering offering Australians a fourth Covid vaccine dose.

The protesters descended on the capital on Monday in a convoy of trucks and cars from Pheasants Nest near Wollongong in NSW, taking inspiration from a 'Freedom Convoy' in the Canadian capital Ottawa over the weekend.

Protesters are seen during an anti-vaccination rally outside the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra

About 50 protesters outside the building waved flags - including banners supporting Donald Trump

There was a large police presence outside the building where the protesters had gathered

Canada's 'Freedom Convoy' The Freedom Convoy 2022 was started by Canadian truckers who opposed vaccine mandates imposed on their industry by the Government. The truckers were joined by other opponents of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on their way to Ottawa where they parked on Saturday. Advertisement

The demonstrators have set up camp in a park near the National Library where about 200 cars and trucks were counted on Tuesday morning.

Mr Morrison's speech about health and economic resilience comes after a disastrous Newspoll put Labor on track to comfortably win the next election.

The Opposition is ahead 56-44 on a two-party-preferred basis in the Coalition's worst polling performance since September 2018, a month after Malcolm Turnbull was replaced by Mr Morrison.

The 12-point lead puts Labor on track to win up to 25 seats from the Coalition and represents a 6-point lead increase from the last poll on December 6 when it was ahead 53-47.

On Monday Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the polls could change by election time.

'Many obituaries were written by those in the media and our political opponents who got ahead of themselves,' he said in reference to Mr Morrison's surprise win at the 2019 election.

The latest poll for The Australian newspaper comes as eastern Australia is ravaged by a large outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 which is causing staff shortages for thousands of businesses.

The federal government has also faced heavy criticism over the widespread shortage of rapid antigen tests and was blasted by the NSW Government on Sunday for refusing to split the cost of a new business support package.

In the speech Mr Morrison will announced aged care workers will get two bonus payments of up to $400 in February and May to stop them leaving the sector which is ravaged by Covid outbreaks and staff shortages.

Labor and unions have blasted the bonus payments describing the move as a 'cheap and nasty' election stunt.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the PM was trying to 'buy' the support of aged care workers.

About 50 protesters outside the building waved flags and chanted 'no more boosters' and 'we will not comply'
A man barely escaped with his life after an alleged drunk driver ploughed into his bedroom late at night.

Rahul Walimbe said he was video chatting with his wife in India when the Subaru crashed into his home in Glenmore Park, Sydney, on Friday night.

Mr Walimbe said the crashed car missed him by inches.

Last Friday Rahul Walimbe said he had been Face-timing his wife in India when a Subaru crashed into his home in Glenmore Park, Sydney

'All I heard was a big bang behind me  I turned around and there was a car in my room,' he said.

Mr Walimbe said he felt lucky to be alive as he was about to go to bed after finishing his call, where the car would have crushed him.

'If it happened 10 minutes later, I would probably have been sleeping and the car would have been on top of me,' he said.

The driver of the car, 38, was arrested after returning a positive blood alcohol reading.

Mr Walimbe said he felt 'lucky to be alive' as he had been planning on heading to bed, where the car would have crushed him

The driver of the car, 38, was arrested after returning a positive blood alcohol reading and was taken to St Mary's Police Station

She allegedly became aggressive and verbally abusive when police attempted to speak with her, and was taken to St Mary's Police Station.

The woman allegedly refused to take a second breath test once at the station and faces five charges including drink driving and resisting a police officer.

She will appear at the Penrith Local Court on February 22 and was granted conditional bail until then.
Ben Fordham has unleashed on Australian politicians after it emerged federal MPs were claiming travel expenses to stay at home - essentially paying off their own mortgages.

The 2GB host said it was 'sickening' members of parliament can claim $291 a night from the taxpayer to travel to Canberra even if they are staying in a house they own.

'We've had a million people in NSW out of work during this pandemic and MPs are having taxpayers pay off their mortgage,' Fordham said on Tuesday.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese used the loophole to leave his Sydney electorate during the city's lockdown and move to his Canberra apartment for 59 days - claiming $17,000 in the process.

Liberal MP Tim Wilson has also claimed $138,700 in travel expenses over the past five years to live in a Canberra apartment he bought in 2017 for $369,000.

Ben Fordham has unleashed on Australian politicians after it emerged federal MPs were claiming travel expenses to stay at home

Fordham said both had done nothing wrong, but that the system showed politicians 'are on another planet'.

Canberra is the only Australian capital city where MPs can live in their own home and still claim a travel allowance.

'Some Sydney suburbs have 70 per cent of homes suffering mortgage stress - they can't make their next payment or support their family,' he said.

'Then we have MPs claiming $291 a night to have taxpayers pay off their mortgage. It's an inside joke... a sickening waste of money.'

Mr Albanese claimed $21,020 for 74 nights spent in Canberra, Queensland and Tasmania during Victoria and NSW's lockdowns last year, news.com.au reported.

The Labor leader said he had no plans to change the travel allowance rules on Monday.

'The rules are there in terms of travel allowance,' he told 3AW.

Liberal MP Tim Wilson pictured right. He has claimed $138,700 in travel expenses over the past five years to live in a Canberra apartment he bought in 2017 for $369,000

'The Remuneration Tribunal is arms length from politicians and I think thats a very good idea... so that were not determining our own entitlements.'

Mr Wilson also defended his 95 taxpayer-funded nights in Canberra last year - which cost $27,645 between May 23 and September 26.

His spokesman said those nights included a month in quarantine so he could attend parliament.

'Across 2020 and 2021, Assistant Minister Wilson spent a month in quarantine due to border controls imposed by State and Territory Governments to attend Parliament and Chair Parliamentary Committees,' the spokesman said.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese pictured with his ex-wife Carmel Tebutt. He used a loophole to leave his Sydney electorate during the city's lockdown and move to his Canberra apartment for 59 days

Mr Wilson then went to Brisbane and Rockhampton on Defence force business before flying back to Canberra.

'Upon completion of the Exercise, the Assistant Minister returned to Canberra because of the risk of border closures that could have prohibited him from attending Parliament,' the spokesman said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Albanese and Mr Wilson's offices for further comment.
When dancer Lucien Xu walked away from the biggest opportunity of his life, he didn't realise what he had done.

During the prestigious Youth America Grand Prix Finals in New York City in 2013, the director of the Australian Ballet School approached the then 17-year-old with the offer of a much-sought scholarship.

'I couldn't understand a word of English and I just walked away ... it was so big and I just missed it,' Lucien told AAP.

Ballet Dancer Awards nominees (left to right) Tom Gannon, Rina Nemoto, Adam Elms, Lilly Maskey and Lucien Xu pose for a photograph

The misunderstanding, quickly fixed when his teacher realised what had happened, became the start of Lucien's burgeoning career in Australia - which has now been recognised with a nomination for the Telstra Ballet Dancer Awards.

The 26-year-old follows in the footsteps of Li Cunxin, the subject of the hit film Mao's Last Dancer, and Australian Ballet principal dancer Chengwu Guo, who played Li as a teenager in the popular film.

Ballet Dancer Awards nominees Rina Nemoto, and Lucien Xu both overcame adversity in recent years

'Knowing Li and Guo's work definitely helped choose the Australian Ballet and to be here in Australia - they are such amazing dancers,' Lucien said.

At a young age Lucien would dance to DVDs of Swan Lake at home in the northern Chinese city of XuZhou, and the years of dancing lessons that followed led him to the prestigious but notoriously strict Beijing Dance Academy, where Li and Guo also studied.

Lucien said the road to becoming a professional dancer has at times been tough, and while he has not seen his family in two-and-a-half years, he feels fortunate to be dancing with the Australian Ballet.

'Australia and China have different cultures but I feel that we share the same language, dance is everywhere,' he said.

Also nominated for the prestigious awards is soloist Rina Nemoto from Japan, who has experienced the ups and downs of life as a professional dancer too.

After 11 years with the Australian Ballet she scored her first lead role in Alice in Wonderland in late 2019, just before the pandemic hit.

A few months later Melbourne was in lockdown, and the 30-year-old found herself rehearsing in the kitchen of her tiny apartment, using a temporary dance floor.

'It was so difficult, but practising every day helped,' she told AAP.

The extended break from performing has made her determined to get the most out of every minute on stage in 2022.

The winners will be announced at Sydney Opera House on April 5, following the opening night of the Australian Ballet's production of Anna Karenina. Pictured left to right: Rina Nemoto, Tom Gannon, Adam Elms, Lucien Xu and Lilly Maskey

'It's so special because I can feel a connection with the audience and also I feel so happy, as though I am living in the moment,' she said.

Nemoto began dancing at the age of three, and was contemplating a professional career by the age of 12.

She left Japan to study in France at 15, and at times being far from her family had her questioning her lifelong commitment to dance.

'At that time I couldn't speak French ... languages are very hard for me, but ballet is my language too and I express myself by dance,' she said.

The other three nominees for the awards are Corps de Ballet dancers Thomas Gannon, Adam Elmes, and Lilly Maskery.

The winners will be announced at Sydney Opera House on April 5, following the opening night of the Australian Ballet's production of Anna Karenina.
The entire federal prison system has been placed on a nationwide lockdown after two inmates were killed and two others were injured Monday during a fight involving gang members at a federal penitentiary in Texas.

MS-13 gang members Andrew Pineda, 34, and Guillermo Riojas, 54, were pronounced dead at a local hospital after the melee at USP Beaumont, a federal prison in Beaumont.

The lockdown at all 122 of the agency's institutions across the U.S. was prompted by fears of potential retaliation and concern violence could spread to other facilities.

'In an abundance of caution, the Bureau of Prisons (B.O.P.) is securing our facilities as a temporary measure to ensure the good order of our institutions,' Kristie Breshears, a bureau spokeswoman, wrote in a statement to the New York Times on Monday. 'We anticipate this security measure will be short-lived.'

Breshears added the bureau would monitor events within its facilities and adjust its operations as the situation evolved. She declined to elaborate further for safety and security reasons.

Nationwide lockdowns are relatively rare but have been instituted three times in the past two years. The federal Bureau of Prisons implemented the measure after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and shortly before the inauguration of President Joe Biden later that month.

It also locked down the system in April 2020 as coronavirus cases began skyrocketing in prisons nationwide.

Monday's brawl began around 11:30 a.m., where guards observed multiple inmates fighting, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

The fatal clash involved members of the violent MS-13 street gang, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Riojas was serving a 38-year sentence for carjacking and interfering with interstate commerce.

Pineda had been sentenced to a term of more than six years on a racketeering charge and had been held at the prison since last February.

The federal prison system has been placed on a nationwide lockdown after two inmates were killed and two others were injured Monday during a gang altercation at USP Beaumont (pictured), a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas

Both men had been involved in previous clashes behind bars, court records show.

Riojas was involved in stabbings at a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania in 1996 and a federal penitentiary in Colorado in 2007.

Pineda was described in court documents as a member of the prison gang known as the Mexican Mafia. While an inmate in a Los Angeles County jail in 2015, Pineda carried out orders to assault inmates who disrespected the gang, prosecutors said.

Monday's attack is just the latest example of serious violence within the beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons.

The agency has struggled through a multitude of crises in recent years, including widespread staffing shortages, serious employee misconduct, a series of escapes and deaths.

During a nationwide lockdown, inmates are kept in their cells most of the day and visitation is canceled. Because of a spike in coronavirus cases in federal prisons, social visits at nearly every facility had already been canceled.

There have been a number of serious security issues within the federal prison system in the last few months, including several inmate deaths and stabbings.

Several inmates have escaped from the prison complex in Beaumont (pictured) in recent years and union officials have decried what they've described as a serious staffing crisis at the prison. On Monday, two inmates were killed and two others were injured during a gang altercation at the prison

The Justice Department announced this month that the agency's director, Michael Carvajal, was resigning from his position amid increased scrutiny over his leadership and in the wake of Associated Press reporting that uncovered widespread corruption, misconduct and other problems at the agency.

Several inmates have escaped from the prison complex in Beaumont in recent years and union officials have decried what they've described as a serious staffing crisis at the prison.

The AP reported in June that security at the complex, which houses 1,372 male inmates, is so lax that local law enforcement officials privately joke about its seemingly 'open-door policy.'

In November 2007, two Beaumont inmates stabbed another inmate to death on the penitentiary's special housing unit after they broke free from handcuffs, shanked two correctional officers who were escorting them to their cells and stole cell keys. They were convicted and sentenced to death.

A few months later, in February 2008, a Beaumont inmate was strangled to death in his cell by two other inmates -- one of them the co-founder of the prison gang Dead Man Incorporated.
Around one in 10 children in England now start school at risk of catching measles after vaccination rates plummeted to a decade low during the pandemic.

All youngsters are offered their first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at the age of one year, and a top-up when they are three.

But latest figures  which go up to September 2021  show uptake plunged to just 88.6 per cent for one dose in two year olds, and to 85.5 per cent for both jabs among five year olds.

This was the lowest share fully vaccinated since 2011 and well below the World Health Organization's 95 per cent target to keep the virus at bay.

Experts claim the focus placed on the Covid vaccination drive took emphasis away from other routine inoculations.

Measles is highly infectious, meaning even a small drop in uptake could lead to more outbreaks. It is also life threatening for around one in 500 children.

Professor Helen Bedford, a children's health expert at University College London, warned the dip was 'very worrying'.

'There has been so much focus on Covid over the past two years, but we mustnt forget about measles which has not gone away,' she said.

'Because measles is so infectious, any drop in vaccine uptake is very worrying as it may result in outbreaks. Measles is waiting in the wings, but we can prevent it resurging through vaccination.'

All youngsters are offered their first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at the age of one year, and a top-up when they are three. But latest figures  which go up to September 2021  show uptake plunged to just 88.6 per cent for one dose in two year olds, and to 85.5 per cent for both jabs among five year olds

More than one in 10 children in England are starting school at risk of catching deadly measles as vaccine rates have dropped to their lowest level in a decade

Measles, its symptoms and how it is caught Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that spreads easily from an infected person by coughing, sneezing or even just breathing. Symptoms develop between six and 19 days after infection, and include a runny nose, cough, sore eyes, a fever and a rash. The rash appears as red and blotchy marks on the hairline that travel down over several days, turning brown and eventually fading. Some children complain of disliking bright lights or develop white spots with red backgrounds on their tongue. In one in 15 cases, measles can cause life-threatening complications including pneumonia, convulsions and encephalitis. Dr Ava Easton, chief executive of the Encephalitis Society told MailOnline: 'Measles can be very serious. [It] can cause encephalitis which is inflammation of the brain. Encephalitis can result in death or disability.' Treatment focuses on staying hydrated, resting and taking painkillers, if necessary. In England and Wales, though deaths from measles were uncommon, they averaged about 500 per year in the 1940s. Deaths diminished with the improvement of medical care in the 1950s but the incidence of the disease did not retreat until vaccination was introduced in the late 1960s. Advertisement

The UK officially eradicated the disease in 2017 after a successful vaccination programme.

But cases have been on the rise since, against the backdrop of falling vaccination rates.

There were nearly 800 cases in 2019 but only around 80 cases have been detected since 2020  an unintended consequence of lockdowns and the pandemic.

The UK Health Security Agency warns that there is likely to be an uptick as travel restrictions are lifted and domestic Covid rules slacken.

It has now launched a joint appeal with the NHS to parents to get their children vaccinated.

One in 10 adults with children under five years old were unaware that the NHS was still offering the jabs during the pandemic, a Department of Health survey shows.

And almost half were unaware measles could be life-threatening.

Dr Nikki Kanani, GP and medical director for primary care at NHS England, added it was 'incredibly important' for parents to ensure their children get the vaccine.

'These vaccines give children crucial protection against serious and potentially deadly illnesses and stop outbreaks in the community.

'If your child has missed a vaccination, please contact your GP practice to book an appointment as soon as you can to make sure they have maximum protection against disease.'

Launching the new campaign, Dr Vanessa Saliba, consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, said: 'The MMR vaccine offers the best protection from measles, mumps and rubella which is why we're calling on parents and carers to make sure their children are up to date with their two doses.

'Even a small drop in vaccine coverage can have a big impact on population immunity levels and lead to outbreaks.

'I would urge parents to check if their children are up to date with their MMR vaccines and if not to get them booked in as soon as they are able. It's never too late to catch-up.'

Measles is a highly infectious respiratory virus, transmitted through coughs and touching surfaces covered with infected droplets.

Once it infects the lining of the nose and upper airways, the virus spreads into the blood and travels around the body.

This triggers its characteristic red-brown blotchy rash, which usually erupts around the head and neck first before spreading to the rest of the body.

Launching a new campaign, the UKHSA and the NHS are now calling on parents and guardians to get their children vaccinated against these preventable diseases

The infection can lead to life threatening complications including pneumonia and swelling of the brain  or encephalitis.

Around one in 500 children who catch measles die from the infection.

And one in five unvaccinated people who get infected are hospitalised.

Experts say children under five years, people over 20 years, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems are most at risk from measles.

Since the measles vaccine became available in 1968, it is estimated that 20million cases and 4,500 deaths have been prevented in the UK alone.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says 95 per cent of children need to be vaccinated to keep measles away.
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A striking photograph shows a firefighter completely ice-encrusted after battling a four-alarm fire during the deadly Nor'easter that raced from Virginia up to Maine over the weekend as another front of wicked weather is expected to strike as early as Tuesday.

The Massachusetts firefighter's helmet, protective gear and mustache were frozen solid as he worked to put out the blaze at the five-family Fall River home. Video from the scene shows flames shooting out of the roof as a thick coat of ice and icicles were created by the water spewing from the fire hoses.

The blizzard spurred by winter storm Kenan pummeled the Atlantic coast, with some areas getting more than two feet of snow, and the extreme weather even brought freezing temperatures to Florida and parts of the Caribbean.

On Monday, at least 90 million people across 14 states were under a winter storm watch that is expected to bring snow and ice along its approximately 2,000 mile-long path, AccuWeather reported.

It is expected to break out in portions of Colorado and New Mexico to Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.

The storm is then expected to expand further south and east on Wednesday - impacting Texas, Arkansas and parts of the lower Ohio Valley - before striking the already-battered Northeast.

A firefighter from Fall River, Massachusetts was seen completely ice-encrusted - with his helmet, gear and mustache frozen solid - after battling a four-alarm blaze at a multi-family home on Irving Street

Flames shot out of the roof of the five-family dwelling as a thick coat of ice and icicles were created by the water spewing from the fire hoses

At least 90 million people across 14 states are under a winter storm watch Monday night as another round of wicked weather prepares to roll through

The storm, expected to bring snow and ice along its approximately 2,000 mile-long path, will strike some states as early as Tuesday night

The unidentified firefighter was battling a four-alarm fire that broke out Saturday night in a multi-family home on Irving Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. Officials said the street was flooded with ice and water.

Mayor Paul Coogan praised the crew, sharing on social media how 'they battled some really tough conditions' - such as ice, wind and snow - but still managed to do a 'tremendous job' rescuing residents.

In addition to the weather, crews were met with several issues when attempting to gain access to the home, included a disabled and abandoned tow truck on the street. Access was also obstructed by a plow truck on a neighboring street.

Despite the challenges, the crew prevented the blaze from spreading to other structures, but the building suffered 'catastrophic damage' and is considered a complete loss after approximately 80 percent of the structure collapsed.

'It was an extended battle,' Coogan told the Herald News, adding: 'It could have been a lot worse.'

One firefighter was reportedly injured trying to force entry into the complex and another injured after slipping and falling outside.

A resident in a neighboring building complained of difficulty breathing, however that appears to be the only civilian injury.

It remains unclear what caused the fire. Coogan said the Fall River Fire Department is continuing to investigate the incident.

The crews prevented the blaze from spreading to other structures, the building suffered 'catastrophic damage' and is considered a complete loss after approximately 80 percent of the structure collapsed

The mayor said thew crews 'battled some really tough conditions' - such as ice, wind, snow and the location of the building - but still managed to do a 'tremendous job' rescuing residents

One firefighter was reportedly injured trying to force entry into the complex and another injured after slipping and falling outside. A resident in a neighboring building complained of difficulty breathing, however that appears to be the only civilian injury

Winter Storm Kenan left much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic in clean-up mode Monday after leaving behind mounds of snow and below-freezing temperatures.

Photographs taken during the storm show ice covered beaches, streets and cars buried in snow, and crews working to plow clear paths for residents.

According to the National Weather Service, Boston - and areas south of the city - saw the most snow, with some towns reporting between 18 and 30 inches of accumulation.

Boston tied its record for most snowfall in a single day with 23.6 inches.

New York City saw snow in the 7 to 10 inch range, with Central Park seeing 8.3 inches, according to an AccuWeather report. Some neighborhoods in Queens got hit by more than a foot of snow.

Winter Storm Kenan left much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic in clean-up mode Monday after leaving behind mounds of snow and below freezing temperatures (Pictured: Vehicles buried by snow in Boston on Sunday)

A plow clears snow in Times Square in New York City during Winter Storm Kenan on January 29, 2022

The storm comes as the nation continues clean-up efforts from Winter Storm Kenan which pummeled the Atlantic coast with more than a foot of snow over the weekend and brought a cold front impacting temperatures in Florida and parts of the Caribbean (Pictured: Wintery views of ice and sand in Great South Bay, Long Island, NY)

The sun sets over Great South Bay, which is pictured Monday covered in ice

While, portions of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia were all placed under a blizzard warning at different points of the weekend, the most snow was reported on the coastline.

Officials claim the more inland cities, like Baltimore and Washington DC, recorded far less snowfall than communities in Massachusetts and Long Island, New York.

The storm also took the lives of two men, ages 53 and 71, in Long Island. Both died while shoveling snow, CBS News reported.

Further details were not immediately available, however, authorities said the incidents were not related.

Now, as residents work to clear their streets and homes of snow, they will have to prepare for another punishing blast.

AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter warned the storm expecting to impact 90 million people may prevent trucks from transporting goods to the central United States for a portion of the upcoming week.

An alleyway in Boston is covered in snow after Winter Storm Kenan blinded the city with blizzard conditions over the weekend

People walk through Boston Common park in Massachusetts during white-out conditions as Winter Storm Kenan bears down on January 29, 2022

Frozen post-storm conditions in Nantucket, Massachusetts over the weekend

A person clears snow in Patchogue, NY on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022

Boston's 'Make Way For Ducklings' statue is seen covered in snow on Sunday after Winter Storm Kenan pummeled the area

'We could be looking at a big mess in moving products to where people and businesses need them as a result of our latest winter storm, and this interruption in the supply chain may be felt for weeks,' he said.

The forecaster also predicted the storm will cause trouble in the travel hub cities of Denver, Dallas and Detroit.

Major highways throughout the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions - and southwestwards towards Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas - could be affected by the wintry mix of snow and ice.

'Depending on the exact track of the storm, an extended zone of icing will develop from central Texas extending through the Ohio Valley. Areas like Dallas, Little Rock and Indianapolis, could be under a significant ice threat around the middle of this week,' added Meteorologist Joe Bauer.

'Any areas that receive significant icing from this storm can experience downed trees and power lines.'

The storm may prevent trucks from transporting goods to the central United States for a portion of the upcoming week. Major highways throughout the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions - and southwestwards towards Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas - could be affected by the wintry mix of snow and ice

Heaviest snowfall is expected in the central and southern Rockies, where forecasters predicted approximately 36 inches will fall

Forecasters anticipate a broad area of ice accretion of 0.25 to 0.50 inches in the central part of the country. Some areas could see up to 1 inch of accretion. Freezing rain is expected to create a sheet of glass over untreated roads and sidewalks. Experts warn it come also cling to trees and power lines, resulting in outages

Forecasters anticipate a broad area of ice accretion of 0.25 to 0.50 inches in the central part of the country. Some areas could see up to 1 inch. The icing could last 12 to 24 hours, or more.

Freezing rain is expected to create a sheet of glass over untreated roads and sidewalks. Experts warn it come also cling to trees and power lines, resulting in outages.

Heaviest snowfall is expected in the central and southern Rockies, where forecasters predicted approximately 36 inches will fall.

Snowfall is also expected throughout the Midwest.

'A swath of heavy snow accumulating in excess of 1-inch per hour could extend from portions of eastern Kansas through central Illinois, northern Indiana, southeast Michigan, and northwest Ohio, where totals of over 6 inches can occur,' Bauer said.

Temperatures may also plummet 20 to 30 degrees in the south-central states.
Labor says energy prices won't go up under a caveat imposed on its support of the Kurri Kurri gas plant in the NSW Hunter region if it wins government.

The party wants Snowy Hydro Limited to run the plant on 30 per cent green hydrogen, increasing to 100 per cent by 2030.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese defended the apparent backflip in Labor's position, saying the government's plan was flawed.

Labor says energy prices won't go up under a caveat imposed on its support of the Kurri Kurri gas plant in the NSW Hunter region if it wins government (pictured - a gas power plant similar to the one proposed)

Mr Albanese said the new implications would not affect energy prices.

'Guess what? Now the cheapest form of clean energy is through renewables,' he told reporters when asked about energy prices.

'The costs of producing green hydrogen will fall.'

Labor climate spokesman Chris Bowen said the Kurri Kurri plant would run on the same timetable, having already received state government approval with some federal approvals still to go.

'Snowy Hydro's own documents say the plant could do 30 per cent hydrogen but they're not planning to,' he said.

'We'll take up the government's own documents which say 30 per cent hydrogen immediately is possible and we'll ensure, working positively with Snowy Hydro, that will be the case.'

An additional equity injection of $700 million has also been flagged for the project.

The pair are pushing for the Hunter region - heavily focused around coal mining jobs - as a 'hydrogen hub' into the future.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese defended the apparent backflip in Labor's position, saying the government's plan was flawed

But Resources Minister Keith Pitt said Labor's proposition was a fantasy.

'Here they are trying to tell the people of the Hunter that they'd now support the gas sector. I haven't seen anything to demonstrate that whatsoever,' he said.

'The Labor party are now a party of the inner city green left and they just don't represent working people any more.'

The plant marked internal divisions within the opposition when it was first announced, with coal-friendly Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon pushing the party to support the project.

The Nationals are targeting Labor seats in the Hunter, including Paterson where the plant is located, trying to split Labor on climate policy with coal mining jobs being a central issue in the region.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan says Labor would need to shut coal plants ahead of schedule to meet its climate commitments.

'You will lose those jobs, you will lose that reliable power, and what's left of our manufacturing industry will be on its knees,' he told Sky News.
Accuser acid bath murderer Meraj Zafar is 'distraught' about being in custody, his lawyer says - as it's revealed his lover may have been slumped in a tub for more than a day before she was found.

Aminah Hayat, 19, was found dead in the bathroom of a ground floor apartment in North Parramatta in Sydney's west on Sunday in a scene so grisly Hazmat firefighters were called.

Daily Mail Australia understands a concerned relative raised the alarm about Ms Hayat's disappearance, leading to the discovery at the Pennant Hills Road apartment block.

Zafar, 20, was charged with his girlfriend's murder late on Monday following a highly publicised police manhunt, with the accused truck driver handing himself in at Bankstown Police Station.

A lawyer, Mohamad Sakr, faced court on his behalf on Tuesday, with prosecution documents revealing police believe Miss Hayat was murdered between midday and 5pm on Saturday - more than 24 hours before police found her body.

Meraj Zafar, 20, handed himself in to police on Monday after a manhunt for the bearded truck driver seen here. He did not apply for bail and it was formally refused on Tuesday

The couple are said to have moved into the apartment (pictured) together last October

Mr Sakr did not apply for bail on behalf of Zafar at court this morning and it was formally refused by Magistrate Shane McAnulty.

Mr Sakr said he did not know if the accused would be applying for bail when the case resumes at Parramatta Court on April 5. He said he couldn't comment on whether the accused had injuries, or if he had the support of family members.

'I had a chance to speak with him... it's a matter of whether he wishes to fight the charges,' Mr Sakr said.

Mr Sakr commended his client for handing himself into police. 'He has done the right thing in attending the police station,' Mr Sakr said.

Lawyer Mohamad Sakr (pictured) told reporters outside court his client Meraj Zafar is distraught after spending his first night behind bars

Police charged the man after a woman was allegedly found dead in an acid-filled bath (pictured) in the unit in Sydney's west

The accused's lawyer would not confirm if he was married to Aminah Hayat or just her boyfriend, saying 'he is someone who is in a relationship with her'.

However, Daily Mail Australia has been told the couple was unmarried and just in a relationship when they both signed the lease last October on the flat where Ms Hayat's body was found in the bath.

A property agent said the pair 'just seemed like a normal young couple'.

Police officers outside the apartment complex on Monday



On Monday, police released CCTV images of a man - alleged to be Zafar - driving a tipper truck, sporting a dark beard and sunglasses, in the hopes he could assist with inquiries into Miss Hayat's death.

A truck matching the police description was later found at a Bunnings in Greenacre in south-west Sydney and was seized by detectives to undergo forensic tests.

Zafar handed himself in a short time later.

Evidence was seen being taken from the scene in special biohazard bags (pictured)

Parramatta Police Area Commander Superintendent Julie Boon said police had found her body in the bathroom of the first-floor unit along with chemicals.

'The officers forced entry into the unit and inside the bathroom they found the body of a female,' she said.

'I can confirm there were chemicals found inside the bathroom of the unit. I can't confirm what they were.

'The scene was very challenging for arriving police. When they did arrive and found chemicals at the unit, they retreated and called other units.'

Zafar will return to court in April.
Boris Johnson last night vowed to bring back election guru Lynton Crosby while rallying Tory MPs following the Partygate report.

The Prime Minister won applause from backbenchers as he told a private meeting that Sir Lynton would return to advise him.

Dubbed the Wizard of Oz, the Australian election strategist masterminded Mr Johnsons mayoral victories in London.

The Prime Minister has been facing calls for months to bring in a big hitter like Sir Lynton to sharpen up his top team.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night vowed to bring back election guru Lynton Crosby, dubbed the Wizard of Oz (pictured), while rallying Tory MPs following the Partygate report

Mr Johnson addressed backbenchers and ministers for almost an hour last night and repeated his apology over alleged breaches of coronavirus rules at No 10.

His words appeared to have won round some of the waverers, with Gary Sambrook  one of the alleged Pork Pie Plotters'  later saying the Prime Minister had promised to change and should now be allowed to get on with the job.

Other MPs said no one in the meeting had called for Mr Johnson to go  with the prospect of a leadership election filling people with horror.

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow acknowledged that it had been a difficult day but said he left the meeting feeling absolutely pumped.

What the Prime Minister admitted is that Downing Street needs to be slimmer and more focused, he added.

Thats what we need to be better at. Its about making No 10 and the Government run much more efficiently.

Boris Johnson delivers a statement to MPs in the House of Commons on the Sue Gray report

'We have a Prime Minister and its in everyones interest that he is in fighting form. Not a single person said he should go.

Another MP said his fellow Tories felt they had to stick together and support Mr Johnson.

Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said the mood was positive and the Prime Minister had a determination to put things right.

He added: You cant ignore a majority of 80.
A Jetstar passenger claims they were given a $10 voucher as compesnation after the airline cancelled the flight less than two hours before take-off.

The passenger posted a photo of the 'refreshment voucher' to social media on Monday.

The cancellation apparently lead to a six-hour wait for a rescheduled flight, with only the snack voucher to help pass the time.

'Thanks Jetstar for compensating me with a $10 voucher after mentioning that my flight was cancelled within 2 hours of departure and putting us on a flight for 6 hours later,' the passenger .

An airline passenger, who claimed they received a $10 voucher to make up for their last-minute flight cancellation in an Australian airport, has shared details of the miserly compensation

The Jetstar passenger claimed they were given a $10 coupon to spend on refreshments while they waited six hours. Jetstar usually offers more compensation than was claimed in this case

The coupon depicted entitled the bearer to refreshments 'to the value of $10' inside the airport.

The passenger said they redeemed it for two rice paper rolls from Vietnamese food outlet Roll'd.

A Jetstar spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the company's policy for a six hour flight delay is usually to provide three meal vouchers per passenger.

Given the cost of airport food, the $10 voucher would not have been enough to purchase a full meal and drink.

The passenger was unable to use it to buy alcohol.

Reddit users were unimpressed at Jetstar's compensation. 'Woo-hoo, $10!' wrote one.

'Honestly I don't get how companies don't realize how these sort of "compensations" are actively worse than doing nothing,' faderjester wrote.

'S*** happens, most people move on, but being given something like that is rubbing salt in the wound and just p***es you off more.'

One Reddit poster called the $10 voucher 'stingy' while another joked 'Pity you can't use that voucher in the airport car park. You could pay for seven minutes parking with that.'

Another Reddit user joked the voucher could buy 'half a beer', while another said it could have bought 'a babycino'.

The passenger claimed that in some overseas airports cancelling a flight at such short notice can lead to other compensation.

'In Europe you're compensated if your flight is canceled within 3 hours of departure.' they wrote. 'This was within 2 hours and nothing. It's just bulls***.'

Reddit users were unimpressed at the compensation, with one claiming it was worse than doing nothing at all

Another user said the passenger should have pushed for more compensation.

'You could have even asked for more vouchers but you settled for one (they can also deny you more but it's within your rights to request it),' ryanbrasher wrote.

Another Reddit user said when their Qantas flight was delayed they managed to 'hustle' $60 worth of vouchers to cover several hours of waiting.

'For flights cancelled within the airlines control, customers have a range of options available including a full refund, a credit voucher or be moved to the next available flight at no cost  in addition to meal vouchers for customers who are delayed at the airport which can be used at food outlets,' Jetstar said in a statement.
Data released by the Mexican government shows a 78 percent increase in migrants detained in the country in January compared with the same period a year ago.

The report, published by the National Institute of Migration on Monday, found that 16,740 migrants, mostly from Central and South America, were taken into custody between January 1 and January 30.

In comparison, 9,406 people who crossed into the country without proper documents were stopped in the same period of 2021.

It was unclear if the number of migrants was less last year because of last winters brutal coronavirus surge.

Some of the 198 migrants who were detained after they were removed from two tourist buses used by smugglers to transport them in Oaxaca, Mexico, last Wednesday

Mexico's National Institute of Migration reported a 78 percent increase of apprehensions of undocumented migrants in the month of January compared with the same period in 2021. The group pictured above, in all 16 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, were found hiding inside the cabin of the truck at a checkpoint in Tabasco on January 19

Mexican immigration agents took 16 migrants into custody moments after the driver of the small truck they were ferried escaped fled from a checkpoint in Chiapas last Tuesday

Children and youths under age 18 made up 14.5 percent of the migrants detained, and a total of 780 were found to be unaccompanied by family members, the agency said.

Of the 16,740 migrants, 6,297, or 38 percent, were from Asia, Africa, Europe or other parts of the world outside the Americas.

Migrants smugglers in Mexico have recently been trying some innovative methods, including ferrying migrants for hundreds of miles on the backs of motorcycles or smuggling them in vehicles with fake logos.

At least 28 Nicaraguans were found crammed inside a fake ambulance painted with logos from a government health agency on January 22. The vehicle was stopped in Mexico's Pacific coast state of Oaxaca.

Last Tuesday authorities said eight motorcycles, each with a driver and a Cuban migrant riding on the back, were stopped at a checkpoint in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco about 180 miles from where they had set out. They were headed for the northern state of Coahuila, more than 1,000 miles away. The drivers were detained, and the migrants turned over to immigration officials.

On Saturday, 14 migrants from Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua were detained after authorities intercepted a truck hauling a small, open-air cargo box with wood panels in the south state of Oaxaca.

On January 19, at least 19 individuals from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua were detained during a roadside inspection in Tabasco after security forces and immigration agents inspected a tractor trailer and found the individuals hiding inside the cabin.

In two separate incidents later that day, agents in Veracruz discovered 388 undocumented migrants bound who were being ferried in two different tractor trailers.

Some of the 388 undocumented migrants that were taken into custody on January 19 after security forces pulled over two tractor trailers in the Gulf state of Veracruz

A migrant woman steps out of a truck she and 15 other individuals were found hiding in during a roadside inspection on January 19 in Tabasco

Immigrant traffickers in Mexico general try to smuggle migrants in buses or freight trucks. The trucks are often painted with the logos of well-known companies to try to avoid scrutiny.

A U.S.-bound truck with 170 migrants that was disguised by smugglers as a Mexican Food Ministry vehicle crashed in Veracruz on January 11. A total of 38 migrants, including eight children, stood behind after suffering injuries while the rest of the group escaped.

Migrants found in such circumstances are usually returned to their home countries, unless they are the victims of a crime.

People walk of the beach next to the US-Mexico border in Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022.

A migrant waits for his chance to cross the border after United States Customs and Border Protection officers detain a couple of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border on the beach in Tijuana last Wednesday

A migrant waits of the Mexican side of the border after United States Customs and Border Protection officers detained a couple of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border on the beach in Tijuana, Mexico, last Wednesday

The latest figures were released the same day about 100 migrants protested in front of a shelter located in the southern Mexican municipality of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, and criticized the increase in raids, arrests and the government's slow response in providing humanitarian visas that permit them to move freely throughout the country.

At least 30 migrants were taken into custody by Tapachula authorities in front of the Jesus El Buen Pastor shelter.

Activist Irineo Mujica, who has led many of the migrant caravans that have formed in years past, told Mexican newspaper La Razon that forming another massive group to head to the U.S. border would not solve the immigration issues that exist in Mexico.

'I'm not saying that a caravan is going to solve something, their policy is incongruous because one day you give them humanitarian visas and the next you persecute and beat them,' Mujica said. 'There is a humanitarian crisis that is out of control in Chiapas.'
Boris Johnson appeared to suggest that members of the Labour shadow cabinet had taken drugs during yesterday's Commons clash.

The Prime Minister told Labour MP Luke Pollard to direct his question 'at the Labour frontbench' after being asked if there was a culture of 'excessive drug-taking in Downing Street'.

Mr Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: 'Part Four of the Sue Gray report says there was a culture of excessive consumption of alcohol, which is not appropriate. Is there also a culture of excessive drug taking in Downing Street?'

Boris Johnson speaking during a statement following an update on a report by Sue Gray in to parties at Downing Street during Covid-19 lockdowns, in the House of Commons on January 31

Boris Johnson said 'sorry' in the Commons today after being hit with damning revelations in the Sue Gray report

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has formerly refused to deny taking drugs, during an interview with Piers Morgan

Mr Johnson replied: 'Any drug taking would be excessive.

Perhaps he should direct that question at the Labour frontbench.'

He did not say who he was referring to  but Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has formerly refused to deny taking drugs.

Appearing in an ITV interview with Piers Morgan last year, Sir Keir was asked if he had ever had a 'cheeky spliff here and there'.

Refusing to answer yes or no, he replied: 'We worked hard and played hard.'
A nightclub event has been criticised for charging straight men up to six times more for entry than black female clubbers or those who had a different sexuality.

While the men had to pay 112, black and ethnic minority party-goers who were 'queer' (now used as a broad term for people who are not heterosexual), non-binary (who identify as neither male nor female), or trans could get in for 16.80.

White clubbers who were trans or non-white straight women could pay a mid-range ticket price of 24.64.

While the men had to pay 112, black and ethnic minority party-goers who were 'queer' (now used as a broad term for people who are not heterosexual), non-binary (who identify as neither male nor female), or trans could get in for 16.80. Pictured: The E1 nightclub

The organisers held their event at the E1 nightclub in east London on January 28. Their website said the pricing scale would help poorer people attend for free.

One critic wrote on Twitter: 'They don't have discrimination laws in the UK?' Another said: 'This kind of equity is immoral and unjust.' One tweet recalled a vegan cafe in Australia that introduced a 'man tax'.

The event was based around the theme of 'celebrating you [and your] relationship with the universe'.

The Facebook page of event organiser Pxssy Palace said it was 'a space that prioritises womxn and femmes of colour and other queer, intersex and trans people of colour'.

The organisers held their event at the E1 nightclub in east London on January 28. Their website said the pricing scale would help poorer people attend for free. Pictured: The ticket prices

The organisers' website stated: 'We encourage everyone who can afford to to buy the higher priced tickets, especially if you are not someone from the community that Pxssy Palace aims to centre.'

The website also said that 'allies and accomplices' could play their part by 'paying more money for entry, giving generously to the taxi fund' and 'being aware of the space you take up, how your behaviour may make others feel'.

It said it did not enforce how clubbers identified with their categories.

The organisers were contacted for comment.
A Dutch publishing house has apologised over a book claiming a fellow Jew denounced Anne Frank to the Nazis in 1944.

Ambo Anthos said further prints of The Betrayal of Anne Frank would be suspended until more research was carried out.

The book suggested Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish notary, was behind the deportation of the diarist and seven other Jews.

The publisher said the investigation into who gave away the Frank family's hiding-place in Amsterdam had initially seemed 'valuable'.

But in a statement addressed to 'anyone who feels offended by the book', Ambo Anthos said that they had been swept up with the 'momentum' of international publication and admitted that they should have taken a more 'critical' attitude.

It comes after the notary's family protested that there were inconsistencies in the evidence that he betrayed the 15-year-old Frank and others by handing over addresses of Jewish safehouses to the Gestapo.

Pieter van Twisk, a member of the investigation team, told Dutch public broadcaster NOS he was perplexed by the publisher's apology, and insisted that the claims made had been appropriately caveated in the book.

A Dutch publishing house has apologised over a book claiming a fellow Jew denounced Anne Frank to the Nazis in 1944. Ambo Anthos said further prints of The Betrayal of Anne Frank would be suspended until more research was carried out (Anne Frank pictured)

The book accused Amsterdam notary Arnold van den Bergh, pictured, of revealing where the teenager was hiding and giving addresses of Jewish safehouses to the Gestapo

Ambo Anthos said further prints of The Betrayal of Anne Frank would be suspended until more research was carried out (pictured: Anne Marie van den Bergh, the daughter of Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh)

Published on January 18, Rosemary Sullivan's book on the betrayal of Anne Frank is based on six years of research by a team led by Vince Pankoke, a retired FBI detective.

The book was written by Sullivan after a crack team of cold case researchers declared they had solved the 77-year mystery, 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.

The research further implied that the Jewish notary, who died of throat cancer in 1950, had used the addresses of Jewish hiding places as a form of insurance for the lives of his family, as Van den Bergh and his daughter were never sent to the concentration camps.

Frank meanwhile died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in February 1945 aged only 15.

But historians and researchers, including the Anne Frank Fund, said the van den Bergh theory was based on assumptions and did not provide clear evidence that the notary was responsible.

Otto Frank is pictured with his daughters Margot and Anne (sitting on his lap), circa 1931

Historians and researchers, including the Anne Frank Fund, said the van den Bergh theory was based on assumptions. Pictured: The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam

Mr van den Bergh came under under suspicion from the investigation's 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.

Mr van den Bergh was also a member of Amsterdam's Jewish Council which had access to extensive lists of local Jews. The council was widely accused after the war of collaborating with their Nazi overlords.

But retired electrical engineer and friend of the family 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.

Paul Theelen (left), whose grandfather hid Mr van den Bergh's youngest daughter Anne-Marie (right) between 1943 and 1944,argued that the Jewish notary could not have betrayed Anne Frank to the Nazis. '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,' he said

Photo shows the house where Anne Frank lived in Amsterdam and where she hid with her parents to escape from Nazis between June 1942 and August 4, 1944

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 Twowho has been accused of betraying Anne Frank in 1944

'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,' Theelen continued.

'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.'

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.

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.

Anne-Marie hid in a gap between the original roof of the building and a new section of roof built when at the home of Mr Theelen's grandfather Leo Bastiaensen was extended in 1939. Above: An original sketch of the hiding place

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.

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.
Sunrise host David 'Kochie' Koch has slammed a controversial blood donation rule as 'stupid' and revealed it has kept his family from donating.

On Tuesday morning presenters were discussing a blood donation rule that prevents people who lived in the UK for more than six between 1980 and 1996 from donating blood.

This rule is due to an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as 'mad cow disease') over several years from the late 1980s.

Kochie said neither he nor any of his children have been able to donate since they lived in Britain in the 90s.

Scroll down for the video.

Kochie labelled the rule aimed at preventing the spread of Mad Cow Disease stupid as donor shortages due to Covid continue

'I've never been able to give blood,' Kochie said.

He also revealed that there are several other countries worldwide where his family is unable to donate.

Co-host Natalie Barr was shocked by the rule and questioned why potential donors couldn't just consult with a doctor to check before donation.

Kochie confirmed he has never experienced any symptoms of the disease.

Recent donor shortages due to Covid have led to a submission to the Red Cross asking the rule be lifted.

The removal of the rule would reportedly allow 'tens of thousands' of people to begin donating

The removal of the rule would reportedly allow 'tens of thousands' of people to begin donating.

A spokeswoman representing the submission party said the reviewal process was underway.

'Our submission is currently being reviewed by external medical experts, prior to consideration by the Australian regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration,' she told The Guardian.

'We look forward to having more to say about our submission in future.

'Lifeblood would like to make it easier for all Australians to give blood, while ensuring Australia's blood and blood products are as safe as possible for blood recipients.'

What is Mad Cow Disease? Mad Cow Disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is a brain disease found in adult cattle. The disease is believed to be spread to humans through the consumption of infected meat. People with the disease will suffer mental deterioration until collapse. Mad Cow has a 100 per cent fatality rate and most patients die within a few months. In the 1980s to 1990s the UK suffered a Mad Cow epidemic that killed 178 people. It is believed that one in 2000 in the UK remain a carrier of the disease. Advertisement
Masks could remain mandatory on flights for years and will be one of the last restrictions to be dropped worldwide, experts predicted last night.

It will be nigh-on impossible for individual airlines to allow passengers to travel without face coverings because of a mish-mash of international rules.

Until there is a harmonised lifting of mask mandates on flights by governments worldwide it is simpler for airlines to keep the rules in place, a senior aviation source told The Times.

Masks could remain mandatory on flights for years and will be one of the last restrictions to be dropped worldwide, experts predicted last night

UK airlines are reported to be waiting to act as one when easing measures and are seeking international consistency.

Neil Sorahan, Ryanairs chief financial officer, told the newspaper that masks would be with us for a while longer to come and were a small price to pay.

He compared them to emergency measures introduced in 2006 to restrict passengers taking liquids in hand luggage after police foiled a terror plot.

UK airlines are reported to be waiting to act as one when easing measures and are seeking international consistency

An airline source added to the paper: A bit like supermarkets, well almost certainly keep the same policy until it is safe to move.

For example, the rules in the US are very clear on masks.

It would be ridiculous of us to ask passengers to put them on when we enter their airspace.
A fire tore through an eighth floor flat in a London tower block leaving one person in hospital after dozens of firefighters battled the late-night blaze.

Up to 70 firefighters were on scene in Tower Hamlets, London, where 20 people were evacuated with four people rescued by crews wearing breathing apparatus.

London Fire Brigade said the five-bedroom apartment where the fire started was on the eighth floor of the building and that they were called shortly after 10.30pm on Monday night.

Inferno: Four people were rescued and as many as 20 people were evacuated from this tower block in east London after a fire broke out in an eighth floor apartment on Monday night

London Fire Brigade says it sent 70 firefighters to the scene to battle the blaze in Tower Hamlets on Monday night with ten crews from across the capital responding to the incident

London Fire Brigade said the five-bedroom apartment where the fire started was on the eighth floor of the building and that they were called shortly after 10.30pm on Monday night

The fire service sent 10 crews to the scene with dozens of firefighters working to get the blaze under control

The brigade received as many as 40 calls from concerned members of the public about the fire, with pictures from the scene showing flames bursting from the windows.

The fire service sent 10 crews to the scene with dozens of firefighters working to get the blaze under control.

Footage shows firefighters using an aerial ladder platform to spray water directly into the flat via the property's balcony as the crews had the fire under control in just over an hour.

Station Commander Matt Williams, who was at the scene, said: 'Firefighters evacuated 20 people from the building and rescued four people via an internal staircase.

'One of the Brigade's new 32-metre ladders from Old Kent Road Fire Station was used as a water tower and crews also used drones to provide an aerial view of the incident and increase situational awareness.

'Abbott Road is closed at the A13 junction down to the junction by Blair Street.

LFB said they used new 32-metre ladders as a water tower to tackle the blaze late last night

Pictures show the devastation after the fire crews were able to get the blaze under control

'Firefighters are expected to remain on scene throughout the night and we urge people to avoid the area whilst crews continue to work to make the scene safe.'

The Brigade was called at 10.33pm and the fire was under control by 11.48pm.

LFB said crews from Plaistow, East Ham, Greenwich, Shoreditch and surrounding fire stations attended the scene.

Police officers from the Met confirmed they were also on scene and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Tower Hamlets Police shared a post on their official Twitter account that read: 'Officers from Central East BCU are on scene assisting colleagues from the LFB & LAS in response to this incident.'
Boris Johnson was yesterday forced to postpone a call to Vladimir Putin so he could deal with Partygate as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss pulled out of a visit to Ukraine after catching Covid.

The call between the Prime Minister and the Russian president was due to take place yesterday afternoon but is understood to have slipped to today after Moscow reportedly rejected a request for a brief delay.

Asked if it was because of the timing of Sue Gray's report on Partygate, Mr Johnson's spokesman said there had not been a 'settled time' for the call.

But he added: 'It's not unusual for timings with world leaders to change and you will appreciate the control of the timing for the receipt of this report rightly [was] with Sue Gray and her team, and the Prime Minister had committed to come to the House to make an update.'

Downing Street said officials were 'looking to finalise the time' for Mr Johnson to hold the call with Mr Putin.

It comes after Ms Truss said she had tested positive for coronavirus last night.

Boris Johnson was yesterday forced to postpone a call to Vladimir Putin so he could deal with Partygate

The call between the Prime Minister and the Russian president was due to take place yesterday afternoon but is understood to have slipped to today after Moscow reportedly rejected a request for a brief delay

She had been due to fly to Kyiv with the Prime Minister today in a show of support as tensions with Russia continue.

It comes after she sat on a crowded front bench in the Commons, without a mask on, two seats away from the Prime Minister while he gave a statement on Partygate.

She then gave a statement on Ukraine, flanked by departmental colleagues, and later attended a packed meeting of Tory MPs being addressed by Mr Johnson without wearing a mask.

She tweeted afterwards: 'I tested positive for Covid this evening. Thankfully I've had my three jabs and will be working from home while I isolate.'

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has tested positive for coronavirus, hours after she was sat inches away from Boris Johnson in the Commons

Foreign secretary Liz Truss (centre) leaves the House of Commons, London, on Monday night

The minister was set to travel to Kyiv, Ukraine , with the Prime Minister on Tuesday in a show of support for the country. But those plans will have to change after Ms Truss tweeted that she has Covid

The Prime Minister earlier said he would warn Mr Putin to 'step back from the brink' of an invasion of Ukraine, which would be an 'absolute disaster'.

Mr Johnson is expected to visit Ukraine today for a meeting with the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as tens of thousands of Russian troops maintain their position close to the Ukrainian border. It was hoped a call would go ahead before the meeting.

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the reports of the delayed phone call showed there were 'real world consequences' of having a Prime Minister fighting for his political survival and 'a vital diplomatic opportunity has been missed'.

Instead of speaking to Mr Johnson on Monday night, Putin spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron. During the exchange, the pair agreed to maintain a dialogue on implementing the Minsk agreements regarding Donbass, a region of eastern Ukraine where Moscow has backed separatist fighters.

Fears of an imminent Russian incursion in Ukraine have grown in recent days, despite denials from Moscow and pleas from Zelensky to avoid stirring 'panic' over the military build-up on the border.

A Ukrainian serviceman adjusts the strap of his weapon in a trench at a frontline position in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Monday, Jan. 31

Earlier, Ms Truss announced plans for legislation with new powers to sanction individuals and businesses linked to the Russian state ahead of the visit.

She told MPs legislation would allow the UK 'to target any company that is linked to the Russian state, engages in business of economic significance to the Russian state or operates in a sector of strategic significance to the Russian state'.

She added: 'Those in and around the Kremlin will have nowhere to hide.'

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss making a statement on Russia and Ukraine, in the House of Commons in London on January 31

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the sanctions were 'direct threats to attack business' and Russia could take 'retaliatory measures'.

The US also said it has prepared a list of Russian elites to hit with sanctions if Moscow sends troops into Ukraine.

New splits in Nato over Ukraine emerged last night after Hungary told Defence Secretary Ben Wallace it will not host thousands of Western troops.

The timing of the snub is significant as Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban is expected to meet Mr Putin at the Kremlin today.

Asked if more Nato troops could be sent to Hungary, defence minister Tibor Benko said: 'We do not require assistance We have the capabilities to deal with the situation.'

It came as the UN Security Council held a tense meeting over the build-up of 127,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's borders. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said threats to Ukraine 'also threaten Europe'.
Accused killer Meraj Zafar is seen sharing a tender moment with his teenage lover in a social media post - before he later allegedly killed her and dumped her body in a bath of acid.

The remains of Aminah Hayat, 19, were allegedly found in the couple's bathtub on Sunday, at the unit they shared in North Parramatta, in Sydney's west.

There are claims the couple - who were pictured by Daily Mail Australia for the first time on Tuesday - had recently married just weeks before her gruesome death.

Court papers revealed Ms Hayat may have been slumped in the tub for more than a day before she was found.

Prosecution documents reveal police believe Ms Hayat was allegedly murdered between midday and 5pm on Saturday - more than 24 hours before police found her body.

Police smashed their way into the apartment in North Parramatta on Sunday after worried relatives raised the alarm.

Accused killer Meraj Zafar is seen in new pictures as he shares a tender moment with teenage lover Aminah Hayat - before he allegedly killed her and dumped her body in a bath of acid

Zafar handed himself in to police on Monday and was charged with the woman's murder

In the couple's salmon pink bathroom at their rented $320-a-week two-bedroom unit, they allegedly found the Ms Hayat's remains dissolving in the acid bath.

Detectives launched a manhunt for Zafar, 20, who had been seen fleeing the scene in his truck. He later handed himself in to police on Monday and was charged with her murder.

Ms Hayat came from Bangladesh to Australia when she was younger, before meeting her alleged killer and marrying him 'within weeks' of her death.

The whirlwind romance is reported to have upset both families of the lovers after they revealed their plans to wed, according to NewsCorp.

Zafar's lawyer Mohamad Sakr faced court on his behalf on Tuesday and said the alleged killer was 'distraught' about being in custody after his first night behind bars.

Ms Hayat's hairdresser Sadia Ali said she was heartbroken by the tragedy.

Meraj Zafar, 20, attended a police station on Monday after a manhunt for the bearded truck driver seen here

The couple are said to have moved into the apartment (pictured) together last October

'It's terrible news,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'She was such a beautiful soul.'

Locals recalled Ms Hayat as being an ideal neighbour but rarely spoke to her. Zafar told neighbours he was from Pakistan but they said his English was excellent.

Next door neighbour Ali Safari identified the couple from social media photos and said Ms Hayat had 'seemed very happy' and was 'smiling and pleasant'.

He added: 'She was always playing music. She was quiet, I never spoke with her.'

As well as his truck, neighbours said Zafar also owned a black BMW coupe which was allegedly searched and removed by detectives.

Mr Sakr did not apply for bail on behalf of Zafar at court this morning and it was formally refused by Magistrate Shane McAnulty.

Lawyer Mohamad Sakr (pictured) told reporters outside court his client Meraj Zafar is distraught after spending his first night behind bars

Police charged the man after a woman was allegedly found dead in an acid-filled bath (pictured) in the unit in Sydney's west

Mr Sakr said he did not know if the accused would be applying for bail when the case resumes at Parramatta Court on April 5. He said he couldn't comment on whether the accused had injuries, or if he had the support of family members.

Mr Sakr commended his client for attending the police station. 'He has done the right thing in attending the police station,' Mr Sakr said.

The accused's lawyer would not confirm if he was married to Aminah Hayat or just her boyfriend, saying 'he is someone who is in a relationship with her'.

On Monday, police released CCTV images of a man - alleged to be Zafar - driving a tipper truck, sporting a dark beard and sunglasses, in the hopes he could assist with inquiries into Miss Hayat's death.

Police officers outside the apartment complex on Monday after the 19-year-old's body was discovered

Evidence was seen being taken from the scene in special biohazard bags (pictured)

A truck matching the police description was later found at a Bunnings in Greenacre in south-west Sydney and was seized by detectives to undergo forensic tests.

Zafar attended the police station in a short time later.

Parramatta Police Area Commander Superintendent Julie Boon said police had found her body in the bathroom of the first-floor unit along with chemicals.

'The officers forced entry into the unit and inside the bathroom they found the body of a female,' she said.

'I can confirm there were chemicals found inside the bathroom of the unit. I can't confirm what they were.

'The scene was very challenging for arriving police. When they did arrive and found chemicals at the unit, they retreated and called other units.'

Zafar will return to court in April.
A couple has been filmed engaged in a bizarre public sex act as shocked diners watched on in horror.

The shocking act that unfolded in the middle of a busy inner-Sydney shopping and dining precinct in Potts Point was caught on camera and is being investigated by police.

Stunned patrons enjoying lunch at a pub across the street were forced to watch on as a woman pulled down a man's pants to perform a sex act on a picnic bench.

Diners at a Potts Point pub watched on in horror as a couple engaged in a public sex act across the street on Australia Day

'What the f**k,' one witness can be heard saying.

A woman added: 'What's going on?'

The act was also reportedly witnessed by pub staff.

NSW Police have confirmed an investigation has been launched into the incident, which is believed to have occurred last Wednesday on Australia Day.

In NSW, it is illegal to 'wilfully and obscenely expose his or her person' in a public place under the Summary Offences Act.

Police are investigating the incident which occurred in Potts Point's busy Springfield Avenue on Australia Day

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call Crime Stoppers.

The latest incident comes after CCTV captured a naked man wearing just sunglasses and footwear paying for petrol at a service station in nearby Edgecliff last week.

A Bexley North man, 48, has since been charged with wilful and obscene exposure and will face is due to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on February 25.
Channel Ten's Political Editor Peter Van Onselen has been named in legal action brought against the network by one of its reporters, Tegan George.

Ms George has worked for the channel since 2019 as a political reporter but has been on leave since June 2020.

Court documents were filed in the Federal Court yesterday naming Network Ten as the respondent and alleging it had engaged in unlawful conduct that breached the Fair Work Act.

The bullying case follows the recent controversy featuring Mr Van Onselen after he criticised 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame for her demeanour towards Prime Minister Scott Morrison when attending an Australia Day function at The Lodge.

Network Ten Federal political reporter Tegan George has launched legal action in the Federal Court against her employer, accusing it of breaching the Fair Work Act

Channel 10's Political Editor Peter Van Onselen has been named in legal action brought against the network by one of its reporters, Tegan George

A number of other senior employees of Network Ten have also been named in the application.

Ms George is being represented by prominent Melbourne employment lawyer, Josh Bornstein.

She is still described as the network's federal political reporter on her LinkedIn profile, and has been with the network for more than 11 years, including reporting stints in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

Mr Van Onselen joined the network as its political editor in 2018, heading up political coverage across 10 News First, The Project, Studio 10, 10 Daily and 10 Speaks.

Channel 10 Political Editor Peter van Onselen found himself under attack after labelling Grace Tame 'ungracious, rude and childish' following her attendance at The Lodge last week

Mr van Onselen found himself under attack last week when he branded Ms Tame, the 27-year-old outgoing Australian of the Year, as 'immature' for her 'side-eye' towards Mr Morrison at The Lodge in Canberra last week.

He wrote a scathing editorial on the awkward encounter, calling the sexual abuse survivor 'ungracious, rude and childish', and suggested she should have stayed at home.

Fellow political journalist Amy Remeikis took Mr van Onselen to task during an interview on The Project after publication of his column.

'Your column today, devastating to so many people,' Ms Remeikis told him.

'We're constantly being told how we should act, who we should think about and who perhaps should be seen in our place.'

In a subsequent podcast, Mr Van Onselen said he hadn't changed his mind about the way he feels, just that he now believes he didn't need to voice them.

'I think it was probably unnecessary for me to bother to write the opinion piece,' he told the Critical Line Item podcast. 'To say all of those things. I can just think it.'
An under-pressure Scott Morrison has listed his top mistakes during the Covid-19 pandemic but refused to say sorry for them.

After delivering a speech to the National Press club where he admitted to making errors, Mr Morrison - who trails Labor by a massive 12 points in the polls - was asked if he would like to apologise for mistakes throughout his time in office.

'Do you want to take this opportunity to actually say sorry for the mistakes you've made as prime minister,' asked host Laura Tingle.

'Not just about Covid - everything from going to Hawaii during the bushfires through to not having enough rapid antigen tests.'

Scott Morrison (pictured at the National Press Club on Tuesday) has listed his top mistakes during the Covid-19 pandemic but refused to say sorry for them

Mr Morrison began his reply by saying: 'We're all terribly sorry for what this pandemic has done to the world and to this country. These are the times in which we live.'

But he then went on to list three key errors including unfairly raising people's hopes before this summer, not placing the vaccine rollout under military command from the start and poorly managing outbreaks in aged care.

'We could have communicated more clearly about the risks and challenges that we still face,' Mr Morrison said in reference to how he called for an end to restrictions including mask-wearing before the Omicron wave in December.

'In our communications, we have to be be clear about that. We can't lift people's hopes, then disappointment them. I think that's what happened over the break.'

Mr Morrison had travelled the nation in December calling for state governments to get out of people's lives and demanding a return to normal after two years of Covid restrictions - but just weeks later it became clear that strict rules were still needed as Omicron spread.

PM admits three mistakes in pandemic 1. Raising hopes before summer by calling for an end to restrictions 2. Not placing vaccine rollout under military command from the start 3. Poor management of aged care outbreaks Advertisement

'Secondly, on the vaccination program, if I had my time over, I would have put it under a military operation from the outset and not later in the year,' Mr Morrison said.

The Prime Minister said the goal to offer a jab to everyone by October was achieved but admitted the rollout got off to a slow start, prompting him to install Lieutenant General John Frewen as boss of the programme.

'I took the decision to send in General Frewen and change the way we did it, and set up a change in the command structure, how logistics were managed, how it was planned. And it worked. But I wish we'd done that earlier. And that's a lesson,' Mr Morrison said.

In mid 2021 the federal government copped heavy criticism for the slow vaccine rollout which was well behind comparable nations and meant Sydney and Melbourne had to be plunged into four-month lockdowns amid Delta outbreaks.

The Prime Minster also admitted that aged care outbreaks should have been handled better, mentioning one incident at St Basil's home in Sydney when the staff had to isolate and the military had to be sent in.

'The interface between the aged care sector and the public hospital system was blurred. And so, when the storms of Covid hit, that created some real challenges,' he said.

'And in the aged care sector - I remember it was one of the hardest days of the pandemic - with St Basil's.

'We had a whole health workforce stood down because of Covid rules... and I had to send the military in that night.

Scott Morrison went to Hawaii on holiday in December 2019 during major bushfires, before cutting his holiday short when photos (above) emerged of him on social media

'The interface and whether patients could be moved and how and when from aged care facilities into hospital facilities, private and public... could have been done better, between both the states and ourselves.'

Tingle then said: 'So you don't have to say sorry about any of those things?' and the Prime Minister replied: 'I think I've explained my answer fairly fully.'

What's the price of a loaf of bread?

Another awkward moment came when the Prime Minister was unable to say the price of a loaf of bread after facing accusations he has lost touch with ordinary Australians.

Sky News reporter Andrew Clennell asked: 'We've got up to 100 Australians a day dying with Covid, a low booster rate, inflation, businesses in Sydney and Melbourne on their knees without your support.

'Have you lost touch with ordinary Australians? And on that theme off the top of your head, can you tell me the price of a loaf of bread, a litre of petrol and a rapid antigen test.'

Mr Morrison's advisors texted him the answers but the Prime Minister didn't even try to list the prices, instead saying: 'Now, I'm not going to pretend to you that I go out each day and I buy a loaf of bread and I buy a litre of milk.

'I'm not going to pretend to you that I do that. And I'll leave those sort of things to you, mate. And you can run it.

'But the point is that I do my job every day to ensure that those things are affordable as they possibly can be for Australians every single day.'

'Gladys called Scomo a horrible, horrible person'

Later Mr Morrison was left stunned by a text message exchange featuring former NSW Gladys Berejiklian in which she allegedly called him a 'horrible, horrible person'.

Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen confronted the PM with the series of incendiary text messages he had on his phone.

'In one she described you as quote, "a horrible, horrible person" going on to say she did not trust you. And you're more concerned with politics than people,' he said.

Ms Berejiklian's messages were allegedly sent to an unnamed cabinet minister.

'The minister is even more scathing, describing you as a fraud and quote ''a complete psycho",' said Professor Onselen.

The Prime minister was left almost speechless, only replying: 'Well I don't know who you're referring to, or the basis of what you've put to me. But I obviously don't agree with it and I don't think that is my record.'

Disastrous polling

Mr Morrison's speech about health and economic resilience came after a disastrous Newspoll put Labor on track to comfortably win the next election.

The Opposition is ahead 56-44 on a two-party-preferred basis in the Coalition's worst polling performance since September 2018, a month after Malcolm Turnbull was replaced.

The 12-point lead puts Labor on track to win up to 25 seats from the Coalition and represents a 6-point lead increase from the last poll on December 6 when it was ahead 53-47.

Mr Morrison dismissed the results and claimed they do no accurately represent how people will actually vote at the ballot box.

On Monday Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the polls could change by the election in May.

'Many obituaries were written by those in the media and our political opponents who got ahead of themselves,' he said in reference to Mr Morrison's surprise win at the 2019 election.

The latest poll came as eastern Australia is ravaged by a large outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 which is causing staff shortages for thousands of businesses.

The federal government has also faced heavy criticism over the widespread shortage of rapid antigen tests and was blasted by the NSW Government on Sunday for refusing to split the cost of a new business support package.

Protesters are seen during an anti-vaccination rally outside the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra

About 50 protesters outside the building waved flags - including banners supporting Donald Trump

There was a large police presence outside the building where the protesters had gathered

Bonus cash for aged care workers

In the speech Mr Morrison announced aged care workers will get two bonus payments of up to $400 in February and May to stop them leaving the sector which is ravaged by Covid outbreaks and staff shortages.

Labor and unions have blasted the bonus payments describing the move as a 'cheap and nasty' election stunt.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the PM was trying to 'buy' the support of aged care workers.

Earlier anti-vax protesters inspired by large rallies in Canada gathered outside the National Press Club ahead of Mr Morrison's speech.

About 50 protesters outside the building waved flags - including banners supporting Donald Trump - and chanted 'remove Scomo', 'no more boosters' and 'we will not comply'.

It comes a day after Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Government is considering offering Australians a fourth Covid vaccine dose.

The protesters descended on the capital on Monday in a convoy of trucks and cars from Pheasants Nest near Wollongong in NSW, taking inspiration from a 'Freedom Convoy' in the Canadian capital Ottawa over the weekend.

The demonstrators have set up camp in a park near the National Library where about 200 cars and trucks were counted on Tuesday morning.
North Carolina residents have been forced to evacuate their homes after a blaze broke out at a fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem Monday night.

Firefighters believe there is potential for an explosion of ammonium nitrate and have ordered residents living within a one-mile radius of the Weaver Fertilizer Plant on North Cherry Street to evacuate, WGHP reported.

Winston-Salem Fire Chief Try Mayo told the TV station crews have 'abandoned' the fire-fighting operation due to the large volume on ammonium nitrate at the facility.

Mayo said crews were not able to flow enough water volume to the factory to be 'reasonably certain' they could keep the facility cool enough to prevent a detonation.

The factory has collapsed and authorities are restricting access to the building. No injuries have been reported and the cause of the fire remains unknown.

North Carolina residents are forced to evacuate their homes after a blaze broke out at the Weaver Fertilizer Plant in Winston-Salem Monday night

Firefighters believe there is potential for an explosion of ammonium nitrate and have ordered residents living within a one-mile radius of the plant to evacuate

Firefighters were called to the factory around 7pm Monday night.

The blaze was visible for miles, sending large clouds of black smoke into the night sky. Popping noises could be heard throughout the community, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

Bystanders watched from nearby parking lots as the flames consumed the plant. However, they were ultimately instructed by police and firefighters to leave the area.

Authorities have closed off the factory with yellow police tape and have shut down the 4400 block of Cherry Street, from North Point Boulevard to Indiana Avenue. Drivers have also been asked to avoid the area.

The calls for evacuations went out around 8:30pm despite the fire appearing to be considerably diminished. Officials were utilizing a reverse-911 procedure to notify residents of the need to flee.

'We need people to get outside of that one-mile radius,' Ed McNeal, Marketing Communications official for the city of Winston-Salem, said in a social media update.

Authorities have closed off the factory with yellow police tape and have shut down the 4400 block of Cherry Street, from North Point Boulevard to Indiana Avenue. Drivers have also been asked to avoid the area

Wake Forest University, located less than two miles from the plant, told WFMY that some students living in off-campus housing near the plant have been told to evacuate.

The impacted areas includes off-campus housing north of Polo Road between Cherry Street and Long Drive.

Those living on campus have not be ordered to evacuate.

School leaders have also invited impacted students to bring a sleeping bag, pillow and/or blanket to the university to shelter in designated areas of campus as temperatures hovered near freezing.

Workers at nearby WestRock Co., a paper and packaging company, were also forced to evacuate their workplace.

WestRock employee Jeff Luman told the newspaper he knew something was wrong when he could smell the smoke coming from the fertilizer plant next door.

'I saw an orange glow, and that is all I needed,' he said.

Firefighters were called to the factory (pictured before the blaze) around 7pm Monday night

The blaze was reportedly visible for miles, sending large clouds of black smoke into the sky. Emergency responders expressed concerns over the fumes being released by the blaze as well as the potential for an explosion

Ammonium nitrate can cause a blast when it is mixed with fuel oil and detonated by an explosive charge. Experts say oxygen must also be present for combustion to occur

Meanwhile, emergency responders are concerned about the fumes being released by the blaze, as well as the potential for an explosion.

Although ammonium nitrate, which is one of the world's most common fertilizers, isn't flammable itself, experts warn it is a main component in many types of explosives used in mining.

The chemical compound can cause a blast when it is mixed with fuel oil and detonated by an explosive charge. Experts say oxygen must also be present for combustion to occur.

Ammonium nitrate was used by Timothy McVeigh in a terror attack that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

It can also decompose at high temperatures and create explosive gases such as nitrogen oxide and water vapor. Exposure to extreme heat, such as a fire, is also necessary for the rapid release of gases that can cause an explosion.

Weaver Company Inc., which utilizes the plant, was founded in Norfolk, Virginia in 1929. According to the company's website, the Winston-Salem plant was built in1939 and has been operational since January 1940.

The company specializes in its all-purpose plant food and specialty fertilizer, which is sold at Lowe's stores throughout the southeastern United States.

Winston-Salem police have asked anyone with information about the blaze to call (336) 773-7700 or Crime Stoppers at (336) 727-2800.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has admitted he doesn't know the cost of basic household items in responding to a journalist's question at the National Press Club.

Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell asked Mr Morrison the classic 'gotcha' question about whether he knew the price of a loaf of bread, a litre of milk and a litre of petrol during the question-and-answer section of his address on Tuesday.

Mr Clennell added a topical item by asking Mr Morrison whether he also knew the price of a rapid antigen test.

'Im not going to pretend to you that I go out each day and I buy a loaf of bread and I buy a litre of milk,' Mr Morrison responded, clearly not knowing the prices.

'Im not going to pretend to you that I do that. And Ill leave those sort of things to you, mate. And you can run it.

'But the point is that I do my job every day to ensure that those things are as affordable as they possibly can be for Australians every single day.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was caught out by a gotcha question about the cost of household items from Sky News reporter Andrew Clennell

The question is regularly asked of leaders during election campaigns but Mr Morrison appeared to be caught unawares by it.

The Q&A had got off to a rocky start when the club's host, ABC journalist Laura Tingle, asked Mr Morrison if he would apologise for mistakes he'd made as prime minister.

Mr Morrison responded by listing three key errors, including falsely raising people's hopes before this summer, not placing the vaccine rollout under military command from the start and poorly managing outbreaks in aged care.

Poll Should the PM know how much bread, milk and the cost of a RAT is? Yes No Should the PM know how much bread, milk and the cost of a RAT is? Yes 343 votes

No 316 votes Now share your opinion





'We could have communicated more clearly about the risks and challenges that we still face,' Mr Morrison said in reference to how he called for an end to restrictions before the Omicron wave in December.

'In our communications, we have to be be clear about that. We can't lift people's hopes, then disappointment them. I think that's what happened over the break.'

'Secondly, on the vaccination program, if I had my time over, I would have put it under a military operation from the outset and not later in the year,' Mr Morrison said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison drives past vaccine mandate protesters at the National Press Club in Canberra

The Prime Minster also admitted that aged care outbreaks should have been handled better, mentioning one incident at St Basil's home in Sydney when the staff had to isolate and the military had to be sent in.

'The interface between the aged care sector and the public hospital system was blurred. And so, when the storms of Covid hit, that created some real challenges,' he said.

After he completed his answer, Ms Tingle asked: 'So you don't have to say sorry about any of those things?' and the Prime Minister replied: 'I think I've explained my answer fairly fully.'

The Prime Minister also appeared stunned when Network 10 Political Editor Peter van Onselen read out text messages between Ms Berejiklian and a current Liberal minister that were critical of him

The Prime Minister also appeared stunned when Network 10 Political Editor Peter van Onselen read out text messages between Ms Berejiklian and a current Liberal minister he said he had obtained.

'In one she described you as quote, "a horrible, horrible person" going on to say she did not trust you. And you're more concerned with politics than people,' Mr van Onselen said.

'The minister is even more scathing, describing you as a fraud and quote ''a complete psycho".'

Mr Morrison said he did not know who Mr van Onselen was referring to and in any case, did not agree with the sentiments.

Outside the club after the speech, Mr Morrison's car battled through protestors in Canberra to oppose vaccine mandates.
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Four Insulate Britain protesters have refused to attend a High Court hearing and glued their hands together outside as judges told three others they are 'free to go' after ruling they did not breach a road blocking injunction that was granted in a bid to curb their demonstrations.

Theresa Norton, 63, Dr Diana Warner, 62, El Litten, 35, and Steve Pritchard, 62, were among 19 protesters due to appear at the Royal Courts of Justice today accused of breaching an injunction aimed at trying to stop the group's climate change protests that caused chaos on major roads.

However, the four glued themselves together on the steps at the front of the court in a show of 'resistance' before the front gates of the building were locked, shutting them inside.

They sent a note to judges explaining the reason for their non-attendance, saying: 'The four of us feel we have to continue our resistance today because we dont want to cooperate with a system which is causing so much death and hardship.'

The four were later arrested by officers and were cheered by fellow protesters as they were led away, with the last of the four being removed by about 5.15pm.

Insulate Britain claimed the four risked prison sentences for non-attendance at court.

In court, Lord Justice William Davis read out a note from the four protesters, which said: "The four of us feel we have to continue our resistance today because we don't want to cooperate with a system which is causing so much death and hardship."

Earlier, High Court judges told three members of the eco-mob they are 'free to go' after concluding they had not breached the injunction during a protest at South Mimms roundabout by the M25 on November 2, 2021.

National Highways sought to bring contempt of court proceedings against Arne Springorum, 49, Liam Norton, 37, and Jessica Causby, 25, after they took part in a protest near the motorway on November 2 last year.

According to National Highways' written submissions, Mr Springorum and Ms Causby glued themselves to the pavement during their protest action, while Mr Norton allegedly 'endangered the free flow of traffic'.

The demonstration was intended to block the M25 near Junction 23 at Bignells Corner, Potters Bar, but Lord Justice William Davis decided that area was not covered by the M25 injunction.

He said: The application in their cases has been dismissed so theres no further reference to them in these proceedings. The judge told the protesters that they were 'free to go'.

A ruling will be handed down to the rest of the group on Wednesday afternoon. Lord Justice Davis said proceedings will resume at 10.30am so the court can address the cases of the four protesters who chose to stop attending proceedings.

Theresa Norton, 63, Dr Diana Warner, 62, El Litten, 35 and Steve Pritchard, 62, pictured outside the High Court after gluing themselves to the steps of the building

Police remove glue from Insulate Britain defendant Steve Pritchard, 62, who did not return to court for this afternoon's proceedings

El Litten (pictured in an orange high-vis jacket) is escorted by police officers after sitting on the steps Royal Courts of Justice throughout Tuesday afternoon

Theresa Norton (left), 63, and Dr Diana Warner (right), 62, were arrested after gluing themselves together and refusing to attend a hearing at the High Court

El Litten, 35, was also among the group of protesters who glued themselves together as a show of 'resistance' outside the court on Tuesday

The four members of Insulate Britain told High Court judges they refused to attend the hearing in the afternoon as a show of 'resistance'

Jessica Causby (left), 25, and Arne Springorum (right), 49, were told they are 'free to go' today after judges concluded they had not breached an injunction

Liam Norton (pictured) was also one of three members of Insulate Britain ruled not to have breached the injunction by High Court judges today

Insulate Britain protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning ahead of a hearing in which they are accused of breaching an injunction granted to curb their demonstrations

A group of police officers speak with the four protesters outside the High Court on Tuesday after their refusal to attend a hearing inside the building

The 19: Ruth Jarman 58, Dr Diana Warner 62, Jessica Causby 25, Stephen Gower 55, Liam Norton 37, Ben Taylor 27, Dr Ben Buse 36, Gabriella Ditton 28, Arne Springorum 49, Paul Sheeky 46, Theresa Norton 63, Stephanie Aylett 27, Indigo Rumbelow 27, Ellie Litten 35, David Nixon 35, Christian Rowe 24. , Biff Whipster 54, Rev Sue Parfitt 79, Steve Pritchard 62

A police officer watches on as the four eco zealots glue themselves to the steps of the High Court behind its closed gates

Insulate Britain activists block Great George Street in Parliament Square in Westminster on November 4 last year

Diana Warner (left) and Emma Smart (right) outside HMP Bronzefield in Surrey on January 14 following their release from jail

The other activists in court on Tuesday all admit or do not contest claims they breached a High Court injunction in relation to Insulate Britain protests between Junction 28 and 29 of the M25 on October 29 last year, according to National Highways' written arguments.

They are Ben Taylor, 27; Ben Buse, 36; Biff Whipster, 54; David Nixon, 35; Diana Warner, 62; Ellie Litten, 35; Gabriella Ditton, 28; Indigo Rumbelow, 27; Paul Sheeky, 46; Ruth Jarman, 58; Stephanie Aylett, 27; Stephen Gower, 55; Stephen Pritchard, 62; Rev Sue Parfitt, 79; and Theresa Norton, 63.

Owen Greenhall, who represented Ms Causby, as well as Dr Warner and Mr Buse, said the latter two intended not to break the court injunction again after previously receiving a prison sentence in December for another breach.

The 19 Insulate Britain activists at court today Arne Springorum , 49

, 49 Ben Taylor , 27

, 27 Ben Buse , 36

, 36 Biff Whipster , 54

, 54 David Nixon , 35

, 35 Diana Warner , 62

, 62 Ellie Litten , 35

, 35 Gabriella Ditton , 28

, 28 Indigo Rumbelow , 27

, 27 Jessica Causby , 25

, 25 Liam Norton , 37

, 37 Paul Sheeky , 46

, 46 Ruth Jarman , 58,

, 58, Stephanie Aylett , 27

, 27 Stephen Gower , 55

, 55 Stephen Pritchard , 62

, 62 Sue Parfitt , 79

, 79 Theresa Norton , 63

, 63 Christian Rowe , 24 Advertisement

He said Mr Buse had decided to 'move away from direct action' after seeing the impact of the earlier court proceedings on his family.

Dr Warner, who was handed a two-month prison term in December and released from custody on January 14, will 'continue to do everything she can to help save lives', Mr Greenhall added.

Asking judges not to impose on her an immediate prison term, Mr Greenhall said the Bristol GP took 'conscientious actions'.

Some protesters in court wore orange hi-vis vests, while Mr Taylor appeared from the courtroom dock as he continues to serve a six-month prison sentence imposed in November for a different injunction breach.

Representing himself, he told the judges that he had 'nothing to hide' and admitted breaching the injunction on October 29.

He said lockdown measures at HMP Thameside meant his prison time was 'much more severe'.

Branding the injunction 'absurd', he said his ability to support his pregnant partner was also 'severely restricted'.

He told the court: 'I find it sickening, sad that people are unnecessarily suffering in their millions... increasingly in this country', adding that there was a 'climate emergency' that 'our Government has openly recognised yet is not doing anything even remotely significant about'.

Insulate Britain has said the four protesters who have glued themselves together 'will remain outside of the court until they are removed or the court is no longer in session'.

Gabriella Ditton, 28, addressed the court emotionally this afternoon, telling Lord Justice Davis she was ashamed that she was not outside with her fellow activists.

She said her mother has terminal brain cancer and thats the thing thats stopping me from being outside with those people.

Ms Ditton added: I am not scared to go to prison. I am a lot more frightened about what happens if we dont act on this issue. But Im absolutely terrified about my mum dying while Im in prison and Im ashamed of that cowardice.

Weve been lied to so much by people in power. Even so recently theyve demonstrated that the rules do not apply to them.

'I cannot show remorse because I do not regret my action. I regret that cases like these are clogging up the judicial system that is already stretched.

The purpose of the injunction is to allow people to go about their daily business.'

Today's ruling comes MPs blasted an 'outrageous' decision by a jury to unanimously clear three Extinction Rebellion activists of obstructing a railway earlier this month after a judge cited their right to protest under the European Convention of Human Rights.

The group claimed their actions were justified by their Christian faith and fears for their grandchildren, but angry politicians said the verdict set a 'dangerous precedent' and gave a 'green light' for people to commit crime.

Former university lecturer Philip Kingston, 85, Anglican priest Reverend Sue Parfitt, 79, and Father Martin Newell, 54, all climbed on top of the Docklands Light Railway train during the morning rush-hour in London.

Judge Reid had told the jury that protest rights under the European Convention of Human Rights 'gives them and us the freedom of belief, expression and the right to freedom of assembly', adding: 'Are we sure that a conviction of the defendant for obstructing the railway is necessary in a democratic society in the interest of public safety, prevention of disorder or protection of rights and freedoms of others?'

Insulate Britain activist Theresa Norton waves as she is escorted away from the steps of the High Court by a group of police officers

Steve Pritchard smiles as he is arrested by Metropolitan and City of London police officers outside the High Court on Tuesday

The Insulate Britain group began a wave of demonstrations last September which included blocking the M25 and other roads in London, including around Parliament, as well as roads in Birmingham, Manchester and Dover in Kent.

A series of High Court injunctions against its road blockades were granted to National Highways and Transport for London to prevent their disruptive protests  and those who breach them could be found in contempt of court and face a maximum penalty of two years in prison or an unlimited fine as well as seizure of assets.

On Tuesday, 19 supporters of the group were expected to appear before Lord Justice William Davis and Mr Justice Johnson in London from 10.30am over an alleged breach of an injunction blocking protests on the M25.

The Insulate Britain demonstrators include Arne Springorum, 49, Ben Taylor, 27, Ben Buse, 36, Biff Whipster, 54, David Nixon, 35, Diana Warner, 62, Ellie Litten, 35, Gabriella Ditton, 28, and Indigo Rumbelow, 27.

Jessica Causby, 25, Liam Norton, 37, Paul Sheeky, 46, Ruth Jarman, 58, Stephanie Aylett, 27, Stephen Gower, 55, Stephen Pritchard, 62, Sue Parfitt, 79, Theresa Norton, 63, and Christian Rowe 24, are also expected to appear.

In November 2021, nine activists were jailed at the High Court after admitting breaching the injunction with an M25 blockade in October. Others were jailed or given suspended sentences in December for a similar breach.

The total number of people charged with contempt of court due the protests now stands at 27  with ten of today's defendants facing court for the first time with Insulate Britain, and eight returning for a second time.

Insulate Britain block the M25 at junction 31 near the Dartford Crossing in Thurrock, Essex, on October 13, 2021

The 19th one - Taylor - faces a third hearing. He is currently serving a six-month sentence given at the first hearing for the M25 injunction in November, and will be transferred from HMP Thameside for his days in court.

Taylor received the longest prison sentence given to an Insulate Britain activist so far. He will have served half the sentence in two weeks and is due to be released  but now faces more time being added to his sentence.

An Insulate Britain spokesman said: 'The longest sentence imposed on an Insulate Britain supporter to date was six months, handed down to Ben Taylor in November. He will have served half the sentence in two weeks and is due to be released.

'However, he faces the prospect of having additional time added to his sentence, even if the other defendants receive suspended sentences, as we understand that there is no legal precedent for a justice giving a suspended sentence to anyone currently in prison.'

A total of ten Insulate Britain activists have received prison sentences so far with a further eight protesters being given suspended sentences. Taylor is the only person from the campaign that remains in prison.

Among those also appearing today is Causby, a cafe worker and volunteer from Manchester, who said in an Insulate Britain press release issued yesterday: 'Tomorrow's hearing at the High Court will be the third time that the government is using civil law, rather than trial by jury, to try and halt our campaign of resistance.

'They know that a jury of ordinary people would not convict us. A jury would agree that the government is failing to protect the people of this country from the misery of fuel poverty and the growing threat of societal collapse caused by the climate crisis.'

And Reverend Parfitt, an Anglican priest from Bristol, said: 'When I was sitting on the motorway , I knew why I was there - to flag up justice for the poor, to witness to the truth of the climate crisis.

'But now I am being deprived of my human rights to protest and to manifest my religious belief by this civil case against me brought by National Highways.

'I want to tell the public to wake up. Do whatever you can to put pressure on the government to take meaningful action to slow down the impending climate catastrophe.'

Also speaking ahead of the case was Whipster, a retail worker from Canterbury in Kent, who said: 'It's my second time in this court for breaching injunctions.

These nine Insulate Britain eco zealots were jailed at the High Court last November after admitting breaching an injunction

Supporters of the nine Insulate Britain activists initially jailed protest on Lambeth Bridge in London on November 20 last year

'Last time I asked the prosecution team to do the moral thing and close their laptops and bin their papers and walk away. Fifty days have passed since then. What a waste of intellect, skills and resources.

'Just imagine if that prosecution team were instead focussed on helping dig us out of this self-inflicted hole of climate and environmental collapse? It's very sad.

'I've made a moral choice. It's a case of watching this slow-burn genocide and destruction of our natural world unfurl, or resist. I am a parent. I have no choice but to sacrifice my liberty and my future for the next generation'

Insulate Britain, an offshoot from the Extinction Rebellion campaign group, is calling on the UK Government to implement policy and funding for a national home insulation programme starting with all social housing.

It wants the UK government immediately to promise to fully fund and take responsibility for the insulation of all social housing in Britain by 2025, and produce 'within four months a legally binding national plan to fully fund and take responsibility for the full low energy and low carbon whole-house retrofit, with no externalised costs, of all homes in Britain by 2030 as part of a just transition to full decarbonisation of all parts of society and the economy'.

Last week, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said it 'doesn't make sense' for climate activists to glue themselves to roads when campaigning for better home insulation, or complain about HS2 when they are keen for others to travel in a more eco-friendly way.

He added that many environmental protesters are 'anarchists' who 'just want to find a basis upon which to take extremist action'. Mr Shapps told the Centre Write magazine, from the centre-right think tank Bright Blue, that people should not even 'try to understand' such tactics.

Asked about how to tackle disruption from climate activism, including the Insulate Britain protests, he said: 'Unsurprisingly there's a little loophole in the law that makes it difficult to directly prosecute people gluing themselves to the road. That is being fixed through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.'

He added: 'We will always look to take action to protect hardworking Brits who want to get around. It's inexcusable, as there are perfectly legitimate legal routes you can follow to protest or to make change happen, but gluing yourself to a road isn't one of them, and doesn't even really stack up because they're actually going on about insulating houses.'

Mr Shapps was also asked about 'so-called climate activists and environmentalists in the political sphere', who have criticised the likes of HS2.

'A lot of these people are basically just anarchists who just want to find a basis upon which to take extremist action,' he said.

'This is why gluing yourself to a road when you're actually talking about insulating homes, or complaining about HS2 when you claim to want to allow people to travel in a more environmentally friendly way, doesn't make sense. We shouldn't try to understand it.

'If what you want to do is dig a tunnel and live in it to protest, the pretext is not what's important to them. Clearly HS2 is a massive project, it's the biggest building construction project in Europe. It's also the most environmentally friendly large building project there has ever been.'

Earlier this month, Downing Street defended measures to tackle protesters' 'guerrilla tactics' after peers gutted the legislation with a series of defeats for the Government.

Home Secretary Priti Patel accused peers of siding with 'vandals and thugs' after a string of defeats saw the House of Lords reject controversial measures designed to combat the tactics adopted by groups including Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain.

No 10 said it would reflect on the mauling delivered by peers, but the Government could use its Commons majority to overturn the defeats inflicted in the unelected chamber.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been branded a 'complete psycho' and a 'horrible horrible person' in bombshell text exchanges allegedly involving former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen confronted the PM on live TV with the incendiary text messages savaging Mr Morrison that he said were between Ms Berejiklian and a current Liberal minister.

'I've got them right here,' he told Mr Morrison as the PM faced questions from the media after his keynote speech to the National Press Club on Tuesday.

'In one, she described you as, quote, 'a horrible, horrible person', going on to say she did not trust you, and you're more concerned with politics than people.

'The minister is even more scathing, describing you as a fraud and, quote, 'a complete psycho'.

In a statement released hours later, Ms Berejiklian said she had 'no recollection' of the remarks, but didn't deny they were said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) has been branded a 'complete psycho' and a 'horrible horrible person' in bombshell text exchanges allegedly involving former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian

Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen confronted the PM on live TV with the series of incendiary text messages savaging Scott Morrison that he said were between Gladys Berejiklian (pictured here with the PM) and a current Liberal minister

'Does this exchange surprise you?' asked van Onselen. 'And what do you think it tells us?'

The Prime Minister was left almost speechless, blinking in shock by the surprise attack, before replying curtly and moving on to the next question.

'Well, I don't know who you're referring to, or the basis of what you've put to me,' he said. 'But I obviously don't agree with it. And I don't think that's my record.'

The scathing texts come in the wake of the PM trying unsuccessfully to persuade the former Premier to run for Federal Parliament in Tony Abbott's former seat in Sydney's Northern Beaches.

The text exchanges ( digitally reproduced here) allegedly branded the Prime Minister a 'complete psycho' and 'horrible, horrible person' more concerned with politics than people who could not be trusted

Ten political editor Peter van Onselen's (pictured) blockbuster question left the PM almost speechless and was dismissed with a few curt sentences

The bombshell texts allegedly claimed Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) did not trust the PM and he was more concerned with politics than people

Van Onselen said Ms Berejiklian was 'a close friend' of the PM and added: 'That's somebody that you wanted to run actually at the next election.'

Further details from the text messages are expected to be revealed by van Onselen on Ten's evening news at 5pm.

Ms Berejiklian did not deny sending the messages but said she had 'no recollection' of them and supported Mr Morrison.

Gladys Berejiklian responds to shocking texts 'I understand there has been some commentary today concerning myself and the PM. I have no recollection of such messages. 'Let me reiterate my very strong support for Prime Minister Morrison and all he is doing for our nation during these very challenging times. 'I also strongly believe he is the best person to lead our nation for years to come.' Advertisement

PM faces up to his top mistakes

The under-pressure PM has listed his top mistakes during the Covid-19 pandemic but refused to say sorry for them.

After delivering a speech to the National Press club where he admitted to making errors, Mr Morrison - who trails Labor by a massive 12 points in the polls - was asked if he would like to apologise for mistakes throughout his time in office.

'Do you want to take this opportunity to actually say sorry for the mistakes you've made as prime minister,' asked host Laura Tingle.

'Not just about Covid - everything from going to Hawaii during the bushfires through to not having enough rapid antigen tests.'

Scott Morrison has listed his top mistakes during the Covid-19 pandemic but refused to say sorry for them

PM admits three mistakes in pandemic 1. Raising hopes before summer by calling for an end to restrictions 2. Not placing vaccine rollout under military command from the start 3. Poor management of aged care outbreaks Advertisement

Mr Morrison began his reply by saying: 'We're all terribly sorry for what this pandemic has done to the world and to this country. These are the times in which we live.'

But he then went on to list three key errors including falsely raising people's hopes before this summer, not placing the vaccine rollout under military command from the start and poorly managing outbreaks in aged care.

'We could have communicated more clearly about the risks and challenges that we still face,' Mr Morrison said in reference to how he called for an end to restrictions before the Omicron wave in December.

'In our communications, we have to be be clear about that. We can't lift people's hopes, then disappointment them. I think that's what happened over the break.'

'Secondly, on the vaccination program, if I had my time over, I would have put it under a military operation from the outset and not later in the year,' Mr Morrison said.

The Prime Minister said the goal to offer a jab to everyone by October was achieved but admitted the rollout got off to a slow start, prompting him to install Lieutenant General John Frewen as boss of the programme.

'I took the decision to send in General Frewen and change the way we did it, and set up a change in the command structure, how logistics were managed, how it was planned. And it worked. But I wish we'd done that earlier. And that's a lesson,' Mr Morrison said.

In mid 2021 the federal government copped heavy criticism for the slow vaccine rollout which was well behind comparable nations and meant Sydney and Melbourne had to be plunged into four-month lockdowns amid Delta outbreaks.

The Prime Minster also admitted that aged care outbreaks should have been handled better, mentioning one incident at St Basil's home in Sydney when the staff had to isolate and the military had to be sent in.

'The interface between the aged care sector and the public hospital system was blurred. And so, when the storms of Covid hit, that created some real challenges,' he said.

'And in the aged care sector - I remember it was one of the hardest days of the pandemic - with St Basil's.

'We had a whole health workforce stood down because of Covid rules... and I had to send the military in that night.

Scott Morrison went to Hawaii on holiday in December 2019 during major bushfires, before cutting his holiday short when photos (above) emerged of him on social media

'The interface and whether patients could be moved and how and when from aged care facilities into hospital facilities, private and public... could have been done better, between both the states and ourselves.'

Tingle then said: 'So you don't have to say sorry about any of those things?' and the Prime Minister replied: 'I think I've explained my answer fairly fully.'

What's the price of a loaf of bread?

Another awkward moment came when the Prime Minister was unable to say the price of a loaf of bread after facing accusations he has lost touch with ordinary Australians.

Sky News reporter Andrew Clennell asked: 'We've got up to 100 Australians a day dying with Covid, a low booster rate, inflation, businesses in Sydney and Melbourne on their knees without your support.

'Have you lost touch with ordinary Australians? And on that theme off the top of your head, can you tell me the price of a loaf of bread, a litre of petrol and a rapid antigen test.'

Mr Morrison's advisors texted him the answers but the Prime Minister didn't even try to list the prices, instead saying: 'Now, I'm not going to pretend to you that I go out each day and I buy a loaf of bread and I buy a litre of milk.

'I'm not going to pretend to you that I do that. And I'll leave those sort of things to you, mate. And you can run it.

'But the point is that I do my job every day to ensure that those things are affordable as they possibly can be for Australians every single day.'

Disastrous polling

Mr Morrison's speech about health and economic resilience came after a disastrous Newspoll put Labor on track to comfortably win the next election.

The Opposition is ahead 56-44 on a two-party-preferred basis in the Coalition's worst polling performance since September 2018, a month after Malcolm Turnbull was replaced.

The 12-point lead puts Labor on track to win up to 25 seats from the Coalition and represents a 6-point lead increase from the last poll on December 6 when it was ahead 53-47.

Mr Morrison dismissed the results and claimed they do no accurately represent how people will actually vote at the ballot box.

On Monday Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the polls could change by the election in May.

'Many obituaries were written by those in the media and our political opponents who got ahead of themselves,' he said in reference to Mr Morrison's surprise win at the 2019 election.

The latest poll came as eastern Australia is ravaged by a large outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 which is causing staff shortages for thousands of businesses.

The federal government has also faced heavy criticism over the widespread shortage of rapid antigen tests and was blasted by the NSW Government on Sunday for refusing to split the cost of a new business support package.

Bonus cash for aged care workers

In the speech Mr Morrison announced aged care workers will get two bonus payments of up to $400 in February and May to stop them leaving the sector which is ravaged by Covid outbreaks and staff shortages.

Labor and unions have blasted the bonus payments describing the move as a 'cheap and nasty' election stunt.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the PM was trying to 'buy' the support of aged care workers.

Protesters are seen during an anti-vaccination rally outside the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra

About 50 protesters outside the building waved flags - including banners supporting Donald Trump

Canada's 'Freedom Convoy' The Freedom Convoy 2022 was started by Canadian truckers who opposed vaccine mandates imposed on their industry by the Government. The truckers were joined by other opponents of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on their way to Ottawa where they parked on Saturday. Advertisement

Earlier anti-vax protesters inspired by large rallies in Canada have gathered outside the National Press Club ahead of Mr Morrison's speech.

About 50 protesters outside the building waved flags - including banners supporting Donald Trump - and chanted 'remove Scomo', 'no more boosters' and 'we will not comply'.

It comes a day after Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Government is considering offering Australians a fourth Covid vaccine dose.

The protesters descended on the capital on Monday in a convoy of trucks and cars from Pheasants Nest near Wollongong in NSW, taking inspiration from a 'Freedom Convoy' in the Canadian capital Ottawa over the weekend.

The protesters descended on the capital on Monday in a convoy of trucks and cars from Pheasants Nest near Wollongong in NSW, taking inspiration from a 'Freedom Convoy' in the Canadian capital Ottawa over the weekend.

There was a large police presence outside the building where the protesters had gathered
Mark McGowan has made another drastic change to Western Australia's border rules and will stop international students from entering the state if they do not arrive in Australia by midnight Friday.

Unlike the rest of Australia, international students cannot fly into Perth directly, and must transit via other states.

The WA government has now told education providers that only students who arrive in Australia before 12.01am this Saturday (February 5) will be allowed to enter into the state.

The new rule will also only allow students who are already part way through their course to return to WA and not those who are newly enrolled or planning to start a course in 2022.

WA Premier Mark McGowan (pictured) has changed the border rules again, this time for returning international students

Returning international students who arrive by the February 5 cut-off must be fully vaccinated, must self-isolate for 14 days in a suitable premises within 200km of their entry point into WA and get tested on the first and 12th day of quarantine.

Mr McGowan announced on January 20 that international students wouldn't be able to return, citing Australia's Omicron outbreak.

He backflipped five days later to welcome back fully vaccinated international students able to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

The Premier then caused more chaos by announcing the February 5 cut-off this week.

Tertiary education leaders have slammed the Premier's latest backflip.

'It appears that student welfare is being totally overlooked in the government's determination not to get voters off-side,' International Education Association of Australia CEO Phil Honeywood told The Australian.

'How can you possibly explain yet another arbitrary entry date when students have booked and paid for flights, accommodation and first semester tuition fees?'

Returning international students have until midnight Friday to enter the state (pictured overseas arrivals at Perth Airport)

Mr McGowan's latest backflip comes after as a growing Omicron outbreak threatens to plunge Western Australia's lucrative mining sector into chaos.

Western Australia recorded 13 new locally-acquired cases on Tuesday, taking the state's active tally of infections to 166.

Only one case is being treated in hospital.

About 80 workers at BHP's Yandi iron ore mine are isolating after being identified as contacts of a rail contractor who tested positive while on site.

The contractor had returned a negative rapid antigen test last week before flying to the site in the state's north.

They felt unwell on Sunday and subsequently returned a positive PCR test.

The rule only applies to returning students who are already part way through their course in WA and not those who are planning to start a course (stock image)

BHP late on Monday confirmed one of the worker's colleagues had also tested positive. They have not reported any symptoms and have been in isolation.

'Contact tracing and deep cleaning at site is continuing, and other close and casual contacts remain in isolation as a precaution,' a spokeswoman said.

'The health and wellbeing of our people is our top priority, and everyone impacted is being fully supported during their isolation period.'

All contacts have returned negative rapid antigen tests but must return negative PCR tests before resuming work.

Mr McGowan is yet to reveal a new border reopening date after he recently backflipped on a plan to resume travel from February 5.
The first Covid-19 vaccine for children aged from just six months to five years old could be available as soon as the end of February, according to reports.

U.S. regulators are urging drugmaker Pfizer to apply for emergency authorization for a two-dose regimen of its COVID-19 vaccine for children in the age group, according to the Washington Post.

Officials are aiming to to clear the way for the shots to be used as soon as late February on an emergency bases, the source said. Pfizer-BioNTech's application was expected to be submitted as soon as Tuesday.

Meanwhile, regulators are also awaiting data on a three-dose course that they hope will prove more effective for children, the Associated Press has reported.

However, research shows that Covid poses a very low risk to babies and toddlers, and previous decisions to offer vaccines to children have caused controversy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows as of January 22, there have been 280 deaths involving Covid among children aged between zero and four years old. That number rises to 603 for those aged from five to 18 years old.

Combined, deaths involving Covid among those 18-and-under make up around 0.102 percent of America's 864,256 total deaths, as of January 22.

If approved, the U.S. would become one of the only countries in the world to begin vaccinating young children as young as six months, with Cuba being the only other known country vaccinating children as young as two years old.

The first Covid-19 vaccine for children aged from just six months to five years old could be available as soon as the end of February, according to reports. Pictured: Medical personnel Sandra Castro vaccinates 1st grader Kristen Cruz, 6 at KIPP Believe Charter School in New Orleans, January 25, 2022

Covid vaccines have been available for children as young as five in the U.S. since late-October, though some experts are still unsure whether the shots are needed.

The earlier decision to approve vaccines for five-to-11-year-olds in the US was controversial at the time, given the data.

A polls in November suggested many parents were not likely to have their kids vaccinated, with one poll finding around a third would 'definitely not'.

A further third said in the poll they would 'wait and see' and five percent said they would 'only if required'. Meanwhile, just 27 percent of parents said they would get their children vaccinated 'right away'.

One of the people familiar with the situation with the application told the Washington Post: 'The idea is, let's go ahead and start the review of two doses.

'If the data holds up in the submission, you could start kids on their primary baseline months earlier than if you don't do anything until the third-dose data comes in.'

Pfizer said in January it expected the latest results from a clinical trial for kids under the age of 5 by April, after it amended its study to give a third dose to everybody who's less than five at least eight weeks after their last vaccination.

Early Pfizer data has shown the vaccine - which is administered to younger children at one-tenth the strength of the adult shot - is safe and produces an immune response.

But last year Pfizer announced the two-dose shot proved to be less effective at preventing COVID-19 in kids ages two to five.

Regulators encouraged the company to add a third dose to the study on the belief that another dose would boost the vaccine's effectiveness much like booster doses do in adults.

Now, the Food and Drug Administration is pushing the company to submit its application based on the two-dose data for potential approval in February, and then to return for additional authorization once it has the data from the third dose study, which is expected in March, the person familiar with the matter said.

The two-step authorization process could mean that young children could be vaccinated more than a month earlier than previous estimates, assuming the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention greenlight the shots.

The person spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive regulatory issues.

They said the decreased effectiveness of the two-dose vaccine was not unexpected given the emergence of the highly transmissible omicron variant of COVID-19.

Allowing young kids to be vaccinated with a two-dose shot earlier would ultimately accelerate when they could get the expected stronger protection from a third dose.

That would be welcome news for parents of young children, the last remaining age group without approval of COVID-19 shots.

Young children are far less likely than adults to develop serious complications or to die from COVID-19, but incidences of illness among the age group have risen amid the nationwide spike in cases from the omicron variant.

Most cases and deaths occur among older people, especially those who are unvaccinated.

A child's COVID-19 vaccine dose is prepared, on Nov. 3, 2021, at Children's National Hospital in Washington. U.S. regulators are urging drugmaker Pfizer to apply for emergency authorization for a two-dose regimen of its COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 and under while awaiting data on a three-dose course, aiming to clear the way for the shots as soon as late February

However, last month it was reported that a record number of children under the age of five were hospitalised with Covid-19, specifically the Omircon variant.

According to NBC News, a new symptom was being seen among the age group - a harsh 'barking' cough known as croup. While experts say the cough is not harmful, the noise of the cough can be alarming for parents of young children.

Speeding the authorization of pediatric vaccines against COVID-19 has been a priority for more than a year of the Biden administration, which believes them critical to reopening and keeping open schools and day care centers - and for freeing up parents occupied by childcare responsibilities to return to the workforce.

Vaccines for kids ages 5-12 were approved by U.S. regulators in November, though uptake of shots has been slower than U.S. officials hoped.

Pfizer's primary series is administered three weeks apart. The third dose for young kids is being studied for administration at least two months after the second dose.

So far, the only country worldwide known to be vaccinating children as young as two years old is Cuba, which has given doses to 95 percent of two-to-18-year-olds.

Trust in the public health service in the island nation is high, with the country deploying its own homemade vaccines, such as Abdala.

Dr Gerardo Guillen, the lead developer of the vaccine, told The Guardian that the risk of Covid-19 among children is low, but vaccinating them will reduce transmission.

'Although Covid hits children less severely, they are an important factor in transmission,' he told the newspaper.

Some Chinese provinces are reported to have begun vaccinating children as young as three, with two Sinopharm and one Sinovac vaccines approved for those who are three-years-old and above.

However, other countries have rejected vaccinating children. Just last week, Sweden's health agency refused to approve vaccines from children under the age of 11, saying that there were no 'clear benefits' to justify vaccinating children.

Dr Jon K Andrus, a professor of public health at George Washington University, told The Guardian that he remained wary about seeing young children vaccinated in Cuba. 'None of the results have been published in peer-reviewed journals, so it's hard to discuss,' he said.

Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, told the newspaper that while the need for children to be vaccinated was 'essential' to public health, caution must be taken.

Third grader Nila Carey, 8 looks away as she gets her COVID-19 vaccine from LPN Sandra Castro. Carey said, 'I watch the news. I know what's going on. My mom told me to be brave. I want to be safe. I want to protect my friends' Carey was one of dozens of students receiving their COVID-19 vaccination at KIPP Believe Charter School in New Orleans, Jan. 25, 2022

'The vaccine ecosystem is fragile. If you get it wrong, especially with someone's child, it can have spillover effects and derail other vaccine programmes,' he said.

This week, Swedish health officials declined to open vaccine eligibility for all children five or older, deciding to instead only allow the shots to children under 11 who have a serious medical condition.

The UK has a similar policy to their Nordic peer, allowing for all children 12 and older to get the shot, but only allowing children five to 11 to get the shot if they have a pre-existing health issue that puts them at serious risk.

In the wake of the Omicron variant's rise through out the world, many European countries opted to expand vaccine eligibility in an effort to control the variant.

Many health officials disagree with the decision, though, and debate has opened as to whether the shots are necessary.

Still, though, in places like New York City, children must be vaccinated to take part in some activities at school and to do things like go to restaurants or movie theatres.

'With the knowledge we have today, with a low risk for serious disease for kids, we don't see any clear benefit with vaccinating them,' Britta Bjorkholm, a Swedish Health Agency official, said at a news conference Friday.

Covid has shown little ability to cause much harm to healthy, young, children.

A study performed by researchers at the University of Utah last year found that 50 percent of cases among children are asymptomatic - and the study was performed during the Delta surge, before the more mild Omicron wave took over.

There figures have spurred some to questions why children have to receive the Covid vaccines.
The press gallery's most senior member, veteran journalist Michelle Grattan, has become an instant social media meme after she was captured looking bored during Prime Minister Scott Morrison's National Press Club speech.

During a camera sweep of the audience while Mr Morrison spoke on Tuesday, Ms Grattan, 77, was seen leaning on her hand looking particularly uninspired by what she was hearing.

The image of the chief political correspondent for The Conversation was quickly shared online with a variety of captions added by people who had watched Mr Morrison's address.

Social media users were quick to comment on the screenshot of political journalist Michelle Grattan looking uninspired while listening to Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the National Press Club on Tuesday

'When the meeting could've been an email,' joked Twitter user Ira Snave on the photo of Ms Grattan

One person said Mr Grattan, 77, was feeling asleep while another described her as experiencing 'big work meeting vibes'

One person also gave Ms Grattan a speech balloon carrying the words of a recently popular hashtag, Call The Election D***head

'When the meeting could've been an email,' one person wrote to accompany the image.

'Total mood,' wrote another.

'Feel the energy,' popular Twitter account Australian Kitsch joked.

'People on their phones and Michelle Grattan falling asleep is all of us,' tweeted another person.

'Big work meeting vibes. I have been Michelle Grattan many times,' commented another.

One person also gave Ms Grattan a speech balloon carrying the words of a recently popular hashtag, Call The Election D***head.

Ms Grattan has worked for most of Australia's major newspapers in a career spanning more than 50 years. She was the first woman to editor made of a metropolitan daily newspaper in Australia when she was appointed the editor of The Canberra Times in 1993.

Ms Grattan's underwhelming response was part of a challenging appearance for Mr Morrison in which he was asked whether he would apologise for mistakes he'd made during the Covid pandemic, admitted he does not know the cost of basic household items, and was confronted with text messages describing him as a 'horrible, horrible person'.

Sky News journalist Andrew Clennell asked Mr Morrison the classic 'gotcha' question about whether he knew the price of a loaf of bread, a litre of milk and a litre of petrol during the question-and-answer section of his address on Tuesday.

Mr Clennell added a topical item by asking Mr Morrison whether he also knew the price of a rapid antigen test.

'I'm not going to pretend to you that I go out each day and I buy a loaf of bread and I buy a litre of milk,' Mr Morrison responded, clearly not knowing the prices.

'I'm not going to pretend to you that I do that. And I'll leave those sort of things to you, mate. And you can run it.

'But the point is that I do my job every day to ensure that those things are as affordable as they possibly can be for Australians every single day.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was caught out by a gotcha question about the cost of household items from Sky News reporter Andrew Clennell

The question is regularly asked of leaders during election campaigns but Mr Morrison appeared to be caught unawares by it.

Poll Should the PM know how much bread, milk and the cost of a RAT is? Yes No Should the PM know how much bread, milk and the cost of a RAT is? Yes 543 votes

No 208 votes Now share your opinion





The Q&A had got off to a rocky start when the club's host, ABC journalist Laura Tingle, asked Mr Morrison if he would apologise for mistakes he'd made as prime minister.

Mr Morrison responded by listing three key errors, including falsely raising people's hopes before this summer, not placing the vaccine rollout under military command from the start and poorly managing outbreaks in aged care.

'We could have communicated more clearly about the risks and challenges that we still face,' Mr Morrison said in reference to how he called for an end to restrictions before the Omicron wave in December.

'In our communications, we have to be be clear about that. We can't lift people's hopes, then disappointment them. I think that's what happened over the break.'

'Secondly, on the vaccination program, if I had my time over, I would have put it under a military operation from the outset and not later in the year,' Mr Morrison said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison drives past vaccine mandate protesters at the National Press Club in Canberra

The Prime Minster also admitted that aged care outbreaks should have been handled better, mentioning one incident at St Basil's home in Sydney when the staff had to isolate and the military had to be sent in.

'The interface between the aged care sector and the public hospital system was blurred. And so, when the storms of Covid hit, that created some real challenges,' he said.

After he completed his answer, Ms Tingle asked: 'So you don't have to say sorry about any of those things?' and the Prime Minister replied: 'I think I've explained my answer fairly fully.'

The Prime Minister also appeared stunned when Network 10 Political Editor Peter van Onselen read out text messages between Ms Berejiklian and a current Liberal minister he said he had obtained.

'In one she described you as quote, 'a horrible, horrible person' going on to say she did not trust you. And you're more concerned with politics than people,' Mr van Onselen said.

'The minister is even more scathing, describing you as a fraud and quote ''a complete psycho'.'

Mr Morrison said he did not know who Mr van Onselen was referring to and in any case, did not agree with the sentiments.

Outside the club after the speech, Mr Morrison's car battled through protestors in Canberra to oppose vaccine mandates.
Former President Donald Trump ordered lawyer Rudy Giuliani to call the Department of Homeland Security to see if they could seize voting machines in key states in an attempt to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election, new accounts have shown.

Mr Giuliani made the call six weeks after the election to the department's acting deputy secretary, who told the president's lawyer that he lacked the authority to seize the machines, according to The New York Times.

Evidence presented to the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot has also found that Trump drafted two executive orders - one directing the Department of Defense (DOD) to seize the machines.

The other assigned the task to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), multiple sources told CNN Monday.

While it is unclear who drafted the executive orders, insiders claim the idea to use the federal government to access voting machines in states Trump lost came from retired Col. Phil Waldron and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser whom he pardoned after being convicted for lying to the FBI.

The National Archives has provided the executive order requesting the DOD seize the machines to the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.

It is unclear if the committee has obtained the second version of the document, which instructs the DHS to conduct the task, however, numerous people have confirmed the order does exist.

After news broke of the first executive order, House select committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, told CNN: 'It's an extraordinary document, and we have a lot of questions about it.'

'We've got no evidence at this point that there were steps taken in the Department of Defense to implement that memo but ... it's a lawless document and really breathtaking in its approach,' she added.

Neither of the executive orders were issued.

Advisers to then-President Donald Trump drafted two versions of an executive order aiming to seize voting machines as part of the administration's alleged attempt to undermine the 2020 election

Former President Donald Trump ordered lawyer Rudy Giuliani (pictured January 28 in New York) to call the Department of Homeland Security to see if they could seize voting machines in key states in an attempt to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election, new accounts have shown

While it is unclear who drafted the executive orders, insiders claim the idea to use the federal government to access voting machines in states that Trump lost came from retired Col. Phil Waldron (left) and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (right)

The House committee is investigating the roles of attorney Rudy Giuliani and political consultant Bernie Kerik, who worked with Giuliani after the election in the search for evidence of voter fraud.

It is not clear if any of the individuals being investigated were involved with the drafting of the executive orders. However, an insider told CNN Kerik recently testified to the committee about the seizure efforts.

Reports also indicated that Giuliani had approached then-DHS second-in-command Ken Cuccinelli about seizing the voting machines after the election.

Cuccinelli - who earlier this month claimed his conversation with Giuliani 'never developed to the point of talking about an executive order including such action' - reportedly told the Trump adviser the DHS did not have the authority to carry out such requests.

Giuliani's attorney also claimed his client immediately shut down the idea of seizing voting equipment.

'As soon as he heard about this idea, he was vehemently against it, as was White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and then-President Trump,' Robert Costello, Giuliani's lawyer, said.

Sources familiar with the situation also allege Giuliani and his team continued to pursue additional avenues for overturning the election.

Flynn also touted the idea during a December 2020 interview, saying Trump 'could immediately on his order seize every single one of these machines around the country' and 'basically rerun an election' in states that he had lost. Trump and Flynn are pictured together at a rally in Colorado in October 2016

The executive order allowed the defense secretary to 'seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under' a US law relating to preservation of election records. (Pictured: Voting machines in Georgia which President Joe Biden ultimately won)

The House committee is also reportedly investigating the efforts to draft the orders and how the documents originated.

This includes investigating the roles of Waldron, Flynn and Trump's former lawyer Sidney Powell.

Officials claim Flynn and Powell advocated the idea for seizure of the voting machines during an Oval Office meeting in mid-December 2020. The meeting reportedly featured screaming matches between Trump's advisers.

Some advisers are said to have pushed back on various election-related proposals, including one that involved invoking martial law and naming Powell as special counsel to investigate voter fraud claims.

Flynn was reportedly 'adamant' that election equipment could be seized and 'personally reached out' to at least one senior DOD official in December 2020, seeking their help with his cause.

The Trump loyalist touted the idea during an interview with Newsmax, saying: 'He could immediately on his order seize every single one of these machines around the country on his order.'

'He could also order, within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically re-run an election in each of those states. It's not unprecedented.'

Despite Flynn's claim, officials argue any operation of military or governmental personnel seizing voting equipment for political purposes would have been unprecedented in US history.

Flynn, Powell and Waldron did not comment to CNN about the allegations. They also did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

The executive orders were drafted after Trump fell to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Biden won the election by securing 306 electoral votes and winning states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, which Trump had previously won in the 2016 election.

Trump's final electoral count tallied 232 votes and he repeatedly claimed the Democrats stole the election from him.

Analysts allege the executive order - which was dated Dec. 16, 2020 - could have kept Trump in office until mid-February 2021, had it been issued. However, instead his supporters held a riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as Congress attempted to certify the election (pictured)

Five people died in connection to the insurrection, and at least 100 law enforcement agents were injured. More than 700 people have been arrested for their alleged roles in the riots

According to Politico, which first unveiled the executive order earlier this month, the draft ordered the defense secretary to 'seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under' a US law relating to preservation of election records.

The news outlet alleges the executive order was consistent with proposals Powell made at the time. It was also reportedly written two days before Flynn, former Trump administration lawyer Emily Newman, and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne met with Trump in the Oval Office.

The document - dated December 16, 2020 - also gave the DOD leader 60 days to write an assessment of the presidential election. Analysts allege that, if it had been executed, the move could've kept Trump in power until at least mid-February 2021.

However, the order was never issued and the Senate and House of Representatives met to move forward with certifying the results of the election on January 6, 2021.

In what was said to be the most violent attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812, supporters of the defeated Republican president forced lawmakers and Trump's own vice president, Mike Pence, to scramble for safety.

Five people died in connection to the insurrection, and at least 100 law enforcement agents were injured. More than 700 people have been arrested for their alleged roles in the riots.
She wrote about her difficulties trying to enter NZ in column that stunned world

She was repeatedly denied entry to the country and turned to Taliban for help

A pregnant New Zealand journalist forced to turn to the Taliban for help after she was stranded in Afghanistan by Jacinda Ardern's draconian Covid border rules has finally been told she can return home.

Charlotte Bellis, 35, a journalist who worked in Qatar, has been stuck in Afghanistan since last year with Belgian partner Jim Huylebroek because it was the only place they had visas to live after she was turned away by the country of her birth.

Ms Bellis - who is now 25 weeks pregnant - previously told how the Taliban offered to help after hearing of her plight, but added that she is still desperate to return to New Zealand because of the lack of medical care in Afghanistan.

After global outcry at her treatment, New Zealand's deputy prime minister Grant Robertson said today that she has now been granted a place in the country's border quarantine system. 'I urge her to take it up,' he added.

He denied the worldwide attention her case has received had anything to do with her being granted a place, though did not make it clear what the decision was based on or why her previous application was rejected.

It has since emerged that New Zealand rejected 65 emergency applications from pregnant women looking to return home in the last seven months alone - more than twice the number they accepted, which stands at 29.

Charlotte Bellis, 35, a New Zealand journalist who had been working in the Middle East, had been struggling to return home to give birth due to Jacinda Ardern's strict Covid rules

Another 118 emergency applications involving a pregnancy were not processed by the government for being incomplete, or else were withdrawn by the applicants, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Mr Robertson insisted: 'Staff of [the quarantine system] who have to deal with emergency application are dealing with very difficult and challenging cases on a daily basis.'

'They always try to make contact with people and try to make arrangements that work.'

Ms Bellis had been living and working in Qatar as a broadcast journalist for Al Jazeera when she found out she was pregnant in September last year.

She described the pregnancy - with partner Mr Huylebroek, who is a photographer and New York Times contributor - as a complete surprise after doctors told her she would never have children.

But the couple were forced to leave Qatar in November after Ms Bellis's doctor said she would be unable to treat her because of strict rules around extra-martial sex.

The pair initially went to Belgium where Ms Bellis first registered to go home using New Zealand's lottery-style system that decides who gets to travel to the country.

Strict border quarantine rules mean that all arrivals in New Zealand have to stay for 10 days in managed Covid isolation, meaning tickets have to be rationed to ensure there is enough room to house people.

With no success using the lottery system, Ms Bellis was forced to leave Belgium because she was unable to get a visa to stay longer at short notice.

Travelling with her partner, Ms Bellis headed to Afghanistan after contacts she had within the Taliban offered to help and assured her that she would be safe there.

Once in Afghanistan, she applied for an emergency exemption to the border lottery system on the grounds that she required time-limited medical treatment that was unavailable in the country where she was staying.

Ms Bellis has been stranded in Afghanistan with her partner and father of her child, Belgian photographer Jim Huylebroek, since last year

Now 25 weeks pregnant, Ms Bellis had applied for an emergency waiver to New Zealand's border lotter system on the basis she cannot access medical care in Afghanistan

She said she sent 59 documents to New Zealand authorities in Afghanistan but they rejected her application.

The reason for the rejection was not made clear, though the letter Ms Bellis received and published appears to suggest that part of the explanation was because her proposed date of travel was more than 14 days from the date of application.

That is despite New Zealand's border rules making it clear that this rule can be waived in special circumstances, which Ms Bellis says apply in her case because of the limited number of flights out of Afghanistan.

It was also suggested that she should apply under a different waiver category, stating that she is unsafe in her current location rather than because she cannot access medical care.

The letter also demands that Ms Bellis provide more documents proving that returning to New Zealand is the only option available to her.

But she pushed back, writing to say that she was not in fear of her safety and needed to access medical care in New Zealand that the Taliban could not provide.

'You have all of our information. You know our situation. I want it on record that there is no change to our circumstances, no new evidence or information you have received,' she wrote back.

'If you are not approving us under the category [of urgent medical care] then please provide your justification.'

Then, on Tuesday, the government announced that she had been granted a place in border quarantine - without making it clear why it had changed its position.

Jacinda Ardern's (pictured) strict Covid borders hampered Charlotte Bellis' attempts to return home before giving birth to her first child in May

Bellis is one of tens of thousand of Kiwis who have been stranded overseas due to Jacinda Ardern's strict Covid rules.

Under the rules, all returning New Zealanders must secure a place in a hotel quarantine facility and stay there for 10 days.

However there's a limited number of places available, so the government uses a controversial online lottery system to allocates rooms.

Ms Bellis was flooded with online support for her efforts to return home, and was thanked for speaking out.

'Please continue to fight for everyone that doesn't have your profile. You are highlighting the absurdity and cruelty of the MIQ system, with multiple loopholes for the ultra wealthy, citizens or not,' one commented.

Another added: 'Many of us know people stuck overseas being treated in such a cruel way but we don't have the means to bring it attention. Thank you.'

Prime Minister Ardern is yet to comment on Ms Bellis' plight and is in self-isolation after she was declared a close contact of a Covid case. She has tested negative so far and will stay in isolation until Wednesday.

Today, Mr Robertson said Ardern would make a speech about 'New Zealand's plan to reconnect with the world' on Thursday.
A toddler has died after being mauled by his family's dog in regional Queensland.

Talan, two, suffered serious head injuries during the attack at the family home in Mena Creek on Saturday afternoon.

He was rushed to Innisfail hospital before being airlifted to Townsville Hospital where he underwent emergency brain surgery.

The little boy was later placed in an induced coma but sadly died on Monday.

Talan, two, suffered serious head injuries during the attack at the family home in Mena Creek on Saturday afternoon

'They unfortunately couldn't stop the bleeding and his organs started to struggle,' his aunt Bex Newman wrote on a Gofundme page.

The page has been set up to raise money for the funeral costs and support his family during the difficult time.

'All funds of this page will be going directly to Talans family to help pay for his funeral and allow them time off work to grieve the loss of their child without the added financial stress of providing for their two beautiful boys Lucas (5) and Kaden (one month) at home,' the page read.

'As you could imagine this is a truly heartbreaking time for the family.'

More than $11,000 has been raised in less than 24 hours.

A report is being prepared for the coroner.
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Whoopi Goldberg stoked more controversy on Monday evening when she tried to apologize for saying the 'Holocaust isn't about race' by asserting race is only about skin color and the Nazis 'had to do the work' to find out who was Jewish.

During an interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert after her comments on The View about the Holocaust caused international outcry, Goldberg, 66, said she understood why she had angered people.

But she didn't stop there, and instead tried to explain why she thought the killing of six million Jews by the Nazis was not about race because Jews are white.

'When you talk about being a racist, you can't call this racism,' she said. 'This was evil. This wasn't based on skin. You couldn't tell who was Jewish. You had to delve deeply and figure it out. My point is: they had to do the work.

'If the Klan is coming down the street and I'm standing with a Jewish friend, I'm going to run, but if my friend decides not to run, they'll get passed by most times because you can't tell who is Jewish. You don't know.'

Her appearance on Colbert, where she also plugged her return to the Star Trek franchise, came hours after she apologized for her comments, which sparked backlash worldwide, earlier that day.

'The Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people -- who they deemed to be an inferior race. I stand corrected,' she tweeted.

'The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I'm sorry for the hurt I have caused.'

Whoopi Goldberg on Monday night appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and attempted to explain her controversial remarks about the Holocaust

Goldberg admitted to Colbert that she 'did a lot of harm to myself' with her Holocaust remarks

She also said during the interview: 'I feel, being black, when we talk about race it's a very different thing to me.'

'So I said I thought the Holocaust wasn't about race. And it made people very angry. I'm getting a lot of mail from folks and a lot of anger.

'But I thought it was a salient discussion because as a black person I think of race as being something that I can see.'

The Manhattan-born Academy Award winning actress and comedian, who has hosted The View since 2007, told Colbert that she received plenty of criticism over her remarks.

'It upset a lot of people, which was never ever ever my intention,' Goldberg said. 'People were very angry, and said no, we are a race. And I understand. I felt differently. I respect everything everyone is saying to me. I don't want to fake apologize.

'I am very upset that people misunderstood what I was saying. And because of it they are saying I am anti-Semitic, and denying the Holocaust, and all these other things that would never occur to me to do. I thought we were having a discussion about race, which everyone is having.'

Goldberg, who is well known for her provocative and controversial comments, admitted to Colbert she 'did a lot of harm to myself' with her Holocaust remarks.

'People decided I was a certain way. And I'm not,' she insisted. 'And I'm torn up people see me that way. I did it to myself.

'This is my thought process and I will work hard not to think that way again.'

Goldberg is seen leaving The Late Show in Manhattan after taping her interview with host Stephen Colbert

Goldberg sparked outrage by claiming on The View that the Holocaust was 'not about race' because it's 'two white groups of people'

Goldberg began the firestorm during a panel discussion with her View co-hosts over a Tennessee school board banning Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus.

The book by Art Spiegelman about Nazi atrocities faced by his parents has been an 'anchor text' in the curriculum and is used by schools all around the country.

'Let's be truthful about it,' she said.

'The Holocaust isn't about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man. That's what it's about.

Co-hosts Ana Navarro, Joy Behar and Sarah Haines all argued with her, but Goldberg was unrepentant.

'These are two white groups of people. You are missing the point. The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. Let's talk about it for what it is, it's how people treat each other,' Goldberg said.

Whoopi faced backlash on social media for her comments on The View and The Late Show

Goldberg's remarks were met with criticism on both sides of the Atlantic, with many criticizing the actress for her misunderstanding.

Stop Antisemitism, a non-profit organization, tweeted: 'Newsflash @WhoopiGoldberg. 6 million of us were gassed, starved and massacred because we were deemed an inferior race by the Nazis. How dare you minimize our trauma and suffering!'

The Auschwitz Memorial in Poland tweeted a link to a history of the Holocaust.

'@WhoopiGoldberg, Holocaust - the destruction of European Jews.

'A seven-chapter online course about the history of the Holocaust. Links to all chapters below in the tweet.'

Meanwhile in the UK, high profile politician and judge Justice David Wolfson referred to a speech he had made about 'universities being at the forefront of tackling anti-semitism'.

And British comedian David Baddiel said he appreciated Whoopi's statement about reconsidering what she had said about race.

The comedian went on to share a screenshot of pages from his book Jews Don't Count in which he wrote about the separation of anti-semitism from racism.

Goldberg's co-host, Navarro, pointed out to her how the Nazis persecuted Jews and 'Gypsies', targeting them as white supremacists.

Haines tried to point out that Nazis didn't consider Jews 'white' but it did not resonate with Goldberg.

There was immediate backlash on Twitter.

Meghan McCain, a former View co-host who left the show last year after feeling marginalized for her Conservative views, tweeted: 'Antisemitism is a cancer and a poison that is increasingly excused in our culture and television - and permeates spaces that should shock us all.'

'WTF? This is insane. The extermination of 6 million Jews wasn't about race??? Will any rock stars or renegade royals now boycott Whoopi Goldberg and/or ABC for this dangerous misinformation?' tweeted Piers Morgan.

Michael Rappaport filmed a video of himself railing against Goldberg.

'Whoopi Goldberg, love you big fan - you went on your show and said the Holocaust wasn't about race.

'Yes it f*****g was! It was all and only about race! It was about 'kill the Jews. They're not white, they're Jewish.

'That's like saying slavery wasn't about race. You need to apologize. You need to explain yourself. Not good, not cool.'

Survivor children in the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau after the liberation, 1945. Godlberg said it wasn't an act of racism because it involved two white groups

Goldberg's co-host Ana Navarro tried to argue with her that the Holocaust was about race, but Whoopi spoke over her

Sarah Haines tried to point out that the Nazis considered themselves the superior race over Jews, but Goldberg did not take her point on-board

Goldberg, who began her career as a standup comedian and in avant-garde theater troupes, has had a history of supporting wife-beaters, race-baiters and even a serial rapist.

Yet she remains entrenched as one of the co-hosts of the popular daytime show because her unfiltered outbursts are often must-watch TV.

The Academy Award winner and one of only 16 people to have won an 'EGOT' - an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony - has remained resolutely controversial throughout her checkered career.

In 1993, she was roasted by her then-boyfriend Ted Danson at the Friar's Club.

Goldberg and Danson collaborated on the jokes, and Danson appeared on stage in blackface with his lips painted white, proceeding to make graphic jokes about Goldberg's anatomy and repeatedly used the n-word.

Attendees were horrified and then-New York City Mayor David Dinkins - the first black mayor of the city - said he was 'embarrassed for Whoopi and the audience and felt a tremendous sense of relief when it was over.'

Talk show host Montel Williams stormed off seven minutes into Danson's monologue and left with his visibly upset wife.

'When Ted made the jokes about the racially mixed kids, and everyone knows my wife is white and just gave birth to our child, I could see my wife start to cry,' Williams told The New York Daily News.

'If that's what Whoopi and Ted find funny in their bedroom, it's not funny to the outside world.'

Williams said he planned to send roses and a note of apology to all the black women sitting on the dais with him for what he said was like 'a meeting of the Klan.'

Whoopi Goldberg is pictured with her then boyfriend Ted Danson and Robert De Niro at the Friar's Club in New York City

Goldberg was unrepentant, declaring before the shocked crowd: 'I don't care if you don't like it. I do!'

Later, she said she resented the criticism from people who didn't even know her.

'If they knew me, they would know that Whoopi has never been about political correctness,' she said.

Perhaps the thrice-married actress's most damaging moment came when she was invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention, in 2004, and made a crude joke about then-Republican President George W. Bush.

'I love Bush, but somebody's giving Bush a bad name,' Goldberg told the audience.

'I want to put Bush back where it belongs, and I don't mean the White House. So you've got to get out there and vote.'

Goldberg angered many at the 1994 Democratic National Convention, stating: 'I want to put Bush back where it belongs, and I don't mean the White House'

Goldberg was condemned for her remarks, and lost a lucrative contract with Slim Fast.

She said at the time she was taken aback by the outrage.

'I've done material on every president in the past 20 years, from Reagan to Carter, from Clinton to Bush. It seems now that people from the other side are using this to further their own agenda,' she said.

The Manhattan-born performer found herself cast into the wilderness after her comments, and has since said she didn't work for five years.

'For a good three years, I couldn't even get arrested,' she told The New York Times in 2019.

'Eventually I was lucky enough to get a radio show, and then Barbara Walters asked if I would consider doing 'The View.''

Goldberg officially joined the show in August 2007, taking the slot vacated by Rosie O'Donnell.

Goldberg also sparked controversy by defending Bill Cosby for a long while after the accusations of rape and sexual assault were made

She also sprung to the defense of Mel Gibson, after he was caught on tape telling his girlfriend that she was dressed provocatively and would be 'raped by n******'

The controversies kept coming - which, for the producers, frequently made the show must-watch TV.

But it also made many viewers angry.

In July 2010, Goldberg defended Mel Gibson after a furious conversation between him and ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva was published.

Gibson tells his Russian girlfriend, mother of his daughter Lucia: 'You look like a f****** pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of n******, it will be your fault.'

Goldberg defended him.

'I know Mel, and I know he's not a racist,' she said.

'I have had a long friendship with Mel. You can say he's being a bonehead, but I can't sit and say that he's a racist having spent time with him in my house with my kids.'

Goldberg was quick to add, however, that she does not condone his actions.

'I don't like what he's done,' she said. 'Make no mistake.'

When co-host Joy Behar asked Goldberg if she thought Gibson was anti-semitic, she replied, 'I think he's an a******,' quickly covering her mouth before the full word escaped her lips.

In 2014, she twice sprung to the defense of male celebrities involved in violent confrontations with women.

First she said that Jay-Z, who was attacked by Beyonce's sister Solange Knowles in an elevator at The Standard Hotel, would have been justified in hitting her back.

Goldberg told The View in May 2014 that a man has 'every right' to hit a woman in some circumstances. Jaz-Z refrained from any attack.

'I think Solange was quite ready for him to do whatever he was going to do,' Goldberg said.

'This is the thing: If anybody hits you, you have the right  I know that many people are raised in a different way  but if a woman hits you, to me, you have the right to hit her back,' she said.

Discussing the infamous time Solange Knowles attacked her brother-in-law Jay-Z in an elevator, Goldberg said the rapper would have been justified in hitting her back

In August 2014, Goldberg defended NFL player Ray Rice for hitting his partner during an episode of The View

Barbara Walters then inquired if Goldberg believed that it was acceptable for a man to hit a woman, to which Goldberg replied that 'if I slap a man, he has every right to slap me back'.

She then defended Ray Rice - an NFL star who battered his wife and never played another down - noting that she admitted she hit him first.

'If you make the choice, as a woman who is 4-foot-3, and you decide to hit a guy who is 6-foot-tall, and you're the last thing he wants to deal with that day and he hits you back, you cannot be surprised,' Goldberg said.

'I know I'm going to catch a lot of hell, and I don't care.

'But you have to teach women, do not live with this idea that men have this chivalry thing still with them, don't assume that that is still in place.'

Goldberg once again sprang to the defense of a Hollywood friend when she stood by accused serial rapist Bill Cosby, long after most people had abandoned him.

The floodgates of allegations opened in November 2014, but Goldberg defended him resolutely until July 2015.

'He has not been proven a rapist,' she insisted in early July 2015.

'It's my opinion, and the American courts agree with me because still he has not been taken to jail or tried on anything. So back off me!'

Several weeks later, she finally changed her tune.

'I gotta say, all of the information that's out there kinda points to 'guilt',' she concluded.

Goldberg also engaged in fiery feuds with her co-stars and guests.

In July 2018, Goldberg and Judge Jeanine Pirro had an astonishing screaming match live on air, after Pirro appeared to suggest Goldberg suffered from 'Trump Derangement Syndrome.'

Goldberg angrily replied: 'Listen, I don't have 'Trump Derangement'  let me tell you what I have.

'I'm tired of people starting a conversation with 'Mexicans are liars and rapists.'

'Listen, I'm 62 years old. There have been a lot of people in office that I didn't agree with, but I have never, ever seen anything like this.

'I've never seen anybody whip up such hate. I've never seen anybody be so dismissive. And clearly you don't watch the show, so you don't know that I don't suffer from that.

'What I suffer from is the inability to figure out how to fix this.'

Goldberg is seen with Judge Jeanine as a guest, in a segment that descended into a furious row

Goldberg also famously clashed with Meghan McCain, DailyMail.com columnist who was a co-host from 2017-2021.

When McCain left the show, she accused Goldberg of creating a 'toxic' work environment.

Goldberg shrugged off her remarks.

'Alright,' she said. 'You know, I'm trying to get my leg and my hip right,' pointing to her cane.

'I don't have time to think about anything but myself.'
Four teenage girls' violent assault of a younger boy, involving their turn from friends to torturers in a country NSW home, has been detailed in court.

The boy, aged 13, had been staying overnight at one of the girls' homes in March 2020 when one, aged 15, borrowed his phone.

When she ran from the home, two other girls joined the boy's search for her, only to also turn on him.

The 13-year-old was dragged back towards the house and set upon physically, as the four girls demanded his PIN.

Four teenage girls' violent assault of a younger boy, involving their turn from friends to torturers in a country NSW home, has been detailed in court

The group then moved inside, unleashing a prolonged assault on the boy, in which he was repeatedly kicked, punched and threatened with weapons.

Duct tape was used to bind his ankles and wrists, and cover his mouth.

The 15-year-old filmed the assault on the boy's stolen phone as the other girls punched him in the groin, burnt his arm with a cigarette lighter and committed other assaults.

'All four assailants, including the (15-year-old), then held the victim to the ground and used a pair of kitchen scissors to cut his hair and shave his eyebrows,' the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal said in a summary on Tuesday.

'He was further assaulted outside the house by being kneed in the chest and groin and struck on the head. The victim eventually escaped and ran to his parents' house.'

Until the assault, the boy had been friends with the girls and attended the same school as the 15-year-old.

The 15-year-old pleaded guilty at an early opportunity and was found by a judge to have shown genuine remorse and contrition, and have prospects of rehabilitation.

She also changed schools in the interests of the victim, to avoid future contact with him, and cut ties with the co-offenders, whose criminal proceedings are unknown.

On Tuesday, the appeal court overturned the sentencing judge's decision to not record a conviction, finding it was a necessary element of the 18-month community correction order to which the girl was sentenced.
The widow of Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin has endured further heartbreak, with her father Pete losing his battle with terminal brain cancer.

Model Ellidy Pullin revealed the shattering news to her 152,000 Instagram followers on Monday.

Mr Pullin died in July 2020 after suffering a shallow water blackout while spearfishing, leaving his partner devastated - but determined to still having a family with the Winter Olympian.

She used sperm extracted from his body to become pregnant via IVF with their first child, Minnie Alex, who was born in October.

'Rest in Paradise Dadda,' she posted.

'You lit up our entire lives! We'd always turn to you for a laugh if ever we were down.

'As kids you'd cheer us up by handing us your phonebook and letting us prank call everyone in it.

Influencer Ellidy Pullin has endured further heartbreak, with her father Pete losing his battle with terminal brain cancer (pictured, with life partner Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin who died in 2020)

Pete Vlug (pictured, with Ellidy's daughter Minnie Alex) was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2020

Ellidy described her larrikin father as a 'modern day Tarzan, who always stressed life was meant to be fun'

'Every Saturday was surf safari day and we'd sing The Beach Boys en-route to Freshie beach at the top of our lungs out the windows, begging for red lights so that the drive could take longer.

'Everything with you was so fun. You taught us to never grow up or take life too seriously!

'You're our Tarzan, the strongest guy ever! You smashed your prognosis and whenever we would get upset watching you deteriorated you'd say 'don't worry, be happy.'

Plenty were quick to pass on their condolences on social media, including members of her childhood 'girl gang' - North Narrabeen big wave surfer Laura Enever, swimwear founder Chloe Chapman and her husband, renowned electro DJ Paul Fisher.

Ellidy, 28, also posted a series of throwback photos of her father, who was renowned on Sydney's northern beaches for his surfing exploits.

The death of her dad follows Ellidy welcoming her daughter, Minnie Alex, into the world in October.

Ellidy announced she was pregnant last June, almost a year after her partner, champion snowboarder and winter Olympian Mr Pullin, drowned while spearfishing at a reef off Queensland's Palm Beach.

Speaking on her podcast Darling, Shine! in June, Ellidy spoke about her desperate rush to collect Pullin's sperm after his death on July 8, 2020.

Under Queensland legislation, sperm can be removed posthumously when a designated officer declares their belief the deceased wouldn't object.

The consent of the immediate family - including Chumpy's parents - was also required before any sperm could be retrieved.

An IVF specialist assists with the retrieval, with a recommended removal timeframe of between 24 and 36 hours after death.

Ellidy also told her social media followers some of her happiest days involved heading to Freshwater Beach on Sydney's Northern Beaches with her dad (pictured) and brother Dave

The close-knit family (pictured) are mourning the death of their family character, husband and father Pete Vlug

Despite his terminal brain cancer diagnoses, Pete Vlug (pictured, with grand-daughter Minnie Alex) never complained

Ellidy admitted it was quite an undertaking, with everyone having to sign off on legal documents, while also dealing with coroners, lawyers and doctors.

She said her pregnancy was 'the most bittersweet thing in the world', but added that she was determined to have a child with Chumpy to continue his legacy.

'I'm not saying it's going to be easy or a walk in the park. I have a lot ahead of me, I've got big shoes to fill,' she continued.

'I've got to be a dad and a mum in one, and not just any dad, I've got to be a Chumpy dad.

'I go through a lot every day and I will forever grieve, that never leaves you, but I was always so sure of one thing - that I was always going to have this bub.'
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying an Italian Earth observation satellite finally launched Monday afternoon after four delays, including one that was caused by a Royal Caribbean cruise ship that wandered too close to the coast of Cape Canaveral on Sunday.

The two-stage rocket, which carried a Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 satellite, lifted off Monday at 6:11pm, according to SpaceX.

The skies were so clear that onlookers could watch the 156-foot booster, or first stage of the rocket, separate from the payload and fall back to Earth - something that SpaceX has pulled off 104 times so far.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted: '16 story tall rocket, traveling several times faster than a bullet, backflips & fires engines to return to launch site.'

The satellite sent into space was funded by the Italian Space Agency, the Italian Ministry of Defense and the Italian Ministry of Education. It will 'monitor the Earth for the sake of emergency prevention, strategy, scientific and commercial purposes,' according to the European Space Agency.

This is the fourth attempt at the mission.

Scroll down for video

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying an Italian satellite was successfully launched on Monday

The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 6.11pm after four failed attempts at launch

The two-stage rocket carried a Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 satellite

The satellite will 'monitor the Earth for the sake of emergency prevention, strategy, scientific and commercial purposes,' according to the European Space Agency .

Bad weather forced SpaceX to hold off on the launch on January 27 and on the following two days

Bad weather forced SpaceX to hold off on the launch on January 27 and on the following two days. The weather improved on Sunday, but a cruise ship sailed too close to the 'keep out' zone on the waters near Cape Canaveral with less than 35 seconds to run on the countdown clock, forcing the launch to be aborted.

During Sunday's livestream, SpaceX commentator Jesse Anderson explained how a cruise ship was approaching the no-go zone, and that the US Coast Guard was in contact with the ship.

The Coast Guard is now investigating the mishap.

'The Coast Guard is actively investigating Sundays cruise ship incursion and postponement of the SpaceX launch,' the Coast Guard said in a statement, according to Florida Today.

'Our primary concern is the safety of mariners at sea, and we will continue to work with our federal, state and local port partners to ensure safe and navigable waterways.'

Monday's launch was successful, with the first stage, or booster, of the Falcon 9 rocket arriving back at Cape Canaveral in Florida just under eight minutes after liftoff, according to Space.com.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was due to liftoff into space on Sunday evening (above) but was abandoned with just 34 seconds to launch

Coastguard informed mission control that a cruise ship, the Harmony of the Seas was in the hazard area, seen on the bottom right of the map

The separation was visible to those in the area.

It will deliver an Italian satellite system, made up of two satellites designed to observe Earth using synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

The first such satellite was launched on a Russian Arianespace Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana in December 2019, Space.com reports. It is currently operating in a sun-synchronous polar orbit with an altitude of 385.

The booster that launched on Monday had been used twice before as a side booster on a Falcon Heavy rocket.

The booster that launched on Monday had been used twice before as a side booster on a Falcon Heavy rocket.

The separation of the booster, or stage 1, and the payload was visible to those in the area thanks to clear skies

The reuse of boosters is a key draw of Falcon 9 rockets, which SpaceX hopes will make launches more affordable.

SpaceX completed 31 launches last year and 26 in 2020.

On Thursday, during a meeting of a NASA oversight committee, astronaut Sandra Magnus revealed that the company is targeting 'an ambitious 52 launch manifest' this year, according to CNBC.

Another Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Florida on Tuesday at 1.56pm. That one will carry SpaceX's own Starlink internet satellites.
A new Georgetown Law administrator who started his job at the prestigious Washington D.C. law school on Monday has already been placed on administrative leave after a controversial tweet about President Joe Biden's plan to nominate a black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ilya Shapiro's tweets drew outrage from the student body and other Twitter uses over his apparent suggestion that the best Supreme Court nominee could not be a black woman.

'Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart [sic]. Even has identify politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn't fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we'll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?' he tweeted after news spread of Supreme Court Justice Breyer's retirement last Wednesday.

He later tweeted an apology, saying, 'I meant no offense, but it was an inartful tweet. I have taken it down.'

Ilya Shapiro, who due to join Georgetown Law school next week, has been placed on administrative leave over his social media posts made last week about Biden's SCOTUS picks

Shapiro posted on Twitter questioning the qualifications of any black woman that President Joe Biden may nominate to replace Justice Stephen Breyer

Another tweet stated: 'Because Biden said he's only consider[ing] black women for SCOTUS, his nominee will always have an asterisk attached. Fitting that the Court takes up affirmative action next term.'

Shapiro still wasn't finished and in a third tweet decided to post a poll asking whether Joe Biden was racist

'Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan (pictured), who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identify politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn't fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we'll get lesser black woman,' Shapiro wrote

Shapiro was hired to join Georgetown's law faculty as executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution but now his position is in doubt.

On Monday, Shapiro tweeted his confidence that following an investigation by the university he will be allowed to take up his posting in full.

'I'm optimistic that Georgetown's investigation will be fair, impartial, and professional, though there's really not much to investigate. And I'm confident that it will reach the only reasonable conclusion: my Tweet didn't violate any university rule or policy, and indeed is protected by Georgetown policies on free expression. Accordingly, I expect to be vindicated and look forward to joining my new colleagues in short order,' he wrote.

Biden announced last week that he'd fulfill his campaign promise to nominate the first black female justice as Justice Stephen Breyer said he would retire. The 83-year-old liberal is the oldest member of the bench.

On Monday, Shapiro tweeted his confidence that following an investigation by the university he will be allowed to take up his posting in full

On Friday, Georgetown University's Black Law Students Association had demanded his job offer be rescinded, describing the tweet as 'offensive, racist, sexist, and misogynistic.'

'The tweets' suggestion that the best Supreme Court nominee could not be a black woman and their use of demeaning language are appalling,' Georgetown University said in a statement.

'The tweets are at odds with everything we stand for at Georgetown Law and are damaging to the culture of equity and inclusion that Georgetown Law is building every day.'

Shapiro is now on leave while the university's internal investigation takes place into whether he violated any school policies, despite not being employed by the establishment at the time he made the insensitive remarks.

'Ilya Shapiro's tweets are antithetical to the work that we do here every day to build inclusion, belonging and respect for diversity,' Dean Bill Treanor wrote in a letter to the law school community.

The dean of Georgetown University Law Center William M. Treanor told the Law School that he had placed Ilya Shapiro on administrative leave, 'pending an investigation into whether he violated our policies and expectations on professional conduct, non-discrimination, and anti-harassment

'I am writing to inform you that I have placed Ilya Shapiro on administrative leave, pending an investigation into whether he violated our policies and expectations on professional conduct, non-discrimination, and anti-harassment, the results of which will inform our next steps,' Treanor added.

'Ilya Shapiro's tweets are antithetical to the work that we do here every day to build inclusion, belonging, and respect for diversity,' he wrote. 'Racial stereotypes about individual capabilities and qualifications remain a pernicious force in our society and our profession.'

On Friday, Shapiro made his first apology.

'I regret my poor choice of words, which undermined my message that nobody should be discriminated against for his or her skin color,' Shapiro wrote in a statement.

'While it's important that a wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds be represented in the judiciary, so blatantly using identity politics in choosing Supreme Court justices is discrediting to a vital institution. Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan is, in my mind, the most qualified nominee a Democratic president could choose. Reasonable people can disagree on that particular assessment, but it's a shame that he and other men and women of every race are excluded from the outset of the selection process,' he explained.

Justice Breyer (right) holds up a copy of the U.S. Constitution as he briefly addressed the press during last Thursday's event in the Roosevelt Room

Shapiro also penned something similar in an apology that was sent directly into the inboxes of the Georgetown community.

'In seeking to join the Georgetown community, I wanted to contribute to your worthy mission to educate students, inform the public, and engage in the battle of legal ideas that lead to justice and fairness. I still want to do that. Recklessly framed tweets like this week's obviously don't advance that mission, for which I am also truly sorry. Regardless of whether anyone agrees or disagrees with me on a host of legal and policy issues, I can and will do better with regard to how I communicate my positions,' he wrote.

Some free speech activists have thrown their support behind Shapiro.

Academic freedom protects Shapiros views, regardless of whether we agree with them or not, wrote the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an advocacy group that focuses on First Amendment issues.

And debate about the presidents nomination, and about whether race and sex play a proper role in such nominations more generally, would be impoverished  at Georgetown and elsewhere  if this view could not be safely expressed in universities,' the group wrote in a letter.

Shapiro will remain off the Georgetown campus while the investigation takes place.

On social media, Shapiro's apology carried little weight as he came in for sharp criticism

On social media, Shapiro's apology carried little weight.

'If you are trying to prove you have no idea how racist your original tweet was youre doing great! Otherwise Id workshop this a bit more,' wrote lawyer Mirriam Zary.

'Not as racist as declaring Sri Srinivasan ineligible because she is not of the preferred race,' said another Twitter user.

'This response isnt going to please anyone,' tweeted Joe Vols.

'A good lawyer wouldve had this statement a lot faster with a lot better apology,' said Stephen Choloula.

'That's a lot of words to use just to reaffirm your original position that there isn't a single black woman in the whole United States who's qualified to sit on the Supreme Court,' added another user.

'The most non-apology apology. I'm going to enjoy you being CANCELED,' wrote one more.

'Dude how can you screw up an apology multiple times. I guess when youre not actually sorry,' surmised Justin Saddle.

'In other words, I meant what I said,' inferred Alvin Burney.
Scott Morrison has been slapped with a brutal retort after defending his government's handling of several alleged sexual assault scandals, with Brittany Higgins saying he needs 'empathy training'.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday told the National Press Club in Canberra that parliament is now a 'safer place' after an alleged rape in a minister's office, with a raft of new measures brought in following an in-house inquiry.

Former Liberal staffer Ms Higgins went public with the allegations against a colleague in 2021 claiming nothing eventuated from her internal complaint to the party.

'Oh, wow. Sounds like someone is in need of some empathy training,' Ms Higgins wrote in a scolding response on Twitter to Scott Morrison's remark (pictured together)

Former Liberal staffer Ms Higgins (pictured) went public with the 2019 allegations against a colleague in 2021 claiming nothing eventuated from her internal complaint to the party

But Mr Morrison said things have now improved after the implementation of a new complaints mechanism, as well as counselling support service and empathy training for MPs or staffers who step out of line.

'It provides an environment should, God forbid, that ever happen to anyone again, that they will find a situation very different to the one Ms Higgins found herself in,' Mr Morrison said to a packed room of reporters just months out from an election.

To many, the remark 'found herself in' was akin to 'victim-blaming'.

'Oh, wow. Sounds like someone is in need of some empathy training,' Ms Higgins wrote in a scolding response on Twitter.

Liberal backbencher Andrew Laming last year was sensationally ordered into empathy training by the prime minister after allegations of bullying against two women in his Brisbane constituency emerged.

Scott Morrison told the under-fire MP to undergo a private course that would 'help him understand' and be more aware of his words and actions, insisting 'behaviour change' was needed to reshape the culture of the party.

Mr Morrison said things have now improved after the implementation of a new complaints mechanism, as well as counselling support service and empathy training for MPs or staffers who step out of line

Mr Morrison said the most significant change is the independent complaints hotline available to all MPs and staffers. Although critics say it doesn't go far enough.

'That process that we examined closely - that let down so many a year ago, and before - has been significantly changed, and for the better,' he said.

The government declined to make the complaints mechanism retrospective, which was among recommendations from senior bureaucrat Stephanie Foster, despite urging from coalition MPs Celia Hammond and Anne Webster.

Instead, it's limited to complaints stemming from the current parliamentary term onwards.

A Parliamentary Workplace Support Service website also includes links for people who say 'something happened to me' and 'someone has accused me'.

Both links lead to the hotline.

The coalition has been hammered over the way it's dealt with allegations of harassment and abuse at parliament. Pictured: Brittany Higgins

The government also made sexual harassment training mandatory for coalition ministers and staffers.

'I believe it's safer today than it was a year ago because of those changes and the brave stands that people have taken on these issues,' Mr Morrison said.

He insisted the complaints mechanism and counselling support meant anyone who came forward with allegations similar to Ms Higgins would receive greater support.

The coalition has been hammered over the way it's dealt with allegations of harassment and abuse at parliament.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins' review of parliament's workplace culture last year found one-third of people surveyed had been sexually harassed.

The government had earlier voted against writing into the Sex Discrimination Act a positive duty for employers proactively prevent sexual harassment.

Cabinet minister Alan Tudge remains on leave after former staffer Rachelle Miller alleged emotional and physical abuse by him.

Mr Morrison commissioned an inquiry into that matter, at the end of the year.

But Ms Miller declined to participate on the grounds its terms of reference and time frame all but guaranteed a favourable result for the government.

Former attorney-general Christian Porter announced he would quit politics at the looming election after using anonymous donations to help fund his defamation case against the public broadcaster.

He sued the ABC after naming himself as the cabinet minister who was the subject of the ABC's story about the alleged 1988 rape of a now-deceased woman.

Mr Porter strenuously denied the allegations and settled the defamation case before trial.
Australians eagerly awaiting their next overseas trip should re-check entry rules with many overseas destinations starting to require booster Covid vaccines for travelers.

From November 1, Australia's international border has been open to Australian residents or citizens, as well as people on approved working visas.

But although millions can finally fly overseas and return home, there are an increasing number of countries not letting foreigners in - some unless they're triple jabbed.

Booster doses are not required to leave or enter Australia - but travelers could find themselves significantly out-of-pocket if their expensive holiday has to be cancelled because they aren't allowed through the airport on arrival overseas.

'Every country or territory decides who can enter or leave through its borders,' the government's Smart Traveller website explains.

'Being allowed to exit Australia won't guarantee you entry at your destination. It's your responsibility to check entry requirements.'

According to the latest government data on the booster vaccine rollout about 60 per cent of eligible Australians have had their booster dose with the duration between a second dose and a booster having been recently dropped to three months - but many millions more still aren't allowed to get the jab.

In France (pictured) a booster is not yet required for entry but vaccine certificates required to visit public places are only valid for four months after the last dose after then a booster is needed

France:

France is part of the European Union which recently removed Australia from its 'white list' of travel partners effectively shutting down non-essential travel.

Australia was on the list of 12 countries but was removed along with Canada and Argentina when the list was reviewed two weeks ago amid the Omicron wave.

Europe's ambassador to Australia Dr Michael Pulch said the list is under review every two weeks and Australia could soon be re-added as the wave eases.

But when Australia is added again there could be a requirement for a third dose.

'We are looking at whether or not we need to redefine 'fully vaccinated',' Dr Pulch said

The EU whitelist is seen as a recommendation with Individual member countries still deciding their own travel restrictions.

Australia is currently on France's orange list - travel is allowed for the fully vaccinated and the unvaccinated can apply for a essential travel pass.

Once in France you'll need a 'vaccine pass' to access public places such as cinemas, theatres, bars or restaurants.

From February 15 a booster is required four months on from a second dose to get the vaccine pass - but a booster is not required for entry purposes - which is fine if you want to stay in your hotel room.

Vaccine certificates in Spain (pictured) will only be valid for nine months after the last dose so a booster will be required after that point

Spain:

Similarly, Spain is also letting in fully vaccinated Australians despite being in the EU with a vaccine pass required to enter the country and must be shown to visit public venues such as hotels, bars, cafes and museums.

From February 1, vaccination certificates in Spain will only be valid within 270 days - or nine months - from the last vaccine dose, so a booster jab will soon be mandatory.

Unvaccinated travellers cannot visit Spain unless they have a vaccination medical exemption.

Switzerland:

Similar to Spain, Switzerland has introduce a requirement that vaccines certificates are only valid for nine months from the last dose as of February 1.

Switzerland (pictured) requires a booster dose nine months on from the second dose

Australians are eligible for a Covid booster vaccine three months after the second dose (stock image)

Israel:

Australians travelling to Israel need to be fully vaccinated.

Israel has brought in an even shorter period in which vaccination certificates are valid at just 180 days or six months from the last dose - any longer than this and a booster is required.

Travellers must also need to wait 14 days from their booster jab before flying in.

Austria:

The Smart Traveller website confirms Australians travelling to Austria will need to provide proof of a booster vaccine dose on arrival to avoid any quarantine or PCR testing requirements.

Once in Vienna, lockdown rules still apply if you don't hold a valid vaccine pass or proof you have recovered from Covid in the last 180 days.

Australians heading to Hawaii (pictured) need to be boosted if the want to head out in the Maui district

Hawaii:

Australian heading for a holiday in the US state of Hawaii will need to have a booster if they want to visit venues in the County of Maui - where a large concentration of tourist hotels, bars, nightclubs, cafes, and gyms are located.

Those who aren't boosted will be subject to stronger restrictions and testing requirements.
A wild storm has ripped through the south-east Queensland city of Logan on Tuesday afternoon brining wild winds that tore roofs from houses, toppled trees and left 20,000 properties without power.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the area between Brisbane and the Gold Coast just before 5pm.

'A small but strong thunderstorm has developed near Logan and is moving quickly towards bayside suburbs. Damaging winds, heavy rainfall, and hail are possible,' the Bureau said.

Rathdowny, about an hour south-west of Logan in the Darling Down region, was drenched with 52mm of rain recorded between 4 and 5pm.

Some residents said the powerful storm had already hit when the warning was issued and they were unexpectedly without power - with the grid already straining under record demand amid a severe heatwave.

One house had the roof ripped away in the wild winds with a brick chimney also toppled (pictured)

The Logan area was already hit by a heatwave which is set to last until Wednesday when the storm hit on Tuesday afternoon (pictured)

Powerlink Chief Executive Paul Simshauser said on Tuesday as residents stay indoors using air-conditioners, appliances and electronics the electricity required would likely surpass the previous high point set in 2019.

'We're encouraging electricity customers to reduce their energy consumption where safe to do so over the next two days,' Mr Simshauser said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also warned that the grid may battle to cope as demand peaks in the next few days as temperatures continue to soar in central and southeast Queensland.

'We do expect to see the peak of use of all of our energy supplies this evening,' Ms Palaszczuk said.

South-east Queenslanders have been sweltering through temperatures in the high 30's while further west exceeded 40C combined with high humidity thanks to recent rains and the La Nina weather system.

The mercury in Brisbane hit 36C on Tuesday with an apparent temperature of 39C.

A large tree collapsed on this house narrowly avoiding the main structure (pictured)

A burst of torrential rain also hit the area soaking the ground and causing minor flash flooding (pictured)

Energex reported more than 23,000 emergency outages in the state's southeast alone by 5pm on Tuesday courtesy of the increased demand combined with the storms and maintenance works.

Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said the energy supplies were already operating on a reduced capacity.

But he assured Queenslanders that essential services such as hospitals, transport networks, ports, airports and other key infrastructure would stay online.

One local captured the ominous dark clouds of the summer heatwave storm as they rolled over (pictured)

He said power companies were already working to limit demand, with big industrial users being asked to reduce their use.

'It is possible that Queensland's previous record demand of 10,044MW will be exceeded on either today or tomorrow,' he said.

'While we are working with major electricity users to manage demand, households can also take simple steps to help like turning off devices that are on standby and other appliances where it is safe to do so during the evening peak.'
The devastated parents of a teenage girl whose body was found in a bath of acid at a residential apartment block say their beloved daughter cut all contact with them shortly after moving in with a man she recently married.

The remains of aspiring surgeon Aminah Hayat, 19, were discovered in the unit she shared with Meraj Zafar on Sunday in North Parramatta, in Sydney's west.

He has been charged with her grisly murder after presenting to police on Monday following a public appeal by detectives.

Meraj Zafar, 20, has been charged with the alleged murder of his wife Aminah Hayat, 19, (pictured together)

Ms Hayat's father Abu Hayat and mother Mahafuza Akter said they had little contact with their daughter after she moved in with the alleged killer about six months ago.

'I love my daughter. I want my daughter (back),' Mr Hayat told 7News.

The teen, who moved to Australia when she was younger with her parents, was in her second year of university studying medicine with dreams of becoming a surgeon.

Ms Hayat and Zafar married just weeks before her gruesome death.

'Everyone hoped that she would become a big doctor,' Mr Hayat said. 'She wanted to help people.'

Ms Hayat father Abu Hayat and mother Mahafuza Akter (pictured) broke down in tears over their beloved daughter's death

Ms Hayat's father Abu Hayat and mother Mahafuza Akter said they had little contact with their daughter after she moved in with the alleged killer about six months ago (pictured together)

Ms Hayat (pictured), who moved to Australia when she was younger with her parents, was in her second year of university studying medicine with dreams of becoming a surgeon

Court papers revealed Ms Hayat may have been slumped in the tub for more than a day before she was found.

Prosecution documents reveal police believe Ms Hayat was allegedly murdered between midday and 5pm on Saturday - more than 24 hours before police found her body.

Police smashed their way into the apartment in North Parramatta on Sunday after worried relatives raised the alarm.

In the couple's salmon pink bathroom at their rented $320-a-week two-bedroom unit, they allegedly found the Aminah's remains dissolving in the acid bath.

Detectives launched a public appear to find Zafar.

Prosecution documents reveal police believe Ms Hayat (pictured) was allegedly murdered between midday and 5pm on Saturday - more than 24 hours before police found her body

Accused killer Meraj Zafar is seen in new pictures as he shares a tender moment with teenage lover Aminah Hayat - before he allegedly killed her and dumped her body in a bath of acid

Zafar's lawyer Mohamad Sakr faced court on his behalf on Tuesday and said the alleged killer was 'distraught' about being in custody after his first night behind bars.

Ms Hayat's hairdresser Sadia Ali said she was heartbroken by the horrific tragedy.

'It's terrible news,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'She was such a beautiful soul.'

Locals recalled Ms Hayat as being an ideal neighbour but rarely spoke to her. Zafar told neighbours he was from Pakistan but they said his English was excellent.

Next door neighbour Ali Safari identified the couple from social media photos and said Ms Hayat had 'seemed very happy' and was 'smiling and pleasant'.

He added: 'She was always playing music. She was quiet, I never spoke with her.'

As well as his truck, neighbours said Zafar also owned a black BMW coupe which was allegedly searched and removed by detectives.

Meraj Zafar, 20, attended a police station on Monday after a public appeal to find the bearded truck driver seen here

The couple are said to have moved into the apartment (pictured) together last October

Police charged Zafar after his wife was found dead in an acid-filled bath (pictured) in the unit in Sydney's west

Mr Sakr did not apply for bail on behalf of Zafar at court this morning and it was formally refused by Magistrate Shane McAnulty.

It remains unclear if the accused will apply for bail when the case resumes at Parramatta Court on April 5. His legal counsel said he couldn't comment on whether Zafar had injuries, or if he had the support of family members.

Mr Sakr commended his client for attending the police station. 'He has done the right thing in attending the police station,' Mr Sakr said.

On Monday, police released CCTV images of a man - alleged to be Zafar - driving a tipper truck, sporting a dark beard and sunglasses, in the hopes he could assist with inquiries into Miss Hayat's death.

A truck matching the police description was later found at a Bunnings in Greenacre in south-west Sydney and was seized by detectives to undergo forensic tests.

Police allege it was the same hardware store where he purchased the hydrochloric acid to dispose of his wife's body.

Zafar attended the police station in a short time later.

Zafar handed himself in to police on Monday and was charged with the woman's murder

Police officers outside the apartment complex on Monday after the 19-year-old's body was discovered

Parramatta Police Area Commander Superintendent Julie Boon said police had found her body in the bathroom of the first-floor unit along with chemicals.

'The officers forced entry into the unit and inside the bathroom they found the body of a female,' she said.

'I can confirm there were chemicals found inside the bathroom of the unit. I can't confirm what they were.

'The scene was very challenging for arriving police. When they did arrive and found chemicals at the unit, they retreated and called other units.'

Zafar will return to court in April.
After fears that an end to the pandemic-induced moratorium on foreclosures would lead to a wave of homelessness, 2021 had the fewest foreclosures on record, and experts are saying they arent likely to rise much this year.

The trend is contributing to the already tight U.S. housing inventory and putting more pressure on prices.

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There were foreclosure filings on 151,153 properties nationwide in 2021, a 29% drop from 2020, according to a study by foreclosure analysts Attom.

Florida recorded foreclosures on 19,627 properties, an 8% drop from last year. They represented 0.21% of all Florida properties, the third-highest rate behind Illinois with 0.23% and Nevada with 0.26%.

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Metro Orlando, including Orange, Osceola, Lake and Seminole counties, saw fewer than 2,000 foreclosure filings, 5% less than 2020 and 68% down from 2019.

Experts say this is part of a trend that was accelerated by the pandemic but predates it.

I think there will be a nominal rise [in foreclosures] this year, said Orlando foreclosure attorney Steven Kramer. I dont think it will be a big swing.

Orlando foreclosure lawyer Steven Kramer says there will likely be a "nominal rise" in foreclosures this year, but not a "big swing." (Kramer Law Firm / Courtesy photo)

During the pandemic, the federal government banned foreclosures on homes with federally backed mortgages, a practice Kramer said most private lenders also followed. Many feared ending the moratorium would result in a wave of people with back payments losing their homes, but researchers and real estate professionals say that never materialized.

Foreclosure auctions did jump after the moratorium ended last September, according to David Sicherman, co-owner of OrlandoForeclosureAuctions.com, which handles foreclosure auctions for Orange County. September and October both saw more than 200, as opposed to 167 in August and 80 in July.

But, Sicherman adds, the increased numbers were in line with the past several years, not some huge wave for the area.

Kramer says thats because of the equity that was gained as home values went up last year, leaving owners in a much better state than during the last mortgage crisis when many owed more than their houses were worth.

At the very worst, if youre unable to reinstate your mortgage, if youre unable to negotiate with the bank, you can sell your house, Kramer said. You can take care of them and still put money in your pocket.

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Tansey Soderstrom, president of Orlando Regional Realtor Association, said, The banks are working with people these days, where they werent before. I believe the sellers are taking advantage of that.

Orlando only had 439 distressed sales last year, which includes bank-owned properties and short sales, a 51% drop from 2020, according to the association.

Kramer said banks are mostly willing to negotiate refinancing plans, eager to avoid the foreclosure crisis that followed the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009. Banks still have that historical memory of what happened and what a [problem] it was, he said.

While foreclosures have been trending downward for the past 10 years, the current drop is putting pressure on Orlandos already-low housing inventory.

Sicherman says hes seen a rise in third-party investors beating the banks at the auctions. Id say theyre bidding more because inventory is so tight in the general market, he said, adding that foreclosure auctions are usually too competitive for most investors.

Theyre willing to pay a premium just to get at the inventory, Sicherman said. Its an inventory squeeze everywhere.

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Kramer said he can foresee a scenario wherein more people put their houses on the market to avoid foreclosure, which then increases inventory and lowers prices, causing the market to stall.

But thats assuming a bunch of variables, and theres just no way to predict, he said. While he imagines the market will probably slow down this year, he sees that happening no sooner than six months out.

By then, I would imagine the people dealing with the end of the moratorium will have already resolved their issues.

Want to reach out? Email tfraser@orlandosentinel.com. Follow TIFraserOS on Twitter.
Horrific dash cam footage has been released showing a shocking collision which left two people - including a toddler - seriously injured.

Adelaide's District Court saw the confronting footage that showed Natasha Vaye, 38, drive through a stop sign before smashing into a truck at high speed.

Ms Vaye was behind the wheel on Stebonheath Rd in Davoren Park in Adelaide's north with her mother and young son also in the car around 10.40am on August 8, 2017.

She sped past two signs warning of the upcoming stop sign before the accident.

Her mother suffered serious injuries which now require permanent treatment and her toddler son was knocked unconscious.

Horrific dash cam footage has shown a shocking collision which left two people - including a toddler - seriously injured in Adelaide's north in 2017

Natasha Vaye, 38, drove through a clearly marked stop sign at an intersection before smashing into a truck at high speed (pictured, her car after the crash)

The Adelaide District Court heard following the smash, Ms Vaye's mother requires permanent treatment and her young son was found unconscious at the scene

In a victim impact statement, the shaken truck driver told the court he feared the worst after finding the toddler unconscious in his booster seat.

'The toddler was the same age as my little boy and I thought the child was dead,' the driver said in his statement, according to the Adelaide Advertiser.

'I unclipped him from his capsule and he rag-dolled like a deadweight into my arms.

'The thought of this day (still) causes me great stress.'

Vaye pleaded guilty to several counts of causing serious harm and dangerous driving.

Her initial plea pending the trial was not guilty.

Defence lawyer Scott Roche said his client Vaye had made a 'grave error' which has profoundly impacted multiple people since.

Vaye will be sentenced later in February.
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Boris Johnson fled the pressure cooker of Westminster for war-threatened Ukraine today as pro-Kremlin media ruthlessly mocked his Partygate woes and marriage - and Vladimir Putin snubs his phone calls.

Still reeling from news that police are investigating four allegedly lockdown-busting bashes he attended, the PM has arrived in Kiev where he will meet president Volodymyr Zelensky and hold a press conference against the backdrop of Moscow's menacing military mobilisation.

Posing with Mr Zelensky before their talks, Mr Johnson said: 'I think Kiev is looking good, it's looking fantastic, it's looking strong. Seriously.'

However, his diplomatic mission got off to a rocky start after President Putin refused to reschedule their phone conversation - which had to be delayed last night while Mr Johnson fielded furious questions from MPs.

TV channels in Russia have been revelling in his discomfort, with one branding him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie.

They declared that the Partygate report would have ended up in the 'Victorian sewers' of London if it were up to the PM.

Deputy PM Dominic Raab tried to shrug off the delay to the call with Mr Putin this morning, saying there are 'always scheduling issues between any two heads of government' and claiming Mr Johnson has been 'leading the transatlantic response' to the crisis.

Mr Raab said: 'Any prime minister, any president  it happens all the time  their diaries and their call sheets dart around the place because they are balancing things.'

He told Sky News: 'This Prime Minister is the one who has been leading the transatlantic response, with the United States, with European allies, with the most robust approach on sanctions, providing support.

Mr Johnson is travelling to Ukraine on a chartered plane from Stansted with staff and a small pool of journalists. Downing Street says his call with Mr Putin is now expected to be tomorrow.

The Russian President today said the U.S. and NATO have 'ignored' the Kremlin's concerns in recent correspondence as Mr Putin made his first direct comments on the Ukraine crisis since December.

It comes as a Russian warplane breached the airspace of Estonia - where hundreds of British troops are based - in a suspected move to test NATO defences this weekend.

Estonian authorities yesterday handed a protest note to Russian diplomats in Tallinn after a Russian Su-27 fighter jet violated the NATO state's airspace near the island of Vaindloo in the Gulf of Finland.

The warplane did not post a flight plan and its transponder was switched off as encroached on Estonian territory - a move described by Tallinn 'a very unfortunate and serious incident'.

As the domestic scandal rages while Mr Johnson turns his focus abroad:

Mr Johnson told MPs 42 times during his Commons statement last night that they need to wait for the outcome of the police inquiry;

No10 has refused to commit to making public if Mr Johnson is fined for breaching lockdown laws, with Scotland Yard saying names of those given fixed penalty notices will not be relased;

Deputy PM Dominic Raab insisted Mr Johnson is 'getting on with the job' but dodged giving a full-hearted defence of his swipe at Keir Starmer for failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile. 'I can't substantiate that claim,' Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4's Today programme;

Mr Johnson has pledged to take regular 'strategic advice' from election guru Lynton Crosby as he tried to appease angry MPs;

The premier attacked former No10 chief Dominic Cummings comparing him to Shakespearian villain Iago while he is good-natured Othello;

A snap poll has found two-third of the public do not accept Mr Johnson's grudging apology over Partygate.

Still reeling from news that police are investigating four allegedly lockdown-busting bashes he attended, the PM has arrived in Kiev where he will meet president Volodymyr Zelensky

The call between Boris Johnson and Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured left) was due to take place yesterday afternoon but is now not expected to happen today. Mr Johnson (right) steps off the plane in Kiev this afternoon

Several Russian TV channels were mocking Boris Johnson yesterday ahead of his planned trip to Ukraine today. NTV branded him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain'

Estonian authorities yesterday handed a protest note to Russian diplomats in Tallinn after a Russian Su-27 fighter jet violated the NATO state's airspace near the island of Vaindloo in the Gulf of Finland over the weekend

Boris Johnson was yesterday forced to postpone a call to Vladimir Putin so he could deal with Partygate

Cabinet ignores Partygate as No10 says PM could keep fine from police secret Boris Johnson and his senior ministers did not discuss the Partygate scandal at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning despite growing Tory fury and warnings the PM should be 'very worried' about a coup. Mr Johnson is desperately trying to stabilise his premiership after senior Conservatives said the ongoing row is corroding the Government like 'battery acid'. The premier left the pressure cooker of Westminster following the Cabinet meeting to visit Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday which revealed the PM is being investigated by police over four potential breaches of lockdown law. The publication of Ms Gray's update rocked Westminster but Number 10 said the report was not mentioned during the Cabinet meeting. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said Mr Johnson had 'obviously addressed the House I think for up to two hours yesterday and then spoke to his own MPs at length on this issue'. He added: 'The Cabinet this morning was focused on the situation in Ukraine and the domestic priority of levelling up.' Meanwhile, Number 10 has refused to guarantee that the public would be told if fines were issued for coronavirus breaches at Downing Street. The PM's spokesman said: 'It will be the Met that sets out what they see fit at the conclusion of their work and I would not seek to set out what that may or may not be.' Mr Johnson suffered a mauling from a slew of Tory MPs in the Commons yesterday, with Theresa May demanding to know if he thought the rules 'didn't apply' to him, and former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell saying the premier had lost his support. Mr Mitchell stepped up his attack this morning warning that the row was 'like battery acid corroding the party' as he also condemned Mr Johnson's leadership style. 'I think this is a crisis that is not going to go away and is doing very great damage to the party. It is more corrosive in my judgement than the expenses scandal was and it will break the coalition that is the Conservative Party,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Even normally-loyal MPs conceded that the PM's response in the chamber was a 'car crash', although Mr Johnson appeared to buy himself some time with a more conciliatory performance at a private meeting with his rank and file last night. Writing in the Times, Lord Hague criticised Mr Johnson for getting the tone wrong, saying he should have 'acknowledged that the buck stops with him' and ought to be 'very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions'. He said: 'Instead of reinforcing the momentum in his favour, he quite possibly stalled it. If I were him, I would be very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions at the end of his statement.' The looming verdict from Scotland Yard - which is sifting through more than 300 photos of Whitehall bashes and could interview both Mr Johnson and wife Carrie within days - could provide a moment of truth for the premier, but he has also been forced to agree that a full, unredacted version of Ms Gray's report will be published after the criminal process concludes. Advertisement

Russia is conducting military exercises on a scale 'never seen before' on the Ukrainian border, the head of the UK's armed forces has warned, in 'a pattern of coercion and intimidation' against the West.

Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin gave the assessment to a Cabinet meeting before Mr Johnson departed for Ukraine.

Sir Tony said 'a significant proportion of Russia's land combat power was now gathered on the western border, coupled with deterrence operations such as military exercises on a scale never seen before'.

No 10 said he warned this 'fitted into a pattern of coercion and intimidation that sought to undermine the values and principles of the West'.

Mr Johnson told ministers the situation was 'deeply concerning and that there were no indications of Russia de-escalating with more than 100,000 troops currently amassed on Ukraine's border'.

But Russia's state-run Rossiya 1 channel claimed Johnson's 'anti-Russian hysteria' was 'a way to divert attention from domestic problems' as he sought to 'stifle' the scandal over lockdown-breaking parties.

'Only anti-Russian sanctions can distract from Johnson's protracted Partygate,' the channel concluded.

In a report from London, Gazprom Media-owned NTV channel said: 'If it were in the power of Boris Johnson, [Sue Gray's report] would have disappeared into the bowels of the Victorian sewers of the city of London.

'But this did not happen. The report was delivered to the prime minister at Number 10 - the very residence where the parties took place.

'Boris Johnson is today the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain.

'Even schoolchildren are laughing at him.

'[Dominic Cummings] says Johnson is completely under the control and heel of his young wife, but at the same time has the ambitions of a Roman emperor.'

The channel's London correspondent Liza Gerson continued: 'In order to preserve himself, to preserve his political career, Boris Johnson is trying to present himself as a kind of saviour of the whole country.

'Not just the country but the whole world.

'He is trying to talk about more global issues, but he is being asked extremely shameful and petty questions.'

Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie face being questioned by detectives probing several lockdown-breaching Whitehall parties 'within days' after a trove of evidence was handed to Scotland Yard.

Investigators are examining eight dates on which events are said to have taken place and a spokesman said last night that they had gathered 500 pages of information on the 'Partygate' scandal.

Rossiya 1 London correspondent Alexander Khabarov meanwhile reported that the UK intended to double its military contingent in Estonia 'and intensify British aviation operations in the Black Sea region, where it has decided to send a guided missile destroyer.

'Johnson calls these containment measures and pretends not to hear Moscow's repeated statements that Russia is not going to attack anyone.'

The Russian media's assault on the British Prime Minister came as Estonian authorities yesterday released a statement on the incursion into its airspace by a Russian Su-27 fighter.

'The jet was in Estonian airspace for less than a minute, but it was flying with the transponder in the off mode and remained out of contact with Estonian air traffic control at the time of violating the Estonian border,' said the NATO member state.

Moscow has since denied the incident took place, despite having a track record of breaching Estonian airspace.

'No flights by Russian Su-27 fighter jets were carried out above the Baltic Sea on January 29.

The Russian Aerospace Forces perform all their flights in strict compliance with the international rules of airspace use, above neutral waters, without violating other states' borders,' the Moscow defence ministry said.

Britain currently has around 900 soldiers in Estonia, a number expected to double in the coming weeks as NATO deploys foreign troops to eastern Europe, but the small Baltic state is seen as vulnerable to a Russian attack in the event of armed conflict in Ukraine.

Meanwhile new videos showed activity at a Russian military camp in its neighbour and ally Belarus, where the West fears Putin has gathered additional forces.

Another shows large-scale war games involving Russia's strategic nuclear missile forces in Ivanovo region.

Putin is now believed to have well in excess of 100,000 troops stationed near Ukraine's borders.

Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin gave an assessment of the Ukraine situation to a Cabinet meeting before Mr Johnson departed for Kiev

The Russian Su-29 fighter jet did not post a flight plan and its transponder was switched off as encroached on Estonian territory - a move described by Tallinn 'a very unfortunate and serious incident'. (Image of a Russian SU-27 aircraft taken in 2019)

New videos show activity at a Russian military camp in its neighbour and ally Belarus, where the West fears Putin has gathered additional forces

The servicemen of the motorized rifle unit of the combined arms army of Russia's Eastern Military District have completed the deployment of a field camp in Belarus at the Brestsky training ground

It is suspected that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using ally Belarus to host training camps and to amass further troops to prepare for any conflict in Ukraine (motorised rifle unit of Russia's Eastern Military District pictured at the Bretsky training ground in Belarus)

Large-scale exercise of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces in Ivanovo Region

Putin is now believed to have up to 130,000 troops on Ukraine's borders (military drills pictured in Ivanovo region)

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the reports of the delayed phone call showed there were 'real world consequences' of having a Prime Minister fighting for his political survival and 'a vital diplomatic opportunity has been missed'.

Instead of speaking to Johnson on Monday night, Putin spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron. During the exchange, the pair agreed to maintain a dialogue on implementing the Minsk agreements regarding Donbass, a region of eastern Ukraine where Moscow has backed separatist fighters.

Zelensky today signed a decree to increase the size of Ukraine's armed forces by 100,000 troops over three years and raise soldiers' salaries, but insisted the move did not mean war with Russia was imminent.

A Ukrainian serviceman adjusts the strap of his weapon in a trench at a frontline position in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Monday, Jan. 31

A photograph shows tanks of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces parked in their base near Klugino-Bashkirivka village, in the Kharkiv region on January 31

Although Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine's borders, Zelenskiy has repeatedly pushed back against warnings by the United States and other NATO allies that Russia could attack Ukraine at any moment.

'This decree (was prepared) not because we will soon have a war... but so that soon and in the future there will be peace in Ukraine,' Zelensky said.

There are currently nearly 250,000 people in Ukraine's armed forces, which are vastly outnumbered and outgunned by Russia's.

'We must be united in domestic politics. You can be in opposition to the government, but you can't be in opposition to Ukraine,' Zelensky said.

It comes as Hungarian Defence Minister Tibor Benko yesterday declared that there is no need for NATO to deploy its troops in Hungary, stressing that Hungary is able 'to perform this task on its own' in its territory.

Benko's reluctance to accept a deployment of foreign NATO troops in its territory became evident on the same day that UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace said it was vital to discourage Putin from invading Ukraine by showing NATO's willingness for combat as a deterrent.

Wallace said it was 'important to signal to Putin that the very thing he fears, that is, more NATO close to Russia, would be the consequence of invading Ukraine... This is why the UK offered NATO more ground forces, more readiness as a deterrent.'

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to travel to Russia today for talks with Vladimir Putin in which he is likely to ask the Russian President for an increased gas supply.

Orban travels to Moscow in defiance of calls to cancel the trip from opposition parties, who said in a joint statement that it is 'contrary to our national interests'.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) is expected to travel to Russia today for talks with Vladimir Putin (L) in which he is likely to ask the Russian President for an increased gas supply

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the United Nations yesterday alleged Russia will send another 30,000 troops to the Ukrainian border.

'We've seen evidence that Russia intends to expand that presence to more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border, less than two hours north of Kyiv by early February,' US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

White House Press secretary Jen Psaki said: 'Russia has the power. They are the aggressor here. They have the power and ability to de-escalate, to pull their troops back from the border, to not push more troops to Belarus, to take steps to deescalate the situation on the ground.'

But Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya accused the US of 'whipping up hysterics' by calling for Monday's UN Security Council meeting to discuss Ukraine, a nod towards their claim that Putin does not intend to invade his eastern European neighbour.

'The discussions about a threat of war is provocative in and of itself. You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen,' Nebenzia said.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya (L) yesterday accused the US of ginning up 'hysterics' and 'brainwashing' Ukrainians at a heated United Nations Security Council meeting. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (R) said she was 'disappointed' but not 'surprised' by his comments and claimed Moscow is mobilizing 30,000 more troops to send to the Belarus-Ukraine border

In light of the movements and threat posed in Eastern Europe, the US ordered family members of its government employees currently in Belarus to leave the country.

The State Department said: 'Due to an increase in unusual and concerning Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine, US citizens located in or considering travel to Belarus should be aware that the situation is unpredictable and there is heightened tension in the region.'

Last Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken extended a diplomatic proposal to step away from a potential conflict on a call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Blinken described the US proposal as something that offers Russia 'a serious diplomatic path forward,' but assured that NATO allied nations did not bow to Russia's demand that it bar ex-Soviet bloc countries from entering the 30-country military alliance.

Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are set to share another phone call later today.

Britain and the United States also said yesterday they were looking at targeting people in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle with sanctions, including powerful business allies.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told parliament that the government was looking at 'the toughest sanctions regime against Russia we've ever had'.

'Those in and around the Kremlin will have nowhere to hide,' she said.
As of today, vaccination against Covid-19 is compulsory for anyone over the age of 18 in Austria.

The new rule has over the past months garnered outrage from far-right extremists as the country's new domestic intelligence chief on Friday said foreign activists were coming to Austria to 'network' and hold 'meetings' with like-minded campaigners.

It is the first European country to take such a measure, whereas previously mandates across the world have been introduced for the elderly, vulnerable or medical staff.

A man in Salzburg, Austria, gets vaccinated yesterday. As of today, vaccination against Covid-19 is compulsory for anyone over the age of 18 in Austria

Austrians could be fined from 600 to 3,600 for not following the vaccination rule, which will become punishable from from mid-March, according to Austrian paper Kleine Zeitung.

Pregnant women and people who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons are excluded from the mandate, which will expire in January 2024.

In December tens of thousands took to the streets of Vienna to protest against mandatory Covid vaccines and home confinement orders, as unvaccinated Austrians learned they would be fined and restricted in the coming months.

Police had estimated 44,000 people attended the demonstration which saw 'no to vaccine fascism' signs held aloft.

Earlier in January, thousands also marched across Vienna to protest the mandatory vaccination, chanting 'the government must go!' in what Reuters reported had become a 'a routine Saturday event' in the Austrian capital.

Speaking to AFP, the country's domestic intelligence chief Omar Haijawi-Pirchner said the trend which sees right-wing extremists travelling to Austria to 'network' 'very scary'.

He also said the gatherings were often used to spread hateful ideology such as anti-Semitism with attendees 'highly radicalised', Al Jazeera reported.

Neighbouring Germany may also follow in Austria's footsteps as the country deliberates a potential vaccine mandate.

Yesterday the German government admitted it had missed its target to have 80% of the population jabbed with at least one dose of the Covid vaccine by the end of January.

Official figures from Monday showed that 75.8% of Germany's 83 million residents have received at least one shot, 74% are fully vaccinated and 52.8% have also received a booster.

Medical staff arrive with vaccine doses of Comirnaty, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Salzburg yesterday. Pregnant women and people who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons are excluded from the mandate, which will expire in January 2024

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer also told a news conference on Saturday that the country will begin easing Covid related restrictions next week, allowing shops and restaurants to remain open longer and easing restriction on the unvaccinated.

The moves come as the Omicron variant leads to reduced hospitalisations despite high infection numbers.

From February 5, Austria will extend the maximum permitted opening hours of restaurants and shops until midnight and will increase the number of people able to participate in events to 50 from 25, Nehammer said.

He told a press conference in Vienna: 'The good thing in spite of everything in this difficult situation - the hospital numbers are at a good level, the intensive care beds, I think it's fair to say, are at a very good level.

'We are now in a position to raise new prospects that will allow people a breather.'

A police officer checks the vaccination status of a visitor during a patrol in a shopping mall in Vienna earlier in January. Austrians could be fined from 600 to 3,600 for not following the vaccination mandate

New daily coronavirus infections have been rising in Austria, driven by the extremely contagious Omicron variant, with nearly 35,000 new cases reported on Saturday.

However, pressure on hospitals has eased, as Omicron leads to less severe outcomes, and the current Omicron wave is expected to reach a peak around February 7-9, Director General for Public Health Katharina Reich told the same press conference.

In a further step, from February 12, Austria will eliminate so-called '2G rules' barring those who are not vaccinated against or recovered from the virus from entering non-essential shops.

Since November 15 those not fully vaccinated have been under lockdown, meaning they are only allowed to leave their homes for a limited number of reasons such as shopping for essentials or working.

The measure, which was suspended over Christmas, has been criticised as very difficult to enforce.

Austria last week set January 31 as the date to end a fuller lockdown for the unvaccinated, removing restrictions on their movement.

However, they remain barred from taking part in a range of leisure activities, including eating in restaurants or shopping for non-essential items, as part of government efforts to increase the vaccination rate, which is among the lowest in western Europe.

Now, alongside entering shops from February 12, Austria will also ease measures barring the unvaccinated from restaurants from February 19, Nehammer said, adding that those with a negative Covid test result will be able to visit restaurants and tourist attractions.
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Thousands of Britons remained without power today after back-to-back storms wreaked havoc across the country with 90mph winds that damaged buildings, toppled hundreds of trees and knocked out electricity lines.

An estimated 9,500 homes in Scotland were still cut off at noon today out of a total of 117,000 who lost power in recent days, while in North East England just 61 remained without electricity out of an original total of 80,000.

The recovery operation has been hampered by the extreme weather which also saw a nine-year-old boy killed by a falling tree in Staffordshire on Saturday while a 60-year-old woman died when a tree hit her in Aberdeen.

Gusts of 92mph were recorded in Scotland during Storm Corrie on Sunday after 93mph Storm Malik on Saturday - and the strong winds also meant the amount of renewable electricity generated by wind reached a new record.

National Grid reported having 19.6GW of wind-generated power on Saturday afternoon  enough to power around ten million homes. At its peak wind power was supplying 66 per cent of the country's electricity use.

But there could be more disruption to come today with the Met Office issuing another wind warning for northern Scotland running for 12 hours until 6pm tonight, saying that strong north-westerly winds are expected to develop.

Gusts of up to 50mph are forecast, reaching as high as 65mph across northern Sutherland, Caithness and Orkney. While these speeds are much less than experienced during storms Malik and Corrie, and not unusual for the time of year, the Met Office warned that 'recently weakened trees and structures could be prone to further damage'.

Forecasters said today and tomorrow would be calmer elsewhere with highs of 13C (55F) in England, 11C (52F) in Wales and 10C (50F) in Scotland before a cold snap on Thursday followed by milder weather this weekend.

Engineers from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks repair power lines yesterday in Edzell, a village in Angus

Vehicles are driven through fallen trees in a wooded area near Edzell yesterday, halfway between Dundee and Stonehaven

Men with chainsaws clear one of the roads into Edzell in Angus yesterday after the storm brought down trees

Workmen with chainsaws and a tractor driver help clear one of the roads into Edzell in Scotland yesterday

Workers from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks make their way along a road with fallen trees in Edzell yesterday

Douglas Morrison, 51, who lives two miles from Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he had 'never seen this level of devastation' to forest areas.

He added: 'I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of trees absolutely flattened and snapped like matchsticks.' He said his house lost power at 8am on Saturday and it came back on for a few hours on Sunday before being cut again.

The Met Office has issued another wind weather warning for northern Scotland running for 12 hours until 6pm tonight

Further south, Stewart Sexton, from Alnwick in Northumberland, lost power for 35 hours over the weekend, having also been cut off by Storm Arwen in November.

Describing himself as 'enraged', the 58-year-old said: 'It's all about a lack of maintenance of the infrastructure and no resilience plan from Northern Powergrid. We have had power cuts for 298 hours since November 26.

'By any reckoning that must be unacceptable and it indicates that there is certainly something wrong with the infrastructure around our communities while neighbouring larger villagers didn't lose power at all.'

Meanwhile mountain biker Richard Nutter, 48, cheated death over the weekend when a large tree fell on to his van when he was changing inside after a ride at woods near Bradford.

His friend helped pull him to safety and Mr Nutter, a mechanic, was taken to hospital for a check-up.

He said: 'Things could have turned out very differently. If I'd been anywhere else in that van, I'd have been crushed for sure. I'm lucky to be alive.'

Elsewhere, a 25-year-old man died following a 200ft fall on a Snowdonia mountain at around midday on Sunday.

Emergency services, including mountain rescue teams, North Wales Police and the coastguard rescue helicopter, were scrambled to the incident on the cliffs of Glyder Fach, on the south side of the Ogwen Valley.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said last night that it remained at 'red alert status' for northern Scotland

Rail services between Edinburgh and Newcastle were affected early yesterday and in Scotland buses replaced some train services.

Storm Malik sets new wind power record The UK record for the amount of renewable electricity generated by wind was broken following Storm Malik, the National Grid's operators said. On Saturday afternoon there was 19623MW, or 19.6GW, of wind-generated power on the system, according to the National Grid Electricity System Operator (National Grid ESO). The previous record was 17.7 GW which was set in May last year. A National Grid ESO spokesman said: 'Britain has the fastest decarbonising electricity system in the world and records like this are proof of how far we've come. 'By 2025 we want to be able to operate a zero carbon grid, harnessing clean green energy sources. However, whilst we mark this moment, our thoughts are with those communities who have been impacted by the storms over the weekend.' Advertisement

Gusts of 92mph were recorded in both Stornoway on the Western Isles and Inverbervie in Aberdeenshire on Sunday night, while the top speed in England was 69mph at St Bees Head in Cumbria.

Several schools in Aberdeenshire and Northumberland were either closed or delayed the start of school yesterday due to storm problems.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said last night that it remained at 'red alert status' for northern Scotland as its teams 'continue to respond to the significant damage' from the storms.

A total of 117,000 homes in Scotland were cut off during the weekend, with power replaced to almost all of them over the past few days and 16,900 customers remaining off supply as of 8pm yesterday evening.

SSEN said the main areas which continued to be affected were rural Aberdeenshire and the Angus border, with some customers also off supply in Perthshire, the Highlands, Western Isles and the Moray Coast.

More than 400 additional engineers and support staff were mobilised, and SSEN said its teams 'aim to reduce the number of customers off supply to around 7,000 overnight' by this morning.

A spokesman said: 'Restoration efforts will continue into Tuesday with the possibility that for small clusters of customers affected by Storm Corrie, this may extend into Wednesday  depending on the extent of damage found and the potential impact on safe working conditions in higher winds forecast for Tuesday.'

Richard Gough, director of distribution system operations at SSEN, said: 'Our teams have continued to make strong progress restoring power to customers impacted by the extreme weather from Storm Malik.

'Whilst our teams are making every effort to restore customers as soon as possible, the cumulative impact of Storms Malik and Corrie has compounded the restoration challenge.

Workmen with chainsaws and a tractor driver help clear one of the roads into Edzell in Scotland yesterday

Men with chainsaws clear one of the roads into Edzell in Angus yesterday after the storm brought down trees

Engineers from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks repair power lines yesterday in Edzell, a village in Angus

Workers with chainsaws clear one of the roads into Edzell in Angus yesterday after the storm brought down trees

A woman stands in front of a house where a tree has been blown down at Edzell in Scotland yesterday

Men with chainsaws clear one of the roads into Edzell in Angus yesterday after the storm brought down trees

'As a result, we are advising customers that while expected restoration of customer supplies from Storm Malik remains Tuesday evening, restoration times for some of those impacted by Storm Corrie may now extend to Wednesday.

Forecast for this week: Rain and drizzle with dull skies before sunny Friday Today: A dull and damp start with cloudy skies and outbreaks of rain and drizzle. It will then continue generally overcast during the day and outbreaks of rain will ease and turn increasingly light and patchy. Bright or sunny spells will develop in the north and east. Breezy with a threat of gales. Tonight: A largely dry but cloudy evening but there is a chance of light rain or drizzle across northern and western areas. Overnight will then continue cloudy with patchy outbreaks of rain and drizzle which will track northwards. Clear spells will develop across southern areas and misty patches will form. Tomorrow: Early patches of mist will be slow to lift and clear. It will then be generally dull during the day with cloudy skies and outbreaks of patchy rain and drizzle will clear northwards. Rain will linger across Scotland during the afternoon and evening. A few bright spells may develop in the south. Thursday: Thursday will be mostly cloudy with a few spots of drizzle. Rain will track south-eastwards across northern Britain and will be locally heavy and may turn wintry later. Friday: A bright day on Friday with spells of sunshine and variable amounts of cloud cover. Showers will develop and these may be wintry. Advertisement

'We would like to apologise to all customers affected and would like to reassure them that all available resources have been deployed to support with restoration efforts and our teams are doing all they can to safely restore power as quickly as possible.'

Meanwhile Northern Powergrid said it only had 61 properties to reconnect today and added last night that it was 'continuing to work into the night to enable the last reconnections to be completed as soon as possible tomorrow'.

Andy Bilclough, its director of field operations, said last night: 'Our teams have got through a phenomenal amount of work today, which includes reconnecting around 17,000 customers that were impacted by Storm Corrie, and they're still out there now.

'Almost all of the work we have left to do is a blend of repair work that we discovered when we got to site, some difficult site conditions that meant we couldn't complete the work today or where we would have needed access to the property during the night but have agreed with the customer to complete the restoration tomorrow.'

A Northern Powergrid spokesman added that 'all the work is scheduled and allocated to teams who are ready to complete the work' today, continuing: 'We understand that it is frustrating to have been without power for this length of time  we appreciate the continued patience of our customers.

'We are also grateful to the fantastic teams of people who have worked tirelessly to restore supplies to more than 80,000 customers and to support all those affected.'

The firm insisted it had learned lessons from November's Storm Arwen, which led to widespread complaints about the way it communicated with customers who had lost power and long delays to restore supplies.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland radio programme yesterday that there had been 'a much stronger join-up between the power companies and local resilience partnerships'.

Meanwhile, rescuers said a hillwalker who got lost climbing 4,295ft Ben Macdui was 'lucky' to have been found. More than 20 members of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team were mobilised to search for the man on Sunday.
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What IS the truth about Boris Johnson's claims that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile? A fresh faced Keir Starmer when he was appointed DPP in 2008 Sir Keir Starmer was director of public prosecutions when the decision was made in 2009 not to prosecute Sir Jimmy Savile on the grounds of 'insufficient evidence' - but a report found he was not personally to blame. A 2013 QC-led inquiry found that the decision was made by police and prosecutors locally, not Sir Keir, who was unaware of it. The CPS would also say there was 'no reference to any involvement from the DPP in the decision-making within a report examining the case.' Lawyer turned Labour leader Sir Keir had taken on the role of DPP in 2008 and left in 2013 to pursue a career in politics. Savile, who abused 500 women and children, died in 2011 without facing justice. In 2012, after it became clear the Top of the Pops host had attacked and abused hundreds of children and women in hospitals, schools and while filming his BBC shows, an inquiry was carried out Alison Levitt QC, on Mr Starmer's own orders. She found that police treated the victims and the accounts they gave 'with a degree of caution which was neither justified nor required'. Savile also made veiled threats against officers if sexual abuse allegations against him did not 'disappear'. Detectives looking at allegations advised the CPS not to prosecute Savile, believing his explanation that it was all made up and the price of being famous. Alison Levitt was also critical of the approach taken by the CPS' reviewing lawyer, but did not suggest that Mr Starmer was personally involved in the decisions made. The lawyer was also criticised for failing to properly build a case with the police or spot inconsistencies in their reports after interviewing Savile under caution and four of his victims. But there was some criticism that as DPP, Sir Keir should have been more aware of what was happening in one of the highest profile cases in the UK at that time. As head of the CPS, Sir Keir later apologised, admitting the failure to prosecute Savile was a 'watershed moment' for the organisation. But avoided any admonishment in Ms Levitt's report. He said: 'I would like to take the opportunity to apologise for the shortcomings in the part played by the CPS in these cases. 'These were errors of judgement by experienced and committed police officers and a prosecuting lawyer acting in good faith and attempting to apply the correct principles. That makes the findings of Ms Levitt's report more profound and calls for a more robust response.' Advertisement

Victims of Jimmy Savile have called for Boris Johnson to withdraw his 'flippant' attack on Sir Keir Starmer where he claimed the Labour leader failed to prosecute the paedophile when he was the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Women joined Tory MPs in rounding on the PM today and said they were left 'furious' by his comments in the House of Commons that 'triggered all the flashbacks'.

But Downing Street said this morning Mr Johnson stands by the remark, which came as he hit back at Labour criticism over the Sue Gray 'Partygate' report.

Meanwhile Sir Keir accused him of repeating 'a ridiculous slur peddled by right wing trolls' who claimed he personally took the decision not to put Savile in the dock in 2009.

A 2013 QC-led inquiry found the decision was made by police and prosecutors locally and the now Labour leader was not personally to blame.

The CPS confirmed at the time there was 'no reference to any involvement from the DPP in the decision-making within a report examining the case'.

Miss A, a Savile victim, told LBC: 'To have the PM say this... I was furious . It was like he was using it as a flippant thing for other people's purposes.

She added: 'It triggered all the flashbacks, the memories. I can't begin to tell you how upset I was. It was so unnecessary.'

A lawyer who represented some of the victims said they had called for the PM to withdraw him comments.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse and public inquiries at law firm Slater and Gordon, said: 'I echo the widespread disgust at what we saw and heard in the House of Commons yesterday as Boris Johnson tried to distract from the Sue Gray update.

'As one of the lawyers who represented many of Savile's victims, I can confirm that these allegations against Sir Keir Starmer are completely unfounded and unjustified.

'Sir Keir did more than any other director of public prosecutions to advance the rights of victims. No DPP can control every decision.

'The Crown Prosecution Service was much better under his leadership.

'Victims of Savile I have spoken with today have told me that they want Johnson to withdraw these comments and apologise and I call upon him to do that right away.'

But Mr Johnson's spokesman said 'the Prime Minister stood by what he said in the House' - but declined to repeat his claim.

He said: 'As a civil servant it wouldn't be right for me to repeat something which relates to a political aspect of the Prime Minister's work.'

Earlier today Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said 'procedurally nothing disorderly' occurred when Boris Johnson made the claims, but told MPs: 'I am far from satisfied that the comments in question were appropriate on this occasion.'

Labour's leader insisted he did not help the Top of the Pops presenter avoid trial when he was director of public prosecutions in 2009, telling Good Morning Britain: 'It's a slur. It's untrue. It's desperate from the Prime Minister'.

Sir Keir told Sky News that when Mr Johnson mentioned Savile during yesterday's debate on Sue Gray's partygate report, Tory MPs had a look of 'disgust' on their faces.

'It is a ridiculous slur peddled by right-wing trolls', he said.

'I saw the faces of the Conservative MPs, the disgust on their faces that their Prime Minister was debasing himself by sinking so low in the Chamber was clear.

'They knew that he was going so low with that slur, with that lie - he had been advised not to do it because it's obviously not true, but he does it because he doesn't understand what honesty and integrity means.'

The Crown Prosecution Service was eviscerated for failing to get justice for Savile's 500-plus victims, but a later inquiry found that the decision was made by police and prosecutors locally, not Sir Keir personally.

Following a 2013 inquiry that cleared him of wrongdoing, Mr Starmer apologised and called it a 'watershed moment' for the CPS, who had failed to question the motives and professionalism of the police officers who told them not to pursue Savile.

Today Mr Johnson's deputy Dominic Raab failed to back his boss in a series of uncomfortable interviews. Asked if he would withdraw Mr Johnson's Savile claim, Mr Raab told Times Radio: 'It's not for me to do that. What I would say is it's part of the cut and thrust in the Chamber.' When questioned by the BBC's Nick Robinson on whether this was a fair description, Mr Raab said: 'I can't substantiate that', adding: 'I'm certainly not repeating it'.

Tory MP Julian Smith, the party's former chief whip, turned on his party leader this morning and suggested the PM should go back to the Commons to withdraw it.

He tweeted today: 'The smear made against Keir Starmer relating to Jimmy Savile yesterday is wrong & cannot be defended. It should be withdrawn. False and baseless personal slurs are dangerous, corrode trust & can't just be accepted as part of the cut & thrust of parliamentary debate'.

Mr Johnson made the comments in the House of Commons as he hit back at Labour criticism over the Sue Gray report.

The Prime Minister said: 'The report does absolutely nothing to substantiate the tissue of nonsense that he has said. Absolute nonsense.

'Instead this leader of the opposition, a former director of public prosecution - who used his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, as far as I can see - he chose to use this moment to continually pre-judge a police inquiry.

'He has reached his conclusions about it. I am not going to reach any conclusions and he would be entirely wrong to do so.

'I have complete confidence in the police, I hope that they will be allowed simply to get on with their job and don't propose to offer any more commentary about it and I don't believe that he should either.'

Sir Keir (pictured today) had no involvement in the decision not to prosecute Sir Jimmy Savile, and said the Prime Minister was using language by right wing trolls and conspiracy theorists

Boris Johnson at a cabinet meeting this morning before he flew out to Ukraine as his own MPs turned on him over his Savile slurs

Dominic Raab failed to back Boris Johnson for using Jimmy Savile slurs to bash Labour's leader

Boris is ticked off by the Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, but is not ordered to apologise Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said 'procedurally nothing disorderly' occurred when Boris Johnson alleged Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile, but the Commons Speaker told MPs today: 'I am far from satisfied that the comments in question were appropriate on this occasion.' Sir Lindsay kicked out the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford yesterday after accusing the Prime Minister of having 'wilfully misled' MPs over Partygate. In the same debate the PM said the former director of public prosecutions had 'used his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile'. The Commons Speaker was asked about the exchange today and said the PM had not broken any rules, but added: 'I want to see more compassionate and reasonable politics in this House and this sort of comment can only inflame opinions. 'I've got to say I want a nicer Parliament. And the only way we can get a nicer parliament is being honorable in debates that we have and please let us show each other respect'. Advertisement

Police officers who interviewed Jimmy Savile in 2009 over child sex abuse allegations had actively discouraged the Crown Prosecution Service from pursuing the case.

The former BBC DJ, who died two years later, was interviewed under caution by Surrey Police at Stoke Mandeville Hospital after a woman claimed she had been abused as a girl at Duncroft Approved School for Girls in Staines in the 1970s.

Nine days after the interview, which took place in Savile's own office in the hospital - police advised prosecutors not to pursue Savile. Police also failed to pursue credible claims against him across the country.

Nazir Afzal, a former chief Crown prosecutor for the North West, responded to Mr Johnson's comments by saying that the reference made to Savile by Mr Johnson was 'a disgrace to Parliament & office of Prime Minister'.

He wrote on Twitter: 'Its not true. I was there. Keir Starmer had nothing to do with the decisions taken. On the contrary, He supported me in bringing 100s of child sex abusers to justice.'

In 2020, fact checking charity Full Fact looked into the claim that Sir Keir had stopped Savile being charged in 2009.

Full Fact said Sir Keir was head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) when the decision not to prosecute Savile was made on the grounds of 'insufficient evidence', adding: 'The allegations against Savile were dealt with by local police and a reviewing lawyer for the CPS.

'A later investigation criticised the actions of both the CPS and the police in their handling of the situation.

'It did not suggest that Mr Starmer was personally involved in the decisions made.'

The independent fact-checking organisation concluded: 'Mr Starmer was head of the CPS when the decision was made not to prosecute Savile but he was not the reviewing lawyer for the case.

'An official investigation commissioned later by Starmer criticised both prosecutors and police for their handling of the allegations.'

Another report found: 'There is no evidence to suggest Sir Keir Starmer, then DPP of the CPS, was directly involved in the decision not to prosecute Jimmy Savile.'

Boris Johnson was under fire in the Commons about Partygate when he made the claims yesterday. Mr Starmer looked furious as he heard the PM say it (right)

Tory MP and former chief whip Julian Smith has also put the boot in to his boss

Savile died in 2011 aged 84 having never been brought to justice for his crimes.

He is now believed to be one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders.

A 2016 report into his abuse found staff at the BBC missed numerous opportunities to stop him.
A boarding school headmaster who sipped sherry as he watched naked boys in the showers has been jailed for 11 years.

Former headteacher Frank Skipwith, 81, of Eynsham, Oxfordshire, watched the sons of diplomats and army officers in the showers at Fernden Preparatory School in West Sussex, as he drank alcohol.

He indecently assaulted boys as young as six who were left in his care by their high-flying parents.

A former pupil at Fernden school described how he was abused in his bed after being beaten with a slipper on his bare buttocks in the head master's office.

On two occasions, Skipwith performed oral sex on his victims in their dormitory beds after lights out.

Former boarding school headmaster Frank Skipwith outside Hove Crown Court

Following a second trial at Lewes Crown Court in Hove, Skipwith was told he will spend at least half of an 11 year sentence in prison.

The court heard Skipwith abused 11 boys at two different private boarding schools over a 12 year period.

He maintained his innocence during both trials, forcing his victims to give evidence in front of a jury.

At his first trial in 2020, Skipwith was found guilty by a jury on 22 counts of sexual abuse of boys as young as six-year-old.

The jury at his second trial in December last year found Skipwith guilty on another five counts of abuse against boys when he was headmaster at Crossfields School, Reading.

Skipwith listened using a hearing aid in the dock at Hove as Her Honour Judge Christine Henson QC told him each one of his victims had to live with the consequences of his abuse every day.

'Two involve you performing oral sex on boys in the dorm, in their beds after lights out,' HHJ Henson said.

'The victims' statements speak of the life-long impact your offending has had on them.

'Anxiety, loss of self esteem and mistrust of authority.'

Skipwith committed prolonged offending over two different educational establishments, the judge said.

'It's clear you have continued to demonstrate no insight or remorse for the effect your offending has had on your victims then and now,' Judge Henson said.

She described Skipwith as an opportunist who carried out much of his abuse in dormitories in front of other boys.

'You were in a position of trust being a figurehead. There was no avenue of complaint, it was you who was in charge.

Skipwith was the head master at Fernden described as a small, fee-paying, independent preparatory school for boys in Haslemere, Surrey from 1979.

Fernden Preparatory School in West Sussex closed in 1985 for financial reasons and has now been converted into residences

The boarding school was founded in 1907 and educated the sons of diplomats and army officers

One former pupil paid tribute to the bravery of the men who came forward to report abuse by Skipwith.

'I remember witnessing things at Fernden School which I now recognise as systematic grooming,' he said.

'I am so pleased that after all these years that Frank Skipwith has been brought to justice.

'It took a huge amount of courage for the many people involved in this case to speak up about their experiences both to the police and then in court.

'Way too many many people have experienced sexual violence in the formative years of their lives, only a very small proportion of these are reported, and even fewer lead to successful prosecutions.

After Fernden closed, Skipwith went on to become head teacher at Crossfields School in Reading (pictured) where he stayed until 2000

'This verdict sends the message that people who use their position of power to abuse children, whoever they are, however long ago it happened, can be held to account.'

During the first trial Toby Fitzgerald for the Crown told the jury Skipwith was responsible for the welfare of the children as the school.

'A devoted family man, to all appearances, he could sound both kindly and charming. Perhaps the model of a country school master to all appearances,' Mr Fitzgerald said.

Fernden was founded in 1907 and closed in 1985 for financial reasons. Skipwith lived in a flat next to the dormitories with his wife and three sons who were among the 100 pupils at the school.

Hove Crown Court (file picture) heard Skipwith indecently assaulted 11 boys in his care

The former headmaster described his night time visits to the dormitories as pastoral care.

Pupils told police how he would watch 'intently' as they showered at the school near Haslemere in Surrey.

Mr Fitzgerald said: 'He would have a glass of sherry or wine while supervising the showers.

'He would use alcohol to enhance his enjoyment of looking at the boys in the shower.'

After Fernden closed, Skipwith went on to become head teacher at Crossfields School in Reading where he stayed until 2000.

Skipwith has been in custody since March 2020 and will be 85-years-old before he is eligible for release.
Priti Patel appeared barely able to contain her frustration yesterday as Boris Johnson desperately tried to quell Tory Partygate fury in the House of Commons yesterday.

The Prime Minister apologised to MPs after senior official Sue Gray found 'failures of leadership and judgment' as gatherings were held while England was under coronavirus restrictions in 2020 and 2021.

Criticism came from across the House, including from former prime minister Theresa May who asked whether Mr Johnson either did not 'read the rules', understand them, or 'didn't think the rules applied to No 10'.

The weight of the scandal appeared to not be lost on Home Secretary Ms Patel, whose strained expression and apparent look of disbelief sparked a series of social media posts.

Some suggested that she appeared to be giving Mr Johnson 'the finger', while others claimed she was 'squirming' and 'mentally updating her CV' following the revelations in the Sue Gray report.

Priti Patel appeared to be rubbing her forehead yesterday as she sat beside the Prime Minister while he offered his mea culpa to the Commons

The Conservative front bench appeared disgruntled as their leader was grilled over the Sue Gray report yesterday. Rishi Sunak was one of the few MPs still wearing a face mask

Some suggested that the Home Secretary appeared to be giving Mr Johnson 'the finger', while others claimed she was 'squirming' following the revelations in the Sue Grey report

The weight of the scandal appeared to not be lost of Ms Patel, whose strained expression and apparent look of disbelief sparked a series of social media posts

Tired but defiant: Body language expert Judi James says Priti Patel is still behind her leader By Judi James, body language expert for MailOnline In her fierce red suit, sitting forward in her seat and throwing baleful stares at the benches opposite, Patel adopted the familiar body language ritual of the Commons today, i.e. the cabinet member and front bencher who is poised to launch a loyal attack in defense of their party leader. It was left to Sunak to do the agreement nodding as Boris spoke and Raab, on the PM's right side, to do the heckling. These are common display rituals used when a leader is under pressure or attack. But did one of his three front row 'battle buddies' suddenly use a gesture that suggested utter disrespect for their leader during his hour of need? Priti Patel was caught rubbing her fingers over her forehead and at one point a rather rigid middle finger raised at the upper bridge of her nose has prompted speculation on social media that she was 'giving the finger' to Boris while he was in mid-flight at the dispatch box. I've watched her entire performance in the Commons during this very heated debate though and I would conclude that Patel was doing nothing more dramatic than massaging her brow at the end of a very intense session of debate. If she were secretly signaling behind the PM's back it would be a crass and risky gesture, given that she had been posing as Boris's most active endorser and supporter during the rest of the session. It would imply that she was either too spineless to voice objections to his face or hypocritical by energetically posing as one thing and then revealing herself as another in a 'behind their back' way that would be more suited to a naughty schoolkid. While Sunak sat back in his seat, offering a few weak nods as Boris spoke but keeping his hands folded on his lap and even looking down in a cut-off ritual when Sue Grey's name was mentioned, Raab was all squirms and scratching, with a praying hand gesture clamped between his legs. During the important and most heated exchanges in the debate it was Patel showing the firmest support for the PM, mirroring his pose at some moments and yelling 'exactly' after some of his points. Her nods involved a slow closing of the eyes and she often heckled the opposition as they were speaking. It was only after the main part of the debate ended after just under an hour that she sat back in her seat with her hands clasped across her lap. At one point she folded her arms to suggest she was disconnecting and there was another point when she placed an index finger across her top lip in what looked like a gesture of negative evaluation but she did appear to be showing concern for the people who had been unable to visit relatives during lock-down. When Sunak left, Patel was sitting next to Boris and just prior to the 'finger' gesture she even patted him on the back to signal approval. The debate had run out of steam, danger appeared to have been averted and Boris was just on repeat mode to all the stragglers being asked. Someone behind Patel seemed to let her know they were going and after that she began to show signals of tiredness. Her fingers rubbed across her eyebrows and she used one hand to part-cover her face in a shielding gesture. We can then see Patel appear to cough or clear her throat before pressing her fingertips onto the upper bridge of her nose, suggesting tiredness or even a stress headache. She gives the muscles a brief massage before talking to someone on her left. When she turns to look to her upper right the massage or rubbing of the muscles of the bridge of her nose now only involve the middle and index finger. In a still shot it might look daring and dismissive but placed into context it really does look like part of a ritual to rub away muscle tension caused by tiredness or a headache. Advertisement

Ms Gray had revealed in an 'update' that of the 16 alleged gatherings she had deemed necessary to investigate, at least 12 linked to government properties in Downing Street and Whitehall were being investigated by the police.

This included at least four directly linked to Mr Johnson either because he was reported to have attended, or because they are reported to have taken place in his flat.

Three alleged gatherings not previously reported were also included in the report.

But the police investigation had prevented her from delivering any meaningful report as to not impact the inquiry.

Mr Johnson told MPs in the Commons: 'Firstly, I want to say sorry - and I'm sorry for the things we simply didn't get right and also sorry for the way this matter has been handled.

'It's no use saying this or that was within the rules and it's no use saying people were working hard. This pandemic was hard for everyone.'

He added: 'I get it, and I will fix it. I want to say to the people of this country I know what the issue is.'

However, he faced a hostile response from some on his own side and the threat of a vote of no confidence has not yet been defeated.

Former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell told Mr Johnson he 'no longer enjoys my support'.

Tory MP Angela Richardson announced she had quit as a ministerial aide to Michael Gove, sharing her 'deep disappointment' at the handling of the partygate row.

Aaron Bell, part of the 2019 intake of Red Wall MPs, recalled abiding by coronavirus restrictions for his grandmother's May 2020 funeral before asking: 'Does the Prime Minister think I'm a fool?'

In the Lords, ex-Whitehall chief and independent crossbencher Lord Kerslake said: 'Even without the detail the general findings are utterly damning. This goes to the heart of government. Can government be trusted to do the right thing and tell the truth? It's hard to think of anything more important than that.'

But Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg said the 'mood was positive' among Conservatives following an evening meeting on the Parliamentary estate.

He added: 'So many people voted personally for Boris Johnson rather than voting for political parties.

'Politicians have to accept that our bosses are the British people, and they voted for that, they put him in office.'

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow acknowledged it had been a 'difficult day' but said there was support for Mr Johnson.

Mr Bristow said he left 'absolutely pumped' and added that nobody in the meeting had called for Mr Johnson to go.

The change in mood came as No 10 confirmed the PM would ask Ms Gray to produce a second report after the police investigation concludes, and committed to publishing it.

But Ms Gray's full report and the result of the police probe could yet threaten his premiership again, and Mr Johnson's former chief aide Dominic cummings is due to questions on the report online on Tuesday which could provide more damaging details.

Polling on Monday night from Opinium said 62% of UK adults wanted the PM to resign, and 64% believed Tory MPs should make him go.

It comes after the Met revealed it is reviewing more than 300 images and over 500 pages of information passed to officers by the Gray inquiry.

Mr Rees-Mogg suggested the images should also be published, as he said: 'The more people see, the more understanding there will be of precisely what went on.'

Mr Johnson also told MPs he was taking the issue seriously, underling how he had nearly died from coronavirus.

While reports suggested he had told his party that election strategist Sir Lynton Crosby would be offering him strategic advice.

Mr Johnson insisted he was 'making changes' to Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, including by creating an Office of the Prime Minister with a permanent secretary to lead No 10.

While Downing Street said work was being carried out on a new policy to tackle the drinking culture in No 10, although a blanket ban on drinking is unlikely given its function as a venue for receptions for visiting dignitaries and charity events.

However, one Conservative who heard from Mr Johnson on Monday said the message to him was that MPs would 'judge you by your delivery'.

Mr Johnson apologised to MPs after senior official Sue Gray found 'failures of leadership and judgment' as gatherings were held while England was under coronavirus restrictions in 2020 and 2021

Some suggested that the Home Secretary appeared to be giving Mr Johnson 'the finger', while others claimed she was 'squirming' and 'mentally updating her CV' following the revelations in the Sue Gray report

Boris Johnson was under fire in the Commons about Partygate yesterday
Boris Johnson is bringing in election guru Sir Lynton Crosby in a desperate bid to steady his premiership after a snap poll found two thirds of Britons do not accept the PM's Partygate apology.

The premier told Tory MPs last night that he will be taking regular 'strategic advice' from Sir Lynton who ran election campaigns under David Cameron and helped Mr Johnson become Mayor of London.

The Times reported that Mr Johnson had recently urged the Australian to join Number 10 full-time as his new chief of staff but the offer was declined.

However, Mr Johnson will be hoping that the promise of regular discussions with Sir Lynton will help to win back the support of many Tory MPs who have demanded a Number 10 shake-up.

The move came as a Savanta ComRes survey found 65 per cent of people did not accept Mr Johnson's apology yesterday following the publication of Sue Gray's Partygate update.

The poll also found that almost seven in 10 people believe Mr Johnson should resign.

Boris Johnson is bringing in election guru Sir Lynton Crosby in a desperate bid to steady his premiership after a snap poll found two thirds of Britons do not accept the PM's Partygate apology

The premier told Tory MPs last night that he will be taking regular 'strategic advice' from Sir Lynton who ran election campaigns under David Cameron and helped Mr Johnson become Mayor of London

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab confirmed this morning that Sir Lynton will return to help the Tories focus on voter priorities.

Mr Raab told LBC Radio that voters, MPs and the Prime Minister want the Conservative Party to 'get back to doing the job that people elected us to do'.

'Lynton Crosby is an important element of that,' Mr Raab said.

'He has got a good strategic nose and a good sense of the direction of public opinion and a good place  not to formulate, that's not what we do  but to test the work that we are doing to make sure we are nailing the priorities of the people.'

Mr Johnson apologised to MPs yesterday after senior Cabinet Office official Ms Gray found 'failures of leadership and judgment' over gatherings held in Downing Street and Whitehall while England was under coronavirus restrictions in 2020 and 2021.

Ms Gray's update revealed that the Met Police are currently investigating 12 separate events.

The PM said in the House of Commons: 'I will address the report's findings in this statement, but first I want to say sorry. I am sorry for the things we simply did not get right and sorry for the way this matter has been handled.'

He added: 'But it is not enough to say sorry. This is a moment when we must look at ourselves in the mirror, and we must learn.'

A snap poll conducted after the PM's statement found 65 per cent of people did not accept Mr Johnson's apology while three in ten (29 per cent) said that they did.

Some 69 per cent of voters believe Mr Johnson should resign while 68 per cent said the PM and the Government cannot be trusted to deliver for the British people.

Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta ComRes, said: 'In many respects, the PM's statement in the Commons felt like groundhog day, with Johnson choosing to answer questions with a plea to wait for the Met's investigation into the Partygate scandal to conclude.

'However, the mood was undoubtedly more sour than in previous weeks, with a number of his own MP's not holding back in their anger at the alleged conduct of Number 10.

'And, it seems the public are equally unforgiving in their assessment of the Prime Minister.

'Not only does a significant majority want him to resign, but in direct response to Johnson's apology and a direct assertion that the country would rather he and his government focus on other things, most say they don't accept it and simply don't trust him to deliver.'
Australian cooking queen Maggie Beer has devised a moving way to honour her daughter's life - offering a talented Australian a place on the same scholarship her husband embarked on 44 years ago.

Saskia Beer, who was equally prominent in elite food circles, died suddenly in her sleep in February of 2020 aged just 46.

Along with her husband Colin, Maggie will ensure Saskia's legacy remains in the form of a coveted Churchill Fellowship in her name.

'It allows people for, say, four to eight weeks, depending on what they envisage doing, of going overseas to find something that can't be learnt in Australia, ' Maggie told A Current Affair.

'That's the strength of it, and when they bring it back, they have to give back to the community in large what they have learnt.'

Australian cooking queen Maggie Beer has devised a moving way to honour her daughter Saskia (pictured right)

Saskia Beer, who was equally prominent in elite food circles, died suddenly in her sleep in February of 2020 aged just 46

Winston Churchill Trust CEO Adam Davey added it was important to 'pay tribute to Saskia's life and continue her legacy.'

Maggie and Colin Beer's life was turned upside down when Saskia died almost two years ago.

The tragedy coincided with the start of the Covid pandemic, allowing the couple to grieve privately.

Saskia was one of the first niche poultry producers in Australia and her business, which specialises on different condiments, continues to thrive.

The Fellowship will aim to honour Saskia's contribution to small-scale farming and food production.

Almost 50 years ago, Maggie and Colin Beer began their own life journey involving food in the Barossa Valley in South Australia when they were awarded their own Churchill Fellowship.

They soon developed an impressive global food empire, with focus placed on breeding and cooking pheasants.

Now the couple hope to see the Fellowship benefit a deserving future recipient.

Along with her husband Colin (pictured left) Maggie Beer will ensure Saskia's legacy remains in the form of a coveted Churchill Fellowship, which allows Australian residents to develop a skill from overseas - and then introduce it back on local shores
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A former UCLA lecturer who threatened to carry out a mass shooting at the school was arrested in Colorado on Tuesday morning where he had also made threats against a different campus in an 'alarmingly' violent 800-page manifesto.

Matthew Harris, 31, was taken into custody near the University of Colorado Boulder campus on Tuesday by SWAT teams.

On Sunday, he posted 300 unhinged and threatening videos on YouTube, and then he sent emails to UCLA staff threatening a mass shooting. He included details of the manifesto, which also had references to Boulder in it.

UCLA banned in-person classes and told the authorities about the Boulder references. Harris had worked at UCLA until last year but was put on leave after complaints from students that he had sent some of them pornography.

On Tuesday, after learning of the threat, Boulder Police Department issued a shelter-in-place warning near the college. It also evacuated an elementary school nearby.

At around noon local time, Harris was arrested off-campus but nearby. Video showed him being led away in handcuffs by SWAT teams.

Boulder Police Chief Maris Harold said at a press conference afterwards that detectives were still working through the manifesto but that it was 'alarming' in its violence.

'This is 800 pages we're going through. The level of violence we saw in the manifesto was so alarming.'

She added that he'd tried to buy a gun in November last year but thankfully, was not sold one.

Matthew Harris, 31, was arrested near the University of Colorado Boulder's campus on Tuesday morning

Matthew Harris sent the expletive-ridden email to UCLA's philosophy department, warning its recipients 'da war is comin', and linked to videos depicting previous mass shootings including Columbine and Las Vegas , and an 800-page manifesto

On Tuesday afternoon, UCLA school announced he had been arrested in Colorado.

UCLA, in a tweet on Tuesday morning, said they were working with 'out of state' law enforcement but it's unclear if they even know where he is

'I am greatly relieved to share that law enforcement officers in Colorado have taken into custody the individual who made threats against some members of our UCLA community yesterday.

'While we will continue with our plans to keep instruction remote today, with this development, we will return to in-person instruction tomorrow,' Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael J. Beck said.

Harris was let go from his job last year after a student reported that he had sent them pornography.

On Monday, staff described him as 'highly erratic' in internal emails.

Chief Maris Herold said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that his manifesto was 'alarmingly' violent.

One of the hundreds of videos posted online by the former postdoctoral researcher was titled 'UCLA Philosophy (Mass Shooting)'. His manifesto made references to race and used several curse words and misogynistic slurs.

In response, UCLA cancelled all in-person classes early on Tuesday morning, while students who have been taught by Harris spoke of how they had previous concerns over his conduct.

Matthew Harris - a former UCLA lecturer - has threatened one of the California university's departments with a mass shooting in a disturbing email sent to faculty and students

The former lecturer was placed on leave in the spring last year while he was investigated over allegations he sent a pornographic video to a student, according to the Daily Bruin.

Unrelated to UCLA's investigation into him, Harris' postdoctoral status was set to expire at the end of June 2021 after he first joined the university in 2019.

'The material includes a video entitled 'UCLA Philosophy Mass Shooting' and an 800-page manifesto with specific threats towards some members of our department,' the email said, according to The LA Times.

'In light of this, we will continue to have discussion through Zoom until the authorities say that it is safe.

'I will keep you updated on this situation. But I would avoid being anywhere near Dodd Hall or the philosophy department until further notice.'

The University put out a statement on Twitter, saying: 'UCLA Police Department is aware of a concerning email and posting sent to some members of the UCLA community today and actively engaged with out-of-state law enforcement and federal agencies.

'We will keep the community informed as we learn more.'

In an update two hours later, it added: 'UCPD is actively working with out-of-state & federal agencies on threats sent to some members of our community.

'We do not have specific information that this individual is in CA.

'Out of an abundance of caution, all classes will be held remotely Feb 1. We will keep you updated.'

In his manifesto seen by the DailyMail.com, Harris - often in all capital letters and with frequent spelling mistakes - makes frequent references to race including repeated use of the N-word, uses overtly sexual and misogynistic language and writes a number of violent proclamations such as 'death to my enemies.'

Harris uploaded 300 videos to YouTube before his account was taken down. It's unclear if he deleted it or if YouTube did

In his email to the philosophy department seen by The LA Times, he included a link to his YouTube channel featuring hundreds of disturbing videos, most of which were uploaded on Monday.

In the video titled 'UCLA Philosophy (Mass Shooting)', footage from the 2017 mass-shooting in Las Vegas and from the movie 'Zero Day' - loosely based on the Columbine Columbine High School massacre - was shown.

Matthew Harris sent the expletive-ridden email to UCLA's philosophy department, warning its recipients 'da war is comin', and linked to videos depicting previous mass shootings including Columbine and Las Vegas , and an 800-page manifesto

The channel appears to have since been taken down, but screenshots shared on Twitter showed a number of 'ASMR' (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) videos, with anti-feminist or racially-charged titles.

Speaking to ABC News, student Nathan Robbins said: 'I've been scared about this professor, this guy, for about a year since my girlfriend told me about the stories - how he treated their class, but also the threats he made after he got put on leave.'

Other students had previously written about Harris on teacher-review websites, such as bruinwalk.com.

'This professor is extremely unprofessional and has sent his personal p*rnographic content to a student,' one student wrote in March 2021, linking to Harris' YouTube channel. 'Please fire this professor, his actions are not acceptable by any standards,' the student added.

Writing in October 2020, another said: 'Easily my least favorite class at ucla ever. He is very dry and could not care less about the class.'

The author of the anonymous review went on to say that in once case, Harris had changed the grade of another student 43 times after the quarter had finished.

They also wrote that the lecturer would repeatedly change the syllabus, and that he 'started messaging people in the middle of the summer saying that he spilled Chinese food on their final and that they need to resubmit it.'

According to bruinwalk.com, Harris taught a number of philosophy classes during his tenure, including PHILOS 161: Topics in Aesthetic Theory and Topics in Aesthetic Theory: Personal Identity in Music, as well as PHILOS 168: Philosophy of Race.
Fort Lauderdale  A second cruise ship from embattled luxury cruise operator Crystal Cruises has diverted from its original itinerary to dock in the Bahamas, avoiding U.S. ports by transporting passengers via ferry Monday back to Fort Lauderdale.

Crystal Serenity left PortMiami on Jan. 17. Two days later, the company said it was suspending operations on ocean cruises through April, following the announcement from its parent company of a pending liquidation amid financial troubles.

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A Serenity passenger, who renewed her wedding vows with her husband on the cruise, told the Miami Herald the ship has about 400 passengers aboard what was supposed to be a voyage of more than 100 days.

The ships shortened trip is the latest in the saga involving Miami-based Crystal and its bankrupt parent company, Genting Hong Kong. On Jan. 23, another Crystal ship, the Crystal Symphony, rerouted to the Bahamas, instead of heading back to Miami as planned. A federal judge in South Florida had issued an arrest warrant to seize the ship upon arrival in the United States due to unpaid fuel bills. Genting Group owns a resort and marina in Bimini, Bahamas, the safe haven where that Symphony ship has been docked.

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Go to Herald.com for the full report.
Prince Andrew's lawyers want to quiz the husband of the royal's sex assault accuser Virginia Roberts over her 'role in recruiting and trafficking underage girls' for paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Ms Roberts, 38, is suing Andrew in New York for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress after claiming in a civil suit that she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with Andrew, 61, on three occasions when she was 17.

However, Judge Lewis Kaplan has now written to Australia's Attorney General to secure their assistance in arranging an interview with Robert Giuffre, Ms Roberts' husband since 2002, after the duke's legal team invoked the Hague Convention to question him under oath on Monday.

In his letter, the judge said Prince Andrew's lawyers want to speak to Mr Giuffre about the couple's living arrangements in Australia, any conversations he has had with his wife about the duke, her 'alleged childhood abuse' and aspects of her income, The Mirror reports.

The letter added that the duke's legal team has asked that 'Mr Giuffre be examined' about his wife's 'role in recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein'.

The judge has also asked the country's Attorney General for their assistance in securing an interview with Ms Roberts' therapist Dr Judith Lightfoot.

Andrew's lawyers want details of any medical treatment she may have received, any diagnosis she may have been given and her medical history.

The letter continues that they want to access the bills charged by Dr Lightfoot, as well as any alleged 'emotional and psychological harm and damages' suffered by Ms Roberts.

Both interviews are expected to take place on April 29.

Robert Giuffre and Virginia Roberts, who is suing under her married name of Giuffre, pictured together

Prince Andrew's legal team want to quiz Mr Giuffre in Australia after invoking the Hague Convention to question him under oath

As the case moves ahead, British legal authorities must help with the request from accuser Ms Roberts to interview his former equerry, Major Robert Olney. Pictured: Andrew, Roberts and Maxwell

Paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein pictured in custody in 2017. He died by suicide in prison in August 2019

Andrew's lawyer in the US, Andrew Brettler, is understood to have a 'strong opinion' that he should fly to Australia to conduct the interview in Perth - close to where Ms Roberts' now resides.

It comes as Judge Kaplan also approved requests for four people to be formally interviewed in the UK and Australia yesterday.

As the case moves ahead, British legal authorities must help with the request from accuser Ms Roberts to interview his former equerry, Major Robert Olney.

Her lawyers, David Boies and Sigrid McCawley, want to ask Major Olney about Andrew's dealings with Epstein.

They also want to talk to a woman, Shukri Walker, who says she saw Miss Roberts with Andrew at a London nightclub in 2001, after which Miss Roberts claims she had to have sex with him.

Mark Stephens CBE, of London law firm Howard Kennedy, said of the request by Miss Roberts  now married as Mrs Giuffre  to conduct interviews in the UK: 'It's obviously closing the net around Andrew.'

The requests for help from foreign legal authorities were filed in mid January and were approved yesterday (Monday) by Judge Kaplan.

They cite the Hague Convention on taking of evidence abroad in civil matters as the basis on which they must be carried out.

The request states that they should be filed with the Senior Master in the Foreign Process Section at the High Court in London.

Ms Roberts' lawyers, David Boies and Sigrid McCawley, want to ask Major Olney (pictured) about Andrew's dealings with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Mrs Giuffre, 38, (pictured) is suing Andrew in New York for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She claims that at 17 she was loaned to the Duke for sex by Epstein

Once the request is received, Ms Roberts' lawyers from Boies Schiller Flexner in the UK will make an application for further details about assistance, the letter states.

Ms Roberts is suing the duke for unspecified damages, which US lawyers say could be more than 14million if she is successful.

Andrew strongly denies Ms Roberts' allegations, but Judge Kaplan rejected his request last month to have the case dismissed.

After the decision the Duke was stripped of most of his remaining royal patronages and military titles which were returned to The Queen.
A Bulgarian NHS doctor killed his partner's father with poison and nearly killed her and her mother after putting a highly toxic substance in his family's coffee, a High Court judge has ruled.

Mr Justice Williams handed down the ruling at the end of a family court hearing in which the medic had applied for an order allowing him to see his son.

It emerged following a fact-finding hearing during this case that the man poisoned his partner and her parents with thallium, after the boy's mother used it as grounds to oppose the contact order.

The doctor, who hasn't been named to protect the identity of children involved in the case, never faced charges from police either here or in Bulgaria over the poisoning, which he still denies, and therefore hasn't faced a criminal prosecution.

Such a ruling being made in a family court was unusual as the conclusion was drawn on the balance of all probabilities of the evidence, rather than 'beyond all reasonable doubt', which is what a jury has to ensure in the criminal court.

Now those working with the family are hoping to see progress in terms of prosecuting the man as Mr Justice Williams' ruling was published.

Simon Bruce, a family lawyer for 38 years, and his family law clinic, Dads House, assisted the woman through the court process.

He told MailOnline: 'It has been a struggle to try and get justice.

'It's now being dealt with by Bulgarian authorities but we've also provided the file to the Met Police  I sent it straight to Cressida Dick herself as I thought it was important that the Commissioner should see what this person, a doctor in England, had done.

'My clinic is very worried it has taken so long for the authorities to deal with this man.'

A Bulgarian NHS doctor killed his partner's father with poison and nearly killed her and her mother after putting a highly toxic substance in his family's coffee, the High Court has ruled

Thallium: The 'poisoner's poison' Dubbed the 'poisoner's poison', Thallium is highly toxic but is tasteless, colourless and odourless and any contact with skin is dangerous. Thallium, once known as 'Inheritance Powder' because it could easily kill people, is typically found in electronics and was used by Saddam Hussein on dissidents. It is slow-acting and painful and symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea and hair loss. Advertisement

The court found the doctor added thallium to a pot of coffee when he was on holiday in his native country with his then-partner, her parents, and his then one-year-old child in 2012.

He drank instant coffee while the three other adults drank from the pot.

The latter died but the two women, found to have similar levels of thallium in their blood, survived.

The court was told the poison may have been sourced through the doctor's work or over the internet and was most likely ingested orally.

It was alleged that his 'primary aim' was to kill the grandparents, but he 'vigorously disputed' evidence that he'd poisoned their coffee.

When he saw his partner also drink a cup, he did not prevent her, the court was told.

When the family eventually returned to the UK, the doctor tried to cover his tracks by saying the grandfather's death was recorded as a stroke and that poisoning had not been diagnosed after the mother was treated by various hospitals.

A fact-finding hearing was initially launched to determine whether he had killed the grandfather, and the judge decided he had.

However, the father then appealed to the Court of Appeal on a technicality and the ruling was overturned.

The court then insisted the case must be re-heard by a senior high court judge, and it was dealt with by Mr Justice Williams.

He heard all the evidence and decided the doctor was responsible for causing the death of the grandfather and also responsible for nearly causing the deaths of the mother and grandmother.

After an appeal from that judgement failed, the judge finally granted permission for the judgment to be published.

Mr Justice Williams said on the civil standard of proof that the 'mother has proved that it is more likely than not that the father was responsible for the introduction of thallium into the coffees'.

He added that the father failed to assist in the treatment of all three and tried to divert attention from both himself and thallium poisoning as the reason for their illness.

In conclusion, he said: 'Why the father did this I have no idea. Only he can know.'

Mr Bruce, of Dads House, added: 'The next objective is to pursue him so he is brought to justice.

'It's an ongoing process but it's taking far too long. We're hoping there might be some impact now this judgment has been provided.'
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Civil servants have been told to continue working from home for at least part of each week despite the Government trying to get them back into the office every day, it was claimed today.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is said to have made 400 desks available for its 900 employees since the working from home guidance was dropped nearly two weeks ago on January 19.

Staff have been urged to 'book a desk before attending' and an internal document says 'department-wide hybrid working' is expected to begin next month, which will see people heading into the office on two days a week.

One civil servant working in the department told The Times: 'There's not enough momentum on going back in. It's nice for a change of scene, but you go in and just end up sitting on video calls in an open-plan office.'

Sources also told the newspaper that the Department for Education 'expects people to be in the office for 40-60 per cent of their working week', but Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi wants them at their desks more.

It comes after Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay called for offices to go back to pre-pandemic levels to 'ensure we make maximum use of our office space ... to deliver effectively and ensure value for money'.

This followed Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying two weeks ago as he announced the end of 'Plan B' measures: 'I think that across Whitehall we need to show a lead and make sure that we get back to work; that everybody gets back to work. It is safe to do so, provided everybody exercises the due caution that I have set out today.'

The Public and Commercial Services union, which represents civil servants and other public sector workers, has warned against a 'headlong rush' back to the office - while the FDA says the world of work has 'changed for good'.

And Whitehall is expected only have office space for half of the civil servants based there from 2030 because of a strategy to rationalise the government estate in London which currently costs 621million a year to run.

Whitehall in Westminster is pictured in the late morning today as civil servants are encouraged to return to the office

A quiet A302 Victoria Street in Westminster at lunchtime this afternoon, two weeks after the WFH guidance was dropped

Whitehall in Westminster is pictured in the late morning today as the Cabinet Office continues to ask people to come in

Victoria Street which leads to Westminster looks quiet at lunchtime today despite the WFH guidance being dropped

Whitehall in Westminster is pictured in the late morning today, two weeks after the working from home guidance ended

Whitehall in Westminster is pictured in the late morning today with a series of London buses seen in a line along the road

Whitehall in Westminster is pictured in the late morning today as civil servants are encouraged to return to the office

A graph from Transport for London shows how Tube usage fell off in December 2021 but is now recovering again this year

This Transport for London graph shows how Underground usage has changed over the last two years, split by type of station

An Apple Mobility chart shows the number of people requesting directions from its Maps app has risen again in recent weeks

A Times audit yesterday saw 293 staff arrive at the Department for Education which has a capacity of 2,000, and 194 employees at the Department of Health which had a capacity of 1,000 but only half the desks are in use.

However, Government sources insisted to MailOnline that both buildings have other entrances where staff may have arrived and they therefore do not consider the monitoring of one entrance as providing a credible audit.

Only 100 civil servants (out of 2,200) return to HQ in Edinburgh BY BETHAN SEXTON FOR THE SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL The Scottish Government's main office in Edinburgh Scotland's civil service continued to work from home yesterday despite the reopening of offices after the winter shutdown. The Mail witnessed only 100 workers turn up to the Scottish Government's main office during a three-hour period yesterday morning. The headquarters at Victoria Quay in Edinburgh remained largely empty, despite the change to guidance which came into effect yesterday. The Scottish Government previously said its employees would be brought back in on a 'phased approach'. But by 9am yesterday, less than 5 per cent of the 2,200 employees normally working at the premises had turned up. The sluggish return sparked concern from business leaders, who fear the consequences if the situation is replicated at other offices. Colin Wilkinson, managing director of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said: 'We weren't expecting a mass return to the office, but that is very worrying. We hoped that people would go out for a drink after work, but we were quite realistic that it would not happen all at once. It is a bit of a shock to be honest. Town and city centres will have a real challenge because the way we work has changed so drastically and I don't think it will ever be the same.' Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesman Willie Rennie raised questions over the impact on performance with so many staff working from home. He said: 'It would be interesting to know whether the Scottish Government have conducted any research into how productive staff are when working from home. If there is no drop off in performance, then it's hard to insist that everyone commutes in to sit at a desk. 'Giving staff more flexibility about how and where work is done, can only be good for work-life balance. However, there are clearly benefits to staff development from time with more experienced colleagues. This is the kind of calculation that many businesses will have to make going forward.' A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'As the First Minister stated last week, ministers do not expect to see a wholesale return to the office this week. In line with the new national guidance, we are taking a gradual and phased approach to our move to hybrid working, and working from home will continue to form a significant part of the mix of most people's arrangements.' Advertisement

Conservative MP Peter Bone said that ministers should be 'demanding' to know why all remaining civil servants are yet to return to their desks, adding: 'If you are in the office you bounce ideas off each other and things improve.

'How do you do that when three-quarters of your colleagues are at home? It must be impinging on the efficiency of these departments - which may not have been high to start with.

'It's up to individual ministers to sort this problem out. If I was the Secretary of State for Education, for instance, and only a fifth of people were in, I would demand to know what's happening.

'I'm sure some jobs can be done remotely but government departments need people in as you don't know what is going to happen from day to day. I don't understand why all employees aren't in yet.'

Rail and road travel is now rebounding, with TomTom data showing a morning rush-hour congestion level of London of 78 per cent between 8am and 9am today  the highest figure for that time since December 7 last year.

And Transport for London said there were 2.04million Underground journeys made yesterday, which is up 9 per cent in a week, but still only 54 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. On the buses, there were 4.41million journeys yesterday, which is up 4 per cent in a week, and at 74 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

At Westminster Tube station specifically, there were 26,000 entries and exits yesterday, which was up 13.7 per cent in a week but still at just 44 per cent of pre-pandemic levels when compared to the 59,000 on Monday, February 3, 2020.

At stations with close links to the City, such as Mansion House, Aldgate, Canary Wharf and Holborn, there were 359,000 entries and exits in total yesterday, which is up 14 per cent in a week, and 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

And at shopping and West End stations, such as Stratford, Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus, there were 470.9,000 entries and exits in total yesterday, which is up 7 per cent in a week, and 55 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

A Government spokesman told MailOnline: 'Counting officials walking in and out of buildings is not a credible data gathering process. Departments have been asked to ensure their offices return to full occupancy and we have seen tangible progress in this regard.'

Officials added that they would not be 'providing a running commentary' on the number of civil servants in the office, and that 'full occupancy' does not mean every civil servant working from their desk - because it is common for organisations in the private and public sector not to have space for all their employees.

And they pointed out that the number of staff at the Cabinet Office's headquarters at 70 Whitehall has tripled from that seen earlier in January, returning attendance close to pre-pandemic levels.

As for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, a source said its staff have 'worked tirelessly both in the office and from home, when required to do so, and our hybrid working model allows us to continue delivering for our sectors and the public'.

And on the Department of Health, a source said its 'officials are returning to offices following the removal of Plan B measures' adding that the 'size of its workforce increased to respond to the pressures created by the Covid-19 pandemic, and there isn't currently office space for everyone at the department'.

Commuters board a South Western Railway service yesterday about two weeks after the working from home guidance ended

Passengers on board a London Underground Victoria line train travel through the capital yesterday

Commuters get off a London Underground train in the capital yesterday after the last of the Plan B measures were dropped

Commuters with face coverings ride a London Underground train through the capital yesterday morning

Passengers walk along the platform at a London Underground station during the morning rush hour yesterday

Last week, Downing Street reiterated the order to have government offices full within weeks to ensure grand buildings - funded by the taxpayer - do not lie empty.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said at the time: 'We recognise that taxpayers are funding these offices and it's right that they are used fully as before the pandemic.

'But we know that civil servants throughout the pandemic have been working extremely hard, many of whom have not been able to work from home because they have been part of that frontline response.'

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has also said people should 'get back to work' and return to 'some degree of normality' after the Government eased Plan B restrictions.

It comes as survey found nearly two in five people currently working from home say they will never return to the office.

The poll carried out last week also showed 71 per cent of people prefer to work from home and 58 per cent believe they are more productive when they do so. The survey carried out by YouGov on behalf of The Times shows the scale of the challenge employers face in getting staff back to the office.

The results will come as a concern to ministers who are keen to return to pre-pandemic levels of office work amid concerns over city centres and public transport systems.

Despina Katsikakis, the global lead at Cushman and Wakefield's workplace advisory team Total Workplace, recently spoke about how young people had been affected by the working from home guidance.

Ms Katsikakis, who took part in the Nestle Coffee Partners initiative 'Smart Coffee Break - The Productivity Podcast', said: 'Community, mentorship, knowledge-sharing and wellbeing have suffered significantly because of remote working.

'Younger generations are struggling the most, and the realisation of the office's role in providing these is coming to light. The future office needs to be a social place of interaction and connectivity.'
Boris Johnson stoked his bitter row with former top aide Dominic Cummings last night by comparing himself to Shakespeare's tragic hero Othello.

The PM made the allusion to furious Tory MPs in the aftermath of the Sue Gray Partygate report, which revealed police are investigating multiple events in Downing Street he attended personally.

William Shakespeare's tragic Jacobean masterpiece is a study of jealousy, passion and race.

The titular character is an honourable black military commander who is brutally manipulated by his bitter white subordinate Iago into murdering his beautiful new wife Desdemona, after being conned into believing she has been unfaithful.

It is one of the Bard's most popular plays, with the title role being played previously by stars including Sir Lenny Henry, James Earl Jones, Laurence Fishburne and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Famous names to have played Iago include Daniel Craig, Ewan McGregor, Kenneth Branagh, Sir Ian McKellan and Christopher Plummer.

The comment came as Mr Johnson addressed the backbench 1922 Committee of Tory MPs last night, the Times reported.

Mr Cummings, who was sacked in December 2020 after losing a No10 power struggle with the PM's wife Carrie, has emerged as one of his fiercest critics.

He has made a string of allegations about Downing Street parties now being probed by the Metropolitan Police.

Earlier this week he used an American magazine article to brand Mr Johnson a 'babbling f***wit' who has not 'got the balls' to stand up to his 'forceful' wife Carrie.

The PM made the allusion to furious Tory MPs in the aftermath of the Sue Gray Partygate report, which revealed police are investigating multiple events in Downing Street he attended personally.

Mr Cummings, who was sacked in December 2020 after losing a No10 power struggle with the PM's wife Carrie, has emerged as one of his fiercest critics.

Othello is one of the Bard's most popular plays, with the title role being played previously by stars including Sir Lenny Henry, James Earl Jones, Laurence Fishburne (above, with Kenneth Branagh as Iago) and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Shakespeare's classic study of jealousy and passion Othello is a timeless tale of jealousy, passion, race and deceit. Thought to have been written by William Shakespeare around 1603 it is set in the contemporary Mediterranean. Othello is a Moorish commander in the army of the powerful Republic of Venice who is sent to defend Cyprus from an invasion by the Ottoman Empire. Willard White and Sir Ian McKellan as Othello and Iago in 1989 He takes with him his new wife Desdemona, who is young, beautiful, rich and white. Also part of his top team is Iago, a soldier who harbours a furious bitter jealousy of his boss, fuelled by being passed over for promotion. A top manipulator, Iago sets up Othello for a fall by deceiving his normally stoic and honorable commander into believing Desdemona is being unfaithful. In an unusual fit of rage Othello murders his wife, before Iago's deception is uncovered by his own wife Emilia. A distraught Othello commits suicide, while Iago is arrested to face justice. The play is believed to have popularised the phrase 'the green-eyed monster' to describe jealousy, when Iago says 'Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.' Other well-known lines include the villain also saying: 'But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve, for daws to peck at: I am not what I am.' Advertisement

In a rare interview, the former No10 chief swiped that the PM saw himself as a 'king' or 'Roman emperor' and only cared about big infrastructure projects that would act as monuments to himself.

But he swiped that in reality the Tory leader was a 'f***wit' obsessed with 'babbling' to the media rather than 'important' policy problems.

Mr Cummings said Mrs Johnson had been running a 'disastrous' shadow briefing regime from their No11 flat, and his former boss was unable to tell her 'I'm prime minister'.

The intervention, in an interview with New York magazine, came as Mr Johnson awaited the verdict of top civil servant Sue Gray and the police on Partygate allegations.

Mr Cummings has been instrumental in stoking the crisis for the PM, having highlighted a series of potential lockdown breaches at No10.

He told the magazine that he viewed getting rid of Mr Johnson as 'an unpleasant but necessary job'. 'It's like sort of fixing the drains,' he said.

The maverick ex-adviser said Mr Johnson had been useful for delivering Brexit and defeating Jeremy Corbyn in 2019.

'But after that what's the point of him and Carrie just rattling around in there and f***ing everything up for everyone and not doing the job properly?' he added.

Mr Johnson is still desperately trying to quell Tory Partygate fury today as MPs accuse him of running No10 like a 'medieval court' and warn he should be 'very worried' about a coup.

The PM is leaving the pressure cooker of Westminster on a diplomatic mission to Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday - but still revealed that he is being investigated by police over four breaches of lockdown law.

Mr Johnson suffered a mauling from a slew of Conservatives in the Commons, with Theresa May demanding to know if he thought the rules 'didn't apply' to him, and former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell saying the premier had lost his support.

Mr Mitchell stepped up his attack this morning warning that the row was 'like battery acid corroding the party' and condemning Mr Johnson's leadership style.

'One of the most interesting things that the Prime Minister said yesterday is that we must look at ourselves in the mirror,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'The truth is that it is he who needs to look at himself in the mirror.

'These sorts of things never happened and would never happen under Mrs Thatcher, can you imagine it having happened under Mrs May?'

Even normally-loyal MPs conceded that the PM's response in the chamber was a 'car crash', although Mr Johnson appeared to buy himself some time with a more conciliatory performance at a private meeting with his rank and file last night.

Writing in the Times, Lord Hague criticised Mr Johnson for getting the tone wrong, saying he should have 'acknowledged that the buck stops with him' and ought to be 'very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions'.

'Instead of reinforcing the momentum in his favour, he quite possibly stalled it. If I were him, I would be very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions at the end of his statement.'

The looming verdict from Scotland Yard - which is sifting through more than 300 photos of Whitehall bashes and could interview both Mr Johnson and wife Carrie within days - could provide a moment of truth for the premier, but he has also been forced to agree that a full, unredacted version of Ms Gray's report after the criminal process concludes.
Britain's nursing regulator has rejected pleas from hundreds of concerned members to pull out of a diversity scheme ran by Stonewall.

More than 700 nurses and midwives wrote to the Nursing and Midwifery Council to detail their concerns about the controversial LGBT+ charity and its stance on medical issues.

Stonewall has been mired in controversy over its gender identity views, and insisted that people should be able to access single-sex wards based on the gender that they identify as  not their biological sex.

It has also called for the word 'mothers' to be replaced with the gender-neutral term 'parent who has given birth'.

Stonewall's workplace diversity scheme has been criticised for creating 'woke' work environments that curb free speech among staff.

Several organisations, including the BBC, Ofcom and Ofsted, have already ditched Stonewall's diversity programme.

Nurses and midwives who signed the petition argued that the NMC's affiliation with Stonewall impeded their ability to speak out for the rights of female patients, as they are professionally obliged.

But the NMC will not be joining them, stating that while it welcomed a 'constructive challenge' it would remain part of the scheme for now.

Numerous organisations have faced calls to disassociate themselves with LGBT+ charity Stonewall over its views, but the Nursing and Midwifery Council have decided to stick with it

Some nurses reacted with anger to the NMC's decision, expressing disappointment that part of their fees were going to supporting Stonewall

Other nurses called for the regulator to ballot its membership on the issue

Ban on trans conversion therapy should be delayed to ensure parents and teachers are not criminalised Ministers must delay a controversial ban on conversion therapy for trans people until it is changed to protect families, teachers and doctors, the equalities watchdog said last night. In a major intervention, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said the current proposals would have a chilling effect on therapists who want to help people dealing with gender dysphoria. The condition means someone does not feel happy with their biological sex. The watchdog said the proposals must be changed to ensure parents and teachers are not criminalised for questioning whether a child really wants to change their gender. The EHRC said doctors and therapists must be able to reconcile children to their biological sex if that is in their best interests. It stressed the law must not prevent priests and other religious leaders advising congregations on sexual matters. The EHRC said that, while uncontroversial proposals to ban therapy designed to make gay people straight should be brought in as soon as possible, the part on trans people should be delayed until more research has been done. Last month a Government source said ministers were looking closely at the EHRC report  indicating they could delay the ban on conversion therapy for trans people. Advertisement

Stonewall's 'Diversity Champions' programme is a membership scheme for employers that aims to make their workplace a space where LGBT+ staff can feel free to be themselves.

Organisations pay thousands of pounds to be part of the programme, which allows them to use Stonewall promotional logos and materials and gain access to training to make their workplace LGBT+ friendly.

The NMC  which has 750,000 registrants  said the scheme enabled it to create a positive and inclusive environment for its LGBT+ workforce, as well as to 'understand and address' the challenges these individuals face.

While the NMC acknowledged there was a great deal of interest in Stonewalls policy positions, it insisted its membership of the diversity programme did not influence its regulatory role.

'The workplace programme has no connection with the processes we use to develop our regulatory standards, which are produced following wide-ranging open consultations with many stakeholders, professionals and the public,' it said.

'We are not "affiliated" to Stonewall; nor do we receive legal advice from them.'

Nurses and midwives can be referred to the NMC if there are concerns about their practice, or if the views they hold could impact patient care.

The NMC insisted that, with two-thirds of the nursing and midwifery workforce being women, it was committed to protecting both women and trans rights.

'We are committed to upholding womens rights and trans rights, and supporting the professionals on our register to do so too,' they said.

Some nurses expressed their disappointment with the NMC's decision on social media.

Amanda, a nurse from Gloucestershire said: 'Really disappointed that some of my annual 120 registration fees are still going to Stonewall.'

Organisations have to pay around 3,000 a year to be part of Stonewall's diversity champions programme.

Another woman who said she worked as a nurse in the NHS said the NMC's decision was out-of-step.

'Incredible that you are enabling and paying a lobbying group that many credible organisations have left. You need to ballot your members on this. ' she said.

This petition was organised by campaign group Women's Place UK.

It said the NMC appeared to have failed to understand the issues raised by the petitioners or address them.

Women's Place UK added they would now consult with the original signatories on how to continue to support their concerns.

At the time of the letter, Stonewall hit back at the claims, stating it was 'littered with inaccuracies and misinformation', and that lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people are harmed by 'attacks' like these.

The charity is currently in dispute with the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) over children wanting to change their gender.

The EHRC have called for a UK ban on conversion therapy for trans people to be delayed until it is changed to ensure families, teachers and doctors are not criminalised for questioning whether a child really wants to change their gender.

Stonewall slammed the EHRC's intervention accusing the UK's equality watchdog of an 'attack on trans equality' and of effectively seeking to exclude trans people from improved rights and protections.
Up to 1,600 shop workers at Tesco could soon lose their jobs as the supermarket giant announced an overhaul of its overnight staffing in many shops.

Today, the retailer unveiled plans to remove overnight stocking in 36 large stores, 49 convenience stores and also to convert 36 petrol stations to be pay-at-pump only during overnight hours.

The move will likely mean more shelf-stacking during daytime shopping hours in the 85 affected stores.

It comes after Tesco confirmed plans yesterday to close its Jack's discount supermarket arm, with seven stores shutting for good and the remaining six becoming Tesco shops.

In total, the combined changes are expected to put around 1,600 workers at risk.

Social media users suggested the changes to overnight stocking would have a negative impact on shoppers' experiences in the store

Tesco is set to scrap around 1,400 jobs as overnight roles change in its stores

Tesco UK and Republic of Ireland CEO Jason Tarry said: 'We operate in a highly competitive and fast-paced market'

Wayne Kerr posted: 'You make the aisles more congested with cages impacting a customer's ability to shop easily.'

Jazza tweeted: 'All the work the [overnight workers] do will now take place around customers trying to get their shopping.'

Elsewhere, Wayne Jones tweeted: 'An already awful shopping experience made worse'.

Tesco UK and Republic of Ireland CEO Jason Tarry said: 'We operate in a highly competitive and fast-paced market, and our customers are shopping differently, especially since the start of the pandemic.

'We are always looking at how we can run our business as simply and efficiently as possible, so that we can reinvest in the things that matter most to customers.

'The changes we are announcing today will help us do this.

'Our priority now is to support our impacted colleagues through these changes and, wherever possible, find them alternative roles within our business.'

Jack's - named after its founder Jack Cohen - was launched by former chief executive Dave Lewis, in 2018, as part of Tesco's attempt to take on the surging growth of German discount rivals Aldi and Lidl

Twitter users suggested the changes to overnight stocking would have a negative impact on shoppers' experiences in the store

Jack's - named after its founder Jack Cohen - was launched by former chief executive Dave Lewis, in 2018, as part of Tesco's attempt to take on the surging growth of German discount rivals Aldi and Lidl.

Tesco said it 'learned a tremendous amount' from the business to help it understand the discount operating model, which includes much fewer lines than its traditional shops.

However, it said now 'the time is right to focus on continuing to deliver great value in our core business'.

It added that its experience with Jack's has helped its core Tesco business to be more competitive, with the supermarket chain boasting strong sales and gaining share from rivals since the pandemic hit in early 2020.

Tesco said it will shut counters at the shops with the 'lowest demand' amid changes in customer habits

Yesterday, Tesco also revealed it is closing meat, fish and deli counters in 317 stores.

It is understood that this move will also affect hundreds of shop workers.

Tesco stressed that these employees will all be offered alternative jobs and did not include them in the 1,600 figure.

The firm said it is aiming to redeploy all affected staff, and highlighted 3,000 vacancies across its operations.

The restructuring moves come despite the company telling shareholders last month that it expects to post record profits of more than 2.6 billion for the current financial year.

Tesco is among the grocery retailers that flourished during the pandemic as customers spent more time at home.
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The proportion of Covid deaths where the virus is not the underlying cause is continuing to increase in England and Wales, official data showed today.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show there were 1,484 deaths involving the coronavirus registered in both countries during the week ending January 21.

Covid was not the primary reason in 27 per cent of cases  up from a figure just below 23 per cent towards the start of the month.

For comparison, the share of deaths not primarily due to the virus stood at around 16 per cent when Omicron first arrived in the UK. With the Alpha wave last January, before vaccines were dished out en masse, the proportion was about 10 per cent.

The rise of the milder Omicron strain has led to a similar pattern emerging in hospitals, where half of virus inpatients are not primarily needing treatment for the infection.

Critics have warned that the rise in so-called 'incidental' cases, driven by the sheer prevalence of Omicron, is skewing the Government's daily coronavirus statistics.

It comes after the Government yesterday added re-infections to its daily stats dump for the first time, which put an extra 580,000 cases to the cumulative total.

The update means the case-death rate in the fourth wave has been even lower than initially thought and is up to 30 times lower than in the second wave this time last year.

The proportion of 'incidental' Covid deaths where the virus was not the main cause has continued to increase to 27 per cent in England and Wales in the week ending January 21, Office for National Statistics data showed today

1,484 mentioned 'novel coronavirus' on the death certificate in the week ending January 21, an increase of 7.4 per cent on the previous week when 1,382 were recorded. But just 1,082 of those were primarily caused by the virus, with non-incidental Covid deaths only increasing by 1.1 per cent over the same period

The ONS figures show England and Wales registered 12,776 deaths from all causes in the week ending January 21. Covid caused 8.5 per cent of all deaths in England and Wales. It was mentioned on the death certificate of 11.6 per cent of fatalities

Daily dashboard figures show Britain's Covid deaths have remained stable over the past month, falling 8.9 per cent in a week to 51 yesterday.

But the Government's figures, unlike the ONS', are based on fatalities registered within 28 days of a positive test - regardless of the underlying cause.

The ONS' analysis, published weekly, looks at all death certificates registered and distinguishes between those who died 'from' Covid versus 'with' the virus.

Reinfections are added to official totals for the first time sending infection stats soaring The overall number of Covid infections reported on the Government website soared yesterday as reinfections were included for the first time. The revision added more than 800,000 new cases to Englands total count because until now reinfections have only been included in daily updates and not the cumulative total. On Sunday, the UKs cumulative case count stood at 16,478,467 but this jumped to 17,315,893 cases yesterday. Daily new cases also soared from 69,007 on Sunday to 92,368 yesterday. But deaths dropped from 56 last Monday to 51 yesterday. The update will reduce the case fatality rate (CFR)  the percentage out of all those cases that end in death  by a significant amount. And it could mean that Omicron proves to be even milder than first thought, as research suggests two in three of those infected with the variant have previously caught Covid. Advertisement

Experts caution, however, that even if someone didn't die directly from Covid, the virus may have still contributed to their death.

The ONS figures show England and Wales registered 12,776 deaths from all causes in the week ending January 21. This was down by 535 from the previous week and 8.6 per cent below the five-year-average.

Of those deaths, 1,484 mentioned 'novel coronavirus' on the death certificate  an increase of 7.4 per cent on the previous week.

But just 1,082 of those were primarily caused by the coronavirus, a figure that rose just 1.1 per cent over the same period. It was the lowest share since last summer, according to the ONS figures.

Covid caused 8.5 per cent of all deaths registered in England and Wales for the week ending January 21. The virus was mentioned on the death certificate of 11.6 per cent of fatalities.

The increase in deaths not primarily caused by the virus has been mirrored by a huge surge in 'incidental' Covid hospitalisations.

The majority of infected patients being treated on NHS wards were not primarily ill with the virus as of January 25, illustrating .

There were 13,023 Covid patients in hospital, according to the latest NHS England figures, of which only 6,256 were primarily there for the virus (48 per cent).

This share has plummeted since the emergence of the Omicron variant in late November, when three-quarters of inpatients were mainly ill with the disease.

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, previously told MailOnline it was 'absolutely' the time to start differentiating between primary and incidental Covid patients in the daily numbers.

The majority of Covid patients in English hospitals are not primarily being treated for the virus for the first time in the pandemic. The share of primary Covid patients has plummeted since the emergence of the super-mild Omicron variant in late November, when three-quarters of inpatients were mainly ill with the disease

here were 13,023 Covid patients in hospital on Tuesday (January 25), according to the latest NHS England figures, of which only 6,256 were primarily there for the virus, or 48 per cent

He told MailOnline last week: 'I think that data should be on the dashboard, giving more information is always better than giving less. It all fits in with the observation that Omicron is more infectious but less severe.'

His comments were echoed by Cambridge University epidemiologist Raghib Ali, who said: 'Ideally that kind of breakdown would be helpful... the more transparency the better.

'When we get the daily figure of many people are in hospital with Covid, people don't appreciate there is a much higher proportion [of non-primary Covid]... it has impact on policy response as well.'

The overall number of Covid infections reported on the Government website soared yesterday, as health officials included reinfections for the first time.

The revision added more than 800,000 new cases to Englands total count because until now reinfections have only been included in daily updates and not the cumulative total.

On Sunday, the UKs cumulative case count stood at 16,478,467 but this jumped to 17,315,893 cases yesterday.
A famed Indian snake catcher has been left fighting for his life after being bitten on the thigh by a 10ft king cobra while trying to rescue it.

Vava Suresh, 48, who is well-known in Kerala state where he has appeared on TV, was carrying out a rescue in neighbouring Tamil Nadu on Monday when he was bitten.

Shocking video taken by a local shows the moment the cobra reared up and bit Suresh on the right thigh as he tried to get it into a sack.

Incredibly, he managed to finish getting the snake into the bag before collapsing unconscious and being rushed to hospital - where he is now in intensive care.

Vava Suresh, 48, a famed snake catcher from India's Kerala state, is in intensive care after being bitten on the thigh by a cobra during a rescue on Monday (pictured)

Suresh was initially taken to a private medical college in Kottayam, a short distance where he was first bitten, where he suffered a heart attack.

After finding his heart was functioning at just 20 per cent its normal rate, medics decided to transfer him to a larger hospital in Kottayam for specialist treatment.

He was kept there overnight, with medics saying Tuesday morning that he has responded to treatment.

Suresh is still unconscious and in intensive care, the Hindustan Times reported, but has begun breathing on his own.

Medics cautioned that it will take some time for the full effects of the venom to become apparent, and it is not possible to say if Suresh will make a full recovery.

Over the course of a career spanning two decades, Suresh claims to have rescued thousands of snakes and been bitten hundreds of time.

Suresh has made a name for himself with a two-decade career rescuing snakes, which has also seen him star on local TV programmes (file image)

According to the Hindustan Times, he had just finished recovering in hospital from another snake bite when he went out on Monday to retrieve the cobra.

A family in the village of Kurichy had first called Suresh on Friday to report a cobra they had found sleeping near an abandoned cattle shed on their property.

Suresh had told the family he was 'busy', but offered to come out on Monday if the reptile was still there.

He arrived at the property after 4pm on Monday, and was filmed carrying out the rescue when he was bitten around 4.45pm.

Suresh has been bitten by a cobra at least once before - losing his right index finger to a venomous bite he got in 2005.

In 2020, he spent several weeks in an intensive care unit in the city of Thiruvananthapuram after being bitten by a pit viper.

The attack happened in Kurichi village in southern India, where Suresh is now recovering in hospital with medics warning the effects of the venom are not yet known

King cobras are a highly poisonous snakes that inject a potent neurotoxin using short fangs attached to its upper jaw.

Though the poison itself is not especially lethal, king cobras have some of the largest venom glands of any snake meaning they can inject large quantities which is what typically proves fatal.

A king cobra with full venom glands and enough time to deploy them can inject enough neurotoxin in one bite to kill 20 people or a large elephant.

The toxin works by attacking the nerves and brain, paralysing muscles that control breathing and heart rate - typically leading to cardiac arrest or asphyxiation within as little as 30 minutes.

The only known treatment is to inject the site of the initial bite with antivenom as quickly as possible.

If no antivenom is available, victims can also be placed on breathing machines until their lungs are able to operate normally.
Waleed Aly has revealed Scott Morrison's National Press Club address on Tuesday was the moment he realised the Prime Minister could be in serious trouble in the upcoming federal election.

Mr Morrison fronted the press gallery hoping to reset his campaign and turn around recent polling which has placed him 12 points, behind Labor but instead found himself fielding an onslaught of pointed questioning.

The most incendiary of which was from Network 10 political editor Peter van Onselen, who read the PM text messages he alleged were between former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and a senior Liberal figure in which Mr Morrison was called a 'horrible person' and a 'complete psycho'.

'I think what's significant about it, though, beyond that particular exchange, is just the tone of that Press Club address,' Aly said.

'It was extraordinary to see this kind of... coordinated is not the right word but almost this consensus across the press gallery that they were going to go for it.

10 News journalist Peter van Onselen (pictured) confronted the PM with the series of incendiary text messages allegedly sent between former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and an unnamed cabinet minister

'It doesn't happen unless a Prime Minister is in real trouble.

'I think maybe this was the day the press gallery called the election and said: "You are not going to win this, we think you're going".

'It doesn't mean they'll be right, by the way, they probably thought that in 2019.'

Asked if he thought the PM had any idea what he was walking into, Aly said to him the Prime Minister looked genuinely surprised.

'I don't think he walked in that room expecting that to happen. That would be my guess.

'It's just a guess, but either way I think it is a really significant moment. I feel like something big has happened there.'

Waleed Aly (pictured with Carrie Bickmore) said the PM's Press Club address is a clear indication the Mr Morrison in in trouble before the federal election

Co-host Kate Langbroek added that Mr Morrison appeared to be hurt by the text messages.

'Politicians have got thicker skins than most other people but wouldn't you be devastated if someone said that to you in a room full of people?' she said.

Mr van Onselen told the PM as he answered questions from the reporters after his speech that he had acquired the private texts and he had them 'right here', as he proceeded to read them.

'In one, she described you as, quote, "a horrible, horrible person", going on to say she did not trust you, and you're more concerned with politics than people,' he said.

'The minister is even more scathing, describing you as a fraud and, quote, "a complete psycho".

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) said he 'obviously does not agree' after he was branded a 'psycho' and a 'horrible person' in bombshell text exchanges allegedly involving former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian

The Ten Network also claimed some texts between the pair occurred during the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/20.

In another message sent shortly after Mr Morrison's holiday to Hawaii during the bushfire crisis, Ms Berejiklian said she was 'so disappointed'.

In response the Prime Minister blinked rapidly before he said: 'Well, I don't know who you're referring to, or the basis of what (has been) put to me.

'But I obviously don't agree with it, and I don't think that is my record.'

In a statement later on Tuesday, Ms Berejiklian said she had no recollection of the text exchange taking place.

'Let me reiterate my very strong support for Prime Minister Morrison and all he is doing for our nation during these very challenging times,' she said.

'I also strongly believe he is the best person to lead our nation for years to come.'

Co-host Kate Langbroek (pictured with Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore and Peter Hellier) added that to her Mr Morrison appeared to be hurt by the text messages

A mock-up of what the text exchange between Ms Berejiklian and the minister may have looked like

The scathing texts follow the PM trying unsuccessfully to persuade the former premier to run for Federal Parliament in Tony Abbott's former seat in Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Van Onselen said Ms Berejiklian was 'a close friend' of the PM and added: 'That's somebody that you wanted to run actually at the next election.'

Mr Morrison was also asked after his speech if he would like to apologise for mistakes he has made while in office.

'Do you want to take this opportunity to actually say sorry for the mistakes you've made as prime minister?' asked host Laura Tingle.

'Not just about Covid - everything from going to Hawaii during the bushfires through to not having enough rapid antigen tests.'

The scathing texts follow the PM trying unsuccessfully to persuade the former Premier to run for Federal Parliament in Tony Abbott's former seat in Sydney's Northern Beaches (pictured here with the PM)

The Prime Minister did not apologise but did list what he considers to be his three biggest missteps in office.

'We could have communicated more clearly about the risks and challenges that we still face,' Mr Morrison said in reference to how he called for an end to restrictions before the Omicron wave in December.

'In our communications, we have to be be clear about that. We can't lift people's hopes, then disappointment them. I think that's what happened over the break.'

He said secondly that he would have put the country's vaccine rollout under the charge of the military from the outset rather than waiting until late 2021.

'I took the decision to send in General Frewen and change the way we did it, and set up a change in the command structure, how logistics were managed, how it was planned. And it worked. But I wish we'd done that earlier. And that's a lesson,' Mr Morrison said.

Scott Morrison took the stage at the National Press Club under huge pressure after the latest Newspoll put him 12 points behind Labor

In mid-2021 the Federal Government copped heavy criticism for the slow vaccine rollout which was well behind comparable nations and meant Sydney and Melbourne had to be plunged into four-month lockdowns amid Delta outbreaks.

Thirdly he said his management of outbreaks in the aged care sector could have been handled better.

'Whether patients could be moved and how and when from aged care facilities into hospital facilities, private and public... could have been done better, between both the states and ourselves,' he said.

Mr Morrison's speech about health and economic resilience came after a disastrous Newspoll put Labor on track to comfortably win the next election.

The Opposition is ahead 56-44 on a two-party-preferred basis in the Coalition's worst polling performance since September 2018, a month after Malcolm Turnbull was replaced.

The 12-point lead puts Labor on track to win up to 25 seats from the Coalition and represents a 6-point lead increase from the last poll on December 6 when it was ahead 53-47.

Mr Morrison dismissed the results and claimed they do no accurately represent how people will actually vote at the ballot box.
An Italian lawyer whose sister died of AIDS has helped jail the man who knowingly infected her after tracking him down and finding out he had given HIV to four other women.

Luigi De Domenico, 58, was last month found guilty of murder and jailed for 22 years in Messina, Sicily, thanks to the tireless efforts of lawyer Silvia Gambadoro, 54, who was determined to bring her sister's killer to justice.

Silvia's sister Stefania died of AIDS in 2017, aged only 45 and weighing as little as 79 lbs, leaving behind a 12-year-old son.

Silvia's sister Stefania (pictured) died of AIDS in 2017, aged only 45 and weighing as little as 36 kg, leaving behind a 12-year-old son

Silvia Gambadoro, pictured, was determined to bring her sister's killer to justice

Silvia, pictured with Stefania, filed the first complaint in 2017, one month after her sister's death

Silvia knew her sister had sex with two men, both of who she reported to investigating magistrates, The Times reported.

One had tested negative, ruling him out and leaving De Domenico, who the magistrates later found had been taking HIV drugs in 2010.

Silvia's lawyers believe he knew he was positive even earlier, and when he was with Stefania.

'How could he not have known when his partners had been testing positive', one of her lawyers said.

Stefania was in a relationship with De Domenico from 2005 to 2008, and he was the father of her son.

She was only diagnosed with AIDS at the end of 2016, her symptoms of fatigue and weight-loss beginning in 2015.

She was diagnosed with anorexia and leukaemia, as specialists failed to understand what the condition that killed her was, amidst two years of medical appointments.

What are HIV & AIDS? HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that damages the cells in your immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections and disease. AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged by the HIV virus. While AIDS cannot be transmitted from 1 person to another, the HIV virus can. There's currently no cure for HIV, but there are very effective drug treatments that enable most people with the virus to live a long and healthy life. With an early diagnosis and effective treatments, most people with HIV will not develop any AIDS-related illnesses and will live a near-normal lifespan. Source: NHS Advertisement

Speaking to La Repubblica, Silvia said: 'Seeking the truth was a duty. I did it for Stefania, for our parents, and for my nephew, who was forced to grow up too quickly.

'We shared everything, even the decision to denounce his father. He knew that no trial could restore his mother to him.'

The paper also reported that Silvia, who was suspicious about De Domenico as soon as she found out about her sister's diagnosis, had even phoned him in 2016.

She said she asked whether he was HIV positive, but claimed he denied this.

Silvia filed the first complaint in 2017, one month after her sister's death.

She told La Repubblica she remembers the day 'as if it was yesterday', adding she had 'tears in her eyes'.

'I wondered how I could get justice,' she said.

Shortly after, Silvia received an anonymous letter from a woman who was found to be HIV positive after being in a relationship with De Domenico.

Investigators then discovered two more women who had been infected by the man.

One had reported him but after a trial in Bologna, De Domenico was acquitted on the grounds that he didn't realise he was infected, according to The Times.

Silvia said De Domenico was a 'charming and good-looking' man, but hit and isolated her sister - who she called 'beautiful' and 'a great lawyer' - from her family.

She said De Domenico had 'left her to die'.

Silvia had told magistrates in Messina that De Domenico had in past mentioned a previous partner of his who he claimed died of cancer in 1990. She said investigators later found it had actually been of AIDS.

Her lawyer Bonaventura Candido said De Domenico was charged with murder at the Messina Court of Assizes because he knowingly infected Stefania, but judges haven't yet released the verdict reasoning.

Messina, in Sicily, Italy, where Luigi De Domenico, 58, was last month found guilty of murder and jailed for 22 years

Speaking to Sicilian paper l'Eco del Sud last month, Silvia added that 'prejudice and indifference are the fundamental elements in this tragedy' because professionals failed to diagnose her sister properly.

She said: 'In two years of clinical examinations, hospitalisations, evident symptoms, it was possible to understand what Stefania was suffering from; prejudice, because it was the narrow conviction that a "respectable woman" like her could not be HIV-positive.'

According to La Repubblica a haematologist and a rheumatologist were indicted for manslaughter.

Silvia also told l'Edo del Sud she was happy to have taught her nephew 'the courage of truth' and to have 'fought the prejudice linked to AIDS', especially the stigma that those who develop it after contracting HIV are of a 'low reputation'.

She said: 'I have shown that this virus can be contracted out of love. Anyone who has a sex life can have it passed on.'
The crews assigned to a ship-borne helicopter unit with the PLA Navy get prepared to participate in a maritime rescue exercise over ice waters in mid-January, 2022. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Yang Fusen)
Edward Waters University received a bomb threat Tuesday morning, canceling all campus activities while deputies investigated the threat of violence.

The private Christian historically black university in Jacksonville announced the threat at around 5 a.m. and noted Jacksonville Sheriffs Office is on campus looking into the matter.

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Effective immediately, all in person activities, classes and operations including all meetings and athletic practices are cancelled until further notice. JSO has been notified and is investigating. Please stay tuned to the EWU communications as information becomes available. pic.twitter.com/4cZxJeGv6x  Edward Waters University (@ewctigers) February 1, 2022

EWU is the latest in a string of historically black colleges to receive bomb threats this week, according to a CNN report. At least six colleges and universities received bomb threats Monday morning, including Southern University and A&M, Howard University, Bethune-Cookman University, Albany State University, Bowie State University, and Delaware State University.

It is the second time black colleges have had to conduct investigations to bomb threats this month. On Jan. 5, three universities, including Howard, were put on lockdown due to a threat.

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No bombs were found.

Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com
Bizarre text messages have emerged showing the man accused of allegedly murdering his 19-year-old wife and leaving her body in an acid bath begging to be invited onto a cult podcast to talk about his life.

Meraj Zafar, 20, was arrested and charged with murder this week after his newly- wedded wife Aminah Hayat was found dead in a bath tub in their western Sydney flat on the weekend.

Texts obtained by Daily Mail Australia show Zafar begging a prominent Sydney influencer for a guest role on his podcast about a year ago.

It comes as Ms Hayat's parents gave an emotional interview about her death, barely consolable as they spoke of their medical student daughter's dreams of becoming a surgeon.

Meraj Zafar, 20, was arrested and charged with murder this week after his newly wedded wife Aminah Hayat was allegedly found death in a bath tub in their western Sydney flat on the weekend (pictured together)

Meraj Zafar, 20, begged a podcaster to get on his show with a series of bizarre texts (pictured)

Meraj Zafar says he has 'got a lot to talk about' as he pesters the podcast host for airtime

Zafar (pictured) handed himself in to police on Monday and was charged with his wife's murder

In the messages seen by Daily Mail Australia, Zafar insists 'bro I'm serious' about getting on the podcast  which cannot be named for legal reasons.

'I got a lot to talk about,' Zafar claimed. 'I got a lot of questions.'

After a lengthy and unsuccessful attempt to convince the host he deserved a starring role, he asks the influencer: 'Do you still train?'

When the podcaster replies that he had started working out recently, Zafar continued to push his case: 'That's one of the things we can talk about on the podcast.'

The pair also exchanged pictures of women they found attractive. The influencer told Daily Mail Australia Zafar was never invited to speak on the popular show.

Prosecution documents reveal police believe Ms Hayat (pictured) was allegedly murdered between midday and 5pm on Saturday - more than 24 hours before police found her body

Accused killer Meraj Zafar is seen as he shares a tender moment with teenage lover Aminah Hayat - before he allegedly killed her and dumped her body in a bath of acid

When the podcaster replies that he had started working out recently, Zafar continued to push his case: 'That's one of the things we can talk about on the podcast'

Police smashed their way into the couple's North Parramatta apartment on Sunday after worried relatives raised the alarm.

Court papers revealed the aspiring surgeon's body may have been left in the tub for more than a day before she was found.

Prosecution documents reveal police believe Ms Hayat was allegedly murdered between midday and 5pm on Saturday - more than 24 hours before police found her body.

In the couple's salmon pink bathroom at their rented $320-a-week two-bedroom unit, they allegedly found the Ms Hayat's remains dissolving in the acid bath.

On Monday, police released CCTV images of a man - alleged to be Zafar - driving a tipper truck, sporting a dark beard and sunglasses, in the hopes he could assist with inquiries into her death.

Ms Hayat's father Abu Hayat and mother Mahafuza Akter said they had little contact with their daughter after she moved in with the alleged killer about six months ago (pictured together)

The young couple are understood to have moved into the apartment (pictured) together last October

A truck matching the police description was later found at a Bunnings in Greenacre in south-west Sydney and was seized by detectives to undergo forensic tests.

Police allege it was the same hardware store where he purchased the hydrochloric acid to dispose of his wife's body.

Zafar handed himself in at a police station a short time later.

In an emotional interview on Tuesday night, Ms Hayat's father Abu Hayat and mother Mahafuza Akter said they had little contact with their beloved daughter after she moved in with the alleged killer about six months ago.

Police charged Zafar after the 19-year-old was allegedly found dead in an acid-filled bath (pictured) in the unit in Sydney's west

Ms Hayat father Abu Hayat and mother Mahafuza Akter (pictured) broke down in tears over their beloved daughter's death

'I love my daughter. I want my daughter (back),' Mr Hayat told 7News.

The teen, who moved to Australia when she was younger with her parents, was in her second year of university studying medicine with dreams of becoming a surgeon.

Ms Hayat and Zafar married just weeks before her gruesome death.

'Everyone hoped that she would become a big doctor,' Mr Hayat said.

'She wanted to help people.'

Ms Hayat's hairdresser Sadia Ali said she was heartbroken by the horrific tragedy.

'It's terrible news,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'She was such a beautiful soul.'

Meraj Zafar, 20, attended a police station on Monday after a public appeal for the bearded truck driver seen here

This truck, believe to belong to Zafar, was seized from outside a Bunnings in western Sydney on Monday (pictured)

Locals recalled Ms Hayat as being an ideal neighbour but rarely spoke to her. Zafar told neighbours he was from Pakistan but they said his English was excellent.

Next door neighbour Ali Safari identified the couple from social media photos and said Ms Hayat had 'seemed very happy' and was 'smiling and pleasant'.

He added: 'She was always playing music. She was quiet, I never spoke with her.'

Parramatta Police Area Commander Superintendent Julie Boon said officers had found her body in the bathroom of the first-floor unit along with chemicals.

'The officers forced entry into the unit and inside the bathroom they found the body of a female,' she said.

'I can confirm there were chemicals found inside the bathroom of the unit. I can't confirm what they were.

Ms Hayat (pictured), who moved to Australia when she was younger with her parents, was in her second year of university studying medicine with dreams of becoming a surgeon

Investigators are seen photographing the inside of bins outside the couple's apartment block on Monday (pictured)

'The scene was very challenging for arriving police. When they did arrive and found chemicals at the unit, they retreated and called other units.'

As well as his truck, neighbours said Zafar also owned a black BMW coupe which was allegedly searched and removed by detectives.

Zafar's lawyer Mohamad Sakr attended court on his behalf on Tuesday.

Mr Sakr did not apply for bail on behalf of Zafar and it was formally refused by Magistrate Shane McAnulty.

His legal counsel said he couldn't comment on whether Zafar had injuries, or if he had the support of family members.

Mr Sakr commended his client for attending the police station. 'He has done the right thing in attending the police station,' Mr Sakr said.

It remains unclear if the accused will apply for bail when the case resumes at Parramatta Court on April 5.

Police officers outside the apartment complex on Monday after the 19-year-old's body was discovered
Covid-struck Laurence Fox says people likening controversial treatment Ivermectin to a horse de-wormer are racist - because millions of Africans take it.

Fox, 43, hit out after being ribbed over his use of the tablets, which is an anti-parasitic medicine usually prescribed to treat humans and animals for scabies, head lice and worms.

But the actor-turned-activist said he had bought 'a load of it' in Mexico before coming back to the UK after reading of its potential Covid treating ability.

Four days ago he caught coronavirus after wearing a tee shirt declaring he did not need a vaccine.

It was then he revealed he was battling symptoms with hot toddies, over-the-counter medication and Ivermectin.

The announcement saw him mocked online, with many pointing out one of the uses of the drug is to de-worm horses.

But after yesterday learning of a Japanese pharmaceuticals company report which found it showed an anti-viral effect against Omicron, he railed against his tormentors.

In a video posted online, Fox said: 'I didnt buy it from a horse farm or veterinarian, I bought it from a pharmacist.

'Its called Ivermctin and its also known to have anti-viral properties. I would suggest that the fact I felt like death on Saturday and I bit of Sunday and now I feel fine that might have played some part.

'Some Twitter doctor, I cant remember her name, she should probably spend more time in hospital than being a Twitter doctor, is calling something a horse dewormer that you are buying from a pharmacist, actually thats racist.

'Its really racist to turn round and go yeah well hundreds of millions of Africans take it, but its just a horse dewormer.

'It just goes to show how us privileged Western elites feel that we are so above anything and we can get a vaccine for everything, which you cant.

'Im really sorry I didnt die for all my friends on Twitter who said how much they really wanted me to die over the past few days.'

Fox was confident on January 26 that he did not need a vaccine, according to that day's T-shirt

A pharmacist holds the anti-parasite drug ivermectin for sale to the public with a medical prescription as Bolivia's Ministry of Health said it could be used for treating Covid

The actor was mocked yesterday for revealing he was taking ivermectin, Panadol and ibuprofen to relieve his symptoms.

Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic medicine used to treat humans and animals for scabies, head lice and worms.

It has been prescribed billions of times worldwide and is listed as one of the World Health Organization's essential medicines list.

Figures from last year show over 400 million people were treated with treated with it in 2019, mostly in Africa.

But despite showing promise against Covid in dozens of studies, ivermectin has been mired in controversy after being hailed as a miracle medicine by vaccine sceptics.

It is already used in around 20 countries to treat the virus  including swathes of Latin America and parts of Europe, such as Greece, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

But there have been questions over the reliability of trial data and regulators in the US, UK and EU say there is still no conclusive evidence.

Famous advocates of ivermectin include unvaccinated US podcast host Joe Rogan, who attributed his rapid Covid recovery to the drug.

He said controversial drug Ivermectin had helped him recover and get 'pretty much back to normal'

And he hit back at critics who wished that he would die when he announced he had the virus

After catching Covid he said he turned to whisky and honey for hot toddies to battle symptoms

Mr Fox posted a picture of his new T-shirt as he said he was recovering from Covid infection

On Sunday night Fox posted a picture of a bottle of Jack Daniels and honey and called it 'the final piece of the puzzle'.

Fox - who described catching coronavirus as 'A visit from Lord Covid' - said in a video online: 'I don't often read the replies to my tweets but I saw that there were loads of them.

'The thing that made me laugh the most  the absolute most  was people criticising me for taking Panadol and Ibrupofen while saying my immune system 'I thought you had an immune system mate'.

'So I just want to give a huge shout out to those who whenever they get a bit ill are willing to take a total novel brand new technology mRNA treatment with absolutely no data ahead of medications that have been prescribed by billions and billions of times across the world.

Mr Fox posted a picture of his lateral flow test on his public Twitter which showed his result

After he was mocked by some social media users he posted a video in response to some

In the one-and-a-half minute clip he gave a mocking shout-out to those who had got the jab

What is ivermectin and can it REALLY treat Covid? What is Ivermectin? Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug developed during the 1970s. It has been prescribed billions of times worldwide and is listed as one of the World Health Organization's essential medicines list. What is it used for? Today the medication is prescribed for treating scabies, head lice and rosacea. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the UK health watchdog, recommends it should also be given for round worm infections. Can it REALLY treat Covid-19? The jury is out on whether it can treat Covid. The hype started early in the pandemic when ivermectin was shown to destroy the virus in lab studies. Several dozen trials have also indicated that the pills may have some value in the pandemic - either by using them on patients with Covid, or as a preventative. But, according to a BBC investigation last year, around a third of studies advocating ivermectin's use were seriously flawed or biased in some way, making the results unreliable. Reviews by health authorities in the US, UK and EU have found there is insufficient evidence for using the drug against Covid. The first double-blind, gold-standard clinical trial into ivermectin is currently being carried out in Oxford, as part of the PRINCIPLE trial. A Japan report yesterday said it did create an anti-viral effect against Covid. Definitive results on the drug are expected this year. Where can I get it? Ivermectin is already used in around 20 countries  including swathes of Latin America and parts of Europe, such as Greece, Bulgaria and Slovakia. In some countries, like Mexico, the drug is available over-the-counter, while in others it can be prescribed at doctors' discretion. In the UK, health watchdogs do not recommend any clinicians prescribe the drug but, as a safe and approved medicine, it can be obtained privately. Advertisement

'I feel a bit man flu-y but that's only to be expected because you know men whinge more.

'But you know I am going to fight this and to you brave vaccine guinea pigs, I fully commend you and your desire not to take Panadol ever again or Ibruprofen, because that's some dangerous sh** - you stick to the vaccines.'

Fox also revealed he is taking ivermectin and alluded to buying it over-the-counter in Mexico.

He wrote on Twitter: 'Not only do you only have to sign a form saying you feel well to get into Mexico, but you can also buy drugs like ivermectin over the counter that the vaccinaholics don't want you to get hold of here. I'm so happy to be joining the natural immunity club. Going to have a nap.'

There has been much debate about the effectiveness of ivermectin during the pandemic after it was hailed as vaccine sceptics as a miracle cure.

The hype started early in the pandemic when ivermectin was shown to destroy the virus in lab studies.

Several dozen trials have also indicated that the pills may have some value in the pandemic - either by using them on patients with Covid, or as a preventative.

But, according to a BBC investigation last year, around a third of studies advocating ivermectin's use were seriously flawed or biased in some way, making the results unreliable.

Reviews by health authorities in the US, UK and EU have found there is insufficient evidence for using the drug against Covid.

The first double-blind, gold-standard clinical trial into ivermectin is currently being carried out in Oxford, as part of the PRINCIPLE trial.

Definitive results on the drug are expected this year.

Currently in the UK, health watchdogs do not recommend any clinicians prescribe the drug but, as a safe and approved medicine, it can be obtained privately.

Fox recently got engaged to prep school teacher Arabella Fleetwood Neagle, 28.

Miss Fleetwood Neagle apparently supports his political campaigning as she was pictured alongside him on the top deck of his Reclaim Party's battle bus during his unsuccessful bid to become London Mayor last year.

Fox  whose acting dynasty includes his father James and cousin Emilia  was dropped by his agent in 2020 after a string of social media comments.

Last year he said he could remove his children from school over his opposition to the Covid vaccination programme.

He said he would educate them at home rather than let them be vaccinated without his consent.

Fox shares custody of his boys with Miss Piper, whom he divorced in 2016.
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Two battalions of crack Russian Spetsnaz soldiers are being moved to the Belarus-Ukraine border, stoking fears of an imminent invasion on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.

The new special forces troops have been moved by train, ostensibly for war games taking in the border area designed to intimidate Russia's ex-Soviet neighbour.

They will join another another 5,000 Spetsnaz commandos already in position, according to Western military experts, who warn they could form the spearhead of a much larger force estimated at around 80,000 soldiers, including Russian and Belarus regulars.

The troops of the 14th Spetsnaz Brigade - which has supplied the new reinforcements - specialise in infiltration and insertion behind enemy lines to plan sabotage and even assassination missions.

They arrived in Balrus as Putin launched a huge new set of war games today alongside the forces of crony Alexander Lukashenko to test their 'combat readiness' whilst also turning up the heat on authorities in Kiev.

The 'first stage' of the war games lasts until February 9 and will see thousands of Russian troops assemble and organise defences as part of a battle-readiness operation.

Major war games will then be conducted from February 10 and will see Russian and Belarusian units engage in a 10-day simulation of the 'interception and suppression of foreign military aggression and counter-terrorism operations' in what Shoygu dubbed 'The Allied Resolve of 2022'.

It comes as Boris Johnson flies to Kiev today where he will meet president Volodymyr Zelensky against the backdrop of Moscow's menacing military mobilisation.

Key figures on all sides are holding a series of meetings today for vital talks over Ukraine, one of which sees Russian President Vladimir Putin welcome Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Moscow.

Despite being a member of NATO, Hungary maintains strong diplomatic ties with Russia and is expected to request an increase in gas supply - a move which was strongly condemned by opposition parties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today signed a decree to increase the size of Ukraine's armed forces by 100,000 troops over three years and raise soldiers' salaries, but insisted the move did not mean war with Russia was imminent (Ukrainian tanks take part in drills in Eastern Ukraine, Jan 31)

Soldiers of the 92nd Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces take part in a combat drill in Kharkiv

Armored personnel carriers of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces move to park in their base near Klugino-Bashkirivka village, in the Kharkiv region

Ukrainian service members of the Air Assault Forces take part in military drills in the Lviv region, Ukraine

Troops belonging to Ukraine's Air Assault Forces take part in combat drills in the far west of the country, near Lviv

Soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces based in Lviv, in the country's west, take part in training drills on Tuesday

Members of the Ukrainian military take part in target practice drills near Lviv today

Russian Spetsnaz soldiers are seen during a military parade taking place in Russia in May last year (file image)

A Ukrainian soldier is seen walking through a trench near the current frontline with Russian-back rebels in Donetsk

A Ukrainian soldier poses in front of a picture of Vladimir Putin's face that has been used for target practice in Luhansk

A map showing where Putin's forces have assembled on Ukraine's borders, the military options Putin might be considering, and key targets he would likely go after in the event he chooses to invade - something the US and NATO continue to warn could be just weeks away from happening

Washington has been warning for weeks that an invasion by Putin's forces could be 'imminent', sparking a flurry of talks along with threats of sanctions and donations of military aid to Kiev's forces designed to deter any attack.

Russia denies it plans to attack, but has issued a list of security demands including that Ukraine be banned from joining NATO which the alliance has largely rejected.

Russian Spetsnaz troops work in uniform or civilian clothing and - in the event of an attack - would likely be tasked with destroying communications centres and assassinating key government leaders and senior military officers.

There are now 74 Battalion Battle Groups in Belarus supposedly 'on exercise.' Meanwhile NATO spy planes are patrolling the Belarus-Ukraine border.

The USAF 'spies in the sky' are RC-135s, also known as 'Rivet Joints' and based in Germany, are flying at around 30,000ft while harvesting radio signals and chatter from the Russian divisions below.

The purpose of the flights is to provide intelligence for analysts which might reveal early signs of unusual troop movements in the direction of Ukraine.

Flight tracking software showed the trail of one of the sorties, with call sign 'Jake 11', making a long eastward sweep along the borderline between Belarus and Ukraine, then banking south and west for its return journey.

In another reflection of the growing tension in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree on Tuesday to boost his armed forces by 100,000 troops over three years and raise soldiers' pay as he prepared to meet Boris Johnson today.

'The decree is not because a war is coming soon. I am saying this to everyone. The decree is for peace in Ukraine soon and onwards,' he stressed.

'We've seen evidence that Russia intends to expand that presence to more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus border' with Ukraine by early February, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council Monday, noting the forces would be 'less than two hours north of Kiev.'

But her Russian counterpart, Vasily Nebenzya, rejected the allegations and said Washington was engaging 'in hysterics' by calling the Council meeting held Monday on Ukraine.

'The discussions about a threat of war is provocative in and of itself. You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen,' Nebenzya said.

The Russian diplomat also pointed out that no Russian official had threatened to invade the former Soviet republic and that Ukrainians were being 'brainwashed' by the 'Russiaphobia' of the West.

Ukrainian lawmakers hold flags of countries that had offered help to Ukraine as a sign of gratitude during a session of Parliament in Kiev today, as Boris Johnson and Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki visit the country

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban during their meeting in the Kremlin

Hungary's Viktor Orban (right) speaks with Vladimir Putin (left) during their meeting in the Kremlin today

Russia's Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu (third from left) today announced that Russia had sent a major contingent of its Eastern Military Distict (VVO), including aerial units and air defence units, to Belarus as part of a joint military exercise between the two countries

The heads of the Russian armed forces take part in a joint conference this morning amid tensions on the Ukraine border

Boris Johnson arrived in Kiev, Ukraine, ahead of a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky today

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya (L) yesterday accused the US of ginning up 'hysterics' and 'brainwashing' Ukrainians at a heated United Nations Security Council meeting. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (R) said she was 'disappointed' but not 'surprised' by his comments and claimed Moscow is mobilizing 30,000 more troops to send to the Belarus-Ukraine border

He insisted that any troops being sent to Belarus were there to take part in the joint military exercises and nothing more.

The order from the State Department for US citizens to leave Belarus came hours after Washington and Moscow clashed over Ukraine at a UN Security Council meeting yesterday in which US diplomats threatened to slap sanctions on wealthy Russian oligarchs if Putin decides to attack Ukraine.

White House Press secretary Jen Psaki said: 'Russia has the power. They are the aggressor here. They have the power and ability to de-escalate, to pull their troops back from the border, to not push more troops to Belarus, to take steps to deescalate the situation on the ground.'

Meanwhile, several key figures involved in the Ukraine crisis are set to share calls and meetings today as nations scramble to prevent the tension from escalating to an armed conflict.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are expected to share another phone call, one week after Blinken extended a diplomatic proposal to step away from a potential conflict.

Blinken last week described the proposal as something that offers Russia 'a serious diplomatic path forward,' but assured that NATO allied nations did not bow to Russia's demand that it bar ex-Soviet bloc countries from entering the 30-country military alliance.

US authorities claimed Russia had sent a written response to the proposal - something which was denied earlier today by Lavrov.

Meanwhile, Putin will host Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for talks in Moscow today.

Hungary will likely request Russia to increase its gas supply at a time when some in Europe accuse Russia of orchestrating an energy crisis to pressure European countries.

Orban travels to Moscow in defiance of calls to cancel the trip from opposition parties, who said in a joint statement that it is 'contrary to our national interests'.

Hungary is a member state of NATO, but maintains strong diplomatic ties with Russia and has refused to accept foreign NATO troops being deployed in its territory amid tension over Ukraine.

Hungarian Defence Minister Tibor Benko said in an interview Tuesday morning that leaders should shy away from 'Cold War rhetoric'.

'There's no need for 1,000 NATO soldiers to come to Hungary and be stationed here permanently,' he told public media, adding 'no one wants to create a situation where people are afraid and worried by showing off their forces'.

Elsewhere, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson today travels to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the crisis and NATO's promises to provide the eastern European nation with military aid in the event of an invasion.

The meeting between Johnson and Zelensky comes one day after Johnson cancelled a scheduled call with Vladimir Putin as he scrambled to manage the fallout of the Partygate scandal.

Soldiers of the Teykovo Missile Formation, 54th Guards Missile Division, take part in combat drills in Russia today

A soldier of the 54th Guards Missile Division takes part in combat patrol and anti-sabotage drills in front of a Yars missile launcher in Russia on Tuesday

A soldier of the 150th Rifle Division looks through binoculars during an exercise at Kadamovsky Range in southern Russia

In this photo taken from video and released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, Russian military vehicles are parked at the a military field camp prior to Russia-Belarus military drills at the Brestsky training ground in the Republic of Belarus

Major war games will then be conducted from February 10 and will see Russian and Belarusian units engage in 10 days of military exercises designed to simulate the 'interception and suppression of foreign military aggression' in what Shoygu dubbed 'The Allied Resolve of 2022'

U.S. Air Force fighter F-15 is seen in the Amari military airfield, Estonia, after a Russian jet entered the country's airspace

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the reports of the delayed phone call showed there were 'real world consequences' of having a Prime Minister fighting for his political survival and 'a vital diplomatic opportunity has been missed'.

And Moscow's pro-Kremlin media ruthlessly mocked Johnson over Partygate, accusing him of exploiting the crisis in Ukraine to distract from domestic chaos.

One TV channel branded him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie.

Zelensky meanwhile signed a decree to increase the size of Ukraine's armed forces by 100,000 troops over three years and raise soldiers' salaries, but insisted the move did not mean war with Russia was imminent.

Although Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine's borders, Zelenskiy has repeatedly pushed back against warnings by the United States and other NATO allies that Russia could attack Ukraine at any moment.

'This decree (was prepared) not because we will soon have a war... but so that soon and in the future there will be peace in Ukraine,' Zelensky said.

There are currently nearly 250,000 people in Ukraine's armed forces, which are vastly outnumbered and outgunned by Russia's.

'We must be united in domestic politics. You can be in opposition to the government, but you can't be in opposition to Ukraine,' Zelensky said.

Zelensky will also meet Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki today.
ONS said disparity could be some groups having less access to information

Covid vaccine uptake is six times higher among Chinese teenagers in England than Black Caribbeans, official data shows.

Three-quarters of Chinese pupils aged 12 to 15-year-olds have had a coronavirus jab, compared to just an eighth of Black Caribbean students, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Rates are just as low among students of Gypsy or Roma background.

Jabs have been available to the cohort since September and more than half had at least one jab by January 9, according to the statisticians.

Dr Patrick Nguipdop-Djomo, a clinical epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the disparity in uptake among some groups could be due to 'less access to information around vaccines' or to jab sites themselves.

The data should 'help inform and support the provision of vaccination services and tailor communication to areas and groups with lower uptake', he added.

The findings mirror uptake among adults, with data consistently showing willingness to come forward for a jab is lower among some ethnic groups.

Researchers have pointed to a lack of trust among those promoting the vaccines, a lack of accessible information and inconvenient location and jab appointment times.

The Office for National Statistics found 52.5 per cent of pupils in England aged 12 to 15 had received at least one Covid jab. But the proportion of this cohort vaccinated varied hugely by age. Chinese (75.5 per cent), Indian (65.7 per cent) and White British (59.1 per cent) were the most likely to be vaccinated. But uptake among Black Caribbean (12.4 per cent) and Gypsy or Roma groups (12.4 per cent) was up to six times lower

The ONS data shows vaccine uptake increased with age, with 77.2 per cent of 17-year-olds having come forward for at least one jab. Children aged 12 had the lowest uptake, with 48.7 per cent having at least one injection. Just over half of 13-year-olds had received their first dose, while the figures for children aged 14 (54.1 per cent), 15 (56.4 per cent) and 16 (66.7 per cent) were slightly higher

The ONS statisticians also found vaccination rates varied by region in England. By January 9, children aged 12 to 15 in the South East were most likely to be jabbed (60.7 per cent). London has the lowest jab rates, at just 40.8 per cent. Vaccine uptake was also lower than the national average among pupils in Yorkshire and the Humber (51.8 per cent), the West Midlands (49.8 per cent) and the North West (48.8 per cent)

Deprivation levels also influenced how vaccinated youngsters are, according to the ONS data. In the wealthiest areas of the country (which score 10 on the deprivation scale), 70.3 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds are vaccinated, while the uptake is nearly half this figure (36.1 per cent) among those living in the poorest parts of the country (which score one on the scale)

The ONS figures cover vaccination rates up to January 9, based on a database covering uptake among pupils in state-funded schools.

The researchers said there is huge variation between jab rates among youngsters aged 12 to 15 based on their ethnicity.

Three in four Chinese students are vaccinated, compared to just 12.4 per cent of Black Caribbean and Gypsy or Roma groups, the data shows.

For comparison, 65.7 per cent of Indian students and six in 10 white British and Irish students have had a jab, the next-most vaccinated groups.

However, the ONS noted that despite white British students having the third-highest jab uptake, the majority of England's unvaccinated pupils are in this group.

Of the country's more than 1million unvaccinated 12 to 15-year-olds, 650,000 (59.1 per cent) are white British, the ONS said.

Quarter of parents of kids aged 5-11 wouldn't agree to them getting jabbed One in four parents with children aged between five and 11 wouldn't agree to them getting a Covid vaccine, official data shows. A quarter (24 per cent) of parents said they were unlikely to agree with their child getting a Covid jab, according to questionnaire completed by more than 3,000 parents. Ministers announced on Sunday that Covid jabs would be offered to vulnerable five to 11-year-olds in England. The move followed the UK's medicines watchdog approving a low dosage of the vaccine for the age group, after finding it was safe and effective. Children in the age group eligible for the jab include those with learning disabilities and diabetes. Main reasons for preventing their child from getting a jab included concerns about the side effects and waiting to see how it works, according to the Office for National Statistics. Nearly two-thirds of parents said they were likely to agree with their child getting the vaccine. Dr Patrick Nguipdop Djomo, co-chief investigator of the study at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said taking on board the concerns among parents can help tailor the messaging around vaccines to support uptake and 'address concerns around side effects and effectiveness in the groups currently being offered the vaccine'. Advertisement

Dr Shamez Ladhani, a consultant paediatrician at the UK Health Security Agency and the study's chief investigator, said the data 'provides a real insight into attitudes towards vaccination  which has been proven to protect against hospitalisation and severe disease'.

He added: 'With Covid case rates currently high across school-age groups, it's vital that we monitor and evaluate measures that help reduce transmission.

'We need families and students to continue to take part in the programme.'

The ONS team also found that Covid vaccine uptake increased with age, with 77.2 per cent of 17-year-olds having come forward for at least one jab.

Children aged 12 had the lowest uptake, with 48.7 per cent having at least one injection.

Just over half of 13-year-olds had received their first dose, while the figures for children aged 14 (54.1 per cent), 15 (56.4 per cent) and 16 (66.7 per cent) were slightly higher.

Jabs were offered to 16 and 17-year-olds on August 15, while 12 to 15-year-olds could get their first dose five weeks later, which could explain some of this disparity.

And the ONS noted that not all children in these age groups will be currently eligible for vaccination, such as if they have tested positive in the previous 12 weeks.

The statisticians also found vaccination rates varied by region. Children in the South East were most likely to be jabbed, with 60.7 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds having at least one dose.

London has the lowest jab rates, at just 40.8 per cent.

Vaccine uptake was also lower than the national average among pupils in Yorkshire and the Humber (51.8 per cent), the West Midlands (49.8 per cent) and the North West (48.8 per cent).

Deprivation levels also influenced how vaccinated youngsters are, according to the ONS data.

In the wealthiest areas of the country, 70.3 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds are vaccinated, while the uptake is nearly half this figure among those living in the poorest parts of the country (36.1 per cent).

Students eligible for free school meals were also less likely to be vaccinated, as are children whose first language is not English.

Fiona Dawe, deputy director of wider surveillance studies at the ONS, said there are 'many different factors' contributing to vaccine rates including geography, deprivation and ethnicity.

She said some of the disparity across the country may be down to different deprivation levels in different regions.

It comes after ministers announced on Sunday that Covid jabs would be offered to vulnerable five to 11-year-olds in England, such as those with learning disabilities and diabetes.

The UK's medicines watchdog approved a low dosage of the vaccine for the age group in December, after finding it was safe and effective.

However, a questionnaire sent to more than 3,000 parents in England by the ONS found 24 per cent were unlikely to agree with their child getting the jab.

Concerns about the side effects and wanting to see how effective it is in the age group were cited as the main reasons for parent hesitancy, the researchers said.
Asking a pregnant woman whether she is coming back to work before she goes on maternity leave is discrimination, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Laura Jo Duffy, who worked as a PA at Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust in North London, successfully sued the health service after her boss nodded towards her stomach while asking about her 'future plans'.

The NHS worker was also asked by a colleague if she had informed managers she would not be returning after maternity leave - even though she had never said what her intentions were, a hearing in Watford was told.

The tribunal ruled this comment was based on a 'stereotypical assumption about new mothers not returning to work'.

Ms Duffy - who was accused of planning her baby to gain a promotion - is now in line for compensation after winning her claim of pregnancy discrimination.

Laura Jo Duffy, who worked as a PA at Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (headquarters pictured) in North London, successfully sued the health service after her boss nodded towards her stomach while asking about her 'future plans'

Pregnant employees' legal rights Pregnant employees' four main legal rights include: Protection against unfair treatment, discrimination or dismissal Employees or potential employees must not be discriminated against due to pregnancy, an illness relating to their pregnancy, including related time off, maternity pay or leave they take, or plan to take. This law applies regardless of how long a person has been employed for. Discrimination includes dismissing them, not offering them a job, changing their pay or other terms, forcing them to work while on maternity leave and stopping them returning to work because they are breastfeeding. Paid time off for antenatal care Employers are in breach of contract if they change a pregnant worker's contract terms and conditions without agreement. Pregnant employees should be granted time off for antenatal care, paid at their normal rate. Alongside medical appointments, this also refers to antenatal or parenting classes if they've been recommended by a doctor or midwife. Maternity leave Statutory Maternity Leave is 52 weeks with the first 26 weeks counting as ordinary maternity leave, and the last 26 weeks as additional. The employee must take two weeks off after giving birth, if not taking statutory maternity leave, or four weeks if they work in a factory. Maternity pay or maternity allowance Statutory Maternity Pay is provided for up to 39 weeks at 90 per cent of average weekly earnings (before tax) for the first 6 weeks, then 151.97 or 90 per cent of average weekly earnings for the next 33 weeks. Statutory Maternity Pay will start automatically if the employee is absent for a pregnancy-related illness in the month before the baby's due date.

Source: gov.uk Advertisement

At the time, Ms Duffy was paid as a 'Band Four' level employee, meaning she earned up to 25,000 a year.

The NHS worker - whose pregnancy was deemed high-risk - was told in August 2019 there was to be restructuring to the personal assistant team and bosses planned to automatically match her position to a new band five role, where salaries are increased to up to 28,000.

The tribunal heard her colleague, fellow PA Joanne Cleasby, was 'annoyed' about this because she thought it was unfair for Ms Duffy to be job matched when she herself was told she would have to apply to be promoted to a higher band.

The hearing was told Ms Cleasby wrongly thought Ms Duffy was receiving preferential treatment because she was pregnant, and complained to colleagues.

In its judgement, the tribunal said: 'Ms Cleasby made two unwanted comments related to Ms Duffy's pregnancy, namely: 'you planned your pregnancy well', and 'have you told (your boss) that you won't be coming back after maternity?'

'The reason why Ms Cleasby said these things is that she was annoyed and upset about what she perceived was Ms Duffy's unfair preferential treatment.'

The tribunal ruled the comments were discriminatory because Ms Duffy's pregnancy was a 'significant reason' behind them.

Employment Judge David Maxwell said: 'The question posed to Ms Duffy as to whether she had told (her boss) she would not be coming back after maternity leave was not based on anything Ms Duffy had said to Ms Cleasby about her intentions, rather it involved a stereotypical assumption about new mothers not returning to work.

'The comment about Ms Duffy having planned her pregnancy well, involves the proposition that in becoming pregnant, she was motivated by the desire to obtain a workplace advantage, which was a most unpleasant comment to aim at Mrs Duffy in these circumstances with a high risk pregnancy.'

The tribunal heard Ms Cleasby was personal assistant to Senior Service Lead Alan Beaton, and she complained to her boss about Ms Duffy not having to go through the formal promotion process.

Mr Beaton then had a meeting with Ms Duffy in September 2019 to tell her there had been a change to what she had been told and she would have to be interviewed and, if unsuccessful, face re-deployment.

Referring to that meeting, the tribunal heard: '[Mr Beaton] said he wanted to discuss her 'future plans' and at the same time nodded toward her stomach with regard to her pregnancy.'

This was discriminatory, the panel found.

Judge Maxwell ruled: 'Mr Beaton made a clumsy enquiry and Mrs Duffy was right to think this inappropriate.

'The obligation on Mrs Duffy to inform her employers about her intentions was a long way off and he ought not to have referred to this at all.

Ms Duffy - who was accused of planning her baby to gain a promotion - is now in line for compensation after winning her claim of pregnancy discrimination (file photo)

'The three acts were (individually and cumulatively) unfavourable treatment because Mrs Duffy was pregnant.'

In October 2019 Ms Duffy successfully interviewed for the Band Five position, the tribunal heard. But following a dispute over the salary she made a formal complaint and then launched legal proceedings.

The panel ordered that, unless Ms Duffy and and the NHS can come to an agreement, a remedy hearing to determine compensation will be held at a later date.

A spokesperson for Barnet, Enfield and Harringay Mental Health Trust said: 'The Trust acknowledges the Employment Tribunal's decision in this case and appreciates the careful consideration of the Judge.

'We are glad that the claimant remains in our employment and we will continue to support her and all our staff to ensure they are treated inclusively, fairly and with compassion.'
Footage has captured the moment police officers discovered a killer drink driver sleeping in field a short distance from where he crashed his car into a bush less than two hours after smashing into a cyclist.

Damian Ralph, 38, was found asleep less than two hours after he struck and killed Christopher Mardlin, 58, on November 1 last year.

A thermal camera on a police helicopter circling the area shows Ralph in a cocooned position within a field just half a mile from the scene of the collision in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, while more than twice the drink drive limit.

The camera also appears to show his abandoned Hyundai Terracan having crashed into a nearby bush.

Ralph later told detectives he did not remember hitting Mr Mardlin, who was pronounced dead at the scene following the collision at around 10.40pm.

He appeared at Cambridge Crown Court to be sentenced on Monday, having earlier pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving while over the legal alcohol limit at a hearing at Peterborough Crown Court in December.

Ralph, of Huntingdon, was jailed for seven years and six months. He was also disqualified from driving for seven years and nine months, with the requirement he must take an extended retest to drive again.

Damian Ralph has been jailed for seven years and six months after admitting to causing death by careless driving while over the legal alcohol limit

The court heard Mr Mardlin was wearing a high-vis jacket with reflective strips and his bicycle had working reflectors and lights when the fatal crash took place.

Ralph was breathalysed when found by officers and provided a reading of 89mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath - more than double the legal limit of 35mg.

He told officers he did not remember hitting the cyclist and would have stopped if he had known, despite damaged car parts from the scene being matched to his vehicle.

Ralph was found in a cocoon shape sleeping in a field by a police helicopter's thermal imaging camera in November last year

Ralph was found a short distance from where his car was discovered by officers having crashed into a bush

The drink driver was found by officers less than two hours after the fatal collision with the cyclist took place

DS Mark Dollard, of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Road Policing Unit, said: 'This is yet another case which highlights the utter devastation and life-changing impact someone can cause by getting behind the wheel after drinking.

'Ralphs driving was appalling but not only that he then fled the scene, leaving Mr Mardlin to be found by the next passing motorist.'
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Exposed: Sick jokes about rape, race and paedophilia - and how victims were silenced Investigations found evidence of 'toxic masculinity, misogyny and sexual harassment', ''banter' used to excuse oppressive and offensive behaviours', and 'bullying and aggressive behaviour';

One officer was known on WhatsApp as 'mcrapey raperson'. Asked to explain the name, it was said this referred to his reputation for 'harassing them [women], getting on them, do you know what I mean being like, just a d***';

Two officers went to a music festival dressed as 'known sex offenders' and a 'molested child';

Probationary officers were 'beckoned with a bell', women who spoke out about male colleagues were treated as a 'weary female';

Officers used WhatsApp groups to send messages about 'raping' each other, and homophobic comments like 'f*****g gay' and 'F*** you bender';

Told victims who complained of their behaviour that it was just 'banter';

Officers mocked Black Lives Matter, disabled people, ethnic minorities and Muslims. Advertisement

Priti Patel today slammed the rotten culture at the Met - while Cressida Dick was urged to finally quit after a shattering watchdog report exposed how officers joked about 'raping' and 'hate-f*****g' female colleagues, 'killing black children', and beating their partners in a series of highly offensive racist, sexist and homophobic messages which they tried to excuse as 'banter'.

The Home Secretary said 'problems with the culture of the Met' had been 'clear for some time', as its crisis-prone commissioner was branded 'delusional' and incapable of clearing out the 'cesspit' of 'institutional misogyny and racism' that had developed under her watch.

In just one of the horrific messages uncovered by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, a male officer told a female colleague 'I would happily rape you' and 'if I was single I would happily chloroform you'. Another officer was known as 'mcrapey raperson' because of his reputation for ''harassing [women], getting on them, do you know what I mean being like, just a d***''.'

Nine of the 14 officers investigated are still serving in the force - with just two sacked - prompting critics to accused the Met's leadership of failing to root out an insidious culture described by investigators as 'widespread' rather than the result of 'just a few bad apples'. At least some of the wrongdoers served in a specialist vice squad.

The highly critical report is just the latest scandal under Dame Cressida's watch - who is currently facing criticism over her handling of the No10 Partygate scandal - and today led to a chorus of calls for her to resign or be sacked.

Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal said: 'The Met Police may be the worst for institutional misogyny and racism but they're not the only ones. Only a statutory judge led inquiry will do. Only new leadership will do.'

Meanwhile, Labour MP Diane Abbott said Dame Cressida was 'clearly not fit to lead the fundamental reform needed'.

Institutional failings at the force were placed under intense scrutiny by the murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens - who was allegedly nicknamed 'the rapist' by colleagues during his earlier career as an armed guard for the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

Commenting on the watchdog's findings, Priti Patel said: 'It has been clear for some time that there are problems with the culture of the Metropolitan Police, which is why last year I tasked the Angiolini Inquiry and the police inspectorate with investigating these deeply concerning issues.

'I expect the Metropolitan Police and the Mayor of London to implement the recommendations of this report as soon as practically possible. The public rightly expects the behaviour of the police to be beyond reproach - standards must be raised.'

The report also exposed numerous instances of homophobic language, with officers talking about 'f****** gays' and writing 'f*** you bender', in addition to a mass of racist comments including references to African children, Somali people and Auschwitz.

Today Jamie Klingler, of campaign group Reclaim These Streets, called Dame Cressida 'delusional' for recently claiming the Met did not have a problem with institutional homophobia.

The messages were uncovered as part of nine linked investigations into officers based in Westminster, mostly at Charing Cross police station, which began in March 2018 after allegations that a male officer had sex with a drunk woman at a police station.

The report is just the latest scandal to hit crisis-prone Cressida Dick, and makes particularly chilling reading in light of the murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens - who himself was allegedly nicknamed as 'the rapist'

These are MailOnline mock-ups of WhatsApp conversations that were published in the IOPC report. Warning: Graphic language

Today, the Met today said it was 'deeply sorry' for the 'reprehensible behaviour' displayed by its officers and said it had taken 'a series of measures to hold those responsible to account and stamp out unacceptable behaviour'.

But Dame Diana Johnson, the Labour chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, accused the force of not doing enough to root out racists and misogynists.

How shattering report is latest in a string of disasters for scandal-ravaged Met chief Cressida Dick's reign as Metropolitan Police commissioner has been overshadowed by controversy over bungled operations and investigations: April 2017: Appointed as first female Metropolitan Police commissioner with a brief to modernise the force and keep it out of the headlines. April 2019: Extinction Rebellion protesters bring London to a standstill over several days with the Met powerless to prevent the chaos. Dame Cressida says the numbers involved were far greater than expected and used new tactics but she admits police should have responded quicker. September 2019: Her role in setting up of shambolic probe into alleged VIP child sex abuse and murder is revealed but she declines to answer questions. 2020: Official report into Operation Midland said Met was more interested in covering up mistakes than learning from them. February 2021: Lady Brittan condemns the culture of 'cover up and flick away' in the Met and the lack of a moral compass among senior officers. The same month a freedom of information request reveals an extraordinary spin campaign to ensure Dame Cressida was not 'pulled into' the scandal over the Carl Beech debacle. March: Criticised for Met handling of a vigil for Sarah Everard, where officers arrested four attendees. In the first six months of the year, London was on course for its worst year for teenage deaths  30  with knives being responsible for 19 out of the 22 killed so far. The youngest was 14-year-old Fares Matou, cut down with a Samurai sword. Dame Cressida had told LBC radio in May her top priority was tackling violent crime. June: A 20million report into the Daniel Morgan murder brands the Met 'institutionally corrupt' and accuses her of trying to block the inquiry. Dame Cressida rejects its findings. July: Police watchdog reveals three Met officers being probed over alleged racism and dishonesty. The same month the Yard boss is at the centre of another storm after it emerged she was secretly referred to the police watchdog over comments she made about the stop and search of Team GB sprinter Bianca Williams. Dame Cressida is accused of pre-empting the outcome of an independent investigation. Also in July she finds herself under fire over her woeful security operation at the Euro 2020 final at Wembley where fans without tickets stormed the stadium and others used stolen steward vests and ID lanyards to gain access. August Dame Cressida facing a potential misconduct probe over her open support for Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Horne who could stand trial over alleged data breaches. January 2022: She faces a barrage of fresh criticism for seeking to 'muzzle' Sue Gray's Partygate report by asking her to make only 'minimal' references to parties the Met were investigating. February 2022: Details of messages exchanged by officers at Charing Cross Police Station, which included multiple references to rape, violence against women, racist and homophobic abuse, are unveiled in a watchdog report. Advertisement

'In the report, it is very clear that the IOPC are saying that this is not isolated and it is not simply just a few bad apples,' she told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme. 'So, I think that whole issue of the culture within the police force is one that is incredibly concerning.'

Touching on the fact that nine of the officers investigated are still serving in the force, the Hull North MP added: 'There is a question about the fact that only two officers have been sacked.'

IOPC regional director Sal Naseem said: 'The behaviour we uncovered was disgraceful and fell well below the standards expected of the officers involved. While these officers predominantly worked in teams in Westminster, which have since been disbanded, we know from other recent cases that these issues are not isolated or historic.

'The learning report we are publishing today is shocking and contains language which is offensive - and some may find it upsetting. However, we felt it was important to provide the context for the public, the Met and other forces, for why such hard-hitting recommendations are necessary.'

While the IOPC acknowledged the work that the Met has done since to improve, Mr Naseem said more needs to be done.

He said: 'Our investigation showed the officers' use of 'banter' became a cover for bullying and harassment. Colleagues were afraid to speak out about these behaviours for fear of being ostracised, demeaned or told to get another job.

'We are grateful to those officers who were brave enough to speak to us about the cultural issues that existed within these teams, realising that in doing so they risked further bullying. This took courage. Hopefully our learning report and recommendations will give officers the confidence to come forward in the knowledge that people are listening and that changes will be made.

'The relationship between the police and the public is critical to maintaining the principle of policing by consent. The concerns about behaviour and culture addressed in our report, if allowed to continue and go unchallenged, risked causing serious damage to that relationship.'

Of the 14 officers investigated, two were fired for gross misconduct and put on a barred list to stop them ever working again for the police. Two officers resigned and two others were disciplined.

Deputy assistant commissioner Bas Javid said: 'I am angry and disappointed to see officers involved in sharing sexist, racist and discriminatory messages. It's clear we have a lot of work to do to ensure bullying and discrimination does not exist in any part of the Met.

'The actions of these officers between 2016 and 2018 were unacceptable, unprofessional, disrespectful and deeply offensive. I read their messages with increasing disgust and shame.

'We haven't waited for the IOPC's report to take action - a number of officers have been subject to misconduct proceedings, including one officer dismissed and one who would have been dismissed had he not already resigned. Every Met employee has also been spoken to about responsible use of social media.

'We recognise that there is need for real change in the Met and we are committed to creating an environment that is even more intolerant to those who do not uphold the high values and standards expected of us.'

A review of culture and standards in the Met is currently being carried out by Baroness Casey, in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: 'I am utterly disgusted by the behaviour outlined in this IOPC report, which details the shocking evidence of discrimination, misogyny, harassment and bullying by police officers.

'The conduct of these officers was totally unacceptable and what has been revealed by these investigations will only further damage public trust and confidence in the police.

'It is right that the team concerned has been disbanded and the police officers found to be involved have been dismissed, disciplined or have left the police.

'Anyone found to be responsible for sexism, racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, antisemitism, bullying or harassment does not deserve to wear the Met uniform and must be rooted out.'

A mock-up of messages sent by a male officer to a female colleague, as revealed in the IOPC investigation

Further mock-ups of messages sent by a male officer during another shocking conversation on WhatsApp

The messages were uncovered as part of nine linked investigations into officers based in Westminster, mostly at Charing Cross police station

With Cressida Dick facing fresh questions over the culture at the Met, here are just some of the horrific comments exposed in the report:

On rape and sexual abuse

One officer's aggressive behaviour towards women was considered so suspect that he was known as 'Mcrapey Raperson'.

The nickname is similar to that of PC Wayne Couzens, the police officer who used his position to abduct, rape and murder Sarah Everard.

Asked why someone at Charing Cross Police Station was called 'Mcrapey Raperson', a colleague said it related to 'harassing them [women], getting on them, do you know what I mean being like, just a d***.

'I'd happily rape you': Vile WhatsApp exchanges between officers WhatsApp conversation between two police officers: o Officer 1: 'And my bird won't stop taking the p***. Swear to got [sic] I'm going to smack her' o Officer 2: 'Slap her one say you didn't' o Officer 1: 'I`ll f****** do it. She`s f***** off home.' A separate WhatsApp conversation between two police officers: o Officer 1: 'I f****** need to take my bird out, won't see her until next Saturday. Then I have to work. Promised to take her out the Friday after. Making it up to her from when I backhanded her' o Officer 2: 'Grab her by the p****' o Officer 1: 'You ever slapped your missus?' o Officer 1: 'It makes them love you more. Seriously since I did that she won't leave me alone. Now I know why these daft c**** are getting murdered by their s****** boyfriends. Knock a bird about and she will love you. Human nature. They are biologically programmed to like that s***.' o Officer 2: 'Lmao' o Officer 1: 'I'm right though' A further WhatsApp conversation between two police officers: o Officer 1: 'I had that massive fight with my bird because she found out I'd been out on the piss with this girl who's a high class hooker a couple of weeks ago Hahahah' o Officer 1: 'Make friends with high class hookers' o Officer 2: 'I had one in Watford from adult work. Used to f*** her all the time' o Officer 1: 'Yes! Hahaha' o Officer 2: 'used just hang out and blast her on the sly' o Officer 2: 'when I was on roids and needed it every hour' Messages sent by a male officer to a female officer: o 'I would happily rape you' o 'if I was single I would actually hate f*** you' o 'if I was single I would happily chloroform you' Further messages sent about women, include: o 'Getting a woman in to bed is like spreading butter. It can be done with a bit of effort using a credit card, but it's quicker and easier just to use a knife.' o 'F*** knows what she's on about I just wanna sp*** on her' (sent by an officer in reference to another police officer's girlfriend). o 'Mate my Mrs is driving me mad - come and shag a baby into her it might shut her up bro .' Advertisement

Others reported it related to his 'particular fondness of IC3 and IC4' - the Met's codes for people of black or Asian origin.

The police officers would tell disgusting jokes about raping women and each other.

Today's report said messages like this were sent on WhatsApp groups containing 17 police officers, also within another WhatsApp group containing 19 police officers.

There was also a private Facebook chat group containing four police officers.

One policeman, known as officer 1, sent messages saying 'I would happily rape you'; 'if I was single I would actually hate f**k you' and 'if I was single I would happily chloroform you'.

On domestic and sexual violence

The policemen sent a plethora of messages about beating up wives and girlfriends, forcing them to have sex to 'shut them up', including at knifepoint, declaring: 'Knock a bird about and she will love you'.

Another said: 'Getting a woman in to bed is like spreading butter. It can be done with a bit of effort using a credit card, but it's quicker and easier just to use a knife.'

Police officers who gave evidence spoke of dominant macho officers, bragging about sexual activity, encouraging each other to 'slap women' or even 'grab her p***y'.

For example, there was an officer described as 'a bit of a ladies man, who would chase and harass women', and that 'there was a 'be careful when he's around' kind of atmosphere.'

WhatsApp groups were dominated by chat including domestic violence, plus sexually explicit, misogynistic and demeaning conversations about women, including partners.

In one conversation 'Officer 1' said: 'And my bird won't stop taking the p**s. Swear to got [sic] I'm going to smack her'. A policeman known as Officer 2 said: 'Slap her onesay you didn't'

Officer 1 then replied 'I`ll f***ing do it. She`s f***ed off home.'

In a later conversation Officer 1 said: 'I f***ing need to take my bird out, won't see her until next Saturday. Then I have to work. Promised to take her out the Friday after. Making it up to her from when I backhanded her'.

Officer 2: 'Grab her by the p***y'. Officer 1 said: 'You ever slapped your missus? It makes them love you more. Seriously since I did that she won't leave me alone. Now I know why these daft c***s are getting murdered by their spastic boyfriends. Knock a bird about and she will love you. Human nature. They are biologically programmed to like that s**t.'

Officer 2 said: 'Lmao' and his colleague replied: 'I'm right though'.

Racism and homophobia

The Met officers joked about black people being robbers, Africans being 'made into dog food', Somalian 'rats' and even the Holocaust.

One police officer described one patrol as having 'walked past the big mosque [as] all the fanatics turn up at to radicalise the young'.

Many of the messages were sent at the time when the Black Lives Matter movement came to prominence around the globe in 2020.

In one WhatsApp group an policeman said: 'My dad kidnapped some African children and used them to make dog food'.

Another wrote: 'Some uniform or plain clothes work on Somalian rats I battered one the other dayweighed less than [police officer's name]'.

A police officer sent another officer an image of a Black man wearing a white shirt. His colleague asked, 'What's good about it I don't get it lol.' He replied, 'Ignore the robberI like the shirt.'

In one Anti-Semitic message, one officer said: 'Opened my balcony door and loads of flies flew into the front room. So I got the fly spray and turned my gaff into Auschwitz.'

The abhorrent language was also used to describe people with disabilities, including calling them 'spastics' and one a 'retard'.
A Los Angeles party promoter arrested for the deaths of a model and her friend has pleaded not guilty to unrelated rape charges involving four women.

David Pearce, 39, was arrested by Los Angeles Police in December after allegedly sexually assaulting four women in 2010, 2019, February 2020 and October 2020.

He is now facing two counts of forcible rape, one count of raping an unconscious or asleep person, and one count of sexual penetration with a foreign object related to the alleged incidents.

The charges came as it emerged Pearce had been arrested on December 17 on suspicion of manslaughter, after the deaths of Christy Giles, 24, and her architect friend, Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, 26, who both died of drug overdoses.

The two women were last seen at an East Los Angeles warehouse party with Pearce and his friends in the early hours of November 13.

Ms Giles' body was left outside a Los Angeles hospital on November 13, while Ms Cabrales-Arzola was found clinging to life at another hospital, where she died after two weeks in a coma.

On Monday, Pearce pleaded not guilty to the unrelated rape charges.

Los Angeles party promoter David Pearce, 39, was arrested on December 17 on suspicion of manslaughter

The Los Angeles party promoter was arrested after the deaths of Christy Giles (right), 24, and her architect friend, Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola (left), 26, who both died of drug overdoses

During the hearing on Monday, Deputy District Attorney Kristine Mariano said he believed Pearce 'poses as a threat to the public' and should remain behind bars.

He also pointed out that officers had found a passport, $30,000 in Pearce's car and evidence that the LA promoter was researching about living in foreign countries when he was arrested.

The prosecutor told the hearing: 'He frequently drugs women and sexually abuses them.

'I do believe he poses as a threat to the public and is a flight risk. Upon his arrest, he did try to flee and ran out the back door.'

Last week Pearce's defence attorney, Jacob Gluckman, asked that his client's bail, which is currently set at $3.4million, be reduced to $100,000.

He also said the money found in the LA promoter's car was his winnings from a trip to Las Vegas.

Mr Gluckman stressed that Pearce has not been charged with causing Ms Giles and Ms Cabrales-Arzola's deaths.

He went on to complain that prosecutors had 'dusted off old' sexual assault allegations as a pretext to keep him locked up while they gathered evidence in the deaths of the two women.

Pearce (pictured left with Paris Hilton and right) is facing two counts of two counts of forcible rape, one count of raping an unconscious or asleep person, and one count of sexual penetration with a foreign object

Jan Cilliers, Giles' husband (pictured together) has expressed frustration that no one has been held accountable for her death

Mr Gluckman said that his client's bail should be proportionate to the charges he was currently facing 'and not issues that, at this point, are pure speculation and media fodder.'

He also said the earlier sexual assault charges against Pearce were not reported until years later, while the later ones from 2020 had been rejected by the DA's office due to a lack of evidence.

It came as Ms Giles' husband, photographer Jan Ciliers, expressed frustration that no one had been held accountable for the death of his wife and her friend.

Mr Cilliers said he suspected the women were forced to take drugs, because neither would willingly take heroin, found in Ms Cabrales-Arzola's system.

Los Angeles Police said in a statement: 'It is believed that both women were given drugs and overdosed at a residence in the 8600 block of Olympic Boulevard in the city of Los Angeles.

'Three suspects were identified and arrested with the assistance of the LAPD-FBI Fugitive Task Force and Metropolitan Division.'

Prosecutors have asked for further investigation involving the two other men, Michael Ansbach, 47, and Brandt Osborn, 42, whom police said were each booked on suspicion of being an accessory to manslaughter.

Osborn, a New York-born actor, was arrested on the set of NCIS: Los Angeles.

Anspach was released on $100,000 bond, while Osborn was freed without bond, his arrest converted to a detention.
The mostly Gen Z activists have blocked the entrance and climbed among pipes and atop tankers at the Nustar Clydebank terminal, near Glasgow, resulting in dozens of police officers being called to the scene. In videos posted on Twitter, groups of activists can be seen holding up orange banners carrying their organisation's name, while demonstrators - some as young as 17 - warn they will push on with their 'disruptive action' across the country until the UK government releases a 'meaningful' statement agreeing to their demands. It comes just days after a total of 35 people were cuffed after members of the eco-mob damaged pumps and glued themselves to the tarmac and vehicles at two petrol stations on the M25. Meanwhile, drivers were warned last night that Petrol and diesel prices could hit new records within weeks - just in time for the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday getaway in early June. One protestor told Capital Scotland News on Tuesday that the group's demand to stop investment for new oil fields that 'won't be operational for decades to come' was 'more than reasonable'. He added: 'We don't want to be here, we don't want to be inconveniencing people, we don't want to be shutting people out of their work, we don't want to have police here wasting their time with this frankly, when they have got better things to be doing... Our plan is to stay here until we are forcibly removed, and over the longer term we are going to keep doing these disruptive actions until we get a meaningful statement from the government that they're going to halt the expansion of oil and gas.' A spokesperson for the group told MailOnline there have yet to be any arrests and that many plan to protest at the Scottish site 'for several days'.
Kim Jong Un has appeared unsteady on his feet and limping in a new propaganda film released by North Korea recapping the dictator's activities last year.

The previously unseen footage - which was mixed in with older footage of the dictator that has been seen before - is thought to show Kim during a visit to a construction site in Pyongyang in August 2021.

Kim, believed to be 38, is shown touring the site with his lackeys while having a cigarette, before struggling to get down a set of temporary stairs.

While those around him don't appear to be having much trouble, Kim walks gingerly down the steps - careful to take them one at a time while men standing either side of him appear ready to catch him in case he falls.

Kim Jong Un appears unsteady on his feet in never-before-seen footage, thought to have been taken in August last year but released today by North Korea

Kim is seen struggling down a set of temporary steps in the footage, with the narrator saying the 38-year-old has 'dedicated his own body to realise people's dreams'

'This video showed his motherly side where he completely dedicated his own body to realise people's dreams,' the narrator says over the footage.

Kim's visit to the site was previously disclosed in state media, but only photographs were published that showed him touring the new neighbourhood.

The inspection marked the first time Kim had been seen in public for three weeks up to that point, one of several extended absences in 2021 that were almost unheard of during previous years.

In his final appearance before that absence, Kim had a large, dark spot on the back of his head that he covered with a plaster in some footage.

Speculation about Kim's health has been rife since he vanished for 21 days in 2020, sparking rumours he had died or was seriously ill, but experts were not able to say what might have caused the mark on his head.

There does not appear to be any evidence of the mark in the newly-released video.

Entitled The Great Year of Victory, 2021, the 110-minute film propaganda chronicled 'Kim's achievements' throughout the year while telling viewers their leader had been working to overcome 'worst-ever hardships'.

The video does not elaborate on the 'hardships', but North Korea is thought to have been hit particularly hard by border closures to halt the spread of Covid.

State media had previously released images of Kim's visit to the site (above), but today is though to be the first time video of it was released

Before visiting the construction site, Kim was seen with a dark spot and plaster on the back of his head. He then disappeared for weeks before reemerging at the site

Covered in mountains which make most of its territory unsuitable for farming, North Korea does not produce enough food to support its population even in good years - relying on imports from neighbouring China.

But a series of natural disasters such as typhoons and floods have devastated recent harvests, leaving the country desperately short on supplies.

Border closures mean few if any imports are arriving, worsening the situation.

It is unclear exactly how bad things are, but some experts have compared the shortages to a great famine in the 1990s when it is thought around 3million people starved to death.

Covid is also thought to have spread to North Korea despite the state not reporting any cases, thought it is unclear exactly how widespread it is.

The film did not directly refer to Kim's weight loss, but he has appeared increasingly thinner in recent state media photos.

In June, state media said North Koreans were 'heartbroken' to see an 'emaciated' Kim, in a rare acknowledgement of the leader's health.

His weightloss follows his disappearance and rumours of his death in 2020, during which his sister Kim Yo Jong appeared to getting ready to take the reins of power.

Kim eventually reemerged and remains in control of the country, though absences from public view have become more frequent and some of his powers have been delegated - including to the likes of Jong.

The film also features new footage of Kim Jong Un galloping on a white horse, recapping a year of 'achievements' in 2021 despite 'worst-ever hardships'

Kim is seen riding a horse on a beach at sunset in more footage from the film - thought to be the first time it has been shown to the outside world

The North Korean dictator is shown meeting with soldiers and overseeing artillery drills

Experts have said for years that the greatest threat to Kim's health is his own lifestyle.

He is thought to have tipped the scales at around 20 stone at his heaviest, is known to be a prolific smoker, and - at the time his weigh ballooned - was undertaking the high-stress job of negotiating his country's nuclear stockpile with Donald Trump.

International media, intelligence agencies and experts closely watch Kim's health due to his tight grip on power and the uncertainty over succession plans.

The documentary also showed Kim watching the sunrise alone while riding a white horse on a beach.

On another ride, he was seen with military officials including Pak Jong Chon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, followed by a clip of tanks staging live-fire drills.

The film included rare images of a new 80-storey skyscraper and a large apartment district, as well as some clips and images of a defence expo in October and previous missile tests.

In December, Kim said the ruling party had some success in implementing a five-year economic plan he unveiled early last year, but warned of a 'very giant struggle' this year, citing the pandemic and economic difficulties.
A Seminole County official said Monday he cannot explain why the county has the highest COVID-19 positivity rate  at nearly 38%, according to the Centers for Disease and Control  than the surrounding Central Florida counties.

I could give you a million assumptions, but I have no idea. And I dont think anyone does, said Alan Harris, Seminoles chief administrator for the countys Office of Emergency Management. If we knew, we would target whatever that is. We havent had any large gatherings [compared to other counties]. Its past the window of the holiday season. Its just that more people right now that are showing up at our testing sites are sick.

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According to the CDCs Data Tracker as of Jan. 31, Seminole had 4,251 cases, and a positivity rate of 37.87%. Orange County reported 12,455 cases, a positivity rate of nearly 27.9%; Osceola County had 3,340 cases, and a positivity rate of 23.8%; Lake County had 3,599 cases, and a positivity rate of 32.8%; and Volusia County had 4,961 reported cases and a positivity rate of 26.3%.

One reason for the high positivity rate, Harris said, could be that Seminoles six county-run testing centers require appointments. And private testing centers in the county also require appointments. So, its likely that individuals are making appointments to get tested only when they feel sick, he said.

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Harris added that some Seminole residents could be required by their employers in Orange County to get tested, and then they end up getting tested in their home county.

I could give you a million assumptions why this is, Harris said. But I dont know.
A serving Metropolitan Police officer allegedly raped a woman 18 years ago after clocking off work, a court heard today.

Stephen Kyere, 58, is also charged with attempted rape and indecent assault following the incident in Teddington, Middlesex, in April 2004.

Kyere, who retired from the Met Police in March 2021, was off-duty at the time.

Wearing white trousers and a dark jacket he spoke to confirm his date of birth, address and give the pronunciation of his name when he appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court.

Former PC Stephen Kyere has been charged with a rape in Teddington in 2004 18 years ago

Former PC Kyerer also faced charges of attempted rape and indecent assault in court today

According to the Met, he was attached to the Hammersmith and Fulham police at the time of the allegations.

Specialist officers are providing support to the complainant in this allegation, the Met have said.

District Judge Paul Goldspring remanded Kyere on unconditional bail ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing at the Old Bailey on 1 March

Kyere, of Ashford, Middlesex, is charged with rape, attempted rape and indecent assault.

Met Police said former PC Stephen Kyere has been charged with a rape in Teddington in 2004

PC Kyere is said to have retired from the Metropolitan Police back on March 19 last year

The Met Police said in a statement released last week: A former Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with rape, attempted rape and indecent assault.

The charges relate to an incident in Teddington in April 2004 when the officer, then attached to Hammersmith and Fulham police, was off duty.

Former PC Kyere was charged by postal requisition in January 2022 following an investigation by officers at the South West Command Unit.

He retired from the Metropolitan Police on 19 March 2021. Misconduct matters will be considered following the criminal process.
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Police forces in Britain must start recording the ethnicities of suspects in cases of child sexual exploitation by criminal gangs, an official report said today as it criticised 'extensive failures' by authorities in tackling grooming.

The landmark inquiry found that 'poor data collection on the ethnicity of perpetrators or victims' made it difficult to identify whether there is in fact any link between ethnicity and group-based exploitation.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said 'some of the high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions have involved groups of South Asian males'  and that the lack of data on ethnicity also 'hampers the ability of police and other services to provide culturally sensitive responses, interventions and support'.

The report comes after a decade of concern over groups of men mostly of south Asian origin targeting girls - most notably in Rotherham, but also in the likes of Rochdale, Newcastle, Oxford, Telford, Dewsbury and Halifax.

And the IICSA said: 'It is unclear whether a misplaced sense of political correctness or the sheer complexity of the problem have inhibited good quality data collection generally and on ethnicity more specifically.'

The report said data has been published by the Home Office on the ethnicity of abusers and victims for 20 years - but there are no specific figures within this include offences against children who were sexually exploited.

The inquiry also referenced a Home Affairs Committee report published in June 2013 which found that 'the issue of race, and the fear of being seen as racist, may have hindered the detection and intervention in some cases of child sexual exploitation throughout the country for a number of years'. The committee 'found that it was essential that professionals were able to raise their concerns freely and without fear of being labelled racist' but also said 'many of those involved in investigating child sexual exploitation cases warned against citing race as a key factor'.

And today's IICSA report concluded: 'Some of the high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions have involved groups of south Asian males. There has been heated and often polarised debate about whether there is any link between ethnicity and group-based child exploitation. Poor data collection on the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims makes it difficult to identify if there is any such link. It also hampers the ability of police and other services to provide culturally sensitive responses, interventions and support.'

The IICSA also found police forces and local councils across Britain failed and ignored victims of abuse. Child victims - some of whom reported being raped, abused, and in one case forced to perform sex acts on a group of 23 men while held at gunpoint - were often blamed by authorities for the ordeals they suffered.

Some were even slapped with criminal records for offences closely linked to their sexual exploitation - and authorities potentially downplayed the scale of abuse over concerns about negative publicity, the report said.

The IICSA, which today issued its 18th report so far, said there was 'a flawed assumption' that child sexual exploitation was 'on the wane', with authorities denying the scale of the problem despite evidence to the contrary.

The report said this might be down to a determination to not be seen as 'another Rochdale or Rotherham' - towns blighted by recent child sexual exploitation revelations - rather than a desire to 'root out ... and expose its scale'.

Reacting to the inquiry and asked specifically about the lack of data on ethnicity, Alan Collins, partner in the sex abuse team at Hugh James Solicitors, told MailOnline this afternoon: 'There have been high-profile cases of organised child abuse where the perpetrators have come from ethnic backgrounds, but to draw any conclusion that there is a preponderance to commit such offences by a particular group is ill advised.

'The reason being, and IICSA appears to be conscious of this, is the lack of information or data concerning ethnicity. No one can be sure if children from one background are more at risk than others, or whether perpetrators are more likely to have a particular ethnic profile. The failure by the police and social services to record such information is of course a glaring one because it helps no one, instead it creates a vacuum.

'High profile cases create suspicion and potentially a source of misplaced blaming. The failure lets down children at risk because if ethnicity is an issue, or conversely a non-issue it would assist in protection and detection.'

Meanwhile Home Office sources confirmed that Home Secretary Priti Patel has been pushing for police to record ethnicity in instances of child sexual abuse - and this will now become a requirement from next month.

There are 'extensive failures' in the way child sexual exploitation by criminal gangs is tackled, the report found (stock image)

Inquiry chair Alexis Jay said there 'appeared to be a flawed assumption that child sexual exploitation was on the wane'

Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the inquiry, said: 'The sexual exploitation of children by networks is not a rare phenomenon confined to a small number of areas with high-profile criminal cases. We found extensive failures by local authorities and police forces in the ways in which they tackled this sexual abuse.

'There appeared to be a flawed assumption that child sexual exploitation was on the wane, however it has become even more of a hidden problem and increasingly underestimated.'

Child victims tell of harrowing exploitation by criminal gangs Harrowing evidence of child sexual exploitation by organised gangs offered only a glimpse of the ordeals suffered by young victims. Over the course of two months in 2020, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) heard evidence from more than 30 witnesses which revealed how police and local authorities failed to properly tackle the problem. In one of the most shocking examples, the inquiry heard of a girl known only as CS-A372 who, aged 14, was abducted by a gang and forced to perform a sex act on 23 men while a gun was held to her head. The youngster, who was raped repeatedly from the age of 12 and had a history of self-harm, was later placed into care. She said she was previously threatened with prostitution by her father, and informed social services. However, her case was closed. The girl would frequently go missing, only to be picked up by the police, to whom she would report the sexual abuse, the inquiry heard. But she said she did not consider that meaningful steps were taken to protect her. Another witness, known as CS-A373, said her complaints that she had been plied with drugs, forced to perform a sex act and then raped as a 12-year-old by a gang fell on deaf ears. She was raped again after being placed into care, she said, but her attacker was only handed a caution for having sex with a child under 16. The girl said she felt the police 'took little action to investigate the abuse' and failed to assess the risk her perpetrators posed in the community. She said police repeatedly took her home each time she ran away, but did not ask her why she was trying to escape. The inquiry also heard the case of CS-A1, whose mother raised 'real concerns' with social services (in Warwickshire) that the girl was being sexually exploited by men, but that this was not taken seriously until nine months later. The girl's experience of having eight different social workers in four years, and 14 foster placements, highlighted 'instability and chaos' in her life, the inquiry was told. In one instance, CS-A1 was placed in the same area she had been exploited, and consequently went missing 48 times in 84 days. Her mother told the inquiry: '(She) has been robbed of part of her childhood.' Advertisement

The report featured harrowing testimony from more than 30 young witnesses in September and October of 2020 across six case study areas - Bristol, Durham, St Helens, Swansea, Tower Hamlets and Warwickshire.

The inquiry team said it 'did not receive a reliable picture of child sexual exploitation' from these areas, with the data often 'confused and confusing'.

It said there was evidence of child sexual exploitation by networks in all six areas, but that the relevant police forces were 'generally not able to provide any evidence about these networks'.

Two areas - Swansea and Tower Hamlets - said there was no data to suggest there had been any child exploitation by gangs, despite evidence to the contrary.

John O'Brien, secretary to the inquiry, said today that this claim went down 'badly' with the IISCA panel.

He told the PA news agency: 'This lack of recording data properly means at the fundamental level none of the authorities ... could look you in the eye and say: 'We understand the scale and nature of abuse in our area, and we are putting in place the right mechanisms to both prosecute those who are responsible and give the right support to those who are victims'.'

The report concluded: 'It was clear from the evidence that none of the police forces or local authorities in the case study areas in this investigation had an accurate understanding of networks sexually exploiting children in their area.'

There were also examples of victim-blaming, the report found, with children being described as 'promiscuous' and 'putting themselves at risk' in referrals to a support charity in St Helens. Similar language about victims' behaviour was reflected across the inquiry.

In Swansea, a child was described on official paperwork as having had 'sexual partners from the age of 11' - this is despite children under the age of 13 not being considered by law to be able or competent to give consent to sexual activity.

Victims, many of whom had a history of self-harm and running away from home, repeatedly described how their allegations against their perpetrators were routinely dismissed by police.

In some cases, children were even landed with criminal records.

In one case, a girl abused from the age of 12 described how she was convicted of several offences including possession of a weapon after chasing her abuser with a bread knife after he assaulted her.

Mr O'Brien said a 'culture shift' was required, adding: 'All organisations in this need to see the victim in this, not the crime.'

The report said: 'The prospect of receiving a criminal conviction may deter children from disclosing child sexual exploitation, and indeed may serve to increase the hold that perpetrators have over their victims.

'The focus should be on investigating the criminal conduct of sexual exploitation, not sanctioning children for what is frequently low-level antisocial behaviour.'

The report said senior leaders within local authorities and police forces must take the lead on 'eradicating attitudes and behaviours which suggest that children who are victims of exploitation are in some way responsible for it'.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse issued its findings today into sexual exploitation of children by gangs

It identified a number of recommendations including a requirement for police forces and local authorities to collect specific data on all cases of known or suspected child sexual exploitation, including by criminal gangs and organised networks.

COMMENT: Police failure to record ethnicity data 'creates a vacuum' By Alan Collins, partner in the sex abuse team at Hugh James Solicitors There have been high-profile cases of organised child abuse where the perpetrators have come from ethnic backgrounds, but to draw any conclusion that there is a preponderance to commit such offences by a particular group is ill advised. The reason being, and IICSA appears to be conscious of this, is the lack of information or data concerning ethnicity. No one can be sure if children from one background are more at risk than others, or whether perpetrators are more likely to have a particular ethnic profile. The failure by the police and social services to record such information is of course a glaring one because it helps no one, instead it creates a vacuum. High profile cases create suspicion and potentially a source of misplaced blaming. The failure lets down children at risk because if ethnicity is an issue, or conversely a non-issue it would assist in protection and detection. As noted by IICSA as soon as high profile case comes to light involving correctly or not offenders from a particular background any debate becomes polarised. It is, perhaps, unsurprising that those who should be on the frontline in preventing and detecting child abuse are possibly wary of collecting data as regards ethnicity let alone mentioning it, but the IICSA report highlights why this has to change. For change to come about this requires leadership from government and all politicians at Westminster because after all child protection should not be a political issue. The Home Office should require all police forces and local authorities to record and maintain comprehensive data on the backgrounds of children abused, and that of their abusers. If that were to happen then maybe we can understand a little better why some in society decide to abuse children, and that in turn might possibly equip us to address the problem. Advertisement

The final overarching IICSA report, taking in all 19 strands of the inquiry such as investigations into abuse in Westminster and the church, is expected to be laid before Parliament later this year.

Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Women's Justice (CWJ) charity which contributed to the investigation strand, said: 'Far too often, as is implicit in the report, we see children and young women who have been sexually exploited, being criminalised as easy targets instead of tackling the much more insidious organised abusers targeting the vulnerable.

'From CWJ's point of view, the report is helpful in identifying the need to name and understand the problem properly which includes the proper collection of data. However, (it) represents a huge missed opportunity.

'There is a lack of hard-hitting recommendations which will result in real change. This crime will continue as long as perpetrators think they can get away with it which - in the current system - they do, due to the appallingly low number of effective criminal investigations or prosecutions.'

Mark Russell, chief executive of The Children's Society charity, said: 'This report is a damning indictment of responses to child sexual exploitation, yet the shortcomings it highlights have been identified time and time again over the years. It is simply not good enough that many children who have suffered horrendous abuse are still being failed. How many wake-up calls will be needed?

'It is desperately sad that children who report abuse are too often not taken seriously by professionals or made to feel they were complicit in their exploitation. Basic steps needed to better identify, support and protect victims and to bring their abusers to justice are still not being implemented in many cases.'

And Kim Harrison, of law firm Slater and Gordon, who represented the mother of a child exploitation victim at the inquiry, said the report found that 'agencies charged with protecting our children are still failing to do so'.

She said: 'Despite all the media publicity about child sexual exploitation, this abhorrent crime is still being minimised and children left unprotected - agencies are denying the problem rather than facing up to it. We welcome the recommendations made today. The inquiry, however, needs to go much further in its final report.

'We need a transformation in attitudes in police and social services, much better multi-agency working, a new national strategy to identify and tackle child sexual exploitation, and much more proactive use of the criminal law. The Government needs to resource this properly.'

And Avon and Somerset Police Assistant Chief Constable Will White said today: 'The sexual exploitation of children is an abhorrent crime and we're absolutely committed to protecting the vulnerable and relentlessly going after those who perpetrate this abuse.

'Every child matters and should be safe and cared for. As police, we're doing all we can to pursue and prosecute offenders, but we recognise more must be done by all safeguarding agencies to prevent the abuse from happening in the first place.

'We'll reflect on the findings in the latest report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse into child sexual exploitation by organised networks and welcome and support the recommendations made. We'll implement any learnings necessary, including identified issues around the quality of data recording.'
Ted Cruz accused President Joe Biden on Monday of being 'offensive' by promising to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court because he claims it insinuates Democrats feel this demographic is not the most qualified for the job.

'The fact that he's willing to make a promise at the outset that it must be a black woman  I gotta say, that's offensive,' the Texas senator said during his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz.

'Black women are, what, 6% of the U.S. population? He's saying to 94% of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you  you are ineligible,' Cruz added.

'And he's also saying  it's actually an insult to black women,' the Republican said. 'If he came and said, 'I'm going to put the best jurist on the court', and he looked at a number of people and he ended up nominating a black woman, he could credibly say, 'OK I'm nominating the person who's most qualified.'

Cruz also said on his podcast episode that it's likely Biden could nominate Vice President Kamala Harris to the post opening with the retirement of liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.

Biden and Harris will host Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley in the Oval OfficeMonday afternoon to consult about the vacancy and likely discuss potential replacements that would do well with both parties.

The chance of Harris' nomination is highly improbable as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has already said Biden plans to run for reelection in 2024 with his No. 2 still at his side.

Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz said on the Monday episode of his podcast that Joe Biden vowing to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court is 'insulting' because it insinuates the eventual nominee is not the most qualified for the job and was instead picked for her demographic

Cruz also claimed there's a chance Biden could nominate Vice President Kamala Harris (right) to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer (left) just to get her out of the White House because 'they can't stand her'

But Cruz says Biden could do it just to get rid of her in the White House.

'I think there is a chance they name Kamala to the court, in part because they can't stand her,' Cruz said.

'One of the virtues of naming her to the court is they get to get her out of the White House and out of  look, the Democratic party is very worried that she's the presumed successor to Joe Biden, because her political negatives are so strong. She's just not very good at this stuff,' Cruz added with a shrug.

'I mean, you've seen the weird video of her with kids,' he said. 'That's almost like a Stepford Wives robotic. It's bizarre.'

'My guess is if Kamala was nominated, it probably would be a 50-50 vote,' Cruz said. 'Maybe she'd pick up a Republican vote. I would not be on the fence. I would be a hell no on Kamala if she were nominated.'

Cruz's name was at one time floated for the Supreme Court before.

Many politicians are up in arms over Biden's vow to bring a black woman to the Supreme Court, claiming he is disregarding the majority of qualified candidates to focus on one demographic.

Others claim the move is good because it helps make the panel more representative of how America looks.

Former congresswoman and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard unleashed on President Biden on Monday over his promise to only nominate a black woman.

The Hawaiian military veteran accused Biden of playing 'identity politics' with his pledge to seat the first black female justice -and said he did the same thing when picking Harris as his running mate.

'Biden chose Harris as his VP because of the color of her skin and sex -- not qualification. She's been a disaster. Now he promises to choose Supreme Court nominee on the same criteria,' Gabbard wrote on Twitter.

She added, 'Identity politics is destroying our country.'

Biden is eyeing a list of potential candidates to replace retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced he'd step down last week after nearly three decades on the high court.

He's using the 83-year-old's departure to fulfill a campaign promise of appointing a black woman to the bench, prompting swift backlash from Republicans who are concerned the president is putting race and gender ahead of picking the most qualified nominee.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard took aim at Harris on Twitter Monday morning while accusing the Biden administration of 'destroying' the country with identity politics by vowing a black woman will ascend to the Supreme Court

Psaki at her Monday news briefing compared Biden's pledge to Ronald Reagan promising to and then appointing the first female justice.

'There was no such complaint from the voices on the right who are speaking out now,' Psaki said, adding: 'but there's no question in his mind that there is a wealth of qualified, talented black women to choose from.'

She said Biden would be meeting with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and ranking member Senator Chuck Grassley at the White House on Tuesday to get their advice on a potential pick.

Some of his top candidates reportedly include: DC Circuit Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who Biden elevated to her post last year; district Judge J. Michelle Childs, a federal official in South Carolina who has strong bipartisan support from GOP Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn, both of whom hail from her state; and Judge Leondra Kruger, an associate justice on California's Supreme Court who twice turned down the position of Solicitor General.

Breyer (seated far left) confirmed last week that he will vacate the court, opening the way for Biden to nominate another, more young, liberal justice. The president will only consider black women for the vacancy

Biden promised during his campaign to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court if he got the opportunity, pictured are some of the front runners

Late last week Republican Senator Roger Wicker heckled Biden's future nominee as an 'affirmative action' hire during an interview.

Trump administration UN Ambassador Nikki Haley posted a January 26 tweet stating 'Would be nice if Pres Biden chose a Supreme Court nominee who was best qualified without a race/gender litmus test.'

And on Sunday, GOP Senator Susan Collins told ABC's This Week that she'd be happy to see a black woman on the court but that Biden was 'politicizing' the judicial nomination process.

'I would welcome the appointment of a Black female to the court. I believe that diversity benefits the Supreme Court. But the way that the president has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best. It adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution like Congress when it is not supposed to be,' Collins said.

Meanwhile, a new poll shows that more than three quarters of Americans would prefer Biden pick the best person for the job rather than fulfilling a campaign promise.

An ABC News/Ipsos survey released Sunday shows 76 percent of respondents preferring Biden 'consider all possible nominees' compared to just 23 percent who said they want him to 'consider only nominees who are Black women, as he has pledged to do.'

Biden's promise even failed to gain much traction among Democrat voters, 54 percent of whom said they wanted the president to find the best person for the role regardless of race. The number is even smaller among nonwhite voters, at 28 percent.

But one unlikely ally the president has is Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who said even his party was making a 'real effort' to find more women and minorities for key spots.

'Put me in the camp of making sure the court and other institutions look like America. You know, we make a real effort as Republicans to recruit women and people of color to make the party look more like America. Affirmative action is picking somebody not as well qualified for past wrongs,' Graham said on CBS News this Sunday.
'Humiliating' and 'belittling' messages from The Project's political guru Peter van Onselen were part of a 'toxic' culture of bullying at Network Ten, a bombshell lawsuit claims.

But when Ten's Canberra Press Gallery reporter Tegan George complained, she alleges in court documents that a boss told her: 'Peter is bats*** crazy but we just have to get used to it.'

Ms George was left 'anxious and distressed' to the point of 'vomiting' because of the stress, according to her lawsuit against Ten filed at the Federal Court on Tuesday.

Ms George joined the station in 2011 and started the new role in 2019 but has been on leave since June 2021 allegedly suffering 'personal injury' brought on by 'stress to the point of incapacity', the lawsuit alleged.

Channel 10's Political Editor Peter Van Onselen has been named in legal action brought against the network by one of its reporters, Tegan George

Tegan George (pictured) has worked for the channel since 2019 as a political reporter in the press gallery but has been on leave since June 2021 suffering a 'personal injury' brought on by 'stress to the point of incapacity'

While she was off work though, George claims that van Onselen allegedly wrote a 'passive aggressive' group email to colleagues that he was having to pick up her slack.

'Tegan has extended her leave by another week,' part of the email said, the lawsuit claims. 'As mentioned I'm covering this weekend anyway.

'It will be my 15th straight day working so Alex has very kindly offered to double check my work!!!'

Van Onselen is one of several senior employees named in the lawsuit which claims the station failed to provide a safe working environment.

On Wednesday, van Onselen told Virginia Trioli on ABC Radio Melbourne that the lawsuit had been leaked to the media by Ms George's camp.

In her statement filed to the court, Ms George also claims Network Ten's Political Editor would 'background' against her to other journalists.

When she complained to her bosses about the 'rude and hostile' environment, executive editor Anthony Murdoch allegedly told her to deal with the 'toxic' culture.

George was allegedly then made to apologise for 'hurting his feelings' by making the accusations, according to her lawsuit.

Van Onselen is alleged to have rejected her complaint about feeling 'unsupported, disrespected and unwelcome' at the Canberra Bureau by saying he 'did not give a s***' how she was feeling'.

The controversy for the veteran reporter comes just a week after he copped a fiery backlash for criticising 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame for refusing to smile when she greeted Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Australia Day at The Lodge.

Channel 10 Political Editor Peter van Onselen found himself under attack after labelling Grace Tame 'ungracious, rude and childish' following her awkward encounter with Scott Morrison (pictured) at The Lodge last week

In her claim, the female reporter also alleges in the lawsuit that she often had to write van Onselen's TV news packages on top of her own work she was already doing.

News director Ross Dagan allegedly told her 'words to the effect that Mr van Onselen was the Network's number one and said that they were all expected to build Mr van Onselen's brand', George's statement said.

Worried about the workload her and another female colleague were under, a manager at the station allegedly replied: 'What did you even do today? Painting your nails and drinking herbal tea?'

On occasions where Ms George performed well in her job, she claims van Onselen would attempt to undermine her.

Network Ten Federal political reporter Tegan George (pictured) has launched legal action in the Federal Court against her employer, accusing it of breaching the Fair Work Act

The lawsuit alleges the script of a federal government scoop was sent to Minister Greg Hunt's office behind her back, prompting him to demand changes and ruining her exclusive.

It also claims The Project host 'publicly reprimanded' her for not sending him her script days prior to her interview with Scott Morrison which received half a million views.

Just a month before she says she was forced to take personal leave, the situation came to a head after she allegedly overheard a conversation in Network Ten's Parliament House bureau.

George claims The Project host directed these tweets towards - but didn't mention her by name

The lawsuit says says she was allegedly pressured into making a statement after she overheard a Network Ten employee and a freelance camera operator make 'a sexist remark about another employee'.

The Network allegedly threatened her with disciplinary action if she did not speak up and make a report.

It's alleged van Onselen then wrote a tweet she says was aimed at her on the topic of sexual harassment: 'There should also be obligations on employees who witness it to report it, not cover it up.'

After an emotional meeting between Ten management and the media union in September, the lawsuit claims Van Onselen again tweeted about her, quoting a poem about 'crying wolf' and 'looking for sympathy'.

Van Onselen declined to discuss the case on ABC Radio Melbourne on Wednesday and told host Virginia Trioli: 'The statement of claim has been leaked, presumably by the other side, so I cant comment.'

Network Ten will file a defence to the claims at a later date
A cruise line has diverted a second ship to the Bahamas in the past month to avoid a warrant in Miami over a $1.2 million unpaid fuel bill.

The company Crystal Cruises was forced to change their itinerary for the Crystal Serenity following an order from a judge last month to seize another one of their ships if it entered US waters.

The Crystal Serenity was originally scheduled to take about 200 passengers on a three-and-a-half month expedition before the company announced it would suspend operations through April only two days after leaving Miami on January 17.

Passengers were initially told the ship would end the cruise in Aruba but was diverted to the island of Bimini after local officials did not allow the ship to dock there over the weekend.

The cruise line then ferried the passengers to Fort Lauderdale where they were put up in hotel rooms.

The passengers will be reimbursed for any applicable airline change fees, according to Crystal Cruises spokesman Vance Gulliksen.

'There are simply no words to express our deep regret and disappointment,' the company's statement said.

The cruise line's parent company, Genting Hong Kong, has been struggling with the effects of the pandemic on its shipping and cruise businesses.

The Crystal Serenity was the second ship to be diverted by the company Crystal Cruises after the cruise line announced they would be suspending operations until April

The Crystal Serenity was forced to divert to Bimini on January 22 where passengers were then docked and ferried to Fort Lauderdale

The boat was forced to reroute to Bimini as a judge threatened to seize the company's ships if they entered US waters as they currently have $1.2 million in unpaid fuel bills

The ship that had a seizure order, Crystal Symphony, was supposed to return to Miami on January 22, but instead changed its course to Bimini, also offloading and ferrying passengers to Fort Lauderdale.

A federal judge overseeing a lawsuit that accuses the cruise line of failing to pay $4.6 million for fuel issued the warrant for the Crystal Symphony on January 20.

The maritime order authorizes US Marshals to board a vessel and take charge once it approaches the U.S. coast.

In the complaint filed in a Miami federal court last month, Peninsula Petroleum Far East lists sales totaling $2.2 million of fuel to Crystal Serenity that were not paid.

Gulliksen said there is no warrant against the Crystal Serenity.

Some passengers on the voyage, which would have ended in California in late May, said they were glad to leave.

'I'm delighted to be off that ship,' said Barry Shulman, 75, of Las Vegas.

The company announced it was suspending operations through late April to 'provide Crystal's management team with an opportunity to evaluate the current state of business and examine various options moving forward.'

The Crystal Symphony left Miami on January 8 for its two-week cruise, and everything unfolded smoothly until Wednesday, when Crystal Cruises unexpectedly announced that it was suspending operations at least through April.

'This was an extremely difficult decision but a prudent one given the current business environment and recent developments with our parent company, Genting Hong Kong,' said Jack Anderson, Crystal's president, in a statement on the decision to cease all cruises.

British musician Elio Pace told DailyMail.com that the news stunned the passengers and crew, but that operations continued as normal, and that he even delivered his musical performance as scheduled.

'That was quite extraordinary, to be in a position to have to perform to people, with them knowing the cruise line has gone into liquidation,' he said. 'This was a shock to everybody when we got the announcement on Wednesday.'

The Crystal Symphony is seen docked in Bimini after diverting from its scheduled call in Miami

Elio Pace, a British musician performing on board the Crystal Symphony, told DailyMail.com that there are currently about 300 passengers aboard the ship, which can carry up to 900, as well as 400 crew

Instead of continuing to Miami as planned, the ship veered east to Bimini. The Genting Group owns Resorts World Bimini, and the Crystal Symphony is flagged in the Bahamas.

The diversion came as a shock to passengers, said Pace, who boarded the ship on Tuesday and had expected to continue delivering guest performances through next month.

Now, the passengers are waiting overnight for a ferry to arrive at 8.30am on Saturday, to take them on a two-hour trip to Fort Lauderdale.

'For me it's a headache, but for the crew, for the staff, the brilliant staff of this gorgeous luxury liner, I feel more sorry for them,' Pace said. 'I'm put out, but they've lost their jobs for the foreseeable future.'

Malaysian tycoon Lim Kok Thay controls the Genting Group

Pace put the blame for the fiasco squarely on the Genting Group, which is part of a bigger conglomerate that also includes Genting Malaysia and Genting Singapore.

The company, controlled by Malaysian tycoon Lim Kok Thay, has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Pace questioned why the ownership group couldn't pay what they owed or face the consequences in Miami, in order to avoid the massive inconvenience to their guests.

'They can afford to look after these people,' he said. 'On a human level, why do people behave like this, why can't they help?'

'I can't understand why these multi-billionaires don't care, they just don't care,' he added.

The Genting Group owns the Resorts World leisure park chain as well as 30 casinos across the UK.

The company's finances were tipped into ruin after the German government this week rejected its request to draw a $88 million backstop facility related to the MV Werften shipyard in northeastern Germany.

German officials blamed Genting for refusing to contribute 10 percent to a $678 million bailout plan that would protect 1,900 jobs at the shipyard.

The shipyard filed for bankruptcy, and the events triggered the insolvency application Monday of another shipyard it owns in Germany, Lloyd-Werft in Bremerhaven.

Genting reported a $238 million net loss for the period ending June 2021, as compared to a $742.6 loss million for the same period in 2020.

Genting Hong Kong reportedly halted payments on debts of almost $3.4 billion in 2020.

'The Company and the Group have no access to any further liquidity under any of Group's debt documents and the Company's available cash balances are expected to run out on or around end of January 2022 according to the Company's cashflow forecasts,' Genting said in its Wednesday filing.
Ruth Neave (pictured in 2016) stood trial at Northampton Crown Court for Rikki's murder in 1996 and was cleared by the jury

The mother of murdered schoolboy Rikki Neave told a court today that she had taken cannabis and amphetamines but was 'horrified' to be jailed for child cruelty.

The body of six-year-old Rikki was found in woods in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in November 1994, after the child was strangled, stripped naked and left in a 'star pose'.

His mother Ruth Neave stood trial at Northampton Crown Court for his murder in 1996 and was cleared by the jury, but she later admitted abusing her children and was jailed for seven years.

Rikki's death remained a mystery for more than 20 years until a DNA breakthrough allegedly pointing to James Watson, a local boy who was seen with the victim on the day he went missing.

Watson, who would have been 13 at the time, was arrested after sophisticated technology found a 'definitive match' between his DNA profile and samples taken from Rikki's clothing after a new investigation was opened into the case in 2015.

Now aged 40, he is standing trial at the Old Bailey and denies Rikki's murder.

Ms Neave was cross-examined via video-link today by Watson's barrister Jennifer Dempster QC, who asked why she admitted child cruelty.

Ms Dempster said: 'You told the jury last Thursday that you got told to plead guilty, that you were bullied into it, you did not know what you were pleading guilty to. Why did you plead guilty?'

Ms Neave replied: 'I thought I was pleading guilty to just smacking the children and that's it.'

Ms Dempster asked: 'You were told if you do not plead guilty to the cruelty charges you may go away for the murder for a very long time?

'And so it comes to this that you now say in 2022 you were not guilty of the cruelty and neglect charges, save that you smacked your children from time to time?'

Court artist sketch of Ruth Neave, mother of Rikki Neave, appearing via video link at the Old Bailey, London

Ms Neave said: 'Yes, it is actually, if you don't mind.'

The lawyer said: 'That, Ms Neave, is nonsense.'

The witness replied: 'It is not nonsense.'

Ms Dempster went on: 'The judge told you you were guilty of appalling and systematic cruelty to your children, and he was right.

'The judge described you as wholly unfit to be a mother, and that's the truth.

'The judge told you that the harm you had done to your children was incalculable.'

The body of six-year-old Rikki was found in woods in Peterborough

Ms Neave repeatedly denied the barrister's claims.

Ms Dempster said: 'The judge told you he had to impose a sentence to reflect just how serious your offending was.

'What sentence were you expecting for the cruelty?'

The witness replied: 'Probation, that's what I got told by my solicitor.'

Ms Dempster said: 'You must have been horrified when the judge sentenced you to seven years' imprisonment because in your mind all you had done was smacked your children?'

Ms Neave, who has had no contact with her children since, replied: 'To put it bluntly, yeah.'

She told the court that she started to take drugs such as amphetamines in 1993 when she met Dean Neave, and started dealing herself.

'Oh I was dealing drugs yeah,' she said, 'To put food on the table.'

Ms Dempster read out a statement of Ms Neave's which said, regarding how she dealt drugs: 'Some people came to my house and others wouldn't. I would have to meet others at the park and give them drugs.'

She told the court today: 'I never said that. That is not my wording.'

Ms Dempster went on to suggest that Ms Neave had taken drugs on Sunday November 27, the evening before Rikki went missing, when Dean Neave was visiting her.

'Nope. I don't have to think, I know I never took any that night,' the mother replied. 'Let's make this clear - I never took drugs on that night or any other night after that.'

The barrister continued that Dr Wood, who met with Ms Neave in August 1996, recorded her saying that she had last had speed on that Sunday afternoon.

'No no no,' Ms Neave said. 'I don't believe that for one second I would say that.'

Ms Dempster went on: 'One of the things you told police during the course of your interview was that you had bought, on Sunday 27th, four or five wraps of amphetamine for Dean and his friends.'

'Yes,' Ms Neave replied, 'But it was nothing to do with me.'

'He gave me the money to get them. I never bought them and I never had the money.'

Watson, now aged 40, of no fixed address, has denied Rikki's murder.
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A huge swath of the U.S. is preparing for another major winter storm that is expected to dump heavy snow in the Rockies, ice over highways, disrupt travel across the Midwest and plunge temperatures below freezing in Texas just days after the East Coast was hit with up to 30 inches of snow.

Twenty one states are forecasted to face winter storms this week with 85 million people being placed under winter weather alerts stretching 2,000 miles from the Rockies to New England.

Storm Landon follows a vicious nor'easter that brought blizzard conditions to many parts of the East, winter storm Kenan. Residents in the Northeast are still shoveling their way out of last weekend's storm which blasted most of the East Coast with blizzard-like conditions.

Gusty winds and falling temperatures sent the East Coast into a deep freeze over the weekend with people still working to dig themselves out after the powerful nor'easter dumped mounds of snow, flooded coastlines and knocked out power to tens of thousands.

Parts of the Massachusetts island of Nantucket are underwater and neighborhoods outside of Boston recorded up to 30.9 inches of snow by the end of Saturday, but despite the cold temperatures, most of the snow left over from Storm Kenan has melted as another region of the U.S. braces for a winter storm.

A major winter storm is expected to affect a huge swath of the United States impacting 85 million Americans

Most of the East Coast was hit with blizzard-like conditions over the weekend (Pictured: Flood waters have receded along the Nantucket shore, as buildings remain caked in ice following flooding by storm-driven seawater)

Storm Kenan hit the Northeast the hardest with some neighborhoods around Boston recording 30 inches of snow (Pictured: A high-water mark of ice shows where flooding occurred along the Nantucket shore)

Much of New England has thawed since the weekend's stormy weather as temperatures have continued to rise (Pictured: Houses along Washington Street on Nantucket, remain caked in ice following flooding by storm-driven seawater)

The Northeast has begun to recover from the heavy snow, freezing temperatures, strong winds and coastal flooding (Pictured: Buildings by Nantucket harbor are covered in inches of snow and ice after Storm Kenan)

A street sign warns drivers of ice prevention operations on highways ahead of winter weather in Dallas on Tuesday

It has been projected that half of the current snow pack in the Northeast will melt by Friday.

Winter storm watches and warnings are covering a wide swath of the country from El Paso, Texas, through the Midwest and parts of the Northeast to Burlington, Vermont.

During the multiday storm this week, some areas may see a mix of rain and freezing rain before it changes to snow. Parts of the Midwest could see more than a foot of snow, potentially bringing the most snow some areas have seen in a century.

'Heavy snow will begin in the Rockies spreading across the Midwest on Tuesday night through Wednesday, where some areas could see 15 to 20 inches of snow,' said CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen.

Two rounds of snow are forecasted to hit the area the first beginning Tuesday night and the second coming in on Thursday.

The National Weather Service said 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of snow was expected by Thursday morning in parts of the Rockies and Midwest, while heavy ice is likely from Texas through the Ohio Valley.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the weather service said 8 to 14 inches (20 to 36 centimeters) of snow was possible in parts of Michigan, including Detroit. From Wednesday through Friday morning, 9 to 14 inches (23 to 36 centimeters) of snow was forecast in northwestern Ohio.

Forecasters predict heavy snow starting in the Rockies and freezing rain as far south as Texas before it drops snow and ice on the Midwest starting on Tuesday

'Toledo could be looking at their biggest snowfall in 100 years,' said CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller. 'The National Weather Service forecast is for 16 inches, which would rank second behind 20.2 inches in 1900.'

Chicago could see snow falling at an inch per hour at some points drastically reducing visibility.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, where up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) of snow and sleet are forecast but little ice, emergency management director Joe Kralicek said the event is not expected to cause large-scale power outages based on an ice index used by the National Weather Service.

'We could see some power outages, however, it's also suggesting that they be limited in scope and nature and very short term in duration,' Kralicek said.

Becky Gligo, director of the nonprofit Housing Solutions in Tulsa said teams are working to move homeless people into shelters ahead of overnight lows that are expected to drop into single digits by Friday night.

As the storm rolls in, the South is expected to freeze with leaving icy roads and conditions throughout cities before several inches of snow comes. The ice could highly disrupt unprepared Southern cities.

Parts of the Midwest could see more snow than they have in the last century with over a foot of snow being forecasted

The South is bracing for ice storms which could disrupt travel in cities that are not accustomed to such low temperatures

As some of the snowfall and ice have melted, parts of the Northeast are expected to be hit with more freezing temperatures (Pictured: A pair of statues on Candle Street on Nantucket are covered in snow after the weekend's storm)

'Looks very messy for the mid-South with several hours of freezing rain and sleet across the area. Some of the totals are downright nasty,' the weather service said.

The blast of winter weather in the West comes nearly a year after a catastrophic freeze that devastated Texas' power grid and knocked power out for days, causing hundreds of deaths in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history.

The forecast this week, however, does not call for the same prolonged and frigid temperatures like the February 2021 storm.

'No one can guarantee that there won't be any' outages caused by demand on the grid, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a briefing in Austin, where state officials defended their readiness for the days ahead. 'But what we will work to achieve, and what we're prepared to achieve is that power is going to stay on across the entire state.'

In November, Abbott told Austin television station KTBC ahead of winter that 'I can guarantee the lights will stay on.'

Abbott, whose handling of last year's blackouts is a top line of attack for Democrats as the Republican seeks a third term in 2022, said thousands of miles of roads in Texas will become 'extraordinarily dangerous' over the coming days.

But he said the state's power grid had enough capacity to handle the expected surge in demand this week once temperatures plummet.

'The question has always been if we get a repeat of last year, would the power stay on? And this is nowhere near a repeat of last year,' said Doug Lewin, an energy consultant in Austin who has criticized Texas' response to the blackouts as insufficient.
The family of a Kansas mother charged with joining the Islamic State group and leading an all-female battalion armed with AK-47s says they want nothing to do with her, a federal prosecutor said on Monday.

Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, made an initial appearance on Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The hearing lasted only minutes; she was ordered to remain in jail pending a detention hearing set for Thursday afternoon, and an attorney was appointed to represent her.

At the end of the hearing, though, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh told the judge that he had been in contact with Fluke-Ekren's parents and her adult children, and all had said they wanted no contact with her.

The magistrate judge, Ivan Davis, said he had little ability to keep her from reaching out to her family from jail, but told Fluke-Ekren he would take it into account at Thursday's hearing if she contacted her family against their wishes.

Fluke-Ekren, speaking in a soft-spoken voice and wearing an inmate jumpsuit and headscarf, said she understood the restriction. She also told the judge, in response to his question, that she preferred to be addressed as Ekren.

The Justice Department used her full name, Allison Fluke-Ekren, when it announced charges against her of providing and conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.

Meanwhile, Fluke-Ekren's former high school teacher-turned-friend, Larry Miller, shared memories of her as a teenager and later as a young woman, revealing that she was a stellar student at Topeka Collegiate in the early 1990s, had a keen interest in science, photography and nature, and wanted to become a teacher herself.

'I would just like for people to know that that's not the person I knew when I knew her,' Miller told The Capital-Journal on Monday.

A former friend told ABC News the woman was 'highly intelligent' but had been radicalized when she lived overseas.

Fluke-Ekren was described as a 'marksman' who 'fantasized' about an attack on the U.S. and who 'liked being in charge.'

'She was highly intelligent ... She liked being in charge, she liked running her own show and making her own decisions,' said the former friend, who agreed to be identified only by Farouk, her last name.

According to Farouk, who last had contact with her former friend 10 years ago, Ekren grew up on a farm and was an 'extremely good shooter.' She described Ekren as a 'good mom' but that her radicalization caused a divide in her family.

This undated photo provided by the Alexandria, Virginia, Sheriff's Office in January 2022 shows Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, who is accused of joining ISIS and leading an all-female battalion of AK-47 wielding militants

Fluke-Ekren, who once lived in Kansas, moved with her husband and four children to Egypt in 2008 and traveled frequently between Egypt and the US over the next three years

Fluke-Ekren is pictured with her family riding camels and horses at the foot of the pyramids in Egypt. She later relocated to Syria, allegedly to join Islamic extremists

A prosecutor told a federal judge on Monday Fluke-Ekren's adult children and her parents said they wanted no contact with her

'I told people who she was friends with in Kansas, I told them, '''This girl is radicalized,'" Farouk told ABC.

'She was very sympathetic toward the Islamic states, and how they were doing the right thing and how we needed to, you know, support the women and children, that sort of stuff.

'I think that she really felt people were being harmed by a larger force. And she felt the need, she had to jump in.'

When she observed Ekren's new behaviors, she told others about it but was dismissed.

'And they told me, ''No, that's not true. How can you say that?''' Farouk said. 'And it made me like, it really made me second guess myself. And you start to believe like, 'Oh, you know, maybe, maybe I'm crazy.'''

'I was thinking, '''This is not good.''' I had seen it, watched her transformation," she added.

Prosecutors say Ekren wanted to recruit operatives to attack a college campus in the U.S. and discussed the idea of attacking a shopping mall by remotely detonating a car full of explosives in the parking garage.

She told one witness that 'she considered any attack that did not kill a large number of individuals to be a waste of resources,' according to an FBI affidavit.

The same witness said that when Fluke-Ekren would hear about terrorist attacks taking place in countries outside the U.S., she would comment that she wished the attack occurred on American soil instead.

The affidavit also alleges Ekren, who went by the names 'Umm Mohammed al-Amriki,' 'Umm Mohammed,' and 'Umm Jabril,' became leader of an Islamic State unit called 'Khatiba Nusaybah' in the Syrian city of Raqqa in late 2016.

The all-female unit comprised of the wives of male ISIS fighters was trained in the use of AK-47 rifles, grenades and suicide belts.

The members of Khatiba Nusaybah were allegedly instructed on physical training, medical training, Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device driving courses, religious classes and how to pack and prepare a 'go bag' with military supplies. According to eyewitness accounts, some of these classes were allegedly taught by Fluke-Ekren.

Prosecutors say Fluke-Ekren (pictured with her family) wanted to recruit operatives to attack a college campus in the U.S. and discussed a terrorist attack on a shopping mall

FBI alleges Fluke-Ekren, aka 'Umm Mohammed al-Amriki,' 'Umm Mohammed,' and 'Umm Jabril,' became a leader of an all-female ISIS unit called 'Khatiba Nusaybah' in the Syrian city of Raqqa in 2016

She also allegedly provided ISIS and ISIS members with services, which included providing lodging, translating speeches made by ISIS leaders, training children on the use of AK-47 assault rifles and suicide belts and teaching extremist ISIS doctrine, prosecutors said.

One witness allegedly observed that the leaders of ISIS and the other members of the military battalion were proud to have an American instructor.

A detention memo stated that Fluke-Ekren trained children how to use assault rifles, and that at least one witness saw one of Fluke-Ekren's children, approximately 5 or 6 years old, holding a machine gun in the family's home in Syria.

In all, the affidavit cites observations from six different witnesses, including some who have been charged with terrorism offenses and some who were held at prison camps for former Islamic state members.

'Fluke-Ekren has been a fervent believer in the radical terrorist ideology of ISIS for many years, having traveled to Syria to commit or support violent jihad. Fluke-Ekren translated her extremist beliefs into action by serving as the appointed leader and organizer of an ISIS military battalion, directly training women and children in the use of AK-47 assault rifles, grenades, and suicide belts to support the Islamic States murderous aims,' Parekh wrote.

According to court papers, Ekren moved to Egypt in 2008 and traveled frequently between Egypt and the US over the next three years. She has not been in the US since 2011. Prosecutors believe she moved to Syria around 2012.

In early 2016, her husband was killed in the Syrian city of Tell Abyad while trying to carry out a terrorist attack, prosecutors said. Later that year, prosecutors say she married a Bangladeshi ISIS member who specialized in drones, but he died in late 2016 or early 2017.

Four months after that man's death, she again remarried a prominent Islamic state leader who was responsible for the Islamic State group's defense of Raqqa.

Fluke-Ekren, a teacher by trade, allegedly helped train female ISIS members and their children in the use of AK-47 rifles, grenades and suicide belts

Fluke-Ekren (pictured with school children) was quoted as telling a witness that she wanted to die as a martyr in Syria

She told one witness in 2018 that she instructed a person in Syria to tell Fluke-Ekren's family she was dead so the U.S. government would not try to find her, according to Parekh's memo.

'Fluke-Ekren informed this same witness and others that it was important to kill the kuffar (disbelievers) and die as martyrs on behalf of ISIS in Syria,' the memo alleges. 'The witness also heard Fluke-Ekren state that she never wanted to return to the United States and that she wanted to die in Syria as a martyr.'

Photos from a family blog called 4KansasKids show her and her children in the years they traveled between Kansas and Egypt, posing at the base of the pyramids in Egypt and playing in the snow in the U.S.

A 2004 article about homeschooling in the Lawrence Journal-World featured Fluke-Ekren and her children. She told the paper she pulled her kids from public school because she was dissatisfied with how her children were performing in public and private schools. Homeschooling allowed her to teach Arabic to her kids.

Larry Miller told The Capital Journal that he first met Fluke-Ekren, then known as Allison Brooks, in the early 1990s, when he taught her science at Topeka Collegiate School.

'Never would any of us who knew her back then ever thought she would end up as she has today,' Miller said.

Miller, who is now retired, told the paper that as a student, Fluke-Ekren 'was good at everything.' He described her then as a 'pleasant young lady' who shared many of his own interests, including nature and photography.

The two kept in touch over the years, and Fluke-Ekren even hired Miller to be her wedding photographer.

In 2008, Miller said Fluke-Ekren sent him an email, writing to him that she was happily married with four children, and that she was pursuing a Master's degree in teaching in Indiana.

Some time after that, Fluke-Ekren reached out to Miller again, asking him if he knew of any teaching positions in Kansas. Miller said he told her of one job opportunity, to which she applied and was hired, but instead she moved with her then-husband and children to Egypt.

Fluke-Ekren's final Facebook post, dated May 5, 2008, reads: 'Moving to Egypt. I'm a little behind the curve, but trying to learn how to use Facebook. =-) Well, after years of planning and preparing, we are moving out of the States. We'll be in Cairo, Egypt, insha'Allah. I am teaching kindergarten, and my husband will be going to Al Azhar [University]. The kids are excited, but nervous, as am I. Any prayers would be greatly appreciated!'
Thousands of Australians' lives and homes are under threat as two bushfires rages in Western Australia.

Residents in the semi-rural suburb of Martin, near Gosnells and the Korung National Park in Perth's southeast, are being warned to act immediately as a fire approaches a residential area.

Firefighters are battling the blaze which is uncontained and moving in a northwesterly direction.

Thousands of Australians are in danger as two bushfires rage in Western Australia

Affected residents should leave now if the path is clear or prepare to shelter in their homes, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said on Tuesday evening.

An emergency warning has also been issued for people on rural properties west of Mullalyup State Forest near Kirup, about 220km south of Perth.

'You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive. There is a threat to lives and homes,' the department said.

'The alert level for this fire has been upgraded as the situation has escalated and the fire is moving towards farms and homes.'
Kayleigh McEnany has turned over text messages to the House committee probing the January 6 Capitol riot while some of Donald Trump's White House documents had to be taped back together to send to the panel.

A source familiar with Mcenany's interaction with the panel told ABC News in a Tuesday report that texts turned over from her phone were used in a recent letter sent to Ivanka Trump seeking her compliance.

According to the records, Fox News host Sean Hannity texted McEnany: '1 - no more stolen election talk. 2- Yes, impeachment and the 25th amendment are real and many people will quit.'

'Love that. Thank you. That is the playbook. I will help reinforce....,' McEnany replied.

McEneny, who served as Trump's final press secretary, was subpoenaed in November by the panel seeking her records and testimony and she joins a growing list of former and current Trump aides to cooperate with the probe.

Since leaving the White House, McEnany has joined Fox News and is co-host of Outnumbered alongside Harris Faulkner and Emily Compagno.

The panel subpoenaed 10 people in November, including McEnany, who now appears to be complying.

A source familiar with her testimony told ABC that McEnany appeared for hours virtually before the panel on January 13  the same day she did not appear on her midday Fox program.

Trump claims however, that there should be an investigation of former Vice President Mike Pence for not sending the Electoral College votes back to the states. He said in a Tuesday statement that if Pence had taken this action, there would not have been an attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Former Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany testified before the select committee probing the January 6 Capitol attack and handed over text messages that were used in a letter from the panel to Ivanka Trump, a source revealed Tuesday

In addition to the text messages, investigators are expected to receive McEnany's White House files from the National Archives.

Trump tried unsuccessfully to prevent the Archives from sharing the documents with Congress.

Trump asked Rudy Giuliani to call Homeland Security to see if they could seize voting machines six weeks after the Presidential election Former President Donald Trump ordered lawyer Rudy Giuliani to call the Department of Homeland Security to see if they could seize voting machines in key states in an attempt to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election, new accounts have shown. Mr Giuliani made the call six weeks after the election to the department's acting deputy secretary, who told the president's lawyer that he lacked the authority to seize the machines, according to The New York Times. Evidence presented to the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot has also found that Trump drafted two executive orders - one directing the Department of Defense (DOD) to seize the machines. The other assigned the task to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), multiple sources told CNN Monday. While it is unclear who drafted the executive orders, insiders claim the idea to use the federal government to access voting machines in states Trump lost came from retired Col. Phil Waldron and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser whom he pardoned after being convicted for lying to the FBI. The National Archives has provided the executive order requesting the DOD seize the machines to the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. It is unclear if the committee has obtained the second version of the document, which instructs the DHS to conduct the task, however, numerous people have confirmed the order does exist. Advertisement

Some of the papers handed over to the select committee were taped together by National Archives staff because they had been ripped up, the agency revealed in a statement.

'Some of the Trump presidential records received by the National Archives and Records Administration included paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump,' the Archives told CNN without explaining how it was known that Trump was the individual who defaced the records.

'These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump Administration, along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House,' the Archives said. 'The Presidential Records Act requires that all records created by presidents be turned over to the National Archives at the end of their administrations.'

News of McEnaney's testimony and document hand-over makes at least seven known Trump world individuals who have complied with the panel.

Ben Williamson, who was senior advisor to Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Keith Kellogg Vice President Mike Pence's National Security Advisor, John Eastman, Trump's lawyer; and Taylor Budowich, who still serves in Trump's communications shop have all complied in some form.

Meadows is considered to be in partial compliance because he did hand over documents before deciding to no longer cooperate with the panel.

Trump ally Steve Bannon and Meadows have openly challenged the committee's subpoenas. This resulted in Congress holding them in contempt and issuing criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, which has not yet acted.

Pence's Chief of Staff Marc Short also testified before the House committee last week, a Monday CNN report revealed.

Short's hearing with the House select committee signals further willingness by Pence's team to cooperate with the investigation.

He testified for hours in-person at the Capitol last Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter revealed . It followed a subpoena and months of discussions between Short's attorney Emmet Flood and lawyers on the committee.

The panel is still unsure if Pence will testify but the committee is in early talks with his legal team seeking some form of cooperation.

Multiple sources claim Pence would prefer his aides act as a 'proxy' so the former VP doesn't have to appear.

Trump insists it's Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who should be under investigation for the January 6 attack.

'If it were sent back to the legislators, or if Nancy Pelosi, who is in charge of Capitol security, had taken my recommendation and substantially increased security, there would have been no 'January 6' as we know it!' Trump wrote in a Tuesday morning statement.

Trump released a statement Tuesday morning claiming former Vice President Mike Pence should be investigated for not sending Electoral College votes back to the states. He also said there would be 'no January 6 as we know it' if Pence had taken this action

He added: 'Therefore, the Unselect Committee should be investigating why Nancy Pelosi did such a poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!'

Obtaining Short's testimony comes as the panel tries to get to the bottom of an alleged pressure campaign by then-President Donald Trump and his staff to get Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections.

Pence, as vice president and therefore president of the Senate, did not have the power to overturn the elections as Trump thought. His role in the certification process is to oversee Congress as it votes to uphold the Electoral College votes from each state, which ultimately ended up declaring Biden the winner.

Trump, it's reported, believes Pence could have unilaterally stopped Congress from certifying Biden's win, which the former president still claims was 'rigged' in an election riddled with 'fraud.'

The 45th president has repeatedly blamed his No. 2 for his election loss.

In a Sunday evening statement, Trump bluntly admitted for the first time that he was trying to use Pence to overturn the election result.

He pointed to efforts on Capitol Hill to change the Electoral Count Act, including firming up language to make clear the vice president is only there to count votes and can't override the will of the voters.

'Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away,' Trump wrote in his statement from his Save America PAC email. 'Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!'

Former Vice President Mike Pence's White House Chief of Staff Marc Short (left) quietly testified last Wednesday before the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, a source told CNN

Trump argued, 'If the Vice President (Mike Pence) had 'absolutely no right' to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election?'

Pence is speaking at the Federalist Society gathering in Florida this week and a source familiar with his thinking says he may respond to Trump's statements about him at that forum.

Trump said in a Sunday statement it's clear Pence could have overturned the election. He pointed to efforts on Capitol Hill to change the Electoral Count Act, including firming up the language to make clear that the vice president is only there to count votes and can't override the will of the voters

Vice presidents also act as presidents of the Senate when they are in office. They cannot override the Senate certifying presidential election results as reported by the Electoral College. Pictured: Pence on Capitol Hill for the election certification on January 6, 2021

A source close to Pence said of the potential to 'overturn' the results: 'There was a lot of pressure, but we always knew we were doing the right thing.'

Short was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and was also part of a White House meeting two days prior.

Before testifying last week, Short has already supplied subpoenaed documents to the committee, one source told CNN. This included a memo from Trump aide Johnny McEntee comparing the former president to Thomas Jefferson.

Another source familiar with Short's cooperation said it's typical witnesses will hand over additional documents when they testify before a congressional panel.
A Lauderhill police officer is accused of trying to coerce a homeless woman into performing a sexual act, and officials believe there may be more victims.

Officer Jamar Lee, 28, was charged after a nearly two-year investigation into his encounter with the victim, described in a police report as a woman driving a Saturn that was parked outside a closed Dunkin Donuts in the 1500 block of North State Road 7 after 3 a.m. on Feb. 25, 2020.

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According to the arrest report, Lee ordered the woman to follow him to the 4000 block of Northwest 16th Street so he could consult with other officers. The woman complied, but when they arrived, no one else was there, the report states.

After complimenting the woman on her looks and brushing his hand along the victims hip and leg, according to the report, Lee asked, What are you going to do for me if I let you go? He then allegedly guided the womans hand to his crotch and asked for oral sex, promising the woman money and a place to stay if she remained quiet.

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[ IN OTHER NEWS: State finds Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony lied about his murder arrest and much more. But he wont be prosecuted. ]

The woman got away when Lee asked her to follow him to a second location, according to the report.

Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. >

Throughout the incident, the defendant failed to advise dispatch of his contact with the victim and also failed to activate his body worn camera, according to the report.

Investigators using the GPS on Lees patrol car were able to confirm the locations given by the woman.

The arrest report also hints there are other victims, but no details were disclosed. The defendant met multiple women on calls for service and used a second cell phone to contact them in attempts to arrange sexual encounters, the report states. No other charges have been filed other than the ones stemming from the Feb. 2020 incident.

The charges were filed in December 2021  one count of battery, a misdemeanor, and one count of unlawful compensation, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Lee has been suspended without pay since the charges were filed, said his lawyer, Johnny McCray, who denied the allegations.

We are confident he not only will be acquitted, but vindicated as well, McCray said.

[ IN OTHER NEWS: Daughter of former Broward mayor gets prison in COVID fraud case ]

Lee was with the Lauderhill Police Department for just a year and two months at the time of the incident, McCray said. In that time he had received more than one officer-of-the-month recommendation. He is also an Army veteran and was honorably discharged. Lee is a former corrections deputy with the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office for almost three years, McCray said.

Rafael Olmeda may be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-304-5256. Follow him on Twitter @rolmeda.
The elite $60,000-a-year Collegiate School in New York City, the oldest private school in the nation, spent three years debating its winking Dutchman mascot and motto - 'Unless God, then in vain' - and decided to go woke and kill off the symbols because they could be considered offensive.

The Upper West Side school, which taught John F. Kennedy Jr. and actor David Duchovny, began looking into its mascot and motto in 2019, ultimately considering both potentially offensive after releasing a 407-page report in 2020.

After reviewing the report for two years, the 394-year-old institution refashioned its mascot last week to avoid feelings of excessive Eurocentrism, swapping out the winking Dutchman with a silhouetted colonial figure holding a lantern, instead of a figure with a peg leg often referred to as 'Peg Leg Pete' after Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New Amsterdam.

The school's motto was also altered to 'Wisdom, Community, Kindness' in Latin, and the school dropped A.D., meaning Year of our Lord, from its seal.

The change has drawn backlash from parents in the school, with one telling the New York Post: 'A lot of folks think the whole thing was just ridiculous overkill. Four hundred pages? For a mascot? A motto?'

It's the latest incident of NYC's elite schools going woke after several schools, like The Spence School and Grace Church School, openly supported the Black Lives Matter protests last year and were accused of teaching woke ideology and critical race theory to their students.

The Collegiate School's History and Symbols Task Force recommended the historic school get rid of it's winking Dutchman mascot due to its representation of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New Amsterdam. It was replaced with a colonial silhouette

The 394-year-old institution refashioned its mascot pics to be less Eurocentric because the previous version could have been considered offensive

Famous alumni of the prestigious school include John F. Kennedy Jr. and David Duchovny

The Collegiate School, the oldest private school in the nation, issued a 400 page report finding its winking Dutchman mascot and school motto to be potentially offensive

The school also decided to change its seal and drop A.D., meaning Year of our Lord in Latin, due to its religious connotations

PETER STUYVESANT: NEW YORK ICON TURNED PROBLEMATIC FIGURE Born in the Netherlands in 1592, Peter Stuyvesant was the son of a clergyman who was appointed to director-general of New Amsterdam in 1646. He consolidated power in the Dutch colony and helped it flourish from a population of 2,000 to 8,000, encouraging market and housing expansion during his eighteen year administration. He also ordered residents to observe mass and prohibited the sale of alcohol and weapons to Native Americans. Today, Manhattan is filled with references to the peg-legged governor, including Stuyvesant Square, Stuyvesant High School, and the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. But despite his celebrated history, Stuyvesant was intolerant of others' religions, prohibiting Jewish and Catholics from settling in the colony and placing meeting restrictions on Lutherans and Quakers. In 2017, Jewish protestors called on then-Mayor Bill de Blasio to remove Stuyvesant from all city property. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the head of the Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, told the New York Post, 'Peter Stuyvesant was an extreme racist who targeted Jews and other minorities including Catholics and energetically tried to prohibit them from settling in then New Amsterdam. 'New York, of all American cities, which boasts such important Jewish history and claims such a present day vibrant Jewish community, should take the lead in denouncing Stuyvesant's bigotry.' Advertisement

The woke report was published by the Collegiate School's History and Symbols Task Force (H&STF), which was composed of 17 members and led by James Solomon, an alumnus, and the Rev. John Vaughn, whose son attends the school.

Solomon, whose family has attended the school for three generations, said in the report that he was a proud Dutchman who never questioned any of our symbols but was open to the discussions.

The other members include Michael Bos, former president of Collegiate Churches of New York; Jesse Cohen, alumni director; Christopher Dennis, school's director of equity and diversity; Chinmay Deshpande, a student; Lucas Gimbel, a student; Kathryn Hill, the middle school history teacher; Thomas Jundt, the Upper School history teacher; John Kosner, president of the Alumni Association; Regina Lasko, a school board trustee and wife of David Letterman; Ricardo Melasecca, a student; Shashi Stapleton, a Lower School head teacher; Wayne Titus, a school board trustee; Raymond Voelkel, director of physical education and athletics; Rochelle Yu, president of the Parents Association, and Emily Zweilbel, a Lower School head teacher. The school's current president is David Lourie.

The task force surveyed more than 1,600 students, parents, faculty and alumni about its mascot, motto and seal.

'Through our outreach, the [task force] quickly discovered that Collegiate's symbols are ''flashpoints'' on charged topics such as race, religion and gender,' the task force wrote.

'Our process surfaced conversations already being had. The H&STF believes that its most consequential contribution is in having modeled potential ways to incorporate all ''voices'' (especially, among students) to address these challenging conversations through direct engagement and facilitated dialogue.'

School officials said both the new motto and logo design were voted on by 3,000 members of its community.

While the task force recommended the school keep its Dutchman name and colors, orange and blue, it suggested changing the image of the mascot because of its potential representation of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, who had a peg leg like the mascot.

The depiction of the mascot that is widely known today, with the peg leg and winking face, was designed by cartoonist Walt Kelly in the early 1900s.

In a 2019, a letter to the community was sent out to change the design of the mascot.

'We suggest a simple removal of the peg leg,' the task force wrote. 'Peter Stuyvesant was a vehement anti-Semite and ruled by hate and racism. Although, current students may not be personally offended by the mascot, is this the man we want to represent Collegiate? Do his values align with ours,' the letter read.

Through the task force's research, it found that overall, students, alumni and parents all viewed the previous mascot positively.

The positive outlooked changed, however, when they were then informed of the history of Peter Stuyvesant and his ties to slavery and anti-Semitism.

Nearly 25 percent of those surveyed said the mascot should be changed, but nearly the same amount said the mascot shouldn't be changed regardless of its tie to Stuyvesant.

More than 20 percent said they don't even think the mascot is Stuyvesant.

The school's History & Symbolism Task Force met throughout 2019 to discuss the school's mascot, motto and seal

Of the more than 1,600 people surveyed, most had viewed the Dutchman mascot positively

The nickname, Dutchmen, was always seen in a positive light

After learning about the mascot's possible portrayal of Peter Stuyvesant, about 25 percent of those surveyed thought it should change. Nearly the same amount believed it shouldn't

Members that made up the Collegiate School's History and Symbols Task Force Rev. Michael Box Christopher Dennis The Rev. Michael Bos was chosen for his role as the former president of Collegiate Churches of New York. Bos is a pastor, author and interfaith proponent who currently serves as senior minister at the Marble Collegiate Church. He has given lectures, sermons and speeches at the University of Cambridge to Ambassadors of the European Union and spoken at the Marble Collegiate Churches panel on racial justice in the U.S. during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Chinmay Deshpande John Kosner Regina Lasko Ricardo Melasecca Wayne Titus Raymond Voelkel Emily Zweilbel Rev. John Vaughn Lucas Gimbel Christopher Dennis had served as the Collegiate Schools director of equity and diversity in 2019. He has an extensive history working in education and race, previously working at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the student of color retention program. He has held multiple talks with alumni on how to help support more inclusion in the school. Chinmay Deshpande, 20, was a senior at the school in 2019, who excelled in the arts as he studied piano at the School for Strings in New York City and composition at the Mannes School of Music. He graduated in the class of 2020 Kathryn Hill serves as the middle school history teacher at the school. John Kosner, 61, of the class of 1978, serves as the president of the Alumni Association and is a four-decade veteran of sports media. He founded Kosner media in 2018. He is also a financial investor and advisor with 890 Fifth Avenue Partners, Inc., which oversaw IPOs for Buzzfeed, Apple News, Sportradar and other media companies. Regina Lasko, 61, the wife of David Letterman, is a member of the schools board of trustees. She works as a production manager and has been with Letterman for 35 years. The couple, who's networks is $400 million, married in 2010. Ricardo Melasecca, 20, was the Collegiate School Student Body President and one of the students who signed off on the 2019 letter asking the school to alter the mascot. He was also the head of the school's multicultural club and graduated in the class of 2020. He currently attends Cornell University studying government and economics. Shashi Stapleton serves as a lower school head teacher and 1st grad instructor. Wayne Titus serves as a school board trustee and has a son attending the elite institution. Titus himself graduated in the class of 1998. He has a long career in the tech industry, previously working for Google and Kayak. He currently works as a senior manager at Airtable, a software company that works with Netflix, Shopify and GitHub. Raymond Voelkel serves as the director of physical education and athletics for the school. Hes been with Collegiate for more than 40 years as a teacher, where he instructs physical education and coaches basketball. Rochelle Yu served as president of the Parents Association in 2019. Jesse Cohen was selected for his role as alumni director. Thomas Jundt serves as the upper school history teacher. James Solomon is an alumni of the class of 19883 and board member of the school. His family's legacy spans 80 years and three generations. He describes himself as a proud Dutchmen who had previously never questioned his school's symbols. Emily Zweilbel serves a lower school head teacher, instructing the 4th grade. The Rev. John Vaughn serves as vice president to the board of trustees and has a son who attends the prestigious school. Vaughn has been an outspoken member of New York's religious community during the Black Lives Matter movement and took part in a protest in 2015 after Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri. Lucas Gimbel, 19, was a writer for the school's Collegiate Journal who covered the push for the change of mascot in 2019. He graduated in the class of 2021. He currently attends Yale University where he founded the Decameron Project to help college students across the world share their writing online amid the pandemic. These 17 people comprised the Collegiate School's History and Symbols Task Force, who convened in 2019 to discuss and examine the school's symbols and imagery. The group sent out a survey to more than 5,000 members of the community, of which more than 1,600 answered back. The task force made its recommendations to chance the Dutchman mascot, the school's motto and the school's seal to avoid any imagery that might be offensive. School officials said both the new motto and logo design were voted on by 3,000 members of its community. Advertisement

'To be clear, the [task force] did not find a definitive answer on ''is it Peter Stuyvesant?'' Some have theorized the figure is a Dutch pirate, and point out that Stuyvesant had no known connection to the school,' the task force wrote.

'Yet, Stuyvesant's renown as an iconic Dutch colonist and the existence of a Peg Leg makes it a distinct possibility, if not likely, that he is the inspiration for the figure in Walt Kelly's [who originally designed the depiction].'

The task force also agreed to remove the motto and A.D. from its seal because of its religious connotations as the school moved toward more liberal beliefs in the church.

The Collegiate Church, which was once aligned with the Reformed Church of America (RCA), said it was distancing itself from the organization because of the RCA's previous statements condemning same-sex marriage as a sin.

The task force wrote: 'In deliberating its recommendation to the Board, the [task force] considered whether Collegiate should share a seal with the RCA, if our values are not aligned, such as on LGBTQ inclusion.

'The H&STF also felt that it is notable that the Collegiate Church, our original religious parent, no longer uses the RCA seal and motto. As per Reverend Bos, the Collegiate Church is part of the more progressive churches within the RCA, and has advocated for equality and inclusion.'

School officials stood by the taskforce's recommendations and the new changes, writing in a statement: 'This community worked diligently to design a process that was inclusive of our community, fully aware that a change such as this would garner a range of reactions.'

Some believed, however, that the school was going too far with its embrace of woke priorities, with one parent telling the Post: 'I think the administration is walking a thin line trying to keep everybody happy.'

The Collegiate School has rebranded its mascot and seal in the past, but the newest update is the most radical change to the traditional images

The Collegiate School is 394-years-old with depictions of it appearing in early America to the 21st century as a staple of New York City

The criticism against the Collegiate School comes a week after the all-girls Nightingale-Bamford School - where tuition is more than $56,000 a year - faced accusations of inviting Planned Parenthood to discuss reproductive education with students without parental consent.

Planned Parenthood's visit was seemingly part of Nightingale's effort to have students 'take control of their physical, emotional and social selves.'

It is unclear if participation in the Planned Parenthood workshop required parental consent. Nightingale educates girls in grades kindergarten through 12; it was unclear how old the students attending the workshop are.

'Nightingale has decided its their role to introduce your girls to Planned Parenthood. Wow, they arent just co-parenting with you anymore they are full on taking over,' Instagram account @nycprivateschoolwatch captioned a photo from the event.

'However, you cant complain - did you see how the private school contracts changed so drastically last year? Any mention of disagreement and you are OUT!'

Nightingale, which did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment, is located on the Upper East Side and currently has a population of 674 students.

Planned Parenthood hosted a reproductive health workshop at New York City's elite Nightingale-Bamford School for girls on Monday. The nonprofit apparently visited the more than $56,000-a-year school for it's annual Health and Wellness Day

The school was blasted on Instagram over it's invitation to Planned Parenthood with user @nycprivateschoolwatch accusing the school of 'taking over' parenting

These private NYC elite schools garnered widespread controversy last year after parents criticized the institution for trying to spread woke ideology on race and accused of teaching critical race theory in the classroom.

Parent Harvey Goldman said he pulled his daughter out of the $43,000-per-year Heschel School after learning that the fourth-grader was being tutored on her 'white privilege'.

'First and foremost, neither I, nor my child, have 'white privilege,' nor do we need to apologize for it,' Goldman wrote in a letter to the school that was made public in April 2021. 'Suggesting I do is insulting. Suggesting to my nine-year-old child she does is child abuse, not education.'

Riverdale Country School parent Bion Bartning was also so upset with the ideologies being taught there that he pulled his children out of the $54,000-a-year school.

Harvey Goldman and Bion Bartning both pulled their children out of elite New York private schools after learning that they were being taught about their 'white privilege'

Goldman said he pulled his daughter out of the $43,000-per-year Heschel School (above) and moved the family to Florida to enroll in a free public school

Riverdale Country School parent Bion Bartning was so upset with the ideologies being taught there that he pulled his children out of the $54,000-a-year school (above)

Bartning then went a step further, founding the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) to fight back against what he calls a dangerous new 'orthodoxy'.

Bartning, who is Mexican and Yaqui on one side and Jewish on the other, said he was shocked to learn that schoolchildren are being forced to label themselves as privileged or oppressed by skin color.

'I don't fit into any of those race buckets,' Bartning told the Post. 'I think it is wrong to be teaching kids these socially constructed race categories.'

'It's a destructive ideology, teaching children to be pessimistic and full of grievance rather than being optimistic and full of gratitude. It goes against all the values I was raised with, and there are many out there who feel as I do,' he said.

Bartning said he had even encountered instances of children being given color palettes to match with their skin tone to assess their level of privilege.
An 'abusive' ex-husband who stabbed a mother-of-two to death in the street before being run over and killed had a warrant out for his arrest, a court heard today.

Leon McCaskie, 41, brutally murdered Wafah Yasmin Chkaifi, 43, before being mowed down by a car in Maida Vale, west London, the opening of an inquest into her death was told.

The driver - who many hailed as a 'hero' - was later arrested on suspicion of murder before being bailed while the investigation is ongoing.

McCaskie was already wanted by police for breaching a restraining order which Mrs Chkaifi had taken out against him for being abusive.

Leon McCaskie, 41, brutally murdered Wafah Yasmin Chkaifi (pictured), 43, before being mowed down by a car in Maida Vale, west London, the opening of an inquest into her death was told

McCaskie was already wanted by police for breaching a restraining order which Mrs Chkaifi had taken out against him for being abusive

Police officers and emergency services cordon off the scene in Maida Vale, West London, last Monday

An inquest into the death of Mrs Chkaifi was opened at Westminster Coroner's Court this morning, attended over videolink by many members of her family, including her husband Joseph Salmon and two sons.

Giving evidence, DCI Neil Rawlinson said: 'Yasmin Chkaifi and Leon McCaskie had been in a relationship that ended several years ago.'

But he said there had been 'allegations of domestic abuse' and a Stalking Prevention Order was issued against McCaskie.

'Leon had been arrested and charged for breaching this order, but failed to appear for his first hearing at court,' he added.

'A warrant was issued for his arrest on the January 4, 2022. The two parties lived very close to one another in the Maida Vale area.

'On Monday, January 24, 2022 at about 9am, Leon accosted Yasmin in the street, and repeatedly stabbed her with a knife.

'A member of public in a passing car, saw this and used his vehicle to drive into Leon in an attempt to stop the assault. Both Leon and Yasmin were declared deceased at the scene.

'An investigation has been taking place with me as the senior investigating officer. We have secured CCTV footage of the incident and obtained statements from several eyewitnesses who told us what they saw.

'We do continue to make efforts to get statements from other potential witnesses whose details we have. Police action between January 4 and 24 is currently subject to an independent investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.'

Miss Chkaifi's relatives place flowers at the scene of the killing in Maida Vale, West London, last Tuesday

Forensic officers stand near a blue Renault Clio as they carry out investigations in Maida Vale, West London, last Monday

Ms Chkaifi's cause of death was multiple stab wounds.

Coroner Professor Fiona Wilcox said: 'I would like to pass my sympathy to Yasmin's family for their loss. This is a truly shocking and distressing death and I cannot imagine what you must be going through as a family at this time.'

The inquest into Mr McCaskie's death was opened and adjourned in a separate remote hearing. The court heard that his cause of death was multiple injuries.

Ms Wilcox also expressed her sympathy to his mother, who was listening to proceedings on the phone.
The family of a man accused of shooting dead a fire captain while he was battling a dumpster blaze in California say they believed his property was being burglarized, leading to a 'horrific chain of tragic events'.

Robert Somerville, 67, has been arrested and charged with murder for allegedly killing Captain Vidal 'Max' Fortuna, 47.

A statement from the suspect's family was released on Monday night which said Somerville was the victim of 'constant attempted break-ins' and he believed he was being burglarized at the time of the shooting.

The statement read: 'I can assure Firefighter Fortunas immediate Family, and all who care for Mr. Fortuna that this was not an intentional callous act in the death of Mr. Fortuna.

'Robert "Bob" Somerville 67 is not a violent person and is a long-standing business owner [and former engineer] in the Stockton community for over 30 years,' the statement reads. 'He operates his business, and resides in the warehouse that was adjacent to where the fire occurred at 5:00am this morning.

'Having been a victim of constant attempted break-ins, due to his business/home being located in an area plagued with the highest concentration of homeless individuals, Mr. Somerville as recently as 1 week ago reinforced parts of his property to add an additional layer of security. It is our understanding that Mr. Somerville believed his property was being burglarized, which led to this horrific chain of tragic events.'

It added: We just ask that the Fortuna Family and public please withhold judgment on the state of mind and intent of Mr. Somerville until all of the facts come to light.'

Robert Somerville, 67, was arrested and charged with the murder. His motive for murdering Fortuna remains unknown, although a statement published on behalf of his family said he 'believed his property was being burglarized' at the time of the incident

Tre Somerville shared this picture of himself with his father Robert and his mother

Captain Vidal 'Max' Fortuna, 47, had been a firefighter at the Stockton Department for 22 years when he was shot in the early hours of Monday morning while putting out a dumpster fire

Stockton Police Department also shared a picture of a .33 caliber pistol that was used in the shooting

Fortuna was shot on Monday morning and was taken to a local hospital in Stockton, between San Francisco and Sacramento, where he succumbed to his injuries at around 11am. Police also shared a picture of .33 calibre pistol used in the shooting.

He is survived by his wife and two grown children.

One of Somerville's sons, Tre, shared his thoughts for the Fortuna family, across the street from the crime scene.

'I would like to say that you know my family would like to send our condolences to the Fortuna family,' he told CBS Sacramento. 'Its very unfortunate what happened today, and its just a freak circumstance.'

He added that there must have been some sort of confusion regarding the shooting.

'My dad does not have any prior violent history or anything like that,' he said. 'Hes really a community man, as well.'

One of Somerville's sons, Tre, said: 'My dad does not have any prior violent history or anything like that. Hes really a community man, as well'

The Stockton Police Department told DailyMail.com that a motive was not immediately clear at this time.

Somerville's first court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday at the San Joaquin County Courthouse.

'This is my worst nightmare as a fire chief,' Stockton Fire Chief Rick Edwards said. 'My message to my firefighters is to be strong, my heart breaks with you but we will get through this.'

Fortuna was a 22-year veteran on the Stockton Fire Department. Both retired and active firefighters met at the Fire Department's centre station to honor the victim.

'Max was a firefighter who showed up every day and never complained about being on the job,' Stockton Professional Firefighters union President Mario Gardea said. 'I don't know too many other firefighters that enjoyed the job as much as him.'

Fortuna was also an active member at a church in Modesto. Big Valley Grace Community Church payed tribute to the late firefighter by sharing this picture of him playing bass on Facebook

A Stockton Fire Department vehicle is parked at the location where a firefighter was shot while working a fire in Stockton, California, on Monday

Fortuna was also an active member at a church in Modesto. Big Valley Grace Community Church payed tribute to the late firefighter by sharing a picture of him playing bass on Facebook.

The shooting remains under investigation, officials said. It remains unknown whether Fortuna was randomly or deliberately shot. The gun used by the suspect was found at the scene of the shooting.

At the time of the tragedy, the Stockton Fire Department was responding to a call at 4.45 a.m. on Monday morning concerning a dumpster fire in the area of Aurora Street and Washington Street.

Gunshots were heard and Fortuna was hit while extinguishing the blaze. His fellow firefighters tried to save his life before taking him to the hospital.

'The Stockton Fire Department is a brotherhood, it's a sisterhood,' Mayor Kevin Lincoln said during a press conference. 'As a city, we will do everything that we can under our will and our power to support this family and to support our fire department.'

A flag was lowered at half-staff yesterday, in honor of Fortuna at Stockton City Hall, Lincoln added.

'Once again, firefighters are part of our public safety family, and this hits all of us hard,' said Officer Joe Silva of the Stockton Police Department. 'This just shows the dangers of our job. Right now, our thoughts and prayers are going out to the firefighter's family and all of our firefighters here in the city of Stockton.'

Stockton Fire Department honored Fortuna, who was a 22-year-old veteran at the department, by gathering past and active firefighters this afternoon

Police said at the public event that they do not expect there to be any additional suspects in the incident.

Meanwhile, an online fundraiser for Fortuna's family that has been set up by Stockton's firefighters has raised $35,000 of a $50,000 goal, as of Tuesday morning.

'It is a devastating loss for his wife, two children, family and our fire department,' the page reads. 'We are working on details for his services, and will update as more information becomes available. We love you Max.'
The initial involvement of Chinas sovereign wealth fund in a deal to take over Forbes is raising concerns about the potential for censorship at the venerable US business news outlet.

In a deal valued at $620 million, Forbes is set to go public by the end of February through a merger with Hong Kong-based Magnum Opus Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that was initially formed with financial backing from the Chinese government.

China's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, owned a 5.8 percent stake of the shell company when it went public last March. The Chinese government fund has since disposed of its shares, it disclosed just last week.

Forbes, the 'business bible' famous for its lists such as the 30 Under 30 and rankings of the richest Americans, booked revenue of $165 million in the first nine months of 2021, and averaged 59 million monthly US visitors to its website for the year.

The Forbes takeover, first announced last August, has largely flown under the radar, but as it nears consummation, alarm bells are ringing in the Forbes newsroom and at the highest levels of government.

'This deal raises serious and grave concerns about Forbes, which is truly the mouthpiece of democracy and capitalism, and is effectively being taken over by the Chinese,' a senior source at Forbes told DailyMail.com.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Forbes Chief Communications Officer Bill Hankes strongly disputed that the deal would result in any undue Chinese influence over Forbes.

'Forbes newsroom is and always will be fiercely independent of any type of coercion or influence, whether that be from outside parties, or internally from Forbes management,' said Hankes.

Key Forbes executives are seen in 2017, including CEO Mike Federle (left), Steve Forbes (fourth from left) and Tak Cheung 'TC' Yam (third from right), the current owner who is now pursuing an acquisition by the Magnum Opus SPAC

Forbes, the 'business bible' famous for its lists such as the 30 Under 30 and rankings of the richest Americans, booked revenue of $165 million in the first nine months of 2021

Hankes cited a recent Forbes article questioning Chinas approach to COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as the publications prior track record of reporting freely on China issues as evidence of the publications independence.

But the deal with Magnum Opus now faces heightened scrutiny, including from the US government.

In recent days, Senator Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, and Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, were briefed on potentially troubling elements of the takeover, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Spokespersons for the senators did not respond to inquiries from DailyMail.com on Monday.

Since 2014, Forbes has been privately controlled by a Hong Kong-based investor group, Integrated Whale Media Investments.

But the magazines pending sale to a SPAC created with seed funding from the Mainland Chinese government comes amid a crackdown on the free press in Hong Kong. It has led some within Forbes to question the mechanics and timing of the deal.

Why is Forbes, which is one of the premier business brands in the world, going public via a SPAC with a bunch of guys in Hong Kong? said the senior source at Forbes.

They're pushing hard to go public right in the middle of this market correction, the person added.

Magnum Opus Acquisitions is led by (left to right) Chairman and CEO Jonathan Lin, President Frank Han, and Director and CFO Kevin Lee

SPACs, which soared to popularity in 2020 during what was known as the blank check boom, involve the public listing of a shell corporation, which uses the funds raised from the IPO to seek out and acquire a private company, taking the target company public through the merger.

Some academics have criticized SPACs for offering poor returns to public shareholders, although the sponsors of the deals are much more likely to profit handsomely.

The SPAC acquiring Forbes, Magnum Opus, was financially backed in its early stages by China Investment Corporation, the countrys sovereign wealth fund, which held a 5.8 percent stake in the shell company when the Forbes merger talks first began last March, according to regulatory filings reviewed by DailyMail.com.

By the end of 2021, after the deal to acquire Forbes was announced in August, CIC had divested its shares in the shell company for reasons that are unclear, a filing on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed.

There are a lot of interesting questions about this deal, said one top venture capital investor, who is not involved with the transaction but has followed it closely.

The CIC was a filer, which should get anybodys interest. In a recent filing they disappeared, but they did provide the original capital, the person said.

Steve Forbes, the founders grandson, officially holds the title of editor-in-chief and chairman of Forbes Media, but is not listed on the company's executive or senior leadership teams

Forbes CEO Mike Federle will continue to lead the combined company after the merger, according to the sponsors of the deal

DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal that a group of 19 investors, most of them based in Hong Kong or Mainland China, provided another $400,000,000 in funding to finance the Forbes takeover through a private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal, according to internal documents and a source familiar with the matter.

Collectively, the PIPE investors will hold 49 percent of the newly created entity when the deal closes.

Magnum Opus PIPE investors Pyxis Wealth Advisors: $60M Kingkey Investment Fund SPC: $40M Max Giant: $40M Global Prosperity Fund SPC (Genius Link): $40M Optima Fortuna Fund SPC Limited: $40M Aldworth Equity Fund SPC: $40M Innovest HK US Equity Fund SP: $36M Shiny Tactic Group Limited: $35M One01 Capital: $20M Nan Fung: $10M EVO Capital Management: $10M Max Qin: $10M Joyce Family Office: $10M Kaison Asset Management: $2.5M Oasis: $2.5M Jackson Cream: $1M Leung Yuk Kit: $1M Wang Sheng Yong: $1M Peacock Capital: $1M Advertisement

Magnum Opus, controlled by Chairman Jonathan Lin, will hold an additional 6 percent of the new company on an undiluted basis, public filings show.

PIPE investments are fairly common in SPAC transactions, and involve the private placement of a publicly listed companys shares with a select group of accredited investors. The purpose is to raise additional capital to complete the hoped-for acquisition.

Typically, PIPE investors are often offered discounts or sweeteners as an incentive to participate.

But Magnum Opus placed its shares with the PIPE investors at $10 per share, the same price for the general public in the IPO, regulatory filings show.

An executive at and attorneys for Magnum Opus did not respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Monday. Representatives for the PIPE investors did not respond to requests for comment, or could not be reached.

In announcing the deal last year, Magnum Opus said that the existing Forbes management team would continue to manage the combined company upon completion of the transaction, under the leadership of CEO Mike Federle.

We are pleased to partner with the experienced management team to support initiatives to accelerate growth in high-quality and recurring revenue verticals, said Lin, the Chairman and CEO of Magnum Opus and the architect of the deal.

Lin is a former portfolio manager for Point72 Asset Management, the hedge fund of billionaire investor and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.

Despite these assurances, some Forbes insiders are concerned that the merger could bring the magazines newsroom under the control of forces aligned with, or beholden to, Chinas ruling Communist Party.

One former Forbes staffer expressed alarm at CIC's role in providing seed funding for Magnum Opus, and skepticism that the sovereign wealth fund had truly divested from the shell company as it claimed in its filings.

Any institution that ever was committed to good journalism being partially owned  in any percentage  by any sovereign wealth-type investors, any governments, would be problematic, the former Forbes editorial employee told DailyMail.com.

But of course the Chinese government  if you were going to list them from most problematic to least, China and maybe Saudi Arabia would be near the top. That seems disturbing.

The person noted that although CIC had officially divested its shares in Magnum Opus, the bulk of the PIPE investors are still based in China or Hong Kong, and speculated that they could be susceptible to pressure from Beijing.

Founded in 1917 by Scottish immigrant newspaperman B.C. Forbes, the magazine and its popular website are now based in Jersey City.

Forbes says that its magazine, published eight times a year, has an audience of six million, and the company employs more than 450 people worldwide.

Both the magazine and its website have won numerous awards, including the 2020 Webby People's Voice award for Business Blog/Website.

Steve Forbes, the founders grandson, officially holds the title of editor-in-chief and chairman of Forbes Media, but is not listed on the company's executive or senior leadership teams.

Editorial control now falls under Randall Lane, the editor of Forbes magazine and Chief Content Officer for the company.

Editorial control at Forbes now falls under Randall Lane, the editor of Forbes magazine and Chief Content Officer for the company

Forbes headquarters in Jersey City is seen above. The company's owners are pursuing a merger with a 'blank check' firm that will take Forbes public

Since 2014, the company has been owned by Integrated Whale Media, a Hong Kong group comprising the investors Yam Tak Cheung and Wong Siu Wa.

It has led to prior allegations that views critical of China had been suppressed in the Forbes newsroom, including a 2017 Washington Post column detailing how Forbes had taken down prior opinion pieces by commentator Gordon Chang, a sharp critic of the Chinese Communist Party.

Tak Cheung 'TC' Yam currently leads the group that owns 95% of Forbes

Still, the editorial staff at Forbes have continued to publish articles critical of China, in particular highlighting the crackdown on press freedoms in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy news outlets have been harassed and shuttered.

In 2019, top Forbes editor Randall Lane personally championed the creation of The One Free Press Coalition, which publishes a monthly list of the 10 Most Urgent cases of attacks on journalists around the world.

Last month, the members of the coalition, including Forbes, devoted the list entirely to abuses of the free press in China.

In the number one spot was Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, the publisher of the now-shuttered Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily. Lai is now serving a 20-month prison sentence and awaiting trial on separate charges that carry a life sentence.

Some Forbes insiders question whether the publication of such a list would be possible under the companys new ownership. Lane and the One Free Press Coalition did not respond to inquiries from DailyMail.com.

In regulatory filings last week, Magnum Opus revealed that Forbes has turned a handsome profit in recent years.

The publishing company earned $7.6 million on revenue of $211 million in 2019, and barely took a bottom-line hit during the pandemic, booking a $7.5 million profit on revenue of $185 million in 2020.

In the first nine months of 2021, Forbes showed net income of $19.5 million and revenue of $165 million, the filings show.

Last month, Forbes published this list of 'urgent' cases of attacks on press freedom, highlighting abuses in China. Insiders fear such articles would not be possible after the merger

The filings also describe how the merger deal unfolded. Magnum Opus was first incorporated on January 22, 2021 as a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability, created as a blank check company for the purpose of effecting a merger.

The shell company went public on March 25, and just two days later, on March 27, Lin met with representatives of Forbes controlling owner Integrated Whale following an introduction by a mutual contact, the filings state.

On March 30, Lin had a breakfast meeting with Integrated Whale and discussed a potential acquisition, and Magnum Opus entered into a non-disclosure agreement with the Forbes parent company.

Following intensive due diligence, on April 27 Magnum Opus entered into a letter of intent with Integrated Whale and a potential PIPE investor who is not named in the filing.

The formal combination agreement was executed and announced on August 26, 2021.

Last month, there were reports that the deal was on the rocks, and that investment firm GSV Asset Management was prepared to swoop in and acquire Forbes at a $620 million valuation.

A representative for GSV declined to comment on the matter when reached by DailyMail.com on Monday, and Magnum Opus filings suggest that it intended to move forward with the merger.

Magnum Opus faces a February 26 deadline to complete the acquisition and take Forbes public, at which point the agreement will lapse, filings show.
The sole survivor of a capsized boat off the Florida coast has spoken about after he spent two days clinging to the vessel and losing his younger sister in the process.

Juan Esteban Montoya Caicedo, 22, of Colombia was the only survivor out of a group of 40 immigrants to survive the incident after he was rescued by members of the Coast Guard on January 25 about 45 miles east of Fort Pierce Inlet State Park.

The vessel had left the island of Bimini just days earlier on January 22 which included immigrants from countries such as the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas and Jamaica.

The survivor's younger sister Maria Camila Montoya, 18, was also on board with him as the pair planned to travel to Texas to reunite with their mother.

The boat's motor had broke down early only hours after departing on January 23 which left the vessel adrift in the sea for about four hours.

A wave then caused the vessel to overturn and separated Montoya from his sister as well as from the other members of the traveling group.

The sole survivor of a capsized boat off the Florida coast has spoken about after he spent two days clinging to the vessel and losing his younger sister in the process

Colombian national Juan Esteban Montoya Caicedo, 22, spoke out a recent press conference on Monday after he was the sole survivor of a vessel that capsized off the Florida coast in January

Montoya was joined by his mother Marcia at a recent news conference on Monday to speak out about his experiences.

He recalls the moment the boat had overturned as it was one of the last memories he had of his sister before she drowned.

'I managed to see her again,' Montoya said at the conference. 'But as I went to her to help her, the rest of the people were grabbing her.'

'Everybody was holding on to everybody. Thats why she drowned.'

Montoya added that hours after the boat capsized the group continued to get smaller as the other travelers attempted to cling onto the vessel.

Montoya was traveling with his sister Maria (right) on the vessel before she drowned after the boat had capsized

Montoya was joined by his mother Marcia Giraldo (left) and attorney Naimeh Salem (right) at the conference in Fort Pierce, Florida

'What we were going through was so difficult, some people let go,' he added.

'The lack of food, the lack of water and lack of rest affects you, and it led them to go that route.'

Montoya recalled that other people were still clinging to the vessel on the day before he was rescued.

'When I was left alone it was harder, much harder. My health was worsening, mentally I was suffering,' he said. 'Being alone was one more blow. But I did not lose hope.'

He was rescued on January 25 after a Good Samaritan contacted the Coast Guard who saw Montoya clinging to the vessel.

He recalled that much of the time he was in the water holding onto the motor where he felt warmer but the night before his rescue he had climbed up onto the overturned hull.

The search by the Coast Guard was suspended on Thursday after five bodies were found

The boat left the island of Bimini in the Bahamas on January 22 before the boat later capsized about 45 miles east of Fort Pierce Inlet State Park in Florida

The incident remains under investigation as the US Coast Guard believes the incident was a human smuggling operation gone awry.The USCG Cutter Ibis and USCG Cutter Skipjack are seen docked at the U.S. Coast Guard station after searching for 39 people reported missing after their boat capsized

Montoya was later taken to a local hospital after he was found to be treated for symptoms of dehydration and sun exposure, according to a press release from the Coast Guard.

It is currently unclear if Montoya is being detained but his attorney Naimeh Salem has revealed that he could apply for political asylum.

Authorities have suspected that the vessel had been a part of a human smuggling incident that is currently being investigated.

Montoya said that he and his sister were trying to make it to the US border via boat as they found it easier to migrate at sea rather than land.

'Criminals tell you it is safe,' Montoya said. 'They tell you that in three or four hours you will be in Miami coming from the Bahamas, that you are going on a good boat.'

'They tell you that you are only traveling with a few people and with a life jacket- all of that is a lie.'

He added that he believes he had survived the incident as he was determined to tell his parents what happened to his sister

'I hope that God has something very big for me since my heart is now broken,' he said. 'A part of me was taken.'

Montoya's mother, who lives in Houston, said her daughter's body has not been recovered, but she has stayed in touch with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Montoya's mother said she wishes the search would have continued, adding that the pain of her loss just keeps growing and 'the nights last forever.'

'But here I am staying strong for my son,' she said. 'I will give him all the strength and support he needs.'

However, she is grateful to be able to hug her son again even after losing her daughter

'He is my miracle, he's a champion, for everything he overcame in that tragedy, with strength and full of courage,' his mother told NBC.

'Here I have him with me because I love him with all my heart.'

It is unclear if Montoya is being detained but is trying to seek political asylum

Montoya was also relieved to see his mother again despite the family's current circumstances.

'It was very exciting to see my mother again after so long,' he told Noticias Telemundo.

'It was something that I wanted for a long time, and something that my sister also wanted and unfortunately she could not be there.'

The US Coast Guard have since suspended the search after finding five bodies on Thursday.

'Unfortunately, we have come to the most difficult time in any search and rescue case, and that is the point at which we decide when to cease actively searching,' Miami Coast Guard commander Captain Jo-Ann Burdian said.

'After careful consideration of all available information including weather conditions, number of people that went in the water without life jackets, time elapsed since the date of the accident, and an unrelenting search in an area bigger than Massachusetts, its with a heavy heart that I have decided to suspend the search.

'On Tuesday, Jan. 25, the United States Coast Guard contacted HSI to advise they had initiated a search and rescue operation on a suspected smuggling venture involving the loss of life,' Miami HSI agent Anthony Salisbury said.

'HSI immediately responded and opened a parallel criminal investigation while the search and rescue mission was ongoing. As of right now this is still an ongoing investigation being pursued by HSI and its federal, state, local and foreign partners.'

The incident is being investigated as a human smuggling operation gone awry as Homeland Security officials are asking for information that could lead to the arrest and prosecution of those involved in the wreckage.
A mentally disturbed transgender woman who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in 2014 could serve as little as six months in a juvenile detention facility, after woke Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon refused to prosecute the 26-year-old as an adult for the crime committed shortly before their 18th birthday.

Hannah Tubbs identified as a male, going by James, on New Year's Eve in 2014 when they spotted a 10-year-old girl at a Denny's in Palmdale, California.

They followed the girl into the bathroom, held her by the throat and forced their hand down the girl's pants. They only stopped when someone came into the restroom when they fled the scene.

The 'violent child molester,' who has been charged with crimes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California was only connected to the crime after being arrested for another crime in 2019, Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna told DailyMail.com on Tuesday.

Tubbs was two weeks away from their 18th birthday at the time of the crime - with Gascon refusing to sentence Tubbs as an adult because the defendant was 17 when the attack took place.

On Thursday, Tubbs was sentenced to two years in a juvenile detention facility. Gascon ordered Tubbs to be held at a Secure Youth Treatment Facility (SYTF) but separated from other juvenile inmates and housed with the females in isolation.

Two years is the maximum sentence for any juvenile in the new SYTF program over the age of 25, Sanna explained. LA courts are required to complete quarterly progress reviews for juvenile wards. After two reviews, a judge may decide if an inmate is eligible to be released or serve a reduced sentence due to good behavior.

'So after six months in custody, Tubbs would be eligible for a reduction in time or release' on good behavior,' Sanna told DailyMail.com. However, the deputy DA finds Tubbs' chances of being released after six months 'highly unlikely.'

Gascon said he was concerned Tubbs could be victimized in an adult facility as a trans woman and said a probation report recommended she be sentenced to home confinement.

Tubbs might also qualify as 'developmentally disabled' and has multiple mental illnesses, the LA Times reported.

Hannah Tubbs, a 26-year-old transgender woman, was sentenced to two years in a juvenile detention facility after they pleaded guilty to molesting a 10-year-old girl back in 2014 (Pictured: James Tubbs transitioned after his arrest)

On New Year's Eve in 2014, James Tubbs was seen on surveillance camera footage entering a Denny's in Palmdale, California, where they sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl. Tubbs was described as walking with a noticeable limp and was 'holding his hands down in an odd fashion,' according to a county sheriff's sergeant

Sanna is 'frustrated' because he believes that Tubbs should have been tried as an adult and noted that Tubbs did not identify as a woman until the charges were brought against him.

'This case is frustrating and a lot of people are upset and morale is down,' he told DailyMail.com. A father himself, he described the case as 'every parent's worst nightmare.'

He noted that Tubbs has now been relocated from state prison to a juvenile facility.

'It's completely backwards and as a prosecutor, I never thought that I'd have to argue that a violent child molester who is an adult should not be housed with children.

'However, as a result, a sexual predator has been housed with his prey. That is not justice.'

Currently, there are no SYFT facilities in LA so Tubbs will eventually be housed at Sylmar Juvenile Hall after some time in county jail, the DA's office noted.

Tubbs' defense team has indicated that they plan to file a motion to have her released from isolation, claiming it is a violation of the Constitution.

At the time, police said the suspect was a panhandler with the nickname 'Shrink' who frequented a nearby Chevron gas station early mornings.

They were described as an 18- to 20-year-old man, standing about 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing about 150 pounds, ABC reported at the time.

The man walked with a noticeable limp and was 'holding his hands down in an odd fashion,' according to a county sheriff's sergeant.

Tubbs then vanished, until they were arrested in Idaho in 2019 on suspicion of battery. Tubbs was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for a stabbing and served time in a state prison when they were connected to the 2014 molestation.

DNA entered into a database that matched Tubbs with the sexual assault at Denny's, and the accused was brought back to California - by which point there were arrests, for battery, drug possession and probation violations in several states.

Tubbs was eventually brought to LA in November 2021 and quickly confessed to the sexual crime. By this point, Tubbs had transitioned and was known as Hannah.

But Gascon refused to press for jail time in an adult facility, as the crime was committed while Tubbs was a minor, as is the DA's standard office policy.

'The defendant entered an open plea to the court, leaving it up to the judge to decide what the sentence should be,' a spokesman for Gascon's office said.

'Our office is seeking that he be placed in a custodial setting in a sheriff's facility for two years.'

Gascon's approach has sparked widespread anger, even within his own office.

A victim's statement was read during the trial but the family of the young girl has identified themselves and never spoken to the media.

LA District Attorney George Gascon refused to try Tubbs as an adult noting that she was 17-years-old at the time of the crime

Tubbs was not connected to the crime until 2019 when they were arrested in Idaho on suspicion of battery (Pictured: The Denny's in Palmdale where Tubbs attacked a 10-year-old girl)

LA County Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami, a prosecutor and supporter of the movement to recall Gascon, said Tubbs was too dangerous to be in the juvenile system.

'This was done with limited guidance and no concerns for public safety,' Hatami said speaking of California's system to handle violent juveniles.

'This clearly shows you the dangerous aspect of the blanket policies of George Gascon,' he said.

'Under George Gascon's 'reforms,' a 26-year-old admitted child molester is being housed with juveniles,' Hatami said. 'She may be released early, back into the community, with no sex registration. Only innocent victims and the public suffer because of George Gascon's so-called 'progress.'

'This is not somebody who should appear in the juvenile system.'

Another LA County Deputy District Attorney, John McKinney, also strongly disagreed with Gascon's decision.

'The DA is trying to distance himself from this result and lay blame on the judge when in fact, it's only happened because of his policy against transferring juvenile cases to adult court,' said McKinney.

'Two years is a pathetic outcome for man who is a career criminal with felony convictions in multiple states and who committed forcible sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl in a Denny's bathroom.

'What is happening is our district attorney is ushering him right out the door, back onto the streets of this county and God knows where else he might roam.

'It's madness, it makes a mockery of our criminal justice system.'

A campaign has been growing for Gascon to be recalled as victims rights advocates have joined law enforcement and even some from with within his office accusing him of being soft on crime

LA residents launched their second campaign to call for Gascon to be removed from office earlier this month

Kathryn Barger, on the board of supervisors for Los Angeles County's Fifth District, said the family of the young girl attacked by Tubbs deserved justice.

'It's useless to catch criminals like Hannah Tubbs if we don't follow through and seek justice for victims such as the 10-year-old girl she sexually assaulted,' said Barger.

'She bears the burden of a lifetime of trauma.

'[Tubbs] will be offered therapeutic interventions under the auspices of 'restorative justice' ... and possibly granted only probation or parole.

'Where is the justice for her young victim and her family?'

Lt. Richard Ruiz with the LA County Sheriff's Special Victims Unit - the same unit that investigated the Tubbs case in 2014 - told Fox his department is outraged.

'I would ask the public to reach out to Mr Gascon and express their concerns and their outrage on a matter such as this involving a sexual predator,' he said.

Gascon was elected to the DA's office in November 2020 campaigning on a reform agenda when he successfully unseated incumbent DA Jackie Lacey.

But last spring, victims rights advocates joined Sheriff Alex Villanueva in launching a bid to recall the against newly-elected DA.

The protests did not end Gascon's recall but protestors' anger has not been subdued. This month LA residents were granted permission to launch a second bid to recall the 'soft-on-crime' DA.
Tucker accused the Canadian media of 'borrowing attack lines' from the American media to smear the truckers

'Over the span of just a few years, Trudeau has turned a nation long famous for... sled dogs and niceness into a relentlessly punitive surveillance state' he said

'There's no more fearful despot in the world than Justin Trudeau of Canada,' Carlson said Monday on his primetime program Tucker Carlson Tonight

Tucker Carlson slammed Justin Trudeau as a 'tyrant' Monday, saying the Prime Minister 'used COVID to short circuit democracy' in Canada

Tucker Carlson has accused the Canadian media of being a mouthpiece for Justin Trudeau and says they 'trotted out some attack lines borrowed from CNN and NBC News' to smear the truckers protesting the Prime Minister's vaccine mandates.

On Tucker Carlson Tonight on Monday, the Fox News host criticized the Canadian leader for not meeting with the truckers.

'"So I'll meet with the people at a rally as long as I agree with their goals, as long as they agree with me, it's totally fine, like Black Lives Matter,"' Tucker said, imitating Trudeau. 'You get the sense even someone as dim as Justin Trudeau realizes this is not a winning argument. He needed his friends in state media to help.'

Carlson added: 'So they trotted out some attack lines against the truckers - lines they borrowed directly from CNN and NBC News here in the States.

'So here's Canada's state broadcaster inventing a claim, out of nothing, that Vladimir Putin himself may be responsible for this trucker convoy.'

He then played a clip from CBC of host Nil Koksal saying there is concern Russian actors 'could be continuing to fuel things, as this protest grows, perhaps even instigating it from the outset', given Canada's support for Ukraine.

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Tucker Carlson has accused the Canadian media of being a mouthpiece for Justin Trudeau and says they 'trotted out some attack lines borrowed from CNN and NBC News' to smear the truckers protesting the Prime Minister's vaccine mandates

Tucker played a clip from CBC of host Nil Koksal saying there is concern Russian actors 'could be continuing to fuel things, as this protest grows, perhaps even instigating it from the outset', given Canada's support for Ukraine

Trudeau, 50, held a press conference from an undisclosed location Monday after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier that day. During the address, broadcasted remotely, the politician bashed truckers protesting his recent vaccine mandate as 'hateful,' 'racist,' and 'violent'

Carlson also slammed Trudeau as a 'tyrant', saying the Canadian Prime Minister 'used COVID to short circuit democracy and to end organized Christianity' in Canada, as 'Freedom Convoy' truckers continue to protest.

'There's no more fearful despot in the world than Justin Trudeau of Canada,' Carlson said.

'Over the span of just a few years, Trudeau has turned a nation long famous for Molson and sled dogs and niceness into a relentlessly punitive surveillance state.'

'People have long whispered, in dead seriousness, that Justin Trudeau is the biological son of Fidel Castro,' he continued, comparing the liberal politician to the notorious Cuban dictator.

'You could laugh it off, but now it's becoming pretty easy to believe. Trudeau has used systematically COVID to short circuit democracy in Canada.'

The talking head's comments come as tens of thousands of motorists in Ottawa and along the US-Canada border continue to protest the politico's vaccine mandates on Canadian truckers for the fourth straight day.

Dubbed the 'Freedom Convoy' by organizers, truckers continued to block a crucial border crossing into the US at a village in southern Alberta Tuesday, in solidarity with their brethren in Ottawa who have shut down the nation's capital.

As of Tuesday, about 100 commercial trucks continue to block the busy border crossing in protest of recent COVID-19 health measures imposed by Trudeau's office on Canadian truckers that declared that by January 15, all truckers in the country who are unvaccinated must take a COVID-19 test and quarantine when driving back from the states.

Per the progressive politician's new guidance, Canadian drivers who are not vaccinated are barred from entering the US until they have gotten the jab, while American drivers are currently not allowed into Canada unless they produce a certificate proving that they have been inoculated.

Roughly 50,000 Canadian truck drivers have showed up in Ottawa to protest against the prime minister's new vaccine mandates and quarantine rules for drivers

Almost 2,000 miles west of Ottawa, hundreds of truckers are protesting having convened at the southernmost point of the province of Alberta, forming a blockade between the territory and the US state of Montana to the south

Anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alberta on Monday

Anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts

'Freedom Convoy' truckers and protesters continued late Monday to block a border crossing into the US at a village in southern Alberta - one of the country's busiest border crossings - in solidarity with their brethren in Ottawa who have shut down the nation's capital

The policy comes in stark contrast to that of the nation's neighbor to the south, with American drivers allowed to return home to the US across the border without a test and quarantine.

Carlson, 52, tore into Trudeau Monday after the progressive politician revealed he had tested positive for COVID-19 that morning, during a press conference broadcast from an undisclosed location, after fleeing his home in Ottawa days before due to security concerns stemming from the protests.

'Canadians can no longer travel freely within their own country. They can no longer return to their own country at certain parts,' Carlson said during a 16-minute segment dedicated to the prime minister.

'Pastors have been imprisoned for holding church services,' he went on. 'The unvaccinated can be sent to jail for buying certain products in stores. In the town of Gatineau, family members were arrested for celebrating New Year's Eve in their own home.

'Every large institution in Canada pretends like all of this is perfectly normal, it's always been this way. Canadian media, which are largely controlled by the government, support these policies and Trudeau uncritically.

'In Nova Scotia, protests against Justin Trudeau's vaccine mandates are now banned by law. Rarely has a nation changed this quickly or more unequivocally for the worse.'

The anchor then addressed the northern nation's trucker crisis, chronicling how the convoy of truckers converged on the capital and along the border to 'demand, peacefully, cheerfully but persistently an end to Justin Trudeau's tyranny.'

Carlson criticized Trudeau for fleeing his home in Ottawa amid the protests, questioning when he will return and address the crisis.

'Will he come back? Has he abdicated? Will Canada be ruled by a junta of truckers? Well, not at this point.'

During his address Monday, Trudeau, 50, conceded that he understood the frustrations of the Canadian people regarding the ongoing pandemic but asserted that some of the behavior seen at the recent protests in the nation's capital, including swastikas, Confederate flags, and the desecrating of memorials, was unacceptable.

'I want to be very clear, we are not intimidated by those who hurl insults and abuse at small business workers, and steal food from the homeless. We won't give in to those who fly racist flags. We won't cave to those who engage in vandalism or dishonor the memory of our veterans.'

He added: 'Freedom of expression, assembly, and association are cornerstones of democracy. But Nazi symbolism, racist imagery, and desecration of war memorials are not. It is an insult to memory and truth. Hate can never be the answer.'

Trudeau then called on the protesting truckers - and the thousands supporting them - to put a halt to their actions.

'There is no place in our country for threats, violence or hatred,' he asserted. 'So for those responsible for this behavior, it needs to stop. To anyone who joined the convoy and was rightly uncomfortable with the symbols of hatred and division on display, join with your fellow Canadians. Be courageous, and speak out. Do not stand for, or with, intolerance and hate.'

Trudeau went on to slam conservative politicians from his country for supporting the truckers' protests in his speech, warning them to 'think long and hard about the consequences of your actions.'

Trudeau also declared he will not be meeting with truckers currently overrunning Ottawa in protest of his vaccine mandate because of their 'hateful rhetoric.'

The truckers in Alberta were met with backlash from local law enforcement, who ordered the drivers to put their rigs in gear and stop blocking trucks and other international commuters from crossing the currently gridlocked border.

But drivers stationed along the border have refused to budge from the major artery for commercial goods between the nations.

Canadian trucker John Schwarz was caught up in it for 40 hours while coming back from Idaho.

'These guys are basically holding us hostage, and nobody's doing anything about it,' Schwarz Canadian trucker John Schwarz, who was stuck in the blockade for 40 hours on the way back from Idaho, told CBC News.

By Monday afternoon, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said some vehicles were being allowed to leave the traffic jam but that the border was still blocked. A few hours later, some truckers had been persuaded to leave.

Anti-mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts

In solidarity with their Ottawa counterparts, truckers in at the Alberta / Montana border staged what police described as a 'complete blockage' of Highway 4 in Canada's western province

The road is a major artery for commercial goods between the nations but truckers have been stuck for days

'Through negotiations and continuous talks with the organizers of the event, in the last little bit, the organizers agreed to open up, and some of the vehicles have been allowed to leave,' RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters said.

'Some of these guys have been stuck here for for three days, and you know, no access to shower [or] food and away from their families. So it's good news for them.'

The blockade was also affecting life in the village of Coutts, where 100 trucks along Highway 4 prevented a school bus from leaving the village in order to get to the nearest school.

Residents of Coutts, of which there are around 250, were also unable to get to the village grocery store, gas station and pharmacy.

'I'm disappointed, I think is the main thing,' Coutts Mayor Jim Willett said. 'Not impressed, with the fact that they blocked off the highway. This event is unlawful'

A plan had been worked out with the town in order that life within the village could carry on as normal, but things quickly fell apart once truckers were refused across the border.

The Canadian flag is reflected in a wheel hub as anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alberta

Anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing

The blockade has caused major disruption for the tiny village of Coutts with locals unable to reach a local school, supermarket or grocery store

The border with Montana is a key crossing route for beef and farm equipment

Normally the border crossing is plain sailing... not this week

RCMP were also telling people trying to get into the U.S. to head to a different border crossing, while in Montana the situation was similar.

'Officials in Montana are stopping and advising motorists, commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles to find an alternative route as they won't be able to get through once they cross into Canada,' Cpl. Peters said.

The RCMP has since declared the event to be unlawful, and announced Monday that they would begin to make arrests.

'When an event becomes unlawful, we utilize a measured approach, which ultimately includes enforcement,' the statement read.

'This event is unlawful and we are asking those who are involved to clear the area.'

'These folks have a right to lawful protest,' added Cpl. Curtis Peters to the National Post Monday. 'Ive encouraged them to return to that and, if that takes place, there will be no need for those enforcement actions.'

Meanwhile, that day, several demonstrators told The Canadian Press they have no plans to leave.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has also called for the local blockade to draw to a close, adding that it was causing 'significant inconvenience for lawful motorists.'

The Alberta border crossing is used by truckers transporting a range of goods across the border including food such as beef, and farm equipment.

'For the most part, trucks can cross at other ports. It might be a bit of a delay and an additional expense to get there, but it is something that they can do,' said Carrie Barrows, who manages one of the brokerages. '

Truck drivers and supporters protest against vaccine mandates in the trucking industry in Ottawa, Canada

Protestors gather around Parliament Hill while a large convoy of trucks blocks streets on Monday in Ottawa, Canada

The protest has attracted international attention and grown to become a wider demonstration against the federal government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic

Canadian truckers protest with a convoy of big rigs against vaccine mandates and Covid-19 measures in Ottawa on Monday

Tensions were high in the Canadian capital on Monday as protesting truckers brought the city to a standstill

The angry truckers are demanding Trudeau end vaccine mandates in Canada

Canadian truckers protest with a convoy of big rigs against vaccine mandates and Covid-19 measures in Ottawa, Canada

Protestors were demonstrating for a third consecutive day on Monday over a cross-border vaccine mandate for truckers imposed by the Liberal government

Demonstrators at the so-called Freedom Convoy have been mostly peaceful but the behaviour of some members of the crowd has been strongly criticised

The convoy began as a call to end a vaccine mandate imposed by the federal government on 15 January that would require unvaccinated Canadian truckers returning from across the US border to quarantine once they return home

The protest has since grown into a push to end all vaccine mandates nationwide and what supporters see as government overreach of Covid-19 restrictions

The crowd has since thinned but many protesters have indicated they plan to stay on until their demands are met

Around 90% of Canada's 120,000 cross-border truckers are vaccinated, in line with the country's adult population

Reports on social media indicate that truckers in the US may be planning a similar demonstration that would see them drive from California in the West to the country's capital in Washington DC

Thousands turned up over the weekend to rally in support of truckers using their vehicles to block access to Parliament Hill, and most of the downtown area Ottawa

Vehicles line downtown streets as truckers and supporters continue to protest coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

After a week-long drive across Canada, a convoy of big rigs has arrived in the national capital to protest vaccine mandates

A demonstrator chooses a snack at a free food table in front of Parliament Hill as truckers and their supporters continue to protest against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates in Ottawa

Demonstrators form a conga line in front of Parliament Hill as truckers and their supporters protest against vaccine mandates

The protest has attracted international attention and grown to become a wider demonstration against the federal government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic

It's been dubbed the Freedom Convoy, and it's got the country talking

A woman cries during a protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates January 31, 2022 in Ottawa, Canada. Thousands turned up over the weekend to rally in support of truckers using their vehicles to block access to Parliament Hill

Tommy, a Canadian sanitation worker who did not provide his last name, lights a fire outside his tent where he has stayed for the last five days in support of the truckers protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates

The protesters plan to stay in downtown Ottawa near Parliament Hill for 'as long as it take' but their demands have grown from reversing the border vaccine mandate to ending all such mandates nationwide

The protesting truckers say there is no 'end date' in sight and plan to stay in the capital 'for as long as it takes' and until the Canadian government flips and withdraws its policy on vaccine mandates.
The ridicule of Boris Johnson over the Partygate scandal extended far beyond this island's shores as news outlets around the world ripped into the Prime Minister.

It comes as a slew of Tory MPs, including former Prime Minister Theresa May, publicly decried Johnson's behaviour last night, accusing him of running No10 like a 'medieval court' and issuing a stark warning about the possibility of a party coup.

The Prime Minister sheepishly apologised to MPs during the brutal Commons session before jetting off to Ukraine this morning, as reactions from the world's media - many of which hammered the PM - flooded in.

Some of Europe's largest newspapers questioned whether Johnson would be able to save himself after 'a lifetime of breaking the rules', while others skipped straight to listing his would-be successors and accused him of leveraging the crisis in Ukraine to deflect from domestic chaos.

Spanish daily El Pais saw fit to plaster an image of Johnson clad in hi-vis and maniacally driving a forklift on today's front page with the headline 'Report on parties deals another blow to Johnson: The report on gatherings held amid the pandemic condemns alcohol consumption', while their online reporters noted that Johnson 'apologised for the scandal but has avoided taking action'.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson boards an aircraft on his way to Kyiv, Ukraine, in London Tuesday Feb. 1, 2022

Other Spanish papers took an even more direct approach, with business daily Expansion running a feature entitled 'Goodbye, Boris', while El Mundo's inside headline read: 'Little leadership and much beer' and also opted for the unflattering forklift shot.

La Repubblica, a leading Italian paper, declared that 'Boris now risks his career for the alcoholic parties during lockdown', and claimed the PM 'has officially entered his darkest hour', while Corriere della Sera said that Johnson 'had spent a lifetime breaking the rules' and questioned whether he would be able to save himself this time.

Spanish daily El Pais saw fit to plaster an image of Boris Johnson maniacally driving a forklift on today's front page with the headline 'Report on parties deals another blow to Johnson: The report on gatherings held amid the pandemic condemns alcohol consumption', while their online reporters noted that Johnson 'apologised for the scandal but has avoided taking action'

Italian paper Corriere della Sera's headline read: 'Boris Johnson, parties and a lifetime defying the rules. Will he be able to save himself this time?'

Just across the Channel, the French press were equally as savage. The London correspondent for French daily Liberation wrote 'It's no longer party time for Boris Johnson', before tearing into the Prime Minister's obnoxious behavior over the course of his premiership.

'Gone are the days of arrogant victories and repungnant slogans. Two and a half years after his election as head of the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is up against the wall. The party is over, the jokes too.'

Even France's most well-read conservative newspaper Le Figaro made no bones about the Partygate scandal, highlighting Sue Gray's findings of 'excessive alcohol consumption' and stressing that its contents were 'stark', even in the absence of considerable detail.

Just across the Channel, the French press were equally as savage. The London correspondent for French daily Liberation went with the deadline 'It's no longer party time for Boris Johnson', before tearing into the Prime Minister's obnoxious behavior over the course of his premiership

German tabloid Bild chose to focus on the Prime Minister's half-hearted apology in the Commons yesterday in which he said he would 'fix' the situation but provided no explanation as to how (headline reads: 'Weak Johnson - ''sorry!'')

In Norway meanwhile, the nation's most well-read online publication Verdens Gang (VG) bypassed a review of the Partygate scandal and skipped straight to choosing Johnson's replacement. 'Many want Boris Johnson to resign. Here are his most likely successors,' the headline read

Tories slam Johnson for running No10 like a 'medieval court' and warn he should be 'very worried' as Partygate police probe whether PM broke lockdown law FOUR TIMES Boris Johnson is still desperately trying to quell Tory Partygate fury today as MPs accuse him of running No10 like a 'medieval court' and warn he should be 'very worried' about a coup. The PM is leaving the pressure cooker of Westminster on a diplomatic mission to Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday - but still revealed that he is being investigated by police over four breaches of lockdown law. Mr Johnson suffered a mauling from a a slew of Conservatives in the Commons, with Theresa May demanding to know if he thought the rules 'didn't apply' to him, and former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell saying the premier had lost his support. Mr Mitchell stepped up his attack this morning warning that the row was as corrosive to the party as 'battery acid' and condemning Mr Johnson's leadership style. Even normally-loyal MPs conceded that the PM's response in the chamber was a 'car crash'. Scotland Yard meanwhile is sifting through more than 300 photos of Whitehall bashes. Advertisement

German tabloid Bild chose to focus on the Prime Minister's half-hearted apology in the Commons yesterday in which he said he would 'fix' the situation but provided no explanation as to how.

Bild's led with a headline of 'Boris' faint ''sorry!'' before zeroing in with 'for him, it seems, a faint "sorry" is all that follows from the devastating preliminary investigation into his banned corona parties. Johnson's speech had begun as if it were his last in the British Parliament.'

In Norway meanwhile, the nation's most well-read online publication Verdens Gang (VG) bypassed a review of the Partygate scandal and skipped straight to choosing Johnson's replacement.

'Many are calling for Boris Johnson's resignation - here are his possible successors', the headline read.

Again, Boris in hi-vis seemed to be the preferred image to illustrate his bumbling persona amid the fallout.

Moving further afield, the Russian media were among the most critical of the PM, focusing on Johnson's postponement of a scheduled phonecall with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday.

Johnson was set to speak with Putin to discuss the tension in Ukraine, but ultimately snubbed the Russian strongman as he scrambled to deal with the domestic catastrophe in the wake of Sue Gray's preliminary report.

Russia's news channel NTV revelled in the Prime Minister's discomfort, branding him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie.

NTV's London correspondent went on to declare the Partygate report would have ended up in the 'Victorian sewers' of the capital if it were up to the PM, and said that 'even schoolchildren are laughing at him.'

RIA Novosti reported Johnson's colleagues had admonished his decision to postpone the phonecall with Putin, while other media speculated that the Prime Minister was leveraging the crisis in Ukraine to deflect from his poor conduct at home.

Several Russian TV channels were mocking Boris Johnson yesterday ahead of his planned trip to Ukraine today. NTV branded him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain'. The headline at the bottom reads: 'Johnson under the gun'

RIA Novosti's headline said 'Johnson is admonished in Britain for postponing his talk with Putin', while other media speculated that the Prime Minister was leveraging the crisis in Ukraine to deflect from his poor conduct at home

Finally, the American press took turns lambasting the Prime Minister over Partygate.

Some chose to highlight Sue Gray's revelations of 'serious failures' in his leadership while others went so far as to suggest he was teetering on the brink of downfall.

FOX News and Wall Street Journal stuck to an analysis of Sue Gray's preliminary report and discussed what the findings of 'excessive alcohol consumption' and 'failures of leadership and judgement' could mean for Johnson's premiership, though ultimately stressed he would not resign.

But CNN's broadcast went hard on Johnson's 'Borish behaviour' and the New York Times pushed it even further, suggesting that Johnson's tenure as PM was 'hanging by a thread' as a result of the scandal.

'Whether Mr. Johnson is removed or granted a reprieve, the past few weeks amount to a remarkable fall from grace. Now, with his authority severely wounded, his tenure is hanging by a thread,' the New York Times article read.

'Behind the machinations at Westminster, crucially, is overwhelming public anger. The national mood is furious, disdainful: Nearly two-thirds of the country wants Mr. Johnson to resign.'

FOX News and Wall Street Journal stuck to an analysis of Sue Gray's preliminary report and discussed what the findings of 'excessive alcohol consumption' and 'failures of leadership and judgement' could mean for Johnson's premiership, though ultimately stressed he would not resign

But CNN's broadcast went hard on Johnson's 'Borish behaviour' and the New York Times pushed it even further, suggesting that Johnson's tenure as PM was 'hanging by a threat' as a result of the scandal

'Whether Mr. Johnson is removed or granted a reprieve, the past few weeks amount to a remarkable fall from grace. Now, with his authority severely wounded, his tenure is hanging by a thread,' the New York Times article read

Downing Street caved into mounting pressure today by confirming Johnson will admit if he is fined over Partygate - as another MP declared sending a no-confidence letter.

No10 backed down in the face of fury from Tories and the Opposition at the prospect of the PM never revealing whether he had broken the law.

The row came as Scotland Yard made clear that it will follow police guidelines that people who receive fixed penalty notices are not routinely identified - suggesting that government officials will not be identified.

Meanwhile, backbencher Peter Aldous has joined a growing group of Conservatives to have publicly declared sending a letter of no confidence to the powerful 1922 committee.

'After a great deal of soul-searching, I have reached the conclusion that the Prime Minister should resign,' the Waveney MP tweeted.

'It is clear that he has no intention of doing so and I have therefore written to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee of Backbench Conservative MPs, advising him that I have no confidence in the Prime Minister as Leader of the Conservative Party.'

Boris Johnson (pictured out for his morning run) is leaving the pressure cooker of Westminster on a diplomatic mission to Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday

Mr Johnson apologised last night for the way the Partygate probe had been handled and said he would make changes. But Downing Street this morning revealed Johnson and his senior ministers did not discuss the Partygate scandal at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning despite growing Tory fury and warnings the PM should be 'very worried' about a coup

Under party rules, 54 letters need to be sent to 1922 committee chair Sir Graham Brady in order to trigger a formal confidence vote - but he never reveals how many he has received until the threshold is reached.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab this morning insisted that 'justice must be done and seen to be done' - but Downing Street refused to guarantee that perpetrators would be identified.

However, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman performed a U-turn this afternoon, telling reporters: 'Obviously we are aware of the significant public interest with regard to the Prime Minister and we would always look to provide what updates we can on him, specifically.'

Asked if that meant No 10 would say if he was given a fixed penalty notice, the spokesman said: 'Hypothetically, yes.'

Scotland Yard had pointed to College of Policing guidance stating that the names of people dealt with by fixed penalty notices  the likely punishment for a breach of the coronavirus regulations  would not normally be disclosed.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: 'I can't believe this needs saying. The public have a right to know if the Prime Minister is found to have committed an offence by the police.'

It came as Downing Street revealed Johnson and his senior ministers did not discuss the Partygate scandal at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning despite growing Tory fury and warnings the PM should be 'very worried' about a coup.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday resumed his criticism of former Vice President Mike Pence for failing to 'overturn' the election results  and is now saying his former VP should be probed for failing to 'send back' votes in states where Trump was claiming fraud.

Trump fired off comment in a statement from his Save America PAC  a day after a stunning statement where Trump wrote that Pence 'did have the right to change the outcome' and added 'he could have overturned the Election!'

Now, a day after it was revealed that Pence's former chief of staff Marc Short testified before the House Jan. 6th Committee, Trump is calling for an investigation of Pence as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who accuses of failing to protect the Capitol.

'So pathetic to watch the Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors work so feverishly to alter the Electoral College Act so that a Vice President cannot ensure the honest results of the election, when just one year ago they said that the Vice President has absolutely no right to ensure the true outcome or results of an election, wrote Trump. He was referencing the Electoral Count Act, the subject of election reform negotiations.

Former President Donald Trump said the House Jan. 6th Committee should probe why Mike Pence 'did not send back the votes for recertification or approval'  a day after he said his former VP had the right to 'overturn' the election

The law assigns the vice president with duties of overseeing the counting of electoral votes, but lawmakers and scholars have pointed to ambiguities in the law. Trump insisted Pence had the right to refuse to accept votes certified by state officials. Trump and some of his advisors were urging Pence to do just that amid Trump's election overturn effort.

'In other words, they lied, and the Vice President did have this right or, more pointedly, could have sent the votes back to various legislators for reassessment after so much fraud and irregularities were found. If it were sent back to the legislators, or if Nancy Pelosi, who is in charge of Capitol security, had taken my recommendation and substantially increased security, there would have been no January 6 as we know it!' Trump continued.

'Therefore, the Unselect Committee should be investigating why Nancy Pelosi did such a poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!'

Trump was following a playbook from his time in the White House, where he demanded investigations of former FBI Director James Comey, former special counsel Robert Mueller and the entire Russia probe even as a team of lawyers probed his campaign ties to Russia.

Trump claimed if Speaker Pelosi had taken his recommendation to boost security, 'there would have been no January 6 as we know it!'

Trump said Sunday Pence had the right to 'overturn' the election

A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather on the West side of the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021. Crowd members chanted 'hang Mike Pence,' according to testimony before the Jan. 6th committee

At a weekend rally in Conroe, Texas, Trump suggested he might pardon Jan. 6th rioters if reelected

Former Vice President Mike Pence's White House Chief of Staff Marc Short quietly testified last Wednesday before the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, a source told CNN

It's still not clear if Pence (right) will testify before the committee as they try to get to the bottom of an alleged pressure campaign by then-President Donald Trump and his staff to get Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections

Trump's attack on his former vice president came after Pence revealed the two men last spoke last summer  even as both men have denied a rift.

It also followed daily revelations about the last days of the Trump administration, after the Jan. 6th committee obtained Trump White House records from the National Archives.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Trump told lawyer Rudy Giuliani to call the Homeland Security Secretary to tell him to seize voting machines, following earlier reports on a draft executive order to have the Pentagon seize the machines.

The Washington Post reported that the Jan. 6th Committee has received some presidential records that were ripped up and taped back together.

At a Saturday night rally in Texas, Trump suggested he would pardon Jan. 6th rioters if reelected. 'We will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly,' Trump said. 'And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons.'

Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Liz Cheney (Wyo.)., the two Republicans on the Jan. 6th Committee, each blasted Trump over his Sunday statement on Pence.

Trump wrote: 'If the Vice President (Mike Pence) had absolutely no right to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky [Sen.] Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election? Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didnt exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!' Trump wrote.
Rep. Ilhan Omar has announced she will run for a third term representing Minnesota's Fifth District - after 29 of her colleagues have opted not to defend their seats in November.

Omar, 39, was first elected in 2019 becoming the first Somali American in Congress.

And she quickly rose to prominence as a member of the 'Squad' - a small grouping of ultra liberal lawmakers, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib.

At times she has attracted as much anger from her Democratic colleagues - some of whom rebuked her last year for comments that seemed to liken the US and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban - as Republicans.

'When I first ran for this office there was one thing I kept coming back to. Something I said to myself and to the voters over and over: I believe that a better world is possible,' she said as she announced her intention to run.

'I still believe that.'

Her decision comes amid a string of retirements by other Democratic members of Congress.

Last week, Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee became the 29th to say he was not seeking reelection, amid fears that they face devastating results in November.

Rep. Ilhan Omar announced on Monday night that she will run for a third term representing Minnesota's Fifth District - after 29 other Democratic members said they will not stand again

'I still believe in a world where we choose peace over war, diplomacy over bellicosity, and the human rights of all people over the profits of the military-industrial complex,' she said

Like many others he blamed redistricting, and accused state Republicans of 'dismembering Nashville.'

Democrats can afford to lose only three seats to maintain a majority in the House. But with President Joe Biden's numbers heavily underwater they could lose a lot more than that.

When Omar ran for reelection in 2020, she chose the slogan, 'Send her back to Congress!' in a dig at then President Donald Trump who said that she and other black congresswomen should 'go back' to their countries.

'I still believe in a world where we choose peace over war, diplomacy over bellicosity, and the human rights of all people over the profits of the military-industrial complex,' she said in comments posted to Facebook.

'A world where we put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy, oppose war and militarism and pursue accountability for human rights abuses wherever they occur.

'If you believe a better world is possible, join me.'

Last year she triggered controversy with tweets that accused the U.S. of committing 'unthinkable atrocities,' alongside Hamas, Israel and the Taliban.

'We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity,' she wrote, alongside video of her quizzing Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a committee hearing in the House of Representatives.

It came soon after hostilities ended between Hamas and Israel in the Middle East.

A group of Democrats said her 'false equivalence' gave cover to terrorist groups.

Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennesse became the 29th Democrat to announce he will not be running for re-election this year as the party fears losing control of Congress in November

'Equating the United States and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban is as offensive as it is misguided,' wrote the group, led by New York Democrat Jerry Nadler.

'Ignoring the differences between democracies governed by the rule of law and contemptible organizations that engage in terrorism at best discredits one's intended argument and at worst reflects deep-seated prejudice.'

Two years earlier she had to apologize for suggesting that American support for Israel was fueled by political donations from a pro-Israel lobby group when she was accused of perpetuating 'anti-Semitic tropes.'

'Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,' she said at the time.

'My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole.'

Her supporters say she has been an effective member during her four years in Congress.

And she has helped pass eight bills and amendments into law through four years of being in office, she said as she launched her campaign for reelection.

THESE ARE THE 29 HOUSE DEMOCRATS NOT RUNNING FOR REELECTION IN 2022

California Representative Karen Bass is running to be mayor of Lose Angeles

Karen Bass

The 68-year-old was originally elected to the House in the 2010 elections and formerly served as chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus from January 2019-January 2021. In her 12 years, Bass represented California's 33rd and 37th congressional districts. She launched her campaign for Los Angeles mayor in September 2021.

Anthony Brown

The congressman has served in Maryland politics since 1999  most recently representing the state's 4th congressional district in the U.S. House. Brown, 60, will not seek reelection because he launched a campaign in October 2021 to serve as Maryland attorney general.

Cheri Bustos

After narrowly winning reelection in 2020, Bustos announced in April 2021 that she will retire from Congress at the end of her fifth term. The 60-year-old led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 2020 election cycle. Before her only 4-point win last cycle, Bustos won in 2018 by nearly 25 points, exhibiting her falling favor with constituents in Illinois' 17th district, which voted heavily for Donald Trump.

G.K. Butterfield

The North Carolina congressman has served in the House since 2004. Butterfield, 74, said in November 2021 that he won't run for reelection, accusing his state's Republican-led legislature of drawing a 'racially gerrymandered' map

Jim Cooper

The Tennessee Democrat became the 29th to announce he was not seeking reelection last week when he blasted Republicans in his state's general assembly for 'dismembering Nashville' during the redistricting process. He will have served 32 years in Congress when he retires next January.

Charlie Crist

The Republican-turned-Democrat announced in May 2021 he is running to once against be governor of Florida  a race unlikely to be victorious in the swing state of Florida, which has gone progressively red in recent years. The 65-year-old was governor of the Sunshine State from 20072011 and was first elected to the House in 2016.

Peter DeFazio

The Oregon congressman announced in December 2021 that he won't seek reelection after 18 terms in the House. DeFazio, 74, serves as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In recent years, Oregon's 4th congressional district has become increasingly competitive, causing him to remain in place for fear of giving up the seat to Republicans. Recently redrawn lines make the district more solidly blue. 'I would have felt more obligation to run again' if the district remained a potential swing seat DeFazio said.

Val Demmings

Serving as Orlando's police chief from 2007-2011, Demings, 64, became a rising star of the Democratic Party and even made Joe Biden's shortlist of running mates in 2020. The congresswoman for Florida's 10th district served as one of the House prosecutors during Trump's impeachment trial after the January 6 Capitol riot. She announced in June 2021 that she will end her House tenure to challenge Republican Marco Rubio for his Senate seat in Florida.

Val Demings quickly became a star of the Democratic Party. She is leaving her House seat to run for Senate in Florida against incumbent Republican Marco Rubio

Michael Doyle

After serving in the House since 1995, the 68-year-old Pennsylvania representative announced in October 2021 he will 'torch to the next generation' and not seek reelection. Doyle cited wanting to spend retirement with his wife and their growing family. Redistricting will also likely change his Pittsburgh-based district's boundaries.

Eddie Bernice Johnson

Johnson was the first black woman to chair the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and was the first registered nurse to be elected to Congress. The 86-year-old first assumed office in 1993 to represent Texas' 30rd congressional district. She announced in November 2021 she won't seek reelection for a 15th term.

Ron Kind

The Wisconsin representative is one of only seven Democrats representing a district that was carried by Trump in 2020. Kind, 58, narrowly won reelection in 2020 with only 51 per cent of the vote. He announced in August 2021 that he would not seek reelection in his state's 3rd congressional district.

Ann Kirkpatrick

Arizona's representative for the 2nd congressional district said in March 2021 she is 'term-limiting myself' by refusing to seek reelection in 2022. She cited wanting to spend more time with family. The congresswoman took a leave of absence from the House in 2020 to recover from alcoholism, but said that did not play a role in her decision. Kirkpatrick, 71, represented the state's 1st district from 2009-2011 and again from 2013-2017 before she switched to the 1st district from 2019 present day.

Conor Lamb is running for the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania

Conor Lamb

By far the youngest Democrat not seeking reelection in 2022, Conor Lamb, 37, announced in August 2021 that he is instead running for an open Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Lamb narrowly won in 2020 with just two points over his Republican challenger in the swing state. He first came to represent Pennsylvania's 18th  now 17th  district in a 2018 special election for a district previously held by a Republican.

Jim Langevin

Langevin made history as the first quadriplegic to serve in Congress when he was first elected to represent Rhode Island's 2nd district in 2001. His disability was the result of a firearms accident when he was 16. He was seen as a low-key presence in the House of representatives, advocating for people with disabilities and working on cybersecurity - he was a founder of the House Cybersecurity Caucus, which he co-chairs.

Brenda Lawrence

Amid suspicions that Michigan's only black member of Congress was unhappy with redistricting, the 67-year-old this month said she was confident she would have won the new district but wanted to spend more time with her family. 'This is the right time to turn the page and spend more time with my family  my husband, daughter, son and granddaughter  and put them first,' she said.

Alan Lowenthal

The 80-year-old has represented a safely Democratic Long Beach, California district since 2013. Lowenthal announced in December 2021 he will retire at the end of the 117th Congress to spend more time with family. California had yet to finalize its new congressional map, which could affect his current district's lines.

Jerry McNerny

The California Democrat became the 27th to say he would not be standing for reelection. His statement made reference to the 'newly created 9th Congressional District,' hinting that redistricting was a factor but he offered no further explanation. The 70-year-old former chief executive of a wind power start-up served on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Stephanie Murphy

Murphy, 43, is the first Vietnamese American woman elected to Congress and leads the Blue Dog Coalition. She originally came to represent Florida's 7th congressional district in 2016 by unseating longtime GOP incumbent John Mica, who served there from 1993 until he was beat by Murphy. In December 2021, Murphy became one of the most recent Democrats to announce she won't run for reelection in 2022 midterms, but says she won't leave 'public service.'

Murphy said that she was 'consistently named one of the most bipartisan and effective members of Congress' and was among a small band of Democrats who threatened to vote against Biden's Build Back Better plan until lawmakers knew the full price tag

Ed Perlmutter

At the end of last year the eight-term Colorado congressman said he was planning to run again. But in January he said it was time to pass the baton to a new generation. He was among those who opposed Pelosi from becoming Speaker of the House in 2018, and then pushed for term limits. But Perlmutter, 68, later praised her performance and said it had been a mistake to push for what he described as change 'for change's sake.'

David Price

After three-and-a-half decades in Congress  with a short two-year break in the 1990s  the 81-year-old representative will retire at the end of this term. Price served North Carolina from 1987-1995 and again from 1997 to now, where he currently chairs a House Appropriations subcommittee that has oversight of the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Price announced in October 2021 that he won't seek reelection.

Lucille Roybal-Allard

First elected to the House in 1993, Roybal-Allard announced in December 2021 that she will not seek reelection. The 80-year-old chairwoman of a House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing immigration issues said she was unhappy with the California redistricting commission's map due to concerns it doesn't ensure adequate Hispanic representation.

Bobby Rush

The 15-term 75-year-old representative from Illinois told the Chicago Sun-Times on January 3 that he would not seek a 16th term in the House. Rush represented the state's 1st congressional district since 1993 and was the only politician to ever beat Barack Obama in an election  besting him in the 2000 primary race for the seat he already held. Rush was a civil rights activist and co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. He attributed his retirement wanting to spend more time with his family and share his story with the next generation.

Tim Ryan

Ohio will lose their ambitious 13th district representative at the close of 2022 as Tim Ryan, 48, attempts to rise to the Senate in a race for Rob Portman's seat. Ryan officially launched his Senate campaign in April 2021 after an unsuccessful run to be the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2020 election. Instead, in 2020, Ryan was reelection to his 10th term in Congress. Ryan currently chairs a House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over legislative branch spending, where he has attempted to investigate Capitol Police handling of January 6.

Albio Sires

Sires, 70, has served in the House representing New Jersey since 2006. In December 2021, he announced he would not seek reelection, claiming he feels good being able to retire with the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which he considers 'the capstone to a career of service.'

'It's time for me to come home. Time for me to be more than a weekend wife, mother and friend,' California Rep. Jackie Speier said when announcing she won't run again in 2022

Jackie Speier

Co-chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus Jackie Speier, 71, has served California in the U.S. House since 2008 for both the 12th and 14th districts during her tenure. In November 2021, Speier announced she would run again for the House, claiming, 'It's time for me to come home. Time for me to be more than a weekend wife, mother and friend.'

Tom Suozzi

Long Island's two-term representative Tom Suozzi will not seek a third, he announced in November 2021. Instead, the 59-year-old launched a campaign running for governor of New York as a 'common sense Democrat.'

Filemon Vela

Since 2013, Filemon Vela has represented Texas' 34th congressional district  but he announced in March 2021 that he will not seek reelection in 2022 for a sixth term. The 58-year-old was in a district considered a Democratic stronghold, but it swung hard to the right from 2016 to 2020. The redistricting process this year further gives Republicans in Texas the opportunity to draw a border district to be more competitive.

Peter Welch

After representing Vermont in the House since 2007, Welch, 74, is now taking his ambitions further to represent the state in the U.S. senate. Following Senator Patrick Leahy's retirement announcement, Welch said in November 2021 that he will vie to succeed him.

John Yarmuth

The House Budget committee chairman has helped Democrats craft their social spending package, but will end that effort after next year when he leaves office. Yarmuth, 74, announced in October 2021 he will not seek reelection after 14 years in the House representing Kentucky's 3rd congressional district.
Charges are forthcoming against three people after a passerby was videotaped being beaten by participants in a neo-Nazi demonstration over the weekend in Orange County, Sheriff John Mina said Tuesday.

The incident occurred near Alafaya Trail and Waterford Lakes Parkway on Saturday where a University of Central Florida student was reportedly spat on and punched by swastika-clad demonstrators who also shouted antisemitic slurs at passing cars.

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The three suspects have not yet been arrested but investigators are very confident they will be charged soon, Mina said during a press conference.

As all of you know we had numerous people protesting, shouting all kinds of speech, holding signs and wearing swastikas, Mina said. We went out there but obviously we have to balance everyones right to freedom of speech which can be very difficult for us especially when its a situation of hate speech.

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Mina called the antisemitic protest hurtful to everyone and said hed been in contact with leaders in the Jewish community to offer extra protection.

We know people in our community are upset by that, Mina said. Our officers are upset with that but, as far as the incident that happened with the vehicle, there are charges forthcoming to three individuals.

The rally near Waterford Lakes Town Center on Saturday and a second gathering of neo-Nazis along an overpass above Interstate 4 the following day drew rebukes from officials across the state and Jewish leaders unnerved by such public displays of antisemitic hatred.

Prior to Minas remarks, the Orange County Sheriffs Office had declined to discuss details of its investigation into the fight between demonstrators and a passerby at the UCF-area shopping complex.

The agency as of Tuesday had not publicly identified anyone involved, but Fox 35 Orlando interviewed a student who said he was the one who was recorded being attacked.

David Newstat told the news station his car was surrounded by demonstrators after he opened his window to tell the group their hatred and negativity were not welcome there.

Im literally Jewish and I got attacked, assaulted, pepper-sprayed, spit on, you name it. ... Called disgusting slurs just because of my religion, Newstat said, according to Fox 35.

It was unclear from the Fox 35 report if Newstat was interviewed by investigators.

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Dawn Pogue, who posted video of the beating on her Twitter account, said the recording was sent to her by her son and his friend, who were leaving the plaza as the fight happened.

They gave the video to the Sheriffs Office, she said. Mina during his press conference Tuesday thanked those who submitted videos of the incident to the agency.

It was scary, Pogue said of the demonstration.

The initial Sheriffs Office statement about the incident released over the weekend indicated that the demonstrators were allowed to leave but the fight remained under investigation.

The Orange County Sheriffs Office deplores hate speech in any form, but people have the First Amendment right to demonstrate, the unsigned statement said.

An unidentified spokesperson for the agency later noted, in response to questions from the Orlando Sentinel, that just because a physical arrest wasnt made on the spot does not preclude criminal charges from being filed with the State Attorneys Office.

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It remains to be seen whether those who hung Nazi flags and signs from the I-4 overpass at Daryl Carter Parkway will also face charges.

In a statement posted to Twitter on Sunday, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said, It is against the law to obstruct highway traffic or hang signs on the overpasses and violators will be prosecuted.

However, those who gathered on the overpass for the demonstration were allowed to leave. No arrests were reported.

A list of questions to the Orlando-area Florida Highway Patrol troop about alleged overpass violations  including whether an investigation remains active  was forwarded to the agencys top spokesperson in Tallahassee, who did not answer them Tuesday.

Gov. Ron DeSantis  who, in response to criticism for not joining officials on both sides of the aisle in publicly denouncing the gatherings, accused his political opponents of a smear attempt  indicated Monday that law enforcement action was pending.

First of all, state law enforcement is going to hold them accountable because they were doing stuff on the overpass, DeSantis said. So theyre going to absolutely do that. And they should do that.

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mcordeiro@orlandosentinel.com
Joe Biden's Chief of Staff Ron Klain told a 'limited number' of people that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was retiring shortly before the news was leaked publicly, the number two Senate Democrat revealed on Monday.

The 83-year-old liberal judge was 'blindsided' by the news coming out before he could announce it himself, according to reports last week .

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin told reporters that he got a 'surprise' call from Klain on Wednesday morning informing him that Breyer was retiring but asking him to keep it private. He said it was the first time Klain ever phoned him.

Anyone Biden picks to replace him would have to go through a confirmation hearing in Durbin's committee.

'So I think it must have been Wednesday morning when I received a surprise call at 9:30 a.m. from Ron Klain, not a usual person to call me. I think the first time he's ever called me,' Durbin said.

'He said the president wanted me to know that Stephen Breyer was about to announce his retirement from the court and they were telling a limited number of people and that I should keep it confidential.'

The news was out in the open an hour later, Fox reported.

Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain (left) told a small group of people about Justice Stephen Breyer's (right) retirement shortly before the news went public -- before Breyer reportedly wanted it to

The Illinois Democrat added, 'Thats what confidential on Capitol Hill leads to, I guess.'

Durbin is set to meet with Biden at the White House on Tuesday, alongside the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee Senator Chuck Grassley.

The panel's top two members are expected to give their advice and opinions on potential candidates to replace Breyer.

NBC News, among the first to break the story on Wednesday last week, cited 'people familiar' with the justice's thinking in its reporting.

But Breyer was months away from announcing the news himself, according to the Washington Examiner.

'He did not plan for this to leak out. He was just beginning the standard process of winding down,' a source told the outlet.

Durbin, who said he was also called by Klain, said he was not the one who leaked it. He is seen speaking to reporters about the process to pick the next Supreme Court nominee at the Capitol on Monday

The liberal justice announced his retirement formally the next day, in a White House event alongside the president.

Breyer told Biden in a January 27 letter that he plans to step down when the high court adjourns for summer recess later this year.

In his outgoing speech Breyer expressed his enduring home for the American 'experiment' of democracy, and recalled conversations with young people in which he told them it was theirs to carry on.

'And I'll tell you something: you know who will see whether that experiment works? It's you, my friend. It's you mister high school student. It's you, mister college student, it's you mister law school students. It's us, but it's you,' Breyer said.

'It's that next generation and the one after that. My grandchildren and their children. They'll determine whether the experiment still works. And of course, I am an optimist, and I'm pretty sure it will.'

His smiling, at-ease demeanor did not reflect the reported frustration he felt over the leak the day before.

Biden said he would use Breyer's retirement to make good on a campaign pledge to appoint the first black female Supreme Court justice, prompting swift backlash from Republicans who accuse him of playing politics with his presidential duty of selecting judicial nominees.

'Racial discrimination is wrong. Period, full stop. One of the most depressing things about Democrats today, they're very comfortable discriminating based on race,' GOP Senator Ted Cruz told reporters on Tuesday.

Some of his top candidates reportedly include: DC Circuit Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who Biden elevated to her post last year; district Judge J. Michelle Childs, a federal official in South Carolina who has strong bipartisan support from GOP Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn, both of whom hail from her state; and Judge Leondra Kruger, an associate justice on California's Supreme Court who twice turned down the position of Solicitor General.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki at her Monday news briefing compared Biden's pledge to Ronald Reagan promising to and then appointing the first female justice.

'There was no such complaint from the voices on the right who are speaking out now,' Psaki said, adding: 'but there's no question in his mind that there is a wealth of qualified, talented black women to choose from.'
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Vladimir Putin said the U.S. and NATO have 'ignored' the Kremlin's concerns in recent correspondence as the Russian president made his first direct comments on the Ukraine crisis since December.

'We are carefully analyzing the written responses received from the United States and NATO,' Putin said Tuesday during a press conference with Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

'But it is already clear that fundamental Russian concerns ended up being ignored,' he lamented. 'We did not see adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding the prevention of NATO expansion, the refusal to deploy strike facilities near Russia's borders, and the return of the bloc's military infrastructure in Europe to the state in 1997.'

'When ignoring our concerns, the U.S. and NATO point to the right of states to freely choose how to ensure their security,' Putin added.

Russia's Foreign Ministry released on Tuesday Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's letter to his counterparts in the U.S., Canada and other NATO ally nations. The message claimed that the January response to their demands sent in the month prior were inadequate, including the refusal to adhere to banned Ukraine from entering the NATO military alliance.

'The U.S. and NATO responses to our proposals received on 26 January 2022 demonstrate serious differences in the understanding of the principle of equal and indivisible security that is fundamental to the entire European security architecture,' the letter reads. 'We believe it is necessary to immediately clarify this issue, as it will determine the prospects for future dialogue.'

The response was likely released to counter reports indicating Moscow responded to the U.S. proposals for deescalation with Ukraine.

Russian officials claimed Tuesday that these reports were 'false' and that while Lavrov sent a message to his colleagues in the West, it did not include a response to the U.S. proposals.

Moscow's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday that reports of a written response to the proposal are 'not true.'

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday during a press conference that the U.S. and NATO have 'ignored' the Kremlin's concerns in recent correspondence. Putin made his first direct comments on the Ukraine crisis since December during a joint news conference with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Moscow, Russia on Tuesday, February 1, 2022

A sixth U.S. military aid shipment arrived in Kiev on Tuesday including 500 tons of defense equipment

A map showing where Putin's forces have assembled on Ukraine's borders, the military options Putin might be considering, and key targets he would likely go after in the event he chooses to invade - something the US and NATO continue to warn could be just weeks away from happening

Lavrov, an unnamed senior diplomat claimed in the report, sent a letter to his counterparts, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, about 'the principle of indivisibility of security.' The letter claimed the security of one nation should not be at the expense of others.

The letter released Tuesday did not include the word 'Ukraine' at all.

'Discussing the present situation in Europe, our colleagues from the United States, NATO and the European Union make constant appeals for 'de-escalation' and call on Russia to 'choose a path of diplomacy',' the letter reads. 'We want to remind: we have been moving along that path for decades.'

'We want to receive a clear answer to the question how our partners understand their obligation not to strengthen their own security at the expense of the security of other States on the basis of the commitment to the principle of indivisible security,' Lavrov adds. 'How specifically does your Government intend to fulfill this obligation in practical terms in the current circumstances? If you renege on this obligation, we ask you to clearly state that.'

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki slammed Russia for trying to turn the rhetoric around and express they're worried about a threat coming from Ukraine  especially if it were to join NATO.

'When the fox is screaming from the top of the henhouse that he's scared of the chickens, which is essentially what they're doing, that fear isn't recorded as a statement of fact,' Psaki said during her daily briefing Tuesday.

When Putin last commented on the conflict in December he said: 'It was the United States that came with its missiles to our home, to the doorstep of our home. And you demand from me some guarantees.'

'You should give us guarantees. You! And right away, right now,' the Russian leader demanded at the time.

Ukraine's defense minister thanked the U.S. on Tuesday for sending a sixth military aide shipment.

The U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies continue to send aid to Ukraine over fears Russia could invade after amassing more than 100,000 troops at the border.

'The day hasn't passed yet and we're unloading the 6th bird from our friends from the [U.S.]!' Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted Tuesday, previewing more shipments are coming.

He detailed: '84 tons of ammunition arrived in Kyiv! In total, for today we've received about 500 tons of defense equipment from [U.S.]! And this isn't the end.'

Reznikov included two images in his tweet of the shipment and emojis showing the U.S. flag shaking hands with the Ukrainian flag. He also tagged the White House, Pentagon and Defense Secretary in the post.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Ukraine Tuesday as pro-Kremlin media mocked his Partygate woes and marriage. Putin is also snubbing phone calls from Johnson.

Posing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before their talks, Mr Johnson said: 'I think Kiev is looking good, it's looking fantastic, it's looking strong. Seriously.'

An image of the cargo plane shows creates of aid, including 84 tons of ammunition, as the U.S. tries to bolster Ukraine's position amid fears of an invasion from Russia

Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted on Tuesday images of the aid, claiming there's more to come from the U.S.

U.S. Air Force service men inspect F-15 fighters in the Amari military airfield in Estonia on Tuesday, February 1, 2022

An Air Force fighter F-15 is seen flying over the Amari military airfield in Estonia on Tuesday. President Joe Biden has said he will unilaterally deploy troops to Eastern Europe should Russia invade or take military action against Ukraine

Reports emerged Monday that Moscow delivered a written response to U.S. proposals for deescalation measures, but Russian officials are now denying the correspondence had anything to do with Ukraine.

'We can confirm we received a written follow-up from Russia,' a U.S. official told The Washington Post on Monday. 'It would be unproductive to negotiate in public, so we'll leave it up to Russia if they want to discuss their response.'

'We remain fully committed to dialogue to address these issues and will continue to consult closely with our allies and partners, including Ukraine,' the official added.

The source did not provide further details about what was proposed or what Russia said in its response and it is now said by the Kremlin that the response was not about deescalation in Ukraine.

The U.S. proposals were initially delivered by Blinken on a call with Lavrov last Tuesday. Blinken described the U.S. proposal as something that offers Russia 'a serious diplomatic path forward.'

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield claims Russia is poised to move 30,000 more troops to the Belarus-Ukraine border.

'We've seen evidence that Russia intends to expand that presence to more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border, less than two hours north of Kyiv by early February,' Thomas-Greenfield said during a United Nations Security Council meeting Monday.

In light of the movements and threat posed in Eastern Europe, the U.S. on Monday ordered family members of its government employees currently in Belarus to leave the country

The State Department said: 'Due to an increase in unusual and concerning Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine, U.S. citizens located in or considering travel to Belarus should be aware that the situation is unpredictable and there is heightened tension in the region.'

Thomas-Greenfield added: 'If Russia further invades Ukraine, none of us will be able to say we didn't see it coming, and the consequences will be horrific.'

Russia deployed troops into Belarus on Tuesday to stage large-scale war games close to the Ukrainian border as fears of a potential armed conflict in Ukraine continue to escalate.

Russia's Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu announced that Russia sent a major contingent of its Eastern Military Distict (VVO), including aerial units and air defense units, to Belarus as part of a joint military exercise between the two countries.

The 'first stage' of the war games lasts until February 9 and will see thousands of Russian troops assemble and organize defenses as part of a battle-readiness operation.

Major war games will then be conducted from February 10 and will see Russian and Belarusian units engage in a 10-day simulation of the 'interception and suppression of foreign military aggression and counter-terrorism operations' in what Shoygu dubbed 'The Allied Resolve of 2022'.

Shoygu did not specify how many troops would take part in the war games, but Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. believes Russia will post up to 30,000 troops in Belarus by early February.

Moscow's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told a state news agency on Tuesday that reports Moscow provided a written response to U.S. proposals for deescalation with Ukraine are 'not true'. Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban during their meeting in Moscow, Russia on Tuesday

U.S. officials have assured that NATO allied nations did not bow to Russia's demand that it bar ex-Soviet bloc countries from entering the 30-country military alliance.

White House Press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday: 'Russia has the power. They are the aggressor here. They have the power and ability to de-escalate, to pull their troops back from the border, to not push more troops to Belarus, to take steps to deescalate the situation on the ground.'

Russia accused the U.S. of 'whipping up hysterics' by calling for Monday's UN Security Council meeting to discuss Ukraine, a nod towards their claim that Putin does not intend to invade Ukraine.

The Kremlin also said the West wants to make 'heroes out of people who fought on the side of Hitler' in order to divide the two former Soviet states.

Across his roughly 15-minute remarks Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya issued adamant denials about Moscow's intentions while making blistering accusations about the West's true intentions.

The US called for the 15-nation meeting in New York City, which took place earlier on Monday, as the world tensely watches Putin's aggressive military buildup on Ukraine's border and various intelligence reports indicate an incursion is all but certain.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya accused the US of ginning up 'hysterics' and 'brainwashing' Ukrainians at the heated meeting. His 15 minute speech included denials that Moscow was amassing troops on Ukraine's border. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was 'disappointed' but not 'surprised' by his comments and claimed Moscow is mobilizing 30,000 more troops to send to the Belarus-Ukraine border

A Ukrainian serviceman adjusts the strap of his weapon in a trench at a frontline position in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Monday, Jan. 31

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are joining territorial forces to fight alongside 250,000 regular troops to defend their country

At the moment there are roughly 112,000 Russian ground forces on the doorstep of eastern Ukraine and in Crimea, its Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said on Monday, though earlier in the meeting Russia denied having any troops at the border at all.

'And together, with the maritime and aviation component, their number reaches about 130,000,' he added.

Thomas-Greenfield said Moscow's mobilization of troops is the largest seen 'in Europe in decades.'

As it was underway, President Biden released a statement warning of 'swift and severe' consequences if Russia invades Ukraine.

'If Russia is sincere about addressing our respective security concerns through dialogue, the United States and our Allies and partners will continue to engage in good faith,' Biden said. 'If instead Russia chooses to walk away from diplomacy and attack Ukraine, Russia will bear the responsibility, and it will face swift and severe consequences.'

After failing to stop the meeting at its outset Nebenzya tore into the US and its Western allies, accusing them of trying to provoke a war between Russia and Ukraine.

'Our Western colleagues are talking the need for de-escalation. However, first and foremost, they themselves are whipping up tensions and rhetoric and are provoking escalation,' Nebenzya said.

'You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen, you're waiting for it to happen. As if you want to make your words become a reality.'

He said Russian troops are 'not actually on the border' and that the buildup is a deployment of forces 'in our own territory.'

Nebenzya also implied the West was lying about the number of troops, which reports indicate exceeds 100,000.

A general view during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the situation between Russia and Ukraine, at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan

'Where did you get the figure of 100,000 troops that are deployed, as you state, on the Russian-Ukrainian border, although that is not the case? We have never cited that figure. We've never confirmed that figure,' he said.

He went as far as to accuse the US of 'brainwashing' Ukrainians.

'They're cultivated with Russophobia and radical thinking, leading to the belief that for Ukraine to have a bright future It mustn't establish relations with its neighbors but rather at any cost, strive to join the EU and NATO,' Nebenzya said.

'They are banning Russian, which is a native language for a significant if not the majority of people in Ukraine.'

He added: 'They are making heroes out of those people who fought on the side of Hitler, who destroyed Jews, Poles, Ukrainians and Russians.'

Nebenzya went so far as to accuse western governments of bringing 'nazis' to power in Ukraine after the country overthrew its pro-Russian government in 2014 in favor of democratically elected officials who wanted a warmer relationship with the rest of Europe.

'If our western colleagues who provoked and supported the 2014 Bloody anti-constitutional bringing to powering key of nationalist, radicals, Russophobes and pure fascists  nazis, rather, if they'd not done this, then we today would be living in a state of good neighborly relations,' he said.

Thomas-Greenfield hit back at Russia, stating she was 'disappointed' but not 'surprised' by her Kremlin colleague's searing remarks.

'I cannot let the false equivalency go unchecked. So I, I feel I must respond. Let me be clear -- there are no plans to weaken Russia, as claimed by our Russian colleague today,' she said.

'On the contrary, we welcome Russia as a responsible member of the international community, but its actions on the border of Ukraine are not responsible.

'The threats of aggression on the border of Ukraine -- yes, on its border -- are provocative. Our reactions to threats on the ground are not provocative.'

Speaking to reporters after the meeting concluded, Biden said he had a 'productive talk last week with President Zelensky and we continue to engage in nonstop diplomacy'

'We continue to urge diplomacy as the best way forward but with Russia continuing its buildup we are ready no matter what happens,' the president added.

The Security Council meeting was contentious from the outset, with the Russian ambassador calling for a vote on whether it should proceed in the first place.

The meeting was contentious from the outset, with Russia calling for a vote to shut it down

Ukraine Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said there are 112,000 Russian troops at Ukraine's border and in Crimea

But the effort failed with only Russia and China voted against it, 10 countries voting for it and Gabon, India and Kenya abstaining.

At the meeting's outset Nebenzya accused the US of trying to 'whip up hysterics' and denounced 'the myth of Russian aggression.'

He added that reports of Russia's military build up in preparation for an attack are 'unfounded accusations.'

Thomas-Greenfield challenged Nebezya's charges, declaring: 'Imagine how uncomfortable you would feel if you had 100,00 troops on your border.'

But Nebezya dismissed Thomas-Greenfield's comments as a 'hodgepodge of accusations' and compared the US's preparations for a possible war in Eastern Europe to former Defense Secretary Colin Powell's infamous 2003 speech to the United Nations that preceded the Iraq war.

Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the Biden administration of putting out misleading information in order to foment further tensions.

'To our dismay, American media have lately been publishing a very large amount of unverified, distorted and deliberately deceitful information about what's happening in Ukraine and around it,' Peskov said according to multiple media reports.

'Hysteria hyped up by Washington is causing hysteria in Ukraine, almost to the point that people are packing their bags for the front. It's a fact. And this is the reverse side, very harmful side of the campaign which Washington is pursuing now.'

Meanwhile the Biden administration is reportedly drawing up 'specific sanctions packages' targeting Russian oligarchs and 'elites' in the Kremlin's inner circle that would be levied if Moscow invades Ukraine, it was revealed on Monday.

On Tuesday, State Secretary Antony Blinken is preparing to have a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

But behind the scenes, US officials are reportedly looking at 'a broad list of individuals' and their families to target with harsh economic penalties if Moscow moves forward, according to the Financial Times.

'Putin's cronies will no longer be able to use their spouses or other family members as proxies to evade sanctions,' senior administration officials told the outlet.

'The individuals we have identified are in or near the inner circles of the Kremlin and play a role in government decision making or are at a minimum complicit in the Kremlin's destabilising behaviour.'

They did not name specific individuals so as not to give the intended targets advance notice, but reportedly chose oligarchs with a significant financial interest in the West.

'Sanctions would cut them off from the international financial system and ensure that they and their family members will no longer be able to enjoy the perks of parking their money in the west and attending elite western universities,' the Biden officials said.

An administration official told CNN that these were considered 'particularly vulnerable targets.'

They said the sanctions being worked out would be 'massive' in scale in order to 'atrophy Russia's ability to pursue its strategic ambitions.'

'The Russian elite should fear the consequences that would befall them should Russia further invade,' the official said.

The Russian elites to be targeted come from 'any sector of the Russian economy as identified by the Secretary of the Treasury' and include some names from a 2018 list of powerful individuals and companies designated by the Trump administration.

The Treasury's 2018 list includes 'seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian government officials, and a state-owned Russian weapons trading company and its subsidiary, a Russian bank' designated by the Treasury under the Trump administration,' according to the Department.

An official reportedly said he sanctions are only part of the broad swath of penalties the US is looking at should Russia invade Ukraine.

President Biden said last week he would not rule out sanctioning Putin personally, as US reports indicate an 'imminent' invasion and the United Kingdom's intelligence pointed to an alleged coup plot by the Russians in Ukraine's capital of Kiev.

Ukrainian servicemen stand next to armored personnel carrier (APC) of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces, parked in their base near Klugino-Bashkirivka village, in the Kharkiv region on January 31

Meanwhile international intelligence reports indicate an invasion by Russia could be 'imminent'

At the same time, federal lawmakers in Congress are preparing to act on their own sanctions package.

In a show of bipartisan unity, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez and ranking member Sen. Jim Risch appeared on CNN together Sunday to discuss a two-tiered approach to punishing Russia.

It would likely include measures to levy sanctions over actions Russia has already taken, such as a massive cyberattack against Ukraine's government that Kiev claims Moscow is responsible for.

They're also looking to potentially send more weapons to Ukraine on top of the lethal and defensive aid already sent.

Russia's threatening posture toward the former Soviet state has accelerated the worsening of relations between Moscow and Washington, now at their lowest point since the Cold War.

Monday will mark the highest-profile attempt by the West to deter Russia through diplomacy, as representatives of the most powerful nations in the world gather in New York.

Previous talks held between Russia and the US and its NATO allies in Europe have so far failed to break ground.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who will be at Monday's meeting, told ABC News in a television interview on Sunday: 'We've made clear that we're prepared to address our concerns, Ukrainian concerns and Russian concerns at the diplomatic table, but it cannot be done on the battlefield.'

Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday accused Nato of trying to pull Kiev into the alliance, despite Russia massing 100,000 troops on Ukraine's borders. Moscow wants Nato to rule out Ukraine ever becoming a member as a condition for its withdrawal.

The head of Russia's security council, Nikolai Patrushev, said talk of a Russian invasion was 'completely ridiculous' and claimed: 'We don't want war and we don't need it at all.'

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are joining territorial forces to fight alongside 250,000 regular troops to defend their country. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said there are 'no plans' to deploy Nato combat troops to Ukraine.

He noted there was 'a difference' between being a full NATO member, with a mutual defense obligation between countries, and a 'strong and highly valued partner' such as Ukraine.

Russia's military buildup near Ukraine has expanded to include supplies of blood along with other medical materials that would allow it to treat casualties, in yet another key indicator of Moscow's military readiness, three US officials told Reuters.

Current and former US officials say concrete indicators -- like blood supplies -- are critical in determining whether Moscow would be prepared to carry out an invasion, if Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to do so.

The Pentagon has previously acknowledged the deployment of 'medical support' as part of Russia's buildup. But the disclosure of blood supplies adds a level of detail that experts say is critical to determining Russian military readiness.

'It doesn't guarantee that there's going to be another attack, but you would not execute another attack unless you have that in hand,' said Ben Hodges, a retired US lieutenant general now with the Center for European Policy Analysis research institute.
Care home boss said apology is 'least that can be done' after thousands lost jobs

Care bosses have today urged the Government to apologise to thousands of staff who lost their job after Sajid Javid confirmed he intends to scrap the controversial vaccine mandate.

The Health Secretary last night performed a U-turn on the 'no jab, no job' rule after warnings that it would lead to crippling staff shortages, with roughly 80,000 NHS employees facing the sack.

He told MPs it was 'no longer proportionate' to require staff to be vaccinated as a condition of employment.

But the mandate, which led to 40,000 unvaccinated care workers being fired when it was enforced in social care settings in November, will only be ditched pending a consultation over the next few weeks.

Vic Rayner, the chief executive of the National Care Forum, has today called for the Government to apologise.

She said carers were the 'unwitting guinea pigs' of the policy and the impact on both providers and staff 'must not be swept under the carpet'. Care homes were already short of 100,000 workers before the pandemic, and there are concerns many sacked workers will never return.

Niccii Gillett, a care home manager who lost a sixth of her staff due to the mandate, said an apology is the 'least that can be done'.

Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, the largest trade union in the UK, said the Government has treated social care staff 'appallingly' and apologising is 'the very least the Government can do'.

Mr Javid told MPs the policy could be ditched because there is now higher levels of protection against Covid among the public, compared to when the policy was first introduced.

And Omicron is 'intrinsically less severe' than Delta, which was dominant when the rule was announced, he added.

But Mr Javid said the mandate was the 'right policy at the time, supported by clinical evidence and the Government makes no apology for it'.

NHS England officials last night scrambled to inform local leaders to halt all plans to dismiss unvaccinated employees. They would have needed to get their first vaccine by February 3 in order to meet the April 1 deadline.

Niccii Gillett (pictured left), a care home manager who lost a sixth of her staff due to the mandate, said an apology is the 'least that can be done' after thousands lost their jobs. Christina McAnea (pictured right), the general secretary of Unison, the largest trade union in the UK, said the Government has treated social care staff 'appallingly' and apologising is 'the very least the Government can do'

The Health Secretary (pictured in the Commons last night) said he believes the requirement is no longer proportionate as he confirmed the widely rumoured move in the Commons tonight. But the no jab, no job policy will only be ditched pending a consultation, meaning thousands of unvaccinated carers will still be banned from taking up old jobs for now.

Sajid Javid confirms U-turn on NHS Covid vaccine mandate because controversial policy is 'no longer proportionate' Sajid Javid last night confirmed the Government's intention to drop the controversial Covid vaccine mandate for NHS and care staff. The Health Secretary said he believes the requirement is 'no longer proportionate' as he confirmed the widely rumoured move in the Commons. But the 'no jab, no job policy' will only be ditched pending a consultation, meaning thousands of unvaccinated carers may still be banned from taking up old jobs for now. It is unclear how it will affect the 80,000 unvaccinated NHS staff, who would need to get their first jab by February 3 in order to meet the April 1 deadline. Mr Javid said the U-turn was motivated by higher levels of protection against Covid among the public and Omicron being 'intrinsically less severe' than Delta, which was dominant when the policy was announced. Mr Javid told the Commons: 'Subject to the responses and the will of this house, the Government will revoke the regulations. 'I have always been clear that our rules must remain proportionate and balanced, and of course, should we see another dramatic change in the virus, it would be only responsible to review this policy again.' And he said the vaccine mandate was the 'right policy at the time, supported by clinical evidence and the Government makes no apology for it'. Advertisement

The Health Secretary said the Government will revoke the vaccine requirement for health and social care workers, depending on the outcome of the consultation.

However, Mr Javid noted that 'rules must remain proportionate and balanced' and if there is 'another dramatic change in the virus, it would be responsible to review this policy again'.

He said he has asked the NHS to take vaccination status into account when hiring medics, warning 'everyone working in health and social care has a professional duty to be vaccinated against Covid'.

NHS England last night wrote to local leaders telling them not to serve notice of termination to unvaccinated employees.

Trusts had been preparing to meet with unjabbed medics on Friday to ask them to work their notice period until March 31.

The same rules came into force in care homes in November.

Ms Rayner, boss of the NCF, said: 'The Government must apologise to the social care staff who have lost their jobs and to the people receiving care and support who have had to watch relationships they cherish being severed abruptly as a direct result of this policy.'

Ministers must also say sorry to the social care providers who 'invested significant time, energy and resources into implementing a chaotic policy that is now considered obsolete', she added.

Ms Gillett, manager of Elmfield House Residential Home in Woking, said there were 'a lot of tears' when six of her 36 employees left, and that three months on residents still ask about how they are doing.

The 37-year-old said: 'I do feel that the decision was a mistake and I do think the Government should apologise.

'It doesn't change anything but it just acknowledges the stress that it's caused to a number of people, probably every care home in the country, to huge thousands and thousands of care workers.

'I think an apology is the least that can be done.'

She added: 'And in health and social care we talk a lot about reflection, learning from mistakes, and if we're expected to do that when we make mistakes, then I do strongly feel the Government should issue an apology, and reflect on the reasons behind it, and hopefully going forward not make such rash decisions again.'

Ms Gillett said one former staff member, now working in hospitality, asked if there are any guarantees that the mandate will not return.

Mr Javid, when announcing the policy change, said it would be 'only responsible' to review the vaccine requirement in future if there was a dramatic change in the virus.

Ms Gillett said: 'You can't just ask these staff to come back - they've found other jobs.

But now, ministers are set to scrap the plan after one in 20 NHS staff  the equivalent of 77,591 people  have still not had their first jab. In London, one in ten staff are unvaccinated

'Also I think there would be an element of mistrust. If they do come back to the care profession, how do you know it's not going to be mandated again next winter or in two, three years' time?

'I think that's the worry - now that it's been done once, will it stay how it is or will new legislation come in time that impact their ability to work?'

Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, the largest trade union in the UK, said the Government has treated social care staff 'appallingly' and apologising is 'the very least the Government can do'.

She said: 'The Government must single-handedly take the blame for aggravating the staffing crisis and pushing care homes to the brink.

'It's simply not good enough for the Health Secretary to say sacked workers can return to care homes if they like.

'Thousands of dedicated and experienced staff have been lost to the sector. Most will never return because they have found less stressful, better paid work.'
A PE teacher faces being struck off after allegedly having sex with an 18-year-old pupil at a Premier Inn after senior prom.

The Scottish woman, believed to be in her 20s at the time and recently qualified, is alleged to have partied with pupils at SWG3 nightclub in Glasgow in June 2017.

The former teacher from Gleniffer High School in Paisley, Renfrewshire, is said to have 'danced inappropriately' with pupils before kissing and having sex with an 18-year-old at a Premier Inn Hotel

She is said to have drunk shots before telling pupils: 'Can we for a minute act like I'm not a teacher?'

Police Scotland were alerted to the incident and investigated it at the time, but they found that no criminality had taken place.

The teacher now faces being struck off the register by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), which is due to launch its investigation next week.

The Scottish woman, believed to be in her 20s at the time and recently qualified, is alleged to have partied with pupils at SWG3 nightclub in Glasgow in June 2017

The former teacher from Gleniffer High School (pictured) in Paisley, Renfrewshire, is said to have 'danced inappropriately' with pupils before kissing and having sex with an 18-year-old at a Premier Inn Hotel

The allegations read: 'Between 7 June 2017 and 8 June 2017, whilst employed by Renfrewshire Council as a PE Teacher at Gleniffer High School, at the senior prom and immediately thereafter, you danced inappropriately with pupils during the prom, including making inappropriate physical contact whilst dancing with them at SWG3, Glasgow.

'[You] kissed Pupil A at the hotel in which pupils were staying for the night, the Premier Inn Hotel and engaged in sexual intercourse with Pupil A after the prom, at the Premier Inn.

'[You drank a shot (or shots) at the bar of SWG3, behaved in an inappropriate manner in a hotel room at the Premier Inn by drinking alcohol in the presence of pupils and stating words to the effect of ''Can we for a minute act like I'm not a teacher'' to a pupil(s).'

Further allegations state the teacher 'was alone on a bed with Pupil A and, when Pupil E entered the room, stated to Pupil E words to the effect of: 'Technically I haven't touched him yet'.

'[You] were under the influence of alcohol to the point of being inebriated in the presence of pupils in the Premier Inn [and] had awareness that an ex pupil was in possession of drugs and did not report this to the appropriate authorities,' the allegations claim.

The teacher is also alleged to have told the headteacher at the school that she was at home when she was at the Premier Inn.
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ABC News staffers are furious at the network for not firing Whoopi Goldberg after she claimed that the Holocaust wasn't about race, with some accusing the network of having an anti-Semitic 'blind spot'.

Whoopi, 66, made the controversial comments on The View on Monday. She referred to Jews and Nazis as 'two groups of white people' and said that because they were both white, it was about 'inhumanity' and not race'.

Her remarks sparked immediate international backlash with everyone from the Israeli Consular General in New York to the Auschwitz Memorial and Antidefamation League taking offense. ABC has refused to comment on the scandal.

Whoopi posted an apology on Twitter last night saying the Holocaust was about 'both' race and inhumanity.

On Tuesday, she made an on-air apology, then interviewed the CEO of The Anti-Defamation League, before moving on to other topics with her co-hosts.

Ahead of The View's show on Tuesday, a senior ABC News source told DailyMail.com that staff are stunned by the network's soft touch on her remarks, especially when it was so quick to fire Roseanne Barr over racist comments towards Valerie Jarrett.

'These comments are absolutely abhorrent and outrageous and its time Disney and ABC grew a pair and fired her,' the source said.

'Disney took swift action and fired Roseanne Barr when she posted the awful tweet about Valerie Jarrett, yet Whoopi made her vile comments on ABCs air and they do nothing about it? Where is the leadership from within Disney?

'[Disney content chairman] Peter Rice needs to step up and do his job and fire Whoopi. How is this appropriate at all? What message do we send as a company? Why is there one rule for Whoopi Goldberg  who gets a pass on everything and another rule for everyone else?' said the source.

There is a blind spot on The View when it comes to anti-Semitism. It is never a big enough hate crime for them.

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Whoopi Goldberg on Tuesday apologized again for her claim that the Holocaust 'wasn't racist' after a swell of people called for her to be fired

After apologizing, Whoopi introduced the panel's guest - Jonathan Greenblatt - the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League - to help 'continue the conversation'

They added that the comment on Monday was only the latest in a string of inflammatory claims made by Whoopi, who previously defended Bill Cosby on the show.

WHOOPI'S HOLOCAUST COMMENTS The saga began when the panel discussed a Tennessee school removing the comic Maus from its curriculum because it contained nudity. Critics are now demanding that Goldberg be fired from the show. They pointed to other talk show hosts and TV personalities like Sharon Osborne and Roseanne Barr who were fired over making controversial remarks. Goldberg started off by saying: 'Personally I am shocked because given the story of Maus I am surprised that that's what made you uncomfortable. 'It's about the Holocaust, the killing of 6million people, but that didn't bother you. This is white people doing it to white people so y'all go fight amongst yourselves but...' Later, she carried on: 'Let's be truthful about it. The Holocaust isn't about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man. That's what it's about.' Co-hosts Ana Navarro, Joy Behar and Sarah Haines all argued back but she continued: 'But these are two white groups of people? You are missing the point. 'The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. 'Let's talk about it for what it is, it's how people treat each other.' Advertisement

'We were all outraged when Whoopi was defending Bill Cosby and ABC had to bring [legal analyst] Dan Abrams on the show to help her understand that her views surrounding Cosby were extremely problematic.

'This was after fifty women, FIFTY, had come forward with serious allegations about him.'

'People are livid within the news division as it completely undermines our credibility.'

The source also alleged that former host Meghan McCain previously pitched the victim of a Jewish hate crime as a guest on the show but that she was told to conduct the interview for online only.

Among those who fumed over Goldberg being allowed to stay on the show was Piers Morgan.

'Sharon Osbourne was fired from The Talk for defending me against a fake charge of racism. Whoopi Goldberg said on The View yesterday that the Holocaust wasnt about race, which for Jewish people is about as racist a comment as anyone could make.

'Bet she doesnt lose her job,' he said.

Osborne was fired from The Talk, a CBS show, for defending Morgan against allegations he was racist because he did not believe everything the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, said.

Others have compared Whoopi's situation to that of Joe Rogan, the Spotify podcast host who was admonished by musicians because he hosted anti-vax opinions on his show.

Spotify is standing by him and adding a content advisory warning to his shows, ignoring the demands of musicians like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young who threatened to pull their music off the streaming site because they disagreed with Rogan.

Rogan has never disclosed his vaccination status. It's unclear if he is pro or against it but the very fact he was giving a platform to the topic of anti-vaxxing was enough, they said, to constitute disinformation.

On Tuesday, Whoopi returned to The View and kicked off the show with an on-air apology.

'Yesterday on our show I misspoke. I tweeted about it last night but I kind of want you to hear it from me directly. I feel a responsibility.

'My words upset so many people which was never my intention. I understand why. The information I got was really helpful.

'I said the Holocaust wasn't about race and was instead about man's inhumanity to man.

'It is indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be the inferior race.

'Words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments and I stand corrected,' she said.

She then went on to interview Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, who spoke generally about anti-Semitism and why it is still a threat, before cutting to a commercial.

Then, after the break, they resumed the 'hot topics' of the day including Rihanna's pregnancy.

Whoopi's co-hosts have not yet publicly commented on her remarks.

The Consular General of Israel invited Goldberg on Monday to take a tour of the Museum of Jewish Heritage to learn about the Holocaust

Whoopi posted this apology on Twitter on Monday night after sparking outrage

Whoop Goldberg on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night. She doubled down on her comments about The Holocaust not being racist

WHOOPI'S WHOOPSIES: THE MANY PAST CONTROVERSIES THAT THE VIEW HOST HAS GOTTEN AWAY WITH Whoopi's Holocaust comments are not the first time she has made controversial remarks on the show - and gotten away with them. From Mel Gibson's racist, drunken rants to Bill Cosby's sex crimes, Whoopi, has gone against the grain repeatedly. MEL GIBSON 'I know he's not a racist': Whoopie defends her 'friend' Mel Gibson after he tells his then girlfriends he hopes she gets raped by a 'pack of n****s' In July 2010, Goldberg defended Mel Gibson after a furious conversation between him and ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva was published. Gibson tells his Russian girlfriend, mother of his daughter Lucia: 'You look like a f****** pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of n******, it will be your fault.' Goldberg defended him. 'I know Mel, and I know he's not a racist,' she said. 'I have had a long friendship with Mel. You can say he's being a bonehead, but I can't sit and say that he's a racist having spent time with him in my house with my kids.' Goldberg was quick to add, however, that she does not condone his actions. 'I don't like what he's done,' she said. 'Make no mistake.' When co-host Joy Behar asked Goldberg if she thought Gibson was anti-Semitic, she replied, 'I think he's an a******,' quickly covering her mouth before the full word escaped her lips. MEN HAVE 'EVERY RIGHT TO HIT WOMEN' WHO HIT THEM FIRST In 2014, she twice sprung to the defense of male celebrities involved in violent confrontations with women. First she said that Jay-Z, who was attacked by Beyonce's sister Solange Knowles in an elevator at The Standard Hotel, would have been justified in hitting her back. Goldberg told The View in May 2014 that a man has 'every right' to hit a woman in some circumstances. Jaz-Z refrained from any attack. 'I think Solange was quite ready for him to do whatever he was going to do,' Goldberg said. 'This is the thing: If anybody hits you, you have the right  I know that many people are raised in a different way  but if a woman hits you, to me, you have the right to hit her back,' she said. BILL COSBY - 'INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY' The floodgates of allegations opened in November 2014, but Goldberg defended him resolutely until July 2015. 'He has not been proven a rapist,' she insisted in early July 2015. 'It's my opinion, and the American courts agree with me because still he has not been taken to jail or tried on anything. So back off me!' Several weeks later, she finally changed her tune. 'I gotta say, all of the information that's out there kinda points to 'guilt',' she concluded. GEORGE BUSH Perhaps the thrice-married actress's most damaging moment came when she was invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention, in 2004, and made a crude joke about then-Republican President George W. Bush. 'I love Bush, but somebody's giving Bush a bad name,' Goldberg told the audience. We should keep Bush where he belongs,' she said, gesturing at her genitals, 'and not in the White House.' Goldberg was condemned for her remarks, and lost a lucrative contract with Slim Fast. She said at the time she was taken aback by the outrage. 'I've done material on every president in the past 20 years, from Reagan to Carter, from Clinton to Bush. It seems now that people from the other side are using this to further their own agenda,' she said. The Manhattan-born performer found herself cast into the wilderness after her comments, and has since said she didn't work for five years. 'For a good three years, I couldn't even get arrested,' she told The New York Times in 2019. 'Eventually I was lucky enough to get a radio show, and then Barbara Walters asked if I would consider doing 'The View.'' Goldberg officially joined the show in August 2007, taking the slot vacated by Rosie O'Donnell. EX-BOYFRIEND USING THE N-WORD IN ROAST Whoopi's infamous roast by then-boyfriend Ted Danson where he repeatedly used the n-word and joked about racially mixed kids. In 1993, she was roasted by her then-boyfriend Ted Danson at the Friar's Club. Goldberg and Danson collaborated on the jokes, and Danson appeared on stage in blackface with his lips painted white, proceeding to make graphic jokes about Goldberg's anatomy and repeatedly used the n-word. Attendees were horrified and then-New York City Mayor David Dinkins - the first black mayor of the city - said he was 'embarrassed for Whoopi and the audience and felt a tremendous sense of relief when it was over.' Talk show host Montel Williams stormed off seven minutes into Danson's monologue and left with his visibly upset wife. 'When Ted made the jokes about the racially mixed kids, and everyone knows my wife is white and just gave birth to our child, I could see my wife start to cry,' Williams told The New York Daily News. 'If that's what Whoopi and Ted find funny in their bedroom, it's not funny to the outside world.' Williams said he planned to send roses and a note of apology to all the black women sitting on the dais with him for what he said was like 'a meeting of the Klan.' Advertisement

The saga began when the panel discussed a Tennessee school removing the comic Maus from its curriculum because it contained nudity.

Critics are now demanding that Goldberg be fired from the show.

They pointed to other talk show hosts and TV personalities like Sharon Osborne and Roseanne Barr who were fired over making controversial remarks.

Goldberg started off by saying: 'Personally I am shocked because given the story of Maus I am surprised that that's what made you uncomfortable.

'It's about the Holocaust, the killing of 6million people, but that didn't bother you. This is white people doing it to white people so y'all go fight amongst yourselves but...'

Later, she carried on: 'Let's be truthful about it. The Holocaust isn't about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man. That's what it's about.'

Co-hosts Ana Navarro, Joy Behar and Sarah Haines all argued back but she continued: 'But these are two white groups of people? You are missing the point.

'The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley.

'Let's talk about it for what it is, it's how people treat each other.'
An ex-Tory councillor who said NHS A&Es were full of 'fat mums in Pot Noodle-stained leggings' has been suspended for bullying a teacher.

Former Conservative member Gareth Baines was an independent councillor for Chirk Town Council in Wrexham County Borough but has now been suspended due to the bullying probe.

Teacher Rachel Allen raised a grievance against him last year. Mr Baines wrote to her school bosses accusing her of making a 'vindictive and vexatious' complaint.

Although Ms Allen's initial complaint was thrown out, a standards committee heard that by writing to her employers, Mr Baines had tried to 'smear her name in the workplace' and breached the council's code of conduct.

Mr Baines was handed a three-month suspension and told to carry out code of conduct training and write letters of apology.

Former Conservative member Gareth Baines (left and right) was an independent councillor for Chirk Town Council in Wrexham County Borough but has now been suspended due to the bullying probe

A hearing of the Adjudication Panel for Wales was held on December 16 to consider his case after he appealed against his suspension.

The Adjudication Panel for Wales recommended his suspension be reduced to two months.

But Wrexham Council's standards committee today met and discussed the recommendation and decided to uphold his three-month suspension.

Mr Baine's suspension from Chirk Town Council comes after he resigned as chairman of the Clwyd South Conservative Association in 2021 following a series of tweets about the NHS which caused outrage.

One of the tweets written on New Year's Eve 2020 said: 'A&Es in Germany aren't full of fat mums in pot noodle-stained leggings/ pjs taking their kids for a day out at A&E to harvest Facebook likes because their darling little snot-covered Asbo fell over. Happy New Year.'

And in another he said: 'Our NHS is treated as a sacred cow and cannot be criticised. Those arguing for reform are deemed to be Satan incarnate.

'I'm sorry, but after spending most of my life working on the continent, the NHS isn't the best in the world - it isn't one of the best in Europe. Pales when compared with systems like Germany and Norway.'

Mr Baines later apologised for the comments he made and said in a statement at the time: 'Whilst I feel my comments have been taken out of context, I do offer my sincere apologies for any offence they may have caused.

'I have also taken the decision to step down from my role as Chairman of Clwyd South Conservative Association with immediate effect.'

Mr Baine's suspension from Chirk Town Council comes after he resigned as chairman of the Clwyd South Conservative Association in 2021 following a series of tweets about the NHS which caused outrage. Pictured: One of the tweets Mr Baines wrote about the NHS

Mr Baines had acted as an agent for MP Simon Baynes in the 2019 General Election - and rival politicians asked the member to take action over the tweets.

The Welsh Labour Party said: 'This is terrible and shows what he really thinks about the people who use the NHS.'

And former Lib Dem council candidate Aimi Waters wrote to Mr Baynes saying: 'As I'm sure you have recently seen on social media, the chair of our local Conservative group in Clwyd South, Mr Gareth Baines, has made some very unsavoury remarks about mothers and their children in A&E waiting rooms.

'Whilst I understand you cannot possibly comment on certain things, and you cannot control what someone else does, you are able to comment on a member of the local Conservative group - a member who is relatively high profile and actually represents people in the community too.'
Anis Hemissi, 24, is alleged to have been the gunman but he denies murder

A former kickboxer accused of murdering a reality star's brother has claims he was only in London for a 'Netflix and chill' date, a court heard.

Flamur 'Alex' Beqiri, 36, whose sister Misse Beqiri appeared in Real Housewives Of Cheshire, was shot dead outside his 1.5m home in Battersea, southwest London, on Christmas Eve 2019.

Alleged gunman Anis Fouad Hemissi, 24, alongside his Swedish compatriots, Bawer Karaer, 23, Estevan Munizaga, 35, Tobias Andersson, 32, deny murdering the father-of-two on December 24, 2019.

Last month Hemissi told Southwark Crown Court he was in contact with 20 women and was hoping to meet an online date called Nadine in London.

Flamur 'Alex' Beqiri, 36, a Swedish national of Albanian heritage and whose sister Misse Beqiri (both pictured) appeared in Real Housewives Of Cheshire, was murdered outside his 1.5m home in Battersea, southwest London, on Christmas Eve 2019

Hemissi insisted he had never heard of Mr Beqiri and had no reason to 'want to hurt him'.

The Swedish-Tunisian dual national claimed he chatted with 22-year-old Nadine every day, but was unable to provide police proof of that because he forgot his phone's password.

He said: 'We were going to have "Netflix and chill", we were going to relaxing with the movies or something.'

But in his closing speech prosecutor Mark Heywood described Hemissi's evidence regarding his presence in London as 'completely untenable.'

Alleged gunman Anis Fouad Hemissi, 24, told Southwark Crown Court he was hoping to meet an online date called Nadine in London, however when pressed by prosecutors he could not remember her last name, where she lived or where she went to university. Pictured: Flamur 'Alex' Beqiri, 36, was killed in front of his wife Debora Krasniqi (they are pictured together)

Hemissi said he didn't remember Nadine's last name, where she lived or where she went to university.

Mr Heywood said: 'You need only think for a moment about what he has told you about Nadine with whom he was in contact for about two or three months.

'He was unable to point to any communication with her other than to say that it happened.

'Unable to identify any communication whatsoever that still survives.

'One to two to three different handsets [that he has been in possession of], not a shred of evidence emerges that supports even the existence of Nadine.

'If such a person exists she must be, on his case, relatively easily discoverable.'

The doorstep of Mr Beqiri's home in Battersea, southwest London, where the shooting took place on Christmas Eve 2019

My Heywood said there is 'not a shred of biographical information about her...'

Jurors have heard the killers had rented an Airbnb in Oyster Wharf, close to the victim's address, to stay there for three weeks before the murder.

Mr Heywood summarised the extent of the planning which went into the operation and alleged Munizaga was one of the key organisers.

'It is clear that his role was this, his role was that he was a first on the ground in the UK, his purpose or his involvement was the logistics of the enterprise.

'Information, accommodation and then transport.

'That is the three limbs of his activity.'

He detailed Munizaga's role in organising two separate Airbnb rentals - one in November and one in December - as well as purchasing a bicycle.

Mr Heywood said Isaac-Castor flew to London in November and again in December to secure the accommodation and assess the situation on the ground.

He was joined by Andersson who allegedly acquired the Glock self-loading pistol used in the shooting and bought the litter picker that Hemissi used for reconnaissance.

Disguised as street cleaner and wearing a latex mask, Hemissi allegedly spent hours scoping out Mr Beqiri's address in the days leading up to the murder.

Hemissi, Pino-Munizaga, both of Malmo, Sweden, Karaer, of Stockholm, Sweden, and Andersson, of Trangsund, Sweden, all deny murder.

Hemissi also denies possession of a prohibited firearm in relation to a self-loading pistol

Claude Isaac-Castor, 22 and Clifford Rollox, 31, deny perverting the course of justice between the 24 and 28 December 2019.

The trial continues.
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The have-a-go 'hero' driver who mowed down and killed a knifeman while he was stabbing to death a mother-of-two will face no further action, Scotland Yard revealed today as the woman's family said they were 'delighted' that police had 'done the sensible thing'.

Yasmin Wafah Chkaifi, 43, died after the 'terrifying' attack by ex-husband Leon Mccaskie, 41, despite the efforts of the motorist - 'Abraham' - who intervened by ploughing into him in Maida Vale, West London, on January 24.

Friends of the 26-year-old driver, a Chechen electrician who was arrested on suspicion of murder after he drove his Renault Clio into Mccaskie to try to stop the carnage, said he has been 'living a nightmare' ever since.

More than 75,000 people signed a petition calling for him not to face criminal charges  and relatives and friends of Miss Chkaifi had called for the police probe to be dropped and for Abraham to be honoured for his bravery.

Today, Scotland Yard confirmed the driver will 'face no further police action' after officers studied CCTV footage, spoke to witnesses and detectives and looked at the legal position on 'self-defence and defence of another'.

Abraham said today that he was 'grateful that they have taken this sensible course of action' and that he wanted to 'express my gratitude to the British public who supported me so vocally at this most stressful and trying time'.

In a statement released by his lawyer Mohammed Akunjee, Abraham said: 'I have learnt from my solicitors that the Met Police have taken the decision to take no further action against me concerning my arrest under suspicion for murder. I am grateful that they have taken this sensible course of action.

'I will of course continue to assist them and any coroner's inquest should the need arise. I once again wish to express my gratitude to the British public who supported me so vocally at this most stressful and trying time.

'I also wish to express my gratitude to my solicitor Mr Akunjee who supported myself and my family through this process. I hope that in my actions a message has been sent to society: should you see an evil it is a duty upon you to stop it with your hands, if you cannot then you should stop it by speaking out, if you cannot then at the very least you should hate it with your heart. May peace be upon you all.'

Also reacting to the news was the aunt of Ms Chkaifi, known only as Hafida, who told MailOnline: 'This is wonderful news. For us this man is a hero and for once, the police have done the sensible thing. We are delighted that he will not face any criminal charges because all he was trying to do was save Yasmine. We would love to meet him and thank him for what he did but we don't know where he is and don't even have a telephone number for him.

'If somebody could help us find him that would be amazing. The whole family is really suffering at the moment so it's lovely to receive some good news at this difficult time. We are so happy that common sense has prevailed.'

Abraham's lawyer Mr Akunjee had earlier tweeted: 'Good news - the Met Police have confirmed that there will be no further action with respect to our client 'Abraham' concerning his arrest under suspicion of murder.'

Detective Chief Inspector Neil Rawlinson of the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Crime Command, who has led the investigation, said today: 'Having reviewed the CCTV evidence and taken statements of numerous members of the public and attending officers, as well as reviewing the legal position regarding self-defence and defence of another, a decision has been taken that the driver of the car, a 26-year-old man will face no further police action.

'He is considered a vital witness to our investigation and will be offered support from professionals to help him come to terms with the terrifying situation he was confronted with. It is vitally important that when a person dies there is a thorough investigation into all of the circumstances and this has taken place. Such decisions must be thoroughly examined and while this process takes time this has been a priority for my team.

'The man's legal advisors have been informed of this decision. Inquests have opened in relation to both deaths and my team will continue to work to provide evidence for the coroner. We continue to appeal for witnesses to this incident who have yet to speak to police to come forward and do so.'

Abraham had said last week he did 'not see why I as the person who tried to assist in the defence of other human beings remain arrested and on bail under suspicion of murder' and urged police to instead treat him as a witness.

It also emerged after the attack that McCaskie had been due in court on January 27 for breaching a stalking order taken out to protect Miss Chkaifi, which barred him from contacting her. The stabbing took place nearly three weeks after a warrant without bail had been issued when McCaskie failed to appear in court on January 4.

On January 27, in a statement issued on Twitter both in writing and in a video through Mr Akunjee, Abraham said: 'I witnessed a man repeatedly stabbing a defenceless woman on the pavement a short distance in front of my car.

Yasmin Wafah Chkaifi (left), 43, died after the horrific attack by Leon Mccaskie (right), 41, in Maida Vale, West London

Abraham said today in a statement released by his lawyer Mohammed Akunjee that he was 'grateful that they have taken this sensible course of action' and that he wanted to 'express my gratitude to the British public who supported me so vocally'

'Members of the public were attempting to intervene. The attacker was wielding a knife and was threatening those brave citizens too. My instant thought was to protect the woman who was being stabbed and the public who were also being threatened. The vehicles ahead of me moved off, which gave me the opportunity to intervene.

'I drove my vehicle towards the attacker in order to get him away from the woman he was attacking. I did not intend to harm the attacker. I only intended to protect those being attacked.'

'Abusive' ex-husband, 41, who stabbed mother-of-two, 43, to death in Maida Vale before being run over and killed by hero driver 'had warrant out for his arrest' after he breached restraining order and failed to appear in court, inquest hears An 'abusive' ex-husband who stabbed a mother-of-two to death in the street before being run over and killed had a warrant out for his arrest, a court heard today. Leon McCaskie, 41, brutally murdered Wafah Yasmin Chkaifi, 43, before being mowed down by a car in Maida Vale, west London, the opening of an inquest into her death was told. The driver - who many hailed as a 'hero' - was later arrested on suspicion of murder before being bailed while the investigation is ongoing. McCaskie was already wanted by police for breaching a restraining order which Mrs Chkaifi had taken out against him for being abusive. An inquest into the death of Mrs Chkaifi was opened at Westminster Coroner's Court this morning, attended over videolink by many members of her family, including her husband Joseph Salmon and two sons. Giving evidence, DCI Neil Rawlinson said: 'Yasmin Chkaifi and Leon McCaskie had been in a relationship that ended several years ago.' But he said there had been 'allegations of domestic abuse' and a Stalking Prevention Order was issued against McCaskie. 'Leon had been arrested and charged for breaching this order, but failed to appear for his first hearing at court,' he added. 'A warrant was issued for his arrest on the January 4, 2022. The two parties lived very close to one another in the Maida Vale area. On Monday, January 24, 2022 at about 9am, Leon accosted Yasmin in the street, and repeatedly stabbed her with a knife. A member of public in a passing car, saw this and used his vehicle to drive into Leon in an attempt to stop the assault. Both Leon and Yasmin were declared deceased at the scene. 'An investigation has been taking place with me as the senior investigating officer. We have secured CCTV footage of the incident and obtained statements from several eyewitnesses who told us what they saw. 'We do continue to make efforts to get statements from other potential witnesses whose details we have. Police action between January 4 and 24 is currently subject to an independent investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.' Ms Chkaifi's cause of death was multiple stab wounds. Coroner Professor Fiona Wilcox said: 'I would like to pass my sympathy to Yasmin's family for their loss. This is a truly shocking and distressing death and I cannot imagine what you must be going through as a family at this time.' The inquest into Mr McCaskie's death was opened and adjourned in a separate remote hearing. The court heard that his cause of death was multiple injuries. Ms Wilcox also expressed her sympathy to his mother, who was listening to proceedings on the phone. Advertisement

He continued: 'My vehicle struck the attacker and he was taken under my car, causing it to stall. I could not reverse my car to free him. I and the other passers-by attempted to lift the car away from the attacker so we could provide the man with first aid.

'Unfortunately we were unsuccessful with this and I have since learned that both the young lady and her attacker have died. I am deeply sorry that the man I tried to stop from attacking other people has died.

'It was never my intention to harm him, I just wanted to stop him from hurting anybody further . My only regret is that God did not allow me to be present at the scene sooner so that my intervention may have saved the life of the young woman concerned.'

Abraham added last week that he had asked Mr Akunjee - a high-profile lawyer who is best known for fighting for ISIS bride Shamima Begum's return to the UK - to request that the Metropolitan Police de-arrested him and instead treated him 'as a witness to a tragic event rather than as a criminal as they currently are'.

He said last week: 'I understand that the police are doing their job and that my being arrested is not unusual. However, I do not see why I as the person who tried to assist in the defence of other human beings remain arrested and on bail under suspicion of murder.

'I have asked my solicitor to contact the Metropolitan Police to request that they consider de-arresting me and begin treating me as a witness to a tragic event rather than as a criminal as they currently are.'

MailOnline asked Mr Akunjee's firm, Waterford Solicitors, how he came to represent Abraham. The lawyer has previously done pro-bono work, including for Begum, although it is not known if that was the case with Abraham.

Meanwhile, Westminster Coroner's Court heard today that McCaskie was already wanted by police for breaching a restraining order which Ms Chkaifi had taken out against him for being abusive.

The inquest was attended over videolink by many members of her family, including her husband Joseph Salmon and two sons.

Giving evidence, Mr Rawlinson said: 'Yasmin Chkaifi and Leon McCaskie had been in a relationship that ended several years ago.'

But he said there had been 'allegations of domestic abuse' and a Stalking Prevention Order was issued against McCaskie, adding: 'Leon had been arrested and charged for breaching this order, but failed to appear for his first hearing at court. A warrant was issued for his arrest on the January 4, 2022. The two parties lived very close to one another in the Maida Vale area.

'On Monday, January 24, 2022 at about 9am, Leon accosted Yasmin in the street, and repeatedly stabbed her with a knife. A member of public in a passing car, saw this and used his vehicle to drive into Leon in an attempt to stop the assault. Both Leon and Yasmin were declared deceased at the scene.

'An investigation has been taking place with me as the senior investigating officer. We have secured CCTV footage of the incident and obtained statements from several eyewitnesses who told us what they saw.

'We do continue to make efforts to get statements from other potential witnesses whose details we have. Police action between January 4 and 24 is currently subject to an independent investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.'

Ms Chkaifi's cause of death was multiple stab wounds. Coroner Professor Fiona Wilcox said: 'I would like to pass my sympathy to Yasmin's family for their loss. This is a truly shocking and distressing death and I cannot imagine what you must be going through as a family at this time.'

The inquest into Mr McCaskie's death was opened and adjourned in a separate remote hearing. The court heard that his cause of death was multiple injuries. Ms Wilcox also expressed her sympathy to his mother, who was listening to proceedings on the phone.

Last week, friends of the driver, who was heard saying 'what have I done?' after the incident, revealed that the electrician was still in shock.

Forensic officers stand near a blue Renault Clio as they carry out investigations in Maida Vale, West London, on January 24

Miss Chkaifi's relatives place flowers at the scene of the killing in Maida Vale, West London, on Tuesday, January 25

Police officers and emergency services cordon off the scene in Maida Vale, West London, on Monday, January 24

A friend, who did not want to be named, said: 'If he ever sees anyone in trouble he will always try to help. He's a good Muslim man and couldn't bear to see the woman being attacked.

Driver Abraham's lawyer Mohammed Akunjee tweeted today: 'Good news - the Met Police have confirmed that there will be no further action'

'He was on his way to a job and stopped to do the right thing. He's in shock about what happened. It's been a nightmare for him.'

Another friend, who did not want to be named, said: 'This guy is a family man with children and was just doing the right thing. It was instinct and an act of human kindness.

Another said: 'He is one of the most peaceful and good people I've ever met. He would never walk away when somebody needs help. He risked his life to save this poor woman. Police should praise him and let him go to his little children and wife.'

Last week, the Metropolitan Police said the driver had been 'fully co-operative' after he was arrested on suspicion of murder following the incident.

He had been bailed until a date in late February while evidence was evaluated.

The Met is also now facing an investigation itself into the attack after it emerged that the force was repeatedly warned about former company director Mccaskie's abusive behaviour.

A friend said last week how Miss Chkaifi grew concerned that her ex-husband would try to kill her in April 2020 after she learned that he was spying on her.

More than 75,000 people have signed a petition calling for the driver not to face criminal charges over Monday's incident

Mohammed Akunjee, lawyer for the Maida Vale driver who is an electrician known as 'Abraham', gave a statement last week

This press statement was issued on Twitter last week by the Maida Vale driver's lawyer Mohammed Akunjee

In messages to Adele-Sara Richards, Miss Chkaifi said: 'He's had cameras in my house recording me for months. He's stolen my mail, my phone, has access to all my personal data. I think he will kill me.'

How Maida Vale driver's lawyer also fought for ISIS bride Shamima Begum's return to the UK Mohammed Tasnime Akunjee is a lawyer who has represented a number of figures in high-profile cases. He is listed as a consultant at the Brentford branch of Waterford Solicitors and was recently in hot water after posting an image of the Taliban in Kabul with reference to Thin Lizzy song 'The boys are back in town'. It prompted outrage among some, but he insisted he had been condemning them. He tweeted at the time: 'I can only assume that some people on twitter are being purposely dense. The Boys Are Back in Town is a song about a criminal gang (The Quality Street Gang Manchester) who have returned following a sojourn. This is controversial re the Taliban how exactly?' The criminal defence lawyer, who specialises in terrorism law, is best known as fighting for ISIS bride Shamima Begum's return to the UK. He also represented he Syrian teenager Jamal Hijazi who won a libel case against Tommy Robinson to the tune of 100,000. Akunjee has also garnered headlines for making controversial remarks around Islamic extremism and terrorism in the past. He previously defended one of British soldier Lee Rigby's killers and in 2015 accused the UK security services of 'creating' Michael Adebolajo by 'making his life so difficult'. Once holding links to CAGE, a group denounced as 'terror apologists' by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Mr Akunjee later told Al-Jazeera: 'MI5 spent a huge amount of resources trying to turn him and speak to him before he did what he did. It's Frankenstein - they created him by making his life so difficult.' When news broke that Begum had fled Britain to join so-called Islamic State, Mr Akunjee led a campaign for the Metropolitan Police to apologise to her family for failing to tell them that a school friend had travelled to Syria. Advertisement

Miss Chkaifi, who had two sons aged 16 and 18, told friends that she had gone to police about the incident and that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

The mature student secured a restraining order against Mccaskie after the breakdown of their two-year marriage and even had a panic alarm fitted in her flat.

A warrant for his arrest was issued just four weeks ago after he failed to turn up for a court hearing relating to a breach of the stalking order.

One of Miss Chkaifi's sons accused the Met of doing too little to protect his mother and said that officers had been contacted numerous times about Mccaskie's harassment.

Mccaskie was convicted of obstructing a police officer and driving without insurance in 2017.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog is now deciding if it will open an investigation into Scotland Yard's handling of the case after the force referred itself.

A spokesman said: 'We can confirm that we have received a referral from the Metropolitan Police regarding their contact with Yasmin Chkaifi prior to her tragic death in Maida Vale, London on January 24.

'We are currently assessing the available information, and have requested more, to determine what further action may be required from us.'

Tributes have been paid to Ms Chkaifi, who was a qualified childminder, had worked in a school and was studying for a master's degree.

Ms Richards, who described how she supported her after her mother died, said: 'She was a good soul. It's very rare in life you come across a good soul. She always had a happy disposition. She was just a lovely person.'

Another friend, American PhD student Olivia Jones, 30, who lives in Brent, said: 'I didn't know Yasmin well, but she made me feel as though I did. A year ago, Yasmin opened her doors to my partner and I at the time and hosted us for a meal.

'She was incredibly kind, hospitable and an amazing cook and dancer. She had a bubbly personality and a confidence about her that was so attractive. She was proud of her Moroccan heritage and a spiritual woman. We spoke about Islam, identity and social justice. She was a good person.'

Family members paid tribute to Miss Chkaifi, who was also known as Wafat, in a statement on Facebook.

They said: 'She was full of life, always stayed positive and always saw the best in everyone.

'Wafat loved to laugh, dance and leave a special impact on everyone's life that got to share it with her. She has indeed left many broken from this awful and tragic news. Wafat was the most pure and genuine soul you would meet. She has left two amazing boys who will continue her legacy of being pure souls.'
Whoopi Goldberg has been allowed to keep her job on The View despite growing demands to be fired for claiming that the Holocaust 'was not about race' and let off with an on-air apology despite growing calls for her to be fired.

The 66-year-old host on Monday sparked international outrage and offense by claiming the Holocaust was not about race because Jews and Nazis are 'two groups of white people.' She then issued a Twitter apology, but later doubled down on her comments on Stephen Colbert's late-night CBS show.

Many - including ABC staffers - called for her to be fired over the remarks and asked why she was allowed to keep her job when others have been fired for arguably less.

ABC has not issued a comment on the scandal, nor has its parent company Disney. On Tuesday, Whoopi returned to The View where she spent the first few minutes apologizing, before cutting to her guest - Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, - to help 'continue the conversation'.

'Yesterday on our show I misspoke. I tweeted about it last night but I kind of want you to hear it from me directly. I feel a responsibility. My words upset so many people which was never my intention. I understand why. The information I got was really helpful.

'I said the Holocaust wasn't about race and was instead about man's inhumanity to man. It is indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be the inferior race.

'Words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments and I stand corrected,' she said.

She then introduced Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, who spoke generally about anti-Semitism and why it is still a threat, before cutting to a commercial.

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Whoopi Goldberg on Tuesday apologized again for her claim that the Holocaust 'wasn't racist' after a swell of people called for her to be fired

After apologizing, Whoopi introduced the panel's guest - Jonathan Greenblatt - the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League - to help 'continue the conversation'

But many are still calling for Whoopi to be fired and say she is being let off easily by getting away with just an on-air apology.

WHOOPI'S HOLOCAUST COMMENTS The saga began when the panel discussed a Tennessee school removing the comic Maus from its curriculum because it contained nudity. Critics are now demanding that Goldberg be fired from the show. They pointed to other talk show hosts and TV personalities like Sharon Osborne and Roseanne Barr who were fired over making controversial remarks. Goldberg started off by saying: 'Personally I am shocked because given the story of Maus I am surprised that that's what made you uncomfortable. 'It's about the Holocaust, the killing of 6million people, but that didn't bother you. This is white people doing it to white people so y'all go fight amongst yourselves but...' Later, she carried on: 'Let's be truthful about it. The Holocaust isn't about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man. That's what it's about.' Co-hosts Ana Navarro, Joy Behar and Sarah Haines all argued back but she continued: 'But these are two white groups of people? You are missing the point. 'The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. 'Let's talk about it for what it is, it's how people treat each other.' Advertisement

Ahead of The View's show on Tuesday, a senior ABC News source told DailyMail.com that staff are stunned by the network's soft touch on her remarks, especially when it was so quick to fire Roseanne Barr over racist comments towards Valerie Jarrett.

There is a blind spot on The View when it comes to anti-Semitism. It is never a big enough hate crime for them.

'These comments are absolutely abhorrent and outrageous and its time Disney and ABC grew a pair and fired her,' the source said.

'Disney took swift action and fired Roseanne Barr when she posted the awful tweet about Valerie Jarrett, yet Whoopi made her vile comments on ABCs air and they do nothing about it? Where is the leadership from within Disney? Peter Rice needs to step up and do his job and fire Whoopi.

How is this appropriate at all? What message do we send as a company? Why is there one rule for Whoopi Goldberg  who gets a pass on everything and another rule for everyone else?' said the source.

They added that the comment on Monday was only the latest in a string of inflammatory claims made by Whoopi, who previously defended Bill Cosby on the show.

'We were all outraged when Whoopi was defending Bill Cosby and ABC had to bring [legal analyst] Dan Abrams on the show to help her understand that her views surrounding Cosby were extremely problematic. This was after fifty women, FIFTY, had come forward with serious allegations about him.'

'People are livid within the news division as it completely undermines our credibility.'

The source also alleged that former host Meghan McCain previously pitched the victim of a Jewish hate crime as a guest on the show but that she was told to conduct the interview for online only.

McCain left the show after being routinely marginalized for her Conservative views.

Among those who fumed over Goldberg being allowed to stay on the show was Piers Morgan.

'Sharon Osbourne was fired from The Talk for defending me against a fake charge of racism. Whoopi Goldberg said on The View yesterday that the Holocaust wasnt about race, which for Jewish people is about as racist a comment as anyone could make.

'Bet she doesnt lose her job,' he said.

Osborne was fired from The Talk, a CBS show, for defending Morgan against allegations he was racist because he did not believe everything the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, said.

The Consular General of Israel invited Goldberg on Monday to take a tour of the Museum of Jewish Heritage to learn about the Holocaust

Others have compared Whoopi's situation to that of Joe Rogan, the Spotify podcast host who was admonished by musicians because he hosted anti-vax opinions on his show.

Spotify is standing by him and adding a content advisory warning to his shows, ignoring the demands of musicians like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young who threatened to pull their music off the streaming site because they disagreed with Rogan.

Rogan has never disclosed his vaccination status. It's unclear if he is pro or against it but the very fact he was giving a platform to the topic of anti-vaxxing was enough, they said, to constitute disinformation.

Her co-hosts have not yet publicly commented on her remarks.
A retired accountant who stabbed his estranged wife to death as she lay in bed 'after becoming obsessed that she would benefit from their divorce' has today been found guilty of her murder.

David Maggs, 71, admitted killing 74-year-old Linda Maggs at their three-bedroom home in Pontypool, South Wales, on February 6 last year.

But he said he 'blanked out' during the attack and and denied murder on grounds of diminished responsibility.

The couple, who had been married for 18 years, were going through a divorce at the time and were living separate lives under the same roof, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

The jury heard from a number witnesses who described how twice-divorced Maggs became obsessed with the idea of his wife benefiting unreasonably from the split.

David Maggs (mugshot pictured above), 71, admitted killing 74-year-old Linda Maggs at their home in Pontypool, South Wales, on February 6 last year

The jury heard from a number witnesses who described how twice-divorced Maggs became obsessed with the idea of his wife (pictured) benefiting unreasonably from the split

A number of people, including an estate agent who had come to value their property and a housing officer, said they had heard him make threats to 'stab' or 'kill' his wife.

Prosecutor Michael Jones QC said that just after 9am that morning, Maggs took two red kitchen knives upstairs to his wife's bedroom and 'made good that threat'.

Mr Jones said: 'He was particularly agitated by the financial settlement of the divorce and believed he was going to significantly lose out to his wife.

'He accused her of taking advantage of him financially and of hiding her own money away.

'He thought she stood to gain financially and in his mind in a dishonest way.'

Their decree nisi - a document that says the court cannot see any reason why you should not divorce - was about to come through but the couple had lost trust in each other and accused each other of removing divorce documents.

Maggs had fitted locks to his bedroom door and his wife had bought a lock but didn't get it fitted, a jury was told.

Mr Jones said: 'Linda was upset, scared and anxious. She told a friend she didn't know what her husband was capable of.

'The defendant was resentful about the financial settlement and accused her of taking advantage of him and holding onto her own money.'

The jury heard Maggs gave his wife a 30-a-week allowance and described himself as 'the boss' of their finances.

In the run up to their divorce he told her: 'No sex, no marriage, no nothing' and threatened to stop paying her mobile phone bill.

Mr Jones said: 'He could not accept that the house, which he wanted to leave to his son, would be split fifty-fifty.

The couple, who had been married for 18 years, were going through a divorce at the time and were living separate lives under the same roof, Cardiff Crown Court heard (home pictured)

Bodycam footage of Maggs being arrested by police inside the marital home captured him telling officers: 'I've just had enough. She tried to steal two houses from me, two houses'

'He was preoccupied by money and became fixated by a sum of 65,000 he had given to Linda.

'But a police investigation found he had not declared 14,000 from a savings account in the divorce settlement.'

In his police interview, Maggs claimed he had only wanted to talk with Mrs Maggs about the financial aspects of their divorce.

He said he took the knives upstairs with him, leaving one outside her door, before sitting on her bed and asking to talk.

When he disliked her response he is suspected to have become violent.

A post-mortem examination found Mrs Maggs had been stabbed more than 15 times to the head, neck and torso.

Phoning 999, Maggs told the operator: 'I just killed the wife', and added: 'I just lost it.'

Bodycam footage of Maggs being arrested by police inside the marital home captured him telling officers: 'I've just had enough. She tried to steal two houses from me, two houses.'

Further comments made by the defendant in Ystrad Mynach police station included him saying: 'Thirty years I've been married to her and she doesn't know how to keep her mouth shut, so I topped her.'

Psychiatrist Dr Thomas Wynne told the court he did not think Maggs was suffering from depression.

But another psychiatrist, Dr Nuwan Galappathie, told the jury: 'In my opinion, the degree of his impairment due to depression is significant.

'This is a case where there are clear and significant mental health problems. In my opinion, this is a case of diminished responsibility.'

On Tuesday, after deliberating for a day and a half, the jury found Maggs guilty of murder.

Judge Michael Fitton QC praised the jury for appearing engaged in the trial and told them: 'You have given it your all.'

He said Maggs would be sentenced on March 17 at 2pm.

District Crown Prosecutor of CPS Cymru-Wales Lisa James said: 'Evidence in relation to Mr Maggs' mental health combined with his comments to the police allowed the jury to reach this verdict.

'Linda's family have our deepest condolences over their loss and our thanks for their support throughout the court process.'
The Orange County Sheriffs Office released body camera footage Monday of a gunfight in Pine Hills between deputies and a 28-year-old man during a domestic dispute earlier this month.

Kadeem Errol Livingston Smith III, 28, was killed by deputies Jan. 2 at a home in the 1000 block of Santa Barbara Road after his mother called 911 around noon to report a family dispute, the agency said.

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The video released by OCSO includes footage from cameras worn by three deputies, who Sheriff John Mina said witnessed Livingston Smith shoot his father then pistol-whip him.

Livingston Smith cant be clearly seen in the footage.

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The first clip shows a deputy driving toward the home and telling a dispatcher: Weve got two [people] fighting in the front.

Livingston Smith then began to shoot at deputies, who returned fire, Mina said. Several gunshots were heard in the video as a deputy exited his patrol SUV and ran to take cover behind another vehicle.

Were in a gunfight, the deputy told the dispatcher as he reloaded a magazine into his pistol. One [man] down in the road. Hes still shooting at us.

Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. >

Another deputy is seen reloading his handgun twice and yelling, Cmon guys, get here, urging backup to arrive quickly.

More shots are heard until another deputy yells Livingston Smith is down in the middle of the road.

Livingston Smith died of his injuries. His father survived a gunshot wound to his arm, Mina said.

None of the deputies were injured during the shooting. OCSO said the deputies are considered victims of aggravated battery by Livingston Smith, allowing them to remain anonymous under Marsys Law, the victims rights amendment to Floridas Constitution.

OCSO deputies have responded to the home on Santa Barbara Road 14 times since 2019, mostly for medical or alarm-related calls, but at least once for a domestic violence situation and once for a verbal argument, the agency said.

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The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting and will turn over its findings to the Orange-Osceola State Attorneys Office for review. After that is complete, OCSO will conduct an internal investigation.

lgarza@orlandosentinel.com
Two gay men in Iran, where homosexuality is illegal, have been executed after spending six years on death row.

Mehrdad Karimpour and Farid Mohammadi were hanged in a prison in the northwestern city of Maragheh, some 310 miles away from the capital, Tehran, where they had been convicted on charges of sodomy.

They were sentenced to death for 'forced sexual intercourse between two men'.

The two men were sentenced to death for 'forced sexual intercourse between two men' and died in the northwestern city of Maragheh

Iran is considered one of the most repressive places in the world for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The men's identities were confirmed in a report by the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) on Sunday.

It added state-run outlets in Iran had yet to announce the deaths.

Sheina Vojoudi, who fled Iran and escaped to Germany, told The Jerusalem Post that the country's prisons are 'full of people who have committed no crime'.

LGBTQ+ rights campaigner Peter Tatchell also told the publication the execution follows 'a long-standing regime policy of the state-sanctioned murder of gay men, often on disputed charges after unfair trials that have been condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch'.

He added: 'The international community must impose Magnitsky sanctions on the regime officials, judges and prison staff who authorized these executions - and on those responsible for the many other human rights cases of abuse in Iran'.

Iranian American journalist Karmel Melamed in a tweet called for 'outrage' from the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Two men in Iran, where homosexuality is illegal, have been executed after spending six years on death row

He said: 'The Ayatollah regime in Iran just executed two gay men for the crime of sodomy in Iran. This is Mehrdad Karimpour and Farid Mohammadi who were executed by hanging. Where's the outrage from @StateDept @SecBlinken @glaad & other LGBT groups in U.S. to this horrific crime?!'

Last May Alireza Fazeli Monfared, 20, who identified as gay and non-binary, was abducted by several male relatives and murdered in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province in Iran.

Speaking about the killing, Amnesty wrote: 'LGBTI people in Iran face pervasive discrimination, live in the constant fear of harassment, arrest and criminal prosecution, and remain vulnerable to violence and persecution based on their real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.

HRANA added that in July 2021, two other men were executed on the same charges as Mr Karimpour and Mr Mohammadi in Maragheh and that last year, Iran executed 299 people, including four convicted of crimes committed as children.

In 2021, Iran sentenced 85 people to death.

Last October, the UN's independent investigator on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman told the UN General Assembly's human rights committee that the country continues to implement the death penalty 'at an alarming rate.'

Under Iranian law, sodomy, rape, adultery, armed robbery and murder are among crimes that can lead to the death penalty.

Last year a UN report found that in Iran 'gay, bisexual and transgender children were subjected to electric shocks and the administration of hormones and strong psychoactive medications', Pink News reported.

Alireza Fazeli Monfared, 20, (pictured) was allegedly taken by the three male family members and murdered

In February 2021, an Iranian cleric Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian claimed that the Covid-19 vaccine turns people gay, on messaging platform Telegram, to almost 210,000 followers.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Tabrizian wrote on the platform: 'Don't go near those who have had the COVID vaccine. They have become homosexuals.'

Speaking to the publication at the time Mr Tatchell said the claims were 'demonizing' both the vaccine and the gay community.
Current and former employees of Vice News have taken to social media to slam its parent company, Vice Media, after it was revealed that the company organized a $20 million music festival in the Saudi Arabian desert three years after it vowed to cease operations in the country over its poor human rights record.

Marketing materials for the Azimuth Music Festival claimed the three-day music, art and food extravaganza was subsidized by the Saudi government as part of its efforts to rebrand itself as a more open society - but it was secretly organized by Vice as part of the company's efforts to expand into the country, the Guardian reported Tuesday.

Staff at the company estimate the budget for the 2020 event was $20 million, with high-end chefs from restaurants such as New York City's Michelin Star-rated Contra and London's Annabel's flown in to cook for the guests.

It promised to bring the country's millennial population the best of Eastern culture, taking place among ancient carvings at the World Heritage site of Al 'Ula, as well as the best of western culture, featuring performances by the Chainsmokers. All of the contractors were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement and Vice's name was kept off of the marketing material.

The festival was seen by many as hypocritical for the media company, which vowed not to do business with the Saudi Arabian government following the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi officials. It was also seen by some as hypocritical of the Saudi government, which forbids alcohol.

But over the past few years, the regime has walked back some of its stricter rules, including those that forbade women from driving and restricted restaurants from playing music. The country has tried to portray itself as being a more open society as it tries to draw tourism - and the festival was intended to be part of its attempt at rebranding.

'Allow us progress, allow us to represent ourselves in the way we feel fit,' Prince Fahad Al Saud told Bloomberg at another music festival last year. 'We are very eager to be part of the international community but we can't be stifled every time we try to make progress because it doesn't look like what you want to see.'

Now, some current and former employees said it was hard to accept the Vice's work in the region, with one telling the Guardian they have 'for years raised concerns over the company's involvement with Saudi Arabia - and we've been fobbed off with empty statements and pathetic excuses.'

Vice Media secretly sponsored the three-day Azimuth Festival in 2020 (pictured), three years after the company announced it would cease operations in Saudi Arabia

Current and former employees for Vice News expressed their dismay with their parent company's relations to Saudi Arabia online

Another unnamed employee told the Guardian: 'It is astounding that - despite ongoing opposition from staff- Vice is still happy to take money from a country that was literally responsible for the state-sanctioned murder of a journalist.'

Others said it was difficult to accept, given the country's bad human rights record, with one employee telling the Middle East Eye Tuesday's report about the music festival was 'incredibly difficult reading for the journalists at Vice who work diligently to report on all aspects of the regime in Saudi Arabia, including its brutal bombing in Yemen, which created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.'

Josh Lubbock also said he 'used to write for Vice about human rights abuses in Bahrain, where the 2011 Arab Spring protests were brutally crushed with the help of Saudi Arabia, so it's pretty s***** to see that Vice now works with the Saudi state.'

And former Vice News editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro also tweeted that the company's 'embrace of MBS sickens me to the core of my soul,' referring to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

'Jamal Khashoggis ghost shall haunt Suroosh Alvi [the founder of Vice Media], Shane Smith [executive chairman of Vice Media], and Nancy Dubuc [the CEO of Vice Media] until the end of their days,' he wrote. 'I will be guaranteeing that.'

The three-day music festival came three years after the death of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. At the time, Vice said it would halt relations with the country.

Since then, civil rights groups have claimed that the Saudi regime engages in human rights abuses, pointing to the war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led bombing campaign has contributed to a death toll of over 300,000 people.

But Vice has been accused by Code Pink, a female-led grassroots group, of bias in its reporting on the Yemen war, and people have taken to social media to condemn the media group for its support of the Saudi government.

The group said that one of its Yemen documentaries failed to report in a balanced way on the Saudi-led blockade of the country, with more than 2,800 people signing a petition condemning the media company.

Now that it has been revealed that the company was working with the Saudis for the music festival, some on social media were not surprised, while others seemed concerned about the repercussions of the deal.

Rupert Myers, a British political correspondent, called the report 'grim stuff,' while a freelance reporter said it was 'brazenly unethical.

'I feel sorry for all the hardworking foreign policy journalists at VICE who will, again, today be waking up furious at their employer,' Oz Katerji tweeted.

Internet-based journalist Xeni Jardin also called Vice executives 'amoral a**holes,' and the Saharawi Voice tweeted: 'For Vice it doesn't matter the Saudi regime literally slaughtered and cut into pieces a journalist very recently, what matters is how long they had to wait before working for the Saudis.

'Makes one feel very sorry for all the hard-working journos there,' the outlet continued.

The Saudi government, under Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, has been accused of several human rights abuses

Vice announced it halt operations in the country following the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi (pictured) in 2018

Vice started working with Saudi officials in 2017, when it opened a regional office in Dubai, through which it worked with the Saudi Ministry of Culture

Vice first began investing in the Gulf in 2017, when it opened a regional office in Dubai, through which it worked with the Saudi Ministry of Culture, Middle East Eye reports.

The company previously worked with Saudi Research and Marketing Group, known to have close links with the Saudi government (its former chairman Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud left to become Saudi Culture Minister), for a series of mini-documentaries aimed at promoting Saudi Arabia internationally, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

In late 2018, Vice said its contract with the Saudi Research and Marketing Group was under review in the wake of Khashoggi's death. But then last year, the media group announced it was opening a regional office in Riyadh, the nation's capitol.

'Our growth in the region has always been driven by our mission to champion young voices,' Jason Leavy, Vice Media's senior vice president of international growth, said in a statement at the time. 'Given how dynamic youth culture currently is in this part of the world, this move represents a natural expansion of our operations.

'Having a presence on the ground, with the corresponding insights and storytelling capabilities that gives us, means we are also better placed to partner with leading brands who want to connect with audiences in a meaningful way.'

And following the news that the company funded the Azimuth Music Festival behind-the-scenes, a spokesperson told the Guardian: 'Vice Arabia was set up over four years ago as part of our global expansion - alongside many other media and content businesses who have expanded into the region.

'Vice has always been about creativity and culture for youth in every corner of the world - and in the Saudi Region, two-thirds of the population are under the age of 35,' she said, adding: 'Our editorial voice has and always will report with complete autonomy and independence.'
The half-sister of an ex Tory minister's son who crushed a three-year-old to death in the footwell of a car has told of her terror after he was released early from jail.

Samantha Dawson disowned her brother Stephen Waterson, 30, who was found guilty of manslaughter over the death of three-year-old Alfie Lamb.

Little Alfie was crushed in the footwell of a car in Sutton, south London, on February 1, 2018, after Waterson reversed his electronic car seat in a fit of temper.

Waterson was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in 2019, but it emerged yesterday that he had been released early on licence after serving just three years of his sentence.

Ms Dawson, 35, who gave evidence against her brother in court, fears for her own safety now that he is free to walk the streets.

And she has slammed the authorities for failing to notify her of her brothers release.

The single mother-of-five, from Blackpool, said: 'Stephen should be serving life in my opinion. He took a childs life and he should pay for it.

Samantha Dawson, 35, disowned her brother Stephen Waterson, 30, who was found guilty of manslaughter over the death of three-year-old Alfie Lamb

Stephen Waterson, 30, the adopted son of former Tory MP Nigel Waterson, was described by police as 'arrogant, selfish and deeply unpleasant' after he admitted manslaughter in relation to the death of three-year-old Alfie Lamb who he crushed with the seat of an Audi convertible

Pictured: Alfie Lamb with his mother Adrian Hoare, who was 23 at the time of his death. She was jailed for two years and nine months in May 2019 after being convicted of child cruelty

'In court, I gave evidence against him and I knew I was taking a risk but I wanted to do the right thing. Imagine my horror when I read in the press that he had been released early.

'I feel absolutely sick. The police and prison system didnt even have the decency to let me know. I have no idea of the terms of his licence or if he is allowed to come near me.

'I am now living in fear, for myself and for my children. I worry that he will come looking for me.'

Waterson was not scheduled to be released until 2023 but the Ministry of Justice confirmed he has now been freed on licence.

He was released without spending even half of his term in prison, having served three years including 567 days he spent on remand.

Waterson was in a relationship with Alfie Lamb's mother Adrian Hoare, 26, and the trio were returning home from shopping when Hoare placed her son in the footwell of an Audi.

Waterson slammed his car seat into the toddler for 'whinging' and Alfie was later found limp and motionless in the car, dying three days later in hospital. Hoare was jailed for two years and nine months for child cruelty.

Ms Dawson is Waterson's half-sister and shared a close bond with Alfie, whose death still haunts her.

The Audi (pictured) in which Waterson crushed Alfie by reversing his electric car seat. Alfie's mother Adrian Hoare had put him in harm's way by placing him in the footwell behind the seat

She said: 'Alfie was cute and I loved him. I felt we had a connection and I loved buying him treats.

'But his parents were rough with him, they would smack him and shout at him. He was well looked after in the way that he was well dressed and fed and clean. But he was not well loved.

'On one occasion, we were all in the car and Alfie was squashed in the footwell. I was horrified. He actually said: "Mummy, I cant move."

'I shouted at Stephen to move him. I didnt know they did this as a routine  and that it would soon kill Alfie.

'When I heard Alfie was dead, my mind went back to the day in the car and I wished I had been more forceful  could I have saved him?'

Sources told The Sun Alfie's family would receive an official apology over the miscommunication.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'This was a despicable crime and our sympathies remain with the family.

'Waterson has been released under probation supervision after serving the prison part of his sentence but can be returned there if he breaches the strict conditions he is under.'

Waterson denied manslaughter during an earlier trial in which the jury were unable to reach a verdict, before pleading guilty on the first day of his retrial. Pictured: Alfie Lamb

Ms Dawson and her brother grew up in a chaotic family in south London. They had the same mother and there was an age gap of over five years between them.

She said: 'I remember Stephen clearly; he was a little toddler and I used to love playing with him. I looked after him, because he was the baby.'

But the family was troubled and Ms Dawson was in and out of foster care throughout her childhood. Waterson was eventually adopted by then-MP Nigel Waterson and his wife Barbara and he lost contact with his birth family.

But in 2010, he made contact via Facebook.

Ms Dawson said: 'He came to visit me and I was pleased to see him again, he was my brother. But I also thought he seemed nasty and aggressive and he wanted to borrow money.

'He would visit me every now and again, always bringing a different girlfriend, often with a child. I enjoyed seeing him, but he was basically coming for a free holiday in Blackpool.

'I saw a side to him and I didnt like it.

Stephen Waterson (left) pictured with his father Nigel Waterson and mother Barbara

'He kept telling me how he was going for custody of the different kids he kept bringing  I told him to concentrate on his own family and not be so silly.

'To my mind, he wasnt really fit to be looking after other kids.'

An acquaintance of the family named Richard Lamb had a relationship with Adrian Hoare, and they had Alfie together in 2014. When that relationship finished, Hoare moved in with Stephen Waterson.

Ms Dawson said: 'It was complicated, but it meant that I had a close relationship with Alfie. He was a really cute little boy.

'I got on OK with his mum, Adrian, too. But I didnt know her too well.

'Late in 2017, Stephen came up to Blackpool to see me  and this time he brought Adrian and Alfie with him. I was surprised to see they were together. Alfie was two and a half and loved playing with some minion toys I had.

'I felt I really had a connection with him.

'But Stephen and Adrian were both rough with him. They slapped him when he started crying. Once he threw his dummy on the floor so Stephen threw him on the couch. They swore at him.

'Adrian would say: "I will give you something to cry for."

'I told Stephen that was no way to treat a child and I was worried about him. Alfie appeared well looked after - he was clean, well-dressed, well-fed. But I did not feel he was loved.

'On every visit, I tried to make sure I bought him a toy or gave him a little treat, because I loved him and I felt sorry for him.'

In February 2018, Ms Dawson was 'devastated' to learn from family members that Alfie was dead. She contacted the police and agreed to be a prosecution witness at the trial.

Alfie (pictured) died at St Thomas' Hospital in South London from catastrophic brain damage on February 4, 2018, three days after his mother's boyfriend crushed him in the car

Hoare and Waterson had admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice by lying to police. Hoare was found guilty of child cruelty.

Waterson was convicted of intimidating a witness and Hoare of assaulting another witness.

Waterson later admitted Alfies manslaughter by gross negligence.

Ms Dawson says: 'I took a big risk by turning against my own brother in court, but I knew I had to tell the truth. Now, I fear I will be made to pay the price. It is disgusting that the authorities did not let me know about his release.

'I have called the police to tell them of my concerns, but I havent yet been offered any protection or support.

'All of this brings back the memories of Alfies death and it is very hard. I think of that little boy every day.'
Children in Scottish schools will have to wear masks in class for at least another week, Nicola Sturgeon told parents today.

The First Minister left the country's Covid measures unchanged, telling Holyrood a 'significant fall' in infection levels the country has seen in recent weeks had now 'levelled off'.

She told MSPs a meeting of her cabinet earlier on Tuesday had decided that the remaining baseline measures would stay in place 'for now'.

And, while she said Scotland 'may be close to the time when face coverings no longer need to be worn in the class room', she added that 'we have not yet reached that stage'.

The issue of wearing face coverings in school will be considered again on February 8, Ms Sturgeon added.

The country axed working from home rules and limits on gatherings a week ago.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: 'Even though the Covid data is very positive, the SNP Government are still insisting on the use of face masks in schools.

'Adults can be in pubs without a mask but young people are having their education held back by being forced to wear one in the classroom.

'The First Minister says no one wants young people to have to wear masks in class for a moment longer than necessary, so just what needs to happen for her government to finally remove this requirement?'

The First Minister left the country's Covid measures unchanged, telling Holyrood a 'significant fall' in infection levels the country has seen in recent weeks had now 'levelled off'.

The issue of wearing face coverings in school will be considered again on February 8, Ms Sturgeon added.

Updating MSPs at Holyrood, the First Minister said: 'No-one wants young people to have to wear face coverings in the class room for a moment longer than necessary.

'But given the current uncertainty about infection trends in the immediate future, and the relatively high levels of Covid in the younger age groups, continued caution is prudent at this stage.'

Her comments came as she revealed that 26 cases of the new BA.2 Omicron sub-variant have so far been confirmed in Scotland.

She stressed there was no evidence that this new form of the virus causes more severe disease the Omicron, or has greater ability to escape the immunity conferred by vaccines or previous infection.

But she said it 'does appear to have the ability to outrun the main Omicron variant, which may indicate that it is more transmissible'.

Ms Sturgeon told MSPs that investigations into this were ongoing.

However, she told Holyrood that overall the 'most recent data continues to give grounds for optimism', with the First Minister saying that 'the situation we are in now is much less severe than we had thought it might be'.

She added that the fall in cases over the first three weeks of January was 'now reflected in a fall in the number of people being admitted to hospital'.

Last week, 602 patients with Covid were admitted to hospital, down from 768 in the week ending January 21.

The latest figures also showed 1,177 people in hospital have Covid  down from 1,394 a week ago  with the number in intensive care also decreasing.

Ms Sturgeon, speaking the day after a relaxation of the requirement for home working, told MSPs: 'We can continue to be optimistic, as we look ahead to spring.

'Case levels are likely to remain high for some time  and may increase further as a result of the recent easing of protections.

'But there are good grounds for confidence that we are again entering a calmer phase of the pandemic.'
Priti Patel is still backing Boris Johnson, a body language expert has said after social media critics accused the Home Secretary of appearing frustrated with the PM while he fielded a defence in the Commons amid the Partygate scandal.

Mr Johnson yesterday apologised to MPs after senior official Sue Gray found 'failures of leadership and judgment' from the Government - after gatherings were held while England was under coronavirus restrictions in 2020 and 2021.

While the Prime Minister took a verbal battering in the House of Commons, Ms Patel appeared to show frustration with him, bringing her hand to her face and even - some commenters suggested - raising her middle finger towards him.

But body language expert Judi James told MailOnline that the Home Secretary was 'doing nothing more dramatic than massaging her brow at the end of a very intense session of debate', adding that Ms Patel had showed the 'firmest support' for him.

Ms James said: 'If (Priti Patel) were secretly signaling behind the PM's back it would be a crass and risky gesture, given that she had been posing as Boris's most active endorser and supporter during the rest of the session.

'It would imply that she was either too spineless to voice objections to his face or hypocritical by energetically posing as one thing and then revealing herself as another in a ''behind their back'' way that would be more suited to a naughty schoolkid.

Priti Patel appeared to be rubbing her forehead yesterday as she sat beside the Prime Minister while he offered his mea culpa to the Commons

The Conservative front bench appeared disgruntled as their leader was grilled over the Sue Gray report yesterday. Rishi Sunak was one of the few MPs still wearing a face mask

Some suggested that the Home Secretary appeared to be giving Mr Johnson 'the finger', while others claimed she was 'squirming' following the revelations in the Sue Grey report

Tories slam Johnson for running No10 like a 'medieval court' and warn he should be 'very worried' as Partygate police probe whether PM broke lockdown law FOUR TIMES Boris Johnson (pictured today) is leaving the pressure cooker of Westminster on a diplomatic mission to Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday Boris Johnson is still desperately trying to quell Tory Partygate fury today as MPs accuse him of running No10 like a 'medieval court' and warn he should be 'very worried' about a coup. The PM is leaving the pressure cooker of Westminster on a diplomatic mission to Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday - but still revealed that he is being investigated by police over four breaches of lockdown law. Mr Johnson suffered a mauling from a a slew of Conservatives in the Commons, with Theresa May demanding to know if he thought the rules 'didn't apply' to him, and former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell saying the premier had lost his support. Mr Mitchell stepped up his attack this morning warning that the row was as corrosive to the party as 'battery acid' and condemning Mr Johnson's leadership style. Even normally-loyal MPs conceded that the PM's response in the chamber was a 'car crash', although Mr Johnson appeared to buy himself some time with a more conciliatory performance at a private meeting with his rank and file last night. Writing in the Times, Lord Hague criticised Mr Johnson for getting the tone wrong, saying he should have 'acknowledged that the buck stops with him' and ought to be 'very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions'. The looming verdict from Scotland Yard - which is sifting through more than 300 photos of Whitehall bashes and could interview both Mr Johnson and wife Carrie within days - could provide a moment of truth for the premier, but he has also been forced to agree that a full, unredacted version of Ms Gray's report after the criminal process concludes. Advertisement

'While [Rishi] Sunak sat back in his seat, offering a few weak nods as Boris spoke but keeping his hands folded on his lap and even looking down in a cut-off ritual when Sue Grey's name was mentioned, Raab was all squirms and scratching, with a praying hand gesture clamped between his legs.

'During the important and most heated exchanges in the debate it was Patel showing the firmest support for the PM, mirroring his pose at some moments and yelling ''exactly'' after some of his points. Her nods involved a slow closing of the eyes and she often heckled the opposition as they were speaking.'

Ms James said that it was only after the main part of the debate ended after just under an hour that Ms Patel sat back in her seat with her hands clasped across her lap.

She added that once Rishi Sunak had left, Ms Patel was sitting next to the PM and just prior to the 'finger' gesture she even 'patted him on the back to signal approval'.

'The debate had run out of steam, danger appeared to have been averted and Boris was just on repeat mode to all the stragglers being asked,' Ms James said.

'Someone behind Patel seemed to let her know they were going and after that she began to show signals of tiredness. Her fingers rubbed across her eyebrows and she used one hand to part-cover her face in a shielding gesture.

'We can then see Patel appear to cough or clear her throat before pressing her fingertips onto the upper bridge of her nose, suggesting tiredness or even a stress headache. She gives the muscles a brief massage before talking to someone on her left.

'When she turns to look to her upper right the massage or rubbing of the muscles of the bridge of her nose now only involve the middle and index finger. In a still shot it might look daring and dismissive but placed into context it really does look like part of a ritual to rub away muscle tension caused by tiredness or a headache.'

The heated Commons exchange came after Sue Gray revealed in an 'update' that of the 16 alleged gatherings she had deemed necessary to investigate, at least 12 linked to government properties in Downing Street and Whitehall were being investigated by the police.

This included at least four directly linked to Mr Johnson either because he was reported to have attended, or because they are reported to have taken place in his flat.

Three alleged gatherings not previously reported were also included in the report.

But the police investigation had prevented her from delivering any meaningful report as to not impact the inquiry.

Mr Johnson told MPs in the Commons: 'Firstly, I want to say sorry - and I'm sorry for the things we simply didn't get right and also sorry for the way this matter has been handled.

'It's no use saying this or that was within the rules and it's no use saying people were working hard. This pandemic was hard for everyone.'

He added: 'I get it, and I will fix it. I want to say to the people of this country I know what the issue is.'

However, he faced a hostile response from some on his own side and the threat of a vote of no confidence has not yet been defeated.

Former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell told Mr Johnson he 'no longer enjoys my support'.

Tory MP Angela Richardson announced she had quit as a ministerial aide to Michael Gove, sharing her 'deep disappointment' at the handling of the partygate row.

The weight of the scandal appeared to not be lost of Ms Patel, whose strained expression and apparent look of disbelief sparked a series of social media posts

Aaron Bell, part of the 2019 intake of Red Wall MPs, recalled abiding by coronavirus restrictions for his grandmother's May 2020 funeral before asking: 'Does the Prime Minister think I'm a fool?'

In the Lords, ex-Whitehall chief and independent crossbencher Lord Kerslake said: 'Even without the detail the general findings are utterly damning. This goes to the heart of government. Can government be trusted to do the right thing and tell the truth? It's hard to think of anything more important than that.'

But Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg said the 'mood was positive' among Conservatives following an evening meeting on the Parliamentary estate.

He added: 'So many people voted personally for Boris Johnson rather than voting for political parties.

'Politicians have to accept that our bosses are the British people, and they voted for that, they put him in office.'

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow acknowledged it had been a 'difficult day' but said there was support for Mr Johnson.

Mr Bristow said he left 'absolutely pumped' and added that nobody in the meeting had called for Mr Johnson to go.

The change in mood came as No 10 confirmed the PM would ask Ms Gray to produce a second report after the police investigation concludes, and committed to publishing it.

But Ms Gray's full report and the result of the police probe could yet threaten his premiership again, and Mr Johnson's former chief aide Dominic cummings is due to questions on the report online on Tuesday which could provide more damaging details.

Mr Johnson apologised to MPs after senior official Sue Gray found 'failures of leadership and judgment' as gatherings were held while England was under coronavirus restrictions in 2020 and 2021

Some suggested that the Home Secretary appeared to be giving Mr Johnson 'the finger', while others claimed she was 'squirming' and 'mentally updating her CV' following the revelations in the Sue Gray report

Boris Johnson was under fire in the Commons about Partygate yesterday

Polling on Monday night from Opinium said 62% of UK adults wanted the PM to resign, and 64% believed Tory MPs should make him go.

It comes after the Met revealed it is reviewing more than 300 images and over 500 pages of information passed to officers by the Gray inquiry.

Mr Rees-Mogg suggested the images should also be published, as he said: 'The more people see, the more understanding there will be of precisely what went on.'

Mr Johnson also told MPs he was taking the issue seriously, underling how he had nearly died from coronavirus.

While reports suggested he had told his party that election strategist Sir Lynton Crosby would be offering him strategic advice.

Mr Johnson insisted he was 'making changes' to Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, including by creating an Office of the Prime Minister with a permanent secretary to lead No 10.

While Downing Street said work was being carried out on a new policy to tackle the drinking culture in No 10, although a blanket ban on drinking is unlikely given its function as a venue for receptions for visiting dignitaries and charity events.

However, one Conservative who heard from Mr Johnson on Monday said the message to him was that MPs would 'judge you by your delivery'.
One of President Biden picks for the Federal Reserve Board has called for black Americans to receive reparations for decades of slavery and economic discrimination.

Details emerged in the week when Republican are expected to grill Lisa Cook, an economics professor at Michigan State University, about whether her public views would prevent her being a nonpartisan Fed official.

Biden announced Cook's nomination on Jan. 14 and, if confirmed, she would be the first black woman on the seven-person board.

But Republicans are signaling a tough confirmation, starting with her views on reparations.

'Everybody benefited from slavery. Everybody,' Cook said in a September 2020 EconTalk podcast, in which she described her research into inequality.

That includes universities that bought and sold slaves, she continued, to insurance companies that underwrote ships: Everybody benefited apart from slaves themselves.

Republicans are gunning for Lisa Cook, nominated by President Joe Biden for one of the open positions on the Federal Reserve Board, over her comments on reparations and other political issues. She is pictured here in her role as economics professor at Michigan State University

Biden nominated her for the post of governor on Jan. 14 and her hearing is on Thursday Feb. 3

Biden's other picks for the Fed are Sarah Bloom Raskin, a Duke professor, as vice-chair for supervision, and Philip Jefferson, a professor at Davidson College whose research focuses on poverty, for the other open governor slot

'So, I think that we absolutely need some sort of reckoning with that,' she said. '

'There are many proposals on the table to study the possibility of reparations, many economic proposals being put forward, and I think they should all be taken seriously.'

That puts her in line with Biden. To placate growing demands from the left of his party during the 2020 campaign he said he backed a study of the impact of paying reparations, and he supported a House bill - H.R. 40 - to set up a panel to do that.

Cook has offered her own support to H.R. 40, for instance while taking part in a forum hosted by the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business.

'I think that's absolutely what needs to be done,' she said.

Her experience includes research on the intersection of race and economics, which her supporters say should be a vital part of managing the economy.

Republicans see overreach.

Republican members of the Senate banking committee signaled that they will give Cook a hard time. They said her past comments and partisan political fights suggested she was not the right person for the Fed's apolitical regulatory role

A senior GOP Senate aide told the Washington Examiner that Cook's past statements were 'inappropriate' for someone being considered for the Fed, with its independent regulatory functions.

Republicans on the Senate banking committee took to Twitter on Monday to ask whether the Fed could afford a 'hyperpartisan' like Cook.

'For years, Prof. Cook has used her Twitter account to engage in partisan political fights, taking extreme Left-wing positions on issues, especially noneconomic topics,' they wrote.

'Regardless of the merits, those are issues to be decided by elected officials who are accountable to voters.'

They listed some of her previous Twitter comments, from suggesting there were limits on free speech to retweeting a warning that voter suppression was happening during the 2020 election and another retweet in support of racial justice protests.

And they concluded the thread by asking whether Cook would respect the Fed's independence.

'Historically, the Senate has only confirmed Fed nominees who have had the good sense not to engage in political warfare with their prior statements,' they said.

To her supporters, the criticism is another of the racist smears faced by black women nominated for senior positions.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Cook's research was exactly what the Fed needed.

'One of the things we know is that black unemployment stays persistently at about double the level of white unemployment,' she told HuffPost.

'So just asking a question generally about unemployment doesn't get to a fundamental problem about not just total how many people are unemployed, but how that pain is distributed throughout the economy and how different economic policies might change.

'Thats what Lisa Cook focuses on. And that frankly makes some people uncomfortable.'

Cook will appear before the Senate banking committee on Thursday, alongside Biden's two other nominees: Sarah Bloom Raskin, a professor at Duke, and Philip Jefferson, a professor at Davidson College whose research focuses on poverty.
A GoFundMe page to support the so-called 'Freedom Convoy' reached 9,964,710 CAD on Wednesday, garnering more than 120,000 donations in just one week

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Canadian police have threatened to arrest truckers blockading the US border in Alberta in protest of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's vaccine mandate unless they leave by Tuesday, a lawyer representing the disgruntled drivers says.

Speaking to RebelNews, Calgary-based civil liberties lawyer Chad Williamson - whose services were contracted by by protesters in the town of Coutts after a successful crowdfunding campaign - revealed that Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials handed members of the so-called 'Freedom Convoy' the ultimatum Tuesday, a day after Trudeau slammed the dissenters for protesting a mandate put on the truckers on January 15.

'The police have essentially shut down all negotiations, period,' Williamson told the outlet Tuesday. 'They have indicated that they got marching orders essentially to reopen the highway.'

'They're not going to discuss anything further with protesters,' the legal eagle added. 'They have indicated that those who leave now are free to do so; those who remain behind run the risk of being arrested.'

A truck convoy blocks the highway at the U.S. border crossing as demonstrators protesting against COVID-19 vaccine mandates gather in Coutts, Alberta, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022

Trucks bearing banners which read 'Alberta Freedom Convoy' block the highway at the US border as demonstrators protest vaccine mandates

Truckers carry firewood for a stove they have in their trailer as a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, continues in Ottawa, on Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alberta, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022

Anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022.

A GoFundMe page to support the so-called 'Freedom Convoy' reached 9,964,710 CAD the same day - roughly half a million CAD more than combined efforts of the major Canadian political parties in the final quarter of 2021.

Update from Chad Williamson, the lawyer on the case.



You can help the truckers in court by funding their defence at https://t.co/HejJhb4xFA pic.twitter.com/t8ydagSoBX  K2 (@kiansimone44) February 1, 2022

Truckers sing national anthem as they stand their ground. pic.twitter.com/xFCrZsljNe  K2 (@kiansimone44) February 1, 2022

Williamson went on to explain that the law - at least in Canada - is not on the truckers' side, and that police are ready to play hardball after four full days of protests.

'There's various pieces of legislation and charges that they can essentially lay against people who remain.

'They have indicated that they are going to seize equipment, and they've indicated that they are going to reopen the highway.'

The lawyer added that he and his hundred or so clients have elected to take a wait-and-see approach to the RCMP's gambit.

'We provided the standard legal charter advice for folks, and were going to see how this plays out.

'We've really tried to stress everyone to remain calm, remain peaceful, no matter what happens, but things are pretty tense.'

DailyMail.com reached out to rep for Alberta's RCMP Tuesday to comment on the standoff. The force provided a statement, confirming Williamson's remarks.

It said: 'What may have begun as a peaceful assembly quickly turned into an unlawful blockade. While the Alberta RCMP has been in a position to conduct enforcement, we have been engaged with protesters at the Coutts border crossing in an effort to find a peaceful and safe resolution for all involved. We thought we had a path to resolution, the protesters eventually chose not to comply.

Speaking to RebelNews, Calgary-based civil liberties lawyer Chad Williamson - whose services were contracted by by protesters in the town of Coutts after a successful crowdfunding campaign - revealed Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials handed members of the so-called ' Freedom Convoy' the ultimatum Tuesday

Aerial photographs snapped Tuesday show dozens of trucks blocking the Alberta-Montana border crossing. RCMP officials said Tuesday that they will be making arrests of drivers who remain after Tuesday

Drivers are seen at the Alberta-Montana border as they protest the prime minister's vaccine mandates

Thousands more protesting truckers have convened at the southernmost point of the province of Alberta, forming a blockade between the territory and the US state of Montana to the south

Roughly 50,000 Canadian truck drivers have showed up in Ottawa to protest against the prime minister's new vaccine mandates and quarantine rules for drivers

BREAKING: Negotiations are over and police are ready to move in.



RCMP is opening the highway regardless.



Truckers now have a grace period to leave or be arrested and held.



STAY TUNED



HELP THEM AT https://t.co/HejJhb4xFA pic.twitter.com/fllVgVMj4B  K2 (@kiansimone44) February 1, 2022

'As of this morning, further action is being taken by the Alberta RCMP as this blockade continues to impede the ability for emergency agencies to provide full services to area residents. It has also negatively impacted the flow of goods and services, and impedes the publics freedom of movement.'

It continued: 'A Highway is considered essential infrastructure. It is unlawful to willfully obstruct, interrupt or interfere with the construction, maintenance, use or operation of any essential infrastructure in a manner that renders the essential infrastructure dangerous, useless, inoperative or ineffective as per the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act of Alberta.

'Anyone who actively blocks a highwayor aids, counsels or directs a highway to be blockedmay be subject to arrest and charge under this act.'

The growing tension between the two parties comes as Prime Minister Trudeau - who slammed the truckers Monday during a remote press conference as 'hateful,' 'violent,' and 'racist' and vowed to take action against the coalition - found himself embroiled in a storm of backlash after a two-year-old tweet he penned praising the truckers at the start of the pandemic surfaced Tuesday.

'While many of us are working from home, there are others who arent able to do that - like the truck drivers who are working day and night to make sure our shelves are stocked,' Trudeau tweeted on March 31 of 2020, during the early days of the pandemic.

'Freedom Convoy' truckers and protesters continued late Monday to block a border crossing into the US at a village in southern Alberta - one of the country's busiest border crossings - in solidarity with their brethren in Ottawa who have shut down the nation's capital

'When you can, please #ThankATrucker for everything theyre doing and help them however you can.'

However, nearly two years later, the PM seems to have changed his tune, publicly criticizing the tens of thousands of his country's truckers and other protestors in Coutts and Canada's capital city, Ottawa, for their 'hateful rhetoric' and 'violence to fellow citizens.'

Trudeau took the offensive against the truckers Monday during the presser, which was broadcast from an undisclosed location following the COVID-positive politico's evacuation from his residence in Ottawa, after the city's Downtown neighborhood found itself packed with roughly 50,000 rigs protesting Trudeau's mandates that demand Canadians undergo a 14-day quarantine when they cross the border from the United States.

'Canadians were shocked and frankly disgusted by the behavior displayed by some people protesting in our nation's capital,' Trudeau said.

Trudeau had called the truckers headed for the city a 'small fringe minority' before the convoy of hundreds of vehicles grew up to 45 miles long, as it made its way to the capital.

'While many of us are working from home, there are others who arent able to do that - like the truck drivers who are working day and night to make sure our shelves are stocked,' Trudeau tweeted on March 31 of 2020, at the start of the pandemic

Traffic was backed up Tuesday on a bridge between Gatineau, Quebec, and Ottawa, due to a road blockade formed by the tens of thousands of truckers

Vehicles continue to block downtown streets in Ottawa as truckers and supporters continue to protest Trudeau's mandate

On Tuesday, a second convoy of truckers protesting the mandates went eyeball-to-eyeball with a SWAT Team at the Alberta-Montana border, and allegedly pressured staff at a nearby homeless shelter to give them food.

Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page to support the so-called 'Freedom Convoy' reached 9,964,710 CAD the same day - roughly half a million CAD more than combined efforts of the major Canadian political parties in the final quarter of 2021.

Freedom Convoy organizers BJ Dichter and Tamara Lich say that the proceeds will go towards fuel for the truckers, who have been protesting for four days straight with no sign of stopping despite warning from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that dissenters will be arrested, as well as food and lodgings 'to help ease the pressures of this arduous task.'

'Our current government is implementing rules and mandates that are destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and livelihoods,' the two wrote on the page.

'We are a peaceful country that has helped protect nations across the globe from tyrannical governments who oppressed their people, and now it seems it is happening here.'

Drivers along the border are also raising money through a separate fundraiser spearheaded by Rebel News journalist Ezra Levant, to cover drivers' legal fees if they end up incarcerated. As of Tuesday, Levant has received nearly 5,000 donations.

Levant was enlisted by truckers at the Alberta-Montana crossing Monday, after SWAT teams sealed off the motorists by setting up police check points around the town Coutts, which boasts a population of less than 500.

'They asked me if we could help them right now,' Levant wrote online to his news outlet Rebel News. 'And I said, "of course." I promised them we'd crowdfund a lawyer to fight any tickets or charges they face, no matter how large they may get.

'I promised the truckers wed take the case and crowdfund it all the way. Even if it takes years in court.'

Trucks sit parked Tuesday along a once-bustling street in Downtown Ottawa, creating a de facto roadblock

Trudeau had called the tens of thousands of truckers and other dissenters headed for the capital a 'small, fringe minority,' before the convoy of hundreds of vehicles grew up to 45 miles long

On Monday, Trudeau declared that he would not be meeting with truckers overrunning Ottawa due to their 'hateful rhetoric,' as hundreds more disgruntled drivers thousands of miles away formed a blockade at the southern tip of Alberta to block off traffic to and from the US.

Trudeau, 50, held the conference from isolation at an undisclosed location after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier that day. Two of the prime minister's three children also tested positive for the virus.

When asked whether he was going to meet the protesters, Trudeau said he had no interest in going 'anywhere near protests who have expressed hateful rhetoric and violence towards their fellow citizens.'

The politician went on to assert that he had personally attended protests himself when he 'agreed with the goals' being fought for, such as those championed by Black Lives Matter, but dismissed the truckers' dissent - which was spurred by the politico's own policies - as 'racist' and 'violent.'

'I have attended protests and rallies in the past when I agreed with the goals, when I supported the people expressing their concerns and their issues,' Trudeau said.

'But I have also chosen to not go anywhere near protests that have expressed hateful rhetoric, violence towards fellow citizens, and a disrespect not just of science, but of the frontline health workers and quite frankly, the 90 per cent of truckers who have been doing the right thing to keep Canadians safe to put food on our tables.'

Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 miles west, hundreds more protesting truckers have convened at the southernmost point of the province of Alberta, forming a blockade between the territory and the US state of Montana to the south.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared Monday that he will not be meeting with truckers currently overrunning Ottawa in protest of his vaccine mandate because of their 'hateful rhetoric' - a stark contrast from the praise he showered them with two years ago during the early days of the pandemic

The double-pronged effort from the coalition of more than 50,000 Canadian truck drivers - which has remained largely peaceful - was spurred by recent policies implemented by Trudeau's office that declared that by January 15, all truckers in the country who are unvaccinated must take a COVID-19 test and quarantine when driving back from the states.

Per the progressive politician's new guidance, Canadian drivers who are not vaccinated are barred from entering the US until they have gotten the jab, while American drivers are currently not allowed into Canada unless they produce a certificate proving that they have been inoculated.

The policy comes in stark contrast to that of the nation's neighbor the south, with American drivers returning home to the US not required to test and quarantine.

During the address, Trudeau conceded that he understood the frustrations of the Canadian people regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but asserted that some of the behavior seen at the recent protests in the nation's capital, including swastikas, Confederate flags, and the desecrating of memorials, was unacceptable.

'I want to be very clear, we are not intimidated by those who hurl insults and abuse at small business workers, and steal food from the homeless. We won't give in to those who fly racist flags. We won't cave to those who engage in vandalism or dishonor the memory of our veterans.'

He added: 'Freedom of expression, assembly, and association are cornerstones of democracy. But Nazi symbolism, racist imagery, and desecration of war memorials are not. It is an insult to memory and truth. Hate can never be the answer.'

Trudeau then called on the protesting truckers - and the thousands supporting them - to put a halt to their actions.

'There is no place in our country for threats, violence or hatred,' he asserted. 'So for those responsible for this behavior, it needs to stop. To anyone who joined the convoy and was rightly uncomfortable with the symbols of hatred and division on display, join with your fellow Canadians. Be courageous, and speak out. Do not stand for, or with, intolerance and hate.'

In his speech, Trudeau went on to slam conservative politicians from his country for supporting the truckers' protests, warning them to 'think long and hard about the consequences of your actions.'

After the address, the prime minister doubled down on his stance in a series of posts on social media.

The progressive politician pleaded for the protests to cease Monday afternoon, both in his address and on social media

Trudeau's speech, delivered more than 24 hours after the prime minister fled his home in Ottawa as protesters convened on the capital, came as another formidable force of protesters more than 1,800 miles away, in Coutts, Alberta, were met with backlash from local law enforcement, who ordered the drivers Monday to stand down and stop blocking trucks and other international commuters from crossing the currently gridlocked dividing line, RebelNews reported.

After a vote, the outlet reported Monday afternoon, drivers stationed along the border refused to budge, and for now, the border remains closed, despite heavy police presence.

Earlier that morning, after fleeing his home with his family Sunday as thousands of truckers descended on the Canadian capital to protest the country's vaccine mandate and COVID lockdowns, Trudeau revealed he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Trudeau, 50, held a press conference from an undisclosed location Monday after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier that day. During the address, broadcasted remotely, the politician bashed truckers protesting his recent vaccine mandate

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that he has tested positive for COVID-19

'This morning, I tested positive for COVID-19,' the woke politician wrote on social media that morning.

'Im feeling fine  and Ill continue to work remotely this week while following public health guidelines. Everyone, please get vaccinated and get boosted.'

Trudeau, who is vaccinated and has received a booster, is currently self-isolating at an undisclosed location after fleeing with his family from their home in the Canadian city as protesters convened, a four full days after the politician found out he had been exposed to the virus.

'Last night, I learned that I have been exposed to COVID-19,' Trudeau wrote on Twitter Thursday morning.

'My rapid test result was negative. I am following @OttawaHealth rules and isolating for five days. I feel fine and will be working from home. Stay safe, everyone  and please get vaccinated.'

The progressive prime minister provided no details on when or how he was exposed to the virus at the time, and his office has since not commented further on his positive test, which he said came early Monday morning.

The politico also did not divulge whether or not it was a rapid or PCR test that garnered the positive result, and has not yet updated the public as to his location.

Trudeau's revelation comes as the 'Freedom Convoy' of trucks - joined by thousands of demonstrators - brought Ottawa to a virtual standstill for a third day on Monday, as they protested the prime minister's vaccine mandates, forcing the prime minister to flee the city with his family due to 'security concerns.'

The decision to move the prime minister Saturday was spurred by a warning from the sergeant-at-arms of the Canadian Parliament that protesters might show up at the homes of politicians, CBC reported.

The protesting truckers say there is no 'end date' in sight and plan to stay in the capital 'for as long as it takes' and until the Canadian government flips and withdraws its policy on vaccine mandates.

Vehicles displaying protest signs are seen outside Parliament Hill, as demonstrations by truckers and their supporters against COVID vaccine mandates continue in Ottawa

The decision to move the prime minister Saturday came after the sergeant-at-arms of the Canadian Parliament warned that protesters might show up at the homes of politicians

Nathan (Jacko) Jack waves flags in front of trucks that are parked in front of Parliament Hill at a rally against COVID-19 restrictions on Monday

The protester removed the tires from his pickup truck stands in front of Parliament Hill during the proceedings on Monday

Parliamentary Protective Service officers were forced to don headsets for hearing protection during vaccine mandate protests Monday, against the blaring horns of thousands of trucks participating in the cross-country convoy

Trucks participating in the 'Freedom Convoy' protest against Trudeau's vaccine mandates carry hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods meant to be transported throughout the country and to the US. Participating trucks have been there, parked, for days - many since Saturday
North Carolina Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn has sued his state's board of elections in response to a group of voters who want to keep him off the ballot by citing the 14th Amendment's prohibition on service by those who engaged in 'insurrection or rebellion' against the country.

Cawthorn, who has also bashed the suit in public comments, is seeking an injunction to be able to remain on the ballot despite the filing.

'Running for political office is quintessential First Amendment activity and afforded great protection,' his complaint says, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Cawthorn also dismissed as 'asinine' a suit filed by a group of state voters seeking to disqualify him from the ballot for being 'involved in efforts to intimidate Congress and the Vice President into rejecting valid electoral votes and subvert the essential constitutional function of an orderly and peaceful transition of power.'

That suit cites provisions of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, to prevent former Confederate leaders from serving in Congress after taking part in the rebellion. It says Cawthorn and others took actions that 'led directly, intentionally, and foreseeably to the insurrectionists violent assault on the Capitol.'

Cawthorn spoke near the White House on Jan. 6th, at the same event where Trump urged supporters to 'fight' in advance of the Capitol riot at the Capitol.

'The Democrats, with all the fraud they have done in this election, the Republicans, hiding and not fighting  they are trying to silence your voice,' Cawthorn said at the rally, which came on the day Congress met to count the electoral votes.

North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn is suing his state's board of elections in response to an effort by a group of voters to keep him off the ballot. 'Trump has become like a father to me,' Cawthorn told the Daily Caller. He says the two men speak daily

'At 12:00 today, we will be contesting the election,' he said, while bashing Republicans who 'sit idly by' amid the electoral fight. 'They have no backbone,' he said.

The Charlotte Observer editorial board called the attempt to keep Cawthorn off the ballot 'misguided,' even in an editorial where it called him 'a frequent source of shame to North Carolina' who 'displays little to no semblance of a moral compass, [and] regularly deals in fictitious and potentially seditious rhetoric.'

The legal fight in North Carolina played out days after Trump said in a statement that former Vice President Mike Pence had the right to 'overturn' the election.

Cawthorn commented on the effort to keep him off the ballot in an interview with the Daily Caller in an interview, where he also gushed about Trump, saying he was 'like a father' to the 26-year old lawmaker.

'Trump has become like a father to me, I get to talk to him every single day. He's incredible, he's a genius,' Cawthorn told the publication.

He was responding to an initial question of what first comes to mind when he hears the words 'DeSantis' and 'Trump'  in reference to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump denies a political rivalry between them.

'Being 26 years old obviously I don't have a ridiculous amount of experience with dealing with foreign policy yet,' Cawthorn continued. 'So if I can just call the former president of the United States and say, 'hey, what would you do in this situation?' and he can tell me exactly what the whole background is to it. So I love him. He's been very good to me and he's been so good to our country.

Trump and his former chief of staff Mark Meadows backed Cawthorn's opponent in his first primary campaign, but Trump has since welcomed Cawthorn into the political fold, inviting him to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

'I get to talk to him every single day,' Cawthorn said of Former President Donald Trump

Cawtorn has announced he is divorcing wife Cristina Bayardelle. He blasted an online conspiracy theory that she was part of a honeypot operation. He says he was introduced to Cristina through a friend he met at Blackjack tables in St. Petersburg, Russia

He was also asked to name the 'top three squishiest Republicans in Congress.'

He ended up selecting only Jan. 6th Committee member Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.). He said he wouldn't call Trump nemesis Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). squishy. 'She's just who she is,' he said.

'There's a guy in Ohio,' he said, failing to recall the name, saying he would send it along to his interviewer later.

He also blasted a 'ridiculous' online conspiracy theory that his wife, Cristina Bayardelle Cawthorn, whom he is divorcing, was introduced to him as part of a 'honeypot' operation.

He said in a previous interview he was introduced to her in Florida by his friend Todd, who he met on a cruise to St. Petersburg, Russia.

'I was on a cruise with my best friend. We were in port in St. Petersburg. And when we were in St. Petersburg I was playing a game of 21, Blackjack, and I happened to meet a really good friend of mine, Todd. And then about a year or two later I went down to Florida and he introduced me to Cristina. It was a wild situation how they thought that that means that I'm a Chinese - a Russian asset - that she's some Russian honeypot that was sent to distract me and get me to work for the Kremlin,' he said.
Two of Donald Trump's most vocal critics in the Congressional GOP, Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, could see themselves booted out of the House Republican Conference this week, a new report suggested on Monday.

A resolution to on a push to formally expel the two lawmakers from the House GOP Conference for trying to 'destroy President Trump' is going to be up for debate at the annual Republican National Committee meeting, according to the Washington Post.

The gathering is taking place Wednesday through Friday this week in Salt Lake City.

Former Trump adviser David Bossie is at the helm of the push to remove Cheney and Kinzinger, the only two Republicans on the Democrat-led House Select Committee investigating January 6.

Bossie is currently the Maryland RNC's Committeeman.

His co-sponsor is Wyoming state RNC Chair Frank Eathorne, another Trump ally who attended the protest outside the Capitol on January 6 last year. The Wyoming GOP voted to un-recognize Cheney in 2021 over her efforts to work with Democrats on the Capitol riot committee.

The reported resolution is the highest-profile spat yet in the growing divide between Trump allies within the GOP and those who believe he should be held accountable for the January 6 Capitol riot and pushing false 2020 election conspiracy theories.

It's extremely rare for federal elected officials to be ejected from their own party.

Members of the Republican National Committee are expected to debate the measure to boot Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger at their winter meeting in Salt Lake City this week

In the resolution text Bossie accuses Cheney and Kinzinger of trying to 'destroy President Trump' by working with the Capitol riot committee.

He suggests they focus their efforts on helping Republicans win the 2022 November midterms rather than working with Democrats on the panel. People with knowledge of the document were cited in the report.

When asked for comment, Cheney's office directed DailyMail.com to her remarks in the Post's earlier report.

'The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to "overturn" a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,' the Wyoming legislator said.

'Im a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.'

Kinzinger's office could not immediately be reached for comment.

DailyMail.com has also reached out to the January 6 committee, the Maryland GOP, the Wyoming GOP as well as the Republican National Committee.

Monday's report notes that National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel hasn't taken a position on the resolution, but in November she said Cheney was 'still a Republican' despite the lawmaker's fallout with the Wyoming GOP.

The resolution was reportedly brought before the RNC by Maryland RNC Committeeman David Bossie (right), who is a former Trump adviser

Cheney and Kinzinger are among 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Capitol riot.

Since then Kinzinger has announced his retirement from the House, and Cheney faces a steep re-election battle without the support of her own state party and facing a Trump-backed primary challenger.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has reportedly not taken a position on the matter. DailyMail.com has reached out to the RNC for comment

She was also booted from House GOP leadership, with her colleagues voting to replace her as GOP Conference Chair with pro-Trump Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York.

But they continue to work with Democrats on the committee and to speak out against the former president's actions. Cheney, the panel's vice chair, is known for not shying away from clashes with fellow Republicans who attack the committee's legitimacy.

Most recently, after Trump declared at a Texas rally that he would pardon his supporters who stormed the Capitol if re-elected, Cheney tweeted that he would 'do it all again if given the chance.'

Kinzinger took aim at a subsequent statement Trump released, attacking his Vice President Mike Pence for not overturning the 2020 election.

'This is an admission, and a massively un-American statement. It is time for every Republican leader to pick a side Trump or the Constitution, there is no middle on defending our nation anymore,' the Illinois Republican wrote on Twitter.

Trump allies in Washington have denounced the pair as RINOs, or Republicans In Name Only.

However when the ex-president was in office, both voted with his policies more than 90 percent of the time.

Cheney also holds a positive lifetime rating with the American Conservative Union Foundation of about 78 percent. That's significantly higher than Stefanik's lifetime rating of just under 44 percent.
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Daily Covid cases rose by a fifth in a week today in what is believed to be partly due to the Government counting reinfections  but deaths fell significantly.

There were 112,458 cases logged in the past 24 hours, according to Government dashboard data, marking a 19.2 per cent rise on the 94,326 last week. It is the biggest week-on-week rise since January 4 but it is unclear exactly how many are reinfections, given that last week's tally didn't include any.

The rise comes after weeks of plateauing infection rates and a day after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) began adding reinfections to the daily tally.

An extra 580,000 backdated cases were added to Britain's cumulative total when the adjustment was made on Monday. The antibody-resistant Omicron variant has pushed reinfection rates up since its emergence late last year.

Meanwhile, there were 219 more coronavirus deaths registered in the UK today, down by 50 per cent compared to the figure last week. The sharp drop comes despite a long-term trend of higher death counts on Tuesdays due to weekend recording delays.

Daily hospital admissions have also continued to fall. A total of 1,472 Britons were admitted to hospital with the virus on January 28 - the latest date with data - which marked a near-10 per cent fall in a week.

Daily admissions have been falling for more than a fortnight and the share of patients testing positive after arriving in hospital for a different illness has been rising  a symptom of the milder Omicron variant.

The Office for National Statistics has spotted a similar trend with deaths. A report by the stats body today found that the virus is not the underlying cause in 27 per cent of deaths.

The ONS' weekly report found there were 1,484 deaths involving the coronavirus registered in England and Wales in the seven days to January 21.

Covid was not the primary reason in 27 per cent of cases  up from a figure just below 23 per cent towards the start of the month.

Covid is now NOT the underlying cause in 27% of deaths The proportion of Covid deaths where the virus is not the underlying cause is continuing to increase in England and Wales, official data showed today. Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show there were 1,484 deaths involving the coronavirus registered in both countries during the week ending January 21. Covid was not the primary reason in 27 per cent of cases  up from a figure just below 23 per cent towards the start of the month. For comparison, the share of deaths not primarily due to the virus stood at around 16 per cent when Omicron first arrived in the UK. With the Alpha wave last January, before vaccines were dished out en masse, the proportion was about 10 per cent. The rise of the milder Omicron strain has led to a similar pattern emerging in hospitals, where half of virus inpatients are not primarily needing treatment for the infection. Critics have warned that the rise in so-called 'incidental' cases, driven by the sheer prevalence of Omicron, is skewing the Government's daily coronavirus statistics. It comes after the Government yesterday added re-infections to its daily stats dump for the first time, which put an extra 580,000 cases to the cumulative total. The update means the case-death rate in the fourth wave has been even lower than initially thought and is up to 30 times lower than in the second wave this time last year. Advertisement

For comparison, the share of deaths not primarily due to the virus stood at around 16 per cent when Omicron first arrived in the UK. With the Alpha wave last January, before vaccines were dished out en masse, the proportion was about 10 per cent.

The rise of the milder Omicron strain has led to a similar pattern emerging in hospitals, where half of virus inpatients are not primarily needing treatment for the infection.

Critics have warned that the rise in so-called 'incidental' cases, driven by the sheer prevalence of Omicron, is skewing the Government's daily coronavirus statistics.

The Government's daily figures, unlike the ONS', are based on fatalities registered within 28 days of a positive test - regardless of the underlying cause.

The ONS' analysis looks at all death certificates registered and distinguishes between those who died 'from' Covid versus 'with' the virus.

Experts caution, however, that even if someone didn't die directly from Covid, the virus may have still contributed to their death.

The ONS figures show England and Wales registered 12,776 deaths from all causes in the week ending January 21. This was down by 535 from the previous week and 8.6 per cent below the five-year-average.

Of those deaths, 1,484 mentioned 'novel coronavirus' on the death certificate  an increase of 7.4 per cent on the previous week.

But just 1,082 of those were primarily caused by the coronavirus, a figure that rose just 1.1 per cent over the same period. It was the lowest share since last summer, according to the ONS figures.

Covid caused 8.5 per cent of all deaths registered in England and Wales for the week ending January 21. The virus was mentioned on the death certificate of 11.6 per cent of fatalities.

The increase in deaths not primarily caused by the virus has been mirrored by a huge surge in 'incidental' Covid hospitalisations.

The majority of infected patients being treated on NHS wards were not primarily ill with the virus as of January 25, illustrating .

There were 13,023 Covid patients in hospital, according to the latest NHS England figures, of which only 6,256 were primarily there for the virus (48 per cent).

This share has plummeted since the emergence of the Omicron variant in late November, when three-quarters of inpatients were mainly ill with the disease.

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, previously told MailOnline it was 'absolutely' the time to start differentiating between primary and incidental Covid patients in the daily numbers.

The above graph shows the case fatality rate  the proportion of Covid cases leading to deaths  by primary infection (red) and by both primary infections and reinfections (orange). It shows the CFR has dropped by about 10 per cent

1,484 mentioned 'novel coronavirus' on the death certificate in the week ending January 21, an increase of 7.4 per cent on the previous week when 1,382 were recorded. But just 1,082 of those were primarily caused by the virus, with non-incidental Covid deaths only increasing by 1.1 per cent over the same period

The proportion of 'incidental' Covid deaths where the virus was not the main cause has continued to increase to 27 per cent in England and Wales in the week ending January 21, Office for National Statistics data showed today

Meanwhile, analysis shows Covid's death rate is even lower than thought after reinfections were piled into the Government's tally.

Fatality rates from the coronavirus are up to 30 times lower now than during the devastating second wave, thanks to the build-up of natural immunity, a hugely successful vaccination drive and the milder nature of Omicron.

But the proportion of infected people who end up dying has fallen by another 10 per cent after last night's update, according to MailOnline's analysis.

Covid fatality rate in England has plunged by almost 10% with Government's addition of nearly 600,000 reinfections Covid's death rate is even lower than thought, official data suggests after nearly 600,000 reinfections were piled into the Government's own tally. Fatality rates from the coronavirus are up to 30 times lower now than during the devastating second wave, thanks to the build-up of natural immunity, a hugely successful vaccination drive and the milder nature of Omicron. But the proportion of infected people who end up dying has fallen by another 10 per cent after last night's update, according to MailOnline's analysis. Just 0.23 per cent of all confirmed cases led to deaths in England before the long-awaited addition of reinfections, UK Health Security Agency statistics suggest. However, the rate for exactly the same time period  which relates to mid-January  has now dropped to 0.21 per cent because of the addition of extra cases. This is still slightly above flu, which has a case-fatality rate of around 0.1 per cent. But some experts claim the two figures are very similar, even if coronavirus is much more transmissible. Professor Paul Hunter, an expert in infectious diseases from the University of East Anglia, said reinfections were 'almost always' milder than primary infections. He added: 'Consequently, we can expect the severity of Covid to decrease further as more and more of the daily infections are reinfections.' Advertisement

Just 0.23 per cent of all confirmed cases led to deaths in England before the long-awaited addition of reinfections, UK Health Security Agency statistics suggest. However, the rate for exactly the same time period  which relates to mid-January  has now dropped to 0.21 per cent because of the addition of extra cases.

This is still slightly above flu, which has a case-fatality rate of around 0.1 per cent. But some experts claim the two figures are very similar, even if coronavirus is much more transmissible.

Professor Hunter said reinfections were 'almost always' milder than primary infections.

He added: 'Consequently, we can expect the severity of Covid to decrease further as more and more of the daily infections are reinfections.'

MailOnline calculated the case fatality rate (CFR)  used by epidemiologists to check the severity of a disease  by dividing the seven-day average of Covid cases by deaths two weeks later.

A lag was built in because of the time taken for someone who catches the virus to die from the disease.

Latest data for January 12  the latest date available to calculate the CFR  showed 91,955 people were testing positive for the first time every day, on average.

At the same time, fatalities  defined as deaths within 28 days of a positive test  stood at roughly 213.

But in last night's update to include 588,114 reinfections since the pandemic began, the average number of cases for January 12 shot up by 10,000. This pushed the CFR down slightly from its previous level.

Covid death numbers were not only those fatalities directly due to the virus, which likely would have pushed the CFR even lower.

Covid reinfections were rare at the start of the pandemic because so few Britons had caught the virus due to lockdowns and stringent self-isolation rules.

The UKHSA  which defines reinfections as when someone tests positive for the virus more than 90 days after a previous positive swab  logged its first in June 2020, just four months into the pandemic.

Reinfections accounted for less than two per cent of Covid cases  or one in 50 infections  during the Alpha and Delta waves that struck the UK.

But since the arrival of Omicron they have been ticking upwards, with the variant known to be better at evading previous immunity.

At the end of December reinfections made up about eight per cent of cases, but they are now behind more than 11 per cent.

Despite the rise, Professor Hunter said there was no sign that reinfections were changing the course of the current Omicron wave. He added that there was no need to impose further restrictions to tackle them.

Experts said last night the addition of the figures could also be an early warning sign of waning immunity, helping officials determine when extra booster shots might be needed.

UK officials have already secured enough Covid doses to roll out fourth shots if needed in the coming months  and other countries including Israel have already launched revaccination campaigns.

As well as the reinfections, UKHSA bosses also logged an additional 173,328 'formerly unreported' cases.

The revision pushed up the UK's official cumulative tally by 4.1 per cent to 14.8million confirmed cases since the pandemic began.

But only England and Northern Ireland are currently reporting reinfection figures. Scotland and Wales say they will also start to publish the statistics in the coming days.

Britain has recorded 156,000 Covid deaths since March 2020. Other surveillance measures paint a similar picture.

The ONS  which counts fatalities by mentions of the virus on death certificates  says the toll stands at around 178,000.

But the proportion down to the virus is now pointing downwards, with latest Office for National Statistics figures showing one in five Covid fatalities (402 out of 1,484 deaths) were not due to the virus in the week to January 21.

For comparison, the share of deaths not primarily due to the virus stood at around 16 per cent when Omicron first arrived in the UK. With the Alpha wave last January, before vaccines were dished out en masse, the proportion was about 10 per cent.
The governing association of a Boca Raton condominium complex faces a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit seeking release of documents that could help prove whether it illegally blocked a nurse from renting a condo because she could have been exposed to COVID-19.

The Boca View Condominium Association was accused by a unit owner, Greta Tremmel, of refusing to allow Jennifer Piraino, an intensive care unit nurse, to move to the property with her young daughter in April 2020. The complex covenants require association approval of all rental agreements, court records state.

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[ RELATED: Becker & Poliakoff law firm the nemesis of condo safety reformers ]

Under the federal Fair Housing Act, a person with COVID-19 is considered to have a disability and falls into a protected status, according to the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which investigates housing discrimination complaints for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Protected status can also extend to someone who is associated with people who have a disability, the suit states.

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The complaint names as defendants the association, its president, an administrator, its management company and a property manager. The complex is located at 1000 Spanish River Road, between the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean.

JoAnn Burnett, an attorney representing the association, could not be immediately reached for comment about the case.

Reached by phone on Monday, Trammel predicted that the association would lose the case after treating the nurse like a piece of garbage and throwing her to the street.

She will win hands down. She will win this after all of the [associations] denials are negated.

Tremmel said Piraino, a nurse at Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, submitted her rental application and a $100 fee in April 2020 and was called a few days later by a manager who said the company wouldnt process her application.

When Piraino asked why, the woman said it was because of everything going on in the world. When Piraino asked why again, the woman just replied, Well, with everything going on, Tremmel said.

Tremmel filed a complaint with HUD in May 2020, and HUD then asked the association repeatedly for information it said would be necessary to determine whether it illegally discriminated against Piraino.

According to a petition filed in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach on Jan. 27, the association has failed to produce records demanded by the HUD office in five administrative subpoenas issued by the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

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The office initially sought a list of all tenants who moved into the property between March 15, 2020 and November 9, 2020. But the association responded that it was prohibited by state law from disclosing information obtained during the leasing process.

[ RELATED: Diaper donnybrook: Family sues condo board, claim swim diaper ban violates babys civil rights ]

Meetings of association board minutes, similarly, are only available to unit owners who ask to examine them, the association said.

HUD later asked the association to produce copies of rental or sales applications between March 1, 2020 and January 8, 2021, as well as copies of minutes of all association meetings between March 2020 and November 23, 2020.

Boca View is represented by the law firm Becker & Poliakoff, which specializes in condominium law. An investigative report by the South Florida Sun Sentinel last Sept. 28 recounted numerous legal battles between the Boca View association and unit owners that typically resulted in protracted litigation and the unit owners receiving bills demanding tens of thousands of dollars for Beckers legal fees.

Rather than turning over the records requested by HUD, the association filed motions to quash the subpoenas, arguing that HUD had failed to meet the elements required to enforce them.

Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. >

In a Dec. 2 email filed with the newest complaint, association attorney Burnett argued with HUD investigators that Tremmel had no legal standing to file her complaint.

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There is no disabled person, Burnett wrote. Even assuming Ms. Tremmels allegations were true  which the Association vehemently denies  she is unable to succeed because she is not a member of a protected class, nor is she associated with a person with a disability.

But the newest complaint filed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chantel R. Doakes and Veronica Harrell-James argues that the records are necessary to show whether the association told the truth when it said that no leases were approved and no one was allowed to move to the property from mid-March 2020 to mid-June 2020, when the complex was under quarantine and shelter-in-place orders.

Tremmel, by phone, said HUD has evidence that the board allowed other tenants to move in at around the same time it turned down Piraino.

HUD referred the matter to the Department of Justice in August to initiate proceedings to obtain [the associations] compliance.

Tremmel said she hoped the matter would be settled soon.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled their proposal to make it a lot harder for lawmakers to object to the certification of a presidential election and clarified the role of the vice president in the process.

The legislation was in response to former President Donald Trump's attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, including pushing his Vice President Mike Pence to send back electors from states Joe Biden won - a power Pence did not have.

Among the provisions in the Democrats' legislation, it clarifies that the vice president's role in the process is purely ceremonial.

The 'Vice President has no role in the counting of electoral votes, except to open electoral vote ballots as required by the Constitution,' the legislation states.

Then-Vice President Mike Pence, next to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, certifies the 2020 presidential election results on the morning of January 6th, after supporters of Donald Trump were cleared from the Capitol

The plan also makes it harder for lawmakers to object to the election certification, raising the number of lawmakers to one-third in each chamber and making the threshold to sustain an objection 3/5 of the chamber. Currently it only takes one senator or one House member to object.

Under the proposal from Senate Democrats Angus King, Dick Durbin, and Amy Klobuchar, Senate Republicans would have been unable to force a vote last Jan. 6, meaning the certification process would have been completed very quickly.

Their plan would also require states to appoint their electors based on laws passed before Election Day and move back the deadline to resolve disputes to December 20th to give states more time to handle recounts and other issues before certification of the election by Congress.

The senators called their legislation a 'discussion draft' and said they thought the proposal 'serves as a foundational outline for key reforms that address the shortcomings of the 1887 law.'

Their proposal is separate from that of a bipartisan group of lawmakers working on reforms to the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

That group, which includes 16 senators and is led by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Sen. Susan Collins, is still working on their formal legislation. They met Monday night and plan to reconvene on Friday.

Senate Democrats unveiled a proposal to update the election certification process - a response to Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election

The proposal is sponsored by Senators Angus King (left), Dick Durbin (center), and Amy Klobuchar (right) - it is separate from a plan being worked on by a bipartisan group of senators

Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, to try and stop the certification of the presidential election

The Democrats' proposal is called the Electoral Count Modernization Act and is an update to the Electoral Count Act of 1887. The 127-year-old law has been criticized as being vague and outdated.

Election law came under a bright spotlight in the wake of the 2020 election, when Trump falsely claimed he was the victor and his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, to try and stop the electoral college certification.

There are reports Trump pressured legislatures in states won by Biden to send 'alternate' slates of presidential electors to Congress, which the Democratic bill would outlaw.

Trump on Tuesday resumed his criticism of Pence for failing to 'overturn' the election results  and is now saying his former Vice President should be investigated for failing to 'send back' votes in states where Trump was claiming fraud.

Trump fired off comment in a statement from his Save America PAC  a day after a stunning statement where Trump wrote that Pence 'did have the right to change the outcome' and added 'he could have overturned the Election!'

'So pathetic to watch the Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors work so feverishly to alter the Electoral College Act so that a Vice President cannot ensure the honest results of the election, when just one year ago they said that the Vice President has absolutely no right to ensure the true outcome or results of an election, wrote Trump.

He was referencing the Electoral Count Act, the subject of election reform negotiations.
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The Royal Navy is today monitoring two Russian warships off the British coast hours after Boris Johnson renewed warnings to Vladimir Putin that the Kremlin will be hit with sanctions if Ukraine is invaded.

HMS Argyle took over responsibility for tracking the vessels after the French Navy followed them through the Channel for the past two days.

The development came after Mr Johnson warned his Russian counterpart financial penalties would follow 'the moment the first Russian toe-cap crosses' the border into Ukraine.

Speaking during a joint press conference in Kiev alongside the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Johnson said the world must face up to the 'grim reality' of more than 100,000 Russian troops massed at the border.

The premier told Mr Putin a military incursion into Ukraine would be a 'political disaster', a 'humanitarian disaster' and a 'military disaster'.

Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky said these are 'challenging times for Ukraine and for Europe' as he welcomed the UK's continued support for his nation's sovereignty.

The PM travelled to Ukraine yesterday as he fled the pressure cooker of Westminster following the publication of Sue Gray's 'update' on the Partygate scandal.

Still reeling from news that police are investigating four allegedly lockdown-busting bashes he attended, Mr Johnson held talks with Mr Zelensky against the backdrop of Moscow's menacing military mobilisation.

The diplomatic mission got off to a rocky start after Downing Street cancelled a planned call between Mr Johnson and Mr Putin because the PM was busy fielding furious questions from MPs. It is now expected to take place today.

It will come as HMS Argyle, a Type-23 Frigate, monitors Russia's Soobrazitelniy and Stoykiy warships, aided by the US Navy's USS Roosevelt.

Early today the group of ships was off the coast of southern Ireland.

The French Navy followed the two Russian boats (one pictured left by the French) through the Channel for several days. They Tweeted a map of the vessels' route last night

Meanwhile TV channels in Russia have been revelling in Mr Johnson's discomfort, with one branding him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie.

They declared that the Partygate report would have ended up in the 'Victorian sewers' of London if it were up to the PM.

Vladimir Putin tonight said the U.S. and NATO have 'ignored' the Kremlin's concerns in recent correspondence as the Russian president made his first direct comments on the Ukraine crisis since December.

Mr Putin argued that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account.

Mr Johnson said this evening in Kiev: 'We have to face a grim reality which is that as we stand here today more than 100,000 Russian troops are gathering on your border in perhaps the biggest demonstration of hostility towards Ukraine in our lifetimes.

'And the potential deployment dwarfs the 30,000 troops that Russia sent to invade Crimea in 2014, since that time of course as everybody knows 13,000 Ukrainians have been killed, and Ukraine has been plunged into nearly a decade of war.

'It goes without saying that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a political disaster, a humanitarian disaster, in my view it would also be for Russia, for the world, a military disaster as well.'

He added: 'Alongside other countries we are also preparing a package of sanctions and other measures to be enacted the moment the first Russian toe cap crosses further into Ukrainian territory.'

A joint statement from Mr Johnson and Mr Zelensky issued after their talks set out how the UK will stand 'shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression'.

The statement, released by the offices of the Prime Minister and the President, said: 'The Prime Minister emphasised the United Kingdom's unwavering commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.

'The United Kingdom stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression, which threatens regional peace and security and undermines the global order. The two leaders emphasised that it is the right of every Ukrainian to determine their own future.'

Boris Johnson today warned Vladimir Putin he will be hit with crippling economic sanctions 'the moment the first Russian toe cap crosses' into Ukraine as the PM cautioned the Kremlin against a potential invasion

Speaking during a joint press conference in Kiev alongside the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Johnson said the world must face up to the 'grim reality' of more than 100,000 Russian troops massed at the border.

The premier told Mr Putin a military incursion into Ukraine would be a 'political disaster', a 'humanitarian disaster' and a 'military disaster'

The PM travelled to Ukraine this morning as he fled the pressure cooker of Westminster following the publication of Sue Gray's 'update' on the Partygate scandal

As the domestic scandal rages while Mr Johnson turns his focus abroad:

Mr Johnson told MPs 42 times during his Commons statement last night that they need to wait for the outcome of the police inquiry;

No10 has refused to commit to making public if Mr Johnson is fined for breaching lockdown laws, with Scotland Yard saying names of those given fixed penalty notices will not be relased;

Deputy PM Dominic Raab insisted Mr Johnson is 'getting on with the job' but dodged giving a full-hearted defence of his swipe at Keir Starmer for failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile. 'I can't substantiate that claim,' Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4's Today programme;

Mr Johnson has pledged to take regular 'strategic advice' from election guru Lynton Crosby as he tried to appease angry MPs;

The premier attacked former No10 chief Dominic Cummings comparing him to Shakespearian villain Iago while he is good-natured Othello;

A snap poll has found two-third of the public do not accept Mr Johnson's grudging apology over Partygate.

Putin says the U.S. and NATO have ignored Russia's top security demands Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the U.S. and its allies have ignored Russia's top security demands but added that Moscow remains open to more talks with the West on easing soaring tensions over Ukraine. Putin argued that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account. 'I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that it's not going to be easy,' Putin said amid a continuing buildup of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine that fueled Western fear of an invasion. Russia has denied having an intention to attack its neighbor, but talks between Russia and the West have so far failed to yield any progress. Washington and its allies have rejected Moscow's demand for a halt to NATO's expansion to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, a freeze on the deployment of weapons there and a rollback of alliance forces from Eastern Europe, describing them as nonstarters. They emphasized that Ukraine, like any other nation, has the right to choose alliances. The Russian leader countered that argument by noting that the Western allies' refusal to meet Russia's demands violates their obligations on integrity of security for all nations. He warned that Ukraine's accession to NATO could lead to a situation where Ukrainian authorities launch a military action to reclaim control over Crimea or areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in the country's east. 'Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations,' Putin said. 'Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?' Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the country's Moscow-friendly president and later threw its weight behind rebels in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, triggering a conflict that has killed over 14,000. Speaking after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who forged close ties with Moscow even though his country is a member of NATO, Putin noted that it's still possible to negotiate a settlement that would take every party's concerns into account. 'We need to find a way to ensure interests and security of all parties, including Ukraine, European nations and Russia,' Putin said, emphasizing that the West needs to treat Russian proposals seriously to make progress. The Russian leader argued that NATO's open-door policy doesn't oblige the alliance to offer membership to Ukraine, suggesting that the alliance could tell Ukraine that it can't join 'due to earlier international obligations.' He said that French President Emmanuel Macron may soon visit Moscow as part of renewed diplomatic efforts following their call on Monday. Advertisement

Deputy PM Dominic Raab tried to shrug off the delay to the call with Mr Putin this morning, saying there are 'always scheduling issues between any two heads of government' and claiming Mr Johnson has been 'leading the transatlantic response' to the crisis.

Mr Raab said: 'Any prime minister, any president  it happens all the time  their diaries and their call sheets dart around the place because they are balancing things.'

He told Sky News: 'This Prime Minister is the one who has been leading the transatlantic response, with the United States, with European allies, with the most robust approach on sanctions, providing support.

Mr Johnson travelled to Ukraine on a chartered plane from Stansted with staff and a small pool of journalists. Downing Street has said his call with Mr Putin is now expected to be tomorrow.

The visit to Ukraine comes after a Russian warplane breached the airspace of Estonia - where hundreds of British troops are based - in a suspected move to test NATO defences this weekend.

Estonian authorities yesterday handed a protest note to Russian diplomats in Tallinn after a Russian Su-27 fighter jet violated the NATO state's airspace near the island of Vaindloo in the Gulf of Finland.

The warplane did not post a flight plan and its transponder was switched off as encroached on Estonian territory - a move described by Tallinn 'a very unfortunate and serious incident'.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the U.S. and its allies have ignored Russia's top security demands but added that Moscow remains open to more talks with the West on easing soaring tensions over Ukraine.

Putin argued that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account.

'I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that it's not going to be easy,' Putin said amid a continuing buildup of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine that fueled Western fear of an invasion.

Russia has denied having an intention to attack its neighbor, but talks between Russia and the West have so far failed to yield any progress.

Washington and its allies have rejected Moscow's demand for a halt to NATO's expansion to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, a freeze on the deployment of weapons there and a rollback of alliance forces from Eastern Europe, describing them as nonstarters. They emphasized that Ukraine, like any other nation, has the right to choose alliances.

The Russian leader countered that argument by noting that the Western allies' refusal to meet Russia's demands violates their obligations on integrity of security for all nations. He warned that Ukraine's accession to NATO could lead to a situation where Ukrainian authorities launch a military action to reclaim control over Crimea or areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in the country's east.

'Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations,' Putin said. 'Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?'

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the country's Moscow-friendly president and later threw its weight behind rebels in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, triggering a conflict that has killed over 14,000.

Speaking after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who forged close ties with Moscow even though his country is a member of NATO, Putin noted that it's still possible to negotiate a settlement that would take every party's concerns into account.

'We need to find a way to ensure interests and security of all parties, including Ukraine, European nations and Russia,' Putin said, emphasizing that the West needs to treat Russian proposals seriously to make progress.

The Russian leader argued that NATO's open-door policy doesn't oblige the alliance to offer membership to Ukraine, suggesting that the alliance could tell Ukraine that it can't join 'due to earlier international obligations.'

He said that French President Emmanuel Macron may soon visit Moscow as part of renewed diplomatic efforts following their call on Monday.

Russia is conducting military exercises on a scale 'never seen before' on the Ukrainian border, the head of the UK's armed forces has warned, in 'a pattern of coercion and intimidation' against the West.

Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin gave the assessment to a Cabinet meeting before Mr Johnson departed for Ukraine.

Sir Tony said 'a significant proportion of Russia's land combat power was now gathered on the western border, coupled with deterrence operations such as military exercises on a scale never seen before'.

No 10 said he warned this 'fitted into a pattern of coercion and intimidation that sought to undermine the values and principles of the West'.

Mr Johnson told ministers the situation was 'deeply concerning and that there were no indications of Russia de-escalating with more than 100,000 troops currently amassed on Ukraine's border'.

The call between Boris Johnson and Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured left) was due to take place yesterday afternoon but is now not expected to happen today. Mr Johnson (right) steps off the plane in Kiev this afternoon

Several Russian TV channels were mocking Boris Johnson yesterday ahead of his planned trip to Ukraine today. NTV branded him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain'

Estonian authorities yesterday handed a protest note to Russian diplomats in Tallinn after a Russian Su-27 fighter jet violated the NATO state's airspace near the island of Vaindloo in the Gulf of Finland over the weekend

Boris Johnson was yesterday forced to postpone a call to Vladimir Putin so he could deal with Partygate

Cabinet ignores Partygate as No10 says PM could keep fine from police secret Boris Johnson and his senior ministers did not discuss the Partygate scandal at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning despite growing Tory fury and warnings the PM should be 'very worried' about a coup. Mr Johnson is desperately trying to stabilise his premiership after senior Conservatives said the ongoing row is corroding the Government like 'battery acid'. The premier left the pressure cooker of Westminster following the Cabinet meeting to visit Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday which revealed the PM is being investigated by police over four potential breaches of lockdown law. The publication of Ms Gray's update rocked Westminster but Number 10 said the report was not mentioned during the Cabinet meeting. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said Mr Johnson had 'obviously addressed the House I think for up to two hours yesterday and then spoke to his own MPs at length on this issue'. He added: 'The Cabinet this morning was focused on the situation in Ukraine and the domestic priority of levelling up.' Meanwhile, Number 10 has refused to guarantee that the public would be told if fines were issued for coronavirus breaches at Downing Street. The PM's spokesman said: 'It will be the Met that sets out what they see fit at the conclusion of their work and I would not seek to set out what that may or may not be.' Mr Johnson suffered a mauling from a slew of Tory MPs in the Commons yesterday, with Theresa May demanding to know if he thought the rules 'didn't apply' to him, and former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell saying the premier had lost his support. Mr Mitchell stepped up his attack this morning warning that the row was 'like battery acid corroding the party' as he also condemned Mr Johnson's leadership style. 'I think this is a crisis that is not going to go away and is doing very great damage to the party. It is more corrosive in my judgement than the expenses scandal was and it will break the coalition that is the Conservative Party,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Even normally-loyal MPs conceded that the PM's response in the chamber was a 'car crash', although Mr Johnson appeared to buy himself some time with a more conciliatory performance at a private meeting with his rank and file last night. Writing in the Times, Lord Hague criticised Mr Johnson for getting the tone wrong, saying he should have 'acknowledged that the buck stops with him' and ought to be 'very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions'. He said: 'Instead of reinforcing the momentum in his favour, he quite possibly stalled it. If I were him, I would be very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions at the end of his statement.' The looming verdict from Scotland Yard - which is sifting through more than 300 photos of Whitehall bashes and could interview both Mr Johnson and wife Carrie within days - could provide a moment of truth for the premier, but he has also been forced to agree that a full, unredacted version of Ms Gray's report will be published after the criminal process concludes. Advertisement

But Russia's state-run Rossiya 1 channel claimed Johnson's 'anti-Russian hysteria' was 'a way to divert attention from domestic problems' as he sought to 'stifle' the scandal over lockdown-breaking parties.

'Only anti-Russian sanctions can distract from Johnson's protracted Partygate,' the channel concluded.

In a report from London, Gazprom Media-owned NTV channel said: 'If it were in the power of Boris Johnson, [Sue Gray's report] would have disappeared into the bowels of the Victorian sewers of the city of London.

'But this did not happen. The report was delivered to the prime minister at Number 10 - the very residence where the parties took place.

'Boris Johnson is today the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain.

'Even schoolchildren are laughing at him.

'[Dominic Cummings] says Johnson is completely under the control and heel of his young wife, but at the same time has the ambitions of a Roman emperor.'

The channel's London correspondent Liza Gerson continued: 'In order to preserve himself, to preserve his political career, Boris Johnson is trying to present himself as a kind of saviour of the whole country.

'Not just the country but the whole world.

'He is trying to talk about more global issues, but he is being asked extremely shameful and petty questions.'

Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie face being questioned by detectives probing several lockdown-breaching Whitehall parties 'within days' after a trove of evidence was handed to Scotland Yard.

Investigators are examining eight dates on which events are said to have taken place and a spokesman said last night that they had gathered 500 pages of information on the 'Partygate' scandal.

Rossiya 1 London correspondent Alexander Khabarov meanwhile reported that the UK intended to double its military contingent in Estonia 'and intensify British aviation operations in the Black Sea region, where it has decided to send a guided missile destroyer.

'Johnson calls these containment measures and pretends not to hear Moscow's repeated statements that Russia is not going to attack anyone.'

The Russian media's assault on the British Prime Minister came as Estonian authorities yesterday released a statement on the incursion into its airspace by a Russian Su-27 fighter.

'The jet was in Estonian airspace for less than a minute, but it was flying with the transponder in the off mode and remained out of contact with Estonian air traffic control at the time of violating the Estonian border,' said the NATO member state.

Moscow has since denied the incident took place, despite having a track record of breaching Estonian airspace.

'No flights by Russian Su-27 fighter jets were carried out above the Baltic Sea on January 29.

The Russian Aerospace Forces perform all their flights in strict compliance with the international rules of airspace use, above neutral waters, without violating other states' borders,' the Moscow defence ministry said.

Britain currently has around 900 soldiers in Estonia, a number expected to double in the coming weeks as NATO deploys foreign troops to eastern Europe, but the small Baltic state is seen as vulnerable to a Russian attack in the event of armed conflict in Ukraine.

Meanwhile new videos showed activity at a Russian military camp in its neighbour and ally Belarus, where the West fears Putin has gathered additional forces.

Another shows large-scale war games involving Russia's strategic nuclear missile forces in Ivanovo region.

Putin is now believed to have well in excess of 100,000 troops stationed near Ukraine's borders.

Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin gave an assessment of the Ukraine situation to a Cabinet meeting before Mr Johnson departed for Kiev

The Russian Su-29 fighter jet did not post a flight plan and its transponder was switched off as encroached on Estonian territory - a move described by Tallinn 'a very unfortunate and serious incident'. (Image of a Russian SU-27 aircraft taken in 2019)

New videos show activity at a Russian military camp in its neighbour and ally Belarus, where the West fears Putin has gathered additional forces

The servicemen of the motorized rifle unit of the combined arms army of Russia's Eastern Military District have completed the deployment of a field camp in Belarus at the Brestsky training ground

It is suspected that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using ally Belarus to host training camps and to amass further troops to prepare for any conflict in Ukraine (motorised rifle unit of Russia's Eastern Military District pictured at the Bretsky training ground in Belarus)

Large-scale exercise of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces in Ivanovo Region

Putin is now believed to have up to 130,000 troops on Ukraine's borders (military drills pictured in Ivanovo region)

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the reports of the delayed phone call showed there were 'real world consequences' of having a Prime Minister fighting for his political survival and 'a vital diplomatic opportunity has been missed'.

Instead of speaking to Johnson on Monday night, Putin spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron. During the exchange, the pair agreed to maintain a dialogue on implementing the Minsk agreements regarding Donbass, a region of eastern Ukraine where Moscow has backed separatist fighters.

Zelensky today signed a decree to increase the size of Ukraine's armed forces by 100,000 troops over three years and raise soldiers' salaries, but insisted the move did not mean war with Russia was imminent.

A Ukrainian serviceman adjusts the strap of his weapon in a trench at a frontline position in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Monday, Jan. 31

A photograph shows tanks of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces parked in their base near Klugino-Bashkirivka village, in the Kharkiv region on January 31

Although Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine's borders, Zelenskiy has repeatedly pushed back against warnings by the United States and other NATO allies that Russia could attack Ukraine at any moment.

'This decree (was prepared) not because we will soon have a war... but so that soon and in the future there will be peace in Ukraine,' Zelensky said.

There are currently nearly 250,000 people in Ukraine's armed forces, which are vastly outnumbered and outgunned by Russia's.

'We must be united in domestic politics. You can be in opposition to the government, but you can't be in opposition to Ukraine,' Zelensky said.

It comes as Hungarian Defence Minister Tibor Benko yesterday declared that there is no need for NATO to deploy its troops in Hungary, stressing that Hungary is able 'to perform this task on its own' in its territory.

Benko's reluctance to accept a deployment of foreign NATO troops in its territory became evident on the same day that UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace said it was vital to discourage Putin from invading Ukraine by showing NATO's willingness for combat as a deterrent.

Wallace said it was 'important to signal to Putin that the very thing he fears, that is, more NATO close to Russia, would be the consequence of invading Ukraine... This is why the UK offered NATO more ground forces, more readiness as a deterrent.'

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to travel to Russia today for talks with Vladimir Putin in which he is likely to ask the Russian President for an increased gas supply.

Orban travels to Moscow in defiance of calls to cancel the trip from opposition parties, who said in a joint statement that it is 'contrary to our national interests'.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) is expected to travel to Russia today for talks with Vladimir Putin (L) in which he is likely to ask the Russian President for an increased gas supply

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the United Nations yesterday alleged Russia will send another 30,000 troops to the Ukrainian border.

'We've seen evidence that Russia intends to expand that presence to more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border, less than two hours north of Kyiv by early February,' US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

White House Press secretary Jen Psaki said: 'Russia has the power. They are the aggressor here. They have the power and ability to de-escalate, to pull their troops back from the border, to not push more troops to Belarus, to take steps to deescalate the situation on the ground.'

But Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya accused the US of 'whipping up hysterics' by calling for Monday's UN Security Council meeting to discuss Ukraine, a nod towards their claim that Putin does not intend to invade his eastern European neighbour.

'The discussions about a threat of war is provocative in and of itself. You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen,' Nebenzia said.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya (L) yesterday accused the US of ginning up 'hysterics' and 'brainwashing' Ukrainians at a heated United Nations Security Council meeting. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (R) said she was 'disappointed' but not 'surprised' by his comments and claimed Moscow is mobilizing 30,000 more troops to send to the Belarus-Ukraine border

In light of the movements and threat posed in Eastern Europe, the US ordered family members of its government employees currently in Belarus to leave the country.

The State Department said: 'Due to an increase in unusual and concerning Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine, US citizens located in or considering travel to Belarus should be aware that the situation is unpredictable and there is heightened tension in the region.'

Last Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken extended a diplomatic proposal to step away from a potential conflict on a call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Blinken described the US proposal as something that offers Russia 'a serious diplomatic path forward,' but assured that NATO allied nations did not bow to Russia's demand that it bar ex-Soviet bloc countries from entering the 30-country military alliance.

Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are set to share another phone call later today.

Britain and the United States also said yesterday they were looking at targeting people in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle with sanctions, including powerful business allies.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told parliament that the government was looking at 'the toughest sanctions regime against Russia we've ever had'.

'Those in and around the Kremlin will have nowhere to hide,' she said.
A Norwegian court has ruled that far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011, must remain in prison, saying there remains 'an obvious risk' he could return to behaviour that led up to the massacre.

Last month, the 42-year-old faced a parole hearing before the three-judge Telemark District Court where he professed white supremacist views and flashed Nazi salutes on the hearing's opening day, while claiming to have renounced violence.

Despite presenting himself as the leader of a Norwegian neo-Nazi movement, the killer said he was 'brainwashed' when he carried out a bomb and gun massacre ten years ago in attempt to get an early release from his 21-year sentence.

But the court today said he remains a potential threat to the public.

'Because his psychiatric condition is unchanged, there is an obvious risk that he will fall back on the behaviour that led up to the terrorist acts on July 22 2011,' the court said in its ruling.

Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in jail, the harshest penalty possible under Norwegian law, for killing 77 people in a bomb and gun attack in July 2011.

Eight people died when a car bomb planted by Breivik exploded outside government offices in Oslo, and he then gunned down 69 others - most of them teenagers - in an attack on a summer camp run by the ruling Labour Party on a nearby island.

A Norwegian court has ruled that far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik (pictured at his parole hearing last month raising his arm to make a Nazi salute), who killed 77 people in 2011, must remain in prison, saying there remains 'an obvious risk' he could return to behaviour that led up to the massacre

Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in jail, the harshest penalty possible under Norwegian law, for killing 77 people in a bomb and gun attack in July 2011. Pictured: The victims of the terror attack

It was July 22, 2011, when, after months of meticulous preparations, Breivik set off a car bomb outside the government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people and wounding dozens

Breivik then drove to the island of Utya, where he opened fire on the annual summer camp of the left-wing Labor Party's youth wing. Sixty-nine people there were killed, most of them teenagers, before Breivik surrendered to police (pictured, youths hide as police arrive on the island on July 22, 2011)

Breivik was declared sane at his trial, although the prosecution argued that he was psychotic. He did not appeal against his sentence but unsuccessfully sued the government for human rights violations for denying him the right to communicate with sympathisers.

Breivik could be held longer than 21 years under a provision that allows authorities to keep criminals in prison for as long as they are considered a continued threat to the public. But he is also entitled to regular parole hearings to review the sentence.

Now that his request for release has been denied, Breivik, who has changed his legal name to Fjotolf Hansen, can apply for a new probation hearing in a year's time.

During last month's hearing, prosecutor Hulda Karlsdottir argued Breivik is still 'a very dangerous man' and 'has not shown any genuine remorse in court'.

A psychiatrist who has observed him since 2012 said Breivik cannot be trusted, and a prison official told hearing 'there is an imminent danger' that, if released, Breivik would again commit serious crimes.

Breivik's lawyer Oystein Storrvik said his client should be released to prove he is reformed and no longer a threat to society, and that is not possible to prove while he is in total isolation.

Mr Storrvik called it 'a paradox that a person is treated so badly in prison that he never gets better. He never gets out'.

Medical workers line up body bags on the islands of Utya as they retrieve victims of Breivik's shooting spree that left 69 dead

During last month's hearing, Breivik made a white supremacist sign with his fingers as he entered court, before raising his arm in a Nazi salute.

He also carried signs, printed in English, bearing slogans that said 'stop your genocide against our white nations' and 'Nazi Civil War'.

Addressing the judge, Breivik described himself as a parliamentary candidate.

Breivik's actions suggested he saw the hearing as an opportunity to disseminate his racist views, though he tried to make the case that he is no longer a threat to society.

Tuesday's ruling can be subject to appeal and Norwegian broadcaster TV2 cited Storrvik saying Breivik would appeal the ruling.

Mr Storrvik was not immediately available for comment.

Breivik has shown no remorse since the killings, having used his initial trial and subsequent human rights hearings to brag about the scale of the slaughter and make Nazi salutes in court.

It was July 22, 2011, when, after months of meticulous preparations, Breivik set off a car bomb outside the government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people and wounding dozens.

He then drove to the island of Utya, where he opened fire on the annual summer camp of the left-wing Labor Party's youth wing. Sixty-nine people there were killed, most of them teenagers, before Breivik surrendered to police.

In 2012 Breivik was handed the maximum 21-year sentence with a clause  rarely used in the Norwegian justice system  that he can be held indefinitely if he is still considered a danger to society.

It is this clause that means he can demand a parole hearing after 10 years. And while this likely means a lifelong sentence, it also opens the possibility that Breivik can demand annual parole hearings where he can broadcast his views, says Johnsen.

'According to Norwegian law he has a right now to go before a judge,' said ystein Storrvik, Breivik's defense lawyer.

'He emphasizes that right. And his motivation for doing so is difficult for me to have an opinion on.'

Breivik lost a human rights case in 2017 when an appeals court overturned the decision of a lower court that his near-isolation in a three-room cell was inhumane.

The European Court of Human Rights rejected a subsequent appeal.

Breivik has form for grandstanding to try to further his extremist goals.

During his 2012 trial, he entered the courtroom daily flashing a closed fist salute, and telling grieving parents that he wished he had killed more.

He has been trying to start a fascist party in prison and reached out by mail to right-wing extremists in Europe and the United States.

Prison officials seized many of those letters, fearing Breivik would inspire others to commit violent attacks.

In 2016, he sued the government, saying his isolation from other prisoners, frequent strip searches and the fact that he was often handcuffed during the early part of his incarceration violated his human rights.

He made a Nazi salute toward journalists during the case which he initially won, but was overturned by higher courts in 2017.
The mother of a 19-year-old who was killed by an illegal immigrant in a hit-and-run said she is 'disappointed' with the Biden administration's new policies that will see her daughter's alleged killer stay in the country despite being in the U.S. illegally.

'My message is, look out for the American people first,' Rhonda Exum told Fox News during a panel of victims of crime by illegal immigrants when asked what she would tell Biden's team when it comes to border policies.

'Truth be told, this was literally my first time voting and I voted for you, and I feel disappointed right now,' Exum added.

Heriberto Fuerte-Padilla, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was driving drunk in November 2020 when he caused a car crash in Texas, killing 19-year-old Adrienne Sophia. The accused tried to flee the scene but was caught by police.

While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially wanted authorities to deport Fuerte-Padilla after Texas issued its punishment, the federal agency changed its mind because the individual does not qualify for priority deportation under Mayorkas' new rules issued in September 2021 to try and lower the number of removals.

Rhonda Exum, mother of a 19-year-old woman who was killed by an illegal immigrant in a hit-and-run in 2020, said she is 'disappointed' with the Biden administration's new policies that will see her daughter's alleged killer stay in the country

WATCH: Mother of a teen killed by an illegal immigrant says she is disappointed in Joe Biden.



This was literally my first time voting and I voted for you, and I feel disappointed right now.



Biden is refusing to deport the illegal immigrant. pic.twitter.com/Frp9UZ9KLb  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 1, 2022

'My message is, look out for the American people first,' Rhonda Exum told Fox News during a panel of victims of crime by illegal immigrants. 'Truth be told, this was literally my first time voting and I voted for you, and I feel disappointed right now'

Representative John Katko, Republican Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the rule change is just the latest example of how Biden's 'failed border policies' are ;dangerou's and have proven the administration 'incompetent'.

'From a gutted immigration enforcement system to strained frontline border security resources, this administration continues to ignore the rule of law,' Katko said in a statement provided to DailyMail.com. 'President Biden's policies have sapped the morale of frontline homeland security personnel and undermined the security of American communities.'

Under Mayorkas' recently updated rules, according to The Washington Times, many deportation requests were canceled for illegal immigrants who are accused, charged, pleaded guilty to felony charges of evading arrest or even those who have already been convicted of drunk driving, drug possession or domestic assault.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Texas that these detainers  or requests for deportation  are no longer considered 'priority lifts', indicating they aren't seen as important targets under Mayorkas' rules.

Mayorkas developed the new rules so the two major immigration enforcement agencies, ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), have to give a break to those illegal immigrants with less severe criminal records.

More serious crimes, according to Mayorkas, include illegal immigrants who pose a national security or public safety risk or who are recent border jumpers.

Detainers were previously a routine practice where ICE would ask U.S. law enforcement to turn over illegal immigrants once they completed their prison or jail time for deportation. The practice, however, became more controversial over the last 10 years.

Many jurisdictions, now known as sanctuary cities or states, now refuse to cooperate with detainers.

ICE battled sanctuary jurisdictions during the Biden and Trump administration, claiming they were releasing dangerous criminals into the country. With the new rules under Mayorkas, ICE is now canceling detainers and forcing states to release illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas created new rules that changes the priority of what illegal immigrant criminals to deport. The rules will see an illegal immigrant accused of killing a 19-year-old woman in a hit-and-run car crash in Texas in November 2020 no longer facing deportation

Mayorkas insisted being in the country illegally is not reason enough to be deported.

'The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,' the DHS head told immigration enforcement agents and officers.

'We will use our discretion and focus our enforcement resources in a more targeted way. Justice and our country's well-being require it,' he added.

Migration at the southern border has hit record numbers since Joe Biden took office and installed Mayorkas as head of addressing national security, which includes overseeing agencies that deal with the border the U.S. shares with Mexico.

In the year since becoming president, CBP has encountered at least 2 million migrants trying to enter the U.S. at the southern border.

Mayorkas admitted this month that the southern border is in the worst state he's ever seen  even preceding Biden taking office.

Federal court filings show the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry are challenging Matorkas' rules, presenting several examples of canceled detainers.

Arizona, Montana and Ohio are also challenging the rules in a separate hearing schedule for the middle of February before a federal judge in Ohio.

In the year since Joe Biden became president, Customs and Border Protection has encountered at least 2 million migrants trying to enter the U.S. at the southern border

Mayorks claims illegal immigrants who pose public safety risks are causing the most headache and says those enforcing the law at the southern border need to balance criminal convictions against other factors, such as how long an illegal immigrant has been in the country.

Regarding the case of Fuerta-Padilla, authorities claim the accused was driving drunk at 1:30 p.m. on a Sunday when his Dodge pickup truck smashed into a Mazda driven by Adrienne Sophia Exum, who was 19 at the time of the crash.

The impact ejected Exum, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, from her car and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Fuerte-Padilla, a Mexican migrant, tried to flee the scene but was chased down by an off duty police officer.

Another example of a canceled detainer, detailed by Texas and obtained by the Times, is the case of Jose Godoy Vasquez.

Vasquez, who is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, has several convictions spanning from drunk driving in 2013 and drug possession and domestic violence from 2019 to 2021. His current sentence runs through 2025.

ICE previously had a detainer request on Vasquez, but told Texas last month it is being canceled under Mayorkas' new priorities.

A third case, according to state records, involved a man named Nay Thar from Thailand, who was convicted of drug possession in 2017, drunken driving and fleeing police in 2018 and sneaking contraband into prison in 2020.

State records indicate he was released this month but his deportation request was canceled.

Biden put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of addressing the migration crisis, but quickly her office rebranded her role to looking into 'root causes' in Northern Triangle nations that lead to mass migration to the U.S.

Many have criticized Harris for not doing enough to quell the prevailing crisis facing America's southern border.
A soldier who battled ISIS with Kurdish militia is among expats on the Ukrainian frontline waiting for war.

Aiden Aslin, 28, is a former carer who previously fought against Isis in Syria.

He said being on the frontline in Ukraine was 'mentally exhausting'.

Aiden Aslin, 28, (pictured) is a former carer who previously fought against Isis in Syria. Now he is prepared to fight against a Russian invasion of Ukraine

Shaun Pinner, 48, (pictured) is one of at least ten UK nationals who have travelled to the country's wartorn eastern region, known as the Donbas, to take on pro-Moscow separatists

'The threat of danger is constant and something as simple as going to the toilet could end up with you getting injured because drones can drop grenades,' he told Al Jazeera.

Mr Aslin previously spent ten months in Iraq fighting Islamic State.

On his return home in 2016 he was arrested.

He was held for 30 hours after officers boarded his plane at Heathrow, where members of his family were eagerly awaiting his arrival.

Mr Pinner, who previously served in the Royal Anglian Regiment, said he fought with the Ukrainian army as a 'contract soldier

He was immediately taken to Nottinghamshire Police headquarters for questioning over a suspected terrorism offence.

Now, in Ukraine, he is not the only Britain ready to fight off a Russian invasion.

The former carer has been joined by ex-soldier Shaun Pinner, 48, from Bedfordshire.

Mr Pinner is married to a Ukrainian woman and has been in Donbas for the past four years.

He previously served in the Royal Anglian Regiment and said he fought with the Ukrainian army as a 'contract soldier'.

Speaking from a trench ten miles outside Mariupol, he said: 'I am here defending my family and adopted city. Russia started this war  it's funded by Russia and driven by Russia. But we will fight them, make no mistake about that.'

Mr Pinner said fighting in the trenches was 'like Hell', with snipers 'less than 600m away'.

Both Mr Aslin (left) and Mr Pinner (right) are prepared to fight off a Russian invasion in Ukraine as they wait on the frontline

Aiden Aslin, 28, was held for 30 hours by Nottinghamshire Police on his return to the UK from Iraq in 2016

Mr Pinner said there has been tension in Ukraine' for years'.

'It's only new to Europe, who have finally woken up to what's happening here,' he told Al Jazeera.

Mr Pinner is one of the oldest in his unit, which has three Brits and one Croatian as well as Ukrainians.

The team is known as the Marines First Battalion. 'I've always got something to prove,' Mr Pinner added.

A photograph shows tanks of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces parked in their base near Klugino-Bashkirivka village, in the Kharkiv region on January 31

Putin is now believed to have up to 130,000 troops on Ukraine's borders (military drills pictured in Ivanovo region)

A Ukrainian serviceman adjusts the strap of his weapon in a trench at a frontline position in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Monday, Jan. 31

Pictured: An instructor trains members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the Armed Forces, in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine

He said: 'Separatists are now using drones to drop bombs and mortars  along with automatic grenade launchers and RPG rockets. Snipers are always present and there's small arms fire almost daily.

'Ukrainian forces respond if we deem our lives to be threatened whereas separatists seem to shoot whenever they fancy.

'Sometimes it's very scary no matter how used to it you are. Sometimes you hear it [explosions] start further down the contact line, then it ripples through your position.

'That's why you get time to dive into cover and sometimes you may get a warning beforehand. Snipers are less than 600m away.'

Mr Pinner added: 'This is my ninth war tour. Death has been a part of my life for so long. You can't go into each day thinking you will be killed or injured.

'I fear for my life. The Russians will treat us differently if we are captured because we are British. This is always on my mind  that I will be captured.

'I'm not just another war junkie. I have excelled better than most Ukrainians. I am the first Westerner to complete all aspects of parachute training as a Ukrainian soldier.'

More than 14,000 people have been killed over the past eight years of conflict since Kremlin-backed forces seized large areas of eastern Ukraine alongside the border with Russia.

They include the Donbas region which is currently run by Vladimir Putin stooges in their own mini-fiefdoms from the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Meanwhile, with more than 100,000 Russian troops camped on Ukraine's northern, eastern and southern borders, the US has sent 90 tons of 'lethal aid' to the country.

The military aid package, worth 147 million, included ammunition for 'front-line defenders'. It arrived a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned of a tough US response if Russia invaded.

This weekend, Ukraine's intelligence service accused Russia of sending weapons and fuel to pro-Russian militia on the frontline in Donbas.

The Russians sent 7,000 tons of fuel, several tanks and self-propelled artillery units to the frontline regions, it said.

It came as Boris Johnson arrived in Ukraine today as pro-Kremlin media ruthlessly mocked his Partygate woes and marriage - and Vladimir Putin snubbed his phone calls.

Speaking during a joint press conference in Kiev alongside the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Johnson said the world must face up to the 'grim reality' of more than 100,000 Russian troops massed at the border

Boris Johnson today warned Vladimir Putin he will be hit with crippling economic sanctions 'the moment the first Russian toe cap crosses' into Ukraine as the PM cautioned the Kremlin against a potential invasion

Still reeling from news that police are investigating four allegedly lockdown-busting bashes he attended, the PM arrived in Kiev where he was set to meet president Volodymyr Zelensky and hold a press conference against the backdrop of Moscow's menacing military mobilisation.

Posing with Mr Zelensky before their talks, Mr Johnson said: 'I think Kiev is looking good, it's looking fantastic, it's looking strong. Seriously.'

However, his diplomatic mission got off to a rocky start after President Putin refused to reschedule their phone conversation - which had to be delayed last night while Mr Johnson fielded furious questions from MPs.

TV channels in Russia have been revelling in his discomfort, with one branding him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie.

They declared that the Partygate report would have ended up in the 'Victorian sewers' of London if it were up to the PM.

Deputy PM Dominic Raab tried to shrug off the delay to the call with Mr Putin this morning, saying there are 'always scheduling issues between any two heads of government' and claiming Mr Johnson has been 'leading the transatlantic response' to the crisis.
Marks & Spencer has ended the supermarket cake wars after calling a truce with Aldi.

The British retailer had accused the German discounter of copying the design of its famous Colin the Caterpillar for their rival Cuthbert.

Lawyers had been brought in on the intellectual property claim, which even made it to the High Court last year.

But now both supermarkets confirmed an agreement has been struck to resolve the conflict.

Details of the 'confidential' deal have not been revealed, but it is understood that Cuthbert will not appear again in quite the same form.

Marks & Spencer has settled an intellectual property claim with the German discounter Aldi after it accused them of copying the design of its famous Colin the Caterpillar cake (pictured) for their rival Cuthbert

It came after M&S first launched the lawsuit against Aldi in April last year in a bid to force its rival to take its Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake off the shelves and agree to not sell anything resembling it in the future.

In May, Aldi started selling its caterpillar cake again after making changes to its chocolate face design.

On Thursday, Deputy Master Timothy John Bowles signed off an agreement in a consent order filed at the High Court.

The order, which was first reported by The Telegraph, allowed the legal claim to be withdrawn and said the retailers had reached a 'confidential agreement' in November.

M&S has three trademarks relating to Colin, which the retailer believes means Colin has acquired and retains an enhanced distinctive character and reputation.

Details of the 'confidential' deal have not been revealed, but it is understood that Cuthbert (pictured) will not appear again in quite the same form

Nevertheless, the M&S original has spawned a range of imitators since its launch, such as Sainsbury's Wiggles, Tesco's Curly, Morris by Morrisons, the Co-op's Charlie, Cecil by Waitrose and Asda's Clyde.

An M&S spokesman said: 'The objective of the claim was to protect the IP (intellectual property) in our Colin the Caterpillar cake and we are very pleased with the outcome.'

Meanwhile, Aldi said that Cuthbert was now 'free' following the dispute.

An Aldi spokesperson said: 'Cuthbert is free and looking forward to seeing all his fans again very soon.'

M&S and Aldi are also involved in a separate copyright dispute over allegations the German rival copied an M&S 'light-up' gin liqueur product.

The M&S spokesman added: 'Like many other UK businesses, large and small, we know the true value and cost of innovation and the enormous time, passion, creativity, energy and attention to detail, that goes into designing, developing and bringing a product to market and building its brand over many years.

'So it is understandable that we want to defend our intellectual property and protect our suppliers  many of them small businesses that have worked with us for decades.'
Transport for London have part suspended the District and Piccadilly lines that run through the station

A London Underground station has been forced to close after a huge fire broke out at a garage next door.

Flames and smoke can be seen billowing out of a building above the platforms at Acton Town tube station in west London this evening.

Around ten fire engines and 70 firefighters have rushed to the blaze on Bollo Lane, next to the station.

Transport for London have also been forced to part suspend the District and Piccadilly lines that run through Acton Town.

A huge fire has broken out in a garage above Acton Town station in west London. Transport for London have been forced to close the station and part suspend two underground lines

Ten fire engines and about 70 firefighters have rushed to the blaze

Dramatic pictures on social media show flames and smoke billowing from the scene and over the wall to the station platforms.

One witness described the scene as 'apocalyptic'. The station is surrounded by emergency service vehicles.

In a service update, TfL said there was no service between Turnham Green and Ealing Broadway due to the incident at Acton Town station.

There is also no service between Hammersmith, Heathrow airport and Uxbridge, with severe delays affecting the rest of the line.

The road remains closed at the junction with Gunnersbury Lane, with drivers urged to avoid the area.

The road remains closed at the junction with Gunnersbury Lane, with drivers urged to avoid the area

A spokesperson for the London Fire Brigade said the force was called shortly after 5pm to reports of a fire. The cause is not currently known

Dramatic pictures on social media show flames and smoke billowing from the scene and over the wall to the station platforms

A spokesperson for the London Fire Brigade said: 'Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters have been called to a fire at a car garage on Bollo Lane in Acton.

'Firefighters are tackling a fire at a single-storey car garage. The Brigade's Control Office has taken 15 calls about the fire.

'The Brigade was called at 1710. Fire crews from Acton, Chiswick, Ealing, Park Royal and other neighbouring fire stations are at the scene.

The cause of the fire is not known at this stage but passengers are being warned that the fire will cause disruption.

This is a breaking news story...
When President Joe Biden met with U.S. governors at the White House on Monday, he was the only one given a glass of water - lest anyone else remove their mask to take a drink.

The president was seated more than 10 feet from everyone, including Vice President Kamala Harris and members of his Cabinet.

A White House staffer who was wearing a surgical mask when Biden entered the room was quickly handed an N95 version.

These are just some of the extraordinary efforts on the part of the White House to keep the president from getting COVID-19, even though he's gotten both of his regular vaccinations and his booster.

It's no surprise that unusual steps are taken to protect any president.

But the strict precautions could also threaten to undercut the Biden administration's own efforts to tell Americans - especially those who are vaccinated and boosted - that they can get on with something closer to their normal lives in the face of the omicron wave.

When President Joe Biden met with U.S. governors at the White House on Monday, he was the only one given a glass of water - lest anyone else remove their mask to take a drink

Masked governors including (from left) New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Michican Gov. Gretchen Whitmer listen as President Joe Biden speaks Monday

And it's emblematic of the messaging challenges surrounding the administration's approach to COVID-19 as the virus becomes endemic, familiar and somewhat controlled but still menacing, with hard-to-follow guidelines often unevenly implemented.

For months, Biden aides have fretted that the people who are most protected against COVID-19 remain the most cautious, a dynamic they view as a drag on the nation's economic and psychological recovery.

When the highly transmissible omicron variant hit, Biden said it was a 'cause for concern, not cause for panic.'

In recent weeks, his aides and science advisers have highlighted study after study showing the strong protection offered by the COVID vaccines against the variant and reassuring vaccinated people they can go about their daily lives.

At a Jan. 19 press conference, Biden declared: 'We have the tools - vaccines, boosters, masks, tests, pills - to save lives and keep businesses and schools open' and rejected the notion that still-widespread restrictions reflect a 'new normal.'

During his presidential campaign, Biden held socially distanced events, including having reporters sit in circles to ensure they were six feet away from one another

'It will get better,' he promised.

Since even before Biden was elected, his aides have gone all-out to protect the now-79-year-old president from potential infection.

He spent much of the 2020 campaign season holding remote events from a studio in the basement of his home, venturing out for travel in a bubble of frequently tested aides subject to an array of restrictions.

That caution continued well after he was fully vaccinated and living at the White House.

The president has held up his administration's fidelity to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines as a virtue, after they were regularly flouted by former President Donald Trump, who became seriously ill after contracting the virus.

As the nation's virus response and vaccination campaign has become increasingly politicized, White House officials have expressed both political and policy concerns over a possible Biden infection.

Though the vaccines are highly effective, a breakthrough case could erode public confidence in the shots and be used as a political cudgel against a president who was elected to bring an end to the pandemic.

Biden himself has at times taken a more relaxed approach to restrictions.

When the CDC last May surprised the White House by easing its guidelines on indoor mask-wearing by fully vaccinated individuals, Biden sought to publicly model the policy for the rest of the nation.

He was meeting with vaccinated Republican lawmakers when the change was announced and led the group in removing their masks.

But that CDC guidance proved to be premature and was reversed over the summer, because vaccinated people could still transmit the virus, potentially endangering the tens of millions of Americans who are still unvaccinated.

When the Delta strain surged last fall, the White House strengthened its testing protocols for everyone close to Biden - restrictions that had been lessened once aides were fully vaccinated and case counts began to fall nationally.

In-person meetings were once again curtailed. Aides began increasing the distance between Biden and even vaccinated-and-tested individuals as a precaution, reminiscent of his earliest days in office.

In early January, as the nation's capital led the country in per capita COVID-19 cases, White House press secretary Jen Psaki highlighted the 'very strict precautions' taken to keep Biden and Harris safe, including mandatory mask-wearing and daily testing for those coming in contact with them.

She also said the White House had taken to limiting gatherings 'to under 30 people.' But there were nearly 40 participants named by the administration - as well as two dozen members of the press - at Biden's Monday meeting with the governors.

Psaki said the administration takes extra precautions any time the president removes his mask to speak to a group.

She noted that the nation continues to set records in reported cases and hospital admissions.

'The presidents view is that right now we still need to keep our heads down and stay at it to fight what is still surging in parts of the country,' she said. 'But we do have the tools to get to a point where it does not disrupt our daily lives.'

First lady Jill Biden (right) and Second gentleman Doug Emhoff (left) wear masks during their appearance Monday at the annual NGA Spouses Breakfast at the Kennedy Center

Biden, aides say, has relished opportunities outside the White House when he can engage in the sort of political glad-handing that has been suppressed by the pandemic.

And in public, he's chafed at some of the precautions, saying that the first thing he aims to do differently in his second year in the White House is 'I'm going to get out of this place more often.'

He's hardly alone in his impatience.

On Monday, seated across a large gap from Biden in the East Room, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the chair of the governors' association, appealed for the government to more clearly define a pathway out of the pandemic.

'We need the CDC to help us to have the right standards to end this pandemic and move to more endemic status,' he said. 'We want to go from today to more normal.'

The night before, the president and first lady Jill Biden did attend the black-tie National Governors Association dinner at Mount Vernon.

Biden spoke, but he didn't stay for dinner.
Former President George W. Bush is jumping into 2022's heated Republican primary races, documents revealed on Monday, opening his pocketbook to two GOP lawmakers caught in his Republican successor Donald Trump's crosshairs.

Campaign finance disclosures show Bush donated to the re-election campaigns of Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of his former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Both establishment Republican legislators are facing primary challenges from candidates endorsed by Trump.

They're two of the highest-profile conservatives targeted by the former president for supporting his impeachment over the Capitol riot.

Filings show Bush donated a total of $5,800 to Cheney last October, the maximum contribution for an individual donor. They were split into two $2,900 payments, one toward Wyoming's general House race and one toward her primary.

In December he gave $2,900 to Murkowski's primary effort.

Both Alaska and Wyoming's primary races take place on August 16.

Bush has donated to Republican candidates in the past -- including Cheney in 2016 -- but it's his first time directing dollars to the Alaska senator.

George W. Bush's lone campaign donations in 2021 appear to be a clear rebuke of Donald Trump-backed candidates, after he chose to open his wallet to two of the most vocal Trump critics in Congress

His brother, former Florida governor and 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush, also donated to Cheney's re-election effort in 2021. The younger Bush sibling gave Cheney a total of $1,000 in November.

Despite having donated to Trump-backed candidates in the past, including Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson in 2019 and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley in 2018, Bush appears to have only focused his money on the two anti-Trump lawmakers' races this past year.

They could be seen as a financial rebuke of Trump from a Republican commander-in-chief who previously condemned 'violent extremists' and compared them to foreign terrorists in a thinly-veiled attack on Trump's supporters.

Cheney, one of 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Trump last year, has been a favorite punching bag for the bombastic former president particularly after joining the Democrat-led House select committee investigating the Capitol riot.

Conservative lawyer Harriet Hageman won Trump's endorsement to be Wyoming's lone House representative in September.

She had once been a close ally of Cheney's and an adviser to her short-lived past Senate campaign.

Trump called Cheney a 'disloyal Republican' and a 'warmonger' in his statement endorsing Hageman.

Liz Cheney is facing a primary challenge from her former ally Harrier Hageman (right), who said on Monday that 'Wyoming deserves to be represented by someone who cares about Wyoming, not someone who is consumed by her own personal war with President Trump.'

The GOP hopeful's campaign released its own new statement announcing Hageman has raised more than $1 million since announcing her challenge to Cheney.

'Wyoming deserves to be represented by someone who cares about Wyoming, not someone who is consumed by her own personal war with President Trump,' she said in the accompanying statement on her website.

The impressive sum is still dwarfed by Cheney's war chest, which raised more than $7 million last year and left her with roughly $4.7 million on-hand going into 2022.

However, the Wyoming Republican is still likely to face a tough race after her own state party voted to un-recognize her over her with with the Capitol riot committee.

Her harsh criticism of Trump also cost Cheney her spot within House GOP leadership as Republican Conference Chair, which her colleagues voted to take from her and give to pro-Trump Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York.

Meanwhile Trump has denounced Murkowski as 'bad for Alaska' and targeted her Senate seat by backing former state Commissioner of Administration Kelly Tshibaka.

Lisa Murkowski, targeted by Trump after voting to convict him in his Capitol riot impeachment trial, is being challenged by former state Commissioner of Administration Kelly Tshibaka (right)

Tshikaba is set to hold a fundraiser at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club on February 10.

She's among the few Senate hopefuls who supports the ex-president's calls for Mitch McConnell to be booted from his powerful position as Senate GOP leader.

Murkowski's campaign is walking into the election year with roughly $4.2 million cash on-hand.

Tshikaba, by comparison, ended 2021 with $634,000 left to spend after raising slightly more than $600,000 in the last quarter.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Murkowski and Cheney's offices for comment.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday sketched out more of the qualities he is looking for in a Supreme Court nominee  saying he wants someone with 'character,' while declaring his own belief that the Constitution is an 'evolving' document.

Biden made the comments as he sat down in the Oval Office with Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard Durbin of Illinois and top committee Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa  who was key backer for former President Donald Trump.

Biden served with both men when he served on and chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, as he reminded them in comments about their time together  following Republican pushback against his vow to nominate a black woman to the bench.

'I'm looking for a candidate of character with the qualities of a judge in terms of being courteous to folks before them and treating people with respect, as well as a judicial philosophy that is more one that suggests that there are unenumerated rights in the Constitution,' Biden said.

President Joe Biden said he wants to nominate a justice with 'character.' He called the Constitution an 'evolving' document

The landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision rests on a right to privacy that is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, but has become a key marker for liberals who fear the 6-3 conservative court is on the verge of rolling back abortion rights.

Biden only alluded to the subject  although he mentioned the 9th Amendment which states that specifically enumerated rights 'shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.' It has been used to justify both abortion and voting rights.

'And all the amendments mean something  including the 9th Amendment,' Biden underlined.

His comment about an 'evolving' Constitution came before Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office confirmed the two men had spoken, and staked out an opposing philosophy. 'The Leader believes the cornerstone of a nominees judicial philosophy should be a commitment to originalism and textualism,' his office said in a brief statement. 'He emphasized the importance of a nominee who believes in judicial independence and will resist all efforts by politicians to bully the Court or to change the structure of the judicial system'  in a line aimed at Democrats calling to change the composition of the 6-3 conservative court.

Biden also spoke about the role of the Senate, where Democrats can push through his selection but where Republicans have some opportunities to obstruct.

'And I intend to take this decision and get it to my colleagues by the end of the month,' he said, sticking to an earlier timeframe he has announced to nominate a replacement for retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.

'That's my hope. And I'm looking forward to your advice and how to proceed and how the hearings will be conducted and the like,' he said  amid calls by leading Democrats to move ahead at a pace as rapid as the ones Republicans used to install Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the bench.

Biden met with Sens. Richard Durbn and Charles Grassley, who will lead a Senate confirmation hearing for his nominee. He said he wants a nominee with a judicial philosophy that is more one that suggests that there are unenumerated rights in the Constitution,' a possible reference to Roe v. Wade

Vice President Kamala Harris was present during the meeting

Liberals fear a 6-3 court where Justice Amy Coney Barrett succeeded Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could end Roe v. Wade

Biden said he wants someone who is 'courteous' to those before them, indicating he wants a sitting judge

Biden spoke with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday, McConnell's office confirmed

The landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision rests on a right to privacy that is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution

Biden said he wanted 'advice' from senators, not just consent. He met with Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Charles Grassley (R-IA)

'The Constitution says advise and consent  advice and consent. And I'm serious when I say I want the advice of the Senate as well as consent,' he said  in language presidents often use to soothe senators who get to vote on the nomination.

Biden also called the Constitution an 'evolving' document, despite the growing strength of strict constructionists on the court.

'And you know, it's there's always a renewed national debate every time we nominate  any president nominates justice, because the Constitution is always evolving slightly in terms of additional rights,' he said.

Biden did not specifically mention the other criteria he has spelled out  that he will nominate a black woman for the post. His statement, which Biden also made on the campaign trail, has drawn backlash from some Republicans, including Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who called the commitment 'offensive' and 'actually an insult to black women.'

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki hit back when asked about that comment Tuesday.

She pointed to Trump's comments about naming a woman to receive Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg after she died weeks before the November elections.

'It will be a woman,' Trump said at a September 2020 campaign rally.

Said Psaki: 'Not only were there no complaints about choosing a nominee from a specific demographic, from the same corners, but there was widespread praise of now Justice Barrett on those grounds.'

She said Cruz 'praised her on these grounds' at her confirmation hearing in the Senate, and quoted him calling her 'an amazing role model for little girls.'

Psaki did not confirm a New York Times report that former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) would serve as 'sherpa' to help guide the nominee.
The sole survivor of a capsized boat found near Floridas coast says at least 15 other migrants tried to cling to the vessel after it overturned, but ultimately couldnt hold on.

Juan Esteban Montoya Caicedo, of Colombia, told a Spanish-language news conference in Fort Pierce that there were also Dominicans, Haitians, Bahamians and Jamaicans among the group of 40 that set out for Florida from Bimini in the Bahamas on Jan. 22. His sister was part of the group but died.

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Authorities say the boat capsized shortly after departing. Montoya Caicedo said a lot of water got in the boat, causing it to overturn.

Juan Esteban Montoya Caicedo, of Colombia, told a Spanish-language news conference in Fort Pierce that there were also Dominicans, Haitians, Bahamians and Jamaicans among the group of 40 that set out for Florida from Bimini in the Bahamas on Jan. 22. (U.S. Coast Guard/Courtesy)

Montoya Caicedo spent two days holding onto the 25-foot boat before he was rescued last Tuesday. He said much of the time he was in the water holding onto the motor, but the night before his rescue he had climbed up onto the overturned hull, where his image was captured by someone in a merchant vessel the day he was found.

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He said he searched for his sister after the capsizing, to no avail.

[ RELATED: U.S. Coast Guard suspends search for dozens of people still missing after boat capsizes; five bodies recovered ]

The truth is that losing her hurts me so, so, so, so much, he said. I kept looking for her and looking for her and it was impossible to find her.

Montoya Caicedo said he decided to try his luck at sea by looking on the Internet and finding groups that said it was easier to migrate that way than by land. A majority of migrants typically travel through Central America and Mexico to get to the U.S. border.
The New York Times has sued the State Department for allegedly dragging its feet in handing over emails from Romanian embassy officials connected to Hunter Biden and his famed former business associate Tony Bobulinski.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Manhattan federal court, seeks emails dating 2015 to 2019. The Times alleges that the State Department is failing to address its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in a timely manner. When the Times asked when the State Dept. would get around to the request, the paper was told to expect an answer on April 15, 2023, according to Politico.

The Times appears to be looking into whether embassy personnel did any special favors on behalf of business officials, including the president's son and Bobulinski. Joe Biden was serving as vice president for two of the years the emails cover, 2015-2016.

Meanwhile, mainstream media outlets initially scoffed at a New York Post report about a laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden that indicated he had introduced Ukrainian energy company executives to his father while he was vice president.

They were silent when DailyMail.com obtained information from the laptop revealing that Hunter Biden used the 'N-word' repeatedly in text messages and may have accidentally overpaid a prostitute $25,000 from an account linked to his dad.

Twitter blocked users from sharing the New York Post report at the time it was first reported, as the social media platform had written it off as misinformation

Hunter Biden was hired by a Romanian real estate tycoon later convicted of bribery in 2016.

Gabriel Popoviciu hired Hunter earlier that year as part of an influence campaign to persuade anti-corruption prosecutors to cut a deal or drop the case, and even represented him in meetings with top U.S. officials - emails from Hunter's laptop show.

The request seeks records looking into '(1) the possible improper use of federal government resources to assist and advance private business interests with connections to United States government officials and (2) the possible evasion of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by those private business interests, and (3) the non-enforcement of FARA by the federal government in relation to those private business interests.'

The New York Times has sued the State Department for allegedly dragging its feet in handing over emails from Romanian embassy officials connected to Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden was hired by a Romanian tycoon later convicted of bribery - and represented him in meetings with top U.S. officials  emails from Hunter's laptop show

Emails on Hunter's abandoned laptop, obtained by DailyMail.com in 2021, reveal how Joe Biden's son and his colleagues leveraged their US government connections and plotted a propaganda campaign for the grafting Romanian tycoon.

Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), anyone advocating for foreign entities to US government officials, or acting as a publicist for a foreign entity in the US, must add themselves to a Department of Justice public register.

However, an exception applies for attorneys representing a client in a foreign court case, who are not required to register under FARA.

Emails show Hunter's colleagues, partners in law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, Christopher Boies and Michael Gottlieb, seeking to set up meetings with the US Ambassador to Romania, after discussing among themselves whether he would intervene in Popoviciu's case.

Hunter brought in political heavyweight and family friend Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI, to use his US law enforcement contacts for Popoviciu's advantage, and was offered a referral fee as a result.

Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI and close family friend of the Bidens

Hunter and his colleagues also discussed a media campaign, including to major U.S. publication the Wall Street Journal, to support their client who was later found guilty of bribery.

None of them were required to register for this work under FARA, due to various exemptions including those for lawyers of foreign defendants.

The FOIA also seeks information on Rudy Giuliani, who was dispatched by former President Trump to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden's business relationships with Ukraine.

Giuliani tipped off the New York Post about the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop.

In 2020, Senate Republicans investigated Hunter Biden's $50,000-a-month seat on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, then mired in corruption, while his father helped shape policy toward Kiev.

The matter was at the center of former President Trump's first impeachment - Trump had pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate Hunter's business dealings. Giving the appearance of a conflict of interest, Hunter's board seat alarmed some State Department officials.

The elder Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid to Ukraine to force the country to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma at the time. But the then-vice president's office said the U.S. wanted Shokin gone because he was not investigating corruption among the country's politicians.

But while the investigation found no evidence that Biden as vice president improperly manipulated policy in favor of his son.

The Republicans' investigation also found that Hunter had received massive sums of money - some in the seven-figure range - from foreigners in China, Russia and elsewhere while his father was in office.

Politico reports that the FOIA request threatens to revive an old feud between the Biden White House and the Times' money and influence reporter Ken Vogel, who has spearheaded coverage of the president's son.

Then-deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield wrote to the Times' executive editor Dean Bacquet and accused Vogel of 'egregious journalistic malpractice.'

Then-rapid response director Andrew Bates has also sparred with Vogel on Twitter.

'SCOOP from Philadelphia: KEN VOGEL (@kenvogel) is a COWARD,' Bates tweeted in Feb. 2020.

Bates claimed that Vogel's report on Hunter Biden's Ukraine dealings in May 2019 'for the first time amplified this misinformation campaign into the mainstream.'

Emails found on the laptop pointed to an effort by Hunter to set up a meeting in 2015 between Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser at a Ukrainian energy firm. The FBI had since seized the laptop from the Delaware computer repair shop owner, who says Hunter dropped it off to him in 2019 and never came to retrieve it.

In an article on reporting on the Federal Election Commission's decision that Twitter had not violated election law in restricting sharing of the Post piece, the Times initially called the Post report 'unsubstantiated.' Later in the day, the September 2021 report was quietly updated to remove the word 'unsubstantiated.'

The Biden campaign at the time denied the meeting between the then-candidate and Ukrainian officials ever took place, saying it was not on his official calendar.

Meanwhile, mainstream left-leaning media outlets were silent when Dailymail.com revealed text messages, exchanged in late 2018 and 2019, recovered from Hunter's laptop showing him repeatedly using the n-word in conversations with his white lawyer George Messires.

The salacious and embarrassing texts were revealed in June 2021.

The president's son joked in a January 2019 text to corporate attorney George Mesires about a 'big penis', and said to the lawyer: 'I only love you because you're black' and 'true dat n***a'.

In another text a month earlier he wrote to the Chicago lawyer saying: 'how much money do I owe you. Becaause (sic) n***a you better not be charging me Hennessy rates.'

Mesires replied: 'That made me snarf my coffee.'

Hunter added: 'That's what im saying ni', cutting off the racial slur mid-word, then texted a picture to Mesires.

The picture was not downloaded on Hunter's laptop, from which the text exchange was recovered by DailyMail.com.

But Mesires replied: 'Why are you so tan?'

'I'm sorry for sexting you accidentally that was meant for another friend named Georgia,' Hunter replied.

Liberal-leaning media outlets were again silent when texts obtained by DailyMail.com and the New York Post revealed that Hunter had allegedly overpaid an escort by $25,000 during a drug-filled bender at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, from which texts show he was later banned for drug use after the hotel found a whole in the wall of a room where he had stayed. Secret Service agents showed up at his door to tell him the card he'd used was linked to his father, according to the texts.

The United States' most popular left-leaning publications and news networks  including The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC  made no mention of the story in the days after it was broken by the Post, and confirmed by DailyMail.com.

A December 2018 text message exchange obtained by DailyMail.com show Hunter asked Mesires: 'How much money do I owe you. Becaause (sic) n***a you better not be charging me Hennessy rates'
Danny and Leila Abdallah have paid tribute to Scott Morrison and his 'amazing' wife on the anniversary of the crash that tragically killed three of their children.

Tuesday marked two years since the couple lost their daughters Sienna, 8, and Angelina, 12, as well as their son Antony, 13, in Oatlands in western Sydney.

The siblings were struck down by drug-affected driver Samuel William Davidson as they walked on along the footpath to get ice cream in Sydney's west.

The couple's niece Veronique Sakr, 11, was also killed in the crash that shocked Australia.

Ms Abdallah, who is expecting her seventh child in March, paid tribute to the Prime Minister and his wife Jenny at a memorial mass on Tuesday night.

Abdallah siblings Antony, 13, Angelina, 12, (left) and Sienna 8, (right) were killed in the Oatlands tragedy on February 1 2020. Their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, (front centre) also died

'Scott and his amazing wife Jenny Morrison, we love you from the bottom of our hearts,' she said, looking straight at the camera.

'Thank you for your leadership, humility, faith and love. We really appreciate what you do for us.'

'You haven't left us for the last two years. We love you and we thank you for it.'

'Australia is so blessed. We have the best leader in the world, a man and woman of faith.'

Ms Abdallah said she can't believe two years have already passed since the tragedy as she thanked everyone for their support.

'It honestly feels like yesterday,' she said.

Leila Abdallah (with husband Danny ) paid tribute to Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a memorial mass on Tuesday night

Ms Abdallah also paid tribute to the Prime Minister's 'amazing' wife Jenny Morrison (pictured right hugging the grieving mum at her children's funeral in February 2020)

Davidson was sentenced to a maximum term of 28 years jail last year and won't be eligible for parole until 2041.

In sentencing Judge James Bennett said Davidson's menacing, dangerous and aggressive driving over a significant period leading up to the tragic event showed all responsibility to the road safety of others was abandoned.

The tragedy was inevitable, but the magnitude of the tragedy extended to the unimaginable, Judge Bennett said.

Davidson plans to appeal the severity of his sentence at a hearing later this year.

Ms Abdallah's husband delivered a powerful plea to attendees at Tuesday night's memorial mass.

He urged others to forgive.

Leila Abdallah and her husband also spoke about forgiveness at the memorial mass. She's pictured at the Oatlands crash site where three of her six children lost their lives

'We as Maronites struggle to forgive. We start with our homes,' Mr Abdallah said.

'Look into your home. Forgive yourself and forgive others.'

'My kids didn't die in vain. Today, I want you remember that please, I forgive weak.

'We start with us and the world is yearning for this.'

'So let's get it right here and take it out to the world.'

His wife also spoke about the power of forgiveness, describing it as 'the greatest gift you can give to yourself and others.'

'Forgiveness to us comes from the Holy Spirit that moved our lives that day,' Ms Abdallah said.

'Please open your heart to forgiveness. You don't always have to say ' I forgive you' but you can forgive in your heart.'

'Forgiveness doesn't mean you forget. When you forgive, you still need to protect yourself from the hurt.'

Leila and Danny Abdallah (pictured with their six children before the tragedy) spoke at a memorial mass marking the two year anniversary

The Abdallahs have launched a week-long 'I 4give' campaign in honour of their three children and niece who died in the tragedy.

The couple will host a host a series of talks with different religious communities, indigenous populations and at prisons and schools spreading the word about the benefits of forgiveness.

'I learned to forgive the driver who took three of my children, I didn't want my three surviving children to grow up angry,' Ms Abdallah told The Daily Telegraph.
In the six months since I left The View, I haven't watched a single episode of the show.

My life has moved on.

Between this column and other projects and above all a toddler, who is the most demanding and adorable diva in my life.

The other day she insisted on having her bunny rabbit shoes and wouldn't take no for an answer; see I just don't have the time for my old friends on the show.

Nonetheless, when something goes viral from the show or ends up in the publications that I read I can't help but feel a twinge of disappointment.

It's not that I expect compelling or nuanced political discussions from daytime television, but it's sad to see the recent litany of embarrassing moments from a show I invested so much time and effort in trying to elevate to a more serious level.

The notorious disaster of the non-interview with Vice President Kamala Harris was the most prominent incident, until yesterday, when my old co-host Whoopi Goldberg engaged in a series of bizarre, incoherent, and even dangerous comments about the Holocaust.

I went back and forth in my mind as to whether this column was even worth writing, because as much as possible I have moved on.

The show doesn't define me like it has so many other people who have worked there over the years, and I have found liberation and satisfaction in my career working here at DailyMail.com.

It's not that I expect compelling or nuanced political discussions from daytime television, but it's sad to see the recent litany of embarrassing moments from a show I invested so much time and effort in trying to elevate to a more serious level.

The freedom to adjust my priorities in life after the pandemic came at the best time for me personally, and I don't want to dwell on the past.

Unfortunately, what Whoopi said yesterday was too serious to avoid addressing it.

Even during my time working at The View, I became very deeply engaged as an activist against the growing rise of antisemitism in America.

The American Jewish Committee released a report in October detailing the rise of antisemitism in America.

In the survey, one in four American Jews said they have been targets of antisemitism in the last 12 months.

Four in 10 American Jews have changed their behavior out of fear.

Four in 10 of all Americans have personally witnessed anti-Semitic incidents.

And 82% of American Jews say antisemitism has risen over the last five years.

There is more staggering data, but anyone who has been paying attention over the last few years has seen it.

In January 2019, I called out the founders of the Women's March live on ABC, after they were accused of intolerance and antisemitism by their own members.

They subsequently refused to condemn statements equating Jews to termites and claims that the Holocaust didn't happen.

That was three years ago.

I was flooded with thousands and thousands of comments on social media that I will not repeat  but it was a baptism by fire.

It was an experience that made clear the intensity of antisemitism that still permeates our society, and it was an eye-opening look at the degree to which some extremists are willing to engage in such abhorrent racism.

Since that moment I can best describe my experience in media, and yes at The View, as discovering just how un-seriously people take the rise in antisemitism.

There is a serious cultural downplaying in the media of these threats.

Even the FBI downplayed the recent hostage crisis in Colleyville, Texas, during which British national Malik Faisal Akram held Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and four congregants at gunpoint.

The Bureau was reluctant to say the shooter was motivated by antisemitism  despite the fact that he was specifically targeting a rabbi and a synagogue.

Antisemitism is truly the last socially-accepted form of bigotry.

The hatred of Jews is an ancient trope.

Like so many forms of hatred, it's as old as the existence of human tribes themselves.

The difference is that today, in an era when so many forms of insult or criticism are labeled bigotry, true or not, actual bigotry toward the Jewish people is not just tolerated but defended in ways I find abhorrent.

For many years, this has been an underlying aspect of leftist politics, particularly of the campus variety.

They use the excuse that this is really about Middle East foreign policy or Palestine or even the friendly relationships between Benjamin Netanyahu and conservative politicians here in America.

We all know that's just making excuses.

What we're talking about here is just racism, pure and simple.

The unequal standard here is obvious, too.

I was lectured to thousands of times on The View, there is a belief that 'cancel culture' is really 'accountability culture' among the woke left.

Which seems to be a belief that's quickly forgotten whenever it's Whoopi who has to be held to account.

I am not calling for Whoopi Goldberg to be fired, if only because I don't believe there is any universe where she could possibly do anything that could get her fired  she is the crown jewel of The View and a pop culture icon.

But I hope this can be used as a teachable moment to explain to millions of Americans why conflating the Holocaust as something that is specific and limited to 'white people' is insane, ahistorical and anti-Semitic.

For as much as the left is fond of using Nazi comparisons and imagery, the truth of the Holocaust, who it targeted and why, deserves to be known and understood by all.

Deny the Moon landing if you will, call the Earth flat, question who really shot JFK -- but framing the Holocaust as just a dispute among one 'race' isn't just wrong, it's dangerous.

I also think ABC and The View at large need to take a hard look at why some hosts -- and let me be completely candid here  why some liberal hosts are held to an entirely different standard than anyone else.

Whoopi has said a slew of insanely-controversial and hurtful things over the course of her tenure at The View.

Some of the more notorious ones include defending Roman Polanski for raping a 13-year-old (calling it 'not rape, rape') and defending Bill Cosby after over 50 accusers had come out publicly with their stories.

With age and status comes protection at The View.

This goes for the other liberal hosts as well.

Instead of half-assed apologies and bringing in experts in the antisemitism space, maybe dedicate an entire 'Hot Topics' segment to discussing why what was said was so deeply offensive and dangerous.

In the world of media, there are people who will never face the same ramifications and repercussions that others will.

There's a double, triple, and even quadruple standard if you are conservative.

If this isn't an enormous problem for ABC News today, it will grow to be a bigger one.

People have less and less tolerance for overpaid celebrities, with every access to education themselves, using their platforms to spew bigotry.

And from my experience working in television, the ugly things said casually backstage always have a way of coming out into the light when the camera is on.

All of that being said, there are those who will be given protection and coverage for their bad behavior from networks and executives no matter what.

Those people aren't Sharon Osbourne and Roseanne Barr.

The View was founded by one of the most famous Jewish American women in American history - Barbara Walters.

I don't believe a show of one myopic opinion was her intention.

American viewers deserve a better class of debate, especially on a topic of such importance to understanding the capacity of evil in the world.

And for those who hope and work against anti-Semitic forces in our country, we cannot afford to forget what was done, and why, and know this evil for what it is.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki laid into Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday, calling him out as a hypocrite for backing President Trump's promise to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court but dismissing President Biden's pledge to pick a black woman as 'offensive.'

On his podcast, 'Verdict with Ted Cruz,' the Texas senator said Biden's vow sent a message to other Americans that they were 'ineligible' because of gender and race.

Psaki was ready with a response when she was asked about it during her regular briefing.

'Just over a year ago, the previous president also promised to select a woman for the Supreme Court,' she said, looking at her notes.

'Not only were there no complaints about choosing a nominee from a specific demographic, from the same corners, but there was widespread praise of now Justice Barrett on those grounds with Republican lawmakers widely highlighting that they thought this was positive for women in America.'

'So take Senator Cruz himself, he had no objection to Donald Trump promising he'd nominated a woman in 2020. Repeat: No objection at all.'

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was ready for questions about Sen. Ted Cruz's comments on Biden's promise to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court and delivered a blistering response, suggesting the Texas Republican was a hypocrite

Psaki pointed out that Cruz did not object to the way President Trump in 2020 announced that he would nominate a woman to the seat vacated with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris earlier hosted Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley in the Oval Office to discuss the the vacancy

Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed in October 2020, hurried through by Republicans with one eye on the looming presidential election.

In fact, continued Psaki, Cruz had praised her.

'During her confirmation hearing, Senator Cruz said: 'I think you're an amazing role model for little girls. What advice would you give little girls?"'

And she said President Reagan did the same thing with a campaign pledge that he later honored, saying it 'symbolises the unique American opportunity.'

'The president's view is that after 230 years of the Supreme Court being in existence, the fact that not a single black woman has served on the Supreme Court is a failure in the process - not a failure or a lack of qualified black women to serve as Supreme Court justices,' she concluded.

Biden is weighing a list of potential candidates to replace retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced he was stepping down last week after nearly three decades on the nation's highest court.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris earlier hosted Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley in the Oval Office to discuss the the vacancy.

'The Constitution says "advise and consent, advice and consent,"' Biden said.

'And I'm serious when I say I want the advice of the Senate as well as the consent.'

Cruz offered his advice in outspoken style a day earlier.

Cruz said on the Monday episode of his podcast that Biden vowing to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court was 'insulting' because it suggested the eventual nominee was not the most qualified for the job and was instead picked for her demographic

Cruz also claimed there's a chance Biden could nominate Vice President Kamala Harris (right) to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer (left) just to get her out of the White House

'The fact that he's willing to make a promise at the outset that it must be a black woman  I gotta say, that's offensive,' he said.

'Black women are, what, six percent of the U.S. population? He's saying to 94% of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you  you are ineligible

'And he's also saying  it's actually an insult to black women.

'If he came and said, 'I'm going to put the best jurist on the court', and he looked at a number of people and he ended up nominating a black woman, he could credibly say, "OK I'm nominating the person who's most qualified."'

Cruz also claimed on his podcast episode that Biden could nominate Harris to the post.

But the White House has already shrugged off that idea, saying that Biden intends to run for reelection in 2024 with Harris on his ticket.

But Cruz says Biden could do it just to get rid of her in the White House.

'I think there is a chance they name Kamala to the court, in part because they can't stand her,' Cruz said.

'One of the virtues of naming her to the court is they get to get her out of the White House and out of  look, the Democratic party is very worried that she's the presumed successor to Joe Biden, because her political negatives are so strong. She's just not very good at this stuff,' Cruz added with a shrug.

'I mean, you've seen the weird video of her with kids,' he said. 'That's almost like a Stepford Wives robotic. It's bizarre.'

'My guess is if Kamala was nominated, it probably would be a 50-50 vote,' Cruz said. 'Maybe she'd pick up a Republican vote. I would not be on the fence. I would be a hell no on Kamala if she were nominated.'

Cruz's name was at one time floated for the Supreme Court before.

Several conservatives have express concern about Biden's promise, warning that he could be overlooking the best person for the job,

But supporters say it will help make the court a better representation of America.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard took aim at Harris on Twitter Monday morning while accusing the Biden administration of 'destroying' the country with identity politics by vowing a black woman will ascend to the Supreme Court

BIDEN'S SCOTUS CHOICES INCLUDE JUDGE WHO PROVOKED REPUBLICANS AND STACEY ABRAMS' SISTER With 83-year-old Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement, President Joe Biden now has the change to make history by nominating the first ever black, female Justice to the highest U.S. court. Here are the three contenders at the top of the president's list: D.C. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Biden already elevated Jackson last year from her previous post as a judge on the federal district court in Washington, D.C., where she remained from 2013-2021. Jackson now serves as a circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit  arguably the second most powerful federal court in the country. Jackson, 51, earned her law degree from Harvard and, fittingly, clerked for Breyer. She is also married to the brother-in-law of former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. She has two daughters with her husband Patrick Jackson, whom she married in 1996. During her time as a judge, Jackson has ruled on many high profile cases. She was part of the decision to order former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn to comply with the House of Representatives' subpoena as part of its impeachment inquiry into then-President Donald Trump.One line in the ruling impressed Democrats: 'The primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings.' Jackson also signed the recent opinion ordering Trump White House documents be disclosed to the January 6 select committee. California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger Kruger served under President Barack Obama as acting Principal Deputy Solicitor General from May 2010- June 2011 where she argued 12 cases in front of the Supreme Court. During her time at the Department of Justice, Kruger earned in both 2013 and 2014 the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, which is the agencys highest employee award. The 45-year-old judge clerked for late Justice John Paul Stevens who served on the Supreme Court from 1975 to 2010 and died in 2019. She was also the youngest person appointed to the California Supreme Court when then-Governor Jerry Brown nominated her in 2014, where she still sits as an associate judge. On this court, Kruger has authored a few notable opinions, including banning law enforcement from searching a woman's purse without a warrant. Kruger also upheld a California law requiring law enforcement to collect DNA samples and fingerprints from people arrested or convicted of felony offenses. South Carolina US District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs Childs, 55, reportedly has the backing of Biden-ally House Majority Whip James Clyburn to replace Breyer. The U.S. District Court of South Carolina judge was nominated last month by Biden to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, nut the nomination is still pending. With a South Carolina School of Law degree, Child doesn't have the Ivy League education that eight of the nine current justices hold  a breath of fresh air that advocates for her nomination tout as an advantage in making the Democratic party appear less elitist. Child spent a decade in private practice and as a state court trial judge in the South Carolina Circuit. Also in her tenure she was deputy director of the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and commissioner on the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission. Others under consideration: Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, serves on Georgia's district court and is the sister of the voting-rights advocate Stacey Abrams. District Judge Wilhelmina 'Mimi' Wright, Judge on Minnesota's federal district court. Circuit Judge Eunice Lee, U.S. Circuit Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Circuit Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, U.S. Circuit Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Sherrilyn Ifill, the attorney recently announced plans to step down from her role as President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Holly Aiyisha Thomas, judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. What about Kamala Harris? Rumors have emerged over the last year amid turmoil in the White House that President Joe Biden could dump Kamala Harris as his vice president by nominating her to the Supreme Court should a vacancy emerge. With news of Breyer's retirement this week, speculations that she could join the court have reemerged. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki did not rule out on Wednesday the possibility that Biden could consider Harris for the vacant Supreme Court position. She did, however, clarify that Biden intends to run for reelection in 2024 with Harris on the ticket as his No. 2. Harris was the district attorney for San Francisco from 2004-2011 and was attorney general of California from 2011-2017. From there she became a senator for the Golden State but didn't finish her first term before being inaugurated as the first female and black vice president in January 2021. Advertisement

Former congresswoman and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard unleashed on President Biden on Monday over his promise to only nominate a black woman.

The Hawaiian military veteran accused Biden of playing 'identity politics' with his pledge to seat the first black female justice -and said he did the same thing when picking Harris as his running mate.

'Biden chose Harris as his VP because of the color of her skin and sex -- not qualification. She's been a disaster. Now he promises to choose Supreme Court nominee on the same criteria,' Gabbard wrote on Twitter.

She added: 'Identity politics is destroying our country.'

Psaki at her Monday news briefing compared Biden's pledge to Ronald Reagan promising to and then appointing the first female justice.

'There was no such complaint from the voices on the right who are speaking out now,' Psaki said, adding: 'but there's no question in his mind that there is a wealth of qualified, talented black women to choose from.'

She said Biden would be meeting with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and ranking member Senator Chuck Grassley at the White House on Tuesday to get their advice on a potential pick.

Some of his top candidates reportedly include: DC Circuit Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who Biden elevated to her post last year; district Judge J. Michelle Childs, a federal official in South Carolina who has strong bipartisan support from GOP Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn, both of whom hail from her state; and Judge Leondra Kruger, an associate justice on California's Supreme Court who twice turned down the position of Solicitor General.

Breyer (seated far left) confirmed last week that he will vacate the court, opening the way for Biden to nominate another, more young, liberal justice. The president will only consider black women for the vacancy

Biden promised during his campaign to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court if he got the opportunity, pictured are some of the front runners

Late last week Republican Senator Roger Wicker heckled Biden's future nominee as an 'affirmative action' hire during an interview.

Trump administration UN Ambassador Nikki Haley posted a January 26 tweet stating 'Would be nice if Pres Biden chose a Supreme Court nominee who was best qualified without a race/gender litmus test.'

And on Sunday, GOP Senator Susan Collins told ABC's This Week that she'd be happy to see a black woman on the court but that Biden was 'politicizing' the judicial nomination process.

'I would welcome the appointment of a Black female to the court. I believe that diversity benefits the Supreme Court. But the way that the president has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best. It adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution like Congress when it is not supposed to be,' Collins said.

Meanwhile, a new poll shows that more than three quarters of Americans would prefer Biden pick the best person for the job rather than fulfilling a campaign promise.

An ABC News/Ipsos survey released Sunday shows 76 percent of respondents preferring Biden 'consider all possible nominees' compared to just 23 percent who said they want him to 'consider only nominees who are Black women, as he has pledged to do.'

Biden's promise even failed to gain much traction among Democrat voters, 54 percent of whom said they wanted the president to find the best person for the role regardless of race. The number is even smaller among nonwhite voters, at 28 percent.

But one unlikely ally the president has is Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who said even his party was making a 'real effort' to find more women and minorities for key spots.

'Put me in the camp of making sure the court and other institutions look like America. You know, we make a real effort as Republicans to recruit women and people of color to make the party look more like America. Affirmative action is picking somebody not as well qualified for past wrongs,' Graham said on CBS News this Sunday.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said President Joe Biden has never been ambushed by a cake as she responded to a question on the controversial parties at Number 10 Downing Street, including a birthday bash for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

'Has the president ever been ambushed by cake? Not that I'm aware of,' Psaki said at her daily press briefing.

A UK government official said Johnson was 'ambushed' with a birthday cake while working at Number 10 after it was revealed the PM attended a gathering, complete with a Union Jack cake and singing, that was organized by his wife Carrie in the Cabinet Room on June 19, 2020. That was the date of his 56th birthday.

The UK was under strict COVID lockdown rules at the time and the ensuing fallout of 'PartyGate' has endangered Johnson's prime ministership.

Psaki didn't comment on 'PartyGate' but did stress the U.S. and UK have an 'important partnership' and praised the British for their help with the situation in the Ukraine.

She also said she hasn't spoken with President Biden about Johnson's career-threatening scandal.

'I have not spoken with him specifically about the reports in the UK. But what I can tell you is that he is confident in the important partnership we have with the United Kingdom - the role they play as an important partner and making clear to Russia the unacceptable nature of the buildup of troops and their bellicose rhetoric as it relates to Ukraine. And that certainly has not changed despite cakes in anyone's faces,' Psaki said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden has never been ambushed by a cake as she responded to a question on the controversial parties at Number 10 Downing Street, including a birthday bash for Prime Minister Boris Johnson

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she has not spoken to President Joe Biden about the 'PartyGate' scandal in the UK that has threatened Prime Minister Boris Johnson's career

A UK government official said Prime Minister Boris Johnson was 'ambushed' with a birthday cake, noting PM was just in the room working when staff brought him the treat

Last week Northern Ireland Minister Conor Burns defended Johnson, saying the PM was 'ambushed' with a birthday bash as outrage grew among the British public over reports of at least 12 parties during lockdown, three of which were attended by Johnson.

Burns explained the PM was working in the room before people came in and presented him with the baked treat, adding: 'He, as far as I can see, he was in a sense, ambushed with a cake.'

An investigation by the British government found that Downing Street suffers from a culture of 'excessive' workplace drinking that led to social gatherings during the COVID pandemic lockdowns.

'There were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No. 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times,' wrote senior civil servant Sue Gray in her report. 'Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place. Other events should not have been allowed to develop as they did.'

The British public was outraged over reports Number 10 staff held gatherings - complete with alcohol and snacks - with colleagues during a period when the government was urging the public to avoid socializing, even with close friends and family.

Johnson's government was accused of a double standard and commentators on social media went wild.

In what was seen as an attempt to change the subject, Johnson was in the Ukraine on Tuesday to show his support to President Volodymyr Zelensky as thousands of Russian troops lined up on the border.

Before his trip, he sheepishly apologised to Members of Parliament during a brutal House of Commons session after Gray's report was released. Her report was scrubbed of its most potentially damaging findings at the request of London's Metropolitan Police, which launched their own investigation last week.

The PM appears to be surviving the scandal for now but has been scrambling to avoid a vote of no-confidence in his leadership by his Conservative party members. The vote would be called if 54 members submit confidential letters demanding it but that hasn't yet happened.

In what was seen as an attempt to change the subject, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in the Ukraine on Tuesday to show his support to President Volodymyr Zelensky

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, leaving Number 10 Downing Street last week, has found his prime ministership in question after the reports of staff parties during a COVID lockdown

But news outlets around the world ripped into the PM as did a slew of Tory MPs, including former Prime Minister Theresa May, who publicly decried Johnson's behaviour and accused him of running Number 10 like a 'medieval court.'

Some of Europe's largest newspapers questioned whether Johnson would be able to save himself after 'a lifetime of breaking the rules', while others skipped straight to listing his would-be successors and accused him of leveraging the crisis in Ukraine to deflect from domestic chaos.

Newspapers in Spain, France and Germany had a field day.

The Russian media were among the most critical of the PM, focusing on Johnson's postponement of a scheduled phonecall with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Johnson was set to speak with Putin to discuss the tension in Ukraine, but ultimately snubbed the Russian strongman as he scrambled to deal with the domestic catastrophe in the wake of Gray's preliminary report on the 'PartyGate' atmosphere at Number 10.

Russia's news channel NTV revelled in the Prime Minister's discomfort, branding him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie.

NTV's London correspondent went on to declare the Partygate report would have ended up in the 'Victorian sewers' of the capital if it were up to the PM, and said that 'even schoolchildren are laughing at him.'

However, Johnson will reveal if he has been hit with a fine for breaching COVID rules, Downing Street said.

There had been concerns that the public would never officially be told if the Prime Minister was issued with a fixed penalty notice for attending a Number 10 party, because the identity of people issued with a ticket is not usually disclosed by police.

But Downing Street acknowledged the 'significant public interest' in the case of the Prime Minister.

Officers are investigating 12 separate gatherings in No 10 and Whitehall during 2020 and 2021  including three that Johnson is known to have attended and one in the Prime Minister's Downing Street flat  to find out whether coronavirus lockdown laws were broken.

Downing Street had originally insisted it was a matter for the Metropolitan Police to decide whether to name those found to have broken the law.

Scotland Yard pointed to College of Policing guidance stating that the names of people dealt with by fixed penalty notices  the likely punishment for a breach of the coronavirus regulations  would not normally be disclosed.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has taken a swipe at the political journalist who ambushed him on live TV with text exchanges where former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian allegedly called him a 'horrible, horrible person'.

During a round of media appearances on Wednesday, Mr Morrison said Ten News political editor Peter Van Onselen - who asked him about the texts - 'is facing his own questions'.

'There is still someone out there trying to do you in,' Today host Allison Langdon asked the Australian leader. 'It doesn't get a greater betrayal than that, does it?'

'The journalist who raised it is facing his own questions,' Mr Morrison replied. 'There were no details or context behind [Van Onselen's question] and it was done for sensationalist purposes.'

Mr Morrison's comments were a barely veiled dig at Van Onselen being named in a lawsuit brought by his ex-Ten colleague Tegan George which claims The Project political guru wrote 'humiliating' and 'belittling' messages to her.

Court documents were filed in the Federal Court on Monday naming Ten as the respondent and alleging it had engaged in unlawful conduct breaching the Fair Work Act.

It comes as NSW Treasurer Matt Kean - a close political ally of Ms Berejiklian - was forced to deny that he leaked the messages to van Onselen. When asked if he was the source of the messages, he said: 'I don't believe so'.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has hit back at Peter van Onselen after the journalist confronted the Australian leader with text exchanges allegedly involving former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian which called him 'horrible'

'Was it you?' 2GB host Ben Fordham asked Mr Kean.

'I played no part in the ambush on the Prime Minister. It was not me,' he responded.

When asked again by Fordham if he was Peter Van Onselen's source, Kean responded saying: 'I don't believe so'.

The alleged texts were sent between Ms Berejiklian and a federal cabinet minister, Van Onselen told Listnr radio on Wednesday.

The journalist on Tuesday blindsided Mr Morrison with a series of text messages allegedly sent between Ms Berejiklian and an unnamed cabinet minister.

Ms Berejiklian allegedly described the PM as a 'horrible, horrible person' who is 'more concerned with politics than people' - and the minister allegedly replied saying he was a fraud and a 'complete psycho'.

Mr Morrison was left stunned by the allegations and blinked rapidly before meekly replying: 'Well I don't know who you're referring to, or the basis of what you've put to me. But I obviously don't agree with it and I don't think that is my record.'

Meanwhile, Mr Morrison was asked if the text exchange 'hurt' by Sunrise host Natalie Barr.

'No one cares if the prime minister's feelings get hurt. It doesn't matter. People say nasty things about you as Prime Minister all the time, it goes with the job.'

Ms Berejiklian allegedly described the PM as a 'horrible, horrible person' who is 'more concerned with politics than people'

The minister allegedly replied saying the prime minister was a fraud and a 'complete psycho'

Ten News journalist Peter van Onselen (pictured) confronted the PM with the series of incendiary text messages allegedly sent between former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and an unnamed cabinet minister

Ms Berejiklian has said she had no recollection of the text exchange taking place.

'Let me reiterate my very strong support for Prime Minister Morrison and all he is doing for our nation during these very challenging times,' she said.

'I also strongly believe he is the best person to lead our nation for years to come.'

After a heated discussion where the prime minister was confronted for not knowing the price of a loaf of bread, milk and a rapid antigen test, he took a crack at the Sunrise host.

'Enjoy your almond latte,' Morrison said to Kochie.

'The journalist who raised it are facing his own questions,' Mr Morrison said on Wednesday morning. 'There were no details or context behind [Van Onselen's question] and it was done for sensationalist purposes.'

Kochie responded saying: 'For the record, I'm rye bread, at $5 a loaf, Burgen. What about you - are you a sourdough or a multigrain?'

Morrison quipped back: 'I'm just normal white bread taste, that's me.'

Mr Morrison had fronted the press gallery on Tuesday hoping to reset his campaign and turn around recent polling which has placed him 12 points behind Labor, but instead found himself fielding an onslaught of pointed questioning.

Project host Waleed Aly said the barrage was the moment the prime minister realised could be in serious trouble in the upcoming federal election.

Waleed Aly (pictured with Carrie Bickmore) said the prime minister's Press Club address is a clear indication Mr Morrison in in trouble before the federal election

'I think what's significant about it, though, beyond that particular exchange, is just the tone of that Press Club address,' Aly said.

'It was extraordinary to see this kind of... coordinated is not the right word but almost this consensus across the press gallery that they were going to go for it.

'It doesn't happen unless a Prime Minister is in real trouble.

'I think maybe this was the day the press gallery called the election and said: "You are not going to win this, we think you're going".

'It doesn't mean they'll be right, by the way, they probably thought that in 2019.'
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The ridicule of Boris Johnson over the Partygate scandal has extended across the East and West, with U.S. President Joe Biden's spokeswoman laughing at the Prime Minister being 'ambushed by cake' at a birthday party in No10.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said Biden has 'never been ambushed by a cake' as she responded to a question on the lockdown-breaching parties at Downing Street.

TV channels in Russia have also been revelling in Mr Johnson's discomfort, with one branding him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie.

They declared that the Partygate report would have ended up in the 'Victorian sewers' of London if it were up to the PM.

Mr Johnson himself squirmed during a press conference in Ukraine when he was asked by the international media why the world should take his diplomacy seriously when he cancelled a planned call with Russian President Vladimir Putin because the PM was busy fielding furious questions from MPs.

Over in the U.S., a reporter asked Psaki whether the Partygate controversy surrounding Mr Johnson had impacted President Biden and the PM's ability to press Putin on Ukraine. He then asked: 'Has the president ever been ambushed by cake?'

The White House Press Secretary, who began to laugh at the question, said: 'Has the President ever been ambushed by a cake? Not that I'm aware of.'

Tory Minister Conor Burns had defended the PM by saying he had been 'ambushed' with a birthday cake while working at Number 10 after it was revealed Mr Johnson had attended a gathering, complete with a Union Jack cake and singing, that was organised by his wife Carrie in the Cabinet Room on June 19, 2020.

The UK was under strict Covid lockdown rules at the time and the ensuing fallout of Partygate has endangered Mr Johnson's premiership.

It comes as a slew of Tory MPs, including former Prime Minister Theresa May, publicly decried Johnson's behaviour last night, accusing him of running No10 like a 'medieval court' and issuing a stark warning about the possibility of a party coup.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said Biden has 'never been ambushed by a cake' as she responded to a question on the lockdown-breaching parties at Downing Street

Tory Minister Conor Burns had defended Boris Johnson by saying he had been 'ambushed' with a birthday cake while working at Number 10 after it was revealed Mr Johnson had attended a gathering, complete with a Union Jack cake and singing, that was organised by his wife Carrie in the Cabinet Room on June 19, 2020

TV channels in Russia have also been revelling in Mr Johnson's discomfort, with one branding him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie

Psaki didn't comment on PartyGate but did stress the U.S. and UK have an 'important partnership' and praised the British for their help with the situation in the Ukraine.

She also said she hasn't spoken with President Biden about Johnson's career-threatening scandal.

'I have not spoken with him specifically about the reports in the UK. But what I can tell you is that he is confident in the important partnership we have with the United Kingdom - the role they play as an important partner and making clear to Russia the unacceptable nature of the buildup of troops and their bellicose rhetoric as it relates to Ukraine. And that certainly has not changed despite cakes in anyone's faces,' Psaki said.

Today, Mr Johnson warned Putin that he will be hit with crippling economic sanctions 'the moment the first Russian toe cap crosses' into Ukraine as the PM cautioned the Kremlin against a potential invasion.

Speaking during a joint press conference in Kiev alongside the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Johnson said the world must face up to the 'grim reality' of more than 100,000 Russian troops massed at the border.

The premier told Mr Putin a military incursion into Ukraine would be a 'political disaster', a 'humanitarian disaster' and a 'military disaster'.

Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky said these are 'challenging times for Ukraine and for Europe' as he welcomed the UK's continued support for his nation's sovereignty.

The PM travelled to Ukraine this morning as he fled the pressure cooker of Westminster following the publication of Sue Gray's 'update' on the Partygate scandal.

Still reeling from news that police are investigating four allegedly lockdown-busting bashes he attended, Mr Johnson held talks with Mr Zelensky against the backdrop of Moscow's menacing military mobilisation.

The diplomatic mission got off to a rocky start after Downing Street cancelled a planned call between Mr Johnson and Mr Putin last night because the PM was busy fielding furious questions from MPs. The call is now expected to take place tomorrow.

Vladimir Putin tonight said the U.S. and NATO have 'ignored' the Kremlin's concerns in recent correspondence as the Russian president made his first direct comments on the Ukraine crisis since December.

Mr Putin argued that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account.

Mr Johnson said this evening in Kiev: 'We have to face a grim reality which is that as we stand here today more than 100,000 Russian troops are gathering on your border in perhaps the biggest demonstration of hostility towards Ukraine in our lifetimes.

'And the potential deployment dwarfs the 30,000 troops that Russia sent to invade Crimea in 2014, since that time of course as everybody knows 13,000 Ukrainians have been killed, and Ukraine has been plunged into nearly a decade of war.

'It goes without saying that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a political disaster, a humanitarian disaster, in my view it would also be for Russia, for the world, a military disaster as well.'

He added: 'Alongside other countries we are also preparing a package of sanctions and other measures to be enacted the moment the first Russian toe cap crosses further into Ukrainian territory.'

A joint statement from Mr Johnson and Mr Zelensky issued after their talks set out how the UK will stand 'shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression'.

The statement, released by the offices of the Prime Minister and the President, said: 'The Prime Minister emphasised the United Kingdom's unwavering commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.

'The United Kingdom stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression, which threatens regional peace and security and undermines the global order. The two leaders emphasised that it is the right of every Ukrainian to determine their own future.'

Boris Johnson today warned Vladimir Putin he will be hit with crippling economic sanctions 'the moment the first Russian toe cap crosses' into Ukraine as the PM cautioned the Kremlin against a potential invasion

Speaking during a joint press conference in Kiev alongside the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Johnson said the world must face up to the 'grim reality' of more than 100,000 Russian troops massed at the border.

The premier told Mr Putin a military incursion into Ukraine would be a 'political disaster', a 'humanitarian disaster' and a 'military disaster'

The PM travelled to Ukraine this morning as he fled the pressure cooker of Westminster following the publication of Sue Gray's 'update' on the Partygate scandal

As the domestic scandal rages while Mr Johnson turns his focus abroad:

Mr Johnson told MPs 42 times during his Commons statement last night that they need to wait for the outcome of the police inquiry;

No10 has refused to commit to making public if Mr Johnson is fined for breaching lockdown laws, with Scotland Yard saying names of those given fixed penalty notices will not be relased;

Deputy PM Dominic Raab insisted Mr Johnson is 'getting on with the job' but dodged giving a full-hearted defence of his swipe at Keir Starmer for failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile. 'I can't substantiate that claim,' Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4's Today programme;

Mr Johnson has pledged to take regular 'strategic advice' from election guru Lynton Crosby as he tried to appease angry MPs;

The premier attacked former No10 chief Dominic Cummings comparing him to Shakespearian villain Iago while he is good-natured Othello;

A snap poll has found two-third of the public do not accept Mr Johnson's grudging apology over Partygate.

Putin says the U.S. and NATO have ignored Russia's top security demands Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the U.S. and its allies have ignored Russia's top security demands but added that Moscow remains open to more talks with the West on easing soaring tensions over Ukraine. Putin argued that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account. 'I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that it's not going to be easy,' Putin said amid a continuing buildup of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine that fueled Western fear of an invasion. Russia has denied having an intention to attack its neighbor, but talks between Russia and the West have so far failed to yield any progress. Washington and its allies have rejected Moscow's demand for a halt to NATO's expansion to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, a freeze on the deployment of weapons there and a rollback of alliance forces from Eastern Europe, describing them as nonstarters. They emphasized that Ukraine, like any other nation, has the right to choose alliances. The Russian leader countered that argument by noting that the Western allies' refusal to meet Russia's demands violates their obligations on integrity of security for all nations. He warned that Ukraine's accession to NATO could lead to a situation where Ukrainian authorities launch a military action to reclaim control over Crimea or areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in the country's east. 'Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations,' Putin said. 'Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?' Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the country's Moscow-friendly president and later threw its weight behind rebels in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, triggering a conflict that has killed over 14,000. Speaking after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who forged close ties with Moscow even though his country is a member of NATO, Putin noted that it's still possible to negotiate a settlement that would take every party's concerns into account. 'We need to find a way to ensure interests and security of all parties, including Ukraine, European nations and Russia,' Putin said, emphasizing that the West needs to treat Russian proposals seriously to make progress. The Russian leader argued that NATO's open-door policy doesn't oblige the alliance to offer membership to Ukraine, suggesting that the alliance could tell Ukraine that it can't join 'due to earlier international obligations.' He said that French President Emmanuel Macron may soon visit Moscow as part of renewed diplomatic efforts following their call on Monday. Advertisement

Deputy PM Dominic Raab tried to shrug off the delay to the call with Mr Putin this morning, saying there are 'always scheduling issues between any two heads of government' and claiming Mr Johnson has been 'leading the transatlantic response' to the crisis.

Mr Raab said: 'Any prime minister, any president  it happens all the time  their diaries and their call sheets dart around the place because they are balancing things.'

He told Sky News: 'This Prime Minister is the one who has been leading the transatlantic response, with the United States, with European allies, with the most robust approach on sanctions, providing support.

Mr Johnson travelled to Ukraine on a chartered plane from Stansted with staff and a small pool of journalists. Downing Street has said his call with Mr Putin is now expected to be tomorrow.

The visit to Ukraine comes after a Russian warplane breached the airspace of Estonia - where hundreds of British troops are based - in a suspected move to test NATO defences this weekend.

Estonian authorities yesterday handed a protest note to Russian diplomats in Tallinn after a Russian Su-27 fighter jet violated the NATO state's airspace near the island of Vaindloo in the Gulf of Finland.

The warplane did not post a flight plan and its transponder was switched off as encroached on Estonian territory - a move described by Tallinn 'a very unfortunate and serious incident'.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the U.S. and its allies have ignored Russia's top security demands but added that Moscow remains open to more talks with the West on easing soaring tensions over Ukraine.

Putin argued that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account.

'I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that it's not going to be easy,' Putin said amid a continuing buildup of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine that fueled Western fear of an invasion.

Russia has denied having an intention to attack its neighbor, but talks between Russia and the West have so far failed to yield any progress.

Washington and its allies have rejected Moscow's demand for a halt to NATO's expansion to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, a freeze on the deployment of weapons there and a rollback of alliance forces from Eastern Europe, describing them as nonstarters. They emphasized that Ukraine, like any other nation, has the right to choose alliances.

The Russian leader countered that argument by noting that the Western allies' refusal to meet Russia's demands violates their obligations on integrity of security for all nations. He warned that Ukraine's accession to NATO could lead to a situation where Ukrainian authorities launch a military action to reclaim control over Crimea or areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in the country's east.

'Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations,' Putin said. 'Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?'

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the country's Moscow-friendly president and later threw its weight behind rebels in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, triggering a conflict that has killed over 14,000.

Speaking after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who forged close ties with Moscow even though his country is a member of NATO, Putin noted that it's still possible to negotiate a settlement that would take every party's concerns into account.

'We need to find a way to ensure interests and security of all parties, including Ukraine, European nations and Russia,' Putin said, emphasizing that the West needs to treat Russian proposals seriously to make progress.

The Russian leader argued that NATO's open-door policy doesn't oblige the alliance to offer membership to Ukraine, suggesting that the alliance could tell Ukraine that it can't join 'due to earlier international obligations.'

He said that French President Emmanuel Macron may soon visit Moscow as part of renewed diplomatic efforts following their call on Monday.

Russia is conducting military exercises on a scale 'never seen before' on the Ukrainian border, the head of the UK's armed forces has warned, in 'a pattern of coercion and intimidation' against the West.

Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin gave the assessment to a Cabinet meeting before Mr Johnson departed for Ukraine.

Sir Tony said 'a significant proportion of Russia's land combat power was now gathered on the western border, coupled with deterrence operations such as military exercises on a scale never seen before'.

No 10 said he warned this 'fitted into a pattern of coercion and intimidation that sought to undermine the values and principles of the West'.

Mr Johnson told ministers the situation was 'deeply concerning and that there were no indications of Russia de-escalating with more than 100,000 troops currently amassed on Ukraine's border'.

The call between Boris Johnson and Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured left) was due to take place yesterday afternoon but is now not expected to happen today. Mr Johnson (right) steps off the plane in Kiev this afternoon

Several Russian TV channels were mocking Boris Johnson yesterday ahead of his planned trip to Ukraine today. NTV branded him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain'

Estonian authorities yesterday handed a protest note to Russian diplomats in Tallinn after a Russian Su-27 fighter jet violated the NATO state's airspace near the island of Vaindloo in the Gulf of Finland over the weekend

Boris Johnson was yesterday forced to postpone a call to Vladimir Putin so he could deal with Partygate

Cabinet ignores Partygate as No10 says PM could keep fine from police secret Boris Johnson and his senior ministers did not discuss the Partygate scandal at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning despite growing Tory fury and warnings the PM should be 'very worried' about a coup. Mr Johnson is desperately trying to stabilise his premiership after senior Conservatives said the ongoing row is corroding the Government like 'battery acid'. The premier left the pressure cooker of Westminster following the Cabinet meeting to visit Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday which revealed the PM is being investigated by police over four potential breaches of lockdown law. The publication of Ms Gray's update rocked Westminster but Number 10 said the report was not mentioned during the Cabinet meeting. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said Mr Johnson had 'obviously addressed the House I think for up to two hours yesterday and then spoke to his own MPs at length on this issue'. He added: 'The Cabinet this morning was focused on the situation in Ukraine and the domestic priority of levelling up.' Meanwhile, Number 10 has refused to guarantee that the public would be told if fines were issued for coronavirus breaches at Downing Street. The PM's spokesman said: 'It will be the Met that sets out what they see fit at the conclusion of their work and I would not seek to set out what that may or may not be.' Mr Johnson suffered a mauling from a slew of Tory MPs in the Commons yesterday, with Theresa May demanding to know if he thought the rules 'didn't apply' to him, and former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell saying the premier had lost his support. Mr Mitchell stepped up his attack this morning warning that the row was 'like battery acid corroding the party' as he also condemned Mr Johnson's leadership style. 'I think this is a crisis that is not going to go away and is doing very great damage to the party. It is more corrosive in my judgement than the expenses scandal was and it will break the coalition that is the Conservative Party,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Even normally-loyal MPs conceded that the PM's response in the chamber was a 'car crash', although Mr Johnson appeared to buy himself some time with a more conciliatory performance at a private meeting with his rank and file last night. Writing in the Times, Lord Hague criticised Mr Johnson for getting the tone wrong, saying he should have 'acknowledged that the buck stops with him' and ought to be 'very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions'. He said: 'Instead of reinforcing the momentum in his favour, he quite possibly stalled it. If I were him, I would be very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions at the end of his statement.' The looming verdict from Scotland Yard - which is sifting through more than 300 photos of Whitehall bashes and could interview both Mr Johnson and wife Carrie within days - could provide a moment of truth for the premier, but he has also been forced to agree that a full, unredacted version of Ms Gray's report will be published after the criminal process concludes. Advertisement

But Russia's state-run Rossiya 1 channel claimed Johnson's 'anti-Russian hysteria' was 'a way to divert attention from domestic problems' as he sought to 'stifle' the scandal over lockdown-breaking parties.

'Only anti-Russian sanctions can distract from Johnson's protracted Partygate,' the channel concluded.

In a report from London, Gazprom Media-owned NTV channel said: 'If it were in the power of Boris Johnson, [Sue Gray's report] would have disappeared into the bowels of the Victorian sewers of the city of London.

'But this did not happen. The report was delivered to the prime minister at Number 10 - the very residence where the parties took place.

'Boris Johnson is today the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain.

'Even schoolchildren are laughing at him.

'[Dominic Cummings] says Johnson is completely under the control and heel of his young wife, but at the same time has the ambitions of a Roman emperor.'

The channel's London correspondent Liza Gerson continued: 'In order to preserve himself, to preserve his political career, Boris Johnson is trying to present himself as a kind of saviour of the whole country.

'Not just the country but the whole world.

'He is trying to talk about more global issues, but he is being asked extremely shameful and petty questions.'

Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie face being questioned by detectives probing several lockdown-breaching Whitehall parties 'within days' after a trove of evidence was handed to Scotland Yard.

Investigators are examining eight dates on which events are said to have taken place and a spokesman said last night that they had gathered 500 pages of information on the 'Partygate' scandal.

Rossiya 1 London correspondent Alexander Khabarov meanwhile reported that the UK intended to double its military contingent in Estonia 'and intensify British aviation operations in the Black Sea region, where it has decided to send a guided missile destroyer.

'Johnson calls these containment measures and pretends not to hear Moscow's repeated statements that Russia is not going to attack anyone.'

The Russian media's assault on the British Prime Minister came as Estonian authorities yesterday released a statement on the incursion into its airspace by a Russian Su-27 fighter.

'The jet was in Estonian airspace for less than a minute, but it was flying with the transponder in the off mode and remained out of contact with Estonian air traffic control at the time of violating the Estonian border,' said the NATO member state.

Moscow has since denied the incident took place, despite having a track record of breaching Estonian airspace.

'No flights by Russian Su-27 fighter jets were carried out above the Baltic Sea on January 29.

The Russian Aerospace Forces perform all their flights in strict compliance with the international rules of airspace use, above neutral waters, without violating other states' borders,' the Moscow defence ministry said.

Britain currently has around 900 soldiers in Estonia, a number expected to double in the coming weeks as NATO deploys foreign troops to eastern Europe, but the small Baltic state is seen as vulnerable to a Russian attack in the event of armed conflict in Ukraine.

Meanwhile new videos showed activity at a Russian military camp in its neighbour and ally Belarus, where the West fears Putin has gathered additional forces.

Another shows large-scale war games involving Russia's strategic nuclear missile forces in Ivanovo region.

Putin is now believed to have well in excess of 100,000 troops stationed near Ukraine's borders.

Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin gave an assessment of the Ukraine situation to a Cabinet meeting before Mr Johnson departed for Kiev

The Russian Su-29 fighter jet did not post a flight plan and its transponder was switched off as encroached on Estonian territory - a move described by Tallinn 'a very unfortunate and serious incident'. (Image of a Russian SU-27 aircraft taken in 2019)

New videos show activity at a Russian military camp in its neighbour and ally Belarus, where the West fears Putin has gathered additional forces

The servicemen of the motorized rifle unit of the combined arms army of Russia's Eastern Military District have completed the deployment of a field camp in Belarus at the Brestsky training ground

It is suspected that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using ally Belarus to host training camps and to amass further troops to prepare for any conflict in Ukraine (motorised rifle unit of Russia's Eastern Military District pictured at the Bretsky training ground in Belarus)

Large-scale exercise of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces in Ivanovo Region

Putin is now believed to have up to 130,000 troops on Ukraine's borders (military drills pictured in Ivanovo region)

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the reports of the delayed phone call showed there were 'real world consequences' of having a Prime Minister fighting for his political survival and 'a vital diplomatic opportunity has been missed'.

Instead of speaking to Johnson on Monday night, Putin spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron. During the exchange, the pair agreed to maintain a dialogue on implementing the Minsk agreements regarding Donbass, a region of eastern Ukraine where Moscow has backed separatist fighters.

Zelensky today signed a decree to increase the size of Ukraine's armed forces by 100,000 troops over three years and raise soldiers' salaries, but insisted the move did not mean war with Russia was imminent.

A Ukrainian serviceman adjusts the strap of his weapon in a trench at a frontline position in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Monday, Jan. 31

A photograph shows tanks of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces parked in their base near Klugino-Bashkirivka village, in the Kharkiv region on January 31

Although Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine's borders, Zelenskiy has repeatedly pushed back against warnings by the United States and other NATO allies that Russia could attack Ukraine at any moment.

'This decree (was prepared) not because we will soon have a war... but so that soon and in the future there will be peace in Ukraine,' Zelensky said.

There are currently nearly 250,000 people in Ukraine's armed forces, which are vastly outnumbered and outgunned by Russia's.

'We must be united in domestic politics. You can be in opposition to the government, but you can't be in opposition to Ukraine,' Zelensky said.

It comes as Hungarian Defence Minister Tibor Benko yesterday declared that there is no need for NATO to deploy its troops in Hungary, stressing that Hungary is able 'to perform this task on its own' in its territory.

Benko's reluctance to accept a deployment of foreign NATO troops in its territory became evident on the same day that UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace said it was vital to discourage Putin from invading Ukraine by showing NATO's willingness for combat as a deterrent.

Wallace said it was 'important to signal to Putin that the very thing he fears, that is, more NATO close to Russia, would be the consequence of invading Ukraine... This is why the UK offered NATO more ground forces, more readiness as a deterrent.'

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to travel to Russia today for talks with Vladimir Putin in which he is likely to ask the Russian President for an increased gas supply.

Orban travels to Moscow in defiance of calls to cancel the trip from opposition parties, who said in a joint statement that it is 'contrary to our national interests'.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) is expected to travel to Russia today for talks with Vladimir Putin (L) in which he is likely to ask the Russian President for an increased gas supply

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the United Nations yesterday alleged Russia will send another 30,000 troops to the Ukrainian border.

'We've seen evidence that Russia intends to expand that presence to more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border, less than two hours north of Kyiv by early February,' US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

White House Press secretary Jen Psaki said: 'Russia has the power. They are the aggressor here. They have the power and ability to de-escalate, to pull their troops back from the border, to not push more troops to Belarus, to take steps to deescalate the situation on the ground.'

But Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya accused the US of 'whipping up hysterics' by calling for Monday's UN Security Council meeting to discuss Ukraine, a nod towards their claim that Putin does not intend to invade his eastern European neighbour.

'The discussions about a threat of war is provocative in and of itself. You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen,' Nebenzia said.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya (L) yesterday accused the US of ginning up 'hysterics' and 'brainwashing' Ukrainians at a heated United Nations Security Council meeting. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (R) said she was 'disappointed' but not 'surprised' by his comments and claimed Moscow is mobilizing 30,000 more troops to send to the Belarus-Ukraine border

In light of the movements and threat posed in Eastern Europe, the US ordered family members of its government employees currently in Belarus to leave the country.

The State Department said: 'Due to an increase in unusual and concerning Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine, US citizens located in or considering travel to Belarus should be aware that the situation is unpredictable and there is heightened tension in the region.'

Last Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken extended a diplomatic proposal to step away from a potential conflict on a call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Blinken described the US proposal as something that offers Russia 'a serious diplomatic path forward,' but assured that NATO allied nations did not bow to Russia's demand that it bar ex-Soviet bloc countries from entering the 30-country military alliance.

Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are set to share another phone call later today.

Britain and the United States also said yesterday they were looking at targeting people in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle with sanctions, including powerful business allies.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told parliament that the government was looking at 'the toughest sanctions regime against Russia we've ever had'.

'Those in and around the Kremlin will have nowhere to hide,' she said.

'Even the schoolchildren are laughing at him': Ridicule of Boris Johnson over partygate extends across the world as foreign media point out he's 'spent his life breaking the rules... but now his luck may be running out'

By David Averre for MailOnline

The ridicule of Boris Johnson over the Partygate scandal extended far beyond this island's shores as news outlets around the world ripped into the Prime Minister.

It comes as a slew of Tory MPs, including former Prime Minister Theresa May, publicly decried Johnson's behaviour last night, accusing him of running No10 like a 'medieval court' and issuing a stark warning about the possibility of a party coup.

The Prime Minister sheepishly apologised to MPs during the brutal Commons session before jetting off to Ukraine this morning, as reactions from the world's media - many of which hammered the PM - flooded in.

Some of Europe's largest newspapers questioned whether Johnson would be able to save himself after 'a lifetime of breaking the rules', while others skipped straight to listing his would-be successors and accused him of leveraging the crisis in Ukraine to deflect from domestic chaos.

Spanish daily El Pais saw fit to plaster an image of Johnson clad in hi-vis and maniacally driving a forklift on today's front page with the headline 'Report on parties deals another blow to Johnson: The report on gatherings held amid the pandemic condemns alcohol consumption', while their online reporters noted that Johnson 'apologised for the scandal but has avoided taking action'.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson boards an aircraft on his way to Kyiv, Ukraine, in London Tuesday Feb. 1, 2022

Other Spanish papers took an even more direct approach, with business daily Expansion running a feature entitled 'Goodbye, Boris', while El Mundo's inside headline read: 'Little leadership and much beer' and also opted for the unflattering forklift shot.

La Repubblica, a leading Italian paper, declared that 'Boris now risks his career for the alcoholic parties during lockdown', and claimed the PM 'has officially entered his darkest hour', while Corriere della Sera said that Johnson 'had spent a lifetime breaking the rules' and questioned whether he would be able to save himself this time.

Spanish daily El Pais saw fit to plaster an image of Boris Johnson maniacally driving a forklift on today's front page with the headline 'Report on parties deals another blow to Johnson: The report on gatherings held amid the pandemic condemns alcohol consumption', while their online reporters noted that Johnson 'apologised for the scandal but has avoided taking action'

Italian paper Corriere della Sera's headline read: 'Boris Johnson, parties and a lifetime defying the rules. Will he be able to save himself this time?'

Just across the Channel, the French press were equally as savage. The London correspondent for French daily Liberation wrote 'It's no longer party time for Boris Johnson', before tearing into the Prime Minister's obnoxious behavior over the course of his premiership.

'Gone are the days of arrogant victories and repungnant slogans. Two and a half years after his election as head of the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is up against the wall. The party is over, the jokes too.'

Even France's most well-read conservative newspaper Le Figaro made no bones about the Partygate scandal, highlighting Sue Gray's findings of 'excessive alcohol consumption' and stressing that its contents were 'stark', even in the absence of considerable detail.

Just across the Channel, the French press were equally as savage. The London correspondent for French daily Liberation went with the deadline 'It's no longer party time for Boris Johnson', before tearing into the Prime Minister's obnoxious behavior over the course of his premiership

German tabloid Bild chose to focus on the Prime Minister's half-hearted apology in the Commons yesterday in which he said he would 'fix' the situation but provided no explanation as to how (headline reads: 'Weak Johnson - ''sorry!'')

In Norway meanwhile, the nation's most well-read online publication Verdens Gang (VG) bypassed a review of the Partygate scandal and skipped straight to choosing Johnson's replacement. 'Many want Boris Johnson to resign. Here are his most likely successors,' the headline read

Tories slam Johnson for running No10 like a 'medieval court' and warn he should be 'very worried' as Partygate police probe whether PM broke lockdown law FOUR TIMES Boris Johnson is still desperately trying to quell Tory Partygate fury today as MPs accuse him of running No10 like a 'medieval court' and warn he should be 'very worried' about a coup. The PM is leaving the pressure cooker of Westminster on a diplomatic mission to Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday - but still revealed that he is being investigated by police over four breaches of lockdown law. Mr Johnson suffered a mauling from a a slew of Conservatives in the Commons, with Theresa May demanding to know if he thought the rules 'didn't apply' to him, and former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell saying the premier had lost his support. Mr Mitchell stepped up his attack this morning warning that the row was as corrosive to the party as 'battery acid' and condemning Mr Johnson's leadership style. Even normally-loyal MPs conceded that the PM's response in the chamber was a 'car crash'. Scotland Yard meanwhile is sifting through more than 300 photos of Whitehall bashes. Advertisement

German tabloid Bild chose to focus on the Prime Minister's half-hearted apology in the Commons yesterday in which he said he would 'fix' the situation but provided no explanation as to how.

Bild's led with a headline of 'Boris' faint ''sorry!'' before zeroing in with 'for him, it seems, a faint 'sorry' is all that follows from the devastating preliminary investigation into his banned corona parties. Johnson's speech had begun as if it were his last in the British Parliament.'

In Norway meanwhile, the nation's most well-read online publication Verdens Gang (VG) bypassed a review of the Partygate scandal and skipped straight to choosing Johnson's replacement.

'Many are calling for Boris Johnson's resignation - here are his possible successors', the headline read.

Again, Boris in hi-vis seemed to be the preferred image to illustrate his bumbling persona amid the fallout.

Moving further afield, the Russian media were among the most critical of the PM, focusing on Johnson's postponement of a scheduled phonecall with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday.

Johnson was set to speak with Putin to discuss the tension in Ukraine, but ultimately snubbed the Russian strongman as he scrambled to deal with the domestic catastrophe in the wake of Sue Gray's preliminary report.

Russia's news channel NTV revelled in the Prime Minister's discomfort, branding him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie.

NTV's London correspondent went on to declare the Partygate report would have ended up in the 'Victorian sewers' of the capital if it were up to the PM, and said that 'even schoolchildren are laughing at him.'

RIA Novosti reported Johnson's colleagues had admonished his decision to postpone the phonecall with Putin, while other media speculated that the Prime Minister was leveraging the crisis in Ukraine to deflect from his poor conduct at home.

Several Russian TV channels were mocking Boris Johnson yesterday ahead of his planned trip to Ukraine today. NTV branded him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain'. The headline at the bottom reads: 'Johnson under the gun'

RIA Novosti's headline said 'Johnson is admonished in Britain for postponing his talk with Putin', while other media speculated that the Prime Minister was leveraging the crisis in Ukraine to deflect from his poor conduct at home

Finally, the American press took turns lambasting the Prime Minister over Partygate.

Some chose to highlight Sue Gray's revelations of 'serious failures' in his leadership while others went so far as to suggest he was teetering on the brink of downfall.

FOX News and Wall Street Journal stuck to an analysis of Sue Gray's preliminary report and discussed what the findings of 'excessive alcohol consumption' and 'failures of leadership and judgement' could mean for Johnson's premiership, though ultimately stressed he would not resign.

But CNN's broadcast went hard on Johnson's 'Borish behaviour' and the New York Times pushed it even further, suggesting that Johnson's tenure as PM was 'hanging by a thread' as a result of the scandal.

'Whether Mr. Johnson is removed or granted a reprieve, the past few weeks amount to a remarkable fall from grace. Now, with his authority severely wounded, his tenure is hanging by a thread,' the New York Times article read.

'Behind the machinations at Westminster, crucially, is overwhelming public anger. The national mood is furious, disdainful: Nearly two-thirds of the country wants Mr. Johnson to resign.'

FOX News and Wall Street Journal stuck to an analysis of Sue Gray's preliminary report and discussed what the findings of 'excessive alcohol consumption' and 'failures of leadership and judgement' could mean for Johnson's premiership, though ultimately stressed he would not resign

But CNN's broadcast went hard on Johnson's 'Borish behaviour' and the New York Times pushed it even further, suggesting that Johnson's tenure as PM was 'hanging by a threat' as a result of the scandal

'Whether Mr. Johnson is removed or granted a reprieve, the past few weeks amount to a remarkable fall from grace. Now, with his authority severely wounded, his tenure is hanging by a thread,' the New York Times article read

Downing Street caved into mounting pressure today by confirming Johnson will admit if he is fined over Partygate - as another MP declared sending a no-confidence letter.

No10 backed down in the face of fury from Tories and the Opposition at the prospect of the PM never revealing whether he had broken the law.

The row came as Scotland Yard made clear that it will follow police guidelines that people who receive fixed penalty notices are not routinely identified - suggesting that government officials will not be identified.

Meanwhile, backbencher Peter Aldous has joined a growing group of Conservatives to have publicly declared sending a letter of no confidence to the powerful 1922 committee.

'After a great deal of soul-searching, I have reached the conclusion that the Prime Minister should resign,' the Waveney MP tweeted.

'It is clear that he has no intention of doing so and I have therefore written to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee of Backbench Conservative MPs, advising him that I have no confidence in the Prime Minister as Leader of the Conservative Party.'

Boris Johnson (pictured out for his morning run) is leaving the pressure cooker of Westminster on a diplomatic mission to Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday

Mr Johnson apologised last night for the way the Partygate probe had been handled and said he would make changes. But Downing Street this morning revealed Johnson and his senior ministers did not discuss the Partygate scandal at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning despite growing Tory fury and warnings the PM should be 'very worried' about a coup

Under party rules, 54 letters need to be sent to 1922 committee chair Sir Graham Brady in order to trigger a formal confidence vote - but he never reveals how many he has received until the threshold is reached.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab this morning insisted that 'justice must be done and seen to be done' - but Downing Street refused to guarantee that perpetrators would be identified.

However, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman performed a U-turn this afternoon, telling reporters: 'Obviously we are aware of the significant public interest with regard to the Prime Minister and we would always look to provide what updates we can on him, specifically.'

Asked if that meant No 10 would say if he was given a fixed penalty notice, the spokesman said: 'Hypothetically, yes.'

Scotland Yard had pointed to College of Policing guidance stating that the names of people dealt with by fixed penalty notices  the likely punishment for a breach of the coronavirus regulations  would not normally be disclosed.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: 'I can't believe this needs saying. The public have a right to know if the Prime Minister is found to have committed an offence by the police.'

It came as Downing Street revealed Johnson and his senior ministers did not discuss the Partygate scandal at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning despite growing Tory fury and warnings the PM should be 'very worried' about a coup.
A mother has pulled her three children from a Christian school that demanded parents sign an anti-LGBTQI contract as the school's principal responded to the controversy in a video statement.

Janina Leo, who has a transgender child, said she was so appalled by Citipointe Christian College's contract that she didn't want any of her kids studying there.

The Brisbane school's contract condemns homosexual acts as 'sinful and offensive' and demanded students conform to the gender roles of their biological sex, not gender identity.

Ms Leo told Nine News Queensland that it was not the first time she clashed with the school over its attitude to a student's gender identity.

She said there was a disagreement over her what her transgender child wore to the school formal.

'Just really hard seeing my child have to struggle with those feelings and thoughts about themselves and acceptance at the school they've attended for their whole life,' Ms Leo said.

'This has devastated me as a mum and as a psychologist as well.'

Brisbane mother Janina Leo said she had withdrawn her three children from Citipointe Christian College over its anti-LGBTQI enrolment contract

Ms Leo said she previously had a disagreement with the school over her transgender's child's chosen attire to attend the school formal

Ms Leo said she also complained to the school about a lesson discussing gender and identity which featured cartoon illustrations of an androgynous alien and a man living as a six-year-old girl as examples of transgender people.

'It was disgusting, and as a mother I did not want my child to hear something that revolting,' she said.

Citipointe's 'declaration of faith' contract describes homosexual acts among a list of other forms of 'sexual immorality', including adultery, fornication, bisexual acts, bestiality, paedophilia, and pornography, that are 'sinful and offensive to God'.

It also states the college will only acknowledge biological sex, not gender, and asks parents to agree with this statement or face exclusion of a student.

'Failure to agree to the terms will afford Citipointe Christian College the right to exclude a student from the College who no longer adheres to the College's doctrinal precepts including those as to biological sex,' it read.

On Tuesday evening Pastor Mulheran released a six-minute video statement to parents through the school's portal.

He defended the contract and said it was in place last year. He also said the time for parents to sign it would be extended two weeks until February 21.

'While I've been principal of the college, we have not expelled or refused to enroll any student on the basis that are gay or transgender,' he told parents.

Pastor Mulheran denied the contract was discrimination because it was protected religious freedom.

'It is often misunderstood but it is an established international principle that a legitimate exercise of religious freedom is not discrimination, it is a feature of an open society.'

Citipointe's contract states it will only acknowledge biological sex, not gender, and asks parents to agree with this statement or face exclusion of a student

The college's 'declaration of faith' contract lists homosexual acts among other forms of 'sexual immorality', including adultery, fornication, bisexual acts, bestiality, paedophilia and pornography, that are 'sinful and offensive to God'

The school's contract will be reviewed by Queensland's Non-State Schools Accreditation Board on Thursday.

Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace said the state's Human Rights Commissioner, Scott McDougall, 'warned' the college it could not wriggle out of its legally binding commitments under discrimination legislation.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman also advised parents to make a complaint about the college's contract to the Human Rights Commission.

Former Citipointe pupils described the school's negative attitude towards gay students, and a teacher quit in disgust over the contract.

Former Citipointe student Jared Mifsud said he was told homosexuality was a sin 'every single day' while at the school

Teacher and parent Helen Clapham Burns had resigned from the school and removed her children in protest at the enrolment contract

Teacher Helen Clapham Burns, who also has children at the school, told The Project she resigned from the college on Monday as she couldn't continue to work for a school that would issue such a contract.

'At the beginning of enrolment and during enrolment, if they don't adhere to this we terminate the enrolment. I can't work for an organisation that does that to kids,' she said.

'The extra element of being a queer kid in a Christian environment is you think you're going to hell. I don't even know how you walk through the day with that.'

Former Citipointe student Jared Mifsud told Daily Mail Australia yesterday that being told homosexuality was 'a sin' was a recurring theme during his time at the school.

'Each grade at school would attend a weekly chapel service and they would have guest speakers,' he said.

'Nine times out of 10, homosexuality would be mentioned and you were told every single day you were going to hell for this sin.

'The language used in this contract is abhorrent, it's disgusting, it's demeaning, it is going to destroy people's lives.

'When you compare homosexuality to bestiality and paedophilia, what kind of message are you trying to send, because it's not the message that Jesus was trying to preach.'

Former Citipointe Christian College student Felicity Myers is seen outside the school during an impromptu protest on Monday afternoon

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman also advised parents to make a complaint about the college's contract to the state's Human Rights Commission

A group of ex-students, including Mr Mifsud, staged an impromptu protest outside the school on Monday afternoon, draping the school's fence with pride flags.

'Our Church also believes in the teachings of the Bible that hold that marriage was instituted by God as between a man and a woman and which do not distinguish between gender and biological sex,' Citipointe said in a statement released earlier this week.

'Principal Pastor Brian Mulheran said: "We have always held these Christian beliefs and we have tried to be fair and transparent to everyone in our community by making them clear in the enrolment contract.

'We are seeking to maintain our Christian ethos and to give parents and students the right to make an informed choice about whether they can support and embrace our approach to Christian education".'

A petition asking the school to rescind the contract has now attracted more than 134,000 signatures.
Sacked radio host Lawrence Mooney is demanding more than $1 million over his unceremonious departure from Triple M.

Mooney was dumped from the coveted breakfast radio gig in November and is suing the station's parent company Southern Cross Austereo for unpaid wages.

The comedian started with Triple M in 2019 to host the Moonman in the Morning program with co-presenters Jess Eva and Chris Page.

But he was abruptly dumped less than a year into a new two-year contract with little explanation after a wild few days of speculation.

Lawrence Mooney (pictured right) reportedly had a major falling out with co-host Jess Eva (pictured left) before he was sacked by Triple M

Mooney's exit was two weeks after he suddenly vanished from the airwaves amid rumours of a major falling out with co-host Eva.

'SCA thanks Mooney for his contribution to the Triple M Network over the past five years,' SCA said in a terse statement on November 15.

The program changed its name to Triple M Breakfast with MG, Jess & Pagey, with new lead host Mark 'MG' Geyer.

When contacted by Daily Mail Australia on the day of his sacking, Mooney said, 'Please don't call again,' then hung up the phone.

Two months later he is taking his former employer to the NSW Supreme Court to demand a year's pay in damages.

Court documents claim Mooney had a two-year contract to run from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2022, and his pay was a base fee of $1 million plus GST per annum, which is $83,333 plus GST a month, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Mooney, 56, was also eligible to bonus fees of up to $540,000 plus GST annually if the show got an audience share in the radio ratings of six percentage points or above, or was number one in the male 25-54 category.

The case is due in court on Thursday, with John Laxon representing Mooney.

Mr Laxon said he was waiting with 'bated breath' for Southern Cross Austereo's defence, which reportedly was due by December 20.

Lawrence Mooney's (pictured) case against his former employer is set to begin in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday

In the last radio ratings survey of 2021 Mooney's show had an audience share of 4.6.

There were eight surveys in 2021 and in two of them the program recorded an audience share above six - 6.4 in the first survey of the year and 6.7 in the second.

The court documents claim SCA chief executive Grant Blackley advised Mooney in a letter dated November 12, 2021, that the company would only pay Mooney's base salary up to and including that day.

'At no time during the term of the contract did Mooney commit any act that would entitle SCA to terminate and/or that could be relied upon by SCA as at the date of the purported termination to terminate,' Mooney's lawyers claimed.

The documents also claimed there was 'loss of goodwill by reason of Mooney no longer providing the on-air radio performing and announcing services'.
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Which Number 10 parties are being probed by the Metropolitan Police and which are not? Below is a breakdown of which events are now subject to a criminal investigation and which have been deemed not to meet that threshold. The gatherings which ARE being probed by the police  May 20, 2020: BYOB garden party The revelation came in an email, leaked to ITV, from senior civil servant Martin Reynolds to more than 100 Downing Street employees inviting them to 'bring your own booze' for an evening gathering. The PM has admitted attending the gathering, but previously insisted he believed it was a work event which could 'technically' have been within the rules. - June 18, 2020: Cabinet Office gathering Ms Gray's report revealed that a gathering in the Cabinet Office on this date is being investigated by the police. It has not previously been reported on. The event was apparently held to mark the departure of a Number 10 private secretary.  June 19, 2020: Birthday party for the PM A Downing Street spokesman admitted staff 'gathered briefly' in the Cabinet Room after a meeting. A report from ITV News suggested up to 30 people attended and the PM was presented with a cake. The broadcaster suggested the PM's wife, Carrie Johnson, had organised the surprise get-together. Reports said Lulu Lytle, the interior designer behind lavish renovations of Mr and Mrs Johnson's No 10 flat, briefly attended while undertaking work in Downing Street. ITV News also reported that later the same evening, family and friends were hosted upstairs to further celebrate the Prime Minister's 56th birthday in his official residence. Number 10 previously said: 'This is totally untrue. In line with the rules at the time the Prime Minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.' The police probe relates specifically to the gathering in the Cabinet Room.  November 13, 2020: Leaving party for senior aide According to reports at the time, Mr Johnson gave a leaving speech for Lee Cain, his departing director of communications and a close ally of Mr Cummings.  November 13, 2020: Johnsons' flat party There are allegations that the Prime Minister's then fiancee hosted parties in their flat, with one such event said to have taken place on November 13 - the night Dominic Cummings departed Number 10. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson has previously called the claim 'total nonsense'.  December 17, 2020: Cabinet Office 'Christmas party' A number of outlets reported that a gathering was held in the Cabinet Office on December 17. The Times reported that Cabinet Secretary Simon Case attended the party in room 103 of the Cabinet Office, that it had been organised by a private secretary in Mr Case's team, and that it was included in digital calendars as: 'Christmas party!' The Cabinet Office confirmed a quiz took place, but a spokesman said: 'The Cabinet Secretary played no part in the event, but walked through the team's office on the way to his own office.'  December 17, 2020: Leaving drinks for former Covid Taskforce head The former director-general of the Government's Covid Taskforce said she was 'truly sorry' over an evening gathering in the Cabinet Office for her leaving drinks during coronavirus restrictions days before Christmas in 2020. Kate Josephs, who is now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, said she gathered with colleagues who were in the office that day and added that she was co-operating with the Ms Gray's probe. - December 17, 2020: Number 10 leaving do The Sue Gray update said the police are also probing a gathering in Downing Street held to mark the departure of a Number 10 official on December 17.  December 18, 2020: Christmas party at Downing Street The claim that kicked off the rule-breaking allegations is that a party was held for Downing Street staff on December 18. Officials and advisers reportedly made speeches, enjoyed a cheese board, drank together and exchanged Secret Santa gifts, although the PM is not thought to have attended. Mr Johnson's spokeswoman, Allegra Stratton, quit after being filmed joking about it with fellow aides at a mock press conference. - January 14, 2021: Number 10 leaving do for two staff members A previously unreported gathering is being probed by the police. The Sue Gray update revealed an event in Downing Street for the departure of two Number 10 private secretaries is being looked at by the police. The Guardian said Boris Johnson had been present at the leaving party of two private secretaries on January 14, 2021, when the country was in lockdown. Prosecco was said to have been served at the event, which the PM reportedly attended for only five minutes. He gave a speech and went, an insider claimed.  April 16, 2021: Drinks and dancing the night before the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral The Telegraph reported that advisers and civil servants gathered after work for two separate events on the Friday night. They were to mark the departure of James Slack, Mr Johnson's former director of communications, and one of the Prime Minister's personal photographers. Mr Slack, who left his Number 10 role to become deputy editor-in-chief of The Sun newspaper, said he was sorry for the 'anger and hurt' caused by his leaving do, while Downing Street apologised to the Queen. The Telegraph quoted a Number 10 spokesman as saying Mr Johnson was not in Downing Street that day and is said to have been at Chequers. The newspaper reported accounts from witnesses who said alcohol was drunk and guests danced to music, adding that it had been told that around 30 people attended both events combined. The four alleged parties which are not being investigated by the police  May 15, 2020: Downing Street 'cheese and wine' party The PM, his wife Carrie, former chief adviser Dominic Cummings, and Mr Johnson's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, were all pictured, in a photograph leaked to The Guardian, sitting around a table in the Number 10 garden, with wine and cheese in front of them. Some 15 other people were also in the photograph, but the Prime Minister has insisted this was a work meeting, saying: 'Those were meetings of people at work, talking about work.'  November 27, 2020: Second staff leaving do The Mirror reported that the PM gave a farewell speech to an aide at the end of November while the lockdown in England was still in place. Other reports have said the leaving do was for Cleo Watson, a senior Downing Street aide and ally of Mr Cummings.  December 10, 2020: Department for Education party The DfE confirmed a social event happened after The Mirror reported that former education secretary Gavin Williamson threw a party and delivered a short speech at an event organised at his department's Whitehall headquarters. A spokesman acknowledged that 'it would have been better not to have gathered in this way at that particular time'.  December 15, 2020: Downing Street quiz The PM appeared on contestants' screens at the quiz but has insisted he broke no rules. An image published by the Sunday Mirror showed Mr Johnson flanked by two colleagues, one draped in tinsel and another wearing a Santa hat, in Number 10. Downing Street admitted Mr Johnson 'briefly' attended the quiz after the photographic evidence emerged but insisted it was a virtual event. Advertisement

Boris Johnson was today dragged further into the Partygate scandal after it was claimed he was seen arriving at the 'Winner Takes It All' Abba party thrown in his Downing Street flat to celebrate the fall of Dominic Cummings.

A witness is said to have told Sue Gray that the Prime Minister went upstairs towards the 'victory party' held by Carrie Johnson and her friends on the night of November 13, 2020, after Mr Cummings had left No 10 with his belongings in a box.

Mr Johnson had previously denied a party to celebrate Mr Cummings' exit ever took place. But yesterday, while in Ukraine, he refused to comment on if he was in the flat drinking with Carrie and her pals that night.

Police, who are already sifting through 300 photos - some said to include the PM - and 500 documents, would be able to confirm his attendance using CCTV and a keypad to the flat's door, insiders have said.

And to add to his woes, it has emerged he also attended a leaving party in No 10 when the Prosecco flowed while country was in the midst of the strict post-Christmas lockdown.

The Prime Minister is said to have given a short speech at the boozy bash on January 14, 2021 - now the sixth apparently illegal gathering being probed by the police that the Prime Minister is linked to.

Another leaving party was held on December 17, 2020, described in Sue Gray's partygate report as a 'gathering in No 10 Downing Street on the departure of a No 10 official'.

The Telegraph reported the official was Captain Steve Higham, then a private secretary to the PM advising on defence and national security.

Johnson attended the party and gave a speech, it is understood, but he left after a few minutes.

The party came a day after tier three rules were implemented in London, meaning people could not mix inside with anyone not in their home or support bubble.

Capt Higham, who is now Commanding Officer of the HMS Prince of Wales, enjoyed a close relationship with Mr Johnson who even took part in interviews to find his replacement.

The parties were listed in Ms Gray's report released on Monday - but the details have only emerged today in The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said the police 'will determine the ultimate truth of this matter' after new allegations over lockdown parties in Downing Street. Mr Gove told BBC Breakfast: 'There's a limit to what I can say because there's an ongoing Met Police investigation.'

As Mr Johnson remains adamant he will not quit, saying he will fight on even if he is fined by the Metropolitan Police for breaking lockdown rules, it also emerged today:

A tenth Conservative MP, Peter Aldous, submitted a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister yesterday as another called on him to show 'great courage' and resign;

While Sir Charles Walker, vice chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, last night announced he will quit Parliament as he urged the PM to stand down over Partygate;

Pictures exist of Boris Johnson at Downing Street parties being investigated by police, his former adviser Dominic Cummings claimed during his Substack online Q&A;

The PM is being ridiculed around the globe. White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said Biden has 'never been ambushed by a cake' as she responded to a question on the lockdown-breaching parties at Downing Street. And TV channels in Russia called him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie;

Sue Gray's initial report into the Partygate scandal revealed a number of Downing Street events that were not previously reported.

This included the January 2021 leaving do held for 'the departure of two No 10 private secretaries', but the redacted report revealed no further information.

Sources have now told The Guardian the party was held for a senior policy adviser who left Downing Street to becoming a senior civil servant in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Johnson gave a speech in which he thanked the official for their work and stayed at the party for around five minutes, the sources said.

Meanwhile it was also revealed the PM was in his flat on the night of the Dominic Cummings departure party, The Telegraph reported.

Another party being investigated by police took place on June 18, 2020, to mark the departure of No 10 private secretary Hannah Young, who left to take up the role of deputy consul general in New York, according to The Telegraph.

It is understood 20 people attended and alcohol was drunk by the party guests, with one source claiming the party was 'raucous'.

At the time, indoor gatherings were forbidden, while six people were allowed to meet outside.

One of the guests is believed to have been Martin Reynolds, the top civil servant who is already under fire for organising the 'BYOB' garden party at Downing Street.

He reportedly contacted senior advisers asking whether to hold a leaving drinks for Ms Young.

As part of Sue Gray's probe, a number of No 10 staff are believed to have been interviewed about the party.

Johnson flew to Ukraine on Tuesday despite the growing turmoil, during which he said he will fight to remain as PM regardless of the police conclusions.

Police said they do not intend to reveal the identity of those who may lockdown fines, but Johnson told The Sun he did not 'believe that would be a secret for very long'.

Scotland Yard made clear that it will follow police guidelines that people who receive fixed penalty notices are not routinely identified - suggesting that government officials would not be identified.

It comes as Johnson's former adviser Dominic Cummings also claimed photos exist of the PM at the parties under investigation.

Speaking to followers in an online Q and A on the Substack website Cummings said that an alleged event in the couple's No11 flat on November 13, 2020 - where Carrie and friends celebrated his sacking - could be heard from offices below.

Scotland Yard last night revealed it has received 300 photos as part of its probe into 12 events in Downing Street in 2020 and 20201.

In response to questions about the report tonight, Cummings wrote: 'Yes there are photos of the PM at parties under investigation. I've spoken to people who say they've seen photos of parties in the flat.

'I've talked to people who were in No10 on 13/11 who could hear the party in No10 after I'd left - the press office is below the flat. If cops talk to people there that night, there'll be witnesses who say ''we could all hear a party with Abba playing''.'

He accused the PM of 'lying' and added: 'This could blow up terminally for him if lies to the cops but he wont be able to help himself other than say ''I don't remember' which is his default when he senses danger.'

He also used the lengthy 'ask me anything' (AMA) session to accuse the PM of habitually lying to Mrs Johnson and blaming it on him.

He also threatened to speak out during any leadership election, should Mr Johnson quit or be forced from office.

It came as Downing Street tonight caved into pressure by confirming Mr Johnson would publicly admit to receiving a police fined over Partygate if he receives one - as another MP declared sending a no-confidence letter

Mr Cummings said there was 'no excuse for self-delusions' about Boris Johnson.

The former chief aide said 'at this point the blame lies mostly with the Tory MPs'.

He said: 'He's obviously totally unfit for the job and every day he's left their moral authority drops another notch.'

But he added: 'There's lots of blame to go around beyond them, including people in no10 who have also shown a distinct lack of moral courage...'

On Sue Gray limited report, he said: 'So far as I know she's done a professional job in appalling circumstances.'

Addressing his feud with Mrs Johnson he went on to accuse the PM of lying to her and laying the blame with his aide.

'It's important to realise that he lied to her about a lot of things and blamed me/us to her for things,' he wrote.

'A small example. I was told one day ''Carrie's enraged you've blocked her from doing an interview''. Eh, what interview, I haven't heard about any interview, I haven't blocked anything. Mmm.

'I speak to Boris alone. What's this about some interview Carrie wants to do? Immediately the guilty face and smile. Ahhh oh yeah errr what about it? (He's not sure what I know.) Have you told Carrie I've blocked her from doing it? (Ruffles hair) Errr oh well I met have said something that gave her that impression, errr, sorry matey, arghhh it's such a nightmare up there Why do you do these stupid things, now she's ranting to people about me again and it's nothing to do with me, don't you see how destructive all this is you idiot? Yeah yeah really sorry I'll tell her But obviously he didn't.

'This sort of thing is constant. So while it's true that I think Carrie has been a dreadful influence, and it was incredibly foolish of her to start a briefing war with me and others, it's also only fair to point out that he lies to her all the time about stuff and she's often operating on duff information herself. This is obviously an incredibly toxic combination.'

Boris Johnson (pictured in Kiev yesterday) attended a leaving party in Number 10 when the country was in the midst of the strict post-Christmas 2021 lockdown, according to reports

Carrie and Boris Johnson are said to have attended the Downing Street flat party held on November 13, 2020, to celebrate the departure of Dominic Cummings, it has been claimed

Pictured: Boris Johnson and staff pictured with wine in Downing Street garden in May 2020

Sue Gray (left) has finally delivered her findings on Partygate to the PM - but made clear she wants to release more information after the police probe completes. Last week the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick (right) announced officers have launched a criminal inquiry after assessing a dossier of evidence compiled by Ms Gray

Detectives are poring over a dossier of 300 Partygate photos with an alleged Abba bash in the No11 flat now one of 12 under investigation. Pictured: Mr Johnson and Carrie at the Eden Project in June 2021

Tory backbencher, Peter Aldous (pictured), MP for Waveney, revealed he had submitted a letter to the chairman of the 1922 Sir Graham Brady, calling for a vote of no confidence in the PM

Vice chairman of Tory 1922 Committee says he would 'applaud' embattled PM if he 'stood aside' Sir Charles Walker (pictured), the vice chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, said there was now so much anger over the furore that Mr Johnson should consider whether the country would 'heal better' if he left No 10 A tenth Conservative MP submitted a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister yesterday as another called on him to show 'great courage' and resign. Boris Johnson was last night warned he is 'on probation' over Partygate as Peter Aldous, who represents Waveney in Suffolk, became the latest Tory to formally call for him to resign. Several other Tory MPs also offered criticism of Mr Johnson, denting hopes in Downing Street that his apology over the Partygate row had calmed tempers. Sir Charles Walker, vice chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, last night announced he will quit Parliament as he urged the PM to stand down. He said Mr Johnson would show 'great courage' if he chose to resign. 'I think people are angry, I think there's a lot of grief, pain and anxiety out in the country,' he told Channel 4 News. He refused to reveal if he had sent a letter of no confidence to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady but said he would not stand at the next election. Advertisement

No10 backed down in the face of fury from Tories and the Opposition at the prospect of the PM never revealing whether he had broken the law.

Meanwhile, backbencher Peter Aldous has joined the small group of Conservatives to have publicly declared sending a letter of no confidence to the powerful 1922 committee.

'After a great deal of soul-searching, I have reached the conclusion that the Prime Minister should resign,' the Waveney MP tweeted.

'It is clear that he has no intention of doing so and I have therefore written to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee of Backbench Conservative MPs, advising him that I have no confidence in the Prime Minister as Leader of the Conservative Party.'

Mr Johnson also appeared to accept he has to publish the full Sue Gray report after the police probe has ended tonight.

In a press conference in Ukraine dominated by uncomfortable domestic questions, he said: 'Of course we'll publish everything we can, as soon as the process has been completed'

Under party rules, 54 letters need to be sent to 1922 committee chair Sir Graham Brady in order to trigger a formal confidence vote - but he never reveals how many he has received until the threshold is reached. Only a few other MPs have openly disclosed writing letters - Andrew Bridgen, Roger Gale, and Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross.

Sir Charles Walker, the vice chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, said there was now so much anger over so-called Partygate that Mr Johnson should consider whether the country would 'heal better' if he left No 10.

However the MP for Broxbourne stopped short of directly calling for the premier's resignation, saying he had got 'many things right', such as the vaccines and lifting of lockdown, adding that leaving the top job would be 'his decision'.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab this morning insisted that 'justice must be done and seen to be done' - but Downing Street refused at lunchtime to guarantee that perpetrators would be identified.

However, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman performed a U-turn this afternoon, telling reporters: 'Obviously we are aware of the significant public interest with regard to the Prime Minister and we would always look to provide what updates we can on him, specifically.'

Asked if that meant No 10 would say if he was given a fixed penalty notice, the spokesman said: 'Hypothetically, yes.

Scotland Yard had pointed to College of Policing guidance stating that the names of people dealt with by fixed penalty notices  the likely punishment for a breach of the coronavirus regulations  would not normally be disclosed.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said Biden has 'never been ambushed by a cake' as she responded to a question on the lockdown-breaching parties at Downing Street

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: 'I can't believe this needs saying. The public have a right to know if the Prime Minister is found to have committed an offence by the police.'

It came as Downing Street revealed Mr Johnson and his senior ministers did not discuss the Partygate scandal at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning despite growing Tory fury and warnings the PM should be 'very worried' about a coup.

Mr Johnson is desperately trying to stabilise his premiership after senior Conservatives said the ongoing row is corroding the Government like 'battery acid'. The premier fended off a barrage of criticism in the Commons last night by telling MPs 42 times that they must wait for the outcome of the police inquiry - having previous urged them to delay until Ms Gray reported.

The premier left the pressure cooker of Westminster following the Cabinet meeting to visit Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday which revealed the PM is being investigated by police over four potential breaches of lockdown law.

The publication of Ms Gray's update rocked Westminster but Number 10 said the report was not mentioned during the Cabinet meeting.

Mr Johnson suffered a mauling from a slew of Tory MPs in the Commons yesterday, with Theresa May demanding to know if he thought the rules 'didn't apply' to him, and former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell saying the premier had lost his support.

Mr Mitchell stepped up his attack this morning warning that the row was 'like battery acid corroding the party' as he also condemned Mr Johnson's leadership style.

'I think this is a crisis that is not going to go away and is doing very great damage to the party. It is more corrosive in my judgement than the expenses scandal was and it will break the coalition that is the Conservative Party,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Even normally-loyal MPs conceded that the PM's response in the chamber was a 'car crash', although Mr Johnson appeared to buy himself some time with a more conciliatory performance at a private meeting with his rank and file last night.

Writing in the Times, Lord Hague criticised Mr Johnson for getting the tone wrong, saying he should have 'acknowledged that the buck stops with him' and ought to be 'very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions'.

He said: 'Instead of reinforcing the momentum in his favour, he quite possibly stalled it. If I were him, I would be very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions at the end of his statement.'

The looming verdict from Scotland Yard - which is sifting through more than 300 photos of Whitehall bashes and could interview both Mr Johnson and wife Carrie within days - could provide a moment of truth for the premier, but he has also been forced to agree that a full, unredacted version of Ms Gray's report will be published after the criminal process concludes.

Meanwhile, Johnson was mocked by both East and West over the scandal, with U.S. President Joe Biden's spokeswoman laughing at the Prime Minister being 'ambushed by cake' at a birthday party in No10.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said Biden has 'never been ambushed by a cake' as she responded to a question on the lockdown-breaching parties at Downing Street.

TV channels in Russia have also been revelling in Mr Johnson's discomfort, with one branding him 'the most disliked, disrespected and ridiculed character in Britain' who was 'completely under the control and heel of his young wife' Carrie.

They declared that the Partygate report would have ended up in the 'Victorian sewers' of London if it were up to the PM.

SARAH VINE: I fear a hard rain for court of Carrie... if I were Boris Johnson's wife, I'd watch my back

Boris Johnson is many things, but he's not stupid. He knows Partygate has cost him dear and he's not out of the woods yet.

He has to get serious if he wants a chance of rescuing his premiership, and he has to do so fast. He has to show the public  and his own MPs  that the jovial, blustering, chancer of old is gone (or at least locked in a back bedroom).

Preparing to leave for Ukraine, he told MPs: 'I want the lot out  all of this toxic vomit ejected.' He's setting up a new Prime Ministerial office, and that infamous drinks fridge is no more. The music's off, the lights are on, the taxis are waiting.

Perhaps the strongest indicator of this new direction is the re-appointment of Sir Lynton Crosby, who will be advising on the running of Downing Street.

Boris Johnson is many things, but he's not stupid. He knows Partygate has cost him dear and he's not out of the woods yet. Pictured: Mr Johnson holds a press conference with the Ukrainian Prime Minister following talks in Kyiv

Having been at several parties over the years where Sir Lynton has been in attendance, I can tell you: Fun he ain't.

The man is a human hangover. And not just a mild headache and craving for a fry-up type  he's a full-blown Jagerbomb thumper.

He is a master of the dark arts, and bringing him back shows Boris means business. If I were Dominic Cummings, I'd be worried.

If I were Carrie, I'd also watch my back. Because Lynton doesn't do other halves. He is not a kisser of babies, and has zero interest in his clients' private lives. He's there to do a job, and do it he will  regardless of who gets in the way.

He will take a cold, hard look at Carrie and will conclude  fairly or unfairly  that she is the Prime Minister's weakness. That Boris loves her and can't say no to her.

That she is a beautiful, vivacious young woman who loves dancing to ABBA; who wants Boris to spend time with her and their children; who likes to spend money on holidays and home furnishings.

A woman who  because she is 24 years younger than Boris  is full of enthusiasm for the sort of things old boomers like Crosby find tiresome: the environment, animal welfare, mental health.

Mr Johnson has reappointed Sir Lynton Crosby, who will be advising on the running of Downing Street

If there's one thing Crosby can't abide it's ministers or MPs with 'pet projects', and Carrie has many of those. He also hates what he calls 'freelancing', by which he means anyone who tries to build a powerbase beyond that of the leader. I doubt whether he'll have much time for the so-called 'court of Carrie'.

I also have no doubt that Lynton can sort things out for Boris. The question is: at what cost?

Sooner or later, Boris is going to face an unenviable choice. Which is more important: his personal happiness and that of his family  or his career, his public standing, his legacy?

Despite his manifest personal failings, Boris has done so much that is impressive. He ran London, a Left-leaning city, as Conservative mayor, for two consecutive terms (thanks in large part to the campaigning talents of one Lynton Crosby).

He pushed through Brexit, swung an 80-seat majority, fronted a world-beating vaccine rollout and led us out of lockdown while half the world was still hiding under the stairs.

By rights, he ought to be riding high. But he's not. And it's not because of political weaknesses; it's because of personal ones.

Lack of judgment, indulgence (of himself and others), corner-cutting, a lack of discipline in his private affairs: these are the things that are obscuring his victories.

These are the areas that Lynton will get to work on. As Cummings once said, a hard rain is coming. God help them all.

Tired but defiant: Body language expert Judi James says Priti Patel IS still behind Boris Johnson after social media critics claimed Home Secretary showed her frustration

Priti Patel is still backing Boris Johnson, a body language expert has said after social media critics accused the Home Secretary of appearing frustrated with the PM while he fielded a defence in the Commons amid the Partygate scandal.

Mr Johnson apologised to MPs after senior official Sue Gray found 'failures of leadership and judgment' from the Government - after gatherings were held while England was under coronavirus restrictions in 2020 and 2021.

While the Prime Minister took a verbal battering in the House of Commons, Ms Patel appeared to show frustration with him, bringing her hand to her face and even - some commenters suggested - raising her middle finger towards him.

But body language expert Judi James told MailOnline that the Home Secretary was 'doing nothing more dramatic than massaging her brow at the end of a very intense session of debate', adding that Ms Patel had showed the 'firmest support' for him.

Ms James said: 'If (Priti Patel) were secretly signaling behind the PM's back it would be a crass and risky gesture, given that she had been posing as Boris's most active endorser and supporter during the rest of the session.

'It would imply that she was either too spineless to voice objections to his face or hypocritical by energetically posing as one thing and then revealing herself as another in a ''behind their back'' way that would be more suited to a naughty schoolkid.

Priti Patel appeared to be rubbing her forehead yesterday as she sat beside the Prime Minister while he offered his mea culpa to the Commons

The Conservative front bench appeared disgruntled as their leader was grilled over the Sue Gray report yesterday. Rishi Sunak was one of the few MPs still wearing a face mask

Some suggested that the Home Secretary appeared to be giving Mr Johnson 'the finger', while others claimed she was 'squirming' following the revelations in the Sue Grey report

'While [Rishi] Sunak sat back in his seat, offering a few weak nods as Boris spoke but keeping his hands folded on his lap and even looking down in a cut-off ritual when Sue Grey's name was mentioned, Raab was all squirms and scratching, with a praying hand gesture clamped between his legs.

'During the important and most heated exchanges in the debate it was Patel showing the firmest support for the PM, mirroring his pose at some moments and yelling ''exactly'' after some of his points. Her nods involved a slow closing of the eyes and she often heckled the opposition as they were speaking.'

Ms James said that it was only after the main part of the debate ended after just under an hour that Ms Patel sat back in her seat with her hands clasped across her lap.

She added that once Rishi Sunak had left, Ms Patel was sitting next to the PM and just prior to the 'finger' gesture she even 'patted him on the back to signal approval'.

'The debate had run out of steam, danger appeared to have been averted and Boris was just on repeat mode to all the stragglers being asked,' Ms James said.

'Someone behind Patel seemed to let her know they were going and after that she began to show signals of tiredness. Her fingers rubbed across her eyebrows and she used one hand to part-cover her face in a shielding gesture.

'We can then see Patel appear to cough or clear her throat before pressing her fingertips onto the upper bridge of her nose, suggesting tiredness or even a stress headache. She gives the muscles a brief massage before talking to someone on her left.

'When she turns to look to her upper right the massage or rubbing of the muscles of the bridge of her nose now only involve the middle and index finger. In a still shot it might look daring and dismissive but placed into context it really does look like part of a ritual to rub away muscle tension caused by tiredness or a headache.'

The heated Commons exchange came after Sue Gray revealed in an 'update' that of the 16 alleged gatherings she had deemed necessary to investigate, at least 12 linked to government properties in Downing Street and Whitehall were being investigated by the police.

This included at least four directly linked to Mr Johnson either because he was reported to have attended, or because they are reported to have taken place in his flat.

Three alleged gatherings not previously reported were also included in the report.

But the police investigation had prevented her from delivering any meaningful report as to not impact the inquiry.

Mr Johnson told MPs in the Commons: 'Firstly, I want to say sorry - and I'm sorry for the things we simply didn't get right and also sorry for the way this matter has been handled.

'It's no use saying this or that was within the rules and it's no use saying people were working hard. This pandemic was hard for everyone.'

He added: 'I get it, and I will fix it. I want to say to the people of this country I know what the issue is.'

However, he faced a hostile response from some on his own side and the threat of a vote of no confidence has not yet been defeated.

Former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell told Mr Johnson he 'no longer enjoys my support'.

Tory MP Angela Richardson announced she had quit as a ministerial aide to Michael Gove, sharing her 'deep disappointment' at the handling of the partygate row.

The weight of the scandal appeared to not be lost of Ms Patel, whose strained expression and apparent look of disbelief sparked a series of social media posts

Aaron Bell, part of the 2019 intake of Red Wall MPs, recalled abiding by coronavirus restrictions for his grandmother's May 2020 funeral before asking: 'Does the Prime Minister think I'm a fool?'

In the Lords, ex-Whitehall chief and independent crossbencher Lord Kerslake said: 'Even without the detail the general findings are utterly damning. This goes to the heart of government. Can government be trusted to do the right thing and tell the truth? It's hard to think of anything more important than that.'

But Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg said the 'mood was positive' among Conservatives following an evening meeting on the Parliamentary estate.

He added: 'So many people voted personally for Boris Johnson rather than voting for political parties.

'Politicians have to accept that our bosses are the British people, and they voted for that, they put him in office.'

Peterborough MP Paul Bristow acknowledged it had been a 'difficult day' but said there was support for Mr Johnson.

Mr Bristow said he left 'absolutely pumped' and added that nobody in the meeting had called for Mr Johnson to go.

The change in mood came as No 10 confirmed the PM would ask Ms Gray to produce a second report after the police investigation concludes, and committed to publishing it.

But Ms Gray's full report and the result of the police probe could yet threaten his premiership again, and Mr Johnson's former chief aide Dominic cummings is due to questions on the report online on Tuesday which could provide more damaging details.

Mr Johnson apologised to MPs after senior official Sue Gray found 'failures of leadership and judgment' as gatherings were held while England was under coronavirus restrictions in 2020 and 2021

Some suggested that the Home Secretary appeared to be giving Mr Johnson 'the finger', while others claimed she was 'squirming' and 'mentally updating her CV' following the revelations in the Sue Gray report

Boris Johnson was under fire in the Commons about Partygate yesterday

Polling on Monday night from Opinium said 62% of UK adults wanted the PM to resign, and 64% believed Tory MPs should make him go.

It comes after the Met revealed it is reviewing more than 300 images and over 500 pages of information passed to officers by the Gray inquiry.

Mr Rees-Mogg suggested the images should also be published, as he said: 'The more people see, the more understanding there will be of precisely what went on.'

Mr Johnson also told MPs he was taking the issue seriously, underling how he had nearly died from coronavirus.

While reports suggested he had told his party that election strategist Sir Lynton Crosby would be offering him strategic advice.

Mr Johnson insisted he was 'making changes' to Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, including by creating an Office of the Prime Minister with a permanent secretary to lead No 10.

While Downing Street said work was being carried out on a new policy to tackle the drinking culture in No 10, although a blanket ban on drinking is unlikely given its function as a venue for receptions for visiting dignitaries and charity events.

However, one Conservative who heard from Mr Johnson on Monday said the message to him was that MPs would 'judge you by your delivery'.
JACKSON, Miss.  If you are Black or Hispanic in a conservative state that already limits access to abortions, you are far more likely than a white woman to have one.

And if the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to further restrict or even ban abortions, minority women will bear the brunt of it, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

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The numbers are unambiguous. In Mississippi, people of color comprise 44% of the population but 80% of women receiving abortions, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks health statistics.

Getty Israel, founder of Sisters in Birth, a Jackson, Miss., clinic that serves pregnant women, is shown in this Dec. 17, 2021 photograph. Israel believes if lawmakers want to prevent abortions, they should eliminate risk factors that lead women to end pregnancies  low-wage jobs and lack of access to healthcare, higher education and transportation. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP)

In Texas, theyre 59% of the population and 74% of those receiving abortions. The numbers in Alabama are 35% and 70%. In Louisiana, minorities represent 42% of the population, according to the state Health Department, and about 72% of those receiving abortions.

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Abortion restrictions are racist, said Cathy Torres, a 25-year-old organizing manager with Frontera Fund, a Texas organization that helps women pay for abortions. They directly impact people of color, Black, brown, Indigenous people ... people who are trying to make ends meet.

Why the great disparities? Laurie Bertram Roberts, executive director of the Alabama-based Yellowhammer Fund, which provides financial support for women seeking abortion, said women of color in states with restrictive abortion laws often have limited access to health care and a lack of choices for effective birth control. Schools often have ineffective or inadequate sex education.

If abortions are outlawed, those same women  often poor  will likely have the hardest time traveling to distant parts of the country to terminate pregnancies or raising children they might struggle to afford, said Roberts, who is Black and once volunteered at Mississippis only abortion clinic.

Were talking about folks who are already marginalized, Roberts said.

Amanda Furdge, who is Black, was one of those women. She was a single, unemployed college student already raising one baby in 2014 when she found out she was pregnant with another. She said she didnt know how she could afford another child.

Shed had two abortions in Chicago. Getting access to an abortion provider there was no problem, Furdge said. But now she was in Mississippi, having moved home to escape an abusive relationship. Misled by advertising, she first went to a crisis pregnancy center which tried to talk her out of an abortion. By the time she found the abortion clinic, she was too far along to have the procedure.

Why cant you safely, easily access abortion here? asked Furdge, 34, who is happily raising her now 7-year-old son but continues to advocate for women having the right to choose.

Torres said historically, anti-abortion laws have been crafted in ways that hurt low-income women. She pointed to the Hyde Amendment, a 1980 law that prevents the use of federal funds to pay for abortions except in rare cases.

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She also cited the 2021 Texas law that bans abortion after around six weeks of pregnancy. Where she lives, near the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley, women are forced to travel to obtain abortions and must pass in-state border patrol checkpoints where they have to disclose their citizenship status, she said.

Regardless of what legislators say, Torres insisted, the intent is to target women of color, to control their bodies: They know who these restrictions are going to affect. They know that, but they dont care.

But Andy Gipson, a former member of the Mississippi Legislature who is now the states agriculture and commerce commissioner, said race had nothing to do with passage of Mississippis law against abortion after the 15th week. That law is now before the Supreme Court in a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the courts 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

Gipson, a Baptist minister who is white, said he believes all people are created in the image of God and have an innate value that starts at conception. Mississippi legislators were trying to protect women and babies by putting limits on abortion, he said.

I absolutely disagree with the concept that its racist or about anything other than saving babies lives, said Gipson, a Republican. Its about saving lives of the unborn and the lives and health of the mother, regardless of what color they are.

To those who say that forcing women to have babies will subject them to hardships, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a white Republican, said it is easier for working mothers to balance professional success and family life than it was 49 years ago when Roe was decided.

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Fitch, who is divorced, often points to her own experience of working outside the home while raising three children. But Fitch grew up in an affluent family and has worked in the legal profession  both factors that can give working women the means and the flexibility to get help raising children.

Thats not the case for many minority women in Mississippi or elsewhere. Advocates say in many places where abortion services are being curtailed, theres little support for women who carry a baby to term.

Mississippi is one of the poorest states, and people in low-wage jobs often dont receive health insurance. Women can enroll in Medicaid during pregnancy, but that coverage disappears soon after they give birth.

Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black infants were about twice as likely as white infants to die during the first year of life in Mississippi, according to the March of Dimes.

Across the country, U.S. Census Bureau information analyzed by The Associated Press shows fewer Black and Hispanic women have health insurance, especially in states with tight abortion restrictions. For example, in Texas, Mississippi and Georgia, at least 16% of Black women and 36% of Latinas were uninsured in 2019, some of the highest such rates in the country.

Problems are compounded in states without effective education programs about reproduction. Mississippi law says sex education in public schools must emphasize abstinence to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Discussion of abortion is forbidden, and instructors may not demonstrate how to use condoms or other contraception.

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The Mississippi director for Planned Parenthood Southeast, Tyler Harden, is a 26-year-old Black woman who had an abortion five years ago, an experience that drove her to a career supporting pregnant women and preserving abortion rights.

She said when she was attending public school in rural Mississippi, she didnt learn about birth control. Instead, a teacher stuck clear tape on students arms. The girls were told to put it on another classmates arm, and another, and watch how it lost the ability to form a bond.

Theyd tell you, If you have sex, this is who you are now: Youre just like this piece of tape  all used up and washed up and nobody would want it, Harden said.

When she became pregnant at 21, she knew she wanted an abortion. Her mother was battling cancer and Harden was in her last semester of college without a job or a place to live after graduation.

She said she was made to feel fear and shame, just as she had during sex ed classes. When she went to the clinic, she said protesters told her she was killing the most precious gift from God and that she was killing a Black baby, playing into what white supremacists want.

Hardens experience is not uncommon. The anti-abortion movement has often portrayed the abortion fight in racial terms.

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Outside the only abortion clinic operating in Mississippi, protesters hand out brochures that refer to abortion as Black genocide and say the late Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and a proponent of eugenics, desired to eradicate minorities. The brochures compare Sanger to Adolf Hitler and proclaim: Black lives did not matter to Margaret Sanger!

The Mississippi clinic is not affiliated with Planned Parenthood, and Planned Parenthood itself denounces Sangers belief in eugenics.

Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. >

White people are not alone in making this argument. Alveda King, an evangelist who is a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is among the Black opponents of abortion who, for years, have been portraying abortion as a way to wipe out people of their race.

Tanya Britton, a former president of Pro-Life Mississippi, often drives three hours from her home in the northern part of the state to pray outside the abortion clinic in Jackson. Britton is Black, and she said its a tragedy that the number of Black babies aborted since Roe would equal the population of several large cities. She also said people are too casual about terminating pregnancies.

You just cant take the life of someone because this is not convenient  I want to finish my education, Britton said. You wouldnt kill your 2-year-old because you were in graduate school.

But state Rep. Zakiya Summers of Jackson, who is Black and a mother, suggested theres nothing casual about what poor women are doing. Receiving little support in Mississippi  for example, the Legislature killed a proposal to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage in 2021 -- they are sometimes forced to make hard decisions.

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Women are just out here trying to survive, you know? she said. And Mississippi doesnt make it any easier.

____

Associated Press reporters Noreen Nasir in Jackson, Mississippi, and Jasen Lo in Chicago contributed to this report.
Almost 9billion has been wasted on personal protective equipment, it emerged last night.

In a staggering illustration of Government waste, much of the Covid kit was faulty or not used before its sell-by date.

Ministers also paid hugely over the odds and were left with equipment that later crashed in value. In all, 8.7billion has had to be written off by the Department of Health and Social Care.

The damning revelation comes a week after it emerged that 4.3billion had been lost to coronavirus support loan scams.

The 13billion combined cost to the taxpayer is more than the 12billion expected to be raised each year by April's planned national insurance hike.

Campaigners and MPs said the write-offs would enrage families facing the tax hike in the midst of a cost of living crisis.

Tory peer Michelle Mone was accused of using her position to help PPE Medpro win a 203m contract, despite her and her billionaire husband having close links to the company

The use of ten million gowns, imported via Miami-based jewellery designer Michael Saiger (pictured with his wife and business partner Rachel Russell), was suspended because officials put the wrong packaging specifications on the contract

Among those to make small fortunes from PPE contracts was banker Tim Horlick (pictured with his ex-wife Nicola) who sourced 253million of PPE from Asia after his firm Ayanda was fast-tracked by an adviser to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss

Several contracts worth 679million were handed to Anthony Hazell, a 36-year-old from south-east London, despite his background being in interior design

A nurse at King's College Hospital in London puts on full protective equipment

How taxpayer cash was thrown away on dodgy PPE deals Hedge funds masks not tight enough Ayanda  253m Around 50million FFP2 masks produced by Ayanda, which won deals worth 253million, were not ultimately distributed as they had ear-loops rather than head-loops, meaning they were unlikely to fit tightly enough. The company said it delivered according to its contract. Miami jewellers gowns had to be suspended Saiger LLC  70m The use of ten million gowns, imported via Miami-based jewellery designer Michael Saiger, was suspended because officials put the wrong packaging specifications on the contract. Pest firms aprons were the wrong size Pestfix  350m Officials are locked in a legal battle with Pestfix, a pest control company based in West Sussex, after a batch of tight-fitting FFP3 masks failed quality tests and six million aprons were rejected for use by the NHS because they were the wrong size. The company delivered its batch of IIR masks, two million gloves and other products to the contracted standard. The wasted RAF flight Selegna  value unknown At the height of the pandemic an RAF flight was sent to pick up a shipment of 400,000 Turkish gowns, supplied by Selegna, which turned out to be useless. Baroness Bra in sleaze accusations PPE Medpro  203m Tory peer Michelle Mone has been accused of using her position to help PPE Medpro win a 203million contract, despite her and her billionaire husband having close links to the company. Case of PPE resold for 5 Clandeboye Agencies  107.5m A box of 250 items of PPE produced by Clandeboye Agencies, a sweet wholesaler based in Northern Ireland, cost the taxpayer 1,000 but was resold in an online auction for just 5. Clandeboye insisted it delivered what was ordered at a competitive price. The million-mask recall Polyco Healthline  56m A million masks supplied by Polyco Healthline for intensive care wards had to be recalled because they did meet safety standards. Polyco said the product narrowly failed because tests were only conducted on men. Hancocks boost for furniture maker Monarch Acoustics  29m Matt Hancock, then health secretary, made a series of recommendations to the VIP lane for purchasing contracts including Monarch Acoustics, a furniture manufacturer. The firm had just 41,000 in the bank before the pandemic, but its 29million PPE contract helped it increase profits by 4,700 per cent. There are understood to have been no concerns raised about the quality of the products. Advertisement

Pressed in the Commons yesterday over fraud failures, Chancellor Rishi Sunak was forced to insist the Government would go after 'each and every' suspect.

But Tory backbenchers said the revelations strengthened their opposition to the national insurance increase.

'The vast amount of money that was wasted on PPE calls into question whether this tax rise is needed,' said Andrew Bridgen.

'When we see waste like this, it just proves that public service needs reform, rather than accepting the Blairite narrative that public services need ever more taxpayers' money.

'I will continue to oppose tax rises at a time when the tax burden is the highest since the war, and to call for cutting out waste and inefficiency in the public sector.'

Wes Streeting, Labour's health spokesman, said: 'This is a shocking and inexcusable level of waste that could have been put to far better use in hospitals and care homes that are understaffed and overstretched. Money has been poured down the drain at a time when a record six million are on NHS waiting lists.'

Lib Dem health spokesman Daisy Cooper said the Government was 'inept', adding: 'They cannot be trusted with our money and are totally out of touch.'

The official report reveals the Department of Health spent 12.1billion on PPE in the first year of the pandemic  from April 2020 to April 2021  but 8.7billion was wasted.

It estimated that 673million went on equipment found to be totally unusable, and 750million on items that were not used before their expiry dates.

Nearly 2.6billion was spent on 'items not suitable for use in the NHS,' while 111.5million was lost through transport delays. Two flights from China had to be cancelled due to lack of stock availability but the Government still paid the 649,000 deposit to the airlines.

Another 4.7billion was lost due to the decrease in value of the PPE stockpile after initial demand  and high prices  subsided. The report said it had 'left the Department open to the risk of fraud' and 'unable to cope'.

Other PPE problems included failed quality tests, face masks ordered with the wrong loops and gowns that were the wrong size or sent in the wrong packaging.

Further losses recorded in the report include 1.1million on an undelivered order for ventilators 'which did not fully meet functionality requirements at the time'.

The analysis from Gareth Davies, auditor general to the House of Commons, acknowledged that Whitehall was put under 'extraordinary pressure' by the pandemic.

But he said that it 'was not able to manage adequately some of the elevated risks, resulting in significant losses for the taxpayer'.

Among those to make small fortunes from PPE contracts was banker Tim Horlick who sourced 253million of PPE from Asia after his firm Ayanda was fast-tracked by an adviser to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

Pest control firm Pestfix, whose owner Dan England was dubbed the 'bird repeller', had just 18,000 in the bank when it scooped a 348million contract for PPE.

Several contracts worth 679million were handed to Anthony Hazell, a 36-year-old from south-east London, despite his background being in interior design.

The Daily Mail's historic Mail Force campaign played a crucial role in the crisis by delivering much-needed PPE to the front line as care home staff and hospitals struggled to get supplies.

The Department of Health defended its PPE strategy last night, saying: 'The supply of these vital items helped keep our NHS open at a moment of national crisis to deliver a world-class service to the public. We are seeking to recover costs from suppliers wherever possible.'

Pressed in the Commons yesterday over fraud failures, Chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured) was forced to insist the Government would go after 'each and every' suspect

Wes Streeting, Labour's health spokesman, said: 'This is a shocking and inexcusable level of waste that could have been put to far better use in hospitals and care homes that are understaffed and overstretched'

Officials stressed that the bulk of the losses were due to the fall in value of PPE following the height of the pandemic.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'It's important to note that our priority during a pandemic is to save lives  that was the case at the start of this coronavirus outbreak.

'We were acting in a highly competitive global market with many countries imposing export bans and obviously we were seeking to secure PPE for frontline clinicians.

'We know that global prices have understandably shifted substantially throughout the pandemic with the market now returning to business as usual and so the value of goods (is) becoming lower.

'So for example we now estimate the value of aprons that we purchased is a third of what we paid during the height of the pandemic. Our approach was justified because it was necessary to get those aprons and other important pieces of PPE to the front line.'

Meanwhile, MPs on the all-party parliamentary group for coronavirus were yesterday told the Government was fleeced by 'cowboy' PCR test providers who inflated prices during the pandemic.
On land, heatwaves can be deadly for humans and wildlife and can devastate crops and forests.

Unusually warm periods can also occur in the ocean. These can last for weeks or months, killing off kelp forests and corals, and producing other significant impacts on marine ecosystems, fishing and aquaculture industries.

Yet until recently, the formation, distribution and frequency of marine heatwaves had received little research attention.

Long-term change

Climate change is warming ocean waters and causing shifts in the distribution and abundance of seaweeds, corals, fish and other marine species. For example, tropical fish species are now commonly found in Sydney Harbour.

But these changes in ocean temperatures are not steady or even, and scientists have lacked the tools to define, synthesize and understand the global patterns of marine heatwaves and their biological impacts.

At a meeting in early 2015, we convened a group of scientists with expertise in atmospheric climatology, oceanography and ecology to form a marine heatwaves working group to develop a definition for the phenomenon: A prolonged period of unusually warm water at a particular location for that time of the year. Importantly, marine heatwaves can occur at any time of the year, summer or winter.

Unusually warm periods can last for weeks or months, killing off kelp forests and corals, and producing other significant impacts on marine ecosystems, fishing and aquaculture industries worldwide (pictured)

With the definition in hand, we were finally able to analyse historical data to determine patterns in their occurrence.

Analysis of marine heatwave trends

Over the past century, marine heatwaves have become longer and more frequent around the world. The number of marine heatwave days increased by 54 per cent from 1925 to 2016, with an accelerating trend since 1982.

We collated more than 100 years of sea surface temperature data around the world from ship-based measurements, shore station records and satellite observations, and looked for changes in how often marine heatwaves occurred and how long they lasted.

This graph shows a yearly count of marine heatwave days from 1900 to 2016, as a global average.

We found that from 1925 to 1954 and 1987 to 2016, the frequency of heatwaves increased 34 per cent and their duration grew by 17 per cent.

These long-term trends can be explained by ongoing increases in ocean temperatures. Given the likelihood of continued ocean surface warming throughout the 21st century, we can expect to see more marine heatwaves globally in the future, with implications for marine biodiversity.

'The Blob' effect

Numbers and statistics are informative, but here's what that means underwater.

A marine ecosystem that had 30 days of extreme heat in the early 20th century might now experience 45 days of extreme heat. That extra exposure can have detrimental effects on the health of the ecosystem and the economic benefits, such as fisheries and aquaculture, derived from it.

A number of recent marine heatwaves have done just that.

In 2011, a marine heatwave off western Australia killed off a kelp forest and replaced it with turf seaweed. The ecosystem shift remained even after water temperatures returned to normal, signalling a long-lasting or maybe even permanent change.

That same event led to widespread loss of seagrass meadows from the iconic Shark Bay area, with consequences for biodiversity including increased bacterial blooms, declines in blue crabs, scallops and the health of green turtles, and reductions in the long-term carbon storage of these important habitats.

Examples of marine heatwave impacts on ecosystems and species. Coral bleaching and seagrass die-back (top left and right). Mass mortality and changes in patterns of commercially important species s (bottom left and right)

Similarly, a marine heatwave in the Gulf of Maine disrupted the lucrative lobster fishery in 2012. The warm water in late spring allowed lobsters to move inshore earlier in the year than usual, which led to early landings, and an unexpected and significant price drop.

More recently, a persistent area of warm water in the North Pacific, nicknamed 'The Blob', stayed put for years (2014-2016), and caused fishery closures, mass strandings of marine mammals and harmful algal bloom outbreaks along the coast. It even changed large-scale weather patterns in the Pacific Northwest.

As global ocean temperatures continue to rise and marine heatwaves become more widespread, the marine ecosystems many rely upon for food, livelihoods and recreation will become increasingly less stable and predictable.

The climate change link

Anthropogenic, that is human-caused, climate change is linked to some of these recent marine heatwaves.

For example, human emissions of greenhouse gases made the 2016 marine heatwave in tropical Australia, which led to massive bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, 53 times more likely to occur.

Even more dramatically, the 2015-16 marine heatwave in the Tasman Sea that persisted for more than eight months and disrupted Tasmanian fisheries and aquaculture industries was over 300 times more likely, thanks to anthropogenic climate change.

For scientists, the next step is to quantify future changes under different warming scenarios. How much more often will they occur? How much warmer will they be? And how much longer will they last?

Ultimately, scientists should develop forecasts for policy makers, managers and industry that could predict the future impacts of marine heatwaves for weeks or months ahead. Having that information would help fishery managers know when to open or close a fishery, aquaculture businesses to plan harvest dates and conservation managers to implement additional monitoring efforts.

Forecasts can help manage the risks, but in the end, we still need urgent action to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming. If not, marine ecosystems are set for an ever-increasing hammering from extreme ocean heat.

Source: Eric Oliver, Assistant Professor, Dalhousie University; Alistair Hobday, Senior Principal Research Scientist - Oceans and Atmosphere, CSIRO; Dan Smale, Research Fellow in Marine Ecology, Marine Biological Association; Neil Holbrook, Professor, University of Tasmania; Thomas Wernberg, ARC Future Fellow in Marine Ecology, University of Western Australia in a piece for The Conversation.
Scans of an ancient Egyptian child mummy interred in a tomb 2,000 years ago have revealed they were buried with a bandaged, pus-filled, leg wound.

The child  thought to be between 2.54 years old  has the first-known example of an original ancient Egyptian dressing.

The nameless girl was originally found in Hawara's 'Tomb of Aline' in 1892. Thought to date back to around 24 AD, this grave is notable in that three of its eight mummified occupants had been decorated with a portrait of the individual.

The girl, depicted wearing simple jewellery and ringlets in her hair, is thought to have been the middle of the three daughters of Aline.

This middle-or-upper-class woman, after whom the tomb was named, was identified thanks to an inscription which also noted she died aged 35.

Her daughter, along with 20 other mummies, were X-ray imaged by experts based in Germany as part of a search for examples of ancient infections.

The findings, they said, offer a glimpse at ancient Egyptian maladies and treatments.

Scans of an ancient Egyptian child mummy interred in a tomb 2,000 years ago have revealed that the 2.54-year-old was buried with a bandaged, pus-filled , leg wound. Pictured: an X-ray slice running longitudinally through the girl's foot and lower left leg. The bandage, underneath the mummy's textile wrappings, can be seen highlighted with a solid arrow, while hyper-dense masses that are consistent with dried pus deposits are highlighted with dashed arrows

The preserved individual has the first-known example of an original ancient Egyptian dressing, and was found in the 'Tomb of Aline' at Hawara in 1892. Thought to date back to 24 AD, this grave is notable in that three of its eight mummified occupants had been decorated with a portrait of said individual. Pictured: the mummified girl, thought to be a daughter of Aline, whose portrait was painted on linen covering her face

The nameless girl (left), depicted wearing simple jewellery and ringlets in her hair, is thought to have been the middle of the three daughters of Aline (right)

THE TOMB OF ALINE The 'Tomb of Aline' is an ancient Egyptian grave, located in the archaeological site of Hawara, south of Crocodilopolis, near the Faiyum oasis. It was excavated by the German archaeologist Richard von Kaufmann in the March of 1892. The tomb comprised a shaft leading to a simple mudbrick-lined pit some 9.5 x 11.5 feet (2.8 x 3.5 m) in dimensions. The pit contained eight mummies, three of which were adorned with portraits and two had paper masks, while the remainder were unadorned. Mummy portraits  sometimes called 'Fayum portraits' after the region in which they are usually found  tend to be associated with middle-or-upper-class individuals from Roman Egypt. Grave goods found in the tomb included a clay pot with a spray of flowers, which would have been typical for such burials. The three portrait-bearing mummies  a woman and two young girls  have been identified based on an inscription as 'Aline', 'daughter of Herodes', who died age 35 in 'year 10'. It is thought that the two masked mummies  a man and an older girl  likely represent Aline's husband and elder daughter. Based on the Aline's depicted hairstyle, archaeologists believe that this refers to the 10th year of the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, dating the tomb to 24 AD. Advertisement

The investigation was undertaken by radiologist Stephanie Panzer of the Berufsgenossenschaftliche Unfallklinik Murnau and her colleagues.

'In ancient Egypt, infections were likely a common aspect of daily life and the major cause of death,' the researchers explained in their paper.

'Infancy and childhood have long been recognised as critical periods of increased physiological stress, morbidity and mortality.

'However, the overall evidence of infections in ancient mummies is limited, especially in the less frequently investigated child mummies.'

Professor Panzer and colleagues undertook whole-body CT scans of 21 ancient Egyptian child mummies that were held in the collections of various German, Italian and Swiss museums.

The scans revealed that 11 of the mummified children were male, eight were female and two were of indeterminate sex.

The team's analysis revealed signs of purulent (pus-bearing) infections in three of the 21 child mummies. One of the mummies, the nameless daughter of Aline, was found to have a bandage-like structure on her lower left leg that the team believe represents a dressed skin lesion.

Given its detection underneath her textile wrappings, the bandage is believed to be original and was around 0.8 x 0.5 x 0.4 inches (20 x 12 x 9 millimetres) in size.

The scans revealed it had been placed over masses in the underlying tissue that are consistent with dried pus, suggesting that the child had either an abscess or purulent cellulitis - an infection of the inner layers of the skin.

It is unclear why the bandage was left in place over the wound, but the researchers suggest the embalmers may have wanted the body to be as well-prepared as possible for life after death.

'Maybe they tried somehow to continue the healing process for the afterlife,' paper author and palaeopathologist Albert Zink of Italy's Institute for Mummy Studies told Business Insider.

Given its detection underneath her textile wrappings, the mummy's bandage (highlighted with a solid arrow) is believed to be original and was around 0.8 x 0.5 x 0.4 inches (20 x 12 x 9 millimetres) in size. The scans revealed it had been placed over masses in the underlying tissue that are consistent with dried pus (highlighted with a dashed arrow)  suggesting that the child had a either an abscess or purulent cellulitis

The researchers also scanned the mummy of Aline's youngest daughter (left)  believed to have been around 23 years old at the time of death  and found evidence of dried pus within part of the right hip joint (right, highlighted with an arrow), likely caused by septic arthritis

Pictured: the two scanned mummies of Aline's daughters, seen here on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany. The elder of the pair (left) was found to have a bandage covering a pus-filled wound on her lower left leg, while the youngest (right) likely had septic arthritis

How ancient Egyptians treated wounds According to the team, the ancient Egyptians had a well-established understanding of medical practices. 'We know from other evidence, like papyrus, that they had a good experience of treating wounds and injuries,' said Dr Zink. It was for this reason, he explained, that is was surprising that this study is the first time a wound dressing has been found in a mummy. 'It's very likely that they applied some specific herbs or ointment to treat the inflammation of this area,' he added. Further analysis with physical samples, he explained, would be needed to explore this idea. In the study, the team used only non-destructive imaging techniques to examine the mummies. Advertisement

The researchers also scanned the mummy of Aline's youngest daughter  believed to have been around 23 years old at the time of death  and found evidence of dried pus within part of the right hip joint, likely caused by septic arthritis.

The final mummy that showed signs of infection was that of a 911-year-old-boy from the PtolemaicRoman Period (305 BC641 AD).

Scans revealed the presence of dried masses in the lower parts of both maxillary sinuses, which lie below the cheeks on either side of the nose, indicating that he likely suffered from purulent sinusitis.

The boy also appeared to be suffering from a pus-filled abscess that had originated either in the back of the mouth or in the upper throat, but had reached such an advanced stage of infection that it was impossible to tell which.

'This study appears to be the first to describe radiologically visualised structures consistent with dried pus in ancient Egyptian mummies,' the team concluded.

'These cases may serve as models for further palaeopathological investigation.'

The investigation, they added, 'also appears to be the first to physically demonstrate an original ancient Egyptian dressing.

'The evidence of an original dressing contributes to our knowledge of ancient Egyptian medicine.'

The full findings of the study were published in the International Journal of Paleopathology.

The final mummy that showed signs of infection was that of a 911-year-old-boy (left) from the PtolemaicRoman Period (305 BC641 AD). Scans revealed the boy had suffered from a pus-filled absence that originated in either the back of the mouth or in the upper throat (right), but that had reached such an advanced stage of infection it was impossible to tell which.

The child mummy bearing the first-known example of an original ancient Egyptian dressing was found in the 'Tomb of Aline' at Hawara, Egypt, in 1892
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The worlds first hydrogen-powered flying boat that can soar three feet above the water's surface will be built in Dubai next year, authorities have announced.

Simply called 'The Jet', the vehicle is set to be powered by two hydrogen fuel cells that produce no emissions as it sails smoothly over the waves 'in silence'.

Hydrogen fuel cells create electricity by mixing hydrogen and oxygen in specially treated plates, which are combined to form a bigger fuel cell 'stack'.

The Jet will also use 'hydrofoils'  wing-like blades underneath the hull that cut through the water as the boat speeds up, creating an uplift, similar to the aerofoils used on airplanes.

Once built, The Jet will span 32 feet, weigh 6 tones and be able to transport up to 12 passengers plus a pilot over waters at a cruising speeds of up to 40 knots, or 46 miles per hour.

Concept images of The Jet show an unusual slender white vehicle with blacked out passenger windows, like a marine version of a swish limousine.

World's first hydrogen-powered flying boat simply called 'The Jet' that can soar 3ft above the waves will be built in Dubai next year

Once built, The Jet will be able to transport up to 12 passengers plus a pilot over waters at a cruising speeds of up to 40 knots, or 46 miles per hour

Concept images of The Jet show an unusual slender white vehicle with blacked out passenger windows, like a marine version of a swish limousine

THE FIRST CLEAN-ENERGY, HYDROGEN-POWERED FLYING BOAT 'The Jet' is being built by Switzerland-based start-up THE JET ZeroEmission, led by a French yachtsman Alain Thebault. It's described as the first clean-energy, hydrogen-powered flying boat. The vehicle is powered by two hydrogen fuel cells that produce no emissions. Hydrogen fuel cells create electricity to power a battery and motor by mixing hydrogen and oxygen in specially treated plates. The boat is being built in Dubai in time for COP28, next year's United Nations Climate Change Conference. Advertisement

The Jet's designer, Switzerland-based start-up THE JET ZeroEmission, has signed an agreement with the UAEs Zenith Marine Services to manufacture the vehicle.

The city will also host the first ever test run of the vehicle, in November 2023, to coincide with COP28, next year's United Nations Climate Change Conference.

THE JET ZeroEmission was founded by French yachtsman Alain Thebault, and has been able to secure part of the required funding of 10 million Euros (8.3 million) as part of the agreement. The company has not closed fundraising yet, and is interested in discussions with new potential investors.

'We are pleased to make this announcement from Dubai, and be able to manufacture and launch The Jet, which is going to be the worlds first boat to sail without noise, waves, or emissions and have the capability of flying 80cm above the waters,' said Mr Thebault.

'Dubai is an ideal destination for innovators and companies from around the world to develop their innovative projects and reach their desired success, which is why we have announced The Jet, a project that I had the privilege of conceiving with the team.

'We look forward to meeting with those interested in this amazing flying boat at the 28th International Climate Summit (COP28 UAE) that will be hosted in the UAE.'

According to THE JET ZeroEmission, The Jet will mainly be dedicated to serving hotels and 'exclusive individuals', and will be available in the 'most glamourous spots in the world'.

The Jet is mainly dedicated to serving hotels and 'exclusive individuals'. It will be available in the most glamourous spots in the world, from the most expensive cities to the most stunning natural locations

Switzerland-based start-up THE JET ZeroEmission has signed an agreement with the UAEs Zenith Marine Services to manufacture The Jet

The firm says: 'We make people experience a curated boat trip, flying in silence and exquisitely over the waters of the most glamourous seashores, rivers and lakes.

'Thanks to this one-of-a-kind journey, our end users feel deep inside that they are helping to preserve the planet, hence become passionate about our purpose and our brand.'

As well as capacity of up to a dozen passengers, The Jet will also have space for luggage and bikes.

It will be equipped with two fuel cells and an air conditioner as well as other environmentally friendly technologies that help reduce carbon emissions.

Bringing The Jet to Dubai waters will be a step forward for the clean-tech industry, which focuses on greener alternatives to burning fossil fuels and other polluting power sources.

In 2017, the UAE launched the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050. Under this Strategy, Dubai aims to produce 75 per cent of its energy requirements from clean sources by 2050.

The Jet can transport up to 12 passengers plus a pilot over the waters at a cruising speed of 40 knots, or 46 miles per hour

The Jet uses 'hydrofoils' - wing-like blades underneath the hull that cut through the water as the boat speeds up, creating an uplift

The concept images also show the black hydrofoils  lifting surfaces that are analogous to the aerofoils of an aircraft's wing  pointing downwards into the water.

As a hydrofoil boat gains speed, the foils lift the hull out of the water, helping to reduce drag and enable greater speeds.

Hydrofoils were first conceived by the Parisian engineer Emmanuel Denis Farcot in 1869. Hydrofoil ships are faster than ships of conventional design but are limited to moderate sizes.
Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their full self-driving software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt.

The firm will disable the feature with an over-the-internet software update, documents posted on Tuesday by US safety regulators say.

The feature, that was being tested by a number of drivers, lets vehicles go through junctions with a stop sign at up to 5.6 miles per hour.

The documents say Tesla agreed to the recall after two meetings with officials from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Tesla says it knows of no crashes or injuries caused by the feature, and no warranty claims as a result of issues with the rolling start feature.

Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their full self-driving software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt

Recall covers Model S sedans and X SUVs from 2016 to 2022, as well as 2017 to 2022 Model 3 sedans and 2020 to 2022 Model Y SUVs

The recall covers Model S sedans and X SUVs from 2016 to 2022, as well as 2017 to 2022 Model 3 sedans and 2020 to 2022 Model Y SUVs.

Selected Tesla drivers are beta testing the full self-driving software, but have to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times.

The cars cannot drive themselves and drivers must be ready to take action at all times, the company says.

A firmware release to disable the rolling stops feature, which was first released on October 20, is expected to be sent out in early February.

Safety advocates complain that Tesla should not be allowed to test the vehicles on public roads with untrained drivers, and that the Tesla software can malfunction, exposing other motorists and pedestrians to danger. Most of the other car companies with similar software test with trained human safety drivers.

The NHTSA met Tesla on January 10 and 19 to discuss how the software operates, the documents said.

On January 20, the company agreed to disable the rolling stops with the software update.

Owners will get required notification letters on March 28.

Elon Musk's Tesla introduced the rolling stop feature in a software update that was sent out to the testing owners on October 20

TESLA AUTOPILOT: CAMERAS AND SENSORS LET THE CAR SEE THE ROAD Autopilot uses cameras, ultrasonic sensors and radar to see and sense the environment around the car. The sensor and camera suite provides drivers with an awareness of their surroundings that a driver alone would not otherwise have. A powerful onboard computer processes these inputs in a matter of milliseconds to help what the company say makes driving 'safer and less stressful.' Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car nor does it make a car autonomous. Before enabling Autopilot, driver must agree to 'keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times' and to always 'maintain control and responsibility for your car.' Once engaged, if insufficient torque is applied, Autopilot will also deliver an escalating series of visual and audio warnings, reminding drivers to place their hands on the wheel. Any of Autopilot's features can be overridden at any time by steering or applying the brakes. Advertisement

The rolling stop feature lets the Tesla go through stop signs as long as the owner has enabled the function.

The vehicles have to be travelling below 5.6mph while approaching the intersection, and no 'relevant' moving cars, pedestrians or cyclists can be detected nearby.

All roads leading to the junction had to have speed limits of 30mph or less, the documents said.

The Teslas would then be allowed to go through the intersection at 0.1mph to 5.6mph without coming to a complete stop.

Alain Kornhauser, faculty chairman of autonomous vehicle engineering at Princeton University, said the recall is an example of the NHTSA doing its job as the nation's road safety watchdog.

The recall 'shows that they can be effective even if Tesla should have been more responsible in the first place,' he said.

In November, the NHTSA said it was looking into a complaint from a Tesla driver that the full self-driving software caused a crash.

The driver said the Model Y went into the wrong lane and was hit by another vehicle. The SUV gave the driver an alert halfway through the turn and the driver tried to turn the wheel to avoid other traffic, according to the complaint.

But the car took control and 'forced itself into the incorrect lane,' the driver reported.

No one was hurt in the crash on November 3 in Brea, California, according to the complaint.

In December, Tesla agreed to update its less sophisticated autopilot driver-assist system after the NHTSA opened an investigation.

The company agreed to stop allowing video games to be played on centre touch screens while its vehicles are moving.

The agency is also investigating why Teslas on autopilot have repeatedly crashed into emergency vehicles parked on roads.

Philip Koopman, electrical and computer engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said 4-way stop signs, like the one triggering the rolling stop feature, are placed to protect intersections for children when no crossing guard is available.

He told abc News that the machine learning system used by Tesla can mistakenly identify objects, calling it an 'unsafe behavior that should never be put in vehicles'.

Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the governors safety association said the facility 'violates state laws' and isn't surprised as 'Tesla keeps pushing the bounds of safety to see what they can get away with'.

During an earnings release last week, Tesla said the 'full self-driving' feature is being tested by nearly 60,000 owners throughout the US.

They see the software, which costs $12,000 on top of the price of the car, as a means to become profitable more quickly.
If your dog is ultra-friendly, they might have trouble establishing themselves in the presence of other canines.

That is according to researchers in Hungary, who quizzed hundreds of people who owned at least two dogs.

Results showed that friendlier dogs are lower down the pecking order in multi-dog households.

Dogs that are more extraverted, conscientious and open rank higher in the hierarchy, while more agreeable and affectionate dogs generally rank lower, they found.

In addition, older dogs tend to dominate in multi-dog households, according to the findings, which suggest dogs may get more authoritative as they mature.

Dogs that are more extraverted, conscientious and open tend to rank higher in the hierarchy, while more friendly dogs tend to rank lower. In addition, older dogs tend to dominate in multi-dog households, according to recent study from the Department of Ethology at Eotvos Lorand University (stock image)

THE 'BIG FIVE' CANINE PERSONALITY TRAITS - Neuroticism: Uncertainty, more aggressive towards strangers and other dogs - Extraversion: Dogs that go bounding though life and seek interactions with new people - Openness: Curiosity to the environment and enjoyment of sensory experiences - Agreeableness: Friendliness, an agreeable nature - Conscientiousness: Being reliable, thorough and efficient in tasks, determined and not easily distracted Advertisement

The new study was conducted by experts at the Department of Ethology at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary.

'We assessed the association between the personality and social rank of companion dogs,' say the team, who did not look at differences between breeds for the study.

'There is a complex association between owner-perceived dominance and personality in group-living companion dogs.

'Personality of individuals in a multi-dog setting could affect the group-hierarchy.'

The team designed an online survey for owners of multiple dogs to assess two factors  firstly, the dominance relationship between co-habiting dogs via their everyday interactions, referred to as the 'dominance score'.

Dominant dog behaviour can include more offensive moves and less 'self-handicapping' (inhibiting their own abilities to match those of a weaker partner) during play fights.

Secondly, the team assessed dogs' individual personalities using the Big Five personality traits  the most commonly used model of personality in academic psychology for humans, but also for other animals.

The Big Five personality traits are defined as neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Graphical abstract from the paper. Dogs' rank showed multiple links with canine personality traits. Three personality traits (extraversion, openness and conscientiousness) showed a positive correlation with the dominance score

DOGS GET WORSE SEPARATION ANXIETY WHEN WITH ANOTHER POOCH, STUDY FINDS If your dog experiences separation anxiety, getting another pooch might not be the answer to keeping them happy, a recent study suggests. Academics in Switzerland fitted dog-owning homes with cameras to monitor canine behaviour  some in the company of another dog  when their owners were away. They found that barking (an indicator of separation anxiety) was more common in multi-dog households compared to single-dog households. Physical activity (another potential indicator that can lead to destructive behaviour) was also higher in multi-dog households, primarily in the first hour of separation. Read more: Dogs get worse separation anxiety when with another pooch Advertisement

In all, researchers analysed the entries of 1,082 dogs from around the world. All were companion dogs  in other words, dogs that provide companionship as a pet, rather than usefulness by doing specific tasks.

The only criterion of the questionnaire was that the participating owners had to have more than one dogs living together.

Researchers only included the data of dogs more than one year old, because both personality and social behaviour still rapidly change in puppyhood.

Three personality traits  extraversion, openness and conscientiousness  showed a positive correlation with the dominance score, the experts found.

In other words, more extroverted, open and conscientious dogs had a higher social rank.

As for the fourth trait, the more agreeable or 'friendly' dogs scored lower on dominance, the team found.

Meanwhile, the team found no association between dominance and the fifth trait  neuroticism  at all.

The researchers also confirmed the association between dogs' age and their dominance rank.

Similarly to previous studies they found that older dogs are more likely to be dominant.

'As personality can slowly change with age, we needed to check whether our results still hold regardless of age,' said study author Kata Vekony.

'We found negative correlations between age and extraversion and age and openness while these traits have positive associations with rank.

'Agreeableness had a similarly negative correlation with age and a negative association with the dominance.'

The Big Five personality traits are the best accepted and most commonly used model of personality in academic psychology

Several different experiences, many of which are not related to competitive situations, are involved in the development of personality traits of dogs, the researchers say.

The team admit that their study cannot clearly conclude that certain personality traits cause dominance, and so further research is needed to accurately identify causality.

They also argue that 'dominance' is not a personality trait like the traits of the Big Five are, because 'the core idea' behind personality is that it is relatively stable across time and various contexts, while dominance can change.

'While our results support the notion that dominance is not a separate personality trait in dogs, further research is needed to discover, what causal relationships may exist between personality traits and rank,' said study author Peter Pongracz.

The study has been published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.
NASA has revealed plans to sink the International Space Station (ISS) in an ocean in one of the most remote places on Earth - also known as a 'spacecraft cemetery'.

This is expected to happen in January 2031, beginning with a gradual 'de-orbit' of the massive 930,000lbs facility, with the parts that don't burn up in the atmosphere coming down in an uninhabited area of the south Pacific Ocean, called Point Nemo.

This is said to be the most remote place on the planet, the furthest point from any human settlement in any direction, where satellites and rockets are put to rest.

The station, which launched in 1998, was designed to last for 15 years, and will have been operational for over 30 by the time it is sent plunging into the ocean.

NASA says safety checks of the overlying structure have shown it to be safe through to 2030, but each new docking and undocking adds further strain, and issues with some of the Russian modules, including repeated leaks, have started to increase.

As part of the transition plan, NASA said a number of commercially operated modules will be added to the station over the next decade.

The aim is that eventually they will separate and form their own commercial station, joining at least three other privately-run orbital facilities launching before 2030.

NASA says it will be a customer of private operators, rather than run its own facilities, much like it currently purchases seats with SpaceX to get astronauts into orbit.

NASA has revealed plans to sink the International Space Station (ISS) in an ocean in one of the most remote places on Earth - also known as a 'spacecraft cemetery'

The ISS launched in November 1998, and has now been continuously occupied since November 2000, 'standing as a beacon of international cooperation', with the U.S., Russia and the European Space Agency taking the lead.

However, it was designed to last for 15 years, and ha now been operational for more than 20, and will have been operational for 31 by the time it is destroyed.

The end-of-life plan followed a commitment by President Joe Biden to support the station to 2030, by which time commercial alternative should be operational.

'The ISS is a unique laboratory that is returning enormous scientific, educational, and technological developments to benefit people on Earth and is enabling our ability to travel into deep space,' NASA wrote, when announcing the new plan.

This is expected to happen in January 2031, beginning with a gradual 'de-orbit' of the massive 930,000lbs facility, with the parts that don't burn up in the atmosphere coming down in an uninhabited area of the south Pacific Ocean, called Point Nemo

The station, which launched in 1998, was designed to last for 15 years, and will have been operational for over 30 by the time it is sent plunging into the ocean

COMMERCIAL FIRMS EXPECTED TO TAKE OVER THE LOW EARTH ORBIT ECONOMY In the coming decades humans will be visiting space more frequently, and will be doing so in luxury, thanks to a number of new space station concepts, including a 'business park' by Blue Origin and a Voyager space hotel. More than 600 people have been into space since Yuri Gagarin made the first solo orbit of the planet on April 12, 1961, with more than 250 of them visiting the International Space Station (ISS). Unfortunately, the ISS is starting to show its age, and so both the US and Russia are keen to see it replaced, with NASA looking to the private sector to take on the responsibility of keeping humans in low Earth orbit. A number of concepts for future commercial space stations have been proposed, including a massive 'space business park' called Orbital Reef, developed by a consortium led by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. This 'address in orbit' could be operational by 2027, and would be capable of housing up to ten people at a time, and be for both commercial and government use, including experiments, tourism and even cinema. However, a major driver of commercial space is expected to be tourism, and with that in mind the Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC) proposed the rotating Voyager Station. This would be a luxury space hotel, capable of housing up to 400 people, also providing 'pods' for researchers, governments and scientists - and doing so while generating artificial gravity. Other ideas suggested for future space stations include floating labs, connected by hatches, through to versions of various existing spacecraft, such as Northrup Grumman's Cygnus, that could be connected together. Many of the proposals could be launched by the end of this decade, when the ISS is expected to reach the end of its 'safe lifespan' - bringing an end to the government-led monopoly in low Earth orbit. Advertisement

'Based on the ISS structural health analysis, there is high confidence that its life can be extended through 2030,' NASA wrote in a report on the decommissioning.

'The technical lifetime of the ISS is limited by the primary structure, which includes the modules, radiators and truss structures.

'Other systems such as power, environmental control and life support, are repairable and replaceable in orbit,' the agency wrote, adding that the problem is the lifetime of the primary structure is affected by vehicle docking and undocking.

When the station reaches the end of its life, which is determined by the main structure, not the individual modules, a series of events will happen.

First, all of the commercial modules, and some of the more reliable older modules - potentially including newer Russian facilities - will separate from the structure.

Then, in a perfect scenario, its orbital altitude - currently about 253 miles - will be lowered until it hits the atmosphere.

A number of spacecraft will be sent, uncrewed, to the ISS in its final days before de-orbit, to help push it towards the Earth. NASA suspects this can be accomplished by three Russian Progress spacecraft, and a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft.

As it drops through the layers of Earth's atmosphere it will be dragged and pulled ever lower, travelling so fast debris will be cast off behind it.

A large portion of this will burn up due to the friction of the atmosphere, but some will remain - following the main bulk as it heads to its final resting place.

To avoid the debris hitting anything, or causing any damage, NASA plans to send the station into Earth orbit at a trajectory that would take it to the most remote area on the planet, a spot in the South Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo.

This is the place on Earth most distant from any single point of land or human habitat - and is where decommissioned spacecraft, including rocket stages, are sent.

There are significant benefits gained from being involved in a facility like the ISS, NASA explained, including around research and astronaut training.

NASA says it doesn't want to lose access to these benefits when the station reaches its end of life, so have launched a transition plan up to January 2031.

This timetable is to give U.S. industry time to develop 'commercial destinations and markets for a thriving space economy.'

NASA says it plans to purchase space for at least two astronauts on a commercial space station before 2030, while the ISS is still operational.

There are multiple companies looking to operate a commercial station, including Axiom Space, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Northrup Grumman.

'The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a groundbreaking scientific platform in microgravity,' said Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station at NASA Headquarters.

'This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit.

NASA says safety checks of the overlying structure have shown it to be safe through to 2030, but each new docking and undocking adds further strain, and issues with some of the Russian modules, including repeated leaks, have started to increase

NASA says it will be a customer of private operators, rather than run its own facilities, much like it currently purchases seats with SpaceX to get astronauts into orbit

POINT NEMO: THE MOST REMOTE LOCATION ON EARTH 'Point Nemo,' named after the famous submarine sailor from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, is the most remote place on Earth. This remote oceanic location is located at coordinates 4852.6S 12323.6W. This puts it about 1,670 miles from the nearest landmass - Ducie Island. Nemo has the Pitcairn Islands to the north, Easter Islands to the northeast, and Maher Islands to the south. Its remote position has made it a popular spot for space agencies. They use it as a graveyard for rocket stages and satellites, as it allows for them to return to Earth reducing risk. Advertisement

'We look forward to maximizing these returns from the space station through 2030 while planning for transition to commercial space destinations that will follow.'

Today, with U.S. commercial crew and cargo transportation systems online, the station is busier than ever.

The ISS National Laboratory, responsible for utilizing 50 per cent of NASA's resources aboard the space station, hosts hundreds of experiments.

These are from other government agencies, academia, and commercial users to return benefits to people and industry on the ground.

Meanwhile, NASA's research and development activities aboard are advancing the technologies and procedures that will be necessary to send the first woman and first person of color to the moon in 2025 and the first humans to Mars in the 2030s.

'The extension of operations to 2030 will continue to return these benefits to the United States and to humanity as a whole,' NASA wrote.

Doing so 'while preparing for a successful transition of capabilities to one or more commercially-owned and -operated LEO destinations.'

As well as entering a contract for an Axiom Space module to be attached to the space station by 2025, which will also include an additional 'movie studio module', NASA has supported three 'free-flying commercial space stations'.

These are being developed by Northrup Grumman, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin - ranging from small laboratories to a 'space business park'.

The aim is to have the commercial modules launched by the mid-2020s, and these free-flying stations operational before 2030 - creating a seamless transition.

Axiom Space has the most developed of the commercial stations, and will initially launch as a module attached to the International Space Station in 2024 (pictured, as it will be when complete)

This is expected to happen alongside China expanding its Tiangong space station, and Russia launching its own station, possibly using ISS modules.

'The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA's assistance,' said Phil McAlister, Director of Commercial Space for NASA.

'We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space.'

It is NASA's goal to be one of many customers of these commercial destination providers, purchasing only the goods and services the agency needs.

This, a NASA spokesperson explained, would allow the agency to focus on further exploration of space, creating a sustainable presence on the moon, and on to Mars.

'Commercial destinations, along with commercial crew and cargo transportation, will provide the backbone of the low-Earth orbit economy after the International Space Station retires,' NASA wrote in a blog post.
He was one of the most famous warriors of his generation, having freed Scotland from English rule during the 14th century.

Now, more than 700 years later, it has been revealed that one of Robert the Bruce's descendants is a retired textile research editor from Oxford.

Rollo Bruce was found to have the unique genetic marker FTB15831, which scientists say is only carried by close relatives of the King of Scots, who ruled the country from 1306 to 1329.

Genealogy researchers from the University of Strathclyde found the marker in male line descendants of the Bruces of Clackmannan, who were related to Robert the Bruce.

Breakthrough: Scientists have discovered a unique genetic marker carried by close relatives of Robert the Bruce, who freed Scotland from English rule

In 2017, a bust of Robert the Bruce was hailed 'the most important artistic interpretation of King Robert' for 53 years, and suggested Bruce did not have leprosy, as was widely believed

THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN The Battle of Bannockburn between the English army of Edward II and Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce took place from June 23-24, 1314. Backed by 25,000 infantry soldiers Edward II's goal had been to relieve Stirling Castle, which had been under siege from Bruce's forces. Despite being vastly outnumbered  only 6,000 men made up Bruce's army  the Scottish proved victorious. The English army tried to retreat to Stirling Castle, but were unexpectedly blocked by the sma' folk  untrained men who had hid on Coxet Hill. The appearance of yet more forces drove the English into a panicked, disordered retreat. Advertisement

Graham Holton, principle tutor on the university's genealogical studies postgraduate programme, said: 'Y chromosome DNA tests taken by male line descendants of two of Robert of Clackmannan's sons, Robert and Edward, show that they both carry the marker FTB15831.

'This means it may also have been carried by their close relative, King Robert.

'This discovery means that anyone living today who tests positive for the marker is descended from the same family as the famous king.'

Although there are varying theories about the exact relationship between the Bruces of Clackmannan and Robert the Bruce, researchers said, there is a consensus that it was very close.

In the Register of the Great Seal for 1365, a charter of King David II of Scotland confirms a grant of lands in Clackmannan to Robert Bruce, described in Latin as 'our beloved and faithful kinsman'.

This Robert is first mentioned in 1360 as the young heir of his father, Thomas Bruce.

Mr Holton said: 'Although the test takers from both lines carry FTB15831, one of them also has an additional genetic marker, indicating his descent from Robert Bruce, 3rd Baron of Clackmannan, who died around 1405.

'Further research may reveal more markers for specific branches of the Bruce family.

'This discovery will also allow the comparison of these results with any Y-DNA which can be extracted from supposed remains of King Robert, and thus confirm the true identity.'

Robert Bruce was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329, aged around 55.

Coxet Hill is believed to have been the site where Robert the Bruce (depicted here addressing his troops) set up camp before fighting broke out against Edward II's army on June 23, 1314

He waged war to wear down his Scottish opponents and the English regime in Scotland, culminating in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, where he defeated King Edward II and freed Scotland from English rule.

To legitimise his kingship and free his kingdom, Bruce also campaigned in northern England and Ireland.

Scotland and England remained independent until the countries were united again by the Act of Union in 1707.

DNA tests carried out as part of a separate University of Strathclyde study proved that a businessman named Archie Shaw Stewart belonged to the family line of Robert the Bruce's great grandson, King Robert III

Rollo Bruce's identification comes almost six years after a unique genetic marker was also found to link to King Robert III, Robert the Bruce's great grandson.

DNA tests carried out as part of a separate study led by the University of Strathclyde proved that a businessman named Archie Shaw Stewart belonged to the family line of King Robert III, who reigned from 1390 until his death in 1406.

The tests uncovered that he carried a distinct genetic marker that has not been found in any of the descendants of Robert III's brothers.

It was significant because it meant that anyone who carries this marker is also descended from Robert III and, in turn, his great grandfather Robert the Bruce, who was also known as Robert I.

The latter's eldest daughter Marjorie married Walter Stewart, one of Robert the Bruce's commanders and High Steward of Scotland.

Their eldest son went on to become Robert II and established the Stewart line of kings, who would later inherit the throne of both England and Scotland, uniting the two countries.

Researchers said in 2016 that the genetic marker they found appeared to be unique to the family line of Robert II's son, Robert III.
Darwin's theory that genetic mutations are always random is wrong, suggests a new study which found evidence that mutations can be a response to environmental pressures.

For more than a century, scientists have held to Charles Darwin's theory that all genetic mutations are random and accidental, with the most beneficial traits being passed on through the generations of breeding.

Researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel say that isn't the case, finding that the generation of the human hemoglobin S (HbS) mutation is not random.

People with this mutation have an extra level of protection from malaria, and the team found those in Africa are much more likely to have it than those in Europe.

Study authors say the mutation is not random, as it exists preferentially in Africa, where the protection is more needed, 'something Darwinism can't explain'.

'We hypothesize that evolution is influenced by two sources of information: external information that is natural selection, and internal information that is accumulated in the genome through the generations and impacts the origination of mutations,' explained Professor Adi Livnat, study lead author.

Darwin's theory that genetic mutations are always random is wrong, a new study suggests, finding evidence of mutations in response to environmental pressures. Stock image

This new study, including experts from Ghana, is thought to be the first evidence of 'nonrandom mutations' in human genes.

The findings challenge a core assumption at the heart of Darwin's theory of evolution, showing that a long-term directional mutation response to environmental pressures is possible, and that mutations are not just random phenomena.

'For over a century, the leading theory of evolution has been based on random mutations,' said Professor Livnat.

'The results show that the HbS mutation is not generated at random but instead originates preferentially in the gene and in the population where it is of adaptive significance.'

For more than a century scientists have held to Charles Darwin's theory that all genetic mutations are random and accidental, with the most beneficial traits being passed on through the generations of breeding. Stock image

DNA: A COMPLEX CHEMICAL THAT CARRIES GENETIC INFORMATION DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a complex chemical in almost all organisms that carries genetic information. It is located in chromosomes the cell nucleus and almost every cell in a person's body has the same DNA. It is composed of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). The structure of the double-helix DNA comes from adenine binding with thymine and cytosine binding with guanine. Human DNA consists of three billion bases and more than 99 per cent of those are the same in all people. The order of the bases determines what information is available for maintaining an organism (similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet form sentences). The DNA bases pair up with each other and also attach to a sugar molecule and phosphate molecule, combining to form a nucleotide. These nucleotides are arranged in two long strands that form a spiral called a double helix. The double helix looks like a ladder with the base pairs forming the rungs and the sugar and phosphate molecules forming vertical sidepieces. A new form of DNA was recently discovered inside living human cells for the first time. Named i-motif, the form looks like a twisted 'knot' of DNA rather than the well-known double helix. It is unclear what the function of the i-motif is, but experts believe it could be for 'reading' DNA sequences and converting them into useful substances. Source: US National Library of Medicine Advertisement

He suggests that evolution is in fact influenced by two sources of information.

These are external information that is natural selection, and internal information that is accumulated int he genome through the generations.

This second type develops through the generations, and impacts the origination of mutations, according to the researchers.

Darwin told us that life arose by evolution, but exactly how the evolution - at the most granular level - actually works, has been open to discussion and debate.

It has long been assumed it was based on a series of accidental changes to the genome, that through natural selection, saw the strongest mutations survive.

For example, under traditional theories, accidents that lead to larger brains are likely to be passed on, but accidents that cause earlier death, are not.

For example, these accidental mutations led to the hawk developing a sharp eye, to help in the search of prey, and the human cardiovascular system or walking upright.

The big problem with this theory was in the area of 'complexity', according to Professor Livnat, raising questions over whether the accumulation of small, random changes, can create the level of complexity we see in the world around us today.

While each random change might be beneficial, within the millennia timespan, can they interweave complex parts, such as brains, eyes or even wings?

To distinguish between random mutation and natural selection, and adding in the possibility of nonrandom mutations, Professor Livnat created a new method.

This allowed them to detect de novo mutations, which arrive 'out of the blue' in offspring without being inherited from either parent.

The method let them count de novo mutations for particular points of interest within the genome - something not previously possible in such fine detail.

Previous studies have only tested for an immediate mutational response to environmental pressures, and has been limited to measuring mutation rates as an average across a number of positions within the genome.

'Contrary to the widely accepted expectations, the results supported the nonrandom pattern,' the research team wrote.

Researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel say that isn't the case, finding that the generation of the human hemoglobin S (HbS) mutation, that protects against malaria, which is spread by female mosquitos, is not random

WHAT IS MALARIA? A LIFE THREATENING TROPICAL DISEASE Malaria is a life-threatening tropical disease spread by mosquitoes. It is one of the world's biggest killers, claiming the life of a child every two minutes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Most of these deaths occur in Africa, where 250,000 youngsters die from the disease every year. Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, of which five cause malaria. The Plasmodium parasite is mainly spread by female mosquitoes. When an infected mosquito bites a person, the parasite enters their bloodstream. Symptoms include: Fever

Feeling hot and shivery

Headaches

Vomiting

Muscle pain

Diarrhoea These usually appear between a week and 18 days of infection, but can taken up to a year or occasionally even more. Malaria is found in more than 100 countries, including: Large areas of Africa and Asia

Central and South America

Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Parts of the Middle East

Some Pacific Islands A blood test confirms a diagnosis. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

The HbS mutation originated de novo much faster than expected from random mutations, but also much faster in the population. They also evolved faster in the gene where it is of adaptive significance.

'The results suggest that complex information that is accumulated in the genome through the generations impacts mutation, and therefore mutation-specific origination rates can respond in the long-term to specific environmental pressures,' said Professor Livnat, speaking to JPost.

'Mutations may be generated nonrandomly in evolution after all, but not in the way previously conceived.

'We must study the internal information and how it affects mutation, as it opens the door to evolution being a far bigger process than previously conceived.'

He said the findings have the potential to change our fundamental understanding of evolution, and diseases that are caused by mutations - including cancer.

This is the second study since the start of the year to suggest nonrandom mutations could be possible, the first looked at a common roadside weed, rather than humans.

In that earlier study, experts from the University of California, Davis, discovered the plant, thale cress, could shield the most essential genes in its DNA from changes.

'The idea of random mutation has been around for over a hundred years in biology and is something you hear so often as a student that it is easy to take it for granted,' lead author Grey Monroe told LiveScience.

'Even as a practicing geneticist and evolutionary biologist, I had never seriously questioned the idea.'

He hasn't claimed their discovery discredits the theory of evolution, and both studies suggest randomness still plays a big role in mutations, however, it isn't the only mechanism at play in evolution.

'In genes coding for proteins essential for survival and reproduction, mutations are most likely to have harmful effects, potentially causing disease and even death,' Monroe said.

'Our results show that genes, and essential genes in particular, experience a lower mutation rate than non-gene regions. The result is that offspring have a lower chance of inheriting a harmful mutation.'

The findings have been published in the journal Genome Research.
Manchester United removed all Mason Greenwood merchandise from the club website on Monday as angry fans returned replica shirts bearing the players name to the Old Trafford megastore.

As Greenwood remained in police custody over allegations of rape and assault, the backlash over his arrest continued.

Team-mates including Cristiano Ronaldo, David de Gea, Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford appear to have unfollowed the 20-year-old on social media while Nike suspended his sponsorship deal.

Manchester United removed all Mason Greenwood merchandise from their club on Monday after his allegations of rape and assault on Sunday

Greenwood (above) has also seen his commercial partnership with Nike suspended by the kit supplier

Uniteds shirt sponsors TeamViewer said they are closely monitoring developments and official partner Cadbury announced Greenwood will not feature on any of their marketing products.

His name has been removed from the list of players on the clubs online shop, with any search for Greenwood drawing a blank.

And a number of fans turned up at the megastore demanding a refund for replica Greenwood No 11 shirts that they no longer want.

United fans have also returned replica shirts of the player's name since the news was revealed
Six weeks after Election Day, with his hold on power slipping, President Donald Trump directed his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to make a remarkable call. Trump wanted him to ask the Department of Homeland Security if it could legally take control of voting machines in key swing states, three people familiar with the matter said.

Giuliani did so, calling the departments acting deputy secretary, who said he lacked the authority to audit or impound the machines.

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Trump pressed Giuliani to make that inquiry after rejecting a separate effort by his outside advisers to have the Pentagon take control of the machines. And the outreach to the Department of Homeland Security came not long after Trump, in an Oval Office meeting with Attorney General William Barr, raised the possibility of whether the Justice Department could seize the machines, a previously undisclosed suggestion that Barr immediately shot down.

The new accounts show that Trump was more directly involved than previously known in exploring proposals to use his national security agencies to seize voting machines as he grasped unsuccessfully for evidence of fraud that would help him reverse his defeat in the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the episodes.

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The existence of proposals to use at least three federal departments to assist Trumps attempt to stay in power has been publicly known. The proposals involving the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security were codified by advisers in the form of draft executive orders.

But the new accounts provide fresh insight into how the former president considered and to some degree pushed the plans, which would have taken the United States into uncharted territory by using federal authority to seize control of the voting systems run by states on baseless grounds of widespread voting fraud.

The people familiar with the matter were briefed on the events by participants or had firsthand knowledge of them.

The accounts about the voting machines emerged after a weekend when Trump declared at a rally in Texas that he might pardon people charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, if he were reelected. In a statement issued after the rally, Trump also suggested that his vice president, Mike Pence, could have personally overturned the election by refusing to count delegates to the Electoral College who had vowed to cast their votes for Joe Biden.

The new information helps to flesh out how the draft executive orders to seize voting machines came into existence and points in particular to the key role played by a retired Army colonel named Phil Waldron.

According to people familiar with the accounts, Waldron, shortly after the election, began telling associates that he had found irregularities in vote results that he felt were suggestive of fraud. He then came up with the idea of having a federal agency like the military or the Department of Homeland Security confiscate the machines to preserve evidence.

Waldron first proposed the notion of the Pentagons involvement to Trumps former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, whom he says he served with in the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The plans were among an array of options that were placed before Trump in the tumultuous days and weeks that followed the election, developed by an ad hoc group of lawyers like Sidney Powell and other allies including Flynn and Waldron. That group often found itself at odds with Giuliani and his longtime associate Bernard Kerik, as well as with Trumps White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and his team.

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Rudy Giuliani, then President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, listens as Trump speaks during a news briefing in the White House in Washington, Sept. 27, 2020. (Al Drago/The New York Times)

Around the same time that Trump brought up the possibility of having the Justice Department seize the voting machines, for example, he also tried to persuade state lawmakers in contested states like Michigan and Pennsylvania to use local law enforcement agencies to take control of them, people familiar with the matter said. The state lawmakers refused to go along with the plan.

The meeting with Barr took place in mid to late November when Trump raised the idea of whether the Justice Department could be used to seize machines, according to two people familiar with the matter. Trump told Barr that his lawyers had told him that the department had the power to seize machines as evidence of fraud.

Trump mentioned a specific state that had used machines built by Dominion Voting Systems, where his lawyers believed there had been fraud, although it is unclear which state Trump was referring to. Barr, who had been briefed extensively at that point by federal law enforcement officials about how the theories being pushed by Trumps legal team about the Dominion machines were unfounded, told Trump that the Justice Department had no basis for seizing the machines because there was no probable cause to believe a crime had been committed.

It was only after several early options were exhausted that Waldron pitched the idea of using other parts of the federal government to seize the machines to both Giuliani and members of the Trump legal team, and to Flynn and his own associates, including Powell and Patrick Byrne, a wealthy business executive who funded many of the efforts to challenge the election.

Waldron, who owns a bar and distillery outside Austin, Texas, was previously best known for having circulated a 38-page PowerPoint presentation to lawmakers and White House aides that was filled with extreme plans to overturn the election.

Giuliani was vehemently opposed to the idea of the military taking part in the seizure of machines, according to two people familiar with the matter. The conflict between him and his legal team, and Flynn, Powell and Byrne came to a dramatic head on Dec. 18, 2020, during a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office.

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At the meeting, Flynn and Powell presented Trump with a copy of the draft executive order authorizing the military to oversee the seizure of machines. After reading it, Trump summoned Giuliani to the Oval Office, according to one person familiar with the matter. When Giuliani read the draft order, he told Trump that the military could be used only if there was clear-cut evidence of foreign interference in the election.

Powell, who had spent the past month filing lawsuits claiming that China and other countries had hacked into voting machines, said she had such evidence, the person said. But Giuliani was adamant that the military should not be mobilized, the person said, and Trump ultimately heeded his advice.

Shortly after the Oval Office meeting, Waldron amended the draft executive order, suggesting that if the Defense Department could not oversee the seizure of machines then the Department of Homeland Security could, the person said.

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Around that time, Trump asked Giuliani to call Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the acting deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, to ask about the viability of the proposal, according to two people familiar with the matter. Cuccinelli said that homeland security officials could not take part in the plan.

All of this was playing out amid open acrimony among White House aides and outside advisers about how best  and how far  to proceed with efforts to pursue Trumps claims of fraud in the election. That same month, during a meeting on another matter, Trump asked Cuccinelli what he thought of appointing a special counsel to investigate election fraud. Cuccinelli, according to two people briefed on the conversation, said it was not a good idea for a variety of reasons.

When Flynn, Powell and Byrne arrived at the White House to discuss their plan to use the military to seize voting machines, they were not let into the Oval Office by a typical gatekeeper, like Mark Meadows, Trumps chief of staff. Rather, they were escorted in by Garrett Ziegler, a young aide to another Trump adviser, Peter Navarro, according to Zieglers account.

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I waved in Gen. Flynn and Sidney Powell on the Friday night of the 18th  for which Mark Meadows office revoked my guest privileges, Ziegler said on a podcast, adding that he had done so because he was frustrated with the current counsel Trump was getting.

Even Giuliani, who had spent weeks peddling some of the most outrageous claims about election fraud, felt that the idea of bringing in the military was beyond the pale.

After Flynn and Powell left the Oval Office, according to a person familiar with the matter, Giuliani predicted that the plans they were proposing were going to get Trump impeached.

c.2021 The New York Times Company
Customers at first-place Premier Inn were impressed by the king-sized beds and the selection of pillows

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Britannia has been named the UK's worst large hotel chain by Which? for the ninth year running.

It scored just two out of five stars for cleanliness, and its bathrooms received just one star, with the consumer champion saying that one guest found stains everywhere in their Britannia room.

Topping the list was Premier Inn, which has more than 800 hotels throughout the UK and an average room price of just 66. Customers were particularly impressed by their king-sized beds and the selection between firm or soft pillows.

Britannia has been ranked the UK's worst large hotel chain for the ninth consecutive year by Which? Pictured is the chain's Royal Albion hotel in Brighton

A table showing the results of the 2022 Which? member survey of large and small hotel chains

Which? members rated 24 large hotel chains and six small ones based on 2,600 stays in the 15 months before October 2021.

Guests were asked to assess the hotels in 10 categories, including cleanliness, customer service, bed comfort, communal areas, value for money and whether the chains 'description matches reality.

Overall, it found there are affordable, quality rooms available in Britain, with hotel rates falling by more than an eighth in the past year.

However, the watchdog warned that, based on the findings, there are some chains to avoid.

In 2020, when Which? visited the Folkestone Britannia, also known as the Grand Burstin, as part of a separate investigation into hotel hygiene, researchers said that they found stray hairs and stained towels upon an initial inspection.

Following further tests using UV fluid and germ powder, researchers also explained that they found surfaces that had not been thoroughly cleaned between stays.

At the chain's Brighton hotel, the Royal Albion, Which? conducted swab tests that it said 'revealed traces of enterococci bacteria on the toilet seat and bathroom door handle'.

As part of a separate investigation in 2020, Which? researchers looked at hotel hygiene at Britannia's Grand Burstin hotel

Following further tests using UV fluid and germ powder, researchers said that they found surfaces that had not been thoroughly cleaned between stays at the Grand Burstin hotel

When presented with Which?'s findings at the time, Britannia said: 'We are totally committed to providing a safe environment for visitors. We have so far spent around 2million on Covid-19 precautions, but we accept there is more to do.'

Cleanliness aside, the chain still managed to disappoint, said Which? In a standard room in the basement of the Folkestone Britannia that the consumer watchdog checked into, it said that there was 'graffiti carved into the ageing wardrobe, pillows flimsier than bookmarks, and broken glass on the carpet at breakfast'.

Not much seems to have changed, according to the latest findings.

Washable substances are invisible to the naked eye, but glow red under ultraviolet light. This image is from the 2020 investigation at the Grand Burstin hotel

Overall, Britannia scored 49 per cent in the survey  a dismal score, according to the consumer champion.

More than half (51 per cent) of Britannia guests that took part in the survey revealed that they ran into problems during their stay with the chain, which has 61 hotels in the UK - many in historic buildings, such as the Adelphi in Liverpool, which counts Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Frank Sinatra as former guests.

Cleanliness was the most prevalent issue. According to Which?, one guest complained: It was terrible. The room was dirty. The bathroom was dirty. The carpet was terrible, stains everywhere.

Topping the large-chain list was Premier Inn, which received a customer satisfaction score of 79 per cent. Pictured is a Premier Inn hotel in Aldgate, London

The upkeep of the properties similarly left guests dissatisfied. According to the consumer champion, one guest said that their hotel was run into the ground, while another described a Britannia property as old, worn out and in need of a drastic makeover.

A third complained that there were small and basic rooms, no soap or shampoo and bags of rubbish outside the main entrance.

However, the watchdog pointed out that this was the best result the chain has had in years, with somewhat improved ratings for bed comfort (three stars) and value for money (two stars).

Second-worst-rated hotel chain Mercure wasnt too far off Britannias ranking  it received a score of 52 per cent, and was also awarded just two stars for cleanliness.

Second-worst-rated hotel chain Mercure wasnt too far off Britannias ranking  it received a score of 52 per cent. Pictured is a Mercure in Manchester

According to Which?, while some guests praised Mercure hotels central locations, many felt that the standards in the chain had fallen.

One guest wrote: 'Mercure are not as smart as they used to be  there are some poor quality properties in their portfolio. However, they can offer good value.

A spokesperson for Mercure told MailOnline Travel: 'We are surprised to see our position in this survey, it does not reflect the high standard of guest experience which we strive for and we will take action to address these comments.

The Crowne Plaza ranked second after Premier Inn with an impressive rating of 78 per cent. Above is a Birmingham edition of the hotel chain

'The experience and wellbeing of our guests at each and every property is our highest priority. The BDRC Hotel Guest Survey in 2021 ranks Mercure amongst the top midscale brands for excellent cleanliness and safety standards, superior quality of bedding and a brand that values its customers. We pride ourselves on delivering consistent quality and standards and providing a great nights sleep, whilst offering great value for money, as your reader notes.'

Meanwhile, first-place Premier Inn was awarded five stars for cleanliness, Covid-19 safety measures and bed comfort. It received a customer satisfaction score of 79 per cent - just ahead of Crowne Plaza (78 per cent) and Sofitel (77 per cent).

However, Premier Inn's score was topped by the best small chain, Hotel du Vin, which racked up a total of 80 per cent.

Which? says that Hotel du Vin properties, where rooms cost on average 150 a night, are ideal for anyone looking for a little more luxury. The chain boasts spotlessly clean rooms and bathrooms with powerful monsoon showers.

A Sofitel hotel in central London. The chain was awarded Which? Recommended Provider status

Warner Leisure (75 per cent), with five stars for cleanliness, was the second best-rated small hotel chain.

Q Hotels (59 per cent) finished in last place in the small chain ranking, though it received several four-star ratings, including for cleanliness and beds.

Those surveyed were impressed by the pub operators, with large hotel chain Wetherspoon receiving 74 per cent and small chain Youngs scoring 73 per cent.

Which? Recommended Provider status was awarded to four large hotel chains - Premier Inn, Crowne Plaza, Sofitel and Radisson Blu (74 per cent)  as well as to two small hotel chains, Hotel du Vin and Warner Leisure.

The entrance to the Hotel du Vin in Birmingham. Which? says that Hotel du Vin properties are ideal for anyone looking for a little more luxury

Generally, the survey found that room price was not necessarily a good indicator of quality. The average price of a room at a Britannia hotel was 99  50 per cent pricier than the average at the Premier Inn.

Which? added that while British hotels can be expensive, they became better value during the pandemic when compared to the cost of self-catering accommodation.

Last summer, a Which? survey revealed that private holiday accommodation was costing 41 per cent more than for the same period in 2019, averaging out at 300 extra per week. And, while UK hotel prices were among the highest in Europe, they dropped by 13 per cent in the same period.

Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said of the hotel survey: Year after year, guests are let down by Britannias run-down hotels and often dirty rooms. This year saw some slight improvements to the chains score - but not enough to drag it off the bottom of our rankings.

Until the company ups its game further we would urge guests to look elsewhere. The impressive, budget-friendly Premier Inn is our pick of the large chains and Hotel du Vin offers high quality stays in interesting locations.

MailOnline Travel requested a comment from Britannia but received no response. We will update this article accordingly should it respond. For the full list of results visit www.which.co.uk.
Tripadvisor has announced that it has now published one billion reviews and opinions.

And to mark the occasion it has released some fun facts about the content that has been submitted to the platform since it was founded 22 years ago by current President and CEO Stephen Kaufer, Langley Steinert, Nick Shanny and Tom Palka.

The most-reviewed accommodation ever, it turns out, is Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, with over 48,200 reviews.

Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, pictured, is Tripadvisor's most-reviewed accommodation ever with over 48,200 reviews

Pictured is London's Park Plaza Westminster Bridge - the most-reviewed accommodation in the UK with over 23,000 reviews

The most-reviewed accommodation in the UK is Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London, with over 23,000 reviews.

The most-reviewed restaurant ever is Pasteis de Belem in Lisbon, Portugal, with over 52,600 reviews, while the most-reviewed restaurant in the UK ever is Aqua Shard in London, with over 16,600 reviews.

The most-reviewed attraction ever? That's the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, with over 164,200 reviews.

In the UK, it's the London Eye that picks up this accolade, with over 87,200 reviews.

The longest English language review ever written on Tripadvisor runs to 17,241 words. It was written by @The_Budges about their stay at the Hotel Playa Pesquero Resort in Cuba.

According to Tripadvisor, Barcelona's Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, pictured, is the site's most-reviewed attraction ever with more than 164,200 reviews

But it's @82manuelal from Luxembourg City who is the most prolific Tripadvisor reviewer, with more than 7,000 reviews since becoming a member of the site in 2015.

Tripadvisor reveals that the longest active thread in any of its destination forums is this one: 'How many days till Maui???' in the Lahaina Forum, which has 6,809 replies and dates back to October 4, 2006.

The traveller who has posted the most photo submissions is @PaoloRiccardoCarrara, from Rome. He has contributed a whopping 102,272 photo submissions, totalling 313,651 photos.

The UK's most reviewed attraction is the London Eye (pictured) - it has earned over 87,200 Tripadvisor reviews

The longest English language review ever written on Tripadvisor runs to 17,241 words. It was written by @The_Budges about their stay at the Hotel Playa Pesquero Resort in Cuba (above)

The accolade for the most-reviewed restaurant ever goes to Pasteis de Belem in Lisbon, Portugal. The eatery has racked up over 52,600 Tripadvisor reviews on the site

Coffee and snacks at Pasteis de Belem

The award for the most well-travelled Tripadvisor member goes to @damienstack, who has posted reviews for 176 different countries. He is from Listowel in County Kerry, Ireland, and has actually visited all 193 countries in the world, Tripadvisor says.

Hungry anyone? The three most-mentioned dishes in restaurant reviews are - pizza (10,400,980 mentions), pie (8,467,574 mentions) and salad (7,374,595 mentions).

Finally, there are the reviews from travellers, says Tripadvisor, 'who didn't quite "get" the iconic places they were reviewing '

Meh!-mory Lane: Tripadvisor shared reviews from travellers who weren't impressed by the landmarks they visited - one described New Yorks Empire State Building as 'too tall'

The first-ever Tripadvisor review, pictured, was for the Captain's House Inn on Cape Cod

Mr Kaufer said: 'We are so grateful for the contributions that the Tripadvisor community has made over these last 22 years.

'Trusted reviews and opinions from travellers are the heart and soul of the platform and help make everyone a better traveller, enabling millions of businesses to flourish and drive trillions of dollars in economic value across the globe.'

Feeling nostalgic now? There's more. Take a peek at the first-ever Tripadvisor forum post, which was submitted on August 26, 2004, and is still visible today. Or the first-ever review posted on Tripadvisor, back in 2001 (pictured above).

All statistics relating to Tripadvisor content were accurate as of January 12, 2022.
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'Beautiful,' says Horacio Pagani. 'Poetry,' remarks Giorgetto Giugiaro.

This praise, from two legendary car designers, was directed towards new coffee-table book Made In Italy, which showcases via 100 pictures 'extraordinary Italian concept cars and iconic limited edition models'. Other automotive legends, such as Paolo Martin and Giampaolo Dallara, concurred.

Needless to say, the man who created it, photographer Piotr Degler, is rather pleased with the responses - captured in video footage for posterity - having spent 10 years and over 112,000 euros (93,000) on the project.

This image from Made In Italy shows a 1992-1995 Bugatti EB110 SS

A Ferrari F40, which was produced between 1987 and 1992. Made In Italy took Piotr Degler 10 years to create

A 1969 Sigma Grand Prix, beautifully presented by Degler, who used to work for car design firm Bertone

To compile the self-published book, Degler worked together with car museums, automotive companies, design centres and car collectors in Italy and worldwide, sometimes even re-shooting cars to take advantage of improvements in camera technology.

The stars of the show include a 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero, a 1970 Ferrari 512S Modulo, a 1963 Alfa Romeo TZ and a 2016 Pagani Huayra Futura, to name but a few.

Degler, who has also published an exquisite book on Cuba's cars, explained that he 'used the best materials available' to make the book.

'This is a thing you do once in your lifetime, so quality was on top of the list,' he said. 'And this is also why I decided to self-publish, to avoid compromises.'

He explained to MailOnline Travel that his photographic love letter to Italian car design began when he secured a job as a designer for Italian car-styling firm Bertone in Turin.

A 1947 Ferrari 159S - an incredibly rare car. Giorgetto Giugiaro described Made In Italy as 'poetry'

A 2003 Lancia Fulvia Concept. Degler, who has also published an exquisite book on Cuba's cars, explained that he 'used the best materials available' to make Made In Italy

A 1982 Lancia LC1. Degler said that when he worked for Bertone his interest in Italian concept cars 'grew exponentially'

He said: 'I moved from Spain to Italy when I was 19 years old because I wanted to become a car designer. I studied car design, did work in different design centres, discovered how the design process works, met many interesting people.

'There is probably not a better city than Turin if you want to learn about car design and history.

'It was there, at Bertone, that my interest in Italian concept cars started to grow exponentially and that the idea of creating a photographic book dedicated to them came about.

'I still remember spending many lunch breaks walking among the prototypes in the company's museum and admiring masterpieces such as the Stratos Zero, the Testudo, the Miura I decided that in my book there had to be 100 of them. I don't know why 100, maybe because at that time I thought that reaching that number would be a great achievement.

'That's how it all started, this seemingly endless and amazing project of photographing the prototypes of the Bertone collection, then Pininfarina, then Zagato

A 1985-1986 Lancia Delta S4. Degler told MailOnline Travel: 'This collection of 100 photographs is a mix of prototypes and production models, studio and on-location photography, details and whole subjects, classic and modern cars'

A 2010 Alfa Romeo '2uettottanta'. Degler's project took so long that he sometimes reshot cars when camera technology improved

'During all these years, the idea of the book has evolved and matured. I didn't want anything very specialised aimed at a niche of enthusiasts, focusing exclusively on concept cars. Instead, I thought that many would enjoy also seeing iconic limited production models such as the F40 or the Stratos. That is why I decided to include in my selection some Italian dream cars as well, creating what I like to call a visual experience.

'As a result, this collection of 100 photographs is a mix of prototypes and production models, studio and on-location photography, details and whole subjects, classic and modern cars. I liked the idea of offering something different every time a page is turned.'

Does he have any favourites among the dozens of cars he captured?

He said: 'I think each car from the more than 100 portrayed in this book has a special story.

If I could choose a year-frame I would choose the late 60s and early 70s era where there were no limits in car design.

A 1970 Ferrari 512S Modulo, as seen in the book. This is one of Degler's favourite cars in the tome, one that was designed at a time when 'there were no limits in car design'

A 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero (as seen in the book), which Degler describes as a 'spaceship on wheels'

A 1963 Alfa Romeo TZ, as seen in the book. The tome cost 112,000 euros to create

A 2016 Pagani Huayra Futura. Pagani himself appears in the book, and describes it as 'beautiful'

'Two of my favourite concept cars of all time are the 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero concept designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone and the 1970 Ferrari Modulo concept designed by Paolo Martin at Pininfarina. They were so futuristic for 1970, real spaceships on wheels. Those years were just crazy.'

And did he get to drive any of them?

'I drove some of them,' he revealed, 'but honestly when you realise the valuation of most of them - seven figures - the last thing you want is to drive them.'

Degler's book showcases these automotive works of art in a way that he hopes will 'awaken emotion'.

It certainly did so for the car designers he presented the book to, the list also comprising Leonardo Fioravanti, Marcello Gandini, Flavio Manzoni, Paolo Pininfarina, Ercole Spada, Alfredo Stola and Andrea Zagato.

Degler interviewed each of them for the book and described meeting them as 'a dream'.

What impressed them so much can be ordered for 95 euros before February 10, after which it will priced at 135 euros. Visit www.madeinitalybook.com for more information. For more on Piotr Degler's work visit www.deglerstudio.com.
Cara Delevingne has revealed that she buys clothes for her non-existent child as she firmly believes she will have kids in the future.

The model, 29, said she is 'manifesting' having a child of her own, but doesn't want to start a family for a little while yet despite already mentally preparing.

Cara made the confession as she posed for a spread with Harper's Bazaar UK, and looked sensational in the accompanying images that saw her model a plunging white mini dress.

'I buy clothes for my future child who doesnt exist': Cara Delevingne revealed she is 'manifesting' having a baby as she posed for a striking Harper's Bazaar UK shoot

Another shot showed the English beauty looking gorgeous in a green silk dress, as she posed with her arms raised showing off her impressive array of inkings.

Speaking to the magazine for an accompanying interview, Cara said: I want to have babies. But not yet.

'I buy childrens clothes for my future child who doesnt exist. Baby shoes really get me  they break my heart.

'I went shopping the other day and I bought these tiny Air Jordans, which are purple and they have a lion on them. Im manifesting...

Flawless: Another shot showed the English beauty looking effortlessly gorgeous in a green silk dress, as she raised her arms showing off her impressive array of ink

The star - who identifies as pansexual - also spoke about the lack of LGBTQ+ role models she'd growing up and how it inspires her to be more open as an adult.

She said: 'I do think I would have hated myself less, I would have not been so ashamed, if Id had someone.

'The one thing Im happy about growing up queer and fighting it and hiding it is it gives me so much fire and drive to try to make peoples lives easier in some way by talking about it.

Out soon: The March issue of Harpers Bazaar UK is on sale from 2 February

It comes after Cara said that her sisters 'did their best to be there' for her as she admitted 'growing up as a queer child was isolating and hard to navigate at times'.

She said she saw her sisters Chloe, 37, and Poppy, 35, as the 'epitome of the woman I wanted to be'.

Cara, who has dated stars including St Vincent and Ashley Benson, also said it was something she 'had to go through' herself and is a journey she will be on 'for the rest of my life'.

'I saw my sisters as the epitome of the woman I wanted to be. I soon realised that I couldn't be the same - all of us have different paths - but they showed me the most fundamental things that I had to learn in life,' Cara told The Sunday Times.

Growing up as a queer child was isolating and hard to navigate at times. My sisters did their best to be there for me but it was something I had to go through myself to truly know who I was.

'I'm still on that journey and will continue to be for the rest of my life.'

The March issue of Harpers Bazaar UK is on sale from 2 February
Jeremy Clarkson kisses his girlfriend Lisa Hogan as farmhand Kaleb Cooper awkwardly averts his eyes while on Diddly Squat farm in first look pictures for Amazon Prime Video show Clarkson's Farm, released on Tuesday.

The Grand Tour host, 61, has been filming for Amazon Prime Videos smash hit programme since last year and the cast, including girlfriend Lisa, 47, sidekick Kaleb, 23, land agent Cheerful Charlie Ireland and 'head of security' Gerald Cooper, will be back on screen.

In pictures released ahead of the new season, Jeremy can be seen giving partner Lisa a loving kiss while standing in a lush green field, with Kaleb sheepishly looking at the ground as his friends share a passionate moment.

Loved-up: Jeremy Clarkson, 61, kisses girlfriend Lisa Hogan, 47, as farmhand Kaleb Cooper, 23, awkwardly averts his eyes while on Diddly Squat farm in first look pictures for Clarkson's Farm

In another picture, Jeremy gives a thumbs-up as he sits in his Land Rover with Cheerful Charlie and Gerald standing alongside him.

Meanwhile, Jeremy can be seen driving his tractor in one other image while Kaleb casually lays in the shovel at the front.

The clan once again keep a watchful eye on Jeremy and his agricultural antics in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire in the new series.

Agricultural antics: In a comical image, Jeremy can be seen driving his tractor while Kaleb casually lays in the shovel at the front

Jeremy previously said he is 'delighted' to be back with another series, which will follow him trying to diversify and expand his agricultural knowledge with the help of his no-nonsense farmhand Kaleb.

In a video, the former Top Gear host said: 'Following the success of the first series, I'm delighted to say that there will be a second series of Clarkson's Farm.'

To which Kaleb interrupted: 'You mean, Kaleb's Farm?'

First look: Jeremy and his Diddly Squat farm friends are reunited in the upcoming series two of the show, with new pictures being released on Tuesday

Jeremy continued: 'No. The big team are back, cheerful Charlie, Lisa, Gerald and the fetus in the tractor.'

The first series of Clarksons Farm followed an intense, backbreaking and frequently hilarious year in the life of Britains most unlikely farmer, Jeremy.

The success of the show was such that fans spent up to four hours queuing outside his new farm shop.

Action! The Grand Tour star began filming scenes at his Diddly Squat farm in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, with his farmhand Kaleb last year

Sidekick: In a video, Jeremy said: 'I'm delighted to say that there will be a second series of Clarkson's Farm.' To which Kaleb interrupted: 'You mean, Kaleb's Farm?

Clarkson bought the plot of land in 2008 and Clarkson's Farm follows the presenter's highs and lows of tackling the 1,000 acre working farm.

Viewers saw Clarkson and his rag-tag band of agricultural associates contend with the worst farming weather in decades, disobedient animals, unresponsive crops and an unexpected pandemic.

The presenter recently revealed he was 'the happiest he has ever been' and that he 'loved every second' of filming the new hit show.

Challenges: Jeremy bought the plot of land in 2008 and Clarkson's Farm follows the presenter's highs and lows of tackling the 1,000 acre working farm

It comes after Jeremy replaced the roof of his Diddly Squat farm shop last week after losing a planning permission appeal.

Workers were seen replacing the green steel roof with Cotswold tiles on Tuesday to appease planners.

It was revealed in April 2021 that Clarkson had lost an appeal against a planning decision that the materials he used to build the shop weren't 'visually harmonious' with neighbouring Cotswolds properties.

Sales: The star's girlfriend Lisa Hogan is known to work behind the counter at the hugely popular farm shop

Several locals had already voiced their objections to the plans when approval was first sought. 'The Grand Tour' host took that earlier setback in his stride and said he didn't blame those who were complaining - adding 'otherwise what is the point in planning permission'.

Clarkson has been forced to close his farm shop for two months after the local council demanded the roof was replaced.

His girlfriend Lisa Hogan, 49, is known to work behind the counter at the hugely popular farm shop.

The estate has been popular with locals and those from further afield, with many rushing to the farm on New Year's Eve before its eight-week closure.

Ahead of its closure, the Diddy Squat Farm posted a message to customers reading: 'Thank you to everyone who visited. Happy New Year. See you in March. Milk machine remains open 24/7.'

The shop describes itself as 'a small barn full of good, no-nonsense things you'll like'.

Clarksons Farm series one is available on Amazon Prime Video.
90 Day Fiance: The Single Life stars Colt Johnson and Vanessa Guerra shocked fans when they revealed that they had separated during the show's season two tell-all episode which aired last Friday.

Colt, 36, and Vanessa, 31, told host Shaun Johnson that his mother Debbie's interference in their relationship was the reason behind their split.

'I moved out,' Vanessa said as Colt chimed in, 'We're separated.'

Split: 90 Day Fiance: The Single Life stars Colt Johnson and Vanessa Guerra shocked fans when they revealed that they had separated during the show's season two tell-all episode last Friday

Colt noted that Vanessa had left the home that the couple shared with Debbie, 69, three weeks before appearing in the tell-all episode.

'I moved out. I'm tired of being under her roof. It's nonstop,' Vanessa explained.

She continued, 'Even if the door is closed to our room, it's "Hey, Colt! Hey, Colt!"'

Trouble: Colt, 36, and Vanessa, 31, told host Shaun Johnson that his mother Debbie's interference in their relationship was the reason behind their split

She added, 'I suffered a miscarriage and you know, we told Debbie about it. She didn't know at first, we kept it from her. Her reaction was, "I'm sorry," and she gave me a hug.'

In October 2021, Colt shared on Instagram that the couple had been expecting their first child together but Vanessa had suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage.

The pair were friendly for years before dating and quickly becoming engaged in November 2020.

Back then: The pair were friendly for years before dating and quickly becoming engaged in November 2020. In April 2021, they secretly eloped in Reno, Nevada, without his mother's knowledge

In April 2021, they secretly eloped in Reno, Nevada, without his mother's knowledge.

The two had lived with Debbie since they tied the knot but Vanessa said that the tension in the household had put a strain on her pregnancy.

She explained, 'I was just very stressed about well, one, are we gonna raise [a child] here in this house? It was just a lot of stress  so I kind of felt guilty, like maybe I did something wrong, and then I took it out on him a lot. It was just a lot.'

Sad: In October 2021, Colt shared on Instagram that the couple had been expecting their first child together but Vanessa had suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage

90 Day Fiance: The Single Life has followed Debbie's efforts to find love again after she disclosed that she had not dated for 40 years.

However, Colt said that his mother was 'absolutely not' putting forth enough effort in her dating life during Friday's episode.

Colt also voiced his frustration over accompanying his mother on a seven-hour road trip to San Diego.

Looking for love: 90 Day Fiance: The Single Life has followed Debbie's efforts to find love again after she disclosed that she had not dated for 40 years

Ouch: However, Colt said that his mother was 'absolutely not' putting forth enough effort in her dating life during Friday's episode

After a clip of the two fighting during the road trip played, Colt told Debbie, 'I'm upset that you just can't do anything by yourself.

'I'm the first person, the first call, the first everything with you.'

Amid Debbie's protestations, Vanessa added, 'Colt is her go-to for everything, always.'

'You've raised me to be just a subservient person to you and I just want to know why,' Colt asked.

'I need to know why you are this way. My wife was pregnant. I didn't want to tell you at the time when I was driving out to San Diego that I didn't want to leave her.'

He continued, 'I shouldn't be bothered with your life. This is your life. It's not my responsibility.'

Drama: Colt then pressed his mother about when she was moving out of their house. After the heated exchange, Debbie walked off the stage

Heated: Debbie later returned to the stage to tell Vanessa and Colt to leave

Colt then pressed his mother about when she was moving out of their house. After the heated exchange, Debbie walked off the stage.

Backstage, she tearfully vented her emotions, telling producers, 'The thing is, he can't even afford f***ing to live there. He doesn't have a job. She doesn't have a job.

I'm paying all the f***ing bills. I'm going to tell him to get off the stage. He doesn't need to be there.'

Debbie later returned to the stage to tell Vanessa and Colt to leave. After they refused, she explained that she had been hurt that the couple did not tell her about Vanessa's pregnancy.

Hope for the future? Vanessa left the door open to a potential reconciliation with Colt but emphasized that Debbie would have to move out first

Debbie went on to say that while she was dependent on Colt, he was also dependent on her.

'You could have moved out years ago. I don't want you in my life anymore, you make me miserable,' she said.

Vanessa left the door open to a potential reconciliation with Colt but emphasized that Debbie would have to move out first.

She told her mother-in-law, 'I just feel very smothered because you're constantly in Colt's face.

'If I need him, you're in his face.'

As the episode cut to a break, Debbie replied angrily, 'Stop putting crap in his head! What have you done to him? You f****d him up.'
Party on, Jennifer Garner.

The actress, 49, will return to television in the upcoming revival of the hit Starz show Party Down.

It will mark one of Garner's first major roles in a television series since her show Alias went off the air in 2006.

Movie star back on television: Jennifer Garner, 49, will make her return to television in the upcoming revival of the hit Starz show Party Down (pictured 2021)

Starz announced that Garner will portray Evie in the series a 'successful producer of studio franchise movies, who, in the wake of a breakup, is reconsidering her life choices.'

Her character will also date Adam Scott's Henry Pollard in the show's run. He 'becomes a way for her to explore possible new directions.'

The 13 Going on 30 star isn't the only new addition to the cast. Brockmire actor Tyrel Jackson Williams and Modern Love actress Zoe Chao will also join the show as well.

Revival: Garner will appear in a revival of Party Down, a series which originally ran in 2009 and 2010

Not coming back: Lizzy Caplan played Casey Klein, an aspiring comic who dated Scott's character, but her schedule could not accommodate production for the revival

Party Down ran for two seasons in 2009 and 2010. It centered around a group of caterers with much bigger dreams of stardom working in Los Angeles.

Scott, Jane Lynch, Ken Marino and Martin Starr appeared in the original series, among many other stars. Those four, along with Megan Mullally and Ryan Hansen, will come back for the revival.

One notable star who won't be returning however, is Lizzy Caplan. She played Casey Klein, an aspiring comic who dated Scott's character, in the original series, but her schedule could not accommodate production for the revival.

Big series in the early 2000s: Garner's large involvement in the show will be her first with a TV series since her show Alias, which ran for five seasons from 2001 to 2006, went off the air

A number jobs: The Pearl Harbor actress has several other projects coming out as well including parts in the movies Fantasy Camp and The Adam Project (pictured November 2021)

James Marsden will join the revival as the lead of a superhero franchise.

Garner famously starred in the TV series Alias, which ran for five seasons from 2001 to 2006, went off the air.

In the series, the Daredevil actress played CIA agent Sydney Bristow on the show. It centered around Garner's character who posed as a member of a criminal organization and fed information to the American intelligence organization.

She also starred in an HBO series created by Lena Dunham, Camping, in 2018.

The Pearl Harbor actress has several other projects coming out as well including a part in the movie Fantasy Camp and another role in the movie The Adam Project alongside Ryan Reynolds.
Married At First Sight just kicked off its ninth season, but former star Mishel Karen won't be outshone by the new crop of brides.

The 51-year-old made sure all eyes were on her by slipping her curves into a sexy maid costume for a raunchy fetish shoot on her OnlyFans page.

The grandmother left little to the imagination in the outfit, which featured suspender stockings and a plunging neckline.

At your service! Married At First Sight's Mishel Karen made sure all eyes were on her by slipping her curves into a sexy maid costume for a raunchy fetish shoot on her OnlyFans page

Mishel clutched a feather duster as a prop and suggestively waved it around during the provocative photo shoot.

The mother of two has been earning more than $20,000 a month performing hardcore porn on OnlyFans.

Despite finding fame and fortune with her new adult venture, there's a heartbreaking reason behind Mishel's move into the porn industry.

The former reality star was suspended without pay from her old job after refusing to comply with Covid vaccine mandates.

'I have earned a really nice amount of money to help us through this difficult time. Well, at least I can pay my new mortgage for a few months,' she recently told Daily Mail Australia.

Need a hand with that? The grandmother left little to the imagination in the outfit, which featured suspender stockings and a plunging neckline

Mishel, who used to work as a policy trainer in the police force, recently became a grandmother after her son Sam welcomed a baby boy with his girlfriend.

She's also a doting mum to daughter Eva, who featured on a few episodes of Married At First Sight and now works as a curve model in Brisbane.

Mishel, a mum of two and grandmother of one, is older than most of her OnlyFans contemporaries at 51, and is known for performing hardcore acts other models aren't prepared to do.

She's performed a variety of X-rated acts on the site, including using toys and filming lesbian porn scenes with another woman.

Double trouble: The mother of two has been earning more than $20,000 a month performing hardcore porn on the site

Mishel also sells her used socks and panties on the website, and performs bizarre custom requests for fans.

She previously revealed her most-requested sex act from her subscribers was 'oral sex' and that she was once asked to perform an extreme and unhygienic fetish act while doing a handstand, which she refused.

The Macedonian stunner shot to fame on Married At First Sight's seventh season in 2020.

The ninth season of the reality series kicked off this week on Channel Nine.
Rachel Lindsay was overcome with emotion as she recounted her connection with her late costar Cheslie Kryst for a special episode of Extra airing Monday that paid tribute to the former Miss USA.

Rachel, 36, had tears streaming down her cheeks as she admitted she was was 'very unsettled' in the wake of Cheslie's shocking death after she jumped from a 60-story building in Manhattan on Sunday morning.

Extra host Billy Bush, who also worked extensively with the rising star, admitted everyone on the show was 'gutted' and 'grief-stricken' as they tried to come to terms with the tragedy.

Saying goodbye: Rachel Linday, 36, was overcome with emotion as she chatted with host Billy Bush on Monday's special episode of Extra, which was devoted to the memory of its late correspondent Cheslie Kryst

Shocking loss: Kryst tragically leapt to her death from a 60-story building in Manhattan on Sunday morning; pictured in June 2021 in NYC

Rachel's voice was clearly strained with emotion as she recounted how Cheslie 'was always there for you,' which led to her own doubts and regrets.

'It just makes you think, were you there enough for her?' she mused.

Billy called Cheslie a 'kindred spirit' for the former Bachelorette star, and Rachel admitted her late costar was 'inspiring' to her.

'I respect her. She and I went to dinner and we talked for hours about everything,' she recalled.

Tearful: Rachel's voice was clearly strained with emotion as she recounted how Cheslie 'was always there for you,' which led to her own doubts and regrets

Regrets: 'It just makes you think, were you there enough for her?' she mused

Sticking together: She added that both women faced similar struggles 'about being the strong Black women'

She added that both women faced similar struggles 'about being the strong Black women.'

Rachel wondered if she should have reached out to her colleague to how she was doing behind her strong facade.

'I feel like, should I have pushed? Should I have just asked her a little more when it came to that,' she said as her voice began to crack.

'The sky was the limit for her. I just  I can't believe she's gone,' she added.

While the reality star delved into her friendship with Cheslie, the two were seen in a play throwback photo as they seemed to pay homage to Charlie's Angels by holding their hands up in finger pistols, though Cheslie was joining in remotely via a TV screen attached to the wall.

Looking back: 'I feel like, should I have pushed? Should I have just asked her a little more when it came to that,' she said as her voice began to crack

So much potential: 'The sky was the limit for her. I just  I can't believe she's gone,' she added

Billy opened the program by sharing some of Cheslie's inspiring story from before she had even joined Extra.

He recounted how she was a 'star athlete from North Carolina' who managed the impressive feat of earning both a law degree and a master's degree in the same year.

But it was her triumph in the Miss USA pageant that boosted her stature even more.

She was seen in brief clips from some of her high-energy interviews with stars including Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Lizzo and even Oprah Winfrey.

Billy admitted that he had been in touch with Cheslie's mother on Sunday night.

'I spoke to her mother, and I said, 'All we saw was happy-happy.' I always thinking of her dancing in-between takes on set,' which he said was similar to what she had experienced.

'If that's all her mom saw, then OK, we all missed it, of course,' he added.

Later, he shared one of the last text messages he sent Cheslie, in which told her she was hitting her 'stride' and was a 'natural.'

Stunning ascent: Billy introduced the special episode by recounting Cheslie's rise from a star North Carolina athlete to the recipient of a law degree and a master's to Miss USA

Hidden signs: 'I spoke to her mother, and I said, 'All we saw was happy-happy.' I always thinking of her dancing in-between takes on set,' which he said was similar to what she experienced. 'If that's all her mom saw, then OK, we all missed it, of course'

In another segment, he mused on former Extra correspondent Nate Burleson's instruction to 'check on your strong friends. Don't assume.'

In a remote interview, Nate said he had no idea about Cheslie's mental state before her death.

'I was trying to look back on the times that we spent together and point out a clue or a hint that she was dealing with anything. And I couldn't pinpoint one thing, he said.

'But then I started to think, she was always on. There wasn't a dimmer with Cheslie. She was always bright and bubbly, a huge smile on her face. I said it, she was sunshine personified.'

He added that her death 'floored him,' and he called her like a 'sister' to him.

But he wondered if the 'weight' of being such an ebullient person might have weighed on her.

Stay in touch: In another segment, Billy mused on former Extra correspondent Nate Burleson's instruction to 'check on your strong friends. Don't assume'

Joyous: Burleson said, 'There wasn't a dimmer with Cheslie. She was always bright and bubbly, a huge smile on her face. I said it, she was sunshine personified'

Expectations: But he wondered if the 'weight' of being such an ebullient person might have weighed on her

Extra included an interview with Dr. Christine Yu Moutier, Chief Medical Officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, to inform viewers about the way people can hide their suicidal thoughts.

'A person can be very well aware, very educated, getting the best care and support from loved ones, and still have an outcome that we wish weren't the case,' she said.

Moutier added that 'suicide risk' could sometimes rise suddenly in an 'impulsive way,' but it was more common to be a long-term issue.

They juxtaposed the conversation with an old interview in which Cheslie spoke to Gabrielle Union about mental health.

The late pageant queen was also quoted from an old social media post in which she shared that trolls sometimes wrote abusive comments and criticized her 'muscular build,' calling it a 'man body.'

She noted that, even as suicide rates overall have decreased through 2020, that trend was not seen with Black and Latin people.

Under the surface: Dr. Christine Yu Moutier, Chief Medical Officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, explained that 'suicide risk' could come on suddenly, but it was more often a long-term issue

Cruel: The late pageant queen was quoted from an old social media post in which she shared that trolls sometimes wrote abusive comments and criticized her 'muscular build,' calling it a 'man body'

Kryst died Sunday morning after jumping to her death from her 60-story apartment building in Manhattan.

Her apartment was on the ninth floor, but sources said she was last seen on a 29th floor terrace, where she's believed to have leapt from.

Her body was later discovered on the snow-covered sidewalk below.

Just hours before her death, Kryst wrote on Instagram, 'May this day bring you rest and peace.'

Sources told the New York Post that she had left a note in her apartment stating that she wanted all of her possessions left to her mother, though it didn't include a motive for her suicide.
She recently returned to London after a stint in Brazil.

And Jessica Alves put on a jaw-dropping display in a skin tight silver catsuit after a workout session at Equinox gym, in Kensington.

The television personality, 38, has made quite the comeback to London this week and made sure to turn heads as she exited the luxury fitness studio.

Incredible: Jessica Alves, 38, put on a jaw-dropping display in a silver catsuit as she showcased her ample assets during a workout session at Equinox gym in Kensington on Monday

Jessica showcased her incredible figure in the slinky one piece that barely contained her ample assets.

Tying a white jumper around her waist, she highlighted her enviable curves in the stylish ensemble.

She added a matching metallic cropped padded coat and a pair of practical white trainers with red detailing to complete her sporty look.

Eye-popping: Jessica showcased her incredible figure in the slinky one piece that barely contained her ample assets

Gym session! The Brazilian-British beauty made sure to give a glimpse into her work out routine as she took to Instagram to share a series of videos

Her long bright blonde hair was worn in a sleek straightened style with a classy side parting as she added a feline flick of black eyeliner to accentuate her green eyes.

Jessica carried her fitness essentials in a Gucci carry-on duffle bag as she confidently strolled through Kensington and stopped for a selfie.

The Brazilian-British beauty made sure to give a glimpse into her work out routine as she took to Instagram to share a series of videos.

Successes: The influencer has spent the past five months in Brazil after buying a house in Sao Paulo with her OnlyFans earnings

She could be seen as she took to the treadmill for a quick warm up before beginning her weighted leg session.

The influencer has spent the past five months in Brazil after buying a house in Sao Paulo with her OnlyFans earnings.

Jessica told MailOnline she is feeling 'very happy' following her stint in Brazil as she returned to London.
A man who is willing to save his life with a kidney transplant is not willing to get the COVID-19 vaccine to guard his health after the operation  rendering himself ineligible for an organ.

Chad Carswell has had COVID-19 twice and recovered, and even though medical experts say immunity against the disease is stronger with a vaccine, he has steadfastly refused to get the shot, claiming he doesnt need it, he told WSOC-TV.

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The doctors say otherwise, and officials at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will not grant him the double amputee a new kidney without the jab.

He said, The last thing we need to talk about is your vaccination status, " Carswell told WSOC of the conversation he had with a doctor. And thats when I politely told him there was nothing really to talk about it, it wasnt up for debate [and] that I wasnt getting it. Then, he told me, You know youll die, if you dont get it. And I said, Im willing to die. "

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Carswell has also undergone numerous major heart surgeries, WSOC said. He is on dialysis three times weekly, with a kidney functioning at just 4%.

He has turned down offers of kidneys from willing donors and has spoken to his family and others close to him about his decision.

I was born free. I will die free, he said. Im not changing my mind.

His story comes on the heels of that of a Boston-area man who is refusing to get vaccinated and thus cant get a new heart.

[ Man denied heart transplant because he wont get vaccinated against COVID ]

The immune-suppressant drugs people must take post-transplant to prevent organ rejection make patients more susceptible to infections, including COVID. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines lay that out among the vaccines necessary before a transplant.
Nearly 50 years after the original horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre hit theaters, Leatherface is revived once more to torment a new generation in the first trailer for Netflix's Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The film marks the ninth film in the horror franchise and serves as a direct sequel to the 1974 original, directed by Tobe Hooper.

The sequel brings a slew of new characters into Harlow, Texas, along with Sally Hardesty, the only survivor from the original film, played by Olwen Fouere, replacing the original Sally, Marilyn Burns, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 65.

New characters: The sequel brings a slew of new characters into Harlow, Texas, along with Sally Hardesty, the only survivor from the original film, played by Olwen Fouere, replacing the original Sally, Marilyn Burns, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 65

The trailer begins with a car speeding through a field and crashing into a large piece of farm machinery in the middle of a field.

A terrified woman sticks her head out of the window and sees something behind her, as we hear her screams from the field... when the brutal Leatherface sticks his head up out of the field.

A Tesla is seen driving into Harlow, population 1974 (likely a nod to the original movie's release year), as a woman describes it as a 'ghost town.'

Crash: The trailer begins with a car speeding through a field and crashing into a large piece of farm machinery in the middle of a field

Harlow: A Tesla is seen driving into Harlow, population 1974 (likely a nod to the original movie's release year), as a woman describes it as a 'ghost town'

Dante (Jacob Lattimore) says they have, 'a vision for this place, all it needs is young blood,' while Lila (Elsie Fisher) tells Melody (Sarah Yarkin), 'I don't want to live in this place.'

Melody tells here, 'this is a chance for people to start fresh somewhere, somewhere safe,' as someone is seen watching the group from one of the houses.

They go check out one of the old houses when Mrs. Mc. (Alice Krige) asks, 'What are you doing in our house?'

Vision: Dante (center, Jacob Lattimore) says they have, 'a vision for this place, all it needs is young blood,' while Lila (Elsie Fisher) tells Melody (left, Sarah Yarkin), 'I don't want to live in this place'

Melody and Lila: Dante (Jacob Lattimore) says they have, 'a vision for this place, all it needs is young blood,' while Lila (Elsie Fisher) tells Melody (Sarah Yarkin), 'I don't want to live in this place'

She says they, 'really shouldn't be here,' when Dante looks around in the kitchen and catches the reflection of Leatherface in one of the pots.

Melody is seen hiding under a bed as Leatherface beats someone to death... and then puts down a chainsaw in front of her bed.

The trailer then cuts to Sally Hardesty, who gets a call and is told that her, 'old friend is back as she's heard saying, '50 years I've been waiting for this night' as she loads a bag of guns into her vehicle.

Dante: She says they, 'really shouldn't be here,' when Dante looks around in the kitchen and catches the reflection of Leatherface in one of the pots

Hiding: Melody is seen hiding under a bed as Leatherface beats someone to death... and then puts down a chainsaw in front of her bed

Sally: The trailer then cuts to Sally Hardesty, who gets a call and is told that her, 'old friend is back as she's heard saying, '50 years I've been waiting for this night' as she loads a bag of guns into her vehicle

Sally tells Melody that she just wants to see him again, and when Melody asks, 'Who?' Sally says, 'Leatherface,' as we get a glimpse at the sadistic killer, played by Mark Burnham.

Leatherface is seen holding his leather mask up in the air, as Sally tells Lila, 'It looks like it's you that he wants.'

Melody tells Lila that she's, 'not gonna let him kill you' while he throws a hammer down the stairs at her.

Seen: Sally tells Melody that she just wants to see him again, and when Melody asks, 'Who?' Sally says, 'Leatherface,' as we get a glimpse at the sadistic killer, played by Mark Burnham

Leatherface: A close-up glimpse at the sadistic Leatherface played by Mark Burnham

Lila: Leatherface is seen holding his leather mask up in the air, as Sally tells Lila, 'It looks like it's you that he wants'

The final shot features Leatherface stepping onto the bus with his chainsaw as everyone pulls up their phones and starts recording.

One of the young men says, 'Try anything and you're canceled bro,' but Leatherface starts the chainsaw anyway and starts tearing into one someone's midsection while mayhem engulfs the bus as the trailer comes to an end.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre also features narration from John Larroquette - who narrated the original film - debuting on Netflix February 18.

Bus: The final shot features Leatherface stepping onto the bus with his chainsaw as everyone pulls up their phones and starts recording

Canceled: One of the young men says, 'Try anything and you're canceled bro,' but Leatherface starts the chainsaw anyway and starts tearing into one someone's midsection while mayhem engulfs the bus as the trailer comes to an end
Former Bachelor star Sam Wood married wife Snezana Markoski in an idyllic Byron Bay ceremony back in 2018.

And now the fitness entrepreneur, 41, has revealed intimate details about the moment he first popped the question to Snez.

Appearing on Sunday Travels with MasterChef star Sarah Todd, Sam spoke about how he proposed to the brunette beauty during a hike overlooking Wineglass Bay in his home state of Tasmania.

Love story: The Bachelor star Sam Wood has shared intimate details of his proposal to wife Snezana Markoski

As he and former MasterChef star Sarah, 34, whipped up a delicious lamb dish, Sam spilled details about their engagement.

He said he got Snezana's daughter Eve, 16, involved with the proposal at the time and they now have a long-running 'in-joke' about it with their family.

Sam explained he asked Evie for her permission to marry her mother and got her to take video and pictures of the moment, but she accidentally pressed the wrong button.

Cooking up a storm: Appearing on Sunday Travels with MasterChef star Sarah Todd, Sam spoke about how he proposed to the brunette beauty during a hike overlooking Wineglass Bay in his home state of Tasmania

'Evie, I think she just turned 10. I said, "I'm going to propose to your mum" and asked if it was okay with her,' Sam said.

'And she was all excited and I had the ring and said, "I just want you to get a video and photo of the moment." It's a long walk and a long walk for a 10-year-old. Walked to a lookout over Wineglass bay, I got down on one knee and Evie pressed the wrong button,' he said with a laugh.

'So there's no evidence, photo, video or otherwise of the actual proposal, not that it matters, but it's a bit of an in-joke at home,' he finished.

Engagement: Sam and Snezana, who met on The Bachelor Australia back in early 2015, announced their engagement in December 2015

Sam and Snezana, who met on The Bachelor Australia back in early 2015, announced their engagement in December 2015.

'When you know, you know. I love you Snezana,' the personal trainer said at the time.

The pair are still going strong after tying the knot in Byron Bay in 2018 and are expecting another baby together.

They share two young daughters, Willow, three, and Charlie, two, as well as Snezana's teenage daughter from a previous relationship, Eve, 16.
Kayla Itsines and her boyfriend Jae Woodroffe went Instagram official last month.

And things seem to be going well for the lovebirds, who put on a tactile display while visiting a cafe in Adelaide on Monday.

Jae opened the door for the multimillionaire fitness queen, wrapped his arm around her, and even planted an affectionate kiss on her head.

Team Jayla! Multimillionaire fitness mogul Kayla Itsines (right) and her boyfriend Jae Woodroffe (left) put on a tactile display while visiting a cafe in Adelaide on Monday

Kayla flaunted her toned midriff in a stylish grey top and a pair of black sweatpants, completing her look with white sneakers.

The Sweat co-founder went makeup free and wore her brunette hair in a ponytail.

Meanwhile, Jae opted for a Balenciaga T-shirt, shorts and a pair of black trainers.

It's love! Jae opened the door for the multimillionaire fitness queen, wrapped his arm around her, and even planted an affectionate kiss on her head

Kayla was last week pictured wearing a pair of socks with the word 'Jayla' - a portmanteau of her and Jae's first names - stitched on the sides.

At about this time, she confirmed the couple's long-rumoured relationship by sharing a photo to Instagram of them cuddling.

The pair had been friends for years, but didn't get together until well after Kayla split from her ex-fiance and business partner Tobi Pearce in 2020.

Romance: Jae showed his manners as he opened the car door for the Sweat co-founder

'Meet Jae, everyone!  My best friend for years and now, partner,' she wrote.

'For all those people replying to my stories saying, "You look really happy," thank you! I am.'

Kayla and Jae have been together for several months now and have spent the last few weeks travelling around Australia.

It's official! Kayla was last week pictured wearing a pair of socks with the word 'Jayla' - a portmanteau of her and Jae's first names - stitched on the sides. At about this time, she confirmed their long-rumoured relationship by sharing a photo to Instagram of them cuddling

Kayla and her her ex Tobi launched fitness company Sweat - formerly known as Bikini Body Guides - in 2015 as an ebook.

Within a few years, the company had grown into an app-based online community with more than 50 million users worldwide.

The pair ended their engagement in 2020, but continue to work together.

Kayla went on to briefly date a man named Mitch before starting a relationship with Jae - who is the ex-boyfriend of one of her friends - last year.
While buying second-hand clothes has become increasingly fashionable, Tory peer Anne Jenkin has gone one better by boasting that she hasn't bought any new clothes for an entire decade.

'Not only have I not bought 'new clothes' for ten years, but apart from undies, I have no intention of ever buying new clothes,' declares the wife of Conservative grandee Sir Bernard Jenkin.

Blue-blooded Baroness Jenkin, 66, claims that shopping is an addiction that needs to be kicked. 'I haven't been in a shop for years,' she tells me.

'I have no idea what they're doing because I don't want to waste my time shopping  it's not my thing. Once you wean yourself off it  it's a bit like weaning off sugar  you won't want to do it again.'

Lady Jenkin comes from a grand background. Her father was the son of physicist the 4th Baron Rayleigh, while her mother is the daughter of Conservative politician the 1st Viscount Davidson.

Green crusade: Lady Jenkin and her husband Sir Bernard

A former trustee of Unicef UK and Cool Earth, her mission is to help save the planet. She declares. 'I can't bear the thought of a textile landfill. I buy from charity shops and eBay sometimes, if I have to refresh, and, obviously, I have a professional life that requires that.'

She adds: 'I only own about ten or 15 things. Overall it's a part of my anti-waste theme, but it's also not how I want to spend my money. I'm just not interested in spending money on clothes.'

Highlights of her thrifty style include wearing a charity shop hat to Margaret Thatcher's funeral and a hired bridal gown for her wedding.

'It's a part of my life to conserve,' the Conservative explains. 'In order to get your value from an outfit, you should wear it 33 times. That's what we should all be aiming to do.'

Tom's 40th draws roll call of brightest young things

Turning 40 can be traumatic, but Tom Naylor-Leyland overcame any stress he might have felt at reaching the milestone by inviting some of society's most captivating women to one of his family's country homes to help him celebrate at the weekend.

Tom, heir to baronet Sir Philip Naylor-Leyland's 176 million fortune, held a glittering party at Nantclwyd Hall in Denbighshire which left blue-blooded friends who weren't invited green with envy.

So here's my guide to who did make the guest list:

1) ALICE NAYLOR-LEYLAND, 35. Tom's socialite wife who doesn't travel light. She took 12 bags of luggage on their recent trip to the Bahamas.

2) TOM NAYLOR-LEYLAND

3) NINA FLOHR, 35. Wife of Prince Philippos of Greece.

4) ARABELLA MUSGRAVE, 34. Fashion PR was one of Prince William's first girlfriends.

5) LADY MARY CHARTERIS, 34. London's 'posh wild child', she's married to Robbie Furze, of indie rock band The Big Pink.

6) POPPY DELEVIGNE, 35. The sister of Cara is a notorious handbag hoarder, admitting, 'I don't even have a clue how many I own.'

7) CHARLOTTE OLYMPIA DELLAL, 41. Shoe designer whose creations have been worn by the Duchess of Sussex and Taylor Swift.

8) OLIVIA BUCKINGHAM, 32. Hong Kong-born socialite is also a stylist and writer.

9) NURA MOSLEY. Fashionista married to Louis Mosley, grandson of fascist Sir Oswald.

10) EMILIA WICKSTEAD, 38. Fashion designer whose clients include the Duchess of Cambridge and Samantha Cameron.

11) LUCY DELACHEROIS DAY, 39. Managing director of VICE Media and wife of music company boss Matt Elek.

Tom's 40th draws roll call of brightest young things

He's a regular in television dramas such as The Crown, and recently starred in Strictly and Celebrity Bake Off, but Greg Wise's recipe for a happy marriage is to avoid watching the gogglebox altogether. Asked for the secret of his relationship with Oscar winner Dame Emma Thompson, whom he married in 2003, he tells me: 'Talking to each other and not watching telly.'

He says the couple own a TV but 'never' turn it on, adding: 'I stopped watching telly in about 1985  seriously.'

Lucky we didn't, or Greg would be out of a job!

No time to dress, Ella?

Daniel Craig made his name when he rose from the sea as James Bond wearing a pair of swimming trunks. His daughter Ella Loudon is even less subtle.

The 29-year-old actress, who made a rare public appearance with her father at the No Time To Die premiere last September, is travelling in North America. Ella  daughter of Craig and his first wife, the actress Fiona Loudon  has shared this photograph online of her flashing her derriere.

She said her time in Joshua Tree, California, included her being 'high, lots of bad hair days and clearly no underwear'.

Daniel Craig made his name when he rose from the sea as James Bond wearing a pair of swimming trunks. His daughter Ella Loudon is even less subtle

The 29-year-old actress, who made a rare public appearance with her father at the No Time To Die premiere last September, is travelling in North America. Ella  daughter of Craig and his first wife, the actress Fiona Loudon  has shared this photograph online of her flashing her derriere

Mamma Mia! star Dominic Cooper has declared his support for rock legends Neil Young and Joni Mitchell after they announced a boycott of streaming giant Spotify over the spread of Covid misinformation on its platform. 'I remember when you were born and I was a premium member from that day,' the actor tells the U.S. company. 'There is still time to change your mind . . . And remember why you were welcomed into the world. MUSIC. And remember what you would be with no musicians.'

Royal cheesemaker faces stink over river pollution

When food is enjoyed by the Queen and has a Royal Warrant, one expects it to meet the most stringent ecological standards.

So I was alarmed to learn that the only cheddar producer in the country to hold that status is to be investigated by the Government's environmental body for polluting a river and killing a 'serious' amount of fish.

The Davidstow Creamery in Cornwall may have its site permit revoked by the Environment Agency after a conviction in December for 21 environmental offences at the site.

The creamery is being probed by anti-pollution group Fish Legal. Its solicitor Geoff Hardy tells me: 'This case could serve as a warning for highly profitable industrial processors in our countryside.'

A spokesman for Davidstow's owner, Dairy Crest, tells me: 'The company offers its sincere apologies.'

Lady Clara shares first glimpse of tot

Top model and actress Lady Clara Paget is known as one of society's most energetic revellers, but she may need to slow down.

For the 33-year-old daughter of the 8th Marquess of Anglesey has revealed that she's expecting her first child.

'Our little lion cub coming to join us in August,' she says, holding up her scan, next to her husband, Burberry model Oscar Tuttiett, 33. Lady Clara, who has appeared in films including St Trinian's 2 and Fast & Furious 6, married Tuttiett last summer.

Her friend Cara Delevingne describes the news as 'so so so exciting'.
Rozalia Russian was forced to address cosmetic surgery rumours on Monday.

The social media influencer, 31, finally admitted to having a breast enlargement after a fan asked about her changing appearance during an Instagram Q&A.

'Have you had a breast aug [augmentation]? They look fuller in clothes and bikinis you've posted lately,' the fan asked.

Coming clean: Melbourne socialite Rozalia Russian finally admitted to having a breast enlargement on Monday, after a fan on Instagram asked about her changing appearance. Pictured before and after her surgery

Rozalia responded: 'Okay, so for some reason this seems like such a taboo topic. But [for] anyone who has followed me for a while, it is very obvious that they are fuller.

'Keeping in theme with my 2022 mood and not worrying about what people think: yes, I had them done last year.

'Five years after my two pregnancies and breastfeeding each kid for 10 months, I did something for myself. For me, it was never about anyone else.'

Honest: The influencer confirmed during an Instagram Q&A she 'had them done last year'

Candid: 'Five years after my two pregnancies and breastfeeding each kid for 10 months, I did something for myself. For me, it was never about anyone else,' she said

Rozalia continued: 'As mothers we give up so much for our kids (and I wouldn't have it any other way). I wouldn't take back the stretch marks or excess skin.

'However, having this procedure was gaining a little bit of my old self back.'

Rozalia is a former ballerina-turned-influencer who promotes major brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and L'Oreal Paris.

Her entrepreneur husband Nick Russian is Melbourne's most prolific nightclub owner and famously appeared on dating show Temptation Island in 2002.

Nothing to hide: 'Keeping in theme with my 2022 mood and not worrying about what people think: yes, I had them done last year,' she revealed

Career: Rozalia is a former ballerina-turned-influencer who promotes major brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and L'Oreal Paris. Pictured on November 11

He became an official candidate for Lord Mayor of Melbourne in 2020, after the Liberal Party reportedly called for him to make a bid for the city's top job.

Following his stint as a reality TV star, Nick ran the popular nightclub Eve Bar, where he became friends with a slew of celebrities before selling the venue in 2015.

He now runs Together Events, which is 'a luxury lifestyle and events brand created for sophisticated, fun and fashion-conscious individuals'.
Meredith Marks has responded to the tirade by Lisa Barlow that targeted her and her family on the latest episode of The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City.

The 50-year-old reality star was asked for her reaction on Sunday's episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that aired immediately after the RHSLC episode on Bravo.

'When Lisa apologized to me later on, she told me that somebody told her that I said her house was ugly and that's why she felt that that tirade was justified,' Meredith said.

Tirade response: Meredith Marks has responded to the tirade by Lisa Barlow that targeted her and her family on the latest episode of The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City

'I don't really understand that. That seems quite vapid to me,' she added.

Meredith told Andy that she had no idea that Lisa was harboring such ill will toward her.

'I had certain clues like her blocking her [Instagram] Stories from my husband and children, things that were said to me from other people,' Meredith said.

'But this level of hate is far beyond anything I could've ever imagined,' she said.

Dinner drama: Lisa Barlow became completely incensed with Meredith during a group dinner and then unleashed a profanity-laced tirade against her behind a closed door

'And the lies that she spewed. ...It's just incomprehensible,' Meredith added.

Lisa, 47, became completely incensed with Meredith during a group dinner while on their trip to Zion.

She was outraged that Meredith came to the defense of Mary Cosby, 49, and accused her of failing to be supportive of her in the same way.

The host: Andy Cohen asked Meredith for her reaction on Sunday's episode of Watch What Happens Live

'Meredith can go f*** herself. I'm done with her,' Lisa raged behind a closed door with her comments caught on a hot mic.

'Cause I'm not a f***ing whore and I don't cheat on my husband. Her and her dumb f***ing family that poses,' she added.

'Why don't you own a house?,' Lisa asked aloud rhetorically.

Going off: 'Cause I'm not a f***ing whore and I don't cheat on my husband. Her and her dumb f***ing family that poses,' Lisa ranted

'Wait. You can't. Cause your husband changes jobs every five minutes?,' she continued.

'Fake Meredith is a piece of s***. ''I have your back'', I'm offended by that. F*** you! That f***ing piece of s*** garbage whore. I f***ing hate her!' she ranted.

'She's a whore! She's f***ed half of New York,' Lisa shouted. 'She can go f*** herself.'

Still ranting: 'She's a whore! She's f***ed half of New York,' Lisa shouted. 'She can go f*** herself'

Lisa then emerged from behind the closed door in a black bra and blue jeans.

'Here, you can have your mic back,' she said while tossing her recording apparatus toward the camera.

Meredith on WWHL said she didn't understand the allegations made by Lisa.

Bravo show: Meredith on WWHL said she didn't understand the allegations made by Lisa

'Maybe it's projecting? I don't really know. I know Seth and I have been very honest. We've had moments where we dated other people,' Meredith said, referencing her 2019 separation from husband Seth Marks. 'We have not dated a lot of other people. I could not even have 10 boyfriends, because I've never slept with 10 people in my life.'

Meredith did acknowledge that Lisa's dig about her family not owning a house and Seth switching 'jobs every five minutes' did have 'some truth to it.'

'By nature of what he does, he should be switching jobs,' Meredith said. 'He's never been fired by any job he's ever been at.'

Work history: 'By nature of what he does, he should be switching jobs,' Meredith said. 'He's never been fired by any job he's ever been at'
Ben Whishaw has revealed he learned how to perform a C-section for his role as doctor Adam Kay in BBC One's medical drama This Is Going To Hurt.

The actor, 41, hailed the experience as 'extraordinary' but noted he was surprised by how 'basic' the procedure was to perform.

According to The Mirror, the James Bond star explained: 'You take a scalpel, slice through flesh, put your hands in, pull the muscles apart and grab the baby.'

Dedicated: Ben Whishaw has revealed he learned how to perform a C-section for his role as doctor Adam Kay in BBC One's medical drama This Is Going To Hurt

He also revealed his favourite moment in the upcoming seven-part show.

Ben shared that he particularly enjoys the 'messy' moment a new mother tries to eat her placenta.

He explained: 'She's read it's good for her and the baby and, well, it gets messy.'

The screen star also spoke of NHS staff's dedication in the wake of the pandemic, adding: 'I think it's a time when we've all been more aware than normal of just how much we owe to the people who work for the NHS.'

Favourite moment: Ben shared that he particularly enjoys the 'messy' moment a new mother tries to eat her placenta

This Is Going To Hurt is based on Adam Kay's award-winning international multi-million selling memoir of the same name, it tells the unvarnished truth of life as a doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology.

The series sees Adam clinging to his personal life as he is increasingly overwhelmed by stresses at work: the 97-hour weeks, the life and death decisions, and all the while knowing the hospital parking meter is earning more than him.

The series is hotly anticipated after the book sold 2.5 million copies.

It comes after Ben admitted he found the scene in which his James Bond character Q was revealed to be gay in latest 007 film No Time To Die 'unsatisfying'.

The actor considered challenging the moment with movie bosses as he thought more could be done to highlight the instant but he decided against it, saying he 'accepted' it, adding: 'It is what it is.'

Unsatisfied: It comes after Ben admitted he found the scene in which his James Bond character Q was revealed to be gay in latest 007 film No Time To Die 'unsatisfying'

In the scene, James Bond (Daniel Craig) shows up at Q's apartment with Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and asks Q, who supplies 007 with gadgets and weapons, for his help.

However, Q is irritated as he is preparing a dinner table for a romantic date, with the character telling Bond: 'He'll be here in 20 minutes.'

On the scene, Ben told the Guardian: 'I think I thought, ''Are we doing this, and then doing nothing with it?'' I remember, perhaps, feeling that was unsatisfying.

'For whatever reason, I didn't pick it apart with anybody on the film. Maybe on another kind of project I would have done? But it's a very big machine.

'I thought a lot about whether I should question it. Finally, I didn't. I accepted this was what was written. And I said the lines. And it is what it is.'

Ben said he received no feedback about the scene other than from It's A Sin screenwriter Russell T Davies who praised him for the moment.

He added: 'No one has given me any feedback. So I'm really interested in these questions. And I'm very happy to admit maybe some things were not great about that [creative] decision.'
He's the most talked about MAFS groom of the moment following his car-crash wedding to 'bridezilla' Tamara Djordjevic on Monday night's premiere.

So when Brent Vitiello, 33, failed to join Tamara for their scheduled TV interview with the Today show on Tuesday morning, fans were understandably disappointed.

While Tamara claimed that her husband was simply 'too tired' to show up, newly-surfaced footage of Brent's activities hours earlier suggests there's more to the story.

The REAL reason he didn't turn up to his Today show interview: Newly-surfaced footage of Brent Vitiello, 33, (pictured) shows the groom looking bleary-eyed at a boozy MAFS viewing party in Bondi - hours before his scheduled TV appearance

Brent had spent Monday night attending a boozy viewing party in Bondi, at which he and a group of pals watched the MAFS premiere.

Footage uploaded to Instagram by other guests shows a bleary-eyed Brent laughing and raucously reacting to his scenes as they played on television.

Also attending the alcohol-soaked soiree was MAFS groom Al Perkins and Brent's best friend, model Levi Neufeld.

Big night: Footage uploaded to Instagram by other guests shows a bleary-eyed Brent laughing and raucously reacting to his scenes as they played on television

Given the party continued through the night, it's no wonder Brent failed to make it out of bed in the morning.

Meanwhile, Tamara gave a rather awkward response when quizzed by the Today show hosts about her husband's absence.

'Brent's having a sleep-in this morning,' said Tamara, who on Monday was spotted running errands without her wedding ring.

Sleeping it off? Given the party continued through the night, it's no wonder Brent failed to make it out of bed in the morning

'Brent's having a sleep-in this morning': Meanwhile, Tamara (pictured) gave a rather awkward response when quizzed by the Today show hosts about her husband's absence

'So he wasn't up for waking up too early this morning'.

Tamara was branded a 'bridezilla' after rudely correcting her husband's table manners and describing retail workers as 'unambitious' during Monday's Married At First Sight premiere.

Tamara was immediately disappointed by her affable groom when they met at the altar during Monday night's premiere.

Not what she ordered: Fussy bride Tamara was immediately disappointed by her affable groom when they met at the altar

'He does seem like an average kind of guy. Average just isn't for me. I'm not average. I don't do average,' the surgically-enhanced blonde told producers.

Just moments after exchanging vows, Tamara asked Brent where he lived and what he did for a living.

The fussy blonde was lost for words when Brent told her he worked at a popular Sydney nightclub, which she assumed meant he was a party boy.

'He does seem like an average kind of guy. Average just isn't for me. I'm not average. I don't do average,' the surgically-enhanced blonde told producers

While Brent's line of work occasionally requires him to go to nightclubs, he is actually an events manager who previously ran a successful business in Dubai.

When he clarified this point, Tamara was visibly relieved - but the worst was yet to come for the newlyweds.

Later, when the couple sat down for dinner with two friends, a frustrated Tamara called out Brent for his lack of etiquette when he used the wrong fork.

Not acceptable! The most awkward moment came later in the ceremony when judgmental Tamara turned on Brent after finding out he worked at a nightclub - which turned out to be only half true

'You don't seem to know much about your cutlery,' she snapped.

'You might like things one way and I like them the other way, but my way has to be the right way,' she added.

Tamara went on to insist: 'You'll learn very quickly that I always wear the pants in a relationship.'

Not impressed! Later, when the couple sat down for dinner with two friends, a frustrated Tamara called out Brent for his lack of etiquette when he used the wrong fork

She then shocked her husband by saying she could never date someone who works in retail because it's 'below her'.

Brent and his best man Levi later went for a private chat to discuss how things were going.

Brent said he was horrified by Tamara's snobbery and decided to test her by refusing to apologise or make excuses the next time she criticised him.

Farcical: Later in the evening, Tamara berated Brent for a minor mistake while cutting their wedding cake, but the tattooed hospitality worker refused to say sorry - which drove her mad

Later in the evening, Tamara berated him for a minor mistake while cutting their wedding cake, but the tattooed hospitality worker refused to say sorry - which drove her mad.

Their spat descended into a farce as Brent refused to apologise to his wife for handing her a knife the wrong way.

When producers asked him what he thought about his bride, Brent said he'd married a 'psychopath'.

Married At First Sight continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel Nine and 9Now
Kerry Washington penned a heartfelt letter to her more than 6.4 Instagram followers after getting flooded with love and birthday tributes on Monday.

In addition to sharing a slideshow of stunning photographs of herself in a plunging floral dress, the 45-year-old Scandal actress gushed that her heart was so 'full' from 'all the beautiful' messages that she received.

'Im so excited to spend this next year with you all sharing projects, art, people, causes, & moments that inspire me,' she captioned a slideshow of herself holding a bouquet of yellow balloons with the ocean behind her.

Grateful: Kerry Washington penned a heartfelt letter to her fans after getting flooded with sweet birthday messages on Monday

The Emmy winner went on to tell her fans that she spent the past year working with ten 'organizations that are dedicated to helping people in their local communities feel empowered to use their voice and their vote.'

'It would be THE BEST birthday present ever if you all could show them some love (FOLLOW them, donate what you can, share their information, whatever you can do) because fighting for justice and democracy can sometimes be a thankless job,' she urged her fans.

The groups the star highlighted included 1Hood, Action St. Louis, Advance Native PL, Arizona Coalition for Change, Florida Rising, Make the Road NV, New Virginia Majority, Southerners On New Ground, We The People MI Action Fund and Youth Rise Texas.

Birthday girl: In addition to sharing a slideshow of stunning photographs of herself in a plunging floral dress, the 45-year-old actress gushed that her heart was so 'full' from all the beautiful' messages that she received

'Im so excited to spend this next year with you all sharing projects, art, people, causes, & moments that inspire me,' she captioned a slideshow of herself holding a bouquet of yellow balloons with the ocean behind her

Generous: The Emmy winner went on to tell her fans that she spent the past year working with ten 'organizations that are dedicated to helping people in their local communities feel empowered to use their voice and their vote'

Washington's Little Fires Everywhere costar Reese Witherspoon paid tribute to her pal by sharing a photo of them together on her Instagram Story.

'Happy birthday to this phenomenal woman! I  you & your huge heart, your infinite talent and your activist mind!' the Legally Blonde star gushed.

Jada Pinkett Smith also made sure to wish her friend a happy birthday by sharing an image of them together at an award show and two solo glam shots of just Washington.

'Happy birthday to this phenomenal woman! I  you & your huge heart, your infinite talent and your activist mind!' the Washington's Little Fires Everywhere costar Reese Witherspoon wrote on her Instagram Story

Sweet: Jada Pinkett Smith also made sure to wish her friend a happy birthday by sharing an image of them together at an award show and two solo glam shots of just Washington

Additionally, Washington's comment section on her latest post garnered messages from Gabrielle Union, Mindy Kaling, Halle Berry and more.

'Blessings on your birthday, Beauty!' Oscar nominee Ava DuVernay wrote under the post.

Last month, Washington teased fans by a behind-the-scenes snap from the set of her new legal drama Reasonable Doubt, which she is directing.
He's been jetting to the West Coast to spend time with his girlfriend Kim Kardashian in recent weeks.

But Pete Davidson was back in New York City on Monday when he was spotted shooting a scene at a gas station for his upcoming horror film The Home.

The 28-year-old Saturday Night Live star was hard at work following a report that he's searching for a home in Los Angeles so that he can be closer to Kim.

Spooky business: Pete Davidson, 28, was spotted Monday in New York City filming a scene at a gas station for his upcoming horror film The Home

Pete looked anonymous in a plain black hoodie, which he had pulled up over his head.

He appeared to be sporting the same close-cropped buzz that he was seen with in recent photos, and he had dark circles around his eyes.

The comedian also wore black jeans with black boots and a black wristwatch as he stood between to gasoline pumps.

Earlier this month, Deadline reported that he would be starring in the upcoming horror film The Home, in which he plays a 'troubled man' who takes on a new job working at a retirement home.

Back in black: Pete looked anonymous in a plain black hoodie, which he had pulled up over his head, plus matching pants and boots

But as he acclimates to the new job, he discovered both the residents and the staff members have sinister secrets, and his investigation into the home leads him to learn distressing information about his own upbringing in the foster system.

The film is being directed and co-written by James DeMonaco, who is best known for directing the first few films in the horror series The Purge.

Pete has been expanding his skillset in recent years following his acclaimed roles in the 2019 dramedy Big Time Adolescence and Judd Apatow's The King Of Staten Island.

Made up: The comedian also sported dark circles under his eyes as he stood among a row of gas pumps

Chilled: The comedian cut a laidback figure as he hung out on the set of his film

Chilly: Pete looked rather cold as he stood outside in the snow

Brrrrr: The star rubbed his hands as he shivered outside amid filming

What a look: The star pulled many facial expressions on set

All together now: Peter later donned a large padded jacket by Moose Knuckles as he smiled for pictures on The Home set

The standup comic's latest role takes him back to his home on the East Coast, though he's been spending plenty of time across the country in Los Angeles to hang out with his girlfriend Kim Kardashian.

Last week, a source told Us Weekly that Pete is looking to find a permanent base in LA so that he can more easily spend time with his new love.

'Petes been spending more time in LA to be close to Kim, and hes looking to find a place there,' the insider claimed, adding that the two have 'definitely gotten serious.'

Say cheese: At one point, Pete was seen getting his photo taken as someone snapped him on their phone

Warmer: The TV star bundled up in a long padded coat as she braved the chill on the set of his latest film

The report comes after the two have been socializing together with high-profile friends, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose home they visited last week.

A spokesperson for NBC also claimed to the publication that Pete's cross-country travels haven't negatively impacted his SNL duties.

'No rehearsals have been missed,' they said, denying rumors that he had been missing in action at the iconic sketch comedy series. 'Its not true.'

For a role: He appeared to be sporting the same close-cropped buzz that he was seen with in recent photos; pictured with John Mulaney and Olivia Munn's baby

Following the couple's dinner party with Bezos, a source told TMZ that Pete has been taking every work opportunity he gets that takes him back to California so that he can be with Kim in his free time.

Earlier this month, Kim and Pete jetted down to the Bahamas for a tropical getaway, though they seem to be having plenty of fun back home now.

The couple's relationship began shortly after she made her hosting debut on SNL, which included a sketch in which the two appeared to share their first kiss.

Getting serious: Last week, a source told Us Weekly that Pete is looking to find a permanent base in LA so that he can more easily spend time with his new love.

The future lovebirds appeared together in a humorous sketch in which they played the title character and Jasmine from the Disney animated film Aladdin.

The stand-up comic played a wimpy version of the the character who was jealous of his new girlfriend's more impressive ex-boyfriends.

The couple seem more serious than ever lately, but Kim's estranged husband Kanye West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, has told friends that their relationship is just a publicity stunt, according to The Sun.

He also reportedly 'believes her relationship with Pete Davidson is fake. He believes the Kardashians make up story lines for their lives and he's sick of it.'

Meeting through work: Kim and Pete first met when she was the host of Saturday Night Live in October, and shared their first kiss as cameras rolled (pictured 2021)

Oh dear: Kim's estranged husband Kanye West has been spreading rumors among his acquaintances that Pete has AIDS, a source told TMZ; seen in February in Beverly Hills

TMZ recently reported that Kanye has been 'telling everyone within earshot' that Pete has AIDS.

Some of Kanye and Pete's mutual friends have described as 'childish' and are reportedly 'confused' and 'disturbed' by his claims.

A source close to the rapper called the report 'nonsense,' but the hitmaker has yet to officially speak out.

He and Kim share four young children: North, eight; Saint, six; Chicago, four; and Psalm, two.
Jean-Paul Agon from LOreal: from falling in love at first sight to working hand in hand with Shanghai

By:Zhao Chunyuan | From:english.eastday.com | 2022-01-27 19:54

"Since the first day I arrived in Shanghai in 1997, Shanghai has a special place in my heart," Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and chief executive officer of L'Oreal, said, expressing his deep affection for the city.

Twenty-four years ago, L'Oreal entered the Chinese market with a dream of "making a lipstick available to every Chinese woman". As president of L'Oreal Asia, Agon fell in love at first sight with Shanghai when choosing a city for Loreals China headquarters.

Career highlights in Shanghai

During the 43 years in L'Oreal, working in Shanghai has been one of the highlights in Agon's career. He still remembers vividly the time when L'Oreal established its China headquarters in Shanghai in 1997."We were in a very small office building at that time, with about 20 people including me," he said.

In his eyes, Shanghai is like a boundless sea. He witnessed the great changes of the city as it grew into a leading business hub and felt that it is the best place in China to develop L'Oreal's business. And it proved to be a wise decision. Today, L'Oreal China has earned its place as a leader in the country's beauty market with 28 brands and become the second largest market for the LOreal Group.

Under the guidance of Agon, L'Oreal has set a series of records for the speed of launching new products in China, and has cultivated innovative talents for the cosmetics industry.

Agon was honored with the title of 2021 Honorary Citizen of Shanghai in recognition of his contribution to the development of Shanghai.

Countless memorable encounters with Shanghai

From the World Expo, China International Import Expo (CIIE) to the International Business Leaders' Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai (IBLAC), Agon has been engaged in a variety of these events in Shanghai and he has never hesitated to express his affection for the city."Shanghai, let's meet. I love Shanghai," he said.

In 2010, L'Oreal China was the only double sponsor of the Shanghai World Expo and the French National Pavilion with the support of Agon.

L'Oreal has participated in CIIE for four consecutive years.

Since 2019, Agon has been a member of IBLAC and has advised Shanghai on its economic development together with other international business leaders.

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Agon visited Shanghai no less than 50 times. He has made many young friends in Shanghai. Agon recalled that he went to Fudan University for a campus charity sale in 2017."I made exchanges with many interesting post-95s young people, which impressed and inspired me. They represent the future energy of Shanghai and China," he said.

Inspired by attractiveness of Shanghai

The city spirit of Shanghai is "be tolerant to diversity.The city provides an excellent business environment for foreign companies in China, and L'Oreal Group has benefited deeply from this," said Agon. As a pioneer of L'Oreal China, he has witnessed the changes in the Chinese market, which is strongly attractive to foreign companies.

"The relevant government departments at all levels in Shanghai gave practical support to foreign companies like L'Oreal. As far as I know, there is only one country in the world that their government department visits the general managers of the branches every year and asks what companies need. Shanghai is the only city in the world that can do that," he said.



L'Oreal's North Asia Zone covering China, Japan and South Korea, established its headquarters in Shanghai in 2020. Agon believes that it will definitely benefit Shanghai consumers and bring more opportunities to Shanghai. He believes that Shanghai will achieve its goal of being an international consumption center city earlier than any other cities in China.
Former Apopka Mayor Joe Kilsheimer reached a settlement with the Florida Commission on Ethics over a citizens allegations that he took a vacation at taxpayers expense by improperly billing the city for costs he and his wife incurred to attend a national mayors conference in 2017.

Kilsheimer, a former Orlando Sentinel reporter who served as Apopka mayor from 2014 to 2018, agreed to pay $668 to reimburse the city and pay civil penalties totaling $2,500, according to the settlement agreement, which concluded not all his expenses were authorized by city policies.

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The ethics commission approved the agreement Jan. 21. The board also recommended Gov. Ron DeSantis publicly reprimand Kilsheimer.

The complaint was filed March 1, 2018, by Melissa Lynne Touchet less than two weeks before the mayoral election, which Kilsheimer lost.

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Theres nothing like taking a vacation at someone elses expense I suppose, she wrote.

She alleged Kilsheimer owed $4,300 to Apopka taxpayers, listing seat upgrades on their flights and other expenses the city paid. In her complaint, Touchet accused Kilsheimer of using the trip to the mayors meeting as a ruse to witness the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump.

Trump, a Republican, took the oath of office the day after the mayors conference which Kilsheimer, a Democrat, attended.

Kilsheimer had been invited to the United States Conference of Mayors winter meeting in January 2017 to accept a $10,000 grant from the group on behalf of Apopka Youth Works, a city-sponsored summer jobs and career education program for high school juniors and seniors.

He was asked to speak about the summer youth program, sponsored by CareerSource Florida and local businesses.

Kilsheimer also met with the capitol staff of Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio regarding Apopka projects.

Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. >

His participation at the conference was interrupted a day when he flew home to chair an Apopka City Council meeting then flew back.

The ethics commissions advocate, Elizabeth Miller of the Florida Attorney Generals Office, concluded Kilsheimers trip to Washington served a public purpose but some expenses  like seat upgrades  were not authorized by city spending policies, which require employees fly the most economical class.

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According to Millers report, Kilsheimer paid for his wifes expenses but he also should have at bare minimum reimbursed the city $491.21 for the extra nights stay at the Hilton where the mayors conference was held, $160 for seat upgrades on all his flights and $17 for airport parking.

She concluded he took advantage of an otherwise permissible event to benefit himself and his wife at the taxpayers expense.

Miller noted Apopka taxpayers also paid $2,277.05 to Homewood Suites, where the mayor originally had booked his stay for the conference.

According to Millers report, the mayors assistant said she forgot to cancel the Homewood room when the Hilton room became available.

shudak@orlandosentinel.com
Margaret Josephs revealed she has yet to receive an invite to her Real Housewives of New Jersey costar Teresa Giudice's wedding on Monday.

While shedding some light on their strained friendship, the reality star, 54, told Page Six that it's unlikely she will watch the mom-of-four tie the knot to Luis Ruelas.

'Teresa and I are not getting along. I mean, I think my wedding invitation, [my] save the date, is lost in the mail,' the entrepreneur quipped.

On the outs: Margaret Josephs revealed she has not received an invite to her Real Housewives of New Jersey costar Teresa Giudice's wedding on Monday; seen in 2019

She continued: 'I think the group dynamic is not that cohesive right now.'

While the Macbeth Collection founder admitted the tension between her costars is 'sad,' she said 'its nothing' worth losing 'sleep over.'

Still, the television personality told the outlet that she believes 'everybody could come back together.'

Happy couple: In October 2021, Giudice became engaged to her boyfriend of one year following an idyllic proposal in Greece

Last month, in the trailer for season 12 of their Bravo reality series, Giudice was seen throwing food and plates at Josephs during a heated argument.

The cookbook author was set off after Josephs called her a 'sick, disgusting liar' after questioning her on her new romance with her fiance.

Teresa's breaking point came over dinner with the ladies and their husbands, when Margaret insulted Teresa.

'Teresa and I are not getting along. I mean, I think my wedding invitation, [my] save the date, is lost in the mail,' the reality star, 54, quipped to Page Six

While the Macbeth Collection founder admitted the tension between her costars is 'sad,' she said 'its nothing' worth losing 'sleep over' (seen in 2020)

In October 2021, Giudice became engaged to her boyfriend of one year, following an idyllic proposal in Greece.

Their engagement came two years after Teresa finalized her divorce from husband of 20 years, Joe Giudice, with whom she shares four daughters: Gia, 20; Gabriella, 17; Milania, 16; and Audriana, 12.

Ruelas, who shares two sons with ex-wife Marissa DiMartino, is the co-founder of Digital Media Solutions and serves as the company's executive vice president of business development.

The latest: Teresa Giudice shocked the audience during season one of the Real Housewives of New Jersey when she flipped a table over in anger during a tense argument. And the star's temper appears to have not improved since the unforgettable moment, after the trailer for season 12 showed Teresa throwing food and plates at her RHONJ co-star Margaret Josephs
Kanye West's new girlfriend followed in Kim Kardashian's style footsteps once again on Monday night.

Julia Fox, 31, dropped jaws in an oozing blue chest mold - just weeks after Kim, 41, appeared in a KKW Fragrance ad wearing an eerily similar design.

Though the tops had some differences, they also had a few similarities.

Looks familiar! Julia Fox dropped jaws in an oozing blue chest mold - just weeks after Kim Kardashian wore an eerily similar mold in a fragrance ad

The unique shapes clung to their curves and gave the illusion they had been plastered onto their bodies. The molds also showed off their toned bellies.

The looks weren't completely identical, however. Whereas Kim wore a black mold which expanded into her neck, Julia's was much flashier.

In contrast to Kim's mold, which was all black, Julia's top shimmered in blue.

It also had a melting effect as it dripped across her skin.

Seeing double? Fox borrowed yet another look from her boyfriend Kanye West's ex Kim Kardashian as she stepped out during Paris Fashion Week last week

Julia posted the ab-baring photo to her Instagram Stories on Monday evening with no explanation as to where she was.

She appeared to be attending a party as she posed wearing a snug blue skirt and flashy purse in hand.

The mold is just the latest look Julia borrowed from Kim.

Last week, she stepped out during Paris Fashion Week wearing a black head scarf and quirky shades, which echoed a look previously worn by Kim during a fragrance commercial 2011.

Standing by her man: Julia, who went public with her romance with 44-year-old Kanye earlier this month, accompanied him in the French capital during fashion week

So chic! Julia was seen sporting a pair of quirky shades and a black leather mac, which was tied around her midriff and accentuated her svelte waist

Julia and Ye - who began dating after meeting on New Year's Eve in Miami - also donned matching black sex worker-inspired ensembles to check out the Schiaparelli haute couture SS/22 presentation.

The dominatrix look was similar to an outfit previously worn by Kim.

She also replicated an iconic Matrix-inspired look, recently worn by Kim, while celebrating her son's birthday.

Attack of the klone! Kanye is already styling new girl Julia like his estranged wife Kim (Pictured left in 2019)

As she continues to take style advice from her rapper beau, Julia was the spitting image of his estranged wife as she dined at Lucien in Manhattan's East Village.

Kanye is credited with revolutionizing Kim's style, propelling her profile from reality TV star to a high-fashion trendsetter appearing on the cover of Vogue.

But now it appears Kanye has a new muse to style, in the shape of his latest love.

Following recent appearances it looks as though Kanye has already been giving style notes to the rising star, as her wardrobe and style rapidly morphs into that of his estranged wife Kim.

Makeover: Kanye has already been giving style notes to Julia as her wardrobe and style rapidly morphs into that of his estranged wife Kim

Julia has been spotted in a number of racy ensembles that hark back to looks recently worn by Kim, undergoing a dramatic new look that will have surely been approved by Kanye.

Just last month, Kim confessed in a speech that it was Kanye, who she filed for divorce from in February, that had opened doors for her in the fashion world - admitted that he had pulled strings for her.

Kim noted that designers such as Ricardo Tisci and Olivier Rousteing were 'probably talked into' dressing her, after 'getting a call from Kanye,' adding: 'so thank you you know, to Kanye even for really introducing me to the fashion world.'

Snap! Julia was seen on Tuesday rocking a G-string look that Kim has also been seen wearing in the past

However, now it seems that Kanye is turning his styling attention to Julia after the actress was spotted in Miami with a bag full of clothes from Balenciaga, the high-fashion brand that Kim has been touting for months.

Julia recently turned heads wearing a $265 Miaou thong pant as she enjoyed a date night with Kanye watching a Broadway play.

The look draw striking similarities to Kim, who also rocked that look, albeit with a slightly pricier $1500 Vintage Gucci ensemble.

In his own words, the rapper - who recently changed his name to Ye - has been open about how 'styling' his romantic partner is his own 'language of love.'

Kim did it first: The reality star is seen with a slightly pricier $1500 Vintage Gucci G-string ensemble

'I'd be styling Kim, that's a language of love for me. That how I bagged her in the first place,' he said in November last year.

Adding: 'I pulled up, I had the Balmains and the jackets and stuff, I pull the jackets and the shoes.'

In 2015, Kim admitted that she had 'cried' after Kanye overhauled her closet when they got together.

He's certainly got a type: Both Kim and Julia have shown off the voluptuous curves

"When we first started dating, he went through my closet and he had a stylist come in and they put everything he thought wasn't cool enough in a pile.'

'I walked in and it was like a pile to the ceiling of shoes, all my amazing shoes that I loved. I started crying,' she told Kelly Ripa.

'I put it all in another room and I was like, "I'll trust your opinion, but I'm not getting rid of my stuff." Then I walk in my room and there was an entire room filled of all new clothes, of all the stuff he wanted to fill back up my closet with.'

Putting a smile back on his face: Kanye - pictured today in New York City - appears to be happy with his new girl Julia

She added: 'It was really cool new designer stuff; I hadn't even heard of some of these designers before, and it really helped me fall in love with fashion.'

The same could be said for Julia, who before meeting Kanye, appeared to have a less distinctive look.

Even in June last year, Julia was seen in a modest black dress as she arrived at the premiere of her movie No Sudden Move with ex Peter Artemiev and their son Valentino.
They've been inseparable since The Bachelor finale aired in September 2020.

And Locklan 'Locky' Gilbert has now fuelled rumours he's secretly tied the knot with Irena Srbinovska.

In a new trailer for SAS Australia, Locky, 31, said he wants 'to be a better husband'.

Did Locky Gilbert and Irena Srbinovska secretly marry? The Bachelor has fuelled rumours he's tied the knot with the nurse in new SAS Australia trailer

'I want to be a better husband...I'm just too selfish. There is a little bit of humble from me,' he said.

In November, Locky and Irena hinted that marriage was on the cards after spending the day at Leighton Beach, just north of Fremantle.

He even teased that they were secretly engaged after one of his Instagram followers commented, 'Marry her already!' and he replied, 'It's coming.'

Locky and Irena are also believed to be making plans to start a family after she suffered a miscarriage in the early months of their relationship.

Hint? In a new trailer for SAS Australia, Locky, 31, said he wants 'to be a better husband'

The pair, who met on last year's season of The Bachelor, lost their child 'a few months' into their relationship but chose to keep it private.

They spoke about the miscarriage for the first time in an interview with Who magazine last year, admitting it was a 'devastating low'.

Irena said the miscarriage may have been linked to the stress she was going through in the aftermath of the Channel 10 dating show.

Smitten: In November, Locky teased they were secretly engaged after one of his Instagram followers commented, 'Marry her already!' and he replied, 'It's coming'

To the outside world, she seemed happy after moving from Melbourne to Perth to live with adventure tour guide Locky.

But she was secretly struggling after her father Vasco had suffered a medical emergency and she couldn't be with him due to Covid border closures.

She was also dealing with trolls after Locky had infamously told his runner-up on The Bachelor, Bella Varelis, he was falling in love with her only to pick Irena instead.

According to Who magazine, 'the stress led to devastating consequences'.
Married at first Sight's new groom Andrew has revealed his wild backstory with an ex-fiance that's sure to rank as one of the most shocking to emerge from the reality dating series yet.

The 39-year-old motivational speaker from Dallas, Texas, spoke candidly about the horrible experience in his audition tape for the show, reports 9Now.

Andrew explained in the tape that he was engaged at the age of 26 before a shocking act by his partner led to their split.

Crazy: Married at First Sight groom Andrew has revealed his ex-fiance's INSANE act before the couple were suppose to get married in his audition tape for the show

'We were four months out from our wedding, and she went on a hen's party,' he began.

'They had a male escort, like a stripper, and my ex-fiance actually cheated on me with the male escort and then she ended up marrying the guy on our wedding day.'

As if the details of the story couldn't get any more surreal, Andrew also revealed his ex-fiance used the same location for her wedding to the escort and kept the deposit.

What happened: The 39-year-old motivational speaker from Dallas, Texas explained in his audition tape for MAFS that his ex-fiance had cheated on him with an escort at her hens party

'She didn't even change the wedding venue or the day. She used our deposit and she just changed the last name from mine to his,' he recalled.

Andrew also talked about how a chance meeting with another Australian woman led to him packing his things and moving Down Under.

'I met a girl randomly in Texas and she brought me over to Australia to meet her family in Sydney. Before I left she asked me if I would move to Australia for her.'

Journey Down Under: Andrew spoke about how a chance meeting with another Australian woman led to him packing his things and moving to Australia from the US

'I then flew back to Texas. I sold everything that I owned. I closed two businesses. Said goodbye to all my family,' he added.

Andrew explained the couple had only spent 'eight weeks together' before they got married. His ex-wife then fell pregnant nine months after the wedding.

The personal trainer hinted that the child was the eventual catalyst for their split, saying that 'when a child is born the child is either going to put a wedge in your relationship or it's going to make it stronger'.

Andrew joined Married at First Sight and says he's open to building a family with a new wife.

Married At First Sight continues at 7.30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now
Garcelle Beauvais was critical of Erika Jayne on Monday's episode of The Real, saying her co-star on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills could be more proactive in helping the people who accused her estranged husband Tom Girardi of embezzling their money.

The comments from Beauvais came after news that Jayne, 50, was dismissed from the ongoing lawsuit filed against against Girardi, 82, in Illinois.

'Theres so much more that she could do, even if shes not guilty of knowing everything that Tom was doing,' said Beauvais, 55, noting that Jayne could surrender expensive items she owns to help compensate Girardi's accusers.

The latest: Garcelle Beauvais, 55, was critical of Erika Jayne, 50, on Monday's episode of The Real, saying her co-star on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills could be more proactive in helping the people who accused her estranged husband Tom Girardi, 82, of embezzling their money

'This is a way of saying, "I have compassion for you and therefore take the jewelry, take the earrings, take the necklace,"' the actress and TV personality said on the talk show. 'I would give up the diamonds quickly. I believe she's giving them to a third party until it's decided if she does have to give them back.'

Beauvais noted how Jayne has shown up to film the Bravo series donning an extensive collection of jewelry, adding, 'She's got a lot, so getting rid of those diamond earrings is not going to hurt her.'

Beauvais's The Real co-host Adrienne Bailon, 38, echoed similar sentiments about what she thinks the most ethical move for Jayne to make would be.

'If I knew this information and I had those diamonds, I would not want those diamonds,' Bailon said. 'I wouldnt be able to sleep at night knowing I had diamonds that were paid for with money that was robbed from innocent families.'

Beauvais said 'theres so much more that' Jayne 'could do' to help the alleged victims

The show's Loni Love, 50, said of the situation: 'What he did, allegedly to those victims, is just horrible and I would just get rid of everything, all the gifts that he gave me'

Beauvais's The Real co-host Adrienne Bailon, 38, said she 'would not want those diamonds' under the circumstances

The show's Loni Love, 50, said of the situation: 'What he did, allegedly to those victims, is just horrible and I would just get rid of everything, all the gifts that he gave me.

'I know that that may seem extreme, but there are people that are still suffering to this day because they didn't receive the funds that they should have received, so I don't even see why this is a question.'

Jayne was originally named with her estranged spouse in the December 2020 class action lawsuit filed by Edelson PC, accusing them of fraud and embezzlement in connection with funds earmarked for victims of the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash, in which all 189 people onboard died.

Jaynes lawyer Evan Borges told Page Six in a statement Saturday that 'Erika had no role in the Lion Air dealings, actions, or inaction as between the attorneys and their clients, and she never received any of the Lion Air client settlement funds.'

In the case, a bankruptcy trustee said that Jayne in 2007 received $750,000 diamond earrings from Girardi with the money he's accused of stealing during his time presiding over a trust account with his former law firm Girardi & Keese.

Borges said in court docs that Jayne was 'completely innocent' in the matter, and had showed 'good faith' in agreeing not to sell the jewelry ahead of a probe of Girardi's dealings.

All of the panelists agreed they would not want to keep the jewelry if they were in Jayne's situation

Beauvais noted how Jayne has shown up to film the Bravo series donning an extensive collection of jewelry, adding, 'She's got a lot, so getting rid of those diamond earrings is not going to hurt her'

In the case, a bankruptcy trustee said that Jayne in 2007 received $750,000 diamond earrings from Girardi with the money he's accused of stealing during his time presiding over a trust account with his former law firm Girardi & Keese. Girardi was snapped in LA in 2018

Attorney Jay Edelson, who is representing the plaintiffs in the case, took to Twitter Saturday to say that the plaintiffs 'have not stopped pursuing' Jayne in the case, but are 'just switching courts,' as 'the suit is being refiled in California (to avoid fights over jurisdiction).'

He added: 'All money will go fully to the victims until they are made whole.'

On Wednesday, TMZ reported that Jayne agreed to give the earrings to a third party until the court's final decision comes down.

'Even based on the incomplete hearsay evidence filed with the motion, the trustee has no claim based on Erika innocently receiving a gift of earrings 15 years ago from her now-estranged and then-extraordinarily wealthy husband,' Borges told the outlet.

Beauvais and Jayne have had tension during production of the 12th season of their Bravo show, as a source told Page Six that Beauvais and Sutton Stracke, 50, were involved in an 'explosive' clash during filming of the show, and 'really got into it with each other.'
Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker may be saying 'I do' in just a few short months.

Us Weekly reports the couple's 'fairy tale' wedding may occur as early as this spring.

'It's going to be some time this year and could even be as soon as this spring,' the source told the site. 'They're so ready to be husband and wife. They couldn't be more in love.'

Can't wait to make it official! Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker may be saying 'I do' in just a few short months; pictured October 2021 in NYC

Fans will have to wait until the big day to learn how the couple plan on celebrating, as the lovebirds hope to keep the particulars of their nuptials a secret until then.

However, fans can expect a 'fairy tale' wedding which involves the couple's children. The nuptials may also be be filmed.

'[Kourtney] doesn't want any details of her wedding getting out as she wants it to be a surprise to guests,' the insider said. 'It's going to be a fairy tale wedding for sure, though.'

Kourtney has been busy working on her family's upcoming Hulu series, and earlier this month posted a sneak peek of the program.

Making it a surprise! Fans will have to wait until the big day to learn how the couple plan on celebrating, as the lovebirds hope to keep the particulars of their nuptials a secret until then; pictured October 2021

Love is in the air: The couple, who went public with their romance last year, pictured in Vegas in 2021

The beauty posted a photo of her laptop playing a segment of the Hulu show that appeared to include footsteps on a sandy beach. The image was likely from the filming of Travis' ocean side proposal to Kourtney in Montecito, California, in October.

Kourtney and Travis shocked fans when they confirmed their romance via an Instagram post in February 2021.

It came after weeks of speculation that the two had began dating after years of being in each other's lives as neighbors.

No stranger! Before their budding love story, Travis had made friendly appearances on Keeping Up with the Kardashians

Before their budding love story, Travis had made friendly appearances on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

For the past year the duo have not shied away from public displays of affection and lovey-dovey social media posts.

The Blink-182 musician popped the question in an elaborate and romantic production on a beach in Montecito in October of last year.

A source told People in late December 2021 that they are 'madly in love' adding, 'She's over the moon. They're almost like high school sweethearts all over again. Neither of them ever thought they'd fall in love like this again.'

Kourtney previously was with Scott Disick, 38, for nine years until their split in 2015; they share Mason, Penelope and Reign. They were never engaged.

Travis was married twice before - to Melissa Kennedy for nine months until their split in 2002 and then to Shanna Moakler from 2004 on and off until they finally divorced in 2008.
Actor Jason Ritter took to Twitter on Saturday to issue a furious defense of his Yellowjackets actress wife Melanie Lynskey after she was body shamed on social media.

Although Ritter, 41, did not name his wife, he made clear his feelings about anyone who has made 'unsolicited comments' about her body in his tweet - which was shared just two days after the 44-year-old actress addressed the body shaming she has been subjected to since the premiere of her hit Showtime series in November last year.

'If anyone has any further unsolicited comments about *anybody* else's body, they can feel free to write them in permanent ink onto their own foreheads and swan dive directly into the sun,' Ritter wrote.

The TV star also retweeted his wife's original post - in which she detailed her frustration at having to deal with 'egregious' comments about her body, voicing particular irritation at those body shamers who claim they are simply trying to look out for her 'health'.

'The story of my life since Yellowjackets premiered,' mother-of-one Lynskey wrote in a tweet on Friday. 'Most egregious are the I care about her health!! people b***h you dont see me on my Peloton! You dont see me running through the park with my child. Skinny does not always equal healthy.'

The latest: Jason Ritter, 41, took to Twitter Saturday in defense of his wife Melanie Lynskey, 44, after she was body shamed on social media. The couple was snapped in November in LA

Ritter posted a comment on the social media site in support of his spouse

Lynskey previously took to the site Friday to comment on people who make unsolicited comments about her weight under the guise of concern for her well-being

Although Lynskey did not detail any specific comments that she has received, this is not the first time that she has hit out at body shamers - revealing in an interview with Rolling Stone at the start of the year that she even faced passive aggressive criticism of her body from a staff member on Yellowjackets.

Earlier this year, Lynskey (pictured in Yellowjackets) revealed that a member of the production team on the show made comments about her weight and asked her 'what she planned to do'

According to the actress, who tied the knot with Ritter in 2020, after welcoming their first child in February 2019, a member of the production team questioned her about how she was planning to lose weight, and noted that the producers would be happy to hire her a trainer.

'They were asking me, "What do you plan to do? I'm sure the producers will get you a trainer. They'd love to help you with this,"' she told Rolling Stone.

Lynskey added that she was supported by co-stars Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis on the issue, with Lewis going as far as to pen a letter to the producers about the comments that her co-star had received.

Since the premiere of Yellowjackets at the end of last year, Lynskey has been sent dozens of tweets commenting on her body and appearance, with a quick Twitter search revealing several posts in which she is branded 'fat' by viewers of the show.

However, many have leapt to her defense, noting that she has a perfectly 'normal' body type - something that Lynskey herself said she was eager to portray on the show through her character Shauna.

The couple was snapped in March of 2018 in Santa Monica, California

't was really important to me for [Shauna] to not ever comment on [her] body, to not have me putting a dress on and being like, "I wish I looked a bit better,"' she explained to Rolling Stone.

'I did find it important that this character is just comfortable and sexual and not thinking or talking about it, because I want women to be able to to watch it and be like, "Wow, she looks like me and nobody's saying she's the fat one."

'That representation is important.'

Lynskey spoke with People on the topic of body image in a 2016 interview, saying she 'was very unwell for a long time' in 'trying to conform to something that was not physically possible for' her.

'I was losing my mind,' she said. 'I had eating issues and at a certain point I was like, "I'm not going to survive" - not like I was on death's door or anything, but I was so unhappy and my hair was falling out.'

Lynskey said, 'I was like, "I just need to look the way I'm supposed to look" and have faith that people are going to want to put someone in a film or on a show who looks like this. I did have to truly become comfortable with myself, because you can't fake it.'
Chris Evans may have a new woman in his life, if internet rumors and speculation are to be believed.

The 40-year-old Captain America star is rumored to be dating 24-year-old Warrior Nun star Alba Baptista, though neither have confirmed they're dating at this time.

The speculation started earlier this month when Evans shared a video to his Instagram story that had fans speculating he was in Baptista's hometown of Lisbon, Portugal.

New lady?: Chris Evans may have a new woman in his life, if internet rumors and speculation are to be believed

Maybe dating: The 40-year-old Captain America star is rumored to be dating 24-year-old Warrior Nun star Alba Baptista, though neither have confirmed they're dating at this time

Fans noticed that Evans started following Baptista on Instagram in the fall of 2020, must months after her hit Netflix series Warrior Nun debuted in July.

Baptista ultimately followed Evans back in June 2021, just before filming Season 2 of Warrior Nun in Spain.

There is a rumor that they may have met in Europe while she was filming Warrior Nun and he was filming The Grey Man, though none of the production locations overlapped.

Follow: Fans noticed that Evans started following Baptista on Instagram in the fall of 2020, must months after her hit Netflix series Warrior Nun debuted in July

Warrior Nun Season 2 was primarily filmed in Madrid, Spain, while The Grey Man filmed in Prague, the Czech Republic and France.

There have also been reports that Baptista spent New Year's Eve in Los Angeles, with some speculating the photos she shared from her trip may have been taken in Evans' back yard.

The latest clue surfaced last week when Evans shared a video on his Instagram story for an eighth grade class at the Jewish Foundation School.

NYE in LA: There have also been reports that Baptista spent New Year's Eve in Los Angeles, with some speculating the photos she shared from her trip may have been taken in Evans' back yard

Instagram video: The latest clue surfaced last week when Evans shared a video on his Instagram story for an eighth grade class at the Jewish Foundation School

Many fans speculated from the background of his video alone that he was staying at the Four Seasons in Lisbon, and that he was there to visit Baptista.

The couple's supposed relationship was also discussed on the Deux U podcast, where it was speculated that she was dating Lucas Bravo when Evans started following her.

'At the time, she was supposedly dating Lucas Bravo, who was in Emily in Paris. But this doesn't make sense because Lucas has always said that he doesn't date co-stars and he and Alba were in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris So that's breaking his rule,' it was said on the podcast.

Visit: Many fans speculated from the background of his video alone that he was staying at the Four Seasons in Lisbon, and that he was there to visit Baptista

Still, it was also said on the podcast that Evans, 'doesn't usually date 24-year-olds. He usually stays more age-appropriate.'

Evans has previously been linked to Jessica Biel, Minka Kelly, Dianna Agron and Jenny Slate, and he has been rumored to be dating others like Eiza Gonzalez, Lily James, Selena Gomez and Aly Raisman.

It was reported last week that Evans will team up with Dwayne Johnson for an untitled holiday action comedy that's set for release in 2023.

Linked: Evans has previously been linked to Jessica Biel, Minka Kelly, Dianna Agron and Jenny Slate, and he has been rumored to be dating others like Eiza Gonzalez, Lily James, Selena Gomez and Aly Raisman
Simon Blackburn was dumped from the new season of Married At First Sight after producers discovered his misogynistic, racist and homophobic TikTok videos.

And months after his abrupt dismissal, it appears the disgraced groom still hasn't learnt his lesson after he uploaded several videos lashing out at his co-stars.

The disgraced FIFO worker shared a video of him participating in a TikTok trend in which users disappear when they don't like something and then blow a 'whistle' to disappear.

Thoughts: Married At First Sight DUMPED groom Simon Blackburn slammed brides Tamara Djordjevic and Jessica Seracino on TikTok on Monday night

In the video, Simon can be seen pointing at a TV screen of a paused image of Tamara Djordjevic during her wedding to Brent as he shakes his head before he vanishes.

Another bizarre video posted to his channel, which has since been deleted, sees Simon watch the opening sequence of the show's ninth season.

When his short-term wife Jessica Seracino appears, Simon appeared disappointed to learn that she would be getting a second shot at finding love.

Sure, mate: In the video, Simon can be seen pointing at a TV screen of a paused image of Tamara Djordjevic during her wedding to Brent as he shakes his head before he vanishes

'She is going to hurt this man,' his friend remarks, before Simon mutters, 'She's not all there,' when a clip of her appears on-screen.

'I thought she wasn't going to be on there,' a confused friend asks him

Daily Mail Australia revealed in November his bride Jessica was the first person to alert the show's producers to his sick past.

FOMO? Another bizarre video posted to his channel, which has since been deleted, sees Simon watch the opening sequence of the show's ninth season

It comes just days after the disgraced groom, without a hint of irony, told The Daily Telegraph that Seracino was a 'nightmare', adding: 'She completely lost it, and should never have been on the show.'

Blackburn, who is in his thirties, had already filmed his wedding and honeymoon with Seracino when she discovered the offensive videos in October after noticing 'red flags' about him within just 24 hours of tying the knot.

'Jessica was extremely uncomfortable with him,' an insider told Daily Mail Australia.

What? When his short-term wife Jessica Seracino (pictured) appears, Simon appeared disappointed to learn that she would be getting a second shot at finding love

After waking up on their honeymoon, Seracino asked her friends to do some research on Blackburn, and a quick Google search revealed his unsavoury online footprint, including hateful videos and tweets.

'There were a series of homophobic and misogynistic tweets and TikTok videos. Something was not right,' the source added.

'Jessica was in disbelief and that's when she alerted producers, who were just as surprised.'

Sure, mate: Without a hint of irony, Blackburn said his 'wife' Jessica Seracino (pictured) was a 'nightmare', adding: 'She completely lost it, and should never have been on the show'

Blackburn was then 'immediately asked to leave' and Seracino was sent to another hotel until producers matched her with a new groom.

Blackburn featured in an untelevised trailer for MAFS, but a Nine spokesperson confirmed he had been edited out of the program after the network was made aware of his behaviour.

'When unacceptable social media content was discovered in relation to Simon Blackburn we immediately took steps to remove him from the program,' a Nine representative told Daily Mail Australia.

'We won't be making further comment.'

Gone: Blackburn was 'immediately asked to leave' MAFS once his sick videos were discovered and Seracino was sent to another hotel until producers matched her with a new groom

One shameful TikTok video showed Blackburn making misogynistic comments about a woman he previously dated.

He claimed she would 'sit on YouTube all day' instead of making money and called her the C-word repeatedly.

Another video saw him discussing how he matched with a woman on dating app Hinge, who later texted him to say she didn't think she was his type.

He then boasted of not dating women 'over 60 kilos'.

Blackburn did not respond to Daily Mail Australia's request for comment at the time, but appeared to address his exit from the show by sharing a post on his private Instagram profile that was captioned: 'Leave the past in the past.'

He also asked people to stop messaging him about the videos because he was suffering from Covid-19.
Carol McGiffin has denied a feud with Lorraine Kelly after the TV favourite 'revolting' was among names listed as a 'revolting human' in a now-deleted tweet.

The Loose Women panellist, 61, who apologised for her error, shocked fans when a retweet referenced Lorraine, 62, during a social media rant about 'Msm [mainstream media] mercenaries', including Piers Morgan, Karren Brady and Dr Hilary.

In response to a tweet about the media personalities, Carol branded them 'revolting human beings', who 'profiting from other people's misfortune'.

My mistake! Carol McGiffin has denied a secret feud with Lorraine after appearing to brand the TV favourite 'revolting' in a now-deleted tweet

The tweet in full, read: 'Profiting from other people's misfortune. Msm [mainstream media] mercenaries.

'I'd go further than that. They are revolting human beings and that's being generous.'

Fans reacted to the post in support of Lorraine when they noticed her name mentioned in the list of stars.

Omg: The Loose Women panellist, 61, shocked fans when she made a dig at Lorraine, 62, during a social media rant about 'Msm [mainstream media] mercenaries', including Piers Morgan, Karren Brady and Dr Hilary'

Carol has since confirmed she 'didn't see the whole picture' and was unaware that Lorraine was mentioned in the list of 'media mercenaries'.

After the error was brought to her attention, Carol told the Mirror: 'Unfortunately I retweeted it without looking at the whole picture.

'I didn't see the bottom row and I deleted it as soon as I saw lovely Lorraine who has no place in that rogues gallery.'

Wow: In response to a tweet about the media personalities, Carol branded them 'revolting human beings', who 'profiting from other people's misfortune'

While the Carol didnt' specifically mention any names, a source told Ok! magazine that her hitting out had 'ruffled feathers' behind-the-scenes.

They said: 'Carol is very outspoken and believes in freedom of speech, but it has ruffled a few feathers at ITV.

'It's not the fist time there has been drama amongst the stars at ITV.'

There have been rumours of strife behind-the-scenes at Loose Women as sources claimed both Carol and Stacey Solomon have 'refused' to work with Coleen Nolan.

It allegedly began following a tweet sent by Coleen's talent agent.

Coleen has since denied the reports on social media.
Since Dr. Raul Pino, chief health officer in Orange County, was placed on administrative leave after raising concern about the lack of vaccinations among the agencys staff, state officials will not say who is in charge of the Health Department in Floridas sixth-largest county.

The offices website lists Beth A. Paterniti as deputy health officer, a post she has filled since November 2020.

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Her photo appears below Pinos on the website.

But the state Health Department has not answered the question, Who is running the Health Department in Orange County now?

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Inquiries posed by email to state health officials more than 10 days ago have been ignored or funneled through a public records portal.

Pino, 58, who has led the Health Department in Orange County since May 2019, is facing a state investigation related to the staff-wide email he sent Jan. 4. The email revealed that fewer than 14% of the 568 employees in the office had been fully vaccinated with a complete series and booster shot.

Pino declined Monday to discuss Health Department business while on paid leave.

The agency has a host of community health responsibilities, including overseeing programs intended to provide prenatal care to pregnant women, immunizing children, testing and providing treatment of sexually transmitted disease, offering family-planning counseling and basic health services.

According to its website, a county health department works to prevent epidemics, encourage healthy behaviors, and responds to disasters.

Pino appeared at over 150 COVID-19 briefings, providing information in English and Spanish beside Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.

Demings has called Pino our trusted partner and friend throughout the pandemic but they could not say who is charge in Pinos absence.

Since the start of the COVID-19 [pandemic], Mayor Demings continues to have regular Executive Policy Group calls which includes statistics from the Florida Department of Health and a representative from the agency reporting current COVID-19 data collected by the State of Florida, county spokesperson Kelly Finkelstein said in an email Monday. Further, the Executive Policy Group calls includes other area health care partners like AdventHealth, Nemours and Orlando Health reporting their latest COVID-19 statistics. The Mayor relies on all of our partners and Public Safety Director Danny Banks to stay abreast of important health issues affecting Orange County.

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The groups most recent meeting was a telephone conference last Wednesday, Jan. 26.

Kent Donahue, whose email lists him as Health Department public information officer in the county, represented the agency on the call.

Florida Department of Health officials have provided few details of the investigation.

As the decision to get vaccinated is a personal medical choice that should be made free from coercion and mandates from employers, the employee in question has been placed on administrative leave, and the Florida Department of Health is conducting an inquiry to determine if any laws were broken in this case, spokesperson Weesam Khoury said in an email Jan. 18. The Department is committed to upholding all laws, including the ban on vaccine mandates for government employees and will take appropriate action once additional information is known.

Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. >

Communications chief Jeremy Redfern sent the same email.

The agencys public-records division has acknowledged receipt of records request but no one will not say who is in charge.

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Last week, addressing a state Senate committee considering his nomination by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to be the states Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo said little about Pinos leave. I want to clarify that particular position was absolutely not placed on administrative leave for any reasons that were potentially political or related to anything other than the policies we have in the Department of Health, Ladapo said.

Pinos email to employees bore a subject line of Concerned for us and our families!

He wrote:

I have a hard time understanding how can we be in public health and not practice it. I am sorry, but at this point, in the absence of reasonable and real reasons, it is irresponsible not to be vaccinated. We have been at this for two years, we were the first to give vaccines to the masses, we have done more than 300,000 [shots] and we are not even at 50%, pathetic.

shudak@orlandosentinel.com
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Brooklyn Beckham has come under furious fire after landing a slot on The Late Late Show on Monday night to plug his cooking career - despite having no professional training as a chef and boasting no personal claim to fame beyond his parents' prominence.

The superstar offspring, 22, chatted to close family friend James Corden on the hit show - in a slot typically saved for esteemed stars with talents under their belt - during which he showcased his frequently-ridiculed cooking skills.

The son of David and Victoria Beckham shared details of his proposal to Nicola Peltz before challenging the fellow Brit, who has been close friends with his footballer dad for more than a decade, to a cook off - which viewers branded 'cringy' and 'the definition of privilege'.

His appearance on the show was also slammed by several professional chefs who called attention to Brooklyn's lack of training and expertise - while other critics questioned why he had been chosen to showcase his cooking on the show instead of a professionally-trained expert.

Brooklyn's interview comes four months after he was panned for another televised cooking stunt - in which he faced brutal mockery for making a simple breakfast sandwich during a food segment on The Today Show.

Mum and dad... thanks! Brooklyn Beckham landed a slot on The Late Late Show on Monday night to plug his cooking career - despite being barely-famous outside his parents' prominence

When Nicola and Victoria took to Instagram to congratulate Brooklyn on his appearance, their posts were met with scorn - with one follower accusing him of being a 'talentless product of nepotism'.

Brooklyn is the eldest child of the Beckhams, who are also parents to Romeo, 19, Cruz, 16, and their only daughter, Harper, 10.

On the show, he was keen to show off his culinary skills as he challenged James to a cook-off, with the duo preparing steak frites with mushy peas.

As James asked him who in his family was the harshest critic of his cooking and he said it was his little sister Harper. He said: 'She is the funniest person in the world. She is always harsh about my food.'

Brooklyn went on to add that even if she likes the food she will ask for a little bit more salt or pepper - something typically seen as a slight on a chef.

He added that he'll be cooking for fiancee Nicola on Valentine's Day, but hasn't yet planned out a meal as it'll be 'whatever she wants'.

Prior to his appearance on the show, Brooklyn took to Instagram to share a screenshot alongside the caption: 'Thank you so much for having me! watch me and @j_corden cook off tonight on the Late Late Show'.

Yum: Brooklyn was keen to show off his culinary skills as he challenged James to a cook-off, with the duo preparing steak frites with mushy peas

Delicious! He whipped up a steak in garlic butter during his appearance alongside the fellow Brit

The finished product: Brooklyn served his steak and chips on a plank and had to serve his mushy peas in their whole state after running out of time to mash them

Firm friends: Brooklyn's father David has been close pals with James (pictured together in 2016) for more than a decade and the pair have teamed up on a number of projects together over the years

Nicola commented under the shot: 'Im so proud of you and youre amazing!!' however her praise was met with several snide comments.

'Proud of what, exactly?' someone replied. 'He's achieved nothing in life. Get a real job and make a difference, like his parents did.'

Another added: 'Proud... Why? He cooked a steak with a knob of garlic butter.'

Victoria meanwhile wrote: 'Cant wait!!! Love u xxxx VB x', however her comment was also met with an unkind response.

Followers were quick to voice their outrage on her post, with one commenting: 'Nepotism and no talent takes you so far in life... how about calling struggling real talented chefs and not just talentless products of nepotism'.

'You are congratulating him on a gig you yourself got for him,' another angry commented read. 'A little silly mommy over there.'

His father David also congratulated his son by sharing a screenshot and writing: 'Well done Bust' - in a nod to Brooklyn's nickname 'Buster'.

We are family: Brooklyn is the eldest child of the Beckhams, who are also parents to Romeo, 19, Cruz, 16, and their only daughter, Harper, 10

An honour: His father David also congratulated his son by sharing a screenshot and writing: 'Well done Bust' - in a nod to Brooklyn's nickname 'Buster'

James and Brooklyn's dad David (pictured left in 2010 and right in 2017) have been friends for years and have collaborated on several projects, leading many critics to pan Brooklyn's appearance on the Late Late Show as an obvious display of 'nepotism'

After the segment aired, the backlash continued on social media, with several professional chefs and cooks leading the criticism of Brooklyn's appearance.

One - named Claire Meadows - wrote on Twitter, 'I see young Brooklyn Beckham has been on the [television] showing off his cooking "skills" again,' alongside a meme that showed the Queen of England looking angrily into the distance.

'Oh please! Riding on your famous parents' coattails. Get an education! Be a medical doctor,' another chef, named Joie A, wrote on Instagram, in response to Brooklyn posting about the show.

Other viewers, who are not chefs, also ridiculed the show, calling it 'embarrassing and desperate' - with some slamming James for such an obvious display of 'nepotism.'

'Absolute plonker,' an angry viewer commented. 'Go get a job, oops, no education.'

'You've never worked in a kitchen. Never been to culinary school. Not spent thousands of hours in a chef's apprentice position,' another person pointed out.

'Besides knowing [Gordon Ramsey] ... what's your validity in the cooking world? Oh right, being an unemployed amateur photographer son of a former singer and retired soccer player. Entertainment knows no bounds.'

'Corden using this show to promote his mates' son's new play time. This show used to feature people with talent. Corden has dumbed it down,' someone else said.

Cooking up a storm! Fans of the show made their feelings known on social media

Ouch: Followers were quick to dish unkind comments on social media after video of Brooklyn's appearance circulated - with many questioning why he was asked to appear on the program instead of a professional chef, many of whom are out of work

Professional cook Claire Meadows joined in the criticism, mocking Brooklyn's 'skills'

'Oh please! Riding on your famous parents' coattails. Get an education!' another chef, named Joie A, wrote on Instagram, in response to Brooklyn posting about the show

'Are you a trained chef?' another Instagram user asked. 'Does anyone know? Last time I heard I thought he was a photographer? I can't keep up lol.'

Someone else wrote: 'Why is this talentless lazy bum Brooklyn even on TV? It's beyond me. Famous just because of his parents hah. Most people in the U.K. can't stand the nauseating Beckhams.'

Others called attention to the fact that this is not the first time the 22-year-old has launched himself into a new industry and quickly found success, despite having little - or no - real training.

'The definition of privilege,' one person wrote. 'This waste of space isn't a chef. All the chefs who spent literally years learning their craft and then this own who literally can't cook a sandwich gets the limelight because of his parents is pretty disgusting. He did the same with his " photography career''. Didn't put in the hours but got a book deal.'

'How about calling struggling real talented chefs and not just talentless products of nepotism?' a different comment read.

'Seriously?' another person asked. 'All the chefs out there and this is what we're doing? Come on, James.'

Another user claimed that late chef Anthony Bourdain would be 'rolling his grave' if he knew that Brooklyn was on the show.

One person asked James if the 'actual stars' were too busy, and another wondered if the TV star was 'struggling to get guests with talent.'

Not impressed: Taking to social media after the segment aired, viewers called the cooking segment 'cringy' and asked why he had even been featured

A different person called Brooklyn a 'bum' and a 'mommy's boy,' and even accused him of being a 'gold digger.'

They wrote: 'He's a bum, how about go to college and learn chef-ing properly. Then go work in a real world kitchen and do a proper day's work.

'Mommy's boy and always will be. You gold digger, I feel sorry for your upcoming new in-laws. Start smelling what you're shoveling.'

The appearance comes after Brooklyn landed himself in the middle of a furious foodie frenzy after baffling Today show viewers by appearing on a live cooking segment - during which he simply 'assembled a sandwich' in October.

During his appearance, he shared his 'recipe' for an English breakfast sandwich, a dish that he 'learned from his great-grandma'.

Explaining that he developed a passion for cooking while in lockdown, during which he began posting videos of himself whipping up different dishes on Instagram, he ran hosts Hoda Kotb and Carson Daly through his sandwich-making process.

But while the Today hosts were quick to praise his simple creation, viewers were up in arms over the decision to feature such an easy-to-assemble dish, with many branding the clip 'embarrassing' and 'painful'.

At the start of the segment, Brooklyn was seen telling viewers about dad David's love of food, before waxing lyrical about his 'favourite' cast-iron skillet, which was already filled with pre-cooked sausages and bacon rashers.

Snap happy: Brooklyn posed for a selfie with Nicola and the rest of his team after the show

Culinary whizz? The appearance comes after Brooklyn landed himself in the middle of a furious foodie frenzy after baffling Today show viewers by appearing on a live cooking segment - during which he simply 'assembled a sandwich' in October

English breakfast: In October, he shared his 'recipe' for an English breakfast sandwich, a dish that he 'learned from his great-grandma' - which was met with confusion and ridicule

He added that his love of cooking began to flourish during quarantine, when he began posting videos of himself making different dishes on his Instagram account.

Brooklyn then began preparing the sandwich ingredients - and it was here that viewers' online mockery really took off, with social media users blasting everything from his hatred of 'runny eggs' to the lack of butter on the bread.

Elsewhere in the chat with James on Monday, Brooklyn discussed his engagement to Nicola, admitting he suffered an 'embarrassing' mishap.

The wannabe chef proposed to Nicola, 27, in the countryside of New York's Bedford in a tiny white gazebo back in July 2020, and admitted not all had gone to plan.

Wedding bells: Brooklyn admitted he suffered an 'embarrassing' mishap when he proposed to Nicola in July 2020 as he was unable to open a bottle of wine

He revealed he had filled the gazebo with flowers, candles, her favourite wine and caviar, but admitted: 'I couldn't open up the wine, which was really embarrassing.

'After 10 minutes, I finally opened it and poured her a glass and then I got on my knees. She didn't know what I was doing.'

As James quipped that surely she would have had an inkling due to Brooklyn's grand gesture, he insisted that he treats Nicola like this 'all the time.'

He continued: 'I got down on one knee and started telling her how much I love her, and it lasted like five minutes, and then I reached back and got the ring.

'I opened it and said "will you marry me because I want to be with you for the rest of my life and you are my best friend and she just started crying."

Brooklyn said he said she didn't answer for another 'nerve-wracking' five minutes as she kept crying.

The former photography student went on to reveal how committed he is to his fiancee, detailing how she inspired several of his 84 tattoos.

Wow: The former photography student went on to reveal how committed he is to his fiancee, detailing how she inspired several of his 84 tattoos (pictured: an inking of Nicola's eyes and a love letter she penned him)

Tattoo: Brooklyn has followed in his father's footsteps and now has 84 tattoos on his frame (pictured with Cruz, David and Romeo)

He confessed that he had been considering copying dad David's wings tattoo on his back but decided to do something different and get Nicola's eyes inked on.

'My fiance has gorgeous eyes so I thought why not,' he said, adding that he also loved the tattoo underneath of a love letter that Nicola sent him.

The tattoo reads: 'My forever boy read this anytime you feel anxious. I want you to know how deeply loved you are. You have the kindest heart I've ever met and I hope I never go a day without your love.

'I think you are so incredible just know we can get through it all together if you breathe slow and trust. I love you beyond. Love always, your future wife.'

Romantic: Brooklyn added that he'll be cooking for fiancee Nicola on Valentine's Day, but hasn't yet planned out a meal as it'll be 'whatever she wants'
It was a case of love me, love my dog on Tuesday's episode of Married At First Sight Australia.

NSW makeup artist Domenica Calarco, 28, walked down the aisle with NSW based financial planner Jack Millar, 26, and was soon introduced to his sidekick.

Running down to greet the couple at the alter was Finn, Jack's little dog, who was excited to be part of the proceedings.

Puppy love! It was a case of love me, love my dog on Tuesday's episode of Married At First Sight Australia. NSW makeup artist Domenica Calarco, 28, walked down the aisle with NSW based financial planner Jack Millar, 26, and was soon introduced to his sidekick. All pictured

And fans at home were smitten with the little groom, who came dressed in his own puppy tux.

'I'm here for Finn' joked one fan, while another Tweeted: 'Can we find Finn a life partner too?'

One more person watching at home wrote: 'Just letting everyone know, I'm still crying over Finn.'

Aww! Running down to greet the couple at the alter was Finn, Jack's little dog, who was excited to be part of the proceedings

She was thrilled! Domenica gasped in shock when she saw the pooch

Hugs all around: The vegetarian bride made fast friends with the animal

Looking good: Finn came dressed in his own puppy tux

Another joked: 'I give it a month before old mate gets jealous of Finn and Jack's relationship.'

'Dominica and Jack had awesome chemistry and to top it off little Finn made it magic!!' someone else added.

'Finn... the best man on the show without doubt,' one more keen dog lover chimed in.

Love him! Fans at home were smitten with the little groom

'Finn is my favourite on the show so far. Followed by Levi. I screamed,' another fan agreed.

Someone else wrote: 'OMG seeing Finn in a suit is the best thing that has ever happened on MAFS!'

Finn soon gained his own fans too with one person asking: 'Does Finn have an instagram? What an entrance!'
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No Time To Die star Lashana Lynch and A Quiet Place's Millicent Simmonds lead the stars nominated for the BAFTA 2022 EE Rising Star Award.

Also up for the coveted accolade are The King's Man star Harris Dickinson, West Side Story's Ariana DeBose and The Power of the Dog's Kodi Smit-McPhee.

The nominees were announced in a livestream ceremony on Tuesday morning that was hosted by last year's Rising Star winner Bukky Bakray and Edith Bowman.

The award is now in its 17th year and is the only BAFTA voted for by the public. The remaining BAFTA nominations will be announced on Thursday ahead of the ceremony on March 13 at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

BAFTA 2022 EE Rising Star Award nominations: No Time To Die's Lashana Lynch and deaf A Quiet Place star Millicent Simmonds lead stars shortlisted for public-voted accolade as the nominees were announced on Tuesday

Previous winners of the award have included James McAvoy, Eva Green, Tom Hardy, Kristen Stewart, Tom Holland, Letitia Wright and Micheal Ward.

This year's selecting jury was made up of the chair of BAFTA and television Krishnendu Majum, actress and director Sadie Frost, actress Michelle Dockery, and casting directors Lucy Bevan and Leo Davis, producer Uzma Hasan and talent agent Ikki El-Amriti.

Millicent - who has made history as the first deaf nominee - found worldwide fame starring in 2018's A Quiet Place and the 2021 sequel which charts s family struggles for survival in a world where most humans have been killed by blind but noise-sensitive creatures.

Discussing the impact of her newfound fame, she revealed: 'I have a lot of young people who come up to me and say it's awesome to have our language on screen.

'I didn't have that growing up so I feel really honoured and touched to give them a place where they can dream. It's very inspirational for me.'

Ones to watch: Also up for the coveted accolade are (L-R) The King's Man star Harris Dickinson, West Side Story's Ariana DeBose and The Power of the Dog's Kodi Smit-McPhee

Lashana made history as the first woman and the first woman of colour to carry on the legacy of 007 in her standout role as Nomi in Cary Joji Fukunagas No Time To Die, alongside Daniel Craig and Rami Malek.

She is currently filming historical epic The Woman King in South Africa and will also be seen in the film adaptation of Matthew Warchus musical, Matilda, opposite Alisha Weir and Emma Thompson in the role of Miss Honey.

While she was unable to attend the nomination ceremony, she sent in a statement that read: 'The EE Rising Star Award is one Ive always admired for recognising exciting emerging talent.

'Im so elated for my fellow nominees who inspire myself and others, as we continue to fight for change within our industry and the world. Im proud to be able to do that in moments like these.'

Iconic: Lashana made history as the first woman and the first woman of colour to carry on the legacy of 007 in her standout role as Nomi in Cary Joji Fukunagas No Time To Die alongside Daniel Craig

Meanwhile, Ariana - who had a breakthrough role in Steven Spielberg's musical film West Side Story - said that she hopes the movie brings in more representation for Hispanic people in Hollywood.

She explained: 'I am extremely proud of the way lations are represented in film, particularly latinas. It's so nice to celebrate there's not one way to be Hispanic and I do think that what critics say, it does matter. it does matter that people go to see your movie but its most important that people see themselves reported back.

Alongside her nomination for the EE Rising Star Award, she has already won Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globe Awards and received a nomination from Critics Choice Awards.

Commenting on her BAFTA nomination, she said: 'I am beyond humbled to join the talented group of actors that have been nominated for the EE Rising Star Award over the years. To say Im excited is an understatement, and Im so thankful for this recognition. Genuinely blown away.'

Spooky: Millicent - who is deaf - found worldwide fame starring in 2018's A Quiet Place and the 2021 sequel which charts s family struggles for survival in a world where most humans have been killed by blind but noise-sensitive creatures

British actor Harris can currently be seen in cinemas starring in Matthew Vaughns The Kings Man opposite Ralph Fiennes.

He has received critical acclaim for his diverse film and television work since breaking out in Eliza Hittmans 2017 Sundance hit Beach Rats, where he was nominated for the Best Male Lead Independent Spirit Award.

Discussing his BAFTA nomination, Harris said: 'A huge thank you to both BAFTA and EE for this nomination. Each year Ive looked to the EE Rising Star Award with great admiration and respect, so to be included in this category is a real honour.

'The fact that we collectively get to tell stories for a living is enough of a reward for me, but to be noticed by such a prestigious institution really does mean a lot.'

Striking: Ariana - who had a breakthrough role in Steven Spielberg's musical film West Side Story - said that she hopes the movie brings in more representation for Hispanic people in Hollywood

Rounding off the nominees is Australian actor Kodi who was praised by critics for his standout role in Jane Campions The Power of The Dog. His performance earned him a Golden Globe Award, along with a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild.

Kodi first started acting at the age of nine, making his film debut in Romulus, My Father opposite Eric Bana. He has since gone on to star in a plethora of high-profile films, including post-apocalyptic drama The Road and Dawn of The Planet of The Ape.

He said of his nomination, said: 'I have the deepest gratitude to be considered alongside my fellow nominees for the EE Rising Star Award at this years BAFTA Film Awards ceremony. I am beyond humbled to be considered for an award that celebrates such extraordinary young talents.'

Thrilling: British actor Harris can currently be seen in cinemas starring in Matthew Vaughns The Kings Man opposite Ralph Fiennes. He has received critical acclaim for his diverse film and television work

Talented: Rounding off the nominees is Australian actor Kodi who was praised by critics for his standout role in Jane Campions The Power of The Dog. His performance has already earned him a Golden Globe Award

The nominations come after Rebel Wilson confirmed that she will host the upcoming ceremony.

In a statement about the news, Rebel - who recently lost 35kg - hilariously quipped 'I won't be funny because I'm no longer fat' while also joking about Prince Andrew not being able to sweat.

She wrote: 'I am very honoured to be hosting the EE British Academy Film Awards in March, where Covid will no longer exist because it will clearly have been canceled by then. It's going to be so much fun!

'I don't wanna put any pressure on this - I know I'm not going to be funny because I am no longer fat.

'And besides, I'm not going to 'sweat-it' with nerves because I have a peculiar medical condition where I can't sweat...or cause offense to people because of my adorable Australian accent.'

Honoured: The nominees were announced in a livestream ceremony on Tuesday morning that was hosted by last year's Rising Star winner Bukky Bakray (left) and Edith Bowman (right)

Esteemed guests: (L-R) BAFTA Chair Krishnendu Majumdar, nominees Ariana and Harris, 2021 EE Rising Star winner Bukky and EE's Magda Lojszczyk were able to attend the ceremony in person on Tuesday morning

All-smiles: Ariana and Harris were the only nominees able to attend the presentation in person, with Lashana away filming and Millicent and Kodi zooming in remotely

Speaking out: Bukky read out the nominations after winning the award herself last year

Rebel's Prince Andrew jibe comes after he claimed in an interview with the BBC in 2019 that he never got sweaty on the dancefloor with sex accuser Virginia Giuffre in 2001 at a club in London because he has a condition which makes it impossible for him to perspire.

Rebel continued: 'So basically I'll just be there to hang out with Dame Judi Dench and together we'll both try and bond with Daniel Craig. And yes, I do mean 'bond'.

'This show will be an anniversary celebration of some important British film franchises such as HARRY POTTER and not such as CATS. Everybody's going to love it, I'm sure! See you guys March 13th!'

Public voting for the EE Rising Star Award is now open at ee.co.uk/BAFTA and the winner will be announced at the EE British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 13 March 2022. The awards will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
She's currently living it up on a winter holiday in the Caribbean with her husband Luis Felber.

And Lena Dunham looked happy and in love as she shared a string of adorable Instagram snaps with Luis on Monday.

Lena wore a low-cut red dress while Luis wrote that she had painted his nails for them in the sweet snaps.

Loved-up: Lena Dunham looked happy and in love as she shared a string of adorable Instagram snaps with husband Luis Felber

She opted to go barefoot as she posed for a snap on a balcony looking over the beach, with her impressive collection of tattoos on full display.

Wearing her brown tresses cut short and pinned back with flower hairslides, she opted to go makeup free letting her natural beauty shine through.

In true comic fashion, she captioned the photos: 'Mi esposo es un esposo de Instagram (Lu thinks it doesnt translate very well in Spanish, but damn I got me an Instagram husband!)'

Red hot: Lena looked stunning in a red figure-hugging dress that clung to her curves and showed off her cleavage

'Mi esposo': In true comic fashion, she captioned the photos: 'Mi esposo es un esposo de Instagram (Lu thinks it doesnt translate very well in Spanish, but damn I got me an Instagram husband!)

It comes after Lena shared a glimpse of her trip on Sunday with a series of swimsuit snaps along with a sizzling bikini post.

The Girls star sported a green one piece as she went paddleboarding and at one point lay down on her board as she tried to spot manatees in the water.

Alongside the post, she wrote: 'Looking for manatees - we saw two. They are curvy girls who flat slowly but purposefully, love their caves and are very protective of their tribes - and I have never related to an animal more.'

Lena also shared a snap of herself sporting a pink bikini as she relaxed on a sun lounger at the beach.

Showing off her back tattoos, the star wore her brunette locks in a cropped style as she worked on her tan.

Fun in the sun: Lena Dunham looked on cloud nine in as she donned a green swimsuit while on holiday to the Caribbean alongside her husband Luis Felber

Lena and Luis began dating in January 2021 after a mutual friend set them up on a blind date.

They married last September at the Union Club in Soho with Taylor Swift and Tommy Dorfman being two of her nine bridesmaids.

Last year Lena fired back at body-shamers after reading 'gnarly' comments online following her wedding.

She received a wave of congratulatory messages, but her joy had been tarnished by the cruel remarks made by some people, which reminded her of why she's deliberately taken a step back from social media in recent times.

Wow: The actress shared a glimpse of her trip on Sunday as she shared a series of swimsuit snaps to Instagram along with a bikini post

She reflected: 'This past week was lovely for so many reasons... I say this because over the years, I've shared many challenges with you and these moments of joy had me thinking that we should admit when were happy too- it's not a crime.

'But all of this safety made me forget, for a moment, why Ive created such intense boundaries with the internet over the past few years.

'It's a little too easy to feel the glow of support and forget about the cesspool lurking behind it- so I took a peek, and saw some gnarly s***, most not worth responding to or even sharing with you.'

Relationship: Lena and Luis married last September at the Union Club in Soho with Taylor Swift and Tommy Dorfman being two of her nine bridesmaids (pictured in August 2021)

It comes after Lena took part in a wide-ranging interview where she discussed her desire to have a child within the next two years and potential plans for a Girls reboot.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, she said: 'I'll be 36 this year. I don't feel like turning 38 without a child.'

The actress underwent a total hysterectomy at age 31 following a battle with endometriosis.

She had her uterus, cervix, and an ovary removed but attempted IVF after learning her 'one remaining ovary was still producing eggs,' she previously recalled in a piece for Harper's magazine.

'There is a lot you can correct in lifeyou can end a relationship, get sober, get serious, say sorrybut you cant force the universe to give you a baby that your body has told you all along was an impossibility,' she said in the Harper's article.

Lena rose to fame as the creator and star of the hit HBO series Girls which followed the antics of twenty-something women coming of age in New York City.

While the show ended in 2017, the star is open to rebooting the series and has been in informal discussions with HBO over the possibility of reuniting the cast for what THR described as an 'older and wiser version' of the hit series.

Talks of the reboot came up as Lena discussed her admiration for the current Sex And The City reboot, And Just Like That. THR said Lena isn't opposed to doing 'something similar' with her beloved HBO series.

But Casey Bloys, the chief content officer of HBO and HBO Max, shot down plans to revive the show.

He said: 'As proud of the show as we are, there aren't any plans to bring Girls back. It's great to know new viewers will continue to discover the [original] series.'
Sebastian Stan and Lily James have won rave early reviews for their portrayal of Tommy Lee and amela Anderson in Pam & Tommy.

And the actors have revealed the lengths they went to in order to perfect their roles, with Lily spending four hours in makeup, while Sebastian appeared to confim he watched the couple's infamous sex tape 'for research'.

Lily, 32, appeared on Tuesday's episode of This Morning alongside Sebastian to discuss their upcoming series, which is released on Wednesday.

'It was research!': Sebastian Stan and Lily James have won rave early reviews for their portrayal of Tommy Lee and amela Anderson in Pam & Tommy

Lily, who began filming the eight-episode series in May, swapped her classic English rose for all the trappings on Nineties pin-up Pamela - complete with prosthetic breasts and exaggerated makeup.

Speaking to Josie Gibson about how they managed to transform into the iconic couple, Lily explained: 'It took three or four hours everyday. A lot of makeup and shaving and contouring!'

Sebastian added: 'The looks were planned to a specific timetables of outfits they wore.'

One to watch: Pam & Tommy follows the story of the leak of the couple's sex tape in 1997, which led to devastation for the Nineties pin-up and the rocker

Wow: While the pair have been praised for their incredible transformation, there was initially doubt over whether the duo could take on the roles (Pamela and Tommy pictured right in 2005)

While the pair have been praised for their incredible transformation, there was initially doubt over whether the duo could take on the roles.

None more so than by themselves, with Sebastian admitting: 'We were just terrified, and not understanding why we were cast as the two of them', while Lily said was 'as shocked as anyone might be at the thought of playing Pamela Anderson!'

Pam & Tommy follows the story of the leak of the couple's sex tape in 1997, which led to devastation for the Nineties pin-up and the rocker when their intimate moment spread across the internet for anyone to view.

Sebastian admitted: 'We were just terrified, and not understanding why we were cast as the two of them', while Lily said she was was 'as shocked as anyone might be'

Asked if they watched the tape themselves before taking on the role, Sebastian quipped: 'Well, it was research!

'It's important as an actor to find as much as you can about who you're playing - but not when it came out - we were both too young for that.'

When news of the series first broke, Pamela is said to have branded the show 'a joke and cheap knock-off', noting she had never heard of Lily or Sebastian.

Hard work: Speaking about how they managed to transform into the iconic couple, Lily explained, 'It took three or four hours everyday. A lot of makeup and shaving and contouring!'

Chatting with Josie, Lily admitted that she hadn't had any contact with Pamela about the role, but didn't shed light on whether the rumours she disapproved were true.

Lily said: 'Unfortunately she wasn't involved. I watched her movies, interviews, and Baywatch.

'I watched Baywatch while on the running machine trying to get fit!'

Sebastian added: 'There are many factors about this invasion of privacy that we didn't know until making the film.'

Coy: Lily admitted that she hadn't had any contact with Pamela about the role, but didn't shed light on whether the rumours she disapproved were true

Pamela and Tommy tied the knot on a beach in Mexico in 1995 after dating for just four days. They went on to have sons Brandon, 24, and Dylan, 22, and divorced in 1998.

In 2015, Pamela told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that she never profited from the sex tape, nor even watched it. She said: 'I've never seen it. I made not one dollar.

'It was stolen property... We made a deal to stop all the shenanigans.

'I was seven months pregnant with Dylan and thinking it was affecting the pregnancy with the stress and said, "I'm not going to court anymore. I'm not being deposed anymore by these horny, weird lawyer men. I don't want to talk about my vagina anymore or my public sex  anything."'

Earlier this year, Pam claimed that the video wasn't actually a sex tape, but was merely a compilation of footage of them naked on vacation, which just happened to include sex acts.

The first three episodes of Pam & Tommy hit Hulu and Disney+ on February 2.
Phillip Schofield shared concerns over whether he will be able to present Dancing On Ice during a remote appearance on This Morning on Tuesday.

The TV presenter, 59, appeared from home after testing positive for coronavirus meaning he was unable to to come into work to host the morning magazine show.

Phillip's absence will mean he will be forced to pull out of upcoming episodes of This Morning during his five days of isolation, before needing two negative LFTs to continue with his Dancing On Ice hosting duties on Sunday.

'Cutting it fine!' Phillip Schofield shared concerns over whether he will be able to present Dancing On Ice during a remote appearance on This Morning on Tuesday

Phillip told stand in hosts Rochelle Humes and Alison Hammond that he was 'cutting it a bit fine' to be free of COVID in time for the live show.

The This Morning host revealed late on Monday evening how his lateral flow test had come back positive but was currently only suffering from a slight temperature.

Speaking on the show via video link, he said: 'There are a number of things I'm disappointed about. Obviously, I'm disappointed I'm not there.

Checking in: The TV presenter, 59, appeared from home after testing positive for coronavirus meaning he was unable to to come into work to host the morning magazine show

Stepping in: Phillip's absence will mean he will be forced to pull out of upcoming episodes of This Morning during his five days of isolation, before needing two negative LFTs to continue with his Dancing On Ice hosting duties on Sunday

'We're a little bit worried about Dancing On Ice, because I'm cutting it a bit fine for that on Sunday. I'm going to miss Gok's dumplings, which I'm gutted about.'

Phillip may be able to leave isolation on Saturday if he gets a negative result on both Friday and Saturday for day five release.

He said: 'I'm fine. I haven't even got a sore throat now. I sneezed twice, and that's it.

Oh no! His co-host on both shows, Holly Willoughby, is also absent having previously revealed she would be taking two weeks away from the daytime programme (pictured on Sunday)

'I've got a slight temperature, but that's about it.'

Phil has been co-hosting the show alongside Rochelle over the last few weeks as Holly Willoughby has been filming a new show with Lee Mack, Superstar Survival.

As Phil signed off, Alison told him: 'I'm gonna hold the fort, eat your dumplings and see if my tongue can get testes. I've got this babes!'

Phillip joked: 'Twitter is now gonna be alight with thousands of people saying that god he's off, they're so much better.'

Co-host! Phil has been co-hosting the show alongside Rochelle over the last few weeks

What will happen? Phillip told stand in hosts Rochelle Humes and Alison Hammond that he was 'cutting it a bit fine' to be free of COVID in time for the live show

However the vast majority of comments were only wishing Phillip well.

One person said they much prefered the presenter, and wrote: 'Oh god Phil you couldn't be more wrong about people being glad you are not there.

'First no Holly, now you. I was having trouble watching Rochelle talk over everyone with you there, let alone now her AND Alison.'

Another said: 'Get better soon Schofe thank goodness you haven't got Covid too badly. You're lucky as it could be far worse. Take it easy.'

Time will tell: Phillip may be able to leave isolation on Saturday if he gets a negative result on both Friday and Saturday for day five release

Get well soon! The vast majority of social media comments were only wishing Phillip well

A third said: 'Wishing Phillip Schofield a speedy recovery!'

Another simply said: 'Get well soon @Schofe'.

Meanwhile others were keen to complement Rochelle and Alison's hosting skills.

As one said: 'I've said it before but I love the black girl magic of Alison and Rochelle in charge of hosting duting on @ThisMorning. P.s. stay well.'

Go on girls! Meanwhile others were keen to complement Rochelle and Alison's hosting skills

'Well b******s!!' Phillip revealed he's tested positive for Covid after jam-packed night out to theatre and restaurant

Another joked: 'Thank god you're off... the girls are much better!'

Just two days before Phillip shared the photo of his test result, he indulged in a jam-packed evening out to the theatre and a restaurant with his wife Stephanie Lowe and their children Molly and Ruby.

His co-host on both This Morning and Dancing On Ice, Holly Willoughby, is also absent from the daytime show, having previously revealed she would be taking two weeks off.

The announcement meant Phillip was seen hosting with Rochelle for a third consecutive week on Monday.

The Sun previously reported that Holly is taking time out to film scenes for on Wim 'Iceman' Hof's Superstar Survival in Southern Europe.

Phillip made light of his positive test on Monday night, writing 'Well b******s!!' followed by a faceplant emoji before adding, 'Currently just a slightly sore throat.'

Regretful: He added that his symptoms were mild at the time of taking the lateral flow test

The NTA winner admitted his symptoms were mild at the time of taking the lateral flow test.

The star follows in Vernon Kay's footsteps, who missed his first ever This Morning hosting gig after testing positive for Covid last summer, while Phil and Holly were on holiday.

He posted at the time: 'Missing out on my This Morning debut today cause of COVID. I was up for a bit of fashion and cooking with Rochelle.. Hopefully we'll go again soon P.s Feeling ok.(so far!) Really appreciate your well wishes.'

Alison said: 'Poor Phil has obviously tested positive for Covid so he can't be in the studio today but don't worry, he can be at home and he can be with all of us right now'

During the opening of This Morning, Alison told viewers: 'Poor Phil has obviously tested positive for Covid so he can't be in the studio today but don't worry, he can be at home and he can be with all of us right now.

'Oh there he is, there is the test. We believe you.

Rochelle joked: 'I just thought he didn't like me anymore.

Alison replied: 'Do you think maybe he just had a glass of orange juice to make it go positive? 'I've had enough'. I'm only joking.'

An ITV representative told MailOnline it is 'too early' to confirm details for this week's Dancing On Ice.

Hitting the town! Just two days before Phillip shared the photo of his test result, he indulged in a jam-packed evening out to the theatre and a swanky restaurant with his wife Stephanie Lowe and their children Molly and Ruby (pictured on Saturay night)

Phillip was in great spirits as he celebrated with his family on Saturday night, marking his daughter Ruby's 26th birthday with a trip to see Les Miserables in London's West End.

Phillip, who came out as gay almost two years ago after 27 years of marriage to Stephanie, 58, was pictured with his wife, two daughters and daughter Molly's boyfriend.

THe family strolled from a meal at Circo Populaire on to Soho House and then the theatre.

Phillip and Stephanie, who married at Ackergill Tower on 29 March 1993, have remained friends since he came out in February 2020 and have not yet divorced.

Talking about his family on BBC Radio 5 Live last year, the star said: 'We love each other massively. We are a loving family, that hasn't changed... it's us four but different.

'We are a work in progress. I've been very honest about all of this and there's no question, we have to pick our way through this daily as a family.

'And that's what we are doing. We are making our way through very unusual and unexpected waters.'

When asked by hosts Scott Mills and Chris Stark how he was doing, Phillip added: 'I'm okay. I am still a work in progress. I still have to come to terms with my life and with me.'

The media personality also explained how a legal end to their marriage has not been brought up, telling Chris Evans on his How To Wow podcast: 'I'm still married to Steph. There is a great deal of talk of divorce - we have not discussed that at all.

Gang: It comes after Phillip beamed as he stepped out alongside his family as they celebrated his daughter Ruby's 26th birthday with a trip to see Les Miserables

'With divorce...that has not been discussed. We are picking our way through and however that works and it's a work in progress. I am a work in progress. Steph is a work in progress.

'It is not in my nature to hurt people and so I have to reconcile myself with the fact that I have done that. Indeed I have done that and I tried very hard not to.

'I also say, is it possible to come out and not hurt your wife? No of course it isn't. My greatest concern is that she is okay.'
The Teacher viewers were left with their 'skin crawling' after suspecting Sheridan Smith's character is guilty of sleeping with a pupil, in the first episode on Monday.

Many took to social media to say that some of the scenes made them 'feel ill' and that they were 'watching behind their hands'.

The new Channel 5 drama sees Sheridan's character Jenna Garvey, a popular teacher with a chaotic private life, accused of sleeping with 15-year-old student Kyle Hope (Samuel Bottomley) after a night out celebrating her promotion.

Awkward: The Teacher viewers were left with their 'skin crawling' after suspecting Sheridan Smith's character is guilty of sleeping with a pupil, in the first episode on Monday (pictured with pupil Kyle)

A colleague at the school tells her after the night: 'There's been a report of inappropriate behaviour between yourself and a pupil. I need you to stay away from the school.'

As the Channel 5 drama left the outcome of her night out at club Lazarus unclear, many viewers took to Twitter to guess whether or not she was guilty.

One said: '#theteacher on second thoughts...it looks like she's guilty'

Another social media user wrote: 'Anybody watching #TheTeacher on Channel 5 and can feel their skin crawling? Horrid.'

Opinions: Many took to social media to say that some of the scenes made them 'feel ill' and that they were 'watching behind their hands' after a weird moment between the pair (pictured)

Another tweeted: 'What ever happens to her from now is her mess, cause why is she flirting with a child. If I'm in a club and a 15-year-old comes there, I'm out #TheTeacher'

One wrote: 'that club scene made me feel ill just looking at it #TheTeacher', while another said: 'anyone else watching behind their hands.. #theteacher'

Another tweeted: 'Jenna has the right to go out gallivanting every night if she so chooses, but when it interferes with her school life, and it leads to accusation of sexual assault, it's a whole different ball game #TheTeacher'.

Reaction: As the Channel 5 drama left the outcome of her night out at club Lazarus unclear, many viewers took to Twitter to say they found it uncomfortable to watch

Jenna's carefree nightclub antics were played out in blurred segments, becoming more distorted as she larked around with Kyle on the dancefloor.

A fellow staff member urged her to leave but to no avail, as Jenna was insistent on staying, telling her 'Kyle Hope is here!'

Jenna and Kyle were seen heading into a toilet cubicle before the montage cut.

Other viewers were keen to point out that even if she wasn't guilty of what she was accused of, her behaviour towards the pupil was 'inappropriate'.

Plot: The new Channel 5 drama sees Sheridan's character Jenna Garvey, a popular teacher with a chaotic private life, accused of sleeping with 15-year-old student Kyle

Not happy: Other viewers were keen to point out that even if she wasn't guilty of what she was accused of, her behaviour towards the pupil was 'inappropriate'

One wrote: 'Even if she didn't sleep with the kid she's so inappropriate on so many levels #TheTeacher'

Another said: 'Even IF she didn't sleep with the boy, she has behaved inappropriately on all levels. Does she not get that?!Taking shots with these kids, going into a cubicle with one of her students. Like, where is the code of conduct?? #TheTeacher'

A third tweeted: "How does she get away with eyeing up her student like a piece of rump steak ?#TheTeacher", while a viewer wrote: "Well creepy the way she looks at him #TheTeacher"

No recollection: Jenna and Kyle were seen heading into a toilet cubicle together in the episode before the montage cut

Trouble ahead? A fellow staff member urged her to leave but to no avail, as Jenna was insistent on staying, telling her 'Kyle Hope is here!'

The next morning, things were no longer fun and games for the hazy-minded teacher as she attempted to piece together the events from the night before - while discovering an open condom packet.

Things then took a turn for the worst when Jenna was asked to leave school premises after reports of inappropriate behaviour.

To Jenna's utmost shock and horror, a police officer arrived to put her in cuffs.

Of being accused of engaging in sexual activity with a minor, she protested: 'I would never do anything like that. That's not me.'

Oh no: Things then took a turn for the worst when Jenna was asked to leave school premises after reports of inappropriate behaviour

The dramatic conclusion to the first episode saw Kyle's mother berating Jenna, branding her a b***h while slamming her car window with a bag.

The four-part drama also features Emmerdale's Kelvin Fletcher, Small Axe's Cecilia Noble and My Mad Fat Diary's Sharon Rooney as fellow teachers.

Speaking to the Radio Times, Sheridan said of her characterisations: 'I love playing people who are flawed and complex like Jenna. I always want to make a character likeable because I want to find the heart in them, no matter how flawed someone is'.

Protesting: To Jenna's utmost shock and horror, a police officer arrived to put her in cuffs

She went on to explain that after having her son Billy, 20 months, in lockdown, she was 'gripped' by the script and determined to work on the show.

She said: 'We'd all been in lockdown, I'd had my son and I'd been reading lots of different scripts. Then this one came along and I was gripped...

'Jenna is such a complex character, there are so many layers to her and I love the fact that you don't know if she's telling the truth or not.'

'All these twists and turns came along in the story that I did not expect, and I couldn't put it down, which is rare  I read it all in one go...

'I really wanted to do the show  initially the dates weren't working, but I couldn't stop thinking about this script. Things moved around so it didn't clash anymore, and it felt like a sign.'

The Teacher airs at 9pm on Channel 5. Also stream on My5.
He rose to fame on social media as a self-tanning addict.

But on Tuesday, Kurt Coleman, 24, had fans doing a double take when he showed off his dramatic new hairstyle.

Uploading a photo to his Instagram account, he wrote: 'Back to blonde'.

A look: Social media sensation Kurt Coleman, 24, (looked) had fans doing a double take as he debuted a dramatic new look on Instagram on Tuesday night

Kurt looked almost unrecognisable showing off his natural complexion as he posed sporting his freshly blonded locks.

Kurt recently returned to social media after he was hospitalised with pancreatitis.

Back in July, Kurt revealed that alcohol consumption was behind his diagnosis, and urged fans: 'Please think about my experience when you plan to have a wild drinking night out.

That's different! Kurt looked almost unrecognisable showing off his natural complexion as he posed sporting his freshly blonded locks

Previously speaking about his battle with self-love, Kurt told his followers that he was 'fat-shamed' by his management in the early years of his fame.

The social media star explained that he purchased Optifast meal replacement shakes to help him drop the excess weight, and shared pictures showing the dramatic before and after of his rapid 'two week' weight loss journey.

Kurt first rose to fame in 2016 on social media as a teenager thanks to his very confident social media posts.

'I didn't think twice about': The social media star previously said that he purchased Optifast meal replacement shakes to help him drop the excess weight, and shared pictures showing the dramatic before (right) and after (left) of his rapid 'two week' weight loss journey

He was also known for his over the top use of self-tanning product, lip fillers and Botox.

He made the move from his native Gold Coast to Melbourne in 2017, where he has dabbled in DJing at nightclubs.

He has since said goodbye to a dark complexion, and embraced a more natural look.
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Halle Berry and Dame Judi Dench were among the stars gracing the pages of fashion bible Vogue for their annual Hollywood porfoilo ahead of awards season.

British Vogue's odds-on screen favourites have spread their stardust via photoshoots across the world for the magazine's A-list heavy spread in their March issue.

The magazine has gathered 25 actors including Peter Dinklage, Cate Blanchett, Simu Liu and Benedict Cumberbatch for the modern-day fairy tale-themed piece.

Pink lady: Halle Berry and Dame Judi Dench were among the stars gracing the pages of fashion bible Vogue for their annual Hollywood porfoilo ahead of awards season

In a teaser snippet from the photo spread Halle, 55, looked incredible in a dramatic pink feathered gown as she strutted down the street.

The Bruised actress looked the picture of glamour as she wore her brunette locks in tumbling waves and boosted her petite frame with nude stilettos.

Halle was questioned on her first ever interview during the portfolio, and told the magazine: 'It was for a television show called Living Dolls.

'I decided to cut all of my hair off because all the girls that I saw had long, curly hair. My manager told me that I'd never work again. I booked the job.'

Lady in red: Meanwhile, Dame Judi, 87, cut an elegant figure in a red coat, while posing in front of an autumnal tree during her al fresco photoshoot

Will it win? Dame Judi's (pictured second left) film Belfast is tipped for award's success

Meanwhile, Dame Judi, 87, cut an elegant figure in a red coat, while posing in front of an autumnal tree during her al fresco photoshoot.

The James Bond actress styled the chic jacket with a pair of Elton John-inspired heart-shaped sunglasses as she smiled broadly for the photo.

Dame Judi - who stars in new film Belfast - told the publication that her advice to her younger self would be 'not to fall in love all of the time.'

Kooky: Adding to the female glamour was Cate Blanchett, who rocked an oversized sheet-style garment with a red swirl splashed across the front

Cate - who has recently starred in Nightmare Alley (pictured) and Don't Look Up - posed for the kooky shoot on a stoney beach, with Brighton Pier visible in the background

Adding to the female glamour was Cate Blanchett, who rocked an oversized sheet-style garment with a red swirl splashed across the front.

Cate - who has recently starred in Nightmare Alley and Don't Look Up - posed for the kooky shoot on a stoney beach, with Brighton Pier visible in the background.

The Australian star, 52, wore her locks in a loose beachy salt-kissed style and opted for a dramatic coat of make-up.

Cate told Vogue how her first audition was for a church musical. She said: 'I got the part of Mr Worldly Wiseman. We performed at a couple of shopping centres and I thought I'd made it.'

Edgy: Other images from the shoot, show Cyrano actor Peter Dinklage, 52, walking along the roof of a New York building in a double-breasted suit jacket and trousers

Exciting! There is Oscar's buzz surrounding Peter for Cyrano in the Best Actor category

Other images from the shoot, show Cyrano actor Peter Dinklage, 52, walking along the roof of a New York building in a double-breasted suit jacket and trousers.

Peter explained how he deals with nerves now, saying: 'I used to fight them. Nerves are really healthy, we get nervous around people we love, it's a good thing. It means that we're alive.'

Benedict Cumberbatch, who told how his Hollywood icon was Humphrey Bogart, looked dapper in a grey suit jacket as he lounged on a red velvet chair.

Discussing his icon, The Power Of The Dog actor, 45, said: 'He was charming, dangerous, vulnerable and witty. I was intoxicated by him when I was younger. Harrison Ford was my go to hero. I was obsessed with that guy.

Smouldering: Benedict Cumberbatch, who told how his Hollywood icon was Humphrey Bogart, looked dapper in a grey suit jacket as he lounged on a red velvet chair

Power Of The Dog: Benedict has starred in the movie which was awarded Best Film at the Golden Globes

Other stars who will featured in the portfolio include Kristen Stewart, Alan Haim, Toko Miura, Jennifer Hudson, Aunjanue Ellis, Dakota Johnson, Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Jonathan Majors and Agathe Rousselle.

Rachel Zegler, Tessa Thompson, Rita Moreno, Ruth Negga, Ariana Debose, Filippo Scotti, Jodie Comer, Javier Bardem and Claire Foy will complete the line-up.

The images in the Hollywood Portfolio were shot by photographer Greg Williams.

March issue of British Vogue is available on newsstands and via digital download from Tuesday 22nd February.
Samantha Armytage is enjoying a quieter life in the NSW Southern Highlands with husband Richard Lavender.

And on Tuesday, the couple showed off their his and hers bicycles as they took a ride around their farm.

The 45-year-old former Sunrise star shared photos of the bikes to her Instagram Stories.

Settled down: Samantha Armytage is enjoying a quieter life in the NSW Southern Highlands with husband Richard Lavender. Both pictured

She then also shared a video of Richard, 60, showing off some tricks as he road on a dirt path.

Jumping up on one leg, he effortlessly raced by his delighted wife, who captioned the video, 'show off'.

Samantha wed her doting partner Richard on New Year's Eve in 2020 at his home in Bowral in the Southern Highlands.

Ride! On Tuesday, the couple showed off their his and hers bicycles as they took a ride around their farm

Aww! She then shared a video of Richard, 60. showing off some tricks as he road on a dirt path

After signing off on Sunrise in March last year, she was replaced by newsreader Natalie Barr, and has been enjoying a quieter life in the countryside.

In July 2020, Samantha sold her North Bondi home in Sydney for $2.8million, which suggested she was planning to move to the country full time.

Husband Richard owns a 40-hectare property in Bowral, while Samantha sold her Southern Highlands cottage for $3.1million in September 2020.

Wed: Samantha wed her doting partner Richard on New Year's Eve in 2020 at his home in Bowral in the Southern Highlands

In April last year, Samantha told The Daily Telegraph that she hasn't turned her back on television and is looking for the 'right' job at the 'right time'.

'I don't think I am done with TV. I am for now but I may some day get back in but it has to be the right role and it has to be at the right time,' she said.

However she's since been dipping her toes back into the world of presenting, announcing in October that she's joining Seven's Farmer Wants a Wife in 2022 as a guest judge.
Orlando police are investigating after a man died while being arrested Tuesday near a Signal Hill shopping plaza, according to the department.

Officers arrested the unidentified man around 10:30 a.m. in the 5100 block of North Lane, Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolon told reporters at a news conference.

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During his arrest, the man began having trouble breathing and lost consciousness, so officers performed CPR and used Narcan, Rolon said.

Controlled substances were found on the man, according to Rolon.

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The man was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died. The Orange County Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.

Because the man died in police custody, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the incident.

lgarza@orlandosentinel.com
She announced earlier this month she's expecting her first child with husband Alex Bowen.

And Olivia Bowen looked every inch the glowing mum-to-be as she showed off a hint of her baby bump in stylish new snaps on Tuesday.

The Love Island star, 28, posed in a busty green cardigan with fur detailing that had a tight design showing off her figure and ample assets.

Looking good: Pregnant Olivia Bowen showed off a hint of her baby bump as she put on a busty display posing in a furry green cardigan for her latest stylish snaps

Olivia teamed the cardigan with light blue denim jeans and accessorised with delicate gold necklaces from the Abbott Lyon Valentine's collection.

The blonde beauty had her light tresses pinned up in a chic up to and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look.

She wittily captioned the snaps: 'It's giving Grinchs sassy wife!'

Style: The Love Island star, 28, looked great in the bright number which had a tight design to show off her figure and ample assets

Olivia recently told MailOnline of her pregnancy: 'I'm so excited to become a Mum. It feels very surreal still to even say it, but we both can't wait for the next part of our lives. Alex is going to be the best dad - he's so caring, kind and a big kid at heart.

'My pregnancy is going really fast; We still both can't quite believe it's happening. We're having to stop ourselves buying all the baby clothes at the moment, we just get too excited.

'Our family and friends were so shocked when we told them, but I just knew very early on, you know your body. We're not going to find out what we're having, I think the surprise will make it extra special.'

Pretty: The blonde beauty had her light tresses pinned up in a chic up to and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look

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

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.
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He has been spotted filming scenes for the long-awaited Luther movie.

And on Monday evening, Idris Elbra and his co-stars shut down Piccadilly Circus, London, from the public and traffic as they shot a knife attack scene at the iconic British location.

The actor, 49, who first began work on the movie adaptation in November, was spotted getting back into character as the brooding detective John Luther to face another terrifying threat.

He's back! Idris Elbra and his co-stars shut down Piccadilly Circus, London, from the public and traffic as they shot a knife attack scene at the iconic British location on Monday evening

The whole area was eventually closed to traffic and public during the evening shoot, while actors dressed as armed police officers arrived at the scene of the attack.

Two actors could be seen scuffling in the street as one wrapped his arm's around the neck of the other.

Behind the scenes, Idris was seen having make-up put on his face by a member of the crew, to make him look like bruised as if he had been involved in a fight.

Sporting his character's signature tweed coat, Idris was spotted filming the late-night scenes in the heart of London.

Omg! The actor, 49, who first began work on the movie adaptation in November, was spotted getting back into character as the brooding detective John Luther to face another terrifying threat

Wrapped up: Sporting his character's signature tweed coat, Idris was spotted filming the late-night scenes in the heart of London

Luther's fifth series aired on BBC One in January 2019, and ended with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, as the titular detective was arrested after he let serial killer Alice Morgan plunged to her death.

The actor, who has won a Golden Globe and was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards for his performance, was last week spotted filming scenes with Cynthia Erivo.

Cynthia is best known for her roles in the criticially-acclaimed biopic Harriet and the thriller Widows.

What's going to happen? Luther's fifth series aired on BBC One in January 2019, and ended with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, as the titular detective was arrested after he let serial killer Alice Morgan plunged to her death

Co-stars: The actor, who has won a Golden Globe and was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards for his performance, was last week spotted filming scenes with Cynthia Erivo

Currently little is known about Cynthia's role in the upcoming film, but it is thought she'll play a brand new villain, following the death of murderous Alice in series five.

Alice (played by Ruth Wilson) had been one of Luther's main adversaries throughout the series' run, ruthlessly murdering her parents, before eventually helping him to clear his name when he was accused of killing DS Ripley.

While it was previously thought that the sinister criminal died in Belgium during series four, but in reality she'd been in regular communication with Luther via. burner phones.

Exciting times: Currently little is known about Cynthia's role in the upcoming film, but it is thought she'll play a brand new villain, following the death of murderous Alice in series five

Touch up: Behind the scenes, Idris was seen having make-up put on his face by a member of the crew, to make him look like bruised as if he had been involved in a fight

Back in November, Idris confirmed that filming for the long-awaited Luther movie had finally commenced.

Taking to Instagram earlier this month, Idris shared a photo of a clapperboard that was stamped with the date October 27 and read: 'take one'.

He also uploaded a photo of himself wearing DCI John Luther's red tie and tweed overcoat, tagging his location as 'on set' and writing: 'Oi I'm back!'

The actor, who has won multiple awards for his portrayal of the troubled cop who always gets his killer, was quickly inundated with comments from fans expressing their excitement over the announcement.

Behind the scenes! While it was previously thought that the sinister criminal died in Belgium during series four, but in reality she'd been in regular communication with Luther via. burner phones

Take one! Taking to Instagram earlier this month, Idris shared a photo of a clapperboard that was stamped with the date October 27 and read: 'take one'

Idris also shared the clapperboard photo on his Instagram Stories. Across the image, he wrote: 'Back,' and added a fist bump emoji.

Luther follows on from the hit BBC series and stars Idris in the titular role.

Speaking in May, Idris confirmed he is 'so excited' to dive into the new project and he expects 'bolder' storylines which will span across the globe.

He said to Variety: 'We go into production, fingers crossed, in September.

Announement: He also uploaded a photo of himself wearing DCI John Luther's red tie and tweed overcoat, tagging his location as 'on set' and writing: 'Oi I'm back!'

Reaction: The actor, who has won multiple awards for his portrayal of the troubled cop who always gets his killer, was quickly inundated with comments from fans expressing their excitement over the announcement

'I'm so excited about it, it's been a long time coming. We're very, very close to pulling the green light on production.'

Idris has been keen to take the BBC show to the silver screen for some time as he discussed the spin-off movie in an interview last year.

Speaking to reporters at the BAFTA TV Awards in July, he said: 'I've maintained that I'd like to see [Luther] come to a film. That's what I think we're headed towards, is a film. I'm looking forward to making that happen... It is happening!

'With film, the sky is the limit. You can be a little bit more bold with the storylines, and a little bit more international, and a little more up the scale. But John Luther is always going to be John Luther.'

In another interview last year, Idris confirmed once more that a Luther film is 'definitely coming', while admitting his mum still believes he will take on the role of James Bond.

Buzzing! Speaking in May, Idris confirmed he is 'so excited' to dive into the new project and he expects 'bolder' storylines which will span across the globe

The actor has been repeatedly linked with the coveted role following Daniel Craig's confirmation that he will not return following the delayed release of No Time To Die - his sixth film as Bond.

But while Idris has previously admitted his chances of becoming the next 007 are remote, his mum Eve remains quietly optimistic.

He said on Capital XTRA: 'The Luther film is definitely coming, I'm very excited. For the fans that have watched five seasons of Luther, I owe it to them to take it to the next level, and that's where the film comes in.

'I know the rumours about Bond have always chased me. Listen, my poor mum is like, ''one day you're going to get it!'' I was like, ''mum, I'm good, I've got Luther''. I'm definitely doing that.'
Kim Kardashian has landed a high-profile modeling job for a brand she has been wearing for many years.

The curvy reality TV star - who will turn 42-years-old this year - was seen dressed in a skintight black outfit for the Paris-based brand Balenciaga for photographer Stef Mitchell.

This comes after the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star added to her $1B fortune when her brand SKIMS gained new investors.

Movin' on up: Kim Kardashian has landed a high-profile modeling job for a brand she has been wearing for many years

In the new ads Kim has on a skintight top and a pair of leggings with the Balenciaga logo in white on her leg.

She is sitting on a white sofa inside her $60m Hidden Hills, California mansion as she puts one hand on a neon green purse with silver accents.

The siren did not go heavy glam as her raven hair was pulled back and she had on pink colored makeup with silver earrings.

The daughter of Kris Jenner also was seen in a leopard print coat with pointy black boots and a matching purse that had a heart shaped accent.

While Balenciaga - a high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1917 by the Spanish designer Cristobal Balenciaga in Bilbao, Spain - is a hot name, her own brand is even hotter these days.

Kardashian's shapewear brand SKIMS is now worth $3.2 billion after the latest round of investing.

Check me out: . The curvy reality TV star - who will turn 42-years-old this year - was seen dressed in a skintight black outfit for the Paris-based brand Balenciaga for photographer Stef Mitchell

The 'Keeping Up with the Kardashian' star's line is now worth double what it was in April 2020 following a series of successes - such as $247 million in annual sales and being worn by Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics - throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The 41-year-old influencer had $234 million pumped into the company - whose wares have been modelled by Kate Moss and Megan Fox - following Kim and her business managers securing a new array of investors for the business and now want to establish their 'own category in retail'.

Jens Grede, a company executive said to WWD: 'We see an opportunity with SKIMS to create our own category in retail, just like how we believe Lululemon and Starbucks created their own categories in their respective areas.'

Big name: In the new ads Kim has on a skintight top and a pair of leggings with the Balenciaga logo in white on her leg. She is sitting on a white sofa inside her $60m Hidden Hills, California mansion as she puts one hand on a neon green purse with silver accents

Simple but solid: The siren did not go heavy glam as her raven hair was pulled back and she had on pink colored makeup with silver earrings. While Balenciaga - a high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1917 by the Spanish designer Cristobal Balenciaga in Bilbao, Spain - is a hot name, her own brand is even hotter these days.

He continued: 'That's really why we're doing this  to make sure we're best prepared for the future.'

SKIMS - which boasts itself as 'solutions for every body' - was launched in 2019 and has developed into one of the biggest luxury shapewear brands on the market, selling items such as bralettes, thongs and control pants in a variety of colours.

On Tuesday, Kim shared a sexy snap of herself wearing some of the line's bikini briefs as she thought about a tropical vacation she recently had been on.

A more dressed up look: The daughter of Kris Jenner also was seen in a leopard print coat with pointy black boots and a matching purse that had a heart shaped accent

In the slideshow caption, she wrote: 'long time no sea'.

Meanwhile, Kim and Pete Davidson are heating up.

They started dating last year, and the 'Saturday Night Live' star is already thinking about getting his own place in Los Angeles in order to be closer to his girlfriend.

The comedian is currently based in New York, but he's now looking for his own place on the West coast.

Money mama: Kim is known for modeling her SKIMS brand, which has new investors

Nothing to hide in nude: And the entrepreneur also has her fragrance line KKW

A source said earlier this week: 'Pete's been spending more time in LA to be close to Kim, and he's looking to find a place there.

'They've definitely gotten serious.' Pete and Kim- who has North, eight, Saint, six, Chicago, four, and Psalm, two, with her estranged husband Kanye West - recently enjoyed a romantic trip to the Bahamas together.

However, the loved-up duo are both going to be busy with work over the coming months, meaning they're unlikely to spend as much time together as they'd wish to.

An insider explained: ' Kim and Pete wanted to spend this time together because they're both going to be working a lot during the coming months.

'Pete will be filming, and Kim is launching some new products, so they'll still be able to see each other, but this is the last time they'll be able to spend a lot of quality time together for a few months.'
Ferne McCann has revealed that her life has changed 'forever' since meeting her new boyfriend.

The former TOWIE star, 31, took to her Instagram on Tuesday to share a loved-up snap with her latest beau Lorri Haines while enjoying a romantic evening at the Dubai Marina.

Gushing in her latest post she penned: 'When you least expect it, you could meet someone who will completely change your life forever.'

Forever: Ferne McCann took to her Instagram on Tuesday to share a loved-up snap with her latest beau Lorri Haines while enjoying a romantic evening at the Dubai Marina

Showcasing her taut abs, Ferne looked sensual in a brown mini-skirt and matching one shoulder ring crop top.

Posting the sweet picture together, the couple relaxed as the sun went down.

Beaming from ear to ear, the couple looked closer than ever as they toasted their blossoming romance with the picturesque Dubai skyline in the distance.

Loved-up" The former TOWIE star, 31, has revealed that her life has changed 'forever' since meeting her new boyfriend

The one: Gushing in her latest post she penned: 'When you least expect it, you could meet someone who will completely change your life forever'

A smitten Lorri oozed confidence in the cosy snap as he opted for a more casual look wearing a pair of blue jeans.

The hunk showed off a hint off his washboard abs as he left his navy shirt unbuttoned half way down his chest while giving a glimpse of his tattoo.

Ferne is reportedly planning a part-time move to Dubai to make her romance work with Lorri.

The fitness guru is allegedly 'head over heels' with the businessman and hopes they can both fly back and forth between the two countries to see each other.

It comes just days after she made her romance with the property expert public, posting a slew of loved-up snaps from her recent trip to see him in the UAE.

Rumours: Ferne is reportedly planning a part-time move to Dubai to make her romance work with her new boyfriend Lorri

A source told The Sun :' Lorri and Ferne have fallen head over heels and will do what it takes to make things work.

'It's a bit tricky for Ferne to travel all the time because of Sunday but she has already squeezed in one trip this year.

'Lorri is currently in the UK and they are have both agreed to go back and forth as much as possible.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Ferne McCann for comment.

Sweet: The former TOWIE star is allegedly 'head over heels' with the hunk and hopes they can both fly back and forth between the two countries to see each other

Ferne is no stranger to a long-distance romance, have previously dated Albie Gibbs while he resided in New York, with the pair calling time on their romance after the Covid lockdown made it impossible to see each.

She later said: 'How can I see a future with someone when I can't physically be with them for the foreseeable future? I was naive to think the long distance thing would be OK. We have broken up and it is proper s**t.



'It sucks to say that I think he was the right guy, and I want to stress this, the right guy at the wrong time.'

New love: It comes just days after Ferne made her romance with real estate agent Lorri public, posting a slew of loved-up snaps from her recent trip to see him in the UAE

Since going public with her new romance, Ferne has shared a slew of loved-up snaps with her new man on social media.

In January she took to Instagram Stories to share more images from their trip to Dubai, where he lives and works as a 'part-time jeweller and wannabe entrepreneur'.

Ferne and Lorri went public last month.

Moving fast: Ferne and Lorri went public in January, sharing a series of cosy snaps with her hunky beau

The First Time Mum star took to Instagram to post adorable snaps with her latest beau.

Lorri is a real estate agent living in Dubai, where Ferne is currently on holiday, and describes himself as a 'part-time jeweller and wannabe entrepreneur' in his bio.

Posting a sweet picture together as a joint upload, Lorri posed for a selfie as Ferne planted a kiss on his cheek.

In the caption, they cutely wrote: 'When you know, you know'

Here he is: Lorri is a real estate agent living in Dubai, where Ferne is currently on holiday, and describes himself as a 'part time jeweller and wannabe entrepreneur' in his bio

Ferne has famously had a rocky love life, most recently splitting from DJ Jake Padgett last year after they spent the second lockdown together.

After the split Ferne revealed she still wanted to find her happily ever after and is 'such a sucker for love'.

Ferne told The Sun : 'I am such a sucker for love - I love love so much, and of course I want to find my happy ever after.'

The blonde bombshell only had positive things to say about Jack, 27, describing the breakup as 'mature'.

'But it's been such a mature, grown-up breakup - and no one did anything wrong. I've learned so much from this relationship and from Jack, and we had some beautiful times,' she said.

Ferne and Jack moved in together amid the winter lockdown shortly after they began dating, and admitted that taking the next step in their relationship was its downfall.

Exes: Ferne has famously had a rocky love life, most recently splitting from DJ Jake Padgett (pictured together) last year after they spent the second lockdown together



'But in the end, it also accelerated our breakup, because coming out of lockdown and the world opening back up meant suddenly our lives were very different and we were like passing ships,' she explained.

Before that she was in a relationship with jailed acid attacker Arthur Collins, whom she shares her daughter Sunday, four, with.

Arthur, 29, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence at Woodhill Prison, Milton Keynes, after carrying out an acid attack at a London nightclub in 2017 which saw sixteen people suffer chemical burn injuries and three people left temporarily blinded.

Ferne dumped Arthur after learning about the incident.

She was pregnant with her daughter Sunday when then boyfriend Arthur threw corrosive acid over a crowd on the dance floor at Mangle E8 in Dalston in April 2017, within weeks of their pregnancy announcement.

Last year, the former TOWIE star confessed she previously 'struggled to come to terms' with being a single parent as she reflected on the challenges she has faced raising a child on her own.

Tough times: Before Jack, she was in a relationship with jailed acid attacker Arthur Collins, with whom she shares her daughter Sunday, four

Ferne said: 'I guess I was one of those people that might have had a misconception about single parenting, because I didn't want to be called a single parent when I was pregnant.

'I didn't want to be labelled with it, because I hadn't come to terms with the fact I was going to be a single parent yet. Until I started living and being it, that was when I felt really proud.'

Ferne recalled doing a '360 overnight' as she elaborated: 'Now I feel totally fine being called a single parent because the fact is, I am. The misconception is not that you've failed, but obviously you don't plan to be a single parent  although I know some people do.'

Before Arthur, Ferne was in an on-off relationship with fellow TOWIE star Charlie Sims and their tumultuous love story was captured for viewers of the reality show.
Last week she teased her followers about her skincare brand Rhode, which she said would launch sometime in 2022.

And Hailey Bieber chatted about her brand, as well as her marriage to Justin Bieber in the cover story for WSJ Magazine's Spring Fashion Issue.

The 25-year-old model showcased her toned form in the glamorous shoot as she revealed she is not in a rush to have children.

Striking: Last week she teased her followers about her skincare brand Rhode, which she previously said would launch sometime in 2022. And Hailey Bieber chatted about her brand, as well as her marriage to Justin Bieber in the cover story for WSJ Magazine's Spring Fashion Issue

Hailey said about when she and husband Justin, 27, want to have kids: 'I think ideally in the next couple of years we would try. But there's a reason they call it try, right?'

'You don't know how long that process is every going to take. Definitely no kids this year, that would be a little hectic, I think,' Hailey added.

'There's this thing that happens for women when you get married. Everybody assumes it's: 'First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby,' she explained.

'Well, what about the things I want to accomplish in my business? I think I had it ingrained in my head that I was going to want to have kids right away and I was going to have kids super, super young. Then I turned 25 and I'm like, I'm still super, super young!'

A vision of beauty: The 25-year-old model showcased her toned form in the glamorous shoot as she revealed she is not in a rush to have children

Justin and Hailey met in 2009 after her dad Stephen Baldwin introduced them; They became friends and dated for a short time in early 2016 before they parted ways.

He went on to date Sofia Richie and briefly reunited with ex girlfriend Selena Gomez.

Justin and Hailey rekindled their romance in May 2018 and got engaged July 7, 2018.

The lovebirds got their marriage license from a New York City courthouse in September 2018.

They tied the knot in an extravagant wedding in South Carolina on September 30, 2019 at the Montage Palmetto Bluff resort in front of 154 guests that included Kendall and Kylie Jenner.

Hailey said about married life with Justin: 'Behind closed doors, we're two really normal people that just have not-normal lifestyles and careers. I think given the magnitude of Justin's career, he's a very normal person, and I don't think that always happens.'

After their brief split in 2016, Hailey said she felt like an outcast at her church she attended at the time: 'There were a lot of people in the church world that made me feel very outcast. When did church become a social club? That was such a bad feeling.'

Lovebirds: Hailey said about when she and husband Justin, 27, want to have kids: 'I think ideally in the next couple of years we would tr. But there's a reason they call it try, right?' seen together on January 2, 2020 at the premiere of Justin Bieber: Seasons

Happiness: Justin and Hailey got their marriage license in September 2018, hosting an extravagant wedding on September 30, 2019 in South Carolina

For the cover, Hailey wowed in a red jumpsuit featuring cut out detailing on each side of her torso with her cleavage on full display.

The stunning brunette wore bold blue eyeshadow with mauve glossy lips for a futuristic makeup look.

For the spread, Hailey sported the same makeup look for a black and white plaid crop top and shorts, as well as a hot pink halter mini dress, which also had open sides.

The beauty also donned a black and white jacket with hot shorts and heels, highlighting her long, toned legs.

Stunning: 'You don't know how long that process is every going to take. Definitely no kids this year, that would be a little hectic, I think,' Hailey added

Va va voom: For the cover, Hailey wowed in a red jumpsuit featuring cut out detailing on each side of her torso with her cleavage on full display

Strike a pose: The beauty also donned a black and white jacket with hot shorts and heels, highlighting her long, toned legs

The star spoke about her long awaited skincare line, Rhode, which is named after her middle name - Hailey Rhode Bieber.

She said to WSJ about her brand: 'My role in the brand is the Creative of Everything, putting together the packaging and the colors and the aesthetic.'

'I know what I want to give to people. The whole ethos of my brand is really good quality products that are really affordable. I just don't see why a $200 cream has to be the answer to good skin.'

Last week, Hailey shared a peek at her brand and possible a shoot for her products via her Instagram.

She teased her fans: 'Glazed [donut emojis] skin all 2022. Tell a friend.'

In the first image, Hailey showcased her glowing skin while rocking a nude bikini and minimal makeup.

She shared two other images with close ups of her dewy flawless face, tagging her brand Rhode's Instagram.

The Instagram page for Rhode is still blank and it is unknown when the brand launches this year.

Glow: In the first image, Hailey showcased her glowing skin while rocking a nude bikini and minimal makeup

Looking good: She shared two other images with close ups of her dewy flawless face, tagging her brand Rhode's Instagram

Close up: Her skin looked incredible in the close up images, highlighting her natural beauty

Hailey also touched on why she decided to launch her YouTube channel - Hailey Rhode Bieber - which has over 1.47 million subscribers and features style, beauty and lifestyle videos.

On the reason why: 'There are always things that have circulated around, [for example] that I wasn't very nice. I wanted people to feel like, "Oh you know what? If I sat down and had a coffee with her, we'd probably be friends." I want to make people feel like I'm another gal next door. I'm a girl from New York who happened to get to this place.'

Hailey also revealed that one say she hopes to find the time to get her high school diploma and that she was never interested in furthering her education with college: 'I feel like that's a terrible example, and i should find the time to go back and finish. I was like six months away from being done. It's so silly.'

During the interview, she also touched on the passing of designer Virgil Abloh, who died in November after a two year battle with cancer at the age of 41.

Virgil founded the brand Off-White and was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton; he had designed Hailey's stunning wedding dress.

Hailey said of her late friend: 'He was somebody I felt was really rooting for me in an industry where that's really rare to find. The legacy that he's leaving behind, it speaks for itself in terms of the way he made people feel... And I think that showed in his clothing, in all of his work and his creativity.'

Howdy: Hailey also touched on why she decided to launch her YouTube channel - Hailey Rhode Bieber - which has over 1.47 million subscribers and features style, beauty and lifestyle videos

In a video for WSJ called The One with Hailey Bieber, Hailey answered a variety of questions, kicking it off with 'I'm fine being a nerd actually, but I love that. I'm fine being a nerd, that doesn't bother me.'

On the one habit she wishes she could break, Hailey said it's saying the word 'like.'

Her favorite song that she could listen to over and over is 'The less I know the better' by Tame Impala and favorite movie is The Grinch.

On what she wished she learned earlier in her career: 'Sometimes our no is a lot more powerful than our yes.'

Hailey said she wishes she could go back to age 19/20 and she would tell herself to 'chill out,' and she was confused about life and wishes she enjoyed it more.

Stylish: On the reason why: 'There are always things that have circulated around, [for example] that I wasn't very nice. I wanted people to feel like, "Oh you know what? If I sat down and had a coffee with her, we'd probably be friends." I want to make people feel like I'm another gal next door. I'm a girl from New York who happened to get to this place'

Her favorite pieces include a leather jacket or a blazer and her focus on getting ready is comfort: 'I wear a lot of baggy clothes because I love to be comfy.'

She can't live without lip balm and Aquaphor.

She learned patience through her marriage, and she joked that when she has kids she probably will say she didn't know patience until then.

Hailey said she doesn't want to count out acting but she didn't think she wants to do that: 'If one day the right thing came along and it was a really cool opportunity to work with someone really incredible, I don't know, maybe one day.'

Hailey is featured in WSJ. Magazine's Spring Fashion Issue out on newsstands Saturday, February 12.

Cute: Hailey also revealed that one say she hopes to find the time to get her high school diploma and that she was never interested in furthering her education with college: 'I feel like that's a terrible example, and i should find the time to go back and finish. I was like six months away from being done. It's so silly'

Moody: She posed for a black and white shot while rocking a pinstripe suit and white shirt

Bold: The beauty donned a green top and spandex bottoms with orange heels; the whole look was by Prada

Natural beauty: Hailey wowed in a minimal makeup look for a close up shot
Alison Hammond found herself in fits of laughter on Tuesday's episode of This Morning after Gok Wan began cooking with a rudely named vegetable.

The presenter, 46, could not contain her giggles after the fashion guru-turned-chef, 47, revealed his dish contained a vegetable named 'Morning Glory'.

Gok was cooking up a storm in the kitchen, showing viewers how they could make his Dan Dan noodles while Alison and co-host Rochelle Humes tucked into his food.

Hilarious: Alison Hammond found herself in fits of laughter on Tuesday's episode of This Morning after Gok Wan began cooking with a rudely named vegetable

But the cooking demonstration had to be momentarily halted after Alison got the giggles.

Addressing the presenters, Gok said: 'We've got some Morning Glory which is a Chinese vegetable, which is so beautiful.'

Alison immediately burst out laughing to which Gok snapped: 'Stop it Alison!'

Naughty: The presenter, 46, could not contain her snickers after the fashion guru-turned-chef, 47, revealed his dish contained a vegetable named 'Morning Glory'

He valiantly tried to carry on, continuing: 'We're going to stir-fry this through', before Alison once again interrupted him as she struggled to hold it together.

'You are so naughty Alison,' he added.

Alison apologised, saying: 'Sorry, but he said morning glory', causing Rochelle to start laughing as well.

Hysterics: Alison apologised, saying: 'Sorry, but he said morning glory', causing Rochelle to start laughing as well

Gok laughed along, saying: 'This is chaos!'

What is Morning Glory? Morning glory is the name of a flower that blooms in the early morning. The stems and leaves are commonly cultivated to be used in East, South and Southeast Asian cooking. It is believed the flower was originally from China and used in medicine at first before being brought to many different countries such as Japan, Australia and Vietnam. The vegetable - also known as water spinach - is also extremely popular in Taiwan, where it grows well. In World War II, the vegetable grew remarkably easily in many areas, and became a popular wartime crop. Source: Wikipedia Advertisement

Viewers at home took to Twitter to voice their amusement at the naughty-named vegetable.

Later in the programme, Alison - who was filling in for Phillip Schofield - lost it again, this time after she mixed up the upcoming segments.

After discussing all the goings-on in soap land, she went to introduce a weather report, however she was too early.

'Anyway listen, it's time for your weather forecast, here it is,' she said as she gestured to the screen.

As she waited, nothing happened, causing her to add: 'I think it's coming very soon'.

Rochelle then interrupted to say: 'You've got a few more seconds, you've got 10 seconds to fill'.

This left Alison, Rochelle and soaps expert Sharon Marshall to desperate try to fill in the time left.

Alison then went to cross over to the weather again, but Rochelle cut across to say: 'We will be back after a quick break', causing the pair to fall about in hysterics.

Meanwhile usual host Phillip Schofield appeared remotely on the show after testing positive for Covid.

The TV presenter, 59, appeared from home as he was unable to to come into work to host the morning magazine show.

Phillip's absence will mean he will be forced to pull out of upcoming episodes of This Morning during his five days of isolation, before needing two negative LFTs to continue with his Dancing On Ice hosting duties on Sunday.

Couldn't believe it! Viewers at home took to Twitter to voice their amusement at the naughty named vegetable

Phillip told his stand-in hosts that he was 'cutting it a bit fine' to be free of COVID in time for the live show.

Speaking on the show via video link, he said: 'There are a number of things I'm disappointed about. Obviously, I'm disappointed I'm not there.

'We're a little bit worried about Dancing On Ice, because I'm cutting it a bit fine for that on Sunday. I'm going to miss Gok's dumplings, which I'm gutted about.'

As Phil signed off, Alison told him: 'I'm gonna hold the fort, eat your dumplings and see if my tongue can get testes. I've got this babes!'
Elsa Hosk showed off her very slender figure when out in the Pasadena neighborhood of Los Angeles this week.

The Victoria's Secret vet had on a black crop top with blue jeans which showed off her toned midsection.

It has been a year since the 33-year-old pinup welcomed her first child, daughter, Tuulikki Joan, with longtime partner Tom Daly.

Thin is in: Elsa Hosk showed off her very slender figure when out in the Pasadena neighborhood of Los Angeles this week

Elsa looked like she had time traveled from the late 1990s as she had a slight grunge look with her outfit.

Her black top was a button up with three buttons. There was a small V neckline and it was definitely cropped to show off her abs and belly button.

She added high waisted washed blue denim jeans that were loose in the leg. And the siren, who has walked the runway for Chanel and Versace, also had on chunky loafers with a two inch heel.

She added a black coat that had a slight Matrix vibe and carried a white Botega Venetta purse.

Tummy control: The Victoria's Secret vet had on a black crop top with blue jeans which showed off her toned midsection

Good jeans: She added high waisted washed blue denim jeans that were loose in the leg. And the siren, who has walked the runway for Chanel and Versace, also had on chunky loafers with a two inch heel

Elsa wore her long blonde hair down in loose waves as she added white framed sunglasses, the kind Britney Spears wore in her wild party days.

Last week she gave fans an eyeful on Instagram.

The Swedish sensation had on a skimpy bikini as she posed by a hot tub.

The suit was made of a strapless bandeau top and small briefs that rode on the hips. The pattern was red and white.

Swim time: Last week she gave fans an eyeful on Instagram. The Swedish sensation had on a skimpy bikini as she posed by a hot tub

Meanwhile, her career has been doing better than ever in the past year.

The model has started working with eyewear firm Christopher Cloos.

Elsa will be the first female global ambassador for the brand.

The Victoria's Secret angel celebrated the news by posting pictures to her Instagram in high-waisted leopard print briefs and a bright green sweater.

Model behavior: The model was spotted amid news that she is partnering with the eyewear firm, Christopher Cloos. Elsa will be the first female global ambassador for the brand

'So proud to join Tom Brady as a Christopher Cloos ambassador and create their first female eyewear collection Cloos x elsa,' Elsa began her caption.

'Been excited to finally tell you guys about the eyewear Ive been wearing exclusively on my Instagram!! The most timeless and flattering designs made from biodegradable materials Out today! Shop them via the link in my bio.'

The model effortless showed off her new eyewear as she posed on a sage green chair. Elsa let her blonde hair loose as the tortoise shell eyewear highlighted her facial features.
Kelly Rizzo hit the stage to honor her late husband, Bob Saget, in a stand-up comedy set at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood.

The 42-year-old journalist posted pictures to her Instagram on Monday on the exact stage where Bob began his career 40 years ago.

'So remember when I said youll never see me do standup??' Kelly began her caption. 'Well I guess I got a couple jokes in but paying tribute to my legendary and incredible husband on stage at The Comedy Store where his career began over 40 years ago was the honor of my life.'

She added: 'I know he wouldve gotten a huge kick out of me being up on stage there backed up by Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Jeffrey Ross, John Mayer and John Stamos - I know it made him smile big.'

Kelly concluded: 'Thank you to everyone who came out last night to support and honor Bob. It means so much to all of us. Once again, he deserves EVERY bit of all of this love. And follow Bobs lead and tell your loved ones how much they mean to you every damn day.'

The Chicago native's performance, which included the attendance of Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Jeffrey Ross, John Mayer and John Stamos, comes nearly one month after the sudden passing of her husband.

The happy couple: Kelly and Bob married in 2018 and she helped raise his three daughters, Aubrey, Lara and Jennifer with ex-wife Sherri Kramer

Bob's final post: In a final Instagram post less than 24 hours before he was found dead, Saget told fans he was 'loving every minute' of being back on stage

Bob was found dead in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Florida on January 9. He was 65 years old.

Bob's family and friends remembered the late actor at the same location that Kelly honored her late husband.

His Full House costar John Stamos as well as movie star Jim Carrey, who was a close friend of the actor, were spotted arriving to The Comedy Store, along with Chris Rock, Kevin Nealon, Jackson Browne, Daren Criss, John Mayer, and Jeff Ross.

When Bob was formally laid to rest on January 14, his close friend and former co-star, John Stamos, took to Twitter ahead of the ceremony.

At the remembrance: Bob's family and friends remembered the late actor at the same location that Kelly honored her late husband

'Today will be the hardest day of my life,' began the actor. 'God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.'

Earlier, Stamos had said he is struggling with the loss of his pal.

'The mornings are hard. Middle of day comes in waves. Mostly bad. Nighttime is hard,' the 58-year-old actor said in a Tweet the night before the funeral.

Kelly and Bob married in 2018 and she helped raise his three daughters, Aubrey, Lara and Jennifer with ex-wife Sherri Kramer.
Marisa Tomei proved that she just does not age much.

The 57-year-old star looked youthful as she larked about at the beach with a friend in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico on Sunday afternoon.

The Spider-Man actress walked around with a friend in a black beach romper and red trucker hat. She wore a pair of dark sunglasses to protect her eyes from the harsh Mexico sun and accessorized with gold hoop earrings.

A day at the beach: Marisa Tomei larked about at the beach with a friend in Cabo San Lucas on Sunday afternoon

Her friend wore a brown bikini top, matching bikini bottoms and a fanny pack. A large white sun hat with no top helped keep her hair up in a messy ponytail.

The pair splashed around in the water, took a number of impromptu photos and generally enjoyed a day of lounging around together.

Tomei's appearance on the beach was one of the first times she was spotted since revealing she pushed for her character in Spiderman: No Way Home to in a relationship with a woman.

Beach outfit: The actress, 57, walked around with a friend in a black beach romper and red trucker hat

Keeping the sun out of her eyes: Tomei wore a pair of dark sunglasses to protect her eyes from the harsh Mexico sun

Her friend's got style: Tomei's friend wore a brown bikini top, matching bikini bottoms and a fanny pack

The My Cousin Vinny actress told Geeks Of Color during a recent interview that there was a moment she felt like her Marvel Cinematic Universe character should be with a woman because Ben (Parker) was gone.

She said: 'There was a moment, where I felt that May - maybe she should just be with a woman because Ben is gone. And who should she be with?'

The Academy Award winner proceeded to explain how she thought producer Amy Pascal could portray Aunt May's love interest.

'And we were kind of talking about it. And so I actually really wanted Amy Pascal from Sony to be my girlfriend!' she recalled.

Splashing around: The two beat the heat by splashing around very close to the shoreline

First appearance in a while: Tomei's appearance on the beach was the first time she was spotted since revealing she pushed for her character in Spiderman: No Way Home to date a woman

'I felt that May - maybe she should just be with a woman': Marisa Tomei said in an interview with Geeks of Color (pictured in Spider-Man: No Way Home)

Marisa voiced that there was no expectation for the character's transformation to be profound, as she went on to explain.

'I was like, "No one even has to know, Amy. I'll just be in a scene and you'll be over there. And I'll just be like 'Hey!' It'll just be a subtle thing."

'No one went for it at the time,' she concluded.

Tomei may be finished with the Spider-Man films for now, but that hasn't slowed down her career one bit.

She has two projects coming out soon including Delia's Gone, centered around a man who journeys to find out the truth about his sister's death, which is already completed and the film She Came to Me which is currently in pre-production.
The Bachelorette #16 Clare Crawley 'feels like a new woman' celebrating her six-month anniversary of having her breast implants removed on Monday.

To mark the milestone, the 40-year-old reality star shared a montage video of her journey before and after undergoing surgery in Florida back on July 31.

Clare made the decision after coming down with breast implant illness - revealing the skin rashes she suffered on her abdomen, neck, chest, and arms.

After/ before: The Bachelorette #16 Clare Crawley 'feels like a new woman' celebrating her six-month anniversary of having her breast implants removed on Monday

Crawley shared a long list of other BII symptoms which includes fever/chills, hair loss, depression, sharp pains, and heart palpitations.

The De Facto Salon hairstylist shared grisly footage of her implants and excess tissue removed during the procedure at Aqua Plastic Surgery by Dr. David Rankin, a breast explant surgery specialist.

Drains were then inserted into Clare's wounds as she recovered with help from her supportive sister Laura.

'I cannot believe it's been six months since I had the surgery with @davidrankinmd that really changed my life,' Crawley - who boasts 1.1M social media followers - wrote on Instagram.

'It really changed my life': To mark the milestone, the 40-year-old reality star shared a montage video of her journey before and after undergoing surgery in Florida back on July 31

Inflammation: Clare made the decision after coming down with breast implant illness - revealing the skin rashes she suffered on her abdomen, neck, chest, and arms

Yikes! Crawley shared a long list of other BII symptoms which includes fever/chills, hair loss, depression, sharp pains, and heart palpitations

Cut out: The De Facto Salon hairstylist shared grisly footage of her implants and excess tissue removed (L) during the procedure at Aqua Plastic Surgery by Dr. David Rankin (R), a breast explant surgery specialist

'Not only has it given me my physical health back, but it has transformed my mental health in so many ways. I mean it when I say this. I feel like a new woman (which I haven't felt like in the past couple of years).'

The Sacramento native went on to call it 'one of the best decisions I've ever made in life' writing: 'There truly is so much joy and peace when you advocate for your health.'

Clare's post received glowing comments from Tamra Judge, Vicki Gunvalson, Crystal Hefner, Michelle Money, and Jade Roper Tolbert.

Crawley's health update came after Us Weekly revealed she's 'the happiest she's ever been' since sparking a long-distance romance with Blake Moynes, who was eliminated during the second week of her season of The Bachelorette in 2020.

Painful recovery: Drains were then inserted into Clare's wounds as she recovered with help from her supportive sister Laura

Crawley wrote on Instagram: 'Not only has it given me my physical health back, but it has transformed my mental health in so many ways. I mean it when I say this. I feel like a new woman (which I haven't felt like in the past couple of years)'

The Sacramento native went on to call it 'one of the best decisions I've ever made in life' writing: 'There truly is so much joy and peace when you advocate for your health'

'Proud of you girl!' Clare's post received glowing comments from Tamra Judge, Vicki Gunvalson, Crystal Hefner, Michelle Money, and Jade Roper Tolbert

'Their friendship has blossomed into something really special, and she's letting it roll organically,' an insider told the mag last Saturday.

'Even though they live in different states, they talk daily. She's attracted to him in so many ways, especially because he values the right things in life. And they have more in common than just having successful careers in the same industry.'

The half-Mexican blonde split with ex-fiance Dale Moss for the second time last September, while the Canadian 31-year-old ended his engagement to The Bachelorette #17 Katie Thurston on October 25.

Reunited: Crawley's health update came after Us Weekly revealed she's 'the happiest she's ever been' since sparking a long-distance romance with Blake Moynes (pictured January 9), who was eliminated during the second week of her season of The Bachelorette in 2020

An insider told the mag last Saturday: 'Even though they live in different states, they talk daily. She's attracted to him in so many ways, especially because he values the right things in life. And they have more in common than just having successful careers in the same industry'

Aside from The Bachelorette - Clare has also looked for love on the 18th season of The Bachelor, the first two seasons of Bachelor in Paradise, as well as Bachelor Winter Games.

Bachelor in Paradise has the best track record of the Bachelor Nation franchise with 12 winning couples still together after seven seasons.

Only five winning couples remain together after 18 seasons of The Bachelorette and a measly two winning couples are still together after 25 seasons of The Bachelor.

Moved on: The half-Mexican blonde split with ex-fiance Dale Moss (L, pictured in 2020) for the second time last September, while the Canadian 31-year-old ended his engagement to The Bachelorette #17 Katie Thurston on October 25
Artist Spencer Pettit stands with one of his works. The longtime Central Florida resident died on Saturday following an exhibition of his work at Orlando City Hall. (Courtesy Heather McPherson)

Mount Dora artist Spencer Pettit had just wrapped up a three-month exhibit at Orlando City Halls Terrace Gallery on Saturday when the curator stopped to thank him one final time for all he had done to make the show a success, including building frames for each of the 40 pieces himself.

Youre a genius, man, the curator said, praising his work.

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They would be some of the very last words Pettit would hear  a fitting farewell for a famously kind, self-effacing visionary who wanted nothing more than for others to share the beauty he saw in the world.

Pettit, 64, collapsed moments later, dying of a heart attack after years of battling hereditary heart issues.

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He lived so fully, up to his last minute, said his wife, Heather McPherson, a longtime Central Florida food writer and cookbook author. And Im just grateful that he got that validation because he was so loved and such a nice person, and all he ever wanted to be was an artist.

Born on Chicagos South Side to Irma Pettit and Raymond Radley, he was the youngest  by 13 years  of five children. When he was 8, his father died, although his mother remarried a few years later, and his stepfather adopted him.

At 10, he was mesmerized by a special Life magazine issue on Pablo Picasso  timed to highlight the unveiling of a Picasso sculpture commissioned for Daly Plaza in downtown Chicago. It was 50 feet tall and weighed over 160 tons.

I began to understand that art could be boundless, Pettit would say later. He saw art not only in sculpture and painting, but also in the arc of a bridge or the grain of wood or the way a row of fishing boats was tied to a dock. He saw it in the faces of children, even those in the harshest places of the world.

I think he just wanted to open peoples eyes to the fact that, no matter how dark things are, art is everywhere around us, McPherson said. He wanted people to see the world the way he did.

Spencer Pettit filled his small Mount Dora Chiaroscuro Gallery with images and objects by uncommon artists. (Tom Benitez/Orlando Sentinel) (TOM BENITEZ / ORLANDO SENTINEL)

After moving to Florida at 17 with his mother and stepfather, Pettit attended the private Ringling College of Art and Design, graduating in 1978. He spent the next six years working at the Orlando Sentinel, where he met McPherson, the papers food editor, before leaving to become art director for two Orlando advertising agencies and opening a pair of small galleries  Chiaroscuro and Three-Legged Dog.

He also began exhibiting his own work.

Spencer exhibited mastery of every art form that he attempted, said former Orlando Sentinel arts and entertainment editor Mary Frances Emmons, who became a friend. At the same time, [he] was unbelievably modest, which is not a given for someone who has been working as a professional artist for that long. He did not take praise too seriously or let it go to his head.

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When he and a group of friends came up with a tongue-in-cheek annual party dubbed Okrafest  in which various okra dishes were prepared and an Okra Queen was crowned  Pettit designed the T-shirts.

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His art came with a sense of humor, said Mick Lochridge, another former Sentinel editor who later became a close friend.

Over the years we would meet for drinks, usually in Mount Dora, Lochridge said. In the fall we would go camping, where I learned he didnt like boiled peanuts, but I didnt hold that against him. At Christmas, we would go to Winter Park for lunch and swap presents. On New Years Day, several of us would hit JBs Fish Camp in New Smyrna Beach.

Spencer Pettit puts hanging wire onto the back of a painting by artist Suza Talbot at the Three-Legged Dog Gallery in Mount Dora on Thursday, June 24, 2004. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel) (Stephen M. Dowell / ORLANDO SENTINEL)

They were also part of a group that traveled to France and Italy, where Pettit took photos that he would later use for his artwork, often for monotypes  prints made from painting directly on a plate that is then run through a press. Pettit turned both the prints and the plates into art, creating dense, moody and complex works. Some were avant-garde, some impressionistic.

I liked the fact that his work had a raw sense to it, said Keith Beasley, public art coordinator for the city of Orlando, who sought out Pettit after seeing his work at a collectors home. He was so talented, but he was extremely modest. I mean, most artists survive on their edginess. He was just much more humble.

Among his legacies, in fact, will be two acts of generosity  donating his eyes and skin for transplant and the establishment of the Spencer Pettit Memorial Art Camp Scholarship Fund at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, a cause Pettit long supported.

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In addition to his wife, Pettit is survived by sisters Kathy Boss of Fort Myers and Mary Donnan of Orland Park, Ill. He was preceded in death by brothers Johnnie Radley and Raymond Radley Jr. Harden-Pauli Funeral Home in Eustis is handling arrangements.

ksantich@orlandosentinel.com. Staff writer Kevin Spear contributed to this report.
Erika Jayne got lunch delivered to her Hancock Park home on Tuesday amid new that attorney's plan on refiling their embezzlement lawsuit against her and estranged husband Tom Girardi.

The 50-year-old Pretty Mess creator was seen grabbing a bag of food that had been dropped off via contactless delivery from popular Los Angeles eatery Joan's on Third.

Her brief appearance comes after she was dismissed from her ex's embezzlement case out of Illinois, only to learn that the plaintiffs were not going to let her 'off the hook'.

Time to eat: Erika Jayne got lunch delivered to her Hancock Park home on Tuesday amid new that attorney's plan on refiling their embezzlement lawsuit against her and estranged husband Tom Girardi

Infamous for once spending $40K a month on her glam squad, a much more toned down Erika stepped out of her front gate to scoop up her food.

The blonde bombshell had her platinum locks in a high messy ponytail and she covered her makeup-free face with some large black sungalsses.

Erika's style was fit for lounging at home in black sweat pants and a white sweatshirt.

Last week the Real Housewives star got a brief reprieve from the ongoing embezzlement case against her and her estranged husband Tom Girardi when she was dismissed from the Illinois-based suit.

Low key: Infamous for once spending $40K a month on her glam squad, a much more toned down Erika stepped out of her front gate to scoop up her food

Not getting a pass: Her brief appearance comes after she was dismissed from her ex's embezzlement case out of Illinois, only to learn that the plaintiffs were not going to let her 'off the hook'

However, the case against the Bravolobrity will be refiled in her home state of California, revealed lawyer for the plaintiff Jay Edelson on Twitter.

'We have not stopped pursuing @erikajayne, just switching courts.' Edelson penned in a series of tweets. 'We believe we can prove she benefitted from Tom's ponzi scheme. Her lawyer is --again- misleading the public.'

The attorney's social media messages were in response to headlines reporting that Erika had been dismissed from the case in Illinois courts. While she had, in fact been dismissed, the move was only done so that the case could be refiled in a different court.

'The suit is being refiled in California (to avoid fights over jurisdiction),' he tweeted clarifying the situation. 'No chance we are letting @erikajayne off the hook, especially given the evidence we have found. All money will go fully to the victims until they are made whole.'

'We have not stopped pursuing @erikajayne, just switching courts.' lawyer Jay Edelson penned in a series of tweets. 'We believe we can prove she benefitted from Tom's ponzi scheme. Her lawyer is --again- misleading the public.'

Edelson later provided a statement on the matter to People explaining that his team has uncovered more information as well as some 'unaired footage' from Bravo that may be included in the new filing once it is reviewed.

'That should happen over the next few weeks,' Edelson said. 'We are very much looking forward to presenting the full facts of Erika's relationship to Tom's Ponzi scheme, including how much money she made off the backs of the widows and orphans of the Lion Air crash.'

Last week court documents obtained by Us Weekly revealed that the claims against the 50-year-old television star had been 'dismissed without prejudice', meaning they could be refiled at a later date.

Erika and her estranged husband Tom were both accused of misappropriating $2 million in settlement funds from families of Lion Air Flight 610 crash victims.

'The suit is being refiled in California (to avoid fights over jurisdiction),' he tweeted clarifying the situation. 'No chance we are letting @erikajayne off the hook, especially given the evidence we have found. All money will go fully to the victims until they are made whole.'

Girardi, who's a former attorney, was also accused of mismanaging several other clients' finances. Despite claims that she was aware of Tom's mishandling of money, Erika has adamantly denied knowing of any wrongdoing.

The lawsuit against the former spouses was filed in December 2020, one month after Erika filed for divorce from Tom after 20 years of marriage.

Back in November Erika broke down in tears as she filmed a reunion episode of The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills. She was grilled for most of the show by host Andy Cohen, 53, about the headline-making scandal.

Erika continued to defend herself against any suggestion that she knew about Tom's alleged dealings and she said if she knew, she wouldn't be on a reality show.

Her opinion: Garcelle was critical of Erika Jayne on Monday's episode of The Real, saying her fellow Housewife could be more proactive in helping the people who accused her estranged husband Tom Girardi of embezzling their money

Girardi has been in a conservatorship since last year and cannot answer for himself. His former law firm, Girardi & Keese, filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and he was disbarred last year.

He had his license to practice law revoked in March 2021 after the Los Angeles Times reported that he had been sued more than 100 times and had been the subject of numerous bar complaints alleging financial malfeasance involving millions of dollars owed to clients, including female cancer victims and a burn victim.

This latest development follows news that the reality TV personality was asked to relinquish a pair of $1.4 million diamond earrings gifted to her by Girardi.

The trustee in the Girardi & Keese bankruptcy case claimed the disbarred lawyer used money from a client trust account at his former law firm to purchase the jewelry from M&M Jewelers in 2007.

In court documents obtained by DailyMail.com, Erika's attorney said the reality star 'innocently' received the earrings from Girardi 15 years ago and said she has agreed to 'hold and not transfer or sell' the jewelry and 'provide the earrings to a third party escrow to be held in trust' until an investigation has been complete.

Meanwhile, Erika's RHOBH costar, Garcelle Beauvais, put in her two cents about the earring debate on The Real.

Garcelle was critical of Erika Jayne on Monday's episode, saying her fellow Housewife could be more proactive in helping the people who accused her estranged husband Tom Girardi of embezzling their money.

'Theres so much more that she could do, even if shes not guilty of knowing everything that Tom was doing,' said Beauvais, 55, noting that Jayne could surrender expensive items she owns to help compensate Girardi's accusers.

'This is a way of saying, "I have compassion for you and therefore take the jewelry, take the earrings, take the necklace,"' the actress and TV personality said on the talk show. 'I would give up the diamonds quickly. I believe she's giving them to a third party until it's decided if she does have to give them back.'

Beauvais noted how Jayne has shown up to film the Bravo series donning an extensive collection of jewelry, adding, 'She's got a lot, so getting rid of those diamond earrings is not going to hurt her.'

Beauvais's The Real co-host Adrienne Bailon, 38, echoed similar sentiments about what she thinks the most ethical move for Jayne to make would be.
Radio host Kyle Sandilands stormed out of the studio on Wednesday morning after an explosive 12-minute tantrum live on The Kyle and Jackie O Show.

He lost his temper shortly after 6am during a discussion about former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's leaked text message exchange with a Liberal minister in which she called Prime Minister Scott Morrison a 'horrible person'.

Sandilands, who is friends with Berejiklian, was angry at his co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson and newsreader Brooklyn Ross for giving airtime to the story, which he said was 'not real news'.

Things escalated quickly with Sandilands, 50, hurling insults at his colleagues before telling Henderson, 47, to 'do the show by yourself' and walking off.

Walk-off: Radio host Kyle Sandilands stormed out of the studio on Wednesday morning after an explosive 12-minute tantrum live on The Kyle and Jackie O Show

'This is the biggest news in Australia, and its all over nothing,' he began his rant.

'So what if the ex-premier called the prime minister a "horrible, horrible person"? I've called everyone here an effing c in text messages. I wouldn't be surprised if Gladys was just pacifying whatever loser minister she was talking to.

'This is not real news. Don't make up fictitious b******t drama over nothing.'

When Henderson insisted the story was newsworthy, Sandilands snapped: 'We dont have to run around every time some c********r from the ABC asks a question.'

Sandilands was actually incorrect here: the journalist who exposed the leaked texts at a press conference on Tuesday was in fact Peter van Onselen of Channel 10.

He continued: 'I'm angry. This is the way the world has been ruined  by d**kheads on the news turning these things into b******t moments.'

Blindsided: Sandilands' colleagues were genuinely shocked by his behaviour, and Henderson later remarked it had been 'very dramatic'

He then called Ross a 'f**king lazy loser journalist' to his face when he tried to defend including the story in his morning bulletin.

A frustrated Henderson then asked: 'What's up with you this morning?'

Ross tried to defend the newsworthiness of Berejiklian's texts again, prompting Sandilands to yell at him: 'Just turn your mic off! Youre finished! Get out!'

He then got up and walked out of the studio, saying bitterly: 'I'm going home. F**k you. Do the show by yourself, what a f**king show it'll be.'

Henderson said afterwards: 'Okay, I think well take a short break, because Im not even sure what happened. Did something happen before I got here? Was it all good?'

Heated: Sandilands called newsreader Brooklyn Ross (pictured) a 'f**king lazy loser journalist' to his face when he tried to defend including the story in his morning bulletin

Sandilands' colleagues were genuinely shocked by his behaviour, and Henderson later remarked it had been 'very dramatic'.

KIIS FM's resident psychic Georgina Walker also weighed in on the meltdown, telling Henderson and Ross they needed to 'let him chill out'.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted KIIS FM but is yet to receive a response. Sandilands' manager, Bruno Bouchet, declined to comment.

It comes after the Prime Minister was branded a 'complete psycho' and a 'horrible, horrible person' in bombshell text exchanges allegedly involving former NSW Premier Berejiklian.

Insults: Things escalated quickly with Sandilands (left) hurling insults at his co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson (right) and newsreader Brooklyn Ross before walking off

Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen on Tuesday confronted the PM on live TV with the incendiary text messages savaging Mr Morrison that he said were between Ms Berejiklian and a current Liberal minister.

'I've got them right here,' he told Mr Morrison as the PM faced questions from the media after his keynote speech to the National Press Club.

'In one, she described you as, quote, "a horrible, horrible person", going on to say she did not trust you, and you're more concerned with politics than people.

'The minister is even more scathing, describing you as a fraud and, quote, "a complete psycho".'

Headline news: He lost his temper shortly after 6am while discussing former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's leaked texts blasting Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured)

In a statement released hours later, Ms Berejiklian said she had 'no recollection' of the remarks, but didn't deny they were said.

'Does this exchange surprise you?' asked van Onselen. 'And what do you think it tells us?'

The Prime Minister was left almost speechless, blinking in shock by the surprise attack, before replying curtly and moving on to the next question.

'Well, I don't know who you're referring to, or the basis of what you've put to me,' he said. 'But I obviously don't agree with it. And I don't think that's my record.'

News: Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen on Tuesday confronted the PM on live TV with the series of incendiary text messages savaging Scott Morrison that he said were between Gladys Berejiklian (pictured here with the PM) and a current Liberal minister
Neil Jones and his estranged wife Katya put on a friendly display while heading to the latest Strictly Come Dancing Live show at Sheffield's Utilita Arena on Tuesday.

The ballroom professional, 39, and his co-star, 32, proved there was no bad blood between them as they looked for accommodation on his phone amid their hectic touring schedule.

The former couple ended their marriage in August 2019, less than a year after Katya was pictured passionately kissing her celebrity partner Seann Walsh, 35.

What a pair! Neil Jones and his estranged wife Katya put on a friendly display while heading to the latest Strictly Come Dancing Live show at Sheffield's Utilita Arena on Tuesday

Keeping things casual in a brown tracksuit, Neil completed his look with a pair of white trainers while lugging his essentials around in a black backpack.

Leaning in to scroll through the Airbnb app, the Russian dancer went make-up free while wrapping up in a black padded jacket amid the wintery weather.

She continued her outfit with black vinyl boots and styled a pair of oversized sunglasses over her brown tresses.

The exes have remained close friends since announcing their break-up in August 2019 and often dance together as part of the professional group on Strictly.

Exes: The ballroom professional, 39, and his co-star, 32, looked for accommodation on his phone amid their hectic touring schedule

Eek! The former couple ended their marriage in August 2019, less than a year after Katya was pictured passionately kissing her celebrity partner Seann Walsh, 35

Looking good: Keeping things casual in a brown tracksuit, Neil lugged around his essentials around in a black backpack

Gorgeous: Leaning in to scroll through the Airbnb app, the Russian dancer went make-up free while wrapping up in a black padded jacket amid the wintery weather

Neil and Katya's representatives have been contacted for comment by MailOnline.

Last year, Katya paid tribute to Neil on his 39th birthday with a series of 'embarrassing' throwbacks.

The TV personality took to Instagram to share snaps with her former partner alongside a series of pals as they celebrated the big day.

The first shot saw Neil smile for the camera with friends as held a giant balloon which read 'Happy Birthday', while another picture saw the gang all pose on a boat as they partied.

Glossy: She styled a pair of oversized sunglasses over her brown tresses

Fashion forward: She continued her outfit with black vinyl boots

Trendy: Neil completed his look with a pair of white trainers

Friends: The pair proved there was no bad blood between them

She captioned the post: 'Happy Birthday @mr_njonesofficial! Geez, you're getting old.

'But still full of life, energy and positivity! Keep that smile on your face and keep that hair ginger! Sorry I used to straighten it (swipe for some embarrassing phktos).

'May it be a great year for you!! Lots of love. #strictlycomedancing #birthday #happybirthday (sic)'.

The post comes days before comedian Sean said his kissing scandal with Strictly Come Dancing partner Katya Jones 'destroyed his dreams' and changed his life forever.

Found somewhere nice? Neil had the Airbnb app open on his phone

Happy: He beamed from ear-to-ear as he made his way through the city with Katya

Beaming: They both appeared to be in high spirits

Wow! Katya turned the streets of Sheffield into her very own fashion show

The comedian told how his mental health was greatly affected by the incident in 2018 and he is still on anti-depressants and sometimes suffers from panic attacks.

Speaking on the Take Flight podcast, Seann told how he had to 'lie down in the street' the other day after a panic attack.

Recalling the moment the kiss became public, he said: 'From that point on my life changed for ever.

'The panic attacks came back  big, big panic attacks and I ended up having what I later found out were Vertigo Seizures.

Sweet: It comes after Neil shared a hilarious snap of Katya flashing her abs in a white bandeau crop top as well as some throwbacks from her time dancing

'I had one the other day, I just lied down  I had to lie down in the street, it's quite humiliating. It's London so nobody gives a s***.

'I have to relive what happened. Still, I can be OK then suddenly the memories of it all come back.

'It defeats me and beats me until the plates start spinning and I lose balance and fall and start screaming, so I still get them.

'They're less frequent, I'd never had them before. I'm on anti-anxiety, anti-depression, it's called Sertraline. For me exercise is what helps me.'

Scandal: The comedian, 35, told how his mental health was greatly affected by the incident in 2018 and he is still on anti-depressants and sometimes suffers from panic attacks

Seann said that prior to the kiss he had big dreams for his comedy career but then felt like he was 'living without hope' when the scandal emerged.

He said: 'I was a very dream-like young man, I would dream of doing the Apollo, my sitcom, I was always living in this fantasy land.

'Then it was suddenly the first time I was living without hope.

'A kiss and a statement destroyed my dreams and who I was. What I could have been, what my life could have been, what I could have made myself was gone.'

Honest: Recalling the moment the kiss became public, he said: 'From that point on my life changed for ever. The panic attacks came back'

After images and video of the kiss were released, an onlooker who witnessed Seann and Katya's kiss, told The Sun they were 'snogging like a pair of teenagers' and 'didn't seem to care who might see them'.

The pair were at the Duke Of York pub in Marylebone in Central London in October 2018.

Their close relationship was noted by members of the crew but the kiss still came as a shock to everyone.

Following the incident, Seann's actress girlfriend Rebecca Humphries released an impassioned statement in which she revealed he called her 'psycho' and 'nuts' for questioning his friendship with Katya, who he kissed on Rebecca's birthday.

While Katya was supported by her husband Neil Jones after the 'drunken mistake', their marriage did not last as they announced their split in August 2019.

The dancers confirmed they were splitting in joint Instagram statements, but despite writing they had mutual 'respect' and 'love', a source claimed Katya's infidelity was something her husband couldn't get over.

The pair have remained friends since the split and continue to be professional dancers together on Strictly.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.
Meredith Marks took to Twitter to squash rumors she had work done after fans questioned her 'swollen face' during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live on Sunday evening.

The 50-year-old jewelry designer looked gorgeous wearing a slinky white ensemble to chat all things Real Housewives of Salt Lake City as she sat alongside Andy Cohen and special guest Bridget Everett.

Marks was forced to shut down Internet gossip when viewers began wondering if she had work done, with users questioning if bad fillers were to blame.

Backlash: Meredith Marks took to Twitter to squash rumors she had work done after fans questioned her 'swollen face' during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live on Sunday

'As I am being asked about my swollen face on #WWHL, yes my face was swollen that day,' she tweeted on Tuesday morning.

'No it was not a cosmetic procedure. You can see on my insta story pic taken the next day where the swelling is down. I am human. Not every day is perfect. Sorry #rhoslc.'

Meredith responded to the tirade by Lisa Barlow that targeted her and her family on the latest episode of RHOSLC during a sit-down in Andy's clubhouse.

'When Lisa apologized to me later on, she told me that somebody told her that I said her house was ugly and that's why she felt that that tirade was justified,' Meredith said.

Not so fast: Marks was forced to shut down Internet gossip when viewers began wondering if she had work done, with users questioning if bad fillers were to blame

Star power: The 50-year-old jewelry designer looked gorgeous wearing a slinky white ensemble to chat all things Real Housewives of Salt Lake City as she sat alongside Andy Cohen and special guest Bridget Everett

'I don't really understand that. That seems quite vapid to me,' she added.

Meredith told Andy that she had no idea that Lisa was harboring such ill will toward her.

'I had certain clues like her blocking her [Instagram] Stories from my husband and children, things that were said to me from other people,' Meredith said. 'But this level of hate is far beyond anything I could've ever imagined.

Fighting words: Meredith responded to the tirade by Lisa Barlow that targeted her and her family on the latest episode of RHOSLC during a sit-down in Andy's clubhouse

Dinner drama: Lisa Barlow became completely incensed with Meredith during a group dinner and then unleashed a profanity-laced tirade against her behind a closed door

'And the lies that she spewed. ...It's just incomprehensible,' Meredith added.

Lisa, 47, became completely incensed with Meredith during a group dinner while on their trip to Zion.

She was outraged that Meredith came to the defense of Mary Cosby, 49, and accused her of failing to be supportive of her in the same way.

The host: Andy Cohen asked Meredith for her reaction on Sunday's episode of Watch What Happens Live

'Meredith can go f*** herself. I'm done with her,' Lisa raged behind a closed door with her comments caught on a hot mic.

'Cause I'm not a f***ing whore and I don't cheat on my husband. Her and her dumb f***ing family that poses,' she added.

'Why don't you own a house?,' Lisa asked aloud rhetorically.

Going off: 'Cause I'm not a f***ing whore and I don't cheat on my husband. Her and her dumb f***ing family that poses,' Lisa ranted

'Wait. You can't. Cause your husband changes jobs every five minutes?,' she continued.

'Fake Meredith is a piece of s***. ''I have your back'', I'm offended by that. F*** you! That f***ing piece of s*** garbage whore. I f***ing hate her!' she ranted.

'She's a whore! She's f***ed half of New York,' Lisa shouted. 'She can go f*** herself.'

Still ranting: 'She's a whore! She's f***ed half of New York,' Lisa shouted. 'She can go f*** herself'

Lisa then emerged from behind the closed door in a black bra and blue jeans.

'Here, you can have your mic back,' she said while tossing her recording apparatus toward the camera.

Meredith on WWHL said she didn't understand the allegations made by Lisa.

Bravo show: Meredith on WWHL said she didn't understand the allegations made by Lisa

'Maybe it's projecting? I don't really know. I know Seth and I have been very honest. We've had moments where we dated other people,' Meredith said, referencing her 2019 separation from husband Seth Marks. 'We have not dated a lot of other people. I could not even have 10 boyfriends, because I've never slept with 10 people in my life.'

Meredith did acknowledge that Lisa's dig about her family not owning a house and Seth switching 'jobs every five minutes' did have 'some truth to it.'

'By nature of what he does, he should be switching jobs,' Meredith said. 'He's never been fired by any job he's ever been at.'

Work history: 'By nature of what he does, he should be switching jobs,' Meredith said. 'He's never been fired by any job he's ever been at'
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The first trailer for The Offer - a miniseries about the making of Frances Ford Coppola's landmark gangster film The Godfather - was released Tuesday.

The short clips shows actors Miles Teller as producer Albert S. Ruddy, Juno Temple as talent manager Bettye McCartt, and Dan Fogler as Coppola.

Paramount+ has described the ten-episode series as giving fans a 'never-before-seen experiences of making The Godfather' from the eyes of the Oscar-winning producer Ruddy.

'This is not just some gangster film': The Godfather making-of drama The Offer sees Miles Teller fight to get Francis Ford Coppola's iconic movie made in first trailer

In the dramatic teaser, the action focuses on Teller as Ruddy and Temple as McCartt, as they struggle to get the production of the now-iconic film off the ground.

'Look, we want to make a movie,' says Teller, before a dramatic sequence unfolds, hinting a troubled start to the picture, that was followed by sequels The Godfather Part II in 1974 and The Godfather Part III in 1990.

Giovanni Ribisi plays Joe Colombo, the boss of the Colombo crime family, and Matthew Goode as Paramount studio executive Robert Evans.

Starring role: British actress Juno Temple is seen as talent manager Bettye McCartt in the teaser

At the helm: Dan Fogler plays Francis Ford Coppola in the new miniseries

Objecting: Giovanni Ribisi plays Joe Colombo, the boss of the Colombo crime family, who in real-life opposed the movie's script, that he believed included stereotypes of Italian-Americans

Glam: Juno appears as a talent agent involved in the making of the film

Goode's character marvels that the film 'could become a cultural phenomenon, the likes we've never seen before.'

In his scene, Goode talks to fellow British actor Burn Gorman, who plays Charles Bluhdorn, the head of Gulf and Western.

Gulf and Western Industries, Inc., an American conglomerate, purchased Paramount Pictures in 1966.

Colombo will be a significant character in the miniseries, as in real-life, he was involved in the production and met with producer Albert Ruddy to go over the script.

Bigger picture: Matthew Goode as Paramount studio executive Robert Evans, in a scene with British actor Burn Gorman, as Charles Bluhdorn, the head of Gulf and Western

Production: Colombo (Ribisi) will be a significant character in the miniseries, as in real-life, he was involved in the production and met with producer Albert Ruddy to go over the script

In the shadows: Fogler is seen as Coppola getting down to write the script

Walking the walk: Matthew Goode is pictured in a scene on the Paramount Studios lot

The pair are said to have come to an agreement that the terms 'Mafia' and 'Cosa Nostra' would not be used in the film, after the project was initially met with great opposition from Italian-Americans.

Ribisi is seen as Colombo in the teaser, speaking at a rally against the film, protesting against the stereotypes of Italian-Americans depicted in the film.

Fogler's Coppola is largely seen in the shadows during the trailer, but appears at the end

Getting to work: Juno plays Bettye McCartt, who went on to become a longtime agent-manager for Tom Selleck and television director Tony Wharmb

Hollywood: The teaser shows what went into getting the iconic film made

Sparkly: There is also a parade scene that leads into a segment with Ribisi as Colombo

Convincing the studio heads: It seems the drama will detail how they convinced studio bosses to get the film made

Also featured in the trailer is Colin Hanks as Barry Lapidus, a fictional Gulf and Western executive.

However, we are yet to see actor Justin Chambers who has been cast as Marlon Brando.

The series has been created by Michael Tolkin.

An offer they can't refuse: Miles turns on the charm as film producer Ruddy

Cutting a check: Mario Puzo was offered a $12,500 deal for the 60-page manuscript

Legendary filmmaking: The series will give fans a glimpse into how the movie was made

Making-of: There certainly appears to be a lot of drama behind-the-scenes in making the film

The original: The film will start with how producers got author Mario Puzo to agree to give them the rights to his novel

The classic film is based on Mario Puzo's The Godfather, a huge literary smash upon release in 1969, that remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 67 weeks and sold over nine million copies in two years.

Puzo is said to have initially turned down an offer from Paramount to adapt his novel for the big screen, but accepted as he needed $10,000 to pay off gambling debts.

Others actors in the series includes Patrick Gallo as writer Mario Puzo, Josh Zuckerman as Peter Bart, and Mereditch Garretson as Ali McGraw.

Real-life players: Miles Teller (left) as producer Albert S. Ruddy (Pictured in 2010)

Big wig: Matthew Goode (left) as Paramount studio executive Robert Evans (pictured right in 2012)

Filmmaker: Dan Fogler (left) plays Francis Ford Coppola (right in 1979)
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Jennifer Aydin revealed she underwent a chin implant removal surgery after 'struggling' to accept her altered jawline for the past seven months.

After first revealing her nose job and chin implant to the world in July, weeks after getting the procedures done in Turkey, the 44-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star shared a video of herself with a bandage on her lower jaw.

'I had my chin implant taken out today,' the mom-of-five told her more than 398,000 Instagram followers on Sunday. 'Looking good already.'

Back under the knife: Jennifer Aydin revealed she underwent a chin implant removal surgery after struggling' to accept her altered jawline for months

In another video on her Instagram Story, she showed fans the silicone chin implant, now in a plastic bag, as she rocked a Fendi turtleneck.

She also thanked Dr. Kassir for taking out the implant as she posed for a picture in a hospital gown.

Over the summer, she told Bravo Insider that she was very happy with her rhinoplasty, but was 'still struggling' to accepted her larger chin.

'I don't know if I love [my chin implant] at this point,' she confessed. 'I thought that it was going to be better. That's always the goal, right? To be better. Nobody ever does [plastic surgery] thinking that it's not gonna go well'

Happy with the results: She also thanked Dr. Kassir for taking out the implant as she posed for a picture in a hospital gown

'I don't know if I love [my chin implant] at this point,' she confessed. 'I thought that it was going to be better. That's always the goal, right? To be better. Nobody ever does [plastic surgery] thinking that it's not gonna go well.'

At the time, the TV personality even stated 'worst comes to worst' she was 'just gonna take it out.'

'I was told that [a chin implant] is very easy to take out. They don't file your real chin at all. They just kind of attach it. It's just a matter of removing it,' she concluded.

Post-surgery: In another video on her Instagram Story, she showed fans the silicone chin implant, now in a plastic bag, as she rocked a Fendi turtleneck

New face: Over the summer, she told Bravo Insider that she was happy with her rhinoplasty, but was 'still struggling' to accepted her larger chin

Previously, Jennifer said she was persuaded to get the chin implant by her plastic surgeon and husband Dr. Bill Aydin, who is also a cosmetic surgeon.

'Your nose and your chin have to be a certain ratio [to each other],' she explained of her decision. 'I had two doctors telling me that I needed it. Maybe I should listen to them.'

After her latest procedure, she gushed: 'I'm excited that by the time I do my next type of filming, whenever that is, I'll be healed and my old chin will be back with my new nose that can still smell a rat.'

Transformation: The Real Housewives of New Jersey star had a nose job and chin implant over the summer (left). She is pictured right before the surgery

After talking about her surgical enhancements on social media, Jennifer said she was 'totally aware of the criticism some' fans would have of her face on the season 12 premiere on Tuesday of Real Housewives of New Jersey.

'Keep in mind that it was exactly 4 weeks after the date of my surgery. My face was still swollen and numb and it was hard to move, speak or smile,' she warned viewers. 'My surgery was already planned from way before I got the news of when filming was to start.'

Jennifer added: 'And even though I was nervous on some of the backlash that may happen and I had no idea how whack I would look on camera, I remembered that I signed up to show my life.'

Striving for perfection: Jennifer is no stranger to a few nips and tucks, including a tummy tuck, liposuction, breast augmentation and PRP hair treatment, in addition to lip and face fillers; seen with her husband and their give children

Jennifer is no stranger to a few nips and tucks, including a tummy tuck, liposuction, breast augmentation and PRP hair treatment, in addition to lip and face fillers.

In 2019, Jennifer her spouse performed a 'breast reduction, breast lift and liposuction' on her, which resulted in 'a 15-pound weight loss,' according to Page Six.

'I was really big on top, meaning my breasts were large, and I hated them. They were like these big melons. They were mushy from breastfeeding five kids and it started off with having the breast reduction. So that's what I did first,' the reality star told the outlet.

Dream team: In 2019, Jennifer her spouse performed a 'breast reduction, breast lift and liposuction' on her, which resulted in 'a 15-pound weight loss,' according to Page Six

Following the breast reduction and lift, she got liposuction in her back.

'I lost about three and a half pounds of fat from my back and it contoured me,' she gushed, before noting she was thrilled with her smaller boobs and 'hourglass figure.'

Jennifer also clarified that liposuction 'is really not a weight-loss solution' but 'helps in your problem areas.'

To maintain her slimmer figure, she began working with a nutritionist and has a chef help prepare her meals to make suer she is consuming the right amount of macros and calories every day.

Hard work To maintain her slimmer figure, she began working with a nutritionist and has a chef help prepare her meals to make suer she is consuming the right amount of macros and calories every day; pcitured with husband Bill in October

Real Housewives of New Jersey fans can expect a lot of drama in the upcoming season, which shows many of the women questioning Teresa Giudice after she moves in with fiance Luis Ruelas and the fallout between Jennifer and Margaret Josephs after she exposed a 'family secret.'

In August, a source told The Sun: 'Margaret has been going around on-camera saying to anyone who will listen that Jennifer has a history of cheating on her husband Dr Bill Aydin.'

Additionally, after rumors surfaced that Jennifer's husband took 'his mistress on a romantic getaway to St Barts,' she cheekily shared in a TikTok video that she is 'the keeper of all the passports' for her family, even Bill.'

'When Bill wants his passport, he asks me for it because I keep them all,' Jennifer said.
Her Instagram fans criticized her hands in a recent series of Instagram snaps, claiming they looked 'scary.'

And on Monday, Khloe Kardashian clapped back at a fan trying to make fun of her on a topless snap where her hands were hidden under her hair.

The fan wrote in the comments 'Oh lord, she's hiding her hands,' to which Khloe responded: 'lol never. My hands are beautiful baby.'

Clap back: Her Instagram fans criticized her hands in a recent series of Instagram snaps, claiming they looked 'scary.' And on Monday, Khloe Kardashian clapped back at a fan trying to make fun of her on a topless snap where her hands where hidden under her hair

In the image shared on Monday, Khloe sported loose fitting jeans with no top, showcasing her toned form.

Khloe had her arms covering her hands beneath her hair as she looked at the camera for the sizzling image.

The fan wrote the critical comment beneath the image.

Their comment comes just four days after Khloe shared a series of snaps of herself in her Range Rover while rocking Gucci boots.

The original point of conversation: Their comment comes just four days after Khloe shared a series of snaps of herself in her Range Rover while rocking Gucci boots

Closer look: Some fans made a point to criticize the appearance of her hands in the comments section

In the images, Khloe's hand is partially covered up with her sleeve with her brown colored nails on full display.

Some fans made a point to criticize the appearance of her hands in the comments section.

The critical comments comes just a year after Khloe took to Instagram Live to address controversy around an 'unflattering' unfiltered picture of herself that went viral.

In April 2021, Khloe stripped off for an Instagram video to defend her attempt to kill an 'unflattering' unfiltered viral bikini photo taken by her grandma.

The mother of one posted videos of herself showcasing her fabulous body which she said had not been Photoshopped - following the release of an 'unauthorized' photo appearing to show her un-airbrushed and not as flawless as she ordinarily looks in campaign shots.

Striking: In the image shared on Monday, Khloe sported loose fitting jeans with no top, showcasing her toned form

She also posted a statement about her struggles with her body image, where she described feeling intense 'pressure' to be 'perfect' and discussed her lifelong struggle with her body image.

The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star revealed being compared unfavorably to her siblings, Kim and Kourtney, in addition to 'constant ridicule and judgment' has been 'too much to bear.'

'I am not perfect but I promise you that I try everyday to live my life as honestly as possible and with empathy and kindness. It doesn't mean that I have not made mistakes. But I'm not going to lie. It's almost unbearable trying to live up to the impossible standards that the public have all set for me.

'For over a decade now in photos, every single flaw and imperfection has been micro-analyzed and made fun of to the smallest detail and I am reminded of them everyday by the world. And when I take that criticism to use as motivation to get myself in the best shape of my life and to even help others with the same struggles, I am told I couldn't have done it through hard work and I must have paid for it all.

Her response: In April 2021, Khloe stripped off for an Instagram video to defend her attempt to kill an 'unflattering' unfiltered viral bikini photo taken by her grandma

Proud: Khloe showed all the results of her time at the gym in the video

'You never quite get used to being judged and pulled apart and told how unattractive one is, but I will say, if you hear anything enough then you start believe it. This is an example of how I have been conditioned to feel, that I am not beautiful enough just being me,' the ex of Lamar Odom added.

She said she loves a good filter, good lighting and an edit here and there.

'The same way I throw on some make-up, get my nails done, or wear a pair of heels to present myself to the world the way I want to be seen and it's exactly what I will continue to do unapologetically. My body, my image and how I choose to look and what I want to share is my choice. It's not for anyone to decide or judge what is acceptable or not anymore.

Starting a buzz: The controversy all started after the bikini photo emerged on social media days before

'For those else who feel the constant pressure of not ever feeling perfect enough, I want you to know I see you and I understand. Everyday I am told by my family and friends who love me that I am beautiful but I know that it needs to be believed from within. We are all unique and perfect in our own way. Whichever way one chooses to be seen. I have realized that we cannot continue to live life trying to fit into the perfect mold of what others have set for us. Just do you and make sure your heart is happy,' she concluded.

The controversy all started after a bikini photo emerged on social media just days prior.

The image in question shows Khloe standing by a pool wearing a skimpy leopard print string bikini and appearing unfiltered an un-airbrushed.

Soon after it leaked on various forums online, members of the Kardashian PR team reported the posts as copyright infringement, due to the photo being posted without permission.

In the candid image, which is still up on one subreddit, the mother-of-one appears to be mid-conversation and has her hair pulled up in a ponytail as she holds her phone and flashes a subtle smile at the photographer.

The image seems to have been snapped at Kris Jenner's desert compound in La Quinta, California, where the Kardashian and Jenner clan just spent the Easter weekend.

While most would be proud to look so good in a bikini, it's not hard to see that Khloe looks very different to her highly glamorized Instagram images.

In the alleged unedited snap, her waistline appears less defined, her curves less dramatic and her skin not as impossibly smooth as it looks in her carefully staged glossy fashion shoots.

Tracy Romulus, Kim Kardashian's BFF and chief marketing officer for KKW brands, said in a statement to Page Six: 'The color edited photo was taken of Khloe during a private family gathering and posted to social media without permission by mistake by an assistant.

'Khloe looks beautiful but it is within the right of the copyright owner to not want an image not intended to be published taken down.'

After the photo surfaced on that Saturday, it spread across the internet before quickly disappearing on many sites.

Picture perfect: The Good American founder recently appeared unfiltered and un-airbrushed in a recent leaked snap - and not as flawless as she appears in her social media shots (seen here in a similar bikini in July 2020)

It wasn't long before reports emerged from Reddit users who were asked to take the photo down, with some allegedly receiving legal threats from the Kardashian team because of 'copyright infringement'.

A user named 'Calithetroll' started a subreddit to discuss the Kardashian PR team's attempt to remove all of the posts online. They explained that 'after reposting the picture, the mods confirm that someone reached out to them warning them about potential legal action due to the picture.'

Some people, including subreddit moderators who attempted to share the Khloe photo, were reported for posting 'personal and confidential' information.

Screenshots of a Instagram conversation show Romulus contacting one poster and claiming the image of Khloe was 'stolen and doctored and originated from a fake IG account.'

Despite the Kardashian clan scrabbling to take down the photo, much of the Reddit commentary about it was positive.

'Are you kidding? There is one pic of her looking actually natural and gorgeous with some flaws and she wants it gone from the internet?!' one person wrote.

'I am loving this hot tea. Kinda sad though. Khloe looks so stunning in it.' another added to the discussion.

'Is this the photo they're talking about or a different one? Because this pic looks good?' another user chimed in.

Soaring temperatures: In early April 2021, Khloe showed off her incredibly taut figure in a purple string bikini while relaxing by the pool in Palm Springs

Khloe has come under fire in recent years for her changing face and body, with many accusing the KUWTK star of brazenly photoshopping her Instagram posts to an extent fans sometimes struggle to recognize her.

Following a slew of questions from fans, cosmetic and injectables specialist Claire McGuinness weighed in on the discussion, offering her opinion on what changes Khloe may have made.

She speculated that the mother-of-one had changed her appearance so dramatically thanks to a combination of 'surgery, injectables, weight loss... and filters, makeup and lighting'.

However, sources insisted that Khloe is not concerned with the backlash over her changing looks.

An insider told Us Weekly back in May: 'Khloe doesn't care about the backlash she's been getting from fans saying she doesn't look like herself in her recent photos.'

'She thinks she looks great,' the insider adds. 'And actually [she] does not care what people think as long as she's happy.'

Controversy: Khloe has long been under fire for her changing face and body, with many accusing the KUWTK star of brazenly photoshopping her Instagram posts

Hitting out: As a host of her 219 million Instagram followers swarmed the comments section, one penned: 'Why do you look so different', before the famously-funny star hit back: 'My weekly face transplant clearly', much to her fans' delight

She's certainly having a sense of humor about it at least, after clapping back to fans who have questioned her new look.

After being asked by a fan 'Why do you look so different in all your photos?', Khloe hit back: 'My weekly face transplant clearly.'

Khloe's changing appearance has undoubtedly been controversial in recent months, but she has denied going under the knife to achieve her new look.

In 2016, Khloe admitted to having fillers to change her facial shape, and in the same year she was made the face of Kybella and its Live Chin Up campaign.

Kybella is an increasingly popular new treatment that targets double chins. The FDA-approved injectable, available at Cosmetique Aesthetics in LA, contours and improves fatty areas.

Comparisons: Khloe chalks her morphing looks up to picture perfect contouring done by shading and highlighting through makeup (Left 2019, right 2008)

She has admitted to getting Botox and fillers in the past but said she had them dissolved after feeling like she looked 'crazy.'

To this day, Khloe maintains she has never had a rhinoplasty, and says her nose looks slimmer because of contouring.

In 2013, she told Cosmopolitan magazine that she had never had cosmetic surgery but did not rule it out for the future.

'I'm proud for losing weight when I wanted to and I've never resorted to surgery,' she said. 'I'm not against it - one day I probably will but it would be on my terms. I won't be bullied into it by social media or anyone else.'
Sen. Marco Rubio recently sent me a long letter about all that he is doing to address climate change. This sounds good, right? No it isnt, because it was greenwashing.

The term greenwashing was coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986, when he criticized the save the towel campaign in hotels. He pointed out how hypocritical it was compared to all the other actions hotels should be taking to be more sustainable.

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Simply put, greenwashing is used to persuade you that a company or politician is green when their environmental actions are weak, superficial or not really addressing the problem.

Invading Seas (Invading Seas / Courtesy)

Rubio has a history of denying the climate crisis, but now that a majority of Floridians believe its real and accelerated by human activity, he wants to convince you that he is addressing it.

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I will give Rubio points for using the words climate change, which former Gov. Rick Scott did not want state employees to use. He also supports climate change research and adaptation. But he wants to have it both ways: to appeal to voters who believe in acting against climate change and to those who dont, by doing very little about the root cause.

He wont even admit that humans are causing climate change. In his letter, he says that Scientists continue to study the Earths changing climate, including the contributions of human activities. Continue to study human contributions? It is a proven fact that burning fossil fuels emits greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

Pamela McVety, a biologist and Florida native, worked in executive positions for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for 30 years dealing with water management, marine resources, ecosystem management and coastal zone management.

In paragraph after paragraph, he talks about what he is doing to address climate change. Theres not a single mention of a plan to cut carbon emissions, which is what we need. Rather, he wants to empower the private sector to continue making significant gains in emission reductions through innovation and efficiency. He fails to mention that we have long been relying on the private sector to voluntarily cut carbon emissions, and every year carbon emissions go up.

Rubio strongly supports efforts to adapt to impacts of climate variability. He hasnt a clue as to how alarming this sounds. He wants outdoor workers  such as roofers, road contractors, farmers and migrant workers  to adapt to sizzling hot temperatures. He thinks crops can grow in high heat and kids can play in it. He wants us to build higher seawalls that cant possibly hold back the rising oceans because of our karst topography. He has a bill to study coral loss, yet nothing to lower ocean temperatures back to the range that corals need to survive.

Rubio should be sponsoring bills that help families, businesses and corporations cut their carbon emissions. He should support a massive renewable-energy initiative for the country, which would create new jobs. He should be directing federal agencies to use every resource available to them to help the fossil fuel industry keep fossil fuels in the ground. He should be supporting President Bidens initiatives to cut carbon emissions.

Greenwashing is purposely hard to detect. It is meant to deceive you and it is everywhere these days. History will show that politicians who fail to address the root cause of the climate crisis  the burning of fossil fuels  were obstructionists who cost us all dearly, delayed action and, God forbid, contributed to climate change becoming unstoppable.

Pam McVety, a biologist and Florida native, worked in executive positions for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for 30 years before retiring in 2003.
The 51st Annual Spring Powwow, organized by First Nations @ UW in April, marked the events post-pandemic return. Drawing both Indigenous people and nonnatives from across the country, the powwow is one of the largest student-run events on campus and has been an important event for Pacific N
Misinformation abounds in Orlando, Maitland protests

Welcome to Florida! Did you see the people on the side of the road rallying against all the workers housed in a Maitland hotel because they believed Biden was sending undocumented immigrants to Florida (Protesters decry illegal immigration at Maitland hotel, a site at which legal migrant workers are staying, Feb. 1)?

These workers were here to harvest crops that end up on your table and my table. As it turns out, the men are here on visas to work the fields with the Farmworkers Union in Apopka. They are housed and paid a living wage while they are here. This is called contempt prior to investigation.

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Then there are the Nazis hanging banners from bridges. What did DeSantis say? He turned it around to make it look like the Democrats were just using it as a political ploy. When will it stop?

Barbara Hill Eustis

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Education isnt always comfortable

With bills allowing school boards to be sued for encouraging study of racial history and gender, our Legislature has gone sadly astray. The purpose of education is to awaken minds and hearts, not to keep people comfortable. Banning books and silencing teachers hurts everyone  not only the already oppressed minorities, but even more those in the comfortable majority, by denying American history and our current social realities, and by perpetuating ignorance and illusion.

Marian Price Orlando

Spotify warnings? We can think for ourselves

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

Musicians are removing their work from the streaming service Spotify due to what is being called misinformation regarding the vaccine on Joe Rogans podcast (Rogan addresses backlash from musicians on Spotify, Feb. 1).

This is an excellent example of the habit of those leaning to the left that the regular American is incapable of thinking for themselves and coming to intelligent decisions regarding any given topic. Therefore they must step up and speak out, lest all the little children get themselves into trouble with their lack of understanding or discernment.

I suggest these musicians come down off their high horse, put a cap on their condescending politics, and stop working so hard to restrict any and all speech that they disagree with. Misinformation is such a Communist concept that regards the public as easily confused and manipulated buffoons. We the people have the power, so stop trying to restrict it.

We dont need you to protect us from ourselves.

CE Marshall Clermont

Baldwin Park has edge over Celebration

In the article, Some residents worry about loss of Celebrations charm (Jan. 31), it reminded me why I chose to live in Baldwin Park instead of Celebration 18 years ago. Both are organized as New Urbanism communities and both had some of the same developers and builders. Both are great places to live with similar amenities, but Baldwin Park has few tourists, is close to the city core for an easy work commute, has less traffic, is adjacent to Rollins College and close to downtown Winter Park.

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James H. Schirtzinger Orlando
Darien Police Department

DARIEN  The Darien Police Department celebrated retiring Capt. Robert Shreders Monday, as he prepares to step away from the force after 32 years.

Shreders, appointed to the department on April 1, 1990, is set to retire on Feb. 1, officials said on Facebook.
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Gov. Ned Lamont hinted that a change could be coming to the states school mask mandate when he said Tuesday that he is watching the numbers closely over the next few days before deciding.

I am going to wait to take a look at the metrics, Lamont said. I think we see what the trend is going forward. ... I think we will have a lot of clarity over the next few days, over the next week, and if the metrics say its time for a change, we will make a change.

Lamont said he was considering lifting the school mask mandate and giving local school boards the option to institute their own policies like he has with municipalities.

I think thats a real possibility, Lamont said.

We know that theres another variant out there, but also I think we now know how to manage through these little mini-surges, he added.

While Connecticut continues to see COVID-19 metrics much higher than the start of the academic year in September, a recent surge brought on by the omicron variant appears to be waning.

On Tuesday, the positivity rate was 8.68 percent  a slight uptick from what was reported through the weekend  with 1,240 new COVID-19 cases found in 14,293 tests.

Hospitalizations, another metric that spiked significantly during the omicron wave, dropped by a net of 56 patients for a total of 995, the first time it was below 1,000 total patients since Dec. 28.

Lamont said Tuesday the state and its residents are better at managing spikes in COVID-19 infections and reiterated the tools for individuals to keep themselves safe.

Lamonts remarks come about two weeks before his emergency powers are set to expire, along with all the executive orders issued during the pandemic. However, the ability for the states education department to require masks in schools was among a list of 11 executive orders he asked the legislature to keep in place once his powers expire.

When asked if students and teachers should continue to wear masks, Dr Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare, pointed to the science that shows masks work.

It will be dependent on school districts. It will be dependent on the tenor in that district. Looking at the science standpoint, masks work. Whether its worth getting rid of those mask mandates, it remains to be seen, Wu said.

Dr. Juan Salazar, physician-in-chief for Connecticut Childrens Medical Center, said it might be premature to lift the mask requirements in schools.

We have to follow the epidemiology. I think the positivity rate is too high and we have too much virus out there still with a very susceptible population, especially with 5- to 11-year-olds where the fully vaccinated is not much more than 40 percent, Salazar said.

While Lamont continues to weigh the future of masks in schools, Pfizer-BioNTech requested Tuesday an emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for use of its COVID-19 vaccine on children ages 6 months to 4 years old.

The move was met with some optimism from Connecticut health experts, who had yet to see any data from Pfizer-BioNTech.

Its been long overdue that we get a product, a vaccine, that can be used in that specific age group. Its the one that remains unvaccinated and we were hoping this had occurred six months ago, Salazar said. It does appear now that they have enough data suggesting that it is safe  and efficacious.

Dr. Thomas Murray, associate director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Childrens Hospital, said he also has not yet seen the data.

If that information looks good, as it has with other age groups, this is another opportunity to protect a vulnerable population from severe infection, he said.

While Pfizer-BioNTech has been studying the use of COVID-19 vaccines in this age group for some time, Wu said it does not mean parents should hesitate to get young children vaccinated.

The vaccines are safe, they arent awaiting additional data to see if its safe for everybody, they are waiting for additional data to ensure it stimulates the immunoresponse they are looking for, he said.

While cases and hospitalizations surged overall in January, both childrens hospitals similarly saw a sharp uptick of pediatric COVID-19 cases during the recent omicron wave.

Weve had a huge increase in the number of children admitted with COVID-19 over the last month, specifically and unfortunately, in this age group (6 months to 4 years old), Murray said.

However, the jump in pediatric cases appears to have followed a similar trajectory to what was seen with COVID-19 metrics overall.

I think we are past the peak and we are hopeful this will bring us to a better March and April, Salazar said.

Staff writer Ken Dixon contributed to this story.


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Florida is one of the few states in America still carrying out executions. Now lawmakers want to add more secrecy to the process.

A bill zipping through the Legislature would allow the state to hide the kind of drugs it uses to kill people  even if the drugs used are controversial, not made for that purpose or being used to kill people over the objections of the manufacturers.

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Youd still know the state was executing people. You just wouldnt know precisely how.

This push for secrecy comes in a state with a nasty record of both wrongful convictions and botched executions.

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This exemption will make it impossible to oversee the states administration of executions, said Virginia Hamrick, an attorney with the First Amendment Foundation.

That seems to be the idea: More killing. Less accountability.

The main reason for the secrecy push is that state officials dont want pharmaceutical companies to know how theyre using the drugs.

The Legislatures analysts said that when the state reveals the drugs its using to kill people, it is no longer able to procure drugs from that source.

Thats understandable. Companies that make drugs to save or enhance lives usually arent thrilled to learn people are using their products to take lives instead.

An execution guerney in Starke, Fla. (Associated Press)

Thats what happened with Florida in 2017. After one drug-maker told the state it didnt want Florida putting its prescription drug into the states lethal-injection cocktail, the state switched to another drug  only to hear objections from that drug-maker as well.

That resulted in headlines like this one from the Washington Post: Johnson & Johnson says its drug shouldnt be used in executions.

As Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told the Post: The American pharmaceutical industry is united in its view that it doesnt want its medicines misused for nonmedical purposes  and killing prisoners has never been an approved medical purpose.

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So Floridas solution to this problem is simply to hide all the information. The less anyone knows, the less they can object.

If you have to hide what youre doing in order to keep doing it, maybe you need to ask yourself if youre doing the right thing.

Gandhi once said: Truth never damages a cause that is just.

Most civilized nations  and an increasing number of U.S. states  no longer execute people. Most have realized that the death penalty doesnt deter crime, that its unequally applied and that, worst of all, people are sometimes wrongfully convicted.

Florida has logged more wrongful death-row convictions than any other state in America  and now wants to add more secrecy to the process.

Florida has also botched executions. One lethal injection went so awry in 2006  the death-row inmate writhed in pain and took 30 minutes to die, according to the Gainesville Sun  that Jeb Bush called a temporary halt to executions.

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Thats the state that doesnt want you to know how its putting together its lethal cocktails today.

[ Bush halts executions to review procedure ]

By the way, the governor who decided to resume executions six months after Bush halted them was Charlie Crist  a then-Republican whos now seeking the Democratic nomination for the same office.

Bipartisan grease keeps Floridas execution machine churning.

In fact, Democratic legislators have overwhelmingly supported this new push to exempt execution details from the states public records law.

House Bill 873 won unanimous support in its first House committee, including a nod of approval from Orlando Democrat Geraldine Thompson. And the corresponding Senate Bill 1204 passed its first committee with support from another Democratic candidate for governor, Sen. Annette Taddeo.

Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Democratic candidate for governor, voted for the bill to add more secrecy to executions in an early committee, but says she didn't realize everything it did - and will work to kill the bill before it comes up for a final vote. (Steve Cannon/AP)

When contacted this week, both Thompson and Taddeo said they werent aware that open-government advocates opposed the bill and said they didnt feel like theyd gotten a full picture of the bills intent before they voted in favor of it. Taddeo said she now opposed the bill and vowed to personally work to kill this bill before it comes up for a final vote.

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If Taddeo really means that and works hard to whip votes on her side of the aisle, she may have the power to do so, since any new exemption to the states public records law requires yes votes from two-thirds of the Legislature. That would have to include Democrats. So well see what happens.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

The truth, though, is that politicians from both parties have long embraced a zeal for killing that far exceeds their interest in getting justice right.

Even after the state admitted it was sending record numbers of people to death row by mistake, lawmakers ignored suggestions from the states own innocence commission on how to prevent future mistakes.

And now they want to add more secrecy.

If you dont want your government keeping secrets  believing that Public records are intended to let the public oversee the government, as the First Amendment Foundations Hamrick says  let your lawmaker know. You can find their contact info at www.leg.state.fl.us

And if youre OK with more secrecy in government and executions, you probably dont need do a thing. It appears most leaders already agree.

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But also consider this quote from Joseph Pulitzer: There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy.

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com
Drillmec, along with the department of industries and commerce, government of Telangana, will float a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for setting up the manufacturing unit.  By arrangement

Hyderabad: Telangana bagged a major investment in the manufacturing sector on Monday.

Italian oil and gas rigs manufacturer Drillmec SpA, a subsidiary of Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL), signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government, in the presence of industries minister K.T.Rama Rao, to invest USD 200 million (approximately Rs 1,500 crore) for setting up its global rig manufacturing hub at Shabad on city outskirts.

The project is estimated to create direct employment to 2,500 people and indirect employment to several thousand within a year.

Speaking on this occasion, K.T. Rama Rao said, We feel proud to welcome Drillmec as it establishes its manufacturing unit in Hyderabad. Our government is committed to making Telangana the most industrially progressive states in India. We will hand over land and fiscal incentives to Drillmec as soon as possible. We are happy to generate employment opportunities for the youth in the state. We request Drillmec to bring entire drilling rig ecosystems to Telangana.

Drillmec, along with the department of industries and commerce, government of Telangana, will float a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for setting up the manufacturing unit.

Drilling rig is a large structure with facilities for drilling a well to explore, extract, store, and process petroleum and natural gas that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Drillmec SpA is a global leader in the area.

Drillec, a subsidiary of MEIL, has proposed to set up a manufacturing, research and development facility, and a Centre of Excellence (CoE) to impart cutting-edge training to people to operate, manage and maintain advanced rigs.

As part of MoU, the company will set up Drillmec International Hub for manufacturing oil rigs and ancillary equipment in Telangana.

Simone Trevisani, CEO Drillmec SpA, said, The Hyderabad manufacturing hub will focus on rig manufacturing and ancillaries. We have three manufacturing facilities in Italy, the USA (at Houston), and Belarus. After evaluating offers, we choose Telangana, as it has a progressive industrial policy and is investor-friendly.

The company, incorporated in Italy, was acquired by MEIL group in 2020.

Uma Maheshwar Reddy, CEO, Drillmec International, said, "This MoU is the first step towards creating a global manufacturing hub in Hyderabad. It will definitely meet the demands of the market worldwide."

Simone Trevisani, CEO, Drillmec SpA and Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary, industries, signed the MoU.
According to a senior official in the education department many schools including the state-run institutions reopened today. (Representational image: PTI)

Chennai: With their backpacks and donning face masks, school children settled down for physical classes on Tuesday as several institutions across Tamil Nadu reopened for 1 - 12 standard, following stringent COVID-19 precautions.

The students were provided hand sanitizer and had their temperature checked as they stepped into the portals of education after enjoying stretched holidays owing to the pandemic and mid-January Pongal festival. Strict social distancing norm of seating two students per bench was resorted to in many schools. Some educational institutions preferred to continue online classes.

Ahead of the reopening, the administration had thoroughly sanitised the classrooms and premises and welcomed their students with thermal scanners and hand sanitizer.

On January 28, the state government permitted physical classes from 1 - 12 standards in all schools from today, while exempting play schools and nursery schools. The government had also announced a revised schedule for the first revision test for classes 10 and 12 from February 9 - 16 and the second beginning from March 28 to April 5.

Questioning the timing of reopening schools, S Raghavan, a parent of plus two student, here, said students in the 15 - 17 age group are due for the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine from this week. The government had even announced the revised schedule for tests. But does the government have any plans for administering the second dose? If so, how will the children cope up if they develop fever and write the test? he wondered.

According to a senior official in the education department many schools including the state-run institutions reopened today. On inoculation, he expressed preparedness on the department's part and said we will launch the second vaccine camp once the health department communicates to us.
Vijayawada/Visakhapatnam: Minimum temperatures continued to dip in Andhra Pradesh even as poor visibility resulted in the diversion of three flights headed to Vijayawada.

Visakhapatnam agency with Chintapalle recorded the lowest temperature in the state at 2.9C on Monday morning as per the automatic weather station. The regional agriculture research station (RARS), Chintapalle, recorded 3C. The area was swathed in fog.

Poor visibility caused by thick fog forced scheduled flights from Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad to be diverted to Hyderabad and Rajamahendravaram at about 8 am here on Monday.

According to Vijayawada International Airport (VIA) authorities, Air India Flight AIC 459 from Delhi to Vijayawada carrying 114 passengers was diverted to Hyderabad as also an Indigo aircraft, Flight ICO7204, from Bengaluru to Vijayawada with 53 passengers.

Indigos Flight IGO 7201 from Hyderabad to Vijayawada, carrying 46 passengers, was diverted to Rajamahendravaram airport.

After the fog cleared, the flights were sent to Vijayawada airport and the passengers proceeded to their respective destinations.

Vijayawada International Airport director P.V. Rama Rao said, "As there was bad weather prevailing with heavy fog and poor visibility, three flights were diverted to Hyderabad and Rajamahendravaram and they all returned to our airport after some time."

Rajahmundry Airport director Manoj Nayak said, "Due to bad weather at Vijayawada airport, an Indigo flight was diverted to our airport. It landed here at 10:17 am and took off at 11.14 am to Vijayawada."

With regard to temperatures, AP Tourism Development Corporation manager K. Appala Naidu said the temperature at Lambasingi would be little less than the 2.9C recorded at Chintapalli. He said thick fog enveloped the entire area and the visibility was zero till am on Monday.

Last Friday, Chintapalli recorded 14.5C and on Saturday day it was 5.6C.

Northeasterly and northwesterly winds are responsible for the fall of the temperature in several parts of Andhra Pradesh,'' said AP India Meteorological Department director Stella S. She told DC that the situation would remain the same for another two days.

On January 15, 2012, Chintapalle recorded 1C. The foggy and cold weather conditions at Lammasingi, Tajangi, Vanjangi, Dallapalle, Minumuluru, Munchangiput, Pedabayalu and few other parts in Vizag Agency has been attracting the tourists.

However, since the last three days not many visitors were seen at Lambasingi, Appala Naidu said.

Chintapalle is located 850 m above mean sea level, and is surrounded by dense forest. With cold and foggy weather conditions in parts of Vizag Agency, transport has been affected.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Tourism Minister Anand Singh's meeting with state Congress chief DK Shivakumar on Monday has triggered speculation about the former joining the ranks of the Congress after reportedly being unhappy with the BJP leadership.

The two leaders held a closed-door meeting of about 30 minutes at Shivakumar's residence. What transpired between Singh, who arrived in a private car, and Shivakumar is still unknown. However, there are speculations that the minister might switch sides ahead of Assembly elections in the state, scheduled to be held next year.

Denying any political discussions in the meeting, Shivakumar said that they held discussions related to the tourism industry in his constituency Kanakapura.

"I have seen the Tunga Aarti program. I have appealed to the minister to do a similar programme at the confluence of Mekedadatu with the intention of developing tourism. The minister has assured that he would send a team," Shivakumar told reporters after the meeting on Monday.

Dismissing all speculations, Shivakumar said, "If Anand Singh comes to our home, how can that be a political move? No one does that. To talk politics, we would either go to a hotel or guest house. He came to meet in person to give an explanation of a proposed program."

"There was nothing else to do besides this in the meeting," he added.

Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had recently claimed that some BJP leaders are in touch and are likely to join Congress ahead of Assembly polls.

The meeting between Shivakumar and Singh came a few days after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai reshuffled the responsibilities of some ministers, who were in charge of their home districts and put them in-charge of other districts over which they are reportedly disgruntled.

In the reshuffle, Anand Singh lost charge of the newly-created Vijayanagara district and was given charge of Koppal. Following this, he met the Chief Minister and former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.

When asked about his meeting, Bommai said that there is no need to comment and added, "Ask him about it if more details are required."

Highly placed sources in the BJP have said that Anand Singh was upset with the Chief Minister's decision over his appointment to Koppal as he was aspiring to be the guardian minister of the new Vijayanagara district.

Notably, Anand Singh quit Congress in 2019 and was the first of the 17 MLAs at the time, which led to the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) government, paving way for the BJP regime in Karnataka.

Anand Singh has been a four-time MLA from Vijayanagara (Hospet) constituency. In 2015, he was arrested in the Belekeri iron ore scam and was later released on bail.
TRS members in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha boycotted the joint session of Parliament addressed by President Ram Nath Kovind. (DC file image)

HYDERABAD: The very first day of the Budget session of Parliament, which commenced on Monday, witnessed a showdown between the TRS and the Centre.

TRS members in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha boycotted the joint session of Parliament addressed by President Ram Nath Kovind in protest against the injustice being meted out to Telangana by the Centre in sanctioning funds and projects. TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who chaired a meeting of party MPs on Sunday had instructed them to up the ante against the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Later, TRS floor leader in Lok Sabha Nama Nageshwara Rao attended the all-party meeting convened virtually by Speaker Om Birla. He alleged that the BJP was misusing the Parliamentary system to suppress the voices of the Opposition.

He demanded a discussion on bifurcation issues as well as usage of Pegasus spyware.

TRS MPs raised several pending issues pertaining to Telangana in the meeting, asking know why the Centre was treating Telangana as its enemy and showing discrimination in sanctioning funds and projects.
Hyderabad: Industries minister K.T. Rama Rao exuded confidence that Telangana state would continue to grow irrespective of whether the Centre supports it or not.

Ahead of the Union Budget on Tuesday, Rao fumed at the Centre for neglecting Telangana when it came to sanction of funds and projects despite the state being the fourth largest contributor to the countrys economy. He said the AP Reorganisation Act promised special industrial incentives to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh but the Centre has done precious little in the last seven years.

"Whether or not we receive support from the Union government, we will continue to grow and do well, across all spheres. We will continue to raise our voice for justice and demand what is rightfully ours," Rao remarked.

"If you continue to ignore and overlook us because of ideological and political differences then it would be a great tragedy when it comes to boosting industrialisation and will come as a blow to Make in India campaign and Atmanirbhar Bharat, Rao said after signing a MoU with Drillmec SpA, a global rigs major, which announced an investment of Rs 1,500 crore in Telangana, on Monday.

"Special incentives for employment creation were promised to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. However, they have remained on paper. Though support from the Centre has been long-awaited, Telangana continued to grow due to its proactive industrial policy,"he said.

Though a landlocked state and not a captive customer of Drillmec, the company choosing Telangana for its unit stands testimony to the K Chandrashekar Rao-led governments astute governance, he said.

In the last seven-and-half years, we have been able to come up with path-breaking policies like TS-iPASS, which has set benchmarks for other states. It has propelled the pro-active and industry-friendly Telangana to the top in ease of doing business rankings given by the Centre and the World Bank. In the seven years since the states formation, we have been able to attract many manufacturing companies, which was unthinkable in undivided Andhra Pradesh, he said.

Despite innumerable pleas, Telangana, like Andhra Pradesh, continues to wait for the Centre to honour its promises, the minister said.

After launching Indias largest textile park, Kakatiya Mega Textile Park, the state is also set to launch Hyderabad Pharma City, which will be the worlds largest pharma cluster. These two manufacturing destinations have tremendous employment potential, he added.

"The Union government has been silent when we sought its support for these two. We sought support for the creation of six industrial corridors but that has also fallen on deaf ears. The Prime Minister keeps harping the Saabka Saath, Saabka Vikas mantra but ignores a vibrant state like Telangana, he said while reiterating his appeal to Modi to uphold promises made to the people, while presenting the Budget on Tuesday.
Much to the disappointment of book lovers, Westland, one of the largest publishing houses in India, is being shut down by e-commerce giant Amazon, they announced on Tuesday.

The publishing company, which was acquired by Amazon from Trent Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Group, in 2016, has published works of several bestselling authors including Amish Tripathi, Chetan Bhagat, Ashwin Sanghi, Rashmi Bansal, Rujuta Diwekar, Preeti Shenoy, Devdutt Pattanaik, Anuja Chauhan and Ravi Subramanian.

"After a thorough review, we have made the difficult decision to no longer operate Westland. We are working closely with the employees, authors, agents, and distribution partners on this transition and we remain committed to innovating for customers in India," said Amazon in a statement.

The news regarding the closure came as a shock to the editors, Westland team members and its public relations agency, who according to a staff member requesting anonymity, were informed about the decision only today.

It was particularly sad for bestselling fiction writer Ashwin Sanghi, who wrote his debut novel with Westland in 2008 and went on to publish a "dozen books" over that many years.

"It is sad to see the exit of a publishing institution. The Westland team is one of the finest in the business and there are many emotions and memories of my publishing journey with them that shall always remain with me," Sanghi told PTI.

Founded in 1962, Westland is one of India's largest English-language trade publishers, bringing out print books and e-books in genres ranging from popular and literary fiction to business, politics, biography, spirituality, popular science, health and self-help.

Its key publishing imprints include 'Context', which publishes award-winning literary fiction and non-fiction; 'Eka', which publishes the best of contemporary writing in Indian languages and in translation; 'Tranquebar', home to the best new fiction from the Indian subcontinent, the eponymous Westland Sport and Westland Business; and Red Panda, which publishes a range of books for children of different ages.

Several of Westland's authors and readers took to Twitter to express their disappointment on the shutting down of a "great publishing house".

"Rotten news. @karthikavk and team have run a great publishing house with a strong list of books. It has been a pleasure to work with Westland. Deeply troubling that a successful venture can be shut down this way from above, for God knows what reasons," tweeted historian Manu S Pillai, author of The Courtesan, The Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin.

"Westland is my publisher and did so much for me, taking a chance on a non-celeb author. The editors are the best in India and they brought out the best and most hard-hitting non-fiction you will see on the shelves," tweeted Kavitha Rao, author of 2021-released Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India's First Women in Medicine.

"Heartbreaking and upsetting day for Indian publishing. There isn't much to say except I hope we go out and buy as many Westland/Context/Eka books we can in the coming days, for all the wonderful editors, authors, and translators who worked tirelessly to build their stellar list," tweeted Sayantan Ghosh, senior commissioning editor at publishing house Simon & Schuster.

Westland books Delhi: A Soliloquy and Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield were declared winners of the prestigious 'JCB Prize for Literature' and the 'Gaja Capital Business Book Prize' last year, respectively.

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Tech giant Google is reportedly testing adding Lens to desktop Search on the web.

Google Lens is primarily a visual lookup tool for mobile devices, but it is been branching out to Chrome. The next expansion could see Google Search on the desktop web add Lens, reports 9To5Google.

According to a user browsing with Incognito Mode, Lens on google.com appears in the search field next to the voice microphone.

The visual search tool is using the latest, whole-bodied camera icon that the Google app also uses.

Also Read | Google removed 94,173 content pieces in Dec in India

In adding to the Search bar everywhere, Google is very much increasing the prominence of Lens, the report said.

Meanwhile, a different gray camera icon today is only found in images.google.com, while the results page already lets you run a Google Lens query, it added.

Tapping invites the user to "Search any image with Google Lens", with the ability to "drag an image here" or upload via the standard file picker."

The image appears at the left, while Knowledge Panels (when available) appear at the top-right followed by a grid of "Visual matches". Lens.google.com also lets you upload another image and search for something else.

Google Lens is coming to desktop as Apple's platforms increasingly offer similar visual lookup tools, the report said.

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A report released by Rio Tinto on Tuesday outlined a culture of bullying, harassment and racism at the global mining giant, including 21 complaints of actual or attempted rape or sexual assault over the past five years.

Nearly half of all employees who responded to an external review of the miner's workplace culture commissioned by Rio said they had been bullied, while racism was found to be common across a number of areas.

Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said the results were "disturbing" and the company would implement all 26 recommendations from the report by former Australian sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.

"The eye opener for me was two-fold," Stausholm told Reuters. "I hadn't realised how much bullying exists in the company and secondly that it's quite systemic - the three issues of bullying, sexual harassment and racism ... that's extremely disturbing."

Rio Tinto launched the review in March last year. More than 10,000 employees, nearly a quarter of its 45,000-strong workplace shared their experiences and views for the study.

The report found nearly 30 per cent women and about 7 per cent of men have experienced sexual harassment at work, with 21 women reporting actual or attempted rape or sexual assault.

Racism was a "significant challenge" for employees at many locations. People working a country different to their birth experienced high rates of racism while nearly 40 per cent of men who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in Australia had experienced racism.

"I have copped racism in every single corner of this company," one employee was anonymously quoted as saying.

Rio said reforms will focus on a commitment from the company's leadership to create a safe and inclusive working environment, including by increasing diversity within the company. It would also ensure the company's remote mine site facilities are safe, and make it easier for staff to call out unacceptable behaviours.

Sexism, racism

The Rio report comes ahead of the release of another report by the West Australia state government later this year on sexual harassment at mining camps in the state, which provides more than half of the world's supply of iron ore.

Submissions to the inquiry last year said sexual harassment was rife at mining camps in Western Australia, which is home to mines of global firms including BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue.

In a 2020 report, an Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into sexual harassment found that 74 per cent of women in the mining industry had experienced some form of sexual harassment in the past five years, partly due to a gender imbalance.

Nearly 80 per cent of Rio Tinto's workforce is male.

"Creating a safe, respectful work culture will encourage people of all backgrounds and diversity to thrive in our organisations," Kellie Parker, the Australian CEO for Rio Tinto told Reuters.

Male and female employees in South Africa experienced the highest rates of racism. Employees spoke of the frequency of racism and its impacts on their confidence, self-esteem and work performance.

"Rio is a Caucasian oriented company," one employee said in the report.

Rio said the report came at a pivotal time as workplace cultures shift against the backdrop of #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and other global movements, as well as an Australian inquiry into Rio's destruction of Juukan Gorge, culturally significant rock shelters.

Stausholm said Juukan Gorge had triggered the biggest management change in the history of Rio and the new team wanted to drive more change.

"Its a matter of using the momentum of the moment now and try to move these actions forward fast because we cannot change these from one day to another."

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Gov. Ron DeSantis announced $404 million to combat flooding, water pollution and sea-level rise Tuesday but pointedly avoided attributing rising water levels to climate change.

Were a storm-prone state, he said at a news conference in Miami. Were not going to be able to stop being vulnerable. Weve had storms for as long as anyone can remember. The whole state, if you go back far enough in time, was entirely under water. So what were going to do is were going to mitigate what Mother Nature is throwing our way. I think weve done a great job of doing that.

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But anyone that says that somehow the state of Florida can prevent storms from happening or do some of that stuff, think about it, Im like, man, these are the same types of folks who were saying that locking down would cause COVID to go away or all these other things that weve heard.

The money will pay to raise sea walls, improve pump systems, replace septic tanks with sewers, protect drinking water and take other steps to make the state more resilient. The funds will usually be matched by the city or county receiving it, the governor said.

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[ RELATED: DeSantis proposes plan to fight rising seas without any left-wing stuff ]

The city of Hollywood, which has a coastline of about 7 miles, was the big winner in Broward County, with about $34.5 million for sea walls in North Beach, improvement to fight tidal flooding that has drenched neighborhoods along the Intracoastal Waterway, and other projects. Dania Beach will get $4.2 million for stormwater and drainage projects.

Lauderdale Lakes, Miramar, Sunrise and Weston, which depend on canals to the ocean for flood control, also will receive funds. The full list can be found here.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

The largest amount in Palm Beach County is $13.4 million for a new drainage system along Australian Avenue in West Palm Beach, from Banyan Boulevard to 45th Street. Other Palm Beach County cities receiving funds include Hypoluxo, Juno Beach, Lake Park, Lake Worth, Wellington and West Palm Beach.

Miami-Dade County will receive the largest share of any county, with more than $150 million for 35 projects to improve drainage, eliminate septic tanks and gird the coast against sea-level rise.

[ RELATED: Miles of Florida roads face major problem from sea rise. Is state moving fast enough? ]

Sea levels are rising at an average rate of about an inch every eight years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Driving the increase is pollution from vehicles, industry and agriculture, which raises temperatures, causing ocean water to expand and melting glaciers.

DeSantis has attempted to address the problem, which is difficult to deny in a coastal state, without alienating right-wing voters who regard the issue of climate change as either a hoax or a gross exaggeration.

Last December, when DeSantis announced a plan to address sea-level rise, he said he would do so without any left-wing stuff.

What Ive found is when people start talking about things like global warming, he said then, they typically use that as a pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things that they would want to do anyways.

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David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sunsentinel.com and 954-356-4535.
The government on Tuesday announced revoking of anti-dumping duties on certain steel products imported from countries including China, a move aimed at containing high prices of metals and promoting domestic manufacturing.

Countervailing duty (CVD) is also being permanently removed on imports of certain hot-rolled and cold-rolled stainless steel flat products from China.

"Certain anti-dumping and CVD on stainless steel and coated steel flat products, bars of alloy steel and high-speed steel are being revoked in larger public interest considering prevailing high prices of metals," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget Speech.

Engineering exporters have demanded from the government to take steps to control high steel prices.

The anti-dumping duty was removed on straight length bars and rods of alloy steel, imported from China. It was imposed on October 18, 2018. A similar move was done for flat-rolled products of steel, plated or coated with an alloy of aluminium or zinc imported from China, Vietnam and Korea.

It was also revoked on high-speed steel of non-cobalt grade, imported from Brazil, China and Germany. It was slapped on September 25, 2019.

Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to determine if the domestic industry has been hurt by a surge in below-cost imports. As a counter-measure, they impose duties under the multilateral WTO regime. Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry.

They are not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in the cost of products. India has initiated maximum anti-dumping cases against dumped imports from China.

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The Budget day is the most important day for any Finance Minister as it evaluates his/her performance, in Parliament by the opposition and by the public at large. Every Finance Minister starts his/her Budget day with Ganesh puja at the corridors of the Finance Ministry of the North Block, offering flowers to the lord, before heading to the Parliament for budget presentation.

"It's a custom, untold and unwritten in our Finance Ministry, but every Finance Minister has adhered to it without any exception over the years, no matter what his religious belief is. Every year on Budget day, we all, including the Finance Minister and the budget team do that, like Halva ceremony before printing of the document starts," revealed a retired senior official of the ministry of finance who worked there for decades.

Also Read | Key takeaways from FM Nirmala Sitharaman's Union Budget speech

"I don't remember I ever missed to bring flowers for the Ganesh puja for 'sahabs' (the Finance Minister and budget team) in these years, as no Finance Minister ever left the ministry for the Parliament without offering flowers to our Ganesh ji. It's our custom that when we embark on a journey of something good, we start with Ganesh puja, like a marriage card, you must have seen," told an employee of the ministry.

Dr Bhagwat Karad, Minister of State for Finance also started his Budget day with Ganesh puja at home on Tuesday before heading to the North Block, so did Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who revealed his personal staff once when asked.

Track live updates of Union Budget 2022 here

So what did Pranab Mukherjee used to do on Budget day when he was the Finance Minister? "I don't remember baba performing any special puja on Budget day at home, but baba was quite religious and he never left home for work without his morning walk and puja, but not any special one on Budget day", said Sharmistha Mukherjee, the daughter of late Pranab Mukherjee, who was the Finance Minister in the UPA government.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday delivered the Budget 2022-23 with her shortest budget so far.

She spoke for one hour and 30 minutes, making it the shortest among the budget speeches that generally go for about 2 hours at least.

Sitharaman, who also made the second paperless budget presentation as she read the speech from a tab, also quoted a verse from Mahabharat's Shanti Parva.

Also Read | Budget 2022: India loosens purse strings to propel post-pandemic recovery

In 2019, she had made the longest speech at two hours and 15 minutes (135 minutes), only to top that the next year, in 2020, to speak for over 160 minutes.

Prior to her, Jaswant Singh had spoken for 2 hours 15 minutes in 2003.

When it comes to the word limit, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went on to create a record in his landmark 1991 speech - when he was Finance Minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government -at 18,650 words. Arun Jaitley's 2018 budget speech was a bit short at 18,604 words, which took one hour and 49 minutes to deliver. He, however, spoke at length almost every time with word lengths beyond 16,000.

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The Union Budget for FY2023 targets expanding and revamping infrastructure across various sectors. The Government has significantly increased its capital expenditure budget for FY2023 by 35.4% to Rs 7.5 trillion.

With subdued private sector appetite, the measure should trigger a multiplier effect and help improve the private sector investment appetite. Effective implementation would provide growth opportunities for the banking sector, which otherwise has been witnessing single-digit credit growth for the last many years.

Public sector banks (PSBs), which account for almost two-thirds of the banking sector credit, had their own challenges during the last few years thereby constraining their ability to supply credit. However, with capital infusion of Rs 3.36 trillion during the last six years, and significant cleaning up of their balance sheets, these banks are relatively much better placed to support the credit demand.

Budget 2022 Live on DH

The optimism in the strength of these banks is also reflected in reduction in budgeted capital for FY2022 to Rs 150 billion from Rs 200 billion earlier. Further, in line with our expectations, no capital infusion has been budgeted by Government of India (GoI) for FY2023, and it will be for the first time in over a decade, that the GoI will not be infusing capital into PSBs in a given year.

Covid has posed significant challenges to the banking sector and various regulatory and fiscal measures have eased the pain for the banking sector. The GoIs Emergency credit guarantee line scheme or ECLGS was instrumental in providing the requisite liquidity support to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with disbursements of Rs 2.3 trillion of bank credit. While the third wave had limited impact on economic activities, the hospitality sector has been adversely impacted by the ongoing third wave.

UNION BUDGET 2022 SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

Hence the budgetary proposal to facilitate Rs 500 billion of additional credit for hospitality and allied sectors under the ECLGS will aid the asset quality of lenders, including banks. Further, the proposal to channelise credit flow of Rs 2.0 trillion to MSMEs by infusion of funds to Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme will also aid the credit growth for the banking sector.

Apart from proposals to enhance fresh credit flow, the proposal to amend the Insolvency and bankruptcy code (IBC) to address the complex corporate structures with overseas assets, is likely to aid the resolution and recoveries for the banks. Many of the stressed assets have failed to achieve desired resolution plan and value because of complex corporate structures and overseas assets.

(The author is Senior Vice President & Group Head - Financial Sector Ratings, ICRA Ltd)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said Rs 60,000 crore has been allocated to provide tap water connections to 3.8 crore households in 2022-23.

Presenting the Union Budget 2022-23, she said the current coverage of 'Har Ghar Nal Se Jal' is 8.7 crores.

"Of this 5.5 crore households were provided tap water in last two years itself. Allocation of Rs 60,000 crore has been made with an aim to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23," she said.

Also Read | Budget 2022: India loosens purse strings to propel post-pandemic recovery

She also informed that the government has decided to extend the period of incorporation by one year up to March 31, 2023, for startups to avail tax incentives.

The finance minister also said the government proposes to increase tax deduction from 10 per cent to 14 per cent on contribution in NPS (National Pension System) by the state government to employees.

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A day after a 38-year-old teacher was killed in a road punctuated with potholes, members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) staged a protest at the accident spot demanding action against elected representatives and officials responsible for maintaining the road.

The party also filed a complaint against authorities and Yeshwantpur MLA S T Somashekhar charging them with negligence.

This is not the first time motorists are killed by potholes. Such events would continue to recur. The state government, local legislators, BBMP, and BWSSB should be held responsible for the accident and death of teacher Sharmila, AAP president Prithvi Reddy told reporters.

Former MLA and AAPs senior leader H D Basavaraju blamed the chief minister for not protecting the lives of civilians.

The money released for the repair of the road is being pocketed by the politicians, he charged.

Police detained some party members to get them to stop the protest. The AAP complained that they were manhandled as some were forced into the police vans.

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Arvind Kejriwal reached Goa, while BJP members kicked on with their rallies in Uttar Pradesh as the poll battle for the five states heatsup. Candidates and political parties have been allowed to hold public meetings in open spaces with an audience of a maximum of 1,000 persons in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur from Tuesday.
The people of Islamabad are waiting to cast their vote in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. And, yes, this Islamabad is not the capital of Pakistan but is located in the state's Bijnor district.

Located about 40 km from the district headquarters, Islamabad village has a population of around 10,000, of which around 4,700 people are eligible to vote.

The people of Islamabad say that they have never faced any problem because of the name.

Also Read: Samajwadi Party pushed Uttar Pradesh into violence, says Yogi Adityanath

"Earlier, the postmen used to be amused at the name but now, no one gets any snail mail so the postmen have also stopped coming," says Ritesh, a local resident.

The local people do not know how the village came to be known as Islamabad but the village head, Sarvesh Devi, says that it has been in existence since the days of her great grandfather-in-law.

She says that the people have no communal feelings and the village has never seen any communal tension.

"Everyone wants development and they will vote for a party that ensures development," she says.

The local people are against the name being changed.

About six months ago, a local politician raised the issue of change of name but the locals opposed it.

Islamabad is largely inhabited by Chauhans, Prajapatis and has a Muslim population of about 400.

Also Read: Battle for Uttar Pradesh: Criminals out, wives in

The villagers here cultivate sugarcane, wheat, paddy and groundnut among the other crops.

The village does not have a proper approach road and also have problems in selling paddy.

"We also want an inter-college so that we girls can study here. But we have got no assurance from anyone. These are the issues that we will keep in mind while voting," says Afsha, a young girl.

Sitting BJP MLA and party candidate from Barhanpur Assembly constituency Sushant Kumar Singh also agreed that there were no issues regarding the name of the village.

Kapil Kumar, the SP candidate from Barhanpur said: "The feeling of fear and concern had never cropped up because of the name Islamabad and nor has there been any inferiority complex. The people of the village never demanded a change of name either."

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Even as it mounts a blistering attack on the Samajwadi Party for giving tickets to criminals, the BJP itself has fielded the wives of two convicted criminals in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

The wives have been fielded on seats that their husbands won five years ago.

While the BJP has fielded two such wives, Congress has given a ticket to one.

The BJP has fielded Sanjeev Raja's wife Mukta Raja from Aligarh City.

Also Read | Samajwadi Party pushed Uttar Pradesh into violence, says Yogi Adityanath

According to police, Raja, a first-time MLA, was convicted in a 22-year-old case of assaulting a policeman last November and sentenced to two years in jail. He was, however, granted bail by the court the same day.

BJP's Aligarh district president Rishi Pal Singh said that since Raja did not get relief from the court in his case, the party decided to field his wife from his seat.

Indra Pratap a.k.a Khabbu Tiwari was sentenced to five years of imprisonment by a Faizabad court last December in a case of forgery.

According to sources, the case was lodged against him in 1992 by a principal of a college accusing him of taking admission using a fake mark sheet in 1990. Two more persons were convicted along with Pratap.

Read | Ahead of key Uttar Pradesh polls, BJP revives Hindu-Muslim dispute

Khabbu Tiwrai's wife Aarti has been given the BJP ticket form from Gosaiganj in Ayodhya.

BJP's Ayodhya district president Sanjeev Singh said, "This is the party's decision. Selection of candidates is done after considering several reasons."

The third convicted MLA whose wife has been given a ticket is Ashok Singh Chandel, who was convicted by the Allahabad High Court in a 22-year-old murder case along with eight others in April 2019.

Chandel, a four-time MLA and one-time MP, was acquitted by the lower court in 2002 for "lack of evidence".

However, the High Court set aside the acquittal and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The Congress has now given a ticket to his wife, Raj Kumari, from Hamirpur district.

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Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary on Tuesday hit back at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for calling him and Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav 'rioters' and that he would make them feel a "cold wave" in the summer months of May and June.

"The Baba (Adityanath) is calling us rioters and threatening cold waves in May and June. Push the button on the handpump (RLD election symbol) in such large numbers that they start feeling the heat," Jayant said during the door-to-door campaign in Aligarh district.

Adityanath had said on Sunday that the duo (Jayant and Akhilesh) wanted to engineer riots in the state. "Two rioters have joined hands," the UP CM had remarked.

Read | Ahead of key Uttar Pradesh polls, BJP revives Hindu-Muslim dispute

The RLD president said that BJP had realised it was going to lose the forthcoming assembly polls and therefore, its leaders were making casteist and communal remarks.

"Amit Shah has been referring to Jats in his speeches. We are all farmers. The BJP leaders are humiliating the farmers by trying to divide them into castes," Jayant said during an interaction with voters in Aligarh.

He said the BJP government at the Centre scrapped the three farm laws under pressure from the farmers but the promises remain unfulfilled. "The Centre is yet to set up a committee on the MSP. The arrears of sugarcane farmers are yet to be cleared. The farmers are forced to sell their produce much below the market rates," he added.

SP and RLD are contesting the forthcoming assembly polls in alliance. The western region of the state will vote in the first two phases of polling on February 10 and 14.

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TALLAHASSEE  Bonuses of up to $5,000 that Gov. Ron DeSantis has sought to entice law-enforcement officers to Florida are moving through the House as part of a broader package focused on people who don badges.

The House Appropriations Committee voted unanimously Monday to approve the measure (HB 3), which supporters say could help understaffed law-enforcement agencies and improve the morale of current officers through recruitment and retention.

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The proposal, sponsored by Rep. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, would establish a bonus program to provide one-time payments of up to $5,000 to newly employed law-enforcement officers in the state, along with bonuses for officers who adopt children. It also would set up a Florida Law Enforcement Academy Scholarship Program to cover basic training tuition and fees.

This bill is a small sacrifice to show our appreciation, Leek said.

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[ RELATED: Law enforcement departments struggle with hiring and retaining officers ]

Democrats lawmakers praised the package but requested more training for officers.

Rep. Patricia Williams, D-Pompano Beach, said the bill should require new officers to undergo mental and psychological training.

When it was time for officers to come to my neighborhood, they didnt come to protect, they came to destroy, Williams said. For the recruitment of out-of-state officers, all previous records of employment, including complaints, discipline actions in internal affairs, should be taken into consideration. Not hand delivered, but mailed directly to the state of Florida agency that will be taking that officer in.

Rep. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, is sponsoring a bill designed to recruit and retain law enforcement officers. (News Service of Florida)

Rep. Matt Willhite, a Wellington Democrat and firefighter, said consideration should also be given to the recruitment of correctional officers and dispatchers.

I also have had the opportunity to attend and do inspections of multiple prisons in the state of Florida and recognize the shortage we have in our corrections officers, Willhite said. We have a major shortage in the state of Florida in our 911 dispatchers, telecommunicators. Theyre the first line of the first-responder system. And if we dont have enough of them, the rest of the system fails.

The measure needs approval from the Judiciary Committee before it could go to the full House. A Senate version has not been filed.

Under the proposal, the state Department of Economic Opportunity would develop minimum eligibility requirements for newly employed officers to get bonus payments.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

A House staff analysis of the bill said the Orange County Sheriffs Office offers $2,500 signing bonuses for candidates with two or more years of full-time law enforcement experience and $1,500 to others, while Fort Myers offers relocation assistance of up to $5,000 for out-of-state candidates, $3,000 for in-state candidates, and $1,000 for newly hired officers.

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DeSantis, who is up for re-election this year, has made beefing up law enforcement a hallmark of his policies through such things as the proposed $5,000 signing bonuses.

My proposals to increase pay for state law enforcement by up to 25 percent and to provide $5,000 signing bonuses to law enforcement personnel who either transfer to or begin their careers in Florida will spark a tidal wave of qualified professionals seeking employment at agencies throughout the state, he said during a State of the State address Jan. 11.

Under Leeks bill, another $1,000 could be available to cover training costs for people who are recruited.

Also, an officer could also draw $10,000 for adopting through the state child welfare system, with the benefit growing to $25,000 for adopting a child with special needs.

The bill also would increase the base salary for each county sheriff by $5,000. Last week, DeSantis received the endorsement of 56 sheriffs.

The proposal also would allow veterans and other people with associate degrees or higher to skip a basic-skills test required to enter the law-enforcement basic recruit training program.
Fundraising groups run by former US President Donald Trump have amassed more than $122 million in cash after raising over $51 million in the second half of 2021, Trump's office said on Monday.

In the statement announcing the fundraising haul, Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich said the former leader's movement "is set to crash across the midterms and carry forward all the way through 2024."

Trump aims to help his Republican party seize control of Congress in November's midterm congressional elections. He has not said whether he will run for president again in 2024 after his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, though Trump would be the clear favorite for his party's presidential nomination.

Trump's main fundraising committee, known as Save America, has contributed $1.35 million to "like-minded causes and endorsed candidates," Trump's office said.

The average donation for all of Trump's political committees was $31, according to the statement.

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President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia's security concerns had been ignored as tensions rage between Moscow and NATO over Ukraine.

"We are carefully analysing the written responses received from the United States and NATO," he told reporters after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"But it is already clear that fundamental Russian concerns ended up being ignored," Putin said, in his first significant public remarks in weeks on the crisis sparked by fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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The executive producer and host of Gimlet Media's Science Vs podcast said she would devote her fact-checking show exclusively to contradicting misinformation on other podcasts carried by parent company Spotify.

The announcement by Wendy Zukerman builds on protests by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and others against Spotify's Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. They say Spotify is not doing enough to prevent the spread of Covid-19 misinformation.

Zukerman posted a copy of an email she sent to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, in which she said she considered the platform's support of Rogan a "slap in the face," after she spent months encouraging her listeners to move to the service because of its support for her fact-based science podcast.

Spotify acquired Gimlet Media in 2019.

Zukerman wrote that Rogan's interview with Dr Robert Malone, an infectious disease specialist who has become well-known among anti-vaccine Americans, took vaccine information "repeatedly out of context" and lacked scientific evidence that contradicts his claims - a topic a forthcoming Science Vs episode will address.

She said that Spotify's platform rules do not go far enough to address the problem.

"Until Spotify implements stronger methods to prevent the spread of misinformation on the platform, we will no longer be making new Science Vs episodes, except those intended to contradict misinformation being spread on Spotify," Zukerman wrote in an email to Ek that she posted on Twitter.

Rogan's interview with Malone prompted a protest by rock star Neil Young, who said he did not want his music on a platform that promoted "false information about vaccines."

He added, "They can have Rogan or Young. Not both." Folk music star Joni Mitchell removed her music to support Young.

Rogan apologized in an Instagram video post on Sunday and pledged more balance on his show. Spotify said it would add a content advisory to any episode with a discussion of Covid.

Reuters could not immediately reach Gimlet or Spotify for comment. Zukerman's post appeared on her verified Twitter account.

Spotify acquired Gimlet as part of an investment in its podcast business, an expansion of audio content that was underscored with its subsequent deal in 2020 to bring Rogan exclusively to the platform in a reported $100 million deal.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin will host talks Tuesday with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has taken a softer line on the Ukraine crisis than NATO and the EU, with Hungary a member of both.

The Kremlin said the leaders will discuss trade and energy as well as "the current problems of ensuring European security," an allusion to the standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

Orban has said he will seek an agreement to increase Hungary's gas imports from Russia at a time when some in Europe accuse Russia of orchestrating an energy crisis with the aim of putting pressure on European countries.

Hungary's opposition parties released a joint statement at the weekend calling on Orban to cancel his trip, which it said was "contrary to our national interests."

The Hungarian opposition said that, by meeting with Putin, Orban "indirectly encourages the Russian president to further escalate the current tense situation."

US President Joe Biden has accused Russia of plans to invade Ukraine imminently with its troops massed on the border and warned of severe economic sanctions if it does.

The trip is also likely to sit uncomfortably with Hungary's closest European Union allies, most notably Poland.

Warsaw has presented a united front with Budapest against Brussels on issues like the rule of law, but has long resented Orban's ties with Putin.

On the same day of Orban's Moscow visit, his close Polish ally Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will travel to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is backed by the West.

At a meeting of European conservatives organised by the Spanish far-right in Madrid over the weekend and also attended by Morawiecki, Orban said that Ukraine was a "very important issue" for those in Central Europe.

He stressed he was in favour of "peace and de-escalation," according to his office.

But he did not echo the general EU alarm over Russia's troop buildup on Ukraine's border.

Hungary, which joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004, has taken a softer line on Ukraine, with which it shares a small land border.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said that Budapest was negotiating a US request for the deployment of NATO troops in Hungary, but called reports that it could be as many as a thousand troops "fake news."

He previously said that Hungary is a loyal NATO member, but that it did not want "a new Cold War."

Biden has announced plans to send US troops to NATO countries in eastern Europe, though not to Ukraine itself, which is not a member of the transatlantic Alliance.

Orban is popular at home despite critics' accusations of rampant corruption and that he is steering Hungary towards authoritarianism.

The Moscow visit comes just two months before the critical election in Hungary, with polls indicating a close race between Orban and a united opposition alliance.

Under Orban, who began his political career in Hungary's anti-Soviet democracy movement, Budapest has been one of Russia's closest EU partners.

In a sign of friendship, Hungary was the first bloc member to approve Moscow's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, which has not been green-lighted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

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At least four persons died and many are feared trapped as three abandoned coal mines collapsed during illegal mining in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district, officials said on Tuesday.

Prem Kumar Tiwari, the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Dhanbad, said the rescue team, employed by the coal companies, recovered three bodies of women and one of a girl from Gopinathpur Open Cast Project (OCP) of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL) in Nirsa police station area.

Tiwari, who is monitoring the rescue operation, said "search for the others who might have been trapped" is underway.

Two other quarries that caved in  Kapasara, also of ECL, and Chach Victoriya of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL)  are also feared to have buried miners.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said in a tweet, "Some casualties have been reported from the coal mine located in Nirsa, Dhanbad. The district administration is actively engaged in rescue and relief work. May God grant peace to the departed souls and give strength to the family to bear this difficult time of grief. Help is being provided to the injured."

Kapasara outsourcing project was the first to have collapsed around 5 pm on Monday, officials said. That was followed by Chach Victoriya of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) late on Monday, while the third incident happened on Tuesday morning at the Gopinathpur open cast mine.

Rescue operations with heavy machinery are underway at the three mines, the officials said.

Only the coal companies can specify the number of people trapped inside, said Superintendent of Police (Dhanbad-Rural) Reeshma Ramesan. "I can't say much about the number of casualties and injured. We are verifying the details and would be able to give information only after getting reports. Our teams have rushed there," she added.

The officials said that families of the illegal miners are yet to report to the authorities, fearing police action.

Locals had managed to rescue some of the miners before the colliery officials or the police reached the spot, they said.

An ECL official stated that the incidents have occurred at its abandoned mines and so the matter came under the purview of the district administration. "There is no such information (of collapse) in our working mines. The collapse might have happened due to illegal activities in the abandoned mines," he said.

"We are not in a position to tell about the number of villagers trapped," he added.

Several slippers were found at the entry point of the mines, indicating many had ventured inside. The BCCL said that it will share the details later. In Chach Victoriya mine of BCCL, three persons are feared trapped under the debris, official sources said.

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NDA constituent Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Tuesday expressed its disappointment with the Union Budget 2022-23.

JD-U Parliamentary Board President Upendra Kushwaha called it a "disappointing Budget".

Also Read | Union Budget 2022 FM Sitharaman lists Modi govt's 4 priorities

"We have a long-standing demand for a special status of Bihar and expecting that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would say something on it but unfortunately, she completely ignored it," he said.

"The Union Budget has been beneficial for developed states but it has nothing for poor states like Bihar. Our state needs financial support from the Centre for its development," he added.

Kushwaha's statement also hinted that the tussle between the JD-U and BJP will intensify in the coming days.

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India and Nepal on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the construction of a motorable bridge over the Mahakali River connecting Dharchula in Uttarakhand with Darchula in Nepal with Indian grant assistance.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra and Nepals Secretary, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Rabindra Nath Shrestha signed the MoU in presence of Transport Minister Renu Kumari Yadav, according to a statement issued by the Indian Embassy here.

India will bear all the cost of constructing the bridge and preparation of detailed project report for the bridge has already been completed, said informed sources at the Ministry of Transport.

They added that the construction work of the bridge will start soon.

The bridge will enhance cross-border connectivity between the Sudurpaschim province of Nepal and Uttarakhand across the Mahakali river where close people-to-people links exist between communities on both sides of the border.

"This is in line with the priority shared by both the governments to expand cross-border connectivity for streamlining commercial, cultural and people-to-people exchanges," the statement said.

In January, the Indian government had approved signing of the MoU between the two countries for construction of the bridge.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur had said that the bridge will be completed within three years.

Thakur had said as close neighbours, India and Nepal share unique ties of friendship and cooperation characterized by an open border and deep-rooted people-to-people contacts of kinship and culture.

The 110-metre bridge will be the second motor bridge on the India-Nepal border in Uttarakhand, according to Indian officials.

The other one, the Banbasa bridge, is situated in the Champawat district.

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The government is set to roll out a Vibrant Villages Programme to develop the sparsely populated habitats along the disputed India-China boundary, apparently to counter the neighbouring communist countrys ploy to expand and cite settled population to buttress its expansive territorial claims.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the new Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP) for the hamlets on the northern border  the disputed India-China boundary  while presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Border villages with sparse population, limited connectivity and infrastructure often get left out from the development gains, she said, adding: Such villages on the northern border will be covered under the new Vibrant Villages Programme.

Also Read  Budget 2022: India loosens purse strings to propel post-pandemic recovery

The VVP will focus on the construction of village infrastructure, housing, tourist centres, road connectivity, provisioning of decentralised renewable energy, direct-to-home access for national TV network Doordarshan and educational channels as well as support for livelihood generation.

The Finance Minister said that the Union Government would provide additional funding for implementing the VVP and developing the border hamlets. Besides, existing government schemes will also be converged to support the roll-out of the VVP, she said.

The move is apparently aimed at making it easier for people to live in villages along the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) and dissuading them from migrating to other places.

New Delhi has been worried as the thinning population on its side of India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) could prove to be a disadvantage for it in its boundary negotiation with Beijing.

The India-China boundary negotiation led by the Special Representatives of the two governments remained stalled since the two sides engaged in a military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.

Also Read  Military commanders of India, China discuss hot Springs, Kongka La

But New Delhi suspects that Beijing is trying to strengthen its territorial claims in anticipation of a resumption of negotiation in future. China is not only building villages in the territories of India and Bhutan, which still has non-demarcated land boundaries with the communist country, but also by renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh in Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese.

New Delhi has been increasingly worried over the intent of the communist country to take advantage of the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the Boundary Question, which India and China had signed in 2005.

Article VII of the 2005 agreement states that the two sides shall safeguard the interests of settled populations in the border areas while clinching a deal to resolve the boundary row. C

hinas new Land Border Law, which came into force on January 1, also emphasises on the development of villages and towns in the border areas and the role of civilians in protecting sovereignty and territorial integrity, indicating its plan to expand settlements along its disputed boundaries with India and Bhutan.

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The Narendra Modi government appears to have shelved its plans to bring a bill to ban cryptocurrency at least for the time being following differences with the ruling BJP and the government.

The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill did not find space in the tentative list of 15 proposed legislations that may come up before Parliament during the Budget Session, which started on Monday though it was listed in a similar list two months ago ahead of the Winter Session.

The government has also not listed a proposed bill to privatise two public sector banks, which was on the agenda during the Winter Session. However, there were strong objections from the Opposition following which it was not brought to the House.

The Budget presented on Monday announced the introduction of digital currency in the fiscal while imposing a 30% tax on digital assets. The imposition of tax is read as an indication that the government doesn't have immediate plans to ban cryptocurrencies.

Just before the Winter Session last November, the government had told the Parliament that it wanted to bring the Bill to create a "facilitative framework" for creation of the "official digital currency to be issued by the RBI".

"The Bill also seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses," it had said.

However, sources said, differences within the BJP and government stalled its introduction in Parliament. It did not even reach the Cabinet for discussion, sources said, adding that the difference of opinion has not been reconciled yet leading to its omission from the tentative list of Bills that may come up during the Budget Session.

This, sources said, does not mean that the government cannot introduce the Bill during the later part of the Session. Anyway, there will be no legislative business during the first leg of Budget Session between January 31 and February 11 as there is practically no time for any such business after discussions on Motion of Thanks to the President's address and Budget.

Though the Bill has not been listed, the Parliamentary Research & Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE) of the Lok Sabha Secretariat is organising a lecture for MPs on 'Understanding Cryptocurrency and its Impacts on Indian Economy' on Wednes

Besides the Finance Bill 2022, the other proposed legislation that may come up before the Parliament include The Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill 2022, The Competition (Amendment) Bill 2022 and The Identification of Prisoners Bill 2022

The amendment on laws related to warehouses including strengthening warehousing development and helping farmers to store their produce in scientific warehouse godowns while the amendment to competition laws is meant to carry out essential structural changes in the governing structure of the CCI, changes in substantive provisions to address the needs for new age markets and to expand the activities of the Commission across India by opening Regional Offices.

These are among five Bills that could come up in this session though it did not figure in any earlier lists.

The Cantonment Bill 2022 aimed at democratising and modernising cantonments as well as facilitating ease of living in such localities, the India Antarctica Bill, The Emigration Bill that is aimed at establishing a robust and transparent and comprehensive emigration management framework that facilities safe and orderly migration are among the Bills, which also found mention in a previous list but was not brought to Parliament for various reasons.

The list also includes The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2022, The National Dental Commission Bill 2022, The Metro Rail (Construction, Operation and Maintenance) Bill 2022 and The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill 2022.

Interestingly, the Electricity Amendment Bill, which the government had agreed to put on hold following a compromise with the farmers who were protesting against the now repealed farm laws, are also not in the list. Farmers, trade unions and a section of activists have opposed the Bill for a variety of reasons, including arguments that it would lead to complete privatisation of electricity distribution.

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Rahul Gandhi will open the debate on Motion of Thanks to the Presidents Address for the Congress in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, in an indication that the Opposition is unlikely to disrupt the proceedings over the demand on a separate discussion on Pegasus but utilise the forum to corner the government on the spying episode.

The BJPs first two speakers in Lok Sabha  Basti MP Harish Dwivedi who will move the motion and Bansgaon MP Kamlesh Paswan who will second it  are from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. Rahul will be third in order to speak in Lok Sabha.

In Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge will open the debate from the Opposition side after BJP MPs  Geeta from Uttar Pradesh to move the motion and Shwait Malik from poll-bound Punjab to second it.

The Opposition has been demanding a discussion on Pegasus and other issues but the government has declined it saying the issue is sub-judice. At least three senior Opposition leaders from different parties said they will participate in the discussion on Motion of Thanks and will not disrupt the proceedings.

In the previous Winter Session, the Opposition was on the warpath with the government after around a dozen MPs were suspended.

Also read: Centre rules out discussion on Pegasus, says its subjudice

The decision to field Rahul as opening batsman shows that the party wants to send a message that it is taking the battle to the opponents court, Congress sources claimed. He has been raising the Pegasus issue and now the Opposition is armed with a new report by The New York Times that claims that India bought the controversial Israeli spyware in 2017 and calibrated its support in favour of Israel in crucial votes in the United Nations.

Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will discuss the Motion of Thanks for 12 hours each. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply in Lok Sabha on February 7 and a day later in Rajya Sabha, sources said adding the general discussion on Budget will follow after the conclusion of the debate on the Motion of Thanks.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will reply to the discussion on Budget on February 11 in both the Houses.

No legislative business will be carried out during the first leg of the Budget Session ending on February 11, as the time will be consumed by both the debates.

While the Business Advisory Committee of Lok Sabha met on Monday after the President's address, the Rajya Sabha's panel met on Tuesday. At the meeting chaired by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, sources said, it was decided that the debate on the Motion of Thanks will start from Wednesday at 11:30 AM.

In Rajya Sabha, sources said, the discussion on Budget is likely to start either on February 8 after the Prime Minister's reply or the next day. Sources said the parties have agreed to do away with the Private Members Business February 11, which falls on Friday when private members' business are usually taken up.

Naidu told the meeting that the government does not intend to propose any legislative business during the first part of the Budget session and there is no scope for taking up any Short Duration Discussion or considering Calling Attention Notices due to paucity of time.

Leader of the House Piyush Goyal, Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjuna Kharge and other members of the Rajya Sabha's BAC meeting.

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Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday termed the Union Budget as highly disappointing, directionless, useless and purposeless.

Reacting to the Budget presented in the Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said that the Budget is utter disappointment for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes, minorities, farmers, common man, poor, artisans and employees.

KCR, who is also president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), said the Budget lacked direction and intent. He said the speech of the Finance Minister was full of hollowness and a jugglery of words.

Also Read: Telangana CM plans special cell with 1,000 personnel to curb drug menace in state

The central government through the Budget has heaped praises on itself while putting the common man to depression and unhappiness, the chief minister said.

Calling it a 'Golmaal Budget', the TRS leader said it did not project the facts. The measures taken by the Centre in the Budget for the welfare of the farm sector is nil. He termed the Budget a big zero for farmers and the agriculture sector of the country.

"The Budget has nothing to offer to the handloom sector. The Budget left bitterness among the employees and the small traders. It is unfortunate that the Budget did not change the income tax slabs," the Chief Minister. Stating that both the employees and trading community were anxiously looking forward for the change in the income tax slabs, he said the Centre belied all their hopes.

"The Budget has clearly shown that the Centre had neglected the public health, basic infrastructure sectors. All over the world during the corona pandemic, health and infrastructure sectors are being developed, our central government did not even think on those lines. It is unfortunate. With corona in the backdrop, no efforts were put to develop the medical and health sector in the country. It is surprising that the Centre is not bothered about public health," the CM said.

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Congress MP Jothimani walked out from the meet, presided over by DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Power Minister, V Senthilbalaji, to discuss seat-sharing during the upcoming urban local body polls in Tamil Nadu's Karur, protesting its "autocratic attitude".

The Congress has been demanding a good number of seats in the local body polls as the party is of the view that it had the grassroot support in several Assembly constituencies and that the seat allocation must be in proportion to this.

After Jothimani and her supporters walked out of the seat-sharing meeting at Karur on Monday, the local level relation between the DMK and Congress has turned sour.

The Congress leaders are of the opinion that the DMK was indulging in seat-sharing in an autocratic manner which cannot be accepted.

Sources in the Congress told IANS that there was a verbal duel between Jothimani and Senthilbalaji and DMK leaders asked the Congress to leave the discussions.

Jothimani is a Congress firebrand woman leader with grassroot support in Karur and it is to be seen as to how she and her supporters would take up this issue.

She was enraged as Senthilbalaji finalised all 48 seats in the Karur municipality without consulting her and this led to a verbal duel between the two.

Jothimani walked out of the meeting hall and the Congress leadership is upset that the Minister did not stop her.

However, state Congress chief K S Alagiri told IANS that "it is a local level issue and there are no problems between the DMK and Congress regarding our alliance".

"We will iron out the differences if any and work for the victory of the Secular Progressive Alliance candidates in the ensuing urban local body polls. Just like in the general elections, Assembly elections and rural local body elections for the nine districts, it will be a cakewalk victory for the DMK, the Congress and our allies in the urban local body polls as people are with us. Please don't aggravate minor issues," he said.

While the Congress leadership is trying to downplay the issue, the local party leaders are miffed at the stand taken by Senthilbalaji and want Chief Minister M.K. Stalin's intervention into the matter.

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Even as the Kerala government is upset that most of its key demands were not considered in the Union Budget, the Opposition parties and environmentalists were heaving a sigh of relief as the proposed semi-high-speed rail project of the state did not find a place in the Budget.

One of the key demands of the Left-front government of Kerala was the financial allocation for its much-hyped semi-high-speed rail project named Silver Line. The Pinarayi Vijayan government had been repeatedly urging the Centre for financial assistance for the project.

But the project was facing stiff resistance in Kerala mainly owing to the environmental impacts it poses, large-scale eviction of people for land acquisition and the huge financial obligation estimated to be over Rs one lakh crore on the cash strapped exchequer. Opposition parties Congress and BJP were also objecting to the project while the government was carrying out massive campaigns.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed disappointment over not considering the state's pleas in the Budget. Meanwhile, Opposition leader V D Satheesan of the Congress commented that amidst the disappointments over the Budget, the only relief was that the Centre did not make any allocation for the semi-high-speed project.

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Sri Lanka's navy Tuesday said it had arrested 21 Indian fishermen after a confrontation with two trawlers poaching in the island's territorial waters.

A fast attack craft was damaged in the clashes on Monday night, the navy said in a statement, without giving further details.

"As the Indian trawlers were attempting to evade naval units with their aggressive manoeuvres, they also caused damages to the SLN Fast Attack Craft," the statement said.

It did not say if there were casualties, but said the navy seized equipment used by the Indians for "bottom-trawling", a fishing method banned in Sri Lanka that snares maritime creatures on the ocean floor.

Indian fishermen are known to stray into Sri Lankan waters along the Palk Strait, a narrow strip of sea separating the two South Asian neighbours in the Indian Ocean.

Last week, a Sri Lankan court freed 56 Indian fishermen who had faced poaching charges, but retained their boats.

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The Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Tuesday added charges under Unlawful Activity (prevention) Act (UAPA), an anti-terrorism law, against five suspects including two maulvis (Muslim priests) arrested for allegedly murdering a 30-year-old youth in Ahmedabad district village for an offensive Facebook post.

ATS officials said that section of UAPA was added to the first information report (FIR) since the suspects have been allegedly found to have plotted to "instill terror" among people. Earlier on January 25, police had registered FIR was registered under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) to be read with 120B (conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code and sections of arms act.

"The investigation has found that the suspects wanted to create an atmosphere of fear and instill terror among people. Apart from killing, they had tried to target a person in Porbandar. We are trying to find if there were other people under their target," Deputy Inspector of Police, ATS, Deepan Bhadran told DH.

30-year-old Kishan Boliya alias Bharwad was shot dead in Dhandhuka taluka of Ahmedabad district by two bike-borne men while he was traveling on a motorcycle with his brother. Later, the assailants were identified as Shabbir Chopda, 25 and his friend Imtiaz Pathan, 27, both residents of Dhandhuka. Ahmedabad district police investigation claimed that Boliya was killed for his offensive Facebook post. Later, police arrested maulana Ayub Javarawala, 51, a resident of Jamalpur in Ahmedabad for allegedly providing weapons and radicalising Shabbir.

As various Hindu outfits started staging protests demanding "quick justice" to Boliya's family and investigation suggested a "larger conspiracy", the state government transferred the case to ATS. After taking over the case, the ATS officials arrested a New Delhi-based maulvi Qamar Gani Usmani, 40 and Rajkot resident Azeem Sama, 38.

Police suspect that the accused are part of a "network" which had planned to target individuals involved in blasphemy or comments made against Islam and the Prophet.

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MLA and Government PU College Development Committee president Raghupathy Bhat on Monday issued an ultimatum to eight Muslim girl students asking them to choose either offline (without Hijab) or online classes by Tuesday.

If they are keen on learning, they should attend classes without wearing Hijab. If they are not willing to attend classes without the headscarf, they will be offered online classes, Bhat said on Monday. He was addressing mediapersons after convening a meeting of members of college administration, Karnataka Beary Sahithya Academy and officials from DDPU.

Bhat said the parents of other students, studying in the college, had complained that the raging controversy over the headscarf was destroying the learning environment in the college. The college has become a centre of controversy, he said.

Read | Udupi girl's college not to allow hijab in classrooms

The legislator said, The college is not against the headscarf, as it represents Islamic ritual. But democracy differs from Shariat law and government rules should be respected, he stressed. MLA said there was no possibility of permitting the students to wear headscarf inside classrooms.

Bhat said the adamant stand of eight Muslim girls demanded stringent measures. Thus the students were given a deadline until Tuesday. Among the eight Muslim girl students, three students had agreed to take a decision by Tuesday.

One student is adamant and insists on wearing a Hijab inside the classrooms. The other four students are yet to reveal their stand, he said and added that parents were also informed that girl students will not be allowed to wear Hijab inside the classrooms.

Parents have promised to take a decision after talking to elderly male members in their families. Further confusions and controversies will not be permitted in the college. Even media and organisations are barred from entering campus, he said.

Bhat said students will have to prepare for the examinations. If anyone would like to submit a memorandum, it should be given to the deputy commissioner, he said and stressed that discipline is important in an educational institution.

Meanwhile, a student said that she has approached the High Court seeking to declare wearing hijab as a fundamental right.

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Karnataka Congress on Tuesday issued a show-cause notice to senior leader Ashok Pattan after he was caught on a hot mic badmouthing the partys president D K Shivakumar.

In the notice issued by the KPCC disciplinary committee chairperson K Rahman Khan, Pattan has been asked to explain his anti-party behaviour within a week.

Last week, before the start of a news conference, Pattan was heard complaining to Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah that Shivakumar is trying to wield his influence on constituencies to increase the chances of his choice of candidates in getting the 2023 Assembly election tickets. Specifically, the discussion was on Pulakeshinagar MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy.

Theyre already at it, Pattan says, referring to Shivakumars loyalists. To this, Siddaramaiah says, Let them do it. Ultimately, the sitting MLA will be denied the ticket only if it is established that he is going to lose. They will just spoil the constituencies. Concurring, Pattan says Shivakumar wants his way everywhere. Finally, Siddaramaiah realises that the mics are hot and stops the conversation.

Being a senior leader and an experienced legislator, your private statements have damaged the honour of the KPCC president and that of the party, and this has been reported by the media. Whatever you have said is baseless and the Congress absolutely condemns and denies it. Your behaviour has not only damaged the party, but is also anti-party. You have seven days to explain yourself, Khan has said in his notice to Pattan.

A former chief whip, Pattan earlier represented the Ramdurg Assembly segment.

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Amid a slew of complaints against towing operators hired by the Bengaluru Traffic Police, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday reportedly ordered officers to scale down the towing exercise in Bengaluru till further review.

Bommai chaired a meeting with the Home Minister, DG-IGP Praveen Sood, commissioner of police Kamal Pant, Joint Commissioner (Traffic) B R Ravikanthegowda and other officers to review the vehicle towing policy and asked the police to regulate towing operations.

During the meeting, the CM reportedly instructed the police department to revisit the towing guidelines issued a few months ago and find ways to improve the system. We were instructed to revisit the policy and make some changes to bring in more transparency as well as make it people-friendly, Ravikanthegowda told DH.

Read | Karnataka govt to review towing system in Bengaluru

A senior traffic police officer told DH that the department will now take up another round of review of towing vehicles as well as personnel. We will re-examine the vehicles to see if they match all the criteria that have been stated in the current SOP. We will also review if the towing personnel have behaved according to the SOP too. During this phase, the vehicles which have not been reviewed, will not be permitted to tow vehicles.

Traffic police had come under fire following a couple of towing videos as well as the video of an ASI physically assaulting a differently-abled woman went viral on social media.

Gowda also held a meeting with DCPs, ACPs, and all the other traffic police personnel on Monday afternoon to address the issues.

The officers were instructed to always take a professional approach and respect the law. As public servants, we should always take the legal approach when problems arise, Gowda said after the meeting.

Doctored video: Police

Police officers on Monday clarified that the video of a towing vehicle in Jeevan Bima Nagar that went viral on social media was doctored and shared by Harish Gowda Gundagal, a political party worker. S J Abraham, a Flipkart delivery executive, had parked his vehicle under a no parking board. The towing announcement was made and the vehicle was lifted after Abraham came to get his vehicle released. To avoid traffic disruption, the towing staff stopped after 15-20 metres and returned his vehicle with a warning, Ravikanthe Gowda said in a statement.

The video had only shown Abraham running behind the towing vehicle while his parcels fell off his vehicle. The video drew a flak from netizens. The police will now take legal action against Gundagal.

Police said, We will take a few initiatives from today to bring some reforms in the towing system. If citizens are genuinely harassed, then we will take action accordingly.

Another senior officer said it is not possible to stop towing altogether as it will lead to more haphazard parking in the city. Along with CCTV cameras on towing vehicles, officers will also be given body-worn cameras. The footage from this will be reviewed by their seniors on a weekly basis. If any towing personnel is found to be flouting the protocol, then they will file a report and action will be taken against them.

The officer also added that the senior level officers within the police department will conduct a meeting and come out with reforms that will be submitted to the government as per the CMs instructions. After approval, those reforms will be added to the SOP.

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The Hoysala temples in Beluru and Halebeedu in Hassan district and Somanathapura in Mysuru district have been finalized by the Union Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as Indias nominations to the list of UNESCOs World Heritage Sites in the world, for the year of 2022-23. G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Culture, Tourism and Development of North Eastern Region on Monday took to Twitter to announce the news.

The most exquisite Hoysala Temples of Beluru, Halebeedu & Somanathapura in Karnataka have been finalised as Indias nomination for consideration as World Heritage for the year 2022-2023. The 'Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysala' are on the UNESCOs Tentative list since 15th April 2014, the Minister said. These temples represent one of the highest points of human creative genius and stand testimony to the rich historical and cultural heritage of our country, he added.

The state government will look after the maintenance and conservation of other monuments around the 3 temples. The project of getting the temples the esteemed tags has been in the works for the last three years. We had prepared the dossier earlier only. We had submitted the dossier last year too, but this year it got finalized for the nomination, Poornima BR, Commissioner, State Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage told DH.

The most exquisite Hoysala Temples of Belur, Halebid & Somnathapura in Karnataka have been finalised as Indias nomination for consideration as World Heritage for the year 2022-2023. The 'Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysala' are on the @UNESCOs Tentative list since 15th April, 2014 pic.twitter.com/rtVAS3VQnc  G Kishan Reddy (@kishanreddybjp) January 31, 2022

She added that a team from UNESCO will soon visit the sites and conduct an inspection. After the inspection, it will be decided whether the monuments can be declared as heritage sites. If the Hoysala temples attain this status, these monuments will be fourth on the states list of World Heritage Sites. The other three include the Hampi Monuments of Vijayanagara, Pattadakallu Temples complex of the Chalukyan era and the Western Ghats.

What is a World Heritage Site?

A world heritage site can be either cultural or natural areas or objects which are inscribed on UNESCOs World Heritage List for having outstanding universal value. These sites are usually considered to have cultural significance to all the people in the world, including generations to com

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NAIROBI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Kenyatta Tuesday called on the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other World Bank constituent financial institutions to provide more support to the private sector to spur Kenya's economic growth.

Kenyatta who spoke in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, during a meeting with IFC Managing Director Makhtar Diop said his government has come a long way in creating an enabling environment for investors in different sectors.

"Kenya has the potential to accelerate its economic growth and I am confident that with your partnership we can achieve that goal," he said in a statement issued by the presidency.

Kenyatta said IFC, the World Bank's private lending arm, has the potential to help in making Kenya a lucrative investment hub through supporting the private sector in implementing the Government's Big 4 Agenda.

Diop who led a high-level delegation briefed the President on the involvement of IFC in different economic sectors under the government's development blueprint, dubbed the Big 4 Agenda covering manufacturing, food security, affordable housing and universal healthcare.

"I will have roundtable discussions with stakeholders in the pharmaceuticals and housing sectors to see how best we can collaborate to ensure realization of affordable healthcare and housing for the Kenyan people," Diop said.

Kenyatta and Diop also discussed a plan that Kenya is keen on implementing to manufacture vaccines.

Kenyatta appreciated the role IFC has been playing in supporting Kenya's private sector, noting that the Big 4 Agenda has opened even more opportunities for increased collaboration through the country's Public-Private Partnership programme.

"We believe there is still a role that you can play in enabling the private sector to participate more in support of our provision of affordable housing, universal healthcare, food security and manufacturing through Public-Private Partnerships," he said.

Diop assured the President of his institution's commitment to continue supporting Kenya's development agenda through private sector financing.

He said IFC intends to achieve its goals by providing inclusive financing and boosting recovery by developing the capital markets.

"We look forward to working more closely with the private sector in Kenya which is already vibrant and enable it to contribute more significantly in the achievement of the country's development goals as well as promote intra-Africa trade. It is time for Africa, as a continent, to begin trading within itself," Diop said.

Diop said his institution is keen on providing financial support to the private sector in implementing environmental adaptation and mitigation projects. 
A parallel investigation that emerged from the case against ex-lawmaker Frank Artiles has expanded to examine a wide network of nonprofit organizations and political consultants with connections to last years ghost candidate scheme, newly released records from the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office show.

Prosecutors have homed in on consultants who operated a network of nonprofit organizations apparently designed to conceal the source of $550,000 used to send mailers promoting independent candidates in three Florida Senate races, including one in Central Florida.

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A political consultant whose colleagues controlled Grow United, the entity that paid for the ads, and worked closely with executives from Florida Power & Light in 2020, acknowledged to investigators that donors often favored using nonprofit organizations to funnel money to political causes because the entities dont have to publicly reveal their funding sources.

People often contribute to 501(c)(4) organizations to protect their identity, Abigail MacIver said during an interview she provided to investigators last September. A transcript of the interview was released Tuesday in response to a public records request.

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Thats a very common purpose for why people would donate, to a nonprofit organization, MacIver said.

MacIver worked at Alabama-based consulting firm Matrix LLC in 2020, when her colleagues Jeff Pitts and April Odom operated a network of nonprofit entities that contributed to political causes, including two political committees that sent ads promoting the independent candidates in an apparent vote-siphoning scheme.

The three consultants are no longer working for Matrix and are embroiled in a legal dispute with their former employer, which has accused them of diverting fees from clients to entities they set up for themselves. Pitts has countersued, accusing his former employer of extortion.

MacIver was subpoenaed by the State Attorneys Office, which guaranteed immunity from prosecution for anything she disclosed during her interview.

Ryan Tyson, the executive director of Lets Preserve the American Dream, another nonprofit organization that contributed nearly $1.1 million to Grow United in 2020 and is a target of the investigation, and Lance Gardner, the chief financial officer for Gainesville-based GOP consulting firm Data Targeting, were also interviewed.

Artiles, a former state senator, has been accused of paying a friend nearly $45,000 to file as an independent candidate in a South Florida Senate race in 2020 to siphon votes from his Democratic opponent. Artiles friend, Alex Rodriguez, received more than 6,000 votes, while Republican Ileana Garcia defeated Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez by 32 votes.

The South Florida election was one of three key state Senate races that year  including one in Central Florida won by Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur of Sanford  in which so-called ghost candidates filed to run as independents but did no campaigning.

Two political committees that received all of their funding from Grow United sent ads promoting the independent candidates as progressives, apparently to undermine their Democrats in those races. All three elections were won by Republicans, helping the GOP maintain control of the 40-member Senate.

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Alex Rodriguez has pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe from Artiles and is cooperating with prosecutors as part of a plea agreement. Artiles, who is charged with several felony violations of state election law, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Prosecutors recently notified three people and a nonprofit organization linked to the spoiler candidate scandal that they are being investigated for potential election and campaign finance law violations.

The people are Alex Alvarado, who ran the political committees that sent ads championing the apparent spoiler candidates; Richard Alexander, the chairman of Grow United; and former Democratic fundraiser Dan Newman, who raised nearly $1 million into Grow United in 2020.

MacIver told investigators that she, Pitts and Newman are now partners in a new political and public affairs consulting venture based in Tallahassee, Canopy Partners.

Also facing investigation is Lets Preserve the American Dream, a nonprofit based in the Tallahassee headquarters of big-business lobbying group Associated Industries of Florida  and run by Tyson, a former AIF vice president  that was also paying Artiles for consulting during the 2020 election cycle.

The Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office issued letters to Lets Preserve, Alvarado, Alexander and Newman Dec. 23, giving them until Jan. 7 to agree to participate in a voluntary interview with prosecutors. Its unclear if any accepted, though Tyson gave an interview.

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Tim VanderGiesen, a public corruption investigator in the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office, said during a hearing last month that a parallel investigation is underway into people who had a business relationship with Artiles.

When investigators told MacIver that Lets Preserve the American Dream transferred several hundred thousand dollars to Grow United, which then contributed money to Alvarados political committees, and asked if she could explain why those transactions were necessary, MacIver said she could not, according to the transcript.

Investigators also peppered MacIver with questions about people and organizations associated with former Matrix employees, including Deves Toon, the National Field Director for Rev. Al Sharptons National Action Network.

Toon organized a group called Fix JEA now that championed the sale of Jacksonvilles publicly owned utility to Florida Power & Light and received more than $180,000 from entities run by then-Matrix employees in 2018, according to records obtained by the Sentinel.

MacIver told investigators Toon had consulted for her colleagues but said shed never worked with National Action Network.

Investigators also asked MacIver about A Better Miami-Dade, a dark money nonprofit with extensive ties to AIF that contributed $225,000 to Grow United in 2020. MacIver told investigators she was familiar with A Better Miami-Dade but didnt know who ran the entity.

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The state attorneys office also on Tuesday released the transcript of an interview with Gardner, the chief financial officer for Data Targeting, who described himself as the Gainesville-based political consulting firms No. 2 figure answering directly to the firms owner, GOP operative Pat Bainter.

But while Gardner oversaw the firms books, cut checks to contractors  including Artiles  and worked with dozens of nonprofit groups and political committees on its behalf, he claimed in his Sept. 13 interview with Miami prosecutors that he was left in the dark about what those people and entities were being paid to do.

For example, though Gardner signed the contract calling for the firm to pay Artiless firm, Atlas Consulting, $15,000 a month, he said he didnt know how that amount was determined.

VanderGiesen asked Gardner about language in the contract that said Artiles work would include certain contested Florida Senate Districts in Miami-Dade County  where two of the battleground campaigns that featured ghost candidates in 2020, in Senate Districts 37 and 39, were held.

Do you have any knowledge as to the intent of this contract, what work was supposed to be performed? the prosecutor asked.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

No, Gardner replied. I would guess consulting, but I dont know what it entails.

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Prosecutors also asked Gardner questions that pertained to District 9 in Central Florida, the third 2020 state Senate race that featured an apparent spoiler candidate.

Gardner confirmed that an entity called Economic Improvement Fund  which is run by Gainesville consultant Stafford Jones and sent mailers attacking the Democrat in the race, Patricia Sigman  was among Data Targetings clients.

We would have billed, probably billed Economic Improvement Fund for probably direct mail in the past, he said.

VanderGiesen also asked Gardner about Jones son, Stephen Jones, who was listed as chairperson for Floridians for Equality and Justice, a group that also attacked Sigman during the Democratic primary. Gardner said the younger Jones was a former intern for Data Targeting.

anmartin@orlandosentinel.com

jeweiner@orlandosentinel.com
The trial of three men charged with the murder of a 52-year-old father-of-nine in Derry in November 2018 has heard the victim sustained multiple stab wounds.

Sean Rodgers (34) of no fixed abode, Derek Creswell (29) of King's Lane in Ballykelly and Ryan Walters (22) with an address in Crossgar, are all charged with the murder Edward Meenan whose body was discovered in a laneway behind Creggan Street in the early hours November 25, 2018.

They are also facing trial on a charge of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm on another man on the same time.

On the second day of the trial being held at Derry Crown Court sitting in Belfast several witnesses gave evidence from the scene on the night.

Sean Feeney gave evidence that he was returning home from work at around 2.30am and turned his car to go down the alleyway behind Creggan Street.

He said as he turned in, he saw what he thought was a piece of carpet lying in the alleyway, then realised it was the body of a man.

He said the body wasn't moving and was wearing just boxers and one sock.

He said after phoning the police, several other people came on the scene, people he believed were returning from the town.

Another witness who lived in the area of Creggan Street /Little Diamond gave evidence of hearing voices and what he thought was a shovel being dragged over concrete.

This witness said he didn't know what had happened until the next morning when police called.

He said when he went to the door he could see something burning.

Another man who lived in the area said that he was coming home on the night of November 24, he met Sinead White, at whose house the attack is alleged to have started, and two men near Creggan Street.

He said that the three were carrying bags he believed to contain alcohol and added they were 'all kind of out of it.'

Dr Amanda Burns also gave evidence of examining the body .

She said when she arrived the body was 'lying on its side in a pool of blood.

'The doctor said that there were four distinct types of injury on the body.

The forensic medical officer said there were 'multiple linear incisions' on the legs of the deceased.

She said some of these incisions would have been a foot long.

The court heard that there were 'multiple stab wounds' on the body in three different areas, including the belly and chest areas.

The doctor said there were also 'two curved lacerations' on the left side of the face and abrasions on the back consistent with being dragged.

The trial continues.
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Derry is mourning the loss of one of the North-Wests best known businessmen, Luke Hasson, who has died suddenly.

As the former managing director of Austins Department Store for almost forty years, Luke Hasson was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chamber of Commerce following his retirement in 2015.

His distinguished career included board appointments to Northern Ireland Railways and the Northern Ireland Fire Authority. He had a particular passion for rail transport and fought hard to maintain the network in the north-west when the long term viability of local rail services was being questioned.

As a former president of the Chamber of Commerce, he was instrumental in the revitalisation of Derry city centre, which ultimately led to the building of both the Richmond and Foyleside shopping complexes.

A much loved and respected man, he is survived by his wife Mar, daughters Sinead, Naomi, Aideen, Orla and Lucy, daughter-in-law Bette, sons- in-law Gorka, Eoin, Paco, Wolgang and grandchildren along with his brothers Paul, John, Declan and sister Ann.

Funeral arrangements are to be announced in the coming days.
A local councillor has said unionists 'receive nothing' from Council after his motion to hold a programme of events for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee was rejected by fellow councillors.

Cllr Clement Cuthbertson's motion, which also included a proposal to write a letter of congratulations t to the Queen, came before a full meeting of Mid Ulster District Council last week.

During a lengthy address, Cllr Cuthbertson highlighted the work done by the Queen for charitable causes and said it was 'only right' that that the Council recognised her Platinum Jubilee.

Referring to correspondence from Michael Gove MP, he mentioned the possibility of holding street parties and large screen events.

It is only right that this council, along with every other local authority across the UK and the Commonwealth worldwide, recongises this remarkable service, he said.

We have an events space at the top of the market square and we're always looking for ways of bringing people into the town.

What better way to support our wonderful hospitality businesses in the middle of the summer than to organise a screening of some of the events on a large screen?

A number of unionist councillors spoke in support of the motion, with Cllr Wilbert Buchanan praising the Queen's 'service and sacrifice' over her 70-year reign.

However, the motion failed to find favour with nationalist councillors.

Sinn Fein's Cathal Mallaghan said he did not object to Council sending a letter to the Queen, but said there was an 'understanding' as to how 'these type of events' were dealt with.

We ask the community to do this on our behalf as a civic authority, and that has been the case now since this council has begun, he said.

It was the case for events on the topic of 1916, among other things. We had funding opportunities for the community to take advantage of and put on events.

That is our Good Relations, our community festivals, and that's how I feel this type of event should be taken forward.

It is at your discretion should you wish to write a letter to the Queen to mark this event, and that's totally to yourself, but we won't be able to support the motion.

After SDLP councillor Malachy Quinn also spoke against the motion, saying funding streams were available for those who wished to celebrate, a vote was taken.

The motion was defeated by 24 votes to 14, leaving Cllr Cuthbertson 'very disappointed'.

This refusal is clearly out of touch with the world stage and sends out a clear signal of the approach and attitude here in Mid Ulster, he said.

Once again, unionists are receiving nothing out of this council. We had next to nothing of any meaning to celebrate the centenary in 2021 and now in 2022, it's the same message.

Good relations does not exist in this council. There are hundreds and thousands being spent on this council to promote Irish and Irish-ism across our branding.

All we ask is for our fair share, we're not asking for more than that. We're a week or two away from striking the rates.

Why would any unionist rate payer consider there would be an increase in rates for this area when the unionist people are getting zero out of this Council? he added.
Statement by the Department of Foreign Affairs on the One-Year Anniversary of the Coup in Myanmar

Statement

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar. For the past year, the Myanmar people have been subject to grave human rights violations. Civilians have been deliberately and brutally targeted.

The Myanmar military must recognise the harrowing impact of their unconscionable actions. The evolution towards a protracted conflict is of grave concern and poses a threat to regional stability. Since the coup, Ireland has led calls in the United Nations Security Council for the military to end violence, to release all those arbitrarily detained and to demonstrate full respect for human rights and compliance with international law. Ireland will continue to support the critical work of the UN and ASEAN in seeking to end violence in Myanmar.

The people of Myanmar have been resolute in rejecting the coup. Ireland commends all those who continue to advocate for their rights, for a democratic and inclusive political future. We support the leadership of women and their calls for equal and meaningful participation in all political processes.

Ireland is deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis and calls on all actors to ensure rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all people in need across Myanmar. Ireland provided almost 3 million in funding last year in humanitarian aid and civil society support and we will continue to play our part and focus on those most in need. We remain deeply concerned for the Rohingya people, especially those within IDP camps.

We welcome yesterdays statement by HR/VP Borrell and will support the European Union in adopting further restrictive measures if no positive progress is achieved. Equally, we commit to supporting international efforts to hold the perpetrators of the coup to account.

Today, Ireland stands with the people of Myanmar and supports their efforts to restore the countrys democratic path.

ENDS

Press Office

1st February 2022

Note for Editors Ireland strongly condemns the coup carried out by the Myanmar military and its attempts to legitimise the military regime. The coup is a reversal of the progress made towards democracy and rule of law in Myanmar that has taken years to establish. Ireland is actively engaged on the crisis in Myanmar in the context of our role on the United Nations Security Council. The Security Council has considered the situation in Myanmar eight times since the coup, most recently on 28 January 2022. Ireland supports the EU's adoption of sanctions against the perpetrators of the coup and the economic entities that sustain them and endorses the strong and comprehensive approach set out in the Council Conclusions adopted by the EU Foreign Affairs Council on February 22 2021. Ireland has also voiced its concern at four sessions of the Human Rights Council since February 2021 and has consistently supported international efforts towards ensuring accountability and justice, including through the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Ireland has provided direct funding of over 7.1m to the Rohingya crisis in both Bangladesh and Myanmar since 2017. In 2021, the EU allocated 24.5 million in humanitarian aid to address the immediate needs of displaced and conflict-affected communities and related to COVID-19, as well as 65 million in support of basic needs of the civilian population, including education and livelihoods.

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vivo has introduced a new Y-series smartphone that will instantly appeal to young Indian consumers. Yes, we are talking about the vivo Y75 5G, an elegant trendsetter with oodles of style, ultra-slim comfort and assurance of powerful performance that you can bank upon.



Its only rational that this marvel is represented by the youth style icon Sarah Ali Khan. The charming 26-years old actress has made quite a mark in Bollywood and carries quite an influence among youngsters. She was naturally the apt choice to endorse this bold and vibrant offering from vivo that should be equally captivating to young consumers.

Amazing Looks, Ultra Comfort

vivo Y75 5G is a sleek phone that looks stylish without trying too hard, one that will naturally feel in step with young consumers. To start with, its remarkably handy as it measures just 8.25 mm in thickness and tips the scale at merely around 187 grams.



The crystalline glass panel will be available in two elegant finishes - Starlight Black and Glowing Galaxy - and the black lens on the protruding dual-camera system further adds character to the distinct design.

The Glowing Galaxy variant has a shifting gradient finish that reflects different hues of red at different angles. The serene Starlight Black insinuates the soothing calmness of a star-lit sky.



There is a flat 2.5D frame on the side where you will also find a fast and reliable fingerprint sensor (clubbed with the power button) for convenient and secure access. On the front, you will find a large 16.71 cms (6.58- inch) FHD+ display with narrow bezels (90.2% screen-to-body ratio) and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The display can faithfully reproduce 96% of the NTSC colour space and also benefits from an Eye Protection Mode that effectively eliminates harsh blue light.

Dependable Performance

This beauty isnt just skin deep. The vivo Y75 5G is powered by a dependable 7nm process-based dual-mode 5G chipset that can leverage both SA and NSA 5G deployments assuring future-proof connectivity at blazing-fast speeds. Indeed this is a phone you can pull the trigger on today, and not regret a year down the line.



Another distinguishing factor is the innovative Extended RAM 2.0 technology that can cache and use up to 4GB of fast native storage as additional RAM. This enhances the multitasking experience by essentially offering an 8GB + 4GB RAM configuration, which is a big plus when it comes to multitasking and heavy usage. vivo further adds a generous 128GB of storage space that can be extended to 1 TB using secondary microSD card storage!



And in spite of the slim and svelte profile, vivo has managed to make room for a beefy 5000 mAh battery with fast charging support.

Capable Camera Systems

With its 50 MP primary camera, the vivo Y75 5G can capture stunning details in both bright and challenging conditions. The selfie snapper is equipped with a 16 MP sensor along with quite a few software features to assist young vloggers.



Both the front and rear camera systems benefit from Super Night Mode which deftly reduces noise using frame merging algorithms. The Super Night Mode enables vivo Y75 5G to faithfully capture the essence of low light and similarly challenging scenes.



The Double-View Video Mode is an interesting option in the camera app that lets users shoot from both front and rear cameras simultaneously. This mode should prove incredibly handy while shooting reaction videos or vlogging.

Other interesting camera features include the intelligent AI Face Beauty that enhances selfies, the Eye Autofocus mode that can effectively track moving subjects and the Portrait Mode 2.0 that can reliably differentiate between image subject and backdrop and can then add exciting effects to portrait images.

Intuitive Software

On the software front, the vivo Y75 5G runs the latest Funtouch OS 12. The intuitive skin is tastefully designed, is easy to navigate, and offers ample customization options. All frequently needed information and useful features are neatly stacked.

One primary highlight is the Ultra Game Mode 2.0 which now looks even more visually appealing and can be used to quickly sort all your game-related customizations. Gamers can further leverage the Multi Turbo 5.0 that intelligently optimizes heat dissipation and network usage in order to smartly boost performance.



Then theres the Nano Music Player that lets you quickly access your favourite music right on your home screen! The bottom line is that you will find the right options in the right places and wont have to look too hard for them.

Go the distance

To ensure you get to enjoy all these features to the fullest, vivo has packed a large 5000mAh battery in the vivo Y75 5G. This means that you can make full use of everything that the phone has to offer without worrying about running out of juice in the middle of the day. In fact, the company notes that the vivo Y75 5G allows for up to 20 hours of video streaming. Do you prefer online gaming instead? Well, the phone has you covered as it touts up to 10 hours of non-stop gaming action.

That's not all, with MediaTek 5G UltraSave technology, the phone is able to balance performance with efficiency. With this technology in place, the vivo Y75 5G is able to make the most of the 5000mAh battery to ensure optimal battery life.

When the time comes to charge the phone, you won't be waiting too long. The vivo Y75 5G supports 18W fast charging. So you'll be back in action in no time!

Vivo Y75 5G - The perfect blend of style and substance

All said and done, the vivo Y75 5G is perhaps the best Y series phone from the brand and offers remarkable value for its price of INR 21,990. The phone looks mesmerizing, is incredibly comfortable to wield, has dependable performance hardware with a dual-mode 5G chipset, runs refined software, employs proficient camera hardware, and harbours an assuring 5000 mAh battery with fast charging support!



The vivo Y75 5G is available for purchase in Glowing Galaxy and Starlight Black colour options on the vivo India E-store and partner retail stores

[Brand Story]
Moto Edge 30 Pro is rumoured to launch in India sometime this month and is expected to be based on the Moto Edge X30 that launched in China

Moto Edge 30 Pro is rumoured to launch in India sometime this month and is expected to be based on the Moto Edge X30 that launched in China. At the time of its launch in China, the Edge X30 was the first phone to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. It has long been rumoured that Motorola is looking to launch the Edge X30 globally but under a different name.

According to a report by 91Mobiles that cites popular tipster Mukul Sharma, the Moto Edge 30 Pro will launch in February in India and global markets. While the report does not reveal an exact date of the India launch of the Moto Edge 30 Pro, earlier leaks have hinted that the phone is largely based on the Edge X30.

Moto Edge 30 Pro specifications

The Moto Edge 30 Pro is expected to feature a 6.7-inch Full HD+ resolution 10-bit AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support. The phone has a thin and light build measuring 8.5mm and weighs 194 grams.

It is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and runs on Android 12 based MYUI 3.0. This is paired with upto 12GB RAM and 256GB storage options to choose from.

There are triple cameras on the back headlined by a 50MP camera with OIS, a 50MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, theres expected to be a 60MP selfie camera housed in a punch-hole notch cutout.

The Edge 30 Pro is expected to come equipped with a 5,000mAh battery that supports 68W fast charging.
Oppo Reno 7 5G is tipped to be different version than the Reno 7 SE 5G that was launched in China

Ahead of its official launch on February 4th, the pricing of the Oppo Reno 7 5G and Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G has been leaked online. As per the leak, the Oppo Reno 7 5G will be priced at Rs. 29,990 in India for the lone 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant. The Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G will be priced at Rs. 39,990 for the single 12GB + 256GB model.

Oppo Reno 7 Series: Speculations and Features

Oppo Reno 7 5G is said to feature a MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC, along with 8GB RAM and 5GB virtual RAM expansion. The chipset is speculated to be different from the Snapdragon 778G available on the Reno 7 5G that was launched in China. The handset set to be launched in India is reported to feature a triple rear camera setup with the 64MP OmniVision OV64B primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide shooter, and a 2MP macro shooter. The handset comes with a 32MP Sony IMX615 selfie camera sensor at the front, which is different from its Chinese counterpart. It packs a 4,500mAh battery, with 65W SuperVOOC fast charging.

The phone is said to have a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It is also tipped to include an in-display fingerprint sensor. The Oppo Reno 7 5G weighs about 173 grams and is said to be 7.81mm thick.

Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G will be the same model which was launched in China, and will be powered by the same custom-designed MediaTek Dimensity 1200 Max SoC. The handset comes with ColorOS 12 out-of-the-box and has SuperVOOC fast charging. It also features Sonys flagship IMX766 large rear sensor that captures more light when shooting photos and videos. It also supports 26 adjustable bokeh levels that claim to produce "DSLR-grade" images and videos. One of the most prominent features of the phone is said to be its one-of-a-kind 'Bokeh Flare Portrait' that claims to accurately identify the human subject in any complex background and makes them stand out from a blurred background complete with soft-light lens flares.

More details are yet to be revealed by the brand. All the speculations will soon be confirmed at the launch that is set to happen on 4th February.

Also read: Interview: Oppo explains what makes the upcoming Reno 7 series phones special
Shipping of the top of the line Galaxy S22 Ultra model is expected to begin at least two weeks ahead of other models in Samsungs flagship lineup

Samsung is expected to launch its Galaxy S22 series of devices at its Galaxy Unpacked event that is scheduled for February 9. The event is also expected to be the date when preorders for Samsung's latest iteration of its flagship line will begin, along with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8.

However, as per rumours, all three devices - the Samsung Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus, and Galaxy S22 Ultra may not be launched at the same time. A tweet by leaker Jon Prosser (via Android Central) said that while preorders for the smartphones will begin on February 9, the Galaxy S22 Ultra will be shipped weeks ahead of the other two models in the series.

Bad news:



Im told that due to supply chain issues, the Galaxy S22 lineup has had a slight setback.



Pre-order for ALL devices is still happening on event day (Feb 9)



However, availability has now been split:



S22 Ultra: Feb 25

S22 & S22+: Pushed to March 11 pic.twitter.com/pp2IFAYXSN  Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) January 31, 2022

While shipping for the Galaxy S22 Ultra is expected to commence by the February 25, shipping for the Galaxy S22 and Galaxt S22 Plus has reportedly been postponed to March 11.

According to Prosser, the delay has been caused by supply chain issues due to the ongoing global chip shortage, which has severely affected the production and sales of Android phones amidst the pandemic. This, however, allows Samsung to charge a premium to its much more expensive flagship smartphone as compared to other brands flagships.

Other companies. such as OnePlus, have opted for a similar strategy. While the company unveiled the OnePlus 10 Pro in China, there has been no word officially from them with regards to other models in their flagship lineup of smartphones as of yet.

The aforementioned speculations have not been confirmed as of yet. A spokesperson declined to comment on the same when Android Central reached out to the South Korean tech giant. In the meantime, interested customers have already been given the option of reserving the smartphone on Samsungs official website.
The year kicked off with the expedition of a lifetime, joining a team of scientists with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to document Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The epic journey through the Aleutian Islands became a one-hour original documentary, The Last Unknown, on discovery+ and revealed a remote and isolated world dominated by wildlife. Some of the largest gatherings of seabirds on the planet take place on these rugged, wind-worn islands, as well as being a protected stronghold for marine mammals such as northern fur seals, and numerous species of whales. Many of the islands are volcanically active, with steam vents spewing fumes, and the extreme heat from deep below melting surface snow, which runs off the island cliffs as massive waterfalls.
TALLAHASSEE  A bill advancing in the Florida Senate seeks to outlaw targeted residential protests, such as one that happened at the Orlando-area vacation home of George Floyds killer.

The measure would make it a misdemeanor crime to picket or protest at a private residence with the intent to harass or disturb that person in his or her home. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill on Monday.

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The issue moved to the forefront in Central Florida in May 2020 when several hundred people protested outside a Windermere townhouse owned by Derek Chauvin, the ex-Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering Floyd.

Protesters chanted no justice, no peace, no racist police, waved signs and scrawled murderer and justice for George Floyd in chalk on the sidewalk. Chauvin wasnt at the home, but the protests required dozens of deputies to be dispatched for crowd control.

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A neighbor said some of the protesters continued to yell and honk horns until 3:30 a.m. The protests lasted for eight days, according to the Orange County Sheriffs Office.

Protestors yell outside a home in Windermere, Florida, on Friday, May 29, 2020, The home is owned by Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer videotaped kneeling on the neck of George Floyd before his death. The video has sparked a national outcry. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel) (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

That prompted Sheriff John Mina to try to get county commissioners to pass a local ban in June 2021 on targeted residential protests. That ordinance was withdrawn from the County Commissions agenda, but Mina is supporting the proposal in the Florida Senate.

The right to protest must be balanced with an individuals right to be safe in their homes, said Michelle Guido, a spokesperson for the sheriffs office.

Kevin Goldberg, a First Amendment specialist at the Freedom Forum, said the legislation is vague, overly broad and could face issues in court.

[ RELATED: As ex-Minneapolis officer arrested on murder charge, protesters at his Orlando-area home demand justice for George Floyd ]

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

The government can impose content-neutral time, manner and place restrictions on speech, but this measure could be used to entirely squelch the ability to protest on a public sidewalk, Goldberg said. The bill isnt limited to a persons private property.

To simply say you cant protest on a public sidewalk because it might hurt someones feelings or disturb them is a step too far, Goldberg said.

State Sen. Keith Perry, who is sponsoring the bill (SB 1664), said numerous people have been harassed at home by protesters, including a Brevard County School Board member who was targeted by anti-mask demonstrators. He said even a silent protest could be a violation under his proposal if it is viewed as an effort to intimidate.

Perry said similar measures intended to stop anti-abortion protesters from harassing doctors have stood up in court.

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Your home is different than a public space, the Gainesville Republican said. You do have a certain right there. Your neighbors, your children and others have a certain right there.

A legislative bill analysis also references recent protests at the homes of U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.

sswisher@orlandosentinel.com
The worlds most powerful observatory - the James Webb Space Telescope  is set for launch later this month after more than 25 years of development and construction. Science Channel, the leader of all things space, will take viewers inside this incredible feat of technology and its launch with two specials airing Tuesday, December 21 at 10 PM ET/PT with a Post-Launch Special to air Sunday, December 26 at 10 PM ET/PT.
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By WAFAA SHURAFA

Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Bulldozers digging for an Egyptian-funded housing project in the Gaza Strip unearthed the ruins of a tomb dating back to the Roman era, Hamas authorities said Monday.

The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Archaeology said its crews seized objects uncovered in the tomb and asked for construction work to be stopped. An independent archaeologist said, however, that photos he saw suggest the site was a cemetery rather than a tomb.





. . .
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Photo by Cary Kopczynski & Co [enlarge] Looking northeast, Coppins Well is directly opposite Swedish Medical Center.





The Coppins Well apartments, at 1000 Minor Ave., sold last Friday for over $106.3 million, according to King County records. The seller was 1200 Madison Associates LP, associated with Holland Partner Group, which acquired the ground lease from Opus Northwest in 2011 for an unknown amount. Holland then demolished an old bank branch and developed the corner, at Madison Street. The land is still owned by a local group.





. . .
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SEATTLE  An apartment building at 1310 E. Thomas St. sold for nearly $6.5 million, according to King County records.

The sellers were several local investors who had owned the property for decades.





. . .
An anti-immigration reform protester posts flags along Pembrook Drive in Maitland, Fla., Monday, January 31, 2022. Several groups critical of the Biden administrations immigration reform proposals gathered for a demonstration after a video showing migrant farm workers arriving at an extended-stay hotel in Maitland was posted on the Internet over the weekend. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Dozens of protesters gathered outside of an extended stay hotel in Maitland Monday afternoon, decrying illegal immigration. However, the social media video that ignited their furor actually showed migrant workers in town on legal visas.

A video posted over the weekend of a busload of Hispanic men at an Extended Stay America west of Interstate 4 in Maitland went viral among several influential right-wing accounts. A flyer on social media spread by local Republicans called for a protest, declaring Joe Biden dumped hundreds of illegal immigrants in Maitland, FL!!! and to STOP THE INVASION.

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Almost none of that turned out to be true. The workers are in town to perform seasonal agricultural work on H-2A visas. The company, Dewar Nurseries, located in Apopka, confirmed to WESH-2 the company had used the federal program for years to fill labor jobs for between $12 and $13 an hour.

Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson said he spoke with the company after receiving numerous phone calls over the weekend regarding the online video.

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Ive gotten about 10 phone calls, Nelson said. Its a lot about nothing.

Nelson said he spoke to an employee of the nursery who said they hired about 100 employees under the federal program and had done so for years. The work lasts several months and then they go back to Mexico, Nelson said.

The company, known for selling roses, fruits and seasonal plants, didnt return a request for comment.

In 2020, more than 213,000 H-2A visas were issued nationwide, according to the U.S. State Department.

The video was first distributed by Laura Loomer, the right-wing social media provocateur, who is challenging Rep. Daniel Webster for a seat in Congress. It was also shared among sitting politicians, such as state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, who is also running for a seat in Congress, which currently would include the Extended Stay hotel in Maitland.

BREAKING: Hundreds of illegals were just SHIPPED into my congressional district yesterdaydropped off in Maitland. We MUST stop & DEPORT them immediatelystate law enforcement must be activated by @GovRonDeSantis ASAP. Florida should NOT ask the federal government for permission! he tweeted, which was retweeted more than 1,600 times.

The video had reached more than 138,000 views by Monday afternoon.

Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. >

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Monday the video had spawned meetings Sunday and Monday in his office, and he said he had a lot of assets trying to unravel the situation.

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DeSantis was asked if bussing companies or hotels, like the one shown in the video, would be punished under legislation he proposed barring local and state governments from doing business with companies that help transport undocumented immigrants from the southern border to Florida.

But we have not gotten all the facts on that yet. But we have a lot of people who are involved in getting the facts, he said. If it turns out that these are folks who are on farmworker visas, then obviously the bus company didnt do anything wrong at that point. But if theyre ferreting people who came illegally from the southern border, bringing them all the way into Florida and dumping, then thats when theres going to be a problem.

Monday afternoon protesters toted Lets Go Brandon flags, a vulgar reference to President Joe Biden, as well as signs opposing illegal immigration.

Local Republicans Pete Crotty and Lou Marin said they tried to call off the protest upon learning the workers were legal, but said he heard protesters from out of the area were still coming.

I did some due diligence and told people we dont need to do a protest here, said Marin, president of the Orange County Chapter of the Florida Republican Assembly. End of the day, its a nothing burger.

rygillespie@orlandosentinel.com
A cross-community group of Troubles victims is to meet the Taoiseach to outline their opposition to the British Governments legacy proposals.

The Truth and Justice Movement will travel to Dublin on Thursday to garner support from Micheal Martin.

The group of victims, including Michael Gallagher, Raymond McCord, Kate Nash and Cathy McIlvenny, also plan to meet a cross-party group of politicians, including the chair of the Seanad, senator Mark Daly.

Victims campaigners have long outlined their opposition to the proposed amnesty for Troubles offences.



A cross-community group of Troubles victims met with Simon Coveney to discuss opposition to the UK proposals (PA)

Mr McCord, from the Truth and Justice Movement, said they are seeking support from the Irish government.

Our focus is the British governments shameful amnesty proposals, Mr McCord said.

We have the support of every major party, except the Tories, in Ireland and the UK in rejecting the proposals.

Thirty-six members of Congress in Washington have also rejected the proposals and we welcome their support.

(Prime Minister) Boris Johnson and (Secretary of State) Brandon Lewis falsely claim the proposals of giving amnesties to murderers will help reconciliation.

Lets make this crystal clear  we dont need to be reconciled as we were never enemies and we come to Dublin as one, with two members from the unionist community and two from the nationalist community, who are long-time friends supporting each other, as many other victims do.

The politicians, north and south of the border, have been very supportive of our aim of abolishing the proposals.

If our meeting with the Taoiseach is as successful as our recent meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, it will be another nail in the coffin of the amnesty proposals.

We do not need to convince the Taoiseach these amnesty proposals are wrong, he knows that himself.

Both meetings are very important and we thank the politicians and the Taoiseach for meeting us, especially after listening to the Taoiseachs words clearly rejecting the proposals at the Bloody Sunday 50th anniversary event.

Our group comes from both communities but in reality we come from only one community, the truth and justice community.

Not one victim believes these hide the truth proposals are for their benefit. They are simply to cover up elements of the British governments security forces, agencies and agents involvement in countless murders.

These proposals, which would deny justice to thousands, must be stopped to ensure that no one is above the law, irrespective if they do or do not wear a uniform.

There has been widespread opposition to the plans to ban future prosecutions of military veterans and ex-paramilitaries for Troubles incidents predating April 1998.
The UK will invest 1.4 billion to bolster the number of British satellites in space as part of its first defence space strategy.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said it was crucial that Britain pushes the frontiers of our defence space ambitions in a bid to stay one step ahead of our competitors.

As part of the public investment, 968 million will be committed over the next 10 years to deliver a multi-satellite system  known as the Istari programme  to support greater global surveillance and intelligence for military operations, the Ministry of Defence announced.

A further 61 million will explore cutting-edge laser communications technology to deliver data from space to Earth at a speed equivalent to superfast broadband.

The defence space strategy follows on the back of the national space strategy, which was published in September.

UK Space Command, established in July, will lead the approach to space defence.

The MoDs document outlines how it plans to protect the UKs national interests in space in an era of ever-growing threats.

Recent years have seen increasing international rows over satellites, space weaponry and collisions in orbit, with friction between the US, China and Russia.

The space strategy will, according to the MoD, stimulate growth across the sector and support highly skilled jobs across the UK, while also allowing Britain to work more closely with its Nato allies, including the US.

The newly-announced money is on top of the existing 5 billion already being used to upgrade the UKs Skynet satellite communications capability  providing strategic communication services to the UK armed forces and allies.

The Defence Secretary said: Its crucial we continue to push the frontiers of our defence space ambitions, enhancing our military resilience and strengthening our nations security.

This significant investment will help to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of space innovation and one step ahead of our competitors.

Mr Wallace, who is in Croatia as part of a diplomatic tour to de-escalate tensions between Russia and Ukraine, was due on Tuesday due to make a written statement to the House of Commons on the strategy.

In addition to projects funded by the 1.4 billion, a series of supporting programmes funded through existing investment will form part of the strategy, with the intention of providing cutting-edge technologies for intelligence, surveillance, situational awareness, and command and control.

These include Minerva, which will see an additional 127 million invested over the next four years to develop a network of satellites designed to integrate space with land, air, sea and cyber.

Another satellite project is Prometheus 2.

It encompasses two small satellites, each comparable to the size of a shoebox, which are set to provide a test platform for monitoring through GPS, radio signals and sophisticated imaging, paving the way for a more collaborative and connected space communication system with combat allies, officials said.
TUESDAY, Feb. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- So, you're pregnant and battling nausea every day. What harm could come from smoking a joint to settle your stomach?

Plenty, according to a new study that suggests women who use pot while expecting put their infants at risk for some serious health problems.

The problems included premature birth, small size and low birth weight, along with the need to be admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the researchers found. Specifically, they saw a doubling of the odds for low birth weight, a 28% higher odds for premature delivery, and 38% higher odds the baby will need intensive care in the hospital. These infants were also more likely to have lower Apgar scores, which assess a newborn's health right after birth.

The findings are based on a review of 16 studies that included more than 59,000 patients.

"We now have a very high level of evidence to say that smoking marijuana during pregnancy is harmful, and we can no longer state that we just don't know," said study author Dr. Greg Marchand. He is a surgeon at the Marchand Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery, in Mesa, Ariz. "Deciding to smoke marijuana during your pregnancy is also deciding to do something that can harm your baby."

Women sometimes smoke pot during pregnancy to relieve morning sickness and other medical conditions, such as pain and anxiety. But the chemicals in marijuana can pass through the placenta, directly affecting the developing fetus.

Marchand thinks that women who use pot will have to decide if continuing to use it is worth the potential harm to their fetus.

"These findings will force some difficult decisions for mothers who use marijuana to treat medical problems. And there may not be good substitute treatments for some of these conditions, especially chronic pain and anxiety," he said. "This will set up a difficult risk-versus-benefit situation, where these mothers will have to decide if the risks of stopping marijuana outweigh the possible harm to the unborn baby."

Marchand thinks that women should be encouraged to give up marijuana during pregnancy; however, it's not the same as telling women not to use alcohol or smoke cigarettes during pregnancy.

"There's no acceptable reason to drink alcohol during pregnancy, whereas marijuana has been found to treat several medical conditions," he explained. "I would definitely suggest cessation during pregnancy for anyone using marijuana recreationally. For those using it to treat medical conditions, I would talk to your doctor about what other therapies might be safer in pregnancy. If you and your doctor decide to continue the marijuana, there may be less risk in edibles or inhaled vapers, as smoking marijuana is clearly associated with many poor outcomes described in our paper."

The report was published online Jan. 27 in JAMA Network Open.

Kara Skelton, an assistant professor in the department of health sciences at Towson University, in Maryland, and co-author of an accompanying journal editorial, said the findings give doctors the ammunition to talk with their patients about the dangers of using cannabis during pregnancy.

"Clinicians, public health professionals and policymakers are now equipped with evidence regarding the risks of cannabis use during pregnancy that they can use to implement procedures, programs or interventions and policies to prevent cannabis use during pregnancy," she said.

Skelton said what's needed is clear and effective communication about these risks.

"This includes both mass-reach public health campaigns and clinician-patient interactions during health care visits," she said. "Importantly, this communication needs to be done in a non-punitive manner that does not make women feel stigmatized."

More information

For more on marijuana and pregnancy, head to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

SOURCES: Greg Marchand, MD, surgeon, Marchand Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery, Mesa, Ariz.; Kara Skelton, PhD, assistant professor, department of health sciences, Towson University, Towson, Md.; JAMA Network Open, Jan. 27, 2022, online
For the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no officially approved outpatient treatments for combating the disease. The medical establishment expressed extreme caution regarding such treatments, and these warnings were amplified by major media hostile to President Donald Trump, as when he touted the anti-malaria medicine hydroxychloroquine.

Although an estimated 12% to 38% of prescriptions are written for FDA-approved drugs used off-label (including Botox and Viagra), Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, declared early on that providers should dispense only medicines proven to be safe and effective for COVID-19 patients through randomized, placebo-controlled trials. These can take months or years to conduct, often at great cost.

Some governments and independent practitioners considered that standard a recipe for inaction that meant likely death for untold numbers of victims. These medical dissenters instead treated COVID-19 as physicians have long responded to newly emerging infectious diseases: by administering designer cocktails of cheap, safe, and readily available agents  in this case including hydroxychloroquine, antibiotics, aspirin, and vitamins  that had proved effective in treating similar illnesses or showed promise due to mechanisms of action.

RealClearInvestigations spoke or corresponded with 12 such advocates for early outpatient treatment globally  from California, Texas and Honduras to France, Israel, and India. These physicians used their clinical experience to make educated guesses about what combinations of drugs might work. Few used the same cocktail, but all insisted the treatments proved most effective when administered as early as possible.

Researchers knew fairly early in the pandemic that COVID-19 infections progressed through several stages. For example, it was known in March 2020 that the illness progressed from a viral phase to massive inflammation across the body. Anti-inflammatory drugs  such as colchicine, the choice of Dr. Darrell DeMello in Mumbai  could have been given at clinicians discretion.

By June 2020, it was known that COVID-19 could cause major blood clotting. The blood thinner Plavix, another choice of Dr. DeMello, is often used to prevent and treat clotting. As Dr. Brian Tyson, a primary care physician in Imperial County, Calif., who champions outpatient treatment, explained, if patients are showing inflammatory changes, lets use an anti-inflammatory. We see people getting clots, dying of coronary artery clogs, lets use a blood thinner.

It wasnt until April 2021 that the National Institutes of Health announced it would fund a large clinical trial to study repurposed drugs, including some of those favored by several of the doctors RCI interviewed. Why wasnt there greater urgency to conduct studies like this one?

Trumps advocacy of HCQ put him at odds with the Washington media and medical establishment. This may in part have colored public perceptions of the use of off-label drugs in the U.S. Articles in the highly influential medical journal The Lancet played a significant role  with one that pooh-poohed HCQ being retracted after proving fraudulent. Although HCQ is used around the world every day to treat various illnesses in adults and children, including lupus and malaria, health officials cast it as potentially dangerous. As a result, Dr. Scott Atlas, the often-dissenting adviser to the Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force, writes in A Plague Upon Our House, his new tell-all, doctors were blocked from prescribing the drug, even though prescribing any other approved drug for an off-label use was routine.

U.S. tech giants censored much discussion of outpatient treatment, branding it misinformation. YouTube in particular has silenced heterodox thinking, suspending the YouTube channel of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a proponent of early treatment who convened two hearings on the matter in late 2020, and removing several of Senate colleague Rand Pauls, R-Ky. YouTube postings.

Most of the regimens advocated by early outpatient treatment proponents also included ivermectin (IVM), a common drug that became controversial in the U.S. after the podcaster Joe Rogan said his doctor prescribed it off-label to him once he contracted COVID-19. Media voices opposed to unapproved treatments described the drug  widely given to people and livestock  as a horse dewormer. The FDA advised against using IVM against COVID-19  yet IVM is one of the repurposed drugs being tested in the NIH-sponsored trial that began in June.

Dr. Miguel Sierra-Hoffman, an associate professor of infectious disease at Baylor Scott & White Hospital and of pulmonary medicine at Texas A&M University, who has overseen the care of thousands of COVID-19 patients at multiple hospitals, remains convinced that the embrace of outpatient treatments early on would have been a difference maker  and an economical one. If we had given people aspirin, ivermectin, colchicine, and if they get complicated, a little dexamethasone, we could have saved the world with one dollar.

For his part, Sen. Johnson blames public health authorities for orchestrating a broader campaign against early treatment with repurposed drugs. Rather than seriously consider evidence showing the potential of early treatments including ivermectin, your agencies prefer to mischaracterize, conflate and misconstrue anything that goes against the mainstream narrative and the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry, he wrote in an October 2021 letter to Biden administration health officials.

This article was adapted from a RealClearInvestigations article published Dec. 21.
Dundalk was one of a number of venues across the island that marked the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry.

Crowds gathered at Market Square at 4pm on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the killings of 14 men and boys by British soldiers in Derry on 31st January 1972.

The event in Dundalk was addressed by Deputy Ruairi O Murchu who said people were there in solidarity with the families in Derry who had shown inspirational resilience, determination and courage over the last five decades.

He said Bloody Sunday had happened in the context of British government policy at the time and happened in the aftermath of Ballymurphy.

He said:

It is with the passing of the years that we have learned of British state collusion in many deaths.

The reality is that when the British government talk of a Troubles amnesty, what they really mean is hiding their dirty war in Ireland, from the top down.

Deputy O Murchu said there would be an opportunity to speak about legacy issues in Leinster House this week.

He said he would raise the deaths of Seamus Ludlow, as well as Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters in the 1975 Dundalk Bombing in Crowe Street.
A man whose father passed away following a cardiac arrest on a garage forecourt in Dundalk, decided to raise the money to buy and install a defibrillator on the garage forecourt in memory of his father.

Miceal Hinchey went into cardiac arrest on the forecourt at Centra on the Castletown Road in Dundalk in December 2019 and unfortunately passed away.

His son Niall, made the decision last year to raise the money to buy and install a defibrillator on the Centra forecourt, to remember his father.

With the help of his brothers, John and Christopher, and their family, they managed to raise enough to buy the defibrillator. Paddy O'Hanlon of Centra on the Castletown Road told the Dundalk Democrat, that they also made a donation towards the defibrillator and also agreed to purchase the cabinet.

The installation of the defibrillator was completed last week, along with an accompanying plaque in memory of Miceal.

Owner of the Centra, Colin Fee has since pledged to fit a defibrillator at each of his four shops in town - Centra Castletown Rd, Centra Greenacres, Maxol Dublin Rd, and also Maxol Avenue Rd, where a defibrillator was fitted before Christmas.

Dundalk Credit Union and Dundalk Lions Club, who are already involved in fitting other defibrillators around Dundalk and organising training have both supported this cause.
Public Health North East, the department which covers Louth, Monaghan, Cavan and Meath, has been bestowed with a HSE Excellence Award for the Health Service's response to COVID-19.

The HSE Excellence Award Certificate to Public Health Departments for the Health Services response to COVID-19 took place on Zoom, on Monday 31 January.

In presenting the excellence award, Dr Colm Henry, HSEs Chief Clinical Officer, acknowledged that hundreds of hard-working staff in every region, including doctors, nurses, surveillance teams, contact tracers and administrative staff, have played a unique role throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Dr Augustine Pereira, Director of Public Health North East, accepting the award on behalf of the staff of the North East said, We came together as a unified workforce to serve the people of Cavan, Monaghan, Louth and Meath  and to address the evolving pandemic challenges, with one goal - reducing serious illness and loss of life.

Dr Bernadette OKeefe, Specialist in Public Health outlined that the pandemic work began long before the first case appeared in Ireland, as we worked to prepare guidance and processes, in order to respond quickly to whatever scenario presented. As the pandemic evolved, we had to continually revise and adapt, and communicate the rationale for what we were doing.

"The long hours of intense work were tough, but there was also a sense of satisfaction in being able to do what we are trained to do, and use our skills to control the transmission of infection in the population we serve.

Dr OKeefe acknowledged the support we received was uplifting, particularly the help from colleagues who came to work with us in the Department from other areas of the health service, or returning from retirement. For some, Public Health was a new area of work, but they rose to the challenge and made a huge contribution. It was a reminder of the calibre of people who work in the health service.

Dr Pereira admitted that Public Health teams tend to work in the background of health protection, improvement and surveillance, but were pushed to prominence in their role in the pandemic and added Today, as we celebrate this recognition, I personally want to thank our teams of Public Health Specialists, SMOs, Nurses, Surveillance teams, and broader contact management and helpline response, as well as our management and administration support individuals.

"All of us were unified in the single goal of controlling infection sources, blocking transmission routes, and protecting those most vulnerable in our communities

Adding that Each and every individual of our dedicated teams utilised their knowledge and expertise in population health, and responsibility in infectious disease control, in addressing the pandemics immediate impacts on the health of local populations.

"Their understanding of local places and resources situated them at the epicentre of public health decision making. With a dedicated team of nurses and doctors identifying, tracking & breaking virus transmissions in community settings, residential care homes, nursing homes, schools and workforces and other vulnerable settings, the Department did its best to halt the pandemic.

Above: colleagues meet in person with their online colleagues in Environmental Health, Health Promotion, School inspection and Community Medical officers at the HSE Excellence Awards to Public Health North East

Staff

Before the pandemic was declared, the Public Health Department of the North East had 13 staff. The team rapidly grew at the peak to over 100 staff. Dr Pereira acknowledged the support offered to Public Health from colleagues and partners:

We had a lot of help along the way, and we couldn't have done it without the support of our amazing colleagues who came to help out  from Health Promotion & Improvement, School Inspectors, Environmental Health Officers, Primary Care team, Community Medical Doctors.

"They all came and worked with our core PH staff as one team, and we were stronger together. Their specialist knowledge and willingness to come on board, often at short notice, in times of great uncertainty is gratefully acknowledged today

Vaccination & Vigilance

Going forward testing and isolating will remain essential, say Public Health North East and "we can never assume that this is the last variant and we are in the end game. Last week there were over 12.000 positive cases in the North East."

Dr Pereira said I want to remember the lives we lost to Covid. And remembering them we validate and strengthen our commitment to do everything possible to avoid preventable deaths going forward.

"We have vaccines and we shall make sure we do everything possible to offer vaccines to anyone who hasn't had one so everyone is protected. And as we committed in our department strategy which we developed during the last year, we shall do everything possible to tackle health inequity, experienced by the most vulnerable in society.

Dr Pereira concluded his acceptance of the Award, in addressing Public Health Team North East, saying, colleagues, there are many lessons from the pandemic, but one that stands out for me is the true dedication and commitment I have witnessed and the vital and essential role public health has played throughout the pandemic, and in accepting this award on your behalf, I dedicate this award to each and every one of you.
SpaceX pushed a planned Starlink launch from Kennedy Space Center to Thursday, one day after it plans a California launch while new rocket company Astra Space may finally get its first launch from the Space Coast this weekend.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 launch from KSCs Launch Pad 39-A was originally targeted for last weekend, but weather as well as an interloping cruise ship into a no-go zone kept delaying another SpaceX launch that finally took off from neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday.

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OUT OF THIS WORLD  A time-lapse image shows the trajectory of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., over the Orlando Science Center observatory at dusk, Monday, January 31, 2022. The SpaceX launch deployed a COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 satellite, operated by the Italian Space Agency. SpaceX has two launches planned for Wednesday, February 2: The Starlink 4-7 mission from Kennedy Space Center and NROL-87, a classified satellite payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

That launch sent an Italian satellite into orbit, the second SpaceX launch from CCSFS this year with the other two launches from KSC.

Now, what would be the companys fifth launch from Florida for the year is slated for liftoff between 1:13 p.m.

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The forecast calls for 80% chance of favorable weather conditions with the primary concern being cumulus clouds, according to a forecast from Space Launch Delta 45s Weather Squadron. A 24-hour delay with a target of 12:51 p.m. sees only a 70% chance for good conditions.

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Meanwhile, Astra Space, which is based in Alameda, Calif., looks to make its debut launch from CCSFSs Space Launch Complex 46. It has been given a window to launch from 1-4 p.m. Saturday pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. The company announced it expected to receive its launch license by Friday.

The forecast calls for 70% chance of good weather Saturday.

Astras Rocket 3.3 is small in comparison to the Falcon 9, standing only 38 feet tall and with a payload capacity of 331 pounds. The company has only reached orbit once, on a demonstration mission for the Space Force from a launch complex in Kodiak, Alaska last November. The Florida mission is its first operational mission, aiming to send four small satellites as part of NASAs CubeSat Launch Initiative. Astra Space was one of three companies to win funds as part of NASAs Venture Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 contract, and bid $3.9 million for this launch.

I think its by far, maybe by a factor of 10, the least expensive flight out of Cape Canaveral in history and so the access to space has enabled a whole new generation of entrepreneurs to build companies, to take these companies public, to provide new capabilities and so this innovation is something that is akin to the internet back some 20 or 30 years ago, said Astra Space CEO Chris Kemp.

The company has three more launches on tap from Canaveral this summer as well to put a series of satellites in orbit for NASAs TROPICS mission, which stands for Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats.

If both SpaceX and Astra are successful with this weeks launches, they would make seven liftoffs within five weeks from the Space Coast for 2022, the beginning of what is expected to be the busiest year yet for launches.

It has been an amazing opportunity to support a new era of space launch from Cape Canaveral, said 1st Lt. Brendan Kennedy, Range Operations Commander Instructor with Space Launch Delta 45 in January. The teams ability to adapt and thrive in a more dynamic environment is a testament to our Guardians and Airmens commitment to ensuring the United States maintains its assured access to space, in an increasingly contested space environment.
A 27-year-old Dundalk woman died from multiple injuries when the car in which she was a passenger, crashed head-on into a lorry near Drogheda six years ago, an inquest in Navan was told.

The inquest, conducted by Co Meath Coroner Nathaniel Lacy, heard that Leoni Walsh, originally from Murhevnamore but living at Langfield Close, Dublin Road, Dundalk died instantaneously in the incident on the Duleek to Drogheda Road in the early hours of 8th January 2015.

Mr Lacy said the inquest had been delayed because criminal proceedings had emanated from the incident and a man had been convicted and given a custodial sentence.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Lambe, Drogheda Garda Station, told the inquest that he had been travelling on the R152 Drogheda-Duleek Road at about 6am and there was an articulated truck being driven in front of him.

As he approached a straight stretch of road on the Platin Road he saw the lights of a car coming from the Duleek direction, veering onto the wrong side of the road and colliding head-on with the front of the truck.

The truck carrying 30 tonnes of steel, ended up through a fence and into the Irish Cement grounds, he said.

The morning was dry but cold and the surface of the road was damp but not wet.

He contacted Drogheda Garda Station and asked Gardai there to alert the emergency services.

A number of people arrived at the scene and attempted to help the injured.

He said the car was so badly damaged that there was no possibility of attending to the person in the front of the car.

The front of the car appeared to have taken the brunt of the impact as the engine was pushed back on the front seat passengers.

A person at the scene informed him that there were four persons in the car.

He said he spoke to the 38-year-old driver of the truck but did not see the front of his vehicle because it was in the Irish Cement grounds.

A Garda said it was thought that the deceased and a number of people in the car were coming from a party in Dundalk but the Gardai did not know exactly where they had come from.

The deceased was a well known member of the local community and had been employed at the Adelphi Jade Restaurant in Dundalk.
Louth Sinn Fein TD, Ruairi O Murchu has said that communications between National Pen and its workers have been dreadful over many years, and has sought assurances from government on what the redundancy packages will be for Dundalk employees.

Deputy O Murchu was speaking in the Dail last week, where he raised the issue of 100 redundancies being made at National Pen in Dundalk, with Tanaiste Leo Varadkar during Questions on Promised Legislation. The Louth TD was seeking an update on what engagement the government has had with National Pen.

National Pen have commenced engagement with workers affected by an announcement earlier this month by the company that 100 redundancies in fulfilment operations were being sought, and the jobs moved to the Czech Republic.

Deputy O Murchu said: This is not the first time we have been down this road. Communications between National Pen and its workers have been dreadful over many years.

There is a fear around its promises and commitments. The Tanaiste also spoke of an attractive redundancy package. There is a fear in that regard among many workers who have given long-term service to the company. A top-tier management team is going up against individuals. The workforce is not unionised.

The Sinn Fein TD continued: We will finally have to address the issue of collective bargaining. Will the Tanaiste give me some information about the Government's engagement and the promises to ensure there is an attractive package for those who have done fine work for this company that has been in Dundalk since 1987?

The Tanaiste responded that his engagement with National Pen has been through the IDA and the redundancies cannot be prevented although, he said, there would be job increases in other parts of the company.

He added: National Pen remains committed to Dundalk, which is welcome. We are advised that a decent or generous redundancy package will be offered to the staff. I do not know the details of that but we are advised that will be the case.

Speaking after the debate, Deputy O Murchu said: People in National Pen need to see what is meant by decent or generous redundancy packages. We need to see what is being offered, and whether it could be termed decent or generous.
Rethink Ireland are marking four years of their Social Enterprise Development Fund and have published a report highlighting the impact of the Fund and spotlighting some of the social enterprises supported since 2018, including local Louth group: Development Perspectives.

The Social Enterprise Development Fund was created in 2018 by Rethink Ireland in partnership with Local Authorities Ireland and funded by IPB Insurance and the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund to find and back the best social enterprises in Ireland by making cash grants and strategic business support available to awardees.

Nationally, the Social Enterprise Development Fund has supported 112 social enterprises and created 209 jobs.

According to Rethink Ireland, a significant achievement of the fund is the support that has been given to traditionally under-represented communities.

The Social Enterprise Development Fund has succeeded in delivering services to over 270,000 people throughout Ireland and mobilised 16,507 volunteers.

Stephanie Walsh, Business Development Director at Rethink Ireland, said:

Over the past four years, we have supported social enterprises throughout Ireland to provide responses to urgent social issues, while working closely with local communities.

These social enterprises work to promote access to employment, delivering training and giving a voice to those not often heard in society; creating local solutions to the global climate crisis; and providing bespoke, holistic services to our most vulnerable in society.

Social enterprises based in Louth are being encouraged to apply for funding through the Social Enterprise Development Fund 2022 and the Social Enterprise Start-Up Fund which have officially opened for applications.

Also commenting, Joan Martin, Chief Executive of Louth County Council, said:

"Were excited to be working with Rethink Ireland in their effort to support social enterprises around the country.

The Social Enterprise Funds, which will focus on continued seed funding for start-up social enterprises, will strengthen its focus on providing vital supports to early-stage social enterprises with the development of a new business course and a clear pathway for social enterprises looking to build their businesses.

This will deliver real and meaningful change to each of the organisations involved and Irelands social enterprise sector as a whole."

George Jones, Group Director and Chairman of IPB Insurance, added:

We are delighted to renew our support for a further two years of the Social Enterprise Development Fund with Rethink Ireland and the Department of Rural & Community Development in partnership with our local authority members.

Working alongside our local authority Members, our collaboration with Rethink Ireland and the Department has focused on identifying and supporting the best social enterprises nationwide with the added benefit of promoting the sector as an important contributor to Ireland's socio-economic development.

I think the need for Social Enterprises has been highlighted more than ever by the pandemic and global conversations around sustainability.

Social enterprises are motivated by seeing a social need and setting out to meet that need in a sustainable manner.

Applications for the 2022 Social Enterprise Development Fund and Social Enterprise Start Up Fund will be open until March 3rd and can be found on Rethink Irelands website, www.rethinkireland.ie
Judges in the trial of former Defence Forces soldier Lisa Smith on Tuesday rejected the argument that the basis of her arrest in December 2019 was unlawful.

Lawyers for former Defence Forces soldier Lisa Smith had on Monday challenged the legality of her arrest on her return to Ireland.

The Co Louth woman, 39, has pleaded not guilty to charges of membership of so-called Islamic State and providing funds to benefit the group.

In front of the three-judge Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday, legal representatives for Ms Smith specifically contested the legality of her arrest under the Offences Against the State Act 1939, after she returned to Ireland in 2019.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt on Tuesday rejected the proposed interpretation of Irish anti-terrorism law put forward by defence counsel Michael OHiggins and said that the arrest by Detective Sergeant Gareth Kane was legal, with powers properly exercised.

The judge said that the eventuality raised by such a case was contemplated and expressly provided for under Irish law.

Smith is charged under Section Six of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005, which makes it an offence to join a foreign unlawful organisation.

It is alleged that, between October 28 2015 and December 1 2019 at a location outside the State, she was a member of a terrorist group styling itself the Islamic State.

She has also been accused of financing terrorism by sending 800 euro (670) in assistance via a Western Union money transfer to a named individual in 2015.

The trial continues on Wednesday.
After the blizzard, the big chill as East Coast digs out
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Just after his first week of official practice, new transfer Jesse Miritello persuaded sever
As per section 1.4.2 (iii) of the Directive on Access to Information: "For Projects approved by Bank management where the Board of Directors has delegated the approval authority, the PSD shall be disclosed at the start of the relevant no-objection notification period to a member country of the Bank in accordance with Article 13 (iii) of the Agreement Establishing the EBRD."

Project Description

The provision of a senior loan of up to MNT 8.0 billion ( 2.4m) to Sain International one of the leading distributors and retailers of consumer electronic devices and home appliances in Mongolia.

Project Objectives

The funds will help Sain International: (i) launch new branches in key commercial locations of Ulaanbaatar, Darkhan and Erdenet cities' as well as (ii) finance its working capital needs. New branches will allow the company to showcase its products and services in better quality retail space and to attract new customers.

Transition Impact

ETI score: 60

The project will contribute to the framework objectives by supporting the company in the following areas:

Primary quality "Competitive": improve the competitiveness of the Company via operational improvements, namely productivity and profitability.

Secondary quality "Well-Governed": significantly improve the corporate governance practices of the Company through adopting international accounting standards (IFRS).

Client Information

SAIN INTERNATIONAL LLC

Sain International, established in 1998, is one of the leading distributors and retailers of consumer electronic devices and home appliances in Mongolia. It is 70 per cent owned by a Mongolian entrepreneur Mr Gan-Ochir Tumendemberel and 30 per cent owned by his spouse Mrs Amgalantuya Bayasgalan.

EBRD Finance Summary

MNT 8,000,000,000.00

MNT 8.0 billion ( 2.4m) senior secured loan to the Company in two tranches.

Total Project Cost

MNT 8,000,000,000.00

The total Project cost amounts to MNT 8.0 billion.

Additionality

Financing Structure - the EBRD offers financing with a tenor longer than what is available from local commercial sources for domestic corporates and it is necessary for the Company to implement its long-term capital expenditure plan;

Standard-Setting - The Company sees significant value in the Bank's participation in improving its corporate governance via acquiring higher financial standards and through the Bank's financial covenants.

Environmental and Social Summary

Categorised B (ESP 2019). The ESDD was conducted on the basis of a review of the E&S questionnaires completed by the Client. The Project is considered to be Paris-aligned for climate-adaptation. The Client will need to comply with the Bank's Performance Requirements and submit annual environmental and social reports to the Bank.

Technical Cooperation and Grant Financing

1. External legal due diligence - TC for the review of current legal standing of the company and draft legal documentation necessary for the project. Total amount is approximately US$ 17,500 with the Company contributing 50 per cent.

Company Contact Information

Amgalantuya Bayasgalan

amgalantuya@esain.mn

+976-88119921

https://esain.mn/

Ayud Tower 8F, Olympic Street 4, Sukhbaatar District, Ulaanbaatar 14240



PSD last updated

25 Jan 2022

Understanding Transition

Further information regarding the EBRDs approach to measuring transition impact is available here.

Business opportunities

For business opportunities or procurement, contact the client company.

For business opportunities with EBRD (not related to procurement) contact:

Tel: +44 20 7338 7168

Email: projectenquiries@ebrd.com

For state-sector projects, visit EBRD Procurement:



Tel: +44 20 7338 6794

Email: procurement@ebrd.com

General enquiries

Specific enquiries can be made using the EBRD Enquiries form.

Environmental and Social Policy (ESP)

The ESP and the associated Performance Requirements (PRs) set out the ways in which the EBRD implements its commitment to promoting environmentally sound and sustainable development. The ESP and the PRs include specific provisions for clients to comply with the applicable requirements of national laws on public information and consultation as well as to establish a grievance mechanism to receive and facilitate resolution of stakeholders concerns and grievances, in particular, about environmental and social performance of the client and the project. Proportionate to the nature and scale of a projects environmental and social risks and impacts, the EBRD additionally requires its clients to disclose information, as appropriate, about the risks and impacts arising from projects or to undertake meaningful consultation with stakeholders and consider and respond to their feedback.

More information on the EBRDs practices in this regard is set out in the ESP.

Integrity and Compliance

The EBRD's Office of the Chief Compliance Officer (OCCO) promotes good governance and ensures that the highest standards of integrity are applied to all activities of the Bank in accordance with international best practice. Integrity due diligence is conducted on all Bank clients to ensure that projects do not present unacceptable integrity or reputational risks to the Bank. The Bank believes that identifying and resolving issues at the project assessment approval stages is the most effective means of ensuring the integrity of Bank transactions. OCCO plays a key role in these protective efforts, and also helps to monitor integrity risks in projects post-investment.

OCCO is also responsible for investigating allegations of fraud, corruption and misconduct in EBRD-financed projects. Anyone, both within or outside the Bank, who suspects fraud or corruption should submit a written report to the Chief Compliance Officer by email to compliance@ebrd.com. All matters reported will be handled by OCCO for follow-up. All reports, including anonymous ones, will be reviewed. Reports can be made in any language of the Bank or of the Bank's countries of operation. The information provided must be made in good faith.

Access to Information Policy (AIP)

The AIP sets out how the EBRD discloses information and consults with its stakeholders so as to promote better awareness and understanding of its strategies, policies and operations following its entry into force on 1 January 2020. Please visit the Access to Information Policy page to find out what information is available from the EBRD website.

Specific requests for information can be made using the EBRD Enquiries form.

Independent Project Accountability Mechanism (IPAM)

If efforts to address environmental, social or public disclosure concerns with the Client or the Bank are unsuccessful (e.g. through the Clients Project-level grievance mechanism or through direct engagement with Bank management), individuals and organisations may seek to address their concerns through the EBRDs Independent Project Accountability Mechanism (IPAM).

IPAM independently reviews Project issues that are believed to have caused (or to be likely to cause) harm. The purpose of the Mechanism is: to support dialogue between Project stakeholders to resolve environmental, social and public disclosure issues; to determine whether the Bank has complied with its Environmental and Social Policy or Project-specific provisions of its Access to Information Policy; and where applicable, to address any existing non-compliance with these policies, while preventing future non-compliance by the Bank.

Please visit the Independent Project Accountability Mechanism webpage to find out more about IPAM and its mandate; how to submit a Request for review; or contact IPAM via email ipam@ebrd.com to get guidance and more information on IPAM and how to submit a request.
PARTS of rural Cork may not get fibre broadband connections before 2030.

That was the stark message delivered to councillors in West Cork recently by Louis Duffy, Director of Environment and Emergency Services at Cork County Council.

Now, residents and business people there have told The Echo about their concerns over the slow pace, and the impact this is having on their lives.

Mr Duffy was presenting a report on the progress of the National Broadband Plan in Cork, and warned that with many areas not due to be surveyed for two or three years, actually getting connected for these areas would take even longer.

With the programme not scheduled to start in some areas until 2025 or 2026, there is every risk that some of these premises may not be served in the next decade, he said.

Unfortunately, we in the County Council have no control over the situation. All we can do is continue to make representations.

Some 67,000 premises in County Cork are part of the National Broadband Plan, which aims to supply a future-proofed high speed connection that will initially provide minimum download speeds of 500 mbs to areas where it is not commercially viable for private operators to do so.

Currently, work is being carried out in Carrigaline, Midleton, Youghal and near the county bounds at Rathmore. Many other areas, however, face a wait of years before they are even surveyed.

In the meantime, community centres across the county are being connected in advance, to provide Broadband Connection Points with public access higher speed broadband, but many councillors in West Cork are not impressed with the rate of progress.

Kinsale-based Cllr Kevin Murphy said, To be only surveying in 2025 is totally unacceptable, if people will have to wait until 2030 or even later before they can get a decent service well, that is just outrageous.

This is going to set us back years and years and we really need to protest about this.

Skibbereen-based Fianna Fail councillor Joe Carroll said: There is big demand out there. More and more people are working from home since the lockdown, and many of them want to stay working from home, but without proper broadband that just isnt possible.

The lockdowns imposed by Covid-19 placed the lack of broadband in rural areas under further scrutiny. With many people having to work from home, the environmental and societal benefits of home working have led to demands for more flexibility from employers.

The Government has just published details of a new law set to offer workers the right to request home working, but it also includes several grounds on which employers can refuse such an application, including concerns re the internet connectivity of the proposed remote working location.

For many, remote working will not be a realistic option for many years.

John Walsh is Project Coordinator at the Bere Island Projects Group, where the island community has been struggling with inadequate broadband for years. There are about 75 occupied homes on the island and a similar number of holiday homes.

We were told before that we would have a wireless connection for the island in 2022 but the National Broadband Plan now seems to have superseded that, said Mr Walsh.

We are relying on 4G phone connections mainly, but its very patchy. At the east end of the island its a real blackspot and you cant even get decent mobile phone coverage most of the time. Its very frustrating for people.

Mr Walsh said the islands exchange was upgraded about 15 years ago and there are modern lines serving the properties, but there is no high speed connection to the mainland.

BROADBAND ISSUES: Neil and Katy Lucey at the Gougane Barra Hotel

We had meetings with eircom in Castletownbere and we were ready to lay a cable across the the island ourselves, but now, because of the National Broadband Plan, we cant do that and we have to wait until they reach us - and who knows when that will be? he said.

We have looked at various funding options and potential solutions but there is no joined up thinking, there doesnt seem to be any plan. This is a make or break issue for rural communities like ours and the way things are at the moment, it looks like it wont be solved for years, he added.

In picturesque Gougane Barra, Neil Lucey, owner / manager of the Gougane Barra Hotel, tells a similar story of struggling for years to try and get a decent connection.

We have tried all sorts of solutions and it has been a major headache for us for many years, he said. We are here in this beautiful location but we are also right at the end of the line when it comes to broadband.

He added: Weve tried all sorts of solutions and all sorts of providers over the years with varying degrees of success. We ended up setting up our own system running a cable up the hill and then using a fixed wireless signal to my daughters house 8km away!

Mr Lucey has recently stated using Elon Musks Starlink satellite system, which has made a major difference.

It has been a game changer. Its the first time weve had a decent high speed service.

As for the National Broadband Plan, we will be waiting years before they get here, if they ever do.

This is an essential service now, like transport or water, and it should be prioritised in the same way.

We all need access to high speed broadband for business and for home, he added.

Satellite may be the best option for many remoter locations in the meantime - as well as Starlink, Amazon, Oneweb and Telesat services are all due to be available in Ireland soon, and there have been calls to make grants available to help with the cost of installing such systems.

Satellite options, though, are unlikely to be able to provide the higher speeds ultimately promised by the National Broadband Plan fixed lines.
THE Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has called for bespoke plans to be produced for hospitals where chronic overcrowding is a persistent feature of the hospital environment after figures revealed that January overcrowding in some hospitals, including in Cork, has reached levels never before seen.

Publishing their first monthly Trolley Watch report of 2022, the INMO said that urgent action must be taken to address overcrowding in Irish hospitals.

Their call comes as the new figures reveal that nationally there were 8,636 patients on trolleys in the month of January, 132% higher than January 2021.

Cork University Hospital (CUH) experienced the third-highest level of overcrowding during January of this year.

There was a total of 750 patients waiting on beds at CUH over the course of the month.

This was up from last year when 522 patients were waiting on beds at the hospital during the same month.

The two hospitals that experienced the highest levels of overcrowding during January 2022 were University Hospital Limerick, with 1,300 on trolleys, and Letterkenny University Hospital, with 817 waiting on beds.

Record high number of patients waiting for beds at Mercy

In Cork, Mercy University Hospital (MUH) had a total of 472 patients waiting on beds during the month, according to the INMO  the highest on record for January.

We cannot allow a return to pre-2020 business as usual in our hospitals, where chronic overcrowding is allowed to continue, INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said.

It is only the first month of the year and we had overcrowding records broken in our hospitals, with University Hospital Limerick logging record overcrowding two days in a row last week.

We have seen the highest levels of January overcrowding since the INMO began Trolley Watch in 2006 in University Hospital Limerick, Letterkenny University Hospital, Mercy University Hospital, Portiuncula Hospital, Sligo University Hospital, [and] University Hospital Galway.

It is not acceptable to us that chronic overcrowding is allowed to continue while Covid is still rampant in many of our hospitals.

Our members are frankly embarrassed and tired of apologising to patients for the poor standard of care environments, she continued.

Ms Ni Sheaghdha said the HSE must take steps to ensure that chronic levels of overcrowding do not continue into February, March, and beyond.

The HSE should once again issue guidance to all hospitals on curtailing non-urgent elective procedures until the end of February.

Bespoke plans should be produced for hospitals where chronic overcrowding is a persistent feature of the hospital environment, she said.

Speaking about the situation in Cork, INMO officer for Cork and Kerry Liam Conway said overcrowding was a serious issue, particularly in CUH and MUH, and that staff are burnt out and frustrated.

Following societys return to normality with the easing of Covid restrictions, Mr Conway said that there had been an increase in presentations to emergency departments.

In relation to the situation at MUH, Mr Conway said that the INMO recently met with hospital management and that short-term measures had been put in place in a bid to tackle the situation. However, he warned that this was not a silver bullet.

He said urgent action must be taken to tackle overcrowding in hospitals across the country, adding that additional resources, not just an increase in bed capacity, was needed to tackle the issue.

CUH statement

A spokesperson for CUH said that the emergency department at the hospital has been "exceptionally busy" over the last number of days.

"Due to this increased level of activity and subsequent admissions, it is regrettable that some patients may experience a delay in the ED.

"The increase in attendance is due to the large number of very ill medical patients requiring admission Patient care is paramount in CUH and this situation is being treated as a priority by Hospital Management who have taken steps to address this issue.

"Hospital management have requested that, where appropriate, the public contact their GP/South Doc in the first instance and explore all other options available to them prior to attending the Emergency Department if their needs are not urgent.

General Practitioner / South Doc

Mercy Urgent Care Centre, St. Marys Health Campus, Gurranabraher, Cork TelephoneTelephone - 021-4926900

Local Injuries Unit Bantry General Hospital: Telephone 027 50133

Local Injuries Unit, Mallow: General Hospital: Telephone 022  58506.

"Hospital Management wishes to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all staff during this very busy time," the spokesperson added.
Cork City Council has given the green light for a new day service facility to be developed which will cater for the needs of adults with an intellectual disability or with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Back in November, Praxis Care sought permission for the change of use of the ground floor of Unit 1, Nore House, located in Riverview Business Park on the Bessboro Road in Mahon from office use to provide day service opportunities for learning and development community inclusion and social care provision to adult service users presenting with intellectual disability/ Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Praxis Care provides care to adults and children with Autism, learning disabilities, mental ill health and dementia in the UK, Ireland and Isle of Man.

In June 2021 it was announced that Praxis Care had become responsible for Cork Association for Autism services.

In June 2018 the HSE became the temporary registered provider for CAA under section 64.4 of the Health Act 2007.

Following a tender process in 2019, Praxis Care was identified as the appropriate new provider.

In documentation submitted with the planning application, it stated that the new facility in Mahon would act as a hub for community engagement and inclusion for those who avail of Praxis Cares services.

The organisation said that the provision of support would be delivered in line with 'New Directions', the HSEs approach to supporting adults with disabilities who use day services in Ireland.

Cork City Council has granted permission for the change of use of the ground floor of the unit in Riverview Business Park, with six routine conditions attached.
A CORK TD has received confirmation from the Chief Executive of the National Transport Authority (NTA) that commuter fare structures will come into effect for Mallow rail commuters this year.

Cork East TD Sean Sherlock received confirmation from Chief Executive Anne Graham who said: I can confirm that we will be introducing the commuter fare in Mallow this year.

Deputy Sherlock had previously received written assurances from the Chief Executive in December of last year but sought to confirm the measure when she appeared at the Public Accounts Committee, of which he is a member.

I have a mountain of correspondence with the NTA in respect of fare structures between Mallow and Cork.

Mallow is a typical example of a town that is within commuting distance of a big city and where I perceive that there is an inequality as between the commuter who commutes to Cork from Mallow and the person who travels, for instance, from Greystones to Pearse Station in terms of fare structures.

I note and welcome the correspondence that I have received from the NTA in relation to the introduction of commuter fares. I wish to raise the issue of commuter fares because there are thousands upon thousands of people who will make the modal shift from car to train if the fare structures are right throughout the country. Mallow is a typical example of that, he said.

Deputy Sherlock said that the sooner we get new fare structures in place, the better.

Overnight, you will see a demand for those services among students, workers and citizens in general. That is why I asked the question about the Cork-Dublin upgrades in relation to speed.

If we can get more rolling stock on those lines between Cobh, Midleton, Cork, Mallow and Charleville, for instance, and open up new intermediate stations as well, you will create demand. Quite frankly, that is where the Minister is at. That is where the citizens are at.

The more the NTA can influence that and bring that about, the more positive the impact it will have for citizens. If there is a confirmation of the fact that commuter fares will be introduced, as per the NTAs correspondence to me already, I would welcome that, he said.
Effingham, IL (62401)

Today

Rain likely. High 64F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain with thunderstorms by morning. Low 59F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Dr Olaf Munkelt, MVTec Software: "Overall, we expect further growth in the machine vision industry."

The Munich-based machine vision software manufacturer MVTec Software is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The company is known for its image processing software packages "Halcon" and "Merlic".

MVTec was founded in 1996 as a spin-off of the Technical University of Munich and the Bavarian Research Centre for Knowledge-based Systems (FORWISS). The company's software portfolio consists of the comprehensive machine vision standard software Halcon, the easy-to-use software Merlic for the fast and intuitive creation of entire image processing applications, and a deep learning tool for the simple labelling of image data. The products are used worldwide in a wide variety of image processing applications and include both modern AI technologies such as Deep Learning as well as classic image processing algorithms. The further development of the products is supported by the company's own research department. The results obtained there are continuously incorporated into products and innovations.

MVTec considers the economic framework conditions for its anniversary year to be fundamentally positive. "Although we see certain obstacles to growth with the still strained supply chains and high energy prices, we nevertheless expect further growth in the machine vision industry overall," explains Dr. Olaf Munkelt, managing director and one of the three founders of the company. "The Corona pandemic has made companies even more aware of the need to invest sustainably in automation and digitalisation. Machine Vision is benefiting from this as the eye of production." This is also reflected in the company's goals.

On the one hand, internationalisation is to be further strengthened. In addition to the already existing subsidiaries in the USA and China, MVTec plans to further expand its involvement in important markets such as France or Taiwan. "By strengthening our on-site presence, we can serve our customers even better together with our sales partners," says Martin Krumey, Vice President Sales at MVTec. "In addition, this allows us to grasp the respective market conditions even faster and to optimally respond to the needs of the customers on site. In addition to strengthening our own presences, the optimisation of our worldwide partner networks also plays a decisive role here."

On the other hand, the company's commitment to industry standards is also to continue to play a very important role. "Globally uniform standards are an important key to the end-to-end automation of production chains within the framework of Industry 4.0," Munkelt emphasises. "They enable the efficient, seamless integration of all technologies that accompany automation, such as machine vision."
Thursday, February 3

From Black Power to Black Lives Matter in Detroit

The Department of Africology and American Studies is hosting a virtual discussion titled From Black Power to Black Lives Matter in Detroit, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 3. The event features Nicole Brown, mayor pro-tem, Ypsilanti; Professor Charles Simmons, Hush House; Lloyd Simpson, Detroit Will Breathe; Rev. Jo Ann Watson, former Detroit City Council member.



Register

Saturday, February 5

Detroit History Bus Tour

The History Section presents a tour through Detroits history. Stops of significance to Black history will include the Second Baptist Church; the Brewster-Wheeler Recreation Center; the starting point of the 1967 Uprising; and the home of Ossian Sweet, an African-American doctor who dared to move into a white neighborhood in 1925. For more information, contact Professor Ashley Johnson Bavery.

Saturday, February 5

YpsiWrites Writing Workshop: I, Too, Hear America Singing: A Poetry Writing Workshop

YpsiWrites will host a virtual poetry writing workshop from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 5. We'll explore how poetry can help writers of all skill levels and review personal experiences. Poet and Part-Time Lecturer David Boeving will facilitate this workshop. Register below. Attendees will receive a Zoom link a few days before the event.

Register

Wednesday, February 9

Noon - Live and in-depth conversations with EMU alumni featured on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter



Marc Perry is the president and CEO of Advantage Communications, has more than 25 years of experience in marketing and advertising. Perry has worked with various organizations, from automotive manufacturers and minority suppliers to nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies, including Chrysler and Ford Motor Company.

Perry holds a bachelors degree in business administration from Eastern Michigan University and enjoys volunteering with the Eastern Michigan University Alumni Association Board of Directors and the Horizons-Upward Bound program to help young men develop their reading skills and get them college-ready.

Wednesday, February 9

Cut the Cost of Branding with Talia Edgar

Join Talia Edgar, EMU alumna and entrepreneur, in an engaging talk focused on the importance of entrepreneurship in the black community on Wednesday, Feb. 9 from 7 - 8:15 p.m. Event link will be posted when it is available.

February 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, & 20

Pipeline

EMU Theatre is proud to present our February 2022 mainstage production, Pipeline, written by Dominique Morisseau and directed by Wallace Bridges. Pipeline shares the story of Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher and her son Omari who attends a private school. Nya and her ex-husband have chosen this option for their son. An incident at the predominately white school between Omari and a teacher puts him on the brink of expulsion and Nya on the brink of breakdown. Important questions and passionate voices are raised in this timely piece about race, family conflict, and the American education system. The title itself refers to the school-to-prison pipeline, a harsh reality facing many young Black men and others from marginalized communities.

February 11, 12, 18, 19 at 7:00 p.m.

February 13 & 20 at 2:00 p.m.

For tickets call 734-487-2282 or visit emich.edu/emutheatre

Tuesday, February 15

Dr. Rema Reynolds Workshop - Professionalism in Black

Join EMUs NAACP chapter and Dr. Rema Reynolds, associate professor of Leadership and Counseling at EMU, in a workshop focused on professional development and embracing blackness in the workplace on Tuesday, Feb. 15, from 7 - 8:30 p.m. Event link will be posted when it is available.

Wednesday, February 16

Noon - Live and in-depth conversations with EMU alumni featured on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter

Toni Carter is an HR professional with more than 25 years of human resources experience and 13+ years of multi-unit experience; Senior Director at Vir Biotechnology, Inc., leading the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy and supporting the organization as one of their two Human Resources Business Partners.

Carter attended Eastern Michigan University and obtained her bachelors degree in business management with a major in human resources and a minor in communication in 2002. Toni was very active on her campus as she was chapter president of her sorority, Delta, Sigma Theta Sorority incorporated, member of Phi Sigma Pi Honors Fraternity, and committee chair with the Black Student Union. Upon graduating from EMU, she was the scholarship chair for the EMU Black Alumni Association and awarded over $20,000 in scholarships to undergraduate students with financial need at Eastern Michigan. In 2008, she graduated from Central Michigan University with a master of science in human resources administration.

Thursday, February 17

A Soul Food Moment

Cuppys Best Soulful Bistro will provide 150 students who register with a free meal on Thursday, Feb. 17. This is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Thursday, February 17

Education for Liberation in Detroit

Please, join us as EMUs Department of Africology and African American Studies (AAAS) presents a live panel discussion on Education for Liberation in Detroit. This Black History Month conversation features four outstanding guest speakers: Dorothy Dewberry Aldridge, Michigan Coalition for Human Rights; Rev. Dan Aldridge, Woodward Avenue Community Development Corporation; Dr. Kefentse Chike, WSU Department of African American Studies; and Dr. Joyce Piert, University of Michigan-Flint.

The event is scheduled to be delivered via zoom at 6:00 pm on Thursday, February 17, 2022. Call 734.487.3460, if you have questions.

Register

Friday, February 18

Black Excellence: Financial Literacy Edition

Take your first step to financial independence with this workshop hosted by EMU CORE and EMUs NABA chapter on Friday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. EMU graduate Myles Campbell will discuss tips and tricks for financial wellness. LBC credit eligible.

Join the Zoom Event

Saturday, February 19

Virtual Discussion with Dr. Toni Pressley-Sanon -It All Seemed So Far Away Then, or The Future is Black Women

EMUs Dr. Toni Pressley-Sanon, associate professor of Africology and African American Studies at EMU, will host a virtual discussion and writing session from 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 19. The event's theme is It All Seemed So Far Away Then, or The Future is Black Women.

Register

Monday, February 21

Celebrate Black Voices

Join the Interpretation/Performance Studies program, hosts Gavin Allen and Mollie Cardella, and special guest emcee Genesis Beecham for a fun-filled hour showcasing the joy of performances that celebrate Black artistry! 4:00-5:00 p.m. in room 107 Judy Sturgis Hill Building. For information on watching via Facebook Live or Zoom contact Calli Coburn. Admission is Free. LBC Approved.

Tuesday, February 22

EMUs Kings of Color will host a Moments of Color event on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

Tuesday, February 22

Remembering bell hooks

3:30-5:00 pm, zoom

The Department of Women's and Gender Studies invites you to join in remembering the life and love of feminist troublemaker and public intellectual bell hooks (1952-2021). Author of over 30 books, hooks was an important theorist whose accessible prose explored complex topics ranging from sexism and racism to love and belonging. She gave many public talks, engaging with thought leaders from Laverne Cox to the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. We invite you to join us, bringing your memories of her, selections of her many talks and interviews, and any texts that have influenced you so that we can celebrate her life and her legacy in community.

For more information, contact Beth Currans, [email protected]

Wednesday, February 23

Noon - Live and in-depth conversations with EMU alumni featured on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter

Marnese Jackson is an environmental and climate justice activist, advocate, trainer, and educator from Pontiac, Michigan. She is the co-director of the Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition, which educates Midwesterners on how to end new installations of fossil fuel equipment in residential and commercial buildings by 2030 and how to achieve zero emissions from these buildings by 2050.

Jackson holds a bachelor of arts in interdisciplinary public relations, communications, journalism and African American studies from Eastern Michigan University in 2006 and a master of arts degree from Marygrove College in social justice specializing in environmental, economic and racial justice in 2016.

Thursday, February 24

Music and Movement: The Sounds of Liberation in Detroit

Please join us as EMUs Department of Africology and African American Studies (AAAS) presents a live conversation on Music and Movement: The Sounds of Liberation in Detroit. This Black History Month discussion features three outstanding guest speakers: Marsha Music, author, artist and activist; Piper Carter, co-founder of We Found Hip Hop; and Jae Bass, Detroit Will Breathe.

The event is scheduled to be delivered via zoom at 5:30pm on Thursday, February 24, 2022. Call 734.487.3460 if you have questions.

Register

Thursday, February 24

A Litany for Survival: Black Lives Matter and the remaking of the Dream

Dr. Frank Leon Roberts, social activist, and New York University professor, will lead an informative and interactive discussion on Thursday, Feb. 24. Dr. Roberts is a current faculty member at The New School and created the nation's first #BlackLivesMatter course. The event is hosted by CORE and will take place from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. via Zoom. Students are able to receive LBC credit.

Register

Thursday, February 24

Screening and Roundtable Discussion of "Drawing the Line: Inside the Fight to End Prison Gerrymandering"

EMU's Southeast Michigan Criminal Justice Policy Research Project (SMART) will host an online screening and virtual roundtable discussion of the recent documentary "Drawing the Line: Inside the Fight to End Prison Gerrymandering" from 7:15 to 9:15 pm. Participants will include: EMU faculty members Dr. Barbara Patrick, Dr. Toni Pressley-Sanon, and Dr. Rita Shah; the film director Eugene Kutz; community organizer Cozine Welch, and Michigan State Senator Jeff Irwin. Further information and resources can be found at the event website.

Register

Friday, February 25

Remembering Judy Sturgis Hill

Noon - Live panel discussion - featured on Facebook and YouTube



Judy Sturgis Hill, Emeritus Professor of Communication, Media, and Theatre Arts who passed away in Jan. 2019, had a lengthy and distinguished history as an Eastern Michigan University student and faculty member.

Professor Sturgis Hill served in many roles on campus. She was an EMU student, a member of the national championship Forensics team, a student activist on campus during the civil rights struggles, a resident hall advisor, a graduate assistant, a part-time lecturer, a recipient of a King-Chavez-Parks fellowship, a faculty member, a faculty in-residence (living in the First Year residence hall for many years to support students in their transition to college life), the Director of Diversity programs, the Interim Director of Office of Affirmative Action, the co-chair of the Martin L. King, Jr. planning committee from its inception, and co-Director of the Summer Institute for the Arts and Sciences.

Judy Sturgis Hill was also EMUs first National Forensics Champion, a recipient of the Alumni Teaching Excellence Award, a chosen faculty member to present in the Last Lecture Series, and a recipient of EMUs Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award.

She left a tremendous mark on the lives of students, faculty, and staff, and her legacy will live in the hearts of many. Hills strong dedication to EMU was honored with the renaming of the Quirk Building to the Judy Sturgis Hill Building in Dec. 2020.

Join our panelists at noon on Feb. 18 via EMUs Facebook page or YouTube as we celebrate the life and legacy of Professor Judy Sturgis Hill.

Panelists:

Regent Alex Simpson, attorney for Microsoft, supporting commercial transactions in the U.S. and Canada. Simpson is a proud alumnus who received his bachelor of science in social work from EMU in 2007.

Doris Fields, assistant vice president for Academic Programs and Initiatives, Division of Academic and Student Affairs, professor of communication, School of Communication, Media, and Theatre Arts

Kathleen Stacey, interim assistant vice president for Academic Human Resources

Ray Quiel, emeritus director of Forensics, assistant professor of communication, School of Communication, Media & Theatre Arts

Keith Jason, coordinator of New Student Programming at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Studies Program. Jason is a proud two-time EMU alumnus who received his bachelor of arts in business and marketing and his master of arts in educational leadership - higher education/student affairs.
Washington, MO (63090)

Today

Rain diminishing to a few showers in the afternoon. High 67F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. Low 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
Work progressing on new Liverpool ferry terminal

Drone footage has shown work is progressing on the the Isle of Man's new ferry terminal in Liverpool.

Photographer Paul Frost shared the video of the work at Princes Half Tide Dock on Youtube.

The terminal will be the new home to the Steam Packet at Liverpool.

The Manx Government are funding the scheme which so far has run up a cost of 70.6 Million.

Videos
Athens, AL (35611)

Today

Mainly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 86F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 66F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Google is making it easier for domestic violence survivors to get help. As of today, people who search for domestic violence and abuse terms in the US will see a box that provides direct contact info for The National Domestic Violence Hotline's 24-hour phone (1-800-799-7233) and chat services. The move is meant to help survivors quickly get assistance, particularly when there's only a brief opportunity to safely request aid.

The hotline is available directly in English and Spanish, and through interpreters for over 200 additional languages. Representatives can also offer internet-specific advice, such as hiding your search history or creating an alternate email account.

The quick-access box is similar to those Google offers for other personal crises, and reflects a familiar goal. Google uses these boxes to provide relevant, trustworthy information that could save valuable time, and the effort will easily be worthwhile if it helps people escape dangerous domestic situations.
HBO Max will soon be available in 15 more countries as part of the platform's gradual global rollout. Folks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia can start using the service starting on March 8th.

Once WarnerMedia flips the switch in those locations, HBO Max will be officially accessible in 61 territories across Europe and the Americas, following its debut in Spain, Andorra and four Nordic nations in October. The service will arrive in six more European countries, including Greece and Turkey, later this year.

Word of the second phase of the HBO Max European rollout comes as AT&T announced more details of its plan to spin off WarnerMedia as a separate company as part of the proposed merger with Discovery. AT&T's shareholders will still own 71 percent of Warner Bros. Discovery (as the new company will be called). They'll receive 0.24 shares for each share of AT&T they own. Existing Discovery shareholders will own around 29 percent of the new endeavor.

AT&T expects the move to be completed in the second quarter of 2022. There's talk that HBO Max and Discovery+ may be combined into a single service after the deal closes.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libyan Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba, on Monday inaugurated the third roundabout road project in Tripoli, at a ceremony attended by several ministers, directors of executive bodies and a coalition of Egyptian companies executing the project
Weather Alert

...FLOOD WATCH NOW IN EFFECT THROUGH THURSDAY EVENING... * 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...Through Thursday evening. * 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. Area creeks and streams are running high and could flood with more heavy rain. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Showers and thunderstorm chances will continue through Thursday evening, with an additional 1 to 3 inches of rainfall expected in the watch area. Rainfall totals across the watch area have already exceeded 4 inches for some locations near the I-44 and I-40 corridors across eastern Oklahoma. - 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. &&
From what we have seen of the new The Batman starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, the film looks like a dark, gritty throwback to the crime capers of yesteryear. Though, with Batman just getting his feet wet as a fledgling crime fighter, the real tough as nails character who plays by the book and gets the job done has always been Commissioner James Gordon. And who better than famed actor Jeffrey Wright to step into this often overlooked ally to the Caped Crusader.

Like so many actors, Wright looked for inspiration outside of the source material to get a handle on just what it takes to be both a respected police officer, but also a respected Black figure in law enforcement. In a recent interview with Esquire Middle East, Wright discusses the much anticipated film and how he prepared to play the first Commissioner Gordon of color.

"One of the references I had for Gordon was Eric Adams, who was a very prominent member of the New York City police department that I was aware of in the 90s during the Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima cases because he was a part of an organization called 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. Eric Adams was president and he was very outspoken. For me, he was a reference. Who is this Gordon in a contemporary Gotham? Who might he reflect? I looked at Eric, and of course now Eric is Mayor of New York City."

Sometimes art imitates life in the best ways and Jeffrey Wright is definitely an actor who sees the importance of such things. Times change and with it ideals and perceptions change as well and he found a strong influence in that ebb and flow of our current landscape that might not have been considered in the past.

"I think our film in some ways reflects the changing times, the changing demographic of a fictional American city that is called Gotham. I think in doing that, it takes this series off the museum shelf and puts it in real life in a way that's necessary. We talked about these things with a broad brush, as I described, and only in specific ways as they related to the story that we were telling. But yeah, the resonances are that are there."

This iteration of The Batman is definitely going to be a change of pace from the cookie cutter versions enjoyed in years past. And maybe that is the best thing for a franchise that has been steeped in trope-heavy origin story narrative, overly stylized costumes and vehicles, and societal cliches which no longer resonate with the modern audience. Sure, it may get a bit of push back from purists, but those of us thirsting for a fresh take on an old story are likely to outnumber the hardheaded few who will honestly never be satisfied with whatever is presented to them.

The Batman will be in theaters on March 4th.
Tensions between Russia and the West remain high after the U.S. refused to cede to President Vladimir Putins demands, but analysts say its not too late for him to back down from a military confrontation with Ukraine.

The world is awaiting Russias response after Washington refused to bow to Moscows demands over Ukraine, including that the country is never admitted to NATO, and that the military alliances deployments in Eastern Europe are rolled back.

While Russia considers its next move, there remain heightened concerns that Putin could be poised to give Russian troops a greenlight to invade Ukraine.

Despite insisting repeatedly that it has no plans to launch a military incursion, Russia has stationed around 100,000 troops at various locations along its border with Ukraine, as well as massing troops inside neighboring Belarus  its ally  as well.

There have been scores of diplomatic talks between Russian and Western officials in recent weeks aimed at breaking a deadlock over Ukraine and dialing down the potential for a military confrontation, but so far it is unclear which side will blink first.

How far Putin will go  and whether he will back down  when Russias pride and geopolitical interests are at stake (or at least seen to be in Moscow) is uncertain.

Putin can back down, if he wants

Putin is known for his strongman image in Russia, and with the oppression of opposition figures and independent media, the Kremlin is able to control the domestic narrative when it comes to the president.

As such, analysts say that Putin has room to maneuver without losing face, but only if he chooses to do so.

Maximilian Hess, fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told CNBC that, yes, Putin has cultivated a strongman image, but he has sufficient control of the image and narrative-setting ability that means de-escalation will not be perceived as weakness by the majority of the Russian public.

Ironically, Hess argued, the more military hardware that NATO deploys to eastern Europe, and the more the West threatens Russia with sanctions, the harder it is for Putin to backtrack.

Putin can still back down without major domestic repercussions, though the more material the West commits to Eastern Europe in general does arguably make it somewhat harder, he said.

Major new sanctions would also make it far more difficult, and less desirable from Putins point of view, though so far the West has stressed these will be a response to Russian action, not pre-emptive (the argument gets more complex around Nord Stream 2 of course).

Hess added that they could be elite constituencies within Russias military and intellectual far right that prefer war with Ukraine, but Putins system is fairly resilient to policy disagreements among the elite.

Unsurprisingly, the Wests faith in Russia is very low given its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and support for pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region in east of the country, a move which has further fomented distrust.

Many analysts believe that a smaller incursion in the Donbas region by Russia is possible  or even likely. This would both save face and destabilize Ukraine, while potentially gaining pro-Russian territory. Hess said an attempted annexation of the Donbas was his baseline scenario.

I think Putin can respond to a breakdown in talks or other negative policy outcome (from the Kremlins point of view) by limiting major action to the Donbas without prompting the more dramatic sanctions responses the West has laid out, Hess said.

Little appetite for war

Ostensibly, Russias goals are to maintain its sphere of influence over former Soviet states and to stop an eastward expansion of the Western military alliance NATO. Russia says it has no intention of invading Ukraine and just wants to protect its own security interests.

Putin has described the fall of the Soviet Union as one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century and has extolled the unity of Russia and Ukraine, emphasizing the two countries shared historical, linguistic and cultural ties.

This apparent closeness of the two countries could be a reason why there appears to be little appetite for war among the Russian public.

There was no societal demand for Putin to play as rough as he does to begin with ... there was no demand for escalation at all  so any de-escalation would be welcomed by Russians, Anton Barbashin, editorial director of Russian affairs journal Riddle, told CNBC on Monday.

It goes without saying that official rhetoric and media can make almost any resolution of the conflict a victory for Putin, so it would not challenge his position at home substantially, at least among the Russian public, he noted.

However, Barbashin noted that there was a schism between a Russian public reluctant to see a war with Ukraine (particularly if it could lead to Russian boys dying during any confrontation) and the military and conservative elites in Russia.

For the military and generally Russias conservative elites, backing down now would not make sense none of the major goals have been reached. They tend to expect Putin to continue to stay firm or even up the ante, he said.

Hess agreed that, unlike the build-up to the 2014 annexation of Crimea when Russian public sentiment supported an incursion, this time round there had been less anti-Ukraine propaganda.

I dont think the Russian public is baiting for war, nor has the Kremlin propaganda focused on demonizing Ukrainians to anywhere near the same extent as it did in 2014, even if it remains very hostile to the government in Kyiv, Hess noted.

Step back from the brink

For now, the world is left guessing how Putin will react to the U.S. responses to Russias demands, hand-delivered to the Kremlin last week by the U.S. ambassador in Moscow. While the exact details of the U.S. response to Russia was not published, it was met with a frosty response in Moscow.

Nonetheless, both sides continue to talk. U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken is due to speak with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, while other Western leaders also look to persuade Putin to dial down tensions this week. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he would tell Putin to step back from the brink over Ukraine when the two leaders speak later this week.

Not everyone believes Putin is ready to roll over when it comes to Ukraine, however.

Ian Bremmer, founder and director of Eurasia Group, said he believes Putin is prepping the Russian public for an incursion by demonizing the Ukraine and the West.

Putin controls the narrative at home (especially given power of state media), so its not a really a question of what he can sell, told CNBC on Monday.  But this also makes it easier for him to make the decision to escalate  hes convinced Russians that war is coming and its all the fault of Ukraine and NATO.

Bremmer said that Putin would lose credibility on a global stage if he backs down, particularly among certain quarters, such as countries traditionally allied with Russia.

For this reason, he said, its important for Putin to have escalatory options that arent just about invading Ukraine. These could include sending a permanent military presence and nuclear weapons to Belarus, or even establishing bases in the Western hemisphere (Cuba, Venezuela) as the deputy foreign minister has suggested, Bremmer added.

Holly Ellyatt

: cnbc.com
Higher prices are here for your morning cup of joe.

First the drought came to Brazil, then the frost, roiling the worlds top coffee-growing region during the pandemic. Arabica coffee prices at one point last year were nearly twice their levels at the end of 2020. Investors are betting those weather effects, along with supply-chain snarls, will keep prices elevated in 2022.

Arabica coffee futures closed Monday at $2.35 a pound, wrapping up January a little below monthly highs of $2.44. Futures traded at around $1.30 during the same time last year. They finished 2021 up 76%, the largest annual percentage gain since 2010, bringing higher prices for yet another raw material at coffee shops and breakfast tables.

The coffee market has been on fire, said Dave Whitcomb, head of research at Peak Trading Research. This is the type of rally we havent seen in years.

The surge in prices is hitting coffee sellers and roasters, which are passing it on to consumers. Nestle SA, which sells at-home coffee through the Starbucks and Nescafe brands, is among those feeling the pressure. Though Nestleone of the worlds biggest coffee procurersmanaged to avoid price increases for the most part in 2021, the companys chief financial officer said in October that higher prices are expected this year.

J.M. Smucker Co. s bottom line in the coffee segment has also been hurt by extreme weather and supply-chain disruptions. The Ohio-based company, which sells coffee through the Dunkin Donuts, Cafe Bustelo and Folgers brands, raised prices in response, Chief Executive Mark Smucker said during an earnings call in November.

The effects have filtered down to coffee shops. Kafe Kerouac, a coffee shop in Columbus, Ohio, raised prices for all lattes and espresso drinks by 25 cents in the new year. A combination of higher costs for beans, syrups and to-go cups pushed owner Mike Heslop to make the change.

Cafe Du Monde, in New Orleans, in November raised prices for three varieties of its canned coffee, sold in stores nationwide, by an average of 5% because of higher prices for coffee beans and cans. In the past, the company has hedged against higher costs using futures, said Jay Roman, president at the coffee shop. Mr. Roman said the company would likely buy futures again but prices are too high.

So far, there havent been too many downticks, Mr. Roman said.

On the other hand, Starbucks Corp. said it had coffee prices locked in for 14 months during its earnings call in late October. Company spokeswoman Megan Lagesse said rising coffee costs havent contributed to any price increases experienced by customers. The company next reports earnings after Tuesdays close.

Coffees continued advance comes as many other commodities that surged to start 2021 such as sugar, wheat and lumberretreated from those highs.

While analysts say the aftereffects of 2021s weather are their principal concern, they are also watching for a La Nina weather pattern this year to see how long drought conditions in Brazil will persist.

Though coffees price rise can be mostly attributed to weather, higher shipping and freight costs have also helped fuel the rally. The Baltic Dry Index, a proxy for measuring global freight and shipping rates, rose 62% in 2021, its biggest percentage gain since 2016.

In addition to higher costs for beans, coffee companies are facing broader pressures, such as persistent labor issues and seven-year highs in energy, hurting profits. We dont think the beans alone are the driver,  said Aakash Doshi, head of commodities for North America at Citi Research.

Hedge funds and other speculative investors piled into coffee last year with total net long positioning at the end of 2021 climbing to the highest levels in five years, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data that includes futures and options.

Prices could come down if the weather outlook improves. Meanwhile, analysts said farmers might decide to not allocate more acreage to coffee trees, which typically take three to four years to mature.

For now, traders are looking for signals about the health of the 2022 crop. Thiago Cazarini, coffee broker at Cazarini Trading Co., lowered his projections for this years Brazilian crop because, he said, plants that flowered didnt yield as much fruit as anticipated.

We are not as comfortable with the coming crop as we were a year ago, said Mr. Cazarini, who estimates that coffee will trade between $2.60 and $2.80 a pound for the first half of 2022. We havent seen the highs in coffee yet.

Hardika Singh

: wsj.com
Some Western powers have said they would consider imposing personal sanctions on President Vladimir Putin if Moscow invades Ukraine. Here's an explanation of what that would mean for the Russian president.
Fears have been mounting in the West that Russia may attack Ukraine after gathering tens of thousands of troops near the border. Mourners at a funeral in the separatist-held Donetsk region say theyve had enough.
Monday, January 31, 2022

When dedicated social media accounts are set up to expose the lewd and inappropriate comments and behaviour of men on online dating forums, you know we have a problem.

An increasing number of women are coming forward to expose the lewd and inappropriate comments and behaviour of men, and social media accounts such as Alexandra Twetens Bye Felipe Instagram account are helping them do so.

This account, which currently has 429 thousand followers and has spawned a book, allows women to share screenshots of conversations theyve had with men on sites such as Plenty of Fish and OK Cupid, publicly shaming these men for propositioning them.

Similarly Tinder Nightmares, which currently has 1.9 million followers on Instagram, exposes the expletive-laden messages and unsolicited naked pictures that women receive on Tinder.

What research has discovered

Research conducted in 2013 by the Pew Research Centre found that 28% of online daters have felt harassed on online dating sites (and that is only of the people who reported it!). Of these people, 43% were women and 17% were men.

A further study in 2015 by RMIT and La Trobe universities found that women overwhelmingly experienced digital harassment and abuse from male perpetrators while men experienced digital harassment and abuse equally from males and females.

Beware online scammers

If harassment wasnt enough, online daters have a further thing to contend with  scammers.

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, dating and romance scams conned Australians out of $42 million in 2017. Thats an increase of $19.3 million from 2015!

A cautionary tale

In May this year News.com.au reported how 64-year-old Jan Marshall fell pray to a Nigerian scammer on Plenty of Fish who impersonated as a US-based, British engineer called Eamon Donegal Dubhlainn.

Their relationship progressed fast and within one month they were engaged. It was then that Eamon started asking for money.

He told me I was special and what we had together was unique  he convinced me he was falling for me, and I fell in love with him, Jan told News.com.au.

After four weeks I had agreed to marry him, thats how strong it was.

The process is called love bombing  they deliberately play with your emotions and make you fall in love, and once that happens you are in the honeymoon period and you release a hormone Oxytocin which decreases anxiety and increases trust. Once youre in that state they manipulate you and start asking you for money.

After handing over $260,000 worth of savings and superannuation, Eamon broke off all contact with Jan. It was then that she admitted to herself that this had been a scam.

Unfortunately Jans plight is not an anomaly. As someone who has gone through this ordeal, Jan has some words of advice for other online daters:

Be wary of early expressions of love

Keep your friends in the loop. Scammers encourage victims to reject their friends, and usually succeed, as they are very skilled at emotional manipulation

Be wary when someone asks you to delete your dating profile

Reconsider the relationship if someone always makes excuses why their webcam isnt working. If youre only seeing photos (and not live recordings) of someone, chances are they could be a scammer

Read Stitchs Definitive Guide to Staying Safe Online

Its not all bad

No matter what your stance on online dating, the facts are clear: around 4.5 million Australians are using online dating every year as a means of finding a casual or permanent partner.

For straight people, it is the second most common way of meeting a potential partner; for homosexual people, online dating is the most popular method.

And the reason is this:

Not only is it a convenient way of meeting people  especially for those who are time-poor  it allows people the opportunity to determine whether they have any common interests before actually meeting face-to-face.

Furthermore, most dating sites make it easy for you to find that like-minded partner as they match you with people based on similar interests and values.

An alternate solution

At Stitch, we do things a little differently.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA)  The chairman of the Libyan presidential council, Mohamed Al-Manfi, has underlined the importance of the road project of the third roundabout in Tripoli whose works were launched on Monday, welcoming the efforts made by the Government of National Unity, within the framework of its rebuilding plan and programme, tagged "Return to life"
Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Commentary From Crisis Management Expert Edward Segal, Author of the Award- Winning Book Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from Disasters, Scandals, and Other Emergencies (Nicholas Brealey)

Filling a void created by courts and local, state and federal governments, many employers are enforcing their own Covid-related policies and procedures. Last month, the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden's vaccination and testing mandates for employers with more than 100 workers.

A new survey released in Janaury by Upcity found that 81% of employees said they are required to wear a mask at all times in the office and that 83% must have a vaccination card.

UpCity used Pollfish to survey 600 business owners and employees across the United States and Canada. The survey was conducted in December 2021 and has a margin of error of 4%.

Mask and vaccination card mandates are only a few of the many Covid-related policies business leaders have implemented. The first decision to make about new office rules and requirements, of course, is to what extent employees will work offsite.

Dan Olson, CEO of UpCity, said that "Business owners and managers really need to determine if they are going to be an in-person first or remote-first organization. Ultimately, our survey points to the fact that 93% of the workforce is taking remote vs. in-person into account, so if you don't have a long-term remote strategy you better figure one out quickly!"

Ideally, companies and organizations should think through and implement their Covid-related policies and procedures in a thoughtful, planned, and deliberate manner.

Practicing What They Preach

John Dony, senior director of thought leadership at the National Safety Council, a nonprofit safety advocate that seeks to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death.

He recalled that the organization first formally notified its staff about Covid-19 on January 31, 2020. "Internal discussions about implementing new safety protocols started in February, and we formalized an internal response team on March 3, 2020," he said.

"This group's first action was to immediately restrict travel starting on March 4, 2020. They then met daily to discuss additional decisions such as going fully remote on March 18, 2020. The transition was fairly smooth considering how abrupt and uncertain the situation was."

Accommodating Employees

He said that, "The biggest hurdle was in accommodating employees who worked from desktop computers and/or relied heavily on paper files. The internal response team quickly was able to order equipment and supplies to minimize disruption to these individuals' work.

Playbook

"We published an internal Covid-19 playbook, and have continued to meet bi-weekly with the internal Covid-19 response team to regularly update workplace safety protocols, including safety countermeasures that include masking, distancing, sanitizing, and updating ventilation systems in offices."

Changing Travel Protocols

Dony said that, "Our travel protocol throughout the pandemic has changed, but has been decided using a risk-based approach, and always follows the most recent CDC guidance before each event. In the fall of 2021, we implemented a vaccine requirement for all employees and have achieved a 98% vaccination rate.

Advice For Business Leaders

Once a company decides to implement their own Covid-related policies, there are best practices to follow in writing and introducing them.

Lewis Eisen is an expert on writing workplace policies and serves as a consultant on how organizations can best position Covid-related policy changes. He noted that, "Many companies have introduced policy changes in response to new demands placed by the pandemic, mostly in the area of conditions around personnel reporting to work and the use of company equipment in home offices.

"When these new policies were introduced, some companies found that employees were receptive to the changes, while others encountered so much resistance that it put stress on the working relationships," Eisen observed.

Increase The Chances Of Success

He said that the "Chances of success when implementing these policy changes can be increased if the company does it well. A good approach means that you:

"Word your policies in a positive way, so that you sound helpful rather than dictatorial, e.g., 'Employees are eligible to return to the office when fully vaccinated' instead of 'Employees must be fully vaccinated before returning to the office.'

"Tie your policies directly to positive corporate values, such as safety, teamwork, and cooperation instead of making them about obedience and control.

"Don't word things divisively when you don't need to, e.g., saying 'employees must wear masks at work' distinguishes management from employees for no reason other than to reinforce the pecking order. 'We' statements are very good at promoting a team solution to problems: 'We wear masks in the workplace' is an inclusive wording that avoids the parent-child dynamic of traditional office rules.

###
Monday, January 31, 2022

Regardless whethertheres a last-minute agreement between the US/Nato and Russia that prevents awar in Ukraine, the one party who has already won is the Military IndustrialComplex (MIC). As the saber rattling intensifies pushing up the level ofhawkish bellicosity the MIC is already envisioning a near future governmental monetarywindfall.

After the Russian armedforces recent hands-on experiences in Crimea, Syria and cameo crowd controlmission in Kazakhstan, Putins resurrected vastly improved and upgraded armedforces have gone to the next level and encircled Ukraine. Its a pocket versionof the Soviet military, but good enough to serve his purposes to achieve thenecessary buffer zones in the Near Abroad.

Furthermore, its notfar-fetched that certain elements of the Russian military brass are biting atthe bit to try out their new toys against the best that the US/Nato has tooffer.

After losing manyformer Soviet-block countries to Nato membership since Putins ascension to theRussian presidency in 1999, Ukraine represents Russias jewel in the crownthat is at the cusp of being enveloped by more than just western values. ForPutin, Ukraine is personal.

For the purposes ofreversing Russias militarys embarrassing impotence during the early 2000sbecause of antiquated often non-operable equipment, today Russia is going allin with their modern military hardware and software.

For this reason the MICand arms dealers are biting at the bit to find out Russias battlefieldperformance with modern homegrown equipment and operated by Russians, notproxies, under actual battle conditions. Slim Pickenss toe to toe with the Ruskies comment in Dr.Strangelove is accurate not quite but close enough.

The followingcomparative chart entitled the Russia-UkrainianMilitary Imbalanceprovided by GlobalFirepower underscores the gross inequities in ground, aerialand naval categories.

Ukraines Soviet-era equipmenthas been upgraded but falls far short of the 21st century Russianmodern equipment and firepower. For this reason before Ukraine is re-equippedwith technologically equivalent materiel thus this eliminating any militaryoption, Putin feels compelled to take military action sooner than later amongmany other reasons.

It goes without saying,regardless of the country, Russia being not exception, the military brass isanxious to try out their new toys especially against a worthy adversarysince Ukrainian defenses will be supplemented by non-combat US/Natosurveillance.

The MIC observationsand assessments extend to Russian military tactical strategies, execution andinteroperability with ground and aerial forces supported by cyber-tools. Thesecapabilities will be tested against Ukrainian forces whose overall defenseshave been furnished by US/Nato forces and supported by non-combat surveillancetechnicians which is far more robust than terrorists weaponry in farawayfailed states.

Russian militaryaggression in Europe and subjugation of a sovereign neighboring non-NatoEuropean country not only invigorates Natos mission but also awakens the MIC.The MIC will leverage this scenario to justify requesting over-the-top fundingfor the purposes of preventing a domino effect in Europe against the usualboogeymen: Russia and Communism. Ironically this justification comes at a timewhen many democracies themselves are becoming increasingly authoritarian withheavy-handed policies on their own citizenry because of the pandemic.

Any Russian aggressionwould provide long-awaited answers to the whispers in dark corners thatprovides an up-close opportunity of how the Russians would conduct an actuallarge-scale military operation using their most advanced equipment.

The largest defensecontractors include Boeing, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, RaytheonIndustries and Lockheed Martin are necessary and represent the tip of the spearto protect America in a dangerous world with highly capable and motivatedenemies such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea but their financial avariceis legendary. Think of the billions wasted resulting in a negative return oninvestment during our endless wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan overseveral administrations.

The following chart entitledThe Worlds LargestArms-Producing Companies provided by the Stockholm International Peace ResearchInstitute (SIPRI).

Increased governmentalfunding for MIC initiatives will inevitably crowd out funding for much neededinfrastructure, healthcare and education from a shrinking budgetary pie. Thisis akin to ironically the Russian story about the father who returns home totell his children that his wages have been slashed. The children then ask thefather, Does that mean youll drink less? to which the father replies, No.It means that youll eat less.

Even if theres a modestincrease in US government funding for MIC projects, it would still grease thecontinued depletion of meager domestic resources as Americans suffer a greaterdegradation of quality of life.

To offset an extendedperiod of reduced Russian exports to highly reliant Eu countries, the USgovernment might be compelled to ship energy resources triggering a spike indomestic energy prices for all sectors.

In sum a US defenseindustry that has been unable to reign in costs, will request and probablyreceive generous US government funding. Trophy weaponry to defend US alliesoverseas ignores a hollowed out American economy and restive citizenry forcapitalistic purposes under the guise of righteous ideology.

 Copyright 2022 CeruleanCouncil





The Cerulean Council isa NYC-based think-tank that provides prescient, beyond-the-horizon, contrarianperspectives and risk assessments on geopolitical dynamics and global urbansecurity.
Attorneys for a San Antonio liquor businesss new owners went before a federal appeals court in December seeking a ruling that would allow the company to sell its stock to a public corporation.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission opposed the request.

Millions of dollars are potentially on the line in Gabriel Investment Groups fight with the state.

On Friday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in on questions that relate to the dispute. Its a process known as certification of questions of law.

The Supreme Court on Monday accepted the certification and set oral arguments for March 24.

On ExpressNews.com: Federal appeals court hears arguments over S.A. liquor business selling stock to public corporation

The state Legislature in 1995 imposed restrictions on permits for package stores, which sell hard liquor. As a result, public corporations may not hold or own a permit in the state. A public corporation is defined as any company that trades on a public stock exchange or has more than 35 owners.

Gabriel Investment Group, or GIG, is considered a public corporation because it has had more than 35 owners. The company received an exemption to the public ban before it took effect in 1995, however. Its only one of two corporations granted the exemption.

GIG argues the exemption would transfer to any public corporation that buys its shares.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission says the exemption only attaches to GIG itself.

By any measure, this case hits the certification bulls-eye, posing close, weighty questions of first impression, a three-judge panel on the appeals court said, partially quoting from another case the court certified to the Texas Supreme Court a little more than a year ago. A case of first impression involves issues that have not been addressed by that court before.

Specifically, the appeals court wants the states high court to answer whether a package stores permits remain valid if the store sells any or all of its shares to a public corporation that does not qualify under the exemption.

If the answer is yes, then the Supreme Court is asked to address another question: Can the package store validly accumulate additional package store permits under the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code?

We are not the final arbiters of Texas law, the three judges said. That role belongs to the Supreme Court of Texas. So the bigger question, at least at this point, is whether we should decide GIGs questions.

GIG, along with retailers Gabriels Liquor and Dons & Bens Liquor, blamed competition from big-box wine and spirits stores for seeking sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2019. The businesses had been operated by the politically connected Gabriel family for more than 70 years.

While in bankruptcy reorganization, GIG sued the Alcoholic Beverage Commission in an effort to get a bankruptcy judges approval to sell company shares to a non-exempt public company, such as Walmart.

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In the summer of 2020, GIG, Gabriels Liquor and Dons & Bens came under new ownership as part of a reorganization plan. The bankrupt companies were consolidated into a single entity then split into two.

Omega Capital Group, led by James Pfirrmann and Ron Heller, took over operation of 32 area Gabriels and Dons & Bens stores, along with associated licenses and permits. The deal was valued from $6 million to $7 million.

GIGs new owners  Blake-Wilder Companies of St. Petersburg, Fla., Omega, and longtime shareholders  received the assets and permit of the Dons & Bens store at 810 S. Gen. McMullen Drive. GIG also retained the lawsuit against the TABC.

If GIG prevails in the dispute, its public company exemption could be worth in excess of $10 million, a court filing says.

So far, though, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge and a U.S. District Court judge have ruled against GIG  leading to its appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

After the Supreme Court answers the questions, the case is expected to be taken up again by the appeals court for a ruling.

pdanner@express-news.net
San Antonio resident Sally Ann Hines went missing after leaving her Northwest Side home in December 2017, never to be heard from again.

A litter pickup crew found Hines severed head in a plastic bag three months later in southwest Louisiana marshland. But it would take until May of last year to identify it. She was 58.

About two months later, in July, Prudential Insurance Co. of America received a claim from her husband, Harold Hines, 79, for the roughly $153,500 death benefit on her life insurance policy.

But Prudential isnt sure whether it should pay him.

Upon information and belief, according to law enforcement officials with the Sheriffs Department of Cameron Parish, Louisiana, Harold has not been ruled out as a suspect in connection with the insureds death, Prudential said in papers filed Monday in federal court in San Antonio.

Federal and state laws prevent the beneficiary of a life insurance policy from receiving the proceeds if he or she is a principal or an accomplice in bringing about an insured persons death.

So Prudential filed whats known as an interpleader action, asking the court to decide who should get the death benefits.

On ExpressNews.com: Severed head found in Louisiana IDd as missing San Antonio woman

Sally Hines obtained the group life insurance policy through her then-employer, USAA, where she had worked as a senior software engineer. Oddly, she didnt designate any beneficiaries on the policy, according to the court filing.

Sally Hines was survived by one child, Kelly Hines.

Kelly Hines has not submitted a claim to the death benefits.

Nevertheless, the benefits would be payable to Kelly Hines if its determined that her father has forfeited his right to them because he was involved in his wifes death.

Tracking leads

In an interview this week, Harold Hines said he had nothing to do with his wifes death. The couple had been married almost 35 years when she went missing.

Im a suspect immediately because Im her spouse, he said. In this sort of death, thats what happens. I understand that. But they cant be doing much in the way of investigating if they havent even talked to me after four years. This is crazy.

Cameron Parish Chief Detective Jake McCain said Thursday that he has two investigators assigned to the case who were in San Antonio for about a week last month to track some leads.

Theyre still working it, he said.

McCain confirmed Harold Hines hasnt been ruled out as a suspect. The detectives have not spoken to him yet because theyre still running some stuff down, McCain said.

But McCain added that the detectives were informed that Harold Hines had told San Antonio police that he invoked his right to legal counsel when his wife was first reported missing.

Thats kind of the premise my guys were working under, McCain said, adding he might not be entirely correct on that point. He advised checking with San Antonio police.

A San Antonio Police Department spokeswoman said it would defer to the investigation case being conducted by Cameron Parish Sheriffs Office.

On Friday, Harold Hines said he met with SAPD detectives for about a half-hour in January 2018 but never heard back. He said he did not invoke his right to an attorney because there was no need to.

They were there at my request and seemed satisfied with what we talked about, he said. At that time, there was no idea that my wife would be found dead months later. Certainly, if detectives showed up today, Id probably do so (invoke the right to counsel), but only out of a sense of self-protection.

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Hines said he has never been told a cause of death, and as far as he knows, his wifes body has never been found.

After the head was discovered, investigators combed through countless tips and sent out body tissue samples. A tip from a Cameron Parish woman led to the identification May 26. Authorities confirmed the identification using dental records.

At the time, Cameron Parish Sheriff Ron Johnson told the San Antonio Express-News that officials hadnt determined how Sally Hines ended up in the area, but he said body dumps arent uncommon because of the marshland and the proximity to the Texas border.

People who know Cameron Parish  or have driven through here  know there are lots of alligators out and about. And they believe that if they dump a body here, the alligators will eat it and they will disappear, Johnson said. Tragically, this isnt unusual for us.

Sally Hines had various medical problems, Harold Hines said. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manic depression. She was diabetic, had had a liver transplant and was hospitalized several times. She had been on long-term disability from USAA for nearly 10 years and was under a doctors care, he added.

On the night of his wifes disappearance, Harold Hines had called emergency medical personnel to their home. Police also came to the house. Sally Hines subsequently left to meet someone.

That was it, Harold Hines said. She went out and met someone, and weve never seen or heard from her since.

According to The Charley Project, a nonprofit organization that tracks missing persons cases, Sally Hines left her home at 3 a.m. Dec. 14, 2017, without her purse, phone, medication or car.

The money from the life insurance policy would come in handy, Harold Hines said. Sally Hines had racked up a ton of debts. Hes paid off $50,000 to $60,000. He wants to use the insurance money to pay off his daughters college loans and put some aside for his last few years in case he has to go into an assisted living facility.

After submitting a claim for the death benefits, Harold Hines said he received notices from Prudential that said it was holding off on paying it out because (Sally Hines) situation has not been cleared up yet.

Trucking tycoons death

Prudentials interpleader action is similar to one filed by Fidelity Guaranty & Life after the 2013 death of San Antonio trucking tycoon Bill Hall Jr. Fidelity had asked the court to determine the beneficiary of a $250,000 insurance policy on Halls life.

On Oct. 10, 2013, Halls wife, Frances Hall, was driving her black Cadillac Escalade on South Loop 1604 when she saw the Range Rover the couple owned being driven by his lover of three years, Bonnie Contreras. Bill Hall was on a motorcycle, following Contreras.

After seeing them, Frances Hall turned around and rammed the Range Rover with the Escalade, and the trio became involved in a highway chase that ended with the motorcycle and the Escalade colliding, Contreras testified during a 2016 trial. Bill Hall Jr., 50, died in a hospital after the incident.

A jury convicted Frances Hall of murder. But the judge who presided over the trial allowed the jury to consider during punishment that Hall acted under sudden passion, which lowered the first-degree felony punishment of five to 99 years or life in prison to a second-degree felony and sentence range of two to 20 years.

The panel gave her the lightest term possible  two years on the murder charge and two years for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for ramming the Escalade into the Range Rover. Both sentences were served at the same time.

Frances Hall was the primary beneficiary of the life insurance policy. But after her conviction, her son  Justin Hall  sought to have the death benefits awarded to him. He was a contingent beneficiary and argued that his mothers interest in the life insurance policy was forfeited under the Texas Slayer Statute, given her involvement in her husbands death.

In December 2016, about three months after Frances Halls conviction, Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio ordered that the policys proceeds be paid to Justin Hall.

Staff writers Taylor Pettaway and Elizabeth Zavala contributed to this report.

pdanner@express-news.net
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When the lights went down at a Candlelight Concert last week at Magik Theatre, phones popped up throughout the space as audience members snapped photos and shot video.

It was definitely a visual that begged to be preserved: a string quartet seated in the center of a stage illuminated by a sea of flickering white LED candles.

Violinist Eric Siu, who was part of the quartet and served as host for the evening, got to take in the look up close on his way to his seat and again after the performance.

While Im playing, Im so focused that I dont notice the candles, said Siu, who is a member of the San Antonio Symphony and the Listeso String Quartet, the group assembled for the San Antonio Candlelight Concerts. But when Im walking onstage, its a very warming feeling, not sterile in any way, like some concert halls can be. So that was nice.

The program, a tribute to Queen with a few opera selections here and there to underscore the connection between the rock band and such works as The Magic Flute and La Boheme, was one of several in the Candlelight series.

The concerts are presented by Fever, a national events company. The series began in 2019, inspired by similar performances in Madrid.

Jessica Phelps /Express-News staff

Fever stages Candlelight Concerts in about 25 cities across the country, including Dallas, Chicago and Miami. The series moved into the San Antonio market in January.

On ExpressNews.com: SA documentary Walk on the River part of Slab Cinemas Black film series

Programs slated for the months ahead include a Valentines Day-themed outing, an evening of film scores and concerts spotlighting the music of Taylor Swift and ABBA.

Were constantly taking in feedback from people then also doing research on what we think cities would like, said Shane Peters, an associate producer for Fever who manages the San Antonio and Dallas concerts. Were trying to add different programs and new programs that people would like.

At Magik, Siu and his fellow musicians played two programs. On the first night, it was Bach to the Beatles.

For each performance, they shared a little information about the music they were playing.

Jessica Phelps /Express-News staff

We try to give them a few tidbits as we go about what were doing and why were doing it, Siu said.

They played in a space illuminated by more than 3,000 candles. Most were onstage, but they also lined areas in the audience, too.

Candlelight Concerts Here's a look at upcoming Candlelight Concerts in San Antonio. Ticket prices range from $29 to $55 and are available at feverup.com. Valentine's Day Special: 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Josephine Theatre, 339 W. Josephine St. Songs From Magical Movie Soundtracks: 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. Feb. 23, Magik Theatre, 420 S. Alamo St. A Tribute to Taylor Swift: 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. Feb. 24, Magik Theatre. A Tribute to ABBA: 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. March 10, Josephine Theatre. The Four Seasons and More: 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. March 11 and April 8, Magik Theatre. From Bach to the Beatles: 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. March 23 and April 22, Magik Theatre. A Tribute to Queen: 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. April 7, Josephine Theatre. See More Collapse

The rechargeable candles, which vary in height, operate via remote control, but the first time that they are activated, each one has to be switched on by hand. And, of course, they have to be placed manually, so the setup is labor-intensive. At Magik, it took nearly three hours the first night to arrange the candles onstage, Peters said. Right before the Queen program, they placed additional candles throughout the space.

On ExpressNews.com: Show-biz dynamo Jade Esteban Estrada steps into new role at the Overtime

The crew is going to get to know the theater pretty well in the months ahead. Fever has seven concerts slated through the spring at both Magik and the Jospehine Theatre. And the series may move into other spots in town, too.

Were constantly looking for new venues, different types of venues and experiences for the guests, Peters said.

dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN
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A group of people believed to have been driven across the border under bleak conditions are safe and sound after Bexar County deputies thwarted a suspected human smuggling operation, Sheriff Javier Salazar said Tuesday.

A Bexar County deputy was conducting an unrelated traffic stop on Shepherd Road, near Atascosa, when a passerby flagged him down and reported seeing a group of people being forced into a white utility van.

The deputy spotted the van traveling 45 miles per hour in a 35-mph zone and attempted to initiate a traffic stop, Salazar said. The driver sped past the deputy before turning onto Pearsall Road and into a residential driveway.

Salazar said a well-dressed man jumped out of the drivers seat and fled into the nearby woods. The deputy heard a commotion in the back of the van and released at least six people who were trapped inside.

Facebook - Bexar County Sheriffs Office

On ExpressNews.com: SWAT raid yields evidence of possible drug, human trafficking in Southwest Side home

The people were wearing camouflage clothing and pieces of carpet on the bottoms of their shoes, the sheriff said. They told deputies that they had paid a years salary to be transported illegally across the border from Mexico.

The people ranged in age from 19 to 27.

After speaking with the people, Salazar said they painted a pretty bleak picture and a heartbreaking story.

They were trucked across the border and walked through the woods for about three days before they were forced into another truck. Salazar said they were told to lay face down and not look at anything. All the possessions they had brought with them were thrown away.

After riding in the truck, they were thrown into the white van that deputies found them in. Salazar said he has seen situations like this end many times in death or slavery.

He said the people hadnt eaten for days, so he and his deputies bought them tacos from a nearby restaurant.

People will say they are illegal, and I get that, but these people are just looking for a better way of life, and these predators took advantage of that, the sheriff said. They are just cargo to these predators.

On ExpressNews.com: Man in stolen San Antonio truck arrested on human trafficking charges after chase, officials say

The group was turned over to federal agents with the local fusion center for questioning to see what can be done for them. Fusion centers are designated by Homeland Security to provide information sharing and analysis among federal, state and local governments for major urban areas.

Deputies are using drones and other equipment to look for the vans driver. So far, they have been unsuccessful.

taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
A Mexican businessman who lives in San Antonio and who tried to grow a restaurant network focused on quesadillas pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he conspired to defraud investors out of $1 million, and that he failed to pay taxes.

Juan Enrique Kramer, 45, who sought to expand his businesses from Mexico into the United States, admitted mismanagement turned to fraud as he tried to grow franchises of Las Quesadillas in San Antonio and elsewhere in Texas.

Appearing by video in front of U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, Kramer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a felony, and a misdemeanor charge of failure to pay taxes in 2017.

Kramer admitted that he, his wife, Adriana Pastor, 46, and two co-defendants induced at least eight investors to pay $105,000 to $250,000 in exchange for promises to deliver turn-key restaurants the investors could operate as franchises. That included finding and renting a suitable location, obtaining all permits, assistance in obtaining visas for buyers, completing construction, training employees, and handling all legal fees and incorporation issues.

On ExpressNews.com: Ex-bookkeeper sentenced to more than 7 years for stealing $1.7M

The couple would also collect a commission from the franchisees restaurant sales. But rather than use the investment money exclusively for the restaurants, Kramer admitted he and his wife used some of it for personal expenses or to pay prior investors who demanded their money back, according to a factual basis included in Kramers plea deal.

Prosecutors said the defendants scammed at least eight victims, for a total of $1 million.

We delivered eight of the restaurants; two of them, we did not, Kramer told Biery, admitting to the fraud.

Pastor appeared by video Tuesday, but her lawyer told the judge her client had not decided whether to accept a plea deal.

Noel Olguin, 41, of Victoria pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in June, and a lawyer for Karina Hernandez, 41, of Mexico, told Biery on Tuesday that she plans to go to trial.

Olguin and Hernandez marketed the operation to potential buyers and were paid between $20,000 and $25,000 for each contract they secured, prosecutors allege.

Biery set Kramers sentencing for May. Kramer faces up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and up to a year on the tax count.

Kramer has spent more than 25 years in the restaurant industry. He was owner of Dubai The Cantabar, in Cancun and other locations in Mexico, according to a 2018 article in todotexcoco.com, an online platform in a suburb near Mexico City. He was also a partner in La Chilanguita restaurant in Mexico City and Las Quekas, the latter having more than 80 locations in the Cancun area and throughout Mexico, the article said.

Kramer and Pastor opened the first U.S. location of Las Quekas in 2015 in south San Antonio. But because the name was hard to pronounce, the pair changed the name to Las Quesadillas, the Original Taste of Mexico, the article said. The article said they chose San Antonio because they have family here and felt people would like the food and culture.

San Antonio received us with open arms; weve had no problems, Kramer said, according to the article. Theres a bit more to do in the process and it takes longer to open a business, but I can say we started on the right foot.

Some were in or next to H-E-B stores in San Antonio, but it appears they may have closed as the couples limited liability company, Emprequekas LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019, records show.

guillermo.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro filed a congressional resolution Tuesday that demands the release of San Antonio resident Paul Rusesabagina from a Rwanda prison.

Castro and Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., condemned Rusesabaginas imprisonment on terrorism charges that critics say were fabricated by his chief political enemy, the countrys longtime president, Paul Kagame.

Mr. Paul Rusesabagina has been unfairly targeted and imprisoned for using his elevated platform and prominence to oppose an oppressive Rwandan government, Castro, D-San Antonio, said in a statement Tuesday.

The resolution says Rusesabagina was extrajudicially transferred from the United Arab Emirates to Kigali and immediately placed in solitary confinement.

It also asked that Rusesabagina, a 67-year-old cancer survivor, receive medical care from the Rwandan government and that the Biden administration raise the case of Paul Rusesabagina and to press for his immediate release.

Rusesabaginas family lives in San Antonio and are residents of Castros district.

On ExpressNews.com: Hotel Rwanda' hero's son tries to challenge Rwanda ambassador at DreamWeek panel discussion

.

Rusesabagina was arrested by the Rwandan government in August 2020 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Sept. 20, 2021.

He became famous after the release of the 2004 Hollywood film, Hotel Rwanda, which was based on his effort to save almost 1,300 people during Rwandas bloody civil war.

He fell out with Kagame, a former military leader who has been in power 22 years, and became a Belgian citizen and permanent U.S. resident living in San Antonio and Brussels.

I hope this step will hasten Pauls return home to San Antonio to restore his family and his health, said Bill Israel, a retired St. Marys associate professor of communication studies who has advocated for Rusesabaginas release.

He called on the U.S. government to hold the Kagame regime to account for its criminal conduct against Paul, his family and a host of other Rwandans whove been tortured, disappeared or murdered because they dared criticize the Kagame regime

Kagames government has been accused by Human Rights Watch of practicing arbitrary detention, ill treatment, torture and possibly murder. Hes run the Central African country since 2000 and is credited with leading it into a period of stability and prosperity, with a focus on reconciling its two major tribal groups after the bloodletting of the 1990s.

Advocates for the regime say Rwanda has a performance-based government led by top leadership that is focused on unity, not division, and is radically transforming the country.

Rusesabaginas son, Tresor, was in a class last spring led by Israel that St. Marys president, Tom Mengler, said was electronically spied on by two people, one of whom was based in the Rwandan Embassy in Washington, D.C. One of those at the class was Kathleen Tobin Krueger, whose husband, Bob, was a former U.S. senator and ambassador to Burundi & Botswana.

On ExpressNews.com: FBI probes St. Marys Zoom intrusion linked to Rwandan regime

This was not the first time Rwandan nationals have spied on the Kruegers in the United States, she wrote in an email. During a period in 2008 and 2009, when the Rusesabaginas often stayed overnight at the Kruegers' home, neighbors were approached by an identified Rwandan national asking, Which house is the Kruegers?

sigc@express-news.net
A man was found dead at a West Side park Tuesday morning.

Police were alerted to the mans body at 11:37 a.m. at Ojeda Park, 1100 N. Trinity St., said officer Nick Soliz, a San Antonio police spokesman.

Officers found the man, who was not identified as of Tuesday afternoon, dead in the creek of the park.

Jacob Beltran / San Antonio Express-News

Soliz said detectives were still canvassing the area to learn what happened.

Investigators are waiting for the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office to examine the man to determine whether foul play was involved, Soliz said.

Police ask anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious in the area to call the homicide unit at 210-207-7635.

jbeltran@express-news.net
A Bexar County jail inmate who was killed when two other inmates broke free from the cell they shared and attacked him had expressed concern for his safety before the fatal incident.

The deceased inmate  who authorities today identified as Vincent Garcia, 40  had been in jail since Aug. 6 on charges of aggravated robbery and assault causing bodily injury in Medina County.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, speaking Monday at an online news conference, said that at about 7 a.m. on Sunday, Garcia told a detention officer that he felt unsafe.

The inmate kept telling the deputy he did not feel comfortable in the living unit, Salazar said, adding that the deputy pressed Garcia for more information. All he would say is he was uncomfortable there.

On ExpressNews.com: 40-year-old inmate stabbed to death in the Bexar County Jail

A cadet, which is a detention officer in training, who had joined the Sheriffs Office on Jan. 10 and has a temporary jailers license, was in the control room of a 30-person living unit. He saw a red light on the control panel, indicating that a cell door was opening, and looked up to see that two inmates had forced their way out of their cell.

The detention deputy, who was standing by the control room, ran inside as the cadet closed the door.

Courtesy of the Bexar County Sheriffs Office

Inmates Brandon Lee Lerma, 28, and Ernesto Manuel Tavera, 50, began attacking Garcia in a fight that lasted seconds, Salazar said. Their struggle moved back and forth as the detention deputy and cadet called for help from the jails Special Emergency Response Team, or SERT.

As SERT arrived, the cadet opened a door to the living unit and allowed Garcia to escape to a hallway. Lerma and Tavera ran to the showers of the living unit, where they quickly surrendered to SERT deputies, Salazar said.

Courtesy of the Bexar County Sheriffs Office

Lerma and Tavera now face murder charges and have been moved to another part of the jail with higher security.

The two accused inmates and Garcia are reported to be members of the Texas Mexican Mafia, and they were in an area that houses such inmates, the sheriff said. There are more than 400 members of that group and other associated criminal organizations in the jail, Salazar said.

Meanwhile, Garcia collapsed from his injuries in the hallway. Salazar said neither the deputy nor the cadet had noticed that Garcia was stabbed during the brawl.

SERT members attempted to provide first aid to Garcia as he was taken to the infirmary. There, his condition quickly worsened until he died, Salazar said.

The Texas Rangers are investigating the incident as an outside agency, which is required by the Sandra Bland Act.

Salazar said Monday that investigators recovered pointed weapons hidden near where the attack occurred that are consistent with Garcias puncture wounds. He could not say for certain whether any of them were the murder weapon or weapons.

Without getting graphic, there was a lot of evidence that they had committed a heinous attack, Salazar said.

On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County Jail inmate dies from COVID-19 complications, BCSO says

Salazar said the inmates should not have been able to defeat the lock on their cells, but he said that information on how to do so is available online, including via YouTube videos.

Both the cadet and detention deputy, who has been with the jail since July 2020, are on administrative leave and receiving counseling via the agencys psychologist and peer support from deputies.

The deadly assault comes as the jail is experiencing the subisiding results of a COVID-19 omicron spike, Salazar said. The virus is suspected in the death of inmate Vanessa Estrada, 29, who Salazar said also had tuberculosis. She died Saturday at an area hospital where she had been receiving treatment.

jbeltran@express-news.net
Steve Perez, a San Antonio native, will become the city of Boernes first Hispanic police chief, the city announced Tuesday.

Perez, a veteran of the department for more than 20 years, had been serving as interim assistant police chief since the retirement of Police Chief Jim Kohler in October.

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Perez, 47, will be the departments sixth police chief since the city created the position in 1953.

Perez, who was born and raised in San Antonio, served four years of active duty in the United States Army before beginning his law enforcement career in 1998 with the Alamo Community Colleges District Department of Public Safety.



In 1999, he joined the Boerne police force. He will take over as Boernes top cop on Feb. 26, upon the retirement of interim police chief Jeff Page, who was the assistant chief under Kohler. Page had been serving as interim chief until Kohler's replacement was found.

On ExpressNews.com: An underground world seen by few: SAWS building massive new sewer pipeline on the South Side



Page, in a news release, said Perez enjoys a wealth of support from officers, civilian staff members and the community.



He will be instrumental in creating Boernes Police Department of tomorrow, Page said. It was clear to everyone from the feedback gathered that he is the best person to lead this department and that we did not need to seek outside applicants for this position.



Perez has been married for more than 21 years to his wife, Kathleen. They have two sons, Diego and Max.



Perez is a graduate of Texas A&M University-San Antonio with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and has a master's degree in public service and a certificate in public management from Texas A&M-College Station.

Since joining the City more than 20 years ago, Steve has continued to excel and grow within our department, said City Manager Ben Thatcher in the news release. Starting as an officer, before becoming a sergeant, lieutenant, captain and assistant chief, Steve has seen the evolution of our department and community policing. He has established himself as a leader and mentor within our organization.



Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net


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Kendall County Sheriff

San Marcos police said Monday that theyve made an arrest in a hit-and-run crash that resulted in the death of an 18-year-old woman earlier this month.

Jordan Michael Sannicola, 28, of Hondo, was arrested and booked in the Kendall County Jail and is being held on $185,000 bond. According to a news release from the San Marcos Police Department, Sannicola was the driver of a truck that was involved in a fatal hit-and-run on Jan. 3.

Iliana Velez, an 18-year-old woman from Houston, was killed in the crash.

Police say thetruck driven by Sannicola collided with Velezs vehicle on northbound Interstate 35 near Wonder World Drive. After the collision, the truck exited the interstate. It was then captured on surveillance video arriving at Amazons distribution facility in Kyle, about 15 minutes after the crash.

Police say Sannicola is a contract worker for a trucking company out of North Carolina.

Courtesy of San Marcos Police Department

After asking the public for help with identifying the suspect, our department received several tips to contact Amazon, said San Marcos police Sgt. Sam Myers in a news release. Our investigators were able to positively match the truck as it pulled into the Kyle location. We greatly appreciate the publics help with this investigation, which led us to ultimately identifying the suspect.

San Marcos police obtained a warrant for Sannicola on a charge of accident involving death, a second-degree felony. He was taken into custody without incident.

At the time of his arrest, Sannicola had outstanding felony warrants from Kendall County for one count of evading arrest in a vehicle and two counts of abandoning/endangering a child.

He remained in custody as of Monday evening.
The San Antonio Water Systems board of trustees voted Tuesday to supply water to a proposed 3,000-home development on the Northwest Side that lies atop the Edwards Aquifer contributing zone.

After months of discussion and negotiation between environmental groups; the developer, Lennar Homes of Texas; and engineers with SAWS, the utility voted unanimously to pump enough water for that many homes to the Guajolote Ranch property.

The decision upset residents from the nearby town of Helotes and Scenic Loop Road, who have protested the development since its initial phases, citing land use and environmental concerns, and who urged the board to deny the request.

I think for a lot of reasons, of all the nonattractive options that we have been working on with the developer to achieve this, its been good work, said Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who is on the SAWS board. But theres going to be a whole lot of conversations that are going to occur in the city when it comes to the authority that we have in the city to deal with density.

While there has been a spatter of development around Helotes Canyon, the new development would be the densest in the area thus far. The property, which spans 1,160 acres, is at the eastern corner of the Edwards Plateau, with rocky features, streams and plains. The area is directly above the Edwards Aquifer contributing zone and only miles from the recharge zone.

The development lies in an area in which SAWS is required to provide water service upon request as long as the developer builds its own main pipelines to meet SAWS infrastructure. But the development is not within SAWS wastewater boundaries, which means the developer must provide its own wastewater facilities and treatment, such as septic systems or a wastewater treatment plant, at the property.

That part of the plan concerns environmentalists and residents the most because of the potential for sewage to enter waterways that recharge the Edwards and Trinity aquifers. Thirteen residents requested a denial during the public hearing segment of the SAWS board meeting.

If development over the recharge and contributing zones of the Edwards Aquifer continues, the frequency of exceedances (of acceptable levels of contaminants) and the number of impact wells will increase to the point that we have lost the battle to protect the recharge, said Ron Green, a groundwater hydrologist who lives in Helotes. Recharge from the North and West Sides of San Antonio are the most important to protect.

The proposed Guajolote Ranch Tract is one of the most sensitive areas of recharge to the Edwards Aquifer, Green said. With the inclusion of a wastewater facility, the Helotes Canyon Watershed, which Helotes Creek runs through, could fill with runoff contaminants, which would damage the ecosystem and flow into the aquifer.

To address these concerns, Lennar Homes and SAWS engineers negotiated a set of provisions for the development. These include setting aside 50 percent of the project as untouched, open space; limiting impervious cover to 30 percent; and having an A-level wastewater operator who would manage the plant. If a septic system is used, it must be an aerobic system that would minimize effects on the aquifer. If a wastewater treatment plant is built, the developer agrees to meet all state standards for being 5 miles from a recharge zone and to include advanced nutrient removal and effluent filtration.

Lennar Homes also agreed to never serve more than the 1,160 acres in the original request.

Still, because of the nature of the area, environmental groups, such as the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, urged denial. They cited a 2020 study by the Southwest Research Institute, which detailed the implications of adding more wastewater systems in the Helotes Creek Watershed, including significantly degrading the water in the area and the water quality entering the aquifer.

Residents were also concerned about the developments potential to affect quality of life in the area. Charles Thornton  who is mayor of the city of Grey Forest, which is near the proposed development  questioned the amount of traffic that would emerge if 3,000 homes are built.

Theres going to be probably 9,000 cars, and its a two-lane road no matter which way you go when coming out of Guajolote Tract, Thornton said. Thats going to be a big problem to deal with even after the developers leave.

Though the board members voted for approval, most said they understood the residents concerns and the environmental effects on the aquifer. Member Amy Hardberger noted her ongoing frustration with SAWS being a gatekeeper for development and land use, which she said it lacks the authority to be.

Besides obtaining SAWS approval, the development must go through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the city before starting construction.

Hardberger said most of the concerns that residents expressed to the SAWS board related to land use issues, such as density, potential flooding and effects on roads. All of those, Hardberger said, are issues for the San Antonio City Council.

I would encourage all of the participants who are here to go to those meetings where land use discussions and density decision are appropriate and being made, Hardberger said. This is not the last project of this time that we will see in this area, I am sure. So how we move forward is important.

Elena Bruess writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. elena.bruess@express-news.net

Editors Note: A previous version of this article misstated the city of Grey Forest mayors first name.
Live Oak police arrested a 17-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his mothers fiance multiple times after a family fight.

Austin James Markowski was charged with murder in connection with the death of 36-year-old Jose Luis Duran.

When officers were called to 7249 Rimwood St. on Jan. 1, they found Duran in the home with multiple gunshot wounds.

Duran was taken to a hospital and was pronounced brain dead. He died five days later from his injuries.

The violence reportedly arose from a heated argument between Duran and Markowskis half-brother Daniel Clement. Witnesses told police that the two had a history of violence between them, according to an affidavit supporting Markowskis arrest.

The half-brothers mother, Erica Rendon, was engaged to Duran.

On ExpressNews.com: Leon Valley man faces murder charge in brothers killing

In the days leading up to the shooting, the family had been moving from San Antonio to Live Oak. Clement allegedly refused to help with the move, sitting while others packed and loaded boxes, which angered Duran, the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, Rendon told Duran that Clement suffered from schizoaffective disorder and asked him to leave her son alone, but the two men got into a heated fight three days before the shooting.

Witnesses told police that on the familys first day living in the new home, Clement was caught tearing up the wood flooring in Rendons bedroom, resulting in another fight between Clement and Duran.

Rendon and another witness attempted to separate the men by pushing Clement into a bedroom. Rendon wrapped her arms around Clement, but Duran followed them and continued the fight, the affidavit said. Clement managed to slap Duran in the face, and he and his mother either fell to the ground or were pushed by Duran trying to get to Clement.

Markowski told police he was in the shower when he heard loud noises from the fight and that he retrieved Rendons Glock 19  a 9 mm handgun  before going to see what the commotion was about, the affidavit said. When Markowski entered the bedroom, he began shooting at Duran, the affidavit said.

After shooting Duran, Markowski cleared the weapon and put it down.

On ExpressNews.com: Teen accused of shooting San Antonio mom in the head in 2019 indicted on murder charge

Markowski told police that he saw Duran pull out a knife, though the blade was not extended, and that when he saw Duran push Rendon on the floor, he started shooting.

Rendon told police that Duran was known to carry a folding knife but did not see him pull it out during the fight.

Police later found the knife with the blade folded in its handle. They also found four spent shell casings and one ammunition projectile.

Markowski was initially arrested on an aggravated assault charge, which was upgraded to murder after Duran died.

Markowski is being held on $300,000 bail.

taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
Woburn, MA (01801)

Today

Partly cloudy skies. High 69F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 46F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar is urging Texas residents to check with a state website to see if they have unclaimed cash or property. Many people may not know that they have valuables owed to them, the comptroller's office said.

On ExpressNews.com: Historic Hill Country homestead that once belonged to a pioneer family selling for $2.4 million

The state is in possession of more than $7 billion in cash and other valuables through its unclaimed property program. Because there is generally no statute of limitations for unclaimed property the state holds, you can file a claim at any time on claimittexas.org.

The comptroller's office is also encouraging Texans to visit MissingMoney.com or FindMyFunds.com to search for property that may belong to them in other states.

Unclaimed property includes items such as forgotten utility deposits or other refunds, insurance proceeds, payroll checks, cashiers checks, dividends, mineral royalties, dormant bank accounts and abandoned safe-deposit box contents.

Nearly 33 million people in the United States have unclaimed property, according to officials with the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

On ExpressNews.com: Former FedEx pilot gets 51 months for dodging $900,000 in taxes

Businesses generally turn property over to the unclaimed property program after it has been considered dormant for one to five years.

In San Antonio, a customer who shopped at the H-E-B in the 600 block of Main Street in 2020 has $3,000 worth of unclaimed property, according to the comptrollers office. A former employee at Bill Miller Bar-B-Q has $3,183.73 in unclaimed payroll money.

Owners with the name Ted Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz and Ted Cruz for President have racked up a combined $259.79 in unclaimed rebates, money orders, wages and refunds, the comptroller's office said.

Since Texas' unclaimed property program began in 1962, the comptroller's office has returned more than $3 billion in unclaimed property to its owners.

Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net
Sundays Blessing of the Peacemakers began with a review of peace initiatives by a San Antonian long involved in those efforts.

The Rev. Ann Helmke didnt speak long but she ticked off a timeline that I wanted to slow down.

It was history deserving of its own award.

Helmke, a longtime leader of the peaceCENTER and the citys first faith-based liaison, set the scene for the 17th annual event, which brought together speakers and honorees at the Whitley Theological Center on the Oblate School of Theology campus. The audience, however, was virtual.

Even from my laptop screen, it came across as poignant.

The seed for the peaceCENTER was planted in 1994, Helmke said, when a gang summit resulted in a truce and a big drop in crime.

We wanted to do more, Helmke said.

A year later, the peaceCENTER was born. It was followed by a series of interfaith initiatives, including the citys decision to sign the international Charter of Compassion.

Helmke noted the origins of the charter, which won British religious scholar Karen Armstrong the 2008 TED Prize. Helmke called it the most important document of our time.

Mayor Ron Nirenbergs first act as mayor in 2017 was to sign it.

That led to Compassionate San Antonio, a multifaceted program that includes compassion training for all sorts of people, from city officials to teachers and from healthcare professionals to activists.

Around the time of the gang summit, other notions of compassion were emerging.

In 1998, for example, the United Nations adopted a season for nonviolence. Its observed between Jan. 30, the anniversary of Mohandas K. Gandhis assassination, and April 4, the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination.

Helmke rattled off all this history in a few, precious sentences, making the sacred space even more sacred.

The days Golden Rule honorees couldnt help but serve as inspiration.

There was the journalist turned public health expert (Dr. C. Junda Wood, medical director of Metro Health) and the physician turned pastor (Rev. Dr. Kenneth Kemp, senior pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church).

The San Antonio Food Bank was named the citys 2022 peace laureate.

As did the other two honorees, President and CEO Eric Cooper first credited those around him  the food banks staff, board and an army of volunteers.

But its hard not to see Cooper as the visionary behind the food banks growth, approach to its mission and its innovations, from growing food to its work on the campuses of the Alamo Colleges.

The food bank might have clinched the honor two years ago in April, when a photograph by Express-News photographer William Luther captured the need it had to fill.

It showed thousands of vehicles lined up at Traders Village for a food distribution event.

The coronavirus pandemic had shut down the city and exposed its workforce, families who live paycheck to paycheck in the nations seventh-largest city.

Another mayor, another CEO, another city might have responded by shaming those in line.

Instead, the food bank made compassion visible.

As we struggle toward pandemic relief, perhaps no other person or entity is as well-suited to the peace laureate role as the food bank.

Cooper spoke of the unprecedented need that the food bank faced. It went from serving 60,000 people a week to twice as many. Its now closer to 90,000 people a week.

He cautioned that getting back to normal shouldnt be the goal.

His voice quieted when he spoke about the food banks average client. Shes female and a minority, he said, and is a working parent. If she doesnt work, she isnt paid and her family becomes homeless.

Helmke closed out the annual Blessing of the Peacemakers with news that points to the evolving timeline of San Antonios efforts towards peace, justice and compassion.

The peaceCENTER will be transitioning to the Alamo Colleges, she said, where it will be housed on the Northwest Vista College campus. It already has a director.

The move is a historic one that will birth yet another model for peacemaking.

Thats because San Antonio is lucky enough to have a whole swath of people leading efforts that dont immediately look like peacemaking.

Theyre people who dont define peace just as the absence of violence but as the nonexistence of hunger.

Blessed are the peacemakers who also see peace in an end to homelessness, in the creation of affordable housing and in a living wage.

eayala@express-news.net
Local leaders are still trying to make sense of last weeks decision by the Texas Transportation Commission to take over a stretch of the Broadway corridor that had been earmarked by the city for a major redevelopment project.

Seven years after the commission approved a deal to hand control of a 2.2-mile tract from Interstate 35 to Burr Road to the city of San Antonio  and five years after local voters approved $42 in bond funding for Broadway redevelopment  commissioners rescinded the transfer deal because they objected to the citys plan to reduce traffic lanes to make room for protected bike lanes and wider sidewalks.

The states abrupt Broadway reversal was the main topic of conversation on this weeks episode of the Express-News Puro Politics podcast.

On ExpressNews.com: Broadway corridor vote: State stops San Antonio's redevelopment plan

The citys point is that this came out of the clear blue, Express-News reporter Brian Chasnoff said

(The Texas Department of Transportation) had begun this (transfer) process almost 10 years ago. Back in 2016, a year before the bond election, the city reached out to TxDOT and said, Hey, this is what we want to do for bond projects, including this redevelopment of Broadway. Are you OK with this and will you pledge $5 million to help us? And TxDOT signed off on that.

Gov. Greg Abbott has made it clear in recent years that he objects to cities reducing capacity on their roadways. The strange timing of the states reassertion of control over Broadway has led to questions about whether Abbott put a bug in the ear of Bruce Bugg, the San Antonio banker who chairs the Transportation Commission.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio's Broadway development plan faces state roadblock

Bugg took a leading role at last Thursdays commission meeting.

I think in his heart of hearts this was probably a difficult move to make, said Express-News business editor Greg Jefferson.

But watching him Thursday, you absolutely could not tell it. He showed a lot of resolution. And thats because he was appointed to that position by Gov. Greg Abbott. He cherishes his relationship with Abbott.

Hear more about the future of the Broadway corridor on the latest edition of Puro Politics.

ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470
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A few days after her 21st birthday, Pam Gaskins father made the 4-hour drive from Galveston County to pick her up from the University of Texas at Austin.

And then he drove her straight back home.

Registering to vote the next day was something of a birthday gift. Gaskin, a Black woman, knew the weight of the moment  the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had been signed just three years earlier, prohibiting discriminatory voting practices in many southern states, including Texas.

She remembers her fathers words: You will vote every time the polls open. If the only thing on the ballot is dog catcher, you will go vote in that election.

More than five decades later, she can count the number of elections shes missed on one hand.

But Gaskins pledge was put to the test this year after a new state voting law implemented extra ID requirements for mail-in ballot requests. Republicans championed the changes last year in the name of election security, but the stipulations have also created mass confusion and a record number of rejected applications ahead of the March primaries.

More Information MAIL BALLOT PROBLEM? Texas allows a person to receive a mail-in ballot if they are at least 65 years old; sick or disabled; out of the county during the voting window; expecting to give birth within three weeks of Election Day; or incarcerated. Tips for getting a mail ballot. 1) If you've already applied and received a rejection notice, respond with the proper information as quickly as possible. The county must receive the application by mail by Feb. 18 - even if an electronic copy is also emailed or faxed. 2) If you haven't received a notice but have concerns that it may be rejected over an ID issue, check the Secretary of State's ballot tracker at this link: https://teamrv-mvp.sos.texas.gov/BallotTrackerApp/. If you can't correct your ballot online, you can send in a new application for ballot by mail. 3) If applying now, include both a driver's license number and last four digits of their Social Security number on your application. The Secretary of State's office has said counties should accept such applications, as long as at least one number matches what's on file. If you don't see a space for an ID number, it means you're using an old application, which will not be accepted. The new application can be found here: https://webservices.sos.state.tx.us/forms/5-15f.pdf Source: Texas Secretary of State See More Collapse

Gaskin and her husband, Michael, were denied ballots twice this month over procedural mishaps  and if she were any less determined to vote, it may have stayed that way.

Ive been a voting rights activist all my life, and I'm 74 years old, said Gaskin, now a Missouri City resident. And I have not seen anything like this. I really haven't.

IN-DEPTH: New Texas elections law, decried as vote suppression, leads to record number of rejected mail ballot applications

The first time, Gaskin submitted the wrong form, though shed downloaded it from the Fort Bend County website. The new ID requirement warranted a new application, but the county hadnt updated the document online when Gaskin grabbed it on Jan. 3.

With the new form at her fingertips, Gaskin tried again on Jan. 14. The document stated clearly: YOU MUST PROVIDE ONE of the following numbers, before offering space first for a drivers license number and second for the last four digits of her Social Security number.

The second number, it said, was only necessary if you do not have a Texas drivers license, Texas personal identification number or a Texas election identification certificate number. So, she filled it out using her drivers license ID and called it a day.

On Jan. 20, Gaskin received her second denial. The rejection letter told her she hadnt provided the same number she used when registering to vote  46 years ago, when she moved to Fort Bend County. She called the county to ask what number was missing, but an employee told her she couldnt say, fearing she would violate the new law.

RELATED: Texas Secretary of State scrambles to address mail ballot application problems as deadline looms

And so Gaskin started a game of 20 questions, quizzing the elections worker on which detail was missing until she could confirm it was her social security number. (Remi Garza, the president of the Texas Association of Elections Administrators, said the worker was probably being overcautious.)

She filled out a third application and finally received her ballot on Monday.

Still, the incident prompted Gaskin to pen a letter to Gary Bledsoe, the head of the Texas NAACP, documenting her experience.

I keep up with changes in the laws that affect voters and often speak to church groups and other community organizations, she wrote. I have NEVER experienced anything like these misguided and Jim Crow-like rules concerning voting. This is almost as bad as asking people how many jelly beans are in the jar.

Gaskin, who has been a member of the Texas League of Women Voters for about 25 years, worries that others wont be as persistent as she has been.

Fewer forms rejected now, officials say

Texas only allows a person to receive a mail-in ballot if they are at least 65 years old; sick or disabled; out of the county during the voting window; expecting to give birth within three weeks of Election Day; or incarcerated.

If you are having all of these problems, you might just say, Screw it, I'm just not going to do it, she said. And then guess what? They don't vote. They don't participate in democracy.

Timing is also an issue: Gaskin sent out her first application on Jan. 3 and didnt receive her ballot until almost a full month later. The deadline to submit a correct mail-in ballot application is Feb. 18.

What about the person that waits until the 16th of February, and their stuff is wrong? she wonders. Now they can't get it.

Hundreds of other Texans have experienced similar problems. Earlier this month, nearly half of all mail ballot applications in Fort Bend County were rejected because they didnt meet new stipulations in the elections law.

Now, county Elections Administrator John Oldham says that number has dropped significantly. Oldham estimated that hed rejected about four out of 100 applications he processed this weekend.

Thats partially because the county found a way around the errors, he said. If a person provides a drivers license number thats not in the state voter registration system, county employees can now look elsewhere to find the information and add it to their voter file.

It's a lot more work, but it did cut down the rejections considerably, Oldham said, adding that the Secretary of States office hadnt initially informed the county of that option.

Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the Secretary of States office, told Hearst Newspapers earlier this month that the agency is working closely with counties to answer questions and provide assistance as they work through the new ballot laws. Counties can also accept applications that include both ID numbers, he added.

And thats exactly what Gaskin is encouraging others to do. Shes been frustrated by the process, angry over the new election law and concerned for other Texans who may not vote this year because of the barriers theyve faced.

But now, with her ballot finally in hand, shes also relieved  and ready to vote.

What Im going to do is get it out of my hands as soon as I can, she said Monday. These ballots will be in the mail tomorrow.

cayla.harris@express-news.net
A fresh CO2 crisis has been averted after a three-month deal was struck today to ensure supplies of the vital gas keep flowing.

Major CO2 users have reached a renewed agreement with US-owned CF Industries, a key carbon dioxide producer in the UK, which has a plant in County Durham.

Fears had been raised over the possibility of food shortages and supply chain chaos as the previous deal expired on Monday (31 January).

CF Industries produces around 60% of the UKs commercial CO2 requirements, a gas which is used in the slaughter process, packaging, and chilling stages of meat production.

In September 2021, the government had provided financial support for the firm's operating costs for three weeks.

At the time, CF Industries said that high natural gas prices had made production at its Billingham plant unviable.

Industry then came to an agreement in October without taxpayer support, to ensure CF Fertilisers could continue to operate for three months.

This deal, which ended on Monday, has been renewed today, enabling CF Fertilisers Billingham plant to continue to operate.

It means key sectors, including food processing and nuclear power, are ensured supplies of CO2 for a further three months.

However, industry concern still remains amid calls for a longer-term solution to build stronger resilience in the UK's supply chains.

Responding to today's development, the Department for Business said it would like to see the market "take measures to improve resilience."

"The government welcomes industrys agreement which is in the best interests of businesses," a department spokesperson said.
Amazon Prime has released first look images of Clarkson's Farm brand new season, which could be released later this year.

Filming for the second series is now in full swing, and will see the whole crew, including Lisa, Kaleb, Cheerful Charlie and Gerald, reunited.

They will once again keep a watchful eye on Jeremy Clarkson and his agricultural antics in Chipping Norton, in Oxfordshire.

The show follows the former Top Gear presenter through a year of farming as he contends with the day to day challenges on his 1,000-acre farm.

Amazon has released first look images from the show's second series, which airs later this year

The popular series first aired in June 2021 on Amazon Prime, and it has turned out to be one of the service's most popular programmes.

Speaking to FarmingUK before the first season aired, Clarkson explained that he wanted to present British farming in a different light.

For this year's brand new season, he said he was 'delighted' to be reunited with the same crew.

Once again youll be able to spend some time with Cheerful Charlie, Gerald, Lisa and of course, Kaleb, said Clarkson. We are such a happy team.

The hugely popular show follows the former Top Gear presenter through a year of farming

Dan Grabiner, head of UK originals at Amazon Studios, explained that Clarksons Farm was Jeremys 'unfiltered love letter to farming'.

It is that authenticity, charm and humour, combined with the farms fantastic characters, which have made the series such a remarkable hit with audiences.

We are delighted to be joining the team for another year-in-the-life of Diddly Squat, and wish Kaleb and farmers across the country luck as Mother Nature continues to take revenge on Jeremy.
New legislation is set to expand the use of a humane method of slaughter for piglets and lambs amid concerns over supply chain worker shortages.

The Protection of Animals at the Time of Killing Regulations 2022 introduces an additional slaughtering method for piglets, lambs and kids up to a certain weight.

The legislation will expand the use of a non-penetrative bolt device on farms and in slaughterhouses, which is currently only allowed for stunning animals or slaughtering in emergency situations.

The change is being made due to supply chain shortages in the pig sector and a shortage of butchering staff which has resulted in a backlog of pigs on farms.

Defra confirmed that it had consulted the pig, sheep and goat sectors and other stakeholders including veterinary groups, academics, slaughter equipment manufacturers and animal welfare NGOs.

The department added that this was a short one-week consultation because of the urgent need to address the butcher shortage and backlog issues.

Responding, the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee noted the importance of proper training in the handling of the bolt device, to ensure that there is minimum stress caused to animals.

The committee, which scrutinises policy aspects of all secondary legislation laid before the Lords, has also asked Defra to consider recording the use of the device to gather some evidence of its effectiveness.

Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, committee chair, welcomed the change within the legislation as there was 'significant interest' in issues around animal welfare at slaughter.

"Defra is introducing the new humane killing method in response to long-standing calls for a change in the law. This should help to address the issues around overstocking of pigs on farms."

He added: We have asked the department to consider monitoring the use of the newly introduced non-penetrative bolt device to generate reliable evidence as to its effectiveness in commercial settings in non-emergency situations.

"We also believe that while welcoming on farm slaughter as a means of avoiding what are often long and stressful journeys, any killing done should be conducted as humanely as possible.

The Protection of Animals at the Time of Killing Regulations 2022 were laid on 13 January 2022 and will take effect on 3 February.

Parliament has until 3 March to raise any issues with the changes.
The government has been told to convene an emergency summit of the entire pig supply chain amid a 'deteriorating' on-farm backlog, with fears the crisis could go on until at least June.

The National Pig Association (NPA) and the NFU have issued a fresh plea to Defra Secretary George Eustice to get the supply chain together to find urgent solutions.

The call comes as the pig backlog is now estimated to be well in excess of 170,000 due to a lack of butchers in pork processing plants, as a result of the pandemic and Brexit.

Tens of thousands of healthy pigs have been culled on farms by increasingly desperate producers who have run out of space.

In the first week of this year, some farmers reported that as few as 50% of contracted pigs were taken by processors, the NPA says.

It adds that on average, 30% of pigs that processors are contracted to take from producers are not going into the food supply chain each week.

For many producers, this has been the case since last summer. The expectation is that the backlog and ongoing food waste will remain in place until at least June.

Meanwhile, challenging market conditions, exacerbated by the backlog costs, record feed costs and falling pig prices, mean farmers have now been losing around 25 per pig for nearly a year.

In a joint letter to Mr Eustice, NPA chairman Rob Mutimer and NFU President Minette Batters said the situation was deteriorating for pig producers, and that it was clearly not sustainable.

They warned it was "totally unacceptable that processors continue to take overweight pigs that they contracted farmers to produce at hugely discounted prices."

The NPA and NFU are asking that you arrange a summit of the entire pig supply chain so that we can agree a plan to get these pigs off farms and onto peoples plates.

We are aware of 40 independent farms that have left the industry already, the NPA and NFU's letter said.

The groups also highlighted that 30,000 sows have been lost from the English sow herd over the last six months, equating to around 10% of the herd, although this was likely to be an underestimate.

All of these factors are taking a huge toll on farmers mental health as the crisis worsens every week, especially for those having to endure the trauma of culling healthy animals when there seems to be no end in sight.

While the NPA and NFU expressed gratitude for Defra's support measures, announced in October last year and recently extended, they stressed that the measures were not working and had failed to alleviate the backlog.

The NPA said it was aware of only 105 butchers that had, or were due to arrive, using the industry's seasonal visa scheme.

It is also understood that Defra has only received three applications for Private Storage Aid and that there has been no take up of the Slaughter Incentive Payment Scheme.

The NPA and NFU called on Mr Eustice to improve the visa application process to make access simpler and quicker in order to help reduce the backlog.

The letter also urged Defra to encourage retailers to collectively play their part in running marketing campaigns to increase British pork sales to help steer the industry out of this crisis. Only Morrisons and Waitrose have done this so far.

Mr Mutimer warned that the situation was 'utterly dire' on pig farms, both in terms of the backlog and financially.

"We are already seeing a significant drop in breeding herd numbers, and we fear that if nothing changes, we could see a mass exodus from this industry over the next 12 months. Once we lose that production base, we wont get it back.

We need some urgent solutions now, which is why we are asking Mr Eustice to bring everyone together  and soon  to discuss how we can all work collectively to prevent this crisis becoming a catastrophe for the British industry.

NFU President Minette Batters added that the situation facing pig farmers across the country was 'absolutely devastating'.

This is a situation completely out of their control and the fact we are seeing the first ever cull of healthy pigs in this country is absolutely heart-breaking for those farmers and all of us in farming.

This has gone on for far too long. It is essential that the Secretary of State convenes this urgent summit to find solutions that can alleviate this crisis.
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Hey there,fans! This week on the site were diving into the trench run with the Battle of Yavin from. Were exploring the history of the iconic sequence today, but make sure to stay tuned throughout the week for more articles, insights, videos, and information on the best merchandising content.The Battle of Yavin is one of the most important events in the history of theuniverse. Its such a pivotal moment in galactic history that the officialtimeline in both canon and Legends uses it as the demarcation point, with B.B.Y. referring to events occurring before the Battle of Yavin and A.B.Y. as After the Battle of Yavin. While obviously for the sake of easy comprehension thegalactic calendar is based around the original film, it only underscores why it's one of the most beloved scenes inhistory.In the film, it's of course the moment in which Luke Skywalker finally begins to fulfill his destiny and harness the power of the Force. At this point hes wondering what his fate will be and if the stories of the Jedi that Obi-Wan told him about will always remain buried in the past, but upon hearing Bens voice he realizes his potential.Luke undergoes fear as he takes part in the battle, losing his friend Biggs Darklighter (whose role had a larger presence in the film before scenes showing him and Luke together on Tatooine were cut from the final edit). Han Solo and Chewbaccas return is one of the most inspirational moments in the franchise. This is also the first real encounter between Luke and Vader, who would become obsessed with finding the young pilot that destroyed the Death Star. For a comedic take on how Vader broke the news to Emperor Palpatine, make sure to check out the classic  The Emperors Phone Call  sketch fromGeorge Lucas grew up loving World War II serials and adventure films, and cited classics likeamong his favorites. He loved the idea of dogfighting and aerial combat, and he knew that he wanted to cap off the end of the film with a tribute to his inspiration. Lucass love of dogfighting stories would continue throughout his career. A young Indiana Jones battles German soldiers in World War I, including the Red Baron himself, in episodes of. Lucas tried for decades to create a film based on the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, and after thirty years of developmentwas finally released in January of 2012.X-Wings, Y-Wings, and TIE Fighters would become essential parts of thecollecting experience and some of the most iconic imagery within the saga. They would also become the basis of some of the greatestvideo game moments of all-time, ranging from the classic SEGAarcade game to the more complex combat of modernWhat do you think,fans? What are some of your favorite moments from the Battle of Yavin? How many times do you use the phrase Stay on Target everyday? Let us know in the forums , and as always, may the Force be with you!Check out Rebelscum.com merch!Be sure to follow us on all of our social media platforms:
PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / January 31, 2022 / The India Fund, Inc. (NYSE:IFN) (the "Fund"), a closed-end equity fund, announced today that it paid on January 31, 2022, a distribution of $0.80 per share to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 20, 2021.

As previously announced, the distribution was payable in shares of the Fund's common stock. However, stockholders had the option to request that their distributions be paid in cash in lieu of shares of the Fund's common stock. For purposes of computing the stock portion of the dividend, the common stock distributed was valued at $21.77 per share, which equaled the average closing price of the Fund's common shares on the NYSE on January 20, 2022, and the two preceding trading days.

Under applicable U.S. tax rules, the amount and character of distributable income for each Fund's fiscal year can be finally determined only as of the end of the Fund's fiscal year. However, under Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act") and related rules, the Fund may be required to disclose to shareholders the estimated source of certain distributions to shareholders.

The following tables set forth the estimated amounts of the sources of the distributions for purposes of Section 19 of the 1940 Act and the rules adopted thereunder. The tables have been computed based on generally accepted accounting principles. The tables include estimated amounts and percentages for the current distributions paid this month as well as for the cumulative distributions paid relating to fiscal year to date, from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short-term capital gains; net realized long-term capital gains; and return of capital. The estimated compositions of the distributions may vary because the estimated composition may be impacted by future income, expenses and realized gains and losses on securities and currencies.

The Fund's estimated sources of the current distribution paid this month and for its current fiscal year to date are as follows:

Estimated Amounts of Current Distribution per Share Fund Distribution Amount Net Investment Income Net Realized Short-Term Gains ** Net Realized Long-Term Gains Return of Capital IFN $0.8000 - - $0.0400 5% $0.7600 95% - -

Estimated Amounts of Fiscal Year* to Date Cumulative Distributions per Share Fund Distribution Amount Net Investment Income Net Realized Short-Term Gains ** Net Realized Long-Term Gains Return of Capital IFN*** $ 3.2100 - - $0.1605 5% $3.0495 95% - -

* The fiscal year end is 12/31.

** Includes currency gains.

*** The amount reflected is inclusive of the Fund's four quarterly distributions for 2021 and the special cash election distribution.

The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The final determination of the source of all distributions for the current year will only be made after year-end. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of the fiscal year and may be subject to change based on tax regulations. After the end of each calendar year, a Form 1099-DIV will be sent to shareholders for the prior calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes.

The following table provides the Fund's total return performance based on net asset value (NAV) over various time periods compared to the Fund's annualized and cumulative distribution rates.

Fund Performance and Distribution Rate Information Fund Average Annual Total Return on NAV for the 5 Year Period Ending 11/30/2021  Current Fiscal Period's Annualized Distribution Rate on NAV Cumulative Total Return on NAV  Cumulative Distribution Rate on NAV  IFN  13.05% 9.75% 14.78% 7.25%

1 Return data is net of all Fund expenses and fees and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions reinvested at prices obtained under the Fund's dividend reinvestment plan.

2 Based on the Fund's NAV as of November 30, 2021.

Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of the Fund's current distributions or from the terms of the distribution policy (the "Distribution Policy").

While NAV performance may be indicative of the Fund's investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund is determined by the Fund's market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Fund's shares in the open market.

Pursuant to an exemptive order granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Fund may distribute any long-term capital gains more frequently than the limits provided in Section 19(b) under the 1940 Act and Rule 19b-1 thereunder. Therefore, distributions paid by the Fund during the year may include net income, short-term capital gains, long-term capital gains and/or a return of capital. Net income dividends and short-term capital gain dividends, while generally taxable at ordinary income rates, may be eligible, to the extent of qualified dividend income earned by the Fund, to be taxed at a lower rate not to exceed the maximum rate applicable to your long-term capital gains. Distributions made in any calendar year in excess of investment company taxable income and net capital gain are treated as taxable ordinary dividends to the extent of undistributed earnings and profits, and then as a return of capital that reduces the adjusted basis in the shares held. To the extent return of capital distributions exceed the adjusted basis in the shares held, capital gain is recognized with a holding period based on the period the shares have been held at the date such amount is received.

The payment of distributions in accordance with the Distribution Policy may result in a decrease in the Fund's net assets. A decrease in the Fund's net assets may cause an increase in the Fund's annual operating expense ratio and a decrease in the Fund's market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Fund's net asset value per share. The Distribution Policy may also negatively affect the Fund's investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the distribution. The Fund's Board of Directors has the right to amend, suspend or terminate the Distribution Policy at any time. The amendment, suspension or termination of the Distribution Policy may affect the Fund's market price per share. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances.

In the United States, abrdn is the marketing name for the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: abrdn Inc., Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd., abrdn Australia Limited, abrdn Asia Limited, Aberdeen Capital Management, LLC, Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs Advisors LLC and Aberdeen Standard Alternative Funds Limited.

Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. The Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

If you If you wish to receive this information electronically, please contact Investor.Relations@abrdn.com

For More Information Contact:

Investor Relations

1-800-522-5465

Investor.Relations@abrdn.com

SOURCE: The India Fund, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686508/The-India-Fund-Inc-Announces-Payment-of-Special-Cash-Election-Distribution


CHICAGO (dpa-AFX) - Qatar Airways has signed a deal for at least 50 Boeing Airline's (BA) upcoming freight variants of 777x, according to reports. The emir will buy 34 planes now with an option of another 16 later.



United States Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, Representatives of Qatar, Boeing, and Qatar Airways were all present at the event where the deal was signed.



The deal also included another thread where the middle-eastern fight giant bought 50 737 MAX aircraft to replace its fleet of A321neos as they were canceled by Airbus SE (AIR) earlier. The deal, in a similar vein, is for 25 planes firm and 25 as optional.



Reports show a breaking partnership between Airbus and Qatar Airways has been on the cards for some time now with Qatar releasing a video of flaky paints and surface cracks in the A350 jets made by the European company. The airlines have also demanded a $600 million damage for the faults. The recent move to Airbus' direct business rival is seen as a telling low to the relationship between Airbus and Qatar by the experts.



Airbus has also launched its own line of freight aircrafts recently in the Dubai Airshow but the gulf company has not paid any heed to the manufacturer. Emirates Airways already has an order backlog where the delivery of its 777X aircraft has not been delivered by the company but the recent deal will give the company more leverage to market its aircraft and boost its sales in the coming year.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



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New Partnership will Ease Supply Chain Difficulties

PORT HUENEME, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 31, 2022 / Joined by FedEx executives, Dr. Udo Lange, President/CEO of FedEx Logistics; Patrick Moebel, President of FedEx Trade Networks; and Jim Rinchiuso Managing Director, Global Ocean Product for FedEx Logistics; the Port of Hueneme, Navy Base Ventura County leadership and elected officials greeted the first vessel of FedEx containers arriving from Port of Humen, China. U.S. households will find essential commodities such as electronics, automotive materials, and garments, as well as general department store merchandise replenished on store shelves thanks to innovative services through this exciting new collaboration with FedEx and the Port of Hueneme.

The FedEx team, Port officials including Oxnard Harbor District Commission President Mary Anne Rooney, Commissioners Jess J. Herrera and Celina L. Zacarias, CEO & Port Director Kristin Decas, Chief Commercial Officer Dona Lacayo, and Naval Base Ventura County's Commander Captain Robert Kimnach welcomed the FedEx cargo containers in person with a plaque ceremony as they watched the first set of 53-foot containers get offloaded from the ship to the docks.

(Left to right) Geneve Monteleone, Office of Sen. Diane Feinstein; Oxnard Mayor John Zaragoza; Port Hueneme Mayor Rich Rollins; Port Hueneme City Council Member Laura Hernandez; Oxnard Harbor Commissioner Celina L. Zacarias; Capt. Richard "Barr" Kimnach, Commanding Officer of Naval Base Ventura County; Jim Rinchiuso, Managing Director of Global Ocean FedEx Trade Networks; Patrick Moebel, President of FedEx Trade Networks; Dr. Udo Lange, President & CEO of FedEx Logistics; Oxnard Harbor Commission President Mary Anne Rooney; Andrew Palomares Deputy Executive Director, CFO/CAO; Oxnard Harbor Commissioner Jess J. Herrera; Congresswoman Julia Brownley; Christina Birdsey Chief Operations Officer; Congressman Salud Carbajal; Rick Valenzuela President ILWU Local 46; Kristin Decas, CEO & Port Director; and Dona Lacayo Chief Commercial & Public Affairs Officer.

"Thanks to the innovative thinking and dedication from the FedEx Logistics and Port of Hueneme teams, we are able to turn a challenge into an opportunity and help our customers with this solution," said Udo Lange, President & CEO, FedEx Logistics.

Congresswoman Julia Brownley, Congressman Salud Carbajal, Port Hueneme Mayor Richard Rollins, Port Hueneme Council Member Laura Hernandez, Oxnard Mayor John Zaragoza, and Oxnard Council Member Vianey Lopez celebrated the event by presenting proclamations to the Port for excellence in private-public partnerships and in finding creative supply chain solutions. Other important stakeholders attending the event included the President of the ILWU, Rick Valenzuela, and representatives from ocean carrier United Cargo Management, Ceres Terminals and T&T Trucking.

A FedEx container sits atop a Ceres all-electric UTR (cargo handling truck).

"As the Port of Hueneme's representative in Congress, I am always so enthused by the new business and new jobs that the Port brings to the region," said Congresswoman Julia Brownley, representing California's 26th District. "Moving goods efficiently through the supply chain is critical for businesses of all shapes and sizes and infrastructure at our ports is a key part of that equation."

With pressures on the supply chain, this type of service is not only important to goods movement and U.S. consumers, but to reducing emissions by alleviating shoreside and waterborne bottlenecking at the larger congested ports while generating benefits for the local community.

Commissioner Rooney expressed the Board's strong support of this service coupled by its unwavering commitment to the environment and community, "As we build these services, we are motivated by the opportunities that it brings to foster economic prosperity and sustainable growth. These type of cargo operations create good paying jobs. Our successes also provide us with the critical revenue to invest in sustainable operations and zero emission technology, such as the electric UTRs (cargo handling trucks) the Port procured to offload containers."

Putting to use its longstanding 2004 Joint Use Agreement with the Navy, the cargo will initially be staged on Navy property to avoid disruption to the critical existing services at the Port.

It is truly an honor to participate at this historic occasion and on behalf of the Navy, I'd like to welcome the Genco Pyrenees FedEx Logistic Cargo vessel onboard Naval Base Port Hueneme," said Capt. Robert "Barr" Kimnach, Commander of Naval Base Ventura County. "Strong community ties are critical to ensure our continued mission success. The Navy has endured a valued partnership with this community for over 80 years, operating the harbor after the outbreak of World War II."

This operation is first of multiple chartered vessels scheduled to come to Hueneme with the plan to schedule more over the next year based on success with the initial services. With FedEx owned chassis lined up and truckers ready, the cargo will make a quick departure from the base to distribution facilities lined up off-port.

Dona Lacayo, CCO & CPAO of the Port of Hueneme said, "We worked together to have the entire logistics network in cue to move the cargo through each of the supply chain partners-from origin, ocean and trucking to destination facility. We thank FedEx Logistics and all of the project partners for a great collaboration and for making the first FedEx ocean charter a great success."

FedEx trucks move cargo from the vessel Genco Pyrenees.

The Port of Hueneme has seen record imports and exports as it supports the challenges in the supply chain. Imports climbed 123 percent and exports 200 percent in the first half of fiscal year 2022 (July - December) through its strong partnerships with the Navy, ocean carriers, stevedores and other key partners that keep the cargo moving and the Port uncongested.

Kristin Decas, CEO and Port Director shared, "Our slogan, We Make Cargo Move, is indicative of our reputation among Ports as one of the fastest throughput ports in the nation and in this moment, through collaboration we can help make a dent in a national crisis. We thank FedEx for their business and look forward to a long-lasting relationship that creates market-based solutions for the benefit of the consumer."

The Port of Hueneme is one of the most productive and efficient commercial trade gateways for niche cargo and the 6th largest container port on the West Coast. The Port is governed by five locally elected Port Commissioners. The Port moves $10.85 billion in goods each year and consistently ranks among the top ten U.S. ports for automobiles and fresh produce. Port operations support the community by bringing $1.7 billion in economic activity and creating 15,834 trade-related jobs. Trade through the Port of Hueneme generates more than $119 million in direct and related state and local taxes, which fund vital community services. In 2017, the Port of Hueneme became the first port in California to become Green Marine certified and was voted the Greenest Port in the U.S. at the Green Shipping Summit. Visit www.portofh.org

PRESS CONTACTS

Letitia Austin

Port of Hueneme

(805) 816-8324

laustin@portofh.org

Christina Meek

FedEx

(901) 304-9495

christina.meek@fedex.com

SOURCE: Port of Hueneme

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686517/FedEx-Execs-Join-Port-of-Hueneme-and-Navy-Leadership-to-Celebrate-Arrival-of-First-Container-Vessel-with-Goods-from-Asia
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.
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - January 31, 2022) - Sylogist Ltd. (TSX: SYZ) ("Sylogist" or the "Company"), a leading public sector SaaS company, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with its current banking institution to expand its existing credit facility from $75 million (CDN) to $125 million (CDN), on improved terms. Funding acquisitions remains the primary purpose of the credit facility, of which approximately $100 million (CDN) remains available. The facility is committed for a two-year term and renewable annually thereafter.

Bill Wood, Sylogist's President and CEO, stated: "We are grateful for our lender's confidence in our business and their partnership as we grow. This expanded credit facility will help us to further our aggressive M&A growth strategy."

About Sylogist

Sylogist is a public sector SaaS company that provides comprehensive enterprise resource planning (ERP), constituent relationship management (CRM), fundraising, education administration, and payments solutions that allow its customers to carry out their missions. It serves over 1,950 customers globally, including all levels of government, non-profit and non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, and public compliance-driven and funded companies. The Company has industry-leading profitability, an exceptionally strong balance sheet, a track record of successful acquisitions, and a portfolio of mission-critical SaaS solutions. Full financial statements together with Management's Discussion and Analysis are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

The Company's stock is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol SYZ. Information about Sylogist can be found at www.sylogist.com .

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws and regulations. These statements typically use words such as expect, believe, estimate, project, anticipate, plan, may, should, could and would, or the negative of these terms, variations thereof or similar terminology. Forward-looking information in this news release includes statements with respect to Sylogist's aggressive growth posture, ability to further leverage its capital structure, and pursuit of larger and more transformative acquisitions. By their very nature, forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific in nature. It is therefore possible that the beliefs and plans and other forward-looking expectations expressed herein will not be achieved or will prove inaccurate. Although Sylogist believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it provides no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including its inability to attract key employees, its inability to find opportunities to make acquisitions, continuing headwinds from COVID-19, and economic turmoil. Additional information regarding some of these risks, uncertainties and other factors may be found in the Company's Annual Information Form for the fiscal period ended September 30, 2021 and in the management's discussion and analysis for the twelve months ended September 30, 2021, and other documents available on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Although Sylogist believes that the material assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur. Sylogist disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

Certain information set out herein may be considered as "financial outlook" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The purpose of this financial outlook is to provide readers with disclosure regarding Sylogist's reasonable expectations as to the anticipated results of its proposed business activities for the periods indicated. Readers are cautioned that the financial outlook may not be appropriate for other purposes.

For further information contact:

Bill Wood, President and CEO

or

Rudy Shirra, Manager, Corporate Development and Investor Relations

Sylogist Ltd.

(403) 266-4808

ir@sylogist.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112288
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / January 31, 2022 / Li-Metal Corp. (CSE:LIM) ("Li-Metal" or the "Company") today announced the implementation of the split of its share capital on a four-for-one basis, increasing its issued and outstanding shares to 154,953,828 (the "Share Split"). Shareholder authorization to effect the Share Split was approved pursuant to a special resolution passed by shareholders on January 26, 2022 (see news release dated January 6, 2022). In accordance with the constating documents of the Company and the aforementioned shareholder approval, the board of directors of the Company passed a resolution authorizing the Share Split.

The Company anticipates its shares will trade on a post-Share Split basis on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE" or the "Exchange"), as of February 2, 2022. Further details with respect to the Share Split are contained in the Company's management information circular dated December 23, 2021, a copy of which is available on SEDAR.

The exercise price and number of shares of the Company issuable upon the exercise of any outstanding stock options, or other convertible securities will be proportionately adjusted to reflect the Share Split. No fractional post-Share Split common shares will be issued.

Appointment of Colin Farrell to the Board

Li-Metal is also pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Colin Farrell to the board of directors. Mr. Farrell's nomination was also approved by shareholders during the January 26, 2022 special meeting of shareholders.

Mr. Farrell previously served as an advisor to the Company's advisory board and brings with him over 40 years of wide professional experience, including commercial, technical and policy, leadership experience. He has successfully started up and led several tax and non-tax teams in various groups at PwC. Until his retirement from PwC in 2018, Mr. Farrell was a member of PwC's Hong Kong and China disruption and investment group, PwC's Tax Policy Panel, PwC's China/Hong Kong advisory committee on insurance and human resources matters, PwC Hong Kong's Foundation and PwC Hong Kong/China's Corporate Responsibility committee, and on a major multinational corporation's global tax advisory council. He was also a member of PwC China/Hong Kong's Future of Tax committee.

In addition, Mr. Farrell has leadership and start-up involvement in Hong Kong and China in human resources, corporate recovery, and cross-discipline teams. He has a broad range of client experience in tax and non-tax consulting and execution matters such as market entry, e-commerce strategy, human resources, board information needs and property disposals. Other work experience includes secondments to government and industry, deal experience, and leading system design and implementation projects cross-territory and other major change management leadership.

"We are excited to have Colin join the Li-Metal board as we deepen our reporting and tax capability at the highest level, in preparation to advance our lithium anode technologies towards product qualification and commercialization," said Maciej Jastrzebski, Li-Metal co-founder and CEO. "We believe Colin's background and extensive track record will be a valuable addition to the Board, and I look forward to working with him as we grow the Company and execute our strategy, creating further value for shareholders."

New Timetable for Restricted Securities

In addition to the above-listed corporate events, the Company is also pleased to confirm a new timetable for the release of the Company's escrowed securities. The new schedule was confirmed by the Exchange due to Li-Metal's strengthened position, which has allowed the Company to meet higher financial and operating standards. The original release schedule outlined in the Company's Listing Statement filed on SEDAR on November 2, 2021 has now been revised. The new timetable allows for 15% of escrowed securities to be released immediately, with an additional 25% of escrowed securities to be released every six (6) months. Ten percent of the original number of escrowed securities were released upon commencement of trading in November.

The Company currently has a total of 7,768,393 escrowed securities (7,008,062 shares and 760,331 options) in escrow, which are held by Li-Metal principals. Under the previous escrow release schedule, 10% of escrowed securities were released on November 3, 2021, when Li-Metal began trading on the CSE, which was to be followed by six subsequent releases of 15% each, every six months thereafter. The new timetable for the release of Li-Metal escrowed securities is as follows:

Date Percentage of securities to be released* Immediately 15% May 3, 2022 25% November 3, 2022 25% May 3, 2023 25%

*Based on original number of securities presented in the Company's Listing Statement on SEDAR.

On behalf of the Board

"Maciej Jastrzebski"

Maciej Jastrzebski

CEO and Director

About Li-Metal Corp.

Li-Metal is a Canadian-based company developing lithium metal anodes and lithium metal production technologies for use in next generation batteries. Our production methods are significantly more sustainable than existing products and offer lighter, more energy dense and safer batteries that are critical to tomorrow's electric vehicles. For more information visit, www.li-metal.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to the Company. Any such forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "projects", "plans" and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Statements about, among other things, the Company's strategic plans are forward-looking information. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that the development of the business of the Company will be completed as described above. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by applicable law.

Investor Contact

For more information on Li-Metal or to be added to the Company's email distribution list, please contact:

Salisha Ilyas

s.ilyas@li-metal.com

Tel: 647-795-1653

SOURCE: Li-Metal Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686518/Li-Metal-Announces-Share-Split-and-Appointment-of-Colin-Farrell-to-the-Board
Rio Tinto today published a comprehensive external review of its workplace culture, commissioned as part of its commitment to ensure sustained cultural change across its global operations.

The review, which was carried out by former Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, identified disturbing findingsof bullying, sexual harassment, racism and other forms of discrimination throughout the company.

The review is part of the work being undertaken by Rio Tinto's Everyday Respect task force, which was launched in March 2021 to better understand, prevent and respond to harmful behaviours in the workplace.

The eight-month study saw more than 10,000 people share their experiences, views and insights via an online survey, as well as through more than 100 group listening sessions, 85 confidential individual listening sessions and close to 140 individual written submissions.

The report, which outlines 26 detailed recommendations, will inform work being carried out to improve how the company prevents and responds to discrimination and unacceptable workplace behaviour. Rio Tinto will implement all recommendations from the report, with a focus on three key areas:

A commitment from the company's leadership to create safe, respectful and inclusive working environments to prevent harmful behaviours and better support people in vulnerable situations. This includes increasing diversity within the company.

Ensuring the company's camp and village facilities are safe and inclusive. This includes making sure the company is applying the same safety and risk processes that it uses to prevent harm in operations to create a safe environment for all employees and contractors.

Making it as easy and as safe as possible for all people to call out unacceptable behaviours, highlight issues when they happen and receive support. This includes introducing early intervention options and improving how the company responds to formal complaints in the workplace.

The actions are a response to the report's findings which show in the last five years:

Bullying and sexism are systemic across Rio Tinto worksites, with almost half of the people experiencing bullying;

28.2% of women and 6.7% of men have experienced sexual harassment at work;

21 women reported actual or attempted rape or sexual assault;

Racism is common across a number of areas, with the survey indicating people working in a country different to their birth experienced high rates of racism, and that 39.8% of men and 31.8% of women who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in Australia experienced racism.

The full report can be viewed here: https://www.riotinto.com/-/media/Content/Documents/Sustainability/People/RT-Everyday-respect-report.pdf

Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said, "The findings of this report are deeply disturbing to me and should be to everyone who reads them. I offer my heartfelt apology to every team member, past or present, who has suffered as a result of these behaviours. This is not the kind of company we want to be.

"I feel shame and enormous regret to have learned the extent to which bullying, sexual harassment and racism are happening at Rio Tinto.

"I am determined that by implementing appropriate actions to address the recommendations, and with the management team's commitment to a safe, respectful and inclusive Rio Tinto in all areas, we will make positive and lasting change and strengthen our workplace culture for the long term.

"I am grateful to everyone who has come forward to share their experiences as we go about this vital work."

The report also found there is strong appetite for cultural change within the company, including at senior leadership levels, and that there was a visible shift in attitudes and behaviour over the last 12 months.

Elizabeth Broderick said, "This report is not a reason for reduced confidence in Rio Tinto. By proactively commissioning this study, one of the largest of its kind within the resources industry, it demonstrates a very clear commitment to increased transparency, accountability and action. The high levels of confidence among employees that a significant impact can be made in the next two years are an encouraging sign that change can happen.

"In my interactions with the Rio Tinto leadership team, I have observed a strong desire for transformational change, as well as to make positive contributions to the societal shifts that we need to see. There is clear recognition, however, that new approaches are needed to solve these issues."

The report was informed by research that shows lasting cultural change can only happen through engaging with people who have been impacted by harmful behaviours, allowing them to share their stories and design solutions together to prevent a recurrence.

It set out to understand the prevalence of bullying, sexual harassment and racism within the company, to understand people's individual experiences and to determine the most appropriate and effective approaches for prevention.

About Elizabeth Broderick AO, Principal, Elizabeth Broderick Co

Elizabeth was Australia's longest serving Sex Discrimination Commissioner (from 2007 to 2015), is Founder and Convenor of the Champions of Change Coalition, Adjunct Professor at The University of Sydney and an independent expert to the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls.

This announcement is authorised for release to the market by Steve Allen, Rio Tinto's Group Company Secretary.

riotinto.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220131005967/en/

Contacts:

Please direct all enquiries to media.enquiries@riotinto.com

Media Relations, UK

Illtud Harri

M +44 7920 503 600

David Outhwaite

M +44 7787 597 493

Media Relations, Americas

Matthew Klar

T +1 514 608 4429

Media Relations, Australia

Jonathan Rose

M +61 447 028 913

Matt Chambers

M +61 433 525 739

Jesse Riseborough

M +61 436 653 412

Investor Relations, UK

Menno Sanderse

M: +44 7825 195 178

David Ovington

M +44 7920 010 978

Clare Peever

M +44 7788 967 877

Investor Relations, Australia

Natalie Worley

M +61 409 210 462

Amar Jambaa

M +61 472 865 948

Rio Tinto plc

6 St James's Square

London SW1Y 4AD

United Kingdom

T +44 20 7781 2000

Registered in England

No. 719885

Rio Tinto Limited

Level 7, 360 Collins Street

Melbourne 3000

Australia

T +61 3 9283 3333

Registered in Australia

ABN 96 004 458 404

Category: General
MENA's fastest growing B2B start-up focusing on regional expansion and many new initiatives to carry momentum forward

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Retailo, the fastest growing startup in Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan (MENAP) which is digitizing the region's retail supply chains, has raised $36 million in its Series A investment round which was a mix of equity and venture debt. Retailo is a regional B2B marketplace in MENAP and has raised a total investment of $45 million in less than 1.5 years of operations, a landmark for any startup in the region.

Retailo's Series A round has attracted leading investors with proven track records of impactful investments. The round was led by Silicon Valley based Graphene Ventures which was an investor of tech giants Snapchat and Lyft.

For Retailo's Series A, Graphene is joined by leading investors that include 500 Global, Agility, Aujan, Tech Invest Com and Mentor's Fund, all of which have the relevant exposure and investments in the retail industry's technology companies. The venture debt was raised from Nahda Fund - one of the Middle East's first venture debt funds which is backed by IMM Investment Global, based in Hong Kong. Additionally, Shorooq Partners, Abercross Holdings, Arzan VC, AgFunder also participated in the round as repeat investors which demonstrates their continuing belief in Retailo's successful future.

Retail in MENAP is a $500 billion industry which consists of over 10 million small businesses to serve a population of more than 700 million consumers. However, the majority of this retail industry is informal and undigitized. Small businesses have to rely on inefficient supply chains and limited financial resources while operating on impossible margins. Retailo aims to champion these small business owners by building a suite of technologies around them. The company has begun this via their B2B community commerce platform which is used by over 50,000 retailers monthly.

On Retailo's mobile platform, small businesses can find a wide catalogue of over 5,000 SKUs which are delivered to their doorstep in less than 24 hours. They can also avail Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services, which give them flexible payment options and credit lines. By providing timely supply, competitive rates, and easy credit, Retailo is able to address the needs of retailers and significantly improve their business.

To offer a one-stop shop solution, Retailo (https://retailo.co) directly works with hundreds of leading local, regional and global brands. Retailo also optimizes end-to-end logistics in the supply chain via efficient warehousing operations and smart fleet management solutions. Leveraging its wide regional presence, Retailo has recently begun offering its sellers a cross-border distribution platform across the three biggest markets in the region: KSA, UAE and Pakistan. Retailo also provides data analytics services to sellers to help them evaluate sales performance and consumption trends.

Headquartered in Riyadh, Retailo was founded by former Careem executives Talha Ansari, Wahaj Ahmed and Mohammad Nowkhaiz in July 2020 with a unique regional launch. Growth has been quick and in only 18 months Retailo has scaled to 10+ cities in 3 countries: KSA, UAE and Pakistan. "The multi-market strategy from day one was unconventional and challenging. Covid made it even more so. But now Retailo is a scalable organization with hundreds of millions of dollars in annualized revenue and colleagues from multiple nationalities and diverse backgrounds who have left leading institutions like Amazon, Delivery Hero and Goldman Sachs to fulfil Retailo mission in building technology that empowers 10 million retailers in the region," said Himag Vaidya, Retailo's Head of Strategy.

Nabil A. Borhanu, partner at Graphene Ventures said, "We are impressed with what Retailo has achieved in an astonishingly short time. Their vision is both ambitious and inspiring and we believe that partnering with them is a sound business investment and also a chance to truly improve the lives of millions of people."

The Series A funding will help Retailo move into the next phase of expansion into new geographies, verticals and products. "As global supply chains come under stress pushing up commodity prices and depressing GDP growth, the value of smart supply chains becomes even more important," said Retailo's CEO Talha Ansari. "The retail sector serves 700 million persons in MENAP, contributes almost 20% to the GDP and employs tens of millions. By providing technology solutions to this underserved market, we are not only improving lives but also uplifting the economy of the entire MENAP region."

For further information, please contact:

Sibtain Naqvi

Director Strategic Communications

Retailo Technologies

Email: sibtain.naqvi@retailo.co

+923062497523

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1736889/Retailo.jpg




Toyota City, Japan, Feb 1, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Lexus announced today its 2021 global sales results as described below.Global sales for the period of January-December, 2021 were 760,012 units (106% compared to the previous year), showing a recovery trend and surpassing last year's results. On a regional level, North America achieved approximately 332,000 units (112% compared to the previous year), and China achieved a record high of approximately 227,000 units (101% compared to the previous year), driving the recovery of global sales. On a model level, sales of electrified vehicles reached a record high of approximately 260,000 units (110% year-on-year) thanks to the strong sales of ES, RX and UX hybrid models. In addition, with the release of new NX as the first model of the next generation Lexus, and newly introduced PHEV, Lexus accelerating the practical spread of electrification to meet needs for customers and society. Lexus aims to achieve offering a full lineup of BEVs in all segments by 2030, 100% BEV sales in Europe, North America, and China, and 1 million units sold globally as a new challenge of realizing a carbon-neutral society. Furthermore, we also aim to achieve 100% BEVs globally by 2035. Lexus will continue to create vehicles that meet the diverse needs and lifestyles of our customers.January-December, 2021 sales results by major region are as follows:North America approx. 332,000 units (112% compared to prev. year)China approx. 227,000 units (101% compared to prev. year)Europe approx. 72,000 units (102% compared to prev. year)Japan approx. 51,000 units (104% compared to prev. year)Middle East approx. 28,000 units (103% compared to prev. year)East Asia approx. 30,000 units (95% compared to prev. year)Lexus International President / Chief Branding Officer, Koji Sato said, "I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of our Lexus customers around the world. Despite the continuing impact of the spread of the COVID-19 and the tight parts supply chain, we were able to recover sales to a record level in 2021, selling approximately 760,000 units. In 2022, we will continue to refine Lexus' unique design and driving taste that appeals to the sensibilities of our customers, based on our thoughts to 'be the brand that people who know the real thing choose at the end of the day'. We will also accelerate the development of electric vehicles starting with the BEV exclusive model 'RZ' in spring, we will release a series of new models that will accompany the lifestyles of a variety of customers. Please look forward to the future of Lexus."Source: LEXUSCopyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
BWA Group PLC - Positive Mineral Results for Nkoteng & Dehane Projects

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF REGULATION 11 OF THE MARKET ABUSE (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS 2019/310.

1st February 2022

BWA Group PLC

("BWA", or the "Company") (AQSE: BWAP)

Positive XRD Quantitative Heavy Mineral Results for the Nkoteng and Dehane Projects, Cameroon

BWA Group plc [AQSE: BWAP], which has mineral exploration licences split between Cameroon and Canada and is quoted on London's AQSE Growth Market (formerly NEX), provides an update on recently received XRD results on 10 samples from its 90% owned Nkoteng and Dehane heavy mineral sands projects located in Central and Western Cameroon ("Nkoteng", "Dehane" or the "Nkoteng Project", "Dehane Project" or "Projects").

BWA currently has two heavy mineral sands licences in Cameroon, both of which are at an early stage of exploration. The Nkoteng Licence covers an area of 497 km2, comprising part of the prospective Sanaga river system and is located 60 km to the northeast of Yaounde with easy transport links to the port of Douala (see Figure 1). The Dehane Licence is 132 km2 comprising part of the prospective Nyong river system estuary and is located 166 km to the west of the capital, Yaounde and 70km from the deep seaport and industrial zone of Kribi.

BWA is pleased to announce the publication of recently received quantitative XRD mineralogy results, prepared in accordance with JORC (2012) for the Nkoteng and Dehane heavy mineral sands ("HMS") licences.

The XRD results show promising returns of Valuable Heavy Minerals (VHM) rutile, kyanite, ilmenite, and zircon from select units of the mineralised sands, as well as anomalous garnet percentages. The implication of the garnet is unknown at this time.

Highlights:

P654193 - NKO_002 - 2.6m auger interval 0.40m from 3.00m (BOH) with 0.24% rutile for a total VHM of 1.42%.

auger interval from (BOH) with 0.24% rutile for a total VHM of 1.42%. P654198 - DHO_039 - 4.5m auger interval 0.50m from 5.00m (BOH) with 0.07% rutile, 0.22% ilmenite, 0.52% kyanite and 0.07% garnet for a total VHM of 0.95%.

auger interval from (BOH) with 0.07% rutile, 0.22% ilmenite, 0.52% kyanite and 0.07% garnet for a total VHM of 0.95%. P654199 - DHO_060 - active riverbed grab sample with 0.49% rutile, 0.64% ilmenite, 0.34% zircon, 1.82% kyanite and 0.44% garnet for a total VHM of 3.73%.

The limited XRD results to date are considered positive and demonstrate the VHM and thicknesses of potential economic interest, and warrant further investigation and advanced exploration work, including drill testing, mineral resource estimation leading to preliminary conceptual mining studies and economic evaluation.

A version of this announcement containing all tables, pictures and maps including JORC (2012) Table 1 can be viewed on the Company's website, http://www.bwagroupplc.com/.

Refer to Table 1 and 2, for summary of HLS and XRD results returned from the 1st pass Nkoteng and Dehane reconnaissance pit and auger programmes and Figures 2 and 3 for locations of the samples.

Outlook

The company are continuing to process and understand the new data and are still in the early stages of exploration and evaluation, understanding the distribution of mineralisation and related size fractions, but are very encouraged by the presence of elevated intervals of Rutile-Ilmenite, Zircon and Kyanite over continuous zones within an area considered prospective for heavy mineral sands.

Our COVID-19 health and safety protocols continue to allow the team to be effective in the field.

Richard Battersby, Non-executive Chairman of BWA, commented:

"We are very pleased by the results from the initial limited heavy mineral separation and quantitative mineral analysis so far. The indications of potentially economic quantities of valuable heavy minerals, at encouraging interval thicknesses which are yet to be fully tested are considered very strong. We look forward to testing the full thickness of the HMS prospective sequence in the next round of mechanised auger drilling."

Implications for Exploration

This new XRD data will assist in designing new sampling and analytical procedures which will allow the team to be more effective in data collection and understanding the deposit.

The independent expert review, and addition of these recent XRD results supports the position that there is excellent potential for continuous HMS mineralisation and deposit development within the areas tested, at sufficient levels to warrant further follow up systematic exploration.

BWA are waiting for the arrival of two closed barrel auger drill rigs in Cameroon for immediate follow-up on these anomalous results with a view to extend and infill the sample area, test the full thickness of prospective units, understand the relationships between the mineralisation and host strata and carry out additional sampling on the plastic clays. This work will provide a better indication of the HMS exploration potential within the licence and better focus intended follow up drill programmes.

BWA intend to start drilling 2,500 m in Nkoteng and 1,500 m in Dehane as soon as the drill rigs have arrived in Cameroon (estimated for early to February). The holes are planned for every 200 m (on 500 m and 1000 m grid lines) to a depth around five metres at Nkoteng and to fifteen metres at Dehane. The grid lines were set up on regular coordinate grids and cover the entire licence area at a spacing of 200 m by 500 m.

Please refer to CPR RNS' dated 13thDecember 2021 for detailed summary of exploration works and geological setting or view the full Competent Persons Report on the Company's website.

Preliminary Mineral Separation and Quantitative Work

Ten samples from two auger holes were submitted to ALS Perth for mineral separation and percent determination testwork, and 21 samples were sent for granulometric studies and visual size fraction analysis. The following conclusions are presented for the mineral separation testwork:

There are good grades present as rutile and ilmenite as defined by the granulometric studies throughout the various horizons and confirmed by geochemical analysis.

There are good TiO2 and Al2O3 grades as defined by geochemical analysis and granulometric studies which has identified abundant Kyanite throughout the various horizons, later confirmed by XRD analysis.

There are good grades of zircon, as defined by geochemical analysis and granulometric studies which has identified zirconium throughout the various horizons.

From the HLS and screening results, the following conclusions are made: Five samples returned encouraging results from the wet screening 1 mm to 0.053 mm fraction, in particular the main target sand and gravel units. A number of samples returned high clay content which can interfere with recoveries. However, current tests are extremely limited and further detail testwork is required.

7 of the 10 samples were analysed by XRD (due to sample size). The results for XRD quantitative mineral analysis on the heavy mineral separation samples returns several positive results: P654193 (NKO_002 - 0.40 m from 3.00 m BOH) with 0.24% rutile for a total VHM of 1.42%. P654198 (DHO_039 - 0.50 m from 5.00 m BOH) with 0.07% rutile, 0.22% ilmenite, 0.52% kyanite and 0.07% garnet for a total VHM of 0.95%. P654199 (DHO_060 - active riverbed grab sample) with 0.49% rutile, 0.64% ilmenite, 0.34% zircon, 1.82% kyanite and 0.44% garnet for a total VHM of 3.73%.



Further systematic and more detailed mineral separation and mineralogical (QEMSCAN) studies are planned across the prospective target areas.

Refer to Table 2 for a summary of mineral separation results and Figures 2 and 3 for locations of the samples.

Competent Person's Statement

The information in this report which relates to exploration results for the Nkoteng and Dehane Project is based upon and fairly represents information collected and compiled by Mr Emmanuel Simo, MSc., Senior Geologist and Chief Geologist for BWA, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists.

The exploration results were also reviewed by Mr J.N. Hogg, MSc. MAIG, Principal Geologist for Addison Mining Services (AMS) and Non-executive Director of BWA.

Mr Simo has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralisation, the type of deposit under consideration and to the activity undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012 edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results.

Mr Simo has reviewed and verified the technical information that forms the basis of and has been used in the preparation of this announcement, including all sampling and analytical data, and analytical techniques. Mr Simo consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on the information, in the form and context in which it appears. Mr Simo has also reviewed and approved the technical information in his capacity as a Competent Person under the AIM Rules for Companies.

Forward Looking Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are expressed in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. These statements reflect current expectations, intentions or strategies regarding the future and assumptions based on currently available information. Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties materialise, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary from the expectations, intentions and strategies described in this announcement. No obligation is assumed to update forward looking statements if these beliefs, opinions and estimates should change or to reflect other future developments.

For further information on the Company, please visit http://www.bwagroupplc.com/index.html or contact:

BWA Group PLC

Richard Battersby

Chairman +44 (0)7836 238172

enquiries@bwagroupplc.com Allenby Capital Limited

Corporate Adviser

Nick Harriss/Freddie Wooding +44 (0)207 3328 5656

Prior to publication, the information contained within this announcement was deemed by the Company to constitute inside information for the purposes of Article 7 under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). With the publication of this announcement, this information is now considered to be in the public domain

Glossary of Technical Terms:

"%" percent; "AIM" Alternative Investment Market Al2O3 Aluminium Oxide; "ALS" Australian Laboratory Services; "AMS" Addison Mining Services; "BRGM" Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minie

(French Geological Survey); "BWA" BWA Group PLC; "CP" Competent Person "CPR" Competent Person's Report "DTM" Digital Terrain Model. Computerised topographic model; "DUP" Decret d'Utilite Publique (Public Utility Decree); "HMS" Heavy Mineral Sands; "HLS" Heavy liquid separation "km" Kilometre; "TiO2" Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium (IV) oxide. Generally sourced from ilmenite, rutile, and anatase; "Zr" Zircon or Zirconium; "JORC (2012)" the 2012 edition of the JORC code; "JORC" the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves, as published by the Joint Ore Reserves Committee of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Australian Institute of Geoscientists and Minerals Council of Australia; "m" Metre; "mm" Millimetre "ME-XRF11bE" Analysis by Fusion/XRF; "QA/QC" Quality assurance/quality control. "VHM" Valuable Heavy Minerals "XRD" X-ray powder diffraction

Table 1

Pit ID Type Easting Northing RL Depth Dip Azimuth NKO_002* Auger 820826 495238 551 3.45 -90 0 DHO_039* Auger 618830 386399 10 5.00 -90 0 DHO_060** Grab 619746 386458 0 0 0 0

*Samples did not hit bedrock and is open at depth.

**Denotes grab sample from active river channel

A version of this announcement containing all tables, pictures and maps including JORC (2012) Table 1 can be viewed on the Company's website, http://www.bwagroupplc.com/.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Glycotope to spin-out its Service Business to the newly formed FyoniBio GmbH



Berlin, Germany, February 1, 2022 - Glycotope GmbH, a biotechnology company developing antibodies against proteins carrying tumor-specific carbohydrate structures, and CantonBio Deutschland GmbH, a subsidiary of Canton Biologics Co. Ltd., a leading Chinese CDMO, today announced the successful completion of CantonBio's acquisition of Glycotope's service business under the newly formed FyoniBio GmbH.

The spin-out completes Glycotope's refocus solely towards drug discovery and development, utilizing its proprietary technology platform to develop uniquely tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies. FyoniBio, now as part of Canton Biologics Group, will continue the contract development service business and offer a broad range of ISO-9001 compliant services from cell line development to clinical bioanalysis.

Henner Kollenberg, Glycotope's Chief Executive Officer, said "We look forward to collaborating with FyoniBio for our development needs, while Glycotope's renewed focus solely on drug discovery and development sharpens our profile as a platform company for tumor targeting antibodies with unique specificity."

Dr. Lars Stockl, Managing Director of FyoniBio said "We are also looking forward to continuing the service business with a great team of long-term colleagues and long-standing existing partners as well as potential new collaborators."

Dr. Hans Baumeister, Managing Director of FyoniBio added; "We are so happy to be able to offer extended one-stop service packages from clone and cell line development all the way to GMP manufacturing. Our portfolio in clinical bioassay services performed under GCLP quality regulations is surely an add-on for the CDMO service offered by FyoniBio and Canton Biologics."

Dr. Xiao Shen, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Canton Biologics said, "The acquisition of FyoniBio not only supports the international growth strategy of Canton Biologics, more importantly, through FyoniBio, Canton Biologics can significantly extend our technology platforms and service scope to better support international clients in Europe and worldwide."

Contact Information:



Glycotope GmbH

Henner Kollenberg

CEO

Phone: +49 30 9489 2600

E-Mail: contact@glycotope.com



FyoniBio GmbH

Dr. Lars Stockl

Managing Director

Phone: +49 30 9489 2500

E-Mail: contact@fyoniBio.com











Canton Biologics Co. Ltd.

Dr. Xiao Shen

CEO

Phone: +49 30 9489 2500

E-Mail: c (mailto:contact@fyoniBio.com)ontact@fyoniBio.com (mailto:contact@fyoniBio.com)











Media Contact Gylcotope:

Chris Gardner, Chris Welsh

Consilium Strategic Communications

Phone: +44 (0) 20 3709 5700

Email: glycotope@consilium-comms.com









About Glycotope

Glycotope is a biotechnology company utilizing a proprietary technology platform to develop uniquely tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies. Glycotope antibodies target specific tumor-associated carbohydrate structures or protein/carbohydrate combined glyco-epitopes (GlycoTargets). Glycotope has to date discovered in excess of 150 GlycoTargets with antibodies against several of these targets currently under development.

Based on their superior tumor-specificity, Glycotope antibodies are suitable for development in an array of different modes of action including naked antibodies, bispecifics, antibody-drug-conjugates, cellular therapies or fusion-proteins.

Currently six clinical and pre-clinical programs based on this technology are under development by Glycotope or its licensing partners. Visit www.glycotope.com.

About FyoniBio

FyoniBio is a newly formed contract development and clinical lab company continuing the service business of Glycotope on the biotech campus Berlin Buch. FyoniBio is offering 20 years of experience in developing biopharmaceuticals to customers. FyoniBio is an ISO 9001 certified company and operates in part under GCLP. Comprehensive one-stop shop services, from clone development to RCB for CHO and GEX cell lines, process development ready to transfer to the GMP facility of your choice, cutting edge know-how in glycobiologyio.com.

About Canton Biologics

Canton Biologics Co., Ltd. is a private-funded science-driven high-tech enterprise located in Canton Greater Bay Area. It is in process of international-leading cell line development, upstream, downstream process development, formulation development, physicochemical analysis and bioanalysis method development technology platforms in its R&D centre, as well as fed-batch and perfusion cGMP manufacturing in 50-2000L SUBs under the most stringent regulatory requirement in its commercial manufacturing site. Since the establishment in 2016, Canton Biologics has provided biopharmaceutical and biotech companies with high quality one-stop CMC services covering a broad range of biomacromolecule drugs including monoclonal (mono- and multi-specific) antibodies, recombinant and fusion proteins, probiotic bacteria, vaccines and recombinant viruses for cell and gene therapy. Visit www.cantonbio.com.
Almere, The Netherlands

February 1, 2022, 8.00 a.m. CET

ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today announces the following changes to its corporate governance structure:



The Supervisory Board intends to expand the Management Board with a third member.

The Supervisory Board has decided to nominate Mr. Hichem M ' Saad as new member of the Management Board and Chief Technology Officer.

ASMI will furthermore set up an Executive Committee as per today.

The Supervisory Board of ASMI has nominated Hichem M'Saad to join the Management Board. The expansion of the Management Board is important in view of the strong growth of ASMI in recent years and the growth ambitions for the coming years. The responsibilities of Mr. M'Saad as a Management Board member will be for ASM's technical product portfolio and future technologies and innovation, with the title of Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He is to join Benjamin Loh, CEO, President and Chairman of the Management Board, and Paul Verhagen, CFO and member of the Management Board.

Hichem M'Saad was born in Tunisia and has both US and Tunisian nationalities. He has a proven track record of more than 25 years in the semiconductor equipment industry. Since 2015 Hichem works for ASM. Based in Phoenix USA, he started in 2015 as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Thermal Products business unit. Since 2019 he fulfills the role of Executive Vice President and General Manager Global Products which includes the responsibility of the development of ASM's ALD, Epi, VF, and PECVD products. He has been instrumental in developing several of ASM's new innovative and successful products, including the Intrepid ES, Synergis, Previum, and A400 DUO. He started his career within Applied Materials from 1994 until 2008. From 2003 until 2006 he was Vice President and General Manager of the Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Product Unit, after which he became Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Dielectric Systems and Modules and CMP business units responsible for all the dielectric CVD and CMP products until 2008. After that Hichem started his own solar company of which he was the CEO for six years.

Hichem M'Saad has a bachelor degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, a master's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University, and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has authored 57 technical articles and he holds nearly 200 granted patents.

Martin van Pernis, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, said: "The Supervisory Board is very pleased to nominate Hichem as he is an expert in the industry with deep semiconductor technology knowledge. He has made a significant contribution to the success of ASM over the last years, both in the area of product innovation as well as in customer interactions. The combination of expanding the Management Board and the set up of an Executive Committee is regarded as a logical next step in the leadership's organization of ASMI in order to be prepared for the future development and continued growth of ASMI."

Benjamin Loh, CEO, President and Chairman of the Management Board, mentioned: "It is my conviction that with these changes in our governance structure we are even better positioned to realize our growth ambitions. I also welcome the nomination of Hichem as a member to the Management Board and I believe that he will have many contributions to the Management Board and the company at large."

The remuneration package of Mr. M'Saad shall consist of a base salary of US$ 600,000, in combination with a short term cash incentive and a long term share incentive, both dependent on realizing predefined targets.

Furthermore ASMI announces that per today it has an Executive Committee ("Exco"). The Exco consists of the Management Board, Hichem M'Saad in his current role of General Manager Global Products and as CTO, and four other senior executive leaders, Brian Birmingham, Senior Vice President Global Sales, Kent Rossman, Corporate Vice President Services and Spares, Bruce Ragsdale, Corporate Vice President Global Operations, and Ralph Otte, Corporate Vice President Global People. These members of the Exco are essential in driving and executing the Growth through Innovation strategy of the company. The Executive Committee shall assist the Management Board in managing the company in respect of among others: day-to-day management, strategic matters, leadership, people, culture, and sustainability.



The ASMI shareholders will be requested to appoint Hichem M'Saad as a Management Board member for a four-year term at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on May 16, 2022 ("AGM"). After that the Supervisory Board will appoint Mr. M'Saad as the CTO. An amended Remuneration Policy will also be presented to the AGM as an agenda item.

It is also announced that Ivo Raaijmakers decided to retire as of the end of 2021 after a successful career of which the last twenty-two years as CTO and Vice President of Corporate R&D at ASMI. Ivo will continue to serve as an advisor to the company.

Benjamin Loh, CEO, President and Chairman of the Management Board, mentioned: "I would like to thank Ivo for all his accomplishments. During his tenure as executive within ASMI, Ivo has been instrumental for many technological developments thereby securing ASMI's position as an innovation leader in our industry. It is a great pleasure to know that Ivo will continue to advice ASMI in the future."

About ASM International



ASM International NV, headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands, its subsidiaries and participations design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. ASM International, its subsidiaries and participations provide production solutions for wafer processing (Front-end segment) as well as for assembly & packaging and surface mount technology (Back-end segment) through facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International's common stock trades on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol ASM). For more information, visit ASMI's website at www.asm.com .

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: All matters discussed in this press release, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions and trends in the semiconductor industry generally and the timing of the industry cycles specifically, currency fluctuations, corporate transactions, financing and liquidity matters, the success of restructurings, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, litigation involving intellectual property, shareholders or other issues, commercial and economic disruption due to natural disasters, terrorist activity, armed conflict or political instability, changes in import/export regulations, epidemics and other risks indicated in the Company's reports and financial statements. The Company assumes no obligation nor intends to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future developments or circumstances.

This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

CONTACT



Investor and Media contact:

Victor Bareno

T: +31 88 100 8500

E: investor.relations@asm.com





Attachment
WOKINGHAM, UK / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Ferguson PLC (The "Company") in accordance with DTR 5.6.1, the Company hereby notifies the following:

The Company's issued share capital as at January 31, 2022 consisted of 232,171,182 ordinary shares of 10 pence each ("Ordinary Shares"), of which 12,517,815 Ordinary Shares were held in treasury as at the date of this disclosure. The voting rights of treasury shares are automatically suspended.

Therefore, the total voting rights in the Company is 219,653,367. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which to determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules and the Company's Articles of Association.

Enquiries:

Graham Middlemiss, Group Company Secretary

(0118 927 3800)

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: Ferguson PLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686542/Ferguson-PLC-Announces-Total-Voting-Rights
With Operating and Leasehold Interest in Hotel Nikko Dusseldorf

ISE: DHG LSE: DAL

Dalata Hotel Group plc ("Dalata" or the "Group"), the largest hotel operator in Ireland with a growing presence in the United Kingdom, announces it has agreed contracts with Art-Invest Real Estate ("Art-Invest") to acquire a new operating leasehold interest in Hotel Nikko Dusseldorf. The hotel is owned by Art-Invest and Dalata with the cooperation of the hotel team, has commenced the transition process today and expects to open the hotel for guests on February 15th. This hotel represents Dalata's first step into the Continental European market and is in line with the Group's ambition to establish a presence in large commercially attractive European cities.

The 4-star hotel is centrally located in Dusseldorf, in close proximity to the Central Business District, the Retail Quarter and the city's main train station. The property has 393 bedrooms, a bar, two restaurants, a spa, swimming pool, gym and extensive conference and meeting facilities. The hotel has undergone extensive investment in the last number of years.

Dusseldorf is one of Germany's 'big seven' cities and is a hugely popular destination for both international and domestic visitors, travelling for both leisure and business purposes. It received over 3 million visitors in 2019 recording more than 5 million overnight stays in that yeari

The rent, with a guaranteed minimum, is determined by the revenue performance of the hotel. The lease term is 20 years, with two 5-year tenant extension options.

Dalata Hotel Group was advised by CBRE on this transaction.

Dermot Crowley, Dalata Hotel Group CEO, commented:"This announcement represents our first step into Continental Europe and is a very exciting opportunity as we work towards building our presence in selected European cities. Whilst retaining our focus on growth in the UK, we have also been exploring opportunities in Europe that are complementary to our portfolio in the UK and Ireland.

I am especially pleased to have secured our first hotel in Germany in such a central location in Dusseldorf. Hotel Nikko Dusseldorf will be an excellent addition to our Dalata portfolio. A Dalata Integration Team is working with the local hotel team to ensure a smooth transition into Dalata.

This is also the first time we have partnered with Art-Invest and we are delighted to have collaborated successfully with one of Europe's leading hotel investors. We both will continue to invest in the property to ensure it retains its position as one of the top hotels in the city.

We are grateful to CBRE Hotels Germany and Ireland, for their support in aiding our entry into a new market. We look forward to working with them again on future opportunities in Europe."

Peter Ebertz, Head of Hotels at Art-Invest, added: "We are very excited to enter into a long-term partnership with Dalata to support our continuous efforts in improving the quality and positioning of the Nikko Hotel, a true Dusseldorf icon. Dalata has been an excellent partner and we look forward to jointly investing in the property."

Sabine Lueftenegger, Director at CBRE Hotels Germany concluded: "We are delighted to have assisted Dalata on the opening of their first hotel in Continental Europe. The Nikko is a landmark hotel in the heart of Dusseldorf and presents an excellent opportunity for Dalata."

ENDS

About Dalata

Dalata Hotel Group plc was founded in August 2007 and listed as a plc in March 2014. Dalata has a strategy of owning or leasing its hotels and also has a small number of management contracts. The Group's portfolio now consists of 29 owned hotels, 13 leased hotels and three management contracts with a total of 9,495 bedrooms. In addition to this, the Group is currently developing 10 new hotels and has plans to extend three of its existing hotels, adding over 2,300 bedrooms. The new rooms will bring the total number of bedrooms in Dalata to over 11,800. For the first six months of 2021, Dalata reported revenue of 39.6 million and a loss after tax of 30.4 million. Dalata is listed on the Main Market of Euronext Dublin (DHG) and the London Stock Exchange (DAL). For further information visit: www.dalatahotelgroup.com

i State Office of Statistics (statistisches Landesamt)

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220131005930/en/

Contacts:

Dalata Hotel Group plc

Dermot Crowley, CEO

Carol Phelan, CFO

Sean McKeon, Company Secretary Head of Risk and Compliance

Tel +353 1 206 9400

investorrelations@dalatahotelgroup.com



Joint Company Brokers

Davy: Anthony Farrell

Tel +353 1 679 6363

Berenberg: Ben Wright

Tel +44 20 3753 3069



Investor Relations and PR FTI Consulting

Melanie Farrell

Tel +353 86 401 5250

dalata@fticonsulting.com
LUND, Sweden, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncorena today announced the initiation of the Phase I-II clinical trial of the first-in-class compound orellanine in patients with advanced kidney cancer on dialysis. The company is dedicated to developing a unique and potential breakthrough therapy for advanced kidney cancer.

The drug candidate orellanine, which has an unique mode of action, is being developed for organ-specific chemotherapy with curative potential for patients with advanced kidney cancer undergoing dialysis due to kidney failure. Preclinical evidence shows that orellanine specifically exerts powerful anti-tumor effects on metastatic kidney cancer in different preclinical models.

The Phase I-II clinical study will include up to 40 patients and may include patients from other European countries. The clinical trial is conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Clinical Cancer Studies, Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Since the patients are dialysis-dependent, hemo-dialysis is provided in collaboration with a team at the dialysis unit at the Karolinska Hospital. The study is coordinated together with a clinical research organization specialist in oncology clinical trials.

"There is a great medical need for improved treatment options in patients with advanced kidney cancer undergoing dialysis. We are looking forward to the important clinical development phase in this therapy area. It is our hope that the results from our clinical study will be of great benefit to patients in the future," said Lars Grundemar, Chief Executive Officer of Oncorena.

This release discusses investigational uses of an agent in development and is not intended to convey conclusions about efficacy or safety. There is no guarantee that any investigational uses of such product will successfully complete clinical development or gain health authority approval.

For further information, please contact

Lars Grundemar, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, Oncorena AB

E-mail: lars.grundemar@oncorena.com

Telephone +46 (0)76 209 5518

About the Phase I-II clinical trial

In 2021, the Swedish Medical Products Agency approved Oncorena's first clinical trial of orellanine in patients with advanced kidney cancer undergoing dialysis. The Phase I-II clinical trial of orellanine enrols patients with advanced kidney cancer already on dialysis due to kidney failure. The study is conducted at the Centre for Clinical Cancer Studies at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, and will study safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and signs of anti-tumour effects in treatment with a synthetic form of orellanine.

About orellanine

Orellanine, which has a new and unique mode of action, is being developed for organ-specific chemotherapy with curative potential for patients with advanced kidney cancer undergoing dialysis. Orellanine is found in mushrooms of the Cortinarius family, these are sometimes accidentally picked and eaten as they are mistaken for funnel chanterelles. The clinical effects of orellanine are well documented and are completely limited to the kidneys. Orellanine is expected to have positive effect on the two most common forms of kidney cancer: Clear-Cell and Papillary Kidney Cancer. About 90% of kidney cancer patients are affected by these types of cancer.

About kidney cancer

Approximately 400,000 patients are affected by kidney cancer globally according to the WHO. The disease can often be cured by surgery if detected in time, but unfortunately the diagnosis is often made when the tumour has already spread to other organs. The prognosis is then considerably less favourable and certain groups have a median survival of less than two years. Today the disease is treated with various types of targeted and immuno-active drugs, often with severe side effects, and standard chemotherapy drugs have limited effect. There is therefore a high and urgent unmet medical need for new, effective and safe drugs.

About Oncorena

Oncorena AB is a Swedish pharma company headquartered in Lund. The company develops a new potential breakthrough treatment for patients with advanced kidney cancer. The treatment is based on research at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, led by professors Borje Haraldsson and Jenny Nystrom. The project was initially developed with support from Vinnova, Sweden's Innovation Agency, GU Ventures at the University of Gothenburg and private business angels. Today Oncorena is mainly financed by the investment companies HealthCap, Linc AB, Fahraeus Startup and Growth AB, as well as the biotech company AQILION AB. For more information, please visit Oncorena's website at www.oncorena.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/oncorena-ab/r/oncorena-initiates-the-phase-i-ii-clinical-trial-with-orellanine-in-advanced-kidney-cancer-patients-,c3495305

The following files are available for download:
Press Release

Refresco completes strategic acquisition of HANSA-HEEMANN, a major mineral water and CSD company inGermany

Rotterdam, the Netherlands, February 1, 2022 - Refresco, a global independent beverage solutions provider for A-brands and retailers in Europe and North America, announces today it has completed the acquisition of HANSA-HEEMANN, following the receipt of regulatory approval from competition authorities.

On July 8, 2021, Refresco announced that it had entered into an agreement with HANSA-HEEMANN, a family-owned independent beverage manufacturer, to acquire its five production sites in Germany. Now that the acquisition has been completed, Refresco has nine bottling facilities strategically located in Germany, resulting in national coverage to serve customers' demands. With this acquisition, Refresco also further enhances its position in terms of product and brand portfolio.

Hans Roelofs, CEO Refresco Group: "I am very pleased to add HANSA-HEEMANN to the Refresco Group, as it further diversifies and strengthens our business in Germany, which will benefit our customers. Through this acquisition, we significantly expand our offering in mineral water and soft drinks, and we are going to accelerate our operational excellence through HANSA-HEEMANN's know-how in the water category. In addition, we will be able to improve transport efficiencies and leverage our global scale to further drive change in improving the sustainable use of resources."

The integration process will commence immediately.

For more information, please contact:

Refresco Corporate Communications

Nicole McDonald

+31 6 1271 6869

nicole.mcdonald@refresco.com



About Refresco

Refresco is the global independent beverage solutions provider for retailers and A-brands with production in Europe and North America. The company has full year volumes and revenue of circa 12 billion liters and circa 4.1 billion, respectively. Refresco offers an extensive range of product and packaging combinations from 100% fruit juices to carbonated soft drinks and mineral waters in carton, PET, Aseptic PET, cans and glass. Focused on innovation, Refresco continuously searches for new and alternative ways to improve the quality of its products and packaging combinations in line with consumer and customer demand, environmental responsibilities and market demand. Refresco is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and has more than 10,000 employees. www.refresco.com

About HANSA-HEEMANN



HANSA-HEEMANN, a family-owned business, is an independent beverage manufacturer in Germany. Specialized in the production and bottling of mineral water and non-alcoholic soft drinks, its product portfolio includes own brands and trademarks. As a reliable partner for the major retailers in Germany, HANSA-HEEMANN manufactures and distributes well-known mineral water brands such as Furst Bismarck, hella and St. Michaelis. HANSA-HEEMANN operates five production sites across Germany and employs approximately 800 staff. www.hansa-heemann.de

Attachment
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - ING and Societe Generale said a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ING and Boursorama, a unit of Societe Generale, to offer banking solutions to ING's retail customers in France. The companies noted that the definitive agreement would concern daily banking (current accounts and cards), savings and investment products. ING and Boursorama will collaborate in the coming period to offer an alternative banking solution to ING's customers, adapted to the different products. In December 2021, ING said it will leave the retail banking market in France in order to sharpen the focus of its business portfolio. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Luko and Akur8 are delighted to announce their collaboration to strengthen Luko's pricing process! By forging this alliance with the first French neo-insurance company, Akur8 affirms its solid position in its domestic market and consolidates its position within the insurtech ecosystem in France and internationally.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005001/en/

Specifically developed for insurers, Akur8's solution enhances their pricing processes by automating risk modeling, using Transparent Artificial Intelligence proprietary technology. Core benefits for insurers include increased predictive performance and speed-to-accuracy for higher market reactivity and immediate business impact, while maintaining full transparency and control on the models created.

Founded in 2018, Luko is not a simple insurer: its ambition is to go beyond the simple framework of the contract, to move insurance from a model that is reaction-based to a model based on prevention thanks to technologies developed in-house. Both transparent and solidarity-based, Luko's remuneration model is unique in France and puts the policyholder in the forefront. Thanks to this strong positioning, Luko is now the fastest growing insurtech in Europe and the leading neo-insurer in France with over 200,000 policyholders. The neo-insurer has surrounded itself with the best partners and, by choosing Akur8 to strengthen its pricing process, Luko demonstrates its commitment to excellence and transparency. With Akur8, Luko will benefit from a faster and more sophisticated pricing process, while keeping full control of its risk models.

"We are delighted to collaborate with Luko! We share strong common values, at the heart of which is transparency, and we are particularly proud to contribute to the model offered by Luko", said Samuel Falmagne, CEO of Akur8.

"Luko is a rapidly growing insurtech in Europe. This new alliance strengthens Akur8's position as the leading pricing solution on the market. This collaboration demonstrates once again that Akur8 is able to support all insurers in the sophistication of their pricing process, whether they are traditional players or innovative insurtechs", comments Brune de Linares, Chief of Sales at Akur8.

"At Luko, we aim to make insurance simpler, more useful and more transparent. This is achieved through an efficient and transparent underwriting process, with a reduced time-to-market to adapt quickly to the market and to our policyholders. My team is delighted with Akur8's pricing solution, which combines all these elements and brings our expertise to the fore", concludes Julien Gigoi, Chief Actuary at Luko.

About Akur8

Akur8 is revolutionizing insurance pricing with transparent AI. Akur8 developed a unique AI-based insurance pricing solution that automates modeling for insurance companies while keeping full transparency and control on the models created, as required by regulators worldwide. Akur8 is the only solution on the market reconciling Machine Learning and Actuarial worlds.

About Luko

Luko is reinventing home insurance and home services, putting social responsibility and technology at the heart of its priorities through a proactive and preventive approach. B-Corp certified and with the highest rated customer service in its category, Luko is today the first neo-home insurance in France, with over 200,000 policyholders.

Founded in 2018 in Paris, Luko transforms the perception of insurance to create a truly positive experience. Co-founders Raphael Vullierme (CEO) and Benoit Bourdel (CTO) have combined their expertise to create a company with a positive impact. Through a unique blend of technology, transparency and social responsibility, Luko aligns its interests with those of its policyholders through its Giveback programme, and commits to donating excess premiums to associations chosen by policyholders.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005001/en/

Contacts:

Media

For Akur8

Anne-Laure Klein

+33 (0)6 63 79 44 74

anne-laure.klein@akur8.com

For Luko

Lea Joussaume

+33 (0)6 03 82 18 05

lea@luko.eu
Raphaele Leyendecker, Martin Schilling, Pete Townsend and Saalim Chowdhury join Techstars as Managing Directors

Techstars, a global investment business that provides access to capital, one-on-one mentorship, and customized programming for early-stage entrepreneurs, is strengthening its commitment to the European startup ecosystem with the appointment of four tech-industry veterans as new managing directors to head Techstars programs in Europe. Joining the early-stage investment business are Raphaele Leyendecker for Techstars Paris, Martin Schilling for Techstars Berlin, Pete Townsend for Launchpool Techstars Web3 Techstars Accelerator, and Saalim Chowdhury for Techstars London.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005400/en/

Raphaele Leyendecker, Martin Schilling, Pete Townsend and Saalim Chowdhury join Techstars as managing directors (Graphic: Business Wire)

"Through our unique pre-seed investment model and embedded approach to working with local ecosystems and networks, Techstars has the unique ability to profoundly impact entrepreneurs' innovative ideas and businesses across the world," said Chief Accelerator Investments Officer Rupa Athreya. "With these tenured tech leaders at the helm of our accelerators in Paris, Berlin, Dublin and London, Techstars will fund more than 100 early-stage founders across its eight European programs in 2022."

Leading Techstars Paris, a new Techstars accelerator, Leyendecker is a two-time founder of renewable biomass supplier Agronergy, and online booking software Horseee. She joins Techstars from a corporate innovation startup studio where she served as Partner COO working with Fortune 500 companies. As Managing Director, Raphaele will support 24 early-stage startups addressing societal and environmental challenges through technology solutions. In 2022 the program will operate two classes of 12 companies from April 4, 2022 through June 30, 2022 and Sept. 12, 2022 through Dec. 8, 2022.

Serial entrepreneur Schilling joins Techstars to lead Techstars Berlin as Managing Director. A previous McKinsey Company consultant and Managing Director, angel investor and author, publishing The Builder's Guide to the Tech Galaxy 99 Practices to Scale Start-ups into Unicorn Companies in 2021, he most recently served as COO at N26 Group. In his role as Managing Director, Martin will support 12 early-stage startups in the areas of Fintech, climate tech and deep tech. The program will operate April 4, 2022 through June 30, 2022.

Townsend joins as Managing Director of the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, a new Techstars program to run in partnership with egalitarian community based investment platform Launchpool, and digital currency fund Alphabit. An early-stage startup advisor, investor, nonexecutive director and mentor, Pete brings over 25 years of experience in the financial markets at both early-stage and enterprise levels. He will support the development and acceleration of 10 startups building blockchain technology and tokenization protocols. The program will operate April 4, 2022 through June 30, 2022.

Technical founder and startup veteran Chowdhury joins Techstars London as Managing Director. Saalim joins Techstars from a global early-stage venture fund where he previously served as Partner, and formerly served as CTO Co-founder of talent marketplace, Skillbridge. He will support and invest in 24 early-stage startups building and growing their businesses in the London and UK ecosystem. In 2022 the program will operate two classes of 12 companies from April 4, 2022 through June 30, 2022 and Sept. 12, 2022 through Dec. 8, 2022.

To date, more than 200 companies have graduated from Techstars accelerators operated in Paris, Berlin and London, while 2022 marks the first year Techstars will operate an accelerator in Dublin. Today, the more than 260 Techstars portfolio companies headquartered across Paris, Berlin, Dublin and London are collectively valued at more than $2B.

In 2022 Techstars will also operate programs in Amsterdam, Oslo, Stockholm and Turin, in total providing funding for more than 100 companies through these European-based programs. Since its inception in 2006, Techstars has invested in more than 2,900 companies, which today have a combined market capital valuation of $189 billion. It counts 18 unicorns among its accelerator graduates, including DigitalOcean, Chainalysis, PillPack and SendGrid. With more than $850 million in assets under management, Techstars invests in approximately 500 startups and deploys approximately $130M per year, making it one of the largest investors in high-growth early stage companies by volume in the world.

To learn more about these programs and other Techstars accelerators visit techstars.com/accelerators.

About Techstars

The Techstars worldwide network helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2006, Techstars began with three simple ideas-entrepreneurs create a better future for everyone, collaboration drives innovation, and great ideas can come from anywhere. Now we are on a mission to enable every person on the planet to contribute to, and benefit from, the success of entrepreneurs. In addition to operating accelerator programs and venture capital funds, we do this by connecting startups, investors, corporations, and cities to help build thriving startup communities. Techstars has invested in more than 2,900 companies with a combined market cap of more than $189B. www.techstars.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005400/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Ali Whitman

ali.whitman@techstars.com
1WorldSync is approved by GS1 UK to provide e-commerce and supply chain content syndication, product information management (PIM), product photography, and Augmented Reality (AR) production solutions in the UK.

LONDON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 1WorldSync, the leading provider of omnichannel product content solutions, has today been approved to be a partner with GS1 UK, one of 115 independent GS1 organisations operating worldwide. 1WorldSync's platform and services include e-commerce and supply chain content syndication, product information management (PIM), product photography, and AR production, enabling organisations to deliver more engaging and effective digital and in-store commerce experiences.

"We are excited to approve 1WorldSync's expansive platform and services, and we will be sharing their product suite on the GS1 UK partner finder," said Rob Flack, GS1 UK head of partnerships. "It is an important step in continuing to enable all suppliers across the UK, in many different sectors, to share and syndicate brand-verified product content."

"1WorldSync remains at the forefront of championing GS1 standards to facilitate commerce experiences across the globe. We are thrilled to provide our comprehensive content creation, management, syndication and performance offerings to empower omnichannel commerce across the UK," stated Philippe Canavan, Vice President of Global Sales, at 1WorldSync. "High-quality product imagery, brand-verified product content and efficient product information management are essential to meeting the diverse needs of today's consumers. We look forward to partnering with GS1 UK on these initiatives."

To learn more about 1WorldSync's solution offerings to GS1 UK members visit: www.1worldsync.com .

About 1WorldSync

1WorldSync is the leading provider of omnichannel product content solutions, enabling more than 14,000 companies in over 60 countries to share authentic, trusted content that empowers confident commerce and intelligent consumer purchasing decisions. Through its technology platform and expert services, 1WorldSync solves revenue-impacting product content challenges faced by leading brands and retailers in the CPG/retail, DIY, consumer electronics, healthcare and foodservice industries. 1WorldSync is one of the only product content providers and GDSN Data Pools to achieve ISO Certification 27001. For more information, please visit https://www.1worldsync.com .

About GS1 UK

GS1 UK is one of 115 independent GS1 organisations operating worldwide. Whether online, in store or in a hospital, the common language of GS1 standards is helping our community of over 56,000 organisations to uniquely identify, describe and track anything, anywhere creating greater trust in data for everyone. Our standards have the power to deliver change now and in the future by driving efficiency in the supply chain, and transparency in the wider society, through initiatives such as patient safety programmes and deposit return schemes. From product barcodes to patient wristbands, we believe in the power of GS1 standards to transform the way people work and live. www.gs1uk.org

1WorldSync Media Contact

Matt Galassini

mgalassini@1worldsync.com
EQS-News: u-blox AG / Key word(s): Product Launch

u-blox AG: u-blox launches scalable digital certificate management system for IoT devices



01.02.2022 / 09:00





Press Release

u-blox launches scalable digital certificate management system for IoT devices

The u-blox IoT certificate manager automatically renews device credentials according to industry requirements to ensure futureproof protection.

Thalwil, Switzerland - February 1, 2022 - u-blox (SIX:UBXN,OTC:UBLXF), a leading global provider of positioning and wireless communication technologies and services, has announced the IoT certificate manager, a new security service that continuously renews device credentials in a fully automated mode. Together with u-blox's existing zero touch provisioning service, it provides out-of-the-box on-boarding to IoT cloud platforms with total control of the device certificate lifecycle.

Certificate lifecycle control targets IoT devices that integrate with leading IoT cloud platforms including the AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, and DPS services. While these take charge of device management and data aggregation, the u-blox service provides an effortless, secure, and cost-effective way to manage the X.509 certificates required for device authentication.

X.509 certificates have become a cornerstone of IoT security. Secure provisioning requires extensive experience, complex software development, and robust production line tools and processes.

Certificate management efforts grow exponentially with increasing fleet size. While in the past issued certificates remained valid throughout a device's lifecycle, increases in infrastructure complexity and risks have forced regulatory authorities to demand more frequent - yearly or monthly - renewals. Failure to meet renewal deadlines can expose devices to cyberthreats, disrupt service availability, and undermine business.

IoT certificate manager simplifies scaling...

u-blox new IoT certificate manager eliminates the task of manually managing credential renewal on thousands of devices. Designed and optimized for IoT scenarios, it eliminates the errors that can occur during manual operation on large IoT deployments, freeing resources for other activities. Delivery via the intuitive Thingstream IoT service delivery platform with its simple and flexible price plans lets users engage more efficiently and reduce time to market.

... and futureproofs protection

The IoT certificate manager futureproofs protection by increasing security levels over the entire device lifetime. Building on the root of trust included in u-blox SARA-R5 series LTE-M cellular modems, it provides a fully integrated silicon-to-cloud security solution that is unmatched in the industry.

"IoT certificate manager is all about enabling IoT solution developers to easily manage device credentials for an IoT lifetime, to scale seamlessly from prototyping to huge fleets, and to minimize set-up costs, giving companies more time and resources to grow their business," says Giovanni Solito, Senior Product Manager, Product Center Services, at u-blox.

Zero touch provisioning and IoT certificate manager services are available immediately.

About u-blox

u-blox (SIX:UBXN) is a global technology leader in positioning and wireless communication in automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. Their smart and reliable solutions, services and products let people, vehicles, and machines determine their precise position and communicate wirelessly over cellular and short range networks. With a broad portfolio of chips, modules, and secure data services and connectivity, u-blox is uniquely positioned to empower its customers to develop innovative and reliable solutions for the Internet of Things, quickly and cost-effectively. With headquarters in Thalwil, Switzerland, the company is globally present with offices in Europe, Asia, and the USA. (www.u-blox.com) Find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter @ublox and YouTube



u-blox media contact:

Natacha Seitz

Senior Manager PR and Content Marketing

Mobile +41 76 436 0788

natacha.seitz@u-blox.com

End of Media Release


VANCOUVER, BC and UTTENWEILER, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. (CSE:XPHY)(OTCQB:XPHYF)(FSE:4XT) ("XPhyto" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the execution of Covid-ID Lab sales contracts with both digital life are Corona Testzentren ("digitallife"), powered by digitallifecare GmbH, Germany and a group of pharmacies in Bamberg, Germany.

Digitallife operates five coronavirus test centers south of Stuttgart, Germany, servicing a local community of approximately 75,000. Personnel training and equipment installation were completed last week and the first order of test kits has been delivered. In addition to testing for the general public, digitallife will also service corporate clients in the region with COVID-ID Lab PCR testing.

The Company also commenced selling to pharmacies in Bamberg, Germany servicing a local community of approximately 78,000.

The Company expects to advance and execute additional sales contracts and will release details as they become available.

"Having recently joined the Company to lead global marketing and sales initiatives, I am extremely pleased to announce today's contracts," said Roland Spleiss, Director of Business Development. "This is just one of many direct sales engagements that we currently pursuing in Germany, which are in addition to a number of European and global distribution agreements that are under review. It is a consequence of the joint efforts of both 3a and Vektor staff, providing training capacities at a high level."

Covid-ID Lab is a rapid RT-PCR test for the qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 based on the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. To perform the test, Covid-ID Lab requires only a 20-minute PCR run time without prior RNA extraction as part of the sample preparation. The RT-PCR sample process detects the SARS-CoV-2 virus on a test chip within 5 minutes, when SARS-CoV-2 is present, the result can be read visually immediately. The target customers are airports, cruise lines, pharmacies, medical clinics, and any industrial or education site that requires rapid, definitive results.

The Company is pleased to have recently embarked on a process of rapid management change with a focus on product commercialization and sales. The company has a development pipeline of additional medical and oral health products that will be continuously rolled out with the commercialization team gaining rapid traction and momentum. News on the product rollout strategies will be released in due course.

The Company is not making any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

About XPhyto Therapeutics Corp.

XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. is a bioscience accelerator focused on next-generation drug delivery, diagnostic, and new active pharmaceutical ingredient investment opportunities, including: precision transdermal and oral dissolvable drug formulations; rapid, low-cost infectious disease and oral health screening tests; and standardization of emerging active pharmaceutical ingredients for neurological applications, including psychedelic compounds and cannabinoids. The Company has research and development operations in North America and Europe, with an operational focus in Germany, and is currently focused on regulatory approval and commercialization of medical products for European markets.

XPhyto Therapeutics Corp.

Hugh Rogers, CEO and Director

Investor Inquiries:

Mr. Knox Henderson

T: 604-551-2360

E: info@xphyto.com

Forward looking statements

This news release includes statements containing forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities law ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "develop", "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "potential", "propose" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and in this release include the statement regarding the Company's goal of building a successful diagnostic, drug delivery, and medical cannabis company. Forward-looking statements are only predictions based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including: that the Company may not succeed in developing a commercial product; that the sale of products may not be a viable business; that the Company may be unable to scale its business; product liability risks; product regulatory risk; general economic conditions; adverse industry events; future legislative and regulatory developments; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; currency risks; competition; international risks; and other risks beyond the Company's control. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

SOURCE: XPhyto Therapeutics Corp

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686537/XPhyto-Executes-Covid-ID-Lab-Sales-Contracts-with-Test-Clinics-and-Pharmacies-in-Germany-as-Part-of-Multi-Product-Rollout-Strategy
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Cross River Ventures Corp. (CSE: CRVC) (OTCQB: CSRVF) (FSE: C6R) (the "Company") is pleased to update shareholders on its recent land acquisition and update preparations for the upcoming winter drill program at its 100% owned McVicar Gold Project.

The 12,000-ha McVicar Gold Project covers a large portion of the Lang Lake Greenstone Belt (Patricia Mining Division) in the Uchi sub-Province, Superior Province, northwest Ontario, Canada (Fig. 1).

The gold deposits in this part of NW Ontario are hosted in Archean greenstone belts, rocks which contain some of the world's great gold mines and much of the global gold endowment. McVicar sits approximately 150 km east of the Red Lake gold camp (>20 Moz Au[i]), 50 km east of the Springpole gold deposit (5 Moz Au[ii]), and 20 km northwest of the Golden Patricia mine (0.6 Moz Au[iii]).





Image 1: Location of the 12,000-ha McVicar Gold Project, NW Ontario, Canada

To view an enhanced version of Image 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7276/112278_c1e5c6bec4224812_002full.jpg.

In advance of its upcoming winter drill program, the Company acquired the remaining relevant open claim blocks within the McVicar project area. These additional blocks cover historic mineral occurrences with notable gold results.

The added mineral Claims were acquired from an arms-length vendor in consideration for the issuance of 100,000 common shares (the "Consideration Shares"). The Consideration Shares are subject to a statutory hold period of four-months-and-one-day following closing day of issuance.

No finders' fees or commissions were paid in connection with completion of the acquisition of the Claims.

The following is a list of mineral occurrences situated on the newly added land positions, and the claims are shown in Figure 2.

Lang Lake - Belore [iv] 14.12 grams per ton gold and 0.45% copper

14.12 grams per ton gold and 0.45% copper Sample 2056 [v] 1.34 grams per ton gold

1.34 grams per ton gold Sample 0134 [vi] 1.47 grams per ton gold

1.47 grams per ton gold AOI 3 [vii] 1.18 grams per ton gold

1.18 grams per ton gold Sample 2211[viii] 297 grams per ton silver and >1% lead

The map below shows the locations of the new claims in red outlines and the locations of the samples are labelled yellow dots within the new claims (red).





Image 2: McVicar map showing new claims and sample locations

To view an enhanced version of Image 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7276/112278_c1e5c6bec4224812_003full.jpg.

These samples have had limited follow up, and no known historic drill holes are located nearby these gold showings. Even the Lang Lake - Belore sample with 14.12 grams per ton gold and 0.45% copper was not followed up and drill-tested. These additional property acquisitions comprise new discovery opportunities on the McVicar property, and the technical team will target these areas for mapping and sampling during the summer 2022 field program.

The Company's Winter 2022 drill program includes a planned 5,000 meters of core drilling from two priority targets: The Altered Zone and the Bear Head Zone.

The Company received Early Exploration Permits for the McVicar property in June 2021. These permits allow Cross River to advance the property through diamond drilling in the Altered Zone and along the Bear Head Gold Trend. Field work in 2021 has significantly advanced these targets to the drill testing stage.

The upcoming Q1 helicopter-supported program will stage from the Cat Lake Winter Road. The window for the winter road will dictate the exact timing of the 5000m drilling campaign. Camp construction is anticipated in the first part of February 2022.

About the McVicar Project

Cross River's McVicar Gold Project is a district-scale gold exploration project that covers the main structural elements of the entire Lang Lake greenstone belt, located in the Patricia Mining Division, approximately 150 km east of Red Lake, and 80 km west of Pickle Lake, in NW Ontario, Canada.

The McVicar project covers all the major fertile structural and lithostratigraphic elements of the greenstone belt, which is bound to the south by the major NW trending Bear Head Fault zone (within which the historic Golden Patricia Mine is situated).

Historic drilling at McVicar Lake in the Altered and North Flexure Zones include[ix]:

6.46 g/t Au over 10.09 m including 29.86 g/t Au over 1.86 m

5.5 g/t Au over 3.6 m including 12.2 g/t Au over 0.98m

The McVicar Lake claims also host the Chellow Vein zone, which is a narrow quartz vein that consists of smoky grey to white quartz mineralized with minor pyrite and visible gold. The vein system yielded high grade gold at surface including grab samples[x] that assayed 827.4 g/t Au and 578.1 g/t Au[xi].

Limited drill testing below the known showings in the early 1990's didn't yield significant gold assay values; however, the Cross River technical team believe the Chellow Vein is hosted in a much broader (1-2km wide) high-strain deformation corridor, characterized by a series of parallel-trending shears that have not been systematically tested.

The Company acquired state-of-the-art Lidar coverage of McVicar and mobilized a Phase 1 field program in summer 2021. The technical team incorporated the historic and modern work into a regional geologic model. That yielded two high-grade gold trends located at the Altered Zone and the newly discovered Bear Head Zone. Those two locations became priority drill targets for the Winter 2022 exploration program.

The winter drill program is fully funded, and the Company has received all relevant permits. The map below shows the planned targets:





Figure 1: McVicar Winter 2022 Drill Program Targets

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7276/112278_c1e5c6bec4224812_005full.jpg.

The Winter 2022 drill program builds on the successful Phase 1 field campaign reported in the Company's New Release dated October 5, 2021. The Phase 1 field program confirmed the locations of historic bedrock gold occurrences.

In addition, the 2021 field work identified and outlined a new mineralized zone south of the historic Chellow Vein, named the "Bear Head" Zone.

Bear Head Zone

The Bear Head is a newly discovered, undrilled, minimum 700-meter-long, high-grade gold corridor, nested within a multi-kilometer gold-bearing crustal-scale break.

The technical team identified an extensive NW-trending multi-kilometer damage zone in altered mafic volcanic rocks, coincident with braided lineaments and structural breaks identified in (topographic) Lidar features. These surficial and geologic features match a magnetic geophysical anomaly.

Field crews identified this new trend on site approximately 600 meters south of the historic Chellow Vein. The Bear Head Zone is situated near the southern contact between mafic metavolcanic rocks and granite outboard of the Bear Head Fault Zone.

Two samples collected from sheared and silicified mafic metavolcanic rocks containing smoky-blue quartz veins (1-10 centimeter-wide), returned gold values of 19.75 grams-per-tonne ("g/t") gold ("Au") and 1.415 g/t Au, respectively (see Company news release dated October 5, 2021).

The surface exposure of the shear zone shows up clearly as a discrete WNW trending break on the 2021 Lidar survey data. Magnetic data shows a coincident linear anomaly (high and magnetic edge feature).

The drill program will test the extent of the anomaly at depth across the recessive zone at and adjacent to the structural/magnetic breaks which are coincident with the mapped gold zones.





Image 2: Location of the new Bear Head Trend, 550m south of and parallel to the Chellow Vein

To view an enhanced version of Image 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7276/112278_c1e5c6bec4224812_006full.jpg.

The Altered Zone

The Altered Zone is a complex zone of deformation and intense alteration composed of intensely sheard mafic volcanics, abundant green mica, intermediate intrusive rocks, massive to semi-massive quartz, and a quartz-carbonate-sericite schist make up the zone.

New geologic modelling by Cross River in 2021 utilizes historic drilling data and suggests that the high-grade gold bearing structure continues at depth, coincident with lithologic breaks and a broader damage zone corridor characterized by an intense hydrothermal alteration overprint.

The gold bearing structure at the Altered Zone is open in all directions. The upcoming drill program is designed to test the gold grade and continuity along strike, down-dip and down-plunge. The program will also test for new gold shoots and domains at several locations along the broader Altered Zone structural trend.

Shallow historic drilling at the Altered Zone intercepted 6.46 g/t Au over 10.09m (including 33 g/t Au over 1.86m) (drillhole ML-86-27[xii]), 5.7 g/t Au over 7.71m (drillhole ML-03-019), amongst other high-grade results. Trenching of the shear zone approximately 200m north of the claims returned 6.89 g/t Au over 1.55m (trench AZ-03-05; Continuum Resources Ltd.[xiii]).





Image 3: Cross River Ventures' Model-Interpreted Altered Zone Target and Historic Drill Intercepts

To view an enhanced version of Image 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7276/112278_c1e5c6bec4224812_007full.jpg.

The Company received Early Exploration Permits for the McVicar property in June 2021. These permits allow Cross River to advance the property through diamond drilling in the Altered Zone and along the Bear Head Gold Trend. However, an unusual fire season inhibited field work at McVicar until late in the year.

The upcoming Q1 helicopter-supported program will stage from the Cat Lake Winter Road. The window for the winter road will dictate the exact timing of the 2022 5000m drilling campaign.

Dr. Rob Carpenter, P.Geo., Ph.D., a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101, reviewed, and approved the technical content disclosed in this press release. Historical assay results contained in this press release were not verified by the Company. However, the historical reports referenced were authored by experienced geoscientists and copies of laboratory assay sheets were commonly inserted in the reports.

About Cross River Ventures

Cross River is a gold exploration company focused on the development of top tier exploration properties located in emerging Greenstone Districts of NW Ontario, Canada. The Company controls a 28,000-ha, multiple project portfolio with highly prospective ground in and among prolific, gold bearing greenstone belts. Cross River's common shares trade in Canada under the symbol "CRVC" on the CSE, and in the US under the symbol "CSRVF" on the OTCQB. Please visit www.crossriverventures.com for more information.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of

CROSS RIVER VENTURES CORP.

Alex Klenman

CEO

604-227-6610

aklenman@crossriverventures.com

www.crossriverventures.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the Canadian Securities Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

[i] https://canadianminingjournal.com/featured-article/rediscovering-red-lake/

[ii] https://firstmininggold.com/_resources/reports/First-Mining-NI-43-101-Technical-Report-and-PFS_-FINAL_03_03_2021.pdf

[iii] https://thediggings.com/mines/usgs10255075

[iv] http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI52O11SW00035.html

[v] http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI000000000287.html

[vi] http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI000000000288.html

[vii] http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI000000000288.html

[viii] http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI000000000286.html

[ix] McKay D.B, 2004. Report on the 2003 Overburden Stripping, Geologic Mapping and Sampling Program conducted on the McVicar Lake Property: Continuum Resources Ltd and Prospector Consolidated Resources Inc. www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/afri/data/imaging/52O11SW2003/52O11SW2003.pdf

[x] Grab samples are selective by nature and may not represent the true grade or style of mineralization across the property. Dr. Rob Carpenter, P.Geo., Ph.D., a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101, reviewed, and approved the technical content disclosed in this press release. Historical assay results contained in this press release were not verified by the Company. However, the historical reports referenced were authored by experienced geoscientists and copies of laboratory assay sheets were commonly inserted in the reports.

[xi] Waldie C.J. Report of Diamond Drilling McVicar Lake Area Patricia Mining Division: BHP Minerals Canada Ltd. http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/afri/data/imaging/52O11SW0014/52O11SW0014.pdf

[xii] McKay D.B. Diamond Drill Log - McVicar Lake: Continuum Resources Ltd. http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/afri/data/imaging/52O11SW2004/52O11SW2004.pdf

[xiii] McKay D.B. Diamond Drill Log - McVicar Lake: Continuum Resources Ltd. http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/afri/data/imaging/52O11SW2004/52O11SW2004.pdf

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112278
Regulatory News:

Since 2018, a series of agreements have been signed by Orano's General Management and by the representative trade union organizations at Group level. They relate to the employment of people with disabilities, gender equality in the workplace, quality of life at work, and teleworking.

These agreements, renewed in 2021, are an extension of the social dialogue established within the Group, and of the proactive policy that has been in place for the past 10 years to promote diversity, inclusion, gender equality and the professional development of each employee.

Through the agreement on gender equality, the Group is committed to reaching a target of more than 35% of women among permanent hires and 40% of women on work-study contracts, with the objective of increasing the numbers of women in technical positions.

It also aims to support parenthood and equal pay for men and women, by maintaining bonuses in the event of a change of post during maternity leave, and by guaranteeing salary increases in the year of return from maternity leave.

The agreement also provides for an annual equal pay budget over the four years of the agreement, to correct any unjustified pay gaps between women and men at equivalent levels of responsibility.

Lastly, it promotes work-life balance through greater use of teleworking during maternity periods, and by extending paternity leave by four days (from 25 to 29 days).

With regard to the employment of people with disabilities, the agreement promotes their recruitment and integration in the Group's work places. In total, to date, Orano's workforce in France counts some 700 people with disabilities, 28% of whom are women. The corresponding employment rate as a percentage of the overall workforce stood at 4.6% at the end of 2020, almost double the rate since our policy in favor of people with disabilities was launched in 2007.

The agreement on the development of quality of life at work signed in 2021 reaffirms the principles set out in previous agreements since 2012, structured around six themes: work organization, working relationships, work environment, prevention of arduous working conditions, recognition and management of organizational change, self-fulfillment and personal development. It also recognizes the status of family caregivers and creates a gift of leave between Group employees.

These three agreements on employment of people with disabilities, professional equality between men and women, and quality of life at work were signed unanimously by the representative trade unions at Orano group level.

Furthermore, teleworking, which was introduced in 2012, is now covered by a specific agreement signed at the end of 2020 at Group level with the trade unions, supplemented by 13 local agreements to adapt the provisions to the specificities of our various activities. These agreements provide for up to 90 days of teleworking per year, with a minimum presence of 2 or 3 days at the business premises, subject to industrial constraints. This entitlement is increased by 8 days for disabled persons and for employees recognized as caregivers. This agreement is in line with Orano's desire to develop its operating methods towards a more delegative and trusting management style, with a view to gaining in agility.

Helene Derrien, Senior Executive Vice President, People Communications of Orano, commented: "For years now, the Group has been making significant commitments in support of its inclusion policy. Be it in the areas of disability, gender and generational diversity, or social, ethnic and cultural diversity, the group intends to continue deploying its actions and programs in line with its values."

About Orano

As a recognized international operator in the field of nuclear materials, Orano delivers solutions to address present and future global energy and health challenges.

Its expertise and mastery of cutting-edge technologies enable Orano to offer its customers high value-added products and services throughout the entire fuel cycle.

Every day, the Orano group's 16,500 employees draw on their skills, unwavering dedication to safety and constant quest for innovation, with the commitment to develop know-how in the transformation and control of nuclear materials, for the climate and for a healthy and resource-efficient world, now and tomorrow.

Orano, giving nuclear energy its full value.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005629/en/

Contacts:

Press Office

+33 (0)1 34 96 12 15

press@orano.group

Investor relations

Marc Quesnoy

investors@orano.group
Microsoft Azure customers worldwide now gain access to Nomentia to take advantage of the scalability, reliability and agility of Azure to drive application development and shape business strategies.

HELSINKI, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nomentia, a leading European provider of cash and treasury management solutions, today announced the availability of Nomentia Bank Connectivity as a Service in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure. Nomentia customers can now take advantage of the productive and trusted Azure cloud platform, with streamlined deployment and management.

"Nomentia is addressing some of the major challenges treasury, finance and IT teams are facing during the digitalization and transformation of treasury and finance processes. We not only take care of ERP integrations, but also offer unrivaled bank connectivity-as-a-service across the market. Adding Nomentia to Microsoft Azure Marketplace will help IT departments achieve desired connectivity between banks and internal systems, faster than ever before. Using Nomentia's bank connectivity-as-a-service can significantly reduce IT burden and ensure treasury and finance departments can start building better processes to improve operations, data output quality, security and compliance assurance," says Anna-Lisa Natchev, Chief Growth Officer of Nomentia.

"Through Microsoft Azure Marketplace, customers around the world can easily find, buy, and deploy partner solutions they can trust, all certified and optimized to run on Azure," said Jake Zborowski, General Manager, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp. "We're happy to welcome Nomentia's solution to the growing Azure Marketplace ecosystem."

The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions certified to run on Azure. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use.

For more information, press only:

Anna-Lisa Natchev, Nomentia, Chief Growth Officer, +358 50 413 0704, anna-lisa.natchev@nomentia.com

Barbara Babati, Nomentia, Head of Marketing, +358 40 762 3356, barbara.babati@nomentia.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/nomentia-oy/r/nomentia-now-available-in-the-microsoft-azure-marketplace,c3494463
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - British gene and cell therapy company Oxford Biomedica Plc (OXB), said that Sio Gene Therapies has informed that it intends to return the global rights for AXO-Lenti-PD, a gene therapy, and cease its ongoing work on Parkinson's disease using the therapy. Oxford Biomedica expects that the impact of the Sio's move on revenue will be negligible over at least for the next-two years. The Oxford-based firm said it 'does not plan to invest in the development of this non-core legacy asset and plans to out-license it again in due course to a suitable partner with resource capabilities and funding to further develop this asset.' The move follows the resignation of Sio's CEO Pavan Cheruvu and it also indicated a constraint on resource requirements that has caused the company to reprioritize the program. All rights shall be returned to Oxford Biomedica at zero cost to the company, the UK-based firm said. Oxford Biomedica originally out-licensed AXO-Lenti-PD to Sio in 2018. Sio is currently conducting a Phase 2 SUNRISE-PD trial with AXO-Lenti-PD. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Covea, a French mutual insurance group bringing together the MAAF, MMA and GMF brands, and Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE: GWRE), today announced that Covea has selected, on behalf of its MMA brand, Guidewire solutions for its claims management platform, and improvement of the digital experience of its policyholders, as well as the Salesforce FSC integration connector.

With Guidewire, MMA wants to:

Renovate its compensation IT system with an integrated platform;

Improve the customer experience, thanks to enriched and well-structured screens, intuitive ergonomics, and real-time operational monitoring;

Optimize the management of claims through improved flows and alerts;

Allow teams to focus on higher value tasks through a unified system and greater automation.

"We have followed a long process of evaluating the solution and finally selected Guidewire because of its functional completeness, its ease of configuration, and its demonstrated ability to equip large insurance groups and to offer a roadmap rich in innovations," says Pascal Martinez, CIO of Covea.

"We would like to thank Covea for having selected Guidewire and for placing their trust in our solutions to serve their development strategy in property and casualty insurance," announced Emmanuel Naudin, Regional VP, Sales, Guidewire, EMEA. "We look forward to supporting Covea in their objective of modernizing their activities and in the ambition to offer their members advanced and value-added digital products and services."

About Covea

A French mutual insurance group, Covea is the leader in property damage and liability and protects one in three households thanks to its 21,000 employees in France, committed daily to serving 11.6 million policyholders. Backed by its three brands MAAF, MMA and GMF, Covea is a solid and dynamic financial player. The Covea group is also present internationally.

About MMA

A brand of the Covea group and multi-specialist insurer, MMA is aimed at companies, professionals and individuals alike. The spearhead of the Group on the Pros, Companies and Affinity market, MMA is the 2nd player on this market. MMA insures more than 3.1 million members and customers.

Find MMA on: www.mma.fr

About Guidewire

Guidewire is the platform general insurers trust to engage, innovate, and grow efficiently. ?We combine digital, core, analytics, and AI to deliver our platform as a cloud service. More than 450 insurers, from new ventures to the largest and most complex in the world, run on Guidewire.

As a partner to our customers, we continually evolve to enable their success. We are proud of our unparalleled implementation track record, with 1,000+ successful projects, supported by the largest R&D team and partner ecosystem in the industry. Our marketplace provides hundreds of applications that accelerate integration, localisation, and innovation.

For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com and follow us on twitter: @Guidewire_PandC.

NOTE: For information about Guidewire's trademarks, visit https://www.guidewire.com/legal-notices.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005601/en/

Contacts:

Media Relations, Covea

presse@covea.fr

Daniel Couzens

Allison Partners

+44(0)203 971 4308

guidewire@allisonpr.com

Diana Stott

Guidewire

+1 650 781 9955

dstott@guidewire.com
European office to be led by veteran software and technology executive, Oscar Wall

LONDON, Feb. 01, 2022the leading subscription management and billing platform for high-growth, digital brands, today announced the expansion of its European presence, with the hire of new general manager, Oscar Wall, and release of new capabilities focused on the European market.



Recurly provides a flexible and scalable subscription platform for thousands of brands globally. Recurly helps companies scale subscriber growth by optimizing the consumer experience, all while reducing the operating cost of managing recurring billing and payments. With better revenue recovery, faster time to revenue and growth toolkit and best practices, Recurly is the choice for high-growth companies, looking for a strategic partner to scale.

"We have seen tremendous growth and demand in the European market for subscription-based services. The global subscription market is expected to double by 2025 and Europe is poised for explosive growth1," said Dan Burkhart, CEO and co-founder of Recurly. "Year-over-year, Recurly has experienced 34% growth and supports over 300 European companies today, which makes up about 10% of our annual revenue. It is an exciting time for our European partners to grow and drive customer loyalty through our subscription payment capabilities and enhancements."

_______________

1UBS, Investing in Digital Subscriptions, 10 March 2021

Leading the expansion, Oscar Wall joins Recurly as general manager of the European office. Wall is an entrepreneurial executive and operator with a track record of commercializing new technologies & services with high-growth B2B companies. Previously, he held various senior positions at companies such as ftrack, Ooyala, Videoplaza and Retrieve Technologies. Wall will be based in Sweden and will build a pan-European team in London and other major cities.

"We are thrilled to have Oscar onboard and expand our European team, focused on growing and supporting customers in-region. Paired with the launch of our enhanced features and capabilities, we are excited to drive accelerated subscription growth for Recurly partners," said Burkhart.

"I am excited to continue Recurly's European success, expanding our regional footprint and support," said Wall. "We will locally deliver the same customer-first experience that has powered exponential growth and customer satisfaction for thousands of existing Recurly partners."

In addition to the expanded team, Recurly is launching a European data center enabling new Recurly customers to select where account data is hosted, in Europe or North America. Recurly is also introducing several features to enhance in-market customer service and support the requirements of businesses focused on the European market, including the ability to offer media, applications, goods and services with VAT-inclusive pricing, and support for localized payment methods including: SEPA, iDEAL, SOFORT and others.

Recurly currently supports subscription commerce in over 195 countries, and 140 currencies.

For more information, visit Recurly.com.

About Recurly

Thousands of innovative companies across digital media, streaming, publishing, SaaS, education, consumer goods, and professional services industries rely on Recurly to unlock transformational growth using subscriptions. Recurly's all-in-one, integrated platform removes the complexities of automating subscriptions at scale by enabling teams to manage and optimize their subscriber lifecycles with ease. Category-defining companies including Sling, Twitch, BarkBox, FabFitFun, ViacomCBS, Lucid, and Sprout Social have chosen Recurly to manage billions of dollars in recurring revenues, future-proof their recurring billing and payment operations, and recover millions in lost revenue due to churn. Founded in 2010, Recurly is based in San Francisco, with offices in Boulder and New Orleans. For more information, visit https://recurly.com .

Tony Keller

tkeller@outvox.com


Trust Payments first company to harness Modulr-Ripple technology

Today,leading payments platformModulr announced a partnership with Ripple, the leader in enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, to enable seamless payments into the UK and Europe. Trust Payments, the global unified payments group, is the first customer to go live and begin benefiting from the partnership.

Together, the two leading FinTechs will make it easier than ever for businesses, like Trust Payments, to run real-time payments internationally powered by Ripple's financial technology, RippleNet. With Modulr's technology, global businesses have an alternative to legacy correspondent banking and can now make payments into the UK and Europe faster, more reliable, and cost-effective.

Since inception, Modulr has focused on building a seamless Payments-as-a-Service solution into the European and UK payment rails with access to critical payment infrastructure in the UK including Faster Payments and Bacs CHAPS, SWIFT and SEPA in Europe. Its access and deep expertise of the European payments landscape made Modulr an ideal partner for Ripple. Moreover, Modulr is one of few non-banks to be directly connected to the Bank of England, allowing the payments platform to settle funds at the Central Bank.

As the first company to directly benefit from the partnership between Ripple and Modulr, Trust Payments can continue to expand its service and deliver new payment options.

Commenting, Jonathan O'Connor, Chief Commercial Officer of Trust Payments, said, "Trust Payments continues its disruption in payments with the partnership between Modulr and Ripple delivering a new payment option for settlements. We want to ensure we offer merchants alternatives to traditional methods with reduced fees and increased speed of funding to their accounts."

Together, Ripple and Modulr look forward to delivering real-time, price-competitive and reliable payments into the region, from the Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America and Middle East regions.

Sendi Young, Managing Director of RippleNet in Europe comments, "Ripple is thrilled to partner with Modulr, who has a deep knowledge and expertise of the payments landscape, as well as unrivaled connections to critical payment infrastructure in the UK. Together we look forward to providing faster, simpler cross-border payments experience for customers on RippleNet into the UK and Europe."

Myles Stephenson, CEO and Founder of Modulr comments, "We're excited to partner with Ripple we share the same fundamental goal which is to make it easy to send and control global business payment flows by removing the hidden inefficiencies plaguing international payments today. This partnership lays the groundwork for even bigger things to come. At Modulr, we're looking forward to working with Ripple on delivering real-time, price competitive and reliable payments into the UK and Europe, and then globally in the coming months."

Ripple is the market leader in blockchain and crypto enterprise solutions. In 2021 Ripple had the most successful year to date, more than doubling the number of transactions on RippleNet, with a payment volume run rate of over $10B.

RippleNet leverages blockchain technology to help partners across a global network accelerate their business performance and scale. It delivers a superior end-customer experience, simplified network partnering, liquidity management solutions, lines of credit, and state-of-the-art infrastructure to enable real-time payments.

Modulr is authorised and regulated by the FCA as an Electronic Money Institution (Modulr FS Limited), and so can issue GBP accounts with dedicated account numbers and sort codes. As a direct participant of the Faster Payments and Bacs schemes, they hold and settle funds at the Bank of England, providing reliability and security for users. In the EU, Modulr is authorised and regulated as an Electronic Money Institution by the Central Bank of Ireland (Modulr FS Europe Limited) and Modulr Finance B.V. is authorised and regulated by De Nederlandsche Bank in the Netherlands and EU.

About Modulr

Modulr is the Payments as a Service API platform for digital businesses. It integrates into any product or system. Modulr's new type of payment accounts are built for businesses that need a faster, easier and more reliable way to move money. Businesses can automate payment flows, embed payments into their platforms and build entirely new payment products and services themselves. All managed in real-time, 24/7 from one API.

Modulr's API makes it easy for businesses to streamline existing services, launch new products and scale more efficiently. Modulr FS Limited (900573) is an Authorised Electronic Money Institution, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Modulr FS Europe Limited (C191242) is authorised and regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and as an Electronic Money Institution. Modulr Finance B.V. (R182870) is an Authorised Electronic Money Institution, regulated by the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). Modulr has offices in Edinburgh, Amsterdam, London and Dublin.

For further information please visit www.modulrfinance.com

About Ripple

Ripple is doing for value what the internet did for information: enabling its instant and seamless flow around the world. We call this the Internet of Value (IoV). Using blockchain and cryptocurrency technology, Ripple is dedicated to creating powerful gains in financial efficiency, equity and inclusion. In addition, Ripple is developing and enabling the future use cases that will catalyze the new digital economy for governments, businesses and consumers.

Ripple has offices in San Francisco (HQ), New York, London, Mumbai, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Reykjavik, Washington D.C. and Dubai.

About Trust Payments

Trust Payments, the disruptive leader in fintech specialising in frictionless payments and value-added services for SMEs, provides on-demand Payments and Banking-as-a-Service to help businesses grow and scale online, in-store, and on mobile.

Trust Payments combines these services with powerful tools, such as loyalty management and instant eCommerce, engaging new innovative payments methods in crypto and bank transfers to drive Converged Commerce.

Focusing on the SME sector in the UK, EU and US, Trust Payments drives value for our clients through personalised services, secure and frictionless payments, and innovative products.

Trust Payments has a global footprint, with over 400 people across 10 offices supporting the most demanding business sectors, from travel and hospitality to crypto, gaming, and financial services, and an acquiring network of over 50 global banks and hundreds of alternative payment methods.

Trust Payments holds Visa and Mastercard Principal Memberships in the EU for cross-border business, licenced by both the Malta Financial Services Authority and UK Financial Conduct Authority, and holds licences in 7 US States to carry out regulated payments in gaming. Find out more at trustpayments.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005637/en/

Contacts:

Megan Katz

press@ripple.com
The Central government has officially accepted the VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme) request of the Joint Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED), Rajeshwar Singh.

Singh, who is likely to contest upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, on Monday shared the news via a social media post. In the post, he wrote that after serving the Uttar Pradesh police for 10 years and the ED for almost 14 years on higher posts, today he is hanging up his boots.

There are possibilities that he might contest election from Shahibabad.

"...I felt that the nationalistic politics is a better medium to serve the public at large," he wrote.

"Prime Minister Narender Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have resolved to make India 'Vishwa Shakti' and 'Vishwa Guru'," he said, adding that he want to be a part it and contribute in nation building.

In August last year, Rajeshwar Singh, who was posted in Lucknow, had applied for the VRS. Six months after his request, the concerned department took cognisance of the matter and approved the request.

During his tenure in ED he probed sensitive cases such as 2G spectrum allocation case. He was also assigned the case of alleged irregularities in 2010 Common Wealth Games.

Similarly, the PMLA cases lodged against former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, his son Karti Chidambaram, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda were also investigated under his supervision.

By probing such high profile cases, he made his own reputation.
Increase in development of compact electromagnetic weapons for UAVs, surge in implementation of electromagnetic weapons for military combat activities, and modernization of weapons drive the global electromagnetic weapons market growth.

PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Electromagnetic Weapons Market by Type (Rail Guns, Coil Guns, and Electromagnetic Pulse Generators), Platform (Land-Based, Air-Based, and Sea-Based), and End User (Military and Homeland Security): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030."As per the report, the global electromagnetic weapons industry was pegged at $0.35 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $2.06 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 19.7% from 2021 to 2030.

Download Report (270 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures) at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/15793

Major determinants of the market growth

Rise in development of small and compact electromagnetic weapons for UAV, increase in usage of electromagnetic weapons in military combat activities, and rise in modernization of weapons for military platforms have boosted the growth of the global electromagnetic weapons market. On the contrary, limitation associated with anti-personnel high-powered microwaves and risk of high collateral damage by electromagnetic weapons restrains the growth to some extent. However, increase in demand from emerging economies and growth in investment in research and development of advanced electromagnetic weapons are expected to create lucrative opportunities in the industry.

COVID-19 scenario-

Due to lockdown there was delay in development of electromagnetic weapons and so in the trials and demonstrations, thus impacting the global electromagnetic weapons market.

Due to the disrupted supply chain disruptions and regulations associated with import and export of goods during the pandemic, there was shortage of components, subsystems, and electronic systems and this impacted the global electromagnetic weapons market.

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The rail guns segment to dominate by 2030-

Based on type, the rail guns segment contributed more than half of the global electromagnetic weapons market share in 2020, and is anticipated to rule the market by 2030, due to increased government investments in development of rail guns as they offer advantages such as long-range or extended munitions. Moreover, this segment is anticipated to register the fastest CAGR of 20.4% throughout the forecast period. The report also includes an analysis of EMP and coil guns segment.

The rail guns segment to dominate by 2030-

Based on platform, the sea-based segment contributed more than half of the global electromagnetic weapons market share in 2020, and is expected to rule the market by 2030, due to research and development programs in developed nations like U.S., for evolution of technologies to develop advanced naval electromagnetic weapons. Moreover, this segment is anticipated to register the fastest CAGR of 20.3% throughout the forecast period. The report also includes an analysis of land-based and air-based segment.

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North America to lead the trail in terms of revenue-

By geography, North America garnered the major share in 2020, contributing to nearly half of the global electromagnetic weapons market. This is because of the high adoption of advanced weapons among government and military agencies in the region and increased government and military organizations' investment in development of advanced weapons due to rising security concerns. Simultaneously, the Asia-Pacific region would manifest the fastest CAGR of 21.5% throughout the estimated period. This is attributed to increasing investment in defense sectors and development of advanced weapons across the Asia-Pacific region to tackle growing terrorism and regional disputes in countries such as China and India.

Leading market players-

Thales Group

Northrop Grumman Corporation

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Raytheon Technologies Corporation

BAE Systems

L3Harris Technologies, Inc.

Rheinmetall AG

The Boeing Company

Honeywell International Inc

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

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Similar Reports We Have on Defense Weapons Industry:

Smart Weapons Market by Type (Air-to-ground missiles, Surface-to-air missiles, Smart bombs, Sensor fused weapons, Directed energy weapons, Precision artillery munitions, Electromagnetic pulse weapons, Smart bullets), Geography - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014-2030.

Non-lethal Weapons Market by Technology (Chemical, Electroshock, Mechanical and Kinetic, Acoustic/Light, and Others), Product Type (Gases and Sprays, Grenades, Taser Guns, Bullets, and Others), and End User (Law Enforcement Agencies, Military, and Citizens): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030.

Fully Automatic Weapons Market by Product (Automatic Rifle, Machine Gun, Automatic Launchers, Automatic Cannon, and Gatling Gun), Caliber (Small Caliber, Medium Caliber Large Caliber), and End Use (Airborne, Land, and Naval): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030.

Defensive Cyber Weapons Market by Type (Defensive and Offensive) and Application (National Defense System, Communication Network, Industrial Control System, Smart Power Grid, Air Traffic Control, Automated Transportation System, Financial Systems, Hospital, Government Organization, and Public Utility): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030.

Electrical Weapon Market by Product Type (Direct Contact Weapons, and Direct Energy Weapons), End User (Military, and Law Enforcement), and Damage (Lethal, and Non-Lethal): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030.

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Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global medical specimen tracking system market size is anticipated to reach USD 1.77 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to grow at a lucrative CAGR of 10.3% from 2022 to 2030. The key factors driving the market growth include the technological advancements by market players and increasing product adoption for reducing errors in patient diagnosis. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of specimen tracking solutions was less. However, due to the pandemic, the demand for these systems skyrocketed, which positively influenced the market growth. Most market players, such as Labcorp Drug Development, Agilent Technologies, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, experienced positive growth from 2019 to 2020 in their segment-specific revenues as well as annual revenues.

Key Insights & Findings from the report:

On the basis of product, the software segment dominated the market in 2021 due to the increased number of market players dealing in a specimen tracking software

The patient testing type segment accounted for the maximum revenue share of the global market in 2021

This growth was attributed to the increased product adoption for patient testing purposes

Rising technological advancements contributed to the dominant share of the barcode segment in 2021, within the technology segment

The pathology laboratories end-user segment is estimated to record the fastest growth rate from 2022 to 2030

This growth can be credited to the growing automation of pathology laboratories and rising product adoption in these labs

Read 150 page market research report, "Medical Specimen Tracking System Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Software, Consumables), By Technology (Barcode, RFID), By Type, By End User, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030", published by Grand View Research.

For instance, Labcorp Drug Development experienced 21% growth and Thermo Fisher Scientific experienced 26.1% growth from 2019 to 2020. On the other hand, Zebra Technologies Corp. experienced a decline of 3.6% in its Asset, Intelligence, & Tracking segment's revenue and a 0.8% decline in its annual revenue from 2019 to 2020. Therefore, the overall market was not negatively impacted due to the pandemic. Using barcoding and tracking systems for specimen testing decreases the incidence of errors. According to GA International, the adoption of a medical specimen tracking system reduced the number of errors from 11 to 14 slides out of 10,000 to 0-1 out of 10,000 in the Department of Pathology, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio.

The study also demonstrated that a 62% reduction in case misidentification was reported in Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, U.S. These factors are anticipated to increase the product adoption, thereby boosting the market growth. Many companies specializing in medical specimen tracking systems hold a significant share of the market. Key players are involved in increasing their market share through R&D, product launches, geographical expansions, partnerships, and other strategies. For example, in November 2020, TrakCel completed the proof-of-concept phase for its technology integration with U.K. NHS partners. The project is part of the development of the MW-ATTC initiative and is funded by the U.K.'s public innovation agency to facilitate the integration of orchestration software into pan-national healthcare IT systems.

Market Segmentation:

Grand View Research has segmented the global medical specimen tracking system market on the basis of product, technology, type, end user, and region:

Medical Specimen Tracking System Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

Software



Hardware



Consumables

Medical Specimen Tracking System Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

RFID



Barcode

Medical Specimen Tracking System Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

Patient Testing



Clinical Trial Tissue Specimen

Medical Specimen Tracking System End-user Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

Hospitals & Clinics



Pathology Laboratories



Others

Medical Specimen Tracking System Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

North America



U.S.





Canada



Europe



Germany





U.K.





France





Italy





Spain



Asia Pacific



China





India





Japan





Australia





South Korea



Latin America



Brazil





Mexico





Argentina



MEA



South Africa





Saudi Arabia





UAE

List of Key Players of the Medical Specimen Tracking System Market

RMS Omega Technologies

Vision ID

GAO RFID Inc.

TrakCel

Quick International Courier

Cryoport Systems, LLC

LabConnect

Taylor Data Systems, Inc.

BioIT Solutions

Brooks Automation, Inc.

Check out more studies from Grand View Research's report portfolio related to the Global Healthcare IT Industry:

Laboratory Information Management System Market - The global laboratory information management system market size was valued at USD 1.85 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.0% from 2022 to 2030. Technological advancements pertinent to pharmaceutical laboratories and the rising demand for lab automation are expected to fuel the demand.

- The global laboratory information management system market size was valued at in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.0% from 2022 to 2030. Technological advancements pertinent to pharmaceutical laboratories and the rising demand for lab automation are expected to fuel the demand. Digital Pathology Market - The global digital pathology market size was valued at USD 926.9 million in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5% from 2022 to 2030. Increased focus on improving workflow efficiency and demand for faster diagnostic tools for chronic diseases, such as cancer, have been key factors driving the market.

- The global digital pathology market size was valued at in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5% from 2022 to 2030. Increased focus on improving workflow efficiency and demand for faster diagnostic tools for chronic diseases, such as cancer, have been key factors driving the market. Laboratory Informatics Market - The global laboratory informatics market size was valued at USD 3.21 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9% from 2022 to 2030. An increase in demand for laboratory automation is expected to fuel the adoption in the coming years.

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

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Grand View Research, Inc.

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Ethris GmbH, a leading biotechnology company pioneering transformative messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics, announced today that it has raised $26.3 Million (23.3 Million) in a Series B financing round led by Laureus Capital. The proceeds of the Series B will advance the company's lead programs ETH47 a broad anti-viral immune modulator and ETH42 a protein-replacement therapy for primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) into clinical studies, further advance its proprietary and differentiated mRNA and lipidoid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery platforms and increase its manufacturing capabilities. In conjunction with the financing, Dr. Christian Wawrzinek, Founder of Laureus Capital, will join Ethris as Managing Director and Chief Corporate Strategy Officer and support Ethris with a range of activities including corporate strategy, operational planning, and long-term growth opportunities.

"Raising this Series B financing represents an important milestone for Ethris and validates the potential of our proprietary mRNA and LNP delivery platforms and the expert team we have built," said Dr. Carsten Rudolph, CEO of Ethris. "The significant capital secured from Laureus enables us to accelerate our highly promising therapeutic programs into the clinic as well as capitalize on the tremendous opportunity that our technology platforms represent, and ultimately to deliver life-changing medicines to patients worldwide. I welcome Christian to our executive team and am looking forward to his expertise as we enter the next phase of our growth."

Ethris is one of the pioneers of mRNA therapeutics and leverages its proprietary and unique Stabilized Non-Immunogenic mRNA (SNIMRNA) and LNP delivery platforms to discover, design and develop innovative therapies for a variety of respiratory diseases and respiratory viral infections with high unmet medical need. The company is a world leader in optimizing mRNA therapeutics for inhaled administration, including the customization of nebulization technologies that allow the direct administration of mRNA into the respiratory system. The company's ETH47 therapeutic candidate contains the mRNA blueprint for type III interferon, which can be administered directly to the respiratory tract and be broadly used to treat respiratory viral infections by activating the body's innate immune system. Highly promising recent preclinical results demonstrated a reducing virus load and increasing survival in in vivo challenge models for influenza and SARS-CoV-2, which indicate a substantial antiviral efficacy of ETH47.

A second program, ETH42, is being developed to treat primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), a severe, life-limiting genetic pulmonary disease caused by defects in proteins vital for ciliary motility in the respiratory tract to clear the airways. Ethris' SNIMRNA therapeutic contains the corrected mRNA instructions needed to produce a functioning protein that has the potential to restore airway clearance and greatly improve mucociliary clearance and the overall health status of the patient. Preclinical data from Ethris' PCD program demonstrates successful restoration of cilia function, both in patient-derived epithelial airway liquid interface cultures as well as in a zebrafish animal model carrying a PCD-causing genetic defect.

Besides ETH47 and ETH42 programs, Ethris also has an ongoing development program for pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP), a rare autoimmune disease resulting in difficulties in breathing.

Dr. Christian Wawrzinek, CEO and Founder of Laureus Capital commented, "Ethris is a leader in developing highly potent, immunosilent and well stabilized mRNAs. Together with their proprietary, powerful and versatile LNP platform suitable for multiple routes of delivery, Ethris is in a strong position to deliver 'gamechanger' therapeutics to large groups of affected patients worldwide. I am very excited to join Ethris on this journey to advance their programs into the clinic and ultimately improve the lives of affected individuals, and I look forward to supporting the leadership team to execute on its strategies."

Dr. Christian Wawrzinek is a serial entrepreneur and Founder of Laureus Capital, a private investment firm that he established with Dr. Kai Wawrzinek to invest in global companies with the potential to change the world. He has founded several successful companies that have together generated a total turnover of over 1 billion US dollars. For his entrepreneurial achievements he has won several prizes, including the renowned "Entrepreneur of The Year" Award by EY and the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award for the fastest growing German technology company.

About Ethris

Ethris has paved a new path from genes to therapeutic proteins using its proprietary, non-immunogenic messenger RNA technology platform to discover, design and develop innovative therapies. With more than a decade as an mRNA pioneer, we are a global leader in delivering stabilized mRNAs directly to the respiratory system via optimized formulation and nebulization technologies. We are rapidly advancing our pipeline of immuno-modulation and mRNA-based protein replacement therapies with the ultimate goal of improving patients' lives. For more information, visit www.ethris.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005100/en/

Contacts:

For Ethris, please contact:

Dr. Carsten Rudolph

+49 89 8955788 10

rudolph@ethris.com

Media Relations

Dr. Jacob Verghese

Trophic Communications

+49 89 2388 7731

ethris@trophic.eu
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Kingfisher Metals Corp. (TSXV:KFR)(FSE:970)(OTCQB:KGFMF) ("Kingfisher" or the "Company") announces assay results from three additional holes from its initial 14-hole (4925.3 m) drill program on the Goldrange Project. Assay results for seven remaining drill holes are pending. Goldrange is located approximately 25 km south of the town of Tatla Lake in the Chilcotin region of Southwest British Columbia.

Highlights

Discovery of a high-grade vein and breccia intercept with 2 m of 37.82 g/t Au, 20.0 g/t Ag, and 0.16% Cu including 1 m of 73.40 g/t Au, 39.50 g/t Ag, and 0.29% in hole GR21-014 located 68 m below surface (Table 1).

Shallow drilling has revealed broad zones of near-surface mineralization over significant widths, such as 0.76 g/t Au over 8 m in hole GR21-012 and 0.36 g/t Au over 17 m in hole GR21-013.

Initial drilling at the Cloud Drifter Trend has now confirmed multiple intercepts of open-ended gold mineralization throughout the 550 m of vertical extent that was partially tested in 2021. Approximately 90% of the ~3 km Cloud Drifter Trend remains untested by drilling.

Drill core from the previously released intercept of 6.88 g/t Au over 9 m (GR21-007) as well as two other visually significant intercepts from GR21-009 and GR21-010 (pending assays) will be on display at the AMEBC Roundup conference in Vancouver, BC on Feb 2-3. Drill core photos of these intercepts are included within this release.

Dustin Perry, CEO of Kingfisher states "The headline intercept in GR21-014 demonstrates the potential for very high-grade gold mineralization within the Cloud Drifter Trend. The high-grade gold intercepts in GR21-014 and GR21-007 (see November 16, 2021 press release) are located at low relative elevations and are close to surface, 68 m and 140 m respectively. These shallow targets are part of an emerging trend of high-grade gold mineralization hosted in lower quartz diorite intrusions. Prospecting in 2020 identified several areas of disseminated and stockwork mineralized quartz diorite that grade up to 9 g/t Au. Seeing these styles of mineralization on trend and up to 500 m away from these high-grade drill intercepts has our exploration team excited as we move towards the 2022 drill program.

The 2021 drill program targeted a small part (350 m) of the western end of the gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly that defines the ~3 by 2 km Cloud Drifter Trend (Figure 1). It lies in an area of extensive forest cover and limited outcrop. Significant intercepts from the three drill holes included in this release are highlighted in Table 1 and Figures 2-4, with more detailed drill hole summaries presented below.

Hole From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au g/t Ag g/t Cu % GR21-012 15 16 1 1.76 - - and 74 80 6 0.31 - - and 84 87 3 1.09 - - incl. 86 87 1 3.11 - - and 93 101 8 0.76 - - incl. 95 96 1 2.41 - - GR21-013 71 73 2 1.23 - - and 77 81 4 0.46 - - incl. 77 78 1 1.35 - - and 102 103 1 4.52 - - and 120 121 1 2.32 - - and 213 230 17 0.36 - - incl. 214 215 1 2.86 - - and 235 241 6 0.42 - - GR21-014 73 74 1 1.17 - - and 95 99 4 0.34 - - and 109 111 2 37.82 20.0 0.16 incl. 110 111 1 73.40 39.5 0.29 and 120 124 4 0.52 - -

*True widths are not known at this time. All widths reported are drilled widths. Values less than 10 g/t Ag and < 0.1% Cu not reported within the highlight table.

Table 1: Highlight drill intercepts from diamond drilling at the Goldrange project

Figure 1: Cloud Drifter Trend

Geology and Mineralization of the Cloud Drifter Trend

The Cloud Drifter Trend (Figure 1) is a ~3 by 2 km zone of highly anomalous Au-Ag-Sb-Cu-As-Bi-Te geochemistry that is coincident with quartz-sulfide and sulfosalt veins, sulfide-cemented breccias, and quartz-sulfide replacement zones. In 2020, Kingfishers' work along the Trend included prospecting that yielded 312 rock geochemical samples yielding an average grade of 6.26 g/t Au and soil sampling which produced an extensive soil geochemical anomaly with 50 samples returning over 1 g/t Au.

Mineralization within the Trend and throughout the 487 km2 Goldrange Project is closely associated with and largely hosted by a complex of Late Cretaceous quartz-diorite and diorite intrusions emplaced into Triassic to Cretaceous sedimentary and volcanic rocks.

Figure 2: Cloud Drifter Zone - 2021 Drilling

Drill Hole Descriptions

Drill holes GR21-012, -013 and -014 (Figures 3 and 4) were drilled from the same drill pad and targeted a gold in soil geochemical anomaly in an area with limited surface exposure. All three holes collared uphill of the upper contact of the quartz diorite intrusion from which limited surface grab samples grade up to 128.9 g/t Au. A 120-150 m thick sill of quartz diorite, dipping gently to the south, was intersected in all holes with sedimentary rocks in the footwall and hanging wall. Veins and breccias of quartz-carbonate-arsenopyrite-pyrite  chalcopyrite  sphalerite are developed in both sedimentary and intrusive rocks and are flanked by pervasive quartz-carbonate-sericite alteration.

Further geological descriptions of drill core and drill collar locations can be found in press releases dated September 2, 2021 and October 6, 2021.

Figure 3: Cross-section of GR21-012 and GR21-014, view north-northeast

Figure 4: Cross-section of GR21-013, view east

Outstanding Assays and Future Plans

The Company awaits the remainder of analytical results from the 2021 drill program. The remainder of assays will be released once they are received and QAQC protocols have been completed.

Kingfisher is currently in the planning stages for the 2022 drill program that is anticipated to begin in early to mid May.

AMEBC Roundup Coreshack

Select polished drill core and rock samples from the Goldrange Project will be on display at the AMEBC Roundup Coreshack on February 2 and 3, 2022. Drill core from visually significant intercepts in GR21-007, -009, and -010 will be presented.

Representative photographs of the drill core that will be on display are included below:

GR21-007

GR21-009

GR21-010

QAQC and Core Sampling Protocols

All drillholes at the Goldrange property were NQ sized (47.6 mm diameter). A continuous series of one-metre-long half-split core samples was taken down the entire length of each drill hole. Sample lengths were reduced to a minimum of half a meter to avoid crossing lithologic contacts or other features deemed important by Kingfisher geologists.

Unlabelled certified reference materials (CRM) were inserted systematically throughout the sample sequence along with blanks and duplicate samples. The total number of blanks, duplicates and CRM samples equals approximately 5% of the total samples taken.

Core samples were shipped to Acme Labs, a division of Bureau Veritas, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, for preparation and analysis. Bureau Veritas is an ISO 9000 accredited analytical laboratory and is independent of Kingfisher Metals an its Qualified Person. Samples were prepped using the PRP7-250, PUL85 and SPTPL packages and analysed for 45 major and trace elements using ICP-ES/MS (method code MA200). A 30 g split from each sample was analyzed for Au using a lead collection fire assay fusion that was digested and analyzed using AAS (method code FA430). A 30g split from samples that assayed >10 ppm Au and/or >200 ppm Ag was analyzed using a lead collection fire assay fusion with a gravimetric finish (method code FA530).

Qualified Person

Dustin Perry, P.Geo., Kingfisher's CEO, is the Company's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and has prepared the technical information presented in this release.

About Kingfisher Metals Corp.

Kingfisher Metals Corp. (https://kingfishermetals.com/) is a Canadian based exploration company focused on underexplored district-scale projects in British Columbia. Kingfisher has three 100% owned district-scale projects that offer potential exposure to high-grade gold, copper, silver, and zinc. The Company currently has 84,673,300 shares outstanding.

For further information, please contact:

Dustin Perry, P.Geo.

CEO and Director

Phone: +1 778 606 2507

E-Mail: info@kingfishermetals.com

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company's property. This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements or information in this news release relate to, among other things: formulation of plans for drill testing; and the success related to any future exploration or development programs.

These forward-looking statements and information reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant operational, business, economic and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies. These assumptions include; success of the Company's projects; prices for gold remaining as estimated; currency exchange rates remaining as estimated; availability of funds for the Company's projects; capital, decommissioning and reclamation estimates; prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services (including transportation); no labour- related disruptions; no unplanned delays or interruptions in scheduled construction and production; all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals are received in a timely manner; and the ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive.

The Company cautions the reader that forward-looking statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic; fluctuations in gold prices; fluctuations in prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services (including transportation); fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar); operational risks and hazards inherent with the business of mineral exploration; inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks and hazards; our ability to obtain all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in a timely manner; changes in laws, regulations and government practices, including environmental, export and import laws and regulations; legal restrictions relating to mineral exploration; increased competition in the mining industry for equipment and qualified personnel; the availability of additional capital; title matters and the additional risks identified in our filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com). Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described, or intended. Investors are cautioned against undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

SOURCE: Kingfisher Metals Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686489/Kingfisher-Reports-Shallow-Drilling-Intersects-7340-gt-Gold-over-1-m-at-Cloud-Drifter-Discovery
Dr Masato Sagawa awarded the world's most prestigious engineering accolade for the development of the sintered Neodymium Iron Boron permanent magnet.

LONDON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2022 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize) is today awarded to Japan's Dr Masato Sagawa for his work on the discovery, development and global commercialisation of the sintered Neodymium Iron Boron permanent magnet - the world's most powerful permanent magnet - which has been transformational in its contribution towards enabling cleaner, energy saving technologies.

Dr Sagawa was announced as the winner of the 2022 QEPrize - awarded annually to celebrate the critical role that engineering plays in global society - by Lord Browne of Madingley, Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation.

Dr Sagawa pioneered the development of a sintered rare-earth permanent magnet, the sintered neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) magnet. His breakthrough innovation was the creation of a new compound formed by replacing scarce and expensive cobalt and samarium with more abundant and cheaper iron and neodymium, and at the same time introducing boron to improve the magnetic properties - the first step in delivering high performance to a mass market.

Dr Sagawa then led the research and development in the 1980s and early 1990s to successfully overcome the issues of sudden reduction of magnetic coercivity at high temperature, most notably by adding dysprosium (Dy) to improve heat resistance. This resulted in the development of high-volume manufacturing techniques which successfully commercialised his innovation. For even wider applications, he continued to develop novel techniques for reducing the amount of dysprosium or even eliminating its use to help preserve natural resources.

The result was a new magnet for the mass market that almost doubled the performance of the previous best and successfully turned Nd-Fe-B magnets into a viable industrial material with wide applications. The new magnet has a significant advantage in high-efficiency and high-torque density applications, such as motors and generators for electric vehicles and wind power generation, and in more general applications where small powerful magnets are required, including robots, automation systems and domestic appliances.

Not only is the Nd-Fe-B market predicted to be worth over $19.3 billion by 2026, but this type of permanent magnet is also essential to the value chain of 8.5 million electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles in use globally, demonstrating a prolific impact on the entire economy.

"Receiving the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering is a special moment for me, as this prestigious prize encapsulates what engineering is all about. The purpose of engineering is to benefit humankind, and this award inspires engineers to keep working towards their goals. Engineering is essential to solving today's most pressing issues, and this includes tackling climate change. While neodymium magnets have a wide range of applications, one of the most important is its use for climate economy products, such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. I am therefore honoured to be part of the engineering profession's contribution towards the fight against climate change, and equally as honoured to receive this unique prize," said Dr Masato Sagawa.

"This innovation is inside almost every electric vehicle, and its application ranges from the smartphone in your pocket to offshore wind turbines providing clean energy - a material that is supporting our way of life today and our way of life in the future. That's the essence of engineering; producing and delivering for humanity again and again. Dr Masato Sagawa's permanent magnet is the embodiment of that very essence". Lord Browne of Madingley, Chairman, Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation

"The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering is a true celebration of the achievements of engineering worldwide, and how they benefit the planet. It is a fantastic vehicle for engaging people of all ages to demonstrate how engineering impacts our daily life. This year's prize is awarded to Dr Sagawa and his innovation of sintered neodymium magnets - an innovation which has had such an impact both on the way we live now, and how we will live in the future, especially as we look towards a greener one." Professor Dame Lynn Gladden, Chair of the QEPrize Judging Panel

Dr Sagawa will be formally honoured at the QEPrize presentation ceremony later this year. He will receive 500,000 and a unique trophy, designed by the 2022 Create the Trophy winner Anshika Agarwal, aged 17 from India.

Marking a significant milestone in the evolution of the QEPrize, Dr Sagawa becomes the first laureate since it was announced that the Prize will be awarded annually, rather than bi-annually. Reflecting the increasing pace of engineering innovation, this step change will offer further opportunities to recognise excellence across the whole field of engineering.

To find out more about this year's winning innovation, visit www.qeprize.org/winners

Interview Requests

For more information or to request an interview with any of the judging panel please contact qe@edelman.com or:
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices slipped on Tuesday, after having gained sharply in the previous session on worries over possible disruptions in supply due to mounting political tensions in Europe and the Middle East. Benchmark Brent crude futures dipped 0.9 percent to $88.43 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down nearly 1 percent at $87.31. Weekly U.S. inventory data from American Petroleum Institute (API) is on tap, with analysts expecting an increase in crude stockpiles. Analysts expect crude stocks to have risen by 1.8 million barrels. The API issues its inventory report later today. U.S. crude production rose 2 percent in November to 11.753 million barrels per day, according to a monthly report on Monday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Investors also kept an eye on developments in the Ukraine and an upcoming OPEC meeting for direction. 'I would not expect a lot of deviation from the plan,' an OPEC+ delegate reportedly said of Wednesday's meeting. The OPEC and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+ are likely to stick with a planned rise in their oil output target for March despite signs of a sustained recovery in Asian oil demand. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Hansen Technologies (ASX:HSN) is pleased to announce the expansion of its partnership with Vantaa Energy Ltd. As part of the agreement, Vantaa Energy, one of the largest city energy companies in Finland, will expand its use of Hansen Trade to cover regulating power (mFRR) market operations. The agreement builds on contracts involving automated intraday trading with Hansen Trade.

The regulating power solution within Hansen Trade enables Vantaa Energy to automate regulating power bidding. Electronic-activation functionality and related smaller minimum bid size also enables better capacity optimisation.

Hansen Trade also includes features such as bid linking which will enable Vantaa Energy to more effectively take power-plant ramping limits into account, following the Nordic Balancing Model market change.

Markku Vartia, Director, Electricity Business, Vantaa Energy Ltd, commented: "With a successful relationship already in place with Hansen, it was an easy decision for us to further expand its scope to also cover regulating power market operations. Today's power markets are volatile with a continuous need for updating regulating power bids. The automation and optimisation provided by Hansen Trade enables us to automate processes and realise the value potential of our production assets."

Scott Weir, Regional President, EMEA, Hansen Technologies, commented: "This new expansion of our partnership with Vantaa Energy is a testament to the strength of Hansen Trade. Our solution enables Vantaa Energy to automate critical business operations with a modern and robust cloud-native trading solution. Hansen Technologies is proud to provide our customers with competitive advantages that enable them to take advantage of market dynamics with modern tools in a rapidly changing and digital environment."

Run as a cloud-based SaaS solution, Hansen Trade fully meets the flexibility and scalability demands of the evolving energy trading market.

For further information about Hansen Technologies, please visit www.hansencx.com.

About Hansen Technologies

Hansen Technologies (ASX: HSN) is a leading global provider of software and services to the energy, water and communications industries. With its award-winning software portfolio, Hansen serves 600+ customers in over 80 countries, helping them to create, sell, and deliver new products and services, manage and analyze customer data, and control critical revenue management and customer support processes.

For more information, visit www.hansencx.com

About Vantaa Energy Ltd

Vantaa Energy is one of Finland's largest city energy companies. We produce heat, electricity and energy efficiency services. We enable a smooth everyday life for our customers by producing constantly developing services in a climate-friendly way.

The energy sector plays a significant role in the mitigation of climate change. We want to be part of the solution. We are a growing circular economy energy company that invests in finding carbon-neutral energy solutions. We will phase out fossil fuels by 2026 and are progressing towards carbon negativity by 2030.

www.vantaanenergia.fi

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005117/en/

Contacts:

Adnan Bashir

Senior Manager, Global Corporate Communications

Hansen Technologies

+1 647-204-0999
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / (CSE:YUM)(OTCQB:KOMOF)(FSE:9HB) ("Komo"), a fast growing plant-based food start-up, is pleased to announce that within 10 months of the launch of its direct to consumer eCommerce platform, it has received 200 reviews with a five out of five star consumer rating.

"Our plant-based comfort foods blend the right amount of real, wholesome cooking with the science and technology of developing innovative plant-based recipes to deliver hearty, satisfying food experiences," says Komo CEO William White. "We put each of our meals through multiple tests to make sure each one meets our standards for taste, food satisfaction, and scalability. Our eCommerce platform provides us a direct relationship with consumers and allows us to carefully monitor every touchpoint of the consumer journey, giving Komo a competitive advantage over retail-only brands."

Komo's consumer reviews, featured at https://komocomfortfoods.com/pages/reviews, consistently speak to the great taste and convenience of Komo's frozen plant-based meals. Consumers also comment positively on their customer experience of ordering products and receiving home delivery.

"Delicious! Convenient and delicious - - the cashew bechamel and mushroom/lentil ragout pair so well together. Altogether you can tell a lot of care and love put into making this vegan meal. Highly recommend," - Ellen W., Verified Buyer, January 23, 2002.

"The best meal I never cooked. Fast, healthy, and absolutely delicious. This food sells itself," - Caroline C., Verified Buyer, January 21, 2022.

In March 2021, Komo launched its Shopify platform using apps to enhance digital marketing and support a great online shopping experience. Post-launch, Komo added applications Privy, Klaviyo and ReCharge to enable site pop-ups, email marketing, and subscription packages. The launch of Yotpo enabled automatic review generation where emails are sent out to customers automatically 7 days after their initial purchase, along with a text message. The Yotpo application collected approximately 240 consumer reviews over the past ten months, allowing Komo to assess consumer pain points and discover promising product development opportunities. Last summer Komo used feedback from consumers and other data to support the launch of the Komo Plant-Based Meal HelpersTM line of frozen plant-based foods - versatile meal starters to allow the creation of plant-based dishes at home. Komo plans to use feedback from Yotpo for future launches planned for this year.

In addition to being sold through eCommerce, Komo products are sold through a distribution network of online and brick-and-mortar grocery, convenience, and natural retailer channels.

About Komo

Komo Plant Based Foods Inc. is a premium plant-based food company that develops, manufactures and sells a variety of plant-based frozen meals that are always hearty, satisfying, and made with wholesome ingredients. At Komo, our mission is to help make plant-based meals a staple on every dinner table by sharing our love for feel-good food that connects the people to the planet. We believe plant-based eating is the future and - Change can start with a single biteTM. Our experienced plant-based innovation and development team recreates vegan versions of traditionally cheesy and meaty classics, with 100% plants. Komo's products are sold direct-to-consumer through our eCommerce website and a distribution network of online and brick and mortar grocery, convenience and natural retailer channels. Our operating subsidiary Komo Comfort Foods launched in 2021 with our flagship products: plant-based Lasagna, Shepherd's Pie and Chickenless Pot Pie and has recently launched a new line - Komo Plant-Based Meal HelpersTM - versatile meal starters to allow the creation of many dishes at home. All of our products are 100% plant-based, made with wholesome ingredients, free from preservatives, and frozen for freshness. Freezing products is a natural and effective way of keeping food products for longer without having to use any preservatives. Komo's meals have a 1-year frozen shelf life. Komo also sells ready-to-eat meals in Metro Vancouver through Uber Eats and Skip the Dishes.

Learn more at: www.komocomfortfoods.com and follow on Instagram: @komocomfortfoods

For further information, please contact:

William White, President & CEO, Komo Plant Based Foods Inc.

will@komoeats.com

1-866-969-0882

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this news release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or Komo's future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Komo's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, Komo's product development plans, its ability to launch its products on food delivery apps, its ability to retain key personnel, its revenues, and its expectation as to the acceptance of its products by retailer stores and consumers constitute forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The statements made in this press release are made as of the date hereof. Komo disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be expressly required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: KOMO Plant Based Foods Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686549/Komo-Plant-Based-Foods-Achieves-200-Five-Star-Customer-Reviews-Through-Yotpo-App-on-its-eCommerce-Platform
CHESHUNT (dpa-AFX) - British retailer Tesco plc. (TSCO.L, TSCDY.PK) Tuesday announced changes to overnight roles in some stores. The company said it will put around 1,600 roles at risk of redundancy across its business, but aims to offer alternative roles at Tesco for as many colleagues as it can. This is related the company's decision to move overnight stock replenishment into the daytime in 36 large stores and 49 convenience stores. In 37 stores, the company will also convert petrol stations to be pay-at-pump only during overnight hours. According to the company, moving overnight stock replenishment to daytime trading hours, it can ensure more colleagues are available on the shop floor to help customers at peak times. The announced changes are part of its efforts to run business as simply and efficiently as possible. The changes to overnight roles as well as other recent changes including the proposed closure of seven Jack's stores would cause the risk of redundancy. The retailer said it currently has around 3,000 vacancies in its business, and will work individually with each affected colleague to support them during this period of change and help them to find another role. Tesco UK and ROI CEO, Jason Tarry said, 'We operate in a highly competitive and fast-paced market and our customers are shopping differently, especially since the start of the pandemic. We are always looking at how we can run our business as simply and efficiently as possible, so that we can re-invest in the things that matter most to customers. The changes we are announcing today will help us do this.' Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Ramps Up for Growth, Expanding Manufacturing, Information Technology and Cultivation Expertise

OTCQX: SHWZ

DENVER, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Schwazze, (OTCQX:SHWZ) ("Schwazze" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce the addition of key roles to support the Company's significant expansion within manufacturing, cultivation, and information technology.

As Vice President of Manufacturing and Supply Chain, David Kaufman joined the leadership team from Carlex Glass where he was responsible for global operations. Kaufman is a seasoned executive with experience identifying and yielding multimillion-dollar improvements in operations and supply chain through LEAN manufacturing, procurement, and distribution strategies. He had full P&L responsibility for the European business segment where he led a significant turnaround in operating performance and financial improvement. Kaufman holds a distinguished certificate in general management from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, MBA from the University of St. Francis, and BS in Chemistry from Purdue University.

Steven Liedtke joins Schwazze as Vice President, Information Services. Liedtke is an experienced Information Technology Executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience across industry sectors such as: CPG, Food & Beverage, Retail, and High Technology industries, including The Hain Celestial Group, The Whitewave Foods Company and Maines Group. Technology is a key pillar in Schwazze's growth strategy to help drive digital transformation, operational efficiencies, and synergies. With his M&A systems integration experience, Liedtke brings the expertise Schwazze needs in this period of significant organic and new acquisition growth.

The third key addition to the leadership team is in cannabis cultivation. Robert Piziali joins Schwazze as Vice President, Cultivation, overseeing its grow operations. Piziali was formerly the President of FarmPerfect, a cannabis farm management company based in Mendocino County, CA. He has 20 years of experience in operations management and, prior to cannabis, comes from the wine industry where he was involved in all aspects - from the vineyard to the cellar, to tasting rooms and retail operations. He was also the Co-Founder and President of FLO Wine, which he launched nationally in chains including Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, Jewel-Osco, and Albertsons. Piziali has an MBA from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a BA in Psychology from Rollins College.

"We are excited about the key additions to our operational leadership team. Kaufman, Piziali and Liedtke bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in their respective areas which are both critical to Schwazze's growth strategy in manufacturing, grow operations, distribution and digital commerce," said Nirup Krishnamurthy, Chief Operating Officer. "We continue to be proud of what we've built in Colorado since 2019 and look forward to our continued expansion."

About Schwazze

Schwazze (OTCQX: SHWZ) is building a premier vertically integrated regional cannabis company with assets in Colorado and New Mexico and will continue to take its operating system to other states where it can develop a differentiated regional leadership position. Schwazze is the parent company of a portfolio of leading cannabis businesses and brands spanning seed to sale. The Company is committed to unlocking the full potential of the cannabis plant to improve the human condition. Schwazze is anchored by a high-performance culture that combines customer-centric thinking and data science to test, measure, and drive decisions and outcomes. The Company's leadership team has deep expertise in retailing, wholesaling, and building consumer brands at Fortune 500 companies as well as in the cannabis sector. Schwazze is passionate about making a difference in our communities, promoting diversity and inclusion, and doing our part to incorporate climate-conscious best practices. Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. was Schwazze's former operating trade name. The corporate entity continues to be named Medicine Man Technologies, Inc.

Schwazze derives its name from the pruning technique of a cannabis plant to enhance plant structure and promote healthy growth.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "may," "estimates", "predicts," or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on certain assumptions, and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control and cannot be predicted or quantified. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) our inability to manufacture our products and product candidates on a commercial scale on our own or in collaboration with third parties; (ii) difficulties in obtaining financing on commercially reasonable terms; (iii) changes in the size and nature of our competition; (iv) loss of one or more key executives or scientists; (v) difficulties in securing regulatory approval to market our products and product candidates; (vi) our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy in Colorado and outside the state, (vii) our ability to identify and consummate future acquisitions that meet our criteria, (viii) our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and realize synergies therefrom, (ix) the actual revenues derived from the Company's Star Buds assets, (x) the Company's actual revenue and adjusted EBITDA for 2021, (xi) the Company's ability to generate positive cash flow for the rest of 2021 (xii) the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, (xiii) the timing and extent of governmental stimulus programs, and (xiv) the uncertainty in the application of federal, state and local laws to our business, and any changes in such laws. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1737838/Schwazze_Logo.jpg

Investors: Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations, Joanne.jobin@schwazze.com, 647 964 0292

Media: Julie Suntrup, Schwazze, Vice President | Marketing & Merchandising, julie.suntrup@schwazze.com

303 371 0387
YouTuber and Bigg Boss 13 fame Vikas Fhatak, popularly known as 'Hindustani Bhau' was arrested by Mumbai Police in connection with students' protest in Dharavi on Monday (January 31) over their demand for online exams for classes 10 and 12 in view of the pandemic.

An FIR was registered against him and others involved in the incident. Reportedly, the students hit the roads after viewing a video by Fhatak who raised concerns on the subject of offline exams for Classes 10 and 12.

Hindustani Bhau' had uploaded a video of him on Instagram, allegedly instigating students. The FIR is registered under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including that of rioting, Maharashtra Police Act, Disaster Management Act and Maharashtra Prevention of Defacement of Property Act.

Dharavi Police has also arrested one Iqrar Khan Vakhar Khan in the matter.
MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Quebec Precious Metals Corporation ("QPM" or the "Company") (TSXV:QPM)(OTCQB:CJCFF)(FSE:YXEP) announces that Jean-Francois Meilleur, President and Director, has stepped down from responsibilities with the Company, including as a director, effective as of the date hereof, to pursue other opportunities. This change is supported by the Board of directors and will further improve the Board's independence.

Normand Champigny, CEO of QPM, stated: "Jean-Francois has made an important contribution both in respect of the creation of the Company and its advancement since that time. We thank him for all he has done for QPM. We wish him the best of success in his future endeavours."

About Quebec Precious Metals Corporation

QPM is a gold explorer with a large land position in the highly prospective Eeyou Istchee James Bay territory, Quebec, near Newmont Corporation's Eleonore gold mine. QPM's flagship project is the Sakami project with significant grades and well-defined drill-ready targets. QPM's goal is to rapidly explore the Project and to advance to the mineral resource estimate stage.

For more information please contact:

Normand Champigny

Chief Executive Officer

Tel.: 514 979-4746

nchampigny@qpmcorp.ca

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Quebec Precious Metals Corporation

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686520/Quebec-Precious-Metals--Corporate-Update
Carbon Streaming Corporation (NEO: NETZ) (OTCQB: OFSTF) (FSE: M2Q) ("Carbon Streaming" or the "Company") will release its interim financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, before markets open on Monday February 14, 2022.

A conference call for investors and analysts providing an overview of the Company's interim financial results will be held on Tuesday February 15, 2022, starting at 11:00 a.m. (EST).

Date: Tuesday February 15, 2022

Time: 11:00 a.m. (EST)

Registration Link: http://www.directeventreg.com/registration/event/5636805

Upon registering, participants will be provided detailed call-in instructions. A reminder will also be sent to registered participants via email. Following the conference call, an audio replay of the call will be available on the Company website until 11:59 p.m. (EST) March 1, 2022.

About Carbon Streaming

Carbon Streaming is a unique ESG principled company offering investors exposure to carbon credits, a key instrument used by both governments and corporations to achieve their carbon neutral and net-zero climate goals. Our business model is focused on acquiring, managing and growing a high-quality and diversified portfolio of investments in projects and/or companies that generate or are actively involved, directly or indirectly, with voluntary and/or compliance carbon credits.

The Company invests capital through carbon credit streaming arrangements with project developers and owners to accelerate the creation of carbon offset projects by bringing capital to projects that might not otherwise be developed. Many of these projects will have significant social and economic co-benefits in addition to their carbon reduction or removal potential.

To receive corporate updates via e-mail as soon as they are published, please subscribe here.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005463/en/

Contacts:

Justin Cochrane, Chief Executive Officer

647.846.7765

info@carbonstreaming.com

www.carbonstreaming.com
Strong Overall Performance with 2021 Preliminary Revenues Exceeding Plan1

Group to Raise Expectation for Full-Year 2021 Adjusted EBIT Margin2

2022 Outlook Signals Continued Sales Growth Further Improvement in Adjusted EBIT Margin2

2022 Collections to be Last Using Fur

Overall Group FY 2021 Preliminary Revenues Increased by 27% Year-over-Year 3 to 1,292 million

to 1,292 million Revenues of Zegna branded Products Grew 33% to 847 million

Thom Browne Delivered Exceptional Revenue Growth of 47% to 263 million

Group Retail Revenues Grew by 39% to 851 million; Wholesale Revenues Grew by 14% to 438 million

Significant Growth in Both the U.S. and Greater China Region, with Increased Sales of 53% and 34%, Respectively

2021 Adjusted EBIT Margin 2 Expected at around 10%

Expected at around 10% 2021 Preliminary Net Financial Indebtedness 2,4 Slightly Positive Thanks to Healthy Cash Generation Ahead of Plan 1

Slightly Positive Thanks to Healthy Cash Generation Ahead of Plan 2022 Outlook Ahead of Plan:1 Low-teens Revenues Growth and Further Improvement to Adjusted EBIT Margin2 vs. 2021

Ermenegildo Zegna N.V. (NYSE: ZGN) ("Zegna Group" or "the Company") today announced the Company's unaudited Fiscal Year 2021 Preliminary Revenues.

Ermenegildo "Gildo" Zegna, Chairman and CEO of the Zegna Group, commented: "Our first financial release as a publicly listed company confirms that Zegna is a global leader in the luxury market. Our focus on excellence, innovation and the strong customer response to our luxury leisurewear, resulted in our preliminary full year revenues outpacing our previously disclosed Plan.1 By focusing on our legacy brand which is going through a major rebranding and on the further strengthening of our one-of-a-kind Made in Italy luxury textile platform coupled with the dynamic pace at which Thom Browne continues, we were able to deliver a strong financial performance in 2021. While we will continue to monitor world events and the COVID pandemic's potential impacts on our business, we remain optimistic about our growth in 2022, with improved profitability."

"Part of Zegna's ethos since our founding in 1910 has been a belief that creating the highest quality products goes hand in hand with caring for the natural world around us," Mr. Zegna continued. "Drawing upon these values, the Zegna Group has made the decision that 2022 collections will be the last using fur for both Zegna and Thom Browne."

Highlights from Fiscal Year 2021 Preliminary Revenues

For its Fiscal Year 2021, the Zegna Group posted a 27%3 Year-over-Year increase in revenues, to 1,292 million. This strong performance was driven by a continued rebound of the Zegna segment, whose revenues increased 23% to 1,035 million, as well as the exceptional performance of the Thom Browne brand, which was up 47%, with revenues totaling 263 million. Zegna branded products, which include apparel, bags, shoes and leather goods, as well as licensed goods and royalties, posted revenues that were up 33% to 847 million driven in large part by the robust growth in two primary areas: Luxury Leisurewear and Shoes. Thom Browne's impressive performance was due to growth in every channel, geography and product line in both Men's and Women's categories. The Group's textile revenues also saw a double-digit percentage increase to 102 million. The 9% decline in Strategic Alliances Year-over-Year to 75 million reflected a post-COVID adjustment phase in the B2B business.

The Group's overall revenues showed strong growth across all geographies, with North American revenues increasing 46% to 191 million, due in large part to a very strong performance in the United States, where revenues were up 53% Year-over-Year. The Group saw similarly strong sales in APAC, with an increase of 26% to 696 million, with the Greater China Region5 continuing a two-year growth trend, up 34% since 2020 and 28% since 2019. Revenues in Japan and the remaining parts of APAC continued to be negatively affected by COVID-19 restrictions. EMEA saw a 20% uptick in sales, growing to 380 million, driven by a rebound in Italy's sales to above 2019 levels and by the outstanding performance of the UAE, particularly in retail.

Retail sales growth was 39% Year-over-Year, and wholesale sales also grew at +14% Year-over-Year.

The Zegna brand retail revenues increase up 35% to 713 million was driven by a strong recovery across geographies, especially North America. Strong retail performance was also evident in both EMEA and APAC, the latter thanks to the high-double digit performance of the Greater China Region, which is showing sales well ahead of 2019 levels. The Group wholesale revenues were also up during the period, with Zegna branded products increasing 24% to 134 million, thanks to the strong performance of North America and APAC, and Thom Browne by 32% to 125 million thanks mainly to EMEA and APAC. Thom Browne's strong momentum led to 127% revenue growth in the retail channel when compared to 2019, significantly exceeding store footprint expansion. At the same time, Zegna brand growth was strong despite a refocusing of the mono-brand store footprint since 2019, indicative of a positive response to the brand re-set strategy. Notably, retail outperformed wholesale for both brands, reflecting our strategic focus on brand equity and an increasingly selective approach to wholesale distribution. Group retail sales represented a 66% incidence of total revenues in 2021, up from 60% in 2020 and 61% in 2019.

Outlook

The Group expects to report a 2021 Adjusted EBIT Margin of around 10%. For the definition of Adjusted EBIT Margin see the Non-IFRS Financial Measures section on page 3 of this communication. It is not practicable to reconcile this non-IFRS measure to the comparable IFRS measure, as a number of reconciling financial items have not yet been assessed and quantified by the Company, as it remains in the process of preparing its IFRS financial statements for 2021.

For 2022, barring any deterioration due to the pandemic or any other unforeseen event, the Group is forecasting revenue growth in the low-teens and further improvement to its adjusted EBIT margin. This puts the Group ahead of its previously disclosed Plan1, which was released in the investor presentations made available by the Company and IIAC on July 19, 2021, and on September 21, 2021, and the presentation made available to financial analysts on November 23, 2021.

The information contained in any documents hyperlinked to this communication or otherwise referred to in this communication shall not be considered a part of or incorporated by reference into this communication.

Conference Call

As previously announced, at 8:30 a.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CET), the Company plans to host a webcast and conference call. A live webcast of the conference call will also be available on the Company's website at ir.zegnagroup.com. To participate in the call, please dial:

United States (Toll Free): +1 (844) 200-6205

United States (Local): +1 (646) 904-5544

Italy (Local): +39 069 450 0327

United Kingdom (Toll Free): +44 808 189 6484

United Kingdom (Local): +44 208 0682 558

All Other Locations: +1 (929) 526-1599

Access Code: 170714

An online archive of the broadcast will be available on the website shortly after the live call and will be available for twelve months.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

Zegna Group's management monitors and evaluates operating and financial performance using several non-IFRS financial measures including Adjusted EBIT Margin and Net Financial Indebtedness. Zegna Group's management believes that these non-IFRS financial measures provide useful and relevant information regarding Zegna Group's performance and improve their ability to assess financial performance and financial position. They also provide comparable measures that facilitate management's ability to identify operational trends, as well as make decisions regarding future spending, resource allocations and other operational decisions. While similar measures are widely used in the industry in which Zegna Group operates, the financial measures that Zegna Group uses may not be comparable to other similarly named measures used by other companies nor are they intended to be substitutes for measures of financial performance or financial position as prepared in accordance with IFRS.

Adjusted EBIT and Adjusted EBIT Margin

Adjusted EBIT is defined as profit or loss before income taxes, financial income, financial expenses, exchange gains/(losses), result from investment accounted for using the equity method and impairments of investments accounted for using the equity method, adjusted for income and costs which are significant in nature and that management considers not reflective of ongoing operational activities. Adjusted EBIT Margin is defined as adjusted EBIT divided by revenues.

Net Financial Indebtedness

Net Financial Indebtedness is defined as the sum of financial borrowings (current and non-current), derivative financial instruments and bonds, loans and certain other financial liabilities (recorded within other current and non-current financial liabilities in the consolidated statement of financial position), net of cash and cash equivalents, derivative financial instruments and other current financial assets.

About Ermenegildo Zegna Group

Founded in 1910 in Trivero, Italy by Ermenegildo Zegna, the Zegna Group designs, creates and distributes luxury menswear and accessories under the Zegna brand, as well as womenswear, menswear and accessories under the Thom Browne brand. Through its Luxury Textile Laboratory Platform which works to preserve artisanal mills producing the finest Italian fabrics the Zegna Group manufactures and distributes the highest quality fabrics and textiles. Group products are sold through over 500 stores in 80 countries around the world, of which 297 are directly operated by the Group as of December 31, 2021 (245 Zegna stores and 52 Thom Browne stores). Over the decades, Zegna Group has charted Our Road: a unique path that winds itself through era-defining milestones that have seen the Group grow from a producer of superior wool fabric to a global luxury group. Our Road has led us to New York, where the Group has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since December 20, 2021. And while we continue to progress on Our Road to tomorrow, we remain committed to upholding our founder's legacy one that is based upon the principle that a business's activities should help the environment. Today, the Zegna Group is creating a lifestyle that marches to the rhythm of modern times while continuing to nurture bonds with the natural world and with our communities that create a better present and future.

Forward Looking Statements

This communication, including the section "Outlook", contains forward-looking statements that are based on beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to the Company. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "project," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," "target," "seek" or the negative or plural of these words, or other similar expressions that are predictions or indicate future events or prospects, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including strategies or plans, are also forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that it has a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this communication, the Company cautions you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known and projections of the future, which are inherently uncertain. In addition, risks and uncertainties are described in the Company's filings with the SEC. These filings may identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Most of these factors are outside the Company's control and are difficult to predict. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by the Company and its directors, officers or employees or any other person that the Company will achieve its objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. The forward-looking statements in this communication represent the views of Zegna as of the date of this communication. Subsequent events and developments may cause that view to change. However, while Zegna may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise publicly forward-looking statements. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing the views of the Company as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication.

1 The Zegna Group's Plan was published at the time of the announcement of the business combination between the Company and Investindustrial Acquisition Corp. ("IIAC"). The Group's Plan was also disclosed in the Company's registration statement on Form F-4 filed with the SEC (File No. 333-259139), under "Certain Unaudited Zegna Prospective Financial Information," the investor presentations made available by the Company and IIAC on July 19, 2021, and on September 21, 2021, and the presentation made available to financial analysts on November 23, 2021.

2 Adjusted EBIT Margin and Net Financial Indebtedness are non-IFRS financial measures. See the Non-IFRS Financial Measures section on page 3 of this communication for the definitions of Adjusted EBIT Margin and Net Financial Indebtedness.

3 All growth rates are Year-over-Year and are expressed at actual foreign exchange rates.

4 Preliminary Net Financial Indebtedness before impact resulting from the business combination between the Company and IIAC.

5 For Zegna's reporting purposes, the "Greater China Region" includes the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong S.A.R., Macau S.A.R. and Taiwan.

FY 2021 Preliminary Group Revenues: Breakdown by Segment

(Euro thousands in Actual FX) 2021A

PRELIMINARY 2020A 2019A ?% vs 2020A ?% vs 2019A Revenues 1,292,402 1,014,733 1,321,327 +27% (2%) - Zegna segment 1,035,175 843,318 1,165,911 +23% (11%) - Thom Browne segment 264,066 179,794 161,200 +47% +64% - Eliminations (6,839) (8,379) (5,784) n.s. n.s.

Note: 2021A Preliminary revenues are unaudited. The audit will be finalized at time of 2021 Financials approval. Zegna Segment includes Zegna branded products, Textile, Strategic Alliances, Agnona and Other.

FY 2021 Preliminary Group Revenues: Breakdown by Geography

(Euro thousands in Actual FX) 2021A

PRELIMINARY 2020A 2019A ?% vs 2020A ?% vs 2019A Revenues 1,292,402 1,014,733 1,321,327 +27% (2%) EMEA 1 380,325 315,879 431,384 +20% (12%) - of which Italy 158,722 121,202 140,676 +31% +13% - of which UK 37,682 32,985 58,012 +14% (35%) North America 2 191,283 131,049 233,327 +46% (18%) - of which United States 176,059 114,818 205,744 +53% (14%) Latin America 3 19,971 12,915 25,404 +55% (21%) APAC 4 696,344 551,650 626,059 +26% +11% - of which Greater China Region 5 588,876 438,193 458,294 +34% +28% - of which Japan 55,479 61,523 90,240 (10%) (39%) Other 6 4,479 3,240 5,153 +38% (13%)

1. EMEA includes EU countries, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the countries of the Balkan Peninsula, Eastern European countries and Scandinavian countries not belonging to the EU, Russia, former Soviet Republics, Turkey, Middle Eastern countries and Africa.

2. North America includes the United States of America and Canada.

3. Latin America includes Mexico, Brazil and other Central and South American countries.

4. APAC includes the Greater China Region, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, India and other Southeast Asian countries.

5. For Zegna's reporting purposes the Greater China Region includes the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong S.A.R., Macau S.A.R. and Taiwan

6. Other revenues mainly include royalties and certain sales of old season products.

Note: Revenues are after eliminations. 2021A Preliminary revenues are unaudited. The audit will be finalized at time of 2021 Financials approval.

FY 2021 Preliminary Group Revenues: Breakdown by Product Line

(Euro thousands in Actual FX) 2021A

PRELIMINARY 2020A 2019A ?% vs 2020A ?% vs 2019A Revenues 1,292,402 1,014,733 1,321,327 +27% (2%) - Zegna branded products 1 847,311 636,478 919,545 +33% (8%) - Thom Browne 263,397 179,490 160,595 +47% +64% - Textile 102,244 87,615 108,513 +17% (6%) - Strategic Alliances 74,957 82,273 91,720 (9%) (18%) - Agnona 1,191 12,389 17,691 (90%) (93%) - Other 3,302 16,488 23,263 (80%) (86%)

1. Zegna branded products include apparel, bags, shoes and small and large leather goods, as well as licensed goods and royalties.

Note: Revenues are after eliminations. 2021A Preliminary revenues are unaudited. The audit will be finalized at time of 2021 Financials approval.

FY 2021 Preliminary Group Revenues Breakdown by Channel

(Euro thousands in Actual FX) 2021A

PRELIMINARY % on

revenues 2020A % on

revenues 2019A % on

revenues ?% vs 2020A ?% vs 2019A Revenues 1,292,402 100% 1,014,733 100% 1,321,327 100% +27% (2%) - DTC Zegna branded products1 712,862 527,972 743,012 +35% (4%) - DTC Thom Browne 138,567 85,268 61,045 +63% +127% Total Direct to Consumer (DTC) 851,429 66% 613,240 60% 804,057 61% +39% +6% - Wholesale Zegna branded products1 134,449 108,506 176,533 +24% (24%) - Wholesale Thom Browne 124,830 94,222 99,550 +32% +25% - Wholesale Strategic Alliances and Textile 177,201 169,888 200,233 +4% (12%) - Wholesale Agnona 1,191 12,389 17,691 (90%) (93%) Total Wholesale 437,671 34% 385,005 38% 494,007 37% +14% (11%) Other 3,302 0% 16,488 2% 23,263 2% (80%) (86%)

1. Zegna branded products include apparel, bags, shoes and small and large leather goods, as well as licensed goods and royalties.

Note: Revenues are after eliminations. 2021A Preliminary revenues are unaudited. The audit will be finalized at time of 2021 Financials approval.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005730/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations



Francesca Di Pasquantonio

francesca.dipasquantonio@zegna.com

+39 335 5837669



Media



Ermenegildo Zegna Group

Domenico Galluccio

domenico.galluccio@zegna.com

+39 335 538 7288



Brunswick Group

Brendan Riley Lidia Fornasiero Marie Jensen

briley@brunswickgroup.com lfornasiero@brunswickgroup.com mjensen@brunswickgroup.com

+1 (917) 755-1454 +39 335 718 7205 +33 (0) 6 49 09 39 54
Regulatory News:

Orpea's (Paris:ORP)Board of Directors has appointed Grant Thornton and Alvarez Marsal to conduct the review and audit assignments previously announced following the publication of Mr Castanet's book.

These two world-renowned firms have complementary skills and will be responsible for carrying out an independent examination of the allegations published in the book.

The appointed firms will be granted access to all the information they deem necessary from Orpea and its subsidiaries. They will present their findings to the Board of Directors as early as possible. These conclusions will also be available to the relevant authorities and will be the subject of a specific communication.

Orpea is committed to continue to work closely with the public authorities and to respond to all of their requests.

About ORPEA (www.orpea-corp.com

Founded in 1989, ORPEA is one of the major world leaders in comprehensive long-term care, with a network of 1,156 facilities comprising 116,514 beds (26,359 of which are under construction) across 23 countries, which are divided into five geographical regions:

- France Benelux: 586 facilities/49,207 beds (5,672 of which are under construction)

- Central Europe: 268 facilities/28,419 beds (5,828 of which are under construction)

- Eastern Europe: 142 facilities/15,255 beds (4,101 of which are under construction)

- Iberian Peninsula/Latin America: 158 facilities/23,108 beds (10,373 of which are under construction)

- Rest of the world: 2 facilities/525 beds (385 of which are under construction)

ORPEA is listed on Euronext Paris (ISIN code: FR0000184798) and is a member of the SBF 120, STOXX 600 Europe, MSCI Small Cap Europe and CAC Mid 60 indices.

About Grant Thornton (www.grantthornton.fr/fr/

Grant Thornton France, one of the leading audit and advisory firms in France, employs more than 2,000 people, including 125 partners in 23 offices, in five business lines: Audit, Advisory, Financial Advisory, Operational Advisory and Legal and Tax Advisory. It is part of Grant Thornton International Ltd, an integrated and independent network of more than 60,000 employees, including nearly 4,000 partners in over 130 countries.

About Alvarez Marsal (AlvarezandMarsal.com

Alvarez Marsal is an international consulting firm founded in 1983, with 5500 employees in 65 offices. Alvarez Marsal draws on its extensive operational experience and pragmatic approach to support clients facing high-stakes challenges or leading complex transformations to improve performance.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005746/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

ORPEA

Steve Grobet

EVP Communication and Investor Relations

s.grobet@orpea.net

Benoit Lesieur

Investor Relations Director

b.lesieur@orpea.net

Investor Relations

NewCap

Dusan Oresansky

Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

orpea@newcap.eu

Media Relations

Image 7

Laurence Heilbronn

Tel.: +33 (0)6 89 87 61 37

lheibronn@image7.fr

Charlotte Le Barbier

Tel.: +33 (0)6 78 37 27 60

clebarbier@image7.fr
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / DLT Resolution Inc. (OTC PINK:DLTI), is pleased to announce its wholly owned Union Strategies Subsidiary looks to capitalize on the rising Gen U demand for union representation.

Citing a CNBC article dated January 28, 2022 highlighting Two Starbucks stores in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize after NLRB hearings in December." and "To date, more than 30 stores have petitioned the NLRB to organize. The push is being led by younger baristas hoping to have a direct line into management."

According to a recent Gallop poll, 68% of adults now favor unions while an even more impressive 77% of people aged 18 to 34 support unions. This growing number is what is leading to the phrase "Generation U" for unions.

Over the past 2 years, news reports cited a big push from Amazon employees that also wish to form a union citing poor work conditions and pay. Controversy surfaced following allegations of suppression tactics by Amazon management in a failed vote to unionize last year.

DLT Resolution's Union Strategies Subsidiary believes it can offer a solution to both employees and unions. With the Company's secure remote voting application, YOUnified. The application would allow for auditable, 'trustless' solution that allows employees to vote on the election anonymously while being able to confirm their vote was tabulated correctly. This trustless solution would also benefit employers by demonstrating no voter intimidation or voter suppression influenced the outcome.

Strong Demand & Market Acceptance

Since the launch of Vote YourChoice () - Secure Online and Remote Voting Application in June 2020, we have seen significant acceptance and demand for our service. To date, we have already signed up a number of new public sector unions, deployed online & remote voting for a number of new and existing union clients running hundreds of election and or voting matters and are planning the launch into new markets outside of our current union customer base.

Vote YourChoice - Secure Online and Remote Voting

Vote YourChoice fulfills the need for an ever-growing demand of online and remote voting requirements for all types of public and private elections. This requirement is now, more than ever, a fundamental change in the way people are able to cast their ballot and maintain physical distancing requirements. This remote ability is also estimated to increase voter participation by 18% to 35%. Vote YourChoice () software includes union elections and voting, condominium corporation voting, publicly traded company voting, municipal and provincial elections to name but a few applications globally.

100% Integrity

Secure, cost-effective and integrated with all organizations requirements. Organizations stakeholders are assured that their votes are processed by a neutral third party and in a transparent manner due in part to our unique voter-verified audit trail. Organizations can also count on our support team as a virtual part of its elections staff.

Learn more about Vote your Choice.

What is YOUnified

YOUnified combines the many required services of running the business of a union into one unified platform. YOUnified's goal is to assist in increasing member engagement, decrease the local's expenses, while saving everyone time. With this app, Unions will have everything they require to connect with their members, as well as maintain the local's needs.

About Union Strategies

USI has been providing a suite of products and services to Unions for over 10 years. The company designs, builds, and executes programs resulting in greater success for unions. Programs are designed to engage the membership, decrease expenses, and save time for a more productive business. The Company's suite includes secure electronic voting, Telecommunications, Event Management, Professional Writing, Social Media Management, Web Design, Graphic Services, and Promotional Offerings. The company is a one-stop-shop for all things union. The company has more than 130 clients that are considered "mid-market" in terms of overall size of the particular local with more than 450,000 members. USI operates nationally in Canada and looks to expand into the USA in 2021.

Learn more at: UnionStrategiesinc.com

About DLT Resolution Inc.

DLT Resolution Inc. currently operates in three high-tech industry segments: Blockchain Applications & Cyber Security; Software As A Service (SAAS) including Electronic Remote Voting, Telecommunications; and Data Services which includes Image Capture, Data Collection, Data Phone Center Services, and Payment Processing. Its clients represent some of the top businesses from a variety of sectors. DLT Resolution helps organizations that have invoices, ledgers, statements, applications, surveys, employee and customer rewards programs and a wide range of other non-core functions benefit from data management. DLT Resolution also operates a Health Information Exchange providing the ability to request and retrieve medical information & records while meeting all of today's Security & Compliance demands for HIPAA, PIPEDA and PHIPA. Through RecordsBank, the Company offers an easy-to-use online gateway to its centralized system for patients, lawyers and insurers to retrieve and access medical records.

Learn more at: www.dltresolution.com

Disclaimer: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations or forecasts of future events, can be affected by inaccurate assumptions, and are subject to various business risks and known and unknown uncertainties, a number of which are beyond the control of management. Therefore, actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Additional information respecting the factors that could materially affect the Company and its operations are contained in its annual report on Form 10K and Form 10-Q as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: DLT Resolution Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686540/A-Gen-U-of-Young-Employees-Could-Be-a-Catapult-for-DLT-Resolutions-Union-Strategies-and-itsYOUnifiedTM-Application
Renaming Mercedes-Benz Group AG marks completion of realignment

Full focus on passenger cars and vans in the luxury and premium segment

Leading role in electric mobility and vehicle software as a goal

Daimler AG will become Mercedes-Benz Group AG on February 1, 2022. Following the successful stock market debut of Daimler Truck, the Group's renewed focus on the automotive business is being underlined with a new name. The world-famous brand Mercedes-Benz was created in 1926 when the predecessor companies of Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler were merged with the aim of revolutionizing automobile production. The two pioneers had already presented their ground-breaking inventions independently of each other in 1886, heralding the beginning of the automotive age. In the course of the renaming of Daimler AG to Mercedes-Benz Group AG, the company's stock exchange symbol also changes from DAI to MBG. There will be no further changes for the shareholders. The shares of the Mercedes-Benz Group AG will remain listed on Germany's blue-chip DAX stock index.

Ola Kallenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG: "The renaming to Mercedes-Benz Group AG underlines our renewed strategic focus. In doing so, we want to make clear where we see the core of our company building the most desirable cars in the world. The Mercedes star has always been a promise for the future: Changing the present in order to improve it. We want to continue this legacy of our founders by taking the lead in electric mobility and vehicle software."

Parallel to the renaming of Daimler AG, Daimler Mobility AG is also adapting its brand. Under the name Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG, doing business as Mercedes-Benz Financial Services in the U.S., the company offers mobility services for passenger cars and vans in the areas of financing, leasing and insurance.

With the renaming of Daimler, the company completes its historic realignment that began last year and has been approved by the shareholders with an overwhelming majority. On December 10, 2021, Daimler Truck Holding AG was launched as an independent company on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The new Mercedes-Benz Group is thus fully concentrating on its passenger car brands Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes-EQ as well as vans. As a focused manufacturer with the most valuable luxury automotive brand in the world, the Group will be able to fully develop its economic potential in the future and better exploit its competitive strengths. Following the realignment of the original Daimler Group, Mercedes-Benz Group still holds a minority stake of 35% in Daimler Truck Holding AG, of this, around 5% are held in its pension assets.

Further information on Mercedes-Benz Group AG is available at: group-media.mercedes-benz.comand group.mercedes-benz.com

Forward-looking statements:

This document contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current views about future events. The words "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "can," "could," "plan," "project," "should" and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties, including an adverse development of global economic conditions, in particular a decline of demand in our most important markets; a deterioration of our refinancing possibilities on the credit and financial markets; events of force majeure including natural disasters, pandemics, acts of terrorism, political unrest, armed conflicts, industrial accidents and their effects on our sales, purchasing, production or financial services activities; changes in currency exchange rates, customs and foreign trade provisions; a shift in consumer preferences towards smaller, lower-margin vehicles; a possible lack of acceptance of our products or services which limits our ability to achieve prices and adequately utilize our production capacities; price increases for fuel or raw materials; disruption of production due to shortages of materials, labour strikes or supplier insolvencies; a decline in resale prices of used vehicles; the effective implementation of cost-reduction and efficiency-optimization measures; the business outlook for companies in which we hold a significant equity interest; the successful implementation of strategic cooperations and joint ventures; changes in laws, regulations and government policies, particularly those relating to vehicle emissions, fuel economy and safety; the resolution of pending governmental investigations or of investigations requested by governments and the outcome of pending or threatened future legal proceedings; and other risks and uncertainties, some of which are described under the heading "Risk and Opportunity Report" in the current Annual Report or in the current Interim Report. If any of these risks and uncertainties materializes or if the assumptions underlying any of our forward-looking statements prove to be incorrect, the actual results may be materially different from those we express or imply by such statements. We do not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements since they are based solely on the circumstances at the date of publication.

Mercedes-Benz Group at a Glance

Mercedes-Benz Group AG is one of the world's most successful automotive companies. With Mercedes-Benz AG, the Group is one of the leading global suppliers of premium and luxury cars and vans. Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG offers financing, leasing, car subscription and car rental, fleet management, digital services for charging and payment, insurance brokerage, as well as innovative mobility services. The company founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, made history by inventing the automobile in 1886. As a pioneer of automotive engineering, Mercedes-Benz sees shaping the future of mobility in a safe and sustainable way as both a motivation and obligation. The company's focus therefore remains on innovative and green technologies as well as on safe and superior vehicles that both captivate and inspire. Mercedes-Benz continues to invest systematically in the development of efficient powertrains and sets the course for an all electric future: The brand with the three-pointed star pursues the goal to go all electric, where market conditions allow. Shifting from electric-first to electric-only, the world's pre-eminent luxury car company is accelerating toward an emissions-free and software-driven future. The company's efforts are also focused on the intelligent connectivity of its vehicles, autonomous driving and new mobility concepts as Mercedes-Benz regards it as its aspiration and obligation to live up to its responsibility to society and the environment. Mercedes-Benz sells its vehicles and services in nearly every country of the world and has production facilities in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and Africa. In addition to Mercedes-Benz, the world's most valuable luxury automotive brand (source: Interbrand study, 20 Oct. 2021), Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-EQ and Mercedes me as well as the brands of Mercedes-Benz Mobility: Mercedes-Benz Bank, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Athlon. The company is listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges (ticker symbol MBG). In 2020, the Group had a workforce of around 288,500 and sold 2.8 million vehicles. Group revenues amounted to 154.3 billion and Group EBIT to 6.6 billion.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220131005875/en/

Contacts:

Tobias Just, +49 711 17 41341, tobias.just@mercedes-benz.com

Andrea Berg, +1 +917 667-2391, andrea.a.berg@daimler.com
Two new flavours of Amara's organic plant-based baby food is now available at H-E-B, one of the largest independently owned food retailers in the United States

Eat Well Investment Group Inc. the "Company" or "Eat Well Group" or "EWG") (CN:EWG) (US:EWGFF) (FRA:6BC0) is pleased to announce that it's majority-owned portfolio company, Amara Organic Foods ("Amara"), one of the fastest-growing baby food brands in America, is now available in approximately 200 HEB Grocery Company, LP ("H-E-B") locations in the United States.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005526/en/

Amara Organic Foods (Photo: Business Wire)

H-E-B is one of the largest independently owned food retailers in the United States. The company has been operational for more than 100 years and serves families across Texas and Mexico in 155 communities with over 420 stores. Additionally, H-E-B recently ranked second, behind only Amazon, in dunnhumby's Retailer Preference Index, which provides data on top retailer rankings according to consumers for the United States.1

Amara launched in H-E-B in June, 2021 and has since increased the Company's product line to include two new 100% Veggie flavours; Peas Corn Carrots and Tropical Mango.

"We're thrilled to be expanding our retail shelf footprint with one of our key retailers, H-E-B. It's a true testament to Amara's strong growth in the category and the changing customer. Customers are increasingly thinking about the food they eat and Amara's truly the only baby food that can bring all the benefits of fresh with the convenience of shelf stable," commented Jessica Sturzenegger, Founder CEO of Amara.

Distribution to H-E-B in the United States adds to Amara's strong retail footprint with distribution to many of North America's leading big-box retailers, including: Walmart Canada, Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmer's Market, Loblaws and more. Amara is focused on developing a blend of natural and traditional-big box retailers in order to become a household brand for every family. With strong demand in both natural and conventional channels, Amara continues to accelerate its omnichannel sales distribution strategy and strengthen its ecommerce platform.

To learn more, join Eat Well Group's mailing list for important updates.

ABOUT EAT WELL GROUP

Eat Well Group is a publicly-traded investment Company primarily focused on high-growth companies in the agribusiness, food tech, plant-based and ESG (environmental, social and governance) sectors. Eat Well Group's management team has an extensive record of sourcing, financing and building successful companies across a broad range of industries and maintains a current investment mandate on the health/wellness industry. The team has financed and invested in early-stage venture companies for greater than 25 years, resulting in unparalleled access to deal flow and the ability to construct a portfolio of opportunistic investments intended to generate superior risk-adjusted returns.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the information contained herein and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

__________________

1 https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220111005421/en/Amazon-H-E-B-and-Market-Basket-are-the-Top-U.S.-Grocery-Retailers-dunnhumby-Retailer-Preference-Index-Finds

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005526/en/

Contacts:

Eat Well Investment Group Inc.

Marc Aneed, CEO

ir@eatwellgroup.com

www.eatwellgroup.com
The "Italy Cards and Payments Opportunities and Risks to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The report provides detailed analysis of market trends in the Italian cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cash, cards, credit transfers, direct debits and cheques during the review-period (2017-21e).

The Italian government and the central bank are promoting electronic payments. In October 2019, the government developed the Progetto Italia Cashless plan, which aims to promote digital payments and reduce the use of cash payments. Various measures are being undertaken as part of this plan.

This includes incentivizing consumers via cashback bonuses for payments made using cards between December 2020 and June 2021 and lowering the maximum cash payment from 3,000 ($3,668.43) to 2,000 ($2,445.62) in July 2020. This limit is set to drop to 1,000 ($1,222.81) in January 2022. To promote merchant acceptance, the plan provides tax credits of 30% for merchants that accept card payments.

To boost digital payments, the government introduced the Receipt Lottery program in February 2021. The program is designed to reward consumers for making purchases using electronic methods of payment. To participate, consumers must register with the program online and link their Italian tax code. Once registered, a lottery code is generated.

Consumers are required to provide the lottery code at physical merchants at the time of purchase, after which consumers are entitled to receive one lottery ticket per 1 ($1.22)spent via digital methods of payment such as cards (capped at 1,000 tickets per transaction). The tickets are used for weekly, monthly, and yearly prize draws, with entrants eligible to win cash prizes. As of August 2021, the program had rewarded 1,000 registered users with prizes worth 15.6m ($19.1m) since inception.

The proliferation of digital-only banks is driving competition in the banking space, thus helping boost debit card holding. German digital-only bank N26 entered Italy in December 2015. The bank increased its customer base from 300,000 in January 2019 to 750,000 in May 2021. In November 2020, the bank launched N26 Smart a premium account that includes the N26 Smart Mastercard debit card, which offers free international payments.

In January 2018, UniCredit introduced Buddybank in Italy. Meanwhile, in June 2020, Banca Mediolanum Group and banking software provider Temenos collaborated to launch Flowe. This digital-only bank focuses on younger segments, offering bank accounts, debit cards, and prepaid cards.

The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2021e-25f). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including market shares of issuers and schemes.

Scope

Current and forecast values for each market in the Italian cards and payments industry, including debit, credit, and charge cards

Detailed insights into payment instruments including cash, cards, credit transfers, direct debits and cheques It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.

Ecommerce market analysis.

Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing the Italian cards and payments industry.

Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit and charge cards.

Comprehensive analysis of consumer attitudes and buying preferences for cards

The competitive landscape of the Italian cards and payments industry

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary

Market Overview

Payment Instruments

Card-Based Payments

Merchant Acquiring

Ecommerce Payments

Buy Now Pay Later

Mobile Payments

P2P Payments

Bill Payments

Alternative Payments

Payment Innovations

Job Analysis

Payment Infrastructure and Regulation

Appendix

Companies Mentioned

Nexi Payments

Intesa Sanpaolo

Agos

BNP Paribas

UniCredit Bank

Deutsche Bank

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

Banca di credito cooperativo

Banco BPM

Banca Carige

Poste Italiane

Banco Mediolanum

Credito Emiliano

Banca Sella

UBI Banca

PayPal

Samsung Pay

Google Pay

Bankomat Pay

Apple Pay

PastePay

Amazon Pay

Klarna

Nexi Pay

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/kdxupa

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005775/en/

Contacts:

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900
LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Bluejay Mining plc, the AIM, (OTCQB:BLLYF)(LSE:JAY) FSE listed and OTCQB traded exploration and development company with projects in Greenland and Finland, is pleased to announce the publication of a Podcast recording with Bluejay's Chief Executive Officer, Mr Bo Mller Stensgaard.

The Podcast discusses the exciting and unique opportunity that the Disko-Nuussuaq Project ("Disko") represents, and addresses enquiries that the Company has received regarding the project. Mr Stensgaard also highlights the history of the project, the data collated, including the modern interpretation techniques, along with the scale, size and correlation to what is believed to be Disko's closest comparable.

The Podcast is available to listen on the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gggOBrZQE6Q and can also be found on the Company's website at https://bluejaymining.com/projects/greenland/disco-nuussuaq/

The Podcast follows the recent Company news of the incorporation of Nikkeli Greenland A/S, the joint-venture partnership with KoBold Metals. A summary of this morning's release can be seen below.

 Greenland registered Nikkeli Greenland A/S created for the JV with necessary applications lodged for the Disko licence transfer

 Planning of 2022 field activities currently in their final stage

Bluejay and KoBold are currently finalising the 2022 work and field program which Bluejay will manage and execute on behalf of the JV. Bluejay anticipates updating the market of these activities in due course, with commencement expected in the latter part of Q2 2022.

For further information please visit http://www.bluejaymining.com or contact:

Roderick McIllree/ Kevin Sheil Bluejay Mining plc enquiry@bluejaymining.com Ewan Leggat/ Adam Cowl SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP(Nominated Adviser) +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 Andrew Chubb Hannam & Partners (Advisory) LLP +44 (0) 20 7907 8500 Tim Blythe/ Megan Ray Blytheweigh +44 (0) 20 7138 3205

Notes

Bluejay is listed on the London AIM market and Frankfurt Stock Exchange and its shares also trade on the OTCQB Market in the US. With multiple projects in Greenland and Finland, Bluejay has now secured three globally respected entities as partner, customer, and co-investor on three of its projects, giving the Company and its shareholders both portfolio and commodity diversification in high quality jurisdictions.

Bluejay has signed a definitive joint venture agreement with KoBold Metals to guide exploration for new deposits rich in the critical materials for electric vehicles (The Disko-Nuussauq Project). Principal investors in KoBold include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate & technology fund, overseen by Bill Gates, and whose investors include Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, and Ray Dalio. Other investors in KoBold include Andreessen Horowitz, the premier Silicon Valley venture capital fund and Equinor, the Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company.

Bluejay's most advanced project is the Dundas Ilmenite Project in Greenland, which is fully permitted and being developed towards production in the near term, with preparatory activities scheduled to commence in 2022. The Dundas Ilmenite Project has been proven to be the highest-grade mineral sand ilmenite project globally, with a Mineral Resource reported in accordance with the JORC Code of 117Mt at 6.1% ilmenite and a maiden offshore Exploration Target of between 300Mt and 530Mt of ilmenite at an average expected grade range of 0.4 - 4.8% ilmenite in-situ. The Company has agreed a Master Distribution Agreement with a major Asian conglomerate for up-to 340ktpa of its anticipated 440ktpa annual output. The Company's strategy is focused on securing financing ahead of commencing commercial production at Dundas and has appointed a Global Investment Bank as the lead arranger. This strategy will create a company capable of self-funding exploration on its current and future projects.

Bluejay holds two additional projects in Greenland - the 692sq km Kangerluarsuk zinc-lead- silver project ('Kangerluarsuk'), where historical work has recovered grades of 41% zinc, 9.3% lead and 596 g/t silver and identified four large-scale drill ready targets; and the 2,025 sq km Thunderstone project which has the potential to host large-scale base metal and gold deposits. Bluejay also has a joint-venture agreement with a mining major at Enonkoski in Finland and has recently signed a binding agreement for a partial divestment in a fourth Finnish project.

**ENDS**

This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: Bluejay Mining PLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686580/Bluejay-Mining-PLC-Announces-The-Disko-Nuussuaq-Opportunity--Project-Podcast


BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German automotive giant Daimler AG is now called Mercedes-Benz Group AG following the successful stock market debut of Daimler Truck. The names change completes the realignment, and the new company will now focus fully on passenger cars and vans in the luxury and premium segment.



The company's stock exchange symbol also changes to MBG from DAI in Germany, while there will be no further changes for the shareholders. The shares of the new Mercedes-Benz Group will remain listed on Germany's blue-chip DAX stock index.



Further, Daimler Mobility AG, which offers mobility services for passenger cars and vans in the areas of financing, leasing and insurance, is renamed as Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG.



The company noted that the finance and mobility division enables Mercedes-Benz customers to use their vehicles flexibly through rental and subscription models, fleet management and digital services for charging and payment.



The brand Mercedes-Benz was created in 1926 when the predecessor companies of Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler were merged, aiming to revolutionize automobile production.



Ola Kallenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said, 'The renaming to Mercedes-Benz Group AG underlines our renewed strategic focus.... The Mercedes star has always been a promise for the future: Changing the present in order to improve it. We want to continue this legacy of our founders by taking the lead in electric mobility and vehicle software.'



The original Daimler Group began its realignment last year, and on December 10, Daimler Truck Holding AG was launched as an independent company on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange following the spin-off from its parent after 125 years. Mercedes-Benz Group still holds a minority stake of 35 percent in Daimler Truck Holding, of this, around 5 percent are held in its pension assets.



The new Mercedes-Benz Group fully concentrates on its passenger car brands Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes-EQ as well as vans.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the Union Budget for 2022-23 has come with a new confidence of development amid the once-in-a-century pandemic and will create new opportunities for common people along with providing strength to the economy.

In his post-Budget remarks, Modi said that the Union Budget is full of opportunities for more infrastructure, investment, growth and jobs.

"This will further open the green job sector. This year's Budget not only solves the contemporary problems but also ensures a bright future for the youth," he said.

The Prime Minister added that the quest for modernity and technology in every sphere of life through steps such as drones for farmers, Vande Bharat trains, digital currency, 5G services and National Digital Health Ecosystem will hugely benefit our youth, middle class, poor, Dalits and backward classes.

He stressed that welfare of the poor is one of the most important aspects of this Union Budget.

"The Budget aims to ensure pucca houses, toilets, tap water and gas connections for every poor household. At the same time focus is on modern internet connectivity also," Modi said.

He mentioned that for the first time in the country, a 'Parvatmala' scheme is being started in states such as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and the North East, and this scheme will create a modern system of transportation in the hilly areas.

He said that along with the cleaning of the Ganga, which is the centre of faith of millions of Indians, the Union government will encourage natural farming on the banks of the river in five states -- Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

This is a significant step for the welfare of the farmers and this will also help in making Ganga chemical-free, he added.

Modi mentioned that the Union Budget's provisions aim to make agriculture lucrative and full of new opportunities.

"Measures like a special fund for encouraging new agriculture start-ups and a package for the food processing industry will help in increasing the income of farmers. More than Rs 2.25 lakh crore is being transferred in the bank accounts of farmers through MSP purchase," the Prime Minister said.

Pointing out the record increase in credit guarantee, many schemes have been announced in the Union Budget, he said, adding, "India's MSME sector will be greatly benefitted by the reservation of 68 per cent of the defence capital Budget for the domestic industry."

As much as Rs 7.5 lakh crore worth public investment will give a new push to the economy and create new opportunities for small-scale and other industries.

The Prime Minister congratulated the Union Finance Minister and her team for a 'people-friendly and progressive Budget'."
NEW YORK and LUXEMBOURG, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bregal Unternehmerkapital ("BU") announced the sale of ATP Group ("ATP"), a leading manufacturer of water-based adhesive tapes, to Arsenal Capital Partners ("Arsenal"). The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

ATP, headquartered in Wollerau, Switzerland, with production sites in Bad Kreuzburg (Germany), Philadelphia (USA), and Ipswich (United Kingdom), employs approximately 460 staff and has its own R&D capabilities to develop single- and double-sided high-performing industrial adhesive tapes, tailored individually to specific customer requirements. The products are manufactured on state-of-the-art coating machines and utilized by customers in a broad range of medical, mobility, construction, electronics, industrial, and graphics applications. Furthermore, being water-based, ATP's high-quality adhesive tapes are also considerably more environmentally friendly than other adhesive solutions.

"We appreciate the hands-on support that Bregal Unternehmerkapital has provided us during our partnership," said Daniel Heini, President and Chief Executive Officer of ATP. "Our commitment to environmentally friendly solutions provides a long-term growth opportunity for ATP. We are excited to partner with Arsenal to continue our global expansion and become the partner of choice of specialty water-based tapes to our international customer base."

Felix Werdin, a Partner of BU, added, "We appreciate the continuous development of ATP by Daniel Heini and the entire ATP management team into the leading water-based adhesive tapes manufacturer. We are proud to have supported the team to accelerate the company's overseas expansion over the past years, and we are convinced that ATP is well positioned for the next stage of its impressive growth trajectory with its new partner Arsenal."

Roy Seroussi, an Investment Partner of Arsenal, commented, "We see a significant unmet need for environmentally friendly tapes across technically demanding end markets, and ATP is at the forefront of this substitution trend. Together with Daniel and ATP's management team, Arsenal intends to accelerate the company's global growth strategy through innovation, manufacturing extensions, and acquisitions."

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to Bregal Unternehmerkapital and ATP. Houlihan Lokey served as a financial advisor to Arsenal.

About ATP Group

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Wollerau, Switzerland, ATP is the leading developer, manufacturer, and supplier of all types of specialized, single-sided and double-sided water based adhesive tapes. ATP's business model is driven by developing customized and bespoke products for its customers. The company has a well-established global distribution network and serves customers across 60+ countries worldwide. ATP pioneered water-based adhesive tape technology, which is significantly more environmentally friendly. For more information, visit www.atp-ag.com.

About Bregal Unternehmerkapital

BU is part of a family-owned business that has grown over several generations. The BU funds invest in mid-sized companies in the DACH region and Northern Italy across a wide range of sectors with a focus on market leaders and "hidden champions" with strong management teams and outbreak potential. With patient capital, entrepreneurial expertise and a partnership approach, our team works closely with entrepreneurs to develop, internationalize, and digitalize portfolio companies, and to help them generate sustainable value on a responsible basis.

About Arsenal Capital Partners

Arsenal is a leading private equity firm that specializes in investments in middle-market industrial growth and healthcare companies. Since its inception in 2000, Arsenal has raised institutional equity investment funds of more than $10 billion, has completed more than 250 platform and add-on investments, and achieved more than 30 realizations. Arsenal invests in industry sectors in which the firm has significant prior knowledge and experience. The firm works with management teams to build strategically important companies with leading market positions, high growth, and high value-add. Visit www.arsenalcapital.com for more information.

Media Contact

Jackie Schofield

Jschofield@prosek.com
Geneva, Feb. 01, 2022released its latest Progress Report, reflecting on collective achievements from the life sciences industry to minimize the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Findings from the leading coalition of biotechnology, diagnostics, generic and large research-based pharmaceutical companies indicate continued focus and leadership from the life sciences sector. Industry is helping to shape a positive future outlook in the fight against AMR but continued cross-sector collaborations along with policy and regulatory changes toward a more sustainable marketplace are needed. The report's findings represent collective results from across Alliance membership on their current AMR activities related to research and science, access, appropriate use, and manufacturing and the environment. The report was conducted by RAND Europe.

Key findings include:

There is continued funding in AMR from Alliance members, but investment levels are at risk. Since the previous survey period (2019-2020), at least USD$1.8 billion have been invested annually. Nearly one-third of members reported that investment would decrease if market conditions did not improve.

Since the previous survey period (2019-2020), at least USD$1.8 billion have been invested annually. Nearly one-third of members reported that investment would decrease if market conditions did not improve. Incentives for R&D in antibiotics are critical for future investment. Almost three-quarters of Alliance members said they would increase investment if market conditions improved, particularly through sufficient novel pull incentives. These reward successful development and will be imperative to ensure market viability and enable sustainable investment into AMR R&D.

Almost three-quarters of Alliance members said they would increase investment if market conditions improved, particularly through sufficient novel pull incentives. These reward successful development and will be imperative to ensure market viability and enable sustainable investment into AMR R&D. An overwhelming majority of Alliance members are active in access and appropriate use activities. Four out of five (81%) surveyed companies reported being active in supporting access to AMR-relevant products and/or technologies. Implementation of appropriate use and stewardship activities were also reported as a major focus of companies, with 92% of R&D pharmaceutical companies, 89% of generics companies, and 80% of diagnostics companies having taken such actions.

Four out of five (81%) surveyed companies reported being active in supporting access to AMR-relevant products and/or technologies. Implementation of appropriate use and stewardship activities were also reported as a major focus of companies, with 92% of R&D pharmaceutical companies, 89% of generics companies, and 80% of diagnostics companies having taken such actions. There is growing commitment and action on responsible manufacturing. An increasing number of Alliance members involved in manufacturing antibiotics (85%) are assessing their sites against the Alliance's Common Antibiotic Manufacturing Framework (https://www.amrindustryalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/AMR_Industry_Alliance_Manufacturing_Framework.pdf) (CAMF), and 87% of products manufactured at Alliance members sites are meeting its science-based predicted no-effect concentrations (PNEC) targets.

"The AMR Industry Alliance stands out as the leading private sector coalition providing actionable solutions in the fight against AMR. As the Alliance enters its sixth year, through the Progress Report, we see the benefits of working in partnership across sectors and actors," said Thomas Cueni, Chair of the Alliance and Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). "Antimicrobial resistance won't race across the world like COVID-19, but its effects will be devastating. Together, we need to think wisely about preparing against future pandemics, including silent ones like AMR. Leading companies in the life science sector are playing a principal role in harmonizing effective regulations, advancing market incentives, promoting appropriate use strategies, and continuing to strengthen multi-stakeholder collaborations."

New peer-reviewed dataconducted by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimate the global burden associated with drug-resistant infections at 4.95 million deaths in 2019, with AMR directly causing 1.27 million deaths. These findings highlights that AMR's scale and threat is much larger than previously understood and therefore emphasise the urgency for taking action.

The Alliance encourages others in the life sciences sector to utilize the Progress Report as a tool to spur action and encourage greater collaboration in slowing the spread of AMR.

"The Progress Report calls out that the Alliance has made great strides across the AMR landscape but particularly toward responsible manufacturing, and we are proud of the improvements Alliance members have made," said Cueni. "These efforts to spur industry actions and move toward industry standards were recognized in this year's G7 Health Ministers Communique. This work is promising, yet we must continue the momentum."

Overall, the Progress Report reinforces ways in which Alliance members and the broader life sciences industry can contribute further to combating AMR. New and ongoing actions will include working with governments to strengthen pull incentives to ensure commercial viability of antimicrobial R&D, strengthening partnerships for access to diagnostics and antimicrobials, reducing substandard and falsified AMR-relevant products or technologies, increasing AMR surveillance data collection, aligning promotional activities with antimicrobial stewardship, working toward an industry manufacturing standard, and continuing to enhance compliance of sites with our manufacturing framework.

"AMR Industry Alliance members have made notable contributions to tackling the urgency of the AMR challenge on multiple fronts, including contributing to research and the development of novel AMR-relevant products and technologies, working to address access issues, supporting efforts to ensure the appropriate use of antimicrobials and the responsible manufacturing of antibiotics," said Sonja Marjanovic, Director, Healthcare Innovation, Industry and Policy, RAND Europe. "There are opportunities to further build on the progress made to date, through collaborative endeavours between and among industry, governments, intergovernmental organisations, not for profits, public sector researchers, healthcare professionals and payers - keeping patient needs at the center of all efforts."

The full AMR Industry Alliance Progress Report can be found here.

Summary of Key Findings:

Research and Science. Since the previous survey period (2019-2020), nearly half of Alliance members reported an increase in AMR-relevant R&D investment, and at least USD$1.8 billion have been invested annually. Alliance members view new or improved pull incentives as a key factor to influence investments in AMR-relevant R&D and are committed to working with policymakers and actively engaging in advocacy efforts for improved pull and push incentives that could provide further stimulus for R&D and help create viable markets. In fact, 73% of surveyed Alliance members reported that they would increase investment levels in AMR-relevant R&D if market conditions improved.

Access. Top-line findings highlight that Alliance members are active in supporting access, with 81% of respondents reporting having developed comprehensive strategies to improve access to AMR-relevant products or technologies. Alliance member access-related activities covered diverse geographies, the majority of which are in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). According to Alliance members, challenges related to appropriate pricing and reimbursement, a lack of timely and appropriate product registration and prescriber/payer behaviours that favour lower-cost older antimicrobials represent key barriers in industry efforts to enable wider access to AMR-relevant products and technologies.

Appropriate Use. Alliance members continue to engage in activities to promote good stewardship. The report found that 83% of large R&D biopharmaceutical companies and 80% of diagnostics companies have appropriate-use and stewardship strategies or plans for AMR-relevant products and/or technologies. While Alliance members are very active in appropriate-use and stewardship education and awareness (88% report such programs), just half (51%) report collecting and/or sharing surveillance data. That said, over half (59%) of companies that collected surveillance data shared it externally as part of their commitment to collaborative efforts to mitigate inappropriate use of antibiotics and vaccines and improve antimicrobial stewardship.

Manufacturing and the Environment. The Alliance's continued leadership to minimize AMR in the environment is proving fruitful. Top findings from the Progress Report indicate that the vast majority of products (88%) manufactured at sites owned by Alliance members with manufacturing operations have been assessed against PNEC targets and 87% of assessed antibiotic products meet these targets. Additionally, most (98%) antibiotic manufacturing sites owned by Alliance members either fully or partially met all CAMF requirements. However, there is room for improvement to ensure member company supplier sites are increasingly assessed against the CAMF and their products against PNEC targets.

About the AMR Industry Alliance

The AMR Industry Alliancewas formed in 2017. With approximately 100 life sciences companies and trade associations, it represents nearly one-third of the volume of sales and the majority of all novel products. Members have committed to report on activities they are undertaking in the areas of research & science, access to antibiotics and appropriate use of these, as well as responsible environmental manufacturing to tackle the rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance. If AMR remains unchecked, the annual death toll could climb from 700,000 each year to 10 million by 2050 and the economic impacts could be on par with those of the 2008 financial crisis. The AMR Industry Alliance ensures that signatories collectively deliver on the specific commitments made in the Industry Declaration on AMRand the Roadmapfor Progress on Combating AMR and measures progress made in the fight against AMR.

About RAND Europe

RAND Europe is a not-for-profit policy research organisation which aims to improve policy and decision making through research and analysis. With offices in Cambridge (UK) and Brussels (Belgium), RAND Europe works with a wide range of government, industry, academic and third sector clients to conduct rigorous, impartial, and quality assured research. RAND Europe has an established focus on health and healthcare innovation including wide-ranging experience conducting research on AMR.

Attachment
TORONTO, ON and NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / GlobeX Data Ltd. (OTCQB:SWISF)(CSE:SWIS)(FRA:GDT)("GlobeX" or the "Company"), the leader in Swiss hosted secure communications and secure data management, is pleased to update its shareholders on its SekurMessenger Swiss hosted email and messaging security and privacy solution launch with America Movil's Telcel unit in Mexico.

As previously announced in 2021, GlobeX is launching SekurMessenger , its Swiss hosted encrypted instant messaging, secure voice recording transfer and secure file transfer application, with America Movi's Telcel mobile operator in Mexico. The secure messaging service has been fully integrated with Telcel's billing and provisioning platform and the commercial launch has started in the CDMX region, representing Mexico City and the greater Mexico City, a region covering 21.9 million people.



America Movi's Telcel has now approved the launch to go nationally to the rest of Mexico and it will include the mass markets as well as businesses. Previously the launch of SekurMessenger was limited only to corporate entities and large enterprises. The mass markets classification is composed of small businesses (SMB) and consumers. Once sales gain momentum in Mexico, the launch is planned to expand to other countries where America Movil operates through its Claro brand, such as Colombia, Peru and other Latin American countries, as the business grows over the coming years.

GlobeX Data and America Movil are looking at offering a secure and private alternative to other non-secure and non-private messaging applications. The market is geared primarily for business and government users, and privacy conscious consumers. According information published on America Movi's website , Telcel is the largest mobile operator in Mexico, with over 75 million mobile subscribers. America Movil is the 7th largest telecom operator in the world with over 277 million mobile subscribers in over 20 countries throughout Latin America and Europe. Its shares trade in the New York Stock Exchange under ticker AMX.

Recent data breaches in messaging applications and in particular in the WhatsApp application have created a certain urgency for businesses and data privacy advocates to protect their communications form cyber-attacks and identity theft via mobile and desktop devices.

SekurMessenger eliminates many of the privacy and security risks by not only not requiring a phone number, which would divulge a user's phone device ID, but also by not social engineering a user's phone or computer contact list and infecting the contacts by default as well, eliminating a huge loophole in security and privacy. SekurMessenger issue each user a username and a SM number. The SM number is the contact ID a user would disclose in order for other SM users to be added. As the Introduction Video demonstrates, the service comes with a self-destruct timer and other features as well, including GlobeX's proprietary VirtualVaults and HeliX technologies with all data stored in Swiss hosted encrypted servers.

Additionally, SekurMessenger now comes with a proprietary feature and technology called Chat by Invites. This feature allows a SekurMessenger user ("SM user") invite a non-SM user, or a group of non-SM users, by sending an SMS or email to the recipient, to chat in a fully private and secure way, without the recipient ever having to register to SekurMessenger or download the app. At the end of the chat, the initiator of the conversation can remotely terminate the conversation and all traces of the conversation are deleted from all users, including the recipient. This unique feature is now fully deployed and functional on all iOS and Android devices and web platforms. The target sectors are numerous, including but not limited to legal, financial, government, real estate, energy, mining, manufacturing, trade and medical sectors.

Alain Ghiai, CEO of GlobeX Data said: "We are very happy to have been approved for the national launch of SekurMessenger with Telcel, and to have been approved for the mass market segment as well. We are now looking forward to start generating revenues from all of Mexico from government organizations, businesses, and consumers. We know that in certain sectors, there is a growing demand to replace WhatsApp as a business messaging solution. SekurMessenger is here to satisfy that demand, and as we are not connected, and never have been connected, to AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud platforms, commonly referred to as "Big Tech", we can offer a truly independent, private and secure means of communications through secure messaging, secure voice record transfer and secure email through our proprietary technology and our secure servers based in Switzerland. We are looking forward to expand in Central and Latin America in the coming years, as we plan to launch with other partners in the region as well. According to statista.com and other information sites, there are over 580 million people speaking Spanish in Latin America alone, and with security and privacy becoming a global concern, we have seen a surge in demand and inquiries for our secure and private communications solutions."

GlobeX's Data privacy solutions are all hosted in Switzerland, protecting users' data from any outside data intrusion requests. In Switzerland, the right to privacy is guaranteed in article 13 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. The Federal Act on Data Protection ("FADP") of 19 June 1992 (in force since 1993) has set up a strict protection of privacy by prohibiting virtually any processing of personal data which is not expressly authorized by the data subjects. The protection is subject to the authority of the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Under Swiss federal law, it is a crime to publish information based on leaked "secret official discussions." In 2010 the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland found that IP addresses are personal information and that under Swiss privacy laws they may not be used to track Internet usage without the knowledge of the individuals involved.

About GlobeX Data Ltd.

GlobeX Data Ltd. is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure communications and secure data management. The Company distributes a suite of secure encrypted e-mails, and secure communication tools, secure cloud-based storage, disaster recovery and document management. GlobeX Data Ltd. sells its products through its approved wholesalers and distributors, and telecommunications companies worldwide. GlobeX Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.



On behalf of Management

GLOBEX DATA LTD.

Alain Ghiai

President and Chief Executive Officer

+1.416.644.8690

corporate@globexdatagroup.com

For more information, please contact GlobeX Data at corporate@globexdatagroup.com or visit us at https://globexdata.com .



For more information on Sekur visit us at: https://www.sekur.com .

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "project" and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guaranteeing future performance. GlobeX cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond GlobeX's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company's business; the success of marketing and sales efforts of the Company; the projections prepared in house and projections delivered by channel partners; the Company's ability to complete the necessary software updates; increases in sales as a result of investments software development technology; consumer interest in the Products; future sales plans and strategies; reliance on large channel partners and expectations of renewals to ongoing agreements with these partners; anticipated events and trends; the economy and other future conditions; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in GlobeX's prospectus dated May 8, 2019 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available on www.sedar.com. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, GlobeX undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

SOURCE: GlobeX Data Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686284/GlobeX-Data-Update-on-Launch-of-SekurMessenger-with-America-Movils-Telcel--Aims-to-Replace-WhatsApp-for-Business
ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Joint venture partners Wexford Real Estate Investors (WREI) and Mill Creek Residential Trust sold Modera Prominence, their Buckhead, Ga.-based mixed-use apartment community, to an affiliate of Lone Star Funds. The Class-A luxury apartment building was completed in 2021 and is conveniently located next to the Atlanta Tech Village, Peachtree Park and Buckhead Village.

Modera Prominence sits on 2.8 acres and has approximately 319,000 square feet of rentable area with an average apartment size coming in just over 1,000 square feet. The ground-floor retail area wraps the corner of Lenox and Piedmont totals approximately 21,000 square feet, which will provide much-needed food and beverage options for this unique corner of Buckhead.

"Modera Prominence is the epitome of luxury in Buckhead," said Joseph Jacobs, WREI President and Cofounder. "Working with Mill Creek was a privilege and it was our pleasure to partner with them on this project."

Cushman & Wakefield's Sunbelt Multifamily Advisory Group marketed and sold the property. Members from that team included Alex Brown, Executive Director, and Robert Stickel, Executive Vice Chair. Representing Mill Creek Residential Trust were John Harkey, Senior Vice President of Asset Management, and Patrick Chesser, Senior Managing Director of Development.

"Modera Prominence is yet another fantastic and successful development by Mill Creek Residential in the Atlanta market," Stickel said. "They and their partner, Wexford Real Estate Investors, saw the benefits of Buckhead's access to various job centers and unique features of the city, including Path 400 and Chastain Park."

"The buyer, Lone Star, grew upon its presence in Buckhead and saw the opportunity to take advantage of rent growth," Brown added. "Lone Star is in a great position to benefit from this asset, especially once restaurant-driven retail opens in the area this summer."

WREI has beenvery active since Q4 2021 with several multimillion-dollar deals completed. In December, WREI and Key International teamed up to acquire the Pompano Beach Marriott Hotel for $54 million with plans to renovate the 219-key property. WREI also announced a joint venture with Beztak to develop an eight-story, 277-unit Bocora apartment project located in Boca Raton on a 4.1-acre site they purchased together for $12.7 million. Then, in late September, WREI partnered with NYC-based L&L Holding Company and Miami-based 13th Floor Investments to pursue a transit-oriented mixed-use development in Downtown West Palm Beach with the acquisition of a prime 2.6-acre assemblage.

About Wexford Real Estate Investors

Wexford Real Estate Investors ("WREI"), formerly known as Flagler Capital LLC, was formed for the purpose of sourcing and managing private market real estate investment opportunities. WREI sources, invests and executes in value and growth driven real estate transactions using an opportunistic investment?philosophy. WREI currently focuses its investments in sunbelt markets with an emphasis on residential rental and condominium investments and has invested more than $680 million in equity since 2010 in real estate transactions with a total value?in excess?of $1.4 billion. For more information, visit?https://www.wexfordrei.com.

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) is a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms with approximately 50,000 employees in over 400 offices and 60 countries. In 2020, the firm had revenue of $7.8 billion across core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, valuation and other services. To learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com or follow @CushWake on Twitter.

Cushman & Wakefield's Sunbelt Multifamily Advisory Group is an 82-person investment sales team covering 11 states with No. 1 multifamily market share in that region based on sales volume and transactions reported to CoStar. Per Cushman & Wakefield, in 2021, the group closed $13.8 billion in sales volume through 429 deals and nearly 85,000 units. For more information about the Sunbelt Multifamily Advisory Group, visit https://multifamily.cushwake.com.

About Mill Creek Residential

Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC is a national rental housing company focused on the development, acquisition and operation of both multifamily and build-to-rent single-family communities in targeted markets nationwide. The national company, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida proactively develops, acquires, constructs and operates communities through its seasoned team of real estate professionals in offices across the United States. Mill Creek is building its portfolio in many of the nation's most desirable markets in Seattle, Portland, the San Francisco Bay area, Southern California, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Austin, Houston, South Florida, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, New York, and Boston. As of September 30, 2021, the company's portfolio is comprised of 111 communities representing over 30,500 rental homes that are operating and/or under construction. For more information, please visit www.MillCreekPlaces.com.

SOURCE: Wexford Real Estate Investors (WREI)

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686421/Mill-Creek-Residential-and-Wexford-Real-Estate-Investors-Close-on-Sale-of-Modera-Prominence-a-318-Unit-Class-A-Atlanta-Multifamily-Development
97% of post-surgical patients using Connected Health for at-home monitoring indicated high satisfaction and would recommend program to friends or family members

News in Summary

Cloud DX remote patient monitoring solution receives a 97% approval rating from patients, an industry leading satisfaction rating

204 patients responded to the survey indicating Cloud DX technology was very helpful in their recovery post-surgery and would recommend the program to friends and family

KITCHENER, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Cloud DX (TSXV:CDX)(OTCQB:CDXFF) is pleased to share new findings from a survey of Ottawa Hospital patients who recently participated in a cross-Canada study using remote automated monitoring after being discharged to home post-surgery.

According to the survey of 204 respondents, 97% of patients indicated they either strongly agreed or agreed they were highly satisfied with the Cloud DX remote patient monitoring program and would recommend it to friends or family members. 89% of respondents also strongly agreed or agreed that the quality of care they received was equal to, or better than the care they would have received face to face. Respondents also found Cloud DX's technology easy to use and interact with.

The survey takes a patient-centric look at a cutting-edge post-surgical remote patient monitoring program. Data was gathered between May and December of 2021.

Previously, in 2020, The Ottawa Hospital was one of nine Canadian facilities to participate in a national clinical study of patient outcomes from virtual care and remote automated monitoring (RAM). Half of 905 post-surgery patients were randomized to use this technology at home for 30 days after they left the hospital.

Several centers in the PVC-RAM-1 study found fewer patients with the take-home technology had to return to the hospital for care. In addition, more patients in the virtual care group compared to the standard care group had a medication error detected (30% versus 6%, respectively) and corrected (28% versus 4%, respectively). As well, fewer of the virtual care patients - a difference of 10 to 14% lower - reported pain compared to the standard care group. Results of the national study were recently published in The BMJ .

The Ottawa Hospital is currently operating a Ministry of Health funded program that continues to offer Connected Health as a new standard of care. Funding for this initiative comes from The Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization (TOHAMO) COVID-19 Innovation Grant, Roche Canada COVID-19 Innovation Grant, McMaster COVID-19 Research Fund, and The Research Institute of St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.

"We are delighted to see such a strongly positive response to Cloud DX's technology and monitoring program from patients in the Ottawa Hospital community," says Robert Kaul, CEO and Founder at Cloud DX. "It further validates our work to make our technology easy to use, user-friendly and to help patients feel empowered in their recovery from illness and surgery, knowing that nursing and medical help was just a text message away."

Drs. Manoj Lalu , Sylvie Aucoin, and Daniel Dubois are the physician leads for virtual post-operative care for The Ottawa Hospital site.

"Our hope was that this enhanced virtual care will reduce complications in patients after surgery and keep them out of hospital," says Dr. Lalu, an associate scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and assistant professor at the University of Ottawa. "Our research findings supported this hypothesis, and we were very pleased that patients readily accepted the remote monitoring program and found it very helpful in their recovery."

About Cloud DX

Accelerating virtual healthcare, Cloud DX is on a mission to make healthcare better for everyone. Our Connected Health TM remote patient monitoring platform is used by healthcare enterprises and care teams across North America to virtually manage chronic disease, enable aging in place, and deliver hospital-quality post-surgical care in the home. Our partners achieve better healthcare and patient outcomes, reduce the need for hospitalization or re-admission, and reduce healthcare delivery costs through more efficient use of resources. Cloud DX is the co-winner of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, a 2021 Edison Award winner, a Fast Company "World Changing Idea" finalist, and one of "Canada's Ten Most Prominent Telehealth Providers." In 2021, Cloud DX became an exclusive partner of Medtronic Canada.

About The Ottawa Hospital

The Ottawa Hospital is one of Canada's top learning and research hospitals, where excellent care is inspired by research and driven by compassion. As the third-largest employer in Ottawa, our support staff, researchers, nurses, physicians, and volunteers never stop seeking solutions to the most complex health-care challenges. Our multi-campus hospital, affiliated with the University of Ottawa, attracts some of the most influential scientific minds from around the world. Backed by generous support from the community, we are committed to providing the world-class, compassionate care we would want for our loved ones.

Cloud DX Investor Site https://ir.clouddx.com/overview/default.aspx

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.

Social Links

Twitter https://twitter.com/CloudDX

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/clouddxinc/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloud-dx/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cloud.dx/

For media inquiries please contact:

Cloud DX

Janine Scott

Marketing Lead

888-543-0944

janine.scott@CloudDX.com

The Ottawa Hospital

Jenn Ganton

Communications

613-614-5253

jganton@ohri.ca

For investor inquiries please contact:

Jay Bedard

Cloud DX Investor Relations

647-881-8418

jay.bedard@CloudDX.com

SOURCE: Cloud DX Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686543/Cloud-DX-Remote-Monitoring-Receives-High-Patient-Approval-Rating-at-The-Ottawa-Hospital
Press Release - Boston, London, Nice, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, February 1, 2022

Scientific Beta wins 'Best Specialist ESG Index Provider' at the ESG Investing Awards 2022

Scientific Beta has been named Best Specialist ESG Index Provider at the ESG Investing Awards 2022, which celebrate excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) research, ratings, funds, and products.

The award recognises Scientific Beta's provision of a highly innovative index series that has no equivalent at Scientific Beta's peers: the Climate Impact Consistent Indices. The CICI offering is the only pure climate index offering on the market. Unlike traditional climate indices and benchmarks, which combine financial and climate criteria, either in the form of tilts applied to reference cap weights, or of carbon intensity score optimisation under tracking error constraints, the CIC indices make the weights of stocks depend solely on their climate performance. This avoids financial considerations contradicting climate considerations.

The ESG Investing Awards, now in their third year, are judged by an independent panelof experts from industry and academia. The Awards celebrate the most impactful products, funds and initiatives that are making a positive contribution towards the integrity, uptake and success of ESG investing.

Commenting on the award, Noel Amenc, CEO of Scientific Beta, said, "We are delighted with this major recognition of Scientific Beta and our Climate Impact Consistent Indices. CICI is positioned for implementing the recommendations of the Net-Zero investment coalitions at the portfolio-construction level. In particular, the Paris Aligned Investment Initiative (PAII) Framework states that one of the key elements of a "Paris aligned stewardship approach" is to develop an engagement strategy with a feedback loop to portfolio construction. CICI allows for the practical implementation of this approach where engagement and portfolio construction are neither mutually exclusive nor independent and instead are mutually reinforcing."

Matthew Clements, editor of ESG Investing, commented, "This year we have received nearly double the number of nominations from 2021 and our judges have been asked to assess finalists of outstanding quality across all categories. We have also seen a blossoming of new ESG fund types as well as a considerable expansion in the quantity and scope of ESG research and product offerings. This is a trend that is set to continue as ESG becomes more embedded in investment mandates globally, and sustainability issues move to the forefront of investors' priorities. Many thanks to all our judges and congratulations to our winners and finalists."
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Inomin Mines Inc. (TSXV: MINE), ("Inomin", "MINE" or the "Company") reports a 118 line-kilometre (km) ground magnetic survey will begin in early February at the Company's Lynx sulphide nickel property in south-central British Columbia. The survey is designed to delineate drill targets in serpentinite-magnetite hosted nickel mineralization. The survey will encompass 624 hectares in the Bear North and South zones situated on the north-eastern extent of the property. The aforementioned zones extend 3 km long, forming the eastern rim of a large (9 km diameter) circular magnetic feature interpreted to be an ocean basin accreted seamount containing ultramafic complexes (Figure 1). Scott Geophysics Ltd. of Vancouver, BC is completing the survey.





Figure 1: Ground-magnetic grid over Bear zone of Lynx property. An 8 kilometre-wide ring-like magnetic anomaly and several strong magnetic anomalies greater than 2 kilometres in length have been delineated at Lynx by an airborne magnetics survey.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3069/112219_ae97d9edd4632b01_001full.jpg.

Previous magnetics surveys in the Beaver block (located 11 km north of Lynx) of the Beaver-Lynx project have proven very effective at delineating magnetite-serpentinite rocks hosting nickel-cobalt mineralization. At Beaver, airborne and ground magnetic surveys have identified five magnetite-serpentinite zones with a cumulative strike length of approximately 10 kilometres. Historic drilling at these zones intersected strongly magnetic shallow-dipping serpentinites hosting nickel mineralization in sulphide form.

The Lynx area is geologically similar to Beaver with even larger prospective targets areas. RGS (regional stream sediment) data collected by the Province of British Columbia illustrates the existence of a large 10 x 5 kilometre nickel anomaly at Lynx. An airborne magnetics survey delineated an 8 kilometre-wide ring-like magnetic anomaly and several strong magnetic anomalies - all greater than 2 kilometres in length.

Given the positive drill results related to areas of significant magnetite-rich serpentinite rocks in the Beaver property, Lynx displays potential to host multiple zones of large, disseminated, sulphide nickel. Cobalt occurs with nickel mineralization in the Beaver property.

A 2020 National Instrument 43-101 technical report on the Beaver-Lynx sulphide nickel project - available on Inomin's website www.inominmines.com - notes that the Beaver property hosts large volumes of low-grading nickel and cobalt mineralization amendable to conventional floatation extraction techniques.

Partnership Opportunity

To continue to evaluate the project's multiple large targets and potential to host bulk-tonnage style, sulphide (class 1) nickel and cobalt deposits, Inomin is seeking a joint venture partner for the Beaver-Lynx project. The price of nickel is at a 10-year high driven by accelerating use in electric vehicle batteries. The United States recently recognized nickel as a new critical metal, essential for the country's rising infrastructure and clean energy requirements.

Beaver Drill Results

Assay results are pending from the Company's drill program at the Beaver property. As reported November 15, 2021, a five-hole drill program tested a 5.7 km strike length intersecting long intervals of favourable mineralization up to 190 metres in thickness. The diamond drilling program successfully tested the Spur and North Lobe zones, large 5 - 6 kilometre-long areas defined by the preceding ground magnetics survey.

Beaver-Lynx Project

Inomin's 100% owned Beaver-Lynx project, approximately 20,000 hectares in size, is located 15 - 25 kilometres east and southeast respectively of Taseko Mines Ltd.'s Gibraltar Mine in British Columbia's Cariboo Region. The topography of the properties is relatively flat and easily accessible via all-season roads as well as a network of forestry roads providing access to most of the properties. Other important nearby infrastructure includes electricity (hydro) and railroad. Skilled workers, contractors, and suppliers are available locally from the city of Williams Lake situated about 20 kilometres south of Lynx (Figure 2). For further information about the Beaver-Lynx project visit MINE's website at www.inominmines.com.





Figure 2: The Beaver-Lynx nickel-cobalt project is located in the Cariboo Region of south-central British Columbia.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3069/112219_ae97d9edd4632b01_002full.jpg.

About Inomin Mines

Inomin Mines is focused on the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties with strong potential to host significant resources, especially gold, silver and nickel projects. Inomin holds the La Gitana and Pena Blanca gold-silver properties in Mexico. The Company owns a 100% interest in the Beaver-Lynx sulphide nickel project in south-central British Columbia, and the Fleetwood zinc-copper-gold-silver VMS project in south-west British Columbia. Inomin also holds a royalty on the King's Point gold-copper-zinc project in Newfoundland owned by Maritime Resources Corp. (TSXV: MAE). Inomin trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol MINE. For more information visit www.inominmines.com and follow us on Twitter @InominMines.

Inomin Mines Director, L. John Peters P.Geo, a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release.

On behalf of the board of Inomin Mines:

Inomin Mines Inc.

Per: "John Gomez"

President and CEO

For more information please contact:

John Gomez

Tel. 604.566.8703

info@inominmines.com

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or realities may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112219


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Monday, the Biden Administration announced a set of actions in line with the Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan to tackle super-polluting methane emissions and support a clean energy economy.



The Department of the Interior announced a funding of $1.15 billion for states to clean up orphaned oil and gas wells, which are significant sources of methane emissions.



The Department of Energy announced the launch of a Methane Reduction Infrastructure Initiative to provide technical assistance to the orphaned well clean-up efforts of Federal agencies, states and tribes.



Thousands of orphaned oil and gas wells that are no more in use remain hazardous to the health and safety of communities across the country.



26 states will be eligible for the funding to identify and plug orphaned wells, remediate and reclaim lands impacted by oil and gas development activities, and remove infrastructure associated with the wells.



The Department of Transportation announced new enforcement of the PIPES Act that requires pipeline operators to minimize methane leaks.



The White House announced the formation of a new interagency working group to coordinate the measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and removals.



The President's Interagency Work Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization announced a national workshop for energy communities on repurposing fossil fuel infrastructure, including orphaned oil and gas wells, for use in new industries.



These are in addition to the Agriculture Department's ongoing research efforts and investments to reduce methane emissions from beef and dairy systems.



At the US-led Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate held in September, the United States and the European Union announced the Global Methane Pledge: a global partnership to collectively cut emissions of methane by 30 percent by 2030. President Joe Biden has helped rally more than 110 countries to join the initiative, which now covers nearly half of all methane emissions and 70 percent of global GDP, according to a White House fact sheet.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
BAE Systems has confirmed its bid submission, together with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), for the advanced, combat-proven CV90 in response to the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic's acquisition of 152 new Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) in multiple variants. The offer will ensure the production and delivery of the CV90 in collaboration with local Slovak industry, on time and to budget.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005795/en/

The combat-proven CV90 and CV90120 positioned on rocky terrain at the edge of a forest. Multiple variants of the CV90 are offered to Slovakia in a joint bid with the Swedish FMV. (Photo: BAE Systems)

The joint filing by FMV and BAE Systems confirms the Swedish states' support for Slovakia, further strengthening governmental relations as the country looks to modernize its ground forces by 2030. The bid includes support with training, tactics, and future development and welcomes Slovakia as a member of the CV90 User Club.

BAE Systems Hagglunds, which manufactures the CV90 in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, has delivered multiple CV90 export programs to European customers. With a history of highly successful industrial cooperation that goes beyond the mechanical assembly of the vehicle, the team will work with several Slovak companies to deliver the CV90s to the Army.

"BAE Systems' approach is built on strategic collaboration with local suppliers, enabling them to play a high-value role in the development, production, training, and support of the CV90 MkIV and all its variants," said Tommy Gustafsson-Rask, managing director of BAE Systems Hagglunds. "We are committed to exceeding the mandated 40 per cent requirement for direct content as we work closely with Slovak industry to deliver the most capable, combat-proven IFV on the market today."

In June 2021, the CV90 participated in dynamic and static demonstrations to Slovak VIPs, including defense minister Jaroslav Nad, and representatives from the Army at the Military Technical and Testing Institute of Zahorie, Republic of Slovakia. Three variants of the CV90 family the CV90 MkIV, an Armoured Personnel Carrier, and the Medium Tank CV90120 showcased the diverse capabilities of the CV90 fleet.

Available in 15 variants, the CV90 is designed to provide optimum mobility, with the highest level of protection in any terrain or tactical environment. The latest version, the CV90 MkIV, combines improved battlefield speeds and handling with an upgraded Electronic Architecture to support future growth capabilities as the complex battlefield evolves.

The CV90 is in operation with Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. There are nearly 1,300 CV90s of numerous variants in service. The vehicle has an established track record and is designed to accommodate future growth to meet evolving missions.

To read the Swedish FMV's announcement, please visit: https://www.fmv.se/aktuellt--press/aktuella-handelser/svenskt-erbjudande-till-slovakien/.

www.baesystems.com

@BAESystemsInc

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005795/en/

Contacts:

For more information:

Ola Thoren, BAE Systems Hagglunds

Office: +46 660 80506; Mobile: +46 708 335000

ola.thoren@baesystems.se

Rebecca Surtees, BAE Systems, Inc.

Mobile: +44 (0)7825 948274

rebecca.surtees@baesystems.com
Comprehensive digital banking solution drives innovation for U.S. banks and credit unions

WILMINGTON, NC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Apiture announced today the launch of the Apiture Digital Banking Platform, a suite of consumer and business banking solutions for U.S. banks and credit unions. The platform brings together the strengths of the company's existing products, Apiture Xpress and Apiture Open, into a single, cloud-based platform.

As reflected on the company's newly redesigned website, the Apiture Digital Banking Platform includes five solutions:

Consumer Banking , including brandable, turnkey web and mobile user interfaces as well as integrations with 200+ fintech partners and 40+ cores

, including brandable, turnkey web and user interfaces as well as integrations with 200+ fintech partners and 40+ cores Business Banking , offering business users a fully featured experience that seamlessly integrates with their consumer banking account

, offering business users a fully featured experience that seamlessly integrates with their consumer banking account Account Opening , delivering a secure, digital process for consumers and businesses to open and fund new accounts within minutes

, delivering a secure, digital process for consumers and businesses to open and fund new accounts within minutes API Banking , enabling financial institutions and fintechs to create unique experiences with APIs and web components available in the Apiture developer portal

, enabling financial institutions and fintechs to create unique experiences with APIs and web components available in the Apiture developer portal Data Intelligence, bringing together previously siloed information to support acquiring new customers, cross-selling and retaining business, and managing risk through a dedicated team of Apiture data analysts

"With the new Apiture Digital Banking Platform, we are empowering our clients to benefit from the breadth of functionality and flexibility found across our entire suite of solutions," said CEO Chris Babcock. "Our API-first approach and client-driven development philosophy will enable financial institutions to continue to innovate and grow as consumer and business needs evolve."

"A unified platform approach for retail and business banking is exactly what many banks need in today's market. This approach reduces technical debt while improving agility," said Bob Meara, Senior Analyst of Celent. "Apiture is providing financial institutions with the products and services they need to stay competitive in one accessible platform."

With the launch of the unified platform, Apiture will continue to focus on innovation to enhance its cutting-edge products and services that have already been recognized as industry leading. In 2021, Apiture was honored as an "Overall Leader" in the 2021 Digital Banking Platform Vendor Scorecard by Javelin Strategy & Research, a Platinum winner for Banking Innovation of the Year by Juniper, and a Global Fintech Awards finalist by Benzinga. It also was recognized for its Most Innovative API and Open Banking Model by the IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Innovation Awards.

About Apiture

Apiture delivers award-winning digital banking solutions to banks and credit unions throughout the United States. Our flexible, highly configurable solutions meet a wide range of financial institutions' needs, from leveling the playing field with larger banks to enabling unique, digital-only brands. Through our API-first strategy, our clients can maximize the capabilities of their platform while preserving a seamless user experience. Our exclusive focus on digital banking means we're dedicated to delivering innovative solutions that meet the unique needs of our clients while providing a level of support that's unmatched in the industry. Apiture is headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, with offices in Austin, Texas. To learn more, visit www.apiture.com .

Media Contact

Heather Valle

Caliber Corporate Advisers

heather@calibercorporate.com

SOURCE: Apiture

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686050/Apiture-Announces-Launch-of-Apiture-Digital-Banking-Platform
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be leading the debate from the opposition benches on the Motion of Thanks on the President's Address on Wednesday. He will be the first speaker from the party.

The Congress leader is likely to raise the issues of Pegasus, China and LAC during the debate as the party is up against the alleged snooping by the government.

Gandhi has criticized the Union Budget presented on Tuesday. He said that its a zero sum budget by the Union Government.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "M0di G0vernment's Zer0 Sum Budget!" In his tweet, Rahul Gandhi deliberately put the figure 'zero' instead of the letter 'O', criticising the Budget in totality.

He said, "Nothing for the Salaried class, Middle class, The poor & deprived, Youth, Farmers and MSMEs."

The Congress had raised concern on the Presidential address to the joint session of parliament and said that the President did not mention China and Pakistan, the two fronts on which India is engaged and also said that there was no mention of the killings in Nagaland.

The Congress said that the government has not tendered an apology for the Covid deaths and questioned why there is no mention of restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

Congress MP Manish Tewari said, "Not a word on the China/Pak/Two Front situation. No regret on massacre of Civilians in Nagaland. No announcement on restoring statehood of J&K. Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, its terror implications on India obfuscated. No apology for Deaths in second COVID wave."

The Congress is upset that the government is facing a challenge at the LAC with China and reports are that China is building infrastructure at the Arunachal Pradesh borders. The party wanted the President to outline the government's efforts on that front.

Though the President mentioned the government's diplomatic outreach in the world, President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday said that India has strengthened its standing in the rapidly evolving global environment through improvement in diplomatic relations.
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / UMAX Group Corp. (OTC PINK:UMAX), a Nevada corporation, has built a state-of-the-art recording studio in its Downtown Los Angeles location, expanding the footprint of its subsidiary, Funny Media Group.

"We know that there's a natural synergy between the things we are doing in comedy and the music business," said Rondell Fletcher, UMAX President and CEO. "We are looking forward to using this new studio to complement our efforts in comedy."

After the acquisition of Funny Media Group in May 2021, UMAX has now fully transitioned into comedy development as the vehicle to achieve a cash-flow positive operation and to provide the best return on shareholder's investment.

In the new recording studio, Mr. Fletcher has recruited a top Colombian DJ, Jay Rico, 26, to produce content and score projects.

"Jay is one of the most talented young producers we've ever seen," Mr. Fletcher said."The studio itself features the best gear in the industry," Mr. Fletcher said, with names like Universal Audio, SSL, Neumann, Antares, Tube-Tech, Apple and many others. "There's nothing we can't do in this studio," Mr. Fletcher said.

Also, in this 6,000-sq.ft. location, Funny Media Group is prepping for Season 2 of comedy shows, starting in March.

"There's a lot of opportunity to create content in this facility," Mr. Fletcher said.

Mr. Fletcher has an extensive background in production and media. He has owned his own production studio in Los Angeles for the past 20 years and has produced national shows for CNN, FOX, Food Network and Comedy Central, among others.

The short-term goal for Funny Media Group is to produce content for streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon with the long-term goal of building a large media catalog for acquisition.

About Us

UMAX Group Corp. is a Nevada corporation, is a public-quoted Pink Sheet issuer under the ticker symbol "UMAX". UMAX reports as an alternative reporting issuer with OTC Markets Group, Inc. and is current in its mandatory required filings (E.g., "Pink Sheet Current").

Disclaimer Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements that we make may constitute "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include information concerning future?strategic objectives, business prospects, anticipated savings, financial results (including expenses, earnings, liquidity, cash flow and capital expenditures), industry or market conditions, demand for and pricing of our products, acquisitions and divestitures, anticipated results of litigation and regulatory developments or general economic conditions.? In addition, words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," and future or conditional verbs such as "will," "may," "could," "should," and "would," as well as any other statement that necessarily depends on future events, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, and they involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. ?Although we make such statements based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.? We caution investors not to rely unduly on any forward-looking?statements.

Company Information:

UMAX Group Corp.

2020 Bay Avenue

Los Angeles, California 90021

Website (FMG): https://funnymediagroup.com/

Website (FMS): https://BroadcastWest.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/funnymediagroupofficial/?hl=en

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FunnyMediaGroup

Investor Relations: Jack Zietz

Email: investors@umaxgrpcorp.com

SOURCE: UMAX Group Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686474/UMAX-GROUP-CORP--Funny-Media-Group-Builds-a-State-of-the-Art-Recording-Studio-in-Downtown-Los-Angeles-Location
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - ALX Resources Corp. (TSXV: AL) (FSE: 6LLN) (OTC: ALXEF) ("ALX" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed a transaction with Okapi Resources Limited of Perth, Australia (ASX: OKR) ("Okapi") whereby Okapi, an arm's length purchaser, has acquired the Company's 100% interests in five uranium exploration properties and the Company's 80% interest in a sixth uranium exploration property (the "Transaction"), with all six properties located in the Athabasca Basin area of northern Saskatchewan, Canada (the "Six Properties"). The Transaction was first announced on November 9, 2021 with total consideration payable to ALX of AUD$2.1 million.

The Six Properties

ALX has agreed to sell to Okapi its current interests in the Six Properties as described in the table below:

Property Name ALX's

Interest No.

of Claims Project Area

(ha) Newnham Lake 100%1 14 16,940.03 Kelic Lake 100%2 12 13,620.25 Argo 100% 3 6,974.53 Lazy Edward Bay 100%3 42 11,263.15 Perch 100%4 1 1,681.71 Cluff Lake 80%5 3 4,832.84





1 Two claims are subject to an underlying 1.0% gross overriding royalty ("GOR") in favour of an arm's length vendor with a 0.5% buydown provision for CAD$1.0 million, and five claims are subject to an underlying 2.5% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR") in favour of a non-arm's length vendor with a 1.0% buydown provision for CAD$1.5 million;

2 Five claims are subject to an underlying 2.5% NSR in favour of a non-arm's length vendor with a 1.0% buydown provision for CAD$1.0 million;

3 Nine claims are subject to an underlying 2.0% NSR in favour of an arm's length vendor with a 1.0% buydown provision for CAD$1.0 million;

4 One claim is subject to an underlying 2.0% NSR in favour of an arm's length vendor with a 1.0% buydown provision for CAD$1.0 million;

5 Three claims are subject to an underlying 2.0% GOR on uranium and precious stones and an underlying 2.0% NSR on other minerals, with each royalty in favour of an arm's length vendor and having no buydown provisions.

Summary of the Transaction Terms

In exchange for ALX's interests in the Six Properties, Okapi agreed to pay total consideration of AUD$2.1 million consisting of cash payments and common shares of Okapi, as follows:

Payment of AUD$1,050,000 cash, which includes an AUD$50,000 deposit paid in November 2021;

Issuance of 3,227,790 common shares of Okapi representing a value of AUD$1,050,000 (the "Consideration Shares") calculated by way of the 10-day volume weighted average price of Okapi's common shares between January 13, 2022 and January 28, 2022.

Okapi has agreed to grant a 1.5% NSR to ALX on minerals produced from fifty mineral claims included in the Transaction that do not bear any existing underlying royalties. Okapi may at any time acquire up to 50% of the NSR from ALX by making payment to ALX of CAD$1,000,000.

Voluntary Escrow

The Consideration Shares will be escrowed as follows:

33% of the Consideration Shares shall be released six (6) months after the closing date of January 31, 2022 (the "Closing Date");

33% of the Consideration Shares shall be released on the date that is nine (9) months after the Closing Date;

34% of the Consideration Shares shall be released on the date that is twelve (12) months after the Closing Date.

ALX has delivered to Okapi a signed voluntary escrow deed for the Consideration Shares reflecting the escrow arrangements as described above.

Return of Property

If at any time during the twenty-four (24) months following the Closing Date Okapi decides to relinquish or allow to lapse all or any part of the Six Properties, Okapi has agreed to first give notice to ALX of such disposal. If ALX wishes to have a property returned, it shall give notice to Okapi within fourteen (14) business days after receiving the notice of disposal from Okapi. ALX will pay all transfer costs and agrees to accept a property interest in an "as-is" condition, at its discretion. Should ALX not elect to acquire a property interest, then Okapi may relinquish or allow to lapse a property interest at its discretion.

About ALX

ALX is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada and its common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "AL", on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "6LLN" and in the United States OTC market under the symbol "ALXEF".

ALX's mandate is to provide shareholders with multiple opportunities for discovery by exploring a portfolio of prospective mineral properties, which include uranium, nickel-copper-cobalt and gold projects. The Company uses the latest exploration technologies and holds interests in over 250,000 hectares of prospective lands in Saskatchewan, a stable Canadian jurisdiction that hosts the highest-grade uranium mines in the world, a producing gold mine, and production from base metals mines, both current and historical.

ALX holds interests in a number of uranium exploration properties in northern Saskatchewan, including a 20% interest in the Hook-Carter Uranium Project, located within the uranium-rich Patterson Lake Corridor with Denison Mines Corp. (80% interest) operating exploration since 2016, a 40% interest in the Black Lake Uranium Project (a joint venture with UEX Corporation and Orano Canada Inc.), and 100% interests in the Gibbons Creek Uranium Project, the Sabre Uranium Project and the Javelin and McKenzie Lake Uranium Projects.

ALX also owns 100% interests in the Firebird Nickel Project (now under option to Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc., who can earn up to an 80% interest), the Flying Vee Nickel/Gold and Sceptre Gold projects, and can earn up to an 80% interest in the Alligator Lake Gold Project, all located in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. ALX owns, or can earn, up to 100% interests in the Electra Nickel Project and the Cannon Copper Project located in historic mining districts of Ontario, Canada, the Vixen Gold Project (now under option to First Mining Gold Corp., who can earn up to a 100% interest in two stages), and in the Draco VMS Project in Norway.

For more information about the Company, please visit the ALX corporate website at www.alxresources.com or contact Roger Leschuk, Manager, Corporate Communications at: PH: 604.629.0293 or Toll-Free: 866.629.8368, or by email: rleschuk@alxresources.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of ALX Resources Corp.

"Warren Stanyer"

Warren Stanyer, CEO and Chairman

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements in this document which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Forward-looking statements in this news release include: the timed release of the Consideration Shares from voluntary escrow, the possible return of the properties as set out in this news release, and the prospectivity of the Company's exploration projects. It is important to note that the Company's actual business outcomes such as the release of Consideration Shares from escrow and its future exploration results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include that the Consideration Shares may not be released from escrow as planned, that ALX may not be able to fully finance exploration at its exploration projects, including drilling; initial findings at its exploration projects may prove to be unworthy of further expenditure; commodity prices may not support exploration expenditures at its projects; and economic, competitive, governmental, societal, public health, environmental and technological factors may affect the Company's operations, markets, products and share price. Even if we explore and develop our mineral exploration projects, and even if uranium or other metals or minerals are discovered in quantity, the projects may not prove to be commercially viable. Additional risk factors are discussed in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the Nine Months ending September 30, 2021, which is available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Except as required by law, we will not update these forward-looking statement risk factors.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112277
The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) and the European Cockpit Association (ECA) are highly concerned with the situation of heightened tensions in Eastern Europe.

The situation appears comparable to that of summer 2014, which led to the tragic downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17.

In hindsight, we know that in 2014, both the open and closed source intelligence information were far from accurate. The risk of misidentification was underestimated, and for these and other reasons, many risk assessments resulted in a false sense of security which led to the decision to continue to overfly the area.

The current situation now expands over a much larger area. IFALPA and ECA are extremely concerned that the same false sense of security might arise again. They call on States and operators to carefully consider the lessons that should have been learned from MH17. States should not hesitate to take appropriate measures, such as closing down their own airspace or banning the overflight of high-risk areas.

In case of doubt, always choose the safest option. The safety and security of the passengers and crew should be of paramount importance.

2022 The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations. This publication is provided for information purposes only, in all cases pilots should follow their company's guidance and procedures. In the interest of flight safety, reproduction of this publication in whole or in part is encouraged. It may not be offered for sale or used commercially. All reprints must credit IFALPA.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005799/en/

Contacts:

MEDIA:

Emily Bitting, IFALPA Senior Communications Specialist, emilybitting@ifalpa.org

Kameliya Encheva, ECA Communications Officer, ke@eurocockpit.be
Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - E-Tech Resources Inc. (TSXV: REE) (FSE: K2i) ("E-Tech" or the "Corporation") is pleased to provide an update on its exploration work on E-Tech's Eureka Rare Earth Elements (REE) Project. This fully funded exploration program will support further resource definition as well as mineralogical and metallurgical test work.

The Project has sound project fundamentals because of its favorable geology, simplistic ore beneficiation and proximity to infrastructure. The Project is situated in the heart of the Erongo Region of Namibia, the "mining corridor of Namibia", and is favorably located within 2km of the Trans-Kalahari tarmac highway, which provides tarred road links between the Namibian port of Walvis Bay on the Atlantic coast and Namibia's capital city Windhoek. Neighboring mines include Rossing Uranium and Navachab Gold.

The corporation's exploration program is geared towards fast-tracking exploration and development study work leading to the publication of an updated NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate (MRE).

Elbert Loois, CEO of E-Tech Resources Inc., commented:

"We are pleased with advancing he Eureka Project and have a unique opportunity to build value at Eureka through further exploration and development work during an exciting time in the REE market. The Corporation is well poised to execute on its work plans with a strong technical team supported by strong management and our experienced Board."

EXPLORATION HIGHLIGHTS OF THE LAST QUARTER

The corporation has continued to make significant strides in advancing the Eureka Project since 2020, with the exploration program designed to expand the current MRE (Independent Technical Report, Eureka Rare Earth Project, Namibia effective as of 2 August 2021 and released on 15 September 2021). In the first exploration campaign, a total of 2,450 meters of trenching, 3,306 meters of Reverse Circulation drilling ("RC") and 5,761 meters of Diamond Drilling ("DD") has been completed.

Assay results of the first 7 out of 20 DD holes were released on 10 November 2021, which highlighted the intersection of monazite bearing dykes up to 160 meters below surface and importantly more than 100 meters below the current MRE. Highlighted intersections are shown in Figure 1.

RC assay results, released on 1 December 2021, further confirmed the increased depth and lateral extent of the project's surface footprint in Zones 1 and 3 towards the south and to the west, as depicted in Figure 2.

The complete set of DD assay results from the first drilling campaign is expected within the next weeks, dependent on lab processing time.

FIGURE 1: Plan view of historic drilling at Eureka, Namibia, and assays received status of diamond drilling to date, as of the press release dated 10 November 2021. The red dots are RC drill holes completed in 2017, while the purple areas represent the current 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE). Blue diamonds refer to DD assay results received from the first drilling campaign and previously released.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6102/112303_cec4d244b41d1bea_001full.jpg

FIGURE 2: Plan view of drill hole positions at Eureka illustrating all assay results received to date, as of the press release dated 1 December 2021. The red dots are RC drill holes completed in 2017, while the purple areas represent the current 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE). The blue dots refer to the RC assay results received from the first drilling campaign in 2021.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6102/112303_cec4d244b41d1bea_002full.jpg

The second 5000m of RC and DD exploration in Zones 1, 2, 3 and 4 started in December 2021 and is planned to run until end February 2022 as announced in the company's press release dated December 2, 2021.

The program consists of:

12 DD holes totaling 2,000 meters, across Zones 1, 2 and 3

34 RC holes totaling 3,000 meters, across Zones 1, 2, 3; and Zone 4 for the first time

Further trenching of the wider exploration area.

This second campaign has been designed to confirm areas with monazite mineralization and further increase the project's surface expression along strike and to depth. The DD pattern has been focused on delivering proof of resource mineralization at depth. The RC drilling and trenching are aimed at extending the current known surface trends.

The assay results of the DD and RC holes from the second exploration campaign are expected towards the end of Q1 2022, dependent on lab processing time.

The targets across Zones 1 to 4 are presented in Figure 3 with these drill targets prioritized according to surface geophysical, trenching, RC and DD exploration results.

The corporation has engaged LightDeepEarths (Pty) Ltd, South Africa, to conduct further mineralogical test work for assessing the optimal beneficiation route to provide a monazite concentrate. Earlier beneficiation test work, based on outcrop material, as performed by SGS Mineral Services in Q4 2016, has shown an optimum liberation of the monazite at a coarse fraction, with a 65% recovery of monazite by gravity separation alone. The concentrate was further upgraded by removal of magnetite by low intensity magnetic separation ("LIMS") to a grade of 59.2% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO).

The geological and resource block modeling as a basis for the following MRE update are expected to be accomplished during H1 2022.

Eureka Technical Disclosure

The Corporation produced its current Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") for the Eureka Project with an effective date of 2 August 2021. The MRE was prepared by SRK Consulting (UK) ("SRK"). An Independent Technical Report titled: "Independent Technical Report: Eureka, Rare Earth Project, Namibia" was released on the 15 September 2021 prepared by SRK, supporting the disclosure of the MRE, and is available on SEDAR and the Corporation's website.

Quality Assurance / Quality Control

All E-Tech sample assay results have been independently monitored through a quality assurance / quality control ("QA/QC") program including the insertion of certified standards, blanks and duplicate samples. QA/QC samples make up 10% of all samples submitted. Drill core is sawn in half on site and half drill-core samples are securely transported to Activation Laboratories Ltd. sample preparation facility in Windhoek, Namibia. The core is dried, crushed to 90% passing 2 mm, riffle splitting a 250 g sub-sample and pulverizing to 95% passing 105 m. Sample pulps are sent to Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Ontario, Canada for analysis. REE analysis is by method 8-REE. The sample is milled to 95% -200 mesh. To ensure complete fusion of resistate minerals; lithium metaborate/tetraborate fusion is used with analysis by ICP-OES and ICP-MS. Mass balance is calculated as an additional quality control technique to ensure complete analysis.

FIGURE 3: Plan view of drill hole positions at Eureka illustrating all historic and planned RC and DD holes, as of the press release dated 2 December 2021. The red dots are RC drill holes completed in 2017. The blue dots are the RC holes completed during the first campaign in 2021. Yellow dots and diamonds refer to RC and DD holes planned for drilling in the second campaign.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6102/112303_cec4d244b41d1bea_003full.jpg



Qualified Person

Pete Siegfried, BSc. (Hons), M.Sc., is a Consulting Geologist and director of GeoAfrica Prospecting Services cc and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this news release. Mr. Siegfried is a member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) membership number: 221116 (CP Geology), and a Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Siegfried consents to the inclusion of this information for the announcement.

About E-Tech Resources Inc.

E-Tech Resources Inc. (TSXV: REE) (FSE: K2i) is a rare earth exploration and development company focused on developing its Eureka Rare Earths Project in Namibia. The Eureka Project is located approximately 250 km north-west of Namibia's capital city Windhoek and 140km east of Namibia's main industrial port Walvis Bay. The project is situated next to the national B2 highway in the Erongo Region of Namibia. The Eureka deposit lies in the Southern Central Zone of the Neoproterozoic Damara Belt within Exclusive Prospecting Licence ("EPL") number EPL 6762, which covers Eureka Farm 99 and Sukses Farm 90. Namibia is recognized as one of Africa's most politically stable jurisdictions, with an extremely well-established national infrastructure and a clear and transparent mining law. The Corporation continues to assess new project opportunities and expand its Southern African portfolio.

Further details are available on the Corporation's website at www.etech-resources.com or contact

Elbert Loois, CEO of E-Tech Resources Inc., at +1 (902) 334 1949.

Cautionary Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking information, such as statements regarding the completion of the work in Namibia by E-Tech Resources and future plans and objectives of E-Tech Resources. This information is based on current expectations and assumptions (including assumptions in connection with the continuance of the applicable company as a going concern and general economic and market conditions) that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, including risks relating to the ability to satisfy the conditions to completion of exploration programs and work in Namibia. Actual results may differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking information. E-Tech Resources assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information in this release, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information unless and until required by applicable securities laws. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in filings made by E-Tech Resources with Canadian securities regulators, copies of which are available at www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112303
Seventh annual Influential Leaders initiative recognizes 27 champions of diversity and inclusion

TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AACSB International (AACSB)-the world's largest business education alliance-announces today its 2022 Class of Influential Leaders, a group of 27 business school alumni serving as champions of diversity and inclusion.

Now in its seventh year, AACSB's Influential Leaders member spotlight program recognizes more than 250 business school graduates who have created lasting impact in business and society. All honorees have earned an undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral degree from one of the more than 900 AACSB-accredited business schools worldwide.

The 2022 honorees include advocates across businesses, nonprofits, academia, and governments who are educating and empowering others to create welcoming, inclusive spaces for all. Together, they represent one facet of business education's efforts to elevate diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in the workforce and society-a key feature of AACSB's 2020 business accreditation standards and the focus of a recently released positioning paper. The paper illustrates AACSB's commitment to equitable access to high-quality business education globally and calls on the business education community to embed the tenets of DEIB into its strategies and cultures.

"The 2022 Influential Leaders show us there are many ways to elevate the voices and perspectives of all. These individuals inspire us to listen, learn, and act with authenticity and courage," said Caryn Beck-Dudley, AACSB president and CEO. "We must build on their momentum and commit to creating environments of opportunity that benefit everyone."

Each Influential Leader was nominated by their alma mater with inspiring stories, demonstrating how the honoree leads and innovates within their industry, contributes to their community, and encourages future business leaders. Support for the 2022 Influential Leaders initiative is provided by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).

The unique stories of each honoree, and how they are creating meaningful, lasting impact in the world, are available at aacsb.edu/influential-leaders.

About AACSB

Established in 1916, AACSB is the world's largest business education alliance, connecting educators, learners, and business to create the next generation of great leaders. With a presence in more than 100 countries and territories, AACSB fosters engagement, accelerates innovation, and amplifies impact in business education. Learn how AACSB is transforming business education for a better society at aacsb.edu.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1734640/AACSB_2022_Influential_Leaders.jpg
Agency Also Appoints First-Ever Head of DEI and Head of PAN Virtual ?

BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / PAN Communications , an integrated marketing and PR agency for growing B2B tech and healthcare brands, today announced a number of leadership changes to better support the future of work and the agency's next stage of business growth. The new team includes the promotion of three senior vice presidents (SVPs) to executive vice president (EVP) positions, the creation of a C-suite, and two new leadership positions with the appointments of a head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and head of PAN Virtual. This structure positions PAN to meet the evolving needs of clients and better service their business, while also building a team structure that matches the values of the firm's dynamic workforce.

On the client side, as PAN continues to partner with more clients in mid to late stage of growth , the agency has seen an increased demand for strategic consulting on high-value moments, including IPOs, employer branding, DEI, crisis communications, and brand messaging and positioning. The newly appointed team of EVPs are highly skilled at providing guidance in these strategic moments.?

For clients and employees alike, PAN has also seen a move toward more purposeful work and flexibility in how we work. Our new leadership roles with a head of DEI and head of PAN Virtual reflect both business and employer ideals, helping us better serve clients and attract and retain talent. These changes set PAN on a path to the future and are important steps toward building a forward-thinking agency led by leaders working as one for employees and customers. ?

The leaders in the new agency structure will support the expansion of a thriving healthcare business practice, global program expansion, integrated marketing and PR programs and purposeful work. Leadership at PAN has always believed in the value of promoting from within, and the agency is proud to stand by that today. These tenured individuals will also show our employees a path to growth within PAN as we continue to evolve as an agency, showing our commitment to the unique career path of each individual employee.?

New Executive Vice Presidents Will Support Scalable Growth?

From left to right: Nikki Festa O'Brien, Megan Kessler and Dan Martin, PAN's newly promoted executive vice presidents.

PAN is thrilled to announce the promotion of three senior vice presidents to executive vice president positions. In their EVP roles, these talented individuals will be responsible for building and growing their practice areas, creating the scalable structure necessary for high growth.?

As executive vice president, Nikki Festa O'Brien will drive strategic growth for PAN clients in the U.S. and U.K., supporting global expansion of PAN's business and client programs. In partnership with a team of VPs, Nikki will provide strategic oversight of PAN U.K. and PAN's specialty service offerings in integrated marketing, content and creative, continuing to scale these business areas in 2022 and beyond. Nikki will also continue to provide strategic counsel and oversight of a portfolio of clients while supporting with high-growth moments. She has keen interest and expertise in helping clients along the road to IPO - building out programs that assist their next phase of growth.?

As executive vice president, Megan Kessler will continue leveraging her expertise in narrative and storytelling as PAN Team Media lead while also finding growth opportunities for clients in the areas of messaging and positioning, strategic program alignment and employer branding, to name a few. Megan will partner with a team of VPs to consult and provide strategy for her portfolio of clients. In addition, she will continue working closely with PAN's leadership team to support training and development of PAN employees.?

As executive vice president, healthcare, Dan Martin will guide the strategic plan for the expansion of PAN's healthcare practice in 2022, including new client acquisition and organic growth across the current client base. PAN has seen rapid growth in the healthcare space in the last several years. The agency will look to Dan to collaborate with a dedicated group of VPs to elevate the practice area to the next level through client expansion and the firm's healthcare recruitment efforts.?

"PAN is ever evolving and ever changing," says President and CEO Philip A. Nardone. "We are so proud and excited to promote and celebrate these exceptionally brilliant people for the work that they do, their successful track records, and the leadership they bring to the table. This winning structure aligns beautifully with PAN's focus on a people-first model, growing our business in a manner that is purposeful and rewarding for our employees and better serves the needs of our evolving client base. Our future is bright, and these strategic moves will support our scale and growth in 2022 and beyond."?

New Leadership Roles Reflect Culture Priorities?

From left to right: Brandon Thomas and Kate Connors.

PAN has always put people first, and in 2022 the agency will continue to listen to and act on the values of employees, our clients and the communities in which we live and work. Two new leadership roles within the agency will spearhead these efforts.?

Vice President and NYC General Manager Brandon Thomas will retain his responsibilities as VP and GM while also assuming the role of PAN's first head of DEI. This new role is critical in guiding PAN's DEI journey and in ensuring that diversity, equity and inclusion remain at the center of PAN culture and brand, both internally and in our work with clients. Diverse teams create diverse thinking, and that is key to engaging PAN's workforce and better serving the clients. As head of DEI, Brandon will play a lead role in keeping DEI at the top of PAN's agenda, defining strategic initiatives and showing meaningful progress in the agency's DEI journey. ?

Recently promoted Vice President Kate Connors will retain current leadership responsibilities while assuming the role of PAN's first head of PAN Virtual. The agency rolled out a HyFlex work model in the summer of 2021, allowing employees to work where they want, how they want - in office, fully remote or hybrid. On the heels of HyFlex, Kate will lead the agency's "virtual office," continuing to expand a rich cultural and work experience for virtual employees, building a true community for existing talent and partnering with HR and marketing to share unique opportunities with prospective employees. Currently, PAN's virtual community is the agency's largest and fastest growing "office" with 46 virtual employees to date.?

The Creation of the PAN C-Suite?

From left to right: Philip A. Nardone, Jr., Mark Nardone, Elizabeth Famiglietti, Darlene Doyle and Gary Torpey.

The promotion of senior VPs to EVP positions affords PAN the flexibility to take another important step toward structuring the agency for continued growth by promoting long-tenured Executive VPs to C-level roles .??

EVP Mark Nardone will assume the role of chief marketing officer; EVP of Human Resources Elizabeth Famiglietti will assume the role of chief people & culture officer; EVP of Client Relations Darlene Doyle will assume the role of chief client officer; and EVP of Finance Gary Torpey will assume the role of chief financial officer.?

"I've had the pleasure of working alongside this dedicated group of executives for the past several years," says Nardone. "As PAN looks to remain nimble and innovative in the face of new business challenges, these leaders will play critical roles in securing opportunities and building an even better version of our agency. I couldn't be prouder to have them by my side for next stage of PAN's journey."?

About PAN Communications?

PAN Communications ?is a mid-size integrated marketing & PR agency with over 170 employees internationally. PAN helps companies transform ideas into captivating stories that align to mid- and late-stage growth strategies through the firm's NXT Stage approach . Headquartered in downtown Boston, PAN has additional? office locations ?in San Francisco, New York, Orlando and London, as well as a growing virtual community. The agency's teams are positioned to help brands emerge in new markets and scale globally, with experience driving integrated strategy across a? variety of brands ?like Rapid 7, Braze, Citrix, SailPoint, Quickbase, OneStream, Radial, athenahealth and Smartly.io. For more information visit our website at pancommunications.com and follow us on Twitter (@PANcomm ).?

CONTACT:

Alyssa Tyson

atyson@pancomm.com

SOURCE: PAN Communications

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686504/PAN-Communications-Announces-Leadership-Promotions-to-Position-the-Agency-for-Growth-and-Better-Reflect-the-Workforce-of-the-Future
PARK CITY, UT / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / NRP Stone, Inc. (OTC PINK:NRPI) subsidiary, Uplift Aerospace, has assembled a team of international experts in NFT project creation and online community engagement to aid in the development and launch of their Space+ NFT project, which will connect humanity on Earth with low Earth orbit, the Moon, and beyond both physically and through Web3.

Caroline Geraghty recently joined Uplift as an NFT community engagement advisor. Geraghty is currently the VP of Hey Girl You Can and the Director of Community and Guest Engagement at WOMXN in Business. She has extensive experience in media and event productions and co-produced the first White House event on Clubhouse. Caroline is a key advisor and architect in helping to build the Space+ community prior to the official release of the NFT this spring.

Space+ will offer unique NFT tokens that customers can purchase to gain access to community membership, which provide exclusive access to the expanding list of space products and experiences that Uplift offers. Space+ will provide greater access to space through community giveaways and events including: sub-orbital space flights, microgravity flights, rocket launch events, and lunar resource missions.

ABOUT UPLIFT AEROSPACE

An emerging leader in the rapidly transforming space industry, Uplift Aerospace is pioneering revolutionary systems to manufacture, trade, and deliver products for a multiplanetary economy.

MEDIA CONTACT: press@upliftaerospace.net

For the latest updates, visit upliftaerospace.com and follow @upliftaerospace on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

US OTC Symbol: NRPI; CUSIP: 62940J200.

Disclosures and Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements: This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Expressions of future goals and similar expressions reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the timely development and market acceptance of products and technologies, economic and market factors, successful integration of acquisitions, the ability to secure additional sources of financing, the ability to reduce operating expenses and other factors. The actual results that the company achieves may differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties. The Company, its management, or affiliates, undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.

SOURCE: NRP Stone, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686528/Uplift-Aerospace-Welcomes-NFT-Community-Engagement-Advisor-Caroline-Geraghty-to-Space-NFT-Project
Nubank's former chief data scientist and Mission Lane executive Krishna Venkatraman joins Kueski to amplify data-first capabilities

Increased data focus will allow Kueski to expand financial access and inclusion in Mexico

Former Airbnb Chief Design Officer Alex Schleifer joins Kueski's Board of Advisors

Appointments come on the heels of Kueski's $202M Series C funding round in December 2021

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Kueski, one of the largest buy now, pay later (BNPL) and online consumer lenders in Latin America, today announced the appointment of Krishna Venkatraman as the company's chief data officer. In this capacity, Venkatraman will focus on amplifying the scope of Kueski's data capabilities, from credit risk to other aspects like engagement, personalization and retention.

Venkatraman sees expanding access to Kueski's financial products as the number one priority in his new role, which will be driven by even faster, more reliable credit-decisioning and risk models. Another equally important focus will be to create customer delight and develop products that feel intuitive to use without imposing additional tax burdens on the consumer. Lastly, he wants to transform Kueski into a learning machine and implement a data culture that enables the entire team to participate and effectively use data-based insights in their day-to-day work.

"With Kueski's continued expansion of its market presence and product ecosystem in Mexico, I am looking forward to building an even more holistic data ecosystem that impacts and benefits every decision we make," Venkatraman said. "As technology increasingly transcends boundaries and has the potential to address societal issues, I feel extremely privileged for the opportunity to make a difference in the financial lives of millions of people."

Venkatraman brings over 25 years of data science experience to Kueski, 15 of which he spent serving in various capacities within the fintech industry. Most recently, Venkatraman served as the chief data science officer at Mission Lane, a fintech company that is dedicated to providing Americans access to fair and transparent financial products. Prior to that, he was the chief data scientist at Brazilian neobank Nubank, where he developed and nurtured a high-performance data culture that directly contributed to the company's growth. Venkatraman's career also includes leadership positions at IBM, Intuit, and HP.

"We are excited to welcome Krishna to the team and look forward to his contributions to make Kueski even more data-driven and customer-oriented," said Adalberto Flores, founder, and CEO of Kueski. "Through his work at Mission Lane and Nubank, it is evident that Krishna has a passion for making a difference in the future of the financial services industry. We see eye-to-eye on our vision for Kueski, and adding Krishna to our team will allow us to expand financial access to even more Mexican consumers."

In addition to Venkatraman, Alex Schleifer has joined Kueski's Board of Advisors. Schleifer was previously chief design officer at Airbnb and is now a venture partner at Rise Capital, as well as the founder of game design studio Universal Entities. Drawing on his experience working on global digital consumer products, he will be advising on customer user experience, as well as brand and marketing strategy.

"Kueski has been on an important mission to expand access to financial products in Mexico for nearly 10 years, and I am excited to be making a contribution to the way millions of consumers interact with its services on a daily basis," Schleifer said.

This announcement comes on the heels of Kueski's $202M Series C funding round, which was led by StepStone Group and Victory Park Capital, in December 2021. Kueski will leverage this funding to continue expanding its financial product ecosystem, including fueling the growth of its BNPL product, Kueski Pay.

About Kueski

Kueski is the one of the largest Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) and online consumer lending companies in Latin America, providing financial services to consumers through three innovative products: Kueski Pay (BNPL), Kueski Cash (personal loans), and Kueski Up (salary advances). Founded in 2012 with the mission of making the financial lives of people in Mexico easier, Kueski leverages the use of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to expand access to traditional financial products and services. Kueski has raised over $300M in equity & debt financing.

U.S. Media Contact

Philipp Jago

+1.929.255.5652

philipp@calibercorporateadvisers.com

Caliber Corporate Advisers

SOURCE: Kueski

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686503/Latin-American-BNPL-and-Online-Consumer-Lender-Kueski-Appoints-Chief-Data-Officer-Expands-Board-of-Advisors
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Pampa Metals Corp. ("Pampa Metals" or the "Company") (CSE:PM)(FSE:FIRA)(OTCQX:PMMCF) is pleased to announce that it has signed definitive documentation (the "Agreement") with VerAI Discoveries Inc. ("VerAI"), a Boston-based private corporation, allowing Pampa Metals to evaluate and explore a series of copper and precious metals targets that have been generated by VerAI using proprietary Artificial Intelligence ("AI") methodologies. The targets are distributed within eight (8) property blocks, wholly owned by VerAI, totaling about 18,700 hectares located in parts of central northern Chile. The eight property blocks all lie within similar geographic and geologic areas to Pampa Metals' wholly owned portfolio of projects that totals an additional 62,000 hectares.

Paul Gill, CEO of Pampa Metals, commented: "This is an exceptional opportunity for Pampa Metals to leverage cutting edge technologies in the exploration for porphyry copper, iron-oxide-copper-gold ("IOCG"), and other related mineral deposit types in a highly prospective part of northern Chile. The Agreement with VerAI not only gives the Company access to the predictive results of the latest in AI technology applied to mineral exploration, but VerAI's property portfolio is highly complementary to that of Pampa Metals. The Company has manageable commitments that will allow it to evaluate VerAI's portfolio, and potentially add quality projects for more detailed exploration to complement its already highly prospective portfolio. We look forward to working with VerAI's experienced team and seeing the results of the exploration work on the ground."

About the Agreement

VerAI has used proprietary AI technology and high-resolution geophysics data to generate a series of exploration targets distributed between eight property blocks, which total about 18,700 hectares.

The Agreement includes the following key aspects and commitments:

Pampa Metals has an exclusive option over 12 months to define one or more Designated Projects ("DPs") from the eight property blocks owned by VerAI Pampa Metals must spend US$ 500,000 in total in exploration activities over the 12 months. Five of the eight projects must be "Designated" or returned to VerAI within 6 months. The remaining three projects must be "Designated" or returned to VerAI over the remaining 6 months

Pampa Metals must spend a minimum of US$1 million on each DP over the following 2 years for the Company to earn a 51% in each DP selected. If Pampa Metals fails to spend US$1 million on any DP, the project will be returned to VerAI.

If Pampa Metals earns 51% on any DP, a Joint-Venture ("JV") company will be established for the JV project, which will be governed by a Shareholders' Agreement, whose outline terms have already been agreed. At 51% on any DP, Pampa can opt to earn a further 24% (to 75%) by completing a Canadian NI-43-101 compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") on the DP over the next 2 years. Should Pampa Metals decide not to proceed towards completion of a PEA, VerAI will take over management of the project and both parties will be liable for their respective pro-rata expenditures on the project (51/49), with standard dilution clauses applicable.

If Pampa Metals earns 75% of a DP by completing a PEA, both parties will then be liable for their respective pro-rata contributions for the continuing development of the project (75/25).

.VerAI Methodology

VerAI has utilised high-resolution geophysics data as the principal data source to generate its targets. The data covers an area of approximately 170 Km north-south by 60 km east-west, mostly located over the Paleocene (or Central) mineral belt in northern Chile, but also partially encompassing portions of the Coastal mineral belt. The study block extends from just south of the multi-million ounce El Penon gold-silver mining district (Yamana Gold) in the north, to the Franke copper mine (KGHM) in the south, and includes several historic mines and exploration projects, as well as the operating Guanaco and Amancaya mines (Austral Gold).

The AI targeting process is multi-faceted and iterative, improving the confidence that targets generated are reduced to the very best matches to be staked and claimed in northern Chile.

The targets are mostly obscured by post-mineral, gravel-filled basins, or "pampas" where the underlying geology of interest is largely not visible or available for geologic mapping, resulting in targets that have eluded previous exploration campaigns.

Initial Exploration Program

Pampa Metals will immediately commence carrying out field inspections of the eight property blocks, including geological mapping of all available outcrops, including those located around the immediate periphery of the properties. Small-scale geophysical surveys will be considered to test for hydrothermal systems beneath post-mineral cover, together with the possible use of shallow, reconnaissance, reverse circulation drilling. VerAI will support Pampa Metals' activities by continuously revising and refining the AI models as new data is gathered and recorded.

About VerAI

VerAI Discoveries is committed to accelerating the global zero-carbon transformation by discovering the minerals essential for our sustainable future.

VerAI deploys an innovative Artificial Intelligence Targeting Platform that detects concealed mineral deposits in covered terrain, while systematically improving the probabilities of success and shortening the time to discovery. Based in Boston and operating in both North and South America, VerAI generates multiple high-probability Target Portfolios in select jurisdictions, and partners with leading exploration players to create long-term value from discovering new mineral deposits. Its board of directors, advisors, and technical team have decades of experience in the Mineral Exploration and Artificial Intelligence sectors.

VerAI is backed by two international Venture Capital funds: Chrysalix Venture Capital, which incorporates strategic investors such as Teck Resources, South32, Caterpillar and Shell and specializes in mining transformation innovation; and Blumberg Capital, experienced in applying Artificial Intelligence solutions to the disruption of various traditional industries.

About Pampa Metals

Pampa Metals is a Canadian company listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE: PM) as well as the Frankfurt (FSE: FIRA) and OTC (OTCQB: PMMCF) exchanges. Pampa Metals owns a highly prospective, wholly owned, 62,000-hectare portfolio of eight projects for copper and gold located along proven mineral belts in Chile, one of the world's top mining jurisdictions. The Company is actively progressing four of its projects, including completed and planned drill tests, and has two additional projects optioned to Austral Gold Ltd. ("Austral"), with Austral already drill testing its first target on Pampa Metals' ground. The Company has a vision to create value for shareholders and all other stakeholders by making a major copper or gold discovery along the prime mineral belts of Chile, using the best geological and technological methods. The Agreement with VerAI gives Pampa Metals access to a further 18,700 hectares of highly prospective terrain in the core of the highly productive mineral belts of northern Chile.

For more information, please visit Pampa Metals' website www.pampametals.com.

Qualified Person

Technical information in this news release has been approved by Mario Orrego G, Geologist and a Registered Member of the Chilean Mining Commission and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Orrego is a consultant to the Company.

Note: The reader is cautioned that Pampa Metals' and VerAI's projects are early-stage exploration projects and reference to existing mines and deposits, or mineralization hosted on adjacent or nearby properties, is not necessarily indicative of any mineralization on Pampa Metals' or VerAI's properties.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Paul Gill | President & CEO

INVESTOR CONTACT

Ioannis (Yannis) Tsitos | Director

investors@pampametals.com

www.pampametals.com

Neither the CSE nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that Pampa Metals expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "indicate" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Pampa Metals believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guaranteeing of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements.

Simplified Geology Map Showing VerAI Property Blocks (blue)

In Relation to Pampa Metals' Existing Properties (red) Within the Map Area

SOURCE: Pampa Metals Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686434/Pampa-Metals-Partners-with-VerAI-Discoveries-to-Explore-for-Copper-Gold-On-Eight-New-Projects-in-Chile-as-Copper-Gold-Prices-Near-Historic-Levels
Acquisition Adds Content, Conferences and Training to Complement Most Complete Platform for Product-Led Companies

RALEIGH, N.C. and LONDON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pendo , a company that provides software that makes software better, today announced it has acquired Mind the Product, a product management community which provides content, training and conferences that serve a global audience of more than 300,000 product managers, designers and developers.

"This is a tremendous day for our community of product managers around the world," said James Mayes, CEO and co-founder of Mind the Product. "By joining Pendo, we can execute on today's mission and think even bigger about how we will support, educate and train product teams in the future."

Mind the Product began as a passion project for its founders in 2010. As technology startups emerged around London, with product managers playing a leading role in those companies, the team hosted its first meetup, dubbed ProductTank, in the back of a local pub. Word spread as technology ecosystems emerged in other cities too, and the group responded by partnering with local organizers to host ProductTanks around the globe. Now with a full-time team of nearly 20, all of whom will join Pendo, the London-based company provides a series of global conferences, custom product training and workshops, a popular blog and newsletter, and a subscription offering with more than 3,000 members. It also supports ProductTank meetups in more than 200 global cities and oversees the largest Slack community for product people.

Pendo intends to keep the Mind the Product team in place to manage its conferences, content, events, and meetups, and to continue its vendor-neutral workshops and training. The acquisition supports Pendo's goal to provide the most complete platform for product-led companies - Pendo's software products paired with content, training and community enable companies to become product led.

"Pendo has always made it part of our mission to elevate the craft of product management and to help product managers be better at what they do," said Todd Olson, CEO and co-founder of Pendo. "We're really excited to join forces with some of our earliest influencers, and offer substantially more education and resources to the global product management community for years to come."

Mind the Product is Pendo's third international acquisition in five years. In 2017, Pendo acquired Insert, a mobile app engagement solution based in Israel, and in 2019, it acquired Receptive Software Limited, a UK-based product demand intelligence platform. Pendo has scaled its international operations to more than 160 people, adding nearly 100 employees in the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan and Australia in 2021. Those teams support more than 300 customers in EMEA regions and 60 customers across Asia. Mind the Product adds to the company's global footprint both through headcount and reach.

To become a Mind the Product member, or learn about upcoming events, visit mindtheproduct.com .
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced an assistance of Rs 10 lakh to help the Kasturba Nagar rape victim, whose horrendous ordeal had shaken the city.

"I have ordered Rs 10 lakh assistance amount to help this daughter. Delhi government will do everything possible to get justice for this daughter. We are hiring a good lawyer for her. We will also fast-track this matter so that the daughter can get justice as soon as possible," he said in a tweet.

Later in the day, Revenue and Law Minister Kailash Gahlot, along with Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, met the 20-year-old survivor, who informed them that she was abducted from her home and gang-raped by three men who are involved in illicit trade of liquor and drugs locally. While they were gang-raping her, the women present therein were instigating the men to rape her.

She further informed that they beat her up brutally, shaved her head, blackened her face and made her walk around the neighbourhood with a garland of slippers and shoes. A video of the unfortunate incident was also received by the Commission which clearly showed the sad plight of the victim.

Maliwal had earlier issued notice to Delhi Police seeking immediate arrest of all the culprits, both men and women. She had also recommended that the girl and her family be shifted to a safe house and be provided protection.

She said that the an application in the court for interim compensation has been filed and a DCW team is present with the survivor 24x7, adding: "We will also rehabilitate the girl. Strongest punishment must be given to the culprits so that no one will dare to do such a crime again."

On Friday, a total of 11 people, including nine women, were arrested in connection with the incident.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. (CSE: API) (OTCQB: APAAF) (FSE: A0I.F) (FSE: A0I.MU) (FSE: A0I.BE) (the "Company" or "Appia") is pleased to provide a progress report on bench-scale monazite processing and metallurgical testing (the "Test") on representative sample materials from Appia's high-grade rare earth element ("REE") and gallium Alces Lake property (the "Property"), located in northern Saskatchewan.

Laboratory heavy liquid separation tests recovered 95% of the total rare earth oxide (" TREO ") in 45% of the mass of a deslimed feed sample

") in 45% of the mass of a deslimed feed sample Preliminary locked-cycle flotation tests yielded a concentrate containing 48% TREO at 73% recovery

Two preliminary caustic cracking/acid leach tests on a 45% TREO flotation concentrate extracted 87% and 78% TREO.

Appia will be conducting further laboratory testwork and expects improved flotation performance and in excess of 90% REE extraction from concentrates.

Preliminary data results show that the gallium concentration follows the rare earths through the beneficiation process and reports to the concentrate.

Appia President Frederick Kozak stated, "These preliminary bench scale testing results are excellent for the Alces Lake rare earths discovery. TREO recoveries and the percentage of TREO in concentrate are comparable to other producing global rare earths projects, supporting the potential for Alces Lake as a future monazite rare earths supply. We continue to work with the SRC and are confident that future testing will improve TREO recoveries and TREO concentrates."

As announced in a News Release dated February 25, 2021, Appia engaged the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) to undertake metallurgical testwork on mineralized material from Appia's Alces Lake high-grade REE property, Athabasca Basin area, northern Saskatchewan. The testwork was performed at SRC in Saskatoon on a 50 kg representative composite of mineralized material from the WRCB zone of the Property with a grade of approximately 9 % TREO. Prior studies have shown that the Alces Lake REEs are hosted exclusively in monazite.

Experimental work commenced in March 2021 with magnetic and heavy liquid separation tests followed by flotation testwork starting in April 2021. Initial magnetic separation tests were performed on the -0.5+0.038 mm screen fraction of material crushed to -5.6 mm representing 36% of the whole sample. The results showed limited rejection of barren material with 98% TREO recovery into 83% of the test feed mass. Initial heavy liquid tests were performed on screen fractions between 0.5 and 5.6 mm and representing 51% of the of whole sample. Some promise was noted with the sink fraction at a specific gravity of 3.0 having a mass of 37% of the feed and containing 92% of the REE. At a specific gravity of 2.9, the mass of the sink fraction increased to 45% and TREE recovery increased to 95%.

Most of the experimental effort was spent on froth flotation. Numerous factors were investigated including grind size, slimes removal, regrind, circuit configuration, and reagents. The circuit and procedure that was developed included a grind to 80% passing 106 m, no desliming, oleic acid collector with sodium silicate as a gangue depressant in roughing and initial cleaning, and with reverse cleaning final stages. This was tested in preliminary locked cycle tests and shown to deliver a concentrate containing 48% TREO at 73% recovery. Additional beneficiation work is planned to confirm and improve upon these initial test results. Beneficiation tests are also planned for new samples representing other mineralized zones of the Alces Lake

Two preliminary caustic crack tests were performed on a lower grade flotation concentrate generated early in the beneficiation program and containing 45.5% TREO. Test CC-1 was done on the as-received flotation concentrate, test CC-2 on the same concentrate after grinding to pass 45 m. Each caustic crack residue was leached with HCl acid. TREO extractions in these two preliminary tests were 87% and 78% respectively. It is fully expected that recoveries in the excess of 90% will be attained with further testing on higher grade flotation concentrates.

ALCES LAKE HIGH-GRADE REE PROJECT

Appia drilled a total of 100 core holes and collected approximately 8,075 meters of diamond drill core in its 2021 drilling program. Initial assay results from the Wilson North and Richards drill holes were announced on November 19, 2021 and confirmed some of the highest recorded rare earth grades discovered to date on the Alces Lake property. In addition, high-grade REE mineralization has now been identified throughout an area covering approximately 27 km2 of the Alces Lake block. Initial assay results have been returned from channel and grab samples but the Company is still awaiting further drilling core and channel sample assay results from the 2021 program.

With the largest exploration and diamond drilling program in the Company's history completed, exploration results will be released as received and analyzed by the company. Analysis of the summer exploration and drilling program will follow and may lead to the preparation of an NI 43-101 (Technical Report with 3D Geophysical-geological Models) report expected in 2022. The Alces Lake project encompasses some of the highest-grade total and critical* REEs and gallium mineralization in the world, hosted within a number of surface and near-surface monazite occurrences that remain open at depth and along strike.

The Alces Lake project is located in northern Saskatchewan, the same provincial jurisdiction that is developing a "first-of-its-kind" rare earth processing facility in Canada (currently under construction by the Saskatchewan Research Council, it is scheduled to become operational in early 2023). The Alces Lake project area is 35,682 hectares (88,173 acres) in size and is 100% owned by Appia.

* Critical rare earth elements are defined here as those that are in short-supply and high-demand for use in permanent magnets and modern electronic applications such as electric vehicles and wind turbines (i.e: neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb)).

To ensure safe work conditions are met for the workforce, the Company has developed exploration guidelines that comply with the Saskatchewan Public Health Orders and the Public Health Order Respecting the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District in order to maintain social distancing and help prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

The metallurgical content in this news release was reviewed and approved by Mr. John Goode, P.Eng, Consultant to Appia's Board of Directors, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The geologic content in this news release was reviewed and approved by Dr. Irvine R. Annesley, P.Geo, Advisor to Appia's Board of Directors, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories' management system operates in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (CAN-P-4E), General Requirements for the Competence of Mineral Testing and Calibration Laboratories.

About Appia

Appia is a Canadian publicly-listed company in the uranium and rare earth element sectors. The Company is currently focusing on delineating high-grade critical rare earth elements, gallium and uranium on the Alces Lake property, as well as exploring for high-grade uranium in the prolific Athabasca Basin on its Otherside, Loranger, North Wollaston, and Eastside properties. The Company holds the surface rights to exploration for 105,026 hectares (259,525 acres) in Saskatchewan. The Company also has a 100% interest in 12,545 hectares (31,000 acres), with rare earth element and uranium deposits over five mineralized zones in the Elliot Lake Camp, Ontario.

Appia has 119.6 million common shares outstanding, 142.2 million shares fully diluted.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This News Release contains forward-looking statements which are typically preceded by, followed by or including the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "intends", "plans" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance as they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward- looking statements and shareholders are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such statements.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information, please contact:

Tom Drivas, CEO and Director: (cell) 416-876-3957, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) appia@appiaenergy.ca

Frederick Kozak, President: (cellular) 403-606-3165 or (email) fkozak@appiaenergy.ca

Frank van de Water, Chief Financial Officer and Director, (tel) 416-546-2707, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) fvandewater@rogers.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112316
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Canbud Distribution Corp. (CSE: CBDX) ("Canbud" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its board of directors has appointed Sameet Kanade as a director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, effective immediately. Mr. Kanade, succeeds Mukesh (Steve) Singh who has stepped down from these positions in order to focus on other ventures. Mr. Singh will serve as a strategic advisor, to the Company to ensure a proper transition and to provide advice the Company on strategic matters.

Steve Singh commented, "I have led Canbud from its inception and I am proud of the progress it has made, including its recent acquisitions in the analytical testing services sector in Canada and the US. It is now the right time for me to transition and hand the reins over to the next leaders to take the Company forward."

Raj Ravindran, a director of the Company, commented, "On behalf of the Company's board of directors, I thank Steve for his many contributions and tireless commitment to the Company. The entire board now welcomes Sameet and gives him our full confidence to lead Canbud to continue to build on its foundation and successes and to achieve our goal of creating value for our shareholders."

Sameet Kanade is an experienced business executive, who has most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of the Company's recently acquired subsidiary, Molecular Science Corp. He holds an MBA from Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and is an Associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Post-MBA, Mr. Kanade worked at several independent investment banks in Toronto, within the equity research and investment banking departments. He has acted as advisor to several start-ups in the areas of capital markets, strategy and resource planning and optimization.

About Canbud Distribution Corp.

Canbud is an early-stage science and technology company focused on providing products and services, including analytical testing services within the hemp and cannabis market sectors. The Company's focus is on two areas: science and technology, by providing science-backed differentiated products and services that are critical within these sectors; and quality and compliance, by offering services that assist its customers to offer products and services that meet expected standards of quality, safety and compliance.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Information

The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, management's expectations with respect to the potential future success of the Company. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including assumptions about the operations, financial condition and future performance of the Company's business as a whole. Although the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to them, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements, including the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's operations and growth plans. Although the Company's management believes that the expectations reflected in forward looking statements are reasonable, the Company can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward looking statements or otherwise.

For further information, please contact:

Sameet Kanade, CEO

Tel: 416 847 7312

Email: ir@canbudcorp.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112314
First Gold Drill Targets Identified by Ground Geophysics over Gold and Arsenic Soil Anomalies at Erongo Project

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Namibia Critical Metals Inc. ("Namibia Critical Metals" or the "Company" or "NMI") (TSXV:NMI)(OTC PINK:NMREF) is pleased to provide an update on exploration activities on its 95% owned Erongo and Grootfontein Projects.

The company has completed a multiple tool geophysical survey over the Kanona Target on the Erongo Project for drill target generation over previously defined coinciding gold and arsenic anomalies (see Press Release July 28, 2021):

Combined magnetic, IP and pole-dipole EM survey targeted area of gold and arsenic anomalies at Kanona North.

Identified coinciding conductivity and magnetic anomalies point to a structural target forming a fold structure in a second order fault zone over 1.5 km.

Drill plan established to test the targets with 14 RC holes of 3,700 m.

Darrin Campbell, President, stated "We are encouraged by the results from our early-stage exploration activities throughout 2021 and are excited to begin the first phase of drilling on the Erongo Project where solid exploration by systematic soil sampling and multiple tool ground geophysics has identified a first drill ready target."

Erongo and Grootfontein Projects

The Erongo and Grootfontein Projects consists of three Exclusive Prospecting Licences ("EPLs") with a total area of 172,842 ha (1,728 km2) and cover ground prospective for orogenic gold mineralisation and various types of base metal mineralisations. The Company's EPLs are located in the Central Namibian Gold Belt which hosts a number of significant orogenic gold deposits including the Navachab Gold Mine, B2Gold's Otjikoto Gold Mine and Osino's more recent discovery of the Twin Hills deposit.

Gold Exploration Targets at Erongo

The Erongo Project area comprises 337 km2 and is largely underlain by metasediments of the Damaran Supergroup dominated by a turbiditic sequence of metapelites of the Kuiseb Formation and syntectonic granites of the Damaran Orogen. The Kuiseb Formation hosts the Twin Hills gold deposit of Osino Resources just 20 km south of the Erongo Project. The structural interpretation of the entire project area delineated the Omaruru Fault Zone and the Kanona Fault Zone, both of which are considered prospective for structurally controlled orogenic gold mineralization. The project area has extensive alluvial or calcrete cover and regional soil sampling was undertaken as the initial exploration tool to identify areas of interest. Analysis of over 8,000 soil samples delineated several arsenic anomalies (the key gold pathfinder element) which were confirmed by low detection limit gold assays based on which three target areas have been defined (Figure 1):

Kanona North Target has a strike length of 4 km which clearly follows a lower order structure splaying off the main Kanona Fault. This target is defined by the most intense arsenic anomaly in the area and occurs within the Kuiseb Formation and syntectonic leucogranites.

has a strike length of 4 km which clearly follows a lower order structure splaying off the main Kanona Fault. This target is defined by the most intense arsenic anomaly in the area and occurs within the Kuiseb Formation and syntectonic leucogranites. Kanona Central Target is similarly situated along the Kanona Fault over a strike length of 6 km but displays a broader, less confined arsenic anomaly within the Kuiseb Formation and syntectonic leucogranites.

is similarly situated along the Kanona Fault over a strike length of 6 km but displays a broader, less confined arsenic anomaly within the Kuiseb Formation and syntectonic leucogranites. Kanona East Target is a northeast trending linear anomaly with a strike length of 2.5 km correlating with an interpreted dyke swarm cross-cutting the Karibib Formation into Salem granite.

Figure 1: Key gold exploration targets at the Erongo Project (arsenic anomalies from handheld XRF analyses of soils). Sampling lines 200 m apart.

Ground Geophysics at Erongo Project

The central 1.5 km long Kanona North Target was prioritised for ground geophysical surveys. Combined ground magnetics, gradient array induced polarization, and pole-dipole induced polarization surveys were conducted by Gregory Symons Geophysics (GSG) in December 2021 to identify drill targets and to develop an efficient combination of survey tools and set-ups for further ground geophysics in the area. A total of 57 line kilometers of ground magnetics was surveyed over the target. One setup of gradient array induced polarization (GAIP) with 12 lines and 7 lines of pole-dipole induced polarization (PDIP) were surveyed.

The strongest IP anomaly based on GAIP and PDIP data occurs in the southeast ("Anomaly 1"). A slightly weaker and shallower IP "Anomaly 2" appears to the west and northwest. IP Anomaly 1 correlates with a strong magnetic anomaly, showing a divergence to the north. Based on the EM, magnetic and mapping data, the host structure is interpreted as a fold zone along the Kanona North second order fault, a structural setting generally conducive for structurally controlled gold mineralisation.

Figure 2: Plan with the interpretation of geophysical data at Kanona North target. Pink polygons show the position of the IP Anomalies 1 (east) and 2 (northwest). The red dots are the positions of the IP anomalies as taken off the PDP modelled IP sections. Pink lines are weaker trends in the gradient array IP. The stippled line is an area of a broad magnetic anomaly defined by the RTP magnetic image while the dotted lines indicate magnetic units based on the RTP-TDR image.

Figure 3: Reconnaissance drill plan (black lines) on 3D perspective showing the PDP IP response from Line 11 in the South to Line 21 in the north. Anomaly 1 in the east is well defined. Anomaly 2, to the west, is distinctly weaker and shallower.

Based on the geophysical targets an initial drill program of 14 RC holes for a total of 3,700 m is planned. Ground preparation is in progress.

Gold Prospectivity of the Grootfontein Project

The Grootfontein project comprises two EPLs covering 1,392 km2 located 80 km northeast of B2 Gold's Otjikoto Gold Mine. The geology of the property is dominated by the Grootfontein Mafic Complex ("GMC"). Grootfontein lies at the eastern extremity of the Central Namibian Gold Belt where the Grootfontein Shear Zone ("GSZ") transects the GMC (Figure 4).

Previous exploration by Namibia Critical Metals included geochemical soil surveys which delineated the Highland Gold Target and several other gold and gold pathfinder anomalies in the periphery and contact zone of the Grootfontein Mafic Complex with Meso- and Neoproterozoic metasediments (Press Release March 26, 2021). Gold anomalies occur within the mafic rocks of the GMC itself and in basement and Damaran Supergroup rocks in proximity to the Grootfontein Shear Zone. Second order structures related to the Grootfontein Shear Zone form the key targets for gold exploration. The project area has extensive alluvial and calcrete cover.

Figure 4: Location of the Grootfontein EPLs and relationship to major structures within the Central Namibian Gold Belt.

Progress on Grootfontein Project

The planned SkyTEM survey over large parts of the Grootfontein Project (Press Release April 26, 2021) had to be cancelled as the Namibian Air Force extended the "no-fly" zone from 5 to 10 nautical miles around the Grootfontein Air Base centrally located on EPL 6561. All communication of the Company and SkyTEM with the Ministry of Defense was to no avail and SkyTEM demobilised from Namibia. This was a major setback for exploration of the Grootfontein Project as most of the potentially gold mineralised structures fell into the newly declared "no-fly" zone. The planned airborne survey will now have to be off-set with time intense ground EM surveys.

In order to comply with the technical exploration commitment towards the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Company decided to go ahead with stratigraphic and reconnaissance drilling on inferred structural targets delineated based on broad magnetic and electromagnetic anomalies (see Press Release July 28, 2021). 24 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes of a total of 4,466 m were drilled in Q3-4 2021. The holes on the Eastern Bend target showed an anomalous gold value of 71 ppb over 1 metre possibly and several low grade base metal intercepts. The gold anomaly underlines the principle fertility of the structural zones for gold mineralisation but also points to the missing targeting precision without guiding conductivity anomalies produced by EM surveys. The holes in the west on Highland target returned weak base metal anomalies. The drilling and geophysical data will be re-evaluated.

Due to the restrictions on air-borne surveys, the Company plans to enroll an extended ground based IP program over the identified main structural targets with a focus on the "Eastern Bend" target.

Figure 5: Grootfontein Project with main structures of the Grootfontein Shear Zone (GSZ), drill collar positions of the 2021 reconnaissance drilling program and the key target areas.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

Sampling and sample assaying of the RC reconnaissance campaign at Grootfontein have been monitored through a quality assurance quality control ("QAQC") program. Samples were taken as 2 kg split. Sample submissions to the laboratory included Certified Reference Material, blanks and duplicate samples. QAQC samples make up 10% of all samples submitted. Logging and sampling was completed at the Company's exploration base in Grootfontein, Namibia. The samples were securely transported to the Activation Laboratories Ltd. sample prep facility in Windhoek, Namibia. The samples were dried and crushed to 95% <2 mm, split to 350 g and pulverized to 95% <75 m. Sample pulps were sent to Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Ontario, Canada for analysis. Gold & PGEs analysis was done by 50 g fire assay assay (Actlabs code: 1C-Exploration) with nitric acid fusion and ICP-MS finish. In addition, pulps underwent 4-Acid digestion and multi-element analysis by INAA combined with the ICP-MS techniques for base metal analysis.

About Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

Namibia Critical Metals Inc. holds a diversified portfolio of exploration and advanced stage projects in Namibia focused on the development of sustainable and ethical sources of metals for the battery, electric vehicle and associated industries. The two advanced stage projects in the portfolio are Lofdal and Epembe. The Company also holds significant land positions in areas favourable for gold mineralization.



Figure 6: Location of Namibia Critical Metals' projects highlighting position of gold projects (Erongo, Otjiwarongo and Grootfontein) in relation to important gold mines in the Central Namibian Gold Belt

Heavy Rare Earths: The Lofdal Dysprosium-Terbium Project is the Company's most advanced project being fully permitted with a Mining Licence (ML 200) issued in 2021. The project is being developed in joint venture with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC").

About Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) and the JV

JOGMEC is a Japanese government independent administrative agency which among other things seeks to secure stable resource supplies for Japan. JOGMEC has a strong reputation as a long term, strategic partner in mineral projects globally. The mandated areas of responsibilities within JOGMEC relate to oil and natural gas, metals, coal and geothermal energy. JOGMEC facilitates opportunities with Japanese private companies to secure supplies of natural resources for the benefit of the country's economic development.

Rare earths are of critical importance to Japanese industrial interests and JOGMEC has extensive experience with all aspects of the sector. JOGMEC provided Lynas with US$250,000,000 in loans and equity in 2011 to ensure supplies of the Light Rare Earths metals suite to the Japanese industry.

Namibia Critical Metals currently owns a 95% interest in the Lofdal project with the remaining 5% held for the benefit of historically disadvantaged Namibians. The terms of the JOGMEC joint venture agreement with the Company stipulate that JOGMEC provides $3,000,000 in Term 1 and $7,000,000 in Term 2 to earn a 40% interest in the Lofdal project. Term 3 calls for a further $10,000,000 of expenditures to earn an additional 10% interest. JOGMEC can also purchase another 1% for $5,000,000 and has first right of refusal to fully fund the project through to commercial production and to purchase all production at market prices. The collective interests of NMI and historically disadvantaged Namibians cannot be diluted below a 26% carried working interest upon payment of $5,000,000 to JOGMEC for the dilution protection. The JV Agreement is structured such that no NMI equity will be issued and it is totally non-dilutive to NMI shareholders. To date, JOGMEC, has approved funding Term 1 and 2 expenditures totaling $6,600,000.

Gold: The Company's Exclusive Prospecting Licenses ("EPLs") prospective for gold are located in the Central Namibian Gold Belt which hosts a number of significant orogenic gold deposits including the Navachab Gold Mine, the Otjikoto Gold Mine and more recently the discovery of the Twin Hills deposit. At the Erongo Gold Project, stratigraphic equivalents to the meta-sediments hosting the recent Osino gold discovery at Twin Hills have been identified and exploration is progressing over this highly prospective area. The Grootfontein Base Metal and Gold Project has potential for magmatic copper-nickel mineralization, Mississippi Valley-type zinc-lead-vanadium mineralization and Otjikoto-style gold mineralization. Interpretation of geophysical data and regional geochemical soil sampling have identified first gold targets.

Tantalum-Niobium: The Epembe Tantalum-Niobium-Uranium Project is at an advanced stage with a well-defined, 10 km long carbonatite dyke that has been delineated by detailed mapping and radiometric surveys and over 11,000 meters of drilling. Preliminary mineralogical and metallurgical studies including sorting tests (XRT), indicate the potential for significant physical upgrading. Further work will be undertaken to advance the project to a preliminary economic assessment stage.

The common shares of Namibia Critical Metals Inc. trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under

Qualified Person's Statement

Rainer Ellmies, PhD, MScGeol, EurGeol, AusIMM is Vice President Exploration of Namibia Critical MetalsInc. and the Company's Qualified Person. He has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.

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.

For more information please contact:

Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

Darrin Campbell, President

Tel: +01 (902) 835-8760

Fax: +01 (902) 835-8761

Email: Info@NamibiaCMI.com

Web site: www.NamibiaCriticalMetals.com

The foregoing information may contain forward-looking information relating to the future performance of Namibia Critical Metals Inc. forward-looking information, specifically, that concerning future performance, is subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the appropriate securities commissions.

SOURCE: Namibia Critical Metals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686586/Namibia-Critical-Metals-Inc-Identifies-First-Gold-Targets-at-Erongo-Gold-Project-in-Namibia
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Lotus Ventures Inc. (CSE:J)(OTC PINK:LTTSF) ("Lotus" or the "Company"), announced today financial results for its first fiscal quarter ended November 30, 2021. During the quarter the Company realized a slowdown in sales due to COVID limitations, supply chain disruptions and less volume of product purchased by wholesale partners. Our thoughts go out to the local farmers and growers that were also affected.

First Quarter Results:

Revenue of $410 thousand compared to $1.3 million in the prior years' first quarter. The decrease in quarterly sales was due to several factors, including the ones listed above. The Company is in the process of securing additional wholesale relationships to reduce sales risk and reliance on individual LP's.

Although operating at a reduced level during the quarter, Lotus was able to operate at a profit and with strong margins. Net income in the quarter was $65 thousand, compared to a net loss of $339 thousand in the prior years' first quarter.

Gross margin before fair value adjustments remained above 40%. Lotus attributes its strong margins to its proprietary production process which was designed to produce high-quality cannabis at a low-cost per gram.

Strain Development:

The Company has continued its in-house strain development with 30 varieties now germinated for testing. Lotus plans on transitioning to a second high THC premium strain which is expected to be submitted during an upcoming product listing call with a provincial wholesaler.

Outlook for 2022:

The Company remains focused on improving its sales position and liquidity throughout the coming year. The Company is currently in discussions with three licensed producer's which are interested in Lotus wholesale flower supply. In addition to continuing wholesale efforts, Lotus is expecting to allocate a portion of its production to its own pre-roll and flower offerings to diversify sales into the recreational market.

In January, Kolab Project launched a 10 pack of 0.35-gram Lotus grown Kalifornia pre-rolls on the Ontario Cannabis Store which is expected to be another strong selling offering. In aggregate, Lotus and Kolab have launched a 3.5-gram flower offering, a 14-gram flower offering, and a 10 pack of 0.35-gram pre-roll offering.

The Company's priorities moving forward this year are:

Restore sales momentum and secure additional wholesale transactions.

Transition to selling a second high THC premium cannabis strain.

Introduce Lotus pre-roll and flower offerings to diversify sales risk and add sales growth.

Continue production consistency in both volume (avg. 70,000 grams a crop) and in THC (generally now over the 23% threshold and up to 25%).

Convert the current inventory of high-quality flower to cash.

Obtain COVID relief capital which the Company is eligible for $157,000 in wage subsidy grants.

The following financial information is derived from the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended November 30, 2021:

Description Three months ended

Nov 30, 2021 Three months ended

Aug 31, 2021 Three months ended

May 31, 2021 Three months ended

Feb 28, 2021 Revenues $ 410,568 $ 1,235,937 $ 1,437,763 $ 1,431,509 Net income (loss) $ 65,293 $ 42,625 $ 208,893 $ 329,414 Income (loss) per share, basic and diluted $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 EBITDA $ 279,830 $ 264,876 $ 433,488 $ 547,044 Total assets $ 17,172,703 $ 16,907,742 $ 16,845,615 $ 16,841,875 Total long-term liabilities $Nil $Nil $Nil Cash dividends / share $Nil $Nil $Nil

Description Three months ended

Nov 30, 2020 Three months ended

Aug 31, 2020 Three months ended

May 31, 2020 Three months ended

Feb 28, 2020 Revenues $ 1,376,270 $ 1,782,613 $ 1,775,878 $ 1,071,252 Net income (loss) $ (339,835 ) $ (241,443 ) $ 1,231,779 $ (335,888 ) Income (loss) per share, basic and diluted $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.01 $ 0.00 EBITDA $ (116,506 ) $ (26,639 ) $ 1,458,827 $ (116,665 ) Total assets $ 16,413,969 $ 16,908,437 $ 17,245,515 $ 16,541,664 Total long-term liabilities $Nil $Nil $Nil $Nil Cash dividends / share $Nil $Nil $Nil $Nil

The Quarterly Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis for the period are both available on sedar.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD:

Lotus Ventures Inc.

"Dale McClanaghan"

Dale McClanaghan, President and CEO

About Lotus Ventures Inc.

Lotus Ventures Inc. (CSE:J) is a Canadian licensed producer and the owner of Lotus Cannabis Co., a premium consumer brand in Canada. Lotus operates as a wholesale company and has reached consumers in nine provinces to date through wholesale partners. Lotus' best-selling strains have built a strong brand reputation which has led to our flower being sold in both the premium and ultra-premium segments of the market. Lotus looks to launch its own product offerings in the recreational market over the next year and has a collection of unique cannabis strains in development.

Lotus Ventures Inc. is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol J and on the OTC Markets under the symbol LTTSF.

For Further Information:

President & CEO

Dale McClanaghan

dalemcclanaghan@gmail.com

604-644-9844

Investor Relations

Daniel McRobert

investors@lotuscannabis.ca

604-842-4625

Visit our website at lotuscannabis.ca or follow our brand on social media.

Twitter: @lotuscannabisco, LinkedIn: @lotuscannabisco, Instagram: @lotuscannabisco Facebook: @lotuscanna

Forward-Looking Information:

The information contained within this news release has been prepared by Lotus Ventures Inc. This document includes certain statements that are not descriptions of historical facts but are forward-looking statements. Such statements include, among others, those concerning our expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans, our future operating results, our expectations regarding the market for medical and recreational cannabis products, our expectations regarding the continued growth of the medical and recreational cannabis market, as well as all assumptions, expectations, predictions, intentions, or beliefs about future events. Users are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that a number of risks and uncertainties could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties have not been documented or mentioned in this document nor other communications made by the company. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "targets," "optimistic," "intend," "aim," "will" or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Lotus Ventures Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686614/Lotus-Reports-First-Quarter-Fiscal-2022-Results
Dieppe, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Colibri Resource Corporation (TSXV: CBI) ("Colibri" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its partner Tocvan Ventures Corp. ("Tocvan") has reported additional surface sample results at the Pilar Gold & Silver Project. Highlights from these samples includes 9.2 g/t Au and 279 g/t Ag, 6.6 g/t Au and 433 g/t Ag, and 1.3 g/t Au and 524 g/t Ag.

Tocvan is currently in its 3rd year of a 5 year agreement to earn an initial 51% of Colibri's Pilar Gold & Silver Project located in the prolific gold producing state of Sonora in Mexico. For full details of Colibri's agreement with Tocvan please see the Company's news release dated September 24th, 2019.

TOCVAN REPORTS

A surface exploration program was conducted in December following-up on target areas identified earlier in 2021. A total of 59 samples were collected with 21 samples returning values greater than 0.5 g/t Au (Table 1). Sampling defined several new target areas yet to be drilled. The Main Zone has been expanded with high-grade Au-Ag values (9.2 g/t Au and 279 g/t Ag) along the southeast extent hosted in a silicified quartz vein breccia. The 4-T Trend has been extended to the southeast 100-meters with high-grade Au-Ag values, highlighted by 6.6 g/t Au and 433 g/t Ag hosted in a strongly silicified fault. A new vein corridor identified by several artisanal workings and shafts over a 200-meter strike has returned high-grade silver values highlighted by 524 g/t Ag and 1.3 g/t Au hosted in a silicified quartz vein breccia. In addition, mineralization has been identified further to the south (300-meters) highlighted by 3.1 g/t Au and 27 g/t Ag.

Surface Results Highlights

Main Zone Expansion



New alteration corridor identified adjacent to Main Zone, highlighted by: 9.2 g/t Au and 279 g/t Ag



4-T Trend extended over 100-meters to the southeast, highlighted by:

6.6 g/t Au and 433 g/t Ag

3.5 g/t Au and 645 g/t Ag

4.9 g/t Au and 32 g/t Ag

NEW Vein Target defined over 200-meter strike, highlighted by:

1.3 g/t Au and 524 g/t Ag

1.3 g/t Au and 94 g/t Ag

1.1 and 48 g/t Ag

South Zone reconnaissance sampling returned:

3.1 g/t Au and 27 g/t Ag

2.5 g/t Au and 2 g/t Ag

1.0 g/t Au and 29 g/t Ag

"The results from our recent surface exploration program have further confirmed the significant distribution of untested drill targets at Pilar," commented CEO, Brodie Sutherland. "We have now defined a 1.2 km corridor of Au-Ag mineralization at Pilar, half of which has seen no drilling. We plan to test these target areas with systematic drilling during the Phase III drill program currently underway. 2022 will be an important year for the advancement of Pilar as we look to better understand the extent of the mineralized system."

Figure 1. Plan Map Highlighting the Surface Exploration Program Results.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/112315_d60f83b18431d830_001full.jpg

Table 1. Select Surface Exploration Program Results.

Sample ID Prospect Sample Type Weight (kg) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) 7617 Main Zone Expansion GRAB 4.98 9.22 279 7591 4-T CHIP 3.89 6.57 433 7603 4-T CHIP 3.54 4.87 32 7620 4-T GRAB 4.15 3.54 645 7568 South GRAB 2.78 3.05 27 7577 South GRAB 4.12 2.46 2 7590 4-T CHIP 3.66 1.63 8 7563 NVZ CHIP 5.77 1.38 16 7586 NVZ GRAB 4.32 1.31 94 7564 NVZ GRAB 3.72 1.25 524 7561 NVZ GRAB 3.22 1.08 48 7621 NVZ GRAB 3.84 1.07 24 7571 South CHIP 3.23 1.04 29 7592 4-T CHIP 3.71 0.85 13 7584 NVZ CHIP 4.79 0.63 58 7593 4-T CHIP 6.43 0.61 4 7569 South GRAB 4.03 0.59 1 7578 South CHIP 4.65 0.54 14 7589 4-T CHIP 3.63 0.54 23 7594 4-T CHIP 5.00 0.52 24 7562 NVZ GRAB 2.98 0.50 25 7606 4-T CHIP 4.80 0.40 24 7572 South CHIP 3.98 0.38 1 7610 4-T CHIP 6.08 0.18 18 7619 4-T CHIP 5.08 0.16 54 7602 4-T CHIP 5.11 0.14 15 7600 4-T CHIP 5.56 0.11 10 7582 NVZ CHIP 5.12 0.09 1 7579 South CHIP 4.57 0.08 18 7611 4-T CHIP 3.86 0.08 11

4-T, notes the 4-Trench prospective trend. NVZ, notes the New Vein Target identified by sampling and mapping. Grab samples are selective in nature and may not be representative of broader mineralized zones. Chip samples are taken over 0.5-2m lengths.

About the Pilar Property

The Pilar Gold-Silver property is interpreted as a structurally controlled low-sulphidation epithermal project hosted in andesite rocks. Three zones of mineralization have been identified in the north-west part of the property from historic surface work and drilling and are referred to as the Main Zone, North Hill and 4-Trench. Structural features and zones of mineralization within the structures follow an overall NW-SE trend of mineralization. Over 22,700 m of drilling have been completed to date. Significant results are highlighted below:

2021 Phase II RC Drilling Highlights include ( all lengths are drilled thicknesses ): 39.7m @ 0.96 g/t Au, including 1.5m @ 14. g/t Au 47.7m @ 0.70 g/t Au including 3m @ 5.6 g/t Au and 22 g/t Ag 29m @ 0.71g/t Au 35.1m @ 0.66 g/t Au

2020 Phase I RC Drilling Highlights include ( all lengths are drilled thicknesses ): 94.6m @ 1.6 g/t Au, including 9.2m @ 10.8 g/t Au and 38 g/t Ag; 41.2m @ 1.1 g/t Au, including 3.1m @ 6.0g/t Au and 12 g/t Ag ; 24.4m @ 2.5 g/t Au and 73 g/t Ag, including 1.5m @ 33.4 g/t Au and 1,090 g/t Ag

17,700m of Historic Core & RC drilling. Highlights include: 61.0m @ 0.8 g/t Au 16.5m @ 53.5g/t Au and 53 g/t Ag 13.0m @ 9.6 g/t Au 9.0m @ 10.2 g/t Au and 46 g/t Ag



Soil and Rock sampling results from undrilled areas indicate mineralization extends towards the southeast from the Main Zone and 4-Trench Zone. Recent Surface exploration has defined three new target areas: Triple Vein Zone, SE Vein Zone and 4 Trench Extension.

Quality Assurance / Quality Control

RC chips were shipped for sample preparation to ALS Limited in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico and for analysis at the ALS laboratory in North Vancouver. The ALS Hermosillo and North Vancouver facilities are ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 17025 certified. Gold was analyzed using 50-gram nominal weight fire assay with atomic absorption spectroscopy finish. Over limits for gold (>10 g/t), were analyzed using fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Silver and other elements were analyzed using a four-acid digestion with an ICP finish. Over limit analyses for silver (>100 g/t) were re-assayed using an ore-grade four-acid digestion with ICP-AES finish. Control samples comprising certified reference samples and blank samples were systematically inserted into the sample stream and analyzed as part of the Company's robust quality assurance / quality control protocol.

ABOUT COLIBRI RESOURCE CORPORATION:

Colibri is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSX-V (CBI) and is focused on acquiring and exploring prospective gold & silver properties in Mexico. The Company has six exploration projects of which five currently have exploration programs being executed in 2022. (1) The flagship Evelyn Gold Project is 100% owned and explored by Colibri, (2) the Pilar Gold & Silver Project (optioned to Tocvan Ventures- (CSE: TOC), (3) the El Mezquite Gold & Silver Project , (4) the Jackie Gold & Silver Project, and (5) the Diamante Gold & Silver Project. 3,4,and 5 are subject to earn-in agreements by Silver Spruce Resources - (TSXV: SSE).

For more information about all Company projects please visit: www.colibriresource.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains "forward-looking statements". Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that they will prove to be accurate.

For information contact: Ronald J. Goguen, President, Chairperson and Director, Tel: (506) 383-4274, rongoguen@colibriresource.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112315


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Valentine's Day spending is expected to increase this year to a total of $23.9 billion in the U.S. from last year's total of 21.8 billion, according to the annual Valentine's Day consumer survey released by National Retail Federation or NRF, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.



Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14, which first became associated with romantic love during the High Middle Ages as the tradition of courtly love was then flourishing. Lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, sending Valentine cards and other gifts on this day.



'Valentine's Day is a special occasion for many Americans, even more so as we navigate out of the pandemic, and retailers are prepared to help them mark the holiday in a memorable and meaningful way,' NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said.



Consumers are expected to make up for the lost chance to celebrate the day last year due to pandemic-induced lockdown. This year more than half or 53 percent of U.S. consumers plan to celebrate the day in 2022, slightly up from 52 percent in 2021.



According to the survey of 7,728 U.S. adult consumers, this year consumers plan to spend an average of $175.41 per person on Valentine's Day gifts, up from $164.76 in 2021 as many intend to spend more on significant others or spouses.



Out of the Valentine's Day gift items, Candy will account for more than half (56 percent), while greeting cards will account for 40 percent and flowers 37 percent. These items remain the most popular gift items this Valentine's Day.



Nearly a third of the respondents or 31 percent say they are planning a special evening outing this year, up from 24 percent in 2021 and just slightly below pre-pandemic levels, for a total of $4.3 billion.



Though traditional Valentine's Day gifts like candy and flowers seem to never go out of style, gift givers and recipients are equally more comfortable to head out for a special meal or participating in a new experience than they were a year ago.



Meanwhile, a quarter or 22 percent of respondents are looking to opt for jewelry as a gift for a special someone. Total spending on jewelry is estimated at $6.2 billion, up from $4.1 billion in 2021 and the highest in the survey's history.



As the survey was conducted during the height of the coronavirus omicron variant spread between January 3 and 11, more than one-third or 41 percent of the consumers plan to purchase their Valentine's Day gifts online. This is followed by visits to department stores at 32 percent, discount stores at 28 percent, local small businesses at 18 percent and florists at 17 percent.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stories of great achievement often find their way on Royal Canadian Mint coins and to mark the 175th anniversary of the birth of famed inventor Alexander Graham Bell, the Mint is dedicating its 2022 Proof Silver Dollar to his legacy of innovation and life-long commitment to science. Born in Scotland, Bell settled with his family in Brantford, Ontario, where he developed a passion for problem-solving at an early age, which sparked his interest in science. After inventing the telephone in 1876, he later built an estate near Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. It is there that he collaborated on more innovations, such as the Silver Dart, Canada's first powered airplane, and futuristic hydrofoil marine craft that blazed the waters of Bras D'Or Lake.

This year's Proof Silver Dollar features a word-art profile of Bell speaking into his breakthrough invention that forever changed global communications. The creative assortment of words that describe aspects of his personal life and character, as well as his many innovations create a revealing portrait of one of the world's greatest inventors. This exceptional coin, along with the 2022 Fine Silver Proof Set featuring the same artistic rendition of Bell, can be ordered from the Mint as of today.

Other collector products launching today include:

The 2021 $50 Fine Silver Diamond-Shaped Coin - Forevermark Black Label Round Diamond;

Fine Silver Diamond-Shaped Coin - Forevermark Black Label Round Diamond; The 2022 $500 Pure Gold Diamond-Shaped Coin - Forevermark Black Label Round Diamond;

Pure Gold Diamond-Shaped Coin - Forevermark Black Label Round Diamond; The 2022 Specimen Set - Conservation Stories - Swift Fox;

The 2022 $50 Fine Silver Coin - Maple Leaves in Motion;

Fine Silver Coin - in Motion; The 2022 $20 Fine Silver Coin - 50th Anniversary of the Medal of Bravery;

Fine Silver Coin - 50th Anniversary of the Medal of Bravery; 2022 $5 Fine Silver Coin - Moments to Hold 50th Anniversary of the Medal of Bravery; and

Fine Silver Coin - Moments to Hold 50th Anniversary of the Medal of Bravery; and The 2022 $8 Pure Gold Coin - Earth Dragon.

Mintages, pricing and full background information on each product can be found on the "Shop" tab of www.mint.ca. Images of the coins are available here.

These products can be ordered by contacting the Mint at 1-800-267-1871 in Canada, 1-800-268-6468 in the US, or at www.mint.ca.

About the Royal Canadian Mint

The Royal Canadian Mint is the Crown corporation responsible for the minting and distribution of Canada's circulation coins. The Mint is one of the largest and most versatile mints in the world, offering a wide range of specialized, high quality coinage products and related services on an international scale. For more information on the Mint, its products and services, visit www.mint.ca. Follow the Mint on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Alex Reeves, Senior Manager, Public Affairs, Telephone: 613-884-6370, reeves@mint.ca

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1737435/Royal_Canadian_Mint_THE_ROYAL_CANADIAN_MINT_S_LATEST_COLLECTOR_C.jpg
Employee feedback, focus on innovation contribute to ranking

Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Brane Inc. ("Brane"), a leading independent cryptocurrency custody solutions provider, has been named among the Best Workplaces for Start-Ups for 2022, by Great Place to Work.

The Best Workplaces for Start-Ups list is based on employee responses to Great Place to Work's Trust Index Survey. Brane was previously certified as one of the 2021 Best Workplaces in Financial Service and Insurance.

"This recognition from Great Place to Work as one of the Best Workplaces for Start-Ups for 2022 is another key indicator that our commitment to creating and maintaining an industry-leading company where people are valued and supported is paying off," said Kirsten G. Paquette, Brane's Vice President of People and Culture. "It's important not only for the team members we work with today, but also as we continue to build our team by attracting the very best talent who shares our values."

Brane Named Among Best Workplaces for Start-Ups in 2022

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8178/112317_best%20workplaces%20for%20start-ups.jpg

According to Great Place to Work, innovation is alive and well at the Best Workplaces for Start-Ups, with the most successful organizations maintaining a clear focus on innovation across all business activities, encouraging innovative behaviours, and finding ways to sustain innovation momentum.

"While we are absolutely celebrating this achievement as a team - because every single member of this team contributes to making Brane a great place to work - we also know that we must continue to build on the momentum we have created. We are resolute in our focus on building trust across all parts of our business, promoting respect in everything that we do, and ensuring that our company is representative of the diverse communities we aim to serve," concluded Adam Miron, Executive Chair and Interim CEO of Brane.

In the past year, Brane has grown from three employees to a team of almost 30 professionals with diverse expertise from financial institutions, the technology sector, government, and law enforcement. Brane's future-shaping technology may be securing the world's transition to blockchain, but the company says its people are at the core of its success. Brane-iacs, as employees refer to themselves, are known to thrive on collaboration, are transparent and accountable, and promote a growth mindset. Brane features a decentralized workforce, with talent collaborating virtually from across Canada.

-30-

About Brane

Founded in 2017, Brane Inc. is a carbon neutral, independent Canadian cryptocurrency custody service provider, helping institutional clients unlock the opportunities of blockchain and digital assets. Brane Vault, its core digital asset custody technology, is third-party certified to stringent global standards including ISO 27001, ISO 27017, and NIST CSF Tier 4, and insured against theft and crime.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflect Brane's current expectations regarding future events, including statements relating to: the ability of Brane to become carbon neutral, the ability of Brane and other market participants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words or phrases such as "create", "continue to", "expand", "accelerate", "enhancing", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Brane's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are made as of the date hereof and Brane does not undertake any obligation to update such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.

Contact Information

media@brane.ca

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112317
Seattle, Washington--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Pervasip Corp. (OTC Pink: PVSP) ("Pervasip" or the "Company"), a developer of companies and technologies in high value emerging markets, today announced that it is in the process of completing the annual audit of its financial statements.

Pervasip hired a national independent registered public accounting firm, Marcum LLP, to audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ("PCAOB") 3 years of financial results for all entities associated with newly acquired Artizen Corporation, which will allow Pervasip to issue consolidated audited financials for the newly combined companies.

"We have engaged with Marcum LLP to provide a first ever financial audit for the operating companies that comprise Artizen Corporation. We expect to file our consolidated financial statements next month using the alternative reporting requirements of OTC Markets, and to follow up shortly thereafter with our PCAOB audited financials. This is another step in our strategic plan to solidify our company's foundation, create transparency for our shareholders and organize for material growth in revenue and EBITDA over the next 24 months," said George Jordan, the company's Chief Financial Officer.

Pervasip Corporation

Pervasip Corp., a developer of companies and technologies in high value emerging markets, owns Artizen Corporation and its subsidiary, Zen Asset Management LLC, a diversified asset management company founded to acquire, develop, and support companies and technologies in the cannabis industry. ZAM's existing clients operate four licensed cannabis cultivation and one processing facility in Washington. Most of the biomass produced by these independent cultivators has been sold historically under the Artizen brand, including all-time top selling products in flower in Washington state. Additional information on Artizen-branded products is available online at www.artizencannabis.com. Pervasip additionally owns 5% of KRTL Biotech, Inc., a developer of biotechnologies with a focus on pharmaceutical applications of cannabinol and psilocybin. Additional information on KRTL is available online at www.krtlbiotech.com. Additional information on Pervasip can be found at www.pervasip.net.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains statements and information that, to the extent that they are not historical fact, may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information may include financial and other projections, as well as statements regarding future plans, objectives, or economic performance, or the assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as may, would, could, will, likely, except, anticipate, believe, intend, plan, forecast, project, estimate, outlook, or the negative thereof or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Examples of such statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the objectives and business plans of the Company; ability to realize benefits from its recent corporate appointments; ability to retain its key personnel; the intention to grow the Company's business and operations; the competitive conditions of the industries in which the Company operates; and laws and any amendments thereto applicable to the Company. Forward-looking information is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. The material factors and assumptions used to develop the forward-looking information contained in this news release include, but are not limited to, key personnel and qualified employees continuing their involvement with the Company; and the Company's ability to secure financing on reasonable terms. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, risks relating to the future business plans of the Company; risks that the Company will not be able to retain its key personnel; risks that the Company will not be able to secure financing on reasonable terms or at all, as well as all of the other risks as described in the Company's periodic disclosure statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking information. Further, any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company's management to predict all of such factors and to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Company's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect information or events after the date on which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law, including securities laws.

For further information, please contact:

German Burtscher

E: germanb@pervasip.net

T: 206-590-2408, Extension 102

E: info@pervasip.net

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112221
- Recognition builds for D-ID with company's second finalist nomination in 2022

TEL AVIV, Israel and HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- D-ID , a world leader in AI-driven creative media, was selected as a finalist for the 24th annual SXSW Innovation Awards, taking place Monday, March 14, at the Austin Convention Center during the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festival (March 11-20, 2022). The SXSW Innovation Awards recognize and celebrate the most exciting tech developments in the connected world.

D-ID is one of five finalists in the Visual Media Experience category. Of hundreds of applications submitted, D-ID's Live Portrait technology was one of 65 finalists selected across 13 categories by a panel of judges composed of industry peers and experts. Each entry was graded on four criteria: creativity, form, function and overall experience.

The SXSW Innovation Awards Finalist Showcase on March 12 will provide an in-person opportunity for judges to complete their second round of voting to determine the winner of all 13 categories. The winners will be awarded at the 24th annual SXSW Innovation Awards on Monday, March 14, 2022.

"We are honored and grateful to have been selected as a finalist for the prestigious SXSW Innovation Award," said Gil Perry, CEO and Co-founder of D-ID. "Since we introduced Live Portrait less than one year ago with the launch of Deep Nostalgia, in partnership with the genealogy company MyHeritage, we have vastly expanded the reach and potential of this groundbreaking technology. Working with world-leading companies, we have changed the face of media, advertising, film, and public awareness campaigns. We are thrilled to present our technology at SXSW, and will be launching an exciting new product during the finalist showcase."

D-ID was also recently named a finalist for the Digiday Marketing and Advertising Awards Europe .

D-ID's AI-powered Live Portrait technology is transforming the way people interact with images. By bringing still photos to life, D-ID is transcending the barrier between image and video. Following Live Portrait's success in genealogy, D-ID partnered with Warner Bros. Pictures , GoodTrust , Mondelez (formerly Kraft Foods), Publicis, and most recently made an exceptional impact with several public awareness campaigns. " Listen to my Voice ," gave voice to victims of domestic violence, and " Letter to Myself ," in collaboration with Public Health France, sent a powerful message to people living with HIV.

D-ID's latest Creative Reality product, Speaking Portrait, uses a single image together with text or audio to create a realistic video of a human presenter.

"SXSW is thrilled to honor this year's most innovative projects and give each finalist the opportunity to showcase their inventions to all SXSW attendees through interactive demos at the Finalist Showcase," said Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer.

About D-ID

D-ID is a Tel Aviv-based Creative Reality startup specializing in video reenactment technology using AI and deep learning. Established in 2017, D-ID created the first facial image de-identification solution to protect images and videos from facial recognition software. D-ID's products range from animating still photos, to facilitating high-quality video productions, and creating viral user experiences such as Deep Nostalgia, which has generated nearly 100M animations since its launch in February 2021. With $23 million in funding from tier 1 VCs, D-ID aims to radically disrupt the time, hassle and costs involved in video production, allowing for the creation of highly personalised media using AI, in traditional channels as well as the Metaverse. With international customers in the swiftly growing synthetic media market, D-ID's core competencies in the human face and deep learning enable its partners to create exciting and engaging content that was until now unimaginable. To find out more, visit www.d-id.com.

About SXSW

SXSW dedicates itself to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries. An essential destination for global professionals, the event features sessions, showcases, screenings, exhibitions, and a variety of networking opportunities. SXSW proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together. SXSW 2022 will take place March 11-20, 2022. For more information, visit sxsw.com. To register for the event, visit sxsw.com/attend.

Media Contact:

Shoshi Grossman

Senior Associate, Si14 Global Communications

d-idpr@si14global.com
South Africa: Property Practitioner Regulatory Authority unveiled

Human Settlements Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi, says the new Property Practitioners Act (PPA) will only be able to achieve the desired outcome if it is driven by a stable and well-functioning regulatory authority.

Kubayi made the remarks during the launch of the Property Practitioner Regulatory Authority (PPRA), held in Sandton on Tuesday.

The launch of PPRA, which will replace the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB), marks the coming into operation of the Property Practitioners Act, which is aimed at strengthening the regulatory aspect of the human settlements sector.

The new bodys main functions include, among others, to regulate the affairs of all property practitioners; to allow for transformation in the property sector; and to provide for consumer protection.

The Property Practitioners Act which governs PPRA came into effect on 1 February 2022.

The Act provides for among other things, the regulation of property practitioners; transformation of the property sector and continuation of the Estate Agents Fidelity Fund, as the Property Practitioners Fidelity Fund.

Kubayi said the Property Practioners Act, which the PPRA is anchored, is a consumer-focused piece of legislation that has been designed to protect consumers in the property industry.

This is because the PPRA, in contrast to EAAB, will have more reaching power which include inspections without notice and more serious consequences for non-compliance. Over and above this, the new act is aimed at improving the functioning of the sector in general, Kubayi said.

Most importantly, Kubayi said the new act will only be able to achieve the desired outcome if it is driven by a stable and well-functioning regulatory authority.

The Minister noted that when the Human Settlements Department came into the property, its priority was to stabilise the portfolio, both national department and the entities.

We were and still are concerned about the negative media reports that were flooding the media about Human Settlements entities in which EAAB was not spared. It is for this reason that we prioritised the appointment of a new Board, whose top most important task was to stabilise the entity and ensure that the entity focuses on its primary mandate.

I am delighted to report from industry bodies that they have noticed a positive change. This is a demonstration that the new Board has hit the ground running and has made such a tremendous progress in a short space of time, Kubayi said.

She emphasised that all corporate governance principles, which include transparency, accountability, and security, need to be observed, so that an entity can function properly with a safe and healthy work environment in which the entity is best abled to achieve its mandate.

The Minister said she expects that the PPRA launch will assist in the process of turning a new leaf in the entity.

I expect that individuals within the PPRA will act within a system of rules, policies, and practices that engender respect for one another and for the established structures of governance and how they function, Kubayi said.

Transformation needed to heal divisions of the past

Meanwhile, Kubayi said the property practitioners subsector needs to be transformed so that the historically disadvantaged, especially women and people living with disabilities, can participate meaningfully.

Property and property ownership is a very contentious issue in our country and has been a subject of very divisive debates. Given the history of our country, it stands to reason as to why the issue of property and property ownership is such an emotive issue. however, it is critical to understand that the debate and the practical transformation processes are a necessary step towards healing the divisions of the past, she said.

On Transformation, the Act entails the following elements amongst others:

Capacitation and enterprise support for historically disadvantaged property practitioners;

Support of existing SMMEs owned by historically disadvantaged property practitioners.

Promotion of the standard of training and development of historically disadvantaged property practitioners.

Supporting existing historically disadvantaged property practitioners to become principal property practitioners and owners of business property practitioners;

Facilitation of ownership of and participation in property investment enterprises.

Enabling the transformation of property ownership in South Africa by providing grant support (through the Transformation Fund) to historically disadvantaged property practitioners who are in the business of developing residential properties in the affordable and secondary housing markets.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-02-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The US State Department has been taking unusually long to process the appointment of Pakistans Ambassador-designate to Washington, Masood Khan and the delay has triggered an impression of a pause in the process, Dawn reported.

Masood Khan, who served as President of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) till last August, was nominated as Ambassador to the US in November.

He had previously served as Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva and New York and as Ambassador to China.

Khan was to replace the outgoing Ambassador of Pakistan in Washington Asad Majeed Khan.

The request for agrement for Masood Khan had been sent to the State Department in the second week of November, a Pakistani diplomat said.

The agrement is the approval of a designated diplomat by the receiving state.

Normally, the State Department took four to six weeks to issue agrement for Pakistani ambassadors in the past, a former foreign secretary said.

"This time they are taking unusually long," Dawn news quoted another diplomat as saying.

The delay has occurred at a time when ties between the two allies have turned increasingly frosty due to the geo-political environment.

The US interest in Pakistan has waned after it pulled out of Afghanistan. Moreover, Washington looks at ties with Pakistan from the prism of its strategic competition with China, although Islamabad has repeatedly said that it was not part of any camp politics.

"While I'm encouraged that the State Department has reportedly placed a pause on approving Masood Khan as the new ambassador from Pakistan, a pause is not enough. I urge you to reject any diplomatic credentials presented to you by Masood Khan and reject any effort by the government of Pakistan to install this jihadist as Pakistan's ambassador to the US," Scott Perry, a Congressman, wrote to President Joe Biden.

People in the Foreign Office believe that the delay was because of Masood Khan's last position as the president of PoK.
IBM Authorized Digital Badge Awarded on Completion of JES3plus Training

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Interskill Learning, a leading independent supplier of online mainframe training, and Phoenix Software International, Inc., today announced the release of a JES3plus course curriculum. JES3plus, developed by Phoenix Software International, Inc., is a derivative work based on z/OS JES3, and offers a path forward for organizations wishing to remain on JES3 technology in lieu of a costly and potentially risky JES2 conversion. z/OS 2.5, the latest release of the operating system, is the last to include JES3. Upon completion of the course, students will earn an IBM Authorized Digital Badge - JES3plus Experienced 1.1.

JES3plus customers and JES3 organizations planning their migration to JES3plus will benefit from access to training for existing staff and new hires. The Interskill course designers worked closely with the JES3plus development team at Phoenix Software to provide detailed online, on-demand JES3plus training for mainframe personnel. The course is appropriate for application programmers, system programmers, and system operators.

The JES3plus training curriculum consists of five modules:

Introduction to JES3 plus

Working with JES3 plus

Monitoring the JES3 plus Environment

Environment Defining the JES3 plus Environment

Environment Application Interaction with JES3plus



Detailed information about the JES3plus course and each module is available on the Phoenix Software website.

IBM offers an official IBM Authorized Digital Credential which is earned on completion of the five JES3plus modules. The IBM Digital Badge Program offers a recognized, respected and valued benchmark for Z mainframe knowledge and skills in the global mainframe computing industry.

Ed Jaffe, Chief Technology Officer at Phoenix Software International, said, "Our JES3plus team really enjoyed partnering with Interskill. In doing so, we learned first-hand why they're considered the de facto source for mainframe training globally. Interskill's talented course developers did a great job of tapping our decades of JES3 knowledge to create an e-learning curriculum that serves as a solid foundation for mainframers working in JES3plus shops."

Darren Surch, COO of Interskill Learning, said, "JES3 is critical to many mainframe organizations and this collaboration with Phoenix Software lets us harness their team's remarkable depth and breadth of knowledge to provide quality, insightful, on-demand training on the important JES3plus product. We are excited to include this exceptional course in Interskill's extensive online mainframe training curriculum."

About Interskill Learning

Interskill Learning) is a leading provider of IBM Z mainframe training. The company develops, delivers and supports the broad array of modern Z mainframe workforce training components that deliver year-round, global, broad-spectrum mainframe training to mainframe personnel.

About Phoenix Software International

Phoenix Software International, Inc.,) is a systems software development company providing advanced software applications to enterprises around the globe. The company offers a wide range of solutions to modern business challenges.

Press contact:



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/83dce5bd-f9bf-4b6b-bf5e-e65a101cc0cd

The photo is also available via AP PhotoExpress.
NEW YORK, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Synthesio, the most awarded AI-enabled consumer intelligence platform, today announced the appointment of Heath Podvesker as the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO).



After a remarkable year at Synthesio in 2021, with new industry awards, client wins, and exciting new product functionality, Podvesker is the perfect addition to help the firm continue its momentum and achieve its growth objectives in 2022 and beyond. Mr. Podvesker is both an experienced Martech and data expert and a growth-focused leader, with international experience in revenue management, building data and insights products, operations, and consulting.

"I am thrilled to welcome Heath to the Ipsos team. His experience and areas of expertise will be critical to helping us scale the Synthesio, and develop new opportunities within the Ipsos ecosystem. This is truly the year of AI-enabled Consumer Intelligence (AICI), and as the recognized leader in AICI, Synthesio is poised to take off with Heath's guidance. I am looking forward to supporting Heath in his new exciting role," said Leendert de Voogd, Ipsos Global Service Line Leader, Social Intelligence Analytics.



Before joining Synthesio, Mr. Podvesker previously was General Manager for the US at Averity, and Chief Revenue Officer at Ekimetrics. He has also held senior roles at a number of top consulting firms and data analytics organizations including MarketShare/Neustar.



As CEO, he will be the driving force behind Synthesio's strategic focus on helping consumer insights, marketing, and innovation leaders get closer to their customers by applying the next generation of consumer insights services, data science, and technologies that only Synthesio offers.

"I'm thrilled to join the Synthesio team at this critical stage of the company's transformation from a social listening pioneer to market-recognized AICI leader. We have leading technology, a market that is hungry for new approaches, and a very talented group of people," Mr. Podvesker said. "Synthesio and Ipsos have built a world-class consumer intelligence offering thanks to Ipsos' global research capabilities, our unique insights services and frameworks, Synthesio's platform, and our remarkable customers. I'm very excited about Synthesio's future and continuing to deliver excellence and innovation to our customers."

About Synthesio

Synthesio, an Ipsos company, is a global leader in AI-enabled Consumer Intelligence. Our hybrid offering provides companies, brands, and agencies with the most complete, accurate, and predictive picture of their markets and buyers. Our AICI platform, powered by the most advanced natural language understanding and AI algorithms, supports the broadest set of online and offline data sources and fully leverages Ipsos' award-winning analytical frameworks. Synthesio was founded in 2006 and has offices in New York, Paris, London, Singapore, and Brussels.
5th-8th April 2022, Malta is set to host the 1st Annual Plant Medicine Week, a gathering of the latest perspectives and advances from the medical cannabis and psychedelic medicine industries

Valletta, Malta--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Medical Cannabis World Forum and Microdose Psychedelics Insights are proud to announce the launching of Plant Medicine Week. Taking place from April 5-8th, 2022 the event will recognize and advance plant medicine's potential to change society's approach to mental and physical health.

Through a mix of case-studies, panels, Q&A sessions, and exhibitions, attendees will gain a diverse and inspiring perspective of the latest advances from the medical cannabis and psychedelics industries.

'Malta has shown itself to be an island of innovation and creation. It's the perfect destination location to create our flagship European event format. Microdose has partnered with category leaders MedCann to bring all aspects of plant medicine under the same roof.

"PMW shall provide a European base camp for the emerging medical cannabis, CBD & psychedelic medicine industry to meet and be able to listen, learn, discuss & network with the leading figures from the industry from across the world.

"PMW home is Valletta, a cultural hot spot and the venue we have chosen provides a breathtaking backdrop to bring PMW to life. I can't wait to welcome you to my home country, Malta.' - Richard Skaife, Exec Chair, Microdose & Founding Partner, The Conscious Fund.

This year's four-day conference will host Malta's top policymakers, international regulatory experts and global business leaders in the medical cannabis and psychedelics fields. The multi-faceted event will focus on 6 main pillars: medical, legislation, business, regulatory, education, and research.

Nicholas Spiteri, Director of The MedCann World Forum: "Medcann World Forum will continue to place the spotlight on Malta, it's medical cannabis legislation and business-friendly environment and highlight why the country is quickly becoming the leader in the European medical cannabis field.'

The local authorities fully support this sector and would like to open up into more segments, such as R&D and make Malta a centre of excellence in this regard.

Additional information about Plant Medicine Week including registration details, speakers are available at https://plantmedicineweek.com/.

Those interested in presenting at Plant Medicine Week may complete the application to become a speaker.

Companies interested in sponsoring the event may reach out to Daniela Pauli for more details or book a call. Brands interested in sponsoring CBD village and Medical Cannabis exhibition may reach out to Paul Raggett or book a call.

Notes to Editors

About Medical Cannabis World Forum

Medical Cannabis World Forum brings together global industry experts and professionals on the island of Malta, focused on Legislation, Business, Regulatory, Education & Research. It is a unique platform which enables Malta to be at the forefront of Europe.

About Microdose Psychedelic Insights

Microdose Psychedelic Insights aims to unlock the potential of psychedelics through Industry events, market intelligence, original, evidence-based content, strategy and community. We enable and empower society at large to make better, more mindful decisions about psychedelics and its intersection with healthcare, medicine and personal growth. We work with the industry's most influential stakeholders, some of the world's best-known brands and an unrivalled network of scientists, researchers, analysts, innovators, investors and advisors.

Press contact: kristina@microdose.buzz

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112312
Innovative virtual care solutions from Calian now available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace

OTTAWA, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Calian Group Ltd. (TSX:CGY), a diverse products and services company providing innovative healthcare, communications, learning and cybersecurity solutions, announces a new healthcare cloud initiative to operationalize the delivery of digital solutions across the care continuum. Corolar Platform and Corolar Virtual Care are now available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure. Calian customers can now take advantage of the productive and trusted Azure cloud platform, with streamlined deployment and management.

Calian, a Microsoft Gold Partner, is a trusted technology partner across the healthcare ecosystem. Delivering digital health solutions in a software as a service (SaaS) business model enables rapid deployment and reduces total cost of ownership (TCO) for healthcare providers by enabling a pay-per-consumption commercial model. This frictionless business model enables hospitals, clinics, labs, pharmacies, regional health systems, provincial agencies and the private sector to purchase these digital solutions through this global commercial marketplace.

"Calian delivers digital health solutions engineered to improve access to high-quality care," says Sacha Gera, President, IT and Cyber Solutions, Calian. "Our innovations improve outcomes through better engagement across the care continuum, increase efficiencies in care delivery and protect critical systems and patient data."

Michael Lonsway, Principal, Digital Health Solutions, Calian adds, "Our new SaaS model and the Azure Marketplace delivery make it simple and affordable for healthcare CIOs to respond to the changing needs of their communities."

"The Microsoft Azure Marketplace makes it easy for healthcare customers to quickly find, buy and deploy partner solutions they can trust, all certified and optimized to run on Azure," says Lisa Carroll, Public Sector Lead, Microsoft Canada. "We are happy to welcome the Calian digital health solutions to the Azure Marketplace ecosystem."

The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions that are certified and optimized to run on Azure. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with Microsoft partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use.

Links:

Corolar Virtual Care in the Azure Marketplace

Learn about the Calian virtual care solutions for healthcare providers

Learn about the Calian and L-SPARK Accelerator Program to advance digital health technology innovation

About Calian

We keep the world moving forward. Calian helps others communicate, innovate, learn, stay safe and lead healthy lives with confidence. Every day, our employees live our values of customer-commitment, integrity, innovation and teamwork to engineer reliable solutions that solve complex problems. That's Confidence. Engineered. A stable and growing 40-year young company, we are headquartered in Ottawa with offices and projects spanning North American and International markets. Visit calian.com to learn about innovative healthcare, communications, learning and cybersecurity solutions.

Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Media inquiries:

613-599-8600 x 2298

Investor Relations inquiries:

ir@calian.com

DISCLAIMER

Certain information included in this press release is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Such statements are generally accompanied by words such as "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar statements. Factors which could cause results or events to differ from current expectations include, among other things: the impact of price competition; scarce number of qualified professionals; the impact of rapid technological and market change; loss of business or credit risk with major customers; technical risks on fixed price projects; general industry and market conditions and growth rates; international growth and global economic conditions, and including currency exchange rate fluctuations; and the impact of consolidations in the business services industry. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, please see the Company's most recent annual report and other reports filed by Calian with the Ontario Securities Commission. Calian disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. No assurance can be given that actual results, performance or achievement expressed in, or implied by, forward-looking statements within this disclosure will occur, or if they do, that any benefits may be derived from them.

SOURCE: Calian Group Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686601/Calian-Announces-Healthcare-Cloud-Initiative-to-Operationalize-Delivery-of-Digital-Solutions
DGAP-Ad-hoc: GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE / Key word(s): Miscellaneous

GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE announces bookbuilding for up to EUR 190 million (EUR 200 million including greenshoe) private placement and listing on Euronext Amsterdam and targets a ...



01-Feb-2022 / 17:16 CET/CEST

Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



AD-HOC RELEASE Public disclosure of inside information according to Article 17 para. 1 of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on market abuse (Market Abuse Regulation) GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE announces bookbuilding for up to EUR 190 million (EUR 200 million including greenshoe) private placement and listing on Euronext Amsterdam and targets a business combination in the technology sector NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA OR JAPAN OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. OTHER RESTRICTIONS ARE APPLICABLE. PLEASE SEE THE IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE END OF THE RELEASE. Luxembourg, February 1, 2022 GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE (the " Company "), a Luxembourg special purpose acquisition company aiming to acquire one company in the European technology sector, announces the start of its private placement of up to 19 million (20 million including greenshoe) units (the " Units "), each consisting of one share (a " Class A Share ") with the right to receive one-half of a warrant (a " Class A Warrant ") at the end of the stabilization period, at a placement price of EUR 10.00 per Unit for an aggregate of up to EUR 190 million (EUR 200 million including greenshoe). The Units will be offered to institutional investors and other investors. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft and Citigroup Global Markets Limited are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. will act as listing, paying and warrant agent. Citigroup Global Markets Limited will further act as stabilization manager. The private placement is expected to end on or before February 3, 2022. GP Bullhound Holdings Ltd. acts as the sponsor of the Company. GP Bullhound I SCSp acts as the Founder of the Company. The Company is advised by the GP Bullhound's three co-founders and managing partners, Hugh Campbell, Manish Madhvani, and Per Roman. The Company intends to focus on companies or businesses with principal operations in the European Economic Area as well as the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Israel in the technology sector with a focus on the software, digital media, digital commerce, fintech and digital services sub-sectors. The target is envisaged to have an equity value between EUR 800 million and EUR 2 billion. The Company will have 15 months to consummate a Business Combination (this period may be extended up to two times, in each case by three months, by resolution of the Company's general shareholders' meeting), otherwise it will be liquidated and distribute substantially all of its assets to its shareholders. The Class A Shares (ISIN LU2434421173, Amsterdam Stock Exchange: BHND) will be admitted to trading on the regulated market of Euronext Amsterdam and will trade as Units for up to the first 35 days. Subsequently, the Class A Shares will trade without (ex) right to receive  Class A Warrant and the Class A Warrants (ISIN LU2434421330, Amsterdam Stock Exchange: BHNDW) will be distributed to the Class A shareholders. Trading in the Units is expected to commence on February (, 2022. Contact

Iman Crisby

9, rue de Bitbourg

L-1273 Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Iman.crisby@gpbullhound.com Important Notice These materials may not be published, distributed or transmitted in the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan. These materials do not constitute an offer of securities for sale or a solicitation of an offer to purchase securities (the "Securities") of GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE (the "Company") in the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan or any other jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. The Securities of the Company may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). There will be no public offering of the Securities in the United States. The Securities of the Company have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act. The Securities referred to herein may not be offered or sold in Australia, Canada or Japan or to, or for the account or benefit of, any national, resident or citizen of Australia, Canada or Japan subject to certain exceptions. This publication constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy Securities. The listing of the Securities will be made solely by the means of, and on the basis of, a Securities prospectus which is yet to be published. An investment decision regarding any Securities of the Company should only be made on the basis of the Securities prospectus. The Securities prospectus will be approved by the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier in its capacity as competent authority under the Prospectus Regulation and Luxembourg law of 16 July 2019 on prospectuses for securities (Loi du 16 juillet 2019 relative aux prospectus pour valeurs mobilieres) and to be passported to the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (the "AFM"). The Securities prospectus will be published and made available at no cost through the website of the AFM and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and through the website of the Company, subject to securities law restrictions in certain jurisdictions. In member states of the European Economic Area the placement of Securities described in this announcement is directed exclusively at persons who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 (Prospectus Regulation). The Units are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any Retail Investor in the EEA. For these purposes, a "Retail Investor" means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments, as amended ("MiFID II"); (ii) a customer within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2016/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 January 2016 on insurance distribution, as amended, where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II. Consequently, no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (the "PRIIPs Regulation") for offering or selling the Units or otherwise making them available to Retail Investors in the EEA has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the Units or otherwise making them available to any Retail Investor in the EEA may be unlawful under the PRIIPs Regulation. Solely for the purpose of the product governance requirements contained within (i) MiFID II, (ii) Articles 9 and 10 of Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 of April 7, 2016 supplementing MiFID II and (iii) local implementing measures (together, the "MiFID II Requirements"), and disclaiming any and all liability, whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise, which any "manufacturer" (for the purposes of the MiFID II Requirements) may otherwise have with respect thereto, the Units, Class A Shares and Class A Warrants have been subject to a product approval process. As a result, it has been determined that (i) the Units are (a) compatible with an end target market of investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II, and (b) eligible for distribution through all distribution channels permitted by MiFID II, (ii) the Class A Shares are (a) compatible with an end target market of retail investors and investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II, and (b) eligible for distribution through all distribution channels permitted by MiFID II and (iii) the Class A Warrants are (a) compatible with an end target market of investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II, and (b) eligible for distribution to professional clients and eligible counterparties through all distribution channels permitted by MiFID II. Any person subsequently offering, selling or recommending the Class A Shares and Class A Warrants (a "distributor") should take into consideration the manufacturer's target market assessment; however, a distributor subject to MiFID II is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the Class A Shares and Class A Warrants (by either adopting or refining the manufacturer's target market assessment) and determining appropriate distribution channels. This publication may in the United Kingdom only be distributed to, and is only directed at, persons who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, and who are also (i) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the "Order"), (ii) persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.), or (iii) persons to whom it may it may otherwise lawfully be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "Relevant Persons"). This publication is directed only at Relevant Persons and must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not Relevant Persons. Any investment or investment activity in Units of the Company is available only to Relevant Persons and will be engaged in only with Relevant Persons. The Units are not intended, to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any Retail Investor in the United Kingdom ("UK"). For these purposes the expression "Retail Investor" means a person who is one (or more) of the following: (i) a retail client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 2017/565 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("EUWA"); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of the provisions of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the "FSMA") and any rules or regulations made under the FSMA to implement Directive (EU) 2016/97, where that customer would not qualify as a professional client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA ("UK MiFIR"). Consequently, no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA (the "UK PRIIPs Regulation") for offering or selling the Units or otherwise making them available to Retail Investors in the UK has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the Units or otherwise making them available to any Retail Investor in the UK may be unlawful under the UK PRIIPs Regulation. No action has been taken that would permit an offering or an acquisition of the Securities or a distribution of this announcement in any jurisdiction where such action would be unlawful. Persons into whose possession this announcement comes are required to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions. This announcement does not constitute a recommendation concerning the placement. Investors should consult a professional advisor as to the suitability of the placement for the person concerned. This release may contain forward looking statements, estimates, opinions and projections with respect to anticipated future performance of the Company ("forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believes," "estimates," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "may," "will" or "should" or, in each case, their negative, or other variations or comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on the current views, expectations and assumptions of the management of the Company and involve significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. Any forward-looking statements included herein only speak as at the date of this release. The Company undertakes no obligation, and does not expect to publicly update, or publicly revise, any of the information, forward-looking statements or the conclusions contained herein or to reflect new events or circumstances or to correct any inaccuracies which may become apparent subsequent to the date hereof, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The Company accepts no liability whatsoever in respect of the achievement of such forward-looking statements and assumptions. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is or will be made as to, or in relation to, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by each underwriter or by any of their respective affiliates or agents as to, or in relation to, the accuracy or completeness of this announcement or any other written or oral information made available to or publicly available to any interested party or its advisers, and any liability therefore is expressly disclaimed. In connection with the placement of the Units, an underwriter and any of its affiliates acting as an investor for their own account may take up as a proprietary position any Units and in that capacity may retain, purchase or sell for their own account such Unit. In addition, an underwriter or its affiliates may enter into financing arrangements and swaps with investors in connection with which that underwriters (or its affiliates) may from time to time acquire, hold or dispose of Units. Each underwriter does not intend to disclose the extent of any such investment or transactions otherwise than in accordance with any legal or regulatory obligation to do so. The information contained in this announcement is for background purposes only and does not purport to be full or complete. No reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information contained in this announcement or its accuracy or completeness. This announcement does not purport to identify or suggest the risks (direct or indirect) which may be associated with an investment in the Units. Any investment decision in connection with the Units must be made solely on the basis of all publicly available information relating to the Units (which has not been independently verified by the underwriters). Each underwriter is acting on behalf of their client and no one else in connection with any offering of the Units and will not be responsible to any other person for providing the protections afforded to clients of the underwriter nor for providing advice in relation to any offering of the Units. 01-Feb-2022 CET/CEST The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


Poor IT experiences are contributing to the Great Resignation, yet the overwhelming majority of organizations don't have the right tools in place to measure experience

Nexthink, the leader in Digital Employee Experience (DEX) management software, today announced findings from a new industry report in collaboration with Pulse.QA, on IT leaders' spending priorities for 2022 and beyond. The research report titled, "Growing Pains," reveals that 75% of IT leaders believe they can offer a consistent end-user experience for workers both in the office and offsite, yet 84% of respondents stated that they don't have a comprehensive measurement tool to track that experience.

The report highlights a clear disconnect between how IT leaders are spending and the impact it has on the employee experience. In fact, while IT teams are planning to increase their budget and spend more in 2022, 56% of respondents will only spend 1%-10% of their budgets on employee experience tools. And research shows that unreliable IT service and equipment is playing a major role in the Great Resignation, making finding a way to track experiences valuable to overall employee retention.

To attract and retain the workforce of today, IT leaders need to find proactive ways of monitoring for digital disruptions before it impacts employee experience. To create the positive digital experiences employees expect, IT leaders need to have complete visibility across applications, systems and devices whether at home, in the office or somewhere in between. IT leaders cannot deliver a positive digital experience without first understanding the challenges employees face and the sentiment of their experiences.

"You can't enact change if you don't understand the problem," said Yassine Zaied, Chief Strategy Officer at Nexthink. "Employees have options and have set standards for themselves that organizations will need to live up to in order to retain talent. Whether they are remote, hybrid or in the office, they expect positive digital experiences. To get there, IT teams need to take a hands-on approach to monitoring and preventing digital issues from disrupting employees from getting their work done."

Key findings from this study demonstrate:

Most businesses are planning to invest more in 2022 than they did in 2021. 50% of business leaders plan to invest "somewhat more" and an additional 2% plan on investing substantially more in 2022.

The majority of business leaders surveyed felt lukewarm at best about their current employee survey tool. 66% claim poor response rates is the biggest challenge they face with their current employee survey tool, while 48% report they have no one to manage the survey process.

Contrary to their efforts to prioritize employees' digital experience, IT leaders do not have the proper tools or process in place to track the success of these efforts. 68% of leaders polled either don't use a DEX index or they only rely on a single metric. When asked if they'll use a DEX Calculation in 2022, 36% of leaders said they're either unsure or not planning on it.



Leaders and IT teams should see themselves as the architects of the new digital workplace where employees are at the center. By focusing on their experience, IT teams can also drive the customers' experience. Every software tool that is being used, every Windows update, password reset, network connection-all of it plays an important role in shaping a company's productivity, employee and customer satisfaction, and profitability.

To read the full report, click here.

About Nexthink

Nexthink is the leader in digital employee experience management software. The company gives IT leaders unprecedented insight into employees' daily experiences of technology at the device level freeing IT to progress from reactive problem solving to proactive optimization. Nexthink enables its more than 1,000 customers to provide better digital experiences to more than 13 million employees. Dual headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland and Boston, Massachusetts, Nexthink has 9 offices worldwide.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005967/en/

Contacts:

Kelley Flynn

press@nexthink.com
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - J&T Express, an international express logistics company, today announced at LEAP that it will set up its MENA regional headquarters in Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and build the largest smart logistics industrial park in the region together with eWTP Arabia Capital and other partners.

Held in Riyadh from February 1-3, 2022, LEAP Summit is a leading global technology event in Saudi Arabia, featuring over 700 emerging technology startups. Jet Lee, Founder and Chairman of the J&T Group, delivered a keynote speech via video at the summit, announcing that J&T Express will set its MENA regional headquarters in Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and build the largest smart logistics park in the region. He shared that the industrial park will meet the growing logistics demands in the region, serve J&T's consumers and partners, and enhance delivery service experiences.

Representing the Saudi Arabian government, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the smart logistics industrial park project with J&T Express and eWTP Arabia Capital. H.E. Eng. Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Saudi Arabia, His Excellency the President of GACA, Mr. Abdulaziz Al-Duailej, and the Chairman of Saudi Federation for Cyber Security, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), Board Member of Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), Mr. Faisal Alkhamisi, attended and witnessed the signing ceremony.

With the signing of the project, J&T Express is committed to cultivate professional talents, invest in advanced technology and equipment, and build the largest smart logistics industrial park in the MENA in the next ten years, making Saudi Arabia a global hub and strategic operation center for the entire regional market. The logistics park will include world-class sorting centers, auto warehousing systems, air cargo terminals, e-commerce industrial parks and modern industrial parks. It will provide the most advanced tech-driven services to its ecosystem partners in the near future and foster robust growth in the local retail and manufacturing sectors with the goal of making Saudi Arabia a pivotal gateway that bridges Asia, Europe, and Africa and helping Saudi Arabia achieve Vision 2030. This initiative is also greatly supported by the MENA venture capital eWTP Arabia Capital and other partners.

eWTP Arabia Capital's Managing Partner Jerry Li commented at the event, "It's a great pleasure for eWTP Arabia to participate in this project as a partner to further support J&T Express' operations in the MENA region and fuel its global network development. Together with J&T Express, we are confident to support more tech-driven innovative companies, supply chains and brands in China, who are looking to win over the global market."

In January this year, J&T Express launched its business in both the Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) markets. With its national self-owned distribution networks and localised warehousing systems, the company has successfully achieved full coverage in both countries.

Since its establishment in 2015, J&T Express has always adhered to a global mindset. With its unique operation model and active market expansion, it has rapidly built its own delivery network in 10 countries across the pan-Asia Pacific region to meet the growing demand of users for cross-border services. J&T Express will continue exploring opportunities in emerging markets as part of its global strategy to connect the world with greater efficiency and bring logistic benefits to all.

About J&T Express

Founded in August 2015, J&T Express is a rapidly-growing international delivery company, with its core business in express services and cross-border logistics. J&T Express is committed to continuously creating integrated quality experiences for its customers globally. J&T Express' network spans ten countries including China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and serves over 2 billion people.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1721319/JT_Express_Logo.jpg
500,000 subsidy granted to Global Bioenergies by the

Grand Est region as part of the France Relance plan

Evry, 01 February 2022: Global Bioenergies has been awarded a 500,000 subsidy to complete construction of the Pomacle production unit and start marketing its innovative ingredients to the cosmetics industry.

Global Bioenergies announced last spring the decision to build a production unit on the Pomacle site, near Reims. The first phase of the work was launched in the summer of 2021, and will enable production to start in March 2022.

The second phase of work will allow the unit to reach its full capacity, approximately 100 tons per year of isobutene, with isobutene derivatives targeting the make-up market, priorized by the Company due to its high prices.

The financial support of the Grand Est region, through the granting of a 500,000 subsidy within the framework of the France Relance plan, covers half of the second phase of construction of this industrial unit and consolidates the long-standing links between Global Bioenergies and the Grand Est region. It contributes to the dynamism of the local industrial fabric by investing in innovative production tools.

Marc Delcourt, Chief Executive Officer, said: "We thank the Grand Est region for its valuable support. Our LAST brand has pushed the boundaries of naturalness in make-up, and the upcoming launch of this new industrial unit will enable us to respond to the major cosmetics players' quest of naturalness."

Samuel Dubruque, Chief Financial Officer, added: "We are working in parallel to obtain other, larger public fundings: beyond cosmetics, our technology can be used for numerous applications in materials and fuels. In particular, the decarbonation of air transport features among the list of France's 10 priority objectives: our process is radically different from other technical options and offers the prospect of being one of the most competitive in the world."

About GLOBAL BIOENERGIES

Global Bioenergies has developed a process to convert plant-derived resources into a family of compounds used in the cosmetics industry as well as the energy and materials sectors. In 2021, the Group entered the market with the launch of LAST, its own make-up brand with formulas based on a key ingredient produced via its technology. The Company is constantly seeking to enhance the performance of its process while gradually ramping up production capacities in order to supply ingredients to major cosmetics manufacturers, thereby promoting naturalness in the industry whilst improving its carbon footprint. Some of these compounds can also be used to produce renewable plastics, rubbers and paints. Lastly, Global Bioenergies is also aiming to reduce CO 2 emissions in the aviation sector and thereby curb global warming. Global Bioenergies is listed on Euronext Growth Paris (FR0011052257 - ALGBE).

Receive information about Global Bioenergies directly by subscribing to our news feed on www.global-bioenergies.com

Follow us on Twitter: @GlobalBioenergi

Contact

PRESS CO NTACT

Iva Baytcheva: ibaytcheva@ulysse-communication.com

Nicolas Daniels: ndaniels@ulysse-communication.com

GLOBAL BIOENERGIES

Email: invest@global-bioenergies.com

Tel: +33 (0)1 64 98 20 50

Attachment
Grasse, February 1, 2022

Activity 2021

2021 was a good year: the Robertet Group's turnover reached 606 million euros, an increase of 12.7% (14.9% at constant exchange rates), and by division +12% in Raw Materials, +16% in Fragrance, +8% in Flavors.

Robertet announces the appointment of Jerome Bruhat as Executive Vice President in preparation for the changes in the Group's governance

The Robertet Group announces that Jerome Bruhat will take up his position as Chief Operating Officer as of today. This appointment is an important event in the evolution of the Group's governance, and comes after a very good year in 2021, a sign of vigorous growth and the great strength of its activities. In a turbulent global economic context, the group has been able to assert its leadership position in all its natural product ranges - a guarantee of its independence - while ensuring that the ambitious lines of development in terms of Social and Environmental Responsibility that it has set itself are upheld.

Jerome Bruhat's arrival in the General Management team is the result of a selection process carried out in 2021. It comes in the framework of the dissociation of the functions of its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Philippe Maubert, which will take effect following the General Assembly in June 2022. At that time, Philippe Maubert will assume the role of non-executive Chairman of the group and Jerome Bruhat that of Chief Executive Officer.

Jerome Bruhat joins the Robertet Group after more than 3 decades with the L'Oreal Group. Aged 54, he has been President of the L'Oreal Group in Japan since 2015. There, he developed the business of the various divisions, the Innovation and Industry activities, and made company acquisitions. He began his career in 1991 in the Public Products division in France, before moving on to General Management positions in Belgium, Germany, Japan and the United States (among other positions, he was Global Director of the Maybelline New York brand and President of L'Oreal Germany).

About the Robertet Group

ROBERTET S.A. was founded in 1850 in Grasse and is the world leader in natural pro- ducts. Family owned since its inception and still controlled by the Maubert family, Robertet is the only fragrance, flavor and ingredient company that is fully integrated at every stage of the creation process - from source to final fragrance and flavor. Today, Robertet is represented in more than 50 countries and has over 2,000 employees worldwide.

Visit www.robertet.com for more details.

*Next press release expected after the Board of Directors' meeting of February 22, 2022.

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REVENUE: 334m (+25.5%)

RETAIL SALES: 639.6m (+32%)

Paris, 1 February 2022

Roche Bobois SA (ISIN: FR0013344173 - ID: RBO) ended 2021 on another record with higher than expected full-year sales of 334m, up a robust 25.5% compared to 31 December 2020, while 2020 was also a good year for the Group. This outstanding performance confirmed the strong appeal of the Group's brands and very good control of delivery schedules. Note that 2021 revenue rose 21.5% compared to 2019 (pre-crisis).

At the same time, business trends remained robust throughout the year and especially in Q4 2021, with retail sales (all brands combined) up 25.8% compared to Q4 2020, which was already at an excellent level. This very positive trend was visible in all regions. Business was particularly strong during the "8 jours exceptionnels" operations in France (November 2021) and the US (October 2021).

The Group also posted record high retail sales of 639.6m as of 31 December 2021, representing growth of 32% compared to 2020 and 30.5% compared to 2019.

Finally, the order backlog on 31 December 2021 stood at a robust 159m (+53.6% compared to 2020, and +99.5% compared to 2019). This backlog indicates the prospect of excellent delivery levels and hence sales volumes for the first semester of 2022.

Note that Roche Bobois communicates both revenue (stemming from effective deliveries from by its directly-operated stores and from royalties and commission fees) and retail sales (stemming from pre-tax order intake by the network of directly-operated stores and franchises). Retail sales provide an indication of store activity and sales levels in coming months.

Revenue

(unaudited - m) 2020 2021 Change at current exchange rates (%) Change at constant exchange rates (%) 9M revenue 179.6 242.3 +34.9% +37.1% Q4 86.5 91.6 +6.0% +4.7% TOTAL 12m 266.0 333.9 +25.5% +26.5%

2021 revenue by region is available in the appendix

Sharp growth in 2021 revenue in all regions

Q4 2021 revenue totalled 91.6m, up 6% on a current exchange rate basis (+4.7% on constant exchange rates) compared to 86.5m in Q4 2020, which was especially high after benefiting from a catch-up effect. Growth in Q4 2021 revenue was driven by North America (US/Canada), thanks to the excellent level of retail sales seen in previous months and a beneficial exchange rate during the quarter.

Over 2021 as a whole, Roche Bobois SA generated record revenue of 334m, up a hefty 25.5% relative to 2020 revenue (+26.5% constant exchange rates). This excellent performance was visible across all regions and especially France and the US.

Roche Bobois in France generated revenue of 102.9m over 2021, a surge of 21.2% relative to 2020. This excellent performance reflected robust retail sales in the directly operated stores over the year and buoyant deliveries. 2021 revenue was up 22.1% compared to 31 December 2019.

Revenue generated by the Cuir Center brand totalled 40.1m, up 12.3% relative to 31 December 2020 and 11.4% compared to 31 December 2019.

North America (US and Canada) posted the highest growth over the year at 41.5% on a current exchange rate basis (+45.5% on a constant exchange rate basis with revenue of 101.3m, an outstanding performance. Note that 2021 revenue rose 29.3% compared to 2019.

Europe (excluding France and the UK) generated revenue of 62.9m, up a clear 21.5% compared to 2020 and driven especially by Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. Note that 2021 revenue rose 25.5% compared to 2019.

The UK posted revenue of 16.5m, up 9.9% on a current exchange rate basis (+6.3% on a constant exchange rate basis) compared to 2020.

Record retail sales at end-December 2021 (+32%)

The Group generated robust retail sales in Q4 2021 of 187.9m all brands combined, representing a surge of 25.8% relative to the already excellent performance seen in Q4 2020 and 35.4% compared to Q4 2019. The directly-operated stores outperformed the franchise stores with retail sales of 103.4m, up 29.0% compared to Q4 2020.

Note that in Q4 2021, the "Les 8 jours exceptionnels" promotional campaign was a clear success especially in France and the US. The directly-operated stores in France generated sales volume of 33.1m, or overall growth of 20.8% in Q4 2021 whereas sales volumes for the directly-operated stores in North America (US/Canada) reached 34.3m, up 43.4% relative to Q4 2020.

At the end of 2021, over the network as a whole (franchises included), sales volumes therefore totalled 639.6m, a record high for the Roche Bobois Group, compared with 484.5m in 2020, or growth of 32% (+30.5% compared to 2019). The directly-operated store network outperformed this growth, recording total sales volumes of 350, vs. 258.3m last year, up a considerable 35.4% (+37.7% compared to 2019).

Finally, the backlog of orders still to be shipped on 31 December 2021 stood at 159m, representing a massive 53.6% increase relative to 2020 (103.5m) and 99% relative to the level in 2019. This robust order backlog implies an equivalent amount of sales to deliver and hence to book over the first months of 2022.

Store-opening programme

At end-December 2021, Roche Bobois SA had 338 stores including 258 Roche Bobois stores (of which 107 directly operated and 151 franchises) and 80 Cuir Centers (including 21 directly operated and 59 franchises).

Over 2021, the Group undertook:

six openings: two directly operated in Leeds (UK) and Monaco (France), and four under franchise including a third store in Marrakech (Morocco), two openings in China in Huzhou and Xi'an, and a Cuir Center in Niort (France).

two directly operated in Leeds (UK) and Monaco (France), and four under franchise including a third store in Marrakech (Morocco), two openings in China in Huzhou and Xi'an, and a Cuir Center in Niort (France). five closures: four franchises (Shenzhen in China, Mulhouse in France, Athens Alimos in Greece and Columbus Ohio in the US) and one directly-operated store (Lisbon in Portugal).

four franchises (Shenzhen in China, Mulhouse in France, Athens Alimos in Greece and Columbus Ohio in the US) and one directly-operated store (Lisbon in Portugal). five store transfers (relocation): Barcelona (Spain), Cape Town (South Africa), Guangzhou (China), Shanghai (China) and Amiens (France).

For 2022, Roche Bobois SA is planning two directly-operated openings in the US in Q1 2022 (Sarasota, Florida and Palm Desert, California, work currently underway) and should realise two or three additional openings of directly-operated stores in North America and Europe over the year.

At the same time, the group is planning three particularly qualitative transfers during 2022, aimed at having premium locations in Milan (Italy), Madrid (Spain) and Boston (US).

2022 should also see the opening of 5-10 stores under franchise.

Surge in 2021 EBITDA and fresh growth in revenue expected in H1 2022

Strengthened by the excellent level of revenue generated in 2021, the Group confirmed its target for a surge in EBITDA over the year.

At the same time, given the high level of sales volumes and the backlog of orders still to deliver, the Group is confident in can post further revenue growth over H1 2022.

Next event: 2021 full-year earnings - Thursday 24 March 2022 before the market opens

About Roche Bobois SA



Roche Bobois SA is a French family business founded in 1960. The Group operates in 55 countries and has a network of 338 owned stores and franchises (at 31 December 2021) marketing its two brands: Roche Bobois, a high-end furniture brand with a strong international presence, and Cuir Center, positioned in the mid-range market segment with an essentially French customer base. Through its Roche Bobois brand, the Group embodies the French Art de Vivre whose presence can now be felt on the world stage, with original and bold creations from talented designers (Bruno Moinard, Jean Nouvel, Ora Ito, Sacha Lakic, Christophe Delcourt, Stephen Burks, Kenzo Takada, Bina Baitel...) and partnerships with fashion and haute couture houses. Roche Bobois is also a committed partner in the world of culture and the arts. Including franchises, these two brands posted 2021 retail sales of 639.5 million excluding VAT, to which Roche Bobois contributed 532.4 million and Cuir Center 107.1 million. Roche Bobois SA consolidated revenues came to 334 million in 2021.

For more information please visit www.bourse-roche-bobois.com

CONTACT

Actus Finance - Anne-Pauline Petureaux

Investor Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 72 apetureaux@actus.fr

Actus Finance - Serena BONI

Press Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)4 72 18 04 92 / sboni@actus.fr

APPENDICES



Revenue by region and by brand (unaudited - m) 2020 2021 Change at current exchange rates (%) Change at constant exchange rates (%) Roche Bobois France 84.9 102.9 21.2% 21.2% Roche Bobois USA/Canada 71.6 101.3 41.5 45.5 Roche Bobois UK 15.0 16.5 9.9% 6.3% Roche Bobois Other Europe 51.7 62.9 21.5% 22.0% Roche Bobois Other (overseas) 4.3 6.7 57.3% 56.7% Cuir Center 35.7 40.1 12.3% 12.3% Corporate 2.9 3.6 26.5% 26.5% TOTAL 266.0 333.9 25.5% 26.5%

Reconciliation between Retail sales/Revenue (m)

H1 2021 retail sales 639.6 Franchise retail sales -289.7 Retail sales of associates -1.5 Impact of pace of orders and deliveries -55.5 Royalties +13.3 Other services provided +27.7 Consolidated 2021-month 2021 sales 333.9

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements do not constitute guarantees regarding the future performance of ROCHE BOBOIS. This forward-looking information covers the future outlook, growth and commercial strategy of ROCHE BOBOIS and is based on the analysis of future result forecasts and estimates of amounts that cannot yet be determined. By nature, forward-looking information involves risks and uncertainties, as it relates to events and depends on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. ROCHE BOBOIS draws your attention to the fact that forward-looking statements provide no guarantee of future performance and that its actual financial position, results and cash flow, as well as changes in the sector in which ROCHE BOBOIS operates, may differ significantly from those proposed or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this document. Moreover, even if ROCHE BOBOIS' financial position, results, cash flow and changes in the sector in which ROCHE BOBOIS operates were to be in accordance with the forward-looking information contained in this document, these results or changes may not be a reliable indicator of ROCHE BOBOIS' future results or developments. A description of events that could have a material adverse impact on ROCHE BOBOIS' business, financial position or results, or on its ability to achieve its targets, is given in Chapter 4 "Risk Factors" of the Base Document.

GLOSSARY

Current EBITDA: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It designates the Group's pre-tax profit before interest, depreciation and amortisation of fixed assets (but after depreciation of stocks and receivables), store opening costs, expenses for payments in shares, including the associated social charges.

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UN Undersecretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo has called for dialogue to defuse the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Addressing the Security Council on Monday, DiCarlo said that over 100,000 troops and heavy weaponry from Russia are positioned along the border with Ukraine and nspecified numbers of Russian troops and weaponry are also reportedly being deployed to Belarus ahead of large-scale joint military exercises in February on the borders with Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states, reports Xinhua news agency.

"NATO members are reportedly planning additional deployments in Eastern European member states, and NATO has advised that 8,500 troops are now on high alert.

"Accusations and recriminations among the various actors involved in the ongoing discussions have created uncertainty and apprehension for many that a military confrontation is impending," she said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has made clear that there can be no alternative to diplomacy and dialogue to deal with the complex, longstanding security concerns and threat perceptions that have been raised.

He has expressed his strong belief that there should not be any military intervention in this context and that diplomacy should prevail.

He has been equally explicit that any such intervention by one country in another would be against international law and the UN Charter. His expectation is that all sides contribute to avoiding confrontation and to creating conditions for a diplomatic solution to end this crisis, said DiCarlo.

"We, therefore, welcome the steps taken so far by all involved to maintain dialogue. We urge and expect all actors to build on these efforts and to remain focused on pursuing diplomatic solutions by engaging in good faith," she said.

"We further urge all actors to refrain from provocative rhetoric and actions to maximize the chance for diplomacy to succeed. Achieving mutual understanding and lasting, mutually acceptable arrangements is the best way to safeguard regional and international peace and security in the interests of all."

The UN is closely following the ongoing diplomatic discussions on the future of European peace and security architecture among representatives of Russia, the US, NATO members, the European Union, and the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The UN hopes the outcome of these talks will strengthen peace and security in Europe, including for Ukraine, she said.

No one is watching the current diplomatic efforts more than the people of Ukraine, they have endured a conflict in eastern Ukraine that has taken over 14,000 lives since 2014 and that tragically is still far from resolution. It is painfully obvious that any new escalation in or around Ukraine would mean more needless killing and destruction, said DiCarlo.

She stressed the UN Secretary-General's appeal to all concerned to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and continue on the diplomatic path, saying the UN stands ready to support all efforts to that end.
LONDON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Solidus Technologies has boosted its pipeline of strategic partnerships with the announcement of a cooperation with leading global cyber-security firm Cyber Smart Defence (CSD).

Solidus AI Tech, the AI arm of the company, welcomed CSD founder and CEO Madalin Dumitru as its cyber-security advisor to ensure the security and data protection of the company's High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure. CSD was instrumental in creating a global cyber-security tower capable of delivering all cyber-security services on all continents for global digital and IT solutions company Stefanini Group; others among its portfolio of world-leading clients include Porsche, Carrefour, BNP Paribas, Al Habtoor Group, Orange and Goodyear.

Solidus Technologies founder Paul Farhi said: "It's an honour to have Madalin on board as a cyber-security advisor for our platform. Madalin's expertise is sought after around the world, and he is a hugely respected commentator on cyber-security issues, including on media platforms such as NBC, USA Today, Fox, Aljazeera and ABC News. He'll help Solidus' ecosystem to remain safe, and he'll ensure the Solidus HPS infrastructure remains secure. CSD will also integrate some of the software solutions for its current clients. It's a truly beneficial relationship all round."

At the core of this strategic partnership is Solidus Technologies' goal of solving problems with high computational needs through its HPC capabilities. By integrating Cyber Smart Defence's existing solutions with Solidus' innovative AI and High Performance Computing capabilities, the partnership aims to revolutionise cyber-security solutions.

Adrian Stoica, a Solidus Technologies joint venture partner and co-founder of Solidus AI Tech said: "Our High Performance Computing capabilities for various applications, such as artificial intelligence, defence, climate research, engineering, material science and earth sciences, are fundamental for the future of technology and 'super computing'. Teaming up with Solidus has proven to be a solid and long lasting partnership that will scale our project faster than any other initiative in the world, and with Madalin and Cyber Smart Defence as official partners, it's the perfect combination to write history together."

Despite advancements in artificial intelligence, vulnerability management has lagged behind. Security and IT teams can use AI to improve traditional vulnerability management activities. Speaking to this, Madalin Dumitru said: "I'm excited about the vulnerability monitoring platform, which is a highly secured protocol that does not operate with an IP or Mac address. The vulnerability monitoring platform will enhance our clients' ability to detect sophisticated threats, streamline and collaborate on investigations and automate corrective actions."

About Solidus Technologies

Founded in December 2017, Solidus Technologies started as a cryptocurrency mining ?rm with a particular focus on mining Ethereum (ETH) via GPU-based mining rigs. In the wake of the 2020 financial crash and the significant boost in demand for AI services, the company shifted its core focus to Artificial Intelligence and incorporated Solidus AI Tech to become the AI arm of the business. Solidus' Artificial Intelligence infrastructure will enable Government Authorities, Megacorps, SME's and Professionals to purchase AI services. Solidus AI Tech is launching its eco-friendly AITECH token to operate seamlessly with their AI infrastructure. AITECH can be bought, staked or held.

For more information contact: admin@ai-tech.io
The "Cell Gene Therapy Market Global Outlook Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The cell and gene therapy market size was valued at USD 4.99 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 36.92 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 39.62 during the forecast period

In the cell and gene therapy field, gene therapy gathered the pace last from 2 decades because of the discovery of several genes responsible for mutation in various diseases. The advancement in the cell gene therapy field and innovative technologies give the new era for biological therapeutics. Also, PRIME Designation and marketing authorization for products provide a new opportunity for the manufacturer's financing and revenue generation.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

As per the American Society of Cell Gene Therapy report in 2021, increasing the number of cellular and gene therapy products, application rate and products in clinical trials drive the market growth.

As per the Dive Biopharma report 2021, biotech companies who actively engaged in regenerative medicines and therapies reported USD 14 billion funding only in six months of 2021 which was reported to be USD 19.9 billion for the overall year.

CELL AND GENE THERAPY MARKET SEGMENTATION

Increasing application of gene therapies in diseases diagnosis and rapidly growing new drugs applications will give new market space in upcoming years. In 2020, around USD 2.3 billion funding was reported only from private companies for gene therapies. By 2025, the FDA is expected to approve 10 to 20 products each year, driving the global cell and gene therapy manufacturing market.

In 2020, Medicine in Development Report 2020, around 176 products were reported in cancer therapies in development procedures.

GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLOOK

North America: High economic status and high expenditure on healthcare services drive the cell and gene therapy market in North America. National Health Institutes, industries, academic institutes, and hospitals are the significant contributors of sponsorship and financial funding for cell and gene therapy products.

Europe: The increasing funding for cell and gene therapy drives the cell and gene therapy market growth consistently in Europe. Around USD 2.6 billion financings were reported in Europe for CGTs in 2020, which increased by 103% compared to previous years. In the cell therapy segment, USD 1.8 billion and in gene therapy, USD 2.3 billion funding accounted in 2020, which increased by 196% and 111% growth respectively

VENDOR LANDSCAPE

The key players in the cell and gene therapy market are Gilead Sciences, Novartis, Smith Nephew, Amgen, Organogenesis, Roche (Spark Therapeutics), Dendreon, Vericel, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.

An increasing number of mergers and acquisitions gives new potential to market growth. Gilead Sciences acquired Kite Pharma in 2020. Also, Novartis acquired Avexis in 2018, and Smith Nephew acquired Osiris Therapeutics.

MAJOR GROWTH FACTORS

Merger Acquisition

Expansion of Manufacturing Plants Technological Advancement

Expanding Application for Cell Gene Therapies

Growing Demand for CAR T- Cell Therapies

New Products Approvals Increasing Pipeline Products

KEY VENDORS

Gilead sciences

Novartis

Smith Nephew (Osiris Therapeutic)

Amgen

Organogenesis

Roche (Spark Therapeutics)

Dendreon

Vericel

Bristol-Myers Squibb

OTHER PROMINENT VENDORS

Abeona Therapeutics

APAC Biotech Pvt Ltd

Alnylam

Allovir

Tego Sciences

Avita Medical

Anterogen

AnGes Inc.

BioSolution Co. Ltd.

Cheisi Farmaceutici

CollPlant

CO.DON

Corestem

Bluebird Bio Inc

Biosolution

Stempeutics Research

GC Cell

Sanofi

Gensight biologics

Human Stem Cells Institute

JW CreaGene Co. Ltd

JCR Pharmaceuticals

Japan Tissue Engineering (J-TEC)

Kolon TissueGene

Medipost

MolMed

Nuvasive Inc.

Nipro Corporation

Orchard Therapeutics

Orthocell

Pfizer

Pharmicell

Sibiono Genetech

Shanghai Sunway Biotech

RMS Regenerative Medical System

Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company

Terumo

UPCOMING VENDORS

Biomarin Pharmaceutical

Bellicum Pharmaceutical

Castle Creek Biosciences Inc

Libella Gene Therapeutics

CARsgen Therapeutics

Hrain Biotechnology Co. Ltd

Helixmith

Krystal Biotech Inc.

JW Therapeutic

Poseida Therapeutics

Key Topics Covered:

1 Research Methodology

2 Research Objectives

3 Research Process

4 Scope Coverage

4.1 Market Definition

4.2 Base Year

4.3 Scope of The Study

5 Report Assumptions Caveats

5.1 Key Caveats

5.2 Currency Conversion

5.3 Market Derivation

6 Market at a Glance

7 Introduction

7.1 Overview

7.1.1 Cell Gene Therapy Approved Products 2020-2021

7.2 Cell Gene Therapy Phase-III Products

7.3 Road Map of Cell Gene Therapy

8 Market Opportunities Trends

8.1 Rising Number of Mergers Acquisitions

8.2 Expansion of CGT Manufacturing Plants

8.3 Expanding Applications for Cell Gene Therapies

8.4 Growing Demand for Car T-Cell Therapies

9 Market Growth Enablers

9.1 New Product Approvals Increasing Pipeline of Products

9.2 Prime Designation Funding Support For CGT

9.3 Rising Use of CGT Products for Disease Care

9.4 Increasing Use of CGT Products for Disease Treatment

10 Market Restraints

10.1 High Cost of Cell Gene Therapies

10.2 Ethical Issues Regarding Genetical Material

10.3 Stringent Regulation for CGT Approvals

11 Market Landscape

11.1 Market Overview

11.2 Market Size Forecast

11.3 Five Forces Analysis

12 Therapy

12.1 Market Snapshot Growth Engine

12.2 Market Overview

12.3 Gene Therapy

12.4 Cell Therapy

13 Application

13.1 Market Snapshot Growth Engine

13.2 Market Overview

13.3 Oncology

13.4 Genetic Disorders

13.5 Dermatology

13.6 Musculoskeletal Diseases

13.7 Other Diseases

14 End-User

14.1 Market Snapshot Growth Engine

14.2 Market Overview

14.3 Hospitals

14.4 Cancer Care Centers

14.5 Wound Care Centers

14.6 Other End-Users

15 Geography

15.1 Market Snapshot Growth Engine

15.2 Geographic Overview

15.2.1 Global Cell Gene Therapy Market by Geography

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ywf3ph.

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For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Nerds On Site Inc. (CSE:NERD) (OTCQB:NOSUF) ("NERD" or the "Company"), a mobile IT solutions company servicing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) marketplaces in Canada and the USA, is pleased to announce its financial results and operating highlights for the three-month and six-month periods ended November 30, 2021, highlighted by $2.24 M revenue for the quarter. All amounts expressed are in Canadian dollars.

Q2 2022 Financial Highlights:

Total revenue of $2,247,810

Gross profit of $560,207

Net loss and comprehensive loss of $327,708

Charlie Regan, Co-Founder and CEO of NERD, comments: "We are pleased with our financial stability in the second quarter while we were planning a lot of strategic activities. We look forward to a number of revenue generating opportunities in 2022, including the Staples' partnership "reboot", US expansion through Merger and Acquisition, and increasing adoption of our cybersecurity services."

The Company's complete financial results are available in its Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended November 30, 2021, each filed with Canadian securities regulators at www.sedar.com.

About Nerds On Site Inc.

Nerds On Site Inc., a company founded in 1995 in London, Ontario, specializes in providing cost-effective, leading-edge solutions to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME), serving as the complete SME IT solution specialist. NERD currently has annual revenues of approximately $10,000,000 and growing. The Company services more than 12,000 clients per year with a superb 96.5% customer satisfaction rating (more than 90,000 five-star ratings). NERD's business model is based on sub-contracts in Canada and a franchise model for US expansion. Visit the website to learn more: www.nerdsonsite.com

To learn more, please contact:

Charles Regan, CEO

Nerds On Site Inc.

Tel: 1-877-778-2335

Email: IR@nerdsonsite.com

Thomas Do, Investor Relations Manager

CHF Capital Markets

Tel: 416-868-1079 x232

Email: thomas@chfir.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this material may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Nerds On Site Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686722/Nerds-On-Site-Records-Approximately-224-M-Revenue-in-Q2-2022
The "Rain Gutter Market Research Report by Type, by Material Type, by Application, by Region Global Forecast to 2026 Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Rain Gutter Market size was estimated at USD 6,903.27 million in 2020, is expected to reach USD 7,228.56 million in 2021, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.05% to reach USD 9,277.71 million by 2026.

Market Statistics:

The report provides market sizing and forecast across five major currencies USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, and AUD. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2019 are considered historical years, 2020 as the base year, 2021 as the estimated year, and years from 2022 to 2026 are considered the forecast period.

Market Segmentation Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Rain Gutter to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:

Based on Type, the market was studied across Fascia Gutters, Half-Round Gutters, K-Style Gutters, Seamless Gutters, and Sectional Gutters.

Based on Material Type, the market was studied across Aluminum, Fiberglass, Steel, and Vinyl.

Based on Application, the market was studied across Commercial and Residential.

Based on Region, the market was studied across the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Europe, Middle East Africa is further studied across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Increasing Repair and Maintenance Activities due to Drastic Weather Conditions

Attractive Growth of the Construction Industry

Raised Need for Rainwater Harvesting Accompanied by Health Safety Issues

Restraints

Lack of Skilled Labor

Opportunities

Growing Construction and Increasing Re-Roofing Activities Across Emerging Economies

Modification in Rain Gutter's Design and Material

Challenges

Fluctuation in Rain Gutter Material Cost

Cumulative Impact of COVID-19

Cumulative Impact of COVID-19:

COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Ongoing research by the publisher amplifies their research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market.

Competitive Strategic Window:

The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period.

FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Rain Gutter Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape.

Market Share Analysis:

The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits.

Competitive Scenario:

The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at different stages while keeping up-to-date with the business and engaging stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, Partnership, New Product Launch Enhancement, Investment Funding, and Award, Recognition, Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitor's strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service.

Companies Mentioned

Almesco Limited

BMI Group

City Sheet Metal Co. Ltd.

Cornerstone Building Brands

Englert Inc.

FIRST Corporation, S.r.l.

Gibraltar Industries Inc.

Guttercrest Inc.

Hebei Hollyland Co., Ltd.

KMEW Co., Ltd.

Lindab AB

Nuoran Group

Omnimax International, LLC

Precision Gutters Ltd.

Rheinzink GmbH Co. KG

Royal Building Products

Senox Corporation

Spectra Gutter Systems

The Alumasc Group PLC

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4934dr

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201006117/en/

Contacts:

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - This news release is being disseminated as required by National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues in connection with the filing of an early warning report regarding class A common shares (the "Common Shares") in the capital Silver Mountain Resources Inc. (the "Issuer"), having a head office address located at 82 Richmond Street East, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1.

On January 26, 2022, the Issuer filed a final long-form prospectus (the "Prospectus") in each of the provinces of Canada, except Quebec. Immediately prior to and immediately after the filing of the Prospectus, the Issuer had 133,519,860 Common Shares issued and outstanding on a non-diluted basis.

The filing of the Prospectus triggered the requirement of Mula Mining Corp. (the "Acquiror") to file an early warning report. Immediately following the filing of the Prospectus, the Acquiror beneficially and directly owned and controlled 25,000,000 Common Shares, representing ownership of approximately 18.72% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares of the Issuer on a non-diluted basis.

The Acquiror acquired 25,000,000 Common Shares (on a post-split basis) on March 10, 2021 at a price of $0.0012637 (USD$0.001) per Common Share, for an aggregate purchase price of $31,592.50 (USD$25,000).

The Acquiror acquired the Common Shares for investment purposes. The Acquiror has a long-term view of the investment and may acquire additional securities or dispose of securities either on the open market or through private acquisitions in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other relevant factors and subject to applicable securities laws. The Acquiror may, from time to time and at any time, acquire additional Common Shares and/or other equity, debt or other securities or instruments of the Issuer in the open market or otherwise, and reserves the right to dispose of any or all of the Common Shares in the open market or otherwise at any time and from time to time, and to engage in similar transactions with respect to the Common Shares, the whole depending on market conditions, the business and prospects of the Issuer and other relevant factors, including compliance with applicable securities laws.

All of the Common Shares beneficially and directly owned and controlled by the Acquiror are subject to the terms of an escrow agreement dated January 26, 2022 (the "Escrow Agreement"). Pursuant to the terms of the Escrow Agreement, the Acquiror is restricted in its ability to sell, transfer or pledge, or otherwise dispose of or transfer the economic consequences of securities of the Issuer held by it for a period of 36 months following the date on which the Common Shares are listed for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Listing Date"). Pursuant to the Escrow Agreement, 10% of the subject securities are released on the Listing Date and the remaining securities are released in six equal tranches every six months following the Listing Date.

A copy of the early warning report describing the above transaction is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the profile for the Issuer.

For Further Information Contact: Mula Mining Corp., 150 King Street West, Toronto ON M5H 3T9.

Phone: +51 991688540

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112387
Lead, South Dakota--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Dakota Territory Resource Corp (OTCQB: DTRC) ("Dakota Territory" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the United State Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") has declared effective the Company and JR Resources Corp.'s ("JR Resources") registration statement on Form S-4, filed in connection with their merger (the "Merger") pursuant to a merger agreement dated September 10, 2021 (the "Merger Agreement"). Dakota Territory will hold a shareholder meeting on March 24, 2022 to approve the Merger, among other things.

"The Board strongly encourages Dakota Territory shareholders to vote for the Merger and also to complete the letters of transmittal that will be mailed to them," said Stephen O'Rourke, Co-Chair of the Company. "With your help we will continue to build on our success as Dakota Gold Corp."

Dakota Territory Shareholder Meeting

Dakota Territory will hold a shareholder meeting on March 24, 2022 to approve the Merger, approve Dakota Territory's 2021 stock incentive plan, elect directors and ratify the appointment of Dakota Territory's independent registered accounting firm. The approval of the Dakota Territory shareholders of the Merger is required in order to complete the combination of Dakota and JR Resources under the terms of the Merger Agreement. The proposal is described in more detail in the proxy statement/prospectus that will be mailed to Dakota Territory shareholders, which shareholders should read carefully in its entirety before submitting a proxy or otherwise voting their shares.

Whether or not Dakota Territory shareholders plan to attend the meeting, it is important that their shares be represented and voted.

Dakota Territory shareholders are asked to please vote their shares either electronically over the Internet, or if they receive a paper proxy card by mail, by completing and returning the proxy card mailed to them. The Company encourages shareholders to submit their proxy as soon as possible by Internet or by signing, dating and returning all proxy cards or instruction forms provided to them.

The board of directors of Dakota Territory has approved the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby and recommends that Dakota Territory shareholders vote "FOR" the proposal to approve the Merger.

Holders of JR Resources shares are not entitled to vote their JR Resources shares at the Dakota Territory shareholder meeting, however, a JR Resources shareholder that also owns Dakota Territory shares may vote his or her Dakota Territory shares at the Dakota Territory shareholder meeting. The Merger does not require approval from JR Resources shareholders to proceed.

Closing of Merger

Assuming the approval of the Dakota Territory shareholders on March 24, 2022, the Company anticipates the Merger will close on or before March 31, 2022.

Following the approval of Dakota Territory shareholders of the Merger, on closing of the Merger and pursuant to the Merger Agreement:

Dakota Territory shareholders will receive one share of JR Resources (which will be renamed Dakota Gold Corp. prior to closing) for each share of Dakota Territory;





JR Resources shareholders will continue to hold shares of JR Resources (which will be renamed Dakota Gold Corp. prior to closing); and





Immediately prior to the closing of the Merger, JR Resources will complete a reverse share split such that the total number of JR Resources shares will be proportionately reduced to 35,641,667 JR Resources shares.

For example, on the closing of the Merger:

A Dakota Territory shareholder holding 100 Dakota Territory shares will receive 100 shares of Dakota Gold Corp.;





A Dakota Territory convertible security holder holding 100 Dakota Territory convertible securities will receive 100 convertible securities of Dakota Gold Corp.;





A JR Resources shareholder holding 100 JR Resources shares will receive 72 shares of Dakota Gold Corp.; and





A JR Resources warrantholder holding 100 JR Resources share purchase warrants will receive 72 Dakota Gold Corp. share purchase warrants.

To receive Dakota Gold shares on closing, Dakota Territory shareholders must complete the letter of transmittal they receive from Odyssey Trust Company. This letter of transmittal will contain instructions for how to surrender Dakota Territory stock certificates (or affidavit of loss, if applicable) or shares held in book-entry or other uncertificated form in order to exchange them for shares of Dakota Gold common stock. Shares of Dakota Gold common stock will be in uncertificated book-entry form.

Dakota Territory and JR Resources have filed an initial application with the NYSE American to list the merged company, which will be called Dakota Gold Corp., on the NYSE American. The Company and JR Resources anticipate that both Dakota Gold Corp. shares and share purchase warrants will be listed for trading on the NYSE American. The Company and JR Resources anticipate approval to list Dakota Gold Corp. on the NYSE American on or before the closing of the Merger.

About Dakota Territory Resource Corp

Dakota Territory Resource Corp is a Nevada corporation with offices located at Lead, South Dakota. Dakota Territory is committed to creating shareholder value through the acquisition and responsible exploration and development of high caliber gold properties in the Homestake District of South Dakota.

Subscribe to Dakota Territory's e-mail list to have press releases and other Company information sent to your e-mail address at https://DakotaTRC.com/subscribe.php.

Inquiries

Shareholder and Investor Inquiries: For more information, please contact Jonathan Awde at 604-761-5251 or JAwde@gold-sd.com.

Inquiries regarding the proxy and letters of transmittal: For more information, please contact Daniel Cherniak at 605-906-8363 or DCherniak@gold-sd.com.

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors

The SEC limits disclosure for U.S. reporting purposes to mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. Our property currently does not contain any known proven or probable ore reserves under SEC reporting standards. Our reference above to the various formations and mineralization believed to exist in our property as compared to historical results and estimates from other property in the district is illustrative only for comparative purposes and is no indication that similar results will be obtained with respect to our property. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our latest reports filed with the SEC. You can review and obtain copies of these filings at http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including the statements regarding the Merger. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and expectations that may not be realized and are inherently subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the inability to complete the Merger in a timely manner, the inability to complete the Merger due to the failure of the Company's shareholders to approve the Merger, as described in the proxy statement/prospectus that will be delivered to Company shareholders prior to the meeting of shareholders, the failure to satisfy other conditions to completion of the Merger, including receipt of required third-party consents, the failure of the Merger to close for any other reason, the effect of the announcements regarding the Merger on the market price of Dakota Territory common stock, the possibility that the anticipated benefits of the Merger will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period, the inability to meet expectations regarding the accounting and tax treatments of the Merger, the possibility that the Merger may be more expensive to complete than anticipated, including as a result of unexpected factors or events, the NYSE American's review and approval of our listing application, diversion of management's attention from ongoing business operations and opportunities, the execution and timing of our planned exploration activities, our use and evaluation of historic data, our ability to achieve our strategic goals, changes in the market price of the Company's common stock following the Merger, the state of the economy and financial markets generally and the effect on our industry, and the market for our common stock. The foregoing list is not exhaustive. For additional information regarding factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements, we refer you to the risk factors included in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2021, as amended, as updated by annual, quarterly and other reports and documents that we file with the SEC, including the registration statement on Form S-4 that has been confidentially filed with the SEC in connection with the Merger. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this communication. These statements speak only as of the date of this communication, and we and JR Resources undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. Neither we nor JR Resources gives any assurance that either we or JR Resources or the combined company will achieve its expectations.

Important Information and Where You Can Find It

This document relates to the proposed Merger involving Dakota Territory and JR Resources. JR Resources has filed a registration statement on Form S-4 with the SEC, which includes a proxy statement of Dakota Territory and a prospectus of JR, referred to as a proxy statement/prospectus, and each party will file other documents with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction. INVESTORS AND HOLDERS OF DAKOTA TERRITORY'S SECURITIES ARE URGED TO CAREFULLY READ THE ENTIRE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC, AS WELL AS ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS TO THESE DOCUMENTS, BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. The documents filed by Dakota Territory and JR Resources with the SEC may be obtained free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. In addition, investors and holders of Dakota Territory's securities are able to obtain free copies of the proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC on Dakota Territory's website at http://DakotaTRC.com/.

No Offer or Solicitation

This communication is for information purposes only and is not intended to and does not constitute a solicitation of a proxy, consent, or authorization with respect to any securities or in respect of the proposed transaction. This communication is also not intended to and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor will there be any sale of any securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such other jurisdiction. No offering of securities will be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or an exemption therefrom.

Participants in the Solicitation

Dakota Territory, JR Resources and certain of their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in favor of the approval of the Merger and related matters. Information regarding the Company's directors and executive officers is contained in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2021 and the Schedule 14f-1 filed on March 15, 2021. Additional information regarding the interests of those participants and other persons who may be deemed participants in the transaction may be obtained by reading the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant documents filed with the SEC when they become available. Free copies of these documents may be obtained as described above.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112389
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / The Power Play by The Market Herald has announced the release of new interviews with Eat Well Investment Group, Nextech AR, Talon Metals, Eloro Resources, and Legible on their latest news.

The Power Play by The Market Herald provides investors with a quick snapshot of what they need to know about the company's latest press release through exclusive insights and interviews with company executives.

Eat Well Group (CSE:EWG) subsidiary expands into HEB Grocery

Eat Well's (EWG) Amara Organic baby food is now available in 200 HEB grocery stores in the U.S. Amara launched in HEB in June 2021. Recent product line additions include Peas, Corn & Carrots and Tropical Mango. HEB is one of the largest independently owned food retailers in the U.S. with over 420 stores. Eat Well CEO Marc Aneed joined Dave Jackson to shed light on the expansion.

For the full interview with Marc Aneed and to learn more about Eat Well Groups Amara launch, click here.

Nextech AR (CSE:NTAR)(OTCQB:NEXCF) signs agreement with DesignerInc

Nextech AR (NTAR) has received an initial order and signed a partnership agreement with B2B technology platform and marketplace DesignerInc. This B2B partnership represents a substantial MRR (monthly recurring revenue) opportunity for Nextech as it introduces its ARitize CAD solution and virtual showroom ARitize Decorator to DesignerInc's network of over 1,500 furniture manufacturers. Nextech AR CEO Evan Gappelberg sat down with Dave Jackson to discuss the opportunity.

For the full interview with Evan Gappelberg and to learn more about Nextech AR's agreement with DesignerInc, click here.

Talon Metals (TSX:TLO) announces 31 new drill holes at the Tamarack Nickel Project

Talon Metals Corp. (TLO) has provided an update from the Tamarack Nickel Project in Minnesota. The Talon team reports an additional 31 new drill holes within the CGO West area. All of the new holes have intercepted nickel-copper mineralization, with assays pending. Dr. Etienne Dinel, Vice President, Geology of Talon sat down with Dave Jackson to discuss the update.

For the full interview with Etienne Dinal and to learn more about Talon Metals' Tamarack Nickel Project, click here.

Eloro Resources (TSXV:ELO) intersects high-grade mineralization at Iska Iska

Eloro Resources (ELO) has announced the results of another seven drill holes from its ongoing program at Iska Iska in Bolivia. Two of these holes are underground holes drilled from the Santa Barbara adit. Both holes intersected significant mineralization, including 239.72 grams of silver equivalent per tonne over 82.74 metres. Dr. Bill Pearson, Executive VP of Exploration, sat down with Dave Jackson to discuss the results.

For the full interview with Bill Pearson and to learn more about Eloro Resources' Iska Iska program, click here.

Legible (CSE:READ) CEO provides shareholder update

Legible CEO Kaleeg Hainsworth has provided shareholders with a progress update to assure stakeholders and shareholders that the company's plan hasn't changed. The goal is to continue to carry out the company's focus on top-line growth while building a globally accessible book media marketplace. The company's goal is to allow the world to read when, where, and how it wants.

For the full interview with Kaleeg Hainsworth and to learn more about Legible's shareholder update, click here.

Interviews for The Power Play by The Market Herald are released daily. To learn more about the companies featured in The Power Play or to explore our other interviews visit The Power Play by The Market Herald.

About The Market Herald

The Market Herald Canada is the leading source of authoritative breaking stock market news for self-directed investors. Our team of Canadian markets reporters, editors and technologists covers the entire listed company universe in Canada. We cover over 3,985 businesses, their people, their investors, and their customers. We write the stories that move the Canadian capital markets.

DISCLAIMER: Report Card Canada Media Ltd. ("Report Card") is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market Herald Limited, an Australian company ("Market Herald"). Report Card is not an advisory service, and does not offer, buy, sell, or provide any other rating, analysis or opinion on the securities we discuss. We are retained and compensated by the companies that we provide information on to assist them with making information available to the public. All information available on themarketherald.ca and/or this press release should be considered as commercial advertisement and not an endorsement, offer or recommendation to buy or sell securities. Report Card is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority in any province or territory of Canada, will not be performing any registerable activity as defined by the applicable regulatory bodies and do not provide nor claim to provide investment advice or recommendations to any visitor of this site or readers of any content on or originating from themarketherald.ca. Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees may from time to time acquire, hold or sell securities and/or commodities and/or commodity futures contracts in certain underlying companies mentioned in this site and which may also be clients of Market Herald's affiliates. In such instances, Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees will use all reasonable efforts to avoid engaging in activities that would lead to conflicts of interest and Market Herald and/or its affiliates will use all reasonable efforts to comply with conflicts of interest disclosures and regulations to minimize any conflict. All the information on this document and/or the website - themarketherald.ca - is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. Report Card does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this document and/or website (themarketherald.ca) is strictly at your own risk. Report Card will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website. From our website, you can visit other websites by following hyperlinks to such external sites. While we strive to provide only quality links to useful and ethical websites, we have no control over the content and nature of these sites. These links to other websites do not imply a recommendation for all the content found on these sites. Site owners and content may change without notice and may occur before we have the opportunity to remove a link which may have gone 'bad'. Please be also aware that when you leave our website, other sites may have different privacy policies and terms which are beyond our control. Please be sure to check the Privacy Policies of these sites as well as their "Terms of Service" before engaging in any business or uploading any information.

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SOURCE: The Market Herald

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686791/The-Power-Play-by-The-Market-Herald-Releases-Interviews-Eat-Well-Investment-Group-Nextech-AR-Talon-Metals-Eloro-Resources-and-Legible
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Tudor Gold Corp. (TSXV: TUD) (FSE: TUC) (the "Company" or "Tudor Gold") is pleased to announce that further to its news release dated July 13, 2021, Tudor has submitted the draft information circular and listing application (the "Spin-off Documents") in connection with the proposed spin-off of its six contiguous mineral properties located in the Golden Triangle Area in northwestern British Columbia (collectively, the "Crown Property") by way of plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Goldstorm Metals Corp. ("Goldstorm").

The Company anticipates announcing a proposed date for its next annual general meeting of the shareholders of the Company to approve, among other things, the aforementioned spin-off following receipt of the TSX Venture Exchange's comments on the Spin-out Documents.

The Company further announces that it has entered into an amended and restated arrangement agreement (the "Amended Agreement") with Goldstorm in connection with the Arrangement. Pursuant to the Amended Agreement, among other things:

Tudor Gold shareholders will receive approximately 0.258 of a common share of Goldstorm for every one common share of Tudor Gold held; and

Goldstorm will acquire the Crown Property in consideration for Goldstorm issuing 49,399,999 Goldstorm Shares to Tudor Gold.

The Amended Agreement also contemplates the completion of an additional non-brokered private placement of common shares of Goldstorm for gross proceeds of at least $3.9 million.

Additional details of the Arrangement will be included in the information circular to be mailed to shareholders of Tudor Gold in connection with the next annual general meeting of Tudor Gold referred to above.

About Tudor Gold

TUDOR GOLD Corp. is a precious and base metals exploration and development company with properties in British Columbia's Golden Triangle (Canada), an area that hosts producing and past-producing mines and several large deposits that are approaching potential development. The 17,913 hectare Treaty Creek project (in which TUDOR GOLD has a 60% interest) borders Seabridge Gold Inc.'s KSM property to the southwest and borders Pretium Resources Inc.'s Brucejack property to the southeast. In April 2021 Tudor published their 43-101 technical report, "Technical Report and Initial Mineral Resource Estimate of the Treaty Creek Gold Property, Skeena Mining Division, British Columbia Canada" dated March 1, 2021 on the Company's Sedar profile. The Company also has a 100% interest in the Crown project and a 100% interest in the Eskay North project, all located in the Golden Triangle area.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

TUDOR GOLD CORP.

"Ken Konkin"

Ken Konkin

President and Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.tudor-gold.com or contact:

Chris Curran

Head of Corporate Development and Communications

Phone: (604) 559 8092

E-Mail: chris.curran@tudor-gold.com

or

Carsten Ringler

Head of Investor Relations and Communications

Phone: +49 151 55362000

E-Mail: carsten.ringler@tudor-gold.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statements regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the Company's intention to complete the Arrangement and proposed financing of Goldstorm on the terms and timing as anticipated by management and the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including the expectation that the Company will set the date of the Company's next annual general meeting of the shareholders following receiving comments from the TSX Venture Exchange on the Spin-off Documents. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information and statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connation thereof.

Such forward-looking information and statements are based on numerous assumptions, including among others, that the Company will complete the Arrangement and proposed financing of Goldstorm on the terms and timing as anticipated by management and that the Company will set the date of the Company's next annual general meeting of the shareholders following receiving comments from the TSX Venture Exchange on the Spin-off Documents. Although the assumptions made by the Company in providing forward-looking information or making forward-looking statements are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate.

There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's plans or expectations include the risk that the Company will not complete the Arrangement and proposed financing of Goldstorm on the terms and timing as anticipated by management or at all, that the TSX Venture Exchange or the Supreme Court of British Columbia will not provide final approval to complete the Arrangement, the risk that the Company will not set the date of the Company's next annual general meeting of the shareholders following receiving comments from the TSX Venture Exchange on the Spin-off Documents or at all and other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112404
MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Valsoft Corporation Inc. ("Valsoft"), a Canadian-based company specializing in the acquisition and development of vertical market software businesses, is pleased to announce the acquisition of CADIS, a leading solution for the optimization of planning, execution, and analysis of all operative work processes for freight transport.

Kratzer, a global provider of software for the logistics industry and test systems for the automotive industry, has decided to sell its LOGISTICS AUTOMATION software division as part of strategic refocusing. The CADIS transportation management system (TMS) solution will become its own entity under Aspire Software, the operating group at Valsoft, and will be known as CADIS GmbH.

"We have grown CADIS into a leading TMS provider," said Sibylle Pessall, CEO of Kratzer Automation. "Now it's time to accomplish the SaaS transformation and hand over the baton to an experienced software investor with a proven strategy."

This acquisition marks Valsoft's first entry into the German market, and it's second in the transport and logistics vertical along with Navitrans. CADIS GmbH will continue to operate independently. The company will grow primarily in German-speaking countries, but also expand internationally through its new cloud-based modular software suite.

Valsoft will provide a permanent home for CADIS GmbH, securing a long-term vision and strategy for its product lines through investment and growth opportunities.

"We are incredibly proud to enter Germany through our acquisition of CADIS," explained Joseph Khoubbieh, Head of M&A at Valsoft. "More importantly, we are excited to partner with the talented team there and continue to serve our customers with the same care and passion that they are used to. CADIS' reputation in the marketplace is exceptional and we want to make sure we continue the expansion for decades to come."

Heinz Helewaut, who has over 20 years of experience in the transport and logistics field, has been appointed CEO, and will join forces with the current management team to help grow the business.

"I am thrilled to partner with the talented team at CADIS GmbH to ensure a seamless transition for our customers," said Helewaut. "I look forward to applying the proven strategies that we have at Valsoft to provide growth opportunities for our customers and business partners for many years to come."

About CADIS

For over twenty years, the CADIS TMS solution has been offering transportation companies and logistic service providers added value through the automation of workflows with the CADIS software suite under the brand of KRATZER AUTOMATION. The CADIS operational TMS optimizes the planning, execution, and analysis of all operative work processes for freight transport, allowing customers to become faster, more efficient, and commercially more successful.

About Valsoft

Established in 2015, Valsoft acquires and develops vertical market software companies, enabling each business to deliver the best mission-critical solutions for customers in their respective industries or niche. A key tenet of Valsoft's philosophy is to invest in well-established businesses and foster an entrepreneurial environment that molds companies into leaders in their respective industries. Valsoft looks to buy, hold, and create value through long-term partnerships with existing management.

About Aspire Software

Buy. Enhance. Grow. Aspire Software, an operating group of Valsoft Corp, is a vertical acquisition software company that owns, operates, and manages a portfolio of companies in various industries. Aspire's team of entrepreneurs and business operators has an unwavering commitment to developing our brands and expanding into new markets. It is all made possible thanks to its decentralized management strategy and indefinite hold period.

About Kratzer Automation AG

As an internationally operating key player and premium supplier, Kratzer Automation focuses on the business areas TEST SYSTEMS and LOGISTICS AUTOMATION. The company offers sophisticated software products and complete system solutions to customers in the automotive industry (TEST SYSTEMS) and the logistics sector (LOGISTICS AUTOMATION). The company is headquartered in Unterschleissheim near Munich and is represented at locations in France, Great Britain and China, among others.

Valsoft was represented internally by David Felicissimo, General Counsel and by external counsel Dr. Dagobert Nitzsche and Ann-Kathrin Reibler of Arnecke Sibeth Dabelstein. Kratzer Automation was represented by Stephan Heinemann of Taylor Wessing (legal advisor) and Jan Porschmann and Florian Liepert of Proventis Partners (M&A advisor).

For more information on the companies, please visit https://www.kratzer-automation.com/en/, https://www.valsoftcorp.com and https://www.aspiresoftware.com/

For further information:

Joey Strizzi

Director of Communications and Public Relations

Valsoft Corporation

j.strizzi@valsoftcorp.com

Office: 514-316-7647

Mobile: 514-258-0256

SOURCE: Valsoft Corporation

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686728/Valsoft-Continues-Global-Expansion-with-First-Entry-into-German-Market-Through-Acquisition-of-CADIS-a-Premium-TMS-Software-Solution
BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - New Zealand will on Wednesday release Q4 figures for unemployment, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 3.4 percent, with an increase in employment of 0.3 percent on quarter. Indonesia will provide January figures for consumer prices, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.55 percent on month and 2.15 percent on year. That follows the 0.57 percent monthly increase and the 1.87 percent yearly gain in December. Core CPI is tipped to accelerate to 1.71 percent on year from 1.56 percent a month earlier. Finally, most of the regional bourses are closed on Wednesday for the Lunar New Year, including South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Ornithologists have described two new species of the flycatcher genus Cyornis and the white-eye genus Zosterops from southeastern Borneo, Indonesia.

Cyornis is a genus of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.

This genus contains 25 currently recognized species, including some species that were previously placed in the genus Rhinomyias.

It is distributed throughout southern Asia, from the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Most Cyornis flycatchers are sexually dimorphic in plumage, with males being blue above and mainly blue and white or orange and white below, although a few species are sexually monomorphic and lack bright colors.

Zosterops is a genus of passerine birds containing the typical white-eyes in the family Zosteropidae.

The genus comprises over 100 species distributed in the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian realms.

These birds are supreme island colonizers, which is why so many different white-eye species have evolved so rapidly, as different island populations become isolated and split off from their source population.

The most characteristic feature of Zosterops white-eyes is a conspicuous white feather ring around the eye, though some species lack it.

The new Cyornis and Zosterops species inhabit the Meratus Mountains of southeastern Borneo.

The avian biodiversity and endemism of Borneo is impressive, with some 50 endemic species described from the island under earlier taxonomic arrangements, said co-author James Eaton of Birdtour Asia Ltd. and his colleagues.

Many of these are montane specialists, with around 27 species endemic to Borneos highlands.

Although the mountains of the Malaysian states, Sabah and Sarawak, are relatively well-explored, much of the montane part of Indonesias Kalimantan provinces has seldom been visited.

One of the least-known areas and probably the most isolated mountain range are the Meratus Mountains, South Kalimantan province, a 140 km long north-south arc of uplands clothed with about 2,460 km2 of submontane and montane forest, rising to the 1,892 m summit of Gn Besar (several other peaks exceed 1,600 m).

The new Cyornis species is most closely related to the Dayak blue flycatcher (Cyornis montanus) but morphologically distinguished by lighter blue on the upperparts and more whitish and less reddish on the underparts.

The new Zosterops species is most closely related to the lemon-bellied white-eye (Zosterops chloris) but distinguished by olive upperparts and darker underparts.

Both new species are probably confined to the Meratus Mountains, which are currently surrounded by degraded lower elevation secondary woodland or converted agricultural landscape, the researchers said.

They appear to have diverged from their sister species through geographic isolation in this remote mountain range compounded by altered population dynamics in a depauperate montane bird community.

Although both species are relatively common in the restricted area of the Meratus Mountains, continued habitat alteration and the imminent threat of poaching may be in the process of endangering them.

Therefore, we recommend the IUCN Red List status of Vulnerable for the new species based on criteria B1 and B2.

The Meratus flycatcher and white-eye are described in a paper published in the Journal of Ornithology.

_____

M. Irham et al. Description of two new bird species from the Meratus Mountains of southeast Borneo, Indonesia. J Ornithol, published online January 11, 2022; doi: 10.1007/s10336-021-01937-2

J.A. Eaton et al. 2016 A short survey of the Meratus Mountains, South Kalimantan province, Indonesia: two undescribed avian species discovered. BirdingASIA 26: 107-113
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - SLANG Worldwide Inc. (CNSX: SLNG) (OTCQB: SLGWF) ("SLANG" or the "Company"), a leading global cannabis consumer packaged goods ("CPG") company with a diversified portfolio of popular brands, announces that Mr. Matt Fraser has resigned from the Board of Directors effective immediately, to fulfil his other business interests. The Board and management of SLANG intend to commence a search to identify qualified candidates to fill the vacancy.

Mr. Drew McManigle, Interim CEO and Chairman, stated, "On behalf of the Board and management, I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Matt for his insight, expertise and contribution to the Company, we wish him the best in his future endeavors."

To be added to SLANG's email distribution list, please email SLNG@kcsa.com with "SLNG" in the subject.

About SLANG Worldwide Inc.

SLANG Worldwide Inc. is a global leader in the cannabis CPG sector with a diversified portfolio of popular brands distributed across the United States. SLANG specializes in acquiring and developing market-proven regional brands as well as launching innovative new brands to seize global market opportunities. For more information, please visit www.slangww.com.

Media and Investor inquiries

Investors@SLANGww.com

KCSA Strategic Communications

Phil Carlson

SLANG@kcsa.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management of SLANG at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties and contingencies that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to regulatory risks, risks related to the COVID-19 global pandemic, changes in laws, resolutions and guidelines, market risks, concentration risks, operating history, competition, the risks associated with international and foreign operations and the other risks identified under the headings "Risk Factors" in SLANG's annual information form dated April 29, 2021 and other disclosure documents available on the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. SLANG is not under any obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.

Reader Advisory

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112417
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Orchid Ventures, Inc. (the "Company" or "Orchid") (CSE:ORCD)(OTC PINK:ORVRF), a multi-state cannabis innovation company, announced today that pursuant to a debt settlement agreement with Adam Forrest dated July 14, 2021, Orchid has issued Mr. Forrest 299,928 common shares as a full repayment of his debt. The shares are subject to a four month hold. The transaction was payment for a cannabis license in Long Beach, CA which Orchid subsequently sold.

ABOUT ORCHID VENTURES

Orchid Ventures is a California-based cannabis innovation company that has developed a mass-market brand and loyal consumer following with its premium cannabis products and unique vape hardware delivery systems. Orchid also owns 100% of PurTec Delivery Systems, a company that produces, markets and sells clean vaporizer hardware that has been emissions tested against the most stringent standards in the world set forth by the EU and has unrivaled product quality and value pricing. Orchid's management brings significant branding, product development and distribution experience with a proven track record of scaling businesses and building sustainable revenue growth through value-generating partnerships and innovation that creates enterprise value. Learn more at https://purtecdesigns.com/

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS - ORCHID VENTURES, INC.

Corey Mangold

CEO and Chairman

investors@orchidventures.com

Investor Relations

Corey Mangold

949-357-5818

corey@orchidventures.com

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for historical information contained herein, statements in this release may be forward-looking and made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions, as they relate to Orchid Ventures, Inc. and Orchid Essentials any of its affiliates or subsidiaries (collectively, the "Company") or its management, identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the Company's business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and probably will, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements due to numerous factors, including those described above and those risks discussed from time to time in the Company's Canadian securities regulatory filings with sedar.com, Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include such factors as (i) the development and protection of our brands and other intellectual property, (ii) the need to raise capital to meet business requirements, (iii) significant fluctuations in marketing expenses, (iv) the ability to achieve and expand significant levels of revenues, or recognize net income, from the sale of our products and services, (v) the Company's ability to conduct the business if there are changes in laws, regulations, or government policies related to cannabis, (vi) management's ability to attract and maintain qualified personnel necessary for the development and commercialization of its planned products, and (vii) other information that may be detailed from time to time in the Company's Canadian securities regulatory filings with sedar.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE: Orchid Ventures, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686836/Orchid-Ventures-Issues-Shares-In-Payment-for-a-Distribution-License-in-Long-Beach-CA
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / Torq Resources Inc. (TSXV:TORQ)(OTCQX:TRBMF) ("Torq" or the "Company") announces that it is has arranged certain lead investors for a portion of a proposed non-brokered private placement for up to C$5 million from the sale of 6,666,667 Torq common shares (the "Shares") at a price of C$0.75 per Share (the "Placement").

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Placement to fund exploration at the Company's portfolio of projects in Chile, for ongoing project costs and for general working capital.

The Placement may be completed in multiple tranches and is subject to receipt of executed subscription agreements and funds as well as customary closing conditions, including conditional approval from the TSX Venture Exchange. Completion of the placement is targeted for February 2022.

In accordance with applicable securities laws, the Shares issued under the Placement will be sold to accredited investors or other investors who are exempt from prospectus requirements and will be subject to a four-month hold period in Canada. While the Placement is non-brokered, referral fees may be paid on a portion of the proceeds to eligible persons, where permitted by applicable law. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The securities of the Company have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of any person in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any common shares in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Resales of Shares within the United States will be restricted in accordance with applicable law.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,

Shawn Wallace

Executive Chairman

For further information on Torq Resources, please contact Natasha Frakes, Vice President of Communications at (778) 729-0500 or info@torqresources.com.

About Torq Resources

Torq is a Vancouver-based copper and gold exploration company with a portfolio of premium holdings in Chile. The Company is establishing itself as a leader of new exploration in prominent mining belts, guided by responsible, respectful and sustainable practices. The Company was built by a management team with prior success in monetizing exploration assets and its specialized technical team is recognized for their extensive experience working with major mining companies, supported by robust safety standards and technical proficiency. The technical team includes Chile-based geologists with invaluable local expertise and a noteworthy track record for major discovery in the country. Torq is committed to operating at the highest standards of applicable environmental, social and governance practices in the pursuit of a landmark discovery. For more information, visit www.torqresources.com.

Forward Looking Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking information is information that includes implied future performance and/or forecast information including information relating to, or associated with, exploration and or development of mineral properties. These statements or graphical information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different (either positively or negatively) from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

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.

SOURCE: Torq Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/686841/Torq-Announces-C5-Million-Non-Brokered-Private-Placement
Launch House, a Los Angeles CA-based company focused on creating a multidimensional social space for founders, engineers, creators, and others, raised $12M in Series A funding.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Michael Ovitz, Electric Ant (Chris Ovitz), 6th Man Ventures (Mike Dudas), and Ryan Sean Adams.

Launch House is a community that aims to facilitate physical and digital spaces for collaboration, learning, and growth. It is built to help talented people achieve success & fulfillment  two pillars of both personal and professional growth. Through curated, intimate cohorts of high-potential individuals in gorgeous physical and digital spaces, Launch House fosters career acceleration and authentic, deep bonds rather than transactional relationships.

With the funding, Launch House plans to double-down on its community, expanding its Residency program to additional cities around the globe, and growing the metaverse location. Additionally, the brand plans to launch more verticals, like Hack House (for engineers), to grow the community while still creating separate intimate spaces for the different roles of the startup world. In addition to growing the ongoing programming, Launch House will debut in 2022 their global retreats; software products to assist with fundraising, hiring and distribution; and launching the first space for the startup world in the metaverse.

The company currently has locations in Los Angeles, New York City, and the metaverse.

FinSMEs

01/02/2022
Credit: RenoRun

RenoRun, a Montreal, Canada-based e-commerce platform for construction and building materials, closed a $142M USD Series B funding.

The round was co-led by Tiger Global and Sozo Ventures, with participation from Investissement Quebec, SE Ventures, BDC Capitals Women in Technology and Growth Venture Co-Investment Funds, Fifth Wall, Desjardins Capital, Nicola Wealth, Export Development Canada, TriplePoint Capital, Scale Up, Obvious Ventures, Inovia Capital, Real Ventures, Maple VC, and Silicon Valley Bank, as well as executives from GGV, Opendoor, Sonder and founders of GoodFood.

In addition, the company announced it added Sozo Ventures Founder and General Partner, Phil Wickham to its Board.

Founded in 2017 by CEO Eamonn ORourke, RenoRun is an e-commerce platform for construction and building materials. Through its digital platform, the solution helps contractors drive efficiency to their job sites by planning, sourcing, and delivering building supplies on-demand and with predictability and dependability. The company works with manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, and brands to supply thousands of building materials and supplies, from lumber, drywall, insulation, shingles, and siding, to hardware, doors, paint, and more.

RenoRun, which is present in cities such as Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, Montreal, and Washington, D.C., has grown to over 500 employees or download the RenoRun app on Android or iOS.

FinSMEs

01/02/2022
Retailos Co-founders (from L-R) Muhammad Nowkhaiz, Talha Ansari and Wahaj Ahmed.

Retailo, a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based startup digitizing the regions retail supply chains, raised $36m in Series A equity and venture debt funding.

The round was led by Graphene Ventures joined by 500 Global, Agility, Aujan, Tech Invest Com, Mentors Fund, Shorooq Partners, Abercross Holdings, Arzan VC, AgFunder. The venture debt was raised from Nahda Fund.

The company, which has raised a total investment of $45m in less than 1.5 years of operations, intends to use the funds for expansion into new geographies, verticals and products.

Founded by former Careem executives Talha Ansari, Wahaj Ahmed and Mohammad Nowkhaiz in July 2020, Retailo is a regional B2B marketplace in Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan (MENAP). On its mobile platform, small businesses can find a wide catalogue of over 5,000 SKUs which are delivered in less than 24 hours. They can also avail Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services, which give them flexible payment options and credit lines.

To offer a one-stop shop solution, the company directly works with hundreds of local, regional and global brands. Retailo also optimizes end-to-end logistics in the supply chain via efficient warehousing operations and smart fleet management solutions. Leveraging its wide regional presence, the company bhas recently begun offering its sellers a cross-border distribution platform across the three biggest markets in the region: KSA, UAE and Pakistan. Retailo also provides data analytics services to sellers to help them evaluate sales performance and consumption trends.

FinSMEs

01/02/2022
Stephan Cretier

Vosker, a Victoriaville, QC, Canada-based intelligent remote monitoring technology platform, raised a CAD $60m funding round.

Backers included Stephan Cretier (Founder of GardaWorld) and certain affiliates.

The company intends to use the funds to expand globally and enable further technological capacity and functionality developments.

Founded in 2018 and led by Yan Gagnon, CEO, Vosker is a North American leader in remote area monitoring. People use the platform every day to monitor remote areas in over 50 countries. Its main products and services are marketed under the VOSKER and SPYPOINT brands. The company currently has approx. 380 employees.

FinSMEs

01/02/2022
The Board of New Zealand King Salmon advise that we are currently experiencing higher than expected sea farm mortality. Particularly warm seawater temperatures, most notably in the Pelorus Sound, are contributing to elevated mortality. The situation continues to unfold, and we are deploying best practice measures to counter the heat of summer and other contributing stressors. This outcome is particularly disappointing for our dedicated teams who closely monitor and care for our fish because our improved farming model was showing good results.

Climate change and warming sea temperatures have been identified as key Environmental, Social and Governance risks for the business and NZKS has put measures in place to mitigate these risks, including the adjustments to our farming model, and our application for our Blue Endeavour open ocean farm this year has proven to be particularly challenging.

It is not uncommon to see an increase in mortality over summer particularly on our westerly Pelorus farms and this is one of the main reasons we have applied for Blue Endeavour in the cooler, deeper and faster current conditions of the Cook Strait. The resource consent hearing was completed in December and a decision is expected in the next few months.

This unforeseen increase in mortalities will seriously impact our FY22 full year result and FY23 because our harvest will be reduced. To minimise this impact, we are evaluating options to accelerate our existing harvest schedule starting this week. Our most recent earnings guidance was proforma EBITDA of $10.5m to $12.5m. Although we are still working to quantify the impacts of the increase in mortalities, our latest estimate is a reduction in our FY22 EBITDA by $4.0 - $5.0m to a revised range of $6.5  $7.5m (previously $10.5m  $12.5m).

Please see the link below for details

NZK Market Update

Source: New Zealand King Salmon Investments Limited

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General Capital Limited advises that its subsidiary General Finance Limited, a licensed Non-bank Deposit Taker, will upload its quarterly report for the quarter ended 31 December 2021 to the Disclose Register today.

The attached unaudited quarterly report shows that General Finances business has continued to grow with the achievement of new record levels in its total assets and Net Profit After Tax (NPAT).

 General Finances total assets exceeded $90 million for the first time at 31 December 2021, up 14.6% from 30 September 2021 and 40.5% from 31 March 2021.

 General Finances NPAT for the quarter ended 31 December 2021 (Q3) of $444k was a new record quarterly NPAT for the subsidiary, 37.5% higher than the quarter ended 30 September 2021 (Q2).

 General Finances YTD NPAT for the 9 months ended 31 December 2021 was $985k, significantly higher than full year NPAT in the year ended 31 March 2021 of $223k.

 General Finances capital ratio was 15.68% at 31 December 2021, which is nearly double the 8% minimum requirement.

Mr. Brent King, Managing Director, explained that this report is required as General Finance Limited holds a Non-bank Deposit Taker licence and the reporting is a requirement of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013.

It has been another very positive quarter for General Finance. We will continue to advise the market each time General Finance Limited uploads a document to the Disclose Register, said Mr. King.

The information can also be found at www.disclose-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz.

Please see the links below for details

General Capital (GEN:NZ) subsidiary General Finance update

General Finance Limited Quarterly Report - 31 December 2021

Source: General Capital Limited

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Fort Wayne, IN (46808)

Today

Cloudy with occasional showers for the afternoon. High around 60F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

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Periods of rain. Low 51F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
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Today

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms in the morning. High 72F. S winds shifting to WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

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A mostly clear sky. Low 51F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
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On January 26, 2022, Customs organizations all over the world join in celebrating International Customs Day under the theme Customs bolstering Recovery, Renewal and Resilience. The Honorable Minister of Justice Anna E. Richardson commemorated this day by inviting Customs St. Maarten to the Government Administration Building so that they could be duly celebrated as well.





This is a special day where we celebrate and recognize the role of our customs officers and highlight the working conditions and challenges that they face on the job. On this memorable day, I thank all our customs officers for the work that they have been carrying out on behalf of the country and reiterate my commitment to the continual improvement of this department, stated Minister Richardson.





During the ceremony, Minister Richardson took the opportunity to recognize some members of the customs team for their outstanding qualities, performance and commitment. Customs officer Gabriela Cathalina-Garcia, who recently joined the Customs Department, was recognized for her dedication, performance, and involvement in the PCS committee where she has proven herself to be a dedicated worker, also scoring the maximum on the National Decree on the Import, Export and Transit test.





Customs officer Isha Marlin-Brown, who has been working at the department since 2013, was recognized for the efficiency shown in her work. During the past three years, she has worked in a supervisory role where she has not only exceeded expectations as shift leader but also encourages her colleagues to be the best that they can be by remaining up to date on laws pertaining to customs.





Among the recipients recognized was customs officer Franklin Bernadina. Minister Richardson expressed her appreciation for the passion that officer Bernadina has and continues to display when it comes to the department. She stated, Officer Bernadina is a leader at heart. He shows up to the call of duty and goes above and beyond to ensure the customs department is well-represented at any given moment. I am truly grateful for his attentiveness and dedication to the staff, the department, the wellness and growth of the Ministry and the overall country.





During todays ceremony, I introduced the newly instated Management Team for the Customs Department consisting of Mr. A. Doran, Mr. F. Bernadina, Ms. J. La Paix and Mr. J.S.R. Romney. I remain faithful that this team will continue to enhance the department further and foster an environment in which all our customs officers are given the opportunity and resources to grow and excel, thereby ensuring the safety and security of our borders where the in and out-flow of goods are concerned. On behalf of the Government of St. Maarten, I hereby extend congratulations to our local customs officers, regionally and around the world, concluded Minister Richardson.




The federal government is seeking to take over a 5.15-acre Lebanon property after suspecting the owners of illegally growing nearly $10 million worth of marijuana.

Cai Fen Pan and Ying Xiu Ye are accused of running an illegal cannabis operation out of their Lebanon home, according to a court document filed Jan. 25 by a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The property contains a 4,000-square-foot house, a 4,200-square-foot barn, an additional 1,344-square-foot building and a 1,440 square-foot machine shed.

On Nov. 16, 2020, a Linn County Sheriffs Office deputy was dispatched to the Lebanon to investigate a potentially illegal marijuana grow.

According to the court document, the deputy approached Ye, who consented to showing the deputy the marijuana plants being grown at the residence.

The deputy took note of multiple rooms full of marijuana plants, heat lamps and ventilation systems. According to the deputy, Ye said she grew marijuana for her and her husband to use as well as some friends.

Ye said the couple only gave away the marijuana to friends and did not sell it, according to the court document. Ye admitted neither her nor her husband had permits or licenses from the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, Oregon Medical Marijuana Program or Oregon Department of Agriculture to grow marijuana.

Based on the size and sophistication of the operation, the deputy passed the information to a lieutenant and detective with the Linn Interagency Narcotics Enforcement task force. The deputy provided LINE with photos from the property.

A detective then obtained a search warrant for the property.

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All the buildings on the property had been subdivided into multiple growing and processing rooms, according to the court document, and had separate areas for storing chemicals.

During the search of the home, detectives found around $7,320 in cash in Yes jacket. They seized some 1,096 marijuana plants (including clones) from the home, 2,051 from the machine shed (including clones) and 1,266 from the barn.

In total, LINE seized around 4,400 marijuana plants, weighing 1,260 pounds and valued at an estimated $9,870,709.99.

According to the court document, each grow location had intricate ventilation, watering, power and optimal growing environment designed for marijuana.

Based on the amount of chemicals, water diversion products, power, and processing equipment on the property, detectives deemed the location to be a large-scale marijuana manufacturing operation.

The house itself appeared to be a short stay location and hardly lived in, detectives noted. The couple bought the house on or around July 3, 2019, for the sole purpose of growing and harvesting marijuana for distribution, according to the court document.

As a part of the search warrant, a 2020 Dodge pickup truck, a trailer and $8,982 were seized by law enforcement.

Ye and Pan relocated to Oregon from Georgia, where they still operate a for-hire transportation business, according to the court document.

Maddie Pfeifer covers public safety for Mid-Valley Media. She can be contacted at 541-812-6091 or Madison.Pfeifer@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter via @maddiepfeifer_

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The Legislature  at least some of it  will return to the Oregon Capitol on Tuesday with bins of bills, a high COVID-19 viral load around the Capitol, and very little time to get in, get done and get out.

Tuesday's kick-start to the 35-day session features 50 hearings this week alone. The "short session" sets an unforgiving pace as bills have to clear hurdles at breakneck speed to stay on track for a shot at getting to the governor's desk. Once the clock starts, it doesn't stop, not for Saturdays, Sundays, Presidents Day or COVID-19 outbreaks.

The docket is overflowing with 268 bills ranging from overtime for agricultural workers, regulating kratom, reining in the governor's emergency powers, cannabis, construction, mental health, gambling, abortion, inmate labor, guns and magic mushrooms. It's an agenda that would be daunting in the even-year sessions that run 160 days. But the session only has five weeks.

The result is that bills face a legislative version of Death Race 2022. To become law, a bill introduced Tuesday, must swerve through hearings, committee votes, amendments and floor sessions in both the House and Senate. Bills must keep moving, with key hurdles on Feb. 7, 14, 18 and 24. Stall at any of the deadlines and the legislation becomes political roadkill.

There are a few "safe harbors"  joint committees, the chamber's rules committees and a few other exceptions allow bills to stay alive past the various drop-dead dates. But all bills face the ultimate deadline of March 7, when the Oregon constitution requires the Legislature to shut down. A session can go an extra five days if both Democrats and Republicans agree. But that kind of bipartisan cooperation is a rarity.

Lawmakers also have the distractions of the quarterly state revenue forecast on Feb. 9 and the deadline to file to run for office that lands on March 8, right after the end of the session.

COVID-19 outbreaks caused delays during the 2021 session that were stressful stoppages even during the six-month session. A stoppage of five days for a positive test would cripple the short session. The zip code with the Capitol has regularly been at or near the top of the infection rates throughout the pandemic.

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In the Senate, some lawmakers have refused to wear masks. Sen. Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg, who is also the state Republican party chair, has railed against requirements to wear masks. In the last special session, Sen. President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, was forced to order the sergeant-at-arms to escort Heard off the Senate floor.

Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, told OPB on Monday that up to six senators likely won't be in the Capitol on Tuesday because of issues related to COVID-19. That would leave the Senate with a buffer of just four members to ensure the two-thirds majority required for a quorum to meet and conduct any business.

COVID-19 isn't the only possible brake on the session. Democrats hold a 37-23 majority in the House and 18-12 majority in the Senate. That's more than the three-fifths of votes needed to pass taxes or other financial legislation.

Democrats have signaled plans to quick-march a slew of progressive legislation through the Legislature. Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, will preside over the House that features a turnover of leadership, along with members who have resigned early and been replaced by appointees.

Rep. Wlnsvey Campos, D-Aloha, will formally nominate Rayfield for House speaker on Thursday. In making the announcement, Campos said the switch of leaders didn't mean a change in direction.

Im excited that we will continue to have a Speaker who is a champion for progressive policies that are going to benefit working families, historically marginalized communities and all who desperately need support as we navigate the pandemic, Campos said.

But a pair of wrinkles in the Oregon Constitution could throw sand into the gears of the Democrats' apparent dominance over the Legislature. Republicans have parliamentary "tools" they can leverage to bring the session to a screeching halt: walkouts and slowdowns.

Oregon is one of the few states requiring more than a majority for a quorum to do any business. The two-thirds requirement has been used by Republicans to stage walkouts in 2019, 2020 and 2021. But Republicans can also require bills to be read in full on final passage, a laborious time-burning event that requires two-thirds of lawmakers in each chamber to override. With just 35 days in the 2022 session, the slowdown could quickly clog the pipeline of legislation until time ran out on the session.

The 2022 session has several possible triggers for walkouts, including a bill to require agricultural workers receive overtime pay. House Republican leaders have pointed to the bill as a possible trip-wire, while Senate Republicans have said that it is the kind of complex legislation that requires the less compressed timeline of the even-year sessions.

There are some intriguing possibilities of possible bipartisan movement. Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, is the lone Republican co-sponsor of a bill that would set a timeline for a phase-out of diesel fuel in the state. The appeal for rural Republicans is that the eastern parts of the state would get an extra two years before making the move.

Rep. Jack Zika, R-Redmond, has announced he won't seek re-election. He's introduced legislation to allow cities to expand beyond their urban growth boundaries to create workforce housing in areas where development curbs have created an extreme lack of affordable living spaces for the workers who are the underpinning of economies in expensive but hemmed-in areas such as Bend. Democrats have split over the issue, with some worrying it will damage the environment that limits were originally created to protect, while the soaring cost of housing has others wanting to find ways to increase higher density housing as well as revisiting the impact of the boundaries on workers and families.

Adding to the uncertainty is a collection of new leaders, lawmakers and lame ducks that make navigating the usual attempts at compromise less clear. The power troika atop Oregon politics is being dismantled, with former House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, resigning after nine years as the top officer in the House to run for governor. Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, has led the chamber since 2003, but will retire after his current term. Gov. Kate Brown, who has been in office since 2015, is also a lame duck, due to leave office next January.

Senate Republicans have a new caucus leader in Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, though the former House minority leader is a veteran of bipartisan deals and partisan warfare over the decades. But Rep. Vikki Breese Iverson, R-Prineville, has only been in the House since 2019 and was chosen caucus leader after the surprise announcement by House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, that she would forgo a bid for reelection to run for governor.

Breese Iverson has shown a willingness to be more directly confrontational than Drazan. When Gov. Kate Brown announced the commutation of some inmates' sentences, Breese Iverson issued a blistering statement.

This is just the latest example from Democrats that values criminals over victims," she said. "The Governor has been commuting sentences of killers and rapists at an alarming rate regardless of how this negatively affects victims and their families."

Knopp and Breese Iverson have returned leadership of Oregon's legislative Republicans to the east side of the Cascades for the first time since 2017, while Democratic leaders are from Corvallis, Eugene, Salem and suburban Portland.

Whether the two sides of the mountains and two aisles of the legislative chambers find consensus or conflict will start coming into view at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

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Oregon State University's plans to build upper division student housing  although somewhat narrowed  will resume after the project was put on hold in fall 2020 for pandemic-related financial considerations.

The $50 million housing project, which now will house approximately 221 graduate students in studio and two-bedroom units, was approved by the OSU Board of Trustees in October. 2018.

It was originally envisioned with 290 bedrooms. Among other changes: The original plan included two buildings  one along Ninth Street and one along Madison Avenue and 11th Street  but now there will only be one. The five-story building will be constructed at the latter location and it will have a flat roof to fit the citys requirement for building height.

"There are no plans at this time to build along Ninth Street," OSU spokesperson Steve Clark said by email.

The OSU Board of Trustees agreed to resume the project at its Jan. 27 board meeting.

The cost of the project is still $50 million to accommodate rising construction costs. Clark said the university will submit plans to the city for the revised L-shaped building in the coming months.

"We also are beginning a community outreach effort to update and engage actively OSU students, faculty and staff and Corvallis area community members. Doing so, we will share our new design plan, answer questions and be mindful of input to be provided," Clark wrote.

A presentation of the revised project is available under the Jan. 27 Finance & Administration Committee meeting agenda at leadership.oregonstate.edu/trustees. There, it provides several financial assumptions, including anticipating 90% occupancy and charging $1,500 a month for a studio and $1,200 a month for the suite, per bed.

Joanna Mann covers education for Mid-Valley Media. She can be contacted at 541-812-6076 or Joanna.Mann@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter via @joanna_mann_.

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Philomath city officials recently grappled with how to pay for much needed street and sidewalk upgrades to North 11th Street. The big debate: whether to tax the property owners on the street.

The money raised could be used to complete sidewalk installation north along the west side of the street from Pioneer Street to the north end of Flossie Overman Discovery Park.

It's been tagged as a priority in the citys strategic plan, capital improvement plan and in this years budget, according to city documents.

Ultimately, Philomath City Council voted last week to go ahead with project and a special assessment of the benefiting properties, although some conditions were applied, including omitting some owners.

The choice the city council weighed Jan. 24 was whether to pay for the North 11th sidewalks by either taxing the benefiting properties or use grant funding.

City Manager Chris Workman recommended the council determine an appropriate assessment on 23 properties and direct staff to work with the city engineer on amending a July 2021 engineering report. He said the improvements are needed for motorist, pedestrian and cyclist safety.

I do think that North 11th Street is an important street to the community, Workman said. Its obvious that weve seen increased development on that street and foresee additional development at some point.

There are a number of ways to devise the tax. City staff created a table showing possible calculations using linear frontage, area-only, an average of linear frontage and area, and maximum development potential.

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Each includes options for the city contributing up to $300,000 in street funds. A $140,000 grant and up to $300,000 in street system development charges are also included.

A final method shows a local improvement district for sidewalks only, with properties being assessed per linear frontage, and the city paying for the rest of the street improvements outside of the local improvement district using the grant, street system development charges, and up to $300,000 in street funds.

The estimated project cost is $882,000: $694,602 for street upgrades, $187,398 for the sidewalk. The various cost-reducing options could bring the price to between $142,000 and $742,000. Property owner assessments could run from a few thousand dollars to more than $80,000 based on which option is pursued and details of the individual property.

Several North 11th Street property owners spoke against the taxing district, called a local improvement district, at the council meeting. Most called on the city to hold accountable previous developers who have not completed promised street improvements. The projected cost was too high to afford, they said, questioning whether the assessments were fair.

Frances Caldwell told the council the assessments are excessive and inequitable. Caldwell is a retiree and has limited income. She faces a $14,000 bill if sidewalks alone are installed, and up to $51,218 for the full street improvements. Her property is less than one-fifth acre and valued at around $122,000.

North 11th is used regularly by far more city residents than the few who live on the street, Caldwell said. Why are the few required to pay when so many others will benefit?

The council voted 4-3 to proceed with the street improvement project, though no funding specifics were determined. A vote to drop the local improvement district from the project failed 3-4.

A subsequent vote to proceed with special assessment of the benefiting properties, omitting the Heather Glen subdivision and city park properties, explore a reimbursement option, and focus on the sidewalks-only project option passed 4-3.

Cody Mann covers Benton County and the cities of Corvallis and Philomath. He can be contacted at 541-812-6113 or Cody.Mann@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter via @News_Mann_.

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Today, January 31, the Honorable Prime Minister Silveria E. Jacobs participated in a four-country level consultation held by State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen together with the Prime Minister of Curacao, Hon. Gilmar Pisas and the Prime Minister of Aruba, Hon. Evelyn Wever-Croes. Prime Minister Jacobs was able to address several concerns St. Maarten had regarding the Note of Amendment. These concerns include the additional powers granted to the CFT in the Note of Amendment. Viable solutions based on technical meetings held last week formed the basis for a fruitful discussion on the way forward.





In todays meeting, Prime Minister Jacobs also emphasized the need to have a written agreement in which the concerns brought forth would be addressed in the implementation process. The Parliaments of the Kingdom countries will also still have the opportunity to raise any concerns when debating the COHO law. St. Maarten looks forward to welcoming State Secretary Van Huffelen during her work visit planned for February.




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Intervals of clouds and sunshine in the morning with more clouds for later in the day. High 71F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

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Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
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Gillette, WY (82718)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 38F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 38F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
English French

Solutions 30, European market leader in solutions for new technologies, announced today the acquisition of 100% of Sirtel Sp. z o.o, a specialist in services dedicated to mobile networks in Poland. With this transaction, Solutions 30 is confirming its ambitions in the Polish market, by strengthening its territorial coverage and its client portfolio in the field of mobile telecommunications networks.

Created in 1996, Sirtel specializes in managing mobile network deployment programs and works with major telecom equipment manufacturers and players including Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei or Cellnex. Based in Warsaw, the company operates in south, west and central Poland with a team of 50 technicians supported by long-term field technicians partners. Sirtel had sales of almost 3 million in 2021 and will be fully consolidated in Solutions 30 Groups financial statements as from February 1, 2021.

This new strategic acquisition is part of Solutions 30 strategy to expand its portfolio and position itself in the 5G market throughout Europe. Sirtel will enable Solutions 30 to broaden its territorial coverage in Poland and will constitute a new base to gain traction in the mobile networks sector, just as the acquisitions of Provisiona, Algor and Comvergent have supported such expansion in Spain, Italy and UK.

Wojciech Pomykaa, CEO of Solutions 30 Poland commented, I am very pleased to welcome the Sirtel teams at this key moment of our expansion in Poland and as we are in front of massive 5G roll-out and further extension of FTTH deployments. This acquisition gives us additional competitive advantage, with complementary skills and assets to strengthen our position in the telecommunications sector and boost our geographical coverage.

About Solutions 30 SE

The Solutions 30 group is the European leader in solutions for new technologies. Its mission is to make the technological developments that are transforming our daily lives accessible to everyone, individuals and businesses alike. Yesterday, it was computers and the Internet. Today, its digital technology. Tomorrow, it will be technologies that make the world even more interconnected in real time. With more than 30 million call-outs carried out since it was founded and a network of more than 15,700 local technicians, Solutions 30 currently covers all of France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Iberian Peninsula, the United Kingdom, and Poland. The share capital of Solutions 30 SE consists of 107,127,984 shares, equal to the number of theoretical votes that can be exercised.

Solutions 30 SE is listed on the Euronext Paris exchange (ISIN FR0013379484- code S30). Indexes: MSCI Europe ex-UK Small Cap | SBF 120 | CAC Mid 60 | NEXT 150 | CAC Technology | CAC PME.

Visit our website for more information: www.solutions30.com

Contact

Individual Shareholders:

Investor Relations - Tel: +33 1 86 86 00 63 - shareholders@solutions30.com

Analysts/Investors:

Nathalie Boumendil - Tel: +33 6 85 82 41 95 - nathalie.boumendil@solutions30.com

Press - Image 7:

Leslie Jung - Tel: +44 7818 641803 - ljung@image7.fr

Charlotte Le Barbier - Tel: +33 6 78 37 27 60 - clebarbier@image7.fr

Attachment
Pune, India, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The hybrid solar-wind systems market size is anticipated to rise due to the increasing demand for sanitary renewable grid electricity. Fortune Business InsightsTM has presented this information in its upcoming report titled, " Hybrid Solar Wind Systems Market , 2022-2029". Furthermore, solar power is generated during the daytime, and wind power is often highest at night, wind-solar hybrid systems have the advantage of producing more consistent power.

Request a Sample Copy of Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/sample/hybrid-solar-wind-system-market-105525

List of Key Players in the Market:

ReGen Powertech

Blue Pacific Solar Product Inc.

UNITRON Energy System Pvt. Ltd.

Alternate Energy Company

Polar Power Inc

Alpha Windmills

Zenith Solar System

Gamesa

Supernova Technologies Private Limited

Grupo Dragon

COVID-19 Impact -

Global renewable energy growth has slowed as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to the sudden outbreak of the virus, governments around the world issued advice advising people to isolate themselves from the throng and stay at home. Global supply networks have been disrupted as a result of the lockdowns, and output has slowed significantly. The wind business, for example, had major logistic issues that caused delays in the development of new projects.

Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this Market:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/hybrid-solar-wind-system-market-105525

Competitive Landscape-

Vital Players to Employ Strategies Like Mergers & Acquisition to Sustain Market Presence

Prominent players across the verticals are focusing on new product launches that boost the markets growth. Furthermore, key players are also focusing and employing strategies such as collaborations, mergers & acquisitions to maintain their market presence for incoming years.

Industry Developments

December 2020: Construction of a 30 GW hybrid solar and wind power plant was begun in India. The Kutch district site of the hybrid plant covers 72,600 hectares, about the same as Singapore's total land area. Additionally, wind turbines and solar panels will be powered by storage systems.

Segmentation -

On the basis of type, the hybrid solar wind systems industry is bifurcated into the on-grid system and stand-alone system. On the basis of application, the market is divided into commercial, industrial and residential. Geographically, the market is classified into Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.

Report Coverage 

The market report examines numerous factors of hybrid solar wind systems that will influence the markets growth, such as main drivers and constraints. Furthermore, the research gives an overview of the geographical analysis, which includes many regions and contributes to the market's expansion. It additionally, covers the competitive landscape including top corporations, as well as new product launches, collaborations that assist the industrys growth.

Drivers & Restraints 

Increased Demand for Renewable Grid Electricity to Drive the Market Growth

Another key reason likely to drive the expansion of the global hybrid solar wind systems in the incoming years is the increased need for clean and renewable grid electricity. In addition, the worldwide solar wind hybrid systems market is expected to benefit from lower wind and solar equipment component costs, as well as increased consumer demand for unsullied energy. The hefty initial investment required to establish solar wind hybrid systems, on the other hand, is expected to impede the global hybrid solar wind systems market growth.

Ask for Customization of this Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/hybrid-solar-wind-system-market-105525

Regional Insights 

Market in Asia Pacific to Thrive Owing to Rapid Industrialization

The Asia Pacific region dominated the worldwide hybrid solar wind systems industry and is predicted to continue to develop at a rapid rate throughout the projection period. The market is growing because of the thriving power industry, urbanization, and fast industrialization, particularly in emerging economies such as Southeast Asia, India, and China. Furthermore, positive government policies encouraging the installation of solar wind hybrid systems, technical advances, and an increasing number of rules aimed at reducing carbon footprints are expected to fuel the regional market forward in the future.

North America is one more important region for solar wind hybrid systems market share. With the continued government rules and directions for utility metering, inclusive of the growing emphasis on energy efficiency and cost reduction, the U.S. is the leading country for solar-wind hybrid systems.

Due to the increasing number of rules for the construction of solar wind hybrid systems across the area, Europe is likely to contribute significantly to the global market. Over the forecast period, encouraging government rules and regulations related to energy efficiency, including increased concerns about carbon emissions, are projected to augment the hybrid solar wind systems market growth.

Pre Order: Hybrid Solar Wind Systems Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/105525

Have a Look at Related Research Insights:

Hybrid EV Battery Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Vehicle Type (Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV), Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEV), Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)), By Battery Type (Lithium-Ion Battery, Nickel-Metal Hydride Battery, Lead-Acid Battery, Ultra-Capacitor, Others) And Regional Forecast 2022-2029

Solar Lighting System Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Light Source (LED, Others), By Grid Type (Off-Grid, On-Grid), By Offering (Hardware, Software and Services), By Application (Industrial, Highways and Roadways, Commercial, Residential, Others) And Regional Forecast 2022-2029

Solar Sunlight Control System Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Product Type (Fabric Systems, Aluminium Systems ), By End-User (Public Building Shade Systems, Residential Building Shade Facilities) And Regional Forecast 2022-2029

Solar Simulator Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Dimension Type (AAA class, ABA class, ABB class, Others), By Light Source (Xenon Arc Lamp, LED Lamp, UV Lamp, Others) And Regional Forecast 2022-2029

About Us:

Fortune Business Insights delivers accurate data and innovative corporate analysis, helping organizations of all sizes make appropriate decisions. We tailor novel solutions for our clients, assisting them to address various challenges distinct to their businesses. Our aim is to empower them with holistic market intelligence, providing a granular overview of the market they are operating in.

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The first General Shareholders meeting with N.V. GEBE of the year 2022 was held on Thursday, January 27. The main agenda points were the appointments of two new members to the Supervisory Board of Directors; the formalization of the appointment of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO); and the approval of the draft service agreements of each member of the Managing Board, namely the CEO, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the Chief Operating Officer (COO).





The current members of the Supervisory Board of Directors (SBoD), which consists of the following members, Anastacio Baker, Chairman; Dimar Labega, Vice Chairman; Emanuel Brooks and Lela Simmonds, were appointed per October 19, 2021.





The main task of this SBoD was to ensure continuity and (financial) stability at N.V. GEBE. The company was not only





impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic but also the instability of management, which negatively impacted the functioning of N.V. GEBE and the morale of its workers.





The board was able to successfully finalize the negotiations for the draft service agreements with the candidates for the positions of a new Managing Board.





The Shareholder selected the candidates after careful consideration of the conclusions of the Ernst & Young Recruitment & Selection Report on the Management Board on the selection process and the advice on the most suitable candidates.





Both the Shareholder and the SBoD look forward to a fruitful working relationship with the approved appointments of Sharine Daniel as CEO; George P. Willems as CFO; and Merrill Temmer, who is currently the Temporary Manager, as COO of the Managing Board of N.V. GEBE.





The Shareholder foresees the draft strategic plan for which the Managing Board will be tasked with as priority. The plan should highlight alternative energy as well as ways and means to collaborate with other Government owned Companies as a cost saving measure for the country.





Furthermore, the Shareholder (Council of Ministers) emphasized the need to seek for a structural solution to deal with the high energy costs.





In addition to a new Managing Board, the SBoD will be further strengthened with two new members, namely Vanessa Fraser, who will fulfill the profile as Human Resource Expert, and Denniscio Boasman, who was a former N.V. GEBE SBoD member, and will be fulfilling the profile of Technical Expert. Both members





have been appointed for a term of four years, going into effect January 27, 2022.





The Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment & Infrastructure (Ministry of VROMI), Hon. Egbert Doran, who chaired the meeting, concluded by emphasizing the responsibilities of the SBoD vis a vis the Management Board and further stated that he looks forward to the continuation of the level of professionalism thus far provided and the progress needed to get GEBE where it needs to be.
Sydney, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, this edition of BuddeComm report outlines the latest developments and key trends in the telecoms markets. - https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Georgia-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?utm_source=GNW





It has been actively encouraging investment in fibre networks to offset the poor state of the countrys fixed-line infrastructure, for example. Likewise, the countrys three MNOs (SilkNet, MagtiCom, and VEON Georgia) have each been required to make their respective networks available to new MVNOs. This was in place by the start of 2021.



However, following what appeared to be an attempt to block a foreign takeover of one of the countrys ISPs (the wholesale arm of Caucasus Online by Azerbaijans Neqsol Holdings), international investors may have been inadvertently warned off. As such, no prospective MVNOs have come to the surface so far. Neqsols acquisition of Caucasus Online was at least ultimately successful in March 2021, but only after being forced to seek redress from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).





Key developments:





VEON Georgia signs a $10 million deal with Nokia to upgrade its 4G mobile network in readiness for 5G, while MagtiCom starts 5G trials using four different vendors.

Azerbaijans Neqsol Holdings completes its takeover of Caucasus Onlines wholesale business following the resolution of a lengthy dispute with the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC).

SilkNet rolls out a gigabit LTE network in Tbilisi and Batumi.

Georgias MNOs each indicate their readiness to accept MVNOs on their networks.



Companies mentioned in this report:





SilkNet, MagtiCom, VEON Georgia, Caucasus Online, Akhtali, CGC, Telecom Georgia, New Net Telecommunications, Neqsol Holdings, MegaFon.







Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Georgia-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?utm_source=GNW
Manama, Bahrain, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The General Medical Council (GMC) in the United Kingdom has given approval for the medical graduates of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain) to apply for registration to practice in the United Kingdom, without having to undertake the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) licensing examinations. PLAB examinations are administered by the General Medical Council to ensure that doctors who have received qualifications from abroad have the correct level of knowledge and skills to practice medicine in the UK.

RCSI Bahrain medical graduates can now apply for registration with the GMC through the Relevant European Qualification (REQ) pathway, thanks to the recognised medical degree awarded to them under the governance of RCSI in Dublin. This significant milestone will ease the process of accessing internship and postgraduate training opportunities for all RCSI Bahrain medical graduates in the UK, regardless of their nationality. Currently, 170 medical alumni are based in the United Kingdom, either working or training to international standards and availing of extended learning opportunities.

On this occasion, Her Excellency Dr Shaikha Rana bint Isa bin Duaij Al Khalifa, Bahrains Secretary General of the Higher Education Council (HEC) and Deputy Chair of the HEC Board of Trustees, affirmed the approval received as global recognition of the quality of higher education in the Kingdom of Bahrain, under the care of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister. RCSI Bahrains achievement also testifies to the policies enforced by the HEC Board of Trustees to advance higher education outcomes, encourage Bahraini institutions to obtain international accreditations for their academic programmes and accomplish the initiatives of the national strategy for higher education.

President of RCSI Bahrain, Professor Sameer Otoom commented, Providing easier access to medical training in the United Kingdom is of great advantage for the numerous benefits it brings to our students, alumni and all healthcare facilities. Over the years, a number of our alumni have returned to their home country with unparalleled experiences and have made great strides in their fields of expertise. Creating a diverse body of internationally-trained medical professionals will enhance the knowledge base, research and quality of healthcare services for the benefit of all patients in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

-Ends-

About RCSI Bahrain

RCSI Bahrain is a constituent university of RCSI, which was established in Dublin, Ireland, in 1784. RCSI Bahrain, an independent private university, opened its doors to a cohort of 28 medical students in 2004. It is a not-for-profit health sciences institution focused on education and research to drive positive change in all areas of human health worldwide. Today, the purpose-built campus is home to a student body of more than 1,300 across Schools of Medicine; Nursing and Midwifery and Postgraduate Studies and Research.

For more information, please visit www.rcsi.com/bahrain

RCSI Bahrain Instagram

RCSI Bahrain Facebook

RCSI Bahrain LinkedIn

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Sydney, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, this edition of BuddeComm report outlines the latest developments and key trends in the telecoms markets. - https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Djibouti-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?utm_source=GNW





The additional capacity and resilience should make services cheaper and so encourage subscriber growth. This in turn will make the company more attractive to prospective foreign buyers looking to invest in a market which has thus far been one of the very few globally wherein the incumbent telco has retained a monopoly on services.



Djibouti Telecom has also recently invested in its several international cable interests, in which it holds stakes via various consortia.



The country will benefit from Googles Blue-Raman cable which will link Italy, Israel, and India. The Raman section will run from Jordan to Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, and Oman.



The consortium building the 10,000km Africa-1 cable expects the work to be completed by the end of 2023. The cable will initially have landing stations in Kenya, Djibouti, Pakistan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and France, with others planned for north African Mediterranean countries, as also several on the continents east coast running to South Africa as the cable is extended. Djibouti will also benefit from connectivity to the Africa2 cable.



With Djibouti Telecom building a third data centre to manage traffic from several cable systems, the hope is that the company can monetise its cable interests, and exploit data centre and mobile money services to develop revenue growth, and thus attract foreign investment.





Key developments:





Djibouti Telecom builds a new landing station;

Government confirms plan to sell a minority stake in Djibouti Telecom;

Djibouti Internet Exchange (DjIX) joins the African IXP Association;

Report update includes the regulator's market data for 2020, updated Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, assessment of the global impact of the pandemic on the telecoms sector, recent market developments.



Companies mentioned in this report:





Djibouti Telecom (Evatis, Adjib); Telecom Italia Sparkle; Saudi Telecom Company (STC); Algerie Telecom.







Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Djibouti-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?utm_source=GNW
Sydney, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, this edition of BuddeComm report outlines the latest developments and key trends in the telecoms markets. - https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Latin-America-Mobile-Network-Operators-and-MVNOs/?utm_source=GNW

The size of many markets in the region, such as in Brazil and Argentina, has provided sufficient room for other players to operate, while also supporting a vibrant MVNO sector. In other markets such as Ecuador, one or more of the regional players dominate while the incumbent telco also provides competition through its own mobile business unit.



There has been considerable consolidation activity in the market during the last few quarters. America Movil and MIC in particular have tried to buttress their business in the region by increasing scale and so developing subscriber growth as a means of generating revenue. MIC has focussed on its Latin America operations while also progressively exiting from Africa, under a strategy aimed at developing profitable markets where it has a strong market share, and where investments in network upgrades and 5G can show fruit in the short and long term.



By contrast, Telefonica has endeavoured to exit the region, with the exception of Brazil. This is also premised on a similar strategy by which the Group is concentrating on key European markets (the UK, Spain, Germany) while maintaining its presence in Brazil, where it remains the market leader in terms of the number of subscribers. Although Telefonica reported a 10% fall in revenue in Brazil in the first nine months of 2021, year-on-year, this was on the back of a 14.2% increase in 2020. The number of mobile subscribers has increased steadily in recent years, including a 7.2% increase in the year to September 2021.



Elsewhere in the region, Telefonica has sold up its units since 2019. It has already sold its Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala businesses (variously to Liberty Latin America, MIC, and America Movil), while it is also in the process of divesting its units in Ecuador and Colombia.

Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Latin-America-Mobile-Network-Operators-and-MVNOs/?utm_source=GNW
Sydney, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, this edition of BuddeComm report outlines the latest developments and key trends in the telecoms markets. - https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Namibia-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?utm_source=GNW





The policy has continuing objectives though to 2029, while the associated Implementation Action Plan includes programs through to 2024.



These various measures are intended to reduce the digital divide by facilitating investment in IP-based services, and encouraging the take-up of services.



Mobile network coverage has increased sharply in recent years. By the beginning of 2021, 3G infrastructure provided 89% population coverage while LTE infrastructure provided 79% coverage (compared to only 40% a year earlier). Developments with 5G were set back by unsubstantiated public concerns over the health implications of the technology, though the government has requested the regulator to speed up its 5G development strategy.



The increase in the number of mobile broadband subscribers seen since 2018 has partly been attributed to MTCs 081Every1 campaign which is intended to provide national coverage and to improve data rates over its 3G and LTE networks. Phase 1 of the project was completed by June 2020, while Phase 2 was essentially complete by early 2022. Phase 3 is due to be completed by September 2022.



The work undertaken by MTC contributed to the 8.5% increase in the number of mobile broadband subscribers in the year to June 2021, reaching 1.877 million. The regulator noted that continuing growth in the sector has also been supported by the popularity of prepaid internet-enabled SIM cards compared to the use of PCs and laptops.





Key developments:





Paratus and MTN Namibia sign national roaming agreement aimed at quickening the pace of LTE rollouts;

Namibia to be connected to Googles Equiano cable system;

New SIM card registration rules are put in place;

MTC completes its IPO;

Telecom Namibia upgrades its VSAT hub to provide more reliable connectivity for users in remote areas;

Government calls for the regulator to speed up 5G development strategy;

Government launches the National Broadband Policy and Implementation Action Plan, aiming to provide a universal 2Mb/s services by 2024;

MTC nears completion of Phase 2 of its N$1 billion 081Every1 network expansion project;

Report update includes the regulators market report for 2020, market data to June 2021, operator data for fiscal 2021, updated Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, assessment of the global impact of the pandemic on the telecoms sector, recent market developments.



Companies mentioned in this report:





Telecom Namibia; Mobile Telecommunications (MTC); Cell One (Leo, Orascom); Powercom; MTN Business Namibia; MWEB Namibia; Africa Online Namibia; Internet Technologies Namibia; iWay







Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Namibia-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?utm_source=GNW
Reference is made to the stock exchange notification published by Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA (EMGS or the Company) on 27 February 2022 wherein EMGS announced its intention to propose a 24 month extension of the maturity date (from May 2023 to May 2025) for the Companys outstanding bond issue FRN Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA Senior Unsecured Convertible Bonds 2018/2023 ("EMGS03") as well as a 100 bps increase to the interest margin (over the applicable reference rate) from 5.5 to 6.5 per cent.

EMGS has today instructed Nordic Trustee AS, as trustee for EMGS03, to issue the attached summons for a written resolution to the bondholders of EMGS03.



Contact

Anders Eimstad, CFO, +47 948 25 836

This information is published in accordance with the Norwegian Securities Trading Act  5-12.



About EMGS

EMGS, the marine EM market leader, uses its proprietary electromagnetic (EM) technology to support oil and gas companies in their search for offshore hydrocarbons. EMGS supports each stage in the workflow, from survey design and data acquisition to processing and interpretation. The Company's services enable the integration of EM data with seismic and other geophysical and geological information to give explorationists a clearer and more complete understanding of the subsurface. This improves exploration efficiency and reduces risks and the finding costs per barrel. CSEM technology can also be used to detect the presence of marine mineral deposits (primarily Seabed Massive Sulphides) and EMGS believes that the technology can also be used to estimate the mineral content of such deposits. The Company is undertaking early-stage initiatives to position itself in this future market.

Attachment
CHADDS FORD, Pa., Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mission Cyber Group (MCG), the premier cyber security advisory experts, announced today that the company has joined the National Diversity Veteran Small Business (NDVSB) marketplace, powered by ePS, a leading provider of eMarketplace solutions, which is helping connect both federal and private organizations with diverse businesses. As a National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), MCG can now better provide practical and strategic security consulting services to corporations committed to partnering with minority- and veteran-owned businesses.



NDVSB eMarketplace is all-inclusive, one size does not fit all technology platform that aligns suppliers with corporate buyers. Through a partnership with the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), ePS makes the marketplace available at no cost to all NMSDC members. This value provides access to our corporate buying originations who want to increase diversity spend for their supplier diversity programs with MBEs, said Icy Williams, Director of MBE Services at NMSDC.

With its NMSDC certification, Mission Cyber Group gained access to the NDVSB eMarketplace and NMSDCs 1500 corporate members and will be a part of both the nationwide eMarketplace and the federal version, which NDVSB makes available to all federal organizations for their first stop when searching for services.

Part of that federal program includes the Air Force First Look program , which ePS-NDVSB is currently rolling out to bases. The First Look program makes it easier for installation government purchase card-holders to do business with local communities surrounding Air Force bases, within a radius of 50 miles, as well as regional and state suppliers.

With the First Look Program, the Air Force aims to support our local communities and the jobs right outside our gates before we look elsewhere, said Major Gen. Cameron Holt, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. They plan to bring $1.8 billion back to local communities around installations through the program.

Thats not all the NDVSB has been up to lately, though. In January, ePS announced the launch of a private, stand-alone Supplier Diversity eMarketplace for Greylock Federal Credit Union in Massachusetts. The new marketplace provides another avenue for Greylock to increase supplier relationships with minority-, women-, and veteran-owned as well as local, small businesses. Its another in a long string of initiatives that the NDVSB has put into place to support diverse businesses and communities.

Diversity is an important part of Americas DNA, and an organization that aims to gather and support diverse and veteran-owned businesses like the NDVSB, is one that deserves to be lauded, said David Fizer, Managing Partner with Mission Cyber Group. We are committed to increasing visibility and helping other diverse businesses find and join the marketplace. This benefits businesses looking to meet diversity spending goals and all of us seeking to create a more equitable and prosperous America.

If you are a diverse, small business supplier and youd like to get involved, please reach out to sbpartners@eprosvcs.com. If youre an NMSDC Corporate Member and want to learn more about the NMSDC eMarketplace options, please contact NMSDC@eprosvcs.com .

About Mission Cyber Group

The Mission Cyber Group is a highly-educated team of cybersecurity experts with a deep understanding of todays frameworks and protocols. With decades of government and industry experience, the company continues to provide cyber leadership with strategic advice and practical assistance in policy and procedure development, regulatory affairs, and asset sourcing from conception to successful project completion. For more information, please visit https://missioncybergroup.com .

For more information, please contact:

David Fizer

Managing Partner, Mission Cyber Group

dfizer@MissionCyberGroup.com

(855)-889-3098

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b19c6d79-782b-422c-b5e7-e009d7ceeebe
Pune, India, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global military radar market size was estimated to be worth USD 13.93 billion in 2020. The market value is slated to rise from USD 14.41 billion in 2021 to USD 22.06 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 6.27% during the forecast period. Growing military expenditure and continuous advances in this technology will drive the market forward, states Fortune Business Insights in its report titled Military Radar Market, 2021-2028."

Radar technology is utilized in defense applications to detect land, air, and marine threats such as aircraft, ships, spacecraft, and missiles. Military bodies worldwide are making active investments to strengthen their military & defense equipment. Defense spending is rising particularly across emerging countries in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. These countries constantly need to monitor the rising terrorist activities due to geopolitical tension and other factors. In April 2021, China unveiled a new multipurpose portable radar that can detect stealth aircraft, drones, and low-flying cruise missiles.

List of the Companies Profiled in the Global Market are:

Airbus S.A.S (Netherlands)

BAE Systems (U.K.)

General Dynamics Corporation (U.S.)

Honeywell International (U.S.)

Israel Aerospace Industries (Israel)

Leonardo S.p.A (Italy)

Lockheed Martin Corporation (U.S.)

Northrop Grumman Corporation (U.S.)

Raytheon Technologies Corporation (U.S.)

Saab AB (Sweden)

Thales Group (France)

Get a Sample PDF Brochure:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/military-radar-market-101777

COVID-19 Impact :

Pandemic to Have Moderate Impact on this Market

Despite the various impacts of COVID-19, the defense sector across most countries has continued to operate amid the pandemic. However, due to workforce shortages, the production of tier III and tier IV suppliers slowed down considerabely, leading to delayed delivery of military equipment. Several countries including Russia, India, South Korea, and Thailand had reduced their military expenditure amid the pandemic.

Meanwhile, other nations such as Israel is utilizing this technology to remotely monitor and detect vital signs of COVID-19 patients. Such factors could benefit the overall market outlook in the forthcoming years.

Market Segments:

Attribute Details Study Period 2017-2028 Base Year 2020 Forecast Period 2021-2028 Historical Period 2017-2019 Unit Value (USD Billion) Segmentation Platform; Range; Application; Frequency; Component, and Geography By Platform Airborne Radar

Land Radar

Naval Radar By Range Long

Medium

Short

Very Short By Application Weapon Guidance

Airspace Monitoring & Traffic Management

Airborne Mapping

Ground Surveillance & Intruder Detection

Navigation

Others By Frequency C-Band

S-Band

X-Band

L-Band

UHF/VHF

Ku/K/Ka-Band By Component Transmitter

Antenna

Receiver

Duplexer

Others By Geography



North America (By Platform, Range, Application, Frequency, Component, and Country)

Europe (By Platform, Range, Application, Frequency, Component, and Country)

Asia Pacific (By Platform, Range, Application, Frequency, Component, and Country)

Rest of the World (By Platform, Range, Application, Frequency, Component, and Sub-Region)





























































































Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC:



https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/military-radar-market-101777

Report Coverage:

The report offers:

Major growth drivers, restraining factors, opportunities, and potential challenges for the market.

Comprehensive insights into the regional developments.

List of major industry players.

Key strategies adopted by the market players.

Latest industry developments such as product launches, partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions.

Drivers & Restraints :

Rising Geopolitical Tensions & Increasing Military Expenditure to Augment Growth

The Middle Eastern region is a conflict-prone region due to geopolitical tension and border conflicts in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. These factors have led to increased import of arms in the region and expanding investments in the military sector.

To meet the rising global demand, manufactrers are developing innovative systems that are more accurate. Many military bodies are adopting modern active electronically scanned array radar systems. These systems can be regulated via software to optimize and change the targets withouth altering the hardware. Such advancements will drive military radar market growth over 2021-2028.

Regional Insights :

North America dominated the military radar market share in 2020 with a valuation of USD 5.42 bilion. The regional expansion is attributed to the rising defense expenditure in the U.S. for the procurement of advanced military equipment. Government programs and initiatives such as the Air and Missile Defense Radar and the Three Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar will strengthen the regional outlook.

Asia Pacific will record substantial gains during the forecast duration owing to rising cross-border tensions between China-India and India-Pakistan. In June 2021, the Indian Defense Ministry contracted Mahindra to acquire 11 surveillance radars for the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard.

Meanwhile, the market in Europe will grow on account of rising military modernization programs.

Notable Industry Development:

June 2021  Raytheon Technologies Corporation inked a USD 3.12 billion contract with the U.S. Air Force to supply the F-15 Radar Eagle Vision. As per the terms of the deal, the company will manufacture, upgrade, and support the F-15 systems to stay aligned with the F-15 weapon system program.

Get your Customized Report:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/military-radar-market-101777

Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities

Key Insights Key Industry Developments  Key Contracts & Agreements, Mergers, Acquisitions and Partnerships Latest technological Advancements Porters Five Forces Analysis Supply Chain Analysis

Quantitative Insights- Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Military Radar Market Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Global Military Radar Market Steps taken by Industry/ Companies/ Governments to overcome the impact Key Developments in the Industry in Response to COVID-19 pandemic Potential opportunities due to COVID-19 Outbreak

Global Military Radar Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2017-2028 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecast By Platform Airborne Radar Land Radar Naval Radar By Range Long Medium Short Very Short By Application Weapon Guidance Airspace Monitoring & Traffic Management Airborne Mapping Ground Surveillance & Intruder Detection Navigation Others By Frequency C-Band S-Band X-Band L-Band UHF/VHF Ku/Ka-Band By Component Transmitter Antenna Receiver Duplexer Others By Region North America Europe Asia pacific Rest of the world



TOC Continued!

Have a Look at Related Research Insights:

Military Antenna Market Size , Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Frequency (High, Ultra-High, Super High, and Extremely High Frequency), By Type (Dipole, Aperture, Travelling Wave, Loop, and Array Antenna), By Platform (Airborne, Marine, and Ground), By Application (Communication, Surveillance, SATCOM, Electronic Warfare, and Telemetry), and Regional Forecast, 2021-2028

C5ISR Market Size , Share and COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Type (Land, Naval, Airborne, Space), By Application (Electronic Warfare, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Command, and Control), By Solution (Product and Services), and Regional Forecast, 2021-2028

Electronic Warfare Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Domain (Electronic Attack, Electronic Protection, and Electronic Support), By Equipment (Jammers, Antennas, Radar Warning Receiver, Anti-radiation Missiles, Directed Energy Weapons, and Others), By Platform (Air-based, Sea-based, Land-based), and Regional Forecast, 2021-2028

About Us:

Fortune Business Insights delivers accurate data and innovative corporate analysis, helping organizations of all sizes make appropriate decisions. We tailor novel solutions for our clients, assisting them to address various challenges distinct to their businesses. Our aim is to empower them with holistic market intelligence, providing a granular overview of the market they are operating in.

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Superpedestrian, the pioneering transportation robotics company, today announced its largest-ever funding round, closing $125 million in debt and equity capital. The latest investment comes from Jefferies, Antara Capital, the Sony Innovation Fund by IGV* and FM Capital alongside existing backers like Spark Capital, General Catalyst and Citi via the Citi Impact Fund.

The new funding will be used to expand the LINK shared e-scooter service, boost the company's advanced R&D programs, and deploy scooters with Superpedestrian's new Pedestrian Defense safety system in the first 25 cities across the US and Europe during 2022. The AI-based software fuses data from multiple vehicle sensors and integrates them with the scooter's on-board Vehicle Intelligence to take real-time action on the scooter.

Pedestrian Defense exceeds all other safety platforms in 3 key ways. It can:

More precisely detect vehicle position even in urban canyons where GPS has high inaccuracy

even in urban canyons where GPS has high inaccuracy Detect a much wider array of unsafe riding behavior than any competitor, including sidewalk riding, stunt riding, aggressive swerving and "salmoning" against traffic

than any competitor, including sidewalk riding, stunt riding, aggressive swerving and "salmoning" against traffic Intervene automatically to slow or stop a scooter in real time when unsafe behavior like riding on a sidewalk is detected

Following successful field tests of Pedestrian Defense in recent months, the system will now be integrated into Superpedestrian's technologically advanced LINK e-scooter fleet, which has launched in 57 cities logging tens of millions of miles.

"Over the past 9 years, we have developed a unique software platform that addresses the core challenges of electric vehicle fleets. From predictive-maintenance and repair automation, to fine-grain locationing and curb management, our platform is rich with advanced capabilities that enable safer and more reliable transportation solutions," said Assaf Biderman, founder and CEO of Superpedestrian. "With this latest funding round, we are boosting our investment in R&D and scaling up our deployments in micromobility and beyond."

"Superpedestrian brings together best-in class vehicles, an advanced software platform, and efficient fleet operations, enabling them to safely integrate small electric vehicles into crowded city streets," said Gen Tsuchikawa, Chief Investment Manager for Sony Innovation Fund (SIF) and CEO and Chief Investment Officer for Innovation Growth Ventures (IGV). "With an experienced executive team and strong operations in a variety of markets and geographies around the world, we are pleased to welcome Superpedestrian to IGV's growing portfolio of promising mobility-focused startups."

"In the last two years, infrastructure challenges and lack of equitable access to transit options in both urban and suburban communities across the U.S. have underscored the need for developing safe, reliable transportation options for all," said Meredith Shields, Head of Citi Impact Fund, Citi. "Superpedestrian is doing just that by developing innovative, sustainable technology that reimagines the future of cities through improved connectivity. We're proud to use our capital to help scale their impact and build stronger communities in the years to come."

Superpedestrian was spun out of MIT in 2013 with the mission to develop the world's smartest and safest light electric vehicle fleets. In 2020, Superpedestrian debuted the LINK Scooter, heralded as "The Volvo of e-Scooters" for its patented Vehicle Intelligence platform that actively prevents costly mechanical and electrical hazards that beset other e-scooter operators. Superpedestrian has become a world-leader in transportation robotics and human-scale mobility, holding over 40 patents in autonomous failure protection for vehicles, automated maintenance software, fleet optimization, and vehicle context awareness.

Video: Watch Pedestrian Defense tech automatically stop a scooter riding on a sidewalk

Hi-resolution photos and video of Pedestrian Defense sidewalk riding prevention in action are available in Superpedestrian's press kit.

*Innovation Growth Ventures Co., Ltd. (IGV) is managed by Sony Innovation Fund and Daiwa Capital Holdings.

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COSTA MESA, Calif., Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- R-DEE by Radiologex, the Global Healthcare high-speed interoperability network and secure technology platform, broke new ground today as negotiations opened with Peelaways Pakistan. Well-known in the international business market for their work in the healthtech and healthcare industries, Peelaways Pakistan is no stranger to the nuances of radiographic technology.

Having worked in all facets of global health, Peelaways Pakistan Chairman and CEO Enamullah Khan appreciates the needs of the industry and the existing challenges healthcare technologies face. Mr. Khan understands that in order for Pakistan to continue to grow and expand the quality and efficiency of patient care, the natural next step is to ensure that Pakistan remains on the cutting edge of technology.

"Peelaways Pakistan carved its path in the global market by staying ahead of the popular trends and instead following the technology of the future. It was clear to me upon my introduction to Radiologex that this is the technology of the future, and it belongs in healthtech companies and hospitals worldwide. I am proud to begin talks about bringing this blockchain-based technology to Pakistan," Mr. Khan remarked.

R-DEE provides a complete healthcare ecosystem and data management on the world's first GlobalHealth Data Network, freeing users from the same file type, size, and secure, regulatory-compliant sharing restrictions as most storage networks. In fact, R-DEE was specifically designed with medical imaging collaboration and data storage in mind, recognizing that a solution to these limitations was needed for the Global Healthcare industry.

The Radiologex network utilizes blockchain distributed ledger technology for strict data ownership and protection. This is considered the most secure method for data management available, because each user's information is independently maintained and synced for updates, without any intermediary or centrally located server vulnerable to malware attacks.

Galvanized by a state-of-the-art user identification and real-time verification engine, the R-DEE network enables the most secure and customizable platform for all healthcare-related solutions available, with true interoperability for plug-and-play convenience. This enables users and institutions to select which features they'd like to use, integrate existing tools, connect with colleagues the world over, and streamline healthcare services. R-DEE includes eight powerful, built-in productivity modules designed to assist all points within the healthcare industry, from patients to providers, between vendors and service providers, and connecting medical supply companies the world over.

Radiologex is committed to exceeding all medical data security requirements. The platform boasts three layers of security, ensuring that every participant on the network is positively identified, and providing always-active tamper detection with admin-level auditing for precise data access management. Partnered with Trusona, R-DEE users are required to pass a KYC check, wherein each person is verified by official government identification at registration and then cross-verified with biometrics at every login. Unlike larger communication mediums being utilized by medical professionals today, participants on the Radiologex network are fully identified, traceable, and trustworthy, ensuring safety beyond HIPAA compliance.

"Radiologex provides a digital healthcare ecosystem and customizable network to satisfy and streamline all facets of the Global Healthcare industry," Radiologex issued the following statement: "One of the R-DEE modules we're excited to offer worldwide is R-DEE Connect, which delivers the most ultra-secure communication capacity yet, geared towards borderless community building and integrating our other modules to share information in real-time. Our promise is that the medical community can collaborate quickly and painlessly using R-DEE, utilizing our all-in-one essential tools from any web-enabled device, in an era that requires rapid response."

As talks between Radiologex and Peelaways Pakistan continue, one thing is clear: Radiologex is the company to watch.

About Peelaways Pakistan

Peelaways Pakistan was established in 2018 to introduce innovative products and solutions in Pakistan. Initially, they introduced the pioneering, disposable, multilayered, sanitary hospital sheets by Peelaways that were the first of their kind in the country. Simultaneously importing a range of high-quality masks.

At the advent of Covid-19, their exposure to the PPE industry positioned them to be able to source and supply Covid-19 specific solutions and products internationally. They are the official business partners of Sinopharm Cohealta as well as working closely with companies like Vaxxinity for Pakistan.

In 2020, they honed their focus towards providing innovative healthcare solutions and products geared towards pharmaceutical advancement. They introduced the first monoclonal antibody treatment, Regkirona by Celltrion, in Pakistan and are the exclusive distributors of Celltrion in Pakistan.

Peelaways Pakistan continues to source innovative products with a special focus on Covid-19 to combat the pandemic.

Website: www.peelaways.com.pk

About Radiologex

Radiologex is the world's first Medical Interactive Network (MIN), an all-encompassing ecosystem utilizing blockchain technology, empowering users with the necessary tools to conduct myriad tasks and activities essential to Global Healthcare industry professionals and participants alike. R-DEE is a revolutionary software platform on the Network built to benefit each Global Healthcare industry participant through its easy-to-use and integrate secure communication and productivity suite of eight powerful healthcare modules.

Website: www.radiologex.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may include ''forward-looking statements.'' To the extent that the information presented in this press release discusses financial projections, information, or expectations about business plans, results of operations, or otherwise makes statements about future events, such statements are forward-looking. Such forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as ''should,'' ''may,'' ''intends,'' ''anticipates,'' ''believes,'' ''estimates,'' ''projects,'' ''forecasts,'' ''expects,'' ''plans,'' and ''proposes.'' Although the company believes the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of the document in which they are contained, and Radiologex does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements except as may be required by law.

For more information, contact launch@radiologex.com

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Image 1: R-DEE by Radiologex





R-DEE by Radiologex: Healthcare Happens Here









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No doubt, for the sake at least of the generations to come, one has to have hope that at least at this late stage, 73 years late, some responsible people will come up with a sensible economic plan.

by Raj Gonsalkorale

Independence is defined as a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of a dependent territory (Wikipedia).

Sri Lanka has been a sovereign State which has exercised self governance since 1948.

Sri Lanka celebrates its 74th year of being such a State on the 4th of February. Serious questions however need to be raised as to how truly independent the country is and how in dependent it is after 73 years. In the context of its dependance, one could argue that it is a State that is opposite to an independent State.

Sri Lanka is hugely in debt, with its government debt said to be 101.5% of its GDP with the foreign debt component exceeding 62%. From memory, the last time the country had a balanced budget was in 1972 when late Dr N M Perera was the Finance Minister in the government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Since then, the country has been increasingly spending more than what it has earned and merrily living beyond its means.

The country should question whether it should be celebrating its independence or should lament its dependency to foreign governments, lending agencies, both local and foreign, and sovereign bond holders,and also lament the lack of a planned, structured, economic vision that would have freed the country from its dependencies.

The responsibility for this state of affairs lies with all who have governed independent Sri Lanka since 1948. No doubt some more than others. Considering the financial state of the country today, this is a statement of fact and not a politically motivated criticism of one side or another who have governed the country.

No doubt, for the sake at least of the generations to come, one has to have hope that at least at this late stage, 73 years late, some responsible people will come up with a sensible economic plan. A leading businessman, MrDhammika Perera in a recent interview published in the Island newspaper had proposed a 7 point plan for the country to earn its foreign exchange needs. Besides him, several others too have proposed immediate, medium term and long term solutions to take the country forward. It is perhaps time to save the country from politicians and allow the business community, academics and other professionals to meet and develop an economic development plan, at least a ten year plan with immediate, medium term and long term strategies, and appoint an implementation team to implement the plan without having any engagement with politicians in the task of implementation. One could call it an economic coup de tat, but if life is allowed to proceed as it is such a coup de tat might be the only thing that might save the country becoming a hell hole for its people.

Hope no doubt must spring eternal. No individual or a country can move forward without hope. Sri Lanka, like many other countries have been affected by COVID and still isand continues to get affected as COVID has not finished its business. Sri Lanka has lost at least 50% of its foreign revenue in 2020 and 2021, and it is facing a major challenge in repaying its foreign debts while scrambling to find foreign currency to fund essential imports.Despite this perilous situation, Sri Lanka has to have hope about its future.

The impact of COVID is underestimated by many and whatever government in power at this time would have had to face challenges arising from the pandemic. The high level of foreign debt, now reportedly exceeding 60% of GDP, and exacerbated by a short term, high interest sovereign bond component amounting to 45% of the total foreign debt, has crippled the country. These borrowings are cumulative and not the work of one government, but successive ones over the years. This situation along with the lowering of the countrys credit rating by all credit rating agencies, have made the impact of Covid much greater than it would have been had Sri Lanka been on a better economic footing. There are lessons to be learnt from the mistakes and misjudgements made in managing the economy of the country. Unfortunately, the feigned well being and all is well and will be better soon attitude of the political hierarchy and their advisers, and the curtailment of the freedom for those who wish to make differing views within the public service, seems to have made Sri Lanka a country run by a breed of politicians and bureaucrats who do not seem to see beyond their noses and unable to see and feel the ground beneath them.

This article is about the major fundamental challenges that the country is facing and their effects felt by many ordinary people and which do not seem to be understood by many politicians and bureaucrats. Some of these challenges are the result of cumulative governance shortcomings of successive governments.

Lack of law and order and corruption leads the list of challenges that face the country, while mismanagement trails very close to these. Sri Lanka seems to have a law and order net that allows Whales and Sharks to escape and roam free but which catches sprats and even smaller fish and punishes them with harsh sentences even for minor offences. Throughout the countrys post independent history, it is yet to convict and punish persons in high political and administrative positions. In recent times, Whales and Sharks responsible for the Bond scam and the Easter bombing incidents, just to name two major incidents, still roam free, while if one scans the countrys newspapers, there are plenty of reports on relatively small fish being convicted of offences which pale into insignificance compared to many of the major scams and crimes.

Law enforcement and justice is selectively applied and the general unwritten and but well understood rule about the application of the law and justice is that the rule is based on who you know and not what you know and that there are some who are more equal than others.

Today, the cancer of corruption has reached a state where one rarely hears about people who are not corrupt. Rumours and hearsay about the level of corruption at the highest levels in the country has led many to take the view that there has to be some fire for so much smoke to emanate within the society. As some measure to allay the generally felt and widely accepted view about corrupt politicians , all politicians from the highest office downwards should make public their statement of assets and liabilities, which they are required to do as per the Constitution anyway, so that people could discern fact from fiction, if indeed what is disclosed is fact and not fiction.

If one cares to talk to ordinary people of the country, they will relate their experiences of Police indifference and ineffectiveness, and how the law applies differently to different people in the country, especially to politicians and their close supporters. There are enough and more stories about complaints made to the Police on numerous incidents that affect very ordinary people and which have gone unattended or even dismissed without any investigation, and also about the time such ordinary people spend trying to seek justice for offences committed at grassroots level.

Much of the debate and discussion going on about the technical reasons for the economic catastrophe that the country is experiencing now is of no interest to millions of ordinary people. Their natural concern is about shortages of food and other essential commodities, the high prices they have to pay for whatever is available. The political leadership of the country is yet to explain in ordinary lay persons language why the country is in such a perilous situation. Little do they realise that they have pawned the future generations of the country without any plan as to how they are going to free them from such a bondage.

To make matters absolutely worse, the one commodity that impacts on virtually everyone in the country, the supply of LP gas, has been so badly handled and inconvenienced people, and worse, placed the safety of many people at risk.

The other related issue is the mismanagement of the fertilizer saga. Despite the advice of many eminent experts in Agriculture, the political leadership decided to introduce an impractical and potentially harmful policy, harmful to the food security and the economy of the country.

The list of blunders is long. In terms of the much neededinvestments, if the environment that results is one of mistrust, the hollowness of words and assurances, even outright lies, then, what it produces is a lack of confidence amongst possible investors who would rather keep their money under their pillows rather than invest in Sri Lanka.

No doubt one must live with hope. But, when the obstacles to hope appear insurmountable, hope turns to despair. On the eve of independence, after 73 years of it, there is more despair than hope.
New York, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PHI Group, Inc. (www.phiglobal.com, PHIL), a diversified holding company currently engaged in PHILUX Global Funds (a group of Luxembourg bank funds), the Asia Diamond Exchange project (ADE) in Vietnam, mergers and acquisitions and investing in special situations (www.co2-1-0.io), is pleased to announce that CO2-1-0 (CARBON) Corp., a subsidiary of the Company, has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Canada-based SUNDIAL RENEWABLES CORP. (SUNDIAL) to cooperate in a new disruptive carbon mitigation program through worldwide environmentally sustainable projects.



According to the Agreement, SUNDIAL and CO2-1-0 (CARBON) will cooperate in acquiring carbon credits from solar power, wind power, biomass, and other renewable energy projects and developments as facilitated, managed, invested, owned and operated by SUNDIAL. Carbon credits will be digitalized into Carbon Tokens using blockchain-crypto technology and deploying IoT.

Mr. Paulo Eric Pique, CEO and Founder of SUNDIAL RENEWABLES CORP., stated: We are very proud and thrilled with todays news. CO2-1-0 (CARBON) CORP and PHI Group, Inc. are global key leaders in the carbon credit solutions transition, leveraging blockchain-crypto technology, and we look forward to partnering and supporting them as we help position Canada to lead the energy transition to a low carbon future.

Mr. Choky YF Simanjuntak, CEO and Founder of CARBON, added: We are very happy and enthusiastic to partner with SUNDIAL RENEWABLES CORP. Our carbon credits solution with blockchain-crypto technology and IoT will fuel several solar and renewable energy projects of SUNDIAL RENEWABLES CORP. and others in order to assist Canada to reach net zero carbon target accordingly.

As we are entering CARBON token private sale and pre-sale, we encourage qualified, suitable investors to participate immediately. This CARBON token sale will nourish the new carbon credits ecosystem. Therefore, we believe our mutual cooperation with SUNDIAL RENEWABLES CORP. may enhance the life of many people around the world.

About CO2-1-0 (CARBON) CORP.

CARBON is the Most Environmentally Sustainable Crypto on Earth, developed under BEP-20 (BSC Mainnet) and has passed CertiK audit, #1 security audits for blockchain protocols, wallets, DApps, and smart contracts.

CO2-1-0 (CARBON) CORP. (www.co2-1-0.io) aims to provide a solution in disruptive new carbon market system using blockchain-crypto technology and IoT which will be empowering environmentally sustainable projects (renewable energy/ waste/ agriculture/ forestry/ etc.) starting in Indonesia, Vietnam, other ASEAN countries, USA, and worldwide. It has a clear and systematic product development roadmap, and the ultimate milestones of the products estimated to be launched in the near future. The solution, methodology, and improved TACCC (transparent, accurate, consistent, complete, and comparable) business process originally introduced by CO2-1-0 (CARBON) will bring full impact to better environment and life of millions.

About SUNDIAL RENEWABLES CORP.

SUNDIAL RENEWABLES CORP (www.sundialenergygroup.ca) is a Canada-based corporation specializing in FEPC (Financing, Engineering, Procurement, Construction), as well as O&M (Operation and Management) of medium and large solar farms in Canada. Canada needs 1.6 GW of solar per year to reach net zero. With approximately 160 million acres of farmland in Canada, the potential for renewable energy, especially solar farms in Canada is exponential, and SUNDIAL RENEWABLES CORP. envisages itself to be one of the key players in unleashing this enormous potential by introducing their proprietary and patented ground mount solar racking solution in the years to come.

About PHI Group

PHI Group (www.phiglobal.com, PHIL) primarily focuses on advancing PHILUX Global Funds, a group of Luxembourg bank funds organized as Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) and building the Asia Diamond Exchange (ADE) in Vietnam. The Company also engages in mergers and acquisitions and invests in select industries and special situations that may substantially enhance shareholder value.

Safe Harbor Act and Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as may, future, plan or planned, will or should, expected, anticipates, draft, eventually or projected, which are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.

Contact:

CO2-1-0 (Carbon) Corp

Email: contact@co2-1-0.io

Phone: +1-714-642-0571

SUNDIAL RENEWABLES CORP.

Email: info@sundialrenewables.ca

Phone: +1-705-999-0905

PHI Group, Inc.

Email: info@phiglobal.com

Phone: +1-714-793-2977
Boston, MA, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SVN International Corp. (SVNIC), a full-service commercial real estate franchisor of the SVN brand, announces the addition of its new franchise office, SVN | Second Story Real Estate Management in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Led by Managing Directors Tiffanie Robinson and Jill Allen, the commercial brokerage firm specializes in all asset classes including medical, industrial, retail, office, acquisition, and disposition. The firm also has a property management team that specializes in maintenance, accounting, leasing, and project management services for commercial, multifamily, and COA/HOA properties.

Robinson opened the doors to Second Story Real Estate Management in 2017. Now, with an experienced team of thirty employees representing buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants, the firm is backed by the powerful SVN brand. Harnessing SVNs extensive network, technologies and nationwide opportunities, Robinson and her team look forward to expanding their services far beyond Tennessee.

We have always operated on a passion for the real estate industry and being stewards for our clients and our community, says Tiffanie Robinson, Managing Director, Founder, CEO and Principal Broker. We are heavily focused on customer service and enhancing the experience for clients, owners and tenants of the properties we manage.

For the Chattanooga team, the desire to join SVN is rooted in the organizations unique culture and core values. We believe that transparency, shared knowledge and collaboration are the keys to growth and success, said Robinson, [SVNs] values serve as a strong foundation for the operations and mission of Second Story Real Estate Management. We are growth minded, because we know if we are growing, we are having greater impacts on the communities we serve.

SVN President and CEO Kevin Maggiacomo stated, As the SVN brand expands across the globe, we are partnering with market leaders who share our vision of a collaborative, open, and transparent approach to commercial real estate. SVN | Second Story Real Estate Management has long been an impactful leader in the Chattanooga area and is a strong addition to this organization. We look forward to growing the SVN presence in Chattanooga and beyond.

About SVN | Second Story Real Estate Management

SVN | Second Story Real Estate Management provides innovative solutions through customized service and the highest level of expertise. The firm offers commercial real estate services as well as property management solutions to serve as an all-in-one package for their clients. SVN | Second Story Real Estate Management is equipped to work with all multifamily and commercial communities from both property management and real estate perspectives. Visit www.secondstory.properties to learn more.



Instagram: @secondstoryproperties

Facebook: Second Story Real Estate Management; @secondstoryproperties

About SVN

The SVN organization is a globally recognized commercial real estate entity united by a shared vision of creating value with clients, colleagues, and our communities. The SVN brand is comprised of over 1,600 advisors and staff in more than 200 offices across the globe in six countries. Our brand pillars represent the transparency, innovation, and inclusivity that enables all our advisors to collaborate with the entire real estate industry on behalf of our clients. SVNs unique Shared Value Network is just one of the many ways that SVN advisors create amazing value with our clients, colleagues, and communities. For more information, visit www.svn.com.

All SVN offices are independently owned and operated. To learn more about becoming an SVN commercial real estate business owner, visit http://www.svn.com/franchising-opportunities/.

LinkedIn: SVN International Corp.

Instagram: @svninternationalcorp

Twitter: @SVNic

Facebook: @SVNIC

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MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Maky Zanganeh, one of the most successful leaders in the healthcare industry, announces the release of her published memoir titled The Magic of Normal, a beautiful narrative that honors cancer survivors worldwide.

"Today is the first day of February, which is cancer survivor awareness month. As a cancer survivor, diagnosed back in 2020, I deeply care and understand about the challenges and difficulties that are faced by cancer patients worldwide," stated Maky Zanganeh.

"When I decided to write this book, I was an intensely busy businesswoman working on a variety of different projects, one more important than the next. All pushing me in various directions. I have always been extremely ambitious, and it is hard for me to prioritize when it comes to dividing my time. The truth is, I finally started writing the book because life forced me to slow down. Fate decided to change things and pace my life to the rhythm of my cancer treatments... And strangely enough at the same time, Covid stepped in and put the world on hold. A space-time dimension occurred where everything was punctuated by Covid ... the different waves in different countries ... in different continents ... waves that alternated between hope and despair."

"I was fortunate to overcome my ordeal with cancer in the middle of the Covid pandemic. And I was equally fortunate to get my vaccine just one year after the Coronavirus emerged. Amazingly, my life was back in order, and I was able to continue my new projects in medical research with even more conviction than ever. So, I dedicate this book that traces my private and professional journey, to all those whose lives have been interrupted and dream of returning to normal one day. I dedicate it to every patient going through the uncertainty and torment of cancer. I want you to know you are not alone. You are shielded with science, innovation and discovery. In front of you lies comradely, courage and hope." A Persian expression states: "In despair hides a great deal of hope and at the end of the darkness of night is daylight."

To order Maky Zanganeh's Book The Magic of Normal

Amazon

 US: The Magic of Normal: Zanganeh, Dr Maky, Berman, Cheryl: 9781662466694: Amazon.com: Books

 UK: The Magic of Normal: Amazon.co.uk: Zanganeh, Dr. Maky, Berman, Cheryl: 9781662466694: Books

Barnes & Noble

 The Magic of Normal by Dr. Maky Zanganeh, Paperback | Barnes & Noble (barnesandnoble.com)

Biography:

Dr. Maky Zanganeh is one of the most successful leaders in the healthcare industry. Dr. Zanganeh is currently the Chief Operating Officer and member of the board at Summit Therapeutics, a company committed to leadership in developing targeted medicinal therapies that harness the power of the microbiome, resolving serious, unmet medical needs for the betterment of overall human health. Dr. Zanganeh is also the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Maky Zanganeh & Associates, a consulting company that provides consulting services to businesses in product development, research, and transactions.

Prior to that, Dr. Zanganeh, as Chief Operating Officer at Pharmacyclics, led a struggling biotech company to a multimillion-dollar collaboration and license deal for ibrutinib with Janssen Biotech Inc. in 2011 and, the subsequent sale of the company for $21 billion dollars in 2015 to AbbVie Inc.- the second-largest biopharma sale ever in the industry. The deal with Janssen Biotech received the award of the "Best Biotech Transaction" in 2011. Under her leadership in 2015, Pharmacyclics was also awarded the prestigious Prix Galien for "Best Pharmaceutical Agent". This award is the biomedical industry's highest accolade and recognizes outstanding achievements in the development of new therapies.

Dr. Zanganeh was President of EMEA / Global VP of Training and Education for Computer Motion, Inc. (Pioneers in Robotic Surgery), which later merged with Intuitive, Inc. (ISRG) in June 2003. Dr. Zanganeh was awarded her DDS (Dental Degree of Surgery) from Louis Pasteur University, France and an MBA from Schiller International University, France. She is fluent in French, German, Farsi, and English. Dr. Zanganeh earned the Fierce Biotech "2013 Top women in biotech" award and the E&Y company "Entrepreneur of the Year" 2013 award.

To Contact Dr. Maky Zanganeh

info@mzanganeh.com

Website: www.mzanganeh.com

Related Images











Image 1: Magic of Normal









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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Connor Consulting ( http://www.connor-consulting.com/ ), a global leader in contract compliance and software licensing, has announced the appointment of Siddharth Tiwari as Regional Head, India and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Tiwari will be responsible for driving the companys expansion in India and MENA, providing strategic oversight for business development, project delivery and partner alliance efforts.



When asked, Viresh Chana, CEO of Connor stated, We are beyond excited to have Siddharth join the Connor team to help spearhead our expansion into new global regions. He is a proven leader who possesses a unique take on the market, including software licensing, cloud and FinOps trends. Chana believes Tiwari will play a pivotal role in growth and take the companys India and MENA business to the next phase. Tiwari will build a team of professionals to serve top clients, through Connors unified portfolio of Software Advisory and Governance and Risk and Compliance offerings.

Tiwari has led a distinguished career in information technology and professional services, spanning over 15 years building and scaling businesses while working with top firms such as SoftwareONE, Forrester Research, Microsoft and Oracle. He carries a deep understanding of the Software Advisory business and the approach which needs to be taken to drive successful long-term outcomes for both customers and suppliers, evolving software compliance and SAM.

In addition, Tiwari has vast experience in creating and scaling a channel ecosystem, coupled with a deep knowledge of the dynamic software industry and widespread adoption of cloud computing. In his most recent role, he was instrumental in advising CxOs at global enterprises on software licensing best practices and how to maximize ROI and reduce TCO with publishers like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and IBM (among others).

About Connor

At Connor, our goal is to help companies move into the future of IT and Software Asset Management, which has a strong affinity with the Cybersecurity world. Gone are the days where license management is purely an audit risk mitigation or pure cost avoidance play. Businesses are leveraging ITAM and SAM to strengthen their security postures and using license management analytics to transform data into business insights that enable and enhance the decision-making process through automation and Connor is here to help.

For more information about Connor and Siddharth Tiwari, visit http://www.connor-consulting.com/ .

Press Contact:

Mandi Newman

(639) 471-8882

mandi@connor-consulting.com

SOURCE Connor

Related Links

http://www.connor-consulting.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7082d841-55c3-41fc-bf10-a649443d4f86
Lake City, Colo., Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sam Rashkins Housing 2.0 is the only online educational program designed by and for home building professionals and the only program that teaches how to succeed through industry disruption. This training and education program offers comprehensive information and actionable guidance that enables building professionals to design and construct efficient, healthy, sustainable homes at a fraction of the cost.

Want to elevate the quality and profitability of your residential projects? Register today for the next Housing 2.0 workshop series, which kicks off February 24.

Entering its second year, the Housing 2.0 training and education program is the gold standard educational offering for building professionals who want to compete and profit in the complex housing market. Focusing on disruption in the housing industry, this comprehensive course offers virtual classes and networking and includes a copy of Rashkins book Housing 2.0: A Disruption Survival Guide.

The program includes:

Virtual workshops facilitated by Rashkin.

Online courses taught by industry experts.

Action groups that enable participants to apply the Housing 2.0 fundamentals to their projects

Access to proprietary content, business recommendations, and market intelligence.

Networking action groups are forming for the February 24 session right now. Click to secure your spot!

Heres what participants have to say about the course and the book:

I have finally come up for air after a very crazy Q4, and we are very focused on our journey to disrupt the industry in 2022 by executing the vision you laid out in the first Housing 2.0 webinar series you so graciously and studiously gave early in 2021. I am going to be utilizing the book as a must read for our teams in 2022.Corey Donahue, Cofounder, Bettr Homes

I just completed your Housing 2.0 workshop. I found the workshop to be fantastic. Extremely informative, well organized, and educational. My background comes from larger builders where knowledge about health, energy, sustainability, etcetera was not that important at the time. I might actually have to watch the modules again to get the full benefit. Again, very well done.Doyle Dudley, Director of Purchasing, Thrive Home Builders

My experience with Housing 2.0 as a small developer was, in a word: invaluable. What I most appreciated was the constant focus on data-driven, market-tested, real-world solutions."Nick Lerek, Darlington & Associates LLC, Santa Fe area developer

To learn more about Housing 2.0 and to register, visit the Housing 2.0 microsite. Want a taste of the Housing 2.0 program? Watch Rashkins recent video on How to Build the Best Houses.

Click here to buy the book, Housing 2.0: A Disruption Survival Guide.

The Housing 2.0 program is made possible by the generous support of building industry leaders, including Mitsubishi Electric Trane, Panasonic, and Schneider Electric.

About Green Builder Media

Green Builder Media is North Americas leading media company focused on green building and sustainable living, affecting positive change by providing inspirational information to over 200,000 progressive building professionals and millions of early-adopter and first-mover consumers who are interested in sustainable living. Green Builder Media generates award-winning editorial, including breaking news, prominent market research, original insights, and visionary thought pieces. With a comprehensive suite of content marketing, digital, social, and print media options, high-profile demonstration projects, market intelligence, and data services, and live events, Green Builder Media offers a blend of visionary and practical information covering a broad spectrum of sustainable living topics, including Internet of Things, smart home technologies, energy efficiency, intelligent water, indoor air quality, resilient housing, renewables, and clean transportation.

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Houston, TX, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Holocaust Museum Houston (HMH) will host the Texas debut of Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, presented by PNC, on view March 11 through July 31.

The exhibition is based on the New York Times bestselling book and Tumblr blog of the same name, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and is the first-ever museum exhibition focused solely on this judicial icon, whose image graces mugs, t-shirts, posters and bobbleheads. The exhibit is a vibrant exploration of Justice Ginsburgs life and her numerous, often simultaneous, roles as a student, wife, mother, lawyer, judge, womens rights pioneer, and Internet phenomenon.

She may have stood only five foot one, but Justice Ginsburg was truly a giant in her work on equality and justice for all, said HMH CEO Dr. Kelly J. Zuniga. Whether you are a fan or a law scholar, this exhibition is a love letter to a true American icon. Few in history have stood taller in exemplifying what it means to be an upstander. We are honored to be the only Texas museum to host this exhibition so her remarkable story can live on to inspire others.

Three-dimensional environments will bring key moments to life, such as recreations of Justice Ginsburgs childhood Brooklyn apartment and of the Supreme Court bench, where visitors can take a seat and imagine making their own opinions heard. Visitors also will gain insight into RBGs marriage to Martin Marty Ginsburg, her partner of more than fifty years, through family snapshots and other materials from their life together, including some of Martys favorite recipes as the accomplished amateur chef of the Ginsburg household.

Other highlights include a robe and jabot from RBGs Supreme Court wardrobe; multiple listening stations where visitors can hear RBGs delivery of oral arguments, majority opinionsand forceful dissents in landmark Supreme Court cases; yearbooks from across RBGs academic life; the desk in her chambers, and the official portraits of RBG and Sandra Day OConnor, the first two women to serve on the Supreme Court, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery.

PNC is deeply honored to support this uniquely inspiring exhibit, one that serves as a fascinating tribute to one of the most impactful women in U.S. history, said Julie Young Sudduth, PNC regional president for Houston. Our organizations values have a strong focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a once-in-a-lifetime trailblazer who dedicated her life to womens rights and social justice. Houstonians will have the opportunity to experience her influence up close, and were excited to be a part of bringing her vast legacy to the Houston community.

The exhibition was developed by Associate Curator at Los Angeles Skirball Cultural Center, Cate Thurston, in partnership with Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, co-authors of the New York Times bestselling book, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In keeping with the spirit of Carmon and Knizhniks book, the exhibition riffs off the playful connection between Notorious RBG and rapper Notorious B.I.G. The name of each gallery section alludes to a song or lyric from the late hip-hop artist. Briefs and other writings by RBG, including some of her famously searing dissents, also are woven throughout the exhibit.

Throughout Notorious RBGs run, HMH will hold special events and public programming, including a free day, March 15, in celebration of Justice Ginsburgs birthday, presented by H-E-B. Other key public events include the HMH NEXTGens Notorious Sip and Stretch Yoga March 30, Notorious RBG in Song performed by soprano/composer Patrice Michaels and internationally acclaimed pianist Andrew Harley May 18, and free admission during extended hours from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thursdays April 14, May 12, June 9, and July 14, generously sponsored by Shell Oil Company.

Holocaust Museum Houston, Lester and Sue Smith Campus, is fully bilingual in English and Spanish. Located at 5401 Caroline Street, HMH is closed Mondays except Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. The Museums Legacy Cafe is open during Museum hours. Admission is $19 for adults; $15 for seniors (ages 65+), AARP members and active-duty military; always free for children and students through age 18; and free to all visitors Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Parking is available at the Museums adjacent lot for $8 for a four-hour period. Tickets are available exclusively online. For more information, visit hmh.org/visit.

PNC Bank, National Association, is a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). PNC is one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the United States, organized around its customers and communities for strong relationships and local delivery of retail and business banking including a full range of lending products; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. For information about PNC, visit www.pnc.com.

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MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) Multifamily today named Comunidad Partners its inaugural Impact Sponsor of the Year for 2021. The newly created award recognizes Freddie Mac Multifamily borrowers that preserve or create affordable rental housing that includes unique initiatives to advance tenants interests.



We are thrilled to announce that Comunidad Partners is our inaugural Impact Sponsor of the year, said Lauren Garren, vice president of business management for Freddie Mac Multifamily. Its hard to overstate the pioneering work that Comunidad has undertaken to both address the affordable housing crisis while also developing unique programs that advance tenants interests. We applaud the work of Antonio Marquez and the entire Comunidad team, which has proved itself a leader. Freddie Mac is recognizing their efforts in the hope that it will encourage other operators to similarly innovate.

In 2021, Comunidad Partners, working with Bellwether Capital, initiated a $300 million Tenant Advancement Commitment transaction with Freddie Mac, which included a commitment to maintain affordable rents for thousands of multifamily units. Comunidad also committed to providing social services to residents, which may include telehealth, concierge resource referral, resident council meetings, youth education services, health and wellness programs, and economic advancement opportunities.

It is truly such an immense honor to have been selected as Freddie Macs inaugural Impact Sponsor of the year, says Antonio Marquez, managing partner of Comunidad Partners. Through our partnership with Freddie Mac, their commitment to capital that builds community and advances tenants was the driving force behind our firms ability to preserve affordable housing and tailor resident services that drive positive social outcomes to diverse residents throughout the Sunbelt. As stewards of capital and community, this was a natural fit as we bring much-needed, high-quality affordable housing with innovative social impact amenities to underserved communities throughout the United States.

Comunidad is a 100% minority and women-owned real estate investment firm that specializes in workforce and affordable housing in culturally diverse neighborhoods. The company specializes in revitalizing affordable and workforce apartments in infill locations and implementing its specialized cultural management platform, which includes cultural upgrades, community investment initiatives, and ESG / social impact programs.

More information about Freddie Mac Multifamilys Impact Sponsor Award is available online. Freddie Mac will open the nominations process for its 2022 award in the coming weeks.

Freddie Mac Multifamily is the nation's multifamily housing finance leader. Historically, more than 90% of the eligible rental units we fund are affordable to families with low-to-moderate incomes earning up to 120% of area median income. Freddie Mac securitizes about 90% of the multifamily loans it purchases, thus transferring the majority of the expected credit risk from taxpayers to private investors.

Freddie Mac makes home possible for millions of families and individuals by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Since our creation by Congress in 1970, we've made housing more accessible and affordable for homebuyers and renters in communities nationwide. We are building a better housing finance system for homebuyers, renters, lenders and taxpayers. Learn more at FreddieMac.com, Twitter @FreddieMac and Freddie Mac's blog FreddieMac.com/blog.

Comunidad Partners is a dynamic, vertically-integrated real estate investment firm specializing in workforce and affordable housing in culturally diverse communities throughout the United States. The firm is proudly a 100% minority- and women-owned firm and heavily focuses its investments activities on positively impacting communities through its ESG practices and its corporate culture of diversity, equity, & inclusion. The firm has been a market leader in ESG for over a decade and received national recognition on its ESG practices from Fannie Mae, SAHF/CORES, and recently was named Freddie Macs Impact Sponsor of the Year. Core to its investment strategy is creating culturally-relevant, inclusive communities that are tailored to the specific needs and wants of the diverse residents living at the communities it serves. For more information, please visit: Home - Comunidad Partners.

MEDIA CONTACT: Mike Morosi

(703) 918-5851

Michael_Morosi@FreddieMac.com




Guelph, Ontario, Canada, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Skyline Commercial REIT, a privately owned and managed portfolio of industrial properties across Canada, recently completed its fourth sizable transaction for 2022.

On January 31, 2022, the REIT sold a six-property portfolio in Cambridge, Ontario:

15 Sheldon Drive, Cambridge, Ontario

131 Sheldon Drive, Cambridge, Ontario

101 Sheldon Drive, Cambridge, Ontario

1177 Franklin Boulevard, Cambridge, Ontario

1195 Franklin Boulevard, Cambridge, Ontario

1425 Bishop Street North, Cambridge, Ontario

The properties total 291,019 square feet of industrial space. The transaction was brokered by JLL.

The total sale price for the properties was $58.2M. The portfolio was sold to KingSett Real Estate Growth LP No. 7.

"Skyline Commercial REIT management is pleased to announce this successful transaction with KingSett Capital," said Michael Mackenzie, President, Skyline Commercial REIT.

The REIT maintains a strong presence in the city of Cambridge with three properties totaling 223,583 square feet of industrial space.

About Skyline Commercial REIT

Skyline Commercial REIT (the REIT) is a privately owned and managed portfolio of commercial properties, focused on acquiring industrial and logistics-centred properties along major highway corridors and transportation routes in Canada.

Skyline Commercial REIT is distributed as an alternative investment product through Skyline Wealth Management Inc. (Skyline Wealth), the preferred Exempt Market Dealer for the REIT.

Skyline Commercial REIT is committed to providing outstanding places to do business and superior service to its tenants, while surfacing value with a goal to deliver stable returns to its investors.

To learn more about Skyline Commercial REIT, please visit SkylineCommercialREIT.ca.

To learn about additional alternative investment products offered through Skyline Wealth, please visit SkylineWealth.ca.

Skyline Commercial REIT is operated and managed by Skyline Group Of Companies.

Attachment
RIMOUSKI, Quebec, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Puma Exploration Inc. (TSXV: PUMA, OTC: PUXPF) (the "Company" or "Puma") is pleased to report that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% interest in 30 claims (the "South-East Moose Brook Property") contiguous to its flagship Williams Brook Gold property. The acquisition adds by 662 ha to the Williams Brook North land package for a total of 20,662 ha (see Figure 1). Williams Brook returned 5.55 g/t gold over 50.15 metres in its inaugural drilling program in 2021 (see Sept. 15, 2021 News Release). A typo occurred in the final version of the news and should have been written 5.55 g/t gold over 50.15 metres as shown in the Figure 1 and well described in the press release Sept. 15, 2021. The new claims cover a very prospective area that has seen little exploration in the past.



Puma's properties are located in an emerging Gold District with great potential. To ensure its control of the area, the Company secured the most prospective claims surrounding the core of the Williams Brook property.

"This new land addition further consolidates our considerable landholdings in the area. We've increased the overall footprint of the Williams Brook property and secured highly prospective and underexplored areas," stated Marcel Robillard, President and CEO.

Over the past 15 months, the Company completed several transactions to connect a patchwork of mining claims held by different landowners. Most of these have seen little to no modern exploration work and have never been consolidated into a contiguous land package before.

ACQUISITION TERMS

To acquire a 100% interest in the South-East Moose Brook property (30 claims), Puma agrees to issue the Vendor on closing:

50,000 common shares of the Company and a C$10,000 cash payment;

50,000 common shares of the Company on or before the first anniversary of the signing of the agreement;

100,000 common shares of the Company on or before the agreement's second anniversary.

Additional performance payments to the Vendor:



Cash payment of C$25,000 upon a positive preliminary economic assessment (PEA to be defined in the definitive agreement);

Cash payment of C$50,000 upon a positive feasibility study (FS to be defined in the definitive agreement);

One-time cash payment of C$100,000 upon commercial production (commercial production to be defined in the definitive agreement).



The Vendor will retain a 2% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty on any commercial production from the property. Fifty percent of the NSR, or 1%, may be purchased by Puma for $1 million. Puma retains the right of first refusal on the remaining 1% NSR royalty retained by the Vendor. The agreement is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

ABOUT PUMA EXPLORATION

Puma Exploration is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with precious metals projects located near the Famous Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC) in New Brunswick, Canada. The Company is committed to its DEAR strategy (Development, Exploration, Acquisition and Royalties) to generate maximum value for shareholders with low share-dilution.



Connect with us on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn



Visit www.explorationpuma.com for more information or contact:



Marcel Robillard,

President, (418) 750-8510;

president@explorationpuma.com

Mia Boiridy,

Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development, (250) 575-3305;

mboiridy@explorationpuma.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Puma to be materially different from actual future results and achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made, except as required by law. Puma undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the quarterly and annual reports and in the documents submitted to the securities administration.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6fe2022e-5d6d-488c-bcb3-a9d9651b459a
RADNOR, Pa., Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (www.ktmc.com) informs investors that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Chegg, Inc. (Chegg) (NYSE: CHGG). The action charges Chegg with violations of the federal securities laws, including omissions and fraudulent misrepresentations relating to the companys business, operations, and prospects. As a result of Cheggs materially misleading statements to the public, Chegg investors have suffered significant losses.



CANNOT VIEW THIS VIDEO? PLEASE CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR CHEGG LOSSES. YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK OR COPY AND PASTE IN YOUR BROWSER: https://www.ktmc.com/chegg-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=chegg

LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: February 22, 2022

CLASS PERIOD: May 5, 2020 through November 1, 2021

CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS:

James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453 or Toll Free (844) 887-9500 or Email at info@ktmc.com

CHEGGS ALLEGED MISCONDUCT

Chegg operates a direct-to-student learning platform. Cheggs services include subscription services and required materials that comprise its print textbooks and eTextbooks.

The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, defendants touted that Chegg was in a unique position to impact the future of the higher education ecosystem and that the primary cause of Cheggs success was its strong brand and momentum which would allow Chegg to continue to grow and take advantage of the ever-expanding opportunities in the learner economy.

The truth was revealed on November 1, 2021, when Chegg reported its financial results revealing fewer-than-expected enrollments while failing to provide 2022 guidance. In addressing these concerns, CEO Dan Rosensweig stated, a combination of variants, increased employment opportunities and compensation, along with fatigue, have all led to significantly fewer enrollments than expected this semester. And those students who have enrolled are taking fewer and less rigorous classes and are receiving less graded assignments. Following this news, shares of Chegg plunged nearly 50% on November 2, 2021.

WHAT CAN I DO?

Chegg investors may, no later than February 22, 2022 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP encourages Chegg investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASE

WHO CAN BE A LEAD PLAINTIFF?

A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.

ABOUT KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country and around the world. The firm has developed a global reputation for excellence and has recovered billions of dollars for victims of fraud and other corporate misconduct. All of our work is driven by a common goal: to protect investors, consumers, employees and others from fraud, abuse, misconduct and negligence by businesses and fiduciaries. At the end of the day, we have succeeded if the bad guys pay up, and if you recover your assets. The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com.

CONTACT:

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP

James Maro, Jr., Esq.

280 King of Prussia Road

Radnor, PA 19087

(844) 887-9500 (toll free)

info@ktmc.com

A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8c810d1c-e5cd-4667-b215-213df37709ec
I realized I had to develop my own tool kit to survive for the rest of my tenure.At the outset I must hasten to add that not all in the Secretariat were racists or bigots.

by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne in Montreal

What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice. Albert Einstein

I was struck by a topical and timely article in the Daily News authored by Thalif Deen entitled Racism in the UN  A Dark Cloud where the author quotes Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations as saying racism and discrimination have no place in our world  least of all at the United Nations. The article says that soon, the Secretary General will appoint a Special Adviser to investigate the growing discrimination based on racial, national, or ethnic origins in the world body. The Secretary General is further quoted [T]he diversity of our personnel is a source of profound richness. Yet I am fully aware and deeply concerned that colleagues have experienced the indignity, pain and consequences of workplace racism and racial discrimination. This is unacceptable.

It was further reported that in pursuance of this laudable measure the Secretary General intends to establish a Steering Group to oversee implementation of the Strategic Action Plan on racial discrimination and report progress to the Executive and Management Committees saying [T]hese are the first steps in a relentless effort to address issues which tarnish the Organisations core values and behaviours and demean our shared humanity.

He has pledged to build a culture of solidarity and anti-racism where every individual can bring their whole self to work in a safe environment, regardless of racial, national, or ethnic origin saying further, This is the most effective way to transform the lives of the people we serve through enhanced professionalism, equality, dignity, and the promotion of racial diversity.

Kudos to the Secretary General of the United Nations for taking this unprecedented and proactive step.

Recruitment of Staff by the United Nations

According to a UN document of 2012 titled Staff recruitment in United Nations system organizations: a comparative analysis and benchmarking framework, among the criteria applied for recruiting staff to the United Nations are: identification and selection of staff who demonstrate the highest standards of efficiency, competency and integrity. Selection decisions are transparent and free of bias or discrimination of any kind. Selection is made on a competitive basis for all positions irrespective of category, grade or level and selection decisions are based on pre-approved minimum requirements and evaluation criteria, and are transparent and well-documented. Managers are held accountable for those decisions. Staff at the professional level and above are recruited on as wide a geographical basis as possible. Preference is given at the time of selection to candidates from countries which are unrepresented or underrepresented, provided that qualifications and competencies are equal. Due consideration is given at the time of selection to the need for achieving gender parity, particularly for positions at the professional level and above. Full regard is given to the qualifications and experience of persons already in service, without prejudice to the recruitment of new talent.

In this text dripping with equitable fairness, words like transparent and free of bias and discrimination stand out loud and clear. If this be the case, there would be no racism and bigotry in the United Nations. But there is.

By United Nations I am referring to the Secretariat and not the delegations appointed by sovereign States.

Snakes in Suits

Researchers Paul Babiak and Robert Hare in their compelling book : Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (Harper Collins: 2006) say that many psychopaths end up in the corporate world. They steal others jobs by ingratiating themselves with the bosses, negotiating the hiring process, inveigling themselves into high positions by depriving others who may earn these positions by performance, superior qualifications, and contributions to the workplace. These psychopaths, according to the authors, may just want money, or power, or fame, or simply a nice car they could appear to be strong, naive, dominant, honest, submissive, trustworthy, worldly, or whatever he or she believes will get others to respond positively to manipulative overtures.

Perhaps the most dangerous snake in a suit is what author Aaron James calls an asshole. In his book Assholes: A Theory (published in October 2012) James, a Ph.D (Harvard) philosopher who is an Associate Professor, University of California, Ervine, has an implied analogy which matches the profile of a snake in a suit. James writes that assholes populate the vast moral middle ground between the two (rapists and murderers) . They are more than the average schmuck one finds in the workplace and act out of a deep-rooted sense of entitlement, a habitual and persistent belief that they deserve special treatment. The true asshole, James writes, is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people. He is narcissistic, self-absorbed, impolite, and permanently thoughtless to those around himand it is almost always a himnearly to the point of sociopathy (here I disagree as there are females who fit into this category as well) .

My Story

A few days after I was appointed I could hear, through the facade of smiles and the disingenuous cordiality of my supervisor and colleagues, the word  geographic person uttered over and over. At first, I did not realize what this meant. Later, I got to know that this was a term used by those from countries of the West to refer to a person recruited internationally from the East or Africa. Some days later, to my amusement I learnt that those responsible for this racist epithet comprised a rag tag of jumped up clerks and typists and stenographers in their own countries who had later gone to night school and tagged on a bachelors degree in fields totally unrelated to the specialized agency in which they held professional positions.

Here I was, with a fancy masters degree from a top Australian university (in air law); 8 years as head of international relations in an international airline, and 26 journal articles published in top Western universities, being implicitly bestowed with the honorable title of geographic person. For the first few years, no paper I wrote went uncriticized nor found acceptable. Then I realized the combined reasons: jealousy and a deep-seated inferiority complex.

I remember once, while having lunch in the cafeteria with three other colleagues from the West, one said, referring to an absent African colleague: we should shoot these B. like we did once, only later realizing to his embarrassment that I was at the table. There were many such instances which I care not to mention.

The Tool Kit

I realized I had to develop my own tool kit to survive for the rest of my tenure.

At the outset I must hasten to add that not all in the Secretariat were racists or bigots. There were wonderful professionals (some of the cleverest I have encountered in my 40-year professional career) who would go all the way to give a hand to a young, qualified professional such as myself to improve. _

I was fortunate to find one. who was both a powerful and highly respected person who encouraged me to pursue doctoral studies. When the university accepted my candidature (for a doctoral programme to be completed outside my official working hours) I was summoned to the office of the big boss and advised not to join the doctoral programme (of course, none of them had the slightest knowledge of what a doctorate was). But when they got to know who was supporting me, the snakes in suits dared not confront the power behind me.

Secondly, I started publishing books and articles in law, again, and prolifically, disregarding the prohibitions enforced, and with strong encouragement from my mentor. By this time racism and bigotry had given way to raw unmitigated jealousy where one even wrote a petition to the university against my candidature, which my mentor showed me later.

Thirdly, and by this time I had attracted the attention of some powerful delegates who themselves wanted to publish (needless to say, with a view to enhancing their own careers). I helped them and one or two delegates even had articles written by me and published in the inhouse journal in their own names).

Also by this time I had earned my second doctorate and I was being regularly appointed to various working groups in the Secretariat some of which I headed. I must say that there were some Secretaries General who were themselves geographic persons who also encouraged me to progress. That did not stop the snakes in suits (some of them my peers) ratting on me to the authorities against my writing. Their efforts were thwarted by two Directors who were my supervisors who saw through their jealousy, racism, and bigotry.

By the end of my tenure, I had also, in addition to my substantive duties, been appointed by the Secretary General as Counsel to the staff and the majority of staff complaints I had to address were against racism and bigotry.

Not all victims of racism and bigotry may be in the same circumstances I was and may not be able to do what I did. But at least they can find their expertise, pursue their goals relentlessly and above all, make powerful friends to overcome the snakes in suits.

Epilogue

The Secretary General of the United Nations is certainly on the right track. The answer towards eliminating this perfidious specimen from the workplace lies with the bosses. Any institution which has a code of ethics should have, as the opposite of whistle blowing (which is usually encouraged) the offence of tale-carrying. Another unethical behavior should be lack of transparency in making appointments and there should be insistence that appointments are made on the basis of superior performance and qualifications. The unjust enrichment of one at the expense of another, which devastates the career path of the latter, should be a grave offence calling for restitution and punishment of both the person who is responsible for the appointment and the invidious appointee who influences such appointment. Any form of political influence or pressure should be condemned and action taken accordingly against the perpetrators.

Workplaces should also identify human rights. A right is something due to a person by just claim, legal guarantee or moral principle. It is a power, privilege or immunity accrued to a person by law and is a legally enforceable claim that another will do or will not do a given act. It is also a recognized and protected interest, the violation of which is wrong. Therefore, the starting point should be in the words just claim legal guarantee and moral principle. These claims and guarantees based on moral principles should be justiciable.

It is not that I did not pay a price. My appointment to a directorial position, which the Secretary General had made based on my superior credentials and signed off, was halted by insidious elements. This fact is documented in an appeal of the Secretary General filed by him in the United Nations Appeals Tribunal.

Now, nearly ten years after retirement from the UN system, with 36 books and over 450 legal articles behind me, it is a fading memory. I can only quote the lyrics of the song My Way   And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing. To think I did all that, and may I say, not in a shy way, oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way.

Yes, it was my way.

Among other positions held at the International Civil Aviation Organization, Dr. Abeyratne was Chairman, Advisory Joint Appeals Board as well as Counsel for the staff of ICAO.
Linthicum Heights, Maryland, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NFM Lending is pleased to honor Sergeant Nathan Hartseil, USMC, as the NFM Salute for February 2022.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLOcY3Zw-aY

Watch NFM Salute - February 2022 - Nathan Hartseil, Sergeant, U.S.M.C.

As a youth in Illinois, Hartseil was unsure of what career path to take, but he knew he wanted to do something to benefit others. His grandfather, one of his heroes, did just that with his life. William Hartseil served in Korea as a Sergeant in the U.S. Marines, earning a Purple Heart. His grandfather's memories and life lessons influenced Hartseil's values and decision to enter the military. "I wanted to do something meaningful, helpful, gain some discipline, maturity, and direction to lay the foundation for the rest of my life," remembers Hartseil. After finishing high school, this desire to better himself and become more like his role model led Hartseil to join the Marines in 1997.

Within the first two and a half years of his service, Hartseil distinguished himself when he was chosen to participate in a security forces training program. As part of the elite Marine Security Force, he guarded national leaders, including President Bill Clinton. Eventually, Hartseil returned to the infantry as a squad leader.

The Marines allowed him to travel and train with the best of the nation's defense, stationing him in Hawaii, Guam, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Australia. The camaraderie and values he gained in the military were life-changing. Four and a half years into serving, Hartseil transitioned into a reservist role. At the same time, he pursued his education at Eastern Illinois University. Though he had not left the military, it was still a lifestyle shift. "The first month was a little difficult because you live such a different life in the Marine Corps from the perfect way you dress to cutting your hair, and to come back to a no-military setting is overwhelming," said Hartseil. "However, the experiences I gained from other countries helps you mentally adapt to all ways of life." Soon enough, he was thriving and enjoying college and civilian life. In 2005, Hartseil left the Marines after eight years of service.

After finishing his degree, Hartseil started working as a pipefitter but found he loved interacting with customers and went into automotive sales. From 2006 to 2008, Hartseil worked in the mortgage industry, but the two firms he worked for went bankrupt during the 2008 financial crisis. His next venture involved joining a small company specializing in commercial development financing, but the economy at the time was not optimal for long-term success. So Hartseil was left to adapt once again. In 2013, he boldly moved from Chicago to Boston and returned to the mortgage industry.

In 2020, he joined Main Street Home Loans (MSHL) as an Area Manager. Since then, Hartseil has grown his team and closed over $180 million in loans since joining. He is consistently included in the Top 1% of Loan Originators in America by Scotsman Guide and Mortgage Executive Magazine. Hartseil has found a home in MSHL, saying, "It reminds me in some aspects of my military days in the brotherhood, camaraderie, and family aspect. So far, my experience has been nothing short of amazing, and I truly feel the best is yet to come. Here at Main Street, I have been given the freedom to build and create, and I believe we as a team have just started."

Hartseil lives in Sagamore Beach, MA, with his wife and children. He is actively involved with his local chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

The NFM Salute is an initiative in which one military member or Veteran is chosen each month to be honored as the "Salute of the Month." Salutes are chosen from nominations on the NFM Salute website, www.nfmsalute.com. The "Salute of the Month" is featured on the website with a biography and information about their service. NFM Lending will donate to a non-profit in the Salute's name. NFM Lending is proud to present $2,500 to the Gary Sinise Foundation on behalf of Hartseil. NFM looks forward to the opportunity to continue to honor military service members and Veterans through the NFM Salute initiative.

About NFM Lending

NFM Lending is a mortgage lending company currently licensed in 48 states in the U.S. The company was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 1998. NFM Lending and its family of companies includes Main Street Home Loans, BluPrint Home Loans, and Freedmont Mortgage Group. They attribute their success in the mortgage industry to their steadfast commitment to customers and the community. For more information about NFM Lending, visit www.nfmlending.com, like our Facebook page, or follow us on Instagram.

Video



News via KISS PR



Media Contact: az@kisspr.com

Attachment
Gov. Charlie Baker participates in a meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Monday to conclude the National Governors Association winter meeting, alongside other state executives including Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, center, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, right.
Goshen, IN (46526)

Today

Cloudy in the morning, then off and on rain showers during the afternoon hours. High 61F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low around 50F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
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Sometimes you have to deal with the unexpected and Honda has been having some problems at Sepang. Its bikes, arriving from Spain in Malaysia, were in fact stuck in Dubai and yesterday the test team was unable to participate in the first day of the shakedown. The mechanics managed to prepare the new RC213Vs for today, but the problems are not over.

In fact, it seems that test driver Stefan Bradl's leathers did not make it to Sepang either and so he had to take to the track with Pol Espargaro's. You can clearly see from the photo above the number 44 of the Spaniard on his boots and Polyccio's 'P' peeking out in the lower back. The helmet, on the other hand, is that of the German test rider.

Just in case youre wondering, there is no third Espargaro brother, but only Bradl in 'disguise'.
Grand Haven, MI (49417)

Today

Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will become overcast in the afternoon. High 62F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low 51F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
System error

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/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

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Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e838495f40)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838e7af50)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e838495f40)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838e7af50)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x55e8384968e8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838e7af50)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e838e7af50)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x55e82d4168d0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e8391caa88)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x55e8391caa88)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
88th anniversary of Radio Club Venezolano IARU Region 2 reports the national amateur radio society in Venezuela is celebrating its 88th anniversary



The announcement produced by Alfredo Medina YV5SF reads:



In 1934, a group of experimenters, most of them with important positions in the broadcasting industry, met and decided to create an organization to represent radio amateurs in the country, that's how RADIO CLUB VENEZOLANO (RCV) was born.



Since its creation, the mission of the RCV was to bring together communication enthusiasts, without distinctions of any kind, in order to investigate for the advancement of technology and help others and the nation in times of need, in addition to working for the strengthening of amateur radio, transmitting our values, being that radio amateurs are public servants of a universal nature.



In February 1936, the first Ministry of Communications was created and thus the first permits for the operator of amateur stations were issued, including YV5AJ, our official station and representative of the voice of Venezuela before the world. That same year the RCV was admitted as Venezuela's representative to IARU, the highest body of world amateur radio.



Thanks to the efforts of radio amateurs, the RCV is consolidated as the representative institution of Venezuelan radio amateurs, managing to create the bases and a protected path for the work of the next generations.



Today, we must be proud of the achievements of so many years, which have been consolidated with the joint effort of old and new generations. Training new fans since 1936, managing the Bureau since 1937, forming regional representations since 1953 and coordinating the National Emergency Network according to official resolution since 1958 at those times of special operations or situations that demanded it. All this has been the subject of important national and international recognitions, including the Declaration as an Entity of National Interest in 1984.



The new generations of leaders and partners of the RCV have the responsibility to strengthen and project affection, respect and admiration to the Venezuelan people and government and thus continue to represent the voice of our country before the peoples of the world.



Alfredo Medina, YV5SF

National President

https://radioclubvenezolano.org/

https://twitter.com/YV5AJ_RCV



IARU Region 2 https://iaru-r2.org/
Japan's Ministry of Communications supports ham radio In 2021 Japan's Minister of Digital Agency, Dr. Karen Makishima (LDP Kanagawa), established an Advisory Board that aims to encourage youth into Amateur Radio



Historically the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) considered amateur radio should be treated in the same way as those professional radio services whose purpose is to ensure reliable communication, but since the essence of amateur radio is experimental and educational it should be treated differently to professional/commercial radio users.



In November 2021 the MIC produced the report "Radio Policy Council in the Age of Digital Transformation" which notes:



 "The amateur radio population is declining, and we must continue to make amateurs through various efforts"



 "Young people will lead the future"



 "Consider creating an environment that makes it easier to start amateur radio"



 "We will proceed with studies toward the realization of a system and environment that makes it easier to utilize amateur radio, such as the realization of an experimental/research environment"



 "Speeding up the procedure from acquiring an amateur radio operator license to opening and operating radio stations"



Read the report at

https://www8.cao.go.jp/kisei-kaikaku/kisei/meeting/wg/econrev/211119/211119keizaikasseika_0402.pdf



The Advisory Board held their first meeting on January 26, 2022

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2022/january/advisory-board-aims-to-encourage-youth-into-ham-radio.htm
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 the president of Potomac Strategy Group and a Republican consultant. Copyright 2022 Matt Mackowiak, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
The governing association of a Boca Raton condominium complex faces a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit seeking release of documents that could help prove whether it illegally blocked a nurse from renting a condo because she could have been exposed to COVID-19.

The Boca View Condominium Association was accused by a unit owner, Greta Tremmel, of refusing to allow Jennifer Piraino, an intensive care unit nurse, to move to the property with her young daughter in April 2020. The complex covenants require association approval of all rental agreements, court records state.

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[ RELATED: Becker & Poliakoff law firm the nemesis of condo safety reformers ]

Under the federal Fair Housing Act, a person with COVID-19 is considered to have a disability and falls into a protected status, according to the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which investigates housing discrimination complaints for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Protected status can also extend to someone who is associated with people who have a disability, the suit states.

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The complaint names as defendants the association, its president, an administrator, its management company and a property manager. The complex is located at 1000 Spanish River Road, between the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean.

JoAnn Burnett, an attorney representing the association, could not be immediately reached for comment about the case.

Reached by phone on Monday, Trammel predicted that the association would lose the case after treating the nurse like a piece of garbage and throwing her to the street.

She will win hands down. She will win this after all of the [associations] denials are negated.

Tremmel said Piraino, a nurse at Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, submitted her rental application and a $100 fee in April 2020 and was called a few days later by a manager who said the company wouldnt process her application.

When Piraino asked why, the woman said it was because of everything going on in the world. When Piraino asked why again, the woman just replied, Well, with everything going on, Tremmel said.

Tremmel filed a complaint with HUD in May 2020, and HUD then asked the association repeatedly for information it said would be necessary to determine whether it illegally discriminated against Piraino.

According to a petition filed in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach on Jan. 27, the association has failed to produce records demanded by the HUD office in five administrative subpoenas issued by the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

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The office initially sought a list of all tenants who moved into the property between March 15, 2020 and November 9, 2020. But the association responded that it was prohibited by state law from disclosing information obtained during the leasing process.

[ RELATED: Diaper donnybrook: Family sues condo board, claim swim diaper ban violates babys civil rights ]

Meetings of association board minutes, similarly, are only available to unit owners who ask to examine them, the association said.

HUD later asked the association to produce copies of rental or sales applications between March 1, 2020 and January 8, 2021, as well as copies of minutes of all association meetings between March 2020 and November 23, 2020.

Boca View is represented by the law firm Becker & Poliakoff, which specializes in condominium law. An investigative report by the South Florida Sun Sentinel last Sept. 28 recounted numerous legal battles between the Boca View association and unit owners that typically resulted in protracted litigation and the unit owners receiving bills demanding tens of thousands of dollars for Beckers legal fees.

Rather than turning over the records requested by HUD, the association filed motions to quash the subpoenas, arguing that HUD had failed to meet the elements required to enforce them.

In a Dec. 2 email filed with the newest complaint, association attorney Burnett argued with HUD investigators that Tremmel had no legal standing to file her complaint.

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There is no disabled person, Burnett wrote. Even assuming Ms. Tremmels allegations were true  which the Association vehemently denies  she is unable to succeed because she is not a member of a protected class, nor is she associated with a person with a disability.

But the newest complaint filed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chantel R. Doakes and Veronica Harrell-James argues that the records are necessary to show whether the association told the truth when it said that no leases were approved and no one was allowed to move to the property from mid-March 2020 to mid-June 2020, when the complex was under quarantine and shelter-in-place orders.

Tremmel, by phone, said HUD has evidence that the board allowed other tenants to move in at around the same time it turned down Piraino.

HUD referred the matter to the Department of Justice in August to initiate proceedings to obtain [the associations] compliance.

Tremmel said she hoped the matter would be settled soon.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
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GREENWICH  Health authorities and public officials are sounding the alarm about a major blood shortage  declaring a blood crisis alert.

At a public briefing at Greenwich Hospital attended by medical staff, state and local officials, Greenwich Hospital President Diane Kelly called the current blood shortage an extremely serious situation.

Addressing the public, Kelly said, Donors give the gift of life, it could not be more true.... We need people to step up, we need people to donate blood. She noted that blood-donor centers were a very safe environment and take precautions against the transmission of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said that area hospitals were down to a one-day of supply of blood, when a five-day supply was considered the standard.

This is a really important public announcement we make today, she said. We have one of the worst blood shortages, in our country and in our state, right now, in yet another wave of global pandemic. Please, please, please roll up your sleeves and give blood.

Blood supplies typically run low during the winter months, and Mary Barneby, CEO of the American Red Cross Greater New York Region, said this years winter shortage was particularly acute.

This is the most blood shortage in over a decade, she said.

She said the Saturday snowstorm that hit the region canceled the planned collection of 370 blood units. In January, some 300 blood drives around the state were canceled by heavy weather, she said. The blood shortage is a continuing health emergency, Barneby said.

Dr. Kisha Mitchell Richards, director of pathology and laboratory medicine at Greenwich Hospital, said the medical administrators had been much more stringent about monitoring the allocation of blood to patients. She said an assessment was made day to day on the distribution of blood and related medical supplies.

A cancer patient, Darien resident Todd Koorbusch described how vital a steady supply of blood was for his treatment of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a blood cancer.

If it wasnt for the American Red Cross, my wife wouldnt have a husband, and my kids wouldnt have a father, he said.

He said he received a steady supply of blood in the months before and after a major surgical procedure that defeated the cancer in his body. Speaking as a cancer survivor, Koorbusch, a Greenwich native, said, Appreciate what you have today, not what you want tomorrow.

First Selectman Fred Camillo said the public-health workers and medical staff were often under-appreciated.

Take a few minutes to remember all their efforts, and go out and give blood, he said.

In Greenwich, a blood drive is being held from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday at the First Presbyterian Church of Greenwich, 1 W. Putnam Ave. Another will be held at the YMCA of Greenwich at 50 East Putnam on Monday. A Red Cross facility at 99 Indian Field Road offers regular blood-donation services.

Donations may be scheduled at www.redcrossblood.org or by calling 1-800-733-2767. Authorities said blood donations would be needed in coming weeks, as well.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com
Illustration: Lindsay Mound

Last year, the chef Stephanie Bonnin prepared for a cooking residency at Deer Mountain Inn, a Catskills resort about two and a half hours north of the city. Reservations had sold out, and Bonnin was excited to share her menu, which was based on the cooking of Colombia, where she grew up. Quickly, the Institute of Culinary Education grad remembers, she grew frustrated with the way her male cooks behaved. I hired my kitchen staff, two guys, and they wouldnt take direction, they would question everything I said, she recalls. Because youre a woman, they dont respect your judgment as much.

It has been just over four years since the New York restaurant industry began to seriously examine its culture of hard-partying, ruthless bullying and rampant abuse. Women who run New York Citys kitchens say they still struggle to command the same degree of authority as their male counterparts, but they are also working together and sharing information to stamp out lingering sexism in their kitchens.

For first-time executive chef Jackie Carnesi, creating a safe working environment should be common sense, but she has had to fire kitchen staff who wouldnt take her seriously. This shit is so basic and obvious, she says of her approach. Just respecting each other and having patience and not expecting people to walk in the door and be the best. Giving people some leniency to work and not fucking yelling at them if they dont get it right away. Youre always toeing the line between being too soft and not getting what you need out of people, then the other direction is being too tough. Its a delicate, alienating dance.

Carnesi is the executive chef of Nura, a Greenpoint restaurant that fits right into its trendy neighborhood. Its a huge space with unfinished ceilings, stuffed with mid-century-modern furniture and dripping with greenery. Before Nura, Carnesi worked as the interim chef at Otis, a sister restaurant where she also had problems being seen as an authority figure. If I tried to give directions to certain people  always men  they would kind of, like, roll their eyes, she recalls. Theyd be like, Hey, how do you do this? And I was like, This is how you do it. And they were like, Oh, no, Ill go ask the head chef. And then he would give the exact same answer. And Im like, What the fuck? Its so frustrating.

One person who can relate to Carnesis disappointment is Sam Short, Nuras pastry chef, who says she encounters similar problems. I mean, Im definitely not aggressive, she says. Im told that I could be intimidating, which I find hilarious. Her own process for dealing with insubordinate workers is to stand her ground: If someones doing something wrong, youre not going to convince me otherwise. Its not really going to be an argument; its just gonna be like, No, youre wrong, and then I walk away. If that sounds harsh on the surface, Short sees it differently. Theres no reason to have an argument, because theres a clear right path, she says. I find that shutting it down right away is a way to avoid the conflict.

Short says she often encounters outdated points of view from repair workers (Ive had oven techs come in and look at every other person in the kitchen before they ask me whats going on, even though Im the person who called) as well as kitchen staff who dont realize attitudes in the industry have shifted. There are still young cooks today who venerate Marco Pierre White and that whole type of vibe, she says.

Barbara Sibley is the owner and head chef of La Palapa, a Mexican restaurant in Manhattan that has been in business for more than 20 years with four locations. I came up with a generation with, when you think about the Anthony Bourdain era, tons of drugs in the kitchen, you know, tons of craziness, she says. Theres a reason I didnt want that in my place. You just cant get as much done, and its not something I tolerate.

Nevertheless, Sibley explains that sexism has hardly disappeared from kitchens. We still live in a culture where women are expected to be polite and nice, she says. I dont think its changed that much. In some ways, its a lot muddier.

Sibley is not the only chef who feels like this hostility is just one more unwelcome relic from the old days. Alissa Wagner opened Dimes in 2013 with Sabrina De Sousa. Before running her own kitchen, Wagner worked at Five Leaves in Greenpoint. The bustling all-day bistro on the north side of McCarren Park is notorious for being constantly slammed and incredibly draining for its employees.

I was the only female cook there. I definitely felt a vibe, like I wasnt taken seriously by a lot of them, Wagner remembers. I always felt that I had to really prove myself, like I couldnt let my guard down. She says it could feel impossible to maintain that image: You have to put on this facade of being super, super-capable, and you just sort of felt like you couldnt relax. If you put that persona down for even a minute, people would jump.

That pressure didnt necessarily let up when it was time to open Dimes. When seeking out vendors and equipment, Wagner and De Sousa found that people would often dismiss them. Theyd be like, And what do you do? Are you the manager? Wagner says. And when Id say I was the owner and the chef, I actually had people laugh. It would be a Hey, good luck kind of thing.

Although Dimes is now an institution  the neighborhood is called Dimes Square for a reason  finding funding at the outset was particularly punishing. We approached a bunch of people, and they looked at our business plan and were just like, Oh, this is never gonna work, Wagner says. We actually werent able to get funding from any of the traditional pathways from investors or banks. We ended up getting all the funding from family.

After opening, Wagner says she had some difficulties with male prep cooks disrespecting her authority, but once she established a solid crew, her main goal was creating an environment where everyone felt their role was important. Turnover in professional kitchens is typically a huge problem, but Wagners kitchen had a higher staying rate  the majority of her kitchen staff stays on for five years or more  which she attributes to the creative control she gave the other cooks and the opportunity for them to create dishes on the menu that were 100 percent theirs.

Wagners approach may be successful, but its not the norm. In 2020, Forbes reported that fewer than 7 percent of restaurants in the U.S. were run by women. In New York, women chefs remain rare. The small numbers, however, add to a sense of community. A lot of women, says Short, Nuras pastry chef, are open with the information and experience of, like, Hey, Im trying this thing, and you could send a message to them and talk about it. She says she has found that chefs are now willing to be more forthcoming, which benefits everyone. Its not like, Oh, I need to guard this secret. Its like, Yeah, Im gonna tell you how to do this. Here. Try it yourself.

Ultimately, being in charge means setting the tone, a duty that isnt lost on Carnesi. And if it becomes clear that a cook isnt going to improve his attitude, she says she can always just show him the door: Im not giving any energy to people who waste my fucking time or dont get what were doing here.

This post has been updated to correct the name of the culinary school that Stephanie Bonnin attended.

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Back in early December Motorola took the wraps off the Edge X30 flagship for the Chinese market, launching it as the first phone to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. In the meantime, it has been rumored to make the jump to global markets (including India) under a different name: Motorola Edge 30 Pro.

Now a new rumor from a usually reliable tipster claims the device will be announced for India and other international markets at some point in February. Interestingly - or rather, weirdly - enough, it could have a different name in India. So it would go as Edge X30 in China, Edge 30 Pro in most global markets, and something else in India. That's... an interesting strategy for sure.

The global Edge 30 Pro could have more color options than the China-only Edge X30, which only comes in black and white.

Whenever the launch finally occurs, expect the global handset to sport a 6.7-inch 1080x2400 144 Hz OLED touchscreen, 8/12GB of RAM, 128/256GB of storage, a triple rear camera system (50 MP main with OIS, 50 MP ultrawide, 2 MP depth sensor), a 60 MP selfie cam (which may or may not be of the under-display variety), and a 5,000 mAh battery with 68W fast charging (zero to 100% promised in 35 minutes). It should run Android 12 from day one.

Source
After being out of stock on the Google Store for several weeks, the Google Pixel 4a is officially no longer listed on the Google Store as reported by 9to5Google

The Google Pixel 4a was released back in August of 2020 after being delayed for several months  it was originally expected to arrive sometime in April or May of that same year. The Pixel 4a only had 4G connectivity and a smaller 5.8-inch display and its midrange Snapdragon 730G chipset gave it great battery life. The $350 Pixel was an amazing value for its time.

The Pixel 4a was the last Google Pixel to be released to more markets. Starting with the 5G Pixels (4a 5G and 5), Google severely limited their release to key markets including the US and Japan. The global component shortage and supply chain constraints made it more difficult for Google to produce and sell enough Pixels.

The Google Pixel 5a 5G is Googles cheapest Pixel offering right now. It retails for $449 and can be had for as low as $299 if you buy it with a Google Fi plan in the US. Anyway, Googles expected to launch its foldable device sometime this year, but were also expecting to see (and have already witnessed some leaks of) the Pixel 6a come sometime this year. Given the timing of its previous two a-Series Pixels, we might expect such a Pixel to arrive in August, though rumors have pointed to a May release  we wonder if Google plans to release it to more markets though.

Via
While Chromebooks are showing signs of decline, Windows laptops are continuing to rise and Strategy Analytics points to Windows 11 as one of the reasons.

Last year the market grew 19% compared to 2020 with a total of 268 million shipments. Manufacturers focused on laptops as they are better suited to the hybrid work environment (a tower PC is harder carry between home and the office).

The component shortage continues to be an issue, but not the only one - shipping and manufacturing costs are rising. Even so, during the last three months of 2021 PC manufacturers managed to ship delayed orders from the third quarter.

Microsoft can congratulate itself on the Windows 11 launch. Laptop shipments in all regions were propelled by enterprise upgrades to the new version. Also, the Windows 11 SE edition for schools (which is clearly aimed at a core Chromebook market) proved popular with manufacturers. Gaming remains a stronghold for Windows.

Lenovo remains the top PC manufacturer with a 16.2 million units, trailed by HP with 14.5 million and a rising Dell with 13.2 million (up 14% year on year). Apple has reasons to celebrate too  while it is firmly in fourth place with 6.6 million units, this marks an all-time record for MacBook shipments.

Of the Top 5 makers, all posted growth for the full 2021, however the final quarter of the year is showing signs that the market is slowing down with only Dell and Apple shipping higher numbers.

Source | Via
Just as omicron appeared to be rapidly declining in Florida, a mutated form of the newest variant known as stealth omicron has surfaced, creating a possibility for a slowdown in the steep drop in new cases.

Nearly half of U.S. states have confirmed the presence of BA.2, or stealth omicron with at least 127 known cases nationwide as of Friday, according to a global database that tracks COVID-19 variants.

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Helix, which sequences a small portion of positive tests, identified at least two cases in Florida. One is a 69-year-old female and the other is a 32-year-old man. Both tested positive in January.

[ COVID-19 update: Florida reports 20,071 new cases; hospitalizations down 21% in a week ]

The presence of this subvariant could be why Floridas steep decline that began on Jan. 8 has tapered a bit in the past few days. In the seven days after omicron peaked, the daily average for new cases declined by 37%. But over the past week, the decline in cases slowed to 22%.

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I think we are going to have to watch another couple of weeks and see what happens, said Ira Longini, professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida.

Scientists say the subvariant of omicron, BA.2, shows signs of being more contagious than the original version known as BA.1 and could be behind a slowdown in the downward trends in places such as Florida that have already experienced peak omicron.

[ Lee en espanol: La nueva variante de COVID-19 BA.2 de omicron se ha detectado en Florida ]

BA.2, with its five unique mutations, was first detected in Denmark in December and already has overtaken the original omicron strain to become the dominant variant in that country. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it makes up a low proportion of COVID cases in the U.S. at this time.

The reason BA.2 is known as stealth omicron is it has genetic mutations that could make it harder to identify.

Its not that the test doesnt detect it; its just that it doesnt look like omicron, Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas, told WBOY 12 News. Dont get the impression that stealth omicron means we cant detect it. All of our PCR tests can still detect it.

[ RELATED: Publix to soon join rollout of free N95 masks. Here are the latest details. ]

Helix, a private lab, sequenced about 2,500 positive COVID tests in Florida between Dec. 20 and Jan. 21 and found about 2,463 were omicron or sublineages of omicron.

Longini said even with the omicron subvariant, he believes case levels will decline in February. The curve is not coming down as fast as predicted, but its still coming down, he said.

So far, evidence suggests the omicron subvariant is similar enough to the original omicron that vaccines will protect against severe COVID-19 symptoms. A booster dose may be even more effective.

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A preliminary assessment found a booster dose was 70% effective at preventing symptomatic illness from BA.2 two weeks after receiving the shot, compared with 63% effectiveness for the original omicron strain.

There is not enough data yet to determine whether stealth omicron is able to reinfect people who caught the original omicron. So far, researchers have found that people infected with BA.2 are no more likely to be hospitalized than those with the original version of omicron.

Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com
An agreement was recently signed for RIM Architects to design two buildings at the University of Guam. Back row, from left, Randy Wiegand, University of Guam vice president of administration and finance and chief business officer; Cathleen Moore-Linn, executive director, Research Corporation of the University of Guam; Anita Borja Enriquez, UOG senior vice president and provost; Glenn Leon Guerrero, UOG director of facilities management and services; Phillip L. Noret, principal, RIM Architects; and seated, from left, Thomas W. Krise, UOG president; and Brent L. Wiese, managing principal, Guam, RIM Architects.
The Department of Revenue and Taxation will receive more than $1.5 million in unpaid taxes from last weeks sale of the Verona Resort & Spa, according to the attorney generals office, which said the payment is the result of a partnership between Rev and Tax and the attorney generals office.

Polaris Guam LLC, the Tumon hotels former owner, was forced into bankruptcy in November 2020 by Kloppenburg World Bell Partnership and Teleguam holdings. Kloppenburg, which owns the hotels land, stated it was owed $960,958 in rent, and Teleguam stated it was owed $21,294 for services.

Court documents list a total of eight businesses or people, Rev and Tax and the IRS, with liens against the 335-room hotel, totaling $20.6 million. Polaris reported having no cash, two used vehicles and a Tamuning lot worth about $19 million.

Polaris is owned by David Su, Yin-Hsuan Su, Jenny Wu and Long Shan.

The federal bankruptcy court held an online auction Dec. 16, during which Taiwan-based Taieasy International Co. was selected to purchase the hotel, for $13.6 million. The sale was completed Jan. 28, and the money will be used to pay some of Polaris debts, including taxes.

The bankruptcy judge authorized Rev and Tax to be paid $100,000 toward a balance of $570,000 in real property taxes, and $1.7 million to be paid to Rev and Tax and the IRS toward $2.5 million in taxes owed.

According to the attorney generals office, Rev and Tax and the attorney general in 2019 sued Polaris for unpaid business privilege taxes, then worked to ensure that the government of Guams interests were represented in the federal bankruptcy proceeding.

For the first time ever in 2019, (Rev and Tax) worked to develop an injunction program and forwarded multiple cases for injunction to the (attorney generals office), to include Polaris Guam LLC, according to the attorney generals office.

Attorney General Leevin Camacho said in the release, Todays landmark payment is just the latest example of successes brought through our partnership with Director (Dafne) Mansapit-Shimizu and her team to prioritize tax collection efforts.
A murder suspect was found to be competent to stand trial after denying charges due to mental illness.

Judge Maria T. Cenzon said Akmal Khozhiev will be able to stand trial for charges connected to the death of Guam Memorial Hospital radiologist Dr. Miran Ribati.

Khozhiev underwent a forensic evaluation by psychologist Juan Rapadas. The evaluation is not open to the public.

In a hearing before Cenzon to discuss the evaluation, Khozhievs attorney said she would like to have a second opinion after learning the results.

Khozhiev pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder and aggravated assault by reason of mental illness in December 2021.

The charges are connected to an incident at a Tamuning apartment where Khozhiev and Ribati got into an argument after dinner.

Khozhiev allegedly choked Ribati and then stabbed him with an animal bone, charging documents state.

Ribati escaped the initial attack but was followed by Khozhiev, who is accused of stabbing the doctor with a knife.

When authorities arrived, Khozhiev walked out of the apartment, covered in blood and told officers, Sir, its me, its me, I killed him.

Officers then found Ribati inside the apartment face down, surrounded by a pool of blood. He was declared dead at the scene.
At-home COVID-19 test kits provided by the federal government are arriving in the mail for some Guam residents.

On Tuesday, customers could be seen exiting U.S. Postal Service offices in Barrigada and Tamuning with white bags containing iHealth COVID-19 antigen rapid tests, packaged in bright orange boxes.

A large number of the white bags had also arrived at the Yigo Contract Postal Unit, according to a worker.

Shipments come with four tests each, and are provided free of charge through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Postal Service.

The program launched on Jan. 19 and tests began shipping out late last month, according to the Postal Service website.

You can still place an order online at: COVIDtests.gov or https://special.usps.com/testkits

According to an FAQ provided by the White House, tests should ship within seven to 12 days after an order is placed: https://www.covidtests.gov/faq/

PDN employees placed three separate orders for test kits through the Postal Service website on the day that the program launched. Personal mailing addresses were used. Confirmation emails were received for all three orders, which stated that a tracking number and expected delivery date would be sent once the test kits shipped.

Tracking numbers and expected delivery dates of Jan. 29 were received for two of the orders, which were then received on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.

No tracking number was received for the third order, and the test kit had not been delivered as of Feb. 1.

Postal Service Strategic Communications Specialists Duke Gonzales, who is based out of Honolulu, was asked whether delivery of tests to Guam was running smoothly.

I can tell you that I ordered my own personal COVID tests the first day the website went live and I havent yet received a delivery notification, he said.

Gonzales said more information may become available in the coming days.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has stated that the Postal Service was ready to begin accepting and delivering test kits on the first day the program launched.
An attempted break-in at a Dededo vape shop occurred 12 days after it opened.

On the night of Jan. 26, a person attempted to break the glass door of Puff Supply Guam in Dededo, the stores surveillance footage showed.

The footage from the incident showed a shop employee trying to confront the person attempting to break in. The person was shown getting into a car and driving away.

Puff Supply Guam Manager, Darian Charfauaros had left 20 minutes before, but said the employee wasnt scared.

The guy in the video was pretty angry about it, just because were a new shop and it sucks that it happened, Charfauros said.

Charfauros reviewed the footage and noticed another person in the car.

I saw that the person in the backseat had a gas can in his hand and he was ready to get down once the door was broken, Charfauros said.

Aftermath

Charfauros and the employees called the Guam Police Department immediately after and reported it.

GPD spokeswoman Officer Berlyn Savella said there is an ongoing investigation and there is an active search for the suspected vehicle.

Charfauros said hes been stressed and frustrated but also worried about his employees, especially after the suspected car was seen driving past the shop with a different license plate.

In an attempt to deter any future break-ins, Charfauros said the store in Dededo will be open 24/7.

It wasnt our intention, but now they dont have to break in, Charfauros said.

Regardless of the efforts, Charfauros said the whole situation is heartbreaking.

Its just kind of sad that people like that have to mess with businesses, and especially local business during this pandemic, Charfauros said. Its just heartbreaking knowing that people have to go to this extent to mess with a business.

Charfauros manages both of Puff Supply Guams locations in Dededo and Hagat.
DAVIE  Every day, Lisa Huber and her family wait for a phone call, the phone call that says the Davie Police Cold Case Unit has arrested the person responsible for her grandmothers hit-and-run death five years ago.

So far, that call hasnt come.

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The crash that killed Emma Kelsoe, and the knowledge that the driver responsible remains on the loose, haunts the entire family when they think of Kelsoe.

We dont want that to be what we think of, Huber said.

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The family wants to remember Kelsoe as the mother of four children, grandmother of eight, great-grandmother of 15, the one who always remembered each of their birthdays.

Emma Kelsoe, 80, died in a Davie hit-and-run accident on Feb. 1, 2017, and the family made a public plea on Tuesday for help in finding the driver. (Lisa Huber/Courtesy)

They miss her all the time, Huber said.

Kelsoe, 80, was talking with a friend, Victoria McCall, about 7 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2017, in the 8500 block of Southwest 18th Street in the Park City Estates mobile home park. The community for 55-and-older residents is located south of State Road 84 and east of South Pine Island Road.

The friends were in the bike lane with Kelsoes chihuahua, Rondo, on a leash when the hit-and-run car veered off the road and hit the women. The car never stopped. Kelsoe and Rondo died; McCall was treated for broken bones in her spine and was discharged from Broward Health Medical Center days after the accident.

[ RELATED: Emma Kelsoe remembered two years after her death ]

We have surveillance video of the car passing by my grandmothers house and turning around and making a U-turn and going back by the scene while she was just laying there, Huber said.

Witnesses told police the driver was a man in his 50s, wearing glasses. There was also a woman passenger, according to Davie police. The car, possibly a Toyota Corolla, was described as a sedan, small and dark-colored.

Drivers would frequently speed through the development while taking a shortcut to State Road 84 or Interstate 595, residents told the Sun Sentinel after the crash.

Suzanne Kolcz and Lisa Huber, the daughter and granddaughter of Emma Kelsoe, place flowers at the site where Emma Kelsoe and her dog were killed by a hit-and-run driver in Davie. Tuesday marks five years after the accident, and still the family has no answers about who the driver was. The family is asking for the public's help, and there is a $27,000 reward for information. (Mike Stocker / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

About three weeks after the crash, McCall, 61 at the time, told the Sun Sentinel she didnt remember much.

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We were talking like we usually did, and the next thing I know she said something about a car, and I turned around and I was on the ground with the wind knocked out of me, McCall said.

Huber wants anyone with information to reach out to Davie police or Broward Crime Stoppers.

The smallest thing might make a difference, she said.

[ IN OTHER NEWS: DeSantis vows to 'review everything' regarding Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony ]

The family is doing a bit better now when it comes to remembering Kelsoe.

I think at this point we are able to look at her pictures and watch videos of her dancing and smile and laugh and remember all of that, Huber said. Its just theres always something in the background, and obviously its a horrible situation and thats never going away.

Kelsoes death is part of a trend of growing hit-and-run deaths in Florida, a trend that has seen deaths increase in six of the past seven years.

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There were 304 fatalities resulting from hit-and-run crashes Florida in 2021, the third consecutive year the total has increased, according to figures released Tuesday from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Suzanne Kolcz and Lisa Huber, the daughter and granddaughter of Emma Kelsoe, hug on Tuesday at the site where Emma Kelsoe and her dog were killed by a hit-and-run driver in Davie five years earlier. (Mike Stocker / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Overall, hit-and-run fatalities increased by 18% in 2021 compared to 2020. The number of hit-and-run crashes increased by 17%, and the number of serious bodily injuries resulting from hit-and-run crashes increased by 20%.

Of the hit-and-run crashes in 2021 where people died, 169 were pedestrians while 45 were bicyclists, meaning pedestrians and bicyclists made up 70% of the fatalities.

Kelsoes family and friends, along with Broward Crime Stoppers, are offering a $27,000 reward for information. Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-497-TIPS (8477).

Huber said finding the driver isnt about putting anybody in jail.

We just want to be able to remember what happened to her, and remember her, and not just be waiting by the phone every day, she said.

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Chris Perkins can be reached at chperkins@sunsentinel.com.




Haiti - Justice : The file of the assassination of Batonnier Monferrier Dorval paralyzed





17 months after the assassination of Batonnier Monferrier Dorval au-prince.html , Me Marie Suzy LEGROS, President of the Council of the Bar Association of Port-au-Prince notes a lack of interest in the manifestation of the truth and a feeling of fatality in the handling of the Dorval file, incompatible with the mission of justice and indicative of the state of health of Haitian justice



In a letter addressed on January 28, 2022, to Me Bernard Sainvil, Dean of the Court of First Instance, the Council requests the resumption of the file by a new investigating judge https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34764-haiti-flash-resignation-of-the-examining-magistrate-in-charge-of-the-case-of-the-assassination-of-me-monferrier-dorval.html



The Council explains "[...] after the recent break-in to the court registry and the theft of the safe containing the documents related to the file of Me Monferrier Dorval 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 , the Council of the Bar Association of Port-au-Prince, a civil party in the case, has never ceased to demand the reconstitution of the judicial police investigation file and the continuation of the procedure. Despite formal or informal meetings with the judicial authorities, despite the correspondence sent, the judicial machine has remained immobile, seeming to be held back by unfathomable weights.



The file is not progressing even though the preparatory investigation phase could only be initiated. Indeed, apart from the hearing of the civil party, some people called to appear for questioning have benefited from the inertia of the Public Prosecutor's Office, which contravenes the law and thwarts the progress of the procedure.



In short, to date, the powers of investigation and coercion available to any instructing judge have been regularly prevented, making it therefore impossible to exercise jurisdictional powers that could give rise to an order for dismissal or dismissal.



The analysis of the stalemate of the case does not only expose the limits of the institution and the judicial actors. Beyond the sense of responsibility and the need for each magistrate to account for the fulfillment of his office, the current situation seems to express a lack of interest in the manifestation of the truth and a feeling of fatality incompatible with the mission of justice []



The Council of the Bar Association of Port-au-Prince considers that the inaction of the various judicial authorities concerned by the file is not without consequences but constitutes, in a way, a negative action likely to discredit the image of justice, to reinforce the suspicion that weighs on the institution and finally, to delay the establishment of a genuine rule of law. He urges judicial actors in general and investigating judges in particular to seize the issues of the moment and to take up the challenge facing them.



The Council, convinced that its fight for truth and against impunity is essential for the whole of society, will continue to play its role of watchdog until justice is rendered to Batonnier Monferrier Dorval."



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35807-icihaiti-justice-new-burglary-at-the-court-of-first-instance-of-pap.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34764-haiti-flash-resignation-of-the-examining-magistrate-in-charge-of-the-case-of-the-assassination-of-me-monferrier-dorval.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31905-haiti-flash-assassination-of-me-dorval-killers-and-accomplices-identified.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31831-haiti-justice-4-individuals-imprisoned-as-part-of-the-investigation-into-the-murder-of-me-dorval.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-31661-icihaiti-pelerin-5-assassination-of-the-president-of-the-bar-of-port-au-prince.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















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TUESDAY, Feb. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Vaccinations have been given to the first volunteers in a Phase 1 trial of Moderna's experimental HIV vaccine, the company has announced.

The vaccine uses mRNA technology -- similar to that utilized in breakthrough COVID vaccines -- to deliver HIV-specific antigens that could trigger an immune response against the virus that causes AIDS, the company said in a statement about the trial.

"At Moderna, we believe that mRNA offers a unique opportunity to address critical unmet public health needs around the world," Moderna President Dr. Stephen Hoge, said. "We believe advancing this HIV vaccine program in partnership with IAVI and Scripps Research is an important step in our mission to deliver on the potential for mRNA to improve human health."

Moderna has partnered with IAVI, a nonprofit scientific research organization, for the trial being conducted at four locations in the United States: George Washington University School of Medicine, Hope Clinic of Emory Vaccine Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

We are tremendously excited to be advancing this new direction in HIV vaccine design with Modernas mRNA platform," Dr. Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of IAVI, said in a statement. "The search for an HIV vaccine has been long and challenging, and having new tools in terms of immunogens and platforms could be the key to making rapid progress toward an urgently needed, effective HIV vaccine. We are grateful to all of our partners and especially to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for funding this trial.

The trial will follow 56 HIV-negative adults to determine the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. Forty-eight of the volunteers will receive at least one dose of the primary vaccine, and 32 of them will also receive a booster version. The remaining eight participants will receive the booster vaccine alone.

A proof-of-concept trial last year showed that the HIV antigens in the vaccine produced the desired immune response in 97% of participants, CNN reported.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on HIV.

SOURCE: CNN
Broward prosecutors are renewing their call for more time to prepare for the penalty phase of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting trial, despite the judges reluctance to entertain any more delays.

Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty last fall to 17 counts of first-degree murder, but that did not end the case  prosecutors still have to convince 12 jurors that his crime deserves the death penalty, and the defendants mental health is likely to play a central role in the ensuing debate.

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That means multiple expert witnesses are expected to testify about Cruzs troubled childhood, the death of his adoptive father when he was young, the death of his mother in late 2017, and his struggles in school, with defense lawyers arguing that he deserves the mercy of a life sentence.

[ RELATED: Parkland shooter's Instagram posts can be seen by jury ]

The defense has been consistently turning over information piecemeal, prosecutors argued in a motion filed late last week. As a result, the state cannot take a thorough and complete deposition of the defense experts. Additionally, the states current experts will not be able to test the defendant ... until the state deposes the defense experts who have not written any reports, notes or otherwise documented their work on the case.

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Prosecutors had consistently announced they were ready for trial before Cruz entered his guilty pleas, but the defendants guilt was never really in question. For the penalty phase, prosecutors warn they will not be ready by the time jury selection is scheduled to start Feb. 21.

Defense lawyers, meanwhile, are fine with delaying the start of jury selection, but Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer has not been. Before the pandemic hit in March 2020, Scherer expressed an intention to start the trial with as few delays as possible. The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland took place on Valentines Day in 2018 and is approaching its fourth anniversary.

[ RELATED: Guilty plea in Parkland case brings families a step closer to justice ]

Broward State Attorney Michael Satz, left, and Assistant State Attorney Steven Klinger speak at the conclusion of a hearing in preparation for the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 24, 2022. Cruz previously pleaded guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel) (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

In that time, other high-profile cases have gone from crime to verdict (and sentencing when warranted), including the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, the trial and acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin, and the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.

None of those were death-penalty cases, and not dealt with the number of victims prosecutors need to wade through in the case against Cruz  prosecutors will be arguing for the death penalty in each of the 17 murder counts. The judge cannot sentence Cruz to death unless the jurys recommendation is unanimous in favor of death in at least one of the 17 cases.

Scherer is scheduled to hear arguments in the states request for a delay on Wednesday. Other issues that will come before the court include a defense motion to protect juror identities and to keep some of the evidence at trial from becoming public, including graphic photographs and video of the crime scene.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4457 or on Twitter @rolmeda
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Damascus government continues to expand the trap of so-called " Settlements" in Syria in order to trap young men in fulfillment of its interests, whether in order to conscript them for compulsory service or liquidate them as a way to take revenge on its opponents and subject the country to its control.

Today, in Maskana district, in eastern Aleppo countryside, a new "Settlement" process will be launched under the supervision of so-called "Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria" affiliated to Russian Ministry of Defense, similar to "comprehensive settlement" operations that launched by Damascus government forces under Russian auspices as well two days ago, in southwestern Damascus countryside, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Yesterday, January29, Damascus government forces began conducting "comprehensive settlement" operations for wanted people' situation in the city of Zakiya and the entire of Al-Kiswa area and its towns and villages in southwestern Damascus countryside, under the direct supervision of "Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria".

Damascus government promotes the so-called "Settlements" or "Reconciliations" in some areas, with the aim of extending its control over them. However, daily practical experience has proven that these "Settlements" did not contribute to achieving security and stability in these areas.

Last November, Damascus government, with Russian support, began implementing so-called "Settlements" that proved to be unsuccessful in Dara'a and south of the country, also in Deir al-Zor, after the security services of Damascus government summoned thousands of those who were subjected to "Settlements" in the areas of Deir al-Zor, Al-Mayaden and Al-Bukamal, for a military course, to later push them into battles with ISIS in the Syrian desert.

Damascus government repeated the scenario of " Settlements " again in north and east Syria in general and the city of Raqqa in particular, which was met with people' rejection.

In the Syrian regions in which this process was carried out, including Dara'a, Damascus countryside and Deir al-Zor, those who were subjected to this "settlement" were arrested and the majority were imprisoned, while the others were pushed to the battlefronts.

And during this month, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the security services of Damascus government arrested more than 42 people, who had made the "recent settlements" in villages of Al-Maraya, Al-Jafra, Al-Boulel, Al-Zubary and Al-Muhasan in eastern Deir al-Zor countryside.

Sh-S

ANHA
SUNRISE  A teacher at Piper High School in Sunrise was arrested and accused of sexual misconduct with a student he asked to stay after class, paying her $100 in $20 bills and telling her not to feel badly, officials said.

Rafael Edgardo Guzman, 37, of Tamarac, asked the girl to stay after class, and when all the students left, he told her to turn off the lights and they went into his office, which is located in the classroom. Thats where the Jan. 27 incident happened, Sunrise police said; Guzman was arrested on Monday.

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After the girl gave a statement in a taped interview at the Sunrise Police Department, police went to the school to speak with Guzman. Police advised Guzman he wasnt under arrest but asked him to go to the Police Department to answer questions, according to the arrest report. He agreed and drove his wifes SUV to the police department.

Rafael Guzman, 37, is charged with one count of an authority figure soliciting/engaging in sexual conduct with a student. (Broward Main Jail)

Guzman admitted to kissing and touching the students breast and performing a sex act in front of her, police said.

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At that point Guzman was told he was under arrest. Guzman then stopped answering questions and requested an attorney, according to the arrest report.

Piper principal Marie Hautigan sent a voicemail to parents alerting them of the situation. The text of her voicemail to parents, according to Broward County Public Schools, is: Good evening, Bengal Community. This is your principal, Ms. Hautigan calling to advise of the arrest of one of our employees for sexual misconduct with a student. At all times, the safety of students and staff is my highest priority. If you have any questions, please call me ... Thank you for your support of Piper High School and the Bengal community.

Guzman has been employed at Piper since 2018.

[ IN OTHER NEWS: DeSantis says they'll 'review everything' regarding Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony ]

Regarding his Guzmans future employment, the school district said, Per the Districts Special Investigative Unit (SIU), once released, SIU will review the release conditions and he will be placed on administrative reassignment with no student contact.

Guzman was charged with one count of an authority figure soliciting or engaging in sexual conduct with a student. Hes being held at the Broward Main Jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
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North Korea fires longest range missile since 2017

North Korea fired what is presumed to be its longest range ballistic missile since 2017 on Sunday, an escalation of its weapons program and a possible sign of larger tests to come, according to South Koreas President.

Both the South Korean and Japanese governments reported the launch of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM), with officials in Tokyo saying the missile reached a height of 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) with a range of 800 kilometers (497 miles), before falling into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

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If the missile were fired at a normal apogee, its range would be up to 3,500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers, making it an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile and North Koreas longest test since 2017, Joseph Dempsey, research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, told CNN Sunday.

A US assessment also found the launch to be an IRBM, most likely a KN-17, also known as a Hwasong-12, according to a US official with direct knowledge.

An IRBM would be able to strike the US territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

Support of Taiwan independence could spark US military conflict with China, Chinese ambassador says

China and the United States could end up in a military conflict if the United States encourages Taiwans independence, Beijings ambassador to Washington said in a US radio interview broadcast on Friday.

China considers the neighboring, democratically ruled island of Taiwan its sacred territory and has never renounced the use of force to ensure eventual unification.

Let me emphasize this. The Taiwan issue is the biggest tinder-box between China and the United States, Qin Gang told National Public Radio.

If the Taiwanese authorities, emboldened by the United States, keep going down the road for independence, it most likely (will) involve China and the United States, the two big countries, in a military conflict, he said.

Asked to comment, the US Defense Department said the United States remained committed to its one China policy and its commitments under the US Taiwan Relations Act.

Under the long-standing policy, Washington officially recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei, while the act requires the United States to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.

We will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability while also maintaining our own capacity to resist any use of force that would jeopardize the security of the people of Taiwan, a Pentagon spokesperson said.

The US State Department and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Qins remark, which came just hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed the crisis over Ukraine.

While Chinese officials have warned of military action over Taiwan, it is unusual for them to link it directly to the United States.

Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have escalated in recent months as Chinas military has conducted repeated air missions over the Taiwan Strait, the waterway separating the island from China.

US President Joe Biden has said that the United States was not encouraging independence for Taiwan, but he caused a stir in October when he said it would come to the islands defense if China attacked.

The latter remark appeared to depart from Washingtons long-held policy of strategic ambiguity  not making clear how the United States would respond  though the White House quickly said Biden was not signaling a change in policy.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, told Congress last year China wants the ability to invade and hold Taiwan within the next six years but might not intend to do so in the near term.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

 From wire reports
BOCA RATON  The driver of a 2005 Ford Expedition is dead after a single-car crash in Boca Raton early Monday morning, police said.

Shortly before 2 a.m., Murat Mehmet Gurkaynak, 44, of Fort Myers, was driving north in the 7000 block of North Federal Highway and Northeast 40th Street when he veered off the road and east onto a sidewalk, Boca Raton Police said.

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Gurkaynaks car crashed into a street sign, fire hydrant and two electrical poles before stopping. He was ejected from the Expedition and pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities ask anyone with information to call 561-620-6101.

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Boca Ratons Traffic Homicide Unit is investigating.
Anderson, IN (46016)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain in the afternoon. High 62F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

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Saint Joseph, MI (49085)

Today

Cloudy with occasional showers for the afternoon. High 62F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low around 50F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
The newest school in Boca Raton, a still unnamed elementary school, will soon have a name.

The Palm Beach County School Board on Wednesday will vote on a name out of three final options in a special meeting. The school, currently named O-5C, is expected to open in the fall, ahead of next school year.

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The school has generated some heated debated from parents as the school district redraws elementary school boundaries for the city. The new school and boundaries are expected to help reduce overcrowding in other Boca schools.

The school board will consider the following names for O5-C at a special meeting on Wednesday afternoon after a series of workshop meetings:

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Blue Lake Elementary School

Lakeview Elementary School

Lakeside Elementary School

A committee was formed to discuss and recommend a choice to the full school board. It comprised Principal Seth J. Moldovan, a representative from the Boca Historical Society, several community members and two students likely to attend the school.

The committee unanimously chose Blue Lake as their first choice and say it refers to the geographical and historical aspects of the new campus being built.

Lakeview and Lakeside reflect the environmental surroundings of the school, which will sit at 1798 Spanish River Blvd., near Don Estridge High Tech Middle. It will be able to accommodate about 1,000 students, and school district officials hope it will help with overcrowding at Calusa Elementary School.

The districts advisory boundary committee has been discussing and hosting public comments on redrawing of boundaries. Some parents criticized an initial proposal for new boundaries, citing a variety of concerns. At the committees last meeting, they brought two new proposals and will continue discussing and seeking input from the community on the possible new school boundaries.

The school district says policies dictate the criteria used to draw school boundaries, such as travel time from peoples homes to the nearby schools, according to Claudia Shea, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County School District.

Ultimately, the committee members will vote to either recommend the proposal to the schools superintendent or seek a new one, according to Jason Link, manager of school enrollment and demographics for the school district.

Austen Erblat can be reached at aerblat@sunsentinel.com, 954-599-8709 or on Twitter @AustenErblat.
WEST PALM BEACH  Four women from Palm Beach County are accused of trying to rip off an insurance company, and three were even paid thousands of dollars before being arrested.

The Florida Department of Financial Services started looking into the cases  one going back more than four years  when special investigators for American Family Life Assurance, better known as Aflac, tipped them off.

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According to the state, this was a web of teamwork and alleged deception involving forged insurance billing forms and/or medical treatment/progress notes for hospital and doctor visits that never occurred to illegally steal money from Aflac.

Three of the four defendants worked at the same local neurosurgery practice where claims were made, and investigators say doctors were exploited for records and prescriptions.

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Cocynthia Hodge is charged with insurance fraud of between $20,000 and $100,000. (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)

Cocynthia Hodge

Detectives from the state say Cocynthia Hodge, 30, of South Bay, submitted an online claim for an alleged hospital stay at Palms West Hospital, detailing charges totaling $89,395.56 over nine days. But Hodge had not been a hospital patient. Her claim was denied but the form was nearly identical to forms submitted by four other individuals under investigation. She could have been paid more than $10,000.

Detectives say a year after her denial, Aflac noticed Hodge was among a group of claimants who submitted numerous claims from the same IP address.

In addition, services billed, billing totals, diagnosis codes, attending physicians, etc. were identical on five other individuals claims, with only names, dates of birth, addresses, insurance information and dates of service different.

Plus, in October of 2021, Hodge picked up a prescription for Diazepam. According to the report, the prescription was allegedly written by a neurosurgeon at Palm Beach Neurosurgery  where Hodges sister, Darneshia Hodge, works as a surgical coordinator and has access to the firms electronic medical records database as well as the doctors information. Cocynthia Hodge had never been seen there. The report said a related investigation has revealed that Darneshia Hodge used her position at the medical practice to forge medical records and prescribe herself controlled and non-controlled substances.

Cocynthia Hodge is charged with insurance fraud of between $20,000 and $100,000.

Chastity Barry is charged with using fraud or swindling to obtain property worth between $20,000 and $50,000. (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)

Chastity Barry

Chastity Barry, 45, of Loxahatchee, had Aflac policies for herself and her three children. Investigators found she filed five fraudulent hospitalization claims listing herself as the patient, five fraudulent claims listing [her daughter] as the patient, four fraudulent claims listing [her son] as the patient, and six fraudulent claims listing [her other son] as the patient. Thats 20 claims over a year  one listing Wellington Regional Medical Center and 19 listing Palms West Hospital  and she was paid $39,695 for the alleged hospitalizations.

The IP address Barry used to submit her claims belonged to a computer at Palm Beach Neurosurgery used by the Hodge sisters. Thats because she worked there for a brief period around the time she submitted her claims.

The states investigator went on to write that Barry picked up two Phentermine prescriptions that Darneshia Hodge appears to have fraudulently obtained using the name and DEA number of the doctor she serves as surgical coordinator for at the practice. Plus, bank records indicate Barry received money from at least one other individual under investigation. These facts serve to show a level of familiarity and collaboration with the other individuals under investigation.

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Barry is charged with using fraud or swindling to obtain property worth between $20,000 and $50,000.

Darneshia Hodge is charged with using fraud or swindling to obtain property worth between $20,000 and $50,000, and four counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud. (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)

Darneshia Hodge

Darneshia Hodge, 34, of South Bay, had an Aflac policy for herself, her husband and two dependents. The state contends she filed 16 fraudulent claims  11 in her own name, three in her husbands, and one each using the dependents  and was paid $20,500. Two claims were submitted for bills she supposedly got from Lakeside Medical Center, two more from Palms West Hospital and all the rest from the neurosurgery practice where she works. The IP address used to file the claims is from Palm Beach Neurosurgery, and several of the claims from there list the doctor she works for as her attending physician.

Detectives wrote that a part-owner of the neurosurgery firm told an Aflac special investigator neither Hodge nor her husband were treated there. Then, Aflac sent Hodge a letter asking her to pay back $20,230 for the benefits she fraudulently obtained and realized that a few of the claims Aflac believed were valid were actually invalid. Hodge didnt return the money.

One of Darneshia Hodges billing forms was nearly identical to forms submitted by four other individuals under investigation as part of this case, according to investigators. Their services billed, billing totals, diagnosis codes, attending physicians, etc. were identical on each of the five individuals claims.

Investigators pointed out that every record of Hodge at Palm Beach Neurosurgery was a telephone encounter with progress notes, and several with the electronic signature of the part-owner. That doctor told the state telephone encounters do not produce notes like the ones Ms. Hodge included in her claims and he does not and has never used the format the investigator showed him.

Next, the centers practice manager explained to investigators that according to the notes in her telephone encounters, it looked like Darneshia Hodge was ordering medications for herself but without accompanying doctors notes for legitimately prescribed medications. That practice manager called investigators back the same day as her interview and emailed screenshots and logs that show where Darneshia Hodge created and deleted the progress notes from [firm] that she submitted to Aflac.

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Furthermore, investigators searching a law enforcement database for controlled substance prescriptions found Darneshia Hodge had 12 controlled substance prescriptions allegedly written by the doctor she works directly for as his surgical coordinator. He works at Palm Beach Neurosurgerys Wellington office, according to its website. The firms practice manager confirmed to investigators there was no record of the doctor writing the prescriptions and no records nor notes about a medical necessity.

Then, they talked to a pharmacy manager who confirmed there were prescriptions called in by the neurosurgery firm and in each instance, the medication was picked up either by Darneshia Hodge herself or by another individual included in this investigation.

Finally, the doctor Hodge works for had a lot to say, including that he didnt prescribe any of the 12 controlled substances filled using his name as the provider.

There was:

a drug he never prescribes,

another he said that he did not even know what it was until the detective told him, and

a third he would have no reason to prescribe.

Darneshia Hodge is charged with one count of using fraud or swindling to obtain property worth between $20,000 and $50,000, and four counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud.

Martine Charles is charged with insurance fraud of between $20,000 and $100,000. (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office)

Martine Charles

Martine Charles, 34, of West Palm Beach, is the fourth person in what investigators called the group of people who forged insurance billing forms, and she works as a medical assistant at the same neurosurgery firm.

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Aflac found Charles submitted an online claim for an alleged stay at Palms West Hospital and got $10,070 for the nine days she wrote she was there. Charles didnt respond to an Aflac special investigators letter asking her to return the money. The IP address on the claim was from her workplace and her claim had the identical information seen on others.

The states investigator went on to write Charles picked up a Phentermine prescription that Darneshia Hodge appears to have fraudulently obtained and sent in one of Darneshia Hodges fraudulently obtained prescriptions.

Charles is charged with insurance fraud of between $20,000 and $100,000.

All four women were booked on Friday. Darneshia Hodge is out of jail on $17,000 bond. The others are out of jail on $5,000 bond each.
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A Lauderhill police officer is accused of trying to coerce a homeless woman into performing a sexual act, and officials believe there may be more victims.

Officer Jamar Lee, 28, was charged after a nearly two-year investigation into his encounter with the victim, described in a police report as a woman driving a Saturn that was parked outside a closed Dunkin Donuts in the 1500 block of North State Road 7 after 3 a.m. on Feb. 25, 2020.

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According to the arrest report, Lee ordered the woman to follow him to the 4000 block of Northwest 16th Street so he could consult with other officers. The woman complied, but when they arrived, no one else was there, the report states.

After complimenting the woman on her looks and brushing his hand along the victims hip and leg, according to the report, Lee asked, What are you going to do for me if I let you go? He then allegedly guided the womans hand to his crotch and asked for oral sex, promising the woman money and a place to stay if she remained quiet.

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[ IN OTHER NEWS: State finds Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony lied about his murder arrest and much more. But he wont be prosecuted. ]

The woman got away when Lee asked her to follow him to a second location, according to the report.

Throughout the incident, the defendant failed to advise dispatch of his contact with the victim and also failed to activate his body worn camera, according to the report.

Investigators using the GPS on Lees patrol car were able to confirm the locations given by the woman.

The arrest report also hints there are other victims, but no details were disclosed. The defendant met multiple women on calls for service and used a second cell phone to contact them in attempts to arrange sexual encounters, the report states. No other charges have been filed other than the ones stemming from the Feb. 2020 incident.

The charges were filed in December 2021  one count of battery, a misdemeanor, and one count of unlawful compensation, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Lee has been suspended without pay since the charges were filed, said his lawyer, Johnny McCray, who denied the allegations.

We are confident he not only will be acquitted, but vindicated as well, McCray said.

[ IN OTHER NEWS: Daughter of former Broward mayor gets prison in COVID fraud case ]

Lee was with the Lauderhill Police Department for just a year and two months at the time of the incident, McCray said. In that time he had received more than one officer-of-the-month recommendation. He is also an Army veteran and was honorably discharged. Lee is a former corrections deputy with the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office for almost three years, McCray said.

Rafael Olmeda may be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-304-5256. Follow him on Twitter @rolmeda.
One of three semifinalists for Broward schools superintendent changed during a do-over meeting Tuesday, with a Palm Beach County administrator out and a Texas superintendent in.

The School Board agreed Tuesday to select three semifinalists:

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Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright, who got votes from all nine School Board members.

Michael Gaal, an Air Force veteran and former Washington, D.C., deputy chancellor, who got five votes (Ann Murray, Patti Good, Lori Alhadeff, Donna Korn and Debbi Hixon).

Quintin Shepherd, superintendent for the Victoria Independent School District in Texas, who got four votes (Good, Sarah Leonardi, Rosalind Osgood, Nora Rupert).

The three candidates are Vickie Cartwright, interim Broward schools superintendent, Michael Gaal, retired Air Force veteran and former deputy chancellor of Washington, D.C Public Schools, and Quintin Shepherd, superintendent of the Victoria Independent School District in Texas. The School Board is scheduled to interview them Wednesday with a final decision next week. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Eliminated from the list was Keith Oswald, chief of equity and wellness for Palm Beach County Schools.

Oswald got the second-highest number of votes last week behind Cartwright, but this week he only got three votes.

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While Im disappointed, of course, I recognize that this is the Broward School Boards decision to make and as a Broward resident I wish them great success, said Oswald, who lives in Oakland Park.

The School Board decided to hold last weeks meeting again after the South Florida Sun Sentinel questioned whether it violated the state Sunshine Law. Board members wrote their preferred candidates on ballots, but each members votes werent revealed during the meeting.

[ RELATED: Semifinalist drops out of superintendent search. ]

Interim General Counsel Marylin Batista instructed the board to redo the meeting, but several factors resulted in different results this week.

Last week, the School Board chose four finalists but one dropped out Thursday: Palm Beach County Regional Superintendent Peter Licata.

Media reports also raised scrutiny about Oswalds role in a Palm Beach County school district decision to not initially discipline a Boca Raton principal who told a parent he couldnt confirm the Holocaust actually happened.

[ RELATED: 8 recommended for superintendent consideration ]

Gaal, who placed fourth last week, also gained traction due to an email and social media campaign organized by critics of district leadership.

The semifinalists are expected to be interviewed Wednesday, and narrowed down to two. Those two finalists are expected to be interviewed next Tuesday, Feb. 8, with the potential for picking a superintendent on Feb. 9.

Shepherd said he will be at the school district in person Wednesday for the interview. Gaal and Cartwright also will be interviewed in person.

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I am eager to learn if there is a mutual fit and a shared future, he said in an email to the Sun Sentinel on Tuesday afternoon.

[ RELATED: Broward school Board will redo superintendent search meeting. ]

Shepherd has been superintendent for 16 years. Before going to Victoria, Texas, he led three school districts in Iowa and Illinois. He has also worked as a principal and music teacher.

In his application, he lists his successes as improving student outcomes, closing achievement gaps, improving his districts financial standing and generating community support.

I believe the best predictor of future performance is past performance and I am proud that each of the Districts I have served as Superintendent have thrived under my leadership, Shepherd said in his cover letter. Put simply, I offer you my selfless service and a track record of success.
Two longtime Florida administrators and an Air Force veteran with several short stints in education leadership are the contenders to become Browards next schools superintendent.

Broward Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright appears to be the frontrunner, based on recent board action. She was the only one of 15 qualified candidates that every School Board member wanted to name as a semifinalist.

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At least two other candidates are also expected to be interviewed: Keith Oswald, chief of equity and wellness for Palm Beach County schools; and Michael Gaal, a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force and former deputy chancellor for Washington, D.C., Public Schools.

The new superintendent will replace Robert Runcie, who stepped down last year following his indictment on perjury charges.

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The School Board identified their four top picks at a School Board meeting Jan. 25. However, one of their choices, Peter Licata, a regional superintendent for Palm Beach County schools, dropped out Thursday without stating a reason. He is a finalist for a superintendent job in Lincoln, Neb., and is scheduled to be interviewed there Tuesday.

Three semifinalists being considered to be Broward's next schools superintendent are Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright; Michael Gaal (center), former deputy chancellor for Washington, D.C., schools; and Keith Oswald, chief of equity and wellness for Palm Beach County Schools.

The semifinalists could actually change Tuesday, because the School Board plans to hold last weeks meeting again due to concerns raised about possible Sunshine Law violations. School board members wrote down their favorite candidates on ballots, but how each member voted wasnt shared during the meeting. The School Board hopes to name a new superintendent within the next two weeks.

Here is an overview of the candidates.

Vickie Cartwright

The rise of Cartwright, 50, to frontrunner status for the superintendent job, has been unusual and some say unfair.

Cartwright, who could not be reached for comment, was hired for the interim job by a split 5-to-4 vote in July. She agreed she wouldnt apply for the job permanently since that was a restriction listed in the job description.

But three months later, three School Board members  Donna Korn, Rosalind Osgood and Nora Rupert  were happy enough with her performance to offer her the permanent job. All but one board member, Patti Good, agreed to amend her contract to allow her to apply for the permanent job.

[ RELATED: Did Broward School Board violate state law? It will redo superintendent search meeting, just in case ]

We had to bend the rules for her so she could apply, Broward parent Megan Frost wrote to the School Board last week. She now has an unfair advantage over the other applicants by having served as our acting superintendent for the last several months.

Cartwright spent 20 years of her career as a music teacher and administrator in Orange County, Fla. She was hired in 2018 as superintendent of the tiny Oshkosh, Wisc., school district.

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Barbara Herzog, who was the Board of Education president during most of Cartwrights tenure in Wisconsin, described her as an educator of impeccable character and high moral and ethical standards in a letter of recommendation.

Herzog praised Cartwrights handling of a 2019 shooting and stabbing at a high school, saying she provided strong and responsive leadership.

But Cartwright resigned from that job in mid-2021 amid pressure. Some parents voiced frustration about the school district pivoting back and forth between online and face-to-face instruction during the pandemic, according to the Oshkosh Examiner.

A group of administrators called for an outside investigation into her leadership style, describing her as ego-driven as well as disingenuous, self-serving and not authentic.

[ RELATED: School Board not ready to make Cartwright permanent superintendent ]

She lost support on the board following an election.

In Broward, shes received support from the Broward Teachers Union and the Broward Principals and Assistants Association.

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Her strength in the academic arena and in the leading of schools will serve our District well, Lisa Maxwell, who leads the administrator group, wrote in a letter of recommendation.

In the heavily Democratic Broward, shes also received praise for standing up to Gov. Ron DeSantis and enforcing a mandatory mask policy, until the Republican-controlled Legislature outlawed student mask mandates in November.

So far, shes been slow to attract top talent to the district. Most of the top-level administrator jobs are filled by district staff serving on a temporary basis. Cartwright has said people are reluctant to commit to the school district without knowing who the permanent leader will be.

Michael Gaal

Gaal, 54, has been an Air Force pilot, a school district administrator and an education consultant. Now hes a frequent candidate for superintendent jobs.

Gaal is a finalist for superintendent in Decatur, Ill., although the School Board there has been slow to fill the job and is now interviewing a new candidate, according to news reports. He was a recent semifinalist for superintendent jobs in Cincinnati and Lee County, Fla., but didnt make it to the finalist stage.

He declined to comment for this news article, saying he was instructed not to by the school district and its search firm.

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For the past four years, hes been the president of two education consulting companies. His most recent company was New Jersey-based Beable Education, which sells products designed to close the achievement gap among students.

Gaal said in his application hes ready for a change.

Over the last two years of COVID, Ive seen too many districts have superintendents retire or leave when the students/staff/community needed them most, he wrote in his cover letter. Now is the time for me to return.

[ RELATED: Cartwright named interim superintendent ]

Hes held leadership roles in two large school districts, both for short tenures, and spent two years helping to lead a school turnaround effort in Detroit. Some Lee School Board members accused him of job-hopping, as hes held five different positions in eight years.

That to me is a concern if you cant stay at a job, said Debbie Jordan, Lee County School Board chairwoman.

Gaal told the Lee School Board that there were reasons for each exit. He left the Michigan turnaround effort after then-Gov. Rick Snyder closed it in 2016, two years after he started.

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He was soon hired as chief of staff for the Oakland United School District and left after eight months to follow his boss, Antwan Wilson, to the Washington, D.C., Public Schools. Wilson, who was chancellor, named Gaal deputy chancellor in February 2017.

But Wilsons tenure was short-lived. He resigned in February 2018 amid a scandal where he was accused of circumventing a lottery to get his child into a preferred school.

[ RELATED: Superintendent finalist drops out of running ]

Gaal was not involved in that controversy, Michael Collins, president of the search firm Ray and Associates, told the Lee County School Board. Gaal told that board he stepped down six months after Wilson left to give the Washington, D.C., mayor a clean slate for staffing the school district.

More stable was his 25-year career as an Air Force officer, where he became an instructor pilot and had risen to the rank of colonel upon his retirement in 2014.

What I really got from my military time is how to be accountable, he told the Lee School Board. I did that first and foremost by being a fearless leader.

Four Broward School Board members  Ann Murray, Donna Korn, Lori Alhadeff and Debbi Hixon  selected Gaal as a semifinalist last week, placing him fourth before Licata dropped out. Board members initially planned to limit semifinalists to three but decided to give Gaal extra consideration due to his status as a veteran.

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Gaal is the candidate preferred by the Facebook group Concerned Citizens of Broward County, which has been highly critical of district leadership since the Parkland tragedy.

Mr. Gaal, based on his background and experience, would buck the trend of status quo that has led to an extremely over-budget build-and-repair project, declining enrollment, learning loss that was accelerated by the pandemic and expanding education gaps, group moderator John Daly wrote.

Keith Oswald

Oswald has been a longtime school administrator in Palm Beach County, but hes also been a longtime resident of Broward County, and said he has a vested interest in improving the district.

A resident of Oakland Park, Oswald, 54, has been chief of equity and wellness for the Palm Beach County School District since July. Before that, he was a deputy superintendent, where he oversaw principals, and chief academic officer, where he oversaw curriculum.

[ RELATED: Latson fired over Holocaust remarks ]

While some have questioned whether his current equity and wellness role was a demotion, Oswald said its not. He reports directly to the superintendent, just as he did during his previous two jobs, he said.

I requested the transfer, Oswald said. The School Board was doing lot of work on equity, and I wanted to get in on it, addressing education disparities that we continue to see. We also anticipated increased demand for mental health services due to social isolation during the pandemic, and I knew this was a critical area.

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Oswald said he would bring a record of success to the school district, which has been struggling with academic achievement, especially since the pandemic. While Palm Beach and Miami-Dade have been A-rated in recent years, Broward has been stuck with a B. It was the only South Florida district to see a dip in its graduation rates in 2021.

Under my leadership, student achievement has increased, and higher graduation rates have been achieved for all student groups, Oswald wrote in his cover letter.

[ RELATED: Burke to stay on as Palm Beach County superintendent ]

Oswald received a glowing endorsement from his boss, Michael Burke, a longtime Palm Beach County schools administrator who now serves as superintendent.

His passion for education, strong work ethic, good moral compass, and commitment to the success of all students makes him an ideal candidate, Burke wrote last month in a letter of recommendation.

But Oswalds leadership has also been criticized for his role in a scandal that received international attention. Oswald was involved in a decision not to initially discipline William Latson, principal of Spanish River High in Boca Raton, after he told a parent in a 2018 email that he couldnt confirm the Holocaust was a factual event.

When the parent complained, Oswald forwarded the concerns to two administrators and asked them to keep him informed about the counseling they were giving to Dr. Latson, to address the Holocaust studies at the school to strengthen them, and to meet with the parent and address her concern, according to a document from a state hearing.

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After the issue became public in 2019, Latson was fired. The School Board rehired him after Latson won a case before a state judge, but then changed its mind and fired him again in 2020.

Latson failed students. This district administration failed to make him do his job, School Board member Barbara McQuinn said in 2020.

A former human resources investigator has alleged in a whistleblower lawsuit that Oswald and other district administrators stymied an investigation of Latson.

As superintendent, I would not hire or retain anyone who doesnt believe the Holocaust happened. The principal was terminated, Oswald said in an email.

He said an external review of how the Latson case was handled determined claims of wrongdoing were unfounded.

As to a recent complaint filed by a former employee, the District looks forward to correcting misstatements that are presented in the lawsuit in court, Oswald said.
AI-platform Arvoia has appointed John Burns to its advisory board. Burns will assist the technology company as it embarks on an ambitious global plan for expansion and investment funding.

Burns brings a wealth of industry expertise to the Board; with over 40 years' experience working for international hotel brands such as Hyatt and Ramada, and technology providers including THISCO (now Pegasus Solutions) and INTRICO. A member of HFTP's International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame, Burns was also named one of the ten hospitality experts changing the travel industry by Lodging Magazine. The native Canadian is founder of Hospitality Technology Consulting and co-founder of Hotel Technology-Next Generation (HTNG).
Smyth Tribeca, the newly opened independent neighborhood hotel in the heart of TriBeCa, announced today that Mark Pandaleon has been appointed General Manager. Managed by Highgate, Smyth Tribeca is a stylish destination for business, leisure and family travel with versatile quarters suited for a variety of guests.

With more than 15 years of New York City hotel management experience, Pandaleon has a deep understanding for the hotel business from both front and back of house roles. He joins the Smyth Tribeca team from Highgate-managed Stewart Hotel, where he started as Director of Housekeeping and ultimately worked his way up to General Manager. Prior, Pandaleon was Assistant Director of Food & Beverage at The London Hotel New York, Director of Stewarding at The Drake Hotel in Chicago and spent seven years at The Waldorf Astoria in various operational leadership roles within the rooms and food and beverage divisions.

Pandaleon holds a B.S. in Business Management from Ithaca College and grew up in the Finger Lakes of New York. In this new role, Pandaleon will oversee all day-to-day operations for the 100-room hotel. Smyth Tribeca will be welcoming a new restaurant, lobby bar and private event space in the coming months, placing the hotel at the center of TriBeCa's culinary scene.
Beaumier, the hotel group for those who are looking for an escape in a unique and authentic setting, today announced the acquisition of three hotels in Switzerlands Alpine region of Wengen for an undisclosed amount. The three hotels are located right in the centre of the village with ski-in, ski-out capabailities and magnificient views to the Jungfrau and the Lauterbrunnen-valley.

The acquisition is the first purchase for Beaumier outside of France and reflects the groups desire to acquire high quality hotels across premier seasonal leisure destinations across Europe. The pre-existing portfolio is already made up of eight hotels spread across the French Alps, Provence and the Cote dAzur.

We are excited to bring Beaumier to Switzerland. The addition of these three hotels is a strategic next step for the continued growth in Europe and beyond says Eric Darde, CEO at Beaumier. "Our aim is always to create hotels full of life and soul by anchoring them in their local culture and environment. The Zinnert family has created hotels full of heritage and we cant wait to carry on their legacy, welcoming Beaumier guests to experience the natural beauty of Wengen.

Bettina Zinnert commented My goal has always been to take Wengen Classic Hotels to the next level. After the passing of my father, I realised that as a family run business, we didnt have the resources to reach our truest potential. I am delighted that Beaumier will help bring the hotels to the top of the market and really put Wengen on the map as a destination. Beaumier is a hotel group that echoes lots of our own values and I am excited to see what is next for these properties.

About Beaumier

Beaumier hotels offer the opportunity to discover authentic experiences in unique destinations, where the staff embody the values of service and hospitality that has become its trademark. Choosing to stay in a Beaumier hotel means first deciding on the destination: snowcapped peaks, the rolling hills of Provence or the sun-kissed shores of the Mediterranean, where every piece of the experience conjures its own adventure and the chance to indulge in luxurious calm and to absorb the stunning nature of each place.

In addition to the three recently acquired hotels in Wengen, Beaumier operates eight hotels in France: Hotel Le Val Thorens, Hotel Le Fitzroy in Val Thorens, and Hotel des 3 Vallees in Courchevel 1850 in the French Alps; Hotel L"Alpaga in Megeve; and Hotel Les Roches Rouges, in Saint-Raphael on the Cote d'Azur along with Le Moulin and Le Galinier in Lourmarin and Le Capelongue in Bonnieux.
Killarney, Ireland - AI-platform Arvoia has appointed John Burns to its advisory board. Burns will assist the technology company as it embarks on an ambitious global plan for expansion and investment funding.

Arvoias AI-platform complements a hotels existing technology by transforming hotel websites and augmenting booking engines into advanced digital guest experiences to fuel direct bookings and boost online business performance.

Burns brings a wealth of industry expertise to the Board; with over 40 years experience working for international hotel brands such as Hyatt and Ramada, and technology providers including THISCO (now Pegasus Solutions) and INTRICO. A member of HFTPs International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame, Burns was also named one of the ten hospitality experts changing the travel industry by Lodging Magazine. The native Canadian is founder of Hospitality Technology Consulting and co-founder of Hotel Technology-Next Generation (HTNG).

Says Burns: Arvoia is one of the most exciting companies I have seen in recent years. Its data-driven approach - backed up by a superior team of data scientists alongside hospitality and technology experts - addresses many of the common challenges in hospitality today. Arvoia is helping hotels wrestle back control of the booking experience from OTAs, placing the guest at the heart of hotels owned digital experiences. This is really a project to sink my teeth into, one that will transform the sector. Arvoia has the energy that will really propel growth.

Arvoias CEO Mike Webster comments: John is a true stalwart of the industry and will be a pivotal voice as we continue our journey. His expertise in hospitality technology will guide us as we push forward with our ambitious expansion plans, including an upcoming funding round. Johns reputation speaks for itself; that he believes in how Arvoia can transform the hotel booking experience is a testimony to the product weve created and our corporate future.

For more information, visit arvoia.com

About Arvoia

Founded in 2014, Arvoia's advanced-AI platform transforms booking engines and websites for hotels and hotel chains across the globe, by giving hoteliers access to sophisticated AI technology similar to that of major OTA's. The Arvoia AI platform enables hotels to deliver an enhanced and hyper-relevant booking experience without any tech investment with the platform working seamlessly across all existing technology and booking engines.

Arvoia's technology has been deployed in leading travel companies including Dalata Hotel Group, Flight Centre, Travelport and P3. The company has been recognised for its innovative AI solutions, most recently as a finalist in the Best Use of AI in a Consumer/Customer Service Application at the AI Awards 2021.
Over the last two years, domestic and international travel has been almost entirely off the table in select parts of the world in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with our attention shifted to the year ahead, many popular travel destinations are anticipating an influx of pent-up travel interest.

Using the power of AI and real-time indicators such as flight capacity, news, world events and restrictions, number of bookings, and more, RateGains Demand.AI platform is able to unlock year over year travel demand insights for popular travel destinations like Bali, Cancun, Tenerife, and Dubai. If 2020 was the year of COVID and 2021 was the year of vaccinations, will 2022 be the year of growth?

Comparing demand data across these four holiday destinations over the January to March period from 2020 2022, we are able to take the temperature of the current travel landscape. Should these destinations expect a strong recovery period on the heels of the pandemic, despite the recent emergence of the Omicron variant? Lets look at the data to find out.

Bali

Bali, the picturesque province of Indonesia, attracts travelers from far and wide every year with promises of sun, surf, marine life, incredible scenery, breathtaking sunsets, and so much more. At the beginning of January, we saw a consolidated demand index of 37 (out of 100) and an 8% increase (MoM) in domestic flights capacity (17.1K). Looking forward, we see a demand index of 45 in early March, as well as a 47% increase (MoM) in international travelers expected, and a 13.92% increase in average daily rate (ADR).

Source: RateGain Technologies Limited

However, when we look at Balis demand forecast year over year from 2020 to 2022, we notice that both ADR and demand have not increased notably since the COVID outbreak. Bali travel demand was notably higher during this period in 2020, while the forecast for 2022 appears to be lagging in similar fashion to 2021 demand, but is set to outperform the previous two years in March.

Source: RateGain Technologies Limited

Cancun

Cancun has long established itself as a sought-after, sunny destination for tourists eager to escape the harsh realities of winter or spend holidays abroad. At the beginning of January, we saw a consolidated demand index of 78 (out of 100), an 8% increase (MoM) in domestic flight capacity (17.3K), as well as an even more impressive 47% increase in international flight capacity (39.9K). The average daily rate for a 4-star hotel was $309.43, which signifies an increase of 23.43%, while the average daily rate for a 5-star hotel is $1,000, which indicates an increase of 115.84%. This interest is split between couples and families, with an average booking window of 84 days.

Looking forward, at the end of February and beginning of March, Cancuns consolidated demand index remains the same with 16.4K domestic travelers and 30.4K international travelers expected to descend upon Cancuns famous beaches. For this time period, we see an increase in the standard booking window, as families (50%), couples (33%) and solo travelers (17%) look to book their respective trips 118 days in advance of departure. Comparing these data points back to 2020 and 2021 when travel was more volatile and inconsistent, we identify a stable and reassuring demand forecast.

Source: RateGain Technologies Limited

Tenerife

Tenerife, known for its spectacular beaches and exciting nightlife, is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. At the onset of 2022, we saw an incredibly high demand forecast, with a consolidated demand index of 84 (an increase of 109% MoM). Domestic Flight Capacity was slightly lower than usual at 11.3K; however, international travelers expected saw a significant surge at 19.9K (an increase of 55%).

Towards the beginning of March, we see a demand index of 75, with 12K domestic travelers and 24.4K international travelers expected. Looking at Tenerifes demand index across 2020 and 2021, we see an influx of demand volatility; specifically, spikes in traveler interest followed by uncharacteristic lows. In March, specifically, the 2022 demand index is much lower than previous years, indicating that Tenerifes demand is still lagging compared to pre-pandemic norms, likely due to Europes continued surge in cases.

Source: RateGain Technologies Limited

Dubai

Dubai, a consistently popular destination attracting tourists from around the world, enjoyed a consolidated demand index of 76 at the beginning of January, with approximately 124K international travelers arriving in the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. The average daily rate for 4-star hotels during this period was $1.6K (an increase of 105.68% MoM), while the average rate for 5-star hotels was $2.1K (an increase of 20.58% MoM). The average booking window is 62 days, with demand split fairly between couples (49%), families (44%), and solo travelers (7%). As we can see from the year over year comparison, travel demand in 2022 over this period appears to be significantly stronger than it was in 2021, due to international tourism affiliated with the iFX Expo in February.

Source: RateGain Technologies Limited

Looking forward to the beginning of March, we see a demand index of 56, with 123.2K international travelers expected and a gradual increase in ADR across 4 and 5-star hotels. In fact, Dubai is currently enjoying its highest ever Hotel ADRs.

Source: RateGain Technologies Limited

Final Takeaway

Travelers and hoteliers have demonstrated tremendous resiliency during these challenging times, and it seems like things are on the right track. The hospitality industry will continue to innovate and build for a better tomorrow with safeguards to preempt the future effects of another pandemic. Travel will emerge stronger, and the opportunities for 2022 look optimistic. For more information on RateGains Demand.AI platform, click here.

About RateGain

RateGain Travel Technologies Limited is a global provider of SaaS solutions for travel and hospitality that works with over 2200+ customers in over 100+ countries helping them accelerate revenue generation through acquisition, retention, and wallet share expansion. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in India, today RateGain works with Top 23 of 30 Hotel Chains, Top 25 of 30 Online Travel Agents and all the top car rentals including 8 Global Fortune 500 companies. RateGain is one of the world"s largest processors of electronic transactions and price points for the travel and hospitality industry and is the largest Software as a Service ("SaaS") company in the hospitality and travel industry in India. It offers travel and hospitality solutions across a wide spectrum of verticals including hotels, airlines, online travel agents ("OTAs"), meta-search companies, vacation rentals, package providers, car rentals, rail, travel management companies, cruises, and ferries. For more information, please visit www.rategain.com

RateGain PR

+91 120 4246781

RateGain Technologies Limited
The recent announcement of Meta by Facebook along with Microsoft throwing their hat in the ring with Mesh is a clear indication of the virtual immersive experience that is coming to us faster than we anticipated. Maybe The Matrix is not so far in the future. However, even if the metaverse does not live up to the science-fiction dreams, it will become the key to digital experiences and a crucial element of the physical processes. While we can see immediate applicability of this technology in gaming and education, what can the hospitality industry expect from metaverse? In a world that offers "unprecedented interoperability", Avatars could play an increasing role in leisure travel. From bookings and service provisions to selling properties, AR/VR and Avatars may replace physical staff or even manage a front office. If this were possible, the labour challenges within the industry could encourage the adoption of the metaverse faster than we expect. The business travel industry is made up largely by MICE and MICE guests pay 17.5 % more than leisure guests. The metaverse has the capacity to transform MICE into a new age digitally immersive experience. The question is, can the metaverse bring significant changes, solve some of the pressing issues and become the way forward for the hospitality industry?

Simone Puorto Founder | CEO | Futurist

Can the Metaverse bring significant changes, solve some of the pressing issues and become the way forward for the hospitality industry? Sure, it can! Can it do it within the next 5 to 10 years, as predicted by Zuckerberg? Hell, no. I've recently written a piece on the Metaverse (that can be found here), and my main argument is that the Metaverse can be (and will surely be) a goldmine for online microtransaction-centric industries (such as gaming), yet, we have to face the reality of the fact that VR/AR/MR traveling never really got mainstream, and this is something we all learned during last year's lockdowns. It's hard to sell a room if your guests can get out of their apartments. Sure, the Metaverse will probably play a role during the initial, top-funnel phases of the traveler's journey (choice of the destination/accommodation provider, for example). Still, if you want to enjoy that delicious meal in the terrace restaurant, you can only do it in the old, boring "meat space." More immediate applications can be, on the other hand, predicted in the MICE sector, as hybrid conferences are becoming the standard recently. An example? The same day this viewpoint is published, I will be talking at an event in Florence, Italy, as a hologram. COVID undoubtedly accelerated the adoption of tech, and even though I believe the embodied internet is the logical evolution of mobile internet, I doubt we'll be traveling (at least for leisure) as avatars in the near future. So my current POV on the Metaverse application for the travel industry is: 40% MICE, 10% leisure, 50% hype. As a futurist, I would love to be proven wrong.

It's going to be beautiful!!! We finally will see an evolution that will dwarf anything we have seen before. Fast is: People hate changing, but they love to escape. If there is one thing that Internet has shown us is that we are able to get away with anything and everything (generic usernames allow us to detach ourselves from the comments we make). Now how is that relevant for Hospitality and how will it leapfrog hospitality? Imagine going for a drink in the trendiest club in Paris to then jump and go shopping in New York, being able to have a meeting anywhere an everywhere. Whilst phase 1 of metaverse will be relatively boring, what comes after will be amazing: immersive experiences thanks to haptic feedback. This means that we can take hospitality home and therefore your favorite beachfront can be where you are and the only reason to go to a destination is to get the "real" deal. Exciting times ahead.

With the announcement of Meta's new ambitions (aka the Metaverse), a few doomsayers have been predicting the inevitable end of travel as we know it. I personally believe that we are very far off this kind of utopia (dystopia?). However, Augmented Reality and the metaverse are likely to bring the booking experience to a whole new level. During his Keynote in Paris last week, Gilles Maillet, Director of Travel & Mobility @Meta, discussed some of the many ways the metaverse will impact the customer journey in hospitality. One of the key takeaways is that, far from antagonizing hotels, Meta is planning to work in close conjunction with them in order to let guests experience the establishment before even setting foot in the property. Should this prediction of the future of the online hospitality market holds true, hotels should embrace it quickly in order not to be left behind.

Max Starkov Adjunct Professor NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality and Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant

Is the metaverse the perfect universe for misanthropes and germophobes, in other words, people who do not want to meet, mingle with and communicate in person with other people? Or is it a parallel universe enabling people to experience travel to far away destinations from the comfort of their reclining chair? Let's start by saying that the metaverse is a 30-year old idea that was not invented by Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook. In 1992, science fiction author Neal Stephenson coined the term metaverse in his novel Snow Crash, in which he imagined a 3D virtual world where people, represented by avatars, could interact with each other and AI agents. Different companies will probably create their own versions of the metaverse. Facebook, now renamed to Meta Platforms, and Microsoft have already announced that they are working on their own versions. Google, Apple and other tech giants around the world most probably will join the metaverse rush. The hope is that, similar to the Internet, all of these metaverse will be interconnected and you and your avatar can jump from one metaverse to another, similar to how now you can browse from one website to another. On the surface, the metaverse is the ANTITHESES of travel. Travel is all about indulging your five senses: taste, smell, touch, hearing and sight. At best, the Metaverse can let you experience two of these: hearing and sight. So how would the metaverse affect travel? One thing the metaverse and travel have in common is that both are social. This social aspect is central to understanding the metaverse, where people are represented by avatars and you can meet and interact with other people's avatars, but also with AI agents, bots and virtual agents. Similar to travel in the real world, your avatar can hang out with other avatars and plan and do things together. Immersive video games and virtual concerts aside, here are a few metaverse applications I see emerging in travel and hospitality: Virtual and Hybrid Events : in place of the flat and boring Zoom meetings we have all attended over the past two years, the metaverse will allow you to attend and experience the industry conference or event in 3D graphics and sound and make make you feel (almost) as if you are present physically. Guest speakers and presenters can appear holographically and create a near real life impression. There is a caveat, of course. Having attended industry events for 30 years now, the main benefits from attending a live event come from personal, unscripted and often random interactions with other participants, not from officially scheduled general sessions, workshops, product presentations and meetings. How would the metaverse handle such interactions with both live and avatar participants remains to be seen.

: in place of the flat and boring Zoom meetings we have all attended over the past two years, the metaverse will allow you to attend and experience the industry conference or event in 3D graphics and sound and make make you feel (almost) as if you are present physically. Guest speakers and presenters can appear holographically and create a near real life impression. There is a caveat, of course. Having attended industry events for 30 years now, the main benefits from attending a live event come from personal, unscripted and often random interactions with other participants, not from officially scheduled general sessions, workshops, product presentations and meetings. How would the metaverse handle such interactions with both live and avatar participants remains to be seen. Virtual Trips to new and far away destinations : using a virtual reality headset, you can fly to a destination without l leaving your couch, immerse yourself in the local life, visit attractions and museums, attend local concerts and sporting events, meet and interact with locals and other visitors, and have fun. Kind of. The caveat is that you experiences will be limited to seeing and hearing, and you will not be able to indulge your other three senses: taste, smell and touch.

: using a virtual reality headset, you can to a destination without l leaving your couch, immerse yourself in the local life, visit attractions and museums, attend local concerts and sporting events, meet and interact with locals and other visitors, and have fun. Kind of. The caveat is that you experiences will be limited to seeing and hearing, and you will not be able to indulge your other three senses: taste, smell and touch. Virtual Business Trips and Sales Meetings: you can have a holographic version of yourself take a virtual business trip, present your case, discuss terms and even sign new contracts. The caveat is whether your 'virtual self will be able to establish rapport and build trust with your live counterparts. Anybody who has been in sales can vouch for the fact that building rapport and trust, in addition to great products and service, are the main reasons why you win a new client. In my view, in spite of all the hype, the metaverse will have only marginal applications in travel and hospitality in the near to midterm.

Martin Soler Partner at Soler & Associates

I don't think the metaverse (also known simply as virtual reality) will change much to travel and hotels as solely virtual experiences. I believe it will become a way for guests to check out the hotel or destination before traveling - maybe making reviews less relevant because they can "go and see it" and possibly interact with the staff. In the last 100 years our ability to virtually experience destinations has increased with TV, movies, Videos etc. Rather than satisfying our desire to travel this increased it, which is why I believe VR (because for the moment I can't tell the difference) will increase real travel. Despite the bad events we need to attend, despite the complaints that business travel is a chore - we travel because we want to, rarely because we must. So in summary, I think the main category to be disrupted by VR/metaverse is peer reviews.

The impact will not be immediate, but within the next 10 to 15 years, the metaverse will have significantly influenced the hospitality industry. At the moment, it may seem like a giant technological leap that only a few top-tier hospitality organisations will be able to leverage. However, remember the times when social media was new to the world? Only a few companies were using Facebook and other platforms to expand their reach. Today, it has become mandatory for every company to incorporate social media, and the metaverse will follow the same trend. After all, the hospitality industry is built on people engagement and social interactions. When the metaverse becomes the new way of socialising, hospitality organisations will have to incorporate it in order to expand their reach and stay relevant. As it gains importance, will metaverse alter hospitality as we know it? I doubt that it will affect leisure travel demand. People, especially the newer generations, expect leisure to be an experience beyond their everyday screen-based lives, and they will continue to physically travel. Business travel, on the other hand, can be transformed into a more convenient experience through the metaverse. Exhausting back and forth travel and infamously boring Zoom calls can be replaced with more engaging, interesting, and convenient metaverse meetings. Such meetings would inevitably cut down on the number of business travellers. This change would expand to include the MICE sector as well. Thought sharing on a global level would become the norm, and hospitality organisations can step in to host these events. Moving a step further, hotels can embrace the opportunities of immersive experiences and create their own experience rooms. They can offer new metaverse-based services, hosting global events from music concerts to conferences, leveraging the metaverse to cater to an international customer base.

Linchi Kwok Associate Professor at The Collins College of Hospitality Management

The metaverse help break the walls between humans and machines. Using avatars can humanize the robotic services that hotels offer. On the one hand, travelers preferring human interactions with real service staff would feel less reluctant to the automatic services provided by avatars. On the other hand, hotels can address the labor shortage challenge by replacing labor-intensive positions with machines/robots. Using AI-powered avatars can further eliminate the variations in service operations caused by humans' individual factors. Besides creating an immersive digital experience for the hotel guests, the metaverse can also become a virtual workspace for hotel staff. For example, hotels can offer flexible, work-from-home schedules in the metaverse that today's workforce demands. Metaverse may come sooner to the hospitality industry than we anticipate today.

Frederic Gonzalo Travel & Hospitality expert. Digital Marketing & Strategy Speaker and Consultant

The metaverse holds many promises, but I think we need to take a deep breath and not expect anything tangible before another couple of years, at best. So it won't solve the pressing issues, in particular shortage of labor, which is here to stay but is also expected to resolve itself somewhat by 2030, when demographics become favorable once again. In the meantime, the best way to envision what the metaverse may or may not look like in travel in a couple of years from now is to look at what's happening in the gaming industry. We are seeing users splurge insane amounts of money on their avatar simply to compete with friends and total strangers alike. Concerts taking place with Ariana Grande, Travis Scott or Marshmello, bringing in real money through filters and lenses sold in parallel with such event. Travel and hospitality brands could come up with similar "packages" when visiting virtually a destination, or attending a festival with friends. Some of these friends may actually "really" be at the festival while others attend virtually, through a hologram for example, and their avatar. Far-fetched? For now, it seems so. But these technologies are already here. What's missing is the path, or highway that will support these initiatives. And these are already on the way, as well, with Facebook (Meta) jumping into the fray now. It will be interesting to see how all of this pans out, but I don't see it happening for another 5-7 years, at best. Prove me wrong, though, and I will gladly join in :-)

The recent video launch of Metaverse by Mark Zuckerberg will trigger the ultimate failure of this toxic social media behemoth (in my humble opinion). The hospitality industry is a precious business sector that enriches lives through the visceral joy of travel, food, wine and culture. We already have planet earth in our universe and it is more amazing than we could ever experience fully. Just look at the 'Inspired by Iceland' youtube channel and their 'Introducing the Icelandverse' video to appreciate how ridiculous the Metaverse concept is vs reality.
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Exxon Mobils decision to move its headquarters to Houston is perhaps the capstone to the corporations deep roots and long history in the region.

That history can be traced back to Spindletop, the gusher that kicked off the first Texas oil rush in 1901 and launched the Texas oil industry. The Spindletop discovery attracted to Houston the nine original founders of the Humble Oil & Refining Co.  the predecessor company to Exxon Mobil.

Ross S. Sterling, a largely uneducated farm hand from Anahuac, founded the first Humble Oil Co. in 1911, though the Humble Oil & Refining Co. that came to dominate U.S. production wasn't chartered until six years later on June 21, 1917.

The consolidated company built the Baytown refinery that is still operated by Exxon and has become one of the nation's largest refineries.

In 1919, Standard Oil of New Jersey, one of companies spun off after the breakup of John D. Rockefellers Standard Oil monopoly, acquired a 50-percent interest in Humble Oil & Refining. Decades later, Standard Oil of New Jersey would be renamed Exxon.

On HoustonChronicle.com: The march from Humble Oil to Exxon dates back more than a century

Humble opened its downtown Houston headquarters in 1921. Six years later, it discovered the Sugarland oil field, the first major U.S. find using seismography. The big Friendswood oil field discovery came in 1937.

In 1963, it relocated to a newly built 44-story tower at 800 Bell. While maintaining that central presence, the company expanded into a midcentury complex near Greenway Plaza (and later built a $25 million addition in 2004). It was an early and integral part of the Greenspoint master-planned business complex developed in the late 1970s by then-subsidiary Friendswood Development Co.

In 1972, the Humble brand, as well as other Standard Oil of New Jersey brands, vanished when the company took the Exxon name.

Exxon Chemical campus, set between Memorial Drive and the Katy Freeway, opened in 1979, helping establish west Houston's Energy Corridor. In 1989, Exxon moved its headquarters from New York to Irving to save money.

Exxon merged with Mobil in 1999.

In 2008, Exxon Mobil purchased 385 acres on the northern edge of what would become City Place, where it built a massive corporate campus to consolidate the bulk of its Houston operations, as well as other divisions. By October 2015, 20 low-rise buildings totaling 3 million square feet were built around a central three-acre common area, helping to establish the north Houston region as a second energy corridor.

In 2017, Exxon Mobil moved the headquarters of its shale drilling. Exxon has about 15,000 employees in the Houston area, according to 2021 Houston Chronicle survey.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Family memento depicts life and loyalty to oil in Baytown

Exxon signed a lease in 2013 for 478,000 square-feet of office space across two towers to be developed by a subsidiary of Howard Hughes in The Woodlands, with plans to move into those towers in early 2016. By late 2021, Exxon vacated its office space in The Woodlands to consolidate its operations Spring.

Includes reporting from Katherine Feser and Marissa Luck.

amanda.drane@chron.com
Six weeks after Election Day, with his hold on power slipping, President Donald Trump directed his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to make a remarkable call. Trump wanted him to ask the Department of Homeland Security if it could legally take control of voting machines in key swing states, three people familiar with the matter said.

Giuliani did so, calling the departments acting deputy secretary, who said he lacked the authority to audit or impound the machines.

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Trump pressed Giuliani to make that inquiry after rejecting a separate effort by his outside advisers to have the Pentagon take control of the machines. And the outreach to the Department of Homeland Security came not long after Trump, in an Oval Office meeting with Attorney General William Barr, raised the possibility of whether the Justice Department could seize the machines, a previously undisclosed suggestion that Barr immediately shot down.

The new accounts show that Trump was more directly involved than previously known in exploring proposals to use his national security agencies to seize voting machines as he grasped unsuccessfully for evidence of fraud that would help him reverse his defeat in the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the episodes.

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The existence of proposals to use at least three federal departments to assist Trumps attempt to stay in power has been publicly known. The proposals involving the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security were codified by advisers in the form of draft executive orders.

But the new accounts provide fresh insight into how the former president considered and to some degree pushed the plans, which would have taken the United States into uncharted territory by using federal authority to seize control of the voting systems run by states on baseless grounds of widespread voting fraud.

The people familiar with the matter were briefed on the events by participants or had firsthand knowledge of them.

The accounts about the voting machines emerged after a weekend when Trump declared at a rally in Texas that he might pardon people charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, if he were reelected. In a statement issued after the rally, Trump also suggested that his vice president, Mike Pence, could have personally overturned the election by refusing to count delegates to the Electoral College who had vowed to cast their votes for Joe Biden.

The new information helps to flesh out how the draft executive orders to seize voting machines came into existence and points in particular to the key role played by a retired Army colonel named Phil Waldron.

According to people familiar with the accounts, Waldron, shortly after the election, began telling associates that he had found irregularities in vote results that he felt were suggestive of fraud. He then came up with the idea of having a federal agency like the military or the Department of Homeland Security confiscate the machines to preserve evidence.

Waldron first proposed the notion of the Pentagons involvement to Trumps former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, whom he says he served with in the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The plans were among an array of options that were placed before Trump in the tumultuous days and weeks that followed the election, developed by an ad hoc group of lawyers like Sidney Powell and other allies including Flynn and Waldron. That group often found itself at odds with Giuliani and his longtime associate Bernard Kerik, as well as with Trumps White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and his team.

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Rudy Giuliani, then President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, listens as Trump speaks during a news briefing in the White House in Washington, Sept. 27, 2020. (Al Drago/The New York Times)

Around the same time that Trump brought up the possibility of having the Justice Department seize the voting machines, for example, he also tried to persuade state lawmakers in contested states like Michigan and Pennsylvania to use local law enforcement agencies to take control of them, people familiar with the matter said. The state lawmakers refused to go along with the plan.

The meeting with Barr took place in mid to late November when Trump raised the idea of whether the Justice Department could be used to seize machines, according to two people familiar with the matter. Trump told Barr that his lawyers had told him that the department had the power to seize machines as evidence of fraud.

Trump mentioned a specific state that had used machines built by Dominion Voting Systems, where his lawyers believed there had been fraud, although it is unclear which state Trump was referring to. Barr, who had been briefed extensively at that point by federal law enforcement officials about how the theories being pushed by Trumps legal team about the Dominion machines were unfounded, told Trump that the Justice Department had no basis for seizing the machines because there was no probable cause to believe a crime had been committed.

It was only after several early options were exhausted that Waldron pitched the idea of using other parts of the federal government to seize the machines to both Giuliani and members of the Trump legal team, and to Flynn and his own associates, including Powell and Patrick Byrne, a wealthy business executive who funded many of the efforts to challenge the election.

Waldron, who owns a bar and distillery outside Austin, Texas, was previously best known for having circulated a 38-page PowerPoint presentation to lawmakers and White House aides that was filled with extreme plans to overturn the election.

Giuliani was vehemently opposed to the idea of the military taking part in the seizure of machines, according to two people familiar with the matter. The conflict between him and his legal team, and Flynn, Powell and Byrne came to a dramatic head on Dec. 18, 2020, during a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office.

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At the meeting, Flynn and Powell presented Trump with a copy of the draft executive order authorizing the military to oversee the seizure of machines. After reading it, Trump summoned Giuliani to the Oval Office, according to one person familiar with the matter. When Giuliani read the draft order, he told Trump that the military could be used only if there was clear-cut evidence of foreign interference in the election.

Powell, who had spent the past month filing lawsuits claiming that China and other countries had hacked into voting machines, said she had such evidence, the person said. But Giuliani was adamant that the military should not be mobilized, the person said, and Trump ultimately heeded his advice.

Shortly after the Oval Office meeting, Waldron amended the draft executive order, suggesting that if the Defense Department could not oversee the seizure of machines then the Department of Homeland Security could, the person said.

Around that time, Trump asked Giuliani to call Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the acting deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, to ask about the viability of the proposal, according to two people familiar with the matter. Cuccinelli said that homeland security officials could not take part in the plan.

All of this was playing out amid open acrimony among White House aides and outside advisers about how best  and how far  to proceed with efforts to pursue Trumps claims of fraud in the election. That same month, during a meeting on another matter, Trump asked Cuccinelli what he thought of appointing a special counsel to investigate election fraud. Cuccinelli, according to two people briefed on the conversation, said it was not a good idea for a variety of reasons.

When Flynn, Powell and Byrne arrived at the White House to discuss their plan to use the military to seize voting machines, they were not let into the Oval Office by a typical gatekeeper, like Mark Meadows, Trumps chief of staff. Rather, they were escorted in by Garrett Ziegler, a young aide to another Trump adviser, Peter Navarro, according to Zieglers account.

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I waved in Gen. Flynn and Sidney Powell on the Friday night of the 18th  for which Mark Meadows office revoked my guest privileges, Ziegler said on a podcast, adding that he had done so because he was frustrated with the current counsel Trump was getting.

Even Giuliani, who had spent weeks peddling some of the most outrageous claims about election fraud, felt that the idea of bringing in the military was beyond the pale.

After Flynn and Powell left the Oval Office, according to a person familiar with the matter, Giuliani predicted that the plans they were proposing were going to get Trump impeached.

c.2021 The New York Times Company
Oil had its biggest January gain in at least 30 years as robust demand outpaced fresh supply.

The global benchmark settled above $91 a barrel, posting a 17% gain this month. The combination of booming demand, scratchy supply and dwindling stockpiles has helped crude soar last month, with top banks and oil companies saying prices may soon pass $100 a barrel.

Crudes rally is really a supply story, said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. Crude is flying in the face of a strong U.S. dollar and a weak global stock market. It comes down to its own fundamentals more than anything else.

Traders were greeted Monday with a familiar set of drivers, from the weather to stockpiles. Low temperatures in the U.S. have been boosting demand for fuels, as Boston reported a daily snow record over the weekend and New Yorks Central Park received more than 8 inches. An oil pipeline in Ecuador was damaged by a rock slide, potentially endangering supply. Meanwhile, oil held on tankers fell by more than 20% last week, the latest sign of ebbing inventories.

While the advance has gained extra support as Russia amasses troops near Ukraine, it also has been compounded by the inability of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to meet planned supply output increases. The OPEC+ alliance gathers Wednesday to assess the market.

As economies continue to recover from the pandemic, oil product markets are roaring. Refiners across the globe are making robust profits from producing gasoline, with the demand outlook signaling continuing strength.

Global oil markets are in backwardation, a bullish pattern in which near-term contracts command a premium to those further out.
Bursting firecrackers. Lion and dragon dances. The largest human migration on the planet.

These customs are all part of Lunar New Year, widely celebrated across China, Korea, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. Also known as the Spring Festival in Chinese and Tet in Vietnamese, it's associated with many colorful traditions and customs. Many of them continue to be observed among Asian American communities.

HOLIDAY GUIDE: Lunar New Year festivals and events all around Houston

Here's what you need to know to celebrate the holiday.

When is Lunar New Year?

Lunar New Year is the first day of the year in the lunisolar calendar, a part of Asia's ancient agricultural heritage.

It falls on the first new moon between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20 each year. Celebrations continue for half a month until the first full moon.

This year, Lunar New Year is on Tuesday, Feb. 1, kicking off two weeks of festivities across Houston to inaugurate the Year of the Tiger. The Bayou City has a long and rich history of Lunar New Year celebrations dating back to at least the 1940s, when Houston's nascent Chinese community began to organize public gatherings and banquets in downtown.

The growth of Houston's Vietnamese American community in the past 50 years has added to the cultural diversity of local celebrations.

What is the Year of the Tiger?

Each Lunar New Year celebration features the Chinese zodiac animal associated with the year. The zodiac assigns animals in a twelve-year cycle: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit (or cat in the Vietnamese tradition), dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

2022 marks the Year of the Tiger, which also includes 2010, 1998, and 1986.

The animals of the Chinese zodiac are associated with a plethora of personality traits taken from ancient folklore. The tiger stands for bravery, strength and independent will, among many other qualities.

However, according to Chinese tradition, those born in the Year of the Tiger will face their "birth year" and need to take steps to ensure they have good fortune. Good luck can come from wearing red, the color of celebration, happiness and luck in Chinese culture. It pairs with gold as the traditional colors of Lunar New Year.

How do people celebrate Lunar New Year?

Although each culture has distinct traditions, commonalities include a focus on family reunions and fostering good fortune - or avoiding bad fortune - for the year to come.

Starting 10 days before Lunar New Year, it's traditional for families to thoroughly clean the house and purchase new clothes to wear on new year's eve. Once the new year arrives, sweeping floors and washing clothes are avoided for several days in order to avoid sweeping away good fortune.

Family is the centerpiece of the holiday. Throughout Asia, hundreds of millions of people travel back to their hometowns in what has long been the largest annual movement of people in history. In China, where new year's eve on Monday begins the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, over a billion trips are forecasted this year.

Family reunions happen over large home-cooked banquets on new year's eve. The first day of the year is usually spent with family. The home's first visitor is thought to be a reflection of the family's fortune for the year to come, and the act of visiting other people's homes on invitation is a custom known in Vietnamese as xong nha.

Other family customs include older or married adults giving red envelopes containing new banknotes in an even-number amount, known in Mandarin Chinese as hongbao and in Vietnamese as li xi, to children and unmarried adults. People also paste auspicious red paper banners containing poetic couplets, called chunlian, around their front door. Households sometimes display a small tree bearing mandarin oranges or kumquats, which represents luck.

Appropriate gifts to bring on new year's visits include tea, fruits, alcohol and candy.

What about the lion dances?

Perhaps the most visible and colorful Lunar New Year tradition, the lion dance involves a skilled troupe of dancers and musicians who perform an elaborate ceremony to dispel malign spirits and bestow good fortune on a business or home.

The ancient tradition might have originated from dynastic travelers to Africa, said Allen Lee, founder of Houston's oldest existing lion dance troupe, Lee's Golden Dragon. Chinese folklore also describes the lion dance as a tactic to ward off a monster called Nian said to terrorize villages on new year's eve.

Houston boasts several lion dancing troupes, and hundreds of businesses hire lion dancers during the week of Lunar New Year to bless their doors and entertain their guests. Two major styles of lion dance exist in China: Northern, in which the lion resembles a long-haired small dog in appearance and personality, and Southern, which features a more decorative lion with a regal dance.

But in Houston, it's all about Southern style, Lee said.

Are there special foods for Lunar New Year?

Plenty of dishes and fruits are associated with Lunar New Year, depending on the culture. In the Chinese tradition, many foods with names similar to words such as "luck" or "prosperity" are eaten. A notable example is sticky rice cakes called niangao, which is homophonic with "higher year" and means "a more prosperous year to come."

Other common dishes include a whole fish and uncut noodles called longevity noodles. A northern Chinese custom involves eating as many dumplings as possible since their shape resembles ancient Chinese gold and silver ingots. Candy boxes of dried fruits are a familiar sight, while fresh fruits such as apples, which sound like "peace," are also enjoyed.

In the Vietnamese tradition, a common dish for Tet is banh tet, a savory or sweet cylindrical cake made from glutinous rice. Xoi gac, or red sticky rice dyed with gac fruit, is also eaten paired with Vietnamese sausage, called gio.

Vietnamese treats include mut, a dish of candied fruit specific to Tet, along with watermelon seeds and coconut candy.

Where are the Lunar New Year festivals?

Asiatown, in southwest Houston, will feature two major Lunar New Year 2022 festivals, with many other events and lion dances all across Houston during the first half of February.

The Chinese Community Center located in the Chinatown neighborhood has held an annual festival since 2004, which has become traditional for many in Houston's Chinese American community. This year's festival, on Saturday, Feb. 5, will feature lion and dragon dance performances along with shaolin kung fu demonstrations. Dozens of food and crafts vendors will also be available.

The Viet Hoa shopping center in the nearby International District will host a two-day Lunar New Year Houston festival on the weekend of Feb. 5-6. Attendees will include Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo as masters of ceremony. Six lion dance troupes will perform over two days, along with martial arts demonstrations.

charlie.zong@chron.com
Jay R. Jordan / Jay Jordan, Staff

A man who was shot by officers, following a vehicle pursuit in west Houston, faces a felony charge after authorities say he fled from them and later emerged from his vehicle with his hands out in a shooting position in the direction of the officers, police said.



The man  who remains in the hospital, but is expected to survive  is facing a felony evading in a motor vehicle charge, according to police. He was shot around 3:40 p.m. Sunday in the 13400 block of Westheimer Road after the pursuit, which lasted for around 20 minutes, police said.



Police said Monday they have not recovered a gun. Police Chief Troy Finner said Sunday that authorities couldnt confirm then whether the man had fired on officers, which is what authorities had originally reported.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Man injured in shootout with HPD during car chase in West Houston
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A judge on Tuesday more than doubled the bail for the wife and brother-in-law of a man accused of killing Harris County Precinct 5 Cpl. Charles Galloway.

Reina Marquez, 40, and Henri Marquez, 42, are charged with tampering with evidence after police said they believe both cleaned the car that her husband, Oscar Rosales, was in when he shot and killed Galloway on Jan. 23 during a traffic stop.

Judge Maritza Antu in the 482nd District Court increased bail to $250,000 each  the amount that prosecutors initially requested. A magistrate earlier set bail for both Salvadoran natives at $100,000 each, court records show.

The siblings appeared separately in orange jumpsuits and were handcuffed as the funeral for Galloway took place. Rosales, meanwhile, remains jailed without bond on a capital murder of a police officer charge.

Brianna Argueta, public defender for Henri Marquez, petitioned to reduce his bail to $5,000 but was denied by Antu, who said Marquez is a flight risk being that Rosales, was found in Mexico.

Marquez only addressed the court to clarify his name and spelling of his last name, which Argueta said was not correct in court records.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have placed immigration detainers on Rosales and the siblings.

Investigators found that the white Toyota Avalon that Rosales was driving the night of Galloways death was registered to Rosales' wife of 17 years. She initially told police that her husband took the Avalon from their home in the 5500 block of Calm Court  in lieu of another vehicle he uses  at midnight and told her that he was "going hunting or shooting with friends."

He left with "two long guns from a safe" that only Rosales had access to, she said. She provided police a phone number where he could be reached.

Authorities next found the Avalon at an apartment complex where Marquezs brother lives and saw two people, believed to be the siblings, clean the car, according to court documents.

Prosecutors Tuesday alleged the siblings wiped down the door handles and inside of the car in order to eliminate evidence tying Rosales to the vehicle.

Inside Henri Marquez's apartment, registered in his sister's name, investigators found cleaning supplies.

The wife also told investigators that Rosales met with her brother at some point and took his cellphone.

joel.umanzor@chron.com
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HISD has a new honorary chief of police, and he's 10 years old.

Devarjaye DJ Daniel received the accommodation as he battles terminal brain and spine cancer, almost four years after he was diagnosed with five months to live.

"You always hear the word hero and bravery to describe what we do on an everyday basis," Police Chief Pedro Lopez Jr. said. "When we say that though, we are usually referring to adults. But today we are honoring a 10-year-old young man who represents what courage really is."

'HE CAME IN LIKE SUPERMAN': A Clear Lake hospital chaplain's COVID mission

HISD is one of over 100 agencies that have sworn in Daniel, who is attempting to bring awareness to childhood cancer and continue the legacy of Abigail Arias, a seven-year-old who battled a rare form of cancer and passed away in 2019. Arias wanted to be a police officer and was also honored by several police agencies.

It is such an honor to be part of such an amazing event for an amazing cause. When we found out about DJs wish to be sworn in by 100 agencies, we jumped at the opportunity to be a part of it to make this young mans dream come true and to make it special for him, HISD Officer Steven Bennett said.

Here at HISD Police Department, we always want to serve our youth at the highest degree. We are glad to be of service to DJ and his family, Bennett said.

'MIRACLE': After heart transplant, a mom and son (finally) reunite

HISD gifted Daniel a live turtle, stuffed animals, a pair of cowboy boots and his honorary chief of police star.

"Stay safe and relentless," Daniel said at the ceremony while holding up a peace sign.

Daniel was sworn in earlier this morning in Montgomery County by over 25 agencies, taking him over his 100-agency goal mark.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Exxon to move headquarters to Houston, from Dallas-area Irving

A GoFundMe was created for Daniel with a $25,000 dollar goal to help his family pay for medical expenses. According to the GoFundMe, Daniel is one of three children, all being raised by a single father.
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The year after 11-year-old Josue Flores was stabbed to death while walking home from his Near Northside school the Texas Legislature passed a bill to give school districts extra money for the transportation of kids who may encounter a high risk of violence on the way to school.

Four years later, no district in the state has asked for the additional funding under the Josue Flores Act, according to the Texas Education Agency.

No districts have requested hazardous transportation funding as provided by SB 195, 85th Texas Legislature, for students within two miles of a campus where students are at high risk for violence when walking to and from school, agency officials wrote in response to a records request from the Houston Chronicle.

Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, who introduced the bill in 2016 while serving in the Texas Senate, said she was really, really very disappointed.

Kids are still in danger when they walk to and from school, Garcia said last week.

Accounts of students encountering danger along their walk between school and home emerge on occasion. A man was arrested last May after allegedly punching a 9-year-old in the face in an unprovoked attack as the girl walked home in Montrose, KPRC reported. Last August, a boy was hospitalized after he was bitten by a dog in north Harris County while walking home from school, KTRK reported.

Josue was killed along a seven-block walk to his home from Marshall Middle School after staying late for a party one afternoon six years ago this May. The boys death shook the neighborhood and city, and inspired the creation of a community group that trains adults to observe kids walking home from school.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Boys death strikes fear in northside neighborhood

To date, no one has been convicted in connection to the boys death.

A suspect, Andre Jackson, was arrested in 2016 before charges were dropped due to DNA evidence and blood analysis being inconclusive, prosecutors said at the time.

Three years later, Jackson was charged again after prosecutors said they had newly-tested evidence. He is scheduled to have a trial in mid-February, according to court records.

Garcias bill expanded a part of the Texas Education Code that provides extra funding to school districts for kids who live near their school but may encounter hazardous traffic conditions to include a high risk of violence.

Excitement among community members in the wake of the bills passage waned when they tried to apply for the funding and encountered bureaucracy, said Delphina Torres, who has lived in the northside since 1966, and had met Josue during a field trip to her ice cream shop.

We would get together with somebody to see if we can create a plan and what we could use the money for and everybody said, Yes, that sounds like a great idea. But thats all it was  was an idea, Torres said. Even though it got passed, nothing really came out of it.

To receive the funds, a school districts board of education must adopt a policy that identifies specific hazardous or high-risk-of-violence areas for which the allocation is requested, according to TEA. School systems are supposed to consult local police and gather records that document the risk of violence.

The agencys rule lays out how districts are supposed to submit data, and includes formulas used to calculate the additional funding, according to TEA. The law became effective in July 2018.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Two years after Josue Flores killing, community seeks answers

Once a district receives the money, administrators can use it to fund  in part or entirely  community walking programs.

Stella Mireles Walters founded Safe Walk Home in Houston after Josues death. The group trains individuals to keep a keen eye on kids walking home from school and how to report any suspicious behavior.

Mireles Walters said she had tried to access the funds shortly after the law went into effect, but did not get much cooperation from Houston ISDs transportation department. She was supposed to meet with the department, she said, but the meeting never occurred.

Here we thought  we were certain  that this would create a safer environment for students that are walking to school in a high-crime area, Mireles Walters said. It didnt happen.

That could change.

HISDs transportation department has been assessing where there may be hazardous areas for students within 2 miles of their zoned schools, the district said in a statement.

The district has been working with local authorities to get relevant data to the board of education, HISD officials said, adding there is a possibility the district could receive a reimbursement from the state. The district plans to unveil the review for the upcoming school year.

alejandro.serrano@chron.com
With wintry weather headed for Houston this week, area shelters and cruelty task force partners will be on the lookout for animals left out in the freezing temperatures.

Houston pet owners could face criminal charges for leaving their animals out in the cold. According to Texas law, it is illegal for owners to leave a dog outside in extreme weather conditions, including temperatures below 32 degrees.

The passing of the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act, which went into effect last month, reinforces this requirement that animals not be left to fend for themselves in inclement weather. The bill establishes a basic standard of care for outdoor animals and aims to prevent dogs from suffering and ultimately dying on the end of heavy chain tethers in extreme weather conditions.

EXPLAINER: What dog owners need to know now that Texas' new chain tether ban is in effect

Houston is expected to see below-freezing temperatures by Wednesday, with ice accumulation and possible sleet or snow. The freeze comes near the anniversary of the 2021 winter freeze, during which thousands of Texas were left without power or running water for days on end, and hundreds died. Gov. Greg Abbott has promised that the Texas power grid will stay intact for the upcoming freeze, although warned planned blackouts could be possible.

Many dogs died during last year's freeze, something that officials like Harris County Constable Precinct 5 Corporal Kayla Fesperman are trying to prevent. The precinct is a founding partner of the Harris County Animal Cruelty Taskforce and has already been busy responding to calls and checking on animals.

Fesperman said the taskforce has already seen up to 100 calls within the last two days from residents who are worried about animals being left in the cold. When the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act went into effect in late January -- which coincided with a different, less serious cold front -- the taskforce saw calls jump by nearly 400 over a six-day period, she said.

"We have had people walking neighborhoods and reporting every house that they see (with an outdoor, chained animal)," Fesperman said. " We are slowly and surely getting through all of those while also getting through the uptick this week. It's been a double whammy, for sure."

Fesperman said most of the outdoor pet owners she's spoken with so far have come into compliance and are just in need of education. For those who prefer to keep their animals outside and do not want them in their homes, she recommends compromising and placing them inside a bathroom or a laundry room, or if absolutely necessary, in a warmed garage or an outside enclosure that is kept warm with blankets and a heater of some sort.

Houston residents who spot unattended animals may report it to the taskforce by calling 832-927-PAWS or the Houston SPCA at 713-869-7722.

Editor's Note: A similar version of this story was originally published in Feb. 2021. It has been updated to reflect new information.

rebecca.hennes@chron.com
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Nearly four years ago, Mark Keough mobilized support from the local tea party to unseat a longtime public servant in the Republican primary and win Montgomery Countys top post.

The victory by Keough, a former state legislator, marked a shift away from the establishment GOP and toward the hard right  a trend that will be tested in this years race for county judge in the deep-red suburb north of Houston with more than 620,000 residents.

This year, though, it is Keough whos having to defend his conservative credentials. The local tea party has thrown its support behind Billy Graff, a pastor and nonprofit founder with no government experience. Although Keough spent much of the COVID-19 pandemic rejecting public health guidance in favor of personal freedom, Graff blasted the incumbent for his brief countywide shutdown early in the pandemic.

It was illegal and it was unconstitutional, Graff, 61, said at a recent debate.

Keough defended his record, telling the audience: I put Montgomery County through the pandemic resisting draconian measures that the state and the federal government put on us.

The county judge has also taken hits from another challenger, Montgomery Mayor Sara Countryman says the current administration lacks fiscal responsibility, transparency and ethics, which Keough campaigned on.

Despite the jabs at one other, all three candidates share a conservative Christian ideology, want to prioritize infrastructure, and believe that voter fraud played a significant role in Democrat Joe Bidens 2020 election  an unsubstantiated claim that has been rejected by state elections officials and the courts.

No Democrat has been elected to countywide office in Montgomery County for decades, and none has filed to run in the partys primary for county judge, so the winner of the March 1 GOP primary is likely to prevail in the fall election.

Keough leads in fundraising

Despite losing some tea party support, Keough remains the top fundraiser in the race, reporting more than $53,000 in contributions in the second half of 2021. He had more than $205,000 cash on hand at the end of last year and owed himself nearly $325,000  a debt that has steadily climbed over the years as Keough has spent his own cash on campaigns.

Keough, a pastor and retired car dealership manager, previously represented The Woodlands in the Texas Legislature.

In the most recent reporting period, Keoughs top funders include Geoscience Engineering and Bleyl Engineering, two firms that have contracts with the county.

Countrymans campaign raised $33,000 during the same period, according to her campaign finance report, and she had nearly $11,000 on hand by the end of December. Graff had raised more than $16,000 and had roughly $4,000 cash on hand, records show.

Keough refused to speak with a Chronicle reporter at a recent event but answered questions via email.

He said he has fulfilled the promises that he made four years ago. These include maintaining low taxes that help attract businesses to the booming area, removing a toll on Texas 242 and taking a pay cut.

In a second term, Keough said, he would tackle transportation and property tax relief. He wants to maintain civil liberties that are being undermined by the federal government, he said.

Much of his time in office has been defined by the nearly two-year-old pandemic. Keough shut down the county and implemented a curfew for three weeks in the spring of 2020, but quickly changed course and rejected restaurant restrictions, mask mandates and vaccine requirements.

Governorif youre going to do something, open us up 100 percent, Keough said in a video appeal to Gov. Greg Abbott in September 2020. Dont piecemeal this. Whether we are open or closed, 99 percent of us are going to survive this.

DWI crash

He has made headlines in other ways, as well. In February 2021, authorities revoked Keoughs license for three months and fined him $2,000 after he pleaded guilty to a DWI charge arising from a September 2020 crash.

Investigators discovered that he had a concerning amount of Ambien, a sleep aid, in his blood when he sideswiped a Mazda and rear-ended a law enforcement vehicle on his way to work, seriously injuring a Precinct 5 constable deputy and a civilian.

Keough has said that his doctor prescribes the sleep aid.

Two months after the crash, Keough requested approval from commissioners court to assign a constable deputy to his office for security reasons at a cost of more than $73,000, according to commissioners court records.

But Countryman said the deputy serves as a personal driver for Keough  a waste of taxpayer dollars, she contended.

This is one example of how county leaders have mismanaged the budget without planning for the future, she said, a claim that Keough disputed.

For the last three years that I have been in office, credit analysts have shown Montgomery County to have a stable county government, with significant liquid cash reserves, he told the Chronicle. We have a growing tax base with higher than average per household income and higher than average real-estate values. We have experienced all of this despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Countryman also said the county did not properly disperse funding from the federal governments CARES Act to cities, including her own. They havent given us an answer, she said of Keough and county leaders.

Keough said during a debate that Countryman missed a deadline for reporting pandemic-related expenses to the county.

Leaders in The Woodlands Township and Conroe, too, have expressed frustration that the county did not provide them with a fair share of coronavirus relief funding.

And last year, county leaders returned $7.1 million in rental assistance to the federal government despite ongoing evictions.

Challengers take aim

The CARES Act debacle inspired the 48-year-old Countryman to enter the race, she said.

The fifth-generation Texan said she is running on accountability and transparency. Her top priorities are law enforcement, streamlining the budget and infrastructure.

Countryman, who has worked in the tech industry for nearly two decades, said she believes in small government and is not in favor of pandemic shutdowns or mandates.

We are all adults  if you want to wear a mask, wear a mask, she said. Were in the land of the free.

As mayor of a city with about 1,600 residents, she started a savings account for the city, implemented a comprehensive plan that includes a downtown revitalization, and procured the trademark for the city as the birthplace of the Texas flag.

Im a straight-shooter. Im very direct. You may not like what I say, but you can take it to the bank, she said.

Countryman has been endorsed by Craig Doyal, the former county judge defeated by Keough in 2018.

Doyal said he thinks Countryman would restore a conservative, commonsense approach that he and other mainstream Republicans used to build Montgomery County into a strong, fast-growing suburb. He said hes concerned that the county may be forced to raise taxes in several years because of financial decisions made by leaders too focused on proving how conservative they are.

You can cut to a point of diminishing returns, he said. At some point, when youre robbing from Peter to pay Paul, there will come a day when youre going to have to make up that difference.

Like Countryman, Graff criticized what he says is a lack of financial transparency and budget oversight under Keoughs administration.

A longtime pastor who grew up in Jefferson County, Graff founded a disaster relief nonprofit with his wife after Hurricane Ike. He ran unsuccessfully for Precinct 1 county commissioner in 2020. He said his nonprofit work, hurricane response efforts and emphasis on serving the community have prepared him.

Im very well-equipped to make sure that the community is safe and Im very well-equipped and experienced in managing the money, he said.

Graff said his top priorities, if elected, would be law enforcement, infrastructure and guaranteed freedom for residents.

In other primary contests, Jennifer Eckhart, a real estate agent, is seeking to unseat two-term County Commissioner Charlie Riley in Precinct 2.

In Precinct 4, Matthew Gray, who works in the oil and gas industry, is challenging incumbent James Metts, a former justice of the peace completing his first term.

Early voting starts Feb. 14.

anna.bauman@chron.com
The decomposed body of a man who had gone missing from Houston in December was found in January in his vehicles trunk in Dallas, according to authorities.

He was identified as Taylour Young, who went missing in early December and was last seen driving a silver Honda Civic in the 1600 block of South Voss Road in Houston.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and a group of Republican legislators stood at the edge of a marsh near West Palm Beach Monday and blasted the Biden administration for failing to fund a reservoir at the heart of the plan to restore the Everglades.

The Biden administration recently announced $1.1 billion to fund Everglades restoration projects, the largest single injection of money into the effort to restore the vast South Florida web of swamp, marsh and forest.

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But the plan did not include funds for a huge reservoir in western Palm Beach County thats intended to reduce polluted discharges to the ocean and send clean water south through the Everglades. The state of Florida has been constructing its share of the project, and DeSantis called on the administration to set aside $725 million in the upcoming budget for a project he called the crown jewel of the restoration plan.

Its vitally important to reduce or even eliminate harmful discharges to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries and for sending more water to the Everglades and Florida Bay, he said. Thats why we were all very disappointed that the Biden administration failed to dedicate any of the $1.2 trillion of the recently passed infrastructure funding to the EAA reservoir, not one dime going to this vital project.

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U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Stuart, went further, calling the administrations decision a deliberate snub to Florida.

[ RELATED: The Biden $1 billion Everglades plan: What will it pay for? ]

Lets not be bashful about this, he said. The governor said this is a crown jewel for the environment for the state of Florida. Thats exactly why youre not seeing one dollar go to it from these federal appropriations. Because Gov. DeSantis made this a crown jewel for his environment, thats the Biden administration sending a middle finger over Florida, unfortunately.

Sen. Marco Rubio agreed, although he didnt use as strong language, saying it was well known that the reservoir was a priority for the Florida congressional delegation and he thinks thats one reason the Biden administration left it out.

Democrats dismissed the news conference as a shabby political exercise in which members of Congress who had voted against the spending bill that paid for Everglades projects are now complaining about where the money is going.

[ ALSO AT NEWS CONFERENCE: As officials denounce Nazi rallies in Orlando, DeSantis accuses political opponents of smear ]

Its beyond hypocritical for the Republican Members who voted against this bill to turn around and complain about this historic investment, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach. Their lack of graciousness is an embarrassment to our state.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which is the federal partner in the Everglades restoration project, said the $2 billion-plus cost of the reservoir exceeded the amount available nationwide. And the Corps said work has already begun on parts of the project, with construction of the foundation of the reservoirs embankment expected to begin this year.

Although the news conference was a Republican-dominated event, funding for the reservoir also has the support from many environmental groups, including the Everglades Foundation, which released a statement Monday calling the reservoir the most important project of the restoration.

There is bipartisan support for advancing this project that will send water south to replenish the Everglades and Florida Bay, while also protecting the water supply for 9 million Floridians, said a statement from Eric Eikenberg, the foundations chief executive officer.

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No project will play a bigger role in reducing algae-causing discharges from Lake Okeechobee, with the added benefit of massive carbon sequestration to help mitigate the impacts of climate change.

David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sunsentinel.com and 954-356-4535.
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When Charles Galloway applied to work for the Harris County Precinct 5 Constables Office more than a decade ago, supervisors were puzzled by his corporate resume.

The recruiting captain asked him: Why would you want to swap a high-paying finance job for a public service position with half the salary and difficult hours?

I just want to follow my dreams, Galloway said at the time.

Constable Ted Heap recalled the memory on Tuesday morning at Second Baptist Church West where thousands of law enforcement officials, friends and family gathered to memorialize the slain corporal whose dream career was cut short Jan. 23 when he was gunned down during a traffic stop in west Houston.

His dream was to make a difference. His dream was to serve his community  and his dream did come true, Heap said. Weve received more letters and cards than you could imagine.

Oscar Rosales, the accused killer, remains behind bars on a capital murder charge. Galloways death marked the first in a string of recent violent attacks on law enforcement that rattled the community. Last Monday, Sgt. Ramon Gutierrez of the Harris County Sheriffs Office was fatally struck by a driver on the Sam Houston Parkway and days later, three Houston police officers were wounded during a shootout in Third Ward.

This has to stop, Heap said. People need to be held accountable because enough is enough  theres no other way to say it. Were tiredThis is a fight between good and evil and we will not let evil prevail.

Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

As mourners remembered Galloway, a Harris County judge increased bail to $250,000 each for the wife and brother-in-law of Rosales. Reina Marquez, 40, and Henri Marquez, 42,stand accused of tampering with evidence after police said they believe both cleaned the car that Rosales was drivingafter the shooting.

Galloway, 47, leaves behind an 11-year-old daughter, two sisters, a brother-in-law and many nieces and nephews.

Nearly 2,000 members of law enforcement agencies from across the Houston region and the state packed the funeral. Police vehicles pulled into the parking lot as groups of officers and deputies walked into the church wearing blue uniforms, badges and service caps.

Funeral proceedings included a helicopter fly-over, a rifle salute and a riderless horse. Officials knelt down and presented Galloways daughter with a folded American flag and her fathers service hat. Bagpipers played Amazing Grace as pallbearers carried the casket to an empty hearse beneath the gray sky.

Among attendees were Houston Police Chief Troy Finner, Mayor Sylvester Turner and County Judge Lina Hidalgo, among other local and state officials.

During the service, colleagues recalled Galloway as a big man  approximately 64  with a big smile. He was a trustworthy friend and mentor to many members of the constables office. He loved coffee and spent Saturday mornings bonding over breakfast with co-workers at Le Peep Cafe in Memorial City.

Galloway answered his call to join law enforcement later in life. He graduated in 1995 from West Texas A&M University with a bachelors degree in business administration and went to work for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

In 2001, he took a job in the finance industry that paid six figures, according to the constables office.

In 2009, Galloway graduated from the Lone Star College police academy. His first assignment was in the parks division of the constables office; he later patrolled the Georgetown neighborhood in west Harris County.

In 2018, he joined the toll road division. Two years ago he was promoted to the rank of corporal and worked as a training officer.

His closest peers called him Chuck or Chucky, said assistant chief Kevin Hubbard, who counted Galloway as a dear friend.

Hubbard said he ate lunch several times a week with Galloway at places like Harrys Steakhouse or Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.

One time, Hubbard recalled, he was unable to get away from work when a delivery truck unexpectedly arrived at his house with more than a dozen large, heavy boxes. Galloway volunteered to help. He drove to the house and hefted the entire load off the porch, calling Hubbard only when the job was done.

Last year, Galloway organized a surprise 50th birthday party for Hubbard  it was just one of those things that Chuck did for his friends, he said.

At the service, Hubbard read remarks from several deputies who worked alongside or under Galloway. They described him as a man who always made time for a phone call or chat over coffee, led by example and made people feel important. He could rally the troops and identify the positive quality that each deputy brought to the table.

He answered phone calls like this: Well, hello sir, what can I do for you today?

The best way to carry on his legacy, Heap told deputies, is to get back to work, despite the challenges facing peace officers.

We will continue to honor Chuck, Heap said, by doing what he did.

Joel Umanzor contributed to this report.

anna.bauman@chron.com
Catherine McQueen/Getty Images

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar is urging Texas residents to check with a state website to see if they have unclaimed cash or property. Many people may not know that they have valuables owed to them, the comptroller's office said.

The state is in possession of more than $7 billion in cash and other valuables through its unclaimed property program. Because there is generally no statute of limitations for unclaimed property the state holds, you can file a claim at any time on claimittexas.org.
Jill Karnicki, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Despite what she described as a brutal and very mean legislative session last year, Alma Allen, 82, is seeking her ninth term as state representative for District 131 on Houstons south side.

She is running against James Guillory, 47, who was raised in the district in a family that owned a gas, grocery and real estate development business. He once asked Allen to mentor him with hopes that, as he told the Chronicle, she would pass the baton to him, but to no avail. He has the endorsements of the Houston Police Officers Union and Houston Black Firefighters Association. He did not articulate substantial policy differences with the incumbent. He pushed the idea of "a new way for a new day" in the Legislature and the energy he would bring to interacting with the community, giving an example of delivering water to high schools when students were asked to stop using water fountains during the pandemic.
Regarding Trump diehards turn out in force for first Texas MAGA rally since he lost White House, (Jan. 29): The ample local coverage of Donald Trumps visit provided a window into the minds of fans who traveled to Trump-loving Montgomery County from all over the United States to see the Trump show that some had seen 50 to 70 times.

Before hearing Trump deliver his now familiar greatest hits, the crowd heard from Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who told the crowd that Trump won in 2020. They heard from Texas Secretary of Agriculture Sid Miller, whose longtime aide, Todd Smith, was indicted earlier this year for soliciting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from farmers in exchange for state licenses to produce hemp. They heard from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is currently under criminal investigation by the FBI over claims that he abused his office to benefit a wealthy donor. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has earmarked $1.05 billion of Texans tax dollars for a border wall but so far only delivered nine hundred feet of newly constructed border barrier on state-owned land in Starr County, spoke for six minutes and touted his governorship as an extension of Trumps values and policies. Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert, whose lawsuit to compel former Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the 2020 election for President Biden was tossed out of court before the January 6 assault on the United States Capitol, and who after the attack still voted to overturn the election, was also at the rally and got a shout out from Trump.

The fact that Texas politicians associate themselves with Trump is beneath the offices these politicians hold. It is embarrassing to our state and it is shockingly disgraceful.

Rand Nolen, Houston

Before the last presidential election, many of us warned that if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected, we would see open borders, with thousands of people who pouring into the country illegally. The liberal elitists and intellectuals branded us conspiracy theorists, and told us to go shine up our tin foil hats. Well, a year into the new administration, what has happened? Trumps Wall has been abandoned, Vice President Harris is a no-show at the border, thousands upon thousands have poured into our country illegally. I hope the elitists and intellectuals are not too hard on themselves when they realize we were 100 percent right.

Bob Fowler, Point Blank

Regarding Saturday night, Donald Trump told his supporters in Conroe that if he runs and wins the presidency in 2024, he will pardon those arrested and charged with crimes associated with the Jan. 6 insurrection. Does he mean the rioters who injured 140 police officers that fateful day or just Trump insiders like Steve Bannon, Stewart Rhodes, Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows?

Pardon me for asking, but what happened to the rule of law? Wake up Republicans. How much longer are you going to turn a blind eye to the former presidents every whim? Its time GOP electeds and rank and file take a stand. Simply put, are you for country or Trump? Because the future of our fragile democracy depends on you making the right decision now. It really shouldn't be a hard choice to make.

Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach, Calif.

It certainly is interesting how leaders of our Republican Party in Texas, especially Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick, can rationally explain to their families how they can justify supporting a candidate espousing possible pardons for some of those involved in the hideous activities of Jan. 6. Never mind those chants of Hang Mike Pence. I guess their hypocrisy concerning family values is condoned in their minds when it is convenient.

Chris Brown, Houston
Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale may be the owner of Gallery Furniture, but he's selling more than furniture.

The Houston businessman has officially endorsed Republican candidate and former Army Capt. Alexandra del Moral Mealer for Harris County Judge in 2022 in her campaign to unseat first-term incumbent Lina Hidalgo. McIngvale made the announcement Monday in an ad shot in his store in which he called Mealer a "friend."

"She's going to be tough on crime," McIngvale said in the clip shared to Twitter.

"Crime is exploding in Harris County," Mealer said in the video. "If you don't want to carry a gun in your car because of car jacking, vote for me," she said, vowing to put criminals in jail.

McIngvale said in a statement that Harris County needs someone who "will defend the American dream for the next generation."

Hidalgo, who has served for three years, takes what she refers to as an "evidence-based" approach to criminal justice reform, focusing on investing county funds towards reducing recidivism and supporting successful reintegration.

Mealer is one of nine Republican candidates seeking the GOP nomination for county judge. Other candidates in the March 1 Republican primary are attorney Vidal Martinez, Humble Independent School District board president Martina Lemond Dixon and Randy Kubosh, brother of Houston Councilman Michael Kubosh. The others are Oscar Gonzales, George Zoes, Robert Dorris, Warren Howell and HQ Bolanos. Within the Democratic primary Hidalgo is up against former Precinct 1 Constables Office Chief of Staff Erica Davis, real estate broker Ahmad R. "RobBeto" Hassan, photographer Georgia Provost, and attorneys Maria Garcia and Kevin Howard.

Mealer said she is humbled to have McIngvale's support.

Endorsing candidates though is nothing new for McIngvale, who consistently has voted in the Republican primary, according to voting records.

He has previously endorsed a host of Republicans such as Congressman John Culberson in 2018 according to KHOU 11, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush in 2018, and Pierce Bush in the for Texas' 22nd congressional district in 2020, according to the Fort Bend Independent. McIngvale has even shocked some by endorsing some Democratic candidates like Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg for her second term in 2020 and even Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner for his second term in 2019.

The majority of these candidates went on to win their respective races.
WASHINGTON  U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz says President Joe Bidens promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court is offensive and a message to other Americans that Biden doesnt give a damn about you.

You know Black women are what, 6 percent of the U.S. population? Hes saying to 94 percent of Americans, I dont give a damn about you, you are ineligible, Cruz said on a recent episode of his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz.

Black women comprised 7 percent of the population as of 2019, according to the Census Bureau.

Biden has said he plans to nominate someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who is retiring at the end of the courts term this summer.

That person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court, said Biden, a Democrat. Its long overdue in my view. I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment.

FACT CHECK: Trump claims white people pushed to back of the line for COVID treatments

Republican presidents in the past have made similar vows. In 1980, President Ronald Reagan promised to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court if elected. He picked Sandra Day OConnor the next year. President Donald Trump promised to nominate a woman  a very talented, very brilliant woman to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg and followed through by naming Amy Coney Barrett.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted Tuesday that Cruz had no objection to Donald Trump promising he would nominate a woman in 2020.

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Repeat, no objection at all. In fact, he praised (Coney Barrett) on these grounds, Psaki said. During her confirmation hearing, Senator Cruz said quote, I think youre an amazing role model for little girls. What advice would you give little girls?

Cruz, a Texas Republican who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, argued that Bidens pledge is actually an insult to Black women.

If he came and said, Im gonna put the best jurist on the court, and he looked at a number of people and he ended up nominating a Black woman, he could credibly say, OK Im nominating the person whos most qualified, Cruz said. Hes not even pretending to say that. Hes saying, If youre a white guy, tough luck. If youre a white woman, tough luck. You dont qualify.

On Tuesday, Cruz stood by the comments and said Biden was setting a quota.

It would obviously be wrong if a president said they were going to nominate a white woman or a white man, Cruz said. But in this instance, the Democrats are so casually racist that theyll make that promise.

Cruz is one of several Republican senators who have criticized Bidens pledge, which has also become fodder for conservative TV commentators. The debate comes against the backdrop of Black History Month.

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi said Bidens nominee will be a beneficiary of affirmative action. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called it clumsy.

Cruzs comments drew criticism Tuesday.

I just find Sen. Cruzs comments really kind of silly, Alberto Gonzales, who served as attorney general under President George W Bush, said on CNN. Theres nothing wrong with saying as a president, my hope is, my intention is, to nominate someone  a Black woman, a woman, a Hispanic  theres nothing wrong, I think, in my judgment, in the president saying that ... I have every expectation that President Biden is going to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court who is extremely qualified.

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, tweeted in response to Cruz that of the 115 people previously confirmed to serve as justices on the United States Supreme Court, 112 were white and 110 were men.

Not one was a Black woman, Beyer tweeted. Senate Republicans could celebrate this important milestone in American history; instead theyre disgracing themselves.

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U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, another Texas Republican, urged Biden to avoid picking a judicial activist, but said he agrees that diversity on the highest court in the land is a valuable asset.

I encourage the President to consider nominees that can bring unique experiences, education, viewpoints of all types to the Supreme Court, Cornyn said in a speech on the Senate floor this week. Whoever the President chooses will be evaluated based on their qualifications, experience, and ability to separate politics from the rule of law.

Cruz also speculated that Biden could nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, a former California attorney general and senator, to get her out of the White House.

I think there is a chance they name Kamala to the court, in part because they cant stand her, Cruz said of Harris, who last year became the first female, first Black and first Asian-American to serve as vice president.

The White House has said that wont happen, with Psaki saying that Biden intends to run with Vice President Harris on the ticket as his running mate.

ben.wermund@chron.com
ST. LOUIS (AP)  Several historically Black universities across the country reported bomb threats Tuesday, the first day of Black History month, just 24 hours after six schools received threats.

At least six HBCUs in five states and the District of Columbia responded to bomb threats Monday, with many of them locking down their campuses for a time.
Chicago, IL (60637)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of light rain later in the day. High around 50F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Rain. Low 46F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
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Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.

If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced $404 million to combat flooding, water pollution and sea-level rise Tuesday but pointedly avoided attributing rising water levels to climate change.

Were a storm-prone state, he said at a news conference in Miami. Were not going to be able to stop being vulnerable. Weve had storms for as long as anyone can remember. The whole state, if you go back far enough in time, was entirely under water. So what were going to do is were going to mitigate what Mother Nature is throwing our way. I think weve done a great job of doing that.

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But anyone that says that somehow the state of Florida can prevent storms from happening or do some of that stuff, think about it, Im like, man, these are the same types of folks who were saying that locking down would cause COVID to go away or all these other things that weve heard.

The money will pay to raise sea walls, improve pump systems, replace septic tanks with sewers, protect drinking water and take other steps to make the state more resilient. The funds will usually be matched by the city or county receiving it, the governor said.

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[ RELATED: DeSantis proposes plan to fight rising seas without any left-wing stuff ]

The city of Hollywood, which has a coastline of about 7 miles, was the big winner in Broward County, with about $34.5 million for sea walls in North Beach, improvement to fight tidal flooding that has drenched neighborhoods along the Intracoastal Waterway, and other projects. Dania Beach will get $4.2 million for stormwater and drainage projects.

Lauderdale Lakes, Miramar, Sunrise and Weston, which depend on canals to the ocean for flood control, also will receive funds. The full list can be found here.

The largest amount in Palm Beach County is $13.4 million for a new drainage system along Australian Avenue in West Palm Beach, from Banyan Boulevard to 45th Street. Other Palm Beach County cities receiving funds include Hypoluxo, Juno Beach, Lake Park, Lake Worth, Wellington and West Palm Beach.

Miami-Dade County will receive the largest share of any county, with more than $150 million for 35 projects to improve drainage, eliminate septic tanks and gird the coast against sea-level rise.

[ RELATED: Miles of Florida roads face major problem from sea rise. Is state moving fast enough? ]

Sea levels are rising at an average rate of about an inch every eight years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Driving the increase is pollution from vehicles, industry and agriculture, which raises temperatures, causing ocean water to expand and melting glaciers.

DeSantis has attempted to address the problem, which is difficult to deny in a coastal state, without alienating right-wing voters who regard the issue of climate change as either a hoax or a gross exaggeration.

Last December, when DeSantis announced a plan to address sea-level rise, he said he would do so without any left-wing stuff.

What Ive found is when people start talking about things like global warming, he said then, they typically use that as a pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things that they would want to do anyways.

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David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sunsentinel.com and 954-356-4535.
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TALLAHASSEE  A high-stakes trial over a new Florida elections law kicked off Monday, as the state and national Republicans square off against more than two dozen plaintiffs alleging that the measure discriminates against Black and Hispanic voters and will curtail third-party registration groups from helping Floridians gain access to the ballot box.

The Republican-dominated Legislature approved the sweeping election-law changes (SB 90) last year, as part of GOP leaders nationwide efforts to make it more difficult for people to vote by mail following former President Donald Trumps 2020 re-election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

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The League of Women Voters of Florida, the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, Disability Rights Florida and two dozen other groups filed lawsuits challenging the measure. The plaintiffs maintain that the law is intended to make it harder for Black and Hispanic residents to vote, while Republicans contend the changes are necessary to ensure election integrity.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker is holding the trial remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with lawyers and witnesses participating via video and members of the public listening over the phone. The challenges have been consolidated for trial.

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Walker said Monday that the trial, originally scheduled for two weeks, will continue over the weekend. He also raised the possibility of adding another week to the proceedings involving dozens of witnesses and experts and a multitude of attorneys representing plaintiffs and defendants, including supervisors of elections and Secretary of State Laurel Lee.

The trial is focused on parts of the 2021 law that plaintiffs contend will make it more difficult for Floridians to vote by mail and harder for third-party organizations to conduct voter-registration drives and provide assistance during early voting and on Election Day.

The law requires third-party groups to provide disclaimers to people signing up to vote. The groups must submit voter-registration forms to supervisors of elections in the counties in which the residents live within 14 days after the applications are completed. The groups also have to notify applicants at the time the registrations are collected that the organizations might not deliver the applications to the supervisors within the two-week time period and to advise people that they can register to vote in a different manner, such as by delivering the applications in person or by mail or by registering online.

Plaintiffs argue that the disclaimers will discourage people from registering to vote through third-party organizations, which frequently target Black and Hispanic prospective voters. According to research submitted by the plaintiffs, Black and Hispanic voters are five times more likely than white voters to register through third-party groups.

In testimony Monday, League of Women Voters of Florida President Cecile Scoon said the disclaimer seems to have a negative impact on prospective voters. Scoon described a situation in which a man had nearly completed the registration application before she showed him the disclaimer printed on a placard.

He picked it up and looked at it. It froze him. He wasnt happy.  He did an about-face, Scoon said.

Scoon said many of her organizations members stopped volunteering in voter-registration efforts rather than give the disclaimer, which she said undermines the trustworthy brand her group has established in many communities.

Its very harmful for us to have to give those kind of warnings, she said. People were very upset. They were concerned. They were embarrassed.  They were upset that they were being forced to say something that was not true.

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But Frank Zacherl, a Miami attorney who represents national Republican groups that have joined the lawsuit as defendants, questioned Scoon about the problem with informing people that voter-registration applications might not be turned in on time.

Theres nothing wrong with giving people more information about the different ways they can register to vote. You would agree with that statement generally, correct? asked Zacherl, who represents the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Committee.

The way its being done is very harmful, Scoon responded.

Esteban Garces, director and co-founder of Poder Latinx, also testified Monday. His organization, which is a plaintiff, conducts voter-registration drives and civic-engagement efforts for Hispanic residents in Central and Southeast Florida, he said.

John Cycon, an attorney who represents Secretary of State Laurel Lee, asked Garces about 55 voter registration applications that Garces group failed to turn in on time before the election law passed.

Poder Latinx has since changed its processes to make sure this doesnt happen again, Garces said.

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Were talking about 55 voter registrations in the past, for our organization, out of 40,516. The disclaimer, while it might be true, it is misleading, and it forces us to cause our own reputational harm, he said.

Another part of the 2021 law under scrutiny set a new restriction on the availability and use of drop boxes  which were widely employed by elections supervisors amid the pandemic in 2020  where people can drop off vote-by-mail ballots.

Under the law, supervisors of elections must have the boxes staffed at all times and can only use the drop boxes during early voting hours and at early voting sites. Supervisors who violate the requirement face $25,000 fines.

Scoon, a Bay County attorney who is Black, said that having elections officials examining ballots when they are dropped off could deter voters from using the boxes.

Posting a person by a drop box that people used to have free access to  is going to be very unwelcome and very reminiscent of  what my son experienced at 12, she said, referring to an incident when her son was wrongly questioned by the police.

People of authority often have a different attitude toward people of color, Scoon said. These are multiple experiences that people of color are well aware of that many of my white friends have no idea about. They just dont.  I believe its going to stop people from using the drop box  Theyre not gonna want to have another experience where they feel like theyre the other.
Your Morning Coffee Podcast: 3 judges rule songwriting  labels control Spotify boycott  What CD revival?

Episode #77 of Jay Gilbert and Mike Etcharts podcast Your Morning Coffee: Weekly News for the New Music Business is online

Episode #77

On this latest episode of the YMC podcast, Jay Gilbert and Mike Etchart discuss these stories:

Three Judges Decide What Spotify, Apple, And YouTube Music Pay Songwriters In The US

In Removing Neil Youngs Music, Spotify Didnt Need To Listen To The Artist, But Did Have To Heed His Label

There Is No CD Revival

Subscribe to the newsletter Your Morning Coffee here.

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Last April, Miami Dade County Public Schools adopted a resolution calling for the use of 100% clean energy by 2030. Seven months later, monopoly utilities began pushing for state legislation that would destroy opportunities for rooftop solar. State lawmakers are debating this issue right now  and our schools precious resources hang in the balance.

Florida schools spend over a half-billion dollars each year on electricity. Energy costs are their second-biggest expense. In Miami-Dade, the school district is one of the top five energy consumers.

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Schools can no longer afford to ignore the energy-producing potential of their spacious rooftops. Fully transitioning to rooftop solar by 2030, combined with simple energy-efficiency strategies, could save Miami-Dade schools $100 million every year, as one example.

Michele Drucker is vice chair of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Clean Energy Task Force and Environmental Chair of the Miami-Dade County Council Parent-Teacher Association.

The bill, SB 1024/HB 741, filed by Sen. Jennifer Bradley and Rep. Lawrence McClure, would destroy the immense benefits that rooftop solar offers all Floridians. Thats because it would decimate net metering  a vital policy to rooftop solar that exists in almost every state.

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Net metering allows homeowners to return their excess solar energy back to the grid to offset their own energy use, through a one-to-one credit on their energy bills. The utility provider controls this excess energy and can resell it to other customers. But thats not good enough for them.

The massive utility operators want to gut this benefit and give customers credit for just a fraction of the excess energy they send back to the grid. Customer-owned solar makes up less than .5% of all energy produced in the state, yet some utilities are crying foul about the fairness of net metering because they see people taking their energy needs into their own hands as a threat to their monopolies.

As vice chair of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools 100% Clean Energy Task Force, I am a tireless advocate for affordable clean energy. Rooftop solar on schools can significantly reduce energy costs and shift limited resources into the classroom, where they can benefit Floridas 3 million public school students, including 340,000 in Miami-Dade, 270,000 in Broward and 195,000 in Palm Beach.

Onsite solar can also provide learning opportunities, introducing students to clean-energy career pathways. Floridas solar industry supports tens of thousands of local jobs and adds over $18 billion in economic value. We should be promoting these clean energy jobs for future generations.

This attack on net metering would stifle the scaling of solar projects on schools. Even worse, it would box them into huge increases on their electric bills, pulling precious resources away from classroom instruction and teacher salaries.

I hope youll join me in urging our state legislators to support students and oppose SB 1024 and HB 741.

Michele Drucker is vice chair of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Clean Energy Task Force and Environmental Chair of the Miami-Dade County Council Parent-Teacher Association.

The Invading Sea is the opinion arm of the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a collaborative of news organizations across the state focusing on the threats posed by the warming climate.
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Search for local man to intensify as loved ones fundraise and work with a private investigator one year later
MBABANE  A 21-year-old man was shot dead allegedly by security officers while attempting to illegally cross into Eswatini through the borderline at Ngwenya yesterday.

This was confirmed by Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni, who said the deceased was a resident of Ngwenya area. She said the information that they had gathered so far was that he was illegally crossing from the South African side into Eswatini early yesterday after 8am. We are still doing investigations, but the information that we have gathered thus far is that he was shot by security forces at Ngwenya while he was committing the crime, said Mnguni.

Information

She said according to the information that they had gathered, the deceased was travelling on his own when he attempted to illegally cross through borderline and more information was yet to be clarified. We are yet to get further details and at the moment we cannot confirm more details regarding his family and how the incident happened, added the inspector. Mnguni went on to add that such cases were not new even though she could not give clarity on the statistics at the moment. This is definitely not new to us as such cases sometimes happen, she said. In a brief interview with the deceaseds father, who preferred that this reporter spoke to the police rather than him, he said he was not in a good position to discuss the matter, but highlighted that he had in previous occasions warned his son about mischievous acts that would get him into trouble.

Children at times live for now and do things because they think they can either make quick money and are not patient enough to build themselves and work hard until they can achieve something, said the father. Before this reporter could get more details about his son or his picture, the father requested that more questions be forwarded to the police. When this reporter arrived at the scene of the shooting incident there was still a little puddle of blood of the deceased. This, according to some of the residents, is not the area that is known for illegal crossing as it was in plain sight of any motorist driving past the traffic circle leading to Sibonelo Township. What was also noticed was that the barbed wire had been cut, to which some security personnel said that no matter how many times it was repaired, the culprits continued to cut it whenever they got a chance.

There is another area that is known for illegal crossing but it is further down the road from there, which seems to me like he was truly risking because he knew that the area along the fence was well guarded by security forces, said one of the residents around the area. In past reports, it has been mentioned that several emaSwati and South Africans usually used illegal entries to cross the border. These entry points, which are normally called ticanco, are found at a majority of border posts.
The situation of press freedom in Myanmar continues to worsen one year on from the beginning of the military coup on February 1, 2021, with 46 journalists and media workers detained, one killing and crushing restrictions on the nations media. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) strongly condemns the juntas continued censorship and quashing of critical reportage and calls on the international community to do more to protect the livelihoods and safety of journalists in Myanmar.

The IFJ and other global union federations stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar one year on from the military coup.

According to Reporting ASEAN, at least 120 journalists and media workers have been arrested since the beginning of the military coup, with 46 currently detained as of January 26. 40 of the arrested journalists were charged with violating Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, under which it is a crime to cause, or intend to cause, members of the government to be disobedient or disloyal.

In June, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reporter Aung Kyaw, and freelance reporter Ko Zaw Zaw, were the first journalists to be sentenced to two years jail under the amended Section 505(a).

On December 25, editor for the Federal News Journal, Sai Win Aung, was killed in an artillery attack by Myanmars armed forces, the Tatmadaw, while reporting on refugees in southeastern Kayin states Myawaddy township near the Thai border.

On January 9, the body of journalist Pu Tuidim, a founder of media collective Burma News International (BNI), was found, along with nine others, in Chin State. The citizens were thought to have been captured and used as human shields by the militarys 140 Infantry Battalion, however, it is unclear if Tuidim was targeted for his work as a journalist.

The junta also continues to intensify its restrictions on internet use, seeking to adopt a new cybersecurity law that would ban the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to access banned sites, such as Facebook. The draft law would grant the regime the power to ban content, access and intercept user data and restrict internet providers.

Restricting access to internet platforms, including prohibiting VPN usage, contravenes the United Nations (UN) resolution on freedom of opinion and expression, which recognises that these freedoms are human rights guaranteed to all, both online and offline.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), around 26 million people, or 48.2 per cent of Myanmars population, could be living in poverty by 2022, compared with 24.8 per cent in 2017. Many journalists have been forced to find other work to survive, as media closures, satellite blackouts, confiscation of mobile phones, beatings and arrests, have driven many in the profession into hiding.

Silent strikes have taken place across the nation, as pro-democracy protestors display their resistance against the military government.

On February 1, 2022, the IFJ joined with several other global union federations, including the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and IndustriALL, to stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar one year on from the military coup.

The IFJ said: Journalists and media workers have suffered intensely throughout the first year of Myanmars military coup, actively hunted and silenced for doing their jobs. The shutdown of independent media, internet restrictions and stringent censorship mean press freedom is non-existent under the junta. The IFJ calls for increased international support to aid and protect journalists and media workers living under the coup.
A collective of Sri Lankan media and press freedom organisations conducted a protest in front of Fort Railway Station in Colombo on the 28th January, 2022, distributing leaflets and seeking public solidarity.



All the murdered journalists in Sri Lanka were assassinated for the sole reason that they were trying to uncover the truth and defend Sri Lanka's democracy. But so far no one has been able to bring justice to the families of any of these murdered journalists their joint statement reads.



In Batticaloa, a candlelight vigil was held and in Jaffna, Colombo, journalists raised black flags as part of the annual Black January Commemoration on January 31.



The groups sought accountability for the Sri Lankan governments failure to investigate past crimes against journalists and media organisations.



IFJ affiliates, FMM, FMETU and SLWJA, conducted online discussions, a protest program and information campaigns across the month of January, under the theme, Ensure justice to journalists who murdered, forcibly disappeared, assaulted and threatened.



Media freedom organisations have commemorated Black January for many years, to mark the intimidation, murder and enforced disappearance of journalists in Sri Lanka, particularly during the month of January.



On January 6, 2009, Sirasa studio complex was set ablaze and, only two days later on January 8, Sunday Leader newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge was killed, 2009. On January 24, 2006, Subramanium Ramachandran, a Jaffna based Tamil journalist was murdered and on January 24, 2010, journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda disappeared.



Current Sri Lankan president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was then defense minister, was believed to have lead a unit accused of assassinating Wickrematunge in 2009. Gotabaya has denied all charges.



Upali Thennakoon, editor of Sinhalese language newspaper Rivira, and Lal Hemantha Mawalage, news producer at state-run television station Rupavahini, were attacked on January 30, 2011, and January 23, 2008, respectively.



The IFJ said: The Sri Lankan government has let impunity run rife, with Black January marking a grave number of journalist killings, enforced disappearances, attacks and media closures. The IFJ stands in solidarity with journalists and media workers in Sri Lanka and calls on the Sri Lankan government to immediately investigate both current and historical crimes against journalists to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The open-plan office is, and always was, the world's dumbest management fad. While it seemed intuitively obvious that putting everybody into one big room should increase collaboration and innovation, the reality turned out to be exactly the opposite.

Once a management fad takes hold, however, it can take years and even decades for reality to intrude itself. Thus, despite mountains of research showing that open-plan offices were productivity disasters, most companies continued to cling to the concept.

It took a pandemic to finally convince woodenheaded managers, even at hidebound tech giants like Apple, that most office work (very much including engineering) can be done as productively or even more productively from home.

However, the superiority of working from home over open-plan offices may not be because working from home is incredibly productive; it could very much be the result of the open-plan office being such a wretchedly stupid idea in the first place.

The myriad shortcomings of open-plan offices aside, there are probably some advantages to having workers located where they can communicate face-to-face. Some, activities, like mentoring, are awkward online, and serendipitous online meetings are oxymoronic.

Nevertheless, companies that want their employees to start commuting again are getting huge pushback. And with the great resignation underway, few are willing to antagonize their best employees by insisting they go return to the status quo ugly.

The solution to the dilemma, however, is actually quite simple: Make your central office a more desirable place to work than the home offices that your employees currently prefer.

That this means jettisoning the open-plan concept goes without saying. The real question now is: What are the characteristics of an ideal centralized workplace that might convince employees that they'd be happier and healthier coming into the office? Here are three:

1. Private offices.

What workers hate most about open-plan offices is that they're noisy and distracting, and the cafeteria-like environment makes it impossible to have discussions and interactions without everybody overhearing everything. It's not a matter of trying to be secretive; it's just that it's rude to be chattering when others are trying to get work done.

The obvious solution here is to give employees private offices, ideally offices that have windows with outside views. Such offices should be large enough to tolerate two or even three visitors at one time, thus making it possible to have small, informal discussions.

One model that's worked well for Pixar is the "hub and spoke," where private offices are grouped around a common area, thereby providing opportunities for social interaction and serendipitous contact without impinging on the individual employees' needs for a quiet, private place to work.

Most important, though, private offices prevent the spread of contagious diseases. Even when somebody comes in while sick, a single sneeze won't put everyone else at risk.

2. Top quality equipment.

Most WFHers use a laptop to get their work done. However, working on a laptop, even a high-end one, involves a lot of bending over and squinting. Laptop keyboards also tend to be cramped and difficult to use.

Similarly, I've seldom met an office worker who didn't have some kind of complaint about back pain. WFH can make this worse, because many WFHers use dining room chairs or kitchen stools. If they buy an office chair for their home office, it's usually something cheap.

By contrast, a private office with a huge, high-resolution screen hung at eye-level, and a top-of-the-line keyboard positioned exactly where it's the most comfortable for the individual is a real perk for anyone who puts in long hours. Add a $1,000 ergonomic chair, and you've created a work environment that will make your employees' home offices look comparatively unattractive.

3. Pay them to commute.

Commuting to work is, well, work. Thus, if an employee works 10 hours a day and it's a one hour commute each way to the central office, commuting to a workplace rather than WFH, is in effect a 20 percent pay cut. Employees naturally expect and deserved to be compensated for that time. At the very least, employees who drive to work should be paid the IRS standard of $0.56 a mile to reflect wear and tear on their vehicles. Similarly, employees who take public transit should have their fares and parking fees paid. Why should your employees subsidize your desire to have them present in a central office?
Since 1963, The Independent has helped create a great community!

Since our founding in September of 1963, The Independent has been dedicated to giving Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, and Sunol readers the news they need to be in-the-know about what's going on in the Tri-Valley region.
Indias Union Budget 2022-23 was unveiled earlier today, showcasing the Narendra Modi governments continued focus on capital expenditure projects (roads, railways, urbanization, clean mobility) as a means to keep the economy moving, creating jobs and developing ancillary industries along the way. The central government also intends to direct significant funds to state governments so they take over the burden of executing infrastructure build, such as PM Gati Shakti projects. Overall, Indias budget this year has been a somewhat muted affair with no real big bang promises or tinkering of sector-specific schemes, nor much revenue expenditure targeting the most vulnerable population segments. Some expected shocks came in the way of taxing virtual digital assets, which one can infer to be cryptocurrency and NFTs, at 30% and no setoffs allowed as the government feels its speculative gains must receive comparable treatment in the market. Still, it has generated backlash on social media, particularly in the absence of any regulatory framework for cryptocurrency, creating space for unequal transactions and unequal gains (such as between domestic and foreign players). Analysts predict that the annual budget could gradually become a non-event for the Modi government, with more dynamic announcements and programs launched targeting key electorates or business segments  whenever the need arises.

On February 1, 2022, Indias Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget for FY 2022-23. The year marks Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (75 years of Indias independence) and the Union Budget 2022 is to serve as a blueprint outlining various goals to be achieved in the Amrit Kaal  the upcoming 25-year period  from India at 75 years of independence to its centenary mark.

Sitharaman began her speech by lauding the overall resilience of the Indian economy during the pandemic  commenting on its sharp rebound and recovery. She also declared that Indias growth projection of 9.2 percent in the current fiscal is the highest among all large economies.

While addressing the ongoing Omicron wave as an instability factor, the Finance Minister expressed relief at milder symptoms as well as the impact of accelerated vaccination in the country. Sitharaman also expressed confidence in Indias ability to withstand further challenges, given the augmentation of the countrys health infrastructure over the past two years.

Indias Union Budget 2022-23 at a glance

Union Budget 2022-23 2020-21 (Actuals) 2021-22 (Budget Estimates) 2021-22 (Revised estimates) 2022-23 (Budget Estimates) Revenue Receipts INR 16339.20 billion INR 17884.24 billion INR 20789.36 billion INR 22044.22 billion Capital Receipts INR 18759.16 billion INR 16948.12 billion INR 16910.64 billion INR 17404.87 billion Revenue Expenditure INR 30835.19 billion INR 29290 billion INR 31672.89 billion INR 31946.63 billion Effective Capital Expenditure INR 6571.82 billion INR 7733.48 billion INR 8403.96 billion INR 10678.89 billion

Union Budget 2022-23 Revenue sources Percentage (%) Expenditure composition Percentage (%) Borrowings and Other Liabilities 35 Interest Payments 20 GST 16 States Share of Taxes and Duties 17 Income Tax 15 Central Sector Schemes 15 Corporation Tax 15 Finance Commission and Other Transfers 10 Union Excise Duties 7 Centrally Sponsored Schemes 9 Non-Tax Revenue 5 Other Expenditure 9 Customs 5 Defence 8 Non-Debt Capital Receipts 2 Subsidies 8 Pensions 4

Budgetary Allocation to Ministries in Indias Union Budget 2022-23 Ministry Amount (INR billion) Ministry of Communications INR 1054.07 billion Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers INR 1077.15 billion Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare INR 1325.13 billion Ministry of Railways INR 1403.67 billion Ministry of Home Affairs INR 1857.76 billion Ministry of Road Transport and Highways INR 1991.07 billion Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution INR 2176.84 billion Ministry of Defense INR 5251.66 billion

Closer look at Budget 2022 goals, and Amrit Kaal

The Modi government aspires to achieve inclusive development over the next 25 years  benefiting youth, women, farmers, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes. Major goals are:

Aligning Indias macroeconomic growth with a focus on microeconomic level all-inclusive welfare

Promoting digital economy and fintech , technology enabled development, energy transition and climate action

and , technology enabled development, energy transition and climate action Relying on virtuous cycle starting from private investment, coupled with public capital investment, to further crowd in private investment

These policy goals will be backed by public investments in modern infrastructure, focusing on four priority areas as stated below.

PM Gati Shakti

The PM Gati Shakti plan approaches economic growth goals through emphasis on infrastructure build and sustainable development. It will be powered by clean energy and driven by seven engines, namely roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways, and logistics infrastructure. These engines will in turn be supported by energy transmission infrastructure, IT communication infrastructure, bulk water and sewerage infrastructure, and social infrastructure. The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan will encompass these seven engines for economic transformation, seamless multimodal connectivity, and logistics efficiency. The projects currently being implemented under National Infrastructure Pipeline will be aligned with PM Gati Shakti framework.

Within the same framework, the Parvatmala: National Ropeways Development Programme has been announced for the first time for regions like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and the northeastern states. Nitin Gadkari, the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister hailed the scheme as a great gift for the hill states. Under this scheme, ropeway development will be undertaken under PPP mode and contracts for eight ropeway projects for a length of 60 km will be awarded in FY 2022-23.

Further, data exchange among all mode operators will be brought on the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), designed for application programming interface (API). Open-source mobility stack, for organizing seamless travel of passengers will also be facilitated. It has been announced that four multimodal logistics parks through PPP will be awarded in FY 2022-23.

The Union Budget 2022-23 also announced the integration of the Postal and Railways Network for facilitating parcel movement. Additionally, 2,000 km of railway network will be brought under Kavach in FY 2022-23, the indigenous world-class technology for safety and capacity augmentation. Indian railways will also benefit from 400 new-generation Vande Bharat trains with better energy efficiency and passenger riding experience; this will be developed and manufactured over the next three years.

Inclusive development

Inclusive development will be ensured by focusing on sectors like agriculture and food processing, education, skill development, health, and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

All-Inclusive Welfare Focus Measures Announced in Union Budget 2022-23 Scheme Description Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal 38 million households to be covered in FY 2022-23 PM Awas Yojana 8 million houses to be completed in FY 2022-23 PM-DevINE (Prime Ministers Development Initiative for North East Region) To fund infrastructure and social development based on felt needs of the North East Aspirational Blocks Program For development of lagging blocks of aspirational districts Vibrant Villages Program Targeting development of villages on the Northern Border left out from the development gains Digital Banking by Post Offices 100% of post offices to come on the core banking system Digital Payments Scheduled Commercial Banks to set up 75 Digital Banking Units in 75 districts

Agriculture and food processing

Promoting chemical free natural farming starting with farmers lands close to river Ganga

Promoting post-harvest value addition, consumption and branding of millet products

Delivery of digital and hi-tech services to farmers in PPP mode

Use of Kisan Drones to aid farmers

Launching fund with blended capital to finance agriculture start-ups

Implementation of Ken Betwa Link Project benefitting 0.91 million hectare farm land, providing drinking water to 6.2 million people and generating 130 MW power

Education

One Class One TV channel program to be expanded to 200 TV channels

Virtual labs and skilling e-labs to promote critical thinking skills and stimulated learning environment

A Digital University to be established with world class quality universal education

High quality e-content will be delivered through Digital Teachers

Skill development

Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack e-portal) will be launched to promote online training

Start-ups will be promoted to facilitate Drone Shakti for Drone-As-A-Service

Health

National Digital Health Ecosystem to be rolled out

National Tele Mental Health Program to be launched for quality counselling

Integrated architecture: Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi, and Poshan 2.0 to be launched

2,00,000 Anganwadis to be upgraded to Saksham Anganwadis

MSMEs

Extension of Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) till March 2023, with expansion in its guarantee cover from INR`500 billion to total cover of INR 5 trillion, with the additional amount specially earmarked for hospitality and related enterprises.

Interlinking of various portals like Udyam, e-Shram, NCS, and ASEEM. These portals will now serve as live, organic databases, providing G2C, B2C, and B2B services like credit facilitation, skilling, and recruitment. The main aim behind the move is to further formalize the economy and enhance entrepreneurial opportunities for all.

Revamping of Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme. Additional infusion of additional credit of INR 2 trillion for micro and small enterprises.

Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance (RAMP) program will be rolled out.

Productivity enhancement and investment, sunrise opportunities, energy transition, and climate action

Various announcements have been made to facilitate Ease of Doing Business 2.0 and further promote Ease of Living.

Ease of Doing Business 2.0

Trust based governance

Integration of central and state level systems through IT bridges

Expanding scope of PARIVESH Portal

Unique Land Parcel Identification Number for IT based management of land records

Establishing C-PACE (Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit) to facilitate voluntary winding up of companies

End to end online e-Bill System and utilizing surety bonds in government procurement

AVCG (animation, visual effects, gaming, and comic) sector promotion task force

Support to 5G under production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom sector

Opening up defense R&D for industry, start-ups, and academia

Ease of Living

Issuance of chip embedded e-passports

Modernization of building byelaws, implementing Town Planning Schemes and Transit Oriented Development

Establishing Centers of Excellence in urban planning

Providing a battery swapping policy as an alternative to setting up charging stations in urban areas to benefit EV users

Financing of investments

In the budget, it is envisaged that public investment will continue to pump prime private investment and demand in FY 2022-23. The budget has laid out means and ways to mobilize resources, which include:

Blended Finance for sunrise sectors

Green Bonds to mobilize resources for green infrastructure

Inclusion of Data Centers and Energy Storage Systems in the harmonized list of infrastructure

Expert committee to be set up to aid investment by venture capital and private equity investment

Other announcements provide greater fiscal space to the State governments in the form of enhanced outlay  Scheme for Financial Assistance to States  for capital investment. For FY 2022-23, Indias states will be allowed a fiscal deficit of four percent of gross state domestic product (GSDP), of which 0.5 percent will be tied to power sector reforms.

The budget also announced plans to launch the Digital Rupee  Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)  by the RBI, starting FY 2022-23.

Tax proposals in Indias Union Budget 2022

Direct Tax Proposals Introduction of Updated Return Allowing taxpayers to file Updated Return within two years for correcting error Reduced MAT and Surcharge For Cooperatives, alternate minimum tax rate reduced from 18.5 percent to 15 percent and surcharge reduced from 12 percent to 7 percent Tax relief to persons with disability Tax relief to persons with disability by allowing the payment of annuity and lump sum amount to the differently abled dependent during the lifetime of parents/guardians, that is, on parents/ guardians attaining the age of sixty years. The existing law provides for deduction to the parent or guardian only if the lump sum payment or annuity is available to the differently abled person on the death of the subscriber. Parity between employees of State and Central government Increasing tax deduction limit on employers contribution to National Pension Scheme (NPS) account of State government employees from 10 percent to 14 percent, bringing them at par with Central government employees. Incentives for Start-ups Extending period of incorporation of eligible startups for providing tax incentives till March 2023 Taxation of virtual digital assets  Any income from transfer of any virtual digital asset (Crptocurrency, NFTs) shall be taxed at the rate of 30 percent with no set-offs, deductions  TDS on payment made in relation to transfer of virtual digital asset at the rate of 1 percent of such consideration above a monetary threshold  Gift of virtual digital asset is also proposed to be taxed in the hands of the recipient Litigation management Better litigation management to avoid repetitive appeals Tax incentives to IFSC Income of a non-resident from offshore derivative instruments, or over the counter derivatives issued by an offshore banking unit, income from royalty and interest on account of lease of ship and income received from portfolio management services in IFSC shall be exempt from tax, subject to specified conditions. Clarification on treatment of Surcharge or Cess Any surcharge or cess on income and profits not allowable as business expenditure


remaining of

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The Supreme Court set aside a judgment of the Delhi High Court which had directed the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) to consider the bid of infrastructure company Montecarlo Limited for construction and development of a depot in relation to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project [NHSRCL v. Montecarlo Ltd].

What does it mean and what does the verdict say? Let's understand.

What does the verdict say?

In a verdict pertaining to the Japan-funded Bullet train project, the Supreme Court said no company and even the Republic of India can be permitted to deviate from any terms and conditions of the agreements including the loan deed about the Mumb

Bullet Train

"The project is not just important but of national importance. It is to be noted that under the contractual obligation, it was not open for the appellant corporation and/or even the Republic of India to deviate from any of the terms and conditions of the loan agreement and/or the decision of JICC/ the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Therefore, in absence of any allegation of mala fides/arbitrariness and/or favouritism, we are of the opinion that the High Court has committed a grave error in interfering with a conscious decision taken by the JICC/JICA, which has been followed by the appellant," the 82-page judgement said.

What was Delhi HC's verdict set aside by SC?

The top court set aside the Delhi High Court's verdict in favour of a firm called Montecarlo Limited whose technical bid was rejected by an expert committee appointed by the JICA for several works about the Bullet train project.

A bench comprising Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna was dealing with the question whether in the facts and circumstances of the case and concerning such a foreign-funded project, the High Court was justified in "interfering with the tender process in absence of any specific allegations of mala fides and/or favouritism".

PTI

But, why shouldn't there be any interference?

It underlined that in a mega project funded by a foreign country, there shall not be any interference in the tender process midway till the final decision is taken to award the contract. The reason behind this is that any delay in such a project may increase the ultimate project cost and it may affect the future investment by the foreign country, which would never be in the larger interest of the nation, said the bench.

It highlighted that a mega project like the Bullet Train project is entered into following a detailed discussion between the heads of the States and therefore, such projects invite different considerations so far as the judicial interference is concerned between the foreign funded contracts and the ordinary public works contracts funded from the public exchequer.

The high court had quashed the communications of April 27 and 28, 2021 by which the private firm was informed that its technical bid has been rejected on the ground that the same is non-responsive.

PTI

What govt says on the matter?

NHSRCL is a government Company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 with equity participation of the Government of India, Government of Gujarat, and Government of Maharashtra, incorporated to finance, construct, maintain and manage the upcoming Bullet train project.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for NHSRCL, informed the Supreme Court that the Bullet Train Project is a foreign sovereign contract, fully funded by the JICA for an amount of 1 lakh crore with a very negligible rate of interest and by providing repayment in instalments of 27 years and above.

Mehta said that as per the memorandum of corporation, the process of bidding and the subsequent decisions were to be vetted by JICA, which recommended rejection of the bids by five companies, including Montecarlo. He faulted the high court with failing to draw a distinction between an ordinary government contract and a sovereign foreign funded development contracts where the government has no room of any deviation from essential conditions of tender proposed by the investor.

AFP/ File Image

Accepting S-Gs submissions, the Supreme Court set aside the HC order, noting that the interference by the high court was bad also because the terms of bidding were clear to Montecarlo from the very beginning and that there was no allegation of malafide or nepotism in awarding the contract to any other party. Further, the bench said that the HC ought not to have interfered since the ultimate decision in such matters had to rest with the investor, who was of the view that the bid submitted by Montecarlo suffered from material deviation.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.


Marital rape will remain condoned until it becomes an explicit offence and such declaration would recognise that marriage is not a universal license to ignore consent, two NGOs argued before the Delhi High Court.

Counsel appearing for petitioner NGOs RIT Foundation and All India Democratic Women's Association submitted that specific labelling of the offence would not only deter it but also promote the boundaries of the conjugal right to sex concerning the bodily integrity of wives.

A bench headed by Justice Rajiv Shakdher was hearing a batch of petitions to strike down the exemption from prosecution for the offence of rape granted to husbands under the Indian Penal Code.

"Constitutional goal of equal respect and dignity to all"

Lawyer Karuna Nundy, appearing for the petitioner NGOs, said that the court's declaration criminalising marital rape would go a long way in realising the constitutional goal of equal respect and dignity to all.

Not only do consequences to a specifically labelled offence deter it, but they also elevate the consciousness of those who understand where the boundaries are, she said. Relying on a Supreme Court's decision, Nundy contended that women cannot be treated as a commodity and marriage did not make a rapist a non-rapist.

Representational Image

"The declaration of a right by a court has a powerful force. Until marital rape becomes an explicit offence it will remain condoned. This case is about the moral right of a married woman to refuse unwanted forcible sexual intercourse. It is about respecting the right of a wife to say no and recognising that marriage is no longer a universal license to ignore consent," the lawyer said as she argued that the exception created a fiction of consent on part of the wife which gives immunity to the husband.

In the written submissions, the petitioners have said that the marital rape exception violates Articles 14, 15, 19(1) (a), and 21 as it takes away a married woman's ability to say a joyful 'Yes' to sexual intercourse. It added that the ground that criminalising marital rape would destroy the institution of marriage is unacceptable as marriage is not institutional but personal and nothing can destroy the 'institution' of marriage except a statute that makes it illegal and punishable.

Criminalising marital rape is a tool for harassing husbands

In its 2017 affidavit, the Centre had submitted that marital rape cannot be made a criminal offence as it could become a phenomenon that may destabilise the institution of marriage and an easy tool for harassing husbands. However, earlier this month, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the high court that the Centre was considering a constructive approach to the issue and has sought suggestions from several stakeholders and authorities on comprehensive amendments to the criminal law.

He had said criminalisation of marital rape involved family issues as well as the dignity of a woman and cannot be looked at from a microscopic angle and sought some time to respond with the government's stand.

Senior advocates Rebecca John and Rajshekhar Rao, who were earlier appointed as amicus curiae, have contended that the marital rape exception is unconstitutional and ought to be struck down.

"Could open floodgates of false cases"

Over criminalisation of marital rape, the Indian government believes it could open the floodgates of false cases being made with ulterior motives.

Representational Image

Last week, the Centre told the Delhi high court that just because other countries, mostly western, have criminalised marital rape does not necessarily mean India should follow them blindly.

Opposing a bunch of pleas seeking to criminalise marital rape in the country, the Centre in its written submissions has told the high court that India has its own unique problems due to various factors like literacy, lack of financial empowerment of the majority of females, mindset of the society, vast diversity, poverty, etc. and these should be considered carefully before criminalising marital rape.

Making marital rape a cognizable, non-bailable offence would stop all chances of settlement between husband and wife which is possible under Section 498A, the government argued in its submissions. The government also supported the argument of mens rights groups that there are other laws, including the Domestic Violence Act, which provide for punishment in cases of sexual violence between husband and wife.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.


PIGGS PEAK  How safe is your child at school?

This is a question some parents of Mkhuzweni Primary School must have asked themselves after five pupils were admitted to the Emkhuzweni Health Centre. The pupils, all doing Grade IV, had reportedly drank poison from a Coca Cola can. The incident is said to have happened last Monday and the pupils were admitted on the same day and discharged the following day.

It was gathered that one of the pupils, *Jack had arrived at the school with some Coke which he shared with his friends. Jack is said to have taken the drink from home. He is said to have picked an empty can of Coke from home and poured the soft drink from another container, which is said to have been in a refrigerator. It is not clear where he picked the empty can from.

According to some of the parents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Jack took the drink to school.

While at school, he is alleged to have met with his classmates where they shared the drink. Jack is said to have drunk from the can first while his friends waited for their turn. As he drank from it, he is said to have told his friends that the drink tasted strange. However, his friends did not believe when he said the drink tasted strange and accused him of wanting to drink it alone. It was then that Jack is said to have given his friends who then also tasted and agreed that it tasted strangely. The group of friends then said they needed to dilute it with some juice, which they did and then drank it. After drinking, all the pupils are said to have begun to feel pains in the stomach and rolled on the ground. Jack is said to have also fallen ill like the others. Fortunately for the pupils, the school is situated opposite the Emkhuzweni Health Centre and they were rushed there.

Police

Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni confirmed that the matter had been reported to the police. This publication also gathered that samples from the poisonous drink were collected by the police as well as the hospital for testing to determine what poison it was. Some parents, however, claimed the poison could have been a popular pesticide known as Masta900. The pesticide kills army worms, but it is also popular among dagga growers as it keeps the illicit herb looking greener. It is obvious that by sharing the drink, the pupils violated the COVID-19 regulations. One of the strict regulations followed by the school is that pupils should not share drinks.

However, according to the Head teacher, Boy Dlamini, four of the pupils lived together as their parents were teachers at one of the high schools. A parent to the pupil who brought the poisonous drink is also said to be a teacher. Dlamini said because of their bond, the pupils had decided to share the drink. He said even when the pupil who brought the drink warned the others that it tasted different, they thought he was only teasing them and decided to taste it as well. However, the head teacher said following the incident, the school would no longer allow drinks brought in using branded containers. He said pupils often used branded containers to bring juice. He said the danger with this was that they could also be used for pesticides.

Pupils now need to use juice bottles, he said. He said only proper juice bottles would be allowed in the school as these were safe. He said no one could put a pesticide in a juice bottle but that they could do so in an empty can of coke. Dlamini said they had also tightened rules on sharing food, in general, to avoid such instances in future.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the fourth Budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led 2.0 BJP government on February 1, 2022. Similar to last year, the focus of this Budget is also expected to be on expediting the pace of recovery from the after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: COVID-19 Exposed How Inadequate India's Healthcare Spending Is, Will Budget 2022 Change It?



According to reports, in this year's Budget the government aims to put India back on its growth track towards the $5 trillion economy goal as well as announce various PLI schemes. The Budget session began today with President Ram Nath Kovinds address and will be held till February 11. Whereas, the second budget session will be conducted from March 14 to April 8.

Also Read: India Budget 2022: 15 Budget And Finance Terms You Need To Know

If you too want to follow all the updates of budget and what the upcoming session will reveal, read ahead to find out the date, time, where to watch and other related details.
Drones have a lot of potential in improving the lives of human beings. From healthcare to farming, drones can yield better results if used proactively. Now, an engineering team has tested Leonardo da Vinci's drone design

The design for a single-person helicopter shot up using an "aerial screw" was sketched by Leonardo da Vinci in the late 1480s. The well-known Italian was a painter, an engineer, and scientist among many things.

Library of congress

Leonardo da Vinci's "Crimson Spin"

In 2019, da Vinci's design was used by an engineering team from the University of Maryland for a design contest. One of the team members, Austin Prete decided to keep pursuing it; calling it "Crimson Spin."

Austin Prete/University of Maryland

Prete's unmanned quadcopter drone uses da Vinci's screw design and turns out, it works! The first video of the aircraft's flight was shared by Prete at the Transformative Vertical Flight 2022 conference in San Jose, California last week.

Also read: Drone Defibrillator Saves 71-Year-Old Man Having A Heart Attack Faster Than Ambulance

"I was absolutely surprised it worked," Prete was quoted as saying by Cnet. Even though the drone built by Prete is rather small, it could be scaled to big giant size aircraft capable of carrying human beings.

Leonardo da Vinci

To da Vinci's credit, he didn't have access to materials required to build a solid drone. Aluminum, plastic, batteries, and other modern structures helped materialise the design in a way that simply wasn't possible in da Vinci's time.

Also read: This Underwater Drone Swims Like A Ray, And Fools Even Real Fish



Of course, computing was involved. The researchers used design prototypes and simulations to see if the design would hold in a real-life setting. And it did!

What do you think - should we bring back knowledge of our old scientists to see if their ideas can bear positive results in the modern world? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

Shankland, S. (2022, January 31). This drone flies using da Vincis 530-year-old helicopter design. CNET.
Chinese scientists from Suzhou in Chinas eastern Jiangsu province have developed an AI system that can monitor and take care of embryos as they grow into fetuses in an artificial womb.

Unsplash

Also Read: Ethereum Founder Feels Synthetic Wombs Will Allow Women To Earn Equally As Men

Reported first by SCMP, the AI nanny is designed to look after a large number of animal embryos as of now.



Researchers in the paper claim that the same technology could be used to eliminate the need for a woman to carry her baby for nine months, allowing her fetus to grow outside her body in a safe yet efficient way.

The device thats named long-term embryo culture device is a container where they have mouse embryos growing inside cubes lined up, each filled with nutritious fluids.

In the initial stages, the development of each embryo had to be observed, documented and adjusted manually. However, now they've got an AI nanny that monitors the embryos in crazy detail.

Also Read: Chinas Population Growth Drops To 60-Year Low, With More Deaths Than Births



The AI helps the machine observe minutest changes on the embryos and finely tune the CO2, nutrition and environmental inputs. The system is also capable of ranking the embryos based on health and development potential.

If an embryo dies or suffers a defect, the machine would alert a technician to remove it from the system.

While all this seems too good to be true, it will have to overcome a ton of challenges to be acceptable -- current international laws dont allow experimental studies on human embryos beyond two weeks of development.

Experts however claim that the research on later stages is important as several mysteries still exist about the physiology of typical human embryonic development. They claim that this tech would help understand the origin of life as well as embryonic development, while also offering a way to solve birth defects and major reproductive health issues.

Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology

Also Read: China Records Slowest Population Growth In Decades: How It Could Impact The World



This also comes at a time when China is seeing the slowest growth in population in decades, with more and more youngsters pushing the idea of bearing child amidst focus on career as well as high living costs in larger Chinese cities, and state incentives arent of any help.



Itll be interesting to see if this system will ever see the level of progress and acceptance the researchers aim for, especially considering the nation has banned surrogacy, and any hospital delivering such a baby would have to bear the childs responsibility, something no hospital wishes to.

This idea is also surrounded by ethical and social concerns as well as psychological implications on the child.

Keep reading Indiatimes.com for the latest science and technology news.
A hospital in Kerala was recently under scrutiny for using a photo of American actor Morgan Freeman in a skin treatment advertisement. Social media users took no time in slamming the hospital for running an advert that was 'racist' to the core.



Racism remains a grave social evil our world is still dealing with. From the west to India, no one is free from the atrocities inflicted on people by racists, and it is high time that we shut it down.

Twitter

According to reports, the Vadakara cooperative hospital received backlash when photos of their ad began circulating on social media. Pictures of the now-removed poster show the hospital using a photo of the 84-year-old veteran Hollywood actor to advertise services such as removal of skin tags, warts, milia, among other things.





"Sir Morgan Freeman, your picture is used as a poster at a dermatology department advt board in hospital in Kerala, India. Using your picture as sample, they are claiming to make everyone free from dark tan, wrinkles, pigments," wrote Rejimon Kuttappan on Twitter.



Sir, .@morgan_freeman your picture is used as a poster at a dermatology department advt board in hospital in Kerala, India.



Using your picture as sample, they are claiming to make everyone free from dark tan, wrinkles, pigments.... pic.twitter.com/54plREcswi  Rejimon Kuttappan (@rejitweets) January 31, 2022

Film critic GP Ramachandran wrote: "Vadakara 'Co-operative' Hospital is a disgrace and an insult to the great co-operative sector in Kerala."

Sree Parvathy, an author by profession, listed the legendary actor's extensive filmography to introduce him to the uninitiated.

"Those who lifted the picture of Morgan from the internet failed to identify the Oscar winning actor and went by his skin colour, the rashes on his face and his African-American heritage," she wrote.

After the receiving flak, the Vadakara cooperative hospital apologised for the racist advert, and pulled it down.

"The picture was taken from the internet and the board displayed near the casualty on January 26 (Wednesday). When we came to know about the gaffe, it was removed on Saturday," T Sunil, the marketing manager of the hospital, told The New Indian Express.

"The hospital has issued an apology on its Facebook page. There was no intention to defame the great actor," he added.

For more trending stories, click here.
It's a no-brainer that Pepsi is an iconic brand renowned globally. But could you ever imagine a company or brand, even if it's as big as Pepsi, owning a navy? And that too one as big as the world's 6th largest? No matter how weird or unimaginable it sounds, its true!

Pepsi once owned the world's sixth-largest navy for a brief period. Eager to know how? Read on as we unfold this true story.

shutterstock

The US-Russia Clash

In the aftermath of the Russian launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957, the United States was looking to regain the centre stage globally and show to the world that its economical model was better than the communist one presented by the USSR.

So, in 1959, the then-US President Dwight D. Eisenhower felt the best way to do this was to bring American culture to the Russians and to show them the benefits of a capitalist society.

To accomplish this objective, the American government arranged the American National Exhibition in Moscows Sokolniki Park. In this exhibition, a host of American brands sponsored booths were present, including Pepsi, Disney, IBM, etc. Then-US Vice President Richard Nixon too attended the opening.

robintimweis

The Heated Argument & Entry Of Pepsi

During the exhibition, Richard Nixon and Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev got into a heated argument over the topic of communism versus capitalism, and the efficacy of their respective economic models.

At that moment, the Head of Pepsi International Donald Kendall offered the Soviet leader a Pepsi to cool down the situation, which he drank and apparently enjoyed as well. This publicity coup accelerated Kendalls career and he became the companys president and chief executive officer in 1963.

A Deal Between Pepsi & The USSR

russiabeyond

Some years after that exhibition, the USSR wanted to strike a deal with Pepsi in 1972, but since their money wasnt accepted throughout the world, there was an issue as to how the Russian government would pay for the exchange. Thats when the idea came: vodka.



Under the new deal, the Soviet Union would provide vodka from its state-owned brand, Stolichnaya, for resale in the US, in exchange for Pepsi. Consequently, Pepsi became the first company to secure such an agreement between America and the USSR during the Cold War.

Stolichnaya rapidly experienced immediate popularity upon entering the US market. In 1973 itself, it was selling about 30,000 cases annually in the country, and by 1980, its sales had topped a whopping 1 million cases a year, making it the second most popular vodka in America.

Soviets Desperate Attempt To Not Lose Pepsi: The Navy

By the late 1980s, the USSRs agreement with Pepsi was about to expire.

However, unlike in previous years, their vodka now wouldnt be enough to satisfy Pepsi to continue or renew the agreement. This was due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, to which the American people responded by boycotting Russian products, including vodka.

But, the Soviets didnt want to lose Pepsi, so they put forth a rather unorthodox trade idea with Pepsi. They stated that in exchange for its product, they would give Pepsi a fleet of ships, including 17 submarines, a frigate, a cruiser, a handful of oil tankers and a destroyer, hence instantly making Pepsi the owner of the sixth-largest navy on the planet.



The Journey To The Scrapyard

warisboring.com

Despite this, the newly established Pepsi navy was far from battle-ready, with the ships and submarines in serious disrepair, with only one of the ships being truly seaworthy,, while all of the submarines had serious rust issues.



Nonetheless, the United States government was certainly not pleased to see a corporation suddenly command enough naval firepower to square off with some nations in entirety.

Pepsis CEO, Donald Kendall, who had first introduced Khrushchev to the beverage, responded to Americas complaints by reminding the Pentagon that he had just managed to reduce the number of ships at the Soviets disposal by a considerable number. Kendall memorably said, Im dismantling the Soviet Union faster than you are!

Eventually, Pepsi sold the ships to a Swedish recycling company for scrap, as the company needed to recoup the cost of shipping its product to the USSR.

Regardless of this, it remains true that for some time, Pepsi was the owner of one of the worlds largest navies, showing what can happen when a countrys citizens really love a particular consumer product.

For more interesting content and the latest financial news, click here.
Forney, TX (75126)

Today

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. High 74F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

A mostly clear sky. Low 53F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Culpeper, VA (22701)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun in the morning followed by cloudy skies during the afternoon. High 69F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Increasing clouds with showers arriving sometime after midnight. Low 54F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
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The Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) has announced the launch of a three-year programme to provide Cloud computing training to 600 employees from 75 governmental and semi-governmental entities, in line with the Government of Bahrains Cloud First policy.

iGA Deputy CE, Operations & Governance, Dr. Khalid Al Mutawah reaffirmed the Authoritys commitment to the policy, within the framework of promoting investment in the Kingdom and increasing its global competitiveness.

The program will be rolled out in association with Microsoft as one of the cloud-technology leaders under its existing contract with the Government of Bahrain.

Dr Al Mutawah said that this training program is among several initiatives the iGA plans to implement this year with leading digital solutions providers, to enhance innovation and improve the quality of government services.

The Microsoft training courses are expected to improve the efficiency of public sector employees in cloud services, in line with the directives of national leadership and the Supreme Council for Information & Communication Technology (SCICT), chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa.

Dr Al Mutawa also extended his appreciation to Minister of Interior General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa for his continuous support and encouragement toward the adaptation and training of Cloud computing technologies.

The new programme is also in line with the iGAs commitment to providing all ministries and governmental authorities with advanced technologies that enable the development of their digital transformation plans, including the services offered to citizens and residents.

The first Microsoft course will be launched in February. Work is underway to roll out the program, with the Training & Development department communicating the details to all eligible governmental and semi-governmental organizations and registering nominated employees.

Some courses will require participants to take exams to obtain a passing certificate while others require attendance only. The iGA aims to train approximately 200 employees this year and 600 by the end of the programs term in 2024.

Dr Al Mutawa said that the Kingdom of Bahrain has successfully adopted its Cloud First policy at the government level, thanks to its high level of technical readiness, and the availability of national human resources with the necessary competencies and expertise.

Microsoft Bahrain and Oman Country Manager Shaikh Saif Hilal Al Hosni said: "We are delighted to be collaborating with the iGA on this initiative, which seeks to train government employees on Cloud computing technologies and provide them with the necessary skills to help digitally transform government services and improve operations."

"The objectives of the Cloud Frist policy, including raising the level of services provided to the public, advancing economic development, and building a knowledge-based economy in line with Economic Vision 2030, can only be achieved by preparing organizations human capital and qualifying nationals," he added.

Kingdom of Bahrain has adopted its Cloud computing policy in 2017, following a decision by the SCICT, with the aim of redirecting IT investment towards Cloud computing, in cooperation with technology leaders.

The iGA has already provided Cloud computing training to a number of public and private sector employees to encourage innovation, provide greater flexibility, and help the Kingdom reduce expenditures.
A Maryland coalition of insurance interests and trucking firms is hoping a House bill will put the brakes on towing companies that haul away big trucks after accidents and charge exorbitant fees.

It is not unreasonable to think the towing industry should have to play by some rules and we think it can be done in a way that would minimize the impact on towing companies that do things the right way, said Robert Passmore, vice president of auto and claims policy at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

House Bill 487, sponsored by Delegates Linda Foley and David Fraser-Hidalgo, would require the Maryland State Police to keep a list of authorized towing companies and the rates they can charge; to honor a trucking companys request for a specific tow operator; and to require towing firms to allow the truck owner or driver to collect items from the impounded truck.

The measure also would require towing companies to release the vehicle and cargo if a dispute exists over the amount of fees, and would order the state police to devise a process to investigate complaints.

One of the problems in Maryland is that there are no rules that prevent towing companies from charging whatever they want, Mike Matousek, director of state legislative affairs at the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said in a statement Monday. There is also no viable complaint process for truck drivers caught up in this mess.

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud said the actions of some towing companies amounts to insurance fraud, particularly when a company charges for equipment or manpower that were never on the scene.

The Towing and Recovery Professionals of Maryland have condemned the legislation. The organizations website did not go into details about reasons for the opposition and officials there could not be reached for comment Monday.

The issue has been gaining steam for years. After an accident involving a commercial truck, the state police often dispatch a towing company to clear the wreckage. But Maryland has no regulations that bar the towing firms from charging huge fees while keeping the truck locked up in a lot, officials said. The coalition has said it has tried to address the issue in other ways, but has had little success.

A legislative committee hearing on the bill is set for Feb. 10 at 1 p.m.

Topics Auto Maryland
The latest summary of internal investigations against Vermont State Police troopers listed 11 cases that led to the resignation of two troopers, the retirement of a third, and in other cases found that no violations took place.

The document released Friday by the state police and Department of Public Safety deals with investigations between Jan. 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021.

The identities of the troopers involved were not released.

The 11 investigations ranged from a trooper who resigned after making social media posts in support of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington to a report that two troopers were discourteous to the public. In that case the investigation found that no policies were violated.

One trooper was given a letter of reprimand for violating the unmanned aircraft system policy by flying without adhering to all safety protocols.

Beginning in 2019 the commissioner of Public Safety and the State Police Advisory Commission began releasing summaries of the commissions work. After the initial release, the organizations began releasing the summaries twice a year.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Law Enforcement Vermont
Child education allowances, identified as the most important benefit to employees, are offered by 36% of employers in the Gulf.

Yet this is only the fourth most common benefit provided as part of a standard employment package. The top three include life insurance, offered by 48%, company car or car allowance, offered by 47%, and flexible working, offered by 46% of employers in the region, according to findings from Hays GCC Salary Guide 2022.

From an employee perspective, the guide found education allowances, flexible working, and share incentives to be the top three most important benefits when considering a new employer.

There are a number of factors influencing what benefits employees are offered here. We typically see child education allowances for example, be offered according to a candidates level of seniority and generally provided to senior, C-Suite level only, says Sarah Dixon, Managing Director of Hays, Gulf region.

Industry, company and job role also have a bearing and of course, there are significant variances based on location of work, she adds.

Indeed, the report found that the number one most common benefit provided by employers in Saudi Arabia was company car/car allowance as offered by 61%, while a lower 43% of employers in the UAE provide this benefit.

More than half, 53%, of UAE employers provide life insurance, in contrast to 30% in Saudi Arabia. When it comes to flexible working, 49% of UAE employers offer this as part of a standard package, versus 39% who do in Saudi Arabia.

Finally, child education allowances are offered by 32% of Saudi Arabia based employers and 37% of those in the UAE.

It is impossible to generalise as to what salary and benefits package an expat should expect in the region and offerings have also changed significantly over the years. Furniture, food and utility allowances for example were more common over a decade ago - prior to the global financial crisis. At the same time, employees in the Gulf were often offered guaranteed bonuses or a golden handshake, and my colleague even once interviewed a candidate who got a shoe allowance, but that was a bizarre one-off and these perks are certainly not the norm that we see today, said Dixon.

What is standard in the region is employee salary packages are broken down into three main components, including: basic salary, which typically accounts for 60-65% of total salary, housing, which is roughly 25-30%, and flight allowance, which accounts for around 10-20%. Then medical insurance and end of service gratuity come as standard, as required legally of employers.

Ultimately, what an employee gets offered on top of these is at employers discretion, adds Dixon.

Obviously the more perks an employer is willing to provide, the more attractive they are and the more confident they can be in securing and retaining top talent.

Most notably, flexible working has grown significantly in precedence these past two years following the pandemic and this is certainly one offering employers cannot afford to overlook going forward, said Dixon.-- TradeArabia News Service
Specialty re/insurance group Chaucer announced the creation of a dedicated team for Renewable Power as part of plans to broaden its Energy Division and provide dedicated support to oil and gas clients as they transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy production.

The Energy Division will now be split into two teams: Renewable Power and Natural Resources.

The newly created Renewable Power team will be led by Lyndsey Picton as head of Renewable Power. Picton has been with Chaucer for 16 years, underwriting upstream energy and associated construction risks. She spent five years in Chaucers Singapore office developing Chaucers energy profile in the region, before returning to London in 2019.

Picton will be responsible for building the groups capability for underwriting onshore and offshore renewable power risks. The team is in the process of making several strategic hires, including a new class underwriter, set to join in the second quarter of 2022.

The restructured Natural Resources team will be led by the current head of Upstream, James Brown, who will assume the role of head of Natural Resources. Brown is a highly respected underwriter with over 30 years experience in the London market; he joined Chaucer in 2009 from Zurich Insurance Group.

The Natural Resources team will continue to focus on customers across the value chain in the oil and gas sector, both in respect of their existing activities and operations, and in new technologies and assets associated with the transition of the energy industry away from its traditional activities.

Chaucer is a market leader in underwriting energy risks and has more than a decade of experience in the renewable power market. The establishment of a dedicated team catering to this fast-growing sector will strengthen our proposition and provide the resources needed to service our brokers and clients, commented Kelan Hunt, active underwriter, Syndicate 1084 and head of Marine, Energy and Aviation at Chaucer.

As major economies develop their policies around sustainably energy and net zero emissions, Chaucer is dedicated to partnering with the energy industry providing innovation, risk management and risk transfer through this transformative period, Hunt added.

Source: Chaucer

Topics Underwriting Energy
This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Chubb Global Markets, Brit Ltd. and Willis Towers Watson.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Chubb Global Markets Appoints Abbott as Product Head Aviation

Chubb appoints Simon Abbott as product head aviation for Chubb Global Markets (CGM), the companys London Market wholesale and specialty arm including its Lloyds platform.

In this role, Abbott will lead all aspects of the insurers Aviation business, which is based in London and has hubs in Paris, France and Toronto, Canada. This includes responsibility for strategy, product and business development, underwriting and service operations, and overall profit and loss performance.

He will be based in London and report to Robert Wilson, chief underwriting officer for Chubb Global Markets and active underwriter of Chubbs Lloyds Syndicate 2488. The appointment is effective from July.

Abbott joins Chubb from Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers where he was underwriting director since 2014. He has more than 30 years of experience in the insurance industry and has held a wide variety of roles within the Aviation sector. This includes an earlier nine-year spell at CGM where he was a senior underwriter, responsible for its aerospace products book from 2005. In addition, he has been chairman of the Insurance Institute of Londons Aviation Subcommittee since 2008.

I am delighted to welcome Simon back to Chubb Global Markets to take up this significant role leading our important aviation business together with our existing experienced and talented team, commented Wilson. Simon is a well-known and highly respected aviation insurance specialist having worked within the market for three decades. His unrivaled knowledge, insights, expertise and understanding make him ideally placed to continue to grow our aviation business, and I very much look forward to working with him once more.

***

Brit Names Chaganty as Chief Data Officer

Brit Ltd. has appointed Kanika Chaganty as chief data officer as the business continues to build on its ambition to be a leading participant in the digitalization of the London market.

In the newly created role, Chaganty will be responsible for leading Brits data strategy and leveraging its data and analytics capabilities to support Brits digital vision and enhance how Brit underwrites and services claims.

Chaganty will report to newly appointed Chief Technology Officer Bilge Mert and be responsible for Brits centralized team of data expertise, including data science, analytics, data engineering and data governance. She began her role on Jan. 31, 2022.

Chaganty brings over 22 years of technology, data & business transformation experience, with strong expertise in the critical role of data within the insurance industry. She comes with diverse industry experience across financial services, healthcare, retail and manufacturing sectors, spanning EMEA, North America, APAC regions. She joins from Vitality UK Group where she has been for almost 10 years, most recently holding the role of chief data officer. Prior to joining Vitality UK Group, Chaganty also held roles with data consulting companies Business & Decision (now Sopra Steria) in the UK, Al Tayer Group in Dubai, Radiologix Inc. in the U.S. and Oracle & Citicorp groups in India.

Brit has been a leading participant in the digitalization of the London market, including launching Ki, the Lloyds markets first fully digital and algorithmically driven syndicate in 2020.

***

WTW Appoints Marshs Gardner for GB Renewable Energy & Power Team

Insurance broker WTW announced the appointment of Robert Gardner as GB Retail Industry Leader  Renewable Energy & Power for its Risk & Broking Division in GB.

Gardner joins as a 29-year industry veteran. Specializing in power and renewable energy, he held a variety of leadership roles at Marsh during a 27-year tenure based in London and New York.

Gardner reports to Adrian Willmott who leads Sales and Client Management for the GB Retail business and will support the expansion of WTWs GB Retail footprint, working closely with both the GB Retail Utilities Practice and the Natural Resources Global Line of Business teams.

Roberts deep industry knowledge and formidable network in Renewable Energy and Power space will further strengthen our retail footprint in this hugely dynamic and fast-growing sector in the UK, said Willmott.

Topics Underwriting Energy Aviation Willis Towers Watson London Chubb Aerospace
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1936, Devitt is a privately owned retail property/casualty insurance broker, predominantly focusing on coverages for motorcycles and motorhomes. It serves approximately 130,000 customers through a team of 130 colleagues.

William Hughes, Tony Chapman and their associates will continue to operate from their current locations in Romford and Ipswich, Suffolk, under the direction of SME and Personal Lines Managing Director Gareth Birch.

Devitt is a highly regarded business and culturally is a great fit with Gallagher, said J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., chairman, president and CEO. The businesss impressive specialist expertise is complementary to our existing UK Retail niche practices, extends our affinity partnership reach and further enhances our digital capabilities. I am delighted to welcome William, Tony and their associates to Gallagher.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Ill. The company has operations in 68 countries and offers client-service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Source:

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies A.J. Gallagher
Greenlight Re Innovations (GRI), part of Cayman Islands-headquartered Greenlight Capital Re Ltd., has received in-principle approval from Lloyds to establish an insurtech-focused syndicate.

Syndicate 3456, which will commence operations in the second quarter of 2022, will be established under Lloyds innovative syndicate-in-a-box (SIAB) model. It will be managed by Asta, the leading third-party managing agent at Lloyds.

Greenlight Re Innovations has built a market-leading reputation in early stage insurtech and has made 20 investments to date. Syndicate 3456 will enable Greenlight Re to provide capacity to its growing portfolio of insurtechs.

The company will appoint Andy Gladwin as active underwriter for Syndicate 3456. Gladwin, who has over 30 years of experience in the London market, joined Greenlight Re in November 2020 as managing director of Greenlight Re Marketing (UK) Ltd.

Greenlight Re has been a supporter of Lloyds for several years through the provision of Funds at Lloyds capacity. Syndicate 3456 will strengthen our Lloyds relationship and London market presence. We are delighted to work with Asta on this exciting initiative, commented Gladwin.

Simon Burton, Chief Executive Officer at Greenlight Re, said, GRIs support of insurance innovators is a key element of Greenlight Res strategy. By combining Greenlight Res knowledge of and access to early stage insurtechs with Lloyds reputation, licensing, and rating, we aim to create a market-leading insurtech syndicate which can generate strong underwriting returns.

We are pleased to unveil our latest SIAB, which further reinforces our ability to provide a flexible and swift route to market for aspiring new entrants to Lloyds, said Julian Tighe, chief executive officer at Asta.

GRI syndicate 3456 embodies innovation with its exclusive insurtech focus, and we are delighted to work with the Greenlight Re team. We look forward to seeing the positive impact its business may have in Lloyds.

About Greenlight Capital Re Ltd.

Greenlight Re provides multi-line property/casualty reinsurance through its licensed and regulated reinsurance entities in the Cayman Islands and Ireland. Greenlight Re complements its underwriting activities with a non-traditional investment approach designed to achieve higher rates of return over the long term than reinsurance companies that exclusively employ more traditional investment strategies. Launched in 2018, the Greenlight Re Innovations unit supports technology innovators in the re/insurance space by providing investment, risk capacity, and access to a broad insurance network.

About Asta

Asta Managing Agency Ltd. is the leading third-party managing agent at Lloyds and is responsible for 12 syndicates, one SPA and two syndicates-in-a-box with capacity under management in 2022 of more than 1.4 billion.

Source: Greenlight Re Innovations

Topics InsurTech Tech Excess Surplus Reinsurance Lloyd's Human Resources
Several businesses, trade groups and social organizations announced the formation of a coalition on Monday opposing legalization of recreational marijuana in Minnesota as the measures supporters signal another push for the issue ahead of the start of the legislative session next week.

The proposal passed in the Democratic-controlled House last session with several Republican votes after picking up support from some GOP lawmakers during its trek through a dozen committees, making it the first time either chamber had voted on the issue. The bill would legalize marijuana use for adults, as well as expunge minor cannabis convictions in an effort to remedy inequities in marijuana arrests and convictions among white and Black residents despite similar usage rates.

The coalition, called Minnesotans Against Marijuana Legalization, consists of the Minnesota Trucking Association, the states police and peace officers association and the Minnesota Catholic Conference, a policy arm of the Catholic Church of Minnesota, among others.

The groups echoed the concerns of Republican lawmakers that the potential for more drivers under the influence and a lack of roadside tests for marijuana for law enforcement would make roadways less safe. They also fear that increased marijuana use could lead to failed drug tests in employment settings and impairment in the workplace, which would worsen worker shortages already experienced due to the pandemic.

The marijuana bill that passed the Minnesota House last session wasnt a justice bill, it was a marijuana commercialization bill, said Ryan Hamilton of the Minnesota Catholic Conference during a Monday news conference. As weve seen from other states that have opened the doors for the marijuana industry, the promises made to justify marijuana legalization rarely come true, particularly for communities of color.

The bill is technically still alive, though its unclear whether Republicans in the Senate will take up the measure. Democratic House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, of Golden Valley, the bills chief author, told the Minnesota Hemp Growers Cooperative at an event on Wednesday said his goal is to reexamine parts of the bill this session to improve the proposal and attempt to get senators on board, though a floor vote in the Senate remains up in the air, he said.

Leili Fatehi, campaign manager at Minnesotans for Responsible Marijuana Regulation, said she thinks the chances the bill sees a floor vote or a hearing in the GOP-controlled Senate are next to zero. But, she said, the issue is popular with voters regardless of political party and the election later this year will allow voters to hold lawmakers accountable.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have already legalized recreational marijuana for adults to varying degrees, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Minnesota is one of many states that allow medical marijuana, but its restrictions are some of the countrys strictest.

In even-numbered years, lawmakers are traditionally tasked with building an infrastructure borrowing package known as the bonding bill, but an enormous projected $7.7 billion surplus will be the focus when the session convenes on Jan. 31.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Cannabis Minnesota
Sayata, a marketplace for insurance brokers and carriers, added $35 million to its latest funding round. The insurtech previously raised $17 million five months ago, resulting in a total A round of $52 million.

Sayata CEO and Founder Asaf Lifshitz said extending its current funding round is a way for the company to expand into new lines of coverage faster.

There is a lot of market demand for a better way to secure commercial insurance for SMBs (small and midsize businesses), he said. Further, our clients have specifically asked for us to add more lines of insurance to the Sayata platform.

The company currently offers cyber insurance on its platform and will use the funds to add new business insurance lines. Lifshitz could not disclose which lines are being added, although he said one new line is already in beta and will be announced soon.

Sayatas proprietary technology automates the process of finding and securing business insurance, allowing brokers to enter information into its software platform, which delivers multiple insurance quotes tailored to the clients needs.

Once a quote is chosen, brokers complete the process and secure coverage through the platform. The platform itself was launched nearly two years ago with a specific focus on the SMB space.

We believe that theres massive value to unlock by improving the insurance business itself, Lifshitz said. We help carriers by bringing brokers to them and, in many cases, solving the need to build out their own technological solutions. Brokers win by migrating to an all-digital system, removing themselves from the more time-consuming tasks of placing risk. Finally, the insured gets more quotes so they can choose the best coverage for their business.

The additional raise was led by Pitango Growth and Hanaco Ventures, with participation from previous investors Team8 Capital, Vertex Ventures, Elron Ventures and OurCrowd.

Sayata is based in Boston, Mass., with employees throughout the U.S. and Israel.

Source: Carrier Management

Topics Agencies InsurTech Tech Commercial Lines Business Insurance Funding
Parametrix Insurance, a provider of parametric cloud downtime insurance, and ComTech-Leavitt Insurance Services, a member of insurance brokerage Leavitt Group, have partnered to help businesses using the cloud reduce their exposure to cloud downtime.

International Data Corp. forecasted in a September report that total worldwide spending on cloud services will surpass $1.3 trillion by 2025, sustaining a compound annual growth rate of 16.9 percent.

According to Yonatan Hatzor, co-founder and CEO of Parametrix Insurance, cloud downtime can inflict untold expense on companies that are unprepared and downtime insurance offers a way for them to recoup cloud downtime losses and fix the harm caused to their brand reputation by cloud outages.

Parametrix Insurance policies cover financial losses for businesses when outages of the cloud or e-commerce platforms occur. The Parametrix platform automates risk assessment, provides instant quotes and delivers payments within days.

Parametrix Insurance for cloud downtime is similar to other parametric insurance products in that businesses pre-agree on the amount of coverage needed. They then receive payment of their policy within 15 business days of when the cloud outage occurs. There is no need to negotiate losses or file claims for damages.

With Parametrixs cloud insurance, businesses are free to use payouts to cover any type of loss when downtime happens.

Parametrix is backed by Hannover Re and certain underwriters at Lloyds of London.
Arkansas lawmakers on Jan. 28 cleared the way for state-run health care facilities to require employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine after officials warned that blocking the move would jeopardize more than $700 million in federal funding.

The Arkansas Legislative Council effectively approved the request by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs to comply with the federal vaccine requirement.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month allowed the federal vaccine requirement for health workers to move forward, the same day it blocked another rule that would have required workers at big companies to get vaccinated or face regular COVID testing requirements.

Health care facilities that dont comply with the rule could face the loss of their Medicaid funding, which would amount to more than $600 million for UAMS, Chancellor Dr. Cam Patterson told the panel.

Theres no model I can conceive of by which UAMS could continue to operate clinical services absent (Medicaid) money, Patterson told the panel. Not moving forward with the requirement would risk $100 million in funding for Human Services health facilities and at least $4 million for the states veterans facilities, officials said.

DHS Secretary Cindy Gillespie said the Medicaid funds are the primary source of money for the states human development centers, which serve the developmentally disabled.

The ramifications are quite enormous in the sense of losing the funding for the centers, she said.

The requirement conflicts with an Arkansas law banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates by government entities. But that law allows the state-run medical facilities to request exemptions from the council, the Legislatures main governing body when lawmakers arent in session.

The chairman of the panel declared the requests reviewed without any members voting to block the move. The council in November delayed taking up the agencies requests after lawmakers said they wanted to see how the courts would rule.

Lawmakers sought assurances from Patterson, Gillespie and Veterans Affairs Secretary Nate Todd that they would interpret the religious and medical exemptions allowed under the federal rule broadly.

The requests won approval despite some lawmakers complaints about the threat of funding loss.

Youre asking us more or less to give up our constituents First Amendment rights in return for a dollar amount to guarantee the programs that serve them, Republican Sen. Mark Johnson said.

Sen. Jim Hendren, an independent, warned that blocking the requirement would have significant consequences.

Were talking roughly three-quarters of a billion dollars that were encouraging you all to play chicken with the feds basically if we refuse to comply, Hendren said.

The council also approved spending $4.7 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to open 27 additional hospital beds for COVID-19 patients at UAMS. The request came as the state has seen COVID-19 hospitalizations in recent weeks reach record levels, fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant of the virus.

The states COVID-19 hospitalizations on Friday decreased by 68 to 1,720. The state reported 5,660 new virus cases and 20 new COVID-19 deaths. The true number of cases, though, is likely higher due to the number of people testing at home or who are infected but havent been tested.

Also on Jan. 28, Republican Attorney General Leslie Rutledge appealed a Pulaski County judges ruling striking down the states law banning schools and other government agencies from mandating masks. Circuit Judge Tim Fox last month found the law unconstitutional on multiple grounds.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Agencies Medical Professional Liability Arkansas
A North Carolina man has been charged with fraud after he allegedly won an $8,000 roofing contract by presenting a fake certificate of liability insurance.

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey said in a statement that Thomas Jefferson Sappelt, 33, of Carrboro, was charged with obtaining property by false pretense, a felony, and a misdemeanor count of forgery.

Sappelt is due in court Feb. 14, Causey said.

Also this week, Causeys office reported that two Wilmington people, roommates, were charged with insurance fraud after they filed an auto claim, but the damage proved to be pre-existing.

Richard Edward Taylor and Carrington Marie Purgason were arrested after they filed the claim with GEICO, the Insurance Department reported.

Topics Fraud Numbers North Carolina
Florida property/casualty insurers would have to produce claims histories that go back only three years instead of five when requested by policyholders, under a bill passed last week by the state Senate.

Senate Bill 156, sponsored by state Sen. Doug Broxson, R-Pensacola, passed the Senate on Thursday with only one no vote. It now goes to the House for consideration.

Current Florida law requires that personal lines insurers provide insureds with complete claims history in loss-run statements, for up to five years, or explain where to find the information through a consumer reporting agency.

Broxsons bill would change that time frame to three years, and would require that insurers designate someone to handle the loss-run statement requests from policyholders. The carrier would have to provide the information within 15 days. The information includes the policy number, period of coverage, number of claims, the paid losses on all claims, and the date of each loss, according to a legislative analysis of the bill.

Reports are not required to include supporting documentation such as copies of claim files, investigation reports, evaluation statements, insureds statements, and documents protected by a common law or statutory privilege.

The measure also would exempt life insurers from having to provide loss-run statements.

If approved by the House and signed into law, it would take effect immediately, the bill reads.

Topics Florida Claims Politics
Khimji Ramdas Information & Communication Technology (Khimji Ramdas ICT) and Motori for Smart Services have announced their strategic alliance to digitally transform the automotive insurance claims industry in Oman.



Motori pioneered the creation of intelligent platforms for the automotive insurance claims industry, connecting stakeholders such as insurance companies, policy holders, vehicle licensing authority, agencies/workshops, loss adjusters and others under a single one-stop shop digital umbrella. This digitization allows for a seamless and automated claims process resulting in a faster processing time, transparency, and cost enhancements for stakeholders.



Ahmed Eissa, Chief Executive Officer for Motori commented: Oman is an important market for Motoris regional expansion plans. We believe we can add tremendous value for the stakeholders in the automotive insurance claims industry in Oman by providing customized solutions for the Omani market and the success in managing such platforms given our experience. We look forward to introducing Motori to the Omani market with Khimji Ramdas ICT as one of the leading business groups in Oman.



Our strategic alliance with Motori allows us to offer innovative solutions to the Omani market and to be a lead partner to the stakeholders in the motor insurance industry in Oman. With decades of experience across a breadth of industries in Oman through its parent company Khimji Ramdas LLC, Khimji Ramdas ICT division is dedicated to offering technology solutions to the Omani market commented Meenal Madavi, Division Head of ICT Infrastructure Cluster at Khimji Ramdas LLC.  TradeArabia News Service
An explosion and fire at a North Carolina fertilizer plant has forced thousands of nearby residents to evacuate, as officials warned that chemicals at the site could cause further eruptions.

Local news outlets reported that the fire at the Weaver Fertilizer Plant, not far from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, began Monday night. Authorities asked everyone within a mile of the site to leave. That includes about 6,500 people in 2,500 homes.

No injuries had been reported by Tuesday.

Firefighters had pulled back from the scene after trucks could not flow enough water to be certain that the water was enough to prevent further chemical detonations, but left an unmanned truck to pump water on part of the site, fire officials told North Carolina TV news stations. Authorities were also flying drones over to assess the fire.

About 90 firefighters, along with other emergency responders, fought the fire for about two hours after it was discovered around 7 p.m. Monday, but they had to retreat because of the large amount of ammonium nitrate at the site, Winston-Salem Fire Chief Trey Mayo told reporters.

Use of Fertilizer Behind Explosions, Fires Declines Due to High Risks

Mayo said that an estimated 500 tons of the combustible chemical, used in fertilizer, were housed at the plant and another 100 tons were in a rail car nearby. That is more ammonium nitrate than was present at a 2013 Texas fertilizer plant blast that killed 15 people, most of them emergency personnel.

Officials warned of extensive smoke and poor air quality in the city of about 250,000, and said that controlling the fire could take some time. Matthew Smith, a hazardous material expert with a regional state task force, said the gases released by the blaze are considered more of an irritant than something that could seriously harm someone, unless the persons have an underlying lung condition.

The fire is the second at a major commercial facility in North Carolina in the last five weeks. Just before Christmas, a massive blaze destroyed most of a sprawling QVC distribution center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, shutting down a major employer in the area.

One person was killed in that fire.

In 2011, a fire destroyed much of the Halifax Fertilizer Co. site in Enfield, North Carolina.

Topics North Carolina
Edwin Saghian, 51, of Tarzana, California, was arraigned on Monday at the Fresno County Superior Court on five felony counts of insurance fraud after allegedly setting fire to his own vehicle and then reporting it stolen for an insurance payout.

His alleged co-conspirator and girlfriend, Clarita Martinez, also known as Clarita Bailey, 39, of Fresno, has been charged with one felony count of insurance fraud and is scheduled to be arraigned March 4.

In January 2020, Saghian reported he drove from the Los Angeles area to Fresno to visit his girlfriend. Following dinner and a trip to a nearby casino, Saghian reported his 2017 Chevy Tahoe was stolen. Shortly after, Saghians Chevy Tahoe was recovered burned by the California Highway Patrol. but a vehicle inspection found no signs of forced entry or ignition tampering. The vehicle was declared a total loss of $27,041, according to the California Department of Insurance.

An investigation by the CDI reportedly revealed inconsistencies with the timeline of events Saghain provided. Detectives found that Saghian and Martinez were discovered to be in the area where Saghians vehicle was found burned on the evening of the alleged theft. Throughout the claim process, Saghian reportedly provided multiple false statements in support of the claim and signed a notarized affidavit of theft.

The investigation reportedly found Saghian allegedly drove to the recovery location, dropped off the Chevy Tahoe, set fire to it, reported it stolen, and then filed an insurance claim. It also found that Martinez allegedly conspired with Saghian to commit insurance fraud, according to the CDI.

Saghian was arrested on November 30, 2021, and is scheduled to return to court on March 4. The Fresno County District Attorneys Office is prosecuting the case.

Topics California Auto Fraud
A new earthquake-warning app is available for Washington state.

The state said there are already two warning systems in place, but the MyShake app provides a third and possibly quicker option, The Seattle Times reported.

The app launched in 2019 and sends alerts in California and Oregon. It became available in Washington on Wednesday.

The MyShake app can be downloaded for free through the Apple or Google Play app stores.

Seismologists and engineers in California created the app, which was funded by the California Governors Office of Emergency Services.

Accessing tools such as the MyShake app will help you, your family and community be better prepared and have a more positive outcome in the event of an earthquake, Christina Curry, the offices chief deputy director, said in a news release. We are pleased to share this resource with our West Coast neighbors.

Alerts based on information collected by the U.S. Geological Surveys ShakeAlert earthquake-warning system were previously available through the Wireless Emergency Alert, or WEA, system and on Android phones built-in alerting system.

MyShake and the built-in Android system send alerts for earthquakes that surpass magnitude 4.5, while the WEA system will do so for earthquakes above 5.0. The system relies on 1,150 seismometers placed along the West Coast that can pinpoint and relay the location of an earthquake.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Washington Earthquake
Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has adopted his rule banning insurers from using credit information to set auto, homeowner and renter insurance for three years.

Kreidlers rule temporarily banning credit scoring will be in effect starting March 4 through three years after either the federal or state emergency declaration ends, whichever is longer.

Kreidler is also proposing a new transparency rule requiring insurers to provide policyholders with a written explanation for any premium change.

Im taking this action against insurers use of credit scoring in response to the economic harm many people have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemicharm that has significantly impacted people who are already financially vulnerable, Kreidler said in a statement. We know that now, more than ever, credit reporting is unreliable. It is unfair to base how much someone pays for frequently mandatory insurance on an unreliable and fluctuating factor like a credit score.

Kreidlers rule is designed to be rate neutral for the insurers, meaning any rate change is spread across all policyholders, according to a statement from his office.

Some will see a one-time rate increase and others will get a rate decrease, depending on how much their insurer relied on credit scoring.

Kreidler asked insurers to provide additional information, including:

A histogram that shows the range of premium changes due to removing credit information as rating factor. Some insurers already provided these illustrations as part of their rate filings.

Copies of any communications insurers used to describe the new credit rule to their policyholders.

Only 12 companies representing 5.2% of the affected market provided the information Kreidler requested.

The American Property Casualty Insurance Association has been fighting Kreidler on this scoring ban.

In April, the APCIA along with other insurer groups filed a petition for declaratory and injunctive relief in Superior Court in Thurston County, which asks the court to declare the commissioners action invalid and enjoin its enforcement. The APCIA has said the ban will mean higher premiums for more than a million low-risk policyholders who purchase auto, homeowners insurance, renters insurance, and other personal lines of coverage.

Commissioner Kreidler has taken the unprecedented action of adopting a permanent rule to chill legislative efforts to make credit-based insurance scores work for Washington consumers, Claire Howard, APCIA senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, said in a statement. Additionally, the commissioner ignored thousands of letters sent to him and the Legislature by consumers opposing his rule, detailing how this action has forced them to make difficult financial sacrifices.

Howards statement notes that Kreidlers predecessor emergency rule was declared invalid in September by order of a Thurston County Superior Court judge.

APCIA strongly opposes this misguided rule for a variety of legal reasons and is disappointed that Commissioner Kreidler is ignoring the legislature and harming Washington policyholders, the statement continues.

Kreidler is also proposing a rule that requires insurers to provide policyholders with clear written explanations for any rate change. This proposed rule will include stakeholder involvement and a public hearing.

Related:

Topics Carriers Washington
DETROIT, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Alliance Plan, a Michigan-based nonprofit health plan, has named Christine Harder senior vice president, Provider Network Management. In this role, she leads HAP's work to engage, support and grow its health care provider network in order to drive value for HAP members and purchasers. She oversees the organization's Provider Engagement, Contracting, Provider Data Integrity, Credentialing and Value-Based Contracting activities. Prior to this promotion, Harder served as vice president of Provider Operations at HAP, a position she held since 2017.

"Christine is a seasoned health care industry veteran who brings a wealth of experience to this position," said Dr. Michael Genord, president and CEO, HAP. "Her extensive experience includes long tenures at both HAP, as a payer, and at Henry Ford Health System, a nationally renowned health care provider. Her in-depth knowledge of how both sides of the industry operate will greatly benefit our provider relationships as HAP continues to grow and expand across the state, adding more providers to our already extensive network."

Harder has a combined 28 years of experience at HAP and its parent company Henry Ford Health System. She held leadership roles at Henry Ford in Revenue Cycle Management for more than 20 years before joining HAP in 2015 as vice president, Enrollment, Billing and Payment Operations and subsequently becoming vice president of Provider Operations.

Harder holds a Master of Science Administration degree in Health Care Administration from Central Michigan University and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management from Walsh College.

About Health Alliance Plan

Health Alliance Plan (HAP) is a Michigan-based, nonprofit health plan that provides health coverage to individuals and companies of all sizes. For 60 years, HAP has partnered with leading doctors and hospitals, employers, and community organizations to enhance the health and well-being of the lives it touches. HAP offers a product portfolio with six distinct product lines: Group Insured Commercial, Individual, Medicare, Medicaid (using the HAP Empowered name), Self-Funded and Network Leasing. HAP excels in delivering award-winning preventive services, disease management and wellness programs, as well as personalized customer service. For more information, visit www.hap.org.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hap-names-christine-harder-senior-vice-president-provider-network-management-301472814.html

SOURCE Health Alliance Plan
Lisa Smith, a former Irish soldier who denies membership of Islamic State, told gardai that she moved to Syria to help build a state where she could live and rear children surrounded by Muslims.

Following her arrest on return to Ireland from Syria in December 2019, Ms Smith told detectives that it is important for Muslims to live under Islam, inside the caliphate. She said many prophecies about the return of the caliphate had come true and, she said, Muslims believe that the caliphate would be followed by the return of Jesus and the "day of judgement".

She further told gardai that among those who travelled to Syria were doctors, lawyers, engineers and brain surgeons. "You name it, they were there," she said, and they were all there to build the caliphate.

Ms Smith, aged 39, from Dundalk, Co Louth has pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful terrorist group, Islamic State, between October 28, 2015 and December 1, 2019. She has also pleaded not guilty to financing terrorism by sending 800 in assistance, via a Western Union money transfer, to a named man on May 6, 2015.

Her path to becoming a Muslim

Detective Garda Ciaran McGeough told Sean Gillane, prosecuting, that he interviewed Ms Smith at Kevin St Garda Station on December 1, 2019, after she had been arrested on suspicion of membership of Islamic State, an unlawful terrorist organisation. Det Gda McGeough agreed that Ms Smith asked what crime she was being accused of before telling gardai about how she came to become a Muslim.

She said her journey to Islam had been a long one; she had been "going down a path of depression" and was "kind of suicidal". She had tried many different beliefs and had gone to many spiritual leaders and fortune tellers. At the same time, she said she was beginning to notice things in the Middle East and wondered why there were wars there and why the West was getting involved. "What did they do to us? This was what I was thinking," she said.

While on a flight with the Air Corps, she remembered seeing two men who were being brought back from Guantanamo Bay. She felt sorry for them, she said, and wondered why they were "getting tortured". When she tried to give them a plate of food, they seemed to be afraid, as if they thought she was going to hurt them. She said she went to Tunisia on holidays and "loved it". She met Muslims and they seemed friendly and nice.

In her second interview, Ms Smith said that she began reading about Islam and Christianity on the internet and would talk to Muslims using private chat on Facebook. She asked about many topics including what she had heard about Muslim men beating up women and having control over their wives. She said she was happy with the answers she got. She didn't class herself as a Muslim at this time but in April 2011, she began reading the Quran and, she said, she "realised it was the truth". She said: "I cried and I laughed and I was happy. I had found what I was looking for and that was how I became a Muslim."

She began wearing the hijab and spoke to other female Muslims about Islam. She learned that for Muslims, there are no nations and nationalism is not allowed because "it's god you should be fighting for or working for, it's not for any race, colour or tribe. It's not allowed in Islam."

Leaving the army

She was told she would have to leave her job with the army and when she was told she could not wear the hijab while on duty, she decided she would have to choose between Islam and her job. She said Muslims believe in "heaven and hellfire" so she decided Islam was more important. She said: "The job is only going to be a couple of years and a few pounds, a pension. The religion was going to be forever in the afterlife, so as a Muslim this was a no-brainer."

She left her job and married an Algerian man but they divorced after a few months. She went to Tunisia in 2012 with a friend and began speaking online with an American convert to Islam named John Georgelas, who she knew as Abu Hassan. At the time, she was struggling with some of the Islamic teachings where, she said, "everything is not allowed".

She had discovered there were many different groups within the religion that were "clashing" and it wasn't all the "big happy family" she had believed it to be. She became close to Georgelas who taught her about Islam and showed her that a Muslim follows the prophet and the Quran and not the opinions of scholars. He told her to learn Arabic so she could learn for herself and pointed out where to find verses in the Quran or sayings from the prophet so that she could look it up for herself rather than "listening and blindly following".

She said she believed Georgelas had her best interests at heart and travelled to Turkey to meet him and his wife, Tania Joya, in September 2013.

After a few days in Turkey, they crossed the border into Syria and Ms Joya, who "hated the place and wanted to leave," told Ms Smith she should not stay in Syria unless she gets married. Ms Smith said she married a Tunisian man who was part of the "Army of Mohammad", and was fighting against the Assad regime.

When another Islamic group arrived, Ms Smith's husband described them as "very harsh" and said he hated them. They left Syria for Tunisia where Ms Smith lived for another nine months before returning to Ireland.

When she got back to Ireland, she thought Georgelas would be dead but she found him online.

In 2014, the caliphate was announced but Ms Smith didn't immediately go because, she said, she didn't know if it was real. She explained that it is important for Muslims to live inside the caliphate. Before the day of judgement, she said, there are many signs that have been prophesied that have already happened. She said after the caliphate returns, Jesus is coming back and added: "This is a belief for Muslims." The caliphate, she said, has one leader, the caliph, and "there is power and security within it".

Georgelas told her the new caliphate was "legit". She thought that if she ever had children she wanted to "bring them up properly under Islam" where they would be surrounded by Muslims and would not be tempted to drink or smoke or do other things Muslims are not allowed to do.

She decided to go to Syria where she said she was joined by doctors, lawyers, engineers and brain surgeons. Her husband, she said, was a school teacher who wanted to educate children. She added: "So everyone is trying to play their part to build this state. It had land, it had power, so we were going to stay."

Defence application rejected

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding in the three-judge, non-jury court, rejected a defence application which stated that Ms Smith's arrest was unlawful. Michael O'Higgins, defending, had argued that she was arrested under the Offences Against the State Act 1939 which does not allow for prosecution of offences alleged to have taken place outside the jurisdiction. Mr Justice Tony Hunt ruled that the garda who arrested Ms Smith had properly exercised his power of arrest under the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act which, the judge said, should be viewed alongside the 1939 Act.

The trial continues in front of Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge Cormac Dunne.
The Russian government has sent a written response to a US proposal aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, according to Biden administration officials.

The Russian response comes as the Biden administration continues to press the Kremlin to de-escalate a growing crisis on the Ukraine border, where some 100,000 Russian troops have massed.
Interview Defections and Victories Over Myanmar Junta This Year: NUG Defense Minister

Support for the National Unity Government during an anti-regime protest in 2021. / AFP

U Yee Mon, 54, the defense minister in the parallel National Unity Government (NUG), is a veteran activist who has opposed military rule since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

As a third-year medical student from Mandalay, he took part in street protests demanding democracy in 1988, for which he was sentenced to seven years in prison. Later, he joined civil rights movements under his pen name, Maung Tin Thit.

He was elected for the National League for Democracy in Pobbathiri, Naypyitaw, in the 2015 general election and won again in November 2020. He was appointed defense minister when the civilian NUG government was formed.

U Yee Mon talked to The Irrawaddy about arming the peoples defense forces (PDFs), the relationship between PDFs and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), the NUGs foreign relations, the possibility of a mutiny within the military and prospects for the establishment of a federal army.

A nonviolent approach was taken in 1988 so why has the NUG chosen armed struggle this time?

[The British commander] Wellington said during the Napoleonic wars that Napoleon would decide the battle plans and how we fight now is determined by the enemy.

It is the regime that has pushed Myanmars people to take up whatever weapons are available to defend themselves. The NUG is the peoples government and has to stand by the people. It has to provide leadership to the people. It is our duty. This is how we take it.

The NUG has declared war against the regime. Casualties are rising. Some say it is non-compatible with Daw Aung San Suu Kyis nonviolent resistance.

She has embraced the practice of solving political problems through political means or non-violent resistance. It was her favorite problem-solving approach. We also used a nonviolent approach to peacefully solve political problems through political means.

But how did the military respond to peaceful protesters after the February 1 coup? Everyone has witnessed it. Our people expected protection from the international community. But that did not happen and the people decided to root out the terrorist military this time. And so did the NUG.

You told the BBC that you expected changes this year. Neither the PDFs nor ethnic armed organizations appear to match the juntas firepower in terms of artillery and air power. What changes did you mean?

Yes, weaponry is important. But a peoples revolution always starts without any arms. We must remember how well our comrades have fought without proper arms.

We examined fighting in three districts in upper Myanmar in December. A total of 291 enemies died in a month and only 11 of our comrades died. Better weaponry does not always ensure victory.

Our fallen comrades are heroes that served the people. People will always remember and salute them. They will be honored after the revolution succeeds.

For the revolution to succeed we need public support and the people have put their minds and souls into this uprising.

We also need morale and wisdom. Our comrades are demonstrating better morale and wisdom and these factors are the main differences between us and the junta.

Everyone has witnessed how cowardly and unintelligent the junta soldiers are. They are cowardly because they dare not fight without air support. When they fight they cannot defeat the PDFs so they torch villages and arrest, torture and kill innocent civilians. They are brainless so they think they wont be punished for their war crimes. They will all be held accountable by the people.

Some have criticized the NUG for not arming trained PDF volunteers. What difficulties is the NUG facing to arm fighters?

It is a huge challenge to arm all the PDFs. It will cost billions of dollars as there are hundreds of thousands of PDF members. And there are hundreds of thousands more ready to join. But 40 million people are supporting the PDFs. We dont worry much that they dont all have arms. We started the fight with whatever weapons we had.

We now have more finances to arm the PDFs. The NUG has found ways to acquire arms and we expect we will get many of the enemys weapons soon.

Certain EAOs, such as Rakhine, Shan, Wa and Mongla groups, have distanced themselves from the NUG. What is the NUGs stance on them?

All the ethnic armed revolutionary groups detest the dictatorship. They have the same objective as the NUG. We all agree the dictatorship must be eliminated and a genuine federal democratic union should be established.

Mutual understanding, trust and cooperation between the NUG and armed revolutionary groups has grown over time. They are cooperating with the NUG directly or helping us indirectly. We have good relations with them.

Tigyaing PDF [in Sagaing Region] has blown up electricity pylons supplying the Tagaung Taung nickel-processing plant, though it did not target the plant itself. We heard the Chinese Embassy in Yangon has contacted the NUG about it. Is the PDF targeting Chinese interests in Myanmar?

We dont have a policy to attack the investments and interests of our neighboring countries.

We discussed it with China. We said the attack was carried out by Tigyaing PDF on its own volition and the NUG will try to stop similar attacks in the future. But foreign businesses must stay away from junta troops. If possible, they should show they stand with Myanmars people. This is what we suggest.

When the NUG declared war in September, some western diplomats raised objections. Does the armed resistance hurt the NUGs foreign relations?

The international community had concerns when we declared war but those concerns have been largely alleviated today. We have met representatives of foreign countries and they all say they understand the peoples war. We received suggestions from them and they urged us to follow the military code of conduct when defending the people.

We told them that we have adopted a code of conduct and rules of engagement for our troops and we are making sure that the PDFs follow the rules. They believe we will try to build a professional army that complies with a code of conduct.

We heard as many as 2,000 soldiers have defected from the army but we dont see any high-ranking officers among them. Does the NUG have a plan to provide incentives to persuade commanders to defect?

The root cause of our problems is that the military wants to bully the people. We try to make officers and other ranks understand the revolution is a fight to eliminate militarization.

We understand some military personnel love the country and some have intelligence, despite working for the regime. We dont intend to give incentives to them to mobilize their support. We want to build a new nation and armed forces that have new ideologies and beliefs. We will inform them about that. And we urge them to cooperate with the people.

Yes, no high-ranking officer has yet publicly cooperated with the people. We understand that they are waiting for the right time and they are not yet ready to join the people. But sooner or later, more and more military personnel will join the people as the revolution grows.

Some ethnic armed groups publicly accept the PDFs, others keep their ties with the PDFs secret and some distance themselves from the PDF. How strong is the possibility that federal armed forces can be established? Some say the country will break up without military rule and only the military can unify the country.

The regime shouts that it has to stop the nation breaking up but it destroyed the federal system while shouting about the non-disintegration of the union. The military wants to maintain its grip on political power forever.

The federal armed forces we have been calling for are already beginning. Our allied EAOs have helped form PDF battalions. They are led by those with military experience from allied EAOs. Some EAOs are fighting alongside the PDFs. This is the birth of the federal armed forces.

Our country will become a federal democracy once the junta is removed and the new armed forces will be multi-ethnic and protect federal democracy and the people.

What else do you want to say?

We are working to achieve victory for the people this year. We are fighting on our own, with the peoples support. I urge the people not to unclench their fists until the end but give us greater physical and financial support and help.



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Burma Myanmar Junta Killed Over 1,500 People, Detained 11,000 in Year Following Coup

The mother (center) of Khant Nyar Hein reacts next to his body at his funeral in Yangon on March 16, 2021, after the first-year medical student was shot dead by junta forces while taking part in a peaceful protest against the military coup. / AFP

As the Myanmar regime celebrated the first anniversary of its coup on Tuesday, its leaders could point to two more grim milestones: they killed at least 1,500 people and arrested more than 11,000 in that year, mainly for anti-junta activism.

Exactly one year ago today the military staged a coup, claiming that the 2020 general election that brought a landslide victory to Daw Aung San Suu Kyis then-ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) was stolen, contrary to the assertions of local and international election observers. The military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party did very poorly in the election.

While seizing power, the military arrested the countrys elected leaders and government ministers including President U Win Myint and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Since then, the regime has ruthlessly carried out its barbaric crackdown on dissent nationwide in a bid to suppress widespread public opposition to its rule, resulting in the deaths of about 1,500 people, including more than 120 children.

In the 12 months since the military seized power, not a single day has passed in Myanmar without innocent people being brutally killed, arbitrarily arrested or targeted with violence and repression by the junta. And there is no end in sight as long as the regime exists.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist group monitoring post-coup killings and arrests, stated in its most recent briefing that it had verified the deaths of at least 1,503 people at the hands of the juntas forces as of Monday, adding that the actual number of fatalities is likely to be much higher.

According to the group, more than 11,800 people have been arrested by the juntas forces for voicing their opposition to the military regime. Of them, nearly 9,000 remain imprisonedaround three times the number sent to the countrys detention facilities in the wake of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

Among those imprisoned by the junta over the past year are peaceful protesters, journalists, elected leaders, lawmakers and members of the NLD, students, celebrities, striking civil servants, teachers, engineers, artists, medics, railway drivers, politicians and even children. The junta has also arrested at least 301 family members in place of wanted anti-regime activists when junta troops could not find them at their homes.

Ill treatment behind bars

Those arrested by the junta are frequently subject to various forms of torture and ill treatment including routine beatings with dangerous objects such as cables, the butts of guns and glass bottles, as well as being burned with lit cigarettes and experiencing sexual abuse, including having sticks thrust into their genitals.

Several political detainees have reportedly been tortured to death, including members of the NLD, within hours of their arrest.

The AAPP said the bodies of those tortured to death in custody are usually returned to their families with a fabricated story as to the cause of death, but with obvious signs of torture and mutilation, sometimes with organs removed.

The activist group added that civilians arrested after being shot by the regimes forces are often denied medical treatment and subsequently die from their injuries.

Since the coup, at least 290 people have died during torture or in detention as a result of the harsh conditions in the juntas detention facilities, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office, while hundreds of others have been forcibly disappeared by the junta.

Additionally, military tribunals have sentenced 84 people to death in summary proceedings that do not meet international fair trial standards.

One year after the military seized power, the people of Myanmarwho have paid a high cost in both lives and freedoms lostcontinue to advocate relentlessly for their democracy, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said.

She appealed on Friday for the international community to intensify pressure on Myanmars military to stop its campaign of violence against citizens, and to insist on the prompt return to civilian rule.

I urge governmentsin the region and beyondas well as businesses, to listen to this plea. It is time for an urgent, renewed effort to restore human rights and democracy in Myanmar and ensure that perpetrators of systemic human rights violations and abuses are held to account, the human rights chief said.

The juntas crimes in numbers

According to AAPP documentation, one year on since the coup:

 1,503 people have been killed by the juntas forces, including 125 children (18 years and below).

 March 27 was the deadliest day of the revolution against the regime, with 158 peaceful protesters shot dead by the junta forces on a single day.

 301 family members of wanted activists have been taken as hostages.

 244 people have been brutally tortured to death by the junta.

 At least 55 civilians have been burnt to death in Sagaing Region and Kayah State, with massacres in Bago, Phruso, Kani, Matup and Kale killing 184.

 The junta has also targeted journalists with arrest and torture; thus far, at least 139 journalists have been arrested by junta forces and three killed.

 The junta has set fire to towns and villages on 215 occasions, destroying over 2,000 homes and buildings since the coup, as far as can be confirmed.

 The junta has unlawfully seized 267 properties from lawmakers, NLD members and civilians accused of contact with the National Unity Government (NUG), the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) and the Peoples Defense Force (PDF) since Feb. 1.



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Retailo, the fastest growing startup in Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (Menap) which is digitising the region's retail supply chains, has raised $36 million in its Series A round which was a mix of equity and venture debt.

The Series A funding will help Retailo move into the next phase of expansion into new geographies, verticals and products.

Retailo is a regional B2B marketplace in Menap and has raised a total investment of $45 million in less than 1.5 years of operations, a landmark for any startup in the region.

Retailo's Series A round has attracted leading investors with proven track records of impactful investments. The round was led by Silicon Valley based Graphene Ventures which was an investor of tech giants Snapchat and Lyft.

For Retailo's Series A, Graphene is joined by leading investors that include 500 Global, Agility, Aujan, Tech Invest Com and Mentor's Fund, all of which have the relevant exposure and investments in the retail industry's technology companies. The venture debt was raised from Nahda Fund - one of the Middle East's first venture debt funds which is backed by IMM Investment Global, based in Hong Kong.

Additionally, Shorooq Partners, Abercross Holdings, Arzan VC, AgFunder also participated in the round as repeat investors which demonstrates their continuing belief in Retailo's successful future.

Retail in Menap is a $500 billion industry which consists of over 10 million small businesses to serve a population of more than 700 million consumers. However, the majority of this retail industry is informal and undigitised.

Small businesses have to rely on inefficient supply chains and limited financial resources while operating on impossible margins. Retailo aims to champion these small business owners by building a suite of technologies around them. The company has begun this via their B2B community commerce platform which is used by over 50,000 retailers monthly.

On Retailo's mobile platform, small businesses can find a wide catalogue of over 5,000 SKUs which are delivered to their doorstep in less than 24 hours. They can also avail Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services, which give them flexible payment options and credit lines.

By providing timely supply, competitive rates, and easy credit, Retailo is able to address the needs of retailers and significantly improve their business.

To offer a one-stop shop solution, Retailo (https://retailo.co) directly works with hundreds of leading local, regional and global brands. Retailo also optimises end-to-end logistics in the supply chain via efficient warehousing operations and smart fleet management solutions.

Leveraging its wide regional presence, Retailo has recently begun offering its sellers a cross-border distribution platform across the three biggest markets in the region: KSA, UAE and Pakistan. Retailo also provides data analytics services to sellers to help them evaluate sales performance and consumption trends.

Headquartered in Riyadh, Retailo was founded by former Careem executives Talha Ansari, Wahaj Ahmed and Mohammad Nowkhaiz in July 2020 with a unique regional launch.

Growth has been quick and in only 18 months Retailo has scaled to 10+ cities in 3 countries: KSA, UAE and Pakistan.

"The multi-market strategy from day one was unconventional and challenging. Covid made it even more so. But now Retailo is a scalable organisation with hundreds of millions of dollars in annualised revenue and colleagues from multiple nationalities and diverse backgrounds who have left leading institutions like Amason, Delivery Hero and Goldman Sachs to fulfil Retailo mission in building technology that empowers 10 million retailers in the region," said Himag Vaidya, Retailo's Head of Strategy.

Nabil A Borhanu, partner at Graphene Ventures said: "We are impressed with what Retailo has achieved in an astonishingly short time. Their vision is both ambitious and inspiring and we believe that partnering with them is a sound business investment and also a chance to truly improve the lives of millions of people."

"As global supply chains come under stress pushing up commodity prices and depressing GDP growth, the value of smart supply chains becomes even more important," said Retailo's CEO Talha Ansari.

"The retail sector serves 700 million persons in Menap, contributes almost 20% to the GDP and employs tens of millions. By providing technology solutions to this underserved market, we are not only improving lives but also uplifting the economy of the entire Menap region."-- TradeArabia News Service
Burma Myanmar Junta Leader Endorses Proportional Representation Election System

Voters at a polling station in Yangon's Tamwe Township on November 8, 2020. / The Irrawaddy

Myanmar coup leader and junta boss Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Monday endorsed the implementation of the proportional representation (PR) electoral system for the proposed election in 2023.

The move is being seen as dangerous for the country as the main groups that would benefit from PR under the 2008 Constitution are the military and its allied parties.

Under the current first past the post system (FPTP) used in Myanmar, candidates who win a majority of votes are elected as lawmakers. Under PR, parties receive parliamentary seats proportional to the percentage of votes they win in an election.

Although PR can prevent one-party authoritarianism, it has its own disadvantages, such as a negative impact on the representation of ethnic political parties in parliament, as parliamentary seats are shared according to the percentage of total votes.

Myanmars military holds 25 per cent of the seats in national and sub-national legislatures under the military-drafted 2008 constitution, with the other 75 per cent elected seats.

Political analysts say democratic forces will lose strength in parliament under a PR system, as around 30 political parties out of some 90 political parties in Myanmar are believed to be the militarys allies.

Since last years coup, the military regime has consistently advocated switching the electoral system to a PR one.

In a meeting in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw on Monday, Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said the current FPTP system is not in conformity with the democracy and federalism of Myanmar. The coup leader tasked the Union Election Commission (UEC) to hold meetings with political parties to change the electoral system to one suitable for Myanmar.

The PR system must go for a wide representation of ethnic nationalities, said Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, personally endorsing the proposed change of electoral system.

The junta boss added that his governing body is striving to hold the next election, while urging all ethnic people to join hands with the regime in restoring stability to the country so the election can be held.

The junta-appointed UEC led by former general Thein Soe has met four times with political parties to discuss the PR system. Smaller parties and pro-military parties, which lost badly in the 2020 general election, were present at the meetings.

The major political parties including the National League for Democracy (NLD) Party, which won over 80 per cent of the vote in the 2020 poll, and ethnic political parties that won seats in the same election boycotted the meetings and repeated their opposition to switching to a PR system.

Exactly one year ago today the Myanmar military staged its coup, claiming that the 2020 general election that was won in a landslide by the NLD was marred by voter fraud, contrary to the assertions of local and international election observers. The militarys proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party and its allied parties did very poorly in the election.

While seizing power, the military arrested the countrys elected leaders and government ministers including President U Win Myint and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

In the year since the coup, the regime has killed at least 1,503 people and arrested more than 11,000.



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Burma On Anniversary of Coup, Myanmar Junta Extends Military Rule for Six Months

Myanmar coup leader Min Aung Hlaing requests an extension of military rule in the country at an NDSC meeting on Monday. / Myawady

The Myanmar military regime formally extended its grip on power for another six months on the eve of the first anniversary of its coup against the countrys democratically elected government.

Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing claimed that the state of emergency needed to be renewed due to ongoing instability in some parts of the country, and to set the right track for a genuine, disciplined multi-party democracy and to continue preparations for the multi-party democracy general election it has scheduled for next year.

The regimes acting president, U Myint Swe, approved a six-month extension of military rule during the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) meeting on Monday. The meeting was joined by the coup leader and other senior junta officials. Under the countrys military-drafted constitution of 2008, the state of emergencyi.e., the military takeover, in this casecan be renewed twice, for six months each time. Min Aung Hlaing said he would hold a general election in 2023 upon accomplishing the provisions of the state of emergency.

Myanmars military staged a coup on this day last year, claiming widespread voting fraud during the general election of 2020, which saw a landslide victory for the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy, paving the way for the partys second consecutive term in office. Despite the juntas claim, local and international election observers insisted the election was free and fair. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been jailed on a number of charges widely dismissed as trumped-up and faces several more.

Following the takeover, the Southeast Asian country plunged into political, social and economic turmoil and saw the rise of an anti-regime movement. The coup ended a decade of democracy and economic reforms that followed the end of a half-century of military rule in 2011. The countrys economy is now in dire straits, with Myanmars kyat currency having shed much of its value and food and fuel costs skyrocketing.

The extension of military rule comes as Min Aung Hlaing continues to struggle to fully control the country due to popular resistance to his rule over his killing of some 1,499 people so far and the detention of another 11,801. In his speech at Mondays NDSC meeting, he admitted that destructive violence continued in some parts of the country, particularly Chin State and Sagaing Region, referring to a deadly and effective armed resistance campaign by local people there that has inflicted heavy casualties on his soldiers.

In his speech to the nation on Tuesday, the first anniversary of the coup, Min Aung Hlaing called for public cooperation as the regime focused on stability and peace during the coming six months.

However, it seems very unlikely he will receive the support he requested.

On Tuesday, one hour after his speech to the nation, the people of Myanmar made a show of defiance against his rule, staging a silent strike by staying indoors as planned for the coup anniversary. The normally busy neighborhoods of major cities like Yangon were deserted, though some businesses were forced to open by the regime. Public buses ran with empty passenger seats. The strike was the third since Min Aung Hlaings power grab last year, as people sought to convey a message that the coup leader cant control their daily activities, let alone their lives. Previous protests turned out to be a huge success, as well as a major embarrassment for the regime.



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Burma Thirty Junta Soldiers Reportedly Killed in Upper Myanmar

Smoke and fire rises above Binkyun Village, Mingin Township on Monday after junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee militia torched the village. Photo-Mingin-PDF

Around 30 Myanmar military troops were reportedly killed on Monday when several Peoples Defense Forces (PDF) continued their attacks against a military flotilla of eight vessels and junta-supporting Pyu Saw Htee militia in Kani Township, Sagaing Region.

The flotilla, including six barges and two motorboats carrying over 100 troops, is believed to be transporting food, weapons and ammunition along the Chindwin River to upper Myanmar.

Several PDFs in Kani have conducted a series of daring attacks over the past eight days against the flotilla, which departed from Monywa on January 22.

On Monday, a combined force of three resistance groups ambushed the flotilla again. The resistance groups also attacked around 200 Pyu Saw Htee, a militia trained and armed by the military regime, while they were travelling from Mingin Township to Kani to reinforce the flotilla.

Video shows the military vessels being attacked by the PDFs in different locations.

The combined force attacked the regime troops with heavy weapons from three locations, said Mahuurar Dragon, a resistance group which coordinated the ambush.

During the battle, a military barge caught fire after being hit. Mahuurar Dragon, which is based in Kani, said that many regime soldiers on the barge were killed.

Kani-PDF said that another combined force of resistance groups also attacked the flotilla on Monday.

During the clashes, two military barges were damaged and at least 30 regime troops were killed.

After the attack, Pyu Saw Htee militia torched houses in three nearby villages in Mingin Township, said Mahuurar Dragon.

On Sunday, Pyu Saw Htee from three villages in Mingin were ambushed by combined PDFs from Mingin and Kani townships while they were travelling to Kani along the Chindwin River to reinforce the military flotilla.

After a firefight with PDFs on Saturday, regime troops occupied Kin Village on the banks of the Chindwin and looted houses, said Kani-PDF.

Six villagers including a woman were arrested by junta forces. On Sunday, one of them, a 58-year-old male villager, was found dead. The other five detainees are still missing, according to the PDFs.

Armed resistance against the military regime in Kani began in April last year.

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Burma US Enforces Fresh Sanctions on Myanmar Junta and its Cronies

Soldiers block protesters access to Kale in Sagaing Region on March 1 last year. / Khonumthung News

A year after Myanmars coup, the US, UK and Canada have imposed sanctions on three junta appointees while Washington is targeting four businessmen who are supporting the regime and two organizations providing arms and equipment.

US President Joe Biden also pledged continuous support to the anti-regime movement and urged the regime to reverse course and release all those unjustly detained, including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint.

Biden said: To the people of Burma: we have not forgotten your struggle. And we will continue to support your valiant determination to bring democracy and the rule of law to your country.

Since the February 1 coup, Biden has threatened sanctions against generals and imposed sanctions on junta leaders and their associates.

As long as the regime continues to deny the people of Burma their democratic voice, we will continue to impose further costs on the military and its supporters, he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Tun Tun Oo, Union Attorney General Thida Oo and Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Tin Oo were named in the latest sanctions from the US, UK and Canada for their role in enabling the regime to undermine the rule of law and Burmas democratic institutions.

The US sanctions were imposed on the militarys Directorate of Procurement, businessman Tay Za and his sons, Htoo Htet Tay Za and Nye Phyo Tay Za, and businessman Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung and his firm, KT Services and Logistics Company Limited.

The Directorate of Procurement of the Commander-In-Chief of the Defense Services is responsible for the purchase of arms and equipment for the military.

Tay Za owns multiple companies known to supply the military and he joined the juntas delegation to Russia for weapons procurement last year. He has been on the UKs sanctions list since September 2021. His sons are senior figures within businesses closely associated with Tay Za.

Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung is CEO of KT Services, which has operated the TMT Port in Yangon since 2016. It leases the port from the military-owned Myanma Economic Holdings Limited for US$3 million (5.3 billion kyats) per year, which was added to the sanctions list on March 25 last year.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement: The sanctions show the international communitys strong support for Myanmar people, to further promote accountability for the coup and regimes violence.

On December 10, the US Treasury Department said the US, UK and Canada had issued sanctions against junta figures linked to serious human rights abuses and firms providing weapons and ammunition used to kill civilians.

Among those targeted was Myo Swe Win, chief minister of Bago Region, where junta forces killed at least 82 people during a crackdown on anti-regime protesters in Bago on April 9.

Biden added: We condemn these outrages and we are working closely with our partners and allies, including in ASEAN, to hold accountable all those responsible for the coup and attacks on civilians.

The US says it supports the five-point consensus agreed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in April to end military rule.

Washington has also backed the UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar in promoting accountability for rights violations, including the militarys killing of at least 35 people, whose charred bodies were found in Hpruso Township, Kayah State, on December 24.

On Tuesday, the European Unions high representative and nine foreign countries, including the US, called on the international community to support efforts to promote justice for the people of Myanmar; to hold those responsible for human rights violations and abuses accountable; to cease the sale and transfer of arms, materiel, dual-use equipment, and technical assistance to the military and its representatives.

The EU and several countries called for humanitarian assistance to continue to reach more than 400,000 people who have been affected by fighting and need aid.

The regime faces continued strikes, flash mob protests, urban guerrilla attacks and armed resistance throughout the country.

The junta continues to arbitrarily kill civilians, burn people alive, use civilians as human shields, bombard residential areas, loot and burn houses and commit acts of sexual violence, especially in Sagaing and Magwe regions and Karen, Chin, Shan and Kayah states.

It has killed at least 1,503 civilians and detained nearly 12,000, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Win Myint, who were detained during the coup and face trumped-up charges.



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Commentary Myanmar in Revolt as People Choose to Fight the Brutal Regime

PDF members prepare weapons as they take part in military training at their camp near Demoso, Kayah State in 2021. / AFP

When Kyaw Kyaw decided to go to the jungle to join the fight against the military regime, his wife in her late 20s encouraged him to do so. They were married before the coup in February last year and Kyaw Kyaw, who is in his early 30s, worked as a photographer and reporter.

Today, he is a fighter and part of a Peoples Defense Force (PDF) based in southeast Myanmars Karen State.

Kyaw Kyaw trained as a soldier last year with the Karen National Liberation Armys (KNLA) Brigade 6. He bought a used AK47 rifle with money his wife had saved.

His wish to take the fight to the Myanmar military was fulfilled when ethnic Karen forces and PDFs clashed with junta troops in Lay Kay Kaw in Karen States Myawaddy Township.

Regime troops sustained heavy losses in the battle. Many young PDF members took part and ethnic Karen officers led the operation. Kyaw Kyaw was excited that he could finally use his AK47 in action.

Kyaw Kyaw said that one day he will go back to being a photographer, but for now he is learning about guerilla warfare. To support himself and his colleagues, he has also raised money online.

Despite missing his reporting job, Kyaw Kyaw said that the coup and the brutalities he has witnessed have changed his life. This is a moment in history and he believes We will win.

Aung Lay (not his real name) is a soft-spoken businessman in his early 40s. He has a stable business collecting and running dozens of vintage cars and motorcycles. But when anti-coup protests took place in his city, he helped the thousands of protesters.

He saw young boys killed on the streets as the army opened fire, and watched troops storm and loot houses and beat residents. His heart was broken.

Sitting at home with his family, Aung Lay said he was restless. I could not sleep and could not eat, he remembered.

He felt ashamed that he couldnt better help the young protesters.

I asked myself what to do and then I made an important decision in my life. I decided to take up arms, Aung Lay said slowly.

He spoke first to his wife who had just given birth. She did not oppose the idea.

After that, he travelled to territory in northern Myanmar controlled by the Kachin Independence Army to undertake military training.

From there, he travelled south where he underwent sniper and commando training with the KNLA. After months in Karen State, Aung Lay went to Sagaing Region to set up PDFs and buy weapons.

He spent US$10,000 of his own money to buy a GM6 Lynx 50 BMG sniper rifle. His friends said that he could have bought many automatic rifles with the money. But Aung Lay said that the powerful sniper rifle would enable him to support his troops better.

Since then, Aung Lay and his troops have had dozens of clashes with military regime forces. While his sniper rifle has proved exceptional, most of his fighters have improvised and traditional hunting weapons and make their own explosives. They patrol and move around on motorbikes.

We ambush them and run, said Aung Lay. However, when over 1,000 PDF members surrounded a village where regime forces were stationed, most were armed with traditional Tumee rifles, but they proved effective. The junta troops did not fight and left the village, but only after torching houses.

In his area alone there are several dozen PDFs fighting. They often coordinate with each other to launch joint operations. But Aung Lay noted that the PDFs will need to think of both military and political strategy.

Last year, after seeing regime troops burning a village and killing eleven villagers in Salingyi Township, Sagaing Region, Htun Zaw (not his real name) from central Myanmar sold several acres of his land and donated the money to PDFs in his area. Some of Htun Zaws relatives are PDF members.

Villagers found the badly burned bodies of the 11 victims in a pile, some with their hands tied, leading many to assume that they were burned alive. The regime committed the atrocity. Htun Zaw, who is his early 60s, said he will never forget the sight.

Zaw Min was a student activist in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. Afterwards, he fled to the Thai-Myanmar border. But his dream to fight the then junta never materialized.

Instead, he moved to a western country where he continued his studies, worked and raised a family. After the coup, he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and PDFs. Many celebrities, professionals and Myanmar citizens living in the West and elsewhere in Asia have also regularly donated money to the resistance movement.

Zaw Min also communicates with his friends and relatives in his hometown, where many clashes between regime troops and PDFs have occurred since last year.

Via Zoom and Signal, he provides regular tactical counsel to his friends and relatives who are PDF members and who recently stormed some police stations.

These four accounts are just some of the stories from post-coup Myanmar.

Since the military takeover, Myanmar has seen the emergence of the CDM, Generation Z at the heart of protests and the rise of the PDFs.

The emergence of the PDFs is the biggest surprise of the post-coup era. There were no such resistance forces during and after the 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

The establishment of PDFs has demonstrated that the Myanmar people have taken their destiny into their own hands, after witnessing the juntas brutality against its own people during and after protests.

More importantly, to sustain the fight the Myanmar diaspora is actively involved in fundraising and online donations. This is probably the first time in Myanmars political history that the diaspora has played a significant role in political campaigns and fundraising.

Across Myanmar, PDFs and ethnic resistance organizations from Kachin, Karen, Kayah and Chin States are collaborating. Many PDFs are made up of Bamar people and they are operating nationwide, including in Yangon and Mandalay. This is unprecedented in the countrys history.

Now, the volunteer PDF fighters are arming themselves with modern automatic weapons. They are becoming more sophisticated at targeting regime forces and causing causalities. They have established their own administrations in Kayah and Chin State and Sagaing Region.

The military regime has been unable to consolidate control of the country. People continue to resist to make sure it cannot govern. The irony is that the coup has united the country against the military.

To contain the rising armed insurrection and uprising, the regime is employing extreme violence. To counter such brutality, many in Myanmar believe the only language the junta understands is force.

Myanmars armed rebellion is going to continue and will gain further momentum  sadly, instability and chaos will continue across the country. Already, Myanmar is seeing hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people fleeing the conflict zones.

No one knows how it is going to end. So far, no one is winning this fight. Instead, it seems inevitable that the confrontation will be a long and increasingly violent one.



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Commentary One Year Ago, Myanmars Military Passed a Point of No Return

An anti-coup protest in Yangon in February 2021. / The Irrawaddy

In the year since the coup of Feb. 1, 2021, Myanmar has been turned into a killing field and the worlds biggest gulag. The military takeovers inauspicious anniversary, which falls today, marks one full year of a new, hellish existence for the countrys 55 million people. Myanmar citizens, who long forand have tirelessly fought forthe return of democracy and their honor, dont deserve such a life, and have committed all of their efforts to ending military rule for good this time.

No one in this country, having suffered oppressive rule under continuous military dictatorships from 1962 to 2011 (nearly half a century), wanted the coup or the disaster it has wrought. But the people always knew that a military takeover was a possibilityit was a fear they lived with, even during the recent semi-democratic era from 2011 to 2020. In the end, their worst fears were realized a year ago today when military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power from an elected government, destroying the fledgling democratic process of rebuilding the nation.

Myanmars dark history repeated on that day.

Everything started going wrong for this diverse country on March 2, 1962, when General Ne Win staged a coup to overthrow the elected government of the day.

By seizing power, Ne Win sowed a poisonous seed. With his coup and his subsequent ironfisted rule over the entire population in the name of his Socialist regime (1962-1988), he became the countrys first dictator. Since then, a culture of staging coups or illegitimately seizing power has become entrenched, despite the Myanmar peoples vigorous and varied efforts to resist military rule.

The offenders are always military generals.

The original coup maker spawned succeeding generations of coup makers within the militarySenior General Saw Maung and his deputy Than Shwe in 1988; and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in 2021. Each of them stepped easily into the role of dictator in their respective eras. But they were never alone; almost all their high-ranking military subordinates stood together with the coup makers when they stole the peoples power and the nations wealth.

Thus, every generation of generals has been loathed; they are no longer trusted by the people. Their institution, known as the Tatmadaw and once respected due to its leading role during the countrys independence struggle in the 1940s, is now despised. Min Aung Hlaing has taken this process to new lows; his dictatorship has already ensured that the current military institution will never regain the peoples respect.

Instead, the people are resolutely committed to uprooting the military leadership. They no longer patiently seek to reform it, an approach the general public accepted under the elected civilian government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi between 2016 and 2020. To be more precise, this view endured until the coup in 2021.

There is no such thing as a legitimate coup against a democratic government, not in Myanmar or in any other country. But coup makers in Myanmar seem always to have believed that they, as military officers, are a special breed entitled to rule the country as long as they see fit. They appointed themselves the saviors of the country. This wronghead, unprofessional hubris grew directly out of the seed that Ne Win, the father of the coup detat tradition in Myanmar, sowed back in 1962.

This sense of entitlement was the root cause of the 2021 coup. But this misguided perception was aggravated by the generals lust for personal power and wealthput simply, their naked greed. All of their actions flow from this. This mix of entitlement and greed motivates the generals as individuals and informs the political doctrine of the military as an institution.

This should be kept in mind by those who, on this inauspicious anniversary, are tempted to toss around scenarios in which, they believe, the coup of 2021 might have been deterred.

Some of them, including scholars, observers, politicians, activists and others, are of the view that if the elected government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had chosen, for the sake of the countrys political stability, to enter into negotiations with future coup leader Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the military takeover could have been preventeddespite the fact that the latter hinted at the possibility of a coup just a few days before his power seizure on Feb. 1 last year.

Some go further, bluntly accusing the government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy, which had governed the country since March 2016 after winning a landslide victory in the 2015 election, of failing to take steps to preempt a coup.

No. Such speculations betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the military leaderships political mentality and the militarys political doctrine.

Nothing or no one could have deterred the coup of 2021. Nothing meaning no political strategy or ideology or method or approach. No one in the sense that there was no individual or group with more legitimacy or political capital than Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party; nor was it a question of lacking someone with sufficient political shrewdness.

The coup had a specific motive; it was premeditated by Min Aung Hlaing, who is of course among the generals who harbor the misperceptions outlined abovein other words, who believe in their own lies.

Min Aung Hlaing had simply been waiting for the right time to strike since the NLD government was inaugurated in 2016. He finally executed his plan on Feb. 1, 2021. He did not form the plot alone; his fellow generals, even ex-generals, were in on the plan.

U Soe Thane was one of those complicit officers. An ex-admiral and key minister in the administration of general-turned-president U Thein Sein, U Soe Thane praised coup leader Min Aung Hlaings seizure of power from the NLD as a very smart move in his latest book, in which he also described the nations worst day as follows: Our Myanmars independence was restored on Feb. 1, 2021.

The worst day for the entire population of Myanmar was the best day for the generals. These generals and other high-ranking military officers are no different from the dictators they serve, be it Ne Win, Than Shwe or Min Aung Hlaing.

They had a shared motive for staging the coup. And most Myanmar people believe the new generation of officers coming up under the current leadership will inherit that motive. Many people in this country now perceive the military as a terrorist force, rather than the Tatmadawa word that still carries a certain esteem.

This represents a drastic shift in views since the coup of Feb. 1, 2021, one that some international players including members of the UN and ASEAN and others still fail to grasp.

The people of Myanmar will continue to fight for their freedom, their honor and democracy. The political implications of this are clear: There is no longer any question of accommodating the military in its current form, or its leadership. A year ago today, Myanmar entered a new and utterly different era.

Naing Khit is a commentator on political affairs.

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Editorial A Year After the Failed Coup, the Myanmar Peoples Opposition to Military Rule Remains Resolute

An anti-regime protester in Yangon in February 2021. / The Irrawaddy

One year after overthrowing Myanmars elected government, the military regime is in deep crisis, unable to consolidate power or contain an armed insurrection against its rule.

Day by day the junta, known as the State Administration Council, is losing what control it had. Myanmar is descending into civil war, with the self-appointed rebel leaders of the Peoples Defense Forces waging guerrilla-style warfare throughout the country. Despite brutal crackdowns, protests continue in many places and the Myanmar people continue to defy the murderous regime in a variety of ways.

To counter the sustained resistance, the military continues to detain and torture citizens on a wide scale, while torching entire villages and conducting indiscriminate airstrikes. As a result, Myanmar can expect more instability and further devastating humanitarian consequences, including worsening refugee and displaced persons crises, as violence escalates across the country.

The economy is in freefall and public services have collapsed. Thousands of teachers, doctors and nurses have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement, refusing to work for the junta. Under the military, millions of people have lost their jobs and livelihoods as COVID and the coup have dealt a devastating double blow to the economy of Myanmar, already one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia.

A lack of international action has only encouraged the regime leaders to continue to commit crimes against their own people, while the juntas defenders and apologists have helped to dilute international condemnation. In the face of this, the Myanmar people have said enough is enough.

The Western democracies and the UN outsourced mediation of the crisis to regional bloc ASEAN, whose members hammered out a five-point consensus last April and appointed a special envoy, who was supposed to visit and talk with representatives of the opposing sides to broker a dialogue, but these efforts have gone nowhere. China, Myanmars giant neighbor with economic and geopolitical interests in the country, is seen by Myanmars people as sticking by the regime and untrustworthy. India has no leverage. Japan is seen as too soft on the brutal military regime and not a supporter of the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar.

Having come to the conclusion that they are on their own, Myanmars people have taken their destiny into their own hands, not least by launching an armed resistance against the regime.

This is not just a pro-democracy movement: The people are determined that the era of recurring dictatorial regimes must end once and for all; they know that each day under a military junta is a day in hell.

The people have refused to allow themselves to once again become slaves of the military, and will never give up.

They know that time is on their side. Theynot the illegitimate coup makersare the true masters of the country. They know that while the military may be in power today, the day will come when the generals who illegally seized power will be gone. They know that tomorrow belongs to the people.



You may also like these stories:

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Guest Column Even Worse Than Expected, Myanmar Coup also a Failure for Junta

Anti-coup protesters in downtown Yangon in February 2021. / The Irrawaddy

In a country that has experienced a series of military coups and more than five decades of harsh dictatorial rule, the coup on this day one year ago was bad news enough. The unsuccessful coup attempt has been even worse than first thought. Min Aung Hlaings greed and brutality is impoverishing entire generations.

Some 1,499 people, including students, doctors and people from many other walks of life, and women and children, have sacrificed their lives, and 11,801 have been detained, often in secret detention centers, where many are subject to physical and mental torture, sometimes to death. My organization, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), has been monitoring detentions, torture and prison conditions under Myanmars military since 2000.

The AAPP is an organization of former political prisoners I cofounded after being imprisoned for over seven years and subjected to degrading and inhumane torture. I know Gen Z are suffering even worse. The youth generation have seen the prospects of a better future. They believe Min Aung Hlaing is destroying their dreams and so they will never subject themselves to his rule at any cost. But the military junta is intent on inflicting as much pain and anguish as possible.

In the hell-like Mandalay Palace interrogation center, reports emerged in late December that three ABSFU student leaders, Myat Thu, Soe Thura Kyaw and Thurein Moe, were sexually assaulted by having bamboo sticks thrust into their anal cavity. The medicine prescribed to them by doctors shows that the torture victims suffered injuries consistent with having objects thrust into their rectums.

We know the military engages in torture with impunity every single day, but the harshest treatment is reserved for the juntas political enemies and marginalized individuals.

In September last year, an LGBT woman was detained in Mandalay Palace interrogation center. Her interrogators sexually harassed her, twisted her nails with pliers, and punched her in the stomach, before sending her to a prison cell overcrowded with criminals. Some detainees have faced miserable deaths. Since the coup, 61 civilians have been tortured to death during interrogation on the day of their arrest or the day after.

The military junta is resorting to such brutal methods because people have not reacted to the harsh dictatorship in the way the generals expected. When 165 elected members of parliament (MPs), government officials and prominent activists were rounded up and detained under house arrest or in secret interrogation centers in the early hours of Feb. 1, 2021, the coup leaders hoped the action would deter popular resistance.

When 153 Union Election Commission members were detained to justify the juntas power grab on grounds of electoral fraud in the general election of November 2020which was deemed fair and credible by local and international poll monitorsthe coup leaders expected out of ignorance that the UN General Assembly, the international community and regional blocs like ASEAN would be easily accept their justification.

Instead, a civil disobedience movement swept the country, with millions of civil service CDMers and protesters orchestrating a popular defiance movement that has crippled the military takeover and exposed the military institutions ineptitude. The ethnically diverse National Unity Government stood up as the popular body for the people of Myanmar and quickly attracted international attention. The National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) comprising the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs), political parties, General Strike forces, student and labor unions, CSOs, and state-based and nationalities-based consultative councils, is leading the policy-making way. It has been endorsed by the National Unity Government and has already developed a federal democracy charter.

Democratic resistance was bolstered by a series of defeats for the illegitimate military junta. In September 2021, anti-coup CDMer Kyaw Moe Tun was named permanent representative for Myanmar at the UN General Assembly. Then on Oct. 16, ASEAN rejected the military junta from its summit.

I really appreciate ASEANs decision to reject the Min Aung Hlaing-led junta, which failed to comply with ASEANs 5 Point Consensus. Large-scale atrocities continued throughout Myanmar.

Following the April 24 ASEAN leaders summit, the military institution simply changed tactics, engaging in activities like hostage taking. Since the coup, 304 family members of activists have been detained as hostages by the junta, and 252 remain in secret detention centers or prisons.

Meanwhile, more and more innocent civilians are tied up and killed by being burned alive. The Christmas Eve massacre of at least 35 people in Hpruso Township caught the eye of the international community for its savagery. But since the coup, the AAPP has documented the cases of a total of 55 people being detained by the security forces of the junta, then killed and/or burned to ash. As long as the military is in power, such atrocities and terror will continue to reign.

The campaign of terror being waged across the entire country created a humanitarian crisis, with massive human rights violations that impacted the entire region. The COVID-19 pandemic and waves of refugees will not be confined by state borders. Civil war, economic meltdown, pandemic and the total collapse of the state have moved more and more people into the resistance movement, struggling all by themselves to overcome the fear of cruelty and brutality committed by the junta.

And yet, last week the NUCC-led First Peoples Assembly was presented to the public, and I believe this is a Myanmar-led process working towards the federal democracy that our people fully deserve. But international support in the form of targeted sanctions, arms embargos, NUG recognition and accountability is also needed to stop and remove Min Aung Hlaing and other coup leaders from Myanmars political stage for all time.

Former political prisoner Bo Kyi is cofounder and joint secretary of the AAPP. Bo Kyi was first arrested in 1989 for his political activism and spent most of the next decade in prison. Escaping to Thailand after his release, he called for the release of all political prisoners. Since 2013, the AAPP has been active throughout Myanmar.



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Before the pandemic began, a drone strike put the world in a state of crisis. An Iranian general killed, and the world held its breath. Nearly two years later a nation stares down the beginning of another global crisis. The stage is slightly different, but is more concerning.

For the most part, Ukraines position in history has always been a balancing act.

What we now know as Ukraine was a small collection of city-states with a similar language right before the Mongolian conquest of the West. Ukraine then was held by several powers such as the Ottoman Empire and Poland-Lithuania.

Then, with the end of World War I, Ukraine experienced a brief period of independence. This independence would last up until it was combined into the recently formed USSR.

It would stay in the Union up until the dissolution of the Soviet Republic. Since then, Ukraine has been a neutral nation in Eastern Europe.

In the grand scheme of things, Ukraine is a new nation; a new nation on the border of a nation which has the strongest claims to owning it.

In recent times, recognizing statehood has been the main stay of global politics. Owning land is less important now because you can just leverage trade to get what you want.

However, Russias issue lies in its carefully crafted position on the world stage.

Since its re-establishment in the 90s, Russia has tried to maintain its sphere of influence created during the Cold War. Barring that, they wish to see NATO at least minimized in the region.

For example, the recent border crisis is not some play for natural resources, but rather Ukraines insistence on joining NATO is the main point of contention.

While Russia could care less for the EU, NATO represents military intrusion on its borders. Ukraines neutrality was fine for Russia.

Being a member of NATO results in American bases, and coalition troops being within striking distance of Moscow. Its all a very antiquated way of looking at the crisis.

Ballistic missiles have sort of made maps obsolete when it comes to military lines. A missile can reach anywhere in the world within half an hour. A shorter drive for ground troops doesnt mean much.

The military intrusion might play a considerable factor in Russias pressure on Ukraine, but it is not the only reason. NATO means closer ties with Western ideals and deep pockets. Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe per capita.

Relatively speaking Russia wants Ukraine dependent on its neighbors, and not countries to the west. It makes Ukraine beholden to a Russian agenda and gives the country greater flexibility.

As for what the world at large should do, its complicated.

The United States has a bloated military budget, and the largest military in the world. It would be nice for it to be used to protect a nations statehood. On the other hand, military escalation has never truly achieved anything in modern times.

Biden has already promised powerful economic sanctions against Russia which might be the best shot at de-escalating the situation. Russias dependence on foreign trade for critical materials can be more threatening than any threats of war.

I wish to see the people of Ukraine protected. Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity shows that the people of Ukraine want to become a prominent player on the world stage. There is a little benefit to Russia annexing Ukraine.

What little benefit that comes from Russia uprooting the current corrupt government is overshadowed by the fact that it will just replace them with its own corrupt politicians.

Russian democracy has shown to be a little less democratic and a lot more guided results. Ukraine should at least be given the chance to govern itself.

Whatever happens will make it into the history books one way or another. I just wish I could stop living through so many of them. Im certain the people of Ukraine feel the same way.
Terre Haute, IN (47809)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain in the afternoon. High 62F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 58F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Artificial intelligence is enjoying a huge resurgence, with the computing power of the cloud now able to bring life to machinery. Yet, many companies struggle to identify how to apply AI to their business. Educational assessment company Janison figured it out, allowing this Sydney-headquartered, ASX listed organisation to accurately score free-text exam responses in many languages around the globe.

Janison is not new; Wayne Houlden founded the business in Tamworth, NSW in 1998. Both he and his wife were teachers, and he'd already worked in IT for 15 years prior to teaching. Houlden's background in technology and education allowed him to see a skills gap in regional Australia where programs existed for networking and server administration but without access to certification. Thus Janison was born, with the Houldens working within the TAFE system to train and certify people.

The Janison system offered interactive tools, content management, and student discussion right from the very start of online learning. These were the early days of the web, with TAFE servers in storage rooms, and with Amazon and Google still emerging. Soon their courses were adopted across the state, then across the nation. The duo forged relationships with national education organisations and schools, but over time found keen interest from corporates and government too. Thus, the product continued evolving with expanded learning capabilities and support.

By 2010 the business had 30 employees and had relocated to Coffs Harbour but the online learning space was now a sizeable market with a growing range of enterprise players. Houlden recognised the need to scale if he was to compete and quickly hopped onto the public cloud as it appeared. This was a serious game-changer; up to that point, the Janison web servers were constrained by the expense and effort of maintaining the infrastructure required for peak periods all year long. The cloud appeared to be a perfect solution, offering scalable, elastic, on-demand computing power when needed. In fact, it was a pivotal moment.

Houlden turned the business to build online testing and measurement platforms whereby others performed the teaching but Janison's products would handle the testing - with its huge capacity requirements at times and none at others. One key partnership was the NSW Government's Essential Secondary Science Assessment (ESSA), taken by every year eight student that year. It was previously a paper-based science test; in 2011 Janison delivered the test electronically to 60,000 students on a single day, on top of Microsoft Azure.

The assessment journey continued, with Janison winning the NAPLAN online contract, the Singapore online exam system, the British Council's English assessment around the world, and OECD school measurement and improvement assessments.

"It's been a great ride," Houlden said. "In that process, we built our own tech and now owned some content as well," with Janison acquiring the ICAS business from UNSW Global. "We're proud we can continue to build and nurture that."

Other acquisitions followed, and by 2017 Janison was now an assessment business in its own right. It was not only running the test but also owned many of the tests and the data collected. A particular example is the ICAS core data around student performance in schools for writing, literacy, numeracy, science, and design and technology. ICAS is run every year, with data ranging from years one through 12.

What do you do with all that data? "It's an interesting place we find ourselves in," Houlden said. "We think tech can be a really positive agent for improving insight in education. Even now, as we sit in 2022, we still think about the business this way. How do we improve how people learn?"

"Measurement is our focus area. Accurately understanding how students are performing and learning is really important," Houlden said.

Janison's assessments are in use across the globe - Russia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, China, Kazakhstan, and more. Yet, this also means the data is no longer English-only. Janison's tests are in Russian, French, Chinese, and numerous other languages. The tests are carefully controlled so they are standardised across all countries. For multiple-choice questions, it is easy enough to map the correct response to each language, but for free-text questions, this is not so easy.

As an example, the test might ask the student to explain a passage in their own words, in three sentences. Around 30% of the OECD tests Janison administers are free-text responses. To solve this the organisation hired human scorers and, to ensure consistency, has assessed answers by different scorers to identify and resolve variations.

However, here's where it struck Houlden he could apply artificial intelligence to the challenge of accurately, consistently, reliably scoring human-readable text in a diverse range of languages. "The cost of scoring is quite high," he said. "With our work for the OECD, we have some countries with hundreds of markers engaged for four to five-week periods. It's a huge cost and a lot of expertise has to be specifically found in each country."

"Artificial intelligence is driven around a large amount of data," Houlden says. "In general, AI has to have something as an input to learn from. In the case of Janison, we have historical data."

Houlden and his team began investigating existing AI algorithms that could be taught how to score and found initial success where, if they had sufficient historic knowledge, they could score almost as accurately as a human.

The team began working on the problem, adapting as new algorithms emerged. This includes a Google algorithm named BERT pre-trained on textual data, and a Facebook cross-language algorithm named XLM-R using common crawl data with language contexts for 100 languages. Combining the great works of others in this field with their huge body of data, Janison has been able to train a model to score responses irrespective of the language it is in.

Significant work has been invested in dealing with bias, leveraging the work the company already performed in scoring responses multiple times for a proportion of responses, thus providing higher-quality data.

Houlden says their work is continually ongoing, models are updated on a regular basis, and new models are being developed. He credits Google, Microsoft, IBM, and others with building models and releasing many to the public domain.

"It's amazing how democratised AI has begun," Houlden said. "Software developers have access to these algorithms which we can use and explore and expand on, in a way that 10 or 20 years ago you'd never have imagined you'd get for free."
How the world worked in 2021 and what's in store for the future is the subject of HubSpot's 2022 Hybrid Work Report, so are we in for a Future Shock as Alvin Toffler predicted, or was the pandemic the biggest unexpected shock of them all?

Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock in the 70s, which some people think he was wildly wrong about, while others think he was right, but who would disagree that the biggest shock has been the pandemic?

COVID has crunched society in unimaginable ways over the past two years, and as we sit here in early 2022, the COVID chaos continues, with Omicron seeming omnipresent, even as the UK sees fit to delete the vaccine mandates and restrictions that so many despise, despite doing the "right thing" and being vaccinated, whether three times in Australia and elsewhere, or now four times in Israel for part of the population.

One of the biggest changes from the pandemic has been the imposed and voluntary lockdowns which have made working from home - for those who have jobs that can be worked remotely, which clearly isn't everyone.

So, what did HubSpot's external survey of 4,000+ full-time remote, in-office, and flex workers in the U.S., UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia, France, Canada, and Japan reveals about collaboration, culture, communication, mental health, and management?

Well, let's start with the report itself, which is available to freely download without registration, and which is called the HubSpot 2022 Hybrid Work Report.

The report notes employees had the chance to experience the flexibility of working both remotely and in the office, leading many organisations to embrace and adopt hybrid work models, with HubSpot noting "hybrid work is here to stay and 2022 is about making it future-proof."

Now, the data below represents the Australian findings, although the report itself has findings from the eight markets surveyed, so please read the report for more.

Communication and collaboration is a challenge with a hybrid workforce

46% of remote workers miss spontaneous, in-person connections with their colleagues

57% of in-office workers found staying motivated or connected with their team to be the biggest challenges in the transition from remote work to in-office last year

61% of flex workers agree that their team is working effectively in a hybrid environment

39% of survey respondents said they would rather visit the dentist monthly than work five days a week from the office

Culture thrives when its tied to employee experience, not location

20% of flex workers see differences in the in-office and remote employee experience as an obstacle to success

58% of respondents ranked work/life balance as the most important aspect of company culture

31% said that opportunities to provide feedback anonymously would help them feel more supported and included at work

If it were possible, 48% of respondents would prefer a four-day workweek over a salary increase

Effective communication needs improvement for long-term productivity

37% of employees have received guidelines around using unified communication and collaboration tools

34% of flex workers go into the office to more efficiently communicate with colleagues

72% of survey respondents reported too many calls and meetings are disruptive to their concentration at work

Addressing burnout and mental health requires a holistic approach

40% said their work/life balance has improved over the past year

59% of survey respondents dealing with burnout reported they struggle to set boundaries between personal and work life

62% of parents and caregivers agree or strongly agree that they feel pressured to be always on during working hours, despite their current situation at home

If it were possible, 75% reported they would prefer unlimited vacation over no meetings one work day

Managers need more resources to better support their teams

60% of managers surveyed agree or strongly agree that they have the right tools to be an effective manager in a hybrid environment

27% of flex workers described management of remote employees as the biggest challenge of working with a hybrid team

46% of managers reported communication breakdowns as a top concern

The data below represents the Australian findings, with the report itself featuring insights from all the markets surveyed, so please read the report for more.

Youi can also read about HubSpot's own hybrid work culture here.
COMPANY NEWS: Dubber the leading global unified call recording and voice intelligence cloud service designed for service providers, government, and businesses of any size, today released its report on the companys operating activities along with the Appendix 4C for the quarter ended 31 December 2021.

Highlights within the quarter:

ARR increased by $8.3 million to $51.8 million (82% pcp)

Revenue increased by $400,000 to $8.5 million (98% pcp)

Dubber subscribers now exceed 510,000

Core OpEx of the business is currently $5 million per month, providing a strong platform to deliver operational leverage as ARR continues to accelerate faster than OpEx

The company has in excess of $108 million cash on hand

Finalised landmark agreement with British Telecom (BT)

Launched first native mobile recording service in Australia with Optus

Speik acquisition earn-out payment brought forward on improved commercial terms

A video update is available at the following link: Dubber Quarterly Update

Record performance in growth metrics

The December quarter saw the company reach notable milestones, achieve record growth in its key metrics and finalise landmark commercial agreements and deployments. The company is establishing critical scale in its business in terms of fundamental additions to its leadership team and through the expansion of products and services as accretive revenue generators.

Following on from the September quarter, subscribers continued to grow at a record rate via a combination of standard SaaS and Foundation Partnership subscriptions.

The companys standard SaaS subscriptions grew organically by over 60,000 during the quarter and the company was able to secure a number of Foundation Partner Agreements whereby a Dubber service is embedded as a standard feature of every subscription on a network. As previously stated, the company continues a policy of not including Foundation Partner Program subscriptions in its overall numbers for reasons of consistency and commercial sensitivity. The company will continue to re-assess its reporting of these subscriptions on an ongoing basis.



Annualised recurring revenue (ARR) grew by over $8 million, to approximately $51.8 million, a new record for the company reflecting both organic growth, particularly in the financial services sector where enterprises are looking to their service providers to deploy Unified Communications Services such as Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams calling platforms and, the execution of landmark service provider network agreements.

The companys ARR is calculated as the next 12 months of subscription revenue net of any incentives.

Revenue

Revenue for the quarter was $8.5 million, an increase of 98% pcp. During the quarter, the company finalised a landmark agreement with BT, reflecting terms which had been agreed in-principle in April 2021 but were subject to a lengthy formal procurement process. In the intervening period, BT sought Dubber's agreement to supply services to a key financial services customer prior to procurement finalisation and this was undertaken through a BT distributor in order to facilitate the transaction. This contract has now been transferred to BT directly, resulting in an adjustment of revenue relating to Q1 and two months of Q2 FY2022.

This adjustment does not impact the company's ARR metric. The revenue for the quarter is subject to audit which will be completed at the end of February 2022.

For the purpose of clarity, revenue for the month of December exceeded $3.7 million.

Cash receipts

Cash receipts for the quarter were $5.6 million impacted by seasonal factors and a reduction from the September quarter where the company received several lump payments from previous billing resulting in collections exceeding revenue.

Receipts were approximately $1 million less than that expected, largely reflecting delayed payment from a large customer of one of the company's international subsidiaries.

The company's debtors are primarily large global service providers as opposed to direct end users and, while this provides certainty in future collection, delayed receipts from these accounts can have a notable impact on the company's quarterly results.

Telecommunications networks growth and yield

During the quarter, the company continued to expand its footprint of service provider networks along with increasing penetration and revenue yield from its current telecommunication and UC platform partners. Contracted service providers grew 13% pcp to 170 and billing service providers grew 18% pcp to 111.

Dubber's unique position with Global Unified Communications Service Providers

In the September 2021 activities report the company noted that there was a significant increase in activity in the global unified communications (UC and UCaaS) markets with service providers and enterprises (particularly in the financial services sector where compliance requires recording of voice conversations).

This trend is continuing and a considerable amount of the company's current growth profile is derived from this sector, where Dubber has a unique product and service offering. Large carriers are seeking to unify the provision of these cloud-based offerings and Dubber's ability to be provisioned 'as a service' across all communication networks enables unified call recording (UCR) as a compelling offering for financial service providers.

Dubber enjoys a unique position with Cisco via the Dubber Foundation relationship and as the sole recording option for Cisco Webex Calling. The Dubber Go product is an embedded and standard feature for every Cisco Webex Calling and Cisco UCM Cloud calling subscription. There has been substantial growth for Dubber via this initiative with Cisco having already established a large customer base, which in turn is leading to increased opportunities from Dubber Go to Dubber's other higher ARPU offerings.

Dubber also provides a unique offering for Microsoft Teams, offering service providers a single platform service, the same way as Microsoft Teams operates, without the requirement for the end user to maintain their own cloud infrastructure or manage recording integration.

This model does not require end user customers to incur the cost of establishing their own instance of Microsoft Azure for the purpose of managing its Dubber generated data. The Dubber model fits seamlessly into a service providers SaaS model for delivering Microsoft Teams calling.

BT Global Services

In December 2021, Dubber finalised a landmark agreement with BT Global Services, one of the worlds largest service providers, which sees Dubber sold as the default recording and conversational intelligence solution in the BT Meetings suite of managed services, spanning solutions based on Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Cisco Webex.

The agreement provides for a guaranteed minimum revenue stream for Dubber which contributed to ARR and a competitive offering for BT. BT has already provisioned the service to a number of large tier 1 banks and financial institutions on multi-year agreements, for Microsoft Teams based services.

The company believes this sales momentum for recording and voice data services will continue to grow and that there is a strong appetite for additional data and AI driven services to be included in BT's core offering, enabling BT to be a front runner in terms of providing the ability to drive content from calls carried across its network.

Dubber is also confident that it can expand the relationship into a broader range of BT networks from UC to mobility, as BT seeks to standardise offerings across multiple networks.

Optus Mobile Voice Recording and AI - powered by Dubber

Also in December 2021, the company announced a landmark agreement with Optus, providing the first native mobile call recording service in Australia.

The integration of Dubber services, initially Unified Call recording and AI, as a native feature means that Optus and Dubber have directly connected the mobile network to Dubbers platform in a manner that utilises the scalability of Dubber and highlights the full potential of the opportunity for both parties.

Initially, similarly to BT, the service will be aimed at the financial services sector where Optus currently holds a leading position as mobile provider for large banking institutions, and where mobile telephony has become a primary method of contact in hybrid workplace environments which requires compliance-based capability and the ability to derive insights from conversations.

Subject to Optus finalising and deploying offerings for other customer sectors, Dubber's services can be available to anyone who is connected to the Optus mobile enterprise network.

Accelerated payment of Speik earn-out consideration

In December 2020, the company acquired UK company Aeriandi (Speik) on terms which included an earn out period and deferred consideration payable mid 2022.

In November 2021, the company announced that it had accelerated payment of earn out once it had become clear that milestones relating to the earn out would be realised in full. In consideration for this accelerated payment, the Speik vendors agreed a discount of approximately 7% against the original deferred consideration amount.

The Speik transaction has been unequivocally successful in that all targets, financial or otherwise, have been met and exceeded and Dubber has inherited an expansive relationship with 02 Networks, a major mobile carrier in the UK, as well as technologies and customers for payment gateway services that fit Dubber's service provider sales strategy.

An additional overriding incentive for Dubber was the integration of the Speik team into Dubbers organisation as part of the scaling of our own business operations.

This has been completed to the point where Dubber's operating base in the UK is being established around the Speik business.

The product and technology teams are currently focussing the payments products from Speik to fit within the Dubber philosophy of delivering products and services at scale via service providers. This will provide the company with additional complimentary services for its existing customers which can delivered at scale, and be easily sold, provisioned and activated.

It was anticipated that the earn out payment would be made predominantly by way of cash, however the Speik vendors elected to take $15.7 million in Dubber shares, representing 95% of both the employee and non-employee vendors, and $2.1 million in cash, representing a strong endorsement of Dubber's strategic direction.

Scaling the business

The company has focused on building the business operations to a scale which is commensurate with its opportunities and, indeed, its platform capability. During the quarter, we have integrated highly regarded expertise in product and technology delivery, sales and, following the late September 2021 acquisition of Notiv, AI capability.

This has had an immediate impact on the business and has directly contributed to the growth experienced in the quarter and, most notably, to the potential for expansion of existing relationships. The company has also expanded teams in finance and administration, internal recruitment, training and compliance.

In the majority of our operating territories, we have the capability to develop our business as the recognised leader in our sector. The company now comprises approximately 240 employees, up from 152 at the same time last year.

Market conditions - product and technology

The company is experiencing a quantum shift in service provider philosophy as product directors seek differentiation and accretive revenues in a market which is being homogenised at reduced margins.

The impact of Webex, Teams, and Zoom has been to increase the number of services and, indeed, the relevance of service providers, but at the cost of brand advantage and service provider margins.

The company continues to outline that its primary goal is to continue to expand its footprint of service provider networks since this underpins the future scale of success for the company.

The company is able to invest in product and technology as a way of driving additional revenues to customers of existing networks either by increasing ARPU for recording users or expanding an addressable market with AI and data driven applications.

Immediately prior to the quarter the company acquired Brisbane based technology firm Notiv, and the concept of turning communications and conversations into useable, manageable notes, insights, topics and action items 'on the fly' resonates strongly with our service providers customers, particularly mobile network operators.

As much as Dubber's customers have, to-date, been largely recording customers taking advantage of Unified Communications, the company is heavily focussed on mobile network integration such as the Optus Mobile initiative, whereby the ability to turn calls into content has use cases for every demographic and sector.

Notes to the Appendix 4C

Cash outflows for the quarter were subject to extraordinary items in line with the company's upscaling of operations which included:

The cash component for the accelerated payment of the Speik earn out consideration was $2.1 million, as shown in line 2.1(a) in the Appendix 4C

Pre-payment of cloud infrastructure and technology as the company adopts a hybrid cloud infrastructure of $4 million over six months to December 2021 is shown within the outflows in line 1.2(b) in the Appendix 4C

Establishment of office infrastructure including in Sydney, Brisbane and expansion of the Melbourne headquarters to accommodate new FTEs as shown in line 2.1(c) of the Appendix 4C

Payment of $1.05 million for PAYE relating to previous periods as per an agreed 'Covid Relief' payment structure. This appears in line 1.2(e) of the Appendix 4C.

The amounts shown at line 6.1 of the Appendix 4C relate to director fees and salaries. The expenditure incurred on the activities described in this report are materially salaries and operating costs set out in the Appendix 4C.

The company continues to grow its operating team to drive scale and revenue and current core operating costs for the business are approximately $5 million per month.

Dubber CEO Steve McGovern comments on the companys quarterly performance, operations, market, and outlook.

Quarterly performance

"The company's profile has shifted significantly in recent months with its prospective and existing customers. This enables us to engage in initiatives and execute commercial agreements which are both enduring and contribute to our ARR growth. This has been reflected in our ARR growth for the quarter as we accelerate against our previously defined internal targets. We continue to add service provider network partners and drive horizontal expansion of agreements within existing service providers customers.

On company operations:

We continue to be very pleased with our progress in scaling up company operations.

Given a relaxation of Covid travel restrictions, we were able to travel, for the first time, to meet colleagues with whom we have been working with for a year in the case of the UK based Speik team, and several months in the case of the Brisbane based Notiv team.

One of the core areas of focus since completing the placement in July was to scale up business operations and, while, on face value, we acquired Speik for its relationships, revenues, and services and we bought Notiv for its technology and product suite, we have also acquired a hugely valuable asset in the form of the people and their expert capabilities.

In the UK, we have grown the Dubber sales team organically and now have a strong operating base from which our customers and technologies can be supported. The acquisition of Speik, combined with our own recruitment has accelerated the development of an operation in Europe which would normally take years to build. As a result, Dubber has an incredible opportunity and is in a very strong position with each of the major carriers in the UK for holistic services across multiple networks.

We have announced the first and highly significant step with BT, have expanded our opportunities with 02 following their merger with Virgin Media, and have other high-profile initiatives which we trust we can bring to market in the short term.

Similarly, our addition of the Notiv team has allowed for an immediate expansion into a centre of excellence for AI and will allow us to significantly advance our internal product development across the company.

Expanding networks, product capability and addressable market

The company's operational growth has come at a time where large carriers are looking to provide added value in required sectors, such as mobile and UC compliance recording as well as to drive differentiation in the market with applications that are attractive to their customers beyond mere connectivity, price and in the case of mobile plans, included data capacity.

The company will continue to strive to secure new network connectivity where, since inception, there has been effectively zero network churn. Once a service provider connects its network to the Dubber platform, we remain embedded and capable of capturing communications data at scale.

Additional growth and revenue can now be driven by product releases into that embedded platform which move the opportunity beyond compliance call recording into broader use cases. Dubber can now turn every conversation into not just data transcripts, but meaningful insights, notes, action items, topic modelling and sentiment, opening up a broad range of use cases across every sector, not just compliance.

These layers of product enhancement drive additional layers of revenue, and re attractive to large network service providers effectively turning those network owners into content providers.

Dubber's unique differentiator is that we do this from a single platform, directly from the source of the communication network, as a service without any tools, applications or expenditure required at the customer's end to manage outcomes. Furthermore, calls placed on multiple networks, with multiple service providers, can all be managed in the same location, Dubbers Voice Intelligence Cloud. Large service providers are increasingly sharing a similar vision and Dubber is well placed in terms of product, credibility, and capability, to deliver on that vision.

We view Dubber's addressable market therefore as every end point on every communications device, globally. Foundation plans and large mobile network connectivity are the first indicators of that vision being realised."

Outlook

The company is in a very strong position in its market as we continue to execute on our growth plans. Our brand is achieving strong relevance for service providers as we add a critical value-added service to their networks that helps them decrease churn and improve their margin profile with their end customers. Call recording is just the first layer of service whereby the Dubber platform can capture voice data at scale and add additional value and insights to users. With continued selling into networks, and now by delivering additional revenue generating product layers on top of our fundamental platform, we are confident in our capacity to continue to accelerate growth.

Current growth in ARR is running at a faster rate than our growth in OpEx. As at the end of December, we had ARR of over $51 million with operating costs at a run rate of approximately $5 million per month.

Underpinning all of the company's attributes is the strength of our balance sheet. Whether it be fundamental commercial credibility, gravitas with our customers or confidence around decision making, the company has the financial backbone to continue to grow at a rate in excess of its original five-year plan in a market where, although we have very strong brand recognition, the journey to turn voice and video calls across the world's communication networks into useable and valuable data, is still in its early stages of growth."
Trend Micro says its Smart Protection Network blocked 94.2 billion cyber-threats before they affected the company's consumer, government and business customers during 2021.

That's a 42% increase on the number of detections recorded in 2020, and more than 53 billion (56%) of them occurred in the second half of 2021.

However, Trend Micro blocked 66% fewer ransomware attacks in 2021, consistent with the theory that such attacks are more targeted than they used to be.

It also helps that more ransomware attacks are being blocked earlier. Trend says it stopped more than 14 million attacks before they could impact customers.

"Trend Micro detects threats across endpoints, mobile, servers, IoT/IIoT, home networks, messaging, network, web and cloud environments", said Trend Micro ANZ technical director Mick McCluney.

"That's a testament to our continuous effort to expand attack surface protections and improve our advanced detection technologies deployed to 500,000 commercial and government accounts and millions of consumer customers. But it also underscores the mounting threat from bad actors, as outlined in our 2022 predictions report".

Trend predicts another onslaught of threats in 2022, nominating global supply chains, cloud environments and DevOps functions as likely targets. To counter that, the company recommends enhanced risk-based patching, XDR, server hardening, zero trust, network monitoring, and DevSecOps practices during 2022.

Trend's 2022 predictions report is available here.
Bharti Airtel, one of Indias communications solutions providers, and Google announced that they will partner on a long-term, multi-year agreement to accelerate the growth of Indias digital ecosystem. Together, they will work to bring best-in-class end-to-end products to serve customer needs, provide quality customer experience, and bring their expertise to solve problems of affordability, access, and digital inclusion.

As part of this partnership, Google intends to invest up to $1B, as part of its Google for India Digitisation Fund, which includes equity investment as well as a corpus for potential commercial agreements, to be identified and agreed on mutually agreeable terms over the course of the next five years, the companies stated. This will comprise:

A $700M equity investment in Bharti Airtel at a price per share of INR 734.

Up to $300M that will go towards implementing commercial agreements, which will include investments in scaling Airtels offerings that covers a range of devices to consumers via innovative affordability programs as well as other offerings aimed at accelerating access and digital inclusion across Indias digital ecosystem.

The deal is subject to regulatory approvals.

The two organisations say they recognise the importance of a connected India, in empowering businesses as they progress on their Digital Transformation journeys, and building a strong digital ecosystem for consumers everywhere.

Both organisations say they are committed to working towards building an open technology ecosystem that serves customers and businesses with innovative digital services, and have agreed to jointly explore and invest across a wide spectrum of areas to create digital solutions that uniquely serve Indias requirements.

As a part of its first commercial agreement, Airtel and Google will work together to build on Airtels extensive offerings that covers a range of Android-enabled devices to consumers via innovative affordability programs. Together, the companies will continue to explore further opportunities to bring down the barriers of owning a smartphone across a range of price points, in partnership with various device manufacturers.

Under the larger strategic goals of the partnership, both companies say they will also potentially co-create India-specific network domain use cases for 5G and other standards, with cutting-edge implementations. Airtel is already using Googles 5G-ready Evolved Packet Core & Software Defined Network platforms, and plans to explore scaling up the deployment of Googles network virtualisation solutions to deliver a superior network experience to their customers.

Both companies say they will also focus on shaping and growing the cloud ecosystem in India to accelerate their digital transformation journeys. Airtel serves over one million small and medium businesses with its enterprise connectivity offering, and this partnership will help accelerate digital adoption.

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said, Airtel and Google share the vision to grow Indias digital dividend through innovative products. With our future ready network, digital platforms, last mile distribution and payments ecosystem, we look forward to working closely with Google to increase the depth and breadth of Indias digital ecosystem.

Airtel is a leading pioneer shaping Indias digital future, and we are proud to partner on a shared vision for expanding connectivity and ensuring equitable access to the Internet for more Indians, said Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Our commercial and equity investment in Airtel is a continuation of our Google for India Digitisation Fund's efforts to increase access to smartphones, enhance connectivity to support new business models, and help companies on their digital transformation journey.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
Every time you hear a politician or a media personality mention "gun violence," you should mentally translate that phrase to "gang violence." Not only that, but ask yourself if that politician or media outlet has an agenda by mislabeling gang violence as something entirely different.

Obviously politicians who have enabled the "criminal justice reforms" that have directly resulted in the out-of-control increases in violent crime across America don't want to talk about criminals and gangs. In fact, California's Gov. Newsom even went so far as to actually apologize for using the word "gang" when describing the organized groups of criminals who commit crimes (otherwise known as 'gangs').

Rather than correctly identify those who commit the majority of violent crimes in this country, countless failed and inept politicians like the Land of Lincoln's Governor J.B. Pritzker and Murder City, USA's Mayor Lori Lightfoot instead blame law-abiding gun owners.

They continue to promote more gun control laws and more government spending to redirect peoples' attention away from the failures of their feckless policies and misplaced spending priorities.

As for the media, there's a reason the great majority of Americans don't trust them any more. .....
Continual Training at Airport Fire Rescue Service

A number of Airport Fire and Rescue Service personnel were actively engaged in various specialist training courses during December.

In the first instance FF Craig Bonnici, who recently qualified as a firefighter in October, returned to the UK for aviation specific training. This 2-week aircraft firefighting and rescue course took place at the International Fire Training Centre (IFTC) in Teesside where he was able to further develop his skills and knowledge at this specialist centre.

The IFTC has extensive facilities to allow very realistic aviation related fire and rescue scenarios. This intensive course covered all areas necessary to qualify him for his future role and provided an opportunity for FF Bonnici to widen his experience, working alongside colleagues from various UK airports. Following his return, he has now commenced a further local development training phase as an operational firefighter on crew at the AFRS.

In early December AFRS Deputy Senior Fire Officer, Adrian Hernandez, attended a Senior Airport Officers course held by SimTrainer in the UK. This was another excellent opportunity to work alongside senior officers from across UK airports over 3 days. The course delivery focused on real life case studies, JESIP principles, Tactical and Strategic Coordinating Groups, compliance audits and review processes appropriate to their roles. A Skills for Justice accredited course, it was also most valuable for networking with the delegates, sharing and learning from each others varied experiences.

Additionally, an on-line course was also undertaken locally by seven AFRS personnel on The Incident Command Skills system (THINCS). This course centred on training individuals to identify the non-technical skills that underpin effective incident command in the Fire Service and learning to assess these behavioural markers using a rating system that captures skills which are key to ensuring effective performance, safety and welfare.

The THINCS behavioural marker system has been designed to produce valid, reliable assessments of the performance of safety-critical personnel. Embraced by UK Fire Service National Operational Guidance, the system aims to identify issues by differentiating between levels of performance, learn from these, reduce occurrences of human error and improve effectiveness and safety. THINCS is issued under licence from Cardiff University which also provided the free 3-day on-line training.

'Continually developing its personnel at all levels, facilitating new skills and knowledge is vital for the operational readiness of the AFRS team. Organisational and individual self-improvement underpin its strategic operating principles which ensure that the team moves forwards in a dynamic cycle of improvement, responding effectively to the evolving challenges facing Fire Services.'
Ballad Health reported another record number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday, surpassing the previous high set last week.

As of Monday the hospital system was treating 443 people hospitalized with the virus, breaking Thursdays reported record of 436. Mondays total is up 21 from Friday. Of those hospitalized, 91 were in intensive care  the most since Sept. 30. Fifty-nine people were on ventilators. Six children were also hospitalized.

After setting a record for inpatients last week, Ballad officials expressed cautious optimism in a press conference on Thursday that the worst may be behind them, noting that the number of people testing positive at their testing sites was down for four days before rising mid-week last week. Ballads in-house modeling also projected hospitalizations would peak last week before beginning a slow, steady decline  remaining above 400 inpatients for several days and above 300 until March.

Based on the number of admissions and discharges reported Monday, it appears the system saw an increase in people hospitalized with the virus over the weekend, having reported a net increase of just two inpatients on Monday. According to Ballads data scorecard, the system admitted 70 people and discharged 68 in the past 24 hours.

Northeast Tennessee has seen record levels of infections in recent weeks, with Ballad reporting more than 15,400 infections across its 21-county service the week ending on Jan. 22  nearly double the most reported in a week during the height of the delta surge.

With hospitalizations at record levels, Ballad announced last week it would be allowing certain COVID-positive employees to keep working if they were either asymptomatic or if they were fever-free for 24 hours without the help of medication and their symptoms were improving. A fourth suspension of elective surgeries is unlikely, but could be a possibility if hospitalizations continue rising.

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This time, weve made a decision that were not going to defer elective surgeries if we can avoid it, Ballad CEO Alan Levine said last week.

In the past, Ballad had received additional staffing by way of the Tennessee National Guard, but Gov. Bill Lees executive order allowing National Guard members to work in hospitals was allowed to expire in November. Ballad officials have not had specific conversations with the governors office about re-issuing the executive order, but noted that the Tennessee Hospital Association has had conversations with the health department and governors office.

Levine said last week, however, that there hasnt been anything communicated to us that there will be another executive order.

FOR THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS AND UPDATES, DOWNLOAD THE JOHNSON CITY PRESS APP
Weather Alert

...FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 345 AM CDT EARLY THIS MORNING FOR CHEROKEE, BARTON, JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES... At 1221 AM CDT, Trained weather spotters reported thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 2 and 4 inches of rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts up to 1 inch are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing. HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms. SOURCE...Trained spotters reported. IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas. Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... Joplin, Carthage, Neosho, Lamar, Baxter Springs, Columbus, Webb City and Carl Junction. This includes the following low water crossings... Center Creek at Azalea Drive, North Indian Creek at Orchid Drive, East Fork Dry Wood Creek at NW 110th Lane, Dry Fork at Pine Road and Fidelity Branch at County Road 130. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Many flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize the dangers of flooding. && FLASH FLOOD...OBSERVED
Weather Alert

The National Weather Service in Springfield has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Cherokee County in southeastern Kansas... Barton County in southwestern Missouri... Jasper County in southwestern Missouri... Newton County in southwestern Missouri... * Until 345 AM CDT Thursday. * At 939 PM CDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Up to 3 inches of rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts up to 3 inches are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms. SOURCE...Radar. IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... Joplin, Carthage, Neosho, Lamar, Baxter Springs, Columbus, Webb City and Carl Junction. This includes the following low water crossings... Center Creek at Azalea Drive, North Indian Creek at Orchid Drive, East Fork Dry Wood Creek at NW 110th Lane, Dry Fork at Pine Road and Fidelity Branch at County Road 130. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Many flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize the dangers of flooding. && FLASH FLOOD...RADAR INDICATED
On 27 January 2022, representatives of the WCO, the AfCFTA Secretariat and the European Commission held a virtual meeting to review the state of play in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The meeting focused on the trade liberalization mechanism envisaged by the AfCFTA Agreement, the management of tariff offers and a possibility of setting up a continental digital platform to handle information on applicable tariff rates covering all African countries.

In opening the meeting, Mrs. Demitta Chinwude Gyang, Head of Customs at the AfCFTA Secretariat, expressed her appreciation for the support provided by the WCO and the EU on the implementation of the Harmonized System (HS) under the EU-WCO Programme for HS in Africa (HS-Africa Programme), funded by the EU. She emphasised that the trade under the AfCFTA had already started from January 2021, and 44 tariff offers had been submitted by AfCFTA signatories already. She explained that the AfCFTA Secretariat intended to create a web-based tariff book whereby all the necessary information on tariff offers and applicable tariff rates would be made available in a user-friendly and easily accessible manner.

The representatives of the WCO and the EU welcomed the AfCFTA initiative to set up a digital tariff platform at the continental level, recalling that electronic tariffs had been successfully implemented in some African countries in the recent past, with the support of the HS-Africa Programme. They stressed that such digital tools contributed significantly to trade facilitation efforts of Customs administrations and Regional Economic Communities by providing data that were vital for trade operators. The EU and the WCO reiterated their firm commitment to offering continued support to the AfCFTA in that regard, under the HS-Africa Programme.

In conclusion, the meeting participants agreed that the initiative should start by developing terms of reference for the implementation of the AfCFTA digital tariff book and launching a tendering process to select a service provider that would carry out the required technical work. It was felt that this project would contribute to scaling up digital transformation of Customs, announced as the theme of the year 2022, and create a foundation for the next steps in the establishment of the Customs union on the African continent.

For more details, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.
Reporter

Susan covers the towns of Somers and Enfield. She joined the JI in May 2021 and graduated from Skidmore College. She recently completed docent training for the Wadsworth Atheneum and hopes to start giving tours some time next year.
The Career Development Programme is an initiative launched in 2009 by the WCO, in cooperation with Japan Customs. It provides an opportunity for selected candidates, known as Professional Associates (PA), to undertake work at the WCO Secretariat for 10 months.

Aims of the Programme:

To enable participants to obtain knowledge, skills and international work experience;

To enhance networks among WCO Members and the Secretariat;

To strengthen the Secretariat in the delivery of its mission and tasks;

To develop a pool of highly competent officials with Customs expertise.

Since its launch, over 115 Customs officials from different developing countries across the WCOs six regions have benefited from the Programme. It has served to promote the involvement of WCO Members, especially those in which neither of the WCOs two official languages is widely spoken, in various WCO activities.

According to feedback, former Professional Associates have been contributing positively to their administrations and regions on their return home, including acting as a liaison point between their administration and the Secretariat.

The nomination process is set out below:
A year after Myanmars elected government was ousted in a military coup, the anniversary on Tuesday has been marked with a silent strike, fresh sanctions, and grim warnings about the countrys trajectory.

Here is a selection of comments and reactions from around the world:

 A dark era 

We are still living in a dark era We have to think how we can struggle on through our daily lives under this military dictatorship rather than about our goals, our dreams in the future. Yangon market-goer Htoo Aung  using a pseudonym for fear of reprisal.

 The regime bears responsibility 

Over 14 million people are in humanitarian need, the economy is in crisis, democratic gains have been reversed, and conflict is spreading across the country, a joint statement from the European Union, United States, South Korea and others read.

The military regime bears responsibility for this crisis We reiterate our call on the military regime to immediately end the state of emergency, allow unhindered humanitarian access, release all arbitrarily detained persons, including foreigners, and swiftly return the country to the democratic process.

 A reckoning 

Tragically, reports received over the last year suggest that well over a thousand individuals have been killed in circumstances that may qualify as crimes against humanity or war crimes, said UN investigator Nicholas Koumjian.

(We are) working diligently to substantiate and document the facts underlying these reports to establish whether these crimes were committed and if so, who is criminally responsible, and to prepare files that could facilitate prosecutions.

 Turning the screw 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken used the anniversary to dial up pressure on the regime, with new sanctions against Attorney General Thida Oo, Supreme Court Chief Justice Tun Tun Oo, Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Tin Oo and others.

We are imposing sanctions in coordination with the UK and Canada on additional Burmese regime individuals, a defense entity, and cronies who materially support the regime, he said, using a former name for the country.

Well continue pressing to restore Burmas democratic transition.

 What lies ahead 

Myanmar is on the brink of collapse, warned Catherine Renshaw, a professor at Western Sydney University, predicting even more difficult times ahead.

With every week that passes, the suffering becomes greater, grievances mount and distrust between the military and its opponents increases. A full-scale civil war appears inevitable.

 The dissident 

Our future is brighter than our past. We arent going backwards or trapped in the same vicious cycle. I call on everyone to stand up for whats rightful for people & do the right thing for the sake of people in Myanmar. We cant waste a minute. People r suffering daily, anti-coup activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi wrote on Twitter.

burs-arb/ser
Dr. Alaa Moussa doesnt need the help of a translator. His German is not perfect, but he addresses the judges with polite phrases, and talks confidently about his work as a doctor for orthopedics and trauma surgery in Syria. The defence lawyers must have known that the defendant can make a good impression. After a lot of thinking, we have decided that he should speak for himself, they say on the morning of the second day in court. We believe that you should get to know him.

Their client is a 36-year-old Syrian man in a slim navy-blue suit and white shirt, with bags under his eyes and a neat haircut. He had started to work in Syrias military hospitals as an assistant doctor just before these hospitals became places of torture and death  places where bodies from different secret service branches were gathered and documented, then carted off to mass graves.

On the 19th of January, just a week after the final verdict in the Al-Khatib case, Germany has opened its second trial on crimes against humanity in Syria. At the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt, Alaa Moussa is accused of having tortured 18 prisoners in 2011 and 2012 in military hospitals in Homs and Damascus, as well as in a military intelligence prison. In addition, he is alleged to have killed a prisoner by giving him an injection. According to the indictment, this was done to demonstrate his power and at the same time to suppress the rebellion of a part of the Syrian population.

Like the first trial in Koblenz, the one in Frankfurt is made possible by the principle of universal jurisdiction, that allows countries to prosecute the gravest crimes against international law anywhere in the world. While the Al-Khatib trial dug deep into the secret services torture and prison system, this second trial will shed light on another piece in the puzzle of Syrian state crimes: the special role that doctors and hospitals played in oppressing and punishing the opposition.

Arranging himself with the Assad regime

Alaa Moussa had just finished his university studies and worked in the military hospital of Homs for a year, when Tunisias and Egypts revolutions swept into Syria and brought thousands of protesters to the streets in the spring of 2011. His career in different military hospitals in Syria enfolded during a time when the regime waged its widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population  and Alaa Moussa is said to have participated in it. According to the indictment, he worked in military hospital N 608 and the prison of secret service branch 261 in Homs, as well as military hospital Mezzeh in Damascus between April 2011 and the end of 2012. During this time he allegedly abused detainees by beating and kicking them, whipping them with medical instruments, stepping on open wounds, operating without narcosis and setting body parts on fire. One patient, who had an epileptic fit, is said to have died after Moussa gave him a pill. Another was killed intentionally through an injection, according to the indictment. In the most harrowing of the crimes, the doctor allegedly poured alcohol over a teenage boys genitals and set them on fire. This would also make him guilty of depriving another person of the ability to reproduce. He bragged that he had invented a new method of torture, the prosecutor read out on the first day of the trial.

When he was arrested in June 2020, Alaa Moussa was living in Germany with his wife and two children, and working as a doctor in the small Western German town of Bad Wildungen. He had long been eager to work abroad and had been learning German for years before obtaining a visa in 2015. Unlike thousands of Syrian refugees, he did not leave the country to seek safety from the war or the regimes violence, but for an opportunity to advance in his career. Regarding his political convictions, the defendant admitted in court that he had arranged himself with the Assad regime in order to have a successful life. But neither my family nor I were ever ardent supporters of the regime, he added. When the protests started in 2011, he said he was on the verge of joining. But being part of the privileged Christian minority in Syria, he was soon taken aback by protesters sectarian chants. I was against violence from both sides, he said.

Doctors kill in a smart way

Alaa Moussa has denied any involvement in the alleged crimes. He believes that the accusations are a kind of conspiracy against him as a Christian, a theory he is planning to elaborate on during the coming weeks in court. In his statement on the first days of the trial, he gave a detailed account of his career path. He said he left Homs for Damascus in November 2011, where he started a new job at Mezzeh military hospital, known by many Syrians as the human slaughterhouse. He claimed he never returned to his former workplace, where many of the crimes allegedly took place. He admitted seeing staff and secret service officers abuse prisoners in the hospitals, but denied ever participating. I felt sorry for the prisoners, he said, adding that he could not have done anything to help them if he didnt want to end up in their place. We were not allowed to exchange a single word with the patients, he said. We were all under the control of the secret services.

Annsar Shahhoud, a Syrian researcher based in the Netherlands, has heard this claim before. For her Master thesis at the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide studies in Amsterdam, she interviewed 22 doctors and nurses, many of whom were perpetrators of medical violence in Syria. I saw it, but I wasnt involved in it  a typical excuse, she says. According to her research, a number of doctors in Syria incited, organised, committed and legitimized violence. They select victims and choose the patients who should be killed. They know how to implement torture and how to starve someone. They kill in a smart way, she explains. Especially in Syria, where the president himself is a doctor, members of this profession had always worked together closely with the regime, abusing the trusted relationship that usually exists between a doctor and their patient, according to Shahhoud. The nature of medical violence is private and intimate. Doctors applied it in closed rooms, not out in the open, she says  a point that will not make the collection of evidence in Frankfurt any easier.

Hospitals as places of horror

Unlike in Koblenz, this defendant may not have been officially incorporated into the military hierarchy, says plaintiff lawyer Rene Bahns. Alaa Moussa has stated that he was a civilian doctor working in a military hospital, therefore it might be more difficult to prove that he acted in line with the regimes widespread and systematic attack  a crucial aspect, if the court wants to define the alleged crimes as crimes against humanity. But regardless of his official function, I completely rule out the possibility that he abused prisoners at his own discretion, says Bahns, who represents one of three joint plaintiffs in the case. His client was detained and abused at the military intelligence branch in Homs together with his brother. His brother was the patient who died after suffering from an epileptic seizure. For this plaintiff, it is especially important that the trial sheds light on the role of military hospitals in the Syrian torture system. I am convinced that they were part and parcel of the regimes terror machine, says Bahns, pointing out that this had come up more than once in the Al-Khatib trial.

In the trial that just concluded in Koblenz, military hospitals had been portrayed as places of horror. One detainee had described how he was chained to a bed and abused for days and nights on end, until he was left out on the street to die. Another survivor described that the Damascus Hospital turned into a prison ward and how the corridors filled up with armed secret service officers. And one anonymous witness described how he and his colleagues picked up dead bodies from the military hospitals several times a week and took them to mass graves  a fact corroborated by the Caesar photos, most of which were taken at military hospitals Mezzeh and Tishreen in Damascus. According to lawyer Bahns, however, the findings of the Al-Khatib trial will not save the judges in Frankfurt much work. They will have to make their own investigations into the widespread and systematic attack, he says, especially since the Koblenz verdict is still under appeal and has not been published in writing yet. Bahns expects the Frankfurt trial to be a very lengthy one.
Spain on Tuesday took its very first step towards a parliamentary investigation into child sex abuse within the countrys church, with the unprecedented move backed by a range of political parties.

Until now, there has never been an official investigation into alleged abuse by members of the clergy, not by Spains government nor by the Spanish church itself.

In 2018, El Pais newspaper began investigating abuse allegations and received details of 1,246 cases.

The Church in Spain, which has only recognised 220 cases over the past 20 years, has never held a comprehensive investigation, saying it has protocols in place to manage abuse allegations.

But the situation appears to be changing in this historically religious country, where some 55 percent of the population identifies as Roman Catholic and where 1.5 million children study in some 2,500 Catholic schools.

On Tuesday, Spains parliament agreed to consider opening an inquiry following a petition by Podemos, the hard-left partner in Spains left-wing coalition, and two pro-independence parties, the Catalan ERC and the Basque EH Bildu.

For such a commission to be set up, it will have to be voted through a plenary session by a simple majority of lawmakers. No date has yet been set.

 PM not saying no 

Although Prime Minister Pedro Sanchezs Socialist party has backed the idea in principle, it hasnt said if it would prefer an investigation by a parliamentary commission or by an independent expert committee, as seen in Australia and the Netherlands.

We are completely dedicated to studying all possible formulas for doing this in the best possible way, that allows the facts to be clarified, to address the victims pain and above all to prevent this from happening again, government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez said on Tuesday.

Were going to do it, and were going to do it well, she added.

Were not saying no, Sanchez said last week while offering public support to Catalan writer Alejandro Palomas, who had admitted being abused as an eight-year-old by a priest in the mid-1970s.

Thank you for your courage in sharing your moving testimony, Sanchez tweeted.

I assure you that your courage, and that of many others who have taken this step, will help us to address all the pain of all victims.

Although the centre-right Ciudadanos party is in favour of an inquiry, the right-wing opposition Popular Party is opposed unless the initiative is broadened to look at all institutions within Spain.

The far-right Vox, Spains third-largest parliamentary force, is totally opposed to any such probe.

 Has to be independent of state 

Fernando Garcia Salmones, who was abused as a teenager and belongs to victims group Infancia Robada, said opening an inquiry is a good option.

I just wish (all the parties) would agree to do something properly, Salmones told AFP.

A Change.org petition launched at the weekend by abuse victim Miguel Angel Hurtado calling for an independent expert inquiry had gathered more than 55,000 signatures by Tuesday.

What a parliamentary commission can do in the short term is to take emergency measures to fight against institutional paedophilia, Hurtado told RNE radio. An expert-led truth commission would allow for a complete quantification of the problem.

Spanish civil society will not accept a compromise between the government and the Episcopal Conference, a grouping of Spains leading bishops, he told RTVE public television.

Any investigation has to be independent of the state.

Until now the Episcopal Conference, known as CEE, has ruled out any exhaustive inquiry, insisting last year it was not going to proactively engage in a comprehensive investigation of the matter.

Within the Spanish church, the investigation procedure is different, with each diocese carrying out its own smaller, individual probes rather having an overarching inquiry, the CEE said.

It said it had put protocols in place where abuse cases were identified, as well as training for those working with youngsters and children.

In December, the Vatican opened an internal investigation after El Pais passed on a dossier containing 251 cases of alleged abuse between 1948 and 2018.

According to El Pais, the Vatican will supervise the CEEs investigation of these cases, although AFP was unable to independently confirm this.

In another sign the state is moving towards accountability, the public prosecutors office has begun compiling details of ongoing criminal proceedings against clergy to get a more accurate picture of the situation.
This Fail Taiwans GlobalWafers has challenged stereotypes about German efficiency with its 4.3 billion acquisition of Munich-based Siltronic. The German government said it had not had time to review the deal before the deadline expired.

You dont need to be a conspiracy theorist to wonder who failure is for. Maybe its the German politicians, not the Chinese authorities who they accuse of holding back?

Rising East-West tensions mean big economies want more secure chip supplies. Geopolitical experts claim that China could invade Taiwan if resistance to Russias invasion of Ukraine is weak.

Fortunately, that possibility is still far away. The West relies heavily on Taiwanese tech groups such as chipmaker TSMC and iPhone maker Hon Hai. Germany may indeed want to retain a small wafer supplier.

Fortunately, wafer supply is less threatened by politics than microprocessor production. Japanese manufacturers Sumco and Shin-Etsu dominate the market.

The EU still wants to do better. The forthcoming European Chip Law aims to double the domestic share of semiconductor manufacturing to 20% by 2030.

Superpower politics isnt the only thing that has changed since GlobalWafers first bid in late 2020. An oversupply of semiconductors has turned into a shortage.

World Semiconductor Trade Statistics believes that the global chip market grew by more than a quarter last year and is expected to grow by nearly a tenth by 2022. Weakness in the wafer market has faded, driving up prices and margins.

Siltronic has guided for 2021 sales growth of 15% and an ebitda margin of 32%, which would return to 2019 levels. Higher energy and input costs are offset by higher prices as capacity is produced. Consensus forecasts expect margins to rise to 44% by 2024.

New bids from acquirers closer to home are possible. GlobalWafers is expected to sell its 14% stake in Siltronic. Siltronic shares trade at 11 times next years earnings, returning to its 2019 valuation. The new bid will provide an opportunity for speculative investors to benefit from the geopolitical risks affecting Taiwan.
Ive here. Its hard to see trash as the basis for a feel-good story. But were running this story as news you can use in case youre in a city where garbage trucks are GPS-tagged, so if you know where your stuff is in the garbage, you can somehow locate Where does it end up in the junkyard.

Keep in mind that in NYC and Im assuming most cities, the actual lost and found office, like when people bring things to the police station, is totally different. My wallet was stolen and, surprisingly, three weeks later, I got my drivers license and some credit cards back (which had been cancelled at the time). But taxi drivers are also good at bringing things back. I once found a wallet in a taxi and we took a detour to the office where its owner works (it has a building ID with a photo). The driver told me otherwise, the passenger found something in the cab and handed it to him to see if he could return it. One was a $4,000 purse; the woman received a bill for a cash set of furniture, then changed her mind when she saw the live broadcast. She was ecstatic when he brought it to her and IIRC gave him $200. On the other hand, not everyone is so honest. My mom left a bag in the taxi. He took it back to my building where he picked her upand then lost it and she withdrew over $300 in cash.

By Katie Honan ([email protected]) Originally published on CityJanuary 30, 2022

Dozens of times a year, the average New Yorker dons gloves, boots and even hazmat suits to sneak through piles of trash looking for belongings that have been inadvertently tossed or thrown into the bin.

After hours of searching, they sometimes find buried treasure  luckily lotteryHoly religious objects,cherish family albumliteral meaning cash bag and even denture  destined to be thrown a long way before it finally boarded a barge.

People have discovered something amazing  Wedding and Engagement Rings, wallet, wallet, said Sean Brereton, deputy director of the health departments solid waste management operations.

Theodora Adelabe knew the feeling. In December, she had passed through security at JFK Airport, and on her way back to Nigeria for her fathers memorial service, she realized that her blue backpack was not full of items of high monetary and emotional value.

She went back the same way, calling family and friends who had seen her early that morning as she prepared to fly.

Theodora Adeladu was thrown into a garbage truck with her personal and work computer, along with thousands of dollars in cash, jewelry and traditional clothing, but was misidentified by a sanitation worker for garbage.

Theodora Adeladu was thrown into a garbage truck with her personal and work computer, along with thousands of dollars in cash, jewelry and traditional clothing, but was misidentified by a sanitation worker for garbage. Hiram Alejandro Duran / THE CITY

I was panicking, I was crying, she said. An hour later, she rescheduled a flight knowing she couldnt leave the bag, which contained her work laptop, gold and jewelry, traditional clothing for service  and $10,000 in cash.

smells like roses

It turned out that around 5:30 that morning, she parked the car at a friends house and left her bag outside. Neighbors who asked to check the surveillance footage saw a DSNY truck pass by around 8:15 a.m. and threw a blue backpack into a trash can along with other rubbish.

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After Googling, Adelabe rushed to the nearest sanitary garage, found the first employee and knelt down for help.

Some things are treated as trash instead of trash, she said she told him.

He helped her stand up and assured her, she recalled.

If we pick it up, then well find it,' he told her, advising her after they quarantined the picked up truck while digging at a garbage transfer station in Brooklyn later in the day Pick up her bag.

Before I left the garage, they were clapping and saying, go get Theodora! she said.

Hours later, hours after her bag was picked up, she put on a hazmat suit and searched through the mornings trash.

They divided the trash into eight parts, and the supervisor helped her determine where she should search first, based on addresses and pickup times.

There are diapers and pasta, Adelabe said. But she was so focused on her search, I didnt smell anything.

About two hours later, she found a dark blue backpack.

I said, I found it  I found it, she said. I lifted it up and I fell to the floor.

It miraculously turned on despite the health department employee trying to lower her expectations for the shape of the laptop after hours in the truck. Adelabe, a fourth-grade teacher at Canarsie, packed up, changed her clothes, and boarded her 9:30pm flight to Nigeria.

You dont even appreciate what they do until you go in and see what they do, she told THE CITY. It was something I was oversighted, but they were still very, very supportive.

refusal to fail

The sanitation department collects and recycles 12,000 tons of trash every day across the city, transporting it to a dump outside the city on large barges filled with trash containers.

It may seem impossible to find anything as small as an engagement ring among all this junk, but the department uses GPS to track its trucks and knows when and where each pickup was made, officials said.

However, there is only a brief window  about two to three hours  when a person might find the lost item after its been removed from a truck and placed in a container that ends up in a landfill in another state.

During the last six months of 2021, the health department scheduled 29 searches for lost valuables, officials said.

Of those searches, 12 were successful and 4 were canceled, meaning the person either found their valuables elsewhere or didnt think it was worth picking up from a pile of litter and rejected them.

Timothy Belmer, the departments director and export officer, said all searches are conducted by people who have lost their items, but officials are helping them by offering advice, offering items based on when and where they were picked up. s position.

He encourages hopefuls to seek out any noteworthy items they remember picking up on their blocks, like mattresses. Throwing out the mail with the address also helps, he notes.

Its like putting together a murder mystery, Bellmer said.

This story was originally written by Cityan independent nonprofit news organization dedicated to tough reporting in the service of the people of New York.
LAFAYETTE, LA - The suspect killed in the officer-involved shooting on Sunday, January 23, 2022 has been identified as 24-year-old Tyron Coates of Lafayette.

The shooting occurred at approximately 11:00 p.m. in the 1600 block of W. Pinhook Road in Lafayette.

The Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigations were requested by the Lafayette Police Department to investigate the shooting.

No officers were injured.
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The handover of the City Hall of Cape Town takes place at the City Hall in Cape Town, legislative capital of South Africa, on Jan. 31, 2022. The recent Parliament fire forced the parliament to move its flagship program, the State of the Nation Address, to be delivered by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Feb. 10, from the parliament building to the historic City Hall of Cape Town.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, Cape Town mayor, officially handed over the City Hall to Parliament's Presiding Officers on Monday. (Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua)

CAPE TOWN, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- The man who is suspected of setting fire to South African Parliament early this month allegedly used boxes, paper and petrol worth 10 rands (about 0.64 U.S. dollars) to start the fire, which eventually gutted parliament buildings in the legislative capital Cape Town, read a statement of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of South Africa.

The prosecution alleged Zandile Christmas Mafe, the suspect, "purchased petrol in a bottle, made his way to Parliament, using stealth, broke into Parliament and after spending some time in Parliament, used boxes, paper and the petrol to set parliament alight causing devastating damage to the facility," said the statement issued on Sunday, which told the proceeding of Mafe's bail application at Cape Town Regional Court on Saturday.

The prosecution opposed the application.

The 49-year-old, who is charged with housebreaking with intent to commit terrorism and arson, terrorism, arson and theft, could face life imprisonment if convicted.

While Mafe pleaded not guilty, an affidavit of an investigating officer submitted by the prosecution said Mafe had confessed that he committed to the crime because he wanted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign with immediate effect, demanded the release of Janus Waluz, a convicted murderer in the assassination of former South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani in 1993.

The parliament fire starting in the morning on Jan. 2 lasted more than 70 hours, severely damaging the building of the National Assembly (NA), the lower house, and completely burned down the NA chamber. It also caused extensive damage to the century-old Old Assembly building that houses the National Council of Provinces, the upper house.

The affidavit said Mafe appeared to be pleased with himself after he was shown a video clip of the burning parliament and voluntarily pointed out a petrol station where he purchased petrol for 10 rands, as well as the gate and window he used to enter the parliament.

Bail judgment will be delivered on Feb. 4, according to the statement.

The fire forced the parliament to move its flagship program, the State of the Nation Address, to be delivered by Ramaphosa on Feb. 10, from the NA chamber to the historic City Hall of Cape Town.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, Cape Town mayor, will on Monday officially hand over the City Hall to Parliament's Presiding Officers. 

The handover of the City Hall of Cape Town takes place at the City Hall in Cape Town, legislative capital of South Africa, on Jan. 31, 2022. The recent Parliament fire forced the parliament to move its flagship program, the State of the Nation Address, to be delivered by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Feb. 10, from the parliament building to the historic City Hall of Cape Town.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, Cape Town mayor, officially handed over the City Hall to Parliament's Presiding Officers on Monday. (Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua)

The handover of the City Hall of Cape Town takes place at the City Hall in Cape Town, legislative capital of South Africa, on Jan. 31, 2022. The recent Parliament fire forced the parliament to move its flagship program, the State of the Nation Address, to be delivered by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Feb. 10, from the parliament building to the historic City Hall of Cape Town.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, Cape Town mayor, officially handed over the City Hall to Parliament's Presiding Officers on Monday. (Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua)

The handover of the City Hall of Cape Town takes place at the City Hall in Cape Town, legislative capital of South Africa, on Jan. 31, 2022. The recent Parliament fire forced the parliament to move its flagship program, the State of the Nation Address, to be delivered by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Feb. 10, from the parliament building to the historic City Hall of Cape Town.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, Cape Town mayor, officially handed over the City Hall to Parliament's Presiding Officers on Monday. (Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua)
BLACKPINK Jisoo and Jung Hae In's first-ever romance drama together, "Snowdrop," is finally coming to the US! Partnered with Disney+, the recently concluded drama is set to be available on Disney+ this February!

BLACKPINK Jisoo, Jung Hae In's 'Snowdrop' Comes to USA

"Snowdrop," the recently concluded romance drama starring BLACKPINK Jisoo and Jung Hae In, is coming to the US through Disney+ this February 9!

Set in the late 1980s, the story follows the forbidden romance between a South Korean college student and a North Korean spy who fall in love with each other amid Korea's pro-democracy movement.

The recently concluded drama received positive feedback and gained fans worldwide since its premiere in Asian countries in December.

Now, JTBC aims to spread the "Snowdrop and HaeSoo Fever" in the West through Disney+! The promising performances from Jisoo, Jung Hae In and the rest of the cast of "Snowdrop" will absolutely hook every viewer!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Snowdrop' Episode 15 and 16: Jung Hae In Promises to Love BLACKPINK Jisoo For the Rest of His Life

All 16 episodes of "Snowdrop" will be available for streaming with English subtitles on Disney+ USA without hassle and failure.

'Snowdrop' Historical Distortion Controversy and Allegations

While Jisoo and Jung Hae In's "Snowdrop" stole a huge audience's attention and interest since its premiere in December, it has also been the target for criticism due to its portrayal of a historical era.

The controversy revolves around the drama's alleged historical distortion. A petition to reconsider the drama's broadcast, which earned over 300,000 signatures, pointed out that protesters were tortured and killed after being falsely accused as spies.

Petitioners claim that the plot of "Snowdrop" undermines the value of the pro-democracy movement.

A group of Korean scholars and professors from several universities also wrote a letter to Disney Asia-Pacific President Luke Kang, asking the company to seek experts on South Korean history to review the historical references made in the show.

Broadcast network JTBC released a statement in response to the allegations, saying, "The drama "Snowdrop" is a creative work that shows the personal struggles and stories of individuals who suffered under the abuse of those who possess power."

Despite the commotion, "Snowdrop" still achieved success. It became one of the most-watched television series in Asia-Pacific that is available on Disney+ within the first five weeks of its run.

Moreover, "Snowdrop" is a heart-touching melodrama about a young couple who have loved each other despite life and fate's cruelty.

"I hope the global audience finds "Snowdrop" gripping and engrossing as Eun Young Ro (BLACKPINK Jisoo) and Im Su Ho (Jung Hae In) face their fate," Jo Hyun Tak, the director of Disney+, stated.

While you're here, watch the interesting teaser of BLACKPINK Jisoo and Jung Hae In's "Snowdrop" here:

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
When she turned 102 on Feb. 1, 2021, Kelowna resident Elsie Chandler couldn't have any visitors in her apartment because of the pandemic. A similar outdoor celebration is being planned for Tuesday, on her 103rd birthday.
Tracy Gray, Conservative MP for Kelowna-Lake Country, posted pictures to her Facebook page Monday showing her talking with some members of the trucker convoy in Ottawa. Gray said the media has done a poor job reporting on their interests and concerns.
Kelowna-Mission Liberal MLA Renee Merrifield, shown here on the campaign trail last fall, is one of seven people vying to win the leadership of the BC Liberal party. Voting starts Thursday with results expected Saturday evening.
Pope Francis says vespers in the Roman Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls on the solemnity of the conversion of St. Paul, in Rome on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. An Indigenous delegation is to meet with the Pope at the Vatican in early spring to discuss reconciliation and healing after a visit was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Andrew Medichini
Every year since becoming the top leader of the Communist Party of China in 2012, Xi Jinping has made it a tradition to visit people at the primary level in the run-up to the #SpringFestival. #XinhuaSpecial

Check the story of Xi and the people.
Hopkinsville, KY (42240)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High around 80F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 64F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
JINAN, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- In the plant of Sunvim Group Co., Ltd. in the east Chinese city of Gaomi, production lines are running at full throttle as overseas orders pour in.

"Our exports reached over 500 million U.S. dollars in 2021, up 23 percent year on year and achieving a historic breakthrough," said Xiao Maochang, chairman of Sunvim in Shandong Province.

The group mainly manufactures textile products including towels and decorative fabrics and its export business went through a V-shaped recovery since the pandemic began.

Despite multiple challenges such as the COVID-19 resurgence, soaring prices of commodities and ocean freight, various companies in Shandong saw remarkable growth in exports last year, showcasing China's economic resilience and high-quality development.

Customs data showed that Shandong's exports grew by 34.8 percent year on year to 1.76 trillion yuan (about 277 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021, as the province's foreign trade volume hit 2.93 trillion yuan, up 32.4 percent from the previous year, another record high for the sixth year in a row.

The impressive figures solidify Shandong's position as an economic and export stronghold, with its growth rate of exports in 2021 ranking first among China's six principal exporters, including Guangdong and Shanghai.

What are the secrets behind the staggering numbers for Shandong? In the eyes of local entrepreneurs and officials, the increase was mainly attributed to high-level opening-up, favorable policy, proactive government services, a conducive business environment, and technological innovation.

Over the years, enterprises in Shandong tend to innovate their businesses and optimize product structure to promote transformation and upgrading, which becomes a driving force for foreign trade growth.

Statistics showed that the export growth rate of the high-tech sector in Shandong is much higher than that of the labor-intensive industry.

In 2021, Shandong's export of mechanical and electrical products reached 758.56 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 35.8 percent, accounting for 43.1 percent of the total provincial export value, while the share of labor-intensive products in the total export value has further declined.

In a high-speed engine intelligent plant of Weichai Power Co., Ltd, in Weifang City, workers are busy manufacturing large-bore engines, which are to be shipped overseas for power generation.

"Weichai has been adjusting product structure and laying out medium and high-end products to enhance its competitiveness," said an executive with the company, adding that Weichai's export of engines rose by 55 percent in 2021 year on year, and its export sales revenue recorded an increase of 60 percent during the period.

Meanwhile, better policy support and newly-signed trade deal also brought more development opportunities, with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, the world's largest free trade pact, going into effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

"We take a 'plan early, act early' approach to develop foreign trade," said Cui Hongguang, deputy director of the provincial commerce department, adding that Shandong has set up China's first RCEP comprehensive service platform to facilitate economic and trade cooperation.

In addition, a freight train service linking Shandong with over 50 cities in some 23 countries across Europe and Asia offered an alternative for companies against the backdrop of high ocean shipping rates.

"With the freight train service, cargo transported by our company to countries along the Belt and Road saw a year-on-year increase of over 40 percent in 2021," said Shi Yuqin, a manager from a Qingdao-based supply chain management company.

Many enterprises believe that, with the RCEP taking effect, the Belt and Road Initiative continuing to be advanced, and China expanding opening-up, the country's foreign trade will continue to grow towards high-quality development in 2022. 
She said they sent her photos of some of her stuff and said if you pay us more money, you can find out the location.
Follow @KDRV12 on Facebook and @KDRV on Twitter for the latest news, sports, and weather in Southern Oregon and Northern California.
Friends and family march in Shiprock, New Mexico, on January 28 for those considered missing or murdered.
Looking to update your home? Watch the KHQ Spring Home Design Guide featuring the areas top home improvement businesses on Sat, May 7 at 4:30pm on KHQ. And click here to win a $500 VISA gift card, courtesy of our presenting partner - VPC Electric!
Gardai remain at the scene of an attack on a teenage girl outside the village of Johnstown this morning.

Searches are ongoing as gardai search for her attacker. Gardai have issued a description of the suspect, who is described as being in his 40's, wearing dark clothing and speaking with an Irish accent.

The victim who struggled with her attacker and screamed for help before he fled the scene is understood to be recovering following the horrific ordeal. She was treated for shock and non life threatening injuries at St Luke's Hospital.

The incident occurred on a rural road, known locally as Cullinanes Lane, located about 1km from Johnstown village, near the townland of Ballyspellan.

Gardai continue to carry out enquiries and recover CCTV from the area. They are appealing for any person travelling on the R639 between Johnstown and The Gallops (a minor road also known locally as Cullinanes Lane), Ballyspellan between 11am and 12.15pm, particularly any person with any video footage (dashcam or other recording device) to contact Gardai at Kilkenny at 056 7775000, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
Photo taken on July 21, 2019 from Xiangshan Mountain shows the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese around the globe celebrate the Spring Festival, their most important traditional holiday in the Year of the Tiger, online greetings among people from all walks of life across the Taiwan Strait have made headlines on social media.

In a widely-circulated video which many netizens said moved them, Mainland-based renowned journalism studies scholar Fang Hanqi, 96, wished Li Zhan, Taiwan-based journalism heavyweight and an old friend two years his senior happy Chinese Lunar New Year.

"It's been years since we last met, and you have been in my thoughts all along," Fang said in a footage, before the latter replied with video greetings through his daughter days later.

Fang said they shared a memory about the country's extensive resistance movement against Japanese aggression in the early 20th century and recalled Li's active exchanges with mainland counterparts and support to journalism education on the mainland since the mainland's reform and opening up.

"I visited Taiwan many times, and Yangming Mountain of Taipei is the last resting-place of many of my relatives," Fang said. "The strong ties and affection between the people on both sides of the Strait are an objective reality."

A performance is staged during the 13th Straits Forum in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

Li responded warmly to his remarks, with both wishing to meet in person as they turn centenarians.

"It's something heart-warming," commented a user on microblogging site Weibo.

Taiwan poet Fang Ming also recorded a video message containing Spring Festival greetings for internet users on the mainland. He recited "Nostalgia," a household poem by Yu Guangzhong, a mainland-born poet who spent most of his life in Taiwan.

"The motherland's culture as well its mountains and waters are always in our thoughts," Fang said.

Many Taiwan businessmen and students opting to stay on the mainland for the holiday also posted online their video greetings for their relatives on the island.

The hashtag "Spring Festival greetings across the Strait" on Weibo had generated more than 68 million reads as of Monday afternoon. 
A local councillor said there was fear, anger and shock in North Kilkenny following an alleged attack on a teenager outside the village of Johnstown at lunchtime yesterday.

The female (17), who is from the locality and is understood to be studying for her Leaving Cert, was out walking when she was approached by the male and assaulted before the man left the scene.

The girl struggled with her attacker and screamed for help and he fled the scene. The woman is understood to be recovering following the horrific ordeal and was treated for shock and non life threatening injuries at St Luke's Hospital.

Searches are ongoing this morning as gardai search for her attacker. Gardai have issued a description of the suspect, who is described as being in his 40's, wearing dark clothing and speaking with an Irish accent.

Cllr Mary Hilda Kavanagh said that her thoughts and prayers are with the young woman and her family.

It is absolutely appalling, I cant get the poor girl out of my head, everyone is thinking of this young girl and her family and hoping that she recovers well from her ordeal.

The area is popular with walkers and runners living in North Kilkenny.

People just dont feel safe anymore, it is shocking to think this could happen on our doorstep, she said.

"I think we should have a dedicated garda unit to deal with violence against women. I would urge people to use walkways with public lighting when out exercising and not to walk alone if possible," she said.

"The lights had been left on until 10pm last night at a walking track at the GAA pitch in Urlingford. They should be commended for this," she added.

Meanwhile chairman of the Joint Policing Committee, Cllr Pat Fitzpatrick also said he was shocked, saddened and concerned.

"My thoughts are with this young woman and her family. I was out at the scene and the gardai remain out there. I spoke with some locals and everyone is expressing their concern over what happened," he said.

Gardai remain at the scene this morning and investigations are ongoing. No arrests have been made.

An appeal is being made any person travelling on the R639 between Johnstown and The Gallops (a minor road also known locally as Cullinanes Lane), Ballyspellan between 11am and 12.15pm, particularly any person with any video footage (dashcam or other recording device) to contact Gardai at Kilkenny at 056 7775000, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
A serious breach of Covid-19 social distancing rules occurred at a June 2020 Champagne celebration at the Department of Foreign Affairs, a report has found.

It follows weeks of controversy over the gathering of Department staff, held in the aftermath of Ireland winning a seat on the UN Security Council, while the country was still under strict lockdown.

The controversy came to light after a photo of around 20 staff, seen drinking Moet Champagne, was tweeted by the former secretary general Niall Burgess, before being quickly deleted.

The report found no evidence that any breach took place while Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney was present, or that the event had been planned in advance.

The departments secretary general Joe Hackett was asked by Mr Coveney to investigate the apparent lockdown-breaking event.

In his report, published on Monday, he wrote: A serious breach of social distancing guidance occurred in the period immediately following the outcome of the vote.

Following the announcement of the results, a breach of guidance on social distancing occurred.

The then Secretary General wanted to acknowledge the achievement of Irelands election.

However, by providing alcohol and requesting a group of 20 officers to congregate for the purposes of a photo, he facilitated a breach of the guidance. Although brief, this was a serious breach.

Mr Hackett said it was his view that the actions of staff on that day were not representative of the dedication and compliance shown by colleagues across the Department in response to the pandemic, nor was it a reflection of the overall conduct of officers on the day in question.

He added: According to accounts provided by officers, this breach lasted approximately one minute.

Furthermore, the Review team received no evidence that public health guidance was breached when the then-Taaaiste returned to the UN Policy Unit to thank the officers.

The report added that it could not rule out the possibility that other minor breaches of guidance may have occurred.

As some officers also stood in small groups discussing the outcome, the Review Team cannot exclude the possibility that minor breaches of the social distance guidance may have occurred, it said.

It was also critical of Mr Burgess, who is now the Irish Ambassador to France, saying he was largely responsible for the breach.

By providing alcohol and organising a group photograph, the then Secretary General was largely responsible for facilitating the breach of social distance guidance that occurred, the report stated.

He also placed colleagues, particularly more junior ones, in a difficult position.

His actions were uncharacteristic errors of judgment. He sincerely regrets this.

Mr Burgess has been asked to make a donation of 2,000 to a charity providing assistance to people affected by Covid.

Three senior officials present on the night have been asked to make similar donations of 1,000.

Mr Hackett has recommended that no further action is taken.

Mr Hackett said no statutory rules had been breached, but that the public health guidance in place at the time had not been followed.

He added: This may have been a brief lapse, but has understandably raised public concern.

It has also damaged the reputation of the Department.

Mr Hackett also apologised to the public, saying: It was a mistake. It should not have happened and, on behalf the Department, I would like to say sorry.

He said it had caused offence to the public who were unable to come together at significant moments in their professional and personal lives.

At that time, many of our fellow citizens were dealing with the devastating impact of the pandemic and grieving the loss of loved ones he added.

In a statement, Mr Coveney said: I believe the report is a fair and balanced account into the events which occurred on 17 June 2020.

I note the conclusions and welcome the actions being taken by the Secretary General.

Mr Coveney has previously said he would be happy to answer questions on the matter at the Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs if requested.
The Freedom of Limerick ceremony for Kilkenny's Vicky Phelan will be streamed online on Limerick.ie on Thursday (February 3) from 6.30pm.

The ceremony which has been condensed as it was arranged when Covid-19 restrictions were in effect and the council felt it appropriate to maintain these arrangements for the event. The Freedom of Limerick is the highest honour that can be bestowed upon an individual by Limerick City and County Council.

The honour is reserved for those who have made exceptional or unique contributions to the common good or to persons who have made outstanding contributions to the life of Limerick.

Vicky is being honoured for her work in uncovering the Cervical Check scandal and her tireless advocacy and support of other women who have been affected and are fighting for justice, as well as advocating for the rights of terminally ill people to end their suffering.

Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Daniel Butler said: Vicky Phelan is an inspiration to all of us. She is a tireless fighter for women who have been effected by the Cervical Check scandal, and her work encapsulates the Freedom of Limerick, and how women should be treated.

Her work has transformed the lives and saved the lives of Irish woman and helped us talk of end of life in an important way, in turn helping to make Irish society a richer and more equal.

Despite her own health, she continues to face her challenges head on with a drive and determination, that has won the love, admiration and respect of the people of Limerick, Ireland and the world.
This weekend, the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Irish Defence Forces, based in James Stephens Barracks, will commemorate the centenary of the handover of the Barracks from British Forces to Irish Forces on February 7, 1922.

The commemoration will take place on Sunday February 6, 2022.

Members of the public are invited to attend an open day starting at 11.30am, which will include live music from St. Patricks Brass Band (whose members played for the handover ceremony a century ago), a weapons and vehicles display, military

heritage stalls and light refreshments.

The Cathaoirleach and Mayor of Kilkenny will also be present, in honour of Mayor Peter De Loughry, who delivered the oration a century ago.

The commemoration will see a company of soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Battalion, accompanied by the Band of No. 1 Brigade, marching from Kilkenny Castle at 12pm up John Street and into James Stephens Barracks.

The parade will be led by Officer Commanding 3 Inf. Bn., Lt Col Declan Crummey.

This will be followed by a wreath laying ceremony on the Main Square.

As this is a working military installation, guests are reminded that parking is not available within the barracks and

photo ID and sign in will be required on the main gate.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

James Stephens Barracks, originally built in 1802 and handed over by British Forces to members of the Kilkenny IRA under

Brigadier George ODwyer on Feb 7, 1922, has been a feature of life in Kilkenny for over 220 years - home to generations of soldiers from Irelands South-East.

The barracks, now home to the 3rd Infantry Battalion, was renamed as James Stephens Barracks in the 1960s in memory of the Kilkenny born Fenian leader and founder of the IRB.

The 3rd Infantry Battalion is the oldest army unit of the Irish Defence Forces and traces its foundation back to January 1923, when the unit was located in County Donegal.

Soldiers from the unit have served on many UN-mandated missions overseas including Congo, Mali, Chad, Lebanon, Syria, Liberia and Kosovo to name a few.

The 3rd Infantry Battalion are also the lead unit deploying to the UNDOF mission in Syria in April 2022.

The military barracks and the 3rd Inf. Bn. have been at the heart of the community in Kilkenny for many years.
Cerro Gordo Co. authorities asking for public's help after high-speed pursuit
UN Undersecretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo (C) speaks at a Security Council meeting on Ukraine at UN Headquarters in New York on Jan. 31, 2022. DiCarlo on Monday called for dialogue to defuse the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- UN Undersecretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo on Monday called for dialogue to defuse the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

It is reported that over 100,000 troops and heavy weaponry from Russia are positioned along the border with Ukraine. Unspecified numbers of Russian troops and weaponry are also reportedly being deployed to Belarus ahead of large-scale joint military exercises in February on the borders with Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states. NATO members are reportedly planning additional deployments in Eastern European member states, and NATO has advised that 8,500 troops are now on high alert, DiCarlo told the Security Council in a briefing.

"Accusations and recriminations among the various actors involved in the ongoing discussions have created uncertainty and apprehension for many that a military confrontation is impending," she said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has made clear that there can be no alternative to diplomacy and dialogue to deal with the complex, longstanding security concerns and threat perceptions that have been raised. He has expressed his strong belief that there should not be any military intervention in this context and that diplomacy should prevail. He has been equally explicit that any such intervention by one country in another would be against international law and the UN Charter. His expectation is that all sides contribute to avoiding confrontation and to creating conditions for a diplomatic solution to end this crisis, said DiCarlo.

"We, therefore, welcome the steps taken so far by all involved to maintain dialogue. We urge and expect all actors to build on these efforts and to remain focused on pursuing diplomatic solutions by engaging in good faith," she said. "We further urge all actors to refrain from provocative rhetoric and actions to maximize the chance for diplomacy to succeed. Achieving mutual understanding and lasting, mutually acceptable arrangements is the best way to safeguard regional and international peace and security in the interests of all."

The United Nations is closely following the ongoing diplomatic discussions on the future of European peace and security architecture among representatives of Russia, the United States, NATO members, the European Union, and the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe. The United Nations hopes the outcome of these talks will strengthen peace and security in Europe, including for Ukraine, she said.

No one is watching the current diplomatic efforts more than the people of Ukraine. They have endured a conflict in eastern Ukraine that has taken over 14,000 lives since 2014 and that tragically is still far from resolution. It is painfully obvious that any new escalation in or around Ukraine would mean more needless killing and destruction, said DiCarlo.

She stressed the UN secretary-general's appeal to all concerned to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and continue on the diplomatic path, saying the United Nations stands ready to support all efforts to that end. 
People visit the lantern fair in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 20, 2022. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Tang Wenhao)

A worker makes a lantern at a lantern-making factory in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 20, 2022. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)

Photo taken on Jan. 20, 2022 shows a lantern set at the lantern fair in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Tang Wenhao)

Workers make lanterns at a lantern-making factory in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 20, 2022. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Tang Wenhao)

Aerial photo taken on Jan. 20, 2022 shows a view of the lantern fair in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)

Visitors pose for a group photo at the lantern fair in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 20, 2022. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Tang Wenhao)

Workers make lanterns at a lantern-making factory in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 20, 2022. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)

People visit the lantern fair in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 20, 2022. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Tang Wenhao)

Photo taken on Jan. 20, 2022 shows a view of the lantern fair in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Tang Wenhao)

A worker carries a completed lantern at a lantern-making factory in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 20, 2022. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)

Aerial photo taken on Jan. 20, 2022 shows a view of the lantern fair in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)

Workers make lanterns at a lantern-making factory in Zigong, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 20, 2022. A lantern fair is held to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Zigong, which is famous for lantern-making. The history of lantern shows in Zigong can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, which have now developed into a cultural activity with performances and night markets.

So far, Zigong has held lantern shows in over 80 countries and regions around the world, attracting a total of over 500 million visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)
Jasper, TX (75951)

Today

Cloudy skies during the morning hours followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 86F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely in the evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms later on. A few storms may be severe. Low 63F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Steady light rain in the morning. Showers continuing in the afternoon. High 56F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low 49F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Yang Mei (R) introduces the cloth for ethnic garment to a customer (C) at her garment factory in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 30, 2022. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Yang Mei (R) works on a piece of embroidery with an embroiderer at a relocation site in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Oct. 18, 2020. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Photo by Cai Xingwen/Xinhua)

Yang Mei (2nd, R) and a staff member (1st, R) give details about their embroidery to customers at a garment factory in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 30, 2022. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Aerial photo taken on Jan. 30, 2022 shows a relocation site in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Yang Mei shows a piece of works made by an embroidery cooperative in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Oct. 18, 2020. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Photo by Cai Xingwen/Xinhua)

Yang Mei (1st, R) talks with workers at her garment factory in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Oct. 18, 2020. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Photo by Cai Xingwen/Xinhua)

Yang Mei (R) introduces cloth to a customer at her garment factory in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 30, 2022. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Yang Mei arranges clothes on models at her garment factory in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 30, 2022. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Yang Mei (L) recommends ethnic clothes to a customer at her garment factory in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 30, 2022. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Yang Mei (R) pastes couplets at her home in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 30, 2022. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Yang Mei buys commodities for the upcoming Spring Festival in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 30, 2022. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Yang Mei (C) introduces materials for ethnic clothing to a customer (L) at her garment factory in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 30, 2022. Kaishao Village, embroiderer Yang Mei's hometown, used to be impoverished due to its poor soil and limited transport conditions. Lots of villagers here chose to work as immigrant workers in other places. In 2016, thanks to local poverty alleviation policies, Yang Mei's family got a chance to move to their new home at a relocation site in Kaili. With the help from skill training sessions and supportive funding from government, Yang started her own business by establishing a garment factory in 2018. The factory makes local ethnic clothing, work outfits and dancing clothes. Currently, the factory has employed about 100 relocated people. She also initiated an embroidery cooperative, aiming to help boost the incomes of those embroiders who have to work from home. When it comes to her New Year wish, Yang hopes her business can grow bigger and all her relocated fellows' incomes continue to increase in the Year of the Tiger. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)
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Kokomo, IN (46901)

Today

Cloudy with rain developing later in the day. High near 60F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 54F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said his office has begun filing motions for temporary restraining orders in his lawsuits against school districts with mask mandates.

Starting with Columbia Public Schools, St. Charles R-VI and Ferguson-Florissant, motions were filed on Monday and Schmitt promised "more were on the way." The motions ask each court to issue a temporary restraining order and halt mask mandates at each school.

As Ive said before, mask mandates are ineffective and illegal, and lead to real, negative, and lasting psychological impacts on children and teens. Our fight against mask mandates in Missouri continues, and we will not stop until the power to make health decisions for children is pried from the hands of bureaucrats and placed back into the hands of parents, Schmitt said. These motions for temporary restraining orders are just the first of many as school districts continue to run afoul of the law and enforce illegal mask mandates.

Schmitt filed suit against 45 school districts this month, including CPS and the Jefferson City School District. He argues school districts do not have the authority to impose public health orders.

In the motion against CPS, Schmitt said if parents or children believe a mask is beneficial, the "plaintiffs requested relief does not prevent them from wearing one."

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"Moreover, even if masks provide a benefit, that benefit is basically zero for schoolchildren. That is because COVID-19 does not pose a serious risk to children between the ages of 0 and 17," Schmitt claimed.

The Columbia Board of Education approved a temporary mask mandate through Feb. 4. The school board also gave Superintendent Brian Yearwood the authority to extend the mask mandate until Feb. 18 if deemed necessary.

This is the second lawsuit Schmitt has filed against CPS over its mask mandate. He filed the first suit in August 2021 and then dropped the lawsuit in December after the Board of Education voted to rescind the mandate when students returned after winter break. CPS spokesperson Michelle Baumstark said the removal of the mask mandate was due to the increased vaccine availability, not due to his lawsuit.

Regarding Schmitt's second lawsuit, Baumstark said CPS "intends to aggressively defend its decision to do everything possible to keep its scholars and staff safe and its schools open."

Last week, House Minority Leader Crysal Quade filed legislation that would provide full reimbursement to public schools districts for legal expenses they incur while defending themselves against lawsuits filed by Schmitt.
COLOMBO, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Health authorities have ruled out a nationwide lockdown as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 caused a rapid rise in infections recently, local media reported on Tuesday.

The authorities also urged people to get booster doses to limit hospitalizations.

There had been an internal discussion whether some restrictions should be re-imposed, but a lockdown had been ruled out, State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Channa Jayasumana was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.

According to official statistics from the Health Ministry, Sri Lanka had recorded over 1,000 COVID-19 cases on Sunday and Monday after over 100 days.

Jayasumana said that those above 20 years old were encouraged to get their booster vaccines in order to limit hospitalizations triggered by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, and booster doses were available in all medical offices across the country.

Sri Lanka is administering the Pfizer vaccine as the third shot irrespective of the vaccine type taken in the first two doses.

The country has recorded 611,185 COVID-19 cases since March 2020 and has reported 15,441 deaths till Monday.

Sri Lanka's Health Ministry has made it mandatory to wear face masks and maintain social distance in public. 
Austria's parliament has approved the European Union's strictest Covid-19 vaccine mandate, making it compulsory for the country's residents over the age of 18 to get the shot, and pictured, a nurse fills a syringe filled with a Covid-19 vaccine in April in Vienna, Austria.
Wind chills will go below zero the next two mornings.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Increasing clouds with showers arriving sometime in the afternoon. High around 60F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Rain. Low 48F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
"We must give credit to the Chinese leadership" for its courage and responsibility in hosting the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, said a Russian expert on the upcoming Beijing Winter Games.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said Monday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

Del Toro, who has been fully vaccinated and received a booster shot, said he is following health instructions and will be quarantined for at least five days.

"During this time, I will attend key meetings and discussions virtually," the official said, adding that Meredith Berger, performing the duties of under secretary of the U.S. Navy, will represent him at in-person obligations.

"We must continue to vaccinate our naval forces and look out for our physical health as we finish the fight against COVID," Del Toro stressed.

The head of the U.S. Navy is among military leaders of the country who were infected with COVID-19 in January.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley and Marine Corps Commandant General David Berger tested positive for the coronavirus in the past few weeks.

The United States has reported nearly 75 million COVID-19 infections and more than 886,000 deaths as of Monday night, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. 
Update, January 31, 2022:

SWEETGRASS, Mont. - According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, while the Port of Sweetgrass, MT remains open, Canadian Border Services Agency has closed the Coutts, Alberta Port of Entry to inbound traffic.

Traveling north into Canada via the Coutts, Alberta Port of Entry is currently unavailable.

CBP says even though the Port of Sweetgrass, MT remains open, your ability to enter the United States at the border crossing may be delayed because of the continued closure of Canadian Highway 4 north of the Port of Entry.

If you are currently traveling or planning international travel via the Sweetgrass, MT Port of Entry, CBP encourages travelers to seek to alternate routes utilizing a different Port of Entry.

A list of Ports of Entry in Montana may be found here.

SWEETGRASS, Mont. - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have Canadian Highway 4 closed north of the Sweetgrass, Montana/Coutts, Alberta border crossing.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta are reporting traffic is not moving in either direction and that the highway is closed south of Lethbridge to the Coutts border with Montana.

US Customs and Border Protection says the Port of Sweetgrass is open, but those driving in the area are being told to be aware that the closure may impact travel north into Canada.

Travelers are encouraged to seek alternative routes and use a different port of entry.

The CBC is reporting traffic is not moving on Highway 4 due to a protest convoy in the north and southbound lanes near the village of Coutts, Alberta.

According to the report, the convoy is protesting the trucker COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Participants in the protest are asked by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to prevent a full blockage of the highway so first responders can make their way through in the event of an emergency.
Have a news tip or would like to report a typo? Email Anthony Victor Reyes at areyes@kvoa.com.
Giant panda Ru Yi is seen at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, July 31, 2019. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Akulova noted that it was significant how "the cultural values of one country, that are portrayed through national symbols, could be accepted and loved in another," especially the giant pandas, which are "definitely the living embodiment of Chinese culture.



MOSCOW, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Two giant pandas from China, Ru Yi and Ding Ding, who have been living at the Moscow Zoo since 2019, will enjoy a "festive atmosphere" while celebrating their third Chinese New Year in Russia.

"Zoo staff will make large cardboard toys in the shape of tigers for the pandas, as well as place spruce and fir trees decorated with ice candies with vegetables and fruits inside," zoo head Svetlana Akulova told Xinhua in a recent interview.

She said it would be possible to watch how the pandas celebrate the Lunar New Year not only in person at the zoo, but also online through a live stream on the zoo's official social networks.

The pandas are very popular among visitors, many of whom are already familiar with the personalities of the Chinese guests, according to Akulova.

"Ding Ding is pickier and moodier, while Ru Yi is like an explorer and can sometimes be a bit of a trouble-maker," she said.

"Our employees already recognize these regular visitors and are always happy to answer their questions. There was even a time when a child brought his soft toy panda and introduced it to Ru Yi and Ding Ding," Akulova said.

"I am glad that the Moscow Zoo has chosen to participate in the international program for giant panda preservation, protection and research," she stressed.

Akulova noted that it was significant how "the cultural values of one country, that are portrayed through national symbols, could be accepted and loved in another," especially the giant pandas, which are "definitely the living embodiment of Chinese culture." 
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin and the committee's top Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley, at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court, the White House says. President Biden is shown here at the US Capitol on January 6, 2022 in Washington.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, addresses the United Nations Security Council, before a vote, Monday, January 31.
People view the firework shows at the Sava Promenade walkway in Belgrade, Serbia, on Jan. 31, 2022. Festive fireworks in front of the Sava Promenade, the most popular summer promenade with a length of 1.8 km, along the Sava River marked the beginning of the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Year of Tiger, in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia on Monday.

Dragons, lanterns, Terracotta Warriors, and other colorful lights with Chinese characteristics were lit at the first minute of the first day (Beijing time) of the Chinese Year of Tiger. (Photo by Wang Wei/Xinhua)

BELGRADE, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Festive fireworks in front of the Sava Promenade, the most popular summer promenade with a length of 1.8 km, along the Sava River marked the beginning of the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Year of Tiger, in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia on Monday.

The celebration was attended by Mayor of Belgrade Zoran Radojicic and charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy to Serbia Tian Yishu.

Dragons, lanterns, Terracotta Warriors, and other colorful lights with Chinese characteristics were lit at the first minute of the first day (Beijing time) of the Chinese Year of Tiger. Together with the fireworks, the lights illuminated the night sky along the Sava River.

The landmark Belgrade Tower opened a light show, displaying the national flags of China and Serbia, and writing "Happy New Year" in both Chinese and Serbian languages.

Mayor Radojicic wished a happy new year to the Chinese people in a statement, saying that he wished "many positive changes in the whole world," as well as the success of the Winter Olympic Games to be held in Beijing on Feb. 4.

He recalled the friendship between Serbia and China, which, he said, resulted in many successful infrastructure projects, with many more to come in the future.

Representatives from China and Serbia also presented the Beijing 2022 mascots Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon to the audience at the opening ceremony.

It was the fourth consecutive year to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in the cities of Belgrade and Novi Sad, the second largest city of Serbia. 

People take a selfie with a light installation during a Chinese Festival of Lights at the Sava Promenade walkway in Belgrade, Serbia, on Jan. 31, 2022. Festive fireworks in front of the Sava Promenade, the most popular summer promenade with a length of 1.8 km, along the Sava River marked the beginning of the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Year of Tiger, in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia on Monday.

Dragons, lanterns, Terracotta Warriors, and other colorful lights with Chinese characteristics were lit at the first minute of the first day (Beijing time) of the Chinese Year of Tiger. (Photo by Wang Wei/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2022 shows a light installation during a Chinese Festival of Lights at the Sava Promenade walkway in Belgrade, Serbia. Festive fireworks in front of the Sava Promenade, the most popular summer promenade with a length of 1.8 km, along the Sava River marked the beginning of the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Year of Tiger, in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia on Monday.

Dragons, lanterns, Terracotta Warriors, and other colorful lights with Chinese characteristics were lit at the first minute of the first day (Beijing time) of the Chinese Year of Tiger. (Photo by Wang Wei/Xinhua)

A girl receives a doll of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics mascot Bing Dwen Dwen during a Chinese Festival of Lights at the Sava Promenade walkway in Belgrade, Serbia, on Jan. 31, 2022. Festive fireworks in front of the Sava Promenade, the most popular summer promenade with a length of 1.8 km, along the Sava River marked the beginning of the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Year of Tiger, in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia on Monday.

Dragons, lanterns, Terracotta Warriors, and other colorful lights with Chinese characteristics were lit at the first minute of the first day (Beijing time) of the Chinese Year of Tiger. (Photo by Wang Wei/Xinhua)

People view the firework shows at the Sava Promenade walkway in Belgrade, Serbia, on Jan. 31, 2022. Festive fireworks in front of the Sava Promenade, the most popular summer promenade with a length of 1.8 km, along the Sava River marked the beginning of the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Year of Tiger, in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia on Monday.

Dragons, lanterns, Terracotta Warriors, and other colorful lights with Chinese characteristics were lit at the first minute of the first day (Beijing time) of the Chinese Year of Tiger. (Photo by Wang Wei/Xinhua)
Are you itching for hunting season? Get prepared for turkey season ahead of time by applying online during February for 2022 spring turkey managed hunts through the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) website at mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/turkey/turkey-spring-managed-hunts. Managed hunt details and application procedures are outlined on the webpage. Drawing results will be posted starting March 15.

The spring turkey hunting youth portion will be April 9 and 10 with the regular spring season running April 18 through May 8.

Detailed information on spring turkey hunting will be available in the MDC 2022 Spring Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet, available where permits are sold beginning in March.

To learn more about turkey hunting in Missouri, visit MDC's website at mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/turkey.

Buy Missouri hunting permits from numerous vendors around the state, online at mdc-web.s3licensing.com/ or through the MDC free mobile app -- MO Hunting -- available for download through Google Play for Android devices or the App Store for Apple devices.
Representatives from Abbey Resort could be purchasing property from Inspiration Ministries for creation of a hospitality academy that would provide training and housing.

Officials from Abbey Provident Venture LLC has entered into a purchase agreement with Inspiration Ministries to purchase property located near N2116 Highway 67 in the Town of Walworth, according to a conditional use permit application filed with Walworth County.

That permit application for the hospitality academy is expected to be discussed at the Feb. 7 Town of Walworth Plan Commission meeting. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Walworth Town Hall, W6741 Brick Church Road.

As part of the agreement, Inspiration Ministries would retain about 30 acres of property on north side of the site, and Abbey Provident Venture would obtain about 20 acres of property on the south side.

Officials from Abbey Provident Venture want to rezone about four acres of their property from institutional park district to upland resource conversation district.

Neither representatives from Abbey Provident Venture nor Inspiration Ministries could be reached for comment regarding the purchase agreement or plan for the property.

Abbey Provident Venture officials plan to use the portion of their property for the Lake Geneva Hospitality Academy, a training facility for people interested in entering the hospitality industry, according to their permit application.

The hospitality academy would offer a residential campus for its participants which is set to include seven cabins, a single-family residential home, pavilion and a lodge. The lodge features 16 guest rooms with up to four beds in each room, six meeting rooms, a kitchen and dining room.

According to the conditional use permit, the site has a capacity for a total of 136 beds, 64 in the lodge and the rest in the cabins and residential house.

Those cabins and lodge, which were built in 1975, are already onsite located in a wooded area just south of the main Inspiration Ministry facility. It currently houses the inspiration retreat center, which has been available for groups to rent.

Academy participants would be required to complete classroom instruction and on-the-job training at the Abbey Resort or other local hospitality business.

Participants would receive a certificate of completion upon graduating from the program and offered job placement opportunities at local hospitality businesses.

The program is geared towards graduating high school students and hospitality workers who are looking to advance in their careers.

In addition to hospitality training, all participants living in the Academy housing would be required to provide not less than four hours per week of community service to Inspiration Ministries.

Initial employment at the academy is expected to be less than a dozen, but would likely increase as the program develops. The academy would be led by an executive director who would oversee all aspects of the program. Additional positions would include a training coordinator, recruiter, accountant, resident assistants, maintenance and activities personnel.

A parcipants average stay at the academy would depend on the course of program they are taking, ranging mostly from three months in the summer to up to a year. During peak capacity, it is anticipated there would be between 60-80 participants living at the site.

The academy is also currently in preliminary conversations with Gateway Technical College regarding the participants receiving college credit toward an assocaite degree in hospitality.

When the property is not being used for academy purposes, officials from Abbey Provident Venture and Inspiration Ministries plan to use the site for events, meetings and short-term housing programs.

The layout of the site would remain unchanged. Traffic and parking on the property also would remain the same.

However, officials from Abbey Provident Venture plan to work with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to establish a new access road to the property from Highway 67.

The Abbey Resort previoiusly proposed to construct on-site, seasonal employee housing in Fontana by its resort. But that plan was revoked by the resort after multiple neighbors expressed strong opposition to the project.

This Walworth plan has also received negative feedback from some residents.

There was a public hearing about the proposal in December and it has been brough to the Plan Commission before, but tabled until more information was available.

Stephanie Jones of the Regional News contributed to this report.

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MADISON  Following votes in the Wisconsin State Assembly and the Wisconsin State Senate, three bills co-authored by Rep. Amy Loudenbeck (R-Clinton) are heading to the governors desk for final action.

Senate Bill 673, which received votes in both chambers, is co-authored with Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green). It creates a Geographical Information System (GIS) grant program to assist counties with the cost of data preparation, data gathering, data creation, geographic information system staffing, data preparation and collection contracts, and training. Local governments will need to prepare and enhance their GIS data in order to meet the technical requirements to enable Next Generation 911, or NG-911.

NG-911 is a digital or Internet Protocol (IP)-based 911 system, which is a major upgrade from the original analog technology that most 911 systems were built on, and in many cases still use today. Once upgraded, NG-911 will allow Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) to easily transfer calls to other call centers, re-route calls in case a PSAP experiences call overload, increase data sharing by receiving photos and videos and assist with more accurate location detection.

NG-911 implementation is dependent upon the development and maintenance of GIS data, including street centerlines, address points, and emergency response boundaries. Standardized geospatial data is a pivotal piece of NG-911, helping to accurately locate 911 calls and efficiently route responders via dispatch.

In Wisconsin, work is well underway to upgrade the current 911 System to NG-911. During the 2021-2023 budget process, we continued to invest in NG-911 infrastructure at the state level, and the passage of this bill will continue to help local units of government move forward with upgrading their 911 infrastructure to ensure a reliable 911 system statewide, said Loudenbeck.

Senate Bill 491, co-authored with Sen. Kathy Bernier (R-Lake Hallie) changes the payment structure for subsidized guardianship placements by having the state pay for the program instead of the individual counties.

Guardianship is one of three legal permanency options for children placed in out-of-home care, along with reunification and adoption, said Loudenbeck. A subsidized guardian is responsible for the child and able to consent for the childs every day events such as school activities, health care needs, and family vacations.

Under subsidized guardianship, it is possible for a relative, a person who is like-kin, or a foster parent  in certain circumstances  to become the permanent legal guardian and receive a monthly payment. The payment amount is based on the Foster Care Rate Setting Policy. The rate can be the same or less than the final foster care payment for the child, but it cannot be more. Payments generally continue until a child reaches the age of 18 and the child continues to receive medical coverage through Medicaid (Title XIX).

Assembly Bill 679, co-authored with Sen. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) removes the sunset provision created in 2021 Wisconsin Act 10, which was the Covid relief bill, to allow hospitals to seek federal Medicare reimbursement for certain services provided in a home setting. Current law sunset the program on Jan. 1.

Over the last several sessions, the Legislature has worked with stakeholders from across the health care industry to improve access to quality healthcare by increasing opportunities for innovative and cost effective programs. By allowing this innovative program to continue, these regulatory flexibilities will create additional capacity options and allow hospitals to provide a high quality of care in a patients home prior to discharge from an impatient service.

Now more than ever, technology and innovation have proven to be a vital lifeline Wisconsinites seeking quality health care options that meet their needs. Delivering the right care, at the right time, in the right place is a good goal for policymakers and health care providers alike; COVID has really underscored how important it is for us to work together to advance new and forward thinking ideas, said Loudenbeck.
Walworth County Public Health has partnered with Fitchburg Family Pharmacy to continue to provide drive-thru COVID-19 testing at the Walworth County Fairgrounds through the end of March. Fitchburg Family Pharmacy took over the fairgrounds site, Feb. 1.

The Wisconsin National Guard has conducted testing at the fairgrounds since October 2021. The National Guard conducted its final day of testing on Jan. 25, as it shifts its operations to provide staffing support to medical facilities.

We are incredibly grateful for the support of the Wisconsin National Guard over these last few months, and we wish them well on their new assignment, Walworth County Public Health Officer Erica Bergstrom said in a news release. We look forward to working with Fitchburg Family Pharmacy in a seamless continuation of testing at the Walworth County Fairgrounds.

Testing at the fairgrounds will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Pre-registration is available by visiting https://register.covidconnect.wi.gov. Testing is free.

If residents experience difficulties completing the registration, they may register in person at the test site or call 262-741-3200.

PCR tests are administered for adults and children as young as 1 year of age at the Walworth County Fairgrounds, 411 E. Court St. in Elkhorn. Access to the testing site is available through fairgrounds north gate off Highway 11.

East Troy Fire and Rescue, N8406 Highway ES in East Troy, is conducting free drive-thru COVID testing by appointment only. Testing is available from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.

To schedule an appointment, residents should call 262-364-8123 by 10 p.m. Pre-registration is available by visiting https://register.covidconnect.wi.gov. PCR nasal swab tests will be administered.

Open Arms Free Clinic, 205 E. Commerce Court in Elkhorn, conducts weekly testing from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Wednesdays. No appointment is needed, but pre-registration is advised. For more information, visit https://register.covidconnect.wi.gov.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater offers testing from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mondays and Wednesdays, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays at Esker Hall, 420 N. Prairie St in Whitewater.

Testing is available to all residents, 5 years and older. Testing is free. Register is available by visiting https://www.wihealthconnect.com or calling the universitys COVID hotline at 262-472-1362 for more information.

COVID-19 rapid and PCR tests are also available through local healthcare providers and select Walgreens locations.
While most of Tuesday will be dry, isolated rain and snow showers will begin to pop up during the late afternoon around Racine and Kenosha. Activity looks to be limited to the far southeastern tip of the state through the evening hours, but late Tuesday night, snow will spread a little farther north and west.

While only isolated light snow showers are in the forecast for the Madison area Wednesday morning, snow looks likely around the Racine/Kenosha area. Snow could briefly be heavy and with winds gusting around 20 mph, any snow that does fall will be blown around. This will result in reduced visibility and some snow covered roads for the morning commute Wednesday. It does not look like a traffic nightmare for Racine and Kenosha, but it does look like a morning where you should give yourself a little extra time to get to work or school.

Off and on light to moderate snow showers are in the forecast for the rest of the day Wednesday and Wednesday night, with more activity still expected closer to Lake Michigan than farther west.

The last of the snow flurries will come to an end around the Madison area Thursday morning. Snow showers will probably continue for Racine and Kenosha though as a band of lake-effect snow sets up just to the south. It doesn't look like as much snow as Wednesday, but it will add to the snow total.

By the end of the day Thursday, here are the snow amounts we're expecting across southeastern Wisconsin:

Kenosha: 1 to 4 inches

Racine: 1 to 3 inches

Lake Geneva: 1 to 2 inches

Beaver Dam: Trace to 0.5 inches

Madison: Trace to 0.5 inches

Baraboo/Portage: 0 to 0.25 inches

While temperatures will reach the upper 30s and low 40s Tuesday, a cold front arriving during the late afternoon will push our temperatures right back down. High temperatures on Wednesday will range from the mid teens around Madison to the low 20s around Kenosha. Factor in the breezy conditions though and it will only feel like it's in the single digits.

Thursday looks slightly colder still. Temperatures will start the day around 10 degrees with highs mainly in the mid to upper teens. Still breezy, so wind chills will struggle to rise above zero.

Matt Holiner covers weather and climate across the Midwest. Matt has eight years of professional meteorology experience and has forecast every type of weather for cities across the country. He holds the National Weather Association's Seal of Approval.

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Weather Alert

...AIR QUALITY ALERT... The following message is transmitted at the request of the New Mexico Departments of Health and Environment. * WHAT...Westerly transport winds becoming northwest tonight and Thursday will generally carry smoke toward the east then southeast through late afternoon and evening. Diminishing winds and nighttime inversions tonight will focus the greatest overnight impacts close to and down-drainage of the large fires. * WHERE...Smoke will continue to significantly impact areas across much of southern Colfax, Los Alamos, Mora, southeast Rio Arriba, Sandoval, San Miguel, and Santa Fe counties during the next 24 hours. This includes but is not limited to the following communities: Espanola, Kewa Pueblo, La Cueva, Las Vegas, Los Alamos, Mora, Ocate, Ohkay Owingeh, Pojoaque, Pueblo of Cochiti, Pueblo of San Felipe, Pueblo of Santa Clara, Pueblo of Santa Ana, Santa Fe, Sapello, and White Rock. * WHEN...Remainder of this afternoon through noon MDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Those with conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, lung cancer, and heart disease will be especially vulnerable to impacts from poor air quality, as will adults over age 65, young children, and pregnant women if smoke concentrations become unhealthy. * HEALTH INFORMATION...Remember, your eyes are your best tools to determine if it is safe to be outside. Use the 5-3-1 Method available at https://nmtracking.org/environment/air/FireAndSmoke.html. If visibility is: Under 5 miles, the air quality is unhealthy for young children, adults over age 65, pregnant women, and people with heart and/or lung disease, asthma or other respiratory illness. Outdoor activity should be minimized. Around 3 miles, young children, adults over age 65, pregnant women, and people with heart and/or lung disease, asthma or other respiratory illness should avoid all outdoor activities. Around 1 mile, the air quality is unhealthy for everyone. People should remain indoors and avoid all outdoor activities including running errands. Unless an evacuation has been issued, stay inside your home, indoor workplace, or in a safe shelter. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affecting New Mexico and with the wildfire season underway, New Mexicans will need to take extra precautions. Smoke from wildfires may cause people to have more severe reactions if they are infected COVID-19. The best way to protect against the potentially harmful effects of wildfire smoke and to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is to stay home and create a clean indoor air space. NMDOH offers tips here: https://nmtracking.org/environment/air/IndoorQuality.html and https://cv.nmhealth.org New Mexicans will also need to take steps to keep their homes cool to avoid heat-related illnesses. NMDOH offers tips here: https://nmtracking.org/health/heatstress/Heat.html. For smoke forecast outlooks from the Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program please visit: https://outlooks.wildlandfiresmoke.net.
New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament. Following are the key highlights of the annual budget:

Total expenditure in 2022-23 estimated at Rs 39.45 lakh crore. Total receipts other than borrowings in 2022-23 estimated at Rs 22.84 lakh crore

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Fiscal deficit in the current financial year is estimated to rise to 6.9 per cent of GDP against 6.8 per cent in Budget Estimates.

For 2022-23 financial year the fiscal deficit is pegged at 6.4 per cent of GDP. A target set to reduce fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26.

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Allocation of Rs 1 lakh crore in 2022-23 to assist the states in catalysing overall investments in the economy: fifty-year interest-free loans, over and above normal borrowings

In 2022-23, States will be allowed a fiscal deficit of 4 per cent of GSDP, of which 0.5 per cent will be tied to power sector reforms.

On the Direct Tax side, the budget allows taxpayers to file updated income tax return within 2 years for correcting errors. It also provides tax relief to persons with disability.

Alternate Minimum Tax paid by cooperatives brought down from 18.5 per cent to 15 per cent. Surcharge on cooperative societies reduced from 12 per cent to 7 per cent for those having a total income of more than Rs 1 crore and up to Rs 10 crore.

Tax relief to persons with disability: Payment of annuity and lump sum amount from insurance scheme to be allowed to differently-abled dependent during the lifetime of parents/guardians, i.e., on parents/ guardian attaining the age of 60 years.

Parity in National Pension Scheme Contribution: Tax deduction limit increased from 10 per cent to 14 per cent on employer's contribution to the NPS account of State Government employees.

Gems and Jewellery: Customs duty on cut and polished diamonds and gemstones being reduced to 5 per cent; Nil customs duty to simply sawn diamond - To give a boost to the Gems and Jewellery sector.

A simplified regulatory framework to be implemented by June this year - To facilitate export of jewellery through e-commerce.

Tariff measure to encourage blending of fuel: Unblended fuel to attract an additional differential excise duty of Rs 2/ litre from October 1, 2022. - to encourage blending of fuel.

A Digital University will be established to provide access to students across the country for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at their doorsteps. This will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT formats.

The Government proposed to introduce Digital Rupee, using blockchain and other technologies, to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23 for more efficient and cheaper currency management system.

Indian economy is projected to grow at 9.2 per cent in 2021-22. This will be the highest among all large economies in the world.

Productivity Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in 14 sectors to create 60 lakh jobs. PLI schemes have the potential to create an additional production of Rs 30 lakh crore.

Entering Amrit Kaal, the 25 year long lead up to India @100, the budget provides impetus for growth along four priorities: PM GatiShakti, Inclusive Development, Productivity Enhancement & Investment, Sunrise opportunities, Energy Transition, and Climate Action and Financing of investments.

The seven engines that drive PM GatiShakti are Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways and Logistics Infrastructure.

The scope of PM GatiShakti National Master Plan will encompass the seven engines for economic transformation, seamless multimodal connectivity and logistics efficiency.

National Highways Network to be expanded by 25000 kms in 2022-23. Rs 20000 crore to be mobilised for National Highways Network expansion in 2022-23.

Contracts to be awarded through PPP mode in 2022-23 for implementation of Multimodal Logistics Parks at four locations.

Railways: 2000 kms of railway network to be brought under Kavach, the indigenous world class technology and capacity augmentation in 2022-23. 400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains to be manufactured during the next three years. 100 PM GatiShakti Cargo terminals for multimodal logistics to be developed during the next three years.

One Station One Product concept to help local businesses & supply chains.

Agriculture: Rs 2.37 lakh crore direct payment to 1.63 crore farmers for procurement of wheat and paddy. Chemical-free Natural farming to be promoted throughout the county. Initial focus is on farmer's lands in 5 kms wide corridors along river Ganga.

NABARD to facilitate fund with blended capital to finance startups for agriculture & rural enterprise.

'Kisan Drones' for crop assessment, digitisation of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients.

Ken Betwa project: 1400 crore outlay for implementation of the Ken - Betwa link project. 9.08 lakh hectares of farmers' lands to receive irrigation benefits by Ken-Betwa link project.

MSMEs: Udyam, e-shram, NCS and ASEEM portals to be interlinked.

130 lakh MSMEs provided additional credit under Emergency Credit Linked Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS). ECLGS to be extended up to March 2023.

Guarantee cover under ECLGS to be expanded by Rs 50000 crore to total cover of Rs 5 Lakh crore.

Rs 2 lakh Crore additional credit for Micro and Small Enterprises to be facilitated under the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).

Raising and Accelerating MSME performance (RAMP) programme with outlay of Rs 6000 crore to be rolled out.

Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack e-portal) will be launched to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through on-line training. Startups will be promoted to facilitate 'Drone Shakti' and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS).

Health: An open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem to be rolled out. 'National Tele Mental Health Programme' for quality mental health counselling and care services to be launched.

A network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence will be set up, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support.

Rs. 60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23 under Har Ghar, Nal se Jal.

Housing for All: Rs 48,000 crore allocated for completion of 80 lakh houses in 2022-23 under PM Awas Yojana.

New scheme PM-DevINE launched to fund infrastructure and social development projects in the North-East. An initial allocation of Rs 1,500 crore made to enable livelihood activities for youth and women under the scheme.

100 per cent of 1.5 lakh post offices to come on the core banking system. Scheduled Commercial Banks to set up 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) in 75 districts.

e-Passports with embedded chip and futuristic technology to be rolled out.

Scheme for design-led manufacturing to be launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G as part of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme.

Export Promotion: Special Economic Zones Act to be replaced with a new legislation to enable States to become partners in 'Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs'.

Defence: 68 per cent of capital procurement budget earmarked for the domestic industry in 2022-23, up from 58 per cent in 2021-22. Defence R&D to be opened up for industry, startups and academia with 25% of defence R&D budget earmarked.

Independent nodal umbrella body to be set up for meeting testing and certification requirements.

Government contribution to be provided for R&D in Sunrise Opportunities like Artificial Intelligence, Geospatial Systems and Drones, Semiconductor and its eco-system, Space Economy, Genomics and Pharmaceuticals, Green Energy, and Clean Mobility Systems.

Additional allocation of Rs. 19,500 crore for Production Linked Incentive for manufacture of high-efficiency solar modules to meet the goal of 280 GW of installed solar power by 2030.

Outlay for capital expenditure stepped up sharply by 35.4 per cent to Rs 7.50 lakh crore in 2022-23 from Rs 5.54 lakh crore in the current year. The outlay in 2022-23 to be 2.9 per cent of GDP.

'Effective Capital Expenditure' of Central Government estimated at Rs 10.68 lakh crore in 2022-23, which is about 4.1 per cent of GDP.

Digital Rupee: Introduction of Digital Rupee by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23.

Enhanced outlay for 'Scheme for Financial Assistance to States for Capital Investment': From Rs 10,000 crore in Budget Estimates to Rs 15,000 crore in Revised Estimates for current financial year. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam (2nd R) pays a visit to staff members of a Contact Tracing Office in Hong Kong, south China, Feb. 1, 2022. Hong Kong reported 129 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, according to data from the Center for Health Protection. (Information Services Department of the Government of the HKSAR/Handout via Xinhua)

HONG KONG, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong reported 129 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, according to data from the Center for Health Protection.

The newly reported cases consist of 27 imported cases and 102 locally acquired cases. One-hundred-and-fifteen of the cases involve mutant strains.

A total of 1,149 infections have been reported in the past 14 days in Hong Kong, the center said.

Since the launch of a mass inoculation program in February 2021, about 5.35 million people, or 79.4 percent of the eligible population in Hong Kong, have taken at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, while over 4.81 million, or 71.4 percent of the eligible population, have taken two doses.

Meanwhile, 954,018 people in Hong Kong have taken their third booster shot as of 8:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) Tuesday. 

Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam (1st R) pays a visit to staff members of a Contact Tracing Office in Hong Kong, south China, Feb. 1, 2022. Hong Kong reported 129 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, according to data from the Center for Health Protection. (Information Services Department of the Government of the HKSAR/Handout via Xinhua)
New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI): Calling the Union Budget a "visionary budget" brought by the Modi government, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said it will change the scale of India's economy and make the country self-reliant.

Shah took Twitter to express his views soon after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament.

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"This budget, brought by the Modi government, is a visionary budget, which will prove to be a budget to change the scale of India's economy. This budget will make India self-reliant and lay the foundation of a new India of the 100th year of independence. I congratulate Narendra Modi ji and Nirmala Sitharaman ji for this," Shah said in a series of tweets.

Increasing the size of the budget to 39.45 lakh crore indicates that the Indian economy is a rapidly growing economy even in the pandemic days, the Home Minister said.

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"Reducing the fiscal deficit target from 6.9 per cent to 6.4 per cent is a huge achievement, I am sure India will be able to bring down fiscal deficit below 4 per cent under the leadership of Narendra Modi."

The Home Minister also termed it "Aatmanirbhar Bharat Ka Budget", saying "it will be helpful in making India the world's leading economy under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi ji by exploiting the opportunities created in the global economic world after Corona".

Shah further said that "PM Modi today has reduced the AMT rate in the cooperative sector from 18.5 per cent to 15 per cent and surcharge from 12 per cent to 7 per cent, ending the injustice done to the cooperative sector for decades and bringing it at par with the rest of the sectors".

Noting major pointers of Budget like "Zero Budget Farming, Natural Farming, River Linking, One Station-One Product and Farmer Drones", Shah said that the Budget will play an important role in realizing PM Modi ji's resolve to make the agriculture sector modern and self-reliant along with giving benefits to our farmer brothers.

"This will work to prove the resolve of prosperity with the cooperation of Modi ji," Shah said. (ANI)

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New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Enforcement Directorate officer Rajeshwar Singh has been granted voluntary retirement from service (VRS) by the Union government. He is expected to join the BJP and contest the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

Singh, who was serving as the joint director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Lucknow so far, tweeted to announce that he was 'hanging up his boots'.

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Today my request for voluntary retirement (VRS) from the service of Government of India has been approved. The caravan of 24 years of tireless and conscientious hard work, carried out in a relentless manner, has reached a point of transition today, he stated in a letter attached with the Twitter post on Monday night.

The officer began his civil service career with the Uttar Pradesh Police, where he served for about 10 years while the rest were in the ED, a federal probe agency that investigates money laundering and foreign exchange violation crimes.

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As my professional journey of 24 years turns to a transition today, on this occasion, I express my deep seated gratitude to the Hon PM Shri @narendramodi ji, Hon HM Shri @AmitShah ji and FM Smt @nsitharaman ji, CM Shri @myogiadityanath ji, Shri S K Mishra, Director ED and Uttar Pradesh Police. I have learned a lot while working with these organizations for so many years.

I join the PM's mission to make India a Vishwa Guru, as a participant, to contribute with conviction and integrity in this process of nation-building, he said.

The officer had applied for VRS late last year.

Sources said he may contest the Uttar Pradesh polls on a BJP ticket. A B.Tech and PhD in police, human rights and social justice, Singh joined the ED in 2007 on deputation.

He was permanently absorbed into the ED cadre in 2014 and has headed some high-profile investigations into the 2G spectrum allocation case, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the money laundering cases against former Union finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, the Aircel Maxis and VVIP choppers case.

Assets worth about Rs 4,000 crore were attached in his probes.

I am deeply satisfied that despite various threats and pressure tactics from unscrupulously corrupt leaders, my courage to do my job without bowing down has been appreciated time and again by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, he stated.

The officer has had a share of controversies, including an instance in June 2018, when the Finance Ministry submitted a secret report to the Supreme Court, apparently carrying details of a phone call received by the officer from Dubai.

The report is said to have been prepared by country's external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing and handed over to the Department of Revenue in the Finance Ministry, under which the ED functions.

The then ED director Karnal Singh had issued a press statement saying the overseas call received by Rajeshwar Singh pertained to an ongoing investigation and that he was a responsible officer with outstanding career records.

The government had also launched an investigation against Rajeshwar Singh for his letter in which he had made a scathing attack on the then revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia questioning him if the latter had developed animosity against him by siding with scamsters and their affiliates?

Rajeshwar Singh was subsequently issued a notice seeking an explanation for alleged insubordination in the context of this letter by the revenue department, to which he has replied with a regret and had explained his side of the story.

That letter, sources had said, was sent through official channels to the agency's chief Karnal Singh but it was never forwarded to Adhia.

Accusations of certain other alleged irregularities made against Singh were probed by the ED, the CBI and the Central Vigilance Commission, and a report was sent to the court and the government stating that there was no merit in the allegations and hence the inquiry was closed.

Singh, who carried out numerous encounters during his stint in the uniform, is married to IPS officer Laxmi Singh, who is currently serving as the Inspector General of Lucknow police range.

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New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI): Information Technology (IT) traders in Delhi expressed their disappointment over Union Budget 2022 tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday and expected more covid relief packages.

Speaking to ANI, Mahendra Agarwal, President of All Delhi computer trader association, Nehru Place, said when it comes to the IT field, it is a bit disappointing.

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The covid pandemic has affected the business on a large scale. "We expected Goods and Services Tax (GST) to be reduced. We have been demanding it to be reduced by 10-12 per cent. As the Covid pandemic has worsened the business, we were expecting some respite to deal with the covid epidemic," Agarwal said.

"IT is one of the fields that play an important role in economic growth but it was not considered for the respite," he added.

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"We met Finance Minister and gave suggestions but none has been followed," Agarwal expressed disappointment.

Rakesh, electronic goods Trader said "we expected more respite in GST rate. It would have made it easier for us if it was considered in the Union budget." (ANI)

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New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hailed the Indian Coast Guard on its Raising Day saying the outstanding team of professionals steadfastly secure the country's coasts and also lead humanitarian efforts.

The Indian Coast Guard was formally established on February 1, 1977, by the Coast Guard Act, 1978.

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Best wishes to the Indian Coast Guard family on their Raising Day. An organisation of great strategic importance, our Coast Guard is an outstanding team of professionals, who steadfastly secure our coasts and also are at the forefront of humanitarian efforts, Modi tweeted.

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Mumbai, Feb 1 (PTI) Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty extended their gains and were trading over 800 points higher in mid-session deals on Tuesday, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman began her Budget speech.

The 30-share Sensex was trading 842.07 points or 1.45 per cent higher at 58,856.24, and the broader Nifty rose 165.50 points or 0.95 per cent to 17,505.35.

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Sun Pharma was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 5.30 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, HDFC, Infosys, Axis Bank and Infosys.

Among the 30 Sensex constituents, 27 scrips were trading in the green. Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's and and State Bank of India were the laggards.

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In the previous session, the 30-share BSE index finished 813.94 points or 1.42 per cent higher at 58,014.17. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rallied 237.90 points or 1.39 per cent to end at 17,339.85.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said sharp rebound in the economy was reflected in 2021-22, and growth is expected at 9.2 per cent. Speed in coverage of vaccination has helped in economic recovery, she noted.

Stock exchanges in the US ended on a positive note in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 1.31 per cent to USD 91.21 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the domestic capital market, pulling out Rs 3,624.48 crore on Monday, as per provisional data.

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New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Invoking a verse from the epic Mahabharata, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced steps to further simplify the tax system and promote voluntary compliance.

Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge also invoked the Mahabharata to hit out at Sitharaman and claimed that the budget was not meant for 'Eklavya', the prince of Nishadha, a confederation of jungle tribes.

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"The king must make arrangements for Yogakshema (welfare) of the populace by way of abandoning any laxity and by governing the state in line with Dharma, along with collecting taxes which are in consonance with the Dharma," Sitharaman said quoting from Shanti Parva in Mahabharata.

She said drawing wisdom from the ancient texts, the government continued on the path to progress.

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"The proposals in this budget, while continuing with our declared policy of stable and predictable tax regime, intend to bring more reforms that will take ahead our vision to establish a trustworthy tax regime," the minister said.

Kharge claimed that the budget only catered to the rich.

"As I understand, this budget is for Arjun and Dronacharya and not for Ekalavya. There is nothing for the poor in this budget," Kharge said.

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 1 (ANI): Dharavi Police on Tuesday arrested two people including social media influencer Vikas Fhatak, also known as 'Hindustani Bhau' for allegedly instigating students to protest to demand online exams for classes 10th and 12th in view of COVID-19.

The second accused arrested has been identified as Iqrar Khan Vakhar Khan.

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In a video posted by Hindustani Bhau', he allegedly asked the students to assemble in the Dharavi area near the residence of Maharashtra education minister Varsha Gaikwad to protest.

In the video, he could be heard saying, "Many deaths took place due to COVID-19. People have not come out of its fear, now the Omicron variant has come. The government itself is saying to stay at home and take precautions."

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He had said that the professors are also holding meetings via online mode, so why the risk is being taken with children's health by taking offline exams.

"I would like to request you (government) to cancel the offline exams. If not then, my students and I would take to protest at the doorstep of the Varsha Gaikwad. I won't stop until they get justice...," Bhau said in the video.

After the video went viral, students staged a protest outside State School Education Minster Professor Varsha Eknath Gaikwad's residence in Maharashtra's Mumbai, against offline exams.

The protesting students demand online exams for classes 10 and 12 in view of the COVID-19 situation.

An FIR has been registered against Fhatak and Khand under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code. (ANI)

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Baghpat (Uttar Pradesh) [India], February 1 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath welcomed the Union Budget and termed it a 'progressive' growth-oriented Budget.

According to Yogi, the new budget will fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat and help the Indian economy reach greater heights despite being badly impacted by the pandemic. "It is a progressing growth-oriented Budget. It will help the economy become the world's largest economy during the COVID period. Most importantly, the new Budget will benefit farmers, women and youth."

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Yogi said that Union Budget 2022-23 would solve the long-standing demand of farmers for the increase in income. Apart from that, he stated that the Budget has provisions for creating 60 lakh jobs for youth, which would help ease out unemployment issues. "There are provisions for women empowerment in the new Budget-Mission Shakti", he said.

According to him, infrastructure has been given importance in the new Budget. 400 Bande Bharat trains would be operational. New airports, cargo and health have been accorded top priority. "The Budget will boost the country economically", he added.

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On Tuesday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the second digital Union Budget. (ANI)

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New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday proposed to further extend the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) till March 2023, with an expanded guarantee cover of Rs 5 lakh crore.

She also said the draft DPRs (detailed project report) for five river links have been finalised and the implementation of Ken-Betwa rivers linking with an estimated cost of Rs 44,605 crore will be taken up.

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In her Budget Speech 2022-23, Sitharaman said Kisan drones for crop assessment, land records and spraying of insecticides are expected to drive a wave of technology in the agriculture sector.

"ECLGS scheme to be extended till March 2023 and guarantee cover expanded by Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh crore," she said. HRS hrs

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Staff members of a restaurant checks information of customers' pre-ordered meals at a restaurant in Nankai District, north China's Tianjin, Jan. 31, 2022. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland reported 27 new locally-transmitted COVID-19 infections on Monday, down from 40 on Sunday.

Of the new local cases, 13 were reported in the province of Zhejiang, seven in Tianjin, four in Hebei, two in Beijing, and one in Guangdong, according to the National Health Commission on Tuesday.

Besides, a total of 39 new imported COVID-19 cases were reported across the Chinese mainland on Monday.

Following the recovery of 119 patients on Monday, the number of COVID-19 patients currently undergoing treatment has dropped to 1,884.

There have been no new COVID-19 deaths and the death toll has remained unchanged at 4,636. 
Dushanbe [Tajikistan], February 1 (ANI): Afghan energy company Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), responsible for electricity transmission and generation in the country, owns Tajikistan more than USD 33 million for the electricity already supplied, Mahmadumar Asozoda, the first deputy director of Tajik energy holding Barki Tojik, said on Tuesday.

Afghanistan imports an estimated more than 75 per cent of its electricity from neighbouring countries. After the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in mid-August, countries including Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, have expressed concerns about payments of electricity bills.

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Tajik energy holding and DABS signed a 20-year contract in 2008. In December last year, a supplementary contract was signed according to which Barki Tojik will provide the Afghan company with up to 400 megawatts of electricity per 24 hours from May to September 2022.

Barki Tojik's press secretary Nozirjon Edgori told Russian news agency Sputnik that the agreement had a clause on timely repayment of DABS debts, which he said was being "gradually implemented."

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"Last year, more than 1.257 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity worth $56 million were exported to Afghanistan from Tajikistan. To date, the Breshna company's debt to Barki Tojik is more than $33 million," Asozoda told reporters.

The Tajik energy holding is in constant contact with the DABS, Asozoda noted, adding that "the Afghan energy company has banking restrictions on the transfer of funds, in January we received only two million dollars as a debt repayment."

He said that DABS promised to fully pay off the debt to Barki Tojik in February.

Earlier in October, one of DABS chiefs requested the UN mission in Kabul to help the country pay its USD 90 million energy debts as part of humanitarian aid, however they received no response. (ANI)

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Canberra [Australia], February 1 (ANI): Australia will host a two-day Quadrilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers this month.

Australia will host a Quad meeting of Foreign Ministers in Melbourne this month, as reported by Sky News Australia

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Counterparts from India and Japan will join the US and Australia for the two-day summit, which will also discuss the crisis in Ukraine and threats to national and regional security.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute Mark Watson says the Quad reinforces the fact Australia "sits as the hinge on the Indo-Pacific".

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"It means that Australia is now at the centre of an interlocking geometry of bilateral, trilateral, and quadrilateral arrangements," he said.

"It is about sending a message to China that if you're going to bully a country like Australia if you're going to undertake economic coercion and other forms of coercion, you run a risk," he added.

The Quadrilateral Security Initiative 2.0 was formed on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and East Asia Summit held in November 2017 with the proposal for the maritime alliance being mooted by Japan. (ANI)

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Logos of China Evergrande seen on taps outside China Evergrande Centre building in Hong Kong. (Photo Credit - Reuters)

London [UK], February 1 (ANI): Hedge-fund billionaire George Soros has warned against investing in China which is witnessing a decline in the real estate boom, citing the example of Evergrande which is finding it difficult to pay its debts in the face of government policies designed to curb the boom.

China is facing an economic crisis after a real estate boom ended with a bang last year, according to investor Soros, reported CNN.

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At a speech at Stanford University's Hoover Institution on Monday, Soros said that President Xi Jinping may not be able to restore confidence in the troubled industry, which has been hit by a series of defaults by developers and falling prices for land and apartments.

Falling prices will "turn many of those who invested the bulk of their savings in real estate against Xi Jinping," Soros said, adding that the current situation "doesn't look promising."

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"Xi Jinping has many tools available to reestablish confidence -- the question is whether he will use them properly," said Soros.

China's real estate boom was based on an "unsustainable" model that benefited local governments and encouraged people to invest the bulk of their savings in property, Soros said.

Government policies designed to curb the boom made it difficult for indebted real estate behemoth Evergrande to pay its debts, he added.

The developer is reeling under more than USD 300 billion of total liabilities, including about USD 19 billion in offshore bonds held by international asset managers and private banks on behalf of their clients, reported CNN.

Government officials have been sent in to the company to oversee a restructuring, but there's little clarity about what comes next. Evergrande has appealed for more time, but some lenders appear unwilling to wait.

Moreover, Soros, the legendary investor and chair of the Open Society Foundations said in September that asset manager BlackRock was making a "tragic mistake" by doing more business in China.

He has criticized Beijing over its surveillance policies and a crackdown on private business.

Analysts have been concerned that Evergrande's collapse could trigger wider risks for China's property market, hurting homeowners and the broader financial system. Real estate and related industries account for as much as 30 per cent of the country's GDP, reported CNN.

China's economy expanded 8.1 per cent last year, but weakening growth in the closing months of 2021 suggests the real estate crisis, renewed COVID outbreaks and Beijing's strict approach to controlling the virus are taking a toll.

The International Monetary Fund expects economic growth to slow dramatically to 4.8 per cent in 2022. (ANI)

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Ottawa [Canada], February 1 (ANI): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tested positive for COVID-19 as the country sees a continuing rise in the Omicron variant and is also faced with trucker protests against coronavirus restrictions, reported CNN News.

Taking to Twitter, Trudeau said on Monday, "This morning, I tested positive for COVID-19. I'm feeling fine -- and I'll continue to work remotely this week while following public health guidelines. Everyone, please get vaccinated and get boosted."

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Notably, the Canadian Prime Minister is fully vaccinated and also received the boost dose.

In addition to this, the Prime Minister said during an outdoor news conference that two of his three school-age children have also tested positive, reported the news channel.

Also Read | Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, Tests Positive for COVID-19.

Previously on Wednesday, Trudeau met in person with several members of his cabinet. He and his family are in isolation.

The Trudeau family has been relocated to an undisclosed location as a precaution as protests continue in Ottawa by those opposing COVID-19 restrictions. (ANI)

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Washington, Feb 1 (PTI) The Congressional Black Caucus applauded India for its global efforts to address the COVID-19 crisis as well as sharing over 8 million vaccines with at least 38 countries.

I laud your government's efforts as it has selflessly shared over 8 million vaccines with at least 38 countries, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, chair of the influential Congressional Black Caucus, said in a letter to India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu.

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India, she wrote, has delivered vaccines to African nations of Congo, Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, Uganda, Malawi, Senegal, Rwanda, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Namibia, Mauritius, and Seychelles.

In addition, your relief to the Maldives, Oman, Bahrain, Barbados, Commonwealth of Dominica, St Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and Grenadine, Jamaica, Suriname, Guyana, Bahamas, Belize, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mongolia, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan, has been a tremendous relief to these nations, Beatty said.

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Thanking India for its global leadership role, the official in her letter dated January 19, said on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), she was expressing appreciation for India's global efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

This pandemic has brought the global economy to a standstill and around the world, people continue to struggle even as governments have initiated recovery measures to rekindle economic activity and return to normalcy, the letter read.

The resumption of the global economic activity will be essential to mitigate the pernicious effects of the pandemic, especially on the underprivileged and impoverished populations around the world. The path to recovery depends on the ability of the governments to vaccinate their populations, and on the global collective to ensure an equitable distribution of the vaccines, she said.

It is also commendable that during the recent QUAD Leadership Summit, the United States, India, Australia, and Japan pledged to work together on a vaccine initiative in the Indo-Pacific region, Beatty said.

The Congresswoman added that the recent expansion of Indian company, Biological E's vaccine manufacturing facility in Hyderabad and finalisation of a US government financing arrangement formalising USD 50 million to expand the company's capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines, underscores the significance of the unique global collaboration.

And just last month, Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine announced that CORBEVAX, a protein sub-unit COVID-19 vaccine, the technology of which was created and engineered at its Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), had received Emergency Use Authorization approval from the Drugs Controller General of India to launch in India with other underserved countries to follow, she said in the letter.

The Congressional Black Caucus, one of the largest voting blocks including several senators, has emerged as one of the key players in the Biden administration. Vice President Kamala Harris was also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

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Fort Lauderdale (US), Feb 1 (AP) The daughter of a former South Florida mayor who recently ran for Congress has been sentenced to prison for lying to obtain $300,000 in COVID-19 relief funds.

Damara Holness on Monday was ordered to report to federal prison by noon on April 25 to serve a 20-month sentence for the Paycheck Protection Programme fraud. The programme was designed to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic. The judge on Monday also sentenced Holness, daughter of former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness, to five years of supervised release.

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She pleaded guilty in November, a day after a Democratic primary for a US House seat that her father ended up losing by five votes.

The defendant saw this as an opportunity to unjustly enrich herself by defrauding the programme designed to help those struggling businesses, Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Kaplan wrote in court records.

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Damara Holness' lawyer, Sue-Ann Robinson, said it was more an act of desperation than greed. She said some of the money went toward housing arrangements and taxes.

Holness apologised to the community, the government and to her family, the South Florida SunSentinel reported. She noted that she's affected her father's career.

Dale Holness said his daughter has accepted responsibility for her mistake. We're all human. She's acknowledged it.

According to court records, Damara Holness, 28, applied for the loan for her company, Holness Consulting. The application claimed that the company had an average monthly payroll $120,000 in 2019 for its 18 employees.

The business was incorporated in November 2018 before becoming inactive.

The defendant reinstated the business on June 22, 2020, in order to obtain the PPP loan. The business had no employees and virtually no income, the prosecutor wrote in court documents.

Prosecutors said Holness spent months creating a paper trail after receiving the money.

Court documents showed she paid 22 people, including a school bus driver and a security guard, about $1,300 every two weeks. Once they cashed the checks, the employees" kept $300 and returned the rest to Holness.

Defence attorneys urged the judge to give her a lenient sentence because she cooperated with investigators and she has a young child.

Prosecutors asked for a sentence between 33 and 41 months to promote respect for the law. They also noted that Holness committed the crimes while pregnant and was well aware that she was giving birth and that if she was caught that she could go to jail. (AP)

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Moscow [Russia], February 1 (ANI): Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershnin, after Monday's consultations on UNSC issues between him and Reenat Sandhu, Secretary West in the Ministry of External Affairs, said 'it is premature to talk about recognizing the current government in Kabul'.

Vershnin said, "Russian and Indian stances [on Afghanistan] are similar and identical in many respects. They boil down to the fact that now it is premature to talk about recognizing the current government in Kabul."

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"We expect the current Afghan leadership to fulfil the obligations they have assumed, especially with regard to the inclusivity of the government and with regard to other measures, including in the human rights area," he added.

He also mentioned that it is clear that humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people should be provided, and it is being provided by both us and India.

Also Read | Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, Tests Positive for COVID-19.

Vershnin said that the aid to Afghan people "should be continued, for reasons including that the 20-year presence of the Americans and their allies in Afghanistan that has caused the situation to become so deplorable these days, including from a humanitarian perspective."

"India has been in the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member for the second year, and it was interesting and important for us to compare our notes following the results of their first year in the UNSC with regard to all issues on the agenda of the Security Council. The consultations were business-like, detailed and friendly.", said Vershnin.

He further added that both India and Russia strengthen coordination and interaction on major international issues, including on international platforms - in New York, Geneva and Paris, within the UNESCO.

During the consultations, the Russian side informed the Indian Side about their point of view about what is going on around Ukraine and on the tensions fanned by the Western nations, NATO and the United States.

"We also touched upon issues of insuring strategic stability in this area, the more so as Russia has repeatedly voiced its point of view publicly, and we once again communicated it to the Indian friends," Vershnin said after the consultations. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
London, Feb 1 (AP) Police and local authorities across the UK have failed to keep pace with the changing ways criminal gangs sexually exploit children, allowing the abuse to become an increasingly hidden and underreported problem, a government-appointed panel concluded Tuesday.

At a time when perpetrators are using mobile phones, social media and dating apps to groom younger children, bureaucratic responses are preventing victims from getting the help they need and obscuring the true scale of the problem, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse said in a report.

Also Read | Pakistan Launches Door-to-Door COVID-19 Vaccination Drive.

The report, based on evidence from six communities across the country, cited multiple cases of abuse, including a 14-year-old girl who was held at gunpoint, raped and forced to perform sex acts on a group of 23 men. Authorities often blamed the children for the ordeals they suffered, while their abusers escaped prosecution, the inquiry found.

The sexual exploitation of children by networks is not a rare phenomenon confined to a small number of areas with high-profile criminal cases," said Professor Alexis Jay, who leads the inquiry. "We found extensive failures by local authorities and police forces in the ways in which they tackled this sexual abuse."

Also Read | Black History Month 2022: Know History, Theme And Significance of The Observance in February to Celebrate African-American History Month.

The inquiry was established in 2015 after widespread reports of child sexual abuse, including the exploitation of dozens of young women by groups of men in the communities of Rotherham and Rochdale in northern England. The inquiry conducted 325 days public hearings and has produced 18 separate reports in an effort to identify what went wrong and why. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Happy Year of The Tiger 2022! Chinese New Year or the Chinese Lunar New Year marks the beginning of the spring season and therefore many Chinese and East Asian countries also celebrate this day as the spring festival. This year, it will be observed on February 1. To mark this wonderful festival, here's a collection of Year of The Tiger 2022 images, Chinese New Year 2022 wishes, Happy Lunar New Year 2022 greetings, CNY quotes, Happy New Year messages, WhatsApp stickers, GIFs and a lot more. Chinese New Year 2022 Wishes and Greetings: Send Tiger Pics, HD Images, Quotes, WhatsApp Stickers, CNY Messages and Telegram GIFs to Celebrate the Spring Festival.

Chinese New Year is a festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. The families in China unite together to celebrate the festival family and friends. They wish each other by sending them Happy Lunar New Year messages. As you celebrate the Chinese New Year, we at LatestLY, have compiled a wide range of WhatsApp stickers, GIF Images, HD wallpapers, Facebook messages and SMS that you can download and send to all your relatives on this important occasion.

Happy Chinese New Year (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: May This New Year Bring All of Us Affluence in Health and Wealth. Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: May the Divine Blessings, Good Health, Prosperity, and Virtues Never Cease for You! Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: Hope This New Year Brings You Good Fortune, Peace and Prosperity. Happy Chinese New Year 2022

Happy Chinese New Year (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: Thinking of You and Your Family and Wishing You All a Year That Outshines the Rest. Happy Chinese New Year 2022

Chinese New Year 2022 SMS (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: Wishing You Abundant Luck, Wealth, and Opportunities in the Coming Year! Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year (File Image)

Happy Chinese New Year! May Good Fortune Never Leave Your Doorstep and Keep Blessing You!

It is believed that the winter season ends on this day with the beginning of spring. Its is celebrated worldwide in regions and countries with significant overseas Chinese and Sinophone populations including Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, the United States, Mauritius, Peru, Canada and Europe.as you celebrate the Chinese New Year worldwide, here are WhatsApp stickers, GIF Images, HD wallpapers and SMS that you can send to one and all on this day.

Chinese New Year 2022 Wishes: Send Quotes on the Year of the Tiger, Lunar Year HD Images & Messages

Traditionally, the festival was a time to honour deities as well as their ancestors. People clean their house thoroughly to welcome good luck, fortune and wealth. Also, the day is celebrated with an annual reunion dinner by many families. As you celebrate the day with your friends and family, here are beautiful WhatsApp stickers, GIF Images, HD wallpapers, Facebook messages and SMS that you can download and send to one and all on this big day. Wishing everyone Happy Chinese New Year 2022!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 01, 2022 10:24 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
RAMALLAH, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye on Monday said that the remarks of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state are "an incitement to violence and proof of the Israeli government's anti-peace stance."

Ishtaye made the remarks in an official statement issued after the weekly meeting of the Palestinian Authority cabinet held in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Bennett was quoted by Israeli media as saying on Friday that as long as he is the prime minister of Israel, there will be no Oslo, referring to the peace agreements signed between Israelis and Palestinians in 1993.

He also said that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state and that he wouldn't allow any political negotiations that would lead to a Palestinian state.

In response, Ishtaye said rejecting to negotiate the establishment of a Palestinian state "proved to us and the world the scale of extremism of Bennett's government and its positions hostile to peace and negotiations."

Ishtaye called on the United States and the European Union to intervene to put an end to Israel's settlements in East Jerusalem.

Direct peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians stopped in 2014 following disputes on Israeli settlements and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. 
As Los Angeles schools and others this week observe the 50th anniversary of the East L.A. walkouts, when thousands of Mexican American students marched to demand a better education, much attention has focused on those who became known as the Eastside 13.

But who were the Eastside 13?

They were 13 men secretly indicted by a grand jury June 1, 1968, on conspiracy charges stemming from the East L.A. blowouts. The walkouts kicked off March 5, 1968, when students began protesting at Garfield High School, and spread to other campuses to decry the shortcomings of public schools in Los Angeles barrios. The walkouts are viewed as a turning point in the political development of the nations Mexican American community.

Some local leaders at the time, including Mayor Sam Yorty, denounced the walkouts as a communist plot, and in the months that followed, law enforcement responded with undercover operations, raids and arrests.

In returning the indictments, the grand jurors found there was sufficient evidence to show that the protests staged at Garfield, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Belmont high schools were not spontaneous, but rather the result of careful off-campus planning by non-students.

Defense attorneys would later argue, successfully, that the protest organizers were merely exercising their 1st Amendment rights. But when the indictments were handed down, each defendant faced 66 years in prison.

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Among the 13 arrested was Carlos Munoz Jr., who recalled how the police arrived at his apartment at dawn with guns drawn. Munoz, then a 20-year-old college student, had been writing a paper for a graduate seminar on the international communist movement when the officers broke in.

One of the officers noticed a stack of books on the kitchen table where Munoz had been typing. He scanned the names of the authors  Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx  and yelled out, Weve got the goods on this damn communist agitator!

Also indicted on multiple charges of conspiracy to disturb public schools and conspiracy to disturb the peace were Sal Castro, 34, a teacher at Lincoln High, and Eliezer Risco, 31, a Cuban-born editor of La Raza, a newspaper circulated in the Mexican American community.

Indicted members of the militant Brown Berets, who often took the title of minister, were David Sanchez, 19, chairman; Ralph Ramirez, 18, minister of discipline; Fred Lopez, 19, minister of communication; and Carlos Montes, 20, minister of public relations and holy grace.

Others indicted were Gilberto Olmeda, 23; Richard Vigil, 27; Joe Razo, 29; Henry Gomez, 20; Moctesuma Esparza, 19; and Juan Sanchez, 41.

The indictments sparked protest marches in front of the Los Angeles Police Departments downtown headquarters and the Justice Department in Washington. The American Civil Liberties Union branded the charges as a heavy-handed violation of the defendants constitutional rights to freedom of speech.

We could hear outside of the jail thousands of people chanting  protesting our arrests. That made us feel that what we had done was worthwhile, Esparza recalled.

Defense attorneys in the case included Oscar Acosta, a hell-raising lawyer with a gargantuan appetite for food, drugs and dangerous living who inspired the character of Dr. Gonzo in Hunter S. Thompsons surreal book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Oscar popped up out of nowhere offering to help, David Sanchez recalled with a laugh. I asked him once, Howd you learn about us? He said he had been waiting on tables at a restaurant in Aspen, Colo., when he looked up at a television on the wall and saw news footage of Eastside kids being chased and beaten by police.

Oscar said he took off his apron, threw it down on a table and announced, Those people need a lawyer! Then he drove to L.A.

Throughout the summer, Mexican American leaders urged the L.A. Board of Education to reinstate Castro, who had been removed from his job at Lincoln. Julian Nava, the only Mexican American on the school board, suggested a political motive for the arrests: They were made a few days before the June 4 municipal primary at which Dist. Atty. Evelle J. Younger was a candidate for reelection and a police bond issue was being submitted to voters.

RELATED: Do you remember the East L.A. walkouts? Share your memory. 

The indictments were struck down in 1970 by an appeals court in a case that became a cause celebre to Chicanos.

The No. 1 thing that the walkouts achieved is that it gave our own community a voice  that we didnt have to rely on what other people thought we should be doing or who we should be, said Esparza, who went on to become an award-winning filmmaker, producing movies such as Gettysburg, Selena and Walkout, a dramatization of the 1968 Chicano student protests.

I never gave up my identity as a Chicano, Esparza said. The struggle never ends.

Louis.Sahagun@latimes.com

@LouisSahagun
The prayer room in the 12th century mosque had the feel of a bachelor pad  cups of tea and coffee and half-full ashtrays covered most surfaces. A lanky teenager named Hussein Mansour plopped himself down and placed a grenade and a small bag of pretzels on the table.

He picked up the grenade again and pretended to pull the ring, looking around for a reaction. A fellow rebel fighter, Abu Musab, paused from sucking on a hookah pipe and gave the 16-year-old a disapproving look.

I mean, hes carrying a grenade and a 3-cent bag of chips, he said, shaking his head. It doesnt fit. Hes too young.

Hussein plunked down a can of iced coffee on the table and looked over at Abu Musab expectantly, as if to tip the opinion scale with a caffeinated drink.

As hundreds of fatigued rebel fighters desert the ranks of the opposition and many others are killed daily in battles in the Syrian civil war, their positions are increasingly filled by teenagers like Hussein, a boy with an easy grin and light peach fuzz spread along his chin.

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Thirteen of his uncles and cousins have been killed fighting government forces. Now Hussein, whose father was one of the founders of Al Tawheed Brigade, carries the Kalashnikov used by one of his late cousins. He picks it up often, taking it apart and reassembling it, as if playing with a new toy.

Hussein took a break from fiddling with the rifle and motioned to the gun rack beside him. What do you think these are, antiaircraft weapons? These are just rifles my 6-year-old brother could shoot.

::

In a war that has already claimed more than 190,000 lives and each day brings new civilian casualties, boys like Hussein are resigned to a morbid fate one way or another. Most seem to live by the ominous creed often heard in rebel areas: Its all one death.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates there are about 5,300 child fighters among the opposition, not including extremist groups such as Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front or Islamic State, and 2,000 with pro-government forces, most between the ages of 14 and 17.

In June, Human Rights Watch released a report on the use of child soldiers, accusing Syrian armed groups of violating international law by enlisting vulnerable children whose families have been killed.

Al Nusra Front and Islamic State have enlisted children through free schooling campaigns that include weapons training and even recruited them to become suicide bombers, according to Human Rights Watch.

Many worry that as teenagers increasingly join the front lines, violence will become institutionalized in Syrian society to a degree beyond what more than three years of civil war has wrought.

The horrors of Syrias armed conflict are only made worse by throwing children into the front lines, said Priyanka Motaparthy, a Human Rights Watch researcher and report author.

Mainstream rebel groups such as the Western-backed Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front have policies that prohibit enlisting fighters younger than 18. But in reality the situation is one of such desperation that no willing fighter is turned away.

Hassan Suwaas is stationed on the same front line as his 14-year-old son, Omar.

Suwaas, who fights with the Islamic Front, reasoned that it was better than having his son join one of the extremist Islamist groups.

The kid that grows up and sees a shell fall on him or on his neighbor, he said, is going to grow up and want to fight.

::

The stone walls and pillars of the prayer-room-turned-headquarters at the Umayyad Mosque  gutted and marred by months of clashes  are hidden under tarps and thick carpets, the festive red and gold threads now dulled by dust.

A corner of the room is separated by an Islamic Front flag for sleep and prayers. Nearby sits an Orange Crush refrigerated display case, which was dragged in and set up next to a small coffee and tea stand, which seems to take up the bulk of the young rebels duties.

Here at the Umayyad front line, there are only sparse clashes; the line between rebels and government forces hasnt changed for more than a year. Government soldiers stationed at the centuries-old citadel a few hundred feet away last tried to storm the mosque more than six months ago.

All the fighters are dressed in civilian clothes and most are in flip-flops, since they expect to spend their days lounging on worn and deflated sofas. They rotate four-hour shifts of watching 10 security TVs that monitor the perimeter of the mosque.

As others around him chatted and smoked, 16-year-old Majid, in jeans a few sizes too small that ended inches above his ankles, stared at the TVs as if engrossed in a plotless and character-less show featuring little more than rubble, destroyed antiquities and an overturned tank.

His father, who is stationed at another battle line in the city, was reluctant to allow his son to join the rebels. Only when his fathers friend, a commander in Aleppos Old City, pleaded on Majids behalf did he relent. His mother still does not approve.

I lied to her and told her that there are no [government] soldiers nearby, Majid said. She thinks Im far away from the front line.

Majid had just finished seventh grade when his school, near the citadel, was shuttered as the fighting took hold in the city. With his skinny arms folded across his chest, he insisted he would finish his education when the war was over.

Aamir Mansour, five years older and twice his size, turned to Majid, Why, you think youre going to live?

No, Majid said quietly, knowing that was the answer expected.

::

At night, 14-year-old Omar Suwaas sat at the open window of the prayer room listening to bits of chatter from government soldiers over the walkie-talkie in his hands. Still too shy to speak loudly, he would periodically relay the news to his father sitting nearby, who then passed on the information to the headquarters commander.

Omar is a miniature version of his father, with a chubby build, oval face and sweet demeanor.

There is nothing more valuable than the child, said his father, a textile merchant. But we have to do this because what we are witnessing is worse than putting our children on the front line.

When shelling intensifies or brief clashes break out, Suwaas said, he sends his son home along with the other young fighters.

Omars mother, Mahasin, initially objected to her husband and son joining the armed opposition but eventually changed her mind after President Bashar Assads forces unleashed a relentless campaign of aerial bombardments that have left large parts of the city in ruins.

At their home just a few blocks from the front line, decorated with ornate marquetry and inlaid-wood furniture, Mahasin Suwaas, her mother-in-law and the other children spend their days listening to crackly battle news from a walkie-talkie: which side is on the offensive, who has been injured, who has been killed.

When I come home, my 7-year-old says, Baba, I want a DShK. Where did he learn about DShKs? Hassan Suwaas said, referring to an antiaircraft machine gun common in the rebels arsenal. My son asks, Whats the situation at the front line? I mean, what does he understand about front lines?

The rest of the family rarely leaves the house, and before Omar joined the rebels a few months ago, his mother was afraid to send him out on even the shortest errands. When the sound of clashes gets too loud, Mahasin Suwaas pulls her mother-in-law and five children, including Omar, into an inner room for safety.

Occasionally Hassan Suwaas, who still likes to think of it as a revolution and not a war, wonders whether the conflict will persist so long that his 5- and 7-year-old sons might end up fighting too. It is not a thought he likes to entertain, instead hoping that even Omars childhood is salvageable.

If he remains with us, we can return him to his childhood just as long as he doesnt enlist with the Islamist extremists, he said. And, perhaps considering his options aloud, he added, Take him out to Turkey and soon hell be going to amusement parks and forget everything about war.

raja.abdulrahim@latimes.com
Americans will have to reconsider traveling to Mexico after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) placed a new COVID-19 warning, labeling the said country as a "very high" risk.

With the new travel advisory announced by the CDC, Mexico, along with 11 other countries, was placed in "very high" risk Level 4 after six months of being in lower-risk Level 3, CNN reported.

Aside from Mexico, the likes of Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Kosovo, Moldova and Paraguay were among the 12 countries and territories that moved to the Level 4 category. French Guiana also moved up to the classification, as well as the Philippines and Singapore. Furthermore, Anguilla and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines make up the 12 countries that moved up to "very high-risk" category.

"Avoid travel to Mexico. If you must travel to Mexico, make sure you are vaccinated and up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines before travel," the CDC said in their updated advisory.

The agency also reminded the travelers who wish to visit Mexico and other nations in the Level 4 category that they are still at risk of getting COVID-19 even though their vaccines are "up to date."

CDC then noted that travelers should "follow all requirements and recommendations in Mexico."

READ NEXT: Mexico: Teen Accidentally Shot Herself in the Head With Submachine Gun While Filming TikTok Video

Us State Department Issues COVID-19 Warning on Mexico

Aside from CDC, the U.S. State Department on Monday also issued a COVID-19 warning for Mexico and other countries under the "level four: do not travel category," Reuters reported.

As of date, the CDC now lists nearly 130 countries and territories under the "Level Four: Very High" category. It can be recalled that the agency places a country or territory under the said category when more than 500,000 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days, as they advise travelers to avoid going to the country under the said category.

The COVID-19 warning from CDC and the U.S. State Department came as Mexico's Health Ministry reported at least 950,446 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the first 30 days of January.

To date, Mexico's accumulated tally on COVID-19 cases was reportedly 4.93 million. Of that number, under 268,000 were estimated as the currently active cases.

COVID-19 related deaths are also surging in the country, as Mexico recorded at least 6,465 who succumbed to the disease. The said number was a 25 percent increase compared to in December, but it is below the recorded death in January 2021 amounting to 33,000 deaths.

COVID-19 Warning: Other Countries on Their Travel Category

Aside from announcing the countries that moved on the Level 4 category such as Mexico, the CDC also announced other countries that were elevated on level 1,2,3 categories.

Level 3 is bestowed to a country when the destination had between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000. Level 2is given to countries that had 50 to 99 cases of COVID per 100,000 residents. Meanwhile, Level 1 is issued when a destination sees fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents.

Bhutan, Comoros, Guinea, Nepal and Oman are among the 11 countries listed under the Level 3 category. New Zealand was known to be under the Level 2 category, while China is listed to be in the Level 1 category.

READ NEXT: Mexico Journalists Engage in Protests Calling Government for Protection Following Reporters' Death This Year

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: CDC Warns Against Cruise Ship Travel, 'Regardless of Vaccination Status' - From FOX 13 Tampa Bay
Earlier in January, the Justice Department approached Ahmaud Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, about a plea bargain that would have both Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael admit that the crime they did was motivated by hate. Cooper-Jones said she was "completely betrayed by the DOJ lawyers" at the time.

Arbery's parents' wishes were heard when a federal judge rejected the latest plea agreement on Monday that was offered by the McMichaels.

U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood noted that it would have stuck her in specific sentencing terms, which included 30 years in federal prison, according to a CBS News report.

In addition, the McMichaels would have to go to a federal prison than a state prison, which is said to have tougher conditions.

Wood said that it would be right to consider the family's wishes at sentencing, adding that the plea would not have allowed that.

Arbery's family expressed strong opposition against the plea deal, with the family's lawyer Lee Merritt saying in a statement that they "vehemently" opposed the deals.

Merritt said that the plea bargain would have let the men serve 30 years of their terms in a chosen federal prison, adding that it would have been a "huge accommodation" to the suspects.

Wood has given the McMichaels until Friday to deliberate if they would move with the case through pleading guilty.

Arbery's mother was not the only one opposing and expressing disdain regarding the plea bargain. His father, Marcus Arbery, also commented on the matter.

Marcus told the press upon exiting the federal courthouse that he was "mad as hell" over the deal, adding that his son is someone they cannot replace.

He added that they are aiming for a "100 percent justice" not half justice.

READ NEXT: Ahmaud Arbery's Mother Accuses Prosecutors, Police of 'Vast Cover-up' in New Civil Lawsuit

Ahmaud Arbery Plea Deal

Prosecutor Tara Lyons said that she had been led to believe that the family was backing up the plea bargain.

Lyons told the judge that before the signing and execution of the plea agreements, the Arberys told the Justice Department that they would not go against the plea agreement, according to an NBC News report.

Lyons pushed through with the plea bargain as she believed that it would advance the larger interest of justice while allowing for "some healing to begin."

Meanwhile, several people supported the federal judge's decision to reject the plea bargain.

A Twitter user with @AdlaisWorld for his handle noted that they should be thanking Wood for upholding justice.

Prosecutors reached a plea deal with Gregory and Travis McMichael that wouldve averted hate crime charges.

Judge Lisa Wood rejected the plea deal.



The prosecutors betrayed Ahmaud Arbery and his family. Lets thank Judge Lisa Wood for and upholding justice. #DemVoice1 #BLM  | (@AdlaisWorld) January 31, 2022

Twitter user @gojoe_joe also appreciated the judge's decision on the plea bargain, saying that the judge did not buy the "bullshit plea deal."

Well

The good news today is the Judge in the Ahmaud Arbery case didn't buy the bullshit plea deal the murderers lawyer tried today and Justice Stands.  Just Joe / Democracy is under attack  (@gojoe_joe) February 1, 2022

Another Twitter user, @cornfednegro,2 also shared his two cents on the plea bargain that was offered to the McMichaels, questioning since when suspects get to choose their own terms in serving their sentence.

Since when do CONVICTED murderers get to choose the hole they rot in??????? #AhmaudArbery https://t.co/rKo3BdQbG5  Wrestle Westbrook (@cornfednegro2) January 31, 2022

Meanwhile, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said that she was satisfied with the court's decision to slam the sentencing terms of the offered plea deal.

Ahmaud Arbery Killing Case

In November, the McMichaels and their neighbor William Bryan were found guilty of murdering Arbery, a 25-year-old black man.

Travis and Gregory received life sentences without the possibility of parole, while Bryan got a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

It became one of the most closely watched trials after a series of killings against black men were reported, including George Floyd's case, as reported by The New York Times.

The killing of Arbery was caught in video footage that was leaked to the public.

Ahmaud Arbery was running in Satilla Shores when Gregory saw him go by. He said that Arbery looked like a man that was suspected of property crimes in the area.

Byran recorded a video of the incident, with Travis handling a shotgun while Greg is in the bed of the pickup with a handgun.

Travis said that he opened fire only after Arbery attacked him with fists and tried to grab his shotgun. Three shotgun blasts were heard and Arbery was seen to fall to the pavement after a few steps.

READ MORE: Ahmaud Arbery Murder: 3 Georgia Men Get Life in Prison but No Parole for Father and Son

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Judge rejects plea deal for man convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery - from CBS Evening News






The Biden administration on Monday rescinded the deportation of a Mexican illegal immigrant accused of being a "hit-and-run" driver in 2020. It came amid the implentation of the new rules the Department of Homeland and Security (DHS) announced in September.

Initially, the DHS wanted the Mexican hit-and-run driver, identified as Heriberto Fuerte-Padilla, to be deported after authorities from Texas issued their punishment in connection to his crime in 2020, The Daily Mail reported.

However, on Monday, the DHS changed their decision contending that the individual "does not qualify" for priority deportation under Mayorkas' new rule published last year.

READ NEXT: Biden's Vaccine Mandate Battle: Alaska Joins Texas in Lawsuit Against the Administration After Requiring National Guard's Vaccination

Mexican Hit-and-Run Driver Deportation Issue

The Biden administration's decision on Monday came after Fuerte-Padilla caused the death of a 19-year-old girl in Texas, named Adrienne Sophia Exum, ABC 13 reported.

According to reports, an altercation broke out in the 200 block of West Road, prompting one of the men to get in Exum's car and drive off while the door was open. Harris County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Aric Albers noted that the 19-year-old girl was ejected out of the car sustaining injuries after her Mazda was hit by a Dodge pickup truck driven by Fuerte-Padilla.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales noted that Fuerte-Padilla tried to get away after the incident but was still detained by the officer. The Mexican hit-and-run driver was then charged with Driving With Influence (DWI), as he was found intoxicated and failed to render aid.

Despite the crime Fuerte-Padilla committed, the new rules imposed by the DHS do not qualify the Mexican illegal immigrant for deportation anymore, Washington Times noted.

Under the new DHS guidance on deportations, illegal immigrants must be a "national security risk, a recent border jumper, or a public security risk."

"Enforcement priorities for apprehension and removal remain focused on noncitizens who are a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security," the DHS new guidance reads.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also gave instructions that border agents and officers "must evaluate and balance criminal convictions against mitigating factors," including how long the illegal immigrants stayed in the country, how old their crimes are, and the implication of the deportation to their families.

Mayorkas also reiterated that being in the United States "illegally" is not a ground for being deported back to their home country.

"The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen will not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them," Mayorkas pointed out. The DHS secretary then furthered that their agency would utilize their "discretion" and focus their enforcement resources "in a more targeted way."

Other Detained Illegal Immigrants Affected by Biden's New Rule on Deportation

Fuerte-Padilla is not the only illegal immigrant that was affected by the new rules issued by the Biden administration when it comes to deportation.

Guatemalan Jose Godoy Vasquez's deportation was also canceled by the ICE last month over the new priorities of the DHS. Vasquez was reportedly convicted of drunk driving in 2013, as well drug possession and domestic violence from 2019 to 2021. His sentence currently runs through 2025, per Daily Mail.

Another case was a Thai named Nay Thar, who was convicted of drug possession in 2017. He was also charged for drunk driving and fleeing the police in 2018 as well as sneaking contraband in 2020.

Reports noted that Thar was released this month, but his deportation request was canceled.

READ NEXT: Biden Administration Hits 8 Cuban Officials With U.S. Travel Bans Over Imprisonment of Peaceful Protesters

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Biden Administration Ramping up Border Deportations and Prosecutions - From CBS News
Some Republicans have expressed concern over former U.S. President Donald Trump's talk at a recent Texas rally, offering to consider pardoning people who were convicted of participating in the January 6 Capitol attack.

A number of Republicans said that the former president would "do it all again" if he regains his position in the White House in 2024, according to a Reuters report.

The GOP was referring to the former president's speech in a Texas rally, wherein he told his supporters that he would consider pardoning those prosecuted for the January 6 Capitol attack.

Trump said that if he wins the White House, he will treat the January 6 people fairly, adding that if it requires pardons, that is what he would do.

Rep. Liz Cheney was among the Republicans who expressed their concern on Trump's rhetoric. On Twitter, the Republican lawmaker said that Trump uses language that he knows caused the January 6 insurrection.

Trump uses language he knows caused the Jan 6 violence; suggests hed pardon the Jan 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy; threatens prosecutors; and admits he was attempting to overturn the election.



Hed do it all again if given the chance.  Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) January 31, 2022

American actor Rob Reinier also expressed his opinion regarding the former president, saying that Trump is guilty of the worst crime a "president has ever committed."

Fact: Trump is guilty of the worst crime a President has ever committed against the United States in our Nations history.  Rob Reiner (@robreiner) January 29, 2022

READ NEXT: Michael Cohen Says Former President Donald Trump Told Him if One of His Kids Would Be Imprisoned, Make Sure It Was Donald Jr., Not Ivanka

Donald Trump Texas Rally

Meanwhile, Texas Republicans had cheered on a possible run of the former president for the White House.

Pro-Trump state leaders Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller have expressed that they are keen on the idea of Trump running for office again.

Patrick introduced Trump as the "45th and soon-to-be 47th" U.S. president. He noted that he has a feeling if "45 wants to be 47," America will be supporting him with his bid, according to a CHRON report.

Aside from pardon talks for the January 6 rioters, Trump had also called on his supporters for the "biggest protests ever" if the prosecutors, who launched an investigation against him, are found to be doing "anything illegal."

He described the prosecutors as "radical, vicious, and racist." Trump then told his supporters that the prosecutors probing him and his business are not after him, but that they are after them.

He added that he just happened to be the person in the way, according to an Independent report.

Trump claimed that the prosecutors investigating him are going after him without any regard for his rights given by the Supreme Court or most other courts.

White House press ecretary Jen Psaki commented on Trump's rally speech, saying that he had even attacked his own vice president, who was Mike Pence, for not having overturned the election.

One Twitter user, @cwebbbonline, said that there would be no justice if Trump would not be prosecuted for his crimes.

If this man is not prosecuted for crimes against the United States, there is no justice. #TrumpRally

pic.twitter.com/znLSAMBGYB  Christopher  Proud Dem (@cwebbonline) January 30, 2022

Meanwhile, another Twitter user @teaPainUSA said that Trump called on his rally to incite riots in at least three major cities if he is arrested.

What Trump said at his Texas rally last night was far worse than incitin an insurrection at the Capitol. He called for riots in at least three major cities if hes arrested. This is right out of the Mussolini playbook.  Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) January 30, 2022

The Twitter user compared the former president to Benito Mussolini, who was an Italian fascist dictator from 1925 to 1945.

Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, also voiced his concerns, saying he does not want to do anything that would make the Capitol incident repeat in the future.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Jr. Begged Mark Meadows to Urge His Father to Stop Capitol Riot, Texts Reveal

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: FULL SPEECH: Former President Donald Trump speaks at 'Save America' rally in Conroe, Texas - from KPRC 2 Click2Houston






ABC's "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg received backlash for repeatedly asserting that "the Holocaust isn't about race" despite the systematic killing of around six million Jews and five million others as a result of the Nazis' racist ideology.

Her comments came during a segment of the talk show on Monday that focused in part on a Tennessee school district's decision to ban the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel "Maus," which depicts the horrors of the Holocaust and experiences of a Holocaust survivor.

Earlier this month, the book was removed from the eighth-grade English language arts curriculum in McMinn County, Tennessee, citing "rough, objectionable language" and a drawing of a naked woman.

During the roundtable conversation, Goldberg said she was surprised that the school board seemed to be more concerned about the nudity in "Maus" rather than the Holocaust itself.

The discussion then shifted to how some people attempt to prevent schools from teaching controversial aspects of the country's history, notably those dealing with race and racism, CNN reported.

Goldberg responded, "Let's be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn't about race." Her co-hosts appeared stunned.

She went on to say that the Holocaust was about "man's inhumanity to man," and that it involved "two White groups of people."

Whoopi Goldberg Says Holocaust Is About 'How People Treat Each Other'

According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Adolf Hitler addressed this very issue in 1919 as he referred to the Jews "as a race and not a religious community." He defined their presence as a "race-tuberculosis of the people.'"

Fox News reported that some of her co-hosts began challenging her statements when Goldberg again insisted that the Holocaust was not about race.

The Nazis regarded Jews to be a different race, according to Behar, while Ana Navarro noted that the Holocaust was "about White supremacy," with both Jews and Roma people killed by the Nazis. The Nazis, according to Sara Haines, did not view Jews as White.

The interview ended after Goldberg continued to assert that the underlying issue was how people treat each other.

"It's how people treat each other. It's a problem. It doesn't matter if you're Black, or White, cause Black, White, Jews, Italians, everybody eats each other," Goldberg said.

READ NEXT: Cheslie Kryst Dead After Jumping From 60-Story Building; Miss USA 2019 Hints Suicide in Last Instagram Post

Whoopi Goldberg Apologizes After She Receives Backlash

Shortly after Whoopi Goldberg's statements began to circulate, among those who slammed her was the non-profit organization Stop Antisemitism, which tweeted that six million of them were gassed, starved, and massacred because they were deemed an inferior race by the Nazis, Daily Mail reported.

"How dare you minimize our trauma and suffering!" the organization said.

The U.S. Holocaust Museum also tweeted that racism was central to Nazi ideology. It noted that Jews were not defined by religion but by race, adding that Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder.

Goldberg's views were also slammed by the Anti-Defamation League's CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, saying that the Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people, who are deemed to be an inferior race.

"Holocaust distortion is dangerous," Greenblatt noted. It was not the first time that Whoopi Goldberg has made a controversial statement.

In 2010, she had previously defended convicted sex offender Bill Cosby and actor Mel Gibson after he was heard in an audio recording calling a Latino member of staff a "wetback."

Meanwhile, Whoopi Goldberg posted a statement on Twitter expressing her "sincerest apologies" later on Monday.

She wrote: "On today's show, I said the Holocaust 'is not about race, but about man's inhumanity to man.' I should have said it is about both. I stand corrected. The Jewish people around the world have always had my support, and that will never waiver. I'm sorry for the hurt I have caused."

READ MORE: DNA Points to Suspect of 2005 Killing; Authorities Arrest Man 17 Years After Murder

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Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Whoopi Goldberg Slammed After Saying Holocaust Not About Race - From New York Post
Another reporter was shot dead in Mexico, marking the fourth Mexican journalist killed in the country this year.

Three gunmen killed Roberto Toledo on Monday afternoon in a carpark at Zitacuaro City in the state of Michoacan. Toledo was a journalist at the local news website Monitor Michoacan.

Reports said he had just arrived at the law offices of the deputy director of the outlet when three armed men shot him. According to The Guardian, the region is known for violence as drug cartels, and criminal groups fight to control illegal logging.

Armando Linares, director of the Monitor Michoacan, posted a video on YouTube, wherein he expressed his apologies to the slain journalist's family.

Linares said that exposing governmental corruption had caused the death of one of their colleagues. The local news outlet's director noted that they do not carry weapons, and they only have "a pen and a notebook to defend ourselves."

Linares said that the Monitor Michoacan team had "suffered weeks, months of death threats" for exposing corrupt administrations and corrupt officials and politicians.

"We know where all of this comes from," he added. However, Linares did not identify those he thought were responsible.

Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists Jan-Albert Hootsen said Toledo was a camera operator and video editor for the Monitor Michoacan.

Hootsen noted that they classified Toledo as a media worker or press worker, CBS News reported.

READ NEXT: Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega's Critic Edgard Paralles Picked Up by Two People Not in Police Uniform and Was Detained

Mexico: Other Mexican Journalists Killed

A Tijuana photojournalist was shot dead outside his home on January 17 as he left for work.

Margarito Martinez Esquivel also worked as a journalist assisting international outlets, including the BBC. His 16-year-old daughter heard gunshots and found her father's body by his car, according to San Diego Union-Tribune.

Martinez has filed an official complaint about the threats he had received through Facebook that referred to his work as a journalist. The threats were made a month ago before he was killed.

On January 23, Mexican journalist Lourdes Maldonado Lopez, who covered politics and corruption, was shot dead as she arrived at her home in Tijuana. Her colleagues said one of the windows of her vehicle was already covered in plastic as it had been shattered previously by gunfire.

On January 10, Jose Luis Gamboa's body was found in the Floresta neighborhood in Veracruz. Gamboa had been stabbed at least seven times, according to Committee to Protect Journalists report.

Hootsen earlier said that Gamboa's brutal killing was a sign that Mexico may continue to see the slayings of reporters. He noted that authorities must do everything to identify Gamboa's killers and determine if his death was related to his work as a reporter.

Gamboa founded and edited the Inforegio news website. He also co-founded and edited the news website La Noticia while publishing news on his personal Facebook page.

In the states of Yucatan and Oaxaca, two journalists survived attacks against them.

Mexico is the Most Dangerous Country in The World for Journalists

In the recent annual report of Reporters Without Borders report, the Latin American nation has once again become the most dangerous country in the world for journalists for the third consecutive year, NBC News reported.

Various organizations, including the group Article 19, noted that 148 Mexican journalists had been killed in Mexico since 2000.

Under the administration of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 28 journalists were already killed. Many Mexican journalists accused Lopez Obrador of failing to take meaningful actions to protect them and their colleagues.

Javier Garza, a journalist in the city of Torreon, said the president keeps on saying that the state no longer persecutes journalists, which is correct. However, Garza noted that Lopez Obrador does not stop any other perpetrators from attacking members of the press.

READ MORE: Clashing Mexican Drug Cartels Leave 2 Police and 7 Others Dead in Mexico

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Mexico's Journalists at Risk - From DW Documentary






Rachel Zegler hits back at critics who slammed plans for a Disney live-action remake of "Snow White" with the Latina actress playing the main character.

Zegler opened up with actor Andrew Garfield for Variety's Actors on Actors roundtable, where she blasted the "hate" that she and the production received for casting a Latina to play the role of "Snow White."

READ NEXT: West Side Story Stars Rachel Zegler, Rita Moreno, Ariana DeBose Speak Out on Ansel Elgort's Sexual Allegations

Latin Actress Rachel Zegler On Critics of Disney's 'Snow White' Live-Action

Rachel Zegler candidly recalled with actor Andrew Garfield how the issue trended on social media, saying that "all of the people were angry" when she was cast to play Snow White in the upcoming Disney film.

Zegler told Garfield that when it was announced, "it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days." The actor then responded that those people who were spreading hate need to be "educated" and need to be brought into "awareness."

The "West Side Story" star then agreed with Garfield, saying that those who criticized her race should be given love "in the right direction."

Zegler underscored that despite the hate, she was still excited to play the role that would give her a chance to become a "Latina princess." She also opened up that she did not imagine that she would be cast as "Snow White."

"Never in a million years did I imagine that this would be a possibility for me. You don't usually see Snow Whites that are of Latin descent even though Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries," the Latina actress noted.

Zegler then cited the 2012 black-and-white Spanish film "BlancaNieves" based on the 1812 fairy tale "Snow White" by the Brothers Grimm.

The Latina actress noted that "BlancaNieves is a huge icon," whether it was the Disney cartoon or any other iterations of the story, the Grimm fairy tale, and all the stories that come with it.

"But you don't particularly see people who look like me playing roles like that," Zegler said.

At present, the 20-year-old Colombian-American actress said she was just excited to do a job that she's "really excited to do," which is to be a Latina princess.

Peter Dinklage on Disney's 'Snow White' Live-Action

Among the critics of the upcoming "Snow White" live-action was "Game of Thrones" star, Peter Dinklage, telling podcaster Marc Maron that the remake was "f***ing backwards."

Dinklage noted that he was a "little taken aback" when it was announced that an actress of Latin descent would be stepping into the iconic role of Snow White.

"You're still telling the story of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.' Take a step back and look at what you're doing there. It makes no sense to me. You're progressive in one way and you're still making that f***ing backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together," Dinklage noted.

In June, it was revealed that Marc Webb will direct "Snow White." At that time, sources told Deadline that Rachel Zegler would star as the lead role in Disney's new live-action adaptation of the fairly tale.

Webb lauded Zegler's ability and said she would be an "integral part" of the film. The entirety of the cast of the upcoming Disney live-action film is still unclear.

However, reports noted that Gal Gadot would play as the Evil Queen, while Andrew Burnap as a newly created male lead character. Production is scheduled to take place this year.

READ MORE: Nick Cannon Under Fire as Fans Grill Comedian Over Alleged New Baby With Bre Tiesi

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Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Andrew Garfield & Rachel Zegler | Actors on Actors - Full Conversation - From Variety
While battling a dumpster fire, a California firefighter was shot and killed in Stockton on Monday morning, officials said.

Captain Vidal "Max" Fortuna's fellow firefighters tried to save his life before taking him to a local hospital. However, he was pronounced dead, leaving behind a wife and two grown children.

In a press conference on Monday, Stockton Fire Chief Richard Edwards said the Stockton Fire Department's Emergency Communications Division received a 911 call at around 4:45 a.m. for a dumpster fire in the area of Washington and Aurora streets.

A few minutes later, Edwards noted that "Engine 2" arrived on the scene and found a dumpster fire impinging on a structure.

California Firefighter Killed While Responding to a Fire

According to Richard Edwards, gunshots were heard as firefighters were extinguishing the fire, and the "Fire Captain of Engine 2" was shot.

Firefighters quickly provided EMS care and transferred the 21-year veteran of the department to the hospital. However, Edwards said the 47-year-old firefighter has succumbed to his injuries.

Police said a suspect was arrested, and a firearm was recovered at the scene. Police identified him as Robert Somerville, 67, a food truck business owner.

Police said Somerville allegedly used a .380 caliber handgun in the shooting. The suspect is now booked in San Joaquin County jail with weapon and homicide charges.

Stockton Police Department spokesperson Joe Silva said the detectives were still trying to piece together what led to the shooting.

Silva told Fox News Digital that they still don't have a motive and don't know if the victim and the suspect knew each other. Officials confirmed that the shooting is still being investigated. It remains unclear whether Fortuna was deliberately or randomly shot.

Edwards described the shooting as his "worst nightmare," adding that it was a "very, very sad day" for the fire department.

Stockton Professional Firefighters Union President Mario Gardea recalled Fortuna as a firefighter who "never complains" and truly enjoys his job.

"Max was a firefighter who showed up every day and never complained about being on the job. I really don't know too many other firefighters who enjoy the job as much as him," Gardea noted

READ NEXT: Cheslie Kryst Dead After Jumping From 60-Story Building; Miss USA 2019 Hints Suicide in Last Instagram Post

Suspect's Son Sends Condolences to Family of California Firefighter

Robert Somerville's son, Tre Somerville, spoke across the street from the crime scene and said his family would like to send their condolences to the Fortuna family, as CBS 13 reported.

Tre said he believes "it's just a freak circumstance" or "some kind of misunderstanding" since his father does not have "any prior violent history."

"He's really a community man, as well," he added.

Meanwhile, Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln said they would do everything they can to support Fortuna's family and the fire department. Lincoln noted that Fortuna was a true hero.

On Monday afternoon, the Stockton Fire and Police Departments escorted Fortuna from the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office to Casa Bonita Funeral Home. The hearse was accompanied by around a dozen police officers on motorcycles and two fire trucks.

Officer Joe Silva of the Stockton Police Department said the incident "just shows the dangers" of their job.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, two firefighters were murdered while on duty in 2020. The first firefighter was shot while investigating a report of smoke, and the other was during an arson investigation.

READ MORE: DNA Points to Suspect of 2005 Killing; Authorities Arrest Man 17 Years After Murder

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Stockton Firefighter Killed in Shooting While Responding to Fire, Officials Say - From KCRA News
BEIRUT, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh was summoned on Tuesday by a judge after he failed to show up for interrogation sessions over a lawsuit accusing him of financial misconduct.

Judge Ghada Aoun said that Salameh had missed three separate sessions and she had circulated the subpoena to security agencies, the Elnashra news website reported.

Salameh has previously denied charges against him while claiming that investigations were politically motivated.

Salameh, who is among the top Lebanese officials widely blamed for the country's unprecedented financial crisis, has been the target of a series of judicial lawsuits at home and abroad involving money laundering, illicit enrichment and other charges. 
Portland, TN (37148)

Today

Cloudy skies during the morning hours followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 81F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Low 64F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Three members of the same family who were involved in a persistent and vicious attack involving Stanley knives and a hatchet have been jailed for two and a half years each.

Dublin Circuit Court heard that Michael Stokes (35), Richard Stokes (26) and Simon Stokes (28), all with an address at Kishogue Park, Lucan, Dublin pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Michael Ward on June 3, 2015.

Detective Garda Gerrit Durnin told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that on the evening of that date the three men arrived at the victim's home at Palmer Court, Rush, Dublin.

Mr Ward was in an upstairs bedroom watching TV, and his partner Rachel Tennant who was six and a half months pregnant at the time was bathing their one-year-old child. Two other children were watching TV downstairs.

Ms Tennant heard voices and came out of the bathroom to find the defendants coming up the stairs shouting, "Where is he?" Mr Ward came out of the bedroom, saw the three men and shouted at his partner to get the children out of the house.

The three attackers then proceeded to assault Mr Ward using Stanley knives and a hatchet and by hitting and punching him.

After the three men had left the house, Mr Ward thought he was dying, and all he could think of was his children. His partner rushed back into the house, grabbed a towel, and placed pressure on a wound on his right leg.

When the emergency services arrived, they found Mr Ward on the floor with a large amount of blood surrounding him. He was hospitalised for 12 days and treated for injuries to the arms, face, head and an open fracture to the tibia, which required surgery.

The three accused were arrested and a trial date set for 2019. The trial was delayed because the victim in this case, Mr Ward, was facing a trial for a separate offending. The court also heard that Mr Ward is currently serving time in prison.

In October last (2021) the Stokes pleaded guilty to the assault charges.

The court heard that Richard Stokes is a married father of four who is currently caring for his wife on a full-time basis. He has six previous convictions and has not come to the attention of the gardai since this assault over six years ago.

Garnet Orange SC for Michael Stokes outlined to the court that his client has no previous convictions, and is a married father of seven children. He told the court that his client's wife and son both suffer from health conditions and he has a very hands-on role within the family.

The court heard that Michael Stokes offered apologies to Michael Ward, his partner and children for the attack. In addition, his probation services report outlines that he is at low risk of reoffending and has no alcohol or drug addictions.

Paddy McGrath SC for Simon Stokes told the court his client has a stable family life with his wife and three children, and over the past six there have been substantial and positive changes in his client's life. He said his client has attended for anger management issues, has raised money for charity and has feelings of guilt and remorse for the victim and the victim's family.

Judge Martin Nolan noted that the attack was a vicious and persistent attack where the victim received many lacerations, blows, punches and a fracture. The judge noted this was a terrifying experience for Ms Tennant and their children.

Judge Nolan considered the mitigating factors when sentencing, such as the positive probation reports, the guilty pleas of all three accused, as well as their expressions of remorse. The judge also noted that the three accused were unlikely to re-offend to this degree again.

Judge Nolan stated that a custodial sentence could not be avoided, and no court can condone where three strong men force their way into a family home and carry out an attack.

Judge Nolan handed down a two-and-a-half year sentence to each of the accused.
An unexpected law change making it now illegal for farmers to burn bushes has Laois councillors up in arms.

All 18 councillors are demanding that the law be changed back, with several claiming that alternatives will also pollute the environment.

They want Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan to make an exemption for this spring, with piles of waste already cut and gathered on Laois farms to be burnt.

They also had helped farmers to fill out forms to permit the burning and now say the change has left them "hung out" after being inundated with calls.

"All farmers have been told there's no more burning bushes. In the name of God where did this come from? What else did you do in your life other than burn? We never knew anything was taking place" said Cllr Willie Aird, a dairy farmer.

"I can't believe that Charlie McConalogue signed this, it's political suicide," he added.

Cllr Ollie Clooney is also a farmer.

"It's unworkable. It takes that long to dry bushes. A lot of heaps are left. It will have to be changed and absolution given at least for the short term. I've bushes myself, unless I turn them into an archeological site," he said.

He warned that the burning can be policed by satellite.

"They know the parcels of land and farmers will suffer, it will be easily picked up," he said.

Cllr John King predicted that lands will become wild.

"It is shocking news. Farmers in tillage always trim in winter. It was working well. You'll have wildlife and foxes, it will go back to the wild west. It's backwards we're going," he said.

"This is the green tail wagging the dog. Two years ago people were stopped from bringing in turf on their own bogs. We can't change the law but the Minister can," Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley said.

"Invite the Minister down to face the onslaught, he needs to come out of Kildare Street," said another councillor.

On January 1 2022, a nationwide Irish legal exemption that had been extended every year for a decade allowing farmers to burn green waste like bush and tree trimmings unexpectedly ended.

The Waste Management (Prohibition of Waste Disposal by Burning) Regulations 2009 prevents anyone from burning outdoors. Farmers could now be reported and pay a callout by the fire service if they light what are now illegal bonfires on their land.

The change is a shock not just to Laois farmers and councillors, but to Laois County Council.

Director of Services Simon Walton said that he only became aware of the law change on January 25, but emphasised that it is now illegal for farmers to burn this waste.

The CEO Cllr John Mulholland said they have been given no extra money to police the law.

"We have quite a range of environmental laws to monitor and enforce, smoky coal and so on. We have not been provided with any additional resources. But if any householder knows the law, they can report to us and action must be taken. The council is obliged by law to respond," Mr Mulholland said.

Cllr Willie Aird a farmer asked what would happen if farmers go ahead and burn anyway.

"Who'll police that? You're hardly going to send out people?" he asked.

"It's the law of the land," Mr Walton told him.

He admitted that if as is suggested farmers transport all their green waste to Kyletalesha landfill, it would be "completely overwhelmed".

Cllr Padraig Fleming said that it would be "stockpiled 50 feet in the sky".

"This is totally about the environment but what about the diesel to transport it?" he said.

Cllr PJ Kelly estimated it will cost him 3,000 to bring his green waste to the landfill.

"It would be nearly cheaper to set fire to it and pay the cost of the fire brigade," he said.

Cllr Paddy Bracken said it was "clean burning".

"It is very clean burning in terms of the environmental impact. It's going backwards. Farmers are very responsible. There should be an exemption with the pressure they are under. The cost of fertilizer is 1,000 a tonne now," he said.

Cllr John King also argued that using a shredder instead to spread the green waste would be "polluting the area".

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald proposed that they ask the three local TDs, Charlie Flanagan, Sean Fleming and Brian Stanley to meet them and raise it in the Dail. A letter is also to be sent to the Minister.
ANKARA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's annual foreign trade deficit fell by 7.5 percent year-on-year to 46.13 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, according to the official data released on Monday.

The country's exports increased by 32.8 percent to 225.29 billion dollars in 2021, and imports increased by 23.6 percent to 271.42 billion dollars, according to figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute.

With an increase in energy import costs, the country's foreign trade deficit jumped by 49.3 percent to 6.79 billion dollars in December last year, up from 4.55 billion dollars in the same month of the previous year. In December 2020, the export-to-import ratio was 79.7 percent, and the figure dropped to 76.6 percent in December 2021.

Exports jumped by 24.9 percent to 22.28 billion dollars in December, compared to the same month of the previous year, while imports increased by 29.9 percent to 29.7 billion dollars.

The ratio of exports to imports was 83 percent in 2021, up from 77.3 percent in 2020.

Germany, the United States, and Britain were Turkey's three largest importers in 2021, with 19.32 billion dollars, 14.72 billion dollars, and 13.7 billion dollars respectively in imports from Turkey.

China, Russia, Germany, and the United States were Turkey's four top exporters in 2021, with exports totalling 32.2 billion dollars, 29 billion dollars, 21.7 billion dollars, and 13.1 billion dollars, respectively.

Last year, manufacturing industry products accounted for 94.5 percent of total exports in Turkey, whereas high-technology products accounted for 3 percent of the country's manufacturing industry exports. 
The Barrow Blueway located at Monasterevin, Kildare is to be completed this year, the government has confirmed.

Previously, the project was granted planning permission back in 2019 to complete the development of the existing 46km towpath from Lowtown to Athy.

In a parliamentary reply to Labour Party (LP) TD Duncan Smith, the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government confirmed the following: "Waterways Ireland was granted planning permission for the development of the existing towpath from Lowtown to Athy, a distance of approximately 46km in 2019."

"The project objectives are to:

(1) Provide upgraded and new physical infrastructure in accordance with planning permission;

(2) Provision of infrastructure to achieve Accredited Blueway status for the route; and

(3) Co-ordinate marketing activity to maximise the potential of the Blueway.

"Work commenced on site in the late summer of 2020, with completion of works by Waterways Ireland expected in late 2022."

Waterways Ireland added: "In order to ensure the Barrow Navigation remains navigable and as accessible as possible into the future, priorities include the delivery of the 46km Blueway route from Lowtown to Athy in partnership with Kildare and Laois County Councils and the development and approval of a five-year strategic maintenance programme to the planning authorities."

The news has been welcomed by Athy LP Senator Mark Wall, who said: "This amenity has already benefited the entire South Kildare and Laois areas."

"It is very positive to hear that Waterways Ireland hope to have it completed by the end of the year.

"I also welcome the news that a five year strategic maintenance programme is currently in discussion: I look forward to its completion and the benefits it will bring to the areas it travels through," he added.
A warning on the risk of a "rapid increase" in Inflammatory Bowel Disease due to growing waiting lists for treatment has been given by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association.

A Consultant Gastroenterologist and Acute Medical Physician at Mayo University Hospital has warned that regional hospitals in Ireland are finding it increasingly difficult to attract the necessary number of Consultants and younger doctors.

It comes as growing waiting lists for gastroenterological procedures are having a serious impact on outcomes and quality of life for patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and other conditions.

Speaking today (January 31) on behalf of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), Dr Brian Egan, pictured, said that there are around 40,000 people in Ireland who are already living with IBD.

Dr Egan said that even before the pandemic, Mayo University Hospital had a waiting list of about a thousand patients in his specialty.

But according to the IHCA, his hospitals situation is not unique: in Ireland overall, there are almost 17,000 people waiting to see a Consultant Gastroenterologist for diagnosis or treatment - an increase of 71% since December 2015, or an additional 7,000 patients.

The pandemic has had a major impact on gastroenterology throughout the country. Many of us who work in the care of patients with stomach and bowel problems and liver disease were re-allocated in the first wave of the pandemic to treat patients with Covid, said Dr Egan.

It also resulted in an absolute stop of scheduled work, which is essential for early detection and prevention of stomach cancer, bowel cancer, and oesophageal cancer.

Dr Egan said that his team at Mayo University Hospital was seeing much later presentations of cancer, often people who have waited months following a referral. He noted that as a small hospital, there are limited specialist resources which means that it is almost impossible to keep up with the sheer volume of patients waiting for diagnosis and care in the region.

Dr Egan was speaking as part of the IHCAs Care Cant Wait campaign, which seeks to highlight the serious deficits faced by healthcare staff and services in delivering timely patient care in Ireland, their root causes, and their effects on patients lives and quality of life.

There are almost 17,000 people waiting to see a Consultant Gastroenterologist for diagnosis or treatment - an increase of 71% since December 2015.



The severe shortage of Consultants is the main contributor to the unacceptable delays in providing care to patients.#CareCantWait pic.twitter.com/WNrzMlBt2x  IHCA (@IHCA_IE) January 31, 2022

Ireland has the lowest number of medical specialists per 1,000 population in Europe at 1.48, 42% below the EU average of 2.54. The IHCA says the severe shortage of Consultants is the main contributor to the unacceptable delays in providing care to patients.

One in five permanent Consultant posts in Ireland across all specialties are currently vacant or not filled as needed.

In gastroenterology, 10 of the 82 approved Consultant posts were vacant (as at 8 February 2021) - or 12% of the total.

With a further 9% of all Consultant posts in Medicine (which includes gastroenterology) filled on a temporary or agency basis, around 20% of Consultant gastroenterology posts are understood to be not filled as needed.

A shortage in one area, such as gastroenterology, can have a knock-on effect on another, such as oncology, and vice versa, as some patients have multiple diseases or comorbidities.

To cope with Irelands growing population, and the rising incidence of gastroenterological disease, the IHCA says the HSE will need to hire 67 additional Consultant Gastroenterologists by 2028  an increase of nearly 80% on current staffing levels in this area.

However, successful recruitment and retention of top medical talent is an ongoing and serious issue.

A report published in December 2021 by the Medical Council revealed the severity of the Consultant recruitment and retention crisis. According to the report, 44% of specialist trainees intend to go abroad to practise medicine, meaning that at a time when more Consultants and doctors are badly needed, the health system in Ireland is losing them.

The impact is most pronounced in Irelands regional hospitals, according to the IHCA.

Were finding it increasingly difficult to attract consultants and younger doctors to work in our hospitals, said Dr Egan.

He said that Irish doctors are highly regarded as experts abroad.

"Our specialists are emigrating to countries which dont discriminates against consultants. The pay inequity imposed on Consultants appointed after 2012 has caused a recruitment and retention crisis, massive increases in waiting lists and delayed care for patients. Countries such as Australia also offer incomparable conditions through better work-life balance, and well-resourced services which allow for more effective and timely provision of care to patients.

Trying to attract these doctors back to our regional hospitals in Ireland with more onerous on-call duties, less resources, and reduced access to specialist care is really difficult, he said.

Bed capacity also remains an issue across the country, but particularly in regional hospitals like Mayo University Hospital.

In terms of bed capacity, we [Mayo University Hospital] have one of the lowest acute bed per population ratios in Ireland. We need about 60 beds to bring us up to the national average and an additional 200 beds to bring us up to the EU average, said Dr Egan.

Professor Alan Irvine, President of the IHCA, added: Without urgent Government action, our ability to provide essential care to patients with serious illnesses will decrease significantly. While Irish doctors are among the best in the world, with so many posts unfilled across so many specialties, there is a limit to what we can achieve and that shouldnt be the case in a developed nation like Ireland.

The solution is simple. We must appoint additional Consultants and address the long-standing issues of pay inequity and poor working conditions quickly. The longer the Government fails to act, the longer waiting lists become and the worse our ability to provide rapid and effective diagnosis and treatment to patients.

Many other Western countries, including Australia and Canada, provide timely, world-leading care to patients and an efficient, empathetic, and fair place to work for doctors, and other frontline healthcare staff. We must learn from their example, Prof Irvine said.
Minister for Education Norma Foley has proposed scrapping any plans for a hybrid Leaving Certificate (LC) later this year.

It follows after the General Secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI), Kieran Christie, voiced concerns about the possibility of a hybrid LC for 2022 last month, according to RTE News.

RTE also reported last month that an online survey carried out by the Irish Second Level Students' Union found that 68 per cent of LC students want a hybrid State exam model this year; a move the Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon, said he was "fully supportive" of.

It is understood that the Department of Education believes it is not possible to adopt an accredited grades approach like last year.

The Dept cited the fact that one quarter of the students did not sit the Junior Cert, and therefore the necessary data would not be available to examiners.

While the proposal was welcomed by Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney, there have been critics to the proposal from Minister Foley.

Social Democrats Education Spokesperson Gary Gannon TD said in a recent statement that the decision not to proceed with a hybrid LC this year "is a crushing blow for students and their families."

He said: "This year is not a normal year, so we cannot have a normal LC."

"The lived experience of Leaving Cert students, throughout these unprecedented two years, must be acknowledged by Minister for Education Norma Foley.

"It cannot be business as usual  simply because that makes life easier for the Minister and her Dept," he added.

His sentiments were echoed by Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty TD, who told RTE's Morning Ireland programme that the decision to revert to a traditional leaving cert examination was a "desperate one".

He further referred to it as "a regressive step."
Opposition parties have decried reports that Education Minister Normal Foley is planning to rule out a hybrid approach to state exams, with Sinn Fein education spokesperson Donnchadh O' Laoghaire calling it a desperate decision.

Absolutely gutted for leaving Cert students, he tweeted.

The Minister has refused to listen to students, and failed to understand the level of disruption. Tradition should not trump sense or fairness.

The Irish Government will meet today (Tuesday February 1) to discuss plans regarding what form the Leaving Certificate will take this year.

Recent weeks have seen calls for a rethink about how school exams are to be held in Ireland this year, amid concerns about the disruption students have faced.

Staff absences caused by Covid-19, as well as the experience of school during a two-year long pandemic, have prompted calls for another year of a non-traditional Leaving Certificate exam.

These calls focused on a hybrid approach to exams in which students would have a choice between sitting exams and accredited grades.

Opposition parties were quick to stress their opposition to any move that would rule out a hybrid option.

Labour TD Aodhan O' Riordain, who has been campaigning on the issue, said he was devastated for students who had campaigned on the issue.

In a post on Twitter, he said: This is a betrayal by a dept with no imagination, welded to tradition having convinced themselves that all is fine.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, when asked about the issue on RTE radio this morning, said he understood it had been incredibly stressful for students.

All I can say is first, Minister Norma Foley has been working on this issue since August.

Shes listened to an awful lot of different interested parties and stakeholders, and obviously is working with her department and trying to get this right. One of the big problems here is that one in four students doing their Leaving Cert this year, didnt do their Junior Cert, because of Covid.

This is a desperate decision. Absolutely gutted for leaving Cert students. The Minister has refused to listen to students, & failed to understand the level of disruption. Tradition should not trump sense or fairness Will be raising directly with Minister in Dail tomorrow night https://t.co/8XpgeHWI6k  Donnchadh O Laoghaire (@Donnchadhol) January 31, 2022

I think Minister Foley and the Department of Education has shown remarkable flexibility over the last number of years to try to accommodate the concern and the stress of students. And my understanding is that Minister Foley will try and do that again this time, but theres also an obligation on her to to ensure that its fair and that the integrity of the Leaving Cert is protected as well.

And so I want to hear what she has to say this morning. I suspect well have a discussion in Cabinet on this.
Landmarks across the country are set to light up to mark St Brigids Day 2022.

The event, organised by the group Herstory, is a celebration of women who have contributed to Irish society and culture.

From next year, St Brigids Day - which falls on February 1 - will be a public holiday, the first to be named after a woman.

The day marks the beginning of spring and the Celtic festival of Imbolc.

The event kicked off on Monday evening, when 100s of people gathered to mark the launch at Trinity College in Dublin.

Trinity College, the GPO and Kildare Cathedral are among the landmarks that will be illuminated on Monday and Tuesday.

In poignant scenes at Trinity College on Monday, a minutes silence was observed for Ashling Murphy, the primary school teacher who was murdered last month.

An image of her in her graduation robes was projected on the walls of the university.

Earlier this year, it was announced that St Brigids Day had been chosen as a new bank holiday from 2023, following years of campaigning by Herstory.

The group teamed up with Irish Second-Level Students Union to highlight the issues closest to young peoples hearts, which included climate action, girls' education, mental health, racism, migrants rights and preserving indigenous cultures.

Never before in history have young people risen up together on this scale across the world.

Power to students as they lead the light, Herstory chief executive creative director Melanie Lynch said.

Saoirse Exton, ISSU equality officer said: Student voice is the key to creating a better world for all, and pulling down outdated systems that threaten our very existence on this planet.

Young people are the leaders, educators, lawyers, factory-workers, programmers, artists, legislators and so many other things, of the future and by right of our existence we must voice our concerns and the specific issues that affect us.

By celebrating those that came before and continue to work towards dismantling the system and creating a better world, we are creating spaces for the activists of tomorrow and inviting more young people to join every fight  from climate to reproductive justice.

Today (Tuesday February 1) the celebration will move to Kildare, which has long been associated with St Brigid.

A pop-up light show will travel the county, starting with an event at St Brigids Cathedral from 5.30pm.

Kildare arts officer, Lucina Russell said: This project is centred around St Brigids Cathedral, Kildare Town, which is synonymous with Brigid, as well as The Wonderful Barn in Leixlip and Kilkea Castle near Athy.

The illuminations, with artistic representations of Brigid, will literally shine a light on the life and legend of this amazing woman.
New laws which ban smoking in vehicles where children are present have been introduced in Northern Ireland.

It brings the law into line with other regions of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

Health Minister Robin Swann said: I am delighted to see that this legislation has now become a reality.

Its introduction represents a landmark for myself as minister, the department, and for all those who have campaigned so hard for its introduction.

Health Minister Robin Swann has described todays introduction of legislation banning smoking in vehicles, where children are present, as a landmark day. It is now illegal to smoke in a vehicle if anyone in it is under 18. Read https://t.co/wB4JoTrb7N https://t.co/6TzuJWnfnm pic.twitter.com/FHWrGKxspV  Department of Health (@healthdpt) February 1, 2022

It will reduce the risk of smoking to our loved ones, particularly children, protecting them from the harm caused by inhaling second-hand smoke.

It also sends out a clear message of our determination to tackle the dangers of smoking which kills thousands of people each year in Northern Ireland.

It is important that smokers are aware of the new regulations and realise that if you smoke in a car or other vehicle while a child is there, or if youre the driver and you allow someone to smoke in these circumstances, you will be committing an offence which carries a hefty penalty.

Another new law, banning the sale of e-cigarettes and other nicotine-inhaling products to anyone aged under 18, has also come into force.

Mr Swann said: In addition to the potential long-term health implications of nicotine vaping by teenagers, there are also concerns that the use of such products may act as a gateway into smoking.

The sale of products such as e-cigarettes or vapes to children, and the purchase of them on behalf of children, can lead to significant penalties and, for repeated offences, retailers can be banned from selling such products for up to three years.
Education Minister Norma Foley has confirmed extensive changes to the Leaving Cert state examinations for 2022  but we will not know the full details until next week.

The minister announced that the overall set of results in 2022 will be no lower than in 2021, ensuring that the class of 2022 will not be disadvantaged. The Junior Certificate is also back, examinations will run in June as normal for the first time since 2019.

These changes will take into account the disruption to teaching and learning experienced by the Leaving Certificate class of 2022, she said in a statement this lunchtime.

The Minister attended a meeting of the advisory group on state examinations this morning and advised of these changes.

The full details of the extensive changes made to the examinations will be published next week.

The changes to the exam will build on the changes already made to the paper and notified to students last August. These combined changes mean that students need not be concerned that they will be disadvantaged compared to their peers.

Adjustments to the assessment arrangements for Junior Cycle have been made and advised in August 2021, including a reduction in the number of Classroom Based Assessments to be completed, the removal of the requirement to complete Assessment Tasks and adjustments to the requirements in coursework and practical performance tests.

According to the minister, these adjustments provide for more teaching time in schools.

The timetable for the written Leaving Certificate and Junior Cycle examinations in June will be published by the State Examinations Commission in the coming days.

The arrangements for Leaving Certificate Oral Examinations in Irish and the Modern Foreign Languages and the practical performance tests in Leaving Certificate Music are as advised late last year.

These examinations will take place outside of school time over the first week of the school Easter holidays, with the examinations running in schools during the six-day period Saturday 9 April to Thursday 14 April inclusive.
LIMERICK's Local Enterprise Office is offering a new support for established business owners this February.

The Management Development Programme is facilitated by business mentor Blaise Brosnan and, the office says, is a different kind of training programme combining training and mentoring.

Core modules include best practice in general management, human resources, management level finance and sales management.

The programme is restricted to the owner-managers of established and growing businesses to maximise the benefits and opportunities in the economy.

Running over a 15-week period, it starts at 7.30am from Wednesday, February 9, so owners can go straight to the programme before they get caught up in the days business. To apply, you can fill out an expression of interest form here or, alternatively, telephone Leo Limerick on 061 557499 for more details.

15 Week Management Development Programme with Blaise Brosnan begins Wednesday 9th Feb!



This programme is for owners-managers planning for the next stage of their business cycle.

If interested please complete EOI form @ https://t.co/EsjsvIInSn @ilovelimerick@BlaiseBrosnan pic.twitter.com/TZqReUQQZp  Local Enterprise Office Limerick (@leo_limerick) January 28, 2022

Leo boss Mike Cantwell said: "This is our most comprehensive offering for small to medium sized enterprises in Limerick  Blaise is skilled in ensuring companies are stabilised, ready for growth and increased competitiveness. Many owner-managers have worked hard through the last two years and this is an opportunity to take stock and set new goals."

"There is an appetite to get out and meet other owner-managers who share the same challenges despite being in different sectors. We invited Blaise to speak at our Reignite conference in November and had outstanding feedback from our local businesses about his practical advice to always watch the bottom line. I was very struck by his advice to Come outside and look inside to ensure businesses can see exactly what the customer sees and adapt to fulfil their needs, which is more relevant than ever in the cycle of economic change," he added.
HOTELIERS in Limerick have reported a surge in bookings following the news that Limerick's St Patricks Festival and the parade are due to make a return this year.

Touted as a bumper four-day weekend, with March 18 now designated as a once-off national bank holiday, the festival marks a welcome return for proprietors, who have felt the brunt of a two-year Covid enforced absence.

Darren Harding, General Manager at the Clayton Hotel Limerick intimated that the return of the parade means everything and will bring a great buzz and energy back into the city.

With 40 million Americans claiming Irish heritage, Limerick hoteliers will be keen to welcome their Stateside clientele to the banks of the River Shannon once again.

Limerick Chamber President and GM at the Absolute Hotel Donnacha Hurley has been keeping a keen eye on his website analytics since the recent lifting of Covid restrictions.

Already, he has identified a 25% increase in searches on his website, with a real spike surrounding St Patricks Day weekend.

What we have now is a lot of people shopping, looking now. It's still primarily Ireland, our secondary market would be Britain and we have seen an increase in activity from there.

Our third market is the USA, and again, we see an increase there. But it's still driven significantly by domestic tourism, he told the Limerick Leader.

Stephen O Connor, GM at the Strand Hotel stressed that its been like a different place since the lifting of restrictions. He too, was caught off guard by the sudden announcement.

He added that St Patricks weekend is one of the highlights of the social calendar in Limerick.

As well as an uptick in website traffic for March 17-20, phones have been ringing off the hook at the Strand, with callers looking to book rooms, many who havent been back in over two years.

Its really, really positive. There's a really good atmosphere among our team and we are all just delighted to be getting back to normality, he said.
STUDENTS at a Limerick secondary school have shared their joy after they received their awards from the national Junk Kouture competition.

Brenda Lim, Brianna Sheehan and Molly Jackson from Colaiste Nano Nagle on Sexton Street took home the prize for south regional winner in the competition.

Junk Kouture challenges students to create designs that incorporate elements of environmental sustainability, fashion, art, design, and engineering and materials have to be 100% recycled.

The girls design Ephemeral Bloom featured on the RTE show as talented young designers made their bid for Junk Kouture glory.

The design was made from bedsheets, construction mesh, paper coasters, wire, Pearl necklaces, lace, a corset from a wedding dress, cardboard, copper, yoga mats, copper wires, flip-flops, socks, Styrofoam and newspaper.

The girls teacher Sarah Nestor also took home the award for Teacher of the Year at the Grand Final.

Sarah said the girls watched the final at home with their families and were 'shocked' to win the prize.

She said: They were absolutely ecstatic, they couldn't quite believe it. They had family in Asia, China and Malaysia all watching it as well.

There were tears! They had worked through lockdown at home so it was particularly hard on them.

They had a great work ethic and they really ploughed on, from design to putting it all together it took about six months

The girls wanted to make something that would show that fast fashion is so fleeting so they used the cherry blossom as the inspiration.

Another project from the school, The New Different by Georgie Barry, Ally Griffen and Leona Purcell ,also made the Grand Final of the competition.

That design was predominantly made out of lampshades, construction wire and contact lenses and was inspired by steampunk.
JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Blade Nzimande welcomed the country being chosen to host one of two new Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).

ATLAS is an asteroid impact early warning system developed by the University of Hawaii and funded by NASA. It consists of four telescopes, which automatically scan the whole sky several times every night looking for moving objects.

ATLAS will provide a warning time depending on the size of the asteroid as larger asteroids can be detected further from Earth.

The South Africa-based system would monitor the Southern Hemisphere and allow for night observation when it is daytime in Hawaii.

"The construction of the two additional ATLAS telescopes, in South Africa and Chile, is now complete. They have already begun operations, and the South African telescope, Atlas-Sutherland, has already discovered its first near-earth object," said Nzimande.

He said the telescope adds to Africa's growing list of international instruments that are being hosted at South African astronomy research facilities. This will boost scientific infrastructure and research.

"It also demonstrates once again that science and technology can facilitate foreign direct investment into the local economy," he added. 
LIMERICK brothers John and Patrick Collison have bought another Laois mansion.

The tech billionaires have purchased Millbrook House on the De Vesci estate for 400,000 which neighbours the thousand acre estate next door that the brothers bought last year.

Laois County Council has agreed to sell Millbrook House to Comhlacht na Feirme Ltd who supplied an image of what the mansion will look like when restored.

The brothers founded financial services and payment processing firm Stripe in 2009 and they are now based in Silicon Valley.

Headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin, the firm offers payment processing software for websites and mobile applications.

Cllrs John King and John Joe Fennelly confirmed that the brothers have bought the house which had been bought by Compulsory Purchase Order by the council last year with the intention to flip it on to a buyer with deep pockets who would save it from complete ruin.

It is on the original De Vesci estate grounds and neighbours the grand Abbey Leix estate on 1,000 acres, bought by John Collison last year for 11.5 million.

The protected structure is a 9,000 sqft derelict three storey mansion built in 1885, on 1.7 hectares.

The sale price has been agreed at 400,000 by owners Laois County Council but Senior Planner and acting Director Services for Housing Angela McEvoy said that it will take three years of restoration work.

They have indicated it will take three years to turn around. The building needs a lot of conservation, she said.

The council bought Millbrook House in 2021 by Compulsory Purchase Order from John Patrick Colclough, with the aim of rapidly selling it on to a buyer who could guarantee to fix the roof and restore the house.

At the January council meeting this Monday, Cllr John Joe Fennelly from Abbeyleix proposed the sale to Comhlacht na Feirme Ltd from Blackrock. He later confirmed to the Leinster Express that the buyers are the Collison brothers.

I have to thank the CEO. There was a huge interest in this with 170 people registering interest. This is a fantastic outcome. The people of Abbeyleix really appreciate the effort the council made to have it restored, he said at the meeting.

It's part of our heritage and culture, agreed Cllr Kelly who seconded the proposal.

Cllr John King estimated it would take 2 million to restore the mansion to its former glory.

I thank the council for having the vision to do the CPO before it was gone into complete dereliction and gone for all time. You could be talking the bones of 2 million. This house is very important for us and for the people who left Laois, he said.

The council's criteria for selecting a buyer included price offered, a timeline to complete restoration, and a statement of resources available to the bidder.
THE FIRST ever students to attend classes at the University of Limericks City Centre Campus were on site this Tuesday to begin a new educational journey.

Students from ULs School of Architecture and the Product Design and Technology programme were at the Sarsfield Street site for classes, including some in the newly fitted out digital fabrication facility Fab Lab.

UL President Professor Kerstin Mey and Mayor of Limerick City and County Daniel Butler paid a visit to the Universitys new facility to welcome the students to the City Centre Campus.

New teaching spaces and a presentation area, plus a Citizens Innovation Lab which is a joint initiative with Limerick City and County Council, have been developed in the existing building.

A section of the building has been retrofitted for use in the short term, while a longer-term master plan for the site is developed, which will lead to thousands of students using the campus.

Initial works to prepare a portion of the internal space on the first floor of the building have been ongoing since July of last year.

This was done to create a new space for the UL Fab Lab and the +Cityxchange project and Citizens Innovation Lab.

As part of the internal works during this initial phase, a new access lift and ramp have been built at the Sarsfield Street entrance, new doors installed and an area of the first floor has been fully refurbished.

Professor Mey said that this is a fantastic day for the University of Limerick and advances a long-held ambition to have a greater number of UL students in Limerick city centre.

The longer term vision for the existing building and site will be developed to a world class standard, while being sensitive to sustainability  and we will do that with our partners in Limerick City and County Council, communities, businesses and industry.

She added that the idea is that this would be developed into a commercial and community public space.

Mayor Daniel Butler said: I am delighted to welcome the first students into ULs City Centre Campus today. It is a hugely significant day for the University but also for the city centre, as we look to develop the campus in the heart of the city.

We want the UL City Centre Campus to be a beacon for people. Working with the University into the future, we want a campus that is striking in its architecture, a place that nurtures innovation and fosters creativity.
British anti-submarine aircraft have been operating off the west coast of Ireland with increased frequency, according to The Irish Times.

It follows after Russia recently announced that it would move its planned naval exercises to an area outside the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (IEEZ), following outcry from a number of fishing groups and politicians, particularly the Minister for Defence and Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.

The latest strategic moves from the UK precede Russia's live-fire naval exercises planned for later this week off Ireland's coasts.

As reported by the newspaper, on Monday at least three P-8 Poseidon were deployed by the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) in operations along Irish shores.

It is understood that much of the aircraft activity took place within the IEEZ: while the area is considered international waters, it is under the control of Ireland for economic and environmental purposes.

Commenting on the situation, the RAF said in a statement that the aircraft were deployed on routine training.

Although the exact location of the new drills is currently unknown, military experts believe that the drills may take place in an area in the Atlantic just outside the IEEZ, but still within the vicinity of underwater communications cables, which link Europe to North America and vice versa.

The potential involvement of the RAF over Irish waters to monitor Russia was first theorised last week by Kildare TD Dr Cathal Berry, who served for six years as the second-in-command (2IC) of the Irish Army's Ranger Wing.

When he was asked if the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) is keeping an eye on the situation off Ireland's coast, he replied: "Absolutely... and not just the UK, it is also being monitored by the US, France, Germany and Portugal at the moment."
Students will sit radically different Leaving Certificate exams this year, as the Minister for Education confirmed they will be held as exams only.

Norma Foley ruled out a hybrid approach to the state exams, and said the written exams will be tailor-made in recognition of the challenges students have faced in recent years.

The Fianna Fail minister said changes will be made to exam papers to give students a variety of choices and less content to study.

The Junior Cycle exams will also take place for the first time since 2019, the minister confirmed.

The decision comes following a meeting of the Cabinet today (Tuesday February 1).

I have listened to and engaged with parents, teachers, students, school management bodies and I can confirm that the decision for the Leaving Certificate exams will take place in June, Ms Foley added.

But they will be radically different exams from what students would have experienced in previous years, in 2018 and 2019.

There will now be considerable choice on the paper and less content to be studied.

For example, in maths, students would have 10 questions to answer, now they will have six.

I want to make clear that the alterations on the papers extend beyond the papers, they extend into the oral, the practical and coursework.

For example, the orals in Irish they would have had 20 to prepare for, now they have 10.

This Leaving Cert is tailor-made for the circumstances of which we find ourselves and all of the students have faced and all of the challenges they have faced.

Recent weeks have seen calls for a rethink about how school exams are to be held in Ireland this year, amid concerns about the disruption students have faced.

Ms Foley said she is not in a position to provide for accredited grades and exams as 25% of the class of 2022 did not sit the Junior Cycle exam, and that the department does not have the data to offer the hybrid system.

She added: There is a hole in the information in one in four students and it would not be fair as the system we provided for last year, and I want this system to be as fair as I can possibly make it.

Staff absences caused by Covid-19, as well as the experience of school during a two-year long pandemic, prompted calls for another year of a non-traditional Leaving Certificate exam.

Opposition parties were quick to stress their opposition to the decision to rule out a hybrid option.

Speaking to reporters at Leinster House today, Sinn Fein education spokesperson Donnchadh O Laoghaire said that simply providing students with greater choice on exam papers was not adequate.

Referring to a deep anger among pupils and parents, he said that the State Examinations Commission could not respond to the unique disruption faced by individual schools.

Mr O Laoghaire added: I think students across the country were devastated to see last night that the Government is proposing to proceed with a so-called traditional Leaving Cert, in what has been anything but a traditional year. The Leaving Cert is hard in any year.

He said Leaving Cert students have faced unprecedented challenges in the last two years compared with previous generations, adding: We didnt have to contend with a pandemic. We didnt have to contend with over two months of school closures.

Mr O Laoghaire said the impact of teacher absences and self-isolation on students has been profoundly underestimated by the Government.

There is a lack of imagination, he said, referencing what he said was a desire to adhere to what was the previous norm, to go back to the Leaving Cert.

Mr O Laoghaire said that while a hybrid model did present challenges, the mechanics could be delivered, adding: The impact is huge. I think this is absolutely the wrong decision. The minister has adhered to tradition over what I believe was needed in terms of fairness and equality.

My message tonight to Leaving Cert students who campaigned so brilliantly for #HybridLC2022. pic.twitter.com/XhTeteGlYB  Aodhan O Riordain (@AodhanORiordain) January 31, 2022

Labour TD Aodhan O' Riordain, who has been campaigning on the issue, said he was devastated for students who had campaigned on the matter.

In a post on Twitter, he said: This is a betrayal by a department with no imagination, welded to tradition having convinced themselves that all is fine.
A man posed as a worker for the Lewis Energy Group and used a cloned vehicle of said company to smuggle migrants several times, according to an arrest affidavit.

On Nov. 15, a Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division special agent assisted the U.S. Border Patrol with a human smuggling attempt. A white 2017 Ford pickup was pulled over on McPherson Road. Authorities identified the driver as Jonathan Louis Hinojosa, 28.

DPS confirmed that the vehicle had a fictitious license plate. Authorities also pointed out that the pickup was a cloned vehicle from Lewis Energy Group. DPS also discovered that Hinojosa had $604.80 in a sealed plastic bag. He also had a work shirt bearing chest patches with Lewis Energy Group, according to court documents. Hinojosa was arrested and charged with displaying a fictitious license plate.

On Nov. 16, Border Patrol agents informed DPS that they had searched the area where Hinojosas vehicle had been seen the previous day along Interstate 35. The search resulted in the apprehension of four women and one man who had crossed the border illegally.

Surveillance video obtained by authorities depicted Hinojosa wearing a gray work shirt bearing chest patches with Lewis Energy Group logo. Hinojosa could be seen instructing the migrants to run toward the brush.

Further investigation revealed that during October and November, the cloned pickup operated by Hinojosa was seen inside the Volz Ranch private property 10 times when Hinojosa did not have permission to be in said property, according to court documents.

On Dec. 15, Hinojosa was detained on the suspicion of smuggling of persons. At about 1 p.m., Border Patrol observed a white 2016 Ford pickup inside the Esperanza Ranch near the intersection of U.S. 83 and Texas 44. A migrant was found inside the toolbox located in the pickups bed. A further search of the immediate area resulted in the apprehension of eight migrants.

On Jan. 26, Hinojosa was served with arrest warrants charging him with smuggling of persons and continuous smuggling of persons. He was later released on bond, according to Webb County Jail records.
The Laredo environmental organization, Commission Shift, recently released a new report detailing how orphan wells are a major problem in the area and throughout the state of Texas due to a lack of strenuous policy by the Texas Railroad Commision to help solve this matter.

An orphan well is an unplugged oil, gas or injection well for which no viable responsible party can be located, or where the owner is known but bankrupt, according to the report.

Commission Shifts report says current state policies are allowing rule-breaking oil and gas companies to transfer plugging and cleanup costs of their abandoned wells to the state. The executive director of the organization says the Railroad Commission of Texas, which oversees oil and gas development, has designed a broken system where the state routinely takes on risks from the industry without collecting enough taxes and fees from it to deal with those risks.

Oil and natural gas companies should clean up after themselves before drilling more wells, said Virginia Palacios, the Executive Director of Commission Shift and co-author of the Eliminating Orphan Wells and Sites in Texas report. The Railroad Commission needs to hold companies responsible for well plugging and cleanup on the front end. The current system that creates orphan wells is by design, not by accident.

According to Palacios, as of Nov. 30, 2021, the Railroad Commission reported 43 orphan wells in Webb County. Of these orphan wells, 15 of them are more than 15 years old, 13 are between 10-15 years old and 15 are less than 10 years old.

Palacios also says there are legacy wells oil and gas companies plugged with inappropriate materials or by using practices that are now obsolete. These wells have come into public consciousness partly because they are affecting more Texans which makes them difficult to ignore.

Palacios says orphan wells are a problem as the oil and gas industry is exhibiting signs of systemic decline, meaning there will be more wells to plug in the near future. Texas needs to prepare for the transition to responsible asset retirement, the organization states.

According to the report, oil and gas drillers also use loopholes to avoid plugging their wells, like keeping wells barely active just to avoid having to plug them. They say the state incentivizes the practice by offering tax incentives for low-producing wells and high-cost gas wells. These tax incentives put the burden of potential orphan wells on the state while reducing state revenues available to deal with the aftermath.

Commission Shift says this is not just a problem seen in places like Laredo, where there is a high presence in the region of oil companies, but also a problem throughout the state that merits attention.

The federal government is making $4.7 billion available to states to pay for orphan well plugging and site cleanup, said Ty Edwards, the Director of the Middle Pecos County Groundwater Conservation District. Wed like to see the Railroad Commission spend some of those funds to help clean up expensive disasters like Boehmer Lake  a salt-water lake created by legacy oil and gas wells that is threatening water quality in the Pecos River.

The report says the environment is not the thing impacted by orphan wells. There is also an economic impact.

The financial impact of orphaned wells is staggering, the report states. About 45% of the Railroad Commissions entire budget goes to well plugging. If companies cleaned up their own messes, then the Commission could invest in monitoring and enforcement. Recent well blowouts in Refugio, Ward and Crane Counties; leaks and sinkholes in Pecos County and stranded equipment in the lower Brazos River watershed highlight the need for increased state oversight of legacy wells and reconfiguring the State Managed Well Plugging and Cleanup Programs.

The report continues by noting that in most years in the past decade, the Railroad Commission has taken on more orphan wells than it has plugged. This is resulting in a never-ending treadmill of state-financed asset retirement.

An orphan well does not just magically appear on a Railroad Commission of Texas field office doorstep, said Megan Milliken Biven, a researcher on oilfield safety, an advocate and co-author of the report. These wells are an inevitable and intentional consequence of the current system. If we want a different outcome, then we require different approaches, different laws and a Railroad Commission that prioritizes the health and people of Texas above all else."

The full report further goes into detail as to how companies and individuals who have the resources can also dispose of orphan wells in a safe and satisfactory manner by providing tips and guidelines on how to do so. The full report also details several other expert opinions on why orphan wells are detrimental to the environment.

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
KIGALI, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which was scheduled in June 2020 but was postponed twice due to the impact of COVID-19, is planned to take place in the week of June 20 in the Rwandan capital Kigali, the Commonwealth Secretariat said Monday in a statement.

Rwandan president Paul Kagame, and Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, announced the week of June 20 as the new date agreed with member countries for the CHOGM.

"Rwanda is pleased to welcome all delegates and participants to Kigali for a safe and productive CHOGM Rwanda 2022," said Kagame in the statement.

"The long awaited meeting will be an important occasion to come together to address the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to build on 'innovative technological and economic opportunities' to solve other key problems facing our citizens."

"I am delighted that the Commonwealth family can finally be reunited, four years on from our last CHOGM in London," said Scotland in the statement.

According to Scotland, this will be the first CHOGM to be held in Africa for over a decade.

"It is with great joy and anticipation that I look ahead to a face-to-face Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting," she said.

The CHOGM is the Commonwealth's high-level consultative and policy-making gathering. 
The Texas State Teachers Association is filing a grievance against Laredo school districts on grounds of fairness regarding sick leaves for unvaccinated staff.

The TSTA said that the issue regards vaccinated employees receiving a greater sick leave than individuals who are unvaccinated. The districts previously approved additional emergency COVID leave days, however, they were only for those teachers and employees who were vaccinated.

"I'm in the process of filing a grievance asking both districts to treat all school employees the same, President of TSTA Laredo Rene De La Vina stated Monday night. Why are they punishing the ones that are not vaccinated versus the ones that are vaccinated? They get all the benefits. ... I feel that's not fair.

The Level 1 Grievance to be filed is a legal document that will serve as mediation for TSTA and Laredos school districts.

The grievance will ask school districts to provide COVID sick days equally to their vaccinated and unvaccinated personnel, as TSTA feels this incentive is instead a punishment for those who have chosen to not get the vaccine.

Why are they punishing those that are not vaccinated? De La Vina said. I believe the United States Supreme Court they shot down the mandatory vaccination for employees. We feel that they're being treated unfairly, and that's why I'm going to be filing a grievance, because our members of TSTA  the ones that are not vaccinated  say they are punishing them for not believing in vaccination, and I think they have a legitimate point.

At United ISD, if an employee is vaccinated and tests positive for COVID, they can go home for 20 days, and their personal days and sick days will not be used. Meanwhile, non-vaccinated personnel at UISD who test positive for COVID must use their personal days and sick days for their absences, shared De La Vina.

At Laredo ISD, COVID sick days are managed a bit differently but in essence affect teachers and employees the same way, De La Vina stated. COVID sick days are provided equally to vaccinated and unvaccinated teachers and employees, but only to those who test positive for COVID. If an employee is in contact or exposed to COVID, these leave days are not provided for unvaccinated staff.

In response to the planned grievance, UISD Superintendent David Gonzalez stressed that the extra days given were an incentive that was voluntary for employees and accounted for those who couldnt get the vaccine due to medical or religious reasons.

I commend all UISD educators for their hard work in educating our schoolchildren during this pandemic, Gonzalez said in a statement. I sincerely believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel and we will emerge as a stronger, more unified school district.

I understand the concerns regarding the eligibility for UISDs EPSL incentive. It is important to understand that this incentive is completely voluntary, just as the choice to vaccinate oneself against the COVID-19 virus and its effects are also voluntary. UISDs EPSL incentive for vaccinated employees also has an area that addresses those employees who cannot receive the COVID-19 vaccine due to medical reasons or because of sincerely-held religious beliefs. If this applies to any of our employees applicable, I encourage them to review that process.

I understand that there is no one-size-fits-all situation that would satisfy 100% of our employees, but the fact that nearly 100% of our UISD workforce is vaccinated led me to recommend that District EPSL continue as it has for the past two years. I thank everyone for their hard work, and please know that the Board and I are doing all that we can to push through this difficult time.

LISD also provided a statement on Monday night regarding the issue.

Laredo ISD values all of their employees and takes into consideration their circumstances, the statement read. We will continue safeguarding their well-being and work with them on an individual basis as needed.

cecilia.trevino@lmtonline.com
Interim City Manager Keith Selmans first city council meeting was cut short due to a lack of quorum by councilmembers.

Mondays agenda listed several discussion topics for discussion before the State of the City address, including city ordinances regarding the city leadership positions, the city attorney position, the purchase of testing material from the health department and a pilot program.

After a 20-minute delay, the attending city councilmembers began the meeting with a roll call. They included Alyssa Cigarroa, Vanessa Perez, Vidal Rodriguez and Rudy Gonzalez.

Once they established that the remaining members would be unavailable, Selman indicated that due to the lack of legal counsel, he had previously requested that the meeting be canceled, which was why the city leaders werent there.

The very reasoning for my request to the mayor to not have this meeting and look at having these on our next agenda was because I do need to seek legal counsel on some of the items that are on this agenda, and I wanted to provide that legal counsel to this city council, Selman said.

Thus, the first official city council meeting between the new interim city manager and the district representatives was a non-meeting.

On Jan. 21, former city manager Robert Eads resigned from his position, which happened shortly after the resignation of Laredo attorney Dean Roggia. With two critical positions left vacant, the city scrambled to refill them, which led them to a 10-month contract with Selman  previously the No. 2 choice behind Eads in 2019. However, it is unclear how the city plans to fill the attorney position and how long it will take.

It was evident Rodriguez did not appreciate the cancellation, apologizing to members of the community who attended and planned to speak during the public comment section, as it is not possible without a quorum. The agenda items were said to be discussed during the following meeting.

One of the major discussions appearing on the agenda was a sponsored item by Mayor Pete Saenz to discuss the Ordinance No. 2019 - 0 - 051, which grants the city manager to hire, appoint, suspend, reassign or terminate anyone within his or her upper-level management team or department.

The city states in the agenda:

Unless it is otherwise specifically provided in this Charter, City Council shall not in any manner dictate the appointment or removal of any City administrative officer or employee whom the City Manager or any of his subordinates are empowered to appoint or remove, but the City Council may express its views and fully and freely discuss with the City Manager anything pertaining to appointment and removal of such officers and employees.

With the change in city manager, it is unclear how the changes to city management staff will be implemented in preparation for the next ten months.

Furthermore, an item at the request of councilmember Mercurio Martinez was the possible rescindment of portions of the Ordinance 2019-0-051 Section 2-19, specifically those that mention subject to approval of the city council.

In the case of the city attorney, councilmember Alyssa Cigarroa sponsored the item of reviewing in open session any and all threats and representations by any assistant city manager/acting city attorney to and/or against the client(s)/City of Laredo councilmembers (and city employee) to either sue or have them criminally prosecuted for having received information from a former city attorney about alleged misconduct in the workplace, and the alleged nature of the misconduct, if any.

Her final item was for an executive session to deliberate the city's drug and alcohol policy and its potential impact on the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline or dismissal of an assistant city manager, public officer or employee and any other matters incident thereto, including, but not limited to recent communications from a city employee regarding same and any other matters incident thereto.

Earlier in the meeting, one of the items was a staff report by the health department; it was a ratification of the purchase of testing materials and supplies from Life Technologies Corporation in the amount of $221,933 for COVID-19 testing for the City of Laredo Health Department. It continues to state that the funds were available in the IDCU/COVID Lab Expansion Grant.

Additionally, Perez requested an item for discussion and possible action to submit a letter of support to the county for the Rio Grande International Study Center's application for an American Rescue Plan Act grant, in its full amount, to conduct critical initial engineering and economy analysis studies to pilot a waste-to-energy project known as a Community Water and Energy Resource Center in Laredo.

She also added the possible naming of the New Farias Dog Park after a Laredo Police Department K-9 unit.

cocampo@lmtonline.com

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This week, some winter weather is expected to bring a stretch of days with sub-freezing temperatures to portions of the Lone Star State. Ahead of the cold front, the Texas Division of Emergency Management warned residents to prepare for these conditions.

A strong arctic cold front is set to hit Wednesday and temperatures are forecasted to drop below normal Wednesday through the weekend with below-freezing temperatures possible Wednesday night through Saturday morning, according to a tweet from the National Weather Service.

Though the anticipated conditions are reminiscent of last year's winter storm, the NWS stated "this will not be a repeat in severity and impacts of the February 2021 winter storm."

On Sunday, the TDEM issued a warning on Twitter to prepare now for sub-freezing conditions expected to begin impacting much of the state during the middle of this week.

One way to prepare is to pack an emergency kit.

"Gather supplies in case you need to stay home for several days without power," ready.gov suggests. "Keep in mind each persons specific needs, including medication. Remember the needs of your pets. Have extra batteries for radios and flashlights."

Texas A&M University released a resource called "How to prepare for a winter storm in Texas."

Here's what the university suggests you keep in an emergency kit:

Flashlights and extra batteries

Telephone . Cordless phones will not work without power, but "an old-fashioned style phone with a cord connecting the handset" could be used for communication so long as the power lines have not been impacted, per the checklist. Other communication options include battery-powered two-way radios.

. Cordless phones will not work without power, but "an old-fashioned style phone with a cord connecting the handset" could be used for communication so long as the power lines have not been impacted, per the checklist. Other communication options include battery-powered two-way radios. Extra set of car and house keys . Similar to the reasoning behind maintaining older model telephones during a storm, the university says people should store an extra set of keys outside of the home in case of an emergency, as garage door openers may not function during power outages.

. Similar to the reasoning behind maintaining older model telephones during a storm, the university says people should store an extra set of keys outside of the home in case of an emergency, as garage door openers may not function during power outages. Battery-powered NOAA weather radio and an A.M./F.M. battery-powered radio

Water . People should maintain a three-day supply of bottled water, accounting for one gallon of drinking water per person per day, according to the checklist. In the event of extended winter storms, the university said water from the water heater tank can be consumed, and bathtubs can be filled with water to assist with flushing toilets if households have an advanced storm warning.

. People should maintain a three-day supply of bottled water, accounting for one gallon of drinking water per person per day, according to the checklist. In the event of extended winter storms, the university said water from the water heater tank can be consumed, and bathtubs can be filled with water to assist with flushing toilets if households have an advanced storm warning. High-energy foods This includes options like dried fruit, nuts, cereal, granola bars and other items that do not require any cooking or refrigeration.

This includes options like dried fruit, nuts, cereal, granola bars and other items that do not require any cooking or refrigeration. Cash . The checklist also recommends keeping extra cash in case of an emergency as ATMs may not work during power outages.

. The checklist also recommends keeping extra cash in case of an emergency as ATMs may not work during power outages. First aid kit, baby supplies and prescription medication

Heating fuel

Emergency heat sources. The university lists fireplaces, wood stoves and kerosene heaters as "good alternate sources of heat in an emergency" and reminds people to never burn charcoal indoors as these options release carbon monoxide.

"If you choose one of these appliances to heat your home, know how to use it safely and appropriately," reads a portion of the checklist. "If you use a gas-powered portable generator, it must be set up in a dry outdoor area and away from air intakes to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning."

More weather news Here are some tips to protect pets during winter months

Additionally, people should "know what wattage the generator will support, and carefully follow the manufacturers directions for use. The generator will be helpful when there is an electrical power loss," the checklist states.

Fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, and carbon monoxide alarms

The TDEM also advises you to learn how to shut off your water and gas and test your carbon monoxide detectors ahead of the storm. You can call 2-1-1 to access community resources for more details on how to prepare before any winter event.
BISSAU, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Guinea-Bissau government spokesperson Pamela Ferreira announced on Tuesday night that some military members have tried to overthrow President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, and it is a failed attempted coup d'etat.

The president, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, chaired the council of ministers at the government palace on Tuesday afternoon, when the putschists attacked them with heavy weapons, killing and injuring several members of the president's security.

President Embalo announced that this putsch attempt had been foiled, and he called a press conference for the evening. 
Longford farmers and landowners are being reminded that as of January 1, 2022, it is prohibited to burn agricultural waste.

The reminder was issued by Longford County Council and it follows the ending of an exemption that was put in place up until New Years Day by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

The exemption allowed farmers to burn waste generated by agricultural practices, for example trees or bushes accumulated from land clearance, but only as a last resort. The exemption had been extended from February 2021 by the DECC up until the beginning of 2022.

Longford County Council Environmental Awareness Officer Gary Brady said, We are asking for farmers to be patient and await further instruction from the Department.

He continued, The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Air Quality Unit in the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications are working together to find a solution that will be acceptable to farmers.

Farmers with specific concerns in the meantime are recommended to contact the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for advice.
Rethink Ireland are marking four years of their Social Enterprise Development Fund and have published a report highlighting the impact of the Fund and spotlighting some of the social enterprises supported since 2018, including local group: Willow Traders.

The Social Enterprise Development Fund was created in 2018 by Rethink Ireland in partnership with Local Authorities Ireland and funded by IPB Insurance and the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund to find and back the best social enterprises in Ireland by making cash grants and strategic business support available to Awardees.

Donkeys found in 'severe state of neglect' being cared for at Longford's ISCPA headquarters Three donkeys found in a severe state are being cared for at Longford's ISPCA National Animal Centre after being found abandoned in a field close to the Sligo-Mayo border.

Nationally, the Social Enterprise Development Fund has supported 112 social enterprises and created 209 jobs. According to Rethink Ireland, a significant achievement of the Fund is the support that has been given to traditionally under-represented communities. The Social Enterprise Development Fund has succeeded in delivering services to over 270,000 people throughout Ireland and mobilised 16,507 volunteers.

Stephanie Walsh, Business Development Director at Rethink Ireland, said: Over the past four years, we have supported social enterprises throughout Ireland to provide responses to urgent social issues, while working closely with local communities. These social enterprises work to promote access to employment, delivering training and giving a voice to those not often heard in society; creating local solutions to the global climate crisis; and providing bespoke, holistic services to our most vulnerable in society.

Social Enterprise Funds 2022

Social enterprises based in Longford are being encouraged to apply for funding through the Social Enterprise Development Fund 2022 and the Social Enterprise Start-Up Fund which have officially opened for applications.

Also commenting, Paddy Mahon, Chief Executive of Longford County Council, said: "Were excited to be working with Rethink Ireland in their effort to support social enterprises around the country. The Social Enterprise Funds, which will focus on continued seed funding for start-up social enterprises, will strengthen its focus on providing vital supports to early-stage social enterprises with the development of a new business course and a clear pathway for social enterprises looking to build their businesses. This will deliver real and meaningful change to each of the organisations involved and Irelands social enterprise sector as a whole."

George Jones, Group Director and Chairman of IPB Insurance, added: We are delighted to renew our support for a further two years of the Social Enterprise Development Fund with Rethink Ireland and the Department of Rural & Community Development in partnership with our local authority members. Working alongside our local authority Members, our collaboration with Rethink Ireland and the Department has focused on identifying and supporting the best social enterprises nationwide with the added benefit of promoting the sector as an important contributor to Ireland's socio-economic development. I think the need for Social Enterprises has been highlighted more than ever by the pandemic and global conversations around sustainability. Social enterprises are motivated by seeing a social need and setting out to meet that need in a sustainable manner.

Applications for the 2022 Social Enterprise Development Fund and Social Enterprise Start Up Fund will be open until March 3rd and can be found on Rethink Irelands website, www.rethinkireland.ie
There were emotional scenes at the Special Criminal Court today (Tuesday, February 1) as three brothers who were part of a cross-Border ATM theft gang that stole almost 800k were remanded in custody ahead of sentencing.

The three have all pleaded guilty to being part of a gang that used stolen diggers, trailers and jeeps to rip ATMs out of the walls of premises in Cavan, Meath and Monaghan between 2018 and 2019.

The gang was eventually foiled in August 2019 when specialist gardai pounced on the attempted theft of an ATM in Virginia, Co Cavan, by ramming a stolen jeep the gang were using.

Today, Stephen, Gerard and Ciaran Duffy were present in the three-judge court for their sentence hearing.

The three are among five men charged before the non-jury court in relation to a Garda investigation into the theft of an ATM in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, in April 2019 and the attempted theft of an ATM in Virginia, Co Cavan, in August 2019.

Fiona Murphy SC, prosecuting, told the court that gardai estimated that the total amount stolen over the five successful ATM thefts was 790K.

Detective Garda Vincent O'Boyle said the gang stole ATMs from Ballybay and Castleblayney in Co Monaghan, Kingscourt in Co Cavan, and two ATMs on the same night in Kells, Co Meath, between December 16, 2018, and April 19, 2019, before the attempt at Virginia on August 14, 2019.



Regarding the Virginia attempt, Det Gda O'Boyle told Ms Murphy that around 2.15am a 14-tonne digger was stolen from the site of a fire station which was then under construction.



Once stolen, the digger immediately travelled in convoy with a stolen Toyota Landcruiser for about 800 metres towards the ATM, which was housed in the wall of the Riverfront Hotel on Virginia's main street.



Det Gda O'Boyle said that when the bucket of the excavator was metres from the ATM a Garda Range Rover rammed a stolen Toyota Landcruiser and that three culprits fled the scene with gardai in pursuit on foot.



Gerard Duffy was caught and arrested in a nearby field while Ciaran Duffy and another male, who is before the court, evaded capture. Ciaran Duffy was later arrested in the afternoon of August 14, when he was discovered hiding in the toilets of the Riverfront.



Det Gda O'Boyle said that a phone found on Ciaran Duffy matched the number of a phone used to contact the owner of the digger, which was for sale, regarding test drives two days before the botched theft.



He said that gardai had also put the yard in Tullypole under surveillance and that two bags containing 298,900 were recovered along with a money-counting machine.



When Gerard Duffy was arrested, he commented to a Garda at Carrickmacross Garda Station "do you think I'm f**ked?" and "it wasn't me with the bucket". Ms Murphy said that when Gerard Duffy was interviewed he claimed that he owed 10k and had to do "a job" after having a row in a pub or he would be shot.

Gardai watching the yard on August 20, 2019, stopped a Toyota Avensis at the scene. The Avensis was carrying Stephen and Ciaran Duffy and officers seized a combined 103,930 from the footwell and boot of the car. Gardai also searched the home of Stephen Duffy and found 15k stashed in a ride-along lawnmower.

Ms Murphy said Forensic Science Ireland investigations found fibres from Ciaran Duffy's clothing in the cab of the digger at the scene in Virginia.

Det Gda O'Boyle said Ciaran Duffy has no previous convictions but that Gerard Duffy had eight, all of which were dealt with at District Court level. He said Stephen Duffy had 11 previous convictions that included trespassing, handling and possessing stolen property, and criminal damage.

Barrister for Gerard Duffy Hugh Harnett SC said his client, a builder, was "hard-working throughout his life" and in a steady relationship. Mr Hartnett said his client had met all of his bail conditions and had made admissions in the case in interview. He said Gerard Duffy was apologetic for what had done and that had entered an early guilty plea. Mr Hartnett said character references from Gerard Duffy's girlfriend, employers and others were before the court.

Mr Hartnett asked the court to show his client "some light at the end of the tunnel" and described Gerard Duffy as a "settled and stable person" who hoped to return to work.

Bernard Condon SC, for Stephen Duffy, said his client was a passenger in the rear of the Avensis which was stopped at Tullypole. Mr Condon put it to Det Gda O'Boyle that another person could have possibly stowed the 15k in the lawnmower, to which the witness agreed. Mr Condon said that Stephen Duffy's involvement was "limited" and that, "significantly", he had entered a guilty plea. The barrister said his client had two children with his partner, had a strong employment history and had written a letter of apology knowing his actions will "change his life forever".

Patrick Gageby SC said that Ciaran Duffy had "significant" work and character references before the court and that he expressed remorse. Mr Gageby said his client was a "very different picture" outside of the court and was a "good friend, neighbour and colleague of good standing in the community".

Mr Gageby said Ciaran Duffy apologised to his family, friends, the community and neighbours for disappointing them.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge Cormac Dunne adjourned all matters to March 4 to pass sentence and remanded the three brothers in custody.

In December, Gerard Duffy (31) of Greagh, Loughnamore, Co Monaghan, pleaded guilty to the attempted theft of an ATM at the Riverfront Bar & Restaurant, Main Street, Virginia, Co Cavan, on August 14, 2019.

He had been charged with the serious offence of 'the attempted theft of the ATM and its contents for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal organisation, contrary to Section 73 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006'.

Brother Ciaran Duffy (28) of the same address, pleaded guilty at the court to three offences connected to the same investigation.

Duffy pleaded guilty to participating in criminal activities while in a Toyota Avensis at Tullypole, Moynalty, Co Meath on August 20, 2019 by participating in the movement of cash on behalf of a criminal organisation.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to commit an offence under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud) Act by attempting to steal the ATM and its contents at the Riverfront Bar & Restaurant.

Duffy also pleaded guilty to participating in or contributing to the possession of cash at Tullypole, Moynalty, on August 14, 2019, intending to facilitate the commission of an offence by a criminal organisation.

Eldest brother Stephen Duffy (35) of Tullynahinera, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, who was the first to plead guilty, admitted to possessing cash at The Yard, Tullypole, Moynalty, Co Meath, on August 20, 2019, in association with a criminal organisation.

In November, Niall Finnegan (39) was jailed for four-and-a-half years with the final 18 months suspended for possessing cash, which was the proceeds of the ATM thefts carried out by the gang.

Finnegan of Cherry Grove, Cullyhanna, Co Armagh, pleaded guilty in July at the court to possessing or handling 103,000 at Tullypole in August 2019.

In sentencing Finnegan, Mr Justice Hunt said Detective Sergeant Mark Looby had given evidence to the court regarding an investigation into ATM thefts carried out by what gardai believed to be a cross-border gang based in east Monaghan and south Armagh.
Local News, Local Experts, Business & Finance, Press Releases

By Long Island Published: February 01 2022

HIA-LI Hosts "Executive Insight" Forum on February 8 Featuring Clare Cusack, First Female President of New York Bankers Association.

Clare Cusack, president and CEO of the New York Bankers Association (NYBA), will be the featured guest at an Executive Insight event on Tuesday, February 8 at 3:00pm at the Hilton Long Island at 598 Broadhollow Road in Melville.

Kevin OConnor, CEO of Dime Community Bank, will serve as moderator of the event, which is presented by HIA-LI, one of Long Islands largest business advocacy organizations. Mr. OConnor is a member of the HIA-LI board of directors.

Ms. Cusack and Mr. OConnor will discuss one of the most challenging and transformative periods in the banking industry, as well as forecasts for the future.

Clare Cusack is the first woman to serve as leader of NYBA, the premier trade association for the banking industry in New York.

Many of the challenges facing the states overall banking sector have a notable impact on the Long Island regional economy, said Ms. Cusack. I am eager to meet with members and guests of HIA-LI to explore some of these vital issues.

Clare Cusack is a respected leader in banking here in New York State, said Mr. OConnor. Long Island businesspeople will benefit from her insights on the economic development impact of the financial services sector, fintech, and the remote workplace.

The banking industry functions as the central nervous system of our economy, said HIA-LI president and CEO Terri Alessi-Miceli. Clare Cusack will provide our regional business leaders with valuable insights as she offers her forecasts for the New York banking community.

Founded in 1894, the New York Bankers Association serves as the states preeminent provider of legislative and regulatory services to a unified banking industry. Over the years, its mission has grown to include educational programs, public relations, political action and member services geared to enhance the profitability and stature of New York s banking industry. NYBA is comprised of the smaller community, mid-size regional, and large banks across the state. NYBA members together employ nearly 200,000 New Yorkers, hold $2 trillion in deposits, and extend nearly $70 billion in home and small business loans.

Clare Cusack became president and CEO of NYBA on December 1, 2020. She had previously served as general counsel and COO of NYBA since August 2018. Ms. Cusack joined NYBA in 2013 as senior vice president and deputy general counsel. Prior to her work with the association, she practiced as an attorney with the law firm of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, and earlier worked as an aide to the New York State Assembly majority. Ms. Cusack earned her juris doctorate from Fordham University School of Law and a B.A. in political science from the State University of New York College at Geneseo.
Community, Charity & Cause

By Chris Boyle Published: February 01 2022

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember the victims of the systemic, state-sponsored genocide, Legislator Drucker said.

Nassau County Legislator Arnold W. Drucker (D - Plainview) joined religious leaders and his colleagues in government on Thursday, Jan. 27 to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

At sundown, the dome of the Theodore Roosevelt Executive & Legislative Building was illuminated yellow in accordance with the United Nations General Assembly observance of the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camps.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember the victims of the systemic, state-sponsored genocide in which 6 million Jewish men, women, and children and 11 million more innocent people were slaughtered, Legislator Drucker said. Let us honor their memory by recommitting ourselves to educating future generations about the evil atrocities that occurred, and by pledging to confront bigotry, ignorance and hatred wherever it continues to lurk.
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SEOUL, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's export logged a double-digit growth in the first month of this year due to continued recovery in global demand from the COVID-19 pandemic, a government report showed Tuesday.

Export, which accounts for about half of the country's export-driven economy, came in at 55.32 billion U.S. dollars in January, up 15.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The January export topped 50 billion dollars for the first time amid the global demand recovery from the pandemic.

The outbound shipment continued to rise in double figures for the 11th consecutive month since March last year.

Import soared 35.5 percent over the year to 60.21 billion dollars last month, sending the trade deficit to 4.89 billion dollars.

The trade deficit surpassed the previous monthly high of 4.04 billion dollars in January 2008, staying in red for two straight months.

Among the 14 major export items, the shipment of 12 products increased in double digits last month.

Semiconductor export soared 24.2 percent from a year earlier to 10.82 billion dollars in January, exceeding 10 billion dollars for the ninth straight month.

Petrochemical shipment reached a new monthly high of 5.02 billion dollars on expensive crude oil, and the shipment of oil products surged 88.4 percent to 3.52 billion dollars.

General machinery export advanced 14.1 percent to 4.61 billion dollars, topping 4 billion dollars for the 11th straight month amid the expanded global investment in infrastructure.

Steel export surged 50.1 percent to 3.67 billion dollars on robust global demand and higher product price, and the shipment of telecommunication devices, such as smartphone, kept growing for 15 months in a row.

Display panel shipment increased by 10 percent to 1.99 billion dollars on solid demand for high-end foldable phones, and computer export continued to rise for 11 straight months as the pandemic boosted contactless services demand.

Automotive export added 2.3 percent to 4.09 billion dollars on strong demand for environment-friendly vehicles and sport utility vehicles (SUVs), and auto parts shipment surged 14.2 percent to 2.06 billion dollars.

Shipment to South Korea's major export destinations all kept an upward trend for at least 10 months.

Export to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, picked up 13.1 percent over the year to 13.33 billion dollars in January on robust demand for chips, petrochemicals, and mobile devices.

Shipment to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) spiked 28.9 percent to 10.26 billion dollars, logging the highest January figure on demand for chips, oil products and medical supplies.

Export to the United States and the European Union (EU) continued to increase for 17 straight months, and shipment to Japan and the Middle East kept rising for 10 months running.

Shipment to India and Latin American countries grew in double digits to 1.47 billion dollars and 2.27 billion dollars, respectively.

Meanwhile, import gained at a faster pace than export on the back of the strong energy demand in winter and the higher global energy cost.

Import for three major energy sources, including crude oil, natural gas and coal, amounted to 15.95 billion dollars in January, compared to 6.89 billion dollars tallied a year earlier. 
Republicans in Senate pass bill ending health emergency, though all of Indiana in red
(Alliance News) - Rio Tinto PLC on Tuesday strived to "address" issues of bullying, sexism and racism in its workforce after publishing a damning independent review of its workplace culture.

It represents another scandal for the miner, which back in 2020 caused an outcry after it blew up a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site to expand the Pilbara iron ore mine in Western Australia.

"The revelations about the workplace culture at Rio Tinto are genuinely jaw dropping a they tick about all the negative boxes you can find. Sexual assaults and harassment, racism and bullying," AJ Bell analyst Russ Mould commented.

An independent report found that over the past five years, "bullying and sexism are systemic across Rio Tinto worksites, with almost half of the people experiencing bullying".

At 53%, women were more likely to experience bullying, compared with 47% of men. The damning findings did not end there.

Sexual harassment was identified, with 28% of woman and 6.7% of men were reported to have experienced sexual harassment at work. In addition, 21 women reported actual or attempted rape or sexual assault.

The report also found that 12% of Rio Tinto employees experienced racism at work ove the past five years.

Rio Tinto said it is "deeply disturbed" by the findings.

AJ Bell's Mould added: "In that context an increase in the share price in response looks a little odd, but perhaps it reflects market appreciation for Rio at least fronting up and taking the bull by the horns when it comes to fixing these deep-rooted problems. Today marks just the first step for Rio Tinto and, however committed CEO Jakob Stausholm and his team are to addressing the toxic culture, it will take time and could be a painful, if necessary, process for the business."

Rio Tinto shares were 2.3% higher at 5,302.79 pence each in London on Tuesday afternoon.

In May 2020, Rio Tinto had blasted rock shelters in the Juukan Gorge in Western Australia's remote Pilbara region, destroying one of the earliest known sites occupied by Australia's indigenous people, in order to expand its iron ore mine.

Jean-Sebastian Jacques, the CEO at the time, has since been replaced by Stausholm.

"Given Stausholm is relatively new to the job, he is likely to be given time by shareholders to try and sort things out. However, he has very little margin for error," Mould added.

"This will shine an uncomfortable light on the sector and ramp up the pressure to encompass environmental, social & governance factors in the way mining firms are run. This includes not just the E but also the S and G too. Rio Tinto's card was already marked on this score thanks to the destruction of ancient Aboriginal caves in Australia in 2020 which led to the departure of its previous management team."

Rio Tinto said it accepts the report's recommendation and "it is clear we have work to do to address these issues".

By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
TBC Bank Group PLC - Tbilisi, Georgia-based lender - Signs USD50 million loan agreement with Propacro, the private sector arm of Agence FranAaise de Developpement Group. Facility will be used to provide finance to small and medium-sized businesses in Georgia. Adds that the agreement will reinforce TBC's partnership between Proparco.

Current stock price: 1,442.00 pence, up 2.3% on Tuesday

12-month change: up 17%

By Abby Amoakuh; abbyamoakuh@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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(Sharecast News) - Agriculture biological products company Plant Health Care said in a trading update on Tuesday that it was expecting revenue to have grown 28% in 2021, to $8.4m, with a 24% increase in constant currency terms.The AIM-traded firm said its gross margin expanded 300 basis points for the 12 months ended 31 December to 59%, while its commercial business increased its EBITDA and was cash positive for the period.

It invested $3.7m during the year, up from $2.7m in 2020, as its 'PREtec' product ramped up for commercial launches.

Plant Health Care said it saw a "substantial" improvement in working capital, adding that cash and cash equivalents at year-end on 31 December totalled $9.2m.

Post year-end, the company said it had seen continued growth into 2022, as it ramped up scale by building key distributor relationships on a global basis.

It said Saori was expected to be a "significant driver" of growth, having the potential to deliver disease control and yield increase worth around $75 per hectare for soybean growers in Brazil.

That would give growers a return on investment of at least six times, while reducing the use of "potentially less safe" agrochemicals.

Brazilian soybean farmers reportedly spent $2.85bn on disease control in the 2020-2021 season.

Plant Health Care's board said it was confident that the company was on track to deliver cash break even within its existing financial resources.

"The commercial business is now profitable and cash generative and set to deliver profitable growth over the coming years," said chief executive officer Chris Richards.

"Strong Harpin aB revenue growth, combined with the first of many product launches from the PREtec platform, mark a very strong year for Plant Health Care.

"The company is now well positioned to become a leader in sustainable agriculture, as recognised by the award of the LSE's Green Economy Mark."

Richards said the firm had established core relationships with four of the largest global agricultural distributors, giving it scale in key markets.

He noted that Harpin aB sales growth of 55% was driven by "substantial increases" in all regions, adding that in Mexico, sales of the product increased by 15%, while third-party product sales were held back due to low crop production in the first half of 2021.

"The launch of Saori into Brazil, the world's largest soybean market, has been well received.

"Sales volumes in 2021 were limited by the availability of product; however, the recently announced toll manufacturing agreement secures ample capacity to supply long-term growth in PHC279 - the active ingredient in Saori - at attractive cost for all global sales.

"Nutrien, our partner in Brazil, is excited about the potential for ramping up sales of Saori in 2022 and beyond."

Plant Health Care was planning multiple launches of PREtec products into other large markets over the coming years, Chris Richards said, following an investment of more than $25m over the last eight years.

"The next launch will be PHC279 for the specialty crop market in the United States, in partnership with Wilbur Ellis, in the second half of this year.

"The submission of the regulatory filing for PHC949 to the EPA in the US sets the way for the first launch of that exciting product in 2023.

"Plans are in place for further major product launches in following years, as we build a large business from the PREtec platform."

The company had "good visibility" to future revenue growth expectations from its distributors, Richards said, and was confident that the momentum within the business would continue into 2022 and beyond.

"We remain on track to deliver cash break even within existing resources."

At 1435 GMT, shares in Plant Health Care were up 1.08% at 9.4p.
Ghaghoo Diamond Mine

Vast Resources plc / Ticker: VAST / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining

1 February 2022

Vast Resources plc(Vast or the Company)

Ghaghoo Diamond Mine

Vast Resources plc, the AIM-listed mining company, announces an update regarding the proposed acquisition of Gem Diamonds Botswana (pty) Ltd (GDB), a wholly owned subsidiary of Gem Diamonds Ltd (Gem Diamonds) which owns the Ghaghoo Diamond Mine in Botswana (Ghaghoo).

The Company has informed Botswana Diamonds PLC (BOD) & Gem Diamonds (together the parties) of its intention not to proceed with the acquisition of GDB, as announced on 23 August 2021.

The parties are working together to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome and in the interim an agreement has been reached to extend the longstop date to 31 March 2022 to allow BOD to secure an alternative joint venture partner.

**ENDS**

For further information, visit www.vastplc.com or please contact:

Vast Resources plcAndrew Prelea (CEO)Andrew Hall (CCO) www.vastplc.com+44 (0) 20 7846 0974 Beaumont Cornish  Financial & Nominated AdvisorRoland CornishJames Biddle www.beaumontcornish.com +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited  Joint Broker Toby Gibbs / James Thomas (Corporate Advisory) www.shorecapmarkets.co.uk +44 (0) 20 7408 4050 Axis Capital Markets Limited  Joint Broker Kamran Hussain www.axcap247.com +44 (0) 20 3206 0320 St Brides Partners LimitedSusie Geliher / Charlotte Page www.stbridespartners.co.uk +44 (0) 20 7236 1177

ABOUT VAST RESOURCES PLC

Vast Resources plc is a United Kingdom AIM listed mining company with mines and projects in Romania and Zimbabwe.

In Romania, the Company is focused on the rapid advancement of high-quality projects by recommencing production at previously producing mines.

The Company's Romanian portfolio includes 100% interest in the producing Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine, located in the Apuseni Mountains, Transylvania, an area which hosts Romania's largest polymetallic mines. The mine has a JORC compliant Reserve & Resource Report which underpins the initial mine production life of approximately 3-4 years with an in-situ total mineral resource of 15,695 tonnes copper equivalent with a further 1.8M-3M tonnes exploration target. The Company is now working on confirming an enlarged exploration target of up to 5.8M tonnes.

The Company also owns the Manaila Polymetallic Mine in Romania, which was commissioned in 2015, currently on care and maintenance. The Company has been granted the Manaila Carlibaba Extended Exploitation Licence that will allow the Company to re-examine the exploitation of the mineral resources within the larger Manaila Carlibaba licence area.

In Zimbabwe, the Company is focused on the commencement of the joint venture mining agreement on the Community Diamond Concession, Chiadzwa, in the Marange Diamond Fields.
Louisiana legislators will begin formal deliberations on the redistricting process Tuesday evening, when the first session kicks off.

While the redistricting process has been going on for months, with public hearings that began in October, the three-week session beginning this week will be when legislators vote on what maps will be sent to the governors desk for approval or veto.

Redistricting happens once every 10 years, meaning that this is most of the legislatures first time partaking in the process. It is also Gov. John Bel Edwards first time going through it as an executive.

For college students who were not paying attention in civics class during high school or simply need a refresher on the redistricting process and why it matters, this guide may answer some questions.

What is redistricting?

Every 10 years, after U.S. Census results are delivered, state legislatures are tasked with redrawing district lines, which determine how areas of the state are represented politically on each level, from local to federal. Louisianas maps for U.S. House of Representatives, state legislature and other statewide and local districts will be redrawn.

+4 2020 Census: Louisiana becoming less rural, more diverse Louisiana became less rural and more diverse in the past 10 years, new U.S. Census data show

The 2020 census shows that Louisiana has become less rural and more diverse in the last 10 years, which will affect how different parts of the state are represented.

The data also show significant population loss in northern Louisiana, while more urban parts of the state around Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans grew significantly.

These population shifts will affect how lawmakers redraw the maps.

What criteria is considered during redistricting?

Per the U.S. Constitution, each district needs to contain roughly the same number of people, with a small margin of error. The federal Voting Rights Act also requires that minority voters have an equal opportunity to elect their representatives.

There are other values that lawmakers may consider as well, like compactness, or keeping districtings in small, contiguous areas.

Who is involved in the process?

Although a small number of states use independent commissions to redraw their states district lines, Louisiana relies on the legislature. Lawmakers take input from the public and other interest groups like the NAACP, ACLU and Louisiana Progress.

Within the legislature, the process is handled primarily by the Joint Governmental Affairs Committee, made up of both the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Rep. John Stefanski, a Crawley Republican, and the Senate and Governmental Affairs committee, which is chaired by Sen. Sharon Hewitt, a Slidell Republican.

After the maps are drawn, they go to the governor, who can either sign the maps into law or veto them, at which point the legislature could either draw new maps or override the veto.

After maps are approved by the governor, there is likely to be a legal fight. That fight could take place in state or federal courts. The process is likely to include activists, lawyers from the NAACP and/or the ACLU, as well as any number of judges. It could also end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

What is the Voting Rights Act?

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to protect against race discrimination in voting, a problem that has plagued many U.S. jurisdictions since the passage of the 15th amendment of the Constitution in 1870.

The VRA includes numerous provisions, one of which is outlined in Section 4. This section requires jurisdictions with a history of voter suppression (including Louisiana) to submit proposed changes to the U.S. Justice Department for approval before implementation.

This section was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, meaning that this is the very first redistricting cycle since the passage of the VRA that Louisiana does not have to seek federal approval.

What is reapportionment?

Reapportionment is the redistribution of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives based on changes in population.

In 2011, Louisiana lost a congressional seat because of population loss in the previous 10 years. This time, Louisiana will keep the same number of seats.

The states population grew nearly 3%, the 10th slowest rate in the U.S. Out of 64 parishes, only 19 saw their population increase, with much of the growth focused in the southern half of the state.

A few other states will either gain or lose a seat. Notably, Texas is gaining two seats, and Montana will have a second congressional district for the first time since 1993.

What is gerrymandering?

Gerrymandering is a way of manipulating district lines to favor a certain group, most commonly a political party or race. Gerrymandering can happen in a variety of different ways, including packing and cracking.

Packing forces a large number of voters from one group into a single or small number of districts to lessen their power in other districts. Cracking dilutes the power of those voters into many districts.

Will the governor approve the maps?

That is the question politicos and journalists have been talking about for months. While Edwards has not explicitly stated what maps he would veto, he has offered a few comments on the general idea.

I will veto bills that I believe suffer from defects in terms of basic fairness, Edwards said during his monthly call-in radio show in November.

In December, Edwards expanded on what fairness meant to him.

Fairness, if it can be done, would be to have two out of the six congressional districts be minority districts, he said.
Kirby Smith Hall is set to be demolished in Fall 2022 and will eventually become a green space, according to Roger Husser, assistant vice president of LSU Planning, Design, and Construction.

Demolition will cost about $4 million and should begin in June, finishing sometime in the fall. A demolition crew will use explosives to bring the 13-story building down since it's too close to other buildings to be knocked over.

The last time students lived in the 57-year-old building was in 2019, when the universitys then-largest freshman class had to be temporarily housed.

Though demolition has been planned for some time now, the university has relied on Kirby Smith as backup housing while having overflow issues on campus, delaying the demolition process.

The opening of two new residence halls in 2021, Camellia Hall and Azalea Hall, allowed Kirby Smith to be officially retired. With 800 beds between the two new halls, its more than enough to offset the 550 that Kirby Smith offers.

The demolition will allow LSU to build a green space and improved sidewalks around surrounding dorms that lead to the core of campus.

This was all planned years ago before we built Cypress, Spruce and Cedar Halls, Husser said. This has always been the intent of the master plan for this area with the new residence halls, and the demolition of Kirby will allow that plan to come to fruition.

McVoy and Broussard halls are also planned to be eventually demolished, according to LSUs campus master plan.

Built in 1965 and named after a Confederate general, the building has long been considered an eyesore that doesnt blend in well with the buildings around it. The hall has collected a variety of different nicknames from students like The Hospital and Dirty Kirby."

Former LSU chancellor, Michael Martin, quipped that living in the building was a historic international experience.

Its a chance to live in the Soviet Union, he said.

The first time the building closed was 2006, but housing demand on campus grew and it underwent a $1.7-million renovation and reopened in 2011.

The building, located on the north end of campus off West Chimes Street, is named after Edmund Kirby Smith, a Confederate general, who after the war served as chancellor of the University of Nashville and later a mathematics and botany professor at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee.

LSU building renaming efforts have avoided Kirby Smith because of its impending demolition.

Students living in surrounding dorms have complained of the construction machines and fencing cluttering the area surrounding Kirby Smith.

Honestly [the dorm] being there bothers me less than the construction surrounding it, said Trinity Hunte-Angus, a freshman living in Cedar Hall. Walking around the fencing is annoying because it covers some of the pathways. Theres a sign that covers the fencing, and it constantly falls.

Walking to class when it rains can be especially difficult since many of the paved pathways are obstructed by fencing.

The gravel thats next to the door by Cedar and next to the construction by Kirby becomes very muddy, Whitfield said. Your shoes can get trapped in it and its very hard to get into Cedar Hall. Ive heard roommates complain about it. I think overall everyone is frustrated about it and can't wait for it to be done.
Madison, IN (47250)

Today

Mostly cloudy early with showers developing later in the day. High 68F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Showers early, becoming a steady rain late. Low near 60F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Almond Blossom Fair

This coming Sunday is the Son Servera almond blossom fair. It has been held since 2010 and is on the estate of Ca sHereu, which is now an agrotourism finca but with a history that dates back to the thirteenth century. It was one of two estates in what was once called Binicanella. Both belonged to branches of the Servera family, the name having originally been Cervera, which came from Jaume Cervera, who had been with the thirteenth century conquest of Mallorca. Until the 1970s, Ca sHereu was a working farm. Almond trees were among what was cultivated.

Although the fairs title is almond blossom, there are almonds themselves as well as various edible products made from almonds.

Sunday, 9.30am to 2.30pm, Cases de Ca sHereu, Son Servera.

Palma Jazz Festival - opening night

The third Palma Jazz Festival starts on Friday and runs until Sunday week. There are concerts every evening plus complementary events in the citys parks, streets and squares.

Things will kick off on Friday in Placa Espanya, with the six-piece Swing Engine - Cesc Badia (trumpet), Gerard Serrano (trombone), Carlos Ruiz (clarinet), Joan Torrento Vilarnau (banjo), Johannes North (sousaphone), and Pablo Ruiz (washboard). The instrumentation offers a clear flavour of what theyre about - good-time trad jazz with influences from the likes of Louis Armstrong.

The venue for all but one of the concerts is the Xesc Forteza Theatre. Israeli saxophonist Eli Degibri will be accompanied by Alon Near (double bass), Tom Oren (piano) and Eviatar Slivnik (drums). Degibri varies between performing with the quartet and with his big band, he having at one point worked with the Mingus Big Band that specialises in the compositions of Charlie Mingus.

A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, which is headquartered in Washington, one of Degibris first breaks came when he was invited to join Herbie Hancocks sextet in 1999, aged 21. The institute has since been renamed after Herbie Hancock.



Friday, 6pm, Placa Espanya, Palma / 8pm, Teatre Xesc Forteza, Placa Miquel Maura 1, Palma.

Techno addict whod never been to a party

For the past twenty or so years, Fatima Hajji has been progressing in becoming one of the biggest names in Spanish techno music both in Spain and abroad. From Salamanca, which is where she debuted as a DJ in 1999, she is now based in Madrid, having forged her career in what - when she was starting out - was very much a male-dominated scene.

She tells the story of a teacher at school who believed she had talent to be a DJ. This teacher signed her up for a DJ contest. None of her family were aware of what she says had become an addiction with techno. Friends of her older brothers saw her name on flyers and couldnt believe it. I was sixteen and had never been to a party.

She has released various EPs, is currently finishing off her debut album and is one of the latest artists to perform at the Son Amar Danzu sessions.

Saturday, 10pm, Son Amar, Ctra. Palma-Soller km10.8, Palmanyola.

From Galicia to New York, Rio and back

Maria Toro from La Coruna in Galicia started playing the flute when she was aged eight. She was immediately hooked, and Jethro Tulls Ian Anderson inspired her along her early path - if not by attempting to adopt his postures.

At the age of fifteen, she discovered the jazz of Jorge Pardo, legendary Spanish jazz saxophonist and flautist. Further inspired, she studied at Madrids School of Creative Music before moving to New York, where she performed at iconic venues such as Blue Note and rubbed shoulders with many a great from the jazz world. Rio de Janeiro was another stop, as was Switzerland in 2014, which was where she recorded her first album.

There are now three albums, the latest entitled Fume with her fellow quartet members, David Sancho, Tono Miguel and Andres Litwin, with whom she first teamed up during jam sessions in Madrid in 2017.

Sunday, 7pm, Teatre Xesc Forteza, Placa Miquel Maura 1, Palma.

Rozalen - national award winner

Rozalen, full name Maria de los Angeles Rozalen Ortuno, was the winner of the 2020 Goya Award for her song, Que no, que no, from the film La Boda de Rosa. From Albacete in Castile-La Mancha, she started singing when she was 14, and in 2013 (by now 26) she was signed to Sony and released her first album; it went platinum.

Three other albums have since followed, and last year she received the National Prize for Current Music from Spains culture ministry.

Pop, rock, folk, she accompanies herself on guitar (plus her band) and is one of Spains major contemporary talents.

Friday, 9pm, Palma Auditorium, Paseo Maritimo 18, Palma.
Manchester, TN (37355)

Today

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 84F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 66F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
WELLINGTON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government has secured the delivery of enough rapid antigen tests (RATs) to help New Zealand through a widespread Omicron outbreak in the coming months, Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said on Tuesday.

Over the last week, the government has been in contact with a variety of rapid antigen test manufacturers. Those efforts have resulted in securing an additional 36 million tests for delivery over the next two months which corresponds with a predicted rise in Omicron cases, Verrall said in a statement.

These additional 36 million tests are on top of the 16.9 million orders already confirmed for delivery in February. Along with the 5.1 million tests already in the country, New Zealanders will have access to over 55 million rapid antigen tests in the coming two months, Verrall said.

A total of 123 million rapid antigen tests have been ordered through to June, which will allow for regular and widespread testing to occur, she said.

"Modelling on the use of rapid antigen tests through the outbreak suggests that during the peak we may be using as many as nine million RATs a week which is equivalent to testing a quarter of New Zealand every day, or all of New Zealand twice a week," Verrall said.

"That scale of testing will go a long way to reducing the risk of an infected person going to work and infecting others, and will help with keeping critical services and supply chains open and moving," she said.

In the past week two more types of rapid antigen test have been approved for use in New Zealand, bringing the total number to 11, with several more going through the approval process, she said, adding the Ministry of Health and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research continue to only approve tests that meet a very high threshold for quality to reduce the number of false positives and negatives.

"Many of the RATs will be used to implement our 'test to return' policy for asymptomatic critical workers so our hospitals, supermarkets, and other services that keep the country running can continue operating," Verrall said.

The ministry has been placing regular orders of RATs since October last year, and the quantities ordered have increased substantially since early December. 
MANISTEE  Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy has a student enrollment of 3,500, from nearly every county in Michigan.

"Our school is doing better in a lot of areas. You can see we're improving, but we've got a long way to go," said David Ohman, school board president of Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy. "We're not the answer for everybody  we never said we were. ... We've always said when MAPS started the school, that virtual is not the answer for everybody, but for a certain element that struggles, we can be the answer."

Ohman was speaking during a combined work study session between the MGLVA and Manistee Area Public Schools boards of education on Thursday. During the session, Kendall Schroeder, MGLVA head of school, updated the MAPS board on the progress the cyberschool has made since first being authorized by MAPS in 2013.

Shroeder said MGLVA is serving just shy of 3,500 students this year, leaving the district with only 30 or 40 seats available.

"Most of the students come from the larger populated areas of the state, but this year we have students from 81 of the 83 counties," he said. "Two of those counties way up in the northern part of the Upper Peninsula, unfortunately, we haven't been able to grab onto some of those kids yet, but maybe it's due to (a lack of internet) access. I'm not sure."

MGLVA employs 230 distancing learning specialists, including 141 general education or Title 1 teachers, 44 support staff and 27 special educaton staff.

Shroeder said MGLVA has continued to improve with regard to student growth in English language arts and math.

"There's still some assessments that are being given, but currently we have about 59% of our students that have shown growth in English language arts and 57% of our students showing growth in math," he said. "Each one of those percentages is a growth over last year at this time. (We've seen) 3.4% year-over-year growth in ELA and 5.6% year-over-year growth in math."

In addition to student growth, the virtual academy also tracks proficiency, which is measured by the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress and the SAT.

In language arts, 42.6% of MGLVA students were found to be proficient.

"When we compare that to a peer group, which is something I think is important to do, ... our 42.6% proficiency rating is about 5 percentage points above our peers in that area from our 2021 data," Shroeder said.

In math, MGLVA had a 21.8% proficiency rating in math in 2021. Although a significant improvement over 12.5% in the 2018-19 school year, Shroeder said that is an area the school will work hard to continue to improve.

"Math, historically, has been a challenge and has been at a lower percentage. ... We know that's an area we need to focus on," he said. "... That's something that we have been really digging into and providing supports as much as we can in the classroom as well  whether interventionists or Title I support staff. That's an area we're going to continue to work on."

Shroeder said MGLVA has been identified by the state over the last few years as being a school that has a significantly low graduate percentage. The school has been working closely with the Manistee Intermediate School District and doing professional development to help more MGLVA students graduate.

"Some of our students that come to us are significantly behind in their credits. We may not have a great four-year cohort graduation rate, but we have a good five-year graduation rate and a good six-year graduation rate," Shroeder said. "Those kids are coming to us that are significantly behind in their credits might take five or six years to graduate, but our four-year grad rate has improved year over year. Our last known graduation rate right now is 54%  which is a 4.61% year-over-year growth."

Shroeder said MGLVA has worked to get students engaged in the online environment, which has helped improve the school's ability to retain students.

"Over the last few years, we've been able to lower the percentage of students leaving and transferring. ... There were a lot of them transferring a few years ago and the percentage was higher, but the trend line is going down over the last couple years," he said. "We've been able to connect and keep those kids longer each year. ... Their needs are being met here at a much higher rate than they have in the past. ... We're at a 24.8% (withdrawal rate) at this current time. Our goal for that is to kind of maintain that percentage throughout the rest of the year."

During the 2018-19 school year, MGLVA saw a student attendance rate of 70%. Last school year that number jumped to 92%.

"Our chronic absenteeism is going down each year. We have some good supports around that," Shroeder said. "We have an adviser support team that really helps with connecting students and getting them back on track if they're starting to fall off. ... We're really proud of this."

MAPS superintendent Ron Stoneman said serving as the authorizer of MGLVA is a point of pride for his district.

"Usually universities are doing the authorization, so for little mom-and-pop Manistee, I think we're doing exceedingly well," he said. "... I run in circles across the state with superintendents, and when they find out we authorize this district, I have no problem supporting and celebrating our partnership and speaking of a successful district that we authorize. I take on all challengers to say that we're not doing the best that we can for the students of their district. I'm really proud of the work that we've done collectively."

Shroeder said due to increased enrollment and grant funding, MGLVA is healthy from a financial perspective as well, holding a fund balance which is 24% of the school's annual revenue. The school has $2.3 million in unrestricted monies which can be spent on general operating expenses. As a virtual academy, MGLVA does not have to save for roofs, boilers, buses and things of that nature, so the school is able to put that money toward its students.

"There's no reason we need to have 30% fund balance  there's kind of a happy medium that we have to find. ... The trend over the last few years has been that increasing fund balance," Shroeder said. "That's something that we're certainly taking into account, looking at and talking with the board about where do we really want that percentage to land. If it is like 18% or something, what do we do with that funding and how do we put it back into our program?"
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...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...Significant and potentially life threatening flash flooding is ongoing just south of I-44 across Okfuskee and Okmulgee counties. Numerous main-stem rivers will likely rise above flooding. Extensive low land flooding will be likely, especially where the heavier rain has already occurred. Many low-water crossings will likely become flooded. Area creeks and streams are already running high and will likely flood with more heavy rain. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Additional rounds of thunderstorms with very heavy rain are expected this evening through the overnight hours. Widespread 2 to 3 inches of rain is expected with locally higher amounts of 5 to 7 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. &&
WELLINGTON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand recorded 126 new community cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.

Among the new community infections, 84 are in the largest city Auckland, 20 in nearby Waikato, eight in Bay of Plenty, one in the Lakes region, and five in Northland, according to the ministry.

In addition, there are 79 new cases detected at the New Zealand border, said the ministry.

There are eight COVID-19 patients currently being treated in New Zealand hospitals, with none in the intensive care unit.

The country has recorded 16,245 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 12,131 cases from the current community outbreak, said the ministry.

To date, about 94 percent of the eligible people in New Zealand are fully vaccinated with at least two doses, the ministry said, adding that more than 1.32 million boosters, or the third doses, have been administered. Over 169,000 children in the 5-to-11-year-old group have received their first dose.

The ministry urges everyone in New Zealand to act as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is transmitting in the community. People are encouraged to wear a mask, keep a physical distance from each other, and use the contact tracing app when going outdoors.

People in New Zealand are also encouraged to take their booster jab of the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible. 
WARSAW, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Poland's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.7 percent year on year in 2021, after a 2.5 percent drop in 2020, the country's Central Statistical Office said on Monday.

Dominik Rozkrut, head of the statistical office, noted that domestic demand was a key driver of Poland's economy last year, according to the Polish Press Agency.

"Its impact on GDP amounted to 7.6 percentage points, which is more than in the pre-pandemic years," Rozkrut told reporters on Monday.

According to the preliminary estimate, the gross value added in industry in 2021 increased by 14.1 percent, a sharp rise compared with a decrease of 5.3 percent in 2020, the office also said. 
Meadville, PA (16335)

Today

Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. High 68F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional light rain after midnight. Low 53F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
Gloria Brown Bruister, 81, passed away on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., with her loving daughters by her side. Born on July 21, 1940, to Jay Lavell and Mattie Noblin Brown, Gloria graduated from Meridian High School in 1958. Married soon after to Hubert L. Bruist
MOSCOW, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Two giant pandas from China, Ruyi and Dingding, who have been living at the Moscow Zoo since 2019, will enjoy a "festive atmosphere" while celebrating their third Chinese New Year in Russia.

"Zoo staff will make large cardboard toys in the shape of tigers for the pandas, as well as place spruce and fir trees decorated with ice candies with vegetables and fruits inside," zoo head Svetlana Akulova told Xinhua in a recent interview.

She said it would be possible to watch how the pandas celebrate the Lunar New Year not only in person at the zoo, but also online through a live stream on the zoo's official social networks.

The pandas are very popular among visitors, many of whom are already familiar with the personalities of the Chinese guests, according to Akulova.

"Dingding is pickier and moodier, while Ruyi is like an explorer and can sometimes be a bit of a trouble-maker," she said.

"Our employees already recognize these regular visitors and are always happy to answer their questions. There was even a time when a child brought his soft toy panda and introduced it to Ruyi and Dingding," Akulova said.

"I am glad that the Moscow Zoo has chosen to participate in the international program for giant panda preservation, protection and research," she stressed.

Akulova noted that it was significant how "the cultural values of one country, that are portrayed through national symbols, could be accepted and loved in another," especially the giant pandas, which are "definitely the living embodiment of Chinese culture." 
Evangelist Stan Owens of Sharonville, Ohio, prepares to preach to the Yellow Banks Church of Christ congregation, left to right, Ann Owens, Jerry Payne, Pat Norris, Angela Crabtree, Melissa Clemons and 8-year-old Alexander Clemons, on Sunday at Norris Philpot home. The small group has been holding worship services at Norris home for nearly two years.
Bell Bank of Fargo, North Dakota, will open a mortgage servicing office in the Alorica building, 235 Frederica St., this summer.

Its a move that will create a $50 million impact in the community, Brittaney Johnson, president of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp., said Monday.

Johnson said the company will occupy the third, fourth and fifth floors of the building over the next five years.

And she said theres a possibility that the company will need the second floor as well.

Alorica left the building during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

It announced in September 2016, to great fanfare that it would open a customer service center in Owensboro in 2017 that would eventually employ 840 people.

Last year, Sunny Yu, Aloricas vice president of global communications and corporate social responsibility, said the company transitioned its 250 Owensboro employees to work-at-home status and planned to keep it that way.

Bell Bank expects to have 37 employees by the end of the year and 178 by the end of 2026.

Im very excited to have them in the community and filling up the Alorica Building again, Johnson said.

Bob Smiley, Bells senior vice president/mortgage servicing director, said the bank looked at several large cities including Phoenix and St. Louis, but decided to locate the new office in Owensboro.

He said they were looking for 35,000 to 40,000 square feet of office space.

Few if any employees will transfer from another city, Smiley said.

All will be local.

Smiley said the search for a new office began about nine months ago.

He was formerly executive vice president and head of servicing for U.S. Bank Home Mortgage in Owensboro and was very familiar with what Owensboro had to offer.

Bell Bank is the largest family-and employee-owned bank in the upper Midwest, and one of the largest privately owned banks in the nation.

The bank, which now has assets of more than $9 billion, was named the No.1 Best Bank to Work For by American Banker magazine last year.

Mayor Tom Watson said, Public-private partnerships provide continued success in bringing new investment to downtown Owensboro.

He said, Special thanks to the entire team at Gulfstream Commercial Services, who have worked tirelessly to facilitate this new investment and bring Bell Bank to our great community. They continue pushing forward and we appreciate their continued drive and investment across the entire region.

Gulfstream owns the Alorica building.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301 klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com
Last summer, when car dealerships across the country were hit with a shortage of new vehicles, local dealers were hoping their lots would be filled with new vehicles again by now.

But that hasnt happened.

Were getting in some inventory, but not as much as wed like, Duke Brubaker, general manager and president of Champion Ford Lincoln Mazda, said Monday.

He said Ford is offering pre-sales deals  ordering the vehicle a customer wants  with a 120-day delivery guarantee and incentives that customers cant get when buying a vehicle on the lot.

We might get 10 cars in, but only two or three go on the lot because the others were pre-sold, Brubaker said. I dont see our lot filling up anytime soon.

Last year, the main problem was the semiconductor chip shortage that began when factories in Taiwan and China closed in 2020 to try to stop the coronavirus pandemic.

They tell me its no longer just a chip shortage, Brubaker said. Its a shortage of everything.

When new cars became scarce, people turned to used cars.

And the prices shot up to almost new car levels.

Used cars are still going up a little, but not like last year, Brubaker said. If you have an extra car, its a good time to sell. Were very aggressive about buying cars off the street.

Might be late 2024He said, Ive read that it might get better this summer or it might be late 2024. Nobody seems to know.

John Moore, president and chief executive officer of Don Moore Automotive, said, New cars are coming in, but probably 70% have been pre-sold. Its better than it was, but its still not enough to fill up lots.

He said, We normally have a four to five month inventory of new cars, but we havent been there for months.

Moore said new vehicles are selling at a high pace, but not used cars so much because prices are so high.

He said, Manufacturers arent selling new cars to rental companies, so theyre bidding on used cars at auction just like we are.

That helps drive up prices.

Its a great time to trade a used car, Moore said. New car prices are up 5% to 7%. Used are up 25% to 35%.

He said it will likely be six months before his car lots are full again.

But I thought that six months ago, Moore said. Im hopeful well have more inventory by fall. Its just so hard to predict with omicron and all thats going on.

Jerry Ray Davis, owner of Jerry Ray Davis Chrysler Dodge Ram Jeep, said, Our inventory has come up a little since summer. New cars are still coming in. But were doing a lot of pre-orders. So our inventory isnt building very fast. But its coming up a little.

He said, Were not hearing anything from the manufacturers about when things might get back to normal.

Tommy Tapp Jr., general manager of Tapp Motors, said, Weve been blessed. Our inventory hasnt been that low. Prices are a little higher, but we try to buy local and not go to the auctions. Some places are charging more than retail for used cars. Its a different world, but we havent bee affected too much.

Cars.com said in January, Patience may be a virtue, but its likely even the most forbearing car shoppers are fed up with empty dealer lots and stubbornly high prices both for new and used vehicles.

It said, According to a December 2021 report from analytics firm IHS Markit, U.S. inventory levels are at their lowest levels since the global financial crisis of the late 2000s, but the needle is moving in the right direction for vehicle production.

The article added, Although the microchip shortage continues to be a significant disruptor, automakers are learning to adapt to the tight supply to keep production lines moving. Sooner-than-anticipated restoration of semiconductor manufacturing in Asia may ease the chip shortage to some degree in 2022.

Rock bottom inventoriesThe site said, According to Tyson Jominy, J.D. Powers vice president of data and analytics, vehicle inventory is still at rock-bottom levels despite the recent production recoveries.

Inventory ended November near all-time record lows, right at about 850,000 units on the ground or soon to be arriving at dealerships, Jominy said. In 2018 [by contrast], the industry retailed just shy of 1.4 million new vehicles in December, so we are starting with inventory at 60% of the typical sales pace, or with just over two weeks of supply on the ground.

Automotive News reported that as of Dec. 1, Hondas inventory stood at 59,800 vehicles, down 83% from the 346,100 units the automaker had at the same time in 2019.

Toyotas inventory dropped 75% between December 2019 and 2021.

Fords inventory was down 66%, to 214,800 units as of Dec. 1 from 633,000 units two years prior.

J.D. Powers monthly forecast said the average price of a new vehicle was estimated at a record $44,043 for November, up 18% from a year earlier.

Cars.com said the median listing price for all used cars in December 2021 was $25,242, up from $17,493 two years before.

Thats a 44% increase.

Automotive News has said that its possible that used car prices could drop 20% to 30% later this year or early next year

Cars.com said, If putting off a car purchase for a year or two is a viable option, it could be best to do so. The benefits may include an expanded pool of vehicles to choose from, plus a gradual drop in prices as the market moves toward some semblance of normal.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301 klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com
Workers sort lobsters by size at The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine, the United States, Jan. 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

PORTLAND, the United States, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- U.S. lobster exporters are busy preparing for the Chinese New Year, an occasion for big banquets and plenty of seafood consumption.

The week-long holiday, commonly known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year, is typically one of the busiest times for the U.S. lobster business.

Appetite for the crustaceans remains strong in China this year, despite pandemic-related challenges to transportation and logistics, according to U.S. lobster industry members.

"I have orders every day. Whether I can get them all on the airplanes every day becomes a question," Bill Bruns, operations manager at The Lobster Co., told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Located in Arundel, the U.S. state of Maine, The Lobster Co., has been selling fresh seafood since 1994 and is among the earliest in America to sell lobsters to China. The northeasternmost U.S. state of Maine generally accounts for 80 percent to 85 percent of all U.S. lobster sales.

"I sold to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong," said Stephanie Nadeau, owner of The Lobster Co., who started her Chinese business in 2009 and sold about 3 million pounds of lobster to the Asian giant last year.

"The big lobsters, the select lobsters, are the premium expensive lobsters, and they tend to go to Beijing or Guangzhou. In Shanghai, they buy a quarter size and half size. And in Hong Kong, they buy mostly the smaller size," said Nadeau.

Nadeau said Chinese New Year business can last for a couple of weeks and consumption for lobsters there often remains strong even after the holiday.

"It's like it doesn't end. It's not like a U.S. holiday, like it's Christmas and then Christmas is over," she said, adding her company shipped about 25,000 pounds per week to China in January.

"That's how much space I can get on the plane," said Nadeau, noting international trade has been complicated by the pandemic.

U.S. lobster industry members said business with China is crucial to the U.S. seafood industry, hoping that international shipping difficulties caused by the COVID-19 could be resolved soon.

The Chinese market and Asian customers are "vital to us," Virginia Olsen, executive liaison of the Maine Lobstering Union, a lobstermen-owned cooperative, told Xinhua.

"We have been preparing for the Lunar New Year since our Christmas holiday ... We ship more during the Lunar New Year than we do during Christmas, so we've been very busy getting ready," she said.

Olsen said that U.S. lobster exports to China have "increased exponentially" over the past decade, adding "we hope that this year will be another success."

Bill Coppersmith, a member of the union who has been in the business for 42 years, said he believes many of the lobsters he caught went to Chinese plates.

"I think China enjoys our product quite a bit," said Coppersmith. "The more demand that they have for the product, the better it is for the fishermen."

While the pandemic has impacted U.S. lobster exports overall since its onset about two years ago, the industry's U.S.-to-China trade pipeline is making a comeback.

International trade data showed that during the first 11 months of 2021, American exporters sent more than 13.2 million pounds of lobster to China, about 6 percent more than the same time period the previous year.

"In the next few years, I suspect we'll be selling more and more to China. I just hope we can catch enough to keep everybody satisfied," said Coppersmith, noting stable trade with China is mutually beneficial and win-win.

"It's good that we can export something to them, because we get so much from China," he said.

Olsen said the Chinese market has great potential. "We really look forward to building those relationships." 

A worker weighs a lobster to sort at The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine, the United States, Jan. 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

A worker weighs a lobster to sort at The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine, the United States, Jan. 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Workers sort lobsters by size at The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine, the United States, Jan. 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Workers carry containers with lobsters at The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine, the United States, Jan. 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

A worker pushes containers with lobsters into a storage area at The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine, the United States, Jan. 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

A worker weighs a lobster to sort at The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine, the United States, Jan. 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Workers pack lobsters for shipment at The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine, the United States, Jan. 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Photo taken on Jan. 24, 2022 shows the exterior of The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine, the United States. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Stephanie Nadeau, owner of The Lobster Co., speaks during an interview with Xinhua at her company in Arundel, Maine, the United States, Jan. 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Bill Coppersmith, a member of the Maine Lobstering Union who has been in the business for 42 years, checks his lobster traps at a pier in Portland, Maine, the United States, Jan. 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
The race for Daviess County sheriff will be decided in May, when voters in the Republican primary choose between either current Sheriff Barry Smith or former OPD and sheriffs department officer and detective Brad Youngman.

Smith was chief deputy until being appointed sheriff on Dec. 1, after the retirement of longtime Sheriff Keith Cain. Youngman left the sheriffs department and then became the lead officer for the Daviess County Public Schools Police Department.

Both said their experience in law enforcement will help them lead DCSD. Candidates are listed alphabetically.

BARRY SMITHSmith joined the sheriffs department as a deputy in 1995. Smith, who has degrees in criminal justice and business administration from the University of the Cumberlands, was hired by then Sheriff John Bouvier, and rose to be chief deputy under Cain.

I always thought about law enforcement as a career, Smith said. Smith was hired under a grant that allowed the department to hire six new deputies.

Ive loved it ever since, Smith said.

Smith added, I really enjoy helping the community. Before I was hired as a sheriffs deputy, I was a volunteer firefighter in Moseleyville.

There is just something about helping people when they need help, Smith said.

Later, he said, I really believe it was what I was meant to do.

Smith was promoted through the ranks to patrol supervisor then into command positions, and has been a member of the command staff for the past 11 years. As chief deputy, Smith oversaw all department operations and was involved with hiring, and preparing the offices budgets for Daviess Fiscal Court.

Smith said, as sheriff, his goals include working to hire and retain deputies and staff. Law enforcement agencies across the state compete with each other and with the private sector for candidates.

A sheriff depends on a great staff, and has to maintain that staff, Smith said. We need to get our staffing level up to where it was prior to COVID. My goal is to make sure I get our personnel, main for patrol, back up to where it needs to be.

Last year, the county became part of the Appalachian High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federal designation that makes more funds and investigative resources available for drug trafficking cases.

Smith said a goal of the sheriffs office this year is to work more with the HIDTA task force, which includes investigators from the sheriffs office and OPD.

The HIDTA task force designation late last year (active in September) was a step in the right direction to seek and arrest high-volume drug dealers that are flooding our streets with poison,Smith said in a message later Monday. We look forward to working with our federal and local agencies for our first full year in operation.

Retention of deputies is also important, he said.

We have a lot of people we got through the (law enforcement) academy who are excited to be here, Smith said.

Retaining good deputies is important, he said.

An agency is only as good at the personnel who work for them, Smith said.

BRAD YOUNGMANYoungman first joined the Owensoro Police Department in 2004. Prior to joining OPD, Youngman was an agent for the state Office of Security Coordination. It later became the Office of Homeland Security.

In my time in the military, I was a counter-intelligence agent, Youngman said. At the Office of Security Coordination, we investigated threats and vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure across the state.

After returning to the Owensboro region and finishing his degree in public relations and journalism at the University of Southern Indiana, Youngman joined OPD.

At the police department, Youngman was a member of the emergency response team, a patrol supervisor and detective with the street crimes unit, which investigates drug crimes. Youngman was a detective at the sheriffs office when he became lead officer for the DCPS Police Department, which is in charge of law enforcement and security for DCPS.

Ive got over 20 years in law enforcement and military leadership experience, Youngman said.

If elected sheriff, Youngman said he would created a narcotics unit at the department, to investigate drug crimes.

With the concerns I have with the crime, violence and drugs in our county, Im in a position to know what works, Youngman said. The first thing I noticed in my time at the sheriffs office is we dont have a drug unit

The agency, Youngman said, needs full-time drug investigators.

Youngman said another goal would be to modernize the department, and make technology work for us a little better. Retention of deputies is also a priority, he said.

One thing I pride myself on ... is my ability to affect morale as a leader, he said. Morale affects retention and retention affects experience. Leading by example is the most important thing.

In terms of gun violence inside city limits, Youngman said he would want the department to be a partner to OPD on investigations.

For years, there has been an attitude that the city is not the sheriffs responsibility. I disagree, Youngman said. There are things the sheriffs department can do to help. I would like to increase that level of cooperation.

Youngman said, We have a great sheriffs office, but there is always room for improvement.

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse
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Northern Michigan University, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, has received a Consumers Energy Foundation grant of $70,000 to support efforts to bring back the Arctic grayling to Michigan waters.

Combined with support from the Henry E. and Consuelo S. Wenger Foundation, the Consumers Energy Foundation grant will fund an evaluation of several types of chambers for rearing Arctic grayling eggs in Michigan streams. Remote site incubator designs successfully used to rear eggs in Montana streams work well there, but their successful operation is less certain in Michigan streams. This project will evaluate alternative approaches to the RSI design in lab and stream environments to determine which will be most efficient and reliable for Michigan's stream environments. .

"This is the second contribution we have received from the Consumers Energy Foundation since we started our initiative to bring Arctic grayling back to Michigan," said DNR Fisheries Division Chief Jim Dexter. "With their partnership we are able to get closer to meeting our goals and seeing success."

"Consumers Energy has been serving Michigan communities for 135 years, and we're committed to supporting organizations that strengthen environmental stewardship and work to preserve and protect our state's amazing natural resources," said Carolyn Bloodworth, Consumers Energy Foundation secretary/treasurer. "We're proud to partner with other Michigan organizations to bring native Arctic grayling back to their home waters."

"Northern Michigan University is looking forward to collaborating on this project with the Michigan DNR," said NMU assistant professor Brandon Gerig. "It's exciting that the data generated from this project will directly inform Arctic grayling restoration efforts in Michigan."

The Arctic grayling is an iconic and treasured part of Michigan's history and was the only abundant stream salmonid (fish in the salmon family) in the Lower Peninsula. It has not been present in Michigan since the 1930s.

The Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative seeks to establish self-sustaining populations of this species throughout its historical range in Michigan. The initiative has more than 40 partners collaborating on the reintroduction. Members of Michigan's Arctic Grayling Initiative meet to identify knowledge gaps and to discuss management and stocking strategies and public outreach.

The information collected through this partner-supported project will guide management agencies in identifying the most effective and efficient approaches for stream-based reintroductions of Arctic grayling in Michigan. The Consumers Energy Foundation previously supported partner efforts to develop a system for rating select stream habitats where Arctic grayling are being considered for reintroduction. The report describing this effort can be found on the Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative website.

For more information on the history of Arctic grayling in Michigan, visit MiGrayling.org.
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Photo courtesy/Amy Schroeder

BIG RAPIDS  Two Big Rapids Middle School students had the honor of being chosen to participate in the State Honors Choir through the Michigan School Vocal Music Association (MSVMA).

Emily Balch and Grace Edwards joined students from around the state of Michigan to sing at the Michigan Music Conference in Grand Rapids this past weekend. In order to be considered, they had to complete an audition process and participate in Regional Honors Choir.
REED CITY  With more marijuana shops popping up around West Michigan, one Reed City councilman is advocating for the benefits of allowing the industry to make and grow roots in town.

There are no dispensaries in Reed City due to city ordinances not allowing them. However, there are differing opinions of residents on if the city should update ordinances to allow for the industry to come to town.

Nate Bailey, a city councilman since 2018, said he believes it's time to reconsider the citys decision to opt-out of allowing for marijuana businesses.

Currently any kind of marijuana establishment is prohibited within the city limits, Bailey said. My hope is to change that, but I dont want to take the same route that Big Rapids did for the amount of licenses allowed, simply because we are a smaller population. ... the way I look at it, even if Reed City doesnt want them, people will still buy those products they just wont buy them here.

That just means the money that would normally be spent locally is now spent outside the community and we lose out on that tax revenue on top of it, he added. The definite benefit is many communities have seen older or abandoned buildings remodeled to look phenomenal because of these businesses coming in; No. 2 is the number of jobs that could be brought to a small community like ours; third would be the tax revenue that would come in that we could see as a community, and we could then use that revenue to further city goals of creating a community culture of outdoor recreation.

Under the terms of Proposal 1, which was passed by Michigan voters in November 2018, local municipalities may opt-out of allowing commercial marijuana sales within their boundaries by passing ordinances or taking up a ballot measure.

Bailey said the council may be more receptive to changing the ordinances today.

The last time we had a discussion about this was back when I was first elected, Bailey said. At that time, we had a different makeup of council members than we do now. The ones most opposed to it are no longer council members. There is a greater likelihood that [changes to the ordinances] should pass now. A lot of the naysayers would talk about the extra requirements and risk of crime, and unfortunately, that doesnt track with reality. If were look at just our surrounding communities, not only in Big Rapids, but in Evart, Baldwin, and Cadillac these businesses are allowed.

Ive spoken with law enforcement officers in all of these communities, he added. As far as crime directly relates to illegal selling of marijuana that has actually gone down, and some law enforcement officials have attributed that to the decrease in the black market because it's now commercially readily available.

One in nine Michiganders report using cannabis at least once in the last month, according to a comprehensive report issued by the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center in June 2020. The report also found that medical marijuana led to net revenue for the state of $5 million to $7 million a year.

Bailey said resident concerns are important to take into account when considering changes.



People say, I dont want my whole town to smell like marijuana,' and I get that, Bailey said. I dont think that marijuana businesses cause a smell, as I have utilized numerous businesses and provisioning centers myself, and there are a few of them where you wont even smell anything when youre inside.

Well need to change public and city ordinances to achieve it, as well as zoning ordinances to allow those types of businesses in commercial zones, Bailey said. I want to personally do some more research into the issue and complete a draft version of an ordinance before its introduced to the council so that all of the heavy lifting will be done prior to it being put forward.

The research Bailey plans to do will include looking into how other cities that have adopted ordinances to allow marijuana businesses handled the process, as well as looking at how the ordinances have economically benefited them since adoption and implementation.

On top of his role as a council member, Bailey also works as a real estate broker and the president of Reed Citys local museum, and he wants to ensure he can put the time into the research necessary to present good information to the council.

Bailey said compiling a quality draft ordinance that could succeed must include resident comments and input.

Ill be wanting to draft an ordinance that is modeled after other ordinances in areas that have already implemented them successfully, Bailey said. When it comes time to introduce these ordinances, I think it's incredibly important for the residents and community stakeholders to join in the discussion and be present for these meetings. The goal would be to explain the issue to the council from a resident perspective and include what their views are in whether or not they want it to continue or not.

The Reed City city council is scheduled to meet next at 6 p.m. Feb. 22 at city hall.
MEXICO CITY, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The United States manufactured most of the weapons seized by authorities in Mexico over the last two years, according to a report released Monday by Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Mexican security forces seized 18,091 U.S.-made weapons between Jan. 1, 2020 and Nov. 18, 2021, an average of 812 guns or other firearms a month, the ministry said.

Of the weapons seized, over 10,500 were handguns and more than 7,300 were shotguns, the report said.

Mexico estimates that at least half a million pieces of weapons are brought to the country illegally each year from the United States and fall into the hands of criminals south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

More than 3.9 million crimes are committed in Mexico each year by criminals using U.S.-made weapons, 70 percent of which can be tracked to the United States, according to the ministry.

In a bid to decrease U.S. arms entering Mexico, the Mexican government filed a lawsuit against 11 U.S. arms manufacturers and distributors in August. 
Metro Creative Graphics/File Photo

A 49-year-old male was arrested Jan. 20 in Bay County, Florida for criminal sexual conduct he is being charged with in Huron County.

According to a press release by the Michigan State Police Caro Post, the man is being charged with two counts of first-degree CSC with a person under the age of 13, and two counts of second-degree CSC, also with a person under the age of 13.
MIDDLETOWN  Police are investigating after two students vehicles at Middletown High School had their catalytic converters stolen during school hours last month.

The thefts occurred Jan. 26 and involved two Hondas, according to police.

Police are reviewing surveillance footage in the case.

The thefts are among the latest instances reported to police in Connecticut. Several police agencies have reported an uptick in the thefts of the devices, which are connected to the vehicles exhaust system.

The mother of one of the Middletown High students said her daughter realized something was wrong when she went to start the car and the engine sounded ridiculously loud.

The woman, who asked not to be named to protect her daughters identity, said the incident was inconvenient, but also made them feel unsafe. Between a recent increase in fights among students, school threats  and now youve got this, she said.

The thefts are part of a national trend in which utility vehicles and trucks are often hit because the higher ride height makes it easier for thieves to climb under the vehicles. Catalytic converters have been installed in cars since the 1970s as emissions control devices.

Catalytic converters contain rare earth metals, which makes them valuable for scrap. The problem has resulted in an industry for anti-theft devices, which surround the converters in a steel cage, making it harder for thieves to remove them.

Last November, police in Trumbull said schools had to borrow buses after catalytic converters were stolen from the entire fleet of 28 vehicles. Police estimated the damage cost over $75,000.

In December, Stratford police also reported an uptick in catalytic converter thefts. They urged residents to park their vehicle in a garage or behind a fence, if possible, or to install motion-sensor lights or security cameras to deter potential thieves.
WATERBURY  A former city resident was sentenced to eight years in federal prison on Tuesday for distributing child sexual abuse materials, according to prosecutors.

Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport sentenced 28-year-old Jessica Pickering to 96 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

Pickering used the Kik social media application to share the images in a group geared toward those with an interest in children in October 2020, prosecutors said. She spoke with an undercover FBI employee who was monitoring the group.

Prosecutors said Pickering told the undercover officer that she had access to three minors, ages 7 and younger.

She posted two live videos in the group on Oct. 20, 2020, that, prosecutors said, showed the sexual abuse of a toddler. Prosecutors said she later sent the officer two more videos of the same child. The next day, prosecutors said, she pulled out of the group, saying she felt an immense amount of disgust for herself over what she did.

Pickering was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on Oct. 27, 2020. She pleaded guilty on May 5, 2021.

She is currently free on bond while living with family in Queens, N.Y. She was ordered to report to prison on March 16.

Cases of child exploitation can be reported at www.cybertipline.com.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday that the United States is willing to "continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns."

During a telephone conversation between the two countries' top diplomats, Blinken informed his Russian counterpart of the U.S. "willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns, which we intend to do in full coordination with our partners and Allies," according to a statement issued by Ned Price, the State Department's spokesman.

The secretary "reiterated the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances," the statement said.

Blinken also urged Russia to immediately de-escalate the tensions on Ukraine's borders by withdrawing its troops and equipment, emphasizing that a "further" Russian "invasion of Ukraine" will be met with "swift and severe consequences." He urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path toward resolving the ongoing crisis.

Tuesday's phone call was meant to follow up on a written response last week from Washington addressing Moscow's security concerns.

The document, according to Blinken, "includes concerns of the United States and our allies and partners about Russia's actions that undermine security, a principled and pragmatic evaluation of the concerns that Russia has raised, and our own proposals for areas where we may be able to find common ground."

Speaking of the U.S. document, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday that "fundamental Russian concerns were ignored" by the U.S. side.

Russia, Putin said as he concluded a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, had not seen in the U.S. response "adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's) expansion, the renunciation of the deployment of strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and the return of the (NATO) bloc's military infrastructure in Europe to the state of 1997, when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed." 
NEW HAVEN  A video depicting members of a Southern Connecticut State University sorority allegedly mocking another sorority has led to backlash on social media and a statement from the schools president.

On Jan. 28, a video was posted on Instagram and subsequently other platforms with alleged members of Omega Zeta Pi displaying hand signs and movements associated with the Zeta Phi Beta sorority in an allegedly mocking fashion.

The video shows multiple young women at an apparent party. The women are cheering loudly and one woman is seen making the hand gestures and movements. Between the cheering and music in the background, it is unclear what is being said in the video.

Zeta Phi Beta is a 102-year-old organization founded at Howard University by five women of color during a time when students of color were not allowed to join Greek life organizations due to race, the sorority said in a letter to SCSU President Joe Bertolino on Instagram.

In the letter, chapter President Ashley del Carmen Perez wrote that those in the video were mocking Zeta Phi Betas cultural and historic values, which hold deep cultural significance to current and future members.

She also wrote that Omega Zeta Pi members have significant reach and impact on the student body through roles in student leadership positions.

Allegedly, this is not the first time the sorority has acted in a disrespectful manner toward Zeta Phi Beta, the president wrote.

To see an SCSU Greek-lettered organization not only participate in such negligible actions but also record a video and share it on social media highlights the blatant disregard for our organization, the letter read. For the success of Greek life on SCSUs campus, we must respect each others values regardless of the full understanding of the principles of our organizations, as well as the cultures, ethnicity, or race of its members.

The letter concluded with eight actions the organization was seeking for SCSU to take to hold Omega Zeta Pi responsible and to create better practices at the school.

These included suspending Omega Zeta Pi for an academic year; requiring members allegedly in the video to volunteer 20 hours of community service each within a local organization serving underrepresented people of color and communities in New Haven County; enhancing hiring efforts toward selecting culturally diverse candidates for employment throughout SCSU, including teaching and administrative faculty; and more.

Bertolino responded to the letter in the Instagram comments and with a separate statement shared on his social media pages on Sunday, stating he shared Zeta Phi Betas concerns.

As president of Southern, I want to acknowledge the disrespect and hurt that this incident has caused to your membership, other Multicultural Greek Organizations, and indeed individuals of color across our campus community, Bertolino wrote in the comments. Please know that we are committed to listening, learning, and taking concrete steps to do better as a university to support and protect you.

He added that he is aware Zeta Phi Beta members are bonded by traditions and rituals stemming from the organizations African and African-American historical and cultural roots.

This heritage is an important source of solidarity and pride, particularly in the face of ongoing racial injustice, and it should not be disparaged or undermined in any way, Bertolino wrote.

The school has already been in conversations with the people involved, Bertolino said, adding that appropriate student and university leadership are addressing the incident with various campus constituencies.

A meeting was scheduled for Monday with the leaders of both sororities to discuss a resolution and steps that need to be taken, Bertolino said in the statement.

As we begin a new semester at Southern, it is another reminder of the need to fully commit ourselves to the principles of anti-racism and social justice, Bertolino said. We must become better educated and recognize when actions or words can cause harm.

No decisions have been made yet as the school is gathering information and meeting with constituencies, said Patrick Dilger, director of integrated communications at SCSU in an email.

President Bertolino and his senior leadership have had productive meetings with a number of student groups, including the membership and leaders of both sororities and they have also been in discussion with regional and national Greek life representatives, Dilger said.

Dilger added that any potential disciplinary action will be decided after a full review of the issue.

A request for Zeta Phi Beta members was not immediately returned.

Omega Zeta Pi members did not return a request for comment but did post two statements on their Instagram page.

The first, posted Sunday, said the organization learned of the video on Friday, calling the behavior hurtful to all members of D9, a nickname for National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), organizations before apologizing for the disrespect and harm caused.

We recognize that we have some serious work to do, as individuals and an organization, when it comes to furthering our knowledge and traditions of these organizations, the statement read.

Actions were taken immediately after the organization became aware of the video and the organization is working on repercussions for the members, according to the statement.

A second statement was made Monday to announce the sorority will not be holding recruitment events for the spring 2022 semester.

The universitys Greek Life Council also posted a statement to Instagram, calling the video inexcusable and intolerable.

GLC prides itself on unity and this act was a blatant rejection of our ideals, the statement read. We stand with the sisters of Zeta Phi Beta, Inc. and all NHPC and NALFO (National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations) organizations and will be discussing our next steps at our next meeting.

christine.derosa@hearstmediact.com
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NEW HAVEN  Thirty years have passed since Anna Deavere Smith conducted dozens of interviews surrounding the tragic incidents in Crown Heights, a suburb of New York City, that highlighted an accident that resulted in the death of a 7-year-old Black child and the stabbing of a Jewish scholar visiting from Australia.

Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities will be unveiled dramatically at Long Wharf Theatre until Sunday.

It is a disturbing portrait of the racial differences that divide us.

Smith has woven these interviews, using the participants own words, into a personal and powerful reflection of the actions that became the Crown Heights riots in 1991.

On a distinctly African set by Diggle, with sand as a continuum of Black culture and its grounding, the remarkable actress Cloteal L. Horne creates the identity of 26 people from both the Black and Jewish community who are intimately involved in the tragedy.

From well-known personalities such as the Rev. Al Sharpton and activist Angela Davis to Orthodox Jewish women and revered rabbis, the story of the events unfolds in dramatic fashion, as each participant explains their unique perspective on difficult events.

With bare feet and only a few props, and a change in accent and personality, Horne is able to skillfully make each voice distinct and state their message of responsibility clearly. The whole picture becomes clear as so many tragedies are wrapped into one.

Each member of the community has been deeply affected by loss, from the Jewish driver who accidentally kills the little boy to the brother of the Jewish scholar who is the unfortunate victim of retribution by a gang of Black youth.

Along the way, slavery is revealed as a crime against humanity where 250 million are lost over 300 years. It is contrasted with the Holocaust and its toll of 6 million lives taken by the Nazis. Anti-Semitism is exposed as a deep-seated hatred.

The play ends with a communal call: We deserve a better world and Healing is possible.

Nicole Brewer directs this emotional outpouring of testimony.

Theater goers must show proof of vaccination and wear a mask while in the theater.

Be part of the audience that honors the lives lost in Crown Heights Brooklyn and ensures that the anger and rage that prompted it never happen again.

For tickets ($59), call Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, at 203-693-1486 or visit longwharf.org. Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m, Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Defense Department will appeal a Hawaii Department of Health order to remove at least 100 million gallons of fuel stored at an aging bulk storage facility in the hills above Honolulu, Pentagon officials announced Monday.

Facing the prospect of relocating jet fuel and diesel that supplies U.S. forces in the Pacific, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said Monday the DoD is complying with portions of the order, which include suspending fuel transfer at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, installing better equipment and bringing in an independent firm to assess operations and integrity of the facility -- a review that is to be complete by April 30.

At the same time, however, the Pentagon decided to appeal the order in both federal and state court, facing a legal deadline of Feb. 2, Hicks said in a statement released Monday night.

Read Next: Inside the Secretive Networks of Military COVID-19 Vaccine Refusers

The appeal, according to Hicks, will afford the DoD "time to make evidence-based and transparent decisions" on the future of the facility.

"Despite these legal process requirements, we hope to collaborate with the State of Hawaii in a way that would allow the parties the time and space needed to reach solutions together," Hicks said.

She added that, in speaking with Hawaii Gov. David Ige on Monday, she had pledged to remain "laser-focused on addressing the Red Hill situation."

"We know the importance of getting this right for the people of Hawaii, our service members, and our military families. We are taking this seriously, and the Secretary has prioritized resources from across the department to effectively and efficiently take the steps required to address this problem," Hicks said in the statement.

Military families residing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Aliamanu Military Reservation began reporting Nov. 28 that their water smelled like fuel and had a visible sheen.

The Hawaii Department of Health and the Navy later determined that a fuel spill from the Red Hill storage facility earlier in the month had contaminated a well and shaft below the property, also known as Red Hill.

The contamination led to the displacement of thousands of military families and civilians who live in base housing, with more electing to live in their homes and bring in water from outside sources.

The Navy launched a massive cleanup effort that includes flushing the entire system and individual homes and buildings. As of this week, the service had completed flushing and testing of the system in 11 neighborhoods, reporting that the water meets or exceeds Environmental Protection Agency and Hawaii Department of Health standards for safe drinking water.

However, the service said two homes had failed testing and will be flushed again and retested.

The Navy announced over the weekend that it plans to remove contaminated water from the well itself at the rate of five million gallons each day. Contaminants will be removed using skimming pumps, booms and absorbent pads inside the well, and the water will be moved to a capture zone and treated with massive carbon filters before being tested and released into a nearby stream that feeds into Pearl Harbor.

Under the order, the Navy also will bring in an independent firm to assess operations and the integrity of Red Hill to determine whether it can be safely operated or must be decommissioned.

The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility has the capacity to hold up to 250 million gallons of fuel. The Sierra Club estimates that roughly 100 million gallons are stored in the tanks, which were installed during World War II.

In 2018, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command estimated that the cost to replace the aging tanks at Red Hill would run between $4 billion and $10 billion.

-- Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct Hicks' title.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: 'We Have Put You in an Unsafe Condition': Top Navy Officials Apologize for Tainted Water at Pearl Harbor
Read the original article on Business Insider

On January 4, 1989, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy was sailing through the Mediterranean Sea with numerous aircraft from its air wing aloft for training exercises and patrol missions -- a common practice while carriers are at sea.

At 11:55 a.m., one of those planes, an E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft, detected two Libyan Air Force MiG-23s taking off from an air base in northeastern Libya and heading toward the carrier.

Two nearby F-14 Tomcats were ordered to intercept the MiGs. The air battle that followed was a victory for the Tomcats, but it soon became a headache for the Pentagon.

Mediterranean tensions

A Libyan Nanuchka-class corvette burning in the Gulf of Sidra, 24 March 1986. (U.S. Navy photo via Wikimedia Commons)

By the late 1980s, U.S.-Libya relations had deteriorated, driven in part by territorial disputes in the Mediterranean.

In 1973, the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi claimed almost all of the Gulf of Sidra as territorial waters and declared that any crossing of his "Line of Death" would receive a military response.

The U.S. categorically rejected the declaration and conducted freedom-of-navigation exercises with warships and aircraft in defiance of Gaddafi's claim. Consequently, there were numerous intercepts and standoffs in the airspace and waters around Libya, some of which turned violent.

In 1981, U.S. Navy carrier aircraft shot down two Libyan Su-22 fighter-bombers in the Gulf of Sidra. In March 1986, a clash with the US Navy left dozens of Libyan troops dead and multiple Libyan ships sunk or damaged. That April, the US bombed dozens of Libyan targets, including Gaddafi's residence, in retaliation for a Libyan-sponsored terrorist attack in Berlin.

All the while, Gaddafi continued supporting terrorist groups with training, equipment, and financing. In 1988, the situation became even more tense when the U.S. accused Libya of attempting to build a chemical-weapons plant.

'Good kill! Good kill!'

The USS John F. Kennedy was sailing to Haifa for a scheduled port visit amid those tensions, but the carrier was not in the Gulf of Sidra. It was actually some 120 miles north, closer to Crete.

Regardless, two Libyan MiG-23s from Al Bumbah airfield near Tobruk were dispatched and flying toward its general location.

The two Navy F-14s tasked with intercepting them, call signs Gypsy 207 and Gypsy 202, arrived in radar-tracking range within minutes. Soon the four aircraft were approaching each other some 70 miles from Tobruk.

Flying at high speeds, the F-14s conducted a series of turns and lowered their altitude. The Libyans matched these turns and even accelerated to ensure they were approaching the Tomcats head on.

A U.S. Navy McDonnell F-4J Phantom II of Fighter Squadron VF-74 Be-Devilers escorting a Libyan Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 over Gulf of Sidra in August 1981. (U.S. Navy photo via Wikimedia Commons)

As the MiGs closed in, the Americans worried they might be carrying Soviet-made AA-7 Apex missiles, which have a 12-mile range. Kennedy's air-warfare commander warned the pilots that the MiGs could be preparing to attack and gave them permission to fire if they felt the aircraft were hostile.

The Tomcats had taken position underneath the MiGs, which allowed them to use ocean clutter to confuse their radar -- a tactic learned by training against secretly acquired MiG-23s back in the US -- and made five more turns that were matched by their Libyan opponents.

Now less than 20 miles from the Libyan jets, the Americans armed their weapons. At 13 miles, the radar intercept officer aboard Gypsy 207, Cmdr. Leo Enwright, fired an AIM-7 Sparrow at one of the MiGs -- without telling the pilot, Cmdr. Joseph Connelly, beforehand -- but the missile failed to track. Enwright fired a second missile at 10 miles, which also failed.

The two F-14s then conducted a defensive split -- Gypsy 207 turned left and Gypsy 202 turned right. The MiGs turned and headed straight for Gypsy 202, whose radar intercept officer, Lt. Cmdr. Steven Collins, fired an AIM-7 that hit one of the MiGs at a range of roughly 5 miles.

Observing the kill, Connelly radioed, "Good hit, good hit on one!"

Gypsy 207 then took position behind the other MiG and, after some difficulty acquiring a lock and some colorful language, fired an AIM-9 Sidewinder that brought down the Libyan fighter.

"Good kill! Good kill!" Connelly transmitted. Gypsy 202's pilot, Lt. Herman Cook III, responded: "OK, good kill."

Before returning to the carrier, both F-14s reported seeing the Libyan pilots eject and deploy parachutes.

Though a victory, the shoot-downs became a bit of a headache for the Pentagon and the Reagan administration.

After the incident, Libya claimed the Americans had shot down two unarmed reconnaissance planes. Gaddafi claimed it was ''official U.S. terrorism" and called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to condemn the U.S.'s actions.

Other Arab officials, including Yasser Arafat, said the incident would negatively affect Arab-American relations and set back the Middle East peace process.

The Pentagon repeatedly defended the actions of the F-14 crews, saying the MiGs displayed "clear hostile intent" and the U.S. jets were justified in firing. "If anything, they fired too late," Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci said.

The U.S. Navy also released footage from one of the F-14s showing that at least one of the MiGs was armed with two AA-7 Apex missiles and two AA-8 Aphid missiles. A Pentagon spokesman said the video debunked Libya's claims about the US shooting down reconnaissance aircraft, though media reports at the time noted that the video was blurry.

The Pentagon did acknowledge the MiGs never turned on their on-board radars needed to guide their Apex missiles toward the US jets.

Rep. Les Aspin, the chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, later said that according to secret Pentagon briefings and discussions with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other government officials, the MiGs' turns were too slight to be considered hostile.

Aspin and Navy aviators interviewed at the time also raised doubts about the Pentagon's characterization of the F-14's actions as "avoidance" maneuvers. The pilots said they appeared to be standard intercept maneuvers.

Aspin did say, however, that the F-14s' actions were justified given the speed at which the MiGs were approaching and the Libyans' record of shooting first in previous engagements.

The Libyan pilots' mission remained unclear after the incident and was not likely to ever be known, Aspin said in March 1989, and while the Libyan pilots were seen ejecting and parachuting into the sea, it's unknown whether they were ever recovered.
The photo posted on the website of the Chinese Embassy in the United States shows Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang delivering a congratulatory speech during the online reception for the Chinese New Year held by the embassy on Jan. 30, 2022. (Xinhua)

"We wish the Chinese people a happy and prosperous Year of the Tiger and hope the bilateral relationship between the United States and China returns to peaceful and constructive engagement," write former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander.



WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang and U.S. business leaders said on Sunday that they will work for the stable development of China-U.S. relations in the upcoming Year of the Tiger.

"In the coming year of the tiger, we must have courage and vision," Qin said at an online reception for the Chinese New Year held by the Chinese Embassy.

"We should follow the agreement reached by the two Presidents in their virtual meeting last year, uphold the spirit of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, tackle difficulties head-on, and work for the sound and stable growth of China-U.S. relations," Qin said, adding this is for the benefit of people of both countries and the whole world.

"Let's not forget the Flying Tigers and many other touching stories, and do our best to further our friendship in the new era," Qin said, referring to the group of American volunteer pilots, who went to China during World War II to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Chinese people to fight the invading Japanese troops.

A photocopy of the congratulatory letter written by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander to Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang on the occasion of the Chinese New Year is posted on the website of the Chinese Embassy in the United States. (Xinhua)

In a congratulatory letter to the ambassador, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander wrote that 43 years ago, then Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping visited the White House during the Chinese New Year.

Deng's visit and his meetings with U.S. officials and citizens "laid a strong foundation for the new relationship to flourish in the coming decades," they wrote.

"We wish the Chinese people a happy and prosperous Year of the Tiger and hope the bilateral relationship between the United States and China returns to peaceful and constructive engagement," they added.

The combo photo shows Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and Craig Allen, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, delivering congratulatory remarks during the online reception for the Chinese New Year held by the Chinese Embassy in the United States on Jan. 30, 2022. (Xinhua)

Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, said at the online reception that the tiger represents good health, vitality, and strength.

"We need these characteristics to improve the health of the peoples of the world and U.S.-China relations," Orlins said. "I know that together we will strengthen U.S.-China relations in the Year of the Tiger."

Craig Allen, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said that during the last year "we saw continued strong top-line performance from our members," with an overwhelming majority showing profitability and a will to increase their investments in China.

"Now we embrace the tiger, who is known for competitiveness, but also for courage and ambition. That is the perfect analogy for the U.S.-China commercial relationship in 2022," Allen said.

"We support the American business community in China to grow the U.S.-China commercial relationship and support our shared prosperity," he added. 
With cost imperiling a $282 billion bill that would help those exposed to burn pits, as well as Vietnam veterans with hypertension, two senators are proposing a much less expensive compromise that could still help more than 1 million veterans get Department of Veterans Affairs health care.

Committee Chairman Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, the committee's ranking Republican, introduced a bill Tuesday that would create a one-year enrollment period for VA medical care for post-9/11 combat veterans who served after 1998 and never enrolled. It would also extend the enrollment period for all formerly deployed post-9/11 combat vets from five years to 10.

The bill, called the Health Care for Burn Pit Veterans Act, would allow veterans discharged after Sept. 11, 2001, to qualify. The senators peg the cost at less than $1 billion.

Read Next: Secretary of the Navy Announces He Has COVID-19

But advocates are outraged over what they see as a breakdown of major legislative initiatives, estimated to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, that would help former service members or their survivors -- the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics, or PACT, Act, and the Comprehensive and Overdue Support for Troops, or COST of War Act -- since Tester and Moran's bill doesn't include disability compensation or a list of illnesses presumed to be related to exposure eligible for expedited benefits.

"How does the expansion of health care help the survivors filing for death benefits?" tweeted Rosie Torres, co-founder of the nonprofit Burn Pits 360 group. "Stop the delay and deny! Grant presumption!"

"Putting a band aid on a open sucking chest wound with your bulls--- legislation," tweeted activist John Feal. "These men and [women] need better, deserve better, earned better and you failed them! I will dedicate my life to ensure you fail again!"

The senators said the legislation would expand VA health care to at least 1 million of the 3.5 million veterans who served and were exposed to burn pits and other types of pollution while deployed but don't have access to VA care.

"As more and more veterans report alarming rates of toxic exposure-related illnesses, one thing is abundantly clear: Without action, post-9/11 veterans will suffer as Vietnam veterans have," Tester said during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.

"This is the first step on a continuum of trying to make certain that those who experienced toxic exposure and, as a result, are suffering in their health and well-being, receive medical benefits," Moran said.

The new proposal comes as the House of Representatives is poised to debate the $282 billion legislative package that would expand health care and provide disability compensation to millions of veterans, including Vietnam vets with hypertension and anyone who has served since 1990 in the Persian Gulf region and elsewhere and has exposure-related illnesses.

Tester has introduced a similar $223 billion bill that has been approved by the Veterans Committee but has yet to be considered by the full Senate.

Both proposals have received pushback from legislators about their cost.

Tester and Moran's bill would be the first step in a three-pronged approach to providing veterans with care and benefits, according to the senators.

"The goal here is to get this done by the end of this Congress," Tester said.

"It's the kind of legislation that would be able to be supported in a bipartisan way and signed by the president," Moran said of the new proposal.

The lawmakers said the latest proposal is supported by the largest veterans service organizations, including the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, along with Disabled American Veterans, Wounded Warrior Project, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

According to the senators, the next step in expanding benefits to affected veterans would be to ensure that the VA is establishing illnesses that are considered service-connected in a transparent way, followed by providing benefits to ill veterans who have been "long ignored or forgotten."

Moran noted that the VA has been making progress on establishing illnesses presumed related to exposure to burn pits, beginning last year when it named three conditions -- rhinitis, asthma and sinusitis -- as related and eligible for expedited benefits.

"The Department of Veterans Affairs has the authority, legal authority, to deal with presumptions, and they are in the process of doing so," Moran said. "They have a pilot program to determine how best to utilize the authorities they have in regard to presumptions."

The VA also is reviewing data and research to determine whether some types of cancer and a rare lung disease, known as constrictive bronchiolitis, should be added to the list of presumptive illnesses. Decisions on these conditions are expected this year.

In addition to expanding VA health care eligibility, the proposal would require the department to provide screenings for toxic exposure during medical appointments; increase education and training requirements for VA health care and benefits personnel on toxic exposures; and require the department to reach out to veterans on exposures and related VA care and benefits.

The bill also would increase federal research on toxic exposures.

Moran said he expects the bill to pass the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday and be considered by the full chamber shortly.

He also anticipated that a similar bill would be proposed in the House.

"Certainly, there's no question but we're going to work with the House," Moran said. "We are taking our first step, our step of three, and we're guessing the legislation is going to pass Congress."

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: Lawmakers Weigh Breaking Up Toxic Exposures Bill in Face of $282 Billion Price Tag
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  The U.S. military launched interceptor missiles during an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels that targeted the United Arab Emirates during a visit by Israel's president, the second-such time American troops have opened fire, officials said.

The acknowledgement by the White House and Pentagon late Monday represent a widening American involvement in Yemen's yearslong war, a conflict that President Joe Biden declared nearly a year ago has to end.

While the U.S. has ended offensive support to the Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of Yemen's exiled government, their involvement in defending the UAE comes as the rebel Houthis have declared Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi a target. Al-Dhafra hosts some 2,000 American troops and has served as a major base of operations for everything from armed drones to F-35 stealth fighters.

Speaking from the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. military "responded to an inbound missile threat on the UAE.

This involved the employment of Patriot interceptors to ... (support) efforts by the armed forces of the UAE, Psaki said. I would say we are working quite closely with them.

At the Pentagon, press secretary John Kirby said that U.S. Patriots were fired, but it was the Emirati surface-to-air missiles that actually engaged the targets.

Asked if that would include targets outside of Al-Dhafra, Kirby said:  If we can help defend our Emirati partners, were going to do that.

Biden also mentioned the attack on the UAE at the White House during a visit by Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, saying that America will have the backs of our friends in the region.

The Emirati military, as with a similar attack last week, did not acknowledge that the American military opened fire. The autocratic UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, has threatened criminal charges against anyone filming an attack or outgoing interceptor fire.

The UAEs state-run WAM news agency reported Mondays interception, saying the attack did not result in any losses, as the remnants of the ballistic missile fell outside the populated areas. It wasnt immediately clear where the remnants fell, though American Patriot missiles are thought only to be deployed at Al-Dhafra.

The attack came just before Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit to Dubai Expo 2020.

A Jan. 17 attack on Abu Dhabi by the Houthis killed three people and wounded six at an Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. fuel depot near Al-Dhafra.

The war in Yemen has become the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Saudi-led airstrikes using American-made bombs have killed schoolchildren and civilians. The UAE paid off local al-Qaida fighters to avoid fighting and controlled prisons where torture and sexual abuse were rampant. Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi rebels have employ child soldiers and indiscriminately laid landmines during the country's civil war.
Did you know that there is a military alphabet? This is a special phonetic alphabet that is used by the military to communicate over radios and other devices. The military alphabet was created in order to improve communication among military members.

What is the military phonetic alphabet?

The military phonetic alphabet is a set of 26 words that are used to spell out letters when communicating over the radio or telephone. This system helps to ensure clarity and accuracy in communication, especially in noisy or difficult environments. The military phonetic alphabet consists of the standard English alphabet, plus a few extra words that are specific to military use. Some of these words include "Alpha," "Bravo," and "Charlie."

Each word in the military phonetic alphabet corresponds to a letter of the regular English alphabet. In order to make sure everyone is using the same pronunciation guide, all military members are taught this phonetic alphabet upon entering service.

Related: Learn how to join the military

History of the military alphabet

The military alphabet is also known as the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (IRSA). It was created by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The IRSA is used to spell out words and letters over radio. This helps prevent confusion between similar sounding words. The first official version of the military alphabet was adopted in 1927, although a version was used as early as 1913. The current version, which is also the NATO alphabet and used by the countries of NATO, was adopted in 1957.

The military alphabet during World War II

During World War II, the United States military used a modified version of the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet (JANAP). This was adopted in 1941 and continued to be used until 1957 when it was officially replaced by the IRSA. Today the only parts of the JANAP WWII-era alphabet still in use are "Charlie," "Mike," "Victor" and "X-Ray."

Military slang phrases

The military alphabet is often used for acronyms of military slang phrases. For example, Bravo Zulu or "BZ" is used to indicate general approval or appreciation. The phrase originated in the Royal Navy of Great Britain and has been used by navies and the military around the world ever since.

Learn more about military slang phrases.

The Military Alphabet

To see the military alphabet in action, check out Military.com's glossary of military acronyms and glossary of military terms and slang.

Letter 1957-Present Morse Code 1913 1927 1938 World War II A Alfa (or Alpha) . _ Able Affirmative Affirm Affirm (Able) B Bravo _ . . . Boy Baker Baker Baker C Charlie _ . _ . Cast Cast Cast Charlie D Delta _ . . Dog Dog Dog Dog E Echo . Easy Easy Easy Easy F Foxtrot . . _ . Fox Fox Fox Fox G Golf _ _ . George George George George H Hotel . . . . Have Hypo Hypo How I India . . Item Interrogatory Int Int (Item) J Juliett . _ _ _ Jig Jig Jig Jig K Kilo _ . _ King King King King L Lima . _ . . Love Love Love Love M Mike _ _ Mike Mike Mike Mike N November _ . Nan Negative Negat Negat (Nan) O Oscar _ _ _ Oboe Option Option Option (Oboe) P Papa . _ _ . Pup Preparatory Prep Prep (Peter) Q Quebec _ _ . _ Quack Quack Queen Queen R Romeo . _ . Rush Roger Roger Roger S Sierra . . . Sail Sail Sail Sugar T Tango _ Tare Tare Tare Tare U Uniform . . _ Unit Unit Unit Uncle V Victor . . . _ Vice Vice Victor Victor W Whiskey . _ _ Watch William William William X X-ray _ . . _ X-ray X-ray X-ray X-ray Y Yankee _ . _ _ Yoke Yoke Yoke Yoke Z Zulu _ _ . . Zed Zed Zed Zebra

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Major General (Retired) John Singlaub, a legendary commando who left his impact on the U.S. special operations community, passed away aged 100.

The American commando died peacefully surrounded by his loving wife Joan and his children at 0700 on Saturday.

Singlaubs passing marks an end of an era as the commando was one of the few special operators who had fought in World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam.

A Special Operations Legend

Singlaub joined the Army as a second lieutenant in the infantry immediately upon graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1943.

He quickly stood out by his energy and toughness and was selected for service in the elite Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a military and intelligence unit that specialized in special operations; the OSS is the direct precursor of the Army Special Forcesnicked named the Green Beretsand the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

He fought behind enemy lines in Europe and distinguished himself time and again with his grit and leadership. He was part of the Allied commandos who facilitated the breakout of Allied forces from Normandy in the summer of 1944 after the D-Day landings.

Once the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Singlaub sought more action in the Pacific against Imperial Japan. He led a team behind enemy lines in Japanese-occupied China to locate and rescue Allied prisoners of war.

With the wars end, Singlaub was one of the very few OSS commandos who was selected to continue to serve in the Strategic Services Unit (SSU), a small organization that replaced the OSS and was absorbed by the CIA in 1952.

Maj. Gen. Singlaub is a legend among SOF warriors, a forefather of the modern day Green Beret, and has had a long and distinguished career and history in Special Operations. He served in the office of strategic services (OSS) in WWII in both France and China, Major General Miguel Correa had said during the first presentation of the Maj. Gen. Singlaub Award.

When the Korean War broke out, Singlaub went into action once again, serving with the secretive Joint Advisory Commission, Korea (JACK) and conducting covert action operations against North Korea and China. During his two combat tours in Korea, he also commanded an infantry battalion.

But his greatest challenge lay ahead in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

Chief SOG

While Army infantrymen and Marine grunts were fighting the North Vietnamese and Vietcong in the jungles and rice patties of South Vietnam, the innocuous-sounding Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was taking the fight to the enemy.

Established in 1964 and authorized to conduct covert cross-border operations in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and North Vietnamwhere U.S. troops werent supposed to beSOG was a highly classified organization, its activities covert.

Composed of Army Special Forces operators, Navy SEALs, and Air Commandos, SOG special operators fought alongside a dedicated group of local mercenaries, conducting strategic reconnaissance, direct action, and unconventional warfare operations behind enemy lines. They mainly targeted the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a complex stretching for hundreds of miles above ground and underground, from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.

In 1966, Singlaub was picked to lead the covert organization Chief SOG.

During the eight-year secret war, there were five OICs [officers-in-charge] for MACV-SOG, dubbed Chief SOG. Jack served as Chief SOG from 1966 until early August 1968, replaced by Col. Stephen Cavanaugh. As Chief SOG Jack fought the bureaucracy to get close air support for SOG teams. He fought with the State Dept. to have our teams better armed in Cambodia in the early days of the operation, John Stryker Meyer, a legendary Green Beret, told Sandboxx News.

There are many traits that make a good leader: Vision and moral courage are some. But a good leader isnt necessarily beloved by his or her men. Those leaders that earn both the love and respect of their men are a rare breed indeed. One trait that they possess is empathy and sympathy for their men. They truly care about them and their well-being. They understand that a true leader is there to serve his men and not the other way around. Singlaub was such a leader.

He always cared deeply about the men who served under him. For example, Doug the Frenchman LeTourneau and I had lunch with Jack, his wife Joan and Debra, Joans daughter. Joan told Jack that Doug was battling Stage 4 bone marrow cancer and was having some issues with the VA at the time. Jack pulled out his cell phone, dialed a rare-cancer doctor in Houston who specialized in that cancer. The doctor took Jacks call and following Jacks request, he examined Doug 4 times and monitored his condition until he died from heat exposure-related causes July 26, 2019, Meyer told Sandboxx News.

Meyer has written extensively about his experiences with SOG in Southeast Asia. His books Across the Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam, On The Ground: The Secret War in Vietnam, SOG Chronicles, offer a rare and thrilling insight into the war these American commandos fought against all odds. During SOG operations, it wasnt uncommon for the small recon teams to be dodging hundreds and thousands of enemy troops.

Jack will be remembered as a tough, fearless operator. Highly respected by all. His book documents how he combatted communism throughout his military career, where as a student at UCLA before the start of WW II he ran into and disliked/distrusted communists he met there. During WW II in France, behind enemy lines he had serious concerns about them, ditto Korea, as Chief SOG, and during his time fighting communism in Central and South America. He is a role model for all of us, Meyer added.

Singlaub was a true leader, always leading from the front. When SOG was testing the Skyhook exfiltration method, during which a C-130 aircraft flying at 500ft pulled a commando or agent from the ground, Singlaub insisted that he was the first to try the highly dangerous technique.

During his illustrious career, Singlaub earned the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Air Medal, and Bronze Star. He played a key part in the establishment of the Ranger Training Center. Honoring his legacy and contribution to the U.S. special operations community, in 2016, the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) established the MG John K. Singlaub/Jedburgh Award in order to recognize exceptional members of the Army commando community.

A century on earth is a long time. Singlaub made the best out of it.

Read the original article on Sandboxx
Fort Madison, IA (52627)

Today

Periods of rain. High near 55F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Showers early, becoming a steady rain late. Low 51F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
Keokuk, IA (52632)

Today

Rain likely. High near 55F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain showers in the evening will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low 53F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
31.01.2022 LISTEN

The NPP Nasara Coordinator for Suame Constituency in the Asanti Region Alhaji Eliasu lpala has said the Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for Suame Constituency is a hard working politician who deserves commendation to do more.

Speaking to the ModernGhana News in an interview, Ipala particularly cited the efforts of Hon Osei Kyei Mensah in having the controversial e-levy passed.

Alhaji Eliasu lpala noted that the Majority Leader developmental projects across his Constituency are uncountable.

According to him, Hon Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu is none to be compared.

The coordinator urged party supporters to rally behind the Suame lawmaker in his quest to serve the people within his Constituency and by extension the entire citizens in the country following the passing of the e-levy which will provide jobs and massive developmental projects to all citizens.
Member of Parliament (MP) for Essikado-Ketan Constituency, Mr Joe Ghartey has described the controversial E-levy as the solution to Ghana's unending employment problem.

According to him, the government was creating financial opportunities for the youth to leverage to create their jobs and employ more people.

Mr Ghartey in a media engagement expressed the hope that the E-levy would be a game-changer because it would broaden the tax net and help generate enough revenue for government projects.

There are some communities that do not even have one kilometre of tarred road, the government needs money for infrastructural development and the E-levy will be a solution for these major developments, he stated.

On Wednesday, November 17, 2021, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance on behalf of the government presented the 2022 Budget indicating a 1.75 per cent charge on all electronic transactions.

Since its announcement, the e-levy has been the topic of discussion as some citizens express dissatisfaction while there have been arguments between specialists concerning it and suffering the full attention of the hung parliament.

For instance, the E-Commerce Association of Ghana has said the government's efforts to digitize the economy would be a waste if the E-levy takes effect in 2022.

It said, the initiative would erode all gains made by government's digitization agenda and be a major U-turn to the government's vision on a Cash-lite economy.

According to a statement issued in Accra by Mr Paul Asinor, Executive Director of the Association said even though the initiative would expand the government's revenue collection base, the initiative had a far-reaching consequence on customers and in turn, their businesses if not carefully looked at.

GNA
Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, speaks at a Security Council high-level open debate on climate and security at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

The United States, Ukraine and relevant European countries as well as NATO are having varying forms of diplomatic contacts with Russia. The parties concerned should persist in seeking to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations. What is urgently needed now is quiet diplomacy, not megaphone diplomacy, a Chinese envoy said.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's UN ambassador on Monday called for quiet diplomacy instead of megaphone diplomacy on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

In a procedural vote, China and Russia voted against a Security Council open meeting on Ukraine. The meeting went ahead as 10 other members of the council voted in favor.

China opposes the Security Council's holding of such a meeting as requested by the United States. The United States, in a letter to the president of the Security Council dated Jan. 27, claimed that Russia's deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine posed a threat to international peace and security. China cannot agree with such a claim, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

"Recently, there have indeed been tensions over the issue of Ukraine. We are paying attention to what exactly is causing the tensions. Some countries led by the United States have claimed that there is a looming war in Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly stated that it has no plans to launch any military action. And Ukraine has made it clear that it does not need a war. Under such circumstances, what is the basis for the countries concerned to insist that there would be a war?" he asked.

The United States, Ukraine and relevant European countries as well as NATO are having varying forms of diplomatic contacts with Russia. The parties concerned should persist in seeking to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations. What is urgently needed now is quiet diplomacy, not megaphone diplomacy, he said.

This is the view held by many members of the Security Council, which have also made relentless efforts toward this end. Regrettably, the United States did not accept such a constructive proposal. At a time when dialogue and negotiations are under way, and concrete progress has yet to be made, the holding of such an open meeting by the Security Council is clearly not conducive to creating a favorable environment for dialogue and negotiations, nor is it conducive to defusing the tensions, said Zhang.

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, speaks via video link at the Third Committee of the 76th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in New York, Oct. 21, 2021. (China Mission to the UN/Handout via Xinhua)

"China once again calls on all parties concerned to remain calm, not to do anything to aggravate tensions or hype up the crisis, and to properly resolve their differences through consultations on an equal footing on the basis of mutual respect and fully taking into account each other's legitimate security concerns," he said.

China's position on Ukraine is consistent. To resolve this issue, there is a need to return to the original point of implementing the new Minsk Agreement. This agreement, endorsed by the Security Council in its Resolution 2202, is a binding foundational political document recognized by all parties and should be effectively implemented. China supports all efforts in line with the direction and spirit of this agreement, and hopes that all parties concerned will show their positive willingness to implement the agreement, resolve their differences arising from the implementation of the agreement through consultations, and earnestly promote its implementation, he said.

The expansion of NATO is a problem difficult to circumvent in handling the current tension. NATO is the product of the Cold War, and NATO expansion epitomizes bloc politics, said Zhang.

"We believe that the security of one country should not be achieved at the expense of the security of other countries. Still less should regional security rely on strengthening or even expanding military blocs. Today in the 21st century, all parties should completely abandon the Cold War mentality and come up with a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations, with Russia's legitimate security concerns being taken seriously and addressed," he said. 
The chief executive of a company operating 350 retirement homes in France has been sacked following allegations of patient abuse and staff negligence. The French government has summoned another executive to explain the company's policies on hygiene and food supplies, as well as its "financial practices".

Yves Le Masne, the boss of retirement and nursing home operator Orpea, was removed from his post on Sunday "with immediate effect". The reasons for his dismissal were not specified.

The homes came under scrutiny following the publication of a book "The Gravediggers" by independent journalist Victor Castanet, which cites employees and relatives claiming that residents are at times left for hours with soiled underwear or go days without care as managers seek to maximise profit margins.

The scandal has drawn widespread condemnation from officials and calls for inspections of the upscale Orpea homes by the authorities.

Rooms in Orpea-run establishments can cost up to 6,500 euros per month.

The company, which has seen its market value cut in half on the Paris stock exchange since the scandal broke, has contested the claims as "untruthful, scandalous and injurious", but said it had asked two independent firms to evaluate them.

The lawyer Sarah Saldmann said on Monday she would be filing a joint legal complaint on behalf of family members against the group in March.

Company denies bribery claim

It also denied a claim by Castanet that he was offered 15 million euros by an "intermediary" to drop his investigation.

"The board of directors of the Orpea group, meeting on 30 January 2022, decided to end the service of Yves Le Masne," the company said in the statement.

The company's non-executive chairman would become chairman and CEO with immediate effect, it added.

Orpea operates nearly 1,200 homes worldwide, with around 350 of them in France.

Jean-Christophe Romersi, the group's managing director for France, has been called by the minister with responsibility for the elderly, Brigitte Bourguignon, to appear on 1 February over the "grave accusations".

"It will be the chance to hear Orpea's explanations on several matters, which will be the focus of in-depth inquiries by state authorities," Bourguignon said in a letter to Romersi.

Separate inquiry into employment policy

Orpea is also at the centre of another investigation into the use of "irregular employment contracts" at its homes in France.

According to information uncovered by Investigate Europe and the news site Mediapart, "recruits have to sign fixed-term contracts that indicate that they are replacing employees with permanent contracts".

Researchers found that, in many cases, these permanent employees did not exist.

When questioned, Orpea denied any irregularity, stating there had "never been any fictitious employment within the company".
Leprosy is a long-term infectious illness caused by Mycobacterium leprae. It most commonly affects the skin and peripheral nerves, although it can present in a variety of ways. The illness has a long incubation time, usually 5-7 years, and is classed as paucibacillary or multibacillary based on the amount of bacteria present. Leprosy is one of the most common causes of long-term physical impairment. The most efficient means of preventing leprosy handicap is to diagnose and treat cases as soon as possible, before nerve damage occurs. When a patient develops skin patches or signs of peripheral nerve damage, such as tingling, numbness, or loss of sensation over their patches or in their hands and feet, the condition is suspected, and can be confirmed by tests like slit skin smear, skin biopsy or nerve biopsy.

Leprosy is one of the world's oldest illnesses. Despite breakthroughs in all fields of medical research, leprosy remains a public health issue in India. The National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) is a government-funded health effort run by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India. As a result of their efforts, India's national prevalence fell from 57.8 per 10,000 in 1983 to less than 1/10,000 in December 2005, and even lower to 0.66 per 10,000 in 2016.

India continues to account for 60% of new cases reported internationally each year and is one of the 22 "global priority nations" that generate 95% of global leprosy numbers, necessitating a continued effort to reduce the numbers. NLEP proposed a three-pronged approach to address these issues: (a) a "leprosy case detection campaign (LCDC)" in high-endemic districts; (b) a focused leprosy awareness campaign involving ASHA and multipurpose health workers in "Hot Spots" where new cases with Grade 2 Disability (G2D) are detected; and (c) area-specific case detection plans in difficult-to-reach areas.

The government is still dealing with leprosy, which was declared eradicated in 2005. Those who are affected by the condition continue to be stigmatized and discriminated against. The stigma attached to leprosy is so strong that persons affected with the disease are typically excluded from mainstream society. They are denied schooling and jobs, and they frequently lose the right to marry the person of their choice. The stigma and prejudice extend to the family as well; some families reject the afflicted individual out of fear of marginalization. People affected with infectious diseases face discrimination before the law. These laws violate the human rights of those who suffer from these diseases. These discriminatory laws intrude on the affected people's human rights, such as the right to vote, the right to marry and have a family, and the right to freedom of movement.

Few of the symptoms of leprosy are skin sores or lesions that may not heal after several months, disfiguring skin lumps, skin numbness and muscle weakness caused by nerve injury under the skin. The danger of contracting leprosy is quite low, but you may lower your chances by avoiding contact with bodily fluids and lesions of persons who have it. Antibiotics are used to treat leprosy. Although antibiotics can eliminate all M. leprae germs in your body, they cannot repair nerve damage or abnormalities caused by leprosy. If left untreated, this might result in irreversible nerve damage in the fingers, toes, hands, and feet. Muscle weakening, abnormalities, and even the loss of fingers and toes can result from repeated traumas and nerve injury.

The following factors contribute to the prevention of new leprosy cases: increased BCG vaccination coverage among infants in endemic areas, secondary prevention through contact tracing, early diagnosis, and treatment of infection, chemoprophylaxis for healthy household contacts, and additional BCG vaccination of leprosy patients (though this may speed up the onset of paucibacillary leprosy).
Dr Lawrence Edusei, the Pathologist who carried out an autopsy on the body of former Abuakwa North Member of Parliament (MP) Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu, has disclosed that, the legislator died of exsanguination resulting from multiple stab injuries.

The cause of death, is exsanguination, due to multiple stab injuries of neck and chest, Dr Edusei told the Criminal Court 5 division of the Accra High Court during cross-examination on Monday, 31 January 2022.

According to the Pathologist, the results of the autopsy he conducted on the body of the deceased, in 2016, was stolen when armed robbers broke into his house.

The Pathologist noted that although the autopsy was conducted on the deceased in 2016, he prepared the report on Thursday, February 8, 2018.

After the post mortem examination, I typed my own report on my PC. In 2016, while I was at a conference in Germany, thieves broke into my house and packed everything.

Because we do have the same information in the Police Hospital, I accessed it in 2018, the Pathologist explained.

He further noted that the late legislator died from exsanguination.

There was virtually no blood in the body of the late legislator, who died of an unnatural cause, Dr Edusei stated.

The case has since been adjourned to Tuesday, 1 February 2022.

The Abuakwa North MP was stabbed to death in 2016 at his Shiashie residence in Accra.

His alleged killer, Daniel Asiedu, was arrested a few days after the 9 February 2016 murder.

He has been standing trial with a second suspect.
Ethiopian Airlines is set Tuesday to operate the Boeing 737 MAX for the first time since a crash nearly three years ago killed all 157 people on board and triggered the global grounding of the aircraft.

Flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi plunged six minutes after takeoff into a field southeast of the Ethiopian capital in March 2019, five months after a similar crash in Indonesia left 189 people dead.

The twin disasters and subsequent scrutiny of the 737 MAX's faulty flight handling system -- known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) -- amounted to the worst crisis in Boeing's history.

State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, the jewel of the economy of Africa's second most populous country, had long said it would be the last carrier to use the single-aisle jets again.

2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash. By Laurence CHU AFP

In a statement to AFP, the airline said the decision to resume 737 MAX flights came after "intense recertification" by regulators in the United States, the European Union, China and Ethiopia.

A first passenger flight will take place on Tuesday, the airline has said, without giving details.

'Fully prepared'

The airline, which had four of the jets in its fleet at the time of the crash, provided a list of 35 other carriers that are also now flying them.

"Our pilots, engineers, aircraft technicians, and cabin crew are fully prepared to take the B737 MAX back to the skies and we look forward to welcoming you on board," its statement said.

The decision to wait as long as it did before flying the 737 MAX again was "really commendable", said Yeshiwas Fentahun, who was president of Ethiopia's independent pilots' association in 2019 but is no longer with the company.

The loss of the flight crew -- including its youngest captain, Yared Getachew -- was traumatic for all employees, he said.

The victims of the crash hailed from more than 30 countries. By EDUARDO SOTERAS AFPFile

"There were pilots who were close to the people who lost their lives in the accident, and it's really hard to say if everyone has moved past that experience," he said.

"But I believe it's a reasonable time for most of us to move past that experience."

The victims of the Flight 302 crash, the worst in Ethiopia's history, hailed from more than 30 countries.

Boeing has reached an agreement with the victims' families and accepted responsibility for the crash, according to legal documents filed in November in Chicago, where the company is headquartered.

The proposed agreement did not mention specific sums, as jurors will be responsible for assessing amounts.
Global energy giants were quick to halt their Mozambican gas projects when jihadist violence erupted on their doorsteps. After months of calm, reviving those multi-billion-dollar projects is a much slower job.

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne visited Maputo on Monday, saying he was optimistic about the $20-billion project.

"A lot of progress has been done, let me be clear," Pouyanne said, but added more work was needed to ensure lasting peace.

"Security is not only a matter of armed forces," he said. "It's also a question to work together with the population."

Vast natural gas deposits were discovered in the northern province of Cabo Delgado in 2010, the largest ever found south of the Sahara. Once tapped, Mozambique could become one of the world's 10 biggest exporters.

Since then, the Muslim-majority province has attracted three mega-projects: TotalEnergies' Mozambique LNG; ExxonMobile's Rovuma LNG; and ENI's Coral-Sul FLNG.

But in late 2017, armed insurgents began launching raids in the region, located near the Tanzanian border. Jihadists committed a series of beheadings and torched entire villages, claiming allegiance to the Islamic State.

Since then, 3,500 people have been killed, and 820,000 have fled their homes.

Safety offshore

Last March, insurgents made a surprise attack on the coastal town of Palma, the gas-hub near the TotalEnergies project, which the company promptly suspended.

"TotalEnergies should return this year, if it's going to meet its 2026 production goal," said Borges Nhamirre, a Maputo-based researcher for the Institute of Security Studies.

Of the three projects, only ENI's is on track. The Italian company's LNG facility is entirely offshore. ENI told AFP that it's set to begin production in the second half of 2022.

Coral Sul, the first floating LNG facility deployed in deep waters off Africa, arrived in Mozambique in early January. Once operational, it can produce 3.4 million tonnes of LNG a year.

With its 6.2-billion-euro investment, ENI said simply: "We continue to monitor security developments in the Cabo Delgado region and work closely with the government on this matter."

Experts say the offshore facility poses fewer security risks. Nhamirre pointed out that "in four years of violence, there hasn't been a single attack at sea, except for a few raids on fishermen near the coast."

The ExxonMobil project is at a standstill. Once expected to produce 15.2 million tonnes of LNG a year, the company doesn't seem ready to move ahead until the security improves.

Future windfall

"Maputo is determined to have this project," said Alexandre Raymakers, from the risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. "They need the revenue. We're talling about 35-60 billion dollars".

Mozambique's entire GDP is only $13 billion.

For the last six months, Mozambique's military has relied on 3,000 foreign troops sent by Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc.

The mission is officially open-ended, but Raymakers said "it's unlikely to last longer than 12 months due to SADC's limited ability to fund the mission."

Map of Mozambique locating the province of Cabo Delgado and the city of Palma. By Kun TIAN AFP

"It's not about the number of troops they have on the ground," he said. "They have limited air cover, few helicopters."

And the insurgents have already adapated to the foreign forces, retreating to neighbouring Niassa province, which is now the rear base for their guerrilla attacks.

In January, the non-profit Acled documented about 30 attacks.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi claims progress in his anti-insurgent campaign.

But observers say the problem is more than military.

Cabo Delgado is about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) north of Maputo, and is one of the poorest parts of a very poor country.

The lack of investment in infrastructure or opportunities for the youth make it easy for insurgents to find new followers.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, has assured that corruption will not be tolerated among the task force deployed to enforce the Operation Clean Your Frontage initiative.

Speaking on the Point of View on Citi TV, Mr. Quartey said the task force will be under strict scrutiny.

Some members of various assembly taskforces have often been accused of extortion.

Unlike the previous task force, with this, they are going to be strictly monitored, and so if anybody takes a bribe from somebody, immediately we sack the person, the Minister said.

The Operation Clean Your Frontage programme, which will begin today, February 1, 2022, is expected to make use of 3,000 personnel.

They are going to pass out, and come and ensure the sustainability [of the programme], Mr. Quartey said.

He also expects the Operation Clean Your Frontage programme to last for some years.

Indeed, it is not just for one month or two months. It is our hope and prayer that this will run all the way to the next elections. These people will have something to do till the end of 2024/2025.

For his overall plan, Mr. Quartey wants to leave a foundation future ministers can build on.

We want to have a short, medium and long term programme so that one day if somebody succeeds me as regional minister, the person must be able to continue from where I left off.

Operation Clean Your Frontage is a response to concerns that filth continues to dominate most parts of Accra.

The government is set to ensure the enforcement of the sanitation bye-laws from February with the roll-out of this project.

As an example, persons or groups with dirty surroundings will be summoned and sanctioned by environmental health officers.

citinewsroom
The Tema Regional office of the Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service has appealed to stakeholders to clamp down on human activities along the Accra-Tema motorway.

According to the directorate, the illegal activities is a major contributor to the growing rate of traffic congestion on the expressway.

The creation of illegal access routes to join the motorway by suspected settlers along the stretch recently has increased the surge in vehicular traffic.

One can count more than 25 illegal routes connecting the boundary road from Tema to the Accra section of the motorway and vice versa.

The starting point of this illegal routes begins at the community 18 extension, through Trassaco, Mannet, Coca-Cola and that of the East Legon Executive Club backyard road, Accra tollbooth plaza among others which also happens to be a breeding ground for illegal diversion by motorists.

Most of these illegal diversions have resulted in severe carnages on the Motorway especially at the coca cola exit route which has now become a deathtrap.

Speaking on the situation, the Second-in-command of the Tema MTTD, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Paul Amoah believes that until a drastic approach is adopted to resolving the issue, the frustrating traffic situation witnessed on the motorway on daily basis will continue.

According to him, settlers along the Motorway are the main culprits behind the creation of these illegal routes.

He said, some of the settles go as far as using bulldozers to destroy concrete moulders used in blocking these illegal routes.

DSP Amoah mentioned that despite continuous arrest and prosecution of some defaulters, they continue with their operations to put lives of commuters and motorists in danger thereby urging stakeholders to do more in dealing with the situation

Meanwhile, statistics from the Tema MTTD showed a record number of 252 defaulters were processed for court in 2021 for using unapproved routes and illegal diversion on the Tema Motorway.

The 19-kilometre long highway was constructed under the administration of Ghana's first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. It was opened to traffic in 1965.

The purpose of the motorway was to link the harbour city of Tema to Accra. It is the only motorway in Ghana.

The Tema Motorway, which some have argued it no longer serves its purpose, has been reduced to a highway due to uncontrolled human activities such as illegal settlements and illegal bus stops created along the stretch.

DGN online
The Majority Chief Whip in Parliament, Mr. Frank Annor-Dompreh has said any Member of Parliament (MP) who will be involved in any fight in the house should be treated as a criminal and made to face the full force of the law.

Last year was an ugly spectacle in Ghanas Parliament after several clashes between the Majority and the Minority side.

This month, some say there could be more blows iin Parliament as the house gears up to conclude on the approval or rejection of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).

Speaking to Asaase Radio in an interview, Mr. Annor-Dompreh who says he is expecting MPs to be of their best behaviour in Parliament indicated that anyone that will be involved in fistfights must be treated as a criminal.

I will insist, if this thing [fighting in Parliament] happens again, that all the people involved must face the full rigours of the law. They must be treated as any criminal anywhere and all these MPs [who engage] in such acts must lose their privileges, the Nsawam-Adoagyiri MP shared.

He continued, If we continue in this lane, we will not have the grounds to go to the Ghanaian people and ask them to vote for us again. If anybody in the Majority gets that dirty, they should face the full rigours of the law. We expect the Minority to be civil.

Were not expecting them to sing our praises to agree with everything we put across, but lets have some decorum, lets have some civility. Lets have some respect for the conscience of the Ghanaian people who mandated us to come to this chamber.

This week Parliament will end the brawl on the E-Levy as government plans to use its numbers in the house to have the levy passed.

The Minority on the other divide are also keen on rejecting the levy after rejecting the revised rate which has been reduced from 1.75% to 1.50% last week.
The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has alleged that the Akufo-Addo government is trying to hide behind the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) to steal from the suffering Ghanaians.

According to firebrand, the E-Levy is ridiculous and must not be entertained by Ghanaians.

Speaking to TV3 on Tuesday morning, Sammy Gyamfi reiterated his stance that the E-Levy when implemented would bring untold hardship to the people especially the poor in society.

In Ghana, under our tax regime, we do not have tax savings, the NDC Communications Officer said while stressing, E-levy is not a tax. It is theft.

The government announced plans to introduce the Electronic Transaction Levy last year when the Minister in charge of Finance went to parliament to present the 2022 budget statement and economic policy of the ruling government.

Unfortunately, the government is yet to get the approval from Parliament with the Minority constantly opposing every move by the Majority side.

This week, the levy will be big on the agenda of Parliament as government aims to get it passed.
President of University of Ghana Chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Dr. Samuel Nkumbaan, has said the association is yet to receive any feedback from the Minister of Education Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum on their demands.

Speaking on the Sunrise show on 3FM Tuesday February 1, he said We have indicated that our strike is indefinite until we find a solution to our problem.

We havent had any feedback from the minister till now. Our research allowance is woefully inadequate.

Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum had assured to work to resolve the issues that resulted in the industrial action by UTAG to enable them return to the classroom to teach.

Unfortunately, university lecturers are on strike, but we continue to engage them as to how best we can get them back, he said at a press conference in Accra on Sunday January 30.

He added As a Minister of Education, I have said I am a chief advocate for teachers and professors and when we find ourselves in this place. I do everything possible formally and informally, to make sure we come to some resolution.

UTAG members have been on strike since Monday January 10.

This was as a result of the failure of the government to resolve their issues.

A statement they issued on Saturday January 8 said We must also point out the fact that, generally our members have decried the pittance agreed to be paid as annual research allowance and would want to have government to reconsider the payment of a more

realistic research allowance as this is critical to our research output, promotion and ultimately national development.

For the reasons stated above, the NEC of UTAG at its meeting held on 7th January 2022 reiterated its resolve to follow through with the decision to withdraw teaching and related activities until further notice with effect from Monday, 10th January 2022 and call on all UTAG members across the fifteen (15) branches to observe this directive. COMMUNIQUE-UTAG-STRIKE Download

As a matter of urgency, we also call on the Employer to restore members to the 2013 IMP of 114% of Basic Salary in the interim whilst Government goes ahead to formulate guidelines to implement the appropriate recommendations to address the CoS of the University Teacher. Following the uneasiness among UTAG members, any delay by the Employer would further exacerbate

the already fragile academic calendar to the detriment of all stakeholders.

The statement further said that It may be recalled that the Interim Market Premium (IMP) which was instituted following the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy got frozen, per a Government White Paper, in 2013, for the purpose of the conduct of a LMS to determine a MP payable to workers deserving of it. To date, this determination has not been made, which has resulted in the erosion of the University Teacher's salary.

There was the hope that by completing and implementing the Labour Market Survey (LMS) Report of 2019, a review of the IMP would have put the University Teacher on a relatively good salary stead. Regrettably, the recommendations of the 2019 LMS Report without any accompanying technical report on the implementable MP is meaningless to UTAG as it does not address the pertinent issues of improved Condition of Service (CoS).

Interestingly however, there was a LMS in 2014 whose Report did not see the light of day and one wonders if the 2019 LMS Report would ever be implemented since it is already two years old. In addition, recommendation (iii) from the 2019 LMS Report states that  Public Services Commission should liaise with educational institutions to prioritise the offering of courses in areas of demand to increase the employment prospects of their graduates and increase the pool of applicants for high vacancies.

How can such a National Agenda be attained if the CoS of the University Teacher keeps worsening year on year leading to an ever-increasing attrition rate on our campuses? UTAG members see the timing of the release of the report as one of the usual delay tactics that the Employer has employed over the years, which is unacceptable.

3news.com
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Multiple historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the United States received bomb threats on Monday, according to media reports.

Police responded to Maryland's Bowie State University, Washington, D.C.'s Howard University, and at least four other HBCUs around the country for bomb threats.

Bowie State University tweeted it will be closed temporarily on Monday "due to a bomb threat on campus," adding that employees will work remotely while classes will be virtual.

Campus police reportedly responded to a bomb threat made by phone to Howard University around 4:30 a.m. Monday. No threats were found and an all-clear was given later.

It was the second time this month that multiple HBCUs have received bomb threats that led to campus lockdowns and police investigations.

HBCUs are institutions of higher education founded to educate African American students.

In the 19th century, when many colleges and universities in the United States refused to admit African American applicants, HBCUs offered them a route to higher education. 
01.02.2022 LISTEN

The Executive Director for West Africa Center for Counter Extremism, Mutaru Mumuni Muqthar has backed calls for the state to beef up security at the borders with Burkina Faso as security situation in the neighbouring country further deteriorates.

Residents and traders in Paga have expressed worry over security in Burkina Faso amidst fears that events may spill over into Ghana.

Speaking on 505 on Class91.3FM, Monday, 31 January 2022, Mr Muqthar said citizens of the north have a legitimate course to worry.

He said; The citizens over there have a very legitimate course for worry and in fact all of us should be very worried about what is happening currently in Burkina Faso.

He explained that the worry is justifiable because if you look at the nature of operations of terrorists or extremist recruiters, terrorists have very strong exploitative capacity and so when they spot areas where there are opportunities they can take advantage of that and weve seen that happen across the entire Sahel region.

And if you see the proximity of the north to Burkina Faso, and the porous nature of our borders and the crisscrossing between this country and Burkina Faso, youve every single reason to be worried about that.

Talking about what to do to avert attacks on Ghanaian soil, Mr Muqthar noted that Already, we have some deployment of security forces in the northern part of the country and its been going down for quite some time now.

What we need to do is to increase the surveillance systems and also especially working more with local communities and its members, community agents in terms of helping them to identify and spot any vulnerabilities or any intelligence leading to potential attacks

We need to work more with local communities and also show inter-agency coordination across the border to ensure that we prevent this from happening on our soil, he stressed.

 Classfmonline
Investigative Journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, and three others have been ordered to furnish an Accra High court with copies of their statements of defence in a contempt of court action brought against them by Lighthouse Chapel International.

The defendants have also been asked to ensure that lawyers of Lighthouse Chapel International were served with copies of their defence.

The court was expected to hear a contempt application against the defendants on Monday, January 31.

However, when the matter was called, the defendants informed the court that they filed their defence last Friday, January 28.

The court and the Plaintiff (Lighthouse Chapel) also indicated that they did not have copies of defendants' response.

The matter was, therefore, adjourned to February 14.

Lighthouse had filed a contempt application against the defendants averring that Manasseh, Edwin Appiah, an Editor, Sulemana Briamah of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), and the MFWA as an entity (respondents), had published highly prejudicial articles against the church.

They had also made commentaries as well as conclusive statements of fact on unresolved issues, which are yet to be determined by the High Court.

The application is, therefore, urging the court to commit the respondents to prison for contempt of court for the publications.

The contempt application stems from three separate suits initiated by six former pastors of the church, which, among other things, alleged the non-payment of their Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contribution by the church.

They are Larry Odonkor, Emmanuel Oko-Mensah, Edward Laryea, Seth Duncan, Edem Kofi Amankwah, and Faith Fiakojo.

The church, in its affidavit, stated that in the three defamation suits, it forewarned the respondents that the first three publications were not only defamatory but potentially in contempt of court.

Despite the caution to the respondents and after being served with copies of the defamation suits, the respondents threw all caution to the wind and went ahead and published the first, second and third publications on their Facebook walls on December 25, 2021, it said.

The applicant stated that by the defiant republication of the articles, the respondents ought to demonstrate to the High Court that there could be no limits to the way they practice their brand of journalism.

That, the church noted, regenerated a fresh heated public debate and discussion on the six suits pending before the Honourable Court.

The church mentioned that three articles, which had been the subject matter of the contempt application, titled: Darkness in a Lighthouse, were published on April 23, 27 and 29, last year.

Another article, titled: Lighthouse begs for more time to file defence, was also published on May 25, 2021.

Two of the articles, which were published on August 25 and 26, 2021 are titled: Lighthouse pastors were not employees  SSNIT Rules, and Evidence: How Lighthouse incriminated itself but SSNIT looked away, respectively.

The church noted that the article, titled: Darkness in the Lighthouse, was published 37 times between April 23 and May 1, 2021 on the respondents' Facebook walls and twitter accounts and same generated thousands of comments and shares on Facebook and other social media handles.

The applicant held that the conduct of the respondents amounted to serial contempt in the highest, considering, especially, the repeated and defiant re-publication.

The applicant, therefore, averred that the respondents were liable to be convicted for contempt of court without the option of a fine but a custodial sentence.

In its opinion, the respondents were unrepentant and without any remorse whatsoever as they will continue to bring the administration of justice into disrepute by conducting media trial.

The respondents had also arrogated to themselves the power of the High Court to make conclusive findings of fact and pronouncements as well as passed judgement on issues, which were yet to be determined by the court, the applicant said.

GNA
France says it will review its military presence in Mali, along with its European partners, a day after the junta in Bamako ordered the French ambassador to leave.

French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said Paris and its partners in the Takuba special forces unit would work "between now and mid-February" to decide on changes to their presence in Mali.

"It is clear that the situation can't go on like this," he told France Info radio on Tuesday.

France has already started to scale back its Barkhane operation that has been fighting jihadists in the Sahel region for nearly a decade.

The goal of the Takuba force, created in 2020, was to bring in European partners to support France in training Malian units, and eventually fighting alongside them.

The military junta that took over in a coup in August 2020 has reportedly been hiring mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, and France has warned that it would be untenable for its forces to fight alongside them.

Mali has denied deploying the mercenaries.

On Monday the junta gave the French ambassador 72 hours to leave, after comments by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian about its legitimacy, which it considered "hostile".

The decision was another step in the isolation of the former French colony, said Attal, after the junta proposed to delay elections and a return to civilian rule for up to five years, despite an earlier commitment to hold a vote by the end of February 2022.

The West Africa bloc Ecowas imposed a trade embargo and border closures with Mali on 9 January, a move backed by France, the EU, and the United States.

(with wires)
Chinese and French oil giants sealed a landmark $10-billion deal on Tuesday to develop Uganda's energy resources and build a vast regional oil pipeline, a megaproject that has incensed environmental groups.

The so-called Final Investment Decision was announced at a ceremony in Kampala by the heads of France's TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

"Today is the day we commit to invest $10 billion in the Tilenga and Kingfisher projects and the 1,443-km long pipeline," TotalEnergies chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in a statement.

The project aims to exploit the huge crude oil reserves at Lake Albert, a 160-kilometre (100-mile) natural border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The oil would be pumped from landlocked Uganda through a 1,443-kilometre (900-mile) heated pipeline -- said to become the longest of its type when completed -- through Tanzania to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga.

Pouyanne described the controversial pipeline as a "masterpiece" of a project, although critics charge that it threatens livelihoods and fragile ecosystems in the heart of Africa.

"From today with the FID, the project will fully enter into the construction phase," he said.

CNOOC Uganda president Chen Zhuobiao said: "Achieving FID is a first step towards achieving first oil and unlocking opportunities for investment and development of Uganda and the whole region."

The ceremony was also attended by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Tanzania's Vice President Philip Mpango.

'Devastating' impact

Lake Albert lies atop an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of crude, of which about 1.4 billion barrels are currently considered recoverable.

In Uganda, the drilling is located in several natural reserves, one of which extends to Murchison Falls, the country's largest national park.

TotalEnergies, formerly Total, said last year it had taken steps to reduce the project's impact on people and the environment, but conservation groups charge it will be devastating.

Some drilling is taking place in the Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda. By Yasuyoshi CHIBA AFPFile

The pipeline project would be "displacing thousands of households, endangering water resources for millions of Ugandans and Tanzanians, devastating vulnerable ecosystems and pushing the world further into climate chaos," campaign group 350Africa.org's regional director Landry Ninteretse said in a statement.

A consortium of Ugandan and French NGOs filed a lawsuit in 2019 against the French company accusing it of failing to abide by its legal obligations to protect the environment and the rights of the people affected by the project.

In December, the Court of Cassation, France's highest, ruled that the case should be heard in a civil court rather than assigned to a commercial tribunal, in what the activists said was an important victory.
Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante, Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), says Ghana risks losing the corruption fight if governments continue to engage in selective prosecution of corruption-related issues.

He said prosecuting only officials from opposition parties on corruption was not enough if the country was to make headway in its fight against the canker.

At least two ex-Ministers under the erstwhile John Mahama's administration, including Alhaji Collins Dauda, a former Water Resources, Works, and Housing Minister, are standing trial for different corruption charges and other related offences.

Speaking in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of a roundtable discussion on the recently released Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in Accra on Monday, Dr Asante said government must hold all accused public officials accountable and bring them to justice no matter the political affiliations.

"What I am saying is that those things are fine but are not making much of an impact. We know that people are being prosecuted from the NDC regime, but we have a lot of other cases that have happened during the time of the current government. What has happened to them?

"People have to see the process in a very transparent way this case is moving, but this one, which we haven't heard anything about, is not right, " he said.

The roundtable discussion, organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), was to deliberate on Ghana's stand on the recent CPI released by Transparency International and offer new strategies to tackle corruption in the country.

It was under the theme: "Rethinking Ghana's Anti-Corruption Strategies: A Decade's Trend Analysis of the Corruption Perception Index (CPI)."

The 2021 CPI, released by Transparency International on January 25, 2022, revealed that Ghana failed to make progress in the fight against corruption.

The country maintained its 43 percent score from 2020, ranking ninth in Sub-Saharan Africa and 73rd globally.

Dr Asante attributed this to a plethora of factors, including a weakness in the country's campaign financing regime.

A 2018 Report on the Cost of politics by CDD-Ghana estimated that on an average, it would cost $85,000 for one to contest for parliamentary office, a 57 percent increase from 2012 to 2016.

Also in 2021, exploratory research by the CDD showed that one needed a minimum of GH2 million to GH5 million to contest for a parliamentary seat.

Dr Asante said that was a recipe for corruption and urged stakeholders to address the current funding gap in the country's democratic dispensation and help curb corruption.

"For me, reforming campaign financing regime has to be our number one priority. The issue is simple, unless we want a military government or traditional authorities, a king or somebody to take over.

"If we are going to have a multiparty democracy, then it means we need to have elections, and if the only way we are going to choose our leaders, is through elections, then we have to sanitise the process for electing and appointing our leaders," he noted.

Mr. Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, reiterated government's commitment to fighting corruption in the country.

He said the passage of the Right to Information Act, the Criminal Offences Act, and the digitisation of public institutions to reduce human interference were all manifestations of government's readiness to eradicate corruption.

Dr Eric Oduro Osae, the Director General for the Internal Audit Agency, called for proper record keeping in the public sector to allow for easy access and prosecution of corrupt officials when the need arose.

GNA
Rocks from blast ripped through the roof of houses of residents

01.02.2022 LISTEN

Another dynamite blast has occurred at Abuakwa DKC in the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal of the Ashanti region, destroying several houses.

The rocks from the blast ripped through the roofs of houses.

The explosion, which occurred on the evening of Monday, January 31, 2022, also destroyed the electricity pillion, plunging the area into total darkness.

This follows a recent explosion that hit Appeatse near Bogoso in the Western region on January 20, killing 13 and injuring 100s of people.

The Atwima Nwabiagya NADMO Coordinator, Koyim Mahama Iddrisu, speaking on Otec FMs morning show Nyansapo, hosted by Captain Koda, said the blast was allegedly undertaken by the queenmother of Kenyase Nos.2.

Information I gathered was that the queenmother used dynamite to blast a mounted rock hindering her smooth passage to her home. The explosion struck nearby houses, kiosks and damaged the electricity pillion plunging the whole area into darkness.

So far nobody has been reported dead or injured, some houses roofs and ceilings were ripped off due to the impact of the blast and the residents had to abandon their homes in the night to safer places for fear of Appeatse repeated incident, Iddrisu stated.

He added that we need to know why she embarked on such unlawful activity, how and where she got the explosives.

He told Captain Koda that the case has been reported to the police and the queenmother is yet to be invited for questioning.
The Mayor of Accra, Elizabeth Kwatsoe Sackey, has served notice that the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) will not interfere with the prosecution of persons who may be summoned over their filthy environs under the Operation Clean Your Frontage program.

Despite measures instigated to improve sanitary conditions in the capital, the desired results have not been achieved yet; thus government's Operation Clean Your Frontage initiative seeks to bridge that gap.

The initiative, which is being spearheaded by the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council, mandates persons to be responsible for the cleaning of their immediate surroundings to ensure a clean city.

Speaking at the launch of the initiative by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, the Mayor of Accra, Elizabeth Sackey indicated that her outfit would not interfere with the prosecution of persons who may be found culpable for keeping their environment filthy.

This is the day, and we will make sure we finalize all that we said. We will also begin with the introduction of town councils in our communities to ensure our societies are clean. So, we want to appeal to them, this is not a matter of you trying to call someone to bail you out when you are summoned. No one will come to your aid, and we won't interfere with that.

The leadership of the Greater Accra Market Association (GAMA), led by its President Mercy Afrowa Needjan, advised traders plying their trade along the streets of Accra to relocate into their respective shops to aid in dealing with the filth in Accra.

We are pleading with those selling on pedestrian walkways. Trading occurs in the market, not walkways. Be cautioned that from February 1, when you are summoned, you will not be favoured.

Ghanaian Boxer Braimah Kamoko, aka Bokum Banku, who was designated as one of the ambassadors for the policy, called on Ghanaians not to politicize the initiative for an effective impact on the city.

One of the major problems we face is the disposal of excretes into the gutter. These activities cause several diseases such as malaria, cholera among others. So, if this initiative is being brought on board, I will support you to execute it. However, this should not be politicized.

During a courtesy call on the Ga Traditional Council by the mayor, the traditional leaders also pledged their support towards the move and urged the assembly to enforce the sanitation by-laws without fear or favour in ensuring a clean society.

We will help you implement this initiative. We plead that this becomes continuous. We want you to include town councils in this initiative to achieve your goal. Make sure the laws are enforced. Without the enforcement, you can't achieve this aim.

---citinewsroom
The former head of Information Communications Technology (ICT) at the National Identification Authority (NIA) has accused the current management of NIA of being bankrupt in terms of technical knowledge in the rollout of the Ghana card.

He said what must be done for the Ghana card to be used in the fight against corruption has not been done.

Mr Osei Kwame Griffiths made this statement on Accra100.5FMs morning show Ghana Ghana Yensom hosted by Kwame Obeng Sarkodie on Tuesday, 1 February 2022, in reaction to claims by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia that the government is using the Ghana card to fight corruption in the country.

Mr Griffiths said the NIA has failed as far as the deployment of technology to achieve the intent of the Vice-president is concerned, adding that as it stands now, Ghana has not got to that level of using the Ghana card to fight graft.

He disclosed that in 2016, a decision was taken to stop all agencies from collecting biometric data because it was a national security issue.

It is in view of this that, according to him, a decision was taken that all such agencies integrate their data inventory into the NIAs database.

He said this arose out of a meeting of biometric data collecting agencies held in the West African sub-region.

Mr Griffiths, therefore, questioned the rationale behind the decision by the current management of NIA to allow the telcos to collect biometric data, as part of the SIM card re-registration exercise.

He said in the Ivory Coast, for instance, the National Identification Agency has ceded the biometric data to the telcos instead of the telcos collecting biometric data.

He further questioned why this cannot be replicated in Ghana.

This government has lost it when it comes to the integration of all the identities into the NIA's biometric data in the country, he said.

---Classfmonline.com
Some irate youth of Mempeasem in the Assin Fosu Municipality of the Central Region have threatened to visit mayhem on their chief for allegedly selling a cemetery to a Nigerian investor.

According to the youth, they were shocked when they saw a bulldozer busily clearing parts of the cemetery lands over the weekend when some people went there for burial.

Some of the leaders of the youth who approached the people clearing the land were told that Nana Aseku-Brempong who is the Caretaker chief of Mempeasem-Konsontre was the one that gave out the land.

The Benkumhene of Konsontre is alleged to have used his veto power to sell 100 plots of the cemetery land to a Nigerian resident at Assin Kushea.

The angry youth rushed to the palace of Nana Aseku Brempong to demand answers.

They also warned him that any advances to sell cemetery lands would be resisted with the strength of the youth.

We will chase the chiefs if they make any attempt to sell the cemetery land, the Youth leader, Abdulai Salifu told reporters.

The youth have vowed to deal with any developer of the cemetery lands should anyone be sighted with machinery on the land again.
February 1, 2022

H.E. Nana Addo Akufo-Addo,

President, Republic of Ghana & Chairman, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Jubilee House

Liberation Rd, Accra, Ghana.

Dear President Akufo-Addo:

Re: Request for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to take preventive measures to stop coup and unconstitutional change of government in the sub-region

I am writing to urge you to provide the leadership necessary for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to apply the ECOWAS treaties and protocols on democracy and human rights with a view to adopting preventive measures to promote the rule of law, end impunity of political leaders, and ensure full respect for citizenS' human rights including socio-economic rights.

Following military coup and unconstitutional change of government the Republic of Burkina Faso has been suspended from the ECOWAS. The coup coming on the heels of at least five previous coups from the member states of ECOWAS.

Unfortunately, it has become routine for ECOWAS leaders to act after-the-fact rather than taking preventive measures to enforce respect for human rights, the rule of law, and end impunity of political leaders who frequently seek to change their national constitutions for personal gain.

I am concerned that for many years, official impunity, abuse of human rights, grand and systemic corruption, flagrant disregard for the rule of law and grinding poverty arising from economic mismanagement have been pervasive throughout the sub-region, and indeed the African continent.

Other legal and constitutional infractions include unconstitutional revisions of national constitutions to keep political leaders in power, and manipulating electoral and other laws to disqualify political opponents and enhance electoral success for the incumbent.

The persistent failure of the leadership of ECOWAS to take a preventive and active role in dealing with these threats to democracy, human rights and the rule of law has continued to contribute significantly to recurring coups and unconstitutional change of governments in many countries.

Unlawfully amending national constitutions to remain office is acting above the law, and contrary to ECOWAS treaties and protocols, and other international standards, as well as seriously undermine member states' democratic systems. It is unsurprising that many of these political leaders continue to act with impunity and do not fear condemnation and sanctions from the ECOWAS.

It is disturbing to note that poverty is on the ascendancy in spite of the abundant resources of the member states of the ECOWAS. To address the economic crisis every member state should end the foreign domination of their economy in accordance with Article 21(5) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights which has imposed a duty on all Governments in Africa to "eliminate all forms of foreign exploitation particularly that practised by international monopolies so as to enable their peoples to fully benefit from the advantages derived from their national resources."

Despite the treaties and protocols on democracy and human rights, the ECOWAS has continued to tolerate member states with significant democratic and rule of law deficits. These member states regularly conduct elections that are neither fair, credible, nor free.

More worrisome is the fact that political opponents and activists who oppose illegal constitutional amendment and other infractions are either jailed or killed. Despite the illegality and grave human rights violations in many of these member states, the ECOWAS has continued to send election observers to these countries who usually endorse questionable and seriously flawed elections under purported constitutional amendment.

Furthermore, the lack of political will to respect human rights, reject impunity, and obey the rule of law is exacerbated by the fact that to date only six of the sixteen member states of ECOWAS have appointed 'implementing authorities' to enforce the decisions and judgments of the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja. The obligation of ECOWAS leadership to take preventive and effective measures to address democratic and rule of law deficits in several member states is a central part of the responsibility to protect.

Exercising the responsibility to protect would enable member states to address these deficits, as the responsibility to protect incorporates and embraces three important elements: firstly, the responsibility to prevent: to address both the root causes and direct causes of coups and unconstitutional change of government. Secondly, the responsibility to react: to respond to situations of leaders of ECOWAS countries unlawfully changing national constitutional to suit their personal ambitions, blatantly violating the human rights of their own people, and failing to obey the rule of law. Thirdly, the responsibility to rebuild a culture of respect for democratic principles, human rights and the rule of law.

The failure to take effective and meaningful preventive measures to address these democratic and rule of law deficits will continue to undermine the legitimacy and ability of the ECOWAS to consistently deal with military coups and unconstitutional changes of government in the subregion.

The primary responsibility for implementing human rights lies with Governments. But ECOWAS leaders can no longer use as pretext the ground of 'national sovereignty' for their failure to respond to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect community citizens, and reject impunity where States fail to perform their legal and constitutional duties.

In light of recent developments in Burkina Faso and elsewhere in the subregion, I am calling on the ECOWAS to show leadership and strong political will in this matter, and that you should, in your position as Chairman of the ECOWAS, convene an extra-ordinary session of the Authority of the ECOWAS in order to discuss the matter, and the recommendations proposed in this letter.

The ECOWAS should also make the meaningful and effective implementation of its treaties and protocols on democracy and human rights, and obeying the rule of law a condition for retaining the membership of the institution.

To prevent members of the armed forces from hiding under the pretext of fighting insecurity to sack constitutional governments the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), (a combined multinational formation, comprising units of the armed forces from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria) should be revived, expanded and funded to fight insurgency in the region.

Finally, I also urge you to use your position to ensure that the ECOWAS is able to assert its mandates under its treaties and protocols to immediately push for full and effective respect for democratic principles, human rights, transparency and accountability, as well as the rule of law in each of its member states.

While thanking Your Excellency for your precious time and attention I look forward to continued dialogue on the issues raised in this letter.

Yours sincerely,

FEMI FALANA, SAN, FCI Arb.
ROME, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The recent decision by Italy's "great electors" to reappoint Sergio Mattarella to a second seven-year term as Italy's president ended a six-day stalemate without changing either the president or the prime minister -- the country's two most powerful political figures. But analysts say that the country's political landscape could still see changes despite keeping the familiar faces at the top.

In their opinion, the fact that both Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi -- himself a candidate for the president's post -- will keep their positions does not mean the government would necessarily stay the same course.

Mattarella, 80, originally said he did not want to serve a second term as president. But he was reportedly convinced to change his mind and stay on after no other candidate managed to gain widespread support.

"There was a great deal of uncertainty and after days of debate the best option for most electors was to keep things the way they were," Gian Franco Gallo, a political affairs analyst with ABS Securities in Milan, told Xinhua. "Italy will benefit from the continuity."

This was in evidence on Monday, the first trading day since Mattarella and Draghi were reaffirmed in their positions. The Italian Stock Exchange in Milan surged more than two percent as investors breathed a sigh of relief.

But last Saturday's developments have left some new challenges.

If Mattarella serves his full term, which will run until 2029, he would be the country's longest-serving president since the position was created in 1948. Until now, the longest-serving president was Mattarella's predecessor, Giorgio Napolitano, who served a full seven-year term plus a two-year extension that ended in 2015.

Before Napolitano, none of the ten previous presidents had served more than one seven-year term.

In Italy, the president is the head of state, meaning he has broad powers, such as appointing the prime minister, approving other ministers and calling of national referenda. He also has ceremonial roles.

According to Gallo, the debates that led up to Saturday's decision could signal changes to the coalition behind Draghi. "It would not be a surprise to see some changes in the coming weeks," Gallo said.

Francesco Galietti, founder of Policy Sonar, a political risk consultancy, said the coming weeks will tell the tale.

"We have to understand if the key ingredient of Draghi's government, his coalition, will still be intact," Galietti told Xinhua. "The uncertainty will play out over the coming days and weeks."

The next big challenge for the government will come next year, when Italy is scheduled to hold general elections, the first since 2018.

No date has yet been set for that vote, but the rules require that the vote be completed before June 1 of next year, with a total of 400 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 200 Senate seats up for grabs. 
The essence of stand-up comedy is that you have a comedian performing to a live audience with the goal of entertaining through eliciting humour. Comedians hold social, cultural, and political phenomena up to ridicule. Jokes can instigate re-evaluations, reversals and replacements of the status quo  or dominant beliefs of the day.

As an art form based on abuse and amusement, comedy uses potentially offensive material. One would expect the audience to be either delighted or infuriated.

But stand-up comedy creates a space where a kind of agreement is reached, which renders most offensive gags inoffensive. This happens through elements like audiences choosing to attend, the venue and shared socio-cultural knowledge. Stand-up comedy has its own norms about how jokes are made and received. The synergy between comedians and live audiences allows for a momentary suspension of offence.

But when these jokes start to circulate in a separate space  like social media  they are subjected to other sets of appraisal and questioning. There is a growing backlash against comedians who supposedly tell unpleasant (or offensive) jokes. The social media audience is not present like the live audience. They participate less and jokes are more easily evaluated by sensitivities like political correctness.

This is a limitless, impersonal, and more diverse audience. They are more critical and more consumerist in nature. And the voice of dissent, even when it is just one person, is more amplified in new media encounters than in real-time encounters. This bad press can easily cause outbursts like this one from comedian David Baddiel:

Everyone has a voice now, so anyone can object to a joke. What you often see on Twitter is manufactured outrage  Comedy is a focal point for all that, being highly monitored by the dying-to-be-outraged.

Comedians are exposed to what I call shifting cognitions of offence, or a change in the ideas of what's offensive. The result is a tendency to censor their own material. I've explored the ways in which two famous African comedians , Trevor Noah and Basket Mouth (Bright Okpocha), self-censor while performing for live audiences. They do so, in part, to anticipate the responses they will receive from their online viewers. I interrogate newer ways that comedians navigate this treacherous new terrain.

Trevor Noah and Basket Mouth

Trevor Noah and Basket Mouth are comedians whose influence has grown beyond physical venues. Their comedy shows and jokes are routinely shared via social media, to audiences who can interpret them in various ways.

South African-born Trevor Noah became internationally popular after succeeding Jon Stewart as the presenter of the US late-night TV event, The Daily Show .

Basket Mouth is one of Nigeria's foremost comedians. He is popular across Africa and its diaspora, performing to live audiences in multiple African countries, as well Africans in North America and Europe.

Trevor Noah and Basket Mouth share two common traits: they weave recollections of their childhood environments and experiences into their jokes. They've also been embroiled in controversies over jokes that were considered too sensitive. This has affected their routines. Nigerian comedian Basketmouth performing in Johannesburg, South Africa. Frennie Shivambu/Gallo Images/Getty Images

In stand-up comedy jokes are, by their nature, primarily offensive and politically incorrect. But the shifting cognitions of offence on social media demand self-censorship from comedians. A great way to self-censor is to give people the impression that you are punching up. Comedian Patti Harrison beautifully describes the technique:

If you want to make a joke, you want to punch someone. It should be punching up. You should attack people who are getting away with stuff; who are very powerful and influential, that like have it coming. (New York Times 2017)

As their performances are exposed to a wider audience lacking adequate context, Basket Mouth and Noah can defend themselves against criticism by punching up. When Basket Mouth is on stage, he deploys boastful tales, coercing his audience into realising their gullibility at the end of his set.

Trevor Noah intensifies the use of accent and embodied representations of people of different nationalities, mostly underrepresented and formerly colonised peoples, as a way of validating his representations of their realities.

In this way Noah has managed to keep his local audience on his side, while also passing the social media test. This shows that with more creativity, you can side-step cancel culture  in other words being ostracised  while staying funny.

Read more: Women stand-up comedians in Zimbabwe talk about sex -- and the patriarchy

A new future

Times are changing, and so is comedy.

Jokes exist for societal acceptance. The audience calls the shots on what to accept and forbid. And right now, society has moved to a place where everyone is held accountable if their jokes are found offensive.

Stand-up artists can still throw jabs during performances, but they now have a new set of rules to follow. They have to stay within the dynamic bounds of political correctness to attract humour, rather than anger. It takes immense creativity and improvisation to navigate this new world.

Izuu Nwankwo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

By Izuu Nwankwo, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
01.02.2022 LISTEN

GCB Bank PLC expresses its condolences to the families of the victims of the explosion at Appiatse near Bogoso in the Western region.

The Bank donated Ghc100,000 to support the victims of the disaster.

"We join hands with the people of Ghana, in the spirit of solidarity and patriotism, in commiserating with the good people of Appeatsi. GCB Bank has made available an amount of GHC 100,000.00 to assist in bringing some comfort to the people of this great town.

"Nothing can compensate for the loss of lives, but this gesture will help to mend what is broken, contribute to a smooth recovery and ensure the lives and livelihoods of the people of Appeatsi are restored. We are ready to support in anyway we can," Mr Kofi Adomakoh, Managing Director of GCB Bank said.

GCB Bank PLC,Your Bank for Life, will work with the necessary state institutions and the Ghana Association of Bankers to provide collective support to the people and town of Appiatsi.
A former New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, and a one-time Chair of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, is urging the Akufo-Addo government to consider going back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the face of the countrys dwindling revenues.

He maintains that the governments insistence on passing the Electronic-Transaction Levy to shore up its revenue target is not right given the existential economic challenges.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration has indicated that despite Ghanas fiscal crisis, it is not settling on returning to the IMF for financial support but will look at prioritizing domestic revenue generation through the implementation of the E-Levy.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta believes, going to the IMF again will have dire economic implications.

But speaking to Citi News, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah said a return to the IMF as a monetary organisation should not be viewed as a failure, but rather an avenue to salvage Ghanas receding economy.

Without a doubt, I think we should be placing a call to Washington if we haven't really done that. We are just not going to ask for the funds just because E-levy has been passed or not. E-levy will just bring about GH5 billion. We are in a deep hole of our tax revenue and facing difficulties, so going to the Fund will give us some support.

So there is nothing wrong with going to the Fund. Ghana is a member of the IMF so what is wrong going to ask for support when we are in difficulties to go and pool resources. If I was the finance minister, I will be convincing the President that it is about time we went back.

Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah also added that the revenue expected to be accrued from the E-levy is infinitesimal to the extent that, it will not be able to ensure the economic stability government is eyeing.

The GH6.9 billion target cannot be realized. There are a lot of exemptions so, in my estimation, the maximum amount we can get from the E-levy is GH5 billion, and that is less than a billion dollars, so I do not think that the E-levy is going to be a panacea to our revenues. Going to the IMF will ensure some stability and above all, we are going to get some $3 billion.

---citinewsroom
French and Chinese oil companies signed a ten-billion-dollar deal on Tuesday to develop oil resources under Lake Albert in Uganda and build a pipeline to bring the oil though Tanzania. The plan is being criticised by environmental groups, who warn the pipeline will be devastating for wildlife and people along its route.

The deal between France's TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation aims to exploit huge crude oil reserves under Lake Albert, on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"This milestone puts us on the path to first oil in 2025," Uganda's Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu said in a speech ahead of the signing.

Uganda discovered the reserves in 2006, but production has been delayed by disagreements between the government and oil companies over tax and development strategy, and a lack of infrastructure.

The government finally agreed to the project with Total and CNOOC in December.

Government geologists estimate that 1.4 billion barrels are recoverable of the 6.5 billion barrels in the ground.

The Lake Albert development project will involve creating oil fields, processing facilities and a pipeline network in Uganda, plus a 1,400-kilometre heated pipeline through Tanzania to export the oil to the port of Tanga on the Indian Ocean.

The chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies (formerly Total), Patrick Pouyanne, described the East African Crude Oil Pipe Line (EACOP) as a "the masterpiece of the project", although critics charge that it threatens livelihoods and fragile ecosystems along its path.

'Devastating' effects

Conservation groups and environmental activists have been protesting the project, and say the drilling and pipelines, located in several natural reserves, will have a negative impact.

The project will be devastating for our communities, for wildlife and for the planet, campaign group 350Africa.org's regional director Landry Ninteretse said in a statement.

The pipeline will be "displacing thousands of households, endangering water resources for millions of Ugandans and Tanzanians, devastating vulnerable ecosystems and pushing the world further into climate chaos, added the group's France campaigner, Isabelle l'Heritier

A group of Ugandan and French NGOs filed a lawsuit in 2019 against Total accusing the company of failing to meet its legal obligations to protect the environment and the rights of the people affected by the project.

The company said last year it had taken steps to reduce the project's impact on people and the environment

In December, France's highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled that the case should be heard in a civil court rather than assigned to a commercial tribunal, in what the activists said was an important victory.

(with wires)
Lack of textbooks to complement the new curriculum at basic schools is adversely affecting academic work, a survey has revealed.

Teachers complained that the training given them when the new curriculum was introduced two years ago was not enough to understand and interpret the Teacher's Resource Pack and Leaner's Resources Pack given to them to teach the children.

It said the materials rather confused most of the teachers and did not help them to impart knowledge to the children as required by the new system.

The study was conducted by the Good Governance, Justice and Peace Directorate of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO) and made known to the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of an evaluation exercise held in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

The Organisation therefore appealed to the government to supply the appropriate textbooks to all schools to enhance teaching and learning.

The survey, which had financial support from the Hungary Helps Programme was meant to find out the challenges that affected service delivery in the educational and health sectors in the Diocese (Upper East and North East Regions).

It was piloted in 13 Catholic basic schools and 11 Catholic health facilities in the Diocese.

Mr Emmanuel Gazari, the Planning Officer, Catholic Education Unit, NABOCADO, explained that apart from the lack of textbooks, more than 80 per cent of children at the basic level were learning on the bare floor due to furniture deficit.

The best among all the school we found was four children sitting on one dual desk and the rest had to lie on their stomachs to write and this affects their handwriting, attention, and have other health complication, he said.

Mr Gazari also noted that the delay in the release of Capitation Grants was having a toll on the administration of the schools and appealed to the government to address the situation.

When we went round, the teachers told us that they did not receive Capitation Grants since the 2018/2019 academic year until the last quarter of 2021 and since the government has banned the payment of levies by parents, it should find a way to ensure regular flow of the Capitation Grants, he added.

On health, Mr Peter Akudugu Ayamba, the Coordinator of Primary Health, NABOCADO, said the survey revealed that many health facilities were constrained by infrastructure deficit which was hampering quality health delivery.

He said disbursement of the National Health Insurance Scheme claims was also irregular and called on the government to step up efforts to ensure that claims were paid to promote quality healthcare.

Dr Joseph Ayembilla, the Human Development Coordinator, NABOCADO, said the project dubbed education and heath infrastructure-Northeast Ghana was aimed at advocating and collaborating with major stakeholders to improve on equitable and quality education and health which were key to human life.

He said the Catholic Church existed through its works to complement government's efforts and urged the government to provide the needed infrastructure to boost development.

The evaluation exercise brought together representatives from the Catholic Health Services, Catholic Education Directorate, catholic schools, management committees of catholic schools and community health facilities across the Diocese.

GNA
01.02.2022 LISTEN

Zugraan Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, Paramount Chief of the Kasaug Traditional Area in the Upper East Region has urged feuding factions involved in the Bawku Chieftaincy conflict to lay down their arms and give peace a chance.

I urge you as chiefs to advise all your people to abide by the regulations put in place by the security apparatus to be able to control the current violence. This involves the observance of the curfew and the ban on motorcycle riding by all persons, he said.

Zugraan Naba Azoka II made the call in Bawku, at a meeting with members of the Kasaug Traditional Council on his meeting with President Akufo-Addo regarding the reoccurrence of the Chieftaincy conflict in the area.

According to him, President Akufo-Addo confirmed the government's White Paper issued by the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs confirming him (Zugraan Naba Azoka II) as the lawful Paramount Chief of the area and there was the need for all parties to respect the decision.

In summary, the President verbally confirmed the instructions that were given to the Minister of Chieftaincy to issue a White Paper on the Bawku Chieftaincy issue and assured me that I am the lawful Bawku-Naba and that any attempt to enskin another person as such would be an illegality and that he will not tolerate such a situation, he stressed.

While thanking the government for deploying adequate security personnel to maintain law and order, He appealed to all Traditional rulers and their people to assist the security agencies to combat crime by reporting suspected characters to the security agencies as the Traditional Area borders two African countries, thus, Burkina Faso and Togo.

I wish to express my condolence to all families who lost their relatives in the unnecessary violence in Bawku and its environs.

Since November 2021, the Bawku Municipality and its environs has experienced violent chieftaincy disputes resulting in the killing and injuring of many people.

The conflict started as a result of disagreement over the performance of the funeral of a certain chief who died more than 41 years ago, which would pave way for the enskinment of another chief with claims of Bawku not having an Overlord.

The Ministry of the Interior earlier imposed a curfew in the area to restrict movement especially in the night as part of measures to deal with the insecurity, but the violence continued.

The situation compelled the Upper East Regional Security Council to also place a ban on the wearing of smocks and pillion riding on motorbikes by males within the area.

Also, government, through the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, in an earlier statement noted that the Chieftaincy disagreement was settled by the Supreme Court in 2003 and urged all parties to respect the ruling.

More than 40 people have been killed so far with several others injured since the reoccurrence of the impasse in November, 2021.

GNA
Sustained gunfire was heard on Tuesday near the seat of government in the coup-prone West African state of Guinea-Bissau, AFP reporters said, as a regional bloc condemned what it called an "attempted coup".

Heavily-armed men surrounded the Palace of Government, where President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam were believed to have gone to attend a cabinet meeting.

The building is located on the edge of the capital Bissau, close to the airport.

People were seen fleeing the area, the local markets were closed and banks shut their doors, while military vehicles laden with troops drove through the streets.

The former Portuguese colony is an impoverished coastal state of around two million people lying south of Senegal.

It has seen four military putsches since gaining independence in 1974, most recently in 2012.

In 2014, the country vowed to return to constitutional government, but it has enjoyed little stability since then and the armed forces wield substantial clout.

A 36-year-old Frenchwoman living in Bissau, Kadeejah Diop, said she had rushed to pick up her two children from school and witnessed armed troops entering the Palace of Government.

"They made all the female workers leave. There was huge panic," she told AFP by phone from her home. "Right now, we are holed up indoors. We have no news."

Reacting to events, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued a statement saying it "condemns this attempted coup" and urged soldiers to "return to their barracks".

The bloc warned that it "holds the military responsible for the wellbeing of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and members of his government."

The United Nations said Secretary General Antonio Guterres was "deeply concerned with the news of heavy fighting in Bissau."

He called for "an immediate end to the fighting and for full respect of the country's democratic institutions," the UN's statement said.

Election turmoil

Embalo, a 49-year-old reserve brigadier general and former prime minister, took office in February 2020 after winning a second-round runoff election that followed four years of political infighting under the country's semi-presidential system.

He was a candidate for a party called Madem, comprised of rebels from the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) which had led Guinea-Bissau to independence.

Guinea-Bissau. By I. Vericourt G. Handyside, gil AFP

His chief opponent, PAIGC candidate Domingos Simoes Pereira, bitterly contested the result but Embalo declared himself president without waiting for the outcome of his petition to the Supreme Court.

Late last year, the armed forces chief said members of the military had been preparing to launch a coup while the president was on a working trip to Brazil.

Troops had been offering bribes to other soldiers "in order to subvert the established constitutional order", armed forces head General Biague Na Ntam said on October 14.

The government spokesman denied his account the following day.

In addition to volatility, Guinea-Bissau struggles with a reputation for corruption and drug smuggling.

Its porous coastline and cultural ties have made it an important stop on the Africa trafficking route. In 2019, nearly two tonnes of cocaine were seized.

Three countries in West Africa -- Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso -- have experienced military takeovers in less than 18 months.

The region's mounting instability is due to discussed on Thursday at an ECOWAS summit in Accra, Ghana.
The Executive Secretary of Baskin Africa, Mr. Seidu Yussif Kudus Gbeadese has said considering the expenditure outlines as proposed in the 2022 budget, Government could still make the expected Gh6.9bn from E-levy by cutting down on some proposed expenditure lines.

According to him, a cut for instance on the about Gh 3bn allocation to the office of the President will not only create space to realise some of the projected revenues from the E-levy but will equally serve as the first step by Government to sacrifice for the citizens to emulate.

"Government machinery must run, but the huge expenditure lines meant for consumption related activities out of the Gh 3bn allocations which do not necessarily engineer any economic development must be slashed", part of the statement said.

The statement also urged Government to block the leakages in the system to make up for the expected revenue from E-levy.

"As much as possible we will support the Government in its quest to raise revenue, but we would stand against the misappropriation and profligate expenditures of that will not yield any positive economic returns to the ordinary taxpayer but the privilege in Government", the statement stressed.

Find the full statement below:

THE GOVERNMENT MUST CUT DOWN ON PROFLIGATE EXPENDITURE AND PLUG THE LEAKAGES IN THE SYSTEM TO MAKE UP FOR THE EXPECTED REVENUE FROM E-LEVY.

Baskin Africa has been monitoring the raging controversy around the Governments proposed Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy). As a think tank, we are not oblivious of the need for government to raise revenue for the necessary expenditures. As much as possible we will support the government in its quest to raise revenue, but we would stand against the misappropriations and profligate expenditures of that will not yield any positive economic returns to the ordinary taxpayer but the privilege few in government.

Government through the relevant ministries and agencies over these past weeks are trying to explain the reasons why Ghanaians must support and pay the E-levy. After monitoring these engagements on different platforms and the responses from Ghanaians, it is crystal clear majority of Ghanaians are not convinced with all the reasons the Government places on the table. The recent engagement was at a Town Hall Meeting in the Eastern Region, and the responses from majority of Ghanaians after the said meeting is a clear testament that they are vehemently against the E-levy.

Considering the expenditure outlines as proposed in the 2022 budget, we are of the view that the government could still make the expected GHC 6.9bn from E-levy, by cutting down on some proposed expenditure lines.

For instance, a cut on the about GHC 3bn allocation to the Office of the President will not only create space to envelop some of the projected revenues from the E-levy, but will equally serve as the first step by government to sacrifice for the citizens to emulate. Government machinery must run, but the huge expenditure lines meant for consumption related activities out of the GHC 3bn allocations which do not necessarily engineer any economic development must be slashed. We vehemently reject the continuous rental of a private jet for use by the President at a time citizens are being taxed to their chocking end. Meanwhile, we are reliably informed that the Presidential jet is in good condition for all the travels of the President.

Again, the Auditor General in the 2020 audit report revealed that about GHC 12bn was lost to financial irregularities and institutional weaknesses. These irregularities represent either losses that had been incurred by the State through the impropriety or lack of probity in the actions and decisions of public officers or on the other hand, the savings that could have been made, if public officials and institutions had duly observed the public financial management framework put in place to guide their conduct and also safeguard national assets and resources.

With these revelations, if the government has the political will to plug the leakages in the system and effectively cut down the waste, more money would be saved, and this unpopular E-levy would not have been necessary to start with.

According to the Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Kumah, a survey conducted by the government revealed that after the implementation of the E-levy, the Mobile Money Transaction will decline by 24%. This implies that, not only will the government not achieve the projected GHC 6.9bn, but it would render thousands of MoMo agents jobless and most Ghanaians further impoverished. Aside this, the government must learn from countries like Uganda and others in Africa that implemented the Electronic Transaction Tax, and the negative impact it had on their economies thereafter.

The world has gone digital; the agenda by Ghanas government to build a digital economy is largely pinned on e-commerce. So, if we go by the governments own survey which revealed that MoMo transactions will decline by 24%, the digitalization agenda would have been defeated. Individual consumers are rational just as companies and organizations are tax averse so, this E-levy when implemented, would create an easy route to return to the cash and carry system.

We wish to call on the government to consider the alternatives of cutting down the profligate expenditures, especially at the office of the President, and also plug the leakages in the system which results to the lost of billions of Ghana cedis to the state. With these in place, the government would not be chasing after a paltry GHC 6.9bn when it can make more from internal controls and discipline.

Signed

Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese

(Executive Secretary-Baskin Africa)

Contact: 0244198031
Portuguese-speaking Guinea-Bissau -- which has been hit by an attempted coup -- is one of the most unstable and putsch-prone countries in the world.

The poor West African nation's chronic instability has made it vulnerable to corruption and South American drug cartels.

Four coups

The former Portuguese colony close to the tip of Africa's western bulge fought a 11-year armed struggle for independence from Lisbon led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), its longtime ruling party.

Since then it has been through four successful coups -- the last in 2012 -- as well as 17 attempted, plotted or alleged putsches.

This constant instability and conflict have hobbled its development.

Political instability

The November 2019 presidential election was followed by a political crisis with two rival heads of state that only ended in April 2020 when the West African regional bloc ECOWAS recognised the victory of Umaro Sissoko Embalo.

A reserve brigadier general, he previously served as prime minister under his predecessor Jose Mario Vaz the first head of state since multi-party elections in 1994 not to have been killed or overthrown.

In October 2021, the government denied a new coup was afoot.

Such is the country's instability, Vaz had seven prime ministers during his five years in office.

Crushing poverty

Guinea-Bissau is sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea. By AFP

Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, tropical Guinea-Bissau is slightly larger than Belgium and includes the Bijagos or Bissagos archipelago of some 88 islands scattered along its Atlantic coast.

Its population of 1.97 million people (World Bank, 2020) includes a large range of ethnic groups, languages and religions.

Guinea-Bissau is ranked 175th out of 189 on the UN's 2019 Human Development Index.

More than two-thirds of the population earned under two dollars a day and more than a third were in extreme poverty (less than one dollar a day), according to the latest UN data, which dates from 2010.

Largely as a result of poor healthcare services, average life expectancy is 58 years.

Cocaine, corruption

Poverty and chaotic administration have made the country a fertile ground for Latin American drug lords trafficking cocaine to Europe.

The UN praised progress in fighting drug trafficking after Vaz's election, but in 2018 expressed disappointment about flagging efforts.

In August, President Embalo refused to extradite an ex-head of the army and former coup leader, Antonio Indjai, who the United States claims handled tonnes of cocaine for the Colombian rebel group FARC.

Guinea-Bissau was ranked 162nd out of 180 countries by Transparency International in 2021 for perceived levels of corruption.

Cash for cashews

The country's main export is cashew nuts, which account for nearly half of national budget.

It is Africa's third-largest cashew producer after Ivory Coast and Tanzania.

The economy shrank by 2.8 percent in 2020 because of the pandemic, but the World Bank predicts that a good nut harvest may have helped fuel growth of 3.3 percent over the past 12 months.
01.02.2022 LISTEN

Every student of LIFE will always acknowledge its diverse nature, varied forms and complexities as well as the fact that, no matter which angle you look at it, it is always beyond human comprehension.

LIFE has, amongst others, been defined to stand for a particular aspect of existence; the course of existence or sum of experiences and actions that constitute a persons existence; or resilience; or the force that makes or keeps something alive; the vivifying or quickening principle for increased mutual understanding and respect; and anything or anyone considered to be as precious as life itself.

All the definitions and elucidations have expiry dates or moments, as one minute you are alive and the next, you are pronounced dead without notice or excuse to show the fleetingness of life  passing swiftly; vanishing quickly like a fleeting beauty or fleeting glance.

It is amazing how TRANSIENT OUR LIFE here on earth, with set expiry dates on all facets. This makes nonsense of those who think and act as gods in any public, civil or private positions. Those who always think they have reached with their appointments or elections into public positions of trust, do not understand LIFE itself at all, otherwise why would any human change everything about themselves with appointments into the public space.

Have you ever wondered why some people only die at birth, others  a day, a week, a month, a year after birth with no record of their sojourns here on earth?

It beats my imagination when people get appointed or elected into public office, like a President, a Minister of State, a Chief Executive Officer of a public institution, a Chairman or Member of a Board of Directors of a public body and suddenly want all of us to forget their past and upbringing to hero-worship them as mini-gods? Why do they always forget their own humble upbringings, to want us to believe their new narratives or worse, turn abusive against others to justify these positions?

Why do they always forget the cardinal principle of lifes expiry dates?

Why boast of any human position, showing no kindness at all to any, not even your worst enemy or political opponent?

I will always doff my hat for the memory of the late Prof. J. E. A. Mills, a former President of the Republic, who against all the obscene insults that sometimes could pierce his heart into near-tears, would rather against all humiliation choose to pray for his abusers, saying it is only politics, partisan politics.

Sincerely, he still has all my respects even in death.

Against the admonishing from his party faithfuls, he will always impress upon all, the need for tolerance because we are all Ghanaians, being as humble unto death, his expiry date. Funny that when one of the loud voices, who led the insults on the late President Mills, met her match during the last General Elections 2020 during her own Parliamentary campaign in her constituency with some pockets of crowd hurling insults at her, she stopped her V8 Land Cruiser and in tears asked WHY ARE YOU INSULTING ME AFTER ALL THAT I HAVE DONE FOR YOU?  such is life.

It is for the same reasons that I abhor plain insults in our current body-politick, where personal insults have taken center stage in all discussions against the sitting Head of State, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. It is still my position that we could conduct our local, regional and national politics without these insults, knowing we are only teaching our own children and the youth as future leaders of tomorrow to adopt these insults as the norm in our politics.

You see our sojourns here on earth is never ONE STRAIGHT LINE from birth to death, definitely not as a simple as that, as this line from birth to death has other side journeys with their own semi-expiry dates, making it ONE LIFE OF SEVERAL SIDE JOURNEYS, and that it is the collective summary of all these that sum up a persons life here on earth. Indeed, all relationships, in any form, with others add up to this LIFE here-on-earth.

Thats life, as Frank Sinatra will state in his song of same title, to mean  something unpleasant or difficult is a normal part of life; sometimes you try your hardest and still you dont succeed. Frank Sinatras song relates not only to the final destination of birth-to-death but also all other relationships and mini-journeys like jobs, education, politics, and social, including church,

THATS LIFE by Frank Sinatra

Thats life

(Thats life)

Thats what all the people say

Youre riding high in April, shot down in May

But I know Im gonna change that tune

When Im back on top, back on top in June

I said thats life

(Thats life)

And as funny as it may seem

Some people get their kicks

Stomping on a dream

But I dont let it, let it get me down

Cause this fine old world, it keeps spinnin around

Ive been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet

A pawn and a king

Ive been up and down and over and out

And I know one thing

Each time I find myself

Flat on my face

I pick myself up and get

Back in the race

Thats life

(Thats life)

I tell you, I cant deny it

I thought of quitting, baby

But my heart just aint gonna buy it

And if I didnt think it was worth one single try

Id jump right on a big bird and then Id fly

Ive been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet

A pawn and a king

Ive been up and down and over and out

And I know one thing

Each time I find myself layin

Flat on my face

I pick myself up and get

Back in the race

Thats life

(Thats life)

Thats life and I cant deny it

Many times I thought of cutting out but my heart wont buy it

But if theres nothing shaking come this here July

Im gonna roll myself up

In a big ball and die

My, my

Presidents of the Republic of Ghana come and go; Ministers of State come and go; Metropolitan, Municipal, District Chief Executive Officers get elected and leave after term of office, including those who use brown envelopes to get elected, come and go plus other appointees but the Republic and the State remains, knowing every position and every aspect of our lives, all have expiry dates; not forgetting that even wealth itself has an expiry date.

You know, people say Thats life after an unlucky, unpleasant, or surprising event to show that they realize such events happen occasionally and must be accepted, no matter how unfortunate and unexpected, but such is lifes expiry dates or moments.

People always say Thats life to admit it is fated; que sera sera; such is life; thats reality; thats how the cookies crumbles; oh well; and its in the cards.

We all need to recognize that WE WILL ALL PASS THIS EARTH BUT ONCE and even if we reincarnate, we will definitely come with different names from different parentages, so it is imperative that we stay focused on how or the state in which we leave this country: much better than we came to meet it, for our children and childrens children. Thats the reality that we cannot run away from and that should be the measurement of our collective legacies as a people and as a nation.

We have all, individually, played various and several roles over this journey called LIFE, not mindful of how our final exit would be like at our own expiry date but never let it be said that we never tried to make this nation a better place than how we met it; never let it be said that we left the economy, the educational system, our culture, our traditions, our healthcare systems, our transportation systems, our environment and our people in a worse state than we inherited. That way, we would have failed our ancestors and descendants because this LIFE IS MOST FLEETING, one day you are on top, another day you are down; be mindful that - Each time I find myself layin, Flat on my face, I pick myself up and get, Back in the race  because thats life with all its expiry dates and moments to make us appreciate how fleeting everything is whilst we have life.

The only CONSTANT we all have as a people and as a nation is GHANA, OUR MOTHERLAND and for me, it is worth everything including a LIFETIME to play our part in its development and growth than to let partisanship and pride derail every effort.

Need I say more?

By Magnus Naabe RexDanquah, the Ghanaian  is a Land Economist & Appraiser,

Events Architect & Planner, SportBusiness Consultant, Social Commentator and an Author
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has said the three-month suspension of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) cost government about GHC 170 million.

Mr Mohammed Abdul-Kudus, Communications Manager, NPA, told the Ghana News Agency that the suspension of the Levy cost the Government about GHC 58m in revenue monthly.

He said the reintroduction of the Levy this month after the three-month suspension had become necessary because funds generated from the Levy were used to subsidise premix fuel and industrial fuel in accordance with the objectives of the Energy Sector Levies Act, 2015 (Act 899).

What it means is that for a period of three months that it was suspended, the Government was still finding money elsewhere to be subsiding premix and industrial fuel. Mr Abdul-Kudus stated.

As part of measures to lessen the burden on consumers, the Government suspended the PSRL charge on petrol, diesel, and LPG from November, 2021, to the end of January 2022.

The PSRL imposes a 16-pesewas-per litre levy on petrol, Ghp14 pesewas per litre on diesel, and GHp14 per kilogram on LPG.

Mr Abdul-Kudus said though fuel prices had gone up over the period, the Levy could not be suspended in perpetuity since it was established by an Act of Parliament.

He said due to the deregulation pricing mechanism, the hike in petroleum products on the international market was to blame for the continuous increment in fuel prices at the local pumps.

International crude prices are going up and because of the deregulation, anytime there is a change on the international market, we will have a change at the pump, and crude prices have been going up significantly, Mr Abdul-Kudus said.

Prices of petrol and diesel went up marginally by some 10 pesewas per litre on Tuesday, February 01, 2022.

Some oil marketing companies are selling petrol and diesel for GHC 7.090 and GHC 7.130 per litre respectively.

The Institute for Energy Security (IES) had projected that prices of petrol, diesel and LPG would go up by at least 25 pesewas per litre in the first two weeks of February, 2022.

In its projections for the February 2022 First Pricing Window, the IES attributed the expected increment to a hike in Brent Crude prices and LPG among other commodities on the international market.

The pending increases come on the back of an 8.52 per cent increase in the price of Brent crude, a 5.5 per cent rise in LPG price, a 6.23 per cent increase in price of Gasoline, and 9.86 per cent jump in Gasoil price; all on the international oil and fuel markets, it said.

GNA
Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has called on Ghanaians to speak out against the poor management of the countrys economy by Presidnet Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

Speaking to Citi News in an interview on Tuesday evening, the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency Member of Parliament accused the ruling government of burdening the countrys purse with huge debts.

He said if government is not stopped, Ghanas economy will soon totally collapse.

The time has come for us to have a temporal-moratorium on new loans and for us to rethink. Look, this country needs an economic forum so that all of us will speak our mind and let the government be aware that the path that they are taking us to is slippery and it can collapse the economy of Ghana, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson indicated.

The former Deputy Finance Minister continued, If that happens it will not only affect the NPP. It will affect all of us so we have to speak out. Ghana doesnt belong to the NPP alone, it belongs to all of us so there is the need for us to speak and Im urging the right-thinking people in the society to also speak out. Our economy and the way it is being managed is dangerous. We need to pull the breaks now.

Meanwhile, former NPP MP for New Juaben South, and a one-time Chair of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah has urged the Akufo-Addo government to consider going back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the face of the countrys dwindling revenues.

He insists that governments insistence on passing the Electronic-Transaction Levy to shore up its revenue target not feasible given the existential economic challenges.
Management of the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), has indefinitely suspended McDan Aviation from operating its private jet services at the Terminal 1 of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

This comes after airport authorities said there have been operational breaches by McDan Aviation following the inauguration of its private jet services last week.

We note with concern your failure to comply with the directive despite the outstanding issues on the prior terms and conditions for the use and operations of Terminal 1 as a Private Jet Terminal. Management has consequently directed the suspension of your use of Terminal 1 until further notice, a letter from the GACL to McDan Aviation ordered.

It also said the decision was arrived at in reference to earlier discussions and subsequent directives to suspend the inauguration of the Private jet terminal services.

The letter dated Monday, January 31, 2022, and signed by Yaw Kwakwa, Managing Director of the GACL, was copied to the following persons:

Secretary to the President, Jubilee House; Secretary to the Vice President, Jubilee House; Transport Minister, National Security Minister, National Security Coordinator, KIA; Board Chairman, GACL; Director-General, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

You are kindly requested to relinquish the keys to enable Management to undertake a Joint Inventory by close of business day, Monday, January 31, 2022, the letter directed to the CEO of McDan Aviation noted.

The Ghana Airport Company Limited had raised a number of concerns against McDan Aviations private jet operations and a terminal at the Kotoka International Airport.

The company launched the private terminal and services on Friday, January 28, 2022, at an event boycotted by leadership of the Ghana Airport Company Limited and government officials.

Leaders within the sector, including the Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, refused to attend the event following issues raised against the firm by the Ghana Airport Company Limited.

Financial obligations not met

A letter the GACL wrote to the Minister of Transport on January 24, 2022 and sighted by Citi News explained that, while McDan Aviation had satisfied all operational requirements to enable it open for business, it was yet to fulfil its financial obligations to Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL). McDan owes GACL a total of US$4,505,034 and GHS227,293 respectively.

It disclosed further that as part of negotiating a payment plan, McDan paid GHS1,000,000 on January 19, 2022.

The Ghana Airport Company also said McDan Aviation is yet to agree on a Fixed Base Operator (Private Jet Terminal Operator) license fee with GACL.

Alleged breaches

GACL in a letter dated January 28, 2022, directed McDan Aviation to suspend the commissioning ceremony following some alleged breaches. The Ghana Airport Company said it had engaged in several activities without prior approval from GACL which have typically called for emergency corrective actions.

It cited the commencement of the construction of the private jet terminal without a Plan of Construction Operation approval from GACL as an example.

We only became aware of your construction activities during routine security patrols, and we had to ask you to stop and submit a PCO [Plan of Construction Operation] for review and approval before construction continued.

McDan Aviation received a license to operate as a fixed-base operator at the airport in 2019.

The letter from the Ghana Airport Company requested that McDan Aviation should postpone the launch of the private jet lounge.

GACL said it was given short notice to offer logistical support, among others, at the commissioning ceremony.

The nature of our work demands that we should have been given a reasonable period of notice to enable us to plan adequately through engagement of relevant staff and stakeholders.

The Ghana Airport Company also said, all attempts to meet with you for discussions in connection with the proposed inauguration over the past three days failed as a result of your failure to turn up for the planned meetings.

The conduct of McDan Aviation also presented security concerns, according to the airport company. It said security was heavily breached at the terminal on January 27 because of the parking of several vehicles in front of the terminal building.

What makes this disturbing is that beyond verbal admonition, we had written to you the previous day, January 26, 2022, to the effect that cars could not be parked there.

Inaugural ceremony

McDan Aviation's private jet services will cater to high-end clientele with a sense of optimizing luxury, and for corporate executives seeking to leverage a quick and efficient commute for the purpose of business.

Speaking during the launch on Friday evening, the Chief Executive of the McDan Group, Daniel Mckorley, said he was elated this plan had come to fruition.

I have a lot of joy in my heart because what everybody thought was impossible, we have made it possible, Mr. Mckorley said.

We have a very strong team that has supported me. Ghana Airport Company has really supported me. Civil Aviation Authority has supported me, he added.

According to him, jets shouldnt just be viewed as just a luxury, and his plan is to bring private jets to the doorsteps of the diplomatic corps, politicians and the business community as a whole.

He further urged Ghanaian businesses to make similar investments in Ghana.

I believe this current government is a business government, and it is supporting us and will support us to make a very big difference and a big impact.

---citinewsroom
A Circuit Court in Accra has issued a bench warrant against a Nigerian Businessman, Martins Eze Obina, who was nabbed in Ghana to face United States District Court over fraud-related charges.

Obina who has been granted bail earlier, failed to turn up in court when the matter was called.

Lawyer for Obina was also absent in court.

Chief Superintendent of Immigration (CSI) Adolf Aboagye Asenso, the Prosecutor, therefore, prayed the Court for a bench warrant against the accused.

The Court, presided over by Mr Emmanuel Essandoh, granted the prosecution's request.

The matter has been adjourned to March 8.

Obina's lawyer, Ms Sarah Kusi, had earlier prayed the Court to admit her client to bail because Obina had been in detention since December 27, 2021.

According to the defence counsel, the only charge against her client was an immigration related charge.

She said the immigration related charge was a misdemeanour, and that the accused could only be fined GHC1,000 or go to jail for two years or both.

Chief Superintendent of Immigration (CSI), Aboagye Asenso, however, opposed the grant of bail, saying Obina was being detained for the purpose of extradition pursuant to Article 14 (1) (f) of the 1992 Constitution.

CSI Aboagye Asenso prayed the Court to remand the accused for the extradition process to be exhausted, saying

several institutions were involved in the process.

The GIS, in January this year, was ordered to produce the accused in court after lawyer for Obina had filed for bail pending his case at the Circuit Court.

The GIS complied with the court's order and informed the court that the Service had to hand over Obina to the International Police (INTERPOL) to face the US District Court over fraud-related charges.

The GIS indicated to the court that it had received an FBI alert indicating that the suspect was a member of a transnational cyber syndicate and a hacker.

The same court had given a week for Obina to go through the extradition process.

It asked that the court be updated on the extradition process.

Obina had earlier been put before the Kaneshie District Court for acquiring Ghana's resident permit through false declaration.

The District Court preserved his plea and declined to set out bail conditions for Obina because his lawyer had informed the court that his client had been admitted to bail by a Circuit Court in Accra.

At the Circuit Court, the GIS, through CSI Aboagye Asenso, produced the USA District Court arrest warrant to the Circuit Court, saying Obina had been indicted in the USA in the year 2021.

CSI Aboagye Asenso said Obina resided in a rented apartment at Teshie and, therefore, he could abscond.

Obina allegedly claimed to be a shareholder in a company in Ghana but checks by the GIS at the Registrar General's Department indicated that the said company was a sole proprietor firm, and that Obina could not be a shareholder in sole proprietorship.

GNA
A stalwart of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Kwame Pianim, has said Ghana does not need a new constitution.

He said a few amendments if done to aspects of the current 1992 constitution that are considered problematic, can make it better and work for all Ghanaians.

Mr Piainim indicated that the Members of Parliament have a role to play in dealing with the weakness of the constitution.

He said this during the launch of the John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Heritage at the Cedi Conference Centre at the University of Ghana on February 1 2022, under the theme: The man John Evans Atta Mills  10 years on.

I do not believe that those who are saying, we need a new constitution. The constitution we have, with a few judicial adjudications can be brought to light, a few changes.

We dont need to overhaul or get a new constitution. What is wrong with the constitution are us Ghanaians. The president has too much powers but the president doesnt pass laws.

There are 275 MPs sitting there , they are supposed to approve the ministers not the president. So we say yes they are the Ministers, we have the Council of state who are supposed to make certain appointments in consultation with or on the advice of. I dont know what documents they say the president should bring when it is in consultation with them or on the advice of. So it is not the president who has too much powers, it is us to stand up and be courageous to say Mr President these persons you want to occupy this position is not good enough, they are not experienced enough.

Some Ghanaians including members of the Economic Fighters League have said the current constitution of Ghana is to blame for what they describe as, rot, suffering and ill-governance being experienced in the country, which according to them, gives life to retrogression and discrimination.

In a statement to mark Constitution Day, the Fighters said the 1992 Constitution was deliberately drafted, gazetted and adopted just to benefit a few elites.

The Fighters have been at the forefront of the demand for a new constitution saying the current one has put Ghanaians through 30 years of retrogressive governance, constitutional dictatorship, poverty and underdevelopment.

To buttress their demands, the Fighters said every constitution must be the foundation upon which freedoms are built which they say is unfortunately missing in Ghana's constitution.

This could be seen in the case of the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL), who are currently denied parliamentary representation courtesy manipulations of the Constitution.

Constitutions are the foundations upon which democratic countries are built. They are supposed to guard against oppression and be the source of hope for the less privileged. Unfortunately, we are being governed with a constitution that serves the interest of the few to the detriment of the majority.

For few years now, the Economic Fighters League has made it our foremost agenda to push for the abolishment of the 1992 Sakawa constitution because of our conviction that we cannot have a bad constitution and expect a good society.

The statement further said it is a great joy to see that Ghanaians are getting increasingly aware that their enemy is the 1992 Constitution after years of consistent advocacy and that the current Constitution must die if we must live.

The Fighters are demanding and willing to work with individuals or organisations for a new constitution that will cut down on the size of government and government expenditure, scrape Article 71 holders benefits and emoluments, reduce the appointing powers of the president and so many other cankers they say are to blame for the underdevelopment in the country.

Due to the urgency of the need for a New Constitution, we have decided to form a coalition of willing individuals and organizations to challenge the NPP/NDC in 2024 elections who continue to benefit from the 1992 Constitution and are hellbent on protecting it.

This will enable us to fight the battle for New Constitution on two fronts in a coordinated fashion.

---3news.com
Guinea-Bissau's president on Tuesday said the government had the situation "under control" in the unstable west African country after an attempted coup in which he claimed many people had been killed or injured.

Coup-prone Guinea-Bissau struggles with a reputation for corruption and drug smuggling and the president alluded to this without naming the putschists.

"The attackers could have spoken to me before these bloody events that have seriously injured many and claimed lives," he told reporters, adding that the failed bid was linked to decisions taken by him "notably to fight drug trafficking and corruption".

"I am fine, thanks be to God," Embalo had said on Twitter earlier. "The situation is under control".

On Tuesday afternoon, heavily-armed men surrounded government buildings, where Embalo and Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam were believed to have been attending a cabinet meeting.

People were seen fleeing the area on the edge of the capital Bissau, near the airport.

Local markets were closed and banks shut their doors, while military vehicles laden with troops drove through the streets.

But the president later told AFP in a brief telephone call: "All is well."

His cabinet said he would address the nation on Tuesday evening from the presidential palace.

According to various accounts, armed men were seen entering the government palace which houses different ministries.

Some witnesses described the gunmen as members of the military, others as civilians.

Sustained gunfire followed for a large part of the afternoon when the complex was surrounded.

An AFP reporter was warned to leave the area by a man carrying a gun who took aim at him.

The former Portuguese colony is an impoverished coastal state of around two million people lying south of Senegal.

It has seen four military putsches since gaining independence in 1974, most recently in 2012.

In 2014, the country vowed to return to democracy, but it has enjoyed little stability since and the armed forces wield substantial clout.

A 36-year-old Frenchwoman living in Bissau, Kadeejah Diop, said she rushed to pick up her two children from school and witnessed armed troops entering the government complex.

"They made all the female workers leave. There was huge panic," she told AFP by phone from her home.

Troops set up a security perimeter around the palace and kept people away.

African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed deep concern over the "attempted coup".

An AU statement said he was following "with deep concern the situation in Guinea Bissau, marked by the attempted coup d'etat against the government".

Guinea-Bissau. By I. Vericourt G. Handyside, gil AFP

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)also issued a statement saying it "condemns this attempted coup" and urged soldiers to "return to their barracks".

The bloc warned that it "holds the military responsible for the well-being" of the president and governent members.

The United Nations said Secretary General Antonio Guterres was "deeply concerned with the news of heavy fighting in Bissau"

He called for "an immediate end to the fighting and for full respect of the country's democratic institutions," the UN's statement said.

Election turmoil

Embalo, a 49-year-old reserve brigadier general and former prime minister, took office in February 2020 after winning an election that followed four years of political in-fighting under the country's semi-presidential system.

He was a candidate for a party called Madem, comprised of rebels from the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) which had led Guinea-Bissau to independence.

His chief opponent, PAIGC candidate Domingos Simoes Pereira, bitterly contested the result but Embalo declared himself president without waiting for the outcome of his petition to the Supreme Court.

Late last year, the armed forces chief said members of the military had been preparing to launch a coup while the president was on a working trip to Brazil.

Troops had been offering bribes to other soldiers "in order to subvert the established constitutional order", armed forces head General Biague Na Ntam said on October 14.

The government spokesman denied his account the following day.

Guinea-Bissau's porous coastline and cultural ties have made it an important stop on the Africa trafficking route. In 2019, nearly two tonnes of cocaine were seized.

Three other countries in West Africa -- Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso -- have experienced military takeovers in less than 18 months.

The region's mounting instability is due to discussed on Thursday at an ECOWAS summit in Accra, Ghana.
ECOWAS has condemned what it says is an attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau a week after contending with a coup in Burkina Faso.

In a statement, it also urged the military to return to its barracks.

This followed reports of men in civilian clothing opening fire close to a government building hosting a meeting between the president and prime minister of Guinea-Bissau.

Soldiers have reportedly detained the president and his ministers.

Ecowas is following with great concern the evolution of the situation in Guinea-Bissau where military gunfire is taking place around the government palace, the statement said.

Ecowas condemns this attempted coup and holds the military responsible for the safety of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and members of his government.

At least one person is said to have been killed amid the fears of a coup attempt.

West African regional leaders have condemned what they called a coup attempt and urged troops to return to barracks.

If confirmed, this would be the fifth military coup in the past year in the region of West and Central Africa.

---citinewsroom
The city of Accra breathed an alluring fresh and clean air as Operation Clean your Frontage initiative commenced Tuesday.

The fog of freshness that wove the air was seemingly calm as individuals and traders were spotted making deliberate efforts to tidy their frontages and surroundings in promoting environmental cleanliness.

The exercise marked the commencement of the implementation and enforcement of the Operation Clean Your Frontage by-laws to ensure that households, businesses, and individuals cleaned their frontages, surroundings, and immediate environments.

National Service Personnel and Security officials from the Ghana Police Service, Ghana National Fire Service and Ghana Immigration Service, drawn from across the Region, early Tuesday morning converged at the Independence Square and deployed in buses to the various districts for the clean-up exercise.

The Government launched the Operation Clean Your Frontage initiative for the Greater Accra Region with over 3,500 persons deployed to implement sanitation by-laws under the initiative.

The policy by the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council seeks to, among other objectives, make it obligatory for all individuals and corporate entities to be responsible for the cleaning and greening of their immediate surroundings.

The necessary by-laws have been passed and gazetted by the 29 Assemblies in the Greater Accra Region to enable the lawful implementation of the initiative.

At Circle, there was a near clash between the police and traders during the enforcement of sanitation by-laws.

Traders at the Maame Dokuno  VVIP enclave protested their eviction by the Operation Clean Your Frontage Campaign led by the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Henry Quartey, bringing the exercise to a halt momentarily.

A bulldozer, deployed to demolish some unauthorised structures, had its windscreen smashed, compelling the driver to retreat.

Mr Quartey, addressing participants before take-off, said the exercise was was not meant to deprive traders and street hawkers of their livelihoods but to ensure their safety and to rid the city of the filth that had engulfed it.

Lawlessness and indiscipline, he said, was beginning to take over the region, and, therefore, called on the public to get involved and ensure that the right environment was created.

The Regional Minister, responding to the incident at Circle in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said, the structures had been illegally sited for four years and notices issued to the occupants monthly for the structures to be pulled down were unheeded.

He said the assertion that there were no consultations with the occupants were untrue, adding that the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly took advantage of the campaign to demolish the structures because of earlier resistance.

According to the Regional Minister, there had been several visits to the area to engage the occupants and traders, stressing that in 2021, when such attempt was made, a police officer was assaulted.

Lawlessness will not be countenanced, he stressed, and said anyone identified vandalising the bulldozer would be made to face the full extent of the law.

Mr Quartey said a Rapid Response Team to carry out the enforcement of the Operation Clean Your Frontage by-laws and ensure strict adherence across the Region was undergoing training.

By March 2022, the first batch of over 1,500 to 2,000 will pass out to be deployed to designated areas to ensure that people don't sell on the streets, and commercial vehicles are also properly managed, so they don't create unnecessary traffic.

GNA
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is disturbed by a disdainful and dehumanizing characterization of womanhood deplorably wrapped in an unauthorized book co-authored by Isaac Vah Tukpah, the Chief of Staff to Mr. Alexander Cummings of the ANC.

The Ministry finds this smear campaign and groundless onslaught against Liberia's First Lady, Amb Clar Marie Weah, and her family as a national shame that must be condemned by all irrespective of political difference.

Whilst we heighten all efforts to curb acts that publicly violates the rights of women and girls, the Ministry finds troubling the denigrating falsehoods written in such an unorthodox manner about women.

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection condemns the form and manner Mr. Tukpah and his accomplice disdainfully used denigrating words to describe a woman, like they fell from the sky.

Gender views such onslaught as a serious threat to the huge stride made over the years to ensure that the message of Gender sensitivity reasonates with all sector, tribe and classes regardless of political or religious affiliations, or difference. Therefore, any approach, attitude, characterization and discription that appears to discriminate womanhood should be condemned to the fullest.

It appears from the presentation of those embarrassing assertions mentioned in that book shamefully describing the female lineage of the President and full on attacking the First Lady in such manner, that so-called levelheaded and perceived highly educated men, have underestimated, undermined, compromised and politicized our push to end violence against Women, Girls and Children.

We would have thought that Mr. Tukpah, claiming to be so learned and civilized, would know better than to portray a woman in such a manner, especially based on lies created in his mind.

The Ministry takes seriously the negative descriptions against Liberian womanhood, as depicted by excerpts being posted around, that clearly also attacks the Mother of our President, his beloved Grandmother and, Liberian women as a whole. We decry this vile literature in highest terms, written by a showboating, pretentious false pretender.

The Ministry encourages social media bloggers, radio talk show hosts, the print media and all, to disengage from sharing contents from the book - as doing so, you are equally promoting the abuse on womanhood and reinforcing the trauma the First Family are experiencing.

This shameful act by this horrible character is tantamount to emotional abuse, as well as psychological trauma not just for the First Family but also, all of us Women of Liberia.

Our call as a Ministry to bring the publishers to book is a continuation of countless condemnations against cyber bullying, domestic violence and sexual related offenses against women, girls and children.

This is totally unacceptable!

The Ministry views this action as a serious attack on womanhood, and therefore, calls on all women groups, local and International, to jointly condemn IVah Tukpahs act of writing this libelous unauthorized book, and it's publishing house that did not do its own due diligence.

In that direction, Members of the PRESS, ladies and gentlemen, we hope that the First Family will seek all legal recourse against this misogynistic and disrespectful character who revels in slandering womanhood.

The Ministry calls on the ANC and by extension the CPP to show that they are not in agreement with the Chief of Staff of Mr. Cummings as soon as possible. Additionally, we call on the Collaborating Political Parties women (CPP), particularly the Women Wing of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), to also condemn this sad n solemnly unhealthy act, carried on by Mr. Isaac Vah Tukpah, a staunch Member of their party.

We hope the international community is watching what is obtaining from the end of the ANC. It's imperative that selective advocacy should not be sheltered in any political institution especially so when we are aggressively advocating for women's political participation.

We cannot overemphasize the importance of this fight against all forms of violence against women including their rights to privacy.

Shame! Shame! Shame on Me. Ivah Tukpah for this defamation and libelous act against the First Family of Liberia, Specifically our First Lady, yes the women of Liberia.
While presenting the Union Budget 2022, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to increase tax deduction limit from 10% to 14% on employers contribution to the National Pension System (NPS) accounts of state government employees. The move will help enhance the social security benefits of state government employees and bring them on par with the Union government employees with respect to the employers contribution to NPS.

NPS is being administered and regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) set up under the PFRDA Act, 2013.

Investment in NPS offers tax benefit under three different Sections of the Income-Tax (I-T) Act, 1961. Investment of up to Rs1.5 lakh in NPS in a financial year is eligible for deduction under Section 80CCD (1). This deduction comes under the overall limit of Rs1.5 lakh allowed under Section 80C.

NPS offers additional deduction over and above the section 80C deduction. This additional deduction is available up to Rs50,000 under Section 80CCD (1b). A taxpayer can claim an additional deduction (from gross total income before levy of tax) up to Rs50,000 by investing in Tier-I accounts of NPS. This way a taxpayer can claim an overall tax benefit of Rs2 lakh in a particular financial year by investing in NPS. This tax benefit of Rs2 lakh is available only if an individual opts for the old tax regime.

Over and above the Rs2 lakh limit, any contribution from the employer is also eligible for deduction under Section 80CCD (2) of the Act. An employers contribution to employees NPS account becomes taxable if the employers contribution to NPS account, EPF and superannuation exceeds Rs7.5 lakh in a financial year. This employers contribution to the NPS account is the only tax break available under both the tax regimes, i.e. the new tax regime as well as the old one.

Currently, only Central government employees are eligible to claim tax benefit of 14% for the employers contribution to the NPS account of an employee. In case of private sector employees, the tax benefit is limited to 10%.

This means that from the next financial year (FY22-23), employees of the state governments will be able to claim a tax benefit of 14% on the NPS contribution made by their employer (the state government).

As per the Budget memorandum, "Under the existing provisions of the Act, any contribution by the Union government or any other employer to the account referred to in section 80CCD of the Act (NPS account), shall be allowed as a deduction to the assesses in the computation of his total income, if it does not exceed 14% of his salary where such contribution is made by the Union government. This limit is presently 10% of his salary where such contribution is made by any other employer. The state governments were given an option to raise the contribution to 14% from 1 April 2019 on their own volition, based on their own internal approvals and notifications, without seeking the approval of the PFRDA.

In order to ensure that the state government employees also get full deduction of the enhanced contribution by the state government, it is proposed to increase the limit of deduction under Section 80CCD of the Act from the existing 10% to 14% in respect of contribution made by the state government to the account of its employee.

This amendment will take effect retrospectively from 1 April 2020 and will accordingly apply in relation to the assessment year 2020-21 and subsequent assessment years; so as to ensure no additional tax liability arises on any contribution made in excess of 10% during such time."
MONTANA - The pandemic's wreaked havoc on many aspects of life, from the classroom to traveling and airports. One area particularly hit hard is the arts community, as shows get canceled or go virtual.

The National Endowment of the Arts is working to boost recovery by pumping more than $57.7 million into the industry through grants.

Missoula is known to be an artsy community. Here you get live music at breweries and coffee shops display local artists, but beyond just Missoula, the industry has a huge economic impact.

The Bureaus of Economic Analysis and Labor Statistics report before the pandemic, the arts was a $900 billion industry that supported over five million jobs.

While it is bouncing back, employment is still down 11%.

In Montana, a total of $650,000 will be distributed between five different organizations:

The Archie Bray Foundation - Helena

A VOICE - Art Vision and Outreach in Community Education - Pablo

Mountain Time Arts - Bozeman

Western Montana Creative Initiatives - Missoula

Zootown Arts Community Center - Missoula

The executive director at Zootown Arts Community Center, Kia Liszak, explained how tough it was for the pandemic to hit right after they opened their new space downtown.

"Its really been like making 10 plans for next week," Liszak said. "Were going to do this if things are like this, were going to do this if things are like this, were going to do this if things are like this. Thats been really challenging and disruptive to all of us and our psyches.

The funding is to be used to save jobs, fund facilities, purchase safety supplies and marketing to improve attendance and participation.

Liszak said the funding will make a huge difference, helping the ZACC keep its doors open without layoffs.

As the arts industry bounces back, Americans for the Arts reports attendance as performances increased over 20% between September and December.
MISSOULA -- Montana winters can be tough, add a pandemic to the mix and that makes it even worse. That's why the University of Montana is kicking off some fun winter events with its first ever WinterFest.

UM officials said WinterFest is their way of welcoming students back to campus.

For sophomore, Sarah Illi, events like this help her unwind after a difficult few semesters.

"Encouraging people to get outside is not only healthy for COVID related reasons, but also just to get your vitamin D, to get outside. Fresh air is always good for everyone and I think it's a really great way to help students get involved while being safe at the same time," Illi said. "Encouraging people to get outside is not only healthy for COVID related reasons, but also just to get your vitamin D, to get outside. Fresh air is always good for everyone and I think it's a really great way to help students get involved while being safe at the same time," Illi said.

On Tuesday, Feb 1, students can sit around fire pits, while enjoying free food and drinks on the Oval. They can also rent skates from the UC Gaming Center to ice skate, and for all the Frozen fans, there will be a singalong you won't want to miss. Illi said her experience this year doesn't even compare to last year. "Watching my classes from my computer just felt so alienating, and I felt so isolated and the fact that I was surrounded by so many people, I still felt so alone. Class isn't always fun, but the fact that I get to see people's faces and be out-and-about and be social has been a great improvement for my mental health," she said. Director of Strategic Communications for the University of Montana, Dave Kuntz, said that's exactly why they're hosting events like WinterFest. "There are some mental-health needs that students are seeing as we have to isolate a little bit more and had some of the stresses that are caused by COVID-19, and so really WinterFest is our kick-off to show students all that's available here in the winter months," Kuntz said. That includes a shuttle bus that drives students up to Snowbowl on the weekends for just $3. Looking back, Illi said she's proud of all the students who stuck it out even when it was hard. "Getting through that year, no matter how many fun things you had to do, was an accomplishment in itself," she said. WinterFest kicks off Tuesday, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Montanas Attorney General Austin Knudsen will meet with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who hosting a two-day border summit for 12 state attorneys general in McAllen, Edinburg, Weslaco, and Rio Grande City.

According to a press release sent to Montana Right Now, Attorney General Paxton invited the attorneys general to witness first-hand accounts of the massive influx of illegal immigrants that are currently affecting, not only Texas but our entire country.

The attorney's general will be meeting with top officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during round table discussions, a border wall tour, and a boat tour on the Rio Grande River.

A statement sent via release said:

Ill-conceived immigration policies created by the Biden Administration have wreaked havoc on our communities and placed a massive burden on our country, Attorney General Paxton said. I want to thank our local, state, and federal law enforcement officials and my fellow attorneys general, who attended the summit, for making this issue one of their top priorities. This affects them too. Every state in the country is a border state. I will not allow this looming crisis on the border to continue to bring violence, drug cartels, and human trafficking to our communities.

The attorneys general attending the border summit are from the following states: Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.
To highlight Colquitt Countys historic Thigpen Trail and the important part it played in the development not only of Georgia but of the nation, on Oct. 9, 2021, John Benning Chapter DAR held a rededication of the monument it placed there in 1932.
Midland ISD officials are reaching out to families of the 7,700 students invited to take part in the spring week of intersession, which will take place next week.

The Midland ISD calendar shows intersession is set for Feb. 7-10 for students in elementary school, junior high and high school.

The purpose of the intersession, according to the district, is to provide opportunities to support student learning and academic growth. MISD elementary and secondary campuses will offer intervention sessions in reading, math, end-of-course (EOC) English I, II, and Algebra I to support identified students. Students in grades pre-K through 12 may also apply for enrichment programming.

Elementary and junior high students will attend full-day sessions, the district said on its website. High school students may be required to attend half-day sessions for EOC English I, II and Algebra 1 or a full day for both. High school students can use the non-required time for credit recovery, PSAT courses, EOC enrichment, college applications, STEM camps, and FAFSA completion.

An average of 4,501 students were on campuses across the city during the fall intersession, according to statistics reported in October.

This is the first year Midland ISD has used intersession weeks as part of the school calendar. Officials said last week they are still analyzing data from mid-year data to see how much students taking part in intersession progressed.

Ultimately, we want to make sure that we're setting up our students for success, said Deputy Superintendent Kregg Cuellar. And in most cases, a good, strong academic calendar can do that.

Associate Superintendent Charlie Garcia said school leadership is contacting parents to let them know their child needs to attend intersession.

We are inviting more students to intersession this time around, Garcia said. I think almost 1,400 more students.  We're really needing our parents to support the charge, so that we can accelerate those students learning.

Garcia said a healthy group of teachers that have committed to teaching the intersession week will utilize formative assessments daily to help officials track the learning of our students. We want to make sure that we're able to adapt from Monday to Tuesday, Wednesday to Thursday, even that last day. We want to grab that data, the student-learning data, and have our teachers really comprehend that data and make adjustments to the learning.

We did have formative assessments in the fall, but now they're beefed up. Now, we really have a sense of how to ensure that that's successful piece to our intersession.

Intersession has been a topic that Midland ISD leaders have dealt with as the 2022-23 calendar is discussed. Ultimately, Cuellar and Garcia stated they can only deal with those things they control and that includes the districts second intersession week.

My personal opinion is a strong, academic calendar is really one ingredient of the whole recipe, Cuellar said. I really think having the right academic calendar in place can absolutely be beneficial to students, which ultimately we want to make sure that we're setting up our students for success.

I will tell you that our intersession is academically focused, Garcia added. And so, we lean on our leadership to support the academics, so this is like any other day in Midland ISD. The experience that we want children to have during intersession is one that impacts their growth in reading and mathematics, but also one that promotes a love of learning.

So, it's a chemistry that we want to achieve that will not only inspire our children, but really get them that additional support in their academics, so that when they have to sit in front of a computer and take a test, they're able to knock it out of the park -- that they're able to ask the right types of questions when they didn't get it during the traditional school day.
The city of Midland is ready to renegotiate its deal with the Colorado River Municipal Water District.

And the ramifications could impact future conversations with Midland County and the Midland County Utility District as the entities work to provide water for residents outside the city.

Carl Craigo, director of Utilities for the city of Midland, told the Reporter-Telegram a contract for water with the CRMWD made in 1966 will expire in 2030. However, the city considers the renegotiation a priority for the upcoming year. The Colorado River Municipal Water District delivers water to numerous member and customer cities across West Texas. Midland is considered a customer city.

Craigo said the current contract with the CRMWD calls for the city to take 16.5 million gallons a day. When renegotiations take place, the city will likely call for a lower amount, because of the other water sources it has, including the water from T-Bar Ranch in Winkler County, the Paul Davis Well Fields, the portion of O.H. Ivie Reservoir that the city owns and the Fort Stockton Holdings.

Craigo told the Reporter-Telegram that the city averages a total use of 19 million gallons (13 million in the winter), and the larger amount from the CRMWD is no longer required.

One other reason that city officials want to firm up an extension of the contract with CRMWD is the delivery of water to those in the county. City officials are having conversations with county leaders and MCUD officials about providing water to those who currently arent connected to a water system but are dependent on well water. Three of the five Commissioners Court members are on the upcoming Republican Primary ballot, and water is a topic in each of their races. One person even referenced the citys deal with the CRMWD during a recent a forum.

When the idea of the city providing CRMWD water to the county was presented to Precinct 2 Commissioner Robin Donnelly -- in exchange for rights to the county-owned Roark Water Field, which also is located in Winkler County -- he mentioned how the citys contract runs out in eight years.

Craigo didnt mention the politics involved, just that any deal using CRMWD water requires the city to take and treat the water and then potentially move it to points in the system where MCUD would then move it to customers. Rates have been calculated for the citys efforts, factoring in whether the county turns over the water field or not.

Water line replacements

The city of Midland will begin replacing 4-inch water lines in older, residential areas of Midland with 6-inch lines that are expected improve water quality.

Craigo said before any replacements take place, residents in a particular section will be notified, because the placement of lines is likely to result in the water in that area being turned off for six to eight hours. Notifications are expected to happen in the form of fliers being left on doors and announcements on the citys Facebook page and on Next Door online pages (depending on the neighborhood).

Craigo said if a resident sees reddish water during the replacement process, that it is likely the city will flush the water out until water quality returns to normal.
Former President Donald Trump has endorsed State Rep. Russell Frys congressional campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Rice.

Rice, who has represented South Carolinas northeastern region since 2013, has generated significant backlash for voting to impeach Trump after the Capitol riot, including a formal censure from the S.C. Republican Party.

Congressman Tom Rice of South Carolina, the coward who abandoned his constituents by caving to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left, and who actually voted against me on Impeachment Hoax #2, must be thrown out of office ASAP  and we have just the man to do it (sic), Trump wrote in a statement. America First Champion Russell Fry has been a leading fighter on Election Integrity, is pro-life, pro-God, pro-Gun and, very importantly, pro-LOW Taxes.

Although Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, had objected to certifying the 2020 election, he supported removing the then-President for inciting rioters a week later. In December, Rice said he regretted not voting to certify the results.

The endorsement is likely to boost Frys campaign in the deep-red district, which carried for Trump in 2016 and 2020. Local party chapters in the region have deemed the 2020 election fraudulent, declaring Trump the true winner.

Fry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Horry County Schools Board of Education member Howard Barnard launched a campaign for the S.C. House of Representatives last week, eyeing a potential vacancy in the 106th district seat currently held by Russell Fry.

An Air Force veteran, Barnard previously represented District 5 for two terms on Horry County Council and served in various community groups, including as board member and president of the Horry County Habitat for Humanity and deacon at First Presbyterian Church. Barnard was elected to the Horry County Schools Board of Education in November 2020.

Ive spent the better part of my life in public service, and at no time have I been more concerned about the role and function of government at all levels; about the direction of this great country and about the needs of the good citizens of the booming South Strand, Barnard stated in a press release.

Citing his council votes to construct new terminals at the Myrtle Beach International Airport and upgrade county roads, the release emphasized his record on local infrastructure, which is gearing up to be a key issue.

Last fall, the council declined to contribute $126 million to a new interstate that would connect the region to I-95, with several members arguing they needed to invest in crumbling local roads before allocating tax dollars to an intergovernmental project.

Among my highest priorities will be stop talking and start doing when it comes to our long overdue transportation needs and to focus attention and money on the of education of our children, while keeping parents in the drivers seat, Barnard wrote in the release.

Barnard seeks to replace Fry, who is running to unseat U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, a five-term incumbent facing blowback for his vote to impeach former president Donald Trump in the deep red district, which carried for the former president in 2016 and 2020.

In January 2021, Rice was the only member of congress to both object to the results of the 2020 election and support removing Trump from office for inciting the Capitol riot.
Jurors deliberated for less than an hour Monday before returning a guilty verdict in the first-degree murder trial of Dustin A. Finlaw of Meredosia.

Finlaw, who was representing himself, was found guilty of stabbing of Robert. L Utter, 42, in Meredosia in the early morning hours of May 24, 2018. The pair had discussed meeting to have sex; instead, the jury determined, Finlaw stabbed Utter 13 times and slit his throat.

State's Attorney Gray Noll said the verdict was the correct one.

"First and foremost, I'm just happy that the victim's family will get closure from this," Noll said. "This one, in particular, for the victim's family, because it took four years. (Jurors) made the right choice."

Circuit Judge Jack Davis ordered the jury to begin deliberations about 11:07 a.m. Monday. By 11:50 a.m., Noll had received word that the jury had reached a verdict, which was announced around 12:20 p.m.

After the verdict was read, Finlaw was handcuffed and taken back to the Morgan County jail, where he will be lodged until his sentencing hearing April 1. The victim's family members cried and hugged one another.

Finlaw still is facing charges of aggravated battery on a police officer and obstruction of evidence stemming his first interrogation, on May 24, 2018, when he broke his phone. Those charges will be resolved during his sentencing, Noll said.

Finlaw is facing from 20 to 60 years in prison on the murder conviction and an additional 1 to 10 years in prison for the pending charges.

It wasn't a run-of-the-mill trial, in part because Finlaw choose to represent himself, Noll said.

"I have been a prosecutor for 20 years and I have only had one other pro-se case," Noll said. "This one was unique."

Before the jury was released to its deliberations, Noll and Assistant State's Attorney Chad Turner presented their closing arguments to the jury.

"That man brutally and viciously stabbed to death Robert Utter," Turner said, pointing across the courtroom at Finlaw.

Over the course of nearly 40 minutes, Turner detailed the timeline of events on May 24, 2018, pointing out items such as the murder weapon and noting that investigators found the weapon less than 30 feet from the pier where the stabbing occurred and that Finlaw's mother testified to missing a knife matching the description of the weapon.

Turner also pointed out discrepancies in Finlaw's story over the course of several interrogations.

"He has a story for everything. Lies, lies, lies," Turner said.

When Finlaw gave his closing arguments, he said police investigations into the murder were unprofessional and accused Illinois State Police investigators of breaking into his mother's house and stealing the knife to plant as the murder weapon.

"Their investigation was shoddy," Finlaw said.

Admitting that he didn't report to police that Utter had been stabbed and that he initially lied about being with Utter, Finlaw kept to his claim that there was a third person in the car who committed the crime. He said he lied about having been with Utter because he simply didn't want to be involved in the matter and that he had no motive for killing Utter.

"They didn't even prove a motive, which they don't have to, but it's important to this case because I had absolutely no motive to kill this person," Finlaw said.

Noll, who then offered a rebuttal to Finlaw's closing statement, said Finlaw's accusations against investigators were simply insulting.

"They did not steal the weapon, they did not sneak into Beverly's (Finlaw's mother) house and steal the knife," Noll said. "That is an absurd allegation."

Finlaw is an intelligent young man but "a young man that is disturbed," Noll said.
HILLVIEW  Law enforcement agencies in three counties are trying to locate a Hillview woman who has not been seen for a week.

Family members reported Randa M. Davidson, 39, of Hillview missing Saturday. Her cellphone was found in Scott County and her car later was found in Springfield, according to Greene County Sheriff Rob McMillen.
Monday was a good day, relatively speaking, for a state reeling from a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Although 6,654 new confirmed and probable cases of the virus were reported statewide Monday, it marked the lowest number of single-day infections since Dec. 13, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The average number of cases being reported in Illinois each day now is 11,873  63.5% fewer than its mid-January peak.

The number of deaths from the virus also is declining, although at a slower pace. The state now is averaging 108 deaths a day related to coronavirus.

Those drops appear to be carrying over to many west-central Illinois counties, which are seeing declines in cases and hospitalizations. The state's health district, which includes Morgan County and most of the surrounding counties, still is experiencing a 13.8% seven-day test positivity rate. Although above the targeted 8% threshold, it is the lowest since the start of the year and continues falling.

Brown County, for example, saw a peak 37.2% positivity rate on Jan. 18, but it now stands at 11.7%. Other counties and their most recent seven-day test positivity average are: Cass County, 16% (peak of 27.4% in mid-January); Greene County, 14.3% (25.3% peak); Jersey, 14.1% (24% peak); Macoupin, 15.2% (22.2% peak); Morgan, 14.7% (20.5% peak); Pike, 14.2% (24.1% peak); Sangamon, 14.1% ( 19.5% peak); Schuyler, 11.5% (17.8% peak); and Scott, 11.9% (20.5% peak).

Most county health departments are remaining cautious about the numbers, though, after being particularly hard hit in January.

In Pike County, there were 990 new cases of COVID-19 and eight related deaths reported from Jan. 1 through Jan. 25  the highest since the pandemic started two years ago.

Pike County Health Department continued to urge people to get vaccinated if they haven't been already and to get a booster shot when available.

"Stay home if you are sick. Socially distance. Wear a well-fitting mask over your nose and mouth when around others and unable to socially distance. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water," the department stressed.

Cass County saw a substantial drop in new cases last week, although there still were 167 new infections and one death, according to the health department.

Total COVID-19 cases in west-central Illinois counties as of Monday, according to individual county health departments, were:

Brown County: 2,297 total, 13 deaths

Cass County: 4,421 total, 46 deaths

Greene County: 3,477 total, 72 deaths

Jersey County: 5,997 total, 60 deaths

Macoupin County: 12,136 total, 151 deaths

Morgan County: 8,969 total, 131 deaths

Pike County: 4,808 total, 79 deaths

Sangamon County: 52,195 total, 346 deaths

Schuyler County: 1,895 total, 26 deaths

Scott County: 1,219 total, 10 deaths

Since March 2020, there have been 2,920,971 COVID-19 cases and 34,704 related deaths in Illinois.
djgunner / Getty Images

An updated legislative package will target violent crime in Illinois and provide support for law enforcement, according to Senate Republicans.

Among legislation in the package is the Fund the Police Grant Act, which would provide grants to pay for additional law enforcement training and equipment, including body cameras; and a bill that would repeal the provisions of the SAFE-T Act, passed in January 2021, that did away with cash bail.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Covid Dashboard Jan. 31, 2022 View Photo

Calaveras County Public Health reports the death of a woman in her 60s and a man in his 90s due to Covid-19. There are 193 new cases since Friday, January 28. There are 43 less active cases for a total of 113 active cases including three Covid hospitalizations. Calaveras reports positive cases age 17 and under number 1,300 or more, and cases age 65 and older are 1,000 or more. Specific numbers are no longer provided. There are 234 more counted as recovered for a total of 6,186 and 56.48% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated in the county. According to the state, Calaveras 14-day average for Covid hospitalizations decreased to three and there are five ICU beds available.

Tuolumne County Public Health reports 148 new Covid-19 positive community cases identified since Friday and 156 new inmate cases. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reports 557 active cases up from 432 Friday. Today the Sierra Conservation Center has the most cases out of all the prisons in California. On Friday the SCC had the fourth most cases. There have been 2,190 inmate cases at the SCC total and no inmate deaths. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reports the SCC manages 3,051 inmates with 83% vaccinated including all the southern fire conservation camps. They have tested 71% of the prison population in the past 14 days. There are 91 active staff cases reporting they have Covid out of 1,142. A total of 698 staff members report they are or have been Covid positive with a 58% vaccination rate reported among the staff, one staff member passed away on September 1st, 2021.

Adventist Health Sonora is hosting a COVID-19 Pfizer vaccination clinic for children ages 5-11 only, happening this Friday, Feb. 4 from 3-6 p.m. at the hospital. They note to enter the hospital through the associate entrance off of Guzzi Lane and follow signs for the vaccination clinic.

The newly reported community cases include 31 cases age 17 or younger and 41 cases age 60 or older. The new Covid cases by gender and age: 13 girls and 9 boys age 11 or younger, 6 girl and 3 boys age 12 to 17, 7 women and 10 men age 18 to 29, 15 women and 6 men in their 30s, 7 women and 11 men in their 40s, 13 women and 7 men in their 50s, 17 women and 11 men in their 60s, 5 women and 3 men in their 70s, and 2 women and 1 man in their 80s and 2 men age 90 or older. Tuolumne Countys active community cases decreased 451 to 500 including 12 people who are hospitalized. There have been 161 deaths since January 2020.

The state reports the 14-day average for Covid-19 hospitalized patients increased to 18. The state reports no ICU beds available in Tuolumne County out of six. Vaccination details per case are no longer reported, the state vaccination trends are here.

The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County decreased to 143.1 from 160.0 per 100,000 population. The case rate reached a low of 15.1 on December 17th. A total of 599 were released from isolation in all 8,990 have been released from isolation and 61% of the population eligible to get vaccinated has been vaccinated.

If you receive a positive test result, you will likely receive a text from a Virtual Agent to make contact and provide some information on what to do next. You can help slow the spread of COVID-19 by responding to texts, calls, or emails, and self-isolating when you have symptoms or a positive test result. Also notify any close contacts youve had from 2 days before you became ill or got tested. Any close contacts should follow current quarantine guidance and get tested 3-5 days after exposure. If you are at high risk of severe disease or hospitalization, you can contact your doctor to discuss potential treatment options. If you are not symptomatic, have not tested positive for COVID-19 recently, and are not in quarantine, get vaccinated or boosted.

COVID-19 Testing Free tests can be ordered at covidtests.gov or at usps.com/covidtest. The first tests will ship by the end of January. Tests will typically ship within 7-12 days of ordering through the U.S. Postal Service. USPS reports shipping times of 1-3 days for its first-class package service in the continental United States. The White House emphasized that the website is in beta testing when it made tests available for ordering for the first time today.

Public health recommends scheduling an appointment to get tested 5 days after possible exposure and if you are having any symptoms, to get tested right away. The Tuolumne County State testing site schedule is 7 days a week from 7 AM to 7 PM at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds and will be open on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Monday, January 17th. Appointments can be made at www.lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 888-634-1123. Testing is also available at pharmacies, at Rapid Care, and the hospital emergency department if you are experiencing any symptoms, or contact your healthcare provider. More details are here.

COVID-19 Vaccine the CDC recommends people receive a booster shot if they completed a Pfizer series at least five months ago, or the Moderna series at least six months ago, or a J&J vaccine at least two months ago. Vaccine appointments for children ages 5 to 11 can also be made through myturn.ca.gov, or by calling 833-422-4255, or through local pharmacies, more details are here. For ways to manage a fear of needles or a phobia and help others with it, view the CDCs information guide here. Learn more about self-care strategies by visiting namica.org

County

Date

New

Active (Hospital)

Total 2022 All Cases (All Deaths) Amador 1/27 155 655 (15) 1,031 5,197

(64) Calaveras 1/31 193 113 (3) 1,763 6,398

(99) Mariposa 1/31 57 58 (17) 796 2,663

(19) Mono 1/31 28 N/A 913 2,888

(7) Stanislaus 1/31 1,620 11,523 (262) 26,792 111,765

(1,532) Tuolumne 1/31 304 500 (12) 3,843 11,841 (161) Reported cases at end of 2021 and 2020
A Steve Burns sighting in town had San Antonians who grew up watching Nick Jr.'s Blue's Clues running to their thinking chair to figure out why the star of their childhoods was hanging out downtown. We might have a clue.

The star and host of Blue's Clues, who went viral in September after yanking at the heartstrings of millenials with a surprise video to his now adult fans, popped up on the San Antonio River Walk on Monday, January 31. Without much context, Burns posted a selfie to his Instagram Story showing him on the banks of the river.

"I think this would be a GREAT place to live if you were a duck," his caption reads, alongside corresponding emojis and a San Antonio, Texas location sticker.

Burns, who hosted the beloved children's show from 1996 to 2002, donned a similar outfit to the one he wore in the emotional September video in which he explained his abrupt exit from Blue's Clues. The selfie shows him in black-rimmed glasses and a green shirt  a sort of mature update to his striped polo costume that he wore on the show.

San Antonio fans who grew up on helping Steve figure out what his animated puppy sidekick Blue wanted to do jokingly asked Burns to drop a "pin" or "clue" to show where he was after Twitter user @JaredTWorm tipped off locals around 7 p.m. on Monday.

Turns out Burns probably wasn't scouting duck habitats. A San Antonian who snapped a photo with the star mentioned he had an upcoming lecture. According to the Houston Chronicle, Burns is a guest speaker at Texas A&M Kingsville's lectureship series on Wednesday, February 2 at 7 p.m. Perhaps the star made a detour on his way in to campus?

"My day can only be described as wholesome," Instagram user @greenrange writes. "Ran into @steveburnsalive and I can only say that you are such a wonderfully kind person. Thank you for taking time out of your time to talk to me and for inspiring a generation of kids and now adults. Good luck in your lecture."

Burns also satisfied his sweet tooth. An employee at Southtown bakery Oh Yeah Cakes says on Twitter that the actor accepted her invitation to drop by for a free cupcake.

The 1990s star will discuss his life since leaving the hit show, TAMUK Director of Marketing and Communications Adriana Garza-Flores told the Chronicle.

If you're in the Kingsville area, the lecture is free and open to the public. The audience will be capped at 450 attendees and students will have first priority.
After taking a pandemic pause, paella is back. Chef Johnny Hernandez, of Grupo La Gloria restaurants, is bringing back the Paella Challenge with Corona in a few weeks. The restaurateur and chef says the 12th year of the San Antonio food festival centered on the Spanish dish is staying on the South Side.

The Paella Challenge, which highlights about 30 distinguished chefs from San Antonio and Mexico, will take place at Mission County Park on March 20.

"Plans are moving swiftly, but we have a lot of experience with this event so things are falling into place nicely," Hernandez says.

The 2020 version of the festival took place on March 8, mere days before the COVID-19 pandemic halted social gatherings. The challenge did not take place in 2021.

Each year, the chefs prepare their takes on the rice dish to compete for bragging rights and share their cooking with San Antonio fans. Some may diverge on land and sea proteins, others will mix everything in together. The best-tasting paellas are decided by a panel of judges while guests watch the experts go head-to-head and sample some of the offerings. Previous judging categories have been contemporary paella, modern classical paella, and people's choice.

Hernandez, who owns La Gloria, The Fruteria, and Burgerteca, maintains a vast culinary network beyond San Antonio. He says four chefs from Mexico will join the competition. The event will feature budding talent, too. Hernandez says the H-E-B High School Challenge will also be part of the return. The hosting chef says the event will benefit Kitchen Campus, his after school non-profit connecting middle and high school aged students with cooking and nutrition.

Amenities that guests might remember from pre-pandemic times, like the Corona-sponsored michelada bar and VIP Herradura Tent, are also making a come back.

The chef in charge says the festival's live music line up is being solidified. The pricing is also being finalized. Hernandez expects tickets to go on sale later this week.
Sadie Layher MySA AP

U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently endorsed Greg Casar, San Antonio's progressive new congressional candidate. Casar announced the endorsement on Twitter on January 31, writing he's "honored" by the recommendation from AOC.

"Texas working families deserve a progressive Democrat like Greg who will show up and fight for them," AOC wrote in a statement. "Because of his roots as a labor organizer, I know Greg and I will work together to organize year-round and deliver on Medicare for ALL, good jobs, and climate change."
Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images

Texas parents were arrested on Thursday, January 27 for manslaughter after allegedly giving their 2-month-old girl allergy medication, according to the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office. An autopsy determined the baby died of "mixed drug toxicity," reported KLBK-TV.

According to court documents, deputies responded to the couple's home on July 11, 2021. An ambulance had already been called, and officers found a dead 2-month-old child. An investigation determined the father Adam Canales Jr., 30, was watching the baby while the mother, Sarah Canales, 21, was away.
After beginning the spring semester virtually, students at the University of Texas at San Antonio are scheduled to make a return to in-person learning on Monday, February 7. The announcement was made on Friday to students and staff via email from University President Taylor Eighmy, along with other members of school leadership.

"As we continue monitoring local COVID-19 trends, we are eagerly anticipating the return to in-person learning and our many spring semester traditions and experiences," reads a copy of the statement published in UTSA Today.

On January 6, an announcement was first made about the modified start to the semester, crediting rising cases in COVID-19.

UTSA is not the only local center for higher learning that has pushed back in-person learning.

Alamo Colleges District began spring semester remotely, with most classes moving online from January 18 through the 29, with students expected return to campus Monday, February 7.

San Antonio's Trinity University also took measures at the beginning of the semester to mitigate the spread of new virus variants by extending winter break with classes beginning Monday, January 31.

Our Lady of the Lake University held most spring semester classes online through January 23, while St. Mary's University delayed all classes until Monday, January 24  with the exception of courses in its law school, which returned on January 10. University of Incarnate Word classes returned to campus Monday, January 31.

Across the state, other universities that previously altered semester start times are also returning back to the classrooms.

At the University of Texas at Austin, some students are making the return to campus on Monday, January 31. University leadership initially requested that faculty teach remotely for the first two weeks of the semester, from Tuesday, January 18 through Friday, January 28.

Leadership at Texas State University announced a similar plan to UT-Austin on January 14, with two weeks of online classes, ending on Monday, January 31.

For more local COVID-19 related coverage, keep up with MySA.com
UPDATE (2/4 at 7:30 a.m.): The winter storm warning and advisory remain in effect for San Antonio until 10 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. The agency doesn't expect accumulating precipitation, but a few flurries will be possible.

Temperatures Friday morning are in the teens and 20s with wind chills in the single digits near to zero. A wind chill advisory is in effect for all areas until 9 a.m. Friday due to brisk northerly winds. NWS reports that these winds are producing bitterly cold wind chill values from near five degrees below zero into the teens. Winds will continue to be 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph.

The significant sleet and freezing rain from Thursday resulted in reports of a tenth to almost a quarter inch of accumulating ice from San Antonio to Austin, as well as across the Hill County. The ice that accumulated is expected to remain on many surfaces

through midday, making it difficult to travel in much of the Edwards Plateau, Hill Country and Austin metro area.

San Antonio Police Department

UPDATE (2/3): CPS Energy CEO Rudy Garza expects most the ongoing outages to be restored by midnight and doesn't anticipate a similar outage event Friday morning.

Garza said during a press conference Thursday afternoon that about 98,000 customers experienced outages throughout the day mostly attributed to high winds, ice and tree branches.

As of 6:33 p.m. there were still 79 outages affecting 6,501 customers, according to CPS Energy.

Original story follows below:

City and state officials are on a campaign to make sure residents are prepared for freezing weather as an arctic airmass  one that could send temperatures into the low 20s  made its way into San Antonio Wednesday night.

READ MORE: Should you drip your pipes: A Texas plumber shares his tips

Hazardous Weather Conditions

The National Weather Service issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook on February 1, warning of a "strong arctic cold front" that will bring "hard freezes" across South Central Texas.

While freezing rain and sleet are anticipated Wednesday night and into Thursday, the NWS is assuring residents that it will not be a repeat of the February 2021 winter storm.

Roads and highways TxDOT cameras show road conditions near downtown San Antonio on Thursday, February 3, 2021 as arctic weather rolls through. TxDOT UPDATE (2/4 AT 7 a.m.): The connector ramps on I-10 and I-410 are now open, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. The US 281/I-410 direct connector ramps are now open as well However, TxDOT has still shut down the U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 connectors as a precaution. It's unclear when the connectors will reopen. The San Antonio Police Department reported that as of 5 p.m. officers have responded to 30 major crashes, 47 minor crashes since and 43 traffic-related calls as of 6 a.m. on Thursday. Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Manager Erik Walsh has advised locals in a joint statement to avoid travel if possible throughout the rest of the day and into Friday afternoon. As of Thursday afternoon: The flyover at Highway 281 and Loop 410 is closed to reports of ice forming on the road. Portions of the eastbound and westbound main lanes of I-10 at Boerne Stage Road to the Kendall County Line are being shutdown until weather conditions improve. San Antonio Police Department reports multiple highway and road closures at 1604 and US Highway 281; I-10 and Loop 410. The city of San Antonio is also maintaining a list of street closures which will be updated throughout the day. There are currently 13 weather-related road closures. The full list can be found here.

Flights out of San Antonio and Austin airports - The San Antonio International Airport issued a warning to travelers at 6 p.m. Wednesday, advising them to check directly with their airline on possible schedule changes before leaving to the airport. According to FlightView.com, most arriving flights are canceled or delayed as of Thursday morning. - In Austin, most of the flights at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport have been canceled on Thursday. The airport is advising travelers to check with airlines before heading to the airport. The airport says ice has started to accumulate on surfaces.

San Antonio businesses and services closed Thursday Business closings. Thana Prasongsin/Getty Images Restaurants and bars - El Camino Bar & Grill: Closed Thursday - Tony's Siesta: Closed Thursday, reopening Friday for normal hours - Stuffed burritos closed Thursday, reopening Friday - The Local Bar closed Thursday, reopeninig Friday - DZIR Nightclub closed Thursday, reopening Friday - Early Bird Coffee closed Thursday - Bottling Department, the food hall at Pearl, is closed Thursday - Garcia's Mexican Food closed Thursday - Kuma closed Thursday - Aldaco's closed Thursday - The Rustic closed Thursday - Guajillos closing at 5 p.m. Thursday Parks and Museums - San Antonio Zoo, Kiddie Park, and the San Antonio Zoo Train: Closed Thursday. The Brackenridge Park Starbucks will remain open, but hours are subject to change. - The Witte Museum will be closed Thursday - The Alamo will be closed Thursday - All Bexar County parks will close at 4 p.m. on Thursday and will reopen at noon on Friday, according to officials. Comanche Parks 1 and 3 are currently closed due to flooding. Services - All DPS offices in San Antonio, Austin, and Waco are closed Thursday Other businesses - Goodwill: All San Antonio, Kerrville, New Braunfels, Cibolo, and Seguin stores and donation locations will remain closed through Thursday, February 3. - Nowhere Bookshop: Closed, offering 15 percent off online orders with the code SNOWDAY - Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union: All San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas branches are closed Thursday - City Base Cinema: Closing early Thursday, customers can reach the theater at 210-531-3000 or email brad@citybasecinemas.com for refund requests - Santikos Entertainment has closed for Thursday. The company said it will process refunds as quickly as possible through tickethelp@santikos.com.

Hill Country Closures Boerne City facilities will delay opening until noon Thursday, February 3. Waste Management will not collect trash and recycling on Thursday. Collections will resume Friday and into the weekend as needed. The Community Room at the Patrick Heath Public Library (451 N Main Street) will be open as a warming center from 9 a.m.  7 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m.  6 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.  4 p.m. Saturday. The Community Room will remain open as a warming center even if the library is not fully open, per a release. Fredericksburg City offices will be closed Thursday, February 3.

School Closures

San Antonio districts Principal Kelly Mantle said one-way hallways, seen Friday, would help facilitate social distancing as a measure against the transmission of the coronavirus at Northside ISD's Forester Elementary School. Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News - Judson ISD said Thursday is an Early Release Day and Friday is a Teacher Planning Day/Student Holiday. - San Antonio Christian School has closed its campus for Thursday. - Harlandale ISD announced it will be closed on Thursday and Friday due to the weather. - Edgewood ISD announced classes will be canceled and district offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday due to the weather. - Northside ISD announced classes will be canceled and district offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday due to the weather. - North East ISD announced classes will be canceled and district offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday due to the weather. - South San ISD schools to close Thursday and Friday due to inclement weather. - Randolph Field Independent School District will be closing all offices and campuses on Thursday and Friday - East Central ISD has closed all schools for Thursday and Friday. - San Antonio ISD to close Thursday and Friday. - Southwest ISD has closed schools on Thursday and Friday due to the weather. - Holy Cross will move to an online learning mode on Thursday. - Pre-K 4 SA will be closed on Thursday and Friday due to inclement weather. - San Antonio Academy will be closed Thursday, February 3 and Friday, February 4. - IDEA Public Schools canceled class for Thursday, February 3. - Keystone School closed Thursday and Friday due to inclement weather. - Floresville ISD has closed all campuses and offices Friday, February 4. - Bandera ISD canceled classes Friday. Higher Education - Texas A&M-San Antonio announced its campus operations will be virtual Thursday, February 3 and Friday, February 4, with only essential personnel on-site due to the weather. The University will be open for teaching/learning, business operations, and student services, but all of these will occur remotely. - The University of Texas at San Antonio has decided to temporarily shift to online learning for Thursday, February 3. All UTSA classes, including in-person teaching will be remote. This includes labs and other in-person programs. There will be no in-person day or evening classes Thursday. Campus shuttles will not operate Thursday. For students living on campus, dining facilities will remain open. - The Alamo Colleges District announced all services and most classes will continue to be conducted remotely Thursday and Friday. - Trinity University canceled its classes and has closed its offices and buildings on Thursday due to the winter weather. - St. Mary's University has canceled all day and evening classes and activities for Thursday. Campus offices will also be closed.

Hill Country districts Photos of Voss Middle School in Boerne ISD. Courtesy of Boerne ISD. - Austin ISD canceled all classes for Thursday, February 3 and Friday, February 4. - Bandera ISD canceled classes for Thursday, February 3. - Boerne ISD canceled all classes for Thursday February 3 and Friday, February 4 due to inclement weather conditions. - Blanco ISD canceled all classes for Thursday, February 3 and Friday, February 4. - Comal ISD canceled classes through Friday, February 4. - Comfort ISD canceled Thursday, February 3 classes and will monitor Friday's weather. - Fredricksberg ISD will close all campuses Thursday, February 3. - Hays CISD schools will be closed Thursday and Friday. -Johnson City ISD campuses will be closed on Thursday, February 3 and Friday February 4. - Kerrville ISD canceled classes for Thursday, February 3. - Marion ISD canceled classes for Thursday, February 3. - Medina Valley ISD will be closed Thursday, February 3. - Navarro ISD will be closed Thursday, February 3. - New Braunfels ISD is monitoring the weather and will send a text or email to parents if classes are canceled. - Pflugerville ISD has canceled classes for Thursday, February 3. - Round Rock ISD canceled all classes for Thursday and Friday. - San Marcos Consolidated ISD classes are canceled for Thursday, February 3 and Friday, February 4. - Seguin ISD canceled school through Friday, February 4. -Somerset ISD schools and offices will be closed Thursday due to anticipated inclement weather and possibly dangerous road conditions. - The University of Texas at Austin canceled all classes until further notice. -Texas State University will not have classes on Thursday or Friday at both the San Marcos and Round Rock campuses.

Outages could happen

Gov. Greg Abbott said at a press conference Tuesday morning that he has activated multiple state agencies to be at the ready. He said that the state has done everything needed to make sure the lights stay on.

Abbott then followed up with, "No one can guarantee that there wont be a 'load-shedding event,'" contradicting what the guarantee he made in November.

A load shed event is a planned blackout to lessen the impact on the power grid.

Abbott reiterated in a Tuesday news release that additional power generation has been brought online and that ERCOT forecasts that the electric grid will have enough power supply to meet demand.

CPS Energy says outage chances are slim

The city and county held a joint press conference with CPS Energy and SAWS officials to assure the public that they are ready for whatever issues the winter storm brings, promising those issues will be minimal.

"We might very well see an ERCOT system-wide peak on Friday morning depending upon how low into the 20s it gets," said CPS Energy CEO Rudy Garza.

He added that the difference this time compared to February 2021 is that all power plants across the system are running.

SAWS CEO Robert Puente says that most of its infrastructure is underground so should be unaffected. He reminded residents to weatherize their exposed pipes and outdoor faucets.

Puente said that if power goes out it could affect the pumping stations, but Garza reassured officials that CPS Energy knows where these pumps are located and is protecting power infrastructure in those areas.

Bexar County opened six of its warming centers on Tuesday, which will remain open until Sunday, February 6 at noon. The six warming centers locations are:

2096 Talley Road

23103 Bulverde Road

20825 Babcock Road

2456 FM 1516 S

6427 Evers Road

9810 Southton Road

San Antonio opened warming centers Thursday morning at 7 a.m. and will keep them open through Friday at noon.

Garza Community Center

1450 Mira Vista, 78228

1450 Mira Vista, 78228 Harlandale Community Center

7227 Briar place, 78221

7227 Briar place, 78221 Hamilton Community Center

10700 Nacogdoches Road, 78217

10700 Nacogdoches Road, 78217 Denver Heights Community Center

300 Porter Street, 78210

Last year, city officials called for city facilities and unoccupied buildings downtown to shut off their lights. City Manager Erik Walsh said the city implemented an energy conservation plan this year that will help reduce power usage at city facilities while not in use.

Garza said that downtown building management companies are on a communication system that allows CPS Energy to contact those companies and ask them to shut off their lights if necessary.

Protect your pets and plants

On top of keeping yourself and loved ones warm, the City of San Antonio is also reminding residents to keep their pets and plants safe.

The city asks that residents bring their pets inside to keep them warm. Animal Care Services says if residents cannot bring pets into their home they set up a contained space in the laundry room or garage with food, water, and blankets. ACS officers will be one patrol to catch any violations.

The city also reminds residents to cover outdoor plants with a large sheet of fabric or a bed sheet. Potted plants should also be brought inside.
Jim Mattress Mack McIngvale has endorsed Republican candidate Alexandra del Moral Mealer in her bid to win Harris County Judge in 2022. In true Mattress Mack fashion, the Houston business owner made the announcement by appearing in an ad Monday alongside Mealer.

"She's going to be tough on crime," McIngvale says, introducing Mealer as his friend in a clip shared to Twitter.

"Crime is exploding in Harris County," Mealer states. "If you don't want to carry a gun in your car because of car jacking, vote for me, Alexandra Mealer for Harris County Judge. I'm going to put the criminals where they're supposed to be..."

"In jail!" Mealer and McIngvale shout in unison.

In a Monday release, McIngvale called for residents to vote for Mealer in the March 1 primary, saying "she will defend the American dream for the next generation."

"Alexandra del Moral Mealer has dedicated her life to service and she is the leader who will restore law and order for Harris County," the statement read. "She will support law enforcement and will work to keep criminals off our streets."

"I am honored to have Mack's support and look forward to working with him to restore our county," Mealer said in the release.

Mealer is running against incumbent Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat who is looking to win her second term after three years in office. Hidalgo faces a host of challengers on both sides of the political aisle, including five challengers from her own party. Houston City Council candidate Georgia D. Provost; Erica Davis, chief of staff to Constable Alan Rosen; and real estate broker AR Hassan, are among the liberal opposition hoping to unseat Hidalgo.

If she is successful, the 30-year-old incumbent will face one of nine Republican candidates vying for the opportunity to challenge her in the general election come November. Potential opponents include Randy Kubosh, brother of Houston City Council member Michael Kubosh; Humble ISD board president Martina Lemond Dixon; attorney Vidal Martinez; and retired deputy sheriff Oscar Gonzales.
Since 2014, we have chronicled the many false positions CalPERS General Counsel Matt Jacobs has taken with the CalPERS board, beneficiaries, and taxpayers. Over time, the weight of evidence shows that Jacobs exemplifies a culture of casual lying which has undermined good governance at CalPERS.

A few of many examples: Jacobs misrepresenting the right of the public to speak at board meetings; his deceit in the selection of tainted fiduciary counsel Robert Klausner, whod been criticized extensively in national and California stories for his involvement in corrupt pay to play schemes; Jacobs violation of bar rules by openly working with some board members against others when all were supposedly his clients; and failing to address self-dealing via CalPERS providing the board and staff with a grossly underpriced liability waiver. Even the normally CalPERS-friendly Sacramento Bee called out Jacobs for his role in the embarrassing hiring of resume-fabricator Charles Asubonten as Chief Financial Officer.

Its one thing to regularly pull the wool over the eyes of CalPERS board. Since the pay to play scandal that landed former CEO Fred Buenrostro in federal prison for accepting bribes, the board has bizarrely acted as if abdication of its oversight duties is somehow the best course of action for the giant pension fund. But trying that with a judge, such as Judge Michael Markman, who is presiding in a suit by former board member JJ Jelincic against CalPERS, is a much riskier proposition.

By way of background, Jelincic sued CalPERS over two alleged violations of Californias Public Records Act. The first was over CalPERS relegating a board discussion of Chief Investment Officer Ben Mengs sudden resignation to a private meeting, a so-called closed session. Jelincic argued that closed session was improper and therefore the meeting transcript should be made public. Jelincics second request was for records showing details of how CalPERS wrote down nearly $600 million in its real estate portfolio. Jelincic lost on the real estate records and won on the transcript.more or less.

A December post recapped Judge Markmans ruling:

Markman found that the CalPERS board had held an improper closed session on August 17, 2020, which was a special board meeting held in the wake of Ben Mengs sudden exodus after we exposed that he had violated California conflict of interest laws by holding shares in Blackstone, and found that the only portions of the discussion that were bona fide closed session matters were two sections where California Government Code 11126 (g), which allow performance reviews, hiring and firing of CEOs and CIOs to be held in private. One has to presume these parts of the meeting related to hiring Mengs replacement; Markman more or less says so in his analysis It is clear that Markman still has not seen the entire closed session transcript. CalPERS has withheld some portions claiming they are attorney-client privileged. Apparently under California law, bona fide and sufficiently high stakes attorney-client privileged matters may be shielded even from in camera review. Mind you, if there were any actual attorney-client privileged matter at issue, general counsel Matt Jacobs was required to submit a memorandum to the board as part of substantiating the basis for holding the discussion in secret. I am told that in the hearings, CalPERS has tried to maintain that such a document was created but now it cant find it. Markman looks like he is being awfully deferential in asking CalPERS one more time to unearth its supposedly wayward record: Markman basically says CalPERS needs to cough up the document that has allegedly gone missing so he can assess its bona fides, or publish the entire transcript, or face sanctions. So this wrangling will continue into the new year.

Mind you, it is not unusual for judges to give governmental bodies more benefit of the doubt than they do to individual plaintiffs, even when they have highly competent, well regarded counsel representing them. Even though CalPERS took the high-handed position of redacting portions of a transcript that the judge had requested for in camera review, Markman has been bending over backwards on CalPERS behalf.

Admittedly, Markman in his order found CalPERS that CalPERS had violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, which is a strong rebuke of CalPERS conduct and instructed CalPERS to produce the full transcript. But he then undercut the second part of his order by given CalPERS yet another opportunity to find the weirdly wayward record that was supposed to have been created shortly after the board meeting, at the very latest.when CalPERS had had plenty of opportunity tp find and produce it over the course of the trial.

However, a reading of the parts of the transcript that CalPERS did let Judge Markman see, which CalPERS accidentally exposed when it filed the document with the court, shows CalPERS pending litigation claim to be false. That would explain what almost certainly happened: Jacob never prepared a litigation memo because there was never any pending litigation. Recall that under the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, litigation has to be either active or ripe for it to be entitled to closed session protection.

First, Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng had already resigned, so any possible action that CalPERS might take regarding an investigation conducted by outside firm was moot at the time of the board meeting. CalPERS was not going sue Meng after he quit.

Second, CalPERS had shared a draft of the investigation report with Meng, so it was inconceivable that CalPERS thought it would be embroiled in a suit with Meng. The last thing CalPERS would do if it believed Meng might sue CalPERS is breach its attorney-client privilege by sharing counsel-prepared materials with an adverse party.

Third, the parts of the transcript that are visible (i.e., the overwhelming majority of the meeting) provide no footprints of other controversies with potential litigants; the list of topics discussed in that closed session (redacted in the public filings but visible to the judge) almost certainly shows the same thing.

So what has CalPERS done? Instead of complying with the order by producing the document that the judge asked for or provide the full transcript to the court, CalPERS has tried a new, cheeky move: asserting that it is allowed to prepare the missing memorandum well after the legally-mandated time frame, as if this were a mere permissible administrative tidying-up.

To reiterate: CalPERS is not claiming that, as it previously had, that it has prepared the required memorandum and then somehow misplaced it. It has now shifted ground and is asserting the law gives CalPERS the right to cure any procedural improprieties that invalidate a closed session, and so he is therefore allowed to create the memo many months after he was supposed to have done.

But that is not what the law says. CalPERS cited Government Code 11130.3:

(a) Any interested person may commence an action by mandamus, injunction, or declaratory relief for the purpose of obtaining a judicial determination that an action taken by a state body in violation of Section 11123 or 11125 is null and void under this section. Any action seeking such a judicial determination shall be commenced within 90 days from the date the action was taken. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a state body from curing or correcting an action challenged pursuant to this section.

(b) An action shall not be determined to be null and void if any of the following conditions exist:

(1) The action taken was in connection with the sale or issuance of notes, bonds, or other evidences of indebtedness or any contract, instrument, or agreement related thereto.

(2) The action taken gave rise to a contractual obligation upon which a party has, in good faith, detrimentally relied.

(3) The action taken was in substantial compliance with Sections 11123 and 11125.

(4) The action taken was in connection with the collection of any tax.

doesnt support the argument.

As one insider put it:

GC 11130.3 permits an agency to go back in open session and adopt what it had done illegally in closed session. The cure would be to hold the meeting again in open session. Im not sure you could do so since that would mean unringing the bell. Board members would already know what they had learned and would therefore be asking different questions. And by now, the composition of the Board has changed.

As a California lawyer and CalPERS beneficiary observed:

Its important to note that in the unredacted portions of the transcript, the report that they are hiding is referred to over and over as an investigation and not as legal advice. This fluidity in characterization is typical of Jacobs  he was calling it an investigation in order to cover Frost and Jones with the rest of the Board for their inaction on Mengs illegal conflicts of interest. Now its a legal opinion subject to attorney-client privilege. This is fundamentally dishonest and shouldnt be acceptable to the Court. The document should be made public under either characterization, however. If its an investigation its over and the results are public information not protected by civil service personnel rules. If it was legal advice the threat of litigation ended with Mengs voluntary resignation  and since Meng was the party threatening litigation, sharing it with him as an adverse party extinguishers A-C-P. If it was legal advice to Meng, the privilege is extinguished by its disclosure to the Board.

Jelincics attorney Michael Risher describes why the CalPERS response does not pass muster in the filing embedded below. I strongly suggest you read it in full, particularly since it includes the relevant statutes and precedent. Some key points:

CalPERSs so-called litigation memo fails to comply with these statutory requirements because it was apparently drafted months after the closed session and was never submitted to the Board. any existing litigation memo must have been created after December 15, 2021, more than 4 months after the August meeting Apparently recognizing these legal deficiencies, CalPERS suggests that it can cure any delay under  11130.3(a) by drafting a memo months after the meeting. CalPERSs Sept. 17, 2021 Supp. Opp. at 6 fn. 2. This is wrong, because that provision applies only in cases brought to nullify legislative actions on the grounds that the state body violated  11123 or  11125. See  11130.3(a). This case does not seek to nullify any action that the Board took; it simply seeks a declaration that the Board violated the law and access to the discussions that should have been public in the first place. Moreover, nothing in  11130.3 even suggests that it supersedes other requirements such as the one-week deadline set forth in  11126(e), the requirement that the Board determine whether a closed session is appropriate before it have the discussion, or the requirement that the memorandum be sent to the Board CalPERS has moved to seal the memorandum it has submitted based on privilege. But its failure to comply with  11126(e) means that this memorandum is not privileged under that section or the one it references,  6254.25. Section 11126(e) states that a litigation memorandum prepared under that statute shall be exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 6254.25. Section 6254.25 in turn makes confidential a memorandum submitted to a state body  by its legal counsel under subdivision (e) (former subdivision (q) (emphasis added).3  6254.25 (emphasis added). This protection ends when the litigation does

Hopefully, what CalPERS presented to Judge Markman is so far outside what he expected that he will say that CalPERS needs to deliver the full transcript to him or be cited for contempt. We should find out relatively soon.
Congressional candidate and Republican personality Robby Starbuck speaks at the Williamson Families PAC kickoff event at The Factory at Franklin.
(Natural News) The Anti-Defamation League has changed the definition of racism so that it only applies to white people.

(Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com)

The pro-Israel, pro-censorship lobbying group currently defines racism as, The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.

Their previous definition for racism said: Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a persons social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics. Racial separatism is the belief, most of the time based on racism, that different races should remain segregated and apart from one another.

They appear to have changed the definition in July 2020.

Their older definition presents problems considering their own supremacist and separatist policy positions.

Though the average American doesnt even know who the ADL is and their website doesnt get much traffic relative to their outsized influence, Google is now manually giving the ADL the number one result when you search racism.

The above search was done today in a private window while logged out. Results can be localized and are not always the same for everyone but theres no question that theyre being massively algorithmically boosted by Google.

The term racism is said to have originated with communist Leon Trotsky in 1933 but it was only popularized by the media in recent decades.

Heres a Websters dictionary purportedly from 1955 showing the term racism didnt even exist:

Today our entire society revolves around combating nebulously defined racism and microaggressions are considered worse than murder.

Read more at: InformationLiberation.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
(Natural News) Further questions have been raised regarding Black Lives Matters finances after it emerged that the organization has funneled millions of dollars into a charity to buy a mansion from the Canadian Communist Party.

(Article by Jay Greenberg republished from NeonNettle.com)

The discovery has triggered major red flags after it was revealed that the huge sums of cash were pumped into a foundation run by the wife of BLMs controversial co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors.

Serious questions are now surfacing about who controls the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundations $60 million war chest.

The organization earns money through donations from people who believe the money will be used to fight racism.

In 2020, during the height of the Black Lives Matter-led rioting, the organization received a staggering $90 million in donations.

However, the group has refused to detail how the money is being used, despite reports about their founders spending millions of dollars on personal property purchases.

BLM pumped cash to buy the mansion from the Communist Party of Canada

Now a new report has emerged that the BLM organization funded the purchase of a mansion that was formerly the headquarters of the Communist Party of Canada.

M4BJ, a Toronto-based non-profit set up by Janaya Khan and other Canadian activists, snagged the 10,000 square foot historic property for the equivalent of $6.3 million in cash in July 2021, the New York Post reported, noting that it had reviewed Toronto property records.

The outlet reported that Black Lives Matter transferred millions to the M4BJ charity.

Black Lives Matter sent millions to Canada charity to buy mansion https://t.co/OpBb7zjD6Hpic.twitter.com/bWwHgAmbus  New York Post (@nypost) January 29, 2022

Coincidentally, Khan is the wife of Patrisse Khan-Cullors  a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.

Cullors  a self-described trained Marxist  resigned from the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation in May after weeks of criticism surrounding the purchase of high-end real estate properties.

The Washington Examiner reported, The U.S. charity that serves as the face of the BLM movement provided the bulk of the funding for the purchase of the 10,000-square-foot property in July.

The purchase of the property  which was formerly the headquarters of the Communist Party of Canada and is known as the Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism  was criticized by two former senior members of the Black Lives Matter Toronto chapter  who resigned earlier this month over the organizations lack of transparency.

BLMs leaders live a lavish, elite lifestyle that most rioters can only dream of

Canadian BLM activists Sarah Jama and Sahra Soudi said in a statement:

For BLM Canada to take money from BLM Global Network [Foundation] for a building without consulting the community was unethical.

For BLM Canada to refuse to answer questions from young Black organizers goes against the spirit of movement-building.

In other words, the NDA was designed as a constant threat of legal action against us, even though we were volunteering our time to a cause we believed in, the activists added.

Read more at: NeonNettle.com
(Natural News) Melissa Red Pill accused the Cabal of inciting Russia into war during the January 26 episode of Freedom Force Battalion on Brighteon.TV.

According to Red Pill, the Cabal is beating the war drums and Russian President Vladimir Putin may play along. We know the Cabal absolutely hates Putin, they hate him with a passion because he fought against them. He kicked them out of Russia years ago, Red Pill said.

Red Pill added that the call for war is also a ploy to take the attention away from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Everyones realizing it. Any good old-fashioned pandemic cant last more than 18 months, anyway. It just peters out, she said. So they want to take attention away from that. You know good old Cabal, theyd love nothing better than to see our youth going off into war. Its not enough to have all this death and devastation with the pandemic. We got to go start a war.

Red Pill also noted that the Cabal wants to control the oil so that they can control the finances. The Freedom Force Battalion host added that the Cabal is trying to shut out all the competition and take over countries like Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea and Vietnam.

Beating the war drums

But recently, their top puppet [former Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko was indicted. Did you know that Poroshenko was indicted and Biden is his cohort? So that was coming out. That tells you why theyve got to beat the war drums, Red Pill said. (Related: Russia warns Ukraine of full-scale conflict along the countrys eastern border.)

Theyve got to beat the war drums for going to war. Putin is playing along because Putin despises these people as much as we do. He despises them. Hes like, these people have got to go. These people are basically the head of the Cabal and that we have to destroy them. How are we going to destroy their control over not only Ukraine, but all over the world?

Meanwhile, Poroshenko returned to Ukraine on January 17 to face court on treason charges he believes are politically motivated. He arrived at the Kyiv airport on a flight from Warsaw.

A prosecutor has claimed that Poroshenko, one of Ukraines richest businessmen and owner of the Roshen confectionery empire, was embroiled in the sale of huge amounts of coal that supported Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014-2015.

The former Ukraine presidents assets have been frozen as part of its investigation into the allegations of high treason. Poroshenko faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

However, Poroshenko is insisting that he is innocent. He accused his successor, President Volodymyr Zelensky, of trying to degrade him politically to distract from Ukraines problems, including rising deaths from COVID-19 and economic woes.

Red Pill said the Cabal is putting Putin and Russia in a bad light using the mainstream media and the social media. She, however, noted that a lot of people are waking up and beginning to know the truth about all the things that are happening in the world.

More related articles:

Russias red line: Moscow not about to allow Ukraine to join NATO as World War III hangs in the balance.

Biden ratioed for feckless responses to bold Russian moves to build up forces along the border with Ukraine.

Biden family ties to Communist China even more extensive than thought; author details scariest investigation in exposing first family corruption.

Watch the full January 26 episode of Freedom Force Battalion below. Catch new episodes of the program every Wednesday at 11-12 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Follow WWIII.news for more news related to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

FoxNews.com
(Natural News) The deputy chief epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Canada, Dr. Howard Njoo, is now suggesting that vaccination and mask-wearing should be voluntary. He explained that governments would be better off doing so than coercing people into doing things.

He said that from a public health perspective, they want people to be informed and to make the voluntary choice to get the vaccine. We know vaccines are a very important tool, safe and effective in terms of how we manage not just the Omicron variant wave right now, but for COVID-19 into the future.

Njoo also addressed the divisive issue of mask mandates, saying that people should be encouraged instead of mandated. This way, people can see the value of it and protect themselves and others.

However, this approach is in sharp contrast to that of the federal government, as both Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Liberal-appointed Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos support strong-arming the population into compliance. (Related: INSANITY: Unvaccinated people in Quebec now assigned chaperones at big box stores to ensure they dont buy non-essential items this is PUNISHMENT for refusing to take the jab.)

Duclos noted that the health care system in Canada is fragile and people are getting tired. The only way to get through the pandemic, he said, is through vaccination. He also noted that discussions need to be made about mandatory vaccinations.

Trudeau himself has not yet explicitly endorsed Ducloss idea that Canadians should lose their right to bodily autonomy and be forced by law into getting their shots; however, he has imposed extreme restrictions on the unvaccinated, such as the prohibition of air. train, and sea travel for all unvaccinated Canadians over the age of 12.

Can Canada mandate vaccinations?

Canadians, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, are worried about the lengths that their government is willing to go, especially with respect to coercing people into taking the vaccines. Lawyers have also come out to say that mandatory vaccination is a flagrant violation of freedoms under the Constitution.

Allison Kindle Pejovic, a lawyer for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, said that Canadians cannot legally be subjected to forced injections, especially experimental drug treatments that are still undergoing long-term clinical trials with no long-term safety data. Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects all Canadians from laws that would attempt to force medical treatment upon them against their will, she explained.

She also added that such suggestions are an affront to democracy and something one would expect in authoritarian regimes such as China or the former Soviet Union.

However, while Canadians do have the right to make their own decisions about vaccinations, these rights are not absolute, and having them does not mean that there will be no consequences for the decision.

If a province tried to impose fines or other penalties on the unvaccinated, a challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will follow, as it will supposedly violate peoples right to life, liberty and security, or other rights like the freedom of conscience.

Whether the law is constitutional or not would come down to issues like whether its as narrow as possible, if it would significantly increase the vaccination rates or if the government has done enough to promote voluntary vaccination.

Laws with exceptions for medical reasons not to be vaccinated, for instance, would likely be more constitutional. Those limited to people over a certain age would also be easier to justify. Finally, making all other reasonable efforts to promote voluntary vaccination will also help make the law constitutional. (Related: Ben Armstrong: The more you vaccinate, the higher the infection rate.)

Increasing vaccination rates is also debatable whether or not a vaccine mandate could do that. Many people may prefer to pay a fine than to get vaccinated. If the fines were high enough to change peoples minds, it may also be harsh, especially for already marginalized populations.

This is because governments should avoid scenarios in which the rich can pay to avoid vaccination, while the poor have fewer options. Another factor to consider is timing: a mandate will likely not take effect until after the peak of the fifth wave, as the benefit of current vaccines for future waves or variants remains unknown.

Other related stories:

Unvaxxed pharmacy customers in Canada need to be CHAPERONED by staff members when buying retail products

Canada expands COVID-19 vaccine mandate, violates basic human rights

Canadas COVID-19 lockdowns have not provided any benefits to Canadians

Canada set to announce COVID-19 vaccine MANDATES as Western government become more authoritarian

Canadas voluntary covid quarantine camps quickly becoming involuntary

Watch the video below for Canadians standing up against vaccine mandates:

This video is from the In Search of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

Follow Pandemic.news for more updates.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

TheConversation.com
(Natural News) Colleges with students fully vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) are now seeing surges in infections. The case spikes were largely driven by the highly transmissible B11529 omicron variant.

The University of Oregon (UO) is one such college that saw COVID-19 cases rise among fully vaccinated students. Aisha Ghorashian, a senior at the university, told NPR: You feel the stress on campus. People, I think, dont feel safe. You see that double masking and those N95 [masks] that Ive never seen people wear before.

Despite UOs student body having a vaccination rate of more than 96 percent, the university still reported 960 COVID-19 infections in the first week of January 2022. This coincided with students returning to campus for in-person classes.

Several colleges and universities also reported spikes in infections in the first week of the spring semester. The University of Georgia reported almost a thousand positive cases on campus. Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, meanwhile, reported 1,196 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Dartmouth senior Sophia Kriz told NPR that she is worried that the steady rise of COVID-19 infections on campus could shut down the semester. It sort of feels like were in a state of limbo. Were all on campus, but were all just waiting to hear how things are going, she said. All I can do from there is just hope that things get a little more normal.

According to NPR, colleges are some of the most vaccinated places in the United States. It cited a study by the COVID States Project, which said that 74 percent of college students were injected with the COVID-19 at least once as of September 2021, compared to 54 percent of the general population.

Despite omicron hitting fully vaccinated people, the mainstream media claims the resumption of in-person learning in the spring semester is to blame for the infection. According to the College Crisis Initiative, only 14 percent of colleges started the semester online. Before the COVID-19 vaccines were developed, about 40 percent of colleges began their semesters virtually. (Related: Omicron COVID variant found ONLY in fully vaccinated.)

If omicron hits only the fully vaxxed, why restrict unvaxxed students also?

NPR also mentioned the different protocols colleges have implemented to address the spike in infections. Dartmouth has required all students to get a COVID-19 booster shot by the end of January 2022. The New Hampshire-based college has also implemented weekly COVID-19 testing and moved most social activities online. Face-to-face classes remain, however.

Others have resorted to emergency measures. Some schools are now tapping hotels to house COVID-positive students.

One educational institution in Los Angeles opted for a more radical measure  isolating unvaccinated students behind tape barriers. L.A.-based New West Charter School (NWCS) confirmed on Jan. 18 that it had segregated a group of students who did not receive the vaccine. The school claimed that the cordoned-off students were conducting a sit-in protest against the charter schools vaccine mandate.

The six students who did the sit-in were not even allowed to use the bathroom. NWCS also allegedly threatened to suspend the unvaccinated students for turning down the COVID-19 shot.

According to a statement from the charter school, it had implemented a vaccine mandate for students  with a compliance rate of 96 percent. The six students who were cordoned off did not follow the new [vaccination] policy and still attempted to participate in classes, leading NWCS to ask them to leave the campus. The unvaccinated students refused to do so and instead did the sit-in.

More related stories:

LA public school caught abusing unvaccinated female students, who were forced to sit outside behind yellow caution tape and prohibited from using the restroom.

Middlebury College in Vermont goes ballistic over new covid outbreak, which occurred despite 99% vaccination rate.

No vaccine, no college? Physicians group urges students to fight back.

Watch the video below of high school students standing up to mask mandates.

This video is from the Self-Government channel on Brighteon.com.

Outbreak.news has more about COVID-19 infections in fully-vaccinated educational institutions.

Sources include:

SHTFPlan.com

NPR.org

WashingtonExaminer.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) In reference to anti-lockdown activists and mandatory vaxx opponents, the Deep State bureaucracy recently declared all-out war on anti-authority ideologies and mainstream conservatives (Well report more on this topic in-depth in February):

(Article by Ben Bartee republished from TheDailyBell.com)

We have seen a growing threat from those who ascribe to extremist anti-government and anti-authority ideologies  I have decided to establish a Domestic Terrorism Unit to augment our existing approach  this group of dedicated attorneys will focus on the domestic terrorism threat, helping to ensure that these cases are properly handled and effectively coordinated across DOJ and around the country.

-Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen, Jan. 11, 2022

The political landscape is quickly evolving from a civil dispute over policy into an active (but unconventional) warzone.

-

Lets first establish pertinent facts:

Essential Fact #1 : The COVID vaccines are not vaccines by any conventional definition (thats why the CDC changed their official definition overnight); they are experimental mRNA gene therapies with no long-term safety data

: The COVID vaccines are not vaccines by any conventional definition (thats why the CDC changed their official definition overnight); they are experimental mRNA gene therapies with no long-term safety data Essential Fact #2: The agents of state, starting at the very top with Joe Biden but very much including the entire permanent bureaucracy (the Deep State), now advocate forced masking and injecting of the entire population, including children who have an infinitesimally small risk of death or severe illness.

.@NYCMayor De Blasio defends vax mandates: Human beings are pretty predictable. If you say, Your paycheck depends on it, or your ability to enjoy life, and go do the things you want to do, people will make the practical decision  but were not pushing hard enough pic.twitter.com/ufYk2NAipg  Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 17, 2021

Essential Fact #3: Mandating experimental medical treatments amounts to war crimes under the first principle of the Nuremberg Code: The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion .

Fauci: I would prefer, and we all would prefer that people would be voluntarily getting vaccinated, but if theyre not gonna do that, sometimes youve got to do things that are unpopular, but that clearly supersede individual choices pic.twitter.com/yxbOw9cwKw  The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 8, 2021

Australias leaders are dumb and authoritarian. A very bad combo. pic.twitter.com/NfHPVifaVL  Justin Hart * covidreason.substack.com (@justin_hart) November 22, 2021

Does it look like the globalist bureaucrats abide by the Nuremberg Code?

Essential Fact #4: The problem isnt just the vaccines. The lockdowns  especially the targeting of children  is tantamount to torture:

The severe and often irreparable psychological and physical consequences of solitary confinement and social exclusion are well documented and can range from progressively severe forms of anxiety, stress, and depression to cognitive impairment and suicidal tendencies This deliberate infliction of severe mental pain or suffering may well amount to psychological torture.

Essential Fact #5 : Violating the Nuremberg Code on a mass scale against a captive civilian population is a war crime.

: Violating the Nuremberg Code on a mass scale against a captive civilian population is a war crime. Essential Fact #6 : Those war crimes constitute what international diplomats call casus belli (justifiable cause for war).

: Those war crimes constitute what international diplomats call casus belli (justifiable cause for war). Essential Fact #7: The corporate media and Deep State bureaucracy have gone full bore to declare a state of civil war  the establishment pitted against any subject (who can no longer be rightfully called functional citizens) who challenges its grip on power.

If civil war is what the power structure insists on, civil war it will be. Even if we wanted to appease the technocrats, what realistic means do we have as average people to deescalate if their sights are set, as they unequivocally publicly state, on war?

The battlefield, though, wont look like the wars of yesteryear  large formations of uniformed troops shooting and maiming each other.

It will look a lot more like what the Chinese term unrestricted warfare. The combat will be asymmetrical, and much of the weapons will be informational/digital, not kinetic.

(The Deep State, with all the capabilities of the $800 billion/year US military at its disposal, enjoys the unquestioned advantage in kinetic capabilities. Storming the US capitol with a ragtag group of guerillas role-playing commandos isnt going to cut mustard.)

The 10,000-foot view will look something like the Iraqi insurgency against the fully corrupt US-backed government installed in the wake of Saddam Husseins deposal.

This is no longer, in the governments own estimation as we have shown, a civil disagreement. This is literal asymmetric warfare  only instead of bombs and bullets (yet), the killshots have thus far been delivered via subcutaneous needle.

Given Those Facts

Heres a modest proposal.

The Bush/Cheney administration attempted to legalize the extrajudicial killing/detainment of US citizens abroad and at home by moving them into a newly-created legal category called enemy combatant.

Accordingly, these newly created legal entities called enemy combatants were no longer entitled to Constitutional guarantees of due process  i.e., the legal protections that underpin the entire US legal system.

And the Supreme Court upheld the Bush efforts to suspend the Constitution:

The Supreme Court in 2004 issued three decisions related to the detention of enemy combatants, including two that deal with U.S. citizens in military custody on American soil The decisions affirm the Presidents powers to detain enemy combatants, including those who are U.S. citizens , as part of the necessary force authorized by Congress after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Given that precedent, now is the time we need to consider applying the same enemy combatant label to the lockdown/vaxx agents of state  who reasonably qualify as terrorists by conventional definition.

Heres how Merriam-Webster defines terrorism:

the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.

And the accompanying definition of terror:

a state of intense or overwhelming fear

Weaponized fear and coercion? That sounds familiar:

Fauci: I dont think well ever stop forcing Americans to wear masks on airplanes pic.twitter.com/d2BmaGF0Ay  Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 20, 2021

CHILD ABUSE: Kindergartners are forced to eat lunch outside in 40 degree weather at Capitol Hill Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. They sit on buckets to social distance from their classmates. pic.twitter.com/KqFcliTFYf  Katie Daviscourt?? (@KatieDaviscourt) December 8, 2021

Fauci: I would prefer, and we all would prefer that people would be voluntarily getting vaccinated, but if theyre not gonna do that, sometimes youve got to do things that are unpopular, but that clearly supersede individual choices pic.twitter.com/yxbOw9cwKw  The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 8, 2021

The agents of state overseeing the vaxx/lockdown regime are, by any reasonable interpretation of the word, terrorists targeting a civilian population. They have forfeited any claim to normal civil legal consideration.

And never forget: there are far more of us than them.

If we, in an act of undeserved mercy, merely ship Fauci off to Gitmo, he should thank his lucky stars. He and his minions have earned a far worse fate.

Read more at: TheDailyBell.com
(Natural News) A lawsuit filed by Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency produced documents from Pfizer showing that its Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine caused all of the pregnant mothers on whom it was tested to miscarry.

Entitled, Cumulative Analysis of Post-authorization Adverse Event Reports, a report from Pfizer describing events reported up to February 2021  you can download that report  shows that not a single pregnant woman who took the Pfizer jabs delivered a live baby.

Table 6 of the report, titled Missing Information, reveals under the first topic of Use in pregnancy and lactation the following statement:

Pregnancy outcomes for the 270 pregnancies were reported as spontaneous abortion (23), outcome pending (5), premature birth with neonatal death, spontaneous abortion with intrauterine death (2 each), spontaneous abortion with neonatal death, and normal outcome (1 each). No outcome was provided for 238 pregnancies (note that 2 different outcomes were reported for each twin, and both were counted).

Taken at face value, this would suggest that of 270 pregnancies, there were 23 spontaneous abortions, five outcomes pending, two premature births with neonatal death, two spontaneous abortions with intrauterine death, one spontaneous abortion with neonatal death, and one normal outcome. However, there is also that tricky statement: no outcome was provided for 238 pregnancies.

So really we have no idea what happened with 243 (5 + 238) of the pregnancies of these injected women; they have just not been included in the report, reported Principia Scientific International.

What we do know is that of 27 reported pregnancies (270 subtract 243), there are 28 dead babies! This appears to mean that someone was pregnant with twins and that 100 percent of the unborn babies died.

Pfizers covid shots are ending human life

It is possible that the five outcomes pending may have resulted in a normal delivery. This means that, at best, only 87.5 percent of babies living inside fully vaccinated wombs died as opposed to 100 percent.

Either way, this is still a horrific outcome. No babies should be dying as a result of these injections if they are really safe and effective as claimed, and yet they appear to kill most or all unborn babies.

It turns out that Pfizer tried to cover this all up with an article called Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on Dec. 31, 2020.

This paper tries to cover up the fact that in the first trimester of pregnancy, the Pfizer injection caused 82 percent of those who received it to miscarry. The Canadian Covid Care Alliance reported on this study the following month, exposing it as a total sham.

The Pfizer-friendly study is a complete sham, reported Principia Scientific International. [I]t is replete with misrepresentation and deceptive methods.

These injections are criminal; period, the group added, emphasizing the fact that nobody should be taking them.

The World Council for Health has put together a Cease and Desist Declaration that is being served to all governments, clinics, hospitals, medical regulatory bodies, doctors, nurses, politicians and anyone participating in any way in the manufacture, shipping, distribution, promotion, or administration of these injections.

The message to anyone involved in these injection campaigns is Stop now. This is a crime. You will be criminally and civilly responsible. The cat is out of the bag. Justice is coming,' PSI explains about the initiative.

Please keep photos and notes of to whom, when and where the declaration and notice is served. We are finalizing more resources on the World Council for Health web site to upload these photos and details.

The latest news about injuries and deaths caused by Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

Principa-Scientific.com

DrTrozzi.org

NaturalNews.com

WorldCouncilForHealth.org
(Natural News) Dont blame Americans if they remain apprehensive of Pfizer despite its significant role in the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. They remember the times when the pharmaceutical giant defrauded the government, and consequently the people, of huge amounts of money while doing business.

Pfizer paid over $430 million in Department of Justice (DOJ) settlement in 2004 after pleading guilty to two violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The fine was meted out after it was found that Pfizer marketed the epilepsy drug Neurontin, also known as gabapentin, for unapproved off-label uses like bipolar disorder ADHD, and migraine.

In 2009, Pfizer was at it again but on a mammoth scale. In what the DOJ referred to as the Largest Healthcare Fraud Settlement in Its History, Pfizer paid a total of $2.3 billion in fines to absolve it from criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products.

In its report, the DOJ also required Pfizer to enter into a corporate integrity agreement with the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Sciences (DHHS) to ensure that Pfizer wont conduct fraudulent business acts again.

The main part of the DOJ 2009 report read: Pharmacia & Upjohn Company has agreed to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for misbranding Bextra with the intent to defraud or mislead. Bextra is an anti-inflammatory drug that Pfizer pulled from the market in 2005. Under the provisions of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, a company must specify the intended uses of a product in its new drug application to FDA. Once approved, the drug may not be marketed or promoted for so-called off-label uses  i.e., any use not specified in an application and approved by FDA.

Pfizer promoted the sale of Bextra for several uses and dosages that the FDA specifically declined to approve due to safety concerns. The company will pay a criminal fine of $1.195 billion, the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter. Pharmacia & Upjohn will also forfeit $105 million, for a total criminal resolution of $1.3 billion.

In addition, Pfizer has agreed to pay $1 billion to resolve allegations under the civil False Claims Act that the company illegally promoted four drugs  Bextra; Geodon, an anti-psychotic drug; Zyvox, an antibiotic; and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug  and caused false claims to be submitted to government health care programs for uses that were not medically accepted indications and therefore not covered by those programs. The civil settlement also resolves allegations that Pfizer paid kickbacks to health care providers to induce them to prescribe these, as well as other, drugs.

The federal share of the civil settlement is $668,514,830 and the state Medicaid share of the civil settlement is $331,485,170. That was the largest civil fraud settlement in history against a pharmaceutical company.

This report, originally published by the DOJ in September 2o09, was reposted by Global Research on January 18 because of its relevance in assessing the current actions of Pfizer, which is promoting its messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, and other Big Pharma companies in promoting products that may be detrimental to public health and safety.

Negative reports continue to hound Pfizer

Even as Pfizer gained some measure of respectability because of its distinction as the leading manufacturer of COVID vaccines in North America, the company continues to be hounded by negative reports.

At the top of this is the news that Pfizer had received more than 1,200 reports of vaccine deaths and tens of thousands of reported adverse events from December 2020 to the end of February 2021. There were also reports of spontaneous abortions out of 270 pregnancies and over 2,000 cases of cardiac disorders. (Related: Pfizers vaccine studies are based on FRAUD and put lives in danger, warns former Pfizer vice president.)

Pfizer scrambled to spin the story and clean up its image.

The figure of 1,223 fatalities among 158,893 adverse effects reflect spontaneous reports from sources that include health officials in several countries, without any verification of the cause, among the millions of vaccinated people worldwide during that period, Pfizer spokesperson Dervila Keane told AFP. It does not indicate specific causes of death and the fatalities may include people with various illnesses such as cancer or cardiovascular disease.

As Pfizer and other Big Pharma like Johnson $ Johnson and Merck continue to rake in billions in profits in the midst of the pandemic, they are being seen as profit-driven by the people. A survey showed only 28 percent of Americans have a good opinion of Big Pharma. The truth is, Big Pharma is the countrys second most hated industry in America after the tobacco industry.

According to consumer watchdog group Public Citizen, Big Pharma is also the biggest defrauder of the Federal Government under the False Claims Act. Pfizer is a prime example.

More related stories:

Feds found Pfizer too big to nail, so they looked the other way on massive fraud.

Moderna and Pfizer vaccine trials RIGGED by vaccinating the control group blatant science FRAUD exposed.

Remember when Pfizer paid out $2.3 billion to settle the largest healthcare fraud case in history?

Watch the video below to learn more about how Pfizer paid the biggest fine for healthcare fraud in U.S. history.

This video is from the SILVIEW.media channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

GlobalResearch.ca

NewYorkTimes.com
(Natural News) A group of four professors out of Europe is petitioning BioNTech for answers as to why the companys mRNA vaccines for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) contain strange grey shade contents inside the vials.

Jorg Matysik, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Leipzig; Gerald Dyker, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Ruhr University Bochum; Andreas Schnepf, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Tubingen; and Martin Winkler, Professor Materials and Process Engineering at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, all want to know why the injection contains a white to grey-white dispersion unlike any other vaccine.

How does this significant colour difference come about; virtually all the substances used are colourless, so white would be expected. Where does the shade of grey come from? Are these impurities? the professors asked.

Schnepf stated about the diluted black color is hardly created in a process that would be expected.

We need to know if it is an impurity, he added. If a pill is not white, there is a suspicion that something has gone wrong. We need clarification from BioNTech on this.

In their joint letter, Schnepf and his colleagues probed BioNTech even more about how uniform product is ensured, or rather how can you ensure that the mRNA to be packaged is present in the lipid nanoparticles and to what extent?

How do you continue to control the concentration of mRNA active ingredient in each batch, and how do you control the concentration of active ingredient in the lipid nanoparticles relative to that outside the particles? the letter further reads.

Certain chemical components used in the vaccines are not approved for human medicine, reveals package insert

Another thing the professors are demanding answers about is the label on BioNTechs injection, which states that the vials contain components used in the vaccine that are not approved for human medicine.

Just what, exactly, are these mystery components? They are called ALC-0159 and ALC-0315, and BioNTech says they are used to form the lipid nanoparticles.

The safety data sheet for ALC-0315 clearly reveals that it irritates both eyes and skin or mucous membranes, which Schnepf says is a serious problem because what is to say that this chemical will not do the same thing to tissues throughout the body?

Here we need clarity, Schnepf said. Are there any further planned or ongoing studies to determine the toxicological effects of the substances or their biological degradation?

Another major concern is, of course, side effects. Some lots of the vaccine appear to be much deadlier than other lots. How and why is this the case?

These side effects, the professors added to their letter, are correlated with a small number of batch numbers.

How can this circumstance be explained and what distinguishes these batches from the others, and are efforts underway to investigate this important aspect in more detail, especially with regard to quality assurance? Are there or are clinical studies planned to investigate the side effects and their causes as well as to increase the safety of the new Covid vaccines?

Chances are that BioNTech will provide bogus answers to all of these questions, assuming the company responds at all. Big Pharma is notorious for lying and getting away with murder  literally.

Last summer, strange grey matter appeared in vials of covid vaccine from Moderna, prompting the government of Japan to halt all further administration of the drug.

The grey vials were magnetic, a Japanese ministry official announced, suggesting that it could be metal. To this day, it is still unknown the true contents of these injections.

More related news about Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) injections can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

FreeWestMedia.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Colorado State University (CSU) is promoting resources for students who may be affected by free speech events that occur on campus.

(Article by Alexa Schwerha republished from CampusReform.org)

If you (or someone you know) are affected by a free speech event on campus, here are some resources, reads the sign, which Turning Point USA Rockies Territory posted a picture of on its Instagram account.

God bless that mess, one commenter said.

The universitys sign refers students to 17 departments that can help, Multicultural Counseling, Incidents of Bias Reporting, the Office of Equal Opportunity, and a Victims Assistance Hotline.

Services specifically for university employees are also noted, including the Office of Ombuds, and the Employee Assistance Program.

Departments and programs were also designated for minority students, including Student Diversity Program centers for Asian Pacific, Black/African, and Native Americans. Service and Cultural resources provided spaces for LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities, and included the Women and Gender Advocacy Center.

The Rockies account called out the school for intolerance, noting, And we havent even had an event yet gotta love the intolerance of @coloradostateuniversity.

Colorado State University has consistently been a hostile environment for conservative organizations, particularly in the fall 2021 semester.

[RELATED: ACADEMICALLY SPEAKING: Cultural diversity is too important to be co-opted by unhinged activists]

On Sept. 17, a student was filmed harassing the group members calling them right-wing goons and admitting disrupting one of your activities is actually probably one of the most ethical and best things I can do with my time.

One week later, another video highlighted a leftist student admitting to knocking down the chapters property before slapping a member of the group.

That same month, Campus Reform reported that CSU students penned a letter to the university administration demanding efforts to defund the police after they protected street preachers advocating on public campus property.

[RELATED: Citing their feelings, university theater students rail against play selection]

On Oct. 5, a student was caught stealing a sign advocating against vaccine mandates. The same students called the chapter members deranged during a discussion on abortion.

In 2019, Campus Reform reported that university President Joyce McConnell equated campus hate crimes to an impending Charlie Kirk appearance on campus. McConnell also acknowledged that security would be in place as Kirk has been known to spark protests on college campuses.

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Colorado State University has a yellow speech code rating, meaning the university has at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application.

Campus Reform has reached out to Colorado State University and TPUSA for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

Read more at: CampusReform.org
(Natural News) A digestive physician with a PhD in molecular biology conducted an experiment recently which found that the covid-vaccinated are now transmitting signals from inside their bodies.

Using various Bluetooth applications, Dr. Luis Miguel de Benito identified MAC addresses emanating from the bodies of people who took the jabs, suggesting that they now contain hidden microchips or transmitters that could be linked to a futuristic Mark of the Beast.

Keep in mind that on Jan. 10, 2016, World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab told the world that within the next 10 years, first we will wear them in our clothes, and then we could imagine that we will implant them in our brains or on our skin, referring to implantable microchips.

Could it be that Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines are really just digital implants hiding within the mysterious grey matter fluid contained inside the vials?

Schwab did infamously warn that these microchips would coincide with his planned Great Reset, which he also promised would be achieved through the Covid-19 plandemic.

Schwab actually referred to Covid-19 as a rare but narrow window of opportunity to rethink, reinvent, and reset our world, admitting that its main purpose is to transition the world into a new order  or you might say they want to make the entire world trans.

Dr. Benitos findings from his experiment conducted in the summer of 2021, could suggest that Schwabs plans for this fusion, may have already come to fruition through COVID gene therapy injections, which according to Benito, appear to install a MAC address inside individuals who have taken the jab, reported the Daily Exposes Patricia Harrity.

Are the covid-vaccinated being marked with secret implantable microchips?

Harrity, like many, believes that the window of opportunity that Schwab spoke about directly referred to the intentional construction of the plandemic.

Billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates did, after all, hold a plandemic exercise called Event 201 months before the Fauci Flu plandemic was launched under the Trump administration.

That exercise just so happened to simulate exactly what would happen just a few months later when the World Health Organization (WHO) and communist China announced that a new virus called Covid-19 had magically appeared out of nowhere in bat soup at a Wuhan wet market.

We now know that the whole thing was manufactured by Tony Fauci and other American government career criminals who foisted this nightmare on the world in exchange for more profit and more control.

Dont forget that Schwab himself also revealed that in the end, maybe there will be a direct communication between our brain and the digital world, adding that what he envisioned was a king of fusion of the physical, digital, and biological world.

Again, he said all of this in 2016, years before the covid plandemic was launched. Now, people who get jabbed are sending mysterious signals from their bodies that sound eerily similar to what Schwab was talking about at the time.

Could it be that the fully vaccinated are now walking cell phone towers, of sorts, that are communicating back and forth with something, perhaps the new 5G towers that continue to be constructed and activated, thanks at least in part to the billions of dollars that Trump demanded for a fast-tracked rollout?

Is it really that big of a jump to move from recognizing that these people are deliberately trying to maim and kill with these snake bites to thinking they might also want to track and control those same people receiving the bites? asked one reader at the Expose.

The latest news about Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines can be found at Genocide.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyExpose.uk

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Dr. Jessica Rose has compiled a new analysis showing that pregnant women everywhere are suffering spontaneous abortions as a result of getting vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus.

Her investigation revealed that, to date, more than 416,186 unborn babies have died because of the injections. She notified the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about this, but does not expect any response.

Using data released by the Department of Defense (DoD), Dr. Rose computed an under reporting factor (URF) for spontaneous abortions in VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) of 118.

Since there are 3,527 reports of SA in the US in 2021, this represents 416,186 actual events, explains Steve Kirsch, noting that around 99 percent of these were, in fact, caused by the jabs. (Related: Covid jabs are also harming children who make it out of the womb.)

Using the DMED data, the five-year average was 1,499 codes for miscarriages per year. During the first 10 months of 2021, it was 4,182. So thats 3.4X the baseline rate (when extended to an annual rate).

Keep in mind that pregnant women were never even included in the vaccine trials, even though the CDC continues to urge them to get injected in order to flatten the curve.

It is medical malpractice to recommend the vaccines to pregnant women, Dr. Rose says. The CDC repeatedly declared them safe for pregnant women without complete data.

VAERS data shows covid jabs are damaging womens reproductive organs

Dr. Roses earlier biodistribution data, which looked specifically at womens ovaries, predicted this very thing. It pointed to pregnant women who get jabbed suffering serious reproductive problems, which we are now seeing.

Kirsch wrote a VAERS analysis article back in November that has more on that.

The background rate of spontaneous abortions according to Dr. Nathan T. Thomas (Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology) is 1/5 women with a recognized pregnancy, Dr. Rose explains on her blog, adding that 15-20 percent of recognized pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion.

This is a massive number, just to be clear. Never before in history has a so-called vaccine ever been this profoundly deadly, nor has one ever been pushed as hard as Fauci Flu shots have over the past year.

Other research published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) suggests even worse outcomes for pregnant women who get covid-jabbed.

As many as 8 in 10 women, or 80 percent, who get Fauci Flu injected before the third trimester, that study found, end up suffering a failed pregnancy, whether that be a miscarriage, stillbirth, livebirth or some other anomaly.

The study tracked nearly 4,000 women who received either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA injection before and during pregnancy. Among them, 92 participants (2.3 percent) received the jabs before conception, while 1,132 (28.6 percent) received the jabs in the first trimester.

A total of 1,714 (43.4 percent) got injected in the second trimester, and 1,019 (25.7 percent) in the third trimester.

Among 827 participants who had a completed pregnancy, the pregnancy resulted in a live birth in 712 (86.1%), in a spontaneous abortion in 104 (12.6%), in stillbirth in 1 (0.1%), and in other outcomes (induced abortion and ectopic pregnancy) in 10 (1.2%). A total of 96 of 104 spontaneous abortions (92.3%) occurred before 13 weeks of gestation (Table 4), and 700 of 712 pregnancies that resulted in a live birth (98.3%) were among persons who received their first eligible vaccine dose in the third trimester, the study found.

An initial look at this data suggests that only one out of every eight women, or 12.5 percent, suffer miscarriage due to the shots. However, the study focused specifically on how covid jab impact pregnancy, including by trimester.

So to more precisely calculate the miscarriage rate, we have to remember that miscarriages, by definition, occur before the 20-week gestation mark, reported Evie magazine.

This means that all 700 women who received the vaccine in the third trimester must be excluded from the calculation because they were already past being able to have a technical miscarriage. So really, 104 out of 127 women experienced a miscarriage.

The latest Fauci Flu shot news can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

SteveKirsch.substack.com

NaturalNews.com

SteveKirsch.substack.com

EvieMagazine.com
(Natural News) Maternal fetal medicine specialist Dr. Jim Thorp said that the medical cartels gag order on physicians, health care workers and nurses is illegal, unethical, immoral and illegitimate. Thorp made the statement in an interview with Dr. Bryan Ardis during the January 26 episode of The Dr. Ardis Show on Brighteon.TV.

He added that the Federation of State Medical boards and the American Board of Medical Specialties, which are made up of 125 to 250 specialty and subspecialty boards, came out with the exact same language at the exact same time on the fake media to say that those who will spread misinformation about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) and not line up with the COVID narrative will be destroyed.

Thorp also said that the American Association of Colleges of Nurses immediately followed suit.

So every single nurse and every single physician in the United States of America is under a gag order. So for your audience, you do not trust any physician or any health care worker or any nurse. You cant trust us. No, trust me, you cant trust any of us. We are on a gag order, explained the board-certified OB-GYN doctor, who pointed out that the cartels gag order has destroyed the physician-patient relationship and made an honest, informed consent null and void for all patients. (Related: Our medical system is a cartel fueled by tyranny for profit, not prevention.)

The system has made the physician-patient relationship totally worthless. Its gone. Youre watching health care system collapse in front of you. This is how desperate these cowards are. They have to resort to threats in order to push their agenda.

Meanwhile, with the COVID-19 health crisis raging on, online platforms became a typical place for health professionals to lament short supplies, share concerns, tell stories and plead for help. But at the same time, other physicians, nurses and health care workers are being silenced by hospital administrators and threatened with discipline for speaking out about COVID caseloads and dwindling supplies. Some worry that the gag orders have muddied the picture of how hospitals are doing in the pandemic and placing the health and safety of medical frontline workers at risk.

The doctor based in Gulf Breeze, Florida clarified that COVID vaccine is not really a vaccine but an investigational research gene therapy.

In order to push this they had to completely develop a false narrative in early 2020, saying that the only treatment for this COVID-19 is in the hospital with extremely dangerous drugs, which Dr. Bryan Ardis knows well about and has really exposed That was all propaganda. They knew that if the truth got out that there would be no need for their agenda of the fake vaccine gene therapy, Thorp said.

COVID vaccine kills

The maternal fetal medicine specialist also presented slides that showed the danger of COVID vaccines for pregnant women. He said that the slide that displays the 20,244 COVID-19 deaths in just 10 months shows a massive disparity when compared to the 9,405 deaths from other vaccinations put together.

Thorp also divulged that he got all the data from the various database that he went through with a Silicon Valley IT guy, which he will also give in an upcoming letter to the American Board of OB-GYN. Also included on that communication are 1,050 peer-reviewed publications in medical journals documenting morbidities and mortalities from the poison jab.

The board-certified OB-GYN doctor stated that the medical cartel is illegally, immorally, unethically violating the law by not putting out the truth about the COVID vaccines and committing fraud.

And they should be prosecuted in a civil and maybe a Nuremberg 2.0 trial because they are killing massive numbers of innocent people. And they are giving fraudulent information. Theyre ignoring a legally based safety thermometer and theyre totally ignoring it, Thorp said.

Thorp displayed a slide that showed the actual fetal malformations from the COVID jab in pregnancy. He also explained what a fetal malformation is. He also presented a slide that showed the massive number of COVID jab pregnancy losses compared to other vaccines, and mentioned that inflammation in the embryo in the fetus is a recipe for disaster for malformations, placental loss, placental insufficiency and fetal death.

Thorp added that pregnant women should not take the vaccine especially during pregnancy and that natural immunity is the best.

Its proven. Dr. Peter McCullough is right. There are over 120 peer-reviewed publications that show that natural immunity is more durable, its complete, and it is broad. And so it doesnt kill your immune system like the poisonous jab, he explained.

The certified OB-GYN doctor reminded pregnant women to have vitamin D, which he said is extremely important. He also recommended taking vitamin C and vitamin D3, as well as hydroxychloroquine for those who are looking at taking the vaccine.

More related articles:

Dr. James Thorp: Medical boards bullying doctors that go against the narrative  Brighteon.TV.

Dr. James Thorp tells Pastor David Scarlett: COVID vaccines are causing massive pregnancy loss  Brighteon.TV.

People on Twitter are saying they regret taking the COVID-19 vaccines.

Jeff and Shady talk about resisting medical tyranny with Dr. Simone Gold  Brighteon.TV.

Watch the full January 26 episode of The Dr. Ardis Show below. The Dr. Ardis Show airs every Wednesday at 10-11 a.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Follow MedicalTyranny.com to know more about medical tyranny and COVID vaccines.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

MDEdge.com
(Natural News) Lawyer Tony Renz shared alarming data on the medical history of the U.S. military since the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) scourge broke out. Renz cited some specifics that should merit serious concern from the militarys top brass, the federal government and the Americans in general.

Some of the details shared by Renz include a 1,000 percent increase in nerve neurological issues in one year over the five-year average; female infertility going up 471 percent; male infertility going up 354 percent; congenital malformations or birth defects going up by 155 percent; and cases of a disease that Renz cant pronounce but that breaks down the muscles increasing by 723 percent. Multiple sclerosis is also on the list that is so long it took Renz a minute to look at it.

These figures, Renz told ReFounding America host Peter Breggin on January 26, were provided by military scientists, army physicians and medical professionals who were brave enough to come out and reveal that things are really much worse in the service from the vaccines than anybody has seen.

These whistleblowers say the situation far outstrips the already terrifying results of reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System [VAERS] of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC].

Its terrible what theyre doing to our soldiers, these are men and women who volunteered their lives to save our country and keep us safe. And now, thats not enough. They have to be ordered to take these experimental injections that are just absolutely deadly and dangerous, said Renz.

Military vaccination order comes from the top

According to the informants themselves, the order to force these jabs is coming from the top.

And not only is it coming from the top, but the top has made it very clear that if youre not willing, youre going to face reprimand. I mean, we see soldiers being court-martialed. Weve seen them being thrown out of the military, their careers being destroyed, demotions, all sorts of things, said Renz. So theyve made it 100 percent clear that youre going to shut up and take your jab or were going to do something to you. (Related: Nations security at risk due to Bidens illegal vaccine mandate.)

The U.S. military members who havent been vaccinated against COVID-19 are starting to feel the consequences.

Disciplinary actions are being imposed and the Air Force was the first to announce dismissals, saying it had discharged 27 people who refused to get the vaccine. The Marines followed, saying it had discharged 103 troops. The Army has reprimanded 2,700 soldiers with discharge proceedings underway, while the Navy is set to start administrative separations for the unvaccinated.

Joining the fray, the Pentagon has also required all National Guard members to get vaccinated but drew objections. Republican governors from five states wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arguing that the Pentagon didnt have the authority to discharge Guard members for vaccine evaders. As the crackdown intensifies, thousands more active-duty soldiers might be forced out in the coming months.

Although thousands of soldiers sought medical exemptions, only a few were granted. Fortunately, there are soldiers who cant be intimidated.

It was a blessing, too, that Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsibn sided with them and took President Joe Biden and the top military brass to task about why emergency use authorization COVID-19 vaccines are being mandated for U.S. service members.

Renz also alleged that the mainstream media is trying to block the story out and cover it up, but expressed confidence the truth will eventually come out as some of the whistleblowers are willing to come out and tell the world whats really happening inside the U.S. military.

More related stories:

ACT OF WAR: Thanks to covid vaccines, the militarys cancer rate has more than TRIPLED.

Air Force rejects requests from soldiers seeking exemptions from covid vaccine mandate.

National security alert: Marines say Bidens vaccine mandate akin to political purge.

Watch the full January 26 episode of ReFounding America below. Catch new episodes of the program every Wednesday at 6-7 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com.

TullyLegal.com

NPR.org
(Natural News) On January 24, attorney Thomas Renz, a member of the Americas Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) legal team, revealed to a panel that Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines are extremely dangerous, despite constant reassurances from the government that they are safe and effective.

Three military doctors from the Department of Defense (DoD) who have access to vaccination data that has been withheld from the general public procured the information. They are Lt. Col. Theresa Long, Dr. Samuel Sigoloff and Lt. Colonel Peter Chambers.

All three have given me this data in declarations that stated this is under penalty of perjury, we intend to submit this to the courts, Renz said.

What these three whistleblowers showed with the data is that miscarriages have increased by 300 percent over the past year, as have cancers. Neurological problems increased 1,000 percent during the same timeframe.

Our soldiers are being injured, experimented on, and sometimes possibly killed, Renz further explained.

Biden regime ignored affidavit warning that covid jabs are killing military servicemen

Lt. Col. Long is a senior U.S. Army flight surgeon with specialized training in infectious diseases. She testified under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, which protects members who make lawful disclosures of wrongdoing to members of Congress or the Inspector General.

Long told Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) that she actually had to ground vaccinated pilots in order to place them under monitoring for symptoms of myocarditis, which include chronic fatigue, so as to avoid them potentially dying from heart failure mid-air.

On Nov. 3, 2021, The Washington Times reported that Long had made numerous efforts to get senior medical leaders to at the very least inform soldiers of this risk, only to be ignored.

The military didnt even pause their vaccination efforts to rush out the Pfizer and Moderna shots, she is quoted as saying.

Long initially decided to speak up after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced back in June an emergency meeting to discuss higher than expected myocarditis in 16 to 24-year-olds.

Long then filed an affidavit against the Biden regime over its jab mandate for active-duty military personnel, warning that heart side effects could cause pilots to die mid-flight.

Long is directly responsible, by the way, for certifying the fitness of 4,000 flight-ready airmen at the 1st Aviation Brigade in Ft. Rucker, Ala. It is her job, in other words, to be on the lookout for things that could harm them, including covid jabs.

The vaccines can cause inflamed heart muscles in young men in the age range of most flight-ready pilots and  the Department of Defense has not followed its own protocols by requiring an MRI scan of each airman after vaccination, the affidavit reads.

The majority of young new Army aviators are in their early twenties. We know there is a risk of myocarditis with each mRNA vaccination.

A lawsuit was also filed, but the Biden regime has thus far ignored both the affidavit and that legal filing.

Dr. Peter McCullough backed all this up when he spoke at a second opinion meeting, revealing that myocarditis is not mild, and is not something to be balked at as being no big deal.

When they do an MRI on these individuals with suspected myocarditis, 100 percent are having heart damage, he explained.

Scientific studies show that around 13 percent of jab-induced myocarditis victims will have permanent heart injury, while 32 percent will never return back to normal.

We are seeing unprecedented numbers of athletes dying on the field in Europe, he added. Of these cardiac arrests half of them dont come back.

The latest news about injuries and deaths caused by Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

DailyExpose.uk

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The deeper we get into the COVID-19 pandemic, the more authoritarian Western democracies are becoming, as evidenced this weekend by the government of Nova Scotia, Canada, which has barred displays of support along highways for truckers engaged in protesting the countrys vaccine mandate.

As drivers taking part in the Freedom Convoy made their way to the Canadian capital of Ottawa, the provincial government made it illegal for people to gather along the highway so they could show support for the protest, Fox News reported.

Specifically, the edict prohibited supporters of both the Freedom Convoy and another protest, known as Atlantic Hold the Line, from gathering alongside Highway 104, along the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border, allegedly because allowing people to gather in those areas would put themselves and others at risk.

My message to anyone planning a blockade of a highway is  dont do it, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said last week, according to the Toronto Star . Nova Scotians have no patience for highway blockades and, personally  I have even less, so just dont do it.

Violators face fines between $3,000 and $10,000, while corporations could be fined between $20,000 and $100,000, Fox News added.

According to CBC News, the edict lasts for at least two weeks, through Feb. 6, for the time being, extending the tyranny for as long as necessary to crush free speech.

Fox News noted further:

The Freedom Convoy left from Vancouver for Ottawa last Sunday to protest the federal governments vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers, which took effect on Jan. 15. The Canadian Trucking Alliance estimates that roughly 15% of truckers in the country are not fully vaccinated, or about 16,000 truck drivers.

But not all Canadian premiers share Houstons tyrannical views: Scott Moe, the premier of Saskatchewan, has issued a statement in support of the Freedom Convoy, according to The Daily Wire.

He began by thanking truckers across the country who are continuing to do their jobs, and have continued to do them, throughout the pandemic.

THANK YOU for delivering the food and household products we all use every day, the parts and equipment that keep our farms and industries running, and every other kind of goods and products you can imagine, Moe wrote. If you bought something today, a trucker delivered it. So THANK YOU!

You also deserve a special thank you for everything you have done over the past two years, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he continued. In the early days of the pandemic, when we did not know much about COVID-19, we shut a lot of things down and asked most people to stay home.

But not truckers. We asked you to keep working, despite the risk, because of how much we rely on you to keep our shelves stocked, our economy going, and our communities open, Moe added.

He then praised the response from truckers, the majority of whom continued working even as the pandemic spread.

Truckers stepped up and kept on hauling, they crossed provincial borders and they crossed the US border. You did this prior to rapid tests, prior to early intervention treatments and prior to vaccines. You took the necessary precautions, you kept yourselves and those around you safe, and you delivered the things the people in Saskatchewan needed to live, he added.

Moe then addressed the vax mandate.

Vaccination does not keep you from contracting COVID-19, but it does prevent most people from becoming seriously ill. That is why I will continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated, because I do not want any of you to become seriously ill. Moe wrote.

However, the current federal policy does pose a significant risk to Canadas economy and to the supply chain in our Saskatchewan communities, where you and I live. This federal policy will increase the cost of living, which is now rising at a rate that is creating significant hardship for many Canadians, Moe concluded.

That is why my government supports your call to end the cross-border ban on unvaccinated truckers and it is why, in the not-too-distant future, our government will be ending our proof of negative test/proof of vaccination policy in Saskatchewan.

Sources include:

DailyWire.com

FoxNews.com
(Natural News) Immediately after Glenn Youngkin, Virginias new Republican governor, signed an executive order acknowledging the right of parents to decide for themselves whether their children should wear a mask at school, public school administrators got absolutely irate and started tyrannizing students who decided to breathe instead of suffocate all day long.

According to reports, students who showed up to school unmasked in Loudoun County were separated from their classmates and forced into sequestration in gymnasiums and auditoriums. And in Frederick County, unmasked students were threatened with being sent home or even suspended for showing their faces.

A group of maskless students at Sherando High School, for instance, were escorted to the auditorium immediately after showing up to class. They were then told that they would be sent home if they refused to cover their mouths and noses with a Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) veil.

Neither the principal nor the vice principal had ever used the phrase suspension with me, said Sherando mother Annie Jones, who believes that school officials threatened students with suspension just as a scare tactic to get them to comply.

Administrators at Millbrook High School also threatened unmasked students with suspension, according to parents from that facility. (Related: A Los Angeles public school forced unvaccinated female students to sit outside on the ground all day behind caution tape as punishment for non-compliance with the districts jab mandate.)

In Loudoun County, separation seemed to be the main compulsion tactic used by administrators. Nicholas Sanchez, a senior at Potomac Falls High School, says he was forced to spend the entire day in the auditorium under constant supervision. He could only leave to go to the restroom and had to be escorted by a school official every time he did.

Its clear theyre trying to break me, Sanchez told The Washington Free Beacon.

Sanchez was forced to wait more than four hours in the auditorium before he received any education that day. His friends, many of whom also oppose the mask mandate, chose to just wear them and avoid the conflict.

I have lots of conservative friends who dont agree with the mask but put it on anyway to avoid confrontation or pushback, Sanchez said. But Im not taking it anymore. Just when things go in my favor, the left time and time again bends the rules.

The daughter of Scott Mineo, who attends the Academies of Loudoun, was also told that she either had to sit alone in isolation all day long or be sent home for not wearing a mask. She ended up going home only to also wait many hours for her instructional materials to arrive.

Meanwhile, Mineo and his wife spent the afternoon delivering pizzas to roughly 60 other Loudoun County students who were also sitting in forced isolation for not wearing a mask.

Seven public school districts in Virginia are suing Youngkin for letting children breathe

A total of seven school districts throughout Virginia engaged in these or similar oppression tactics, and they are all now trying to sue Youngkin over the matter, claiming the freedom to breathe is in conflict with the Constitution and state law.

In response to these legal challenges, Youngkin told students and their parents to follow the orders of their principals until the Virginia Supreme Court has its final say on the issue. Meanwhile, Youngkin has promised to fight alongside parents to let their children breathe.

We are disappointed that some are still not listening to parents who want to protect childrens health and wellbeing, a Youngkin spokesman is quoted as saying.

Data show that constant mask wearing can have harmful side effects on some of our children, and who better to recognize those side effects than their parents.

Fauci Flu tyranny continues to spread like a virus. More of the latest is available at Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

FreeBeacon.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Dr. Sherri Tenpenny slammed the government and Big Pharma for pushing Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines, which she said are not actually vaccines by definition.

When you think about a flu shot, or MMR or chickenpox or something like that, they are intended to stop the spread of the virus and the infection. Theyre intended to lower the incidence rate, theyre intended to stop hospitalizations and theyre definitely intended to stop deaths. Thats the normal vaccines as what we call them. Thats how theyre supposed to work, she said during the January 30 episode of What is Happening.

What the world has been injecting in people now, according to Tenpenny, are genetic modification technologies. The messenger RNA (mRNA) has never been used in human beings and has only been issued under emergency use authorization.

They dont do anything vaccines are supposed to, like keep people from getting sick or lower hospitalization rates. Based on the information from the Department of Defense, over 70 percent of hospitalizations from COVID are for fully vaccinated individuals, or those who have had their two shots and a booster.

The mRNA injections definitely cause harm, with over a million reported adverse events and over 22,000 deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

Tenpenny also talked about COVID-19 tests and how they dont work. The test couldnt distinguish between coronaviruses and influenza viruses. Doesnt that just say to the world that all of it is nonsense, we ought to throw all of it underneath the bus?

PCR tests were never intended for diagnostics

The original developer of the gold standard PCR test, Kary Mullis, said in the early 90s that the tests were never intended to be used as a clinical diagnostic tool because it finds little particles that could still turn up a positive result. (Related: Coronavirus RT-PCR tests are being used to mislead people amid the pandemic, says health expert.)

There are thousands of cases because governments insist on testing healthy, asymptomatic people who do not spread the virus or are not contagious. An asymptomatic person that has traces of virus is a healthy person. We carry approximately three trillion viruses, bacteria, yeast fungi in and on our body at all times. And its the symbiotic relationship of those trillions of viruses that define a healthy person, Tenpenny said.

She pointed out that all that has been done is to create a new name to create fear and to drive the injection agenda to make people get nonsensical tests that really say nothing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention withdrew the emergency use authorization of the PCR test for COVID-19 testing effective December 31, 2021, finally admitting that the test does not differentiate between the flu and the COVID virus.

The CDC recommended that clinical laboratories and testing sites begin their transition to using another FDA-authorized COVID-19 test, and is encouraging laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that could facilitate the detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses.

Dr. Pascal Sacre, who specializes in critical care, also said that the RT-PCR process was misused and applied as a relentless strategy to create the appearance of a pandemic based on phony test results and not actual COVID patients, in order to violate human and constitutional rights of citizens.

The PCR test was also intentionally run at high cycles that were known to produce false positives. Most alleged cases were nothing but fabrications, and hospitals were becoming part of the scam because they were incentivized with financial rewards to report COVID deaths.

More related stories:

PCR tests and the rise of disease panic.

Pandemic fraud exposed: CDC admits PCR tests dont work.

CDC admits PCR tests are a fraud so what about the last two years, then?

FDA admits that covid-19 antigen tests DO NOT detect Omicron, yet labs routinely commit fraud to push casedemic hysteria.

PCR testing a fraud: Government uses faulty testing to amplify COVID case numbers.

Watch the full January 30 episode of What is Happening below:

This video is from the What is happening channel on Brighteon.com.

Follow Pandemic.news for more updates on money and finance.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

TheGatewayPundit.com

EuropeReloaded.com
Lung damage that cannot be detected with routine tests has been found in long covid-19 patients, which explains the difficulty in breathing in most patients. Scientists are worried about this finding because microscopic damages can affect the lungs and cause more harm to the patient even after treatment.

Abnormalities Detected in the Lungs of Covid Patients

The coronavirus caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a highly infectious virus and can be easily contracted when an uninfected person comes in contact with an infected person or by coming in contact with the surface on which an infected person might have made contact with.

Although covid is known to slowly affect so many organs in the body, these abnormalities found in patients long after contracting the virus has come to the awareness of researchers as it cannot be easily detected by routine tests.

These findings were gathered from research done on about 36 covid-19 patients and during the research, the theory on microscopic damages of the lungs caused by covid-19 was confirmed, according to The Guardian.

Shortness of breath is one of the symptoms of the virus, this involves a puffed or winded feeling while breathing, like a feeling when you can't catch your breath, and its mostly seen in long term covid patients.

This is because the major symptoms of covid involve shortness of breath as covid normally attacks the human lungs once infected.

Also Read: 'Deltacron' Scare: Experts Warn COVID Mutation is Likely Caused by Lab Contamination

Common Symptoms in Long Covid Patients

These new reports on lungs damages haven't been fully confirmed but have shone more light on the underlying health problem for covid-19 patients that involve the lungs though its relationship with other symptoms like tiredness or changes in breathing patterns hasn't been fully confirmed yet.

Dr. Emily Fraser, a consultant at Oxford University Hospital and the study's co-author said: "It is the first study to demonstrate lung abnormalities in [people with long Covid] who are breathless and where other investigations are unremarkable. It does suggest the virus is causing some kind of persistent abnormality within the microstructure of the lungs or in the pulmonary vasculature," as reported by IBTimes.

Breathlessness is one of the most acute covid symptoms and is commonly paired with fever and cough. This symptom mostly shows between day 5 to 8 and is very scary, meaning it needs more attention.

Does the Lungs of a Covid Patient Appear Normal?

Lung damage has been a threatening symptom that is quite dangerous even after covid-19 and that is why more are still yet to be discovered.

More research are still to be done on these findings as scientists work earnestly to discover more damages that can be caused by the virus and possible means to detect them early.

According to Clara Steves, a clinical senior lecturer at King's College London, this finding would be of great help to patients that might still have trouble breathing even after treatment and probably help in detecting the damages early.

"They suggest that the efficiency of the lung in doing what it is meant to do i exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen may be compromised, even though the structure of the lung appears normal," she said in a report in Hopkins Medicine.

Related Article: Scientists Discovered Protective Gene Variant That Shields People From Severe COVID-19

For more news, updates about covid and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Woolly mammoth DNA was recently discovered by scientists. They are attempting to use this cold-resistant DNA of the extinct woolly mammoth to alter the genes of living elephants in today's time.

Amid climate change and global warming, scientists are aiming to create a mammoth-elephant hybrid to live and help restore Arctic ecosystems.

Discovered Wolly Mammoth DNA Becomes a Reality

Woolly mammoths became extinct approximately 10,000 years ago, as per The Guardian. Although it is not completely clear how these ancient mammoths died, it has been widely known that these extinct Arctic elephants likely died from climate change and possibly due to widespread hunting by humans.

Scientists are attempting to create a so-called Arctic elephant in an attempt to save at least the genes of a wooly mammoth from extinction, according to The Times.

Despite the extinction of woolly mammoths thousands of years ago, researchers have recently discovered the well-preserved DNA of the mammoths in the Arctic permafrost.

Scientists at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, are using the collected sample DNAs of woolly mammoths and combining them with the DNA of elephants from Asia.

The scientists at Harvard have chosen elephants from Asia since they are the closes living relatives of woolly mammoths. Through this process, scientists may possibly bring the genes of the extinct mammoths back to life.

Also read: Incredible! Scientists Discovered Mammoth Tusk at the Bottom of the Sea

New Company Supports Woolly Mammoth Research

The team of scientists is led by George Church, a genetics professor and a biologist at Harvard Medical School. With the help of entrepreneurs, Church also co-founded Colossal, a company whose aim is to patent gene-editing technology that will bring mammoth DNA back to life.

The company is said to have raised $15 million in private funding to bring thousands of woolly mammoths back into the Siberian tundra, as per The New York Times. Unlike in the past, the establishment of the new company indicates that efforts to restore extinct woolly mammoths are stronger now.

Role of Arctic Elephants against Global Warming

Church clarified that their experimentation would not necessarily result in the instant creation of living mammoths right away. He said their goal is to introduce these genes into today's elephants. These mammoth-elephant hybrids can live and help restore Arctic ecosystems, says Church.

Furthermore, Church reportedly told the New York Times that the new mammoth-elephant hybrids should be called an Arctic elephant. These Arctic elephants are expected by Church not only to live in the Arctic but also to trample and prevent the rapid tree growth currently seen in the Arctic.

The trees prevent the cold temperature to penetrate and freeze the ground, according to Church. Amid climate change and global warming, Church said the melting of ice in the Arctic will have aggravating and catastrophic consequences to the current environmental condition in the coming decades.

Church explains that the trapped large amounts of carbon and methane beneath the Arctic permafrost can aggravate climate change and global warming.

If the research of the Arctic elephants becomes successful, the trapped carbon and methane will not be able to escape into the atmosphere.

While the research seems to be promising, it also raises ethical debates if humans should edit the genes and DNA of other animals. According to Julian Koplin, a Research Fellow in Biomedical Ethics at the University of Melbourne, "Projects involving genetic manipulation frequently raise concerns about 'playing God' or interfering with nature," as per Ceng News.

Related article: 17,000 Years Old Woolly Mammoth Traveled Around the Entire Planet Twice, Say Experts
The Labrador Sea often referred to as a lung of the deep ocean, is located between Canada and Greenland, northwest of the Atlantic Ocean.

The lung of the deep ocean is one of the few bodies of water where oxygen from the atmosphere can reach; even the deepest layers of the ocean.

Earth's Life Support System

A team of researchers was able to measure oxygen flow into the Labrador Sea and how it is carried by deep ocean currents, according to a study published in the journal Biogeosciences on January 28.

The research was conducted by the study's lead author, Jannes Koelling, and other researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax Canada, and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany.

Koelling stated "We wanted to know how much of the oxygen that is breathed in each winter actually makes it into the deep, fast-flowing currents that transport it across the globe."

In spite of our current knowledge on how oxygen gets into the depths of the lung of the deep ocean, Koelling's study was able to measure oxygen flow for the first time into the deep ocean interior and how it is distributed by deep currents into other oceans.

The study also shows that deep boundary currents, such as the western boundary current, feed oxygen to the upper part of the North Atlantic Deep-Water layer and through most parts of the Atlantic Ocean.

Koelling added that oxygen flow is even possible beyond the Atlantic Ocean, even reaching the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

Also read: Unbelievable: Earth's Oceans Store Unparalleled Amounts of Heat

Wintertime Deep Convection

In a separate study published in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles on March 25, 2018, the entry of oxygen into the Labrador Sea's deep ocean is made possible due to the constant exchange of gases between the lung of the deep's surface and the atmosphere.

This process is driven by wintertime cooling at the sea surface. Wintertime cooling is also known as wintertime deep convection, which allows oxygen from the atmosphere to be richer and heavier enough to sink two kilometers below the depths of the Labrador Sea, as per the National Oceanography Centre.

Going back to the researchers at Dalhousie University, the team collected data by installing oxygen sensors at depths of about 600 meters. These sensors enabled the researchers to measure the oxygen flow as it passed through the sensors between the months of March and August, Koelling explained.

Breakthrough in Monitoring Oxygen Flow

Koelling said measuring the amount of oxygen flow in the wintertime deep convection is just the first step. There needs to be more research on pathways of oxygen flow in other oxygen-rich waters, says Koelling.

The study revealed our new capability to monitor and measure oxygen flow in our oceans. According to Dariia Atamanchuk, the head of the oxygen Program at Dalhousie University, the latest ocean technology enabled this breakthrough in the field of oceanography.

Related article: Oxygen Levels in Oceans Drop Endangering Marine Life, Report Says
New Castle, PA (16103)

Today

Considerable clouds early. Some decrease in clouds later in the day. High near 70F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Rain showers in the evening will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low 54F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
The Digital News Publishers Association has voluntarily drawn up a Code of Ethics for its members as outlined below, which demonstrates their commitment to responsible digital publishing --even as it, in order to protect our 19 (1) (a) and other Constitutionally mandated freedoms, keeps under review and scrutinizes any developments likely to restrict the gathering and dissemination of news and current affairs or any other content.

The object of this Code is to outline high standards, ethics and practices in digital news publishing, and does not constitute any attempt to involve itself in the day to day operations of the publishers --who have complete editorial and content independence.

The basic precepts of the Code of Ethics are to maintain the standards of digital publishing as well as protect and maintain the independence of journalists, content entities and publishers.
By: Gabriel Gomane, Sr Product Marketing Manager, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.

Whether for customers or employees, the digital transformation occurring at financial institutions has only accelerated in recent years. With that digital transformation, financial services organizations face an increasing array of networking and security challenges. These challenges include: digitization and cloud migration; the increasing percent of the workforce working from home; maintaining a modern and resilient network infrastructure; and last but certainly not least  cybersecurity risks and regulatory compliance.

In response, SD-WAN has emerged as a key enabler to tackle and overcome these challenges while accelerating business growth. To illustrate how, below are five SD-WAN use cases from the financial services industry.

Reimagining a simpler, cost-effective network infrastructure

At its core, SD-WAN provides financial institutions an avenue to securely leverage internet broadband and 5G/LTE connections at a lower cost while enjoying the same benefits as private, dedicated lines by merging MPLS, broadband internet, and 5G/LTE in a single logical link. Then, based on the policies and priorities outlined by the business, SD-WAN can automatically route the traffic.

Meanwhile, advanced SD-WAN technologies, such as the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform, can optimize data transmission in internet and 5G links using techniques such as forward error correction that rebuilds transmitted lost packets, and packet order correction that helps reorder data at the destination. Another key feature includes local internet breakout that can send cloud application traffic directly to the internet, depending on security risk, preventing the need to backhaul traffic to the corporate datacenter. The end result: this frees up the jumbled dedicated MPLS lines with the added benefit of lower expenses.

Furthermore, advanced SD-WAN functions offered within Aruba EdgeConnect can help limit equipment sprawl in the branch environment by combining a router, a firewall, and WAN Optimization network functions within a single platform. It also continuously monitors network conditions, including for service brownouts or any other network disruptions, then automatically adapts traffic handling to overcome the effects.

Aruba

Financial institutions can move to a more simplified, less expensive network infrastructure via Aruba EdgeConnect

Improve security and flexibility in the home or branch environment

In the past, financial institutions via MPLS could expect to wait months to establish a new ATM or branch location. Now with Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN, financial firms can enjoy similar MPLS performance deployed through broadband internet services without the need for physical IT resources on the ground. Its now common for a new branch deployment to take just a few days to provision, thanks to centralized orchestration of configuration settings and security policies.

Meanwhile, as work-from-home paradigms transition from temporary to more permanent fixtures at financial services organizations, employees can now expect the same level of digital services and security in the home as in the main office. By using internet broadband, and the emerging 5G infrastructure, Aruba Microbranch can connect home office environments to the proverbial company headquarters in an easy and flexible way. An Aruba Microbranch deployment automates the formation of IPsec tunnels between access points of a remote site to the Gateway cluster of the parent WLAN network. This process equally protects home and remote-branch locations by providing SD-WAN capabilities including orchestration and secure internet breakout in an easy-to-use yet powerful Wi-Fi access point device.

Aruba

Aruba Microbranch SD-WAN provides the same level of experience and security at home as in the office

Become more prepared with upgraded disaster recovery plans and expedited backups

For disaster recovery, often data is backed up at locations potentially thousands of miles away from the main data center typically located at the main campus or off-site nearby. That distance can add up to debilitating latency that can slow critical data transfers. Worse, some data may not even be backed up, placing a financial institution at risk in the chance it loses key customer data, compounding extraneous issues caused by a disaster. Furthermore, its usually necessary to perform disaster recovery operations quickly to keep the business operating. Quick access to cash and accounts is vital when customers are experiencing the effects of a disaster as well.

To further enable financial institutions to respond more quickly and effectively to disasters, Aruba offers the optional Aruba Boost WAN optimization software, unified with Aruba EdgeConnect. This product leverages TCP protocol acceleration techniques to improve throughput while employing sophisticated data deduplication and data compression algorithms. Redundant data is fingerprinted, and a pointer is created to eliminate transmission of duplicate data across the WAN. Data compression leverages a Lempel-Ziv (LZ) compression algorithm that is applied both on the IP header and the payload.

Even as the business grows along with the need to store increasingly larger amounts of data for customer and regulatory purposes, Aruba Boost can help ensure that data is properly backed up in remote disaster-recovery locations.

Protecting customer data and access

As customers increasingly embrace mobile options to access financial institutions, the traditional security perimeter is quickly dissolving. Customers and employees alike expect the ability to easily connect to financial institutions and financial services applications from anywhere at any time. The days of leveraging a well-defined security perimeter while backhauling internet traffic to corporate data centers for security inspection are long gone. In todays increasingly mobile-first environment, longer application response time and reduced performance are no longer tolerated. In response, security is now based on a zero-trust approach that identifies users and devices with the assumption that they cannot be trusted by default.

Meanwhile, financial institutions must also be rethinking how to secure cloud application traffic. The answer is SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), an architecture that implements security services in the cloud. SASE combines WAN edge network functions at the branch, such as SD-WAN, routing, basic security functions, and WAN optimization capabilities with security services including firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS), zero-trust network access (ZTNA), cloud access security broker (CASB), secure web gateway (SWG), and more, delivered from a cloud-delivered security service.

Aruba EdgeConnect provides the foundation for a full SASE approach. It natively integrates with third-party cloud security vendors to provide fully automated orchestration capabilities. This allows financial organizations to deploy a best-of-breed strategy for selecting cloud security provider(s), depending on the requisite needs, while easily transitioning from a traditional architecture to a SASE architecture.

Aruba

Depending on the application type and threat detected, Aruba EdgeConnect can automate security orchestration

Achieving compliance

An SD-WAN solution can also help financial institutions comply with various kinds of regulations and rules. One core example is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) that sets the payment card industry regulations and guidelines. Thankfully, Aruba EdgeConnect can help organizations meet the 12 requirements to achieve compliance with PCI DSS. One requirement specifies encrypting transmission of cardholder data over public networks, and another requirement specifies installing and maintaining a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data.

Aruba EdgeConnect can help financial institutions meet those specific recruitments.

To learn more, please download our business paper on SD-WAN for financial services.
Newburyport, MA (01950)

Today

Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. High 67F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will become overcast later during the night. Low 46F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
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More than 150,000 spectators will pack into Churchill Downs on May 7 to watch the 148th Kentucky Derby: the race thats been dubbed the greatest two minutes in sports. Whether youre picking a dark horse or sticking with the favorite, we at Stacker have ranked all the thoroughbreds running t Click for more.
Pikeville, KY (41501)

Today

Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High near 80F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early with thunderstorms developing later at night. Low 67F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Periods of rain. High 58F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low around 55F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Longview, TX (75601)

Today

Variable clouds with thunderstorms - possibly severe in the afternoon. Damaging winds and large hail with some storms. High 78F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early. Skies will become mainly clear overnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 57F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Many heralded mass vaccination programs as the end of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with most developed governments managing to vaccinate a significant proportion of the population dismantling the restrictions designed to reduce the transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV2).

However, with a large proportion of the developing world unvaccinated, new variants continue to emerge, and many of them show the ability to evade both vaccine-induced and natural immunity. The Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants have all shown at least some immune evasion ability.

Recently, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have been investigating the spread of two sublineages of the Omicron variant among Danish households.

Their research can be found on the medRxiv* preprint server while the paper undergoes peer review.

Study: Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron VOC subvariants BA.1 and BA.2: Evidence from Danish Households. Image Credit: NIAID

The researchers gathered data from the Danish register and linked all individuals to households by their personal identification number. They then excluded households with only one individual or more than six individuals living in one place and linked this with information on antigen and RT-PCR testing and vaccination records. Data from primary cases between December 2021 and January 2022 were also used, with a 7-day follow-up for secondary cases.

Primary cases were the first individuals within a household to test positive with the Omicron variant of concern BA.1 or BA.2, and secondary cases were positive cases within the same household shortly after.

The researchers produced ~25,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes using the Illumina COVID test kit, with consensus sequencing called using custom IVAR implementation. Individuals were classified as unvaccinated if they had not completed a vaccination course, vaccinated, or booster-vaccinated.

Panel (a) shows the probability of potential secondary cases being tested after a primary case has been identified within the household. Panel (b) shows the probability of potential secondary cases that test positive subsequently to a primary case being identified within the household. Note that the latter is not conditional on being tested, i.e. the denominator contains test-negative individuals and untested individuals. The x-axes show the days since the primary case tested positive, and the y-axes show the proportion of individuals either being tested (a) or testing positive (b) with either antigen or RT-PCR tests, stratified for the subvariant of the primary case. The SAR for each day according to the subvariant primary case can be read directly from panel (b). For example, the SAR on day 7 is 39% for BA.2 (red) and 29% for BA.1 (blue), whereas the SAR on day 4 is 30% and 22%, respectively. The shaded areas show the 95% confidence bands clustered on the household level.

The proportion of secondary cases within one household within a week of the first positive test was defined as the secondary attack rate (SAR). The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for infection was estimated in a multivariable logistic regression model, with the outcome variable as the test result for each potential secondary case.

The subvariant of Omicron contracted by the subject was used as an explanatory variable, and other confounding effects such as age, sex, and household size were considered in the final analysis.

In order to test if the subvariants behaved differently depending on the immune status of the primary cases, the scientists included the interactions between subvariant and vaccination status of cases.

This figure shows the probability of potential secondary cases that test positive subsequently to a primary case being identified within the household in a 14-day follow-up period. Note that the latter is not conditional on being tested, i.e. the denominator contains test negative individuals and untested individuals. The x-axes show the days since the primary case tested positive, and the y-axes show the proportion of individuals testing positive with either antigen or RT-PCR tests, based on the subvariant of the primary case. The SAR for each day relative to the primary case can be read directly from the figure. For example, the SAR on day 14 is 42% for Omicron BA.2, 35% for BA.1, 33% for those without a known variant, and 25% for Delta. The shaded areas show the 95% confidence bands clustered on the household level. To allow for a 14-day follow-up, only primary cases with samples from 20 December 2021 to 5 January 2022 were included in this figure.

In total, the researchers examined 2,122 households with the BA.2 sublineage, with 1,792 secondary cases testing positive within seven days, out of 4587  a SAR of 39%.

For BA.1, 6,419 households were identified, with 3,910 secondary cases out of a potential 13,358  a SAR of 29%. The age, sex, household size and vaccination status were roughly the same between both groups.

84% of potential secondary cases were tested once within the first week, and 60% were tested twice. BA.2 showed a SAR of 8% on day one, compared to 6% for BA.1.

As expected, those who had received a booster vaccine had the lowest susceptibility to becoming a secondary case, followed by the double-vaccinated and then the unvaccinated. Vaccination did, however, appear to have less of an effect in protecting against BA.2 compared to BA.1.

When the primary case was booster-vaccinated, both sublineages showed lower transmissibility to secondary cases. Households in which the primary case was infected with BA.2 showed increased susceptibility for all individuals, no matter the vaccine status. Still, this effect was more exaggerated in vaccinated and booster-vaccinated individuals.

The authors highlight that their study shows that the BA.2 subvariants lead to a higher SAR than the BA.1 subvariant across all the studied groups. SAR was largely unaffected by age, sex, household sizes, and immunity groups.

Booster-vaccinated individuals, as expected, showed a reduced susceptibility and transmissibility for both subvariants. However, this study and multiple prior studies show worrying transmission levels to and from fully vaccinated individuals.

The researchers also point to the relative increase in susceptibility in vaccinated individuals compared to unvaccinated individuals for BA.2 compared to BA.1, which indicates extensive immune evasion properties  allowing the subvariant advantages in more highly vaccinated populations compared to other variants.

The information the researchers have gathered could be very useful for public health policymakers and epidemiologists and could help inform future policy  for both restriction measures and vaccine plans.

*Important notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information
While COVID-19 disease significantly impacts many pregnant women, the rates of transmission from mother to baby in pregnancy are very low. A new study from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) has demonstrated that ACE-2, the receptor that allows SARS-CoV-2 to enter cells, is found in lower levels in the placentas of women with COVID-19 in pregnancy compared to women with normal (COVID negative) pregnancies.

We think that when a woman has COVID-19 in pregnancy, the placenta is shedding off ACE-2 as a way to block SARS-CoV-2 from being passed to the fetus." Elizabeth S. Taglauer, MD, PhD, co-corresponding author, assistant professor of pediatrics at BUSM

The study is a collaborative effort between placental/perinatal researchers at BUSM, Boston Medical Center (BMC), Ke Yuan, PhD a lung vascular biologist at Boston Children's Hospital and Hongpeng Jia, PhD, an ACE-2 expert at Johns Hopkins University. It involved collecting placentas from two groups of women who delivered at BMC from July 2020-April 2021, an effort led by study co-author Elisha Wachman, MD, an associate professor of pediatrics at BUSM and a neonatologist at BMC. The first group was women who had normal pregnancies and no report of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The second group of women were SARS-CoV-2 positive and had active COVID-19 disease during pregnancy. They then observed the ACE-2 expression in their placentas under the microscope and compared placental ACE-2 expression using genetic and protein analysis techniques.

According to the researchers, the placenta has many similarities with the lung, so this study also highlights the importance of studying the placenta to help understand a variety of lung diseases and highlights the important role of controlling ACE-2 as a way to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections.

"The placenta is one of the few "success stories" of the pandemic. If we understand how the placenta is naturally protecting babies from COVID-19, this may provide important information for therapies and strategies to help prevent other SARS-CoV-2 infections from continuing to spread," adds Taglauer, a neonatologist at BMC.
In a first-ever study, researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine examined the unintentional drug overdose mortality in Years of Life Lost among adolescents and young people in the United States.

Study findings are published online in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Excess mortality was calculated in Years of Life Lost (YLL), which is the difference between the age at which a person dies and their expected remaining lifespan. In 2019, U.S. life expectancy at birth was 78.8 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Adolescents and young adults dying of overdose are deprived of many years of work, community, and family life. Our study shows overdose mortality among adolescents and young people is unacceptably high. Public health interventions to protect this vulnerable group are urgently needed. Dr. O. Trent Hall, first author of the study and addiction medicine physician, Ohio States Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health

This study looked at 3,296 adolescents ages 10-19 and 21,689 young people ages 10-24 who lost their lives from unintentional drug overdose from 2015-2019. During this time, adolescents lost nearly 200,000 years of life due to unintentional drug overdose, while young people amassed more than 1.25 million years of lost life from overdose.

Even though adolescents and young people are dying in increasing numbers from drug overdose, adults have been the primary focus of most research reports, Hall said.

We hope our report will raise awareness of the increasingly dire consequences of unintentional drug overdose among this vulnerable population, said Dr. Julie Teater, senior author on the study and a psychiatrist and addiction medicine physician in Ohio States Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. Our study provides important context to the overdose crisis by better representing what it means to society when we lose adolescents and young people to unintentional drug overdose.

This study builds on Halls prior research that had calculated years of life lost due to unintentional drug overdose in Ohio among the general population and pregnant individuals or those within one year of pregnancy.

A clear implication of our research is that more resources are needed to prevent unintentional drug overdose among adolescents and young people. Existing public health interventions aimed at adults may be insufficient, Hall said.

More research is needed to determine how best to engage younger individuals with education, prevention, harm reduction, substance treatment, as well as community and family support. This study points to the need to improve interventions involving family, school and community in drug overdose prevention and substance use treatment, Teater said.
Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have used microscopic strands of DNA to guide the assembly of gel blocks that are visible to the naked eye.

The hydrogel blocks, which measure up to 2mm in length and contain DNA on their surface, self-assembled in around 10-15 minutes when mixed in a solution, the scientists reported today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

These hydrogel blocks are, we believe, the largest objects so far that have been programmed by DNA to form organized structures." Dr. Vyankat Sontakke, first author of the study and postdoctoral researcher, OIST Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Engineering Unit

The process of self-assembly  in which an organized structure spontaneously forms when two or more individual components interact  is common in nature, with cells and DNA able to self-assemble into amazingly complex microscopic structures. But using interactions that occur on the molecular scale to direct the assembly of macroscopic objects (meaning visible to the naked eye) is a relatively new field of research, particularly with DNA.

"We chose DNA because it is so programmable, which it owes to its exquisite ability to recognize sequences," said senior author, Professor Yohei Yokobayashi, who leads the Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Engineering Unit.

A double-stranded molecule of DNA is formed by two single strands of DNA that twist around each other to form a double helix shape. The strands are kept together by bonding between bases, which fit together like a jigsaw (A with T, and C with G). This specific base pairing ability means that scientists can design strands of DNA that match other strands precisely and will bond together.

In one of the experiments, the researchers attached molecules of single-stranded DNA to the surface of red and green-colored blocks of hydrogel. The strands of DNA on the red blocks matched the strands of DNA on the green blocks.

When the hydrogel blocks were shaken in a solution, the matching strands of DNA paired together, acting like a "glue" that stuck the red and green blocks together. After ten minutes, the separated blocks self-assembled into a simple branching structure of alternating colors.

Importantly, the DNA strands did not interact with the identical strands of DNA on other blocks, so hydrogel blocks of the same color did not stick together.

The scientists further tested the ability for the DNA to recognize only specific sequences, by designing four pairs of matching strands. They attached the single stands from the first matching pair to the surface of the red hydrogel cubes. The same process was done for the green, blue and yellow hydrogel cubes.

When shaken together, despite the presence of many different DNA sequences, the strands only bonded with their matching strand, resulting in the previously mixed up hydrogel blocks self-sorting into groups of the same color.

"This shows that the process of self-assembly is very specific and easily programmable. By simply changing the sequence of DNA, we can guide the blocks to interact with each other in different ways," said Prof. Yokobayashi.

As well as self-assembly, the researchers also studied whether they could use DNA to program the disassembly of a structure. They created two matching single strands of DNA, and then made a third shorter strand that matched part of the first strand. They attached the first strand, and the matching shorter strand to hydrogel cubes, which self-assembled when mixed in solution. The longer strand of DNA that matched the first strand was then added to the solution and over the process of an hour, the longer strand displaced the shorter strand, causing the cubes to disassemble.

"This is really exciting because it means that by using DNA as the "glue" to stick the hydrogel blocks together, the process is fully reversible," said Dr. Sontakke. "This means that the individual components can also be re-used."

While the structures formed so far are simple, the researchers hope to add more complexity by increasing the number of different cubes that are incorporated into the structure and by targeting different DNA strands to specific cube faces. They also plan to further increase the size of the hydrogel blocks.

"This is still basic research, but in the future, these techniques could be used for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine," said Prof. Yokobayashi. "It might be possible to place different types of cells inside hydrogel cubes, which can then assemble into the complex 3-D structures needed to grow new tissues and organs.

"But," he added. "Regardless of potential applications, it's incredible to be able to witness chemistry as microscopic as interacting DNA strands with our own eyes. It's a really fun piece of science."
Oxygen and sugar are the basis of life for animals, plants, fungi and many bacteria. The metabolic process called respiration makes it possible to convert food into energy for the cells. Biochemist Prof. Dr. Carola Hunte and her team from the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS at the University of Freiburg have now visualized for the first time with unparalleled precision how an assembly of protein machines, which also supplies energy to humans, is structured and functions. The team studied two respiratory chain complexes fused into a supercomplex in a group of bacteria called Actinobacteria.

In addition to providing a basic elucidation of respiratory processes, the cryogenic electron microscope analysis could aid in the development of new drugs to treat tuberculosis or diphtheria. "These images are like a journey into our molecular inner workings and its peculiar rules," Hunte explains, "Elucidating the structure simultaneously illuminates how the supercomplex works." The results of the study appeared in the journal Nature Communications and were produced in collaboration with Dr. Bruno Klaholz, research director at the Centre for Integrative Biology (CBI) / Institute of Genetics and of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC) of the CNRS, Inserm and the University of Strasbourg/France.

The energy currency of the cell

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the energy currency of the cell - the molecule is obtained during respiration and transfers energy from food to all processes in the cell. Thanks to the processes on the respiratory chain, adenosine diphosphate is turned into the energy-rich ATP. To do this, protein complexes of the respiratory chain build up an electrochemical driving force across a membrane with electrons and protons in a complicated chemical-physical process that is powered by the combustion of sugar.

"We analyzed the respiratory cytochrome bcc-aa3 supercomplex. Twenty-six proteins make up the protein machine. The exact interaction of molecular forces and dynamics is not well understood yet, and this is where such a detailed description helps us," explains the study's first author Dr. Wei-Chun Kao of Hunte's team. The proton pump of the complex is very similar to humans, the researchers find, but the part where electrons are taken over by the electron carrier quinone shows clear differences in the bacterium. "This is where we could tie in and develop specific agents that kill pathogenic actinobacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Corynebacterium diphtheriae by interfering with the respiratory chain," Hunte adds.

Cryogenic microscope with atomic resolution

Cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) is a technique that examines samples at low temperatures of - 183 Celsius in a high-resolution microscope and can resolve structures to the level of single atoms. In the process, machine learning algorithms are used to further refine the collected data.

With this data, we can also better understand the interplay of metabolism and signaling, which is a particular focus in the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS." Prof. Dr. Carola Hunte, Cluster of Excellence CIBSS, University of Freiburg

She is a member of the CIBSS speaker team, which develops integrative approaches to biological signaling research. The cryo-EM measurements took place at the CBI/IGBMC in Strasbourg/Illkirch. The Freiburg Research Collaboration Program from FRIAS - Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies supported this international collaboration.
In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv* pre-print server, a team of researchers assessed the neutralizing activity of XAV-19, a glyco-humanized polyclonal antibody derived from hyperimmunized animal hosts, against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant of concern (VOC).

The unprecedented health impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to more research and development of various therapy options like polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) against SARS-CoV-2.

One of them, XAV-19, is a glyco-humanized polyclonal antibody derived from pigs and can bind to multiple target epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins and cause neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta VOCs. However, its effect on the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 Omicron VOC still needs to be investigated.

About the study

The present study evaluates the impact of neutralization by XAV-19 on the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 Omicron angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) and receptor-binding domain (RBD) and the subsequent neutralization of the Omicron VOC.

The study used the Omicron-type recombinant RBD protein and SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strains, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron VOCs isolated from COVID-19-infected patients. The binding ability of XAV-19 to the Omicron RBD proteins and to the Wuhan strains was evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with the addition of 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) reagent. The XAV-19-induced neutralization of the interaction between the Omicron RBD and its ACE-2 receptor was measured by ELISA. The assay included triplicate measurements to evaluate the neutralization activity of a mixture of cilgavimab and tixagevimab against RBD-ACE-2 receptor interaction. The impact of the mixture and XAV-19 on the interaction was compared.

SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strains were isolated from reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-confirmed SARS-CoV-2-infected patients using nasopharyngeal swabs or sputum sample inoculated with Vero cells. Viral stocks were produced by passing the isolates once through the Vero cells and then titrated by a limiting dilution assay. This assay allowed median tissue culture infective dose (TCID50) calculation. A whole virus replication assay was also used to analyze the neutralizing ability of XAV-19 against the five SARS-CoV-2 strains isolated.

Results

The results showed that the XAV-19 antibody responded to all the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan RBD peptides. Dominant target epitopes were present in only four regions of the XAV-19 antibody, as confirmed by proteolytic epitope mapping. These regions contained the six amino acids responsible for interaction between the RBD and the ACE-2 counter receptor, which could explain the neutralizing ability of XAV-19.

Out of the 15 Omicron mutations present in the RBD, seven of the amino acids were crucial for ACE-2 interaction; two of these seven amino acids were included in the XAV-19 target epitopes. In the case of the tixagevimab and cilgavimab combination, five amino acids of the target epitope corresponded to the amino acids in the Omicron mutation.

The intensity of XAV-19 binding attained an efficacy plateau at comparable concentrations of 1 g/ml against Wuhan and Omicron RBD. An RBD/ACE-2 binding competition assay showed that the full neutralization potency of XAV-19 against ACE-2-interaction was equal for both Wuhan and Omicron RBD. Comparison of this assay with the combination of cilgavimab and tixagevimab revealed only 60% neutralization potency.

The inhibitory effect of XAV-19 on the live virus isolates was tested by using Vero E6 cells and recording the infection of the inoculated Vero cells after four days by calculating the viral load and cytopathic effect (CPE) by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR). XAV-19 completely neutralized the CPE of the live virus isolates or reduced 100% of the viral load with different NC50 concentrations.

Conclusion

The current study findings show that XAV-19 neutralized the RBD of the Omicron VOC and the RBD of the Wuhan strain at similar doses. The neutralizing ability of the combination of cilgavimab and tixagevimab was also measured by ELISA and it was observed that it exhibited limited neutralization compared to XAV-19. Owing to the weak binding of the Omicron VOC to ACE2 and the lack of Omicron mutations in regions of the XAV-19 target epitope domain, XAV-19 could exhibit more potent neutralization against Omicron compared to any other SARS-CoV-2 variant.

The researchers suggested that COVID-19-infected patients should be administered with pAbs during the early days of infection to allow full neutralization of SARS-CoV-2. The wide range of potency of XAV-19 and other pAbs in neutralizing different SARS-CoV-2 variants have made them a notable drug candidate for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and its potential VOCs.

*Important notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Young people in England will be given access to more activities, trips away from home and volunteering opportunities as part of a new National Youth Guarantee backed by a 560 million investment, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries announced today (1 February).

Today's announcement is part of the Levelling Up White Paper set to be published this week, ensuring young people in the most deprived parts of England have access to thousands of new activities. This includes expeditions with every state secondary school being offered The Duke of Edinburgh's Award for the first time, social action projects or learning new money management or public speaking skills through the National Citizen Service.

Youth services across 45 Local Authorities and around 600 district wards in the most deprived parts of England will be eligible to apply for the 378 million Youth Investment Fund. From St Ives to St Helens and Devon to Derby, the fund will benefit communities across all regions of the country.

It will pave the way for up to 300 youth facilities to be built or refurbished over the next three years, providing young people with a safe space to engage in positive activities outside of school, and access support from youth workers.

The new pledge will mean that by 2025, every young person in England will have access to regular out of school activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This includes all 11-18 year olds, and up to 25 years old for those with special educational needs and disabilities.

Nadine Dorries, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said:

We want every young person, no matter where they're from, to get the best start in life. That is why we are supporting young people with a National Youth Guarantee to access regular club activities, adventures away from home and volunteering opportunities. Our Youth Review told us exactly what young people want and that's what this Government is delivering on - levelling up opportunities for young people, regardless where you were born or where you are headed in life."

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said:

Every young person should have access to the kinds of life-changing activities which expand your horizons and arm you with vital life skills. Our Levelling Up White Paper will set out a plan to spread opportunity to every corner of our country, making sure that we are harnessing the true potential of every community."

Phase one of the Youth Investment Fund is now open for applications, with 10 million for local youth services in urgent need, to expand the reach and range of services they offer and meet demand.

This funding includes being able to be used for IT equipment to assist with youth activities as well as capital improvements that will reduce overheads and running costs. Applications will be assessed by the BBC Children in Need charity.

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme, non-military uniformed youth groups and the #iwill Fund will also benefit from a transformative 22 million total injection across the three areas.

Part of this 22 million will allow The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, launched in 1956, to now be offered to every secondary state school in England for the first time. For young people aged 14 to 24 the DofE teaches them new skills, provides opportunities to carry out volunteering in their communities as well as go on expeditions. It will contribute towards helping schools that may have previously faced barriers to taking part, such as not being able to afford clothing or kit for outdoor expeditions, or less choice in the extra-curricular activities available nearby.

The 22 million will also enable uniformed youth groups such as Scouts and Guides to tackle waiting lists so teenagers are no longer turned away, creating around 24,000 more places with the help of more adult volunteers. In addition, the #iwill Fund will be able to continue getting young people involved in social action projects, which is expected to trigger tens of thousands of new volunteering opportunities.

The National Youth Guarantee will also see the National Citizen Service (NCS) receive 171 million over the next three years to provide thousands more young people from all backgrounds with opportunities to become 'world ready and work ready'.

The Government absolutely recognises the impact of the pandemic on young people's lives, so in response to this the NCS has agreed to provide a year round offer that supports young people's mental wellbeing and helps them to develop life skills that improve their confidence and employability.

Nigel Huddleston, Minister for Sport, Tourism and Civil Society, said:

Improving accessibility is a key priority for this Government, and today's announcement plays an important role in doing so for young people. With The Duke of Edinburgh's Award being offered to every secondary state school in England, I want to encourage young people to take part in this fantastic opportunity. I also look forward to seeing up to 300 new and refurbished youth centres significantly enriching the lives of young people across the country."

The National Youth Guarantee follows the completion of a review of DCMS spending on out-of-school youth programs. The review, which was announced in 2020 and has engaged around 6,000 young people and 175 youth sector organizations, has found that:

The Covid-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact upon young people - their mental health and wellbeing has declined, with anxiety levels at a 12 year high - and they have seen the largest increase in unemployment of all age groups.

Youth services are a vital part of the response to these challenges, delivering benefits for wellbeing and employability skills.

Going forward, young people would like the Government to prioritize regular clubs and activities, adventurous trips, and support to volunteer in their local communities.

The government listened to those young people and created the new National Youth Guarantee, which will ensure that long term Government spending on youth programs is focused on supporting young people's mental wellbeing and developing skills for life and work. In response to feedback from youth organisations, it will work to ensure the Government's youth funding is coordinated, levels up accessibility across every region, so that no young person is left behind as the nation recovers from the pandemic.

Mark Gifford, CEO of NCS, said:

We welcome today's announcement which we believe will offer greater opportunities to young people across the country - in particular, to those teens who are in most need of a 'leg up'. This funding commitment is about investing in our country's future talent, helping them to become 'our next greatest generation'. NCS is all about helping young people to become world ready and work ready, grow in confidence and resilience, and give back to their communities. We look forward to continuing to deliver our vision of 'a country of connected, confident, and caring citizens where everyone feels at home'."

Angela Salt, CEO of Girlguiding said:

This much-needed investment is essential as we emerge from a pandemic which has devastated youth organisations membership and finances, as well as negatively impacting young people's mental health and opportunities. It is a long-awaited and welcome recognition that youth services have a vital role to play in levelling up across the UK. As the largest youth organisation for girls and young women, Girlguiding hopes it will be the beginning of sustainable investment in the youth sector which will mean we can extend our excellent offer for girls and young women, end waiting lists and bring on board many more volunteers to make guiding happen. We know that now is the time to invest in young people's wellbeing, confidence and opportunities."

Matt Hyde, CEO of Scouts said:

Every week, Scouts gives almost half a million young people the skills they need for the job interview, the important speech, the tricky challenge and the big dreams: the skills they need for life. This funding can help even more young people learn these through Scouts. We welcome young people and adults from all backgrounds, so we are really pleased that Government is committing to ensuring greater equality so that every young person in England can do regular out of school activities, have adventures away from home and get the chance to volunteer."

Ruth Marvel, CEO of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award said:

We are delighted that the government has recognised the amazing difference opportunities outside the classroom can make to young people's lives, and that it is investing to make sure they are accessible to all young people. Young people face an uncertain future and, now more than ever, need support to develop the vital skills, confidence and resilience they will need to thrive in the years ahead. This investment will help us give tens of thousands more young people the chance to do their DofE, including those who have been hardest hit by the pandemic."

Simon Antrobus, CEO of BBC Children in Need said:
Early in his first quarter at the University of California-Davis, Ryan Manriquez realized he needed help. A combination of pressures  avoiding covid-19, enduring a breakup, dealing with a disability, trying to keep up with a tough slate of classes  hit him hard.

"I felt the impact right away," said Manriquez, 21.

After learning of UC-Davis' free counseling services, Manriquez showed up at the student health center and lined up an emergency Zoom session the same day. He was referred to other resources within days and eventually settled into weekly group therapy.

That was September 2020. Manriquez, now president of the student union, considers himself lucky. It can take up to a month to get a counseling appointment, he said, and that's "at a school that's trying really hard to make services available."

Across the country, college students are seeking mental health therapy on campus in droves, part of a 15-year upswing that has spiked during the pandemic. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in December issued a rare public health advisory noting the increasing number of suicide attempts by young people.

Colleges and universities are struggling to keep up with the demand for mental health services. Amid a nationwide shortage of mental health professionals, they are competing with hospital systems, private practices, and the burgeoning telehealth industry to recruit and retain counselors. Too often, campus officials say, they lose.

At UC-Davis, Dr. Cory Vu, an associate vice chancellor, said the campus is competing with eight other UC system universities, 23 California State universities, and multiple other health systems and practices as it tries to add 10 counselors to its roster of 34.

"Every college campus is looking for counselors, but so is every other health entity, public and private," he said.

According to data compiled by KFF, more than 129 million Americans live in areas with a documented shortage of mental health care professionals. Roughly 25,000 psychiatrists were working in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The KFF data indicates that more than 6,500 additional psychiatrists are needed to eliminate the shortfall.

On campuses, years of public awareness campaigns have led to more students examining their mental health and trying to access school services. "That's a very good thing," said Jamie Davidson, associate vice president for student wellness at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The problem is "we don't have enough staff to deal with everyone who needs help."

About three years ago, administrators at the University of Southern California decided to respond aggressively to the skyrocketing demand for student mental health services. Since then, "we've gone from 30 mental health counselors to 65," said Dr. Sarah Van Orman, the university's chief medical officer for student health.

The result? "We're still overwhelmed," Van Orman said.

Van Orman, past president of the American College Health Association, said the severity of college students' distress is rising. More and more students come in with "active suicidal ideation, who are in crisis, with such severe distress that they are not functioning," Van Orman said. For counselors, "this is like working in a psychiatric ER."

As a result, wait times routinely stretch into weeks for students with nonemergency needs like help dealing with class-related stress or the transition to college. Professionals at campus counseling centers, meanwhile, have seen both their workloads and the serious nature of individual cases rise dramatically, prompting some to seek employment elsewhere.

"This is an epidemic in its own right," Van Orman said, "and it has exploded over the last two years to the point that it is not manageable for many of our campuses  and, ultimately, our students."

The pandemic has exacerbated the challenges students face, said UNLV's Davidson. Lockdown measures leave them feeling isolated and disconnected, unable to establish crucial relationships and develop the sense of self that normally comes with campus life. They also lose out on professional opportunities like internships and fall behind on self-care like going to the gym.

A study by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Pennsylvania State University found that among 43,000 students who sought help last fall at 137 campus counseling centers, 72% said the pandemic had negatively affected their mental health. An online survey of 33,000 students last fall found that half of them "screened positive for depression and/or anxiety," according to Boston University researcher Sarah Ketchen Lipson.

Even before the pandemic, university counseling center staff members were overwhelmed, Northwestern University staff psychiatrist Bettina Bohle-Frankel wrote in a recent letter to The New York Times. "Now, overburdened, underpaid and burned out, many therapists are leaving college counseling centers for less stressful work and better pay. Many are doing so to protect their own mental health."

On average, a counselor position at UC-Davis requiring a master's or doctorate degree pays $150,000 a year in salary and benefits, but compensation can vary widely based on experience, Vu said. Even at that rate, Vu said, "we sometimes cannot compete with Kaiser [Permanente], other hospital settings, or private practice."

Tatyana Foltz, a licensed clinical social worker in San Jose, California, spent three years as a mental health services case manager at Santa Clara University. "I absolutely enjoyed working with the college students  they're intelligent, dynamic, and complex, and they are working things out," Foltz said. But she left the university a few years ago, lured by the flexibility of private practice and frustrated by a campus system that Foltz felt did not reflect the diverse needs of its students.

Foltz returned to campus in December to support Santa Clara students as they protested what they said were inadequate services on campus, including insufficient numbers of diverse counselors representing Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ communities and other people of color. The protests followed the deaths of three students during the fall quarter, two by suicide.

"It should not be taking student deaths to get us better mental health resources," said junior Megan Wu, one of the rally's organizers. After the rally, the chair of Santa Clara's board of trustees pledged several million dollars in new funding for campus counseling.

Replacing therapists who leave universities is difficult, Davidson said. UNLV currently has funding for eight new counselors, but the salaries it can offer are limiting in a competitive hiring market.

Universities are getting creative in their attempts to spread mental health resources around on their campuses, however. UC-Davis embeds counselors in student-utilized groups like the Cross-Cultural Center and the LGBTQIA Resource Center. Stanford University's Bridge Peer Counseling Center offers anonymous counseling 24/7 to students who are more comfortable speaking with a trained fellow student.

Mental health services that can be accessed online or by phone, which many schools did not offer before the pandemic, may become a lifeline for colleges and universities. Students often prefer remote to on-site counseling, Davidson said, and campuses likely will begin offering their counselors the option to work remotely as well  something that private practices and some medical systems have done for years.

"You have to work hard and also smart," Foltz said. "You need numbers, but you also need the right mix of counselors. There is a constant need to have culturally competent staff members on a university campus."

This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
When skin cancer is detected early, there is a good chance of recovery. Fraunhofer researchers have developed a digital solution to significantly speed-up diagnosis. A mobile application assists in recording skin lesions and sends these to dermatology departments in hospitals. Using AI and image analysis, the software analyzes the risk of skin cancer, aiding the dermatologist with prioritizing their analyses.

Skin cancer is a particularly deceptive form of cancer. In the early stages, it looks very much like a harmless mole or birthmark and doesn't cause any pain. According to data from the German Cancer Society, more than 200,000 people suffer from skin cancer every year in Germany. In 2017 alone, 3,764 people died from it. One of the most serious types of skin cancer is malignant melanoma, which is most frequently caused by exposure to the sun's UV rays.

But, if caught in time, even melanoma is very likely to be cured. The survival rate is more than 95% after five years, which means that early diagnosis and prevention are even more crucial. The Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions (AICOS) in Porto and Lisbon has developed a solution to accelerate early recognition. The Derm.AI solution combines smartphone photos of the skin lesion with image-analysis software and artificial intelligence. It provides a swift, first assessment of potentially dangerous changes in the surface of the skin. Dermatologists can access this decision support platform and analyze the cases with increased risk of skin cancer first. The Derm.AI solution aims to improve the existing Teledermatology processes in the Portuguese National Health System.

In recent years, GPs have been increasingly concerned with spotting skin cancer early. People who notice dark spots or other perceptible changes to their skin need clarity quickly. But in regions with few specialists, it often takes a long time to get an appointment for the initial assessment. Often patients also have to travel long distances for these appointments, too. This is where our Derm.AI solution comes in." Maria Vasconcelos, Senior Scientist at Fraunhofer AICOS

Standardized photos with a smartphone

The first step is for the GP to photograph the potential problem area on the skin with a smartphone. The Fraunhofer team developed a special app just for this purpose that runs on both iPhones and Android smartphones. The app ensures that the photos are correctly aligned, taken at the right distance and have the correct resolution. The app takes two photos: one close-up of the suspicious area and one from further away to show the area in context. It also helps to correctly align and position the camera. This creates standardized photos with consistent settings for resolution, color, brightness and contrast. "The standardized shots are easy to compare and can be reliably analyzed by specialists," Vasconcelos explains.

Image analysis with AI

The images obtained at the GP's practice are then sent via the internet to the dermatology department of a hospital. This is where the artificial intelligence software comes into play. It analyzes the photos of the skin lesion, compares them to reference data and the data of other patients and provides a risk assessment. The lesion in question is labeled as "normal", "priority" or "high priority." This is not yet a formal diagnosis, it is simply a first assessment which helps prioritize the order in which the potential cases are examined. The doctors can prioritize examining the cases which the AI software has indicated have a high risk, as these need to be quickly confirmed or clarified. "The software doesn't make a decision; it simply provides a pre-selection based on probability. The actual examination and diagnosis are still in the hands of the dermatologists or skin-cancer specialists," Vasconcelos explains.

After the images are analyzed, along with the patient data such as age, gender or previous conditions, the dermatologist at the hospital can either provide feedback to the GP responsible for the patient via teleconsultation or schedule a presential consultation with the patient.

Suspected cases need to be examined on-site

In more dubious cases regarding the risk level of the skin lesion, the dermatological specialists book an in-person appointment. In this appointment, they will, for example, examine the patch of skin under a reflected-light microscope or take tissue samples for analysis by means of biopsy.

Around 80% of the cases in which patients present themselves at the GP's practice with a suspicious change in their skin prove to be harmless moles or birthmarks, after image analysis and consultation between the doctor and the dermatologist. This enables GPs to quickly give patients the all-clear, saving them long periods of waiting and an often-long journey to a hospital appointment.

For patients whose skin changes are not clearly identifiable as harmless or for those which indicate a less dangerous form of skin cancer, the GP asks the patient to return, for example in three months, and have another photo taken of the area.

Deep-learning software

During the Derm.AI project, the AICOS researcher and her team developed the algorithm for the image-analysis software. The deep-learning software was fed with image data and information from around 4000 cases. The algorithm also utilized the expert knowledge of dermatologists in the subsequent prioritization. "We had a lot of discussions with GP and dermatologists to really understand what they need. We have received very good feedback from doctors for Derm.AI," Vasconcelos is pleased to announce.

The project was developed in partnership with Shared Services of the Ministry of Health and clinical partners IPO Coimbra, CHUP, and ULS Guarda. The AICOS researchers are currently analyzing the results from the usage of the mobile app and working on further refining the deep-learning model for the software.
RNA has already been making an impact in the context of the vaccine program, but the potential of RNA-based compounds is far from being fully tapped, as RNA allows for entirely new therapeutic approaches. Prof. Thomas Thum, Co-Institute Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM, has developed a form of RNA therapy for treating heart failure, which has already been successfully tested in patients as part of a phase 1b clinical study. Other RNA therapies are currently being developed to treat pulmonary fibrosis and other forms of organ fibrosis.

Many variants of RNA can be found in the body. The best-known type is messenger RNA (mRNA). Its structure contains a code which serves as a blueprint for proteins. This is how the mRNA in the COVID-19 vaccines encodes SARS-CoV-2 proteins, for example. In addition to mRNA, however, there are a number of types of RNA which do not encode proteins. For many years, these forms of RNA were thought of as the decay from longer RNA, or in other words, genetic junk.

Fifteen years ago, we were the first group in the world to investigate whether non-coding RNA were truly junk. In doing so, we found that these RNA molecules carry out important cellular control tasks. Prof. Thomas Thum, Director, Institute for Molecular and Translational Therapeutic Strategies, Hannover Medical School

Prof. Thum demonstrated that non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs) were involved in pathological cardiac remodeling. For example, miRNA 21 is particularly common in hearts where the connective tissue is hardened. This discovery paved the way for a new therapeutic approach. With the help of a cooperation partner, Thum constructed an anti-miRNA to bind to and neutralize miRNA 21 using the lock-and-key principle. This was quite the breakthrough. The research team demonstrated that heart tissue can be prevented from hardening by inhibiting a strand of non-coding miRNA in a targeted fashion. The working group patented these findings and published them in the renowned journal Nature in 2008. In the meantime, pharma giant Sanofi carried out testing on anti-miRNA 21 as part of a phase 2 clinical study on patients with kidney fibrosis.

Inhibition of miRNA has a curative effect

Thums team came across yet another type of miRNA during their cardiac tissue experiments. This miRNA, assigned the number 132, stimulates pathological cardiac hypertrophy, which eventually leads to heart failure. Here, too, a positive, curative effect can be achieved by inhibiting the miRNA strand. This was initially tested on cell cultures, before moving onto further preclinical trials. As a result, anti-miRNA 132 has met all requirements for being tested in clinical trials in patients with heart failure.

Around four million people suffer from heart failure in Germany alone. In such individuals, the heart is abnormally enlarged and too weak to pump blood around the body. Patients complain of shortness of breath, water retention and weight gain. In the last twenty years, little progress has been made in terms of treatment, emphasizes Prof. Thum. According to data from the German Heart Foundation, more than 40,000 sufferers die every year in Germany.

First clinical trial successfully completed

With the founding of the Cardior Pharmaceuticals start-up in 2016, Thum made the leap from working in a laboratory to conducting clinical trials in humans. Twenty-eight heart failure patients took part, and the results are promising. We demonstrated that therapy using anti-miRNA 132 is safe and does not cause any side effects in other organs, reports Thum. Additionally, we observed an improvement in heart failure markers. Following this positive result, fresh funding was provided, and the phase 2 study was given the green light. It is planned to start in the first half of 2022 and will involve 280 patients in multiple European countries.

While the clinical trials are running, Thum and his team are working hard on new RNA therapies, with focus areas including pulmonary fibrosis. Pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive disease which causes the remodeling of pulmonary tissue and the gradual hardening of the lungs, the medical scientist explains. We hope that RNA therapy can be used to treat the causes of this disease, which has thus far proved incurable.
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(Newser)  Update: The so-called "all-American girl" turned alleged jihadist was denied bail during a court appearance in Virginia Thursday, the BBC reports. The judge said factors including the safety of the local community are considered during bond hearings, and Allison Fluke-Ekren did not contest the order to remain in custody as she awaits trial. Earlier this week, her parents and two adult children, who live in the US, asked that she be prohibited from contacting them. Fluke-Ekren, 42, is believed to have at least five children, Vice reports. Our original story from Jan. 31 follows:

A former teacher from Kansas who federal authorities say trained women and children to use AK-47 assault rifles and grenades and led them in an ISIS battalion is back in the US, facing charges. Allison Fluke-Ekren was picked up in Syria, officials say, and is due in court Monday in Virginia on charges of aiding a terrorist organization, CNN reports. Prosecutors say Fluke-Ekren left the US in 2008, going to Egypt and then Libya, per the Daily Beast. She and her husband, a sniper trainer for ISIS, were smuggled into Syria around 2012, US documents say, carrying $15,000 with them to buy weapons.

Beginning in 2016, a statement from prosecutors says, Fluke-Ekren was given the job of organizing and training the battalion to use weapons, including suicide belts. "Fluke-Ekren's main objective in this role was to teach the women of ISIS how to defend themselves against ISIS' enemies," the federal complaint says. She also provided ISIS members with lodging, translations of leaders' speeches, and instruction in ISIS doctrine, the documents say. While in Syria, per ABC, Fluke-Ekren offered to carry out terrorist attacks in the US on behalf of ISIS. The US complaint was filed in 2019 but not unsealed until now.

A witness reported to the FBI seeing one of Fluke-Ekrens sons, who was 5 or 6 at the time, carrying a machine gun at home. In 2018, the complaint says, Fluke-Ekren had word sent to her family in the US that she'd died, in hopes the US wouldn't look for her anymore. A relative told US authorities that Fluke-Ekren was a jihadist and ISIS member who "does not like America or Americans." Fluke-Ekren has not entered a plea yet; the maximum prison sentence she faces is 20 years. (Read more ISIS stories.)
(Newser)  California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who three years ago placed a moratorium on executions, now is moving to dismantle the US' largest death row by moving all condemned inmates to other prisons within two years. Turning the section at San Quentin State Prison into a "positive, healing environment" is the stated goal. "We are starting the process of closing death row to repurpose and transform the current housing units into something innovative and anchored in rehabilitation," corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters tells the AP. San Quentins never-used $853,000 execution chamber is in a separate area of the prison, and there are no plans to repurpose that area, Waters says.

California, which last carried out an execution in 2006, is one of 28 states that maintain death rows, along with the US government, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. While other states like Illinois have abolished executions, California is merging its condemned inmates into the general prison population with no expectation that any will face execution anytime in the near future. Newsom, a Democrat, imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019 and shut down the states execution chamber at San Quentin, north of San Francisco. Now his administration is turning on its head a 2016 voter-approved initiative intended to speed up executions by capitalizing on one provision that allowed inmates to be moved off death row.

Corrections officials began a voluntary two-year pilot program in January 2020 that as of Friday had moved 116 of the states 673 condemned male inmates to one of seven other prisons that have maximum security facilities and are surrounded by lethal electrified fence. Under the states transfer program, condemned inmates moved to other prisons can be housed in solitary or disciplinary confinement if officials decide they cannot be safely housed with others, although they are supposed to be interspersed with other inmates. Inmates on death row are housed one to a cell, but the transferred inmates can be housed with others if its deemed safe. "There have been no safety concerns, and no major disciplinary issues have occurred," Waters says. (Read more death row stories.)
(Newser)  A NASA crew has begun a 45-day trip to Mars, all in a habitat on the ground at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. A volunteer crew of four launched the simulated journey Friday, CNN reports, in an effort to learn about the effects of isolation and confinement during missions. The planet's moon Phobos is the destination. NASA said the simulation is "designed to serve as an analog for the rigors of real space exploration missions." While in the Human Exploration Research Analog, for instance, the crew will cope with its communication with the outside world being delayed for up to five minutes.

"This will help ensure that our astronaut crews can work effectively through challenges unique to long-duration spaceflight, including communication delays," said Brandon Vessey, of NASA's Human Research Program. This is the second of four missions to study "behavioral and team performance," NASA said. The last one is planned for September, per CNN. The hatch will be opened on the HERA structure, ending the four volunteers' mission, on March 14. "What we learn will inform how future exploration missions beyond low-Earth orbit are performed," Vessey said. (Read more Mars stories.)
(Newser)  Whoopi Goldberg is taking a lot of criticism for comments she made Monday as The View tackled the subject of Maus being banned in a Tennessee school district. The graphic novel is about the Holocaust, but it was nudity in the book that got it banned, and as the co-hosts discussed it, Joy Behar said that the excuse about nudity was just to cover the fact that the school board doesn't "like history that makes white people look bad." Goldberg, who has since apologized, first replied, "Well, this is white people doing it to white people, so y'all gonna fight amongst yourselves," before later going on to say that "the Holocaust isn't about race." She said, again, that it involved "two white groups of people" and was about "man's inhumanity to man," not racism.

As CNN explains, whether Jewish people should be characterized as white is a topic of debate, but the fact remains that they are subjected to anti-Semitism and hate crimes, and the Nazis most definitely considered Jews to be of a different raceand used that as justification for the genocide they carried out. Goldberg's co-hosts pushed back on her claims, but she continued to insist the Holocaust was about humans' treatment of other humans. It wasn't long before others were pushing back as well. "Racism was central to Nazi ideology. Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder," the US Holocaust Museum tweeted. "The Holocaust was driven by multiple factors, and there is no doubt that one of them was Nazi racism against Jews," tweeted advocacy organization Stand With Us. "Nazis back then and white supremacists today consider Jews to be a different and inferior race."

"The #Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish peoplewho they deemed to be an inferior race," tweeted the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. "They dehumanized them and used this racist propaganda to justify slaughtering 6 million Jews. Holocaust distortion is dangerous." The backlash came from both sides of the aisle, with conservative commentators Ben Shapiro, Meghan McCain, and Piers Morgan among those denouncing Goldberg's take. Many others on social media also took issue with Goldberg, and she ultimately apologized, USA Today reports. "On today's show, I said the Holocaust 'is not about race, but about man's inhumanity to man.' I should have said it is about both," she tweeted. "I stand corrected. The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver [sic]. I'm sorry for the hurt I have caused." (Read more Whoopi Goldberg stories.)
(Newser)  A veteran central California firefighter was fatally shot Monday when he and others responded to a report of a dumpster fire, and authorities have arrested a suspect, officials said. Fire Capt. Vidal Max Fortuna was shot before dawn in the city of Stockton and died at a hospital, Stockton Fire Chief Rick Edwards told reporters. Edwards said the death is his worst nightmare as a fire chief, the AP reports. My message to my firefighters is to be strong. My heart breaks with you but we will get through this," he said.

A 67-year-old man was detained at the scene and officers recovered a firearm, said interim Police Chief Jim Chraska. Homicide detectives are trying to determine what led up to the shooting, he said. This highlights the dangers public safety faces every day, and again, our thoughts and prayers go out to the Fortuna family, Chraska said. Although Stockton firefighters have died doing their job, officials said it was likely the first time one was shot while on duty.

Fortuna, 47, had been a firefighter for more than two decades and is survived by his wife and two adult children, Edwards said. Dozens of police and fire department vehicles accompanied Fortuna's body from the hospital to a funeral home. The flag at Stockton City Hall was lowered to half-staff in honor of Fortuna. This is something that Ive never heard of here in the city of Stockton, firefighter being shot and killed, police Officer Joe Silva told the Stockton Record.

(Read more California stories.)
(Newser)  The New York Times is out with a story asserting that then-President Trump was trying harder than has been previously known to have voting machines seized in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Key points in the story and related coverage:

Homeland Security: Six weeks after the vote, Trump had Rudy Giuliani call Homeland Security to ask the department to seize the machines. One of the top officials there said the department lacked the authority.

Six weeks after the vote, Trump had Rudy Giuliani call Homeland Security to ask the department to seize the machines. One of the top officials there said the department lacked the authority. Defense department: The DHS request came after Trumptaking Giuliani's advicerejected a push to have the military seize the voting machines. That push had been led by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, attorney Sidney Powell, and retired Army colonel Phil Waldron.

Justice Department: Trump also asked Attorney General William Barr if the Justice Department could seize the machines, per the Times. Barr, having been briefed by federal law enforcement officials on the lack of evidence of voter fraud, reportedly shot down the idea immediately.

Trump also asked Attorney General William Barr if the Justice Department could seize the machines, per the Times. Barr, having been briefed by federal law enforcement officials on the lack of evidence of voter fraud, reportedly shot down the idea immediately. States: Trump also tried to get lawmakers in pivotal states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania to have local law enforcement take control of the machines, another idea that was rejected.

Trump also tried to get lawmakers in pivotal states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania to have local law enforcement take control of the machines, another idea that was rejected. How close? Advisers to Trump actually drew up two versions of an executive order to seize voting machines, one for DHS and the other for the Pentagon, reports CNN. That the White House reached out to DHS (and to Barr) had not been previously reported.

Advisers to Trump actually drew up two versions of an executive order to seize voting machines, one for DHS and the other for the Pentagon, reports CNN. That the White House reached out to DHS (and to Barr) had not been previously reported. Under scrutiny: Politico last month reported on the existence of the executive order written for the Pentagon, which can be read in full here. "It's an extraordinary document, and we have a lot of questions about it," Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, on the House panel investigating the Capitol riot, told CNN.

(Read more President Trump stories.)
(Newser)  It's no secret that, after bucking her own party on much of President Biden's agenda, Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is now bringing in cash from major GOP donors as she gears up for a reelection run in 2024. Now we know just how much, thanks to new Federal Election Commission filings documenting the Arizona senator's campaign haul in Q4: $1.6 million, her best quarter for fundraising since she was elected in 2018, per Politico. Much of the money has come from known Republican namesamong them, Harlan Crow, once referred to by a GOP operative as "one of the biggest whales in the country" when it comes to his influence in the political sphere, per a 2015 article in the Texas Tribune.

New York Times political reporter Shane Goldmacher notes that Sinema even had to give back an excess of $2,900 to Crow, because he'd already hit the $5,800 limit an individual can give to a candidate in an election cycle. Per CNBC, Sinema also scooped up donations from business entities and corporations like Microsoft, Cigna, Gilead Sciences, and the American Petroleum Institute. Even Fox Corp. PAC, the political action committee for Fox News, forked over $5,000 to Sinema's separate Getting Stuff Done PAC. A Sinema campaign rep says "nearly 85% of contributions came from individuals" and "nearly 75% of contributions were less than $100," per Politico.

Politico notes that while Sinema's record fundraising number is giving her a big boost, there's a "starker reality" underlying itnamely, that Sinema is taking most of that cash in from corporate PACs and big donors, not the Democratic grassroots movement that's now pretty much ditched her. Only about 2% (roughly $34,000) of what she brought in last quarter to her campaign was "unitemized," meaning made up of small donations of $200 or less from regular folks, per Rolling Stone. Contrast that with the $60,000 to $140,000 she saw from grassroots supporters in various quarters of 2020. Still, with a war chest like the one she's amassing, the magazine thinks she'll be in good shape to take on any progressive Democrat, like Rep. Ruben Gallego, who may try to challenge her in the primaries. (Read more Kyrsten Sinema stories.)
(Newser)  This story has been updated with news of Harris' arrest. A former University of California, Los Angeles lecturer accused of threatening a mass shooting is now in custody. Police in Boulder, Colorado say Matthew Harris barricaded himself inside his home but was taken into custody peacefully after around three hours, the Daily Camera reports. A nearby school was evacuated during the operation. Boulder police Chief Maris Herold says the manifesto Harris allegedly sent to members of UCLA's philosophy department also contained "very violent" and "very disturbing" references to violence in Boulder. UCLA says in-person classes, which were canceled Tuesday, will resume on Wednesday

Harris sent a video titled "UCLA Philosophy (Mass Shooting)"which included clips from 2003's Zero Day, based on the mass shooting at Columbine High School, as well as footage of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegasto the university's philosophy department along with the manifesto, which included threats to department members, reports the Los Angeles Times. "Da war is comin," he reportedly warned. Harris joined the university as a postdoctoral fellow in philosophy in the spring of 2019 before being put on leave last year over allegations that he sent a pornographic video to a student.

The mass shooting video was one of more than 350 videos Harris had uploaded to his YouTube channel over 24 hours, reports Business Insider. Others titles included "UCLA PHILOSOPHY IS RACIST AND OPENLY RACIST," "im a p*dophile, ladies im a p*dophile," and "how to kill an enemy," according to the outlet. A campus alert sent soon after midnight noted classes would be held remotely Tuesday "out of an abundance of caution," though there was no "specific information" that Harris was in California, per KABC. Students went on to complain about a lack of communication, though department heads had sent emails alerting faculty and students to the threats on Monday night, per the Times.

"Students should not have to scour the internet for information on what is or isn't safe during an emergency," wrote the Daily Bruin's editorial board. It added Harris had "expressed erratic behavior and posted worrying activity online" while teaching undergraduates. Two students had described examples in reviews shared on bruinwalk.com. One said Harris had changed a student's grade 43 times after the end of the academic quarter. In a Monday statement, UCLA police said they were "actively engaged with out-of-state law enforcement and federal agencies" in response to the threat. In an email obtained by the Times, university police told a faculty member that "at this time we're not concerned about anything happening." (Read more UCLA stories.)
(Newser)  A high school junior in Florida has won a judicial bypass to a state law requiring minors to get parental consent before speaking to a doctor about abortion procedures, after an initial denial citing her apparent "lack of intelligence." The 17-year-old told a court that she was interested in an abortiona decision supported by her boyfriend and his motherbecause she was not financially stable but was sure her parents would force her to carry the pregnancy to term if they were aware, per the Independent. Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge Jared Smith initially noted the teen had a 2.0 GPA despite claiming to have "B" grades, per WTVT. This "evinces either a lack of intelligence or credibility, either of which weigh against a finding of maturity pursuant to the statute," he wrote.

However, in a 2-1 ruling in the Florida Second District Court of Appeal, issued Jan. 18, Judges Darryl Casanueva and Susan Rothstein-Youakim noted the teen's GPA might not reflect her latest marks. In the majority decision, Casanueva added there was no reason to believe the teen's overall intelligence was "less than average" given that a "C" average "demonstrates average intelligence for a high school student." He also disputed Smith's finding that the teen "has never had any financial responsibilities, even so much as paying her own cellphone bills." Casanueva wrote that the teen works more than 20 hours a week, sometimes at multiple jobs, has $1,600 in savings, and two credit cards, and pays almost all of her expenses apart from her cellphone bill, per the Independent.

Her "testimony demonstrates that she possesses an ability to assess the consequences of her choice and the risk it entails," Casanueva wrote. Judge John Stargelthe husband of state Sen. Kelli Stargel, who sponsored the bill requiring that a minor get parental consent before obtaining abortion information and who has introduced a more recent bill to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exception for cases of rape or incestdissented, saying misspellings and grammatical errors in the teen's petition implied that she was not "sufficiently mature" to make a decision about abortion without the guidance of her parents, per the (Lakeland) Ledger. (Read more abortion stories.)
(Newser)  The general consensus in DC is that President Biden will be able to get his nominee on the Supreme Court without the usual scorched-earth fight of recent confirmations. But even if that proves to be the case, some political fireworks are inevitable. The Hill, for example, expects Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Josh Hawleyall potential presidential candidates in 2024 or beyondto use their positions on the Senate Judiciary Committee to raise their profiles with the conservative base. Cruz seems to be at the forefront of that. Coverage:

Cruz: On his Verdict With Ted Cruz podcast, the Texas senator criticized Biden for limiting the pool of candidates to Black women, reports CNN. "I gotta say that's offensive. You know, you know Black women are what, 6% of the US population? He's saying to 94% of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you, you are ineligible.'"

On his Verdict With Ted Cruz podcast, the Texas senator criticized Biden for limiting the pool of candidates to Black women, reports CNN. "I gotta say that's offensive. You know, you know Black women are what, 6% of the US population? He's saying to 94% of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you, you are ineligible.'" Elaborating: "It's actually an insult to Black women," says Cruz. "If he came and said, 'I'm gonna put the best jurist on the court and he looked at a number of people and he ended up nominating a Black woman, he could credibly say, 'OK, I'm nominating the person who's most qualified.' He's not even pretending to say that. He's saying, 'If you're a white guy, tough luck. If you're a white woman, tough luck.'"

Hawley, Cotton: Hawley has voiced a similar criticism, saying, "I think it sends the wrong signal to say that, 'Well, if a person is of a certain ethnic background, that we don't care what their record is, we don't care what their substantive beliefs are.' That would be extraordinary.'" Cotton, who the Hill notes is in sync with Mitch McConnell, has been more muted: "We'll give a thorough vetting into any nominee's legal philosophies, as well as their career and their character and their temperament."

Hawley has voiced a similar criticism, saying, "I think it sends the wrong signal to say that, 'Well, if a person is of a certain ethnic background, that we don't care what their record is, we don't care what their substantive beliefs are.' That would be extraordinary.'" Cotton, who the Hill notes is in sync with Mitch McConnell, has been more muted: "We'll give a thorough vetting into any nominee's legal philosophies, as well as their career and their character and their temperament." An assessment: "McConnell and Hawley and Cruz are speaking to totally different audiences," Republican strategist Brian Darling tells the Hill. "McConnell is keeping his head down and speaking to voters in the midterms, whereas Hawley and Cruz are speaking to the core Republican primary voters, looking down the line to 2024."

"McConnell and Hawley and Cruz are speaking to totally different audiences," Republican strategist Brian Darling tells the Hill. "McConnell is keeping his head down and speaking to voters in the midterms, whereas Hawley and Cruz are speaking to the core Republican primary voters, looking down the line to 2024." Rebutting Cruz: "This nation has been built on the strength and fortitude of Black women," tweeted Democratic Rep. Marilyn Strickland. "The only thing insulting to this Black woman is Ted Cruz thinking he speaks for us."

"This nation has been built on the strength and fortitude of Black women," tweeted Democratic Rep. Marilyn Strickland. "The only thing insulting to this Black woman is Ted Cruz thinking he speaks for us." Others: GOP Sen. Roger Wicker previously drew criticism from the White House for suggesting that the eventual nominee would be a "beneficiary" of affirmative action, notes the Washington Post. Fellow GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham also rejected that notion.

(Read more Ted Cruz stories.)
(Newser)  Scientists have a pretty good idea of the ways of salmon when the fish are in inland waters at the beginning and end of their lives. But that stretch in between, when they spend up to seven years at sea? Not so much. Now, however, a first-of-its-kind international expedition is under way to change that, reports Oregon Public Broadcasting. On Tuesday, a research vessel from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is leaving Washington state to head out for a remote stretch of the northern Pacific. There, it will join three other vessels from Canada and Russia on a research project involving about 60 scientists, per the Seattle Times. The mission? To figure out how the fish are faring at sea and to get a better sense of why the salmon population is plummeting in the Pacific Northwest.

"Once salmon leave the coastal ocean, they effectively enter a black box," NOAA researcher Laurie Weitkamp, who is taking part in the mission, tells NPR. "We don't know where they are, we don't know what they're eating, what eats them, how quickly they're growing." The researchers will use all manner of equipment, including trawling nets, to study not just salmon in the ocean near the Bering Strait but the entire ecosystem. Weitkamp says one big factor is that this research will be conducted in winter, a crucial period for the salmon that has not been studied much because of the logistics of being on the high seas at this time of year. The study is part of a project called the International Year of Salmon, and those interested can follow the progress of the ships involved via this website. (Read more salmon stories.)
(Newser)  As a new month begins, the best that can be said about the tense standoff over Ukraine is that everybody is still talking instead of shooting. On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin himself spoke on the issue for the first time in a month and reiterated Russia's big complaints: He said the West has "ignored" Moscow's demands, including its desire for a guarantee that NATO won't expand to include the former Soviet republic, reports the Washington Post. Putin also wants the alliance to roll back troops from Eastern Europe and to promise not to deploy weapons near the Russian border. One potentially hopeful sign: The AP reports that Putin emphasized that a negotiated settlement is still possible.

The Russian leader spoke one day after a tense exchange between US and Russian officials during a UN Security Council meeting. Russia is carefully analyzing the US and NATO written responses, but it is already clear that Russias fundamental concerns have been ignored, Putin said at a news conference in Moscow. NATO refers to the right of countries to choose freely, but you can not strengthen someones security at the expense of others. The New York Times sees his remarks as a sign of how far apart the two sides remain.

Russia has 100,000 troops massed on the Ukraine border, and President Biden has warned that the economic consequences will be severe if Russia invades. Some other lines from Putin:

It was the United States that came with its missiles to our home, to the doorstep of our home, he said. And you demand from me some guarantees. You should give us guarantees. You! And right away, right now.

Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations, he said. Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?

On the diplomatic front, Putin may soon meet with French leader Emmanuel Macron, while Britain's Boris Johnson arrived in Ukraine for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (Read more Vladimir Putin stories.)
(Newser)  Donald Trump has told the committee investigating the Capitol riot that it should be probing the actions of his former vice president. In a statement, the former presidentreferring to the House panel as the "Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors"said the Jan. 6 violence could have been avoided if Mike Pence had rejected the Electoral College results, the Hill reports. Trump claimed Pence "could have sent the votes back to various legislators for reassessment after so much fraud and irregularities were found." Investigators have found no evidence of irregularities that could have affected President Biden's victory.

Trump also slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying she failed to follow his recommendation to up Capitol building security that day. The panel should be investigating why she "did such as poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!" Over the weekend, Trump claimed that Pence, who was escorted from the Capitol for his own safety when Trump supporters stormed the building, had the power to overturn the results.

Pence is expected to defend his decision to certify Biden's win in a speech in Florida on Friday. Henry Olsen at the Washington Post argues that Pence should use the moment to finally directly criticize his former boss and address Trump's false election claims head-on. "We already know that Trump thinks Pence was a coward on Jan. 6," Olsen writes. "What better rebuke than to show courage when it is least expected and take the battle home to the bully." In other Jan. 6 panel news, sources tell ABC that former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who was around Trump before and during the attack, has turned over text messages to the committee. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
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TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain is committed to strengthening military and defence relations with the United States. This was emphasised by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Prime Minister, as he visited the US Fifth Fleet headquarters.

HRH Prince Salman, who was accompanied by His Highness Major Shaikh Isa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa during the visit, highlighted the strength of strategic ties between Bahrain and US. The Minister of Interior, General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Finance and National Economy Minister Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, and several other senior officials were also in attendance.

Following a welcoming military marine salute, His Royal Highness was received by the Commander of United States Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and Commander of United States Fifth Fleet (C5F), Vice Admiral Charles Bradford Cooper II, and the Charge dAffaires of the US Embassy in Bahrain, Maggie Nardi.

HRH Prince Salman affirmed the importance of strategic alliances to upholding maritime, economic, and environmental security, noting the role played by the US Fifth Fleet in this regard. In addition, HRH the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Prime Minister stressed the importance of protecting international maritime traffic from threats that adversely impact global trade.

He thanked the US for their role, and stressed the need to unify international efforts to further strengthen regional maritime security. His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Prime Minister, was yesterday briefed on regional security issues, including the US Fifth Fleets role, tasks, and cooperation with Bahraini forces.

He attended the launch of the International Maritime Exercise 22 (IMX/CE 2022), and was also briefed on new uncrewed technologies and uncrewed surface vessels (USV) engaged in the exercise and the Royal Bahraini Navys participation in the exercise.

HRH Prince Salman reiterated that joint exercises are crucial to ensuring readiness to address various challenges and safeguarding regional and international navigation and maritime trade. HRH extended his gratitude and wished success to the Commander of the US NAVCENT and CSF, the Royal Bahraini Navy, and all participating countries.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain strongly condemned and denounced the launch of a ballistic missile by the terrorist Houthi militia against the UAE.

Foreign Affairs Ministry commended the vigilance and efficiency of the UAE Air Defense that were able to intercept and destroy the ballistic missile.

The ministry stressed that such terrorist acts affirm the keenness of the terrorist Houthi militia to target civilians and civilian facilities.

It affirmed that Bahrain supports the UAE in all the measures it takes to protect its security and stability, stressing the need for the international community to shoulder its responsibilities towards deterring these terrorist militias and putting an end to their continuous violations of international laws that threaten the security and stability of the region.
Staff Reporter

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) Chief Executive, Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, affirmed that His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, greatly appreciate the efforts and sincere dedication of all those who work on the front lines in the nations ongoing fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19).

These include health professionals, the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF), the Ministry of Interior (MOI), and the various supporting bodies. Shaikh Salman bin Isa said that such valuable support is an impetus to continue working with the same determination in addressing the pandemic, and praised the efforts of BIC employees who participated in the national response to COVID-19 along with their honourable roles in dealing with the virus in a manner that preserves the health and safety of everyone.

This came as Shaikh Salman bin Isa spoke yesterday, in the presence of BIC Chairman Arif Rahimi and the circuits executive management, in a ceremony where he handed over the Prince Salman bin Hamad Medal for Medical Merit to BIC personnel, in implementation of the royal order and in the framework of the directives of HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister to all parties concerned with the handing-over of the medal, including health workers, BDF, MOI, and all supporting bodies on the front line.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain prioritises discourse as a means to ensure peaceful resolutions particularly of regional issues and conflicts. The Cabinet, during yesterdays weekly meeting chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, reviewed the latest regional and international developments.

It affirmed that Bahrain employs mutual respect and the fostering of good relations to combat extremist ideologies to maintain security and promote prosperity.

The Cabinet noted Bahrains commitment to upholding the principles of the United Nations Charter, which stipulates non-interference in the internal affairs of foreign countries, adherence to human values, tolerance, coexistence, and a peaceful settlement of crises within the framework of strengthening international cooperation.

The Cabinet commended the outcomes of a meeting attended by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, HH Shaikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Egypt Pres[1]ident Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

It highlighted the meetings importance in strengthening multilateral cooperation and coordination across various regional and international issues of common interest and challenges faced by the Arab world.

The Cabinet conveyed its congratulations to the Supreme Commander, His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Prime Minister, on the Bahrain Defence Forces (BDF) 54th anniversary.

The Cabinet also congratulated the members of the BDF, who stand ready and are committed to defending and safeguarding Bahrain. In light of the memorandum by the Minister of Interior, the Cabinet affirmed His Royal Highness directives for the greater use of the Alternative Sanctions and Measures Law.

His Royal Highness also mandated the Ministry of Interior to implement the Alternative Sentencing Programme in conjunction with the Open Prisons Programme.
Staff Reporter

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain derives its strength from its diversity, said Ambassador Shaikha Ayesha Ahmed Saqer Al Khalifa, Acting Chief of Organisations at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, highlighting the principle that all humans are born equal in dignity and rights.

Shaikha Ayesha was speaking at a virtual event held to mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The event was organised by the United Nations Bahrain office along with Israel and German Embassies.

The Kingdom has always stood against violence based on ethnic origin, religion or race. We have a heritage, which firmly believes that all humans are born equal in dignity and rights. Our Constitution asserts that all people are equal in human dignity and there should be no discrimination.

Shaikha Ayesha said Bahrainis draw their values of tolerance from the national heritage. The Kingdoms laws affirm religious diversity while protecting religious pluralism. We must aim to create a more peaceful world while ensuring that such crimes against humanity will never happen.

Mohamed El Zarkani, United Nations Resident Coordinator, said the resolution passed by the United Nations in 2005 was a sharp reminder of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime, whose victims include six million Jews.

A third of Jewish population perished during the time and among the victims were 1.5 million children. He said remembering the past is crucial in safeguarding the future. The UN is on the frontline to contain xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and other threats to peace.

The world governments and media must play an important role in thwarting these threats. Lets pledge to be vigilant against human rights violations. Eitan Naeh, Israeli Ambassador to Bahrain, said he himself is a second-generation Holocaust survivor.

It is the duty of all to ensure that such evils will never happen. We should not allow history to be rewritten. Kei Boeckmann, German Ambassador to Bahrain, said Never Again is now the heart of German national identity.

The German government is committed to tackle all discriminatory acts. We also work with all international bodies including the UN to promote diversity. The team at German Embassy Bahrain is privileged to be part of this effort.

The event also saw Holocaust survivor Arnold Clevs, 89, describe the tyranny he faced as a child under the Nazi regime. Arnold was born and raised in 1933 in Kovno, Lithuania. After the Nazi occupation, Arnold and his family were moved into the Kovno Ghetto.

He spent much of his time hiding from Nazi soldiers until 1943, when he, his parents and sister were taken to a labour camp outside the city. The men and women were divided, and the family was torn apart.

At one point during his time in the camp, Nazi troops along with their Lithuanian collaborators came to seize children to be deported and murdered. But Arnolds father had hidden him in the roof and he survived.

However, Arnold was later held captive by the guards. Arnold then endured a death march for days through the snow of Eastern Europe without food or water, witnessing the deaths of friends from exposure and Nazi guards and even fatalities from allied air raids.

He was later liberated by the US Army. I was eight when the war broke out and was 12 when liberated. I thank the Government of Bahrain for organising the event.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrains outstanding vaccination record, efforts and planning have been praised by the Gulf Health Council.

The Council highlighted the Bahraini efforts in vaccination and stressed Bahrain got rid of endemic measles and rubella in 2019, and how the rate of routine vaccinations for children and other components of society reached 97%.

The Council added that Bahrain has been free of malaria since 1981, according to the World Health Organization, and noted that Bahrain is participating in the development of the 2021-2025 regional action plan to combat malaria.
Agencies | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain celebrates today the Arab Womens Day amid national pride in the achievements that have enhanced Bahrains respect of womens rights and boosted their active role in the progress and prosperity of the nation under the leadership of HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the support of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

Bahraini women, thanks to the unlimited support of HM the King, the government policies, and the initiatives of the Supreme Council for Women headed by Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty the King, have been able to confirm their status as dependable partners in the nation-building process and sustainable development.

Bahrain, under the follow-up of the Supreme Council for Women and in partnership between the executive, legislative and judicial authorities, has approved more than 150 royal orders, laws, legislative amendments, ministerial decisions and circulars during the last two decades.

This legal support vastly contributed to the protection and promotion of womens rights. It includes, most notably, Family Law 19 of 2017, Law 17 of 2015 concerning Protection against Domestic Violence, and other developed legislation in accordance with the constitution and international covenants, mainly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) that the Kingdom joined in 2002.

This modern legislative system contributed to ensuring family stability, deepening family cohesion, integrating womens needs into development in line with the National Plan for the Advancement of Bahraini Women (2013-2022), and consolidating justice by setting up a separate building for family courts in January 2018, which includes courtrooms, a family reconciliation office, services and an alimony fund office.

Bahraini women have actively participated in enriching democratic life since their participation in preparing and approving the National Action Charter, and exercising their political rights as voters and candidates in the parliamentary and municipal elections since 2002.

Women have won 15% of the seats in the Council of Representatives (The lower chamber of the bicameral parliament) and 23% in the Shura Council (The upper chamber). The Speaker of the Council of Representatives is a woman and the Second Deputy Chair of the Shura Council. Women represent 23% of the members of municipal councils and 12% of the judges.

The contribution of Bahraini women in the labor market increased to 43% of the total national workforce, and 47% of business owners thanks to the support and encouragement of the Supreme Council for Women and its distinguished initiatives such as the launch of the Bahraini Womens Capacity Development Center Riyadat.

Other initiatives include the creation of financial portfolios to finance commercial and investment activities for women, the Young Bahraini Businesswomens Excellence Honor, the establishment and organization of the National Committee to Follow Up the National Model by integrating women's needs into the government's action plan, and the establishment of about 53 equal opportunities committees in the government sector, 20 committees in the private sector, and 18 committees in civil society.

The percentage of women in the government sector has risen to 55%, in the executive jobs to 46% and in specialized jobs to 62%.

Women were also at the front lines of Team Bahrain led by HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, with a representation of 75% of the members confronting the pandemic. They also had a particularly active role in the Together for the Safety of Bahrain campaign launched by the Supreme Council for Women and in the Your Remote Advisor program introduced to ensure the continuous provision of the Councils psychological, family, legal and economic consultations.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Chairman of the Bahrain Chamber expressed pride in the Bahrain Chambers attainment of ISO Certification, Sameer Abdulla Ahmed Nass said the achievement reflects the boards effort and the administrations commitment to providing top quality services to the members of the business community.

Its also an incentive to continue revamping and improving all aspects of the chambers services and work mechanism. This came as he received the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Bahrain Chamber Dr Abdulla Al Sada accompanied by members of the administration to celebrate the attainment of ISO Certification.

Nass thanked the administration and staff of the Bahrain Chamber for contributing to the advancement of this historic organization. For his part, Dr Al Sada attributed this achievement to the unlimited support of the board, and its keenness on upgrading the services of the chamber to keep abreast of technological advancement and meet the requirements and aspirations of the business community.

Al Sada added that the chamber has launched 25 electronic services, inaugurated a new and comprehensive client care centre and resolved 65% of the complaints and grievances raised by the members.
Roland Olah was executive chef at the renowned Cafe Erte in Budapest before winning entry to the U.S. in a green card lottery a little over a decade ago. Picking up and leaving his hometown wasnt easy. I was in the Top 25 Chefs Cookbook in Hungary, but I saw the green card was real, and I thought, I want to work with Daniel Boulud. I had to try. My family came over, we didnt have a place to live ... I didnt even know if he was hiring.

In a precursor of things to come, Olahs first job in the U.S. was at Chocopologie in South Norwalk, working with Fritz Knipschildt. It was during this short first stay in SoNo when he saw an ad  on Craigslist of all places  for an open position at Cafe Boulud in New York.

It was a lot of pressure because I had a family, I didnt speak English, but I worked hard, he tells us. Cooking for chef Boulud led him up the kitchens line, with additional training stops around New York and LEscale in Greenwich, before eventually landing at Martell in Fairfield as executive chef for the next 8 years. All along, he says, he was chasing the dream of opening a place of his own.

That place became Bruxelles Brasserie, a new experience in the former 20-year South Norwalk location of the first Barcelona Wine Bar, where Olah creates a modern European menu.

Perseverance and renewal  outlasting the previous year  were the consistent themes of 2021 as the people of Connecticut and the world re-emerged. Bruxelles Brasserie is one of the survivors of this time, simultaneously a new face in the ever-overturning facades of the SoNo dining scene, and a branch reaching outward from the classical tradition of French cuisine.

The space is utterly redesigned and much brighter than the former restaurants vibe. We wanted a European look, a big difference, really our own, says general manager Angela Grogan, a veteran of the restaurant startup industry who spent nine years in Las Vegas before arriving in Norwalk.

The front rooms long bar  now backed by palms  remains in place, and light streams from outside and from above through multi-paned factory windows. The overhead globe lights, the French wallpaper, the vintage furniture from Mongers Market in Bridgeport, all came via a partnership with local designer Jaqui Silvestri Komblau.

The featured drink on the cocktail list is the gin bowl: a punchy, gin-based mix served in a wine balloon glass. We needed to figure out how to tie in a drinks program with this menus feel, and we thought of the explosion of craft gin distilleries in Europe. The bowl lets the gin breathe and expand, Grogan explains. The customers have gotten into it, its been really fun each season, and weve been able to establish a niche.

I choose the Monty & Max, made with German Monkey 47 gin, Luxardo sangue morlacco cherry, citrus and Fever-Tree aromatic tonic. Lighter in feel than the ingredients suggest, and the color of pink grapefruit, its a refreshing, subtle cocktail with hits of lemon juice and orange zest. My companion opts for the Dutch Courage, made with bols Genevre, grapefruit soda, whole blueberries, and sprig of thyme. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday, and bowls with decidedly more local SoNo 1420 gins can be had for $10.

Bruxelles Brasserie 63-71 N. Main St., Norwalk 203-857-1494, bruxellessono.com, @sonobruxelles on Instagram Open daily for dinner; brunch Sat. and Sun. Wheelchair accessible See More Collapse

Olah is quick to credit his manager. What Angela did with the drink program and operations is unbelievable. Without her Im not talking to Connecticut Magazine right now.

Scanning the menu while sipping a drink shows the variety Olah offers, making for a difficult decision: everything looks good. It says Brasserie, but I really wanted to cook anything I like, not just French, he says. We have goulash from my heritage, if I want to cook Italian, anything, Ill do that. Its much more wide open.

Belgian croquettes with Serrano ham, salmon rillettes, acorn squash gnocchi, or charcuterie: everything jumps off the page. Our server specifically recommends the roasted cauliflower with pine nuts and a cumin-cilantro yogurt dressing, and the beef Bourguignon. Strongly tempted by all of the above, we elect to begin with a country pork and duck pate.

The pate comes bacon wrapped and studded with pistachios over a tiny reef of cornichons, with dipping sides of whole-grain mustard in a large dollop, and Dijon in small dots. The accompanying grilled baguette is chewy and a bit charred, adding a different flavor and textural component to the garlicky, smoky, aromatic funk of the pate. Mache greens of the on-plate salad  sometimes called corn salad for their preferred choice of terroir in the American South, but looking like the kind of verdant growth youd canoe through in a Cambodian river  are tasty, and a bit nutty in their own right. Were off to an excellent start.

The restaurant begins to fill as we wait for the main course. Dense with both workers and fans of the nightlife, SoNo is a great location for a restaurant, but the going wasnt easy for Bruxelles. We opened in December of 2019, and the first three months were fantastic, despite nobody knowing us, Olah says. The weekends, the brunch, were unbelievable. Then it was all just gone by March. We cut the menu in half, started preparing family meals for people to eat at home.

Olah and partner Jay Luther kept working at it, finishing the main dining room in addition to the bar/bistro area in time for Connecticuts tentative reopening. Since then, their popularity has only grown. We have so many regulars now who spread the word, tell their families and friends, and now theyre our friends. Its real here, Olah continues. For me the biggest consideration is for my food to be simple, well-made, with no shortcuts, and not so many ingredients. We work hard for it, and I think we do something special.

Bruxelles  the local spelling of the city we know as Brussels, Belgium  puts me in the mind of moule-frites, the original mussels from Brussels (sorry, Jean-Claude Van Damme), and Im delighted to see them on the menu, served two ways.

Nearly a pound of mussels cluster in the bowl under strips of leeks, basking in a fragrant broth made from Belgian ale, Dijon cream and parsley. Skin-on frites are served on the side with ketchup or a surprisingly bright and citrusy mayonnaise. There is a marvelous depth to the ale sauce pooling at the bottom to spoon over the shellfish as you go to town on this Belgian feast.

I pair the entree with a 2020 Gravel and Loam sauvignon blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. Sweet, smooth and tart, the wine proves a perfect counterpoint to the rich and herbal treatment of the mussels.

My companion orders a breast of roast chicken on a bed of carrot parsnip puree. A Frenched wing drumstick stands out from a pillowy, juicy breast showing in slices under a glossy, dark-roasted brown skin. The circular islet of puree, with cremini mushrooms, cipollini onions, and a fan of broccolini, is surrounded by a moat of brown jus. The chicken is moist and expertly cooked, with a rich variety of flavor and textures from the creamy layer underneath. Outstanding in its own right, the dish makes me deeply curious as to what the chef can do with the recommended Bourguignon.

Later, I ask the chef what he wants to accomplish now that he has a kitchen of his own. I think theres a trust you need to have with people who come to eat. Every ingredient, if I dont feel the dish, I wont make it. If its 50-50 I wont put it on the menu. The quality has to be there, no good days and bad days. It has to be the same, every time, is his stated mission.

We wanted to keep it under $30 for everyone. I like people to think, I want to eat well, but I want to give them something reasonable, and with good portions. I want them to remember and be able to come back. The goal is to do this, and be able to support the village of people who help me make it possible here. We try hard to make everybody happy.
Frank Augstein / Associated Press

The campaign to ban the sale of flavored vaping products in Connecticut is gaining momentum with a group of Democratic lawmakers expected to issue their support, joined by health advocates, during an online news conference Wednesday.

State Sens. Julie Kushner, Saud Anwar, Jorge Cabrera and James Maroney, and state Reps. Corey Paris and Jill Barry  all Democrats  will push for the ban at Wednesdays press conference and highlight how Connecticut is one of the few states in the Northeast to still allow the sale of flavored vaping products. A rise in teen vaping has led many states to prohibit the products from being sold within their borders.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 New Fairfield Resident Troopers Office / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Marie D. De Jesus / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3





NEW FAIRFIELD  Police are seeking the publics help in finding the person, or persons, responsible for stealing catalytic converters from two vans.

The exhaust emission control devices were stolen during the overnight hours of Jan. 31 into Feb. 1, according to police, and the targeted vehicles were parked at the New Fairfield Senior Center.
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NEWTOWN  The Board of Education will vote on the adoption of a new academic freedom policy Tuesday that seeks to champion diversity, equity and inclusion while drawing the line between education and indoctrination.

Schools should teach students how to think, not what to think, reads the proposed academic freedom policy, in part. Public school classrooms are forums for inquiry, not arenas for the promulgation of particular viewpoints.

If that language sounds familiar, its because it comes verbatim from the Connecticut State Board of Education policy on academic freedom and public education.

Newtowns 150-word policy, which if adopted would become the basis upon which the superintendent and administrators could develop more specific regulations, concludes with guidance about respecting the constitutional and intellectual rights guaranteed school personnel and students by law and tradition.

The board will make every effort to maintain an atmosphere of academic freedom within the schools that are without partisan, embrace diversity of thought, foster equity in perspectives, and inclusion of ideas, the proposed policy reads.

The school boards effort to find principles beneath the politics of diversity comes after months of discussion in Newtown about creating a richer cultural awareness and more inclusive environment, and the hiring in October of a full-time coordinator for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Wesley A. Johnson II, who was hired in October to lead Newtowns DEI effort, is collecting survey feedback about the districts discrimination complaint form, tracking incidents of bullying and discrimination, and investigating the effectiveness of an anonymous reporting app, among other initiatives.

On a broader level, Newtowns vote on Tuesday follows the racial reckoning the country went through in 2020, when the coronavirus crisis and the slaying of George Floyd magnified racial disparities.

But the effort to champion diversity, equity and inclusion as an element of academic freedom began before the 2020 crisis, said Dan Cruson Jr., a Board of Education member and the chair of the school boards policy committee.

This policy discussion came about as part of the normal organic process, Cruson said on Monday. It was something (the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education) had recommended, and it does predate 2020.

The proposed policy, which would uphold the distinction between teaching and indoctrination and affirm that to study an idea is not necessarily to endorse an idea, has been a subject of debate in Newtown since December.

During a policy committee meeting in mid-January, for example, Sabeena Ali, the mother of a Newtown High School student, said while she felt the Newtown community at large was welcoming, open and inclusive, her daughter had been bullied since the first grade.

In the past three to four years there has been a shift and teachers, staff and students have been more accepting of her, Ali said. The change started when Newtown public schools started incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion concepts.

Another Newtown resident at the mid-January policy meeting implored the committee to remember the students who spoke in favor of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives during a late-December school board meeting.

Cyrena Arokium, an 11th-grader at Newtown High School, said at that December meeting that it was important to incorporate culturally responsible instruction, for example.

You are never too old to learn, unlearn or relearn, she said.

Other speakers such as Tony Keating disagreed, encouraging the Board of Education to push back and refuse to endorse political indoctrination.

Following public comments, school board member Don Ramsey asked Johnson how he saw unity and patriotism in his work for the district.

Johnson said he was not sure how that was connected to diversity, equity and inclusion in public schools, but I would hope patriotism can reflect all people.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
MONTREAL, Jan. 31, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Auxico Resources Canada Inc. (CSE: AUAG) is pleased to announce that, as a result of a recent sampling program conducted by Joel Scodnick, the Company's Qualified Person ("QP"), the Company has decided to sign a joint venture agreement for the acquisition of a 70% interest in the Luz Angelica property located in the municipality of Concepcion, in the province of Nuflo de Chavez, in the region of Santa Cruz in Bolivia. The recent due diligence process has confirmed the presence of pegmatite veins containing lithium mineralization, as well as high-grade cesium and rubidium mineralization, and various rare earths. The results of selected samples are presented in the table below.

Samples Lithium Grade (ppm) Cesium Grade (ppm) Rubidium Grade (ppm) Neodymium Grade

(ppm) Yttrium Grade (ppm) Dysprosium Grade

(ppm) Gadolinium Grade

(ppm) Praseodymium Grade

(ppm) S00357807 348.91 1,019.73 56.07 530.97 9.05 2.45 2.88 4.66 S00357810 10.30 2.25 33.42 594.46 25.17 5.27 5.20 451.82 S00357811 < b> 3.88 11.08 378.91 4,354.87 308.17 164.05 199.66 S00357816 1,475.87 100.60 2,694.27 530.09 8.71 1.72 1.41 119.08

Joel Scodnick, the Company's QP, commented, "What we see at Luz Angelica is a network of Pegmatite veins comprised mostly of Lepidolite and Quartz hosted in a granitic intrusion and carrying substantial Lithium, Cesium, and Rubidium concentrations that I don't believe have ever been discovered in this area before. This is a new discovery of considerable merit. Massive booklets of lepidolite, which is the lithium-bearing mineral, are observed in many areas of the pit that was visited. Sample number AS00357807, which returned high values of just over 1 kg/t of Cesium, was selected from a quartz-vein which does not have any visible lepidolite but still has 348 g/t lithium. Sample S00357816 was selected from a stockpile of Lepidolite outside the pit area and has also returned a high-grade of 1.476 kg/t of lithium. We are currently planning the next exploration phase which will likely include detailed mapping of the pit, channel sampling, geological mapping of the rest of the property, as well as a geophysical survey."

The property covers an area of 825 hectares and is classified as a mining concession according to the laws of Bolivia. The Company paid a one-time fee of US$103,000 for the work done to date on the property. In addition, the Company has an option to purchase an additional 15% of the joint venture interest for an amount of CA$500,000. Auxico will be committing 100% of the capital required for the technical operations, exploration, exploitation, concentration, transport and commercialization of ore from the property.

Uses of Cesium and Rubidium

Cesium applications are critical for modern technologies, including advances in healthcare, defense, and the 5G revolution. The "cesium standard" allows the accurate measuring of time, which means that cesium is the key to mobile networks, the internet, and GPS. The average cesium content in the samples referenced above is 281 grams per tonne. The current price of cesium is US$79 per gram.

Rubidium is used in vapor turbines, in vacuum tubes, in photocells, in atomic clocks, in some types of glass, the production of superoxide by burning oxygen, and with potassium ions in several biological uses. The average rubidium content in the samples referenced above is 698 grams per tonne. The current market price of rubidium is US$25 per gram.

Cesium and rubidium are not mined in the United States, and the metal and its compounds are produced from imported ores. Both minerals are included on the list of critical minerals released by the US Department of the Interior.

Samples from the Luz Angelica property were analyzed by Impact Global Solutions in Delson.

This news release was reviewed and approved by Joel Scodnick, P.Geo., an independent consultant to Auxico, in his capacity as a Qualified Person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Auxico Resources Canada Inc.

Auxico Resources Canada Inc. ("Auxico") is a Canadian company that was founded in 2014 and based in Montreal. Auxico is engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Additional information on Auxico can be found on the Company's website ( www.auxicoresources.com ) or on SEDAR ( www.sedar.com ) under "Auxico Resources Canada Inc."

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

 signed   signed 



Pierre Gauthier Mark Billings CEO, Auxico Resources Canada Inc. President, Auxico Resources Canada Inc. [email protected] [email protected] Cell: +1 514 299 0881 Cell: +1 514 296 1641

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the contents of this release.

SOURCE Auxico Resources Canada Inc.

For further information: Pierre Gauthier, CEO, Auxico Resources Canada Inc., [email protected], Cell: +1 514 299 0881; Mark Billings, President, Auxico Resources Canada Inc., [email protected], Cell: +1 514 296 1641
Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, and Jennifer McKillop, Saskatchewan Regional Vice-President for Nature Conservancy of Canada, announced that 40 plains bison were successfully translocated to establish a new herd with The Key First Nation in Treaty 4. This marks a historic moment for The Key First Nation; a nation that has worked closely with Parks Canada and the Nature Conservancy of Canada to return these culturally significant animals to their traditional lands.

Bison are an iconic symbol of the grasslands and, once numbered in the tens of millions, were relied upon as a staple part of the lives of Indigenous peoples. The near extinction of bison  culminating in the 1880s due to over-hunting  resulted in economic, spiritual and cultural devastation for Indigenous peoples on the Prairies. A total of 20 plains bison from Grasslands National Park and 20 from Old Man on His Back Prairie and Heritage Conservation Area (OMB) in Saskatchewan have been successfully translocated to The Key First Nation's lands. With this transfer of animals, The Key First Nation, Parks Canada and NCC are working in collaboration toward the survival and well-being of these iconic and majestic animals.

Returning mashkode-bizhiki to The Key First Nation advances Indigenous-led conservation of a threatened species, including through Indigenous ecological knowledge, partnerships between nations and stakeholders, and improved cultural and socio-economic opportunities for the Anishinaabe people.

Quotes

"Repatriation of bison is the true cultural revitalization piece for our Anishinaabe people immediately creating unity and togetherness within the community chi-miigwech."

Christopher Gareau

Councillor for The Key First Nation

"Our Government has made it a key commitment to support wildlife conservation efforts and the recovery of threatened species, like bison. Plains bison are an iconic keystone species of the Great Plains and their importance to the cultural, economic and spiritual heritage for The Key First Nation and other Indigenous groups of the Prairies cannot be overstated. It is truly an honour to help this majestic animal survive and thrive once again, and restore this vital cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples of the Northern Great Plains."

The Honourable Steven Guilbeault

Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada

"The near extinction of plains bison was a devastating loss for Indigenous peoples across the Great Northern Plains. This collaboration with The Key First Nation to return plains bison to their land is a positive example of Parks Canada and Indigenous peoples working together and taking important steps toward conserving natural and cultural heritage, and sharing the stories of this majestic animal."

The Honourable Marc Miller

Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations

"Indigenous peoples of North America lived alongside bison for thousands of years, and in many Indigenous cultures, bison and humans are inextricably linked. The grazing patterns of bison also help shape the vegetation composition, ecosystem function and structure of the Prairies. Partnerships with Indigenous communities are a vital part of NCC's work as a land conservation organization. We strive to ensure that collaborating with Indigenous peoples becomes a routine part of our conservation work. We are honoured to help establish a plains bison herd for The Key First Nation."

Jennifer McKillop

Saskatchewan Regional Vice-President for Nature Conservancy of Canada

Quick Facts

The Key First Nation homeland is part of the territory covered by the terms of Treaty 4 (1874), located in Norquay ; part of the Fort Pelly district in eastern Saskatchewan .

homeland is part of the territory covered by the terms of Treaty 4 (1874), located in ; part of the Fort Pelly district in eastern . Over the past decade, Grasslands National Park staff have worked closely with Indigenous communities that have applied to receive bison to bring this culturally significant animal back to their traditional rangeland, while also facilitating cultural or socio-economic opportunities. Any Nation interested in this opportunity is encouraged to contact Grasslands National Park for more information.

In 2003, a group of 50 plains bison calves were translocated from Elk Island National Park to OMB, where plains bison had once roamed in the thousands but had almost become extirpated (locally extinct) in the early 1900s.The herd provides visitors to OMB the opportunity to safely view plains bison in their natural habitat.

to OMB, where plains bison had once roamed in the thousands but had almost become extirpated (locally extinct) in the early 1900s.The herd provides visitors to OMB the opportunity to safely view plains bison in their natural habitat. An additional 10 plains bison will be selected from Grasslands National Park and translocated to OMB this winter, to supplement the herd. Working together with Indigenous Nations and conservation partners allows for both the establishment of new herds, while managing existing populations to maintain sufficient grazing land, and the protection of vegetation communities and rangeland for other species.

Related Documents

Parks Canada Backgrounder: Plains Bison Herd Establishment for The Key First Nation

Nature Conservancy of Canada Backgrounder: Partnership between The Nature Conservancy of Canada and The Key First Nation

Related Links

SOURCE Parks Canada

For further information: Gabriel Brunet, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, 819-665-6527, [email protected]; Media Relations, Parks Canada Agency, 855-862-1812, [email protected]; Daphne May, Communications Manager, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Saskatchewan Region, 306-715-2983, [email protected]
The rich aroma of seared meat simmering in red wine and beef stock filled the house, the fragrant steam pushing away the blustery gusts that rattled the windows. Marsha was cooking up a pot of her favorite beef stew with root vegetables. Following a recipe from thekitchn.com by Sheri Castle, she spent the afternoon browning, measuring, chopping and peeling.

Braising is a natural partner with cold weather. The winter-friendly technique warms you twice: once while it cooks and again at the table. It could be stew, pot roast, or even a ragout of vegetables. Beef is a favorite, but pork, lamb and chicken are all delicious after a long, slow simmer.

This recipe has a few wrinkles that make it particularly delicious.

Castle insists that the meat be well-seared. Dont rush this step, she admonishes. Deep browning is the bedrock of beef flavor. She specifies cubes of beef chuck for the meat. Streaked with fat and connective tissue, the chuck isnt attractive; but cooked slowly it becomes meltingly tender and richly flavored.

Instead of dicing the celery, carrots and onion for mirepoix, the instructions are to finely chop them. Marsha minced them in the food processor with a few pulses so that they would melt away in the gravy during the hours of cooking, leaving behind just their flavor.

As you would expect, the simmering liquid is a mix of tomato paste, beef stock (store bought is fine) and red wine. But then Castle pulls an ingredient out of left field.

To fortify the broth and add rich complex flavor she calls for three tablespoons of veal demi glace. Whats that?

Frank Whitman / For Connecticut Media Group

Demi glace is an old-school French ingredient from the days of scratch kitchens with simmering stock pots. Made from a reduction of beef stock sometimes mixed with brown sauce, it's intensely flavored, thick and glossy. Veal demi glace is the classic, but chicken and beef are also kitchen basics. Its hard to find and even harder to make.

The complex days-long process of roasting bones and simmering vegetables for a brown stock and then further reducing the liquid to demi glace is beyond most home cooks.

European-trained chef Roland Olah is passionate about his stocks. At his South Norwalk restaurant, Bruxelles Brasserie, the stock pot is set to simmer overnight. Roasted veal bones are the base for his brown stock. Chicken and beef stock are always on hand too. Without these stocks, he told me, I couldnt produce my menu. None are reduced to the level of demi glace, but with an almost 90 percent reduction to make the menu-favorite beef bourguignon, he comes pretty close.

You can buy demi glace, just not easily. Like so many things, it's available online. DArtagnan, a source for high quality meat and meat products, sells their own brand, $10 for 7 ounces. More than Gourmet, a comprehensive source for sauce and flavoring ingredients, has a classic veal demi glace, 16 ounces for $35. But Marsha had no time for a delivered order.

Williams Sonoma offers it on their website, 9.5 ounces for $30, and also at their stores. A quick trip to Westport would put us in business. Only chicken was in stock, but as far as the concentrated flavor of demi glace is concerned chicken isnt that far off from veal.

Frank Whitman / For Connecticut Media Group

Back at the stove, the thick, flavor-packed demi glace was spooned in to enrich the stew.

Marshas favorite part of the stew is the root vegetables: carrots, potatoes, parsnips and rutabagas. When our 1840 house was built, the root cellar was as essential as refrigerators are today. Vegetables just like the ones in this stew would be kept cool and dry out of season for use all winter long. It's this connection, plus their great color and flavor, that makes this recipe a favorite.

While the meat simmers, the vegetables are peeled, diced and sliced. They go in the pot for the last 20 minutes of cooking.

Deeply flavored, glossy from the demi glace, and packed with vegetables and meat, the stew is a hearty meal  just the ticket for a cold winter night.

Frank Whitman writes a weekly food column called "Not Bread Alone." He can be reached at NotBreadAloneFW@gmail.com.
When three 13-year-old boys were sickened by the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl at a Hartford middle school on Jan. 13, it was a shocking reminder of the human toll of the opioid crisis. One of the boys later died and a sweep of the school surfaced 40 small plastic bags of the drug.

Later that same day, dozens of people spoke out against a proposal to locate a methadone clinic on a commercial street on the New Haven-Hamden border.

During the ongoing battle with COVID-19, there seems to be less attention being paid to opioid addiction, advocates say. But now these two events put opioids and opioid use disorder back in the spotlight. Deaths from opioid overdose in Connecticut have increased nearly 40 percent over the past three years, hitting 1,356 through the first 11 months of in 2021 and, police say, the state is flooded with ever-more-powerful synthetic opioids.

The incidents on Jan. 13 illustrate two stubborn facts of the war on opioids: 1) The increase in overdoses indicates that the state isnt winning, and 2) Its difficult to get the most effective treatments for opioid use disorder to the people who need them.

Programs including methadone and buprenorphine are most effective for people who are diagnosed with having moderate to severe opioid use disorder (OUD), according to numerous academic studies, including one published in February 2020 by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Yet people overwhelmingly end up enrolled in abstinence and detoxification programs, even though theyre effective in only 10 to 15 percent of the cases. Addiction experts believe stigma and barriers to access deter many from receiving life-saving medications.

While Connecticut has implemented a wide range of responses to opioids, an array of people and groups are now calling for a fundamental rethinking of how to address the condition. They include parents of people who died from overdoses, addiction medicine experts, and leaders of treatment programs.

We need big changes. Incremental changes havent been enough, said Fiona Firine, a spokesperson for For Cameron, an advocacy organization her family set up in the wake of the death of a loved one. We should approach opioids with the same intensity that we do COVID. This is an epidemic. Its a crisis.

Firine organized an informal Zoom call on Jan. 10 where advocacy groups took turns presenting jointly-agreed-on proposals to state senators and assembly members. They called for the creation of a state Chief Drug Officer to coordinate the multi-agency response to the crisis and to educate the public about its severity and urgency. They also asked for spending on additional capacity for in-patient treatment and for additional support for people after they complete such programs. Another proposal seems destined to be controversial at a time when Connecticut has been reducing its prison population: 5-year minimum sentences for people who are convicted of selling drugs containing fentanyl.

Contacted later, two members of the legislatures Public Health Committee who participated in the call said theyre gathering in formation and have not begun drafting legislation. State Rep. John-Michael Parker of the 101st District, wrote in an email: I am still very new to this issue and have a lot to learn.

State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest of the 18th District and vice chair of the committee, agreed that its time for a reassessment. She said she likes the chief drug officer idea and called for a fundamental shift in the way the state deals with opioids. We need major changes, she said. We need to shift to seeing this as a chronic disease rather than a problem that can be solved with quick fixes.

Resources should be available to fund new approaches or expansions of existing programs. Connecticut and its cities are flush with cash from federal stimulus programs and, starting this summer, they will begin receiving funds from the national opioid settlement with the pharmaceutical companies that profited from over-prescription of legal opioid medications for pain. According to the state attorney generals office, Connecticut will receive $300 million over 18 years. Its up to the legislature to decide how to spend it. The settlement stipulates that 70 percent of the money should be spent on future abatement activities.

The state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), the agency with primary responsibility for dealing with the opioid crisis, runs, funds, and/or regulates a wide variety of activities and programs, including the Live Loud Families awareness website and more than 250 addiction care facilities and 45 sober homes. A spokesperson for Luiza Barnat, director for opioid services at DMHAS, said DMHAS is implementing strategies that have been proven effective in addressing the opioid crisis. In response to a question about how the settlement money should be spent, the answer was brief: It should be directed toward practices that have been proven effective.

Addiction medicine experts at Yale School of Medicine argue that nationally and in Connecticut, more resources and attention should be focused on evidence-based solutionsprimarily outpatient medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Thats the use of opioid-based medications in combination with counseling and behavior therapies.

Despite us knowing what to do, the numbers keep getting worse, said Dr. David Fiellin, director of Yales Program in Addiction Medicine. He was the lead author in 2016 of a strategic plan for the state, which was commissioned by then-Gov. Dannel Malloy.

Much of the response to opioid use disorder is still focused on law enforcement and abstinence, neither of which has been effective at ending the drug crisis. Fiellin called for lessening government support for programs that do not provide medication-based treatment and for establishing new rules requiring all addiction care programs to inform patients about the comparative effectiveness of treatment options.

Community opposition to the APT Foundation methadone clinic in New Haven shows how difficult it is to make MAT widely available. Dispensing methadone for opioid use disorder is controlled by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and is limited to specialty facilities that are most often located in cities and typically serve hundreds of patients. Residents living near an existing APT Foundation clinic on New Havens Congress Avenue have complained for years about people congregating nearby and drug use in the neighborhood, and, though the clinic has made changes in response, the neighbors are not satisfied. They complain that people from elsewhere are channeled to the city for methadone treatment, placing an unfair burden on neighborhoods where the residents are predominantly Black and Latino.

APT Foundation Chief Executive Lynn Madden defends her clinics. Siting drug treatment programs is very difficult. Theres a lot of misunderstanding of how methadone treatment works, and neighbors have had negative experiences, she said. Madden called for a broad new state initiative aimed at getting people quick access to MAT via a wide variety of touchpointswhether its a community health clinic, a hospital emergency department, a homeless shelter, an obstetricians office, or a church-based social service.

Fiellin and some of his colleagues at Yale helped shape changes in government policy that enabled more physicians to prescribe buprenorphine. Now, they hope to convince the DEA to change regulations for methadone, making it available for prescription by trained and certified doctors anywhere in the state and the country. That way, they argue, it would be easier for people to access the most effective treatments, and the unwelcome congregation problems could be reduced or eliminated.

We shouldnt have to rely on large methadone clinics to get treatment to people who need it, said Marek Chawarski, an opioid researcher in Yales Department of Psychiatry. The current highly-regulated model of treating people with opioid use problems is outdated and an unnecessary relic of past thinking.

Chawarski stressed that MAT is not a magic bullet. Besides medications, other approaches are needed. He said there should be improvements in prevention programs in schools. In addition, lifestyle changes can help patients with OUD sustain recovery.

Chawarski, Fiellin and their colleagues face a number of challenges in their effort to expand methadone prescribingand not just from the DEA (which didnt respond to a request for comment) and advocates of abstinence-based treatments. Even though general medical practices have been permitted to prescribe buprenorphine for nearly 20 years, not enough of them actually do it. Methadone, with all of its reputational problems, might be an ever-harder sell.

In spite of the evidence that MAT is the most effective treatment for OUD, some people within the recovery community favor other approaches, such as so-called 12-step programs, many of which preach abstinence. Phil Valentine, executive director of Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, said that rather than trying to convince people to use MAT, treatment experts should listen to people who are in recovery and their families and see what they want. We should see if theres something innovative we can trywhether its evidence-based or notthat might have an effect, he said.

While the advocates for change dont agree on everything, they agree on one thing: the need for bold changes. Every system is perfectly designed to produce the results its currently receiving, says APT Foundations Madden. We arent achieving the results we want, so lets change the system.

This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team ( c-hit.org ), a nonprofit news organization dedicated to health reporting.
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With a frigid January behind us, Connecticut residents might be wondering whats in store for Februarys weather.

According to local meteorologists, the state will experience cold temperatures at the beginning of the month, but they will climb as March approaches. During February, the average temperature will be 38 degrees with two inches of precipitation, according to the Almanac.

"February is going to start off cold for the first 10 days or so," said Gary Lessor, a meteorologist with the Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University. "But then it's anticipated that it will turn warmer and we'll finish the month warmer than normal."

Lessor's forecast goes hand in hand with the National Weather Service's monthly outlook. Connecticut is included in the "likely above normal" temperatures for the upcoming month, with a 50 to 60 percent of probability of seeing high temperatures. According to Lessor, February's normal high is 40 degrees and low is 25 degrees.

This weekend, New England is forecasted to receive a winter storm, but the details still remain uncertain. Rain is expected to start Thursday and continue to the weekend but could also evolve into a mix of ice and snow, according to FOX61'S Rachel Frank.

After this weekend, however, the temperature is expected to rise, according to Bob Maxon, meteorologist for NBC Connecticut.

The increased daylight and all the things that point us towards spring; the longer days and the higher sun angle  I think that our normal temperatures will become milder, said Maxon.

Starting around Feb. 15, temperatures will become milder and will increase by the end of the month, according to the Almanac.

State residents shouldn't go in a full spring mode just yet, said Maxon, since the warmer temperatures of the month will still be considered cold.

"No palm trees, no 70 degree weather, but we'll have we'll have a slightly milder middle and end of February," said Maxon.

Aside from what meteorologists predict, state residents might also listen to what the state's groundhog Chuckles XI predict if there will be six more weeks of winter or if well approach spring sooner.

They [residents] can put their trust on the groundhog or they can put their trust on meteorologists, Maxon joked.
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NEW HAVEN  City Halls leadership roster continued to churn Monday as Mayor Justin Elicker, one month into his second term, announced he will be replacing City Plan Director Aicha Woods and Elderly Services Director Migdalia Castro, among others.

Meanwhile, Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Otis Johnson and Public Safety Communications Director George Peet both will be retiring, and Labor Relations Director Cathleen Simpson plans to move on to other pursuits, Elicker said.

The flurry of activity, about a week after the city let go its director of public health nursing, is coming as the four-year contracts for all of the employees involved, as well as some others, expire Tuesday.

The hiring of most of the department heads involved predated Elicker taking office. The people involved originally were hired in some capacity during the administration of former Mayor Toni Harp. But Elicker pointed out several other department heads who served under Harp whose contracts he is renewing.

Those include Fire Chief John Alston  whose reappointment will require the Board of Alders approval  Corporation Counsel Patricia King, Director of Transportation, Traffic & Parking Sandeep Aysola, Public Works Director Jeff Pescosolido, Livable City Initiative Executive Director Arlevia Samuel, Director of Youth & Recreation Gwendolyn Busch Williams and City Engineer Giovanni Zinn.

Director of Health Maritza Bond, Cultural Affairs Director Adriane Jefferson and City Librarian John Jessen also are up for renewal but technically are hired and must be reviewed by their departments individual governing bodies.

In the grand scheme of things, its not that many changes, Elicker said. The turnover is not significant.

I think its safe to say that theres a regular amount of turnover in jobs everywhere right now ... and that that same trend we see in City Hall, as well, Elicker said. In an ideal world, people would stay around in a lot of these jobs for a long time, but its just the reality of the world today, that change takes place, he said.

Elicker announced the reappointments of Alston, King, Zinn, Pescosolido, Samuel, Aysola and Williams Monday.

He said he will announce new appointments to fill leadership roles in Labor Relations, City Plan and the Fair Rent Commission later this week.

Castro, reached Monday afternoon, said she devoted eight years of her life to her job, working days, nights and weekends to help New Haven seniors.

Moving forward with me gone is going to continue the legacy and the progress that I put forward with the seniors, said Castro, a former alder.

Among the things Castro said shes proud of is obtaining the capital funding to fix and provide furnishings for several formerly-dilapidated senior centers. Shes also proud of helping to greatly expand the role of the Phillip Marett Fund, administered through the probate court, which helps struggling seniors who might not qualify for other forms of assistance with basic needs.

Among other things, she helped expand the fund from a limit of $500 to a higher limit that allowed it to increase the assistance to help seniors who were in danger of losing their homes or needed furniture after a fire,she said.

I wish the story was able to be shared with the mayor, but apparently that never happened, Castro said. But she said I feel good about her legacy and I dont want to say anything negative about this mayor. I thank him for the opportunity for the last two years.

Woods said she had no indication that her contract would not be renewed until very recently ... I can fairly say Im a bit shocked and disappointed, she said. But nonetheless, Im glad that (Elicker) is prioritizing City Plan as a focus area going forward. I just think the role of the department is very important.

Woods gave a shout out to my staff. Theyre incredibly hardworking ... Theyve just done an outstanding job throughout the pandemic, she said.

She said she was really proud of the work her department did with regard to inclusionary zoning and accessory dwelling units, which I think are a step in the right direction. Hopefully, the pandemic will wane and then will be a time to focus on the big picture.

Woods said she was also proud of the work her department did concerning climate change and affordable housing. The next iteration of the comprehensive plan is very important and a very important opportunity to shape the future of the city. Im sorry that I wont be at the helm for that, but I wish whoever is lots of luck.

Im hopeful that the importance of planning will be elevated ... in particular, with regards to redoing our zoning code, which dates back to the 1960s, she said.

Johnson, Simpson and Peet could not immediately be reached for comment.

Im excited to be announcing this leadership team, Elicker said in a release. This is a group of hard-working and talented individuals bringing diverse backgrounds and expertise to the table. Ive worked with many of them every day for the past two years.

My vision for this city is for it to be a place where every resident can thrive and Im confident these individuals share that vision and are dedicated to making it a reality, Elicker said.

mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com
South Africa: Presidency receives part two of State Capture Commission report

The second part of the State Capture Commission report - focusing on state-owned enterprises Transnet and Denel - has been handed over to the Presidency.

The first tranche of the report was handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa by Acting Chief Justice and Commission Chairperson Raymond Zondo in January.

The second hand over on Tuesday was conducted by the Secretary of the Commission Professor Itumeleng Mosala and Deputy Director-General in the Presidency Phindile Baleni.

President Ramaphosa in a statement on Tuesday said the report is a key cog in the fight against corruption in the country.

The handover of the second part of the report of the Commission of Inquiry is another significant step forward in the work we need to do to rid our country of corruption.

During the course of the past four years the Commission has constructed a disturbing picture of the depth and damage of state capture, he said.

President Ramaphosa added that all energies are now focused on ensuring that state coffers are adequately protected and that the commissions recommendations are applied.

We should now apply our energies to the Commissions recommendations and take the necessary steps to make sure we never face this onslaught on public resources and on the fabric of our society, the President said.

At the handover, Commission Secretary Professor Mosala said the Commission is looking forward to handing over the final part of the report which will be longer than the first two.

This is part two, it contains [Transnet and Denel]. The DCJasked to convey his gratitude to the President for being patient with us and for allowing us to hand over even though both of them are not here.

We are really excited that we have been able to get through to this stage. Theres a lot more coming I can tell you. We were supposed to have the Free State asbestos project as part of this as well as the R1 billion housing project. Those two were supposed to be part of it. [However], they are ready but not ready enough to be submitted today. Part three will be very big when it comes, Mosala said.

Accordingly, once all of the three parts have been handed over to President Ramaphosa, he is expected to submit the completed report to Parliament by June 30 with an indication of his intentions with regards to implementation of the reports recommendations.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-02-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Press Release

February 1, 2022 De Lima lauds Senate nod on Marawi Compensation bill Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima welcomed the Senate approval on third and final reading of the proposed Marawi Siege Victims Compensation bill, which is expected to provide compensation for the people's loss or destruction of properties due to the Marawi siege in 2017. De Lima, co-author of the Senate Bill No. 2420, or the "Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2021," said if passed into law, the measure can guarantee that war-torn Marawi will be nursed back to life. "The road has been long but here we are finally helping the residents of Marawi pick up the pieces with Senate Bill No. 2420, or the 'Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2021', by ensuring that victims are provided with compensation for the loss or destruction of their properties," she said. "It recognizes the internally-displaced persons (IDPs) who were driven out by a battle that has left them either widowed or orphaned, and homeless," she added. With 23 affirmative votes, no negative votes, and no abstentions, the chamber approved the proposed Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act last Jan. 31. This bill aims to extend support to 24 barangays considered as "Main Affected Areas" in Marawi, as well as 8 other barangays known as "Other Affected Areas". Victims will be entitled to monetary compensation, free of tax, for their properties where the war has laid waste. De Lima said the recent Senate nod on SB No. 2420 is just among the many efforts needed to continue to rehabilitate Marawi and help people live normal lives again. "Hindi pa tapos ang trabaho. Isa lamang ito sa marami pang hakbang na ating tatahakin upang siguraduhing maibabangon muli ang paraisong ito. "We will continue to rehabilitate Marawi and breathe life back into it through meaningful programs and legislative measures. Tulong-tulong nating ibalik ang ningning sa mata ng mga residente ng Marawi, at liwanag sa kalangitan nito," she said. "When the last dust has settled, we will ensure that not only do we serve justice, but that memories of the lost are valued by giving those they left behind a tomorrow to hope for," she added.
Leilani Chestnut and Amarianna Doctor pose with a cutout of Harriet Tubman after a lecture at the Underground Railroad Heritage Center in 2017. The center is set to open on May 4.
The Christian Association of Nigeria in the 19 Northern states and Abuja has described as untrue, reports that it had endorsed Governor Ya...

The Christian Association of Nigeria in the 19 Northern states and Abuja has described as untrue, reports that it had endorsed Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State for the 2023 presidential election.

The organisation said that from history, it had never adopted any individual for any elective position in the history of elections in Nigeria and wont do so in the 2023 elections.

The Public Relations Officer of CAN (19 Northern States and Abuja), Chaplain Jechonia Gilbert, made the clarification in a communique issued after its Extraordinary Meeting held at Excel Hotel in Abuja, after a condolence visit to its chairman, Rev. Yakubu Pam, on the death of his mother.

The communique read, We want to clarify the recent report in some online papers that Northern CAN had adopted Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State as its presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections.

Northern CAN, from history, has never adopted any individual for any elective position in the history of elections in Nigeria and neither will it do so this time. Our duty to the Nigerian nation as a religious body is to pray for the peace of the nation and encourage our members to participate in every constitutional process towards nation-building.

As an organisation with large followership and its members belonging to different political persuasions, it is unthinkable to assume that we have adopted a particular individual who is not even a flag bearer of any political party as our candidate for the 2023 presidential elections.

We call on the public to disregard such reportage as it is never the thought or imagination of Northern CAN. There has never been any meeting of the leadership of Northern CAN where such a decision was ever taken.





Following the release of election timetable by INEC, we are here to make our contributions towards nation building by directing our leaders from the three zones in the North to go back and mobilize their members to come out en masse to register so as to enable them to participate in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

The strategic meeting is to collate reports from the various zones concerning the security situation in various States that make up the zone with the aim of helping the leadership of Northern CAN in making a bold statement to the nation concerning the worrisome security challenges in the North.

We pray for Nigerians to close ranks for the purpose of defeating the enemies of Nigerians, especially those killing in the name of religion, those kidnapping for ransom and those raping our women across the country. We must unite and stand together to stamp out this evil from our nation.
Edwin Clark, an Ijaw national leader, has appealed to those aspiring for presidency in the 2023 general elections in the north to reconsid...

Edwin Clark, an Ijaw national leader, has appealed to those aspiring for presidency in the 2023 general elections in the north to reconsider their ambition.

He noted that those aspiring for presidency from the north such as the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Governor Aminu Tambuwal and others, for the interest of unity, peace and progress of the country reconsider their interest to avoid chaos.

In a statement on Monday by Clark, he noted that the rotation of power between the geo-political zones in the country was to the overall interest and unity of the country.

Clark stated that though the concept of zoning is not written in the constitution, rotation of power is to the best interest of the countrys unity.

According to him, the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) provides for rotation of elective offices, saying that it is now the turn of the South to produce the 2023 President in the country.

Clack said, Firstly, I wish to use this medium to advise my most respected Peoples Democratic Party chieftains in the persons of former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, Aminu Tambuwal, Governor of Sokoto State, and other PDP aspirants from the north, that in the interest of maintaining the unity of this country to which they have contributed so much, to reconsider their desire of wanting to contest for the presidential election in 2023, because both by the PDP constitution and by convention, it is now the turn of Southern Nigeria to produce the president of Nigeria in 2023, after President Muhammadu Buharis eight years.

He observed that to do otherwise is to invite chaos, stressing that it would lead to the disintegration of the country.

He believed that zoning has been practised in the nations polity even before Independence, adding that when Tafawa Balewa, in 1954, was the prime minister, Nnamdi Azikiwe was the governor-general.

He stated that zoning of political offices, particularly the presidency of the country, is the best antidote to the breakup of Nigeria, assuring that it is the panacea for peace and unity of the country.

Clark opined that on of the reasons why the north opposed Anthony Enahoros motion for independence in 1953, was that they felt they were not equal to the south in education, observing that they were not in a position to produce proportional candidates who will run an independent government with the south because at that time, they had only about four graduates.

The leader of Ijaw stated that they subsequently walked out of the Parliament, went back to the north, and swore never to return to Lagos again.

In his opinion, that was what led to the constitutional conferences held both at the Lancaster House in London and at Ibadan, Nigeria, purposely to keep Nigeria one.

He added that the impression was that no one group, or section of the country, should dominate the government of Nigeria at the expense of other parts of the country.

He explained that it is instructive that the nations two main parties, the APC and the PDP, have been religiously following the zoning and rotation system between the north and the south.

Clark stated that by 2023, the north would have ruled for another eight years, saying that it is rational and right to insist that the presidency should rotate to the south and it does not matter whether the presidency has been produced from the APC or the PDP since 2015.

According to him, the South should decide which of its sub-regions would produce the right presidential candidate.
Senator Rochas Okorocha has described Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, as a smart man who took advantage of the Igbo...





Senator Rochas Okorocha has described Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, as a smart man who took advantage of the Igbos unhappiness and naivety.





Okorocha made the remark during a chat with Arise TV while commenting on IPOBs secessionist agitation in the Southeast.





Okorocha insisted that most Southeast youths are not secessionists but angry Nigerians railing against the system, making them easy targets for IPOBs agenda.





The issue of IPOB is very controversial and they are the agitations of some young men seeking for relevance who even disrespected me during my tenure as a governor; I dont see them as secessionists.





They had been told that the rest of the country hates them. Nnamdi Kanu is a smart man who got these people to think as he wanted, he said.
Asari Dokubo, a former Niger Delta leader, has disclosed why he believes Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, can n...

Asari Dokubo, a former Niger Delta leader, has disclosed why he believes Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, can never regain freedom.

Dokubo said Kanu would not be released from the Department of State Services dungeon due to the evil he committed.

The defunct Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Force leader disclosed this in a recent video on his Facebook wall.

He alleged that the evil Kanu committed can not be corrected; hence he would not come out of the DSS dungeon.

Dokubo also blamed the alleged cannibalism, kidnapping, drug abuses in the Southeast on Kanu, IPOB and the Eastern Security Network (ESN).

Dokubo said, I dont think God will help Nnamdi Kanu to come out from that dungeon (referring to DSS). He will not come out, for the evil he has committed cannot be corrected.

Stop blaming others for what you have done.

Your DOS has admitted, your autopilot has admitted, Simon Ekpa has admitted, theyve all admitted. Stop blaming others. That is the truth. The cannibals at Orsumoghu, Anambra State; and Orsuihiteukwa in Orlu, Imo State, the kidnappers, the armed robbers, the rapists, all of them, they are associated with IPOB and ESN. This is the truth, confirmed by the mouth of your own leadership.

Watch video here.
A Federal High Court judgment which convicted and jailed former Chairman, Defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina for six years...





A Federal High Court judgment which convicted and jailed former Chairman, Defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina for six years, was on Tuesday admitted as exhibit against former Head of Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye in the N2bn alleged corruption charges brought against him by the federal government.





The judgment was tendered in evidence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) in the ongoing trial of Oronsaye on money laundering charges.





At the resumed trial on Tuesday, the prosecuting counsel, Mr Oluwaleke Atolagbe tendered the judgment through Ms Rukayat Ibrahim, the prosecutions 20th witness in the ongoing trial.





Ibrahim, an operative of EFCC who had been giving her testimony in the trial in the last one year, told the court that the Commission had succeeded in convicting Maina and sentencing him to six years in prison for N2.7 billion pension fraud.





She said the money was in the pension fund and that investigation revealed the money was approved by Oronsaye.





Ibrahim added that Maina opened five fictitious accounts in a commercial bank and used them to siphon the money from the pension fund for his personal use.





Our investigation revealed that Abdulrasheed Maina took advantage of the fact that his brother worked with one of the commercial banks and opened the accounts in contravention to provisions of the Money Laundering Act.





The accounts were opened without carrying out know your customer, they were operated through SMS and emails and our investigations showed that although they had fictitious names, they were operated by Abdulrasheed Maina even though his name and picture did not appear on any of the accounts.





We were able to link them to him through his signature on his extra-judicial statement, the phone number used to receive alerts and some payments from those accounts were traced to his real account.





The witness also said that the investigation revealed that on July 15, 2010, a sum of over N101 million was transferred to Oronsayes account.





According to her, when the commission asked for an explanation, Oronsaye gave an unclear explanation and brought a letter from the presidency that the money was sent to the presidency.





She further told the court that the letter did not represent the virement of the money.





Justice Inyang Ekwo has, however, adjourned the matter till February. 3 for cross-examination of the witness.





Oronsaye is being tried, alongside others, for allegedly using inflated biometrics enrollment contracts, collective allowances and other schemes to siphon money from accounts in which pensioners funds were kept.
Arsenal have signed documents confirming they have terminated Pierre-Emerick Aubameyangs contract with the club. The 32-year-old no...

Arsenal have signed documents confirming they have terminated Pierre-Emerick Aubameyangs contract with the club.

The 32-year-old now has the all-clear to sign for Barcelona as a free agent.

This was confirmed by Italian transfer expert, Fabrizio Romano, on Tuesday morning via his verified Twitter page.

Romano wrote: Arsenal have counter-signed paperworks for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyangs contract termination today morning. Barcelona announcement finally in place.

The Gabon striker is now expected to be officially unveiled by the Spanish giants later in the day.

Aubameyang leaves Arsenal after four years with the Premier League, after falling out with manager Mikel Arteta.

Arteta removed Aubameyang as captain in December following a disciplinary breach.
No. The money should go to something that would benefit all citizens of the county, not just Watertown.

Yes. The community would benefit from the indoor pools the project would provide.

Vote

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When we last left Jack Reacher, the butt-kicking protagonist of novelist Lee Childs series of crime thrillers, he was being played by Tom Cruise in 2012s New Orleans-shot Dont Go Back.

And Childs fanbase wasnt exactly thrilled about it.

The more charitable of the films detractors allowed that Cruise is a fine actor with an admirable derring-do when it comes to performing his own stunts in the reliably intense Mission: Impossible movies. But, the argument went, his casting as Jack Reacher was, in fact, a reach.

After all, Cruise is all of 5-foot-7 and, while fit, compact in build.

Reacher, on the other hand, is a musclebound 6-foot-5 and weighs in at 250 pounds. Hes also an unstoppable, blond-haired killing machine who puts his military training to use by drifting from town to town and righting whatever injustice he encounters.

Even Child himself, who has so far penned 26 Reacher novels, has openly criticized Cruises casting.

In the new Amazon series Reacher, those critics finally get their way. Instead of Cruise, producers cast the monolithic Alan Ritchson (Smallville, Titans) in the title role.

But after seeing the first of the eight episodes making up Season 1, it will likely dawn on them that maybe size doesnt matter quite as much as they had previously thought.

Ritchson certainly fits the bill physically, bringing a bulky menace to the role. In an apparent nod to Cruises fun-size Reacher  or maybe just out of insecurity  Ritchsons brawn is emphasized repeatedly throughout the hourlong first episode provided to critics for review.

Standard-issue handcuffs dont fit him. Standard-issue prison jumpsuits dont fit him. Standard-issue prison cots dont fit him.

But if were being honest, the handcuffs, jumpsuits and cots arent the only things that dont work quite as well as designed when it comes to this Reacher.

Putting aside the fact that Ritchson comes off as a cut-rate John Cena, the storytelling is old-fashioned, painfully formulaic and largely forgettable, boasting all the suspense and innovation of a run-of-the-mill network TV police procedural.

In the process, it also serves as a reminder of all thats wrong with network TV.

Based on 1997s Killing Floor, Childs inaugural book in the Reacher series, it begins with our brawny protagonist drifting his way into small-town Georgia. Before he can even enjoy a forkful of clearly underbaked peach pie, he is immediately and inexplicably arrested for murder.

Naturally, hes innocent and soon forges an uneasy alliance with the local constabulary in an effort to bring the real killer to justice.

Their primary tools: two-bit dialogue, storytelling contrivances, limp one-liners and an episode-ending revelation that youll see coming if youre paying close enough attention.

No nuance, no depth, no originality. In other words: nothing to set it apart.

Now, there will be those who find comfort in the predictability and relative blandness of what follows. Theres a reason NCIS has survived as long as it has.

But in a jam-packed streaming landscape in which viewers have innumerable flavors from which to choose  as opposed to the pablum the networks have been spoon-feeding them for decades  a TV series today needs something to set it apart, to stand out from the noise.

If Reacher has any of that, it doesnt demonstrate it in the first episode.

The funny thing is, Reacher showrunner and writer Nick Santora (The Sopranos, Prison Break) didnt have to look far for inspiration on how to do it right.

Amazons Jack Ryan  also based on a book series about a military veteran with a particular set of skills  found its groove by ditching made-for-TV conventions and striving for a more cinematic feel.

The results are impressive. The COVID-delayed third season of Jack Ryan is expected to begin streaming any day now, and its reportedly already been given the green-light for a fourth.

The Reacher team should take a look at it. At very least, theyll be entertained.

And if theyre smart, theyll take notes.

Mike Scott can be contacted at moviegoermike@gmail.com.
Peter Mayer Advertising, a New Orleans-based advertising and marketing agency founded by its namesake in 1967, has been sold by the founder's sons to the firm's current president, Michelle Edelman

Edelman, who has been president and chief strategy officer of the agency since January 2020, succeeds Mark and Josh Mayer, who have jointly owned and managed the agency for more than 30 years, the company said in a press release Monday.

Financial terms of the private sale were not disclosed. Peter Mayer had $80.7 million in billings during 2020.

The sale and succession has been planned for several years, said Mark Mayer, the current CEO. It was important to us that the agency remain independent, and that there would be continuity of our values, he said, adding that Edelman will now become CEO as well as owner and head of strategy.

Edelman has been with the firm for nearly nine years and some of her most notable client wins have included NASAs Kennedy Space Center, Ochsner Health System, and Coastal Mississippi Tourism.

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Before joining Peter Mayer, she was president and director of communications planning at NYCA, a boutique firm in San Diego, and served in executive management and strategic planning roles at Ogilvy Chicago and Leo Burnett USA.

Im honored and humbled that Mark and Josh have entrusted me with their fathers legacy. Peter had a deep empathy for his clients and the realities of managing and growing a business. As we look ahead to the future, this mindset  creativity in service of business outcomes  will only become more relevant, Edelman said in a statement.

Peter Mayer currently employs 80 and its clients include Lumen Technologies, McCormick's Zatarain's and Thai Kitchen brands, and The National WWII Museum. The agency had about 200 employees in 2014, but it pared back staffing after it lost the account for CenturyLink, now Lumen Technologies.

The founder, Peter Mayer, had come to New Orleans as a 6-year-old refugee from Germany in 1935 to escape the rise of fascism. His son Mark took over running of the firm in 1989 and Josh joined in 1991 as creative director. The elder Mayer died in 2016 at the age of 86.
Stacy Faulkner, clinical director of the Children's Advocacy Center-Hope House, was named the 2021 Louisiana Mental Health Counselor of the Year during a recent special ceremony at Hope House. It was given by the Louisiana Mental Health Counselors Association to a clinician who demonstrates clinical excellence in the field while maintaining the highest degree of ethical standards.

The association, a division of the Louisiana Counseling Association, serves professional counselors who work in community mental health centers, public or private agencies, private practice or prevention-oriented settings. This division promotes the standards of preparing private practitioners, and its members are concerned with the delivery of quality mental health services to children, youth, adults, families and organizations.

Covington Mayor Mark Johnson also presented Faulkner with a special award on behalf of the city, in recognition of her outstanding service to the community.

Childrens Advocacy Center-Hope House is the nonprofit organization responsible for providing forensic interviews and ongoing therapy to all child abuse victims in St. Tammany and Washington Parishes. As clinical director there, Faulkner maintains an active caseload while supervising and directing staff therapists and clinical interns.

Day in and day out, Faulkner works in partnership with the and staff and victim advocates, law enforcement, Child Protective Services, District Attorneys offices, medical personnel and other key players in order to mobilize and strengthen a multidisciplinary approach to the prevention, intervention, investigation, treatment and prosecution of child abuse. This includes providing trauma-focused therapy to children and their non-offending caregivers, creating operating protocols and procedures for counseling programs, creating training documents and tools needed to implement services and measure their effectiveness, and more.

"I look forward to coming to work every day because I have the privilege of helping my clients feel better.  The clients inspire me every day with their courage and resilience, Faulkner said.

Faulkner holds higher degrees in psychology and counseling, is a licensed professional counselor, a national certified counselor and is board certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy  one of only 10 board certifications in the state of Louisiana.
The man who killed two cyclists while driving drunk down Esplanade Avenue after the Krewe of Endymion parade three years ago will get a chance to argue for a lower sentence following a ruling from the Louisiana Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request from prosecutors to reconsider a ruling from an appeals court, which tossed Tashonty Toneys 91-year prison term and sent his case back to the courtroom of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Laurie White for another sentencing.

In November, the state 4th Circuit Court of Appeals said that White would have to do more to explain her rationale if she wants to give Toney an effective life sentence. Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams office in December appealed the circuit court order to the state Supreme Court.

Toney had spent the day of March 2, 2019 celebrating his 32nd birthday before he rammed through two groups of cyclists on Esplanade, killing Sharree Walls, 27, of New Orleans and David Hynes, 31, of Seattle. Seven other people were injured.

Police estimated that Toneys blood alcohol concentration was well over twice the legal limit.

The ruling from the Supreme Court means that Toney will be allowed to present mitigating evidence to argue for a lower sentence at a new hearing in district court.

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Two of seven Supreme Court justices, Scott Crichton and Jay McCallum, said they would have allowed prosecutors to block Toney from introducing more evidence for a lower sentence.

Toney was already allowed to present the testimony from his mother and sister at his original sentencing in October 2019, and more such testimony would be duplicative, the dissenters said.

White imposed Toneys sentence after he entered a guilty plea without forcing the state to take him to trial or reduce his charges.

"You've pleaded guilty here, and that is worth something. But you must have been blind drunk and unconscious in the car to speed down a busy street where bicycles and pedestrians (were) on a post-parade evening," she said.

The sentence has divided victims of the crash.

Families of the two people who died said they supported the sentence, while some survivors said they thought Toney could eventually be released under strict conditions.
Nearly four years before her term was set to expire, Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Regina Bartholomew-Woods is hanging up her robes for a job at Entergy Corp.

Bartholomew-Woods made her resignation official in a letter to the Louisiana Secretary of State last week. It goes into effect on Friday.

In the letter, the judge said she will miss her colleagues and looked forward to the next chapter of my career within the private sector. She will serve as Entergy's assistant general counsel, according to a statement.

The 4th Circuit Court handles appeals in criminal, civil and juvenile cases from Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes.

Retired 40th District Court Judge Madeline Jasmine will temporarily fill the empty judgeship until April 30, according to a Louisiana Supreme Court order.

First sworn in at the 4th Circuit in January 2017, Bartholomew-Woods is leaving a post that comes with a six-figure paycheck and reliable job security.

A Loyola University law school graduate, Woods served as an Orleans Parish Civil District Court judge for five years before handily winning her circuit court race in 2016.

In one notable ruling last year, Bartholomew-Woods held that the final convictions of people convicted by split juries should be overturned under state law.

She was previously a lawyer in practice with several civil firms and the general counsel for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in Charlotte, North Carolina and the Orleans Parish School Board.

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New rulings set up Louisiana Supreme Court showdown over 1,500 non-unanimous jury verdicts Two state appeals courts reached opposite conclusions this week on whether a ban on non-unanimous jury verdicts should be retroactive under st

Woods is married to Jimmie Woods Sr., the owner of the sanitation contracting company Metro Service Group.

She is the second judge to leave the 4th Circuit in recent weeks. Former Chief Judge James McKay III resigned on Jan. 3, nearly a year before his term was set to expire.

Resignations on the circuit court typically set off a flurry of maneuvering from potential candidates  often judges from lower courts, although any attorney who has been admitted to practice law in Louisiana for 10 years may run.

Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Karen Herman has announced her intention to run for McKays seat.

At least one more seat on the court will be vacant by the end of the year. Judge Edwin Lombards term is set to expire on Dec. 31, and he is too old to run again under Louisianas judicial age limits.

Editor's Note: This story was updated on Jan. 31, 2022 to correct a reference to Judge Edwin Lombard.
An Alexandria lawyer whos lost several legal challenges to COVID restrictions is taking aim at New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrells rules in a lawsuit filed Monday.

The state lawsuit, brought on behalf of more than 100 plaintiffs, accuses Cantrell and city Health Director Jennifer Avegno of taking authoritarian actions under the pretext of an emergency without end.

The plaintiffs, mostly from Orleans and Jefferson parishes, seek an injunction blocking the city from enforcing vaccinate-or-test rules and masking requirements in bars, restaurants and other public spaces. The rules now include participants in Carnival and marching club parades.

The lawsuit has been assigned to Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Robin Giarrusso.

Throughout the pandemic, Cantrell has been an outlier among municipal officials in Louisiana for her aggressive approach to COVID-19 restrictions like masking, social distancing and vaccination requirements. She has often gone beyond the restrictions imposed by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Cantrell and Avegno have defended the restrictions as necessary responses to a virus that has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 New Orleanians. Cantrell easily won re-election in November against a field of candidates, most of whom argued that she was too heavy-handed.

The lawsuit claims the mayors rules violate the state constitutional rights to privacy and equal protection. It alleges the vaccine-or-test mandate imposes coercive conditions on the general public, denying access to public accommodations and threatening criminal prosecution as a means to coerce consent to medical treatment.

The plaintiffs are being represented by Alexandria attorney Jimmy Faircloth, previously the general counsel for former Gov. Bobby Jindal, and local lawyers Laura Cannizzaro Rodrigue and Blake Arcuri, former Orleans Parish prosecutors who also serve as lawyers for Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman. The lawsuit was not filed on Gusman's behalf.

Rodrigue is the daughter of former Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, who is now a top aide to Attorney General Jeff Landry. Landry on Tuesday tweeted approvingly about the lawsuit, saying he is "closely monitoring" it and "exploring legal avenues to support the rule of law and the freedom of citizens."

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New Orleans proof of vaccination rules now includes children 5 and older, officials consider new restrictions Mayor LaToya Cantrell Dec. 16 announced an expansion of the citywide COVID-19 proof of vaccination rule to include children, 5 and up. The new

"The people of New Orleans and our children have endured nearly two years of unprecedented control from our so-called city leaders, Rodrigue said in a statement. What started as a temporary means to protect the community from unknown risks of a virus has turned into a circus of mandates that no longer make sense to any rational person. Enough is enough."

A Cantrell spokesman defended the city's policies at a press conference Tuesday.

Traditionally, we do not comment on active or pending litigation,' said City Hall spokesman Beau Tidwell. "However, in this case I think it's worth noting that the guidelines that we put in place saved lives, full stop. The vaccine mandate and the mask requirements are going to remain in place throughout Mardi Gras. And that's the extent of the comment we are going to have.

Faircloth has crafted a string of lawsuits targeting COVID restrictions, with little success thus far. In 2020, two federal judges in separate cases shot down bar owners challenges to Edwards rules that barred on-site consumption early in the pandemic. Last month, the Louisiana Supreme Court said that Ochsner Health was within its rights to force employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or lose their jobs.

+6 Mardi Gras 2022: Everything you need to know about parade routes, schedules and krewe info After the 2021 Mardi Gras season's slate was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic, everything appears to be on track for the 2022 season in New O

Separately, a catering company that wasnt represented by Faircloth lost its bid last year to loosen the restrictions that Cantrell imposed on large gatherings. U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who died last week, ruled in March 2021 that Cantrell was within her rights to limit weddings and parties.

In his ruling, Feldman, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, said that balancing the equities between preserving a businesss ability to exist as a going concern and a citys need to protect itself and its citizens from a deadly virus is a quintessential political question that is better decided in City Hall than in federal court.

Feldmans ruling hinged on federal law. The lawsuit filed Monday restricts itself to state law.
The federal tax-fraud case against Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and law partner Nicole Burdett has been reassigned following the death last week of U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman. U.S. District Judge Lance Africk will now preside over the high-profile prosecution.

Africk, a former state and federal prosecutor in New Orleans who was nominated to the federal bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush, is widely viewed in legal circles as a considerably tougher draw for Williams and Burdett, who face an 11-count indictment alleging a tax-fraud conspiracy.

Before Feldman died last week of a heart attack at age 87, he seemed to take a skeptical view of the government's case and the indictment that arrived a month before Williams, then an at-large councilman, qualified to run for DA in 2020.

Feldman issued a 59-page ruling last month that barred prosecutors from introducing evidence of Williams past tax troubles, including years of late filings and liens, at a jury trial. Feldman also granted Williams and Burdett two hearings to air their allegations of a politically fueled, vindictive prosecution, though Feldman declined to toss the indictment.

With the case now assigned to Africk, Williams and Burdett go "from the slow-cooker to the microwave," said one defense attorney who frequently appears before Africk and other federal judges and declined to be identified.

Williams and Burdett are accused of conspiring to inflate Williams business write-offs by more than $700,000 over five tax years with the help of a Westwego tax preparer, Henry Timothy. They also face charges for allegedly failing to properly report large cash receipts, while Burdett is charged in a separate indictment over her own taxes.

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Timothy, the governments star witness, has pleaded guilty to his own tax charges. Williams and Burdett argue that Timothy acted on his own to bloat Williams' deductions and that prosecutors ignored evidence he did the same thing across his stable of tax clients.

A trial was scheduled to start last week, until prosecutors with the Western District of Louisiana appealed Feldmans order to exclude evidence, arguing that he abused his discretion. The U.S. Attorney's Office in New Orleans was long ago recused from the case.

Prosecutors say Feldman's order effectively barred them from telling a jury why Williams hired Timothy in the first place, to amend his earlier returns and reduce his tax debt. Prosecutors claim the work was a "tryout" for Timothy to show his "willingness to reduce Williamss (and Burdetts) tax liabilities through fraud."

The government's appeal has left a trial date in limbo. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to consider it in March.

Africk worked as a state prosecutor in the 1970s under former longtime Orleans Parish DA Harry Connick before he became a federal prosecutor for most of the 1980s.

As a judge, Africk has overseen a federal consent decree governing conditions at the Orleans Parish jail. He also presided over two trials over the police killing of Henry Glover by a New Orleans police officer, David Warren, outside an Algiers strip mall days after Hurricane Katrina. Warren was acquitted at a second trial.
Classes Xavier University will be remote until noon Tuesday after officials said they received a bomb threat. It's the second time in a less than a month that Xavier has been threatened.

Update: Xavier, HBCUs targeted with bomb threats: 'most primitive form of racism'

The news comes the day after several other historically Black colleges and universities, including Southern University in Baton Rouge, received bomb threats.

Authorities searched the school and nothing was found, police said at 9 a.m. However, school officials said residential students should stay in their rooms until further notice.

Update: The campus has been cleared as of noon and classes will continue as scheduled, officials said.

The bomb threat was called into the school's hotline around 3 a.m. Tuesday, according to New Orleans police. School officials said they are working with law enforcement to investigate the threat.

Monday's bomb threat at Southern University was deemed not credible after putting the campus on lockdown for hours.

Threats made at 6 other HBCUs

Along with Southern University, five other HBCUs received bomb threats Monday.

Albany State University, Bethune-Cookman University, Bowie State University, Delaware State University and Howard University were targeted with threats. The schools are in five states and the District of Columbia.

Both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating, the agencies said in separate statements.

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'Most primitive form of racism'

The series of bomb threats came one day before the start of Black History Month.

We are safe, for which I am incredibly thankful, but the attempt to disrupt targeted our community because of who we serve and the mission we fulfill," Delaware State President Tony Allen said in a letter to the campus community. The impetus for such a threat cannot be ascribed to anything other than the most primitive form of racism, a form which is neither new nor unique in this country."

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the threats are certainly disturbing and the White House is in touch with the interagency partners, including federal law enforcement leadership on this.

Xavier was threatened in early January

Earlier in January, Xavier and at least seven other HBCUs received bomb threats.

For that threat, someone called Xavier University Police Department and said he was planting bombs on campus, New Orleans police officials said. He also threatened to shoot up the campus. Police evacuated the university and a search yielded no signs of bombs, NOPD said.

Nothing was found at any of the other schools, university officials said after their respective investigations.

Authorities have not released any details about the threats, including any details about who might be making them.

Staff writers Terell Wilkins and Catherine Zeilman, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this story.
A man killed his child's maternal grandfather and then abducted the boy Monday afternoon in Little Woods, sparking an hours-long search that ended with the child found safe, New Orleans police said.

NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said police were searching for Edmond Ramee Sr., who investigators believe kidnapped his 1-year-old son, Edmond Ramee Jr., after killing the boy's grandfather at a home near Wales and Henley streets.

Police launched a frenetic search for the Ramees and an alert was issued for the child, and Ferguson asked for the public's help in finding them. The NOPD reported the boy had been found at 8:18 p.m. but released no other details other than to say Ramee Sr. is believed to be armed and dangerous.

Hours earlier, Ferguson explained that while the Ramee Jr. was thought to be with his father, the situation remained dire.

"The 1-year-old is in the custody of ... a murderer," Ferguson said. "The 1-year-old is absolutely in danger."

Ferguson spoke at a press conference near the home Monday evening, but authorities have released few details about the slaying, other than that investigators believe it was a case of domestic violence.

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Domestic violence has been one of the most common motives seen in the rising number of killings across the city during the past two years, Ferguson said.

Emotions were running high at the scene, as those gathered expressed sadness, frustration and anger. Some approached and shouted at Ferguson and the reporters he was briefing. A man reacted to Ferguson's reference to the police code number for a miscellaneous complaint, shouting, "Don't call this a 21! They're calling it a 21 because they're not going to investigate!"

The man later identified himself as Daniel Gentry, and said he has lived next door to the victim for a dozen years and considered him a good friend. He said the grandfather had called NOPD about Ramee Sr.'s violent behavior in the past, but said police apparently did not investigate.

The people who are supposed to protect us failed to do their job, he said. Now my neighbor is dead.

At around 6:20 p.m., about an hour after the press conference ended, a burst of gunfire  more than a dozen shots  could be heard from several blocks away. Members of the crowd still gathered recoiled at the sound, and work at the scene appeared to continue on as it had before.
Xavier University went on lockdown Tuesday for the second time in less than a month due to bomb threats that leaders of other schools are saying are racially motivated.

Historically Black colleges and universities have been targeted this week with threats of bombs and violence. The campuses were searched and nothing was found, but classes were disrupted for hours while the schools were evacuated or students were told to shelter in place.

Southern University in Baton Rouge, Howard University and Delaware State University were among those threatened Monday.

"The impetus for such a threat cannot be ascribed to anything other than the most primitive form of racism, a form which is neither new nor unique in this country," Delaware State President Tony Allen said in a letter to the campus community after his school was threatened Monday.

He said the school was targeted "because of who we serve and the mission we fulfill."

Federal agencies investigating

Monday's threat targeted six HBCUs in five states and the District of Columbia. As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, at least 13 HBCUs had received threats, including Xavier in New Orleans and four schools in Mississippi, according to CNN.

Both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating, the agencies said in separate statements.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the threats are certainly disturbing and the White House is in touch with the interagency partners, including federal law enforcement leadership on this.

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The bomb threat at Xavier was called into the school's hotline around 3 a.m. Tuesday, according to New Orleans police. Classes were moved to virtual options until noon, and students who live on campus were asked to stay in their rooms.

The campus was searched and nothing was found, police said. Xavier Chief of Staff Patrice Bell issued a statement saying the university will continue to "increase surveillance and mitigation efforts to safeguard its community."

Xavier was targeted in early January

Earlier in January, Xavier and at least seven other HBCUs received bomb threats.

Someone called Xavier University Police Department and said he was planting bombs on campus, New Orleans police officials said. He also threatened to shoot up the campus. Police evacuated the university and a search yielded no signs of bombs, NOPD said.

Nothing was found at any of the other schools, university officials said after their respective investigations.

Authorities have not released any details about the threats, including any details about who might be making them.

Staff writer Missy Wilkinson and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
As his mother and another adult smoked marijuana on the front seat of a parked car, a 4-year-old Marrero boy on the back seat with his two younger siblings fatally shot himself in the forehead with a gun he found inside the vehicle, according to authorities.

An autopsy conducted Monday determined that Jarion Walker's gunshot wound was self-inflicted, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said at a news conference Monday night.

Four-year-old boy shot and killed Saturday night near Westwego, police say A 4-year-old boy was shot and killed while sitting in a vehicle near Westwego on Saturday night in what authorities are calling an act of negligence.

"It was a contact wound to the forehead, right above the right eyebrow," Jefferson Parish Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich said.

The shooting occurred about 10:45 p.m. Saturday in the 900 block of Stillwell Lane in unincorporated Westwego. Jarion, a 22-month-old sibling and another sibling who is about 1 were inside the vehicle with Jarion's mother and another unidentified adult, according to authorities.

The adults admitted they were smoking marijuana at the time, Lopinto said. They were in the front seat and weren't looking at the children when they overheard a shot, authorities said.

+2 $12,500 reward for info on man who attacked an Ochsner ICU nurse; JPSO releases photo Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office investigators are trying to identify a man accused of attacking and severely injuring an intensive care unit

Jarion was rushed to the hospital with what initially appeared to be a gunshot wound to the back of his head, Lopinto said. He died of his injuries.

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Because of the believed location of the wound, the back of Jarion's head, investigators didn't think it was possible that the 4-year-old had shot himself, Lopinto said.

Detectives had to consider whether either of the toddlers in the vehicle could have accidentally pulled the trigger while playing with the gun or whether one of the adults was responsible.

But the autopsy and ballistic evidence "made it more probable that it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound by the 4-year-old," Lopinto said.

No one has been arrested in connection with the case, though detectives will complete the investigation and turn the results over to the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office, according to Lopinto.

"I don't think it was appropriate to make an arrest at this point," he said. "They just lost a child, and it was certainly wasn't intentional, by any means."

The gun used in the shooting belonged to Jarion's father, according to authorities. The boy is believed to have found the weapon under the seat, Lopinto said.

After Jarion's death, the Sheriff's Office cautioned gun owners to secure their firearms at all times, a warning Lopinto repeated Monday. Guns should never be left inside vehicles, the sheriff said.

"These types of deaths can certainly be prevented," he said.
A state task force on Monday unanimously approved a plan to reduce Louisianas greenhouse gas emissions to net zero levels by 2050, a path toward a green future for a state long reliant on fossil fuels.

The plan calls for various industries to use wind, solar and other renewable resources to power their operations. It also calls on companies to switch from carbon-based fuels to hydrogen-based fuels.

Policy pillars The proposed carbon reduction plan focuses on three major strategies: switching electricity generation to renewable energy, having industrial 

Members of Gov. John Bel Edwards' Climate Initiatives Task Force met for over a year to hammer out the plans particulars. The group included representatives of the electric, oil and gas and petrochemical industries, as well as environmental advocates and residents from diverse backgrounds.

The plans approval is just an initial step, task force members said; residents must press state leaders to ensure plans goals are implemented.

Gov. John Bel Edwards Gov John Bel Edwards appeared at a Monday meeting of his Climate Initiatives Task Force in a pre-taped comment before the task force voted to 

"The success of this is going to be dependent on the public engaging and really grappling with these issues and understanding and asking for more action," said Harry Vorhoff, chairman of the task force and deputy director of the Governor's Office of Coastal Activities.

In a prerecorded message to the task force before their vote, Edwards thanked its members for creating the first statewide plan in the Deep South to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero from a top energy producing state.

The final version of the plan, which was released publicly after the vote, includes an appendix listing dissents filed to the individual actions by task force members. According to Lindsay Cooper, a policy advisor in the governor's coastal activities office, dissents were filed on 29 of the plan's 84 action proposals. No action had more than five dissents; eighteen actions had only one person objecting to them.

Industry representatives voiced concerns that plans to substitute non-carbon fuels for natural gas or coal in the state's electricity industry might result in disruptions that will affect the economy. They also said that market forces, rather than state regulations, should be used to push greenhouse gas reductions, and that additional state regulations would disrupt existing and new manufacturing plants.

Several said that though they were voting in favor of the plan, they expected to address provisions as they were considered by the Legislature or the state Public Service Commission.

Terrence Chambers University of Louisiana at Lafayette mechanical engineering Prof. Terrence Chambers is a member of the Climate Initiatives Task Force.

Overall, I personally am in line with the governor's goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and as a representative of Entergy, our goals of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 are also aligned with those of this task force and this governor, said Entergy executive and task force member Jonathan Bourg.

But Bourg did take issue with the plan's call for the deregulation of power generation, which he said could threaten the reliability of the state's transmission grid.

Greg Bowser, executive director of the Louisiana Chemical Association, also voted in favor of the plan, despite raising objections. Specifically, Bowser said using renewable energy could result in less overall electricity being available, and that the market, not the state, should determine just how low companies' emissions thresholds should be.

We look forward to working with the state and others in not only achieving (emission reductions), but achieving it in a way that does not do undue harm to Louisiana as an economic engine," Bowser said.

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Environmental groups and Black and indigenous residents, meanwhile, raised concerns about the plan's reliance on capturing carbon emissions and disposing carbon dioxide deep underground. They said the practice was an unproven technology made more difficult by Louisiana's complex underground geology, and that building those facilities would pose threats to communities.

Task force member Colette Pichon Battle, co-director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law And Policy, which represents people of color in cases involving climate and environmental equity, listed objections to 17 of the plan's action points, the most raised by any of the task force members.

She joined others in objecting to carbon sequestration and the inclusion of blue hydrogen, which she said would produce more greenhouse gases than offset in replacing carbon fuels. And she said the plan's focus on the math, the statistics, the science of reducing greenhouse gas emission tended to downplay its opportunity to benefit Louisiana residents already impacted by climate change.

This is not just about what technologies we can put out into the world to try to balance the dirty things you put into the air, she said. It means were going to have to actually slow down, stop, halt the production of the bad things that harm our soul and our air in the communities that are next to them."

While many of the plan's recommendations can be implemented quickly, some will be difficult, "especially in a state that tends to think of itself as an oil and gas state," added task force member Terrence Chambers, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette mechanical engineering professor.

But the state is already well placed to embrace renewable resources, since the facilities and workers now serving the oil and gas industry can readily adapt to technologies like offshore wind platforms, he said.

"There's no reason Louisiana can't become a net exporter of renewable energy, Chambers said.

Jonathan Bourg Entergy Corp. executive Jonathan Bourg during Monday's meeting of the Climate Initiatives Task Force.

Tyler Gray Tyler Gray represents the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association on the Climate Initiatives Task Force.

Greg Bowser Greg Bowser, executive director of the Louisiana Chemical Association, speaking during the Monday meeting of the Climate Initiatives Task Force.

Colette Pichon Battle Colette Pichon Battle, co-director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, speaks during Monday's meeting of the Climate Initiatives Task

Carbon emissions from Louisiana chemical plants This chart shows the tons of carbon dioxide and carbon equivalent compounds from the top 10 emitting chemical plants in Louisiana in 2018.

The plan will be officially delivered to Edwards on Tuesday, and the task force will meet during the first week in March to discuss future actions needed to implement the plan.

The plan and a brief executive summary are available online.
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.
Reprinted with permission from First News Now (FNN)

Morris Run, Pa. - Flames quickly spread throughout a family's mobile home located at 43 Main Street in Morris Run, Pa., early Saturday evening, Jan. 29, 2022.

The fire was reported just before 8:00 p.m. in the area of Main Street and Summit Street in Hamilton Township.

The two alarm blaze brought in fire crews from Blossburg, Canton, Liberty, Mansfield, Tioga and Wellsboro.

Temperatures were reported around 3 degrees as firefighters arrived on scene around 8:04 p.m. to start laying lines to battle the blaze. It was noted by Blossburg fire personnel that the home was already well involved as huge flames lit up the night sky. By 8:12 p.m. the fire consumed the entire home as firefighters had to go on the defensive to continue their attack on the flames.

FNN was told that Betty Johnson and her 17-year-old son escaped the home shaken. Betty's son did suffer smoke inhalation and 3rd degree burns on his hand. Both were checked over by EMS on scene.

The American Red Cross was contacted to assist the family, who obviously lost everything they owned. Also lost was a litter of puppies, however, three dogs were saved from the burning home. Both individuals were staying with family nearby.

Firefighters were surprised when fire hydrants went dry around 8:22 p.m., as the home was fully involved. Blossburg Borough officials were notified of the issue. This did not hamper firefighters as they had already set up a fill site for tankers at the Hillside Rod and Gun Club in Blossburg, PA. Water tankers to kept rotating in to be filled and then they would return to the fire scene to supply the water firefighters needed..

By 9:04 p.m. firefighters had been working hard to knock down the fire as the first hour into the battle passed. By 9:28 p.m. the fire had been reported under control by Blossburg fire personnel.

FNN is unsure at this time, when the fire was reported out, but fire crews from other stations were slowly being released shortly after 10:00 p.m., as the second hour of fighting the fire passed.

By the third hour, all remaining fire crews were able to be cleared as command was terminated at 11:03 p.m.. All that remained of the home was an empty shell.

Presently a cause of the fire was not available and it is possible that due to the extreme damage by flames that finding a cause may be impossible. However, there has been no confirmation from the Blossburg Fire Chief or from the Fire Marshal handling the investigation. FNN will update once they hear back from authorities.

For those wishing to help the Johnson family with clothing and shoes, here are their sizes:

* Female - Women's 2XL in shirts, 2XL in pants, (20 in jeans). Female shoe size is 8.

* 17-year-old male - XL in shirts, XL pants (30/34 in jeans). Male shoe size is 10.

Items can be dropped off at 38 Summit Street in Morris Run, Pa. (The big red house.)

Another way people can assist the family is to visit the gofundme page set up for the family. You can leave any donation amount by visiting this link.

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Bloomsburg, Pa.  Scott Township Police received consent to search a vehicle and discovered marijuana, a whipped-cream dispenser with canisters used for whip-its, and several pistols and rifles, they reported.

Christian Slade Caten, 21, State Line, MS was taken into custody by authorities along with a passenger, who was not identified in the affidavit.

The vehicle stop occurred on Jan. 24 when Caten was observed pulling onto Columbia Blvd. with a broken headlight. A traffic stop was initiated, which also showed the vehicles brake light to be out.

Patrolman Taryn Crawford spoke with Caten and requested a drivers license, registration, and proof of insurance. While Caten retrieved the requested documents, Crawford observed a case for a handgun in plain view on the back seat.

Caten consented to a search of the vehicle which Crawford said turned up a Savage Edge .223 caliber rifle with a scope and loaded magazine and Stevens Model 62 .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle that also contained a loaded magazine.

A second pistol was discovered on the drivers side door when authorities took Caten into custody. Caton waived his Miranda Rights and officers continued a search of the vehicle.

Several blunt ends were discovered along with a whipped-cream dispenser and several canisters throughout the entire vehicle. A plastic bag marked The Walking Dead with marijuana was also located.

Caten was arraigned before Judge Russell Lawton on charges that included third-degree felony firearms not to be carried without a license, misdemeanor marijuana possession, and use or possession of drug paraphernalia. Caten was unable to post $25,000 monetary bail and held at the Columbia County Prison until a Feb. 2 preliminary hearing.

Docket sheet

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Montoursville -- James Alfred Hetler, 72, of Montoursville passed away on Friday, Jan. 28, 2022 at The Gatehouse of Williamsport.

Jim was born on May 21, 1949 in Williamsport and is the son of the late James L. and the late Florence M. Walters Hetler. Jim married Carol A. Baier on July 21, 1979 and shared 42 years of marriage.

Jim was an active member of the Eagle Mountain Word of Faith Church of Williamsport. Jim was employed by Weis Markets on Lycoming Creek Road and Backyard Broadcasting in Williamsport. He went to school at the Academy of Broad Casting of Washington, D.C. after graduating from Montoursville Area High School. He enjoyed traveling, music, playing the drums, cooking, reading, going to museums, and supporting all family activities. One highlight included Jim and Carol traveling to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to see Dick Clarks American Bandstand Museum.

He is survived by his wife Carol A. (Baier) Hetler; a son, Jonathan M. Hetler of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and by a sister, Sandra Johnson, of Greenville, Wisconsin.

Funeral services will be held at noon on Thursday, Feb. 3, at the McCarty-Thomas Funeral Home, 557 East Water St., Hughesville with Pastor Jeffrey ONeil officiating. Burial will follow in the Montoursville Cemetery.

Friends may call from 10:30 a.m. - noon on Thursday at the funeral home.

Arrangements have been entrusted to McCarty-Thomas Funeral Home.

To plant a tree in memory of James Hetler as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.

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Napoleon, OH (43545)

Today

Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 63F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low near 50F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland and DURBAN, South Africa, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Debiopharm (www.debiopharm.com), a Swiss biopharmaceutical company and Aspen, a South African headquartered multinational pharmaceutical company announced today their partnership to launch Trelstar (Triptorelin) in South Africa for the treatment of locally advanced and metastatic hormone dependent prostate cancer. (Trelstar, a synthetic analogue of GnRH (Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone) developed by Debiopharm, will be marketed by Aspen in South Africa.

In 2020, nearly 14,000 South African men were newly diagnosed with prostate cancer1 with an average of 5 men dying from the disease every day.2 In fact, 1 in every 23 South African men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime.2 Trelstar works by reducing testosterone levels, a hormone essential to prostate cancer growth. Deprivation of testosterone stops the growth of hormone dependent prostate cancer, alleviating pain and improving the quality of life of patients.

We're really enthusiastic to enter into this new alliance with Aspen, a well-established and trusted pharmaceutical partner for the commercialization of Trelstar in South Africa and recognize the therapeutic benefits that Trelstar could bring to prostate cancer patients in this region. Fabrice Paradies, Senior Director, Business Development & Global Commercial Alliances, Debiopharm.

Aspen Pharmacare is excited to be able to deliver a world class oncology product in the treatment of prostate cancer and we are privileged to partner with Debiopharm to commercialize Trelstar within the South African market. We are confident that this product will add significant benefit to the treatment of prostate cancer.Neel Andhee-Shah, Head: New Product Development, Aspen Pharmacare.

About Trelstar (Triptorelin)Trelstar (Triptorelin) is an agonist analogue of the natural gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). Debiopharm has developed three sustained-release formulations (1, 3 and 6 months) of Triptorelin Pamoate. First registered in France in 1986, Triptorelin is currently marketed in more than 80 countries by Debiopharm's selected partners and is market leader in many territories worldwide.

About AspenHeadquartered in Durban, South Africa, Aspen is a partner of choice as it is a global specialty and branded multinational pharmaceutical company with a presence in both emerging and developed markets. Aspen improves the health of patients in more than 150 countries through its high quality and affordable medicines. Active at every stage of the value chain, Aspen is uniquely diversied by geography, product and manufacturing capability. The Group's key business segments are Manufacturing and Commercial Pharmaceuticals comprising Regional Brands and Sterile Focus Brands. For more information, please visit https://www.aspenpharma.com/.

Debiopharm's commitment to patientsDebiopharm develops innovative therapies that target high unmet medical needs in oncology and infectious diseases. Bridging the gap between disruptive discovery products and international patient reach, we identify high-potential compounds and technologies for in-licensing, clinically demonstrate their safety and efficacy and then select large pharmaceutical commercialization partners to maximize patient access globally.

Visit us www.debiopharm.com/ Follow us @DebiopharmNews at http://twitter.com/DebiopharmNews

Debiopharm ContactDawn Bonine  Head of Communicationsdawn.bonine@debiopharm.comTel: +41 (0)21 321 01 11

References1. Globocan 2020; https://gco.iarc.fr/today/data/factsheets/populations/913-southern-africa-fact-sheets.pdf2. https://mensfoundation.co.za/mens-health/prostate-cancer/
Feb 1, 2022 KRR

As Saif Ali Khan-starrer 'Jawaani Jaaneman' celebrates two years of its release on Monday, its producer Jay Shewakramani has hinted at another film in collaboration with Saif.

The film, which also starred Tabu and was the launch vehicle of Alaya F, received positive response for its light humour and a new take on human relationships.

According to him, 'Jawaani Jaaneman' is close to his heart. Saif and he had a whale of time in London.

The producer revealed that they are also in the talks for another film that will be set against the London backdrop as well. They will announce the same soon.

Meanwhile, Shewakramani is gearing up for the much-awaited film 'Freddy', starring Kartik Aaryan and Alaya F. The film, a romantic thriller, is helmed by Shashanka Ghosh. Click the Movie button below for more info:

Jawaani Jaaneman

Saif Ali Khan Pictures
Leo Snarr Jr. created quite a stir in Strasburg in 1942 when he convinced his friend to announce the Germans were planning to invade the Shenandoah Valley.
Froma Harrop: The culture war only seems to be the GOP's free lunch
A Sheetz convenience store has been proposed for this land at the corner of Reliance and North Buckton roads, near Interstate 81 exit 302 in Middletown. Signs protesting the proposal have been placed at the site.
PORTER  Thanks to a state budget flush with cash and to federal pandemic-related assistance, the South Shore Line's Double Track project will include the complete list of upgrades originally envisioned for it, with activity ramping up as construction of it and the West Lake Corridor is set to begin in March.

The Double Track project will add a second set of tracks to single-track areas between Gary and Michigan City and upgrade stations and other infrastructure along the route, speeding the trip to Chicago and making service more frequent.

After higher-than-expected construction bids came in last year, NICTD shifted some parts of the project to "alternate" status but has reinstated those items, including high-level boarding platforms at Miller, Ogden Dunes and Michigan City and replacement of two bridges.

"We're going fully forward with the project," Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District President Michael Noland said Monday as the Board of Trustees approved an update of the project's Governance Agreement to reflect the changed financing.

The changes reflect the state government's shift to an upfront payout  as opposed to annual bond-financed payments  of its share of the price of both Double Track and the new West Lake Corridor. A $231 million appropriation in the 2019 state budget replaced the state's original intention to borrow money to contribute $12 million per year for 30 years. NICTD also is adding about $69 million in federal pandemic recovery money, and $10 million of its own funds, to Double Track.

The main construction contract, awarded in November to a Walsh-Herzog construction company partnership, will rise to about $375 million. The project's full cost now stands at about $649 million, Noland said.

Construction on both Double Track and West Lake are set to begin soon, after months of demolition, utility relocation and other preparatory work along the South Shore Line and the future West Lake Corridor from Hammond to Dyer.

"A billion dollars in construction is about to start in full force the beginning of March," Noland said.

Double Track will be divided into three phases. The first, from Michigan City to the Dune Park station, and second, from Dune Park to Ogden Dunes, will be undertaken this year, with the third, from Ogden Dunes to Gary, in 2023. Service is expected to begin in spring, 2024.

The project will include busing during many stretches, including between Dune Park and Michigan City beginning this spring and continuing through much of the year.

"We ask our riders to have the long view, because there will be disruptions," Noland said.

The $555 million design-build contract for the West Lake Corridor is held by a joint venture of the firms F.H. Paschen and Ragnar Benson and is scheduled to take three years, with a first phase focused on north Hammond, the second on a central corridor including the Ridge Road area, and the third in the southern part of the railroad, which will terminate at the Munster/Dyer town line.

"There's a lot of overhead structure on West Lake, making it a much more complex project," Noland noted about the project, which has a full cost estimate of about $945.

He said the first, northern, phase will begin where the railroad will rise above ground in downtown Hammond, on its way across the Grand Calumet River and several freight railroads to a new Gateway Station near the point the two lines will join.

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The Indiana Department of Education launched a statewide COVID-19 relief school spending dashboard Monday.

The dashboard reflects COVID-19 federal relief grant fund reimbursements as part of schools spending plans.

Empowered by historic levels of state and federal education funding, schools have an unparalleled opportunity to improve students educational outcomes with these dollars, Katie Jenner, Indiana secretary of education, said in a news release. To most impactfully invest these funds, we must focus on accelerating student learning, supporting educators, promoting sustainable innovation, and updating technology and other infrastructure. We continue to support Indianas local schools to ensure this funding is ultimately driving improvements and progress that positively impacts students.

The dashboard includes school grant allocations and reimbursements from three rounds of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding, as well as competitive grants awarded to schools from federal Governors Emergency Education funding.

The dashboard can be sorted by county, fund and individual school corporation.

ESSER funding is allocated to districts based on the federal Title I formula. Reimbursements are made to local districts when they spend funds on approved expenses as part of their plans.

In Indiana, $2.8 billion in federal funding has been allocated to school districts. More than $550 million has been reimbursed. School corporations have through September 2022 to encumber the first round of ESSER funding. They have through September 2023 and 2024 for the second and third rounds.

Take a look at Northwest Indiana Schools ESSER funding as of Jan. 31, 2022.

Lake County

Gary Community School Corp.:

Allocated: $72,743,008

Reimbursed: $9,221,312

Percent remaining: 87.3%

School City of Hammond:

Allocated: $64,164,529

Reimbursed: $10,552,215

Percent remaining: 83.6%

School City of East Chicago:

Allocated: $43,522,157

Reimbursed: $6,889,784

Percent remaining: 84.2%

Gary Lighthouse Charter School:

Allocated: $23,826,515

Reimbursed: $1,897,491

Percent remaining: 92%

Merrillville Community School Corp.:

Allocated: $20,291,456

Reimbursed: $3,341,010

Percent remaining: 83.5%

Thea Bowman Leadership Academy:

Allocated: $18,979,529

Reimbursed: $1,622,141

Percent remaining: 91.5%

Lake Ridge New Tech Schools:

Allocated: $14,134,178

Reimbursed: $0

Percent remaining: 100%

Aspire Charter Academy:

Allocated: $13,362,162

Reimbursed: $705,602

Percent remaining: 94.7%

Charter School of the Dunes:

Allocated: $10,039,623

Reimbursed: $629,414

Percent remaining: 93.7%

Lake Central School Corp.:

Allocated: $9,032,494

Reimbursed: $0

Percent remaining: 100%

School City of Hobart:

Allocated: $8,378,981

Reimbursed: $2,022,443

Percent remaining: 75.9%

River Forest Community School Corp.:

Allocated: $7,136,978

Reimbursed: $194,089

Percent remaining: 97.3%

East Chicago Lighthouse Charter:

Allocated: $7,023,445

Reimbursed: $397,804

Percent remaining: 94.3%

Crown Point Community School Corp.:

Allocated: $6,108,321

Reimbursed: $1,740,779

Percent remaining: 71.5%

Steel City Academy:

Allocated: $5,832,417

Reimbursed: $998,564

Percent remaining: 82.9%

Lake Station Community Schools:

Allocated: $5,530,264

Reimbursed: $688,622

Percent remaining: 87.5%

East Chicago Urban Enterprise Academy:

Allocated: $5,432,656

Reimbursed: $990,971

Percent remaining: 81.8%

Griffith Public Schools:

Allocated: $5,416,331

Reimbursed: $506,604

Percent remaining: 90.6%

School Town of Highland:

Allocated: $3,987,352

Reimbursed: $1,883,418

Percent remaining: 52.8%

Tri-Creek School Corp.:

Allocated: $3,689,775

Reimbursed: $0

Percent remaining: 100%

Hammond Academy of Science and Technology:

Allocated: $3,408,446

Reimbursed: $321,049

Percent remaining: 90.6%

School Town of Munster:

Allocated: $3,095,952

Reimbursed: $636,302

Percent remaining: 79.4%

School City of Whiting:

Allocated: $2,537,626

Reimbursed: $733,227

Percent remaining: 71.1%

Hanover Community School Corp.:

Allocated: $1,696,080

Reimbursed: $0

Percent remaining: 100%

Higher Institute of Arts and Technology:

Allocated: $1,639,424

Reimbursed: $207,790

Percent remaining: 87.3

Porter County

Portage Township Schools:

Allocated: $17,582,739

Reimbursed: $4,470,678

Percent remaining: 74.6%

Valparaiso Community Schools:

Allocated: $6,957,503

Reimbursed: $1,034,289

Percent remaining: 85.1%

Duneland School Corp.:

Allocated: $5,904,677

Reimbursed: $716,600

Percent remaining: 87.9%

East Porter County School Corp.:

Allocated: $2,295,026

Reimbursed: $368,834

Percent remaining: 83.9%

MSD of Boone Township:

Allocated: $1,308,725

Reimbursed: $245,944

Percent remaining: 81.2%

Porter Township School Corp.:

Allocated: $1,185,907

Reimbursed: $267,877

Percent remaining: 77.4%

Union Township School Corp.:

Allocated: $1,117,701

Reimbursed: $85,519

Percent remaining: 92.3%

Discovery Charter School:

Allocated: $547,149

Reimbursed: $201,999

Percent remaining: 63.1%

Neighbors New Vistas High School:

Allocated: $482,201

Reimbursed: $217,614

Percent remaining: 54.9%

LaPorte County

Michigan City Area Schools:

Allocated: $33,406,385

Reimbursed: $5,881,522

Percent remaining: 82.4%

LaPorte Community School Corp.:

Allocated: $13,986,754

Reimbursed: $1,751,424

Percent remaining: 87.5%

New Prairie United School Corp.:

Allocated: $4,771,168

Reimbursed: $850,725

Percent remaining: 82.2%

MSD of New Durham Township:

Allocated: $1,325,317

Reimbursed: $397,114

Percent remaining: 70%

South Central Community School Corp.:

Allocated: $831,435

Reimbursed: $118,222

Percent remaining: 85.8%

Tri-Township Consolidated School Corp.:

Allocated: $652,999

Reimbursed: $59,482

Percent remaining: 90.9%

Renaissance Academy:

Allocated: $401,290

Reimbursed: $38,273

Percent remaining: 90.5%

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Region teachers are disturbed by the possible impacts of House Bill 1134, which would limit what teachers can say regarding several divisive concepts, such as race, sex and political affiliation.

The bill passed the House Jan. 26 by a vote of 66-37. It now goes to the Senate, which previously killed a similar bill that would have required teachers to present impartial lessons, even, according to one senator, when discussing topics such as Nazism.

Proposed law's provisions

House Bill 1134 contains several components, including a requirement that schools post educational activities and curricular materials on their schools website and that they be required to allow parents to opt out of certain educational activities and curricular materials. School corporations would also have to create a curricular materials advisory committee composed of parents, teachers, administrators and community members.

The bill also lists a series of divisive concepts that would be banned in Indiana classrooms, and it creates regulations in the discussion of issues involving sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin and political affiliation.

School corporations would also be required to request, in writing, the provision or administration of mental, social-emotional or psychological services to their children before providing those services.

The bill would allow parents who allege violations of banned topics to file a complaint and sue schools.

Teachers' response

Emily Maurek, an elementary music teacher in the Lake Central School Corp., said teachers ultimately hope to help students, and doesn't know how or when that message got twisted.

"(These) bills make no sense, villify teachers, education and schools and all the good work that education officials are trying to do," Maurek said.

Kristin McMurtrey, the chairwoman of the Northwest Indiana Coalition for Public Education and a licensed English teacher, said the bill is a series of convoluted and muddy solutions in search of a problem.

McMurtrey said this type of bill also paints a false narrative of parents versus teachers. But she said most teachers she knows are parents.

Teachers would love to be more vocal about their concerns about this bill, but because this bill so thoroughly positions teachers as unworthy agents of indoctrination, we have teachers that are afraid that their valid concerns and complaints for our children will be perceived as some sort of political statement, McMurtrey said.

Deb Porter, UniServ director for the Indiana State Teachers Association and a retired teacher, said the bill is especially unrealistic as teachers often have to adjust curricular materials and education supplies on the fly, as students get behind due to other matters.

Porter said most schools she knows already offer alternative options for literature, such as letting parents choose a different book in English classes if they are concerned about materials.

She said the bill is troublesome in how it would change the relationship between teachers and parents.

We should be respected for our expertise and our ability to make the right decisions for our students, Porter said. She said legitimate problems with individual teachers are dealt with within the local school corporation.

Porter said curriculum is never selected in isolation and is made with the department, allowing it to be vetted.

Theyre micromanaging our profession, Porter said of legislators who support the proposed law.

Lake Central Superintendent Larry Veracco went to Indianapolis with Maurek and another teacher to discuss their concerns with the bill. He said it is unclear what the bill is hoping to solve.

It is disheartening for some of our teachers, Veracco said. He said that even if the bill is supposed to promote transparency, a lot of children and parents already speak out when they are uncomfortable with what is being taught.

He also said he feels the concerns of the legislature lie within history and English, but the bill does not acknowledge that.

Are we hearing complaints about teachers teaching P.E. the wrong way? Veracco asked.

Maurek said that during the meeting with the legislature, they asked about specific instances in Indiana where these concerns were expressed regarding curriculum. Maurek said the legislators they met with only had one vague example.

Veracco is particularly concerned about the parental advisory committee, as he feels it is an unrealistic requirement. He said that recruiting parents is already a challenge for certain volunteer programs and that he cannot imagine that parents would want to review large amounts of curriculum.

Concerns about teacher shortage

As of November 2021, nearly 97% of school districts in the state reported a teacher shortage, according to a study by Indiana State University.

And Porter said she knows teachers who will be pushed to the brink and choose to leave the profession.

In Indiana, individuals are eligible to retire when their years of service and age total to 85. Porter said most teachers teach well beyond that, but this will incentivize some teachers to retire before they otherwise would.

Tony Lux, former superintendent for Merrillville Community School Corp., said he is concerned this bill could also impact peoples interest in the teaching profession as a whole.

Enrollment in teacher preparation programs decreased 39% from 2010 to 2017, and completion of said programs went down 31%. Lux said that as teachers become targets for disrespect, as he perceives would happen from this bill, more students will lose interest in the profession.

Travis Scherer, president of the Tri County Classroom Teachers Organization and a high school agriculture teacher, said this bill would add to teachers already being overwhelmed.

Youre adding one more thing on someones plate, Scherer said.

Eric Gappa, president of the North Judson-San Pierre Classroom Teachers Association and high school math teacher, said he often answers questions for students all hours of the night, well beyond his contracted hours.

He said that he does this to help build community and trust with students and that he thinks the bill will create an unnecessary boundary there.

Gappa said it feels redundant to have to post materials on the schools website, as that is normally already provided to parents and he is in frequent communication with them as needed.

Some teachers might say they dont have the time for this and theyre being nit-picked, Gappa said. Ive talked to some teachers who say, 'If this does get signed into law, Im done.'

Scherer said the legislature is thinking about a national issue infiltrating classrooms and transparency, but they often do not have enough time already. He also said he is unsure if parents would even choose to view the materials.

Scherer used the example of his class Jan. 28, where he presented several pages of materials to the class. He said he teaches for 180 days a year and the amount of material he would have to upload for parents to review would add up very quickly.

Todd Shafer, president of the Culver Classroom Teachers Association and middle school math teacher, said he is especially worried about what could happen if the teacher shortage became worse.

He said he could see schools being forced to fill teaching positions with people who are under qualified temporarily, only for it to become permanent. He said that would only create other problems.

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HAMMOND  The U.S. attorneys office is charging a Gary man with being an unlicensed gun dealer.

Federal prosecutors named John Searcy in a felony complaint alleging he illicitly sold guns on the streets and out of his home in Garys Glen Park neighborhood.

Searcy appeared Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew P. Rodovich, via a video teleconference link, on charges of dealing firearms without a license, possession of firearms as a domestic batterer and possession of cocaine.

He is being held in federal detention pending a court hearing this week on whether he can be freed on bond until trial.

Agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allege they began investigating Searcy last October following a tip by a government informant that Searcy was selling guns in Gary worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Mariela Lopez, an ATF criminal investigator, alleges in court papers that Searcy sold guns from his car during October and November of 2021 at various Gary locations to paid informants cooperating with ATF.

One informant went to Searcys home Jan. 6 in the 4600 block of Lincoln Street in Gary. Agents could see, from video surveillance equipment that Searcy kept a large number of handguns stacked inside a blue tub in his home.

Agents raided the house later that same day and recovered 70 firearms, each with a sales tag indicating the guns price. They also found hundreds of rounds of ammunition and 27 grams of suspected cocaine.

The government alleges Searcy was convicted in 2003 of domestic battery in Jacksonville, Florida. The government said Searcy attempted multiple over-the-counter gun purchases, but federally licensed gun dealers turned him down three times because of his domestic battery conviction.

The ATF even mailed Searcy a letter warning him he was prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms.

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LANSING  After five years of exemplary service for the Lansing Police Department, Rico has called it a career.

The 6-year-old Belgian Malinois  a breed similar in appearance to the German shepherd  was officially retired last month after working with K-9 Officer Keith Haan and is now living the good life after being adopted by Haan and his wife.

Haan and Rico met in January 2017 and had a week together before heading off to the K-9 equivalent of basic training.

"The (dog training) academy that we had was six weeks long, 40-50 hours a week," Haan said.

Being paired with a K-9 was a career objective for Haan, who has been a Lansing officer since March 2015.

"When I first started, that was always one of the goals, to do K-9 at some point," Haan said. "It came quicker than I planned on."

Rico came out of training with a wide-ranging skill set.

"He's what we call a dual-purpose dog," Haan said. "He's trained in narcotics, trained in tackling, apprehension, building searches, vehicle searches."

Two of those skills came in handy early in their partnership. Haan had been called to assist an Illinois State Police trooper with a traffic stop. "He wanted us to run the dog around the car," Haan said. "We got 15 pounds of marijuana."

Spending time together both on and off the job creates an exceptionally close relationship, according to Haan.

"I tell a lot of people I spent more time with him than I did with my wife," Haan said. "You spend your off time with him, you build that bond real quick."

That leads to an exceptional level of trust between handler and K-9.

"If I ever got in trouble, I can pop that door open, and I've got backup right there," Haan said. "He was trained to protect me."

Working with Rico has made Haan a better police officer, Haan believes.

"Oh yeah, for sure," he said. "It really helped with verbal skills" and dealing with the public.

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VALPARAISO  A Valparaiso man who told the court he accidentally shot his mother while protecting her from being beaten by her boyfriend has been sentenced to two years in prison in that case and other open files he had pending, a court record shows.

Joseph Scott, 20, pleaded guilty to felony criminal recklessness in the shooting case and misdemeanor counts of domestic battery, invasion of privacy and theft in other cases, according to the court of Porter Superior Court Judge Mike Fish.

He was sentenced Monday to six years behind bars with four years suspended and to be served on formal probation, court records show. He had served 265 days in jail as of Monday.

Valparaiso police said that when they arrived on scene on the morning of Sept. 16, 2020, outside a small apartment building in the 600 block of East Glendale Boulevard, they found a man near a vehicle in the parking lot with blood-soaked clothing and an abdominal wound, according to charging documents.

He pointed across the parking lot to Scott and identified him as the shooter, police said. Scott had a pistol in his hand, and officers ordered him to place the gun on the top of a nearby car before he was placed in handcuffs, police said.

Police discovered Scott's mother in the passenger seat of the nearby vehicle and discovered she, too, had been shot in the abdomen.

When police asked the woman who shot her, "She advised her son, Joseph Scott, did," according to charging documents.

The man who had been shot reportedly told police that "nothing warranted this" and that Scott just shot him in the back.

The woman told police she was in a relationship with the male shooting victim and they had been arguing in her bedroom after she discovered he was cheating on her, according to charging documents. She said the man grabbed a laptop cord and raised it like he was going to hit her when Scott entered the room and she heard gunshots "and couldn't recall much of what happened next."

The woman said both her son and the man had a weapon, police said.

Scott told police he was at the apartment when he heard the man tell his mother, "See, now you need your (expletive) whooped," according to charging documents.

Scott said he grabbed his .40-caliber Glock 22 and shot the man once in the back while less than 5 feet away, police said. He then told the man to leave the apartment and realized his mother had been shot as well.

Scott, who admitted to also pistol whipping the male shooting victim, said he intended to take his mother to the hospital, police said. He grabbed his gun and "switched out magazines."

The mother, who was then 40, was flown to University of Chicago Medical Center and was in stable condition, police said.

The male shooting victim, who was 38, was flown to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, where his condition was upgraded to stable.

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Mail-in voting is poised to become significantly more rare in Indiana under legislation approved 66-28 Monday by the Republican-controlled House.

House Bill 1116, which now goes to the Senate, prohibits many Hoosiers who currently satisfy one of the statutory excuses to qualify for a mail-in absentee ballot from voting by mail if they are capable of casting an in-person ballot during the 28-day early voting period.

Specifically, individuals on Election Day who will be absent from their home county, unable to vote due to illness, observing a religious holiday, or employed as a poll worker no longer will qualify for a mail-in absentee ballot unless they certify, under penalty of perjury, they are unable to get to an early voting site during the entire time early voting is available.

According to the legislation, the early voting obligation would not apply to voters with disabilities, voters age 65 and up, individuals deployed with the Indiana National Guard or in a public safety role, and individuals classified as serious sex offenders, who all still would be permitted to vote absentee by mail without having to try to get to an early voting location.

State Rep. Tim Wesco, R-Osceola, the sponsor of the plan, noted more than 1.35 million Hoosiers successfully voted early in the 2020 general election.

He said compelling even more voters to cast an in-person ballot at the 2022 general election "increases voter confidence in our elections."

"This bill encourages people to vote in-person with a state ID as much as possible by taking advantage of the 28-day early voting period," Wesco said.

In a rare move, House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, stepped down from the chamber rostrum to speak in favor of the legislation from the House floor.

He said preferring in-person voting over mail-in voting is "the right public policy" for Indiana, and the state makes it as easy as possible by allowing counties to conduct early voting for up to four weeks before Election Day.

"I was much more sympathetic to life getting in the way when it was Election Day. I'm much less sympathetic to life getting in the way when it's election month  and that's what it is," Huston said.

"The furthest thing this bill is is some form of voter suppression," he added. "We want to encourage every single person to vote."

House Democrats were unpersuaded. They noted Indiana already ranks 46th out of the 50 states for voter turnout, and many of the state's 92 counties have just one early voting location that may be difficult to get to or open just a few hours a week.

"Passing this bill only will make absentee ballot voting harder and inevitably lead to our voter turnout decreasing even further," said state Rep. Tonya Pfaff, D-Terre Haute. "Isn't it our job as legislators to encourage more people to vote?"

State Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage, suggested Republicans may end up harming themselves, since recent elections show most Hoosiers vote Republican and under this measure conceivably every mail-in ballot could be challenged, and possibly not counted, until election officials verify the voter was unable to cast an early ballot.

"Like they say: Be careful what you wish for," Moseley said.

The legislation also requires individuals requesting a mail-in ballot electronically to provide their driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to receive a ballot  an initiative championed by Republican Secretary of State Holli Sullivan.

"My top priority this legislative session has been to make sure the security around our elections keeps up with evolving technology. This legislation will ensure voters continue to have confidence when casting their ballot," Sullivan said.

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MERRILLVILLE  Congressman Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, has a record to run on as he seeks a second term in the U.S. House, and Mrvan couldn't be prouder of what he's accomplished during his first year representing Northwest Indiana.

Speaking Monday to supporters at Carpenters Union Local 1005, Mrvan enthusiastically touted the "transformative" impact of the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Indiana communities, schools, families and individuals  both now and for years to come.

Specifically, Mrvan cited the more than $7 billion in federal funds he's brought home to revitalize Indiana roads and bridges; $751 million to ensure safe, clean drinking water is available to Hoosiers; $680 million to improve public transportation systems across the state; $350 million to expand broadband internet access, especially in rural areas; and $20 million to respond to extreme weather events.

"This gives us certainty over the next 10 years because we're investing in ourselves and we're investing in the American worker," Mrvan said. "As an economic tool to drive Northwest Indiana to be the best that it possibly can be  we have delivered."

"We're investing in the steel industry. We're investing in our roads and bridges and waterways. We're investing in American workers. And with the unions providing the work on those projects, we're providing a good wage, we're providing health insurance, we're providing good pensions."

He said those investments are on top of the billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief distributed by the federal government to the state, as well as cities and towns across Indiana, that ensured public services continued amid the pandemic, COVID-19 testing and vaccines were available at no cost, and many essential workers, including police officers, received one-time "hazard pay," permanent pay raises, or both.

"I am proud to be a member of Congress, and a Democrat, who was able to deliver for Northwest Indiana," Mrvan said.

Mrvan also noted the infrastructure legislation includes strong "Buy American" provisions that mean the component parts of tens of thousands of miles of new roads and thousands of new bridges will be constructed in part from American steel made in Northwest Indiana.

He said when America uses American steel it's steelworkers who thrive, and that translates to higher earnings for Region retailers, restaurants, home builders and myriad other enterprises.

"We will go forward from this day, and every day, working in Washington, D.C., to make sure we continue to provide those opportunities and fulfill the dream of Northwest Indiana to be able to provide economic growth, jobs, technology, education, and tying all those things together," Mrvan sad.

Democratic Lake County Assessor LaTonya Spearman said she's already seen the impact in her office where the assessed value of property in the county has grown by nearly $4 billion and residential building permits have increased nearly 15% since Democrats took control of Congress and the White House in 2020.

"All these economic projects are going to create good union jobs that will deliver a livable wage for workers. Families will be able to make ends meet, and they will see a better future ahead for their communities," Spearman said.

"Indiana owes its bright economic future, in part, to Democrats like Congressman Mrvan, who supported the American Rescue Plan when it mattered most, and not a single Congressional Republican supported this relief for Indiana citizens or businesses."

Nick Pollock, business representative for the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters, emphasized the hypocrisy of Hoosier Republicans taking credit for the state's $500 million READI grant program for local quality of place projects or rural broadband expansion when every Republican representing Indiana in Congress voted against the federal legislation that funded those programs.

"It appears the other side has no shame and will try to take the dough even after voting no," Pollock said.

"Unions across the state will not forget that the Democrats are the ones who stood by us. Hoosier families will see better jobs, and stronger communities, because of Congressman Frank Mrvan."

At least six Republicans are vying for the opportunity to challenge Mrvan in this year's general election, including former LaPorte Mayor Blair Milo, Air Force reserve officer Jennifer-Ruth Green and perennial GOP nominee Mark Leyva.

Mrvan said he's not concerned about whoever wins the May 3 Republican primary because he's confident once Northwest Indiana voters compare his record to anyone else in the race they'll again choose him to be their representative in Congress.

"I'm not running against a party, and I mean this wholeheartedly, I'm not running against one person," Mrvan said. "I'm running for Congress to be able to provide for my district, and so I welcome all challenges, and I look forward to the opportunity to be able to continue to talk about what we've delivered for Northwest Indiana."

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Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. has filed the thousands of ballot petition signatures required by Indiana law to be a candidate for U.S. Senate.

The Democratic leader of Lake County's most populous city traveled to Indianapolis on Tuesday to personally submit the paperwork to the Indiana Election Division and officially clear the high hurdle that's likely to trip up the other Democratic Senate candidates seeking to get on the ballot.

"Why today? Because snowmageddon is on the way," McDermott said on his "Left of Center" podcast shortly before heading to the state's capital city.

"I was supposed to file on Wednesday, and we didn't want to take the chance that we get 4 feet of snow and I couldn't get to Indianapolis by Friday to file."

Under Indiana law, U.S. Senate candidates are required to collect ballot petition signatures from 500 registered voters in each of the state's nine congressional districts, submit the signatures for verification by local county clerks, and ultimately turn in the 4,500 (or more) signatures to the state elections office by noon Friday to qualify for a spot in the May 3 primary election.

McDermott said he believes the signature requirement is "bull----" and a "ridiculous process" designed to protect incumbent lawmakers.

But he also said he's grateful to the dozens of people across the state who worked tirelessly over the past six weeks to make sure he got the signatures he needed in every corner of Indiana, including Tyler Wiegmann, a high school student in Fort Wayne, who individually wrangled some 300 signatures in the 3rd Congressional District.

"My campaign for the last month, month and half, has been wholly focused on getting 500 signatures in each congressional district. We spent thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars, we drove thousands of miles on our cars," McDermott said.

"And we did it!"

McDermott joked about needing to travel to Indianapolis in an armored car with armed escorts to ensure the original papers containing the verified signatures made to the elections office without a last-minute hiccup (besides the snow storm).

At the same time, McDermott is confident he has more than enough signatures in each district to qualify for the ballot, and he expects any other campaign reviewing his paperwork, including incumbent U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., will recognize what his team has accomplished.

"We're unchallengeable. These are legit," McDermott said. "We did it according to the law."

On the other hand, McDermott said he expects Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Valerie McCray will get challenged, and likely bumped from the ballot by the bipartisan Indiana Election Commission, because she filed to run without securing the ballot petition signatures required by law.

It's not yet known whether Haneefah Khaaliq, of Michigan City, the third potential Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, will meet the signature threshold by Friday's deadline.

Meanwhile, preliminary signature data show Republican Danny Niederberger is within striking distance of qualifying for the Republican primary ballot and challenging Young for the GOP nomination  an outcome McDermott said he would welcome.

"That would make me so happy. It would give me that special little smile," McDermott said. "I could save money up between now and November to beat Todd Young in November, while Todd Young has to spend a large part of his nest egg in May fighting an internal challenge (against) a Trump-backed candidate."

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GARY  Six state lawmakers representing northern Lake County are holding a public forum Saturday to update their constituents on the work of the Indiana General Assembly at the midpoint of the annual legislative session.

The free event is set for 1 p.m. at the Glen Theater, 20 W. Ridge Road, Gary.

In addition to hearing from the elected officials, residents are invited to share their opinions about proposals pending at the Statehouse and their ideas for new state laws.

"I hope you will join me and other area legislators to learn more about legislation we are discussing at the Indiana Statehouse that will impact your daily lives," said state Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, the host.

The other participating lawmakers are state Reps. Mike Andrade, D-Munster; Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago; and Ragen Hatcher, D-Gary; and state Sens. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, and Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago.

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VALPARAISO  Porter County Democrats are looking for names to replace the late Bob Poparad on the Porter County Council.

Poparad, D-1st, died early Friday of lung cancer. He was 64.

Porter County Democratic Party Chair Drew Wenger plans to call a caucus of the party's precinct committee members from District 1 within 30 days of Jan. 28, the date of Poparads death. The date will be announced no later than 10 days before the date of the caucus.

Wenger said the date and location of the caucus, as well as details of how interested candidates may apply for the position, will be announced later.

A man whose commitment to community ran deep  serving multiple terms to the Burns Harbor Town Council, the Porter County Council and many other public offices  he will be sorely missed, Wenger said.

We are fortunate, our community is fortunate, to have had all the time we were gifted with Bobs presence, he said.

This would have been the final year of Poparads term.

Democrat Erik Wagner, a Porter Town Council member, has filed for the District 1 seat in the May 3 primary election. Seeking the Republican nomination so far are Antonio Tony Gutierrez and Duneland School Board member Ronald Red Stone. The filing deadline is noon Friday.

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VALPARAISO  Porter County is likely to change gears on how it will spend federal stimulus money based on public input received so far.

Commissioner Laura Blaney, D-South, plans to propose that a steering committee and three subcommittees determine how the $33 million in the American Rescue Plan Act devoted to the county should be spent.

Of particular concern during public comment periods at county meetings was the original plans $5.5 million for renovations at the Memorial Opera House, including connecting that structure with the 1860 sheriffs residence next door. That plan calls for the Memorial Opera House staff to use the historic building next door for offices and storage, freeing up lobby space at the opera house.

The Porter County Museum, which is currently housed at the sheriffs residence, is planning to move across the street in several months when the Aster & Gray boutique moves to its new location. The museum will then have a better HVAC system for preserving artifacts. The old jail  the countys second  will continue to be used by the museum as it interprets what life at the 1871 jail was like.

Blaney, who was reluctant to discuss her plan in detail before her fellow commissioners get a chance to weigh in, said that she hopes other funding can be arranged for the Memorial Opera House project and that it can be kept on the same timetable.

The three subcommittees that would do the heavy lifting in determining what the county needs and how ARPA funds might effectively address the issues are infrastructure; nonprofits and employers; and mental health and homelessness.

Public comments have noted that Housing Opportunities gave tents to homeless people last summer because of lack of space to house those people.

The countys first ARPA plan  which commissioners had stressed was meant to be revised  called for a $25,000 study to determine what the countys biggest mental health needs were. Commissioner Jim Biggs, R-North, championed that cause.

County Council President Jeremy Rivas, D-2nd, said council members, along with commissioners, get suggestions submitted through the countys website, porterco.org.

The council held a public input session at the Memorial Opera House in December. The subcommittees, as well as the steering committee, will do their work in public. I think theyll all have some public input, Rivas said.

That will be the perfect time to address the issues, he said.

The county already has been receiving a lot of good ideas, Councilman Andy Bozak, R-at large, said.

The council received a number of suggestions last week.

Walt Breitinger said clean water infrastructure should be a priority.

Local Izaak Walton League President Gary Brown said 17 churches are helping house homeless people this winter. Homelessness is a time bomb waiting to happen, he said. Its in every part of Porter County.

He also urged the county to plan for the public health emergency to last a couple more years. The whole state is red, redder than red, he said. The things should plan should be proactive for the extension another two years.

Valparaiso City Councilman Robert Cotton, D-2nd, thanked the council for showing true leadership in listening to the publics suggestions. Youve got my respect, he said.

Im glad were pressing the reset button on this, Sheila Sweeney said.

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OK, but what about affirmative action at nonelite colleges?

Theres a common misconception that every college in the United States employs some form of affirmative action. The truth is that a majority of colleges in this country let in most of their applicants and serve a relatively local population that more or less reflects the demographics of the area. For example, only 14.1 percent of undergraduate students at Cal State East Bay are white. By comparison, 78 percent of undergraduates at Chadron State College in Nebraska are white. This doesnt mean that Chadron State discriminates against minority applicants or that Cal State East Bay has the greatest minority recruitment program of all time. The reality is that both schools arent selective  Chadron takes everyone  and their student bodies simply reflect the people who apply.

In 2014, there were only 352 colleges that publicly stated that they considered race in the admissions process, according to a 2017 study. Thats less than 10 percent of all the two- and four-year colleges in the country. The study also found that most exclusive schools considered the race of the applicant. This makes sense. The only schools that need to make decisions based on race are those schools that need to choose among applicants at all.

So what can we do?

Ive written in an earlier edition of this newsletter about the role that community colleges could play in ensuring a more equitable and open path toward upward mobility in this country. Public colleges already take thousands of kids a year from the working and middle classes. Expanded and fully normalized pipelines from community colleges to state universities could provide opportunities not only for poor students of color, but also for economically disadvantaged students from all backgrounds.

This system, which would be modeled, in part, after the Canadian public university system, would reduce the stress on high school students to meet the impossible standards of elite colleges. The University of Toronto, which U.S. News and World Report ranked as the top university in Canada last year, has an enrollment of over 74,000 undergraduates, far more than the number of students enrolled at all eight Ivy League schools combined. There are highly competitive, specialized programs at Toronto and other universities in Canada, but they exist within the overall structure of the public university, which means that for the most part, there isnt a college track for the elites of Canada and one for everyone else. If you care about your grades in high school, chances are you will be able to attend the university in your province. And you will almost certainly not be exclusively surrounded by the wealthy elite.

Last September, House Democrats released a bill that included language curtailing endowment taxes on private colleges, provided they offer sufficient grants and scholarships for some students. This move coincided with a banner year for many elite universities that saw their coffers swell during the pandemic. Cornell, Dartmouth and Yale all reported over 40 percent returns on their investments in 2021. This only accelerated a longstanding trend: Between 1990 and 2010, the return on capital endowments for universities with endowments larger than $1 billion grew roughly 50 percent faster than universities with endowments that totaled less than $100 million.

Rather than offer these universities what amounts to a break on their taxes, the Biden administration should raise them considerably. Lowering tuition for a select number of students who have already gotten into highly selective schools does very little actual good  most of those schools have robust financial aid programs anyway. I believe that the money raised from aggressively taxing endowments should be used to fund community colleges and state university programs instead, so that more students could benefit.
Georgetown Universitys law school placed a newly hired administrator on leave on Monday after he said on Twitter that President Biden would nominate not the objectively best pick but a lesser Black woman to be the next Supreme Court justice.

The decision came one day before the scholar, Ilya Shapiro, a prominent libertarian, had been scheduled to assume his role as a senior lecturer and the executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, which is part of the law school.

Mr. Shapiro, a constitutional law expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, drew a sharp rebuke from students, faculty members and alumni with his comments about the search process for the next justice. The posts have since been deleted.

In a tweet posted on Jan. 26, Mr. Shapiro suggested that Mr. Biden should nominate Sri Srinivasan, the Indian-born chief judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to succeed Justice Stephen G. Breyer on the Supreme Court.
WASHINGTON  Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, testified privately last week before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the latest turn in weeks of negotiations between the panels investigators and Mr. Pences team.

Mr. Short appeared in response to a subpoena from the committee, according to three people with knowledge of the developments, making him the most senior person around Mr. Pence who is known to have cooperated in the inquiry.

Investigators believe that participation by the former vice president and his inner circle is critical, because Mr. Pence resisted a pressure campaign by former President Donald J. Trump to use his role in presiding over Congresss official count of electoral votes to try to overturn the 2020 election.

Mr. Short was with Mr. Pence on Jan. 6 as a mob of Mr. Trumps supporters attacked the Capitol, and has firsthand knowledge of the effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to try to persuade the former vice president to throw out legitimate electoral votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in favor of fake slates of pro-Trump electors.
WASHINGTON  The United States and its European allies appear on the cusp of restoring the deal that limited Irans nuclear program, Biden administration officials said on Monday, but cautioned that it is now up to the new government in Tehran to decide whether, after months of negotiations, it is willing to dismantle much of its nuclear production equipment in return for sanctions relief.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, a senior State Department official signaled that negotiations had reached a point where political leaders needed to decide whether they would agree to key elements of an accord that would essentially return to the 2015 deal that President Donald J. Trump discarded four years ago, over the objections of many of his key advisers. Ultimately, that freed Iran to resume its nuclear production, in some cases enriching nuclear fuel to levels far closer to what is needed to make nuclear weapons.

Administration officials cautioned that it was not clear whether a final agreement would be struck, and in Iran that decision is bound to go to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And while some remain deeply skeptical that Iran would ultimately agree to the terms now being discussed, the State Department official said that we can see a path to a deal if those decisions are made and if they are made quickly.

Now is the time for Iran to decide whether its prepared to make those decisions, the official said. A second senior administration official also said the talks had reached the decision-making stage. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
WASHINGTON  The federal prison system was placed on a nationwide lockdown on Monday after a gang fight at a high-security penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas, left two inmates dead, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.

While deadly fights break out with some regularity in federal penitentiaries, the bureau rarely locks down all 120 of its facilities in response.

In an abundance of caution, the Bureau of Prisons (B.O.P.) is securing our facilities as a temporary measure to ensure the good order of our institutions, Kristie Breshears, a bureau spokeswoman, said in a statement. We anticipate this security measure will be short-lived.

Ms. Breshears said the bureau would monitor events within its facilities and adjust its operations as the situation evolved, but declined to elaborate further for safety and security reasons.
According to people familiar with the accounts, Mr. Waldron, shortly after the election, began telling associates that he had found irregularities in vote results that he felt were suggestive of fraud. He then came up with the idea of having a federal agency like the military or the Department of Homeland Security confiscate the machines to preserve evidence.

Mr. Waldron first proposed the notion of the Pentagons involvement to Mr. Trumps former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, whom he says he served with in the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The plans were among an array of options that were placed before Mr. Trump in the tumultuous days and weeks that followed the election, developed by an ad hoc group of lawyers like Sidney Powell and other allies including Mr. Flynn and Mr. Waldron. That group often found itself at odds with Mr. Giuliani and his longtime associate Bernard Kerik, as well as with Mr. Trumps White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, and his team.

Around the same time that Mr. Trump brought up the possibility of having the Justice Department seize the voting machines, for example, he also tried to persuade state lawmakers in contested states like Michigan and Pennsylvania to use local law enforcement agencies to take control of them, people familiar with the matter said. The state lawmakers refused to go along with the plan.

The meeting with Mr. Barr took place in mid- to late November when Mr. Trump raised the idea of whether the Justice Department could be used to seize machines, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump told Mr. Barr that his lawyers had told him that the department had the power to seize machines as evidence of fraud.

Mr. Trump mentioned a specific state that had used machines built by Dominion Voting Systems, where his lawyers believed there had been fraud, although it is unclear which state Mr. Trump was referring to. Mr. Barr, who had been briefed extensively at that point by federal law enforcement officials about how the theories being pushed by Mr. Trumps legal team about the Dominion machines were unfounded, told Mr. Trump that the Justice Department had no basis for seizing the machines because there was no probable cause to believe a crime had been committed.
The Kremlin said the two leaders had discussed Ukraine as well as Mr. Putins demands for security guarantees that would include a legally binding halt on NATO expansion to the east. They agreed to stay in touch by phone and to work promptly on the possibility of holding an in-person meeting, the Kremlin said.

American officials said Monday they had received a Russian response to Washingtons proposal, made last week, to defuse the Ukraine crisis. But a State Department official would not detail the response, saying the Biden administration did not want to negotiate in public.

On Tuesday morning, the U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, is expected to speak by phone with Russias foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov.

But even as the diplomats at the Security Council emphasized the need for a peaceful resolution, the tone of the rhetoric between the Russian and American envoys suggested the rift between the two sides over Ukraine, and the threat of military force, remained acute.

In Ukraine itself  where many have been unnerved by the constant drumbeat of menacing news about Russian military maneuvers, cyber-sabotage and disinformation  the anxiety has been compounded by hundreds of bogus bomb threats. The threats, possibly instigated by Russia, were meant to sow panic and fear, Ukrainian officials said. The number of fake bomb scares in January, they said, was six times the level of last year.

Ukraine appealed to Moscow to de-escalate the situation.

Russia several times announced they do not want war, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraines foreign minister, said in a video briefing for reporters. Russia can prove those words by immediately decreasing its military, political and economic pressure on Ukraine. It can abandon ideas of destabilizing the situation inside Ukraine with invented protests, cyberattacks and efforts to disrupt normal life.

The tensions surrounding Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 44 million that has recently drifted toward the West, have been smoldering since Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014 after a Russia-friendly government in Ukraine was ousted.
AMSTERDAM  The Dutch publisher of The Betrayal of Anne Frank, a new book scholars have criticized for putting forward inconclusive findings, apologized for offending anyone in an email sent to its authors, and said it would delay printing more copies of the book until further notice.

A more critical stance could have been taken here, wrote Tanja Hendriks, the publisher and director of Ambo Anthos Publishers, in the email, which The New York Times has seen.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank, by the Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan, which was published in the United States by HarperCollins, received worldwide media attention after its release on Jan. 17, bolstered by a double segment on CBS Networks 60 Minutes the evening before. HarperCollins declined to comment for this article, and Sullivan did not respond to emails and telephone calls.

Sullivans book is an account of an investigation led by a retired F.B.I. detective that concluded Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish notary from Amsterdam, was most likely the informant who revealed the Frank familys whereabouts to the Nazis.
During his Christmas break, Dillon Helbig, an 8-year-old boy from Boise, Idaho, wrote a book that he wanted everyone to read.

He had spent a long time on it  four days to be exact  and filled 81 pages of an empty journal with a richly illustrated tale about how he gets transported back in time after a star atop his Christmas tree explodes.

But he did not have a book deal. (Hes only in second grade, after all.) So when his grandmother took him to the Lake Hazel branch of the Ada Community Library in Boise at the end of December, he slipped the sole copy of his book onto a shelf containing fiction titles.

I had to sneak past the librarians, said Dillon, who says li-berry instead of library.

Over the next month, a series of circumstances made the book one of the librarys most sought-after titles and also inspired children in Boise to write their own stories.
WHATS GOOD

Notes on Rap and Language

By Daniel Levin Becker

If youre one of the several billion humans who have heard 50 Cents In Da Club this century, you may have spent a moment or two admiring the concision of the chorus chant Im into having sex, I aint into making love  possibly while burning calories on an elliptical, or waiting for your vodka soda. But it is unlikely that youve thought about this line as hard, or for as long, as Daniel Levin Becker, who opens Whats Good: Notes on Rap and Language with a meditation on the lines philosophical implications.

A critic and translator  and one of just two Americans to be inducted into the French literary collective Oulipo  Levin Becker is also a helpless and lifelong rap fan who has logged many unpaid hours poring over the crowdsourced lyric-annotation website Genius (formerly Rap Genius), suggesting alternate meanings or correcting transcription errors. Levin Becker puts all of his accumulated knowledge to work in Whats Good, an often hilarious, surprisingly moving and always joyful paean to raps relationship to words.

The notes in the subtitle is correct: This is not a thesis, an argument or a history. Like Shea Serranos best-selling rap compendiums, Whats Good welcomes you on almost any page you turn to, but builds sneaky resonances for those reading straight through. Levin Becker borrows more than a few tricks from the artists hes studying, and hes also clearly learned more than a little from the hip-hop writer Dave Tompkins, whose dizzying involutions and verbal acrobatics come closest to the anarchic feel of rap music. Picture a Tompkins weaned on Action Bronson, Das Racist and Drake instead of Rammellzee and Afrika Bambaataa, and youve more or less got Levin Becker, who treats the language games of all rappers with equal seriousness.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAIN

A Memoir of Courage

By Silvia Vasquez-Lavado

In her powerful memoir, In the Shadow of the Mountain, Silvia Vasquez-Lavado whisks readers from Silicon Valley to the summit of Everest. Both are male spaces where conquest is prized. Vasquez-Lavado has ascended both. And yet, she observes: Everyone  me, most of all  likes to say that struggle makes you strong. Ive lived, and practically died, by the ethos that to survive is to overcome. But again and again, mountains have shown me that strong is not the opposite of soft. That they are symbiotic. Indeed, it is in testosterone-soaked spheres that Vasquez-Lavado reclaims community and vulnerability, potent traits too often dismissed as feminine.

Like its author  a former eBay executive, the first openly gay woman to complete the Seven Summits and the first Peruvian woman to summit Everest  Vasquez-Lavados memoir is many things. It is an adventure saga of her ascent of Everest; a vulnerable meditation on her childhood in Peru; and the tale of an immigrants journey to the United States. Above all, the book is Vasquez-Lavados reclamation of the truth behind the stories and secrets she had to learn to bear early.

The memoir opens by dropping readers directly into the action, as Vasquez-Lavado navigates a crevasse on Everest. The writing is cinematic  I braced against the wind, squinted before the sheen of the snow. I couldnt help gripping the page like a harness as Vasquez-Lavado wonders: What if I just stop? Just lean back and let go right now? Plummet into the void with the ice and scree?
Press Release

February 1, 2022 Pangilinan: Bagsak kita ng Pilipinong mangingisda dahil sa Chinese ships sa WPS THE income of Filipino fishermen of the coastal areas near the West Philippine Sea (WPS) has been reduced by as much as 80 percent due to the constant presence of Chinese vessels, Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan said Tuesday. Pangilinan learned from fisherfolk he met over the weekend in Zambales that from the average P10,000 to P18,000 a week they used to make before the Chinese occupation of Bajo de Masinloc, their income is now down to P2,000 to P3,500 a week. "Pag mas konti ang kita, mas konti ang pambili ng pagkain at gamot, mas konting pera para sa edukasyon ng mga anak at iba pang mga gastusin ng pamilya," Pangilinan said. "Hindi katanggap-tanggap na hindi makapangisda ang ating mga kababayan sa sarili nating karagatan," he added. Pangilinan said the fishers are no longer able to fish even in the country's exclusive economic zone for fear of being harassed or driven away by China. "Nagkakasya na lang sila sa pangingisda sa 15-kilometer municipal waters kung saan mas kaunti ang pwedeng mahuli," he said. He added that the fishermen also have to compete with bigger commercial fishing vessels that operate near coastal waters. Pangilinan called on the government to protect the economic rights of fishermen in the WPS. Earlier, several Zambales folk narrated to him that the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) conducts sea patrol only up to 12 nautical miles even as some fishermen go beyond this distance in hopes for a more bountiful catch. He called on the PCG to protect Filipino fishermen as they rely on them for their security. Since 2012, China has effective control of Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal. Only 120 nautical miles from Zambales, the rock formation has been a traditional fishing ground for Filipinos, who have since been turned away from their source of livelihood. China has refused to leave despite the Hague-based UN-backed tribunal ruling in favor of the Philippines in July 2016, invalidating China's nine-dash line territorial claim over the entire South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea.
OTHER PEOPLES CLOTHES

By Calla Henkel



Flashback to 2008. Britney Spears was making her first comeback, we were starting to keep up with the Kardashians, Perez Hiltons snark was internet gold and an inscrutable American exchange student in Italy, Amanda Knox, was giving all the wrong signals to the press in the wake of being falsely charged with the murder of her roommate. Lets go back to a world where the superficial trumped the actual, gossip was as weighty as fact and appearances were the only thing that mattered. In other words, just the other day.

This is where we find Zoe Beech and Hailey Mader, two New York City art school students on a year abroad in Berlin in Calla Henkels debut novel, Other Peoples Clothes. Zoe, the quieter of the two, is recovering, just barely, from the unsolved murder of her best friend by disappearing into a series of personas. Hailey, a bullet train of a young woman cushioned by her parents deep pockets, suffers from no such anxieties. Instead she plunges into her life abroad like a fame-seeking missile; for her, Warhols mere 15 minutes will never be enough.

The roommates rent a lavish but heat-deprived apartment from an American crime writer, Beatrice Becks, and her equally pretentious mother, Janet. Austere, mannered Beatrice, who resembles no female crime writer this female crime writer has ever met  and perhaps there is good reason for that  nevertheless fascinates Hailey, who has no qualms about going through her files and personal effects.

At first Zoe and Hailey fail to make their mark on the exclusive underground clubs and art shows of their new city. They drink too much lousy wine, feed the coal furnaces in their bedrooms and binge hours of Law & Order SVU  a device they use to domesticate the Knox trial (the tabloid distortions of Amanda Knox hang heavy over the book) as well as the grisly murder that Zoe would like to forget. But soon they begin to suspect that Beatrice is spying on them, using their failure to impress as fodder for her next potboiler. In response, Hailey decides to give Beatrice something spectacular to write about. Instead of ingratiating themselves into Berlins heady scene, Zoe and Hailey bring the scene to them, turning their apartment into the citys most lavish club.
Livongo unleashed a belief that you could build these kinds of companies, said Hemant Taneja, a managing partner at the venture capital firm General Catalyst, one of Livongos initial investors.

Investors have taken note, pouring money into so-called health tech deals. U.S. investors put roughly $32 billion into private health care technology companies last year, a record, and nearly double the amount from 2020, according to PitchBook data.

Dr. Krishna Yeshwant, a managing partner at GV who is leading its Synapticure investment, learned of the company through a colleague, Graham Spencer, who has A.L.S. Although Dr. Yeshwant, who is a physician, and others at GV have sought ways to help their colleague, he said the firm wouldnt have invested in Synapticure unless it was a clear opportunity for big returns.

You can lose a lot of money solving complex issues for friends, Dr. Yeshwant said.

Synapticure makes money much the way a typical doctors office does, billing insurance companies for its services, including neurological consultations and counseling. It does not charge patients any additional fees.

The companys nurses, counselors, neurologists and medical assistants help patients sort through their existing care and connect them with providers who can fill any gaps. The company also monitors current and pending clinical trials to see which of its users might qualify. With a database of clients who are eager to share their health records, Synapticure hopes to make it easier for biotech start-ups that conduct these trials to find potential research subjects, a costly and time-consuming endeavor.

That is a clear need, said Dr. Eva Feldman, the director of the A.L.S. Center of Excellence at the University of Michigan. She and her team spend roughly four hours with each patient at each visit  about the maximum they can handle  leaving no time to talk about outside research.

Right now we only discuss the clinical trials were doing, and thats what every center does, Dr. Feldman said.
The virus kept millions of workers home in December and January, leaving many businesses short staffed and forcing some to close or limit their hours. That probably forced some companies to postpone hiring. Employers might have also found it harder to hire because some people were unwilling to look for or start new jobs as virus cases rose, or unable to do so because of child care obligations.

But there is little evidence so far that Omicron has derailed a strong job market. Employers laid off or fired just 1.2 million workers in December, the fewest on record. The difficult hiring environment may have led some companies that normally shed temporary workers after the holidays to hold on to them this year, said Diane Swonk, chief economist for the accounting firm Grant Thornton.

Companies kept their seasonal hires, she said. One, because its already a labor shortage. And two, because they had so many people out sick that they wanted to keep people on.

Many workers are taking advantage of their leverage by seeking out better jobs. More than 4.3 million workers quit their jobs voluntarily, down a bit from November but still near a record.

With workers scarce and employees in the drivers seat, companies are raising pay. Wages and salaries rose 4.5 percent in the final three months of 2021, according to separate data released by the Labor Department last week. Wages are rising fastest in sectors where labor is particularly scarce, such as leisure and hospitality.
The prices are so high, with everyone still working on repairing houses, Ms. Tran said. And we still dont have electricity.

Ms. Tran cant imagine passing the business along to her children. We dont want our kids to go through this, she said.

The reluctance of young people to enter an industry that is more arduous and less lucrative than it was in past generations has left Louisiana with a vexing conundrum: While the seafood remains plentiful  the state still routinely ranks second to Alaska in seafood production  the will and expertise to harvest it is dwindling.

The phenomenon, known locally as the graying of the fleet, is aggravated by storms like Ida and reflected in the steep decline in the volume of shrimp and oysters caught since 2019. A recently released study by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Louisiana State University estimates that the states $2.5 billion seafood industry suffered nearly $580 million in losses over the past two hurricane seasons.

More than half of the losses came from damage to infrastructure that may never be repaired. In November, Robert Collins, 62, the third-generation owner of Louisiana Dried Shrimp Company, stared into the sky from the floor of his waterside facility in Grand Isle, one of the most vulnerable communities on Louisianas coast. Ida had torn off nearly all of the roof.

Im not going to use my retirement savings to fix this, he said. Last week, Mr. Collins said his business was still closed and that he was uncertain if it would ever reopen.
Headliner

The Cohen Community Food Rescue Center

For nearly 40 years, City Harvest has collected food that would otherwise go to waste from restaurants, supermarkets, caterers, farms and others to supply soup kitchens, food pantries and the like. Now, it has moved into a 150,000-square-foot headquarters in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The organization had offices and food distribution centers in Manhattan and Queens, but the move has enabled it to consolidate all its operations in one location, which City Harvest says is the largest food rescue and distribution hub in the nation. We have rescued and delivered over one billion pounds of food in our nearly 40-year history, said Jilly Stephens, the organizations chief executive. More than 250 million of those pounds have been just since the start of the pandemic. The chef Eric Ripert, who is vice chairman of the City Harvest board, added, With this gigantic building, we could increase what we handle. (Full disclosure: I wrote City Harvest: 100 Recipes from Great New York Restaurants, published in 2015 as a fund-raiser for the group.) The new building, designed by Ennead Architects, the Rockwell Group and Ware Malcomb, has refrigerated and ambient areas for food collection, loading docks, and by summer will also have an event space with a roof terrace that can be rented. Classes in nutrition will be open to the public, and there will be a street-level storefront.

52nd Street and Second Avenue, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, cityharvest.org.

Opening

Kumi

Sam Nazarians Disruptive Restaurant Group, which has a major presence in the Manhattan West development at 33rd Street and 10th Avenue, is bringing one of its Las Vegas restaurants  Kumi, in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino  to New York. It serves Japanese food shaped by other influences, notably Korean. Anastacia Song, formerly of American Cut in New York, will be executive chef; her experience will play well with a menu that includes strip and rib-eye steaks. The pandemic has prompted restaurant industry talk of shorter menus, but thats not the case here: a long list of sushi, sashimi, tempura and specialty rolls, including one called hot mess, made with poke-style tuna. There are appetizers like gyoza and a tuna taco, and salads, including a watercress Caesar. The steaks share the menu with Korean-style galbi short ribs, salmon glazed with gochujang, and green tea-smoked chicken. The spacious restaurant, seating 130, is luxuriously appointed with mirrors and splashes of color. Its in the hotel that was previously the Viceroy and is now Le Meridien New York. (Opens Thursday)

120 West 57th Street, 212-671-0439, kumirestaurant.com.

Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill  Financial District

The evolution of Bruce and Eric Brombergs Blue Ribbon line of restaurants continues with the opening of their new space in the financial district. The Blue Ribbon name is now on eight New York restaurants, starting with the original SoHo locations, which were brasserie-style, in 1992, and Blue Ribbon Sushi, serving Japanese food, in 1995. The new downtown restaurant recalls the Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill in Columbus Circle, which, introduced in 2007, paired sushi with American fare like steaks and lobster. Sushi, sashimi, maki and other Japanese specialties like tempura, teppan (grilled) vegetables and seafood dominate the menu. A 14-piece omakase is $125. Steaks, including Wagyu, salmon, lobster and chicken teriyaki, are also served in a dining room with brickwork, Japanese touches and 92 seats. There are also Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill restaurants in Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. (Monday)

84 William Street (Maiden Lane), 212-315-4900, blueribbonsushibarandgrilldowntown.com.

Sin Kee

Richard Chan is bringing the hawker food of his homeland, Singapore, to the bustling Queens Crossing Food Hall in Flushing. Hainanese chicken, Teochew braised duck, dumplings with Malaysian curry chicken, and an oyster omelet are served, as are some street foods from Southeast Asia, like satays, radish cakes and a Taiwanese pork belly sandwich. Lunch and dinner are served, with breakfast to follow, in a setting that winks at Singapore with signs like no chewing gum.

Queens Crossing Food Hall, 136-20 38th Avenue (Main Street), Flushing, Queens, 718-878-3108, sinkeenyc.com.
Hundreds of Native American tribes that have suffered disproportionately high addiction and death rates during the opioid epidemic agreed on Tuesday to a tentative settlement of $590 million with Johnson & Johnson and the countrys three largest drug distributors.

Together with a deal struck last fall between the distributors and the Cherokee Nation for $75 million, the tribes will be paid a total of $665 million. Purdue Pharma has already committed at least tens of millions more to the tribes in a settlement that is in mediation.

We are not solving the opioid crisis with this settlement, but we are getting critical resources to tribal communities to help address the crisis, said Steven Skikos, a top lawyer for the tribes.

Native Americans have endured disproportionately high opioid-related overdose deaths, by many metrics. In 2016, for example, Oglala Lakota County in South Dakota, home to the Oglala Lakota tribe, had an opioid-related death rate of 21 people per 100,000, more than twice the state average. According to one study, pregnant American Indian women were as much as 8.7 times more likely than pregnant women from other demographic groups to be diagnosed with opioid dependency or abuse.
Anne Frank once lamented that she might survive the war and her friend, Hannah Goslar, probably would not. Its a haunting perspective to remember when watching My Best Friend Anne Frank, a Dutch film told from the point of view of Hannah. Ben Sombogaarts costume drama shuttles between Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, where Hannah and Anne are fast friends, and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they were later imprisoned separately.

The film wants to spotlight a story of friendship and childhood innocence during the Holocaust. Mischief-making Anne (Aiko Beemsterboer) delights and frustrates her loyal pal, Hannah (Josephine Arendsen), who feels left out as other girls (and boys) enter the picture. When Anne disappears, Hannah doesnt realize that her friend has gone into hiding nearby. Shes soon overwhelmed with her own familys persecution by the Nazis.
Political considerations abounded in the nomination battles of the late 19th century. For example, to fill a vacancy left in 1887, President Grover Cleveland chose his secretary of the interior, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, a Mississippi native and former Confederate soldier whose nomination was a reward to the Democratic Partys loyal supporters in the white South.

All of this was true in the 20th century as well, when justices were chosen for who and what they represented to the president and his political coalition as much as they were for any particular skill or legal acumen. William Howard Taft was, before the 1912 presidential election, worried that he would lose the Republican nomination to a restless Theodore Roosevelt. In October 1911, when the death of Justice John Marshall Harlan left a vacancy on the court, Taft made his choice with the next election in mind. His nominee, Mahlon Pitney, was a prominent New Jersey Republican and state judge with a career of loyal service to the party. Whether or not the selection of Pitney was decisive, Henry Abraham writes, New Jerseys Republican delegation did cast its votes for Taft in the National Convention of 1912. (Taft, its worth mentioning, would lose that election and then go on to serve on the Supreme Court himself.)

There are many more examples to pull from, but the larger point should be clear: To be qualified for the Supreme Court is simply to be the right person for the political needs of the moment. Sometimes, the right person has ample judicial experience. More often, he or she does not. What that person does have, however, is wide experience in public life. For most of the history of the United States, the path to the Supreme Court involved political work, a stint in public office or a prominent position in public affairs, as well as some legal experience.

The Supreme Court is not and has never been a place where peerless legal experts plug disputes into the Constitution and use their powers of mind to produce correct answers. If the materials on which judicial judgments must be based could be fed into a machine as to produce ineluctable answers, if such were the nature of the problems that come before the Supreme Court and such were the answers expected, we would have IBM machines doing the work instead of judges, Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote in a 1954 essay for The New York Times Magazine.

For Frankfurter, who at the time had served on the court for 15 years, the challenge of being a justice was the challenge of self-doubt and self-awareness. Of course a judge is not free from preferences or, if you will, biases, he wrote. But he may deprive a bias of its meretricious authority by stripping it of the uncritical assumption that it is founded on compelling reason or the coercive power of a syllogism. He continues: He will be alert to detect that though a conclusion has a logical form, it, in fact, represents a choice of competing considerations of policy, one of which for the time has won the day.

If theres anything that might cultivate that attitude  this sense of trade-offs, compromises and the limits of ones own perception  it is politics, public service and public office. (Frankfurter, for his part, served in the Taft administration, participated in the founding of the American Jewish Congress and was one of the founders of the A.C.L.U.) There is also something admirably democratic about choosing to interpret the Constitution people who have, at one point in their lives, been responsive to or responsible for the mass of ordinary citizens.

It is something weve lost in our current norms regarding the court, where members come from a handful of the same law schools, have some of the same kinds of experience and largely avoid any public-facing political work before donning the robes of a Supreme Court justice.
Your staircase may not get as much attention as other spaces in your home, like your kitchen and living room, but it should. A beautiful stairwell can tie your home together and make moving from one level to another a pleasure.

It shouldnt be tired and dull, said Fawn Galli, a New York-based interior designer. It should be this magical kind of space you move through.

Philip Mitchell, an interior designer based in Toronto, said stairwells are among his favorite spaces to design: Whether theyre contemporary, traditional or somewhere in between, theyre the best location to have the most fun, and to really put somebodys personality on display.

Because staircases are often front and center when guests walk through the front door, but arent spaces where you spend a lot of time, you have the opportunity to do something really interesting, Mr. Mitchell said, without worrying much about whether it will be visually overwhelming.
From Mother to Mother

Nothing makes you want to be mothered quite so much as becoming a mother yourself. I felt like a scared child, utterly lost, responsible for nurturing a life while feeling entirely unqualified to do so. But my mother filled my freezer with casseroles, held my baby so I could rest, drew me a bath when I got home. When I cried without knowing why, she held me. She showed me how to do this, just as she has shown me my whole life. She gave me everything I need, so I can do the same for my son.  Maureen Goss
Below Im sharing some of the tracks that made the latest cut as well as your arguments for inclusion. Ill post more of your submissions in the newsletter in the coming weeks.

You can peruse the full list of 101 California songs here or listen here.

But before we proceed, my pick: Rilo Kileys Let Me Back In, from 2013. Its an ode to Los Angeles that centers what Ive always loved about this city  that almost anyone can feel at home here.

Happy listening.

Lights by Journey (1978)

Journey is a Bay Area staple. Lights is a love song to the city of San Francisco. The Giants will play Lights in between the seventh and eighth innings (if the Giants are winning) and the whole ballpark sings and sways to the music. It is wonderful!  Robin Blair, Palo Alto

California Gurls by Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg (2010)

Im 64 years young, born and raised in Southern California, and if theres another song that so aptly describes life during my younger years, I dont know what it is. Ive retired to Arizona but Southern California will always be home!!  Cheryl Brown, Surprise, Ariz.

Where the Streets Have No Name by U2 (1987)

This is a song that anyone who has been out to the Mojave and has experienced the heaviness of the universe and fragility of their mortality would agree is about the spiritual growth that occurs there. Not to mention the album is called Joshua Tree.  Ana Macias-Serpa, Arundel, Maine
As a fire at a fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem, N.C., burned for a third day on Wednesday, officials said they would indefinitely maintain a one-mile voluntary evacuation zone around the plant and were ordering firefighters to keep their distance because of the risk of an explosion.

About 600 tons of ammonium nitrate were at the Winston Weaver Company plant when the fire broke out on Monday night, prompting the authorities to close a school and circulate in the streets to encourage residents in more than 2,000 households to go to a shelter.

On Wednesday, Bobby Wade, the division chief of the Winston-Salem Fire Department, said firefighters were evaluating the scene but were not on site at the plant, where the possibility of an explosion has not gone down, Chief Wade said.

It is unsafe for anyone to be on that site, he said at a news conference.

Those conditions prompted officials to extend the voluntary evacuation period, which had been tentatively scheduled to end Wednesday morning, until the risk of an explosion has passed, the city said in a statement.
A series of unconfirmed bomb threats disrupted life at more than a dozen college campuses this week, drawing the attention of the White House and the F.B.I.

Of particular concern were the threats directed at historically Black colleges and universities, or H.B.C.U.s, including at least 17 that temporarily canceled in-person classes and locked down buildings.

President Biden was aware of the threats, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said at a news conference on Monday.

I will say that these are certainly disturbing, Ms. Psaki said. And the White House is in touch with the interagency partners, including federal law enforcement leadership, on this.
A shooting outside a school in a Minneapolis suburb left one student dead and another in critical condition on Tuesday afternoon, according to the authorities, who said several hours later that two suspects had been arrested.

The gunfire erupted around noon near the entrance of the South Education Center in Richfield, Minn., a school that serves about 200 students with special and alternative-learning needs from prekindergarten to age 21 that is about 10 miles south of Minneapolis, the police said during a news conference.

It was not immediately clear what led to the shooting or whether the students had been targeted. The victims, whose names had not been released by Tuesday evening, were found on the sidewalk. the police said.

Shortly after 6 p.m., police executed search warrants at two locations in Minneapolis in connection with the shooting, police said. Officers arrested two suspects and recovered a handgun, and were not looking for additional suspects, the police said. The authorities did not release the names of the suspects.
Lloyd J. Austin III, the defense secretary, has written a letter to seven Republican governors, rejecting their requests for exemptions from coronavirus vaccination mandates for their states National Guard troops.

The rejection  sent to the governors of Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming, who have all sought to allow their guard troops to refuse the vaccine without consequences  sets the stage for a potential legal battle.

In making the decision to require vaccination against Covid-19 for service members, Mr. Austin wrote, I considered the thousands of hospitalizations and the hundreds of deaths among service members, civilians, and their families related to Covid-19. Covid-19 takes our service members out of the fight, temporarily or permanently, and jeopardizes our ability to meet mission requirements.

Failure by a member to do so will lead to a prohibition on participation in drills, training, and other duty conducted under Title 32 and will jeopardize the members status in the National Guard, Mr. Austin added.
Whoopi Goldberg, the comedian and actress who is also a co-host of the ABC talk show The View, will be suspended for two weeks, the network announced Tuesday night, after she said repeatedly during an episode of the show that aired on Monday that the Holocaust was not about race, comments that come at a time of rising antisemitism globally. She later apologized.

In the episode, Ms. Goldberg said the Holocaust was about mans inhumanity to man and not about race. When one of her co-hosts challenged that assertion, saying the Holocaust was driven by white supremacy, Ms. Goldberg said, But these are two white groups of people.

She added, This is white people doing it to white people, so yall going to fight amongst yourselves. As she continued to speak, music came on, indicating a commercial break.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Kim Godwin, president of ABC News, said that Ms. Goldberg would be suspended for her wrong and hurtful comments.
MBANDAKA, Democratic Republic of Congo  The ebullient soukous music had been blasting from speakers since before dawn, but at 8 a.m., someone aboard the brightly painted boat docked along the Congo River pressed pause, and a pastor picked up a microphone and began preaching at a volume easily heard on shore.

You will go to heaven, he promised his bleary-eyed flock, tired from partying all night aboard the boat, the Super Malou Express. And also  you will get cars and houses!

Striding along the deck of the boat, which was slowly taking on passengers for the weeklong journey to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, he delivered his message for about half an hour. As he spoke, the morning sun illuminated the hulls of the long, slender pirogues  hand-carved canoes  that glided past on the gleaming river below.
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso  Gunfire erupted near the presidential palace. Military trucks raced through the streets as civilians fled. The countrys president vanished from view.

The small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau appeared to be hurtling toward a military coup on Tuesday  the latest in a spate of military takeovers across a swath of Africa in the past year that has signaled a worrisome democratic backslide. But hours later, the countrys leader suddenly reappeared to declare he had thwarted his armed foes.

Addressing the local news media, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo said that many members of his own security forces had been killed in what he termed a failed attack against democracy with possible links to drug trafficking. Others had been arrested, he said, but he could not say how many.

It wasnt just a coup, he said. It was an attempt to kill the president, the prime minister and the entire cabinet.
In the days after the military in Myanmar seized power on Feb. 1 last year, millions of people took to the streets to oppose the takeover, walking off their jobs in what has become an enduring nationwide civil disobedience movement and resisting the juntas murderous violence.

One year later, the Southeast Asian nation is mired in conflict, the economy is crippled, warfare has spread to every region, and public institutions are in a state of collapse. Peaceful protesters have been gunned down, suspects have been tortured, and thousands of civilians have been killed.

The initial daily protests, loud and colorful, have been replaced by an eerie quiet.

To mark the anniversary of the coup, protest leaders have called for a silent strike on Tuesday, urging people to stay home, close their shops and halt outdoor activity for six hours. The junta circulated leaflets warning that participants would be charged with terrorism, incitement and violating the electronic communications law. Dozens have already been arrested.
Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist who killed 77 people in gun and bomb attacks in 2011, was denied parole on Tuesday by a Norwegian court that said he appeared devoid of empathy and compassion for the victims of the terror.

Mr. Breivik, 42, who has served 10 years of a 21-year sentence for the attacks, showed no signs that his extremist views had waned during his years of incarceration. When the parole hearing began on Jan. 18, he entered the courtroom and made a Nazi-style salute. He also carried and wore signs emblazoned with racist messages, including one that read Stop your genocide against our white nations.

Speaking to the judge, Mr. Breivik demanded that he be treated as a prisoner of war.

Judge Dag Bjorvik oversaw the parole hearing, which lasted for two weeks and was held at Skien prison for security reasons.

Mr. Breiviks lawyer, Oystein Storrvik, said on Tuesday that they would appeal the verdict, after expressing pessimism at the start of the hearing. No Norwegian lawyer wants a case to begin with a Hitler salute, he said in an interview with The Times last month. He said he was not particularly concerned with Mr. Breivik winning his parole, adding that his long-term strategy was to improve the conditions under which he is sitting in prison.
The report also detailed repeated racism and xenophobia, with messages between officers that mocked the Black Lives Matter movement and non-Christian religions, insulted people with disabilities and included homophobic comments.

The investigations were initiated in 2018, long before the national outcry over policing that followed Ms. Everards death, but have since taken on new resonance.

The evidence uncovered in the report included a series of messages between officers in WhatsApp groups, with highly offensive and openly racist commentary, as well as disparaging comments about women.

In one exchange, two officers talked about domestic violence, with one officer writing about women, Knock a bird about and she will love you. Human nature.

In another exchange, a male officer told a female officer, I would happily rape you.

The report said that the casual exchange and blase nature of this communication indicates a culture where officers were comfortable to make these comments, suggesting it was part of a status quo rather than an exception to the norm. It added: the messages appeared to be sent without fear of repercussion or consequence.

The report offered 15 recommendations aimed at tackling the underlying cultural issues in the force, which included recommending that it publicly commit to being an anti-racist organization with a zero-tolerance policy toward sexism, misogyny, bullying and harassment.

Bas Javid, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, said in a statement that he was angry and disappointed to see officers involved in sharing sexist, racist and discriminatory messages, and it was clear more work needed to be done to eradicate bullying and discrimination from the force.
MOSCOW  Splitting sharply from his NATO allies, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary said on Tuesday that proposed sanctions against Russia if it takes military action against Ukraine would be doomed to failure and that Russian security demands were reasonable.

Visiting Moscow, Mr. Orban met privately for five hours with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and afterward said at an amiable news conference with Mr. Putin that he did not see any intention for Russia to escalate the conflict with Ukraine.

Most Western leaders have denounced Mr. Putin for deploying more than 100,000 troops near Ukraines borders, and U.S. and NATO officials have warned that Russia appeared to be preparing for an invasion. Hungary is a member of the European Union and NATO, which have both pledged to respond forcefully to a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The president was very calm and said that Russias demands for security guarantees are normal and should be the basis for negotiations, said Mr. Orban. And I agree with that. We must negotiate.
This is not going to be a war of Ukraine and Russia, should diplomatic efforts fail, he said. This is going to be a European war, a full-fledged war.

While Mr. Johnson tried to keep the focus on Russia, he was instantly put on the defensive by aggressive questioning about a scandal over illicit parties during the pandemic that is imperiling his hold on office. On the issue of Ukraine, one reporter asked, why should the international community take your diplomacy seriously when youre so preoccupied?

Mr. Johnson dodged most of the questions about his troubles at home. But pressed on whether he would release an unredacted report by a senior civil servant investigating the parties, Mr. Johnson replied, Of course well publish everything as soon as the process is completed.

For weeks, Russia has been insisting that the current crisis is not just about Ukraine, but about a European security architecture that fails to take Russias interests into account. Last December, as American officials started raising alarms about what they said was a Russian troop buildup, Moscow issued written demands for security guarantees. They included that NATO, the Western military alliance, not expand eastward, guaranteeing that Ukraine will never join it, and that NATO draw down forces in Eastern European countries formerly part of the Soviet Union or its orbit.

Mr. Putin said these were existential issues that Russia was determined to finally resolve. But many analysts and Western officials interpreted his stance as an attempt to create a pretext for possible military action against Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that Mr. Putin has wanted to reinsert into Russias sphere of influence ever since Ukraines pro-Western revolution in 2014.
Above ground, plastic sheeting claps in a freezing wind. With separatist trenches close by, in a tree line across a snowy field, the only truly safe place is underground.

Nothing about the unit suggests a connection to NATO other than the name, Lima, which is the NATO phonetic alphabet designation for the letter L. Under an overhaul as part of Ukraines aspiration to join the alliance, military units were renamed according to NATO standards.

The conflict is fought mostly with rifles, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades, mortars and artillery systems dating to the 1970s or earlier. The United States has sold Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine since 2018, but they are intended mainly to repel a broad Russian attack, not for use on the front. Turkey provides another of the countrys newer weapons, the Bayraktar TB2 armed drone, but the Ukrainian military has acknowledged using it only once in combat, last October.

Still, military analysts say the force is in far better shape than in 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and fomented the war in the east. The United States has provided $2.7 billion in military assistance in the years since. In recent weeks, it authorized Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send American-made Stinger antiaircraft missiles to Ukraine, and Britain has provided guided anti-tank missiles.

And the Ukrainian army is battle hardened. About 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers, including about 13,000 women, have gone through rotations along the eastern front, providing a pool of veteran fighters who might be called up in the event of war. On Tuesday President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an order declaring his intention to add 100,000 troops to Ukraines military over three years, and increase soldiers pay.

But multiple rotations have also taken a heavy toll, soldiers in this position, who range in age from 25 to 59, said. Pvt. Volodymyr Murdza, 53, is halfway through his second three-year contract. His son is also serving in the war and his wife worries terribly, he said. She calls and says, I worry because you dont call me, Private Murdza said. And I say, Dearest, sunshine, I call whenever I can.
With large-scale Russian military exercises set to begin in Belarus, the United States has ordered the departure of family members of U.S. government employees, citing an increase in unusual and concerning Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine.

The decision comes just over a week after the State Department pulled the families of American diplomats out of Ukraine in response to the buildup of Russian troops on the border. In a statement published Monday, the State Department also warned U.S. citizens planning travel to Belarus that the situation is unpredictable.

Although Russia insists that its military exercises pose no threat to Ukraine, which shares a 665-mile border with Belarus that is largely unguarded, the United States has warned that they could be used as a pretext to prepare for a possible attack. Ukraines capital, Kyiv, is a short drive from Belaruss southern border and is easily within range of the rocket systems Russia has deployed before the exercises.

Russia has deployed some of its most advanced and well-equipped forces to nine bases and airfields around Belarus, the Russian Defense Ministry says. Already, highly trained special forces units and airborne troops, together with powerful antiaircraft systems and hundreds of aircraft, have begun to arrive at bases around the country, Ukrainian and Western officials say. At least two Iskander-M rocket battalions have been sent to Belarus, equipped with rockets that can hit anywhere inside Ukraine, Konrad Muzyka, a Russian military analyst, said on Twitter.
BEIRUT, Lebanon  In January alone, five senior officials from oil-rich Arab monarchies visited China to discuss cooperation on energy and infrastructure. Turkeys top diplomat flew in to talk about opportunities for economic collaboration, and Irans foreign minister pressed for progress on $400 billion of investment that China has promised his country.

As the United States, fatigued by decades of war and upheaval in the Middle East, seeks to limit its involvement there, China is deepening its ties with both friends and foes of Washington across the region.

China is nowhere near rivaling the United States vast involvement in the Middle East. But states there are increasingly looking to China not just to buy their oil, but to invest in their infrastructure and cooperate on technology and security, a trend that could accelerate as the United States pulls back.

For Beijing, the recent turmoil in neighboring countries like Afghanistan and Kazakhstan has reinforced its desire to cultivate stable ties in the region. The outreach follows the American militarys withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years, as well as the official end of its combat mission in Iraq. That, along with the Biden administrations frequent talk of China as its top national security priority, has left many of its partners in the Middle East believing that Washingtons attention lies elsewhere.
One example of an investigation that critics say reflects a pattern of impunity was linked to the 2014 war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, when an airstrike killed four boys playing on a beach, prompting international condemnation. An Israeli military investigation resulted in no criminal charges or disciplinary actions against those involved in airstrikes during that war, including the two that killed the boys.

Mr. Assad was driving home around 3 a.m. after a night playing cards and drinking coffee at a relatives house when he was detained near his home in the village of Jiljilya in the occupied West Bank. Immediately after soldiers left the scene, he was found face down and unresponsive with a blindfold still on, according to witnesses and his doctor, who said he died while in Israeli custody.

Initially, the Israeli military said Mr. Assad had been alive when he was released.

The soldiers did not identify signs of distress or see anything of concern regarding Mr. Assads health before they left, according to the investigation, saying they believed he was sleeping. But the investigation found that the soldiers failed in their obligations by leaving Assad lying on the floor without the required treatment and without reporting the incident back to their commanders.

His death brought renewed scrutiny on Israel from its closest ally, the United States, which called for a thorough investigation. Mr. Assad was a U.S. citizen with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in the United States. His family and several members of Congress have demanded that the United States conduct its own independent investigation.

In addition to the central commands investigation, a separate criminal investigation by the Israeli military police is still ongoing.

Mr. Assads autopsy was conducted by the coroner for the Palestinian Authority, which is also conducting its own investigation into Mr. Assads death. The authority administers parts of the West Bank but even in Palestinian villages like Jiljilya, Israeli forces regularly carry out raids and operations aimed at thwarting attacks.

Mr. Assads life and death mirrored the daily perils faced by Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, including the fear of being detained in nighttime raids or arrested at home.
A young Chinese man who had been experiencing severe headaches lately was shocked to learn that he had been living with a bullet in the left side of his skull for about two decades.

Xiao Chen (pseudonym), a 28-year-old man from Shenzen, had been suffering from random headaches for as long as he could remember, only lately they had been getting more frequent and more severe. At first, Chen thought that the pain was caused by his lack of sufficient sleep on weekdays, but sleeping wasnt the answer, especially since the headaches kept him up at night. Finally, things got so bad that he decided to go to the hospital, where doctors discovered a rather bizarre cause of the pain.

While performing an MRI, doctors at the Shenzhen University General Hospital discovered a strange object lodged in the left side of Xiao Chens skull. Closer inspection revealed the small object to be a metal bullet, so the hospital staff asked the patient if he had any idea how it had gotten there.

Interestingly, Chen remembered that when he was about 8-years-old, he and his brother were playing with an air gun at home, when the gun accidentally went off, shooting him in the side of the head. He and his brother were afraid of being scolded by their parents, so they didnt say a thing, and the wound was covered up by his hair, so the parents couldnt really see it. Plus, the wound wasnt too painful, so he eventually forgot about it.

Doctors told the 28-year-old that he was lucky to be alive, as the bullet was really close to the temple, but hadnt fully penetrated the skull, or hit the brain. He was scheduled for emergency surgery at the end of last month and the 20-year-old bullet, which measured about 1 cm in length and about 0.5 cm in diameter, was successfully removed. Chen has since been discharged and is recovering at home.

This weird news story reminded us of a similar case we featured recently, about a man who lived with a spoon tuck in his esophagus for a whole year, without even knowing it was there.
Marissa Shorenstein

Marissa Shorenstein, who did an eight-year run on AT&T's PR team, has joined Stagwell's SKDK unit.

At the phone company, she handled external affairs for its 17-state northern region (Maine to Illinois), along with its DC lobbying/PA outpost.

Shorenstein departed the friendly confines of Ma Bell for the global chief communications officer spot at WeWork in 2020, a time when the workspace sharing company was in the midst of organizational and financial chaos. She exited after a four-month stint.

Earlier, she served as senior manager for strategic planning and corporate communications for the New York Jets.

Most recently, Shorenstein, a one-time director of communications & press secretary for New Yorks resigned governor Andrew Cuomo, directed the executive transition of the current Empire State Gov. Kathy Hochul.

At SKDK, she will take on strategic planning and business initiative duties. CEO Josh Isay called Shorenstein "one of New Yorks savviest communications and political strategists.
Mercury Public Relations has signed on Moscow-based Sovcombank for strategic consulting, management services and government relations work, which includes outreach to US officials.

The four-month contract, which began Jan. 26, is worth $90K per month.

Democratic US Senators on Jan. 12 introduced the Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022," which lists Sovcombank as one of the Russian financial services targeted for sanctions in the event that Russia invades Ukraine.

Sovcombank is 89.9 percent owned by a group of Russian businessmen.

The remaining 10.1 percent stake is owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (3.3 percent), Russia-China Investment Fund (2 percent), Russia Direct Investment Fund (1.3 percent), Russia-Japan Investment Fund (1.3 percent), Qatar Investment Holdings (1 percent) and SBI Holdings (0.5 percent).

Mercurys Sovcombank six-member lobbying team includes co-chair and former Connecticut Democratic Congressman Toby Moffett and ex-Louisiana Senator David Vitter.

Omnicom owns Mercury.
Chris Gedez

The question of whether the PR sector (or the larger marketing, advertising and lobbying sectors) should work for fossil fuel companies has been raised on and off for several years, but has gained momentum in recent months. Some of this discussion has been raised by a group known as Clean Creatives, and a separate study authored by Robert Brulle of Brown University has also given legs to the topic.

Aric Caplans Jan. 31 commentary, raises some important issues that are worthy of discussion (and which I address below), but the irony cannot be lost that Caplans opinion piece accusing the PR sector of being part of a misinformation campaign itself includes misinformation. For instance

The author is incorrect in suggesting that Peabody Energy with Burson-Marsteller (now BCW) was responsible for torpedoing the Clean Power Plan. In fact, in 2016 the Supreme Court halted enforcement of the plan (and the Trump administration eventually repealed it), and this ruling had nothing to do with any PR campaign. Also, the Supreme Court indeed did rule on the merits, insofar as the question before the Court was whether the EPA under the Clean Air Act could enforce such a regulation. The author misrepresents the concept and origin of the term, Clean Coal. In fact, the origin of the term goes back to the 1970s, and the proper term was Clean Coal Technology, which was an initiative of the US Department of Energy under President Carter to explore ways to remove pollutants such as SOx and NOx from coal power plants. This term was not the product of any PR campaign to fight climate change policies. The author again attempts to mislead the reader by suggesting that natural gas is somehow associated with a campaign to promote fossil fuels. Natural gas is not a talking point, as the author suggests, but is a term to describe naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas, the discovery of which goes back more than a thousand years. The author also takes notice of a study published in late 2021, The Role of Public Relations in Climate Change Politics, of which Robert Brulle of Brown University is one of the authors. This study has been cited by many (including its authors) as proof that the PR sector is complicit in climate deception and blocking any climate change policy actions. However, the study itself concludes,  Yet despite extensive research into public opinion on climate change per se, we have identified no studies that measure the impact of such campaigns on public opinion . In other words, the studys authors acknowledge they have no data to support their claims to the media. A case of the kettle calling the pot black if ever there was one!

Lets now turn to Caplans thesis that energy companies should not be entitled to PR counsel and that PR firms should refuse to work with energy companies.

The most frightening aspect of this concept is the threat to the most sacred of our rights the right to free speech.

Second, this attempts to quash any debate about the right path forward toward climate solutions.

Third, Caplan and other advocates of this idea would have you believe that the entire oil and gas sector is in the business of perpetuating climate deception. I dont know of a single publicly traded oil and gas company (or even state-owned companies) which deny the existence of climate change, the causes or the need for action. Most companies have already set targets for greenhouse emissions reductions or even to get to net zero-emissions; most have launched various versions of energy transition strategies; and the entire sector is investing considerable capital in carbon reduction technology and renewables. But that doesnt mean that opposing a particular regulation or legislative proposal is climate deception.

Fourth, it sets a dangerous precedent. Are PR firms soon to be pressured not to represent clients involved in other sectors because they happen to be controversial? And who is next in the crosshairs: law firms (already under siege), accounting firms? The companies that run the cafeterias for oil companies?

Caplan is proposing a flawed and dangerous path that will get us no closer to the solutions we need to address climate change. When working with integrity, responsibility, transparency and honesty, PR firms can make an important contribution to the climate change dialogue.

***

Chris Gidez is founding partner of G7 Reputation Advisory LLC. Prior to launching G7, he was executive VP/global energy practice leader at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, GM-corporate PR at Chevron and director of external affairs at Texaco.
MikeWorldWide opens applications for its Digital Acceleration program, which will provide professionals entering the public relations industry with a mix of bootcamp-style intense learning, online learning and mentorship, and hands-on client experience. The paid, 12-week, program, which kicks off in March, is open to current students and recent graduates. Ten participants will be selected for the 12-week engagement that will consist of one-to-two-week rotations through social strategy, paid media, search marketing, and research and insights practice groups. Candidates will work together in the last week to develop an integrated program which they will present to MWW leadership. "This program enables people interested in digital to experience different disciplines of marketing and contribute to the best-integrated storytelling for our client partners," said MWW chief marketing and business development officer Tara Naughton. Applications can be submitted until Feb. 11 at 11:59 p.m.

Ballard Partners launches a practice group targeted at clients with an interest in legislative and regulatory matters affecting the cannabis industry. Firm partners Courtney Coppola and Eugene O'Flaherty will be chairing the practice group. Before coming to Ballard, Coppola worked in the administration of Florida governor Ron DeSantis as director of the state's medical cannabis program. O'Flaherty was previously house chairman of the judiciary committee in the Massachusetts legislature, handling all bills that dealt with the legalization of medical and recreational cannabis. "The cannabis industry in the United States has developed with conflicting and evolving policies at the federal, state and local level," said Coppola. "Our new practice group will help clients navigate the complexity of these ever-changing policies."

TEAM LEWIS is completing its first year of a new approach to employee-directed philanthropy. Over the last year, TEAM LEWIS Foundation has given every employee the opportunity to nominate a charity to make a cash donation, resulting in more than $2 million in cash and creative work given to charities across the world. To date, over 400 employees have participated. The Foundation also works with team members and their nominated causes on creative projects benefiting such organizations as the Elton John AIDS Foundation, HeforShe, The Music Man Project and High Fives Foundation.
FOUR months after a devastating fire halted production at its factory in Killeigh, Glenisk's organic yogurts are once again on their way to the shop shelves.

The Offaly company vowed to return to the market as soon as possible after the blaze on September 27 last year which abruptly ended their yogurt presence in Ireland and temporarily suspended their ambitions for expansion into Europe.

However this week a new production line in an entirely newly built facility at the Newtown site rolled out two natural organic yogurt varieties with others to follow in the coming weeks.

The company has named its relaunch 'The bios are back in town' and one of the products manufactured today is Glenisk Organic Bio Wholemilk Natural Yogurt.

Glenisk Organic Greek Style Natural Yogurt is the other which will be on supermarket shelves nationwide from tomorrow (Wednesday, February 2).

"Two further products will be introduced next week and well continue to roll out our products over the coming weeks," said Glenisk commercial director Emma Walls. "Kids yogurt will return in March."

Ms Walls said Glenisk is operating from the company's Plan B manufacturing facility, built in just four months on a corner of the original manufacturing site.

"This operation will allow us to produce almost all the products originally made, over the coming months.

"The speed with which weve been able to get the new facility up and running is down to the hard work of the staff and the support of local contractors and materials suppliers who have gone above and beyond  working through Christmas and offering solutions at every turn. We are indebted to them all, here in Offaly, and further afield.

"Now that Plan B is up and producing, we turn our attention to the design of 'Plan A', a new carbon neutral manufacturing facility which will set Glenisk up for the future. We expect it will take at least a year for that new facility to be completed."

COMING SOON: INTERVIEW WITH GLENISK MANAGING DIRECTOR VINCENT CLEARY
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Harrisburg, Pa.  Pennsylvanias mail voting law, known as Act 77, was ruled unconstitutional Friday by a state court after a challenge brought by Republicans, but it will remain in place for the time being as the Wolf administration pursues an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Heres what you need to know about the decision and how it might affect you:

Why did the court strike down the mail voting law?

Three of the five Commonwealth Court judges  all Republicans  decided that no-excuse voting would require an amendment to the state constitution, one that would explicitly permit any voter to request a mail ballot regardless of the reason.

The constitution currently states that voters have to cast ballots at a polling place within their district. Absentee ballots can be cast by voters who are unable to appear in person because of business or occupation, are unable to go to their polling place because of illness, disability, or observance of a religious holiday, or cannot vote because of Election Day duties, such as in the case of a poll worker.

Given it has been necessary in the past to amend the constitution to specifically state who can vote absentee, the three judges  Mary Hannah Leavitt, Patricia McCollough, and Christine Fizzano Cannon  found no-excuse mail voting would also require such an amendment.

What did the dissenting judges say?

Two Commonwealth Court judges elected as Democrats, Michael Wojcik and Ellen Ceisler, wrote in their dissent that the majority is wrongly lumping in no-excuse mail voting with the language in the constitution allowing absentee voting.

The two pointed to another section of the constitution that empowers the legislature to provide for another means by which an elector may cast a ballot, such as Act 77.

That section states: All elections by the citizens shall be by ballot or by such other method as may be prescribed by law. (The emphasis was added by the judges.)

Thus, the General Assembly is constitutionally empowered to enact Act 77 to provide for qualified and registered electors present in their municipality of residence on an election day to vote by no-excuse mail-in ballot, Wojcik wrote in the opinion.

He continued: I disagree with the Majoritys faulty premise that the no-excuse mail-in ballot method of voting is merely a subspecies of voting by absentee ballot.

What does this mean for the May primary?

That remains to be seen.

The Wolf administration has already appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court. As that process plays out, the mail voting law remains in place.

If the court accepts the case, which is widely expected, legal experts and others believe it will decide the matter swiftly, given the proximity of the May primary and the need for county election offices to prepare for any potential change in the law.

Who brought the challenge?

Doug McLinko, a county commissioner from Bradford County, filed a lawsuit in July challenging Act 77. A similar suit was brought by a group of Republican state lawmakers the following month, including 11 who voted to approve mail voting when the law was first passed:

Mike Jones (R., York)

Barry J. Jozwiak (R., Berks)

Kathy Rapp (R., Warren)

David Maloney (R., Berks)

Barb Gleim (R., Cumberland)

Bob Brooks (R., Westmoreland)

Aaron Bernstine (R., Beaver)

Dawn Keefer (R., York)

Dan Moul (R., Adams)

Frank Ryan (R., Lebanon)

Donald Bud Cook (R., Fayette)

Three others also participated in the challenge who either voted against the law or who were not in office when it was passed:

David H. Zimmerman (R., Lancaster), who voted no on Act 77

Tim Twardzik (R., Schuylkill), who was not in office when Act 77 passed

Timothy R. Bonner (R., Mercer), who was not in office when Act 77 passed

Why are lawmakers challenging a law they passed?

The mail voting law was the result of months of negotiation between Wolf and the Republican-led legislature, but at the time, the issue of constitutionality was hardly front and center.

Importantly, the law didnt just permit no-excuse voting, it also ushered in other changes, including moving voter registration deadlines closer to the election and providing aid to counties to buy new voting machines. As part of the negotiations, GOP legislative leaders got Wolf to concede to eliminating the option for straight-party ticket voting  a move decried by Democrats during the floor debates.

At the time, then-Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre) called the law the most significant modernization of our elections code in decades.

It wasnt until 2020 that the issue of constitutionality gained traction, after then-President Donald Trump and his allies raised claims, without any credible evidence, that the election was stolen because of widespread fraud involving mailed ballots.

Since then, Republicans across the country have attacked the integrity of mail ballots and attempted to usher in other laws that would restrict ballot access. Voting rights advocates have said those efforts are not based on fraud but rather a concerted effort to suppress the vote, one that would disproportionately affect communities of color.

Corman, who is now the Senates president and who is running for governor, has done a political and policy 180 from just two years ago. In a statement Friday, he praised Commonwealth Courts decision, saying he had no confidence in mail ballots.

Whats the difference between a law and a constitutional amendment?

Unlike traditional bills, amending the state constitution is a time-consuming process.

First, the legislature has to approve a proposed amendment in two consecutive sessions (each legislative session lasts two years). Once that happens, then voters get to decide the matter through a ballot question.

Whats the likelihood an amendment would pass?

In the majority decision, the Commonwealth Court judges noted that no-excuse mail voting has so far been popular. They posited that, if a constitutional amendment was presented to the voters, it is likely to be adopted.

But in order for a proposed amendment to even begin moving through the legislature, it needs the support of Republican leadership. Corman made no mention of such a proposal in his Friday statement.

It would also need to be supported by a majority of lawmakers in both the House and Senate, a bar that may be out of reach considering many Republicans radically different views on mail voting now compared to 2019.

What are legal experts saying?

Bruce Ledewitz, a Duquesne University professor and a state constitutional expert, said if the high court takes the case, it will be a close legal question.

Though voting rights advocates excoriated the Commonwealth Court decision Friday, Ledewitz said both sides have raised valid legal arguments, and he doesnt expect the high court, if it accepts the case, to rule along party lines.

Still, he believes the justices will ultimately reject the lower courts decision and uphold Act 77.

Generally speaking, the Supreme Court has voted in favor of expanding access, Ledewitz said. If I had to bet, which I dont, I would bet that they reverse. But  its going to be a close matter.

Raff Donelson, an associate professor at Penn State Dickinson Law, said he sees room for an appeal of Commonwealth Courts ruling.

Donelson, an expert in federal constitutional matters, said the courts decision appears to rest on a narrow reading of a particular section of the state constitution regarding absentee ballots, and who is permitted to cast one. But that section, he said, does not suggest that there is a limit on who is allowed to vote that way. And another section of the constitution appears to give the legislature broad authority in deciding how voters can cast ballots.

Asked whether he viewed it as troubling that some of the same legislators who voted for Act 77 just over two years ago are now challenging it as unconstitutional, he said: I would like to think some of the people bringing the challenge are acting in good faith, and think they have information now they didnt have before.

But, he noted, state legislatures across the country have staff who review bills that are voted on for legality  and that is likely to have happened with Act 77.

Obviously, since this went forward, someone ... agreed that the legislature has broad authority to make rules on how people vote, with certain restrictions. And that is what they did.

WHILE YOURE HERE... If you learned something from this story, pay it forward and become a member of Spotlight PA so someone else can in the future at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.
Daily Record 04 Feb 2022

There was a furious reaction to the signing of the player who was ruled to be a rapist in a civil court and the women's team have..
Crowds have thinned out considerably on Parliament Hill and the surrounding area, where anti-COVID restrictions demonstrators have been protesting for days.
The New Zealand government has offered Charlotte Bellis, who's currently in Afghanistan, a place in the country's quarantine hotels, enabling the pregnant journalist to return home.
The British PM will turn to his longtime ally, Lynton Crosby, to help save his leadership in the wake of the Partygate scandal.
According to Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, the test of the reaction forces of the Union State will take place in..

PRAVDA 18 Jan 2022
Prince Andrews former assistant may reportedly give a sworn statement about his relationship with late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in his upcoming sexual assault case in the US. Judge Lewis A Kaplan for the New York trial has asked Londons High Court to assist with the request for former aide Robert Olneys testimony regarding the Duke [...]
Lawyers for Dominion and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell have said they have no intention of settling their billion-dollar lawsuits.
The US State Department issued a travel advisory warning its citizens of the unpredictable situation in Belarus amid Russian troop buildup near its border with Ukraine.
A Conservative MP joined a chorus of social media users falsely accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's official photographer of misrepresenting protesters at this weekend's demonstration in Ottawa against COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.
ODN 03 May 2022

Boris Johnson tells Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada that their resistance to the Russian invasion has been their country's "finest hour"..
The country is the first in Europe to make vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory for over-18s.

BBC News 01 Feb 2022
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"Military and technical assistance to Ukraine is the largest, most valuable and continues to arrive," said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Is Russia ready to invade Ukraine? Is either side ready for a long-term fight? Experts explain factors at play behind Putin's decision to talk or act.


Lithuania and the Czech Republic have both begun to normalise relations with Taiwan. But Beijing is hitting back.
Ukraine, Poland and Britain are looking to form a partnership to strengthen regional security. The buildup of tens of thousands of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border has prompted fears of an invasion.
The Russian president said a solution to the crisis is "not simple" but confirmed the Kremlin is open to more talks as tensions rise over Ukraine. The comments came after he met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Boris Johnson is heading to Ukraine where over the border more than 100,000 Russian troops are gathering - as he fights for his premiership after the publication of the Sue Gray report.
Autocar 22 Feb 2022

We take a look at some of the best metal that will hit the streets over the next year and beyond



You might still be..
Berlin (AFP) Jan 31, 2022



Rising tensions with Moscow over Ukraine have exposed Germany's problematic dependence on Russian gas, inflaming an already heated debate over soaring energy prices. As Germany pursues its target to transition to cleaner energy sources over the next decade, Europe's biggest economy has counted on gas temporarily filling the gap while it builds up its sun and wind energy capacity to replace n
Beijing, China (SPX) Jan 28, 2022



As the global demand for power continues to rise, so too does the number of small merchant renewable energy plants, which augment the supplies of existing energy companies. These plants are independent, typically small scale, and focus on renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind. With more commercial banks pursuing bold sustainability targets in support of the Paris Agreement, ther
WASHINGTON (AP)  The threat to the West from the Chinese government is more brazen and damaging than ever before, FBI..

SeattlePI.com 01 Feb 2022
Here's the latest for Tuesday February 1: Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine could become available for young kids; Russia responds to US proposal on Ukraine; California firefighter shot and killed; Medical examiner to testify in George Floyd officers' trial.


NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with assistant professor of history at Cornell, Nicholas Mulder, on the history of U.S. sanctions and the role they're playing now in the tensions between the U.S. and Russia.
Rep. Victoria Spartz says her recent trip to Ukraine showed her that Ukrainians are ready to defend their country. The Congresswoman urged the U.S. to be engaged to provide stability in Europe because "this issue at stake goes beyond Ukraine." (Feb. 1)


Watch VideoOn Monday, a federal court judge rejected a potential plea agreement between federal prosecutors and Travis McMichael for federal hate crime charges in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.



This comes less than a month after Travis and Greg McMichael were sentenced to life in prison on a state charge for chasing and killing...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said Canadians were disgusted by the behaviour of some people protesting against Covid-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa and said he would not be intimidated.
Rumble 16 Mar 2022

The Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 surprised many around the world for its speed and scale, making it..
British sanctions will be automatically imposed on Russian commercial interests and individuals the moment any incursion into Ukraine takes place, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken about the escalating crisis over Ukraine for the first time in more than a month, amid a series of high level talks to avert the threat of war as Russian troops mass by the tens of thousands...
Announcement:- The surrounding region of Uganda, the Philippines, and Tanzania is suffering a lot due to the lack of proper agricultural facilities. As agriculture is the most dominating occupation in these regions, agriculture more than half of the population is dependent on it. Due to improper agricultural facilities, the farmers are not able to support the community with sufficient amounts of food. As the farmers are incapable of fulfilling the demands 
Ottumwa, IA (52501)

Today

Periods of rain. High near 55F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Showers early, becoming a steady rain late. Thunder possible. Low 49F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
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Then consider helping fund our endeavors. Around the world, communities are grappling with what journalism is worth and how to fund the civic good that robust news organizations can generate. We believe The OU Daily and Crimson Quarterly magazine provide real value to this community both now by covering OU, and tomorrow by helping launch the careers of media professionals.

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Saginaw Valley State University will host its Summer Job & Internship Fair 12-3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 1 in SVSUs Curtiss Hall.

The Summer Job & Internship Fair will spotlight over 65 employers pursuing part-time and full-time employees for winter, spring and summer 2022 seasons. These companies are looking to meet students of all majors for co-ops and internships.

The upcoming job fairs are an excellent opportunity for employers to meet face to face with talented students at SVSU to discuss potential internship and employment opportunities, said Jim Dwyer, executive director of SVSU Career Services.

CED, Enterprise and Frankenmuth Insurance are the sponsors for this event.

Dwyer said the job fair provides an opportunity to connect employers with talented students.

SVSU understands the strain that the workforce is facing and is positioned to connect our talent to hiring employers, he said. Students will get first-hand experience in demonstrating their ability to effectively communicate their qualifications to over 65 employers from multiple industries.

It is one of many exciting opportunities we are cultivating to make sure our students are ready to enter the workforce upon receiving their degree in their chosen field.

Visit the SVSU Career Services website to register for the Summer Job & Internship Fair and for a list of employers. Professional attire is recommended for attendees.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Collin Periatt.

Sunday, Jan. 30

10:48 p.m.  Officers investigated a hit-and-run accident near Amberwood Court and Dublin Road.

10:14 p.m.  Deputies were requested by Gladwin Police to attempt contact with a 56-year-old Geneva Township man regarding a felony drug warrant out of Gladwin County. The man was located and arrested without incident, and was turned over to Gladwin Police.

4:19 a.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Lee Township residence to assist EMS with a 30-year-old man who was having an anxiety attack, possibly due to not taking his prescription medications. The man was cooperative and was transported by ambulance to MyMichigan Medical Center ER for medical treatment.

2:52 a.m.  A 26-year-old Mount Haley Township woman was arrested for operating while intoxicated following a traffic stop in Lee Township. The woman was lodged at the Midland County Jail.

1:59 a.m.  Officers conducted a death investigation on Sturgeon Creek Parkway.

Saturday, Jan. 29

12:57 p.m.  A deputy responded to a Warren Township residence for a report of a deceased 90-year-old man. A deputy conducted an investigation and the death appeared to be natural. The deceased was released to the funeral home.

10:48 p.m.  Officers investigated a call of verbal domestic abuse on Helen Street.

4:16 a.m.  A deputy attempted to initiate a traffic stop on a vehicle in Greendale Township for a traffic violation. The vehicle fled and deputies pursued the suspect vehicle for several miles. The vehicle pursuit was then terminated and the incident is under investigation.

3:54 a.m.  Officers investigated a domestic assault on Maryland Street.

12:01 a.m.  A deputy was dispatched to the Midland County Jail for an assault complaint. The deputy made contact with the complainant, a 21-year-old man, and the suspect, a 25-year-old Geneva Township man. Statements were taken and a report was sent to the Prosecuting Attorney's Office for review.

Friday, Jan. 28

9:35 p.m.  Officers investigated a juvenile runaway on West Sugnet Road.

5:15 p.m.  Deputies spoke with a 67-year-old Larkin Township woman regarding a case of fraud. The woman advised she was a victim of fraud after buying ten $500 gift cards to pay a service she believed was Geek Squad.

2:34 p.m.  Deputies spoke over the phone with an 83-year-old Homer Township business owner regarding a fraudulent check for approximately $700. The victim wanted this incident documented and wanted the rent money to be paid.

5:40 a.m.  Deputies responded to a Jerome Township residence regarding a 64-year-old Jerome Township man who had assaulted his 60-year-old Jerome Township girlfriend. The man was arrested for domestic assault and was lodged at the Midland County Jail without incident.

5:20 a.m.  Officers investigated a report of domestic assault involving strangulation on South Aster Street.
What some people are billing as Michigan's "first true storm of the season," set to arrive on Wednesday, is expected to deliver intense snowfall and high temperatures in the low-20s.

Total snow accumulations of eight to 14 inches are possible in portions of southeast Michigan, according to the National Weather Service, which issued a winter storm watch for the area on Monday.

The snow, combined with gusting winds, is expected to cause low visibility and hazardous driving conditions, according to the Michigan State Police in a press release issued on Tuesday. The agency is encouraging residents and visitors to prepare.

"Travel may be extremely dangerous over the next few days, so we are asking people to stay home, if possible," Col. Joe Gasper, state director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and director of the Michigan State Police, said in the release. "Winter weather is not unexpected in Michigan, but preparing beforehand is the best way to keep you and your family safe."

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also has a message for Michiganders regarding the storm.

"Michiganders should prepare for difficult and potentially dangerous conditions on both Wednesday and Thursday because of the incoming storm, Whitmer said in the release. Staying home will keep you safe and will help emergency crews focus on improving road conditions and assisting those who need it. Michiganders are no stranger to big storms, and I know we can get through the next few days together.

Graphic provided/NWS

In the Great Lakes Bay Region, including Midland, snow is likely to fall the heaviest on Wednesday with accumulation totals around three to four inches.

"Confidence has risen for higher totals, six to eight inches, for Saginaw area," the NWS stated in the graphic. "Travel could be very difficult at times with major impacts on the daily commuting cycles. Give yourself extra time."

Snowfall in the Thumb, including Bad Axe, will likely be comparable to the Saginaw area, with a new snow accumulation of around four inches expected for Wednesday night, the NWS reported.

In central Michigan, including Big Rapids, a hazardous weather outlook has been issued for Tuesday night into Thursday night due to anticipated dangerous road conditions.

Graphic provided/NWS

In Big Rapids, Tuesday is expected to include rain showers while Wednesday brings a chance of snow showers, with a new snow accumulation of less than a half-inch possible, according to the NWS detailed forecast.

A winter storm watch has not been issued for northwest Michigan including Manistee and Benzie counties. But, cold temperatures are expected to make a return in the second half of the week, dropping wind chills down near 30 below zero on Thursday night.

There is a slight chance of snow for the area Wednesday night, according to the NWS detailed forecast.

"Be sure to limit time spent outdoors in temperatures this cold," the NWS stated in a Facebook post.

To stay safe during a winter storm, the Michigan State Police suggests you:
To the editor:

Thank you, Andrew Mullin, for your well-articulated column addressing transphobia. While some have made a joke of Lisa Hansens public comments at the MPS Board meeting, Mr. Mullin rightly called them out as another example of the widespread prejudice against LGBTQ persons. Thank you also to acting editor, Dan Chalk, who realized the value of this column.

If you are among those in our community who reject persons who are gay, queer or transgender, I invite you to do a little reading. Through United Church of Christ Midland I took part in a very informative book discussion of "Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place." For those skeptical that very young children can realize they are mis-gendered, read "Raising Ryland." And for Christians who are concerned about sin, I recommend "God and the Gay Christian."

May we all continue to be open to new learning opportunities and be more accepting of one another. That is how we will build a better community and kinder world.

PAMELA BUCHHOLZ

Midland
Director of Content and Operations

Spencer McKee is OutThere Colorado's Director of Content and Operations. In his spare time, Spencer loves to hike, rock climb, and trail run. He's on a mission to summit all 58 of Colorado's fourteeners and has already climbed more than half.
Livingston, TN (38570)

Today

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 82F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Low around 65F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Paducah, KY (42003)

Today

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. High 76F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 63F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Palestine, TX (75801)

Today

Variable clouds with strong thunderstorms. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High 78F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near an inch..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening. Partly cloudy skies overnight. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Henri de Romree has been appointed CEO of bposts e-logistics operations in North America.

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De Romree will take up the position on March 7, 2022, and be accountable for Radial, Landmark Global, Apple Express and the logistics solutions company FDM. He will also report to the CEO of bpost group and become a member of the bpost group executive committee (GEC).

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From 2018 to 2019, de Romree was the companys chief financial officer before heading up the mail and retail business in Belgium. He then moved to the North American operations and became CEO of Radial, the US subsidiary of bpost group, from 2019 to 2020. In December 2020, de Romree left Radial for personal reasons and returned to Belgium.

Dirk Tirez, CEO of bpost group, said, I am very pleased with Henris return to bpost group. We have started the transformation of bpost group into a fully fledged e-commerce company. As CEO for the North American operations, Henri will lead our strong growth ambitions and will scale Radial US and Canada both in size and in profit to maintain a leadership position in e-commerce logistics in North America. I have every confidence in Henris strong and sustained leadership, supported by Gary Crowe (chief financial officer) and Laura Ritchey (chief operating officer).

De Romree said, I look forward to returning to bpost group and in particular to my colleagues in North America. I believe in the transformation of the bpost group and in the bright future for e-logistics North America. I know that together with Laura and Gary and the great team in the North American division, we will deliver on the groups renewed ambitions in the region. I am grateful for this opportunity and for the confidence of the CEO and the board.
Photo: (Photo : Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

Jack Puttock, an 18-year-old boy from Bedfordshire, suffers from a rare condition, dubbed the "suicide disease," which brings unbearable pain on the same level as giving birth every day.

The teenager hopes to raise funds to treat this condition in the United States. Puttock knows that this treatment will change his life after enduring Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) for more than two years.

Read Also: Toddler Born With Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood Needs $9-Million Treatment

How did Jack Acquire his Suicide Disease?

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is a type of uncommon, chronic pain that affects either the arms or legs. According to Mayo Clinic, not much is still understood about this rare disorder, but it has been called the "suicide disease" since those who experience the pain feel tortured by the symptoms. Some patients take their own lives to end their misery, hence its moniker.

A study published in the Korean Journal of Pain in 2021 stated that most patients with CRPS are at risk of suicide. CRPS develops because of physical trauma from an injury, surgery, or after suffering from a heart attack. Mayo Clinic described the pain of CRPS as "out of proportion."

In Puttock's case, his pain feels like his limbs are constantly submerged in boiling water. On the McGill Pain Scale, his pain level has been measured at around 42 out of 50. On the same scale, the pain of childbirth is at 40 out of 50.

Puttock didn't always have the suicide disease. He developed CRPS after an arm injury in early 2019. He tried to seek treatments in the U.K. because the injury was "debilitating, scary and frustrating," yet all of the doctors he sought help from dismissed his condition as all in his mind even as he also developed seizures, severe headache, and a disorder in his gastrointestinal tract.

The teen said that none of the drugs prescribed to him worked, so he was pushed to try even unlicensed medications, as well as a more invasive Lidocaine Steroid Injection. There are also nights when the pain becomes so unbearable that he can only get two or three hours of sleep even with a sedative.

A Life-Changing Treatment in Arkansas

In his GoFundMe page, Puttock said that he would need at least $68,000 to get a vagus nerve stimulation treatment at the Spero Clinic in Arkansas. This specialized procedure involves implanting a device that will send electrical energy to the vagus nerve. It's recommended for patients who no longer respond to medication.

Puttock plans to travel to the U.S. in 2023 but to achieve his goal; he needs the public's help. He also said that his private insurance would not cover the cost of the treatment given its high price.

"This treatment has the potential to change my life," the 18-year-old said. "I know it's a large sum of money but no matter how small the amount, it helps get me to my end goal of living a pain-free life."

Related Article: Vanishing Twin Syndrome Surprises Woman With Miracle Twins After Losing Her Babies, 16 Miscarriages
Photo: (Photo : Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

Contrary to a viral video circulating on the internet, a Michigan school district superintendent has denied that they placed litter boxes for the "furries" or students who identify as cats in the school bathrooms.

Superintendent Michael E. Sharrow was prompted to send emails to the parents of the students attending Midland Public Schools to assure them that the viral video presented a false accusation, especially after an official from the state's Republican Party re-shared the video on Facebook.

According to USA Today, Meshawn Maddock's re-sharing elicited a strong response from the Michigan community, further blowing up the rumor of the cat litter boxes for the furries in the school bathroom. Some commenters demanded an investigation into the Michigan school, but Sharrow clarified that this matter was already brought up, pacified, and closed during a school board meeting in December 2021.

The superintendent added that while he felt it was "unconscionable" to address the baseless accusation publicly, he needed to clarify and make a public statement because the issue got out of hand on the internet in late January 2022.

Read Also: Iowa Lawmaker Files Bill Seeking to Block Social Media Access in Schools

What are "Furries," and Why Did the Video Became Viral?

According to Fur Science, "furries" refer to a community of people who like roleplaying as anthropomorphized animal characters. They use their "fursona" in online communities like Second Life.

Furries belong to a global trend that holds dozens of conventions where members dress up like their furry alter egos online. More than 75 percent of furries are young adults who are part of the LGBTQ community.

During the Michigan school board meeting in December, mom Lisa Hansen spoke up and said that one of the students told her there were litter boxes for the furries in their school to complement the unisex bathrooms installed for the rest of the students. Hansen said that she was so upset as a parent to learn that the school was promoting such an environment. She also claimed that there seemed to be an agenda perpetuated in Michigan's education system.

Hansen's statement became the content of the viral video, which trended more than a month after the school board meeting. In the mother's email to the New York Times, Hansen claimed that she was simply a concerned parent who was not aware of what was happening in her children's school. However, she could not provide any evidence of the litter boxes claim.

But the superintendent said there were never any litter boxes placed at the school bathrooms for students who identify as cats. Sharrow also noted that the emphasis across the public schools is to educate the kids with "excellence, integrity, and respect."

Some Netizens are Aware It's Fake

Meanwhile, some netizens who came across the viral video said that they never believed the wild rumor that there are litter boxes for the furries in the Michigan school. One netizen said it was not hard to figure out that the claims were absurd.

Another netizen said that no school board would bother spending money for litter boxes for a small number of the students who identify as cats. The person also said that school janitors would never scoop human wastes out of a litter box, so the claims in the viral video were fake from the start.

Related Article: New Satan Club: Parents Upset at School for Allowing Club To Have Fun Activities in Campus
Photo: (Photo : Getty images )

A nine-year-old NSW schoolgirl girl was shot dead. Her body was found inside a plastic barrel dumped near the NSW River. Her mother's partner, Justin Stein, 31, has been charged with murder. Authorities released CCTV footage showing a red ute towing a boat through Sydney with a plastic barrel on the back.

The girl's remains were found on the banks of the Colo River last Tuesday after she was reported missing from the Blue Mountains. Authorities confirmed that the girl suffered a fatal gunshot as authorities continued investigating the girl's death.

Read also: Meet Africa's Richest 9-Year-old and His Dad, Who Flaunt Their Wealth on Social Media

"Unimaginable and egregious"

Charlise Mutten was reported missing on January 14. Authorities then launched an intensive five-day search on forested areas until her body was discovered a week ago in a barrel near the Colo River Northwest of Sydney.

Authorities charged Justin Laurens Stein with murder, and he was arrested at a Surry Hull Unit. Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said investigations suggested that the girl was murdered in Mount Wilson, where she was last seen.

Charlise's mother, Kallista, provided a statement that she was not at the property where the alleged murder happened. She is now being treated as a potential witness.

"The evidence that we have so far gleaned is that Justin was alone with Charlise on a Tuesday night (January 11)," Doherty said. Authorities believed that the murder happened on Tuesday night or in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Investigators are still searching for the firearm used.

Shocking CCTV Footage

Police also released CCTV footage of a ute towing boat through Sydney to appeal for more information about the murder. The CCTV footage was taken a day before Charlise was reported missing.

"The boat has been covered up, but when you see the CCTV footage, there's a tarp on the back of the ute," Detective Superintendent Doherty said.

Authorities believed that the item was not on the ute after leaving the Colo River as it stopped on a service station at Bell Line of Road. "That's important for investigative reasons. There are some gaps in the timeline," Doherty added.

Authorities urged anyone who saw the vehicle or any suspicious activity related to Charlise's death to come forward.

School Pays Tribute to Charlise Mutten

On Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Reece Byrnes arrived at Tweed Heads Public School to join around 150 parents, teachers, and students in a special assembly held to pay tribute to her.

Her friends returned to school after knowing her tragic end. On Wednesday, the school stated that it was "absolutely devastated by the girl's death." Bouquets and messages were left outside the school's gates, where Charlise had been a student.

"It's a sad day, and this school returns with one less friend, one less special little human. It's a tragic day for her friends, the school community, and her teachers who had watched her grow up,' Byrnes said.

Related Article: Ohio Hotel Pool: 14 People Hospitalized Due to Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
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Senate gives franchises to more telcos, broadcast firms

The Senate approved on third and final reading Monday (Jan. 31) various bills granting telcos and broadcast firms legislative franchises.

Sponsored by Senate public services committee chairperson Sen. Grace Poe, the approved House bills sought the grant and renewal of legislative franchises to institutions and companies to be able to operate in various parts of the country.

These include House Bill No. (HBN) 9384, which proposes to expand the franchise granted to the Davao City government for its radio broadcasting stations; as well as franchises for Mount Apo Science Foundation College Inc. (HBN 10212), Capricom Broadcasting Network Corp. (HBN 10192), Amapola Broadcasting System (HBN 10196), South Cotabato Communications Corp. (HBN 10123), Prime Broadcasting Network Inc. (HBN 10124), National Council of Churches in the Philippines (HBN 10125), and GVM Radio/TV Corp. (HBN 10211).

Also approved on third and final reading were the legislative franchises for Ismo Inc. (HBN 8971), Aspire Media Technologies and Ventures Inc. (HBN 10169), Linkserve Telecommunications Network Inc. (HBN 10193), Derecho Telecommunications Inc. (HBN 10194), Unicorn Communications Corp. (HBN 10195), Purple Flower Telecommunication Corp. (HBN 10197), Calapan Telephone System Inc. (HBN 8975), Bicol Telephone and Telegraph Inc. (HBN 9424), Lukban Telephone System Inc. (HBN 9438), Continental Telecommunications System Inc. (HBN 9439), Victorias Telephone System Inc. (HBN 10182), and General Telephone System Inc. (HBN 10183), so they could put up and maintain their respective telecommunications systems and services.

Meanwhile, the Senate also passed Poe-sponsored local bills seeking to establish, convert and upgrade the local offices of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in 32 locations across the Philippines.

These include LTO offices in the provinces of Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Camarines Norte, Negros Occidental, Cebu, Iloilo, Zamboanga del Sur and Bukidnon, among several others.

Likewise, the Senate voted to approve three House bills seeking to establish offices of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Puerto Princesa, Palawan (HBN 2590), Bacoor City, Cavite (HBN 4560) and in Dasmarinas, Cavite (HBN 5488).
Western Sydney Airport (WSA) is upskilling nearly a third of the workforce (30%) involved in the construction of Australias newest airport, thanks to a series of training and apprenticeship programs.

WSA offers several training initiatives including traineeships for high school graduates and opportunities for university graduates to kick start their careers, as well as pre-employment programs with Technical and Further Education (TAFE) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to inspire Western Sydney high school students to take up careers in aviation and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

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Simon Hickey, CEO at Western Sydney Airport (WSA), said that the original target was for learning workers to account for 20% of the workforce, and confirmed that the airport would create further training opportunities as terminal construction ramps up and once runway construction commences later this year.

We are focused on setting our workforce up for success, wherever their careers may take them after WSA, which is why we are passionate about upskilling and providing on-the-job training. Our commitment to the region goes further than job creation. We want to ensure Western Sydney International drives generational change by boosting local skills development beyond airport construction and for decades to come. WSA is about more than building an airport  its about empowering our community to take advantage of the new era of jobs and opportunities the airport will deliver to their doorstep, Hickey said.

Alieu Turay, a local from North Parramatta, joined WSAs earthworks team in 2020 when he was new to the Australian construction industry, having arrived in Australia as a refugee from Sierra Leone. Through training programs offered by WSAs major earthworks contractor CPB Contractors and Acciona joint venture, Turay has worked his way from a laborer to driving a roller and is now operating a CAT651 Scraper, one of the largest earthmoving machines on-site, as well as completing a Certificate IV in Work Health and Safety.

Turay said, As a beneficiary of the opportunities this project is creating for the Western Sydney community, I am proud to be working on one of the biggest earthmoving projects Australia has ever seen and grateful that such an opportunity is right on my doorstep. Im learning skills and gaining qualifications on this project that will open up new career pathways for me in the future.

Similarly, Quakers Hill local Samantha Salkeld went from high school to designing an international airport, joining the airports design team under WSAs trainee program and undertaking full-time work while also achieving a TAFE qualification.

Salkeld said, This is my first job out of high school and I get the opportunity to help design an international airport, using design to show the world what Western Sydney is all about. Its an incredible career opportunity and itll be amazing come 2026 when the airport opens to say I helped build that.
(Click on image to Greatly Enlarge)

Today, Apple TV+ shared a first look at the highly anticipated second season of "Foundation," the epic saga from storyteller David S. Goyer and produced for Apple by Skydance Television, and revealed new cast members that will star alongside Emmy Award nominees Jared Harris and Lee Pace in the new season.

Based on Isaac Asimovs award-winning stories, and featuring an international cast led by Harris and Pace, alongside rising stars Lou Llobell and Leah Harvey, the monumental adaptation of Foundation chronicles the stories of four crucial individuals transcending space and time as they overcome deadly crises, shifting loyalties and complicated relationships that will ultimately determine the fate of humanity. The Apple Original drama also stars Laura Birn, Terrence Mann and Cassian Bilton.

New Stars Joining the Cast of Foundation for Season Two include:

Isabella Laughland as Brother Constant, a cheerfully confident claric whose job is to evangelize the Church of the Galactic Spirit across the Outer Reach. Constant is a true believer, whose courage and passion make her hard not to love.

as Brother Constant, a cheerfully confident claric whose job is to evangelize the Church of the Galactic Spirit across the Outer Reach. Constant is a true believer, whose courage and passion make her hard not to love. Kulvinder Ghir as Poly Verisof, High Claric of the Church of the Galactic Spirit. Whip-smart and sardonic, hes also a terrible drunk  intelligent enough to see the path hes on, but too cynical to change.

as Poly Verisof, High Claric of the Church of the Galactic Spirit. Whip-smart and sardonic, hes also a terrible drunk  intelligent enough to see the path hes on, but too cynical to change. Sandra Yi Sencindiver as Enjoiner Rue, the beautiful, politically savvy consigliere to Queen Sareth. A former courtesan to Cleon the 16th, Rue parlayed her status to become a royal counsellor.

as Enjoiner Rue, the beautiful, politically savvy consigliere to Queen Sareth. A former courtesan to Cleon the 16th, Rue parlayed her status to become a royal counsellor. Ella-Rae Smith as Queen Sareth of Cloud Dominion. Used to being underestimated, Sareth employs it to her advantage, charming her way into the Imperial Palace with biting wit, all while on a secret quest for revenge.

as Queen Sareth of Cloud Dominion. Used to being underestimated, Sareth employs it to her advantage, charming her way into the Imperial Palace with biting wit, all while on a secret quest for revenge. Dimitri Leonidas as Hober Mallow, a master trader with a sarcastic personality and questionable morals, who is summoned against his will to serve a higher, selfless cause.

as Hober Mallow, a master trader with a sarcastic personality and questionable morals, who is summoned against his will to serve a higher, selfless cause. Ben Daniels as Bel Roise, the last great general of the Superliminal Fleet and would-be conqueror of the Foundation. Bel is noble to a fault, but his fealty to the Galactic Empire is waning.

as Bel Roise, the last great general of the Superliminal Fleet and would-be conqueror of the Foundation. Bel is noble to a fault, but his fealty to the Galactic Empire is waning. Holt McCallany as Warden Jaegger Fount, the current Warden of Terminus and guardian of its citizens against external threats.

as Warden Jaegger Fount, the current Warden of Terminus and guardian of its citizens against external threats. Mikael Persbrandt as The Warlord of Kalgan, a monster of a man, coiled with muscle and possessing powerful psychic abilities, and fueled by hate in his quest to take over the galaxy.

as The Warlord of Kalgan, a monster of a man, coiled with muscle and possessing powerful psychic abilities, and fueled by hate in his quest to take over the galaxy. Rachel House as Tellem Bond, mysterious leader of the Mentallics.

as Tellem Bond, mysterious leader of the Mentallics. Nimrat Kaur as Yanna Seldon.

Apple TV+ Announces the bilingual thriller series "Now and Then," will launch on May 20, 2022

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Late yesterday, Apple TV+ announced the premiere date and a first look at the bilingual thriller series Now and Then, which will make its worldwide debut on Friday, May 20, 2022. Set in Miami, the eight-episode series was shot in Spanish and English, and will premiere globally on Apple TV+ with the first three episodes, followed by one new episode weekly every Friday.

"Now and Then" is a multi-layered thriller that explores the differences between youthful aspirations and the reality of adulthood, when the lives of a group of college best friends are forever changed after a celebratory weekend ends up with one of them dead. Now, 20 years later, the remaining five are reluctantly reunited by a threat that puts their seemingly perfect worlds at risk. For more on this, read the full Apple press release.

Archive: Apple TV News
Youve got almost endless options when it comes to choosing an email client. But one of the simplest, best, and most effective is right within Windows itself. No, not Outlookthe native Mail app.

Mailand its related app, Calendardont feature many bells and whistles. I rarely see lists of new features. But when it comes to choosing an everyday mail client, I generally prefer the simple, straightforward interface of the Mail app versus the more complex, cluttered, feature-rich Outlook. Fortunately, if you subscribe to Microsoft 365 and use Windows, you dont have to choose one over the other. Instead, you can use Mail and then move to Outlook for more advanced functions.

Remember, Mail is free and part of Windows 10 and 11; just launch the Mail app to get started. Mail will ask for your email address and password, like Outlook, and will take a few moments to synchronize.

Mail vs. Outlook: The pros and cons

Youll quickly find that Mail strips email down to its most basic elements: an inbox, outbox, and individual messages. You have the option to use Calendar, People, and To-Do; Outlook puts them all under the same heading, rather than separate apps. Of the fundamental differences between Outlook and Mail, there are two that stand out: the user interface, and how Mail forgoes certain advanced functions found in Outlook. The latters appeal boils down to organization. Outlook offers a few ways to act upon (or delay acting upon) email that Mail does not.

On the other hand, Mail offers a few advantages that Outlook doesnt offer. The first, how Mail handles multiple accounts, intersects neatly with Mails strongest advantagethe simplified UI.

In Outlook, theres really no obvious way to add an additional email account from your Outlook inbox. To do so, you need to click the File button, which opens the Account Information page, and from there the Add Account button. The capability is there, but its certainly not intuitive.

In Mail, the accounts Mail manages are prominently displayed on the left-hand nav bar, and adding an additional email account is as easy as simply right-clicking the Accounts button. (To be fair, this could be made more intuitive by adding an Add Account button here as well. At least Accounts offers you a good starting point.) Mail simply feels better organized.

Where Mail shines, however, is the absolute elimination of visual clutter. Theres no way you can convince me that this Outlook interface (from an edited version of my inbox) is superior to the way Mail presents the same information. Here, Outlook throws tabs, icons and more at you:

An edited version of my work Outlook inbox. Outlook overloads you with visual information. Mark Hachman / IDG

Mail, however, simplifies the whole process. Here, the focus is on the content, not the interface.

In Mail, a lot of the information is either pared down or simply hidden, where you can unearth it if needed. Mark Hachman / IDG

For me, my workflow often focuses on a single concept or topic, often summed up inside of a single email thread. I tend to organize projects outside of my email, versus trying to keep track of multiple contributions and email threads. Mail does support folders, which helps during major product releases or event coverage. This all means that my workflow is often rather linear, and lines up rather well with Mails strengths. Modern collaboration can often be messier, with lots of projects bouncing off multiple collaborators at various organizations.

That, to be fair, is where Outlook begins to shine. Collaboration can be complex, and we all use different methods to prioritize tasks, such as using rules to automatically assign email to different folders or recipients. While you can use a hierarchical folder structure within Outlook to organize email, you can also color-code email to create other subdivisions. Outlook also allows you to set flags to follow up at a future time, kicking the can down the road. Mail really only allows you to flag an email or to mark it as unread, an older but still valid way of prioritizing an email.

Theres no secret here: Outlook is the email client for power users. The question you need to ask yourself is: Are you an email power user? Do you need to be?

Outlook does offer many more organizational features than Mail, as well as more opportunities for collaboration. Mark Hachman / IDG

If not, youll find Mail offers most of what you ask an email client to do. Navigating it is simple. Generally, if Mail doesnt offer what you want on the right-hand rail or the body of the email, you can find it by clicking the small Settings gear at the bottom of the page. That will open up a menu through which you can find common features like setting an out-of-office notification or changing your email signature.

Otherwise, though, you can use Outlook and Mail on the same PC. Theyll talk to one another, so that email sent in one client will be sent in the other, as well. Still, be aware that some features are the equivalent of a one-way street. While arranging email and creating folders will carry over between Outlook and Mail, you cant see an email that youve color-coded in Outlook with the same color-coding in Mail. Thats just one way that Outlook is sticky, encouraging you towards Outlook and its Microsoft 365 subscription.

Missing a feature? Mails Settings menu will probably have it. Mark Hachman / IDG

In the future, Mail and Outlook may collide

Ironically, it may not matter which email client you choose, because on Windows, both may be changing. In January, Windows Central reported on Project Monarch, Microsofts effort to eliminate the confusion between Outlook, Mail, and Outlook for the Web. ZDNet has gone a bit further, noting that we may see Monarch debut sometime in March, with a more formal rollout by the end of the year. Essentially, the goal of Monarch, according to ZDNet, is to add to (or replace?) Mail with a new consolidated Outlook experienceone client to rule them all. Its not clear whether the Microsoft 365 version of Outlook will be replaced by this or not, however. What it boils down to, though, is this: Change is coming.

For now, however, Im sticking with Mail, dipping my toe into Outlook when necessary. To be fair, weve been critical of Windows 11 and how it eliminates certain features, such as paring down the capabilities of the Taskbar and Start menu. But that doesnt mean that streamlining a workflow doesnt make sense. Mail is an example of how Microsoft has effectively distilled email down to its essence, and you may simply find that it works better for you than Outlook does.
The Government of Ghana has through the Trade and Industry Ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Rwanda to deepen bilateral trade relations between the two countries.



Speaking at the signing ceremony of MoU on trade and economic cooperation at the Africa Trade House on Thursday January 27, the minister of Trade Alan Kyerematen expressed optimism that the agreement signed will develop into a strong and mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.



He noted in his speech the significant role Rwanda has played in some of Africas business-oriented policies including the establishment the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).



You would recall that the formal decision to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was taken at the AU Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Accra in July 2012. In the same vein, you will recall that it was at the 10th Extraordinary Summit of the AU Assembly of Heads of State held in Kigali in March 2018 that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement was signed, he observed.



The Minister, whiles acknowledging the seemingly low level of trade between Ghana and Rwanda despite their good relations over the years, indicated that he hoped the signing of the MoU will change that narrative.



Despite the long-standing fraternal relations between our two countries, the level of trade between our two countries is very low. The same phenomenon applies in the area of investments. It is against this background that this Memorandum of Understanding is being signed, to develop new strategies and implement measures that will significantly enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation between our two countries. Ghana already has a Bilateral Air Service Agreement with Rwanda signed in 2018, which permits airlines from our two countries to operate commercial flights between Ghana and Rwanda to boost transport connectivity.



We envisage that through this MOU, Ghana can become an entry point for Rwandan investments within the West Africa sub-region whilst Rwanda on the other hand, can become a strategic entry point for Ghana into the Central and Eastern African Markets, he added



Other prominent dignitaries present at the signing ceremony included Hon. Beata Habyarimana, Minister for Trade and Industry of Rwanda and Dr. Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, High Commissioner of Rwanda to Ghana.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Following the bribery statement made by the former Member of Parliament for Ejisu, Kwabena Owusu Aduomi on national television a week ago, a group, Ghana Watch Alliance has petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the matter.



According to the Ghana Watch Alliance(GWA), a Watch Alliance(GWA), the announcement made by the former lawmaker is a clear case of corruption and must be investigated.



Portions of the petition sighted reads:



We believe that for a former minister of state to publicly sit on national television to voice out his personal bribery payments in the past with such high esteem cannot be overlooked in our quest to fight corruption in this country.



In November 2021, the Special Prosecutor invited the Juaben Municipal Chief Executive nominee, Alex Sarfo- Kantanka, for questioning over corruption and corruption-related offenses after he publicly demanded a refund of monies paid as bribes to some assembly members to entice them to endorse his candidature.



The OSP has however called on members of the public who have knowledge of the commission of corruption or corruption-related offences to lodge complaints with the OSP against any official in that regard, a statement issued on January 25, said.



Background:



Ghana has been ranked 73rd out of 180 countries in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released January 25, 2022, by Transparency International (TI) with a score of 43 out of a total of 100.



This CPI score indicates that Ghana failed to make progress in the fight against corruption in the year 2021 as the score of 43 is the same as the countrys 2020 score, Transparency International has said.











Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) has facilitated the acquisition of 150 vehicles for presentation to Senior High Schools in the country.



The move, according to GETFund Management, is in furtherance of their mandate to support quality education in Ghana through supporting the provision of the necessary logistics for effective administration.



The vehicles, made up of 100 buses and 50 pickup trucks, were presented on behalf of the Government by the Vice President, His Excellency Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, at a colourful ceremony in Accra on Monday, January 31, 2022.



It will be recalled that in March 2020, Dr. Bawumia on behalf of President Akufo-Addo, presented 365 Isuzu Double Cabin pickup trucks for distribution to to all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directorates of Education, as well as selected agencies under the Ministry of Education.



It will be recalled that in March 2020, Dr. Bawumia on behalf of President Akufo-Addo, presented 365 Isuzu Double Cabin pickup trucks for distribution to all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directorates of Education, as well as selected agencies under the Ministry of Education.



Again, in July same year, he handed over 100 buses to various Senior High Schools across the country.



In all these instances, the acquisition of the vehicles was facilitated by GETFund.



The Management of the Fund considering itself a proud, strategic stakeholder in education noted that it remains fully committed to supporting Government in its pursuit of quality education for all Ghanaian learners through the provision of the relevant infrastructure and logistics to help improve learning outcomes.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Majority Chief Whip and MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has presented 50 specialized hospital beds worth Ghc 250, 000 to 13 health facilities made up of CHIP Compounds, Clinics and the Nsawam Government Hospital in the Nsawam/Adoagyiri Municipality to enhance healthcare delivery by the beneficiary health facilities.



Frank Annoh-Dompreh said the health needs of the people and the general development of the country is a major priority to the government of President Akufo- Addo and he the MP hence all efforts are being made by the government to meet the health and other needs of the people.



He said discussions are ongoing between him and some health professionals in the United States of America for the construction of a Christian Teaching Hospital in Nsawam/Adoagyiri to enhance healthcare in the constituency.



The beneficiary health facilities include; Ahwerease Darmang Health Centre, Adoagyiri Zongo, Nsumia CHPS Compound, Dzankrom Zongo, Notre Dame Clinic, Fotobi, Akramah CHPs, Kwakyekrom EPI Centre, Obegyima, Kyenenkyene CHPS Compound, Old Hospital and Nsawam Government Hospital.



He assured the people of the commitment of government to continue to introduce policies to promote the wellbeing of the people and urged Ghanaians to support the e-levy to generate more revenue for development projects.



Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh also commissioned a renovated six classroom block for the James White SDA School at Nsawam in fulfilment of his pledge to the School.



The Nsawam/Adoagyiri Municipal Health Director, Mrs Eunice Abuaku commended Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh for his support to health facilities in Nsawam/ Adoagyiri.





The Headmaster of James White SDA Basic School, Mr Emmanuel Duah thanked Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh for the renovation of the classroom block.







Source: Emmanuel Akorli/Peace FM









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has launched a five-day national vaccination campaign as part of efforts to increase the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The National Vaccination Days campaign will run from Wednesday, February 2 to Sunday, February 6, 2022.



Codenamed: Operation 2.5 million doses in five days, the campaign intends to target at least 20 per cent of the 13.2 million population who remain unvaccinated.



All people 15 years and above, including pregnant women, are eligible to receive the vaccine.



In a speech read on behalf of the Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu by one of his deputies, Ms Tina Mensah in Accra on Monday, January 31, 2022, he said it was also to help achieve the herd immunity target of 20 million people.



The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted individuals, families, communities and the entire economy in many ways. Interestingly, across the globe, the spread of COVID-19 continues to cause disease, death and disruption and has pushed even the most advanced health system to the edge.



Although Ghana is currently experiencing the fourth wave of the pandemic with the detection of the Omicron variant across the country, the proportion of severe and critical cases is relatively low, thanks to the countrys vaccination drive, he said.



As of January 28, 2022, Ghanas COVID-19 confirmed cases stood at 156,242, from the about 2,207,069 tests conducted, while 1,364 people had lost their lives to the disease, with active cases standing at 4,185.



The minister further said healthcare workers, persons with underlying medical conditions, persons who are 60 years and above, frontline security personnel, members of the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature are expected to have booster vaccination.



The booster vaccination is targeted at people who have taken the full jab of the various vaccines, he added.



Assurance



The Director-General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, assured the public that all the vaccines deployed were safe, effective, free and provided adequate protection.



He, however, said vaccination would yield maximum impact if used together with the prevention protocol, such as hand-washing, wearing of face masks and adhering to social distancing.



He said since the roll out of the vaccination in March last year, the exercise had suffered some uptake hesitancy due to misinformation, disinformation and low risk perception and called on all eligible persons to avail themselves, in their individual and national interest, for the jab.



The Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Dr Kwame Amponsah-Aciano, said Ghana had taken delivery of 25,858,290 doses of the five approved COVID-19 vaccines.



He said in all, 7,262,928 of the population had taken their first doses, while about 3.6 million were fully vaccinated.



The President of the National House of Chiefs, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi, also appealed to the public to debunk rumours about the vaccines and get vaccinated.



Representatives from development partners, such as the World Health Organisation, the USAID, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the German and the American embassies, all commended the government for the strides made and pledged further support for the vaccination campaign.

Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has indicated that it is deploying emergency escort services to transporters of hazardous substances in the country.



Chief Executive Officer of the EPA, Henry Kokofu disclosed this on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme while discussing the Apiate explosion Monday morning.



Henry Kwabena Kokofu condemned the transportation of explosives across communities without any safety measures.



He noted that the EPA has begun strict enforcement of the safety rules to safeguard the residents where the hazardous substances are carried to and fro.



He said; ''We're seriously considering emergency escort service which will immediately deploy pickups having flashlights and so forth. So, any person who will be given licence as a transporter and deals in hazardous substances, you will sign on to/subscribe to EPA escort services.''





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The UN Eminent Peace Ambassador, Amb. Dr Samuel Ben Owusu and also the Country Director of United Nations International Association of World Peace Advocates on January 28, 2022 calls on Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare to discuss national Peace and Security issues.



Amb. Dr Owusu among other things called on the IGP to institute a National Awareness Program on Security and related matters.



According to him, issues relating to Explosions safety, domestic abuse, intolerance amongst others are of great concern.



"The need for National Awareness on Security and Peace related issues on Safety, Domestic Abuse, Violence Against Women and Children, and most importantly, Peace and Tolerance for National Development of our Nation", he submitted.







He added that the Ghana Police Service may consider setting up Television Stations or have a dedicated program geared towards educating the public, particularly the uneducated folks on security matters.



"There is need for the Police to operate a Television station or a platform which will bring awareness and information to the people which will help all citizens to have knowledge on safety when it comes to Peace Building", he said.



He also used the opportunity to thank the IGP for granting him the opportunity to have such a meeting geared towards national development.



Amb. Dr Owusu pledged to help the Police in any possible way on Peace and Security related programs.



"We also want to extend our strongest support with any projects or missions you may embark on, that is within the purview of our organization, that we can assist with", he said.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Ag. Managing Director of Ghana Post, Mr Bice Osei Kuffour aka Obour, has admonished the Sunyani Regional Management Team of the Ghana Post Company to maintain the high spirit of teamwork to propel the company to great success.



According to him, it was only through teamwork that the fortunes of the Ghana Post could be consolidated coupled with more progress. He was addressing the management and staff of the Bono Region at Sunyani Post Office when he paid a working visit to the area.



This is part of the Ghana Post MDs tour of the various regions across the country in helping to strengthen the capacity and further boost operations of the state agency.



Mr Bice Osei Kuffour is using the working tour to interact with a frontline staff appeal to state agencies, traditional rulers, and corporate institutions to patronise Ghana Post services.



I would like to reiterate that teamwork will put Ghana Post ahead of its competitors; let's consciously maintain teamwork as part of our efforts to drive growth and success, the MD emphasised in his remarks.



He added, In many successful companies, the big secret is teamwork. Let's ensure that when anyone enters Ghana Post, you shouldnt be able to tell who is the Managing Director and who is a labourer. We are all playing our role, and everybodys role is critical, so we respect each other and value each others role to be too important, so teamwork is the success story of Ghana Post Company.



Mr Osei Kuffour also added that the management should do everything with speed. Citing that, SPEED is a game-changer as the world keep evolving at lightning speed, and therefore, the snail pace approach would not make Ghana Post the preferred choice of the people.



Expressing his gratitude, the Sunyani regional Manager of the Ghana Post, Mr Abraham Abochi, said he and the team are ever ready to support the organisation's vision to move it a step higher.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, has stressed that the government will hold mining companies in the country to the highest standards to provide a safe and healthy regime for mining and its related activities.



That, he said, would ensure that the industry was not only safe but also remained a sustainable venture.



The minister was speaking at the handing over of Golden Star Resource to the Chinese mining firm, Chifeng Jilong Gold, following the acquisition of Golden Star after satisfying requirements under the law.



Chifeng Jilongs entry is expected to bring value to all stakeholders through the conduct of its operations in an ethical and sustainable manner for the mutual benefit of its host communities, the company and the country.



Best in West Africa



Mr Jinapor said the government was determined to prevent the tragic Appiatse explosion of January 20, this year that wiped out an entire community from recurring.



He said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had instituted investigations into the incident, and stressed that after the investigations, the government would diligently implement the necessary recommendations from the various enquiries being undertaken to ensure that mining and its related activities were conducted in a safe and healthy environment.



Accordingly, the government will hold all mining companies in the country to the highest standards of safety in their operations. It is also committed to making Ghana the mining hub of Africa, where all mine and mine-related activities, from exploration to finished products and from research to innovation, will be centred.



This industry must be largely indigenous, with strong local content participation and with strict adherence to environmentally sound practices. The government is, therefore, committed to creating the enabling environment and putting in place the necessary measures to ensure that we realise this vision, he said.



Regulation



The minister expressed the confidence that the take-over and the new management of the company would help improve the operations and fortunes of Golden Star, for the benefit of the industry, the staff and the country.



The ministry, he said, was informed about Chifeng Jilongs good track record as a safe and sustainable mine operator, adding: I am confident that it will bring in the necessary investment to develop this mine to optimise production and release the mines full potential.



This will be in accordance with Regulation 13 of the Minerals and Mining (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2020 (L.I. 2431) and pursuant to President Akufo-Addos



vision of ensuring that our mineral resources are utilised for the benefit of the good people of Ghana, he emphasised.



Expectations, existing contracts



As part of the conditions for taking over the mine, Mr Jinapor indicated that Chifeng had agreed to respect and honour all existing contracts signed by Golden Star Resources, including employment contracts and collective bargaining agreements entered into with employees of the mine.



Let me assure all the workers and the good people of Wassa that the government will work with the company to ensure that the rights of all employees are protected, and where necessary, appropriate severance packages are paid, in accordance with the laws of our country and the existing collective bargaining agreements, he told the workers.



The government, he also indicated, had charged Chifeng Jilong to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange, and that Chifeng had also expressed its commitment to implement the community development agreements entered into with the host communities, as well as support the development of the Community Mining Scheme being implemented by the government.



That, Mr Jinapor said, would promote responsible, sustainable, viable and environmentally sound small-scale mining, emphasising that Ghanas natural resources must be exploited for the benefit of the people of Ghana, who are the true owners of those resources.



But we cannot do so at the expense of our environment, which our Constitution, in Article 41(k), enjoins all citizens to protect, he stressed.



The government, he said, had an obligation, under Article 36(9) of the Constitution, to take the necessary measures to protect and safeguard the national environment for posterity.



It is for this reason that the government is implementing measures to ensure that mining and mine support services are done in a safe and healthy environment," he explained.



World-class mine



The Chief Executive and President of Chifeng Gold, Mr Tiehe Chen, said as new owners, the company would respect the regulations and demonstrate its commitment to the business and the country.



We commend the former owners of GSR for the great job towards the establishment of this respectable intentional mine. We will have the honour to carry on the good standard and we will do more to make Wassa a world-class mine and the best in West Africa, he said.



He commended the staff of the company for their hard work, which had helped keep the mine as one of the best and stressed that the same attitude would be required to sustain its progress.



Mr Chen said the company looked forward to cooperating with government and its regulatory agencies, the communities and other support services that were all important stakeholders, in its quest to ensure the success of its operations.



New beginning



Announcing the deal completion and what it meant for Wassa, the Vice-President in charge of Support Services, GSR and Managing Director of GSR Wassa Mines, Mr Shaddrack Adjetey Sowah, said the takeover was the new beginning for greater things to come.



The Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah, recalled various forms of development support provided by Golden Star in its operational areas and other social development issues.



He expressed the hope that the new management would maintain the existing cohesion between it and stakeholders to ensure that there was no tension, and that dialogue was employed for peaceful coexistence.



The former Managing Director of GSR, Mr Andrew Wray, said the mining industry was often criticised, and that to ensure successful operations, there was the need for a good relationship with stakeholders  communities, allied groups and the government  which was one of the main ways of managing the criticisms and expectations.



He said the Wassa Mine remained one of the lucrative mines in the country and urged members of the new team to work hard to ensure that the best was uncapped for the country.



Transaction



Pursuant to the Arrangement Agreement, Chifeng, through Chijin and the assignee, acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Golden Star for $3.91 per share in cash (as of October 31, 2021), which equated to a transaction value of approximately $470 million on a fully diluted, in-the-money basis.



History



The Wassa Mine, which covers a surface area of approximately 52.89 square kilometres and has been in operation for many years, originally operated as a small-scale mining site until Satellite Goldfields Limited acquired it in 1993, before transferring its interest to Golden Star in 2002.



As of the end of 2020, Golden Star had produced about 2.4 million ounces (oz) of gold since its acquisition.



The transition from open-pit mining to underground mining in 2015 marked a major milestone in the life of the mine, with production increasing from 104,000oz in 2016 to 165,000oz in 2020.



With an additional 11 years of mine life, the mine has the potential to produce about one million ounces of gold over a six-year period, with the right investment.









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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Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has presented 150 vehicles to a number of Senior High Schools in the continued fulfilment of a pledge by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to provide the necessary logistics to ensure access to quality education for Ghanas youth.



Made up of 100 buses and 50 pickup trucks, this latest provision of vehicles form part of a broader, ongoing effort by government, through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and other stakeholders, to not only increase access to education for every Ghanaian child, but also provide the necessary infrastructure and logistics to create a conducive environment for teaching and learning.



Speaking at the handover ceremony, held at the Accra High School on Monday, 31st January 2022, Vice President Bawumia recalled that in March 2020 he handed over, on behalf of government, 365 Isuzu Double Cabin pickup trucks out of a total of 840 procured, to all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directorates of Education, as well as selected agencies under the Ministry of Education.



I also handed 493 out of a total 2,000 motorbikes to aid the work of circuit supervisors and to further enhance their supervisory roles in the education sector. I further announced that government had procured 350 buses for our Senior High Schools in this country and we distributed 100 of those buses in July 2020.

Today It is indeed an honour for me to hand over a total of 150 vehicles, including 100 buses and 50 pickup vehicles for use in our secondary schools.



Dr Bawumia underscored the importance of an efficient transportation system in the education sector, particularly in light of the flagship Free Senior High School programme, and pledged Governments commitment to doing even more.



It is well documented that the availability of good transportation for students positively impacts quality education delivery, Dr Bawumia noted.



An efficient transportation system in our schools increases student enrolment and encourages many students to stay in school. Indeed, it has been said that a dependable transportation system in schools improves the safety of students and makes teachers and students more productive.



An efficient transportation system in schools is also key to hastening the economic transformation and the development of our country as envisioned by this Government led by His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo.



Thus, in the last five (5) years, our government has committed to increasing access to quality education and providing vehicles to secondary schools to support the transportation of our growing population in these schools.



The quest to provide quality, accessible education to Ghanas youth remains on course, and everything necessary to achieve this will continue to receive serious government attention, Vice President Bawumia emphasised.



The hand-over of buses today is part of the efforts to increase access to quality education anchored on a robust education system that trains a critical mass of students empowered to be active participants in our countrys transformation.



The Minister for Education, Hon Yaw Osei Adutwum, maintained that the transformation of any nation begins with the transformation of its educational system, and lauded President Akufo-Addo for his continued efforts to actualize his vision of a Ghana full of confident, educated youth ready to make a mark on the world.



On behalf of the beneficiary schools the President of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Alhaji Yacoub Abubakari, expressed gratitude to Government for the provision of logistics to schools, and pledged their support to ensure the success of the Free SHS programme.









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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To enhance the government's drive in making Ghana the cleanest city in Africa, the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (GARCC) in partnership with waste management companies have kick-started the Operation Clean Your Frontage initiative.



The campaign, which begun yesterday (Tuesday, February 1, 2022), according to the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Honourable Henry Quartey, will help achieve the dream of Accra becoming the cleanest city in Africa.



He added that the project was also meant to get an all-hands-on-deck approach and therefore, urged residents and traders in Accra to get involved in achieving the dream.



The official launch which took place in October last year was beefed up with the inclusion of the Ghana Armed Force (GAF), Ghana Police Service (GPS), Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the National Service personnel with a charge for them to ensure strict adherence to the various assembly bye-laws aimed at making Accra clean.



According to Hon. Quartey, who addressed them at the Independence Square, the project calls for a show of patriotism and an all-inclusiveness approach.



Full compliance in achieving the agenda would inure to the benefit of all hence it was a clarion call to all Ghanaians to clean their frontages, he added.



"We travel to other countries and wish to be there again; it is because the citizens were law-abiding and thus making those places beautiful. We can also do same and it starts from we cleaning our frontages," he indicated.



He further added, "With the Lord on our side, I am hopeful we will achieve our desired purpose."



The regional minister also called on Ghanaians to take interest in the affairs of the country to embrace the opportunity in the attainment of the dream.



"We are engaging all the waste management companies in the country some of which have the financial, logistical and human resources to champion this initiative," he said.

Mr Quartey was hopeful that with the help of God, the initiative would yield its intended purpose.



Later speaking to the media, the Executive Chairman, Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyapong, revealed that his outfit (Zoomlion) was well-positioned to champion the agenda.



According to him, Zoomlion has made available 60 branded cars, 2,000 branded containers to be positioned at vantage locations.



He gave the assurance that with the revival of the One House, One Dustbin project, the dream of actualising the clean your frontage was sure to succeed.



With a public address system, massive education was embarked upon in areas including Farisko, UTC, First Light to Obetsebi, Digital Centre Circle, Sadisko to Tiptoe Lane and TUC to the Law School.



The rest were Okaishie, Tudu, Lapaz, High Street to Opera Square and finally Agbogbloshie

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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NIGERIA: Jennifer Douglas, the estranged wife of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has confirmed the end of her marriage to the politician and made clarification on why their marriage ended.



In a viral statement shared by Punch, Ms. Douglas dismissed allegations that she divorced the politician because he took a new wife. According to her, she knew he was entitled to more than one wife as a Muslim.



She stated that Atiku has requested to collect their Asosokro matrimonial home from her. According to her, the former Vice President had previously gifted her the Asokoro house but when she asked for a divorce, he asked her to return the documents of the house.



She stated that when she asked him where he wants her to go if she leaves his house, he responded that since she was the one that asked for a divorce, she should find a place to stay.



Her statement reads



''For some time now, especially in the last few weeks, there has been a whole lot of rumours and in circulation about the state of my marriage to his Excellency Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Waziri Adamawa, GCON. The stories got more vicious as they continued to circulate. I deem it necessary to defend myself against the calculated propaganda to malign my character and position me in a bad light and damage my name. Without resorting to nonsensical talk, I would address the two key issues at hand:



(1) That I asked for a divorce because His Excellency got married again.



(2) That I sold his Excellencys house in Dubai.



That I asked for a divorce because His Excellency got married again

 On June. 26, 2021, I asked His Excellency to grant me a divorce in light of the breakdown of our marriage. And, during that period, I told his Excellency that I remain at his Excellencys service to continue to assist him in his activities even If I am no longer married to him. Suffice it to say that several friends of his Excellency tried to mediate in this matter. I thank them most graciously and remain grateful for their efforts, Peter Okocha, Senator Ben Obi, Tunde Ayeni, Captain Yahaya, and Senator Ben Bruce.



 The core reason for the divorce was disagreement over my continued stay in the United Kingdom, to look after my children and several other long-standing issues. I needed to play the role of a mother at this time to the children who have gone through the absence of both father and mother growing up; especially, with the passage of my elder sister who used to look after them. Furthermore, in light of COVID-19 times, choosing to stay with the children was non-negotiable. And, in line with Northern culture, the new wife takes up the baton so I can also focus on giving the kids more care.



 Despite not informing us officially according to northern/Islamic culture, I knew about his Excellencys new wife from the time Excellency was dating her and when his Excellency eventually married her. I have graciously invited our new wife to my sons wedding in Dubai in 2018 without any ill feelings and congratulated his Excellency when our new wife gave birth.



 I was already aware that His Excellency had gotten married to our new wife but that did not deter me from supporting His Excellency and indeed, we went through a most rigorous electioneering campaign and garnered massive support for his election in 2019.



 That His Excellency married a new wife was never the cause of our problem as many have said. His Excellency is a Moslem and I have never questioned him about his wives or intended.



I hope this brings this issue to rest as I did not leave the house because of his new marriage.



Moving out of the matrimonial Home in Asokoro and Yola



 The matrimonial home in Asokoro where we reside was gifted to me by him even before we moved into that home from a previous residence. Indeed, His Excellency caused his Private Secretary to process the DEED of assignment documents for the house, which he did and handed me the documents. I then commenced processing the title to the property.



 During the initial mediation discussion, Excellency denied that he gifted the house even after I showed him the document with the signatures of his aide, his Excellency asked me to give him the deed of gift. When I asked him, where will I and the kids stay when we come to Nigeria?, he told me that since I am the one that asked for a divorce, I should find a place to stay, and subsequently, I moved out.



 His Excellency further gave orders to have my nephews living with me in the house ejected within an hour of his order and gave orders that I and my family members are not allowed to enter the house. Hence, during my last visit to Nigeria in December 2021, I stayed at a hotel. I have long released these assets to him and hereby reiterate that thee titles are at his disposal to pick up whenever he deems fit.



Dubai Home

 There has been a lot of speculation on the Dubai home. For a while now, I had purposely stayed away the Dubai until I took custody of that property September 2021 after his Excellency reneged on his word to give the current value of the said property in exchange. When I came to Nigeria, in early September, 2021. I asked to have a private conversation with His Excellency. During that conversation, I informed his Excellency that once I get back to the United Kingdom, I will go to Dubai and take over the house. He subsequently departed for his medical trip to Germany refusing to address any of the issues I privately wanted to conclude with him outside of third parties.



 I subsequently travelled to Dubai, and took custody of the said property. Once I did that, on 18 September 2021, His Excellency sent me a text and I quote: I hear you have moved to Dubai to take over the house. I am still in Germany for my medicals. Make sure all my properties including (redacted) are intact so I can collect all my properties. I wish you well.



 I responded to him:  Excellency, I am left with no other option as we need to get on with our lives amicably. I hope your medicals are coming up good. I wish you well too.



 On 19th September, 2021 in response to his text that I am not being amicable and I quote Good morning, with due respect, Excellency, I told you on Saturday before you left for Germany, that I was going back to UK, take [our son] back for his test, then come to Dubai. I reiterated that day the need for an amicable resolution. I maintain that stance and remain at your service Your Excellency.



 Further on Tuesday, 21 September, 2021, I asked His Excellency in another text whether he wanted me to pack up his clothes and give them to Rahim (his driver) since the driver on his instructions was moving his cars. I also asked Excellency in that text whether he wanted me to have Rahim pack up his office. Then his Excellency sent me a text back and asked: So its true you have sold the villa?



 Subsequently, His Excellency sent the driver to take possession of all the cars.



The truth subsists with regard to the Dubai house. I will make no further comments on it because it is the subject of litigation filed by his Excellency against me.



I need to also put on record that if I wanted to take His Excellency assets, I would not have returned to him his property documents in Abuja and Jos and document, allow the driver to collect his cars, gave up the house in Asokoro and Yola.



The last time I was in Nigeria I called to have the Asokoro and Yola documents delivered to him. It was never picked up and I still state that Excellency is free to send someone to have the documents picked up anytime he deems fit.''















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 Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan has criticized an NPP MP who according to him, betrayed his colleagues in Parliament.



"Whoever did that is listening to me; let him continue to live with that guilty conscience forever because if the person didn't do that..."



"...you're not deserving of this honour as a Member of Parliament; betraying all of us. Now because of the equal numbers, the NDC say they will not permit the President to roll out his programmes" he said during a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo'



Listen to him in the video below





Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Economic community of West African States (ECOWAS) has suspended Burkina Faso in the aftermath of a military coup, making it the third member nation to be punished for a military takeover in only 18 months.



The West Africa's main regional bloc made the announcement on Friday January 28, days after mutinous soldiers forced democratically elected President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to resign.





The soldiers also went on state television to announce a military takeover of the country, which they said was under siege from armed groups.



The military rulers said Kabore failed to stem the violence that has killed thousands during his time in power.



A delegation of ECOWAS defence chiefs will travel to Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou on Saturday January 29, followed by a ministerial mission a few days later, the statement said. Heads of ECOWAS member states will reconvene for another summit in Ghana's capital Accra on Feb. 3 to discuss the findings of the two delegations.





ECOWAS and its international allies have condemned the coup in Burkina Faso, which they fear could further destabilise a country beset by Islamist violence, but find themselves with limited leverage.



The West African leaders met virtually yesterday to discuss the Burkina Faso coup, and a delegation was expected to travel to the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, in the coming days.



Ghanaian president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the current ECOWAS chairman, described the recent spate of coups in West Africa as a direct violation of our democratic tenets. The rest of the world is looking up to us to be firm on this matter, he said.



The bloc could still choose to sanction Burkina Faso when members reconvene next week.













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 Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, Kweku George Ricketts-Hagan, has said the fight against corruption in the country should start with the leadership.



According to him, it is only real commitment at the leadership level that will ensure Ghana is able to nip the practice in the bud.



It should start with leadership. If they are ready to fight and they mean it, that will change the status quo, the former Deputy Finance Minister said on the Key Points with Dzifa Bampoh on TV3 Saturday January 29.



His comments come after Ghana failed to make progress in its fight against corruption as stated in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released today by Transparency International (TI).



The report scored Ghana 43 out of a possible clean score of 100 and ranked the country 73 out of 180 countries/territories included in the 2021 index.



This CPI score indicates that, Ghana failed to make progress in the fight against corruption in the year 2021 as the score of 43

is the same as the countrys 2020 score. Ghanas current performance is still below 50 which is the expected average and thus leaves much to be desired.



This CPI score indicates that, Ghana failed to make progress in the fight against corruption in the year 2021 as the score of 43 is the same as the countrys 2020 score, said Ghana Integrity Initiative, the local chapter of Transparency International, in a statement.



A trend analysis of Ghanas CPI scores over the past decade, presented in the chart below shows that, the country declined by 2 points.



Equatorial Guinea, Somalia and South Sudan have the lowest scores in the region.



The 2021 index reveals that, Botswana (55), Lesotho (38), Eswatini (32), Niger (31), Nigeria (24), Comoros (20) and South Sudan (11) are all at historic lows. In the last decade, 43 countries in the region have either declined or made no significant progress, the statement added.



On the global level, Denmark (88), Finland (88) and New Zealand (88) top the chart as the least corrupt countries, while Somalia (13), Syria (13) and South Sudan (11) remain at the bottom of the corruption perception index.







Source: 3news.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has urged the church to continue to use the pulpit and religious platforms to partner the State to fight corruption and facilitate development of the nation.



The Vice President made the call when he appeared as a Special Guest at the ordination and consecration service of Very Reverend Dr. Kotei Neequaye as the new Suffragan Bishop for the Church on Sunday, January 30, 2022.



Addressing the Congregation, Dr Bawumia touted the Anglican Church for using its platforms to preach against corruption.



"The Anglican Church has always preached against corruption and I urge them to continue to help fight the canker" he noted.



Quoting the Bible, Dr. Bawumia urged society to tackle corruption head on.



"I will like to quote two scriptures on this issue, and how it is very important to continue to do all what we can to minimise it.



"Galatians 6:8 says 'Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."



Dr. Bawumia noted that there is so much economics embedded in this scripture which is telling us not to invest in flesh through corruption. We know that the flesh will eventually rot when you die so if you are an investor will you invest in something that will eventually rot?



Furthermore, Proverbs 29:4 reads, 'A King gives stability to his nation, but one who demands bribes destroys it" he referenced.



Vice President Bawumia enumerated scores of policies and programmes the government has put in place to fight corruption including the digitisation of the economy through address system, ports, the Ghanacard, passport office, DVLA, GRA, SSNIT, NHIS, Lands Commission, Ghana.Gov platform, and others as evidence of Governments commitment to fighting corruption. These digitization efforts have reduced and in some cases eliminated bribery and corruption in the provision of public services.



The Vice President also alluded to the fact that the appropriate state agencies like the Office of the Special Prosecutor, CHRAJ, EOCO among others are being given the needed financial support to fight corrupt officials and agents.



He noted that in all of this, society must also play its part in the fight against society, and called for collaboration from all to make the fight easier.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The leadership of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK (CPA UK) has visited and held discussions with former President John Dramani Mahama in Accra.



Members of the CPA UK are in Accra for a Trade and Security Workshop for the UK and African parliamentarians to explore how parliaments can address trade and security issues in the context of unexpected external events such as COVID-19.



Led by the Cardiff South and Penarth Member of Parliament, Stephen Doughty, who represents the Labour Party, the delegation discussed with the former president, issues of sub-regional security, effects of COVID-19 on the economy, affirmative action and the role of women in the growth of the economy, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the worrying issue of abandoning projects started by previous governments.



Mahama commends



President Mahama commended the UK Parliament and the CPA UK for its commitment to governmental accountability.



He, however, observed that Ghana had not reached the height of democracy that the UK epitomises, where Members of Parliament could look into the face of the head of government, call him out over a wrong action and get him to feel remorseful.



On abandoning of public projects, the former President said the practice was an affront to Ghanas Constitution.



We didnt see it so brazenly in other governments. It is something that is with this particular Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government, Mr Mahama said.





Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A former Deputy Minister for Communication, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has warned the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party(NPP) government to desist from harassing the Member of Parliament for Ajumako Enyan Essiam Constituency, Cassiel Ato Forson, with frivolous and politically motivated charges in court.



Addressing over 1000 natives in the Ajumako Enyan Essiam Constituency in a Town Hall Meeting at Ajumako Bisease, he urged the Constituents to ignore all the baseless accusations leveled against Hon. Ato Forson who once was a Deputy Minister for Finance over the acquisition of ambulances for the state.



According to Felix Ofosu Kwakye, the NPP government has intentionally hauled Hon. Ato Forson before the court for causing financial loss to the State in a bid to intimidate him and stop him from leading the minority caucus in Parliament to boycott the introduction of the controversial E-Levy.



He accused the government of throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians to believe the falsehood against Ato Forson, adding that the suit against the latter will come to naught.



Felix Ofosu Kwakye stressed that the NDC Minority in Parliament will continue to fight the passage of the E-levy as it will disproportionately affect lower-income people and those outside the formal banking system who rely heavily on mobile money transfers, reducing overall economic activity.





Source: kasapaonline









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Member of Parliament for North Tongu has suggested nine steps the government can use to raise its projected GHS6.9billion without the introduction of the controversial e-levy.



According to Mr Ablakwa, these steps are clear alternatives to the killer e-Levy if only President Akufo-Addo and his team would be sensitive to the plight of suffering Ghanaians and contain their appetite for profligacy.



Posted on his Facebook timeline, the steps are as follows:



1) Take out GHS2billion from the GHS3.1billion allocated to the Office of Government Machinery;



2) Suspend the allocation to GAT and immediately GHS1billion becomes available for government;



3) Negotiate with IPPs and reduce their allocation from GHS4billion to GHS3billion;



4) Review the nebulous GhanaCARES programme and save another GHS1billion;



5) Cut the Contingency Vote down to GHS293,007,000 and free up some GHS700million;



6) Agenda 111 remains a knee-jerk utopia, pull the brakes and save GHS518million;



7) Slash by half the allocation to the National Security Ministry and gain some GHS400million;



8)Parliament should readily sacrifice some GHS200million from its GHS600million allocation;



9) Place on hold the hazy Mortgage Financing Scheme at the Ministry of Finance and save GHS100million.



Put the above expenditure cuts together and government immediately raises a handsome GHS6.918billion which exceeds the e-Levy projections, he added.



The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its Minority have taken an entrenched position against the 1.75 per cent levy which will affect electronic transactions.



Several calls on the government to drop the proposed tax has fallen on deaf ears.



The government has explained that the upsurge in the use of e-payment platforms, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been an impetus for the introduction of the levy.



As a result, Ghana recorded a total of GHS500 billion from e-transactions in 2020 compared with GHS78 billion in 2016.



The government says the e-Levy proceeds will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, and digital and road infrastructure, among others.



The e-levy bill is currently before parliament for deliberations.









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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2022 seems to be another record breaking year for one of Ghanaian biggest gospel music exports, Empress Gifty.



The gospel music icon, who has been a blessing to Africa and a pacesetter in her genre of music, is undoubtedly the favourite of many music lovers in Ghana and Africa.



After making appreciable strides last year and rocking stages of huge musical concerts in Ghana and beyond the borders, she has now inked a new performance deal with Don Music Production, the organisers of Ghana Music Awards USA for their 2022 upcoming Nominees Announcement which is scheduled to happen on April 16, 2022, at Grand Roosevelt Ballroom, 2 Hudson Street, Yonkers, NY 10701 in the United States of America.



Aside the nominees announcement performance, Empress Gifty will mount the stage again to perform at the main event scheduled to take place on August 20, at the Lincoln Theatre.



The gospel artiste, who is expected to perform all her hit songs with her band, told The Spectator in an interview that she saw better prospects of the Ghanaian gospel music industry considering the international appeal over the years.



According to her, 2022 promises to be much more exciting beginning with this GMA-USA contract and performance opportunity, the people of USA should prepare for an experience from me and my team.



According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Music Awards-USA, Mr. Dennis Boafo, affectionately called Don D, Empress Gifty and one other popular gospel artiste were penciled for this event because of their style of performance and vocal delivery.



He believes Empress Gifty after performing on major shows in Ghana during the festive season is ready to shake the Ghanaian communities in America with her songs and dexterity on stage.



Ghana Music Awards USA is an event which seeks to reward, celebrate and recognise hardworking musical talent from Ghana by promoting Ghanaian music and culture in the diaspora.



GMA-USA is the most prioritised and patronised Ghanaian event in America.









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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Part of Canada's land border with the United States is pictured closed at the Peace Arch border crossing in Surrey, B.C., Tuesday, April 28, 2020. RCMP in British Columbia say four Americans have been fined $500 for violating emergency orders under the Quarantine Act, invoked in order to limit the spread of COVID-19.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
Ontario Premier Doug Ford holds a press conference at Queens Park in Toronto on Thursday, January 20, 2022. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is set to make an announcement today with his government's new minister responsible for the long-term care sector. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
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The state Supreme Court has issued a stay on further action by a lower court on disputed Pennsylvanias congressional maps until it decides whether to weigh in on it.

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Final Table Debutant Zeiter Leads Race For Super MILLION$ $1.2M Top Prize

February 01, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

GGPoker's Super MILLION$ tournament always creates some colossal prizes, but this week's edition is something else. The 28th episode of Season 2 acts as the Main Event for the Super MILLION$ Week, which has resulted in a top prize weighing in at an impressive $1,242,190.

The tournament has a $5 million guarantee on its prize pool, but 815 entries mean that prize pool contained $8,150,000. Dozens of superstars netted between $22,709 and $110,377 on Day 2, but the biggest prizes are reserved for the star-studded final table, which shuffles up and deals at 6:00 p.m. GMT on February 1.

Super MILLION$ Season 2 Episode 28 Final Table

Place Player Country Chips Big Blinds 1 Diego "Ushuaia1" Zeiter Austria 17,266,441 86.3 2 Marius Gierse Austria 15,828,954 79.1 3 Daniel "Vanessa23" Montagnolli Austria 11,558,046 57.8 4 Audrius "Audrii" Stakelis Austria 8,656,994 43.3 5 TonyLin008 Hong Kong 7,948,862 39.7 6 Ole Schemion Austria 6,866,980 34.3 7 Mikita Badziakouski Thailand 5,148,457 25.7 8 Wiktor Malinowski Macau 4,948,909 24.7 9 Neel "Neel" Joshi India 3,276,357 16.4

Watch This Star-Studded Final Table Unfold Who will win this week's Super MILLION$? Watch the final table action here! Head to GGPoker's Awesome YouTube channel

Diego "Ushuaia1" Zeiter is the man who finds himself in the envious position of chip leader when the final table action gets underway. Zeiter is guaranteed to bow his previous best GGPoker score out of the water because even if the unthinkable happens and he crashes out in ninth, he will walk away with $155,723. However, sitting down with 17,266,441 chips (86.3 big blinds)) means he will, no doubt, fancy his chances of taking home the enormous $1,242,190 top prize.

Marius Gierse is one of the eight finalists tasked with stopping Zeiter in his tracks; he returns with 15,828,957 chips or 79.1 big blinds. Gierse is a regular in the Super MILLION$ and has won more than $2.25 million from these high stakes events. An outright victory still eludes Gierse, although he has two runner-up finishes. What better time to get the proverbial monkey of his back than by helping himself to the monumental top prize offered tonight.

Third place at the restart belongs to Daniel "Vanessa23" Montagnolli, who is playing in his first ever Super MILLION$ tournament! Montagnolli almost won an online WSOP title but fell in fourth-place in the WSOP #71: BIG 50. That result banked him $81,713 and he is now guaranteed almost double that prize. Montagnolli is one of three players who sit down with an eight-figure stack, namely 11,558,046 chips or 57.8 big blinds.

Super MILLION$ Season 2 Episode 28 Final Table Payouts

1st - $1,242,190

2nd - $957,859

3rd - $738,610

4th - $569,546

5th - $439,180

6th - $338,654

7th - $261,138

8th - $201,365

9th - $155,273

Audrius "Audrii" Stakelis is another player who does not usually frequent the Super MILLION$ tournaments, but you would never know judging by his 8,656,994 chips (43.3 big blinds). This is only the second time we have seen Stakelis' name in the Super MILLION$ chip counts, which means this is also his first cash and maiden final table. Will it also be his first victory? Stakelis is positioned in the middle of the pack so has every chance of coming away with the title.

Hong Kong's "TonyLin008" returns to the action in fifth-place courtesy of their 7,948,862 chips (39.7 big blinds). TonyLin008 will fancy their chances of causing an upset when play resumes because, with all due respect, they are a relatively unknown quantity. The player has a shade under $400,000 in GGPoker winnings, the bulk of which stems from winning a WSOP Circuit ring in a $1,050 GGMasters HR tournament, which netted them $197,745.

Ole Schemion

Down in sixth-place, albeit with 6,866,980 chips (34.3 big blinds), is where you find former Super MILLION$ champion Ole Schemion. His victory came back in October 2020 so you could say Schemion is overdue another win. Schemion finished eighth the last time he navigated his way to a Super MILLION$ final table, he will be hoping to go far deeper this time around.

Mikita Badziakouski finished fourth the last time the Super MILLION$ crowned a champion, a result that came with $205,795. Badziakouski sits down at this gargantuan Super MILLION$ final table in seventh-place with 5,148,457 chips (25.7 big blinds), so has plenty of work ahead of him if he is to come out on top here. The former partypoker pro is a fearless player so expect him to bust out early or climb towards the chip counts' summit when the cards are back in the air.

One of the shorter stacks, much to the delight of the other finalists, is Wiktor Malinowski. The Macau-based high stakes cash game specialist won this tournament in May 2021. That victory came with $394,852, finishing fifth or better tonight beats that score. Malinowski, like Badziakouski, reached the previous Super MILLION$ final table. He finished seventh as Isaac Haxton marched onto victory. He returns to the fray with 4,948,909 chips or 24.7 big blinds.

India's Neel "Neel" Joshi is the player bringing up the rear this week with a 3,276,357 stack, the equivalent of 16.4 big blinds. Joshi has one previous in-the-money finish in this tournament. It came in August 2021 when he finished sixth for $105,482. Joshi is already guaranteed to smash that prize out of the park.
  ,  Cookies        .          cookies.




Final design of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative should be finished by late spring, cracking open the door to actual construction on the USC Aiken campus, the manager of the Savannah River Site told a community panel Tuesday.

Once that final design task order is issued, Michael Budney said at a Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board meeting, then well be able to sort out exactly when we can begin breaking ground over there.

Preliminary design of the facility wrapped in November 2021, months after the Department of Energy, which stewards the Savannah River Site, awarded North Wind Construction Services LLC the contract. A 3D model of the footprint was unveiled during a 2020 ceremony, which featured then-Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar and elected officials, like U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson and S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster.

This is a big day, and young people, hold on to your hats, McMaster, a Republican, said at the time. The best is yet to come. Youre going to see things youve never seen before.

The Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative, years in the making, represents a partnership between the university and the Energy Department, namely its Savannah River National Laboratory. The final product will augment USCA and the national lab; at its most basic, the futuristic compound is expected to be a home for research, education and public engagement.

It is also expected to be a catalyst for more development  a sort of high-tech corridor or hub.

Former USCA Chancellor Dr. Sandra Jordan has said the facility will maximize industry and education. Here, the national labs talent pools considerable research capabilities will be leveraged beyond the site to enhance the 21st-century industry and manufacturing.

Shovels were previously expected to turn at the university in 2020. That never happened. Jordan later told the Aiken Municipal Development Commission the hope was to break ground in 21, in the fall. That didnt happen, either.

The Energy Department last year said construction of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative would finish in 2024.
COLUMBIA  Republican legislative leaders say former Gov. Nikki Haley is returning to the South Carolina Statehouse this week for informal meetings with lawmakers.

Spokespeople for Haley did not immediately respond to questions from The Post and Courier about her expected visit Feb. 1, and legislators say they've been given no reason for the discussions beyond a courtesy call. But it does come as the 2022 election season ramps up in her home state.

Legislators confirming meetings with her include Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, and Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla.

Haley has been a board member for Clemson University since the fall. But the visit does not appear to be tied to any request from her alma mater.

"It sounded to me like she was going to be in town and just wanted to stop by and say 'hey' to some people," Massey said.

The visit comes five years after Haley left the Statehouse to be President Donald Trump's ambassador to the United Nations and three years after she resigned from his administration.

Haley, who turned 50 last week, has been seen as a potential 2024 presidential contender, though she said last year she would not run if her former boss, Trump, seeks the job again.

After resigning her ambassadorship in December 2018, Haley launched Stand for America, an advocacy group that says it promotes policies that "strengthen America's economy, culture and national security." Haley, who bought a home on Kiawah Island in 2019, has kept up her public profile nationally partly by campaigning for people she says will accomplish those goals.

Last year, she hit the campaign trail with Republican Glenn Youngkin, who flipped the Virginia governor's office by defeating Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a President Joe Biden ally who'd already previously been governor. She also campaigned with New Jersey GOP gubernatorial hopeful Jack Ciatterelli, who stunned Democrats by coming within a few percentage points of winning in the solidly blue state.

Closer to home, in 2020 she endorsed and headlined a fundraiser for then-state Rep. Nancy Mace, who flipped South Carolina's coastal 1st Congressional District, which includes Kiawah, back to Republican control.

But she has not been known for helping incumbents in South Carolina Statehouse races. Instead, as governor, she publicly  and repeatedly  chastised GOP leaders she viewed as not supporting her agenda.

In 2016, she campaigned against four GOP senators by supporting their primary challengers. She was largely unsuccessful.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin of Myrtle Beach and the late Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman of Florence easily won reelection that year despite her opposition. Then-Rep. Stephen Goldfinch of Murrells Inlet won his bid for an open Senate seat in a four-way primary that included her pick. Her backing did help Wes Climer defeat longtime Sen. Wes Hayes of Rock Hill, who she faulted for supporting a highway funding bill that later became law over her replacement's veto.

Gov. Henry McMaster, an early Trump backer, ascended to the job as South Carolina's chief executive when Haley left to be ambassador. If he wins reelection this year to his second full term, he'll become the state's longest-tenured governor ever.

McMaster's office did not immediately respond to questions on whether the governor would meet with her.
MOSCOW  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russia's top security demands but said Moscow is willing to talk more to ease tensions over Ukraine.

The comments were his first on the standoff in more than a month and suggested a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine may not be imminent and that at least one more round of diplomacy is likely.

Yet the two sides remain unyielding in their main positions, and there was little apparent hope for concessions. Russia is expected to respond soon to a U.S. proposal for negotiations on lesser Russian demands after which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak.

Lavrov and Blinken spoke Tuesday and reiterated positions put forward by Putin and President Joe Biden. The White House said Biden and Putin could also speak once the U.S. receives Russia's response.

In remarks to reporters at a Moscow news conference with the visiting leader of NATO ally Hungary, Putin said the Kremlin is still studying the U.S. and NATO's response to the Russian security demands received last week. But he said it was clear that the West has ignored Russian demands that NATO not expand to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, refrain from deploying offensive weapons near Russia and roll back its deployments to Eastern Europe.

Putin argued that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if the interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account. "I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that it's not going to be easy," Putin said.

Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops along the border of Ukraine, fueling fears of an invasion. It has denied any intention to attack.

Washington and its allies have rejected Moscow's key demands. They emphasize that Ukraine, like any other nation, has the right to choose alliances, although it is not a NATO member now and is unlikely to join any time soon.

Putin said the Western allies' refusal to meet Russia's demands violates their obligations on the integrity of security for all nations. He warned that a Ukrainian accession to NATO could lead to a situation where Ukraine launches military action to reclaim control over Russian-annexed Crimea or areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in the country's east.

"Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations," Putin said. "Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?"

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the country's Moscow-friendly president and later threw its weight behind rebels in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, triggering a conflict that has killed over 14,000 people.

Speaking after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who has forged closer ties with Moscow than almost any other NATO member, Putin noted that it's still possible to negotiate a settlement that would take every party's concerns into account.

"We need to find a way to ensure interests and security of all parties, including Ukraine, European nations and Russia," Putin said, emphasizing that the West needs to treat Russian proposals seriously to make progress.

He said French President Emmanuel Macron may soon visit Moscow as part of renewed diplomatic efforts following their call on Monday.

In a bid to exert pressure on the West, Lavrov sent letters to the U.S. and other Western counterparts pointing out their past obligations signed by all members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a top trans-Atlantic security grouping.

Russia has argued that NATO's expansion eastward has hurt Russia's security, violating the principle of "indivisibility of security" endorsed by the OSCE in 1999 and 2010. It says the U.S. and its allies have ignored the principle that the security of one nation should not be strengthened at the expense of others, while insisting on every nation's right to choose alliances.

In his letter, which was released by the foreign ministry, Lavrov said "there must be security for all or there will be no security for anyone." And in his call with Blinken, Lavrov warned that Moscow will not allow Washington to "hush up" the issue.

Blinken, meanwhile, emphasized "the U.S. willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns." However, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken was resolute in "the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances."

Blinken "urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraine's borders," Price said. He reaffirmed that "further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path."

Senior State Department officials described the call as professional and "fairly candid," noting that if Russia wanted to prove it isn't going to invade Ukraine, it should withdraw its troops from the border and neighboring Belarus.

Shortly after speaking to Lavrov, Blinken convened a conference call with the secretary general of NATO, the EU foreign policy chief and the chairman-in-office of the OSCE as part of efforts to ensure that the allies are engaged in any further contacts with Russia.

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the U.S. statement about its readiness for dialogue "doesn't correlate" with Washington sending planeloads of military equipment to Ukraine.

"I don't know why the U.S. is escalating tensions and at the same time accusing Russia," he said.

Continuing high-level diplomacy, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv for scheduled talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Addressing Zelenskyy, he noted that "more than 100,000 Russian troops are gathering on your border in perhaps the biggest demonstration of hostility toward Ukraine in our lifetimes."

Johnson said the U.K. has a package of measures including sanctions ready to go "the moment the first Russian toecap crosses further into Ukrainian territory."

"It is vital that Russia steps back and chooses a path of diplomacy, and I believe that is still possible," Johnson said. "We are keen to engage in dialogue, of course we are. But we have the sanctions ready."

He said he would have a call with Putin on Wednesday, noting that the Russian leader was trying to "impose a new Yalta, new zones of influence" in a reference to the 1945 deal between the allied powers. "And it would not just be Ukraine that was drawn back into the Russian sphere of influence," Johnson added.

Zelenskyy said that an estimated 100,000 Russian troops are concentrated near Ukraine's border, another 35,000 to 50,000 are stationed in Crimea and 30,000 to 35,000 more are deployed to Ukraine's rebel-controlled east. Russia has denied sending any troops and weapons to the separatists.

"We are waiting for Russia to pull the troops back from our border," Zelenskyy said. "That would be an important signal, and the only true answer to a question whether Russia is going to continue the escalation or not."

The Ukrainian president signed a decree on Tuesday expanding the country's army by 100,000 troops, bringing the total number to 350,000 in the next three years, and raising army wages. The decree ended conscription starting from Jan. 1, 2024, and outlined plans to hire 100,000 troops over the next three years.

___

Lee reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jill Lawless in London, Dasha Litvinova in Moscow, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
A group of Charleston-area economic development agencies is seeking public input on eight issues that could threaten long-term growth and competitiveness as part of a yearlong study to give business and government leaders a blueprint for future action.

Called "One Region Roadmap: Opportunities for All," the initiative has included interviews with more than 500 focus group participants, meetings with nonprofits and local political bodies, data gathering and input from consultants to identify ways to tackle problems such as housing affordability and disparities in economic success.

The groups have created a website  OneRegionRoadmap.com  where residents can provide feedback and prioritize which issues are most important.

"Our hope is that people will go on to the site and look at the eight different areas that have been identified and let us know what they think the priorities of our region should be," said Kendra Stewart, chairwoman of the One Region initiative and director of the Riley Center for Livable Communities at the College of Charleston. "That feedback will really influence the final report and the implementation, how we will prioritize what the community will be focusing on."

The issues identified by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Charleston Regional Development Alliance and the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester County of Governments are:

Economic momentum  sustaining the job and population growth the region experienced prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic equity  ensuring a quality education, job, housing and health care regardless of race or gender.

Housing affordability  creating living spaces that Charleston-area residents can pay for.

Global influence  attracting foreign-owned businesses and fostering international trade.

Infrastructure  improving the area's roads, bridges, rapid transit and broadband access.

Innovation and entrepreneurship  making sure the region supports new technologies.

Quality of place  balancing growth with the need to preserve natural and cultural resources.

Talent  Attracting and retaining high-quality employees and improving educational and training opportunities.

The website includes facts about each category and related strategies that participants can rank according to their importance. A copy of the "One Region Roadmap" report is also available for download.

"The site gives a sense of what are the main issues and the main data for each of the eight," said Claire Gibbons, director of marketing and communications for the Charleston Regional Development Alliance. "There is also an interactive component that simulates a public input meeting where a user can decide which issue is more important to them."

Stewart said public input will be "critical in creating the most comprehensive plan our region has ever seen."

"Each of us is responsible for moving our community forward," she said.

The agencies will gather public input through Feb. 20 before using the information to finalize the report and recommendations.

Stewart said she hasn't been surprised by the findings so far, but they have "confirmed a lot of what we already knew about our community."

For example, while the region has experienced fast-paced growth in recent years, the impact of the expansion hasn't been evenly distributed through all communities or all races. The impact of COVID on area businesses has also been uneven, with some industries like tourism taking the brunt while white-collar employment has largely been unaffected.

The initiative has been funded with a $400,000 grant from the federal Economic Development Administration, and some of that money will be used to follow through on the initiatives identified in the final report. The agencies behind the study are also hoping for financial and staff support from business leaders.

"We've already spent a lot of time talking to our local governments and our nonprofits in this region, who are already working in these areas, to let them know that once we have a final plan, we will be coming back to make sure we have the right people at the table who can help us move the plan forward," Stewart said.
Mole ramen with cotija cheese, pickled corn and tajin. Cauliflower florets fried in chickpea flour and tossed in a chili tomato glaze with toasted chickpeas. Banh mi pork gyros with hoisin aioli and garlic naan.

Sounds like the food youd find at a hip, highly anticipated Charleston restaurant.

Or inside beloved Charleston dive bars Local 616 and Cuttys, where chefs Ryan Wunder and Weems Pennington are proving that, sometimes, innovative cuisine pops up in unexpected places.

Local 616 owner Dwayne Mitchell met Wunder at Barsa, a Spanish restaurant on King Street. After many meals and conversations with the chef, who worked in the kitchen at the Joseph Ambler Inn near Philadelphia before moving to Charleston, Mitchell was convinced Wunder would thrive at Local 616.

Wunder started out by popping up at the Meeting Street bar that shares an address with Mozzo, El Pincho Taco and VIP Bistro, calling his operation Funky Wunders. He quickly earned praise from Local 616s regulars, and eventually, Mitchell hired him to be the bars permanent chef.

Its been extraordinarily great for us. For my regulars  people, they were like, If you just had regular food here we would never leave, Mitchell said. Now when they come through, theyre here all night so its great. Theyre happy; Im happy to see them happy.

Funky Wunders literally operates out of a hole in the wall; Wunder spends six days a week  five days of service and another for prep  in a small kitchen stall situated near the entrance of Local 616.

Funky Wunders serves an ever-changing menu, with flat noodles in sesame guajillo sauce, black bean tostadas and a double smash burger landing on the menu so far in 2022.

I call it funky; its like my funky versions of all street foods from the U.S. and around the world, Wunder said. So Ill take a dish like a gyro and then put my twist on it.

The chef draws on flavors from Mexico and South America, and he doesnt hold back when it comes to infusing new flavors into familiar dishes.

On Jan. 26, Wunder debuted empanadas, a savory fried pastry thats popular in Spain and South America, stuffing his with potato, bacon and cheese  fillings you might find in a Polish pierogi.

Its not fine dining, and thats the point. Mitchell said Charleston chefs willing to showcase their talents in unconventional places are adding another element to the citys culinary scene.

(It) could be the new Charleston look; new any city look really, Mitchell said. Im super proud to be able to do this with them.

In addition to his praise for Funky Wunders, Mitchell said hes been impressed by the rotating cast of chefs that have popped up at Cuttys in the past two years.

Before the onset of the pandemic, Cuttys kitchen had sat vacant for four years. Bringing food back to the local-favorite dive bar in the Cannonborough-Elliotborough neighborhood of downtown Charleston had been under consideration, but the pandemic made reopening the kitchen a necessity.

Hosting pop-ups specializing in culturally diverse, underrepresented foodways seemed like the ideal path for Cuttys to reintroduce its food program.

It wasnt just about making money, though. In fact, Cuttys doesnt take a cent from food revenue the pop-ups bring in.

Fostering the local community in a way that is creative, inclusive and approachable has always been a central pillar of Cutty's' culture, said Cuttys General Manager Sarah Griffith. Some of our most fiercely loyal regulars over the years have been our fellow F&B folk, and many of them had developed absolutely brilliant pop-up concepts during the shutdown. They needed a venue.

In the past two years, chefs serving vegan Korean cuisine, crepes, handmade pasta, dumplings and hand-ground corn tortillas have graced the Cuttys kitchen.

Since July 2021, its belonged to Weems Ramen on Monday nights.

During his food and beverage industry career, Weems Ramen Owner Weems Pennington has done everything from brewing beer at Edmund's Oast Brewing Co. and Fattys Beer Works to cooking in Charleston area kitchens like Jack of Cups Saloon on Folly Beach.

During the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, Pennington purchased a noodle-maker and started making ramen at home.

In summer 2021, the chef, a vegetarian, reached out to Griffith after she posted that she was looking for vegetarian ramen on social media. Weems Ramen was born, and Pennington hosted its first Cuttys pop-up weeks later.

I didnt know what to expect when I went into the Cuttys kitchen for the first time but its very well equipped, Pennington said.

The idea to host a chef with no pop-up experience who planned to serve three vegetarian ramens (vegan if you hold the egg) on Mondays might have sounded crazy to some.

But Griffith was on board, and six months later, Weems Ramen is routinely selling out at its Monday pop-ups, which will continue indefinitely.

He puts an incredible amount of care and research into the continued development and minute details of his concept. He's always innovating, and each ingredient in every dish has a very intentional reason for being included, Griffith said. It's been such an honor to watch his brain-child grow from its infancy to the almost cult-like status it deservedly holds these days.

The Weems-Cuttys partnership has helped both sides. Pennington has secured a Sunday residency at Estadio as a result of the pop-ups. For Cuttys, Weems Ramen is bringing in new customers at a pivotal time for the bar; the city of Charleston recently ended Cuttys temporary permit to use a parklet for outdoor seating that provided a haven for customers who are more comfortable in open-air settings.

In the future, Griffith plans to dedicate another night to Weems Ramen, and Nixtate, a traditional Mexican concept serving hand-ground corn tortillas, will visit the bar more frequently.

She also has some other ideas; maybe an Ethiopian concept or a pop-up that serves up the borscht and buttered challah combo that I doubt I wouldve survived my teens in NYC without.

Not exactly your standard bar fare.
Columbia-founded indie electronic project Toro Y Moi is returning to the city in May.

Toro Y Moi is helmed by Columbia native/expat Chaz Bear, who started the project while a graphic design student at the University of South Carolina. The 35-year-old musician will play May 1 at The Senate on the heels of his yet-to-be-released album Mahal, slated to be out April 29.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 4. He also will perform at Firefly Distillery in Charleston on May 5.

The Senate show will be Bears first planned performance in Columbia since an anticipated DJ set performance in 2020 that the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately nixed.

Bear attended Columbias Ridge View High School, and garnered acclaim for his involvement in the indie rock band The Heist & the Accomplice before coming to greater mainstream prominence with Toro Y Moi.

Toro Y Moi received its first Grammy nomination in 2020 for the song The Difference with electronic artist Flume. The last full-length release was the well-received electronic-dance-influenced Outer Peace in 2019.

Free Times interviewed Bear about "Outer Peace" ahead of its release, where he explained he wanted to drift from "sad boy" music with that album.

"Theres other things, like traveling and working and all the things in between. So I just tried to make sure I could express another side of myself aside from being a sad boy," he shared.
GEORGETOWN  Three people have filed to run for the at-large Georgetown County School Board seat vacated by former chair Jim Dumm, who resigned on Jan. 3 citing personal reasons.

A countywide special election will be held on March 29 to finish out the final months of Dumms current term that ends in November.

Scott Dubose, Kathy Ferdon-Anderson and Jon Tester have filed to run in the nonpartisan race.

Dubose is a retired vice president of a management consulting firm who lives in Pawleys Island. He said he decided to run because he has concerns of what he sees as the failings of the public school system.

Our schools are failing our children, Dubose said. I want to be a voice for parents, for students and excellence in education.

Ferdon-Anderson recently retired as a Georgetown County teacher after 33 years and lives in Georgetown.

She said that she wants to bring a teachers prospective to the position, although she said shes aware there are former teachers already on the board.

I love Georgetown County, she said. I love the children and people here. I want to do positive things.

Tester was most recently an assistant superintendent with the district before retiring last year. He lives in Pawleys Island.

Tester said he has enjoyed being a part of the inner workings of the school district.

I continued to kind of follow whats happening with the school district and some of the issues that they face, and I would like to be part of the problem solving, if possible, Tester said.

The winner of the March 29 election will have to run again this November for a full four-year term.
GEORGETOWN  Georgetown city leaders are examining whether the recently reopened Liberty Steel mill is doing enough to avoid a rezoning that would close the plant.

The mill reopened two weeks before a Feb. 1 deadline that would have triggered rezoning that would turn the 50-acre site into an area primed for tourism-friendly commercial development on the waterfront in South Carolina's third-oldest city.

If the plant was closed for a year, a city ordinance passed in 2018 would switch the zoning from heavy industrial to mixed-use. Mill operators stopped that by bringing back 65 workers in January. The downtown Georgetown mill employed more than 1,500 workers in the 1970s.

Under the recent reopening, Liberty is not producing steel at the Georgetown site but is turning large blocks of steel shipped from a sister plant in Illinois into wire rods used in tires and bridge cables. In the ordinance, the mill is expected to produce steel.

Georgetown Mayor Carol Jayroe said Jan. 31 that the city had some concerns over whether the company is conforming with its current zoning.

Jayroe joined City Administrator Sandra Yudice and other city officials on a recent inspection of the site and turned over findings to Chris Inglese, Georgetowns former planning director who is now the Newberry County administrator.

Inglese has been asked to make a recommendation on whether the mill is meeting the requirements of the ordinance to keep its zoning. Inglese is still helping the city on a contractual basis through February and will give his findings to City Council at a future meeting.

He will write a report and give his determination on if they are conforming or not, Jayroe said.

Liberty's London-based parent company, GFG Alliance, said in a statement that the mill restarted "in line with the citys expectations."

"We sincerely hope the city continues to be a partner for the success of the mill and its employees," GFG Alliance said.

The Georgetown mill has over the years received steel blocks from outside sources, a move that is necessary now to keep the plant open, GFG said.

"By continuing to do this, we have enabled profitable resumption of steel manufacturing, safeguarding skilled, well-paid local jobs, and supporting businesses in Georgetowns greater business community," the British company said. "These benefits risk being lost if the mills operations are curtailed.

Jayroe has said that the 65 jobs from the mill's most recent restart do not compare with the impact of transforming the site into a tourism-centric attraction. Redevelopment is already happening in several areas near the mill, including the former Georgetown Times building becoming a boutique hotel along the citys Harborwalk and a $25 million project to turn the citys old electric department building into luxury apartments and an open-air market.

James Sanderson, the longtime president of United Steelworkers Local 7898 that represents Liberty workers, said he envisions the entire mill in operation and producing steel. He said the city needs to focus on helping the mill, a major employer for decades. The mill relies on the nearby Port of Georgetown.

I wish we could put all that energy into trying to get our port dredged, and it doesnt seem to be a priority for them, Sanderson said. We need to become stewards of that God-given port and take advantage of what we have been given; to start marketing it and try and grow Georgetown.

Sanderson said the city should do more than focus on tourism. Georgetown political and business leaders are trying to get more visitors to stop in the city right in the middle of the popular tourist spots, Myrtle Beach and Charleston.

I mean, its one thing just to feel like, 'OK, were trying to convert Georgetown into a tourist industry only,' and they need to deviate from that single-type industry concept, Sanderson said. They need to become more diversified in their thought process.
GREENVILLE  It was officially billed as Republican U.S. Rep. William Timmons' reelection announcement, but surrounded by a contingent of South Carolina GOP leaders  including the state party chairman  the ceremony at his crossfit gym Jan. 31 served as a visual show of power consolidation.

The two-term Greenville congressman faces a primary challenge for his 4th District seat amid a bitter split between the Greenville County Republican Party and the statewide GOP. The divide falls along a sharp line: Who is most loyal to former President Donald Trump?

This past summer, Trump loyalists completed a takeover of the county party from leadership deemed "establishment Republicans" and not loyal enough to the former president. The county party recently changed its logo to feature Trump's signature combover.

During a 24-minute speech, Timmons touted his position on multiple House committees but made sure to cover red-meat conservative topics  attacking Democratic President Joe Biden on vaccine mandates, election reform, support for law enforcement, immigration at the southern border and what the Greenville businessman said was promotion of teaching White schoolchildren they are racist by birth.

Timmons mentioned Trump's name once, to share how he asked the former president for help in cutting red tape to help a local restaurant receive pandemic-related business relief.

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick moderated the event, while an astringent opponent  Greenville County Republican Party Chairman Jeff Davis  looked on.

In December, the state party censured and banned Davis from future gatherings citing disorderly conduct. Republican leaders at the Jan. 31 announcement steered clear of mention of the rift, save for Spartanburg state Sen. Josh Kimbrell.

Because I get to go back to Spartanburg when this is over, Im going to take a few swings here that Congressman Timmons is too polite to take," Kimbrell said. "People who try to accuse him of not being conservative enough are just crazy.

Timmons so far faces three opponents in the June 14 Republican primary: former Timmons advisor and airline pilot George Abuzeid; Easley pastor Mark Burns, who made national headlines as an ardent Trump supporter early on; and retired businessman Michael LaPierre, who promotes his run as a campaign to return to Constitutional principles.

Without specifying which candidate, Kimbrell said one opponent "reeks of desperation" and the other's campaign is "sour grapes."

After the announcement, Davis told The Post and Courier that McKissick entering the fray of a congressional primary was "interesting" and that the county party had held off on an endorsement but might consider one now.

The Davis-led county party has sought to establish what it considers a firm distinction between populist conservatives supportive of Trump and "RINO elite."

When asked about his support for Timmons and the need to shore up support in the county, McKissick told The Post and Courier after the announcement, "I think at the end of the day were going to have a unified party."

He didn't elaborate further.

Timmons declined to comment on the rift between the state and county party and how it could impact his race. Calling the dynamic "super-complicated," Timmons told The Post and Courier, "I try to stay out of all that."

Trump has endorsed candidates, both incumbents and challengers, who adhere to his claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Burns fits the mold as an avid supporter of the fraud narrative.

Following the violent Jan. 6 insurrection by a mob of Trump supporters who tried to prevent Congress from certifying Biden's victory, Timmons was one of 147 Republican lawmakers to vote against certifying the results. In the weeks following Trump's defeat, Timmons joined other Republican lawmakers in support of a legal effort to have the U.S. Supreme Court contest the results, which failed.
Nearly two dozen patients will likely be removed from the organ-transplant waiting list at the Medical University of South Carolina this week for failing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, a spokeswoman for the hospital confirmed on Feb. 1.

The requirement is based on the fact that a lot of people need organ transplants, but organs are scarce. Not everyone who needs one gets one. And transplant centers like MUSC have always prioritized patients who will more likely succeed.

It's no different during COVID. Transplant recipients are among the most vulnerable patients in the hospital. Recovery  both in the hospital and at home  may take months. And with the virus still running rampant across the country, MUSC's vaccine requirement is meant to ensure that those who receive life-saving transplant surgery have the best chances of survival.

"MUSC Health is part of a growing number of transplant centers who are making this same requirement, due to the overwhelming evidence of improving patient outcomes post-transplant for those who are vaccinated," MUSC spokeswoman Heather Woolwine said. "Before declining transplant candidacy, every effort is being made to understand the rationale behind individual vaccine refusal and to reduce barriers or misinformation related to vaccine acceptance."

MUSC has 1,438 patients on the United Network of Organ Sharing waitlist, Woolwine said. Nearly all of them have complied with the hospital's vaccine requirement. Of the 41 patients who are not compliant, 18 are in the process of becoming fully vaccinated, she said. Twenty-three have indicated they will not get the vaccine, and therefore will probably be removed from the waiting list sometime this week.

MUSC surgeons perform kidney, heart, lung and liver transplants in Charleston. Prisma Health, which operates hospitals in the Midlands and in the Upstate, intends to eventually offer kidney transplants, but has not performed a transplant yet. Like MUSC, Prisma spokeswoman Tammie Epps said the hospital system will require its transplant patients to get the COVID vaccine.

"As immunosuppression and surgery present a risk to the patient and organs are a scarce resource, patients must meet eligibility requirements to help ensure the greatest possibility of success," Epps said.

These requirements at MUSC and Prisma  and at several other transplant centers across the country  have become increasingly controversial. Several stories have emerged in recent weeks of transplant candidates being denied a procedure based on their COVID-19 vaccine status.

A 31-year-old father in Boston was recently denied a heart transplant by Brigham and Women's Hospital for failing to get a vaccine, according to several reports. An unvaccinated North Carolina man, Chad Carswell, said he can't get a kidney transplant at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, even though several private donors have volunteered to give him a kidney.

"I was born free. I will die free. Im not changing my mind, Carswell told a local TV station.

For years, the way solid organs have been allocated in this country has been complex. Its not as simple as demonstrating a medical need and getting a spot on the list.

The amount of time transplant candidates wait for surgery is a function of several factors. Among them: the state they live in, the type of organ they need and whether they can satisfy a number of medical and non-medical prerequisites. At MUSC, a COVID-19 vaccine is only one requirement of many that transplant candidates must satisfy before surgery.

And once a candidate earns a spot on the list, it's entirely possible they can lose it. According to UNOS, 408 transplant candidates in the U.S. were "inactivated" between Jan. 2 and Jan. 15, meaning it was determined the patient "is temporarily unavailable or unsuitable for transplantation and should not receive organ offers." The candidate may be reactivated at any time, the organization pointed out. It did not detail the reasons these patients were inactivated.

Weighing in on the controversy, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican who represents Charleston in Congress, tweeted on Tuesday, "While I encourage people to get vaccinated, the idea of taking people off the list for organ transplants because of their vaccine status is completely heartless. People need to stop playing God."

In response, Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician at MUSC who is running as a Democrat to unseat Mace in November, retweeted her opponent and added: "This is a dangerously misinformed take. Organs are a scarce resource that have always been allocated with stringent pre-transplant requirements, like vaccines. You have experts in your district. Next time reach out to them before tweeting. I am sure they would be happy to help."

March 6 will mark two years since COVID-19 was first detected in South Carolina. Meanwhile, millions of South Carolinians who qualify for a COVID-19 vaccine are not considered fully vaccinated.
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CONWAY  An Horry County nature preserve thats home to more than a dozen rare plant species, including the widely recognizable Venus flytrap, will nearly double in size following a recent land deal between state officials and a New York-based conservation group.

The Open Space Institute has announced that it finalized the transfer of 417 acres abutting the Cartwheel Bay Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, which manages the site, expanding its footprint by 40 percent.

DNR oversight of the 568-acre preserve will protect rare and at-risk species, including the Venus flytrap, along with features known as Carolina bays, which are oval-shaped marshes found in the county.

But poaching, habitat loss and wildfire suppression have cut into the plants viability.

The additional acreage will provide a buffer for the original section of Cartwheel Bay, located in northwest Horry County about 15 mile west of Loris, according to a report sent to legislators. The new property also will create more access to the nature preserve.

Cartwheel Bay has a 3.5-mile hiking trail and is open for hunting.

This expansion represents a significant conservation win for Horry County and the rare plants and animals that depend upon Carolina Bays, said Nate Berry, an Open Space Institute executive.

Late last year, a legislative panel approved using $610,000 from the state land trust funds to pay for the acquisition.

The protection of these important wetlands is all the more critical knowing the resource is located in one of South Carolinas fastest-growing areas, Berry said.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the flytraps have only been spotted in 18 counties between the Carolinas, including Charleston, Georgetown and Horry.

The Open Space Institute is a frequent collaborator on state preservation issues. In 2016, the organization joined the Upper Waccamaw Task Force and soon after helped identify 152 acres in Conway to aid with flood mitigation.
MYRTLE BEACH  Former President Donald Trump endorsed state Rep. Russell Fry in his GOP primary challenge to unseat U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, one of the 10 Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

In a Feb. 1 statement, Trump called Fry an "America First Champion," "a leading fighter on Election Integrity" and "pro-Life, pro-God, pro-Gun and, very importantly, pro-LOW Taxes."

"Russell loves our Military and our Vets  he is strong on Border Security and Crime," Trump said. "Russell Fry, who is all in for the Palmetto State, has my Complete and Total Endorsement. VOTE TOM RICE OUT NOW!"

Fry, 37, called Trump "the greatest president of my lifetime" after the endorsement.

Trump has pledged to target Republicans who voted to impeach him, putting South Carolina's 7th District congressional race in the national spotlight.

Trump called Rice, a 64-year-old Myrtle Beach accountant who is seeking a sixth term, "the coward who abandoned his constituents by caving to (U.S. House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left."

The endorsement crystalizes what was expected to be a chaotic primary that featured as many as 13 GOP challengers to Rice. The congressman's Republican foes had dropped to nine when year-end 2021 campaign reports were due Jan. 31.

While Rice has a big edge with campaign cash  $1.9 million in the bank, Fry's $327,000 was more than the remainder of the primary field combined.

Fry, a Surfside Beach lawyer, almost surely will get a boost in campaign collections with Trump's endorsement. The former president continues to wield influence over many Republicans nationwide, including some willing to contribute cash to his causes as he weighs a 2024 presidential bid.

Rice, who voted twice for Trump for president, has not backed down from his criticism after protesters breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden. Rice said Trump "did nothing to protect our country and stop the violence in a statement issued on the first anniversary of the riots.

Rice is now facing the biggest challenge since he was first elected to Congress in the newly created district in 2012.

Fry's political career has risen sharply since being elected to the Statehouse in 2015. He is the fifth-ranking GOP member of the S.C. House as chief whip, considered a stepping stone to other leadership positions.

He entered the congressional race in August, announcing he was targeting Rice for joining nine other House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in January 2021.

Fry said after the endorsement that he was trying to preserve Trump's White House accomplishments.

"With his leadership, America had record low unemployment, strong economic growth, a secure border, and renewed respect on the world stage," Fry said in a statement. "America was feared by its enemies and respected by its allies. But now, Radical Leftists, enabled by RINOs (Republicans in name only) like Tom Rice, are trying to erase President Trumps legacy and move America towards socialism. We cant let that happen."

Despite evidence to the contrary, Fry touts the narrative from Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.

"If you look at the 2020 election, it's very clear that it was rigged," Fry said in Facebook video posted on Jan. 30. "You had judges ruling one way and being overturned. You had state secretaries of state deviating from clear law on elections. You've had unelected bureaucrats at the county level changing laws or allowing drop boxes or things like this to occur."

Fry has introduced four election-related bills this session, including one that would require including a form of photo identification with absentee ballot applications.

Rice's campaign did not respond for a request to comment on the endorsement.

Fry's path to getting Trump's endorsement was cleared when an ally of the former president, conservative media personality Graham Allen, dropped out of the race over the weekend.

Allen was the primary's second-largest fundraiser with the help of a national following from his ties to Trump and his congressional allies. Allen received an endorsement from Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Allen said he was leaving the race in part to help open the field for a single challenger to Rice. Allen also lives in Anderson, 175 miles west of the outside edge of the congressional district covering the Pee Dee.

The 7th Congressional District primary is not the only S.C. coastal race in which Trump is expected to play a role.

The former president is still looking for a challenger to first-term Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace of Charleston in South Carolina's 1st District that stretches the coast to Hilton Head Island.

Mace, who worked for Trump's 2016 campaign, drew the former president's ire for saying after the Capitol riots that "every accomplishment that Republicans have made over the last four years, including President Trump had (made), were wiped out in just a few short hours."

The most likely Trump-backed candidates to join the primary are cybersecurity manager Katie Arrington, who beat GOP congressional incumbent Mark Sanford in 2018 with the then-president's endorsement but lost in the general election, and former S.C. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, whom Trump nominated as ambassador to Belize.
MYRTLE BEACH  U.S. Rep. Tom Rice heads into a primary with twice as much campaign cash in the bank than the total from all of his nine active GOP challengers protesting his vote to impeach President Donald Trump after the U.S. Capitol riots.

The latest fundraising data for the S.C. 7th Congressional District race out Jan. 31 suggests the GOP primary field that once boasted 13 candidates could continue to shrink with increased focus on finding one main challenger for Rice. The race is drawing national attention because Trump has said he wants to oust Republican members of Congress who backed his impeachment.

Rice, a Myrtle Beach accountant seeking a sixth term, has $1.9 million on hand heading into the June primary, according to data filed with the Federal Election Commission. The rest of the GOP field has $800,000 combined as of Dec. 31. A Republican is favored to win the heavily-GOP district covering the Pee Dee.

Rice is well ahead of his chief rival, state Rep. Russell Fry, who has $327,000 in the bank.

However, Fry, a Surfside Beach attorney, came close to outraising the congressman in the last three months of 2021. Rice added $155,000, while Fry nabbed $126,000.

The other three active GOP candidates with any significant campaign cash on hand have bolstered their offers with loans.

Cheraw doctor Garrett Barton had $132,000 left after a $150,000 loan. Hartsville insurance agent Barbara Arthur has $103,000 after a $90,000 loan. And Horry County School Board Chairman Ken Richardson of Conway carried $41,000 in the bank after a $100,000 loan.

Combined, the trio has raised $100,000 less than Fry outside of their loans  a sign of the state legislator's growing strength as Rice's top challenger.

All of Rice's challengers have cited the congressman's impeachment vote among their reasons for entering the race. Fry is offering "Impeach Tom Rice" bumper stickers for a $10 campaign donation.

Rice, who voted twice for Trump for president, has not backed down from his criticism after protesters breached the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021 trying to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden. Rice said Trump "did nothing to protect our country and stop the violence in a statement issued on the first anniversary of the riots.

The new campaign financial reports show signs that the Republican primary field of nine could soon dwindle more, with candidates raising or holding small amounts of money needed to compete.

Two candidates have not filed any campaign financial disclosures in the race as of Jan 31, Brandon Cooper and Georgetown pharmacist Spencer Morris, according to online records. Morris said he is still in the race but has not raised enough to file a disclosure report. Cooper did not respond to a request for comment.

Conway property manager Jeanette Spurlock has no cash on hand after raising $268 during her entire campaign. Former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride has $476 in the bank after gathering $8,400 in the last quarter. Defense contractor Steve Reichert has $3,600 on hand but raised only $100 in recent months.

The congressional race's previous second-leading fundraiser, conservative media personality Graham Allen, dropped out over the weekend despite his close ties to Trump and the former president's congressional allies, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Allen raised more than $700,000 in contributions. He had nearly $200,000 on hand at the end of 2021, though he loaned the campaign $92,000.

Among Allen's challenges was that he lives in Anderson, 175 miles from the western edge of the 7th Congressional District around Myrtle Beach and Florence.

Allen said he spoke to Trump before dropping out and hopes Rice foes will not be divided so they can rally behind one candidate to defeat the congressman.

"President Trump was clear. One candidate against RINOs," Allen said in a Facebook post. "I refuse to allow my own pride to get in the way of fighting for what this Country needs..REAL America First patriots in DC!"

Trump thanked Allen for joining the race against one of the 10 House Republicans to vote for his impeachment a year ago.

"Graham Allen is a warrior for America First and has always answered the call to serve our Nation," Trump said in a message sent soon after Allen announced plans to drop out. "Thank you, Graham, for your support of the MAGA ticket in 2022."
Slavery existed. And so did efforts to escape it.

In acknowledgement of these truths, the National Park Service has been working for some time to share the legacy of the Underground Railroad in America. And within the past decade, nine sites in South Carolina have been recognized on a national level for their connection to the resistance to enslavement.

Although its name may suggest it, there was no train and no railroad. The Underground Railroad refers to the efforts of enslaved African Americans to escape bondage and gain freedom.

The Park Service has used its Network to Freedom program to collaborate with government entities, individuals and organizations to promote and preserve this history of resistance. More than 695 locations in 39 states have been recognized by the service for their verifiable connection to the Underground Railroad.

Since 2020, three sites in South Carolinas Lowcountry have been added to the network.

Seizure of the Planter Marker (2021)

Robert Smalls is a familiar name to many in the Lowcountry. And his story plays an integral part in Charlestons rich history.

During the Civil War, Smalls, an enslaved man in Confederate Charleston, seized the 149-foot transport ship the Planter from a dock near The Battery and sailed it to freedom with his family and several other enslaved people onboard.

A marker in front of the Historic Charleston Foundation said Smalls and six enslaved crewmen took the vessel before dawn when its captain, pilot and engineer were ashore.

They had been thinking about escaping for a while, said Sheri Jackson, a program manager for the Network to Freedom. And so they chose this opportunity. They left early in the morning, and they kind of just sailed out of the Charleston Harbor.

Smalls delivered the Confederate boat to the Union blockade squadron. He became the first African American skipper of a United States-flagged ship when he was made captain. Smalls later became a congressman and represented South Carolina during Reconstruction.

Stono Slave Rebellion at the Elliot and Rose Plantations (2021)

The Caw Caw Interpretive Center in Ravenel is located on the site where the former Elliot and Rose plantations once stood. They both were listed on the Network to Freedom for their relationship to events surrounding the 1739 Stono Slave Rebellion.

During this time, a group of men and women from Africa decided to leave the Elliot and Rose plantations and head south to St. Augustine, Fla.

The Spanish said, Hey, if you can make it to St. Augustine, youre free,'  Jackson said.

The terms of the agreement were that the enslaved people had to convert to Catholicism and serve in the Spanish military once in St. Augustine.

It is believed that the freedom-seekers robbed the Hutchenson Store along the banks of the Wallace River for arms, ammunition and other supplies for their journey. They killed the shopkeeper and apparently walked back toward Charleston to Mr. Godfreys plantation to kill him and his daughter before marching southward, according to Thomas Thornton, the Caw Caw Interpretive Center facility manager.

Thornton said that before noon, the group ran into colony Lt. Gov. William Bull and his party. They rounded up the militia and were battling by noon near the Edisto River. It was all over by nighttime.

Theres an account that says that a lot of the freedom fighters were beheaded and their heads were put on pikes back to the road into Charleston to be scary, Thornton said. And several people escaped for several years before they were caught.

As many as 100 people were involved in the rebellion by the end. A lot of accounts say 40 to 50 enslaved people were killed. Others that could prove they were sort of pressed into the rebellion were pardoned, Thornton said.

The Stono Slave Rebellion increased fears of slave uprisings among White people, leading to the establishment of stricter slave codes.

The Elliot and Rose plantations are the only formally documented Stono Rebellion sites, and that history weighs heavily in interpretations at the Caw Caw Interpretive Center. Thornton said the center interprets the rebellion as a watershed event that changed the face of American slavery and the way the colony functioned socially and politically.

Four Holes Swamp (2020)

Four Holes Swamp was believed to be a place of refuge for freedom-seekers. The swamp is located within the Francis Beidler Forest in Harleyville.

Researchers believe enslaved people used the forest as a corridor for travel and a place to build encampments. But much of the history still needs to be uncovered, according to Matt Johnson, director of the Audubon Center at Francis Beidler Forest.

Johnson said he believes freedom-seekers took advantage of the abundance of natural resources available in swamp, including food and plants.

I think there were multiple different kinds of uses (for the swamp), from just being here for a day or two to staying for longer periods of time, or sometimes just as a way of travel, Johnson said.

Today, the forest and swamp looks basically the same way they did for freedom-seekers hundreds of years ago. An elevated, 2-mile boardwalk is there now, but the forest has never been logged and still contains 1,000-year-old trees that may have been touched by Native Americans and people who were enslaved.

To me, its really interesting because we do have that ability today to see a landscape that looks as it would have looked to people on the Underground Railroad, Johnson said.

Being listed on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom is just one step toward what the Audubon Center wants to do more of: telling a more complete history of the land.

Its an important piece of history in South Carolina, Johnson said. We want this to be something that people know about. And I think the use of swamps and other wetlands as places of refuge is not as well known.

Audubon has installed temporary interpretative signage along its boardwalk that shares some of the stories of the forests relationship to the Underground Railroad. The organization is working on something more permanent by the end of the year.

***

Other sites listed on the Network to Freedom include Brattonsville in McConnells; Robert Smalls Burial Site in Beaufort; Hampton Plantation in McClellanville; and the Heritage Library, Fort Howell and Mitchelville on Hilton Head Island.

There are likely several other sites in the state that are connected to the Underground Railroad. But to be recognized by the National Park Service, the site must be nominated by an individual or entity, and an application must be submitted. Applications are accepted twice a year, by Jan. 15 or July 15.

Because of the program, many people are looking at the Underground Railroad in so many different lights, Jackson said. They are people who are studying the geography, water routes, written materials and even advertisements.

"So we've started a conversation about looking at the Underground Railroad differently," Jackson said. "It's more than just going 3 miles and spending a night in somebody's house. A lot of people were involved."

There is a need to preserve the places connected to the Underground Railroad, and the Park Service hopes an official designation on the Network to Freedom could be a step toward that direction.
Across the U.S., monuments to the Confederacy that were decommissioned in the wake of racial violence sit in storage.

Los Angeles-based curator Hamza Walker is traveling the country, both in person and virtually, asking to borrow these monuments for an upcoming art exhibit. In doing so, he is resurfacing old debates in city halls, county headquarters, museum boardrooms and even living rooms.

There are several questions at hand.

How do those in charge of these monuments, whether they are government officials, historic preservationists or families, decide what to do with objects that force Americans to confront a painful part of history that many would prefer to leave in the past?

Does displaying these monuments for public view in museums instead of public parks change them from tools of intimidation to educational opportunities?

Are there aspects of these figures' legacies that are worth honoring despite their ties with slavery and oppression?

"If history is everything that ever happened, what we do with that is were selective," said Jalane Schmidt, an associate professor at the University of Virginia specializing in the African diaspora. "We select certain moments of history that are worthy of reflecting on, and thats what these monuments are."

Walker and his co-curator and project manager Hannah Burstein are not trying to provoke a single answer to those questions, Walker said. They do believe, however, this a conversation that needs to be had.

Tentatively called Monuments, the exhibit has been in the works since 2018, Walker said. It gathered new momentum after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Debuting in the fall of 2023 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the show will display decommissioned Civil War and antebellum monuments alongside newly commissioned art. Some existing works of art will be incorporated into the exhibit, and it may travel to other museums, as well. So far, he has made requests for nearly a dozen monuments, from New Orleans to Baltimore to Charleston.

"How do you diffuse peoples assumptions of the nature of the contention around these objects and get to a point where they are actually looking and listening rather than taking sides?" he said. "In some cases what you think and what you know will be affirmed, and in other cases it will be radically contradicted."

Walker recently made a request to borrow Charleston's statue of John C. Calhoun.

A congressman and vice president, Calhoun died years before Southern states launched the Confederacy, but he is also remembered as a fierce defender of slavery and, to some, represents the citys dark past. Some push back on the idea that Calhouns legacy should be strictly tied to slavery, while others said it is the part of his legacy that has the most impact on the present day.

In June 2020, Charleston leaders voted to take the statue down. For weeks before the announcement, the city saw protests almost daily prompted by Floyd's death.

City officials are deliberating whether to contribute the statue to the exhibit.

After lengthy discussion, Charleston's Commission on History voted to recommend City Council approve lending the statue out.

A lawsuit backed by conservative advocacy group the American Heritage Association, however, seeks to keep that from happening. The plaintiffs, descendants of Calhoun and the Ladies Calhoun Monument Association, which erected the statue over 125 years ago, argue the statue was never intended to leave South Carolina.

City Council has not yet voted on the matter.

Debates about the proposal are unfolding across the country and stirring up local sentiments about some of history's most polarizing figures.

Local decision, national scope

Wade Juandiego, vice mayor of Charlottesville, Va., is aware of the consequences of these debates.

Recently elected to City Council, Juandiego previously served as the superintendent of Charlottesville public schools.

Before classes went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic or afterschool activities were canceled, the school district was dealing with the aftermath of another crisis.

Students were suffering from the aftershocks of the Unite the Right Rally held in Charlottesville in 2017. The rally, which was prompted by the city's proposal to remove its Robert E. Lee statue, attracted a far-right protest that included white supremacists. Counterprotester Heather Heyer was killed when a man drove through the crowd.

"Many of our students are traumatized by it," Juandiego said. "We are only 10 square miles. It inundated the entire city.  Many people believed the marches were on their way to a diverse community nearby, and thats when the young man drove through the crowd."

One of his last actions as superintendent was to try to find more funding to continue providing extra counselors the district hired in the aftermath of the attack. When the pandemic hit, he said the need for them felt even greater.

"We havent had time to completely get on our feet," he said.

After taking down the city's statues of Lee and Stonewall Jackson, Charlottesville City Council put out a request for proposals.

Walker's request was one of the less controversial proposals, Councilman Michael Payne said.

The council agreed in December to allow the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to melt down the statue of Robert E. Lee and gained national attention for doing so.

As a result, selling the statue of Stonewall Jackson to Walker's art exhibit went somewhat under the radar when it was approved.

Payne said the city was ready for such conversations when the proposal came up. He attended the Unite the Right rally as a counterprotester, and it spurred him to turn his activism into a run for his hometown's City Council.

"It was surreal," Payne said. "To see political violence up close is a very dark experience."

The pain from that day was at the forefront of his mind when voting to approve the proposal.

"They became such a lightning rod for groups coming in from across the county," he said. "That resulted in someone dying here in Charlottesville. ... Certainly there was some thought given to ensuring that we dont position these in a way to allow that to happen again."

The volatility around these statue also gives those in charge of them pause.

A Confederate statue in Elberton, Ga., is an early example of the small town's granite-producing prowess.

The town dubs itself as the headstone capital of America, said Christopher Kubas, executive vice president of the Elberton Granite Association. The town is situated on a vein of granite that has supported a longstanding granite-mining industry.

A granite Confederate statue sits in pieces in the Granite Association Museum. It was toppled shortly after it was erected in the late 1800s because townspeople thought its uniform too closely resembled a Union soldier.

When Walker made a request to borrow the statue from the museum, Kubas said he was wary. He worried about the attention the town and its museum would get. They were more interested in the example of granite work the statue provided than anything else it stood for.

"I just worry about what kind of negative feedback we could get here for being involved with this piece of artifact," Kubas said. "You see it all the time in news reports. People lash out against anything and everything today."

Charleston at a crossroads

For now, a decision on Charleston's Calhoun statue hangs in limbo. The proposal likely won't be considered until the lawsuit is resolved, but the conversation has already begun.

"This is also an educational opportunity to look at the soul of America and the soul of our community and parse out things that were tragic and things that were difficult. I think we can be a better community for this conversation but we can't allow the romanticizing of the past," said Michael Allen, a member of the Charleston Commission on History.

Formerly an employee of the National Park Service, Allen was one of the few Black employees at Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie. He led efforts to make those sites more inclusive of the effects of slavery on African Americans.

Fellow members of the history commission were hesitant to lend the statue out. Some members couldn't agree on what the primary focus of his legacy should be. Others said any reference to him that did not emphasize his defense of slavery would be a disservice to Black Charlestonians.

They voted 7-4 in December to recommend the loan to City Council for final approval. While the decision is held up, Walker said his work has already made the impact he intended.

"We already began an exchange of perspectives," he said.
SUMMERVILLE  Developers of a Nexton neighborhood have announced that a long-awaited traffic light at a dangerous intersection is finally on its way.

A spokeswoman with Brookfield Properties Development confirmed that in the next 30 days, drivers should see a permanent traffic light at the Nexton Parkway and Brighton Park Boulevard intersection.

This is after residents of the nearby Del Webb Nexton community continuously voiced complaints about the safety of the intersection.

"(I)t has been our contention all along that we needed that ASAP," said Pat Heckert, a Del Webb resident. "The accidents there continue."

The intersection made headlines in October 2020 following a car accident that killed three people.

Meredith Freeman, 74, a retired Flowertown Elementary School teacher, was in a car traveling with her son Chad Freeman, 49 and his wife Andrea Freeman, 48, one Sunday.

The three family members were killed when Joshua Wensell's vehicle collided with theirs. Wensell was speeding down Nexton Parkway after coming off of Interstate 26.

The same year, Wensell was charged with three counts of reckless homicide, a felony. The case is still pending.

Meredith Freeman was preparing to build a home in the Del Webb Nexton community. The family had just reviewed floor plans and signed paperwork before the fatal accident.

Since that tragedy in 2020, residents have continued to push for safety measures around Nexton Parkway.

"It's getting to be like a mini I-26," said Joel Arenson, another Del Webb resident.

Getting the traffic light installed has been an ongoing saga.

In October, county officials disclosed that the traffic signal had been approved and that alterations to lanes were being finalized. They said developers are in charge of installing the traffic signal.

At the time, the developers had hired a traffic engineering consultant. Residents said they were initially told that the traffic signal would be finished in January.

A spokeswoman with the developer said that poles for a permanent fixture for the traffic signal are still on backorder. But the expectation is still to finish the installation of the traffic signal in the next 30 days.

State transportation officials have reported more than 20 accidents at the intersection since 2018.

Were a large and growing larger community here in Berkeley County," Heckert said. "Hopefully that light will slow things down."

The Nexton area is growing. Hundreds of homes are slated to be built around the Parkway with the town of Summerville approving recent developments.

Several commercial spaces are also in the works, including Harris Teeter and Publix supermarkets on opposite sides of Nexton Parkway at the intersection.

So community members aren't stopping at pushing for the traffic signal. They said they would also like to see more safety measures put in place around a hiker and biker trail that runs along Nexton Parkway.

Ideally, residents said, they would like the trail to extend to a crosswalk at the Nexton Parkway and Brighton Park Boulevard intersection. That way, residents said, they can safely cross the road with the help of the traffic signal.

Arenson and other residents spoke at a recent County Council meeting on Jan. 24 expressing the concern.

Del Webb Nexton is a community predominately made up of senior citizens. Arenson said he and others feel like they are continuously risking their lives crossing Nexton Parkway while attempting to access the trail.

"We're going to keep pressing them," he said.
A lawsuit challenging vaccine mandates for employees of Charleston County, two municipalities and a fire department was permanently dismissed by a federal judge Feb. 1.

The suits, later combined into one, were filed by a group of 125 employees across the three local governments  the county and the cities of Charleston and North Charleston  and from the St. Johns Fire Department.

The agencies required all employees receive COVID-19 vaccinations this past fall or risk termination. Employees could request religious or medical exemptions.

Before Norton dismissed the case, he had denied a request to block the mandates from taking effect in October.

The lawyers representing the employees requested the case be dismissed because all of the employees involved in the lawsuit were either vaccinated or fired.

"The case is moot because the problem they were trying to prevent has already happened," said Nancy Zisk, a professor at the Charleston School of Law who specializes in employment discrimination. Zisk was not involved in the case.

In their request, the employees' lawyers asked the court to dismiss the case "without prejudice." That would have allowed them to file the case again.

"I would expect they would change the argument to say they were wrongfully terminated," Zisk said.

District Judge David C. Norton sided with the local governments and is preventing the employees from filing the case again in his court.

"We thank the Court for this quick and clear ruling," said Charleston city spokesman Jack O'Toole. "Keeping our workforce healthy and on the job for our citizens is vital to everything we do, and vaccines are a critical part of that effort."

When the city of Charlestons vaccine mandate deadline came to a close Nov. 22, some 90 percent of employees were vaccinated and 9.7 percent received exemptions. Five employees, including four part-time and one full-time, had neither requested an exemption nor provided proof of vaccination. Those employees were fired.

Charleston County reported 96 percent of its employees were fully vaccinated as of the countys Nov. 7 deadline. Fifty employees requested medical or religious exemptions and six employees faced firing.

As of Nov. 19, 90 percent of North Charleston employees were fully vaccinated. Nineteen employees had medical or religious exemptions approved and 74 employees faced firing for having exemption requests denied.

The city of North Charleston denied religious-exemption requests from police officers and firefighters. In letters sent to employees of both departments, the city states that it is only required to attempt to accommodate a sincerely held religious belief.
Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
Editor of Stand News Patrick Lam, center, is escorted by police officers into a van Dec. 29 after they searched evidence at his office in Hong Kong. Hong Kong police raided the office of the online news outlet after arresting several people for conspiracy to publish a seditious publication. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
On Thursday, a Senate committee will debate a bill to prohibit all abortions in South Carolina except to save the life of the mother. But its not a normal abortion bill. Its whats called a trigger law: Rather than taking effect immediately, it would only take effect if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a way that has the effect of acknowledging that the State of South Carolina has the authority to regulate abortion to the extent set forth in this act.

Whatever you think of the underlying bill, the approach is a smart one for state legislatures that are determined to pass laws  on any topic, really  that our nation's highest court has said violate the Constitution.

In fact, given how many states have been lined up for years at the courthouse door with laws challenging the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that prohibited states from passing most abortion restrictions, its the way any reasonable legislative body would handle new abortion restrictions if the goal is to actually prevent abortions rather than to make a show of getting sued and bravely defending the law in court.

Its also in striking contrast to what our Legislature did a year ago when it passed a law that requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for a so-called fetal heartbeat," which can typically be detected about six weeks into pregnancy. If cardiac activity is detected, the abortion cant be performed unless the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or the mothers life is in danger.

That law was supposed to take effect immediately, outlawing nearly all abortions in South Carolina.

Of course it didnt take effect, and it still hasnt a year later, for the very reason we predicted: Opponents filed suit, and a federal judge immediately put its enforcement on hold until a trial can be held. Last week, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the states appeal of that lower court injunction. Even if the appellate court were to lift the injunction, it likely would stay enforcement of the law while opponents appeal that decision. And in any event, the trials that have occurred so far are all about procedure; the trial on the underlying lawsuit is still well into the future.

And that brings us to the other prediction we made a year ago: that the state would squander tax money paying private lawyers to defend its clearly unconstitutional law. And sure enough, as The Post and Couriers Nick Reynolds reports, taxpayers already have spent $182,000 paying private attorneys to defend the law. And that was before last weeks hearing.

No, $182,000 isnt a lot of money for state government. But its more than enough to add another attorney to the attorney generals staff  someone who would work for the state year-round, and not just make a profit cutting and pasting legal arguments in a single lawsuit the attorney general is already defending. We could hire three new teachers for that money.

And heres where we need to make it clear whats really at stake in this lawsuit. Its not about saving unborn lives: Its about saving Republican elected officials from losing primary elections. People who want to see abortion outlawed should be just as offended by the waste of money as those who want to see it preserved  more, actually, because Mr. McMaster and Mr. Lucas, along with Attorney General Alan Wilson, apparently believe that people are too dim to recognize whats going on here.

The U.S. Supreme Court already has heard arguments in a lawsuit that many believe will result in overturning or significantly reducing the scope of Roe. And there are dozens of lawsuits lined up waiting to be next if the court doesnt go as far as abortion opponents hope in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Whatever the new abortion standard is going to be for the foreseeable future will have been decided long before Planned Parenthood South Atlantic v. Wilson, the case challenging South Carolinas law, arrives at the Supreme Court. All South Carolina accomplishes by continuing to fight this case is to keep running up the taxpayers' tab on private and public attorneys.

Oh, and running up the ever-increasing tab for the plaintiffs attorneys as well, which well have to pay if the court rules against Mississippi and all the other states ahead of us in line, and eventually our state.

The fetal heartbeat bill already has passed without a trigger mechanism to delay its enactment, but the House and the governor dont have to keep wasting South Carolina money on outside legal help. They should stop. The governor and the House have attorneys the taxpayers already pay; those attorneys can represent the state. Better still, we have a whole staff of attorneys in the attorney generals office who can defend the state. Mr. McMaster and Mr. Lucas intervened in the case, deciding that those attorneys werent good enough. Or maybe they just wanted to impress voters. Or maybe they wanted to give out tax dollars to attorneys they like.

Whatever the motivation, its ridiculous that we should be paying for representation that isn't doing anything to change anything. And given the surfeit of cases the high court has to choose from, Mr. Wilson is himself wasting the states resources and the courts time by defending this lawsuit. He should drop that defense and let the injunction stay in place unless or until the U.S. Supreme Court makes it clear that our law is constitutional.
I thank The Post and Courier for the encouragement to donate blood.

The Jan. 24 photographs and article motivated me to make an online booking. I went Wednesday during what could have been a late, leisurely lunch.

Best of all, since my last donation a few years ago, technological advances have doubled the amount of blood taken in the hour-long process.

Scheduling the next visit was simple, the staff was professional and other donors seem to share a calm resolve and satisfaction that whatever differences these times may highlight, we can all do a small part to help.

MARTIN SKELLY

Charleston

Time for term limits

The time is ripe for congressional term limits.

Old ideas create more old ideas. We need young and forwardthinking people in Congress.

In order for this country to move ahead, we need fresh new ideas.

Long-serving members such as Sens. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, and even Marjorie Taylor Greenes politics, need to go.

Term limits are going to be difficult since Congress has to approve them. If not approved, it would be like the fox running the henhouse.

ROBERT LANE

Goose Creek

Broaden justice search

American citizens expect justices on the Supreme Court to be the very best legal minds, irrespective of race, culture, sexual orientation or religion. President Joe Biden has limited the selection process

to black women for the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.

In doing so, the president has eliminated other candidates, including white Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, Native Alaskans, men and many candidates in the LGBTQ category.

He has injected racial and social subjectivity into what I believe is supposed to be an objective selection process. The American people have no assurance that his candidates are the best.

One of Justice Breyers comments was his belief that the Supreme Court must be absent of all political influences. In this case, his replacement will be a socially correct appointee.

Maybe America will someday arrive at the place where Supreme Court justices will be appointed in proportion to their race, sexual orientation and religious numerical ranking in the population.

Then every group will have equal representation on the Supreme Court and legal qualifications will become moot.

E. DUBOSE BLAKENEY

Hollywood

ACLU uses scare tactics

I received a letter from the ACLU asking for money. The organization has long ceased being an unbiased supporter of the First Amendment.

Instead, it seems now to be a fundraiser for the Democratic Party.

Among the many nonsensical statements made in the letter was this: White supremacists and other violence-prone extremists are a serious and immediate threat to our democracy.

This would be akin to the Heritage Foundation saying that antifa poses a dangerous and emergent threat to the country, so send us money now.

It is fear-mongering and nothing else but seems very demonstrative of the Democratic Partys political strategy.

This seems to be how some Democrats are trying to convince people that voting rights are being assailed.

Multiple polls have shown that more than 70% of Americans, including 55% of Democrats, favor requiring a photo ID in order to vote.

I hope the Democrats continue with this strategy, because it appears to be backfiring and could lead to huge Republican gains in the U.S. House and Senate.

JOHN CUSTER

Charleston
COLUMBIA  Former Gov. Nikki Haley returned to the Statehouse to offer her help in expanding Republican dominance over South Carolina politics in the upcoming elections.

Haley met briefly with GOP legislative leaders Feb. 1 and with Gov. Henry McMaster before visiting both chambers.

It's unclear which legislators she met with individually. A list was not provided. She made no public announcement and did not hold a media availability for questions.

Those confirming meeting with her include House Speaker Jay Lucas, though his office gave no details. She was seen with McMaster outside his offices, talking and laughing with him, as well as staff members she had worked with as governor.

"In the meetings they discussed 2022 elections and how she could be helpful re-electing members and building the success of the GOP in statewide elections," her office said in a prepared statement.

The appearance marked her first meetings at the Statehouse since she resigned in January 2017 to become President Donald Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, though she last walked its steps during McMaster's inauguration ceremony two years later.

Since resigning from Trump's administration in December 2018, Haley has campaigned in other states to help elect Republicans to Congress and to governors' offices. In South Carolina she endorsed and headlined a fundraiser in 2020 for then-Rep. Nancy Mace, who flipped the 1st Congressional District  which includes Haley's home on Kiawah Island  back to Republican control.

But her offer to publicly help reelect incumbents to the Statehouse is a switch.

While governor, she often publicly sparred with GOP leaders and even worked to unseat incumbents she viewed as not supporting her agenda.

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But on Tuesday, legislators of both parties in the House and Senate greeted her warmly with hugs and hellos. In the Senate, a line formed in the back of the chamber for photo ops. In the House, where she served three terms representing Lexington, she roamed the floor to greet former colleagues.

Lucas, R-Hartsville, announced her return by recognizing her start in the House.

"Welcome Nikki Haley back to her first home in South Carolina," he said to applause.

McMaster, an early Trump backer, ascended to the governor's office when Haley left. He is seeking his second full term this November. No Republican has announced a challenge. Democrats trying to unseat him include former 1st District congressman Joe Cunningham of Charleston and state Sen. Mia McLeod of Columbia.

Republicans hold every statewide office in South Carolina.

The Legislature has expanded its GOP majority since Haley left, though three seats are vacant due to resignations and the death of Sen. Hugh Leatherman of Florence, who was among those she worked unsuccessfully to oust.

All House seats are up for election in November, and two special elections will be held this spring. The current party split is 79 Republicans and 43 Democrats. Senators don't face reelection until 2024.
COLUMBIA  South Carolina legislators are renewing their call for the state to pass a hate crimes bill after the effort has stalled in the Senate.

Flanked by members of the legislative Black Caucus and other Democrats, state Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, asked his colleagues in the Statehouses upper chamber to take up debate on the legislation that passed the House by a wide 79-29 margin last year.

Though it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill remains stalled on the Senate calendar. As of Feb. 1, eight Republican senators had placed objections to the bill, preventing it from being heard on the Senate floor.

We realize one thing, Gilliard said in a Statehouse press conference. Just because it passed the House, that was not a moment. We declared then and we declare now that the victory was the movement from one side of the house to the other.

We have great senators over there, he added. But now we need them to stand up. Show a little backbone. We can't wait on Washington. We're here to take care of our state among ourselves.

South Carolina is one of two states to not have a hate crimes law on the books. The other is Wyoming, which gained national prominence following the murder of a gay University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard, in 1998.

Gilliard, who once sponsored legislation to label the Ku Klux Klan a terrorist organization, has pushed the General Assembly to pass hate crimes legislation for years. The proposal lacked serious momentum until the 2019 legislative session. That's when Gilliards long-standing effort to establish hate crimes as a separate charge was pared down by Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Columbia, to be an enhancement to a crime that had already been committed.

Named the "Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act" after the former Charleston lawmaker and pastor murdered by white supremacist Dylann Roof at Emanuel AME Church in 2015, the current iteration of Gilliards bill bears a close resemblance to Bernsteins proposal.

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If it is believed a violent crime was committed because of the victims race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, political opinion or other traits, a prosecutor could attempt to pursue additional penalties up to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine  a charge proponents believe could serve as a deterrent to bias-based crime.

Because hate crimes target victims for their actual or perceived identities, these crimes go well beyond the individual, Bernstein said. They terrorize the entire community that individual belongs to. If these problems go unaddressed, it can cause entire communities to feel isolated, disenfranchised, angry and scared.

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, South Carolina law enforcement agencies reported 110 bias-based crimes in 2020, nearly double what it experienced in 2019.

With bipartisan backing in the House of Representatives and strong support from the states business community, that bill passed the House in May 2021 and received a favorable nod from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

While organizations like the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce have spearheaded lobbying efforts to enact a hate crime law, the group was absent from the Feb. 1 press conference, drawing criticism from Gilliard.

I want to see more pressure from business, definitely, he told reporters afterward.

He cited the expediency in which lawmakers passed rideshare safety legislation following the 2020 murder of University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson, and called on lawmakers to take up similar urgency with his bill, citing the racist murders Roof had committed in Charleston.

We had all agreed to one thing, Gilliard said of that bill. It was wrong what happened to that young woman. Nobody should ever meet their demise in such a way. But when you look at the Mother Emanuel nine, we have this bill that has been waiting patiently now for six years.
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
Yesterday, John wrote about a study (a study of studies, actually) that says lockdowns have had little to no effect in preventing deaths from covid. I remain unpersuaded of this proposition and will probably explain why before too long.

However, I agree that extended lockdowns have imposed significant costs that likely exceed any benefits. In addition, its clear to me that schools should have reopened for in-person learning no later than August 2020 and that, as a general matter, nearly all lockdown-type restrictions should be eschewed going forward during this pandemic.

These views seem to be gaining traction on the left. Todays Washington Post has a frontpage story about how public education is facing a crisis of epic proportions due in large part to school closings and reliance on remote learning. It reports:

Test scores are down and violence is up. Parents are screaming at school boards and children are crying on the couches of social workers. . . . Remote learning, the toll of illness and death, and disruptions to a dependable routine have left students academically behind  particularly students of color and those from poor families. Behavior problems ranging from inability to focus in class all the way to deadly gun violence have gripped campuses. Many students and teachers say they are emotionally drained, and experts predict schools will be struggling with the fallout for years to come.

The Post may be underestimating the ability of young people to bounce back from adversity, but I agree with its assessment that public schools will have trouble bouncing back (which may not be a bad thing).

More evidence of liberal discontent comes from Matthew Yglesias. He writes:

Covid-19 mitigation measures are causing burdens over and above the burden of disease per se. To the extent that disruptions are caused by sickness, we would expect to see more disruptions in conservative parts of the country with low vaccination rates. Instead, we see equal if not greater disruptions in liberal parts of the country, even though the higher vaccination rate reduces the burden of disease. Thats because those jurisdictions are implementing Covid-19 mitigation measures with costs that exceed their benefits.

Yglesias advises Joe Biden to forcefully articulate a pathway for re-normalization, particularly regarding public schools.

Rich Lowry says Biden is very unlikely to follow this advice. Lowry is probably right, but why?

Theres a school of thought among conservatives that leftists want to keep various covid restrictions, such as mandatory mask wearing, in place because they love to restrict freedom. Its possible that this charge is accurate in the case of some leftists, but Im pretty sure it doesnt explain Bidens conduct.

Think back to July 4 of last year when Biden proudly declared our independence, in effect, from the pandemic. Other things being equal, he would love to see an end to covid restrictions. It would help him considerably. Thats why he said what he did on July 4.

The problem is that Biden doesnt believe that other things are equal. The spike in deaths attributed to the virus hurts him politically  more than ongoing lockdown and mask restrictions imposed by states and localities do. This is especially true because of the way Biden flogged Donald Trump with covid death numbers and because he promised to bring the pandemic to a halt.

Biden may or may not think that, in these days of high vaccination rates and a milder variant, covid restrictions reduce covid deaths. He may or may not care. What he fears is that calling for an easing, which he is largely powerless to impose, will damage him politically if covid deaths remain high.

I question whether Biden is making the correct political calculation, but Im confident that his calculation is political, and has nothing to do with wanting to oppress Americans.
The Founders envisaged impeachment as an extraordinary remedy, and for almost all of our history it has remained such. But of the last nine presidents preceding Joe Biden, three have been impeached or imminently threatened with impeachment. The Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice, for no particular reason other than the fact that they controlled the House of Representatives.

So it is not out of bounds to ask whether Republicans should impeach Joe Biden if (or when, as all observers seem to agree) they take control of the House in 2023. Rasmussens current poll suggests that most Americans have internalized the idea that impeachment is a routine political maneuver.

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and The National Pulse finds that 50% of Likely U.S. voters support the impeachment of Biden, including 33% who Strongly Support it. Forty-five percent (45%) are opposed to impeaching Biden, including 33% who Strongly Oppose it.

***

Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republican voters, 34% of Democrats and 42% of voters not affiliated with either major party at least somewhat support Bidens impeachment.

If you believe those numbers, impeaching Joe Biden is a winner by a 50% to 45% margin. It seems noteworthy that 34% of Democrats are willing to consider impeaching Biden. On the other hand, Rasmussens polling found even more respondents in favor of impeaching Biden in the wake of the Afghanistan fiasco.

The cross tabs are interesting. Responses to the question about impeaching Joe Biden relate more to party affiliation than to a philosophical approach to impeachment as a constitutional remedy:

Among voters who believe Trumps impeachment was good, 69% Strongly Oppose impeaching Biden. By contrast, among those who think it was bad for democracy to impeach Trump, 58% Strongly Support impeaching Biden.

Which is consistent with the idea that impeachment has become a purely political act.

Viewed in that context, would it be smart for a Republican-controlled House to impeach Biden in 2023? I dont know, but it is tempting. In legal terms, Bidens grotesque violation of the Take Care Clause of the Constitution by his illegal opening of the Southern border would, without more, furnish solid ground for impeachment. And Biden has been incompetent or worse on a number of other fronts that would justify his impeachment far more than President Trumps innocent phone call with the President of Ukraine.

In principle, I am not in favor of making impeachment a simply political option, depending mainly on who controls the House. On the other hand, I am also not in favor of unilateral disarmament. The Democrats created this world, so now perhaps they should be made to live in it for a while. The ultimate decision, made by those who control the House in 2023, will inevitably, for better or worse, be political.

STEVE adds: I believe classic game theory prescribes that tit-for-tat is the best strategy for making your opponent change their behavior. So by all means the GOP should impeach Biden (the grounds are far better anyway), and should also exact a high cost for Bidens Supreme Court nominee. After all, Joe Biden is the person most responsible for poisoning the judicial confirmation process, starting with Bork in 1987. Time for payback. Stopping Garland in 2016 was good, but the Kavanaugh matter still needs to be redressed.
The Canadian truckers protest has turned into a huge event that has gripped not just the political class, but millions of people across that country. As usual, the politicians who claim most vociferously to represent the peoplelike Justin Trudeauare horrified when the people actually speak up.

I suppose it was inevitable that leftist politicians would denounce the truckers protest as racist, although what race has to do with the issues the truckers (and now millions of supporters) are protesting, I cant explain. This is what Trudeau had to say:

Over the past few days, Canadians were shocked and, frankly, disgusted by the behavior displayed by some people protesting in our nations capital. I want to be very clear: we are not intimidated by those who hurl insults and abuse at small business workers and steal food from the homeless. We wont give in to those who fly racist flags. We wont cave to those who engage in vandalism or dishonor the memory of our veterans.

This is sheer nonsense, a catalog of lying left-wing talking points. One guy showed up with a Confederate flag and was told to go away. No one vandalized statues, contrary to liberals claims. Some protesters decorated the statue of Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete and cancer research activist, and then removed the decorations:

No one dishonor[ed] the memory of our veterans. A couple of truckers parked their vehicles at a war memorial, and moved them when they were told to do so. Photo at the link.

Liberals have also asserted that the truckers are white supremaciststhese days, who isnt?apparently because of this video clip, in which a group of protesters mocks the idea that they are somehowGod knows whywhite supremacists:

What didnt happen, of course, is that not a single building was burned down, unlike the George Floyd protests and Antifa riots generally. No police officer or civilian was assaulted. Thousands of Canadian flags were waved, and not one was burned.

Elon Musk (via InstaPundit) points out the absence of any pro-mandate, pro-government counter-protest:

If the government had the mandate of the people, there would be a significant counter-protest. There is not, therefore they do not.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2022



Again via InstaPundit, Kurt Schlichter gets the last word:

I think its hilarious that the socialists are furious about the workers of the world uniting.@SohrabAhmari  Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) January 31, 2022

UPDATE: One more thing: A host on the Canadian Broadcasting Company has suggested that the truckers are a Russian plant:

I do ask that because given Canadas support of Ukraine, in this current crisis with Russia, I dont know if its far-fetched to ask, Koksal hoodwinked. But there is concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows. But perhaps even instigating it from, from the outset.

This is way too stupid to deserve any response, but it exemplifies the desperation of the Left in the face of a genuine populist revolt. Someone apparently forgot to tell this guy that the Russia narrative collapsed a long time ago.

Unless, of course, we are talking about Russian financial support for the Wests environmental, anti-fossil fuel movement, which is well documented, goes back for decades and shores up the Russians core geopolitical interests. But somehow, liberals never mention this when they talk about Russias nefarious influence on the U.S. and other Western nations. Why? Because their political and financial interests align with Russias, and in particular, Vladimir Putins.
Jennifer Douglas, previously married to former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has confirmed their divorce.

In a statement on Tuesday, Ms Douglas, a Nigerian Television Authority News correspondent in the 1980s, explained that their union broke down due to disagreements over her continued stay in the United Kingdom, amongst other long-standing issues.

She said: The core reason for the divorce was disagreement over my continued stay in the United Kingdom, to look after my children and several other long-standing issues. I needed to play the role of a mother at this time to the children who have gone through the absence of both father and mother growing up; especially, with the passage of my elder sister who used to look after them.

Ms Douglas, a U.S. citizen, said some of her ex-husbands close associates, including Peter Okocha, Ben Obi, Tunde Ayeni, Captain Yahaya, and Ben Bruce, tried to mediate, but it yielded no positive results.

The divorce was finalised on June 26, 2021.

Reasons for divorce

The union that lasted over two decades was rumoured to have ended because Mr Abubakar married a new wife.

In her statement, which was published by The Trent media organisation, Ms Douglas confirmed that her ex-politician husband indeed married a fourth wife and justified the move, saying that he is a Muslim and is at liberty to marry as many wives as he desires.

Although she acknowledged being aware of the marriage, despite not being officially informed, she said she supported his 2019 presidential race and also invited them (her ex-husband and his new wife) to her sons wedding in 2018.

Matrimonial home controversy?

She also claimed that her ex-husband, who was the 2019 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, attempted to retrieve an asset he had earlier gifted to her, adding that the property in Dubai is a subject of litigation.

During the initial mediation discussion, His Excellency denied that he gifted the house (matrimonial home in Asokoro); even after I showed him the document with the signatures of his aide, His Excellency asked me to give him the deed of gift.

The marital home in Asokoro where we reside was gifted to me by him even before we moved into that home from a previous residence. Indeed, His Excellency caused his private secretary to process the Deed of Assignment documents for the house, which he did and handed me the documents. I then commenced processing the title to the property.

When I asked him, where will the kids and I stay when we come to Nigeria?, he told me that since I am the one that asked for a divorce, I should find a place to stay, and subsequently, I moved out.

She also hinted that there had been a lot of speculation on the Dubai home, which she possessed in September 2021 after he reneged on his word to give the current value of the said property in exchange.

When I came to Nigeria, in early September 2021. I asked to have a private conversation with His Excellency. During that conversation, I informed His Excellency that I would go to Dubai and take over the house once I got back to the United Kingdom. But, unfortunately, he subsequently departed for his medical trip to Germany, refusing to address any of the issues I privately wanted to conclude with him outside of third parties.

The full statement:

For some time now, especially in the last few weeks, there have been many rumours and in circulation about the state of my marriage to His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Waziri Adamawa, GCON.

The stories got more vicious as they continued to circulate. Therefore, I deem it necessary to defend myself against the calculated propaganda to malign my character and position me in a bad light and damage my name. Therefore, without resorting to nonsensical talk, I will address the two critical issues at hand:

(1) I asked for a divorce because His Excellency married again.

(2) That I sold His Excellencys house in Dubai.

That I asked for a divorce because His Excellency got married again.

 On June. 26, 2021, I asked His Excellency to grant me a divorce in light of the breakdown of our marriage. And, during that period, I told His Excellency that I remain at his service to continue to assist him in his activities even if I am no longer married to him. Suffice it to say that several friends of His Excellency tried to mediate in this matter. I thank them most graciously and remain grateful for their efforts: Peter Okocha, Senator Ben Obi, Tunde Ayeni, Captain Yahaya, and Senator Ben Bruce.

 The core reason for the divorce was disagreement over my continued stay in the United Kingdom to look after my children and several other long-standing issues. I needed to play the role of a mother at this time to the children who have gone through the absence of both father and mother growing up, especially with the passage of my elder sister, who used to look after them. Furthermore, in light of COVID-19 times, choosing to stay with the children was non-negotiable. And, in line with Northern culture, the new wife takes up the baton so I can also focus on giving the kids more care.

 Despite not informing us officially according to northern/Islamic culture, I knew about His Excellencys new wife from the time His Excellency was dating her and when he eventually married her. Therefore, I have graciously invited our new wife to my sons wedding in Dubai in 2018 without any ill feelings and congratulated His Excellency when our new wife gave birth.

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 I was already aware that His Excellency had married our new wife, but that did not deter me from supporting His Excellency. Indeed, we went through most rigorous electioneering and garnered massive support for his election in 2019.

 That His Excellency married a new wife was never the cause of our problem, as many have said. His Excellency is a Muslim, and I have never questioned him about his wives or intended.

I hope this brings this issue to rest as I did not leave the house because of his new marriage.

Moving out of the matrimonial home in Asokoro and Yola

That His Excellency married a new wife was never the cause of our problem, as many have said. His Excellency is a Muslim, and I have never questioned him about his wives or intended.

I hope this brings this issue to rest as I did not leave the house because of his new marriage.

Moving out of the matrimonial home in Asokoro and Yola

The matrimonial home in Asokoro where we reside was gifted to me by him even before we moved into that home from a previous residence. Indeed, His Excellency caused his Private Secretary to process the DEED of Assignment documents for the house, which he did and handed me the documents. I then commenced processing the title to the property.

 During the initial mediation discussion, His Excellency denied that he gifted the house. Even after I showed him the document with the signatures of his aide, His Excellency asked me to give him the deed of gift. When I asked him, where will the kids and I stay when we come to Nigeria? he told me that since I am the one that asked for a divorce, I should find a place to stay, and subsequently, I moved out.

 His Excellency further gave orders to have my nephews living with me in the house ejected within an hour of his order and gave orders that my family members and I are not allowed to enter the house. Hence, during my last visit to Nigeria in December 2021, I stayed at a hotel. I have long released these assets to him and, at this moment, reiterate that the titles are at his disposal to pick up whenever he deems fit.

Dubai home

 There has been a lot of speculation on the Dubai home. For a while now, I had purposely stayed away from Dubai until I took custody of that property in September 2021 after His Excellency reneged on his word to give the current value of the said property in exchange. When I came to Nigeria in early September 2021. I asked to have a private conversation with His Excellency. During that conversation, I informed His Excellency that I would go to Dubai and take over the house once I got back to the United Kingdom. He subsequently departed for his medical trip to Germany, refusing to address any issues I privately wanted to conclude with him outside of third parties.

 I subsequently travelled to Dubai and took custody of the said property. Once I did that, on September 18, 2021, His Excellency sent me a text, and I quote: I hear you have moved to Dubai to take over the house. I am still in Germany for my medicals. Please make sure all my properties, including (redacted), are intact so that I can collect all my properties. I wish you well.

 I responded to him: His Excellency, I am left with no other option as we need to get on with our lives amicably. I hope your medicals are coming up well. I wish you well too.

 On September 19, 2021, in response to his text that I am not being amicable and I quote, Good morning, with due respect, His Excellency, I told you on Saturday before you left for Germany that I was going back to the U.K., take [our son] back for his test, then come to Dubai. I reiterated that day the need for an amicable resolution. I maintain that stance and remain at your service, Your Excellency.

Further on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, I asked His Excellency in another text whether he wanted me to pack up his clothes and give them to Rahim (his driver) since the driver on his instructions was moving his cars. I also asked His Excellency in that text whether he wanted me to have Rahim pack up his office. Then, His Excellency sent me a text back and asked: So, its true you have sold the villa?

 Subsequently, His Excellency sent the driver to take possession of all the cars.

The truth subsists with regard to the Dubai house. I will make no further comments on it because it is a subject of litigation filed by His Excellency against me.

I need to also put on record that if I wanted to take His Excellencys assets, I would not have returned to him his property documents in Abuja and Jos and allowed the driver to collect his cars, gave up the house in Asokoro and Yola.

When I was in Nigeria, I called to have the Asokoro and Yola documents delivered to him. But, unfortunately, it was never picked up, and I still state that His Excellency is free to send someone to have the documents picked up anytime he deems fit.
Ebeano Supermarket, a Nigerian consumer store, has expanded to Canada, opening a new business destination in North America.

The Canada branch was opened about the same time that Ebeano Supermarket lost its Abuja branch in a fire incident in 2021.

In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES Chiamaka Okafor, Peters Ityohuna, co-founder of Ebeano Canada, recounts the journey to establishing the Canada branch and its sustainability plans, amongst other issues.

PT: Ebeano supermarket is not a new name among Nigerians who live in Lagos and Abuja. At what point did you decide to go international with the brand and why Canada?

Peters Ityohuna: Opportunity played out that is why the choice of Canada came into play. Just like you might know, I was an employee with Ebeano. I was his manager in Nigeria while I was there at Ebeano Supermarket at Ikota Shopping Complex, VGC. From there he went into partnership with his brother Sunday Egede, both of them own the Prince Ebeano brand.

At some point, I was drafted to the new branch that was opened in Admiralty Way. I was running through three branches at that particular time after which I returned to the VGC branch.

In 2014, I moved to Canada, my family was here in Canada, and I started working. Because of the good rapport and good working relationship I had with my former employer, Ebeano, he came to Canada on a visit and got in touch with me.

He made the offer to me after we had a discussion, that we can do this (open a branch) together in Canada; we can put up something here and make a difference because that was his priority.

After that, I started running around trying to get the property, trying to get the lease and finally this is where we arrived.

We brought up the concept we wanted to put out there for the people and one beautiful thing is that we got everything right; it was going to be a national brand in Canada. We decided to come up with something in this very location in the province of Ontario in the region Niagara because the people here go as far as Toronto just for shopping which is quite a distance.

We decided to meet their needs and we came up with the brand, which is a multicultural store. When we get the feedback, one thing they keep saying is that we kept them from travelling so far to shop and with that I think we have achieved our goal.

PT: How long did the incorporation and opening take?

Peters Ityohuna: We incorporated in August, 2019. He was in Canada in 2019, he called me then we agreed and that was when we proceeded for the incorporation. From 2019, we started a search for a place. The site is in the city of St Catherines which happens to be the largest city in this region. In 2020 we got the lease and construction work started.

PT: What opportunities is your brand going to give to Nigerians in Canada?

Peters Ityohuna: We are just starting and when a business is just starting, the key challenge is salary. The way you pay here (Canada) is different from the way you do in Nigeria and the setup of the business is without any loan from any Canadian firm; so virtually everything we are doing is paid for.

So when it comes to employment, you want to make sure that you are not engaging employees of very high salary levels because you want to keep your salary at a particular level.

Ultimately, the dream is that when we are well established, we are definitely going to see managerial jobs and lucrative opportunities coming up with Ebeano. One of his (Ebeano) dreams is this, he said, Peter nothing is stopping us from building a row of houses, we have our own personal accommodation, one bedroom, two bedrooms for Nigerians coming into Canada who have no where to stay, can stay until they find their footing and move out of the apartment to their own apartments. So this shop is an avenue where you can transfer skills from Nigeria down to Canada here and give the people a good life. They are able to come here and express their talents and we sell that.

PT: Since the store opened in December, how many people walk into the store to purchase goods everyday?

Peters Ityohuna: On a daily basis, we have approximately 70-100 persons walking in.

PT: Whats the sustainability plan?

Peters Ityohuna: One thing we have discovered is that it is a competitive and price sensitive market. In addition to that, there are stores that existed before Ebeano and so, you have to get your strategies right before penetrating the market. A major tool that businesses use is the pricing strategy. We looked at people driving over one hour to do their shopping; at what price do they get goods over there?

We have done the analysis and comparison in terms of pricing and we have seen that most of the things we import, we sell at a better rate than what currently exists. Having explored that, it is a very viable route.

We have a standard plan. As I am discussing with you now, we have a container getting ready to leave Nigeria to Canada and this time around, unlike the first time which was to test the market, it is going to be right on point because we studied the market and also we have gotten feedback.

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We have also made some contact here with other major importers of Nigerian products so we are using that link as a kind of stop gap for sourcing in case we are running out of products and our container has not arrived.

PT: How does selling at lower prices than your competitors affect your profit margin?

Peters Ityohuna: In business you have to understand that monopoly plays a role in terms of pricing of goods. If you are the only seller in a market, you have the liberty to fix any price you want because you have no competition. But as soon as you have competition, you start looking at the prices at which you sell. Nobody exists to make a loss, we have looked at it and we are still making profits, reasonably making profits.

It gets to that point you want to explore the benefit of turnover, you study the indices, you study the market. I cannot just import anything to Canada because I feel it is coming from Nigeria and everybody will buy it. No. I have to study the market and know what they want. It is based on that that I draw up my inventory so that when I bring goods in it does not last on the shelf.

If I am able to search right, if I am able to bring the right product in and get the right price on this product, my turnover is going to be very high.

PT: What is the composition of your current workforce? Do you have more Nigerians or a mix of nationalities?

Peters Ityohuna: We have a mix of people of different nationalities. We have Nigerians as well. There is this mentality that we need to get out of our people (Nigerians). Right from the onset, we had it in mind that the workforce should be diverse. However, we know that advantage may weigh in on our nationality.

I approached some Nigerians before the store opened and I made an offer to them but did not disclose all the details because I needed to find people who were willing to work. All the Nigerians we approached turned the offer down but other nationalities we approached grabbed the opportunity with excitement because they saw the future and that is what I was trying to achieve to make sure I got the right people.

PT: What stands you out amongst your competitors in Canada?

Peters Ityohuna: Prior to Mr David approaching me for this, I had been in the retail field for close to two decades. I did some research when I got into Canada, I went into some stores and found out that there is a very big difference between the way they do things here and the way it is done in Nigeria.

That difference which is a plus on our side in Nigeria is passion. We do business with passion. I saw there was no passion in how they do business here. For example, I walked into a supermarket and was looking around for something; with the way I was looking, an interested employee would have noticed me and approached me but no one came.

I had to beckon one and asked her where I could get what I needed and she pointed to the back while walking away and her hands were just going round and round. I ended up confused and did not buy what I wanted.

With that, when we were recruiting I said we will be engaging and collect feedback on a daily basis. I told our employees that no customer comes in here and leaves empty handed.

Secondly, in most of the stores you only have pre-packaged meat in different sizes. But I told Mr David, lets have a butcher area in the store. So we have a butcher area; we buy goat in full size, it is killed and we hang it in the glass showroom so everybody can see the types of meat available and can point to their choice.

We also have a kitchen for takeout where we will prepare breakfast, lunches and at times even dinner, it is not opened yet.

PT: It appears this branch has been handed to a constantly moving and working brain. Tell us more about yourself.

Peters Ityohuna: My name is Peters Ityohuna from Benue State, born in Lagos to a trader mother and a military father. I grew up in the barracks but the barracks was a more structured one. I am the third child of the nine children my parents have.

I did a diploma programme at the Benue State University before I proceeded to get my HND in marketing at Federal Polytechnic in Nasarawa. I returned to Benue State University to take a course in personnel management; a diploma in business administration and management before my marketing.

PT: Late last year, there was a fire incident at Ebeano supermarket, Abuja branch. This incident happened at about the same time you were setting up the Canadian branch, so how did it affect the setting up in Canada?

Peters Ityohuna: It was an unfortunate event, which I am not in the position to speak about, because I was not in Nigeria at the time. But I saw the video.

We were neck deep, at a very significant stage in what we were doing over here, so to be honest, it did not have a direct impact because quite a lot of things were already done here.

PT: A video surfaced of an underage girl setting the fire; what has happened to this girl? What is going on with the case?

Peters Ityohuna: I would not be the best person to answer that. But I know that the case is on, they are investigating. Because I have quite a lot on my hands here, so it is just once in a while I flip.

It is a learning curve and it is part of experiences. Those are part of the challenges as well and it is quite unfortunate. When you are trying to make an impact you see these things happening here and there but if you are focused all these things can become a stepping stone. At times certain things that happened to you are actually taking you to the next level. So attitude is key in life, it is unfortunate there are some losses there but when you stay positive, there is nothing that cannot be achieved.
Many Nigerians, and indeed watchers of the nations democracy, may have believed that, at its birth nine years ago, the All Progressives Congress (APC), would be a better managed and organised party than the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) it desperately sought to oust from government.

With 14 years in power at the time, the PDP dominated the political space but was hardly meeting the aspirations of Nigeria and its people, at least for most of those years. The then governing party was plagued by internal wrangling, littered with factions, stinking of corruption and mired in leadership crises that led to its split twice in 2006 and 2014.

Thus, upon the arrival of the APC on the political scene, many hoped that it would avoid the pitfalls of the PDP and provide good governance and the much needed democracy dividends.

As its first interim national chairman, Bisi Akande, declared at the time, Today, we have a truly Pan-Nigerian political party that has now given our long-suffering people hope; hope that this democracy will not continue to elude the people; hope that Nigeria will not become a one-party state; and the hope that our country will soon join the comity of developed and truly democratic nations.

APC is the product of the merger of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a section of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

The merger process began on February 6, 2013 culminating in its registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) about five months later on July 31 of that year.

The APC, which holds the record of being the first successful merger of major political parties in the nations history, went ahead to win the 2015 presidential election. It also formed the government in most states of the federation where election was conducted, and produced the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly. The party, which claims to have 40 million registered members, retained power at the centre in 2019.

But about nine years after, the expectations of some Nigerians that a better administered party had arrived appear to have sunk. The party, whose government runs a country of about 200 million people, is troubled, leading to allegations that it cannot run itself.

Recent happenings in the ruling party suggest so.

Long road to national convention:

Recently, the APC has been rumbling over its plan to hold a national convention to elect its substantive national officers.

The convention has been on the agenda of the ruling party since 2020 after the controversial and unceremonious exit of the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC).

On June 25, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari, as the leader of the party, appointed a 13-member Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), headed by Governor Mala Buni of Yobe State, not only to oversee the party at the national level but also, as the name connotes, conduct a convention to elect substantive officers for the party within six months. But the committee could not do so more than one year after, despite pressure on it from party faithful.

As a face-saving measure, the partys governors, under the aegis of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), intervened last year. At their meeting in November 2021 in Abuja, the governors, apparently side-tracking the caretaker committee, fixed the convention for February and proceeded to inform Mr Buhari of their decision, which the president accepted.

After meeting with the president at the Presidential Villa on November 22, the Chairman of the PGF, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, told journalists that the ruling party would hold the much expected convention in February 2022.

Mr Bagudu, who was in company of Mr Buni and their Jigawa State counterpart, Mohammed Badaru, said in fixing the February date, all relevant organs and members of the party were carried along. According to him, four states, including Anambra and Zamfara, which were yet to hold their congresses, would have completed the process before the national convention.

Part of the inputs we got was that we still have four states, which are in the process of completing their congresses  Anambra understandably because of the (governorship) election, Zamfara and two others that because of logistic challenges are yet to complete. Christmas is around the corner and then early January will be very busy with Ekiti, the Kebbi governor said.

So, the governors, based on all these, suggested the party and the president should graciously consider February and the president is favourably disposed to the suggestion.

But even after slating the convention for February, for weeks the party could not come up with a concrete plan and the specific date of the event until last Tuesday, when it picked February 26, provoking allegations that the ruling party could not organise an ordinary convention to replace its officers nearly two years after their exit.

In the main, speculations were rife that the convention had been put off till June. But after a meeting of the governors, on the night of January 16, Mr Bagudu insisted the event would hold in February.

Although he said the PGF, at the closed-door meeting, passed a vote of confidence on the CECPC, which has three governors as members, the Kebbi governor did not specify a date in February, saying the caretaker committee was in the best position to do so.

The CECPC, whose powers to fix the convention date appeared usurped by the governors, also issued a statement, urging the general public to completely disregard fake news of the reported suspension of the national convention till June.

It was therefore a great relief for members of the ruling party when, at a recent event in Abuja, both Mr Buni and Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State announced February 26 as the date of the convention.

As the former Director-General of PGF, Salihu Lukman, who recently resigned his position summed it up, Without going into all the details, the inspiration to set up the current Caretaker Committee came from President Buhari based on the expectation of ensuring that the drift in the party is arrested. This is expected to produce a new leadership. Once the Caretaker Committee began to show signs of reluctance to organise the convention, it should be a source of concern to all party members desirous of reform.

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Sit tight Caretaker Committee

If there was anything the delay in convening the national convention by the CECPC brought to the fore, it was the alleged sit-tight plan of its members.

At the time the interim leadership was floated in June 2020, it was meant to last only six months. It is however still in office nearly 20 months after.

Although the committee has made gains in some areas, notably attracting prominent politicians, including three state governors to the party, the endless extension of the life of the august body had raised questions among party members regarding its capability to fulfill its mandate of organising a convention.

But beyond that was the issue of eligibility of Mr Buni to chair the CECPC. Apart from the initial controversy over the swearing of its members by the Attorney- General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, some claimed the appointment of the Yobe governor violated the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the APC Constitution (as amended in 2014)

Section 183 of the Constitution says, The governor shall not during the period when he holds office, hold any other executive office or paid employment in any capacity whatsoever.

Article 17 (4) of the APC Constitution says, No officer in any organ of the Party shall hold executive position in government concurrently.

At some point, the Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo, and two presidential aides, Babafemi Ojudu and Ita Enang, both former senators, questioned the legality and eligibility of Mr Buni to hold the position, but were rebuffed.

Mr Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, for instance, latched onto the minority ruling of the Supreme Court judgement on the Ondo governorship election case between APCs Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and Eyitayo Jegede of the PDP, to warn against the continued stay of Mr Buni in office as the CECPC head on the strength of those legal positions.

This is beside the litigation challenging Mr Bunis leadership of the party. In August last year, the PDP asked the court to sack Mr Buni and some months after some APC members made similar request.

Although they have always been defended by some party chieftains, including the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, and Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, to the CECPC members, every such attempt to challenge their stay in office is seen as mischief.

Yet there was the issue of the agenda of some of the CECPC members. The repeated extension of the life of the committee also provoked suspicion among members of the party that Mr Buni and some of the interim leaders were using the job to feather their political nests.

There were speculations that Mr Buni was using his position to negotiate for the vice presidential slot in the 2023 election should the party zone the presidency to the south. There was also an allegation that the CECPC secretary, John Akpanudoedehe, a former senator, was positioning himself to pick the governorship ticket of Akwa Ibom, his home state.

But the committee members have repeatedly debunked these speculations.

Am I a jobless person who is always trying to extend his tenure? To do what? I have my primary responsibility as a governor, to go back to my state and carry out my primary responsibility. What I am here to do is ad hoc, and, of course, to reposition the party, and that is exactly what were able to achieve, Mr Buni snapped when confronted by journalists on one occasion.

Regardless, angered by the alleged reluctance of the Yobe governor and its team to leave, a group of youth in the party, which styled itself Progressive Youth Movement (PYT), in November last year, announced the sack of the CECPC.

Led by Mustapha Audu, son of a former Kogi State governor, late Abubakar Audu, the group passed a vote of no confidence on the committee before it announced that it had replaced the CECPC for having overstayed its welcome.

But the caretaker cried rebellion and demanded the arrest of the youth.

However laughable, the criminal attempt of the purported group to usurp the leadership of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC now borders on treasonable felony, Mr Akpanudoedehe, said in a statement.

Relevant security bodies must now check and address their unscrupulous activities. The attention the purported group seeks will not be given to them by the party. We can only advise that the general public completely disregard them. They are not registered members of the APC and are being used by opposition elements and fifth columnists to cause confusion.

If anything, that singular act of PYT appeared to have driven fear into the CECPC members who had to hurriedly invite security personnel to cordon off the Buhari House national secretariat of the party for days.

As if that was not enough, another round of crisis emerged when another group of party members, Concerned Stakeholders, in November demanded the dissolution of the CECPC.

The group not only alleged that the candidate of the party in the last Anambra governorship election, Andy Uba, emerged through a strange process, it also accused the CECPC of conducting the worst congresses since the partys birth in 2013.

But Osita Okechukwu, Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), said the CECPC is needlessly being harassed, pointing out that it has elevated the party to greater heights.

Buni and his team have elevated the APC. They have placed the party as a party of choice. Their pluses overwhelm their minuses. They have achieved six out of the seven things they set out to achieve and they will achieve the last and before the convention. I score 70 per cent and the remaining 30 per cent will be achieved before our convention. If you are contesting elections on the APC platform, you are the man to beat. APG is now highly priced. Dont forget the disaster brought by Oshiomhole, Mr Okechukwu told PREMIUM TIMES.

Lingering Crises

Mr Okechukwus position notwithstanding, the ward, local government and state congresses organised by the interim leadership appear to have further divided the governing party at the state level.

At present, there are deep-seated crises of various forms in about 16 of its states chapters even as the national convention beckons. They include Zamfara, Kano, Abia, Kwara, Osun, Delta, and Cross River State. Others are Ogun, Oyo, Akwa Ibom, Kebbi, Rivers, Lagos, Enugu, Imo and Ekiti States.

In Osun, the faction loyal to Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the one to his predecessor and Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola are still beating war drums against each other while in Ogun, the state governor, Dapo Abiodun and his predecessor and central district senator, Ibikunle Amosun, are still battling for the soul of the patty.

In Imo, south-east Nigeria, the squabble between former governor and serving senator Rochas Okorocha and Governor Hope Uzodinma still festers.

In the south-south region, a group of party faithful queuing behind the transportation minister, Rotimi Amaechi, is still embroiled in power tussle with that led by a former senator, Magnus Abe.

Up North, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State is leading a faction against another led by a former governor of the state and serving senator, Ibrahim Shekarau.

The crisis in Zamfara, perhaps, is the most interesting. There appears to be no end to the prolonged and debilitating crisis which began in the build up to the 2019 elections.

Hitherto, the quarrel was between former Governor Abdulaziz Yari and former senator Kabir Marafas camps. Although the crisis cost the APC the governorship seat, the defection of Governor Bello Matawalle from PDP to the party has escalated it. Mr Matawalle was a major beneficiary of the initial crisis. Expectedly, the interim leadership of the party has thrown its weight behind Mr Matawalle, further deepening the crisis.

In Kwara, the faction loyal to the state governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and the other loyal to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, are in a supremacy battle.

In September, the party got concerned and appointed a nine-member National Reconciliation Committee (NRC) to reconcile aggrieved members. The committee came on stream just about a year after a 10-member panel headed by Mr Akande was set up by the Oshiomhole-led NWC. That committee had hardly taken off when the former chairman was swept out of office. Earlier in 2018, a reconciliation committee led by former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu, was appointed by Mr Buhari as the party grappled with internal crises in some states.

Chaired by former Nasarawa governor and incumbent senator, Abdullahi Adamu, the current panel, which was inaugurated in October, has been touring the states to reconcile, integrate and unite feuding members. The committee was also asked to critically examine areas of conflict in the just concluded ward, local government and state congresses and advance solutions to the problems.

In some states, the trouble-shooting panel has met a stonewall. For instance, just about one week after the committee visited Osun, the two feuding groups, the Osun Progressives loyal to Mr Aregbesola and Ileri Oluwa loyal to Mr Oyetola, resumed hostilities with the chairman of the group loyal to the governor describing members of the former as disgruntled.

In Kwara, the two factions have remained adamant. The faction loyal to Mr Mohammed and the Minister of State for Transportation, Gbemi Saraki, has since accused Mr Adamu of bias. The situation in Kano is still the same. The report of the committee has been slated as one of the activities ahead of the February 26 national convention.

However, the feud between Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe and a former governor of the state, Danjuma Goje, was recently settled though not by the Adamu Committee. Even so, there is still an uneasy calm in the north eastern state.

With the crises still lingering, it remains to be seen how they could be effectively resolved before the February 26 convention, the Ekiti and Osun off-cycle elections and even the 2023 polls.

But Mr Okechukwu, who said he participated in the committees sitting in Enugu, his home state, is optimistic that they will be resolved because the committee is working with sincerity of purpose.

A ruling party without Board of Trustees

Some observers hold the view that the failure of the APC to constitute a Board of Trustees is worsening the crisis in the governing party.

Article 11.B.1 of the APC Constitution (October 2014 as amended) lists the BoT as one of the organs of the party.

Article 13.2 lists its functions, with the first saying, the embodiment of the conscience, the soul and the sanctity of the party and shall be the mirror of the highest standard of morality of the party and shall intervene in all disputes and crises in the party to ensure its stability at all times.

Curiously, the party has been unable to constitute the organ, about nine years after its birth and after two substantive and interim leaderships.

In 2018, under the leadership of John Odigie-Oyegun, the APC toyed with the idea of creating an alternative body to be known as Council of Elders. As its meeting presided over by Mr Buhari at the Presidential Villa on March 27 that year, the partys National Caucus reportedly approved the composition of a 50-member council and proposed it to be part of the amendment of its constitution. Yet, the party could not implement the decision till now.

APC does not have a BoT which should be the conscience of the party six years after clinching power. As a result, crisis within the party festers, a national chairmanship aspirant of the party, Sylvester Moniedafe, lamented recently, adding, It is time for the APC to do the right thing. Let us change the narrative.
Last months cyber-attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross and its affiliated bodies showed that the humanitarian community is not immune from cybercrime. Given that Africa is a focal point for many humanitarian operations and is experiencing rising rates of cybercrime across all sectors, this is especially sobering.

It has shone a spotlight on the reality that although emerging technologies have positively transformed how aid is delivered, there are also potential harms. Many Red Cross operations are conducted in Africa  e.g. in the Sahel, Ethiopia, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So for the continent, it is a reminder that tech without due consideration of the risks could expose many vulnerable people to harm.

The breach saw the personal data of nearly half a million vulnerable people being exposed globally. As more unfolds on the incident, it is becoming clearer that the Red Cross was almost certainly singled out for attack. The motivation is yet to be established.

The hackers targeted the organisations servers stored at a Switzerland-based facility. It was sophisticated enough that it wasnt just a 15-year-old computer hacker having some fun, said Delphine van Solinge, an adviser to the Red Cross on digital risks in the humanitarian sphere. It seemed to be well organised, well planned and rolled out, but we cannot say who was behind it and why they did it.

COVID-19 and multiple cyber-attacks on institutions such as the World Health Organisation have underscored cyber threats to the aid world. Like governments, businesses, universities, and multilateral institutions, humanitarian players must temper the dash to embrace emerging tech and soberly assess potential risks.

The digital revolution has helped provide real-time data during crisis or conflict. But if this information falls into the wrong hands it can be potentially life-threatening, or at the very least distressing.

It is very difficult to speculate on the intention of the perpetrator in this attack, says Van Solinge, but the individuals the [Red Cross] works with are often fleeing conflict and seeking to be re-united with families overseas. Revealing their identities or movements may put their safety in jeopardy.

It may be used for politically expedient purposes. There is also a market for personal data. Stolen identities are used to perpetrate fraud, extortion and other crimes. For these reasons, along with other ethical considerations, in the wake of the breach, the Red Cross appealed for people not to share, sell, or leak the information.

Unauthorised access to the same data held physically would also have been considered a serious breach. However, the digital dimension to this intrusion enables highly sensitive data to be distributed quickly. Also, once personal records are released publicly into cyberspace, they are hard to remove.

Like other humanitarian players, the Red Cross is being forced to review its cyber security measures and consider the private sectors role to help mitigate risks. Understanding the benefits and limits of private sector engagement will be critical, says Van Solinge. Much of the know-how and expertise resides with that sector.

Timo Koster, a consultant for the not-for-profit Domain Name Server (DNS) resolver Quad9 (a DNS resolver converts domain names into IP addresses), told ISS Today that this incident reiterates how important a multi-layer defence is against cyber-attacks. Quad9, which has a large presence in sub-Saharan Africa, also has a real-time threat filter based on multiple intelligence feeds. It blocks access to malicious websites that spread malware or engage in stealing, defrauding and phishing.

As well as offering protection, the way such cyber security tools are distributed (e.g. to the humanitarian and non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector) and are populated by pooled threat information from the cyber security industry could become a model for the future. Central is the principle that the delivery of safe internet services should be considered a public good rather than simply a commercial proposition.

It is part of a wider debate about humanitarian aid and digital threats. In the real world the Red Cross has protections under international humanitarian law. The red cross or red crescent symbol is a potent globally recognised image of neutrality, and has a long history.

Over the past two years, the organisation has led a research project on the potential benefits and risks of a digital emblem. The purpose would be to flag the data and digital infrastructure of protected medical entities and certain humanitarian organisations and to signal their protection. However, one concern is that a form of digital branding could expose humanitarian data and assets to further attack by making it easier to target.

The Red Cross is under no illusion that a digital emblem would simply prevent cyber threats to the digital infrastructure of medical or humanitarian actors. Just as the physical emblem has never been a bullet-proof protection against physical attacks. However, it is a way to signal legal protection and serve as a means of identification. It would allow cyber operators to more easily identify and spare protected entities in times of armed conflict, remind belligerents of their legal obligations where applicable, and deter other actors.

Organisations such as the Red Cross have played a key role at international policy level to entrench norms, including that stating that international law applies in cyberspace. It has applications not only for the use of the internet but also for other emerging tech areas, including drone technology and autonomous weapons, which also rely on networking capabilities.

Another area of focus is the possibility of establishing a dedicated cloud for the humanitarian sector. So far research has been undertaken to consider the use of cloud technology for humanitarian supply chains. But a key requirement for secure cloud data storage for humanitarian purposes is that its integrity is maintained.

This is particularly critical given the Red Crosss function in re-uniting families in times of conflict. Imagine if data on unaccompanied children were hacked and data modified and people subsequently came forward pretending to be their parents? The potential consequences of data contamination are truly chilling, so humanitarian players must tread carefully.

As policy discussions on digital transformation across Africa gain more traction, international NGOs from the humanitarian world must note the potential risks and balance these against the benefits. Private sector expertise must be considered and speedy mitigation measures put in place.

Humanitarian players also need to continue to engage in multilateral discussions on cyber governance issues to ensure their needs are addressed.

Karen Allen, Consultant, Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Pretoria

(This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).
The Niger State Government says bandits killed 11 security agents and several villagers in separate attacks between Friday and Saturday in Shiroro and Paikoro local government areas of the state.

Residents of the areas said at least 32 persons were killed overall across the affected communities.

Governor Abubakar Bello spoke on the attacks on Tuesday through a statement issued by his media aide, Mary Noel-Berje.

The governor said the terrorists, numbering over 100 invaded the community in broad daylight, killing about 11 Joint Security Taskforce members, several villagers and leaving many injured.

He said scores of the gunmen were also said to have been neutralised.

Mr Bello said the attacks on Galadiman Kogo and other villages in Shiroro council area could have been averted if the locals had alerted the security forces on time.

Residents said the attacks occurred on Saturday and Monday with 20 people immediately confirmed killed in Shiroro and another person in Paikoro. Added to the official figure of security casualties, the number of the dead is now 32.

The Chairperson, Shiroro Local Government Area, Suleiman Chukuba, had earlier confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES but said he could not confirmed the number of casualties.

But the chairperson, Concerned Shiroro Youth Groups, Yusuf Kokki, in a statement on Monday had also said 20 residents were killed and that many residents were yet to be accounted for.

He said several communities in the area have been deserted.

Mr Kokki blamed the attack on the withdrawal of security personnel from their Galadima Kogo base in Shiroro for the attacks.

This decision taken by Government, notwithstanding the accompanying reason (s), is reckless and insensitive in its entirety, especially to the plights of innocent and unarmed law-abiding citizens already ravaged by incessant insecurity.

Considering how porous, prone to insecurity and vulnerable to deadly attacks by the rampaging hydra-headed, venomous murderous and heartless terrorists, Galadima Kogo is, one can easily conclude that withdrawal of security personnel at this material time is a deliberate attempt to further jeopardize peoples lives and put them in the line, he said.

In view of the calamity at hand, the Concerned Shiroro Youths Of Niger State hereby call with the loudest voice on the authorities concerned to restore the withdrawn security personnel and also deploy additional security personnel to other areas prone to insecurity with immediate effect or risk our reactions., Mr Kokki stated.

But the governor on Tuesday said the withdrawal of the soldiers was tactical, in order to restrategise.

Looting, abducting and killing

Residents said the gunmen also raided Paikoro, a neighbouring council area, killing one person Monday afternoon.

A resident, Salisu Sabo, told this newspaper that the gunmen, on Monday morning, were moving from one community to another, looting shops, shooting, and abducting people

He said they have so far invaded Ammale, Dakalo, kuchiri, kurmin Giwa, Goto Reshidat, Yanki and Goto Sarki communities. One person has been killed, while the injured victims are receiving treatment in Kafin Koro General Hospital.

Attack could have been averted

In the official statement, Governor Bello said the attack on Galadiman Kogo would have been unsuccessful if villagers from Galape and Kudodo in Allawa had alerted the security agencies when they noticed the movements of the terrorists towards the town.

He urged villagers in the affected communities to endeavour to provide credible information to the Joint Security Taskforce stationed in the area, adding that security agencies cannot perform effectively and efficiently without getting appropriate support and intelligence from the people.

READ ALSO:

The governor called for calm and urged the fleeing communities in Galadiman Kogo and Kuchi in Shiroro and Munya local government areas to await a swift and immediate response from the Joint Security Taskforce, stressing that their earlier withdrawal was tactical in order to re-strategise.

The state government has already secured the order and clearance of President Buhari to carry out intensive military operations in the affected axis, assuring that ground and airstrikes would continue to comb the areas, so as to flush out those miscreants.

We have really run out of patience with the terrorists and well use every means possible to bring an end to this incessant bloody attacks on innocent people. Well do everything to stop the killings and return normalcy to the affected communities.

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The governor prayed for the reposed souls of the Joint Security Taskforce members and villagers who lost their lives during the attack on Galadiman Kogo and directed the State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) to urgently provide succour to the injured and displaced, the statement said.
There are fears of a coup attempt in Guinea-Bissau as soldiers fired heavy gunfire near a government compound where President Umaro Embalo had been chairing a cabinet meeting.

The details of the soldiers action are still sketchy but concerns have already been raised by regional bodies.

The African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have condemned the situation in the West African country.

ECOWAS is following with great concern the evolution of the situation in Guinea-Bissau  where military gunfire is taking place around the Government Palace, the regional body said in a statement m

Likewise, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Mahamat, in a statement said he is following the situation with great concern

He calls on the military to return to their barracks without delay and to ensure the physical integrity of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the members of his government and to immediately release those among them who are in detention.

The situation in Guinea-Bissau occurs about a week after the military in Burkina Faso ousted the sitting government, suspended the constitution and declared itself as the new leadership of the country.
A medical doctor, Aghogho Owhojede, on Tuesday said the late Sylvester Oromoni, a 12-year-old student of Dowen College, was not taken to a hospital for proper treatment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Owhojede, who has been the Oromoni family doctor for 15 years, testified before an Ikeja Coroners Court seeking to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of the student.

The student died on November 30, 2021.

Mr Owhojede was questioned during Tuesdays proceedings for over seven hours (9.30am to 5.15 p.m.) by counsel to Dowen College, two accused students of the school, Lagos State Government and the Nigerian Bar Association.

During proceedings, the medical doctor said that he treated the late Master Oromoni for acute malaria at the family home in Warri, Delta, from November 26, 2021, to November 30, 2021.

Answering questions from Akin George, counsel to Lagos State Government, Mr Owhojede said he attended the same church, Gods Grace Ministry International Church, with the Oromoni family.

The doctor told the court that ailing Master Oromoni was taken to church for prayers for an unspecified number of days by his family.

What was your response to the treatment at a church as opposed to a proper medical facility? Mr George asked.

I am aware that the church is not a treatment centre. I am not against prayer, I will prefer a combination of both prayer and medical treatment, the doctor replied.

The doctor said that on the day Master Oromoni died (November 30, 2021), he had referred him to Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, for further treatment.

He said that the late Master Oromoni could not be taken to the teaching hospital because his condition deteriorated and he passed away.

Which hospital was he ever taken to before he died? Mr George asked.

He was treated at home, the doctor responded.

Can you confirm that the deceased was not taken to any hospital for treatment? Mr George further asked.

No, he wasnt, my lord, Mr Owhojede said.

The Coroner, Mikhail Kadiri, adjourned proceedings until February 7 for continuation of hearing.

NAN reports that it was alleged that the 12-year-old Oromoni died on November 30, 2021, from injuries sustained in an attack by five senior students of Dowen College for allegedly refusing to join a cult.

It was also alleged that he was forced to drink an obnoxious substance by his attackers.

Advice by the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution, which was released on January 4, however, disputed the allegations.

According to the advice, two separate autopsies revealed Master Oromonis cause of death as acute bacterial pneumonia due to severe sepsis. (NAN)
The House of Representatives has ordered the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to pay N200 million to 10 persons killed by customs in Jibia, Katsina State.

The House also directed NCS to pay N160 million to eight persons killed in Oyo State.

The decision followed the adoption of the report of the House Committee on Customs and Excise that investigated the killings.

On Tuesday, the Committee of the Whole, chaired by Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, considered the report presented by the Chairman of the Committee on Customs and Excise, Leke Abejide (ADC, Kogi).

Katsina killings

In August 2021, a Hilux van of the Nigeria Customs Service rammed into people by a roadside in Jibia town of Katsina leaving scores dead.

Sada Soli (APC, Katsina) had moved a motion calling for an investigation into the accident.

According to Mr Soli, men of the NCS had the accident while chasing rice smugglers, although, the NSC, during the investigative hearing had claimed that the killings were a result of an accident and not due to the chasing of smugglers.

The Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs in charge of Enforcement, Investigation and Inspection, Elton Edorhe, had said the agency took action immediately after the accident.

Mr Abejides report recommended N20 million to each family of the victims, in addition, N2 million each to 13 of them who sustained injuries.

Iseyin victims

PREMIUM TIMES had reported the killings in Iseyin in Oyo State and the subsequent motion moved by Shina Peller (APC, Oyo) into the matter.

The House, sequel to the motion, resolved that the committee on customs should investigate the circumstances surrounding the killings.

At the hearing, Olugbenga Akinlabi, the lawyer to the victims, had demanded N4.5 billion as compensation.

Mr Akinlabi demanded N1 billion each for the families of those who lost their lives and N500 million for the victim who survived the attack.

ALSO READ: Reps to probe extrajudicial killings by customs in Oyo

Instead, the House awarded N80 million to the deceased and N2 million to the victim that survived.

Igangan, Tapa killings

In September, the House had resolved to investigate the Igangan killings following a motion moved by Muraina Ajibola (PDP, Oyo).

At the hearing, Kehinde Ejibunu, the comptroller of Federal Operation Unit (FOU), Zone A, said the matter was not without cause.

He claimed that the officers acted in self-defence.

However, just like the case of Iseyin, the lawmakers ordered N80 million compensation to the families of the deceased and N2 million to injured victim.

Other resolutions

The House also resolved that:

-As constant conflict with communities is counterproductive and unsustainable the Nigeria Customs Service should aggressively deepen its engagement with traditional rulers, community stakeholders, host communities, relevant trade associations, local police networks, and local security outfits to prevent future loss of lives and property on all sides.

-The officers involved in the acts of killings of innocent Nigerians should be brought to book, prosecuted, and punished accordingly to serve as a deterrent to others.

That provision should be made for procurement of ballistic vehicles (Bullet Proof), Bullet Proof Vests, and helmets urgently for Nigeria Customs Service to confront the daredevil smugglers attacking their officers at Border Stations whenever the smugglers opened fire on them. This would encourage Nigeria Customs Service to be able to curtail smuggling with fewer causalities on their side.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, on Monday expressed his desire to join the 2023 presidential race under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mr Tambuwal, who made his intention known during the state PDP stakeholders meeting, said the decision is in respect of some of his political history.

When the members of House of Representatives approached me to contest for the Speaker of the 7th Assembly, I gave them conditions.

That is; as a loyal son of Sokoto State, they should consult with my leaders in the state, before I could accept their call, which they did and by the grace of God, we eventually emerged victorious.

Now, we are here and I have listened to party leaders, women, youth and members of the PDP in Sokoto State on the call that I should initiate and begin the process of consultation.

This is with a view to running and contesting first as flag bearer of the PDP and if God Almighty blesses our effort, subsequently the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In the name of God Almighty, the most beneficent, the most merciful, I hereby accept to begin the process of consultation to run for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he said.

Earlier, a former deputy governor of Sokoto State, Mukhtari Shagari, called on the people of the state to always remain grateful to God for producing good Nigerian leaders.

As such, after 42 years of Shagari leadership in the country, we sat down to rethink of who will sustain the credibility and leadership style exhibited by our founding fathers.

We realised that among all of us, the most deserving is Governor Aminu Tambuwal, and we solicited his acceptance to join the 2023 presidential race in the country, he said.

Mr Shagari added that the decision was taken based on general consultation across the country and the belief that if Mr Tambuwal becomes the President of Nigeria, there would be peace, unity and prosperity in the country.

Also speaking, the state PDP Chairman, Bello Goronyo, said that the decision to call the governor to join the 2023 presidential race is generally the mandate of the PDP supporters in the state.

Other leaders at the meeting included Sen. Danbaba Danbuwa (PDP-Sokoto), Abubakar Magaji, Sokoto Assembly Deputy Speaker, and Umarun Kwabo, among others.

In 2018, Mr Tambuwal contested the PDP presidential primaries in Port Harcourt, Rivers State but lost to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

The governor will conclude his second term in office in May 2023.

Among those who have indicated their interest in the 2023 presidential race on the platform of the PDP are two former Senate Presidents, Pius Anyim and Bukola Saraki, publisher of Oviation magazine, Dele Momodu, and a pharmacist, Sam Ohuabunwa.

(NAN)
The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed the release of four of the 22 women recently abducted by insurgents in the Chibok Local Government Area of Borno.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 22 women and two men were abducted by insurgents in three separate attacks on Pemi, Kautikari and Korohuma areas of Chibok last month.

A statement by Information Officer, UNICEF Maiduguri Field Office, Folashade Adebayo, said the organisation has urged for the immediate release of all captives.

UNICEF is very relieved for the released girls and their families. After their harrowing experience, it is good news that the girls are back with their families and friends, where they belong.

But sadly, dozens of children in north-eastern Nigeria remain in captivity; the victims of an armed conflict they have nothing to do with. This is unconscionable.

Children have the right to a safe environment, health, education and freedom from abuse and torture  all of which remain compromised when they are in captivity, the statement quoted Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria as saying.

It decried how children in Nigeria continue to face the violation of their rights, including abductions, torture, killings, recruitment into armed groups, and forced marriages, among others.

Between December and July of last year, at least 1,450 children were abducted, most from their schools across central and northwest regions of the country, the statement said.

(NAN)
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Maitama, Abuja, on Monday, granted a former rector of Kaduna Polytechnic, Idris Bugaje, leave to appeal against a ruling in a N1 billion defamation suit brought against him and the institution.

It gave Mr Bugaje and his co-defendants to go ahead to the Court of Appeal to appeal its previous decision dismissing their preliminary objection to the libel suit.

The libel suit was filed against them by a staff member of the Budget Office of the Federation, Bilkisu Sannusi.

A polytechnic expenditure officer in the budget office, Ms Sannusi, sued the defendants over what she described as their alleged defamatory publication against her.

She said Mr Bugaje and his co-defendants published the alleged defamatory publication against her after she exposed alleged corruption in the 2020 expenditure budget of the institution.

She sued Mr Bugaje, alongside the incumbent rector of Kaduna Polytechnic and the institution itself, accusing them of damaging her reputation in the eyes of right-thinking members of the society.

At Mondays proceedings, the judge, Hamza Muazu, granted the application by Mr Bugajes counsel, Kamaluddin Umar, for extension of time to file their defence and a leave to appeal against the earlier ruling delivered by the court.

The judge had on September, 28, 2021, held that the preliminary objection brought by defendants counsel challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit was lacking in merit.

I hold that the preliminary objection is misconceived and lacking in merit and accordingly fails and is hereby dismissed, Mr Muazu had ruled.

Suit

Mrs Sannusi claims in the suit marked, FCT/HCT/CV/54/54/2021, that the defendants maliciously described her as incompetent and corrupt in a publication dated April 15, 2019.

She said the publication was and circulated as vendetta against her.

This, the claimant said, the defendants did after they were fingered in the corrupt practices complaint which she claimed to have lodged against them and some of her colleagues (in the Budget office) who conspired with them to manipulate the personnel budget of the Kaduna Polytechnic for the year 2020.

The matter was adjourned until March 10 for continuation of hearing.

Defences preliminary objection

In a preliminary objection they filed on June 22, 2021, the defendants lawyer, Kamaluddin Umar, told the judge that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.

The defendants argued that the action of the claimant was barred from filing the suit by the provisions of the Public Officers Protection Act.

They further contended that the necessary parties had not been brought before the court

They, therefore, sought, among others, an order of this honourable court dismissing/striking out the suit as this honourable court lacks jurisdiction to entertain same.
The International Centre for Investigative Reporting, The ICIR, has announced Ajibola Amzat as its new Managing Editor. Until his elevation, Mr Amzat was the Editor of the Centres news website, www.icirnigeria.org.

The Centre also announced the appointment of Victoria Bamas as The ICIRs new Editor. Until her appointment, Ms Bamas was the Editor/Team Lead of FactCheckHub, the ICIRs fact-checking operation.

Similarly, Temitayo Odunlami has been appointed as The ICIRs Regional Editor, Southwest, Nigeria.

Other announcements made include the elevation of Odinaka Anudu, erstwhile News Editor, to Deputy Editor and Opeyemi Kehinde, who moved from Head of Digital Content Unit/Deputy Lead, FactCheckHub to become Editor of FactCheckHub.

Also, Ihuoma Chidozie, erstwhile Political Editor, moved to the position of News Editor, while Gbenga Adanikin of the FactCheckHub now becomes the Head of The ICIRs Investigative Desk. Stanley Olaleke also becomes Head of the Centres ICT Unit.

In the Programmes Department, Adeolu Kilanko is appointed Programs Manager while Gloria Agema becomes Deputy Programs Manager. Rosemary Igbeka also is promoted to the Finance Manager position of the non-profit organisation.

Dayo Aiyetan, the Executive Director of The ICIR, said the appointments were made to reposition The ICIR as a key player in the media industry in Nigeria.

He said that in adapting to the realities of the times, The ICIR would be exploring new economic sustainability models to secure the future of the media organisation, including launching its online newspaper before the end of the year.

He said that the newspapers launching would coincide with the Centres 10th-anniversary celebration slated for later in the year.

Mr Aiyetan noted the occasion of the anniversary celebrations would offer an opportunity to launch the New York office of the organisation.

Ajibola Amzat, before his new appointment as Managing Editor, was the Editor at the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, The ICIR.

He had previously worked with The Guardian newspaper, the flagship of Nigerian print journalism and rose to the position of Features Editor before joining The ICIR in 2018.

While at The Guardian, he covered various beats, including Property, Tourism, Education, Art, and Insurgency in the Northeast.

He had also worked as Copy Editor for SaharaReporters in New York and as Southern African Correspondent for the London-based IQ4News and Opinion Article Writer for Grocott Mail, the oldest newspaper in South Africa.

A media fellow of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Mr Amzat was among the newsroom leaders selected for the 2021 fellowship of the London School of Economics programme on Artificial Intelligence for the Small Newsrooms.

He holds Higher National Diploma (HND) in Marketing from the Polytechnic Ibadan, a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mass Communication and a masters degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos.

In 2011, he won the Knight Scholarship to study Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, South Africa. He later obtained a scholarship to study Data Journalism at Columbia School of Journalism, New York in the United States. He is currently undertaking an executive programme pursuing a Master of Business Administration Degree at the Quantic School of Business and Technology, Washington DC. Mr Amzat specialises in Investigative and Data Journalism.

Bamas Victoria is a multimedia journalist with an interest in digital storytelling, social media engagement, fact-checking and media literacy.

She has experience producing content for television, radio, print and digital platforms in Nigeria.

Before her appointment as Editor of the ICIR, she was the pioneer Team Lead and Editor of the Centres fact-checking operation, The FactCheckHub, where she oversaw the implementation and execution of the project as well as relations with relevant stakeholders.

She was part of the team that won a 2015 WANIFRA young reader prize for their Read2Grow project for Daily Trust Newspaper.

At Daily Trust, aside from being a member of the innovation committee, she also was part of the team that shaped its online and multimedia strategies.

Ms Bamas, who understands multiple Nigerian languages, has reported from Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic, Togo and Ethiopia.

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Odinaka Anudu grew through the ranks in the newsroom. He started as a reporter at Orient Daily and Orient Magazine and rose to become its South-East Bureau Chief. He moved to BusinessDay Media Limited as an Editorial Analyst and rose to the position of Investigations Editor. He later became Assistant Editor in charge of Industry- manufacturing, agriculture, aviation, ports, retail, health  supervising eight reporters and supporting the News Editor.

He is a serial award-winning journalist. Some of the journalism awards he has won are PwC Tax Reporter of the Year (Winner, 2020 &2021); PwC SME Reporter of the Year (Runner-Up, 2020 &2021); Citi Journalistic Excellence Award (2019 winner, 2018 runner-up), African Fact-Checking Award (winner), Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Journalist of the Year (winner in 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2020), West African Business Reporter of the Year (runner-up), among others.

Mr Anudu holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Post-Graduate Diploma in Economics from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, completing a masters degree in Development Economics from the same university. He holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Salford, Greater Manchester, the United Kingdom.

He also briefly studied Trade Negotiation at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

Opeyemi Kehinde is a multimedia journalist, fact-checker, social media strategist and poet.

He has had reporting stints at TELL magazine, the defunct Newsreel Newspaper and The Business Eye (Nigeria) magazine. He also edited Love Drops magazine during his National Youth Service Corps assignment in Gombe State.

Until April 2020, he worked as a multimedia journalist with the Daily Trust newspaper, where he covered major Nigerian elections from 2011 till 2019 and won the Media Trust Limiteds staff Integrity Award (2018).

An alumnus of The Polytechnic Ibadan in Oyo State and Bayero University, Kano, where he studied Mass Communication, Mr Kehinde also obtained his Master of Science degree in Mass Communication from Nasarawa State University, Keffi.

A media trainer and youth advocate, Kehinde served as a fact-checking consultant for the IWPRs Africa Resilience Network between 2020 and 2021. He authored investigative reports aimed at exposing COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation in Nigeria.

He joined the FactCheckHub  the fact-checking arm of The ICIR  in June 2020 as its Deputy Editor and Amplification Team Lead.

Until his recent appointment, he was the head of the Digital Content Unit at The ICIR.

Ihuoma Chidozie is a graduate of Mass Communication from Imo State University, Owerri, with several years of experience as a journalist. Before joining The ICIR, Chidozie was the State House (Abuja) Correspondent of The PUNCH Newspaper.

He covered other beats, including the judiciary, business and economy, as well as politics and governance.

He has also covered international events such as the African Union and the G8 meetings and was nominated as the Nigerian participant in the Africa Journalist Training Programme, organised by the Japanese government for journalists from African countries in Japan.

Until his new appointment, Mr Chidozie was the Head of Politics at The ICIR.
A Nigerian, Emeka Oparah, has been appointed Vice President, Corporate Communications & CSR, in Airtel Africa Plc.

Mr Oparah, who disclosed his new appointment in a Facebook post on Tuesday, has spent 19 and a half years working in Airtel Nigeria.

Today, after 19 and a half years in Airtel Nigeria, I formally resumed a new position in Dubai, UAE, as the Vice President Corporate Communications & CSR, Airtel Africa Plc, with responsibility for 14 countries, Mr Oparah said in the Facebook post.

To all who supported me along the way as I journeyed in my career, I will forever be in debt of gratitude.

All the glory goes to The Great Architect of the Universe, he added.

Mr Oparah joined Airtel Nigeria as director, corporate communications in 2002 and was appointed Vice President, Corporate Communications & CSR for the telecommunication company in June 2011.

Before joining Airtel Nigeria, he worked at various times in the corporate affairs department of other telecoms  Econet Wireless, VMobile, Celtel Nigeria Limited, and Zain Nigeria.

Mr Oparah, a 1990 Mass Communication graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is a communications and public relations specialist whose name over the years has become synonymous with corporate communication in the telecom sector in Nigeria.

He holds a post-graduate Diploma in International Public Relations from The Management School, London.

He is a member of the International Public Relations Association, International Association of Business Communicators, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, and Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria.
The Ogun Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said on Tuesday that three persons died in an accident that involved two vehicles at Isara Bridge on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Ahmed Umar, the sector commander of FRSC, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ota, Ogun, that three others sustained various degrees of injuries in the accident.

Mr Umar explained that a Volkswagen space wagon with registration number GGE 175 FM lost control due to speeding and rammed into a stationary Mack truck with no registration number.

The sector commander said the accident, which occurred at about 5.55 a.m., involved six people, four male adults, and two female adults.

He said three persons died comprising two male adults and one female adult, while three others- two male adults and one female adult, sustained various degrees of injuries in the incident.

The female corpse was deposited at FOS Hospital, Ipara, Ogun, while the two other corpses were taken away by their families members.

The survivors were taken to General Hospital, Isara, Ogun, for medical treatment, he said.

The FRSC boss blamed the cause of the accident on road obstruction and speeding, urging motorists to desist from excessive speed and shun reckless driving to prevent avoidable crashes.

He said the FRSC personnel had towed the vehicles off the road to ease the free flow of traffic.

Mr Umar commiserated with the families of the victims and enjoined them to contact FRSC command, Ogere, for more information about the crash. (NAN)
As part of activities towards marking 2022 World Hijab Day, a coalition of Muslim groups has kicked against what it termed continued harassment of Muslim women and girls who wear hijab- a head covering worn in public by Muslim women.

The coalition has, therefore, resolved that rather than engaging those it described as harassers in open confrontation, it would not hesitate to challenge them in competent law courts.

This is as they requested the Lagos State Government to issue a circular reminding school administrators of an appeal courts ruling, which permits Muslim students to use hijab in schools in the state.

These positions were taken on Tuesday at a joint press conference which was held at the secretariat central mosque, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

Themed; Hijab is our Crown, not A Crime, activities were organised across the world on Tuesday to mark this years World Hijab Day towards reiterating what participants described as disapproval of alleged continuous harassment of females in schools and workplaces for wearing hijabs, and that the activities are also aimed at putting an end to such practices.

Briefing

Addressing journalists on Tuesday, participants and representatives of various Muslim groups called on President Muhammadu Buhari, and other regulatory agencies, to ensure that hijab-wearing Muslim women are no longer harassed and discriminated against.

In her presentation, a member of the trustees of International Muslim Union, Sherifat Ajibade, described as both unconstitutional and criminal, any form of discrimination against Muslim women for wearing hijabs.

If the law guarantees us the right and we find anyone going against that right, we will sue such an individual or organisation to avoid violence, Mrs Ajibade said.

Also speaking, the founder, Hijab Rights Advocacy Initiative, Mutiat Balogun, said the coalition is an international movement against what she described as dehumanisation of Muslim women who may have faced, still facing or to face any form of abuses because they wear Hijab.

This years theme could not have come at a better time as Muslim women are being harassed, abused and treated like criminals for wearing hijabs, Mrs Balogun said.

She said there is a global movement for the freedom of women and freedom to make choices concerning their bodies and dressing, but that such a courtesy is not extended to Muslim women.

The focus on the girl child and the need for her rights to be protected and not trampled upon sadly seem not to be extended to the Muslim girl child, she said.

Alleged abuse instances

Providing instances where Muslim women are being subjected to hardships and denial of basic rights and services, Mrs Balogun alleged that the Nigeria Immigration Services office in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, still restricts Muslim women from obtaining international passports except they remove their hijabs or bare their ears.

Some schools in Lagos State have continued to deprive Muslim girls who wish to wear hijabs in conformity with their faith, from doing so. They would rather that such students not attend classes than to do so with their hijabs, she said.

Mrs Balogun insisted that the right of Muslim women to cover their heads is a religious right guaranteed by Nigerias constitution, and that it is an inalienable right.

What Nigerias Constitution says

Mrs Balogun quoted Section 38 (1) and (2) of Nigerias 1999 constitution, as amended, that; (1) Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.

(2) No person attending any place of education shall be required to receive religious instruction or to take part in or attend any religious ceremony or observance if such instruction, ceremony or observance relates to a religion other than his own, or religion not approved by his parent or guardian.

Circular

Meanwhile, the female president of the Lagos State area unit of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), Basheerah Majekodunmi, while speaking at the event, called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the speaker of the states house of assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, to order the issuance of a circular in compliance with the Court of Appeal judgement granting the use of hijab in public schools in the state.

She explained that many principals, teachers, and administrators are causing a crisis in schools under the guise that they did not receive the previously issued circular under Governor Akinwunmi Ambodes administration.

She, however, advised school principals and teachers against victimisation and discrimination of Muslim students, describing it as a fight against morality and public approval of indecency among young people.

She said: Ignorance is no excuse before the law. These teachers and principals who either feign ignorance or turn a deaf ear to justice and morality have made it difficult and fearful for students to use their hijab as prescribed by their creator.

It is high time the Lagos State Government issued another circular that will be well-publicised. We enjoy peace in Lagos State and we dont want a crisis. Some principals and teachers are acting unlawfully and in a manner that could cause an outrage without quick intervention.

Ms Majekodunmi also acknowledged efforts by the state government to provide quality education for the school students but warned that continuous victimisation of students may sabotage these efforts.

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The picture of Governor Sanwo-Olu sitting with a hijab-wearing student is a clear contrast of the injustice meted against some students who also choose to wear the hijab in other schools, she added.

She lamented a case of two female Muslim students of Igboye Community High School, Igboye, Epe, whom she said were made to stand outside the classroom in the sun while their classmates were writing an examination, stating that MSSN Lagos will continue to take such cases up until the Supreme Courts verdict.

Ms Majekodunmi, therefore, advised students to aspire to be great no matter the challenges and speak out when they experience any form of molestation or victimisation.

Some of the organisations that took part at the press conference include Nasrul-lahi-li Fathi Society of Nigeria (NASFAT), Al Muminaat Organisation, Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN Lagos), Muslim Public Affairs Centre ( MPAC), Guild of Muslim Professionals (GMP), Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), among many others.
The management of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has allayed the fears of its students and parents over the ongoing strike by the institutions branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), saying academic activities are going on uninterrupted on the campus.

A statement by the universitys public relations officer, Abiodun Olarewaju, said the majority of academic staff are not on strike and are ready to work.

He also said lecturers, have agreed on a new acceptable template that will be developed for the sharing of the controversial earned academic allowance.

The statement, which was titled; Strike Action: Lectures Still Ongoing in OAU, No Cause for Alarm, reads in part; The attention of the management of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, has been drawn to a circular issued by a section of the academic staff, ASUU, calling on its members to go on strike, beginning from Monday, 31st January, 2022.

The University Management is using this medium to inform the general public, particularly our students, their parents or guardians, that the overwhelming majority of the academic staff in OAU are not on strike, neither do they have the intention of going on any strike action. In actual fact, lectures are ongoing and students are being attended to by lecturers in their respective departments.

The universitys vice-chancellor, Eyitope Ogunbodede, had on Monday told PREMIUM TIMES that the membership strength of ASUU and that of its rival faction- Congress of Nigerian Universities Academics (CONUA) is almost equal, adding We now have something like (a) 50:50 kind of membership in OAU.

Meanwhile, rising from its meeting with the academic staff on Tuesday, the university said the consensus of those in attendance was that a new acceptable template will be developed for the sharing of the controversial earned academic allowance.

New EAA payment template

Mr Olarewaju told this newspaper that not less than 400 academic staffers of the university attended the meeting called by the vice-chancellor on Monday.

He said those in attendance unanimously agreed that the university administration should set up a committee that will review the submitted forms and come up with a new model that will be acceptable to every other academic staff.

They agreed that the forms should be ready and filled and the money paid latest by Friday or next week, Mr Olarewaju said in a voice note shared with PREMIUM TIMES reporter on Tuesday afternoon.

ASUU keeps mum

But when asked if ASUU will subscribe to the new arrangement by the university and possibly suspend its ongoing strike, the chairman of the union on the campus, Adeola Egbedokun, said he has not heard from the university of such an arrangement.

Also asked for clarifications on the discrepancies allegedly identified by the universitys audit department in the forms collated and submitted by his union, Mr Egbedokun said it never received an official communication to that effect from the university.

What we submitted to the vice chancellor was an official document and we are also expecting that he should communicate to us officially. I am hearing what you are saying for the first time, Mr Egbedokun said in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday.

In its bulletin dedicated to give updates on the ongoing strike and which was issued on Tuesday, ASUU said it submitted all required documents for the verification, yet the VC refused to disburse our EAA.

ASUU said it is left with no other option than the present action and our members should be rest assured that we shall not succumb to blackmail.

The meeting

The University vice-chancellor had, hours after the declaration of strike by ASUU, called for a meeting with all academic staff, irrespective of union affiliation. But ASUU directed its members to boycott the meeting, describing the vice-chancellors move as treacherous.

The agenda of the meeting, according to a statement from the vice-chancellors office, was the earned academic allowance, which the government had deposited to the schools coffers since December 13.

The delayed disbursement has been due to the failure of ASUU and CONUA to arrive at a consensus on the sharing modalities.

While ASUU had declared a strike over the non-payment of the funds on Monday, CONUA said its members are not on strike.
Senate gives franchises to more telcos, broadcast firms

The Senate approved on third and final reading Monday, January 31, 2022, numerous bills granting telcos and broadcast firms legislative franchises.

Sponsored by Senate Public Services Committee chairperson Sen. Grace Poe, the approved House bills sought the grant and renewal of legislative franchises to institutions and companies to be able to operate in various parts of the country.

These include House Bill No. (HBN) 9384, which proposes to expand the franchise granted to the Davao City government for its radio broadcasting stations; as well as franchises for Mount Apo Science Foundation College Inc. (HBN 10212), Capricom Broadcasting Network Corp. (HBN 10192), Amapola Broadcasting System (HBN 10196), South Cotabato Communications Corp. (HBN 10123), Prime Broadcasting Network Inc. (HBN 10124), National Council of Churches in the Philippines (HBN 10125), and GVM Radio/TV Corp. (HBN 10211).

Also approved on third and final reading were the legislative franchises for Ismo Inc. (HBN 8971), Aspire Media Technologies and Ventures Inc. (HBN 10169), Linkserve Telecommunications Network Inc. (HBN 10193), Derecho Telecommunications Inc. (HBN 10194), Unicorn Communications Corp. (HBN 10195), Purple Flower Telecommunication Corp. (HBN 10197), Calapan Telephone System Inc. (HBN 8975), Bicol Telephone and Telegraph Inc. (HBN 9424), Lukban Telephone System Inc. (HBN 9438), Continental Telecommunications System Inc. (HBN 9439), Victorias Telephone System Inc. (HBN 10182), and General Telephone System Inc. (HBN 10183), so they could put up and maintain their respective telecommunications systems and services.

Meanwhile, the Senate also passed Poe-sponsored local bills seeking to establish, convert and upgrade the local offices of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in 32 locations across the Philippines.

These include LTO offices in the provinces of Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Camarines Norte, Negros Occidental, Cebu, Iloilo, Zamboanga del Sur and Bukidnon, among several others.

Likewise, the Senate voted to approve three House bills seeking to establish offices of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Puerto Princesa, Palawan (HBN 2590), Bacoor City, Cavite (HBN 4560) and in Dasmarinas, Cavite (HBN 5488).
The National Reconciliation Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said it has received 47 petitions from members since its appointment about three months ago.

The committee stated this while submitting its interim report to the National leader of the party in Abuja on Monday.

After an attempt under the Adams Oshiomhole tenure, the APC reconstituted a nine-member committee chaired by Abdullahi Adamu, a senator, in September 2021, to appease aggrieved members across the country and reposition the party ahead of the 2023 General Elections.

Mr Adamu said apart from the 47 petitions before the committee, more are being expected from the aggrieved members of the party. He said more members are still aggrieved.

As a result of this, he said his team cannot be absolute that they have flawlessly delivered their mandate to the party and hinged their assessment on the final decision of the caretaker committee.

We have submitted our interim report. Like we said when presenting the report, that there is still work to be done. Reconciliation is a work in progress. And we cannot pretend that we have taken care of every little thing that has come before us. But by the time the final report is ready, then we will be able to give you the actual report.

I said until we get the final report from the national secretariat we cannot say success until they declare our work successful. We cannot declare our own work successful. We will be more deceitful if we do so, Mr Adamu said while answering questions from journalists.

Aside from addressing disputes in some state chapters of the APC, the panel was asked to reconcile members of the chapters where the party has been polarised, notably in Ogun, Osun, Gombe, Kwara, among others.

While the team can count the reconciliation of governor of Gombe State, Inuwa Yahaya, and Danjuma Goje, a former governor of the state and a serving senator as a major win, there is still conflict among members loyal to one leader or another in Ogun, Osun and others.

Mr Buni, in his address read while the interim report was being received by a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, promised that the party will look at the report and implement their recommendations where applicable.

The great achievements the party has recorded in reconciling the differences among our stakeholders in Gombe, Ogun, Kwara, and many other states have justified the confidence the party has in your individual and collective capacities. You have truly done us proud.

I wish to assure you that the Caretaker Committee will carefully study the report and implement the same to improve the unity and strength of the party, Mr Buni said.

It will be recalled that true reconciliation was one of the key promises of the Yobe State governor when he was appointed to lead the party in June 2020, following the dissolution of the partys National Working Committee (NWC) under Mr Oshiomhole.

The inability of Mr Oshiomhole to ensure reconciliation of warring members was one of reasons he was removed.

The submission of the report of the reconciliation committee is one of the activities scheduled by the party in preparation of its February 26 national convention.
Nigerian National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, is currently engaging his United Kingdom counterpart, Stephen Lovegrove, in a dialogue bordering on a range of issues including counter-terrorism, serious and organised crime, civilian policing and human rights.

Also, Nigerias Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor and the UK Chief of Defence Staff, Tony Radakin, are holding separate talks on military cooperation.

According to a statement from the British High Commission, titled Nigeria-UK hold Security and Defence Partnership Dialogue in London this week, the dialogue, is taking place at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office headquarters at King Charles Street, London.

The three days long dialogue ending on Wednesday, is the first of its kind since both countries formed the UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership in 2018.

The partnership signed between President Muhammadu Buhari and former British Prime Minister, Theresa May, was aimed at helping Nigeria end the Boko Haram and the Islamic States West Africa (ISWAP) insurgency that has lasted over a decade.

Boko Haram insurgency, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has over the years left at least 350,000 people dead, many of them children and leaving over millions displaced.

The statement read in part; The UK and Nigeria are holding the first meeting of the Nigeria-UK Security and Defence Partnership Dialogue in London this week. Talks, led by UK National Security Adviser, Sir Stephen Lovegrove and Nigerian National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno, are scheduled to last for three days and will conclude on Wednesday.

The Dialogue will also include a series of breakout sessions covering a range of issues, including counter-terrorism, serious and organised crime, civilian policing and human rights. Defence staff talks, led by UK Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin and Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff, General L.E.O. Irabor, will also talk place in parallel and will discuss military cooperation.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Monday said revenue generating agencies of the federal government were capable of generating N3 trillion annually if efforts were made to ensure prudent spending.

Mr Lawan made this known in Abuja when he declared open an interactive session on the need to improve internally generated revenue (IGR) of the federal government and revenue projections of the agencies as stipulated in the Appropriation Act 2022.

The meeting was between the Senate leadership, members of the Senate Committee on Finance and revenue generating agencies of government.

Mr Lawan said the purpose of the meeting was to explore means of increasing government revenues.

He said the National Assembly would be strict on increased revenue, cut down on the countrys budget deficits and borrowings, and prevent wasteful expenditures by agencies of government.

He said the Senate would provide the needed support via legislation to ensure that revenue agencies meet and surpass their targets.

In 2022, National Assembly assumed and rightly so, that our government owned enterprises can generate up to N3 trillion if we are of the mindset that we can achieve that and, of course, ensure that we oversight to stall any possibility of unwarranted expenditures by agencies of government.

But that does not mean in any way that it is going to be some kind of investigation on what you do, but an encouragement of what you need to do.

In this meeting and subsequent ones, there should be no holds barred on discussions.

Where an agency feels it is encumbered in any way from achieving its target, it should say so, so that we are able to prescribe the right solutions for it to perform.

As a National Assembly, let me say that the Senate particularly will be stiff on generating more and more revenue.

We will be rigid, we will continue to insist, because we believe that this is one sure and guaranteed way of reducing our deficit and borrowing, he said.

Mr Lawan explained that the drive by the Senate for more revenue to the coffers of government would enhance the economy and facilitate infrastructure development.

This committee is modified because the leaders of the Senate believe that we can do far better and we have seen signs when last year some of the agencies performed beyond expectation.

So, it is an opportunity for us to save and enhance our economy and, of course, make Nigeria achieve more infrastructural development which is the goal of this administration and every Nigerian.

We believe that when you (revenue agencies) generate the money, we (National Assembly) appropriate it.

Prudence is of essence here, when we spend our money. And when we borrow, like the National Assembly has always tried to do, we borrow to treat specific projects and programmes of government, the Senate President said.

The Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Solomon Adeola, in his remarks, decried insufficient funds for implementation of projects captured in the 2022 budget of the Federal Government.

He explained that the funds were derived partly from the revenue generated by the government-owned enterprises and other independent revenues sources.

There is an urgent need for all hands to be on deck on revenue generation for government, and prevent misuse and leakages of such revenues for frivolous purposes not sanctioned by the laws of the National Assembly, he said.

Mr Adeola said for the government to reduce and eliminate deficit budgeting associated with the nations budget over the years, efforts must be made to minimise borrowing to fund projects.

Revenue agencies present at the interactive session include: National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency, Nigerian Postal Service, Lagos University Teaching Hospital and Nigeria Customs Service.

Others were: the Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigeria Prisons Service, Maritime Academy of Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS).

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Also present were the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Energy Commission of Nigerians, Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM), Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria.

(NAN).
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has directed its members to ignore the invitation for a meeting with the academic staff of the institution by the vice-chancellor, Eyitope Ogunbodede, a professor of dentistry.

The union described the scheduled meeting by the vice-chancellor as an act of treachery, insisting that anything short of its conditions for the disbursement of the earned academic allowance (EAA) would be resisted.

But the vice-chancellor has said his invitation was not directed to ASUU as a union but to the academic staff including members and non-members of ASUU.

Meanwhile, a faction of the union, under the umbrella of the Congress of Nigerian Universities Academics (CONUA) has said its members are free to attend the meeting, saying since it has not held a congress on the matter, there was no decision to embark on strike yet.

PREMIUM TIMES had on Monday reported that Mr Ogunbodede had invited all academic staff to an emergency general meeting slated for Tuesday morning at the Oduduwa hall on the campus.

The meeting, this newspaper reported, was in response to the declaration of a total and comprehensive indefinite strike by ASUU on Monday over the unresolved controversies on the delayed disbursement of the EAA, which had been deposited into the universitys account since December 13 by the Nigerian government.

ASUU kicks against meeting

In a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Monday night, the chairman of the universitys chapter of ASUU, Adeola Egbedokun, described the vice-chancellors move as treacherous, querying when the university management adopted the strategy of meeting lecturers one-on-one to address issues.

According to Mr Egbedokun, the vice-chancellor has been busy working towards balkanising the union by giving support to those he described as renegade.

He said; ASUU is not taking part in any meeting with the vice-chancellor tomorrow or any other day. That meeting is treacherous. If not, why did the management engage the union in the first place to address the issue? Why didnt the VC go straight to the general staff meeting on the meeting rather than engaging us?

The vice-chancellor had told me in a conversation that he was only being magnanimous with ASUU to still allow its existence on the campus and confirmed that he was among those who formed CONUA. What that implies is that he would have loved to crush us but God didnt allow him. But in all this, ASUU members are resolute.

He said it took the conviction and logic of reasoning of ASUU to ensure the payment of part of the owed EAA by the government, and that it would be counterproductive for those working against the interest of the union to seek to dictate how the byproduct of the same union is disbursed.

Im an ASUU member -VC

Mr Ogunbodede did not deny his involvement in the formation of CONUA, describing it as a product of resistance against certain illegal steps taken by the former leadership of the union over the selection process of a substantive vice-chancellor to succeed the immediate past substantive vice-chancellor of the university, Bamitale Omole.

He, however, said he remains a member of ASUU and the highest paying check-off due member of the union.

So, If as ASUU you dont want to honour the invitation, that is fine. You can tell your members not to honour the invitation, but if your members see that they want to hear the other side of the story, they will come. And this is an academic community. Its not a marketplace. People are intellectual and they need information. Also, we didnt come here because of unionism. We came here to work and to ensure that we contribute our quota to the development of Obafemi Awolowo University. The issue of unionism is secondary.

Mr Ogunbodede said the last time he met with the leadership of ASUU on the matter, the meeting spanned more than five hours.

So, that ASUU is boycotting doesnt mean that their members are boycotting. If you bring out forms tomorrow now for members to fill, everybody will fill it, he added.

Discrepancies

Meanwhile, the vice-chancellor has said so much ground has been yielded to ASUU on the matter including the approval of its computation method and the decision to pay the arrears of 2019/2020 instead of the formula prescribed by CONUA which he said would have taken of backlogs from 2013 academic sessions.

He, however, noted that there were lots of discrepancies identified in the 1,051 forms submitted by ASUU, saying some were either not approved by the heads of the departments of concerned lecturers or that the calculations are far higher than what should be due to some of the lecturers.

The VC said; You know there are a lot of discrepancies already identified. For instance, five people can be teaching the same course but you are claiming you taught it alone. In such a situation, it is the HOD that will confirm but many of the forms are not authenticated. Aside from that, there are some of those forms that they have submitted that are so blank that you dont know how they computed money for such people. No details. And there are people who actually were not on the campus in 2019/2020 that they gave substantial amounts of money to in their own computation.

He said that was why the university requested joint verification after the institutions audit unit had vetted the list.

We had suggested that both ASUU and CONUA should be represented on the joint verification team but ASUU has insisted that it would not allow that. It is claiming the money is for ASUU when everyone knows that the funds are for all academic staff that deserve it based on the amount of the work done, he added.

He said the other unions, Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) have since shared their share of 25 per cent of the allowance.

So it is unfortunate that the academic staff whose case is less precarious compared to the three other unions are the ones that are unable to agree to an acceptable formula, the VC noted.

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CONUA speaks

Meanwhile, the chairman of CONUA on the campus who doubles as the national coordinator for the union, Niyi Sunmonu, said his members are free to attend the congress.

Mr Sunmonu said the faction may hold a congress to decide the next level of action after the meeting with the university management.

Because CONUA has not held any congress to declare any strike, CONUA is not on strike, and therefore, members of CONUA are free to attend the meeting, Mr Sunmonu told PREMIUM TIMES.
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has reactivated the National Identity Number (NIN) of Omoyele Sowore, the activist, and Sahara Reporters publisher, has said.

Mr Sowore disclosed this on Monday in a tweet via his Twitter handle.

He expressed his happiness over the reactivation, which he attributed to the ultimatum he issued to NIMC to restore his NIN or face legal action.

Happy to report that after a 7-day ultimatum given to the lawless Muhammadu Buhari regime. Ive been informed that my national Identity cards have been reactivated! The struggle against tyranny continues! Mr Sowore tweeted.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how Mr Sowore had threatened to sue the NIMC over the alleged unlawful and unconstitutional deactivation of his NIN on January 14, 2022.

Through his lawyer, Tope Temokun, Mr Sowore had sent a letter dated January 14, 2022, threatening to institute legal action against the commission if it failed to reactivate his NIN within seven days.

TAKE NOTICE that if after the expiration of SEVEN DAYS, inclusive of the date of service of this letter on you, our clients National Identity Number (NIN) is not reactivated, we have the full instruction of our client to approach the appropriate court with jurisdiction to seek this redress and this shall be without further recourse to you, the letter by Mr Sowores lawyer read in part.

When the seven-day ultimatum issued in the letter lapsed on January 21, 2022, without his demand met, Mr Temokun subsequently told our reporter that his client would be suing the agency this coming week.

Background

Sahara Reporters had reported earlier, on January 12, 2022, that Mr Sowores biometric identifications had been deactivated, and he would be unable to use any of the national documents to conduct any transactions within or outside the country.

The report described the development as the Nigerian governments latest attack on Mr Sowore.

Mr Sowore, who noted that the deactivation of his NIN was politically motivated, had said he became aware of the development on January 12 when he wanted to use it for a transaction.

He told our reporter in an interview that the NIN deactivation affected his permanent voter card, passport and driving licence.

None of the relevant agencies or authorities has made any public comment on Mr Sowores outcry over the issue.

Our reporter had reached out to NIMCs spokesperson, Kayode Adegoke, but he did not pick our reporters repeated calls or reply to the text messages sent to him.

The spokesperson National Immigration Service (NIS), the governments agency that issues passports to Nigerian citizens, Amos Okpu, said he had no information regarding the alleged deactivation of Mr Sowores passport.

Mr Sowore has been targeted by Nigerian security agencies on many occasions since his arrest by the State Security Service (SSS) after declaring, in August 2019, to lead a #RevolutionNow protest against what he considered to be the President Muhammadu Buhari administrations poor handling of the security situation, economy, and corruption in the country.

He and a protester in Osun State, Olawale Bakare, who was also arrested by the SSS regarding the protest, are currently facing charges of treasonable felony at the Federal High Court in Abuja for allegedly planning to topple the Buhari administration with the demonstration.

Apart from seizing Mr Sowores passport, the court also restricted his movement to within Abuja as part of the conditions for the bail granted him.

But he continues to lead protests and participate in other anti-government demonstrations in Abuja. On different occasions, he ended up being manhandled or detained by the police during such public.

He had also, on numerous occasions, raised the alarm over repeated coordinated attacks on him by alleged hired thugs during protests and appearances in court.
Paul-Henri Damiba, leader of the January 24 coup in Burkina Faso, has been named the new head of state of the West African country for a transitional period, Aljazeera reports.

The military government also said it has restored the constitution, a week after taking power.

The move came shortly after the African Union (AU) suspended Burkina Faso for the takeover and diplomats from West Africa and the United Nations pressed demands for a return to civilian rule.

In a statement read on television on Monday, the military government announced it had approved a fundamental act that lifts the suspension of the constitution, a move that had been declared after the January 24 coup.

According to Aljazeera, the 37-article document guarantees independence of the judiciary and presumption of innocence, as well as basic liberties spelled out in the constitution such as freedom of movement and freedom of speech, according to the statement.

Under the fundamental act, it said, the military government  officially named the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (MPSR)  ensures the continuity of the state pending the establishment of transitional bodies.

The statement did not give a timeline for the transition period.

It formally identified coup leader Mr Damiba, a lieutenant-colonel, as president of the MPSR.

This role also encompasses president of Burkina Faso, head of state (and) supreme leader of the armed forces, the statement said.

The MPSR has two vice presidents, the statement added, but it did not mention any names.

A separate decree read on television said that the armed forces chief of staff, Gilbert Ouedraogo, was leaving the job.

Additionally, the AUs 15-member Peace and Security Council said on Twitter that it had voted to suspend the participation of #BurkinaFaso in all AU activities until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the country.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how ECOWAS, on Friday, suspended Burkina Faso from all its institutions following the coup.

READ ALSO:

Aljazeera also reported that ECOWAS mission headed by Ghanaian Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway arrived in Ouagadougou, where it was joined by the UNs special representative for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Annadif Khatir Mahamat Saleh.

The discussions were very frank, according to Ms Botchway. They seemed very open to the suggestions and proposals that we made. For us its a good sign, she told reporters after meeting with Mr Damiba and other junta members.

The Ghanaian foreign minister added that although Burkina Faso has been suspended, ECOWAS will not severe all ties.

We will not leave Burkina Faso on its own, we will continue to work together to fight this menace of terrorism and armed conflict, she said.

The delegation also visited ousted President Roch Kabore, who is under house arrest, a delegate said.

Ms Botchway said she had met with Mr Kabore and that he was well and in good spirits, Reuters reported.
A bill to increase the academic qualification for the position of President, governors and National Assembly members to a minimum of bachelors degree has been introduced to the House of Representatives.

The Constitution alteration bill, sponsored by Adewunmi Onanuga (APC, Ogun), and read the first time on Tuesday, seeks to amend sections 65, 106, 131 and 171 of the 1999 Constitution.

Section 65 of the 1999 Constitution provides a school certificate or equivalent as the minimum qualification for election into the National Assembly.

65(2) A person shall be qualified for election under subsection (1) of this section if:

(a) he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.

Section 318 interpreted school certificate as follow.

School Certificate or its equivalent means

(a) a Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent, or Grade II Teachers Certificate, the City and Guilds Certificate; or

(b) education up to Secondary School Certificate level; or

(c) Primary Six School Leaving Certificate or its equivalent and 

(i) service in the public or private sector in the Federation in any capacity acceptable to the Independent National Electoral Commission for a minimum of ten years, and

(ii) attendance at courses and training in such institutions as may be acceptable to the Independent National Electoral Commission for periods totalling up to a minimum of one year, and

(iii) the ability to read, write, understand and communicate in the English language to the satisfaction of the Independent National Electoral Commission, and

(d) any other qualification acceptable by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The proposed amendment seeks to delete section 65(2a) and replace it with he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.

Section 131 provides the basic qualification for a candidate to run for the office of the President.

A person shall be qualified for election to the office of the President if 

he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.

The amendment by Ms Onanuga provides that the candidate must be educated up to at least a university degree or equivalent.

A similar amendment is proposed for governors and by extension Ministers. Because section 147(5) provides that No person shall be appointed as a Minister of the Government of the Federation unless he is qualified for election as a member of the House of Representatives.

Last week, the Chairperson of the House Committee on Constitution Review Committee, Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), disclosed that the alteration bill will be introduced to raise the bar on minimum qualification for offices.

Ms Onanuga, while speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, said the bill is in response to the yearning of Nigerians for educated people to be in charge of running the affairs of the country.

She stated that the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, made attempts to introduce the bill, but could not get enough support as a minority leader to propel the bill. According to her, the bill was shut down.

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I know that Mr Speaker like two or three Assembly ago, had said to me that he tried to pass this kind of bill. I guess it was shut down. I think then, he was in opposition, so he did not have the majority. He was probably a minority leader then, she said.

On the bill scaling the numerous hurdles, she said I think it is important if we show how enlightened we are as people. So, I am going to try my utmost. I am not knocking it down. I am very hopeful that it stands a good chance. There are a lot of people who have been rooting for it,

I want to believe the people are in support because they have been clamouring for it. A lot of people are upset. They know that we are a nation of educated people. They get disgusted and say how can people that are not as learned get to speak to us about laws.

I know it is going to gain momentum like the not too young to run bill. I want to believe that a lot of people in state Houses of Assembly will understand that they will get more respect when people know that those sitting at the chairs are learned. If it gets to the states Houses of Assembly and they try to shut it down, the young people in those states will know that their assemblies need to be watched, he said.

Hurdles before the bill

The bill will have to scale the hurdle of the debate on its general principles, also known as second reading.

A constitution amendment bill has to be passed by both Houses (Reps and Senate) with a minimum of 2/3rd of the entire members of the House.

The exception to the rule is state creation and boundary adjustment, which requires 4/5th of the members of each house to pass. The copies of the bill passed must be harmonised (The wordings, the structure must be the same.)

The harmonised bills passed by the two chambers will then be sent to the state Houses of Assembly. If 2/3rd of the Assemblies (24 states out of the 36 states) pass it, the copies will be returned to the National Assembly, which will then send it to the president for assent.

The president has two options: sign or decline.
The Federal High Court Abeokuta has fixed February 22 for the hearing of a fundamental right enforcement suit against the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State.

A student of the institution, Mariam Afeez, sued the institution over its decision to ban the use of niqab on the campus.

She is seeking an order for unconditional access to the school, a public apology and a N50 million compensation.

The university has in the past been enmeshed in controversies surrounding the use of niqab, a piece of clothing that covers the face leaving only the pair of eyes, and usually worn by Muslim women, since October 2017, when it put up a billboard to show its intolerance for lousy and immoral dressings.

The billboard carried the pictures of ripped jeans, mini-skirts and niqab which angered Muslim students on the campus.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that although the billboard was brought down after condemnations, the controversy, however, got a new twist in December 2021, when the university, after a senate meeting, reaffirmed the ban.

The public relations officer of the university, Kolawole Adepoju, refused to comment on the matter, saying he did not have the mandate to talk on the issue.

The suit

According to a copy of the court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Mariam Afeez, through her lawyers led by Ahmad Adetola, approached the court seeking, among others, a declaration that the ban on the use of niqab is unconstitutional, illegal and of no effect.

Part of the documents read: (The student code of dressing as issued on December 16th is) inconsistent with Sections 38 (1) and 42(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which guarantees the religious rights of the applicant in practice and practical observation whether in public or in private and by extension the use of the Niqab (Face Veil) without discrimination.

The suit listed FUNAAB, its governing council, the universitys senate and its vice-chancellor, Felix Salako, as respondents one, two, three and four, respectively.

As contained in the documents, the suit is praying the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents, their servants, agents, privies, assigns, person, body of persons howsoever called claiming through them or acting under their authority or instruction, from infringing on the right of the applicant to manifest and propagate her religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance whether in private or in public.

An Order compelling the respondents jointly and severally to pay the applicant the sum N50,000,000:00 (Fifty Million Naira Only) as compensation for breach of the applicants fundamental human rights.

An order directing the respondents to tender a public apology to the applicant in two widely read newspapers for infringing on her fundamental rights.

Ahmad Adetola, counsel to Ms Afeez, told PREMIUM TIMES that: this is a fundamental issue which harps on religious practises of an individual and no law made by the school can trump the provision of the constitution.

This is a fundamental right issue backed by section 38 of the constitution and there have been judgements of courts, both lower and higher ones, on this particular issue.

Mr Adetola, who wondered why the university has not placed a ban on the wearing of jeans since it is worn by cultists, asked if a niqab-wearing individual has ever caused mayhem in the school.

Have they ever found out that someone wearing the niqab has caused havoc in the school? he asked, adding; We hear of cultism, we hear of everything. When have they banned people wearing jeans because cultists wear jeans? I just think it is bigotry of some individuals.

Alleged harassment

On Thursday, November 24, Ms Afeez, a final year student in the statistics department of the university, was forced to remove her niqab before being granted access into the campus after security personnel denied her entry, on account that the security department has been ordered not to allow any niqab-wearing person access into the campus.

The student said her plea that female security personnel should confirm her identity and let her into the campus fell on deaf ears.

The court documents quoted Ms Azeez to have said: After about an hour of harassment, intimidation, threat and embarrassment by the officers of the 1 Respondent (FUNAAB), I was forced to remove my face veil (Niqob) in the public glare contrary to my religious beliefs and practice as guaranteed in the Constitution.

The forceful insistence that I remove my veil and the inhuman treatment meted on me by officers of the 1st Respondent subjected me to open ridicule in the presence of several students, lecturers and other visitors passing through the 1st respondents gate while it lasted. I was singled out for monumental embarrassment despite not contravening any law.

The 1st Respondent (FUNAAB) is not a faith-based institution but an institution owned and funded by the federal government to reflect the multi-religious nature of the country.

New circular

The final year student said she wrote the school management on the harassment but did not get any favourable response.

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However, on December 16, 2021, the school management through the office of the registrar released a circular re-affirming the existing students dress code with great emphasis on facial identification of all students at all times within the university.

Parts of the circular signed by Bola Adekola, the universitys registrar, reads: (FUNAAB) Senate at its statutory meeting held on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, considered the issue of dress code as it affects students of the university. Senate re-affirmed its earlier decision on students dress code as enshrined in the universitys students regulation with great emphasis on facial identification of all students at all times within the university.

Senate reiterated the fact that its decision on dress code was taken without prejudice to any religion, race or creed but for the peace and security of every member of the university community and to promote teaching and learning in a conducive atmosphere.

All members of the university community, particularly students, are therefore reminded that NO change has been approved to the dress code put in place since 2017 by the senate and should be strictly adhered to at all times.

On Tuesday, when PREMIUM TIMES contacted the universitys spokesperson, Mr Adepoju, he said he could not comment as he was not mandated to speak on such an issue.

He said: I cannot talk to you on this matter because I dont have the mandate. But it is important to note that the peace and tranquility of the university community is the concern of everyone here.
The bill that seeks to regulate the mode of payment of rent in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has passed second reading the Senate.

It seeks to cut down advance payment of rents from one or two years by tenants to three months and subsequent monthly payments

If passed, it would be an offence for any landlord to demand payment of one or two years advance rent from tenants.

Kogi West senator, Smart Adeyemi, sponsored the bill which was first introduced first introduced to the Senate on January 18.

The lawmaker had said the legislation is targeted at the welfare and wellbeing of the downtrodden  majority of whom elected those holding public positions into offices.

Many residents of FCT, he said, are finding it very difficult to cope with huge rent payment  the reason many of the houses built for such purposes are empty.

The second reading of the bill was a sequel to a deliberation on some of its provisions.

Debate

Leading the debate, Mr Adeyemi said, if passed into law, the bill would make it easy for low income earners living in the nations capital, adding that the current yearly payment system has impoverished Nigerians living in the FCT.

In the FCT, landlords demand between one to three years advance rent. This automatically has a huge burden on the masses. Our economy has not fared better in supporting the advance payment. This tenancy system has continuously impoverished Nigerians.

Many residents of FCT are finding it difficult to cope with huge rent payments, therefore legislation must be made towards a better society.

This bill seeks to reduce advance payment for new tenants to three months, seeks to protect low income earners from any form of oppression, seeks to provide a window of legal action for any form of oppression and a safety net for landlords against any tenant, he said.

While Sabi Abdullahi, Ibrahim Gobir and Bala NaAllah supported the bill, Chimaroke Nnamani opposed it.

Mr Abdullahi, the Senate Deputy Whip, described the legislation as one of the most people-centered bills.

He noted that many residents in the FCT are groaning under this difficult system where many people are expected to pay house rent in advance.

It is a testimony of our commitment to the legislative agenda. Many FCT residents are groaning over this.

With governments withdrawal in the provision of official residences, many strive to get accommodation. It is difficult. Many resort to living in the outskirts.

Even home owners will be satisfied if this system is put in place. It is a welfare system, one that is friendly to those who do not have.

On his part, Mr NaAllah said the current system encourages corruption among residents of the FCT.

Lets ask ourselves whether it is just to ask the Clerk of the Senate whose salary is not up to N800,000 to pay N2 million at once in advance. Where do you expect him to get that money?

The system that we operate today encourages corruption. And if this Senate can take an action that gives more justification for public and civil servants not to get engaged in corruptions, its good.

But where we operate a system that makes it impossible for people to survive under an ideal situation, I think we have not utilised the provisions of this constitution, he said.

But Mr Nnamani said the plan should be driven by market forces.

Such market forces as availability of land, cost of building materials, income.

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Government can go into housing schemes, mortgage schemes, credit facilities and not control the business of private individuals in an emerging African democracy. I vigorously oppose this bill, he said.

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The legislation comes on the heels of complaints by Abuja residents of the high cost and mode of payment of rent.

Some residents have decried the difficulty involved in getting accommodation due to the high cost and a few, who do, are asked to make advance payment of two or three years.

The cost of rent ranges from N1.5 million to N4 million depending on the size.

This has made many opt for accommodation in satellite towns like Nyanya, Kubwa, Lugbe, Kuje, among others.

When the passage of the bill was put to question, an overwhelming ayes was heard.

It was, thereafter, referred to the Committee on Housing for further legislative work.

The committee is to report back in four weeks.
The U.S. Mission in Nigeria on Tuesday launched a new visa application procedure aimed at expanding services to assist non-immigrant visa applicants in the country to qualify to renew their visas.

The No-Interview Visa Renewals process, a pilot project, was launched at the U.S. Consular section in Lagos and is expected to be extended to Abuja shortly.

Susan Tuller, the U.S. Mission Consular Coordinator, said the programme is targeted specifically at students and tourist visas and some work visas that the mission is able to process in Nigeria.

The pilot programme specifically will significantly increase the opportunities that Nigerians will have to apply to renew a visa if theyve already been issued a US visa in the past and they meet the criteria for eligibility, Ms Tuller said at a press conference in Lagos.

And this programme is one of our continuing efforts that weve been making for the past year since we were closed for a short period at the beginning of the pandemic to increase the consular services that we provide to both Nigerians and Americans living in Nigeria despite the ongoing challenges that we continue to face as a result of the pandemic.

The good news is that our consular sections in Lagos and Abuja have been fully opened for services for over a year now and weve been able to provide the full range of services for both Nigerians and Americans for those seeking to go to the US on tourist travel or immigrate to the US.

We know that its still extremely difficult to get a visa appointment, either at the Consular section here in Lagos or the Consular section in Abuja.

And the intent of the new programme is to allow us to increase our services for people seeking to travel to the US for tourism or some types of work or to study while still being able to provide the services that we have to provide to Americans living in Nigeria, like renewing passports and obtaining birth certificates for their children and the services that we need to provide to Nigerians who want to immigrate to the United States to reunite with family.

Dropbox method

The new procedure has some similarities and differences with the dropbox facility, the earlier method that equally eliminated in-person interviews for visa applicants. The dropbox method was suspended in 2019.

Why was it suspended? Whens it coming back? And I know there will be lots of questions about our new programme and whether its the same programme just being restarted. So let me start by just explaining how the US government looks at visa policies and programmes, said Ms Tuller.

One of the things that the US government as a whole and the individual consulates and embassies abroad look at when were talking about your visa policies and programmes are two things: one, does the visa policy or programme allow us to make sure that were protecting US border security, which is our highest priority and that is it helping us facilitate legitimate travel to the United States?

So when it comes to interview waiver programmes, one of the things we found with the programme we had or suspended in 2019 was that it didnt help with either of those things. We found that there was a lot of fraud in the applications that were coming in through our interview waiver process. And we also found a very high overstay rate of people who got issued visas through that programme and then travelled to the United States, even though they had already been issued visas in the past.

Ms Tuller said they also found that the dropbox method didnt help with their overall productivity or efficiency or customer service as Consular officers were still calling over 50 per cent of the people who applied through that programme in for interviews.

Even though they had already met certain eligibility criteria that would allow them not to have an interview. But there were so many questions in the applications that we received that were hauling quite a few people in which was not good for customer service and it was not good for our productivity.
The Nigerian government has launched a N62.1 billion HIV trust fund as part of efforts to reduce funding gap and also place more people living with HIV on treatment.

Speaking during the launch held at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday, the Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Gambo Aliyu, said the fund will help the country fight the HIV epidemic.

Mr Aliyu said the fund is a sustainable financing mechanism for the mobilisation and deployment of domestic private sector resources to address the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in Nigeria.

He said the fund will improve efforts to ensure coverage of high-impact HIV interventions that will provide the requisite treatment for HIV-positive mothers.

Mr Aliyu said it will also contribute to closing the funding gap for HIV in Nigeria that currently stands at about U$108 million per annum.

Securing a financing mechanism to guarantee a generation of HIV free babies is the basis for todays launch.

This unprecedented feat puts Nigeria on a fast track lane to control HIV spread by the year 2023  earlier than the global target, he said

The agency had in 2018 announced that it would introduce the trust fund as part of efforts to address the HIV funding gap in the country.

It said the initiative, which is private sector-driven, would provide a platform for more contributions from the private sector.

Mother to Child Transmission

A 2021 report by the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) shows that, at least, one child globally was infected with HIV every two minutes in 2020.

The report indicates that not less than 300,000 children globally were newly infected with HIV in 2020.

It also shows that 120,000 children died from AIDS-related causes during the same period, or one child every five minutes.

Despite efforts and progress made in reducing the scourge of HIV/AIDS, Nigeria still accounts for huge numbers of babies born with the virus.

In Nigeria, at least one child between the ages 0-9 years was infected with HIV every 30 minutes in 2020, the report shows.

This means that about 20,695 children in Nigeria were newly infected with HIV in 2020.

The UNICEF report reveals that two in five children living with HIV worldwide do not know their status, and just over half of children with HIV are receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART).

However, despite these achievements, our national coverage of prevention of mother to child transmission (MTCT) is less than 50 per cent leading to about 22,000 cases of MTCT of HIV every year in the country, Mr Aliyu said.

Family Health

Speaking at the launch, President Muhammadu Buhari said ending HIV/AIDS is a family health right.

Mr Buhari said his government will continue to ensure the disease is drastically reduced.

Mr Buhari said: Ending AIDS as a public health threat in Nigeria will require increased domestic funding. We have continued to make good our commitment of placing more people living with HIV on treatment annually using national resources.

However, strong domestic resource mobilisation with an enduring partnership and shared responsibility is required to sustain the response to HIV and other emerging public health emergencies.

In his remarks, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, said today marks a key step towards ensuring that no Nigerian child is born with HIV or contracts the disease all through his life.

Mr Mustapha said the trust fund signifies the commitment of the present administration to ensuring that no one dies from HIV infection.

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Since 2005, about $6.2 billion has been spent on HIV response in Nigeria, about 80 per cent of these funds were contributed by external donors, mainly the US Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, he said.

He said the private sector contributed 0.1 per cent to 2 per cent of total funds with the rest provided by the Nigerian government.

Trust Fund

In a statement issued ahead of the launch, the Trust Funds Managing Director, Jekwu Ozoemene, said by deploying private sector competencies and capital market tools, the fund is key to helping Nigeria achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 strategy.

Mr Ozoemene, seasoned banker, administrator, and finance expert, said the investment will improve maternal health and reduce child mortality especially in the rural and peri-urban communities in Nigeria.

He said this will be achieved through programmes focused on awareness creation on PMTCT, HIV prevention education for women who are in their reproductive age, and the provision of testing services and antiretrovirals for HIV positive pregnant women.

In his remarks, the chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said the creation of the trust fund will ensure the country fills the HIV funding gap.

Mr Dangote said he will contribute towards the HIV trust fund over the next five years. He urged the private sector and individuals to contribute towards the countrys efforts to end MTCT by 2030.
The Catholic Church in Nigeria has said as an institution it will not endorse candidates in the coming 2023 general elections.

It, however, said it encouraged its members to register, participate in party politics, contest and vote in elections.

The church also condemned the delay in signing the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law.

The Priest in charge of Church and Society at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Uche Obiechina, said this at the media briefing held on Friday in Abuja.

Politics is about governance, about the well-being of the people, so the church in Nigeria and Catholic Church anywhere in the world supports politics and encourages its members to play politics.

Catholic Church does not play partisan politics but members of the church are expected to play party politics, just that the church as an institution ought not to play party politics. Party politics means politics of APC, PDP, PRP and whatever, he said.

But the church identifies with our sons and daughters in various political parties. And that is why the church will not field a candidate and say vote for PDP or APC. The church does not do that and would not do that, he said.

Mr Obiechina said the church is mobilising Christians and non-Christians to rise up to the reality of politics.

It is through politics and governance that you can bring about the common good and our country is in dire need because we have had terrible politics and party apathy amongst a good number of our Christians who will say politics is a dirty game, I dont want to be involved in it. If you dont get involved in it, then you are going to have the dirty men involved in it rule you and you become a victim, he said.

On his part, the Director of Social Communication CSN, Micheal Umoh, advised Nigerians not to dwell on tribal, ethnic, religious or political affiliations when choosing their next leader because most politicians use them as a smokescreen to hide their clandestine interests and ambitions.

The only reasonable political consideration now left to choose from, irrespective of our tribe, tongue and religious beliefs, is between truth and falsehood, the good and the bad, the oppressed and the oppressor, the loyal and disloyal citizens of Nigeria. These are the only two parties that matter in the country now, he added.

He said true Nigerians must rise in unison to act and lend their voices to all that is good and noble in order to save the country.

We cannot wait for another chance, if we are blessed to have this one; and we may not have another chance to rescue this nation if we fail to take advantage of this one, Mr Umoh said.

He urged Nigerians to obtain their voter cards, stressing that INEC must ensure the process is made easy for the people and the peoples votes are made to count during the election.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, ordered the unfreezing of bank accounts belonging to the Benue State government.

Inyang Ekwo, the judge, made the order removing restrictions on all accounts belonging to the state government except the one domiciled in Zenith bank.

The order was made after the adoption of Memorandum of Undertaking by lawyers representing parties in the case of indebtness of about N784.3 million to the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

AMCON is the claimant/applicant in the suit, while HPPS Multilinks Services Ltd and the Benue State Government are 1st and 2nd respondents, respectively.

The MoU dated January 25, 2022, and filed on January 26, 2022, was adopted on February 1, 2021.

T. D. Pepe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, leading other lawyers adopted the MoU on behalf of the 2nd defendant (Benue State Government), while Val Igboanusi adopted for the plaintiff.

Akin Kehinde (SAN) stood for Fidelity Bank Plc and C. O. Nwosisi, represented GTBank Plc.

Orders

After the adoption, Mr Ekwo made the order directing that Zenith bank with Account No. 1013470079 designated as Benue State Government Ecological Account remains frozen in the sum of the disputed debt vide interim Order of the Court dated 26th October, 2021 pending the determination of the case.

But, the court ordered the unfreezing of all Benue State Government Accounts with Access Bank Plc, Citibank Nigeria Ltd, Ecobank Nigeria Ltd, Fidelity Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Heritage Bank Pic, Keystone Bank Ltd, Polaris Bank Ltd, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Standard Chartered Bank Ltd, Suntrust Bank Nigeria Ltd, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, UBA Plc, Unity Bank Nigeria Plc, Wema Bank Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc.

Meanwhile, Justice Ekwo has adjourned the matter to March 2.

Pursuant to discussions and agreement by the parties, all other accounts of the Benue State Government frozen by this Honourable Court vide interim order of 26th October, 2021 are to be unfrozen while Account No. 1013470079 with Zenith Bank Plc, designated BENUE STATE GOVERNMENT ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNT shall remain frozen in the sum of the disputed debt, pending the determination or resolution of the dispute.

Accordingly, all Benue State Government Accounts with Access Bank Plc, Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank Nigeria Ltd, Fidelity Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Pic (GTCo), Heritage Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Limited, Polaris Bank Ltd, Stanbic IBTC Plc, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Ltd, Suntrust Bank Nigeria Ltd, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, UBA Plc, Unity Bank Nigeria Plc, Wema Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc, howsoever designated, are to be unfrozen the court ordered.

An affidavit deposed to by one Augusta Aver Yaakugh, a legal practitioner in Abuja said, I was informed by Mr. Agada Godfrey Omaji, the Deputy Accountant-General of Benue State in our office on 25/01/2022 at about 12 Noon, and I verily believed him of the facts hereunder stated.

That the freezing of all of 2nd defendants bank accounts in all the banks in Nigeria has occasioned a lot of hardship to the State.

That while the court has freed some of the 2nd defendants accounts in UBA Plc, Access Bank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc, other accounts used to finance various sectors of government have remained frozen in all the banks affected.

It would be recalled that Mr Ekwo had upon an ex-parte application dated and filed on September 30, 2021, made an interim order freezing and attaching the accounts of both the 1st & 2nd respondents in all banks, both current, savings, fixed deposits and investment accounts or howsoever described maintained with any of some listed banks.

The listed banks are: Access Bank Plc; Citibank Nigeria Limited, Eco Bank Nigeria Plc; Fidelity Bank Plc, First Bank Nigeria Pic; First City Monument Bank Pic, Guaranty Trust Bank Pic, Heritage Bank Pic; Keystone Bank Limited, Polaris Bank Limited, Stanbic IBTC Plc, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited, Sterling Bank.
The Gender Channel is a threshing ground and a safe space for debating contemporary and trending gender issues in Nigeria and globally. The columnist, Arit Oku, a gender and development specialist, uses a gender-sensitive, human rights and sustainability-focused lens to offer a gender perspective on matters related to human wellbeing and sustainable development.

Can a mobile app help keep women safe?

GBV awareness is rising in Nigeria largely due to activism, social media activity and the persistent voices of anti-FGM advocates. This app is a step in the right direction in breaking the silence that shrouds GBV. But a lot will depend on the response to the reports filed. Will the police, health authorities, legal entities, educational institutions, corporations, families, the media respond with compassion to the reports filed?

An app that assists in the reporting of cases of gender-based violence (GBV) such as rape, incest, trafficking, domestic violence, sexual harassment amongst others is pretty dope, I think. However, I have my misgivings, considering the rampant cases of GBV that go undetected, unreported, unacknowledged, and unpunished.

On December 30, 2021, Premium Times reported a story: NGO launches App for reporting cases of violence against women. It read in part: The Alliances for Africa (AfA) Mission, an NGO, has launched Kpoturum App for reporting and documenting cases of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Nigerias South-east. This caught my attention because it is uncommon to find technology painstakingly developed to address issues affecting women and girls. Gender-based violence (GBV) is violence directed against a person because of that persons gender, often disproportionately affecting women. GBV and VAWG are interchangeable terms.

AfAs programme manager, Blessing Duru, said the Kpoturum App which means call on me in Igbo language (spoken in Nigerias South-East) was designed to assist survivors to get justice through effective documentation, referral, and the case management of VAWG.

The app holds great promise, but can it adequately address the spectrum of complications that GBV cases present in Nigeria? I will provide some examples. How, for instance, does a struggling girl deployed to the South-East under the compulsory National Youth Service Corp spill on her employer, who has consistently harassed her, without being fired? How does an underaged girl expose that creepy uncle who has been preying on her within the confines of her home which should serve as her haven? How does a girl report her father who marries her off as a child bride or terrorists who abduct her from school and rape her?

How does the casual passer-by report the case of traders lining the sidewalks of the Yaba Bus Stop area in Lagos and other parts of the country who grab girls bodies, tugging at their arms, breasts or any other parts they please, while using unacceptable and often derogatory language to address them? I particularly loathed this as a teenager but then I could not put a name to this form of molestation. Can a whistle-blower call on or rely on the app? Can a young girl date-raped dare to report the incident without being blamed for complicity since the popular belief is that when a girl says no it actually means yes? Afterall, she must have wielded her bottom power to entice the male. Bottom power is a Nigerian coinage that implies that females use their bodies as a bargaining chip for amassing material goods.

The difficulty in reporting these cases and getting redress is exemplified by the fact that in the higher institutions of learning that should model best practices, lack of evidence has been the reason why cases of sexual harassment of girls by their teachers are habitually thrown out of the window, until a recent case in which the accused university don was sentenced to a two-year jail term. This landmark conviction was made possible because the survivor had an audio recording of the interaction between her and her lecturer. She also enjoyed the support of NGOs and other advocates through every step of the ordeal, without which she would have given up.

Will measures be put in place legally and structurally to protect survivors of GBV from the customary blame games, embarrassment, and stigma? Are employers willing to implement gender and social inclusion programmes as well as sexual harassment policies to increase awareness and to curb these abusive practices?

The issue of respect for adults has great value but in the context of sexual harassment, the younger female is culturally constrained in her actions to ward-off unwelcome advances. A popular counterargument is that girls offer sex to their teachers in exchange for higher grades. Here we must consider the power dynamic between a lecturer, who is usually older and his female student, sometimes young enough to be his daughter. The student has no power to sanction the lecturer if he chooses to disregard her proposition. However, the case is different when the lecturer propositions his student. He is older and has the authority to fail her if she rejects his demands.

Then, there is the need for education and awareness. Sexuality is still largely a taboo subject in Nigeria. Thus, discourses are often relegated to informal spaces where young people are unable to access age-appropriate and accurate information. Many girls have neither the awareness nor vocabulary to navigate the often-nuanced nature of sexual harassment; let alone report it. Parent-to-child communication on sexuality is oftentimes lacking, even with regard to matters as natural as menstruation and menstrual hygiene. This heightens the vulnerability of girls, such that even when they are abused, they lack the courage to speak out. Thus, perpetrators often go on for long and suffer no consequences. Even when girls summon the courage to report, they may be blamed for dressing provocatively and most of the time, the incident is hushed to protect the familys name, especially when perpetrators are close family members. Live-in domestic helps are particularly vulnerable.

The socio-cultural context protects perpetrators from suffering the consequences of abuse, especially given the low status of these females. Official structures, such as the Police, are not adequately trained to handle reported cases professionally, because the officers are also products of the same socialisation processes. The app developers would have to take into perspective these contextual realities. Good enough, Nigerias Senate passed the Anti-sexual Harassment Bill in 2020, at last! Unfortunately, Nigeria is notorious for policies that are not implemented. A form of learned helplessness pervades the polity, whereby no one expects any action.

GBV awareness is rising in Nigeria largely due to activism, social media activity and the persistent voices of anti-FGM advocates. This app is a step in the right direction in breaking the silence that shrouds GBV. But a lot will depend on the response to the reports filed. Will the police, health authorities, legal entities, educational institutions, corporations, families, the media respond with compassion to the reports filed? Will measures be put in place legally and structurally to protect survivors of GBV from the customary blame games, embarrassment, and stigma? Are employers willing to implement gender and social inclusion programmes as well as sexual harassment policies to increase awareness and to curb these abusive practices?

Arit Oku, a gender and development specialist, writes from Lagos.
The Chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has said the Commission would ensure a peaceful conduct of the forthcoming council elections in Abuja.

INEC had announced February 12 for the election in the 68 wards of the six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory.

From its end, 475 candidates have been cleared by 18 political parties, including Nigerias ruling APC and main opposition, PDP, to slug it out for the chairmanship and councillorship seats in Bwari, Abaji Gwagwalada, Kuje, Kwali and Abuja Municipal Council (AMAC).

Using the just concluded November 6 governorship election in Anambra State as a yardstick and the growing concerns on insecurity in the FCT , Mr Yakubu, at the consultative meeting with various security agencies, on Tuesday, said the commission is giving its all to ensure the safety of electorates.

He disclosed that the commission has identified some possible hot spots within its area of coverage for the election and has started making preparations, in collaboration with security agencies to address the threats.

For our part, the Commission has also been evaluating the risk to the election using the Election Violence Mitigation and Advocacy Tool (EVMAT).

 The aim is to identify early warning signals that could assist the security agencies and other stakeholders in devising and deploying appropriate mitigation strategies. Among other areas of concern, the Commission focused on threats specific to geographical locations, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, the issue of hard drugs, presence of insurgents and armed groups, intra and inter-party conflicts, and incidents of hate speech.

The hard copy of the summary of the threats and frequency of incidents is included in your folders for this meeting, he said in his address read at the meeting.

The INEC chairperson did not make known the threat areas as he revealed the commissions plan to meet other stakeholders, including political parties, candidates, transport workers, CSOs, among others before the poll

On the plans for other bye-elections and the 2022 off cycle governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States, Mr Mahmood also announced that the period earmarked for political schedule of activities in Ekiti State ended on January 29 as it is bracing up for the June 18 governorship poll.

All 18 political parties served notices for their party primaries to elect their candidates for the election and invited the Commission to monitor them. One party adopted the direct method for electing its candidate while 16 parties opted for the indirect method.

However, from on our field report, the Boot Party (BP) did not hold its primary election at any venue known to, and monitored by, the Commission. Consequently, we do not expect the party to nominate a candidate for the Ekiti State Governorship election.

On this note, let me once again warn political parties to strictly adhere to the Commissions timelines for all activities, including the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates. These timelines are firm and fixed. No deviation or violation will be allowed, he warned.
The family of the late Adebayo Alao-Akala says the burial programmes for the late former Governor of Oyo State begins February 14.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Chairman, Publicity Committee, Dokun Odebunmi (APC-Surulere/Ogo-Oluwa), which was made available to journalists on Monday in Ibadan.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the week-long burial activities would hold from February 14 to February 20.

Mr Odebunmi said that a lecture and day of tributes by the political class would hold at the Hall of Grace, Jogor Centre, Ibadan, on February 14.

He said that another lecture and day of tributes would hold at the College of Health Science, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, on February 15.

According to him, there will be a praise night at his residence, Opadoyin Akala Lodge, Randa in Ogbomoso by 4.00 p.m on February 15.

Lying-in-State and Executive Session will hold at the House of Chiefs, Oyo State Government Secretariat in Agodi, Ibadan, Oyo State by 12.00 p.m on February 16.

The Hearse, afterwards, departs in a motorcade to Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Mr Odebunmi said.

He said that cultural display and parade would hold at his residence in Ogbomoso by 10.00 a.m on February 17.

The lawmaker added that Christian Wake and service of songs would hold at Ogbomoso High School Open Field by 4.00 p.m. same day.

Mr Odebunmi said that on February 18, the final burial service would hold at Beulah Baptist Conference Ground by 11.00 a.m.

On February 18 interment holds immediately at his residence, while reception follows at Ogbomoso Recreation Club, Ogbomoso, he said.

Mr Odebunmi said that a thanksgiving service would hold at Oke-Elerin Baptist Church, Ogbomoso by 10.00 a.m. February 20.

Meanwhile, Brimoh Yusuff, the Chairman, Central Planning Committee, assured the people that adequate security measures had been put in place to ensure the safety of people and valuables during the event.

(NAN)
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has presented a certificate of return to Bisi Kolawole, the winner of the partys just concluded governorship primary election in Ekiti State.

Mr Kolawole, the preferred candidate of immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, garnered 671 votes to defeat 16 other aspirants cleared to participate in the partys primary election held last Wednesday in Ekiti State.

His closest contender, a former governor of the state, Olusegun Oni, has rejected the process, as his campaign team cited disenfranchisement of delegates and electoral malpractice.

Amidst this controversy, the PDP leadership at the partys headquarters in Abuja, on Tuesday, officially gave its mandate to Mr Kolawole to fly its flag in the forthcoming June 18 governorship race.

I see Kolawole as an experienced politician who has worked very hard for the party at different levels  both in the party executive and the state executives. So we think he will hit the ground running because hes going to be the next governor of Ekiti state, the Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, said before presenting the certificate to the governorship candidate.

In his remarks, the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, who represented the PDP Governors Forum, urged Mr Kolawole to make more friends as the main task lies ahead.

He expressed optimism on the partys chances ahead of the poll.

We believe that PDP ought to and will win the June 2022 election. That obviously requires hard work. It requires the support of all, particularly the Governors Forum. I want to assure you of our support in that election, Mr Okowa said.

His wishes were further reiterated by a member of the partys Board of Trustees, Jerry Gana, who represented the board.

ALSO READ: Fayose condemns attack on Ekiti PDP secretariat

Mr Kolawole, who spoke before the party executives moved to attend to stakeholders from Osun State, said he is on a mission to deliver his people from economic and social insecurity of the state under the APC-led government.

He argued that the state was progressing terrifically under the past PDP administration until the incumbents reelection bid.

Of the other 16 aspirants that participated in the governorship primary with Mr Kolawole, only Kayode Adaramodu was at the secretariat to witness the presentation of the certificate of return to the winner.

Mr Fayose was also not present at the ceremony.
State lawmakers are slated to vote this week on proposed congressional district maps, pictured here, that are likely to futher erode the GOP influence in Washington.
Southbury, CT (06488)

Today

Sunny along with a few clouds. High 71F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will become overcast later during the night. Low 48F. Winds light and variable.
Cutting back administrative burdens in the interest of quality and patient safety

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Clinical trials are research studies performed in volunteers that are aimed at evaluating the safety and efficacy of new medicines and therapies. Their results are used by regulatory agencies to decide on marketing authorization. Clinical trials are becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to conduct, due in great measure to the disproportionate volume of bureaucratic demands involved. This growing complexity is a threat to patient safety, independent academic clinical research, and access to affordable innovation.

This situation prompted the formation of a broad cross-disciplinary coalition of medical societies and patient advocates to combat excessive administrative burden whilst ensuring clinical trial quality and patient safety. The " Recommendations of the Coalition for Reducing Bureaucracy in Clinical Trials " ('Coalition Recommendations') focus on four main themes: safety reporting, informed consent, regulatory guidelines, and harmonization of requirements across the EU.

Current safety reporting practices lead doctors to spend a significant portion of their time on administrative tasks. Ideally, investigators should have to focus only on the medical aspect of adverse events  i.e., those elements directly related to the patient and the disease.

Informed consent forms are often lengthy and written in legal language that can be challenging for patients. The coalition therefore recommends limiting patient consent forms to 1000 words, using lay language and data visualization where possible.

The Coalition Recommendations are also an appeal for reducing over-interpretation of regulatory guidelines, for harmonization of ethics and data requirements across the EU and for focusing on better trial designs which include cumulative safety reporting and take into account patients' views.

While the Coalition Recommendations reflect first and foremost the views and needs of investigators and patients, the views of regulators, sponsors, ethics committees and other stakeholders have been taken in as much as possible. The Coalition continues to engage in dialogue and collaboration in search of realistic, pragmatic and broadly supported solutions.

Coalition lead and EHA Board Member Prof. Martin Dreyling: "The Coalition Recommendations are an unambiguous call by patient advocacy groups, investigators and academic sponsors to limit the administrative burdens in clinical trials, which are currently disproportionate and a threat to trial quality and patient safety. Our interdisciplinary Coalition especially asks for cumulative reporting (instead of single SUSAR reports), readable and short informed consent forms for patients, and regulatory frameworks that focus on the primary study aim (as with trials in the COVID era)."

The European Hematology Association (EHA) is a non-governmental organization that is guided by its mission to promote excellence in patient care, research, and education in hematology. EHA, in close collaboration with the BioMed Alliance, has initiated and coordinates the Coalition on Reducing bureaucracy in Clinical Trials. For more information on EHA and the Coalition for Reducing Bureaucracy in Clinical Trials, please contact Gauthier Quinonez at bureaucracyincts@ehaweb.org .

Coalition website: https://bureaucracyincts.eu/

SOURCE European Hematology Association (EHA)
TEWKSBURY, Mass., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Every pet parent wants the best for their pet, and a healthy dog starts with healthy teeth! Despite the millions that Americans spend on their pets, just two percent of dog owners brush their dog's teeth daily1 and only 14 percent of dogs receive dental care by a vet2. A lack of proper dental care adds up: dental disease affects 80 percent of adult dogs and 96 percent of senior dogs.3

A Healthy Dog Starts with Healthy Teeth: Veterinarian with WHIMZEES by Wellness Shares Tips for Pet Dental Health Month

This February is Pet Dental Health, and WHIMZEES by Wellness, the creator of all-natural daily dental treats for dogs, wants to help pet parents understand just how important it is to care for their dog's teethbecause it's about more than fresh breath and an Instagram-worthy dog smile. If left untreated, dental disease can lead to tooth loss, mouth pain and even systemic health issues.

To help pet parents take action and make simple, easy changes for a healthier future, Dr. Danielle Bernal, veterinarian with WHIMZEES by Wellness, shares her top tips for health from tooth to tail:

Start Today! At the start of a New Year, there's no better time to jump into oral care for your dog. Don't feel discouraged if you're hearing about this for the first time or intimidated by adding another facet to your dog's wellbeing. Let their smile motivate you to do the best you can for their overall health! Create a Daily Routine: The most important part of pet dental health is consistency. Harmful plaque and germs can recolonize on a dog's tooth is just 24 hours, so daily dental care is key to prevent the development of dental disease. Whether it's brushing teeth or using a dental treat, make it part of a daily routine, just like it is for humans: breakfast, morning walk and dental care time. Watch for Warning Signs: Understand the signs of dental disease and keep a close eye on your dog's oral health to stay ahead of complications. Discolored teeth, broken or loose teeth, super stinky breath, reduced appetite and inflamed gums are all signs that your dog's dental health is declining, and are great reasons to visit the vet for a professional checkup. Make It Easier: If you've tried to brush your dog's teeth with a toothbrush, you know that it can be a challenge. To make it easier, try brushing every other day and supplement care with a dental treat. Look for treats that have natural ingredients and pack a long chewing time, like WHIMZEES by Wellness, to give both the pleasure of a treat and the benefit of maintaining healthy teeth and gums.

"At WHIMZEES by Wellness, it's our mission to show pet parents that one of the best ways to love our dogs is by taking the time to care for their teeth, because proper dental health is the gateway to a lifetime of overall health that today's pet parents strive for," said Dr. Danielle Bernal, staff veterinarian for WHIMZEES by Wellness dental treats. "We're still seeing too many dogs affected by dental disease, so we've created a daily dental care routine that's easy and fun with WHIMZEES. Let's make it the year that we give dogs their best, healthiest smiles so they can live their best and healthiest lives."

WHIMZEES by Wellness all-natural dental treats are the best of both worlds: the joy of a treat and the health benefit of supporting healthy teeth and gums. By giving just one WHIMZEES treat a day to fight bacteria that resurfaces daily, dogs get twice the cleaning power because WHIMZEES last three times longer to provide more cleaning time.4 They are thoughtfully engineered with grooves and ridges to provide dogs with both chomping and cleaning, making WHIMZEES the treat that treats them well.

Want the chance to win a year's supply of WHIMZEES by Wellness treats? Check out the Healthier by the Smile Sweepstakes, live during the month of February, and upload a picture of your dog's smile for a chance to win! WHIMZEES by Wellness dental treats are conveniently available at pet specialty retailers, national retailers and online. To learn more about WHIMZEES by Wellness and find them near you, visit https://www.whimzees.com/.

About WHIMZEES by Wellness:

WHIMZEES by Wellness, manufactured in Veendam, The Netherlands and part of the Wellness Pet Company family of brands, are all-natural daily dental treats for dogs with only six primary ingredients and no artificial ingredients, colors, flavors, preservatives, gluten, or meat. WHIMZEES are created through a patented design process at a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that is committed to delivering the highest quality, BRC rated products for pets. To discover our full range of fun and functional shapes, please visit http://www.whimzees.com/.

__________________________________ 1 Quest BW.Oral health benefits of a daily dental chew in dogs. J Vet Dent. 2013.

2 Veterinary Pet Insurance. Brush up on your pet's oral care. http://www.petinsurance.com/healthzone/pet-articles/pet-dental-care/Brush-Up-on-Your-Pets-Oral-Care.aspx.

3 Ozy, Sweeney, Dog Owners Have a New Obsession: Dental Health for Their Pets, March 2019

4 Based on studies of comparable products conducted by an independent kennel ('17-'19)

SOURCE WHIMZEES by Wellness
HANOVER, Md., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Actalent, a leading engineering and sciences services and talent solutions company, has released a whitepaper, "First Come Droughts, Then Come Fires," that examines today's talent shortage and highlights pressures in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The first in a three-part series, the analysis is followed by answers to leaders' most pressing questions about how to mitigate negative effects on business growth and innovation.

The talent shortage is not a new problem, but has been exacerbated by COVID-19. In 2015, 32 percent of businesses reported difficulty finding necessary talent, a number that more than doubled five years later to 70 percent in February 2020, pre-pandemic.1 On top of that, labor force participation dropped 3.2 points from February to April 2020, to 60.2 percent, increasing only to 61.9 percent by December 2021 due to record job quit rates.2

"The number of STEM talent was already out of balance with demand due to the modernization of work today, but then the pandemic accelerated technology adoption and the need for businesses to pivot operations to a virtual module," said John Flanigan, vice president of strategic operations at Actalent. "In the last quarter of 2021, the national unemployment rate averaged over four percent. The average unemployment rate for key engineering and science skillsets during the same period was less than half of that."

Average Unemployment Rates for Key STEM Skill Sets3

Software/Hardware and Mathematics: 2.2 percent

Architecture and Engineering: 1.6 percent

Sciences (life, physical, and social): 2.2 percent

"Now, more than ever, organizations must invest in their current workforce or risk losing them," continued Flanigan. "The short supply of workers, combined with the extraordinary high need for technical skills, demonstrates that it's an employee-driven market. This is especially pronounced in sectors like engineering and science. These highly skilled professionals have a lot of options and will not stay at a job where they don't feel connected, engaged, and valued. Without strategies in place to address this, the talent drought will quickly turn into a full-blown fire."

For the complete data analysis and Actalent's recommendations, read the full paper here.

About Actalent (formerly Aerotek's Engineering and Sciences divisions and EASi)

Actalent connects passion with purpose. We're supporting critical engineering and sciences initiatives that advance how companies serve the world. With almost 40 years of experience, our scalable engineering and sciences services and talent solutions provide the expertise our customers need to achieve more. Actalent's global footprint and flexible delivery models ensure access to specialized talent where and when you need it. Follow us on LinkedIn and learn more at actalentservices.com.

Actalent is an operating company of Allegis Group, the global leader in talent solutions.

1 Emsi: The Demographic Drought

2 Bureau of Labor Statistics: Civilian labor force participation rate.

3 Actalent: Economy and Labor Market Brief: December 2021

SOURCE Actalent
MIAMI, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- America- Loving Care Home Health (ALC Home Health) was awarded a contract to provide school nursing for E.S.E and comprehensive health services to Miami Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS).

For the better part of two decades, ALC Home Health has been serving the residents of Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. As a licensed and nationally accredited Home Health Agency, the company manages the nursing care of hundreds of patients daily and employs hundreds of nurses and nursing assistants. Relying on the guidance of Gazitua Letelier, PA, ALC successfully responded to an RFP published for School Nursing services by M-DCPS and was awarded as an official vendor for the school nursing services for both exceptional student education and comprehensive health services at Miami Dade Schools. Raymond Rodriguez-Torres, President and co-CEO of ALC said: "To care for the children of Miami-Dade County is an extraordinary privilege. We are grateful to Luis Andre Gazitua for his council and to M-DCPS School Board and Administration for their trust. We are honored for opportunity to serve the children of our community. Ensuring the health and well-being of children is a passion for all of us at ALC."

Rolando Medina Chairman and Co-CEO of ALC said: "For almost 20 years, ALC has strived to meet the highest standards of nursing care for both adults and children in Miami. We are excited and grateful to have been awarded this contract and work in partnership with M-DCPS board and staff."

Staffing efforts are underway and nurses are now being deployed to schools throughout Miami Dade County where nursing services are desperately needed, particularly due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. All nurses interested in exploring an opportunity as a school nurse are encouraged to contact ALC at 305-828-5310.

Founded in 2005, America-Loving Care Home Health has cared for thousands of adults and children in Miami Dade and Monroe Counties. ALC specializes in High Tech Skilled Nursing, Physical Therapy and Nursing assistance needed at home. ALC Home Health believes in compassion without compromise and is regarded as one of Miami's premier home health nursing agencies. For more information, please visit www.ALCHomeHealth.net

The Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) educates over 345,000 students in 392 schools and is the fourth largest school district in the nation. The school district staffs over 40,000 employees, including teachers, administrators, paraeducators, and school and central office staff.

CONTACT:

Mailyn Fernandez

VP, ALC Home Health

305-828-5310

[email protected]

SOURCE ALC Home Health
Thoughtfully sourced and crafted with only the highest quality clean ingredients, ALOHA's plant-based protein bars feature a proprietary brown rice and pumpkin seed protein blend and deliver 14g protein and just 5g sugar per serving. Like all of ALOHA's products, the bars are Certified USDA Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, Certified Vegan and made without gluten, dairy, soy, and sugar alcohols.

ALOHA bars now available at Whole Foods Market include:

Peanut Butter Cup

Cookie Dough

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip

Coconut Chocolate Almond

"Launching in Whole Foods Market is a major step in growth for our small company and allows us to make it even easier for plant-based and conscious-minded eaters to find and discover our delicious bars," said Brad Charron, CEO, ALOHA. "It's no secret Whole Foods Market has extremely high standards for the brands it carries, and the fact that our bars will be sold is a testament to the quality of our products and, also, a huge win for our company as we strive to help more and more people along their happier paths to healthy."

"We are excited to launch ALOHA plant-based bars nationally, including their Peanut Butter Cup, Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Coconut Chocolate Almond flavors," said Allie Hausladen, Principal Category Merchant at Whole Foods Market. "ALOHA's plant-based bars give our customers new and tasty options within the nutrition bar category."

ALOHA is proudly a B Corp Certified, USDA Organic, and plant-based bar brand!

In addition to Whole Foods Market, ALOHA's bars, drinks and powders can be found grocery stores nationwide, including Erewhon, Kroger, Sprouts, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, Central Market, and more. ALOHA can also be found online at Thrive Market, Walmart.com, Vitacost.com and ALOHA.com.

To learn more about ALOHA, please visit www.ALOHA.com and follow along @Alohamoment.

About ALOHA

ALOHA is an employee-owned and -operated company committed to helping people choose a happier path to a healthier life by creating simple, nutritious food that everyone can access and enjoy. Its plant-based products are high in protein, amazingly low in sugar, Vegan and next-level delicious--proving you don't have to sacrifice taste for nutrition. As a certified B Corporation, ALOHA is dedicated to using its business as a force for good and taking care of its people, customers, communities and the planet.

SOURCE ALOHA
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- America First Political Committee ('America First') announced today that their Chairman KW Miller is considering Primarying RINO Carlos Gimenez (FL-26) in August 2022. KW Miller is a long-time resident of South Florida and has significant ties to Florida's 26th Congressional District which includes a portion of southern Dade County and all of Monroe County, Florida.

Gimenez is one of many RINO's that America First has targeted for Primary elections across the USA in 2022. Gimenez is NOT supported by America First, Donald Trump or the Republican Party.

America First Has Targeted RINO Carlos Gimenez For Removal From Congress RINO Carlos Gimenez Openly Supports and Voted For Hillary Clinton

RINO Carlos Gimenez has voted with Nancy Pelosi and the radical leftists far too many times in Congress. Gimenez also defended disgraced RINO Liz Cheney after she voted in favor of the 'Sham Impeachment' against Donald Trump. Gimenez doubled down in defending Cheney after the Republican Caucus censored and removed RINO Liz Cheney from Republican Party Leadership.

RINO Gimenez also voted for the 'January 6' Socialist Democrat witch hunt against American Citizens and Republican voters. Gimenez, like RINO Liz Cheney openly votes and sides with the Socialist and Radical Democrats.

Some other notable examples of Gimenez Socialist votes include:

RINO Gimenez openly supported and voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. That alone was grounds for expulsion from the GOP;

https://americafirstpc.org/

RINO Gimenez voted with Nancy Pelosi on H.R. 550, to allow the federal government to create a database, track unvaccinated Americans, who could be targeted, segregated, discriminated against, and forced to comply with vaccination mandates;

RINO Gimenez voted with Nancy Pelosi on Anti-Second Amendment legislation HR-8, making it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to purchase, own, carry, and use a firearm;

RINO Gimenez voted with Nancy Pelosi on H.R. 6 for 'Open Borders and Amnesty' to over 20 million criminal illegal aliens, which would permanently avoid deportation, obtain a pathway to citizenship, and full voting rights;

RINO Gimenez also voted with Nancy Pelosi to strip Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of all Congressional Committee positions.

About America First Political Committee:

Our mission is to protect the integrity of the U.S. Constitution, promote conservative political candidates and policy that puts America First.

America First Contact:

Contact: J. Stephens

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.americafirstpc.org

Phone: 202-495-1505

SOURCE America First Political Committee
ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) today announced the acquisition of Romford, Essex-based Devitt Insurance Services Limited ("Devitt") in the United Kingdom. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1936, Devitt is a privately owned retail property/casualty insurance broker predominantly focusing on coverages for motorcycles and motorhomes. It serves approximately 130,000 customers through a team of 130 colleagues. William Hughes, Tony Chapman and their associates will continue to operate from their current locations in Romford and Ipswich, Suffolk, under the direction of SME and Personal Lines Managing Director Gareth Birch.

"Devitt is a highly-regarded business and culturally is a great fit with Gallagher," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. "The business's impressive specialist expertise is complementary to our existing UK Retail niche practices, extends our affinity partnership reach and further enhances our digital capabilities. I am delighted to welcome William, Tony and their associates to Gallagher."

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The company has operations in 68 countries and offers client-service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Investors: Ray Iardella





Media: Linda J. Collins VP  Investor Relations





VP  Corporate Communications 630-285-3661/ [email protected]





630-285-4009/ [email protected]

SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
RICHARDSON, Texas, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) will launch its 2022-2023 Healthy Kids, Healthy Families (HKHF) grant cycle on February 2 and is seeking partnerships with nonprofit organizations engaged in health and wellness initiatives as well as social determinants of health.

Last year, nearly $1.9 million in HKHF grants were awarded to community-based organizations statewide. While the key focus of the HKHF program has not changed, the ongoing effects of the pandemic as well as social justice initiatives in the United States, remain a top priority for BCBSTX's health equity initiatives.

"It's critical that we support community-based organizations engaged in initiatives directly supporting children and families," said Sheena Payne, director BCBSTX Community Investments. "At the same time, we must also keep our focus on helping those who have been impacted by the health, economic and social implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. That's why we annually seek to partner with organizations that are doing the work of impacting health across Texas."

Since the inception of the HKHF program in 2011, the investment strategy has been predicated on four key pillars - disease prevention and management, nutrition, physical activity and safe environments. The program has evolved to include emphasis on initiatives that create measurable results to address the current public health pandemic and social factors exacerbating health inequities and social determinants of health such as lack of housing, food deserts, education and jobs and mental health.

The BCBSTX grant cycle is a two-step process:

Stage 1: Feb. 2, 2022  Feb. 16, 2022 . This is the initial step in the process to apply for funding. After review, if selected, the program will be notified and provided details to continue to Stage Two of the application process. To submit your Letter of Interest (LOI), click here.

. This is the initial step in the process to apply for funding. After review, if selected, the program will be notified and provided details to continue to Stage Two of the application process. To submit your Letter of Interest (LOI), click here. Stage 2: Mar. 17, 2022  Mar. 31, 2022 . If your application passes stage 1, you will receive an invitation code to apply for stage 2. This is the application process. Once your application has been submitted, you will receive an initial email indicating that your application has been received. The application link will be deactivated at 5 p.m. (CST) on the last day of each stage. Applicants should give themselves enough time to complete the process to ensure access to the page.

The following criteria is required for review of all HKHF grant proposals:

The community lead organization must be a nonprofit, tax exempt, 501(c)(3) organization.

a nonprofit, tax exempt, 501(c)(3) organization. The community lead organization must have the financial capacity and qualified staff to oversee and manage the project. For this request for proposal (RFP), "financial capacity" is defined as organizations operating a current annual budget of $2 million or more.

The community lead organization must collaborate on proposed program with a health partner  i.e., hospital, clinic, federally qualified health center.

A decade ago, the HKHF program started as a three-year initiative designed to improve the health and wellness of at least one million children through community investments. The program was extended as BCBSTX's ongoing commitment to the health and well-being of children and families in Texas.

The HKHF program has impacted the lives of millions of Texas children and families through the more than $17 million in grants awarded by BCBSTX to community organizations statewide. For more information on how to apply for a HKHF grant, contact Tiffany Howell at 1-972-766-5344, [email protected].

About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX)  the only statewide, customer-owned health insurer in Texas  is the largest provider of health benefits in the state, working with nearly 80,000 physicians and healthcare practitioners, and 500 hospitals to serve more than 6 million members in all 254 counties. BCBSTX is a Division of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) (which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Texas, Illinois, Montana, Oklahoma and New Mexico), the country's largest customer-owned health insurer, and fourth largest health insurer overall. Health Care Service Corporation is a Mutual Legal Reserve Company and an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

BCBSTX.com | Twitter.com/BCBSTX | Facebook.com/BlueCrossBlueShieldOfTexas | YouTube.com/BCBSTX BCBSTX 2020 Social Responsibility Report

SOURCE Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas
WESTMINSTER, Colo., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Butterfly Pavilion released the 9th Annual Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network (CBMN) Report on the state of Colorado native butterfly populations, revealing heightened sightings and reporting of Monarch Butterflies throughout Colorado. CBMN, celebrating its 10th year of consecutive monitoring in 2022, is a long-term community science project relying on volunteer monitors to record and identify butterflies throughout Colorado. The report suggests that 2021 was the best year in the past decade for monarch butterflies in the state, which is consistent with the increased monarch sightings across North America this past year.

"We are enthused to find that monarchs in Colorado showed an approximate 180% increase from the mean over the past seven years of our monitoring efforts, said Shiran Hershcovich, Lepidopterist Manager, Butterfly Pavilion. "The results are promising with the 2021 CBMN field season seeing a return of butterfly, monitor, and survey numbers higher than those in 2019."

Since its inception in 2013, CBMN, the nation's fastest-growing butterfly monitoring program, has recorded 107,811 individual butterflies and logged 3,166 butterfly surveys, accounting for 3,795 hours of volunteer monitoring through 2021. This past year included 12 counties including Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Douglas, El Paso, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, Ouray, Routt, and Weld.

2021 Top Findings:

In 2021, all categories saw improvement from 2019 numbers and two categories set new high records: the hours spent monitoring and the number of surveys submitted.





Monitors observed and reported Monarch butterflies in all but two monitoring counties ( Gilpin and El Paso ) this season, with a count of 124 placing the species into the Top 25 Butterfly Species seen for the first time since CBMN was established.



and ) this season, with a count of 124 placing the species into the Top 25 Butterfly Species seen for the first time since CBMN was established.

Between 2014 and 2020, monitors observed and recorded an average of 44.3 monarchs each year. In 2021, monitors recorded 124 monarchs, roughly a 180% increase from the mean over the past seven years of monitoring.





Monitors observed and reported 120 total unique, identifiable species among all counties surveyed this season. Jefferson County exhibited the highest number of species seen, likely because of the county being home to the largest number of monitors, routes, and surveys submitted.



exhibited the highest number of species seen, likely because of the county being home to the largest number of monitors, routes, and surveys submitted.

The 2021 CBMN field season experienced a return to numbers comparable to the 2019 field season across all categories evaluated. The decline in numbers seen in 2020 was likely attributed to the record-setting wildfire season in Colorado that impeded butterfly populations and outdoor activities, and the ongoing, global COVID-19 pandemic impacted volunteer participation.

"While we've got a lot of great data, we still need more," said Shiran Hershcovich, Lepidopterist Manager, Butterfly Pavilion. "That's where the public comes in with community science programs, such as our monitoring networks at Butterfly Pavilion, to cover more geographies and support pollinator conservation."

Volunteers Make it Happen

The CBMN is a community science project, and the most valuable resources are the monitors who volunteer their time to the program.

"This is people-powered science", says Hershcovich. "When our community gets involved in these efforts, they become stakeholders in conservation and stewards for the protection of our native invertebrates!"

The 61 active monitors in the program in 2021 contributed 551.2 hours of time toward butterfly monitoring, helping to assess and identify butterflies throughout Colorado. In total, the active monitors submitted 502 surveys; this is the highest number of both surveys and hours that the program has seen across nine seasons of monitoring.

It involves trained volunteer monitors walking the same route at least six times throughout the butterfly monitoring season (here defined as May 15  October 15, 2021) and recording every butterfly seen in a 6-meter radius.

During a survey, only one monitor observes butterflies at a time, however monitors are advised to work in pairs, allowing one to conduct the survey while the other keeps notes and aids with identifications. At the beginning and end of each monitoring session, monitors record the time, the temperature, the cloud cover conditions (clear, mostly clear, partly cloudy, mostly cloudy, overcast, or hazy) and the wind conditions (calm, relatively still, moderately windy, wind, or very windy). The monitors then walk the route at a steady pace, recording every butterfly seen inside their area of choice within their community.

Butterflies are not only beautiful, but they also play a vital role in the ecosystem. CBMN data informs us on which butterflies are active in Colorado, giving us important insight on the health of local ecosystems.

About Butterfly Pavilion

Butterfly Pavilion, established in 1995, is the first Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited, stand-alone, non-profit invertebrate zoo in the world, currently occupying a 30,000-square foot facility situated on an 11-acre campus provided by the City of Westminster, Colorado. Butterfly Pavilion's mission is to foster an appreciation of butterflies and other invertebrates while educating the public about the need for conservation of threatened habitats in the tropics and around the world.

Beyond Colorado and the United States, Butterfly Pavilion conservationists are doing important invertebrate research projects around the world from Mongolia and Saudi Arabia to Peru and Indonesia. A new Butterfly Pavilion development will open in Broomfield, Colorado in 2025 setting the global standard for invertebrate science and conservation. The $55M, 81,000-square-foot facility will include greatly expanded guest experiences, world-class research labs and a much larger zoological facility.

Learn more at www.butterflies.org

Media Contact:

Jennifer Quermann

[email protected]

703-477-0668

SOURCE Butterfly Pavilion
The "Pitch Deck" competition is an open call for cannabis entrepreneurs in New York to submit new business proposals for assessment by a select panel of expert judges, spanning investment and cannabis industry backgrounds. Judges will analyze contestants' plans based on various factors, including license-preparedness, degree of innovation, and social equity components, among other determined criteria. The top 10 contestants will then be asked to present their plans in webinar format for final assessment, and the selected winners will be given a chance to win between $50,000 and $500,000 in investor funding, as well as $150,000 worth of advisory counsel from the team at Canna Advisors, pending formal due diligence.

"We're extremely excited to be expanding a formal presence to New York Citythe epicenter of emerging cannabis markets in the eastern United States," said Jay Czarkowski, Founding Partner of Canna Advisors. "The market in New York will likely forever change the trajectory of our industry, through both inserted capital and through innovation in the adjacent industries locally. We expect to see a rush of investor interest in the region. It's part of our corporate mission to help cannabis entrepreneurs across the country achieve their loftiest dreams, and we couldn't think of any better way to show our full support for the local New York community than with the inaugural "Pitch Deck" competition."

Canna Advisors' new offices will be located in Midtown, Manhattan to better serve both their existing and expanding roster of clients operating within emerging cannabis markets along the east coast. The company has provided services in more than 33 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, and in other international markets, including Canada and Europe.

Entrepreneurs interested in entering the competition may begin the application process by following the instructions at www.thinkcanna.com/pitchdeck.

About Canna Advisors

Canna Advisors is a trusted cannabis business consultancy and global industry leader. Founded in 2013, the company has guided hundreds of entrepreneurs and startups entering the cannabis industry, as well as cannabis companies looking to grow and expand their existing business. Canna Advisors helps cannabis entrepreneurs win licenses in emerging markets, optimize facility design, standardize operations, and maximize business development.

The company operates out of offices in Colorado and New York, and has worked across more than 33 states, Canada, Europe, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Media Contact

Catherine Toor

5WPR

646.843.1833

[email protected]

SOURCE Canna Advisors
Designed exclusively for Casio digital pianos and keyboards, Casio Music Space builds upon the company's popular Chordana Play and Chordana Play for piano apps, bringing a whole new level of interactive learning and performance benefits to complete beginners, people taking up the piano later in life and anyone who wants to experience a highly engaging way of playing.

While Chordana Play has been available in two variationsone for keyboards and the other for pianoCasio Music Space integrates everything into one streamlined app.

This robust new learning ecosystem makes specific features available depending on which Casio instrument is used with the Casio Music Space app, including:

Piano Roll

This fun, "learn as you play" approach has become immensely popular, particularly among new musicians who don't yet know how to read notes on musical scores. Instead, users watch lines stream down the screen of their mobile device towards a piano keyboard graphic to anticipate the next keys they are to play on their connected instrument in sync with song playback. In addition, scoring and recording functions let users rate their playing to improve their skills. Representing the gamification of piano lessons like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, this remarkable technology enables users to play the music of their life from the very first moment their fingers touch the keys.

Live Concert Simulator

The Casio Music Space app analyzes songs stored on a smart device and automatically adds audience applause and cheers depending on the structure of the song, letting users feel the thrill of performing "live." In addition to five different performance venues (Stadium, Auditorium, Jazz Club, Classical Hall, and Piano Lounge), the app also provides three nature settings (Beach, River, and Rain) that let users enjoy a unique performance experience.

Other features in the app enable users to view pre-installed musical scores, play along with favorite songs stored on their smart device, and quickly and easily change their digital piano settings depending on their playing style.

The Piano Remote Control portion of the app is designed to work with current CDP and Privia PX-S digital pianos, as well as Privia and Celviano console pianos. Other portions of the app will work with any Casio instrument with a USB-MIDI connection, or CTK/LK models with app connectivity via audio input. In addition, Casio instruments using the WU-BT10 Bluetooth MIDI & Audio adapter can connect to the app wirelessly.

"Casio musical instruments have inspired people of all ages to play for more than 40 years, and our new Casio Music Space app adds a new level of enjoyment to their learning and performance experience," said Stephen Schmidt, Vice President of Casio's Electronic Musical Instruments Division. "This is an exciting new way to get everyone playing their favorite music in no time at all, regardless of their ability."

Casio Music Space will be available for download beginning on January 31, 2022, from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. To learn more about Casio Music Space, please visit www.CasioKeynote.com. To learn more about Casio's entire portfolio of electronic musical instruments, please visit www.CasioMusicGear.com.

*The Bluetooth word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc., and any use of such marks by Casio Computer Co., Ltd. is under license.

Google Play and Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.

Android is a trademark of Google LLC.

App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.

IOS is a trademark or registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. registered in the U.S.

Apple, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

About Casio America, Inc.

Casio America, Inc., Dover, N.J., is the U.S. subsidiary of Casio Computer Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer electronics and business equipment solutions. Established in 1957, Casio America, Inc. markets calculators, keyboards, digital cameras, mobile presentation devices, disc title and label printers, watches, cash registers and other consumer electronic products. Casio has strived to fulfill its corporate creed of "creativity and contribution" through the introduction of innovative and imaginative products. For more information, visit www.casiousa.com.

SOURCE Casio America, Inc.
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cetera Financial Group, one of America's largest networks of financial professionals, today announced that it has earned a score of 95 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2022 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation's foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. Cetera joins the ranks of 1,271 major U.S. businesses that were ranked in the 2022 CEI.

"It is an honor to be recognized for our commitment to diversity, equality, inclusion and belonging by the foremost authority on these important issues," said Jeannie Finkel, Chief Human Resources Officer at Cetera. "We have been working hard to build a culture that values inclusivity and champions equal opportunity for all team members, and it is rewarding to measure our progress against this high standard and see that our efforts are making a tangible impact. This recognition inspires our efforts as we continue to advance diversity, equality, inclusion and belonging initiatives within our employee and financial professional communities in 2022 and beyond."

"When the Human Rights Campaign Foundation created the Corporate Equality Index 20 years ago, we dreamed that LGBTQ+ workersfrom the factory floor to corporate headquarters, in big cities and small townscould have access to the policies and benefits needed to thrive and live life authentically," said Jay Brown, Human Rights Campaign Senior Vice President of Programs, Research and Training.

"We are proud that the Corporate Equality Index paved the way to that reality for countless LGBTQ+ workers in America and abroad. But there is still more to do, which is why we are raising the bar yet again to create more equitable workplaces and a better tomorrow for LGBTQ+ workers everywhere."

The results of the 2022 CEI showcase how 1,271 U.S.-based companies are not only promoting LGBTQ-friendly workplace policies in the U.S., but also for the 56% of CEI-rated companies with global operations who are helping advance the cause of LGBTQ+ inclusion in workplaces abroad.

In 2002, the first year of the CEI, only 13 companies achieved a top-score, demonstrating the incredible impact the CEI has had on the business world over the past 20 years. This year's CEI reflects growth across every measurement category, from the adoption of inclusive, non-discrimination policies, to equitable healthcare benefits for transgender employees.

The CEI rates employers providing these crucial protections to over 20 million U.S. workers and an additional 18 million outside of the U.S. Companies rated in the CEI include Fortune magazine's 500 largest publicly traded businesses, American Lawyer magazine's top 200 revenue-grossing law firms (AmLaw 200), and hundreds of publicly and privately held mid- to large-sized businesses.

The CEI rates companies on detailed criteria falling under four central pillars:

Non-discrimination policies across business entities.

Equitable benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their families

Supporting an inclusive culture

Corporate social responsibility.

The full report is available online at www.hrc.org/cei.

About the Human Rights Campaign Foundation

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people. Through its programs, the HRC Foundation seeks to make transformational change in the everyday lives of LGBTQ+ people, shedding light on inequity and deepening the public's understanding of LGBTQ+ issues, with a clear focus on advancing transgender and racial justice. Its work has transformed the landscape for more than 15 million workers, 11 million students, 1 million clients in the adoption and foster care system and so much more. The HRC Foundation provides direct consultation and technical assistance to institutions and communities, driving the advancement of inclusive policies and practices; it builds the capacity of future leaders and allies through fellowship and training programs; and, with the firm belief that we are stronger working together, it forges partnerships with advocates in the U.S. and around the globe to increase our impact and shape the future of our work.

About Cetera Financial Group

Cetera Financial Group (Cetera) is a leading financial services firm whose purpose is to enable the delivery of best-in-class financial advice to as many Americans as possible. Cetera empowers its financial professional communities to help clients achieve their version of financial wellbeing through the Advice-Centric Experience. Cetera proudly serves independent financial professionals, tax professionals, banks and credit unions in providing wide-ranging financial planning and wealth management services.

Cetera oversees $344 billion in assets under administration and $120 billion in assets under management, as of September 30, 2021.

Visit www.cetera.com, and follow Cetera on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

"Cetera Financial Group" refers to the network of independent retail firms encompassing, among others, Cetera Advisors LLC, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, Cetera Investment Services LLC (marketed as Cetera Financial Institutions or Cetera Investors), Cetera Financial Specialists LLC, and First Allied Securities, Inc. All firms are members FINRA/SIPC. 655 W. Broadway, 11th Floor, San Diego, CA 92101

Individuals affiliated with Cetera firms are either Registered Representatives who offer only brokerage services and receive transaction-based compensation (commissions), Investment Adviser Representatives who offer only investment advisory services and receive fees based on assets, or both Registered Representatives and Investment Adviser Representatives, who can offer both types of services.

SOURCE Cetera Financial Group
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

(Conservation Florida issued the following news release today.)

Conservation Florida, a nonprofit land conservancy, announced that it has received a donation from Duke Energy to provide three opportunities to discover and document Florida's diverse wildlife at public preserves and parks around the state.

Conservation Florida's Bioblitzes are immersive events that offer participants guided tours, hands-on activities, and a chance to explore Florida's one-of-a-kind natural areas.

These events are intended to be fun, relaxing, and educational for people of all ages and backgrounds. While prior knowledge of Florida's natural habitats is not required, participants will be asked to observe and help record all the living things they can find in a specific area.

A bioblitz is an important scientific tool of discovery that brings together communities for a common purpose. The data gathered during bioblitz events helps conservationists understand the biodiversity in an area. This knowledge is used to help protect at-risk species, manage the land and other natural resources, and monitor changes over time.

Thanks to Conservation Florida's annual Bioblitz events, more than 10,500 participants have made 119,610 observations of over 8,000 species. These findings help inform conservation decisions and highlight the importance of land conservation in the preservation of species.

"Conservation Florida's Bioblitz programming provides Floridians of all ages and backgrounds an opportunity to engage with wild Florida and share their findings. It is creating a larger community around the protection and appreciation of Florida's extraordinary biodiversity, and we are grateful to Duke Energy for helping us connect even more people to nature," said Traci Deen, CEO of Conservation Florida.

From its power plant to sites across the whole community, Duke Energy's commitment to land, water and habitat preservation and restoration runs deep in Florida.

Each year, Duke Energy looks for unique opportunities to collaborate with valued organizations, like Conservation Florida, to engage the community in conservation and exploration efforts that have a direct impact on the communities where people live, work, and play.

By sponsoring not just one Bioblitz event, but numerous events across the state, Duke Energy is able to demonstrate to the communities it serves that the company is about so much more than just keeping the energy flowing. Duke Energy is committed to keeping communities safe, clean, and vibrant.

"As we move ahead in pursuit of building a cleaner energy future for our state, Duke Energy recognizes the importance of investing in organizations that protect Florida's natural resources," said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president.

"By supporting and participating in events like Conservation Florida's Bioblitz, we help to preserve our state's precious landscapes and ensure people of all ages and abilities have the opportunity to learn about and experience the beauty and benefits of nature in Florida."

Conservation Florida began hosting bioblitzes in 2018 to promote greater understanding and appreciation of Florida's wild places.

Last year, Conservation Florida hosted participants at its D Ranch Preserve in Volusia County, and, in 2020, the organization worked with its partners to take the event online and allow virtual participation from one's own backyard.

Conservation Florida's Bioblitz program is empowering families and natural resource experts alike to take an active role in conservation. The program supports the organization's mission to protect natural and agricultural lands statewide, with a primary focus on saving land within the Florida Wildlife Corridor.

Interested in participating?

Unique event dates and locations have been chosen to accommodate attendees travel time and schedules. Register for one, or all, of our free Bioblitz events here:

3/12 - Withlacoochee Gulf Preserve Bioblitz

6/11 Rock Springs Run State Preserve Bioblitz

10/29 Crooked Lake Prairie Bioblitz

What's a bioblitz?

A bioblitz is an immersive research event where participants find, identify, and record all of the plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms that live within a specified area. You can learn more by watching this short video.

A bioblitz can provide you with a "snapshot" of the biodiversity found in your area. Using bioblitzes to help us understand the biodiversity in an area helps us protect species at risk, manage resources and land used by living things, and monitor climate change and its effects on biodiversity.

Do I have to attend all three events?

No! With three different event dates and unique locations throughout the state we will highlight Florida's regional biodiversity. You are welcome to attend all three, but you are free to pick the one that works best for you.

Who should attend?

Come one, come all! We have activities throughout the day designed to be fun and informative for everyone! Families, community groups, and people of all ages and abilities are invited to join us. While a smartphone is required to participate in the species cataloging activities, it is not needed to enjoy learning about and experiencing naturally wild Florida.

How much does it cost?

These events are free to attend. We rely on generous gifts from friends and neighbors like you to successfully continue our efforts to save land. Please consider making a donation today.

How should I prepare?

Plan as you would for any daylong adventure in the great outdoors. Some of the activities are guided hikes that require a considerable amount of walking on trails that might be difficult to navigate. You may encounter a variety of wildlife, including: snakes, mosquitoes, ticks, spiders, tortoises, birds, and butterflies. You should wear comfortable walking shoes and bring sunscreen, bug spray, protective clothing, and water. You will also want to check the weather and download a map to your location ahead of time in the event that cell service is not available along your route.

Please bring your cameras, binoculars, and cell phones - you won't want to miss the opportunity to observe some of Florida's most amazing species!

How do I record what I see?

We will be using the iNaturalist app, available on your smartphone. This app allows you to record your observations directly to Conservation Florida's bioblitz project and share your findings with others. Please visit the iNaturalist tutorials for more information and join our iNaturalist project. Select the location where you plan to participate and record your findings on the day of the event! You can also share your experience on social media using #flbioblitz.

What if I have more questions?

We're here for you. Reach out to us at [email protected]. We will email you periodically as the event date approaches.

Conservation Florida

Conservation Florida is a statewide accredited land conservancy with a mission to save Florida's natural and agricultural landscapes for future generations. Our conservation projects support Florida's native plants and wildlife, fresh water, conservation corridors, family farms and ranches, the economy and nature-based recreation. Since our founding in 1999, Conservation Florida has led the way in strategic and evidence-based land protection and has saved over 30,000 acres of critical habitat through acquisition, facilitation and incubation of conservation projects.

We save land by developing conservation strategies, exploring funding sources and purchasing or accepting donations of land and conservation easements. Our other services include providing expertise to guide landowners through the land protection process, serving as a trusted community partner to support statewide land conservation and promoting land conservation through effective education and advocacy. Our vision is large-scale, and we are 100% committed to conservation in the state of Florida  for nature, for people, forever!

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns a diverse generation mix of natural gas, coal and renewables, providing about 10,200 megawatts of owned electric capacity to approximately 1.9 million customers in a 13,000-square-mile service area.

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 7.9 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 51,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,500 people.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy strategy to create a smarter energy future for its customers and communities  with goals of at least a 50 percent carbon reduction by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The company is a top U.S. renewable energy provider, on track to own or purchase 16,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2025. The company also is investing in major electric grid upgrades and expanded battery storage, and exploring zero-emitting power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2021 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' "America's Best Employers" list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Media contacts:

Conservation Florida  Cyndi Fernandez

Phone: 352.376.4770

Email: [email protected]

Duke Energy Florida  Audrey Stasko

Cell: 315.877.3031

Media line: 800.559.3853

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Duke Energy
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrate the Lunar New Year and the Year of the Tiger by adding some cultural flavors to your taste buds. Since the Year of the Tiger involves big changes, why not change up your dining routine by trying out one or all of the following authentic Asian restaurants? New York City news channel Daily Media Studio is recommending the top 10 Asian Fusion Restaurants must try.

Daily Media Studio Announces Top 10 Asian Restaurants in NYC to Visit in 2022

Tao Downtown With several locations across the country, Tao DT encompasses Asian culture in a unique way. With an extraordinary Buddha sculpture sitting atop a grandiose staircase, the impressive dining atmosphere below is a mixture of Asian and American-mainstream culture. One of Tao's specialties is the Dim Sum Dumpling Platter, Tiger Bao Buns and Crispy Snapper in "Sand" are other beloved dishes created by talented Chef Ken for Tao DT. www.taogroup.com

Prince Tea House is a quaint cafe with a large selection of imported French teas, plus coffee, desserts & small warm bites. The desserts are made in-house and served daily to ensure freshness. Flavors such as the Green tea, brown sugar boba, mixed fruit, and ever-changing seasonal flavors, Now with the highly popular afternoon tea service, which offers a variety of sandwiches, freshly baked scones, mini desserts, and a free flow of tea. www.princeteahouse.com

Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao Said to be New York City's "best soup dumpling shop," On top of being an affordable, delicious neighborhood eatery. Highlights from this Flushing cultural landmark include their "Instagrammable" colorful Xiao Long Bao collections. (IG @nanxiangsoupdumpling) Popular traditional flavors are pork and chicken. Other fans' favorite dishes included Braised Beef Noodle Soup, Scallion Pancake, and Pan-Fried Pork Buns. www.nanxiangxiaolongbao.com

Tipsy Shanghai Inspired by a century-long legacy originating in Wuxi, China, their cuisine encompasses all that is cultural and flavorful. The restaurant's interior replicates a traditional, Chinese setting with original photography from the initial Shen Yu meat shop. The Wuxi pork ribs are a classic along with the Wuxi ribs which are so tender that the meat practically melts off from the bone. www.tipsy-shanghai.com

99 Favor Taste Unlimited Hotpot and BBQ restaurant offers free meals on birthdays and has become an iconic spot for celebrations. Homemade broths spent hours on boiling and marinating. Popular ones are Spicy, Pig Bone and the original. BBQ is also fulfilling with choices for pork, beef, ribs, seafood and vegetables. Birthday Free Meal 1. Have a valid photo ID; 2. Within 3 days. Minimum of 4 people, unless it is the day of your birthday. https://99favortaste.com/

KungFu Kitchen is known for their owner - "Noodle Master" Peter Song, dancing in the shop window as he processes ingredients. They have been in the New York Times, NBC, as well as others. On top of the beloved ramen, delicacies such as "Kung Fu Fried Noodles" are a go-to dish. Other popular dishes include Mala Tang, soup dumplings, steamed buns and shumai. https://www.kfkitchennyc.com/

Dim Sum Palace is one of the largest authentic Cantonese dim sum restaurants in NYC. The beautiful, grandiose venue is ideal for wedding receptions, parties, and family celebrations. Many locations available and capacity of more than 150. They just opened a new fancy location called Dim Sum Sam providing fast food service for Hong Kong style BBQ & many kinds of dim sum. www.dimsumpalace.com

Naked Crab is a casual & trendy seafood restaurant with the mix of cajun-style, ocean-based, and Asian Twist dishes. Voted as "Best in the Area," Naked Crab is known for the happy hours, eclectic Louisiana-style seafood boils, seafood dishes, pasta dishes - such as Uni, sea urchin, pasta - rack of lamb, and Tomahawk Steak. Spicy crawfish, garlic oyster and entree with Szechuan sauce is popular for Asian flavor lovers. https://nakedcrabny.com/

Sai NYC is a hidden gem in Rego Park, Queens. With high-ranking reviews on Yelp and impressive customer rankings, the beautifully colored dishes add to the top-of-the-line aesthetic brought forward at Sai NYC. Every roll is perfectly constructed and the flavorful sushi and sashimi is simply exquisite. The appetizers at Sai NYC should never be overlooked with the Toro Truffle and Crispy Spicy Tuna being go-tos. www.sainyc.com

Chai incorporates authentic regional Beijing cuisine using the cooking techniques famously used in court cuisine. With a Siheyuan-inspired interior design crediting original Beijing culture, the design represents the historical evolution of the capital including the thematic elements that include the cultural courtyard and lanes of hutongs. General Tso's Chicken, Zha Jiang Noodles, Signature Seafood Bisque and Chai's Treasure Platter give visitors a taste of authenticity. Full bar services and parties hosting. https://www.chai-nyc.com/

Media Contact:

Felicia Guo

212-574-4417

[email protected]

SOURCE Daily Media Studio
MOUNT KISCO, N.Y., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dandelion Energy , the nation's leading home geothermal company, is enhancing access to sustainable heating and cooling solutions for Eastern New York homeowners, expanding service offerings throughout all of Long Island.

Developing and expanding access to sustainable energy has quickly become a significant priority for New Yorkers as one the country's most populous states strives to transition to carbon neutrality by 2050 . Dandelion makes it simple and affordable for homeowners to replace existing natural gas or heating oil-powered furnaces with geothermal units that provide the most efficient form of heating and air conditioning available while delivering significant savings over fossil fuel furnaces and inefficient air conditioning.

Dandelion's service expansion includes Nassau County, providing more than 1.3 million homeowners access to sustainable heating and cooling opportunities. The expansion builds upon the company's work in Suffolk County , where a 2,000 square foot facility in Bay Shore supports sustainability for millions of New Yorkers. Notably, Long Island homeowners implementing a Dandelion geothermal system can expect to eliminate fuel deliveries and costs while implementing an AC system that is more than 30 percent more efficient than Central AC units. At the same time, federal and utility geothermal incentives make transitioning to a Dandelion system more affordable than ever before.

"Many New Yorkers are looking for ways to make the transition to a clean energy economy," notes Congressman Tom Suozzi. He adds, "I'm thrilled for Long Island because this transition is a Win, Win Win! In addition to the jobs that accompany Dandelion's expansion, homeowners will now have access to geothermal heating and cooling, providing our residents with an affordable, effective way to access cheaper, cleaner, and safer home systems."

Geothermal, or ground source heat pumps, provides the cleanest and most efficient heating and air conditioning at significant savings over fuel oil, propane, and natural gas systems. Dandelion Home Geothermal Systems can be purchased for cash or with financing.

"Eastern New York residents now have unparalleled access to the most efficient, greenest form of heating and air conditioning, allowing them to conserve resources and save money at a critical time," explains Michael Sachse, CEO of Dandelion Energy. "We are excited to now work with Nassau County homeowners to reduce their energy costs and improve environmental sustainability for the entire region."

About Dandelion Energy

As the nation's leading home geothermal company, the mission of Dandelion Energy is to mitigate climate change by making renewable technologies more accessible and decarbonizing homes. Today, Dandelion's heating and cooling solutions for the 21st century allow homeowners to save up to 50 percent on their heating and cooling bills and help the environment by moving away from conventional systems to reduce homes' carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80 percent. The state-of-the-art geothermal heat pump system offers wifi-enabled monitoring, creating a smarter, more responsive, and more innovative approach than any other HVAC system on the market. To learn more, visit www.dandelionenergy.com .

Press Inquiries:

Kathy Berardi

JMG Public Relations

[email protected]

678-644-4122

SOURCE Dandelion Energy
TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Science Group (DSG), a leading Israeli tech firm which is highly regarded for helping businesses solve critical challenges using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) methodologies has decided to open their first international World-Leading AI Center of Excellence in Victoria, Australia.

Minister for Economic Development, Tim Pallas, announced today that Data Science Group (DSG) in partnership with the Victorian Government will set up its Australian AI Center of Excellence (CoE) in Melbourne which will create new jobs and help drive Victoria's economic recovery and growth.

Backed by rigorous scientific research methodologies and innovative AI, the CoE will invest AUS$16.4 million in innovation expenditure over five years to support Australian businesses' AI capabilities from start to finish, including development, monitoring and governance of AI systems in order to meet upcoming data regulations and deliver optimum tangible business impact over time.

Harnessing on Melbourne's strong culture of collaboration, the CoE will bring together academic and industry partners to deliver commercial, educational and research and development projects.

Minister for Economic Development Tim Pallas said: "To supercharge our economic growth and create new jobs, we're supporting experts from across academia and emerging sectors, and empowering our innovators to scale up and create new opportunities through AI."

"The arrival of DSG in Melbourne further establishes our position as an innovation powerhouse  responsive, inclusive and backing future opportunities like AI."

Data Science Group CEO and co-founder Dr Elan Sasson said: "We are excited to partner with the Victorian Government, offering our expertise together with our AI enterprise solutions to Australian business to build AI and machine learning capabilities in diverse domains and use-cases."

This partnership is an example of how the Labor Government is attracting global companies from growth industries in line with the state's International Investment Strategy, supporting economic recovery and growth.

Since its establishment in 2016 in Tel Aviv, DSG has supported global customers and some of Israel's leading technology companies, most recently securing a major contract with Israel's largest international cargo shipping company, Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., to develop an AI center of excellence. Together, they will develop advanced models to forecast demand, plan shipping routes, and automate logistical processes into Zim's operational environment.

This partnership is an example of how Victoria is attracting global companies from growth industries in line with the state's International Investment Strategy.

The Victorian Government recently released its Innovation Statement, a bold new plan to keep Victoria at the forefront of innovation, drive the creation of new industries and support jobs for future generations.

The ambitious plan builds on existing commitments with a new blueprint to turbocharge Victoria's startup ecosystem, grow business and innovation precincts, develop homegrown talent, and commercialise world-leading research  keeping Victoria at the cutting edge.

Victoria's tech sector contributes more than $38 billion to the economy annually and supports almost 140,000 workers across 20,000 businesses.

Quote attributable to Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy Jaala Pulford

"AI is an essential part of the future, offering so many opportunities across some of our most important industries from MedTech and FinTech to shipping and retail."

Quote attributable to Data Science Group Director of Strategic Partnerships Daniel Fidler

"We invite Australian businesses and members of the growing innovation ecosystem to reach out to explore collaboration opportunities that will help drive economic growth and sustainable business impact."

About Data Science Group

Data Science Group (DSG) is a global AI Center of Excellence, applying rigorous scientific research methodologies and innovative AI software to solve real-life problems. Our vision is to remove the ivory tower around scientific research and make it useful in the real world. We aim to harness advanced AI/ML technology to find answers to questions that can propel economies and societies forward and make businesses more efficient, prosperous, and better suited to serve the world. https://dsg.ai

For more information:

Dr. Elan Sasson

CEO and Co-Founder, Data Science Group

[email protected];

Daniel Fidler

Forming Australian AI CoE |Director of Strategic, Data Science Group

[email protected];

Media Contact:

Iris Weinstein

CEO, Kav Yashir Content House

[email protected];

SOURCE Data Science Group (DSG)
FRISCO, Texas, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DialCare is excited to announce the launch of an innovative new virtual veterinary program that grants members immediate access to licensed veterinary professionals via video or phone chat for advice and guidance on their pets 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. DialCare Virtual Vet's licensed veterinary professionals can provide information on general pet health care.

Virtual veterinary services are booming in popularity, as they allow pet owners to receive around-the-clock guidance for their pets without the inconvenience, stress and expense of visiting a veterinary office. Virtual visits through DialCare Virtual Vet provide members with real-time advice and recommendations on their pets' health to alleviate their concerns from the comfort and convenience of their own homes.

"As the demand for virtual health solutions continues to increase, we are thrilled that DialCare's virtual veterinary program is now available for pet owners throughout the nation," DialCare President Jeremy Hedrick said. "Pet adoption and sales soared during the pandemic which has increased demand for veterinary care in the U.S. We are excited DialCare is able to offer a much-needed resource for immediate virtual visits with qualified, licensed veterinary professionals any time our members need assistance for their pets' health."

Dr. Blake Watson, DVM, serves as the Chief Veterinary Medical Officer for the veterinary program at DialCare. In this role, Dr. Watson provides oversight, expertise and guidance for DialCare Virtual Vet. Dr. Watson has experience in General Small Animal Practice, General Large Animal Practice and Emergency Medicine, and he currently practices as a Primary Care Practitioner.

Beyond the virtual veterinary program, DialCare also offers several comprehensive telehealth solutions, including a Physician Access program, a Mental Wellness program available to individuals of all ages, which includes a student-focused program for middle and high school students called Dialogue, and a Teledentistry program. DialCare's telehealth programs are available to organizations of any size or industry, employees of any status and individual consumers nationwide.

About DialCare

DialCare offers a telemedicine solution that provides 24/7/365 access to non-emergency care from a national network of U.S.-based, fully credentialed physicians, a mental wellness program for virtual counseling sessions with mental health professionals, a teledentistry program for 24/7/365 access to consultations with licensed dentists video or phone chat and a virtual veterinary solution that provides 24/7/365 access to information from licensed veterinary professionals. DialCare is available nationally to individual consumers and to groups of any size. DialCare Physician Access, Mental Wellness, Teledentistry and Virtual Vet programs are available as standalone products or as part of a bundled offering. For more information on DialCare, please visit www.dialcare.com.

Contacts:

Jeremy Hedrick

President

[email protected]

(833) 640-3425 ext. 5000

Jamie Saunders

Vice President of Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

(833) 640-3425 ext. 2902

SOURCE DialCare
DENTON, Texas, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthTrackRx, the nation's leading polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing lab, today announced Barbara Alexander, MD, MHS, who recently served as President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), has joined its advisory board. Dr. Alexander is among the nation's foremost thought leaders in the field of infectious diseases in the areas of infection detection, treatment and the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.

"Dr. Alexander's expertise in infectious disease and diagnostics will offer HealthTrackRx invaluable insight," said Martin Price, Executive Chairman and CEO of HealthTrackRx. "Her guidance will be instrumental as we work to transform the laboratory experience with custom solutions that accelerate answers to patients."

Dr. Alexander is an internationally recognized expert in her field, previously serving as a member of the FDA Division of Microbiology Devices Advisory Panel, Chair of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute Subcommittee on Antifungal Susceptibility Testing and Associate Deputy Editor of the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal. She is Professor of Medicine and Pathology at Duke University School of Medicine, where she serves as Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases Services, Head of the Clinical Mycology Laboratory and Director of the NIH-funded Transplant Infectious Diseases Physician-Scientist Training Program.

She has lectured internationally and has published over 175 scientific articles, book chapters and white papers and has co-authored numerous Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute Standards Documents. Dr. Alexander is board certified in medical technology, internal medicine, medical microbiology and infectious diseases. She also has formal training in clinical research, including laboratory test validation and clinical trial design and execution.

"HealthTrackRx is transforming the rapid delivery of PCR diagnostics for infectious diseases at a critical time for the world," said Dr. Alexander. "As the COVID pandemic has so clearly demonstrated, there is a tremendous opportunity and urgent need to push diagnostics forward, which is my area of research and academic expertise. We are in a critical window in this nation during which diagnostics are finally in the spotlight, providing the potential to revolutionize infectious disease testing, especially for rural and underserved communities. I am excited to be working with HealthTrackRx to fulfill this potential by developing clinical innovations that will get people better faster."

About HealthTrackRx

HealthTrackRx is the nation's leading PCR-based infectious disease laboratory, delivering industry-leading testing turnaround times to clinicians nationwide. For more than 20 years, the company has mobilized accurate clinical decisions through advances in pathogen testing, antimicrobial stewardship, and value-based care programs. HealthTrackRx is among a limited number of labs in the U.S. granted FDA Emergency Use Authorization for Molecular Laboratory Developed (LDT) COVID-19 Authorized Test. For more information, visit HealthTrackRx at healthtrackrx.com and LinkedIn.

SOURCE HealthTrackRx, Inc.
Applications are now open for the eMerge Americas 2022 Global StartUp Showcase. Tweet this

Through a competitive application process, eMerge Americas will select 100 startups within three stages (University Stage, Early Stage and Late Stage) to participate in a robust multi-week program, which will culminate in a grand finale pitch competition. This competition will take place April 18-19, 2022, at the eMerge Americas global tech conference in front of leading venture capitalists, corporate enterprises, government officials, global media outlets and judges. This year, CNBC Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary, "Mr. Wonderful" himself, will be a judge in the Startup Showcase finale along with Ryan Whittemore from Florida Funders, Paul Judge from Panoramic Ventures, and more judges will be announced soon.

"The Startup Showcase is the heart and soul of eMerge Americas, the cornerstone of our year-round programming, and the anchor of our annual global tech conference," said Melissa Medina, President of eMerge Americas. "We have thoughtfully curated programming for founders to foster exposure to a diverse network of angel investors, venture capital funds and growth equity firms, as well as connect them with mentors, partners and other resources to help scale their businesses."

Applications are now open and the deadline for entry is February 28, 2022. Click here to apply.

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to make a significant investment in a great seed or early stage tech company as part of the eMerge Americas Global Startup Showcase," said Tom Wallace, Managing Partner at Florida Funders. "Many of us at Florida Funders have been there as founders and entrepreneurs and deeply understand the challenges and needs of companies at this stage. We are excited to help foster their growth through this investment."

All participating startups will be allocated prime exhibit space on the 2022 eMerge Expo Floor within "StartUp Alley" to showcase their company over the course of the two-day event.

"We're excited to partner with eMerge Americas to bring Startup Showdown back to Miami." said Paul Judge, Managing Partner of Panoramic Ventures. "This partnership speaks to the collaboration across the Southeast ecosystem to support entrepreneurs and provide them the access to capital and a support network to reach the next level."

To date, more than 800 startups that have participated in the eMerge Americas Startup Showcase since the program's 2014 inception, of which 70 startups have raised an aggregate of more than $1 billion in venture capital funding.

To apply to 2022 eMerge Americas Global StartUp Showcase, submit your application here . The deadline for applications is February 28, 2022.

About eMerge Americas

eMerge Americas is a venture-backed platform focused on transforming Miami into the tech hub of the Americas. The eMerge signature event, launched in 2014, is a global tech conference held annually at the Miami Beach Convention Center, attracting more than 16,000 attendees from 40 countries and over 3,900 unique participating organizations. In addition to the annual conference, eMerge organizes and hosts year-round executive summits, innovation challenges, startup pitch competitions, masterclasses, webinars, as well as publishes venture activity and investment insights reports. For the last decade, eMerge has served as a catalyst for innovation and investment across the Americas, working at the forefront of building the South Florida entrepreneurial and tech ecosystem. Visit www.emergeamericas.com for more information.

About Algorand

Algorand is building the technology to power future economies where the convergence of traditional and decentralized models unite into a system that is inclusive, frictionless, and secure. Founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand developed a blockchain infrastructure that offers the interoperability and capacity to handle the volume of transactions needed for defi, financial institutions and governments to smoothly transition into FutureFi. The technology of choice for more than 1000 global organizations, Algorand is enabling the simple creation of next generation financial products, protocols and exchange of value. For more information, visit www.algorand.com .

About Florida Funders

Recognized as the most active VC in the Southeast region by Pitchbook, Florida Funders is a combination of a traditional venture capital fund and a network of over 1700 angel investors to fund and support founders in building great early-stage technology companies in Florida and beyond. In order for Florida to evolve from the Sunshine State to the Startup State, we ensure there is as little friction as possible in the ecosystem, that investors have access to meaningful deal flow, and entrepreneurs have access to a wide range of accredited investors, capital, and experience. Florida Funders educates our community of investors, provides transparency during the funding process, fosters communication across the ecosystem, and empowers the strategic relationships that drive investments. Our team is composed of serial entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and experienced angel investors singularly focused on uncovering the next breakout technology companies. To learn more, visit www.floridafunders.com.

About Panoramic Ventures

Panoramic Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Atlanta that takes a "wider-view" approach to investing by targeting the Southeast and Midwest and placing a focus on diverse founders and university startups. Panoramic opens new doors for overlooked founders, giving more entrepreneurs access to capital to build leading tech companies. For more information, visit www.panoramic.vc or follow Panoramic Ventures on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter @panoramicvc.

SOURCE eMerge Americas
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global independent marketing and communications firm, FINN Partners, announced today that it has acquired AHA (Alling Henning Associates), a 52-person, women-owned brand strategy and creative agency headquartered in Vancouver, Washington. Betsy Henning, Founder and CEO of AHA, will join FINN as managing partner of the firm's new Global Internal Communications and Employee Engagement practice to capitalize on the growing demand for these specialized services.

Betsy Henning, Managing Partner of Global Internal Communications and Employee Engagement, FINN Partners

Founded in 1994 and now one of the largest independent marketing agencies in the Portland metro area, AHA is a pioneer in purpose-driven marketing and specializes in creative storytelling. The agency offers the full range of strategic branding, creative, and program execution and implementation. For more than 25 years, AHA has honed expertise in Employee Engagement, Content Marketing, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainabilityall key growth areas for FINN.

AHA's diverse portfolio spans technology, consumer, financial services, B2B and employee engagement. Current and past AHA clients include Nike, Microsoft, HP, VMware, Johnson & Johnson, Comcast and NBCUniversal.

"AHA and FINN are perfectly matched on so many levels. We share the same core values and purpose-driven approach. They have deep financial and technology sector experience, adding firepower to two of our fastest-growing practice areas. And most importantly, they bring highly coveted, specialized expertise in internal communications and employee engagement programs as well as communications to support talent recruitment and retention. During the pandemic, businesses have put increased emphasis on these services and now FINN will be able to provide strategic counsel and creative services to meet this growing need, among current clients and a broad range of prospects," said Peter Finn, Founding Managing Partner and CEO, FINN Partners.

Betsy Henning, Managing Partner, Internal Communications and Employee Engagement, FINN Partners, added, "This is an incredibly exciting time. The Great Resignation has fundamentally transformed the employer and employee relationship. In many ways it's a blank slate, but there's one fundamental thing we've learned through our long and deep history of working with clients on employee engagement programs: helping employees see the power of the brand and company by connecting with its purpose drives real business impact. Joining FINN Partners offers the rare combination of aligned values and precisely the global reach, expanded services and additional resources our clients and employees have been asking for. We're delighted to join this outstanding agency."

AHA's leadership will remain in place and the agency will carry on with business as usual without a staff reorganization or layoffs. AHA will operate under the FINN brand name.

John Burns of Clare Advisors made the introduction between FINN Partners and AHA and helped facilitate the transaction.

About FINN Partners, Inc.

Founded in 2011 on the core principles of innovation and collaborative partnership, FINN Partners has grown from about $24 million in fees to almost $170 million in fees over ten years, becoming one of the fastest growing independent public relations agencies in the world. The full-service marketing and communications company's record setting pace is a result of organic growth and integrating new companies and new people into the FINN world through a common philosophy. With over 1,000 professionals, FINN provides clients with global access and capabilities in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In addition, FINN provides its clients with access to top tier agencies around the world through its membership in the global network PROI. Headquartered in New York, FINN's other offices are in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Dublin, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Nashville, Paris, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, Southern California, Vancouver and Washington D.C. Find us at finnpartners.com and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @finnpartners.

About AHA

AHA Inc. is an independent, women-owned creative agency founded in 1994. We're a new breed of agency that combines award-winning marketing and storytelling for purpose-led brands with deep expertise in content marketing, corporate social responsibility, and employee engagement. Our future-forward approach is backed by more than 25 years of experience in everything from sustainability to social impact. From our office just outside of Portland, Oregon, we team up with Fortune 500 leaders including lululemon, Nike, Johnson & Johnson, VMware and others. Visit our website at ahainc.com to learn more.

Contact:

FINN Partners

Celia Jones

[email protected]

773.885.9781

SOURCE FINN Partners
CHICAGO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas has mailed nearly 1.8 million Tax Year 2021 First Installment property tax bills. Payments are due March 1, 2022.

The First Installment is 55% of the previous year's total tax. Exemptions that can reduce a property owner's taxes are applied to the Second Installment bill.

Since Pappas posted the bills on cookcountytreasurer.com on December 7, 2021, almost 13,000 property owners have gone to the website to pay their property taxes.

"Paying property taxes through cookcountytreasurer.com is quick, easy and secure," Pappas said. "Think about how many other things you do on the web.

"If you've never paid your property taxes online, I urge to do so. You'll receive an electronic receipt that will come in handy when you prepare your income tax return."

To make a payment online, visit cookcountytreasurer.com and follow these steps:

Select the blue box labeled "Pay Online for Free"

Enter your address or 14-digit Property Index Number (PIN)

There is no fee if you pay online from your bank account. The Treasurer's Office accepts partial payments but First Installment taxes must be paid by March 1 to avoid a late charge of 1.5 percent per month, as mandated by Illinois law.

You can also use cookcountytreasurer.com to:

Search $84 million in available refunds.

Check if you are missing out on $34 million in property tax exemptions , which lower your tax bill.

, which lower your tax bill. Read the Pappas Studies, a series of research projects that includes a 20-year history of Cook County property taxes.

SOURCE Cook County Treasurer's Office
AKRON, Ohio, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To help advance a sustainable energy future, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) today announced a $2.5 million investment in global venture capital firm Energy Impact Partners' (EIP) Frontier Fund, which targets early-stage, innovative decarbonization technologies. Through this fund, EIP works closely with industry entrepreneurs and leading utility, energy, environmental, and finance companies to identify and invest in decarbonization technology, from idea inception to commercial success, that can help accelerate the world's transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The relationship with EIP aligns with FirstEnergy's pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, with an interim goal of achieving a 30% reduction in greenhouse gases (GHG) within the company's direct operational control by 2030. In 2020, FirstEnergy made progress toward this goal, with a 19% reduction in GHG emissions from its 2019 baseline.

"Through our investment in the Frontier Fund, we can leverage a strong wave of innovation on the horizon that will help decarbonize not just electric utilities, but other key industries as well," said Steven E. Strah, FirstEnergy president and chief executive officer. "Our involvement with EIP allows us to get in on the ground level of the commercial implementation of sustainable, clean energy technologies that will benefit our customers and help address climate change."

EIP's Frontier Fund already has made investments in several technology companies that have the potential to accelerate the transition to a sustainable energy future, including: a company with industrial-scale, renewable-powered hydrogen production; a zero-emissions fertilizer company; a company that produces steel from electricity without using coal; economic nuclear fusion technology; a low-cost, multi-day energy storage company; and a zero-carbon cement manufacturer.

This marks FirstEnergy's third investment with EIP. In December of 2021, FirstEnergy invested $20 million, over five years, in EIP's Fund II, which brings larger companies together with sustainable energy entrepreneurs to help finance, develop and deploy technologies to lead the transition to a sustainable future. The partnership followed a $2.5 million FirstEnergy investment in July 2021 in EIP's Elevate Future Fund, focused on expanding venture capital access and opportunities for underrepresented sustainable energy entrepreneurs. FirstEnergy is in the process of reviewing all the EIP fund portfolio companies to determine those that could be a good fit for future testing and deployment.

FirstEnergy's investments in EIP funds were coordinated through the company's Emerging Technologies organization, which is developing an internal culture of innovation on many levels to explore and research technologies that provide cost-effective value for customers.

FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its ten electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp or online at www.firstenergycorp.com.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FleishmanHillard today announced the launch of the Culture Unit, a team within the Brand Marketing practice dedicated to analyzing consumer behavioral trends and insights. The information is then used to counsel clients on how to position a brand, product or organization in relation to any defined profiles.

The Culture Unit will also fuel strategic agency partnerships to help clients authentically engage with key audiences and enable the communities they serve. The agency's new partnership with the Unstereotype Alliance, convened by UN Women, is a platform that seeks to end harmful stereotypes in all communications and advertising.

"For a long time, agencies have been versed in mitigating risk for clients through the typical lens of product and retail issues, or employee and customer engagement," said Lauren Winter, FleishmanHillard's global managing director of consumer culture, and Culture Unit lead. "We're in an era of people power where the normal expectations of businesses and brands are so much more than they've ever been. The Culture Unit has been created to not only help clients mitigate risks in the cultural sphere, but to actually say and do something brave to build reputation. Partnerships such as the Unstereotype Alliance allow us to do this authentically. Creating an inclusive experience starts with the language we use, and this partnership will arm our employees with the tools and education to progress this positive force for change."

This progressive partnership will further enhance FleishmanHillard's extensive training program with UN-accredited training modules for employees at a strategic level, as well as providing exclusive access to industry-leading research, global resources and experts to lead tangible change. FleishmanHillard will also contribute its industry expertise towards the advancement of the Alliance's objectives and become an active member in driving the mission and achieving gender equality.

Claire Barnett, UN Women UK Executive Director, said, "We're delighted to welcome FleishmanHillard into the UK Chapter of the Unstereotype Alliance. They join a growing coalition of allies and businesses committed to diverse and inclusive advertising and marketing communications in order to create a more equal world. We have big plans for 2022 and welcome FleishmanHillard's deep expertise in both public relations and marketing to help us make industry-wide change."

The newly launched Culture Unit consists of global cultural strategists working in behavioral change, looking at fringe culture to enable clients to be ready for what's happening today and coming tomorrow. Acting as a springboard between the data and creative, the Unit will work across FleishmanHillard's top 200 clients offering below-the-line cultural insights that lead to braver and community-changing campaigns.

About FleishmanHillard

FleishmanHillard specializes in public relations, reputation management, public affairs, brand marketing, digital strategy, social engagement and content strategy. FleishmanHillard was named 2021 PRovoke Global Agency of the Year, 2020 Campaign Global PR Agency of the Year, 2019 PRWeek U.S. Outstanding Large Agency; ICCO Network of the Year  Americas 2017-2020; PRovoke Media Greater China Consultancy of the Year 2020; PRWeek UK Large Consultancy of the Year 2021; Human Rights Campaign Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality 2018-2020; and to Seramount's (formerly Working Mother Media) "Top Companies for Executive Women" list 2010-2021. The firm's award-winning work is widely heralded, including at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. FleishmanHillard is part of Omnicom Public Relations Group, and has 80 offices in more than 30 countries, plus affiliates in 50 countries.

About Omnicom Public Relations Group

Omnicom Public Relations Group is a global collective of three of the top global public relations agencies worldwide and specialist agencies in areas including public affairs, language strategy, global health strategy and change management. As the largest group of communications professionals in the world, our employees provide expertise to companies, government agencies, NGOs and nonprofits across a wide range of industries. Omnicom Public Relations Group delivers for clients through a relentless focus on talent, continuous pursuit of innovation and a culture steeped in collaboration. Omnicom Public Relations Group is part of the Communications Consultancy Network, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC).

About Communications Consultancy Network

Communications Consultancy Network (CCN) is a global collective of the top global public relations, strategy, branding, and research agencies. Award-winning brands include FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, Porter Novelli, Marina Maher Communications, Interbrand, C Space, Wolff Olins, Sterling, Siegel & Gale and Hall & Partners. We are home to a group of highly talented and specialized consultants across industries and marketing disciplines, delivering strategic thinking and market-leading innovation to clients. CCN is a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC).

About Omnicom Group Inc.

Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 70 countries. Follow us on Twitter for the latest news.

SOURCE FleishmanHillard Inc.
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Manhattan-based beauty agency became the first PR and marketing firm to host a press event entirely in the metaverse when they launched Valde Beauty's newest collection at Decentraland's virtual Ainsley Gallery on Thursday, January 27. The event introduced more than 600 attendees to Valde's Divine Crystal Lipstick Armorssemi-precious, hand-carved lipstick casesvia a Phygital NFT collection.

Accessible via laptop, the evening event treated guests to live music by Latin X 3D artist Serena Ellis, a Valde digital wearable for their avatars, a POAP NFT, as well as a live auction for Valde's number one NFT artwork: Collective Calliope, Goddess of Song, which sold for $2,600. Guests were also invited to purchase NFTs and their physical counterparts, the new Valde's Divine Crystal Armors."

"We chose to host a press launch in the metaverse because it's a way to reach a wide swath of influential people efficiently," says Marie-Laure Fournier-Uder, founder of Fournier PR + Consulting. "But, unlike others dabbling in virtual events, we were not interested in creating a game or something gimmicky. I envisioned a chic, fun, elevated cocktail party that would appeal to grownups. In my experience, Gen X is just as ready as Gen Z to engage virtually."

The metaverse event, isn't, however, Fournier's first "first." Last year, the agency helped the House of Krigler, another client, became one of the first beauty brandsand the first luxury fragrance houseto sell a fragrance, Krigler Grand Bonheur 54, with an NFT. The year prior, Fournier was the first PR firm to take on a beauty brand aimed exclusively at menopausal women with the U.S. launch of Pause Well Aging Skincare. And, in the midst of the pandemic, Fournier saw the growing demand for effective, at-home skin and hair treatments that rivaled in-office options, and she helped bring CurrentBody, the leading global retailer for beauty-devices, to the U.S. market.

"We've built a reputation as an agency that's unafraid to push boundariesinto new beauty categories and into the new digital frontier," says Fournier-Uder. "We are an exclusive agency and I'm proud of the fact that we've been able to deliver for our clients again and again because of our ability to see and adapt to the future."

SOURCE Fournier PR + Consulting
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Frutta Bowls, a WOWorks brand and the nation's fastest-growing superfoods cafe franchise, expanded its grocery store-within-store locations with multi-unit franchisee partners Curtis High and Jordan Rideout. The pair recently opened the brand's first franchisee-owned Frutta Bowls restaurant in a grocery store in Doylestown, PA.

Curtis High and Jordan Rideout are owners of eight Saladworks locations throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware. While Curtis had a restaurant business background working with Yum! Brands, Jordan worked for Home Depot as a store manager for ten years. They came together in 2007 to purchase three Saladworks franchise agreements. As they saw success with their restaurants, they spent the next several years acquiring and opening more Saladworks locations in their region. Today, they have five restaurants in central Pennsylvania and two in Delaware. This is the duo's first Frutta Bowls restaurant and first store-within-a-store grocery location.

Curtis and Jordan decided to invest in a Frutta Bowls franchise because of its focus on fresh, health-halo ingredients and its natural fit with their Saladworks restaurants. "When we reviewed and visited Frutta Bowls restaurants after WOWorks' acquisition, we immediately saw how their menu of fresh smoothies, bowls and bites appeal to young people and families who are trying to find healthy and convenient meals that also taste great," said Jordan Rideout, co-owner of Frutta Bowls. "We were especially attracted to the possibility of co-branding Frutta Bowls and Saladworks restaurants. If this Frutta Bowls location does well, we intend on co-branding all our existing Saladworks locations with Frutta Bowls restaurants."

The Frutta Bowls grocery store location in Doylestown, PA, is expected to create 10-15 jobs. To open this Frutta Bowls store-within-a-store location, WOWorks facilitated several interviews between Curtis and Jordan with the grocery store chain executives and coordinated walk-throughs in the franchisees' stand-alone restaurants. With attractive back-end efficiencies; a quicker timeline to build out and open; and menu options that cover all dayparts, Curtis and Jordan are hoping they will be able to forge a positive relationship with the grocery company to open several more locations with the chain.

"We are happy to welcome Curtis High and Jordan Rideout to the Frutta Bowls family," said Kelly Roddy, CEO of WOWorks. "Our grocery store and co-branding restaurant model is helping our franchisee network expand in non-traditional verticals and increase revenue with their existing WOWorks' restaurant investment. Co-branding allows franchisees to open multiple restaurant brands together, tap into several dayparts, and enjoy greater efficiencies due to shared back-end operations and equipment."

WOWorks is actively seeking qualified franchise partners interested in multi-unit and single-unit ownership, preferably individuals with business experience and/or franchise experience, and a passion for serving guests. For more information about owning a WOWorks franchise or co-branded franchise restaurant, https://franchise.saladworks.com/ and https://franchise.fruttabowls.com/.

ABOUT FRUTTA BOWLS

Founded in 2016 to fulfill a need for fresh and flavorful plant-centric dining options, Frutta Bowls has since grown from its original location in Freehold, New Jersey to 39 locations. From Acai to Zinc, Frutta Bowls uses only the freshest, ripest and most flavorful plant-based, whole-food ingredients featured in customizable bowls and smoothies, as well as toasts and protein bites. For more information, visit www.fruttabowls.com.

ABOUT WOWORKS:

WOWorks was formed in 2020 with a mission to help guests pursue their passions and live their best lives by serving healthy, nutritious and flavorful meals along with its Vow to "WOW!" guest hospitality. Fully owned by Centre Lane Partners, LLC, WOWorks' portfolio consists of: Saladworks, the nation's leading fast-casual salad brand; Frutta Bowls, a unique restaurant franchise serving a variety of superfood bowls, fresh fruit smoothies, protein bites and more; Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, a popular Mediterranean restaurant concept; and most recently, The Simple Greek, which offers a fresh and healthy take on traditional Greek recipes in a fast-casual setting. WOWorks seeks to drive explosive growth across all of its brands through a variety of channels, both traditional and non-traditional, including ghost kitchens, food trucks, grocery retail and more.

SOURCE Frutta Bowls
Located in San Diego, California, Conquer Scientific refurbishes, sells, and services analytical instruments. Conquer has differentiated their market position with their scientific expertise in such areas as method validation, training, and troubleshooting. Conquer Scientific and GenTech Scientific will maintain their brand identities, while leveraging the resources and synergies created by combining two industry-leading competitors. Conquer founder, Dr. Fatih Buyuksonmez, will continue as an executive resource of both companies as Chief Scientific Officer.

Company executives expressed their excitement about the acquisition. "As a scientist, I see the combined inventory and thought leadership of the joint entities as a tremendous asset, we now have many more instruments and solutions to offer customers to support their research," commented Dr. Fatih Buyuksonmez.

GenTech's CEO, Mike Lippa, further addressed the importance of customer satisfaction. He shared, "As the market continues to expand, combining these two companies adds technical capabilities and provides coast-to-coast service coverage, improving response times and validating the value propositions that customers of both companies have grown to appreciate."

GenTech's Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Yvette Pagano, added, "This acquisition is a classic case of how 1+1 can equal 5. GenTech's location in Western New York State and Conquer's location in Southern California are geographic bullseyes to service our fastest growing sectors: biotech, academia, and cannabis. Not to mention the proximity to Canada and Mexico."

Both portfolio companies, GenTech Scientific and Conquer Scientific, are held by Lakelet Capital LLC, under Purity Scientific. The managing partner of Lakelet Capital, Randy Bianchi, shared Lakelet's enthusiasm for continuing to focus on and support portfolio companies in this fast-growing market. "Having the opportunity to combine two great companies is rewarding, particularly when both companies have proven leadership, shared core values and celebrate tenured and happy clients."

About Conquer Scientific: Founded in 2007 in San Diego, California by Fatih Buyuksonmez, Ph.D., Conquer's goal has been to provide researchers with high-quality, pre-owned analytical instruments at affordable cost, along with expert service and support. For more information, please visit conquerscientific.com.

About GenTech Scientific: Founded in 1996, GenTech Scientific is located in Arcade, New York. A pioneer in the refurbished instruments industry. For more information, please visit gentechscientific.com.

About Lakelet Capital LLC: Lakelet Capital is a Buffalo-based private equity firm that invests in the lower middle market companies to steadily grow and transition into longevity. For more information, please visit lakeletcapital.com.

Contacts

Mike Lippa, CEO -GenTech Scientific

Phone: 585-492-1068

Email: [email protected] | [email protected]

Randy Bianchi, Managing Partner -Lakelet Capital LLC

Phone: 716-277-0502

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE GenTech Scientific
ALBANY, N.Y., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global 2,3-butanediol market is anticipated to rise at a CAGR of 3.5% during the forecast period, from 2020 to 2030. The global market is predicted to be driven by increase in demand for rubbers such as chloroprene rubber, nitrile rubber, styrenebutadiene latex, and styrenebutadiene rubber in the tire industry, as 2,3-butanediol is converted into 1,3-butadiene, which is widely used in the manufacturing of different types of rubbers.

The precursor of methyl ethyl ketone is 2,3-butanediol (also known as MEK or 2-butanone). The demand for 2,3-Butanediol is expected to expand considerably in this field during the forecast period. Natural-source items are becoming increasingly popular across the world. Synthetic and petrochemical goods are being phased out in favor of items made by fermentation and biorefinery. 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BD) is a high potential bulk chemical with a broad variety of possible uses.

For usage in the manufacturing of emollients and solvents, there is an increasing need for sustainable and bio-based 2,3-butanediol featuring odorless and colorless properties. Personal care and cosmetic products incorporate these solvents and emollients, which is expected to drive sales opportunities in the global 2,3-butanediol market.

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Key Findings of Market Report

Producers of derivatives, softening agents, plasticizers, and pharmaceuticals, among other things, are diversifying their revenue streams in the global 2,3-butanediol market. By the end of 2030, the global market is estimated to be worth US$ 300 Mn .

. Fertilizer makers are recognizing the economic efficiency of 2,3-butanediol, since this organic molecule is easily available in food, animals, and soil. As a result, producers in the global 2,3-butanediol market are bolstering their credibility claims by using environment-friendly isomer fermentation, which helps to preserve the natural ecosystem. Natural sources of 2,3-butanediol include natural and fermented natural foods such as raspberry, honey, and wine.

Ever-increasing agriculture sector has sparked a surge in fertilizer and biostimulant demand. Firms in the global 2,3-butanediol market are concentrating their efforts on creating drought-resistant fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers are commonly used to provide nutrients to crops. Fertilizers containing 2,3-butanediol, on the other hand, are more resistant to a variety of environmental stresses, including high temperature, drought, frost injury, and salt injury. Another important factor for the growth of the global 2,3-butanediol market is the increasing desire for organic foods.

Producers of 2,3-butanediol are stepping up their R&D efforts to develop polyols with greater preservative-boosting and moisturizing properties. 2,3-butanediol is gaining popularity globally in cosmetics and personal care products due to its good dispersion properties.

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Global 2,3-Butanediol Market: Growth Drivers

Companies in the global 2,3-butanediol market are stepping up their efforts to satisfy ISO (International Organization for Standardization) requirement for the production of COVID-19 pathogen-killing plastic films. In order to develop plastic films, they are conducting numerous quality control tests. Such films are in response to beneficial developments in the field of plastics, which have the capability to provide an additional layer of safety in end-use products.

Fermentation of 2,3-butanediol utilizing sugars such as xylose and glucose substrates can be costly. As a result, firms in the global 2,3-butanediol market can ferment 2,3-butanediol using less expensive feedstock such as molasses, starch, and lignocellulosic substances.

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Global 2,3-Butanediol Market: Key Players

Some of the key market players are

Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd

Global Bio-Chem Technology Group

Haihang Industry Co., Ltd.

Merck KGaA

Henan Coreychem Co., Ltd.

Orochem Technologies Inc.

Global 2,3-Butanediol Market: Segmentation

Application

Intermediate Chemicals

Plastics

Food Additives

Cosmetics

Others

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Chemicals & Materials Industry battles Tangible Impact of Economic and Cultural changes, Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the global Chemicals & Materials Market:

1,3-butanediol Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/1-3-butanediol-market.html

1,4-Butanediol (BDO), Polytetramethylene Ether Glycol (PTMEG) & Spandex Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/global-14butanediol-bdo-polytetramethylene-ether-glycol-ptmeg-spandex-market.html

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SOURCE Transparency Market Research
DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Body Dryer market (2021-2026) by Distribution Channel, Type, End Users, Application and Geography , Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Body Dryer market is estimated to be USD 4.65 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 5.96 Bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.1%.

Body dryers are the type of air dryers that eliminate the need for bath towels by using the steam system. Body dryers blow hot or cold air at high speeds, ranging from 60-100 km/h, onto the body and are being developed to limit the use of bath towels. The factors such as growing awareness concerning personal hygiene, rising standard of living, and increasing consumer spending, particularly on premium hygiene products, are the significant factors projected to propel the growth of the Body Dryer market. Also, a body dryer enhances convenience, especially for disabled people, making the appliance necessary for sanitation. Personal hygiene products are increasingly favored, thereby boosting the growth of the body dryers market.



However, the availability of several substitutes such as wipes and disposable towels and the high cost of the product limits its adoption. It hampers the growth of the body dryer market.

The Global Body Dryer market is segmented by Distribution Channel, Type, End Users, Application & Geography.



Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are Avant Innovations, Dolphy India Private Limited, Full Body Dryer LLC, Haystack Dryers, Kingkraft, Orchids International, Regal Care Shower Trays Ltd., Tornado Body Dryer, LLC, Valiryo, and AKW Medi-Care Ltd.



Competitive Quadrant

The report includes the Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Body Dryer Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 force model and the Ansoff Matrix. The impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description

2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Market Size and Segmentation

3.3 Market Outlook



4 Market Influencers

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Rising Awareness Regarding Personal Hygiene

4.1.2 Rapid Rise in Urbanization

4.1.3 Rising Standard of Living and Increasing Consumer Spending on Convenience Products

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Availability of Several Substitutes Such as Wipes and Disposable Towels

4.2.2 High Costs of Body Dryer

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Technological Advancement and the Rising Popularity of Body Dryers

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Higher Cost of the Product

4.4.2 High Cost Associated with Product Installation and Maintenance



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Body Dryer Market, By Distribution Channel

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Online Channel

6.3 Offline Channel



7 Global Body Dryer Market, By Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 On Floor

7.3 Wall-mounted



8 Global Body Dryer Market, By End Users

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Commercial

8.3 Residential



9 Global Body Dryer Market, By Application

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Hotels

9.3 Spas

9.4 Gyms

9.5 Home

9.6 Hospitals



10 Global Body Dryer Market, By Geography



11 Competitive Landscape

11.1 IGR Competitive Quadrant

11.2 Market Share Analysis

11.3 Strategic Initiatives

11.3.1 M&A and Investments

11.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

11.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



12 Company Profiles

12.1 Avant Innovations

12.2 Dolphy India Private Limited

12.3 Full Body Dryer LLC

12.4 Haystack Dryers

12.5 Indiegogo, Inc.

12.6 Kingkraft Ltd.

12.7 Orchids International

12.8 Regal Care Shower Trays Ltd.

12.9 Tornado Body Dryer, LLC

12.10 Valiryo

12.11 AKW Medi-Care Ltd.



13 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/53vb11

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GroupM, WPP's media investment group, announced today that Kaya Heitman has been promoted to Executive Director of Marketing Communications, North America.

Heitman joins from GroupM agency, Wavemaker, bringing her extensive digital background and marketing communications experience to GroupM. In her new role, she will lead and execute dynamic internal and external communication and marketing initiatives that will further champion GroupM's growth in North America while fostering collaboration to develop new and innovative business opportunities through GroupM's award-winning agencies (Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker, Essence, and m/SIX).

In her new role, Heitman will report to Colan McGeehan, the North America Chief Marketing & Business Officer. She will also work alongside Maya Hart and Anne Ng, GroupM's Directors of Marketing and Communications in EMEA and APAC, respectively, to drive a globally unified approach to marketing and communications initiatives for GroupM.

"Now more than ever, embracing innovative ways of thinking when it comes to marketing and communications is not a separate part of the business operation, but the fundamental and transformative aspect of the business and its interactions with clients," said Colan McGeehan. "Kaya's appointment is first and foremost in recognition of the strong results she has driven for Wavemaker. Since I joined the group, I've come to know Kaya as an exceptionally experienced communications professional with that all-important fearless attitude that creates results. Her unique set of skills will enrich our storytelling and initiatives within GroupM and for our clients. I'm delighted to welcome her to the team."

Under her leadership at Wavemaker as Managing Partner, Head of Marketing & Communications, U.S., the agency was recognized by MediaPost as 2021 Media Agency of the Year, honored by Adweek as 2020 U.S. Media Agency of the Year, successfully launched its new "positive provocation" positioning in the U.S., and became the home for new economy brands looking to be positively provoked in the service of growth. Recently, Wavemaker has won a slew of 'new economy' clients, including Bumble, Coinbase, Zwift, DiDi, Flixmobility, and Tik Tok, establishing the agency as the right choice for brands on a strong growth trajectory.

"I'm proud of the growth of Wavemaker, as its provocative planning approaches, exciting marketing intelligence and science innovation, and proven success with new economy clients have made it a formidable option for brands seeking a new home," said Heitman. "As I transition within the organization, I am excited to join an amazing team and showcase GroupM's role in making advertising work better for people."

Before Wavemaker, Heitman held positions at Horizon Media, Daddi Brand Communications, and DDB Group, specializing in communications, strategy, digital marketing, and global programs.

About GroupM

GroupM is the world's leading media investment company responsible for more than $50B in annual media investment through agencies Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker, Essence, and m/SIX, as well as the outcomes-driven programmatic audience company, Xaxis. GroupM's portfolio includes Data & Technology (Choreograph), Investment, and Services, all united in the vision to shape the next era of media where advertising works better for people. By leveraging all the benefits of scale, the company innovates, differentiates, and generates sustained value for our clients wherever they do business. Discover more about GroupM at www.groupm.com.

About Wavemaker

We believe there always is a better way to grow. We positively provoke growth for our clients by reshaping consumer decision-making and experiences through media, content, and technology. The Wavemaker way is globally consistent. Fueled by the world's most powerful consumer data, we understand where and how marketing can intervene decisively to help brands win more sales. Our 7,200 people across 90 markets have the deep knowledge, confidence, and courage to provoke growth for some of the world's leading brands and businesses.

We are a part of GroupM, WPP's global media investment management company. Discover more on wavemakerglobal.com, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE GroupM
BALTIMORE, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Earlier today, the Society of Academic Urologists (SAU) and the American Urological Association (AUA) announced the results of the 2022 Urology Residency Match ("the Urology Match"), the system through which U.S. medical students, and other applicants from around the world wishing to specialize in urology, learn where they will complete their residency.

2022 was a record-breaking year for the Urology Residency Match. Of the more than 600 students registered in this year's Urology Match  the highest number in nearly a decade  92.5% submitted preference lists for this highly competitive program, vying for a record-high 365 positions across the country. When the matching algorithm was processed, 66% matched to a vacancy within 143 registered and accredited training programs within the United States, leaving zero vacancies unmatched.

This year's Urology Match was also a paramount year for females applying for and matching with urology programs, as a higher percentage of female participants matched with programs (72%), compared to their male counterparts (63%).

"We are extremely proud of the success of the Urology Residency Match and look forward each year to helping a growing number of medical students begin their journey toward becoming urologists," said SAU President James Andrew Brown, MD. "This year's match saw the highest number of positions offered, and applicants registered, in nearly a decade. The sustained growth of this critically important training program is vital to advancing urology and the many individuals who make up the future of our specialty."

On average, 2022 Urology Match participants submitted 82 applications, with programs receiving an average of 347 applications. Programs granted an average of 43 interviews, with potential residents taking an average of 11 interviews. Matched applicants had an average of 14 programs on their preference lists.

"The AUA is honored to have delivered a strong Match to the many applicants pursuing their dreams of urology," said AUA President Raju Thomas, MD, FACS. "We admire all the Match participants for their hard work, resilience and commitment. While we saw another transformational application and recruitment cycle due to a resurgence of the pandemic, the results of the Match continue to demonstrate strong and consistent outcomes for participants who remain more talented than ever  the future of urology is bright."

Urology Match Day is an annual rite of passage for U.S. medical students and other applicants from around the world. Medical students begin the residency application process at the start of their final year in medical school. After applying to various registered programs across the country, select candidates are invited by programs for interviews, which are held in the fall and early winter. Once the interview period is over, both registered parties submit their preference lists to the AUA, which has performed the Urology Match annually on behalf of the SAU for nearly 40 years.

Follow the excitement on #AUAMatch and #UROMatch

Results of the Urology Residency Match are closely watched as they can be predictors of future trends in physician workforce shortages and supply. View statistics on the 2022 Match and past Match results.

About the American Urological Association: Founded in 1902 and headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland, the American Urological Association is a leading advocate for the specialty of urology, and has more than 24,000 members throughout the world. The AUA is a premier urologic association, providing invaluable support to the urologic community as it pursues its mission of fostering the highest standards of urologic care through education, research and the formulation of health policy.

About the Society of Academic Urologists: Formed in 2016 when the Society of University Urologists and the Society of Urology Chairpersons and Program Directors merged, the Society of Academic Urologists (SAU), provides academic urologists with a forum to discuss, review and work toward resolving critical issues in all aspects of academic urology. Additionally, SAU maximizes benefits for educational urology programs, streamlines communications with the AUA, RRC, ABU, and other societies, as well as gives academic urology a voice in the AUA Match program.



Contact:

Caitlin Lukacs

410-689-4081

[email protected]

SOURCE American Urological Association
Hyperion will invest more than $297 million in the new facility to manufacture its next-generation hydrogen fuel cell, which will power its new line of stationary and mobile energy storage products, including its XP-1 hypercar. The investment will create more than 680 net new, full-time permanent positions over the next six years, with an annual payroll of up to $58 million. Founded originally in Columbus in 2011, Hyperion's return to the city comes as other hydrogen technology startups and manufacturers have also recently made Columbus home.

Angelo Kafantaris, CEO of Hyperion, and Ohio native said, "After 10 years of development, we are thrilled to bring our hydrogen technology back to Columbus where it all started. Building the XP-1 allowed us to test and refine our fuel cell technology, allowing us to create the most advanced green hydrogen fuel cell stack for a number of different applications. With its ability to store mass quantities of electric energy, hydrogen has tremendous long-term, zero-emission potential for the energy sector, and will be one of the most powerful tools in reducing carbon emissions on a global scale."

Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said, "Columbus' west side has always been a hub for manufacturing and innovation, and Hyperion will bring a fresh wave of investment and activity that will create opportunity for residents in Westland, the Hilltop and beyond. Columbus' public and private sectors are committed to leadership in clean energy, technology, cutting-edge manufacturing and the future of mobility, and I am delighted that Hyperion will join us in driving our growth."

J.P. Nauseef, JobsOhio president and CEO, said, "Ohio is poised to lead in the development of hydrogen fuel cells, and Hyperion Companies, Inc. has invested significant resources in developing cutting-edge solutions in advancing this technology to support the automotive, transportation and energy storage industries. JobsOhio plans to provide assistance following the company's achievement of operational milestones as Hyperion moves forward to establish a new headquarters and R&D center in the Columbus Region."

Hyperion chose to revitalize the storied building that once housed the printing operations of the Columbus Dispatch because the layout and operations of the highly advanced roll-to-roll printing hub mirror those of a high-yield fuel cell membrane coating process. Between the ideal technical capabilities of the building, the hydrogen supplier network already in place in Ohio as well as the depth of the local R&D talent, Hyperion will be able to fast track its operations and begin production in 2023.

For more information about Hyperion, please visit www.hyperion.inc.

About Hyperion

Founded in 2011 by an expert team of PhDs, Hyperion Companies, Inc. is a technology company that focuses on green hydrogen-based power and delivery. From energy storage to transportation, Hyperion seeks to revolutionize the energy sector by producing high-quality, low-cost hydrogen fuel cell technology for use in a wide variety of industries. More information about Hyperion can be found at www.hyperion.inc Follow Hyperion on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Contact:

Alex Adams

(202)-805-2764

[email protected]

SOURCE Hyperion Companies Inc.
Our research report on "InsurTech market  Forecast and Analysis Report 2021-202 5 " has extensively covered factors influencing the parent market growth potential in the coming years, which will determine the levels of growth of the market during the forecast period.

InsurTech market report key highlights

Estimated year-on-year growth rate: 40.26%

Key market segments: Value chain positioning (marketing and distribution, IT support, policy administration and management, claim management, and others), and Geography ( North America , APAC, Europe , South America , and MEA)

, APAC, , , and MEA) Key Consumer Region & contribution: Europe at 47%

InsurTech Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 45.28% Market growth 2021-2025 $ 33.73 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 40.26 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America Performing market contribution Europe at 47% Key consumer countries US, UK, France, Japan, and China Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled Alan SA, Clover Health, Cytora Ltd., Haven Life Insurance Agency LLC, Oscar Insurance Corp., Quantemplate Technologies Inc., Shift Technology, simplesurance GmbH, Trov Insurance Solutions LLC, and ZhongAn Online Property Insurance Co. Ltd. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis 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.

Do reach out to our analysts for more customized reports as per needs. Speak to our Analyst now!

InsurTech market trend

Collaborations of investors

The collaboration of investors with InsurTech firms is one of the key factors fueling the InsurTech market share growth. This is due to investors showing an increased interest in collaborating with InsurTech firms or technology-first start-ups. Moreover, the involvement of technology has resulted in the transformation of the entire value chain of insurance including the costing process, improving the consumer experience, process transparency, reducing fraud, and simplification of the claim process for customers. In addition, the focus of InsurTech vendors is on the growing demands of consumers for the customization of insurance products and personalized services. As a result, there is a rapid increase in the importance of InsurTech among the insurance companies due to the growing trend of purchasing insurance over an application worldwide.

InsurTech market challenge

High investment cost

The high investment cost is one of the key challenges for the InsurTech market during the forecast period. To sell insurance products using the latest technology is a new challenge for insurance firms as the employees are required to be provided with a good amount of specialized training on the technology used. Additionally, retraining is also needed for understanding the insurance product more in-depth to meet the needs of the clients. Thus, there is a huge investment required to be done by the insurance firms for hiring trainers for brokers and staff.

Get free sample for extensive insights on key market Drivers, Trends, and Challenges influencing the InsurTech market.

Key market vendors insights

The InsurTech market is fragmented, and the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic strategies to compete in the market.

Some of the key market vendors are:

Alan SA

Clover Health

Cytora Ltd.

Haven Life Insurance Agency LLC

Oscar Insurance Corp.

Quantemplate Technologies Inc.

Shift Technology

simplesurance GmbH

Trov Insurance Solutions LLC

ZhongAn Online Property Insurance Co. Ltd.

For more detailed highlights on products offerings and the growth strategies adopted by other vendors, Download free sample report

Key Segment Analysis by Value chain positioning

Marketing and distribution

The marketing and distribution segment will be significant in the InsurTech market share growth during the forecast period. The increasing use of smartphones and the ease-of-access of the Internet through smartphones have bolstered digital marketing and digital distribution of insurance policies through advanced technologies. Moreover, the mobile point-of-sales in the e-retail business is increasingly being accepted. This is helping insurance firms in finding significant opportunities to address a large number of customers.

IT support



Policy administration and management



Claim management



Other

Regional Market Analysis

Europe will contribute to 47% of the global InsurTech market share growth during the forecast period. UK and France are the major markets for InsurTech in Europe.

The market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in North America and MEA regions.

Request our free sample for additional highlights and key segments that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period.

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About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contacts

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
HAMILTON, Bermuda, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Integral ILS Ltd. ("Integral"), the independent Insurance-Linked Securities ("ILS") fund manager, today announced it has surpassed $1.1B of investor capital deployed. The firm also announced it has raised in excess of $1.4B since its founding in July 2020.

Over the past year, the firm has received several new commitments from institutional investors in addition to increased allocations from its cornerstone investors, New Holland Capital and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments).

Integral's investing strategy is primarily focused on catastrophe-linked insurance and reinsurance transactions, and benefits from in-house risk origination capabilities and comprehensive access via strategic partnerships with TransRe and Amwins.

Integral Co-Founder and Managing Partner Richard Lowther said: "Our AUM growth is a testament to the demand we've seen among sophisticated institutional investors to add catastrophic risk to their portfolios, especially those looking for alternatives to fixed income and credit strategies."

Integral Co-Founder and CIO Lixin Zeng added: "We have long believed that institutional investors with long-term time horizons have a structural advantage when it comes to holding catastrophic risk exposures, and we're pleased to see continued investor interest in our bespoke strategy."

Scott Radke, CEO of New Holland Capital, said: "Integral has an exciting market opportunity, as current pricing in the market has reignited interest from institutional investors that have historically avoided catastrophe risk assets. We're enthusiastic about their specialized, investor-friendly approach to the market, and we look forward to our ongoing partnership with the Integral team as they continue to scale."

About Integral

Integral is a Bermuda-headquartered independent ILS fund manager founded in July 2020 by industry veterans Lixin Zeng and Richard Lowther. Strategic partners TransRe, a leading global property and casualty reinsurer headquartered in New York, and Amwins, the largest independent wholesale distributor of specialty insurance products in the United States headquartered in Charlotte, enable Integral's investors to have comprehensive access to the broader natural catastrophe and event-linked insurance value-chain.

Contacts :

Prosek Partners

Anne Hart, Devin Shorey

[email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE Integral ILS Ltd.
BLUE BELL, Pa., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Katalyst Capital LLC ("Katalyst Capital"), a Chicago-based private equity firm, announced that it has partnered with structural and civil engineering company Mainstay Engineering Group, Inc. ("Mainstay Engineering"). Headquartered in Blue Bell, PA, Mainstay Engineering performs structural design, civil design and land development services to owners, manufacturers, developers and design professionals across 35 states. The current Mainstay Engineering management team will continue to lead the company into its next phase of growth.

"Through our partnership with Katalyst we've found a like-minded partner that mirrors our commitment to consistent quality and excellent service," said Matt Hilbush, President of Mainstay Engineering. "Together, we will continue to build on our solid foundation, and look forward to leveraging the additional resources and expertise to support our growth, deliver industry-leading results for our staff and clients, and meet the increased demand in the marketplace."

Greg Buzzell, Managing Partner at Katalyst Capital, added "Over the past 20 years Mainstay has earned a reputation for delivering creative, high-quality solutions paired with exceptional service. This partnership represents our belief in and commitment to the Mainstay team, and to the potential of the broader engineering services industry. We believe that with the backing of Katalyst Capital, Mainstay's growth will accelerate, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Matt Hilbush and the Mainstay team as they embark on their next chapter."

About Mainstay Engineering, Inc.

Mainstay performs structural design, civil design and land development services to owners, manufacturers, developers and design professionals. Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Blue Bell, PA , with satellite offices in Cherry Hill, NJ and Raleigh, NC, Mainstay is licensed to provide engineering services in 35 states. Utilizing a unique, multi-disciplined thought approach, our goal is to bring superior value to projects by delivering top-notch service while anticipating the client's needs and minimizing cost and time. Visit our website at www.megr.com.

About Katalyst Capital LLC

Katalyst Capital invests in high-growth companies in a wide range of industries with a primary focus on business services, infrastructure and training. Our independent, patient capital base and entrepreneurial approach make us an ideal partner for small to mid-sized, independent companies poised for accelerated growth. We believe our growth-oriented and partnership driven model results in stronger companies that employ the best people, are socially responsible and deliver strong results over the long-term. Visit us at www.katalyst-capital.com.

SOURCE Katalyst Capital LLC; Mainstay Engineering Group, Inc.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kenya-based digital trucking logistics startup Amitruck has announced today that it has secured $4m in a seed funding round that had the participation of investors from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States.

The fundraising was led by Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV), a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that targets early-stage startups. Also in the round were supply chain and mobility venture capital Dynamo Ventures, an investor to Berlin-based Digital Freight Forwarding unicorn, Sennder GmbH. Other investors included Rackhouse Ventures , founded by Kevin Novak, one of the early members of Uber Freight; Flexport Inc, a digital freight forwarding and customs brokerage company based in San Francisco; Knuru Capita l, Launch Africa Ventures, the Uncovered Fund, and several strategic angel investors.

Amitruck's CEO and Founder, Mark Mwangi, said the funding will be used to lead the startup's expansion across Africa and to hire teams across its technical, operations, and sales units, including senior leadership.

"We are thrilled about the positive response that Amitruck has received from cargo owners and transporters alike. Transport touches on almost every sector of the African economy and is crucial to its development; we are excited to be part of that journey. Thanks to the support from our investors, we look forward to expanding our footprint across Africa and bringing more carriers and shippers to our marketplace," he said.

BTV's General Partner Jake Gibson said Amitruck was selected for investment due to its high level of innovation and a growing need for its services.

"As an investor in unicorn CloudTruck startup here in the US, we have in-depth knowledge of the operational and financial requirements from truckers. While the trucking and logistic business in Africa has grown tremendously over the years, the pace of innovation particularly in its administration has been slow. Amitruck's solution is ideal for bringing the industry into the 21st century." he said

BTV previously invested in Cloudtrucks, the $850 million California-based startup that uses technology to bridge administrative bottlenecks for trucking businesses.

Amitruck was founded in 2019 to streamline the trucking business in Africa, which had, hitherto, been informal, fragmented, and based on archaic manual systems that unnecessarily increased operating costs. As a result of the informal arrangements that a majority of the continent's trucking operations have been based on, the cost of transportation remains five times higher than in developed countries, and the final cost of goods can be up to 60 percent more.

With Amitruck, clients connect directly with transporters eliminating the cost-prohibitive middlemen. Moreover, the vehicles and drivers on the platform are keenly vetted for quality and reliability, and the customers' goods are insured against loss or damage.

It is this convenience, security, efficiency, and competitive pricing that has seen the startup's database grow to over 8,000 vehicles, which have in just over two years completed almost 100,000 deliveries for more than 300 corporate clients. Consequently, its revenue grew 1,000 percent in 2021, despite the limitations brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The startup's revenues had grown 400 percent in the previous year, based on rising popularity from up to 30 percent in cost-savings for clients.

Amitruck is eyeing market dominance in the Africa trucking and logistics market, which accounts for almost 80 percent of transported goods. The startup participated in the JICA-backed Ninja Accelerator program in 2021, and was also accepted to the Google-backed Black Founders Fund Accelerator as well as AbInbev's Budstart Accelerator program later that year.

ABOUT AMITRUCK

Amitruck is a trucking logistics marketplace that allows transporters (owners of motorbikes, pick-ups, vans, and trucks) to find and connect with shippers through its mobile and web applications.

Transporters bid for work on the platform, ensuring competitive prices, while cargo owners have convenient access to a range of competitive offers and can choose a transporter based on price, rating, and experience.

With its expansion across Africa, the startup is hiring across its key functions, including sales, engineering, and customer success. Interested candidates are invited to apply at https://www.amitruck.com/careers .

SOURCE Amitruck
Allen is the Senior Vice President of University Advancement and External Relations at DePaul University in Chicago, where he has held several senior-leadership roles since August 2015. Currently, Allen leads and manages development, alumni relations, advancement communications, and community and government relations at DePaul, the largest Catholic university in the U.S. There, he oversaw the most successful single fundraising year in the university's history, raising $93.3 million in the 2021 fiscal year and simultaneously launching a 12-month, $60 million campaign aimed at support for student scholarships, emergency assistance, and mental health and career resources.

He also has deep roots in the Lasallian charism and mission, having previously served as vice president of advancement at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, whichlike La Salleis one of the six Lasallian colleges and universities in the U.S.

"Dr. Allen is an extraordinary leader whose talents and experience equip him well to guide La Salle University as our next President," said William W. Matthews, III, Esq., '90, Chair of La Salle's Board of Trustees. "He possesses a deep commitment to high-impact teaching and learning, in full alignment with our university's mission. More importantly, he is positioned to shape La Salle's promising future by addressing our current needs and supporting our students on their paths toward transformational personal and professional outcomes. I have every confidence, as does the Board of Trustees, that Dr. Allen will build upon our impressive foundation and elevate La Salle to significant new heights."

"I am honored and humbled by the Board's selection, and I am ready to lead La Salle University," said Allen. "As I moved through this process, it became clear to me that La Salle students embark on their lives and careers with a real-world readiness. Their degree has a return on investment that is among the nation's strongest, and that is a testament to an excellent and vibrant faculty. These have been hallmarks of this history-rich, mission-oriented university for nearly 160 years. I look forward to working with the La Salle community to chart the path forward for the next chapter of the university's future."

DePaul and La Salle, as Catholic universities located in high-population urban and competitive higher education marketplaces, also share demographic similarities in the student bodies they serve. Among La Salle's undergraduate population, 42% identify as students of color, 37% are eligible for federal Pell Grants, 28% are the first in their families to attend college, and 96% receive financial aid of some kind.

"In his service to DePaul's student body, which is strikingly similar to ours, as well as his familiarity with the Lasallian mission and demonstrated commitment to cultivating principles of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, we concluded that Dr. Allen was an ideal candidate to lead La Salle University into its important next chapter," said AmyLynn Flood '95, Chair of the Presidential Search Committee and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees.

A product of Catholic education, Allen earned a Ph.D. in education at Loyola University-Chicago, and received his Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.

Learn more about La Salle University's next president.

SOURCE La Salle University
MILWAUKEE, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Milwaukee's professional talent pool is gradually becoming more diverse thanks to the bold vision of the African American Leadership Alliance of Milwaukee (AALAM). The organization has helped position hundreds of talented, diverse professionals throughout the region who are currently serving as corporate leaders, elected officials, nonprofit executives and entrepreneurs.

Walter Lanier, Executive Director of AALAM

As the organization continues to move its mission forward throughout 2022, it recently announced that Walter Lanier has been hired as the organization's President & CEO. Lanier, who has been involved with AALAM since its inception, is an experienced executive with strong ties to the Milwaukee community. He most recently served as an executive at MATC, having led the Multicultural Student Services & Community Engagement Department, as well as the Student Resource Center and Counseling Department. He also serves on the advisory board for Marquette's Center for Urban Research Teaching and Outreach (CURTO).

"I've been involved with AALAM since its founding, so I have a unique understanding of the impact this organization is making," said Lanier. "I'm excited to leverage AALAM's strategic priorities to create sustained, system-wide change that transforms Milwaukee into a more inclusive, opportunity-rich city where everyone can thrive."

Founded in May 2017, AALAM is a cross-sector network of African American leaders and allies dedicated to developing, supporting and positioning Milwaukee's pool of African American talent. AALAM's strategic focus areas include Networks, Leadership Programming, Human Resource Diversity Capacity Building, CEO Engagement and Narrative Change.

"We do this important work because we have faith that strong leaders who are self-aware, centered in their values, and know their ability to make a positive impact, will build an equitable and prosperous future for our region," explained Dr. Jeanette Mitchell, AALAM's Founder. "As we dig deeper into this important work, we are excited to have a proven leader like Walter at the helm to help develop and support a thriving pool of diverse and talented African American leaders in our city."

AALAM's active involvement in the MMAC Region of Choice Initiative and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Economic Recovery Group strategically positions the organization to continue making a powerful impact in this region. The organization has established key partnerships with Forward 48/HOAN Group, Professional Dimensions, the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources, Rotary Milwaukee, Nonprofit Management Fund, P3 Development Group, TEMPO and We Exist.

The African American Leadership Program (AALP) is a signature program of AALAM. To date, more than 200 AALP alumni are currently serving in leadership roles throughout the Milwaukee region.

"We are grateful for the continued support of our funders, partners and allies who continue to support our mission," said Antonio Riley, AALAM Board Chairman and founder of Stewart Riley Consulting LLC. "With Walter's leadership experience and deep understanding of AALAM's strategic goals, we will remain focused on advancing and supporting African American leaders across the Metropolitan Milwaukee community."

For more information about the African American Leadership Alliance Milwaukee, please visit https://www.aalamilwaukee.org/.

Media contact:

Nepherterra Best

414-704-9932

[email protected]

SOURCE African American Leadership Alliance of Milwaukee
SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Taking lessons from the pandemic, companies have an opportunity to reset and reimagine their event programs to better align them to marketing outcomes, according to a new report by the CMO Council. Because of the extensive digital transformation across the meetings and events industry spurred by the pandemic, the NextGen events channel will span formats (e.g., virtual/webinar, in-person, hybrid) and types (e.g., conferences, trade shows, road shows, customer groups) and has the potential to drive broader and deeper customer engagement.

The new report, NextGen Events: Optimized for Outcomes, is based on a survey of 150 global marketing leaders and in-depth interviews with executives from Equifax, GE Healthcare, HCL Software and GfK. The research was developed in partnership with Cvent, a market-leading meetings, events and hospitality technology provider.

Download the report here: https://cmocouncil.org/thought-leadership/reports/nextgen-events-optimized-for-outcomes

Key findings in the report include:

Virtual events still matter: Virtual events continue to deliver tremendous reach and value, yet 64% of marketing leaders say their organizations are only moderately effective or not effective at executing virtual events

In-person events remain the top choice to nurture relationships and drive conversions: 60% say restarting in-person/hybrid events is very important, even critical

Event marketing has matured: 65% say learnings over the last two years will lead to a more holistic view of events that are better aligned to marketing outcomes

In order to capitalize on the NextGen event channel opportunity, CMOs will need to craft a clear and comprehensive strategy that matches each different event with the right goals, while working closely with event planning teams to deliver a more immersive, engaging attendee experience  whether online or in-person. This means learning how to deliver engaging virtual events, re-thinking traditional event planning, encouraging cross-team collaboration, and optimizing the MarTech stack to maximize event program impact.

"With so much uncertainty, it has become even more important for organizations to have a clear understanding of all the events happening in their portfolio in order to gain complete control and a clear picture of what's happening now and what lies ahead," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "Through better management and with a focus on testing and learning, CMOs can ensure NextGen events are tied to business outcomes: brand awareness, lead generation, retention and loyalty."

"The results from this new report highlight the significant impact the pandemic has had not just on meetings and events, but also on the roles and relationships between planners and marketers," said Cvent Chief Marketing Officer, Patrick Smith. "The digital transformation over the last two years has made events more measurable, enabling marketers to better understand the impact events have on their marketing efforts; and with the rise of virtual and hybrid events, the lines between event planning and digital marketing have blurred. This NextGen event channel means that marketing executives and planners need to work collaboratively, rather than in siloes, to better engage attendees. If they do this effectively, there is more potential to deliver greater event program impact and value across the organization."

About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The CMO Council's 16,000+ members control more than $1 trillion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 65,000 global marketing and sales executives in over 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council's strategic interest groups include the Customer Experience Board, Digital Marketing Performance Center, Brand Inspiration Center, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, GeoBranding Center, and the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE). To learn more, visit https://www.cmocouncil.org.

About Cvent

Cvent Holding Corp. is a leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider with more than 4,000 employees and nearly 21,000 customers worldwide. Founded in 1999, the company delivers a comprehensive event marketing and management platform and offers a global marketplace where event professionals collaborate with venues to create engaging, impactful experiences. Cvent is headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, just outside of Washington D.C., and has additional offices around the world to support its growing global customer base. The comprehensive Cvent event marketing and management platform offers software solutions to event organizers and marketers for online event registration, venue selection, event marketing and management, virtual and onsite solutions, and attendee engagement. Cvent's suite of products automate and simplify the entire event management process and maximize the impact of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events. Hotels and venues use Cvent's supplier and venue solutions to win more group and corporate travel business through Cvent's sourcing platforms. Cvent solutions optimize the entire event management value chain and have enabled clients around the world to manage millions of meetings and events. For more information, please visit Cvent.com , or connect with us on Facebook , Twitter or LinkedIn .

SOURCE CMO Council
DALLAS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MB2 Dental, the first-ever dental partnership organization (DPO), experienced a successful year of growth, adding 111 new practice locations through new partnerships and de novos. A total of 115 doctor owners joined the DPO. In 2021, MB2 increased specialty partnerships, including orthodontics, endodontics, pedodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics, and oral surgery practices.

Through the support of MB2 and their doctor owners as mentors, 13 MB2 associate doctors became practice owners. MB2 offers a path for associate doctors who have ownership aspirations.

In 2021, MB2 expanded into 12 new states: AL, ID, IN, KY, MD, MN, NY, ND, OR, SD, VA, and WA.

To close out the New Year, MB2 announced its first partnership in Washington with practice owners Dr. Ryan Hanks and Dr. Cameron Stroyan. Dr. Hanks is the owner of Northwest Family Dentistry. Together, Dr. Hanks and Dr. Stroyan own Woodland Dental Center.

"After developing two offices with aggressive growth in mind, my priorities started to change after having kids," said Dr. Ryan Hanks. With a young family, bringing the stresses of work home with me was becoming a problem. I wanted to enjoy my time away from the office more without the worry of what is going on at the offices. After researching many companies, MB2 seemed like the best fit by a long shot. After flying down to meet the crew in Dallas, it was sealed. Such a fun group of people, not what you typically see in the dental field. I'm excited about this new chapter with less stress and getting to get back to just enjoying the dentistry."

"The glory days of private practice dentistry seem to be coming to an end," said Dr. Cameron Stroyan. "Insurance reimbursements have been stagnant for decades (or even decreasing), while expenses continue to skyrocket. As a small business owner, it often seems like I'm spending more time dealing with the stresses of ownership than performing dentistry itself. We explored several companies to join, but I didn't like the "corporate" model of most. MB2 is just different. Their model is very unique. They truly are a "partner"  here to support us as much as we need but allow complete autonomy at the same time. MB2 is also a very fun group to work with  everyone I've spoken with has had a great personality and sense of humor. I look forward to our partnership and everything they have to offer."

In total, MB2 Dental now supports over 700 doctor owners and associates across 35 states, with plans to continue this momentum in 2022. The entire organization, including practice team members, totals 5,000 individuals. This month, MB2 announced an expansion of their Dallas headquarters, adding an additional 22,000 sq ft of space to support continued company growth.

MB2 Dental was founded in 2007 by Dr. Chris Steven Villanueva, who continues to serve as CEO. This fall will be the 15th anniversary of MB2's founding.

"When I meet with potential doctor partners, I always explain to them, we are a big company with 15 years of experience and consistent track record, we are private equity-backed, but we operate with the mindset of a startup," said Dr. Villanueva. "We are learning from our partners every day and constantly adapting to meet their individual needs.

Our goal is to help doctors who think like my partners and me and who want to take their most valuable asset that they've put all of their blood, sweat, and tears in, and help them grow that asset and secure their future. All of this while continuing to run their practice with 100% autonomy and the same values shared by their fellow doctor partners.

Year over year, even with the challenges presented by the pandemic, we've continued to grow at a pace that exceeds even our own expectations. We are excited for all that is to come in 2022. We know it's going to be our best year yet."

About MB2 Dental

Dallas, Texas-based MB2 Dental is a first-of-its-kind Dental Partnership Organization (DPO) founded and led by dentist and entrepreneur CEO Dr. Chris Steven Villanueva, with a mission to empower dentists to preserve their profession. Since its founding in 2007, MB2 has partnered with hundreds of dentists to help them stay in the driver's seat as they maximize their talents, connect as part of a community and build exceptional wealth. MB2 currently partners with dentists and specialists in more than 35 states. For more information, visit https://mb2dental.com.

Press Contact

Lindsey Byrnes

9728693789

https://mb2dental.com/

SOURCE MB2 Dental
SAN MATEO, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mill Creek Residential, a leading developer and operator specializing in premier rental communities across the U.S., today announced it has hired Mike Kim as senior managing director in Northern California. Kim will oversee Mill Creek's development activities in Northern California, including San Francisco, Oakland and Silicon Valley.

The addition of Kim, is emblematic of Mill Creek's continued growth and commitment to developing best-in-class rental communities in key markets across the nation.

"Few are as experienced in the Bay Area real estate sector as Mike, and we're tremendously excited to welcome him to our team," said Sean Hyatt, executive managing director of development for Mill Creek Residential. "His familiarity with the area, coupled with his proven track record and results-driven approach, make him an ideal fit for this role and we're eager to add his expertise to our Northern California operation. We're confident that any development activity in the area will be under extremely capable leadership."

Kim has extensive experience in the greater Bay Area, having overseen the development and construction of mixed-use multifamily communities and commercial developments in the region with an aggregate value of more than $2.2 billion.

Kim previously served as senior vice president for Lendlease Google Development Venture, where he led all aspects of the development process in two major Silicon Valley districts. Prior to Lendlease, he served as SIMEON's chief investment officer for 12 years, where he led the firm's multifamily and commercial development activities in the Bay Area. His experience includes key roles in complex urban developments across all product types, including high-rise, horizontal and vertical mixed-use, master-planned and commercial developments.

Prior to his career in real estate, Kim served as a Naval Officer leading maritime missions and expeditions across the globe. Kim is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and also holds a Master's Degree in Urban Planning and Development from the University of Southern California. He remains active in the East Bay community and has served on various boards, including the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, the NAIOP San Francisco chapter and several municipal advisory councils.

"I'm excited to be a part of the Mill Creek family and lead our development efforts in the Bay Area, which continues to offer extremely high upside," Kim said. "While we'll continue to seek opportunities in the area, we'll do so with a measured, disciplined approach and make certain that we're being a good neighbor and steward of the environment in the process."

About Mill Creek Residential

Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC is a national rental housing company focused on the development, acquisition and operation of both multifamily and build-to-rent single-family communities in targeted markets nationwide. The national company, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida proactively develops, acquires, constructs and operates communities through its seasoned team of real estate professionals in offices across the United States. Mill Creek is building its portfolio in many of the nation's most desirable markets in Seattle, Portland, the San Francisco Bay area, Southern California, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Austin, Houston, South Florida, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, New York, and Boston. As of September 30, 2021, the company's portfolio is comprised of 111 communities representing over 30,500 rental homes that are operating and/or under construction. For more information, please visit www.MillCreekPlaces.com.

Media Contact

Stephen Ursery

LinnellTaylor Marketing

[email protected]

303.682.3945

SOURCE Mill Creek Residential
Today, NAL Research is a global leader in enterprise tracking equipment for military, government, and industry needs. In 2021, NAL Research launched the QUICKSILVER , one of the first devices to utilize Iridium's new Certus 100 Midband service and is delivering next-generation A-PNT and GPS-Independent Navigation solutions. Its products are used globally in a range of applications including asset tracking, search and rescue, remote sensing, and command/control of land, sea, and airborne platforms. President, Robert Bills, says "Our customers operate on a worldwide basis, often in the most remote locations and challenging environments. At NAL Research, we are committed to enabling their success by pioneering solutions for communication and A-PNT that work anytime, anywhere."

Throughout 2022, NAL Research is hosting a series of events, including INDUSTRY DAY, to kick-off their 25 Year Anniversary.

Follow NAL Research on LinkedIn and Twitter for details about these events and other opportunities to celebrate this significant milestone.

About NAL Research

NAL Research leads the industry in delivering innovative, military-grade, global SATCOM & Assured-PNT solutions that are trusted by government and enterprise customers around the world. NAL Research has pioneered multiple miniature Iridium SATCOM capabilities for IoT and streaming solutions, with 100's-of-thousands of devices in operation with our customers worldwide. NAL Research's global communication products, coupled with its layered GPS Independent Navigation technology, make it the ideal partner for the government and industry's toughest challenges. For more information, visit www.NALRESEARCH.com.

CONTACT: Amelia Kakar, [email protected]

SOURCE NAL Research
"We have been partnering with VizExplorer since 2019 and we are excited to extend our relationship on the marketing front and to add to our slot analysis capabilities" said Brian Parrish, Interim CEO. "The addition of Slot Reporting and Slot Recommendation Engine will allow us to quickly and efficiently identify additional revenue generating opportunities on our floor and spend more time working on high value projects" added Parrish.

"We look forward to building on our strong partnership with the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise and delivering VizOnDemand Slot Reporting and Slot Recommendation Engine", said David Patent, CEO of VizExplorer. "We are focused on being a true partner to our customers, giving them the tools and support they need to succeed. We are confident our best in class products and team of experienced gaming operators can help the NNGE team reach their goals," concluded Patent.

About VizExplorer

VizExplorer's solutions transform your data into clear, actionable insights and revenue generating recommendations. You can choose automation and/or deep data exploration. VizExplorer's tools have been recognized as best in class for years and help maximize ROI for gaming operations, database marketing and player development. Learn more at http://www.vizexplorer.com/.

About Navajo Gaming

NNGE is a wholly-owned Navajo Nation enterprise created by the Navajo Nation in September 2006 to develop and operate Navajo casinos in accordance with federal and Navajo Nation laws, as well as the negotiated Navajo Nation-applicable state compacts (New Mexico and Arizona).

Employing 1,200 employees, NNGE operates four casinos, a hotel, and a travel plaza in New Mexico and Arizona. NNGE opened its first property, the Fire Rock Navajo Casino near Gallup, New Mexico, in November 2008. Within five years, three additional properties were added  Flowing Water Navajo Casino (October 2010); Northern Edge Navajo Casino (January 2012); Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort (May 2013). Most recently, NNGE opened the Navajo Blue Travel Plaza in September 2020.

NNGE is one of many Navajo Nation-owned and operated enterprises that is charged with the mission of creating jobs, increasing revenues, and stimulating incremental economic development. For the latest news and information visit Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise's website: http://www.navajogaming.com/.

VizExplorer Press Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE VizExplorer
PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Near , the world's largest source of privacy-led intelligence on people, places and products, today announced a partnership with Snowflake , the Data Cloud company. Additionally, Near's unique market intelligence data will be available on Snowflake Data Marketplace , giving brands that use Snowflake immediate access to near real-time insights across retail, groceries, real Estate, restaurants (QSR) and tourism Industries.

The Near datasets on the Snowflake Partner Network include:

Purchase Intent Insights: Gauge purchase intent based on both online and offline signals for any given brand in the grocery, quick service restaurant (QSR), and retail categories.

Gauge purchase intent based on both online and offline signals for any given brand in the grocery, quick service restaurant (QSR), and retail categories. Pulse Daypart: Understand the relative change in human movement activities in space and across time. Gain a micro understanding of hour-of-day, day-of-week, weekend/weekday changes in target geographies broken down by Census Block Groups (US) or geohash (International).

Understand the relative change in human movement activities in space and across time. Gain a micro understanding of hour-of-day, day-of-week, weekend/weekday changes in target geographies broken down by Census Block Groups (US) or geohash (International). USA Store Visitations: Use human movement data connectivity with other census block group-based segments to identify your core customers. This dataset is available across multiple industries such as retail, QSR, and grocery chains.

"Creating effective personalized experiences that meet the demands of today's modern consumer requires rich insights from both offline and online worlds," said Michelle Zhou, Chief Business Development Officer at Near. "By partnering with Snowflake, we're now able to put the power of our world-class data intelligence in the hands of every brand and business, regardless of sizeso they can drive better business outcomes for their customers."

"Near and Snowflake share a common mission: to empower businesses to make smarter decisions using data," said Kieran Kennedy, Head of Data Marketplace, Snowflake. "Our Snowflake Data Marketplace is designed to deliver data at scale in the Data Cloud without compromising data privacy and security. Making Near's consumer online and offline behavior insights available to customers on our marketplace can help drive decision intelligence across their respective industries."

To access Near datasets please visit Snowflake Data Marketplace .

ABOUT NEAR

Near, a global leader in privacy led data intelligence, curates the world's largest source of intelligence on people, places, and products. Near processes data from over 1.6 billion monthly users in 44 countries to empower marketing and operational data leaders to confidently reach, understand, and market to highly targeted audiences and optimize their business results. With offices in Singapore, Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Bangalore, Tokyo, and Sydney, Near serves major brands in retail, CPG, real estate, restaurants, tourism, technology, marketing, and other industries. For more information, please visit https://near.com

SOURCE Near North America, Inc.
DALLAS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc. (NYSE: NXRT) (the "Company") announced today the final income allocations of the Company's 2020 dividend distributions on its common stock. The final income allocations as they will be reported on Form 1099-DIV are set forth in the following table:

Common Shares (CUSIP #65341D102)



Ex-Dividend

Date Record

Date Payable

Date Distribution

per Share Taxable

Ordinary

Income Per

Share Return of Capital

Per Share Section 199A

Dividends Per Share









3/12/202 3/15/2021 3/31/2021 $0.34125 $0.00000 $0.34125 $0.00000

6/14/2021 6/15/2021 6/30/2021 $0.34125 $0.00000 $0.34125 $0.00000

9/14/2021 9/15/2021 9/30/2021 $0.34125 $0.00000 $0.34125 $0.00000

12/14/2021 12/15/2021 12/30/2021 $0.38000 $0.00000 $0.38000 $0.00000













Totals $1.40375 $0.00000 $1.40375 $0.00000























100.00% 0.00% 100.00%



















Components may not sum to the totals due to rounding differences. The information above presents final income

allocations.

The Company encourages shareholders to consult with their own tax advisors with respect to the federal, state, and

local income tax effects of these dividends.

About NexPoint Residential Trust

NexPoint Residential Trust is a publicly traded REIT, with its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NXRT," primarily focused on acquiring, owning and operating well-located middle-income multifamily properties with "value-add" potential in large cities and suburban submarkets of large cities, primarily in the Southeastern and Southwestern United States. NXRT is externally advised by NexPoint Real Estate Advisors, L.P., an affiliate of NexPoint Advisors, L.P., an SEC-registered investment advisor, which has extensive real estate experience.

Contact:

Jackie Graham

Investor Relations

[email protected]

SOURCE NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc.
ALISO VIEJO, Calif. and FAYETTEVILLE, Ga., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nourish + Bloom Market, the first African American owned autonomous grocery store in the world, has partnered with UST, a leading digital transformation solutions company, to launch their first frictionless grocery store in the United States. UST has provided an end-to-end solution and project management services for implementing a Hybrid Frictionless Check-Out Store, enabling Nourish + Bloom Market to drive their store operations at ease in the long run.

The new store is one of a kind, resulting from the unique collaboration of three advanced technology companies, Hitachi Vantara, SHEKEL Brainweigh, and UST, who have partnered to create an innovative and advanced system for the retail world. The partnership with UST will allow Nourish + Bloom Market to deploy over 500+ stores in the US.

Commenting on the launch and partnership, Jilea Hemmings, Founder and CEO of Nourish + Bloom Market, said, "The idea of the store occurred to us during the pandemic. We wanted to provide a solution for customers where they wouldn't have to wait in line or touch anything while checking out. With UST's help, we have successfully created a Hybrid autonomous technology to offer that solution and combat food insecurities in underserved communities. We are confident that this technology will change how customers shop in the next 3 to 5 years."

UST has developed the Autonomous Store in Box that has entire Retail Backoffice software, Bistro Module, and entire integration services for diverse systems, making shopping frictionless.

has developed the that has entire Retail Backoffice software, Bistro Module, and entire integration services for diverse systems, making shopping frictionless. The store uses UST Vision Checkout for large merchandise assortment outside the autonomous store. UST Vision Checkout is a Self-checkout POS that uses Computer Vision to identify SKUs. Along with this, Voice and Gesture AI technology leads to a 3X faster checkout experience for customers of Nourish & Bloom. UST Vision Checkout also has bar code scanning and touch screen functionality that takes care of specific merchandise sections like age-restricted products, frozen assortment, and fruits and vegetables as well as Bistro. Nourish & Bloom has also deployed UST Scan & Go solution for specific events and customer types.

for large merchandise assortment outside the autonomous store. UST Vision Checkout is a Self-checkout POS that uses Computer Vision to identify SKUs. Along with this, Voice and Gesture AI technology leads to a 3X faster checkout experience for customers of Nourish & Bloom. UST Vision Checkout also has bar code scanning and touch screen functionality that takes care of specific merchandise sections like age-restricted products, frozen assortment, and fruits and vegetables as well as Bistro. Nourish & Bloom has also deployed UST Scan & Go solution for specific events and customer types. UST has provided UST Product Box that facilitates quick onboarding of SKUs requiring computer vision training.

that facilitates quick onboarding of SKUs requiring computer vision training. UST Cold Truth provided IoT-based, real-time food temperature measurement at shelf level that improves store operational efficiency.

provided IoT-based, real-time food temperature measurement at shelf level that improves store operational efficiency. N&B has deployed UST Store as a Media Digital display solution in their BISTRO section. It has dynamic content display capability and comes with monetization opportunities by providing audience analytics.

as a Media Digital display solution in their BISTRO section. It has dynamic content display capability and comes with monetization opportunities by providing audience analytics. The entire hardware and software design of UST Vision Checkout, UST Product Box, and UST Cold Truth are proprietary solutions of UST .

. The entry to the Autonomous section is enabled by the UST-built Customer mobile app (via scanning a QR Code on the entrance turnstile). The items selected by the consumers are automatically added to a virtual shopping cart tracked via LIDAR camera, and the information is sent to a backend software built by UST.

(via scanning a QR Code on the entrance turnstile). The items selected by the consumers are automatically added to a virtual shopping cart tracked via LIDAR camera, and the information is sent to a backend software built by UST. UST has also built the complete e-commerce application for N&B market. N& B would be the first autonomous store operator in the North American market that offers Coffee and Bistro Subscription services apart from Delivery subscriptions. Further, the system provided by UST is integrated with robotic delivery systems from DAX robotics for last-mile delivery.

Subhodip Bandyopadhyay, General Manager-Emerging Technology, UST, commented, "The store uses UST Vision Checkout for large merchandise assortment outside autonomous store. UST Vision Checkout is a self-checkout POS that uses Computer Vision to identify SKUs. Along with this, Voice and Gesture AI technology leads to a 3X faster checkout experience for customers of Nourish & Bloom. Hybrid autonomous store technology uses Intel's Edge optimized technology infrastructure and uses multiple Microsoft technologies including Azure Cloud."

Safety, Nutrition, and Sustainability are the cornerstones of Nourish + Bloom Market's business model. Customers can now shop without checkout lines and have 24x7x365 access to real food and environmentally friendly household supplies. Delivery robots named Nourish and Bloom can also deliver products in temperature-controlled compartments right at the customer's doorstep. UST's innovative digital solutions have helped design a quick and safe retail shopping experience.

Nourish + Bloom Market's first store (located at 300 Trilith Parkway, Fayetteville, Georgia) is now open. The store is approximately 1500 sq. ft (autonomous section, HYBRID section, Bistro, back-office facilities) and stocks more than 1500 SKUs. Nourish + Bloom Market offers items such as produce, meats, baked goods, dairy and prepared meals, alongside everyday grocery items with no checkout. Anchored in the Nourish + Bloom market is the Bistro offers freshly prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, including sandwiches, salads, and healthy rice bowls. The highest priority is given to local brands to reduce the carbon footprint.

Commenting on the store opening, Keith Pickens, General Manager & Retail Domain Leader, UST, mentioned, "UST Frictionless Solutions' hybrid autonomous store will help N&B scale faster, cheaper, and better and provide significant ROI necessary for further expansion. We are proud to partner with N&B in its endeavor to become the most loved Emerging Retailer in North America."

The automated product recognition in Nourish & Bloom Market WIWO store is performed by Shekel Product Aware Technology (PAT), based on patented IoT Load sensors, AI models, and Machine Learning algorithms. SHEKEL's product identification technology enables accurate and real-time product recognition technology. Hitachi's 3D LiDAR technology enables monitoring customers and linking products to their shopping cart without compromising customer privacy.

About Nourish + Bloom Market

Nourish + Bloom Market is the first autonomous grocery store with robotic delivery in the United States and the first African American owned autonomous grocery store in the world. Nourish + Bloom Market is on a mission to make eating healthy and convenient. We believe that everyone deserves to eat healthy.

Nourish + Bloom Market offers locally sourced craft items, such as produce, meats, baked goods, dairy and prepared meals, alongside everyday convenience items with no checkout. The benefit of autonomous shopping, vending, and robotic delivery means you have 24/7/365 access to real food and environmentally friendly products anytime.

All products provided at Nourish and Bloom Markets are made with the highest quality ingredients that are minimally processed.

www.nourishandbloommarket.com/

Media Contacts, Nourish + Bloom:

Sara Miller

[email protected]

About UST

For more than 22 years, UST has worked side by side with the world's best companies to make a real impact through transformation. Powered by technology, inspired by people, and led by our purpose, we partner with our clients from design to operation. Through our nimble approach, we identify their core challenges and craft disruptive solutions that bring their vision to life. With deep domain expertise and a future-proof philosophy, we embed innovation and agility into our clients' organizationsdelivering measurable value and lasting change across industries and around the world. Together, with over 28,000 employees in 25 countries, we build for boundless impacttouching billions of lives in the process. Visit us at ust.com.

Media Contacts, UST:

Tinu Cherian Abraham

+1 (949) 415-9857



Neha Misri

+91-9972631264

[email protected]

Media Contacts, U.S.:

S&C PR

+1-646.941.9139

[email protected]

Media Contacts, U.K.:

FTI Consulting

[email protected]

SOURCE UST
PALM BEACH, Fla., Feb 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- It is no surprise that oral surgery is the hot buy for 2022 with DSO's and private equity firms. It is truly the gold rush of dentistry. So, we called on the experts David C Branch and Jonathan Guise of Viper Equity Partners to get insight into this amazing industry.

Q: What can a Oral surgery group expect a deal to look like?

Viper: What we are seeing are TOP DOLLAR deals. A typical deal will be based on a multiple of EBITDA (like net profit). The multiples we are seeing are in the 7x-10x range of an adjusted EBITDA which includes doctor compensation. The deals will pay 70% cash at close to the sellers and 30% will be rolled into equity in the buying company. These are partnership deals, so the doctors post close are shareholders and owners not employees. The deals can be very lucrative with earnouts, bonus programs and incentive plans.

Q: So, do doctors lose control of their offices and staff?

Viper: We do not allow that. Post close the doctors will remain in charge of their offices. The buyers do not change the name on the door, terminate staff or in anyway disrupt what is a successful business. They do come to the doctors with capital for expansion or acquisitions and administrative support to give the doctors more free time to use as they wish. The support is all done from a remote location which includes ordering supplies, human resources, marketing, and employee benefits. These are true partnerships with a common goal of growth.

Q: What can the Oral surgeons expect for compensation post close.

Viper: Typically, each doctor will be paid between 35-45% of their personal production. There also can be specific bonus plans for each doctor.

Q: What happens to my staff?

Viper: Remarkable things! Since the doctors remain in charge of their offices, they make all staffing decisions. Key managers will be given new contracts that will mirror their present contracts.

Q: Why contact Viper?

Viper: We have broken every record on deal value and sale price for our clients. It is so important to collaborate with experts. We started the oral surgery consolidation in 2020. Fast forward to 2022 we have completed more transactions than anyone and understand every aspect of the space. Experience is key, no question. We have dozens of qualified buyers and sellers waiting and know how to get the deals done. We are getting deals under LOI in less than 2 weeks and closing 70- days later.

Viper Equity Partners is a leading sell side Investment Banking firm located in Palm Beach Florida that represents Dentists, Plastic Surgeons, Dermatologists and Ophthalmologists nations wide. For more information visit www.Viperequitypartners.com or call 305 988 5945.

SOURCE Viper Equity Partners
PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With healthcare costs continuing to rise, it's no surprise that employers are eager to find new solutions to better serve their employees and protect their bottom line. The COVID pandemic has posed additional challenges to these employers as staffing shortages plateau at a near all-time high. Dubbed the Great Resignation, the influx in job availability as employees seek to transition has encouraged employers to develop more attractive benefits as part of the compensation package for potential employees. Ditching a high deductible plan for an ERISA self-funded plan has become more common and has proved to be a positive evolution of healthcare in many ways to both the employer and employee. Some of the country's largest benefit managers are now offering coverage with no upfront cost to employers and zero out of pocket for patients.

Seeking more cost-effective outpatient services by taking a cut of cost savings, these benefit managers are not only driving down egregious costs billed out for major events, such as surgery, but is also continuing to drive the quality of care up.

Pearl Precision Surgery, a national network focusing on laparoscopic outpatient surgical services for women, is one party partnering with benefit managers to drive this healthcare revolution. Offering services such as:

Laparoscopic hysterectomies

Pelvic reconstruction for prolapse and incontinence

Fertility preservation

Breast reconstruction

Their much-needed quality care for women is cutting down the needed recovery time, offering more PTO back to employees and removing any copays or deductibles.

"Our business model is one that truly embraces the Affordable Care Act, providing higher quality surgery through reduced complications, lower cost, and a better experience for the patient. We accomplish this with price transparency and high-volume surgeons that are willing to share their outcomes data and that are committed to value-based solutions." Says Dr. Richard Rosenfield, Standford trained minimally invasive GYN surgeon and founding partner of Pearl Precision Surgery.

With roughly 600,000 hysterectomies performed annually in the United States, and nearly 57,000 OBGYN doctors to perform them, the average of 10.7 surgeries annually puts the experience of the surgeon front and center.

Rosenfield goes on to say, "Many women defer to their trusted OBGYN even though many OBGYNs are very low volume surgeons, which is the prime risk factor of complications and poor recovery. Many OBGYNs are on call at the hospital or working through the night with baby deliveries, which can compromise surgical aptitude due to erratic sleep schedules or dilute the exposure to surgery due to office schedules with pressure to be a primary care provider, an expert in pregnancy, AND a surgeon  this horrible dynamic is literally built into the system and perpetuates poor surgical services in women's health care. This is what we seek to improve."

"We must look beyond the average cost of surgery itself, and also consider the additional costs due to complications," Rosenfield says. "Surgical complications can occur as frequently as one in three cases with lower volume surgeons, adding tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of surgery."

This has encouraged employers and benefit consultants to seek specialists like Pearl Precision's vetted high-volume network of minimally invasive gynecologic surgeons.

Performing hundreds of higher acuity surgeries like laparoscopic hysterectomy a year drives cost and complications down, and Rosenfield stresses the importance of groups like Pearl Precision Surgery that can offer more focused attention when a woman is presenting with a need for surgery.

The Pearl Precision network continues to grow as more employers and physicians continue to make the transition to value based care.

SOURCE Pearl Precision Surgery
Representative of a community that has persevered despite limited access to water, the Pendleton 'Gather' blanket by Emma Robbins features symbols of endurance: a saanii (maternal grandmother) scarf, crossed by traditional sash belts used in ceremonies and childbirth. At the center, a young woman's bracelet of silver is set with turquoise, a stone formed by rare rains flowing through acrid layers of rock. In Navajo culture, turquoise is a sacred stone that symbolizes protection and reflects the different types of water needed for life and health.

"I cannot say enough positive things about working with the team at Pendleton," says Emma Robbins. "I typically work in mixed media and three dimensions and their team was collaborative every step of the way, ensuring my vision translated to the final product, telling a story of resilience and empowerment. The donation of proceeds will help us to continue our important work across the Navajo Nation."

In addition to creating this blanket with Pendleton and her work as an artist, Robbins serves as the full-time Executive Director of the Navajo Water Project. Robbins, alongside her Indigenous-staffed team, has worked to install running water to homes on the Navajo Nation since 2015. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, they've expanded their work to deploy hundreds of additional portable water tanks to families and innovated their Home Water Systems to allow for contactless installation, so that families can stay home and stay safe during this time of crisis.

"We are honored to partner with Emma Robbins and DigDeep's Navajo Water Project to create the 'Gather' blanket," said Pendleton CEO John Bishop. "Emma's powerful use of color and soft shaped motifs has resulted in an expressive and symbolic blanket. We are also pleased to launch this new philanthropic partnership in support of Dig Deep's crucial work across the Navajo Nation."

'Gather' Pendleton blankets by Emma Robbins, benefitting DigDeep's Navajo Water Project, are available beginning February 1, 2022 on Pendleton-USA.com , DigDeep.org/shop-gifts and other select retailers.

ABOUT THE NAVAJO WATER PROJECT:

The Navajo Water Project (NWP) is the first regional program of DigDeep, a national nonprofit organization working to bring clean running water to the homes of the 2.2 million Americans currently living without. NWP is a community-managed utility alternative that brings hot and cold running water to homes that are not connected to piped water or sewer lines. The Navajo Water Project is Indigenous-led and Indigenous-staffed, run by Navajo Water Project

Executive Director and Dine activist Emma Robbins. In 2018, the Navajo Water Project won the US Water Prize for the Home Water System design they have installed in hundreds of homes in remote parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. In 2021, their 'Suitcase' Home Water System was honored by Fast Company's Innovation by Design Awards for adapting the design to allow for contactless installation during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, please visit digdeep.org or navajowaterproject.org, and follow on Twitter (@DigDeepH2O), Facebook and Instagram (@DigDeepWater).

Press Contact for DigDeep: [email protected]

ABOUT PENDLETON WOOLEN MILLS

Pendleton Woolen Mills is a heritage lifestyle brand and the leader in wool blankets, apparel and accessories. Founded in 1863 and located in Portland, Oregon, Pendleton weaves iconic designs in two of America's remaining woolen mills located in Pendleton, Oregon and Washougal, Washington. With six generations of family ownership, Pendleton is focused on their "Warranted to Be a Pendleton" legacy, creating quality lifestyle products with timeless classic styling. Inspiring individuals from the Pacific Northwest and beyond for over 150 years, Pendleton products are available at Pendleton stores across the US, select retailers worldwide, and on pendleton-usa.com.

Contact

April Rodgers, Pendleton Woolen Mills

503-754-3597, [email protected]

SOURCE Pendleton Woolen Mills
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Piada Italian Street Food , a rapidly growing fast-casual Italian cuisine restaurant chain, has partnered with DailyPay , the leading provider of on-demand pay, to provide its employees with a transformative financial wellness benefit that gives them access to their earned pay instantly.

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Piada Italian Street Food operates 43 locations across the U.S. By partnering with DailyPay, Piada Italian Street Food is empowering its hourly employees with the power of choice and control over their earned pay, giving them the flexibility to pay bills, spend, save or invest on their schedule.

"Team members are looking for more fulfilling work and benefits that matter, and we are committed to investing in our workforce to make this happen. Our new partnership with DailyPay is a huge step in the right direction to provide attractive incentives that support team members inside and outside of the workplace," said Cassandra Thomas, Senior People Services for Piada. "Enabling financial wellness among our team members is a top priority and DailyPay is helping us do just that."

Research commissioned by DailyPay with the Aite-Novarica Group shows that 94% of users credit DailyPay for having less trouble paying bills, with 4 in 5 users no longer having to turn to payday loans or pay overdraft fees to make ends meet.

Piada Italian Street Food is among the latest QSR to partner with DailyPay. DailyPay's research shows that with DailyPay, companies are able to fill open positions 52% faster than those that don't offer a daily payment option while experiencing a 50% reduction in turnover.

The majority of Fortune 200 companies that have an on-demand pay benefit offer DailyPay, including 7 out of 10 of the country's largest quick-service restaurant chains.

About Piada Italian Street Food

The restaurant's premium fast-casual concept, which offers Guests an array of healthy (and indulgent) options from a selection of more than 30 toppings, is centered around the Piada. Piadas are made up of a thin-crust dough, which is freshly baked on a stone grill and filled with a selection of Italian-inspired ingredients, then hand-rolled to perfection. Other signature menu items include Piada's salads made with fresh ingredients and craveable pasta dishes made with their classic sauces.

Piada was inspired by the roadside family-run street food carts and markets found in Rimini, Italy, and the company's first restaurant opened in 2010. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Piada has 41 locations throughout Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Texas.

About DailyPay

DailyPay, Inc., powered by its industry-leading technology platform, is on a mission to build a new financial system. Partnering with America's best-in-class employers, including Dollar Tree, Berkshire Hathaway, and Adecco. DailyPay is the recognized gold standard in on-demand pay. Through its massive data network, proprietary funding model, and connections into over 6,000 endpoints in the banking system, DailyPay works to ensure that money is always in the right place at the right time for employers, merchants, and financial institutions. DailyPay is building technology and the mindset to reimagine the way money moves, from the moment work starts. DailyPay is headquartered in New York City, with operations based in Minneapolis. For more information, visit www.dailypay.com/press .

Media Contacts

David Schwarz

Email: [email protected]

Adriana Ball

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE DailyPay
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A highly trusted name in Pittsburg for roofing and vinyl siding, M&Y Pittsburgh Roofing recently discussed some tips for siding choice. The company explains how to choose vinyl siding, its advantages and disadvantages, and selection criteria. This family-owned and operated company offers a wide range of services, including roof installation and replacement, roofing repairs, siding installation, roof inspection, gutter and downspout installation.

More about this renowned Pittsburgh roofing company can be found at https://my-pittsburghroofing.com/ .

M&Y Pittsburgh Roofing & Vinyl Siding Installation Company

M&Y Pittsburgh Roofing advises that vinyl siding is an excellent choice for decorating the facade or entire house because of its numerous benefits. As highlighted by the team of expert Pittsburgh roofers, the most important benefits and limitations are summarized below.

Benefits:

Versatility and attractive appearance

Numerous sizes, shapes, and colors are available

Provides superior house protection from all the weather-related events, such as wind, rain, snow, or hail

No maintenance, literally zero maintenance required over the entire lifespan of the vinyl siding on the house

Longevity of the product. Typically, vinyl siding will last somewhere between 25-35 years before aging and falling apart.

Repairs/replacement can be performed to almost any area of the house without major intrusions into the wall coverings

Cost-effective option with a similar or better finished look than other comparable exterior finishes that are available at much higher costs, such as brick, cement siding or metal siding

Able to use different shapes and sizes on the side of the house, which will separate the levels on the house and make it a superior curb appeal with and much more attractive to a homeowners

Easy to clean if necessary

Limitations:

Nowadays, with COVID- 19 restrictions, most manufacturers are limiting their production and availability of some sizes due to a disruption in the supply chain for the raw materials

Due to the same issues that COVID-19 brings to the table, the lead time for siding delivery can take somewhere between three to eight weeks. "That's why it's important to plan ahead and schedule your project with enough time for the product to be delivered," says company spokesperson Gino Slipko .

. Not every house is built for vinyl siding. Make sure to consult with a professional about the installation process and requirements for the house.

The installation process requires specialized tools and skills, which are crucial for the process to go smoothly and efficiently. Even the best vinyl siding on the market will fail at the early stage of its lifespan if installed incorrectly.

It will not add any noise reduction or structural integrity to the building.

According to M&Y Pittsburgh Roofing, the three most important criteria for selecting vinyl siding are color, shape and size, climatic conditions, siding thickness and plasticity. While choosing the color, the company recommends looking at color combinations of other houses in the area that share similar architectural styles. "Consider what colors will be beneficial for your house, and how it will complement the other items around your house, such as the color of the windows, gutters, soffits, fascia, garage doors, and others," Gino suggests.

Explaining the importance of thickness, Gino adds, "The thickness, gauge, of the vinyl siding, should be discussed and explained at the consultation appointment with the samples in hands. As some of the panels are way thinner than the others, it's not the major factor when choosing the siding. The most important is proper setup and professional installation. In most cases, the thicker the siding, the more specialized the panel's shape and size. Vinyl siding will shrink and expand throughout four seasons. Each panel has special gaps and holes in it, invisible to the average homeowner after the installation, which allows it to slightly move over the years and not cause any visual or structural differences to the house."

To find out more about siding installation , roof repairs, inspection and installation, please visit M&Y Pittsburg Roofing's official website.

Contact name: Gino Slipko

Contact Phone: +1(412) 218-7082

Contact Email: [email protected]

About M&Y Pittsburgh Roofing

M&Y Pittsburgh Roofing is a family owned and operated company in Pittsburgh since 2011. We'll assist with various roofing services, including professional roof inspection, gutter installation, siding installation and insurance claim assistance.

SOURCE M&Y Pittsburgh Roofing
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Klein Law Firm announces that a class action complaint has been filed on behalf of shareholders of Redwire Corporation f/k/a/ Genesis Park Acquisition Corp (NYSE: RDW) alleging that the Company violated federal securities laws.

Class Period: August 11, 2021 to November 14, 2021

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: February 15, 2022

No obligation or cost to you.

Learn more about your recoverable losses in RDW:

https://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/redwire-corporation-f-k-a-genesis-park-acquisition-corp-loss-submission-form?id=22736&from=4

Redwire Corporation f/k/a/ Genesis Park Acquisition Corp NEWS - RDW NEWS

CLASS ACTION CASE DETAILS: The filed complaint alleges that Redwire Corporation f/k/a/ Genesis Park Acquisition Corp made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) there were accounting issues at one of Redwire's subunits; (2) as a result, there were additional material weaknesses in Redwire's internal control over financial reporting; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU AS A SHAREHOLDER: If you have suffered a loss in Redwire you have until February 15, 2022 to petition the court for lead plaintiff status. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.

NO COST TO YOU: If you purchased Redwire securities during the relevant period, you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out-of-pocket fees.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR FINANCIAL INTERESTS: For additional information about the RDW lawsuit, please contact J. Klein, Esq. by telephone at 212-616-4899 or click this link: https://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/redwire-corporation-f-k-a-genesis-park-acquisition-corp-loss-submission-form?id=22736&from=4

ABOUT KLEIN LAW FIRM

J. Klein, Esq. represents investors and participates in securities litigations involving financial fraud throughout the nation. The Klein Law Firm is a boutique litigation firm with experience in a wide range of areas including securities law, corporate finance and commercial litigation. Since 2011, our experienced attorneys have achieved superior results for our clients with a personalized focus. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

CONTACT:

J. Klein, Esq.

Empire State Building

350 Fifth Avenue

59th Floor

New York, NY 10118

[email protected]

Telephone: (212) 616-4899

www.kleinstocklaw.com

SOURCE The Klein Law Firm
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- RLH Equity Partners (RLH), a leading middle market growth equity investment firm, is pleased to announce two promotions among members of its investment team and one recent addition to the firm roster. Rob Rodin has become Vice Chair of RLH, Ari Adler has been promoted to Vice President, and Paul Fortin has joined the firm as an Associate.

Rob Rodin has been promoted to Vice Chair of the firm. Rob has been a member of the RLH team since 2007, initially serving as a Strategic Advisor and, since 2016, as a Managing Director. Over the past nearly 15 years, Rob has helped well over a dozen RLH portfolio companies create significant value through his insights on strategy, go-to-market techniques, and sales enablement, among other topics. Earlier in his career, Rob served for over 10 years as CEO and President of Marshall Industries (NYSE: MI), a global industrial electronics distributor and supply chain management company with over $2 billion in sales.

has been promoted to Vice Chair of the firm. Rob has been a member of the RLH team since 2007, initially serving as a Strategic Advisor and, since 2016, as a Managing Director. Over the past nearly 15 years, Rob has helped well over a dozen RLH portfolio companies create significant value through his insights on strategy, go-to-market techniques, and sales enablement, among other topics. Earlier in his career, Rob served for over 10 years as CEO and President of Marshall Industries (NYSE: MI), a global industrial electronics distributor and supply chain management company with over in sales. Ari Adler has been promoted to Vice President. Since joining the firm in 2020, Ari's investment experience includes portfolio companies Astound Commerce, Imre, Inspirage, and Illuminate, where he has been involved in structuring, negotiating, and closing investments as well as assisting post-investment at the Board level. Prior to joining RLH, Ari worked in principal investing at JMI Equity and in investment banking at Jefferies.

has been promoted to Vice President. Since joining the firm in 2020, Ari's investment experience includes portfolio companies Astound Commerce, Imre, Inspirage, and Illuminate, where he has been involved in structuring, negotiating, and closing investments as well as assisting post-investment at the Board level. Prior to joining RLH, Ari worked in principal investing at JMI Equity and in investment banking at Jefferies. Paul Fortin joined RLH as an Associate, bringing to the firm a range of transactional experience and perspective garnered during his prior work in the Investment Banking group of Huron and as a Consultant at EY. Paul holds a BS degree in Accounting / Business Analytics, with honors, from the Farmer School of Business at Miami University .

RLH co-founder J. Christopher Lewis commented, "We are pleased to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of our colleagues with these well-deserved promotions. Each of them has brought value to our investors and our portfolio companies while exemplifying the team-based approach of RLH. We are also excited to welcome Paul to the firm and believe he will make significant contributions to RLH's future success."

About RLH Equity Partners

RLH Equity Partners invests, together with entrepreneurial leadership teams, in uniquely positioned, high growth, knowledge-based enterprises. Our portfolio companies span the business services, healthcare, and government services sectors and typically have $30-150 million of annual revenue at the time of investment. The RLH investment team, which averages 15 years of private equity experience, provides strategic and operational guidance to our portfolio companies in navigating the opportunities and challenges of scale and rapid growth. Our insights and processes to drive enterprise value have been honed over RLH's 40+ year history of successful investing. RLH currently manages over $1 billion of assets and is actively seeking new portfolio company investments.

For more information, please contact:

Jessica Bramwell

Director of Communications

RLH Equity Partners

949-428-2205

[email protected]

www.rlhequity.com

SOURCE RLH Equity Partners
CHICAGO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SAI360's suite of healthcare-focused GRC modules, SAI360 Healthcare GRC, has been listed in Forrester's 2022 overview: 'Now Tech: Third-Party Risk Management Platforms, Q1 2022.'

Forrester recognizes SAI360 Healthcare GRC as one of six 'large established players.'

Kelvin Dickenson, SVP and General Manager of GRC at SAI360 said: "SAI360 Healthcare GRC has long been a scaled, focused and widely adopted solution that addresses the specific and complex risk and compliance needs of the US healthcare market. We believe this recognition by Forrester as a large, established player is testament to our team and the support of our broad base of US healthcare customers."

Dickenson continued: "The Covid-19 pandemic, combined with increased digitization and greater emphasis on measuring Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) in healthcare is creating a new risk landscape. We are excited to support the US healthcare industry as it adopts new processes to meet increasing regulatory, risk and administrative demands. SAI360 Healthcare GRC allows US healthcare organizations to see, manage, monitor and control risk and gives them confidence to work with third-parties essential to their business  from downstream healthcare organizations, Medicare-approved providers, insurance teams, to all other third parties."

The Forrester report highlights how the "third-party ecosystem is growing at an unprecedented rate as firms leverage the expertise and innovation of third parties to support business priorities, create market differentiation, and accelerate their shift to digital business."

The report cautions and adds: "Third-party relationships also introduce new risks that can negatively impact a firm's business, regulatory standing, reputation, and resilience. TPRM platforms help firms create a framework and automate processes to identify risks, maintain compliance, and evaluate exposure across multiple risk categories and throughout the lifecycle of the relationship."

Relied on by North American hospitals, managed care organizations, clinics, administrative centers, and insurance companies, SAI360 Healthcare GRC allows provider- and payer-side healthcare organizations to fully see and manage risk in their business partner, vendor and delegated entity networks.

Recent updates to SAI360 Healthcare GRC include new pre-configured best-practices to deliver rapid time to value for US healthcare organizations; an updated risk portal to ensure quick, secure access to all data, files, and services; and Regulatory Compliance Manager where healthcare organizations can track, manage, and keep up with new regulations, mandates, and rules.

SAI360 Healthcare GRC is part of SAI360's integrated risk management platform, which delivers capabilities spanning GRC for all industries and markets, Ethics & Compliance Learning, and EHS & Sustainability to all sectors across the globe.

About SAI360

SAI360 (formerly SAI Global) is a leading provider of GRC, Learning, EHS, and Sustainability software. Our cloud-first platform contains flexible, scalable, and configurable modules for a better vantage point on risk management. Our unified approach to risk management is what sets us apart, helping organizations across the globe manage risk, create trust, and achieve business resilience for over 25 years.

Headquartered in Chicago, IL, SAI360 operates across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. Discover more at SAI360.com, follow us on LinkedIn, and request a demo to see the platform in action.

Media Contact:

Tara Sawyer

Director, Communications

M: +1 (508) 345-1570

E: [email protected]

SOURCE SAI360
DENTON, Texas, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sally Beauty has an established record of offering a wide range of pro-quality products for all hair types on their shelves and online while prioritizing the typically underserved, textured hair consumer, but the retailer doesn't stop there. The beauty giant understands that every community needs access to top-notch hair care, and continues to meet customers where they are, in their neighborhoods throughout the country. While this has long been the retailer's priority, Sally Beauty recognizes a need to continue to build on their assortment and educational offerings to better serve the textured hair customer. This year is no different as the company expands its footprint across inventory with new products and additional DIY classes catered to textured hair.

Sally Beauty remains a leader in bringing new, emerging brands to their shelves while giving talented, future-focused entrepreneurs a real shot at success. The retailer proudly offers over 50 Black-founded brands across hair care, hair extensions, hair accessories, cosmetics, skincare, and men's grooming categories. With over 100 textured hair brands and through DIY education and retail initiatives, Sally Beauty continues to be at the forefront of discovering the best in the category.

"Recognizing shoppers' unique and diverse hair types and needs has always been vital to us, and we're proud to continue expanding our textured hair assortment," said John Goss, SVP & President, Sally Beauty Holdings. "With incredible Black-founded brands from up-and-coming innovators, to celebrities, and more, our priority has always been to ensure we're meeting the hair care needs of all of our customers."

"Sally Beauty always had everything I needed when it came to hair and beauty," said Taraji P. Henson, CEO & Founder of TPH by Taraji, which first launched at Sally Beauty in January and continues with a full roll out this month. "It has always been a go-to beauty destination for Black girls." Henson's line, born from the actor's own necessity for nourishing scalp care, delivers scalp and hair solutions for all textures and curl patterns.

From commerce to content, Sally Beauty is committed to elevating Black voices. In honor of Black History Month, the company is releasing a special video series  along with other omni-channel content  that spotlights five Black-founded brands and showcases each founder's unique story, perspective, and plans for the future. The brands featured include TPH by Taraji, Mielle Organics, TGIN, The Doux, and 2020 Sally Beauty Cultivate Cohort Winner, True + Pure Texture. Sally Beauty's ongoing commitment and respect for the textured hair community, combined with its accessibility, has solidified its spot as a premier destination for Black-founders and textured hair innovators in search of a retail partner.

While looking back on her experience launching her brand at Sally Beauty, Monique Rodriguez, CEO & Founder of Mielle Organics shared, "My lifelong relationship with Sally Beauty is easy  I shopped nearly every aisle because every aisle had something I needed! I'm so grateful for the discovery and experimentation that Sally Beauty brought to my own personal beauty evolution, and I know the Mielle brand is better for those early learning experiences," said Rodriguez. Mielle Organics continues to innovate and deliver new products for the textured hair community. The new Oats & Honey line, specifically designed with a gentle formula for the sensitive scalp consumer, is available now at Sally Beauty . Other recent additions to the growing lineup of textured hair products at Sally Beauty include the exclusive launch of It's a 10 Haircare's Coily Miracle Collection and Flawless by Gabrielle Union.

"At Sally Beauty, we know not all curl types are the same and actively look to our consumers to gain a better understanding of what they need so we can deliver a wide range of quality products," said Pam Kohn, SVP & Chief Merchandising Officer, Sally Beauty Holdings. "Continuing to expand our offerings for textured hair and providing a platform for textured hair innovators will always be a priority for us."

In addition to its commitment to providing a wide variety of textured hair care products, Sally Beauty continues to create unique opportunities for consumers to expand their hair knowledge. DIY University by Sally Beauty features exclusive educational content online at https://www.sallybeauty.com/diy-university . Educational classes are held year-round and focus on a variety of topics led by expert educators and various brand partners. True + Pure Texture, Mielle Organics, and The Doux will all host classes throughout Black History Month. Classes are focused on teaching viewers everything they need to know in order to create the DIY looks of their dreams.

Learn more about Sally Beauty's Black-founders and their product offerings by visiting SallyBeauty.com .

About Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc.

Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SBH), as the leader in professional hair color, sells and distributes professional beauty supplies globally through its Sally Beauty Supply and Beauty Systems Group businesses. Sally Beauty Supply stores offer up to 7,000 products for hair color, hair care, nails, and skin care through proprietary brands such as Ion, Generic Value Products, Beyond the Zone and Silk Elements as well as professional lines such as Wella, Clairol, OPI, Conair and L'Oreal. Beauty Systems Group stores, branded as CosmoProf or Armstrong McCall stores, along with its outside sales consultants, sell up to 10,000 professionally branded products including Paul Mitchell, Wella, Matrix, Schwarzkopf, Kenra, Goldwell, Joico and Olaplex, intended for use in salons and for resale by salons to retail consumers. For more information about Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc., please visit https://www.sallybeautyholdings.com/ .

SOURCE Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc.
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- We are excited to share with you that the San Diego Habitat Conservancy (SDHC) land trust accreditation with the Land Trust Accreditation Commission (LTAC) has been renewed! Originally accredited in 2016, SDHC applied this past year to renew our accreditation with the LTAC, the national accrediting body for land trusts, in order to demonstrate continued integrity and commitment to practicing effective habitat management. After a rigorous verification process, SDHC has proven that we continue to operate at the highest ethical, legal, financial, conservation, and stewardship standards to ensure lasting stewardship of our conserved lands. The accreditation is a mark of distinction in land conservation that assures the public SDHC meets these national standards of excellence, upholds the public trust, and ensures that our conservation efforts are permanent. There are over 450 accredited land trusts across the country, and we are proud to work within San Diego and the surrounding communities to protect the natural habitats we love.

SDHC, established in 2000, was the first accredited land trust headquartered in San Diego County. Managing 33 open space preserves throughout the San Diego region, SDHC conserves and manages sensitive habitat and species that are unique to our southern California environment. We strive to share our knowledge and appreciation of our natural environment with the regional community, encouraging participation in the stewardship of our region's precious open space and natural resources. The mission of SDHC is to conserve and manage sensitive habitats and species while inspiring land stewardship through education and outreach.

For more information, please go to www.sdhabitat.org or contact Don Scoles at (619) 365-4839, or via email at [email protected].

SOURCE San Diego Habitat Conservancy (SDHC)
Ramps Up for Growth, Expanding Manufacturing, Information Technology and Cultivation Expertise

OTCQX: SHWZ

DENVER, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Schwazze, (OTCQX: SHWZ) ("Schwazze" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce the addition of key roles to support the Company's significant expansion within manufacturing, cultivation, and information technology.

As Vice President of Manufacturing and Supply Chain, David Kaufman joined the leadership team from Carlex Glass where he was responsible for global operations. Kaufman is a seasoned executive with experience identifying and yielding multimillion-dollar improvements in operations and supply chain through LEAN manufacturing, procurement, and distribution strategies. He had full P&L responsibility for the European business segment where he led a significant turnaround in operating performance and financial improvement. Kaufman holds a distinguished certificate in general management from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, MBA from the University of St. Francis, and BS in Chemistry from Purdue University.

Steven Liedtke joins Schwazze as Vice President, Information Services. Liedtke is an experienced Information Technology Executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience across industry sectors such as: CPG, Food & Beverage, Retail, and High Technology industries, including The Hain Celestial Group, The Whitewave Foods Company and Maines Group. Technology is a key pillar in Schwazze's growth strategy to help drive digital transformation, operational efficiencies, and synergies. With his M&A systems integration experience, Liedtke brings the expertise Schwazze needs in this period of significant organic and new acquisition growth.

The third key addition to the leadership team is in cannabis cultivation. Robert Piziali joins Schwazze as Vice President, Cultivation, overseeing its grow operations. Piziali was formerly the President of FarmPerfect, a cannabis farm management company based in Mendocino County, CA. He has 20 years of experience in operations management and, prior to cannabis, comes from the wine industry where he was involved in all aspects  from the vineyard to the cellar, to tasting rooms and retail operations. He was also the Co-Founder and President of FLO Wine, which he launched nationally in chains including Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, Jewel-Osco, and Albertsons. Piziali has an MBA from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a BA in Psychology from Rollins College.

"We are excited about the key additions to our operational leadership team. Kaufman, Piziali and Liedtke bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in their respective areas which are both critical to Schwazze's growth strategy in manufacturing, grow operations, distribution and digital commerce," said Nirup Krishnamurthy, Chief Operating Officer. "We continue to be proud of what we've built in Colorado since 2019 and look forward to our continued expansion."

About Schwazze

Schwazze (OTCQX: SHWZ) is building a premier vertically integrated regional cannabis company with assets in Colorado and New Mexico and will continue to take its operating system to other states where it can develop a differentiated regional leadership position. Schwazze is the parent company of a portfolio of leading cannabis businesses and brands spanning seed to sale. The Company is committed to unlocking the full potential of the cannabis plant to improve the human condition. Schwazze is anchored by a high-performance culture that combines customer-centric thinking and data science to test, measure, and drive decisions and outcomes. The Company's leadership team has deep expertise in retailing, wholesaling, and building consumer brands at Fortune 500 companies as well as in the cannabis sector. Schwazze is passionate about making a difference in our communities, promoting diversity and inclusion, and doing our part to incorporate climate-conscious best practices. Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. was Schwazze's former operating trade name. The corporate entity continues to be named Medicine Man Technologies, Inc.

Schwazze derives its name from the pruning technique of a cannabis plant to enhance plant structure and promote healthy growth.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "may," "estimates", "predicts," or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on certain assumptions, and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control and cannot be predicted or quantified. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) our inability to manufacture our products and product candidates on a commercial scale on our own or in collaboration with third parties; (ii) difficulties in obtaining financing on commercially reasonable terms; (iii) changes in the size and nature of our competition; (iv) loss of one or more key executives or scientists; (v) difficulties in securing regulatory approval to market our products and product candidates; (vi) our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy in Colorado and outside the state, (vii) our ability to identify and consummate future acquisitions that meet our criteria, (viii) our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and realize synergies therefrom, (ix) the actual revenues derived from the Company's Star Buds assets, * the Company's actual revenue and adjusted EBITDA for 2021, (xi) the Company's ability to generate positive cash flow for the rest of 2021 (xii) the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, (xiii) the timing and extent of governmental stimulus programs, and (xiv) the uncertainty in the application of federal, state and local laws to our business, and any changes in such laws. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law.

SOURCE Schwazze
"Sexual wellness has long been the last frontier in personal care, but the customer expects better," founder Eva Goicochea says. "Like in beauty, we believe in taking an integrated and holistic approachnot a compartmentalized view of sex. At our core, we're an evergreen brand thoughtfully built for every stage of your adult life. Sephora's launch of intimate care sets the stage for the next chapter of sexual health."

With pillars of quality, simplicity, and inclusivity, maude makes share-careself- and partner-focused body-safe, accessibly-priced, and mood-setting essentials for before, during, and after sex. From a dual-purpose body wash and bubble bath (wash), to the line's iconic vibe, an ergonomic personal massager, every product in the range is designed with everyday intimacy in mind.

"At Sephora, our clients are at the heart of everything we do and we're constantly evolving our assortment to both stay ahead of and meet their changing needs", says Cindy Deily, Vice President of Skin Care Merchandising at Sephora. "The ongoing conversation around women's health is extremely important to us, and as a company committed to creating an inclusive beauty community, growing our wellness assortment with intimate care offerings felt like a natural next step. We are thrilled to partner with maude and look forward to introducing this innovative brand to our Sephora community."

The modern wellness company launched in April of 2018 and was founded by Goicochea after successful careers in healthcare legislation and brand strategy (early employee at Everlane). One of only 10 Latinx women to raise over $10M in VC funding, Goicochea was chosen as one of Entrepreneur magazine's first-ever 100 Powerful Women in 2019, WWD's 60 Power Players in Health and Wellness in 2020 and 2021, and was selected as one of Forbes Next 1000 in 2021. In the four years since launch, maude has been internationally recognizedhaving been featured in 1000+ pieces of press in over 25 countries. In 2020, actress Dakota Johnson joined maude as a Co-Creative Director and investor.

At the top of the year, maude announced its international expansionlaunching in 33 countries across the UK & EU, along with Canada and Australia. To date, the brand has successfully raised $10M over four rounds of fundingmaking it one of the most VC-backed sexual wellness personal care companies.

maude is now available for purchase at sephora.com/brand/maude.

SOURCE Maude
INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bell Techlogix, a leading IT managed services and solutions company, announced today its partnership with Shepherd Insurance, one of the Top 50 largest independent insurance agencies in the country, to enhance IT operations.

Bell Techlogix partnership includes utilizing its capabilities to expand technology support for employees, increase productivity, and provide flexible operations to optimize the needs of Shepherd Insurance's growing organization. Shepherd Insurance serves customers across the nation and has more than 450 employees and 30 plus locations.

Shepherd Insurance partnered with Bell Techlogix to assist in driving its digital transformation across the organization. A key component of this transformation is the ITSM platform ServiceNow where Bell Techlogix is uniquely qualified as a Premier Partner of ServiceNow. The implementations of ServiceNow and Microsoft Intune, also led by Bell Techlogix, will provide a more intuitive technology to enhance the overall customer experience and improve worker productivity. Other services provided by Bell Techlogix include infrastructure monitoring and management, service desk, deskside and engineering services, project management, and procurement services.

"Throughout our evaluation process, Bell Techlogix showed its depth of knowledge and adaptability as a trusted managed service provider," said Brian Witherow, Director of IT. "We look forward to working together to bring new solutions to Shepherd Insurance professionals providing them the tools to elevate the experience for our customers."

"We are proud to be a part of this exciting time of growth at Shepherd Insurance," said Ron Frankenfield, Bell Techlogix CEO. "Our team is committed to delivering innovative solutions that enable Shepherd Insurance to continue its success as a national leader in insurance & employee benefits solutions."

About Shepherd Insurance

Founded in Carmel, Indiana in 1977, Shepherd Insurance is one of the largest independent insurance agencies in the United States. Shepherd Insurance is a privately-owned agency and provides personal, commercial, employee benefits and financial solutions to the customers they serve. With over 35 offices and 400+ employees throughout Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Shepherd provides risk management solutions in 49 states. Shepherd has received recognition as a "Top Workplace" by Insurance Business America, "Top 100 Independent Property/Casualty Agencies" by the Insurance Journal, "Top 100 Insurance Brokers in the U.S." by Business Insurance and has been recognized as one of the 25 fastest growing companies in Central Indiana. For more information and a list of our solutions, please visit www.shepherdins.com.

About Bell Techlogix:

Bell Techlogix, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, provides transformational Next Generation Digital Workplace and Infrastructure Management solutions to large and mid-market enterprises, as well as the public sector. With services that build, integrate, and support the next wave of operational transformation Bell Techlogix provides a true client partnership and an enhanced digital experience. Bell Techlogix provides a flexible approach that is globally capable but locally oriented that will systematically allow you to achieve growth, cost-savings, and acceleration of your business.

For more information on Bell Techlogix, please visit us on the web at www.belltechlogix.com, follow us on Twitter, like us on LinkedIn or Facebook.

SOURCE Bell Techlogix
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Solana Pay launched today, providing merchants and consumers with a new set of decentralized payment standards and protocols to enable direct acceptance and settlement of digital dollar currency, such as USD Coin (USDC), at the point of sale and online.

Solana Pay ushers in new commerce capabilities and the ability for merchants to accept and move any volume of digital dollar currencies compatible with the Solana blockchain at any hour, anywhere in the world, for disruptively low fees measured in fractions of a cent.

Solana Pay was developed as a decentralized, open peer-to-peer protocol with the initial support of Solana Labs, Circle , Checkout.com , Citcon , and digital wallet integrations from Phantom and FTX and Slope .

Solana Pay is now available for wider adoption and customization by ecosystem participants  including large and small merchants, ecommerce platforms, POS providers, and a broad array of payment service providers  who want to define the next generation of payments. For more information, merchants should go here and developers should go here .

"Solana Pay gives merchants a new, simplified framework to transact with their customers, enabling them to accept and settle funds directly with no intermediaries, zero fraud liability, and processing fees measured in fractions of a cent," said Sheraz Shere, Head of Payments at Solana Labs. "Solana Pay transforms outdated one-way transaction models into powerful, two-way merchant-to-consumer relationships, giving brands and retailers a direct channel to surprise and delight their customers in new ways."

Solana Pay Implementations

Solana Pay is ideal for any merchants looking to accept transactions in dollar digital currencies compatible with Solana. Initial implementations showcase the power and potential of Solana Pay.

Circle Internet Financial, LLC , a global financial technology firm that provides payments and financial infrastructure for internet businesses and the principal operator of USD Coin (USDC), has developed payment and treasury management solutions that support Solana Pay standards, including the ability for merchants to directly accept and manage payments in USDC near-instantly and at near-zero cost. Merchants can settle USDC in their Circle Account and have the option to hold balances in USDC, convert to fiat, and send funds on-chain.



"Circle is thrilled to be working with Solana to simplify and adapt USDC payments for consumer-facing businesses," said Jeremy Allaire , Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle. "The launch of Solana Pay is a critical step toward broadening access and usage for merchants and customers who want to participate in the rapidly evolving landscape for the next generation of payment technology."

, a global financial technology firm that provides payments and financial infrastructure for internet businesses and the principal operator of USD Coin (USDC), has developed payment and treasury management solutions that support standards, including the ability for merchants to directly accept and manage payments in USDC near-instantly and at near-zero cost. Merchants can settle USDC in their Circle Account and have the option to hold balances in USDC, convert to fiat, and send funds on-chain. "Circle is thrilled to be working with Solana to simplify and adapt USDC payments for consumer-facing businesses," said , Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle. "The launch of is a critical step toward broadening access and usage for merchants and customers who want to participate in the rapidly evolving landscape for the next generation of payment technology." Phantom , a leading wallet on the Solana blockchain, integrated with Solana Pay to enable seamless and fast transactions and to add new payment functionality to Phantom wallets.



"Lowering transaction costs and improving settlement times is a perfect use case for cryptocurrencies that helps both consumers and merchants," said Phantom Chief Product Officer Chris Kalani . "The line between the real world and digital payments will continue to blur and we all stand to benefit tremendously."

, a leading wallet on the Solana blockchain, integrated with to enable seamless and fast transactions and to add new payment functionality to Phantom wallets. "Lowering transaction costs and improving settlement times is a perfect use case for cryptocurrencies that helps both consumers and merchants," said Phantom Chief Product Officer . "The line between the real world and digital payments will continue to blur and we all stand to benefit tremendously." Citcon , a leading mobile wallet payment processing and integration company, plans to add Solana Pay to its offering making it easy for merchants to accept U.S. digital dollars across commerce channels, including online and physical stores.



"Our merchants want to be where their customers are  Solana Pay provides a simple integration to existing check-out flows that will provide our merchants and their customers with a great way to transact in digital dollars for everyday purchases," said Citcon CEO Chuck Huang .

, a leading mobile wallet payment processing and integration company, plans to add to its offering making it easy for merchants to accept U.S. digital dollars across commerce channels, including online and physical stores. "Our merchants want to be where their customers are  provides a simple integration to existing check-out flows that will provide our merchants and their customers with a great way to transact in digital dollars for everyday purchases," said Citcon CEO . FTX , a leading cryptocurrency exchange, integrated with Solana Pay to give its wallet users fast, seamless transaction capabilities. Merchants around the globe can instantly receive USDC on Solana from FTX Pay users checking out with this new payment rail.



"FTX looks forward to Solana Pay's powerful use cases, the disintermediation it will bring to the payments space, and the increased utility from which consumers can benefit," said FTX Head of Payments Adam Jacobs.

, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, integrated with to give its wallet users fast, seamless transaction capabilities. Merchants around the globe can instantly receive USDC on Solana from FTX Pay users checking out with this new payment rail. "FTX looks forward to powerful use cases, the disintermediation it will bring to the payments space, and the increased utility from which consumers can benefit," said FTX Head of Payments Adam Jacobs. Slope Wallet , a leading mobile wallet of the Solana ecosystem, is integrating Solana Pay standards into its crypto payments settlement offering in order to bring the benefits of a trustless, decentralized world to more people.



"We believe that the biggest adoption driver will be the use of digital crypto payments for routine purchases," said Slope Chief Strategy Officer David Scheer . "The point of sale user experience we can offer by combining the capabilities of Solana Pay , the scalability of the Solana blockchain and Slope's mobile-native development makes processing payments on Solana Pay through Slope Wallet as easy and quick as taking a selfie."

, a leading mobile wallet of the Solana ecosystem, is integrating standards into its crypto payments settlement offering in order to bring the benefits of a trustless, decentralized world to more people. "We believe that the biggest adoption driver will be the use of digital crypto payments for routine purchases," said Slope Chief Strategy Officer . "The point of sale user experience we can offer by combining the capabilities of , the scalability of the Solana blockchain and Slope's mobile-native development makes processing payments on through Slope Wallet as easy and quick as taking a selfie." Bandago Van Rental , a nationwide passenger vehicle rental company, set up a Solana Pay point of sale integration within minutes and now offers this payment option to its retail customers in San Francisco .



"Transaction and merchant fees, particularly for visitors traveling from overseas, can be significant," said Bandago CEO Sharky Laguana . "Working with Solana will help lower our customers' costs, while giving us instant access to the funds. We are excited to explore this new frontier of payment processing, and think this will be both easy and cheaper for our customers, which is always a winning combination!"

Solana Pay's Advantages

Solana Pay is as simple as enabling a barcode on a merchant's site or at the point-of-sale. Using the Solana Pay SDK, a merchant can enable a peer-to-peer connection to the millions of consumers with crypto wallets who can pay in dollar digital currencies such as USDC and other Solana-compatible crypto currencies.

At launch, merchants can use Solana Pay to accept and near-instantly settle USDC at the point of purchase. With more than $49 billion in circulation as of February 2022, USDC is one of the world's fastest-growing dollar digital assets and offers a safe and frictionless way for users to transfer value on the blockchain.

With Solana Pay, merchants get real-time access to their money and greater ability to manage working capital, liquidity, more liability protection, and direct access to their money within seconds, with no intermediaries, no holding periods or bank transfer fees. Also, by establishing a direct connection to a blockchain wallet address, merchants unlock a bi-directional communication channel with their customers, allowing them to send offers, grant NFTs, reward loyalty, and much more.

Solana Pay's decentralized payments structure is built on Solana, which provides scalability (today running at 65,000 transactions per second), close-to-instantaneous settlement (now at 400 milliseconds), and disruptively low fees (currently averaging $0.00025 per transaction).

The new Solana Pay SDK, point-of-sale client, and reference implementations provide options for merchants of all sizes. Enterprises who run their own checkout flows can begin building integrations right now. Solana Pay's point-of-sale client makes it easy for small restaurants, shops, food carts, and more to accept digital payments for fractions of a penny.

Solana Labs' Shere sees Solana Pay's introduction as the first step upon which the entire merchant commerce ecosystem can build and evolve further. "A revolution in merchant payments is happening now in ways that weren't possible before, enabled by Solana's unique differentiators of speed, scalability, security and cost," he said. "We are enabling money to move the way data is transferred on the internet - instantly, peer to peer, and with negligible marginal cost."

Get Involved

Today's announcements are only the beginning. The Solana Labs team and its partners are seeking key ecosystem constituents, including large merchants, POS providers, and ecommerce platforms, to join in defining solutions which will create new Web3 enabled value propositions that re-imagine offers, loyalty, brand engagement, acquisition programs, and innovations yet to be invented.

Find more information here:

SOURCE Solana Pay
Digital wellbeing program launches first global report and announces new studies focused on the younger generation, including research with Milano-Bicocca University and other credible entities



- Sync research finds that two thirds of young people (18-24-year olds, 58%) want to curb time spent online

- Over half of Gen Z respondents (54%) say they find technology use distracting

- Sync and partners will use innovative research methodologies to investigate the wellbeing impact of excessive internet and social media use on the younger generation

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia, Feb.1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Improving one's health is traditionally a high priority at this time of year, and this increasingly means changing our online behaviours. As friends, families and colleagues look to reconnect in 2022, digital wellbeing program, Sync, has released a whitepaper exploring global developments in internet and social media habits. The program is prioritising research into understanding the impact of excessive use on young people  58% of whom claim to spend more time online that they would like.

Abdullah Al-Rashid, Director of Sync says: "Sync's research in collaboration with ASDA'A BCW and PSB Insights proves one of modern society's greatest contradictions: the benefits, and potentially harmful effects, of our growing reliance on social media. No generation will be more greatly affected than those who have grown up using this technology, with the potential impact on the future of humanity as yet unknown. To help address this phenomenon, we are partnering with leading universities on developing solutions to promote young people's digital wellbeing."

Dr. Mark Griffiths, Distinguished Professor of Behavioural Addiction at Nottingham Trent University in the UK said: "The latest report by Sync highlights both the advantages and disadvantages of increased time spent online worldwide. Although the positives outweigh the negatives, particularly in relation to social connectivity, the report highlights the potentially distracting nature of new technologies and how technology use can eat into other important activities including educational and occupational duties. I've been studying 'technological addictions' for 30 years and while the report does not examine the addictiveness of new technologies from a clinical perspective it certainly provides evidence that online technologies can be problematic to a minority, even if it's not at the level of a clinically diagnosed condition."

Data illustrates growing concern amongst young people

Sync's first whitepaper[1], Global Digital Wellbeing Report 2021, illustrates how entrenched new media is in young people's communications habits, in particular due to the COVID-19 pandemic:

Two-thirds of Gen Z respondents (58%) claim to spend more time online than they would like to, highlighting the potential adverse effects on physical and mental health.

More than one in two (54%) young people say the technology in their life distracts them from day-to-day tasks.

The overwhelming majority (69%) of 18-24 year olds say they use messaging apps more now than pre-pandemic, which could prevent reverting to direct contact as the impact abates.

Reflecting on the research Dr. Griffiths continues: "The report provides very interesting perceptions of technology use with the majority thinking online addictions are medical conditions and that some types of technology  such as smartphones  are designed to be addictive even among older individuals. As a researcher I was also pleased to see that over 40% of respondents believe government should fund studies that focus on technological addictions and that the majority believe there should be more resources to treat such addictions. Three-quarters of the respondents thought their own governments should do more to provide high-quality and affordable care for online addictions. These kind of data indicate that online addictions appear to have now permeated public consciousness"

Novel research partnerships

Following this initial report, Sync is proactively exploring the effect of excessive internet and social media use on young adults. This includes future collaborations with University of Milano-Bicocca.

Sync's collaboration with the Digital Wellbeing Research Center at University of Milano-Bicocca will use a holistic new approach to study college students' relationship with their smartphones, including impact on concentration and anxiety in different social contexts.

Marco Gui, Director of the Center, says: "Every university student today owns a smartphone, delivering connectivity past generations could only dream of. But at what cost? We're grateful for Sync's support for our new methodology to investigate the potentially beneficial and harmful effects of being permanently connected."

Sync global digital wellbeing summit

The first Sync digital well-being summit will be held on March 29-30 2022, bringing together global thought leaders, institutions, influencers, and the public to raise awareness of digital wellbeing concerns, and develop new ideas to protect the users of digital media worldwide. To find out more, visit https://sync.ithra.com/.

Notes for Editors

Dave Gordon, CEO of PSB global says: "The first Sync Digital Wellbeing Study, covers one of the most important and burgeoning issues of our time  of how communities across the world are adapting to the transformational role of technology in our lives. The global reach of this study, which was fielded in June and July 2021 among more than 15,000 consumers, provides visibility into the regional and demographic nuances of the ways in which digital technologies are influencing and impact consumers across 30 countries. Together, PSB and SYNC will help inform policymakers, academics, the media, and the public on how emerging technologies will influence our future generations."

Sunil Jones, President of BCW Middle-East says:"The first Sync Digital Wellbeing Study is truly path breaking, as it provides critical data and insights to improve understanding of the effects of growing use of social media, and its impact on the lifestyles of young people across the world. The study underlines how we can leverage the possibilities of digital technology while ensuring the long-term wellbeing of all users"

About Sync

Sync is a digital well-being initiative launched by King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) with a vision to create a world where we are all in control of our digital lives. The initiative is guided by extensive research in collaboration with global entities to understand the amplifications of technology and how it's affecting our lives, and translate the knowledge gained into awareness campaigns, tools, experiences, educational content and programs aiming to raise the global public awareness around the topic.

To sync with Sync: Twitter https://twitter.com/SyncIthra, or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SyncIthra

About Ithra

The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) is one of Saudi Arabia's most influential cultural destinations, a destination for the curious, creatives, and seekers of knowledge. Through a compelling series of programs, performances, exhibitions, events and initiatives, Ithra creates world-class experiences across its interactive public spaces. These bring together culture, innovation and knowledge in a way that is designed to appeal to everyone. By connecting creatives, challenging perspectives and transforming ideas, Ithra is proud to be inspiring cultural leaders of the future. Ithra is Saudi Aramco's flagship CSR initiative and the Kingdom's largest cultural centre, comprising an Idea Lab, Library, Cinema, Theater, Museum, Energy Exhibit, Great Hall, Children's Museum and Ithra Tower.

For further information, please visit: www.ithra.com.

Follow Ithra on social media: Facebook (King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture), Twitter (@Ithra) and Instagram (@Ithra) #Ithra

[1] Developed based on a survey of 15,000 people in 30 countries commissioned by Sync and conducted by PSB Middle-East in June and July 2021.

SOURCE Ithra
TORONTO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (the "Company" or "TGOD") (CSE: TGOD) (US-OTC: TGODF), a sustainable global cannabis company is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Nichola Thompson to the position of Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") of the Company.

A finance veteran with over 20 years of experience, Ms. Thompson joins the senior management team at TGOD, having most recently held the position of CFO at Galaxie Brands Corporation, which was acquired by TGOD in November 2021. Ms. Thompson brings a broad range of experience guiding the finance departments of both public and private companies. Her experience includes CFO roles in the cannabis industry at Embark Health Inc., and Entourage Health Corp ("Entourage"). During Ms. Thompson's tenure at Entourage, she was responsible for guiding the organization during a period of rapid growth, helping build the cannabis company into a multi-facility, fully licenced entity. Before entering the cannabis industry, Ms. Thompson held senior finance positions at Discovery Air, Deloitte & Touche, Siemens, and Priority One Packaging. Throughout her career she has successfully aligned finance and business goals to support corporate strategies. A Western University Business Administration & Commercial Studies graduate, Nichola Thompson obtained her Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Accountant designations in 2007 and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.

"Nichola brings tremendous cannabis experience and proven judgment to the TGOD team, and she will be a valuable contributor in helping guide our company forward as we execute our plan to profitability. Her proven ability to manage the finance departments across an array of industries will be a vital asset in driving the future success of TGOD" said Sean Bovingdon, CEO of TGOD.

About The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd.

The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (CSE: TGOD) (USOTC: TGODF) is a sustainable cannabis company with a focus on innovation, quality, consistency, integrity and transparency. The Company is committed to cultivating a better tomorrow by producing its products responsibly, with less waste and impact on the environment. In Canada, the Company serves the recreational market with a brand portfolio including The Green Organic Dutchman, Highly Dutch Organics, Ripple by TGOD and Cruuzy, and the medical markets in Canada, South Africa, Australia, and Germany. All cannabis utilized in products for The Green Organic Dutchman and Highly Dutch Organics brands is grown through a certified organic process, which includes living soil, filtered rainwater, sunlight, and natural inputs.

The Company's Common Shares and certain warrants issued under the indentures dated December 19, 2019, June 12, 2020, October 23, 2020, and December 10, 2020, trade on the CSE under the symbol "TGOD", "TGOD.WS", "TGOD.WR", "TGOD.WA", and "TGOD.WB" respectively. The Company's Common Shares trade in the U.S. on the OTCQX under the symbol "TGODF". For more information on The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd., please visit www.tgod.ca.

Cautionary Statements

This news release includes statements containing certain "forwardlooking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law ("forwardlooking statements"). Forward looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to statements about future revenues and operating cashflow, statements about the profitability of the company, and about the future success of the company. Forwardlooking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "should", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forwardlooking statements throughout this news release. Forwardlooking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties (including market conditions) and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forwardlooking statements, including those risk factors described in the Company's most recently filed Annual Information Form available on SEDAR. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.

Neither the CSE nor the CSE's Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of CSE) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd.
HOUSTON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Howard Hughes Corporation  (NYSE: HHC) announced today that it will release 2021 fourth-quarter earnings on Monday, February 28, 2022, after the market closes and will hold its fourth-quarter conference call on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The Company's earnings release will be posted to the Investors section of the Company's website prior to the conference call.

To participate in The Howard Hughes Corporation's fourth-quarter earnings conference call, please dial 1-877-883-0383 within the U.S., 1-866-605-3850 within Canada, or 1-412-902-6506 when dialing internationally. All participants should dial in at least five minutes prior to the scheduled start time, using 1436938 as the passcode. A live audio webcast will also be available on the Company's website www.howardhughes.com .

In addition to the dial-in options, institutional and retail shareholders can participate by going to app.saytechnologies.com/howardhughes to submit questions to Say prior to the Earnings Call. Shareholders can email [email protected] for any support inquiries.

A taped replay of the call can be accessed 24 hours a day through April 7, 2022, by dialing 1-877-344-7529 within the U.S., 1-855-669-9658 within Canada, or 1-412-317-0088 when dialing internationally, using the passcode 5555858.

About The Howard Hughes Corporation

The Howard Hughes Corporation owns, manages and develops commercial, residential and mixed-use real estate throughout the U.S. Its award-winning assets include the country's preeminent portfolio of master planned cities and communities, as well as operating properties and development opportunities including: the Seaport in New York; Downtown Columbia, Maryland; The Woodlands, The Woodlands Hills, and Bridgeland in the Greater Houston, Texas area; Summerlin, Las Vegas; and Ward Village in Honolulu, Hawaii; and Douglas Ranch in Phoenix. The Howard Hughes Corporation's portfolio is strategically positioned to meet and accelerate development based on market demand, resulting in one of the strongest real estate platforms in the country. Dedicated to innovative place making, the company is recognized for its ongoing commitment to design excellence and to the cultural life of its communities. The Howard Hughes Corporation is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as HHC. For additional information visit www.howardhughes.com.

Media Contact

The Howard Hughes Corporation

Cristina Carlson, 646-822-6910

SVP, Head of Corporate Communications

[email protected]

For HHC Investor Relations

Carlos Olea, 703-309-6720

Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

SOURCE The Howard Hughes Corporation
DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Breast Lesion Localization Market by Type (Wire, Radioisotope (ROLL,RSL), Magnetic, Electromagnetic Localization), Usage (Breast Biopsy,Lumpectomy), End User Preference Survey (Selection Criteria, Replacement Trend) - Global Forecast to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The breast lesion localization market is expected to reach USD 305 million by 2026 from USD 244 million in 2021. The growth of this market is mainly attributed to the growing incidence of breast cancer, the increasing rate of the geriatric population (as age contributes to the risk of breast cancer and the rising awareness on the early detection of breast cancer in the coming years. However, several factors, such as uncertainty in regulatory approval procedures, are expected to restrain the growth of the breast lesion localization market during the forecast period.

In terms of value, the wire localization segment accounted for the largest share of the breast lesion localization market in 2020

Based on type, the breast lesion localization market is segmented into wire localization, radioisotope localization, magnetic localization, electromagnetic localization, and other localization methods. In terms of value, the wire localization segment accounted for the largest share of the breast lesion localization market in 2020. The appropriate localization of abnormal tissues, the minimum removal of normal tissues, minimum scarring, and the availability of reimbursement for breast lesion localization devices are the major factors driving the growth of the wire localization segment.

Radio-guided occult lesion localization (ROLL) segment accounted for the largest share of the radioisotope localization market in 2020

Radioisotope localization is used for preoperative nonpalpable lesion localization during breast cancer surgeries as well as for sentinel lymph node mapping in cancer staging. By type, the radioisotope localization methods market is segmented into radio-guided occult lesion localization (ROLL) and radioactive seed localization (RSL). ROLL segment accounted for the largest share of the breast lesion localization market in 2020.

In 2020, the breast biopsy segment accounted for the largest share of the breast lesion localization market.

Based on usage, the breast lesion localization methods market is segmented into Breast Biopsy and Breast Conservation (Lumpectomy). In 2020, the breast biopsy segment accounted for the largest share of the breast lesion localization market. The factors driving the growth of the market are the growing incidence of breast cancer, the rising number of breast cancer screening programs, improved reimbursement scenarios, increased awareness of early detection of breast cancer, and greater demand for minimally invasive and non-invasive procedures.

North America accounted for the largest share of the breast lesion localization market in 2020

The breast lesion localization market is segmented into four major regions, namely, North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Rest of the World (RoW).

In terms of value, North America accounted for the largest share of the breast lesion localization market is 2020, followed by Europe. The APAC market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Growth in this market can primarily be attributed to the rapidly increasing patient population, increasing healthcare expenditure, improving healthcare infrastructure, rising government spending on breast cancer research, and increasing awareness about the importance of the early detection of breast cancer in several APAC countries.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

4.1 Breast Lesion Localization Market Overview

4.2 Asia-Pacific: Breast Lesion Localization Market, by Type

4.3 Breast Lesion Localization Market (Based on Value): Geographic Growth Opportunities

4.4 Breast Lesion Localization Market, by Region

4.5 Breast Lesion Localization Market: Developed Vs. Developing Markets (Thousand Procedures)

5 Market Overview

5.1 Market Dynamics

5.1.1 Market Drivers

5.1.1.1 Increasing Incidence of Breast Cancer

5.1.1.2 Growing Rate of the Aging Population

5.1.1.3 Increasing Awareness on the Early Detection of Breast Cancer

5.1.2 Market Restraints

5.1.2.1 Uncertainty in Regulatory Approval Procedures

5.1.3 Opportunities

5.1.3.1 Emerging Economies Offer High Growth Potential

5.1.3.2 Increasing Adoption of Technologically Advanced Localization Procedures

5.1.4 Challenges

5.1.4.1 Shortage of Oncologists

6 Industry Insights

6.1 Industry Trends

6.1.1 Electromagnetic Waves for the Localization of Breast Lesions

6.1.2 Radiofrequency Identification in Breast Lesion Localization

6.1.3 Machine Learning Algorithms for Computer-Aided Breast Lesion Detection

6.2 Impact of COVID-19 on the Breast Lesion Localization Market: Restructuring of Breast Cancer Care

6.3 Value Chain Analysis

6.4 Reimbursement Analysis

6.5 Technology Analysis

6.5.1 Key Technologies

6.5.1.1 Wire Guided Localization (Wl)

6.5.1.2 Carbon Making

6.5.1.3 Radio-Guided Occult Lesion Localization (Roll)

6.5.1.4 Radioactive Seed Localization (Rsl)

6.5.1.5 Magnetic Seed Localization (Msl)

6.5.1.6 Radio Frequency Reflector (Rfr)

6.5.2 Complementary Technologies

6.5.2.1 Mammography

6.5.2.2 3D Mammography or Tomosynthesis

6.5.2.3 Magnetic Resonance Imaging

6.5.2.4 Ultrasound

6.5.3 Adjacent Technologies

6.5.3.1 Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence

6.6 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

6.7 Regulatory Analysis

6.7.1 North America

6.7.1.1 US

6.7.1.2 Canada

6.7.2 Europe

6.7.3 Asia-Pacific

6.7.3.1 India

6.8 Patent Analysis

6.8.1 Patent Publication Trends for Breast Lesions

6.8.2 Insights: Jurisdiction and Top Applicant Analysis

7 Breast Lesion Localization Market, by Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 COVID-19 Impact on the Breast Lesion Localization Market, by Type

7.3 Wire Localization

7.3.1 Wire Localization Segment to Command the Largest Share of the Breast Lesion Localization Market

7.4 Radioisotope Localization

7.4.1 Radioguided Occult Lesion Localization (Roll)

7.4.1.1 Roll to Result in Shorter Operating Times, Higher Rates of Tumor-Free Margins, and Lower Rates of Re-Operation

7.4.2 Radioactive Seed Localization (Rsl)

7.4.2.1 Reduction in Re-Excision Rates, Decreased Operative Time, and Long Half-Life of Rsl to Drive Market Growth

7.5 Magnetic Localization

7.5.1 Magnetic Localization Technique to Increase Workflow Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness, Eliminate Issues Related to Nonradioactive Technology, and Improve Surgical Planning

7.6 Electromagnetic Localization

7.6.1 Electromagnetic Localization to Make Smaller Incisions to be More Precise and Save More of the Normal Tissue During Surgeries

7.7 Other Localization Methods

8 Breast Lesion Localization Market, by Usage

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Breast Biopsy

8.2.1 Breast Biopsy Segment to Account for the Largest Share of the Breast Lesion Localization Market by Usage

8.3 Breast Conservation (Lumpectomy)

8.3.1 Increasing Adoption of Breast Conservation Therapy to Drive the Growth of Breast Lesion Localization Market

9 Breast Lesion Localization Market, by Region

10 Competitive Landscape

10.1 Overview

10.2 Key Player Strategies

10.3 Revenue Share Analysis of the Top Market Players

10.4 Market Share Analysis

10.5 Company Evaluation Quadrant

10.5.1 Stars

10.5.2 Emerging Leaders

10.5.3 Pervasive Players

10.5.4 Participants

10.6 Company Evaluation Quadrant for Start-Ups

10.6.1 Progressive Companies

10.6.2 Dynamic Companies

10.6.3 Starting Blocks

10.6.4 Responsive Companies

10.7 Company Product Footprint

10.8 Geographic Footprint of the Major Players in the Breast Lesion Localization Market

10.9 Competitive Scenario

10.9.1 Deals

10.9.2 Product Launches and Upgrades

10.10 Breast Lesion Localization Methods: Comparative Analysis

10.11 Breast Lesion Localization Methods: Comparative Analysis

10.12 Breast Lesion Localization Methods: Selection Criteria Evaluation

10.13 Qualitative Assessment of Replacement Trends

11 Company Profiles

11.1 Key Players

11.1.1 Hologic, Inc.

11.1.2 Becton, Dickinson and Company

11.1.3 Merit Medical Systems

11.1.4 Leica Biosystems Nussloch GmbH

11.1.5 Argon Medical Devices

11.1.6 Laurane Medical LLC

11.1.7 Endomagnetics Ltd. (Endomag)

11.1.8 Intramedical Imaging, LLC

11.1.9 Isoaid

11.1.10 Surgiceye GmbH

11.2 Other Players

11.2.1 Ranfac Corp.

11.2.2 Mermaid Medical Group

11.2.3 Izi Medicalproducts, LLC

11.2.4 Matek Medikal

11.2.5 Tsunami Medical Srl

11.2.6 Bpb Medica

11.2.7 Sirius Medical Systems B.V.

11.2.8 Molli Surgical Inc.

11.2.9 Sterylab S.R.L.

11.2.10 Cp Medical

11.2.11 Mdl Srl

11.2.12 Biomedical Srl

11.2.13 Elucent Medical

11.2.14 Vigeo Srl

11.2.15 Medax Medical Devices

12 Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/e6y32y

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Truly Grass Fed, a premium brand of sustainably-produced dairy products from the green fields of Ireland, will launch its new spreadable butter tubs at the 2022 Winter Fancy Food Show from February 6-8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This is the first year that the brand, which introduced its carefully crafted grass-fed Irish butter and cheese to the U.S. market in 2019, will participate in the show.

Sustainable Irish dairy brand Truly Grass Fed will introduce its new spreadable butter tubs at the 2022 Winter Fancy Food Show. Truly Grass Fed, a premium brand of sustainably-produced dairy products from the green fields of Ireland, adds naturally spreadable butter tubs to its line of grass-fed butter and cheese products.

"We first introduced Truly Grass Fed to the U.S. market in 2019, but we still view this as a kind of debut," said Nicola O'Connell, head of commercial for Truly Grass Fed. "With both trade shows and in-store shopping impacted by the pandemic, many people are just discovering our delicious and ethically produced products. We know that nothing compares to seeing and tasting the difference of dairy from happy, grass-fed Irish cows."

The spreadable butter, the newest addition to the Truly Grass Fed product line-up, has a uniform, golden color and smooth mouth feel. It features just two ingredients  fresh sweet cream sourced from grass-fed cows and salt  and contains no plant oils or additives. Its natural "spread-ability" comes from softer fats resulting from the Truly Grass Fed pasture-based grazing system and the cows' summertime milk production.

In addition to the new spreadable butter, Truly Grass Fed offers salted and unsalted butter foil packs and sticks, ghee clarified butter, as well as wedges and hand-cut slices of natural aged and sharp cheddar cheese.

All Truly Grass Fed products are sourced from cows that are 95% grass-fed (average of one cow for every two acres), Non-GMO Project Verified, Animal Welfare Approved by A Greener World and free from growth hormones and antibiotics. A co-op of 3,000 family farms located across Ireland's fertile land supplies the brand's high-quality ingredients.

Fancy Food trade show attendees will have the opportunity to sample select products and learn more about the Truly Grass Fed values and commitment to regenerative farming practices and responsibly-produced dairy that is healthier for animals, the environment and consumers. Truly Grass Fed is a member of 1% for the Planet, a global movement inspiring businesses and individuals to support environmental solutions. The brand has committed to donating one percent of annual revenue to member organizations, like Slow Food USA, which align with the dairy brand's values.

Fancy Food Show attendees can visit Truly Grass Fed in booth #2748. For more information about Truly Grass Fed, please visit www.trulygrassfed.com .

About Truly Grass Fed

Truly Grass Fed is a premium brand of Irish dairy products crafted with integrity and care for people, animals, and the planet. The brand's distinctively creamy and delicious butter and cheese are made from cows that are 95% grass-fed, Non-GMO Project Verified, Animal Welfare Approved by A Greener World and free from growth hormones and antibiotics. Truly Grass Fed is elevating dairy to a new standard. The brand is strongly rooted in the art of farming but deeply dedicated to sustainability, transparency and progress with wholesome dairy from cows living their best lives outside, on pasture on average 250 days a year, grazing on green Irish grass. The Truly Grass Fed seal signifies that the dairy ingredients inside meet the highest industry standards of quality, safety, animal welfare and environmental consciousness.

SOURCE Truly Grass Fed
Hermes integrates a full-software Release 15 Radio Access Network optimized for private networks, with multi-carrier standalone NB-IOT support as well as standalone LTE-M in 1.4MHz, 3MHz and 5MHz bandwidths, including VoLTE. It can operate as a Small Cell with an external Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network thanks to its LTE Cat-1 and Ethernet backhaul options, as well as an Access Point with its built-in EPC and integrated HSS (external HSS via S6a is also supported).

It currently supports FDD LTE-M and NB-IOT in bands 3 and 8, with an output power of 27dBm. This makes it a great solution for private industrial or utility networks with stringent performance and capacity requirements, as well as for innovative hybrid deployments.

Ubiik Hermes' unique Release 15 support, which includes Early Data Transmission and RLC unacknowledged mode (UM) features, is a perfect fit for power-sensitive NB-IOT use cases like water metering. It could complement ideally the coverage of public MNOs by operating in guard bands in hard-to-reach areas (underground, basement, deep indoor, etc.). Its support for non-anchor carriers in NB-IOT also enables maximizing the network capacity in dedicated networks with limited spectrum availability.

"We are delighted to keep serving our industrial and utilities customers with the best technologies and innovative products. As a world-first Release 15 Small Cell optimized for LTE-M and NB-IOT and for private networks, Hermes is the ideal addition to our Weightless LPWAN product portfolio," said Fabien Petitgrand, Ubiik's Chief Technology Officer. "Its high-performance ARM-based architecture and full-software implementation allow for flexible use cases and deployment schemes. It has already demonstrated 200 concurrent RRC connections in a single NB-IOT carrier, more than some macro stations. It can operate as an all-in-one Access Point (embedded EPC/HSS/SGW/PGW), a Small Cell integrated with our customers EPC (over S1 interface) or their HSS (over S6a), as well as a dedicated network with Ubiik-hosted or on-premises Core Network, with roaming capability over S8 interface. That would unlock innovative deployment schemes, for instance enabling MVNO customers to complement public networks' coverage in their own guard bands. We have already integrated our solution with MVNO and chipset partners, to be announced soon."

Ubiik is the market-leading AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) solution provider in Taiwan for electricity meters, with more than 650,000 connections under contract, of which almost 300,000 are already deployed. Thanks to its best-in-class Weightless LPWAN technology, it is operating with the most competitive reliability, performance, and spectrum efficiency.

"While Weightless LPWAN is perfectly suited for applications requiring the transmission of a small amount of data such as AMI, we envision a strong growth of the private cellular IoT market using LTE-M and NB-IoT," said Tien-haw Peng, Founder & CEO of Ubiik. "With the launch of Hermes and Ubiik end-to-end cellular IoT solutions, utilities and industrial IoT markets which require a system with higher throughput or lower latency will now have a secure and high-performance 3GPP-compliant solution."

With the advancement of 3GPP Releases 14 & 15, cellular IoT technologies LTE-M and NB-IoT can ideally complement Weightless LPWAN to address a wide range of use cases.

For private LTE networks deployed in band 8 in the US or band 3 in the UK, for instance, Hermes can be used to operate a standalone LTE-M network in 1.4MHz or 3MHz, or a NB-IoT network with multi-carrier support (Release 14 non-anchor carriers feature).

For water or gas utilities and service providers deploying smart meters with NB-IoT, Hermes can enable new go-to-market approaches by filling coverage gaps in basements or deep indoor, operating in the MNO's guard band. This alleviates the need for 2G/3G or other connectivity fallback and provides better control over the network configuration, optimizing for instance the battery life of the smart meters thanks to fewer repetitions and less network congestion.

Hermes' full-software architecture allows for a future-proof network deployment, and support for 450MHz operation in 3GPP bands 31/72/73 will be released soon (bands 87/88 upon request). These bands offer 5MHz of bandwidth and are ideal to deploy private AMI networks for utilities. Ubiik, a member of the 450 Alliance, is committed to supporting these applications by providing its high-performance cost-optimized solution.

TDD LTE-M support, Cat 1bis, support for additional bands and different power classes will be released later this year.

Visit Ubiik at MWC Barcelona 2022 booth 5H35, February 28-March 3, where Hermes will be showcased live.

More about Ubiik:

Founded in 2016, Ubiik started its IoT business by providing Weightless LPWAN, a high-performance open standard successful with electricity Advanced Metering Infrastructure private deployments. Since its first successful AMI project in 2018 which has expanded its product portfolio to a PaaS cloud platform, Ubiik has become a vertical IoT solutions provider. It has since grown its connectivity offerings to include LTE technologies to cover the multi-modality of the IoT market, especially for applications requiring the use of public cellular networks.

Visit us online at https://www.ubiik.com

Ubiik PR/Marketing Contact

[email protected]

SOURCE Ubiik
The growing adoption of remote working environment is driving the UCC market growth. During the COVID-19 pandemic, large & small enterprises have switched their focus toward remote working environment in order to reduce the infection of virus. So, business organizations have increasingly adopted UCC tools for hosting meetings and conferences. UCC tools enable real-time collaboration, instant messaging, VoIP, video calling, and social networking services. They help the organizations to share information more effectively.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/402

Conferencing is expected to gain a significant market share during the forecast period. The growth is attributed to the growing need to connect multiple users on a same call-in order to save time and communicate more effectively. Moreover, the advancement in digital technology has brought several advantages to web and video conferencing depending on call requirements. Conference call service providers are developing advanced technologies to facilitate communication among businesses with customers and personnel.

On-premises is projected to grow exponentially due to the growing demand for UCC solution among large enterprises. It offers enterprises with the complete software and hardware service control. The enterprises are completely responsible for the management and usage of products & services provided by the vendor. On-premises USS solutions are generally adopted by large enterprises due their higher cost.

The BFSI application segment is anticipated to witness a market share of over 25% in 2028 due to the increasing need to provide improved customer experiences. It has been observed that customers are gradually adopting digital technology to enjoy the banking facilities anytime, anywhere via mobile phone or online from a PC. This ensures reduced time a customer has to spend in a branch and encourages work mobility.

APAC is projected to grow exponentially in the global unified communication and collaboration (UCC) market through 2028. The growth is attributed to the increasing adoption of cloud-based UCC solutions and favorable government initiatives for modernizing ICT infrastructure in the region. Telco in the region is leveraging its existing infrastructure and technological expertise to move beyond legacy voice and data services to IT services. For instance, in May 2021, 8x8 Inc. launched integrated CCaaS and UCaaS products in China. They are the industry's first cloud phone and customer engagement solutions that provide multinational support in China.

The companies operating in the UCC market are focusing on developing strategic partnership to develop advanced solutions. For instance, in July 2020, Atos partnered with Damovo to accelerate the access of UCC solutions in Northern Europe. The partnership has enabled faster response to the increasing demand for advanced UC solutions across the enterprise sector.

Some major findings of the unified communications and collaboration (UCC) market report include:

Business enterprises are increasingly adopting UCC solutions in order to boost productivity, enhance customer experiences, and increase employee satisfaction.

Advancement in technology, such as cloud computing and AI technologies, are anticipated to support the market growth.

APAC Unified Communication and Collaboration (UCC) market is propelled by the growing demand for streamline business communication process.

Major players operating in the unified communications and collaboration market are 8x8 Inc., Alcatel Lucent Enterprise (Nokia Network), Avaya Inc, BT Group, Cisco Systems Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Mitel Network Corporation, and NEC Corporation.

The companies operating in the market are focusing on developing advanced UCC solutions in order to strengthen their product portfolio.

Request for customization of this research report at https://www.gminsights.com/roc/402

Partial chapters of report table of contents (TOC):

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

2.1 UCC industry 360 synopsis, 2018 - 2028

2.1.1 Region trends

2.1.2 Platform trends

2.1.3 Deployment model trends

2.1.4 Application trends

Chapter 3 UCC Industry Insights

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Benefits of UCC

3.3 Industry segmentation

3.4 Industry landscape, 2018 - 2028

3.5 Evolution of UCC technology

3.6 Industry ecosystem analysis

3.7 UCC architecture analysis

3.8 Technology & innovation landscape

3.9 Regulatory landscape

3.10 Industry impact forces

3.10.1 Growth drivers

3.10.2 Industry pitfalls & challenges

3.11 Industry news

3.12 Porter's analysis

3.13 PESTEL analysis

3.14 Growth potential analysis

About Global Market Insights

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SOURCE Global Market Insights Inc.
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Rapid Action Consortium, a group of leading scientists, academics, and organizations that have come together to help companies navigate the complexities of implementing and operating COVID-19 testing programs at scale, today announced the availability of its COVID-19 Rapid Screening Program Playbook.

In addition to being a global health and an economic crisis, COVID-19 is fundamentally an information problem. As with any complex information problem, the Rapid Action Consortium believes that the solution requires the intelligent use of data and technology and for the right parties to come together to create ecosystems of learning and impact.

Based on insights gathered from nearly 1.7 million tests by more than 1,800 participating companies, across more than 2,900 locations, the Playbook details best practices for businesses in establishing rapid antigen testing programs to enable safer workplaces and communities.

"It is critical to catalyze the private sector as a force for good, bringing in the right parties to come together to collectively learn, innovate, and rapidly iterate to create impact," said Darren Saumur, global operating officer, Genpact and co-chair of the U.S. Rapid Action Consortium. "The COVID-19 Rapid Screening Program Playbook is a manifestation of this collective effort. We know that companies need guidance now more than ever to facilitate return-to-office plans, maximize public and workplace safety, and provide a line of defense as new variants arise. We believe in paying it forward, using the insights gathered to create frameworks, real-time tools, and access to data and guidelines that enable businesses nationwide to act quickly and decisively."

Leveraging the collective intelligence gleaned from rapid testing programs across a wide range of workplaces  from airlines and bakeries, to touring Broadway productions and iconic landmarks  the Consortium is making its best practices available to any public or private-sector organization that wants to use it. It is available to the public at no cost and is one of the various tools and resources the Consortium is developing.

"We've always been focused on providing a one-of-a-kind experience to our guests, and that focus took on a new sense of urgency during the pandemic," said Ron Sevart, chief executive officer, SpaceNeedle. "We know first-hand that regular testing is critical to mitigating the spread of the virus. As a member of the Rapid Action Consortium, we've received invaluable guidance and insights that allowed us to set up a robust screening protocol quickly and effectively for our team members that would have otherwise taken us significantly more time and cost. Our testing program has identified 36 positive cases, many of which were asymptomatic individuals, interrupting the transmission of the virus to keep our iconic landmark safe for all."

The Rapid Action Consortium Playbook is a step-by-step guide to launching, operating, and scaling a rapid antigen testing program. It includes an 11-step action plan for establishing protocols, information on assembling a core operating team, reporting test results, and more.

"Omicron is the second-most contagious virus known to humankind, and the unprecedented breakthrough cases with this variant have made it clear that rapid testing is crucial to mitigating the spread," said Dr. Steven Phillips, advisory committee member, U.S. Rapid Action Consortium and vice president, Science and Strategy, COVID Collaborative. "Strategic widespread testing can quickly identify asymptomatic cases, prevalent in this variant, and bring outbreaks crashing down in weeks. As community transmission increases, there are higher chances that the virus will mutate into more dangerous variants. The Consortium is an accelerating force in the fight against COVID-19 and is empowering organizations with the right tools and approaches to implement testing programs to keep our economy running and our communities safe."

The U.S. Rapid Action Consortium is an expansion of a successful Canadian program, the Creative Destruction Lab Rapid Screening Consortium (CDL RSC), of which Genpact is a founding member. Genpact, the CDL RSC, and the COVID Collaborative are the founding members of the U.S. Consortium. Over the last 13 months, the U.S. Rapid Action Consortium and CDL RSC have collectively administered more than 1,690,000 tests across 2,951 locations. Regular testing has detected more than 3,000 confirmed positives and counting.

The Consortium is also developing a risk-assessment tool to help organizations leverage real-time data to determine the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak in their workplaces. The tool will help determine the best approach to opening workplaces. It considers local and company COVID-19 data  such as infection and vaccination rates  to assign low, moderate, medium, or high-risk levels. Once an organization calculates its risk level, the tool provides a list of crucial protocols that will help maintain safety and reduce the risk of an outbreak.

For more information about launching a workplace testing program or learning how to become a member of the Rapid Action Consortium, visit https://www.genpact.com/rapid-action-consortium or email [email protected].

About Genpact

Genpact (NYSE: G) is a global professional services firm that makes business transformation real. Led by our purpose -- the relentless pursuit of a world that works better for people -- we drive digital-led innovation and digitally enabled intelligent operations for our clients. Guided by our experience reinventing and running thousands of processes for hundreds of clients, many of them Global Fortune 500 companies, we drive real-world transformation at scale. We think with design, dream in digital, and solve problems with data and analytics. Combining our expertise in end-to-end operations and our AI-based platform, Genpact Cora, we focus on the details  all 100,000+ of us. From New York to New Delhi, and more than 30 countries in between, we connect every dot, reimagine every process, and reinvent the ways companies work. We know that reimagining each step from start to finish creates better business outcomes. Whatever it is, we'll be there with you  accelerating digital transformation to create bold, lasting results  because transformation happens here. Get to know us at Genpact.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

About the COVID Collaborative

COVID Collaborative, a project of UNITE, is a national assembly of experts, leaders and institutions in health, education and the economy and associations representing the diversity of the country to turn the tide on the pandemic by supporting federal, state and local COVID-19 response efforts.

The COVID Collaborative is co-chaired by former Governor and U.S. Senator Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID) and former Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) and led by CEO John Bridgeland. COVID Collaborative includes expertise from across Republican and Democratic administrations at the federal, state and local levels, including former FDA commissioners, CDC directors, and U.S. surgeon generals; former U.S. secretaries of Education, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services; leading public health experts and institutions that span the country; the Business Roundtable, National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the NAACP, UnidosUS and the National Congress of American Indians; the Skoll Foundation, The Allstate Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation; and associations representing those on the front lines, from the American Public Health Association and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools. Tim Shriver is Chairman of UNITE. To learn more, visit www.CovidCollaborative.us, and follow the COVID Collaborative on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About the CDL Rapid Screening Consortium

The CDL Rapid Screening Consortium (CDL RSC) is a private-led, not-for-profit initiative formed in August 2020 with the goal of establishing a robust rapid screening system and operational implementation strategy to be delivered as a public good to Canada and then the world. The Consortium is led by Creative Destruction Lab. This is an unprecedented collaboration among businesses, researchers, and government working together on a singular public-interest objective. Learn more about CDL RSC at https://www.cdlrapidscreeningconsortium.com

MEDIA CONTACT:

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+1 718 561 9843

SOURCE Genpact
The business continuity management solutions market covers the following areas:

Business Continuity Management Solutions Market Sizing

Business Continuity Management Solutions Market Forecast

Business Continuity Management Solutions Market Analysis

Vendor Landscape

The market structure is expected to remain fragmented during the forecast period. Vendors are deploying different organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market.

Dell Technologies Inc., International Business Machines Corp., LogicManager Inc., MetricStream Inc., Microsoft Corp., NAVEX Global Inc., Quantivate LLC, SAI Global Pty. Ltd., SAP SE, and X2nSat Inc. among others are some of the few key vendors competing to maintain their market position in the market. The key offerings of some of these vendors are mentioned below:

Dell Technologies Inc. - The company offers solutions for business continuity management that provide strategic alignment to business objectives, recovery of business process after cyber attack, and exclusive service support.

The company offers solutions for business continuity management that provide strategic alignment to business objectives, recovery of business process after cyber attack, and exclusive service support. International Business Machines Corp. - The company offers solutions for business continuity management that provide business continuity planning, IT data backup and disaster recovery strategy, crisis management team, maintenance and testing.

The company offers solutions for business continuity management that provide business continuity planning, IT data backup and disaster recovery strategy, crisis management team, maintenance and testing. LogicManager Inc. - The company offers solutions for business continuity management with products like disaster scenario planning exercise and testing software, event response software, business impact analysis, BCP development software.

View more about the market's vendor landscape highlights with a comprehensive list of vendors and their offerings.

Key Market Segmentation

Segmentation by End-user:

Large Enterprise:



The large enterprise segment contributed largely to the overall market growth in 2020.



SME

Request a FREE Sample of this report for more highlights into the market segments.

Regional Market Outlook

North America will contribute to 48% of the market growth during the forecast period. The growth of this region can be attributed to the rising incidence of cyberattacks. If we look at the country-wise market growth, the US will contribute to the highest market growth in the region.

Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries.

Latest Drivers and Challenges Impacting the Business Continuity Management Solutions Market

Market Driver:

Growing demand for business continuity management solutions from various industries:

The adoption of business continuity management solutions by end-user industries, such as banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), retail, manufacturing, IT and telecom, and healthcare, has increased significantly.

Market Challenge:

System integration and interoperability issues:

The adoption of advanced technologies in many industry verticals, such as the BFSI, telecom, transportation, and public sectors, is increasing significantly, which is rising system integration and interoperability issues. Many organizations face integration problems while implementing business continuity management software.

Find additional information about various other market drivers & challenges mentioned in our FREE sample report .

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Business Continuity Management Solutions Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 15.82% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 503.96 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 15.00 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution North America at 48% Key consumer countries US, China, Germany, UK, and France Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Dell Technologies Inc., International Business Machines Corp., LogicManager Inc., MetricStream Inc., Microsoft Corp., NAVEX Global Inc., Quantivate LLC, SAI Global Pty. Ltd., SAP SE, and X2nSat Inc. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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SOURCE Technavio
The location of Varenita of Simi Valley represents a pioneering design in senior living development, since residents are within walking distance of amenities like Aldi's supermarket, CVS pharmacy, and a variety of retail shops, services, and restaurants. Placing residents at the heart of a vibrant community center allows them to maintain independence as they age.

Paul Griffin, CEO of developer Griffin Living, explains the vision behind this: "Our residents may not be able to go into the world as easily as they once did  so at Varenita, we bring the world to them."

Griffin continues, "Traditional senior living is modeled on the idea that older residents want peace and quiet. It can have an unintended effect of isolating them. While residents can choose to rest in their rooms, when they want community, there's an open, active lobby with a piano, a bar, and lots of seating. Loved ones can come by and visit and eat at Varenita, or walk to a number of local restaurants and run errands in the shopping center."

The community is the first from senior living developer Griffin Living to be opened under the Varenita brand. Another Varenita community in Westlake Village is scheduled to open in April, featuring both assisted living and memory care units.

The amenities of the building include a state-of-the-art air filtration system that cleanses air to an N-95 mask level. It also features a bistro with any-time dining and chef-inspired meals, a fitness and wellness center, a beauty salon, library, art studio, and theater.

Margie Veis, Executive Director of Varenita of Simi Valley, celebrating the opening of the community, said, "The building is gorgeous, the amenities are amazing, and the staff is so excited to welcome our residents home for the first time."

Tours of Varenita of Simi Valley are offered daily. Those interested in learning more can call 805-327-1100 or visit Varenita.com for more information.

ABOUT GRIFFIN LIVING

Griffin Living is an award-winning, privately-owned real estate development firm headquartered in Calabasas, CA. The firm was founded in 2016 by Paul Griffin III, a fifth-generation home builder with thirty years of expertise in real estate development. Griffin Living develops and maintains properties across the United States, including residential, commercial, retail, and master planning.

ABOUT VARENITA

Griffin Living's Senior Living brand, Varenita, is dedicated to creating communities that are rooted in the dignity of aging, with excellent care and vibrant lifestyles.

SOURCE Griffin Living
WEST CHESTER, Pa., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Venerable Holdings, Inc. ("Venerable"), the leader in providing innovative risk transfer solutions to variable annuity issuers, is pleased to announce the close of its reinsurance transaction with Manulife Financial Corporation (NYSE: MFC) ("Manulife"). The transaction involves the reinsurance of approximately US$22 billion of variable annuity business from Manulife's U.S. subsidiary John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) ("John Hancock") and, on a pro forma basis as of 3/31/21, increases Venerable's assets under management and reinsurance to approximately $94 billion.

"Venerable continues to demonstrate an exceptional ability to structure and close complex transactions within accelerated timeframes," said David Marcinek, Chairman of Venerable. "Our expertise managing variable annuity liabilities is best in class and we remain focused on identifying further opportunities for growth."

The reinsured business primarily comprises contracts with guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits (GMWB), issued between 2003 and 2012 by John Hancock, a Michigan domiciled entity. A small block of policies with only guaranteed minimum death benefits (GMDB) is also included. John Hancock is retaining administration of the block as part of the transaction.

Pat Lusk, CEO of Venerable said "Our dedicated and talented colleagues continue to deliver stellar implementation results and consistently position Venerable for success in achieving our financial and business goals. We look forward to a successful long-term relationship with Manulife."

Wells Fargo Securities, LLC is serving as financial advisor, and Sidley Austin LLP is serving as legal counsel to Venerable in connection with this transaction.

About Venerable

Venerable is a privately held company with business operations based in West Chester, Pennsylvania and Des Moines, Iowa. Venerable owns and manages legacy variable annuity business acquired from other entities. Created by an investor group led by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, LLC, Crestview Partners, Reverence Capital Partners, and Athene Holdings, Ltd., Venerable is a business with well-established, strategic investors, experienced in successfully building and growing insurance businesses with patient, long-term capital. For more information, please visit www.venerable.com.

Contact:

Venerable

Allison Proud

Corporate Communications

+(610) 249-9730

SOURCE Venerable
DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Genomic Biomarker Market 2021-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global genomics biomarker market is projected to exhibit a CAGR of over 15% during the forecast period. Genomic biomarkers is a field of science that aims for the collective characterization and quantification of genes. Genomics additionally includes the sequencing and analysis of genomes using high-throughput DNA sequencing and bioinformatics for assembling and analyzing the function and structure of entire genomes.

Major factors contributing to the growth of the market include the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders, and others. Other driving factors include increasing research and investment in the field of genomic biomarkers and the use of genomic biomarker services for the enhancement of drug development pipelines.

However, some factors are restraining the market growth that includes reimbursement challenges and limited market capabilities in underdeveloped markets. Genomic biomarkers in the development of personalized medicine and rising demand from emerging economies are the factors to create opportunities for the market across the globe.

Segmental Outlook

The global genomic biomarker market is segmented on the basis of disease indication and end-user. By disease indication, the market is segmented into oncology, cardiology, neurology, and others. By end-user, the market is segmented into hospitals and diagnostic and research laboratories.

Among disease indications, oncology contributed a significant share in 2019. The segmental growth is attributed to the high demand for genomic biomarkers in oncology owing to the rise in the prevalence of cancer and an increasing number of research efforts towards genomic biomarkers for cancer detection and understanding therapeutic responses for individual patients.

Regional Outlooks

Geographically, the global genomic biomarker market covers the analysis of four major regions including North America (the US and Canada), Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, and Rest of Asia-Pacific), and the Rest of the World. North America contributed a prominent share in the global genomic biomarker market. Factors contributing to the market growth include the presence of well-developed healthcare infrastructure, high healthcare R& D investments, high healthcare expenditure, and others. Europe is another significant market and holds a considerable market share in the global genomic biomarker market.

Market Players Outlook

Some of the key players of the genomic biomarker market include Agilent Technologies, Inc., Illumina, Inc., Myriad Genetics, Inc., Thermo Fischer Scientific, Inc., Genomic Health Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Second Genomic Therapeutics, and Hologic, Inc. In order to survive in the market, these players adopt different marketing strategies such as a merger and acquisitions, product launch, and geographical expansion.

For instance, in 2020, Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Second Genome announced their four-year strategic collaboration to identify biomarkers associated with clinical response and to identify new potential targets and drug candidates for the treatment of IBD (inflammatory bowel disease).

The Report Covers

Market value data analysis of 2020 and forecast to 2027.

Annualized market revenues ($ million) for each market segment.

Country-wise analysis of major geographical regions.

Key companies operating in the global Genomic biomarker market. Based on the availability of data, information related to new product launches, and relevant news is also available in the report.

Analysis of business strategies by identifying the key market segments positioned for strong growth in the future.

Analysis of market-entry and market expansion strategies.

Competitive strategies by identifying 'who-stands-where' in the market.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Report Summary



2. Market Overview and Insights

2.1. Scope of the Report

2.2. Analyst Insight & Current Market Trends

2.2.1. Key Findings

2.2.2. Recommendations

2.2.3. Conclusion



3. Competitive Landscape

3.1. Key Company Analysis

3.1.1. Overview

3.1.2. Financial Analysis

3.1.3. SWOT Analysis

3.1.4. Recent Developments



4. Market Determinants

4.1. Motivators

4.2. Restraints

4.3. Opportunities



5. Market Segmentation

5.1. Global Genomic Biomarker Market By Disease Indication

5.1.1. Oncology

5.1.2. Cardiology

5.1.3. Neurology

5.1.4. Others

5.2. Global Genomic Biomarker By End-Users

5.2.1. Hospitals

5.2.2. Diagnostic And Research Laboratories



6. Regional Analysis

6.1. North America

6.1.1. United States

6.1.2. Canada

6.2. Europe

6.2.1. UK

6.2.2. Germany

6.2.3. Italy

6.2.4. Spain

6.2.5. France

6.2.6. Rest of Europe

6.3. Asia-Pacific

6.3.1. China

6.3.2. India

6.3.3. Japan

6.3.4. Rest of Asia-Pacific

6.4. Rest of the World



7. Company Profiles

7.1. 23andMe

7.2. Acobiom SAS

7.3. Agilent Technologies Inc.

7.4. Almac Group

7.5. Banyan Biomarkers, Inc.

7.6. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.

7.7. BioMerieux S.A.

7.8. Celgene Corp.

7.9. Cofactor Genomics, Inc

7.10. Destina Genomics Ltd

7.11. DNAVision SA

7.12. Eagle Genomics Ltd.

7.13. Empire Genomics, LLC

7.14. Enzo Life Sciences, Inc.

7.15. Epigenomics AG

7.16. Eurofins Scientific SE

7.17. Foundation Medicine, Inc.

7.18. GeneNews Ltd.

7.19. Genomic Health, Inc.

7.20. Hologic, Inc.

7.21. Human Longevity, Inc.

7.22. Illumina, Inc

7.23. Insight Genetics Inc.

7.24. Integragen SA

7.25. Liquid Genomics, Inc.

7.26. Luminex Corp.

7.27. Merck KGaA

7.28. Myriad Genetics Inc.

7.29. NeoGenomics Laboratories, Inc.

7.30. New England Biolabs Inc.

7.31. Origene Technologies, Inc.

7.32. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

7.33. Pfizer Inc.

7.34. Pliant Therapeutics, Inc.

7.35. Second Genomic Therapeutics

7.36. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5p2tqn

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets
Amy Dennerlein RN, BSN, Director of Exigent's Medical Legal Solutions business, stated, "We see huge opportunity for Exigent to support personal injury, medical malpractice and mass tort litigation. We lead the market in tech-enabled merit and case reviews, damage assessments, and mass tort analytics. I am thrilled for Alicia to join my team in helping provide attorneys a "one-stop, shop" and grow our business in the U.S., Canada and UK.

Prior to joining Exigent, Alicia served as Senior Sales Director, Oasis Financial. She has extensive experience driving sales growth and expanding client relationships. A native-Texan, Alicia is based in Chicago.

On why she joined Exigent, Alicia said, "Exigent's vision for reimaging the medical legal services space and success in applying analytics to improve legal outcomes is why I'm here. I'm excited to bring my business development skills and relationships to help drive Exigent's continued expansion in this rapidly evolving sector."

About Exigent Exigent is a legal technology services company helping law firms and corporate legal departments improve business and legal outcomes. With a powerful combination of technology, business acumen and legal expertise, we leverage data to surface insights that improve decision making. From contract lifecycle management to outsourcing to litigation support to medical legal solutions to expert witnesses, organizations turn to us for solutions that drive better outcomes.

For information, visit www.exigent-group.com.

SOURCE Exigent
INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- American College of Education, a leading provider of online and affordable higher education, is honored to be named a winner of the 2022 Top Workplaces USA award, issued by Energage, recognizing its commitment to providing a flexible, inclusive and innovative environment for all employees.

This is the inaugural year for the national list of Top Workplaces USA, built on the program's 14-year history surveying more than 20 million employees across 54 markets for the regional Top Workplaces awards. ACE's innovative and successful workplace environment has already earned a spot on the Best Places to Work in Indiana for five consecutive years, including the No. 1 spot for medium-sized companies in 2021.

"This award is a reflection of our unique structure which accelerates students' careers while providing a flexible work environment for our faculty and staff," said Shawntel Landry, Ed.D., President of American College of Education. "Our team members collaborate to cultivate an innovative and engaging remote working environment where we have fun while working hard to serve our growing student population."

National Recognition

This national recognition reflects ACE's goal of providing its employees opportunities to grow, give back to their communities, and find balance in their work and personal lives. ACE is also proud to offer a comprehensive employee benefits package, which includes a flexible remote-work policy, paid volunteer time, tuition assistance and a leadership development program.

Top Workplaces USA offers national recognition for large organizations, defined as those with more than 150 employees, and those that may have operations in multiple markets. Several thousand organizations from across the country were invited, and more than 1,100 participated in the Top Workplaces USA survey. Winners of the Top Workplaces USA list are chosen based solely on employee feedback gathered through an employee engagement survey, issued by Energage. Results are calculated by comparing the survey's research-based statements, including 15 Culture Drivers that are proven to predict high performance against industry benchmarks.

ACE's unique model of using real-world experience in its courses allows faculty to share their expertise with students for practical application in day-to-day practices, networking, career advancement and more. In the survey, ACE faculty and employees described the work culture as collaborative, inclusive, flexible and supportive. Additional survey feedback highlighted how employees feel valued by supportive leadership that care about their well-being and job satisfaction.

"During this very challenging time, Top Workplaces has proven to be a beacon of light for organizations, as well as a sign of resiliency and strong business performance," said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. "When you give your employees a voice, you come together to navigate challenges and shape your path forward. Top Workplaces draws on real-time insights into what works best for their organization, so they can make informed decisions that have a positive impact on their people and their business."

About American College of Education

American College of Education (ACE) is an accredited, 100% online university specializing in high-quality, affordable programs in education, business, leadership, healthcare and nursing. Headquartered in Indianapolis, ACE offers more than 70 innovative and engaging programs for adult students to pursue a doctorate, master's or bachelor's degree, along with micro-credentials and graduate-level certificate programs. In addition to being a leader in online education, ACE is a Certified B Corporation. Certified B Corporations are leaders of a global movement to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

About Energage

Making the world a better place to work together.

Energage is a purpose-driven technology company that helps organizations build and brand Top Workplaces. Built on 14 years of culture research and the results from 23 million employees surveyed across more than 70,000 organizations, Energage delivers the most accurate competitive benchmark available. With access to a unique combination of patented analytic tools and expert guidance, Energage customers lead the competition with an engaged workforce and an opportunity to gain recognition for their people-first approach to culture. For more information or to nominate your organization, visit energage.com or topworkplaces.com.

Media Inquiries:

Claire Deneen

[email protected]

312-255-3134

SOURCE American College of Education
"We're extremely proud to be part of a select group of businesses to be recognized for our commitment to the rights of LGBTQ+ associates," said Lavone Lee, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at American Greetings. "We value all our associates and part of what makes our company strong and successful is our inclusive, diverse and talented workforce."

"When the Human Rights Campaign Foundation created the Corporate Equality Index 20 years ago, we dreamed that LGBTQ+ workersfrom the factory floor to corporate headquarters, in big cities and small townscould have access to the policies and benefits needed to thrive and live life authentically," said Jay Brown, Human Rights Campaign Senior Vice President of Programs, Research and Training. "We are proud that the Corporate Equality Index paved the way to that reality for countless LGBTQ+ workers in America and abroad. But there is still more to do, which is why we are raising the bar yet again to create more equitable workplaces and a better tomorrow for LGBTQ+ workers everywhere. Congratulations to American Greetings for achieving the title of 'best places to work for LGBTQ+ equality' and working to advance inclusion in the workplace."

The results of the 2022 CEI showcase how 1,271 U.S.-based companies are not only promoting LGBTQ+-friendly workplace policies in the U.S., but also for the 56% of CEI-rated companies with global operations who are helping advance the cause of LGBTQ+ inclusion in workplaces abroad. American Greetings earned a 100 percent ranking and the designation as one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality by satisfying all the CEI's criteria.

In 2002, the first year of the CEI, only 13 companies achieved a top-score, demonstrating the incredible impact the CEI has had on the business world over its 20-year life. This year's CEI reflects growth across every measurement category, from the adoption of inclusive non-discrimination policies, to equitable healthcare benefits for transgender employees.

The CEI rates employers providing these crucial protections to over 20 million U.S. workers and an additional 18 million abroad. Companies rated in the CEI include Fortune magazine's 500 largest publicly traded businesses, American Lawyer magazine's top 200 revenue-grossing law firms (AmLaw 200), and hundreds of publicly and privately held mid- to large-sized businesses.

The CEI rates companies on detailed criteria falling under four central pillars:

Non-discrimination policies across business entities;

Equitable benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their families;

Supporting an inclusive culture; and,

Corporate social responsibility.

The full report is available online at www.hrc.org/cei.

About American Greetings

American Greetings is a global leader in the large and enduring Celebrations marketplace. The company helps people celebrate holidays, each other, and all of life's special moments, in-person and online, guided by a mission to "make the world a more thoughtful and caring place every single day." American Greetings offers products wherever and however people wish to purchase them  online, in-store, or curbside pickup. Celebrations happen throughout the year, driven by traditional holidays, key milestone moments such as weddings, baby showers and graduations, as well as recurring everyday events such as birthdays and anniversaries. The company's brands include American Greetings, Papyrus, Recycled Paper Greetings, Paper Rebel, Carlton Cards, Today and Always, DesignWare party goods, and Plus Mark gift wrap and boxed cards. Its digital business unit, AG Interactive, is a leading provider of digital greetings and premium celebrations content through proprietary technology platforms and apps. Our popular digital brands include American Greetings, Blue Mountain, SmashUps, justWink, and Creatacard. For more information, visit AmericanGreetings.com.

About the Human Rights Campaign Foundation

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people. Through its programs, the HRC Foundation seeks to make transformational change in the everyday lives of LGBTQ+ people, shedding light on inequity and deepening the public's understanding of LGBTQ+ issues, with a clear focus on advancing transgender and racial justice. Its work has transformed the landscape for more than 15 million workers, 11 million students, 1 million clients in the adoption and foster care system and so much more. The HRC Foundation provides direct consultation and technical assistance to institutions and communities, driving the advancement of inclusive policies and practices; it builds the capacity of future leaders and allies through fellowship and training programs; and, with the firm belief that we are stronger working together, it forges partnerships with advocates in the U.S. and around the globe to increase our impact and shape the future of our work.

SOURCE American Greetings Corporation
BALTIMORE, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 50 years ago, President Gerald Ford became the first president to officially observe Black History Month. In a message delivered on Feb. 10, 1976, he called on the nation to "seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history."

The American Urological Association and the Urology Care Foundation celebrate Black History Month. Urology Care Foundation

Today, the American Urological Association (AUA) and Urology Care Foundation continue to express a longstanding recognition of Black History Month and the many contributions African Americans have made to our society and culture. While many are familiar with such iconic figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou and Rosa Parks, there are many lesser known Black men and women, including pioneers in medicine and urology, whose achievements should also be recognized.

Born in 1762 and living and working most of his life in slavery, Dr. James Durham is considered the first African American to work as a doctor in America. As a young man, he was owned by a number of doctors, who taught him how to read and write, mix medicines and serve and work with patients. Durham had a flourishing medical practice in New Orleans until 1801 when the city restricted his practice because he did not have a formal medical degree.

In 1837, Dr. James McCune Smith graduated from the University of Glasgow, making him the first African American to earn a medical degree.

In 1864, after years as a nurse, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first African American woman in the United States to receive a medical degree, making her the first Black woman physician in the U.S.

In 1895, the National Medical Association was founded, since African Americans were barred from other established medical groups.

In 1936, Dr. Richard Francis Jones (Dr. R. Frank Jones) became the first African American Diplomate of the American Board of Urology. He is the sixth African American ever to become a board-certified specialist in the U.S. At the time, Black physicians were not allowed to join medical specialty societies, which kept them from working in most hospitals. Dr. Jones is also the first African American member of the AUA.

In 1950, Dr. Helen O. Dickens became the first African American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons.

Today, Dr. Bobbilynn Hawkins remains the nation's first African American full professor of urology and the sixth female urologist to be certified by the American Board of Urology. Additionally, she is the first female urologist in the United States Army, and served more than 30 years as a military command surgeon, earning the rank of Colonel and serving in the Gulf War.

While February brings extra attention to the contributions of African American pioneers, it also raises awareness of the prevalence of urologic diseases such as prostate, kidney and bladder cancer, which disproportionality affect the African American population, as well as the need for increased diversity within the practice of medicine to help provide culturally competent care.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among Black people in the United States . Prostate cancer is more common in Black men. It tends to start at younger ages and grow faster than in men of other racial or ethnic groups, but medical experts do not know why. African American men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and they are nearly 2.5 times more likely to die of the disease.

. Prostate cancer is more common in Black men. It tends to start at younger ages and grow faster than in men of other racial or ethnic groups, but medical experts do not know why. African American men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and they are nearly 2.5 times more likely to die of the disease. Nearly half of all African American adults have some form of heart disease. African American adults are much more likely to suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension), heart attacks and stroke deaths than white adults. Recent studies have shown a very strong association between erectile dysfunction and heart disease.

"Despite continuous advances in scientific knowledge and technology, the African American community still lags behind other racial and ethnic groups in public health awareness and access to health care," said Raju Thomas, MD, AUA President. "As we recognize the contributions of Black pioneers in medicine and urology this February, the AUA remains committed to closing that gap in awareness and access."

For more information about the life and legacy of Dr. Richard Francis Jones visit: https://www.urologyhealth.org/healthy-living/care-blog/the-story-of-dr-r-frank-jones-md-medical-and-civil-rights-pioneer

About the American Urological Association: Founded in 1902 and headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland, the American Urological Association is a leading advocate for the specialty of urology and has nearly 24,000 members throughout the world. The AUA is a premier urologic association, providing invaluable support to the urologic community as it pursues its mission of fostering the highest standards of urologic care through education, research and the formulation of health policy.

Media Contact:

Caitlin Lukacs, Corporate Communications and Media Relations Manager

410-689-4081, [email protected]



SOURCE American Urological Association and Urology Care Foundation
LEHI, Utah, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arden Group (Arden), in partnership with Vesta Realty Partners, LLC (Vesta), announced it has acquired the Younique headquarters building, a 125,000-square-foot, five story, trophy quality office building located at 3400 West Mayflower Ave, in Lehi, Utah. The property, strategically located in the vibrant Silicon Slopes market of Salt Lake City, is 100% leased to Younique, a health and wellness direct sales firm, through 2026.

This transaction represents the fourth Salt Lake City office transaction for Arden and Vesta over the last year as well as the fifth office property acquisition in Silicon Slopes, Utah's high-demand tech corridor. Previous trophy office acquisitions for the firm include the purchase of the Divvy and Dealertrack two-building portfolio in Draper, UT as well as the purchase of the Solutionreach office building and the Entrata headquarters, both in Lehi, UT.

The asset was first developed in 2016 by Stack Real Estate, one of Utah's most prominent real estate developers, and was built as a fully amenitized corporate campus and showcase property for Younique. The well-located development sits on a 7.19-acre site and is one of the most visible buildings on the popular I-15 interchange. The property is nearby the FrontRunner high-speed train which offers 90-mile coverage from Ogden to Provo and is walkable to an abundance of dining.

"Arden continues to demonstrate its belief in Salt Lake City and the Silicon Slopes technology corridor through our numerous trophy office acquisitions," said Craig A. Spencer, Chairman and CEO of Arden Group. "With its best-in-class design, top amenities, and high visibility, the fully leased Younique corporate headquarters is a perfect addition to our growing regional portfolio, and we're pleased to announce this latest purchase."

"Investor and tenant demand in Utah's Silicon Slopes have remained resilient over the past 24 months," notes Jeff Grasso, Founder and Managing Partner of Vesta Realty Partners. "We are continuing to experience new capital sources seeking exposure to the market while local and out-of-state tenant demand is ramping up to pre-COVID levels."

"This transaction underscores the Arden strategy of acquiring high-quality properties in strategic submarkets which deliver compelling returns," adds James Tucker, Managing Director of Arden's office investment team. "The Younique headquarters building met all our investment criteria and offers strong cash flow in the near-term and future opportunities for value creation over the long-term."

The Younique headquarters building features a best-in-class design with high-end two-story lobbies as well as floor-to-ceiling glass throughout. Built to LEED Silver standards, the building includes open floor plans with an average floor plate size of 25,000 square feet.

The property includes an abundance of Class-A amenities, including a full-size commercial kitchen, cafeteria and lounge, outdoor seating, an auditorium, five balconies with seating, a full-service salon and an R&D Lab.

About Arden Group

Arden Group is a vertically integrated real estate investment management firm focused on equity and debt investments in the top 25 US MSA's. Founded in 1989, Arden has acquired over $6.4 billion of properties and asset managed in excess of $11.8 billion of commercial real estate assets since inception. In 2012, Arden Group established Arden Fund Management, its real estate equity and debt fund management business with offices in Philadelphia, New York, Tampa, Miami, Minneapolis, and Newport Beach. Arden Group has been consistently ranked globally as a top performing Private Fund Manager by both Cambridge Associates and Preqin including Preqin's #1 global ranking in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Visit www.ardengroup.com.

About Vesta Realty Partners

Vesta Realty Partners is an institutional sponsor focused on real estate investing outperformance through a macro driven value-oriented approach coupled with hands on business plan execution. The firm focuses on undervalued office, life science, industrial, residential, and opportunity zone investing with offices in New York City and Salt Lake City. The firm was founded in 2020 by Jeff Grasso and currently manages a portfolio of more than $750 million of real estate assets and developments.

Contact :

Great Ink Communications, Ltd.

212-741-2977

Tom Nolan

Jimmy Lappas

[email protected]

SOURCE Arden Group
Devices connected to cellular networks worldwide gain improved connectivity and security without deploying agents or additional hardware.

PALO ALTO, Calif. and GUILDFORD, England, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global connectivity specialist Eseye and leading agentless device security platform provider Armis today announced the general availability of a joint solution that enables organizations to deploy connected devices anywhere in the world with enterprise-class security and consistent, reliable cellular (4G/LTE/5G) connectivity.

Digital transformation created a new generation of connected things that extend beyond traditional IT and across virtually every business and industry. For the first time, the volume of these non-traditional assets has surpassed the total number of traditional computers and servers globally. Analysts predict this number will multiply exponentially in the next five years. This new hyperconnected, highly distributed, and dynamically changing environment represents digital business's new cyber asset landscape. Any loss of connectivity or cyberattacks against these devices can be financially devastating and brand-damaging, causing widespread collateral loss to an organization's bottom line.

"Most traditional endpoint security products available today require agents which cannot install on the majority of cellular-based IoT and OT devices. These devices control the temperature of food and medicine storage, update maintenance information on airplanes, or control critical infrastructures like power and water transmission, and they are exposed with grave risk of cyber threats," said Peter Doggart, Chief Strategy Officer, Armis. "The footprint of these devices is expected to expand rapidly over the coming years, making the joint solution from Armis and Eseye the ultimate foundation for automation and digital transformation."

Many of these new connected devices use 4G/LTE/5G technologies, which increases their range and flexibility while introducing unique challenges for connectivity and security. Outside of North America, hundreds of mobile network operators (MNOs) operate across geographies with many shared borders, creating a lack of persistent connectivity. Most carriers prevent devices from roaming after a few weeks, dramatically impacting the ability of cellular-based IoT and other devices to realize their full potential. According to Eseye's 2021 State of IoT Adoption Report , over one-third (35%) of survey respondents cited cellular connectivity as the main challenge to rollouts of large-scale IoT projects.

Eseye's unique Connectivity Management Platform enables devices to switch intelligently to any one of over 700 GSMA-compliant carriers to maximize uptime with near 100% global coverage. The Armis Agentless Device Security Platform provides device discovery, monitoring, and behavioral risk assessments to respond automatically to anomalies that put devices at risk. Together, this joint solution ensures organizations can deploy and access virtually any device globally with confidence.

"With Transforma Insights predicting that the number of cellular devices will increase to five billion by 2030, the IoT attack surface is growing exponentially. The emergence of eUICC and eSIM means devices can frequently move between a range of public and private 5G networks, as well as IoT platforms, making IoT assets hard to track and secure," said Nick Earle, CEO of Eseye.

"Eseye's unique Cloud-based MPLS network and IoT Connectivity Platform with Network Orchestration capabilities allows cellular IoT devices to reliably connect with near 100% uptime to a choice of over 700 GSMA-compliant carriers. Essentially, we become the 'eye of the needle' making Eseye the single source for all global IoT data  regardless of the mobile network the device is ultimately connected to. Together, Armis and Eseye solve the problem of asset visibility and security control, enabling Enterprises to deliver centralized policy deployment to the Edge. We are delighted to launch this market-first solution with Armis to provide complete peace of mind for enterprises, giving them one central route for all IoT security policy and control across any network," added Earle.

Through this frictionless integration, Armis integrates with Eseye in the cloud for:

Comprehensive Asset Inventory: Armis detects and identifies all devices connecting to Eseye's global network, for example, Internet-enabled medical devices, vending machines, remote devices in energy and utility industries, and telematics and monitoring sensors.

Armis detects and identifies all devices connecting to Eseye's global network, for example, Internet-enabled medical devices, vending machines, remote devices in energy and utility industries, and telematics and monitoring sensors. Risk Management: Armis calculates a risk score for every device on Eseye-managed cellular networks and continues to monitor device behavior to ensure risk stays below a customer's tolerance threshold.

Armis calculates a risk score for every device on Eseye-managed cellular networks and continues to monitor device behavior to ensure risk stays below a customer's tolerance threshold. Automatic Detection and Response: At an unacceptable level of risk, or if behavior indicates an imminent or active threat, Armis can quarantine a suspicious device or disconnect a malicious device from an Eseye-managed cellular network to prevent a threat from moving laterally. The Armis platform effectively controls risk and mitigates threats with real-time accuracy, self-learning insights, and instantly actionable recommendations.

Additional Resources

About Armis

Armis is the leading unified asset visibility and security platform designed to address the new threat landscape that connected devices create. Fortune 1000 companies trust our real-time and continuous protection to see with full context all managed, unmanaged, and IoT devices, including medical devices (IoMT), operational technology (OT), and industrial control systems (ICS). Armis provides passive and unparalleled cybersecurity asset management, risk management, and automated enforcement. Armis is a privately held company headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

About Eseye

Eseye empowers businesses to embrace IoT without limits. Our pioneering IoT cellular connectivity and hardware solutions allow businesses to overcome the complexity of IoT device design, development and deployment. We help more than 2,000 customers to seamlessly connect millions of devices across 190 countries, agnostic to over 700 available global mobile networks. Find out more at www.eseye.com .

Media Contacts:

Dillon Townsel

Sr. Director, Public & Media Relations

[email protected]

512-571-3455

Jim Pople

C8 Consulting for Eseye

[email protected]

+44 7955 030191

SOURCE Armis
AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arrive Logistics , a multimodal transportation and technology company, announced today that it has acquired Forager Group's cross-border business and proprietary platform. The acquisition enables Arrive to strengthen its cross-border services and technology offerings in Canada and Mexico, further executing the company's strategy to expand its service portfolio.

"Forager Group's team of cross-border specialists and industry leading technology are excellent additions to our business," said Matt Pyatt, Founder and CEO of Arrive Logistics. "By integrating Forager's cross-border platform into our transportation management system, Arrive can continue to deliver and expand services to Forager's customers while providing new capabilities to our existing partners. Through the network, expertise, and technology of both organizations, Arrive will scale our cross-border footprint into an industry leader."

This acquisition will equip Arrive to deliver better visibility into cross-border shipping, leveraging purpose-built technology to generate value and provide a one-stop-shop freight experience. Increases in cross-border trade, in-sourcing and near-sourcing are expected to continue to rise over the next five years which point to a growing need for these specialized capabilities within the logistics space.

"Arrive Logistics provides the scale and capital needed to grow Forager's existing cross-border business," noted Matt Silver, founder and CEO of Forager Group, Inc. "We look forward to continuing to support Forager's customers leveraging Arrive's team and technology. Arrive is one of the industry leaders in domestic truckload, and our shared philosophy in company culture and how we prioritize ease of doing business for our partners made this acquisition a natural fit."

The new capabilities further strengthen Arrive's leadership position as a fast-growing transportation company while fulfilling the company's goal of expanding its breadth of services and driving strong growth.

To find out more about Arrive Logistics, please visit www.arrivelogistics.com .

About Arrive Logistics

Arrive Logistics is a leading multimodal transportation and technology company delivering unparalleled service and custom strategic solutions. With over 1,500 employees, 4,000 customers, and 50,000 carriers in its network, Arrive is one of the largest firms in the 3PL industry, having surpassed $1.6 billion in 2021 revenue. The company has been recognized as a top workplace in Austin by Built in Austin and The Austin Statesman and in Chicago by The Chicago Tribune. Learn more at www.arrivelogistics.com .

About Forager Group

Founded by freight industry veteran Matt Silver in 2018, Forager is a cross-border logistics technology company that ships truckload freight between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

Press Contact:

Nicole Paleologus

Next PR

[email protected]

SOURCE Arrive Logistics
HANOVER, Md., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Aston Carter, a leading staffing and consulting firm, announced today it has been honored with ClearlyRated's 2022 Best of Staffing Client and Talent Diamond Awards for providing superior service to clients and talent. This award recognizes staffing firms that have demonstrated exceptional service to customers  based exclusively on ratings from their clients and talent.

For the past seven consecutive years, Aston Carter's talent and clients have recognized them as a Best of Staffing industry leader  a distinction presented to less than 1% of all staffing companies in the U.S. and Canada. Agencies are honored with the Diamond Award after proving consistency of excellence for at least five consecutive years.

"At Aston Carter, one of our core values is commitment to serving our customers," saysAston Carter President Stuart Ferguson. "It is truly an honor to be recognized for living this value by our customers who put their trust in our team. We remain committed to delivering innovative career and workplace solutions, and exceptional service for our talent and clients across North America."

Over 74% of clients and 74% of talent ranked their experience with Aston Carter a 9 or 10 out of 10, significantly higher than the industry's average of 41% and 40%, respectively.

"Winners of the 2022 Best of Staffing award have demonstrated their commitment to delivering exceptional service, even as Covid-19 has forced them to reimagine and rebuild their approach to business," says ClearlyRated CEO and Founder Eric Gregg. "These service leaders have kept the client, talent, and employee experience at the heart of their business strategy, and it's my honor to celebrate and showcase the 2022 Best of Staffing winners alongside feedback from their actual clients on ClearlyRated.com!"

For more information about Aston Carter's talent solutions and services, please visit AstonCarter.com.

About Aston Carter

Established in 1997, Aston Carter is a leading staffing and consulting firm, providing high-caliber talent and premium services to more than 7,000 companies across North America. Spanning four continents and more than 200 offices, Aston Carter extends its clients' capabilities by seeking solvers and delivering solutions to address today's workforce challenges. For organizations looking for innovative solutions shaped by critical-thinking professionals, visit AstonCarter.com.

Aston Carter is a company within Allegis Group, a global leader in talent solutions.

About ClearlyRated

Rooted in satisfaction research for professional service firms, ClearlyRated utilizes a Net Promoter Score survey program to help professional service firms measure their service experience, build online reputation, and differentiate on service quality. Learn more at https://www.clearlyrated.com/solutions/.

About Best of Staffing

ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing Award is the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies that have proven superior service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and placed talent. Award winners are showcased by city and area of expertise on ClearlyRated.coman online business directory that helps buyers of professional services find service leaders and vet prospective firms with the help of validated ratings and testimonials.

SOURCE Aston Carter
OAKTON, Va., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

What's the news? AT&T* successfully completed its first milestone toward proving the capabilities of its 5G network solution to enable "smart warehouse" applications for the Department of Defense's Naval Base Coronado in San Diego. AT&T's 5G network solution demonstrated data throughput speeds greater than 4 gigabits per second with less than 10 milliseconds of latency using AT&T 5G spectrum and a private 5G Core and Radio Access Network (RAN). This performance was demonstrated with commercially available commodity mobile devices at a testbed facility in Richardson, Texas.

Why is this important? In October 2020, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced $600 million in awards for 5G experimentation and testing at five U.S. military test sites, representing the largest full-scale 5G tests for dual-use applications in the world. DOD seeks to remain at the forefront of cutting-edge 5G testing and experimentation to strengthen our Nation's warfighting capabilities as well as U.S. economic competitiveness in this critical field.

AT&T's successful demonstration of its 5G networking capabilities allows the program to advance to its next stage: delivering AT&T 5G across the 120,000 square foot Naval Base Coronado warehouse. There, we expect to efficiently and securely connect smart warehouse application infrastructure to provide high-speed, low-latency 5G connectivity for autonomous mobile robots, video cameras, Internet of Things (IoT), and AR/VR systems that will enable inventory tracking, transshipment and other elements of DOD's objectives for the test. Following successful completion of that stage of the test, AT&T 5G is expected to integrate with official Navy systems to enable Smart Warehouse capabilities.

What is AT&T's participation in the 5G Experiments announced by DOD? DOD selected AT&T as the primary 5G networking services provider for 2 of the 4 U.S. military test sites where it is testing 5G capabilities as part of DOD's Tranche 1 experiments:

1. Naval Base Coronado, San Diego, CA  5G Smart Warehousing

The objective of this project is to develop a 5G-enabled Smart Warehouse focused on transshipment between shore facilities and naval units, to increase the efficiency and fidelity of naval logistic operations, including identification, recording, organization, storage, retrieval, and transportation of materiel and supplies. Additionally, the project will create a proving ground for testing, refining, and validating emerging 5G-enabled technologies.

2. Fort Hood, Killeen, TX  Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Training

This DOD 5G project was originally designated for Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, WA. It has been relocated by DOD to U.S. Army base Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas.

The objective of this project is to enable modular, deployable and secure 5G connectivity on currently available training devices, specifically the Instrumentable Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (I-MILES) and the U.S. Army's Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS). DOD is testing 5G support for tactical edge use cases that integrate I-MILES and IVAS with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) capabilities to conduct mission planning, distributed training, and operations.

Here's what people are saying:

Tim Ruth, NBC 5G Smart Warehouse PMT Lead  NIWC Pacific

"My team and I are very pleased by the 5G results demonstrated in the testbeds in Richardson and look forward to timely and successful implementation of the 5G capabilities in the next phase of this project at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego."

Lance Spencer, Client Executive Vice President  Defense, AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet

"AT&T 5G demonstrated data throughput speeds of more than 4 gigabits per second on commodity mobile user equipment, far surpassing the data throughput speeds DOD has seen in other tests. More importantly, we look forward to moving to the next stage of implementation with DOD at Naval Base Coronado and helping it create its Smart Warehouse there with a scalable solution."

What is the timeline for the completion of DOD's program with AT&T? In October 2020, DOD awarded a 3-year agreement to AT&T to participate in DOD's 5G experiments. With the completion of the 5G tests at Richardson, AT&T is now shipping equipment to Naval Base Coronado for the next stage of testing.

Where can I find more information? Go here for more information about AT&T's work in the public sector.

*About AT&T Communications

We help family, friends and neighbors connect in meaningful ways every day. From the first phone call 140+ years ago to mobile video streaming, we @ATT innovate to improve lives. AT&T Communications is part of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T). For more information, please visit us at att.com.

 2022 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the Globe logo are registered trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.

SOURCE AT&T Communications
TOKYO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Attain Corporation, a company offering e-learning language courses, including the Attain Online Japanese website, will open a high-quality and affordable online Japanese-language school, "Attain Online Japanese (AOJ) Language School," in April 2022. This service is also available from anywhere in the world. The company is accepting requests for information related to admission. So please feel free to contact: https://aoj-ls.jp/en/admission/doc-request.html

Image: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M102587/202201266574/_prw_PI1fl_V7gsA2r9.jpg



Because of the COVID-19 pandemic that began to spread at the start of 2020, it has become hard to go overseas just as before, forcing those who had wanted to work or study in Japan to put it off or cancel it. Even in this situation, Attain had kept thinking of how to deliver online Japanese-language education of the same quality as attending a traditional Japanese-language school. For those who want to learn Japanese but have difficulty coming to Japan, Attain is seeking to provide quality Japanese-language education online. Now, it will open AOJ Language School to make learning Japanese more fun and efficient.

In AOJ Language School, students from many countries will gather in virtual classes for lessons. The classes with students from different cultures will be more stimulating than before. In addition, the school does not require enrollment fees, and students can take lessons for more affordable monthly tuition fees. By using online services, the school will provide more reasonable ways of learning.

The important part is to make everyone satisfied with the content. Attain's Japanese e-learning program has over 100,000 subscribers worldwide, obtaining high marks as well. For this content, Attain will combine the Japanese e-learning curriculum that it had with live classes held by excellent teachers with Japanese-language teacher qualifications. This high quality and new hybrid learning will give those who are learning the best online study experience.

Overview of online Japanese-language school "AOJ Language School"

Official website: https://aoj-ls.jp/en/

Opening date: April 3, 2022



Tuition:

Half-year prepayment via bank transfer, or monthly payment of 14,000 JPY (about 122 USD as of January 28, 2022) through PayPal

For more details: https://aoj-ls.jp/en/admission/guideline.html



Features



Attain Online Japanese (AOJ) Language School is a Japanese-language school for study online.

Live and video lectures give students access to high-quality Japanese learning from anywhere in the world.

Full support to pass JLPT N2. Even if students start learning as beginners, they can acquire JLPT N2-level Japanese in a minimum period of 2 years. Attain will fully support students until they pass JLPT N2.

Live lectures by talented teachers who are qualified as Japanese-language instructors will make learning Japanese more fun and engaging. Each live lecture is to be given in a small group. Students can participate in classes anywhere via internet connection. Students can access recorded lectures even if absent from live ones.

It is a place where students can meet Japanese learners from all over the world. They can also interact with others of different cultures through the learning of Japanese.

It supports all Japanese-language levels. Students can choose the level of Japanese class that suits them.

AOJ Language School provides high-quality Japanese learning to those who want to learn Japanese all over the world. Attain does not require any admission fee to make it easier to continue studying and students can choose to pay the tuition fee monthly.

Attain has a consultation desk to support studying and working in Japan .

SOURCE Attain Corporation
BOSTON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bain & Company announced today that it has named Francois Faelli as its first-ever global managing partner of ESG. Faelli, the former head of the firm's global Consumer Products practice, will oversee Bain & Company's collective ambition of creating a more sustainable, equitable and inclusive world.

This announcement builds on Bain & Company's decades of industry leadership tackling the world's most pressing challenges, including the sweeping impacts of climate change, environmental degradation and structural inequities.

"Over the past two decades, Francois has guided many of the leading consumer product companies on the planet through the tectonic shifts happening in their industries, including the growing urgency for corporations to address climate change and social inequities," said Manny Maceda, worldwide managing partner of Bain & Company. "In his new role, Francois will put his strategic expertise to work, helping our clients navigate the remarkable challenges and opportunities along their sustainability transformations."

In 2021, Bain & Company launched FurtherSM to apply Bain's talent, energy and expertise to create transformative impact across three levelsas a partner to its clients, as a champion for global communities and as a firm. Today, more than 2,500 Bain team members are actively involved in this work. Francois will work closely with these teams to help Bain's clients as they face increasing and often existential demands around sustainability, social impact, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). His leadership will bolster the firm's existing ESG infrastructure:

A decade ago, Bain formalized its Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility practice to support the firm's corporate clients on their journeys . The practice has grown significantly since. In the past two years alone, it has served more than 500 client projects that tackled sustainability and corporate responsibility, carbon emissions and the energy transition.





. The practice has grown significantly since. In the past two years alone, it has served more than 500 client projects that tackled sustainability and corporate responsibility, carbon emissions and the energy transition. In 2020, Bain launched a global DEI practice to directly support its clients' goals of increasing diverse representation, achieving more equitable outcomes and creating a more inclusive environment. The practice shares its learnings across corporate America, recently publishing research on the importance of inclusion in the workplace as well as a deep-dive on the tactics that most effectively further outcomes for diverse talent, including improved rates of recruitment and hiring, increased levels of representation in an organization, and increased rates of retention and internal promotion.





The practice shares its learnings across corporate America, recently publishing research on the importance of inclusion in the workplace as well as a deep-dive on the tactics that most effectively further outcomes for diverse talent, including improved rates of recruitment and hiring, increased levels of representation in an organization, and increased rates of retention and internal promotion. Bain is on track to achieve its commitment to invest $1.1 billion in pro bono consulting over ten years to help leading social pioneers scale and amplify their impact. Since setting this commitment in 2015, the firm has invested nearly $500 million in pro bono support of more than 260 nonprofit organizations. In recent years, Bain has used this investment as a springboard to mobilize the kind of innovative, multistakeholder partnerships needed to deliver systemic change. In 2020, Bain worked to help form OneTena coalition of more than forty CEOs and executives across industries committed to hiring, training and promoting one million Black Americans over the next 10 years into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancementachieving 17,000 hires in its inaugural year.





Since setting this commitment in 2015, the firm has invested nearly in pro bono support of more than 260 nonprofit organizations. In recent years, Bain has used this investment as a springboard to mobilize the kind of innovative, multistakeholder partnerships needed to deliver systemic change. In 2020, Bain worked to help form OneTena coalition of more than forty CEOs and executives across industries committed to hiring, training and promoting one million Black Americans over the next 10 years into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancementachieving 17,000 hires in its inaugural year. Bain & Company has long been a sustainability frontrunner in its industry, achieving carbon neutral status for the past ten years in a row. What sets Bain apart from others is that it is deep into its sustainability journey, having already eliminated 78% of its scope 1 and 2 emissions over the past decade by converting to 100% renewable electricity, improving the energy efficiency of its offices and finding ways to reduce waste from its operations. In 2021, Bain pledged to even further reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissionsfrom activities such as heating and powering its officesby 30% over the next five years, and it plans to reduce its scope 3 emissions from business travel by 35% per employee over the same time period. These goals reflect Bain's steadfast alignment with the Science-Based Targets Initiative's 'Business Ambition for 1.5C,' and its commitment to achieve net zero climate impact by 2030.

Francois holds a Master's in Business and Economics from the Solvay Business School in Brussels, where he has been a professor of strategy since 2013.

Editor's Note: To arrange an interview, contact Katie Ware at [email protected] or +1 646 562 8107.

About Bain & Company

Bain & Company is a global consultancy that helps the world's most ambitious change makers define the future.

Across 63 offices in 38 countries, we work alongside our clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries. We complement our tailored, integrated expertise with a vibrant ecosystem of digital innovators to deliver better, faster, and more enduring outcomes. Our 10-year commitment to invest more than $1 billion in pro bono services brings our talent, expertise, and insight to organizations tackling today's urgent challenges in education, racial equity, social justice, economic development, and the environment. We earned a gold rating from EcoVadis, the leading platform for environmental, social, and ethical performance ratings for global supply chains, putting us in the top 2% of all companies. Since our founding in 1973, we have measured our success by the success of our clients, and we proudly maintain the highest level of client advocacy in the industry.

Media Contacts:

Katie Ware

Bain & Company

Tel: +1 646 562 8107

[email protected]

SOURCE Bain & Company
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Barings, one of the world's leading investment managers, announced today that it has provided $53.5M in loan commitments to finance the development of 3368 Washington, an affordable multifamily housing development in Boston, MA. Upon completion, the nearly 1 acre development will cater to tenants with incomes ranging from 30% to 80% of Area Median Income (AMI). With 140 of its 220 units being set aside for those moving out of homelessness, the project represents the largest of its kind in Boston.

The 5-story building will have a mix of studios, 1 and 2 bedroom apartments and a ground floor community space. Amenities will include 24/7 front desk security, on-site management, on-site supportive services staff, two outdoor plaza areas, multi-purpose room, fitness rooms, laundry rooms on residential floors, parking garage with electric vehicle charging stations, and bicycle repair and storage.

The Community Builders (TCB) and Pine Street Inn (PSI) are co-sponsors of the $110M development that has a multi-tiered capital structure, with Barings providing more than $53M in loan commitments.

The 3368 Washington Street project received a diverse combination of public and private philanthropic support to finance the building construction, property operations, and resident services. Major project funders include the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development ($7 million of funding); Bank of America (more than $50 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) equity and over $60 million in construction financing); Barings/Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (more than $20 million in permanent financing, as well as over $33 million in tax-exempt bridge financing); the City of Boston Mayor's Office of Housing (more than $16 million of funding); the Community Preservation Act ($1.5 million); the HYM Investment Group ($5 million of linkage funding); MassDevelopment (more than $50 million in 4% LIHTC bond financing); the Commonwealth ($1.5 million of State Low Income Housing Tax Credits which generate $9.8 million in equity); the Community and Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) ( $4 million of Housing Innovation Funding), and $1 million from its Accelerating Investments in Healthy Communities Fund, courtesy of Boston Medical Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The project was funded in part through the Boston's Way Home Fund, started by the City of Boston to create permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals. The Fund reached its $10 million goal two years ahead of schedule with lead donations from Bank of America, which helped launch the Fund, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Mass General Brigham, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), and Suffolk Cares, each of which committed $1 million. In addition to these funds, Pine Street Inn's overall housing expansion is being supported by a major grant from the Yawkey Foundation.

"Our long term commitment to finance affordable housing developments and help combat homelessness in communities across the nation is pivotal to our real estate lending and investment strategy," said Daron Tubian, Managing Director and Head of Affordable Housing Investments at Barings. "Our partnership with TCB and PSI, among all the other capital partners of this important housing project in Boston, is something that we will continue to expand on and leverage for other similar developments that do so much good for the City and its residents."

"We are providing rental housing that working families can afford and supportive housing many individuals need, steps away from public transit in the heart of Jamaica Plain," said Bart Mitchell, president, and CEO of The Community Builders. "We look forward to working with the community and our project partners to make this development a vibrant platform for educational and economic opportunity, where every resident can thrive. We are proud to make this development a model for creating permanent supportive housing at scale, with long-term services and sustainable design. This new approach to affordable housing addresses Boston's most pressing needs."

"Housing with support services that will help people rebuild their lives is how we will end homelessness," said Pine Street President and Executive Director Lyndia Downie. "Breaking ground, on what will be the largest housing development of its kind in Boston to date brings us one step closer to reaching the goal of ending homelessness. This could not come at a more critical time, as we grapple with a pandemic and housing crisis in the city. We look forward to housing 140 of Boston's most vulnerable individuals and providing them with the wraparound services they need to thrive. We are so grateful to the Jamaica Plain community who voiced such strong support for those who will be moving into this building."

"Bank of America Community Development Banking is pleased to provide more than $110 million to help finance the construction of much-needed affordable housing in Boston," said Mary Thompson, Senior Vice President for Community Development Banking at Bank of America. "The 3368 Washington Street development and the Pine Street Inn and The Community Builders partnership is a great example of the impact we can make to help the most vulnerable in our communities and demonstrates our continued commitment to support the communities where we work and live. We were happy to work with Barings on this important project."

Consistent with Barings' commitment to social impact, the property will be managed by TCB, with programs and services for residents provided by TCB's Community Life team, trained to connect families to healthcare, education, and employment. Additional supportive services for the 140 units for those moving out of homelessness will be provided by PSI.

About Barings

Barings is a $391+ billion* global investment manager sourcing differentiated opportunities and building long-term portfolios across public and private fixed income, real estate, and specialist equity markets. With investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, the firm, a subsidiary of MassMutual, aims to serve its clients, communities and employees, and is committed to sustainable practices and responsible investment. Learn more at www.barings.com.

*Assets under management as of December 31, 2021

Contact

Cheryl Krauss, Barings, 980-417-5858, [email protected]

22-2013552

SOURCE Barings
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bartlett Bearing Company, Inc. announced today that its longtime company President Gayle Musser is moving into the role of CEO, appointing Sarah Musser to the role of President.

Sarah will be the third member of the Bartlett family to lead the company, now in its 71st year of operation. Gayle, who served as the company's President for 31 years, will remain onboard as the CEO of Bartlett Bearing.

Family has long been at the core of Bartlett Bearing and the company is excited to continue the Bartlett family legacy under Sarah's leadership. "The company continues to grow and succeed through the hard efforts of all employees," said Gayle Musser. "It certainly makes it easier for me to step downknowing that I can leave the company in good hands." Gayle officially began working for the family business in 1977 and assumed ownership in 1991 when her father and founder of the company, Tom Bartlett, officially passed on the title of President.

"I've known Bartlett my whole life and to be able to take over as the next generation is something I look forward to," said Sarah Musser. "I'm committed to ensuring the future of Bartlett Bearing and am excited about the opportunities that come next." Sarah began her career at Bartlett Bearing in 2010 and has worked in many areas of the family business, most recently at Bartlett Bearing's Operations Manager.

About Bartlett Bearing

Bartlett Bearing Company, Inc. is a family-owned and operated bearing distributor founded in 1951, specializing in serving the electro-mechanical repair industry nationwide. Bartlett has grown to six, fully stocked locations as Authorized Distributors for major manufacturers such as SKF, Timken, NTN, Koyo, The Schaeffler Group, and many more. With over 70 years of experience, our highly knowledgeable staff strives to provide the highest quality service for our customers 24/7/365. For more information, visit our website at www.bartlettbearing.com.

Media Contact:



Stephanie Ford | Marketing Manager



[email protected]



215-743-8963 Ext. 3209

SOURCE Bartlett Bearing Company, Inc.
FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, today announced it has completed the acquisition of Cytognos, a privately held company headquartered in Salamanca, Spain, specializing in flow cytometry solutions for blood cancer diagnosis, minimal residual disease (MRD) detection and immune monitoring research for blood diseases.

The acquisition of Cytognos accelerates BD's strategy to support chronic disease management by expanding its portfolio of blood cancer diagnostics, immune assessment tests and informatics to address patient, clinician and care provider needs to better understand the immune system, immune response and MRD. By monitoring for MRD, lab managers and physicians can detect low levels of cancer cells following treatment that alerts them if the disease is still present or if there is a signal of recurrence. This is a key element of the patient care continuum that helps clinicians and physicians recognize when cancer recurs and aids in the timely treatment of patients.

"As the understanding and treatment of cancer evolves and improves, the importance of monitoring post remission cancer survivors has become paramount to improve patient outcomes," said Puneet Sarin, worldwide president of BD Biosciences. "Cytognos' capabilities are complementary to those already developed by BD scientists to screen for the most common blood cancers and will enable BD to expand beyond cancer discovery and diagnosis into the monitoring phase of the patient's journey. We're building on our strong track record of identifying and executing on opportunities and then integrating those new products and businesses into our portfolio."

With the acquisition of Cytognos, BD gains exclusive access to advanced assays licensed from the EuroFlow Consortium, a scientifically independent network in the fields of hematology and immunology with scientists and researchers from more than 20 European universities and hospitals. BD has existing license agreements with EuroFlow for multiple other assays and the addition of the Cytognos assays further strengthens BD's 12-year licensing collaboration with EuroFlow.

"Cytognos has 25 years of experience successfully designing, developing, manufacturing and commercializing innovative flow cytometry products for in vitro diagnostics and life science research use," said Fernando Martin de Lara, Cytognos CEO, who will continue as the business leader for this specific element of BDB's portfolio. "We are pleased to be joining a global health care leader with robust infrastructure and deep expertise to accelerate growth of a combined BD/Cytognos offering by expanding the reach of Cytognos' solutions."

Cytognos' key products increase BD's comprehensive portfolio of diagnostic and research solutions for certain types of cancers that use flow cytometry as the primary means of discovery, diagnosis and understanding, including lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma. Cytognos IVD products are CE marked and available only in Europe and other countries where regulatory approval of the products has been obtained. They are not available for sale in the U.S. In addition, Cytognos provides several research assays for multiple myeloma MRD and immune monitoring, which expands BD's portfolio in this space. Cytognos' approximately 80 employees will join BD as a result of the acquisition.

Cytognos also brings sophisticated informatics solutions that will further BD's leadership in the growing area of immunology and enable the company to expand its flow informatics offerings. In a world of limited resources and increasing data and settings, Cytognos technology offers a powerful, intuitive way that provides a better understanding of patient data.

Cytognos, which is celebrating the 25-year anniversary since its foundation, was a division of Vitro, a Spanish diagnostics company that develops, produces and sells fully integrated reagents, hardware and software platforms.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to be immaterial to BD's fiscal 2022 financial results. Cytognos financial results will be reported under the Biosciences business within the Life Sciences segment.

About BD

BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. The company supports the heroes on the frontlines of health care by developing innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for health care providers. BD and its 75,000 employees have a passion and commitment to help enhance the safety and efficiency of clinicians' care delivery process, enable laboratory scientists to accurately detect disease and advance researchers' capabilities to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics. BD has a presence in virtually every country and partners with organizations around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. By working in close collaboration with customers, BD can help enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety and expand access to health care. For more information on BD, please visit bd.com or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/bd1/ and Twitter @BDandCo.

Contacts:





Media : Investors : Troy Kirkpatrick Francesca DeMartino VP, BD Public Relations SVP, Head of BD Investor Relations 858.617.2361 201.847.5743 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company)
In the news release, Benchmark Strategies Announces $60,000 Minimum Salary for Employees, issued 01-Feb-2022 by Benchmark Strategies over PR Newswire, media contact information was missing, as incorrectly transmitted by PR Newswire. The complete, corrected release follows with contact information at the end:

Benchmark Strategies Announces $60,000 Minimum Salary for Employees

Boston-Based Consulting Firm Seeks to Create Transformational Success

BOSTON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Benchmark Strategies announced that the company will be setting a minimum annual salary to $60,000 for their full-time employees. Benchmark Strategies continues to lead regionally and nationally in providing excellent client services, from international and domestic businesses, large corporations, small businesses, and non-profits. The consulting firm is led by a diverse team with extensive expertise across many industries, including business strategy, government affairs, and media relations.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, many companies and industries were significantly impacted. However, Benchmark Strategies pivoted and grew, successfully doubling its staff and tripling its client base in just the last two years. The pandemic revealed and exacerbated costs especially to health care. Since the founding in 2014, the consulting firm prioritized health and wellness for their workforce, covering for 100% of employee health insurance. Setting a minimum salary further ensures that every employee is relieved of any economic pressures that they may be facing.




HOUSTON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Since 2015, lifestyle luxury brand TucciPolo, Inc. has been owned and operated by fashion designer Tochukwu Mbiamnozie. In 2021, the company relocated to Houston, Texas  where, during a pandemic  the independent designer has continued to expand his growing business. During Black History Month, TucciPolo highlights the success of black-owned businesses throughout the U.S. and the growing impact of black entrepreneurs on the fashion industry.

Black-Owned Business TucciPolo Celebrates Successful Relocation to Houston and Continued Growth During the Pandemic

TucciPolo is the brainchild of fashion designer and entrepreneur Tochukwu Mbiamnozie, a Nigerian immigrant who earned an MBA in International Business from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Before launching TucciPolo, Mbiamnozie began his career as an architect working in his home country of Nigeria. His unique vision couples sophisticated design techniques with luxurious materials to create unforgettable men's and women's shoes, boots, and fashion accessories.

"I wanted to create an alternative to mass-produced fashion that is both unique and luxurious," said Tochukwu Mbiamnozie. "I am proud that TucciPolo has grown from an idea I had while studying for my business degree in the U.S. to a growing small business serving my new neighbors here in Houston, as well as fashion-forward consumers across the country."

Celebrated annually in the U.S., Black History Month highlights the achievements of Black Americans, from business owners to entertainers and elected officials to public officials. Also known as African American History Month, the celebration begins each year on February 1. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month  and other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also celebrate Black history month.

TucciPolo's shoes and boots, belts, men's bags and handbags, wallets, accessories, and other luxury items are available for purchase online. One of the company's newest additions, a line of handcrafted Italian leather men's dress boots, launched this winter. Each handcrafted pair, available in twelve unique styles, is fur lined, made specifically to order, and shipped within fifteen days. The boots can be personalized with the owner's name, initials, or signature engraved on the sole.

Featuring modern design and crafted from the highest quality materials available worldwide, TucciPolo offers consumers an environmentally conscious fashion choice by using non-synthetic materials and manufacturing processes. Mbiamnozie's handcrafted designs are more durable than mass produced dress shoes, easier to clean, and more breathable  providing both comfort and style for a lifetime of wear.

Shop now at https://tuccipolo.com/.

About TucciPolo

Award-winning lifestyle luxury brand TucciPolo Inc. was founded in 2015 by Tochukwa Mbiamnozie. The independent fashion brand's handcrafted Italian leather shoes and boots deliver ready-to-wear luxury and feature more than unique 30 designs. TucciPolo's modern shoes and boots, belts, men's bags and handbags, wallets, accessories, and other luxury items combine the handcrafted luxury of Italian leather with modern design choices and exotic materials. Bespoke craftsmanship is delivered by expert European artisans and each item is carefully designed, selected, and created by hand. TucciPolo shares a unique vision  providing luxury lifestyle items for those who appreciate the finer things in life  inspired by a truly international vision and inspirational personal story. Mbiamnozie has founded three U.S.-based fashion brands. Now headquartered in Texas, TucciPolo continues to push the envelope in lifestyle luxury, bringing high-quality items from around the world directly to your doorstep.

Media Contact:

Tochukwu Mbiamnozie

800-379-3616

[email protected]

SOURCE TucciPolo Inc.
"I want to lend all of my expertise to help Blue Shield reimagine health care."

"I am excited to join Blue Shield of California's board to help achieve its mission of providing quality health care that's sustainably affordable for everyone," DeCoste said. "I want to lend all of my expertise to help Blue Shield reimagine health care with innovative ideas and initiatives that transform our healthcare system for individuals, families and communities."

DeCoste began her career as an auditor for Arthur Andersen LLP, before setting her sights on a career in finance with ATL Ultrasound Inc., where she served in various leadership roles, including CFO.

After ATL Ultrasound was acquired by Koninklijke Philips in 1998, DeCoste played a critical leadership role in her new company's mergers and acquisitions efforts as it sought to build its healthcare unit. She held senior financial executive roles within the firm's various business units, and in 2011 was appointed as Philips executive vice president and global head, internal audit.

In 2013, DeCoste was appointed CFO of the consumer lifestyle unit of Philips, and two years later she became CFO and senior vice president of finance of the image guided therapy business unit in Philips Healthcare. That same year, DeCoste helped oversee the acquisition of Volcano, a global leader in catheter-based imaging and measurement for cardiovascular application.

"What really stands out with Pamela is not just her successful record as a global financial expert, but her range of expertise in vastly different environments and cultures," said Kristina (Kris) Leslie, board chair for Blue Shield of California. "Pam is direct while still being incredibly approachable, and her passion for technology, health care and finance will have a significant impact at Blue Shield of California for years to come."

DeCoste's appointment to Blue Shield's board follows recent board additions of Ather Williams III, Arthur Chen, M.D., and Myechia Minter-Jordan, M.D.

The board appointments continue to build on Blue Shield's commitment to and recognized leadership in diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition to Kristina Leslie serving as the company's first woman chair of the board of directors, the governing body also has gender balance, and women serve as chairs of four of the board's five standing committees. Additionally, people of color make up nearly half of the board.

Blue Shield also maintains a zero pay-ratio gap by both gender and ethnicity. It has a balanced representation of women and men in leadership roles (director and above) and was recently included on the 2021 National Diversity Council Index and named one of America's Best Companies for Women to Advance by Parity.org.

About Blue Shield of California

Blue Shield of California strives to create a healthcare system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. Blue Shield of California is a tax paying, nonprofit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with over 4.5 million members, over 7,500 employees, and more than $21 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid, and Medicare healthcare service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $150 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last four years to have an impact on California communities.

For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit news.blueshieldca.com.

Or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

CONTACT: Mark Seelig

Blue Shield of California

510-607-2359

[email protected]

SOURCE Blue Shield of California
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In an asset purchase transaction, the Knoxville-founded, MomSource Network team, client, and membership base will be incorporated under the Birmingham-founded Boulo Solutions brand. This will strengthen and expand Boulo's presence in the staffing and recruiting industries, effectively tripling its ability to impact the number of women seeking flexible employment across the US.

Delphine Carter, Boulo CEO and Founder Courtney Jones, MomSource Network, CEO and Founder

Delphine Carter, CEO and Founder of Boulo Solutions, and Courtney Jones, CEO and Founder of MomSource Network, both sought to find the ideal work-life blend after becoming a parent and each built companies to connect underutilized female talent to progressive employers.

Both Boulo and MomSource Network specialize in sourcing and vetting quality candidates for flexible full-time, part-time, and contract job opportunities across the United States. While focused on supporting women, the companies advocate for professionals, including men, military spouses, veterans, and retirees, who prioritize flexibility when choosing an employer.

"The MomSource Network, having several thousand job-seeking members, operates throughout Tennessee and the Southeast. In conjunction with Boulo's organic growth, we believe that the Momsource Network team, members, and client base offer an excellent opportunity to expand our business," said Carter. "Together, we amplify our abilities to help elevate women in the workforce, especially working mothers, and to educate companies on how work-life blend strategies help them attract top talent."

Jones joins the Boulo team as Chief Revenue Officer. She states, "I'm incredibly proud of what the MomSource team has built. I look forward to providing additional resources and support to forward-thinking employers and candidates through the expanded Boulo team. It is the next step in our journey to changing the way women work."

The JumpFund, an all-women investment group that only funds women-led ventures in the Southeastern United States are investors in MomSource Network. They quickly appreciated the impact of the two companies coming together. The JumpFund's General Partner Kim Seals states, "It's critical now more than ever before to accelerate the return of women to the workforce, and Boulo's expanded capabilities will further ensure job seekers' skills are showcased and matched with quality employers."

The expanded capabilities of Boulo benefits clients and candidates alike. Current MomSource and Boulo clients gain access to a larger pool of diverse talent. The Boulo team will also have increased bandwidth to service new clients who value diversity and work-life blend. Additionally, individuals actively searching for employment will see an increase in opportunities with some of the region's most progressive employers.

Joining Boulo is free to candidates via their website. www.boulosolutions.com/talent

Innovative employers are encouraged to visit the website, www.boulosolutions.com.

About MomSource Network: MomSource Network connects forward-thinking employers in all verticals to candidates who are committed to finding fulfilling flexible full-time, part-time, and contract opportunities.

About Boulo Solutions: Boulo Solutions' help businesses diversify their workforce by pairing them with women rarely found on other platforms. They connect this hidden workforce to companies offering jobs with caregiver-friendly cultures.

Contact:

Delphine Carter

2055666441

[email protected]

SOURCE Boulo Solutions
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Brooklyn Youth Music Project (BYMP) announced today the appointment of two new members to the board of directors. The building of the BYMP board reflects the organization's strong commitment to active governance, which is of particular importance considering the ongoing challenges the performing arts community faces as a result of the pandemic.

New board members Munsun Park and Sharon Robustelli each have a deep appreciation for advancing art and culture for families in Brooklyn and throughout New York City. Both board members are long-time residents of Brooklyn and have children who are BYMP students.

"We are excited to have Munsun and Sharon joining our board of directors," stated Board Chair Claire Hsiang Marx. "Each new board member brings a wealth of relevant experience, passion for the arts and for our community, and a fresh perspective that will help propel BYMP into the future so we can better serve our students and their families."

The new board members have deep connections to Brooklyn specifically and to New York City at large. Park has nearly 20 years of experience in urban planning and development and Robustelli is a seasoned marketing communications professional with more than 25 years of experience. Park and Robustelli join the existing BYMP board members who also call Brooklyn home and are professionals in the fields of fundraising, law, marketing, and social impact.

About BYMP

BYMP is a premier arts and culture organization in Brooklyn that provides year-round music training, appreciation, and performance opportunities for young people ages 5 to 18 through programs in orchestra, chamber music, and jazz ensemble. BYMP faculty and guests are accomplished, highly regarded professional musicians, which ensures that students receive an unparalleled experience. For more information visit www.bymp.org.

Contact:

Pat Gunther

Managing Director, BYMP

[email protected]

800-399-0489 x803

Media Contact:

Sharon Robustelli

[email protected]

917-328-6723

SOURCE Brooklyn Youth Music Project
The cancer supportive care market report covers the following areas:

Vendor Insights

The cancer supportive care market is fragmented, and the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market. The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including:

Amgen Inc.

Baxter International Inc.

Bayer AG

Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc

Johnson and Johnson Inc.

Merck and Co. Inc.

Novartis AG

Sanofi SA

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product offerings, Read Free Sample Report .

Geographical Market Analysis

By geography, the market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia, and ROW. North America will provide maximum growth opportunities in the cancer supportive care market during the forecast period. According to our report, the region will contribute 38% of the global market growth and is expected to dominate the market through 2025. The US and Canada are the key countries for the cancer supportive care market in North America. The region has been recording a significant growth rate and is expected to offer several business opportunities to market vendors during the forecast period. The large number of side effects associated with cancer treatment is one of the key factors driving the growth of the market in North America.

Know more about this market's geographical distribution along with the detailed analysis of the top regions. View Our Report Snapshot

Key Segment Analysis

The market is segmented by therapeutic area into chemotherapy-induced anemia, chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, cancer pain, CINV, and others. The cancer supportive care market share growth by the chemotherapy-induced anemia segment has been significant.

View FREE Sample: to know additional highlights and key points on various market segments and their impact in coming years.

Key Market Drivers & Challenges:

The growing prevalence of cancer cases is notably driving the cancer supportive care market growth. The increasing healthcare investment in developing countries is expected to boost the growth of the cancer supportive care market during the forecast period.

However, factors such as the high cost of cancer treatment may impede the market growth. A large number of cancer patients either cannot afford the cancer treatment or withdraw themselves from the treatment out of financial crises.

Download free sample for highlights on market Drivers & Challenges impacting the cancer supportive care market.

Customize Your Report

Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights about this market report. Our analysts can also help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short amount of time.

We offer USD 1,000 worth of FREE customization at the time of purchase. Speak to our Analyst now!

Cancer Supportive Care Market 2021-2025 : Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2021-2025

Detailed information on factors that will assist cancer supportive care market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the cancer supportive care market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the cancer supportive care market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of cancer supportive care market vendors

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Cancer Supportive Care Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 3.81% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 4.98 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.36 Regional analysis North America, Europe, Asia, and ROW Performing market contribution North America at 38% Key consumer countries US, UK, China, Canada, and France Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Amgen Inc., Baxter International Inc., Bayer AG, Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Johnson and Johnson Inc., Merck and Co. Inc., Novartis AG, Sanofi SA, and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

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Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cato Networks, provider of the world's first SASE platform, introduced today Cato CASB, the first Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) to deliver actionable value in under 60 minutes. Along with the Cloud Application Catalog launched last month, Cato provides the quickest to deliver and easiest to run solution for managing cloud application data risk.

With the Shadow IT Dashboard, enterprises have a snapshot of their authorized and non-authorized application activity

"CASB addresses a critical visibility and control gap created by cloud migration but must be converged into a broad SASE platform to be truly effective across the business," said Shlomo Kramer, co-founder and CEO of Cato Networks, "We've done just that with Cato CASB. By building Cato CASB into the Cato SPACE engine, it can leverage the global footprint, rich context, cloud scalability, and self-healing and self-maintenance underpinning the Cato SASE Cloud. Cato CASB is just the latest example of high impact, high value capabilities that are effortless to deploy and use."

SASE: The Cato Difference

With Cato CASB, Cato brings the benefits of a true SASE platform to the challenge of managing cloud application risk. Legacy, stand-alone CASB solutions require extensive planning and deployment times that can take several months. By contrast, Cato CASB is instantly available offering full visibility and control of cloud application access -immediately.

As part of Cato SASE Cloud, Cato CASB is available worldwide from 70+ locations for every site or user accessing any cloud application. This broad footprint enables optimized enforcement of corporate policies on all cloud access without introducing high latency, even when accessing cloud applications across geographical regions. Legacy CASB solutions coverage vary by location or available capabilities.

And Cato CASB taps the full power of Cato's multi-layer threat defense. Cloud-based file access is inspected by Cato advanced anti-malware and IPS engines. Access control to locations and resources are limited through Cato NGFW and SWG. With legacy CASB, all of those components would be additional, requiring integration and deployment.

The Four Steps to Managing Cloud Application Risk

More specifically, with today's announcement, Cato addresses all four stages for managing cloud application data risk -- visibility, assessment, enforcement, and protection.

Visibility: The New Shadow IT Dashboard

Cato is introducing a new Shadow IT dashboard that provides a bird's eye view of aggregate SaaS usage including number of total and high-risk applications, list of the highest risk applications, number of users accessing them, as well as distribution by risk.

Assessment: The Cato Application Credibility Engine (ACE)

Having identified unauthorized applications, IT leaders must assess their risk before deciding if they should be blocked, controlled, or allowed. Cato has built a unique Application Credibility Engine (ACE) which automates data collection from several sources to enable a quick and accurate assessment of each application. Three vectors are aggregated together for a comprehensive analysis  general company information, compliance features, and security capabilities.

Machine learning algorithms operating against Cato's massive data lake of flow metadata analyzing the actual features applications exhibit on the network. Currently, Cato regulatory compliance verification includes HIPAA, PCI, and SOC 1-3. Security feature verification includes MFA, encryption of data at rest, and SSO.

Enforcement: Cato CASB Rules Define Access Policies

Having discovered unauthorized applications on their networks and been able to assess their risk, IT leaders must now decide how they want to respond. With Cato CASB, they gain fine-grained access over the application. The rules allow them to define the matching criteria, the specified action to be taken in case the rule applies, the associated severity level, and whether an alert or event should be generated.

Protection: Cato Detects and Blocks Threats and Breaches

The last stage is ensuring the protection of SaaS usage. Cato's SASE achieves this through the convergence of its security tools. All SaaS traffic is processed by multiple security tools -- NGFW, SWG, IPS, and NGAM. Together, these tools provide comprehensive protection from a wide array of threats.

Click to learn more about Cato CASB and the rest of the Cato SASE Cloud.

About Cato Networks

Cato provides the world's first SASE platform, converging SD-WAN and network security into a global, cloud-native service. Cato optimizes and secures application access for all users and locations. Using Cato, customers easily migrate from MPLS to SD-WAN, optimize connectivity to on-premises and cloud applications, enable secure branch Internet access everywhere, and seamlessly integrate cloud datacenters and remote users into the network with a zero-trust architecture. With Cato, the network, and your business, are ready for whatever's next. CatoNetworks.com @CatoNetworks.

SOURCE Cato Networks
MADISON, N.J., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Century 21 Real Estate LLC announced that in 2021 the CENTURY 21 System raised more than $3.2 million for Easterseals, one of America's largest nonprofit healthcare organizations that for more than 100 years has worked tirelessly with its partners to enhance quality of life and expand local access to healthcare, education, and employment opportunities for more than 1.5 million persons with disabilities, their families and caregivers. Since the inception of this philanthropic partnership in 1979, the CENTURY 21 network's independent franchisees and affiliated relentless sales professionals have collaborated to raise a total of $132.2 million. As the brand looks ahead in 2022, the team is excited to continue building on its partnership with Easterseals and find new ways for its global network of professionals to support this important organization's life-changing local services and powerful advocacy for the one in four Americans living with disability today.

"Our 43-year-long commitment to Easterseals illustrates the culture of giving back that is baked into the CENTURY 21 brand and the relentless spirit of our sales professionals to make a difference in the lives of the people and the communities where they live and work," said Michael Miedler, president and chief executive officer of Century 21 Real Estate. "We look forward to celebrating our partnership with Easterseals and the many other local community and philanthropic efforts of our system members as we mark our brand anniversary on July 28, with our inaugural systemwide 'Day of Giving.'"

"We are truly thankful to the CENTURY 21 System for their extraordinary commitment to Easterseals," said Mark Hechinger, Interim President and CEO, Easterseals. "For 43 years, CENTURY 21 affiliated brokers and agents across North America have been helping Easterseals lead the way to full equity, inclusion, and access through life-changing disability and community services. Together, we're empowering people with disabilities, families, and communities to be full and equal participants in society."

In 2021, for the eighth consecutive year, the top two Easterseals fundraisers from the CENTURY 21 System were:

CENTURY 21 Town & Country; Utica, Michigan CENTURY 21 Judge Fite Company ; Dallas, Texas .

This is the 25th straight year that CENTURY 21 Town & Country has held the top spot among brokerages for fundraising efforts to benefit Easterseals. In fact, CENTURY 21 Town & Country broke last year's record of $1,638,574 by raising $1,750,931 in 2021.

This year, 10 of the Top 21 leading the CENTURY 21 System fundraisers are Canadian firms, led by CENTURY 21 Foothills in Alberta. The "Top 21" North American Fundraisers for Easterseals in 2021 are:

CENTURY 21 Town & Country, Utica, Michigan CENTURY 21 Judge Fite Company , Dallas, Texas CENTURY 21 Foothills Real Estate, High River, Alberta, Canada CENTURY 21 B .J. Roth Realty Ltd. Brokerage, Barrie, Ontario, Canada CENTURY 21 Dreams Inc. Brokerage, Oakville, Ontario, Canada CENTURY 21 Arizona Foothills, Phoenix, Arizona CENTURY 21 Leading Edge Realty Inc. Brokerage, Markham, Ontario, Canada CENTURY 21 Heritage Group Ltd. Brokerage, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada CENTURY 21 Bachman & Associates, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada CENTURY 21 North Homes Realty, Lynnwood, Washington CENTURY 21 Green Realty Inc. Brokerage, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada CENTURY 21 Advantage Gold, Southampton, Pennsylvania CENTURY 21 Scheetz, Carmel, Indiana CENTURY 21 Real Estate Center, Lynnwood, Washington CENTURY 21 Executives Realty Ltd., Vernon, British Columbia, Canada CENTURY 21 Dome Realty Inc., Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada CENTURY 21 Frontier Realty, McMurray, Pennsylvania CENTURY 21 Professional Group, Ocoee, Florida CENTURY 21 Peak, Woodland Hills, California CENTURY 21 Bamber Realty Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada CENTURY 21 Novus, Carrollton, Georgia

A reception recognizing the achievement of the "Top 21" offices will be held on March 23 during the One21 Experience, the global CENTURY 21 networking and learning event, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

About Easterseals

Driven by its purpose to change the way the world defines and views disability, Easterseals makes profound, positive differences in the lives of people with disabilities every day through its life-changing services and powerful advocacy. For more than 100 years, Easterseals has been an indispensable resource for children and adults with disabilities, veterans, seniors, their families, and their communities. Together, its national network of 67 Affiliates serves 1.5 million people annually through high-quality community- and home-based services that include early intervention; autism services; workforce development programs; medical rehabilitation including physical, occupational and speech therapies; behavioral health services; adult day programs; and much more. In schools, workplaces, and communities, Easterseals is fostering environments where everyone is included and valued  making a real and positive impact on us all. Join us in ensuring that everyone  regardless of age or ability  is 100% included and 100% empowered to reach their potential and participate in society. Learn more at www.easterseals.com.

About Century 21 Real Estate LLres

The approximately 153,000 independent sales professionals in approximately 14,250 offices spanning 86 countries and territories in the CENTURY 21 System live their mission every day: to defy mediocrity and deliver extraordinary experiences. By consistently chasing excellence, giving 121% and always elevating, the CENTURY 21 brand is helping its affiliated brokers/agents to be the first choice for real estate consumers and industry professionals worldwide. Century 21 Real Estate has numerous websites to help answer specific consumer needs. They are century21.com, century21.com/global, century21.com/commercial,

century21.com/finehomes and century21.com/espanol.

Century 21 Real Estate LLC is a subsidiary of Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY), a global leader in real estate franchising and provider of real estate brokerage, relocation and settlement services.

2022 Century 21 Real Estate LLC. All Rights Reserved. CENTURY 21, the CENTURY 21 Logo and C21 are registered service marks owned by Century 21 Real Estate LLC. Century 21 Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each office is independently owned and operated.

Contact:

Peter L. Mosca

Century 21 Real Estate LLC

Phone: 732.841.4778

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Century 21 Real Estate LLC
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CipherHealth , an award-winning patient engagement and communications solutions platform, announced today that New York City Health Business Leaders (NYCHBL) has recognized CipherHealth on its NYC Digital Health 100 for the second year in a row, which showcases some of the most dynamic and revolutionary healthcare startups in New York. CipherHealth was acknowledged in the patient engagement category.

"Finding ourselves in an international hub of healthcare innovation, being selected among this esteemed list is an honor. It's also reflective of the work we're doing every day to enable new possibilities for healthcare providers," said CipherHealth Chief Executive Officer, Jake Pyles. "We're in the process of making our vision a reality: we're creating a revolutionary, multimodal engagement and communications platform that helps health systems optimize operations and finance and creates dynamic, inviting experiences for patients throughout the entire care continuum."

More than 350 of the nation's top health systems rely on CipherHealth to provide comprehensive patient engagement and communication solutions that help hospitals and health systems bolster engagement across the care journeyto improve experience, reduce readmissions, prevent no-shows, enhance clinical care, enable operational excellence, and improve staff well-being.

In 2021, CipherHealth unveiled the next generation of its state-of-the-art Patient Engagement Platform, featuring a powerful digital orchestration engine managing all patient, staff, and caregiver communications. The platform closes critical care gaps, improves key integrations with EHR systems to streamline communications and analytics, and enhances functionality like appointment reminders and family engagement. Through rounding on staff and patients, hospitals can identify areas for concern and action, and through proactive outreach, hospitals can prioritize outreach for communities that are most at risk, thereby increasing access to care.

"This year, the NYC Digital Health 100 is comprised of an incredibly diverse set of companies and leaders who are working to innovate and solve some of the most complex challenges across all facets of the healthcare ecosystem," said Bunny Ellerin, co-founder and CEO, NYCHBL. "We are delighted to recognize these companies and celebrate and support their growth in the New York area."

The NYC Digital Health 100 was released in conjunction with the NYCHBL Healthcare Innovation Report 2022, an in-depth look at the data, trends and insights that define the healthcare industry in NY. In 2021, 182 companies raised a historic high of $9.0B, a 150% increase from 2020 ($3.6B) and 87% of the investments went to start-ups in areas including virtual care, patient engagement and mental health. To review the report, please visit https://bit.ly/dh100-pr .

NYC Digital Health 100 Methodology

To compile the NYC Digital Health 100, NYCHBL used its dynamic database of digital health companies in the region and then invited companies to complete applications with quantitative and qualitative data to broaden the consideration set. A company qualified for consideration if it maintained headquarters or an office (over 10 people) in the New York region. Companies were judged on a number of factors, including but not limited to: strength of leadership, number of employees, funding (if known), revenue (if known), market fit, differentiated offerings, approach to diversity and equity, and community engagement.

About CipherHealth

CipherHealth is an award-winning digital patient engagement company committed to enhancing communication and coordination throughout the care continuum. Since 2009, CipherHealth has helped define the patient engagement category, delivering groundbreaking tools and superior services to help health systems deliver patient-centric, quality care that improves clinical outcomes, drives operational efficiency, and creates sustainable financial value through a full suite of communications solutions. CipherHealths's automated, scalable platform empowers healthcare organizations to drive meaningful conversations among patients, provider staff and caregivers, regardless of care setting, thereby achieving new standards for patient care and accelerating the digital transformation of the industry.

SOURCE CipherHealth
LOVELAND, Colo., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC) has awarded Centerra, a 3,000 acre master-planned community in Loveland, the state's first ALCC Sustainable Landscape Community (SLC) designation recognizing the community's commitment to water conservation and sustainability.

To increase water conservation in managed landscapes, ALCC, Colorado's largest green trade group, created the Sustainable Landscape Management (SLM) program to educate public and private landscape professionals on sustainable, water-conserving landscape management principles. Based on best management practices (BMPs), SLM guidelines systematically reduce water consumption and plant loss in landscapes. SLC is an extension of SLM and recognizes large water users, including master-planned and HOA communities, commercial properties/sites and retail properties for using SLM guidelines.

Hotter drier weather, declining snowpack and lower river flows has brought water conservation to the forefront. Cities and water utility providers are looking to reduce water use and landscape water waste. Through its sustainability programs, ALCC is ensuring the landscape industry is part of the solution by reducing outdoor irrigation while keeping landscapes healthy and providing environmental benefit. Landscape irrigation uses about 3% of the total water used in Colorado.

According to ALCC Chief Executive Officer John McMahon, sustainable landscapes are responsive to the environment, re-generative and can actively contribute to healthy communities. Sustainable landscapes sequester carbon, clean the air and water; increase energy efficiency; reduce the heat island effect; and provide wildlife habitat.

"We need to use the least amount of water needed to keep landscapes healthy by using proven and vetted best management practices," said McMahon. "Centerra's SLC designation and sustainable landscape practices will serve as a model for other Colorado communities wanting to use less water."

Centerra is honored to become the first community in Colorado to receive ALCC's SLC designation and demonstrates our commitment to sustainable landscape practices and ongoing water conservation," said Kim Perry, vice president of community design and neighborhood development at McWhinney. "We are not only cutting water use significantly, we are seeing major cost savings as well."

Centerra has continued to reduce water consumption over the years and in 2020, compared the costs of installing, maintaining, and watering a native landscape area versus a manicured turf area. The native landscape was three times less than installing and maintaining a manicured landscape. Utility (primarily water) costs for a native landscaped area were an incredible twenty times less expensive that watering manicured turf.

Native Landscape Area: Installation costs of native area Installation Cost Square Feet Cost per Square Foot $372,760.15 300,000 $1.24 Annual maintenance costs for native area Annual maintenance cost Square Feet Cost per Square Foot $19,800.00 300,000 $0.06 Annual utility costs for native area Annual water/electric cost Square Feet Cost per Square Foot $7,493.63 300,000 $0.02



Manicured Turf Area: Installation costs of manicured area Installation Cost Square Feet Cost per Square Foot $334,005.82 83,691 $3.99 Annual maintenance costs for manicured area Annual maintenance cost Square Feet Cost per Square Foot $12,553.65 83,691 $0.15 Annual utility costs for manicured area Annual water/electric cost Square Feet Cost per Square Foot $33,258.64 83,691 $0.39

"Creating and managing landscapes for aesthetic purposes alone is no longer an option if we are to conserve our native pollinators and the birds that are directly dependent on them," said Jim Tolstrup, Executive Director of High Plains Environmental Center. "We must create and manage landscapes for their habitat potential, as well as for their aesthetic value. Indiscriminately destroying insects, or interrupting their life cycles, is counter to the goals of habitat friendly landscaping maintenance practices. The distinction of Centerra being acknowledged as the first 'sustainable landscape community' in Colorado is a reflection of practices that have been implemented within this community for well over a decade."

In 2021, Centerra approached ALCC through the relationship they have with various ALCC member companies. Several ALCC member companies that support Centerra, including Brightview and Environmental Designs, have supported SLM since its inception. Because of Centerra's ongoing commitment to sustainability, ALCC decided to pilot the Sustainable Landscape Community designation with the master-planned community.

Centerra applied for the designation, detailing how the landscape is maintained sustainably (based on practices dictated in the SLM training manual and photos of the site, which are also required). ALCC also requires that the landscape company doing the work on the property have at least one SLM designee on staff.

"Both the landscape industry and master-planned communities like Centerra are proactively seeking ways to reduce water use through sustainable landscape management practices," said McMahon. "We want every landscape professional in the state who maintains landscapes to increase water conservation and reduce plant loss by following the same standards for landscape maintenance, using the same blueprint."

That blueprint is a 125-page manual entitled Sustainable Landscape Management: A Guide to More Sustainable Landscapes in Colorado. It defines the proper maintenance practices to conserve resources and maximize the natural beauty of Colorado landscapes. The manual was drafted from input by landscape companies, municipalities, water providers and property managers from across the state, including the City of Centennial, the City of Greenwood Village, Northern Water, Denver Water, the Denver Metro Building Office Managers Association (BOMA), Colorado Parks and Recreation and the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

"Sustainable landscape practices require year-round maintenance, which some master-planned communities see as cost-prohibitive. But in the long run, they will save money by using less water, reducing utility bills and ensuring they don't have to replace trees  one of the largest landscape expenses  because they were poorly planted and not properly maintained," said McMahon.

About Centerra

Centerra, an awardwinning 3,000acre masterplanned community located in Loveland at the heart of Northern Colorado, is a McWhinney development that was built on the belief that nature provides the perfect balance to urban planning. As a community designed to enhance all aspects of life, Centerra integrates neighborhoods with recreation, art, shopping and dining, business opportunities and medical services. Centerra and its businesses offer more than 8,000 part-time and full-time jobs. This unique community is home to Northern Colorado's first lifestyle center, The Promenade Shops at Centerra; UCHealthMedical Center of The Rockies, a stateoftheart 187 bed LEED goldcertified regional hospital; and The Marketplace at Centerra, one of Northern Colorado's largest contiguous shopping centers. Centerra is also home to High Plains Environmental Center, which manages 483 acres of wetlands, open space and reservoirs within Centerra and Chapungu Sculpture Park, a 26-acre park with more than 80 stone sculptures throughout. In 2018, Centerra became the first certified National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Community Wildlife Habitat in Colorado. Named Development of the Year by the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties' (NAIOP) Colorado Chapter, Centerra embodies McWhinney's purpose of creating great places and fabled experiences for people. For additional information, visit www.centerra.com.

About ALCC

Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC) is the premier professional organization for Colorado's landscape companies. ALCC promotes the responsible use of water and other natural resources and provides educational and industry certification opportunities to Colorado's landscape professionals. To join the Sustainable Landscape Management or Community initiative, including employee designation, visit www.alcc.com/slm or call us at 303-757-5611

Contacts: Chuck Montera, 720.587.9629 [email protected]

Celeste Smith, 970.402.7409, [email protected]

SOURCE McWhinney
PHOENIX, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CND Life Sciences, Inc. (www.cndlifesciences.com), an innovative medical diagnostics company pioneering the detection, visualization, and quantification of protein deposition in cutaneous nerve fibers, announced today the closing of a $5.0 million Series Seed 2 financing round. This follow-on round comes one year after its initial seed raise of nearly $3.0 million in early 2021 to catalyze the launch of the company's Syn-One Test, the only commercially available test that can accurately identify abnormal alpha-synuclein aggregation through a simple skin biopsy.

Nearly 300 neurologists and other clinicians are now using Syn-One to support the diagnosis of patients presenting with signs and symptoms of diseases including Parkinson's, dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and pure autonomic failure. Syn-One represents a breakthrough in providing clinicians and patients with definitive, pathological proof of disease that can allow for more optimal treatment and shared decision-making.

"We are extremely pleased with the support we have received from neurologists and patients nationally in our introduction of Syn-One as a reliable technology to aid the diagnosis of these challenging diseases," said Richard Morello, Chief Executive Officer of CND Life Sciences. "Syn-One has helped clinicians resolve complex cases and identify the likely cause of early or confounding symptoms, allowing them to care for patients with greater clarity and confidence."

With several biopharmaceutical companies developing therapies targeting abnormal alpha-synuclein, it will be crucial for neurologists to objectively identify patients who possess this pathological form of the protein as early in the disease course as possible to achieve a drug's intended clinical benefit.

"Our collective knowledge of the role of misfolded proteins in the pathogenesis and progression of neurodegenerative diseases continues to evolve rapidly, which is really promising for the care of patients," said Todd Levine, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of CND Life Sciences. "We believe the adoption of Syn-One by neurologists is a key advancement for the field and will be increasingly important as disease-modifying therapies become a reality."

Several existing investors participated in this follow-on round along with new investors who are enthusiastic by CND's strong progress and future. Funds will be used to continue commercial scale-up, broaden market education on Syn-One, and advance many R&D activities.

"CND's novel and effective approach to neurological disease testing is creating the opportunity for better health outcomes for patients. The trust that hundreds of leading neurologists nationally have put in the Syn-One Test is highly encouraging for the advancement of patient care and drug development," said Richard Goozh, Managing Director of Cambrian Capital Partners. "We look forward to supporting this next phase of corporate growth."

About CND Life Sciences and the Syn-One Test

Founded in 2017, CND Life Sciences is dedicated to supporting the care of patients facing the potential diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disease and other neurological conditions. Operating a CLIA-certified laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, CND launched the Syn-One Test as the world's first commercially available test to detect, visualize, and quantify misfolded alpha-synuclein located in cutaneous nerve fibers. The test, which analyzes small skin biopsies collected conveniently from the patient in a physician's office, aids in the diagnosis of a synucleinopathy including Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and pure autonomic failure. The Syn-One Test leverages a decade of published science from leading academic institutions in multiple countries and has demonstrated over 95% sensitivity and specificity. The company has research collaborations with multiple biopharmaceutical companies and in 2020 was awarded a prestigious NIH SBIR award to advance the validation and clinical utility of its Syn-One Test. For more information visit www.cndlifesciences.com.

Disclosure: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44NS117214. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact: Kendall Swanson

CND Marketing and Communications

(480) 386-6667

[email protected]

SOURCE CND Life Sciences
COPENHAGEN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced that the 366-room Copenhagen Admiral Hotel has selected Infor Hospitality Management Solution (HMS) and Infor EzRMS Revenue Management System (RMS). Infor HMS went live in Q4 2021 and will be followed by Infor EzRMS in 2022, replacing a legacy property management system (PMS) that restricted growth and limited the guest experience.

Learn more about Infor Hospitality Management Solution (HMS): https://www.infor.com/products/hms

Learn more about Infor EzRMS Revenue Management System (RMS): https://www.infor.com/products/ezrms

Facing operational limitations due to the poor integration options of their legacy PMS, and following a thorough review of the market, Infor HMS was chosen not only because of its connection to a range of third-party systems, but also its innovative features. These include digital registration for guests, self-service options for corporate bookings and improved workflows for housekeeping staff.

Infor EzRMS was chosen to help deliver an intelligent, responsive revenue management strategy as the hotel seeks to increase the proportion of revenue derived from its 366 rooms.

"Better integration has already helped enable a range of improvements for our guests, from check-in options such as kiosks or via mobile phones, to freeing front-of-house staff from their desks to interact with guests in lobby spaces and throughout the property," said Jens Christensen, COO, Copenhagen Admiral Hotel. "It has also enabled us to improve booking options for our corporate business, and the integration with our guest communication system has been a key part of our response to the pandemic. Elsewhere, behind the scenes, we have already realised substantial time savings for our housekeeping staff as they get live updates on when rooms are ready for cleaning."

"The benefits of integrated software are often overlooked by many hotels," said Stan van Roij, Infor's vice president of hospitality solutions. "They want the improved processes and better guest experience, but because they believe the central property management software cannot possibly connect to all the necessary third-party options, they remain stuck. The deployment of Infor HMS at the Copenhagen Admiral Hotel shows that, in fact, connecting these systems is quick, easy and, most importantly, leads to real, tangible improvements in the guest experience."

"Crunch IT is very proud to be part of the implementing of Infor's HMS system at Copenhagen Admiral Hotel," said Sren Kjelstrup, partner at Crunch IT. "The hotel is one of the most significant hotels on the market in Copenhagen, and taking the lead in integrated software solutions will, without doubt, be of great inspiration to other hotel operators in Denmark. We look forward to the coming implementation of Infor's Revenue Management System during 2022."

About Crunch IT

Crunch IT was founded in 2015 and offers commercial, cloud-based IT solutions to companies in the hospitality industry in Denmark and the Scandinavian countries. Crunch IT is a supplier of Infor Hospitality Management Solution (HMS) and Infor EzRMS Revenue Management System (RMS) in Scandinavia. To learn more, please visit www.crunch-it.dk.

About Infor

Infor is a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry. We develop complete solutions for our focus industries, including industrial manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, food & beverage, automotive, aerospace & defense, and high tech. Infor's mission-critical enterprise applications and services are designed to deliver sustainable operational advantages with security and faster time to value. We are obsessed with delivering successful business outcomes for customers. Over 65,000 organizations in more than 175 countries rely on Infor's 17,000 employees to help achieve their business goals. As a Koch company, our financial strength, ownership structure, and long-term view empower us to foster enduring, mutually beneficial relationships with our customers. Visit www.infor.com.

Media contact

Richard Moore

+447976111243

[email protected]

Copyright 2022 Infor. All rights reserved. The word and design marks set forth herein are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Infor and/or related affiliates and subsidiaries. All other trademarks listed herein are the property of their respective owners. www.infor.com

SOURCE Infor
Detericka Chambers  Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law

Thurgood Marshall School of Law Victoria Efetevbia  Georgetown University Law Center

Law Center Keniece Gray - Georgetown University Law Center

- Law Center Kayla S. Hope  University of Georgia School of Law

 School of Law Kelly Nguyen  Emory University School of Law

 School of Law Favour Okhuevbie  Howard University School of Law

School of Law Renisha Ricks  Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

 of Law Kayla S. Ryan  University of Alabama School of Law

 School of Law Kyra Sampson  Temple University Beasley School of Law

 Beasley School of Law Krysten Thomas - Georgetown University Law Center

- Law Center Simone Yhap  Northeastern University School of Law

 School of Law Jordan Zolliecoffer  Marquette University Law School

In October, the Fellows will receive honorable mention at the CCWC 18th Annual Careers Strategies Conference, which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia at the Hyatt Regency Downtown Atlanta.

The Diverse Student Fellowships are part of CCWC's My Life As A Lawyer Program, the purpose of which is to create a pipeline of underrepresented professionals to increase diversity and inclusion in the legal field. Information on how to apply for CCWC fellowships in Fall 2022 can be found at: https://ccwomenofcolor.org/law-students/.

About: Corporate Counsel Women of Color is an organization for Fortune 1000 female attorneys of color, led by Founder, President and CEO Laurie N. Robinson Haden. CCWC was founded to promote advancement and career success for women attorneys of color, as well as to advocate for all aspects of global diversity in the legal workplace and profession. In the past 18 years, CCWC has grown from a group of ten to more than 4,700 members worldwide, all committed to developing initiatives to improve education and employment options for diverse individuals in the legal profession. Ms. Robinson Haden was recently honored with an Influential Businesswoman Award from Acquisition International and named one of the top 10 Black Attorneys of the Decade by Lawyers of Color.

CONTACT:

Laurie N. Robinson Haden

CEO, Phone: 646-483-804l

Email: [email protected]

website: www.ccwomenofcolor.org

Related Links:

https://www.ccwomenofcolor.org/

SOURCE Corporate Counsel Women of Color
GAITHERSBURG, Md. and ATLANTA, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CRH Healthcare (CRH), a quality- and patient-focused operator of urgent care centers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Maryland has partnered with Adventist HealthCare (AHC) and acquired their three Urgent Care centers in Germantown, Rockville and Laurel, Maryland. All three centers have established themselves as leaders in their communities with experienced providers and support staff serving the walk-in urgent care needs of patients in the area as well as employers' occupational healthcare needs. The centers will be operated by CRH under its Maryland brand, Patriot Urgent Care, and will be co-branded with "an Adventist HealthCare Partner". The partnership begins Feb. 1, 2022 and will include having the centers join the One Health Quality Alliance, Adventists HealthCare's clinically integrated network, which focuses on the coordination and quality of care across the healthcare continuum.

The current staff at each center will remain along with their dedication to serving the community, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. These centers will join the other five Patriot Urgent Care centers in Maryland focusing on CRH's Mission, "to deliver the Perfect Patient Experience every time." It is this commitment to every patient that has helped drive the success of CRH's growing network of over 70 centers since its founding in 2012. Bill Miller, CRH Healthcare's CEO and co-founder, said, "We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Adventist HealthCare and their urgent care team in all three centers. Their success creates a great base of operations for CRH in Montgomery County and continues our growth throughout Maryland."

Beyond these initial urgent care centers, CRH will continue to partner with AHC to better serve the Maryland community with additional centers planned in the coming years. This partnership allows both AHC and CRH to provide better coordinated care for patients. Additionally, since all Patriot Urgent Care centers are open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., they provide a more cost-effective alternative to the emergency room for lower acuity diagnoses like the flu and colds, sprains, lacerations and other non-emergency care. The centers also support AHC's primary care physicians with after hours and weekend coverage when patients need immediate after-hours medical attention. "One of our top priorities is improving access to quality care throughout our community," said Terry Forde, president and CEO of Adventist HealthCare. "The partnership with CRH will be seamless for our patients and will continue our focus on providing care when and where the community needs it. We are delighted to have CRH Healthcare as a partner."

About CRH Healthcare

CRH Healthcare (CRH), founded in 2012 and based in Atlanta, GA, is a consumer- and quality-focused urgent care center industry leader that has grown through both acquisitions and de novo (new) development. Everything the company does is focused on what it calls "The 5 C's"being Convenient, Caring, Courteous, Competent, and Compliant. Over the last eight years, the Company has rapidly grown its clinic base from 3 to 73 clinics and now has operations in Georgia, Florida, Maryland, and Alabama where they help patients Get in. Get out. Get Better! Typically the #1 or #2 player in each of its markets, CRH was recently named to the Atlanta Business Chronicle's Pacesetter Award list for the sixth year in a row, which recognizes the fastest growing private companies in Atlanta. CRH Healthcare is a proud member of the Urgent Care Association. For more information visit CRHHealthcare.com or PatriotUC.com.

About Adventist HealthCare

Adventist HealthCare is one of the longest-serving health systems in the Washington D.C. region. Throughout its over 110-year history, Adventist HealthCare has remained true to its mission: to extend God's care through the ministry of physical, mental and spiritual healing. As a comprehensive health system that includes three acute-care hospitals, rehabilitation, primary and specialty care, urgent care, mental health services, home care, and imaging services, Adventist HealthCare is committed to world-class care, every time to every patient. With more than 6,500 team members and over 50 locations, Adventist HealthCare's nationally recognized services include maternity, heart care, joint replacement surgery, physical rehabilitation and cancer treatment. For more information about Adventist HealthCare, visit AdventistHealthCare.com/About

Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12903229

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE CRH Healthcare, LLC
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CrowdAI, the world's most intuitive AI platform for imagery and video, today announced its selection as an institutional AI partner under a $249 million-ceiling Blanket Purchase Agreement issued by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). Under this agreement, CrowdAI will help build the infrastructure for data-centric AI adoption across the U.S. Government, placing the building blocks for faster, more scalable, and widespread adoption of trusted AI.

CrowdAI was the first commercial computer vision vendor to support the JAIC at its inception in 2018, and this agreement ensures the continuity of the company's mission-critical support to DoD efforts. The engagement will expand the DoD's model testing and evaluation capabilities, providing the ability for analysts and operators of any technical ability to:

understand and analyze how individual data points contribute to model performance, opening up the path to more responsible AI development;

visually inspect model performance on production media, allowing users to move beyond an exclusive reliance on graphs and statistics; and

contribute to model development, ensuring that models are sensitive to operational edge-cases.

CrowdAI's lifecycle AI platform puts computer vision into the hands of the analyst and allows any user to manage any step of AI development, including the ability to label data systematically, train models efficiently, scale models iteratively, evaluate models visually, and power decisions continuously ( CrowdAI Platform ).

As experts in unlocking the value in visual data, CrowdAI has supported the JAIC in numerous humanitarian aid and disaster relief projects, ranging from tracking wildfires in real time on MQ-9 remotely piloted aircraft to assessing hurricane wind and flooding damage to physical infrastructure using satellite and aerial imagery. In 2019, the JAIC and CrowdAI published an academic paper highlighting their joint research work in this space.

"As the JAIC's first computer vision partner, it is even more exciting now to continue our support with the JAIC 2.0 effortan initiative focused on the cross-departmental adoption of AI in a more cohesive way. CrowdAI's tools are the building blocks for scalable, responsible, and highly performant models, keeping the U.S. ahead in the AI race. We are thrilled to see the JAIC moving in the direction of one of our foundational commitments to moving AI out of R&D to operations," said Devaki Raj, CrowdAI co-founder and CEO.

About CrowdAI

CrowdAI offers the leading software platform to build customized computer vision (CV), enabling anyone to create high quality CV models to analyze imagery and videono data science background or coding required. CrowdAI provides all the tools necessary to go from raw pixels to structured insights relevant to a user's specific needs. Models created via CrowdAI's software platform have been used for manufacturing production lines, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, countering illicit trafficking, medical diagnostics, and beyond.

Contact:

Cliff Massey

[email protected]

(818) 2084443

SOURCE CrowdAI
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI), a leading renewable energy producer in the U.S., today announced the signing of a long-term renewable energy off-take agreement with Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO). The Rocking R Solar Project (Rocking R) will be a 72.5 MWac facility in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, which is anticipated to come online in late 2024. DESRI has executed a twenty-year Renewable Energy Purchase Agreement (REPA) with SWEPCO to support the utility's growing renewable energy portfolio and help power local customers' electricity needs.

Rocking R represents DESRI's first contract with SWEPCO, DESRI's first solar project in northern Louisiana, and the first utility scale solar project built in the parish. Rocking R is part of DESRI's growing portfolio of solar facilities in Louisiana, bringing the total contracted portfolio size to over 500MW in the state.

"Our DESRI team is pleased to partner with SWEPCO to deliver cost-effective clean power to customers across Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas," said Hy Martin, chief development officer of DESRI. "This solar project will deliver economic development benefits to Caddo Parish and the surrounding communities for years to come."

"We are excited to partner with DESRI to bring solar energy from the Rocking R project to our customers in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas," said Malcolm Smoak, SWEPCO president and chief operating officer. "This solar power purchase agreement will help our customers meet their renewable energy and sustainability goals, and it helps SWEPCO further diversify our energy resource mix."

Rocking R is expected to deliver significant community benefits, including the creation of construction jobs. DESRI will be the long-term owner and operator.

Initial development of Rocking R was led by SunChase Power and Eolian Energy.

Aaron Zubaty, CEO of Eolian, added, "Eolian was specifically formed in collaboration with a global leader in infrastructure to accelerate the commercialization of the renewable energy and energy storage development assets that we have meticulously created with our partners. We are extremely proud of the Rocking R project and the perseverance shown by SunChase to make this project a reality and to bring utility-scale, local renewable energy production to northwestern Louisiana."

"We are pleased to see Rocking R, DESRI and SWEPCO reach this significant milestone," added SunChase Power Co-Founder and Principal Heather Otten. "This project would not have become reality without the tremendous support of the landowner, a multi-generational local property owner, and her representatives. Thanks to her and the support from the local community, Caddo Parish will be home to a reliable source of clean, cost-effective, renewable energy."

About D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments

D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) and its affiliates develop, acquire, own, and operate long-term contracted renewable energy assets in the U.S. DESRI's portfolio of operating and in-construction renewable energy projects currently includes more than 65 contracted solar and wind projects representing more than 6,000 megawatts of aggregate capacity. DESRI is a member of the D. E. Shaw group, a global investment and technology development firm with more than $60 billion in investment and committed capital as of December 1, 2021, and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Please visit www.desri.com for more information about DESRI.

About Southwestern Electric Power Company

Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), a subsidiary of American Electric Power (AEP), provides electric service to approximately 543,000 customers across northwestern and central Louisiana, western Arkansas, East Texas and the Panhandle area of North Texas. SWEPCO is an integrated energy company engaged in electric power production, transmission and retail distribution operations. The transmission system measures 4,126 miles and, distribution totals 26,150 miles. Coal and natural gas plants operate as part of a power generating fleet with approximately 5,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity. An additional 469 megawatts of wind power purchased under long-term contracts with facilities in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. SWEPCO is committed to bringing clean energy to their customers with an additional 810 megawatts of wind fully coming online early this year. Headquartered in Shreveport, Louisiana, SWEPCO has annual revenues of $1.73 billion and approximately 1,440 employees. Learn more at swepco.com and follow @SWEPCO on social media.

Contacts:

Liz Peyton

Media

[email protected]

Clark Skillman

Development

[email protected]

This press release is provided for the reader's information only and does not constitute investment advice or convey an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities or other financial products.

Please also note that this press release has not been updated since its dateline for any information contained in it that may have changed, including any beliefs and/or opinions. In addition, no assurances can be given that any aims, assumptions, expectations, and/or goals described in this release will be realized or that the activities or any performance described herein did or will continue at all or in the same manner as at the time of the press release.

SOURCE D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments
To understand more about Market Dynamics. Download our FREE sample report

According to the recent market study by Technavio, the Data-entry outsourcing services Market Size is expected to decrease by USD 504.12 million from 2020 to 2025. Also, the growth momentum is expected to decelerate at a CAGR of 5.95% during the forecast period. The report provides a detailed analysis of drivers & opportunities, top winning strategies, competitive scenario, future market trends, market size & estimations, and major investment pockets.

APAC will register the highest growth, occupying about 46% of the global market share. India, China, and the Philippines are the key markets for data-entry outsourcing services in APAC. The market growth in APAC will be slower than the growth of the market in South America and MEA.

Download FREE Sample : for more additional information about the key countries in APAC

Vendor Insights-

The data-entry outsourcing services market is moderately fragmented due to the presence of several major data-entry outsourcing service providers leading the marketplace. Vendors are focusing on launching innovative products and M&As to remain competitive in the market.

Acelerartech: The company offers online data entry, eBook data entry, insurance claims outsourcing, and others under data entry outsourcing services.

Acquire BPO Pty Ltd: The company offers data cleansing, HR admin and payroll, data entry, and others under back-office services.

Arcgate: The company offers quality, cost-effective solutions ideally suited to high volume applications such as forms processing, keying from images, data enrichment from the web, electronic publication, and more under data entry services.

Find additional highlights on the vendors and their product offerings. Download Free Sample Report

Regional Market Outlook

The data-entry outsourcing services market growth in APAC will be significant during the forecast period. The market in APAC is driven by the political and financial stability of countries in the region. The market will witness the fastest growth in South America. Factors such as the proximity of Latin American countries to the US and Canada and the growing demand for nearshore services from the North American countries are creating significant growth opportunities in South America.

Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries.

Latest Drivers & Trends Driving the Market-

Data-Entry Outsourcing Services Market Driver:

Increasing need for cost-effective solutions to improve efficiency:

Data entry outsourcing services help organizations cut operational costs as well as turnaround times. This allows them to achieve cost-effectiveness and enhance operational efficiency. Outsourcing data entry services reduce the need for hiring a process executive and almost eliminates the need to install data processing technology and devices such as computers, which reduces the costs incurred on labor and operation. Many such benefits are increasing the demand for data-entry outsourcing services, which is driving the growth of the market.

Data-Entry Outsourcing Services Market Challenge:

Challenges related to data safety and security:

Data-entry outsourcing services include outsourcing of various operations including recruitment, accounts and finance, and payroll processing. Hence, there is a greater risk of confidential data becoming exposed to a third party. Major data-entry outsourcing destinations such as India and the Philippines are being criticized for their poor and substandard IT capabilities and lax policies on cybersecurity. Also, the increasing incidences of cybersecurity threats in these countries is posing a serious data security challenge for vendors in the market.

Find additional information about various other market Drivers & Trends mentioned in our FREE sample report .

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Regulatory Affairs Outsourcing Market by End-user and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026

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Data-entry Outsourcing Services Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Decelerate at a CAGR of 5.95% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 504.12 million (Decremental) Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 6.71 Regional analysis APAC, North America, South America, Europe, and MEA Performing market contribution APAC at 46% Key consumer countries India, Mexico, China, The Philippines, and Brazil Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Acelerartech, Acquire BPO Pty Ltd, Arcgate, ARDEM Inc., Cogneesol BPO Pvt. Ltd., CyberData India, DataMondial, Inspur Worldwide Services Ltd., Invensis Technologies Pvt Ltd., and Keyoung Information Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.



Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Residents in and around Arlington, Virginia neighborhood "Pentagon City," just outside of Washington, District of Columbia, calling themselves "RiverHouse Neighbors for Sensible Density," are mobilizing ahead of the Arlington County Board's Feb. 12 vote to allow the developer of Amazon's East Coast headquarters ("HQ2") to triple density in an already dense area. JBG Smith serves as the developer, leasing agent, and property manager for the HQ2 project in the new National Landing district that contains much of Pentagon City. The Feb. 12 vote would approve a "Pentagon City Sector Plan" that would clear the way for JBG Smith to massively upzone RiverHouse Apartments  already the fourth-largest apartment complex in the Greater Washington area, and located adjacent to Pentagon City  by removing community facilities, drastically reducing green and open spaces, and aggressively infilling the site with mostly luxury rentals.

Arlington County has provided residents little information on how it would augment the essential community services infrastructure to accommodate the proposed growth in the already high-density area. Pentagon City already has the least open green space in the whole county, oversubscribed schools, and congested roads.

Arlington County failed to effectively engage the residents, including affected renters, and is rushing to approve the plan at its Feb. 12 County Board meeting. RiverHouse Neighbors for Sensible Density (RNSD) is requesting the County Board to more effectively engage residents and provide requisite impact studies before the aggressive plan can be approved. More than 1,500 residents have already signed a petition to halt the plan, while RNSD holds community meetings to inform residents of the plan and prepare them for public testimony on Feb. 12.

To learn more about RNSD and the Dense That Makes Sense movement, please visit: SIMBY.org

About RiverHouse Neighbors for Sensible Density (RNSD)

RNSD is a non-partisan, all-volunteer, diverse organization of Arlington, Virginia residents, living in and around Pentagon City, part of the National Landing district. RNSD welcomes all who want to do business, live, work, play, and stay in Arlington, in a sustainable way.

SOURCE RiverHouse Neighbors for Sensible Density (RNSD)
IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DecisionPoint Systems, Inc. today announced the acquisition of Advanced Mobile Group, LLC, a privately held company headquartered in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. DecisionPoint acquired Advanced Mobile Group to expand DecisionPoint's mobility-first enterprise solutions and service offerings, and grow its capabilities in the mid-Atlantic region. Advanced Mobile Group is a regional leader providing services, hardware, software, integration, and wireless networking solutions, with deep experience in warehousing and distribution, manufacturing, mobile workforce automation, retailing, and healthcare segments, and 600 customers.

Steve Smith, DecisionPoint CEO, commented, "The focus of our corporate development strategy is identifying and bringing together complementary businesses, people, and processes to drive growth in mobile computing enterprise solutions and managed services. Advanced Mobile Group perfectly fits this profile, with their reputation in the mobile computing solutions market, built on technical excellence and commitment to customer success, values we share deeply. AMG's competencies, services and customers will accelerate DecisionPoint's long-term growth and success. Their addition aligns with our commitment to expanding our expertise and presence across major verticals, expanding our managed services team, and developing our presence in the mid-Atlantic region."

"We are very excited to be part of the DecisionPoint (DPSI) family," said Karl Herring, founder, and Managing Director of AMG. "Their expertise, experience, and unique solutions will extend the high level of support that our customers expect from Advanced Mobile Group. We decided to combine with DecisionPoint based on our familiarity with them as a solution partner, and their fit with our customer success and innovation values."

Investor Relations Contact

[email protected]

About DecisionPoint Systems

DecisionPoint is a leading provider and integrator of enterprise mobility and wireless applications solutions that delivers improved productivity and operational advantages to its clients by helping them move their business decision points closer to their customers. We do this by making enterprise software applications accessible to the front-line worker anytime, anywhere. DecisionPoint utilizes all the latest wireless, mobility, and RFID technologies. DecisionPoint is headquartered in Irvine, California. For more information about DecisionPoint Systems, Inc., visit www.decisionpt.com .

About Advanced Mobile Group

Advanced Mobile Group is a leading provider of Mobile Workforce Solutions in North America serving organizations that require mobile computing, barcode scanning, voice directed picking, RFID solutions, label printing and media, wireless networking, and workforce automation. Our unique single-source approach provides complete life-cycle services for mission-critical mobile systems, enabling enterprises to focus on their core business. Founded on a commitment to service, accessibility and hands-on support, Advanced Mobile Group provides tailored, industry-specific solutions that best meet your company's business objectives. From hardware and software to integration services, Advanced Mobile Group delivers complete, end-to-end solutions providing unparalleled value to clients of all sizes.

SOURCE DecisionPoint Systems, Inc.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DoodyCalls, a nationwide leader in pet waste removal services, is growing its footprint in the pooper scooper industry with the opening of an office on The Suncoast in Manatee County, Florida. DoodyCalls currently operates in over 57 territories, across 23 states, and has been named the #1 pet waste removal franchise in the United States by Entrepreneur Magazine's annual Franchise 500 list.

Making business a family affair, Marla Moran and her children Colton and Kara wanted to create a family legacy and establish something for future generations. With a collective background in franchise development, hospitality, customer service, and lifelong dog owners the family set out to carve out a niche for themselves scooping poop. Laying the framework, owners Colton and his wife Kirsti are based in California while mother daughter duo Marla and Kara will be the boots on the ground in Florida.

"Our family is thrilled to be part of the DoodyCalls family and the Authority Brands team while helping give members of our community precious time with their families and pets," said Kara Kelsey, chief operations officer of DoodyCalls on the Suncoast. "We have hearts to serve and a deep appreciation for our community so we cannot wait to help keep this beautiful place clean and healthy."

A family of dog lovers, the Morans were drawn to the potential for success and capability to serve their community with DoodyCalls. Blending their background in customer service and business, the group plans to open two separate DoodyCalls franchise locations in 2022. The franchises offer the group an opportunity to give back to the community while building the family legacy they originally set out for.

"The Morans' dedication to family and building a legacy through a joint business venture gives us great confidence in their franchise openings in Florida" said Jacob D'Aniello, COO and founder of DoodyCalls. "We are confident in their success and how well they will service their community."

Doo you need plans for National Poop Day this year? Join the Morans for the DoodyCalls on the Suncoast ribbon cutting to celebrate their opening (and National Poop Day) on Monday, February 7th at 3pm!

Manatee Chamber of Commerce Lakewood Ranch Office

4215 Concept Ct., McClure Center; Lakewood Ranch, FL 34211

The Suncoast DoodyCalls franchise will service the following areas: Bradenton, Anna Maria, Lakewood Ranch, Parrish, Palmetto, Ellenton, Myakka City, and other areas of Manatee County.

The scoop on what DoodyCalls offers:

For residential dog owners, DoodyCalls provides dog waste pickup, brown spot treatment and deodorizing services.

DoodyCalls provides dog waste pickup, brown spot treatment and deodorizing services. For communities and parks, DoodyCalls designs, sells, installs, services and maintains common areas, pet waste stations, equipment and supplies. Earn Continuing Education Credits with our free Lunch-N-Learn.

To learn more about the Parrish franchise location, please visit https://www.doodycalls.com/suncoast. DoodyCalls is currently seeking poop scoop franchise operators who align with the brand's values of humility, ethical leadership, integrity, respect, and providing the best service experience possible. To learn more about franchise opportunities or to find a local service technician, visit https://www.doodycalls.com/locations/ .

About Doody Calls

DoodyCalls was founded in 2000 by Jacob and Susan D'Aniello in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. In 2004, the company began franchising its pet waste removal business nationwide and established corporate headquarters in Charlottesville, VA. DoodyCalls provides service to 23 states and the District of Columbia with dog waste pickup with consumer and industrial services. For more information about Doody Calls, visit www.doodycalls.com .

MEDIA CONTACT:

Sarah O'Connor-Guffey

Fish Consulting

815-630-9557 | [email protected]

SOURCE DoodyCalls
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To kick off Black History Month, Duke Energy Florida today announced a $325,000 contribution to the Woodson African American Museum of Florida  a charitable organization that is devoted to preserving African American history and promoting diversity, equal rights and social justice.

"Over the years, Duke Energy Florida has developed valued relationships with organizations that have the greatest impact on the communities we serve," said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. "The Woodson is one of those organizations, and we are proud to support them as they expand their reach and bring even more people together to learn about and celebrate the richness of African American history and culture."

Named after Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who is considered the father of Black History Month, the Woodson African American Museum of Florida plans to build a new 4,000-square-foot museum in a historic neighborhood in St. Petersburg called the Deuces.

The donation from Duke Energy Florida will assist the organization as it continues to engage the community through various events and campaigns geared toward supporting the new facility.

"Duke Energy has been a valued partner in our mission to preserve African American history and culture for present and future generations," said Terri Lipsey Scott, the Woodson executive director. "The Woodson is more than just a museum for many people in the community and Duke Energy's support will allow us to continue to fulfill that mission and further our efforts and discussions on history, culture, race, equity and empowerment in the Tampa Bay area and beyond."

Since 2005, Duke Energy and its Foundation have awarded more than $500,000 to the Woodson African American Museum of Florida, investing in programs, events and projects to engage a broad and diverse audience and reduce disparate outcomes in the St. Petersburg community.

Learn more about Duke Energy's connection to the museum in this article on the company's illumination website.

The Woodson African American Museum of Florida

Named in honor of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the father of African American history, the Woodson brings together individuals from all walks of life and serves as a bridge and gateway for courageous, constructive, and meaningful discussions regarding history, culture, race, equity, and empowerment. The museum inspires and enlightens people who seek to learn more about the untold or rarely celebrated stories and contributions of African Americans.

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns a diverse generation mix of natural gas, coal and renewables, providing about 10,200 megawatts of owned electric capacity to approximately 1.9 million customers in a 13,000-square-mile service area.

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 7.9 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 51,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,500 people.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy strategy to create a smarter energy future for its customers and communities  with goals of at least a 50% carbon reduction by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The company is a top U.S. renewable energy provider, on track to own or purchase 16,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2025. The company also is investing in major electric grid upgrades and expanded battery storage, and exploring zero-emitting power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2021 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' "America's Best Employers" list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Media contacts:

Woodson African American Museum of Florida Terri Lipsey Scott

Phone: 727.323.1104

Email: [email protected]

Duke Energy Florida  Audrey Stasko

Cell: 315.877.3031

Media line: 800.559.3853

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Duke Energy
BEAVER, Pa. and ASHBURN, Va., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dutch Ridge Consulting Group (DRCG), LLC, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) announced the Company has earned ISO 9001:2015 certification. Receiving this accreditation demonstrates DRCG's ongoing commitment to quality and continuous improvement through an effective quality management system.

ISO 9001:2015 is the world's most widely recognized quality management standard, developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It guides companies in the development of a quality management system, focusing on evidence-based decision-making and accountability across all organizational processes to improve communications, operating efficiency, employee engagement, and customer satisfaction. The standard is based on key quality management principles, including the involvement of high-level company management, strong customer focus, and an outlined process-based approach for continuous improvement. An annual audit is conducted to ensure conformance to ISO 9001:2015 standards.

"We are excited to announce our ISO 9001:2015 certification," said Doug Ingros, President and CEO of DRCG. "Technology is only as good as the quality system and team behind it. Achievement of ISO certification demonstrates our commitment to a consistently high-quality standard in every aspect of how we run our company to support the needs of our customers. It formalizes and gives structure to our core value of putting customer's interest at the heart of everything we do."

About DRCG

Dutch Ridge Consulting Group, LLC (DRCG) is an ISO 9001:2015, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Certified Veteran Enterprise (CVE), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). DRCG provides technical support staff at nine locations throughout the United States with offices in Beaver, Pennsylvania and Ashburn, Virginia. DRCG offers expertise in Systems Integration (SI), Information Technology (IT) solutioning, Program Management, Risk Management, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Requirements Engineering, Workflow Solutioning, and Business Consulting Services. Established in 2016, DRCG optimizes client investments by leveraging expertise to better manage the growth and transformation of existing IT environments. Visit www.drcg.us.

Media Contact:

Douglas Ingros

724-923-6057

[email protected]

SOURCE Dutch Ridge Consulting Group
Created and introduced by founder Dwayne Johnson alongside co-founders Dany Garcia, Jenna Fagnan, and Ken Austin, Teremana  Tequila, a super-premium, hand-crafted, small-batch tequila, has seen resounding success since its introduction in March 2020, initially in the U.S. and then followed by Canada and Mexico. Given tequila's position as the fastest growing major spirits category in the U.S., and with double-digit growth coming from the super premium segment, Teremana sees only opportunity ahead. During its short time on the market, Teremana has been recognized by some of the world's most prestigious spirits awards, named Market Watch's Best New Spirits Product 2021 and named Tequila of the Year at The USA Spirits Ratings, amongst winning other distinguished quality awards.

"The launch of Teremana Tequila has been an unprecedented and historic success in North America," said Dwayne Johnson. "It has far exceeded all of our expectations and accelerating at an extraordinary pace towards its full potential. Taste, quality and affordability are the keys to Teremana's success, but the driving force will always be the brand's deep, mana fueled connection with the people.

This is a very inspiring road for me and my founding partners to travel down as this dream has become a reality."

Industry experts credit the unprecedented growth of Teremana to the company providing top-shelf premium quality and superior taste at an accessible price for all, coupled with the unparalleled authentic connection of Dwayne Johnson with hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide.

The company founders also credit much of the success of Teremana to the one-of-a-kind family partnership established with the Siete Bucks Spirits family, the Lopez family from Jesus Maria in Jalisco, Mexico, and the Mast Family from Mast-Jagermeister for exclusive distribution. Each of the three companies is very successful and entrepreneurial in their own right but combining the three into a new form of partnership that hasn't existed in the spirits industry before is proving a winning combination.

The Lopez family from Jalisco, Mexico are co-owners in the Teremana brand. The incredibly respected and credentialed family has built a unique home on their grounds solely for Teremana - Destileria Teremana de Agave. Here they craft Teremana with love, made the right way, in small batches.

"We have created a trailblazing, legacy partnership with Mast-Jagermeister and have worked closely from a place of shared values, principles and a core belief in the Teremana brand," said Johnson. "It is now time to make Teremana Tequila a true global tequila brand, to be enjoyed by the people around the world. Moving forward, we will work extremely hard to increase capacity, scale and distribution.

But like with anything I do, Teremana will never cut corners and we will always deliver the highest of quality and best in taste. The consumers deserves the best and that's what we will proudly deliver to them. I'm excited to work closely with my Mast-Jagermeister partners to help Teremana live up to its full potential and to truly become the 'Tequila of the People' worldwide."

Already serving as the exclusive distribution partner for the brand, as a strategic investor and partner, Mast-Jagermeister will bring additional global sales, marketing and logistics expertise as well as organizational structure to support the brand's continued success and growth.

"Given the rapid success of Teremana under the leadership of its founders, drivers and inspirators, the time is right to take this unique brand and our partnership to the next level," said Michael Volke, Global CEO of Mast-Jagermeister SE. "We are excited to continue our partnership with Dwayne, Dany, Jenna, Ken and to help bring the vision of a highest quality, responsibly sourced tequila for the people to an even larger audience and to key international markets."

The combined ownership team is excited about the future of the Teremana brand and is committed to making it available to a global audience at retail locations, bars and restaurants around the world. Teremana will soon live out its promise to bring people together from around the world and share the gratitude and the mana.

"For our company, this is a very exciting opportunity to add such a strong and dynamic brand to our portfolio," said Volke. "It is a great complement to our line of Jagermeister products, and we look forward to tapping our deep industry relationships to continue to expand its footprint in the U.S., as well as bring Teremana to top beverage markets of the world. We are all committed to having Teremana as the next major brand in our portfolio."

Terms of the investment will not be disclosed.

About Teremana Tequila

Teremana is a super-premium small-batch tequila founded by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Dany Garcia, Jenna Fagnan, and Ken Austin. It is crafted at Destileria Teremana De Agave in the highest peaks of the Jalisco highland mountains. With three expressions - a blanco, reposado, and an anejo - its name loosely translates as 'spirit of the earth', from the Latin word 'terra', meaning earth, and the Polynesian word 'mana', meaning spirit. Made from fully mature, naturally sweet agave slow roasted in small traditional brick ovens and distilled in handmade copper pot stills, Teremana has been coined, 'the tequila of the people'. For more brand information, visit Teremana.com or follow us @Teremana

About Mast-Jagermeister

Founded in Germany in 1878, Jagermeister is the world's most successful herbal liqueur. This fifth-generation family-owned business has always been guided by its core values to inspire customers, ensure outstanding quality, and maintain respect for people and the environment. Today Jagermeister is available in 150 countries and is dedicated to finding the balance of tradition and innovation through actions guided by the responsibility to past and future generations. Jagermeister is 35% Alc./Vol. and imported exclusively by Mast-Jagermeister US, White Plains, NY. Visit www.MastJagermeisterUS.com. DRINK RESPONSIBLY.

SOURCE Teremana Tequila
STOCKHOLM, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Elkem has today secured 100% ownership of the Elkem Salten energy recovery plant, after acquiring the remaining 50% stake from Kvitebjrn Energi. The transaction is attractive to Elkem and provides increased strategic flexibility.

On 15 November, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre opened the new energy recovery plant at Elkem Salten in the northern part of Norway. The energy recovery plant is closely integrated with the silicon production process at Elkem Salten, utilizing the excess heat from the silicon furnaces to produce electrical power. The plant recovers 28% of the electrical energy used at Elkem Salten, equal to the power consumption of about 15,000 Norwegian households.

The energy recovery plant has been built in partnership between Elkem and Kvitebjrn Energi, each holding a 50% stake. The total investment has amounted to around NOK 1.2 billion, financed through a NOK 350 million grant from Enova, significant external debt and some equity. The parties have agreed to keep the purchase price for the 50% stake confidential.

"Elkem aims to be part of the solution to combat climate change - and to be one of the winners in the green transition. The new energy recovery plant at Elkem Salten, developed together with our partners in Kvitebjrn Energi and with financial support from Enova, further strengthens our efforts to ensure environmentally friendly silicon and ferrosilicon production with the lowest possible emissions and lowest possible use of resources," says Elkem's CEO, Helge Aasen.

"With today's acquisition, we position Elkem for financially attractive returns and increased strategic flexibility, while at the same time delivering on our climate roadmap. Elkem has now established a strong portfolio of energy recovery plants across several of our locations. We believe that energy recovery will be a key pillar in the green transition, and we see significant additional potential for additional energy recovery in our industry with the right support mechanisms," says Aasen.

For more information

Odd-Geir Lyngstad

VP Finance & Investor Relations

Tel: +47 976 72 806

Email: [email protected]

Fredrik Norman

VP Corporate Communications & Public Affairs

Tel: +47 918 66 567

Email: [email protected]

About Elkem

Elkem is one of the world's leading providers of advanced material solutions shaping a better and more sustainable future. The company develops silicones, silicon products and carbon solutions by combining natural raw materials, renewable energy and human ingenuity. Elkem helps its customers create and improve essential innovations like electric mobility, digital communications, health and personal care as well as smarter and more sustainable cities. With a strong track record since 1904, its global team of more than 6,800 people has a joint commitment to stakeholders: Delivering your potential. In 2020, Elkem was rated among the world's top 5% on climate and achieved an operating income of NOK 24.7 billion. Elkem is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker: ELK). www.elkem.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/elkem/r/elkem-takes-100--ownership-of-salten-energy-recovery-plant,c3495795

The following files are available for download:

https://news.cision.com/elkem/i/norwegian-prime-minister-jonas-gahr-store-and-elkem-ceo-helge-aasen--elkem-salten,c3005827 Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stre and Elkem CEO Helge Aasen, Elkem Salten

SOURCE Elkem
ATLANTA, Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax  (NYSE: EFX) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Efficient Hire, a provider of cloud recruiting, onboarding and HR management solutions. This acquisition will enable Equifax Workforce Solutions to bring employers more of the services and insights they need to help them manage amidst a rapidly changing hiring and employment landscape.

"The Efficient Hire acquisition demonstrates our commitment to reinvesting our 2021 outperformance in bolt-on acquisitions that further position Equifax for diversified growth," said Mark W. Begor, CEO of Equifax. "Efficient Hire will enhance our robust suite of employer services , and bolster our largest and fastest-growing business: Workforce Solutions. As the only cloud-native company of our kind, we will leverage the Equifax Cloud to rapidly integrate Efficient Hire's solutions into the Equifax portfolio, helping us to drive innovation and provide customers with unique access to more capabilities, product suites and services."

Efficient Hire offers a portfolio of solutions that is specially tailored to meet the needs of hourly employers, with an emphasis on helping firms in the restaurant, staffing, building services, senior care and hospitality industries quickly and efficiently scale their workforces. Its offerings include HR management solutions for areas such as I-9/E-Verify, the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

"Now more than ever, employers are in a battle for talent," said Joe Muchnick, Senior Vice President of Employer Services and Talent Solutions for Equifax Workforce Solutions. "The addition of Efficient Hire further demonstrates our commitment to helping employers attract and retain the talent they need to help grow their businesses."

Based in Denver, Efficient Hire serves customers nationwide. Its leaders and employees will join the Equifax Workforce Solutions business once the transaction has closed.

"Over the past 13 years, Efficient Hire has helped hourly employers hire more than 6.6 million new employees, and provided the tools to help them create a consistent and more efficient hiring process," said David Kenney, Founder and CEO of Efficient Hire. "Our team is invigorated by the opportunities that lie ahead, as we leverage Equifax's renowned capabilities in analytics and technology for the benefit of our customers."

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in February 2022. The acquisition is not anticipated to have a material impact on Equifax's 2022 financial results.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. All statements that address operating performance and events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future, including statements relating to our ability to successfully consummate the proposed transaction, the expected financial and operational benefits, synergies and growth from the Efficient Hire acquisition and our ability to integrate Efficient Hire and its products, services, technologies, IT systems and personnel into our operations, and similar statements about our outlook and our business plans are forward-looking statements. We believe these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in our 2020 Form 10-K and subsequent SEC filings. As a result of such risks and uncertainties, we urge you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date when made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

ABOUT EQUIFAX INC.

At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by more than 13,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.com .

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Daniel Jenkins for Equifax Workforce Solutions

[email protected]

SOURCE Equifax Inc.
The Samuels Foundation grant enabled FAIR Health to develop and disseminate a curriculum on shared decision making (SDM) to providers and clinicians in New York City who serve older adults facing critical palliative care decisions. The initiative complements an existing FAIR Health project that was funded by The New York Community Trust and included the creation of free consumer tools presenting three decision aids (DAs) for palliative care scenarios paired with cost information, housed on the FAIR Health Consumer website. These palliative care DAs provide treatment options and associated costs for kidney dialysis, breathing assistance and nutritional assistance. The initiative funded by the Samuels Foundation supported the creation of a new provider-oriented website, FAIR Health Provider, which features educational content and other resources pertinent to SDM. The website was launched in April 2021, followed by an evaluation that assessed its acceptability and utility. The findings of that evaluation are summarized here.

Takeaways from the Report

Providers found the SDM content and resources on FAIR Health Provider useful in facilitating SDM conversations with older adults, as supported by both qualitative and quantitative feedback received during the evaluation period. Nearly 87 percent of survey respondents noted that the site's SDM content was "useful" or "very useful," and close to 79 percent reported that they will "likely" or "very likely" engage in SDM after visiting the site. Providers also found the cost information on the DAs to be valuable, with one respondent stating, "The cost of specific interventions is not easy information to find, even as a clinician."

Provider acceptability of SDM tools is a critical pathway for promoting SDM in general. While there is evidence to support the acceptability of SDM tools among consumers (e.g., FAIR Health Consumer, where the current DAs are housed, saw an uptick in visits after FAIR Health Provider was launched), providers report some issues facing full adoption of SDM tools. In the qualitative evaluation of this project, providers cited time constraints with patients and the need for educational and clinical resources as challenges that prevented SDM discussions. Providers mentioned that offering easily accessible information and tools such as DAs, checklists and toolkits would better support the effort.

To continue to build on the strong support that SDM tools with cost information have received, FAIR Health will continue to enrich and maintain the SDM sections of FAIR Health Provider and FAIR Health Consumer. This year, FAIR Health has been awarded funding from the New York State Health Foundation to create three new SDM tools to advance SDM among people of color, in addition to funding from The John A. Hartford Foundation to create four new SDM tools and three total treatment cost scenarios concerning conditions that affect older adults.

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd said, "We are extremely grateful for the support of the Samuels Foundation in carrying out this important initiative related to shared decision making. As our report shows, there is an obvious appetite for shared decision-making tools. We look forward to continuing to build on this work."

Lauren Weisenfeld, Deputy Director of the Healthy Aging Program at the Samuels Foundation, said, "The Samuels Foundation is pleased that providers who serve older patients in New York found the educational content and tools on the FAIR Health Provider site to be helpful. The report underscored the opportunity that exists for expanding shared decision making to improve the care of older adults. We look forward to seeing FAIR Health's continued efforts in this area."

To read the entire report, click here.

Follow us on Twitter @FAIRHealth

About the Samuels Foundation

Based in New York City, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation (the Samuels Foundation) focuses on two primary grant-making areas: the performing arts and healthy aging. The mission of the Samuels Foundation's Healthy Aging Program is to improve the health care and overall quality of life for New York City's older adults, as well as to improve the way health and social services are delivered.

About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization that qualifies as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code. It is dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 35 billion claim records and is growing at a rate of over 2 billion claim records a year. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health includes among the private claims data in its database, data on Medicare Advantage enrollees. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish, which enables consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offers a rich educational platform on health insurance. An English/Spanish mobile app offers the same educational platform in a concise format and links to the cost estimation tools. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Marty Makary's book The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Careand How to Fix It and Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:

Rachel Kent

Senior Director of Marketing, Outreach and Communications

FAIR Health

646-396-0795

[email protected]

SOURCE FAIR Health
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- EKC PR client, filmmaker, philanthropist & environmentalist, Julia L. Rosengren , is adding to her ever-expanding resume by joining the Executive Council of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida.

Julia was officially welcomed to the board by Dean Jeff Moore on January 21st and is now recognized as part of the Executive Council at one of the largest universities in the country.

"I am delighted to be appointed to the Executive Council, says Julia L. Rosengren. "I very much look forward to contributing in any and every way I can."

The College of Arts and Humanities is a fitting department for the world-traveler and Brazilian native, as it is home to a diverse range of disciplines and activities that fuel creative innovation, and a place where students can study and explore different cultures.

Already an exciting start to the year for Julia, the filmmaker and philanthropist will also be debuting her environmental short film LEAVES this spring, directed by Paul Davis, which she produced and stars in. Dean Jeff Moore has offered to host a screening of LEAVES at the university.

The inspiring and thought-provoking short raises awareness for climate change and other pivotal environmental issues Earth faces including global warming, wildfires, and deforestation.

The motivation behind LEAVES comes from Julia's ability to create films that send a positive message to the world, and in turn, make a difference. Her goal is to enact social change and responsibility, therefore inspiring and making a difference for our planet's future.

The inspirational film chronicles the story of an academic-minded woman who discovers an epiphanic connection between herself and an ailing massive red oak tree in her backyard. Threaded through the narrative are ties between the infirm tree, the out-of-control west coast wildfires, and our disappearing rainforests.

Serving as a board member for the College of Arts and Humanities, as well as the upcoming release of LEAVES marks the beginning of a creatively fertile and purposeful era for Julia, where her humanitarian interests intersect with her artistic and educational pursuits.

www.juliarosengren.com

To interview Julia L. Rosengren, contact EKC PR at 310-441-1000 or [email protected]

SOURCE Julia L. Rosengren
FLINT, Mich., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Forum Health Asheville, a Forum Health network integrative and functional medicine practice, welcomes Clayton W. Bell, MD as a provider.

Dr. Bell joins John L. Wilson, Jr., MD, FAAFP and Kamila Fiore, APRN-C at the Forum Health Asheville, previously Great Smokies Medical Center.

"I'm thrilled to have Dr. Bell join our practice," said Dr. Wilson. "His experience in Western medicine and Eastern medicine is perfect for our functional approach to patient healing."

"My personal and medical experiences have had a profound impact on my belief in activating and empowering the person to heal themselves from the inside out," said Dr. Bell. "Forum Health understands this, so I couldn't think of a better fit."

Dr. Bell attended the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, completed his residency at the Central Maine Medical Center and a fellowship at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Integrative Medicine, and received the Society of Integrative Oncology Young Investigator Forum Award.

"Dr. Bell brings extensive experience to our Forum Health Asheville location," said Adam Puttkammer, president of Forum Health. "His dedication to his patients and passion to improve their health is evident and makes him the perfect fit in the Forum Health family."

Dr. Bell is a member of the American Board of Physician Specialties: Integrative Medicine, American Board of Family Physicians, American Academy of Family Physicians, Institute of Functional Medicine, Society of Integrative Oncology, National Ayurvedic Medical Association, and the Tennessee Pain Society.

"We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Bell he embodies the dedication to whole-person healing that Forum Health stands for," said Phil Hagerman, chief executive officer at Forum Health.

For more information on Forum Health, including how to join one of our practices, visit www.forumhealth.com .

About Forum Health

Forum Health LLC is a nationwide provider of personalized healthcare. Steeped in the powerful principles of functional and integrative medicine, Forum Health providers take a root-cause approach to care. They listen and dig deep  exploring lifestyle, environment, and genetics to help each patient achieve their ultimate health goals. Members have access to advanced medical treatments and technology, with care plans informed by data analytics and collaborative relationships. To learn more, visit forumhealth.com.

SOURCE Forum Health, LLC
RAMAT GAN, Israel, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Friendly Technologies, a premier CPE Device Management and IoT solutions company based in Israel, announced that it has been chosen by the Kenton Group as its desired TR-069 device management partner.

Friendly Technologies will now manage the Kenton Group's CPE estate through its flagship Friendly Unified Device Management Platform (Friendly TR-69) and Friendly IoT solutions. These solutions will be delivered over the cloud and managed by trusted teams based in Ramat Gan, Israel.

Friendly Unified Device Management Platform (Friendly TR-69) and Friendly IoT are standard-based platforms that offer a wide variety of features. The unified carrier-grade E2E Device Management is beneficial for Friendly's partnership with the Kenton Group. Both the flagship products are scalable and flexible, and the high level of interoperability makes them easy to configure and reconfigure a large number of devices remotely. In addition, they also help implement mass firmware upgrades, deliver fault management, and offer top-notch real-time customer support.



John Larkin, Managing Director of The Kenton Group, said, "The Kenton Group has been a partner of Friendly Technologies for over five years. We have steadily increased the volume of CPEs managed by Friendly's DM platform. Friendly Technologies has continued to develop the platform regularly over the years. It now includes dedicated mobile apps that allow device management on smartphones. The Kenton Group is now moving forward with this investment to offer its own hosted service to its clients."

"This was a particularly inspiring project for us," said Dror Braunstein, Director of Sales at Friendly Technologies. "Having worked with The Kenton Group in the delivery of our platforms to their clients for many years, it is great to take our relationship to another level. "We were confident that Friendly Unified Device Management Platform (Friendly TR-69) and Friendly IoT solutions would deliver the solution that the Kenton Group was seeking, considering its technical requirements."

About The Kenton Group

The Kenton Group lives by its slogan, "Connectivity through Innovation." Its history of innovation continues into the 21st century, with a portfolio that extends from simple connectivity products to cutting-edge optical and fiber technologies. It also specializes in managed service delivery solutions for the telecom market. The UK-based company provides 24x7 support to all its clients across the globe and delivers fast and flexible solutions.

About Friendly Technologies

Friendly Technologies (est. 1997) is a leading provider of operator-class platforms for IoT , Smart Home , and TR-069 / TR-369 USP Device Management.

Friendly has been providing TR-069 device management solutions to operators and service providers since 2007. When IoT and Smart Home first appeared, Friendly leveraged its expertise and expanded its offering to the IoT and Smart Home markets. Today, Friendly offers a unified platform, enabling its customers to generate new revenue streams markets such as utilities, transportation, smart cities, and more. In line with this mission, Friendly Technology has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan as a global leader in unified device management.

Website  friendly-tech.com

LinkedIn  linkedin.com/company/friendly-technologies

SOURCE Friendly Technologies Ltd.
SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GemCap provided a $6.0 million working capital revolver leveraged on inventory for a specialty food service business. "We're happy to see the growth of this business and industry as Covid wanes" says Richard Ellis, Co-President. "Supporting small and mid-size business growth has always been GemCap's focus and now, more than ever, we're committed to assisting small businesses rebound!"

GemCap, an innovative lending firm, provides senior-secured, commercial asset-based loans and accounts receivable factoring facilities to low and middle market businesses within the United States & Canada, as well as in-transit inventories en route to the United States. Loans range from $1 million to $10 million, and factoring facilities can be as little as $100,000. Collateral groups include: inventories (consumer & industrial), receivables, equipment, real estate and intellectual property.

For inquiries to GemCap, please reach either David Ellis or Richard Ellis at [email protected].

www.gemcapsolutions.com

9901 I.H. 10 West, Suite 800, San Antonio, TX 78230

SOURCE GemCap
DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hellwig bank, a German securities trading company specialising in fixed income trading, has selected AQMetrics for its MiFID II reporting services.

This partnership with Hellwig grows AQMetrics' European customer footprint and in doing so grows its relationship and connection with BaFIN, the German regulator.

After a long due diligence process in which they assessed multiple vendors, Hellwig selected AQMetrics to deliver their MiFID II reporting because of their vast experience and expertise, as well as their leading technology platform.

'We are delighted to now be working with AQMetrics for our MiFID II reporting. After an extensive audit of vendors in this space, it was clear that AQMetrics were the right fit for Hellwig Bank.' said Tanja Zander, Hellwig Bank

'Having Hellwig Bank as a customer is a a testament to how AQMetrics is now being perceived in the market - not only our technology but the fact that we can provide a seamless migration process, meaning firms like Hellwig can be rest assured that AQMetrics will deliver their MiFID II stress-free reporting ,' said Olivier Halimi, Head of Sales (Europe) at AQMetrics.

He added: 'The reason we can offer firms like Hellwig a seamless transition is because our platform enables third party data integration, which ensures the data can migrate with ease.The entire process can often be done in just a few days.'

Having launched in 2012, AQMetrics has quickly gained a reputation as a leading regulatory reporting technology platform to assist the world's leading investment, fund and asset servicing firms globally.

Find out more, visit aqmetrics.com

Media Contact: Jonathan Plant, [email protected] +35316292607

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/840928/AQMetrics_Logo.jpg

SOURCE AQMetrics
LAS VEGAS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GGRM Law Firm, Nevada's largest and oldest workers' compensation law firm, announced today that Dr. James Anthony, DO, JD, MBA, has joined the firm as Chief Medical Officer.

"Achieving our vision of being Nevada's premier injury law firm takes more than just saying the words," said Jason Mills, GGRM Strategic Development Partner. "It means building a firm that provides our clients with a true advantage when pursuing a workers' compensation or personal injury claim. Not only is Dr. Anthony an experienced clinician and teacher, he is one of the most respected Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) rating doctors in the state."

As an approved Treating Panel Physician for the state of Nevada, Dr. Anthony has assessed and rated thousands of workers' compensation claims. In his new position as GGRM Chief Medical Officer, he will assist GGRM clients in preparing for PPD examinations and train the firm's attorneys on certain nuances and aspects to the 5th edition AMA Guide to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, which provides a reliable, repeatable measurement framework for assessing permanent impairment and has been the trusted gold standard for physicians, patients, and the legal and regulatory communities in Nevada for the last 20 years.

"While it's fairly common for workers' compensation and personal injury law firms to consult with medical professionals, we know of no other law firm with a physician on staff, much less a physician that also has a law degree," said GGRM Managing Partner Toby Yurek. "With his outstanding medical experience and legal expertise, Dr. Anthony is uniquely qualified to help both our clients and our attorneys navigate medical issues so nothing is missed in pursuing a personal injury or workers' comp claim."

Dr. Anthony received his B.S. and D.O. degrees from Ohio University, as well as a J.D. from Florida State University and an MBA from the University of Tennessee. He completed his internship at Riverside Hospital in Trenton, Michigan, and his residency in family medicine at Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital/Metro Health in Cleveland, Ohio. Following three years of post-graduate training, Dr. Anthony moved to Florida and practiced there until relocating to Nevada in 1996. Dr. Anthony is board certified in family medicine and has been since 1988.

Prior to joining GGRM, Dr. Anthony was Program Director for the Graduate Medical Education program at Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he obtained Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) status for their family medicine program.

"Understanding the underlying medical issues is paramount to a successful legal claim," said Dr. Anthony. "After practicing and teaching medicine for more than 36 years, I wanted to do something different and feel that incorporating my knowledge and experience to make the law work for GGRM's clients is an interesting approach to taking care of patients in an entirely new way."

Founded in 1970, GGRM Law Firm is Nevada's premier personal injury and workers' compensation law firm with a special focus on helping first responders. GGRM Law Firm has offices in Las Vegas and Reno. For more information, visit ggrmlawfirm.com.

Contact:

Kevin Johnson, Chief Strategy Officer

GGRM Law Firm

702-384-1616

[email protected]

SOURCE GGRM Law Firm
Download the Sample Report Now!

Key Edible Oils Sourcing and Procurement Report Highlights:

Market growth 2020-2024: USD 14 Billion Growth momentum & CAGR: Accelerate at a CAGR of 3.57% Top Pricing Models: Volume-based pricing, and Fixed fee pricing Key consumer countries: North America , Europe , and APAC Supplier Selection Criteria: Technical specifications, Operational requirements, Acceptance criteria, and Evaluation criteria Top Suppliers: Cargill Inc., Bunge Ltd., and Wilmar International Ltd.

Know More About This Market: Request for a Free Sample Report Now!

Insights into buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers:

Several strategic and tactical negotiation levers are explained in the report to help buyers achieve the best prices for the Edible Oils market. The report also aids buyers with relevant Edible Oils pricing levels, pros, and cons of prevalent pricing models such as Unit-based pricing, and Bundled pricing, category management strategies and best practices to fulfil their category objectives.

For more insights on buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers, www.spendedge.com/report/edible-oils-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report

Key Drivers and Trends Fueling Market Growth:

The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the low bargaining power of suppliers.

Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by the constant monitoring of price influencing factors.

Identify favorable opportunities in Edible Oils TCO (total cost of ownership).

Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes.

Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities.

To know more about various other market drivers, trends and challenges.

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How much marketing budget to set aside for geographical market expansion?

Understanding the most adopted procurement strategies by buyers across industries.

Download the FREE sample Report Now!

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Market Insights

Category Pricing Insights

Cost-saving Opportunities

Best Practices

Category Ecosystem

Category Management Strategy

Category Management Enablers

Suppliers Selection

Suppliers under Coverage

US Market Insights

Category scope

Appendix

About SpendEdge:

SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions.

Contacts

SpendEdge

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340

https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us

SOURCE SpendEdge
Key Highlights Offered in the Report:

Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices.

Gain information on relevant pricing levels, detailed explanation on pros and cons of prevalent pricing models.

Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers.

Get a free sample report for more information

Insights into buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers:

Several strategic and tactical negotiation levers are explained in the report to help buyers achieve the best prices for the Employee Assistance Program market. The report also aids buyers with relevant Employee Assistance Program pricing levels, pros, and cons of prevalent pricing models such as volume-based pricing, spot pricing, and cost-plus pricing and category management strategies and best practices to fulfil their category objectives.

For more insights on buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers, www.spendedge.com/report/employee-assistance-program-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report

Key Drivers and Trends Fueling Market Growth:

The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the low bargaining power of suppliers.

Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by the constant monitoring of price influencing factors.

Identify favorable opportunities in Employee Assistance Program TCO (total cost of ownership).

Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes.

Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities.

To get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment.

Subscribe Now for Free

Some of the top Employee Assistance Program suppliers listed in this report:

This Employee Assistance Program procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies.

Morneau Shepell Inc

Uprise Health

CuraLinc Healthcare

Get the Details That You Are Looking for:

Buy our detailed market analysis report to uncover:

Changing market landscape with yearly forecast till 2026.

Analyze the market's competitive and vendor landscape.

How much marketing budget to set aside for geographical market expansion?

Understanding the most adopted procurement strategies by buyers across industries.

Download the FREE sample Report Now!

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Market Insights

Category Pricing Insights

Cost-saving Opportunities

Best Practices

Category Ecosystem

Category Management Strategy

Category Management Enablers

Suppliers Selection

Suppliers under Coverage

US Market Insights

Category scope

Appendix

About SpendEdge:

SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions.

Contacts

SpendEdge

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340

https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us

SOURCE SpendEdge
DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Radiation Dose Management Market" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report provides a complete detail of Global Radiation Dose Management Industry. The market will reach US$ 546.10 Million by 2027, from $260.48 Million in 2021.

A standard that provides healthcare professionals additional equipment to optimize and handle dose in computerized axial tomography scan (or CT scan) etc., is commonly termed radiation dose management. The radiation management solution is vital in reducing patient exposure to harmful radiation doses undergoing imaging procedures. Similarly, such measures enable patients to receive the medical benefits of CT scan X-ray technology while minimizing the risks associated with the dose.



Notwithstanding, the market's growth is primarily driven by the increasing use of medical imaging modalities due to the rising incidence of chronic disorders, growing concerns over radiation dose exposure, growth in the installed base of radiology equipment, and increasing attention on radiation dose management. Furthermore, the growing necessity for patient safety, state regulations, and strict federal and obligations for healthcare has played an essential role in the industry's growth. According to the publisher Report, it is anticipated that The Global Radiation Dose Management Market will grow with a CAGR of 13.1% from 2021-2027.



COVID-19 Impact on the Radiation Dose Management Industry

Several countries worldwide have done non-urgent diagnostic imaging surgeries despite the pandemic. These techniques utilize additional resources and raise the risk of complications; depending on the process, they also increase needing equipment, resources, or materials such as hospital beds and PPE.



Worldwide Radiation Dose Management Market Size was US$ 260.48 Million in 2021

On the basis of product, Global Radiation Dose Management Market includes Radiation Dose Management Solutions and Radiation Dose Management Services. The extensive share of this segment is attributed to the rising adoption of radiation dose management solutions by healthcare providers owing to the increasing regulations regarding ionizing radiation across the globe.



Similarly, by modality, the radiation dose management market is segmented into Computed Tomography, Fluoroscopy & Interventional Imaging, Mammography, and Nuclear Medicine. The computed tomography segment accounted for the most extensive market. This segment is attributed to the rising number of CT examinations globally and the rising awareness of radiation dose exposure.



Correspondingly, radiation dose management is used in hospitals, ambulatory care settings, and others, estimating a dose required for a procedure (e.g., CT scan) to prevent high radiation dose disclosure to patients. Most hospitals and imaging centers are increasingly embracing new dose removal technology with high-end CT systems. The dose tracking software relieves the limitation of manual collection of doses for CT performed in a center. This is also useful in the early detection of immoral dose selection.



North America has Highest Market Share of the Radiation Dose Management Market

Geographically, North America accounted for the most considerable share of the radiation dose management market. The large share of North America is attributed to the accreditation requirements regarding the reporting and optimization of radiation doses and stringent legislation, high adoption of HCIT technologies, and the presence of strict regulatory requirements regarding patient safety.



Nevertheless, as per Harvard Medical School, in the United States, more than 80 million CT scans are performed annually. The scanning procedures revolutionized the treatment and diagnosis, such as colonography, CT angiography, and dual-energy and perfusion CT. Prominent players in the Global Radiation Dose Management Market are Bayer AG, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Mckesson Corporation, and Cerner Corporation.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction



2. Research & Methodology



3. Executive Summary



4. Market Dynamics

4.1 Growth Drivers

4.2 Challenges



5. Global Radiation Dose Management Market



6. Market Share - Global Radiation Dose Management Market

6.1 By Product & Services

6.2 By Modality

6.3 By End-User



7. Product - Global Radiation Dose Management Market

7.1 Radiation Dose Management Solutions

7.2 Radiation Dose Management Services



8. Modality - Global Radiation Dose Management Market

8.1 Computed Tomography

8.2 Fluoroscopy & Interventional Imaging

8.3 Mammography

8.4 Nuclear Medicine



9. End User - Global Radiation Dose Management Market

9.1 Hospitals

9.2 Ambulatory Care Settings

9.3 Others



10. Region - Global Radiation Dose Management Market

10.1 North America

10.2 Europe

10.3 Asia Pacific

10.4 Latin America

10.5 Middle East & Africa



11. Porters Five Forces

11.1 Overview

11.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers

11.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

11.4 Degree of Competition

11.5 Threat of New Entrants

11.6 Threat of Substitutes



12. Company Analysis

12.1 Bayer AG

12.1.1 Overview

12.1.2 Recent Development

12.1.3 Sales Analysis

12.2 Koninklijke Philips N.V.

12.2.1 Overview

12.2.2 Recent Development

12.2.3 Sales Analysis

12.3 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc

12.3.1 Overview

12.3.2 Recent Development

12.3.3 Sales Analysis

12.4 Mckesson Corporation

12.4.1 Overview

12.4.2 Recent Development

12.4.3 Sales Analysis

12.5 Cerner Corporation

12.5.1 Overview

12.5.2 Recent Development

12.5.3 Sales Analysis

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/blgu06

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Wi-Fi Hotspot Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global wi-fi hotspot market reached a value of US$3.98 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$11.76 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 19.7% during 2022-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, they are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use industries. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor



Wi-Fi hotspots are internet access points that enable users to connect their mobile devices, such as smartphones or laptops, to a Wi-Fi network. They are highly convenient and allow users to get strong internet connections away from the office or home. They assist service providers or operators in increasing customer retention, building brand awareness, making pay-as-you-go transactions, and creating partnerships with mobile operators for offload. At present, they are available in public places, such as coffee shops, libraries, retail stores, hotels, and airports, across the globe



Wi-Fi Hotspot Market Trends:

Increasing digitization, along with the deployment of smart infrastructure systems around the world, represents one of the key factors bolstering the growth of the market. Wi-fi hotspots help small, large, and medium enterprises manage their networks at a relatively lower cost. They also enhance data transmission, provide access to various applications, and offer seamless results. Apart from this, enterprises worldwide are implementing the trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) that allows employees to work using their personal devices and accessing corporate network data and resources like email and applications.

This can also be attributed to a considerable rise in the need for offering flexibility to employees on account of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, which is contributing to market growth. Furthermore, due to the boosting sales of smartphones, the growing presence of high-end network infrastructure and the rising deployment of 5G networks, there is a significant reliance on Wi-Fi hotspots in public spaces. In addition, leading market players are focusing on increasing speeds, quality of services, mobility, capacities and reducing latencies, which is anticipated to create a favorable market outlook

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Aptilo Networks (Enea AB), AT&T Inc., Boingo Wireless Inc., CASA Systems, Cisco Systems Inc., Cloud4Wi Inc., D-Link Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co.Ltd., iPass Inc. (Pareteum Corporation), Netgear Inc., Sierra Wireless Inc, Superloop Limited, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and Telstra Corporation Limited



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global wi-fi hotspot market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global wi-fi hotspot market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the component?

What is the breakup of the market based on the software?

What is the breakup of the market based on the services?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end user?

What is the breakup of the market based on the vertical?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global wi-fi hotspot market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Component

6.1 Wireless Hotspot Gateways

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Wireless Hotspot Controllers

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Mobile Hotspot Devices

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Software

7.1 Centralized Hotspot Management

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Wi-fi Security Software

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Wi-fi Hotspot Billing Software

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Cloud Based Hotspot Management

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Services

8.1 Professional Service

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Installation and Integration Services

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Consulting Services

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast

8.4 Managed Services

8.4.1 Market Trends

8.4.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by End User

9.1 Communication Service Provider and Network Operators

9.1.1 Market Trends

9.1.2 Market Forecast

9.2 Enterprises

9.2.1 Market Trends

9.2.2 Market Forecast

9.3 Government

9.3.1 Market Trends

9.3.2 Market Forecast



10 Market Breakup by Vertical

10.1 IT and Telecom

10.1.1 Market Trends

10.1.2 Market Forecast

10.2 Financial Services

10.2.1 Market Trends

10.2.2 Market Forecast

10.3 Education

10.3.1 Market Trends

10.3.2 Market Forecast

10.4 Healthcare

10.4.1 Market Trends

10.4.2 Market Forecast

10.5 Hospitality

10.5.1 Market Trends

10.5.2 Market Forecast

10.6 Transportation

10.6.1 Market Trends

10.6.2 Market Forecast

10.7 Retail

10.7.1 Market Trends

10.7.2 Market Forecast

10.8 Others

10.8.1 Market Trends

10.8.2 Market Forecast



11 Market Breakup by Region



12 SWOT Analysis



13 Value Chain Analysis



14 Porters Five Forces Analysis



15 Price Analysis



16 Competitive Landscape

16.1 Market Structure

16.2 Key Players

16.3 Profiles of Key Players

16.3.1 Aptilo Networks (Enea AB)

16.3.1.1 Company Overview

16.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.2 AT&T Inc.

16.3.2.1 Company Overview

16.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.2.3 Financials

16.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

16.3.3 Boingo Wireless Inc.

16.3.3.1 Company Overview

16.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.4 CASA Systems

16.3.4.1 Company Overview

16.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.4.3 Financials

16.3.5 Cisco Systems Inc.

16.3.5.1 Company Overview

16.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.5.3 Financials

16.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis

16.3.6 Cloud4Wi Inc.

16.3.6.1 Company Overview

16.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.7 D-Link Corporation

16.3.7.1 Company Overview

16.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.7.3 Financials

16.3.8 Huawei Technologies Co.Ltd.

16.3.8.1 Company Overview

16.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.9 iPass Inc. (Pareteum Corporation)

16.3.9.1 Company Overview

16.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.10 Netgear Inc.

16.3.10.1 Company Overview

16.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.10.3 Financials

16.3.10.4 SWOT Analysis

16.3.11 Sierra Wireless Inc

16.3.11.1 Company Overview

16.3.11.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.11.3 Financials

16.3.11.4 SWOT Analysis

16.3.12 Superloop Limited

16.3.12.1 Company Overview

16.3.12.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.12.3 Financials

16.3.13 Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson

16.3.13.1 Company Overview

16.3.13.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.13.3 Financials

16.3.13.4 SWOT Analysis

16.3.14 Telstra Corporation Limited

16.3.14.1 Company Overview

16.3.14.2 Product Portfolio

16.3.14.3 Financials

16.3.14.4 SWOT Analysis

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/by8dx2

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services, has been named a 2022 Top Workplaces USA award winner by Energage. This marks the second year Energage has presented Top Workplaces USA, and the second year Graybar has been named to this prestigious list.

Graybar is proud to be named a winner of the 2022 Top Workplaces USA.

"We are honored to be named as a national top workplace for the second consecutive year," said Kathleen M. Mazzarella, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Graybar. "This award is especially meaningful because it is based solely on feedback from our employees. Graybar has the best employees in our industry, and I am proud of the work they do every day to serve our customers and move our company forward."

This is the second year for Top Workplaces USA, built on the program's 15-year history surveying more than 20 million employees across 60 markets for the regional Top Workplaces awards. Results are calculated by comparing the survey's research-based statements, including 15 culture drivers that are proven to predict high performance against industry benchmarks.

"Companies need to authentically represent their brand to job-seekers," said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. "The employee experience needs to be on the mission-critical list. Leaders who embrace a people-first culture will benefit greatly. By giving employees a voice and showcasing your authentic culture through employer branding, organizations can attract those job seekers who complement their culture. Culture drives performance."

To learn more about Top Workplaces, visit topworkplaces.com. To learn more about career opportunities at Graybar, visit www.graybar.com/careers.

Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services. Through its network of more than 300 North American distribution facilities, it stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, helping its customers power, network and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency. For more information, visit www.graybar.com or call 1-800-GRAYBAR.

Media Contact:

Tim Sommer

(314) 578-7672

[email protected]

SOURCE Graybar
To celebrate this major milestone, Great Steak will be highlighting some of its classic, most-loved menu items: the Original Philly, Bacon Ranch Fries, Teriyaki Chicken Philly and the King Potato. Additionally, customers can enter for a chance to win a Limited-Edition Great Steak 40 th Anniversary Swag Pack that includes a branded 11-piece BBQ set, apron, oven mitt, towel, mini cornhole game and stainless-steel water bottle.

"This year we're bringing it back to the basics with our Taste the Classics promotion featuring some of our most popular menu items like the Original Philly," said Heather Marini, national marketing manager for Great Steak. "Our guests come to Great Steak for fresh, grilled to order cheesesteaks, and we can't wait to continue serving them for another incredible 40 years!"

For more details on Great Steak's 40th Anniversary sweepstakes, please visit https://www.thegreatsteak.com/40thanniversary.

Featured Menu Items:

Original Philly: Premium sirloin steak grilled to order and topped with philly cheese sauce and grilled onions

Bacon Ranch Fries: Great fries topped with crispy bacon and ranch dressing

Teriyaki Chicken Philly: Tender all-white chicken grilled to order and topped with provolone, teriyaki sauce, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato and mayo

King Potato: Fresh baked potato topped with shredded cheddar cheese, bacon, sour cream and chives

ABOUT GREAT STEAK

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., Great Steak has been serving fresh, grilled to order cheesesteaks in locations across the United States and abroad. The menu has grown from a single cheesesteak to a complete line of Specialty Sandwiches, Great Fries and Fresh Baked Potatoes. Great Steak maintains its authenticity by serving the finest American ingredients, from specialty cut and marinated beef to our freshly baked bread. Grilled to order, grilled to perfection, Great Steak is genuine homegrown comfort food. Founded in 1983, Great Steak has grown across the U.S. and abroad. In 2004 Great Steak became part of the Kahala Brands family, one of the fastest growing franchising conglomerates in the world with a portfolio of nearly 30 fast-casual and quick-service restaurant brands with close to 3,000 locations in over 25 countries.

SOURCE Great Steak
OMAHA, Neb., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce announced today the successful results of their premier workforce development programs: The Commitment to Opportunity, Diversity and Equity (CODE), and the Greater Omaha Worklab (GROW).

Greater Omaha garnered headlines across the region for its nation-low unemployment. However, this achievement also placed the spotlight firmly on challenges around talent availability.

"We had a goal for 2021: Grow, recruit and retain the talent needed for the future." said Todd Johnson, Senior Vice President of Economic Development Services for the Greater Omaha Chamber, "Because a healthy, vibrant community depends on a skilled and growing labor pool."

The Greater Omaha Chamber's Commitment to Opportunity, Diversity and Equity (CODE) grew their Employer Coalition to 99 members. This coalition is designed to help organizations on their DEI journeys, creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce. In 2021, the Chamber focused on adding more engagement opportunities and creating materials to support these journals. The program also added an educational series to help individuals and organizations deepen their understanding of focused DEI topics.

The Greater Omaha Worklab (GROW), another workforce development program of the Greater Omaha Chamber, had a notable year. This program places Navigators in employer-client workplaces, providing independent, third-party assistance to employees. By the end of 2021, these Navigators met with 754 employees, providing resources and support that helped them handle their day-to-day challenges, organize their personal and professional lives, and pursue their dreams. This individual support keeps employees engaged and able to bring their whole self to work. This year, the Greater Omaha Chamber placed Navigators at ten employer-clients, expanding their total impact on the Omaha workforce.

"One of the solutions for a tight workforce is to keep retention high and support the individual," said Chad Mares, Senior Director, Workforce Services and GrOW. "I'm proud of how we help people on a daily basis."

About the Greater Omaha Chamber

The mission of the Greater Omaha Chamber is to champion a thriving business community and a prosperous region through visionary leadership and collaboration.

CONTACT:

Aron Wehr

Greater Omaha Chamber

402.978.7920

[email protected]

SOURCE Greater Omaha Chamber
PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California-based law firm Hahn & Hahn announced today that Firm Partners Rita Diaz and D. Jason Lyon have been selected to the Los Angeles Business Journal's 2022 list "Leaders of Influence: Minority Attorneys." The publication writes that these outstanding Southern California attorneys who also happen to be minorities were selected for inclusion based on a "demonstration of the impact made on the profession and on the Los Angeles community."

"Rita and Jason are excellent examples of what it means to be a leaderboth within our firm and among the business community at large," said the firm's Managing Partner Christianne Kerns.

Chair of the firm's Litigation practice, Diaz has significant experience handling contentious trust and estates litigation, as well as advising trustees and beneficiaries through trust administration issues. The Business Journal writes that Diaz is also "skilled at advising companies on employment matters, including discrimination, leaves of absence, and wage and hour issues, and reviewing and drafting employee handbooks." Diaz has spoken to various panels and groups, including the annual USC Trust and Estate Conference, about trust and estate administration topics as well as wage and hour issues related to caregivers. Diaz also serves on the Board of Union Station Homeless Services, the USC Tax Institute Planning Committee and the USC Trust and Estate Planning Committee.

A member of the commercial Litigation practice, Lyon's practice focuses on partnership disputes and fraud matters. The special supplement reports that among Lyon's successes is his recent victory in a two-week trial prosecuting claims involving a real estate developer's breach of contract, fraud, and hidden assets. Lyon also successfully defended multiple anti-SLAPP motions against his client's cross-complaint and recently won the matter again in the Court of Appeals. He is currently prosecuting a seven-figure direct and derivative claim for fraud and theft by management in a closely held meat processing company. He is a member of a number of bar associations, including the LGBT Bar Association.

Lyon, who serves as the Vice Chair of both the Pasadena Planning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals, is currently running for Pasadena City Council. He is also a member of the board of directors of Planned Parenthood Pasadena San Gabriel Valley, where he chairs the major gifts program and serves on the DEI task Force. He is a member of the Board of Advisors and a past president of Young & Healthy, a nonprofit that provides access to health care for uninsured and underserved children. Lyon is the Hiring Partner at Hahn and Hahn.

Hahn & Hahn LLP has been an active member of the Southern California business and legal communities since 1899. The firm represents entrepreneurs, innovators, business owners, family offices and charitable organizations in their corporate, real estate, employment, estate planning and family law issues and in litigation. For more information visit https://www.hahnlawyers.com/.

SOURCE Hahn & Hahn LLP
"Christine is a seasoned health care industry veteran who brings a wealth of experience to this position," said Dr. Michael Genord, president and CEO, HAP. "Her extensive experience includes long tenures at both HAP, as a payer, and at Henry Ford Health System, a nationally renowned health care provider. Her in-depth knowledge of how both sides of the industry operate will greatly benefit our provider relationships as HAP continues to grow and expand across the state, adding more providers to our already extensive network."

Harder has a combined 28 years of experience at HAP and its parent company Henry Ford Health System. She held leadership roles at Henry Ford in Revenue Cycle Management for more than 20 years before joining HAP in 2015 as vice president, Enrollment, Billing and Payment Operations and subsequently becoming vice president of Provider Operations.

Harder holds a Master of Science Administration degree in Health Care Administration from Central Michigan University and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management from Walsh College.

About Health Alliance Plan

Health Alliance Plan (HAP) is a Michigan-based, nonprofit health plan that provides health coverage to individuals and companies of all sizes. For 60 years, HAP has partnered with leading doctors and hospitals, employers, and community organizations to enhance the health and well-being of the lives it touches. HAP offers a product portfolio with six distinct product lines: Group Insured Commercial, Individual, Medicare, Medicaid (using the HAP Empowered name), Self-Funded and Network Leasing. HAP excels in delivering award-winning preventive services, disease management and wellness programs, as well as personalized customer service. For more information, visit www.hap.org.

SOURCE Health Alliance Plan
INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Heritage Construction + Materials (HC+M) announced today the appointment of Geoff Dillon as its new chief executive officer (CEO). Dillon succeeds former CEO Jim Fehsenfeld, who will transition from CEO to the vice chair of HC+M's board of directors.

"Since the 1950s, when my father started our first asphalt plant, we have been a company focused on making an impact. For us, it's not just about profit and loss, it's about leaving our people, our company and the world in a better place for future generations," said Jim Fehsenfeld. "Geoff is a leader who deeply cares about our people, our customers and our communities. He has what it takes to innovate and grow the business. I am confident Geoff and the HC+M team will continue to deliver for our customers and make a positive impact in the communities we serve as we have for generations."

Dillon previously served as president of Asphalt Materials, a manufacturer and marketer of asphalt binders and emulsions, and more recently as the president of HC+M.

"I am honored to be the CEO of Heritage Construction + Materials. Our HC+M family is full of talented, hard-working people who are passionate about high-quality and safe road construction and materials. Further, our world-class research and development supports our success. I'm energized to grow the business, building upon our values-driven culture," Geoff Dillon stated. "It is important to me that HC+M continues to be a company that invests in and bets on people to tackle the big problems. We want to be stalwarts of the communities where we live and operate."

About Heritage Construction + Materials

Heritage Construction + Materials (HC+M) is part of The Heritage Group, a privately held, family-owned business headquartered in Indianapolis. As a collection of companies, Heritage Construction + Materials has core capabilities in transportation and infrastructure, providing innovative road construction and materials services. HC+M companies include Milestone Contractors, Asphalt Materials, Inc., and US Aggregates. HC+M proudly employs 3,000 people across 55 locations within 7 states throughout the Midwest.

Learn more at www.thgrp.com

SOURCE Heritage Construction + Materials
Some of the key High-End Server Players with Offerings:

Acer Inc. - The company offers AR180 Optimized rack performance with max storage, ECC (Error-correcting code) memory, and others.

The company offers AR180 Optimized rack performance with max storage, ECC (Error-correcting code) memory, and others. Apple Inc. - The company offers Macpro which has up to 28-core Intel Xeon W processor, 1.5TB of DDR4 ECC memory, eight PCI Express expansion slots, and others to provide good performance, expansion, and configurability.

The company offers Macpro which has up to 28-core Intel Xeon W processor, 1.5TB of DDR4 ECC memory, eight PCI Express expansion slots, and others to provide good performance, expansion, and configurability. ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - The company offers ESR3-515-X3 which delivers 5G performance, low latency, and ultra-small footprint for easy and effective operation at the edge.

The company offers ESR3-515-X3 which delivers 5G performance, low latency, and ultra-small footprint for easy and effective operation at the edge. Cisco Systems Inc. - The company offers a Unified Computing System (UCS) which helps customers to simplify system management, supercharge apps, and streamline infrastructure.

The company offers a Unified Computing System (UCS) which helps customers to simplify system management, supercharge apps, and streamline infrastructure. Dell Technologies Inc. - The company offers servers, storage, and networking devices like rack servers, tower servers, modular infrastructure, and others as power edge servers for high-performance computing, data analytics, and others.

The company offers servers, storage, and networking devices like rack servers, tower servers, modular infrastructure, and others as power edge servers for high-performance computing, data analytics, and others. To know about all major vendors with their key offerings - Click here!

Read the 120-page report with TOC on "High-End Server Market Analysis Report by End-user (IT and telecom, BFSI, and Others) and Geography (North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America), and the Segment Forecasts,2022-2026". Gain competitive intelligence about market leaders. Track key industry opportunities, trends, and threats. Information on marketing, brand, strategy and market development, sales, and supply functions. https://www.technavio.com/report/report/high-end-server-market-industry-analysis

High-End Server - Driver & Challenge

The high-end server market is driven by the growing need for edge computing. However, the factors such as rising cybersecurity threats may impede market growth. The holistic analysis of the drivers will help in deducing end goals and refining marketing strategies to gain a competitive edge.

To know about more drivers & challenges - Download a free sample now!

High-End Server Market End-user Outlook (Revenue, USD bn, 2021-2026)

IT and telecom - size and forecast 2021-2026

BFSI - size and forecast 2021-2026

Others - size and forecast 2021-2026

High-End Server Market Geography Outlook (Revenue, USD bn, 2021-2026)

North America - size and forecast 2021-2026

- size and forecast 2021-2026 Europe - size and forecast 2021-2026

- size and forecast 2021-2026 APAC - size and forecast 2021-2026

MEA - size and forecast 2021-2026

South America - size and forecast 2021-2026

To gain insights on the market contribution of various segments - Grab an Exclusive Free Sample Report !

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Server Storage Market -The server storage market share is expected to increase by USD 54.68 billion from 2021 to 2026, at a CAGR of 27.49%. Download a free sample now!

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High-End Server Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 18.41% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 32.09 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 16.96 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 38% Key consumer countries US, Germany, China, France, and Japan Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Acer Inc., Apple Inc., ASUSTeK Computer Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., HCL Infosystems Ltd., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., International Business Machines Corp., and Toshiba Corp. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

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With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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SOURCE Technavio
KENNESAW, Ga., Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Cobb-Paulding Science Fair this past Saturday, Stephen Litt, a 12th grade student enrolled in the Kennesaw Mountain High School Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology (Magnet program), exhibited his Phase VII research which demonstrates how an antioxidant in green tea may prevent cancer from spreading and therefore be classified as metastatic. This is based upon evidence that the antioxidant, EGCG, binds to a protein responsible for cancer becoming more aggressive and spreading. Stephen is no stranger to science fairs and has been competing since first grade and has been focused on his cancer research since sixth grade.

At the fair, Litt earned the Top Overall Project designation and a coveted spot as a finalist at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) for a third time during his High School career. ISEF is to be held in Atlanta, Georgia from May 7-13, 2022 at the Georgia World Congress Center. ISEF, a program of Society for Science & the Public, is the world's largest international pre-college science competition.

The research started when Litt was in Middle School and used planarian worms as a model for cancer treatment. Subsequently, Litt was able to work with human breast and cervical cancer cells and prove that EGCG killed the cancer cells without harm to normal human epithelial cells. Over the past two years, Litt decided to delve into the molecular level to determine how EGCG may be keeping cancer at bay.

Today, millions of students worldwide compete each year in local and school-sponsored science fairs; the winners of these events go on to participate in affiliated regional and state fairs from which the best win the opportunity to attend Regeneron ISEF.

Regeneron ISEF unites these top young scientific minds, showcasing their talents on an international stage, where doctoral level scientists review and judge their work.

For more information, visit: https://egcg.home.blog

Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12903168

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Cobb-Paulding Science
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) today announced that it has filed its preliminary proxy materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") in connection with its upcoming Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on March 25, 2022. The preliminary proxy statement is available on voteforhuntsman.com.

Highlights from the preliminary proxy filing include:

The Huntsman Board has substantially completed an extensive refreshment plan that began at the end of 2017 and implemented extensive corporate governance enhancements.

With the assistance of a leading international and independent search firm, the Board has substantially completed its director succession plan focused on recruiting directors with the independence, background, diversity, experience and expertise needed to support Huntsman's continuing efforts to upgrade and streamline its portfolio. As a result, eight new independent directors have been appointed since 2018.

In January 2022 , Huntsman appointed three highly experienced individuals  David Sewell , Jose Munoz and Curtis Espeland  as new directors and announced that four existing directors will transition off the Board at the upcoming Annual Meeting.

, Huntsman appointed three highly experienced individuals  , Jose Munoz and  as new directors and announced that four existing directors will transition off the Board at the upcoming Annual Meeting. The Board appointed Cynthia Egan as Non-Executive Vice Chair and Lead Independent Director and appointed new Committee Chairs, resulting in four of five Board committees being chaired by women as of the upcoming Annual Meeting.

as Non-Executive Vice Chair and Lead Independent Director and appointed new Committee Chairs, resulting in four of five Board committees being chaired by women as of the upcoming Annual Meeting. The Board implemented a multi-year incentive compensation program for all Huntsman officers and vice presidents that ties the vast majority of their incentive compensation to the achievement of the Investor Day targets.

Huntsman has consistently engaged and made efforts to reach an agreement with Starboard and avoid a costly and unnecessary proxy contest.

Since September 2021 , the Huntsman Board and management team have had over a dozen calls or meetings with Starboard.

, the Huntsman Board and management team have had over a dozen calls or meetings with Starboard. After Starboard repeatedly refused to provide the names of Starboard candidates so that the Board could include consideration of those candidates in its ongoing refreshment process, the Board acted with urgency and speed when Starboard finally provided the names of three candidates on January 5, 2022 . The Board's Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee interviewed the two outside candidates presented by Starboard at the time, James Gallogly and Sandra Beach Lin , not even 48 hours after receiving the names.

. The Board's Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee interviewed the two outside candidates presented by Starboard at the time, and , not even 48 hours after receiving the names. Huntsman then agreed to facilitate a call between Starboard and Mr. Sewell for the purpose of seeing whether Mr. Sewell met Starboard's criteria and could be appointed as part of a potential agreement, and Starboard indicated it would reach out to Huntsman after the call. During its meeting with Mr. Sewell, Starboard first noted that Mr. Sewell appeared to be 'a good nominee' for the Huntsman Board and that 'Starboard might even have an interest in nominating him to other boards in the future'. Starboard then proceeded to tell Mr. Sewell that it planned on running a proxy fight with the Company and that new directors, including Mr. Sewell, 'could be targeted.'

Mr. Smith never called Huntsman after his call with Mr. Sewell. The next communication with Starboard or any of its principals or representatives was on January 12, 2022 when Starboard formally nominated its slate.

We believe Starboard's actions demonstrate there is no misalignment with Huntsman's objectives and strategic initiatives.

Ahead of Huntsman's November 2021 Investor Day, the Company entered into a standard non-disclosure agreement with Starboard to allow Starboard to review in advance the Company's presentation and provide suggestions.

Investor Day, the Company entered into a standard non-disclosure agreement with Starboard to allow Starboard to review in advance the Company's presentation and provide suggestions. The Company believes it is clear from its engagement that there is no misalignment with Starboard on Huntsman's objectives and strategic initiatives. For example, Huntsman's recently initiated strategic review process for the Textile Effects Division, increase in the quarterly dividend by 15% in April 2021 , a new share repurchase authorization of $1 billion over the next three years, as well as numerous corporate governance enhancements, each align with suggestions made by Starboard. In fact, on January 12 , Starboard publicly noted 'We have also been pleased by the Company's recent announcements around financial targets, capital allocation priorities and portfolio changes, which incorporate many of our suggestions.' 1

, a new share repurchase authorization of over the next three years, as well as numerous corporate governance enhancements, each align with suggestions made by Starboard. In fact, on , Starboard publicly noted 'We have also been pleased by the Company's recent announcements around financial targets, capital allocation priorities and portfolio changes, which incorporate many of our suggestions.' Accordingly, we believe Starboard's actions demonstrate its public campaign is solely about installing its handpicked board candidates rather than allowing Huntsman's refreshed and highly qualified Board to focus on the execution of the Company's initiatives, which Starboard supports.

Huntsman remains unwavering in its commitment to acting in the best interests of all shareholders.

Advisors:

BofA Securities and Moelis & Company LLC are serving as financial advisors to Huntsman. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal advisor to Huntsman.

About Huntsman:

Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty chemicals with 2020 revenues of approximately $6 billion. Our chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. We operate more than 70 manufacturing, R&D and operations facilities in approximately 30 countries and employ approximately 9,000 associates within our four distinct business divisions. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the company's website at www.huntsman.com.

Social Media:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Huntsman_Corp

Facebook: www.facebook.com/huntsmancorp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/huntsman

1 Starboard press release dated January 12, 2022

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements include statements concerning our plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events, future revenue or performance, capital expenditures, financing needs, plans or intentions relating to acquisitions, divestitures or strategic transactions, including the review of the Textile Effects Division, business trends and any other information that is not historical information. When used in this press release, the words "estimates," "expects," "anticipates," "likely," "projects," "outlook," "plans," "intends," "believes," "forecasts," or future or conditional verbs, such as "will," "should," "could" or "may," and variations of such words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, management's examination of historical operating trends and data, are based upon our current expectations and various assumptions and beliefs. In particular, such forward-looking statements are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the Company's operations, markets, products, prices and other factors as discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). In addition, there can be no assurance that the review of the Textile Effects Division will result in one or more transactions or other strategic change or outcome. Significant risks and uncertainties may relate to, but are not limited to, ongoing impact of COVID-19 on our operations and financial results, volatile global economic conditions, cyclical and volatile product markets, disruptions in production at manufacturing facilities, timing of proposed transactions, reorganization or restructuring of the Company's operations, including any delay of, or other negative developments affecting the ability to implement cost reductions and manufacturing optimization improvements in the Company's businesses and to realize anticipated cost savings, and other financial, operational, economic, competitive, environmental, political, legal, regulatory and technological factors. Any forward-looking statement should be considered in light of the risks set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, which may be supplemented by other risks and uncertainties disclosed in any subsequent reports filed or furnished by the Company from time to time. All forward-looking statements apply only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Additional Information and Where to Find It:

The Company has filed a preliminary proxy statement and accompanying WHITE proxy card with the SEC with respect to the Company's 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "2022 Annual Meeting"), and prior to the 2022 Annual Meeting, the Company intends to file a definitive proxy statement and accompanying WHITE proxy card with the SEC. The Company's shareholders are strongly encouraged to read the definitive proxy statement, the accompanying WHITE proxy card and other documents filed with the SEC carefully in their entirety when they become available because they will contain important information. The Company's shareholders will be able to obtain any proxy statement, any amendments or supplements to the proxy statement and other documents filed by the Company with the SEC free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Copies will also be available free of charge at the Company's website at www.huntsman.com.

Certain Information Regarding Participants:

The Company, its directors and certain of its executive officers are participants in the solicitation of proxies from the Company's shareholders in connection with the matters to be considered at the 2022 Annual Meeting. Information about the Company's directors and executive officers is available in the Company's (a) annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the SEC on February 12, 2021 and (b) proxy statement filed with the SEC on March 18, 2021 with respect to the Company's 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. To the extent holdings of the Company's securities by such directors or executive officers have changed since the amounts printed in the proxy statement, such changes have been or will be reflected on Statements of Changes in Beneficial Ownership on Form 4 filed with the SEC. Additional information regarding the identity of potential participants, and their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be set forth in the proxy statement and other materials to be filed with the SEC in connection with the 2022 Annual Meeting.

SOURCE Huntsman Corporation
DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Biobanking Market 2021-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The biobanking market is anticipated to grow at a substantial CAGR of 6.7% during the forecast period. The market is set to display impressive growth during the forecast period with some key trends emerging, such as the need of tackling the increasing prevalence of cancers and chronic diseases driven by continuously evolving end-user expectations.

The biobanking market is focused on the production and refurbishment of technologically advanced devices within time constraints by carrying out several types of research. It also depends on the level of inventory management practices of OEM and MRO clients. The growth in the R&D investments, government initiatives, and policies to reduce the prevalence of several diseases and the increase in awareness about stem cell therapies are some of the opportunities for the market players in the forecast period.

Further, the high focus on automation and issues related to biospecimen sample procurement are the factors that are restraining the market growth during the forecast period. The global biobanking market suffered a growth in market share during the COVID-19 crisis as there was a huge rise in researches during Q1 and Q2 2020. The impact of SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19 on the global biobanking market is evolving to find new ways of controlling the global pandemic, other chronic diseases, and the rise in cancer patients.

The global biobanking market is segmented based on product type, sample type, and segment. Based on product type segment, the market is segmented into equipment, consumables, and software and services. Among these, the equipment segment is expected to grow with the highest share due to the increase in the new biobanks among various geographies across the globe. Based on the sample type segment, the market is segmented into blood products, human tissues, nucleic acid, cell lines, biological fluid, and human waste products. Further, based on the application segment, the market is bifurcated into clinical research and regenerative medicine.

Geographically market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. The Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing market for biobanking. Innovative manufacturing, which was once a stronghold of the US and a few European economies such as France, Italy, and Germany, is set to expand to emerging economies, with next-generation largescale manufacturing centers to be planned predominantly in the Asia-Pacific region. The establishment of research centers in the Asian economies of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China, which involve the highest degree of clinical researches, is set to increase the demand for biobanking in the forecast period.

Further, Becton, Dickinson and Co., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., AstraZeneca plc, Charles River Laboratories, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, among others are the key players in the market, To remain competitive in the market, the players are adopting different strategies such as new product launches and approvals, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and collaborations, and many others. For instance, in February 2021, Charles River Laboratories, Inc. has announced the acquisition of Cognate BioServices, Inc., a leading cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), which has $875 million in cash, subject to customary closing adjustments.

Market Segmentation

Global Biobanking Market Research and Analysis by Product Type Global Biobanking Market Research and Analysis by Sample Type Global Biobanking Market Research and Analysis by Application

The Report Covers

Comprehensive research methodology of the global biobanking market.

This report also includes a detailed and extensive market overview with key analyst insights.

An exhaustive analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendations.

Analysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting the global biobanking market.

Insights about market determinants that are stimulating the global biobanking market.

Detailed and extensive market segments with the regional distribution of forecasted revenues.

Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Report Summary



2. Market Overview and Insights

2.1. Scope of the Report

2.2. Analyst Insight & Current Market Trends

2.2.1. Key Findings

2.2.2. Recommendations

2.2.3. Conclusion



3. Competitive Landscape

3.1. Key Company Analysis

3.1.1. Overview

3.1.2. Financial Analysis

3.1.3. SWOT Analysis

3.1.4. Recent Developments

3.2. Key Strategy Analysis

3.3. Impact of COVID-19 on Key Players



4. Market Determinants

4.1. Motivators

4.2. Restraints

4.3. Opportunities



5. Market Segmentation

5.1. Global Bio-Banking Market by Product Type

5.1.1. Equipment

5.1.2. Consumables

5.1.3. Services & Software

5.2. Global Bio-banking Market by Sample Type

5.2.1. Blood Products

5.2.2. Human Tissues

5.2.3. Nucleic Acid

5.2.4. Cell Lines

5.2.5. Biological Fluid

5.2.6. Human Waste Product

5.3. Global Bio-banking Market by Application

5.3.1. Clinical Research

5.3.2. Regenerative Medicine



6. Regional Analysis



7. Company Profiles

7.1. Abbott Laboratories

7.2. AstraZeneca PLC

7.3. Becton, Dickinson and Co.

7.4. BioChain Institute Inc.

7.5. Biokryo GmbH

7.6. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG

7.7. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

7.8. Cell&Co.

7.9. Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.

7.10. Danaher Corp.

7.11. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

7.12. Hamilton Co.

7.13. Lonza Group

7.14. LVL Technologies GmbH & Co. KG

7.15. Merck KGaA and Co.

7.16. Micronic Europe BV

7.17. Modul-Bio

7.18. Pfizer Inc.

7.19. PromoCell GmbH

7.20. QIAGEN GmbH

7.21. Tecan Trading AG

7.22. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

7.23. Ziath Ltd.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8vrlj1

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets
ROCKVILLE, Md., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Save a Child's Heart , an Israel-based nonprofit committed to bringing life-saving cardiac treatments to children born in countries where care is limited, is marking its 25-year anniversary and expanding its reach to even more countries through a new partnership.

In its 25 years, Save a Child's Heart has treated over 6,000 children from 63 countries, either during missions to those countries or by bringing them to Israel for care.

Some of the African children being treated by SACH.

A new partnership between Save a Child's Heart and Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), through its Africa Division and Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV), will bring 25 children from 25 African countries to Israel for care.

Save a Child's Heart has already helped children from 14 countries in Africa, and the partnership will expand that to help children from 11 others, including South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cameroon, South Africa, Angola and Mozambique.

"I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate our 25th anniversary than by joining hands with Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to mend the hearts of 25 children from 25 countries throughout Africa, here in Israel," said Save a Child's Heart Executive Director Simon Fisher. "Together we are saving the world, one heart at a time; this is real Tikkun Olam."

In complex humanitarian operations, Save a Child's Heart and Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs will work together with the local health authorities in Africa to identify children in need of life-saving heart care and fly them to Israel. Many of these children may not have access to pediatric heart care in their own countries.

In Israel, the children will receive critical heart care at the Sylvan Adams Children's Hospital, a new hospital funded by Save a Child's Heart donors.

Doctors based at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, who dedicate their time to Save a Child's Heart as volunteers, will conduct the treatments.

In addition to providing surgeries, Save a Child's Heart is working to raise the level of pediatric cardiac care worldwide by bringing doctors to Israel for specialized training so they can return to their home countries to practice pediatric cardiology.

Media Contact:

David Litwack

240-223-3940

[email protected]

SOURCE Save a Child's Heart
JERSEY CITY, N.J., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IT By Design (ITBD), a Master Managed Services Provider (MMSP), announced today that it has entered into a mutual partnership with Vijilan Security, a premium cybersecurity monitoring company, to create a unified Managed Extended Detection and Response offering, branded as mXDR. This marks Vijilan's first-ever MSP/Network Operations Center (NOC) alliance.

ITBD, the nation's largest privately held MMSP, known for its global operations of 24x7 NOC services and dedicated engineers, enters its agreement with Vijilan to provide an MSP-focused, cost-effective Security Operations Center (SOC) and NOC operations services. This strategic partnership allows MSPs to receive a turnkey solution to not only detect, analyze, and investigate cyber-attacks, but also respond through threat containment and eradication.

Vijilan has developed an advanced cloud-based Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) infrastructure that ingests logs from a multitude of technologies whether on-premises, cloud-based applications, and Endpoints. Vijilan consolidates, correlates, and investigates security incidents through its U.S.-based SOC and engages MSPs to act. Through this partnership and new service offering, Vijilan's Incident Response Team will engage ITBD engineers to validate, contain, eradicate, and remediate its findings.

Historically, businesses would have both SOC and NOC services under independent agreements. Traditionally, MSPs would have to go through a timeworn process, hard-to-track tickets, emails, approvals, calls, and change management. As the threat landscape continues to evolve, extended technologies require modern management of centralized workflow and approval process.

ITBD and Vijilan have bundled their respective services and established a competitive solution offering that will prove extremely attractive to MSPs and their customers. ITBD will provide all network maintenance while Vijilan conducts the security monitoring. With the ITBD and Vijilan team, all phases of an infrastructure's security are now covered with an affordable and unified managed detection and response.

"ITBD's expertise is in infrastructure, so this partnership with Vijilan now allows us to provide our clientele with expertise in security as well," said Javid Khan, Chief Technology Officer, ITBD. "This is an opportunity to highlight each other's strengths and provide MSPs with a long-sought-after offering. Vijilan has a great reputation in the security space and being their partner of choice is a real testament to our organization's standing in the managed services community."

"We are living in a world where digital information is being generated at an immense volume. The mastery of collecting and analyzing the scale of streams of data  which is coming from so many different data points at great velocity  is a science. Combining this information with the information most organizations don't know they have, and alerting them on misuse, is an art. Vijilan has built some of the greatest security products in the market today and has overcome some of the ever-evolving challenges that MSPs and MSSPs face. In partnership with IT By Design, Vijilan is going to protect the MSPs and their customers against cyber threats through continuous monitoring, threat mitigation, and containment," said Kevin Nejad, CEO Vijilan.

About Vijilan Security

Vijilan is a security monitoring company that alerts IT organizations and Managed Services Providers (MSPs) when a potential security breach is taking place in their organization or customers environment. Vijilan's continuous monitoring operates in Aventura, Florida, and includes threat detection and response in near real-time. Vijilan delivers the technologies, processes, and people as a service primarily through Managed Service Providers (MSPs). SIEM-SOC-Incident Response as one product.

MEDIA CONTACT

Vanessa M. Orellana

Vijilan Security

(954) 334-9988

[email protected]

About IT By Design

With over two decades of experience as a technology services providerfirst as an MSP, and then for MSPsIT by Design (ITBD) helps clients navigate the volatile technical landscape. As the authority on MSP-trained technical talent, it understands the challenges its customers face when recruiting team members. ITBD addresses those issues through many solutions: dedicated staffing, 24x7x365 NOC services, helpdesk solutions, RMM virtual admin, vCIO consulting, security, and professional services. ITBD is headquartered in New Jersey and has facilities in India and the Philippines. Learn more about ITBD at www.itbd.net.

MEDIA CONTACT

Tom Zanca

IT By Design

(201) 669-6048

[email protected]

SOURCE IT By Design
DALLAS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jacobs (NYSE:J) has been awarded a feasibility study contract from renewable energy company RWE to investigate the production and supply of green hydrogen in South Wales, U.K.

The four-month study will look at the feasibility of initially installing a 100MW electrolyzer at RWE's Pembroke Power Station to produce green hydrogen.

"This feasibility study provides us with an opportunity to work alongside RWE to grow their innovative projects that will further move our sector to low and zero emission generation," said Jacobs People & Places Solutions Senior Vice President for Europe and Digital Strategies Donald Morrison. "This work reaffirms our 20-year relationship with RWE at Pembroke Power Station and demonstrates our ambitions for Jacobs to be at the forefront of delivering the energy transition."

The study will draw on Jacobs' global hydrogen and multi-disciplinary capability with teams involved from the U.K., mainland Europe and Australia. It will also focus on how green hydrogen could be used for transport and decarbonization activities in South Wales to support carbon reduction targets.

The green hydrogen project has the potential to grow to several gigawatts in scale and could be linked to floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea. It is the first from RWE's Pembroke Net Zero Centre which launched in early 2021.

Richard Little Pembroke Power Station Manager said: "We're excited to see the outputs of Jacob's feasibility study over coming weeks, the first step towards the potential construction of large-scale hydrogen infrastructure at Pembroke. Hydrogen will be a game changer in the decarbonization of heavy industry in South Wales and RWE will be a key partner in helping achieve that."

This is another key energy transition project in Jacobs' growing portfolio supporting clients with integrated solutions that reduce emissions, enhance reliability and strengthen livability outcomes for communities.

In 2021, Jacobs established the Office of Global Climate Response and ESG, to deliver on the company's commitments to climate change through innovative solutions for its clients across energy transition, decarbonization, adaptation and mitigation, and natural resource stewardship.

At Jacobs, we're challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world's most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing, turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good. With $14 billion in revenue and a talent force of approximately 55,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector. Visit jacobs.com and connect with Jacobs on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements as such term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and such statements are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provided by the same. Statements made in this release that are not based on historical fact are forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements on management's current estimates and expectations as well as currently available competitive, financial and economic data. Forward-looking statements, however, are inherently uncertain. There are a variety of factors that could cause business results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the emergence and spread of variants of COVID-19, the efficacy and availability of vaccines and treatments, and the related reaction of governments on global and regional market conditions and the company's business. For a description of some additional factors that may occur that could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements, see the discussions contained under Item 1 - Business; Item 1A - Risk Factors; Item 3 - Legal Proceedings; and Item 7 - Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is not under any duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform to actual results, except as required by applicable law.

For press/media inquiries:

Kerrie Sparks

214.583.8433

SOURCE Jacobs
YAKUM, Israel, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Japanese auto-parts manufacturer TPR have invested $5M in Aquarius Engines. TPR is a Japanese publicly traded manufacturer of engine components for the global automotive industry and was already a non-material shareholder in Aquarius Engines (TASE: AQUA). The new capital will accelerate the development, production, and distribution of the Aquarius Engine in Japan and beyond.

The private investment would be the equivalent of 489,284 shares at NIS 32,66 per share.

A rendition of the future Aquarius Engines concept car with its revolutionary onboard generator powered by the 10kg Aquarius Engine (Credit: Aquarius Engines).

The news comes as the two companies continue to negotiate an additional TPR investment in Aquarius Engines' subsidiary in Tokyo, as reported in October 2021. As well as a potential manufacturing agreement under which TPR will manufacture Aquarius Engines' products in Japan.

"TPR is a leading force in the Japanese automotive industry, specializing in engine parts. Beyond the monetary investment, we see TPR as a natural partner to champion our interests in Japan and beyond. As we continue to promote and explore collaborations with other significant strategic players in all of our global target markets." Said Ariel Gorfung, CEO of Aquarius Engines.

TPR was the second major Japanese automotive company to invest in Aquarius Engines following Honda-affiliate Musashi Seimitsu in 2019.

In November 2021, Aquarius Engines reported it's first purchase order for generators from the Italian-based Tecnoelettra, which supplies state-of-the-art power solutions to a wide range of clients, including those in the telecommunications industry. The 5M order was received after successful completion of a series of field tests, with the supply of generators to begin in stages from October 2022 until the end of 2023.

Aquarius Engines also enjoys a strategic partnership with Nokia in the field of remote communication and energy equipment management. The Aquarius Engines Generator is currently undergoing additional field tests in North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.

The 10kg Aquarius Engine was invented in 2014 and is designed to be used as an onboard power generator in a vehicle or as a stand-alone electricity generator. Unlike most conventional engines that are made of hundreds of parts, the Aquarius Engine has just twenty components and one moving part. The lightweight streamlined design makes it inexpensive and highly efficient with minimal need for maintenance, compared to traditional engines.

The Aquarius Engines technology currently has around two dozen patents registered worldwide. The company Chairman is Gal Fridman and CEO is Ariel Gorfung. Aquarius Engines has manufacturing and development centers in Israel, Germany and Poland. https://www.aquariusengines.com/

SOURCE AQUARIUS ENGINES
FRANKLIN, N.J., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- JFK Health ACO, an Edison, New Jersey-based Accountable Care Organization, is teaming up with Healthmote to deploy their remote patient monitoring solution / remote physiological monitoring. The RPM program will utilize cellular and bluetooth connected monitoring devices including, blood pressure monitors, weight scales and pulse oximeters. Healthmote's care management team will monitor patient vitals and engage patients around care goals.

Chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability in America, and they are also a leading driver of healthcare costs1. Remote patient monitoring has proven to be an effective tool in improving chronic disease care. RPM has been praised for engaging patients in their own care by providing them access to their own data, so they can better understand the impact of their treatment and advocate for their medical needs 2.

Providers nationwide are choosing RPM as a strategy to expand access to care, and improve outcomes. They vendors that provide complete solutions and are able deploy their systems with minimal disruption to the practice. Healthmote is that complete "turn-key" solution which allows any practice to implement an RPM program without taking on significant new work, or hiring additional staff. Built by a team with over a decade of experience in EHR and RCM, the system includes: patient eligibility verification, direct-to-patient shipping, secure SaaS software portal with customizable alerts, notifications and timers, clinical care management and advanced billing support.

For patients, realizing that their vitals are reviewed by a clinician, provides assurance that they are receiving optimal care. RPM patients won't need to maintain a log of their vitals, and they are more likely to engage in better health habits. Providers will make more informed care planning decisions due to the robust data that RPM provides. Physicians will also take comfort knowing that some of their highest risk patients will be monitored by Healthmote's clinical team.

About Healthmote

Healthmote streamlines remote patient monitoring and Chronic Care Management for physician practices, and health systems to increase care efficiencies and improve outcomes. Leveraging technology and a customizable cloud-based platform, Healthmote delivers real-time data from the patient to the care team. Healthmote is based in Franklin, NJ and can be found online at www.healthmote.com .

Rick Crespo, Director

(732)598-7446

[email protected]

1 https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/index.htm l

2 2 AMA, https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/remote-patient-monitoring-implementation-playbook-overview

SOURCE Healthmote LLC
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Altar'd State, a rapidly growing multi-brand women's fashion retailer with 150 locations throughout the United States, today announced the appointment of Joergen Scheuer-Larsen as the company's chief information officer and senior vice president. Scheuer-Larsen will lead all technology for the company's family of brands, which include Arula and Vow'd.

As Altar'd State's CIO, Joergen Scheuer-Larsen will lead all technology for the company's family of brands, which include Arula and Vow'd. Altar'd State feels like a sanctuarya place of beauty from the inside out.

Scheuer-Larsen joins Altar'd State with over twenty years of experience at iconic global brands including FOSSIL Group Inc., LEGO Systems, and Carlsberg Breweries Denmark, as well as serving in the Danish military. This varied experience has helped mold an executive with broad-ranging skills in leadership, technology, IT strategy, infrastructure and transformation. In his most recent role at FOSSIL, Scheuer-Larsen was promoted three times in eight years. Most recently as SVP CIO, he led all of IT strategically and executionally.

Scheuer-Larsen was identified for Altar'd State by Berglass+Associates, an executive search firm specializing in the consumer goods space, through its Star Search Program, a unique partnership focused on future, rather than short-term talent needs.

Scheuer-Larsen will relocate to the Knoxville area with his wife and two daughters.

About Altar'd State

Altar'd State is a rapidly growing women's fashion brand with 122 Altar'd State stores, 23 Arula boutiques, and five Vow'd boutiques in 38 states. It feels like a sanctuarya place of beauty from the inside out. From welcoming experiences and warm associates who make you feel special, to thoughtfully curated products in-store and online, Altar'd State is built upon the founding principles of giving back and making a difference in the world. Beauty that draws you in, a heart that keeps you coming back.

Altar'd State offers online retail experiences at altardstate.com, arula.com, and vowdweddings.com.

Media Contact:

Laura Mansfield, APR

Tombras

[email protected]

865.599.9968

SOURCE Altard State
"I'm going to be experimenting with the Parler platform to see what opportunities for truthful and uncensored exchange it offers," Peterson said. "I understand that their policy is that no lawful communication will ever be subject to censor. Commitment to such a policy in this time of accelerating cancel culture has become of paramount importance."

Like Parler, Peterson is no stranger to censorship by Big Tech and universities. Courageously sharing his views, even when they challenge the mainstream narrative, Peterson has faced online bans, tour cancelations, and the threat of losing his university appointment and clinical practice.

Peterson recently resigned as a fully tenured professor at the University of Toronto, after years of being targeted for his stance on controversial issues, as well as his cultural influence more broadly. Parler is proud to provide a platform where Peterson, a gifted educator, can offer his refreshing, clear, unfiltered commentary to curious thinkers.

Parler CEO George Farmer welcomes Peterson to the platform where freedom of ideas is thriving.

"I am excited to announce Jordan's arrival on Parler," Farmer said. "He is truly one of a kind. Jordan's incredible intellect and academic background, along with his commonsense approach to free speech mark him out as one of the intellectual heavyweights in the current age. We are thrilled to see him embrace the Parler platform."

Peterson can be found at www.parler.com/jordanbpeterson, or by searching Parler for the username jordanbpeterson.

About Parler Inc.

Parler has a bold vision to make freedom of expression, security, and privacy a reality through social media and blockchain technology. Over 16 million users have chosen Parler as their social media platform to protect against the authoritarian powers of Big Tech, Big Government, and cancel culture. Parler uses the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as a guide, making it possible for people to speak freely without fear of being suspended or labeled 'dangerous' and banned. Parler is the public town hall where everyone is welcome. Founded in 2018, Parler is based in Nashville, TN, and has a global reach. To learn more, visit https://parler.com and follow @Parler.

For Press Inquiries:

[email protected]

SOURCE Parler
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - J&T Express, an international express logistics company, today announced at LEAP that it will set up its MENA regional headquarters in Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and build the largest smart logistics industrial park in the region together with eWTP Arabia Capital and other partners.

Held in Riyadh from February 1-3, 2022, LEAP Summit is a leading global technology event in Saudi Arabia, featuring over 700 emerging technology startups. Jet Lee, Founder and Chairman of the J&T Group, delivered a keynote speech via video at the summit, announcing that J&T Express will set its MENA regional headquarters in Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and build the largest smart logistics park in the region. He shared that the industrial park will meet the growing logistics demands in the region, serve J&T's consumers and partners, and enhance delivery service experiences.

Representing the Saudi Arabian government, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the smart logistics industrial park project with J&T Express and eWTP Arabia Capital. H.E. Eng. Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Saudi Arabia, His Excellency the President of GACA, Mr. Abdulaziz Al-Duailej, and the Chairman of Saudi Federation for Cyber Security, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), Board Member of Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), Mr. Faisal Alkhamisi, attended and witnessed the signing ceremony.

With the signing of the project, J&T Express is committed to cultivate professional talents, invest in advanced technology and equipment, and build the largest smart logistics industrial park in the MENA in the next ten years, making Saudi Arabia a global hub and strategic operation center for the entire regional market. The logistics park will include world-class sorting centers, auto warehousing systems, air cargo terminals, e-commerce industrial parks and modern industrial parks. It will provide the most advanced tech-driven services to its ecosystem partners in the near future and foster robust growth in the local retail and manufacturing sectors with the goal of making Saudi Arabia a pivotal gateway that bridges Asia, Europe, and Africa and helping Saudi Arabia achieve Vision 2030. This initiative is also greatly supported by the MENA venture capital eWTP Arabia Capital and other partners.

eWTP Arabia Capital's Managing Partner Jerry Li commented at the event, "It's a great pleasure for eWTP Arabia to participate in this project as a partner to further support J&T Express' operations in the MENA region and fuel its global network development. Together with J&T Express, we are confident to support more tech-driven innovative companies, supply chains and brands in China, who are looking to win over the global market."

In January this year, J&T Express launched its business in both the Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) markets. With its national self-owned distribution networks and localised warehousing systems, the company has successfully achieved full coverage in both countries.

Since its establishment in 2015, J&T Express has always adhered to a global mindset. With its unique operation model and active market expansion, it has rapidly built its own delivery network in 10 countries across the pan-Asia Pacific region to meet the growing demand of users for cross-border services. J&T Express will continue exploring opportunities in emerging markets as part of its global strategy to connect the world with greater efficiency and bring logistic benefits to all.

About J&T Express

Founded in August 2015, J&T Express is a rapidly-growing international delivery company, with its core business in express services and cross-border logistics. J&T Express is committed to continuously creating integrated quality experiences for its customers globally. J&T Express' network spans ten countries including China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and serves over 2 billion people.

SOURCE J&T Express
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kalera AS (Euronext Growth Oslo: KAL, Bloomberg: KSLLF) will host an Investor call with Agrico on Wednesday, February 02 from 8:00 am to 9:00 am Eastern Standard Time. The leadership team will provide a deeper understanding of the merger that was announced Monday, January 31, 2022.

The key member's from Kalera's leadership team to present consist of:

The link for the webcast and presentation will be available on the company's website. https://kalera.com/investors/

To access the call 1-888-270-2148 (within the United States ) of 1-412-902-6510 (outside of the United States ). Ask to join Kalera's call.

) of 1-412-902-6510 (outside of ). Ask to join Kalera's call. A replay of this call will be available at 1-877-344-7529 (within the United States ) or 1-412-317-0088 (outside of the United States . The replay access code is 3106306

) or 1-412-317-0088 (outside of . The replay access code is 3106306 A replay of the webcast will also be available at https://kalera.com/investors/

About Kalera:

Kalera is a vertical farming company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company produces fresh, nutritious, and excellent tasting leafy greens with minimal environmental impact. It has spent several years optimizing plant nutrient formulas and developing an advanced automation and data acquisition system with Internet of Things, cloud, big data analytics and artificial intelligence. Kalera currently operates farms in Orlando (Florida), Atlanta (Georgia), Houston (Texas), and Kuwait. More information is available at https://www.Kalera.com/.

Contact:

Eric Birge

[email protected]

313-309-9500

SOURCE Kalera AS
In 1971, President Richard Nixon amended the Public Health Service Act of 1944 to create legislation that would wage a "war on cancer." The National Cancer Act established the current iteration of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and enabled the development of a national cancer program. It also empowered researchers by creating a clinical trial network, provided additional funding for cancer control programs and established an international cancer research data bank. Additionally, the National Cancer Act created a presidentially-appointed committee known as the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) to guide the development of NCI programs and the President's Cancer Panel (PCP), which holds public hearings on cancer topics and submits a yearly report to the president.

"The National Cancer Act was a game-changer for cancer treatment and research," said Gerold Bepler, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO of Karmanos Cancer Institute. "This legislation laid the groundwork for enhanced communication and elevated the nation's commitment to curing cancer."

Dr. Bepler recently spoke about the 50th anniversary of the NCA and what it means to be an NCI cancer center with Kevin Stevenson on the I Don't Care podcast, which highlights health care executives and administrators who are solving unique issues in their industries. To hear his interview, click here.

The NCI Cancer Centers Program, a critical part of the 1971 act, recognizes centers around the country that meet rigorous standards for transdisciplinary, state-of-the-art research focused on developing new and better approaches to preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer.

In 1978, just seven years after its inception, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated Karmanos Cancer Institute as a comprehensive cancer center. At this time, Karmanos was known as the Cancer Center of Metropolitan Detroit. This designation is awarded to only 51 cancer centers throughout the country, and Karmanos is only one of two cancer centers with this designation in Michigan. To receive this designation, a hospital must demonstrate expertise in laboratory, clinical and population-based research. Hospitals must also provide early-phase clinical trials and conduct community outreach and educational activities. This means patients can access treatments exclusive to Karmanos, as well as cancer prevention programs and multidisciplinary teams of cancer specialists.

NCI-designated cancer centers play a vital role in advancing our goal of reducing morbidity and mortality from cancer. During our 43 years as an NCI-designated cancer center, Karmanos has contributed to many meaningful advancements in cancer treatment. Highlights include:

1989 - Dr. Soule developed MCF-10, an immortal line of normal human breast cells. The cell line was the first of its kind to be cultured without the use of transforming agents and was used to study the earliest changes a normal cell undergoes in becoming cancerous.





- Dr. Soule developed MCF-10, an immortal line of normal human breast cells. The cell line was the first of its kind to be cultured without the use of transforming agents and was used to study the earliest changes a normal cell undergoes in becoming cancerous. 1998 - The National Breast Cancer Prevention Trial released news that the drug Tamoxifen, can reduce the incidence of breast cancer in healthy women at high risk for the disease by 50 percent. The drug was created with the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line established by the Institute in 1973.





- The National Breast Cancer Prevention Trial released news that the drug Tamoxifen, can reduce the incidence of breast cancer in healthy women at high risk for the disease by 50 percent. The drug was created with the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line established by the Institute in 1973. 1999 - Dr. Wei-Zen Wei developed the HER-2 DNA breast cancer vaccine in 1999, which has been shown to be effective on drug-resistant tumors in mice.





- Dr. Wei-Zen Wei developed the HER-2 DNA breast cancer vaccine in 1999, which has been shown to be effective on drug-resistant tumors in mice. 2017 - CAR T-cell therapy received FDA approval; Karmanos is one of 18 sites in the world that participated in its development.





- CAR T-cell therapy received FDA approval; Karmanos is one of 18 sites in the world that participated in its development. 2021 - SoftVue  3D Whole Breast Ultrasound Tomography System receives FDA approval for use as an adjunct to digital mammography in screening asymptomatic women with dense breast tissue. This technology was developed by Delphinus Medical Technologies, LLC, which originated as part of Karmanos Cancer Institute.

In addition to these accomplishments, Karmanos has served thousands of individual patients and saved lives with outstanding care, research and clinical trials. The past 50 years have seen remarkable progress in eradicating cancer, the second leading cause of death in the United States, but there is more work ahead of us. Karmanos looks forward to leading the way, along with other NCI-designated centers and the backing of the National Cancer Institute. Nothing will stop us.

About the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute

Karmanos Cancer Institute is a leader in transformative cancer care, research and education through courage, commitment and compassion. Our vision is a world free of cancer. As part of McLaren Health Care, Karmanos is the largest provider of cancer care and research in the state of Michigan. For more than 75 years, our administrative and research headquarters, along with our premier specialty cancer hospital, have been located in downtown Detroit. Our 15 network sites throughout the state deliver market-leading cancer care and clinical trials conveniently to the communities where many of our patients live. Karmanos is recognized by the National Cancer Institute as one of the best cancer centers in the nation. Our academic partnership with the Wayne State University School of Medicine provides the framework for cancer research and education  defining new standards of care and improving survivorship. For more information, call 1-800-KARMANOS (800-527-6266) or visit www.karmanos.org. Follow Karmanos on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

SOURCE Karmanos Cancer Institute
TORONTO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Kasasa, an award-winning financial technology and marketing provider, today announced that it has partnered with Statflo, the leading provider of compliant one-to-one messaging, to bring text messaging capabilities to their community financial institution clients.

Across every industry, text messaging has become an increasingly popular, trusted, and effective way for businesses to engage with their customers. Studies have shown that 89% of consumers prefer two-way messaging to communicate with businesses and 90% of messages are read within the first three minutes of being received . Financial institutions can leverage rich customer data collected from each interaction to create personalized conversations and build stronger relationships with their customers.

"Competition in the banking sector has heated up in recent years, especially with the pandemic accelerating the shift to digital services. At Kasasa, we want to give community financial institutions the tools that are essential to compete with the bigger digital brand power of larger banks," said Gabe Krajicek, CEO of Kasasa. "Our partnership with Statflo is just one way that Kasasa is helping community financial institutions leverage new technologies to deliver on their unique ability to provide exceptional customer service to their account holders."

"We're very excited to partner with Kasasa to leverage our combined expertise and offer their clients the most robust marketing and customer engagement platform for text messaging," said Peter Macnee, CEO of Statflo. "It is more essential than ever for financial institutions to connect with their customers at the right time, with the right message, on the right channel. The integration of text messaging into Kasasa's powerful marketing platform, ConnectTM, creates an enormous opportunity for community financial institutions to elevate their overall customer experience."

Statflo is committed to helping businesses engage with their customers via their preferred channel. Statflo's leading compliance engine enables businesses operating in highly regulated industries to have the most meaningful, safest two-way conversations with their customers.

Kasasa serves over 900 community financial institutions nationwide, representing over 3 million consumer bank accounts across almost 4,000 branches in all 50 states. The company's mission is to support community financial institutions by giving them the technologies needed to compete against megabanks. With this new partnership, Kasasa is giving community financial institutions the tools they need to provide their customers with best-in-class products and digital experiences that have become increasingly more important in the digital age.

About Kasasa

Based in Austin, Texas, Kasasa is a financial technology and marketing provider committed to driving results for over 900 community financial institutions by attracting, engaging, and retaining consumers. Kasasa does this through branded retail products, world class marketing, and expert consulting. For more information, please visit www.kasasa.com , or visit them on Twitter or LinkedIn .

About Statflo

Statflo is the leading compliant one-to-one business messaging platform that enables businesses to have meaningful, two-way conversations with their customers over their preferred channel. With seamless integrations to existing systems, rich sendable content, and multi-channel messaging, customer-facing teams have all the tools and context they need in a single platform to engage, retain, and grow their customer base. For more information, please visit www.statflo.com , or visit them on LinkedIn .

SOURCE Statflo Inc.
AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lasso (lassoplatform.io), the world's first and only omnichannel platform for healthcare marketing and analytics, has announced the appointment of Eric Shih as their first Chief Growth Officer. Shih will be tasked with leading business development, strategy, and operations for Lasso's new Publisher Suite, in addition to spearheading several other important growth initiatives for the company.

Shih brings more than 18 years of digital media & technology leadership, and is widely known across the industry as an expert in this field. Most recently, he served as Chief Supply Officer at Teads, the world's largest, independent ad monetization platform, where he led global publisher acquisition and managed a team spanning 30 countries. During his almost 8-year tenure, Shih also managed the company's strategic partnerships with platforms such as Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Microsoft, Samsung, and more. Prior to his time at Teads, Shih held senior positions at a number of notable media companies including Scripps Networks (now Discovery Communications), A&E Networks, and Fuse.

Shih's arrival to Lasso sends a very clear message to the market that the company has entered the publisher business. Current competitive solutions have left a lot to be desired from a technology perspective, and with Shih's expertise, Lasso will now extend its end-to-end platform to both healthcare marketers and media owners alike. Lasso's best-in-class alternative will better meet publisher requirements for higher quality monetization, improved audience insights, and will provide access to Lasso's full suite of audience extension and measurement solutions, all while remaining completely compliant, privacy-safe, and secure. Additionally, this offering will provide immediate benefits for Lasso's existing clientele of healthcare marketers with a new endemic activation channel for their campaigns.

"We are honored to have a proven executive like Eric join the Lasso family," said Greg Field, CEO at Lasso. "His decision to come build the most powerful healthcare marketing and analytics platform with us is hugely validating for our team, our product, and our mission. Eric will add immediate value in scaling our Publisher Suite, and his experience in growing a multinational enterprise software company will set Lasso up for success now and in the future."

"Lasso has already developed a game-changing platform for omnichannel healthcare marketing," said Shih. "With a fragmented marketplace of point solutions which are often optimized solely for buy-side clients, I was impressed with the company's focus on developing the premiere platform to address the unique requirements of both healthcare marketers and media owners. Lasso is poised to become the leader in powering a projected $50 billion healthcare digital advertising market."

About Lasso

Lasso is the world's first and only omnichannel healthcare marketing and analytics platform that allows you to plan, activate, and measure your HCP and DTC campaigns across programmatic, social, email, and connected TV  all in one place. Lasso has offices in New York, NY and Austin, TX. Visit us at lassoplatform.io to learn more.

Contact:

Yilan Yang

[email protected]

SOURCE Lasso
C$ unless otherwise stated

TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC SEHK: 945

TORONTO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife Financial Corporation ("Manulife") announced today that it has received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") for its previously announced normal course issuer bid ("NCIB") permitting the purchase for cancellation of up to 97 million of its common shares, representing approximately 5% of Manulife's issued and outstanding common shares. As at January 31, 2022, Manulife had 1,942,706,408 common shares issued and outstanding. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada previously approved the NCIB. Under the NCIB, Manulife may purchase up to 1,643,662 of its common shares on the TSX during any trading day, which represents 25% of the average daily trading volume of 6,574,651 common shares on the TSX for the six months ended December 31, 2021, subject to TSX rules permitting block purchases. Purchases under the NCIB may commence through the TSX on February 3, 2022 and continue until February 2, 2023, when the NCIB expires, or such earlier date as Manulife completes its purchases.

Having an NCIB in place will provide Manulife with the flexibility to purchase common shares as part of its capital management strategy which is designed to maintain healthy regulatory capital ratios while balancing the objective of generating shareholder value. In addition, Manulife intends to repurchase shares in order to mitigate the impact of a recently completed reinsurance transaction on diluted Earnings Per Share and core Earnings Per Share.

Purchases under the NCIB may be made through the facilities of the TSX, the New York Stock Exchange, and alternative trading systems in Canada and the United States at market prices prevailing at the time of purchase or such other price as may be permitted. All common shares acquired by Manulife under the NCIB will be cancelled. Repurchases will be subject to compliance with applicable Canadian securities laws and United States federal securities laws.

In addition, Manulife may undertake repurchases of its common shares outside of Canada and the United States in compliance with applicable laws. Subject to regulatory approval, Manulife may also acquire common shares directly from other holders by way of private agreement pursuant to issuer bid exemption orders issued by applicable securities regulatory authorities. Any private purchase made under an exemption order issued by a securities regulatory authority will generally be at a discount to the prevailing market price. Manulife may also enter into derivative-based programs in support of its repurchase activities, including the writing of put options and forward purchase agreements, accelerated share repurchase transactions, other equity contracts or use other methods of acquiring shares, in each case subject to regulatory approval and on such terms and at such times as shall be permitted by applicable securities laws. The total number of common shares repurchased under the NCIB and all other potential arrangements will not exceed 97 million common shares.

Manulife has entered into an automatic share repurchase plan under which its designated broker will repurchase Manulife's common shares pursuant to the NCIB. The actual number of common shares purchased under the automatic plan, the timing of such purchases and the price at which common shares are purchased will depend upon future market conditions. The automatic plan, which was pre-cleared by the TSX, provides for the potential repurchase of common shares at any time, including when Manulife ordinarily would not be active in the market due to its own internal trading blackout periods, insider trading rules, or otherwise.

Caution regarding forward-looking statements

This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbour" provisions of Canadian provincial securities laws and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to possible future purchases by Manulife of its common shares. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual common share repurchases to differ materially from expectations include but are not limited to the fact that the amount and timing of any future common share repurchases will depend on the earnings, cash requirements and financial condition of Manulife, market conditions, capital requirements (including under LICAT capital standards), common share issuance requirements, applicable law and regulations (including Canadian and U.S. securities laws and Canadian insurance company regulations), and other factors deemed relevant by Manulife, and may be subject to regulatory approval or conditions.

Additional information about material risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations may be found in our most recent annual and interim reports and elsewhere in our filings with Canadian and U.S. securities regulators.

The forward-looking statements in this document are, unless otherwise indicated, stated as of the date hereof. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we provide financial advice and insurance, operating as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. Through Manulife Investment Management, the global brand for our global wealth and asset management segment, we serve individuals, institutions and retirement plan members worldwide. At the end of 2020, we had more than 37,000 employees, over 118,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 30 million customers. As of September 30, 2021, we had CAD$1.4 trillion (US$1.1 trillion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made CAD$31.6 billion in payments to our customers.

Our principal operations are in Asia and Canada, and the United States, where we have served customers for more than 155 years. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulife.com

SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation
IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total January sales of 21,079 vehicles, a decrease of 16.5 percent compared to January 2021. With 24 selling days in January, compared to the same number the year prior, the company posted a decrease of 16.5 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.

CPO sales totaled 3,119 vehicles in January, a decrease of 41 percent compared to January 2021.

Mazda Reports January Sales Results

Mazda Canada, Inc., (MCI) reported January sales of 3,493 vehicles, a decrease of 13.5 percent compared to January last year.

Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported January sales of 3,474 vehicles, a decrease of 7.8 percent compared to January last year.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts, and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States, Canada, and Mexico through approximately 780 dealers. Operations in Canada are managed by Mazda Canada Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at News.MazdaUSA.com.

Follow MNAO's social media channels through Twitter and Instagram at @MazdaUSA and Facebook at Facebook.com/MazdaUSA.

























Month-To-Date

Year-To-Date

























January January YOY % % MTD

January January YOY % % MTD



2022 2021 Change DSR

2022 2021 Change DSR























Mazda3 3,470 3,046 13.9% 13.9%

3,470 3,046 13.9% 13.9%

Mazda 3 Sdn 1,430 2,180 (34.4)% (34.4)%

1430 2,180 (34.4)% (34.4)%

Mazda 3 HB 2,040 866 135.6% 135.6%

2040 866 135.6% 135.6%























Mazda6 256 1,398 (81.7)% (81.7)%

256 1,398 (81.7)% (81.7)%























MX-5 Miata 386 536 (28.0)% (28.0)%

386 536 (28.0)% (28.0)%

MX-5 135 228 (40.8)% (40.8)%

135 228 (40.8)% (40.8)%

MXR 251 308 (18.5)% (18.5)%

251 308 (18.5)% (18.5)%























CX-3 - 374 - -

- 374 - -

CX-30 1,818 3,624 (49.8)% (49.8)%

1818 3,624 (49.8)% (49.8)%

CX-5 12,604 13,582 (7.2)% (7.2)%

12604 13,582 (7.2)% (7.2)%

CX-9 2,512 2,698 (6.9)% (6.9)%

2512 2,698 (6.9)% (6.9)%

MX-30 33 0 - -

33 0 - -























CARS 4,112 4,980 (17.4)% (17.4)%

4,112 4,980 (17.4)% (17.4)%

TRUCKS 16,967 20,279 (16.3)% (16.3)%

16,967 20,279 (16.3)% (16.3)%























TOTAL 21,079 25,259 (16.5)% (16.5)%

21,079 25,259 (16.5)% (16.5)%













































*Selling Days 24 24





24 24





























SOURCE Mazda North American Operations
PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Mechanical Ventilator Market by Product Type (Intensive Care Unit/Critical Care, Transport/Portable/Ambulatory, and Neonatal Care), Component (Devices and Services), Mode (Noninvasive Ventilation and Invasive Ventilation), Age Group (Pediatric & Neonatal, Adult, and Geriatric), and End User (Hospital & Clinic, Home Care, and Ambulatory Surgical Center): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030." According to the report, the global mechanical ventilator industry generated $4.65 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $18.63 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 12.8% from 2021 to 2030.

For Right Perspective and Competitive Insights, Get Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/453

Prime determinants of growth

High prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases and rise in government expenditure on healthcare & health policies drive the growth of the global mechanical ventilator market. However, high costs and risks related to usage of mechanical ventilators hinder the market growth. On the other hand, technological innovations, portability, and design create new opportunities in the coming years.

Covid-19 Scenario

The Covid-19 pandemic boosted the demand for mechanical ventilators as the Covid-19 is closely associated with respiratory failure and critically ill patients need ventilator support.

Mechanical ventilation has been implemented to oxygenate seriously-ill patients. The demand for portable mechanical ventilators increased in-home care settings during the pandemic.

In addition, new delta and omicron variants of Covid-19 have been spreading at a high rate and raised the risk of third-wave across the world. These risks led governments in many countries to implement favorable guidelines and regulations to increase the production of mechanical ventilators to fulfill the high requirements during the pandemic.

The devices segment to continue its leadership status during the forecast period

Based on component, the devices segment held the largest share in 2020, contributing to more than 85% of the global mechanical ventilator market, and is projected to continue its leadership status during the forecast period. This is attributed to increase in demand for different types of mechanical ventilator devices and rise in chronic diseases. However, the services segment is estimated to manifest the fastest CAGR of 13.8% from 2021 to 2030, owing to rise in sales of ventilators and surge in the number of hospitals.

Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Ask to Our Industry Expert: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/453

The intensive care unit/critical care segment to maintain its lead position by 2030

Based on product type, the intensive care unit/critical care segment accounted for the largest share in 2020, contributing to nearly three-fifths of the global mechanical ventilator market, and is estimated to maintain its lead position throughout the forecast period. This is due to rise in the number of hospitals & clinics, surge in chronic diseases, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the transport/portable/ambulatory segment is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 13.6% from 2021 to 2030. This is attributed to convenient in-home care settings and increase in the geriatric population.

North America to maintain its dominance by 2030

Based on region, North America contributed to the highest market share in 2020, holding around one-third of the global mechanical ventilator market, and is expected to maintain its dominance by 2030. This is attributed to rise in prevalence of lung diseases, presence of key players for manufacturing & development of mechanical ventilators, and surge in the number of hospitals in the region. However, Asia-Pacific is estimated to portray the largest CAGR of 15.9% during the forecast period, owing to increase in prevalence of chronic diseases, rise in the number of hospitals, and government initiatives to increase the production of ventilators.

Leading Market Players

Asahi Kasei Corporation (Zoll Medical Corporation)

Carl Reiner GmbH

Draegerwerk AG & Co. KGaA

Getinge AB (Maquet Holding B.V. & Co. KG)

General Electric Company (GE Healthcare)

Hamilton Medical AG

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Medtronic Plc. (Covidien Ltd.)

Mindray Medical International Limited

Smiths Group Plc.

Vyaire Medical Inc.

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Pawan Kumar, the CEO of Allied Market Research, is leading the organization toward providing high-quality data and insights. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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SOURCE Allied Market Research
VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Megawatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp. (CSE: MEGA) (FSE: WR20) (OTC PINK: WALRF) (the "Company" or "Megawatt") is planning an expansive exploration campaign, targeting rare earth elements (REE) & uranium zones, at its two properties  Artic Fox and Isbjorn  in Central Northern Territory. The work coincides with an increasing level of interest across the region on the back of improving fundamentals for REE and uranium.

Improving fundamentals on two fronts

With China controlling potentially between 80-90% of the global rare earth elements (REE) market, there has been a growing awareness among key stakeholders for the need for supply chain diversity. European automakers focused on developing the next generation of electric vehicles will require key REEs. They require neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) which are key REEs for electric motor magnets1.

According to ASX-listed Arafura Resources (ASX: ARU), it has engaged with European electric vehicle manufacturers that are interested in sourcing key REEs from it directly once production commences at its Nolans Bore Project later in the year. A key factor to secure contracts with European EV manufacturers is to ensure toxic waste is handled in line with strict environmental regulations, which requires ARU committing to processing recovered ore on site1.

The Nolans Bore Project, which has a JORC compliant REE resource (56Mt @ 2.6% total rare-earth oxides), can potentially supply 10% of the global REEs required for use in electric motors1.

In the uranium sector, the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust's move to acquire a substantial position, propelling the spot price to multi-year highs2, has resulted in further interest in emerging potential suppliers in the Central Northern Territory.

While the ultimate demand driver for uranium will be a resurgence in nuclear power generation, as the world transitions to lower carbon emissions, the recent energy shortfall in the United Kingdom highlights the over-reliance on fossil fuels that can potentially deliver a negative multiplier effects across an economy.

Focus on uranium

While the case for REEs, with ARU's improving profile, is well established  it is worth re-emphasising the key uranium arguments. These highlight the potential within Megawatt's properties and across the region, especially amid a significant uranium upcycle.

As part of ongoing due diligence ahead of upcoming site visits to the Artic Fox & Isbjorn properties, Megawatt's technical team has reviewed historical reports, including UK-based Power Metal Group's (AIM: POW) Selta Project (Figure 1).

Aside finding a 1973 study3 which outlined the potential for uranium mineralization within the tenure, there were numerous reports of surface occurrences including a standout 2,450ppm U from a 1994 report4. These findings highlight the exploration potential across the region for uranium mineralisation and requirement for further field exploration in order to identify potential drill targets.

These findings within Power Metal Group's ground, make a compelling case for uranium and build on the arguments presented earlier (refer to Uranium Potential to be Developed at Arctic Fox and Isbjorn Properties in Australia; September 15, 2021)5, which are repeated below:

ARU has modelled up a JORC compliant resource for uranium oxide (U308) at the Nolons Bore Project (56Mt @ 162ppm U3O8) 6 , which is contiguous to the Artic Fox property.

, which is contiguous to the Artic Fox property. Assayed samples of scree material from gneiss source rock, within the middle of Artic Fox, returned the following high-grade results: Sample ID N1-4A: 1,000ppm U equating to 1,179ppm U3O8; and Sample ID N1- 4B : 690ppm U equating to 814ppm U3O8 7 .

: 690ppm U equating to 814ppm U3O8 . Within the Isbjorn property, there are assayed alluvial and stream sediment samples at five locations which are all significant and require further on-site follow up 8 . These clearly highlight the exploration potential for U3O8 mineralization, including:

. These clearly highlight the exploration potential for U3O8 mineralization, including: Sample #1 ID 152798: 593ppm U equating to 699ppm U3O8; Sample #2 ID 132967: 302ppm U equating to 356ppm U3O8; Sample #3 ID 132966: 292ppm U equating to 344ppm U3O8; Sample #4 ID 152799: 514ppm U equating to 606ppm U3O8; and Sample #5 ID 152800: 586ppm U equating to 691ppm U3O8.

(The data disclosed in this news release related to sampling results is historical in nature. Megawatt has not undertaken any independent investigation of the sampling nor has it independently analysed the results of the historical exploration work in order to verify the results. Megawatt considers these historical sample results relevant as the Company will use this data as a guide to plan future exploration programs. The Company's future exploration work will include verification of the data through further analysis.)

David Thornley-Hall Chief Executive Officer commented: "The fundamentals for rare earth elements and uranium have continued to strengthen into 2022, which makes the exploration potential for the Artic Fox and Isbjorn properties in Central Northern Territory even more compelling. The Board is now intent on building a more expansive forward exploration program so that we can rapidly garner a greater understanding of our properties' potential to host REE and uranium mineralisation at this exciting point in the cycle."

Qualified Person

Mr. Geoffrey Reed (MAusMM (CP)) (MAIG), Consultant for the Company, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure or Mineral Projects and has reviewed the scientific and technical information in this press release.

References

Automakers Look to Hedge Against China Rare Earth Dominance; Elisabeth Behrmann ; 23 September 2021 . Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-22/automakers-look-to-hedge-against-china-s-rare-earth-dominance and Arafura Resources Limited 2021 Annual Report. Available at: https://www.arultd.com/images/Reports/Arafura_Resources_Annual_Report_2021.pdf



Uranium Rally Is a High-Stakes Bet on Future of Nuclear Power; Yvonne Yue Li , Will Wade and Stephen Stapczynski ; September 22, 2021 . Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-22/red-hot-uranium-rally-renews-debate-over-nuclear-s-future-in-zero-carbon-world



The Australian Mineral Development Laboratories (CR 74/19) Sixth Progress Report MP4976/73 Geochemical Survey, Arunta Area Amdel ( December 1973 )



PNC Exploration ( Australia ) Pty Ltd (CR 95/266) Napperby Annual Report 1994 Field Season. Available at: https://geoscience.nt.gov.au/gemis/ntgsjspui/simple-search?query=%22CR1995-0266%22&location=1/3



Megawatt CSE Release - Uranium Potential to be Developed at Arctic Fox and Isbjorn Properties in Australia ( September 15, 2021 ). Available at: https://webfiles.thecse.com/megawatt_0915.pdf?pzmeoPmSl8bWAsXeBTvUJ62u5.w6jAVU



Arafura Resources Limited 2015 Annual Report. Available at:https://www.arultd.com/investor/asx-announcements-2021/asx-archive.html



Megawatt CSE Release - Megawatt Provides Further Investigative Data for Uranium and REE Prospectivity Australian Projects" ( May 31, 2021 ) Available at:https://webfiles.thecse.com/megawatt_0531.pdf?MVGF3amnVjpZKzUgBlHctkQrryQKmk9_



Crossland Nickel Pty Ltd  Report Number CR2016-0105. Available at: https://geoscience.nt.gov.au/gemis/ntgsjspui/simple-search?location=1%2F3&query=%22CR2016-0105%22&rpp=10&sort_by=score&order=desc

Technical Information

All scientific and technical information in this news release has been prepared by, or approved by Geoffrey Reed, (MAusMM (CP)) (MAIG), Consultant for the Company. Mr. Reed is a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Mr. Reed has not verified any of the information regarding any of the properties or projects referred to herein other than the Arctic Fox and Isbjorn Properties. Mineralization on any other properties referred to herein is not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Arctic Fox and Isbjorn Properties.

The data disclosed in this news release related to sampling results is historical in nature. Megawatt has not undertaken any independent investigation of the sampling nor has it independently analyzed the results of the historical exploration work in order to verify the results. Megawatt considers these historical sample results relevant as the Company will use this data as a guide to plan future exploration programs. The Company's future exploration work will include verification of the data through further sampling.

Marketing Agreement

The Company has retained Sideways Frequency ("Sideways") for US$100,000 for a term of 60 days. Sideways has been engaged for native advertising and digital marketing services to increase brand awareness for the Company. Certain services to be provided by Sideways are anticipated to include investor relations activities under the policies of the CSE and applicable securities laws. The Company will continue to look at strategic consultants to expand awareness of the Company and its activities.

About MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp.

MegaWatt is a British Columbia based company involved in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in Canada. The Company holds a 100% undivided interest, subject to a 1.5% NSR on all base, rare earth elements and precious metals, in the Cobalt Hill Property, consisting of eight mineral claims covering an area of approximately 1,727.43 hectares located in the Trail Creek Mining Division in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. Additionally, the Company has acquired a 60% interest in a company that indirectly holds a 100% interest (subject to a 2% NSR) in two prospective silver-zinc projects in Australia, being the Tyr Silver Project and the Century South Silver-Zinc Project (see press release dated August 13, 2020), an indirect 100% interest (subject to a 1% NSR) in and to certain mining tenements in Northern Territory and New South Wales, Australia prospective for nickel-cobalt-scandium and rare earth elements. The Company holds a 100% interest (subject to a 2% NSR) in and to the Route 381 Lithium Property, comprised of 40 mineral claims located in James Bay Territory, north of Matagami in the Province of Quebec, covering 2,126 hectares (see press release dated February 3, 2021) and a 100% interest in 229 additional mineral exploration claims prospective for lithium, also in the James Bay area of Quebec covering an area of 12,116 hectares or 121 square kms.

Investors can learn more about the Company and team at https://megawattmetals.com.

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release includes "forward-looking information" that is subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements may include but are not limited to, statements relating to the trading of the Company's common shares on the Exchange and the Company's use of proceeds and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties normally incident to such events. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future events and that actual events or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward- looking statements. Such forward-looking statements represent management's best judgment based on information currently available. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release.

SOURCE MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp.

Related Links

https://megawattmetals.com

SOURCE MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp.
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global metal powder market is expected to be worth US$ 17.6 billion in 2022, rising to US$ 32.7 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 6.3% from 2022 to 2032.

The metal powder market has grown dramatically in recent years as a result of increased investments in powder manufacturing technologies to address performance and quality concerns. To capitalize on rising demand, manufacturers throughout the world are focusing on thoroughly evaluating innovative technologies and launching products in the target market.

Powdered metals are in high demand in the country's massive aerospace and defense industry. In 2020, the United States will contribute roughly $81 billion in aerospace exports. The United States is home to global aircraft industry titans such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

For More Valuable Information on Market Dynamics, Request a Report Sample

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=3202

When it comes to military spending, the aerospace and defense industry in the United States meets the vast bulk of worldwide and domestic demand for arms and technology. Six of the top 12 aerospace and defense corporations are currently based in the United States.

Metal powder demand, particularly white metal powder, has always been strong in the United States, and is likely to continue to climb substantially in the future, thanks to the fast developing automotive, aerospace, and defense industries.

Metal powder coating demand in China is expected to soar in the next years, thanks to rising construction expenditures and strong expansion in the automobile industry.

"Rising penetration of electric vehicles in the automotive industry has provided a positive outlook for metal powder suppliers" says a Fact.MR analyst

Attribute Details Metal Powder Market Size (2021A) USD 16.7 Bn Market Size Value Estimated (2022E) USD 17.6 Bn Market Forecast Value (2032F) USD 32.7 Bn Global Market Growth Rate (2022-2032) CAGR 6.3%

Key Takeaways:

Over the projected period, the value of additive manufacturing applications is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.5%.

Based on production technology, atomization and solid state reduction are predicted to expand 1.5X and 1.4X, respectively, creating an absolute $ potential of roughly US$ 7.8 billion and US$ 3.7 billion .

and . By application, powder metallurgy is expected to account for 51% of the market value share by the end of 2032.

By end-use industry, the automotive end-use industry is expected to account for 48.9% of total market value till 2032.

Due its numerous applications, medical end use is in high demand. By 2032, the medical end-use industry is expected to take 5.3% of the market share, representing a US$ 700 million absolute dollar opportunity.

Growth Drivers:

Rapid demand for sintered metal powder from the construction sector is expected to drive the overall metal powder demand.

Automotive, aerospace & defense, oil & gas, and construction industries are all contributing to the growth of the metal powder market.

For Critical Insights on Metal Powder Market, Request for Methodology here https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=3202

Competitive Landscape

Key metal powder market players are expanding their existing AM portfolio capacity and focusing on acquisitions or collaborations with AM-specific powder-related companies in order to boost their market share. For example,

Carpenter Technology purchased three AM-specific companies in 2018: LPW Technology and CalRAM, as well as Puris LLC in 2017.

Manufacturers are also focusing on developing and supplying application-based products to preserve competitiveness and brand image.

Hoganas AB, a renowned maker of metal powder, provides high-quality powder metallurgical products.

LPW Technology Ltd is a prominent supplier of ultra-clean metal powder for additive manufacturing.

Key players in the Metal Powder Market include:

AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V.

ATI Powder Metals

Aubert & Duval

Australian metal powder Supplies Pty Ltd

Carpenter Powder Products

GKN Plc

Global metal powder

Heraeus

Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.

Hoganas AB

Industrial Metal Powder Pvt Ltd

LPW Technology Ltd

Makin metal powder

More Valuable Insights on Metal Powder Market

Fact.MR provides an unbiased analysis of the metal powder market, presenting forecast statistics for the period from (2022-2032). The study divulges compelling insights on the global metal powder market with a detailed segmentation on the basis of:

By Material Type:

Metals



Iron





Copper





Nickel





Aluminium





Others (Chromium, Cobalt, Manganese, Titanium, etc.)



Metal Alloy



Stainless Steel





Silicon-iron





Nickel-iron





Others

By Production Technology:

Solid State Reduction



Atomization



Electrolysis



Others

By Application:

Metal Powder for Additive Manufacturing



Metal Powder for Alloying and Plating



Metal Powder for Tool Manufacturing



Metal Powder for Catalysts



Metal Powder for Powder Metallurgy



Press & sinter





Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP)





Hard Materials





Others



Metal Powder for MIM



Others

By End-use Industry:

Metal Powder for Aerospace & Defense



Metal Powder for Automotive



Metal Powder for Oil & Gas



Metal Powder for Medical Use



Metal Powder for Building & Construction



Others

By Region

North America



Latin America



Europe



East Asia



South Asia & Oceania

& Oceania

Middle East & Africa

Key Questions Covered in Metal Powder Market Report

The report offers insight into the metal powder market demand outlook for 2022-2032.

The market study also highlights projected sales growth for metal powder market between 2022 and 2032.

Metal powder market survey identifies key growth drivers, restraints, and other forces impacting prevailing trends and evaluation of current market size and forecast and technological advancements within the industry.

Metal powder market share analysis of the key companies within the industry and coverage of strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations or partnerships, and others.

Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Chemical & Materials Domain 

Iron Powder Market Insights - Vehicle production has increased significantly over the world, which is likely to fuel demand for iron powder over the projection period. In recent years, the additive manufacturing and Metal Injection Molding (MIM) processes have gained popularity in a number of end-use industries, resulting in increased demand for iron powder around the world.

High Purity Iron Powder Market Scope - Metallurgy, food & beverage, food packaging, electronics, and pharmaceuticals are just a few of the industries that use high purity iron powder. This is expected to propel the demand for high purity iron powder. High purity iron (HPI) powder is available in three grades: 99.9%, 99.99 percent, and 99.999 percent.

High Purity Aluminium Market Trends  High purity aluminium market is expected to grow at a positive rate. Demand growth over this time period can be estimated just by looking at the quantity demanded across industries such as semiconductors, aircraft, automotive, and others.

Titanium Alloys Market Scope - The Titanium Alloys market is expected to maintain its original trajectory in the post-COVID-19 period, thanks to rising end-use industries like as aerospace and defense, automobiles, and oil and gas processing.

About Fact.MR

Market research and consulting agency with a difference! That's why 80% of Fortune 1,000 companies trust us for making their most critical decisions. We have offices in US and Dublin, whereas our global headquarter is in Dubai. While our experienced consultants employ the latest technologies to extract hard-to-find insights, we believe our USP is the trust clients have on our expertise. Spanning a wide range  from automotive & industry 4.0 to healthcare & retail, our coverage is expansive, but we ensure even the most niche categories are analyzed. Reach out to us with your goals, and we'll be an able research partner.

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SOURCE Fact.MR
"I am pleased to welcome Geri to our team where her array of experience and talents will no doubt make an immediate impact upon our colleagues and partners," said Brett Woudenberg, Chief Executive Officer of MIND Research Institute. "Her impressive financial and systems acumen coupled with her diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility (DEIA) and human resources experience will help to grow our organization in tremendous ways."

Cohen comes to MIND from NWEA, a research-based, not-for-profit organization that supports students and educators worldwide. She served as Chief Financial Officer and EVP of Corporate Services, enabling a course of financial growth while improving the organization's financial stability. Cohen's scope of responsibility included accounting and financial analysis, budgeting, treasury, facilities management, procurement, legal, cyber-security and IT services.

"I am thrilled to be joining MIND at this pivotal stage of its evolution," said Cohen. "Understanding math has always been essential to a student's cognitive development, and MIND's approach to this learning is truly unique with enormous potential for growth. I look forward to working with the committed and exceptionally talented team at MIND to build on the organization's momentum and positively impact more students."

Throughout her career, Cohen has progressed through two turbulent decades in the financial services industry, helping major banks navigate through rapid deregulation, massive shifts in the economic environment, and emerging technologies with innovative and profitable services. She started in the advanced technology group with First Chicago and ultimately served as Vice President and Manager of Card Products at U.S. Bank and Vice President and Manager of Consumer Loan Products at Wells Fargo. From there, Cohen launched a new career in Portland's nascent software industry, serving as Director of Solutions Engineering at Unicru (now Kronos), delivering psychometrically validated workforce assessments and analytics.

Cohen received both her MBA in finance and Bachelor's in psychology from the University of Chicago.

About MIND Research Institute

MIND Research Institute is a neuroscience and education social impact organization dedicated to ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world's most challenging problems. MIND is the creator of ST Math , a PreK-8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain's innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems. ST Math's unique, patented approach provides students with equitable access to learning through challenging puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and informative feedback. Visit mindresearch.org .

SOURCE MIND Research Institute
COLUMBIA, Mo., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI) has selected five resident composers to participate in the 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF).

Presented by the MNMI and the University of Missouri School of Music from Monday, July 25 through Saturday, July 30 in Columbia, the thirteenth annual MICF will feature world premieres of new works written by each of the selected composers. Listed with their current places of residence, they are:

Left to right, top row: Caterina Di Cecca, Oswald Huynh, Pascal Le Boeuf, Jia Yi Lee. Left to right, bottom row: Piyawat Louilarppresert, Niko Schroeder, Felipe Tovar-Henao, Cassie Wieland

These five composers will be featured during the 2022 MICF along with three composers who were chosen for the 2020 Festival, but whose works could not be premiered when COVID-related restrictions forced the festival to be reconfigured as an online event. Listed with their current places of residence, they are:

MNMI News will spotlight each of the resident composers in separate news releases before the 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival. The 2022 resident composers were chosen from among 532 entrants  a record for the MICF with 177% more applications than last year. 38% of the entries were from outside the USA, and 49 countries were represented in the application pool.

The premieres of the new works from all 8 composers will be presented during festival week, along with music by the distinguished guest composers Meredith Monk and Angelica Negron .

The acclaimed new music group Alarm Will Sound , conducted by artistic director Alan Pierson, once again will serve as resident ensemble, as they have since the MICF began in 2010.

During the festival, the resident composers will receive composition lessons from Monk and Negron and take part in rehearsals with Alarm Will Sound. The composers also will give public presentations on their music, and after the premiere performances, will receive professional live recordings of their new works.

A complete schedule of events, times, dates, and venues for the 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival will be announced at a later date. For more information, please visit http://composersfestival.missouri.edu/ .

The Mizzou International Composers Festival is part of the Mizzou New Music Initiative (http://mizzounewmusic.missouri.edu/), an array of programs positioning the University of Missouri School of Music as a leading center in the areas of composition and new music. The Mizzou New Music Initiative is the direct result of the generous support of Dr. Jeanne and Mr. Rex Sinquefield and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation While the Foundation's website is being updated, please visit the Foundation's Facebook page.(https://www.facebook.com/Sinquefield-Charitable-Foundation-982998805057705).

Media Contact:

Jacob Gotlib

(573) 884-9478

[email protected]

SOURCE Mizzou New Music Initiative
ATLANTA, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a bright spotlight on the nation's public health infrastructure and underscored the need for investment in and development of comprehensive, flexible and interoperable data systems to track and address both chronic health challenges as well as future infectious disease outbreaks. Last week, organizations and individuals representing a variety of sectors gathered for the second summit in the Lights, Camera, Action: The Future of Public Health summit series to discuss the critical topic of data modernization and its link to better health outcomes for all.

"Our ultimate goal is to move from siloed and brittle public health data systems to connected, resilient, adaptable and sustainable 'response-ready' systems," said Daniel B. Jernigan, MD, MPH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) deputy director for Public Health Science and Surveillance. "Having these systems in place can help us solve problems before they happen and reduce the harm caused by the problems that do happen, whether it's addressing longstanding issues like health equity or preparing our nation for the next infectious or non-infectious threat."

Jernigan noted that progress is being made in the public health community in this regard compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, with now more than 10,300 healthcare facilities using electronic case reporting versus 187 previously. In addition, he said that data pipelines have advanced to inform action on the part of public health professionals with more than 530 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines being tracked in just over a year and clinical and environmental labs now sharing more than 1.5 million results per day with CDC.

But much work remains, ranging from improvements needed in how the public, public health, healthcare and other sectors use new technologies to creating standards and future-forward data systems that enable real-time and actionable intelligence in service to the public's health.

Emphasizing this point, Judy Monroe, MD, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation told attendees, "We need to know where we're going and how we're going to get there. Architecture and design matter. Context matters. Equity matters. Most importantly, each of you matter."

The issue of ensuring that improvements in data lead to improvements in the health and wellness of everyone, everywhere was also central to the summit's discussion. Gail Christopher, board chair of the Trust for America's Health, spoke to this need and the challenge that accompanies it. "We need to bring equity into the center and not an afterthought, not an also but at the center. We need to listen to the voices of people whose voices are usually not expressed."

In light of new resources and unprecedented funding, a number of speakers highlighted the opportunity this moment presents to build and connect data systems and prepare the workforce to use data to its full potential.

One need is to address interoperability issues. Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP, national coordinator for Health Information Technology in the HHS Office of the Secretary, described his office's work with CDC to leverage health information technology ecosystems and to advance a public health system architecture to improve access to clinical data for actionable intelligence for state, tribal, local and territorial health authorities. "Health departments are burdened by too much time spent on data wrangling, which leaves too little time for actionable intelligence." Tripathi described a "North Star" architecture that would provide health departments with the benefits of cloud-based technologies while ensuring local control of data access and use.

Beyond the government sector, Nirav Shah, MD, MPH, chief medical officer, Sharecare, highlighted the creative work of a number of nongovernmental and private sector organizations in moving rapidly to stand up insightful data series, such as testing wastewater systems for COVID-19 virus and using data from smart thermometers to track seasonal influenza. He noted, "We are seeing many private companies doing the work of public health."

Another opportunity to create action-oriented intelligence and results is to move beyond traditional thinking when it comes to data, including envisioning new points for data collection enabled by personal technology. "We need to start thinking about ways to capture data outside of our traditional systems. Much of the COVID-19 testing is now happening at home and not in health institutions," said Ethan Berke, MD, MPH, senior vice president and chief public health officer of UnitedHealth Group.

Ultimately, modernizing data systems will have tremendous payback to the United States. According to Jernigan, it will lead to better preparedness and health through better forecasting and outbreak analytics; rapid outbreak response; linking and integrating data from diverse sources for more actionable insights; and connecting public health and healthcare data to create hubs for data exchange while protecting privacy and security.

A full recording of the latest summit is available on the on the summit series website at www.futureofpublichealth.org

The United Health Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of UnitedHealth Group; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and The Pew Charitable Trusts are providing initial support for the Lights, Camera, Action Summit Series. This support is aimed at helping to catalyze actions to rebuild confidence, foster health equity and transform our nation's public health system. Others interested in supporting this mission should contact the CDC Foundation at [email protected].

The CDC Foundation is convening the summit series in collaboration with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC), and other public health partners. The first summit in the series focused on achieving a diverse and robust public health workforce. Two future summits are currently planned, and these are focused on Effectively Financing Governmental Public Health Functions and Strengthening Public Health Law and Governance to Support a Modern System (Feb. 23, 2022), with the summit after that focused on Catalyzing Cross-Sectoral Partnerships and Community Engagement (March 2022).

About the CDC Foundation: The CDC Foundation helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. The CDC Foundation is the go-to nonprofit authorized by Congress to mobilize philanthropic partners and private-sector resources to support CDC's critical health protection mission. Since 1995, the CDC Foundation has raised over $1.6 billion and launched more than 1,200 programs impacting a variety of health threats from chronic disease conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancer, to infectious diseases like rotavirus and HIV, to emergency responses, including COVID-19 and Ebola. The CDC Foundation managed hundreds of CDC-led programs in the United States and in more than 140 countries last year.

About ASTHO: ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories and Freely Associated States, and Washington, D.C., as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in public health practice. For more information, visit https://www.astho.org/.

About BCHC: The Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) is a forum for the leaders of America's largest metropolitan health departments to exchange strategies and jointly address issues to promote and protect the health and safety of their residents. Collectively, BCHC member jurisdictions directly impact nearly 62 million people, or one in five Americans. For more information, visit https://www.bigcitieshealth.org.

About NACCHO: The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the nation's nearly 3,000 local health departments. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.

SOURCE CDC Foundation
RAPPERSWIL-JONA, Switzerland, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MSA Safety Inc. (NYSE: MSA) today announced it has reached an agreement with the company's Berlin Works Council to transition 64 support positions from Berlin, Germany to the company's European Shared Services Center (SSC) in Warsaw, Poland. MSA expects to continue to maintain a strong presence in Germany, primarily involved in the research and product development, manufacturing and sales of advanced, market leading safety technologies.

"Today, we are pleased to announce we have reached an agreement with our Berlin Works Council with regard to the terms and timetable for this transition, the scope of the changes and the related social plan," said Bob Leenen, President of MSA International. "With this agreement now in place, we can expedite our plans to expand and complete our European shared services initiative."

Mr. Leenen noted that the relocation project does not impact MSA's intention to maintain a strong presence in Germany. "Germany is and will continue to be an important growth market for MSA, and our streamlined footprint will enable increased competitiveness of our overall business," he said.

Berlin also will continue to serve as a key global site for the company's Safety io subsidiary. Launched in 2018, Safety io is focused on leveraging wireless technology and cloud computing to enable a broad range of connected safety solutions, services and applications, all of which integrate to enhance worker safety and accountability.

MSA established the Warsaw Shared Services Center in 2019. The initiative is part of the company's continuous improvement efforts in Europe and is delivering increased efficiencies as well as enhanced capabilities to provide specialized customer support, in local languages, to MSA customers and channel partners throughout Europe. MSA International also operates a Shared Services Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to support its Asia Pacific region.

Over time, the company anticipates having roughly 250 positions located at the two locations, as MSA International consolidates a number of support functions. These positions would span a wide range of functions, including those in finance and accounting, human resources, IT, purchasing, supply chain, logistics, customer marketing, customer service and inside sales.

A representative of the Berlin Works Council said they were pleased to be able to reach a mutually agreeable plan to move forward with these changes. "The Works Council regrets the decision to relocate jobs to Warsaw. Nevertheless, the task was to accompany the process for the benefit of all. Throughout this process, we had very collaborative and productive negotiations with the MSA management team in Berlin", said Bernhard Burchardt, Chairman of the MSA Berlin Works Council. "The agreement creates clarity for our associates impacted by this change and ensures they are treated fairly and with respect as they transition onwards from MSA. We are also pleased to know that MSA Safety intends long term to continue to have a meaningful presence in our region."

For more than 100 years, the mission of MSA Safety has been to help protect people at work by developing innovative and market-leading safety products, systems and technologies.

"As a company that employs several hundred people in Germany, MSA Safety is committed to carrying on that mission in Germany and throughout Europe for many years to come, Mr. Leenen concluded.

About MSA Safety

Established in 1914, MSA Safety Incorporated is the global leader in the development, manufacture and supply of safety products that protect people and facility infrastructures. Many MSA products integrate a combination of electronics, mechanical systems and advanced materials to protect users against hazardous or life-threatening situations. The company's comprehensive product line is used by workers around the world in a broad range of markets, including the oil, gas and petrochemical industry, the fire service, the construction industry, mining and the military. MSA's core products include self-contained breathing apparatus, fixed gas and flame detection systems, portable gas detection instruments, industrial head protection products, firefighter helmets and protective apparel, and fall protection devices. With 2020 revenues of $1.35 billion, MSA employs approximately 5,200 people worldwide. The company is headquartered north of Pittsburgh in Cranberry Township, Pa., and has manufacturing operations in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. With more than 40 international locations, MSA realizes approximately half of its revenue from outside North America. For more information visit MSA's web site at www.MSAsafety.com.

SOURCE MSA Safety
"NAJA was founded by journalists from both sides of the medicine line and I am proud to see us carry on that legacy." Tweet this

Winnipeg is home to Compton and a place that became a cornerstone of Indigenous journalism.

"A foundation was built here by APTN and CBC Indigenous. I can't wait for everyone to see that. I look forward to hosting our members and industry friends in Winnipeg in 2023," she said.

NAJA will provide more information regarding the 2023 conference including dates, during the 2022 National Native Media Conference set Aug. 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix. Through April 8, NAJA is accepting entries for the 2022 National Native Media Awards, which recognizes excellence in reporting by Indigenous and non-Indigenous journalists across the US and Canada.

Are you looking for an Indigenous journalist? We invite critical allies for Indigenous journalism to join us now by signing up for a membership.

View more information about NAJA programs such as those listed below at www.naja.com. Upcoming deadlines:

NAJA-NBC News Summer Fellowship: Feb. 4

Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY scholarship: March 1

Native American Journalism Fellowship: April 30

NAJA-Facebook Journalism Scholarship: April 30

For questions, email: [email protected].

SOURCE Native American Journalists Association
DENVER, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic lung disease affecting about 90,000 people worldwide, is most common within the white population, but it affects people of all races and ethnicities. People with CF often experience abdominal pain, diarrhea, difficulty gaining or maintaining weight, sinus congestion and productive cough. If not treated, a vicious cycle of inflammation, chronic infection and irreversible damage to the airways occurs early in life. The genetic disorder results in abnormal chloride (and water) transport, commonly leading to salty skin, and thick, sticky mucus in the intestines, sinuses and lungs. People with CF require lifelong treatment with multiple daily medications, so a misdiagnosis will ultimately be prematurely fatal.

"The recognition of CF in Black individuals and people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds has been markedly inadequate," said Jennifer Taylor-Cousar, MD, co-director for the adult CF program and the interim associate vice president of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at National Jewish Health.

Following the virtual North American CF conference in the fall of 2020, Dr. Taylor-Cousar met Terry Wright, an Arkansas resident in his 50's whose symptoms were misdiagnosed as asthma in combination with common gastrointestinal problems for decades. "In spite of having multiple symptoms consistent with CF, he and his wife Michele were once told by a physician that he couldn't have CF--because he is Black, implying that CF is solely a 'white people's disease.' Because of the misdiagnosis, he spent years undergoing surgeries that didn't help, and spent countless days in the hospital throughout his life," said Dr. Taylor-Cousar.

After Dr. Taylor-Cousar was introduced to the couple, they discussed the possibility of developing a free online tool that would be accessible for anyone to self-screen for symptoms of CF. She offered her medical expertise to create and refine the tool that could help reach the broader population. Then, Dr. Taylor-Cousar and the Wrights presented the tool to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's (CFF) education committee, which found that it meets their guidelines and standards of an effective screening tool for public education about CF. Now known as the Wright Cystic Fibrosis Screening Tool , the tool is being shared with CF care teams through the CFF and with the general public on social media.

The new tool will help people self-identify symptoms that could be related to CF and aid medical providers in identification of potential individuals with CF, especially those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). "The sooner we get the word out about this new tool the better  it could literally save, or change someone's life," said Dr. Taylor-Cousar. "Once they have a diagnosis, there are new disease-modifying therapies for CF for which people may be eligible,"

Once the screening is completed and the symptoms are consistent with CF, the individuals can take the information to a doctor, who can refer them to get a test to confirm if they have CF. Individuals can undergo a short procedure called a sweat test, during which the sweat glands on their skin are stimulated with medicine and the amount of chloride they can reabsorb is measured.

The tool can be accessed by this link, and is available in Spanish as well.

The National Organization of African Americans with Cystic Fibrosis (NOAACF) is a 501(c)(3) organization founded by Terry Wright and Michele Wright, Ph.D. It was established in honor of Terry Wright, a 59-year old African American male Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patient (born August 1962) who was not diagnosed until the age of 54, although he had been hospitalized, seen by an array of healthcare practitioners, and unknowingly dealing with the devastating consequences of CF throughout his entire life. The mission of NOAACF is to engage, educate, and raise CF awareness in the African-American community to help bring valuable resources, knowledge, empowerment, and support to CF patients, families, healthcare professionals, and the community.

National Jewish Health is the leading respiratory hospital in the nation. Founded 123 years ago as a nonprofit hospital, National Jewish Health today is the only facility in the world dedicated exclusively to groundbreaking medical research and treatment of patients with respiratory, cardiac, immune and related disorders. Patients and families come to National Jewish Health from around the world to receive cutting-edge, comprehensive, coordinated care. To learn more, visit njhealth.org or the media resources page.

SOURCE National Jewish Health
LAKEWOOD, Colo., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. today announced that it plans to close its downtown Salt Lake City store, located at 645 East 400 South, Suite A, in Salt Lake City, Utah 84102, by March 31st, 2022. The Company stated the decision to close the store was made after careful consideration of that store's operating performance and reflects the Company's commitment to enhancing operating efficiencies across its store base. Natural Grocers will continue to provide its organic and natural grocery offerings to customers through its Sugar House store in Salt Lake City, located at 1033 East 2100 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84106 (only 3.1 miles from the downtown Salt Lake City store), which will remain open. The Company believes its Sugar House store will be in a strong position to effectively serve the Salt Lake City market.

A store closing sale will begin on February 14th, with discounts of 25% off all products at the Downtown Salt Lake City store.

Closing the Salt Lake City store marks Natural Grocers' first store closure in Utah. The Company stated it currently has no plans to close any additional stores.

The Salt Lake City store currently employs 20 Natural Grocers good4u crew members and the Company will work closely with each of these valued crew members to assist them through the closing process. The Company expects to transfer some of these crew members to Natural Grocers' other stores in Utah. All other crew members will be offered a severance arrangement, with health benefits covered through the end of June 2022.

About Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage

Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. (NYSE: NGVC) is an expanding specialty retailer of natural and organic groceries, body care products, and dietary supplements. The products sold by Natural Grocers must meet high quality standards and may not contain artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or sweeteners, or partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oils. The Company sells only USDA-certified organic produce and exclusively pasture-raised, non-confinement dairy products, and free-range eggs. Natural Grocers' flexible smaller-store format allows it to offer affordable prices in a shopper-friendly, safe, and convenient retail environment. The Company also provides extensive free science-based Nutrition Education programs to help customers make informed health and nutrition choices. The Company, founded in 1955, has 162 stores in 20 states.

SOURCE Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc.
DALLAS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate Black History Month, Neiman Marcus Group ("NMG" or the "Company") will partner with the Fashion Scholarship Fund to support the Virgil Abloh "Post-Modern" Scholarship Fund, created in 2020 by Virgil Abloh and the Fashion Scholarship Fund to identify & uplift Black students of academic promise. In addition, NMG is announcing in-store activations and corporate programming to celebrate and support Black talent all month long.

This month, NMG will be hosting a panel that will celebrate the legacy of the late designer, Virgil Abloh, and NMG's commitment to Black talent in the fashion industry. The panel will also highlight and celebrate the recent results of NMG's Executive Development Program class, where racial and ethnic diversity continues to accelerate, growing to 44%, compared to 33% the year prior. The panel will feature Lana Todorovich, Chief Merchandising Officer, Neiman Marcus; Andrea Grilli, CEO, Off-White, Peter Arnold, Executive Director, Fashion Scholarship Fund; and Mecca Hodge, Assistant Buyer, Neiman Marcus and recipient of the 2021 Virgil Abloh "Post-Modern" Scholarship.

On April 11, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, Chief Executive Officer of NMG, as well as Virgil Abloh, posthumously, will be honored at this year's Fashion Scholarship Fund Gala, for their powerful and outstanding commitment to the fashion industry.

"I am honored and humbled to be recognized next to a fashion legend like Virgil Abloh," said van Raemdonck. "The industry has suffered a great loss, and I am proud to have been able to celebrate his contributions over the years. I am also excited for the initiatives and support NMG is executing throughout the month to create greater equity and Belonging. The opportunity for NMG to support and fundraise for an organization as impactful as Fashion Scholarship Fund is an honor, and we are hopeful to help support bright futures of diverse youth that will be the next generation of industry talent."

The Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation has provided philanthropic support for the Fashion Scholarship Fund for several years. Throughout the duration of Black History Month and the following months, NMG will also activate a three-month-long point-of-sale fundraising campaign in all 37 Neiman Marcus stores. Proceeds raised will be contributed directly to the Virgil Abloh "Post-Modern" Scholarship, as well as help establish a new co-branded scholarship between Neiman Marcus Group and the Fashion Scholarship Fund to support diverse youth studying sustainable and ethical fashion.

Neiman Marcus stores will also be engaging customers throughout the month with dedicated window displays at 14 select locations celebrating the life and legacy of Virgil Abloh and the mission of the "Post-Modern" Scholarship Fund. Neiman Marcus Atlanta will also be curating a self-guided exhibit that features and celebrates seven local notable Black designers.

Additionally, starting February 2, the North Park Dallas Neiman Marcus store will be refreshing its celebrated Belonging wall, dedicating the space to United States Congressional Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, who has announced her retirement after 30 years in office. Congresswoman Johnson was the first Black woman to win elected office from Dallas. She was previously a Neiman Marcus associate from 1972  1975, when she was first introduced to her career in politics while working with Stanley Marcus. NMG will highlight and celebrate Congresswoman Johnson's contributions all month long.

To read more about NMG's philanthropic work, visit The Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation.

About The Neiman Marcus Group, LLC

Neiman Marcus Group is a relationship business. We lead with love in everything we do for our customers, associates, brand partners, and communities. Our strategy of integrated luxury retail is about creating long-term relationships. It's this connection that creates emotional and high lifetime value potential with everyone we serve. Through the expertise of our 9,000+ associates, we deliver across our three channels of in-store, eCommerce, and remote selling. Investments in data and technology allow us to scale a personalized luxury experience. Our brands include Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus Last Call, and Horchow. For more information, visit www.neimanmarcusgroup.com.

SOURCE Neiman Marcus Holding Company, Inc.
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To help clients meet the demands of today's healthcare delivery marketplace, Net Health today announced the availability of Patient Engagement Marketing. The new suite of tools enables providers in various healthcare settings to expand their businesses and boost revenue using digital technologies that improve patient acquisition, retention and engagement.

The new solution is available for all clients of the company's specialty electronic health record (EHR) solutions in therapy, wound care, home health, hospice and occupational health.

Developed by industry experts and through close collaboration with clients, the comprehensive solution enables providers to market their businesses using digital tools such as automated online reputation building with local near-me search and reputation management. The range of features helps providers enhance their relationships with patients through highly personalized communications that are efficient, timely, and easy to use. Additionally, providers are able to maximize existing staff and resources and increase convenience for patients with features like digital intake forms and patient appointment requests.

"Patient Engagement Marketing brings two critical benefits to healthcare providers," said Josh Pickus, CEO of Net Health. "First, it allows providers to attract and retain more patients without sacrificing their focus on providing care. Second, it allows providers to engage with patients in a meaningful manner. Good communication is one of the most important dimensions for motivating patients to complete their care plans, which can significantly improve outcomes."

Offers Deeper View of Patient Experience

Patient Engagement Marketing enables a deeper view of patients' entire experience with their providers, incorporating all communications and clinic marketing tools into one comprehensive solution. Benefits include:

Automated Online Reputation Building  Patient Engagement Marketing automates and improves patient review capture, promotion, and online reputation management. It optimizes online directories to increase the likelihood prospective patients will find and choose the client's facility over competitors.

 Patient Engagement Marketing automates and improves patient review capture, promotion, and online reputation management. It optimizes online directories to increase the likelihood prospective patients will find and choose the client's facility over competitors. Personalized Patient Communication  Clinics can connect with patients outside of visits, strengthening patient-provider relationships and enhancing the overall experience. Throughout treatment, patients are kept on track and motivated with timely, personalized messages using their preferred method (SMS/email). The tailored approach increases the ease with which patients can participate in their treatment and boosts satisfaction.

 Clinics can connect with patients outside of visits, strengthening patient-provider relationships and enhancing the overall experience. Throughout treatment, patients are kept on track and motivated with timely, personalized messages using their preferred method (SMS/email). The tailored approach increases the ease with which patients can participate in their treatment and boosts satisfaction. Digitized Patient Experience  Patient Engagement Marketing maximizes existing staff and resources by minimizing time spent on routine patient follow-up (digital intake forms, patient satisfaction surveys, review requests, appointment reminders, etc.) with automated patient-provider messaging integrated directly into the EHR. Intake forms are digitally and automatically uploaded to the EHR, saving patients time in the clinic. Patients also can request appointments at their convenience without calling the clinic.

 Patient Engagement Marketing maximizes existing staff and resources by minimizing time spent on routine patient follow-up (digital intake forms, patient satisfaction surveys, review requests, appointment reminders, etc.) with automated patient-provider messaging integrated directly into the EHR. Intake forms are digitally and automatically uploaded to the EHR, saving patients time in the clinic. Patients also can request appointments at their convenience without calling the clinic. Advanced Patient Outcomes  For therapy providers, Patient Engagement Marketing also incorporates Net Health's FOTO, the industry leading patient outcomes management system for rehab therapists. FOTO data collection follows a patient's journey, capturing their perception of their condition/functional ability from the first visit through discharge. Additionally, leveraging FOTO's predictive analytics, therapists can show patients the predicted number of visits it will take to meet their functional goals and highlights the progress they've made to date. This reduces no-shows and self-discharges, improves plan of care completion rates, and preserves revenue.

For a complete list of features and benefits and more information on Net Health's Patient Engagement Marketing, visit https://www.nethealth.com/patient-engagement-marketing/.

About Net Health

Net Health's mission is to harness data for human health. Net Health solutions are trusted in over 24,000 facilities across the continuum of care. Our EHR software enables caregivers and their organizations to engage effectively with patients, streamline documentation, staff efficiently, secure maximum appropriate reimbursement and maintain regulatory compliance. Our unique approach to analytics seamlessly presents insights in clinical and operational workflows to improve care and business performance. Net Health is a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, Level Equity and Silversmith Capital Partners. www.nethealth.com.

SOURCE Net Health Systems, Inc.
NEW YORK, Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuberger Berman High Yield Strategies Fund Inc. (NYSE American: NHS) (the "Fund") has announced a distribution declaration of $0.0905 per share of common stock. The distribution announced today is payable on February 28, 2022, has a record date of February 15, 2022 and has an ex-date of February 14, 2022.

Under its level distribution policy, the Fund anticipates that it will make regular monthly distributions, subject to market conditions, of $0.0905 per share of common stock, unless further action is taken to determine another amount. The Fund's ability to maintain its current distribution rate will depend on a number of factors, including the amount and stability of income received from its investments, the cost of leverage and the level of other Fund fees and expenses. There is no assurance that the Fund will always be able to pay a distribution of any particular amount or that a distribution will consist only of net investment income.

Due to an effort to maintain a stable distribution amount, the distribution announced today, as well as future distributions, may consist of net investment income, net realized capital gains and return of capital. In compliance with Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, a notice would be provided for any distribution that does not consist solely of net investment income. The notice would be for informational purposes and not for tax reporting purposes, and would disclose, among other things, estimated portions of the distribution, if any, consisting of net investment income, capital gains and return of capital. The final determination of the source and tax characteristics of all distributions paid in 2022 will be made after the end of the year.

About Neuberger Berman

Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategiesincluding equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge fundson behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 25 countries, Neuberger Berman's diverse team has over 2,400 professionals. For eight consecutive years, the company has been named first or second in Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more). In 2020, the PRI named Neuberger Berman a Leader, a designation awarded to fewer than 1% of investment firms for excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The PRI also awarded Neuberger Berman an A+ in every eligible category for our approach to ESG integration across asset classes. The firm manages $460 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2021. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com.

Statements made in this release that look forward in time involve risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets or a decline in the Fund's performance, a general downturn in the economy, competition from other closed end investment companies, changes in government policy or regulation, inability of the Fund's investment adviser to attract or retain key employees, inability of the Fund to implement its investment strategy, inability of the Fund to manage rapid expansion and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations.

Contact:

Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC

Investor Information

(877) 461-1899

SOURCE Neuberger Berman
NEW YORK, Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuberger Berman Next Generation Connectivity Fund Inc. (NYSE: NBXG) (the "Fund") has announced a distribution declaration of $0.10 per share of common stock. The distribution announced today is payable on February 28, 2022, has a record date of February 15, 2022 and has an ex-date of February 14, 2022.

Under its level distribution policy, the Fund anticipates that it will make regular monthly distributions, subject to market conditions, of $0.10 per share of common stock, unless further action is taken to determine another amount. The Fund's ability to maintain its current distribution rate will depend on a number of factors, including the amount and stability of income received from its investments, availability of capital gains, and the level of other Fund fees and expenses. There is no assurance that the Fund will always be able to pay a distribution of any particular amount or that a distribution will consist of only net investment income.

Due to an effort to maintain a stable distribution amount, the distribution announced today, as well as future distributions, may consist of net investment income, net realized capital gains and return of capital. In compliance with Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, a notice would be provided for any distribution that does not consist solely of net investment income. The notice would be for informational purposes and not for tax reporting purposes, and would disclose, among other things, estimated portions of the distribution, if any, consisting of net investment income, capital gains and return of capital. The final determination of the source and tax characteristics of all distributions paid in 2022 will be made after the end of the year.

About Neuberger Berman

Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategiesincluding equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge fundson behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 25 countries, Neuberger Berman's diverse team has over 2,400 professionals. For eight consecutive years, the company has been named first or second in Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more). In 2020, the PRI named Neuberger Berman a Leader, a designation awarded to fewer than 1% of investment firms for excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The PRI also awarded Neuberger Berman an A+ in every eligible category for our approach to ESG integration across asset classes. The firm manages $460 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2021. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com.

Statements made in this release that look forward in time involve risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets or a decline in the Fund's performance, a general downturn in the economy, competition from other closed end investment companies, changes in government policy or regulation, inability of the Fund's investment adviser to attract or retain key employees, inability of the Fund to implement its investment strategy, inability of the Fund to manage rapid expansion and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations.

Contact:

Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC

Investor Information

(877) 461-1899

SOURCE Neuberger Berman
NEW YORK, Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund Inc. (NYSE American: NRO) (the "Fund") has announced a distribution declaration of $0.0312 per share of common stock. The distribution announced today is payable on February 28, 2022, has a record date of February 15, 2022 and has an ex-date of February 14, 2022.

Under its level distribution policy, the Fund anticipates that it will make regular monthly distributions, subject to market conditions, of $0.0312 per share of common stock, unless further action is taken to determine another amount. There is no assurance that the Fund will always be able to pay a distribution of any particular amount, or that a distribution will consist of only net investment income. The Fund's ability to maintain its current distribution rate will depend on a number of factors, including the amount and stability of income received from its investments, availability of capital gains, the amount of leverage employed by the Fund, the cost of leverage and the level of other Fund fees and expenses.

The distribution announced today, as well as future distributions, may consist of net investment income, net realized capital gains and return of capital. In compliance with Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, a notice would be provided for any distribution that does not consist solely of net investment income. The notice would be for informational purposes and not for tax reporting purposes, and would disclose, among other things, estimated portions of the distribution, if any, consisting of net investment income, capital gains and return of capital. The final determination of the source and tax characteristics of all distributions paid in 2022 will be made after the end of the year.

About Neuberger Berman

Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategiesincluding equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge fundson behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 25 countries, Neuberger Berman's diverse team has over 2,400 professionals. For eight consecutive years, the company has been named first or second in Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more). In 2020, the PRI named Neuberger Berman a Leader, a designation awarded to fewer than 1% of investment firms for excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The PRI also awarded Neuberger Berman an A+ in every eligible category for our approach to ESG integration across asset classes. The firm manages $460 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2021. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com.

Statements made in this release that look forward in time involve risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets or a decline in the Fund's performance, a general downturn in the economy, competition from other closed end investment companies, changes in government policy or regulation, inability of the Fund's investment adviser to attract or retain key employees, inability of the Fund to implement its investment strategy, inability of the Fund to manage rapid expansion and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations.

Contact:

Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC

Investor Information

(877) 461-1899

SOURCE Neuberger Berman
Analyzing the 40-65 age group showed that vital capacity was preserved by a wide margin vs. placebo. Robert Miller, MD Tweet this

"We saw in earlier studies that NP001 had an excellent safety profile and a number of patients reported that they had much slower progression of symptoms and in some cases, no progression of symptoms," said Ari Azhir, PhD, Founder and CEO of Neuvivo. "It was clear to us that we needed to re-analyze the data from the earlier trials and in doing so we identified a large subset of patients who experienced benefits from treatment with NP001."

There is currently no marketed ALS treatment that halts disease progression and no known drug that has been shown to slow the progressive decline of a patient's ability to breathe on their own, a debilitating hallmark of late-stage disease. Once vital capacity declines to a certain level, patients must be placed on a ventilator.

"Beyond the valuable effects on a patient's overall disease manifestation, there was another even more important effect on preservation of vital capacity," said Robert Miller, MD, Forbes Norris MDA/ALS Research Center, California Pacific Medical Center. "The mITT analysis of the 40-65 years old group showed that vital capacity was preserved by a wide margin compared to placebo (p value= 0.001). This is key from a clinical perspective and is the first time any drug has had an effect on vital capacity. This effect alone is very supportive of NP00l use in ALS patients, as it should provide a longer lifespan for ALS patients who respond."

"This Phase 2 post hoc analysis is welcome progress in the development of new and much needed ALS treatments," said Merit Cudkowicz, M.D., investigator in the Phase 2 studies, co-founder of the Northeast ALS Consortium, Director of the Healey & AMG Center for ALS and Chair of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Julianne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. "NP001 has been shown to have a good safety profile so it was a natural next step to review the data to identify participants who may benefit. This will inform future studies of NP001 in people with ALS."

"NP001's mechanism of action targets disease promoting white blood cells known as macrophages and transforms them back to their non-inflammatory state." said Michael McGrath, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Neuvivo and Professor Emeritus of Medicine at UCSF. 'Macrophage' means 'big eater' in Latin and when healthy, these cells  present in all tissues in the body - engulf and eliminate harmful pathogens and cellular debris. In chronic disease states such as ALS abnormal macrophages lose this function and contribute to disease by promoting inflammation. In theory, NP001 treatment reverses this process.

The goal of the post hoc combined trial analysis was to identify characteristics of ALS patients responsive to NP001. The analysis combines data from a phase 2A clinical study with a previously unpublished phase 2B clinical trial for treatment of ALS patients with NP001 or placebo. The analysis presented includes data on approximately 300 patients' data from two 6-month Phase 2 studies.

The full study can be accessed on Muscle & Nerve: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/YYQSBQVGANR6PQMUCIZ4?target=10.1002/mus.27511

Pub Med Abstract: Phase 2B randomized controlled trial of NP001 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: pre-specified and post-hoc analyses - PubMed (nih.gov)

The study was authored by investigator Robert G. Miller, MD, of California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Co-authors are Rongzhen Zhang and Paige Bracci PhD, of UCSF; Ari Azhir, PhD, or Neuvivo; Richard Barohn, MD, of University of Missouri, Columbia; Richard Bedlack, MD, of Duke University Medical Center; Michael Benatar, MD, of University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; James D. Berry, MD, and Merit Cudkowicz, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital; Edward Kasarskis, MD, PhD, of University of Kentucky, Lexington; Hiroshi Mitsumoto, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center; David Walk, MD, of University of Minnesota Medical School; Jeremy Shefner, MD, PhD, of Barrow Neurological Institute, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix and corresponding author, Mike McGrath, MD, PhD of UCSF and Neuvivo.

ALSFRS-R scores is a rating scale for evaluating the physical functional status of a person living with ALS. The maximum score is 48, the minimum is zero. Higher scores are reflective of greater physical functionality.

Required Notes and Disclaimers: The information stated above was prepared by Neuvivo and reflects solely the opinion of the company. Nothing in this statement shall be construed to imply any support or endorsement of Neuvivo, or any of its products, by the Regents of the University of California, its officers, agents and employees.

Michael McGrath, MD, PhD is a co-founder of Neuvivo and is compensated by the company.

About NP001: NP001 is a multifactorial immune system regulator. It is a first-in-class NCE with a known mechanism of action that targets diseased macrophages in the central nervous system to restore equilibrium to the immune system.

About Neuvivo: Neuvivo is a private, late-clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating and delivering advanced treatments for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. The company was formed by successful industry leaders and scientists, committed to improving the prognosis for patients diagnosed with ALS and a range of diseases for which few current treatment options exist. For more information please visit: www.Neuvivo.com.

Contact:

Jennifer Larson

415 409 2729

[email protected]

SOURCE Neuvivo, Inc.
Reports(*1) have cited the combined use of pharmacotherapy and SST as a psychotherapeutic method that reduces mental disorder recurrence rates, and Jolly Good's immersive SST VR is expected to help patients concentrate better and improve effectiveness. Dr. Ayako Kanie, a psychiatric specialist and senior medical supervisor, will be content production manager for Jolly Good's VR business.

<Overview>

This agreement, which establishes a partnership between advanced VR video technology maker Jolly Good and Otsuka Pharmaceutical, which has an extensive knowledge, experience base, and network in psychiatry, will facilitate the development of an SST that uses VR for a variety of mental disorders and the creation of new platforms going forward. Jolly Good has already deployed SST VR for developmental disorders at over 200 hospitals, clinics, welfare support centers, and other such facilities across Japan.

Through this business, Jolly Good will provide the necessary VR goggles and tablet devices and will produce SST VR content for a range of scenarios in conjunction with Otsuka Pharmaceutical. Otsuka Pharmaceutical will compensate Jolly Good for sales activities aimed at healthcare facilities and will pay Jolly Good sales-based royalties. This partnership is Otsuka Pharmaceutical's first business partnership in mental health industry using VR. The two companies aim to build Japan's largest VR business in the field of healthcare for mental disorders.

*1: Hogarty GE et al.: Arch Gen Psychiatry 43: 633-642, 1986

Dr. Ayako Kanie, Senior Medical Supervisor, Jolly Good Inc.

Along with suppressing symptoms, "self-actualization beyond therapy" is becoming an additional goal of therapy for treating mental disorders such as schizophrenia. Currently there is a serious shortage of people who have the social skill training and other attributes necessary to provide "psychosocial therapy."

Our VR content development benefits from extensive involvement by psychiatrists in product design and aims to improve on and expand opportunities to provide psychosocial therapy according to medical theory. VR enables patients to practice in a nearly-real environment and will prepare them for success in real-life situations. This pursuit will pave the way to enabling anyone to acquire psychosocial skills.

<Comments from the Companies' Leaders>

Kensuke Joji, CEO, Jolly Good

The high-precision medical VR system being developed by Jolly Good has been highly regarded in numerous fields in the healthcare industry, including training for medical staff, patient rehabilitation, and social rehabilitation training for those with disabilities or mental disorders.

This partnership will see the convergence of Otsuka Pharmaceutical's extensive experience and sales network, enabling the enhancement and expansion of our SST VR. It gives me a great sense of joy and mission that we will be working with regional cooperative platforms nationwide to support the social rehabilitation of people suffering from mental disorders. Through this partnership, Jolly Good will develop a social contribution platform powered by VR technology while further expanding its business.



Makoto Inoue, President and Representative Director, Otsuka Pharmaceutical

Otsuka Pharmaceutical conducts its global pharmaceuticals business to address mental and neurological disorders, a key focus for the company. In recent years, technological advancements have seen a growing importance placed not just medications but also on support for daily living, which includes everything from prevention to caregiving. Along with putting to use digital technologies that will go into the creation of a new business model, we will work with Jolly Good, which supports healthcare via state-of-the-art VR video technologies, to build a platform for facilitating social rehabilitation among those suffering from mental or neurological disorders.

About Otsuka Pharmaceutical (https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/)

Guided by our corporate philosophy of "Otsuka-people creating new products for better health worldwide," Otsuka Pharmaceutical develops diversified businesses as a total healthcare company with a focus on two core businesses. These are the Pharmaceutical Business, which focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and the Nutraceutical Business, which supports the maintenance and improvement of day-to-day health.

About Jolly Good Inc. (https://jollygood.co.jp/en)

Jolly Good is a medical technology company that develops high-precision VR solutions and AI-based medical and welfare services that analyze user behavior in the VR space. Using technologies such as VR and AI, we are accelerating human growth and social rehabilitation in medical education, support for persons with disabilities, treatment of mental illness, and so on, as well as developing services to support the evolution of medical care and finding purpose in life, in collaboration with various research institutions and companies.

Jolly Good is seeking business partners to help develop, research, and sell digital therapies together in the areas of mental illness and lifestyle-related diseases.

SOURCE Jolly Good
"We invite our customers, employees and brand partners to join us in honoring the Black community, rejoicing in Black culture and amplifying Black voices this month and year-round," said Farrell Redwine, chief human resources officer at Nordstrom. "We've long believed in the value of diversity and remain committed to playing an active role in contributing to the positive change required to address systemic racial inequity."

Highlighting Employee Experiences

In partnership with Invisible Collective, a Black-owned and founded creative and production agency, Nordstrom is launching a video series through which employees share their unique experiences as members of the Black community. These videos explore the Black experience through expressions of beauty and style as well as the lens of parenthood and relationships.

"The Black community's contributions to culture are endless and I hoped to capture the joy, pride and sense of celebration we all share in being Black. Stories are the most powerful tool for change," said Mel Jones, co-founder of Invisible Collective and campaign director. "Creating an ongoing platform for employees to share their stories is an incredible opportunity to attract new, diverse customers to Nordstrom but more importantly to share that Nordstrom is committed to creating an inclusive culture from the inside out."

Supporting Black-Owned and Black-Founded Brands

In February and throughout the year, Nordstrom features the stories of Black-owned and founded brands through the company's shoppable Black-Owned and Black-Founded categories. Meet a few founders highlighted this month:

Teri Johnson, founder and CEO of Harlem Candle Co.: Harlem Candle Co. is a luxury home fragrance brand specializing in scented candles inspired by the richness of Harlem. Johnson founded the Harlem Candle Co. in 2014 as a manifestation of her love affair with fragrance, jazz, and Harlem. She creates transportive, evocative candles inspired by Harlem Renaissance luminaries like Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes and James Baldwin.

"One of the things I love most about creating new fragrances is all the research and development that goes into creating every single one. I learn everything I can possibly learn about the person: what did they love? What perfume did they wear? 'Oh, you like tobacco?' Let's put sweet tobacco notes in there. We did that for our Langston Hughes candle."

Shop Harlem Candle Co.

William Adosai, founder of Vitae London: Vitae London is a British, watch and accessories brand founded by Adosai in 2015 that specializes in selling high-quality, fashion-forward watches at an accessible price. With each sale, a portion of revenue goes to support children's education in Sub-Saharan Africa and provides an underprivileged child with either a set of school uniforms so that they may attend school, or a solar-powered lamp so that they may have a renewable energy light source to study.

"Being Black is a core part of my identity. I love that I get to champion the cause for many people from my background. I didn't get many examples growing up, so being able to make a difference for my community means so much to me."

Shop Vitae London

Jasmine Walker, founder and designer of King+Lola: King+Lola is a children's clothing and accessories brand that offers perfect gift items for baby showers and milestone birthdays. The brand is socially responsible and conscious of the environment and offers some eco-friendly luxury products that combine upcycled materials to make quality garments. All other products are made from new high-quality materials.

"Being Black in America has inspired everything I do  even the way I started my business with nothing Everything I am has come from a place of struggle and hard times. That comes out in the way I started this business and found a way to make it happen even though it looked impossible."

Shop King+Lola

Black-Owned Brooklyn at Nordstrom NYC Center Stage

The Nordstrom NYC flagship will launch an in-store market with Black-Owned Brooklyn, a digital publication spotlighting Black-owned, Brooklyn-based business, as part of its revolving Center Stage pop-up platform from February 14 to March 6. Curated by Black-Owned Brooklyn's husband-and-wife team, Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa, the market brings together eight businesses across apparel, food, home goods, and self-care products. Customers are invited to explore, shop and get to know the people behind the businesses, including Chen Burkett New York, Savant Studios, Heavy Metals NYC, Breukelen Polished, Modish Decor Pillows, Sarep + Rose, Brooklyn Brewed Sorrel and Sol Cacao.

Honoring Black Food Culture

In celebration of Black food culture, Nordstrom will be featuring recipes created by Angel Gregorio, founder of the Spice Suite, including her Soul Food Stew in our restaurants and a Jerk Pasta Salad in our specialty coffee bars from January 31  February 28. The Spice Suite is a spice and kitchenware shop in Washington D.C. that has become a dream incubator and haven, where Gregorio has hosted more than 450 free pop-up shops for Black business owners. Her love for fashionable flavors and natural talent in the kitchen landed her in the Top 40 of MasterChef's Season 8.

The Nordstrom NYC flagship will offer a pop-up by Brooklyn-based Patsy's Rum Cake  just in time for Valentine's Day. Founder Kathy will be in-store on February 5, 6, 11 and 12 to share her handmade Caribbean rum cakes, including heart-shaped and mini sizes and flavors like rum raisin, walnut, coconut, and chocolate.

More Than a Month: Showing Year-Round Commitment

Nordstrom's celebration of and commitment to the Black community goes far beyond Black History Month. The fashion retailer set a series of 2025 goals to address its most pressing opportunities related to diversity, inclusion and belonging. Among other things, these goals address:

Increasing Black and Latinx representation among its managers by at least 50 percent

Delivering $500M in retail sales from brands owned by, operated by or designed by Black and/or Latinx individuals

Increasing charitable donations to organizations that promote anti-racism to $1M per year for the next five years

Customer Engagement

Throughout the year, customers can easily discover and shop emerging and established Black-owned and founded brands on Nordstrom.com with their Black-Owned and Black-Founded and Inclusive Beauty hubs.

Employee and Leadership Engagement

As part of the company's 2025 goals, Nordstrom has set clear, measurable goals to increase representation in people-leadership roles and create opportunities for underrepresented populations through internship and other early-in-career programs. To engage and support Black talent, Nordstrom has partnerships with several organizations including HBCU Battle of the Brains and Afrotech.

Starting in January, through Nordstrom's partnership with the Smithsonian Freedmen's Bureau Transcription Project, employees have the chance to transcribe more than 1.5 million image files from the Freedmen's Bureau recordsthe largest crowdsourcing initiative ever sponsored by the Smithsonian. This project will help build an understanding of the post-Civil War era and knowledge of post-Emancipation family life.

Nordstrom has eight employee resource groups, including the Black Employee Network. This group started as a small group that gathered monthly and has transformed into a community where Black employees could share their experiences and goals with each other and help guide the direction of the company. ERGs not only provide employees with support and help in personal or career development but also are vital to informing the fashion retailer's path forward as an inclusive company.

Representation matters at all levels of Nordstrom's organization including the board of directors. Of the 11 members on the retailer's board, roughly 50 percent are women and 30 percent are Black women.

Partnerships in Anti-Racism

Nordstrom is committed to increasing charitable donations to organizations that promote anti-racism to $1M per year. This includes a long-term, multi-year partnership with the National Urban League .

This includes a long-term, multi-year partnership with the National . Nordstrom is proud to sponsor The Black Joy Parade, a non-profit based in Oakland, California , that celebrates the Black experience and community's contribution to history and culture with its signature parade and celebration, partnerships and events. The Black Joy Parade exists to provide the Black community and allies a live experience that celebrates the community's influence on cultures past, present and future. The Parade unites a diverse community by creating a space to express everyone's unique contributions to the Black experience.

, that celebrates the Black experience and community's contribution to history and culture with its signature parade and celebration, partnerships and events. The Black Joy Parade exists to provide the Black community and allies a live experience that celebrates the community's influence on cultures past, present and future. The Parade unites a diverse community by creating a space to express everyone's unique contributions to the Black experience. Nordstrom signed the Fifteen Percent Pledge by announcing a new commitment to growing its purchases from businesses owned or founded by Black individuals by 10x by the end of 2030. As part of this pledge, the company is also committed to informing its customers and employees about inequities in commerce and entrepreneurship.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Sepeedeh Hashemian

Nordstrom, Inc.

[email protected]

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SOURCE Nordstrom
Advisors lead their fields in patent law, nutraceuticals & ethnobotany

VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Numinus Wellness Inc. ("Numinus" or the "Company") (TSX: NUMI) (OTCQX: NUMIF), a mental healthcare company advancing innovative treatments and safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies, is pleased to announce the appointment of three key advisors to its new Bioscience Advisory Board.

"We are delighted to welcome these experts to our advisory team," said Sharan Sidhu, Numinus' Science Officer and General Manager. "These appointments point to the rigour of the research and development that Numinus has already completed and indicate the compelling IP strategy and milestones we anticipate in 2022 and beyond. We look forward to gathering strategic insights from our advisors to help us advance our project pipeline."

The following advisors have been appointed:

Graham Pechenik (JD)  Patent Attorney & Founder, Calyx Law

Mr. Pechenik is a registered patent attorney and the founder of Calyx Law, an industry-leading law firm specialized in IP relating to cannabis and psychedelics. Mr. Pechenik has a BS from UC San Diego, choosing Cognitive Neuroscience and Biochemistry majors after his first psychedelic experiences inspired deep curiosity about the bases for changes in consciousness; and a JD from New York University, where he initially pursued interests in bioethics and cognitive liberty. After a decade obtaining and defending patents for Fortune 500 companies across the agricultural, chemical, pharmaceutical, biotech, and technology industries, including working on several landmark patent cases both at trial and on appeal, Mr. Pechenik started Calyx Law to help cannabis and psychedelics ventures design and implement their IP strategies. Mr. Pechenik also contributes to Psilocybin Alpha as editor-at-large, writing about psychedelics IP and contributing to psychedelics patent, legalization, and decriminalization trackers, and is a member of Chacruna's Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants.

Dr. Paul Spagnuolo (PhD)  Associate Professor, University of Guelph

Dr. Spagnuolo is an associate professor at the University of Guelph and past assistant professor at the University of Waterloo, specialized and award-winning in the development of nutraceuticals as novel therapeutics using cellular biology. He is a past member of the Natural Health Products Research Society of Canada and has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Dr. Spagnuolo's research focuses on understanding the therapeutic potential of nutraceuticals (i.e. foods that provide medical or health benefits) and has included investigation of anti-cancer effects in certain compounds. He is experienced in developing novel, multidisciplinary techniques that combine drug discovery platforms traditionally used in the pharmaceutical industry with new areas of study.

Dr. Cory Harris (PhD)  Associate Professor, University of Ottawa

Dr. Harris is an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, specialized in the ethnobotany, chemistry and bioactivity of plants. His work involves collaboration with Inuit and First Nations communities, and projects have included investigating the ethical and evidence-based use of alternative medicines and the health benefits and risks of wild plant foods. Dr. Harris also heads a graduate research community that undertakes special interest projects, operating out of UOttawa and supported by NSERC, Mitacs and the Province of Ontario.

"As Numinus Bioscience continues to demonstrate leadership in developing novel products and processes, we see an opportunity to invite expert advisors to help us discover new areas for collaboration and innovation," said Payton Nyquvest, Numinus' Founder and CEO. "These appointments reflect our multidisciplinary thinking and intent to focus on natural products as a major component of our IP strategy, in addition to investigating defensible patent opportunities that support both long-term commercial scaling and safe and equitable access for the public."

The new Bioscience Advisory Board will contribute strategically to advancing Numinus' IP strategy, including product development and clinical trial activities out of the Company's Health Canada-licensed research facility, Numinus Bioscience. It joins Numinus' existing General and Clinical advisory boards, comprised of leading industry and subject-matter experts who have been selected to support corporate and therapeutic protocol development. Among them are Drs. Gabor Mate, Dennis McKenna and Zachary Walsh.

About Numinus

Numinus Wellness helps people to heal and be well through the development and delivery of innovative mental health care and access to safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies. The Numinus model  including psychedelic production, research, and clinic care  is at the forefront of a transformation aimed at healing rather than managing symptoms for depression, anxiety, trauma, pain and substance use. At Numinus, we are leading the integration of psychedelic-assisted therapies into mainstream clinical practice and building the foundation for a healthier society.

Learn more at numinus.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements and other information contained in this press release about anticipated future events constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend" and statements that an event "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements even if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Numinus Wellness Inc.
"Access to food is one of the most fundamental human rights, and yet thousands of our neighbors wake up each day unsure of where they will find their next meal," said Rob Stuart, President and Chief Executive Officer, OnPoint Community Credit Union. "Food insecurity in our region is on the rise as the costs of food, housing and utilities remain at historic levels. Now more than ever, we are proud to support Oregon Food Bank in its fight to eliminate hunger. We invite our community to join us in supporting them at this critical time."

The Oregon Food Bank served more than one million people in 2021 and 1.7 million people in 2020a sharp increase from the 860,000 served in 2019, reflecting a high degree of need that the food bank is helping to meet. The non-profit operates five regional food banks and works with 16 others, in addition to more than 1,400 food assistance sites across Oregon and Southwest Washington. Since its founding in 1982, the Oregon Food Bank has cultivated a community-led network of people working to end hunger for good by addressing both the immediate need for food distribution and the promotion of sustainable, longer-term solutions.

"Our incredible network of food banks and partner organizations welcomed nearly 1.7 million community members to a food assistance site in the pandemic's wake," said Nicole Rexhouse, Oregon Food Bank spokesperson. "With strong support from OnPoint's members, we're able to meet today's challenges head-onwhile working toward achieving the long-term changes we need to end hunger for good."

OnPoint's last Refer a Friend campaign, held in March 2021, raised more than $39,000 for the Oregon Humane Society. Over the course of the Refer a Friend program, OnPoint has donated $223,100 to five organizations. OnPoint members who are interested in learning more can visit www.onpointcu.com/rates-rewards/refer-a-friend/ or their local OnPoint branch.

ABOUT ONPOINT COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION

Founded in 1932, OnPoint Community Credit Union is the largest credit union in Oregon, serving more than 465,000 members and with assets of $9.0 billion. OnPoint membership is available to anyone who lives or works in one of 28 Oregon counties (Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Crook, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Hood River, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Morrow, Multnomah, Polk, Sherman, Tillamook, Wasco, Washington, Wheeler and Yamhill) and two Washington counties (Skamania and Clark) and their immediate family members. More information is available at www.onpointcu.com or 800-527-3932.

ABOUT OREGON FOOD BANK

At Oregon Food Bank, we believe that food and health are basic human rights for all. We know that hunger is not just an individual experience; it is also a community-wide symptom of barriers to employment, education, housing and health care. That's why we work on two fronts in our mission to end hunger in Oregon: we build community connections to help people access nutritious, affordable food today; and we build community power to eliminate the root causes of hunger for good. For more information, visit www.oregonfoodbank.org.

*Consumer referral: To participate, you must open a new membership with a personal checking account and receive direct deposit of at least $100 to that account within 60 days of the open date. Bonus of $50 will be credited to the accounts of you and the friend who referred you approximately 60 days after new account is opened. Accounts must be open and in good standing at time of payout to receive bonus. As of 1/1/2022, APY (annual percentage yield) for Interest Checking is 0.05%. APY is subject to change. $500 minimum balance for Interest Checking; no minimum balance for OnPoint Checking. When Interest Checking average monthly balance falls below $500, a $7 monthly service fee applies. Fees may reduce earnings.



Business referral: To participate, you must open a new membership with a business checking account and receive $250 in deposits to that account within 60 days of the open date. A bonus of $50 will be credited to the accounts of you and your friend who referred you approximately 60 days after new account is opened. Accounts must be open and in good standing at time of payout to receive bonus.

We will inform your friend or business associate about your account opening when we credit the $50 to their account. Bonus will be included on a 1099-INT for tax purposes. Cannot be combined with other offers for opening a new membership, such as new branch promotions or OnPoint Savers.

SOURCE OnPoint Community Credit Union
RALEIGH, N.C. and LONDON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pendo , a company that provides software that makes software better, today announced it has acquired Mind the Product, a product management community which provides content, training and conferences that serve a global audience of more than 300,000 product managers, designers and developers.

"This is a tremendous day for our community of product managers around the world," said James Mayes, CEO and co-founder of Mind the Product. "By joining Pendo, we can execute on today's mission and think even bigger about how we will support, educate and train product teams in the future."

Mind the Product began as a passion project for its founders in 2010. As technology startups emerged around London, with product managers playing a leading role in those companies, the team hosted its first meetup, dubbed ProductTank, in the back of a local pub. Word spread as technology ecosystems emerged in other cities too, and the group responded by partnering with local organizers to host ProductTanks around the globe. Now with a full-time team of nearly 20, all of whom will join Pendo, the London-based company provides a series of global conferences, custom product training and workshops, a popular blog and newsletter, and a subscription offering with more than 3,000 members. It also supports ProductTank meetups in more than 200 global cities and oversees the largest Slack community for product people.

Pendo intends to keep the Mind the Product team in place to manage its conferences, content, events, and meetups, and to continue its vendor-neutral workshops and training. The acquisition supports Pendo's goal to provide the most complete platform for product-led companies  Pendo's software products paired with content, training and community enable companies to become product led.

"Pendo has always made it part of our mission to elevate the craft of product management and to help product managers be better at what they do," said Todd Olson, CEO and co-founder of Pendo. "We're really excited to join forces with some of our earliest influencers, and offer substantially more education and resources to the global product management community for years to come."

Mind the Product is Pendo's third international acquisition in five years. In 2017, Pendo acquired Insert, a mobile app engagement solution based in Israel, and in 2019, it acquired Receptive Software Limited, a UK-based product demand intelligence platform. Pendo has scaled its international operations to more than 160 people, adding nearly 100 employees in the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan and Australia in 2021. Those teams support more than 300 customers in EMEA regions and 60 customers across Asia. Mind the Product adds to the company's global footprint both through headcount and reach.

To become a Mind the Product member, or learn about upcoming events, visit mindtheproduct.com .

About Pendo

Pendo's mission is to elevate the world's experience with software. Pendo customers include the world's leading software companies and digital enterprises, including Verizon, Morgan Stanley, LabCorp, OpenTable, Okta, Salesforce, and Zendesk. Founded in 2013 in the heart of Raleigh, North Carolina, Pendo is backed by Battery Ventures, Spark Capital, Meritech Capital, Sapphire Ventures and B Capital Group. Through its Mind the Product and customer communities, sponsored events and podcast, Pendo aims to support the success of product and digital leaders everywhere. For more information, visit: www.pendo.io .

SOURCE Pendo
DALLAS, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Phoenix Rescue Mission has selected RKD Group as its marketing provider for omnichannel fundraising, advanced analytics, direct mail, digital and website services.

"Phoenix Rescue Mission has done tremendous work within their community since their founding in 1952," said Glenn McKinney, SVP of Missions at RKD Group. "We are honored that they chose RKD to grow alongside them and tell their incredible story."

Phoenix Rescue Mission RKD Group

RKD Group will leverage content-driven storytelling, cutting-edge digital practices, and technology to help Phoenix Rescue Mission expand their mission and provide Christ-centered, life-transforming solutions to persons facing hunger and homelessness.

"Phoenix Rescue Mission has expanded our programming greatly over the years, and we were looking for a partner who had the team in place to tell our story in new and innovative ways," said Nicole Pena, Chief Resource Development Officer at Phoenix Rescue Mission. "RKD's expertise, use of technology and relationship-driven fundraising approach really appealed to us.

"We're thrilled to begin this partnership with RKD Group."

About RKD Group

RKD Group is a leading fundraising and marketing services provider to hundreds of nonprofit organizations, including hospitals, social service, disease research, animal welfare, rescue missions, and faith-based charities. RKD Group's omnichannel approach leverages technology, advanced data science and award-winning strategic and creative leadership to accelerate net revenue growth, build long-term donor relationships and drive online and offline engagements and donations. With a growing team of professionals, RKD Group creates breakthroughs never thought possible. For additional information go to RKDGroup.com.

About Phoenix Rescue Mission

Founded in 1952, Phoenix Rescue Mission is a place of hope, healing and new beginnings for men, women and children in their community struggling with homelessness, addiction and trauma.

Contact:

Suzanne Anderson

[email protected]

972-664-2376

https://rkdgroup.com/

https://phoenixrescuemission.org/

SOURCE RKD Group
ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Porte Brown LLC, www.PorteBrown.com, a Chicagoland accounting firm, is pleased to announce the election of Joseph A. Gleba as the firm's next CEO and managing partner, effective January 1, 2022.

Joseph A. Gleba

Gleba succeeds Bruce Jones, who assumed the role as managing partner from Thomas Porte in 2003. Jones became the first non-family member to lead Porte Brown since the firm's founding in 1946. During his tenure, Jones expanded the firm's service offerings to include a wide range of advisory services and expanded the firm's footprint from the corporate Elk Grove Village office to include offices in Elgin, Evanston, McHenry and Tinley Park, Illinois. Today, the firm serves clients internationally and utilizes leading edge technology to address the growing needs of the virtual business environment.

"Gleba exemplifies what it means to be a member of the Porte Brown team," said Jones. "He possesses the leadership skills and qualities necessary to continue the firm's growth through innovation, process improvement and strategic relationships. Joe is ready for this new challenge, and we have the utmost confidence in his ability to lead the firm into the future."

Gleba, a CPA and a Certified Construction Industry Financial Professional (CCIFP), began his career as a staff accountant at the firm in 1996 and became a partner in 2009. He has held several leadership positions throughout the years including as the partner-in-charge of the McHenry office, a member of the firm's executive committee, and a lead partner of the construction industry practice. In addition, Gleba has been heavily involved in the assimilation of newly acquired accounting firms, talent recruiting events, and implementing best practices around new accounting software.

"I am thankful for the support from across the firm and the confidence my partners have in me to guide Porte Brown during this transformational and exciting time," Gleba said. "By leveraging Porte Brown's legacy of talented consultants, efficient processes, and dedicated client service, I look forward to leading the firm's pursuit of growth strategies that will strengthen us for the next 75 years."

About Porte Brown

Porte Brown LLC is a full-service accounting and consulting firm headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village, Illinois. For more than 75 years, Porte Brown has focused on providing the highest level of service to individuals, businesses and organizations throughout the region. In addition to the traditional accounting services such as tax planning and preparation, audit, business valuations, and retirement plan administration. Porte Brown also provides strategic consulting and leading-edge technology implementation for clients in cloud and non-cloud environments. Wealth management services provided by Porte Brown Wealth Management LLC.*

Porte Brown serves accounting and consulting clients from offices in Illinois, Indiana, and Texas. For more information, visit www.portebrown.com or call 847-956-1040.

*Wealth Management Services provided by Porte Brown Wealth Management LLC. Securities offered through Avantax Investment ServicesSM, Member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory ServicesSM. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency.

Contact:

Pam Metzger

[email protected]

847-956-1040

SOURCE Porte Brown
FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Power Knot LLC, the market leader for onsite organic waste management solutions, announced today that Dubai Creative Group and Power Knot have collaborated with Microsoft Dubai to create the first solar-powered biodigester in the world.

In 2021, the Microsoft Real Estate and Facilities Directorate (RE&F) team in Dubai implemented an exciting initiative: a solar-powered LFC biodigester for their restaurant. Microsoft set clear goals to become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030 and purchased the LFC biodigester to help them achieve these goals. The digestate the machine outputs is used as a plant-organic fertilizer to create an even better office environment.

James Spearman, the UAE Sustainability lead at Microsoft, realized that, "By implementing the biodigester system here in our Dubai office, we're able to process our food waste locally directly contributing to those three goals and making out office and ultimately, the planet, a more sustainable place to work."

The LFC Biodigester is a machine that digests food waste. These machines are usually installed in a commercial kitchen and reduce the expense, inconvenience, mess, and carbon footprint of disposing of waste food that would otherwise be hauled to a landfill. Power Knot has ten different sizes that digest from 9 kg (20 lb) per day to 3000 kg (6600 lb) per day of food waste. With many hundreds of installations globally, the LFC Biodigester has proven to be reliable, safe, and cost effective.

"We are committed to operate as efficiently as possible, and we are evolving to address our sustainability needs," said Sharon McGrath Dawson, FM Country Lead - UA, Oman, and Qatar. "This smart, solar powered machine breaks down food waste and turns it into liquid."

All LFC biodigesters automatically connect to the LFC Cloud, Power Knot's revolutionary continuous data analytics system. The LFC Cloud shows statistics on usage, diagnostics, and service schedules, and can be accessed from any device anywhere in the world without installing an app. The LFC biodigester securely sends data about the operation of the LFC biodigester to the server and that data is retained for five years. All data that is available on the LFC touch screen is sent to the LFC Cloud where a user can easily create reports for stakeholders.

About Power Knot

Power Knot provides safe and economically sound solutions for commercial, industrial, and military customers globally seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. Our technologies are proven, available today, have been in reliable use for many years, and offer a payback period typically of less than two years. We design, develop, and manufacture our products in our headquarters in Silicon Valley, California.

For more information, access www.powerknot.com .

Media Contact: Cecillia Wong

Marketing Manager

Power Knot

(408) 889-8433

[email protected]

SOURCE Power Knot LLC
ALLENTOWN, Pa., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) announced today that it has joined Energy Impact Partners, a leading global investor in the transition to a sustainable future, in the launch of its Deep Decarbonization Frontier Fund. The fund targets early-stage, revolutionary technologies that accelerate the transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

With a target of $350 million, the fund has already received commitments for more than $200 million from both new and existing investors. Through the Frontier Fund, PPL will work with EIP to identify innovations that address deep decarbonization challenges.

"Innovation fuels progress, and at PPL, we are committed to driving innovation that will help us achieve our goal of net-zero carbon emissions, drive value for customers and shareowners, and advance a sustainable energy future," said Vincent Sorgi, PPL president and chief executive officer. "We understand the power of partnerships in unleashing innovation, and we are proud to support the Frontier Fund."

PPL's participation in the Frontier Fund is part of the company's commitment to invest up to $50 million across EIP's platform to accelerate the shift to a low-carbon future and advance clean energy technologies. Collaboration with EIP is expected to provide PPL greater visibility into emerging technologies that can be leveraged to advance the clean energy transition.

PPL is also involved in other industry efforts to advance research and development. This includes engaging as an anchor member in the Electric Power Research Institute and Gas Technology Institute's five-year Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI). Sorgi is helping to lead this effort as chair of the LCRI Board Working Group.

"We are glad that PPL has joined our latest fund," said Shayle Kann, partner in the EIP Frontier Fund. "Over the last six years, we have built an ecosystem and process to drive innovation in massive, mature and technically complex industries, and nowhere is this skillset needed more than the drive toward deep decarbonization."

To learn more about PPL's commitment to research and development, visit www.pplweb.com. To learn more about Energy Impact Partners and the Frontier Fund, visit www.energyimpactpartners.com.

About PPL

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL), based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is a leading U.S. energy company focused on providing electricity and natural gas safely, reliably and affordably to more than 2.5 million customers in the U.S. PPL's high-performing, award-winning utilities are addressing energy challenges head-on by building smarter, more resilient and more dynamic power grids and advancing sustainable energy solutions. For more information, visit www.pplweb.com.

About Energy Impact Partners

Energy Impact Partners, LP (EIP) is a global venture capital firm leading the transition to a sustainable energy future. EIP brings together entrepreneurs and the world's most forward-looking energy and industrial companies to advance innovation. With over $2 billion in assets under management, EIP invests globally across venture, growth, credit and infrastructure  and has a team of more than 60 professionals based in its offices in New York, San Francisco, Palm Beach, London, Cologne and Oslo. For more information on EIP, please visit www.energyimpactpartners.com.

Note to Editors: Visit our media website at www.pplnewsroom.com for additional news and background about PPL Corporation.

Contacts: For news media: Ryan Hill, 610-774-4033

For financial analysts: Andy Ludwig, 610-774-3389

SOURCE PPL Corporation
ATLANTA, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Primrose Schools, the premier early education and care leader with nearly 475 locations, today announced its 2022 growth plans, including projections of an estimated 25 incoming schools, several of which are in new urban locations like New York City. In the midst of skyrocketing demand for child care, the company is kicking off its 40th year focused on helping both new entrepreneurs and veteran franchise owners meet the early education and care needs of families in their community by opening schools and expanding access to Primrose's time-tested and award-winning Balanced Learning Approach.

Primrose Schools maintained its trusted reputation for safety and service excellence throughout the pandemic which led to positive financial growth and several important development milestones. Enrollment remained high during 2021 with many locations continuing to have waitlists for students. Likewise, the company awarded 27 franchise agreements, opened 22 schools and experienced a 340% increase in potential franchise owner inquiries compared to 2020. Pre-pandemic inquiries from 2019 were outperformed by 142% as well. Building on this momentum, the company is poised to reach its milestone 500th location by this time next year.

"Primrose Schools revolutionized early childhood education through our proven model, continued innovation and tireless commitment to supporting our franchise owners and the children and families they serve with the guidance and tools to thrive," said Steve Clemente, President of Primrose Schools. "We have expanded access to premier early education and quality child care significantly over the last 40 years. But as demand for these essential services continues, Primrose remains focused on empowering entrepreneurs to create a brighter future for all children and families by bringing new schools to communities across the country."

Fueling America's Economic Engines

At a time when families are returning to our nation's largest cities, new Primrose schools are opening in critical financial centers that are experiencing some of the greatest child care shortages due to the pandemic, like New York City and Chicago.

Similarly, migration of young families during the pandemic has been a major boon to secondary cities, but they need a vitally important service to sustain their growth  access to quality early education and child care. Primrose is working with new entrepreneurs, as well as veteran franchise owners, to help the nation's fastest growing metro areas, like Austin, Boise, Nashville and Reno, meet the needs of all residents.

Child care shortages in Silicon Valley, Milwaukee and other tech hubs grew significantly as they transitioned to work from home workforces at the height of the pandemic. As many businesses begin their call for a return to the office, Primrose has plans to open schools in these communities in the upcoming years to provide parents the quality early education and care solutions they need.

Accolades for Agents of Change

In addition to experiencing rapid growth, Primrose Schools has been recognized for its dedication to franchise owners and work with national partners to expand access to early education and create meaningful child care solutions.

Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 awards, the world's first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking, named Primrose Schools No. 1 in the child care category and No. 65 on the overall list of best franchises for 2022. This is the sixth consecutive year Primrose Schools received the honor of claiming the top spot in the child care category. Primrose also received the top ranking in the child care services category of Newsweek's 2022 America's Best Customer Service list and outperformed all child care competitors on the latest Franchise Times Top 400 report, earning the 108th spot overall.

As lawmakers continued to debate the child care funding provisions to be included in the Build Back Better bill, Primrose Schools CEO Jo Kirchner worked alongside the Early Care & Education Consortium (ECEC) to advocate for a comprehensive public-private partnership and, mixed-delivery child care framework benefitting all children. Likewise, Primrose continued its collaboration with AdventHealth at the revolutionary West Lakes Early Learning Center (ELC) and became the first national system of preschools to have their teachers and parents utilize evidence-based screening tools for their children aligned with the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Thanks to these efforts, Jo Kirchner was honored as the Female Executive of the Year at the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business, in recognition of Primrose's commitment to bettering communities by providing a quality early childhood education and care for all children.

Entrepreneurs looking for impactful, innovative business opportunities can visit Primrose Schools online or call 800-PRIMROSE (774-6767) to learn more about franchise opportunities today.

About Primrose Schools 

Primrose Schools is the leader in providing premier early education and care to children and families in the United States. Founded in 1982, there are nearly 475 Primrose schools in 33 states today. Ranked the No. 1 child care franchise by Entrepreneur for six consecutive years and named as one of the best franchises to buy in America by Forbes, Primrose offers Franchise Owners the opportunity to invest in a financially rewarding and emotionally satisfying business while providing an essential service that delivers an unparalleled early learning experience for children and families in their community. Each school is independently owned and operated by Franchise Owners who are provided a proven and time-tested business model and exclusive approach to early education, called Balanced Learning. Primrose has franchising opportunities available in markets throughout the U.S. and is seeking qualified potential Franchise Owners to join the brand's rapid expansion and mission to transform the future of early education. For more information, visit www.Franchise.PrimroseSchools.com, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and explore our news site.

SOURCE Primrose Schools
[February 01, 2022] Startek Strengthens Leadership Team, Continuing Investment in Business-Wide Transformation Startek (NYSE: SRT), a global customer experience (CX) solutions provider, today announced the appointments of Bharat Rao as Global CEO and Ronald Gillette as Strategic Advisor and Head of Business Transformation. These new appointments further strengthen Startek senior leadership and the company's position as a leader in digital-first CX. Appointed president in October 2021, Rao will immediately begin transitioning into the Global CEO role. Rao continues to serve as a Director on the boards of Startek and CCC, a joint venture based in the Middle East. In addition, Rao remains a Director at CSS Corp, a new-age digital transformation company in which Startek owns a minority stake. Previously, Rao has held senior positions at Credit Suisse, ING Bank and PwC. He has been active across the outsourcing industry, including in BPaaS (Business Process as a Service), SaaS (Software as a Service), BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and outsourced software development. Rao started his professional career with Citibank over 30 years ago and brings experience across industries and geographies. This, combined with a deep understanding of the needs of the BPO sector, adds strength to the Startek organization as it continues to leverage digital technologies to deliver world-class CX for its partners across the globe. Rao takes on the Global CEO role as Aparup Sengupta steps down as Global CEO and Executive Chairman. Sengupta will remain a Director on the Startek Board. Rao holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. "Startek is on a transformational journey, working in partnership with our cliens we are building innovative solutions that push forwards the boundaries of omnichannel CX," said Bharat Rao, Global CEO, Startek. "I am proud to take the helm as we continue to invest in high-growth transformation platforms and harness the power of digital and brand experience to develop the next generation of CX solutions." As Strategic Advisor and Head of Business Transformation, Gillette will advise Startek and its Board as a Senior Advisor, offering expert guidance as the company continues to embrace leading-edge technology, further improving the quality of its offering and optimizing CX delivery. Having spent 30 years in the outsourcing industry, including roles at EDS, Ernst & Young, Deloitte Consulting, Accenture, ACS, Xerox and WNS, Gillette brings a wealth of experience to Startek. As Chief Operating Officer at WNS, Gillette significantly transformed the business model creating significant value for all stakeholders. He has also advised large institutional investors as an independent BPO advisor. Gillette holds an MBA in Finance from Marymount University, Arlington, Virginia and a Bachelor of Engineering from the United States Military Academy (USMA), West Point, New York. "The appointment of Ron Gillette as Strategic Advisor and Head of Business Transformation," said Rao, "demonstrates our commitment to the Startek strategic aims and to building long-term, digital-first partnerships with our clients." "I am excited to advise the board and management of a client-centric organization committed to the delivery of world-class CX," said Gillette. "With a strong leadership team and renewed investment in digital solutions, Startek has the right combination of effortless automation and digitally-assisted live agents to transform the customer experience as a strategic partner of choice for leading brands across the globe." About Startek Startek is a global provider of tech-enabled business process management solutions. The company provides omni-channel customer experience, digital transformation, and technology services to some of the finest brands globally. Startek is committed to impacting clients' business outcomes by focusing on enhancing customer experience and digital & AI enablement across all touch points and channels. Startek has more than 40,000 CX experts spread across 46 delivery campuses in 13 countries. The company services over 200 clients across a range of industries such as Banking and Financial Services, Insurance, Technology, Telecom, Healthcare, Travel & Hospitality, Ecommerce, Consumer Goods, Retail, and Energy & Utilities. To learn more about Startek's global solutions, please visit www.startek.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005950/en/

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KINGSPORT, Tenn., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Professional Personnel Service, Inc., and its affiliated companies d/b/a Luttrell Staffing Group ("Luttrell Staffing") is providing notice of an event that may impact the security of information related to current and former employees and associates. While there is no evidence of any attempted or actual misuse of this information, Luttrell Staffing is providing individuals potentially impacted by this event with information about the event, its response, and the steps these individuals may take to further protect their information against identity theft and fraud, should they feel it necessary to do so.

What Happened? On June 14, 2021, Luttrell Staffing became aware that certain files on its computer system were encrypted with malware by an unknown actor. Luttrell Staffing promptly took steps to secure the impacted systems and its network and launched an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the event. The investigation determined that an unauthorized actor gained access to certain Luttrell Staffing systems between June 10, 2021 and June 23, 2021. As a result, the unauthorized actor may have had access to certain files within these systems and certain current and former employee and associate information may have been accessed or acquired by the unauthorized actor.

What Information Was Involved? Although the investigation was able to determine that certain Luttrell Staffing systems were accessed, it was unable to confirm what specific information was actually accessed. Therefore, Luttrell Staffing began a comprehensive review of the impacted files out of an abundance of caution to determine what information was present at the time of the incident. Luttrell Staffing is notifying individuals now because on or about December 27, 2021, this review determined that certain information related to current and may have been impacted. This information includes names, dates of birth, Social Security number, government-issued identification number, financial account information, credit or debit card information, biometric information and/or medical and health insurance information.

What Luttrell Staffing is Doing. The privacy and security of information is among Luttrell Staffing's highest priorities and we take this incident very seriously. Luttrell Staffing is reviewing its security policies and procedures, as well as working with cybersecurity specialists, to reduce the risk of this happening in the future and implemented additional measures and security tools to further protect information in its systems. Luttrell Staffing is also working to provide additional training to employees regarding data privacy and security. Luttrell Staffing is also offering complimentary credit monitoring services to affected individuals and reported this incident to federal law enforcement.

For More Information. If there are additional questions, or individuals believe they may be impacted by this event, please call Luttrell Staffing's dedicated assistance line at 1-855-568-2038, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Central Time, excluding major U.S. holidays. Individuals may also write to Luttrell Staffing at 1040 Tidewater Court, Kingsport, TN 37660 or visit Luttrell Staffing's website at www.luttrellstaffing.com.

What Affected Individuals Can Do. Luttrell Staffing encourages potentially impacted individuals to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud by reviewing their account statements and monitoring their free credit reports for suspicious activity. Additionally, under U.S. law, a consumer is entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. In order for a consumer to order their free credit report, they can visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, 1-877-322-8228. Consumers may also directly contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below to request a free copy of your credit report.

Consumers have the right to place an initial or extended "fraud alert" on a credit file at no cost. An initial fraud alert is a 1-year alert that is placed on a consumer's credit file. Upon seeing a fraud alert display on a consumer's credit file, a business is required to take steps to verify the consumer's identity before extending new credit. If a consumer is the victim of identity theft, the consumer is entitled to an extended fraud alert, which is a fraud alert lasting seven years. Should a consumer wish to place a fraud alert, they may contact any one of the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below.

As an alternative to a fraud alert, consumers have the right to place a "credit freeze" on a credit report, which will prohibit a credit bureau from releasing information in the credit report without the consumer's express authorization. The credit freeze is designed to prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in the consumer's name without their consent. However, consumers should be aware that using a credit freeze to take control over who gets access to the personal and financial information in their credit report may delay, interfere with, or prohibit the timely approval of any subsequent request or application they make regarding a new loan, credit, mortgage, or any other account involving the extension of credit. Pursuant to federal law, consumers cannot be charged to place or lift a credit freeze on their credit report. To request a security freeze, consumers will need to provide the following information:

Full name (including middle initial as well as Jr., Sr., II, III, etc.); Social Security number; Date of birth; Addresses for the prior two to five years; Proof of current address, such as a current utility bill or telephone bill; A legible photocopy of a government-issued identification card (state driver's license or ID card, military identification, etc.); and A copy of either the police report, investigative report, or complaint to a law enforcement agency concerning identity theft if you are a victim of identity theft.

Should a consumer wish to place a fraud alert or credit freeze, they may contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below:

Equifax Experian TransUnion https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/ https://www.experian.com/help/ https://www.transunion.com/credit-help 888-298-0045 1-888-397-3742 833-395-6938 Equifax Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 105069 Atlanta, GA 30348-5069 Experian Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016 Equifax Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348-5788 Experian Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 160, Woodlyn, PA 19094

Consumers may further educate themselves regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, credit freezes, and the steps they can take to protect their personal information by contacting the consumer reporting bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission, or their state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission may be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580; www.identitytheft.gov ; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The Federal Trade Commission also encourages those who discover that their information has been misused to file a complaint with them. Consumers can obtain further information on how to file such a complaint by way of the contact information listed above. Consumers have the right to file a police report if they ever experience identity theft or fraud. Please note that in order to file a report with law enforcement for identity theft, consumers will likely need to provide some proof that they have been a victim. Instances of known or suspected identity theft should also be reported to law enforcement and the consumer's state Attorney General. This notice has not been delayed by law enforcement.

For District of Columbia residents, the District of Columbia Attorney General may be contacted at: 400 6th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001; 202-727-3400; and [email protected].

For Maryland residents, the Maryland Attorney General may be contacted at: 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; 1-410-528-8662 or 1-888-743-0023; and www.oag.state.md.us. Luttrell Staffing is located at 1040 Tidewater Court, Kingsport, TN 37660.

For New Mexico residents, you have rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, such as the right to be told if information in your credit file has been used against you, the right to know what is in your credit file, the right to ask for your credit score, and the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. Further, pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the consumer reporting bueaus must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information; consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information; access to your file is limited; you must give your consent for credit reports to be provided to employers; you may limit "prescreened" offers of credit and insurance you get based on information in your credit report; and you may seek damages from violator. You may have additional rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act not summarized here. Identity theft victims and active duty military personnel have specific additional rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. We encourage you to review your rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act by visiting www.consumerfinance.gov/f/201504_cfpb_summary_your-rights-under-fcra.pdf, or by writing Consumer Response Center, Room 130-A, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.

For New York residents, the New York Attorney General may be contacted at: Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341; 1-800-771-7755; or https://ag.ny.gov/.

For North Carolina residents, the North Carolina Attorney General may be contacted at: 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; 1-877-566-7226 or 1-919-716-6000; and www.ncdoj.gov.

For Rhode Island residents, the Rhode Island Attorney General may be reached at: 150 South Main Street, Providence, RI 02903; www.riag.ri.gov; and 1-401-274-4400. Under Rhode Island law, you have the right to obtain any police report filed in regard to this incident.

SOURCE Professional Personnel Service, Inc.
KALAMAZOO, Mich., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Registration is now open for Kalamazoo Valley Community College's three cannabis certificate programs. The college announced the addition of the programs last month in an effort to provide job skills training for those interested in a cannabis-related career. Register at www.kvcc.edu/cannabis/.

According to Business Wire, cannabis is the fastest growing industry in America. To address the critical need for workers in the industry, Kalamazoo Valley has partnered with Green Flower, a leader in cannabis education, to offer these in-demand programs.

"The cannabis industry is creating thousands of career opportunities in Michigan and yet, nationally, a significant shortage of qualified professionals exists," said Craig Jbara, vice president for strategic and business development at Kalamazoo Valley. "These programs are designed to give participants the foundational knowledge needed to work in the rapidly expanding cannabis industry. Similar training programs across the country have proven to be very successful for employers."

California-based Green Flower is a leader in cannabis education and currently works with 15 universities, colleges and community colleges in 14 states.

"Green Flower is honored to be partnering with Kalamazoo Valley Community College to offer our three cannabis industry training courses," said Daniel Kalef, Vice President of Higher Education for Green Flower. "We saw the commitment by the college to help working adults find ways to become highly qualified to work in cannabis retail, manufacturing and agriculture environments."

The virtual training program provides participants with the advanced job skills and knowledge needed to excel in the industry.

"Like other highly regulated industries, the need to have expertise in material handling,

quality control, patient care, security, transportation, horticulture and more is vital to the success of alL aspects of the industry and these are all skills people will learn in these courses," Kalef said.

Three different certifications are available: Advanced Provisioning Center Associate, Cultivation Technician and Manufacturing Agent.

Each eight-week certificate program costs $900. For employers sending more than five participants or for individuals wishing to self-pay and take more than one program, a $100 discount is offered. All three programs are Kalamazoo Promise eligible. After the successful completion of the virtual training units and a final exam, participants will earn a Certificate of Completion from Kalamazoo Valley Community College as well as a national certification from Green Flower.

For more information and to register, visit www.kvcc.edu/cannabis or email [email protected].

For more information

Linda Depta

Executive Director of KVCC Foundation & Director of Development

269.488.4821 or [email protected]

SOURCE Green Flower
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Retina AI , the leading predictive customer lifetime value (pCLV) intelligence company today announced an integration with Google Ads, allowing customers to track how effective their advertising campaigns are in acquiring customers with high lifetime value to brands.

The new integration means that customers will now be able to measure their advertising campaigns effortlessly on both Facebook and Google. The new capabilities will be available to all existing customers and work directly within the existing Google Ads user interface they are already familiar with.

"Most ad campaigns are optimized for conversion and customer acquisition costs, but brands need to stop paying to acquire everyone," said Emad Hasan, CEO of Retina AI. "Around 30% of customers acquired by campaigns built solely on these metrics will be unprofitable. This is why measuring against pCLV is so essential - it ensures that your ad spend isn't being wasted on ads and audiences who are unprofitable."

The pCLV scores Retina generates can be viewed in custom columns in the Google Ads tables. The tool includes several columns out of the box including:

Aggregate CLV - a dollar value that represents the total CLV for all customers who clicked an ad or extension over a selected period of time.

- a dollar value that represents the total CLV for all customers who clicked an ad or extension over a selected period of time. CLV Conversions - represents the number of customers who clicked on an ad or extension over a selected period of time.

- represents the number of customers who clicked on an ad or extension over a selected period of time. Average CLV - a dollar value that represents Agg. CLV divided by CLV conv. Which gives you the average CLV of customers who click on an ad.

- a dollar value that represents Agg. CLV divided by CLV conv. Which gives you the average CLV of customers who click on an ad. CLV:CAC - is a ratio of Average CLV divided by Cost per Conversion and represents the ratio between CLV and customer acquisition cost.

With this data, customers are able to easily measure which creative: acquires the most customers, draws the highest CLV audience, provides the highest CLV:CAC and much more. To learn more about Retina AI's platform and the value of pCLV please visit: https://retina.ai/ .

ABOUT RETINA AI

Retina is the leading predictive customer lifetime value (pCLV) intelligence company transforming e-commerce customer acquisition for high-growth brands. The company uses AI, machine learning, and data analytics to provide the industry's earliest insights on pCLV to help marketers capture high-value customers and increase brand loyalty -- without relying on third-party cookies or IDFA. Retina's customers include world-class brands such as Madison Reed, and Dollar Shave Club. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA.

PR Contact

Nathaniel Hawthorne

[email protected]

SOURCE Retina AI
NORWALK, Conn., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- RISMedia, the leading information and news provider for the residential real estate industry, has announced its 2022 list of Real Estate Newsmakers. This year's honorees are a dynamic group of individuals who experienced a truly unique set of circumstances in 2021. Through it all, this year's honorees stood out for making news for their positive contributions to the consumers and communities they serve.

RISMedia's 2022 Real Estate Newsmakers include over 300 industry members, showcased in the February 2022 issue of RISMedia's Real Estate magazine and in an online directory on RISMedia.com, in the following categories: Achievers, Crusaders, Futurists, Influencers, Motivators, Luminaries, Trailblazers and Trendsetters.

Additionally, within the 2022 Real Estate Newsmakers, RISMedia honored the third-annual Hall of Fame Newsmakers:

- Candace Adams, President & CEO, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England, Westchester, New York, Hudson Valley Properties

- Jon Coile, VP  MLS & Industry Relations, HomeServices of America

- Jim Fite, President, CENTURY 21 Judge Fite Company

- J.B. Goodwin, CEO, JBGoodwin REALTORS

- Terrie O'Connor, Founder & Broker/Owner, Terrie O'Connor REALTORS

- Joe Horning, President, Shorewest REALTORS

- Tina Lapp, President, Colibri Real Estate

- Pam Liebman, President & CEO, The Corcoran Group

- Michael Pappas, President & CEO, The Keyes Company/Illustrated Properties

- Ken Trepeta, President & Executive Director, Real Estate Services Providers Council (RESPRO)

RISMedia will celebrate and honor its 2022 Real Estate Newsmakers and Hall of Fame inductees during its annual Real Estate Newsmakers Reception & Dinner, this year being held in conjunction with the 2022 CEO & Leadership Exchange on Sept. 7, 2022, at the historic Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.

"From records being broken, to the glass ceilings being shattered and the creativity and technology innovation being implemented through our changing times, to the always-inspiring and wonderful charitable work being done across the nation, we continue to be amazed by the incredible ingenuity and success of the professionals in the real estate community, over 300 of whom we are celebrating in our fifth year of honoring Real Estate Newsmakers," said John Featherston, CEO, president and publisher of RISMedia. "Once again, we are proud to recognize the hard work, dedication and determination of real estate's finest professionals who went above and beyond in 2021 amid the challenges and opportunities of this historic market."

To view the full list of RISMedia's 2022 Real Estate Newsmakers, click here.

About RISMedia

RISMedia was founded in 1980 by CEO and Publisher John E. Featherston as the residential real estate industry's definitive source for news and information for real estate's most profitable and productive professionals. For over 40 years, RISMedia has provided the industry with news, strategies and trends, and educational events, including RISMedia's Real Estate CEO Exchange; the Real Estate Newsmaker Reception & Dinner; the Power Broker Forum, Reception & Dinner; Real Estate's Rocking in the New Year; and RISMedia's Spring Into Action. For more information, please visit www.rismedia.com.



About RISMedia's Real Estate Newsmakers

RISMedia's Real Estate Newsmakers recognize those individuals making headlines as a result of their newsworthy contributions to the residential real estate industry, and their efforts to positively affect real estate professionals and the consumers and communities they serve. For over 40 years, RISMedia has been covering those making news in real estate through its print and online media vehicles, and formally honors those individuals at the Annual Real Estate Newsmakers Reception & Dinner.

CONTACT:

Beth McGuire

[email protected]

SOURCE RISMedia
POMPANO BEACH, Fla., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bolstering its already strong team of professionals dedicated to providing adults with the opportunity to earn high school diplomas and career certificates, Rivkah Sass is joining Smart Horizons Career Online Education as the Director of Strategic Library Partnerships.

In this role, Rivkah, the former Library Director of Sacramento Public Library, will draw from her success in overcoming barriers and transforming California's fourth largest library system into an award-winning institution to expand Smart Horizons Career Online Education's library partnerships.

"Rivkah is nationally renowned for her work as a librarian and public servant, earning titles such as 'Librarian of the Year,' 'Unsung Hero,' and ' Woman Who Means Business ,'" said Dr. Howard Liebman, Superintendent of Smart Horizons Career Online Education. "Rivkah's ingenuity and more than 40 years of experience will help her grow and nurture Smart Horizons Career Online Education's library partnerships. She also has extensive experience supporting state and federal affairs that strengthen our school system throughout the country, which empowers Americans to live life to their fullest potential."

Under Rivkah's leadership, the Sacramento Public Library recently won the Inaugural Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize for exemplifying the singular power of the public library to be a fully integrated and critically valuable community asset. Additionally, Rivkah was named Librarian of the Year by the Library Journal in 2006, and she received the 2020 Charlie Robinson Award from the American Library Association.

"I'm thrilled to join Smart Horizons Career Online Education. I believe in the power of transformation for both individuals and organizations. This is a tremendous opportunity to pursue innovative opportunities to expand library partnerships and transform people's lives with greater access to education and tools for success," said Rivkah Sass.

Rivkah earned her bachelor's degree in Political Science from California State College and her master's degree in Information Science from the University of Washington.

About Smart Horizons Career Online Education

Smart Horizons Career Online Education is a private, Cognia-accredited online school district. SHCOE offers online high school diploma programs designed to reengage adults and older youth in the educational system and prepare them for the workplace or postsecondary education. The high school program includes a vocational certificate in various career pathways. To date, more than 12,500 students have graduated from the SHCOE district. For more information, visit shcoe.org .

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Smart Horizons Career Online Education
Samaritan's Purse maintains an active presence in Central, South, and Latin America. Based in Boone, North Carolina, United States, the international Christian relief organization specializes in providing emergency relief and spiritual encouragement in locations where few others are working. Currently, the organization operates field offices in 17 countriesincluding Bolivia and Colombiato aid victims of war, famine, poverty, disaster, and persecution in Jesus' name.

"Samaritan's Purse has been ministering to families in Spanish-speaking countries for decades," said Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse. "We want to encourage and mobilize the Hispanic community by speaking to them in their own language so that we can continue to work together for the sake of the Gospel."

In Colombia, teams are providing food, shelter, and medical care to migrant families traveling from Venezuela in search of a better life. Over the past several years, millions of 'caminantes' have fled their homelandleaving behind a collapsing healthcare system, food insecurity, and violence. Since 2018, Samaritan's Purse has ministered to more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants while reminding them that they are not alone or forgotten.

Over the past two years, Samaritan's Purse deployed eight Emergency Field Hospitals around the worldincluding one to Honduras after Hurricanes Eta and Iota struck Central America, triggering catastrophic flooding and landslides. Teams of Samaritan's Purse doctors and nurses treated more than 3,700 patients across northern Honduras at the Emergency Field Hospital and through mobile medical teams. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Samaritan's Purse medical staff cared for more than 960 COVID-19 patients at the field hospitals, specially-outfitted as respiratory care units, in Italy, New York City, the Bahamas, western North Carolina, southern California, and Mississippi.

The website is regularly updated with impactful stories of what God is doing through Samaritan's Purse programs such as U.S. Disaster Relief, Children's Heart Project, International Relief, and World Medical Mission. For more information on the work that Samaritan's Purse is doing to share the Gospel and reduce suffering around the world, visit SamaritansPurse.org/ES.

Samaritan's Purse responds to the physical and spiritual needs of individuals in crisesespecially in locations where few others are working. Led by President and CEO Franklin Graham, Samaritan's Purse works in more than 100 countries to aid victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine, and persecution.

SOURCE Samaritan's Purse
The investments and initiatives include the launch of Aramco Venture's Prosperity7 fund with US$1 billion, and a billion dollar investment from NEOM Tech & Digital Company with a focus on future technologies. As part of its investment, NEOM announced the launch of the world's first cognitive metaverse, XVRS that will serve residents and visitors of the smart giga-project, and M3LD, a personal data management platform that gives back control of data to the user.

stc announced MENA HUB, a US$1 billion investment in regional connectivity and infrastructure, which will support Saudi Arabia's rapidly expanding digital and cloud sector.

LEAP also saw the launch of The Garage, a new platform for start-ups, investment and entrepreneurship by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).

J&T Express Group, one of the world's fastest-growing logistics companies, announced an investment of US$2 billion with eWTP Arabia Capital and other partners, to establish its MENA headquarters in Riyadh, and set up an extensive network of smart logistics in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's technology sector is worth more than US$40 billion. The new investments announced at LEAP22 are part of the Kingdom's ongoing plans to transform into an innovation-based economy, which have already seen the country become one of the fastest-growing new markets for Fintech and digital content in the region.

"These investments and initiatives are a manifestation of the Kingdom's push toward the growth of the digital economy for the greater good of people, the planet and the prosperity of the MENA region. They mark the next level of growth for the digital economy in Saudi Arabia, the MENA region's largest technology and digital market," said H.E. Eng. Abdullah Alswaha, Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

LEAP is set to become the world's largest debut technology platform. It will spotlight the entire innovation ecosystem, connecting pioneers and disruptors with business and government leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and more to experience and learn about the technologies of the future.

SOURCE LEAP22
FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Journey Capital and SilverPoint Senior Living proudly announces the opening of their Phase I and the groundbreaking of their Phase II campus, Edition of Saginaw. This campus is on 6.15 acres at 824 W McLeroy Blvd. in Saginaw, Texas.

Phase I includes 22 Independent Living one- and two-bedroom cottages. These cottages include a garage, spacious floor plans, and warm welcoming finishes throughout. Residents of Edition will be moving in during the upcoming week and will enjoy a host of amenities:

Weekly Housecleaning

All Utilities Included

Dog Park

Walking Trails

Club House

Resident led Engagement

Groundbreaking kicked off phase 2 of the project In January which includes apartments for 74 Assisted Living and Memory Care residents along with a variety of common areas. The new 57,000 square foot community is expected to open Fall of 2023. Included Amenities:

Fitness Gym

Activity Room

Salon

Covered Porch with spacious, beautifully landscaped outdoor areas

Coffee Shop

Theater

This will mark the fourth collaboration and partnership between SilverPoint and Journey Capital. "Edition of Saginaw will offer deluxe amenities and the maintenance-free lifestyle that today's active seniors demand, we're thrilled to be the first Senior Living Community in Saginaw," said Anand Patel, of Journey Capital. "Saginaw is a thriving city, with lots of exciting developments happening, we are proud to be a part of this great community."

Shawn Corzine, CEO of SilverPoint, added "The Edition of Saginaw is a community that SilverPoint Senior Living is thrilled to see become a reality. SilverPoint's background is in a small town that has experienced rapid growth, so we understand how vital it is to stay rooted in the community. We are honored to care for the teachers, business leaders, homemakers, civic and church leaders who have made such an impact on Saginaw throughout the years as well as welcoming newcomers to the area. We are also excited to be able to impact the leaders of today in Saginaw as we offer employment to over 50 employees at the community."

About Journey Capital

Journey Capital is a Dallas-based real estate investment, development, and acquisition firm specializing in senior living. Every project is a journey unto itself, with critical waypoints along the way. When complete, they become gateways for our residents to forge new connections and explore new paths along their own journeys.

About SilverPoint Senior Living

SilverPoint Senior Living is a Texas senior living management company that specializes in operating independent living, assisted living, and memory care communities. Their management services include portfolio management; development and acquisition; accounting and financial; marketing and sales; and IT and digital transformation. SilverPoint is strongly committed to its five core values of family, purpose, fun, integrity, and dignity, and is known for its signature Engaged Life program in which residents enjoy a person-centered care approach designed to make their lifestyle more like home. It is also a certified 2021 Great Place to Work. For more information about SilverPoint Senior Living, please visit www.silverpointsl.com or call 830-730-4472

https://silverpointsl.com/stayconnected/goeditionofsaginaw

Contact

Kelly Schwennesen, VP Sales and Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE SilverPoint Senior Living
LONDON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Solidus Technologies has boosted its pipeline of strategic partnerships with the announcement of a cooperation with leading global cyber-security firm Cyber Smart Defence (CSD).

Solidus AI Tech, the AI arm of the company, welcomed CSD founder and CEO Madalin Dumitru as its cyber-security advisor to ensure the security and data protection of the company's High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure. CSD was instrumental in creating a global cyber-security tower capable of delivering all cyber-security services on all continents for global digital and IT solutions company Stefanini Group; others among its portfolio of world-leading clients include Porsche, Carrefour, BNP Paribas, Al Habtoor Group, Orange and Goodyear.

Solidus Technologies founder Paul Farhi said: "It's an honour to have Madalin on board as a cyber-security advisor for our platform. Madalin's expertise is sought after around the world, and he is a hugely respected commentator on cyber-security issues, including on media platforms such as NBC, USA Today, Fox, Aljazeera and ABC News. He'll help Solidus' ecosystem to remain safe, and he'll ensure the Solidus HPS infrastructure remains secure. CSD will also integrate some of the software solutions for its current clients. It's a truly beneficial relationship all round."

At the core of this strategic partnership is Solidus Technologies' goal of solving problems with high computational needs through its HPC capabilities. By integrating Cyber Smart Defence's existing solutions with Solidus' innovative AI and High Performance Computing capabilities, the partnership aims to revolutionise cyber-security solutions.

Adrian Stoica, a Solidus Technologies joint venture partner and co-founder of Solidus AI Tech said: "Our High Performance Computing capabilities for various applications, such as artificial intelligence, defence, climate research, engineering, material science and earth sciences, are fundamental for the future of technology and 'super computing'. Teaming up with Solidus has proven to be a solid and long lasting partnership that will scale our project faster than any other initiative in the world, and with Madalin and Cyber Smart Defence as official partners, it's the perfect combination to write history together."

Despite advancements in artificial intelligence, vulnerability management has lagged behind. Security and IT teams can use AI to improve traditional vulnerability management activities. Speaking to this, Madalin Dumitru said: "I'm excited about the vulnerability monitoring platform, which is a highly secured protocol that does not operate with an IP or Mac address. The vulnerability monitoring platform will enhance our clients' ability to detect sophisticated threats, streamline and collaborate on investigations and automate corrective actions."

About Solidus Technologies

Founded in December 2017, Solidus Technologies started as a cryptocurrency mining rm with a particular focus on mining Ethereum (ETH) via GPU-based mining rigs. In the wake of the 2020 financial crash and the significant boost in demand for AI services, the company shifted its core focus to Artificial Intelligence and incorporated Solidus AI Tech to become the AI arm of the business. Solidus' Artificial Intelligence infrastructure will enable Government Authorities, Megacorps, SME's and Professionals to purchase AI services. Solidus AI Tech is launching its eco-friendly AITECH token to operate seamlessly with their AI infrastructure. AITECH can be bought, staked or held.

For more information contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Solidus Technologies
NEPTUNE, N.J., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Spectrotel, Inc., a next-generation aggregator and leading integrated communication services provider today announced that it has achieved 5G for Enterprise Branch Specialization from Cradlepoint , the global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions. The 5G for Enterprise Branch Specialization recognizes Spectrotel as a leader in positioning and selling Cradlepoint's 5G for business solutions by meeting a series of sales, technical, and business proficiency criteria.

Spectrotel's new specialization, supports Cradlepoint's efforts of selling the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of 5G solutions to meet the business imperatives of availability, interoperability, security, and manageability.

"This partnership enables us to provide leading-edge 5G services to our enterprise customers to meet their growing wireless WAN requirements for increased speed, lower latency, and increased productivity through the ability to connect more devices, said Ross Artale, Spectrotel President and COO. "By providing our customers with best-of-breed technology that can be woven into our human crafted solutions, this specialization underscores our commitment to keep the 'customer at the core' of everything we do."

By combining its NetCloud platform with a clean-sheet-of-paper design for its new 5G modems and antenna systems, Cradlepoint is the first to deliver comprehensive 5G solutions for business. Specific capabilities include combining LTE, Gigabit-Class LTE, and 5G in a single wireless WAN; supporting all 5G spectrums, interoperating with existing customer SD-WAN and router infrastructures; and simplifying the entire network management lifecycle.

"Cradlepoint is committed to leading the evolution of Wireless WAN and 5G and is both the first and best choice for customers in this space," said Eric Purcell, senior vice president of global partner sales at Cradlepoint. "Our reseller, service provider, and technology partners play a crucial role in this mission. The addition of Spectrotel to our 5G for Enterprise Branch Specialization program is another important step in leading the path to 5G for business."

About Spectrotel

As the Next Generation Aggregator, Spectrotel is uniquely positioned to address the IT challenges of today and tomorrow. Leveraging their expansive relationships with best-in-class technology providers, with their thorough approach to understanding customer-specific organizational requirements, Spectrotel delivers comprehensive solutions to minimize risk, optimize resources and technology, and modernize the enterprise.

For more information, visit www.spectrotel.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

About Cradlepoint

Cradlepoin t is a global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions for branch, mobile, and IoT networks. Cradlepoint NetCloud, the personification of the company's Elastic Edge vision, is a subscription-based service with purpose-built endpoints that delivers a pervasive, secure, and software-defined Wireless WAN edge to connect people, places, and things over LTE and 5G cellular networks. More than 22,000 businesses and government agencies around the world rely on Cradlepoint to keep critical sites, points of commerce, field forces, vehicles, and IoT devices always connected and protected, including 75% of the world's top retailers, 50% of the Fortune 100, and first responder agencies in 25 of the largest US cities. Major service providers use Cradlepoint solutions as the foundation for innovative managed services. Founded in 2006, Cradlepoint is a privately held company headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with a development center in Silicon Valley and international offices in the UK and Australia.

Spectrotel Media Contact:

Terri Vaccarino

Vice President, Marketing & Product

[email protected]

+1.732.345.7917

Cradlepoint Media Contact:

HOLLY LANGBEIN

Highwire PR

[email protected]

+1 (916) 769-2199

SOURCE Spectrotel, Inc.
FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Storm Guard  an innovative and community-driven roofing and construction brand  wants to bring their essential home restoration services to Wichita. Having some of the most severe weather in the country, Storm Guard's services are essential in the nation's heartland, making it the perfect market for franchise development. The brand currently has 35 locations and is looking to add 100 franchise locations in the next five years, with Kansas being on the list of states they want to break ground in. Storm Guard is looking to open two franchise locations within the Wichita area.

"With the wide range of temperatures, hail, tornadoes and storms that Kansas receives, it's clear that our services are a necessity," stated Shane Lynch, President of Storm Guard. "Wichita residents deserve to have their homes restored by honest and reputable contractors who put integrity first, too."

After travelling to help communities that were devastated by natural disasters, the brand's founders realized that their exceptional customer service and quality work was needed in a multitude of states. Since 2003, Storm Guard has been helping as many families as possible restore their homes after storms and solve problems that all property owners experience including roofing, siding, window improvements, painting, emergency tarping, and installing proper gutters. All repairs ranging from general home upgrades to storm restoration are completed with their customers' best interests in mind, with the brand taking measures to ensure their satisfaction such as alleviating the stress of dealing with insurance claims and providing high-quality work without the high cost.

"We know that the work we do is important to those who have been affected by extreme weather and it's crucial that we grow to reach as many people that desperately need our help as we can," said Lynch. "Our services are critical for the families we provide services for everyday and we are thrilled to continue applying our passion for rebuilding communities by expanding in Kansas."

Storm Guard is on a mission to provide their exceptional restoration services to households all across the country by creating franchising opportunities. The ideal Storm Guard franchisee is driven, a good communicator, and takes immense pride in helping their community. The brand's initial franchise fee is $65,000 and the total investment ranges from $185,400-$221,600.

For more information about Storm Guard, go to https://www.stormguardrc.com. To learn more about franchising opportunities, visit https://www.stormguardfranchising.com/.

About Storm Guard: Founded in 2003, Storm Guard saw the demand for a company that specializes in roofing and construction. As a single location in Minnesota, Storm Guard found themselves traveling to help local communities that were devastated by natural disasters. After responding to a hurricane in Florida in 2012, the founders saw the need for their services all over the country and decided to turn it into a franchise. Today, Storm Guard has over 35 franchise locations across 17 different states. They are looking for dedicated and exceptional individuals to help continue their success throughout the nation.

SOURCE Storm Guard
FORT COLLINS, Colo., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A Colorado based startup and the largest vehicle storage provider in Denver, STOW IT, is expanding to Atlanta! STOW IT is an online marketplace that connects individuals with extra space to those looking for storage for the car, boat, trailer, RV, airport, and semi storage.

Types of Rentals

STOW IT offers many different types of spaces to accommodate the needs for different types of vehicles. Below is a list of the most popular spaces they offer:

Long Term Airport parking at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta Airport

$120 a month for uncovered

a month for uncovered

$175 a month for covered

a month for covered Commercial Storage

Storage facilities



Parking Garages



Semi Yards



Parking lots

Individually owned spaces

Barns



Garages



Open land

Hosting with STOW IT

STOW IT is looking for individuals or businesses who are looking to make passive income through storage!

Benefits of being a STOW IT Host STOW IT will help you manage your spot by:

Processing payments

Setting up reservations

Guaranteeing all payments so you will always get paid on time

get paid on time Provide hands-on support from their highly experienced customer service team

How to Become a STOW IT Host You can go here to learn all about becoming a host and start the process to list your space. Once your space is listed, it is automatically available on the site, and you can start getting renters instantly.

Renting through STOW IT

Most STOW IT renters are individuals who are looking to store their cars, boats, RVs, trailers, etc. for a long period of time.

Benefits of storing with STOW IT over Traditional Storage There are many reasons why people are switching over to STOW IT from traditional storage options including:

You are not locked into long-term contracts

You are renting from locals near you

You are saving money compared to using traditional storage options

How to Rent through STOW IT

STOW IT makes finding affordable vehicle storage near you super easy! You can search by address, city, or zip code for available spaces here.

Find new and more affordable ways to store your items and use STOW IT next time you are looking for vehicle storage or take advantage of your extra space and become a STOW IT host.

Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE STOW IT
DIDWW and Sunrise UPC established the partnership to launch Business Voice International to provide local and national phone numbers for small and medium-sized companies situated in Switzerland and operating globally. This new service will allow businesses to improve communications with their international subsidiaries at a time when employee connectivity around the world is more important than ever. This collaboration will allow Sunrise UPC to provide reliable, premium quality, geo-redundant and fully compliant voice services with broad coverage.

By leveraging DIDWW's extensive phone number inventory, the Swiss operator will offer local and national numbers in more than 60 countries with thousands of locations, including popular destinations such as Germany, Italy, France, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Austria. The integration of local and national phone numbers will increase businesses' productivity and guarantee that employees, both local and global, are able to operate in a seamless and secure manner from anywhere in the world.

Boris Gratz, Sunrise UPC B2B Product Management & Alliances, stresses the trustful relationship with DIDWW, a leading international communications provider: "DIDWW is one of the cornerstones of Business Voice International. Its technical capabilities together with its highly motivated and flexible team make it an ideal partner for Sunrise UPC. From the very start, our collaboration has been built on trust and customer focus. This will help us go the extra mile for the sake of our customers. It is part of the execution of our high-quality provider strategy to become the Swiss National Champion."

Laura Pakamaniene, the Strategic Business Development Manager at DIDWW added: "We are ecstatic to be working on this project with Sunrise UPC, and are honored that such a high-quality service provider has acknowledged our high work and service standards. We hope that the access to our international phone numbers in over 80 countries will bring value to Sunrise UPC, and that our shared objective of providing top-tier voice solutions to clients globally will transform this interconnection into a long-term partnership."

About DIDWW

DIDWW is a platform for telecommunication professionals with full self-service access and real-time provisioning, APIs and all the necessary building blocks for achieving the ultimate control over voice and SMS services.

The company offers the largest fully compliant international coverage of local, national, mobile, toll-free voice and SMS-enabled virtual phone numbers, two-way local and global SIP trunks, access to local emergency services, flexible capacity options, free global number portability, a number selection tool, and more.

DIDWW delivers premium quality services to thousands of operators worldwide through a private and fully geo-redundant network with mission-critical reliability and guaranteed SLAs. Their customers enjoy advanced solutions coupled with a unique service experience and superior value, all driven by a highly motivated team of professionals.

To learn more about DIDWW, please visit https://www.didww.com/ .

About Sunrise UPC

Sunrise UPC LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Global, is the largest private telecommunications company in Switzerland. Sunrise UPC offers industry leading mobile, Internet, TV and fixed network services for private and business customers. With its leading hybrid fiber network including one of the world's best mobile networks, Sunrise UPC provides giga speeds to more than 90% of Swiss households. Sunrise UPC offers the best Internet (PC Broadband Benchmark 2021) and the Sunrise UPC mobile network is the only mobile network in Switzerland to have been awarded the highest rating of "EXCELLENT" 6 times in a row.

Sunrise UPC offers the fastest and largest 5G network in Switzerland in terms of the combination of 5G rollout and 5G data rates, according to the connect mobile network test (issue 1/2022). Since the end of November 2021, more than 1,000 cities/locations are covered with high-speed 5G (up to 2 Gbit/s) and more than 96% of the Swiss population with basic 5G (up to 1 Gbit/s). With its hybrid fiber network combining fixed and mobile networks, Sunrise UPC is the leading broadband Internet provider in Switzerland and at the end of the 3rd quarter of 2021 had almost 2.96 m mobile customers, 1.21 m broadband customers and 1.28 m TV customers (RGUs).

Sunrise UPC offers a dynamic and international environment where every voice is heard, perspectives are shared, and values are respected. As an equal opportunity employer, it is crucial to have a diverse workforce. Employees from over 70 nations, representing many different languages and religions, contribute to the expertise, innovative thinking, and extraordinary commitment that helps Sunrise UPC succeed and reflects the diversity of its customers.

www.sunrise.ch / www.upc.ch

Press Contact:

Aiste Kryzanovske

Marketing Project Manager

[email protected]

+44 (203) 769 7211

www.didww.com

SOURCE DIDWW
Highlights-

Segmentation- The report extensively covers market segmentation by Deployment (cloud and on-premises)

The report extensively covers market segmentation by Deployment (cloud and on-premises) Key Companies- Accruent, Diligent Corp., ENGIE SA , Figbytes Inc., IBM Corp., SAP SE, Schneider Electric SE, Sphera Solutions Inc., Urjanet Inc., and Wolters Kluwer NV among others.

Accruent, Diligent Corp., , Figbytes Inc., IBM Corp., SAP SE, Schneider Electric SE, Sphera Solutions Inc., Urjanet Inc., and Wolters Kluwer NV among others. Driver- Shift toward green initiatives to drive the market.

Shift toward green initiatives to drive the market. Challenge- Integration issues with ERP solutions to hamper the market growth

Download FREE Sample: for more additional information about the Sustainability Management Software Market

Segmentation by Deployment (In-Scope/Out-of-Scope)

In-Scope:

Cloud:

The sustainability management software market share growth by the cloud segment will be significant during the forecast period. The global sustainability management software market is undergoing a technological shift, driven by the advent of cloud computing. Users are moving toward cloud-based sustainability management software because it helps reduce the use of energy, and businesses can reduce their energy costs by 80%-85%. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are widely adopting cloud-based software solutions, as the shift to the cloud unlocks new opportunities such as clean energy transitions, which, in turn, is expected to contribute to the growth of the sustainability management software market during the forecast period.

Out-of-Scope:

On-premises

To gain further insights on the market contribution of various segments Request for a FREE sample

Vendor Insights-

The sustainability management software market is concentrated and the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic growth strategies to compete in the market.

Accruent- The company offers sustainability management software to decrease compliance risks, manage energy consumption and spend and monitor utilities and track refrigerant across many locations.

The company offers sustainability management software to decrease compliance risks, manage energy consumption and spend and monitor utilities and track refrigerant across many locations. Diligent Corp.- The company offers sustainability management software namely Accuvio Sustainability Reporting software.

The company offers sustainability management software namely Accuvio Sustainability Reporting software. ENGIE SA - The company offers sustainability management software namely Zero Carbon Platform through its brand ENGIE Impact.

Find additional highlights on the vendors and their product offerings. Download Free Sample Report

Learn More about Key Driver & Challenge of the Market-

Sustainability Management Software Market Driver:

Shift toward green initiatives:

The shift toward green initiatives will be one of the driving factors for the sustainability management software market growth. Green energy is considered to be the most effective method of countering the challenges of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Green energy generation involves the use of renewable resources as raw materials for energy generation. Sustainability management software provides a detailed report on the amount of CO2 generated per unit of productions. It helps reduce GHG emissions by allowing users to monitor, measure, plan, store, and report carbon emission data in organizations. Several industries are adopting sustainability management software, which is driving the growth of the market in focus.

Sustainability Management Software Market Challenge:

Integration issues with ERP solutions:

Integration issues with ERP solutions are key challenges for the sustainability management software market growth. Carbon emissions are involved in nearly every operational activity of an enterprise, greater benefits of sustainability management software can be achieved by integrating the software with the enterprise resource planning system of the organization. However, this poses integration challenges, as the IT infrastructure of a company may not support the sustainability management software and, therefore, defeat its purpose. It can be difficult and costly to integrate sustainability management applications that have not been designed to integrate with other platforms. Hence, the integration issues with ERP solutions are a major impediment to the growth of the global sustainability management software market.

Find additional information about various other market Drivers & Challenges mentioned in our FREE sample report .

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Security Assurance Market by Deployment and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The security assurance market share is expected to increase by USD 3.14 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 10.78%. To get extensive research insights: Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Sustainability Management Software Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 11.93% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 842.76 million Market structure Concentrated YoY growth (%) 11.11 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution North America at 40% Key consumer countries US, China, UK, Germany, and Japan Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Accruent, Diligent Corp., ENGIE SA, Figbytes Inc., IBM Corp., SAP SE, Schneider Electric SE, Sphera Solutions Inc., Urjanet Inc., and Wolters Kluwer NV Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization preview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

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DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Rockets and Missiles Market by Speed (Subsonic, Supersonic, Hypersonic), Product, Propulsion Type (Solid, Liquid, Hybrid Propulsion, Ramjet, Turbojet and Scramjet), Guidance Mechanism (Guided and Unguided), Launch Platform & Region - Forecast to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global Rockets and Missiles market size is projected to grow from USD 58.3 billion in 2021 to USD 73.8 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2021 to 2026.

The missile segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the rockets and missiles market during the forecast period

A missile plays an important role in rockets and missiles majorly for land, air, and marine platforms. The missile segment has been further sub-segmented further segmented into cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. The missile segment is projected to reach USD 57.1 billion by 2026. In the Asia Pacific region, this segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The hypersonic segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Based on speed, the rockets and missiles market has been segmented into subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic. Hypersonic rockets and missiles are equipped with a propulsion system to enable them to attain a speed of Mach 5 or higher, which is five times faster than the speed of sound. Hypersonic precision-guided weapons are difficult to counter due to their high speed. Currently, these weapons are in a development phase and are expected to be operational in the near future.

The solid propulsion segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the rockets and missiles market during the forecast period

Based on propulsion type, the rockets and missiles market has been segmented into Solid, Liquid, Hybrid Propulsion, Ramjet, Turbojet and Scramjet. Solid propulsion uses solid propellants to boost missiles and rockets. Solid propellants consist of a homogenous mixture of various composites, which are easier to store and handle. These systems cost less and offer a large amount of thrust to the missiles. High-performance propellants and modified grains enhance the capability of solid propulsion.

By launch mode, the surface-to-surface segment is estimated to account for the largest share (21) of the rockets and missiles market in 2021

Based on launch mode, the rockets and missiles market has been segmented into surface to surface, surface to air, air to air, air to surface, and subsea to surface. Surface to surface rockets and missiles are fired from the ground or the sea. They can be launched from hand-held or vehicle-mounted devices or fixed installations. These missiles used in land warfare operations are designed to hit ground or sea targets. Hence, they are also known as ground to ground rockets and missiles.

The North American market is projected to contribute the largest share from 2021 to 2026

North America is projected to be the largest regional share of rockets and missiles market during the forecast period. Major companies such as Northrop Grumman Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, and General Dynamics Corporation are based in the US. These players continuously invest in the R&D of new and advanced technology used in the missile defense system.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Opportunities in Rockets and Missiles Market

4.2 Rockets and Missiles Market, by Propulsion Type

4.3 Rockets and Missiles Market, by Product

4.4 Rockets and Missiles Market, by Launch Mode

4.5 Rockets and Missiles Market, by Country

5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Defense Programs to Secure Nations Against Various Threats

5.2.1.2 Increasing Defense Expenditure of Emerging Economies

5.2.1.3 Heavy Investments in Indigenous Missile Defense Systems

5.2.1.4 Increasing Need for Missile Detection Systems

5.2.1.5 Changing Nature of Warfare

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 Stringent Regulations for Arms Transfer

5.2.2.2 High Complexity and Requirement of Periodic Maintenance of Rockets and Missiles

5.2.2.3 High Development Cost of Missile Systems

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Miniaturization of Missiles and Their Components

5.2.3.2 Rising Adoption of Ai in Military Operations

5.2.3.2.1 Ai in Missile Defense Testing and Operations

5.2.3.3 Development of New-Generation Air and Missile Defense Systems

5.2.3.4 Development of Hybrid Rockets and Missiles

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Integration Issues of Larger Rockets and Missiles

5.3 Covid-19 Impact on Rockets and Missiles Market

5.4 Ranges and Scenarios

5.5 Value Chain Analysis of Rockets and Missiles Market

5.6 Trends/Disruption Impacting Customer Business

5.6.1 Revenue Shift and New Revenue Pockets for Rockets and Missiles Manufacturers

5.7 Rockets and Missiles Market Ecosystem

5.7.1 Prominent Companies

5.7.2 Private and Small Enterprises

5.7.3 Ecosystem

5.7.4 Demand-Side Impacts

5.7.4.1 Key Developments from January 2020 to November

5.7.5 Supply-Side Impact

5.7.5.1 Key Developments from January 2021 to December

5.8 Pricing Analysis

5.9 Porter'S Five Forces Analysis

5.9.1 Threat of New Entrants

5.9.2 Threat of Substitutes

5.9.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

5.9.4 Bargaining Power of Buyers

5.9.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

5.10 Regulatory Landscape

5.10.1 North America

5.10.2 Europe

5.10.3 Asia-Pacific

6 Industry Trends

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Technology Analysis

6.2.1 Next Generation Interceptor (Ngi) Program

6.2.2 Hypersonic Defense Systems

6.2.3 Development of Defense Technology

6.2.4 Anti-Satellite Missiles & Weapons

6.2.5 Smart E-Bombs & Hypersonic Munition

6.2.6 Advanced Tactical Data Links

6.2.7 Next-Generation Target Locking Technology

6.2.8 Infrared Technology

6.2.9 Fiber-Optic Guidance Systems

6.2.10 Network-Enabled Weapons

6.2.11 Hybrid Guidance Systems

6.2.12 Semi-Active Laser (Sal) Guidance Systems

6.2.13 Automatic Target Recognition (Atr)

6.3 Use Case Analysis

6.3.1 Use Case: Missile

6.4 Impact of Megatrends

6.4.1 Next-Generation Missile Seekers

6.4.2 Active Phased Array Radar (Apar)

6.5 Innovations and Patent Registrations

7 Rockets and Missiles Market, by Product

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Missiles

7.2.1 Cruise Missiles

7.2.1.1 Short Range (<_00 />7.2.1.2 Medium Range (300-1000 Km)

7.2.1.3 Long Range (>1000 Km)

7.2.2 Ballistic Missiles

7.2.2.1 Short Range Ballistic Missiles (Srbm)

7.2.2.2 Medium Range Ballistic Missiles (Mrbm)

7.2.2.3 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (Irbm)

7.2.2.4 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (Icbm)

7.3 Rockets

7.3.1 Increasing Effectiveness of Overall Combat Platform Drives Market

7.3.2 Artillery Rockets

7.3.2.1 Shoulder-Fired Rockets

7.3.3 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (Mlrs)

7.4 Torpedoes

7.4.1 Modern and Advanced Submarine Torpedoes Influence Market Demand

8 Rockets and Missiles Market, by Speed

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Subsonic

8.2.1 Subsonic Speed Munitions Play Key Role in Modern Warfare

8.3 Supersonic

8.3.1 Increased Demand and Integration for Supersonic Munitions Due to High Capabilities

8.4 Hypersonic

8.4.1 Highly Advanced Hypersonic Weapons is Expected to Boost the Market

9 Rockets and Missiles Market, by Propulsion Type

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Solid Propulsion

9.2.1 Lower Operational Cost and High Thrust Drives Demand for Solid Propulsion

9.3 Liquid Propulsion

9.3.1 Prithvi, Scud, Rsm - Widley Procured Missiles That Use Liquid Propulsion

9.4 Hybrid Propulsion

9.4.1 Safer Attributes of Hybrid Propulsion Disrupt Market Trends

9.5 Ramjet

9.5.1 Requirement of High Speed for Rockets and Missiles Increases Demand for Ramjet Engines

9.6 Turbojet

9.6.1 Supersonic Speed of Aircraft and Missiles Leads to More Demand for Turbojet Engines

9.7 Scramjet

9.7.1 Scramjet to Provide and Maintain Supersonic and Hypersonic Speed Throughout the Cruise Phase

10 Rockets and Missiles Market, by Launch Mode

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Surface to Surface

10.2.1 Versatility in Launching Drives Surface to Surface Segment

10.3 Surface to Air

10.3.1 Majority of Anti-Aircraft Systems for Anti-Air Warfare Operations Increases Demand for Surface to Air Rockets and Missiles

10.4 Air to Air

10.4.1 Dominance in Dogfight and Aerial Combat Fuels Demand for Air to Air Rockets and Missiles

10.5 Air to Surface

10.5.1 Air to Surface Rockets and Missiles Market Driven by Need for Overall Dominance of Space

10.6 Subsea to Surface

10.6.1 Fortification Efforts at Ports for Better Security Boost Subsea to Surface Rocket and Missile Demand

11 Rockets and Missiles Market, by Guidance Mechanism

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Guided

11.2.1 Development of Long-Range Guided Missiles and Rockets to Lead Market

11.3 Unguided

11.3.1 Modernization and Technological Advancements in Unguided Rockets to Boost Demand

12 Regional Analysis

13 Competitive Landscape

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Market Share Analysis of Leading Players,

13.3 Market Share Analysis,

13.4 Competitive Evaluation Quadrant

13.4.1 Star

13.4.2 Pervasive

13.4.3 Emerging Leaders

13.4.4 Participants

13.5 Competitive Scenario

13.5.1 New Product Launches

13.5.2 Deals

14 Company Profiles

14.1 Northrop Grumman Corporation

14.2 Lockheed Martin Corporation

14.3 Raytheon Technologies Corporation

14.4 the Boeing Company

14.5 General Dynamics Corporation

14.6 Bae Systems

14.7 Israel Aerospace Industries

14.8 Thales

14.9 Lig Nex1 Co. Ltd.

14.10 Bharat Dynamics Limited

14.11 Mbda

14.12 Elbit Systems

14.13 Kongsberg

14.14 Saab Ab

14.15 Diehl Defence

14.16 Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

14.17 Hanwha Defense

14.18 General Atomics

14.19 Kbp Instruments Design Bureau

14.20 Denel Dynamics

14.21 Almaz-Antey

14.22 Roketsan

14.23 Spetstechnoexport (Ste)

14.24 Frontier Electronic Systems Corp.

14.25 Ariane Group

15 Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/w6pv8c

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

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[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DALBAR is excited to congratulate the winners of the 2021 Insurance Service Award which recognizes those firms providing the highest quality customer service to life insurance policyholders. This year's winners stand out from their peers in the overall quality of their telephone support to policyholders. The 2021 winners (listed alphabetically) are:

Guardian Individual Markets Contact Center

Pacific Life  Life Insurance Division

As the financial services and insurance industry's leading independent expert on service quality, DALBAR's Awards are a mark of distinction that sets the above-named companies apart from their competition.

DALBAR Director Brendan Yeager explains, "The winners of the 2021 Insurance Service Award both provide excellent all-around telephone support to policyholders. One area where they really stood out from the rest of the industry was in the interpersonal aspects of the call. These award-winners have exceptionally friendly staff who do an excellent job of building relationships with their customers. While being able to relate to someone on a human level is always an important part of providing great service, it is particularly important for life insurance. People are often vulnerable when they call in, perhaps a loved one has passed or maybe they need to leverage their policy to deal with a hardship. Having someone on the other end of the line who can really empathize and engage them on a personal level is going to make that situation a little bit better. That is certainly the kind of insurance provider I would want to be working with."

DALBAR invites all firms to check on their performance, as measured by DALBAR, by visiting their award winner page.

The Insurance Service Award is earned through an objective and rigorous third-party review of the quality of contact center interactions with insurance policyholders. Telephone service experiences are reviewed against detailed criteria based on superior service standards and industry best practices. To qualify, companies must perform at a high level in all aspects of the customer experience over the course of a year-long audit.

DALBAR, Inc. has a 45-year history and is recognized by industry and government as an independent third-party expert in the business of providing audits, evaluations, ratings, and due diligence. DALBAR certifications are recognized as a mark of excellence in the financial services community.

SOURCE DALBAR, Inc.
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trade shows, events, and expositions have long been opportunities to build community within the tight-knit cannabis industry while operators celebrate their successes, share their insight, and shape the future together. As trade shows make a comeback after a pandemic-induced absence of nearly two years, businesses can once again experience the synergy of in-person events. But which conferences are worth attending based on company goals? When should a company exhibit or sponsor rather than just attend? To reap the most benefit from industry events, organizations must know how to determine which best meet their needs and be armed with strategies for exhibiting, budgeting, marketing, and choosing the right team to represent their brands.

When it comes to navigating trade shows, a team's preparedness will make or break the company's experience. From exhibiting a stellar, engaging booth to creating targeted marketing materials that boost engagement, success at a trade show is all about the details. Companies can maximize their show presence by creating goals for the event and executing them with strategic budgeting, realistic timelines, and a well-chosen team of enthusiastic employees to network, generate leads, and simply enjoy the experience. In doing so, organizations will thrive at industry events in 2022, forging new relationships and collaborating to build the industry's future.

"Being able to network and learn from one another in a safe environment is vital to the continued growth of the industry," said Kathee Brewer, editorial director at Inc Media, parent company of mg Magazine . "After nearly two years of cancellations and virtual events, businesses are thrilled to be able to gather in person again to learn, discover new products and services, and catch up with colleagues."

Not only is the cannabis industry celebrating a return to in-person events, but it is also embracing leaders from a diverse array of backgrounds. CEOs like Whitney Beatty at Josephine & Billie's are paving the way for women of color in the predominantly white cannabis industry. Morris Kelly, who founded SF Roots after expunging a cannabis-related criminal record, highlights the need for social equity programs that work against the harms of the war on drugs. Attorneys such as Fabiola Jimenez are litigating to break down the stigma of cannabis law, while professionals like Nadir Pearson at WISECO leverage their business acumen to pay their success forward to the next generation. Though the industry still has a way to go in terms of inclusion, groundbreaking leaders of color attest to a new, closer-than-ever horizon for cannabis.

Read mg Magazine's February issue here . Print copies are available by subscription .

About mg Magazine:

Founded in 2015, mg Magazine is the multi-platform media resource retail executives, buyers, investors, manufacturers, marketers, and agencies in the U.S. cannabis industry turn to for the expert insight and analysis they need to drive revenue and growth. By providing actionable intelligence about emerging trends, best practices, and innovation, mg's principled, unbiased, factual journalism helps the industry navigate the present while preparing for the future. Visit mgretailer.com.

Media Contact:

MATTIO Communications

Mark Sinclair

[email protected]

SOURCE mg Magazine
CALGARY, AB, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - TransAlta Corporation ("TransAlta" or the "Company") (TSX: TA) (NYSE: TAC) announced today that it has made a $2 million equity investment in Ekona Power Inc.'s ("Ekona") Series A funding round. The investment will help support the commercialization of Ekona's novel methane pyrolysis technology platform, which produces cleaner and lower-cost turquoise hydrogen.

The investment will provide TransAlta with a seat on Ekona's Strategic Committee, whose members will receive project updates, guide development and become priority commercialization partners if the technology is successful. TransAlta believes hydrogen, as a fuel source, is a promising pathway to decarbonize the electricity sector and provide dispatchable, net-zero generation.

"We are excited to make this early-stage hydrogen investment. Ekona has taken an innovative approach to its technology development, directly addressing the issues of high production costs and emissions from current conventional hydrogen production methods," said John Kousinioris, President and Chief Executive Officer of TransAlta. "If successful, Ekona's technology will provide low-cost hydrogen to fuel clean, reliable, and dispatchable electricity generation," added Mr. Kousinioris.

"We are very pleased to be working with TransAlta. Electrical power generation is a key market for Ekona's low-cost clean hydrogen, and our collaboration with TransAlta, a leader in this market, will be instrumental in achieving effective and economical decarbonization of large scale dispatchable electrons," said Chris Reid, Chief Executive Officer of Ekona.

Ekona's technology uses the decomposition of natural gas to produce hydrogen and solid carbon and has the potential to offer cost-effective hydrogen production with 90%+ fewer emissions than conventional steam methane reformer technologies. Built on the principles of combustion and high-speed gas dynamics, if successful, the platform would be low-cost, scalable, and could be sited wherever natural gas infrastructure exists.

About Ekona Power Inc.

Ekona is a Vancouver-based venture established by Evok Innovations and Innovative Breakthrough Energy Technology (IBET). Ekona is developing a revolutionary technology that transforms the way we produce clean hydrogen. Ekona's solution is an innovative and low-cost methane pyrolysis platform that converts natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon, drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Visit their website at ekonapower.com for more information.

About TransAlta Corporation:

TransAlta owns, operates and develops a diverse fleet of electrical power generation assets in Canada, the United States and Australia with a focus on long-term shareholder value. TransAlta provides municipalities, medium and large industries, businesses and utility customers with clean, affordable, energy-efficient and reliable power. Today, TransAlta is one of Canada's largest producers of wind power and Alberta's largest producer of hydroelectric power. For over 100 years, TransAlta has been a responsible operator and a proud community-member where its employees work and live. TransAlta aligns its corporate goals with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

For more information about TransAlta, visit our web site at transalta.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information", within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, and "forward-looking statements", within the meaning of applicable United States securities laws, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements"). In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "plan", "expected", "estimated", "will", "continue", "goal", "target" and similar expressions suggesting future events or future performance. In particular, this news release contains, without limitation, statements pertaining to: the commercialization of Ekona's novel methane pyrolysis technology platform; that the Ekona technology platform produces cleaner and lower-cost turquoise hydrogen; becoming a priority commercialization partners if Ekona's technology is successful; and the ability of Ekona's technology to provide low-cost hydrogen to fuel clean, reliable, and dispatchable electricity generation. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions, having regard to the Company's experience and its perception of historical trends and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that could cause such differences include technology development risks and risks relating to the commercializing Ekona's new technology, such as increasingly intense competition, ability to attract customers, loss of key personnel and securing proprietary technology rights. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect TransAlta's expectations only as of the date of this news release. TransAlta disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Note: All financial figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated.

SOURCE TransAlta Corporation
LONDON, Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trust Payments, the disruptive leader in fintech specialising in frictionless payments and value-added services, is pleased to announce the acquisition of retail technology leaders, WonderLane.

The move enables Trust Payments to provide innovative retail operations technology solutions to any shop with its electronic point of sale (ePOS) offering, enabling truly omnichannel commerce and payments solutions  all of which supports the growing trend for self-checkouts and wireless contact payments on-the-move.

WonderLane partners with global retailers to connect and deliver exceptional customer experiences in store and online through intelligent, fit-for-purpose technology. Cloud-native, Android-based technologies deliver real-time, remotely configurable systems, speeding up the checkout process, engaging customers and providing a single view of products, customers and inventory.

The acquisition will expand Trust's retail proposition, enabling it to provide unequalled products within a single platform. It comes at a time when consumers expect transactional processes with retailers to be as seamless and convenient as possible  this can only be achieved by bringing payments and retail operations together.

Daniel Holden, Group CEO at Trust Payments, explains: "It is a natural extension for Trust Payments to acquire WonderLane and combine their retail operations technology expertise with our vision for payments across Converged Commerce. We will accelerate our expansion and retail expertise to support self-checkout kiosks, mobile based click & collect services or smaller Android-based mobile payment units for smaller enterprises looking to offer contactless payments."

Martin Hartley, Director at WonderLane, added: "We are delighted that WonderLane has become part of the Trust family. WonderLane and Trust's complimentary product set will help to ensure that customers can benefit from innovative payments solutions and an expanded product suite. Trust Payments also has exceptional retail knowledge, commitment to excellence and a long-term drive to innovate, which is sure to help our merchants meet the continued wave of digitisation in the retail space."

About Trust Payments

Trust Payments, the disruptive leader in fintech specialising in frictionless payments and value-added services. We provide on-demand Payments and Banking-as-a-Service services to help businesses grow and scale online, in-store, and on mobile.

Trust Payments combines these services with powerful tools, such as loyalty management and instant eCommerce, engaging new innovative payments methods in crypto and bank transfers to drive Converged Commerce.

Focusing on the UK, EU and US markets, Trust Payments drives value for our clients through personalised services, secure and frictionless payments, and innovative products.

Trust Payments has a global footprint, with over 400 people across 10 offices supporting the most demanding business sectors, from retail, travel and hospitality to crypto, gaming, and financial services, and an acquiring network of over 50 global banks and hundreds of alternative payment methods.

Find out more at trustpayments.com .

SOURCE Trust Payments
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Three investors have filed a FINRA arbitration claim against Raymond James Financial Services and Copper Financial (fka Community America Financial Solutions, LLC). These investors suffered losses in Northstar Financial Services (Bermuda) products, alleging unsuitability, overconcentration and more.

The claimants, who are foreign nationals that worked for the United Nations based in the United States, are requesting up to $500K in damages. They had traditional bank accounts with the United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU). Raymond James and Cooper had offices within the UNFCU branch.

Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas is representing these investors in a New York FINRA arbitration hearing.

Two of the claimants are a married couple and did not want to take on unnecessary risks. Despite knowing this, their Raymond James broker recommended that they invest in Northstar Financial Services (Bermuda)  an obscure, offshore entity.

The third claimant also worked with a Raymond James broker and wanted to keep the risks as low as possible. At first, she thought that he worked for UNFCU because the advisor did not disclose that he was with the broker-dealer.

Again, her financial advisor recommended that she invest in Northstar (Bermuda) and encouraged her to buy even more of this investment.

These offshore products were risky and unsuitable for them given their investing profile, but all three investors were promised safe investment products, and great returns with minimal risk to principal. Raymond James brokers have marketed $45M of these annuities to UNFCU clients alone.

Even after it became obvious that Northstar (Bermuda) was in trouble, Copper Financial, which had taken over the UNFCU contracts from Raymond James did not notify these customers about these issues. By the time these investors tried to get their money back when their contracts had expired, it was too late, and their funds were frozen.

Not only was Northstar (Bermuda) misrepresented to these investors, but also, the two broker-dealers failed to supervise their accounts and were negligent in their obligations to them.

SSEK Law Firm is representing dozens of Northstar (Bermuda) investors in FINRA arbitration claims against the broker-dealers responsible.

Contact:

US: (800) 259-9010

Internationally: WhatsApp (text only): (713) 227-2400

Northstar Bermuda FAQs





Northstar Bermuda Preguntas Frecuentes

SOURCE Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas LLP
The tests were conducted with SES Government Solutions, the leading provider of government satcom solutions, at the U.S. Army proving grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland, and successfully demonstrated a range of capabilities that will support military and government missions across the globe. During the milestone multi-orbit trials, separate satellites in different orbits were simultaneously linked with a single Isotropic Systems multi-link antenna, demonstrating the terminal's capabilities tailored to meet the rigorous conditions and challenging connectivity demands across the battlespace.

With this breakthrough from Isotropic Systems, U.S. and NATO forces will for the first time be able to access every bit of satellite capacity across military and commercial satellites from a single antenna, which offers greatly enhanced defense and security capabilities:

Unmanned Aircraft or UAVs will be able to connect to the optimal satellites for a variety of surveillance and armed missions

Military pilots can link to optimal satellites for ground communications, while aircraft crew can connect to entirely separate satellites at the same time to access superfast broadband for real-time communications with warfighters and central command

A broad range of ships and vessels at sea will be able to communicate and connect with troops in the air and on the ground for a seamless mission campaign

Should a satellite be disrupted or denied during a conflict, U.S. and NATO forces on the ground will benefit for complete mission assurance with multiple connections to multiple satellites running at the time

As part of the Isotropic Systems multi-link antenna trials, the U.S. Army demonstrated a simultaneous connection in operational conditions as part of the U.S. Air Force's innovative Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) program. The terminal established two live simultaneous, full-performance connections with SES satellites in GEO and MEO, and seamless satellite-to-satellite transitions, providing a game-changing leap in wartime communications.

"Our terminal is the first and only U.S. Army tested antenna capable of multiple simultaneous satellite links, which provides the US military and NATO with the communications capabilities they need for today's threat environment with disrupted satellites becoming more common," said John Finney, founder and CEO of Isotropic Systems. "We have proven our optical multi-link antenna technology is fully capable of providing mission-critical, resilient space-based connectivity for the military and across a broad range of vertical markets  from government and enterprise to aero and maritime  as we remain on track for our commercial launch in 2022."

"These back-to-back breakthrough antenna trials demonstrate how a new generation of terminals, led by Isotropic System's optical multi-link platform, will unleash the full potential of existing and next-gen satellites for mission-critical government and defense missions anywhere," said Pete Hoene, President and CEO of SES Government Solutions. "The timing of the commercial availability of this new antenna is ideal with the recent launch of our SES-17 GEO satellite and the launch of our new O3b mPOWER MEO system in 2022."

About Isotropic Systems

With offices in the UK and U.S., Isotropic Systems is developing the world's first multi-service, high-bandwidth, low power, fully integrated high throughput terminals designed to support the satellite industry to 'reach beyond' traditional markets and acquire new customers with a full suite of high throughput services. The company's team of industry experts and scientists has pioneered several firsts in satellite terminal design resulting in a line of terminals that are customizable to meet the performance, cost and power requirements of countless applications  from the most complex government defence systems and mobile backhaul solutions capable of extending 5G, to next-gen connected experiences aboard commercial airliners, cruise ships, offshore rigs, and even small fishing boats at sea.

Investors in Isotropic Systems include Boeing HorizonX Global Ventures, SES and Promus Ventures through its Luxembourg based space investment fund, Orbital Ventures, Seraphim Capital, Firmament Ventures, Space Angels and family office investors such as Waterlow Management Limited. Further information is available at www.isotropicsystems.com.

About SES Government Solutions

SES Government Solutions (SES GS) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of global satellite operator SES. SES GS operates under a proxy board allowing them to provide services through contracts with the U.S. Government, including classified work. SES GS is exclusively focused on meeting the satellite communications needs of the U.S. Government. Leveraging more than four decades of experience in the government SATCOM market, SES Government Solutions offers robust and secure end-to-end satellite communications solutions. Further information can be found at www.ses-gs.com

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SOURCE Isotropic Systems
TITUSVILLE, N.J., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an expanded label for CABENUVA (rilpivirine and cabotegravir) to be administered every two months for the treatment of HIV-1 in virologically suppressed adults (HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies per milliliter [c/ml]) on a stable regimen, with no history of treatment failure, and with no known or suspected resistance to either rilpivirine or cabotegravir. The novel regimen was co-developed as part of a collaboration with ViiV Healthcare and builds on Janssen's 25-year commitment to make HIV history. ViiV Healthcare is the marketing authorization holder for CABENUVA in the U.S.

CABENUVA was approved by the U.S. FDA in January 2021 as a once-monthly, complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults to replace the current antiretroviral regimen in those who are virologically suppressed (HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies per ml).1 CABENUVA is comprised of two separate injectable medicines, rilpivirine extended-release injectable suspension in a single-dose vial, a product of Janssen Sciences Ireland Unlimited Company, and ViiV Healthcare's cabotegravir extended-release injectable suspension in a single dose vial. Prior to initiating treatment of CABENUVA, oral dosing of rilpivirine and cabotegravir should be administered for approximately one month to assess the tolerability of each therapy. The U.S. FDA Approval allows CABENUVA to be dosed monthly or every two months.

"The expanded label approval for CABENUVAto be administered every two monthsmarks an important step forward in advancing the treatment landscape for people living with HIV," said Candice Long, President, Infectious Diseases & Vaccines, Janssen Therapeutics, a Division of Janssen Products, LP. "With this milestone, adults living with HIV have a treatment option that further reduces the frequency of medication."

Click to Tweet: #BREAKING: The @US_FDA has approved a new dosing option for people living with #HIV. Learn more about this exciting milestone in the HIV treatment landscape: http://bit.ly/38rPgFi

"An important goal for us in HIV is alleviating the need for daily medication, which can serve as a constant reminder for people living with the condition," said James Merson, Ph.D., Global Therapeutic Area Head, Infectious Diseases, Janssen Research & Development, LLC. "With this new treatment option that reduces CABENUVA dosing frequency to just six times per year, we are revolutionizing HIV therapy for people living with HIV in the U.S."

The U.S. FDA approval of long-acting rilpivirine and cabotegravir for use every two months is based on the global ATLAS-2M phase 3b trial results, which demonstrated that every-two-month dosing was non-inferior to once-monthly dosing.2 Non-inferiority was determined by comparing the proportion of participants with plasma HIV-1 RNA  50 c/ml using the U.S. FDA Snapshot algorithm at Week 48 (Intent-to-Treat Exposed population), which showed that the every-two-month arm (9/522 [1.7%]) and once-monthly arm (5/523 [1.0%]) were similarly effective (adjusted difference: 0.8%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.6%, 2.2%). The study also found that rates of virologic suppression, a key secondary endpoint, were similar for every-two-month dosing (492/522 [94.3%]) and once-monthly dosing (489/523 [93.5%]) (adjusted difference: 0.8%, 95% CI: -2.1%, 3.7%). The most common adverse reactions (Grades 1 to 4) observed in 2% of participants receiving long-acting rilpivirine and cabotegravir were injection site reactions, pyrexia, fatigue, headache, musculoskeletal pain, nausea, sleep disorders, dizziness, and rash. In ATLAS-2M, the type and frequency of adverse reactions reported in participants receiving long-acting rilpivirine and cabotegravir once monthly or every two months for 48 weeks were similar. In the every-two-month arm, rates of serious adverse events (SAEs: 27/522[5.2%]) and withdrawals due to adverse events (AEs: 12/522 [2.3%]) were low and similar to those experienced in the once-monthly arm (SAEs: 19/523 [3.6%], withdrawals due to AEs 13/523 [2.5%]).2

"Every clinician wants to be able to provide a patient with a treatment that is right for them, and there are a number of factors that go into that decision," said Tony Mills, MD*, CEO of Men's Health Foundation in Los Angeles, CA. "With this approval, there is an important added option for physicians to address patient's preferences for less frequent dosing."

The once-monthly version of rilpivirine and cabotegravir injectable treatment has also been approved by the European Commission, Health Canada, the Australia Therapeutic Goods Administration, and the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products. The every-two-months version has also been approved by the European Commission, Health Canada, and the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products. Regulatory reviews continue with additional submissions planned throughout 2022.

*Tony Mills, MD, has received research support from Janssen and has served as a paid consultant to the company. He has not been compensated for any media work.

About ATLAS-2M (NCT03299049)

The ATLAS-2M Phase 3b trial is an ongoing, randomized, open-label, active-controlled, multicenter, parallel-group trial designed to assess the non-inferior antiviral activity and safety of long-acting rilpivirine and cabotegravir administered every eight weeks (every two months, 3ml dose of each medicine) compared to every four weeks (once monthly, 2ml dose of each medicine) over a 48-week treatment period in 1,045 adults living with HIV-1.2 Subjects were required to be virologically suppressed for six months or greater, on a first or second antiretroviral regimen, with no prior virologic failure. The primary outcome measure for the trial is the proportion of participants with HIV-1 RNA 50 c/ml at Week 48 using the U.S. FDA Snapshot algorithm (intent-to-treat exposed population).

For further information please see https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03299049.

About CABENUVA (rilpivirine and cabotegravir)

CABENUVA is indicated as a complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults to replace the current antiretroviral regimen in those who are virologically suppressed (HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies per ml) on a stable antiretroviral regimen with no history of treatment failure and with no known or suspected resistance to either rilpivirine or cabotegravir. CABENUVA is administered by a healthcare provider as two intramuscular injections (rilpivirine and cabotegravir) in the buttocks.

The complete regimen combines rilpivirine, a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) developed by Janssen Sciences Ireland Unlimited Company, with the integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) cabotegravir, developed by ViiV Healthcare. Rilpivirine is approved in the U.S. as a 25mg tablet taken once a day for the treatment of HIV-1 in combination with other antiretroviral agents in antiretroviral treatment-naive patients 12 years of age and older and weighing at least 35kg with a viral load 100,000 HIV RNA copies/ml.

Rilpivirine is an NNRTI that works by interfering with an enzyme called reverse transcriptase, which stops the virus from multiplying.

INSTIs inhibit HIV replication by preventing the viral DNA from integrating into the genetic material of human immune cells (T-cells). This step is essential in the HIV replication cycle and is also responsible for establishing chronic disease.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

CONTRAINDICATIONS

Do not use CABENUVA in patients with previous hypersensitivity reaction to cabotegravir or rilpivirine

Do not use CABENUVA in patients receiving carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin, rifabutin, rifampin, rifapentine, systemic dexamethasone (>1 dose), and St John's wort

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Hypersensitivity Reactions:

Hypersensitivity reactions, including cases of Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS), have been reported during postmarketing experience with rilpivirine-containing regimens. While some skin reactions were accompanied by constitutional symptoms such as fever, other skin reactions were associated with organ dysfunctions, including elevations in hepatic serum biochemistries

Serious or severe hypersensitivity reactions have been reported in association with other integrase inhibitors and could occur with CABENUVA

Discontinue CABENUVA immediately if signs or symptoms of hypersensitivity reactions develop. Clinical status, including liver transaminases, should be monitored and appropriate therapy initiated. Prescribe the oral lead-in prior to administration of CABENUVA to help identify patients who may be at risk of a hypersensitivity reaction

Post-Injection Reactions:

Serious post-injection reactions (reported in less than 1% of subjects) were reported within minutes after the injection of rilpivirine, including dyspnea, bronchospasm, agitation, abdominal cramping, rash/urticaria, dizziness, flushing, sweating, oral numbness, changes in blood pressure, and pain (e.g., back and chest). These events may have been associated with inadvertent (partial) intravenous administration and began to resolve within a few minutes after the injection

Carefully follow the Instructions for Use when preparing and administering CABENUVA. The suspensions should be injected slowly via intramuscular injection and avoid accidental intravenous administration. Observe patients briefly (approximately 10 minutes) after the injection. If a post-injection reaction occurs, monitor and treat as clinically indicated

Hepatotoxicity:

Hepatotoxicity has been reported in patients receiving cabotegravir or rilpivirine with or without known pre-existing hepatic disease or identifiable risk factors

Patients with underlying liver disease or marked elevations in transaminases prior to treatment may be at increased risk for worsening or development of transaminase elevations

Monitoring of liver chemistries is recommended and treatment with CABENUVA should be discontinued if hepatotoxicity is suspected

Depressive Disorders:

Depressive disorders (including depressed mood, depression, major depression, mood altered, mood swings, dysphoria, negative thoughts, suicidal ideation or attempt) have been reported with CABENUVA or the individual products

Promptly evaluate patients with depressive symptoms

Risk of Adverse Reactions or Loss of Virologic Response Due to Drug Interactions:

The concomitant use of CABENUVA and other drugs may result in known or potentially significant drug interactions (see Contraindications and Drug Interactions)

Rilpivirine doses 3 and 12 times higher than the recommended oral dosage can prolong the QTc interval

CABENUVA should be used with caution in combination with drugs with a known risk of Torsade de Pointes

Long-Acting Properties and Potential Associated Risks with CABENUVA:

Residual concentrations of cabotegravir and rilpivirine may remain in the systemic circulation of patients for prolonged periods (up to 12 months or longer). Select appropriate patients who agree to the required monthly or every-2-month injection dosing schedule because non-adherence could lead to loss of virologic response and development of resistance

To minimize the potential risk of developing viral resistance, it is essential to initiate an alternative, fully suppressive antiretroviral regimen no later than 1 month after the final injection doses of CABENUVA when dosed monthly and no later than 2 months after the final injections of CABENUVA when dosed every 2 months. If virologic failure is suspected, switch the patient to an alternative regimen as soon as possible

ADVERSE REACTIONS

The most common adverse reactions (incidence 2%, all grades) with CABENUVA were injection site reactions, pyrexia, fatigue, headache, musculoskeletal pain, nausea, sleep disorders, dizziness, and rash.

The most common injection site reactions (grades 1-3, 1%) were pain/discomfort, nodules, induration, swelling, erythema, pruritus, bruising/discoloration, warmth, and hematoma

DRUG INTERACTIONS

Refer to the applicable full Prescribing Information for important drug interactions with CABENUVA, VOCABRIA, or EDURANT

Because CABENUVA is a complete regimen, coadministration with other antiretroviral medications for the treatment of HIV-1 infection is not recommended

Drugs that are strong inducers of UGT1A1 or 1A9 are expected to decrease the plasma concentrations of cabotegravir. Drugs that induce or inhibit CYP3A may affect the plasma concentrations of rilpivirine

CABENUVA should be used with caution in combination with drugs with a known risk of Torsade de Pointes

USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS

Pregnancy: There are insufficient human data on the use of CABENUVA during pregnancy to adequately assess a drug-associated risk for birth defects and miscarriage. Discuss the benefit-risk of using CABENUVA during pregnancy and conception and consider that cabotegravir and rilpivirine are detected in systemic circulation for up to 12 months or longer after discontinuing injections of CABENUVA. An Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry has been established

Lactation: The CDC recommends that HIV 1infected mothers in the United States not breastfeed their infants to avoid risking postnatal transmission of HIV-1 infection. Breastfeeding is also not recommended due to the potential for developing viral resistance in HIV-positive infants, adverse reactions in a breastfed infant, and detectable cabotegravir and rilpivirine concentrations in systemic circulation for up to 12 months or longer after discontinuing injections of CABENUVA

Please see full Prescribing Information.

About the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson

At Janssen, we're creating a future where disease is a thing of the past. We're the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, working tirelessly to make that future a reality for patients everywhere by fighting sickness with science, improving access with ingenuity, and healing hopelessness with heart. We focus on areas of medicine where we can make the biggest difference: Cardiovascular & Metabolism, Immunology, Infectious Diseases & Vaccines, Neuroscience, Oncology, and Pulmonary Hypertension.

Learn more at http://www.janssen.com and follow us at http://www.twitter.com/JanssenGlobal and www.twitter.com/JanssenUS. Janssen Sciences Ireland Unlimited Company, Janssen Therapeutics, a Division of Janssen Products, LP, and Janssen Research & Development, LLC are part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

To learn more about Janssen's commitment to the prevention and treatment of HIV, please visit jnj.com/HIV.

Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding rilpivirine and development of potential preventive and treatment regimens for HIV. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Janssen Sciences Ireland Unlimited Company, any of the other Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and/or Johnson & Johnson. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: challenges and uncertainties inherent in product research and development, including the uncertainty of clinical success and of obtaining regulatory approvals; uncertainty of commercial success; manufacturing difficulties and delays; competition, including technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges to patents; product efficacy or safety concerns resulting in product recalls or regulatory action; changes in behavior and spending patterns of purchasers of health care products and services; changes to applicable laws and regulations, including global health care reforms; and trends toward health care cost containment. A further list and descriptions of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in Johnson & Johnson's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2021, including in the sections captioned "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," and in the company's most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and the company's subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at www.sec.gov, www.jnj.com or on request from Johnson & Johnson. None of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies nor Johnson & Johnson undertakes to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments.

REFERENCES

CABENUVA (cabotegravir, rilpivirine) Prescribing Information. US Approval January 2021 . Overton E et al. Long-acting cabotegravir and rilpivirine dosed every 2 months in adults with HIV-1 infection (ATLAS-2M), 48-week results: a randomised, multicentre, open-label, phase 3b , non-inferiority study. The Lancet. 2020;396(10267):1994-2005.

 Janssen Therapeutics, Division of Janssen Products, LP 2022 02/22 cp-291898v1

SOURCE Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
DENVER AND WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Valid Eval, a provider of secure SaaS platform solutions that help manage complex group evaluations with transparency, efficiency and accountability, announced today it was awarded a task order to implement large-scale evaluation services for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in New Mexico, supporting the Directed Energy Technology Experimentation Research (DETER) program.

This contract award supports AFRL by providing the Valid Eval tool and support services to assist traditional source selection technical evaluators in assessing and selecting innovative defense technologies and solutions.

"Valid Eval is working with DoD and Federal government to bring speed and integrity to the acquisition process through our user-friendly evaluation system and advanced data analytics," said Adam Rentschler, CEO and co-founder of Valid Eval. "We are delighted to have the opportunity to support another mission-critical AFRL program."

AFRL is the Air Force's only organization dedicated to developing warfighting technologies for air, space and cyberspace. Of AFRL's nine directorates, New Mexico hosts the Directed Energy and Space Vehicles directorates.

AFRL'S partnerships with the commercial sector, entrepreneurs, and academia is bringing about advanced technologies and training the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Valid Eval began its supporting military services with the Hyperspace Challenge, a program supporting U.S. Air Force, and currently supports Department of Air Force programs. Valid Eval also supports the United States Army's flagship xTech prize competition  xTechSearch  which allows selected small businesses access to pitch novel technology solutions directly to Army leadership, with open calls for white papers solicited twice per calendar year.

"We are operationalizing decision-making data to help industry and government improve technology and advance the mission," said Jacob Ablowitz, CTO and COO of Valid Eval. "Our DevSecOps environment and new technology simplifies the acquisition processes to easily complete audits and withstand bid protests."

By modernizing the acquisition process, Valid Eval serves as a model for how defense acquisitions can accelerate and improve integrity and outcomes at the same time. The company also supports innovation pipelines for the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Army, Department of Transportation and Department of Energy.

About Valid Eval

Valid Eval is an online evaluation system for organizations that make and defend tough decisions. Its secure SaaS platform works efficiently at virtually any scale to allow customers in the private and government sectors to involve a wide range of applicants, subjects, domain experts, and judges in evaluation and decision-making processes all with an unprecedented degree of transparency, efficiency and accountability that builds trust in the process. Combining best practices from the learning sciences and systems engineering, Valid Eval delivers defensible, data driven results and provides robust reporting tools that help measure and monitor performance and demonstrate mission alignment.

Learn more at: https://valideval.com/

Media Contact

Sandra Perez

[email protected]

SOURCE Valid Eval
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global veterinary software market size is expected to reach USD 1.07 billion by 2030, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.0% from 2022 to 2030. An increase in the prevalence of zoonotic diseases is a key factor for the growth of this market. Rising prevalence has triggered the demand for animal health diagnostics and monitoring services, which is expected to propel market growth over the forecast period. The growing adoption of integrated software systems for diagnostics and treatment is anticipated to fuel the market growth over the following years.

Key Insights & Findings from the report:

In terms of product, practice management software held the dominant share of over 65.0% in 2021 due to the benefits associated with its usage including medical record maintaining, billing, appointment scheduling, and follow up of patients

The imaging software product segment is anticipated to register a lucrative CAGR over the forecast period due to an increase in investments from veterinary product manufacturers, coupled with the introduction of advanced solutions

Based on practice type, food-producing animals accounted for the largest revenue share in 2021 owing to the increasing demand from consumers. The rise in the production of animal-based food products is expected to lead to a significant price reduction and help meet the increasing demand for these food products, globally. In addition, animal welfare organizations are consistently striving to achieve high food security

By end use, reference laboratories are expected to register the fastest CAGR of 9.4% during the forecast period owing to the growing demand from veterinary practitioners

The North American market held the dominant revenue share in 2021 owing to the increasing number of pet owners in this region

The Asia Pacific market is anticipated to register a lucrative CAGR over the forecast period due to an increase in the number of mergers & acquisitions by established players in this region

Read 120 page market research report, "Veterinary Software Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Practice Management Software, Imaging Software), By Delivery Mode, By Practice Type, By End-use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030", published by Grand View Research.

Pet health information systems that enable real-time analysis of the prevalence of diseases will help researchers develop therapeutics. The incorporation of these solutions in laboratories is another growth propeller for veterinary reference laboratories. Moreover, zoonotic diseases pose a major public health burden, especially in tropical regions due to the lack of funds and healthcare infrastructure. An increase in the willingness to pay for animal healthcare is expected to fuel the adoption of animal health diagnostics and imaging software over the forecast period.

The practice management software product segment is expected to witness lucrative growth over the forecast period. Most veterinarians use veterinary practice management software in managing patient information, scheduling appointments, and treatment planning. The most common features of the practice management software include client-patient database, after-care instructions for clients, billing, boarding, client communications, capturing lost charges, electronic medical records, client reminders, electronic whiteboards, inventory control, and many others. For instance, in January 2021, Patterson Veterinary publicized a partnership with Talkatoo to provide cloud-based software that offers a user-friendly dictation solution for veterinary practices.

Market players are focusing on entering into partnerships and launching new products, thus contributing to the market growth. Citing an example, in January 2020, IDEXX Laboratories launched Rapid Digital Cytology. It helps in connecting veterinarians digitally at the global level and helps to receive cytology interpretation within a short period. Additionally, in June 2020, IDEXX Laboratories acquired ezyVet. With this acquisition, the company has expanded cloud software technology solutions.

IDEXX Laboratories; Patterson Companies, Inc.; and Henry Schein, Inc. held the dominant revenue share in the industry owing to their wide regional presence and technologically advanced product offerings. Competitive strategies such as new product developments, regional expansion, and mergers and acquisitions are expected to propel market growth. For instance, in August 2021, Petabyte Technology proclaimed a partnership to advance the lives of veterinarians, their teams, and pet parents through innovative software. Together, the two corporations proposed to advance the next development of Petabyte's software to revolutionize animal hospital operations and transform the pet parent experience.

Market Segmentation:

Grand View Research has segmented the global veterinary software market on the basis of product, delivery mode, practice type, end use, and region:

Veterinary Software Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

Practice Management Software



Imaging Software

Veterinary Software Delivery Mode Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017- 2030)

On-premise



Cloud/Web-based

Veterinary Software Practice Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

Small Animals



Mixed Animals



Equine



Food-producing Animals



Others

Veterinary Software End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

Hospitals/Clinics



Reference Laboratories

Veterinary Software Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

North America



U.S.





Canada



Europe



Germany





U.K.





France





Italy





Spain





Russia





Netherlands





Switzerland





Sweden





Ireland





Poland



Asia Pacific



Japan





China





India





Indonesia





Thailand





Australia





South Korea





Philippines





Malaysia





Singapore



Latin America



Brazil





Mexico





Argentina



Middle East and Africa (MEA)

and (MEA)

South Africa





Saudi Arabia





Turkey





Iran





United Arab Emirates





Israel

List of Key Players of Veterinary Software Market

IDEXX Laboratories, Inc.

Hippo Manager Software, Inc.

VetZ Limited

Esaote SpA

Henry Schein , Inc.

, Inc. Patterson Companies, Inc.

ClienTrax

VIA Information Systems

Onward Systems, Inc.

Check out more studies related to veterinary healthcare solutions, published by Grand View Research:

Veterinary Imaging Market  The global veterinary imaging market size was valued at USD 2.01 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% during the forecast period. An increase in demand for veterinary diagnostics is expected to fuel the demand as these devices are primarily used for disease diagnosis.

 The global veterinary imaging market size was valued at in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% during the forecast period. An increase in demand for veterinary diagnostics is expected to fuel the demand as these devices are primarily used for disease diagnosis. Veterinary Telehealth Market  The global veterinary telehealth market size was valued at USD 119.6 million in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.6% from 2022 to 2030. The growing adoption of these management systems can be attributed to the steady growth in the focus on veterinary telehealth along with disease detection.

Browse through Grand View Research's coverage of the Global Animal Health Industry.

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter

SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vision Films Inc. ("Vision") announces the US and Canadian VOD release of the uniquely filmed Western, No Name & Dynamite on February 21, 2022. The film was directed, written and produced by Errol Sack under his ES Films, Inc. banner with co-writers, producers, and fellow stuntmen/coordinators Clint Lilley, Steven Shaffer, and Derek Hunt. True to the original Spaghetti Western genre, No Name & Dynamite utilizes classic anti-heroes, despicable villains, vast and arid cinematic landscapes, and of course, plenty of gun-slinging and violence. Shot with a Sony VENICE 6K Digital Motion Picture Camera with anamorphic lenses, Sack and team were determined to simulate and emulate the look and feel popular in the 1960's genre. Authentic period costumes were provided by United American Costume Company and many historical facts were incorporated into the storyline. In addition, a storied cast of character actors add to the era's feel, including Jack Lilley (Little House On The Prairie, Blazing Saddles), Vernon Wells (Commando, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior), and the late Don Collier (Bonanza, Gunsmoke). The movie was shot on location at Sable Ranch, Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita, and at Agua Dulce Movie Ranch/S.O.S. FilmWorks, all outside the city of Los Angeles.

No Name & Dynamite Spaghetti Western Movie Poster

Trailer: https://youtu.be/uuzyLvINfOw

Synopsis : In this classic action-packed Spaghetti-style Western, the line between the good guys and the bad guys is blurred as ruthless bounty hunters "No Name" and "Dynamite Davenport" shoot their way through the Wild West collecting rewards and making more enemies than friends. But with the outlaw John Wilkes Booth on the run and gold hidden in the hills, justice must be served.

Lise Romanoff, CEO/Managing Director of Vision Films shares, "We are thrilled to bring No Name & Dynamite to audiences. The attention to authenticity in this Western is a fun escape that contains all the ingredients that echo the gritty tales of the old West in the 1800s."

Filmmaker Errol Sack says, "I truly wanted to make a movie that seemed as if it was filmed back in the day, with characters actors, and that showed how dirty the times really were (no showers!). I also wanted to highlight things we take for granted  roasted peanuts, for example, funny in the film but they were first introduced to the US in 1865, a new sensation for them. And the guns, in most movie Westerns you see bullets on belts  there was no such thing; only black powder guns which we chose to use for authenticity. It is fantastic to know anyone will be able to watch this amazing, instant classic Western."

Also starring: Rich Ting (Lone Survivor, SALT), Chris Northup (Dirty Dancing, Sleepless In Seattle), Patrick Gorman (Teen Wolf, Sleepy Hollow), Natalie Burn (Acceleration, The Expendables 3), stuntwoman and contortionist Bonnie Morgan, stuntmen Walter Scott and Joey Anaya, Thomas Rosales Jr. (Speed, Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End), James Chalke, and Kelley Reiter (The Hunger Games).

No Name & Dynamite will be available on all major streaming and cable platforms in the US and Canada and on DVD February 21, 2022.

About Vision Films

Vision Films is a leading independent sales and VOD aggregator specializing in the licensing, marketing, and distribution of over 800 feature films, documentaries, and series from some of the most prolific independent film producers in the world. Led by Lise Romanoff, Managing Director/CEO Worldwide Distribution, Vision Films releases 2-4 films a month across Theatrical, VOD, DVD, and television platforms. visionfilms.net

Media Contact:

Andrea McKinnon

[email protected]

(818) 415-9442

SOURCE Vision Films, Inc.
SEVILLE, Spain, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vitro S.A, (www.vitro.bio) a privately held company headquartered in Seville, Spain, announced today the sale of Cytognos to Becton Dickinson and Company (BD). Cytognos is a company specializing in flow cytometry solutions for blood cancer diagnosis, minimal residual disease (MRD) detection, and immune monitoring research for hematological diseases. Cytognos' employees joining BD as a result of the acquisition will continue to support employment stability in the Salamanca area in Spain. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Vitro has been a long-term investor in Cytognos since 1996, taking a majority stake in the company in 2018 to create a full platform player that integrates and commercializes flow cytometry reagents, hardware and software. This add-on investment was Vitro's first since GED Capital's majority investment in Vitro in June 2017. Cytognos has since evolved into a full platform player in the clinical flow cytometry market.

"This major transaction with such a leading global IVD company highlights Vitro as a sophisticated niche technology player, and it will be followed with additional corporate and key technology achievements related to our molecular biology and anatomic pathology platforms", said Javier Fernandez, Vitro's CEO.

Vitro has approximately 250 employees at their facilities in Seville, Granada, Madrid, Valencia and Lisbon, with a new branch in Istanbul to be launched in February. The company boasts remarkable capabilities in the development of reagents, software and hardware, and their integration into proprietary full diagnostic platforms. With its own anatomic pathology and molecular biology reference laboratory, Vitro is able to validate and benchmark new reagents faster and more efficiently than its key competitors. With this divestment, Vitro will be able to focus its resources on the launch of its new, first-in-class in vitro diagnostics platforms in 2022. The company is in the process of setting up independent units to manage its existing reagents, hardware and software diagnostic teams, which focus on molecular biology, anatomic pathology, and Women's Health D2C services.

Lazard acted as the exclusive financial advisor, and Garrigues acted as legal counsel to Vitro. KPMG provided financial due diligence support and LEK provided commercial due diligence support.

About Vitro:

Vitro, a company with headquarters in Seville (Spain), is a fully integrated R&D, manufacturing and sales specialist supplying in-vitro diagnostic reagents, hardware and software to hospital and laboratories worldwide. Vitro celebrated last year the 30-year anniversary since foundation, and has expanded in more than 35 countries since then. It complies with ISO 13485, ISO 15189, ISO 27001, ISO 14001, and is working on track to update all CE-IVD certificates as per the new IVDR requirements in May 2022. All reagents, hardware and software are 100% designed and manufactured by Vitro at their Seville and Granada facilities. Vitro is a private company controlled by Spanish GED Capital (www.gedcapital.com ), a private equity firm investing in the low mid-market.

SOURCE Vitro S.A.
BENTON HARBOR, Mich., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- There's no one-size-fits-all appliance solution for today's consumers, which means building industry professionals are challenged to meet constantly changing needs and preferences. Whirlpool Corporation, the world's leading kitchen and laundry appliance company, will showcase its latest appliance innovations that help solve that challenge at the 2022 NAHB International Builders' Show on Feb. 8-10, 2022 in Orlando, Fla.

Whirlpool Corporation brings a diverse family of brands  Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid and JennAir  to the event, highlighting product solutions that are uniquely tailored to satisfy the needs of a diverse consumer base at varying price points.

"We're thrilled to be able to gather safely in-person at IBS 2022," said Kelly Safis, General Manager, Builder Sales at Whirlpool Corporation. "So much has changed over the last few years, but what remains the same is our commitment to the trade. We want our building industry customers to know that they can count on us to provide support, and innovative, purposeful appliances that serve their customers' needs."

In booth W2554, attendees can expect to see products that reflect today's most in-demand industry trends. A few of the featured products at IBS are:

Whirlpool  5.8 Cu. Ft. Gas 7-in-1 Air Fry Oven : The pandemic caused consumers to re-evaluate their eating habits, with many opting for healthier cooking methods, such as air frying. With this oven, consumers have 7 cooking modes in 1 oven: Air Fry, Convect Bake, Convect Broil, Frozen Bake technology, Bake, Broil and Keep Warm cycles. Skip preheating with Air Fry Mode, which circulates hot air around the air fry basket to cook fried food in a healthy way, with less oil than traditional frying. Users can air fry their favorite foods like chicken wings, nuggets and fries right in the oven with the included air fry basket that's dishwasher safe. Features such as the SpeedHeat Burner generate the high heat needed to sear and boil quickly, helping get dinner to the table fast.

The pandemic caused consumers to re-evaluate their eating habits, with many opting for healthier cooking methods, such as air frying. With this oven, consumers have 7 cooking modes in 1 oven: Air Fry, Convect Bake, Convect Broil, Frozen Bake technology, Bake, Broil and Keep Warm cycles. Skip preheating with Air Fry Mode, which circulates hot air around the air fry basket to cook fried food in a healthy way, with less oil than traditional frying. Users can air fry their favorite foods like chicken wings, nuggets and fries right in the oven with the included air fry basket that's dishwasher safe. Features such as the SpeedHeat Burner generate the high heat needed to sear and boil quickly, helping get dinner to the table fast. Whirlpool  Top Load Washer with 2-in-1 Removable Agitator : Consumers are always looking for ways to make doing laundry easier, and this top load washer with the industry-first 2 in 1 Removable Agitator does just that. It lets users customize any load to care for their clothes the way they want by easily swapping the agitator post in or out. Consumers can also skip adding detergent to every load with the Whirlpool  Load & Go Dispenser, and pretreat clothes with a built-in, dual temperature faucet and brush. Plus, the appliance is equipped with smart features to help streamline the laundry process.

Consumers are always looking for ways to make doing laundry easier, and this top load washer with the industry-first 2 in 1 Removable Agitator does just that. It lets users customize any load to care for their clothes the way they want by easily swapping the agitator post in or out. Consumers can also skip adding detergent to every load with the Whirlpool Load & Go Dispenser, and pretreat clothes with a built-in, dual temperature faucet and brush. Plus, the appliance is equipped with smart features to help streamline the laundry process. Whirlpool 30" Induction Cooktop : Induction cooking is becoming a hot trend in the home appliance industry. This induction cooktop uses electromagnetic energy to transfer heat directly to the induction-compatible cookware. Consumers can cook dinner quickly thanks to this induction cooktop that boils water fast and offers quick cleanup. Induction technology keeps the cooktop surrounding the elements cool, helping prevent baked-on messes.

Whirlpool Corporation appliances can also be found in four Professional Builder Show Village Homes, including two in-person homes, and two virtual homes.

In-Person Homes:

Domino V: The Domino V model from Franklin Homes was built to satisfy contemporary design at an attainable cost.

The Domino V model from was built to satisfy contemporary design at an attainable cost. Biscayne Bay: This home by Skyline/Champion is focused on cost-effective, efficient and environmentally friendly construction, and is designed to maximize buildable space.

Virtual Homes:

Smart/Connected: Inspired by the Smart Home Tech Trends Report by the New Home Trends Institute, this immersive, Smart/Connected home from KTGY Architects includes purposeful, connected technologies that homeowners value.

Inspired by the Smart Home Tech Trends Report by the New Home Trends Institute, this immersive, Smart/Connected home from KTGY Architects includes purposeful, connected technologies that homeowners value. Barnaby: Based on consumer lifestyle research by the America at Home Study, Barnaby is a modern farmhouse-style home that encapsulates what consumers expect from their homes today, including two right-sized home offices, a multi-gen suite, and more.

In addition to displaying featured products in their booth, attendees will have the chance to learn more about Whirlpool Corporation's collaboration with Habitat for Humanity, and make a donation via a badge scan. Through BuildBetter with Whirlpool , Whirlpool Corporation supports Habitat for Humanity as they build homes designed to withstand threats from natural disasters due to the changing climate. Whirlpool Corporation has donated nearly $130 million to Habitat for Humanity International and supported Habitat programs in 45 countries.

Whirlpool Corporation will also play host to a KBTribeChat in booth W2554 at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, February 9, where show attendees can gather to discuss the latest home building and design trends.

For more information about the company's presence at IBS and events taking place at the show, visit WhirlpoolPro.com/IBS-2022 . For more information about Whirlpool Corporation, its portfolio of brands and other offerings for building industry professionals, visit WhirlpoolPro.com .

About Whirlpool Corporation

Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) is committed to being the best global kitchen and laundry company, in constant pursuit of improving life at home. In an increasingly digital world, the company is driving purposeful innovation to meet the evolving needs of consumers through its iconic brand portfolio, including Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Consul, Brastemp, Amana, Bauknecht, JennAir, Indesit and Yummly. In 2020, the company reported approximately $19 billion in annual sales, 78,000 employees and 57 manufacturing and technology research centers. Additional information about the company can be found at WhirlpoolCorp.com.

Kelly Bradley

[email protected]

312.661.1050

SOURCE Whirlpool Corporation
ATLANTA, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In today's world, having a website for your business is crucial. It serves as a great way for customers to find, connect, and engage with your business. But what about having a second website that serves a slightly different purpose? Developing a second website for your business that provides training and education can be highly valuable for a company. A dedicated learning website can be used internally for training employees or externally for teaching customers. Use it to grow employee skills or to educate your customers on your products. Use it as a marketing strategy for driving customer engagement or a way to increase employee knowledge and productivity. By implementing a learning website into your company strategy, you can grow your brand from inside-out. It can be used as a great tool to drive and scale your business. But where do you begin? Building a website can be quite the task, not to mention upkeep and management. Even greater challenges can be faced when developing your own learning website. That's why it's best to choose a company like Skill Prepare, that does everything for you.

Skill Prepare

Skill Prepare will build a full learning website for your company that comes with web hosting, management, updates, a domain name, and support for around $99 a month. They pretty much handle everything, giving you a hands-free approach. Their support team is also great and provides support for you and your site users. They are here to help your users with account login creation, password resets, and more. They can add new courses anytime, provide updates, and stay on top of managing your site. Skill Prepare is highly experienced in building learning sites and customizing the look and flow to fit the brand and the audience it is intended to reach. Most sites are built and can go live within 72 hours. Overall, Skill Prepare makes it easy to build, manage, and operate a company's learning website.

"Operating and growing a profitable company begins with a well-trained team," said a spokesperson for Skill Prepare. "Skill Prepare makes it easy to train your employees and build the ultimate skills to grow your business. We also can build websites aimed at teaching your customers and growing your brand through marketable online learning experiences for your customers."

Skill Prepare is based in Atlanta, GA and serves clients throughout the United States. They are experts in creating learning websites for companies of all sizes and backgrounds. For more information, visit skillprepare.com . The company can also be contacted at 833-777-5455 or [email protected].

SOURCE Skill Prepare
Breunich cited the company's significant growth and commitment to continued exceptional support for its sales associates and clients as the primary drivers behind the need for the new positions. The firm is planning on opening new brokerages in Northern Westchester and in Columbia County in the second quarter of 2022. Most recently, the firm opened new offices in Niantic and Mystic, Conn., providing a stronger foothold in the Shoreline region of Connecticut. These openings were the latest in a long-term strategy of expanding the company's premium services in key markets with brick-and-mortar locations, including new offices in Hartford County, Conn., Irvington, N.Y., and the Berkshires, Mass.

The explosive sales growth from the past two years is an additional factor, as the company has moved from managing a $4 billion portfolio with approximately 1,000 agents in early 2020 to a $6.8 billion portfolio with more than 1,100 sales associates in early 2022.

"Our company is faced with incredible opportunity at the rate we are growing, and I can think of no two individuals better qualified to help lead us into the future," said Breunich. "Carolyn and Vin are visionary leaders who have earned their stripes, each playing consequential roles in some of our most important milestones over the years. I look forward to the great success they will undoubtedly achieve in their new positions."

As Co-President and Chief Sales Officer, Carolyn Fugere will be responsible for driving sales and agent growth in the company's 27 offices while continuing to lead the company's training initiatives for agents and staff.

Fugere brings 20 years of expertise in managing, marketing and selling in suburban, urban and rural markets. During her tenure with William Pitt  Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty, she has served exceptionally as Brokerage Manager for eight sales offices and managed 30% of all the company's agents, leading operations in markets including Litchfield County, Conn., the Berkshires, Mass., Larchmont, N.Y. and, most recently, New Canaan, Conn. She also oversaw the launch of a new brokerage operation in a brand-new territory in the Berkshires, Mass., and built the agent roster organically. Fugere is a two-time William Pitt  Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty Manager of the Year award winner.

As Co-President and Chief Operating Officer, Vincent Socci will be fully responsible for the operational side of the company's business. Socci will manage the firm's day to day operations and oversee the marketing, technology, accounting and relocation departments.

With 20 years of experience in residential real estate, Socci joined William Pitt  Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty as Director of Marketing in 2009 and that same year was an instrumental part in managing the acquisition of six brokerages from Sotheby's International Realty, Inc., transitioning more than 300 sales associates. He stepped into the Chief Operating Officer position in 2013 and has since played an integral role in the growth and development of the firm's presence in all territories. He has also led the company's digital innovation efforts including the development of its award-winning website and other technology platforms.

"By leveraging Carolyn and Vin's unique strengths and skill sets, our company will continue to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace and deliver our customers an extraordinary experience," said Breunich. "I am excited to collaborate with our new Co-Presidents and am confident that today this firm is better positioned than ever for great success in the future."

About William Pitt - Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty

Founded in 1949, William Pitt - Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty manages a $6.8 billion portfolio with more than 1,100 sales associates in 27 brokerages spanning Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Westchester County, New York. William Pitt - Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty is one of the largest Sotheby's International Realty(R) affiliates globally and the 37th-largest real estate company by sales volume in the United States. For more information, visit the website at williampitt.com .

Sotheby's International Realty's worldwide network includes 1,000 offices throughout 75 countries and territories on six continents.

Press Contact:

Andrew Wood

Vice President, Public Relations and Communications

[email protected]

(203) 644-1938

SOURCE William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty
"The board is pleased that following a global search, Nick will be joining WAA as our next President and CEO," said Brita Chell, Chair of the Board of Directors. Nick is a values and purpose-driven leader with an impressive combination of airline, logistics, and international experience that will be instrumental in building on our reputation as a Canadian air cargo hub and developing the airport campus for the future benefit of the region. Our industry has seen incredible challenges since the start of the pandemic, and we need the next leader to position us for success in both the short and long-term. The board is confident Nick is that leader."

Mr. Hays joins WAA from his most recent role as Vice President Canada at Vanderlande Industries, a global leader in logistic process automation at airports. Prior to that, he held a senior advisory role with PricewaterhouseCoopers' transportation and logistics practice. Mr. Hays also spent eleven years with Cathay Pacific Airways and its parent company the Swire Group, working in Hong Kong, Auckland, Tokyo, and finally Vancouver where he was Cathay Pacific's Vice President, Canada.

"I look forward to leading the talented team at WAA and joining a company that has been named one of Manitoba's Top Employers for the last ten years," said Mr. Hays. "There is no doubt our industry is facing unprecedented challenges due to COVID-19, but I am excited for the opportunities ahead and know WAA has the right vision and values to move the organization forward in support of our community, customers and stakeholders. I have been privileged to turn my lifelong passion for aviation into a career, and I cannot think of a better way to fuel that passion than as President and CEO of WAA."

WAA conducted an executive search following long-time President and CEO Barry Rempel advising the Board of his retirement after almost 20 years at WAA. Mr. Rempel will continue in his role until February 21, 2022, to facilitate the transition.

"I want to thank Barry for his service to WAA and, in particular, his guidance and steady hand during the greatest challenge our industry has faced," said Ms. Chell. "Over his 20 years leading WAA, the airport campus has been transformed with new logistics partners, new airlines, and of course, a new terminal building. Our community is better off for Barry's efforts."

Brita Chell will be available to speak to media on Tuesday, February 1, 2022. To arrange an interview, please call the WAA Media Line at 204-992-2791.

About Winnipeg Airports Authority Inc.

Winnipeg Airports Authority serves the community by leading transportation innovation and growth. As a non-share capital corporation, all net revenue is reinvested back into delivering on our mission of providing excellent airport services and facilities in a fiscally prudent manner. WAA does this through a group of companies that work together toward a common vision. WAA is proud to be recognized as one of Manitoba's Top Employers for 2021, the tenth year in a row.

SOURCE Winnipeg Airports Authority Inc.
CHICAGO, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mekky Media Relations Inc. continued its successful trajectory in 2021, reaching the milestone of becoming a seven-figure business. The five-year-old agency's record-breaking annual revenue was $1.25 million, a 62 percent gain over the previous year. The roster  the largest since the agency's inception in 2016  doubled since 2020, which was also a year of unprecedented expansion.

Mekky Media Relations Team

In addition, Mekky Media won national honors in 2021 and grew its team. The staff is twice the size it was a year ago, with account executives and coordinators signing on to meet increasing demand for the agency's creative work and powerful results, according to founder and president Michelle Mekky.

"It is rewarding to see our hard work pay off, as businesses and individuals  from high profile to those just starting out  ask us to tell their stories so they can survive and thrive in this challenging business climate," Mekky says. "It has been a hard time for many, and I'm grateful that a growing number of clients have placed their trust in us. Reaching that five-year milestone and our 2021 success prove that Mekky Media is a PR leader and a sustainable business that's here for the long term."

Mekky established the agency in 2016 to provide PR strategy, media relations, media training, event promotion, social media strategy and influencer outreach. The agency has added services that include integrated digital and PR programs, personal branding and internal communications.

The long and growing Mekky Media client list includes businesses and nonprofits in Chicago and coast to coast. In 2021, the agency was hired to promote the highly-anticipated opening of Chicago restaurant Adalina and the national expansion of leading cannabis company PharmaCann and its Verilife dispensaries. The agency also partnered with Scott Harris Hospitality to rebrand the former Francesca's Restaurant Group and is supporting the launch of Sunshine Flyer as it becomes a new transportation partner for Walt Disney World Resorts in Orlando.

Mekky Media added to its list of awards in 2021, including Gold and Silver Stevie Awards for PR Agency and Campaign of the Year, Ragan's Workplace Wellness Award and Publicity Club of Chicago Gold and Silver Trumpet Awards. The agency was named to Expertise PR's list of Best PR Firms in Chicago, and Mekky received the 2021 Ragan and PR Daily Communicator of the Year Award.

To celebrate its accomplishments and plan for continued growth, Mekky Media had an all-staff retreat in Mexico in January. Mekky says it was a reward for hard work and opportunity for creative brainstorming and strategizing that will fuel even greater client success.

"I'm proud of how far we've come and my team's hard work throughout the journey," Mekky says. "Organizations continue to seek our expertise. This is only the beginning for Mekky Media."

To learn more, visit www.MekkyMedia.com .

Contact: Rachel Shaykin, Mekky Media Relations

[email protected]

847-331-5861

www.mekkymedia.com

SOURCE Mekky Media Relations
DUBLIN, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Industrial Cleaning Market (2021-2026) by Product Type, Application, Ingredient Type & Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Industrial Cleaning Market is estimated to be USD 42. 14 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 55.47 Bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.65%.

The factors responsible for fuelling the growth of the Global Industrial Cleaning Market are growing industrialization, expansion of manufacturing, healthcare, and other industries, and increasing awareness about hygiene and cleanliness at the workplace. Increasing government regulations related to industrial hygiene and sanitation is also the factor driving the market growth. In addition, rising awareness among consumers about infectious diseases caused by viruses and bacteria coupled with environmental cleaning to avoid infection leads to the demand for cleaning solutions and chemicals, further accelerating market growth.



However, the strictness of government and environmental regulations for industrial cleaning and controlled use due to the high concentration of active chemicals are the factors that may create hindrances in the growth of the market.



The Global Industrial Cleaning Market is segmented by Product Type, Application, Ingredient Type & Geography.



Company Profiles

Some of the companies covered in this report are The Dow Chemical Company, Diversey Inc., BASF SE, Evonik Industries AG, Stepan Company, Spartan Chemical Company, Inc., Croda International Plc., Enaspol A.S., Huntsman International LLC, Unger Fabrikker A.S., Bebbington Industries, Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Emulso Corporation, etc.



Competitive Quadrant

The report includes the Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyse and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Industrial Cleaning Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 force model and the Ansoff Matrix. The impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Market Size and Segmentation

3.3 Market Outlook



4 Market Influencers

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Increasing Awareness Regarding Hygiene and Cleanliness at the Workplace

4.1.2 Increasing Spending Power of Consumers

4.1.3 Increasing Government Regulations Related to Industrial Hygiene and Sanitation

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Strictness of Government and Environmental Regulations for Industrial Cleaning

4.2.2 Controlled Use Due to High Concentration of Active Chemicals

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Growing Healthcare and Manufacturing Industries

4.3.2 Increasing Demand for Green and Bio-Based Industrial Cleaning

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Flourishing Local Brands and Unorganised Market



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Industrial Cleaning Market, By Ingredient Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Surfactants

6.2.1 Anionic Surfactants

6.2.2 Non-ionic Surfactants

6.2.3 Cationic Surfactants

6.2.4 Amphoteric Surfactants

6.3 Solvents

6.4 Chelating Agents

6.5 pH Regulators

6.6 Solubilizers/Hydrotropes



7 Global Industrial Cleaning Market, By Product Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 General Cleaners

7.2.1 Floor Care

7.2.2 Carpet Care

7.3 Metal Cleaners

7.4 Oven & Grill Cleaners

7.5 Dish Washing

7.6 Commercial Laundry

7.7 Dairy Cleaners

7.8 Food Cleaners

7.9 Disinfectants



8 Global Industrial Cleaning Market, By Application

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Manufacturing & Commercial Offices

8.3 Healthcare

8.4 Retail & Food Service

8.5 Hospitality

8.6 Automotive & Aerospace

8.7 Food Processing

8.8 Others



9 Global Inspection Machine Market, By Geography

9.1 Introduction

9.2 North America

9.2.1 US

9.2.2 Canada

9.2.3 Mexico

9.3 South America

9.3.1 Brazil

9.3.2 Argentina

9.3.3 Chile

9.3.4 Colombia

9.4 Europe

9.4.1 UK

9.4.2 France

9.4.3 Germany

9.4.4 Italy

9.4.5 Spain

9.4.6 Netherlands

9.4.7 Sweden

9.4.8 Russia

9.4.9 Rest of Europe

9.5 Asia-Pacific

9.5.1 China

9.5.2 Japan

9.5.3 India

9.5.4 Indonesia

9.5.5 Malaysia

9.5.6 South Korea

9.5.7 Australia

9.5.8 Sri Lanka

9.5.9 Thailand

9.5.10 Rest of APAC

9.6 Middle East and Africa

9.6.1 Qatar

9.6.2 Saudi Arabia

9.6.3 South Africa

9.6.4 United Arab Emirates



10 Competitive Landscape

10.1 IGR Competitive Quadrant

10.2 Market Share Analysis

10.3 Strategic Initiatives

10.3.1 M&A and Investments

10.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

10.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



11 Company Profiles

11.1 The Dow Chemical Company

11.2 Diversey Inc.

11.3 BASF SE

11.4 Evonik Industries AG

11.5 Clariant AG

11.6 Stepan Company

11.7 Ecolab Inc.

11.8 Spartan Chemical Company, Inc.

11.9 Solvay S.A.

11.10 Croda International Plc.

11.11 Aarti Industries Limited

11.12 Enaspol A.S.

11.13 Huntsman International LLC

11.14 Pilot Chemical Corporation

11.15 Unger Fabrikker A.S.

11.16 Buckeye International Inc.

11.17 Bebbington Industries

11.18 Air Products and Chemicals Inc.

11.19 Prime Industries Ltd.

11.20 Emulso Corporation

11.21 Arcot Manufacturing Corporation

11.22 DuPont de Nemours Inc.



12 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qabuyt

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SOURCE Research and Markets
"We are so pleased to partner with ADVENT as they expand their otolaryngology services across greater Illinois and Wisconsin," says Misha Rakic, CEO, Xoran Technologies. "With this milestone of 900 MiniCAT system installations, we have further solidified our majority market share position within the ear, nose, throat (ENT) and allergy specialty. It demonstrates that MiniCAT: the all-inclusive turnkey solution for point-of-care CT imaging, provides the improved workflow, remote back-up and viewing, and comprehensive service that continue to meet the evolving needs of our valued customers."

Since 2001, Xoran has been the pioneer and market leader in medical point-of-care cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) systems. Last year, Xoran celebrated its 20th anniversary, a significant milestone within the ENT and allergy community. Xoran's flagship product, MiniCATa low dose upright CBCT solution, is a vital in-office tool for otolaryngologists to identify and diagnose sinus and ear disease directly where the clinician is seeing the patient.

"ADVENT is expanding rapidly to meet the growing needs of the communities we serve and it's important that patients can have their MiniCAT CT scan with us directly, thereby avoiding the inconvenience of going to a hospital to get a CT scan in a full-body machine," says Madan Kandula, MD, otolaryngologist, and founding partner at ADVENT. "We chose Xoran as our sole-source provider of CT services so that our clinicians can provide the best care possible and have peace-of-mind that our Xoran MiniCAT will be available when our patients need low dose, fast scans."

The 900th MiniCAT installation in Northbrook joins ADVENT's other nine locations that also have MiniCAT, including Chicago Loop, Oak Park, and Vernon Hills in Illinois and Appleton, Mequon, Oak Creek, Oconomowoc, Pleasant Prairie, and Wauwatosa in Wisconsin.

The MiniCAT at each of ADVENT's locations is equipped with Xoran's FDA-cleared PACS system, XoranConnect, enabling providers to access patient scans from any location in full HIPPA-compliance using any computer with internet. XoranConnect allows for both image-viewing and remote back-up, meaning clinicians can use it to review scans with patients, as well as for surgical planning, reference during surgery, and for teleradiology and CT interpretation reports.

"In 2022 and beyond, ADVENT plans to expand its services with additional offices, providing convenient locations for patients needing the sinus and sleep services of board-certified otolaryngologists," says Kandula. "We are looking forward to continue to partner with Xoran as we grow!"

About ADVENT

ADVENT knows when you breathe well, you live better. As pioneers of the ENT field, our goal is to offer expert care that accommodates not only your needs, but your busy lifestyle as well. ADVENT redefines the patient experience, leaving behind the long wait times and uncertainty to provide innovation, memorable care, and simple in-office solutions.

About Xoran Technologies

Xoran is passionate about supporting veterinarians and helping animals. Since 2001, Xoran is the pioneer and medical market leader in low-dose radiation, cone beam CT systems specifically designed for the patient's point-of-care. Providers around the world rely on our industry-leading MiniCAT, xCAT, and veterinary CT systems: VetCAT and vTRON, to diagnose and treat patients.

Xoran is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

For more information visit www.xorantech.com

 2021 Xoran Technologies, LLC

SOURCE Xoran Technologies, LLC
Novacyt (LON: NCYT), an international specialist in clinical diagnostics, new CEO David Allmond joins Proactive London to discuss their unaudited trading update for the year ended 31 December 2021.

David Allmonds also talks about his first 100 days with the company - together with a strategy update.

Reported revenues and EBITDA for the period are both expected to be in line with expectations with the 2021 audited full year results expected in the week commencing 25 April 2022.
South Harz Potash Ltd (ASX:SHP) has strengthened its presence in the region of Germany that hosts its flagship South Harz Potash Project through the appointment of Dr Babette Winter as regional manager Thuringia.

The appointment of the German national with a background in technical and socio-political affairs is expected to help create a pathway for SHP to develop the project utilising her expertise and stakeholder management experience.

Leadership of South Harz team

Dr Winters responsibilities include the establishment and leadership of the South Harz German office team in Erfurt, Thuringia.

This team is set to deliver direct administrative and services support to the companys accelerating South Harz Project activities, particularly within the inaugural Ohmgebirge Mining Licence area.

Leadership of this team will also encompass all in-country Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives, including ongoing interaction with key stakeholders and consultants at regional and Federal levels to advance South Harzs ESG strategy and its implementation framework.

Creating a pathway

South Harz managing director Dr Chris Gilchrist said: I am delighted to welcome Dr Winter to the South Harz team.

"Her combination of technical expertise and deep stakeholder management experience is expected to be highly effective in creating the pathway to successful and sustainable development of the South Harz Project in this historical mining region.

Dr Winters appointment is consistent with South Harzs commitment to the sustainable development of the world-class South Harz Potash Project.

This commitment offers the clear potential to deliver critical potash supply into the European market across minimal transport distances with a low delivered carbon emission footprint.

Regional expertise

Dr Winter holds a PhD in Chemistry from Westfaelische Wilhelms-University Munster and has held key positions in public relations followed by a career in administration and politics, notably as Head of Environmental Policy Department within the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, the Environment and Nature Conservation in Thuringia.

More recently, she served as Member of the European Parliament, was appointed to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and was the Deputy Member in the Environment and Climate Change Committee.

For more than five years, she served as State Secretary for European Affairs in the government of Thuringia.

Hope to make contribution

Dr Winter commented: I am excited to join South Harz, and specifically its subsidiary SudHarzKali in Thuringia, where I hope to make a significant contribution to the return of potash mining in the region.

"I look forward to utilising my experience in environmental and stakeholder management to advance the development of a modern, sustainable mine at Ohmgebirge, and thereby enable delivery of these critical resources for the people of Europe.

Large-scale potash resource

The South Harz Project in the South Harz Potash District region midway between Frankfurt and Berlin hosts a globally large-scale potash JORC (2012) inferred resource estimate of 5.3 billion tonnes at 10.8% K2O across four wholly-owned project areas.

This comprises three perpetual potash mining licences, Ohmgebirge, Ebeleben and MuhlhausenNohra, and two potash exploration licences, Kullstedt and Grafentonna, covering a combined area of about 659 square kilometres.

With strong established infrastructure proximate to the key European market, the South Harz Project is well-positioned to enable rapid economic development across multiple deposits.
Shanta Gold Limited (AIM:SHG, OTC:SAAGF) has updated its reserves and resources at its projects in Tanzania.

Total JORC 2012 compliant gold reserves now stand at 645,000 ounces grading 3.04 grams per tonne across the company's two projects in Tanzania, an increase of 20,000 ounces net of depletion.

Total resources now stand at just over two million ounces.

"Shanta has once again replaced all annually mined ounces in 2021 with new reserves, as well as extending the mine life at New Luika gold mine to at least the end of 2026, said chief executive Eric Zurrin.

This marks the third consecutive year in which we have replaced mined reserves across our portfolio through successful exploration.

During 2021, the company invested US$4.4mln in exploration, with the 31,600 metres drilled in Tanzania returning 110,000 ounces of new reserves.

Shanta also expanded regional resources outside of the New Luika mine plan.

A resource update from the West Kenya project in Kenya is due at the end of February.

A total of 80,000 ounces grading 4.31 grams per tonne has been upgraded from probable to proven reserves, following grade control drilling. de-risking the 12-month production outlook;


Ariana Resources PLC (AIM:AAU) has released an update to the gold and silver resource at the Kiziltepe Sector in Turkey, including the satellite projects of Kepez, Kizilcukur and Ivrindi.

Kiziltepe is owned by Zenit Madencilik in partnership with Proccea Construction and Ozaltin Holding, and is 23.5% owned by Ariana.

The new resource stands at just over 380,000 ounces of gold and 6.1mln ounces of silver.

Theres also a reserve, amounting to 80,500 ounces of gold and 1.4mln ounces of silver.

On current work rates, that amounts to around three years of production.

As at the end of December 2021, over 1.33mln tonnes of ore had been mined from the open pits at Kiziltepe.

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"This updated resource Estimate, demonstrating a 19% increase in total resources compared with our 2020 estimate, is an excellent result and represents the culmination of a full year of work at Kiziltepe, involving over 15,000 metres of drilling and other detailed technical studies by the Zenit and Ariana teams, said Ariana managing director Kerim Sener.

This work highlights the resource upside remaining at Kiziltepe, as operations proceed successfully into their sixth year. Our total depleted resource is broadly equal to the undepleted resource before mining commenced, inclusive of the satellite prospects. This highlights the value of the exploration undertaken over recent years, with approximately 125,000 ounces of gold having been added to the resource base since start-up.

Kiziltepe has now produced more gold than was envisaged in the feasibility study.
SigmaRoc PLC has built up a good rise after the quarrying materials group completed the 355mln purchase of Johnston Quarry Group.

Johnston's aggregate products are typically used in infrastructure projects, with its Cotswolds Ironstone and Bath Stone used in specified high end housing applications.

The deal will expand SigmaRoc's offering of construction materials and agricultural lime to service customers in England and Wales.

The news has pushed SigmaRoc's shares 4.12% higher to 94.75p.

2.49pm: Cordel goes into reverse after disappointing results

Cordel Group PLC (AIM:CRDL) has seen its shares come off the rails after disappointing half year results.

The AI specialist focusing on the transport sector said total revenue were down 11% at constant currency, although it cut its losses from 1.26mln to 681,000.

Total expenses increased by 27% after it invested in additional engineers and sales staff, in response to large-scale contracts won in the UK and US.

Chairman Ian Buddery said: "We have delivered positive progress with contract wins and exciting partnerships during the period; however, the interim results are currently running behind our plan.

"As stated in our December trading update, our business was impacted by COVID-19 in the second half, with border closures in Australia and staff at our key customers in self-quarantine that delayed projects in the US.

"However, the board has also recognised that we can benefit from adding significant customer facing expertise to better manage the large and complex customer accounts we are now dealing with which, in the period under review would have helped plan for and mitigate revenue slippage."

So the company has appointed a chief revenue officer in the shape of Mike Turner, a sales manager from the software industry.

Buddery added: "Despite today's results, we look forward with confidence. In the last six months, among other positive steps, we have been awarded a six-and-a-half-year contract with Network Rail to replace the UK's National Gauging Database, expanded our relationship with a major US customer, and formed a partnership with Holland LP in the US. The group is carrying a large backlog of work into the second half, which we expect to produce growth for the full year. We are targeting to be cashflow positive in the fourth quarter."

Even so its shares have lost 15.39% or 1.5p to 8.25p.

2.07pm: Lok'n'Store raises 39mln with sale of four sites

Lok'nStore Group PLC (AIM:LOK) has been lifted by the sale of four of its sites to raise 39mln.

The self-storage company has done the deal for the sites, in Basingstoke, Cardiff, Horsham and Portsmouth, with Self-Storage Trading, an existing institutional managed-store client independent of Lok'nStore and its directors.

Lok'nStore will receive management and performance fees for managing them on behalf of their new owner.

The total amount is subject to a 1.8 million downward adjustment in respect of certain committed works to be completed at two of the sites.

The net proceeds will be used for new stores, and the company has three further sites with lawyers and a number of other opportunities above the current pipeline of twelve stores

The historic cost of the four stores was 13.75mln and their stated fair value as at 31 July 2021 was 31.75mln.

Meanwhile the company said trading since the year end in July had continued well.

Executive chairman Andrew Jacobs said: "This transaction, at a 22.8% premium to the July 2021 independent valuation, demonstrates the value Lok'nStore is creating and the growing institutional demand for UK self-storage assets."

Lok'n'Store shares have added 4% to 1040p.

12.24pm: SDX Energy slips as it says production will fall this year

SDX Energy PLC (AIM:SDX, OTC:SDXEF), the oil and gas company focused on the Middle East and North Africa, is on the slide.

It said 2021 production was at the higher end of guidance, but this year's output would be lower.

The firm is also selling 33% of its interest in the South Disouq concession in Egypt for US$5.5mln. It will retain 67% and intends to start a share buyback of up to US$3mln in the second half of 2022.

But its shares are down 9.28% at 8.8p.

Chief executive Mark Reid said: "Our full year 2022 production guidance is lower than 2021 actual production of 5,886 barrels of oil equivalent per day, mainly due to the proposed South Disouq disposal announced today and natural depletion across wells at South Disouq.

"Production in Morocco in 2022 will be lower due to a decision not to immediately renew a five-year customer contract until we have better visibility on future gas supply and gas pricing to support the full term of a new contract. As a result of this decision, we are reducing 2022 Moroccan capex guidance by around US$6mln compared to 2021. Notwithstanding this, we are still planning to drill up to sixteen wells this year but expect overall capex guidance to be lower in 2022 at US$21.5-US$23mln."

11.24am: MaxCyte lifted by deal with US group Intima Bioscience

MaxCyte Inc (AIM:MXCT) has seen its shares grow after a US deal.

The company, which specialises in technology for ex-vivo cell engineering, has signed a licence agreement with Intima Bioscience, which is developing genetically engineered cell therapies for solid tumor cancer. Intima joins a group of 15 other leading cell therapy companies who have partnered with MaxCyte.

Under the terms of the agreement, Intima obtains non-exclusive clinical and commercial rights to use MaxCyte's Flow Electroporation technology and ExPERT platform. In return, MaxCyte is entitled to receive platform licensing fees and program-related milestone payments.

Doug Doerfler, president and chief executive of MaxCyte , said: "This relationship represents an important achievement for MaxCyte as it expands the use of our next-generation technology platform to support engineering in additional novel cell types."

MaxCyte is up 6.49% or 30p at 492p.

10.05am: Botswana Diamonds shrugs off deal setback

Botswana Diamonds PLC (AIM:BOD) has moved ahead despite a setback in a potential deal.

The company said that Vast Resources, which was intending to be a partner in the purchase of Gem Diamonds Botswana for US$4mln in cash, had now decided not to proceed.

But Botswana said it had identified alternative potential partners to replace Vast as its partner in their joint venture Okwa and had confirmed to the seller, Gem Diamonds, that it was committed to doing the deal as soon as possible.

They have extended the deadline for the deal from from 31 January 2022 to 31 March to allow Botswana to secure the new partner, which may require further approval from the relevant Government of Botswana authorities.

Nonetheless its shares are up 4.88% at 1.08p.

8.54am: Checkit boosted by news of US contract

Investors are checking out shares in Checkit PLC (AIM:CKT, OTC:ECKTF) after the technology firm announced a new US contract.

It has signed a three year deal with Biomat USA, a subsidiary of Spain's Grifols which produces plasma-derived and transfusion medicines.

The Biomat contract is to supply intelligent operations technology in the US and has a minimum value of 2.8mln over three years.

In addition, there are advanced discussions to expand the Checkit platform to cover Grifols' key countries of operations in Europe.

Grifols also plans to build 20 plasma centres in Egypt, with Checkit having recently signed a separate three year contract to provide intelligent operations services to the first ten of these.

Checkit chief executive Kit Kyte said: "This deal provides further confirmation of the importance of our technology in enabling intelligent operations across deskless workforces."

Checkit shares are up 8.69% at 47.28p.

Also heading higher is UK Oil & Gas PLC (AIM:UKOG) after it completed the first part of a seismic programme at Basur-Resan in Turkey.

The second phase of seismic acquisition has been paused whilst the company focuses on drilling and establishing an inaugural producing well on the licence.

Chief executive Stephen Sanderson said: "Concluding the first tranche of our seismic programme, specifically geared to optimise the drilling trajectories of both the B-3S and Resan-6 appraisal wells, marks an important milestone for our Turkish assets as we continue to push towards establishing first production from Basur-Resan. We look forward to the receipt of new processed data and the resultant recommencement of drilling operations."

Its shares have added 12.5% to 0.11p.
Shanta Gold Limited (AIM:SHG, OTC:SAAGF) CEO Eric Zurrin joined Proactive's Stephen Gunnion with details of a resource update for its projects in Tanzania.

The company said total JORC 2012 compliant gold reserves now stand at 645,000 ounces grading 3.04 grams per tonne across its two projects in Tanzania, an increase of 20,000 ounces net of depletion.

Zurrin telling Proactive that combined with a big improvement in the gold price, Shanta Gold is in a much stronger position than it was three years ago. Its share price, however, doesn't yet reflect the big improvement.
Jindalee Resources Ltd (ASX:JRL)s infill drilling at its 100%-owned McDermitt Lithium Project in the US continues to deliver multiple near-surface lithium intercepts.

Multiple significant lithium intercepts in every drill hole have been received to date.
BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX:BRN) CEO Sean Hehir spoke to Proactive about the technology group's go-to-market strategy for its neuromorphic artificial intelligence chips.

Hehir says neuromorphic technology, which he says mimics the brain as artificial intelligence, is the most advanced form of AI on the market that does not require connectivity to the cloud.
Matador Mining Ltd (ASX:MZZ, OTCQX:MZZMF) has appointed highly experienced and well respected Canadian-based mining professional Sam Pazuki as its chief executive officer with effect from May 1, 2022.

His extensive global capital markets network and gold industry leadership expertise will assist Matador in leveraging its current and future success as it grows the business, advances the Cape Ray Gold Project and expands its shareholder base in North America.

Pazuki will be based in Toronto, Canada.

Ian Murray will continue as executive chairman to facilitate a seamless management transition and will move into a non-executive chairman role in due course.

Next phase of growth

The appointment follows the completion of the board of directors comprehensive executive search process that assessed a strong field of candidates.

Chairman Ian Murray in welcoming Pazuki, said: Following an extensive executive search, we are pleased to have attracted such an accomplished and recognised executive for the role of Matadors CEO.

Sam has the specific skills and attributes we require to take Matador through its next phase of growth and he complements the strong exploration team we continue to build in Newfoundland.

Sam and the Newfoundland team will complement our existing small Australian team. I look forward to working with Sam as we execute on our strategy and continue to create value for all our stakeholders.

Compelling asset

Pazuki added: The company has a highly seasoned and successful board of directors led by Ian Murray and is supported by solid technical teams in Newfoundland and in Australia.

The Cape Ray Gold Project is a compelling asset, with sizeable expansion potential and a strategic land package, in a top-tier jurisdiction.

Matador is supported by a strong register of Australian and North American shareholders and I aim to build and expand on this support in 2022 and well beyond.

Newfoundland is one the remaining great frontiers for mining, particularly given increased geopolitical risks in many other parts of the world.

The Province has great geological potential for gold and other key commodities the world covets and is supported by world-class workers and infrastructure.

I have had the good fortune to work with many Newfoundlanders over the course of my career, particularly in the Western Canadian energy industry.

Projects such as the Cape Ray Gold Project also provides Newfoundlanders an opportunity to return home and advance the minerals extractives industry.

Proven track record

Pazuki is a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario and has a Bachelors Degree in Engineering and a Masters of Finance.

He has a proven track record and experience in strategy, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets and investor relations.

He will join Matador after nearly 10 years with dual-listed OceanaGold Corporation (TSX:OGC), where he led the investor relations and corporate development functions, most recently as senior vice president, corporate development.

The new CEO helped establish OceanaGold as a global mid-tier gold producer and was instrumental in OceanaGolds expansion into North America.

He helped build a global shareholder register and was OceanaGolds primary interface with the capital markets.

Prior to OceanaGold, Pazuki advised major mining companies, including BHP Billiton, as a management consultant within Ernst & Youngs Advisory Services practice in Toronto, and was part of a team that helped establish a Climate Change and Sustainability practice for the firm.

Prior to this, he held roles in business development and asset management in Calgary and Toronto for Enbridge Inc (TSX:ENB), a multinational energy company with a market capitalisation of around A$100 billion.
Global Energy Ventures Ltd (ASX:GEV) has appointed Greg Martin as the companys new chair and independent non-executive director, bringing 40 years experience in energy, utilities, resources and financial services in Australia and internationally to the table.

As of today, Martin will replace outgoing chair Andrew Pickering, who will continue to serve as independent non-executive director.

This board switch-up follows the kick-off of the HyEnergy Hydrogen Export Study, undertaken to demonstrate the viability of compressed hydrogen as a preferred export carrier for the companys partners.

Martins experience as chair of listed and unlisted companies with well-developed governance, risk management, major project management and financial management skills should serve the company well as it moves to leverage the Tiwi Hydrogen Project into a fully integrated 2.8-gigawatt hydrogen production facility.

High calibre appointment

Greg Martin is a high calibre appointment for GEV bringing over 40 years domestic and international experience across major energy, utilities, financial services and private equity firms with a focus on business transformation and restructuring, Global Energy Ventures managing director and CEO Martin Carolan said.

Greg adds to and complements the skills, experience and composition of the existing board, with GEV to benefit from Gregs track record of growing businesses and delivering significant shareholder returns in both executive and non-executive roles over the course of his career.

GEV undertook an extensive search for a suitable candidate to bring energy and drive to the group and I feel Gregs appointment will play an important role in the growth of our company given his deep expertise in a range of domestic and international public and privately held companies across sectors and company sizes.

Martins prior board and executive roles include Spark Infrastructure Group (ASX:SKI), Santos Limited, the Australian Energy Market Operator Limited, Energy Developments Limited, Challenger Financial Services Group, Natural Gas Corporation of New Zealand and The Australian Gas Light Company.

Opportunity to grow into a global business

Commenting on his appointment Martin said: I am delighted to be joining a company that has reached an exciting stage in the development of its innovative IP and hydrogen projects.

GEV has an opportunity to grow into a global business by addressing one of the industrys key challenges which is an efficient and competitive delivered cost of green hydrogen using bulk marine carriers.

Global Energy believes it now has the depth and diversity of skill and experience from its board necessary to support and enhance strategic decision making and guide the direction and growth of GEV.

Non-executive director and current chair Andrew Pickering said: I welcome Greg to the board and believe he will make a valuable contribution to the next stage of the companys growth.

Gregs skills, global network and significant public company experience make him an ideal chair, and together with the other directors, we look forward to working with him.

Operational highlights for quarter

HyEnergy Export Project

Began Export Study on the HyEnergy Hydrogen. Key consultants have already been engaged and the study is fully underway. The company intends to complete the feasibility study in the June 2022 quarter; and

Executed the HyEnergy financial contract, delivered first milestone as part of the $300,000 grant fund provided by the Western Australian Governments Renewable Hydrogen Fund. The payment was received in January.

Tiwi Green Hydrogen Export Project

Announced the development of a 2.8 gigawatt green hydrogen export project on the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory; and

GEV strategically transitioned from a midstream shipping company into a fully integrated green hydrogen producer and exporter of renewable energy to regional Asian markets.

Shipping engineering and approvals

American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) issued its Approval in Principle (AIP) for GEVs pilot compressed hydrogen ship with a 430-tonne cargo capacity; and

Launch of the 2022 compressed hydrogen ship development program, with Capilano Maritime and Wartsila awarded the Contract Design Package due for completion scheduled mid-2022.

Corporate
Matador Mining Ltd (ASX:MZZ, OTCQX:MZZMF) has appointed a new CEO after rounding out 2021 with the largest-ever annual exploration campaign at the Cape Ray Gold Project in Newfoundland, Canada.

Sam Pazuki will take up the baton as the resources stocks new chief executive from May 1, wielding his experience across corporate strategy, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets and investor relations from Toronto, Canada.

The appointment comes after MZZ released its December quarterly report on Monday, recapping greenfields and brownfields exploration across the Cape Ray property.

The explorer was recognised as Prospector/Explorer of the Year in December and continued to advance its environmental, social and governance strategy as it readied for 2022.

As at December 31, Matador had $11.4 million in the bank to support its exploration campaigns in the new year.

Incoming CEO

Matador advances into 2022 with a new executive on the team.

READ: Matador Mining appoints Canada-based Sam Pazuki as new CEO to steer company into next growth phase

Speaking to CEO Pazukis appointment, Matador executive chairman Ian Murray said: Following an extensive executive search, we are pleased to have attracted such an accomplished and recognised executive for the role of Matadors CEO.

Sam has the specific skills and attributes we require to take Matador through its next phase of growth and he compliments the strong exploration team we conintue to build in Newfoundland.

Sam and the Newfoundland team will complement our existing small Australian team.

I look forward to working with Sam as we execute on our strategy and continue to create value for all our stakeholders.

Greenfields/brownfields exploration

During 2021, Matador completed the largest exploration program in the history of the Cape Ray Gold Project.

The key objectives of this program were to expand the known deposits  hosting a current mineral resource of 837,000 ounces at 2 g/t gold.

It also aimed to test and define new greenfield exploration targets across the companys large but under-explored landholding within the highly prospective Cape Ray Shear Zone.

The exploration program progressed well through the December 2021 quarter and after a short hiatus, exploration is expected to resume as the inaugural winter drill program starts in February 2022.

On the greenfields front, diamond drilling extended high-grade gold mineralisation 75 metres along strike to the south-west at the Window Glass Hill Granite (WGHG) Margin Target.

Two standout holes reported thick zones of gold mineralisation:

32 metres at 2.6 g/t gold from 14 metres, including 2 metres at 28.9 g/t; and

18 metres at 1.2 g/t from 146 metres, including 2 metres at 5.4 g/t.

In terms of brownfields work, drilling in proximity to the Window Glass Hill mineral resource (located within the 3-kilometre-long granite-hosted WGHG Mineral System) continued to intersect gold mineralisation.

Infill drilling within the current WGH mineral resource reported:

3 metres at 3.1 g/t from 38 metres, including 1-metre at 6.9 g/t;

5 metres at 1.6 g/t from 56 metres, including 1-metre at 3.7 g/t;

4 metres at 4.0 g/t from 109 metres, including 1-metre at 13.5 g/t;

2 metres at 3.1 g/t from 139 metres, including 1-metre at 3.1 g/t;

17 metres at 1.4 g/t from 24 metres, including 1-metre at 8.8 g/t;

7 metres at 1.0 g/t from 51 metres, including 1-metre at 4.2 g/t;

8 metres at 3.0 g/t from 97 metres, including 1-metre at 6.9 g/t; and

9 metres at 1.1 g/t from 17 metres, including 1-metre at 3.1 g/t and a high-grade interval of 1-metre at 12.8 g/t from 106 metres.

Matador is on track to start its inaugural winter season drilling program, weather permitting, which will comprise roughly 30 diamond drill holes for between 3,000 and 4,500 metres.

Prospector/Explorer of the Year

In December 2021 Matador was recognised by the Newfoundland and Labrador Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM NL) as Prospector/Explorer of the Year for "continuous advancement and outstanding results" at the Cape Ray Gold Project.

CIM NL chair and president Jamie Powell said: Matador continues to expand mineralisation and generate new targets within the Window Glass Hill Granite (WGHG).

During September 2021, the company announced a 19-metre intercept of 4.2 g/t gold which is described as the best intercept drilled in the WGHG and which is outside the existing WGH mineral resource, highlighting the potential for additional high-grade gold domains across the granite body.

Moreover, Matador is currently undertaking the largest exploration program ever carried out at Cape Ray, including brownfield expansion and systematic greenfields exploration on a 120-kilometre strike length of the Cape Ray Fault, with upwards of 45,000 metres of diamond drilling being completed in this program during 2021/2022.

The company is well-positioned to continue its objective to expand its gold resource and make new discoveries across the broader Cape Ray Project.

Based on its achievements, Matador Mining is a deserving winner of the 2021 CIM Newfoundland and Labrador Explorer of the Year Award.
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As we do each week, we look to eToro's market analyst and resident crypto expert Simon Peters to give us a recap on what's happening in the crypto space.

Bitcoin and ethereum recovering lost ground

Cryptoassets have begun a slow march back in the last week, with both bitcoin and ether recovering small amounts of lost ground from precipitous falls in the weeks prior.

Bitcoin began the week trading above $35,000 but fell to nearly $33,000 on Monday. However, since that low point the cryptoasset has begun something of a recovery, with a major rise above $37,000 in late trading on Monday, peaking above $38,000 on Tuesday. The cryptoasset has held its value in the range of $37-38,000 since.

Ether meanwhile had a more volatile journey through the week, reaching lows of under $2,200 on Monday before climbing to above $2,600 on Wednesday. The cryptoasset has now settled to trade in a range between $2,500 and $2,600.

Crypto lender begins accepting NFT collateral

Crypto firm Genesis has said it intends to accept non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as collateral on loans and derivative deals.

Genesis is one of the leading institutional crypto investment platforms. The firm says it already holds some curated NFT collateral from clients.

The firms head of derivatives trading at the platform said it would be taking a very conservative approach to the use of the technology against loans.

Major financial firms using collateral as protection against loan failure is not unusual, but the introduction of the use of NFTs is a major step toward validation of the sector, which has exploded in growth in the past year.

Genesis wrote $50 billion-worth of loans in the last three months of 2021, which demonstrates the enormous potential scale for NFTs as collateral.

Belgian politician to take bitcoin salary

Belgian member of parliament Christophe De Beukelaer has said he will convert his salary to bitcoin each month.

The MP will use platform Bit4You to convert his 5,500 salary into BTC. De Beukelaer said he was following the example of the Mayor of New York in his decision to put his salary into the cryptoasset. The politician says he hopes the move will help to promote Brussels and Belgium as a European crypto hub.

De Beukelaer is the first European politician to say they want to earn their salary in cryptoassets but follows on from the likes of New York mayor Eric Adams and Miami mayor Francis X Suarez.

De Beukelaer commented in a blog post on his website: I am the first in Europe, but not in the world, to want to shine the spotlight on cryptocurrencies with such an approach.

IMF continues war of words with El Salvador

The IMF has said that El Salvadors use of bitcoin as legal tender is a threat to the nations stability.

The Central American nation became the first in the world to adopt bitcoin as an official currency in September last year, with the IMF a staunch critic of the move spearheaded by President Nayib Bukele.

The IMF has said there are large risks associated to the use of BTC for financial stability, integrity and consumer protections.

The organisation has urged El Salvador to narrow the scope of its project and remove the cryptoassets status as legal tender.

Bukele has been defiant however, with the country continuing to purchase BTC, with it recently buying 410 more tokens as prices in the wider market fell.

- Author: Simon Peters
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Northern Minerals Ltd (ASX:NTU) has launched a strategic review of its business holdings and activities after appointing new chair Nick Curtis to the board, temporarily pausing a planned feasibility study for the Browns Range Heavy Rare Earth Project in Western Australia in order to include it in the review process.

The company closed the quarter with A$11.1 million in cash, having expended A$3.2 million over the period in operating activities, leaving the company just over three-quarters in funding remaining.

Operational highlights

Northern Minerals explored the Browns Range project with 8,751 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling and 2,047 metres of diamond drilling during the quarter.

The first batch of assays the for Cyclops, Banshee and Rockslider targets were received in December and the company says these results have demonstrated the prospectivity of the three targets, with best results including:

103 metres at 0.32% total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 15 metres at Rockslider;

15.65 metres at 1.83% TREO from 24.35 metres downhole, including 5.40 metres at 4.48% TREO from Cyclops; and

14 metres at 0.50% TREO from 44 metres at Banshee.

The company believes initial results at the Banshee target warrant further investigation, to be followed-up with a second phase of drilling in 2022.

Corporate highlights

Northern Minerals received A$1.4 million in revenue from sale of product through its test work at the Browns Range Pilot plant.

Heavy rare earth pricing continues to rise. Dysprosium prices have increased from US$297/kilogram (kg) at the start of 2021 to a current price of US$471/kg.

Terbium prices have increased from US$1093/kg at the start of 2021 to a current price US$2,033/kg. Dysprosium and terbium account for approximately 70% of the revenue received for Northern Minerals product.

The company also received a A$4.3 million tax refund as part of the Australian Taxation Offices Research and Development tax offset.

About Northern Minerals

Northern Minerals is positioned to become one of the few producers of heavy rare earth element dysprosium via production from the Browns Range Heavy Rare Earth Project in Western Australia.

Through the development of this flagship project, Northern Minerals aims to build the operation into a notable global producer of dysprosium outside of China.

The project is 100%-owned by Northern Minerals and has several deposits and prospects containing high-value dysprosium and other heavy rare earths, hosted in xenotime mineralisation.
AuKing Mining Ltd (ASX:AKN) made strong exploration progress during the December quarter, advancing exploration drilling at its Koongie Park Copper-Zinc Project in Western Australia.

During the quarter, the company completed 6,400 metres of combined reverse circulation (RC) and diamond core drilling across 29 holes at Koongie Park delivering encouraging results both near-surface and at depth.

Also, AuKing has completed its first earn-in milestone under the Koongie Park joint venture with Anglo Australian Resources NL (ASX:AAR)  now holding 50% interest.

During the period, the company also discovered near-surface ore-grade copper mineralisation north of known Sandiego deposit.

Also at Sandiego, AuKing identified elevated zones of REE lanthanides and further significant cobalt mineralisation.

Looking ahead, assays are pending for seven metallurgical drill holes completed in an Onedin metallurgical test-work program designed to test the near-surface oxide and transition ores.

Drilling at Koongie Park

AuKing's first exploration drilling program at Koongie Park continued to make strong progress  completing the program late in the December quarter.

Seven diamond holes were completed in mid-December as part of the Onedin metallurgical test-work program, with assay results pending.

Assay results derived from the exploration drilling to date have been very encouraging and support the AKN boards view of the excellent prospectivity of the Koongie Park Project.

Furthermore, AuKing entered into an earn-in and joint venture agreement with Anglo Australian Resources providing the company with the right to earn up to a 75% interest in Koongie Park by completing exploration expenditure of $3 million over a 3-year period.

Sandiego discoveries

During the period, AuKing was encouraged with the discovery of near-surface ore-grade copper to the north of Sandiego.

A drill hole presents an opportunity for a largely untested 700-metre target zone to be delineated between the main area of drilling at Sandiego and the new discovery.

Providing further encouragement at Sandiego was the identification of elevated zones of REE lanthanides (>1,000ppm) in drill holes ASRD002 and ASRD003.

The company is planning to undertake confirmatory sampling and analytical work to determine the full extent of the REE mineralisation.

Holes ASRD002 and ASRD003 also confirmed the existence of cobalt mineralisation at the Sandiego deposit.

The potential inclusion of cobalt mineralisation in future Koongie Park resource estimates will continue to be assessed by the company's exploration team.

Placement summary

On November 17, 2021, AuKing completed a share placement to raise $2.4 million before costs comprising the issue of 15 million new ordinary fully paid shares at 16.5 cents per share.

Vert Capital Pty Ltd was appointed the lead manager of the placement.
Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd (ASX:WMC, OTC:WMXCF) has made further headway at its namesake WA gold plant as it advances a multi-stage development strategy.

The West Aussie gold miner spent the December quarter targeting growth activities across its portfolio, which represents one of the largest gold districts in Australia under single ownership.

Wilunas operations generated A$8.3 million in net cash over the quarter (before treasury and overhead expenses), bringing the total for the year to date to A$19.4 million.

Looking ahead, WMC will continue to advance the Wiltails gold mine towards commissioning, complete a key scoping study and pursue a London Stock Exchange listing.

Wiluna ended the year with A$41.6 million in cash and bullion  more than double the A$18.1 million in the bank at the end of the September quarter.

Wiluna Mining Operation

The Wiluna Mining Operation is currently in development with a staged, three-year program underway to transform Wiluna from a modest, cashflow positive producer of free milling ore via a conventional Carbon-In-Pulp (CIP) plant to a multi-circuit operation producing roughly 200,000 to 250,000 gold ounces per annum.

The staged development plan, on completion, will enable Wiluna to treat all the ore types at Wiluna through four processes including:

An existing 2.1 million tonne per annum CIP process plant;

A 750,000 tonne per annum flotation concentrator, which is now complete and was successfully commissioned in December 2021, scaling up to 1.5 million tonne per annum capacity by FY24;

A gravity circuit that produces gold dore; and

A tailings retreatment plant that links tailings reclaim and reslurrying with the existing CIP circuit to produce gold dore.

Wilunas Stage 1 development is defined at a targeted production profile of 100,000 and 120,000 ounces per annum.

The final size and shape of the Stage 2 development at the Wiluna Mining Operation will depend on the conclusions from a feasibility study currently taking place.

Growth activities

Much of Wilunas activity in the December quarter centred on preparing for future operations by advancing development opportunities.

The company made a A$46.7 million net investment during the quarter (compared to the A$41.9 million seeded in the September quarter), and cash primarily went towards mine development and completing Wilunas concentrator.

That capital is already paying off: The projects Stage 1 concentrator was successfully commissioned during the period and is now outperforming nameplate capacity.

With the concentrator in full swing, Wiluna is targeting a full production run rate of 100,000 to 120,000 ounces per annum by end of June 2022.

Development metres (including rehabilitation) for the quarter were 2,739 metres, YTD 5,012 metres.

Wilunas underground sulphide development remains on schedule, with 88,731 ore tonnes mined in the financial year to date.

The company had around 139,000 tonnes of sulphide ore stockpiled and ready to process as at December 31, 2021.

In addition, 1,159 wet tonnes of gold concentrate is ready for export with an average concentrate grade of 69 g/t.

Meanwhile, construction work at the Wiltails gold mine is ongoing, with 20% of the scheme now complete ahead of its scheduled commission in May 2022.

According to Wiluna, Wiltails will contribute a material increase in gold production over a long life.

Work on the companys Stage 2 feasibility study continues, with completion expected by quarters end.

Resource development and discovery

Wilunas resource base is sitting pretty after the company completed an MRE upgrade during the quarter.

Total mineral resources now stand at 5.53 million ounces at 2.19 g/t gold, including 4.51 million ounces at 3.9 g/t at the Wiluna Mining Centre.

It may not be long before further tonnage is added to the resource.

Wiluna plans to kick off a discovery drilling program this month, comprising 40,000 metres of exploration, targeting high-grade shoots at Wiluna.

Corporate activities

Wiluna enters the new year off the back of a A$53 million capital raise to support future development activities.

Roughly A$5.2 million in proceeds came through last month, meaning it was not included in the December quarter cash and bullion figures.

In terms of other financial news, the companys Mercuria tranche two debt repayment commencement has been extended for three months and will now kick off in April 2022.

Gold hedging contracts as at December 31, 2021, were for 156,500 ounces at US$1,820 an ounce (equivalent to roughly A$2,509 an ounce), with a negative mark-to-market position of A$5.0 million.
Noxopharm Ltd (ASX:NOX) had a highly productive December quarter, making significant advances across its main activities, which include advancing its cancer drug R&D pipeline, trialling Veyonda in both cancer and septic shock and progressing its Pharmorage platform.

The company recently moved from COVID-focused uses of its assets back to cancer. The basis for the refocus is the lower risk of lung-associated toxic shock in this phase of the pandemic, while on the cancer front, NOX is on the verge of major clinical breakthroughs, particularly in the realm of pancreatic cancer.

NOX was also active in the patent space during December, applying for and securing several patents to protect its assets.

The companys cancer clinical trial program made solid progress this quarter with patients under treatment in the IONIC and DARRT trials, and the CEP trial ready to begin patient recruitment.

Financial update

NOXs cash outlook is healthy, with the company sitting on A$16.7 million as the year closed. It received an additional boost shortly after, garnering an ATO research and development rebate of A$5.9 million on January 7.

A post-rebate cash position of around A$22.6 million will meet the companys forecast funding needs for the next 12 months.

Expenses were also up, with net cash used for operating activities during the quarter totalling A$6.9 million, compared with A$4.4 million in the September quarter. The company made payments for R&D of A$5.5 million during the quarter, compared to A$2.9 million in the previous quarter.

The increased expenditure reflects the significant milestones being met in current clinical trials.

Pivot from COVID to cancer

Noxopharm is poised to reactivate its NOXCOVID strategy should the public health need arise, but for the moment has restored its pre-pandemic focus on developing Veyonda as a highly promising anti-cancer drug candidate.

The company will also build on the discovery, announced last year, that the prime value of Veyonda as a treatment for cytokine storm and septic shock in COVID-19 lies in the ability of idronoxil (IDX) to block the inflammatory marker, Tank-binding kinase 1 (TBK1).

This asset is already marked as a key player in the development of autoimmune disease, and now recently identified as a key moderator of the cytokine storm and septic shock in COVID-19 patients.

NOX will pursue this strategy via the Pharmorage TBK1 inhibiting drug program, an opportunity already recognised by a grant of $50,000 from the NSW Department of Health.

Advances in pancreatic cancer

The pancreatic cancer program made the most noteworthy progress this quarter and NOX regards it as potentially ground-breaking, with the strong prospect of a breakthrough in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, which for most patients is highly aggressive, has a poor response to chemotherapy and therefore poor survival outcomes.

NOX is targeting a drug that eliminates the cause of aggressive growth in pancreatic cancer, converting pancreatic adenocarcinoma into a slow-growing tumour better able to be managed on a long-term basis by chemotherapy.

The company is sponsoring an Australian university to discover how to grow human pancreatic cancer biopsies in the laboratory in a way that preserves all components of the cancer tissue, including stromal cells, a connective tissue which research indicates produces chemical signals that drive the aggressive growth of cancer cells and block access by chemotherapy drugs.

This world-first development, currently attracting global attention, gives scientists the ability to measure the effect of drugs on stromal cells. And NOX scientists have developed drugs that are able to block the action of these cancer-associated stromal cells.

This quarter saw this program take a major step with NOX drugs being added to cultured biopsies of pancreatic cancer collected during surgery and evaluated for their ability to both block the growth of cancer cells and to reduce the scarring effect.

Key to mRNA vaccines

In November, NOX announced the in-licence of a new RNA drug technology platform developed by Hudson. The result of more than 15 years of work, the technology is designed to block inflammation at its source by blocking the sensors in a cell that trigger inflammation, offering an entirely novel approach to the treatment of acute and chronic inflammation.

This licensed technology is already well advanced, with drug candidates ready to undergo in vivo preclinical studies. Pharmorage is focused on these drug candidates as treatments for autoimmune disorders such as lupus or psoriasis.

NOX believes that these novel molecules hold the key to making mRNA vaccines safer, more effective and cheaper to produce, placing Pharmorage at the forefront of the fast- growing market of RNA drugs and vaccines.

Studies underway

NOXs current studies involve prestigious cancer centres in the US, Europe and Australia, with more sites coming online over the coming quarter.

Lockdowns and the emergence of the Omicron variant have had an impact on hospital workforces worldwide, affecting the availability of hospital resources to conduct clinical trials. The company is nevertheless confident it will meet its budgeted timelines for full patient recruitment across all its trials.

Ionic program

The Ionic program is currently in Phase 1, studying around 30 patients with a range of tumour types across several Australian sites. Treatment combines Veyonda with the Bristol Myers Squibb checkpoint inhibitor, nivolumab (Opdivo). The first site for this trial started enrolling and treating patients in December.

DARRT program

This Phase 2 clinical trial in around 100 patients across multiple sites in the US, Europe and Australia combines Veyonda with low-dose radiotherapy for the treatment of prostate, breast and lung cancer. The first dose cohort has reached the end of the first treatment cycle.

In the December quarter two leading US cancer centres  MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Beverly Hills Cancer Center  began recruitment. The first Australian site for the trial, Macquarie Private Hospital, opened for patient recruitment, with further sites expected to follow soon.

CEP program

This is a Phase 1 study in approximately 30 patients with soft tissue sarcoma who are being treated with a combination of Veyonda and the chemotherapy drug, doxorubicin.

During the December quarter the first of several major US sites  Los Angeless City of Hope Cancer Center  opened for enrolment, with additional US sites to be added shortly.

LuPIN program

This program is investigating Veyonda to enhance the responsiveness of men with late-stage prostate cancer to PSMA radioligand (theranostic) therapy.

In the December quarter a compassionate-use program, now involving 100 Australian and overseas patients, continued to be offered in Australia as part of an effort to determine the optimal patient cohort to benefit from the use of Veyonda in combination with 177LuPSMA in real-world conditions.

NOX has been approached by a European clinical group for access to Veyonda for further clinical investigations and negotiations are ongoing.
Astro Resources NL (ASX:ARO) has raised a $3.553 million war chest from sophisticated investors to develop its existing precious metals and heavy mineral sand assets and take advantage of new gold opportunities in Nevada.

The multi-element explorer will issue 838.3 million shares at $0.004 apiece, with each security accompanied by two attaching options that can be exercised at $0.01 before April 21, 2022.

Major shareholder Holdmark Property Group will retain its 19.9% shareholding after subscribing for a further 202 million shares, reinforcing its ongoing support for the company.

Once the offer settles  expected no later than January 28  Astro will have slightly more than 4.7 billion shares on issue, as well as just under 1.1 billion options.

ARO shares are up 25% in intraday trade, priced at $0.005 apiece.

Proposed use of funds.

Funding to buoy exploration strategy

Speaking on the capital raise, Astro Resources chair Jacob Khouri said: We are delighted with the overwhelming interest and outcome of this capital raising by existing Astro shareholders and sophisticated investors, which allows us to continue our strategy developing our portfolio of projects, having secured the $3.553 million capital raising.

The board is extremely pleased that our largest shareholder, Holdmark Property Group, continues to support the company by maintaining its 19.9% holding.

The funds raised will enable Astro to continue with its Needles Gold Project drilling program and to further advance the Governor Broome HMS Project towards commercialisation.

In addition, the raising allows us to further explore the proposed joint venture in Nevada with Pediment LLC, which includes significant project generation opportunities in Nevada.

We are optimistic that positive news flow will continue across our dynamic portfolio of projects.

Use of funds

With a cash injection under its belt, Astro is primed to prove up its exploration portfolio in Nevada and Western Australia.

The explorer is focused on developing its Needles Gold Project in Nevada, an asset with numerous old gold workings on epithermal gold veins.

A geophysics campaign has identified a large, strong chargeability anomaly at the property that warrants further exploration.

As a result, an initial diamond drilling program to test the anomaly is underway, with the first assays from the initial two holes anticipated mid-February 2022.

In WA, Astro is prospecting for heavy mineral sands at the Governor Broome asset.

The project carries 52 million tonnes of ore at 4.6% heavy minerals (HM) in the indicated category, as well as 66 million tonnes at 4.0% HM in inferred resources.

Astro has proposed an infill drilling campaign to upgrade resources at the recently acquired Jack Track deposits from the inferred to the indicated category.

With plans for a scoping study down the track, Astro believes Governor Broome has the potential to generate strong cash flows, with only modest capital required.

Beyond its current portfolio, the explorer has plans to expand its project base.

Astro is in joint venture negotiations with a North American company over a series of epithermal gold assets in northwest Nevada.

By expending $2 million into the special joint venture company, Astro can earn up to 70% of the projects.
ClearVue Technologies Ltd (ASX:CPV, OTCQB:CVUEF) has appointed industry veteran Basil Karampelas as its North American CEO.

Starting from February 1, the new chief executive will continue expanding the tech stocks footprint across the United States, Canada and the Western Hemisphere in general.

Karampelas brings more than 30 years experience in renewable energy as an investor, financier, advisor and CEO to the table.

ClearVue says the appointment aligns with a broader strategy to accelerate its growth trajectory in North America.

Expanding North American investor base

Speaking to Karampelas appointment, ClearVue executive chairman Victor Rosenburg said: With the appointment of Basil Karampelas to lead our efforts in North America, we have found an executive with that rare combination of deep operating experience in renewables, a track record of success raising money in the capital markets, and an extensive network of relationships that spans investment firms, government agencies, multinational energy companies, utilities and manufacturing companies.

We expect him to utilise these skills to allow us to not only introduce ClearVue products to the North American market, but to expand our investor base into this geography as well.

Leading ClearVues US journey

Incoming CEO Karampelas added: I am absolutely thrilled to be joining a company where I believe my skills and experience can create significant value and allow ClearVue to not only enter the North American market, but to quickly become a market leader.

I have every confidence that the companys track record of success in its existing markets can be leveraged and replicated in North America.

I appreciate the vote of confidence that Victor and the rest of the board of ClearVue have given me by appointing me to this role.

Given the amount of activity that is expected in the US with the focus on energy transition and decarbonisation in construction, on the back of the recently passed Infrastructure Bill in the US and significant post-COVID brownfield and greenfield real estate development, we believe that we are in a confluence of very positive market conditions for the company.

About ClearVue

ClearVue is an Australian technology company that operates in the building integrated photovoltaic (BPIV) sector, which involves the integration of solar technology into building surfaces, specifically glass and building facades, to provide renewable energy.

The company has developed advanced glass technology that aims to preserve glass transparency to maintain building aesthetics whilst generating electricity.

ClearVues electricity-generating glazing technology is strategically positioned to complement, and make more compelling, the energy-efficient windows that are being regulated in response to global climate change and energy efficiency goals.

Solar PV cells are incorporated around the edges of an insulated glass unit (IGU) used in windows and the lamination interlayer between the glass in the IGU incorporates CPVs patented proprietary nano and micro particles, as well as its spectrally selective coating on the rear external surface of the IGU.

ClearVues window technology has implications for the building, construction and agricultural industries (among others).

The company has worked closely with leading experts from the Electron Science Research Institute, Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Western Australia to develop the technology.
Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM) ended the December quarter in a strong financial position, well-funded with A$56.9 million in cash as it advances its critical metal assets across Australia and South Korea.

During the period, the company passed a significant milestone with the hot commissioning of the Korean Metals Plant producing its first ingots of neodymium metal.

In Australia, results from an optimisation study have delivered a strong go-forward case for the Dubbo Project in New South Wales.

Moving forward, the company is well-positioned to build its Korean Battery Metals Plant at its designed capacity of 5,200 tonnes per annum in the second half of 2022 and to progress the development and financing of its Dubbo Project.

Korean Battery Metals Plant

Neodymium ingots.

ASM has progressed the construction of the Korean Metals Plant and commenced the first phase of commissioning with the casting of the first ingots of neodymium metal completed in November 2021.

Notably, Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea, Hong Nam-ki, visited the Korean Metals Plant as hot commissioning commenced.

The first phase commissioning activities are planned to continue through the first half of 2022, with the full-scale, 5,200 tonnes per annum plant due for completion in the second half of 2022.

ASM has signed a Joint Statement of Cooperation with the Korean Mine Rehabilitation and Resource Corporation (KOMIR) to enable the supply of critical minerals and metals into Korea.

Looking ahead, updated production guidance will be provided once the first phase of commissioning is complete.

Dubbo optimisation summary

ASMs optimisation study has confirmed strong financial results for the Dubbo Project with pre-tax NPV of A$2,361 million, pre-tax IRR of 23.5%, annual free cash flow (full ramp-up) of A$425 million and capital cost estimate of A$1,678 million.

The company has commenced the tender process for the engagement of an engineering group to complete the FEED study phase of the Dubbo Project.

ASM has continued to work with the South Korean investor consortium representatives to complete technical due diligence on the Dubbo Project.

Corporate updates

ASM chair Ian Gandel (third from left), at roundtable meeting on the Critical Minerals Supply Chain with the President of the Republic of Korea.

ASM has appointed Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) as financial advisor for the debt financing of the Dubbo Project.

The company also hosted the NSW Deputy Premier, Paul Toole MP, at ASMs Toongi deposit for the launch of the NSW Critical Minerals and High-tech Metals Strategy.

Furthermore, a roundtable meeting was attended on the Critical Minerals Supply Chain with the President of the Republic of Korea, His Excellency Mr Moon Jae-in.
In January 2019, Alloway resigned from the Senate explaining that he would like to return to private practice and work with technology companies that will positively effect community sustainability

Healixa (OTC:EMOR) Inc has announced that Richard Alloway II will join its Advisory Board, effective immediately, in a move which it says demonstrates the companys commitment to supporting truly sustainable communities through ethically engineered technologies.

Alloway, an American politician and lawyer, is a former Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate. He was first elected in 2008 to serve as the State Senator for the 33rd District, and was subsequently re-elected in 2012 and 2016. Alloway became the Republican Caucus secretary in 2014, and was chosen again for the position in 2016 and 2018.

In January 2019, Alloway resigned from the Senate explaining that he would like to return to private practice and work with technology companies that will positively effect community sustainability. He attended Shippensburg University and then Widener University Commonwealth Law School and he subsequently served as a magisterial district judge before becoming a State Senator.

The appointment of Richard Alloway as a strategic advisor is an important addition to our Company, said Ian Parker, chief executive officer of Healixa in a statement. Richard understands the impact our technologies will have in supporting truly sustainable communities. His insight into how to help the State of Pennsylvania bring the benefits of these technologies to local communities has already proven invaluable.

Alloway commented, Healixas approach to helping create sustainable communities through ethically engineered products and services is refreshing! I look forward to advising Healixa as to the best way to bring these very important technologies to multiple state and local governments. Our focus right now is the great State of Pennsylvania.

Healixa is a technology company focusing on building and acquiring innovative and disruptive technologies in the health-tech, clean water generation and green-tech industries. It embraces innovation by combining its intellectual properties, patents, strategic collaborations, and partnerships to create a 'LaunchPad' of disruptive sustainable products.

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com
The property, acquired in November 2021, was extensively explored by Uracan Resources (now Vanadian Energy), which reported a large, low grade, indicated, and inferred uranium resource

Globex Mining Enterprises Inc said it has sold the recently staked Des Herbiers uranium project near Johan-Beetz, Quebec.

The company said the property, acquired in November 2021, was extensively explored by Uracan Resources Ltd (now Vanadian Energy Corp.), which reported a large, low grade, indicated, and inferred uranium resource.

Globex has sold the 66-claim package to Australian corporation Infini Resources Private Ltd. and its wholly own Canadian subsidiary Fleur de Lys Exploration Corporation.

The deal includes C$100,000 payable within 30 days of the signature date (January 27, 2022) of the contract and C$200,000 payable within 30 days of receiving the Conditional Admission Letter from the security authorities.

Furthermore, the deal includes C$300,000 in Infini Resources shares at a price equal to the listing price and a 3% Gross Metal Royalty (GMR) of which 1% GMR may be purchased by Infini for C$1 million.

In early December 2021, Globex sold its Coconut Club rare earth property east of Kipawa, Quebec to REEgeneratePty Ltd., an Australian corporation. The property, located in Pomeroy and McLachlin townships Quebec, is comprised of eight claims.

Consideration for the sale consists of C$10,670 (received), $20,000 in REEgenerate shares, and a 2% GMR.

Surface grab samples and a number of shallow drill holes have returned highly anomalous rare earth assays. Globex said.

Contact the author: patrick@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow him on Twitter @PatrickMGraham
ION's Baavhai Uul asset is an over 81,000-hectare lithium brine project that represents the largest and first lithium brine exploration license award in Mongolia

ION Energy Ltd said it is set to join forces with Toronto-listed Aranjin Resources Ltd on an exploration joint venture in Mongolia, which will be the largest holder of lithium and copper exploration licences in the country, and help the drive towards global electrification.

ION and Aranjin will grant each other a reciprocal right to explore one another's properties, with Aranjin earning an 80% interest and ION earning 20% in all base metal projects discovered on ION's properties. And ION will earn an 80% interest and Aranjin 20% interest in all lithium projects discovered on Aranjin's properties, subject to existing royalties.

The area covered by the venture comprises all rights in Mongolia currently held by both ION and Aranjin, which consists of the Sharga project, the Bayan Under project, the Baruun Tal project (pending final purchase), the Baavhai Uul project, the Urgakh Naran project and all rights acquired by each, after the date of entering the deal.

Aranjin will appoint the CEO of ION Ali Haji to the board of Aranjin and also as president and CEO at Aranjin. Meanwhile, Matthew Wood will resign as CEO of Aranjin and continue to act as executive chairman of Aranjin.

"This joint-venture allows for ION Energy to work alongside Aranjin resources on two very important elements that are required for the clean, green energy revolution," said Ali Haji, the CEO of ION and Aranjin in a joint statement.

"The synergistic makeup of each company will allow for this joint-venture to represent the largest lithium and copper exploration licence holders in Mongolia, forge a solid battery metals presence in Asia's supply chain, and help drive the electrification of the future. We look forward to working together and receiving the balance of our exploration results," he added.

Under the JV deal, each company will bear its own costs of exploration on the properties of the other party, with ION obligated to expend at least US$500,000 and Aranjin US$3,000,000 over the three years commencing from the date of the tern sheet. Aranjin shall be entitled to satisfy any shortfall of its required expenditures in cash up to US$2.5 million.

If a party has prepared a feasibility study on a deposit on a licence of the other party, and the party wishes to undertake development, the parties shall negotiate a separate joint venture or similar.

If a firm fails to prepare a feasibility study in respect of a deposit on the licence of the other party within five years, the rights of the non-performing party under the term sheet will be terminated.

ION also updated on its current activity in the statement, saying that maiden exploration at its Urgakh Naran project is expected to begin in coming weeks.

Meanwhile, at its Baavhai Uul (BU) project, a maiden augur drill program was completed in the Fall of 2021 and 50% of the assay samples have so far been returned. Initial results are highly encouraging with a new copper and nickel discovery at the center of the Baavhai Uul licence, said ION.

Hydrogeological sampling and advanced lithium exploration techniques will begin on Baavhai Uul in April 2022, the company added.

"With the promising early results and evidence of copper at the Baahvai Uul Project we are excited to expand our portfolio of prospective copper assets. Partnering with ION allows us to diversify Aranjin's asset footprint and our exploration spend, said Matthew Wood, executive chairman of Aranjin.

ION's Baavhai Uul asset is an over 81,000-hectare lithium brine project that represents the largest and first lithium brine exploration license award in Mongolia. ION also holds the more than 29,000-hectare Urgakh Naran lithium brine licence in Dorngovi Province in the country.

Contact the writer at giles@proactiveinvestors.com
Canaccord Genuity (TSX:CF, LSE:CF) has resumed coverage of Karora Resources Inc with a 'Buy' rating and a C$6.25 target price, noting that the stock offers organic growth, at a good price.

The Canadian broker noted that Karora (KRR) is a Western Australia-based gold producer operating the historic Beta Hunt (BH) gold-nickel mine and the Higginsville Gold Operations (HGO), which consists of a 1.6 million tonnes per annum mill and a conglomerate of open pit and underground mines.

Leveraging a hub-and-spoke strategy centered around the HGO mill, the company currently produces over around 110,000 ounces of gold per year with ambitions to nearly double production by 2024, all while maintaining a strong ESG focus as evidenced by being one of the worlds first carbon-neutral miners in 2021.

In a note to clients, Canaccord's analysts said: "In our view, Karora offers investors a combination of inexpensive organic growth, substantial (and asymmetric) optionality, significant FCF generation, and risk-reducing characteristics that serve to protect investor downside."

The analysts pointed out that, in their view, Karora's turnaround from a financially faltering junior producing around 21,000 ounces of gold in 2016 to a 100,000 ounces-plus producer generating significant FCF (free cash flow) has been impressive.

In a note to clients, the Canaccord analysts said: "We see production growing to ~185koz in 2024, driven by expansions at the BH mine and HGO mill. With a modest capital budget (CG est. ~C

$150M), we expect KRR will self-finance these relatively low-risk brownfield expansions, while leaving a sizable liquidity buffer (C$91M Q4/21 cash position). As production ramps

up and growth capital falls, we project FCF yields to reach ~30% by 2025, an unwarranted discount to peers given the risk profile, in our view."

They added: "We see KRR's multi-mine operation in the top-tier jurisdiction of Western Australia as highly compelling. On top of this, we like the turnkey nature of HGO's brownfield projects, which could be brought online should challenges arise during the BH expansion. Combining these factors with a peer-leading focus on ESG and an operator-focused management team that has a track record of

execution, we see Karora's risk profile as attractive for a junior gold miner."

The Canaccord analysts noted that KRR achieved carbon neutrality in 2021 by purchasing 80 kilotonnes of carbon offset credits, becoming one of the first mining companies globally to do so. They said they see the push to net-zero as a fundamental shift in the industry, and thus far KRR is a pioneer, leaving other industry participants playing catch up.

The analysts also highlighted Karora's promising exploration upside noting that 1,900 square kilometres of the company's land package remains underexplored and sits within the renowned Kalgoorlie district, home to St Ives - 14 million ounce (Moz) - and the Kalgoorlie Super Pit - 60Moz.

At BH, the analysts noted that the company declared around a 0.5 Moz reserve in 2020 on top of a 1.6Moz global resource (up around 285% since 2016), while BH's historic nickel focus has left significant gold opportunities, including the virtually undrilled Fletcher Zone and Gamma Block, where KRR is now releasing strong drill results.

They also pointed out that KRR's Mt. Henry pits are large, low-grade, brownfield deposits located around 60 kilometres south of the HGO mill.

"We exclude them from our base case financial model as we think they are unlikely to be pursued unless we enter a sustained +$2,000/oz gold price environment, but they could be brought online for a modest capital investment. Although marginal at current gold prices, we estimate an ~4% lift to our operating NAV for every $100/oz increase in gold from Mt. Henry," the analysts added/

The analysts said their target price is based on a 50/50 combination of a 0.9 times multiple applied to their forward curve-derived operating NAV (net asset value) less net debt and other corporate adjustments, and a 6.0x multiple applied to 2022E EBITDA. Karora is currently trading at 0.54 times NAV and 3.9x (2022E) EBITDA versus peers at 0.61 times NAV and 4.5 times EBITDA.

They concluded: "Our target multiples are at the high end of the range we use for junior precious metal producers due to KRRs FCF-accretive growth plan and favourable risk profile."

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com
Lion Copper and Gold said the agreement allows it to retain a significant interest in the Butte Valley property while continuing to focus on its core Yerington district copper assets

Lion Copper and Gold Corp (TSX-V:LEO, OTCQB:LCGMF) has announced an agreement to spin out its option on the Butte Valley porphyry copper-gold property in Nevada to 1301666 BC Ltd, which is in late-stage negotiations with a TSX Venture listed Capital Pool Company for a possible business combination.

Lion Copper and Gold said the option deal will give it an approximate 22% equity stake in the resulting listed issuer, assuming completion of financings for proceeds of about C$6 million.

The Butte Valley property options were acquired by us in 2019 as a strategic acquisition with a view to finding a partner to advance exploration. The agreement with 1301666 BC Ltd achieves this objective, Lion Copper and Gold chairman Tom Patton said in a statement.

We retain a significant interest in the advancement of the Butte Valley property, while continuing to focus on our core Yerington district copper assets, including the Macarthur copper project, Patton added.

The company noted that it will be entitled to a 1.5% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on each of the Butte Valley option agreements, which are subject to a buy-down to a 1.0% NSR in exchange for a payment of US$7.5 million per property.

It pointed out that 1301666 BC Ltd is owned by two individuals that are also directors and officers of Lion Copper and Gold and, as such, the transaction is a non-arm's length transaction under TSX Venture Exchange rules.

The Butte Valley property has had 17 holes drilled and geophysical studies including heli-MAG and IP have been completed, although a mineral resource has not been established, according to the company.

Lion Copper and Gold is advancing the MacArthur copper project in Nevada, and exploring the Chaco Bear and Ashton properties in British Columbia.

The company's MacArthur asset sits in Mason Valley, a large, historic copper camp within a land package spanning 51 square miles. The project is a large-scale, low-cost, heap leach operation with potential for near-term production of pure copper cathode.

Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com
Globex Mining CEO Jack Stoch joined Steve Darling from Proactive to share news the company has optioned two of their projects to Australian Companies.

Stock telling Proactive the Des Herbiers uranium project has been optioned to to Australian Corporation Infini Resources. The company has also sold its Coconut Club rare earth property east of Kipawa, Quebec to REEgeneratePty also from Australia. Globex Mining also retains a royalty on both products.
United Nations, Feb 1 : Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Monday that his country has no plans to invade Ukraine.

"This deployment of Russian troops in our own territory is getting our Western and US colleagues to say that there's going to be a planned military action and even an act of aggression ... A military action of Russia against Ukraine that they're all assuring us is going to take place in just a few weeks, if not a few days," he told the Security Council.

"There, however, is no proof confirming such a serious accusation whatsoever being put forward. However, it is not preventing people from whipping up hysteria to such an extent that an actual economic impact is already being felt by our Ukrainian neighbours," Nebenzia was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency reported.

"Our Western colleagues are talking about the need for de-escalation. However, first and foremost, they themselves are whipping up tensions and rhetoric and provoking escalation," he said.

"This is despite the fact that we are constantly rejecting these allegations, and this is despite the fact that no threat of a planned invasion into Ukraine from the lips of any Russian politician or public figure over all of this period -- no such threat has been made. Rather, at all levels, we've been categorically rejecting such plans." Monday's open meeting on Ukraine was requested by the US. Russia failed to block the meeting as 10 members of the council agreed to proceed in a procedural vote.

The Russian ambassador accused the US of hypocrisy in requesting the meeting.

"The maneuvers of the US regarding the convening of this meeting is particularly hypocritical because it was the Americans who hold the record for having troop presence outside their territory. American troops, advisers, and weapons, including nuclear weapons, are frequently deployed thousands of kilometers from Washington," said Nebenzia.

"I'm not even talking about the fact that the military adventures of the US have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in places where they were supposed to be bringing peace and democracy. The US consistently, including over recent years, has used force against other states without the authorization of the UN Security Council." The US has 175,000 troops deployed abroad, including more than 60,000 in Europe. The US military budget is 12 times higher than Russia's, he said.
Jerusalem, Feb 1 : Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has said that Israel will strengthen its ties with the Palestinian Authority despite no intention to negotiate a peace deal with it.

The remarks were made at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, in response to a no-confidence motion over Gantz's meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in recent months, Xinhua news agency reported.

Although the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will not negotiate a peace deal with the Palestinian leadership, Israel "must keep a diplomatic horizon" with the Palestinians and the ties with the Palestinian leadership "will get stronger and deeper," Gantz told the parliament.

Coordination and frequent talks between Israel and the Palestinians "are critical for our security, for the future of our children and how our state will look," he said.

"The years-long weakening of the Palestinian Authority ... has strengthened Hamas and hurt Israel's security," the Israeli minister added. The Palestinian militant group Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority forces from the Gaza Strip in 2007 and has since controlled and ruled the coastal enclave.

In late December of 2021, Gantz and Abbas met at Gantz's home in the city of Rosh Ha'Ayin in central Israel to discuss economic and security issues. A day later, Israel made a series of gestures to improve relations with the Palestinian Authority, including the transfer of 100 million new shekels' ($31.5 million) worth of tax payments that Israel has been collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

Gantz and Abbas first met on August 30, 2021, in the first face-to-face meeting between the Palestinian president and a senior Israeli official since 2010.

Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war and kept its control over the territory despite international criticism.
Washington, Feb 1 : Over 3.5 million child Covid-19 cases were reported in the US in January, marking "a dramatic spike" during the Omicron variant surge, according to a new report.

The report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association released on Monday said that more than 11.4 million children in the country have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.

Nearly two million of these cases have been added in the past two weeks.

For the week ending January 27, over 808,000 additional child Covid-19 cases were reported in the country, said the AAP, adding child cases this week remained "extremely high", triple the peak level of the Delta surge in 2021.

This marked the 25th week in a row child Covid-19 cases in the US were above 100,000.

Since the first week of September 2021, there have been almost 6.4 million additional child cases, according to the AAP.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Lucknow, Feb 1 : The entire eligible population of Uttar Pradesh has received the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19, health officials have confirmed.

The milestone was achieved at around 8.30 p.m. on Monday. The officials informed that while district wise data was still being tabulated, the state has crossed the 100 per cent mark.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had set January 31 as the deadline for first dose saturation.

"The estimated adult population to be vaccinated in Uttar Pradesh is 14.74 crore. And, as of Monday evening, the entire chunk has taken at least one dose," said a senior health officer.

The record has been achieved in 380 days.

The officer added that nearly 50 per cent of the districts in the state also achieved the goal. The list includes Gautam Buddha Nagar, Lucknow, Jhansi, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar, Chandauli, Sultanpur, Mirzapur, Kannauj and Mathura among others.

In the process, the state also crossed the 26-crore dose mark which is highest in the country.

The total number of doses administered in the state is 26.14 crore. In terms of people, 15.69 crore, including 95 lakh adolescents, have taken the first dose, while 10.31 crore are fully vaccinated.

This means that nearly 70 per cent of the adult population has been fully vaccinated. Also, 68 per cent of the adolescent population has taken the first dose. Since they are being given Covaxin, the process for those due for their second dose will begin from February 3.

Health officials also said that 13.80 lakh persons in the state have also taken a third shot or the precaution dose.

January saw more than seven crore doses being administered.

A government spokesman said that all energy will now be focused on achieving cent per cent first dose coverage in the remaining 37 districts.

The target of at least 75 per cent second dose coverage in all districts before they go to the polls is also being eyed.

Health teams are ready with a phase-wise plan to achieve the second dose coverage goal.
Prayagraj, Feb 1 : An estimated one crore pilgrims will take a holy dip in the Sangam -- the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati -- on Tuesday to mark the occasion of Mauni Amavasya.

The Mela police have deployed five drones, a surveillance network of 200 CCTV sets and over 5,500 policemen for the day.

Reviewing the security arrangements being made for devotees, pilgrims and kalpvasis, SP (Magh Mela) Dr Rajiv Narain Mishra said that the "security has been beefed up in and around mela campus in view of Mauni Amavasya snan on Tuesday".

He added that elaborate surveillance, involving two digitised lost-and-found camps, wireless grids, 13 hi-tech police stations and 36 police outposts, among other things, have been set up to keep the devotees safe during the biggest snan of the religious fair.

The official said the 6-km stretch of ghats on the banks of Ganga was already jam-packed with devotees on early Tuesday and all the five pontoon bridges witnessed a huge influx of people for the occasion.

He said that separate entry and exit points have been created for the safety and convenience of devotees who would be flocking from different parts of the country during the mega religious affair.

Moreover, bomb disposal squads, anti-sabotage teams, and 10 companies of paramilitary personnel and a team from the Integrated Command & Control Centre is also helping the Magh Mela authorities to manage the sea of pilgrims.

Meanwhile, Divisional commissioner (Prayagraj) Sanjay Goyal said that efforts had been made to offer better civic amenities to the pilgrims including sanitation, strict adherence of Covid-19 protocols and crowd management.

The Commissioner said Jal police personnel and swimmers have been assigned at all ghats, adding that adequate number of sanitary workers have also been deployed in and around mela campus shift-wise and the police will be using loud -hailer and ropes to control the crowd at static points.

The officials have also put in place a contingency plan for emergency and claimed that around 30 ambulances have been stationed at all five sectors.
Lucknow, Feb 1 : Abhinandan Pathak, who is better known as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's lookalike, will contest the Sarojini Nagar Assembly seat in Lucknow as an independent candidate.

Pathak, 56, who is from Saharanpur, claims he had sought a ticket from the BJP, but got no response.

"I wrote to BJP president J.P. Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for a ticket to contest from Lucknow but they paid no heed to my letters," he said.

"I am a 'Modi Bhakt'. The BJP can ignore me, but I will contest and win the election to help Yogi Adityanath become chief minister for the second term. Modi and Yogi are two faces of one coin. I admire their passion to work selflessly for the masses," he said.

According to Pathak this is not the first time that BJP has rejected his plea for a ticket.

"During Chhattisgarh Assembly election, I travelled to the state in order to promote the BJP but the then Chief Minister Raman Singh mocked me and did not even offer a place to stay for a day. Raman said neither he did not require 'Asli Modi or Nakli Modi' to win the election. My curse threw him out of power," said Pathak.

Pathak has been selling cucumbers on trains to survive after his divorce.

"My wife Meera Pathak filed for divorce as I could not support her financially. I was financially drained in the 1999 Lok Sabha election which I contested from Saharanpur. Since then, I lost financial stability. I have six children, including three daughters. Barring two, the rest are married and settled. My wife lives with our two sons. After I left home, my wife has not contacted me. I want to become a politician and serve the community," he said.

Pathak had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2014 Varanasi election campaign.

"Since that day I have dedicated my life to Modi. In fact, to avenge the insult of Modi, I reached Lalu Prasad Yadav's residence to challenge him and confronted his men," he added.

Pathak is often invited to political rallies where he regales the audience till the main guest arrives.

The Sarojini Nagar Assembly seat is one of the most prestigious seats in Lucknow.

In 2017, Swati Singh was elected from the seat and now her husband, Daya Shankar Singh, is seeking a ticket from this seat. Daya Shankar Singh is the state vice president of the BJP.
Lucknow, Feb 1 : Even as it mounts a blistering attack on the Samajwadi Party for giving tickets to criminals, the BJP itself has fielded the wives of two convicted criminals in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

The wives have been fielded on seats that their husbands won five years ago.

While the BJP has fielded two such wives, the Congress has given a ticket to one.

The BJP has fielded Sanjeev Raja's wife Mukta Raja from Aligarh City.

According to police, Raja, a first-time MLA, was convicted in a 22-year-old case of assaulting a policeman last November and sentenced to two years in jail. He was, however, granted bail by the court the same day.

BJP's Aligarh district president Rishi Pal Singh said that since Raja did not get relief from the court in his case, the party decided to field his wife from his seat.

Indra Pratap a.k.a Khabbu Tiwari was sentenced to five years of imprisonment by a Faizabad court last December in a case of forgery.

According to sources, the case was lodged against him in 1992 by a principal of a college accusing him of taking admission using a fake marksheet in 1990. Two more persons were convicted along with Pratap.

Khabbu Tiwrai's wife Aarti has been given the BJP ticket form from Gosaiganj in Ayodhya.

BJP's Ayodhya district president Sanjeev Singh said, "This is the party's decision. Selection of candidates is done after considering several reasons." The third convicted MLA whose wife has been given a ticket is Ashok Singh Chandel, who was convicted by the Allahabad High Court in a 22-year-old murder case along with eight others in April 2019.

Chandel, a four-time MLA and one-time MP, was acquitted by the lower court in 2002 for "lack of evidence".

However, the High Court set aside the acquittal and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The Congress has now given a ticket to his wife, Raj Kumari, from Hamirpur district.
Seoul, Feb 1 : Us President Joe Biden is considering a visit to South Korea in late May after a new President takes office in the Asian country, according to a news report on Tuesday.

Biden is pushing for a trip to Japan for a Quad summit with his Japanese, Australian and Indian counterparts in the later half of May, Yonhap News Agency quoted the report by Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese daily.

This would be Biden's first trip to South Korea after he entered the White House in January 2021.

A new South Korean President is scheduled to take office on May 10, following the election slated for March 9.
Lucknow, Feb 1 : A bank manager, who had been absconding for two years in a case of embezzlement of Rs 45 crore, has been arrested by the Lucknow police.

The accused, Akhilesh Kumar (42), had a case lodged against him at Krishna Nagar police station by, Manoj Kumar Meena, the regional office head of Canara Bank (Vipin Khand).

The accused was holding the post of bank manager at Alambagh branch office when he committed the fraud. Akhilesh Kumar had gone into hiding after his name surfaced in the crime and has been untraceable since then.

Deputy Commissioner of police (DCP), central zone, Aparna Kaushik, had announced a reward of Rs 25,000 on his arrest but his whereabouts could not be ascertained.

"We had declared him an absconder after an FIR was lodged against him," said ACP, Krishna Nagar, Pankaj Srivastava.

However, a police team was tipped off on Monday about Akhilesh Kumar's presence in Krishna Nagar area after which the officials swooped down and nabbed him.

He owned up his crime and disclosed that he has used the money in purchasing lands, goods and other items.

A senior police officer revealed that when Akhilesh Kumar was the branch manager, some persons, identified as Manoj Kumar, Raj Duggal, Amit Dubey, and Sanjay Agarwal, had opened accounts in his branch in 2019.

They later told Akhilesh Kumar that they wanted to get a fixed deposit (FD) of Rs 41 crore done in the name of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

Later, four persons - Satish Tripathi, Amit Tiwari, Om Prakash aka Manager, and Prabhat Srivastava - met Akhilesh Kumar and offered him Rs 1.25 crore bribe for transferring the FD amount to their account.

"The accused was assured that before the FD matured, they would return the money," a police officer said.

However, when the original depositors, who had got the FD done, demanded their money on maturity, Akhilesh Kumar reached out to Tripathi and Tiwari.

"The manager got Rs 25 crore from them but the original depositors sensed foul play and informed the higher authorities," the officer added.

A probe was conducted and Akhilesh Kumar was transferred from that branch after inquiry. Later, when he was found guilty, he escaped.
Tokyo, Feb 1 : The Japanese Cabinet on Tuesday approved a bid to push for a former gold mine linked to wartime forced labour to be included in the Unesco World Heritage list, according to a local media report.

The diplomatically controversial bid was approved in its Cabinet meeting, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Kyodo News report as saying.

Tokyo plans to deliver a letter of recommendation to the Unesco World Heritage Centre later in the day.

On January 27, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to nominate the mine on Sado Island for the 2023 Unesco heritage list despite South Korea's strong protest.

The South Korean government immediately expressed "strong regret" over the decision and called in its Ambassador to Seoul Koichi Aiboshi to lodge a protest.

More than a thousand Koreans were forced into hard labour at the mine on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture.

The move is expected to deepen diplomatic rifts between Seoul and Tokyo over shared history.

Many South Koreans believe Japan has yet to apologise sincerely for its atrocities during its 1910-45 colonization of Korea and offer appropriate compensation for victims.
Beijing, Feb 1 : Display screen manufacturer BOE has announced the world's fastest gaming monitor capable of reaching a refresh rate of 500Hz+.

The new prototype is a 27-inch oxide FHD 500 Hz+ display said to be the world's highest refresh rate display, reports GizmoChina.

Currently, that BOE's monitor is a prototype designed for demonstration purposes only. BOE has not stated if it will be making a 500Hz+ gaming panel for the mass market anytime soon.

According to reports, this monitor uses a high mobility Oxide backplane, supports 8Lane eDP output, true 8bit output, and has a 1ms response.

Meanwhile, BOE is also reportedly planning supply Apple with OLED LTPO displays for the higher-end models of the iPhone 15 lineup in 2023.

The Chinese display maker will be producing and supplying OLED LTPO panels to the Cupertino based giant next year.

The company was previously unsuccessful in supplying OLED screens for the iPhone 12 series, but did manage to enter the supply chain for the current gen flagship iPhone 13 lineup.
Washington, Feb 1 : Multiple historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the US received bomb threats, according to media reports.

On Monday, the police responded to Maryland's Bowie State University, Washington, D.C.'s Howard University, and at least four other HBCUs around the country for bomb threats, reports Xinhua news agency.

Bowie State University tweeted it will be closed temporarily on Monday "due to a bomb threat on campus", adding that employees will work remotely while classes will be virtual.

Campus police reportedly responded to a bomb threat made by phone to Howard University at around 4.30 a.m. Monday.

No threats were found and an all-clear was given later.

It is the second time this month that a number of HBCUs received bomb threats that in some cases led schools to relocate students, faculty and staff while searches were performed.

On January 5, at least three HBCUs, including Howard University, received bomb threats.

Nothing was found on any of the campuses that received threats, university officials said.

HBCUs are institutions of higher education founded to educate African-American students.

In the 19th century, when many colleges and universities in the US refused to admit African-American applicants, HBCUs offered them a route to higher education.
San Francisco, Feb 1 : Facing regulatory hurdles, the cryptocurrency dream of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is officially over as the company has sold its digital coin known as Diem for around $200 million to Silvergate, a crypto-focused bank.

Originally launched as Libra and later renamed as the Diem Association, the cryptocurrency initiative faced regulatory backlash, and the US Federal Reserve was a key opponent to Diem launching.

"Despite giving us positive substantive feedback on the design of the network, it nevertheless became clear from our dialogue with federal regulators that the project could not move ahead. As a result, the best path forward was to sell the Diem Group's assets, as we have done today to Silvergate,a said Diem Networks CEO Stuart Levey.

"We remain confident in the potential for a stablecoin operating on a blockchain designed like Diem's to deliver the benefits that motivated the Diem Association from the beginning," he said in a statement late on Monday.

Over the coming weeks, the Diem Association and its subsidiaries expect to begin the process of winding down.

The Libra Association in December 2020 decided to change its name to Diem Association in a bid to reinforce its organisational independence.

The Diem Association (Diem means day in Latin) also had its subsidiary called Diem Networks to serve as the payment system operator.

Facebook and 20 partner organisations formally joined the digital currency project during a meeting in Geneva in October 2019.

In a move to win regulators' hearts, the association had announced that its cryptocurrency will offer stable coins backed by just one nation's currency, meaning some coins offered would serve as the equivalent value of a dollar or a euro.

However, several heavyweights pulled out of the Libra project, like PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Mercado Pago, eBay, Stripe and Booking Holdings and Vodafone over privacy concerns.
Berlin, Feb 1 : Two male suspects were arrested on suspicion of shooting two police officers dead in Germany during a routine traffic check, according to local authorities.

The shooting occurred at around 4.20 a.m. on Monday in Kusel in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, after the two police officers had pulled over the car during the routine check, reports Xinhua news agency.

The two police officers "were fatally injured by gunshots", according to the joint press release by the local public prosecutor's office and the local police headquarters.

"This terrible act leaves you stunned," tweeted Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.

The manhunt for possible accomplices continues while the motive of the attackers remains unclear, said the authorities.
Helsinki, Feb 1 : Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced that the country is working to lift all Covid-19-related restrictions in February.

Marin's announcement came at a meeting with the Finnish Association of Editors, just two days after Finland entered its third pandemic year, reports Xinhua news agency.

"The restrictions should be lifted during February, as the tolerance of the citizens has been tested for a long time," she told Finnish daily Ilta-Samomat.

Marin said that her government will negotiate its strategy for easing pandemic measures on Wednesday.

However, Finnish health experts expressed concern.

"Some kind of restraint must be maintained here," said Mika Valtonen, executive physician at Turku University Clinic (TYKS).

Valtonen said that there are still 46 coronary patients in intensive care as of Monday, which is almost 20 per cent of the entire ICU capacity in Finland.

One of the factors underlying moves to ease restrictions is that many residents have not been adhering to them, he said, due in part to their lack of consistency.

Starting Tuesday, restrictions in restaurants in Finland will be eased, and gyms and swimming pools re-opened.

Border checks on passenger traffic between Finland and the European Union and Schengen countries will also end on Tuesday.

However, restrictions on external border traffic will remain in place until February 14.
Beirut, Feb 1 : Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Hector Hajjar said that about 50 per cent of the country's population have registered for social assistance through the social safety net financing plan funded by the World Bank.

A total of 550,000 families, or 3.5 million individuals, have registered for cash assistance, mostly from areas in Akkar, Baabda and Tripoli, Xinhua news agency quoted Hajjar as saying on Monday.

"Each family will receive a fixed amount of $25 monthly, and an extra $20 for each child in the family, for up to six children," he explained.

Funded by a World Bank loan of $246 million, the social safety net financing plan aims at helping the most vulnerable families in Lebanon which has been going through its worst economic and financial crisis with a poverty rate exceeding 75 per cent.

Hajjar noted that registrations for the cash assistance revealed that around 250,000 Lebanese families or 2.5 million individuals live under the extreme poverty line.
Chennai, Feb 1 : The schools in Tamil Nadu from classes 1 to 12 reopened on Tuesday after being shut following the third wave of the Covid-19 infection. The state Health department has, however, issued stringent Covid protocols to be implemented in schools.

The Public Health department in a circular on Monday said that all teachers and non-teaching staff in schools must take two vaccine doses. The eligible students must also ensure that they have taken at least one dose of the Covid vaccine.

Schools and colleges are directed to adhere to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour such as wearing of masks, ensuring social distancing, washing of hands with soap water as well as sanitisation of hands regularly.

The state Health department has urged the school management to daily disinfect the campuses twice a day. Students and staff members must be screened before they enter the campus and if anyone is showing signs of fever and cold, they should be made to undergo an RT-PCR test.

Those who are undergoing the RT-PCR test must be kept in quarantine till the test results are out and if found positive must be isolated and ensure Covid protocol is followed, the Health department said.

The Health department has directed teachers and students staying in containment zones not to attend school until the Covid situation improves. Employees at higher risk, including pregnant women and older employees with comorbidities, must take extra caution while coming to schools.

Tamil Nadu Health Minister, Ma Subramanian told IANS, "The Tamil Nadu Health department has recommended the government to give the go-ahead to reopen schools as the Covid-19 cases are dipping to ensure that proper Covid protocols are followed in schools." However, several parents are reluctant to send their children to school.

Haritha Kumari, a bank employee at Adyar, told IANS, "I have decided that my daughter will not attend classes. While school management and health department will say several things, practically we know that these won't be adhered to. Children will not wear masks and may even exchange one. My daughter is a primary class student and the school need not have opened classes at least for children from classes 1 to 5. If the government allows online classes it's well and good, otherwise also I won't send my child. She is more important than her studies."

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Chandigarh, Feb 1 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will participate in the national-level World Wetlands Day being celebrated on February 2 at the Sultanpur National Park in Gurugram district thatattracts nearly 50,000 migratory birds mainly from Eurasia in the winter annually.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, will be the chief guest on the occasion, an official spokesperson statement said on Tuesday.

The celebrations of the World Wetlands Day this year in Haryana coincides with the recent declaration of the Sultanpur National Park and the Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary in Jhajjar as Ramsar Sites (wetlands of international importance).

The spokesperson said the Sultanpur National Park and the Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary were declared as Ramsar sites in May 2021.

With this, Haryana state has come onto the map of wetlands having international significance.

The total number of Ramsar sites in India at present is 47. Two more wetlands namely the Khijadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat and the Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh will be brought that day within the purview of Ramsar sites, taking the Ramsar wetlands number in India to 49.

The Sultanpur National Park, spread over 350 acres, is located at Sultanpur village on the Gurugram-Jhajjar highway, some 15 km from Gurugram and 50 km from the national capital.

The avifauna-rich habitat of Sultanpur was discovered by Peter Jackson who visited the park along with wildlife experts in March 1970.

The Sultanpur National Park was earlier notified as wildlife sanctuary on April 2, 1971. The status of the park was upgraded to a national park on July 5, 1991.

In winter, Sultanpur provides a picturesque panorama of migratory birds such as the Sarus crane, Demoiselle crane, northern pintail, northern shoveller, red-crested pochard, waders, Graylag goose, gadwall, Eurasian wigeon, the black-tailed godwit, among others.

The park is also home to the cobra, monitor lizard, hedgehog, Indian hare, yellow monitor lizard, porcupine, jackal and the blue bull. The park falls on Asian Flyway and hence, a number of birds on their forward and backward journey rest here, say ornithologists.

The Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary is a freshwater lake, also the largest in Haryana is located in Jhajjar district, which is about 15 km from Jhajjar town.

Covering an area of little over 1,000 acres, it was notified as a wildlife sanctuary on July 5, 1985. The lake forms an important part of the ecological corridor along the route of the Sahibi river which traverses from Aravalli hills in Rajasthan to the Yamuna via Masani Barrage.

More than 80 species of migratory and more than a hundred resident species have been recorded, besides over 40,000 migratory birds in Bhindawas every winter.

The spokesperson said a series of webinars related to various aspects of wetlands are being organized coinciding with the wetlands day celebrations.

An exercise on the bird count in Haryana is also going on in various parts covering the entire state.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has celebrated Iconic Week in Sultanpur coinciding with celebrating 75 years of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. A number of programmes related to creating awareness about wetlands were organized at that time.

The wetlands are ecologically diverse ecosystems harbouring about 40 per cent of biodiversity. They absorb water, control floods, purify water and recharge the water table.

They store about one-third of global carbon and regulate climate change. However, if not protected, they can be the source of carbon emission as well.

The wetlands are the most productive systems and feed millions of people besides providing employment to others.
Tel Aviv, Feb 1 : Israeli security forces have arrested nine Palestinian suspects during a large anti-terror operation in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, the army said.

Hundreds of army troops and Israeli police officers operated overnight between Sunday and Monday in the Jordan Valley as part of "an operation to thwart terrorist activity and confiscate weapon infrastructure in the area", Xinhua news agency quoted a military spokesperson as saying in a statement.

The nine Palestinian suspects were transferred to the Israeli Border Police for questioning, the spokesperson said, adding 16 vehicles, a handgun, and stolen military ammunition and equipment were confiscated.

The raid sparked clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in several locations, where dozens of protesters hurled rocks and an improvised explosive device at the troops who responded with "riot dispersal means", according to the statement.

On January 25, a joint police-army statement said security forces thwarted a smuggling attempt in the Jordan Valley, seizing 53 weapons, including 39 handguns, 10 Kalashnikov assault rifles and four M16 assault rifles.

The Jordan Valley is part of the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East.

Israel kept its control over the territory despite international criticism.
San Francisco, Feb 1 : Blackberry, one of the most popular phone brands of the era before smartphones took over, has announced that it is selling patents covering mobile devices, messaging and other tech to Catapult IP Innovations for $600 million.

Catapult IP Innovations is a special purpose vehicle formed to acquire the BlackBerry patent assets.

Blackberry says this sale "will not impact customers' use of any of BlackBerry's products, solutions or services".

Patents that are essential to BlackBerry's current core business operations are excluded from the transaction.

BlackBerry will receive a license back to the patents being sold, which relate primarily to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking.

At closing, BlackBerry will receive $450 million in cash and a promissory note in the principal amount of $150 million.

The promissory note will be secured by a second lien on the assets of the purchaser and will be subordinated to the rights of the senior lending syndicate.

The promissory note will be payable in five equal annual installments of $30 million in cash starting on the third anniversary of the closing date, provided that the senior loan is not in default.

To recall, the company officially killed its services earlier in January, disabling access to mobile data, phone calls, text messaging and 9-1-1 functionality.
Udupi, : Feb 1 (IANS) Karnataka hijab row is likely to continue as the students have decided to attend the classes wearing a veil despite the state government banning it in the college campus.

The issue is more likely to be blown into a major controversy as February 1 (Tuesday) is celebrated as the World Hijab Day.

Sources said that students will come to the college but won't shun hijab to attend classes. Police have been informed and no outsider will be allowed into the campus as the hijab row has put the academic career of 1,000 students at stake as they have to prepare for examinations which are going to be held in another two months.

On Monday, MLA Raghupathy Bhat, after holding a meeting at the Government Girls Pre-University College in Udupi, said the students who are protesting for wearing hijab to classrooms are being told to come to the college campus only if they shun it.

"Otherwise, we have clearly told them not to come to the college and spoil the academic environment," he said. On the other hand, the students have moved a petition to the High Court seeking relief in this regard.

"We have told them clearly that they can come to college only if they shun the hijab. You can't come to the premises of the college and spoil the college academic environment. We have also informed police regarding entry of media and other organisations into the campus," he stated.

"In another 2 months exams will be held. Parents are complaining that every day, international media besides various Muslim and Hindu organisations are visiting. There will be no entry to the college from Tuesday. They can submit the memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, he said.

"There is a government order. The future of 1,000 college students is at stake. It has been said that if the students are coming to college, they can come if they are willing to attend classes without a hijab. Otherwise do not come to college itself. There is no room for confusion anymore. Whoever follows discipline let them come to college," he stated.

Meanwhile, one among the students who are protesting demanding permission to attend classes with hijab has moved to the state High Court seeking relief. Resham Farooq, the student has requested declaration of the wearing of hijab as a fundamental right under articles 14 and 25 of the Indian constitution. The student has sought interim order from the High Court regarding students attending classes wearing hijab.
Tripoli, Feb 1 : A total of 872 illegal immigrants were rescued off the Libyan coast and returned to the country in the past week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced.

From January 23 to 29, the migrants were rescued or intercepted at sea and returned to Libya, the IOM said in a statement on Monday.

It added that a total of 1,476 illegal immigrants were rescued and returned to Libya this year, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to the IOM, 27 illegal immigrants have died and 55 gone missing off the Libyan coast on the Central Mediterranean route since the beginning of the year.

In 2021, a total of 32,425 illegal immigrants were rescued and returned to the country, while 662 died and 891 others went missing off the Libyan coast on the Central Mediterranean route, the IOM revealed.

Libya has been suffering insecurity and chaos since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The North African country has turned into a preferred point of departure for illegal immigrants who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores.
February 01 : Shabana Azmi today took to her Instagram handle and announced that she has tested positive for Covid-19. The veteran actor asked people who came in contact with her to get tested as well.

As soon as she dropped the news, fans and her friends and well wishers poured in with get well soon messages. Actor Divya Dutta, producer Boney Kapoor, fashion designer Manish Malhotra among others have also reacted to her post. Sharing a picture of herself, Shabana Azmi wrote, "Have tested positive for Covid today. Have isolated myself at home and request all those who were in close contact with me to please get tested."

Divya Dutta took to the comments section and wrote, "Get well soon Shabana ji." Fashion designer Manish Malhotra commented, Take care. Get well soon. Boney Kapoor was concerned for Shabana Azmis husband Javed Akhtar and wrote, Oh God, please stay away from Javed Saab. A fan also show concern about Javed Akhtar and wrote, Get well soon ma'am. Hope Javed sir is fine. Wish you a speedy recovery. Many other fans also showed the same concern for Javed Akhtar.

Saif Ali Khan's sister Saba Ali Khan wrote, Aadab. Wishing you a speedy recovery. Actor Lillete Dubey commented, Get well soon. A fan said, Corona has fallen in love with you. Get well soon," while another wrote, You look so elegant. Love what you are wearing in your neck. May you recover speedily. Fans from Pakistan also wished her speedy recovery.

Shabana Azmi will be seen next in Karan Johar's directorial Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, which also stars Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Dharmendra and Jaya Bachchan. The film will be released on February 10, 2023.
Chennai, Feb 1 : Actress Nikki Galrani, who has been a part of several successful films including 'Darling' and 'Velainu Vandhutta Vellaikaaran' in Tamil, has announced that she has completed eight years in the film industry.

The actress, who made her debut in the film industry through the Malayalam film '1983', took to Instagram to express her gratitude. She said: "Eight years of '1983'. It's been eight years since I stepped into this industry as an outsider !!! It's also been eight years since all of you have accepted me and made me feel at home.

"This journey of mine has been a wonderful blessing with many highs and a few lows. Each and every opportunity brought to me is valued and I couldn't be more grateful for them all. The love and respect for my work has always been and will remain immense.

"All your constant love and unconditional support has led me to where I am today. Thank you for everything. I am, because of you. Much Love, Nikki." Nikki Galrani has director Rambhala's much-awaited laughter riot 'Idiot', in Tamil, featuring Mirchi Shiva and her in the lead, waiting to release next. She also has 'Virunnu', featuring Arjun Sarja in the lead, in Malayalam.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : While presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament on Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the setting up of a digital university in the country as several children have suffered due to the Covid-19 pandemic-induced closure of educational institutions.

"A digital university will be established to provide access to the students across the country for world class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at their door steps," the Finance Minister said.

Sitharaman informed that the university will be built on a 'hub and spoke' model.

"The university will be built on our networked hub and spoke model with the hub building cutting edge ICT expertise," she said.

The Finance Minister further said education in this university will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT formats.

"The best public universities and institutions in our country will collaborate as a network of hub and spoke," she said.

Sitharaman said due to the pandemic-induced closure of schools, children particularly in the rural areas and those from Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes and other weaker sections have lost almost two years of formal education.

She said that majority of the affected children were from government schools and the Centre recognises the need to impart supplementary teaching and to build a resilient mechanism for education delivery.

"For this purpose one class -- one TV channel programme of PM e-Vidya will be expanded from 12 to 400 TV channels," Sitharaman said.

She added that this will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday delivered the Budget 2022-23 with her shortest budget so far.

She spoke for one hour and 30 minutes, making it the shortest among the budget speeches that generally go for about 2 hours at least.

Sitharaman, who also made the second paperless budget presentation as she read the speech from a tab, also quoted a verse from Mahabharat's Shanti Parva.

In 2019, she had made the longest speech at two hours and 15 minutes (135 minutes), only to top that the next year, in 2020, to speak for over 160 minutes.

Prior to her, Jaswant Singh had spoken for 2 hours 15 minutes in 2003.

When it comes to word limit, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went on to create a record in his landmark 1991 speech - when he was Finance Minister in the P.V. Narasima Rao government -at 18,650 words. Arun Jaitley's 2018 budget speech was a bit short at 18,604 words, which took one hour and 49 minutes to deliver. He however, spoke at length almost every time with word lengths beyond 16,000.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Ouagadougou, Feb 1 : A joint mission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the UN met leaders of Burkina Faso's military following a coup in the country late last month.

"The heads of state have requested that the mission come and exchange with the authorities here to examine the situation and see what the future holds for Burkina Faso," Xinhua news agency quoted Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Foreign Minister of Ghana who leads the ECOWAS delegation, as saying.

During the visit, the joint delegation held discussions with Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, chief of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR) that took power in the Western Afican country.

"It's about seeing how we can work with Burkina Faso so that the country can get out of this situation," said Botchwey.

The members of the joint mission also visited President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who's in good health, according to Botchwey.

The delegation will submit its report to an ECOWAS summit scheduled for Thursday in Accra.

On January 23, the military of Burkina Faso announced on national television that they had seized power and put an end to the functions of President Kabore and the MPSR led by Damiba took over from the civilian government.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Newlyweds have been constrained to choose from a handful destinations for their honeymoons due to travel restrictions. But that hasn't stopped these celebrities from planning a great getaway to celebrate their nuptials. Check their vacation photos to get inspired

Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal

Image Source: IANS News Image Source: IANS News

Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal flew to the Maldives for their honeymoon. Katrina revealed the location on her Instagram handle. Fans can get a closer look at her intricate mehendi design in the photo she posted on social media. She has her hands stretched out in front of her, with the seashore and beach serving as a backdrop. Katrina can also be seen wearing the traditional chura. She used a heart emoji as a caption.

Dia Mirza Rekhi and Vaibhav Rekhi

Image Source: IANS News Image Source: IANS News

Actress Dia Mirza and her husband Vaibhav Rekhi also chose the Maldives. Stepdaughter Samaira Rekhi, posted gorgeous pictures from her vacation. The former Miss Asia Pacific, who is back in Mumbai now, fondly captioned her photos, "We made some really special memories in the Maldives."

Rhea Kapoor and Karan Booloni

Image Source: IANS News

Rhea Kapoor and Karan Booloni, jetted off to the tropical island nation of the Maldives for their honeymoon. The couple appears to have returned home, but the stylist is still mentally in the Maldives. Rhea shared a photo dump from her honeymoon, which included peaceful sunsets, delicious food and laid-back vibes.

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)

-- Syndicated from IANS
Wellington, Feb 1 : The New Zealand government has secured the delivery of enough rapid antigen tests (RATs) to help the country in its fight against the ongoing Omicron outbreak, Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said on Tuesday.

Over the last week, the government has been in contact with a variety of rapid antigen test manufacturers. Those efforts have resulted in securing an additional 36 million tests for delivery over the next two months which corresponds with a predicted rise in Omicron cases, Verrall said in a statement.

These additional 36 million tests are on top of the 16.9 million orders already confirmed for delivery in February, Xinhua news agency reported citing the Minister as saying Along with the 5.1 million tests already in the country, New Zealanders will have access to over 55 million rapid antigen tests in the coming two months, she added.

A total of 123 million rapid antigen tests have been ordered through to June, which will allow for regular and widespread testing to occur.

"Modelling on the use of rapid antigen tests through the outbreak suggests that during the peak we may be using as many as nine million RATs a week which is equivalent to testing a quarter of New Zealand every day, or all of New Zealand twice a week," Verrall said.

"That scale of testing will go a long way to reducing the risk of an infected person going to work and infecting others, and will help with keeping critical services and supply chains open and moving." In the past week two more types of rapid antigen test have been approved for use in New Zealand, bringing the total number to 11, with several more going through the approval process, she said, adding the Ministry of Health and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research continue to only approve tests that meet a very high threshold for quality to reduce the number of false positives and negatives.

"Many of the RATs will be used to implement our 'test to return' policy for asymptomatic critical workers so our hospitals, supermarkets, and other services that keep the country running can continue operating," Verrall said.

The Ministry has been placing regular orders of RATs since October last year, and the quantities ordered have increased substantially since early December.
Udupi : , Feb 1 (IANS) The protesting Muslim girl students of the Government Girls Pre-University College here, who attended their Class wearing 'hijab' thereby defying the Karnataka government order, were sent out of the respective Classrooms on Tuesday.

The entry to media has been prohibited in the premises of the college and security has been beefed in the campus to avoid any untoward incident.

The government recently issued an order to maintain the status quo in the college until the high-level committee submitted a report on allowing hijab along with uniform.

Incidentally, February 1 is celebrated as World Hijab Day. Aliya Assadi, one of the protesting students, said on her social media platform that the protesting girls will come to the college wearing hijab, which is their religious and constitutional right. "The college is being run on the tax money that we gave to the government. There is no necessity for anyone's interference. Our judicious fight can't be sidelined by threats." BJP MLA Raghupathy Bhat had earlier stated that the police have been informed about the matter and no outer persons, including those from the Muslim as well as Hindu organisations will be allowed into the campus as the hijab row has put the academic career of the 1,000 students studying in the college at stake. The students have to be ready for examinations, which are going to be held in another two months.

He further stated after holding a meeting that the students, who are protesting for wearing hijab in Classrooms, are being told to come to the college campus only if they decide to shun hijab. "Otherwise, we have clearly told them not to come to the college and spoil the academic environment," he said. On the other hand the students have moved a petition in the High Court seeking relief in this regard.

"We have told them clearly to come to the college only if they have decided to come to class without a hijab. They can't come to the premises of the college and spoil the college academic environment. We have also informed the police regarding the entry of media and other organisations into the campus," he stated.

"In another 2 months exams are nearing. Parents are complaining that every day, international media is coming, various Muslim organisations and Hindu organisations are visiting. There will be no entry to the college from Tuesday. They can submit the memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner," he said.

One among the protesting students moved the state High Court seeking relief. Resham Farooq, the student has said the 'wearing of hijab as a fundamental right under Articles 14 and 25 of the Indian constitution'. The student has sought interim order from the High Court regarding students attending classes wearing hijab.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Jaipur, Feb 1 : As the Rajasthan police remain clueless on Alwar rape case even after 20 days, the father of the victim, distressed after seeing cops taking U-turns, has accused the police and the administration of pressuring him to accept the accident theory 'conceptualised' by them to give another turn to the case.

A deaf and mute minor girl was found bleeding profusely on January 11 in Alwar. She was rushed to a local hospital from where she was referred to Jaipur based JK Lon hospital for further treatment.

While the police initially termed it as a gang-rape case, later it said that there is little possibility of gang-rape and then started working on accident angle which according to them left the victim injured.

Meanwhile, the father of the victim on Monday evening said that he is not at all satisfied with the police probe.

"We want justice in the matter. My daughter has been speaking in sign language and saying that she was thrown by two youths from culvert. She starts crying when asked to speak more on the case. However, the police team is pressuring us to accept it as an accident case and have been telling us that we shall get compensation for accident," he said.

"Administration tried to lure me by making a promise of giving land and was told that they will also construct a home for us. They said that Rs 3.5 lakh has been given to us and we shall get a little more for accident, he claimed.

"This kind of offers makes it clear that they are doing something wrong," he said, adding that the FSL report has claimed there were semen traces on her dress. However, the police asked us to send more clothes from our house and now says that semen were found on other clothes too. Now this sounds unbelievable. We have sent clean clothes which were thoroughly washed and then sent. How can it carry semen," he asked.

"I have not been allowed to go alone anywhere. Cops say that BJP people will take us, while Congressmen say that they want to end this issue."
San Francisco, Feb 1 : Tech giant Google is reportedly testing adding Lens to desktop Search on the web.

Google Lens is primarily a visual lookup tool for mobile devices, but it is been branching out to Chrome. The next expansion could see Google Search on the desktop web add Lens, reports 9To5Google.

According to a user browsing with Incognito Mode, Lens on google.com appears in the search field next to the voice microphone.

The visual search tool is using the latest, whole-bodied camera icon that the Google app also uses.

In adding to the Search bar everywhere, Google is very much increasing the prominence of Lens, the report said.

Meanwhile, a different gray camera icon today is only found in images.google.com, while the results page already lets you run a Google Lens query, it added.

Tapping invites the user to "Search any image with Google Lens", with the ability to "drag an image here" or upload via the standard file picker." The image appears at the left, while Knowledge Panels (when available) appear at the top-right followed by a grid of "Visual matches". Lens.google.com also lets you upload another image and search for something else.

Google Lens is coming to desktop as Apple's platforms increasingly offer similar visual lookup tools, the report said.
Mexico City, Feb 1 : The US manufactured most of the weapons seized by authorities in Mexico over the last two years, according to a report released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry here.

Mexican security forces seized 18,091 US-made weapons between January 1, 2020 and November 18, 2021, an average of 812 guns or other firearms a month, Xinhua news agency reported citing the Ministry as saying in a report.

Of the weapons seized, over 10,500 were handguns and more than 7,300 were shotguns, it said.

Mexico estimates that at least half a million pieces of weapons are brought to the country illegally each year from the US and fall into the hands of criminals south of the countries' border.

More than 3.9 million crimes are committed in Mexico each year by criminals using US-made weapons, 70 per cent of which can be tracked to America, according to the Ministry.

In a bid to decrease US arms entering Mexico, the Mexican government filed a lawsuit against 11 American manufacturers and distributors in August last year.
Kolkata: Polytechnic College turned into Safe Home where 100 beds are arranged for Covid patients with mild symptoms due to increasing numbers of COVID 19 patients in Kolkata on June 2, 2021.(Photo: Kuntal Chakrabarty/IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Chennai, Feb 1 : The Tamil Nadu Public Health Department has commenced inquiry into complaints from several districts of the state that private hospitals are accessing the details of Covid-19 positive patients, officials said.

The department has deputed its district-level officers to conduct inquiries in respective districts after several complaints were received in this regard.

In Salem, a family complained to the district health officials that immediately after they tested positive and returned home, they received a call from a private hospital informing them about the services the hospital would provide at their residences.

Talking to IANS, BJP's former Salem district President, R.P. Gopinath, who helped the family lodge a complaint with the district health authorities, said: "This is a racket... as soon as a patient tests positive and returns home for quarantine as advised by government PHC doctors, they are receiving calls from a private hospital in the district that the hospital would provide them home care. When asked as to from where they accessed their details of turning Covid positive, the hospital staff who called hung up the phone." Joint Director, Health, Dr. Nedumaran has already commenced an inquiry into the matter and has taken the statement of Gopinathan and Suresh Babu, whose family details were accessed by the private hospital.

In Erode, a family of three tested positive and minutes after they returned home, they received a call from a private hospital in the city stating that they would provide home care services. Again when the family head asked them how they come to know of them becoming positive, the caller hung up the phone.

Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram districts are also facing the same menace.

At Pammal in Chengalpattu, a government employee tested positive and minutes after he reached home, there was a call from a local private hospital stating that they would support the treatment at home and would send nurses and paramedics to take care of the family. The caller hung up when asked how they got the information.

AIADMK leader K. Elangovan said that "a major racket is in operation across the state and some Health Department officials are providing details of the patients to the private hospitals".

"The government must undertake a comprehensive inquiry involving the Health, and Revenue Departments and police and charge those responsible. This is not allowable and against all moral and social ethics and stringent action is the need of the hour. Breach of privacy is not a joke and government must step in to curtail this." Health Minister Ma Subramanian promised action.

"If the allegation is true, it is very unfortunate and never should have taken place. The government will take strong action against the perpetrators of such actions. Investigation is on and we will bring the culprits to book," Subramanian told IANS.
New Delhi: Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addresses at a function organised by DGNCC camp at delhi Cantt in New Delhi on Friday, December 17, 2021. (Photo: IANS/Qamar Sibtain) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Feb 1 : Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that the Union Budget would give fillip to 'Make in India', boost demand and build capacities for a stronger, prosperous and confident India.

Congratulating Finance Minister Nirmla Sitharaman in a series of tweets, Singh said, "Congratulations to Finance Minister, Smt @nsitharaman on presenting an excellent Union Budget for 2022-23. It is a Budget which would give fillip to 'Make in India', boost demand and build capacities for a stronger, prosperous and confident India." "The Budget outlines the Government's focus on Atamnirbharata and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for development and pro people reforms. It is a growth oriented Budget focused on harnessing the energies of New India," he said.

The Defence Minister also welcomed the funds allocated for Research and Development in several sectors including Defence. "Substantial amounts have been allocated towards Research and Development in several sectors including Defence. The proposal to reserve 25 per cent of the R&D Budget for Startups and Private entities is an excellent move," he said.

He mentioned that the bulk of the money will be going into the development of social and physical infrastructure in the country. "This year's Budget has increased the total outlay for effective capital expenditure by a massive 35.4 per cent to more than Rs 10.6 lakh crore with the bulk of the money going into the development of social and physical infrastructure in the country," he said.

Singh said that the 68 per cent of defence capital procurement budget has been allocated towards local procurement and it is in line with the 'Vocal for Local' push and it will certainly boost the domestic defence industries.

"Digitalisation of land reforms will transform India's rural economy and it will go a long way in creating new opportunities for the farmers and the agriculture sector. I wholeheartedly welcome this year's Budget announcements," the Defence Minister added.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Special Judge, CBI cases, in Rajasthan's Jaipur has awarded four years rigorous imprisonment to a former Social Security Assistant of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) with a fine of Rs 1,00,000 in connection with a bribery case.

As per information, the CBI had registered a case on September 7, 2017 based on the complaint that Manoj Kumar Tarani, the accused and then Social Security Assistant of EPFO's regional office in Jaipur's Jyoti Nagar, had demanded a bribe of Rs 14,000 for making corrections in the personal details of PF accounts belonging to the complainant and six other employees of Vijay store.

The CBI after receiving the complaint lodged an FIR and formed a team to look into the matter and catch the accused red handed.

A trap was laid, and the accused was arrested while accepting a bribe of Rs 14,000 from the complainant.

The CBI collected other evidence also and drafted a chargesheet after recording the testimonies of the witnesses.

After that, the agency filed the chargesheet before the court of the Special Judge in Jaipur.

The court noted that there was enough evidence on record to frame charges against the accused. Charges were framed in 2018. During the trial, the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

The Trial Court found the accused guilty and convicted him. It said that the prosecution had successfully proved his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Sensing immense opportunities in new-age businesses, startups and local manufacturing amid the pandemic-induced digital transformation, the government on Tuesday outlined a tech-driven Union Budget to fast-track the goal of achieving a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

From cracking down on private cryptocurrencies along with a soon-to-be-launched digital rupee by the RBI to announcing 5G spectrum auction this year and more allocations under the PLI scheme, the government went ballistic on its digital-driven 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' agenda.

In a significant move to bring cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) under a tax net, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 30 per cent tax on any income from the transfer of virtual digital assets, specifying that no deductions and exemptions will be allowed.

There will also be a 1 per cent tax deducted at source (TDS) on the payments made for the transfer of digital assets.

The government also announced to bring India's own digital currency by the RBI next year that will be based on Blockchain technology, while the much-expected Cryptocurrency Bill is yet to see the light of the day.

"Digital rupee to be issued using Blockchain and other technologies by the RBI starting 2022-23. This will give a big boost to the economy," said Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2022-23 speech in Parliament.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has already been deliberating upon various aspects relating to the central bank digital currency and private crypto currencies.

Already late on riding the global 5G bandwagon, the government said it will soon launch a scheme for design-led manufacturing to build a strong ecosystem for 5G in the country. Part of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, it will enable growth and offer job opportunities, said Sitharaman.

"A scheme for design-led manufacturing will be launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G as part of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme," she said during her Union Budget 2022-23 speech in Parliament.

"Required spectrum auction will be conducted in 2022 to facilitate rollout of 5G mobile services within 2022-23 by private telecom providers," she added.

The Finance Minister said that all villages and their residents should have the same access to e-services, communication facilities, and digital resources as urban areas and their residents.

"The contracts for laying optical fibre in all villages, including remote areas, will be awarded under the Bharatnet project through PPP in 2022-23. Completion is expected in 2025. Measures will be taken to enable better and more efficient use of the optical fibre," Sitharaman added.

To facilitate domestic manufacturing for the ambitious goal of 280 GW of installed solar capacity by 2030, an additional allocation of Rs 19,500 crore for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) for manufacture of high efficiency modules, with priority to fully integrated manufacturing units from polysilicon to solar PV modules, will be made.

The Finance Minister said that the PLI scheme across 14 sectors, including IT hardware manufacturing, has the potential to generate at least 60 lakh new job opportunities.

"The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for achieving Aatmanirbhar Bharat has received an excellent response, with potential to create 60 lakh new jobs," she said.

The PLI schemes may invite additional production of Rs 30 lakh crore during the next five years, the finance minister added.

In order to ensure seamless movement of goods and people, the data exchange among all mode operators will be brought on Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), designed for Application Programming Interface (API).

This will provide for efficient movement of goods through different modes, reducing logistics cost and time, assisting just-in-time inventory management, and in eliminating tedious documentation.

"Most importantly, this will provide real time information to all stakeholders, and improve international competitiveness. Open-source mobility stack, for organizing seamless travel of passengers will also be facilitated," said Sitharaman.
Patna, Feb 1 : NDA constituent Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Tuesday expressed its disappointment with the Union Budget 2022-23.

JD-U Parliamentary Board President Upendra Kushwaha called it a "disappointing Budget".

"We have a long standing demand for special status of Bihar and expecting that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would say something on it but unfortunately, she completely ignored it," he said.

"The Union Budget has been beneficial for developed states but it has nothing for poor states like Bihar. Our state needs financial support from the Centre for its development," he added.

Kushwaha's statement also hinted that the tussle between the JD-U and BJP will intensify in the coming days.
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An Auburn University researcher has co-authored a study that found the economic costs of biological invasions in the U.S. have exceeded $1.2 trillion since 1960.

The study, recently published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, determined that costs were mainly related to resource damages and losses, with 53% of costs reported from invasive species, such as wild pigs, from land habitats. Agriculture was the most impacted sector with over $500 billion in damages from mammals and insects.

Invasive species are a pressing ecological and economic problem, both here in the U.S. and worldwide. However, the impacts of these species are often poorly understood and, as a result, underestimated, said Jean Fantle-Lepczyk, research professor in Auburns School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences and co-author of the multinational study conducted with a team of seven scientists from the U.S., Germany, France, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

The objective was to raise public awareness of the economic and biological impacts of the issue to underscore the need for more decisive actions to control invasive species. Using InvaCost, a public database of the economic costs of global biological invasions, the research team compiled all published information to determine that the economic impact of invasive species within the U.S. conservatively totaled $1.22 trillion from 1960 to 2020.

Fantle-Lepczyk describes invasive species as those that were moved by humans to a new ecosystem that have begun breeding outside of the area to which they were initially introduced.

Once established, they can cause great ecological and economic harm, said Fantle-Lepczyk. Costs due to invaders are likely increasing as these species establish and spread.

Drew Kramer, professor and co-author from the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of South Florida, said, While not all impacts of invasive species are economically quantifiable, robust estimates of their economic impacts can be a convincing way of communicating the scale of the problem to a diverse audience.

To provide this context, the research team mobilized to create a comprehensive record of invasion costs that would highlight the necessity of invasive species management for decision-makers and the public.

For the first time, we were able to link all published information on the economic costs of invasive species from a variety of source documents with standardized taxonomic, sectorial, regional and temporal descriptors, said Fantle-Lepczyk. As higher trade volumes introduce a suite of new species, and climate change facilitates the establishment and spread of already introduced species, the number of invasive species in the U.S. is increasing rapidly.

Auburn School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Dean Janaki Alavalapati said the research likely will have a significant impact.

Dr. Fantle-Lepczyk and her fellow team of researchers have addressed a critical gap in knowledge related to the economic costs associated with invasive species in the United States, Alavalapati said.

In addition to Fantle-Lepczyk and Kramer, the research team included scientists Phillip J. Haubrock, Ross N. Cuthbert, Anna J. Turbelin, Robert Crystal-Ornelas, Christophe Diagne and Franck Courchamp.

(Written by Gracen Carter)
Patiala, Feb 1 : Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday expressed anger over Navjot Singh Sidhu hugging the Pakistan army chief who was ordering his soldiers every day to kill Indians.

He said the state's governance could not be handed over to people who were willing to compromise national security to further their personal and political ambitions.

"Who do you hate more? The soldiers who fire or the one who gives the order?" the former chief minister asked the people of Patiala at a public meeting at Ramalila Maidan, adding that Sidhu hugging General Bajwa and then his reinduction into the state cabinet being recommended by the prime minister of Pakistan clearly showed he could not be relied upon to keep Punjab and India safe from the enemy across the border.

"We want peace with Pakistan but will not bow to them. We are prepared to fight, our army is ready to take them head on," Capt Amarinder asserted.

Citing the need for the highest levels of security in the border state of Punjab, the former chief minister said the state's and country's safety was of paramount importance, which only the PLC alliance, with the support of the BJP-led government at the Centre, could ensure.

While there was no conflict between the people of the two countries, the hostile regime in Pakistan posed a serious danger which could not be undermined, he said.

He pointed out that since March 2017, as many as 83 Punjabi soldiers had been killed by Pakistan on border, and his government had given compensation of Rs 50 lakh and a job to the kin of the deceased soldiers.

Announcing that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be coming to Punjab soon to campaign for the PLC-BJP-SAD Sanyukt coalition, Capt Amarinder said the alliance had been crafted in the interest of Punjab and the country.

The state, with its economy in total shambles, was at a crossroads and needed the Centre's support to go ahead, he stressed, adding that Punjab was reeling under a debt of Rs 70,000 crore, with current Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi adding Rs 33,000 crore in just 111 days.

For Punjab's survival, it is necessary that the state and the Centre work together, said Capt Amarinder, adding that he personally has had cordial relations with Modi since the latter was the chief minister of Gujarat and the RSS in-charge for Punjab.

The PLC chief unveiled his ambitious plans for the development and security of the state, which the Congress had scuttled by the sudden and uncalled for change at the helm of the government less than six months before the Assembly polls.

He pointed out that even the various development projects he had launched in the Patiala region had been stalled by the Channi government.

Listing his priorities for the state, the PLC leader said while he had ensured 22 lakh new jobs and investment worth Rs 1 lakh crore on the ground during his tenure, much more was needed to be done to ensure the state's progress.

"I want to ensure that Punjab's children do not go abroad for higher education and jobs," he added.

The former chief minister further identified improving the state's water situation and agriculture as key priorities for his party.

He pointed out that he had conceived surface river water supply for five major cities, including Patiala, and had given jobs and Rs 5 lakh compensation to the families of each of the 460 farmers who died in the recent agitation.

Sanjeev Sharma Bittu, the PLC candidate from Patiala Rural, stressed that a double engine regime will transform both Patiala and Punjab.

For 10 years under the Akali regime, Patiala had received step-motherly treatment, he recalled, adding that the development work done here under the Capt Amarinder government was just the beginning of what the region could achieve.

Amarinder was joined by local BJP leaders who extended their full support to ensure his party's victory from both Patiala Urban and Rural.

Punjab will go to the polls in a single phase for the 117-member Assembly on February 20.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Rampur : , Feb 1 (IANS) The Rampur police have arrested a man who had been spreading rumours on social media that the nomination papers of senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's son Abdullah Azam has been 'rejected'.

The accused, identified as Arif Raza Masoodi, said he wanted to 'increase traffic' on his social media account and get more followers.

Masoodi will be sent to jail for misusing social media to incite people, police said.

Following a complaint, an FIR was registered at Azim Nagar police station against him under IPC sections 417 (cheating), 505(intent to incite any class, community or person to commit an offence) along with section 66 of IT Act. He was also charged for violating the model code of conduct.

ASP Sansaar Singh said: "We took cognisance of the complaint and booked the accused. He was arrested within 24 hours." Similar action will be taken against all those who try to disrupt peace or negatively influence the election." SP leaders had earlier claimed that the BJP's candidate and his aides were spreading fake news about the rejection of Abdullah's nomination.

SP has fielded Abdullah from the Suar assembly segment in Rampur district and he is pitted against Haider Ali Khan of BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal).
New Delhi, Feb 1 : In order to provide a level playing field between the co-operative societies and companies, the government proposes to reduce the Alternate Minimum Tax rate for co-operative societies to 15 per cent from the current 18.5 per cent, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced while presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Parliament on Tuesday.

She added that the government also proposes to reduce the surcharge on co-operative societies to 7 per cent from 12 per cent at present for those having total income of more than Rs 1 crore and up to Rs 10 crore. She said that this would help enhance the income of cooperative societies and its members, who are mostly from rural and farming communities.

Stating that startups have emerged as drivers of growth for the economy, the minister, in order to assist them during the Covid-19 pandemic, proposed to extend the period for incorporation of the eligible startup by one more year up to March 31, 2023 to provide them tax incentive for three consecutive years out of 10 years from incorporation. This incentive was earlier available to eligible startups established before March 31, 2022.

Sitharaman said that to establish a globally competitive business environment, a concessional tax regime of 15 per cent was introduced by the government for certain newly-incorporated domestic manufacturing companies. The government proposes to extend the last date for commencement of manufacturing or production under Section 115BAB by one year to March 31, 2024 from March 31, 2023.

Noting that as a business promotion strategy, there is a tendency on businesses to pass on benefits to their agents, which are taxable in the hands of the agents, Sitharaman said that in order to track such transactions, the Government proposes to provide for tax deduction by the person giving benefits, if the aggregate value of such benefits exceeds Rs 20,000 during the financial year.

Stating that the 'Health and Education Cess' is imposed as an additional surcharge on the taxpayer for funding specific government welfare programs, the minister, to reiterate the legislative intent, proposed to clarify that any surcharge or cess on income and profits is not allowable as business expenditure.

She said that income-tax also includes surcharge and observed that it is "not an allowable expenditure for computation of business income".

Sitharaman announced that the government proposes to provide that no set off of any loss shall be allowed against undisclosed income detected during search and survey operations. She pointed out that It has been observed that in many cases where undisclosed income or suppression of sales among others is detected, payment of tax is avoided by setting off, of losses. This proposal would bring certainty and would increase deterrence among tax evaders, stated the minister.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : While presenting the Union Budget for the year 2022-23, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced that skilling programmes and partnership with the industry will be reoriented to promote continuous skilling avenues, sustainability and employability.

The national skill qualification framework will be aligned with dynamic industry needs for which 750 virtual labs and 75 skilling e-labs will be set up for simulated learning.

"A Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood -- the DESH-Stack eportal -- will be launched. This portal aims to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through online training," Sitharaman said.

It will also provide API-based trusted skill credentials, payment and discovery layers to find relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.

The Minister announced that startups will be promoted to facilitate 'Drone Shakti' through varied applications and for 'Drone-as-a-Service' (DaaS) in select ITIs across all states.

Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a digital university will be established to provide access to students across the country for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at their doorstep.

This will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT formats. The digital university will be built on a networked "hub-spoke" model, with the hub building cutting-edge ICT expertise. The best public universities and institutions in the country will collaborate as a network of hub-spokes.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Kanpur, Feb 1 : Bikru widow Khushi Dubey's mother Gayatri Tiwari has refused to contest the Assembly elections from Kalyanpur in Kanpur.

The Congress has now named Neha Tiwari as its candidate.

According to sources, Neha is the younger sister of Khushi Dubey.

Khushi's mother felt that she would not be able to campaign vigorously and hence changed her mind.

"We do not wish to do anything that will weaken our fight for Khushi's release. Neha is better positioned to fight the elections and raise Khushi's issue," said a family member.
Hyderabad, Feb 1 : Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday termed the Union Budget as highly disappointing, directionless, useless and purposeless.

Reacting to the Budget presented in the Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said that the Budget is utter disappointment for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes, minorities, farmers, common man, poor, artisans and employees.

KCR, who is also president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), said the Budget lacked direction and intent. He said the speech of the Finance Minister was full of hollowness and a jugglery of words.

The central government through the Budget has heaped praises on itself while putting the common man to depression and unhappiness, the chief minister said.

Calling it a 'Golmaal Budget', the TRS leader said it did not project the facts. The measures taken by the Centre in the Budget for the welfare of the farm sector is nil. He termed the Budget a big zero for farmers and the agriculture sector of the country.

"The Budget has nothing to offer to the handloom sector. The Budget left bitterness among the employees and the small traders. It is unfortunate that the Budget did not change the income tax slabs," the Chief Minister. Stating that both the employees and trading community were anxiously looking forward for the change in the income tax slabs, he said the Centre belied all their hopes.

"The Budget has clearly shown that the Centre had neglected the public health, basic infrastructure sectors. All over the world during the corona pandemic, health and infrastructure sectors are being developed, our central government did not even think on those lines. It is unfortunate. With corona in the backdrop, no efforts were put to develop the medical and health sector in the country. It is surprising that the Centre is not bothered about public health," the CM said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to succumb to electoral pressures as the Union Budget announced on Tuesday had no mention of populism or playing to regional galleries.

Elections to five states are slated this month but a Budget perusal will leave you wondering as the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has focussed on the economy imperatives and there is no hint of populism or giveaways for even the largest state of Uttar Pradesh which is headed for the polls.

The FM's focus has been on growth and focussing on new age sectors like fin tech, start ups, crypto currency, digital rupee, drones, solar energy, leveraging technology among others.

The Budget announced startups will be promoted to facilitate 'Drone Shakti' through varied applications and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS). In select ITIs, in all states, the required courses for skilling, will be started.

For education delivery, 'one class-one TV channel' programme of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for Classes 1-12.

A Digital University will be established to provide access to students across the country for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at their doorsteps. This will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT formats. The University will be built on a networked hub-spoke model, with the hub building cutting edge ICT expertise. The best public universities and institutions in the country will collaborate as a network of hub-spokes, the Finance Minister announced.

An open platform, for the National Digital Health Ecosystem will be rolled out. It will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity, consent framework, and universal access to health facilities.

To better the access to quality mental health counselling and care services, a 'National Tele Mental Health Programme' will be launched. This will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support.

In recent years, digital banking, digital payments and fintech innovations have grown at a rapid pace in the country. Government is continuously encouraging these sectors to ensure that the benefits of digital banking reach every nook and corner of the country in a consumer-friendly manner. Taking forward this agenda, and to mark 75 years of our independence, it is proposed to set up 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) in 75 districts of the country by Scheduled Commercial Banks.

The issuance of e-Passports using embedded chip and futuristic technology will be rolled out in 2022-23 to enhance convenience for the citizens in their overseas travel.

Considering the constraint of space in urban areas for setting up charging stations at scale, a battery swapping policy will be brought out and inter-operability standards will be formulated. The private sector will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative business models for 'Battery or Energy as a Service'. This will improve efficiency in the EV eco-system.

Efficient use of land resources is a strong imperative. States will be encouraged to adopt Unique Land Parcel Identification Number to facilitate IT-based management of records. The facility for transliteration of land records across any of the Schedule VIII languages will also be rolled out.

Telecommunication in general, and 5G technology in particular, can enable growth and offer job opportunities. Required spectrum auctions will be conducted in 2022 to facilitate rollout of 5G mobile services within 2022-23 by private telecom providers, the Budget announced.

Artificial Intelligence, Geospatial Systems and Drones, Semiconductor and its eco-system, Space Economy, Genomics and Pharmaceuticals, Green Energy, and Clean Mobility Systems have immense potential to assist sustainable development at scale and modernize the country. They provide employment opportunities for youth, and make Indian industry more efficient and competitive.

Supportive policies, light-touch regulations, facilitative actions to build domestic capacities, and promotion of research & development will guide the government's approach. For R&D in these sunrise opportunities, in addition to efforts of collaboration among academia, industry and public institutions, government contribution will be provided, as another thrust area of the Budget.

To facilitate domestic manufacturing for the ambitious goal of 280 GW of installed solar capacity by 2030, an additional allocation of Rs 19,500 crore for Production Linked Incentive for manufacture of high efficiency modules, with priority to fully integrated manufacturing units from polysilicon to solar PV modules, will be made.

Venture Capital and Private Equity invested more than Rs 5.5 lakh crore last year facilitating one of the largest start-up and growth ecosystem. Scaling up this investment requires a holistic examination of regulatory and other frictions. An expert committee will be set up to examine and suggest appropriate measures, it said.

Introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will give a big boost to digital economy. Digital currency will also lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system. It is, therefore, proposed to introduce Digital Rupee, using blockchain and other technologies, to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Tuesday that the government will expand the PM e-Vidya programme of 'One Class, One TV programme' from 12 to 200 TV channels to impart supplementary teaching and build a resilient mechanism for education delivery amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Parliament, Sitharaman said, "Due to the pandemic-induced closure of schools, children, particularly in the rural areas and those from Schedule Castes (SC), Schedule Tribes (ST) and other weaker sections, have lost almost two years of formal education." She underlined that a majority of the children affected by the pandemic were from government schools and the government recognises the need "to impart supplementary teaching and to build a resilient mechanism for education delivery".

Under the PM e-Vidya programme, there will be 200 DTH channels dedicated to Classes 1 to 12, which will enable all the states to provide supplementary education in regional languages, the Finance Minister said.

"High quality e-content in all spoken languages will be developed for delivery via internet, mobile phones, TV and through radio and digital teachers. A competetive mechanism for development of quality e-content by the teachers will be set up to empower and equip them with digital tools of teaching and facilitate better learning outcomes," Sitharama said.

She added that a digital university will be established to provide access to the students.

"The aim is for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at the students' door steps. This will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT formats," she said.

"The university will be built on our networked hub and spoke model with the hub building cutting edge ICT expertise. The best public universities and institutions in our country will collaborate as a network of hub and spoke," the Finance Minister added.

The Centre launched the PM e-Vidya programme, also known as the One Nation digital platform, during the first wave of the pandemic in May 2020. Under this scheme, the top 100 universities of the country teach students virtually.
Kathmandu, Feb 1 : In the last few days, major hospitals based in Kathmandu have witnessed fewer people coming to get tested for Covid-19 leading to a decrease in new case numbers.

"Around 250 to 300 people are getting tested for coronavirus in the last few days. As many as 500 people were tested in a day just a week ago," Xinhua news agency quoted Prajwol Shrestha, deputy director at Bir Hospital, the largest in Nepal now treating Covid-19 patients only, as saying.

The Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital has also reported a fall.

"We have not seen a rush of people queuing for PCR tests at our hospital over the last one week compared with the previous week," said Sher Bahadur Pun, chief of the Clinical Research Unit at the hospital.

On Monday, Nepal reported 5,292 Covid-19 cases, a notable rise from 4,904 and 3,540 recorded on Saturday and on Sunday, but a sharp fall from 12,338 logged on January 20, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.

However, doctors warned that it is not the right time to conclude that daily infections were actually declining.

"The latest trend shows that the infections are rising in some provinces while decreasing in other provinces," said Hemanta Chandra Ojha, chief of the Zoonotic and Other Communicable Disease Control Section under the Health Ministry.

As of Tuesday, Nepal's overall Covid-19 caseload and death toll stood at 953,913 and 11,743, respectively.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, Feb 1 : To provide financial relief to MSMEs as well as the hospitality sector, the Budget FY23 envisages to extend the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) up to March 2023.

Besides, ECLGS will be extended up to March 2023 and its guarantee cover will be expanded by Rs 50,000 crore to total cover of Rs 5 lakh crore.

Notably, the additional amount is being earmarked exclusively for the hospitality and related enterprises.

In her Budget speech to Parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: "Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) has provided much-needed additional credit to more than 130 lakh MSMEs." "This has helped them mitigate the adverse impact of the pandemic. The hospitality and related services, especially those by micro and small enterprises, are yet to regain their pre-pandemic level of business." Furthermore, 'Credit Guarantee Trust' for micro and small enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme will be revamped with required infusion of funds.

"This will facilitate additional credit of Rs 2 lakh crore for Micro and Small Enterprises and expand employment opportunities," the Finance Minister said.

Further, Sitharaman announced the rolling out of 'Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance' (RAMP) programme with outlay of Rs 6,000 crore over 5 years. This will help the MSME sector become more resilient, competitive and efficient, she said.

Additionally, the Finance Minister proposed that 'Udyam, e-Shram, NCS and ASEEM' portals be interlinked. "Their scope will be widened. They will now perform as portals with live, organic databases, providing 'G2C', 'B2C' and 'B2B' services," she said.

"These services will relate to credit facilitation, skilling, and recruitment with an aim to further formalise the economy and enhance entrepreneurial opportunities for all." In addition, Sitharaman proposed rationalisation of customs duties to protect the MSME sector. Specifically, the duty on umbrellas has been proposed to be raised to 20 per cent.

The customs duty exemption given to steel scrap last year is being extended for another year to provide relief to MSME secondary steel producers.

On the other hand, exemption is also being rationalised on implements and tools for agri-sector which are manufactured in India.

Similarly, certain anti-dumping and CVD on stainless steel and coated steel flat products, bars of alloy steel and high-speed steel are being revoked in larger public interest considering prevailing high prices of metals

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk still not entertaining a bevy of Indian ministers to manufacture its electric cars in the country, the government on Tuesday said it will soon bring an EV battery swapping policy and interoperability standards will be formulated for EV automakers -- a move that has been hailed by the industry players.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the private sector will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative business models for 'Battery or Energy as a Service'.

"This will improve efficiency in the EV ecosystem. The government will also promote a shift to use of public transport in urban areas complemented by clean tech and governance solutions, special mobility zones with zero fossil-fuel policy, and EV vehicles," she elaborated during her Union Budget 2022-23 speech.

Electric vehicle battery swapping is a place at which an electric vehicle's discharged battery or battery pack can be immediately swapped for a fully charged one, eliminating the delay involved in waiting for a vehicle's battery to charge.

Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO and Co-Founder, Bounce, told IANS that the government and policymakers have recognised battery swapping as the most effective solution to accelerate EV adoption in India.

"It addresses range anxiety and hesitancy in adoption as well as considering the pragmatic aspects of setting up charging infrastructure -- for instance, space constraints in urban areas for dedicated charging stations. We believe this move can enable affordable and clean mobility at scale," Hallekere said.

The policy will be critical in enabling a well-established EV infrastructure across the country while instilling customer confidence in riding EVs on Indian roads.

"More importantly, this will boost EV adoption in the last-mile delivery space, where time constraints make instant battery swapping more viable than charging the existing battery," said Jeetender Sharma, MD and Founder of Okinawa Autotech.

Pune-based startup BatteryPool, founded by Ashwin Shankar, is solving challenges around battery swapping.

"We believe battery swapping is the right approach for charging electric two and three wheelers, especially in urban areas. Now, what would be interesting to see are the interoperability standards that have been laid out by the Government and how the industry conforms to these standards," he said.

The global electric vehicle battery swapping market was valued at $100.1 million in 2020, and is projected to reach $852.6 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 24.4 per cent, according to Allied Market Research.
Mumbai, Feb 1 : Vivek Oberoi, who is completing his 20 years of journey as an actor in the film industry, says he has seen an equal amount of success and failure as a star and perhaps that is why his relationship with success has evolved with time.

Making his debut in 2002 with the film 'Company', Vivek became a household name. Since then, he tasted success with films such as 'Saathiya', 'Yuva', 'Shootout at Lokhandwala', 'Rakta Charitra' .

He also went through a rough patch in his acting career in between before making his comeback with the web series 'Inside Edge' in 2017.

In conversation with IANS, Vivek opens up on how he has learnt several things from the failure along with success.

Vivek said: " I think my relationship with success has evolved with time because I have seen an equal amount of success and failure. Success for me is like a woman, initially you chase her and she becomes your girlfriend.

"You flirt with her and at times take her for granted and if you lose her you start missing the joy of success. Then you start working hard to achieve it again and then when the girlfriend becomes the mother of your child, you just develop a different level of bonding all over again.

"So yes, with time, with highs and lows the equation changes." Known for delivering some of the finest performances in films like 'Kurbaan', 'Krrish 3', 'Vivegam', 'Lucifer' -Vivek also emphasised the contribution of failure that also has shaped his mind.

"With time, I just realised that one should never be afraid of failure because what failure teaches you, success cannot. Failure taught me how to set expectations and what I might just lose when I fail. It also taught me to value things more, so yes, success and failure, both are equally important," he shared.

The actor is currently shooting for the series 'Dharavi Bank' and also working on two more films, has advice for all the new talents who are dreaming to make it big in Bollywood. "I would like to tell everyone that do not feel vulnerable when you fail and do not let success go to your head. You see, after all the tough times I had, I am still here after 20 years, thriving and doing multiple projects; because bad time passes." "But yes, do not take success too seriously. You see, when you fail, there will be 20 people to give you free advice, and when you are successful, there will be 200 people around you. Just do not lose your focus on what you want to become, do not get distracted by the noise, then as an artist, you will find your voice," Vivek said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
February 01 : Deepika Padukone poked fun at Ananya Panday for saying that she works on her phone. During an interview to promote their upcoming film Gehraiyaan, when the team was asked who among them uses the phone in between shots, both Deepika and director Shakun Batra was quick to point their fingers at Ananya.

When Ananya said, I work on my phone," Deepika laughed and said, Prime minister hai, duniya chalati hai (She is the prime minister, she runs the world)." Shakun also joked at her and said, Pura Insta inhi pe chal raha hai (The entire Instagram is working due to her)."

Gehraiyaan actors Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, and Dhairya Karwa along with director Shakun Batra are currently busy promoting their film, which will release on Amazon Prime Video on February 11.

While speaking to HT, the Gehraiyaan team pulled each others leg and poked jokes in a fun segment. When they were asked to name the actor who will start laughing and ruin an extremely intense scene, Deepika again pointed at Ananya. When she responded, "Huh! Me. When?" Deepika said, "Ananya is the most likely to laugh."

Gehraiyaan has been much talked about for its intimate scenes, and has been the first Bollywood film to have an intimacy director on set. India-based Ukrainian filmmaker Dar Gai has directed the intimacy scenes in Gehraiyaan. Dar Gai also conducted workshops for the four lead characters to make them ready for the scenes. The intimacy scenes between Deepika and Siddhant have been much talked about for their sparkling chemistry.

Explaining the purpose of the intimate scenes, Deepika said in an interview that such scenes in the film are not to titillate or to excite the audience. The film is about contemporary relationships and infidelity. However, the producer of the film, Karan Johar said that though the movie looks like one about infidelity, it is actually much more than that. It is about love, lust, and choices. The film is about Deepikas character Alisha and Siddhants character Zain who cheat on their respective partners.

Talking about the intimate scenes, Deepika told Etimes, "I won't attribute it to age and even to gender...I would attribute it from person to person. And I would 100 percent say that, if a film like Gehraiyaan wasn't in the hands of a director like Shakun, either I would do the film and nor be able to submit to it, in the way I have.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : In an apparent road rage incident, three persons were shot at and injured by armed assailants near Red Fort area in North Delhi, police said on Tuesday.

According to a senior police official, three persons suffered gun shot injuries in the incident on Monday evening, while the assailants fled the spot.

"Abid, Aman and Difaraz suffered bullet injuries. They were rushed to a nearby government hospital where their condition is stated to be critical," he said.

The incident took place when one Mohammed Shahid, an automobile spare parts dealer, was returning from dinner with his wife on a motor-cycle. When the couple reached Angoori Bagh area, their two-wheeler met with a small collision with another bike.

Shahid's bike got damaged and he demanded compensation from the bikers which led to an argument.

The bikers were soon joined by another person, who reached with few more people.

Though the locals tried to intervene, but the men took out a gun and opened fire at the public.

While four shots were fired at the public, one was shot in the air. The bullets hit the three persons, including Shahid's brother.

A case of attempt to murder has been lodged along with sections of arms act.

The police said that the assailants have been identified through CCTV footage but are still on the run.

A manhunt has been launched to nab them.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : In further respite for startups amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the government on Tuesday announced to extend the period to avail tax incentives by one more year.

To incentivise startups, the government had last year extended the eligibility for claiming tax holidays for startups by a year to March 31, 2022. It had also extended the capital gains exemption for investment in startups by a year to March 31, 2022 to boost funding.

In her Union Budget 2022-23 speech delivered in the Parliament on Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that startups have emerged as drivers of growth in the economy.

"Eligible startups established before 31.3.2022 had been provided a tax incentive for three consecutive years out of 10 years from incorporation. In view of the Covid pandemic, I propose to extend the period of incorporation of the eligible startup by one more year, i.e., up to 31.03.2023 for providing such tax incentive," she informed.

India now has more than 61,400 startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). At least 14,000 recognised startups have been added in 2021-22 fiscal, according to the Economic Survey 2021-22.

India presently has 83 unicorns, most of which are in the services sector, with 44 startups achieving the unicorn status (values more than $1 billion) last year.

"This Budget is a welcome move for startups and manufacturing companies which have been given additional time periods to fulfil their dreams and avail tax holiday and concessional tax benefits," said Ashu Kansal, CFO of robotic automation startup, Addverb Technologies.

"Capping of long-term capital gains (LTCG) surcharge to 15 per cent is again a windfall gain to the private sector employees and co-founders who had to earlier shell out extra surcharge to the extent of 37 per cent," he told IANS.

According to startup founders, meeting working capital requirements during the initial years of operation is often tough for startups.

"Hence, tax exemption for startups being extended by one more year is a welcome move, and it is likely to further encourage innovations and growth that the startup ecosystem is delivering," said Ravish Naresh, CEO and Co-founder, Khatabook.

Anubhav Jain, CEO and Co-founder of Rupifi, said that the Budget has put a conscious focus on neutralising pandemic effects by proposing a slew of measures for startups.

"The move to extend the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to MSMEs to cope up with pandemic losses is a welcome step and will have a positive impact in assisting the industry in overcoming its struggles," said Jain.

"Additionally, extending the sunset date for eligibility for tax holiday by one more year will provide required thrust to the startup ecosystem," he added.
New York, Feb 1 : While Covid-19 disease significantly impacts many pregnant women, the rates of transmission from mother to baby in pregnancy are very low.

A new study from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) has demonstrated that ACE-2, the receptor that allows SARS-CoV-2 to enter cells, is found in lower levels in the placentas of women with Covid-19 in pregnancy compared to women with normal (Covid negative) pregnancies.

The findings appear online in the American Journal of Pathology.

"We think that when a woman has Covid-19 in pregnancy, the placenta is shedding off ACE-2 as a way to block SARS-CoV-2 from being passed to the fetus," said Elizabeth S. Taglauer, Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at BUSM.

In the study, the team involved collecting placentas from two groups of women who delivered at BMC from July 2020-April 2021.

The first group was women who had normal pregnancies and no report of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The second group of women were SARS-CoV-2 positive and had active Covid-19 disease during pregnancy.

The researchers, then, observed the ACE-2 expression in their placentas under the microscope and compared placental ACE-2 expression using genetic and protein analysis techniques.

According to the researchers, the placenta has many similarities with the lung, so this study also highlights the importance of studying it to help understand a variety of lung diseases and highlights the important role of controlling ACE-2 as a way to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections.

"The placenta is one of the few 'success stories' of the pandemic. If we understand how the placenta is naturally protecting babies from Covid-19, this may provide important information for therapies and strategies to help prevent other SARS-CoV-2 infections from continuing to spread," added Taglauer.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, Feb 1: Pakistan has warned the Taliban government in Afghanistan that it will strike inside Afghanistan unless its affiliate, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), stops cross-border attacks. This was conveyed to the top leadership of the Taliban by Moeed Yusuf, the National Security Advisor of the Imran Khan government during his visit to Kabul on Sunday. Yusuf accused the Taliban of sheltering all TTP top militants who are on Pakistan's most wanted list.

New Delhi, Feb 1: Pakistan has warned the Taliban government in Afghanistan that it will strike inside Afghanistan unless its affiliate, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), stops cross-border attacks. This was conveyed to the top leadership of the Taliban by Moeed Yusuf, the National Security Advisor of the Imran Khan government during his visit to Kabul on Sunday. Yusuf accused the Taliban of sheltering all TTP top militants who are on Pakistan's most wanted list.

According to Pakistan and Afghanistan watchers, Yusuf also conveyed to the Pashtun militant group that the TTP leaders have allowed the Baloch militants to make their hideouts near Kandahar and Helmand provinces in Afghanistan.

"Since the Pakistani forces have stepped up their offensives against the Baloch and TTP militants, they have taken refuge across the Durand Line in Afghanistan. When the Taliban returned to power in August last year, Pakistan handed over a list of wanted people not just from the TTP but also the Baloch militants," says one Pakistani watcher quoting official sources.

In response, the Taliban told Yusuf that they have eliminated all hideouts of militants but they refused to hand over any TTP leader to Pakistan. They once again retreated that Afghan soil would not be allowed to be used again by anyone against the neighbouring countries including Pakistan.

"They (Taliban) are ready to facilitate and mediate but are not going to take action against the TTP," Express Tribune quoted one Pakistani official as saying.

During his two-day visit, the Pakistani NSA met a few top Taliban ministers including Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and the Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi.

The Pakistani Foreign office said that the visit had yielded significant progress in terms of economic cooperation and social sector support, but did not comment either on the Durand line dispute or the TTP.

According to Afghan sources, the Taliban rejected the fencing on the Durand Line as it does not acknowledge it as an international demarcation. But it agreed with Pakistan's proposal to create a National Level Coordination Mechanism to strengthen facilitation at Border Crossing Points.

But the issue of TTP and other such groups remains a point of concern.

"The important issue for Pakistan is that the attacks by the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have surged, when they (Pakistani Taliban) denied the ceasefire extension, and now the attacks have increased. Pakistan says it expects the Afghan government to prevent the TTP but the Afghan government denies any threat from Afghan soil toward Pakistan," said Tahir Khan, a Pakistani journalist.

According to a Pakistani expert, the Taliban regime has adopted the same strategy on the TTP as Pakistan employed over the years with the Americans on the Afghan Taliban.

Yusuf was the third senior Pakistan official visiting Afghanistan since the Taliban captured power. According to Afghan experts, there was a total disconnect between the US educated Pakistani National Security Advisor and the Taliban leaders. A week ago, the Pak NSA had to postpone his visit due to the hostile protests in Kabul against Pakistan. This time, he reached Kabul unannounced. Taliban representatives, knowing the sentiments in Afghanistan, called the visit useless in TV talk shows, accusing Pakistan of sending IS fighters to Afghanistan. They also accused Pakistan of interfering in Afghanistan's internal matters (The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, Feb 1: North Korean media reported on Monday that Pyongyang fired a Hwasong-12 ballistic missile on Sunday, its longest-range ballistic missile since 2017, increasing apprehensions among neighbours Japan and South Korea.

The State-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed the testing of the missile, which was targeted 800 kms away at the Sea of Japan.

KCNA said that Sunday's firing was "conducted by the highest-angle launch system from the northwestern part of the country toward the waters" of the Sea of Japan "in consideration of the security of neighboring countries".

The Hwasong-12 missile is "being deployed," the report added, saying North Korea has "confirmed the accuracy, security and effectiveness of the operation" of the weapon system under production.

CNA also shared images of the earth from space clicked by a camera installed on the missile's warhead.

Both Japan and South Korea have condemned the launches. Seoul said the missile reached a maximum altitude of 2,000 km before coming down in the Sea of Japan. This was the seventh round of tests by North Korea this month, reports the Kyodo news agency.

The Japanese Defence Ministry estimates that the Hwasong-12 has a range of around 5,000 km, which would bring the entire Japanese archipelago and the US territory of Guam within its reach.

Criticising the series of missile launches, Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said: "It is clear that the aim is to unilaterally escalate the stage of provocation against the international community." North Korea's continued tests of missiles violate the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

Experts believe that through repeated test firings, Pyongyang seems to be signalling for talks with the US. It has made efforts to speak with South Korea about "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula.

Former US president Donald Trump in his Singapore summit with Kim in June 2018 had promised to provide security guarantees to Pyongyang in return for "complete" denuclearization. North Korea has withheld nuclear and ICBM tests since then but the two countries have not made progress over denuclearization and sanctions relief over the past few years.

The Biden administration has indicated that it is willing to resume the stalled talks but levied additional sanctions after Pyongyang began testing a diversity of missiles last year. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also began modernising the country's armed forces.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Chennai, Feb 1 : The investigation into the missing Punnai Mara Nathar (holy peacock) idol from Kapaleeswar Temple, Chennai have been intensified with the Tamil Nadu police, including the idol theft squad and the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department also launching a probe into it.

On Monday, the Madras High Court ordered the state police and the HR&CE department to conduct a detailed probe and submit a statement on the same within six weeks.

The order was passed by the First bench of the Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice Muniswar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Adikesavalu on a Public Interest Litigation filed in 2018. Rangarajan Narasimham of Srirangam in the PIL has petitioned the court that the more than two centuries-old peacock idol was stolen from the Kapaleeswar temple since 2004 and was replaced with a fake idol which is being worshipped now.

Following the court order, the Tamil Nadu idol theft squad has constituted a special team and commenced the investigation on the missing idol. The HR&CE fact-finding team is also conducting a simultaneous probe on the same.

The Idol Wing of the CB-CID will be submitting the report in the court within six weeks. There were reports that the idol would have been stolen before 2004 and the former HR&CE commissioner, Phaneendra K. Reddy has said that the change of idol must have occurred during March 2003.

With several idols stolen from major temples of temples being traced to the United States and in some cases to certain European countries, the order of the Madras High Court is significant.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : On the backdrop of the almost year-long agitation against the three contentious farm laws that were repealed, and the continued demand for increasing MSP for all farmers, the Centre on Tuesday announced a provision of Rs 2.37 crore for direct payment for MSP value in the Union Budget 2022-23.

"The procurement of wheat in Rabi 2021-22 and the estimated procurement of paddy in Kharif 2021-22 will cover 1,208 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of wheat and paddy from 163 lakh farmers. A whopping Rs 2.37 lakh crore will be credited as direct payment of minimum support price (MSP) value to their accounts," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Budget speech.

The provision for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has been decreased to Rs 15,500.00 crore in Budget 2022-23 from Rs 15,989.39 crore in the Revised Estimate of 2021-22. The provision for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) is Rs 68,000.00 crore, slightly up from Rs 67,500 crore in the Revised Estimate of 2021-22.

The year 2023 has been announced as the International Year of Millets, for which the Finance Minister said, "Support will be provided for post-harvest value addition, enhancing domestic consumption, and for branding millet products nationally and internationally." Another highlight of the Budget provisions under agriculture is the use of 'Kisan Drones' that will be promoted for crop assessment, digitisation of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients etc.

Further introducing and promoting digitisation in the agri sector, a scheme in public private partnership (PPP) mode will be launched for delivery of digital and hi-tech services to farmers with the involvement of public sector research and extension institutions along with private agri-tech players and stakeholders of the agri-value chain, she said.

The Finance Minister also announced the creation of a fund with blended capital, raised under the co-investment model that will be facilitated through NABARD.

"This is to finance startups for agriculture and rural enterprise, relevant for farm produce value chain. The activities for these startups will include, inter alia, support for Farmer Producers Organisations (FPOs), machinery for farmers on rental basis at farm level, and technology including IT-based support.

Welcoming the development, K.C. Ravi, Chief Sustainability Officer, Syngenta India Pvt Limited, a leading agriculture company, said, "The emphasis on digital infrastructure for infusion of agriculture technologies in a PPP mode will be the need of the hour in the next 25 years to combat the serious threat of climate change. The use of Kisan Drones too is another significant announcement, which will be a game-changer for the agriculture sector." "For farmers to adopt suitable varieties of fruits and vegetables, and to use appropriate production and harvesting techniques, our government will provide a comprehensive package with participation of state governments," the FM added.
Amaravati, Feb 1 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that it will pursue the matter relating to setting up its office in Andhra Pradesh only after the state government finalises the location for state capital.

The RBI conveyed this in response to the request for establishing an office in Andhra Pradesh following division of the combined RBI office in Hyderabad in the wake of bifurcation of undivided Andhra Pradesh to create Telangana state.

RBI Deputy General Manager M.K. Subhashree wrote to Amaravati Development Authority Chairman Jasti Veeranjaneyulu that the matter related to opening of RBI office at the newly formed Andhra Pradesh state can be pursued only after the state government finalises the location for its capital city.

The RBI official conveyed this in response to a letter by ADA Chairman seeking immediate steps to set up the RBI office.

Referring to ADA Chairman's grievance about currency chests for storage of cash, the RBI official informed that there are 104 currency chests in the state. The deputy general manager wrote that there has not been any complaint regarding shortage of bank notes in Andhra Pradesh during meetings of state level coordination committee and state level security committee held every half year.

Uncertainty over Andhra Pradesh capital is continuing ever since the YSR Congress government decided to have three state capitals, reversing the decision by previous TDP government to develop Amaravati as the state capital.

The YSRCP government plans to develop Visakhapatnam as administrative capital, Kurnool as judicial capital and Amaravati as legislative capital. However, farmers of Amaravati who had surrendered their lands for the development of state capital are strongly opposing the move.

The Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government recently decided to take back the legislations passed to create three capitals, but announced that it would bring a comprehensive legislation.
Chennai, Feb 1 : The Southern Railway has decided to sensitise people and create awareness among commuters to not drop food leftovers and garbage on rail tracks, for the safety of elephants A study conducted by Kerala's retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, K. Harikumar, has shown that elephants and other wild animals get attracted to the railway tracks by the smell of food leftovers dropped by the passengers.

Several NGOs in Coimbatore and Podannur area had already complained to the Railways about elephants getting killed by speeding trains near Tamil Nadu's Madhukkarai.

These NGOs, which study wildlife, have found that one of the reasons for the elephants and other wild animals getting hit by speeding trains is the smell of food leftovers dumped by commuters, that attract them to the tracks. They have, therefore, recommended the Railways to create awareness among passengers on this.

K. Kalidas of Osai Environmental Organisation, which studies wildlife, told IANS: "Passengers are knowingly or unknowingly throwing away food waste and garbage on the railway tracks and it is rampant between Palakkad and Podanur where the Madukkarai area falls. Several elephants and other wild animals got killed by speeding trains and lost their lives due to this and we found that most of the wild animals are reaching the tracks at the smell of food waste." However, noting that passengers are compelled to throw their waste itmes on the rail track, as dustbins in the train compartments are often overflowing, he said that the Railways must build specific points in railway stations for waste disposal and ensure that there are proper bins in every train compartment.

Elephants are spotted in the reserve forest area in a two-km stretch of track A and a three km stretch of track B.

Railway officials said that the number of staff deployed to clear the track during the day and at night will also be increased to prevent elephants and other wild animals from reaching the track.

In November 2021, three elephants including a calf, had lost their lives after being run over by a speeding Mangalore-Chennai mail train.

An arguments had erupted between the Tamil Nadu Forest Department and the Railway officials in Palakkad over this issue and the forest officials were even gheraoed by the Railway staff.

A senior Railway official said that announcements are being made now at Palakkad railway station to educate people not to throw waste in forest area as it could attract wild animals including elephants to the track thereby endangering their lives.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : BJP chief J.P. Nadda on Tuesday said that the Union Budget focused on welfare and upliftment of the poor and weaker sections and it will empower the poor and make them self-reliant.

In a statement, Nadda said, "As India celebrates Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, it is a budget dedicated to rural and agriculture development, welfare of our workers, infrastructure development, and progress of our Himalayan and North-Eastern States." "The budget also emphasizes the commitment of the Narendra Modi government towards social justice, equality, life with dignity and equal opportunity to all. The budget will further facilitate 'ease of living', which has been the hallmark of the BJP government led by our Prime Minister Modi," he said.

Referring to budget outlay, he said that in the budget the expenditure has been pegged at Rs 39.45 lakh crore which showcases India's strength as a rapidly growing economy and the government has also done a commendable job in reducing the fiscal deficit target from 6.9 per cent to 6.4 per cent.

Nadda mentioned that the union budget comes at a time when India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, is fighting a decisive battle against the Corona pandemic. "This Budget fulfills the hopes and aspirations of all sections of the society, particularly the micro, small and medium enterprises sector, besides giving India's infrastructure development a whole new dimension. The budget is not a one-year economic agenda, our budget is a solid blueprint of the coming 25 years of economic development that will lay a strong foundation of making India world's strongest economy and a developed nation," BJP chief said.

Nadda congratulated and thanked Prime Minister Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and her entire team for giving such a progressive and growth-oriented budget which touches the lives of all sections of our society, and it addresses the needs of all sections of our economy.

Nadda lauded several announcements like Rs 1 lakh crore Gati Shakti Yojna, provision for construction of 25,000 km of new National Highways with an expenditure of Rs 20,000 crore, plans to interconnect five big rivers and others.

"This general budget will give new strength to the economic cycle of the country coming out of the Covid transition period and will help in the all-inclusive development of the country," he added.
Mumbai, Feb 1 : Actor-Producer Tusshar Kapoor, who is gearing up to release his book titled 'Bachelor Dad', on his journey of single parenthood, says that it is high time for our society to look at single fatherhood differently, away from its earlier pre-conceived notion.

He told IANS: "One of the reasons I wrote this book is, while single motherhood is celebrated and rightfully so, thinking that a single man cannot be a good father and raise a child properly is wrong." "Nurturing a child emotionally and providing every need so that they can grow up as a happy child is very universal. I am saying it from my experience and that is why I thought it will open the doors to many who are thinking of single fatherhood." The offer to write the book came from the publication house -- Penguin Random House India.

Tushaar says penning down thoughts in the form of a book is quite a different experience as opposed to bringing life to a written material through acting that he has done in movies.

He shared, "Firstly writing is time-consuming and also my journey as a father is still on, so how to share everything from the ocean of emotions was a little challenging. I sat down and was constantly going back and forth to how to put everything on paper." "When I decided to have my child, there were a series of thoughts in my mind because I have never done it before." He continued: "On one hand, I do not want to compromise on my life only for the child but I also wanted to be part of every milestone of the child...his first smile, first walk everything. So, time management and how I still can give equal attention to my child as well as to my work was a question. But I think I am managing it well now." Tusshar is the brother of celebrated TV producer Ekta Kapoor and he appeared in several Bollywood films like 'Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai', 'Kyaa Kool Hai Hum', 'Golmaal', 'The Dirty Picture', 'Shor in the City' and 'Laxmii'.

He became a single father of Laksshya Kapoor in 2016 through IVF.

"So, what is the most fulfilling part of becoming a father?" "An emotional shift happened within me when I took my newborn first time in my arms. It really is unexplainable to put it in words. And there is no room for emotional loneliness and a huge sense of feeling content happened when Laksshya happened to me." "My boy is quite naughty at times but I like that too! Children should be like that. Now I understand that work from home could be challenging when during the lockdown, I had a video call and my boy will seek my attention, randomly come and sit on my lap and he is so cute that I can't say no but work is also important." "So yes, a constant learning on how to balance life, is something single fatherhood taught me!" Tusshar signed off.

The book 'Bachelor Dad' is likely to release on February 12.
Srinagar: Security personnel at an encounter site of the Rangret area of Srinagar on Monday, December 13, 2021. Two terrorists have been killed during an encounter with security personnel. (Photo: Nisar Malik /IANS) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Feb 1 : Amid threats from the Pakistan-based terrorists, Afghan Mujahideen, insurgency in the Northeast states and the Left Wing Extremism (LWE), the Centre has enhanced Budget for the Intelligence Bureau (IB) by 13.43 per cent with allocation of Rs 3,168.36 crore.

The government has increased the Budget so that its intelligence wing is technologically equipped. This year out of the total allocation of Rs 3,168.36 crore, Rs 3039.36 have been allocated for the revenue expenditure and Rs 129 crore for capital outlay.

In the last fiscal year 2021-2022, the revised Budget of the intelligence gathering agency was Rs 2,793.02 crore. Interestingly, the last fiscal Budget estimate was Rs 2839.24 crore. In the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the bureau has been allocated Rs 2,350.56 crore.

The increase in the Budget is also related to a bigger role the government has assigned to the bureau relating to the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar also.

The government has designated IB's Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) as the nodal point for sharing intelligence inputs with Bangladesh and Myanmar. Generally, India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), deals with intelligence affairs in the foreign nations.

The MAC was created in December 2001 in the aftermath of the Kargil conflict as a platform to share, collate and analyse all intelligence relating to terrorism.

It was strengthened in December 2008 following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The forum, along with its Subsidiary MAC (SMAC) units in all the states, has emerged as the nationally recognised coordinating agency for intelligence on terrorism and insurgency.

A dedicated, secure electronic network for real-time information sharing has been extended across the country.

On an average, every day the MAC gathers, collates, stores, shares and disseminates about 150 inputs to the concerned agencies. Special alerts are also issued as and when called for.

The inputs are broadly divided under four heads -- Jammu and Kashmir, Northeast, Left Wing Extremism (LWE) and the rest of India. The LWE-related inputs form the largest proportion of the total inputs received by the MAC currently, reflecting the spread of the problem across several states.

Various meetings are held regularly across the country to bring together all the concerned agencies. A meeting of the nodal officers from each member agency of the MAC is held every day at the MAC headquarters to review the inputs.

The MAC also conducts some specialised meetings, monthly meeting on cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and monthly meeting on insurgent camps, FICN and other anti-India activities in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The fortnightly meeting on LWE was introduced in 2012 and the monthly meeting on the Sikh militancy in Punjab started in 2015. And with cases of resurgence of the Khalistani militants since 2020, the bureau has increased such interactions.

With increase in such cases, the government has taken various steps to strengthen the bureau, which is currently headed by 1984 batch officer Arvind Kumar.
Mumbai, Feb 1 : Actress Richa Chadha, who is gearing up for the release of her upcoming web show 'The Great Indian Murder', has lauded its Producer Ajay Devgn for his foresight on the booming culture of OTT and bringing together the show.

Talking about the same, Richa Chadha, who plays the role of an investigating officer named Sudha Bhardwaj in the show, said, "Audiences can engage in OTT content from anywhere, the internet is a global village. I feel, Ajay Devgn sir has the foresight and understood the advantages the platform brings in." She commented, "Would like to thank Ajay Devgn, for setting up and supporting our show -- 'The Great Indian Murder'. There is an added advantage for the show because of his name attached to it. Some of the great actors have been cast in the show like Raghubir sir, and so many more. He is supporting all of us and the content." The 'Great Indian Murder' helmed by Tigmanshu Dhulia is a screen adaptation of Vikas Swarup's second novel 'Six Suspects'. It revolves around murder of the son of a high-profile minister and promises an intriguing mystery with a talented cast that includes Pratik Gandhi and Richa in the lead, along with Raghubir Yadav, Ashutosh Rana, Paoli Dam, Jatin Goswami and Shashank Arora.

'The Great Indian Murder' will be available to stream exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar from February 4 in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali.
Kochi: Actor Dileep being taken to be produced before Judicial First Class Magistrate Court Angamaly in connection with the abduction and molestation of a popular actress in Kochi on July 14, 2017. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Kochi, Feb 1 : The Kerala High Court on Tuesday deferred to Thursday, actor Dileep's anticipatory bail plea hearing in a case relating to conspiracy to do away with the investigating officers in the actress abduction case.

It also directed that the six mobile phones used by the actor and his close aides, which was given to the registry of the court on Monday, to be handed over to the local magistrate court at Aluva where the FIR is registered.

He is alleged to have conspired to do away with the investigating officers in the actress abduction case.

While the prosecution sought the custody of the phones, it was strongly opposed by the counsel of the actor and the court decided to hand it over to the lower court.

Alleging that the actor was not cooperating with the probe, the prosecution sought his custody as well as his aides.

Last week, the prosecution had argued that there were seven mobile phones -- four of Dileep, two of his brother Anoop, and one used by his brother-in-law.

After Dileep denied having a fourth phone, the court asked him to submit six mobiles.

The prosecution pointed out that around 12,000 calls had been made from the mobile phone which was still not handed over, adding that it was in use till a few months back and yet the actor stated that he does not remember about using such a phone.

The probe team had, last week, moved a fresh application, claiming that the actor had conspired to do away with the officials probing the case and this came after the actor, his brother Anoop, brother-in-law Sooraj, aide Appu alias Krishnadas, and close friend Byju Chengamanad were interrogated for 33 hours over three days.

A frontline south Indian heroine had complained that she had been abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of goons in 2017 and certain scenes were filmed to blackmail her. After the main accused Sunil was arrested and questioned, Dileep was accused of being the main conspirator in the case and arrested.

According to the prosecution, Dileep, who is presently out on bail after spending two months in jail, had also seen the visuals of the attack on the actress.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Shares of companies in the renewable space have performed substantially well on Budget Day on Tuesday, as the Centre reiterated its ambition to shift towards green energy.

The Centre intends to achieve transition from fossil-fuel based economy to green energy source to fight climate change during the 'Amrit Kaal' -- when India reaches its 100th year of Independence.

An additional allocation of Rs 19,500 crore for production linked incentive (PLI) schemes for manufacturing of high efficiency modules, with priority to fully integrated manufacturing units from polysilicon to solar PV modules, was announced in the Budget in order to facilitate domestic manufacturing of 280 Giga Watt of installed solar capacity by 2030.

Shares of Adani Green Energy, Tata Power, Suzlon Energy, Websol Energy Systems, and Borosil Renewables witnessed sizable gains on Budget Day.

Besides, companies such as Surana Solar and Gita Renewable Energy hit the 5 per cent upper circuit. Synergy Green Industries also rose nearly 4 per cent.

The renewable sector opens up huge employment opportunities and will take the country on a sustainable development path, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.

"This Budget proposes several near-term and long-term actions," she added.

The sector would rely on private investment with public capital investment helping to crowd-in private investment.
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 1 : In a first of its kind protest, the staff of the prestigious Sainik School in Kerala's Kazhakootam on Tuesday held a protest before the main gate of the school against the state government's denial of salary, pension, and retirement benefits to them.

The crux of the issue is while the Kerala government meets most of the school's expenditure, with practically no financial participation from the Centre, the Centre runs the school.

And as a result, the school is being sustained by utilising its reserve funds and temporary aids on adhoc basis.

The salary for December to the staff was paid in two instalments, which has irked the employees of this premier education institution and the salary for January is yet to be credited.

Set up in 1962 by the then Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon, the school has churned out over 800 officers for the defence forces and numerous others who have excelled in various spheres of life, but the school of late is facing issues of liquidity.

Incidentally the biggest lacunae of the functioning of the school is the pension and salaries of the staff is met from the fees of the school students and despite numerous representations from the school, and its alumni, demanding infusing of funds from the Centre, the only thing that has happened is proposal from the Centre to the first Pinarayi Vijayan Kerala government, seeking it take over the burden of pensions and retirement benefits of the employees.

But nothing has happened even after the then Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac and Vijayan agreed to the proposal almost a year ago and the agreement is yet to be signed.

"We have done no wrong, but we are the ones who have been suffering and despite numerous representations, we continue to suffer as our only income is the salary which we get," said a protesting staff member.

Meanwhile according to a source in the know of things, the strike of the staff has come to the notice of the people who matter in the Sainik School Society, which runs the Sainik Schools across the country, and a sum of Rs 2.77 crore is being released and the Principal has been so intimated.
Bhopal, Feb 1 : Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday expressed his gratitude to the Central government after Rs 1,400 crore was allocated for Ken-Betwa river linking project.

The project in the drought-prone region of Bundelkhand, spread across 13 districts of two states -- Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, is expected to benefit nearly 10 lakh hectare of agricultural lands.

"Expressing my gratitude towards the Central government for generous allocation. This will speed up the project and bring prosperity and growth for lakhs of people in Bundelkhand region," Chouhan said.

"Implementation of Ken-Betwa linking project at estimated cost of Rs 44,605 crore to be taken up with irrigation benefits to 9 lakh hectare farmland. A budget of Rs 1,400 crore has been allocated in the financial year 2022-23," the Union Finance Minister said during her Budget speech in the Parliament on Tuesday.

Besides water for irrigation, the project is expected to provide drinking water supply to more than 60 lakh population living in 13 districts of the two border-sharing states -- Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

It will also provide water for generating 103 MW of hydropower and 27 MW solar power, a Sitharaman said.

The Union Cabinet had on December 8, 2021 approved the project and had estimated that the project will be completed in the next eight years.

The Ken-Betwa river linking project will provide benefit to the water starved districts -- Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Raisen in Madhya Pradesh. While, districts such as Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh.

It is the first project under the Central government's National Perspective Plan for inter-linking of rivers.

The ambitious project envisages transferring of water from Ken river to Betwa river, both tributaries of the river Yamuna.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The tourism sector has got a boost in the Union Budget with 18.42 percent more allocation than the previous year; the ministry has got Rs 2400 crore. The major component of the Budget will go to the Swadesh Darshan Scheme.

Speaking about the budget, Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said, "I am grateful to PM Sri Narendra Modi ji & FM Nirmala Sitharaman garu for an 'Atmanirbhar Bharat ka Budget'. As India celebrates 75 years of independence with Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, we are entering Amrit Kaal and this budget presents a blueprint for India at 100. Vikas (Development) and Virasat (Heritage) go hand-in-hand and this is evident from the fact that this year's budgetary allocations for Tourism and Culture Ministries have been significantly higher." Out of the proposed budget allocation of Rs 2400 crore, the major portion of the outlay amounting to Rs 1644 crore is earmarked for development of infrastructure for tourism development and Rs 421.50 crore is meant for promotion and publicity activities.

Out of the Budget allocation provided for major tourism infrastructure schemes, an outlay of Rs 1181.30 crore is earmarked for the "Swadesh Darshan Scheme", the flagship scheme of the Ministry and another Rs 235 crore is kept for the PRASHAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual and Heritage Augmentation Drive) Scheme. An allocation of Rs 130 crore is set apart for Development of Iconic Sites.

The remaining allocation would be used for funding other schemes like Capacity Building for Service Providers, Champion Service Sector Scheme, Information Technology, etc. and also to meet the establishment expenditure of the Ministry and its subordinate office, the India Tourism Offices in the country and abroad.

This allocation is 18.42% higher than the Budget allocation for the year 2021-22. The allocation of funds for the Tourism Sector in the Budget of 2013-14 was only Rs 1357.30 crores. The current year's allocation is 76.82% more than the allocation of 2013-14.

Reddy added, "In the Tourism Ministry, budgetary allocation for 2022-2023 stands at Rs 2400 crore and is 18.42% higher than the Budget allocation for the year 2021-22 and 76.82% more than the allocation of 2013-14." The Ministry has earmarked Rs 227 crore for the North-Eastern States for the year 2022-23. Another Rs 98 crore is earmarked under the Tribal Sub Plan for creation of tourism infrastructure in the tribal areas. A new scheme named Loan Guarantee Scheme for COVID affected Tourism Service Sector (LGSCATSS) has been started during the current financial year. A guarantee free loan upto Rs 10 lakh each for the Ministry of Tourism approved travel and tourism stakeholders, tour operators, Travel Agents, Tourist Transport Operators, and up to Rs 1 lakh each to RLGs/IITGs approved by MoT, Tourist Guides approved by State Govts/UTs administration is covered under the scheme.

The scheme is to be executed through NCGTC. Around ten Scheduled Commercial Banks have launched the scheme and Cheques/ sanction letters have been distributed to some of the beneficiaries of LGSCATSS An allocation of Rs. 12.50 crore is provided under the Ministry's Budget for 2022-23 for this purpose. The total allocation proposed under the Scheme for five years is Rs. 62.5 crores.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : As the government aimed to help Indian startups continue their glory run with tax incentives, several startups said that certain issues like allowing them to directly list abroad and ESOP taxation to benefit employees should have been addressed in the Union Budget 2022-23, which was presented in the Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.

According to them, the Budget augurs well for the angel investor community and founders who seek liquidity in the long term.

Capping the surcharge applicable on top of Long Term Capital Gain (LTCG) typically seen during startup liquidity events to 15 per cent should help founders and angel investors save 4 per cent on overall return, said Ankit Prasad, Founder and CEO, Bobble.AI.

"Though I must say that the LTCG is still very high for Indian resident founders, which has been a major reason for successful Indian founders to become non-residents (typically moving to Singapore or the UK) after reaching certain valuation levels," he said.

The startups and foreign investors have been requesting the government to allow them to directly list abroad.

Last year, top startups and venture capital firms had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow direct overseas listing for Indian companies.

The government is still examining the request to allow direct overseas listing for Indian startups.

The current rules allow an Indian firm to list abroad only after it has been listed in the country via depository receipts.

To further bolster the startup and fintech ecosystem, the government has also announced to establish thematic funds to promote and encourage the sunrise sectors in the country.

"The introduction of thematic funds, where the share of the government would be limited to 20 per cent, the government has established a constant flow of capital for the sector, enabling it to innovate and grow, while at the same time generating wealth for the investors," said Harshil Mathur, CEO and Co-founder, Razorpay.
Bengaluru, Feb 1 : The Karnataka Congress slammed the Union budget presented on Tuesday and dubbed it as a zero budget. State Congress President D.K. Shivakumar charged that "There isn't even any mention about the state in the union budget. Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman should have had the gratitude towards MLAs of the state who elected her as MP." Shivakumar stated sarcastically, "I congratulate 25 MPs of our state and also our CM. The union government has rained sops and funds on Karnataka. The state has a big zero in all sectors. There is no reference to the state in the central budget," he said.

"Nirmala Sitharaman got elected by MLAs of the state. I thought she would have some gratitude. This is not a central budget, it is a Covid budget. Like how we are all suffering Covid, the budget is also suffering to address issues," he chided.

"They are going to legalize crypto currency through taxing. I don't know how they are going to do it. The BJP has promised generation of 2 crore jobs. They have decreased it to 60 lakh. The government has agreed that they are ready to cheat 1.40 crore youths," Shivakumar said.

"Not a single relief is being given to Corona hit people, businessmen, farmers who incurred losses. There is no relief for the salaried class, no relief for the self-employed, no relief for employees, employers. I have been in politics for 40 years, I have not seen such a disappointing budget," he said. The budget favours the corporate lobby. The common man is the loser, he added.

"After all it is a profit oriented government, issuing loans is not called support. The central government has announced the digital university. The state has an IT-BT industry. The land could also be promised to let CM Bommai bring this project to the state," he said.
Budgam : , Feb 1 (IANS/ 101Reporters) Up until a few decades ago, the small canal (locally known as 'Gaam-i-kul') passing through Budgam district's Lasipora village was not just another feature in Kashmir's exhilarating landscape. It was also a life-sustaining resource for the villagers. Residents, especially women, would often be sighted on its banks drawing the crystal clear waters carried down from the Karshan stream. However, this beautiful Gaam-i-Kul (Gaam means 'village' and Kul translates to 'water canal') has lost its charm over the years due to human activity.

"Single-use plastic bags, polystyrenes, and other non-biodegradable material have found their way into the stream. Besides that, untreated solid and liquid waste is directly being discharged into this canal," Rifat Qadri, a 25-year-old student from the village told 101Reporters.

In Kashmir, there are 2,827 canals most of which are suffering a similar fate.

"There is at least one Gaam-i-Kul in every village in Kashmir, serving as an irrigation canal and as a source of water for its residents for centuries," said Ghulam Rasool Sheikh, a school teacher from Budgam's Chakpora village.

"With the advent of modern living, households are now dumping into the kuls their solid and untreated liquid waste without any hesitation, and there is a criminal silence in the civil society and government about this brazen violation of moral and legal laws. We have polluted them so much that they are no longer even fit for agriculture," Sheikh told 101Reporters. He believes that Gaam-i-Kuls, once a source of livelihood, have now deteriorated to the point that they are affecting the village's sanitation.

Once a source of life, now a breeding ground of illness Sheikh's claims are proven right in every village we visited to report this story. For instance, in Ramhuma village in the same district, the people who reside near the stream dump their waste on the banks every day. Mohammad Yousuf, a local, told 101Reporters, "We don't have a waste processing site. It is the responsibility of authorities to identify a proper site so people can dispose of the waste properly." Failing this, the canal has become a place where all kinds of communicable diseases originate, he said.

Similarly, the Gaam-i-Kul at the heart of the Chewdara village in Budgam, originating from the famed Sukhnag stream, has turned into a garbage dumping yard. Sarpanch Hilal Mir said that while he has planned to dredge it under MGNREGA it will not be a long-term solution as long as people continue to discharge waste into it. It needs community and administration intervention to safeguard it from further pollution. He added that the government, in collaboration with the panchayat body, should prepare a sustainable long-term plan for waste management for rural residents including providing alternatives for and incentives against dumping into the water bodies.

Around two kilometres away in Ohangam village, a resident, Muntazir Dar, told 101Reporters that their canal "has now become a breeding ground for illnesses. The foul smell emanating from it indicates how serious a health hazard it is to nearby villagers." "Labartal kul of Sholipora village, that draws its water from Ahij stream, harbours all the plastic waste generated from the village market. The everyday waste that accumulates in its banks gradually flows into it," Khursheed Ahmad, another resident, told 101Reporters.

Awaiting implementation Under the Swachh Bharat Mission - Gramin (SBM-G), rolled out by the ruling government in 2014, each state must identify suitable technologies or methods to manage the liquid and solid waste generated from villages. For this purpose, Rs 7,00,000 are allocated for Gram Panchayats having 150 households and Rs 20,00,000 for Panchayats having more than 500 households.

The majority of the population in Jammu and Kashmir lives in rural areas. Yet, only Rs 4 crores have been allocated by the administration towards waste management in rural areas as compared to Rs 464 crores for 91 urban local bodies in the 2019-20 budget.

The fund allocated for solid and liquid waste management through SBM-G remains unspent, according to an official who wanted to remain anonymous. As per SBM-G guidelines, every state should have at least one Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) consultant at the state level and one consultant for the District Water and Sanitation Mission (DWSM) to guide preparation for SLWM projects.

However, the Department of Rural Development, which controls the Mission Directorate of SBM-G, failed to appoint consultants at the district and state levels, according to an official in the Rural Sanitation Department.

Is hope around the corner for Gaam-i-Kuls? Advocating for a cleaner Kashmir, notable Srinagar-based RTI activist and columnist Raja Muzaffar Bhat has been keenly following SBM-G policy implementation in the union territory. He said, "The rural areas of Kashmir are facing severe problems of waste management. The unscientific waste disposal in rural areas of Kashmir is more cause of concern compared to our urban areas. People are not sensitised about the proper disposal of waste, and they are discharging their liquid waste to nearby water bodies without any legal or moral impediments. This has become normal practice in every nook and corner of the valley." In January 2021, Bhat also filed an RTI enquiring about the implementation of rural waste management projects under SBM-G in Budgam district. The response to the application revealed that not a single project had been implemented in the 296 panchayats of Budgam. "The departments lack technical know-how, and there is also unease within the administration, post the abrogation of Article 370," Bhat told 101Reporters.

Now a year later, the Rural Sanitation Department has finally begun to implement SLWM programs in Panchayats, according to an official in the Rural Sanitation Department. Speaking to 101Reporters, he said that the SLWM program in rural areas was in the initial stages and they plan to cover 1,000 locations. He further added, "We didn't have an expert who could guide us in implementing the plan due to which we were facing problems, but recently the department has hired an expert to carry out the waste management plans successfully in rural areas." Another official in the Rural and Panchayat Raj Department of Budgam said that the SLWM program had not yet been implemented in any panchayat of Budgam district. "We are going to implement 31 projects for which dumping sites have been identified, and the department has sent a Detailed Project Report (DPR). As soon as the funds are granted, projects will be implemented. Five sites have also been identified where plastic will be dumped and treated scientifically," he added.

(The author is a Kashmir-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters)
India and Russia on the same page on Afghanistan, says Moscow as it takes over UN Security Council presidency .(photo:IN) Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Feb 1: On a day it assumed the Presidency of the United Nations' Security Council, Russia today said that New Delhi and Moscow's stance on Afghanistan is quite "similar and identical" in many respects as it boils down to the fact that it is premature to talk about recognising the current government in Kabul right now.

Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, took over the rotating presidency on Tuesday. With its Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Sergey Vasilyevich Vershinin currently visiting India, the country has already given clear signals of growing partnership between the two countries, not just at the key international body but also in the turmoil-hit region.

"We expect the current Afghan leadership to fulfill obligations they have assumed. It is clear that humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people should be provided, and it is being provided by both Russia and India," said Vershinin today.

While Russia has been worried about the risk of infiltration of militants and drug dealers in the Central Asian region, including those disguised as refugees from Afghanistan, it has said that given Afghanistan's looming economic disaster, the current humanitarian steps are but a "drop in the ocean".

"We emphasise that attempts to talk to the new Afghan authorities in the language of ultimatums and pressure, instead of diplomacy, while using assistance for recovery and socio-economic development as leverage are counter-productive," Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's Charge d'Affaires at the Permanent Mission to the UN, had said at a UNSC briefing, last week.

New York, Geneva and Paris - India and Russia strengthen partnership During Vershinin's visit to New Delhi, both countries have held "wide ranging discussions on issues on the UN Security Council agenda and related developments" as the Russian minister met Reenat Sandhu, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and also the Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the both sides reaffirmed the identity or closeness of their countries' positions on major global and regional issues and expressed "mutual inclination" to further strengthen bilateral coordination on the "platform" of the Security Council.

"A thorough exchange of views made it possible to consider topical issues in the work of the Security Council, including the situation in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Myanmar, as well as the problems of combating terrorism and climate change," the Russian ministry said in a statement.

The Russian delegation also briefed India on its priorities during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly. "Both sides agreed to work closely together, given the common challenges faced and in keeping with their long standing Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership," said the MEA.

The consultations were termed "business-like, detailed and friendly" by Moscow as it confirmed the desire of both India and Russia to strengthen coordination and interaction on major international issues, including on international platforms in New York, Geneva and Paris.

"We have held the planned Russia India inter-ministerial consultations on various issues of the multilateral agenda. India has been in the UNSC as a non-permanent member for the second year, and it was interesting and important for us to compare notes," the Russian Embassy in New Delhi tweeted Vershinin as saying on Tuesday.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Gurugram, Feb 1 : A crime unit of Sector-31 of Gurugram police have arrested two inter-state wanted criminals having a bounty of Rs 25,000 each, after an exchange of fire in the Manesar area in the early hours of Tuesday.

According to the police, one of the criminals suffered a bullet wound in the leg in the cross-fire and was rushed to Safdarjung hospital for further treatment.

The arrested persons have been identified as Amit alias Gaanth and Deepak alias Bholu, both involved in an attack on the family of a former sarpanch in Kasan village of Manesar on November 4, in which four people died and two suffered injuries.

The Gurugram police had announced a reward of Rs 25,000 each on their head.

Assistant Commissioner of police (crime), Preetpal Sangwan said the police received reliable information that Amit, who was the prime suspect in the attack on Sarpanch's family on Diwali night, was in the Manesar area, following which the crime branch formed a team to nab them.

The police said the incident took place around 4.35 a.m. when the criminals spotted the police in village Baslaambi on IMT Manesar road and in an attempt to escape, fired at the police but were overpowered.

Sangwan said, "In the cross-fire, Amit sustained a bullet wound in his leg. He was rushed to a hospital in Manesar and then referred to Safdarjung hospital in Delhi for treatment. His condition is stable. Both the accused have been arrested." The accused were involved in two dozen incidents of murder, attempts to murder, attack on the police team, robbery and theft in Sonipat, Gurugram and Delhi, and were constantly active in executing serious incidents, he said.

One motorcycle, 1 country-made pistol, 1 pistol and 5 empty shells have been recovered from their possession.

In connection with the incident, a separate case including the Arms Act was registered against the duo criminals at IMT Manesar Sector-7, police station of Gurugram.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : In interim relief to Lok Insaaf Party leader and Punjab MLA Simarjit Singh Bains, the Supreme Court on Tuesday restrained the state government from arresting him till Thursday in an alleged rape case in which he is the main accused.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, directed the state government not to arrest the MLA till Thursday.

During the course of the hearing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Bains, submitted that his client has to file his nomination for the coming Assembly elections in Punjab but non-bailable warrants were issued against him.

Advocate Gagan Gupta, appearing on behalf of the complainant, opposed the grant of relief to Bains.

After hearing the arguments, the bench said: "He is a contesting candidate. Let him contest and then arrest him... It is unfortunate that High Court has not passed an order in this case." The court posted the matter's next hearing for February 3.

Bains, who will be contesting elections for the third time, has challenged a Ludhiana court order which issued an arrest warrant against him after he failed to appear in a case of the alleged rape of a 44-year-old woman.

According to the complainant, Bains allegedly raped her on several occasions in his office on the pretext of helping her financially.
New Delhi, Feb 1: Months after Sri Lanka and China sparred over poor quality fertiliser from China's Qingdao Seawin Biotech Company (QSBC), Sri Lanka faces not just international arbitration but also a steep hike in fertiliser prices by Qingdao.

Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror that the government plans to import Chinese fertiliser from the same company if new fertiliser samples are found to be fit. The country is still awaiting new samples for evaluation from Qingdao.

Daily Mirror quotes Aluthgamage as saying: "If the samples of newly dispatched fertiliser found to be contaminated, we have no hesitation whatsoever to reject it too". Defending the government's decision to import from Qingdao, the minister said the QSBC is an internationally well-known company which supplies organic fertiliser to the US, Canada and the European Union.

Despite pacifying the Chinese company, Sri Lanka finds itself into a deeper quagmire as Qingdao now wants double the price of the fertiliser than what was initially agreed upon.

Aluthgamage said: "The problem right now before Sri Lanka is that the QSBC now demands $750 per a metric ton of fertilizer, despite the fact that we have agreed to pay only $345 under the initial agreement. The deal is at the moment in negotiation process." Qingdao has filed an official complaint with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the hope of resolving an issue that has been going on since at least September.

Giving a background to the controversy, which damaged diplomatic relations considerably between the two allies, the Sri Lankan minister said: "We called global tenders last year for the supply of 90,000 metric tons of organic fertiliser and received bids from 22 international companies. We short-listed four companies out of them and only one company agreed to our conditions. It was the QSBC. We signed an agreement with this company to purchase organic fertiliser from them, as they promised that they would supply organic fertiliser after sterilisation. They also deposited $5 million with us as a fee of guarantee." However, once Sri Lankan authorities conducted tests on the fertiliser, it was found to contain harmful bacteria after which it was rejected. The company had already sent a ship loaded with the contaminated fertiliser to Sri Lankan waters. As Colombo did not allow the ship to anchor at any of its ports, it waited just outside the Colombo port in the hope of dumping the rejected fertiliser on Sri Lanka.

The Chinese embassy jumped into the fray and blacklisted the People's Bank of Sri Lanka, causing further damage between the two countries.

Though Sri Lanka has stood firm on not accepting the contaminated fertiliser, it is trying to wriggle out of the messy situation by trying to pay off 67 per cent of the value of the consignment and buy new stock of fertiliser provided it clears the tests.

Even as Colombo and Qingdao fight the case in courts, the Chinese company has presented Sri Lanka with a new headache --should it pay double the amount at $750 per metric ton as opposed to the original $345 that was agreed upon.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Election Commission has appointed 15 'special observers' for the five poll-bound states, it was announced on Tuesday.

It said that 15 former civil servants, who hold impeccable and brilliant track records of domain expertise and have past experience with election processes, have been named special observers for the current poll-bound states, and will be supervising and monitoring the work being done by the electoral machinery in their assigned states and ensure that stringent, effective enforcement action is undertaken based on intelligence inputs and complaints received through C-Vigil, voter helpline etc.

These officers will oversee the entire poll processes as eyes and ears of the Commission on the ground to ensure free, fair and voter friendly elections, the poll panel said.

At a briefing meeting with the special observers, CEC Sushil Chandra said that the overarching spirit of deploying them is to objectively assess the poll preparedness, identify the critical gaps, and guide the electoral machinery in the field to ensure impartial, inducement free, peaceful and Covid safe elections.

He noted that each election is unique in itself, has its own logistics and challenges, yet higher voter turnout has to be encouraged.

"Special observers thus need to be vigilant and be in touch with the Commission on a real time basis throughout the entire election process and should bring to the notice of the Commission any corrective measures required," he said.

While Manjit Singh and Somesh Goyal will be respectively the special general observer and special police observer for Goa, Pravir Krishna, Arun Kumar, and Rajesh Tuteja will be the special general, special police and special expenditure observer, respectively, for Manipur.

Vinod Zutshi, Rajni Kant Mishra and Himalini Kashyap will be the special general observer, special police observer and special expenditure observer, respectively, for Punjab, Ram Mohan Mishra, Anil Kumar Sharma, and Madhu Mahajan the special general observer, special police observer, and special expenditure observer for Uttarakhand.

Ajay Nayak will be the special general observer, Deepak Mishra the special police observer and B. Murali Kumar and B.R. Balakrishnan will be the two special expenditure observers for Uttar Pradesh.

The special observers will soon be visiting their allocated states and start their work with state CEOs and Deputy Election Commissioners concerned.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Reacting to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's comments on the budget, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her post-budget interaction that "Always irresponsible comments as criticism, I take criticism, but not from one who doesn't do his homework." "A MP (Member of Parliament) who ran away from UP? I wish from the leader of the oldest political party Shri Rahul Gandhi to please understand what was said. On every category he named, youth, farmers and others, I have mentioned repeatedly where what benefits them, I pity people who come up with quick responses, quick understanding responses, I am ready to answer, but just because you want to put something on Twitter, it doesn't help," said Sitharaman when asked about her reaction to Gandhi's comment on the budget.

On the union budget, Rahul Gandhi said that there is nothing for the youths, farmers, MSMEs, and the middle class. He tweeted, "Modi government's zero sum budget. nothing for salaried class, middle class, the poor and deprived, youth, farmers, MSMEs." Reacting to this, Nirmala Sitharaman said that it has been a herculean task to revive the fragile economy they (Congress) left behind. It been 5 years in the last government and now 2-3 years in our present government, even at the time of the pandemic. After giving so much in stimulus packages, we have to struggle a lot, and on top of that commenting like this without even a thought, I can only pity a party which has a leader who comments without thinking, she added.

Sitharaman challenged Rahul Gandhi that they have their governments in a few states, why doesn't he try to execute what he is saying to us. She questioned him asking if Punjab has no unemployment problem? Are farmers in Maharashtra doing well? even now cotton farmers are committing suicide in Maharashtra. Why didn't Rahul Gandhi stop this? Better if Rahul Gandhi performs in Punjab and Maharashtra first, then advise us. performs in Chhattisgarh and then comments.

--IANS nk/bg

--

Nimish Kumar,

Indo- Asian News Service (IANS).A Journalist covers PM, Finance & Foreign Affairs & UN, Commerce, Industry & Trade,President & Parliament.A New Delhi-110001.AINDIA Email- nimish.k@ians.inA nimish.media@gmail.comA A A A A A ATwitter- @journo_nimish

Facebook -Afacebook.com/nimish.kumar.395A
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Tata Teleservices has decided to withdraw the desire expressed for conversion of interest into equity and informed the DoT that the company is not desirous of this option.

As the interest amount eligible for conversion is much lesser than as expected and calculated by the company, the Board of Directors of the Company, in its meeting held on February 1, has decided to withdraw the desire.

The DoT, in response, has informed the Company that the NPV of the interest which is eligible for conversion into equity is only Rs 195.22 crore as against the company's calculation of Rs 850 crore.

The Net Present Value (NPV) of this interest is expected to be approx Rs 850 crore as per the company's best estimates, subject to confirmation by the DoT. The average price of the company's shares at the relevant date of August 14, 2021 as per the calculation method provided in the DoT communication works out to be Rs. 41.50 per share, subject to final confirmation by the DoT, the company had said earlier while accepting the conversion option.

In case of conversion, it will result in dilution of all the existing shareholders of the company, including the promoters. Following conversion, it is expected that the Government will hold approx 9.5 per cent of the total outstanding shares of the company, it had said.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Opposition parties on Tuesday said that there was nothing for the common man in the Budget 2022-23 and it only served the interests of the corporate sector.

Reacting to the Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that this budget was not for the poor but only for the rich people.

"You are reducing the corporate taxes, doing disinvestments, you are not filling up the vacancies and you are talking about new jobs. The government has promised to build four crore houses but they built only two crore and now they again said that 80 lakh new houses will be built," the Congress leader said.

On unemployment, he said: "The government has failed to fill the existing vacancies... how can I believe that they will be providing new jobs to people. A total of 32 lakh vacancies are there in both state and Central government, they should first fill these vacancies and then talk about the new jobs." Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi said that her initial impression was that this Budget would be "a very interesting and transformational one, but when it was elaborated, we realised that there was nothing for the common people".

"There is nothing to reduce the burden of expenses of the 'aam aadmi' and also nothing to increase their income. This was unfortunate that the government of India has missed the opportunity".

Rejecting the government's claim that this was a futuristic Budget, she said how could this be futuristic "when you are not giving anything to the hands of the common people".

"The government is not addressing the biggest challenge of unemployment that the country has been facing and they continue to talk about a futuristic budget... your data do not match up to the reality," she added.

Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil said that this Budget lacks foresightedness and direction. "The people of the country were expecting some relaxation and the Economic Survey presented yesterday, indicated that the income of the majority of the population was shrinking because of many factors including Covid pandemic... the citizens of the country were waiting that the government will do something for them but there was nothing for them in the Union Budget." This government has extracted over Rs 1,40,000 crore from GST but when people wanted some relaxations from the government, they were thoroughly disappointed, Gohil added.

RJD Rajya Sabha member Manoj Kumar Jha, asked for his reaction on the Union Budget, said that he looked for a reaction but he did not find it.

"This is one of the most tasteless Budgets I have seen, this is one of the Budgets where I cannot see a green signal in any direction. The idea of the Budget should have been to give relief to the common people but did you get anything fundamentally to get relief to neither the poor nor to the middle class," he said.

"My biggest concern, a scary concern, is the issue of unemployment. The government has no plans to tackle the issue of unemployment, the youths of the country are boiling, you have seen in many places recently and when it will erupt, this would be difficult for them to tackle the issue," he added.

On the announcement of 16 lakh jobs, Jha said that he was afraid that it might take the same fate as two crore jobs every year promised early.

DMK MP T. Siva said that the Budget was totally disappointing and totally in favour of the private sector. "They (the government) are giving more incentives to them and diluting the public sector."
Sindhudurg : , Feb 1 (IANS) A Maharashtra court on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of BJP lawmaker Nitesh Rane, the son of Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane, in an attempt to murder case.

Observing that Rane's application is "premature", the grant of bail to him would hamper the incomplete investigations, and considering the facts and circumstances of the case, his custodial interrogation is necessary, Sindhudurg Additional Sessions Judge R. B. Rote further said that 11 criminal cases are lodged against Rane, including offence against public servants and 2 other accused in the case are still absconding, necessitating his custodial interrogation.

The order came after the Supreme Court directed Maharashtra Police not to arrest Rane for 10 days in the case and asked him to surrender before the trial court in Sindhudurg and seek a regular bail in the matter.

On January 17, the Bombay High Court declined to grant anticipatory bail to the two-time legislator Rane on various grounds after which he had moved the apex court.

Rane Jr. is charged for the alleged December 18, 2021, attack on a Shiv Sena activist Santosh M. Parab while campaigning for the Sindhudurg District Cooperative Bank polls on December 31, though the BJP leader has denied his involvement.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Union Budget 2022-23 has allocated more funds to the Ministry of Home Affairs-administered Union Territories.

According to the Budget proposals for the current fiscal, with a hike of 6.98 per cent, the total allocation for the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has been pegged at Rs 5,763.65 crore, an increase of Rs 376.24 crore over last year's Rs 5,387.41 crore.

For Chandigarh, the total allocation is Rs 5,382.79 crore, an increase of Rs 196.67 crore from Rs 5,186.12 crore in 2021-22. This is an increase of 3.79 per cent from last year's allocation.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu has been allocated Rs 3,781.10 crore, an increase of Rs 217.51 crore, or 6.10 per cent).

The Capital Allocation has been increased from Rs 764.83 crore in Budget Estimate (BE) 21-22 to Rs 875.10 crore in BE 22-23 which is an increase of Rs 110.27 crore or 14.42 per cent.

For Ladakh, the total allocation in BE 2022-23 is Rs 5,958.00 crore, at the same level as in BE 21-22 while Lakshadweep was allocated Rs 1,421.50 crore.

The total allocation in BE 22-23 for Delhi is Rs 1,168 crore, an increase of Rs 210.49 crore or 21.98 per cent, from Rs 957.51 crore in BE 21-22. An additional amount of Rs 200 crore has also been allocated as Central assistance for the Chandrawal Water Plant and Rs 10 crore as contribution to the Delhi Disaster Response Fund.

Jammu and Kashmir has been given a total allocation of Rs 35,581.44 crore, an increase of Rs 4,824.44 crore or 15.69 per cent from BE 21-22's Rs 30, 575.00 crore.

J&K has also been given an additional funds, provided as Grant for Prime Minister Development Projects (PMDP Projects) of Rs 273 crore, a Rs 476.44 crore grant for Ratle hydro electric plant, a Rs 130 crore grant for 624 MW Kiur hydro electric plant, and additional grant of Rs 500 crore for capital expenditure.

In Puducherry, the total allocation in BE 2022-23 is Rs 1,729.79 crore like the last financial year.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Union Budget has allocated Rs 110 crores to "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav" commemorating 75 years of India's independence, a provision under the Centenary and Anniversary Celebration scheme of the ministry.

The Ministry of Culture is the nodal agency for "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav".

The official journey of "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav" commenced on March 12, 2021 at Sabarmati, Gujarat which began a 75-week countdown to the 75th anniversary of Independence and will end post a year on August 15, 2023. Since the start, more than 13000 events spread across 150+ countries, 28 States and 8 UTs in 270 days of AKAM have been held.

Approximately, 50 events per day,2 events per hour and 1 event every 30 minutes is being held under the AKAM. A proposal for enhancement of the outlay for the Centenary and Anniversary Scheme to Rs 980 cr over a period of 5 years with Rs 380 cr for the year 22-23 is under consideration.

Union Minister for culture G. Kishan Reddy said "I am grateful to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji & Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman garu for an 'Atmanirbhar Bharat ka Budget'. As India celebrates 75 years of independence with Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, we are entering Amrit Kaal and this budget presents a blueprint for India at 100 years. Vikas (Development) and Virasat (Heritage) go hand-in-hand and this is evident from the fact that this year's budgetary allocations for Tourism and Culture Ministries have been significantly higher.

The total outlay for the annual budget 2022-23 of the Ministry of Culture is Rs 3009.05 crore as against the revised outlay (Rs. 2665.00 Crore) approved for the revised Budget Plan 2021-2022. This outlay includes provisions for 2 attached offices, 6 subordinate offices, 34 central Autonomous Bodies and schemes of the Ministry during the Financial year 2022-23. The annual outlay in FY 2022-23 is 13% higher than the revised annual outlay in FY 2021-22. Rs. 1080.34 Crore has been allocated to the ASI.

In FY 2022-23, an enhanced amount of Rs. 532.55 Crore (9%) has been allocated for implementation of the Central Sector Schemes of the Ministry which includes Kala Sanskriti Vikas Yojana, Development of Museum, International Co-operation, Centenary and Anniversary Celebration scheme and Development of Libraries and Archives.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the courts should be cautious, especially in commercial matters having a serious impact on the economy and employment of thousands of people.

It made these observations while setting aside Delhi High Court orders, which included initiating coercive steps against Future Group companies and its promoters for alleged violation of the emergency award (EA) passed by the Singapore Arbitration Tribunal.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana said: "It is well-known that natural justice is the sworn enemy of unfairness. It is expected of the Courts to be cautious and afford a reasonable opportunity to parties, especially in commercial matters having a serious impact on the economy and employment of thousands of people." The bench, also comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, said the opportunity provided to the Future Group companies was insufficient, and cannot be upheld in the eyes of law.

The top court set aside the orders passed by the single bench of the high court, ordering coercive steps against Future Group, and also the order passed in October last year, where the high court refused to stay the tribunal's refusal to vacate the EA, restraining Future deal with Reliance.

Chief Justice Ramana, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench, said: "On a perusal of the orders, we find that serious procedural errors were committed by the learned Single Judge. Natural justice is an important facet of a judicial review. Providing effective natural justice to affected parties, before a decision is taken, is necessary to maintain the Rule of Law." The bench noted that natural justice is usually discussed in the context of administrative actions, wherein procedural requirement of a fair hearing is read in to ensure that no injustice is caused.

"When it comes to judicial review, the natural justice principle is built into the rules and procedures of the court, which are expected to be followed meticulously to ensure that highest standards of fairness are afforded to the parties," it said.

The bench observed that whenever an order is struck down as invalid being in violation of the principles of natural justice, there is no final decision of the case and fresh proceedings are left open. "All that is done is to vacate the order assailed by virtue of its inherent defect. Such proceedings are not terminated and are usually remitted back," it said, asking the high court to decide all matters afresh.

"We are inclined to set aside aforesaid directions as the pre-condition of 'sufficient mental element for wilful disobedience' is not satisfied." The top court also took note of submissions made by senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, representing Amazon, that his client is not interested in proceeding with the punitive directions.

"Coming to the merits of the case, we would like to mention a disconcerting aspect wherein the interim order enforcing the Emergency Award has adopted a standard beyond 'prima facie view', as required under law. It is expected of courts to be cautious while making observations on the merits of the case, which would inevitably influence the Arbitral Tribunals hearing the matters on merit." Future Coupons and Future Retail have moved the top court challenging the Delhi High Court's single bench orders passed in February and March 2021, which involved directing attachment of assets of Future Group companies and its promoters for breach of Emergency Award by the Singapore Tribunal. Both sides have so far filed several cases at various forums, which include the apex court, Delhi High Court, and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC).

In 2020, Amazon invoked arbitration after Future Retail announced its asset sale deal with Reliance Industries Ltd wholly owned subsidiary, Reliance Retail.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : A middle-class family living in east Delhi's Laxmi Nagar says that there was nothing special in this year's Union Budget failing to provide any tax relief for household kitchens, presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.

The middle class says that there was fear among the majority of the people that the Union government may increase direct taxes which ultimately did not happen.

The family says that Tuesday's Budget was a "normal one" but said that a lot more could have been done by the Union government.

Saroj, a housewife, says that there is no reduction in cooking gas, oil and vegetables prices. The prices of pulses and foodgrains have not been reduced so being a housewife, she is not satisfied with this year's budget.

R.C. Joshi, a senior member of the family, says that he is a retired army officer and was expecting some exemption in the tax slab for senior citizens but this year's Budget did not provide any tax exemption.

He said, "The economy will be boosted from this year's Budget, but how many more years will it take to create new jobs is difficult to comment at present. Nothing has been done for the limit on any one income tax slab. If the common man does not have enough savings, then how will he/she buy anything. The purchasing power of people will get automatically reduced. Emphasis has been laid on boosting infrastructure such as construction of 25,000-km road. I can't comment how long will the common man avail its benefit. No concrete measures have been taken by the Union government for those people who have lost their jobs or whose salaries have been slashed during the Covid-19 infection." Radhika, another member of the same family, said that giving tax concession to an Anganwadi woman from a middle-class family will not yield any benefits. "There should be a reduction in the prices of ration and cooking gas in households, then only some respite will be available. Housewives had high expectations from the Modi government which seem to be unfulfilled by this budget." Another family member, Pooja, says that there is some tax relief announced in the budget such as clothes becoming cheaper, prices of items like shoes coming down but the prices of vegetables, grocery etc used in daily life need to becomes cheaper, only then we would have appreciated the Budget.

Achin, a youth from the same family, says, "There is nothing much for the youth in the Budget by lowering mobile phone prices. I run a stationery shop where all items have become expensive. The tax levied on stationery items has increased a lot, they should have been reduced. The Union government should have announced some tax relief. The ability to avail loans will only increase for the lower-income families without much relief for the middle class." Diksha, a chartered accountant student, says that the budget is only aimed at economic and industrial growth. "Nothing happens for the middle class anyways. Nothing has become cheaper nor expensive either, this is the special takeaway of this budget. According to me, the taxes have not been hiked, though prices of items like clothes, slippers, shoes etc have become cheaper which bodes well for the country's economy moving ahead. All these daily use commodities are extremely important for a family. This is an average budget and if implemented properly, this could lead to economic growth. This budget is good for the next 25 years." There have been no changes announced in the income tax slabs for the Budget 2022-23.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that a conviction can be solely based on the dying declaration without corroboration.

A bench of Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna, citing previous judgments by the top court, said: "It is observed and held that if the court is satisfied that the dying declaration is true and voluntary, it can base its conviction on it, without corroboration." The bench, citing judgments like State of Uttar Pradesh V. Ram Sagar and others (1985) and Ramawati Devi V. State of Bihar (1983), said: "Therefore, there can be a conviction solely based upon the dying declaration without corroboration." In this matter, a woman in Uttar Pradesh was set on fire allegedly by her father-in-law and mother-in-law, after she refused to give them money. A murder case was registered against the accused.

In this case, the trial court convicted the accused by relying on the dying declaration recorded by the magistrate, and did not accept the accused's contention that the deceased herself poured the kerosene on herself. However, the high court acquitted the accused, as it refused to rely on the dying declaration. The Uttar Pradesh government filed an appeal in the top court.

The top court noted there are two dying declarations, one recorded by the police officer on December 20, 2011, and another recorded by the magistrate/SDM on December 22, 2011. The high court did not believe the dying declaration recorded before a magistrate, stating that the police officer had already recorded it earlier.

"The trial court has rightly observed as to the weight and reliance that must be placed on the dying declaration of the deceased. There was no reason for the High Court to disregard the dying declaration of the deceased," it said.

The bench said the statements made by the deceased in her dying declaration are consistent with medical evidence which reveals that there were burns on all parts of the body, except chest and sides of the abdomen and back. "The burns are at such parts as could have resulted when a person, other than the deceased, poured kerosene and set fire to it," said the bench.

Setting aside the high court judgment, the top court said: "Considering the dying declaration recorded by the SDM/Magistrate on December 22, 2011, the accused can be convicted for which they were tried." It directed the accused to surrender before court or jail authority to undergo life sentence forthwith.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Chinese government has launched a defamatory and libellous campaign to discredit the Global Imams Council (GIC) and to character assassinate whoever advocates for the freedom of the Uyghur people, the GIC has said.

"We are China's latest victims. We consider these false allegations, manipulations, and accusations a provocation by the Chinese government," the GIC said.

"Through our Imams, which exceed 1,300 members, we oversee the affairs of over 800 centres, mosques and organisations globally. We will not be intimidated, and we shall multiply our efforts by ensuring that the most leading Grand Ayatollahs, Muftis and Islamic Authorities in the Muslim world, Sunni and Shia, issue independent statements against the Chinese government's violations of human rights," the body said.

On January 28, Chinese state media Global Times published an article titled "NGO of Muslims fooled by anti-China WUC to call for 'boycott' of Beijing Games", containing lies and fabrications with the sole intention of distracting the public from its violations of human rights, and to defame this Council, the GIC said.

This statement is not a response to Global Times, as their agenda, ownership and history of justifying injustice are clear, it said.

Instead, these clarifications are for the vulnerable readers they may have deceived, the GIC statement said.

The first claim was that the Global Imams Council was "fooled" by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) to ban Muslim participation in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

"This is a lie, as we have an active Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the WUC, and we share the concerns of the Uyghur people that the Chinese government is persecuting. The statement was our initiative and was not requested by the WUC," it said.

The second claim was that the Muslim leaders carbon copied onto our statement had opposed our statement.

"This is also a lie. Chinese Embassies threatened and pressured two of the mentioned Muftis to deny signing the statement, despite the fact that a 'CC' does not mean 'signature'. We then clarified this matter and personally contacted those Islamic authorities. Furthermore, we issued a separate statement assuring Muslims that we supported sporting activities but were only opposed to an event that served the interests of the Chinese government," the statement said.

The third claim was that the President of the Global Imams Council, Imam al-Budairi, was interviewed by a journalist in Iraq where he had supposedly stated that the World Uyghur Congress funds this Council.

This is another lie because not only was the name of the interviewer not disclosed, the President of this Council was never actually interviewed on this matter, nor did he meet with a journalist, the GIC statement said.
Colombo, Feb 1 : Sri Lanka's Health authorities have ruled out a nationwide lockdown as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 caused a rapid rise in infections recently, local media reported on Tuesday.

The authorities also urged people to get booster doses to limit hospitalisations, Xinhua news agency reported.

There had been an internal discussion whether some restrictions should be re-imposed, but a lockdown had been ruled out, Channa Jayasumana, State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals, was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.

According to official statistics from the Health Ministry, Sri Lanka had recorded more than 1,000 Covid-19 cases on Sunday and Monday after more than 100 days.

Jayasumana said that those aged above 20 years were encouraged to get their booster vaccines in order to limit hospitalisations triggered by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, and booster doses were available in all medical offices across the country.

Sri Lanka is administering the Pfizer vaccine as the third vaccine dose irrespective of the vaccine type taken in the first two doses.

The country has recorded 611,185 Covid-19 cases since March 2020 and has reported 15,441 deaths till Monday.

Sri Lanka's Health Ministry has made it mandatory to wear face masks and maintain social distance in public.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be leading the debate from the opposition benches on the Motion of Thanks on the President's Address on Wednesday. He will be the first speaker from the party.

The Congress leader is likely to raise the issues of Pegasus, China and LAC during the debate as the party is up against the alleged snooping by the government.

Gandhi has criticized the Union Budget presented on Tuesday. He said that its a zero sum budget by the Union Government.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "M0di G0vernment's Zer0 Sum Budget!" In his tweet, Rahul Gandhi deliberately put the figure 'zero' instead of the letter 'O', criticising the Budget in totality.

He said, "Nothing for the Salaried class, Middle class, The poor & deprived, Youth, Farmers and MSMEs." The Congress had raised concern on the Presidential address to the joint session of parliament and said that the President did not mention China and Pakistan, the two fronts on which India is engaged and also said that there was no mention of the killings in Nagaland.

The Congress said that the government has not tendered an apology for the Covid deaths and questioned why there is no mention of restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

Congress MP Manish Tewari said, "Not a word on the China/Pak/Two Front situation. No regret on massacre of Civilians in Nagaland. No announcement on restoring statehood of J&K. Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, its terror implications on India obfuscated. No apology for Deaths in second COVID wave." The Congress is upset that the government is facing a challenge at the LAC with China and reports are that China is building infrastructure at the Arunachal Pradesh borders. The party wanted the President to outline the government's efforts on that front.

Though the President mentioned the government's diplomatic outreach in the world, President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday said that India has strengthened its standing in the rapidly evolving global environment through improvement in diplomatic relations.
Sindhudurg : , Feb 1 (IANS) In yet another setback to BJP MLA Nitesh Rane, the son of Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane, a court in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg on Tuesday rejected his bail plea in an attempt to murder case.

Terming Rane's application "premature", that bail would hamper incomplete investigations, and his custodial interrogation is necessitated considering the case facts and circumstances, Additional Sessions Judge R.B. Rote said that Rane is facing 11 criminal cases including offence against public servants and 2 other accused in the case are still absconding.

His order came after the Supreme Court last week directed Maharashtra Police not to arrest Rane for 10 days in the case and asked him to surrender before the trial court in Sindhudurg to seek regular bail in the matter.

On January 17, the Bombay High Court declined to grant anticipatory bail to the two-time legislator Rane on various grounds, after which he had moved the apex court.

Arguing for pre-arrest bail, Rane's lawyers Satish Maneshinde and S.D. Desai said that the weapon was a paper-cutter and the injuries were not serious, the case was politically motivated and a story was concocted, while the statement of an other accused was taken forcibly, Rane was ready to cooperate with the investigations and he had recorded his statement on December 24.

Opposing Rane's plea, Special Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said no notice was served to the prosecution before filing the bail application under Section 438 of the CrPC, Rane's anticipatory bail applications had been already rejected earlier, and his custody was required for a just and proper investigation.

He also contended that the SC had allowed Rane to surrender before the trial court and then apply for regular bail, and the 10 days interim protection was breathing time to prepare him for giving himself up.

Observing that Rane was not "falsely implicated due to political reasons", Judge Rote said he is the "main accused" and his prima facie involvement has been shown, a conspiracy was hatched to teach the victim a lesson, and hence, his custodial interrogation was necessary for proper and effective investigation.

Rane is charged for the alleged December 18, 2021, attack on Shiv Sena activist Santosh M. Parab while campaigning for the Sindhudurg District Cooperative Bank polls on December 31, though the BJP leader has consistently denied any involvement.

According to Parab's police complaint, when he was returning home that evening, his motorcyle was hit by a SUV without number plates, one person stepped out, and assaulted him with a paperknife.

Later, the assailant said that Gotya Sawant and Nitesh Rane should be informed of this incident, called up someone, and sped off in the SUV.

Police subsequently arrested six accused - Chetan Pawar, Karan B. Kamble, Anil Nakka, Karan D. Kamble, Deepak N. Waghode and Sachin Satpute - all from Pune, while two other accused Dnyaneshwar D. Devnur and Dheeraj Jadhav are still absconding.

As per the probe, Karan B. Kamble revealed the weapons used in the offence which were recovered and the attack was commissioned by Devnur and Jadhav for Rs 150,000 of which they were paid Rs 20,000.

The probe revealed that Satpute and Rane had allegedly hatched the conspiracy on August 28 last year with the latter wanting to teach Parab a lesson for targeting the Rane family.

Meanwhile, Maneshinde told media persons this evening that nobody can touch Rane till he enjoys the court's protection and he would soon move the Bombay High Court challenging the Sindhudurg court order.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday said there is no question of repeal of a statute which has been declared as unconstitutional by a court.

A bench, headed by Justice L. Nageswara Rao and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and B.V. Nagarathna, said: "It is clear that there is no question of repeal of a statute which has been declared as unconstitutional by a court. The very declaration by a court that a statute is unconstitutional obliterates the statute entirely as though it had never been passed. The consequences of declaration of unconstitutionality of a statute have to be dealt with only by the court." The bench said the Manipur legislature was not competent to introduce a saving clause in the Repealing Act, 2018, for a 2012 Act in connection with the appointment of MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries. "Having held that the Manipur legislature was not competent to introduce a saving clause in the Repealing Act, 2018, what remains to be considered is the fate of the acts, deeds etc. undertaken by the Parliamentary Secretaries who were appointed under the 2012 Act," it noted.

It said the nullification of transactions affecting the public due to the acts done by the Parliamentary Secretaries appointed under the 2012 Act would cause serious damage to third parties and create significant confusion and irregularity in the conduct of public business.

"Therefore, in exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, we consider it necessary to save only those acts, deeds and decisions duly undertaken by the Parliamentary Secretaries under the 2012 Act during their tenure," it said.

In July 2017, the top court had declared that, in Bimolangshu Roy Vs State of Assam, that the state legislature lacked competence to enact the Assam Act, 2004 in connection with the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries.

After this judgment, PILs were filed in the Manipur High Court to declare the similar 2012 Manipur law as unconstitutional. In 2018, the Manipur legislature passed a repealing law, but with a saving clause on appointments of Parliamentary Secretaries.

The bench noted that it is evident from the preamble of the Repealing Act, 2018, the repeal of the 2012 Act is a procedural formality by the Manipur Legislature to give the statute a logical conclusion, in light of the pending public interest litigations challenging its constitutional validity before the high court.

"We are of the considered view that by means of the saving clause in the Repealing Act, 2018, the Manipur legislature could not have infused life into a legislation, which was recognised by the legislature itself as unconstitutional and thereby, a nullity, prompting its repeal," it said.

The high court had ruled that the legislature cannot provide a saving clause in the Repealing Act, 2018 to justify acts done and rights, privileges and obligations incurred under the 2012 Act. It declared both the 2012 and 2018 Acts as unconstitutional. This order by the high court was challenged in the top court by the Manipur government and those appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries.

The top court said: "We hold that the Manipur legislature was competent to enact the Repealing Act, 2018. The saving clause in the Repealing Act, 2018 is struck down. However, this shall not affect the acts, deeds and decisions duly undertaken by the Parliamentary Secretaries under the 2012 Act till discontinuation of their appointments, which are hereby saved."
Srinagar, Feb 1 : A 24-year-old woman faced an acid attack in Srinagar on Tuesday and is being operated for her injuries, police said.

Police sources said the woman was attacked in the evening with acid in Usmania colony of Wantpora in Hawal area of Srinagar.

"The woman was attacked outside her business unit this evening. She was immediately shifted to S.M.H.S hospital where Dr Kanwaljeet Singh, the medical superintendent of the hospital said her face had got damaged," a police source said.

"The girl is being operated upon to ascertain whether her eyes have been damaged or not," Dr Singh said.

Police has taken cognisance of the heinous crime and the assailants are being traced, sources said.
Islamabad, Feb 1 : The Pakistan government has decided to seek loans worth $5 billion from countries including China, Russia and Kazakhstan in a desperate attempt to stabilise the shrinking foreign reserves.

As per the details, Pakistan plans to seek $3 billion from China and $2 billion from Russia and Kazakhstan.

The federal ministry of finance has finalised the plan for the loan, agreement of which is expectedly to be signed during the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to China later this month.

Sources revealed that Islamabad plans to borrow $3 billion from China to stabilise its forex reserves, while additional $2 billion from Russia and Kazakhstan would be spent on the ML-1 Railways project.

The loan agreements will be signed for a period of one year, with flexibility of extension and re-adjustment.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan has been striving to revive the suspended loan programme worth $6 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Islamabad has been working towards completing the conditions put forth by the IMF, prior to its next scheduled meeting on 02 February 2022 with IMF's Executive Board.

Pakistan's economic crisis has been swelling with the country's gross financing needs, standing at an estimated $30 billion for the fiscal year 2022-23. This has forced the Imran Khan led government to be left with no other option but to go back to the IMF, seeking a fresh loan programme, after the current programme ends in September 2022.

As per sources in the government, Pakistan's efforts to complete the conditions to revive the $6 billion IMF programme under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and complete the requirements of the sixth review will require to complete more conditions for the seventh and eighth review till September 2022.

The accomplishment of all requirements is pivotal for Pakistan to qualify for the completion of 39-month EFF programme.

Pakistan's next stop for another loan facility will be the Breton Woods Institutions (BWIs) as the country continues to struggle to tackle its financial crunch.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced an assistance of Rs 10 lakh to help the Kasturba Nagar rape victim, whose horrendous ordeal had shaken the city.

"I have ordered Rs 10 lakh assistance amount to help this daughter. Delhi government will do everything possible to get justice for this daughter. We are hiring a good lawyer for her. We will also fast-track this matter so that the daughter can get justice as soon as possible," he said in a tweet.

Later in the day, Revenue and Law Minister Kailash Gahlot, along with Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, met the 20-year-old survivor, who informed them that she was abducted from her home and gang-raped by three men who are involved in illicit trade of liquor and drugs locally. While they were gang-raping her, the women present therein were instigating the men to rape her.

She further informed that they beat her up brutally, shaved her head, blackened her face and made her walk around the neighbourhood with a garland of slippers and shoes. A video of the unfortunate incident was also received by the Commission which clearly showed the sad plight of the victim.

Maliwal had earlier issued notice to Delhi Police seeking immediate arrest of all the culprits, both men and women. She had also recommended that the girl and her family be shifted to a safe house and be provided protection.

She said that the an application in the court for interim compensation has been filed and a DCW team is present with the survivor 24x7, adding: "We will also rehabilitate the girl. Strongest punishment must be given to the culprits so that no one will dare to do such a crime again." On Friday, a total of 11 people, including nine women, were arrested in connection with the incident.
Guwahati, Feb 1 : The northeast region chapter of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Tuesday, welcomed the Union Budget presented in the Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for focusing on infrastructure, and said that the the Prime Minister's Development Initiative for North-East (PM-DevINE) would help bridge critical infrastructure gaps in remote areas and provide livelihood options to the people in the region.

North East Advisory Council Chairman of FICCI, Ranjit Barthakur terming the budget as pragmatic, said that it focused on core sectors like, health care, infrastructure, MSMEs Technology and financial inclusion.

He said: "We particularly welcome the focus on infrastructure and social development projects through the PM-DevINE. The initiative would help bridge critical infrastructure gaps in remote areas and provide livelihood options to the people in the region. We hope the initial outlay of Rs 1,500 crore for the scheme would be suitably enhanced as per requirement." Terming the focus on Energy Transition and Climate Change "a step in the right direction", Barthakur said that the northeast India is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots of the country and the region could benefit immensely from the decision to bring about legislative changes to promote agro forestry and private forestry.

The old economic model of rapid growth is now recognized to be the fundamental cause behind the depletion of our natural resources.

Since 2020, climate and biodiversity risks have topped the World Economic Forum's Annual Risk Report analyzing business perception of economic risk.

Climate change has been costing the world over $150 billion annually since 2017, he added.

The FICCI leader said that the decision to provide financial support to farmers belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, for agro-forestry is also a very welcoming step.

"We will be requesting the government to allow the tea Industry also to take advantage of the proposed legislative changes and financial support," he told the media in Guwahati.He also welcomed the decision to enhance support to MSMEs by revamping the CGTMSE scheme.

"As in most other parts of the country, in the northeast region too micro enterprises suffered the most as a result of the Covid pandemic and we are hopeful that the additional credit of Rs 2 lakh crore which would become available, would help in ensuring continued financial sustainability of the MSMEs." Another important budget announcement that could help the education sector in the region, particularly in remote hilly areas is the decision to expand the reach of PMevidya "One Class One TV Channel" from 12 channels to 200 channels.

This will help the state Governments in providing quality education to students in remote rural areas without depending on internet connectivity, Barthakur said.

FICCI Assam State Council Chairman Dipankar Barua said that the tourism and hospitality sector in Assam is going through a very difficult time and welcomed the decision to extend the benefits under ECLGS (Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme) scheme upto march 2023 with a focus on the hospitality sector.

He also welcomed the announcement of the National Ropeway Development Programme "Parvatmala" and "this programme would help connect many remote locations in the northeast and can be capitalised for tourism".
Bengaluru, Feb 1 : Reacting to the Union Budget 2022-23 that was presented in the Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the Executive Chairperson and Founder of Biocon Limited, described it as a positive rhetoric with no negative surprises.

"Fiscal prudence and business ease has been the theme. Thirty-five per cent increase in capital expenditure will drive infra and jobs -- a balanced Budget with positive rhetoric and no negative surprises," she said.

Chandrashekar, CMD, SASMOS HET Technologies LTD, said, "The Union Budget has opened up an array of opportunities for homegrown defence manufacturing companies with the government's focus on curbing defence imports in India. The FM's provision to earmark 68 per cent of capital for the defence sector for the domestic industry is a commendable move." Tom Joseph, Executive Director for Strategy & Development, International Skill Development Corporation, said, "Skill development in the country has been the need of hour and the Union Budget has rightly addressed it. The government's interest to explore skilling programmes and industry partnerships to establish new skilling avenues, sustainability and employability is a good step." Rajosik Banerjee, Partner and Head, Financial Risk Management, KPMG in India, said, "Digital rupee using blockchain technology will lead to stable, efficient and regulated payments and settlements and lower the transaction cost. This initiative is expected to boost the digital economy and reduce leakages by lowering dependency on cash." The Budget has ushered in positive measures in the field of education which will give a boost to the sector especially in the context of the pandemic, said Shweta Sastri, Managing Director, Canadian International School, Bengaluru.

"A robust education system is a necessity for any growing nation and this is all the more important when the country is aiming to normalise education," she said.

Sohinder Gill, Director General, Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), stated, "We welcome the measures announced by the Finance Minister. The Budget for 2022-23 gives huge impetus to the electric vehicle (EV) industry. Introducing the battery swapping policy and recognising battery or energy as a service will help develop EV infrastructure and increase the use of EVs in public transportation. It would motivate businesses engaged in delivery and ride aggregation businesses to incorporate EVs into their fleet."
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Budget 2022-23 on Tuesday has provisions for faster green clearances and expanding scope for single window clearances for projects that are to be cleared by the Environment Ministry and also talks of bringing in legislative changes to promote agro-forestry.

The proposals have evoked mixed reactions from experts.

"A single window portal, PARIVESH, for all green clearances was launched in 2018. It has been instrumental in reducing the time required for approvals significantly. The scope of this portal will now be expanded, to provide information to the applicants. Based on the location of units, information about specific approvals will be provided. It will enable application for all four approvals through a single form, and tracking of the process through Centralised Processing Centre-Green (CPC-Green)," said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2022-23 speech.

"The policies and required legislative changes to promote agro forestry and private forestry will be brought in. In addition, financial support will be provided to farmers belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who want to take up agro-forestry," she said.

The Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change has already brought in a slew of amendments and also proposes to make massive changes to multiple foundational laws related to the environment - all to the detriment of the cause, experts have said.

Environmentalists are already up in arms over the changes proposed to the Forest (Conservation) Act, the Wildlife (Protection) Act and the amendments to the Biodiversity Act.

Data from the India State of Forest Report 2021 released last month has already been subjected to scrutiny as the forest cover has counted all commercial plantations and agro-forestry projects.

Kanchi Kohli, a researcher with Centre for Policy Research (CPR), said: "The idea of single window clearances creates the illusion that industrial and infrastructure projects will get all environmental approvals together. In effect, this assurance only allows for the ease in submitting and tracking the paperwork before the Environment Ministry. All projects will need to go secure separate approvals for forest diversion, environmental impacts or impacts on wildlife, which require necessarily detailed assessments and appraisals." Agro-forestry, she said, may be an important measure to improve farm incomes and add to the tree cover through plantations. "However, a large scale and policy driven exercise to increasing monoculture plantations or creating carbon sinks can be directly at odds with biodiversity, livelihood rights and food security. This is especially when carbon forestry leads to creation of conservation enclosures that has to necessarily curtail access and use of areas designated as sinks," Kohli observed.

Stating that there is no need to combine the forest cover definition and agro-forestry, International Forum for Environment, Sustainability, and Technology (iFOREST) CEO Chandra Bhushan, in fact, welcomed that there would be a legal backing for agro-forestry.

"India imports $40 billion worth of wood and wood products every year. Farmers need income and we need to save forex. So, agro forestry is actually an extremely good policy both for farmers and the economy," he said.

"A tree planted outside a forest is a tree saved inside a forest. But if the government is mixing it, then there should be public pressure on the Forest Survey of India to improve the reporting," he said.

Some experts saw the infra growth as a positive push. Pointing out that the Budget's push towards infrastructure is a huge opportunity for making climate resilient development, TERI Senior Fellow, Earth Science and Climate Change, Saurabh Bhardwaj said: "With the Budget pegging India's economic growth at plus 9 per cent this fiscal and giving a concerted push towards infrastructure, making such development climate resilient is a huge opportunity to further safeguard the economic losses due to impending climate change impacts. This growth budget needs to be resilient as well." While Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, at the annual climate conference last November, presented 'Panchamrit' or five 'nectar' elements that were India's promised action plan for combating climate change, Dr Anjal Prakash, Research Director and adjunct Associate Professor at the Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business, however, said: "There is a miss in creating institutions for net zero delivery in India.

"Presently, no single ministry can deliver Modi's Panchamrit, the five nectar elements. Climate scientists have been demanding that there should be a separate Ministry of Climate Change, which will give the impetus needed to the PM's pledge of net zero by 2070."
Amaravati, Feb 1 : The talks between Andhra Pradesh government and leaders of employees' unions on Tuesday failed to end the deadlock over pay revision.

Andhra Pradesh Non-Gazetted Officers' Association President Bandi Srinivasa Rao said the talks with the ministerial committee ended in failure.

He said the committee adopted the same stand which it had taken previously and repeatedly sought to explain how the employees will suffer losses due to the implementation of the new PRC.

While employees' unions wanted the committee to respond on the three issues raised by them, the panel made it clear that their demands can't be met.

The employees' unions have announced that their protest programme will continue. They called up employees to make 'achalo Vijayawada' programme a success.

They also urged the district Collectors not to threaten the employees.

Andhra Pradesh Government Employees' Association President Suryanarayana said the government should stop forceful disbursement of salaries, as per the new scales.

The ministerial committee asked the employees' unions to drop their plans to go on strike from February 7.

Government advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said they made it clear that repealing the Government Order for new pay scales was not possible. He found fault with the unions' demand for giving them a report of the Pay Revision Commission (PRC). He said the unions should not adopt an adamant stand on the demand.

Ramakrishna Reddy wanted to know if giving the unions the PRC report will solve the problem. He pointed out that even the Telangana government had not given PRC report to its employees.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma said the salaries of the employees will be credited into their accounts by Tuesday night. Those who have not received the salaries on Tuesday will get it on Wednesday. He said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed that there should be no downward revision in the salary of any employee.

The employees' unions have been saying that implementation of the new PRC announced last month will lead to downward revision of salaries. They are demanding that the employees be paid salaries as per the previous pay scales as the interim relief was higher than the pay revision announced by the Chief Minister.
Srinagar, Feb 1 : As a dividend of the sustaining ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan, tourism department officials in Jammu and Kashmir said on Tuesday that they have written to the authorities for opening up of tourism along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir.

The decision by the DGMOs of the two countries in February last year to respect the bilateral ceasefire agreement has brought normalcy in the lives of hundreds of people living on the two sides of the LoC and the international border in Jammu and Kashmir.

Since last year, a large number of visitors to Kashmir have been showing keen interest to visit hitherto unexplored places.

The border districts of Kupwara, Bandipora and Baramulla have huge tourism potential spread along the LoC.

In September last year, Ajay Bhatt, MoS in the Defence Ministry, held a meeting with the officials of the tourism department and other stakeholders.

During the meeting, the minister had assured the tourism department officials and other stakeholders that the ministry is committed to promote tourism in the border areas in J&K on priority basis.

In August 2021, a tourism festival was held at the Bangus Valley in Kupwara district where Lt Governor Manoj Sinha had said that both the UT's tourism department and the Army will facilitate visits to remote places like the Bangus Valley.

Sources said the officials of the tourism department have written to the district development commissioners of Kupwara, Bandipora and Baramulla for starting the process of border tourism.

In this regard, to begin with, the tourism department would like to start border tourism in places like Gurez, Karnah, Uri, Bangus Valley etc., sources said.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Central government plans to launch the next phase of 'Ease of Doing Business' as well as 'Ease of Living', Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

In her Budget speech to Parliament, the Finance Minister stated: "For the 'Amrit Kaal', the next phase of Ease of Doing Business, EODB 2.0 and Ease of Living, will be launched." "In our endeavour to improve productive efficiency of capital and human resources, we will follow the idea of 'trust-based governance'." According to Sitharaman, the new phases will be guided by an active involvement of the states, digitisation of manual processes and interventions, integration of the central and state-level systems through I-T bridges, a single point access for all citizen-centric services, and a standardisation and removal of overlapping compliances.

"Crowdsourcing of suggestions and ground level assessment of the impact with active involvement of citizens and businesses will be encouraged." Besides, the Finance Minister stated that as a result of our government's strong commitment for 'minimum government and maximum governance' over 25,000 compliances were reduced and 1,486 Union laws were repealed in recent years.

This, she stated, is the outcome of the government's trust in the public along with measures such as 'Ease of Doing Business' (EODB).

Besides, she proposed to expand the scope of the single window portal -- Parivesh -- for all green clearances.

"The scope of this portal will now be expanded, to provide information to the applicants. Based on location of units, information about specific approvals will be provided," she said.

"It will enable application for all four approvals through a single form, and tracking of the process through 'Centralized Processing Centre-Green' (CPC-Green)." The portal was launched in 2018 to reduce the time required for green approvals. Furthermore, Finance Minister proposed that states will be encouraged to adopt 'Unique Land Parcel Identification Number' to facilitate IT-based management of land records as efficient use of land resources is a strong imperative.

The facility for transliteration of land records across any of the 'Schedule VIII' languages will also be rolled out. In addition, she proposed a completely paperless, end-to-end online 'e-Bill System' to be launched for use by all Central ministries for their procurements.

The system is expected to enable the suppliers and contractors to submit online their digitally signed bills and claims and track their status from anywhere.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Union Budget 2022-23 on Tuesday allocated over Rs 1.85 lakh crore to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) with a majority of the allocation for the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and the Central Police Organisations.

According to the Budget Estimate (BE) for 2022-23, this is an increase of around Rs 20,000 crore from last year when it was allocated Rs 1,66,546.94 crore.

The allocation to the MHA is Rs 1,85,776.55 crore is nearly more than 11.5 per cent more than during the current fiscal.

The modernisation of police forces, intelligence agencies, women safety, cyber security and the census also got priority in the budget.

The Intelligence Bureau, the main domestic intelligence gathering agency, has been given Rs 3,168.36 crore in comparison to Rs 2,793.02 allocated in the current fiscal.

The majority of funds of MHA budget were allocated to the police, at Rs 1,17,687.99 crore in comparison to Rs 1,09,266.30 crore given in 2021-22.

The Special Protection Group has been allocated Rs 385.95 crore in comparison to Rs 386.50 crore given in 2021-22 while the allocations of Delhi Police has been increased by 21.09 per cent from Rs 8,338.12 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 10,096.29 crore in 2022-23.

Allocation for Border Management has been increased by 42.84 per cent from Rs 1,921.39 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 2,517.02 crore in 2022-23.

Among the provisions for new schemes and projects targeted for better delivery on criminal justice system, forensic and prisons, the allocation for Inter Operable Criminal Justice System is Rs 122 crore whereas for the Emergency Response System, a total of Rs 150 crore has been given and for the modernisation of prisons and forensic capacity, the allocations are Rs 400 and 300 crore, respectively.

Similarly, under the provision for Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) has been increased by 127.27 per cent from Rs 77 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 175 crore in 2022-23.

The budgetary provision for Land Port Authority of India has been increased by 38.57 per cent from Rs 216.50 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 300 crore in 2022-23 while the implementation of safe city projects has been provided with Rs 520.04 crore, which will be funded from Nirbhaya fund.

A provision of Rs 70 crore has been made for the Rashtriya Raksha University and National Forensic Science University whereas Rs 3,676 crore has been allocated to the Registrar General of India for conducting Census 2022.

Allocation for Relief and Rehabilitation for Migrants and Repatriates increased by 24.28 per cent from Rs 241.20 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 299.76 crore in 2022-23.
Amaravati, Feb 1 : The Andhra Pradesh government has extended the night curfew for two more weeks, with effect from Tuesday. As per the fresh orders issued on Tuesday, the government has taken the decision after reviewing the Covid situation in the state.

The state government had earlier imposed night curfew from January 18 to January 31. However, with daily Covid cases exceeding 10,000, the government has decided to extend the 11 pm to 5 am curfew till February 14.

Tuesday's government order stated that the instructions and directions for Covid control issued along with the original curfew orders of January would stay and be enforced.

The Covid protocols in place include wearing masks in public, and while traveling on buses.

Along with the implementation of Covid protocols in shops and shopping malls, not more than 200 people are allowed to gather in public places and 100 people indoors.

In theatres too, alternate seats are to be left vacant to ensure physical distancing. All cine-goers are required to wear masks.

Meanwhile, despite pressure from parents and opposition parties, the state government has remained firm on holding physical classes in schools and educational institutions since January 17, following the Sankranti vacations.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Bengaluru, Feb 1 : A collective effort from Bengaluru Bulls helped them beat U.P. Yoddha 31-26 in the second match of Day 3 in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 8's Rivalry Week. Pawan Sehrawat scored nine raid points for the Bulls, but it was their defence that made a difference with left corner Aman picking up a High 5 (7 tackle points).

Bengaluru went into the match with just one win in six matches, but their defence was certainly tuned in for the U.P. challenge. They ensured Yoddha's Pardeep Narwal and Surender Gill had a poor outing. Yoddha can only blame their raiders for the results as their defence matched the Bulls throughout the encounter. Nitesh Kumar picked up a High 5 while Ashu Singh and Sumit picked four points each for U.P.

Bengaluru Bulls edged a closely-contested first half that was dominated by the defences. Yoddha's defence, especially right corner Nitesh Kumar, stopped Pawan Sehrawat from his natural game. But the U.P. attackers couldn't compliment the good work done by their defence.

Pardeep Narwal struggled to find space against an aggressive Bulls defence who had Saurabh Nandal returning to the starting 7. The Bulls kept reviving Pawan Sehrawat and eventually his quality made a difference as he helped his side clinch an all-out with under five minutes remaining. Bharat also contributed in raids as the Bulls ended the first half on a high with the scores 19-13.

U.P. matched the Bulls blow for blow in the early minutes of the second half. The defences once again ruled the mat as the raiders found it difficult to get going. Surender Gill thought he got a five-point Super Raid when his hands sneaked out of a pile of Bulls defenders to the mid-line, but video replays showed he was short by a very small margin. Nitesh Kumar picked up his High 5 as UP reduced the Bulls' lead to five points with 10 minutes to spare.

Bulls' corner combination curtailed Yoddha's growing momentum after the first Time Out. Aman picked up his High five with great support from Saurabh Nandal as the Bulls extended their lead to 9 points.

Surender Gill got unnecessarily involved in the defence, perhaps affected by Pardeep Narwal's presence in the safest area of the mat and had to head to the dugout as Yoddha were staging a comeback. Pardeep's movement on the mat left a lot to be desired and the U.P perhaps missed a trick by not substituting him for longer periods.

G.B. More's presence on the mat added more steel to the Bulls' defence as they defended their lead in the dying minutes. The win will give the Bulls much-needed confidence in their attempt to finish on top of the points table.
New Delhi, Feb 1 : Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday dismissed claims that the Narendra Modi government had not done anything for job creation, despite the impact of the Covid pandemic.

"I would definitely like to speak on the job creation efforts by our government. Don't forget that because of the pandemic, situations globally were very turbulent. There were major job loss situations in so many countries, so the same happened here also, but through Atma Nirbhar Bharat, we had made so many development-related announcements which helped people during the pandemic.

"We are helping all those who suffered losses during the pandemic, but it's not right to say that we haven't done anything for job creation," she said to queries on measures for job creation in Union Budget 2022-23.

In her budget speech, she had said that the capital investment holds the key to speedy and sustained economic revival and consolidation through its multiplier effect. Capital investment also helps in creating employment opportunities, inducing enhanced demand for manufactured inputs from large industries and MSMEs, services from professionals, and helping farmers through better agri-infrastructure.

"The economy has shown strong resilience to come out of the effects of the pandemic with high growth. However, we need to sustain that level to make up for the setback of 2020-21. The outlay for capital expenditure in the Union Budget is once again being stepped up sharply by 35.4 per cent from Rs 5.54 lakh crore in the current year to Rs 7.50 lakh crore in 2022-23. This has increased to more than 2.2 times the expenditure of 2019-20. This outlay in 2022-23 will be 2.9 percent of GDP," she added.

With this investment taken together with the provision made for creation of capital assets through grants-in-aid to States, the effective capital expenditure of the Central government is estimated at Rs 10.68 lakh crore in 2022-23, which will be about 4.1 per cent of GDP, she added.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Guwahati, Feb 2 : Union Ministers from and Chief Ministers of the northeastern states praised the Union Budget 2022-23, saying that it would open new avenues of economic development and would play a major role in the all-round growth of the region.

Union Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal said that the Budget is pro-development and inclusive and it would contribute immensely towards growth.

The former Assam Chief Minister, hailed the special announcement made for the region through empowering the North Eastern Council (NEC).

"People of the northeast region are happy for the sustained focus received during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and it has already made significant progress which is only going to continue. The special focus towards the economic growth of the country is expected via ramped up infrastructure development under the Prime Minister Gati Shakti model and the budget would lead to generation of employment opportunities in the country," he said.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the Union Budget 2022-23 would boost the post-Covid pandemic economy of the states. "The budget would facilitate the states to recover the economy which was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Assam would get Rs 25,000 crore instead of earlier Rs 20,000 crore as share of Central taxes. Other states of the country would also get the similar benefits," he told the media.

He said as the allocation increased by ten times, they were expecting that Assam would get the capital expenditure of Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 crore instead of earlier Rs 400 crore.

"Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also increased the limitations of loan taken by the state governments time to time," Sarma added.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said that the budget would open new avenues of economic development and would play a major role in the development of the NE region through the new development initiative -- Prime Minister's Development Initiative for North-East (PM-DevINE).

"The PM-DevINE is a scheme in the spirit of PM Gati Shakti to fund social development projects in NE. It will further develop the region and make it the Ashtalakshmi of the country's economy," he told the media terming the budget as pro-farmer and pro-poor budget that would benefit all sectors of economy.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma tweeted: "North East is grateful to PM Narendra Modi and FM Nirmala Sitharaman for announcing the PM's Development Initiative in the Budget-2022 which will fund infra & social development projects in NE, in the spirit of PM Gati Shakti, enabling livelihood opportunities for youth & women." Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh tweeted: "Union Budget will facilitate the ease of living and doing business, 'One Nation, One Registration' will be established.

"PM Gati Shakti Master Plan will give a major boost to the economy and create tremendous job opportunities for the youths of India." Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Pratima Bhoumik, in a tweet, said that the Budget outlines the vision of the PM for the transformation, growth and development of North-East India.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bengaluru, Feb 2 : Hundreds of animal lovers participated in the last rites of Lara - the street dog who was killed after a youth deliberately ran his luxury Audi car over it. Sandalwood actress turned politician Ramya also joined the crowd assembled to the mourn the demise.

The cremation of Lara was done as per the Hindu rituals at Sumanahalli animal crematorium on Tuesday. The body was brought to the crematorium in an ambulance.

Gayathri, who fed Lara since she was a puppy, was also present. School children also joined the mourning and condemned the death by holding posters against animal cruelty. They also brought flowers for the deceased canine.

Actress Ramya speaking after the cremation stated, "Accidents do happen. Human beings do commit mistakes. But, in this case, the dog has been run over deliberately. We couldn't tolerate this act. Laws regarding animals are not strict in our country. The accused pay Rs 50 and come out. Empathy is not be only for human beings, it should also be there for the animals.".

She urged the government to strengthen the laws against animal cruelty.

Earlier, condemning the act, Ramya had appealed on social media for animal lovers to attend the cremation of Lara. After the cremation, she thanked people who "loved and cared" for Lara. She said they inspired her.

Karnataka police have booked FIR against a 23-year-old youth for deliberately running his luxury Audi car on Lara, while it was sleeping by the roadside. The accused was identified as Adhi, son of an industrialist and belongs to a political family. He was arrested and given bail on the same day.

The case was lodged at Siddapur police in Bengaluru on the complaint by M.S. Badri Prasad, a resident of Jayanagar, where the incident took place. According to the complaint, the accused had taken reverse and deliberately ran his car over the sleeping dog.

The complainant has stated that the accused Adhi drove purposefully with an intention of killing the street dog. The dog was found dead on Tuesday morning. The complainant had asked for legal action against the youth for the crime. The investigation is on.

The case has been booked under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 Section 11, IPC Section 428. The CCTV footage has gone viral on social media and provoked outrage among the public.
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With my stories, I want to show how much is possible in spite of what one might have been told as the impossible dream.

Brigitte Bruggemanns memoir Growing Wings: A Story of Becoming (published by Archway Publishing) shares a poetic account of the authors life as a native of Germany and a child in World War II, following her passion for art and calling to become an artist. She follows her spiritual path and purpose, getting lost in detours at times with doubts and heartbreaks, but finds signposts here and there to show the way.

In the book, the author first shares her at times traumatic experience and perspective as a child during and after World War II, overcoming a dysfunctional family life. After living in Paris, London and the Caribbean, she came to the United States, became an art student, and art professor, defying the starving artist myth by becoming a successful artist. When speaking of her paintings and process, Bruggemann speaks about how she wants to bring joy and light with brilliant color and abstract form into peoples living rooms. The book includes color images of her painting and her poetry to show the relevance between art and life.

With my stories, I want to show how much is possible in spite of what one might have been told as the impossible dream, Bruggemann says. I want to inspire people to follow their bliss.

Growing Wings is available for purchase online at the Archway link above, from Barnes & Noble and on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Wings-Becoming-Brigitte-Brggemann/dp/1665709499.

Growing Wings

By Brigitte Bruggemann

Hardcover | 8.5 x 8.5 in | 178 pages | ISBN 9781665709491

Softcover | 8.5 x 8.5 in | 178 pages | ISBN 9781665709507

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About the Author

Brigitte Bruggemann, a painter living in New Mexico, was born during World War II in Germany. Her childhood memories of wartime, bombings, destruction, trauma of family dysfunction, and poverty deeply affected her psyche but contributed to who she is today, forever seeking peace and light. Her love for art is her guiding light in her search for her spiritual and personal identity, leading her to become a successful painter. Her art feeds the soul and lifts the spirit. Bruggemann lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. More information is available online at: http://www.brigittebruggemann.com.

Simon & Schuster, a company with nearly ninety years of publishing experience, has teamed up with Author Solutions, LLC, the worldwide leader in self-publishing, to create Archway Publishing. With unique resources to support books of all kind, Archway Publishing offers a specialized approach to help every author reach his or her desired audience. For more information, visit archwaypublishing.com or call 844-669-3957.
We believe Tillman Scholars are the answer for the growing leadership gap in this country and we are thrilled to invite military veterans and spouses with a commitment to impact to join our growing community of leaders Dan Futrell, CEO and 2011 Tillman Scholar

The Pat Tillman Foundation today opened the annual application process for the Tillman Scholars program. Eligible military service members, veterans and spouses can apply to join the 2022 class of Tillman Scholars until Monday, February 28, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. PT.

For specific details on eligibility and to apply online, please visit http://apply.ptf.org

Pats legacy of service, humble leadership, scholarship and impact lives on through the passion of our Tillman Scholars, says Marie Tillman, board chair and co-founder. We are excited to identify a new class of 60 remarkable veterans and military spouses who embrace those values and to help them pursue their passion and develop as leaders.

PTF will notify applicants of selection results no later than June 2022. Scholarships will be granted for the 2022-2023 academic year and are eligible for renewal.

We support the growth and success of our Tillman Scholar community, not just with a scholarship, but with a lifetime investment in their continued development, says Dan Futrell, CEO and 2011 Tillman Scholar. We believe Tillman Scholars are the answer for the growing leadership gap in this country and we are thrilled to invite military veterans and spouses with a commitment to impact to join our growing community of leaders.

About the Tillman Scholars Program

The Tillman Scholars program supports our nations active-duty service members, veterans, and military spouses by investing in academic scholarships, connecting them to a national network and providing professional development opportunities. The program covers direct study-related expenses including tuition and fees, living expenses, and books for scholars pursuing undergraduate, graduate, or professional degrees as a full-time student at a public or private, U.S.-based, accredited institution.

Tillman Scholars must demonstrate extraordinary academic and leadership potential, a track record of perseverance, and a deep desire to impact change in our country and communities through their studies in medicine, law, business, policy, technology, education and the arts. The Pat Tillman Foundation has invested more than $22 million in academic support since 2004, and has named more than 750 Tillman Scholars at more than 100 academic institutions nationwide.

2022-2023 UNIVERSITY PARTNERS

As official University Partners, these institutions offer strong veteran-specific services and a culture of support for military veterans and spouses while providing rigorous academic experiences. University Partners are established on an invitation-only basis, and help identify and select qualified Tillman Scholar candidates on their campus and help grow the Tillman Scholar community.

The 16 University Partner institutions are: Arizona State University; Columbia University; Georgetown University; The George Washington University; Indiana University; Texas A&M University; The Ohio State University; Syracuse University; University of Arizona; University of Maryland; University of Minnesota; University of Missouri System; University of Oklahoma; University of South Florida; Florida A&M University; and University of California, Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE PAT TILLMAN FOUNDATION

The Pat Tillman Foundation identifies remarkable veterans and military spouses as the next generation of leaders and helps them scale their impact as they enter their next chapter of service beyond self through academic scholarships, lifelong leadership development, and a global community of peers and supporters. For more information on the Pat Tillman Foundation and the impact of the Tillman Scholars, visit pattillmanfoundation.org.


ASEA, a global leader in redox technology, announced today the appointment of Kelly Rich as senior vice president (SVP) of Global Sales and Anddrew Tan as general manager (GM) for Malaysia and Singapore. These two new hires will partner with, support, and help grow ASEAs associate field base.

Kelly Rich, SVP of Global Sales, is responsible for global sales results and will partner with ASEA leadership to create, direct, and implement region-specific strategies as part of the overall global sales vision. Rich will report directly to ASEA Chief Revenue Officer Jorg Hoche.

Anddrew Tan, GM for Malaysia and Singapore, is responsible for the Malaysia and Singapore offices and field. He will be a liaison between corporate and the growing Malaysia and Singapore markets. Tan will report to Asia Regional Vice President Howard Chow.

Adding to a diverse and dynamic sales organization, Kelly and Anddrew bring us additional expertise for a changing sales landscape, said Hoche. They will support our strategic sales vision, implement key strategic company goals and initiatives, and align our internal sales teams to position ASEA for continued growth. We are thrilled to welcome them both.

Rich joins ASEA with more than 20 years of experience in high-impact roles at leading companies, as well as experience working in 25 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. She has emerged among the nations most accomplished female executives in the health and wellness industry and was awarded a 2021 Gold Stevie Award, one of the world's premier business awards, as Female Executive of the Year. Rich possesses strong relationship-building skills and a strategic mindset. She has served in executive leadership positions for the last 10 years, and, throughout her career, she has led company transformation efforts (customer acquisition, specifically), opened new markets, and driven increased sales and bottom-line results. Rich is passionate about the direct sales business and opportunity and truly sees associates as her business partners.

Tan joins ASEA with more than 18 years of direct sales experience in Southeast Asia. He brings a wide range of experience in sales, marketing, operations, logistics, communications, and general finance, and he is well experienced in managing retail outlets, points of sale, and assessing and enhancing processes. Tans professional expertise offers skills that transform organizations and key people to grow their businesses in positive and effective ways.

Press contact:

Kelly Kass

KellyKassPR@gmail.com

ASEA, a global leader in redox technology, is dedicated to delivering high-quality cellular health products through a principles-based, direct-selling business model. Harnessing science, ASEA offers first-to-market products that utilize molecules natural to the human body that support cellular functions. ASEAs cornerstone, patented redox signaling technology supports the bodys natural cellular renewal and communication as well as signals the regulation of genetic pathways, supporting body health and functions. Currently, redox signaling technology is available in three first-to-market products: ASEA Redox Cell Signaling Supplement, the companys flagship liquid supplement; RENU28 Revitalizing Redox Gel, an age-fighting, cellular-rejuvenating gel for the entire body; and RENUAdvanced Intensive Redox Serum, an ultra-concentrated, anti-aging skincare. ASEA offers other cellular health products that round out the RENUAdvanced skincare system as well as nutritional supplements to power the potential of your cells, your body, and your life to feel your very best. Founded in 2010, ASEA currently operates in 33 international markets. For more information about ASEA products or the accompanying business opportunity, visit ASEA Cellular Health.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Hotel Madero Selects INTELITY Platform By implementing the INTELITY platform, well be able to automate operations for staff, and elevate the guest experience in a new way.

INTELITY, provider of hospitalitys broadest guest experience and staff management platform, announced today a new deal with Hotel Madero in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The modern hotel will implement the entire INTELITY platform, including a branded mobile app, mobile check-in, mobile key, smart-room tablets, and GEMS, INTELITYs staff-facing suite of tools.

Located in Puerto Madero, the new and exclusive neighborhood in Buenos Aires, the 197-room Hotel Madero reflects the chic and luxurious area that surrounds it. The property features spacious guest rooms with private balconies overlooking the city and unique artwork by local artists. Guests can enjoy the hotels many amenities including a full spa, sauna, a heated pool and a fitness center. The hotel also offers fine dining at their award-winning restaurant, Red Resto & Lounge, and a trendy bar with an outdoor patio. Spacious event rooms are also available throughout the hotel for business or social gatherings.

At Hotel Madero, we are committed to create unforgettable experiences for our guests, from the moment they walk through the doors and long after their departure, said Natalia Shargorodsky, CEO at Hotel Madero. By implementing the INTELITY platform, well be able to automate operations for staff, and elevate the guest experience in a new way.

The INTELITY platforms mobile app and smart-room tablets are set to dramatically alter the guest experience at Hotel Madero, delivering an unparalleled level of convenience for visitors. Using the app or tablets, guests will be able to access hotel information, order in-room dining, make amenities and restaurant reservations, and contact staff with special requests. Smart-room tablets replace printed compendiums and menus, and serve as a digital concierge enabling guests to access hotel information, restaurant menus, and nearby attractions.

Additionally, the INTELITY platforms backend system, GEMS, will automate guest requests and orders, streamline service and deliver business insights to the management team, allowing them to make adjustments and more finely tune operations accordingly.

INTELITY is thrilled to partner with Hotel Madero, the exquisite property dedicated to offering guests unique experiences through its design and their many amenities, said Robert Stevenson, INTELITY CEO. With the INTELITY platform, every part of the guest journey will be connected through the hotels branded app, providing Hotel Maderos guests with a more seamless, convenient and memorable experience.

For more information on the INTELITY platform or to request a demo, please visit http://www.intelity.com/demo. To learn more about Hotel Madero, please visit http://www.hotelmadero.com/en.

About INTELITY

INTELITY is the global leader in contactless guest experience technology, uniting mobile, in-room, and operational tools into one fully-integrated hospitality platform. Built for the hotel, casino, and luxury residential markets, INTELITY has been named the Official Mobile and In-Room Technology Provider by the distinguished Forbes Travel Guide for five consecutive years and is in use at boutique properties, casino-resorts, and global hotel brands, including Marriott, Fairmont, Hard Rock, and more. For more information, visit http://www.intelity.com.

About Hotel Madero

Hotel Madero is an outstanding contemporary Buenos Aires hotel, located in the ultra-stylish Puerto Madero area, close to the historic center and financial quarter with great transport links to the airport. As innovative as the district that surrounds it, Hotel Madero Buenos Aires, blends vibrant design with warm hospitality. Fine dining entices at the award-winning Red Resto & Lodge, while the White Bar is known for its music and sushi. Guests have full access to the health club, with fitness center, pool, spa, and a fantastic panoramic view. Hotel Madero is a part of WorldHotels Elite collection. Comfort combines with chic ambience in Hotel Maderos 197 luxurious rooms and suites, which all come equipped with climate control, safe, LCD television, high-speed wireless internet, 24-hour room service and an exclusive personal bar. To book your stay at this stunning Buenos Aires hotel, please see our rates and availability for the Hotel Madero Buenos Aires. Our priority is the well-being and tranquility of our guests. https://www.hotelmadero.com/en/.


Galves on the Carbly platform gives our customers a powerful tool for making better inventory decisions

Ambient Automotive (Carbly) is excited to announce the addition of Galves vehicle values and market data to the Carbly platform. The integration allows automotive dealers to view Galves vehicle trade-in values and market-ready values from within the Carbly mobile app, desktop app and browser extension.

With roots tracing back to the 1920s, Galves is one of the oldest automotive wholesale businesses in the United States, offering its first vehicle pricing guidebook in 1957. Galves values are driven by thousands of vehicle transactions, updated each day and analyzed by a team of remarketing specialists.

"With the volatility in today's market, we are thrilled to give dealers the option to add Galves values to their Carbly subscription" said Robert Younger, CEO of Galves Market Data. "Carbly and Galves combine to give dealers the very best possible tools to make more money buying and selling cars."

With this addition, Carbly now provides vehicle pricing data from 8 data sources, including Kelley Blue Book, J.D. Power, Manheim, Black Book, EDGE Pipeline and more. By combining data sets, Carbly enables dealers to visualize price differences and variance between data sources to make more informed buying and selling decisions. Data includes vehicle pricing for trade-in, wholesale, and retail - covering the full spectrum of dealership transactions.

Along with vehicle pricing data, Carbly provides dealership collaboration tools to let automotive teams work together effortlessly. Combining these pricing and collaboration tools with nation-wide auction run lists and the most powerful VIN scanner, Carbly delivers everything a dealer needs to streamline their operations.

This partnership advances our common goal of making our dealers more money said Scott Roth, CEO of Ambient Automotive. Galves on the Carbly platform gives our customers a powerful tool for making better inventory decisions.

Galves is immediately available on the Carbly dealer platform, with a 2-week free trial for licensed automotive professionals.

Learn more at GetCarbly.com

About Carbly

Carbly was founded in 2017 with the goal of helping car dealers make informed, data-driven decisions regarding vehicle sourcing, valuation and inventory management. Blending world-class technology and user-centered design, the Carbly team has an established track record of building robust business solutions across numerous industries.

About Galves

With roots tracing back to the 1920s, Galves is one of the oldest automotive wholesale businesses in the United States. After buying and selling hundreds of vehicles each month, M.C. Galves recognized the need for a reliable pricing guide to assist dealers in a rapidly evolving marketplace. After assimilating historical vehicle data and transactional prices, the first Galves book was printed in 1957, and continues to the present day with digital offerings and tech-enabled datasets.
Self-Discovery and Identity: an empowering opportunity for personal and spiritual growth. Self-Discovery and Identity is the creation of published author Chris Christian.

Christian shares, This book has both revelation and expository knowledge of how a man can discover himself. The book is like a loaded gun which points at darkness so as to bring people to light. It spent its virtues on revealing the principles of self-discovery and identity. The revelation is so desperate in alleviating the pains and ordinariness of men by telling them who they are. When a man discovers himself, he becomes a supernatural man. The clothing of men with the jacket of revelation and accomplishment of great exploit is an opportunity that is reserved for men who have discovered themselves. It is only men who have discovered themselves that can take their place in God.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Chris Christians new book will challenge and encourage believers to claim their identities.

Christian shares in hopes of empowering others through self-discovery and dedicated faith.

Consumers can purchase Self-Discovery and Identity at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Self-Discovery and Identity, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
We have always considered our employees the true backbone of this company," said City Electric Supply Co-Chief Operating Officer John Gray. "Without their hard work and perseverance, City Electric Supply would not experience so many successes within our business."

The year of 2021 brought several achievements for electrical wholesale distributor, City Electric Supply (CES). The company opened 22 branches across the United States, including the first branch on the island of Puerto Rico. From bringing back in-person events, to providing jobs for a record number of employees, the company celebrated numerous milestones. With an increase in sales of 40 percent year to date, none of this would be possible without the dedication from CES employees, customers, and vendors.

The past year has brought a lot of growth to our company, not only in our mainly focused branch network, but also within our supporting and specialty departments, said Co-Chief Operating Officer Andrew Dawes. Were looking forward to building off of this growth, firstly with new locations and also by adding additional resources, including CES Online and our warehouse distribution centers.

In 2021, CES celebrated the opening of the first branch on the US territory of Puerto Rico. CES is thrilled to have a presence on the island, ready to help with various projects. The company now has over 600 branches across North America, and over 1,000 worldwide. As a family-owned business, CES considers employees part of a family network that spans across the globe. Despite the pandemic, the company was able to expand its branch network and now employs more than 3,600 people across the U.S., allowing opportunities for more people in the industry.

We have always considered our employees the true backbone of this company. Without their hard work and perseverance, City Electric Supply would not experience so many successes within our business, said Co-Chief Operating Officer John Gray. We hope to continue to grow and succeed as long as we keep the focus on our people.

The company is developing a larger footprint in the renewables market going into the new year. CES acquired Soligent, the largest pure-play solar distributor in the Americas. Soligent is taking on leadership of CESs Renewables division and will work closely with CESs extensive branch and distribution network to provide a wide range of solar product offerings to even more customers.

We are committed to providing access to renewable energy equipment and know Soligent shares our passion for delivering best-in-class experiences to customers, said CES President and CEO Thomas Hartland-Mackie. We are excited to team up and advance our shared goal to provide sustainable options to our communities through our combined expertise and experience in the residential and commercial solar energy space.

The company also appointed two new global positions to help connect our European and North American business teams across a global strategy. Phil Flaherty was appointed as the companys Global Chief Financial Officer. Starting at an entry level position as an office assistant, Flaherty began his journey with CES over 30 years ago. Now, he is excited to continue to grow and evolve the financial strategy across the entire company.

One of our continued priorities will be to support the commercial teams and branches, said CES Global CFO Phil Flaherty. As I work with our local teams around the world, I believe we can harness the best practices and ideas to implement within our organization.

The second global role is Global Chief Marketing Officer, Mehdi Tabrizi. Tabrizi has over 20 years of experience in business to business and business to consumer marketing.

We are continuously seeking ways to gain more market share globally, and the pandemic has certainly shown us that a strategic global perspective is important now more than ever, said Hartland-Mackie.

With CES reaching new heights in the year 2021, the company is looking forward to hitting more milestones with customers, vendors, and employees.

About City Electric Supply (CES) is a family-owned electrical wholesale distributor headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The company was founded in 1951 by Tom Mackie in the United Kingdom and expanded to the United States in 1983. Today, CES employs more than 3,000 people in over 500 branches across the U.S.

CES is dedicated to providing personalized service and support for customers in the residential, commercial, and industrial marketplace. While CES is a large company, it prides itself in keeping its founding principle of empowering people to make local business decisions by providing customers tailored services for all their electric supply needs.

###

Media Contact:

Emily Davis

Public Relations Specialist

City Electric Supply

Emily.Davis@cityelectricsupply.com
Compugen Systems Inc. At CSI, we are proud to be in a position to provide IT employment opportunities across the country, at a time when technology innovation and execution is so critical to how we work, how we communicate, and how we live.

Compugen Systems Inc (CSI)., today reports $8M in U.S. revenue for 2021, up from $4M the previous year, as well as a notable uptick in its client portfolio, now serving over 100 companies throughout the U.S. Key industries of focus include energy, retail, manufacturing, and healthcare in the mid-market space.

President Terry Mirza acknowledges the continued need for workspace transformation, backed by the strength of a resilient IT partner, as a contributing growth factor.

Mirza says, At CSI, we are proud to be in a position to provide IT employment opportunities across the country, at a time when technology innovation and execution is so critical to how we work, how we communicate, and how we live. We are guided by a mission to drive change through technology in a way that creates a positive, rippling impact on the world around us. One way the company lives this mission of sustainable IT is through its Green4Good program which bridges technology needs with corporate citizenship.

Opening its first states-based location in 2015 in Houston, Texas, CSI is an affiliate of Compugen Inc out of Canada. The company provides IT solutions for the modern workspace, with offerings around hybrid IT, networking, security, and managed services.

To learn more, visit CSIs Customer Experience Center; a virtual library of thought leadership content designed to help business leaders utilize technology in a way that impacts the world for the better.

About Compugen Systems Inc.

Compugen Systems, Inc. (CSI,) an affiliate of Compugen Inc., is an IT service delivery company that focuses on enabling your business outcomes. By coupling innovative technology-based services in the Modern Workspace and Hybrid IT with our uniquely crafted managed, professional, and field services; were redefining the customer experience. We believe that every day we have, is another opportunity to innovate, inspire, and impact our world for the better. Join us at http://www.compugen.us.
Cybereason, the XDR company, today announced that it has discovered previously unidentified malware variants being leveraged in two separate Iranian state-sponsored cyberespionage operations targeting a wide range of organizations in multiple global regions.

One of the malicious operations is deploying ransomware against targets following data exfiltration in order to inflict damage to systems as well as to hamper forensic investigations, and the other showed a connection to the recently documented Memento ransomware. This research closely follows an announcement by U.S. Cyber Commands Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF) regarding multiple open-source tools being abused by Iranian threat actors, with Cybereason researchers having similarly observed open-source tools abused in both of the Iranian attack campaigns investigated.

The StrifeWater RAT Report

Cybereason researchers discovered a previously undocumented remote access trojan (RAT) dubbed StrifeWater that the company attributes to Iranian threat actor Moses Staff. This APT has been observed targeting organizations in the US, Israel, India, Germany, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Chile and Turkey in order to further the geopolitical goals of the Iranian regime. After infiltrating an organization and exfiltrating sensitive data, the attackers deploy destructive ransomware to cause operational disruptions and make the task of forensic investigation more difficult.

Key Findings



Novel Remote Access Trojan (RAT): The previously undocumented StrifeWater RAT is used in the initial phase of infection and is later replaced with other tools, a tactic likely used to allow the malware to remain undiscovered until now.

Various Functionality: The StrifeWater RAT capabilities include: listing system files, executing system commands, taking screen captures, creating persistence and downloading updates and auxiliary modules.

State-Sponsored Ransomware: Moses Staff employs ransomware post-exfiltrationnot for financial gain, but to disrupt operations, obfuscate espionage activity, and to inflict damage to systems to advance Irans geopolitical goals.

Full Report: StrifeWater RAT: Iranian APT Moses Staff Adds New Trojan to Ransomware Operations

The PowerLess Backdoor Report

Cybereason researchers discovered a new set of tools developed by the Phosphorus group (AKA Charming Kitten, APT35) that includes a novel PowerShell-based backdoor dubbed PowerLess. Cybereason also observed an IP address used in the attacks that was previously identified as part of the command and control (C2) for the recently documented Memento ransomware. Phosphorus is known for attacking medical and academic research organizations, human rights activists, the media sector, for exploiting known Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities and for attempting to interfere with US elections.

Key Findings

Novel PowerShell Backdoor: The previously undocumented backdoor PowerLess includes additional payloads including a keylogger and an info stealer.

Evasive PowerShell Execution: The PowerShell code runs in the context of a .NET application so it does not launch powershell.exe which enables it to evade security products.

Modular Malware: The toolset analyzed includes extremely modular, multi-staged malware that decrypts and deploys additional payloads in several stages for the sake of both stealth and efficacy.

Shared IOCs with Memento Ransomware: One of the IP addresses serves a domain which is being used as command and control (C2) for the recently discovered Memento Ransomware.

Use of Publicly Available Exploits: The Phosphorus Group has been observed exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange (ProxyShell) and Log4j (Log4Shell).

Full Report: PowerLess Trojan: Iranian APT Phosphorus Adds Novel PowerShell Backdoor for Espionage

These campaigns highlight the blurred line between nation-state and cybercrime threat actors, where ransomware gangs are more often employing APT-like tactics to infiltrate as much of a targeted network as possible without being detected, and APTs leveraging cybercrime tools like ransomware to distract, destroy and ultimately cover their tracks, said Cybereason co-founder and CEO Lior Div. For Defenders, there is no longer a significant distinction between nation-state adversaries and sophisticated cybercriminal operations. Thats why it is crucial for us as Defenders to collectively improve our detection and prevention capabilities if we are going to keep pace with these evolving threats.

About Cybereason

Cybereason is the XDR company, partnering with Defenders to end attacks at the endpoint, in the cloud and across the entire enterprise ecosystem. Only the AI-driven Cybereason XDR Platform provides planetary-scale data ingestion, operation-centric MalOp detection, and predictive response that is undefeated against modern ransomware and advanced attack techniques. Cybereason is a privately held international company headquartered in Boston with customers in more than 40 countries.

Learn more: https://www.cybereason.com/

Follow us: Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Media Contacts:

Bill Keeler

Senior Director, Global Public Relations

Cybereason

bill.keeler@cybereason.com

(929) 259-3261
As 2022 gets into swing, Famous Toastery, the 25-plus unit better breakfast, brunch and lunch franchise, is well on its way to reaching its goal of 50 units by 2024. The brands CEO and founder Robert Maynard, says the brand is on track to close 1012 new franchise deals in 2022. Five to seven of those deals will be in North Carolina, and the rest in South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Florida.

Key to that growth, says Maynard, is Famous Toasterys commitment to its famous food and service.

We've stayed true to our mission, guaranteeing that our food is fresh and made in-house every single day, said Maynard. We don't just use the word fresh and have frozen tomato soup come in, or have nitrate-filled turkey come in. We roast our own turkey. We make our own soup. We make our own salad dressings. We make every omelet in a pan. We get top-of-the-line items. We don't cut corners on food. That's the big differentiator between us and our competitors.

The franchises transparency with prospective investors is another critical factor in its growth, Maynard says. Interested franchisees are invited to observe the ins and outs of the operations at any store or the corporate headquarters.

We put our money where our mouth is, meaning, we don't say one thing and then do another, Maynard said. We actually do what we say we're going to do, and that's what we've always been known for.

Maynard notes that this years addition of Michael Mabry to the team as president has bolstered franchisee support as the brand continues to grow. The franchise is also bolstering its franchise support by dedicating a team a member who will be working directly with franchisees directly as they open and grow.

This role will be dedicated strictly to the franchisees, both existing and new ones that are opening, said Maynard. They'll have much more dedicated, goal-oriented and driven support.

Mabry says the brands plans to expand throughout the Carolinas will ensure that new franchisees receive their famous support as they launch.

The Carolinas and a few adjoining states will have that base of consumers that recognize the brand. After all, we are famous in North Carolina. And one of the things that we feel is important is to become famous in our current markets before we start to expand into new ones, Mabry said. Quite frankly, the amount of guests that come in from other towns and express interest in opening the franchise in their home markets is exciting. We're really just listening to what our fans are telling us, looking at the demand and making the strategic decisions along the way.

As the brand continues to expand throughout North Carolina and the southeast region, Maynard says maintaining quality in both restaurant offerings and franchisee support comes down to executing on the existing model.

Its all about execution, said Maynard. We have the choice to muddle our system down with subpar service and food and make a little more money, but then we wouldn't be able to call ourselves the better breakfast franchise. Anything can be systematized; franchising is all about making things easier and faster in different aspects. The concept Famous Toastery chose was not to change how we source our food and how we prepare that fresh, made-to-order style that is so loved. Thats staying in our core model. Its what makes us who we are; it's not, it's not rocket science. It's just execution.

Learn more about franchising here: https://1851franchise.com/famoustoastery

ABOUT FAMOUS TOASTERY:

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Famous Toastery began in 2005 in a small house-turned-restaurant where best friends Brian Burchill and Robert Maynard opened their first breakfast spot. Never compromising fresh ingredients or friendly service, Famous Toastery evolved into a franchise system in 2013 and now has over 25 locations. In 2020 and 2019, Famous Toastery placed on Restaurant Business' The Future 50, featuring the fastest-growing small chains. Famous Toastery was ranked No. 9 in the Full-Service Restaurants category of Entrepreneur Magazines Top Food Franchises of 2019 and on Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500 Rankings in 2019. In 2018, Famous Toastery received recognition by CNBC as a top franchise to buy, FSR Magazine as one of the Top 14 restaurant chains ready for lift-off, Inc. 5000s list of the fastest growing companies and Franchise Times' Top 200+ franchise opportunities. For more information about Famous Toastery, visit http://www.famoustoastery.com.
KanTime represents the most intuitive clinical platform we evaluated while providing us with the omnichannel, real-time connectivity across multiple devices that our users demand."

KanTime, the fastest growing post-acute care EHR software provider in the nation, today announced a partnership with Gulfside Healthcare Services, Inc. to deploy its web-based electronic health record (EHR) technology solutions. Headquartered in Land O Lakes, FL, Gulfside implemented KanTime in late 2021, finalizing rollouts to all locations and all lines of business through the first quarter of 2022. By partnering with KanTime, Gulfside will enhance compliance and efficiency while providing the continuum of post-acute patient care services to their over 1,000 patients across five branches and three Florida counties.

After an extensive review of multiple EHR systems, Gulfside selected KanTimes platform to drive workflow efficiencies and compliance rules across their multiple lines of business and payors to free their providers to focus on delivering quality care to their patients and their families. KanTime provides a solution that fulfills Gulfsides need for a comprehensive technology partner that supports their entire continuum of care, which includes care navigation, home health, palliative care, hospice, medication management, HIPAA-compliant secure messaging, and the freedom to expand into virtually any post-acute Line of Business or payor in the future without having first to acquire a new software platform.

Darren Ghanayem, Chief Information Officer at Gulfside Healthcare Services, Inc., shared:

KanTime represents the most intuitive clinical platform we evaluated while providing us with the omnichannel, real-time connectivity across multiple devices that our users demand. The user experience and screen layout across configurable role-based dashboards allow our staff to focus on items pertinent to their specific roles, Darren stated. Gulfside is embarking on a digital modernization strategy which focuses on solving business problems with digital connectivity  KanTime fits that philosophy.

Sundar Kannan, Chief Executive Officer at KanTime Healthcare Software, is honored to have Gulfside join the KanTim customer family.

We are impressed by the broad array of services that Gulfside compassionately provides to the large and varied patient census, Sundar said. We look forward to sharing their growth after implementing our software and providing them with previously unrealized efficiencies across all their supported lines of business for many years to come.

About KanTime Healthcare Software

KanTime Healthcare Software is an American-based healthcare technology company that is the fastest-growing post-acute software provider in the nation with over 900,000 patients, 210,000 users, $12.9B in processed claims, and 70M annual visits. KanTime provides cloud-based enterprise software to home health, hospice, pediatric, private duty, palliative, and consumer-directed services agencies. KanTime helps agencies improve clinical compliance, increase operational efficiency, and achieve financial success. KanTime works seamlessly on any point of care device, be it iOS, Android, or Windows-based, both online and offline. Additionally, KanTime offers robust business intelligence tools that allow upper-level management to drill down into various clinical, financial, and operational KPIs and act accordingly.

https://kantime.com/

About Gulfside Healthcare Services, Inc

Our goal at Gulfside is to make every day count for patients and their loved ones as they navigate through post-hospitalization recovery, chronic disease, or end-of-life illness. Our compassionate clinical experts provide a team-oriented approach to medical care, pain management, psychosocial and spiritual support. The combined services are individually tailored to a persons needs and wishes. Thus, our trained professionals provide holistic care and support to patients and their network of loved ones. Our journey continues within the healthcare industry to diversify and expand services in providing people with a continuum of care and quality of life. And because we are a non-profit organization, all of our programs and services reflect our mission and culture of serving people in need.

http://www.gulfside.org/
Harris Teeter announces $10,000 donation to Save Our Allies

Harris Teeter announced today a donation of $10,000 to support the resettlement of Afghan families across the company's marketing areas. The donation will help the non-profit, Save Our Allies, evacuate Afghan allies, assist with transition into the United States and help allies with Visa services when they arrive. Harris Teeters donation will go towards helping Afghan families expedite the Visa process so they can begin work, which will ease their transition.

This donation was born after Harris Teeter President, Tammy DeBoer, saw a news story that featured Save Our Allies work with a refugee who escaped Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul. He was one of the very few refugees who had received his work visa since coming to the U.S. and began working at a Harris Teeter store.

"Harris Teeter understands the value and impact of building a strong community, said Nick Palmisciano, Board Member with Save Our Allies Save Our Allies is honored to work in partnership to ensure our Afghan allies have access to meaningful employment, a critical component to dignified resettlement and productivity. We are so grateful for the generosity and support of Harris Teeter in helping us take care of our allies."

Harris Teeter will partner with Save Our Allies to help recruit and employ Afghanistan refugees who are seeking work in Harris Teeter marketing areas.

Its our honor to support Save Our Allies and help our Afghan allies resettle here in the United States, said Tammy DeBoer, President of Harris Teeter. We hope that this grant will provide relief to Afghan families who are starting a new life and help make the transition easier for them. We look forward to helping to employ our Afghan allies once they receive work authorization.

About Save Our Allies

Save Our Allies mission is to rescue American Citizens, Permanent Residents, SIV Holders, and other special populations from Afghanistan and help them navigate the many challenges of being a Refugee in order to form a successful and productive life in the United States.

About Harris Teeter

Harris Teeter, with headquarters in Matthews, N.C., is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR). The regional grocery chain employs approximately 35,000 associates and operates stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Delaware, Florida and the District of Columbia.
The best built homes today are constructed with a holistic approach to the well-being of both people and planet and this means healthy indoor air must be number one on the agenda, said Dr. John McKeon.

Dr. John McKeon, CEO, and Dave Morrissey, CIO of Allergy Standards Limited look forward to attending the International Builders' Show (IBS) in Orlando, Florida taking place on February 8th - 10th 2022. This premier event hosts networking, learning and discovery opportunities through product launches, education sessions and home builder trends and so provides an ideal platform for ASL to showcase their crucial role in the area of healthy indoor environments.

The IBS is a great opportunity for ASL to interact with the building community in a much looked forward to person to person event and to address the growing issues of poor indoor air quality that have been triggered by Covid-19. The health and wellbeing movement, which revolutionized our behaviours and attitudes to how we eat, sleep and monitor our health metrics, has been propelled by the Covid-19 pandemic to focus on the most fundamental of our human health requirements - the air we breathe. Furthermore, the evolution of the smart home provides the construction industry with an ideal framework to create an environment that enables us to sleep, eat and breathe well.

At the show, ASL will connect with clients Owens Corning, Benjamin Moore and Trane who will be exhibiting and showcasing their asthma & allergy friendly products. Also attending are stakeholders Ecomedes and EEBA (Energy and Environmental Building Alliance) and the show offers an opportunity to meet with selected journalists with influence in the area of wellbeing in the built environment. Dr. John McKeon will be speaking at the Owens Corning exhibition stand, a not to be missed interview where Dr. McKeon will examine the impact the indoor environment has on health and highlight Owens Cornings Pure Safety High Performance Insulation, the first insulation to be awarded certification by the asthma & allergy friendly Certification Program, an independent third party certification program jointly run by Allergy Standards Ltd (ASL) and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA).

The best built homes today are constructed with a holistic approach to the well-being of both people and planet and this means healthy indoor air must be number one on the agenda, said Dr. John McKeon. This generation of smart homes will be revolutionary, as it will facilitate the most basic of our health needs - to breath clean air. We are delighted to be attending the IBS, where the elite of the building community gather, providing us with a unique platform to share our expertise in the area of healthy indoor environments.

ASL aims to address the knowledge gap that exists around the concept of a healthy indoor environment by empowering and educating consumers, retailers and manufacturers worldwide. Through the Allergy Standards Academy, ASL runs a variety of learning and development programs providing standards and solutions aiming to optimise the indoor environment to improve health and wellness for all. For instance, the Healthier Homes Awareness course is designed to help those in a customer advisory role. The course teaches how to build a better air quality environment for customers, taking care of customers health and helping them make better, more informed decisions.

For press materials, interview quotes, and high-resolution photography for ASL and more information about the ASL Academy, please contact Allergy Standards.

About Allergy Standards

Our mantra is design thinking and innovation for the air aware consumer. As an independent, international certification company, we create peer-reviewed, scientific standards for a wide range of products and services to determine their impact on indoor air quality. ASLs intellectual property portfolio includes unique protocols for products to be CERTIFIED asthma & allergy friendly. Our mission is to improve lives by empowering people to create the healthiest possible indoor environment through science (ASL Standards), education (ASL Academy) and innovation (ASL Institute).

http://www.allergystandards.com/

About the IBS

Run by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the IBS is the premier event for the international building community, offering products services expertise and educational and networking opportunities at the Orange County Convention Center Orlando, February 8-10th 2022.

https://www.buildersshow.com/
HMP Global, the leading healthcare event and education company, today announced the launch of a sweeping education initiative for mental health clinicians. The Digital Mental Health 360 (DMH360) Education Initiative marks an important step in advancing the field of mental healthcare and improving efficiencies in the treatment of mental health disorders.

Components of the initiative include educational programming, as well as a dedicated online microsite that features an array of educational tools and content  news, expert interviews, presentations, podcasts, and interactive exchange.

The emerging field of Digital Mental Health incorporates both software and hardware  sometimes with drugs or devices  to prevent, manage, or treat mental health disorders. Clinician and stakeholder awareness of these tools is low and often confused with digital therapeutics, digital medicine, telehealth, or wellness applications.

Digital Mental Health promises myriad benefits to clinicians and patients alike, including improved access to and quality of mental healthcare, improved efficiencies and cost savings in care delivery, and improved patient outcomes through more personalized treatment approaches.

"Digital medicine and digital therapeutics are just about ready for primetime in the field of psychiatry and mental health, but now psychiatry needs to be ready for it, said Rakesh Jain, MD, MPH, Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech Health Sciences School of Medicine and DMH360 Curriculum Advisor. Psychiatry is stretched thin and our clinical outcomes are far less than optimum. Digital medicine and therapeutics can act as powerful augmenters to other interventions, and clinicians and patients are both in need of much education on this topic. This is where DMH360 will fill the gap  delivering highly practical, unbiased education, proven strategies, and clinically validated tools with the global mental healthcare community."

Curriculum advisors include:



Steven Chan, MD, MBA, Stanford University School of Medicine

Rakesh Jain, MD, MPH, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center School of Medicine

Saundra Jain, PsyD, Adjunct Clinical Affiliate, University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing

Edward Kaftarian, MD, CEO, Orbit Health Telepsychiatry

Arwen Podesta, MD, Clinical Adjunct Faculty, Tulane University Psychiatry Department; Louisiana State University Department of Psychiatry

The DMH360 Initiative is supported by an educational grant from Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.

To learn more, visit digitalmentalhealth360.com.

ABOUT HMP GLOBAL

HMP Global is the force behind Healthcare Made Practicaland is an omnichannel leader in healthcare content, events, and education, with a mission to improve patient care. The company produces accredited medical education events  in person and online via its proprietary VRTX virtual platform  and clinically relevant, evidence-based content for the global healthcare community across a range of therapeutic areas. Its brands include the HMP Global Learning Network, healthcare's most comprehensive source for news and information; Psych Congress, the largest independent mental health meeting in the U.S.; the Evolution of Psychotherapy, the world's largest independent educational event for mental health professionals; the Leipzig Interventional Course (LINC), the leading, global gathering for interdisciplinary cardiovascular specialists; EMS World Expo, North America's largest EMT and paramedic event; and the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC), the largest wound care meeting in the world. For more information, visit hmpglobal.com.
When looking to buy new coverage for their vehicle, drivers should consider some essential things before making a decision. Things like how much coverage they need, deductible, and coverage limits are important, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog post that presents a guide that can help drivers get the best car insurance policy.

For more info and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/how-much-car-insurance-do-you-really-need/

Drivers who moved to a new state, or have recently bought a new vehicle, are probably searching for a car insurance policy. Every single driver has different coverage needs, budgets, and options available to them. To understand how much coverage they need, drivers should analyze their current situation, weigh their options, and then make an educated decision.

Before getting an insurance quote, drivers should follow the next steps:



List the coverage they have, want, and need. Knowing what is already insured will help the driver in the process of getting new insurance. Without going through this step, drivers might be tempted to pick up the cheapest offer, possibly wasting good money.

Learn about the coverage limits. When buying liability coverage, drivers can see them listed as 100/300/50. This is one of the more common auto insurance policy structures and is also the limit that most insurers currently recommend for liability coverage. The first two numbers represent bodily injury liability coverage and the third represents property damage liability coverage. This means that the insurance policy of a driver involved in an at-fault accident will pay up to $100,000 in injuries per person, $300,000 in injuries per accident, and $50,000 in property damage per accident.

Consider dropping coverage for older vehicles. Drivers of newer vehicles should not have more coverage on their older vehicles. Older vehicles are more likely to break down, have lesser safety features, cost more to repair, and are easier to steal. They also worths less, and in many cases keeping collision coverage doesnt make sense. However, to protect their vehicles from theft, some owners purchase comprehensive coverage.

Consider adding family members to the policy. Anyone who lives under the same roof as the policyholder is eligible to be part of the family plan. When covering an entire family under one policy, the policyholder is eligible for multiple discounts. Also, if there is more than one vehicle in the household, the policyholder can get a discount for insuring multiple cars. Furthermore, the auto insurance policy can be combined with other policies such as homeowners insurance, health insurance, boat insurance, and more.

Consider the deductible limits. The deductible is the amount of money the policyholders need to pay before the insurance kicks in. When buying an insurance policy, drivers should determine how much they can pay for the deductible. To keep car insurance costs to a minimum, drivers can choose the highest deductible. Premiums decrease as the deductible increases.

For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/

Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.
Were excited to have these accomplished individuals join our team as we write the next chapter at NetDocuments. Josh Baxter, CEO, NetDocuments

NetDocuments, the worlds #1 trusted cloud platform where legal professionals do work, today shared the results of an unprecedented 2021. The year of the employee focused on overall team growth, employee and corporate recognition, and leadership team expansion.

The company hired an unprecedented 150 new team members in 2021, accounting for 34% growth compared to 2020. This trend continues with 25 new hires having already been onboarded in January across all functions. NetDocuments has fully embraced the realities of a hybrid work environment with team members representing 30 states and 6 countries.

The teams winning together mantra has resounded across the industry with recognition by international, national, and regional associations, businesses, and rankings. In 2021, NetDocuments was selected by Utah Business magazine as one of Utahs Best Companies to Work For and was recognized by the Salt Lake Tribune for being a top workplace in Utah, and by Top Workplaces in multiple national categories, including Compensation, Top Managers, and Remote Work.

"We are so proud of our entire employee base and the unique culture they have managed to create, stated Claudia Reese, NetDocuments VP of Human Resources. This is particularly impressive based on our remarkable employee growth and the bond the entire team shares.

Talent acquisition and retention remain a central priority with nearly 60 promotions being awarded throughout 2021 and 6 employees earning inter-departmental promotions. This is talent mobility at its best.

2021 was also a banner year for personal accolades and recognition. Alvin Tedjamulia, NetDocuments Chief Technology Officer and co-founder was honored as a 2021 Fastcase 50 winner and last week was recognized for Lifetime Achievement as part of ILTAs 2021 Distinguished Peer Awards. Heather Golovnya, Josh Moore, and McKenzie Mayer were acknowledged during the same award ceremony as part of ILTAs Young Professionals to Watch list. In addition, Scott Kelly, currently product manager at NetDocuments which acquired his company Afterpattern in November, was selected by the ABA Journal as part of its Legal Rebels Class of 2022. The ABA Legal Rebels project honors the mavericks who are finding new ways to practice law, represent their clients, adjudicate cases, and train the next generation of lawyers.

Subject-Matter Expertise and Leadership Expansion

The DNA of NetDocuments is our people, and the incredibly talented team they represent, stated Josh Baxter, NetDocuments CEO. The current stage and pace of growth demands leaders who have been on the growth journey through $300m of revenue. Were excited to have these accomplished individuals join our team as we write the next chapter at NetDocuments.

Last year featured a number of strategic hires including:

Kirk Haselden, who previously spent over 18 years with Microsoft and held leadership roles at Cox Automotive, Blackbaud and numerous startups, became Vice President of Engineering and has wasted no time adding his influence on corporate growth and product development.

Jill Schornack joined NetDocuments last September as Vice President of Products. With a long history in legal including 15+ years in product leadership positions at Thomson Reuters, Jill has been invaluable in defining the vision for NetDocuments product portfolio, creating product development roadmaps, and establishing a process-focused framework surrounding product launches.

In December, Chris Stewart assumed the new role of Chief Customer Officer, leveraging his past experience building the customer success, professional services, and support functions for Cornerstone OnDemand, a vertical SaaS application. Chris mission is to operationalize the customer lifecycle relying on his deep experience building systems, processes, and leveraging metrics to improve the customer journey and help better predict customer success.

Last week, Alecha Stackle joined the growing NetDocuments marketing team as company CMO. Alecha previously served as RealPages SVP and Chief Marketing Officer. With over 25 years of experience in global marketing and sales leadership, her proven track record includes leading teams from household name brands to create breakthrough messaging, marketing programs and sales initiatives that ensure team and business goals are met. Prior to joining RealPage, Alecha was the CMO for the Corporate Division of Thomson Reuters. She has also enjoyed a distinguished 15-year career at Dell where she led marketing programs in a variety of key business segments.

For more information about NetDocuments, please click here. Interested in joining the NetDocuments team? Check out open positions and career opportunities.
Launch Factory, a venture studio based in San Diego, has recently announced a technology partnership with WowYow, a visual artificial intelligence (AI) company. Through this partnership, Launch Factory plans to leverage WowYows proprietary computer vision IP to launch multiple new businesses in 2022.

Since 2016 WowYow has been leveraging its computer vision technology in the media industry to automate the analysis of publisher video and image content and to serve contextually relevant advertisements without relying on user tracking and third-party cookies. Three key advantages that make WowYows AI platform highly competitive are its cost-effective processing engine, smart detection algorithms, and applied AI solutions.

Launch Factory has identified several promising verticals and disruptive market applications for WowYows revolutionary AI computer vision technology. As part of this innovative partnership, the company plans to build multiple startups in 2022 and bring the benefits of WowYows technology to multiple new markets and audiences in parallel. Launch Factorys prior experience and strengths as a venture studio, including founder recruitment, its advisory networks, and incubation support will all help ensure the successful development of each new company.

WowYow is one of the most technologically innovative companies Ive encountered. Says Brad Chisum, Launch Factory Partner and CEO. We are excited to partner with WowYow to bring that same innovative mindset to how they think about business. Together we will create multiple Computer Vision startups to develop new customers for their AI platform technology.

The partnership between WowYow and Launch Factory will be truly symbiotic as WowYow will see our technology deployed across new markets and Launch Factory gets to build and launch compelling new companies utilizing WowYows proprietary IP, said Jarett Boskovich, WowYow Chief Marketing Officer. WowYow has already seen huge success in the media industry and this new partnership with Launch Factory is an exciting way for us to expand and provide solutions to brand new industries.

About Launch Factory:

Launch Factory (http://www.launchfactory.com) is a venture studio based in San Diego, California with a unique pathway for launching successful companies. They bring together talented founders, elite advisors, seed capital, vetted market opportunities, and an accelerator program to give entrepreneurs the unfair advantage to launch great startups. Launch Factorys mission is to deliver new levels of startup success for its founders and investors.

About WowYow, Inc:

WowYow, Inc. (http://www.wowyow.com) is a visual artificial intelligence (AI) company. Its mission is to democratize the use of computer vision AI and empower data-driven applications that will address real-world challenges and opportunities. WowYow is a privately owned company, with a presence in major cities across the U.S., as well as satellite teams in India and Serbia. For more information, please visit wowyow.com.

LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/company/launch-factory-sd/
Martello Technologies Group Inc., (Martello or the Company) (TSXV:MTLO), a leading developer of enterprise digital experience monitoring (DEM) solutions, today announced the availability of Vantage DX in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure. Martello customers can now take advantage of the productive and trusted Azure cloud platform, with streamlined deployment and management.

Vantage DX is a single platform DEM suite designed to optimize the Microsoft 365 and Teams user experience for todays hybrid workplaces. It provides industry-leading user experience monitoring and analytics capabilities. As a result, IT teams can rapidly prioritize and resolve performance issues such as network bandwidth or ISP limitations that impact the user experience. Additionally, IT can proactively optimize future performance for users. Whether the user is working from home, the office, or anywhere in between, Vantage DX provides actionable insight into Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 performance, reducing IT support tickets and mean time to repair.

Vantage DX gives us better control and insight into our users experience with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365, said Rehan Shaik, System Engineer at Emirates Steel. By empowering our IT team to proactively identify and resolve any performance-related issues, we can reduce our total cost of ownership and improve our overall productivity.

Im delighted that enterprises and partners can now easily purchase Vantage DX in the same way as their other Microsoft services, said John Proctor, President and CEO of Martello. As the number of monthly active Microsoft Teams users climbs, Martello is providing businesses with the tools needed to optimize its performance and accelerate adoption. With Microsoft sellers now eligible for compensation on Vantage DX sales, we will continue to work with Microsoft to ensure Microsoft 365 and Teams users enjoy the best possible digital experience.

"Microsoft Azure Marketplace lets customers worldwide discover, try, and deploy software solutions that are certified and optimized to run on Azure," said Jake Zborowski, General Manager, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp. "Azure Marketplace helps solutions like Martello Vantage DX reach more customers and markets."

The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions certified to run on Azure. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use.

This press release does not constitute an offer of the securities of the Company for sale in the United States. The securities of the Company have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, (the 1933 Act) as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the 1933 Act.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About Martello Technologies Group

Martello Technologies Group Inc. (TSXV: MTLO) is a technology company that provides digital experience monitoring (DEM) solutions. The companys products provide monitoring and analytics on the performance and user experience of critical cloud business applications, while giving IT teams and service providers control and visibility of their entire IT infrastructure. Martellos software products include Vantage DX, which provides Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams end user experience monitoring and analytics. Martello is a public company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with employees in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region. Learn more at http://www.martellotech.com

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.


MAXX Potential Through mentoring, networking, and professional development, MAXX Potential is delivering value to everyone involved.

MAXX Potential, a company focused on finding and developing tech talent, has announced the launch of its new website and invites corporate IT teams, future technologists, educators, and those interested in exploring the tech industry, to visit. Discover how MAXX Potential is helping solve the tech talent shortage through paid apprenticeship opportunities for anyone interested in embarking upon or switching to a career in technology.

As per the latest findings of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the national count of those who voluntarily left their jobs reached a record 3 percent in September 2021, with more than 20 million resignations between May and September alone, make up the driving force known as the Great Resignation. Many Americans are capitalizing on the current trends by going back to school or making a change in their career trajectory.

We have the privilege of being the gateway for people who want to jumpstart their careers in technology by providing opportunities to gain experience working for real clients with close mentorship by the MAXX Potential team, says Rob Simms, Managing Partner. Along with fostering the talent and skills of high-potential candidates, our Apprenticeship Alumni move onto high-paying roles, which has helped to fill vacancies during a time when IT leaders have an increased demand for talent. Through mentoring, networking, and professional development, MAXX Potential is delivering value to everyone involved.

MAXX Potential is a resource for the following:



Companies looking to adopt an Apprenticeship approach to build a talented, U.S.-based tech team complete with members who are eager to learn and excel

Educators and Public Sector Leaders seeking meaningful internship alternatives and work-based learning experiences for their students

Individuals hoping to enhance their current skills and acquire new ones while gaining the experience necessary to kickstart a lasting career in technology

During the past two years, weve seen a surge of interest from businesses who are struggling to hire new talent, says Elizabeth Papile, Marketing Director. With our new website, were thrilled to provide every visitor with easier access to the tools and resources they need to meet their unique objectives. We look forward to working with educators and businesses to develop the next generation of tech talent.

For more information on MAXX Potential, please visit https://maxxpotential.com/.

###

About MAXX Potential

MAXX Potential helps organizations diversify and strengthen their tech talent pipeline. Founded by industry leaders, we understand the continuous challenge IT leaders face: the need to deliver more with less, while at the same time building a strong team and planning for the future. MAXX Potential has created a one-of-its-kind type of program that benefits everyone and truly puts people first.

Our approach enables us to attract high-potential aspiring technologists and get them delivering value right away; while simultaneously building their skill sets with mentorship from our experienced team. This highly versatile and flexible design makes it possible for us to offer high-quality services at costs comparable to offshore companies. We are also able to offer our customers a dependable, reliable talent pipeline that they might otherwise be missing out on.

For more information on MAXX Potential, please visit https://maxxpotential.com/.
Peterbilt Pacific, Inc

The National Business Research Institute (NBRI) is pleased to welcome Peterbilt Pacific. to the NBRI Circle of Excellence!

The NBRI Circle of Excellence Award recognizes organizations that demonstrate high levels of Customer Experience through rigorous, scientific, psychological research of their Customers. Organizations must score at or above Stretch Performance at the 75th percentile of their industry, which is no small feat.

Peterbilt Pacific is compared to or benchmarked against its industry which is a subset of NBRIs Big Data of 10.5 billion survey answers. Peterbilt Pacific is performing at the 78th percentile. NBRI commends the leadership of Peterbilt Pacific for their commitment to scientific, psychological research of its Customers and continuous improvement of its Customer experience.

Peterbilt Pacific embraces the Best Practice of continually assessing EX, and targeting the variables that drive EX, including job satisfaction, management style, culture, and fairness. NBRIs root cause analysis, including linear regressions and random forest models of Peterbilt Pacifics raw data, provide Peterbilt Pacific with the keen insight and actions necessary for the continuous improvement of Customer thinking, behavior, and experience.

Great business leaders manage the people, processes, and products of their organizations. They understand that the rich information NBRI obtains from their Customers and customers enables them to manage how people experience their organization in a highly accurate, effective, and targeted manner. Those experiences drive the financial performance of every organization, whether for the better or for the worse. Understanding thinking and managing experiences for maximum performance is what we do at NBRI, says Dr. Jan G. West, Ph.D., CEO & Psychologist at NBRI. Peterbilt Pacifics high achievement of earning this prestigious award is a direct result of Peterbilt Pacifics dedication to measuring and improving their Customer experience.

About Peterbilt Pacific

Peterbilt Pacific is one of Canadas leading Peterbilt truck dealerships that offers new and used trucks, parts, full service, leasing and rentals to both public and private entities. Peterbilt Pacifics mission is to be known as the best customer experience provider by valuing the customer during every step throughout every process. With over 50 years of experience within British Columbia, Peterbilt Pacific provides exceptional day-to-day service and an ongoing commitment to increase uptime through their ten locations within British Columbia.

About NBRI

NBRI conducts psychological Employee, Customer, and Market Research for businesses, and uses this data to help organizations leverage these human factors to make improvements to operations and strategy. With its extensive experience across all industries, NBRIs research teams bring their clients a combination of deep industry knowledge and expert advice. NBRIs mission is to help their clients set new standards of excellence in their industries. NBRI product offerings, such as benchmarking and deep, inferential analyses like random forest with artificial intelligence and machine learning, ensure NBRI clients focus on the most impactful issues in the most effective ways.

National Business Research Institute, Inc.

2701 Dallas Parkway; Suite 650

Plano, TX, 75093

972-612-5070

1-800-756-6168

http://www.nbrii.com

Peterbilt Pacific

9515 195 St

Surrey, BC V4N 1V6

(604) 882-7070

https://peterbiltpacific.com/
Leonard Perlmutter (Ram Lev) -- founder of The American Meditation Institute To deal with the Triple Pandemic of politics, COVID and information overload, each of us can use the Conscience to access our own personalized Super Conscious Wisdomthe same part of the mind Albert Einstein utilized to see mathematical equations. - Leonard Perlmutter (Ram Lev)

With the effects of stress now at life-threatening levels in the nation, Yoga Scientist and Yoga Psychologist Leonard Perlmutter will present a special six-session Foundation Course that will offer practical, time-tested tools to prevent and reduce burnout, increase creativity, optimism and civility, and establish a healthy work-life balance. This unique curriculum will be taught Saturdays February 19 through March 26, 2022 from 1:30 to 3:30pm ET on Zoom, and is open to the general public, in addition to physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners who will receive 18 CMEs (Continuing Medical Education credits).

Taught continuously since 1996, this time-tested, six-week syllabus, now customized to meet todays pressing challenges, incorporates Holistic Mind/Body Medicine principles, a complete procedure for seated AMI Meditation, meditation-in-action practices for creating and healing relationships, easy-gentle physical exercises, breath as medicine, an understanding of Ayurvedic medicine, the practical power of prayer, and supportive elements of Yoga Science, Philosophy, and Psychology. Each weekly session combines the best of ancient Eastern wisdom with the practicality of modern Western medical science.

Mr. Perlmutters books, YOUR CONSCIENCE, and The Heart and Science of Yoga have been endorsed by medical pioneers Dean Ornish MD, Bernie Siegel MD and Larry Dossey MD. Leonard has taught his Foundation Course at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Kaiser Permanente, numerous medical schools, The New York Times forum on Yoga, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point Association of Graduates. According to Perlmutter, By employing the 36 tools I teach in the Foundation Course, even new students can easily use the Conscience, and with that clarity of vision and increased creativity, they begin to see and appreciate the blessings contained in every moment.

In 2008, The American Meditation Institute conducted a retrospective case study of participants who previously completed and practiced the material taught in Perlmutters Foundation Course. The study found that students experienced the following positive, reproducible, long-term health-promoting changes: lowered blood pressure, lowered heart rate, reduced cholesterol levels, decreased chest pain, diminished or extinguished acute and chronic pain, weight loss, increased breathing capacity, increased exercise capacity, improved quality and quantity of sleep, improved energy levels, increased creative capacity, diminishment of migraine headaches, significant reductions in stress and fear, elimination of irritable bowel syndrome, a general sense of happiness and optimism in all facets of life for every participant.

According to recent course graduate, Internist and Pediatrician, Kristin Kaelber, MD, PhD, FAAP, FACP, Leonard Perlmutters Foundation Course literally changed the direction of my career as a physician. Practicing the tools I learned how to use has transformed my work as a physician and helped me eliminate the burnout I was experiencing. I am presently practicing as a lifestyle medicine physician and am much happier in my work. These tools are very practical, and help me every day to serve my patients better. Physicians! I urge you to prescribe this course to yourself so that you too can rid yourselves of burnout and frustration and create a happier, healthier life and career.

About the American Meditation Institute

The American Meditation Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization devoted to the teaching and practice of Yoga Science, meditation and its allied disciplines as mind-body medicine. In its holistic approach to wellness, the AMI combines the healing arts of the East with the practicality of modern Western science. The American Meditation Institute offers a wide variety of classes, retreats, and teacher training programs. AMI also publishes Transformation, the quarterly journal of Yoga Science as holistic mind-body medicine. Call 518.674.8714 a mail or email subscription.

Media Contact:

Robert Washington

60 Garner Road,

Averill Park, NY 12018

Tel: 518.674.8714

Fax: 518.674.8714
There are studies that reinforce the need to limit the number of transfusions that patients receive.

The global $2.5 billion blood screening market is evolving on many levels, and despite its maturity the industry is poised for growth through 2026 due to new technologies, increased volume and increased testing in developing nations. This is according to data published in World Market for Blood Screening, the latest report by medical market research firm Kalorama Information. Blood screening is a medical process that scans the blood for infectious diseases or conditions. In developed nations, donated blood is screened for various pathogens.

Blood transfusions, important components of the blood screening market, have become so commonplace that it is easy to forget that blood is an organ, and the transfusion is akin to an organ transplant and should be performed only when absolutely necessary. This concept has led to some hospitals reevaluating their blood usage. They found that some 30%-50% percent of blood transfusions were medically non-beneficial and may even have contributed to clinical complications such as sepsis and myocardial injury.

On the other hand, the need to assure a safe transfusion service has increased the cost to produce a transfusion ready unit of blood and other blood products. Therefore, hospitals are encouraged to find a more effective way to manage their blood usage.

Nevertheless, the United States is the biggest user of blood transfusionsapproximately 5 million people in the U.S. receive blood and blood components through 10.9 million transfusions per year, which is 44% higher than Canada and 15% higher than Europe per capita.

A blood transfusion introduces a multitude of foreign antigens and living cells into the recipient. The result after multiple transfusions as in the case of some cancer patients, patients with sickle cell anemia and other conditions may be alloimmunization, an immune response generated in response to exposure to these foreign elements in subsequent transfusions, resulting in various clinical consequences including high fever and transfusion-related acute lung injury.

There are studies that reinforce the need to limit the number of transfusions that patients receive, says Bruce Carlson, publisher for Kalorama Information.

A partial solution for the alloimmunization problem is the development of molecular red blood cell genotyping techniques that allow for a more precise and personalized strategy for matching donors and the recipients of multiple blood transfusions such as cancer patients, severe anemia and sickle cell disease.

A proposed alternative to blood transfusions, or at least a means to rely on fewer of them, is the concept of patient blood management, which centers on practicing preventative measures to reduce the patients potential need for a transfusion. Physicians may treat their patients for anemia in the weeks before surgery and optimize red cell mass, or they may use medications and techniques that minimize blood loss during the operation.

One such technique, acute normovolemic hemodilution (ANH), involves removing one to three units of blood shortly after anesthesia is induced, then maintaining volume with a crystalloid or colloid replacement; this technique reduces the amount of hemoglobin lost during the operation, and the blood previously withdrawn would be infused back into the patient at the procedures end.

ANH can be practiced as a sole blood conservation method or in tandem with preoperative autologous donation, blood salvage, or both. Other recommended techniques include intraoperative blood recovery and reinfusion, apheresis, point-of-care testing, deliberate hypotension, appropriate positioning, maintenance of normothermia, topical hemostatics, fibrin sealants, and perhaps most important of all, an overall improvement in surgical technique.

For more information on blood screening, blood transfusions, and related topics purchase Kalorama Informations World Market for Blood Screening (published January 2022) at: https://kaloramainformation.com/product/world-market-for-blood-screening/.

This evidential medical research and guidelines issued by country agencies and other programs are beginning to decrease the number of blood transfusions. But this trend may not affect the number of units screened for pathogens because even blood units that are destined to be processed into platelets, coagulation factors and plasma have to be screened for the presence of infection.

About Kalorama Information:

Kalorama Information, part of Science and Medicine Group, is the leading publisher of market research in healthcare areas, including in vitro diagnostics (IVD), biotechnology, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. Science and Medicine Group supports companies seeking to commercialize the rapidly changing marketplace at the intersection of science, medicine, and technology. Comprised of industry-leading brands, Science and Medicine Group serves analytical instrument, life science, imaging, and clinical diagnostic companies by helping them create strategies and products to win markets and provide platforms to digitally engage their markets through a variety of innovative solutions. Kalorama Information produces 30 reports a year. The firm offers a Knowledge Center, which provides access to all published reports.
ReferWell today announced that New York City Health Business Leaders (NYCHBL), the organization that serves as the gateway to New Yorks healthcare ecosystem, has recognized the company on the NYC Digital Health 100, a list showcasing the most innovative health start-ups in the New York region.

This year, the NYC Digital Health 100 is comprised of an incredibly diverse set of companies and leaders who are working to innovate and solve some of the most complex challenges across all facets of the healthcare ecosystem, said Bunny Ellerin, co-founder and CEO, NYCHBL. We are delighted to recognize these companies and celebrate and support their growth in the New York area.

NYCHBL offers a hub where digital health innovators and healthcare leaders converge in an effort to improve healthcare delivery, said Vytas Kisielius, ReferWell CEO. The region, its organizations and its people have empowered ReferWell to help millions of people to access and follow through with the care they need, and to report that data to their health care providers and plans in a way that improves care coordination.

ReferWell leverages the referable momentSM  the point in time when patients are most

likely to take action or seek help to improve their health. This year, the company has expanded its reach to Medicare Advantage and Medicaid plans, health systems and health clinics in 12 states as well as a growing group of prestigious industry partners integrating ReferWell into their solutions.

To compile the NYC Digital Health 100, NYCHBL used its dynamic database of digital health companies in the region and then invited companies to complete applications with quantitative and qualitative data to broaden the consideration set. Companies were judged on a number of factors, including but not limited to: strength of leadership, funding, revenue, market fit, differentiated offerings, approach to diversity and equity and community engagement.

The NYC Digital Health 100 was released in conjunction with the NYCHBL Healthcare Innovation Report 2022, an in-depth look at the data, trends and insights that define the healthcare industry in NY. In 2021, 182 companies raised an historic high of $9.0B, a 150% increase from 2020 ($3.6B) and 87% of the investments went to start-ups in areas including virtual care, patient engagement and mental health. To review the report, please visit https://bit.ly/dh100-pr.

About ReferWell:

ReferWell is a New York-area health technology company leveraging the referable momentSM to improve healthcare. With a unique blend of technology and service, ReferWell gets more people to preventive care and specialist visits. ReferWell supports simple, integrated healthcare delivery for payers and provider networks covering more than 5 million lives.


The Heather Sakers Team As a recipient of previous Agent of the Year awards, I am very proud to award Heathers team with the Team of the Year award for 2021. Heather has a very loyal client base and treats everyone the same whether they are buying a vacant lot or selling a multi-million-dollar home.

Based on total sales volume for the year, this accolade was earned by The Heather Sakers Team for achieving $46.1 Million in sales volume for 2021. The team was also awarded Coldwell Bankers prestigious International Presidents Circle Team Award, an honor given only to the top 20% of all teams of 4 or more members throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The Heather Sakers Team consists of team leader, Heather Sakers, along with agents Ann Taylor Lusk, Charles Gill, and Dolly Saunders.

What a year! When I say I am proud of all we accomplished as a team for our clients, it goes way beyond the 68 transactions we closed in 2021. I know I speak for my entire team when I say our clients have become friends and part of our extended families. Our job is about far more than overseeing a financial transaction; it involves deep family history, plenty of emotions, raw honesty, and trust. We believe in providing the same level of service and overall experience to our clients that we would expect for ourselves and our loved ones.

Building relationships to fully understand, meet, and exceed a clients needs, beyond the financial aspect of a sale, is where we really win. We helped clients move closer to their families, invest in their futures, and buy their very first beach house! While numbers matter in real estate, the genuine happiness and appreciation from our clients is what makes all the hard work and long hours truly worthwhile. Plus, we love seeing the smiles on our clients faces that can only come from experiencing the wonderful Outer Banks.

We are beyond grateful for the opportunity to help our clients realize their goals and dreams, and we are excited to continue making these lasting connections in 2022! says Heather.

After joining us in 2008, Heather immediately began setting records by completing the most closings out of any new, first-year agent in our firm. As a recipient of previous Agent of the Year awards, I am very proud to award Heathers team with the Team of the Year award for 2021. Heather has a very loyal client base and treats everyone the same whether they are buying a vacant lot or selling a multi-million-dollar home. A conscientious and successful business leader, she demands the same level of service from her team members, as evidenced by the teams consistent 5-Star Reviews. Heather, Ann Taylor, Charles and Dolly worked tirelessly this year and this award is well deserved, says Pamela Smith, Vice President of Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty.

As a company, 2021 was the best year on record for Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty with close to 1,100 closings and $526.4 Million in sales volume. For the eighth consecutive year, the firm has sold the most real estate on the Outer Banks*. The company saw increases of more than 15% and 40% respectively.

About Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty:

Family owned and operated for over 30 years Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty offers top-tier real estate services to buyers and sellers across the entire Outer Banks and all of northeastern North Carolina. Offering exceptional real estate services to buyers and sellers across the entire Outer Banks and all of northeastern North Carolina, Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty has earned a reputation as a premier real estate firm best known for its knowledgeable team, area expertise and commitment to the latest technology. With the resources and support of a worldwide brand like Coldwell Banker, one of the most influential real estate franchises in the world, it is not surprising that Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty has led the Outer Banks market and has sold the most real estate for 8 consecutive years*.

*As reported by the Outer Banks Association of REALTORS MLS 1.1.14  12.31.21
Sarah Storelli New Board Member Sarah Storelli is a formidable addition to our Governing Board. Her experience of digital innovation in the public sector ties in beautifully with the goals of our Institute. We are proud to have her on the team. Sarahs immense positive energy will help us shape a better world.

Tortora Brayda Institute, a non-profit independent organization, for multi-stakeholder partnerships in Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Cloud, today announced the appointment of Ms. Sarah Storelli, Worldwide Public Sector Marketing Leader at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Inc. to the Board of Directors of the organization, effective January 24th, 2022.

Ms. Storellis experience and passion for advancing technology innovation in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is synergistic with the Tortora Brayda Institutes vision and goals. Her specific experience in AI and expert skills in public-private partnerships will play an important role in the organization's work with Government, Private Sector, Civil Society, and the United Nations system.

Sarah Storelli is a formidable addition to our Governing Board, said Carlo Tortora Brayda, Founder and Executive Chairperson at Tortora Brayda Institute. "Her experience of digital innovation in the public sector ties in beautifully with the goals of our Institute. We are proud to have her on the team. Sarahs immense positive energy will help us shape a better world.

Sarah Storelli serves as AWS Worldwide Public Sector Global Marketing Leader focused on creating and driving the marketing strategy for customer innovation and acceleration programs to advance tech for good in business and society.

Prior to AWS, Sarah oversaw global marketing, strategic partnerships, ecosystem marketing, and external communications as IBM Program Director of Call for Code, the worlds largest tech for good initiative of its kind inspiring the worldwide developer community and problem solvers from 179 nations to use IBM tools and technologies to solve pressing societal and humanitarian issues. During her tenure at IBM, she also re-launched IBM Smarter Cities and Safer Planet businesses.

With a BA in English and Minor in Law and Society from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Sarah has more than a decade of experience in developing higher education programs and initiatives for all students and alumni. She serves as a Member of the Cal Poly Presidents Council of Advisors, Chair of the English Department Advisory Board, Founder of Friends for HOPE (Health Outreach and Prevention Education) in support of Cal Poly Mental Health initiatives and Founding Member of the Women in Business Advisory Board.

Sarahs passion and knack for solving problems has made her a trusted advisor to multiple start-ups, the youngest President of the Public Relations Society of America Silicon Valley Chapter, and a Board of Director for the World Institute on Disability. She is also a former Cal Poly President of the Bay Area Alumni Chapter and Associated Students, Inc. (i.e., student body president) as well as Alum of the Cal Poly College of Liberal Arts Deans Advisory Council and Architectural Engineering Department Advisory Board.

Sarah enjoys any opportunity to spend time with loved ones; focus on advocacy efforts for mental health as well as women, girls, and the Arts in STEAM; travel the globe; move the market; and help tilt the world in a more equitable direction.

I am honored to contribute my areas of expertise and passion to the life-changing work of the Tortora Brayda Institute through my service on the Board. I am excited to help advance the organization, as well as humanity, through the relentless efforts of leveraging technology for good at scale to tilt the world in a more equitable, accessible direction, said Sarah Storelli, Board Member of Tortora Brayda Institute and Worldwide Public Sector Marketing Leader at Amazon Web Services, Inc.

Ms. Storelli joins a selected group of Board Members leading Tortora Brayda Institute. Current leadership includes: Carlo Tortora Brayda Di Belvedere, Founder and Executive Chairman of Tortora Brayda Institute; Gilles Esposito, Vice Chair of the Board and Channel Chief of Scythe; Miguel Garibay, Treasurer & Secretary of Tortora Brayda Institute; and Board Members: Jeff Snyder of CEA Group, Tony Zirnoon of Human Capital Ventures Corporation, Alycia Farrell of Gray Tarian Consulting, and The Hon. Lucian Niemeyer, former Assistant Secretary of Defense and current CEO of Building Cyber Security.

About Tortora Brayda Institute

Tortora Brayda Institute for Partnership Excellence is an International Organization for Partnership Development. The organization engages business, cultural, government, and thought leaders worldwide to reshape and develop collaboration and partnering practices with a view to improving and securing business and economies. It is established as a not-for-profit entity and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. To learn more about Tortora Brayda, visit https://www.tortorabrayda.org/.

Contact:

Susanne Runald

Media Relations

Tortora Brayda Institute

media@tortorabrayda.org
Seaside is a place bursting with small-town charm off the sparkling, white-sand beaches of Floridas Gulf Coast. The idyllic community was designed as a destination where people have space to adopt a slower pace and enjoy a break from the fast-paced, demanding world.

Homeowners Collection Vacation Rentals, Seasides largest vacation rental company, started its Spring Fever promotion that offers travelers 20% off a stay between Feb. 26, 2022, and May 25, 2022. The savings are available on any trips over Spring Break, but visitors must book by Feb. 22, 2022.

Seaside is a place bursting with small-town charm off the sparkling, white-sand beaches of Floridas Gulf Coast. The idyllic community was designed as a destination where people have space to adopt a slower pace and enjoy a break from the fast-paced, demanding world. For instance, Seaside is a walkable a community. After arriving, visitors can park the car and still have access to shops, restaurants and events on foot or bike.

Homeowners Collection features over 150 premier, private cottages from which visitors can choose. Its deep portfolio ranges from cozy one-bedrooms to spacious six-bedroom residences. The Lions Den cottage is sure to impress with its four bedrooms, four full baths, multiple porches, and a glass-enclosed tower with a gorgeous 360-degree view of Seaside. Each Homeowners Collection cottage features Peacock Alley premium linens, a welcome tote with beach towels and a complimentary bottle of wine, and WiFi. The organization also provides two complimentary rental bikes with each stay.

Guests must book a consecutive stay of at least three nights to receive the savings. They can book online with the promo code SF20 or call 1-888-606-8528. To see available cottages and other details, visit https://homeownerscollection.com/special/spring-fever-20-savings#q=im_btm_specials_nids%3A286

About Homeowners Collection Vacation Rentals

Homeowners Collection Vacation Rentals is an exclusive collection of premier vacation rentals operated by the homeowners of Seaside, Florida. The company manages more than 150 vacation rentals directly in Seaside, one of Americas most celebrated beachfront communities.

For more information, call (855) 411-1557 or visit the collectives website at https://homeownerscollection.com.
To be successful in SEO you have to be a master of research and innovation.

SEOblog.com, a fast-growing website providing the latest SEO news, tips and resources and helping business owners connect with leading SEO agencies, has released its exclusive 2022 ratings naming the best SEO companies in the United States.

SEOblog analysts determined the 15 best SEO companies in the U.S. based on dozens of key quantitative and qualitative factors. SEOblog industry experts examined each digital marketing agencys website, industry experience, market presence, client list, portfolio, expert certifications and authorship, among other factors in its ranking system.

SEOblog has provided an in-depth view of companies in a particular city or focus area on various directory pages to help business owners find the expert help they need to grow. This was a new, free offer added by SEOblog in 2019.

The United States boasts several top SEO companies that provide a very competitive digital marketing landscape.

"SEO is constantly changing, said Anatoly Zadorozhnyy, CEO at Marketing1on1.To be successful in SEO you have to be a master of research and innovation. SEO is no longer just title tags and blogging. It became more of a full-marketing campaign."

Kate Curtis, SEO manager at Townsquare Interactive, added:

The SEO industry is unique because it's an ever-evolving landscape geared towards improving user/customer experience. SEO's organic nature upholds quality and rewards a business for authority and relevance, versus dollars spent like SEM.

Eric Alzoni, President of Renaissance Marketing, also added:

SEO is interesting because its always changing and evolving. We have to accommodate real human behavior plus the algorithms of an imperfect search engine. Its hard work to make sure important content can be seen by the world. However, the impact it has on a business or organization when executed correctly can be massive and ultimately very valuable.

SEOblog.com rankings are updated regularly as the market shifts and new players emerge. SEOblog.com has published more than 2,300 agency listings, with more added every day. There is no fee to participate, and the website welcomes all qualified agencies to apply.

SEOblog.coms 15 Best SEO companies in the United States in 2022:

SmartSites, Marketing1on1 Internet Marketing & SEO, Renaissance Marketing, Hooker and Company, Townsquare Interactive, CGI Communications, Vivial, BizIQ, Progressive Dental Marketing, Click Here Digital, TheHOTH, NEXT! Ad Agency, iMatrix, Blue Ocean Global Technology and Staylisted.

Link: https://www.seoblog.com/best-seo-companies/

About SEOblog.com

SEOblog.com is a leading thought leadership site with a rich history of publishing educational and informative articles about SEO and digital marketing topics. In early 2019, SEOblog.com answered the call from buyers of digital marketing services that lacked unbiased, informative online resources and launched a comprehensive directory to highlight the best SEO companies in the United States.

SEOblogs mission is to connect businesses with qualified digital marketing agencies while also offering further SEO education, best practices and industry trends.

SEOblog.com is a one-stop-shop for educational SEO and digital marketing content, research, ratings and reviews for the best agencies in each local market across the United States and Canada. The website will be increasing its coverage of U.S. and Canada SEO agencies and accepting more guest blog posts in the coming months. Contact SEOblog if youre interested in getting involved.
Josephs Journey: From the Coat of Many Colors to the Redemption of His Brothers: a vibrant imagining of the classic Bible story. Josephs Journey: From the Coat of Many Colors to the Redemption of His Brothers is the creation of published author Sherry M. Francis, a loving wife, mother, and grandmother who lives in Michigan.

Francis shares, Josephs Journey is a beloved Bible story of the prominent family that the Lord groomed to create a holy nation.

It has all the things we look for in great action storiesdreams, deception, betrayal, intrigueand adventureall in rhyme!

Its a chronicle of how one young boy, sold into slavery by his older brothers, grew to be the most powerful governor in the land. How his faith and obedience to the Lord he served saved his family and surrounding nations from starvation.

A story of how love and forgiveness overcame jealousy and deceit, of how God used what was meant for evil to save the nations and to restore a family that He would later redeem to become His Holy Nation.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Sherry M. Franciss new book is a delightful venture into the world of Joseph.

Franciss love of scripture and creative writing are apparent within the pages of this lyrical work.

Consumers can purchase Josephs Journey: From the Coat of Many Colors to the Redemption of His Brothers at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Josephs Journey: From the Coat of Many Colors to the Redemption of His Brothers, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
It was an absolute pleasure to work with TCA...I received a lot of helpful advice and guidance, and it was a privilege to be able to share the journey with them. - Dr. Susan Catalano, Cognition Therapeutics CSO

Tech Coast Angels (TCA) today announced that one of its portfolio companies, Cognition Therapeutics, Inc., launched an initial public offering (IPO) in October 2021. The IPO was oversubscribed, raised approximately $52M, and resulted in up to a 5.7x return to TCA members who invested in the company. TCA members invested a significant $1.15 million in the company, and the exit was the 14th highest dollar gain for TCA among its first 215 outcomes.

Cognition Therapeutics, based in New York with laboratory operations in Pennsylvania, is a biopharmaceutical company in the process of developing a pipeline of oral drug candidates to treat neurodegenerative and neuro-ophthalmic disorders, such as Alzheimers disease. Prior to its IPO, the company raised about $43m from angel investors and small venture networks, received $120M in NIH grants and went from an idea to a first-in-class disease-modifying Alzheimers drug candidate thats currently in a comprehensive Phase 2 clinical program. In 2016, the Angel Capital Association bestowed the Luis Villalobos Award, named after TCA beloved founder, on Cognition Therapeutics

From the outset, we were so impressed with the team: their level of knowledge, their passion, their vision, and their confidence in a novel approach in the restoration of damage responses to neurodegenerative diseases, said John Murphy, TCA deal lead. But on top of that, Cognition Therapeutics consistently provided an incredible level of transparency in communications to its investors, with regular updates on progress and in the industry.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with TCA, and Ive enjoyed relationships with many of its members, some of whom have a personal connection to the disease, said Dr. Susan Catalano, Cognition Therapeutics CSO. I received a lot of helpful advice and guidance, and it was a privilege to be able to share the journey with them.

This is a classic case of a startup with an excellent idea and leadership team that needed capital and connections from angels to advance its innovation, said TCA chairman emeritus John Harbison. TCA was able to provide guidance and help Cognition Therapeutics realize its full potential in its desire to stop the process of debilitating diseases such as Alzheimers.

About Tech Coast Angels:

Tech Coast Angels (TCA) is one of the largest and most active angel investor networks in the nation, and a leading source of funding for seed-stage and early-stage companies. The angel network consists of more than 500 members in Southern California. Every TCA member is an accredited investor, and companies in which TCA invest go through well-structured, transparent, time-efficient screening and due diligence. TCA members are founders and business leaders who have extensive knowledge in the investment process and world-class business practices, and thus are able to provide companies with more than just capital: they also contribute counsel, mentoring and access to an extensive network of investors, customers, strategic partners, and management. In December 2020, TiE named Tech Coast Angels the Most Active Angel Network in the World. Since its founding in 1997 by Luis Villalobos, TCA has invested over $255 million in more than 500 companies and has helped attract more than $1.7 billion in additional capital/follow-on rounds. http://www.techcoastangels.com.

###

For more information:

Kimber Smith Fidler

For Tech Coast Angels

+1 775 298 5260 / kimber@smithfidler.com


Adding RD&S leadership, field service depth, and experience to our existing team will undoubtedly enhance the mission-critical industrial refrigeration and supply chain solutions we currently provide.

The Kelvin Group, a newly launched parent company dedicated to building a collaborative group of the largest independent industrial and commercial mission-critical mechanical services companies in the U.S., today announced it has acquired Refrigeration Design & Service, Inc. (RD&S), an industrial refrigeration services and design/build provider based in metropolitan Philadelphia with offices in Wilkes Barre, Pa. and Deatsville, Ala. RD&S provides a full line of services to meet the needs of the industrial refrigeration marketplace across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Kelvin Group, backed by Southfield Capital out of Greenwich, Conn., currently owns American Refrigeration Company (ARC) and HCG Associates, and maintains oversight capabilities of both companies. Adding RD&S effectively expands the parent companys footprint and service area over a significant portion of the Northeast and into the mid-Atlantic region and southeastern portion of the U.S. Customers of all three companies will benefit from the economies of scale and expanded service offerings now available from The Kelvin Group.

Were delighted to welcome the RD&S team to the Kelvin family, said Michael Sirois, CEO, The Kelvin Group. Adding RD&S leadership, field service depth, and experience to our existing team will undoubtedly enhance the mission-critical industrial refrigeration and supply chain solutions we currently provide.

Were thrilled to join the growing group of companies within The Kelvin Group and allow our customers and employees to enjoy the benefits of their expanded operations and capabilities, said Bil Sauer, President, RD&S. All of the companies operating under the Kelvin Groups oversight share our commitment to providing the highest quality services and maintenance and ensure customer satisfaction. Were honored to be part of a winning team driven to achieve the highest client satisfaction and continue our long standing and mutually beneficial relationship between ARC and RD&S.

About The Kelvin Group

The Kelvin Group is a leader in the field of industrial and commercial mission-critical process safety management and environmental compliance. Our turnkey solutions provide Design/Installation and Ongoing Service and Preventative Maintenance of world-class mechanical systems for leaders in the Food and Beverage, Cold Storage, Pharmaceutical, Educational, Health Care, and Process industries. Once engaged with our customers, we assist business owners achieve mandated health, safety, environmental and regulatory compliance standards. For more information, visit http://www.kelvin.cool.

About RD&S

Refrigeration Design & Service, Inc. (RD&S) is an industrial refrigeration services and design/build provider based in metropolitan Philadelphia with offices in Wilke-Barre, PA, and Deatsville, AL. We provide a full line of services to meet the needs of the industrial refrigeration marketplace. From its beginning as a local company, RD&S has grown to become an international team noted for excellence in meeting our customers needs. Our unique ability to design, fabricate, and construct site built or skid mounted industrial refrigeration systems sets us apart from other industrial refrigeration design/build firms and ensures on-time delivery of a superior product, designed, engineered and constructed by our in-house team of experts. At RD&S, we have two main goals: First and foremost, we want to be our customers single source supplier of refrigeration services; Second, we seek to set the industry standard for quality and service. Our ongoing close relationship with Frick and Johnson Controls, Inc. demonstrates our commitment to serve the industrial refrigeration industry with excellence. From the systems we design to the parts we build into the right-sized solutions we deliver, RD&S is renowned for its laser focus on quality and customer satisfaction. For more information, visit https://www.refdesign.com/.
Kyocera DSJ Putting in place a system that offers first response with AI-powered voice assistants in both Japanese and English, transcosmos will further streamline customer support services for Kyocera DSJ.

transcosmos inc. and Advanced Media, Inc. (Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO: Kiyoyuki Suzuki) are proud to announce that the two companies have implemented the English version of AI-powered voice assistant services, the first of its kind in Japan, for KYOCERA Document Solutions Japan Inc. (Global headquarters: Osaka, Japan; President: Takashi Nagai; Kyocera DSJ).

Kyocera DSJ is a document solutions company that sells and provides rental and maintenance services for a wide array of office equipment and products, including multi-function copiers and printers, application software, and multi-function devices. transcosmos has been offering customer support operations services to Kyocera DSJ for many years.

Kyocera DSJ has been looking for ways to meet its user needs and receive customer inquiries after non-business and peak hours, as well as during emergency situations such as natural disasters and pandemics. As a solution, transcosmos has made a proposal to deploy a hybrid operations model, combining AI-powered voice assistants and live call agents. With Kyocera DSJ's go sign, transcosmos implemented the service model in 2020 using AmiVoice, an AI-based voice recognition feature offered by Advanced Media.

Since then, the hybrid operations model has been highly recognized by Kyocera DSJ and its customers, and now, Kyocera DSJ has implemented the English version of these AI-powered voice assistant services for the first time in Japan. Leveraging its proven know-how of building and tuning Japanese services, transcosmos has drastically cut the time for developing the English version.

Putting in place a system that offers first response with AI-powered voice assistants in both Japanese and English, transcosmos will further streamline customer support services for Kyocera DSJ.

"We had no choice but to make our English-speaking customers wait during peak periods as we only had limited members who could offer English support," said Atsushi Iwatsubo, the Chief at Contact Center System Support Section 1, Services Business Division, KYOCERA Document Solutions Japan Inc. "We were exploring solutions that could address this particular challenge, and support our English-speaking customers without making them wait, even during peak times. As the Japanese AI-powered voice assistant services have proven to be successful, we asked transcosmos to build us the English version.

We are grateful to transcosmos for offering us a customer service framework that can serve both Japanese and English customers. The services not only translate into higher customer satisfaction on our services but also cut our operational man-hours. We have high expectations of transcosmos in helping us achieve digital transformation (DX) of our customer support centers."

Building on cutting-edge digital technologies and know-how, transcosmos and Advanced Media will continue to help Kyocera DSJ drive its initiatives towards achieving customer support DX.

*Company names and product or service names used here are trademarks or registered trademarks of respective companies.

About transcosmos inc.

transcosmos launched its operations in 1966. Since then, we have combined superior "people" with up-to-date "technology" to enhance the competitive strength of our clients by providing them with superior and valuable services. transcosmos currently offers services that support clients' business processes focusing on both sales expansion and cost optimization through our 171 bases across 30 countries/regions with a focus on Asia, while continuously pursuing Operational Excellence. Furthermore, following the expansion of e-commerce market on the global scale, transcosmos provides a comprehensive One-Stop Global E-Commerce Services to deliver our clients' excellent products and services to consumers in 48 countries/regions around the globe. transcosmos aims to be the "Global Digital Transformation Partner" of our clients, supporting the clients' transformation by leveraging digital technology, responding to the ever-changing business environment. Visit us here https://www.trans-cosmos.co.jp/english/

About Advanced Media, Inc.

Centered on a next-generation voice recognition engine, Advanced Media provides its technology in three forms: solutions business, product business and services business. Our services are used across a wide range of industries and sectors including call centers, medical, manufacturing/logistics/distribution, construction/real estate, meeting minutes transcription, education, mobile, robot, and more. Advanced Media is committed to make a complete new form of communication, one that transcends humans and machines, thereby turning what used to be inconceivable into tomorrow's everyday reality. (URL: https://www.advanced-media.co.jp/english)
Dr. Robert Nicholson, Alum, Trident's Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program People who are work self-determined tend to be driven and ambitious. This occurs when three innate and universal psychological needs  competence, relatedness, and autonomy  are fulfilled. - Dr. Robert Nicholson.

Trident University International (Trident) Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) graduate Dr. Robert Nicholson presented research from his Doctoral Study Project (DSP), A Case Study Exploring the Motivation of Acquisitions, Logistics, and Technology (AL&T) Noncommissioned Officers in The Army Contracting Command.

This presentation was part of the Tridents CORE webinar series and was hosted by Dr. Indira Guzman, Doctoral Studies Director in Tridents College of Business.

In this qualitative study, Dr. Nicholson examined the influence of intrinsic/extrinsic motivators, job satisfaction, and grit on completing at least 20 years of service for this subset of noncommissioned officers (NCOs) in the U.S. Army.

Dr. Nicholsons surveys commenced with questionnaires, which were followed by interviews with a portion of the population who displayed two key traits: high grit and work self-determination. Individuals considered high grit typically display a passion and perseverance for long-term goals. Work self-determined qualities are displayed through an individuals professional desire to grow and improve.

People who are work self-determined tend to be driven and ambitious, explains Dr. Nicholson. This occurs when three innate and universal psychological needs  competence, relatedness, and autonomy  are fulfilled.

The findings of Dr. Nicholsons research suggest that motivations are based on how those surveyed perceive the external factors within the organization, which was particularly pronounced for the high grit and work self-determined individuals.

Evidence-based recommendations vis-a-vis the research include establishing a strong level of trust and building more confidence in the professional relationships between subordinates and leaders. Key to propagating an improved culture are increased introspection and the adoption of leadership philosophies such as transformational or servant leadership.

As a leader and mentor, Nicholson has embraced the core values of learning as the journey, excellence as the goal, and service as the measure of life, including as a current member of the U.S. Armed Forces, in academia, and in his personal life. In his free time, he mentors and motivates fellow students by running a Facebook group for Trident doctoral students and alumni.

He also serves as an academic mentor for higher education and self-development in the U.S. Army, as well as the Chairman and Chief Academic Officer for the Dr. Cindo Nicholson Memorial STEM Fellowship. This fellowship provides academic mentorship to international students from developing economies in Jamaica and the greater Caribbean region to pursue advanced studies in STEM.

In 2021, Dr. Nicholson was honored with the BEYA STEM Peer Reviewed Academia Award for Student Leadership - Graduate Level at the HBCU Engineering Dean's recognition event of the 35th BEYA STEM Global Competitiveness Conference in February.

Dr. Nicholson graduated from Tridents DBA program in 2021. He also holds a Master of Science in Homeland Security and Master of Business Administration from Trident, a Master of Arts in Procurement and Acquisition Management from Webster University, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Southern Connecticut State University.

View a recording of Dr. Nicholsons presentation here.

About Trident University International

Founded in 1998, Trident University International is a member of the American InterContinental University System, which is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org). Trident uses the EdActive learning approach, which employs case-based learning in an online setting to teach real-world relevant critical thinking skills designed to enhance the lives and education of students. Trident offers quality associate, bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs and certificates, led by a qualified faculty team, over 80% of whom have doctoral degrees. Trident has over 32,000 alumni, of which more than 27,000 have a military affiliation, and has received acknowledgements from Washington Monthly, Military Times, and Military Advanced Education & Transition for their dedication to student success. Visit http://www.trident.edu or call at (855) 290-0290 to learn more about Trident's wide range of educational options.
Women In The Floorcovering Industry "While there are many groups out there in the name of women, each of them has a unique purpose and audience, we want our organization to meet the needs of anyone, including these other groups, to be an inclusive for all, and we have set the groundwork for WIFI to be around for generations to come."

Launched spring of 2021 to coincide with International Womens Day, Women in the Flooring Industry (WIFI) held its first Board Meeting this month taking critical steps forward in establishing the nonprofit corporations purpose and path forward.

Built for the long-term, WIFI was formed specifically to grow the floor covering industry and the next generation of women within it, reported founder and current Pro Tem Chairman Emily Morrow Finkell, CEO of EF Floors & Design.

For many years, so many of us talked about the need for an organization that offered networking and support opportunities for the women in the floor covering industry, explained Morrow Finkell. It never seemed to happen until a strange phenomenon occurred, COVID-19, which literally brought us all to a snails pace. It was during that time when our now executive board members connected and decided if not now, when? And so, with that, I took that question one step further, if not us, who?

WIFIs objectives and purpose are clear: to empower, connect, support, encourage, develop, educate, inspire and attract current and future women in the floor covering industry. It will create and offer networking, leadership development, mentorship, relationship-building opportunities and tangible materials to enable women to succeed.

While there are many groups out there in the name of women, each of them has a unique purpose and audience, we want our organization to meet the needs of anyone, including these other groups, to be an inclusive for all, and we have set the groundwork for WIFI to be around for generations to come, Morrow Finkell offered. We hope that the floor covering industry will continue to thrive and offer opportunities for each of us to grow, learn and connect in meaningful ways.

Founding directors are Morrow Finkell; Amy Rush-Imber, editor in chief, Floor Covering Weekly; Andrea Blackbourn, executive director of the Floor Covering Industry Foundation; Brenda Knowles, vice president commercial, Shaw Industries; Dana Teague, vice president, Informa Markets Design Group; Tanja Kern, associate publisher and editorial director BNP Media; and, Terri Daniels, vice present PR & communications, CCA Global Partners.

Clearly on its way to meeting set goals, WIFI has successfully applied for 501c3 status, achieved Articles of Incorporation; approved its bylaws; and, voted on Pro Tem officers  Morrow Finkell as chairman, Kern as secretary and Teague as treasurer.

Noted Teague, As the organizer of SURFACES, the largest North American flooring event, we look to support communities within our industry and we recognize that women are essential to the flooring industry. It is important that women have the opportunity to network, share experiences, gain new skills and support each other.

And, Teague added, WIFI already has a certain power behind it. WIFI, working with SURFACES and media partners, will have a highly visible, global platform with which to deliver in-person and on-line learning opportunities, create meaningful networking events and recognize women who excel in the industry. For example, she offered, The inaugural offering of the Womens Leadership Conference at SURFACES followed by a networking reception is already well-subscribed proving that women, and men who support women, are eager to start getting back together in 2022!

Look for the WIFI founding directors at Surfaces in Las Vegas beginning February 1. To learn more about WIFI and how you can be a part of its future impact, contact womeninfloorcoveringindustry@gmail.com or visit https://www.womeninflooring.org/about

Founding Board of Directors

Chairman: Emily Morrow Finkell, CEO, EF Floors & Design,

Vice Chairman: Amy Rush-Imber, Editor in Chief, Floor Covering Weekly

Nominating Chair: Andrea Blackbourn, Executive Director Floor Covering Industry Foundation

Fundraising Chair: Brenda Knowles, Vice President Commercial, Shaw Industries

Treasurer: Dana Teague, Vice President Informa Markets Design Group

Secretary: Tanja Kern, Associate Publisher and Editorial Director, BNP Media Flooring Group

Communications Chair: Terri Daniels, Vice President PR & Communications, CCA Global Partners
Joseph O'Halloran, Editor-in-Chief, Rapid TV News

Joe O'Halloran has been a writer and business analyst for over twenty years in the IT/broadcasting/CGI/telecoms/design/travel/consumer sectors, with additional experience of working as an automotive systems engineer for Shell UK.

Titles worked for include The Financial Times, Computer Weekly, Microscope, handbag.com, CGI, C3, C2M, IBE, CADCAM,CSI, IT Europa, Euromedia, IPTV International, Infosecurity Today, IBC Daily, TVB Europe, Future Digital, BT Talking Business, Cable and Satellite Europe, Broadband, New Design Magazine, Vehicle Engineering Design, Design Export News, Unix & NT News, Individual Homes, DECUser, The VAR, Holiday Magazine (Canary Islands), KrisWorld (Singapore Airlines In-flight Magazine) and North West Business Insider. Also worked as a digital media futures analyst for the Stanford Research Centre's Business Intelligence Consulting division with clients including, Samsung, Nokia, BBC, DERA (QinetiQ), TDC TeleDanmark, T-Online, III (Taiwan), Chungwa Telecom (Taiwan), NTT, KDDI, Mitsubishi, Casio, Sumitomo and Hitachi.

Also the author of white papers on broadband networks, video on demand, flat panel display technology, conditional access and security of pay-TV, unified communications, security for the extended enterprise, hosted communications, security for retail IT, mobile services for financial institutions, standards for retail IT, IT for manufacturing networks. Also lectured, at The University of Hertfordshire and The Academy of Contemporary Music respectively, in design and new media technology.

Richard Hewes, Commercial Director, Broadcast Tech & Sport Group, MB Insight



Rich is the Commercial Director for the Tech & Sport Group at Broadcast.



He joined Broadcast in 2018 having spent the previous 7 years at EMAP Publishing working across marketing solutions, conferences and awards.



During his time at Broadcast, Rich created the Broadcast Sport portfolio including the Broadcast Sport Magazine, Broadcast Sport Conferences and most recently the Broadcast Sport Awards.



The Broadcast portfolio engages with broadcasters, production companies, rights holders and the post production/vfx community. With the recent addition of Rapid TV News to the portfolio, Rich will look to develop more commercial synergies and offerings across the M&E, broadcast, OTT, sport and telco space.

Charlotte Wheeler, Director, Broadcast Tech & Sport Group, MB Insight



Charlotte has been part of the Broadcast brand since March 2004, starting on what was then the Broadcast Production Show. As the show grew and then merged form BVE, Charlotte became event director of the show until a years break for maternity.



During this time Media Business Insight was formed and the Broadcast brand was housed within a new holding company in 2013. Broadcast has a heritage of almost 65 years within the television industry providing the most up to date news and exclusives across the production, distribution and tech creative industries.



Within the business it also hosts a number of successful industry awards, conferences and now the only trade show, The Media Production & Technology Show, which Charlotte leads.



In September 2021, the Broadcast Tech & Sport group was formed lead by Charlotte as director. The products include the trade show, 2 sets of awards, 2 conferences and digital and print publications across the tech and sport sectors.



And now Rapid TV News has joined the group to bring new expertise into the group.
A crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) panel that can generate energy on both sides, known as bifacial, is the primary tool in a continued push by Chinas state-subsidized solar industry to monopolize global solar supply chains and build dependencies. And its continued exclusion from a possible extension of Section 201 safeguard duties will effectively maintain a loophole that facilitates the unrestricted import of these panels, allowing Chinese solar manufacturers to skirt tariffs imposed on their unfairly subsidized products.

Quite simply, an extension to the Section 201 safeguard that does not include bifacial panels is no safeguard at all. Chinese companies will continue to ship bifacial solar panels to the United States without fear of accountability, effectively rendering toothless a critical measure for getting the domestic solar manufacturing industry back on its feet. The National Renewable Energy Laboratorys (NREL) Solar Industry Update reported that in 2020 most of the 14.7 gigawatts of crystalline silicon solar panels imported into the United States and not subject to tariffs were likely bifacial panels. If accurate, that is a number substantially greater than Americas entire domestic solar manufacturing capacity.

By opening the floodgates even wider with a bifacial exemption, the U.S. government will put in play market dynamics that will hamstring the effort to foster a renaissance in American solar manufacturing expected to address all market segments from utility-scale to residential. This includes the deployment of bifacial panels in applications for which they were never intended, such as on residential rooftops.

Whats more is that bifacial panels are simply crystalline silicon cells operating on opposite sides of the same panel. Where cells are located on the panel is just one of many factors that determine how much energy a solar panel is able to produce. When the playing field is level, non-bifacial panels are competitive with bifacial panels, and a buyers decision should be based on the relative performance of these competing module types. The bifacial exclusion un-levels that playing field by providing unlawfully subsidized bifacial panels an instant, artificial advantage over other panel types, an advantage that is based not on real-world performance or true competitiveness, but merely on distinguishing where the cells happen to be located on the panel.

By excluding bifacial panels, the U.S. government places at risk billions of dollars in existing investment, thousands of jobs, our countrys energy security and a climate-critical transition to net-zero emissions. It also places at risk the over 10 gigawatts of new American manufacturing capacity announced since May 2021, as well as the thousands of new jobs here at home that were set to be created both directly, on the manufacturing floor, and indirectly across domestic supply chains.

While that is precisely what the Chinese government wants, it is not what the American voter wants.

A recent Morning Consult poll of registered voters sends a clear message: U.S. voters have a tremendous appetite for self-reliance through domestic solar manufacturing. The fact that nine in ten voters think that the U.S. should manufacture renewable energy technology, such as solar panels, domestically is not insignificant. Its also important to highlight that voters placed more value on long-term, stable manufacturing jobs than they do the installer gigs that are often used as a justification for allowing Chinese companies to continue to have unfettered access to the U.S. market.

Those lobbying for continued access for Chinese solar manufacturers to the U.S. market will inevitably try to downplay the concerns. They will say that they wholeheartedly support U.S. manufacturing, but the fact that there currently isnt enough domestic capacity is good reason, in their view, to continue to import irrationally cheap, subsidized solar panels from Chinese companies.

This argument avoids a fundamental truth: Chinese solar companies, which rely on coal for power, have decimated American solar manufacturing and its high quality, long-term jobs by supplying irrationally cheap, subsidized panels from mainland China and South East Asia. To claim that continued unregulated access for Chinese solar manufacturers - which, fueled by unlawful subsidies, today account for eight of the largest ten providers - is an effective and necessary stopgap while we rebuild manufacturing capacity at home is intellectually dishonest.

But then, the bifacial journey is littered with similar fallacies. Ever since the Section 201 safeguard was instituted, bifacial technology was characterized by exclusion proponents as a niche product that would not harm American solar manufacturing or undermine the safeguard. The reality was very different.

At the time, bifacial was, in fact, the fastest growing crystalline silicon solar technology, with production crossing 2.6 gigawatts (GW) in 2018 and projected to grow tenfold by 2024. With approximately 11-15GW of bifacial-ready manufacturing available in in South East Asia in 2019 and existing Chinese assembly lines that could easily be retooled, this was anything but a niche product.

And with bifacial being the dominant Chinese solar product today, any decision to exempt bifacial panels from tariffs allows China to outflank American efforts to grow self-reliant solar supply chains.

Chinas solar industry, which benefits from state incentives, subsidies and tariffs, has a history of selling its solar panels for less than their fair market value and injuring American manufacturing. Theres no reason for this unfair and harmful behavior to stop now, particularly if it means stymieing American efforts to build solar manufacturing capacity that is not dependent on the whims of Chinas government.

President Biden has referred to the U.S. as being locked in stiff competition with China. We are not afraid of stiff competition, if it is fair and rules-based. The unfortunate fact, however, is that giving Chinas solar industry access to a loophole that allows it to push through a Trojan Horse may well undo the effort to shore-up American solar manufacturing, taking away the level playing field we need to thrive on our own merits.

Mark Widmar is the CEO of First Solar, Inc., the only American company among the worlds largest solar manufacturers.
There is a growing consensus that race-based affirmative action is both legally problematic and ineffective at promoting racial justice and social harmony, not to mention good education and competence in employees. There seems little doubt that the rules will be rewritten in the next few years and that the result will neither be pure merit-based selection on objective criteria, nor for diversity and racial justice to be the dominant considerations in selection. There seems to be a long-standing, solid majority opinion in favor of tipping the scales here and there without abandoning ability as the major determining factor. Statistical discrepancies among groups can be tolerated if they favor historically oppressed groups, but no individual should be completely blocked from advancement to make room for others.

A case in point is a recent New York Times opinion piece, It's Time to End Race-Based Affirmative Action by John McWhorter. McWhorter is a smart guy and one of the worlds great lecturers and popular writers. I recommend his books and recorded lectures highly. But he suffers from a common and dangerous confusion with historical roots. He accepts the theory and practice of modern affirmative action, but wants to substitute some kind of index of social disadvantage for race. He accepts that race-based affirmative action was the right medicine in the 1960s and early 70s, but thinks it has passed its useful life.

For over a century, since its inception until the mid-1960s, the national Republican party stood four-square for equal treatment under the law for all races. Prior to the mid-1960s the main problem for Black people was explicit government repression. Race was not a social construct, it was a legal one. Passing, a person with some Black ancestry pretending to be white, was often a crime.

Only Whites could become naturalized citizens from 1790 to 1954, and elimination of that provision was fought by Democrats, including a veto by President Truman. Non-whites were prohibited from many professions and government jobs, often including military service, by law, not custom. In many places they could not own land, nor live in certain places, nor use public facilities. During World War II, racial concentration camps were established, mainly for people with at least 1/16th Japanese descent, but for tens of thousands of non-Japanese as well. School and other segregation was enforced by law in many places.

Of course layered onto this legal discrimination was extra-legal repression, up to and including lynching. Its important to remember that when I say the national Democratic party before the Civil Rights era was racist, I dont mean it tolerated desperate impacts on Blacks, I mean it actually favored lynching as a means of controlling the Black population.

In the early 1960s, the national Democratic party made a seismic shift and decided to go after Black votes at the expense of most Southern and many Northern whites. The national Republican party moved in the racist direction to pick up the latter voters. It took about 20 years, with lots of confusion and turmoil for this to play out.

The distressing point to realize is the remedies for historic anti-Black oppression were written by the same people who had legislated and enforced that oppression. Democrats like Lyndon Johnson did not have Road to Damascus conversions to justice for all, they made a cynical calculation that promising things to Blacks would win more elections than promising things to white racists. They did not reject their bedrock views that politics was handing out favors in return for votes, nor that racial discrimination was wrong, they just shifted their target recipients.

Politicians who favored, and even participated in, lynchings remained in office. Sheriffs who oversaw lynchings or did not investigate them, remained sheriffs. Judges who convicted Blacks out of pure racism and acquitted whites for crimes against Blacks, remained on the bench. Administrators who had enforced explicitly racist rules continued in their jobs and got promoted.

In the early Civil Rights era, Republicans won victories for equal, color-blind treatment, reversing oppressive government laws. In the later Civil Rights era, Democrats imposed new racial-based rules in compensation for past racial-based rules. Affirmative action is a prime example. That doesnt mean affirmative action was a bad thing to do, but it has a suspect ancestry.

The original concept of affirmative action, the one that explains its name, is clearly good. Institutions should not shrug off disparate impact with excuses like, Not many women apply to engineering programs, or, We dont see many qualified Blacks to admit. Rather than waiting for women and Blacks to show up, you should take affirmative actions to find out why youre not getting enough, and to reduce barriers. That might mean outreach campaigns to targeted groups, remedial programs to help underprepared applicants, policies to make the institution more welcoming to underrepresented groups or other policies.

But the political push for affirmative action was simpler. Push up acceptance rates for Blacks, and later other groups, so Blacks will vote Democratic. That meant quotas. Moreover, quotas are much easier for administrators than the difficult challenge of chipping away at racism and its legacies. Republican objections to quotas left us with the current incoherent system of mixed rationales and hair-splitting policy distinctions. The only people who like the current system are administrators and lawyers who have built up specialized knowledge that could be made obsolete if a principled system is adopted.

When the Democratic party decided to court Blacks it brought two streams of thought together. The first is political horse-trading, the idea that politicians should negotiate favors among groups to build majority support, with no thought to consistency, principle nor long-term wisdom. If workers are unhappy, cut payroll taxes or increase unemployment benefits. If Blacks are unhappy, give them more government jobs and places at Harvard. If tenants are unhappy, limit rent increases.

The second idea is technocratic top-down planning by experts. To fix racial oppression you get the smartest people you can find who have studied the issue and design consistent, principled programs to solve the problem, root and branch.

Both of these ideas have some merit on their own (along with obvious disadvantages and historical disasters), but the combination is always massive failure, often with horrific consequences. McWhorter is all for technocratic top-down planning, a.k.a. social engineering, he just thinks theres a better criterion than race to use. While thats a logical position, its naive to promote it when you know its strongly linked to horse-trading. The result will obviously be more micromanagement by horse traders, who can justify any payout or punishment as an adjustment to the index of social disadvantage. Moreover its irresponsible to promote social engineering without mentioning its horrific and spectacular failures. It may work in some cases, but its a dangerous tack to take.

That leaves two issues: what should have been done in the 1960s, and what we should do today. I think theres a clear answer to the first. After removing the explicit legal oppression against Blacks, there should have been compensation and some sort of Truth and Reconciliation Commission like those done in South Africa and Argentina. Of course, no amount of compensation could have made up for all the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow, and the vast majority of individual criminals and victims would have been overlooked. But a serious effort to give monetary compensation to explicit legal victims, and to punish or at least fire some law enforcement personnel and judges, would have gone a long way toward confronting the evils of the past and allowing people to move on to the future with positive rather than negative focuses.

But that ideal is silly as it was not remotely politically possible at the time. So if someone wants to argue that race-based quotas were the best we could have done, I have no strong counterargument. Quotas are a form of compensation, and perhaps they empower individuals to find their own truth and reconciliation.

The answer to what we should do now is also clear: true affirmative action. Bottom-up efforts to chip away at the legacies of oppression. Figure out why some groups are under-represented in some areas. Dont assume that differences are bad, after all we dont want women to achieve the same homicide rates as men, or get more Blacks into the Ku Klux Klan. Dont insist all programs help all groups. For example, a program that trains more women engineers is a success, even if the women are mostly Asian and Jewish. Dont mandate top-down policies designed by mandarins in Washington, let institutions experiment on their own. Drop the failures and expand the successes.

The role of the government should be to insist institutions receiving federal funds make credible efforts to improve equity, not to sit in judgment on every selection decision. Courts should also back away from micromanaging university admission decisions, along with employment, promotion and other matters. Discrimination case decisions should be based on intention and individual harm, not detailed review of processes or aggregate statistics.

Unlike the 1960s, I think the clearly correct policy today is politically feasible. In fact, I think it would be more popular than the current system as well as both extremes of total color-blindness or quotas. I dont expect it to be adopted. Not because its unpopular, but because its hard. It requires a lot of work by administrators at a frustrating task where even success comes with a lot of complaint and criticism. It means confronting the legacy of oppression, and thinking hard about principle.

My prediction is that courts will make it harder for selection to clearly disfavor groups like Asians and Jews, leading to a squeezing out of the middle group of applicants without either top quantitative qualifications or documented disadvantage. I further predict this will be a politically and administratively acceptable result. No cohesive group will be harmed sufficiently to generate effective political protest, and the system will be easy to run. It will work tolerably well in training and employing competent people, while offering reasonable opportunity to some members of disadvantaged groups. It will support large armies of bureaucrats, lawyers and administrators.

But we could do better, much better. And beyond affirmative action, smart technocratic progressives would do well to jettison their historical alliance with cynical horse-traders. Technocratic solutions only work when administered by widely respected experts, who are considered to be apolitical. When science and politics ally, the result is Big Science, and usually disaster. An index of social disadvantage would lead to just such a disaster.

Aaron Brown is the author of many books, including The Poker Face of Wall Street. He's a long-time risk manager in the hedge fund space.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/01/2022



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

couple Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon have welcomed their first child together.Ashley gave birth to a son on Monday, January 31."Baby Dawson is here and healthy!" Jared, 33, captioned an Instagram video of himself breaking the news to his followers."Ashley is recovering and doing well! It really couldn't have gone much smoother. He's so sweet and beautiful and has been sleeping all day. Unlike his Mom and Dad who are on no sleep right now but it's totally worth it!"Jared also shared in the video, "Mama Ashley is healthy and everybody is doing well and the labor went well."Jared said he and Ashley hadn't slept much and so they planned to eat and sleep after their son's delivery."I'm really excited for you guys to see Dawson!" Jared gushed, smiling ear to ear. "I just wanted to give you an update, that everyone is doing well and everyone is healthy. So thumbs up!"Congratulatory messages poured in from Bachelor Nation on Jared's post. Tenley Molzahn wrote, "Welcome to the BEST chapter of your life Jared & Ashley! Congratulations. I'm so emotional over this." Raven Gates -- who welcomed a son with husband Adam Gottschalk last month -- commented, "Yay!!!!! Congrats!!! Can't wait to see baby Dawson." JoJo Fletcher wrote, "Yay!! Congrats you two!!! Way to go @ashley_iaconetti !!"And Jared also received support and love from Tanner Tolbert Nick Viall and more.Ashley and Jared were living apart before the baby's birth, with Ashley preparing to deliver in Virginia at her father's hospital and Jared working at the couple's coffee shop and lounge in Rhode Island, which opened in December.After about seven months of trying to conceive and Jared undergoing sperm analysis, the couple revealed during an Amazon Live session in July 2021 that they were expecting their first child and the baby was due on February 10, 2022.Jared wrote on Instagram at the time how he appreciated his pregnant wife so much and thought she looked beautiful even when she felt sick."Ashley has been a trouper and I love her so much. Last night, she threw up five times throughout the night. It's been a very sick month for her," Jared revealed."I feel terrible because there's not much I can do except the occasional runs to the store for chocolate cake or to 7/11 for Slurpees. I love her very much, she's a strong woman and I know Ashley is going to be an incredible mother."The pair then announced in August 2021 that Ashley was pregnant with a baby boy and they already had a name picked out for him -- a name Ashley had been sold on for about 20 years.Ashley and Jared announced their son's name , Dawson Demitri Haibon, in mid-January.Dawson is after Jack Dawson, played by Leonardo DiCaprio , from Titanic, and Ashley said she and her husband just liked the name Demitri, which is pretty close to Ashley's father's name Dominic.Ashley and Jared got married on August 11, 2019 at United Congregational Church Newport, RI, followed by a reception at Rosecliff, an oceanfront Gilded Age mansion in the seaside city.Ashley has said in the past she would be happy to have up to three children.The couple met in 2015 on Season 2 of , and they engaged in an on-again, off-again confusing romance on the show that simmered into a friendship in which Ashley largely pined for Jared as he dated other women on Season 2 and Season 3 of BIP.Jared admittedly realized his feelings for Ashley and wanted what he couldn't have when she sparked up a romance with Canadian firefighter Kevin Wendt on The Bachelor Winter Games.Jared eventually won Ashley over and the couple confirmed they were dating in May 2018.Jared then proposed marriage to Ashley and they got engaged the following month in Mexico while the fifth season of was filming.Prior to their appearances on , Ashley competed for Chris Soules ' heart on The Bachelor's nineteenth season and Jared found fame on Kaitlyn Bristowe 's edition of The Bachelorette for Season 11.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
The State Botanical Garden of Georgia, a unit of the University of Georgias Public Service and Outreach, is hosting its annual Valentines Day dinner, a romantic meal surrounded by bountiful flora, on Monday, Feb. 14.
The news desk has compiled a list of events going on throughout the upcoming week that are open to the public. The list features Queer Trivia at Athentic Brewing Company, the 2022 virtual Holmes-Hunter Lecture and the Father & Daughter Dance at Lay Park.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Mostly sunny skies. High 69F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.
People gathered in Harmony Parking lot in Brattleboro on Friday, April 22nd for a street festival and parade in celebration of Earth Day. According to Nancy Braus of 350 Brattleboro, the goal was to celebrate the ways in which the community is working towards climate justice and to empower 
Gov. Jim Justice has joined two other governors in throwing a hail Mary pass to try to stop vaccine mandates for employees in the health care industry in rural areas. Facebook
Ron Hedrick stands in front of the Warming Station at the United Methodist Church on Heber Street in Beckley. Hedrick is seeking volunteers and funding to help support the Warming Station.(Rick Barbero/The Register-Herald)
Lebanon, IN (46052)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain later in the day. High 61F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 56F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
Zhu says the truth about the death of labor activist Li Wangyang 'will out' sooner or later.

Rights activist Zhu Chengzhi, who was detained in April 2018 after visiting the grave of Mao-era dissident Lin Zhao, was released from Jiangsu's Dingshan Prison on Jan. 26 after serving a three-year, nine-month jail term for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Zhu, who is currently being relocated to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou by agreement with state security police, said he regards his release as a transfer from "little prison" to "big prison," given that he will likely face ongoing surveillance and restrictions on his movement.

A Hunan province native, Zhu became one of China's most prominent rights activists after he spoke out about the death in police custody of labor rights activist Li Wangyang in 2013, and had previously been held on suspicion of subversion after he questioned the official verdict of suicide in Li's death.

A Chinese police investigation into Li's death in June 2013 upheld an earlier verdict of suicide, despite widespread public doubts about the claim that the severely disabled 62-year-old hanged himself.

"So, I'm back in the big prison," Zhu told RFA in an interview following his release and relocation. "Don't worry about my health; I can still walk around pretty fast."

He said he had been told he couldn't return to Hunan's Shaoyang city, and had requested relocation to Guangzhou, as his wife lives there, he said.

"In the end, I went from Dingshan Prison to Wuxi Airport, got on the plane under their supervision, and came back here to Guangzhou," he said. "I was in no hurry to get back to my hometown."

"I've been out of normal daily life for 45 months, and the things that were once familiar to me are now unfamiliar," he said. "The past two days has been spent familiarizing myself with various electronic devices."

"After Lunar New Year, I plan to get a total medical examination," Zhu said, who spoke of being singled out for "special treatment" while serving his sentence, but declined to give further details.

Zhu was taken away from the Lingyan Shan hillside cemetery on the outskirts of Suzhou alongside fellow activists who laid wreaths to mark the anniversary of Lin Zhao's execution for alleged counterrevolutionary crimes under the rule of late supreme leader Mao Zedong.

He was held in the Suzhou No. 1 Detention Center during his pretrial detention, in crowded conditions, he recalled.

"Conditions were overcrowded in the detention center: we slept more than 20 people to a room, everyone packed in close together," Zhu told RFA. "The original specification for jails was supposed to be 14 people to a room, with 10 people to a room in the "elderly and infirm" wing. Typically there should be seven bunk beds [in a regular room], with three bunk beds and four single beds in an elderly and infirm room."

But once he started serving out his prison sentence, he didn't need to work any more.

"I'm 71 now. That's why I didn't have to do labor," he said. "They made us work in detention centers before the pandemic, but it wasn't very high pressure work, six days a week, and no more than eight hours a day. So there was a big change compared with that era."

No regrets for his actions

Zhu said he feels quite fortunate compared with many other Chinese dissidents, despite having been singled out for "unusual" levels of control in jail.

"I spent three years and nine months in jail, but compared with a lot of my friends including Li Wangyang, [that was nothing], because they gave their lives. Others were subjected to torture or other inhumane treatment. I had it easy compared with them," he said.

He said he has no regrets about any of the actions that led to his jailing.

"None of my actions have given me any trouble sleeping at night; I sleep great," Zhu said. "Everything I have done has come from the heart, in the spirit of humanity and natural justice. Why wouldn't I do those things?"

He added: "I don't think too much about all the ramifications. I'm just a very, very ordinary old guy. The things I have done should be done by every other regular person. I have stayed steadfast throughout."

"The truth about what happened to Li Wangyang will come to the surface one day, as part of the natural course of events. But I don't have the power to bear the brunt of revealing that truth all by myself," he said.

But Zhu denied having cut a deal with the state security police.

"And if you wonder whether they offered me some kind of promise [not to speak out], they lost any hope [of cutting a deal with me] way back in 2012. Nobody has set limits on [what I say in public], ever. Even if they did, I wouldn't agree to it," he said.

He said he has no problem with staying away from his hometown.

"I have a lot of relatives, classmates and friends in my hometown ... but I'm going to go wherever seems good to me. The whole world is my village," he said.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects the proposed building site for the Ryonpho Vegetable Greenhouse Farm in the Ryonpho area of Hamju County, North Korea, in this undated photo released January 28, 2022

North Koreans were forced to attend propaganda lectures last week lionizing the achievements of their countrys two previous leaders in celebration of their birthdays, sources in the country told RFA.

Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), the father and predecessor to current leader Kim Jong Un, was born on February 16, a date now known as the Day of the Shining Star. His father, national founder Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), was born on April 15, or the Day of the Sun.

The lectures and celebrations seek to solidify the cult of personality surrounding the Kim family, which has now ruled North Korea for three generations. In addition, the central government is hosting public discussions promoting the achievement of Kim Jong Un as North Korea prepares to usher in a new era of so-called Kimjongunism to mark to 10th anniversary of his ascension to power on April 13.

A six-day political education event that emphasizes the achievements of previous leaders is starting today for everyone in the Peoples army, to celebrate the upcoming Day of the Sun and Day of the Shining Star, a military source from the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFAs Korean Service Jan. 24.

All soldiers and officers must attend for one hour each day, every day this week. In the past, political education for military personnel has been conducted ahead of special occasions, but it is very rare for all the officers to participate for one hour each week, said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

As planned, the first three days were to be dedicated to study, with the final three days set aside for self-criticism. Self-criticism sessions typically happen once per week. Citizens must confess their shortcomings, and then criticize their colleagues for their mistakes.

On the last day, individuals renew their determination to participate in upcoming celebration, the military source said.

In these kinds of lectures, they claim that the happiness of the people is possible because the previous leaders carried the country through a long journey, personally covering over 35,000 miles, said the source, referring to the total documented distance traveled across the country by the first two leaders in personal visits meant to advise and encourage the people.

The source said that the authorities would likely also demand that officers and soldiers concentrate efforts into completing their winter training assignments more efficiently.

They argued that we should identify what problems appear in combat preparations and take advantage of that as an opportunity to improve as we welcome the Days of the Sun and Shining Star.

Every institution  the military, businesses, and cooperative farms  must participate, an official in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA.

Selected lectures from senior members of each institution are the primary focus of the lectures, which will be held for six days through 29th. They keep attendance to ensure that all residents participate, said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

Even people who are not affiliated with a company or institution must attend. This can be problematic for some because the wages from a government-assigned job is nowhere near enough to support a family, and adult family members who are officially not working actually bring in most of the familys income by running a family business.

They have to attend the lectures for an hour every morning, so they cannot go to the market for business and are having a hard time making a living, the second source said.

Birth of Kimjongunism

North Korea held a widely publicized discussion that praised the achievements of Kim Jong Un on Jan. 25, state media reported.

Experts in South Korea said that it was a signal that the government is preparing to officially formulate a specific ideology of the current administration, which could be called Kimjongunism.

The term harkens back to Kimilsungism, or the ideas and policies of Kim Il Sung, and Kimilsungism-Kimjongilsm, which updates those ideas for the era when Kim Jong Il ruled.

North Korea has already begun using Kimjongunism internally, South Koreas National Intelligence Service reported during the National Assemblys audit of state affairs in October.

The discussion, called the Symposium on Greatness and Exploits of Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, included high-ranking North Korean officials who are experts in ideology and governance theory. These included the Korean Workers Partys Propaganda and Agitation Secretary, Ri Il Hwan, and the president of the Kim Il Sung Military University, Han Chang Sun.

They said that the past ten years marked by dynamic advance under the leadership of Kim Jong Un were meaningful days when the validity and vitality of the Party's revolutionary ideas were fully demonstrated, the state-run Korea Central News Agency reported.

They praised the general secretary as a brilliant thinker-theoretician and distinguished statesman who shows the road ahead of revolution with his outstanding ideas and ushers in a new era of great changes by giving full play to the mental power of the popular masses, the report said.

The symposium is just one of many examples of North Koreas drive to idolize Kim since the beginning of this year, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the official beginning of his rule in April.

This is part of an effort to transition to Kimjongunism, Chung Young Tae, chair professor at South Koreas Dongyang University told RFA. To officially call it that, they are first showing a general pattern of reporting that will emphasize his achievements. This will intensify.

Chung said that North Korea was politicizing its current economic difficulties. A closure of the Chinese border and suspension of trade two years ago at the start of the coronavirus pandemic have taken its toll. The economy is in shambles and nearly everything is in short supply. Though China and North Korea resumed rail freight earlier this month, recovery remains a long way off.

North Korea attributes the reason for its economic hardship to external factors, such as pressure from the United States. They try to strengthen internal solidarity by highlighting Kim Jong Un as a divine being who can overcome difficulties, Chung said.

Since last year, North Korea has been promoting Kims achievements in an effort to draw comparisons between him and his late grandfather Kim Il Sung, Director Cheong Seong-chang of the Center of North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute told RFA.

Kim Il Sung founded the country and its Juche ideology of self-reliance and holds the most revered status in North Koreas cultural psyche.

They want to promote Kim Jong Un as a great leader like Kim Il Sung. This symposium is an opportunity to spread that idea throughout society, Cheong said.

Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Citizens once again steal human feces from each others toilets to meet impossibly high quotas.

In this Monday, Jan. 23, 2017 photo, a farm worker digs into a pile of locally-produced Juche fertilizer at Migok Cooperative Farm near Sariwon, North Hwanghae Province, North Korea.

Competition for human feces has once again become cutthroat in North Korea, with mass public brawls breaking out as citizens begin the annual ritual of trying to fill unrealistic quotas to make fertilizer for the farming season.

In impoverished North Korea, farmland is fertilized using human waste, and the government tasks every household with yearly collection quotas.

RFA reported in January 2019 that households were struggling to meet an impossible quota amounting to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) per able-bodied citizen per day.

One source at that time told RFA the quota was intentionally unreasonable because the true purpose of the quota was to force the citizens to pay fines and bribes for failure to meet targets.

The quota is slightly more reasonable in 2022, as each citizen has until March to collect 300 kilograms of manurehuman waste mixed with soilper person, but the quota still means people must dip into their reserves, or find deposits elsewhere.

Those who dont want to pay fines are fighting over night soil at public toilets and stealing it from each other. But individual fisticuffs are now giving way to group conflicts.

In the northeastern city of Chongjin, whole neighborhoods are mobilizing against each other, a resident who requested anonymity for security reasons told RFAs Korean Service.

On the 25th, several residents from Marum village in Sunam district had a dispute with the people of nearby Sinhyang village as the Marumers were trying to collect human feces from a communal toilet located within Sinhyang, the source said.

After the authorities imposed their orders for every citizen to produce manure, conflicts are erupting as the people venture into other districts, he said.

The order to produce manure went out to every institution, company, school, and neighborhood watch unit according to the source.

Both adults and children are participating in the Battle for Manure Production, the source said. North Korea often stylizes public projects and campaigns as battles in the socialist revolution.

Its so pathetic that disputes break out over this, but they do this every year at about this time of year. Each family in the neighborhood has been organized into shifts to guard the communal toilet to keep the supply of human waste secure. Residents lament that they have to stand guard at a public toilet at night, then go to work the next day, he said.

The source said each resident must deliver the 300 kilograms of manure by early March at the latest to a cooperative farm to use as fertilizer.

The manure assignment is also put on the schools. Even though they are on winter break students must come to school and pull carts loaded with human feces and soil People are complaining that authorities had no problems closing school due to fears over COVID-19, but they can mobilize students to collect manure, said the source.

Elementary school students and seniors who have retired are exempt, according to the source.

Some regions of the country have more sources of human waste than others, a resident of North Pyongan province in the northwest told RFA.

Residents are having significant difficulty in securing manure here in North Pyongan province, which is located on the plains and has less than other areas, the second source said.

Because the residents are having a significant difficulty in securing manure, they are scooping up the residue at the bottom of a sewage treatment plant in the city causing conflicts with the community sewage management organizations, he said.

Manure is human feces mixed with ash from firewood, and humus soil made from rotten leaves in a specific ratio, the second source explained.

It is common for residents to bribe the cooperative farm officials to accept low-quality manure with a higher percentage of soil and ashes, he said.

Fights over human waste are a sight burned into the memory of a former cooperative farm official who fled North Korean in 2014 and now lives in South Korea.

When the new year begins, everyone in North Korea must make manure and bring it to a nearby cooperative farm using buckets and handcarts. When you deliver it, you must move as a group. After the manure is given to the official, you will receive a confirmation receipt, which you must submit to the unit manager to complete the assignment, said the escapee, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The problem is that North Korea suffers from chronic food shortages, so it is difficult for each family to reach the manure quota, he said. Before I left North Korea, there were frequent fights between villages and their residents at the beginning of January each year.

Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Khoukham Keomanivong said he is no longer involved in politics.

A Lao human rights activist living in Thailand and detained since Saturday under threat of deportation to his communist homeland was released on bail on Tuesday under strict travel restrictions, he told RFA.

Khoukham Keomanivong, a U.N.-recognized refugee, was convicted Monday in a closed-door Thai trial of overstaying his visa and was being held pending deportation to Laos, where he faces arrest for his advocacy work he says he has refrained from for more than two years.

Speaking to RFA on Tuesday, Khoukham declined to provide details about the conditions of his release, citing restrictions imposed by Thai authorities. What I can say right now is that Ive been bailed out with the help of a human rights lawyer and the U.N.

I can only sleep and stay in and travel to certain restricted areas, and I cant travel to the provinces, Khoukham said. The U.N. has been coordinating with me and the authorities ever since I was held in the immigration detention center.

A founding member of the rights group Free Laos, set up by Lao workers and residents in Thailand to promote human rights and democracy in their home country, Khoukham said he had ended his political activities long before his arrest.

I stopped my political activities more than two years ago after getting my UNHCR card, Khoukham said, referring to the U.N. document recognizing his status as a refugee in Thailand.

One of the conditions of my obtaining that card was that I end my involvement in politics. The problem of my arrest arose because some individuals saw some old stories online and reported them, he said.

If I now have to go to a third country, Ill go. But if Im given a choice, and if theres more security for me here in Thailand, Id prefer to stay here, he said.

Tough on critics

Laos deals severely with dissidents who call for democracy and respect for human rights in the one-party communist state, and Lao dissidents living abroad have been harshly punished after returning or being forced back to Laos.

Three Lao workers who criticized their government on Facebook while working in Thailand disappeared in March 2016 after returning to Laos to renew their passports.

Somphone Phimmasone, his girlfriend Lod Thammavong, and Soukane Chaithad were later shown on television making what appeared to be forced confessions and were charged with criticizing the Lao government online while working abroad and for taking part in a protest outside the Lao Embassy in Thailand.

Somphone was sentenced to a 20-year term, while Soukane was sentenced to 16 years and Lod was handed a 12-year sentence.

In August 2019, Lao democracy activist Od Sayavong, a friend of Khoukham, vanished under mysterious circumstances in Thailand after posting a video clip online criticizing the government. Listed as a person of concern by the UNHCR because of his advocacy for democracy and human rights, his whereabouts remain unknown. He was 34 at the time he went missing.

Thailand has hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war, natural disasters and human rights violations in neighboring countries.

Human rights groups, however, criticize Thailand's authoritarian government for recent cases in which it returned refugees and asylum-seekers to China, where they face torture, persecution and other rights abuses.

Last November, Thai authorities arrested and deported to Cambodia two activists from the banned political opposition after Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the arrest of one of them over a poem criticizing the strongman ruler on Facebook.

In early 2019, Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat was arrested by Thai Royal Police and handed over to Vietnamese police, who took him across the border into Laos, and from there back to Vietnam.

Nhat, who had been a weekly contributor to RFAs Vietnamese Service, was sentenced in 2020 to ten years in jail for abusing his position and authority in a decade-old land fraud case.

Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Shops stayed open amid reports of junta pressure, but people were nowhere to be seen.

UPDATED at 6:35 P.M. on 2022-02-01

Streets in Myanmar were largely empty today as people across the country took part in a mass Silent Strike to protest the one-year anniversary of the military coup on Tuesday, despite a week of junta threats and arrests of organizers.

Public areas around the country were noticeably barren beginning around 9 a.m., except for occasional groups of young people holding flash protests. In the lead up to the anniversary of the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, authorities had warned of tough punishments  including life in prison  for anyone found applauding, honking or otherwise expressing support for the strike.

Tuesday marked the third Silent Strike since the military seized power, the others coming in March in the immediate aftermath of the putsch and in December on International Human Rights Day. In the past year, security forces have arrested nearly 8,900 civilians and killed more than 1,500  mostly during nonviolent anti-junta protests, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

A housewife in Yangon regions Kyi Myin Daing township told RFAs Myanmar Service that shops stayed open on Tuesday, but shoppers and pedestrians were nowhere to be seen in the city of more than 5 million people.

During the first Silent Strike, the streets were empty, and all the shops were closed. But this time, the authorities pressured the shop owners to remain open  they were asked to sign pledges that they would do so, she said, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

I was at the market this morning and only saw two or three people there. After 9 a.m., the streets were empty. I saw the shops and vendors opened as usual. But I didnt go out after that.

Similarly, shops were open in Myanmars second-largest city Mandalay, while the main roads remained largely devoid of people, sources said.

Thura Aung, a Mandalay-based organizer, said his group Mandalay Forces for Strikes began staging a protest early on Tuesday morning.

It has been a year. The military council has not gained the control of the country. The power is still in the hands of the people. Law and order are still in the hands of the people, he said.

We want to show that we can protest and be silent if we want to in our city. We came out to show that we have not given up on the revolution even after one year.

While protests in Mandalay were largely silent, a 40-year-old man named Aung Aung staged a self-immolation in opposition to military rule in the regions Kyauk Pan Daung township around noon and later died from his injuries, sources said. Aung Aung, who specifically expressed opposition to government management of electricity amid frequent outages around the nation, was survived by his wife and two children.

An eerily empty urban center in Myanmar on the anniversary of the military coup, Feb. 1, 2022. Citizen journalist Junta counter-protests

In the capital Naypyidaw, sources told RFA that most residents stayed home, although some small parades took place showing support for the junta.

Most people didnt go out, but the shops were open. Some of the owners were pressured by the authorities. They ordered them to open their shops, said one resident, who declined to be named.

Most people going out today are supporters of the [junta]. I saw a group of people holding flags and signs showing support for the military marching this morning.

Government employees in Naypyidaw said junta ministries issued a directive shortening work hours on Tuesday to between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., suggesting that they may have been pressured to take part in displays of loyalty to the military.

Similar counter-protests in support of the junta were reported in other townships around the country.

Leo, an organizer with the General Strike Committee in Yangon, told RFA that support for resistance to the junta remains strong, despite the difficulties of the past year under military rule.

On this day that marks the one-year anniversary, we are organizing many forms of protests to keep up the momentum of support for a popular revolt, he said. The strikes will continue.

RFA received reports that at least 70 shop owners in Yangon, Mandalay, Naypyidaw and other cities were arrested in the week leading up to Tuesday after they announced that their businesses would be closed on Feb. 1 to show support for the Silent Strike.

People's Defense Force militia members escort protesters during a demonstration in Monywa, capital of Myanmar's Sagaing region, on the anniversary of the military juntas coup, Feb. 1, 2022. Credit: Myanmar Pressphoto Agency. Global condemnation

The anniversary of the coup was met with condemnation on Tuesday in a joint statement from the High Representative on behalf of the European Union and foreign ministers from several democratic nations, who noted that after a year under military rule, more than 14 million people in Myanmar are in humanitarian need, the economy is in crisis, political reforms had been reversed, and conflict is spreading across the country.

"The military regime bears responsibility for this crisis, which has gravely undermined peace and stability in Myanmar and the region," said the statement, which was signed by representatives of Albania, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S.

"We once again call for the immediate cessation of violence and for constructive dialogue among all parties to resolve the crisis peacefully. We reiterate our call on the military regime to immediately end the State of Emergency, allow unhindered humanitarian access, release all arbitrarily detained persons, including foreigners, and swiftly return the country to the democratic process."

The ministers highlighted their support for the "Five-Point Consensus" to end the political crisis in Myanmar that was agreed to by junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and Myanmar's fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during an emergency meeting in April last year, but which the junta has failed to implement, and reiterated calls for a special envoy from the bloc to help mediate the situation.

Fellow ASEAN members Indonesia and Singapore also issued strongly-worded statements on Tuesday, with the former saying it "deplores" the military's actions and the latter expressing concern that "conditions in Myanmar for the people continue to deteriorate" a year after the coup. Both called for a swift implementation of the Five-Point Consensus.

U.N. Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet likened the conflict in Myanmar to a civil war in an interview with the BBC and called on the U.N. Security Council to take "stronger action" to put pressure on the military to restore democracy. She said that the international response "lacked urgency" and warned that the conflict now threatened regional stability.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a statement on Tuesday that the coup had exacerbated already dire religious freedom conditions for [Myanmars] vulnerable religious communities" and called on the U.S. government to "support the continued pursuit for accountability for the many human rights abuses perpetrated by the [junta]," especially those committed against the country's minority Muslim and Christian communities.

A deserted street in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, amid a "Silent Strike" to protest the one-year anniversary of the country's military coup, Feb. 1, 2022. Credit RFA Extension of rule

Observers told RFA they expect repression under military rule to only worsen following a decision by the National Defense and Security Council on Monday to extend the state of emergency in Myanmar, citing local and foreign destructive forces working toward total annihilation of the country, terrorist attacks, unfinished political appointments, and a need for a genuine and disciplined multi-party democracy.

I think the military will fight at full throttle in next six months," said political analyst Than Soe Naing.

"I assume they will use all of their tactics -- such as killing civilians, burning villages, putting people in prison -- on a higher scale. They will speed up their military operations to crush the resistance. I think there will be battles that decide the future of the military soon.

Others suggested that the military would renege on promises to hold new elections or abolish the constitution to maintain power, and that Min Aung Hlaing may try to establish a dynastic rule in the country, installing his son when he decides to step down.

But Nang Linn, a former member of a student activist group, said the junta's "best bet" for survival is to restore a civilian government, because "the resistance will grow as long as they extend their rule."

If they genuinely care about the country and restoring peace and prosperity, the [junta] should end its rule and return power to the civilian government elected by the people," he said.

"We cannot tolerate an autocracy enforced with guns anymore. They should return to the military barracks under a civilian government. Only then, will the country be able to flourish again.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Its opponents vow to force the military aside and rebuild the country at any cost.

An armored vehicle drives pasto the Sule Pagoda, following days of mass protests against the military coup, in Yangon, Feb. 14, 2021.

Myanmars junta on Monday extended a state of emergency order by six months as opponents of the regime prepared to hold a nationwide Silent Strike on the eve of the anniversary of the coup and vowed to rebuild the country at any cost.

Early on Monday, the National Defense and Security Council held a special meeting at which junta chief Snr. Gen. Main Aung Hlaing said that developments in politics, economics and social situations in the country required that the junta extend the state of emergency, according to a statement released by the council.

Among the developments he listed were local and foreign destructive forces working toward total annihilation of the country, terrorist attacks, unfinished political appointments, and a need for a genuine and disciplined multi-party democracy.

Acting President Myint Swe, Lower House Speaker Ti Khun Myat, and other generals unanimously agreed to extend the state of emergency, which went into effect immediately and grants the military sweeping powers to crack down on opponents to its rule.

The order came just a day ahead of the anniversary marking a year since the military seized power from the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup, propelling the country into a political crisis. In the time since, security forces have arrested more than 8,830 civilians and killed 1,500 more, mostly during nonviolent protests of junta rule, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Activists have planned to lead a nationwide Silent Strike on Tuesday that they hope will shut down the country and draw global attention to the juntas rights violations. But authorities have responded with threats to punish anyone who supports the strike by applauding, honking car horns or playing drums with up to life imprisonment.

Despite the warnings, many people told RFAs Myanmar that they will proceed with the strike on Tuesday because they refuse to give up on the democratic progress the country made under NLD chief Aung San Suu Kyi. The former state counselor was detained along with former President Win Myint following last years coup and now faces 16 charges her supporters say are politically motivated.

Instead of calling it the one-year anniversary of the coup detat, we should call it the anniversary of the destruction of Myanmar, said Wai Moe, a third-year college student in Myanmars largest city Yangon said.

The disruption in education for students of all grades  from kindergarten to seniors in college  is unrecoverable. Both the youth and the older generations have lost all hope.

Zeyar Lwin, the leader of one of the many branches of an anti-junta Peoples Defense Force (PDF) militia that have sprung up, told RFA that the nations youth are fighting the regime for their future.

Every single person has their own hopes and plans for the future. This military coup has shattered these hopes, dreams and goals, he said. Before the coup, these young men had good careers as doctors, teachers, attorneys, Buddhist monks or trainers, but this coup forced them all to join the resistance and they all carry resentment in their hearts.

Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun dismissed claims that the nations youth had lost their future because of the coup, saying the military has reopened schools and never forced them to join PDF groups.

If they chose not to return to school and went to the jungle camps, we cant do anything for them. This was their choice, he said. We always welcome them back. We have announced that they will not be punished if they have not committed any crimes. What more should we do to give them a guarantee?

Junta chief Snr. Gen. Main Aung Hlaing addresses the National Defense and Security Council during a special meeting in the capital Naypyidaw, Jan. 31, 2022. National Defense and Security Council Decades of military rule

The people of Myanmar are no strangers to martial law, having lived under military regimes for nearly 50 of the countrys 74-year history.

But people who experienced military rule in Myanmar following the countrys 1962 and 1988 coups told RFA that life under the current junta has been the worst of all three periods.

On March 1, 1962, Gen. Nay Win of the Socialist Party orchestrated a coup in Myanmar under the premise that the government had failed to prevent ethnic Shans from splitting from the Union. His regime detained, tortured and killed thousands of Shans, while leading the economy to ruin after nationalizing all major firms in the country.

By 1988, the year of Myanmars second coup, the country had become one of the least developed in the world and relied on the United Nations for assistance. When students led a mass uprising that year, the military reacted by taking control of the government and violently shutting down protests, killing as many as 3,000, according to some estimates. But experts noted that even then, the junta received support from friendly nations including China, and the country was able to rebuild.

Political analyst Than Soe Naing said that rule under the previous juntas paled in comparison to that of the current regime.

Following this coup, the junta has cracked down on the civil disobedience movement and peaceful demonstrators, killing young students. This led to an armed resistance, he said. Now, the regime uses the worst techniques to suppress people by killing civilians, burning villages and looting their properties.

Hla Kyaw Zawl, a Myanmar-based political analyst, called the aftermath of the 2021 coup the worst of all, but she expressed confidence that the regime will not last long.

The new regime doesnt have international support and the people dont support them either, she said, adding that even the juntas allies only support it nominally.

Vow to rebuild

Activists and other opponents of the regime said that the people of Myanmar are fed up with military rule and would ensure that last years coup would be the countrys last.

We have returned to the conditions we experienced in the past, said former college student Paing Ye Thu, describing a life of fear in which citizens cannot express their opinions or disobey orders. After this military coup, these kinds of feelings come back. In addition, more and more people are struggling to make ends meet. We can no longer sit aside and allow ourselves to be ruled this way.

Others looked beyond the destruction the coup had wrought on their country over the past year to how they will rebuild when the military is forced to step down from power.

I believe we will be able to build a new nation after we declare victory so that we can fulfill our personal dreams and ambitions, said Tayzar San, a doctor who ran a free clinic in Mandalay before the coup and joined the resistance movement shortly after.

I am sure that after this revolution, we will have a peaceful and livable nation and a political system that ensures human rights and dignity. I hope we will have a peaceful and pleasant life for all generations.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
The residents of Lay Kay Kaw fled to a farm across the river when the military started shelling in December.

Myanmar refugees, who have fled a flare-up in fighting between the Myanmar army and insurgent groups and settled temporarily on the banks of the Moei River (Thaung Yin in Burmese), receive aid from Thailand on the Thai-Myanmar border, in Mae Sot, Thailand January 4, 2022.

More than 3,000 Myanmar refugees are stranded on the Myanmar side of the Thaung Yin River after Thailand took down their makeshift tents at a cattle farm on the Thai side of the river and deported them, aid workers told RFA Monday.

The refugees are from Lay Kay Kaw, a town near the Thai border in Kayin state, but had set up camp at the Mae Ko Kin Cattle Farm to escape the violence that engulfed their town in mid-December.

Soldiers loyal to the military junta that took over the country in a coup last February entered Lay Kay Kaw on Dec. 14 to try to arrest people taking refuge there, including a former member of Parliament from the ousted opposition party and government employees who had participated in the civil disobedience movement by refusing to work.

When the military called in airstrikes and fired artillery shells into Lay Kay Kaw, the residents fled, with some escaping into Thailand.

Rather than returning to their hometown, the recently deported refugees are now staying in temporary huts along the river.

After the Thai authorities shut down the camp over the past few days, there are no more people left in the camp.  There are around 3,000 to 4,000. They are too afraid to go home, Ye Min, a volunteer from the Aid Alliance Committee, a Thailand-based migrant worker rights organization, told RFAs Myanmar Service.

They build shelters out of tarps on the banks of the river on the Myanmar side, said Ye Min.

The 3,000 refugees who were recently deported join around 10,000 internally displaced people taking refuge in Myanmar villages near the border, Ye Min estimated.

Intense fighting broke out in the area in December, and about 20,000 people fled their homes to hide on both sides of the river.

Though many have returned home, some of the 20,000 refugees remain on the Thai side and have received support from local residents.

We have a shortage of drinking water. Many of our children fell sick as there were heavy rains during the rainy season, a refugee living on the riverbank, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA.

Many of us have diarrhea after consuming unclean water and food, she said.

A constant downpour has added to their misery.

Some people get soaked as the rains got into their tents. Some even simply dug pits and are living in the pits, she said.

A member of a local armed ethnic group fighting the military junta told RFA that it is providing aid to the refugees.

We have committees for helping them. We scrape to provide them with emergency foods and shelters, Padao Saw Taw Nee, the foreign affairs officer of the Karen National Union, which administers territory controlled by the Karen National Liberation Army, told RFA.

Weve got at least four of five temporary refugee camps, where we feed them and give them humanitarian assistance. Aside from that, we are also giving them protection. As long as we cannot find the places safe for them to live, we will have to keep fighting these problems, he said.

Several refugees said that not only were their homes, farms and livelihoods damaged by the fighting, but the military also looted their abandoned belongings.

Even if it were safe to return home, some said it would be challenging to rebuild.

RFA attempted to contact junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment but received no response.

The district chief of Mae Sot on the Thai side of the border declined to comments on the Myanmar refugees, and calls by RFA to the Tak provincial governor and foreign ministry were not answered Tuesday.

The Tak provincial border center did not have a recent update on the refugee situation.

Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Zahire Memet and Gulbostan Ibrahim are from a family that has been devastated by Chinas crackdown in the region.

Two female members of an extended Muslim Uyghur family serving long prison sentences for committing religious crimes are believed to be held in a womens prison in the town of Sanji (in Chinese, Changji) in Chinas far-western Xinjiang region.

Additionally, two male members of the family and an in-law are also serving life terms, the wife of one of them said.

The women are Zahire Memet, who is now 38, and her sister-in-law Gulbostan Ibrahim, who is now 33. Zahire Memet was sentenced to 15 years in prison for wearing a hijab, while Gulbostan Ibrahim, who is also known as Bostan Ibrahim, was sentenced to 17 years for not confessing to holding religious activities at home.

They are from a family in Korla (in Chinese, Kuerle) that has been ripped apart by Chinas persecution of the Uyghur community in Xinjiang, sources told RFA. Zahire Memets mother Halcham Pazil and sisters Melikizat and Patigul Memet are also serving between seven and 20 years in Sanji Womens Prison for religious activities in which they took part in 2013, according to a verdict issued by the Korla Municipal Peoples Court in April 2019 and recently seen by RFA.

They all were retroactively sentenced after China criminalized such activities in 2018 when it issued de-extremification regulations targeting Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, purportedly to prevent acts of terrorism and ensure social stability.

The charges against the family were brought by the Korla Municipal Procuratorate. Korla is the second-largest city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Zahire Memet, the third daughter of the family, used to wear hijab and did not remove her hijab on time, the verdict announcing her sentence said. Even though Chinese government officials repeatedly asked her not to wear a hijab, she continued doing so from 2010-2015, it said.

She was also convicted of attending religious preaching, providing a venue for religious instruction, and giving birth to one more child than permitted by law in 2015, the verdict said. She obstructed the law by relying on superstition because she did not abort her child, the document states.

Gulbostan Ibrahim was convicted of not admitting she had held religious teachings at her home, even though others who attended reported having done so. The verdict did not mention other crimes.

Although Chinese court and prosecutorial officials in Korla initially did not provide any information to RFA about where Zahire and Gulbostan were serving their sentences, one later confirmed that Zahire was serving her sentence at the womens prison.

Cell block No. 5, the official said when asked where she was confined inside the detention center.

Another prison official confirmed to RFA that Zahire Mehmet was serving time there also. But another official took the phone and said they would not disclose information on Gulbostan Ibrahim because it was a state secret before hanging up.

After RFA ran earlier reports on the family, Yusup Firdavis, a Uyghur who lives in exile in Turkey, sent a message saying that he was the familys neighbor in Korla. He told RFA over the telephone that the family had not done anything harmful to society.

They have not committed any crimes that can make them prisoners, he said. This case is an example of Chinese racism against the whole Uyghur nation. I believe they are the victims of the Chinese policy to wipe out the Uyghurs from the surface of the earth. They are the victims of the Uyghur genocide.

Chinese government officials began confiscating copies of the Quran and prayer mats from Uyghur families in Korla in 2017. At that time, an official from the Korla village of Qarayulghuz said that some of the religious activities that had been permitted were now banned because they endanger national security.

Yusup Firdavis said that Uyghur families were initially confused about what religious practices they could maintain and which ones they had to abandon.

Detained Uyghur brothers Musajan Memet (L) and Mehmut Memet (R) in undated photos. Photos courtesy of an RFA listener

Brothers locked up for life

Kifaye Yaqup, who married into the family and lives in Istanbul, told RFA that four other family members were also convicted of similar crimes, with three receiving life sentences, including her husband, Mehmut Memet, her brother-in-law Musajan Memet, and Musajans wife, Zohregul Hudaberdi. She did not mention the name of the fourth person.

Mehmut and Musajan are two of the three sons of Halchem Pazil.

Kifaye said Mehmut, 47, became a successful entrepreneur after he resigned from his job. She has not been able to communicate with any of them since their arrest.

In late 2015, Kifaye and Mehmut went to Turkey to enroll their children in school there, she said. While she stayed with the children, Mehmut returned to Xinjiang but visited Turkey periodically until October 2016 when the Chinese government confiscated his passport.

My husband is innocent, Kifaye said. He didnt commit any crime that warrants any prison term, let alone life in jail.

Musajan Memet was expelled from Xinjiang University after he was found to have been praying while a student there, Kifaye said. Afterwards, he was arrested twice when the Xinjiang government stepped up measures against the Uyghurs to combat terrorism under Chinas new antiterrorism law.

The law, which took effect in January 2016, expanded the governments powers to monitor peaceful citizens, tighten censorship, and give officials greater legal cover to imprison ethnic and religious minorities.

Musajan was sentenced to five years after his first arrest in 2008 and to three years after his second arrest in 2015. He was released on bail in 2017 just as authorities began a major crackdown on Uyghurs, she said.

Musajan was later detained a third time and sentenced to life in prison, Kifaye said. His wife, Zohregul Hudaberdi, was also arrested then and received a life sentence. Her resignation from her job in the Korla municipal government was cited as evidence of her crime.

Chinese government officials in Korla contacted by RFA refused to give any information about the two Memet brothers. But a security official from a neighborhood committee in Korla confirmed that Mehmut had been sentenced to life in prison and that Musajan had been charged with terrorism, though he could not provide further details.

He is now in prison, the official said. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Musajan was arrested earlier.

RFA obtained a list from the Yangguang neighborhood committee in Korla of the names of local residents who had been sentenced. It listed Musajan as sentenced to life in prison on terrorism charges and serving his term in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps prison in the city.
The European Union has unveiled a proposal to ban Russian oil imports by the end of the year, impose more banking sanctions against Moscow, and cut off some Russian broadcasters in Europe saying that the Kremlin has to pay dearly for its aggression Ukraine.

With Russia intensifying its attacks on eastern Ukraine on May 4, the EU said that its sixth round of sanctions against Moscow will comprise phasing out the importation of Russian crude and refined oil products by the end of the year despite pushback from some of the bloc's members, including Slovakia and Hungary.

"We will phase out Russian supply of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year," the head of the bloc's executive European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the major developments on Russia's invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians, and Western reaction. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

"This will be a complete import ban on all Russian oil, seaborne and pipeline, crude and refined," she said, adding that "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin must pay a high price for his brutal aggression."

Von der Leyen, however, conceded that getting unanimity on oil sanctions will not be easy.

The commission chief, however, conceded that getting unanimity on oil sanctions will not be easy.

The measures require approval from all 27 EU countries to take effect and soon after von der Leyen's announcement, Hungary, Slovakia, and Bulgaria announced that they would seek exemptions from the embargo voicing concerns about energy security. Hungary and Slovakia are heavily dependent on Russian energy imports.

The Czech Republic, meanwhile, said it would seek a temporary exemption period of two or three years in order for pipeline capacities to be increased.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said EU countries blocking an oil embargo would be "complicit" in Russia's crimes in Ukraine.

Whatever their arguments are, if they oppose (the) oil embargo, it means one thing: they play on the Russian side. They share responsibility for everything Russia does in Ukraine, full stop, Kuleba said in a video posted on Twitter.

Von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russias largest bank, and two other major banks be disconnected from the SWIFT international banking payment system.



The EU will also ban three Russian state-owned broadcasters, she said, without naming the channels directly.



"They will not be allowed to distribute their content anymore in the European Union, in whatever shape or form, be it on cable, via satellite, on the Internet or via smartphone apps," von der Leyen told EU lawmakers.

According to a document seen by RFE/RL, the package also contains a list of 58 individuals sanctioned over Russia's military action in Ukraine that includes the Patriarch of Russia's Orthodox Church, a close ally of Putin's.



Von der Leyen also proposed launching a recovery package for Ukraine to help it rebuild after the war.



"This package should bring massive investment to meet the needs and the necessary reforms," von der Leyen said. "Eventually, it will pave the way for Ukraine's future inside the European Union."

The European Union accounts for nearly a half of Russia's crude and refined oil products. But the Kremlin, in a first reaction to Brussels' announcement, put on a brave face, warning that the embargo is a "double-edged sword" and that EU consumers will pay the price.

"The cost of these sanctions to the citizens of Europe will grow by the day," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 4.

Peskov said the Kremlin was looking at "various options" for its response to the new sanctions.

In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said he was "open" to imposing more sanctions on Russia and would be discussing measures with allies from the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations in the coming days.

On the battlefront, Moscow deployed 22 battalions near Izyum, an eastern city, in a bid to push into the Donbas region, the British Defense Ministry said in its daily bulletin on May 4, adding that Russia's apparent goal is capturing the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk in the east, "despite struggling to break through Ukrainian defenses." A Russian battalion usually consists of 700-800 soldiers.



According to the British intelligence bulletin, capturing the two cities "would consolidate Russian military control" of northeastern Ukraine.

In neighboring Belarus, the armed forces began "surprise" large-scale drills on May 4 to test their combat readiness, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said there was "heavy fighting" at the Azovstal plant on May 4 and said city officials had lost contact with Ukrainian forces inside.

Boychenko told Ukrainian television that Russian forces were attacking with heavy artillery, tanks, and warplanes, and said warships off the coast were also involved.

Russian troops are on the territory of the plant, according to David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation that has held now-stalled peace talks with Russia.

"Attempts to storm the plant continue for the second day. Russian troops are already on the territory of Azovstal," Arakhamia said, citing the commander of the Azov Regiment, which is defending the plant with other Ukrainian troops. He contradicted Boychenko, saying Ukrainian authorities have contact with the defenders at the plant.

The commander announced the storming of the plant by Russian troops the day before and called again for the evacuation of civilians.

Boychenko said on May 3 that more than 200 civilians were still holed up with fighters in the sprawling plant.

In his video address, Kuleba denied that Azovstal was under Russian control.

On May 4, Peskov denied Ukrainian reports that Russian troops had stormed the Avozstal steel plant soon after the latest group of civilians made it out of the sprawling complex.

"There is no storming," Peskov told reporters, contradicting claims by Ukrainian soldiers inside the steelworks.

"The order was publicly given by the supreme commander-in-chief to cancel the assault," Peskov said, referring to a statement Putin made on April 21 that called off a direct assault on Azovstal because it would result in too many Russian casualties. Instead, forces should seal off Azovstal so tightly that "even a fly can't get out," Putin said.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak, Reuters, AP, and AFP
ILIDZA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Bosnian authorities have rolled up the welcome mat for dozens of recently arrived members of a radically fundamentalist Jewish sect that has run into trouble all around the world.

It's the latest blow to a tiny, itinerant group whose spurning of modernity, austere lifestyle, and allegedly abusive treatment of women and girls have earned them the nickname "Jewish Taliban" among some Israelis.

Thirty-seven of Lev Tahor's estimated 200-300 devotees worldwide are thought to have arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina in November 2021, where they were living quietly under the watchful eyes of their new neighbors and local officials.

Neither the other residents of Ilidza, part of East Sarajevo in the Republika Srpska part of Bosnia, nor the authorities have alleged local wrongdoing by any of the three dozen newcomers, who reportedly arrived on three-month visas.

But Human Rights and Refugees Minister Milos Lucic announced on February 1 that 24 members of a Jewish religious group would leave the country on February 5 and the rest of the group would follow by February 20.

"According to the latest information, this religious group is currently looking for a new destination and transportation," Lucic said in a statement. "I have received assurances that they do not pose a threat to the local community and no incidents have been recorded so far."

It is more of the same for Lev Tahor.

The group and its late Israeli leader have been accused in the past of crimes against minors, including kidnapping and child marriage, and have spent decades seeking a country willing to host their ultraorthodox interpretation of the Torah.

Many of them have bounced from the United States, Canada, Guatemala, and Mexico under a cloud of allegations and police raids, with stays in a handful of other countries in the four decades since their founding in Israel in the late 1980s.

At one point, in 2018, Lev Tahor's leadership requested asylum in Iran, although the plan reportedly fell apart when Iraqi authorities deported them to Turkey.

Wary Neighbors And Officials

A local leader and the foreigners unit of Bosnia's Security Ministry suggested late last week that they would keep a close eye on the group, or even fight to see its members deported.

But the foreigners unit's director, Slobodan Ujic, told RFE/RL's Balkan Service last week that there was nothing illegal about their documents or actions, except that the local owner of the houses they were staying in had failed to report the presence of foreigners.

The service determined that the newcomers were members of a sect, however.

The mayor of East Ilidza, Marinko Bozovic, told the Republika Srpska's official broadcaster at the time that he would do everything he could to ensure Lev Tahor members left their community safely.

Neighbors in Ilidza, who declined to be quoted for this story, expressed vague concern to an RFE/RL correspondent last week that Lev Tahor might be dangerous. But they said they'd mostly just seen the newcomers praying and coming and going from the local store.

In Ilidza on January 28, one of the members of the group, an American whose first name is Moshe, walked East Sarajevo's snowy streets (in photo below) offering sweets to children. All of them declined.

Moshe would only tell RFE/RL that he was Jewish and declined to be quoted, or to confirm or deny he was a member of Lev Tahor.

None of Moshe's group appears to have contacted local Jewish leaders in connection with their arrival in one of the Balkans' most divided countries, with its split between Republika Srpska and a Muslim and Croat federation.

"I know who they are [based on media reports]," Igor Kozemjakin, the cantor of the Sarajevo synagogue, told RFE/RL's Balkan Service, "but no one has approached us, even though it's customary for Jewish groups to always contact us when they come to Sarajevo from any direction of religiosity, so to speak."

He noted their small numbers and isolated ways based on adherence to "the Torah as they interpret it."

"They should not be a threat to anyone, we can all agree on that," Kozemjakin said. "They don't even like to get closer or communicate with others."

But critics have accused Lev Tahor's leadership of cynically fostering a cult, and imposing or allowing child marriages.

'Members Suffer'

Rights activists have historically condemned Lev Tahor's practices while trying to help its members abandon the leadership's hold on their lives. "This is a cult that traps its members into inhumane conditions," Marci Hamilton, CEO and legal director of Child USA, a nonprofit think tank working to end child abuse, told RFE/RL on February 1.

"Their members suffer -- especially women and children. And they have fled from one country to another to avoid the laws protecting children," said Hamilton, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has followed Lev Tahor's activities for years.

The group's fate has been especially precarious since founder Shlomo Helbrans drowned in a river in Mexico in 2017, reportedly while performing ablutions.

U.S. authorities have alleged abuse including abducting and marrying children off to much older Lev Tahor adherents.

Helbrans' purported successor, his son Nachman Helbrans, and a lieutenant were convicted last year for scheming to kidnap a 14-year-old girl and "return her to [a] sexual relationship with [her] adult 'husband.'"

The Justice Department alleged in a related press release that underage girls had been expected to "have sex with their husbands, to tell people outside Lev Tahor that they were not married, to pretend to be older, and to deliver babies inside their homes instead of at a hospital, partially to conceal from the public the mothers' young ages."

Written by Andy Heil based on reporting by Meliha Kesmer, digital media manager for RFE/RL's Balkan Service
SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan -- A woman activist is facing a long jail term after livestreaming the January anti-government protests in Kazakhstan on Facebook.

Karima Haidarbekova, 40, says she joined the demonstrations in her home city of Shymkent in Kazakhstan's south on January 4 to "let the authorities know" about the plight of ordinary people.

She livestreamed the rallies and speeches in the city's central square where thousands of people gathered for peaceful demonstrations before violence later broke out and was harshly put down by security forces.

Some 227 people reportedly died in the unrest, in which security officials were given a "shoot-to-kill" order by President Qasym-Jomart Toqaev.

Haidarbekova was arrested on January 8 as the authorities hunted down activists and government critics, blaming them for inciting the unrest that turned bloody.

The charges against Haidarbekova include assaulting a government officer, intentionally causing damage to public property, and attacking official buildings.

Assaulting a government officer carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, while the two other charges can lead to up to two and seven years of imprisonment, respectively, if she's found guilty.

Similar charges have been brought against dozens of activists across the authoritarian Central Asian country since the multiday protests. Critics say the move is aimed at sending a chilling warning to others.

Haidarbekova denies the charges and insists she hasn't attacked anyone or damaged any property.

The single mother of six said people took to the streets to voice their discontent about social and economic problems, and demanded political change. Haidarbekova gave a speech during the rallies calling on the government to heed the people's demands.

"People are a great force. No one can defeat the people," Haidarbekova said to a cheering crowd on the evening of January 4.

The nationwide rallies began with a small protest against a fuel-price rise in the western town of Zhanaozen on January 2. The following day the demonstrations spread to other cities across the oil-rich country.

But many of the rallies turned violent and the government accused protesters of attacking police and seizing official buildings that, according to authorities, forced security forces to open fire on demonstrators.

But many protesters maintain the demonstrations were peaceful until some unknown groups of men started looting and attacking some security forces. Some protesters suspect "provocateurs" were planted by the authorities to give the police a pretext to disperse the demonstrations.

'We're Against Violence'

Haidarbekova told RFE/RL before she was detained that she had witnessed police firing on peaceful people and wounding several protesters. "I was at the rally until the end. They shot at unarmed people," she said. "In the morning police began using water cannons and then the crowd dispersed."

On the first day of the Shymkent protests, Haidarbekova said everyone was against violence. "We support the demands of the protesters in Zhanaozen today, but we don't want a repeat of that bloodshed and shooting that happened there a decade ago," she said, referring to the December 2011 events in Zhanaozen, when at least 14 protesters were shot dead as they clashed with police.

"Prices are rising not only for fuel, but also for food, and these problems impact people not only in Zhanaozen but all over the country," she said.

Two of Haidarbekova's six children are handicapped and she had to quit her job to look after them. Haidarbekova says the family relies on the less than $100 a month they receive from the state. The money is barely enough for basic foodstuffs, she explains.

Haidarbekova is being held in a pretrial detention center where she in not allowed visits by family and friends. Her only contact with the outside world is a state-appointed lawyer.

Haidarbekova's elderly mother told RFE/RL that after her arrest, the authorities sought to place her underage children in an orphanage. There was no immediate comment from local officials about the claim, which RFE/RL cannot independently verify.

The grandmother is looking after the children and has written to officials asking for temporary custody. "The children are asking about their mother and I tried to explain the situation to the elder ones," she said. "But I don't know what to tell the younger children."

More than 12,000 people were arrested during and after the protests. Many were released within days but dozens of activists remain in custody, many of them facing criminal charges.

Written by Farangis Najibullah based on reporting by Dilara Isa of RFE/RL's Kazakh Service in Shymkent
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has signed into law the controversial false information bill that many domestic and international rights groups have harshly criticized, saying the legislation could be used to suppress press freedoms in the Central Asian nation.

Japarov's press service said that the president signed the bill on August 24. The bill was approved by lawmakers in late July.

Civil rights organizations and media groups in the former Soviet republic have said the legislation contradicts Kyrgyzstans constitution and the country's international commitments and violates human rights and freedom of speech.

The bills author, member of parliament Gulshat Asylbaeva, has argued that it is needed to combat the widespread use of fake social media accounts and troll farms that put out disinformation aimed at discrediting political actors in Kyrgyzstan.

The bill envisages the creation of a government watchdog that would "react to complaints" regarding the content of online posts within two days. The sites where the content was posted would be obliged to follow any instructions received from the watchdog within 24 hours.

Under the bill, Internet providers must register their clients in a unified identification system and provide officials with full information related to users if a court or a state organ requests such data.

The bill also stipulates that owners of websites and social-network accounts must have their personal data and e-mail addresses open and accessible to everyone, while anonymous Internet users would be located and cut off.

The proposed legislation is a revised version of an earlier draft law that was returned to parliament a year ago by then-President Sooronbai Jeenbekov following mass protests.

Disputed parliamentary elections sparked more mass rallies in October 2020, leading to the resignations of the government and Jeenbekov.

Japarov easily won a presidential election in January and has initiated many legal changes that he says are needed to create a strong central branch of government to "establish order."

Some of his critics have accused him of concentrating power to enable him to run the country as an autocrat.
Last week a group of top officials with Russia's ruling party -- including its general secretary, Andrei Turchak, a deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament -- appealed to the Kremlin to provide advanced weaponry to Moscow-backed separatist forces waging war against Kyiv in parts of eastern Ukraine.

"Russia should provide [the separatists who hold parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions] with the necessary assistance in the form of the supply of certain types of weapons to increase their defensive capability," Turchak said, claiming without evidence that Kyiv was planning an offensive in the region, where the ongoing war has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on January 27 responded by saying that such proposals "underscore the intensity of the problem" and that providing weaponry would be "something new," asserting that Moscow has never sent such aid into Ukraine before.

Peskov's statement reflects Moscow's long-standing claim that it is not a party to the conflict in the region known as the Donbas. The claim has been rejected by Kyiv and the West and undermined by strong evidence that Russia has sent troops, weapons, and other kinds of military support into the area.

When it comes to arming the separatists, open-source investigators, journalists, and activists have been documenting the presence of sophisticated Russian weaponry in the areas under their control since the beginning of the conflict.

Using such information, the joint investigation team (JIT) looking into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014 determined in 2016 that the passenger jet was shot down by a Buk antiaircraft system that had been brought to Ukraine from Russia the same day and then returned to Russia -- minus one missile -- after the jet was shot down, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

Ukrainian military analyst Mykhaylo Zhirokhov told RFE/RL that Russia has provided such equipment since the beginning of the conflict, although it generally sends older Soviet-era weaponry that fighters could plausibly say was captured from the Ukrainian military. Modern equipment, he said, is handled only by Russian military personnel operating covertly inside Ukraine.

"Those Russian groups...are armed with contemporary weapons," Zhirokhov said. "But only Russian military personnel get them. There is not a single piece of modern equipment under the control of the [separatist] armed formations."

Zhiriokhov sees the latest Russian talk about providing military equipment to the separatists as "an effort to legitimize the presence of the Russian Army" in the Donbas. "They aren't going to provide any modern weapons to the fighters," he emphasized. "As far as I understand, this is the basic position of the political and military leadership in Russia."

Nonetheless, the catalogue of modern Russian military equipment documented in the separatist-controlled areas since 2014 is voluminous.

Below is a rundown of many of the findings that online investigators -- most of whom are affiliated with InformNapalm, a research group that was founded by a Ukrainian journalist and a Georgian military expert in 2014 -- have reported:

Armored Vehicles

A T-72C1 tank was spotted in the Luhansk region in 2016.

A T-90A tank (2006 model year) was seen in the Donbas in 2016.

T-72B, T-72BA, and T-72B3 tanks were sighted in the Debaltseve area in 2015 and in Luhansk in 2014.

in 2015 and in 2014. The armored transporter BT-LB BM/K for towing and moving troops was documented in the Luhansk region in 2016.

in the Luhansk region in 2016. An upgraded BMD-2 amphibious vehicle with PL-1-01 advanced laser infrared searchlight was seen in Donetsk in 2017.

in Donetsk in 2017. BTR-80 and BTR-82A armored personnel carriers were spotted in Makiyivka in 2016, in Donetsk in 2017, and in the Luhansk region in 2016.

Artillery

A SAU 2S7 Pion 203-millimeter, self-propelled artillery was documented near Makiyivka in 2015.

near Makiyivka in 2015. SAU Msta-S 152-millimeter, self-propelled howitzer was seen near Debaltseve in 2015.

near Debaltseve in 2015. An RS30 2B26 Grad modernized 122-millimeter, multiple-launch rocket system was documented by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Donetsk region in 2020.

by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Donetsk region in 2020. An RS30 9K58 Smerch 300-millimeter, long-range multiple-launch rocket system was spotted near Makiyivka in 2015.

near Makiyivka in 2015. A TOS-1 Buratino heavy multiple-launch thermobaric rocket system was documented by OSCE monitors in the Luhansk region in 2015.

Antiaircraft Systems

A ZRK Buk-M1 surface-to-air missile system was documented by the international investigation into the downing of the MH17 passenger airliner in the Donetsk region in July 2014.

A 96K6 Pantsir-S1 antiaircraft missile-artillery complex, designed for defense against cruise missiles and smart weapons, was spotted in Luhansk in 2015.

Observation Drones

The Granat-1, Granat-2, Granat-4, Forpost, Orlan-10, Eleron-3, Zastava, and Takhion observation drones have been located and shot down throughout the Donbas during the conflict.

Electronic-Warfare Vehicles

An R-330Zh Zhitel was documented in Svitlodarsk in 2016, near Makiyivka in 2015, and in the Luhansk region in 2019.

in 2016, in 2015, and in the in 2019. An R-378B Borisoglebsk-2 was spotted in the Luhansk region in 2016.

in the Luhansk region in 2016. A Repellent-1 electronic-warfare complex with drone was sighted in the Debaltseve area.

in the Debaltseve area. A 1L269 Krasukha-2 radar-jamming system was documented by OSCE monitors near Chornukhine in the Luhansk region in 2018.

by OSCE monitors near Chornukhine in the Luhansk region in 2018. An RB-341B Leyer-3 cellular-communications jamming system was spotted in Donetsk in 2016 and Chornukhine in 2018.

An RB-109A Bylina electronic-warfare command post was seen near Chornukhine.

near Chornukhine. A 1RL243 Rubicon electronic-monitoring post was seen near Yasynuvata in the Donetsk region in 2016.

near Yasynuvata in the Donetsk region in 2016. An RB-636AM2 Svet-KU mobile radio command post was seen in the Donetsk region in 2020 and in Luhansk in 2016.

in 2020 and in 2016. An SPR-2M Rtut-BM radio-signal-jamming system was seen in Donetsk in 2016 and the Luhansk region in 2016.

in 2016 and the in 2016. An R-934UM aviation-communications-jamming system was seen near Luhansk in 2016.

Other Equipment

A 9K129 Kornet portable anti-tank weapon was documented near Starobesheve in 2014.

near Starobesheve in 2014. A Shmel man-portable rocket-assisted flamethrower was captured by Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency in the Luhansk region in January 2022.

by Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency in the Luhansk region in January 2022. NVU-P Okhota noncontact land mines were captured in the Luhansk region in 2020.

in the Luhansk region in 2020. A POM-2 antipersonnel fragmentation land mine killed a civilian in the Luhansk region in 2021.

in the Luhansk region in 2021. A Krasnopol guided artillery shell was recovered following an attack on the settlement of Novoluhanske in 2019.

Written by Robert Coalson based on reporting by RFE/RL's Donbas.Realities
President Vladimir Putin has again claimed that Russia's security concerns had been ignored by the United States and NATO amid intense diplomatic efforts to ease tensions over Ukraine.

Speaking in Moscow, Putin said on February 1 that the Kremlin was "carefully analyzing the written responses received from the United States and NATO," but added that it was "already clear that fundamental Russian concerns ended up being ignored."

At the same time Putin said: "I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that it's not going to be easy."

It was Putin's first significant public remarks in weeks on the crisis sparked by a massive Russian troop buildup near its border with Ukraine and fears that it is a prelude to an invasion.

Russia has demanded legally binding guarantees from the United States and NATO that Ukraine will never join the bloc, that it will halt the deployment of weapons systems near Russian borders, and that its forces will be rolled back from Eastern Europe.

The United States rejected Russia's demand to bar Ukraine from NATO but offered what it called a new "diplomatic path" out of the crisis.

"We did not see adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding the prevention of NATO expansion, the refusal to deploy strike facilities near Russia's borders, and the return of the bloc's military infrastructure in Europe to the state in 1997," Putin said.

"When ignoring our concerns, the U.S. and NATO point to the right of states to freely choose how to ensure their security," Putin added. That is just one part of the security equation, he said. "The second integral part says that it is impossible to allow the strengthening of one's security at the expense of the security of others."

Putin spoke during a joint news conference with visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who maintains friendly ties with Putin. Orban said he believes there is room for a compromise.

"I got convinced today that the existing differences in positions can be bridged and it is possible to sign an agreement that would guarantee peace, guarantee Russia's security and is acceptable for NATO member states as well," Orban said.

Earlier in a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the "immediate" de-escalation and withdrawal of troops by Russia from areas near Ukraine's borders.

Blinken further reiterated Washington's commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances in a call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

Blinken further reiterated Washington's commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances, the State Department said in a statement.

Blinken emphasized that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path," the statement said.

Lavrov said he told Blinken that Russia would continue insisting on its demands, including that the West stick to its security "obligations," and added that: "Blinken agreed that there is subject for further discussion."

In Kyiv, Britain and Ukraine warned that any Russian incursion would be a "massive strategic mistake" as the two countries pledged to work together to strengthen Ukraine's defense capability.

Johnson called the Russian military buildup a "clear and present danger" and urged Russia to pull back troops and choose diplomacy.

Speaking at a press briefing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Johnson said Kyiv would resist any invasion.

"I think that perhaps the single most useful thing we can all do is get over to the Russian public, to citizens in Russia, thinking about this possibility, the reality that the Ukrainian Army will fight," Johnson said.

Live Briefing: Ukraine In The Crosshairs RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the major developments on Russia's invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians, and Western reaction. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

"There are 200,000 men and women under arms in Ukraine, they will put up a very, very fierce and bloody resistance," he added.

The U.K. government is also preparing a package of sanctions and other measures "to be enacted the moment the first Russian toe cap crosses further into Ukrainian territory," Johnson said.

Zelenskiy warned that Ukraine's army had significantly improved its capabilities after nearly eight years of battling Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country.

"For those who want to capture part of our territory, there are high risks now. Ukrainians will defend themselves to the end. Russians must hear us, they must understand that no one needs a war," Zelenskiy said.

He also said it would be a "tragedy" if an escalation begins. "It will not be a war between Ukraine and Russia, it will be a full-scale war in Europe," he said.

He reiterated his calls for Ukrainians to remain calm and for Moscow to de-escalate the tensions by withdrawing its forces stationed near the border.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, AP, UNIAN, and Ukrayinska pravda
Richmond, KY (40475)

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A mix of clouds and sun early, then becoming cloudy later in the day. High 77F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Rain showers in the evening will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Thunder possible. Low 64F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Mountain Province Diamonds reports total proceeds of US$66.7 million in the first quarter of 2022 Mountain Province Diamonds, which is a 49% participant with De Beers Canada in the Gahcho Kue diamond mine located in Canada's Northwest Territories, announced strong financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.

Petra rakes in $86.1mln from fifth tender cycle Petra Diamonds sold 635,806 carats of diamonds for $86.1 million at the fifth tender of the fiscal year 2022 from four of its mines in South Africa and Tanzania. It said the fifth tender cycle included one exceptional stone from the Cullinan mine, a...

Yakutsk hosts Gokhran exhibition On April 27, 2022, Yakutsk, the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) opened a visiting exhibition of valuables launched by Russias State Fund of Precious Metals and Precious Stones under the title National Treasures of Russia. Moscow...

Christies Presents The Light of Africa Diamond at New York Magnificent Jewels Christies announces The Light of Africa Diamond (estimate: $11,000,000-18,000,000), which will lead the New York Magnificent Jewels sale on 8 June, as part of Christies Luxury Week.
China Gold to invest $ 47.1 mn to construct a digital mine

01 february 2022 News

China National Gold Group Corporation (China Gold) is investing around US$47.1 mn into the construction of a digital mine to apply advanced digital technologies in the management of its refinement process. The state-owned enterprise, which currently has over 2,000 tonnes of gold reserves, is engaged in gold prospecting, mining and refining.

A report on China Central Television Financial Channel announced that the digital mine will enable companies under China Gold to improve quality and efficiency by reducing manpower resources by over 10 per cent. Aside from intensifying its geological exploration efforts, it is optimising existing resources, cutting costs and boosting efficiencies through technological innovations such as the digital mine.

Lu Jin, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Gold Group Co., Ltd., announced that the group's gold reserves should be more than 2000 tons, but those that can form mining value should be greatly discounted, so the next step is to increase geological exploration.

Lu Jin said that it is expected that in 2022, China gold will continue to invest about 300 million yuan to build digital mines and promote the digital control of the whole smelting process. Some enterprises will reduce front-line personnel by more than 10% through digital construction to further improve quality and efficiency.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished






Rutland, VT (05701)

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5 Ways BBB Is An Essential Building Block for San Diego Businesses

Heres what the BBB has lined up to get San Diego businesses back on track
8 Items Communal Owner Jen Byard Has to Have

From home decor to stationery, these are her favorite things
In a new selfie video published ahead of the Chinese New Year, China's first Mars orbiter, Tianwen-1, shows off its tour around the Red Planet.

The Chinese National Space Administration published a short video on Monday that shows a substantial section of the spacecraft's body, engines, and solar array speeding through space, with bits of Mars' surface visible in the backdrop.

The footage embedded below shows a spacecraft orbiting another planet for the first time, and it's rather impressive.

According to ArsTechnica, the announcement on the eve of the Chinese New Year highlights how its leadership uses civil spaceflight to build national pride and endeavor to establish China as a global competitor to the US.

China Shares New Video of Tianwen-1 Flying Above Mars In Time For Chinese New Year

The Chinese National Space Administration posted a video of the orbiter traveling over the black sky and changing its solar panel on the Chinese social network Weixin (WeChat).

As the surface of Mars comes into view, you realize you're only a few hundred kilometers above it, the North Pole and glaciers of the Red Planet vividly apparent against the redness of the surrounding dirt.

China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 extended festival greetings to the Chinese people with stunning video footage captured by a camera on its orbiter to snap selfies above the red planet on Monday, the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year https://t.co/6lCYTk7zEf pic.twitter.com/GfSe3tBZEJ  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 31, 2022

ALSO READ: China Yutu-2 Rover Resolves This Weird, Mysterious Cube on the Moon

The selfie stick, according to IFLScience, stretches to 1.6 meters (5.25 feet) and is intended to monitor the orbiter's equipment as well as, more significantly, to take great selfies.

When it comes to spaceflight operations, China is notoriously secretive, disclosing minimal information regarding launches and spacecraft. However, the nation has revealed some compelling images of the Tianwen-1 expedition.

China shared several images of Tianwen-1 even before the Chinese New Year, The Verge said. The orbiter deployed a tiny spacecraft with a camera on board in early January, taking photographs of Tianwen-1 with a massive Mars in the backdrop.

During its journey to Mars, Tianwen-1 also took a photograph of itself by launching another spacecraft with a camera that recorded the vehicle enclosed in its protective shell. A camera connected to Tianwen-1 captured this latest footage.

About Tianwen-1 Orbiter

As of Monday, the Tianwen-1 orbiter has been in orbit for 557 days, at a distance of roughly 325 million kilometers from Earth.

Chinese state media Xinhua said the Zhurong Mars rover has been working for 255 Martian days and has traveled 1,524 meters across the planet's surface.

According to the space agency, the Mars mission has returned 600 GB of raw scientific data since its launch on July 23, 2020. The Tianwen-1 will shortly be celebrating its one year in orbit, having arrived at Mars on February 10 of last year.

The spacecraft is China's first mission to successfully enter Mars' orbit, making the country one of just a few countries to study the planet robotically. Tianwen-1 arrived on Mars in May of last year with a lander and a rover, both of which safely landed on the planet's surface.

RELATED ARTICLE: China's Tianwen-1 Mars Probe to Be Extended; Enters Final Leg of Planetary Survey

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.
A former officer with the Washington State Patrol  who, while refusing to comply with the states COVID-19 vaccine mandate, told the governor to "kiss my ass"  died late last week.



Robert LaMay died Friday, the state patrol said. He was 50. The state patrol did not confirm the cause of LaMays death, but several news outlets have reported that he died after contracting COVID-19.

Rob served honorably for over two decades and we were disappointed to see him leave the agency this past October, State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste said in a statement. His service to this state and agency will be long remembered and appreciated.



LaMay was one of 74 troopers who left their job with the state patrol last year because of Washingtons coronavirus vaccine mandate for state employees. That mandate, implemented by Gov. Jay Inslee, required workers to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18, 2021. Inslee warned that employees who didnt get vaccinated  or who werent granted a religious or medical exemption  by that date would be fired.



LaMay gave a brief speech during his final radio-sign off, a tradition among retiring law enforcement officers, before completing his last shift on Oct. 15. A person sitting in the passenger seat of LaMays patrol vehicle captured the speech on video.

After 22 years serving the citizens of the state of Washington, I am being asked to leave because I am dirty, LaMay said over the radio. He then went on to thank his fellow officers and the citizens of Yakima County, where he was stationed. He ended the broadcast by saying: Jay Inslee can kiss my ass.



The video was posted online and was shared tens of thousands of times on social media. His story was picked up by national news outlets, including Fox News and the Washington Post. In an appearance on Fox and Friends First, LaMay said he and his family dont do vaccinations. He said that included flu shots.



Not taking the vaccine wasnt even a question, he said.



LaMay said he applied for a religious exemption, which was accepted, but he claimed the department told him he would be unable to stay in his current role if he remained unvaccinated. He said the positions he could have taken would have required him to move and take a pay cut.



LaMays radio stunt made him a pseudo-celebrity, especially in right-wing circles. His Facebook account  which looked to be temporarily deactivated after news of his death came out Friday shows that he did several interviews and made appearances at rallies and campaign events for GOP congressional candidates.

Lots of speaking engagements for December. I'll be around the state and being asked to travel out of state as well. Colorado, Oregon you might see me soon, he wrote in a post on Nov. 18. The platform is simple FREEDOM!!!! Fight now or lose it. Honor God in what you do and hold your elected officials accountable.



Just two weeks ago, Jerrod Sessler, a Prosser businessman running for Congress in Washingtons 4th District, announced that LaMay had endorsed him. In his endorsement for Sessler, LaMay said Washington has a human trafficking problem that has largely been ignored by politicians in power. He implied that problem persists because many of those politicians are involved in it themselves and do not want it to go away.



One of the main tenets of the QAnon movement is the mass delusion that a secret cabal of elites is operating a global child trafficking network. Sessler said he would appoint LaMay to head an anti-human trafficking task force he would commission if elected.



A GoFundMe account was set up shortly after LaMay left his job. A post from the organizer on Oct. 25 said funds would go toward helping other state troopers who left their job over the vaccine mandate. A Nov. 19 post from LaMay said donations would also help him pay for travel expenses.



So, I love traveling and speaking to people I love doing interviews at all hours. The problem is it's not free for my family, the post said. We have tried to do this by financing it on our own. I can't afford to do this alone. If you would like to help support my mission you can donate.



A final post on Saturday announced said donations would be forwarded to his family. The account has raised more than $3,000 since LaMays death.



LaMay, who was born in California, joined the Washington State Patrol in 1999 as a cadet assigned to the Collision Records Station. After graduating from the academy in 2001, he served in Shelton, Poulsbo and Bremerton until 2006, when he was assigned to the Commercial Vehicle Division in Union Gap.



He was transferred to the Field Operation Bureau in 2012 and was assigned to work in Ellensburg. In 2014, he was transferred to the Yakima area. He also served as an armorer, certified reconstructionist and drug recognition expert during his time with the state patrol.


Dillard brings to Seattle U and the College of Education a wealth of experience as a proven leader. She has served in several key academic posts in higher education including, among others, as Chair of the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia and Associate Dean for Equity and Diversity at The Ohio State University.

Dillards current responsibilities require that she remain in her role with the University of Georgia through January 2022. She will officially begin her new role as Dean on Feb. 1, 2022.

I am thrilled to be selected as the next Dean of the College of Education at Seattle University. It will be my privilege to work in community with the exceptional students, staff and faculty at SU, says Dillard. Guided by the strong Jesuit commitments of social justice and service that are foundational to this university, I look forward to working diligently to address our most pressing challenges in educationin Seattle, across the nation and the world.

A distinguished scholar, Dillards scholarship has included research on intersections of race, culture, gender and spirituality, particularly in the context of teaching and education. She has authored or edited four books, with the most current, The spirit of our work: Black women teachers (re)member, to be published by Beacon Press later this year. In addition, Dillard has written a multitude of articles, book chapters and other scholarly pieces, while frequently presenting as a keynote speaker or panelist at national conferences. She has received more than a dozen awards and recognitions, including the 2019 Taylor & Francis Award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Educational Studies Association (AESA).

A belief in the transformative power of education, so clearly evident in Dillards work as an accomplished teacher-scholar, is matched by her commitment to serving others and making an impact in communities near and far. As president and founder of Give. Build. Share., Dillard has led an effort to build schools in rural areas of Ghana, giving students educational opportunities that previously were not available.

I am delighted that Dr. Cynthia Dillard will be our next dean of the College of Education. An internationally renowned educator and scholar with a proven track record of leadership, she is highly qualified to serve in this position, says Provost Shane P. Martin. Her charismatic and engaging style will propel our education program to new heights and strengthen our relationships with our partners.

In joining Seattle U, Dillard returns to a part of the world with which she is quite familiar, having earned a bachelors degree from Central Washington University and masters and doctoral degrees from Washington State University.
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The first execution at San Quentin State Prison happened in 1893, a hanging, and if you walk up to parts of the ancient lockup, to this day, it looks the same  blocky stone facade, heavy iron bars, castle-like turrets. Its one of the oldest prisons in the nation, and for as long as most people alive can remember, its been the only place California executes people.

Word that the state intends to shut down Death Row has hit like a hammer thats been waiting to fall for decades. From that very first hanging of double-murderer Jose Gabriel to the last-minute aborted lethal injection of rapist-killer Michael Morales in 2006, there has been no placid consensus about whether the state should be conducting capital punishment.

Erasing the flash point of that debate is not about to end it.

It seems the victims have no more voice, said Jan Miller, whose daughter Veronica Perotti was murdered in 1984 in Chico (Butte County), leading her to co-found Citizens Against Homicide. The people in charge, the governor  they dont care that those wounds are forever. We have no friends in Sacramento anymore.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who announced the intention to dismantle Death Row on Monday, reiterated what he said in 2019 when he put a moratorium on executions. Putting people to death is immoral, he said, so in the absence of executions theres got to be a way of allowing condemned prisoners to work and make restitution to their victims.

The challenge at San Quentin is theres not a lot of space for rehabilitation, Newsom said. This may provide additional space to increase programming. Thats what we want to explore.

As far as UC Berkeley journalism Professor William Drummond is concerned, the move is way overdue. Hes been taking classes into the prison since 2012 to work with inmates on the San Quentin News newspaper.

Death Row, he said, is notorious in the purest sense of the word. Its essentially a very expensive warehousing operation. Its a joke.

Michael Macor / The Chronicle

The average prisoner in San Quentin costs the state around $57,000 a year, Drummond said. Death Row inmates, being single-celled and assiduously monitored, cost more than double.

Several estimates maintain the state would save about $150 million a year if it dismantled Death Row. And actually taking each of the 13 prisoners whove been executed since 1992 all the way through court to the death chamber costs more than $1 million apiece in legal expenses.

Youve got more of a chance of dying from natural causes, or suicide, than being executed, Drummond said. Its a waste of resources.

Superior courts in California continue to hand down death sentences, although notably not in San Francisco or Los Angeles, where the prosecutors refuse to pursue capital punishment.

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation intends to transfer all 557 condemned prisoners still at San Quentin  plus the 13 women on the female version of Death Row at Central California Womens Facility in Chowchilla (Madera County)  to other facilities within the next two years.

Among those getting new lives away from Death Row is Morales, who was two hours away from dying in San Quentins death chamber in 2006 when prison officials called off the execution. His lawyers argued that he might feel pain in his last moments from the lethal injections three-drug cocktail, a judge later agreed, and capital punishment in California has remained frozen since then.

After Newsom slapped his moratorium on executions, Brian Chalk, the brother of Morales victim, told The Chronicle he felt cheated out of justice. He wants to watch the final breaths of the man who raped and beat to death his 17-year-old sister, Terri Winchell, in Lodi in 1981, and now he believes he never will.

The guys who are there on Death Row  they need to finish business with them, Chalk said. Get it done. Morales needs to pay his fine  he needs to meet his maker.

Sitting on what would be prime real estate these days at the edge of Marin County, overlooking the bay, San Quentin was built in 1852. That first hanging came shortly after a state law was passed requiring executions to take place in penitentiaries, and until 1937 they happened at both San Quentin and Folsom State Prison.

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.

Thats the year hanging was replaced by the state Legislature with lethal gas as a method of capital punishment. Some 215 inmates were hanged at San Quentin, followed by 194 people executed by gas until 1967, when state and U.S. Supreme Court decisions put a hold on capital punishment in the state.

Back-and-forth legislation and court rulings kept the apple-green gas chamber silent until 1992, when executions resumed with the gassing of double-murderer Robert Alton Harris. That was followed by one more gassing, of multiple-murderer David Mason in 1993, and the other 11 executions since then were conducted by lethal injection.

Meanwhile, Death Row swelled to nearly 800 condemned men before Newsoms moratorium led to more than 100 being transferred to other facilities.

Some of the more famous killers in California history have been locked up on Death Row, but not all remain there, modern political moves or not. Charles Mansons sentence was converted to life in prison after a court ruling in 1972 overturning capital punishment. Scott Peterson, who killed his wife, Laci, and their unborn baby, was recently knocked back to a life sentence, and the infamous Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, died of natural causes in 2013.

Still on the row are Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993, and Wesley Shermantine, the serial Speed Freak Killer who left bodies strewn through the Central Valley in the 1980s and 90s. They will likely now die natural deaths, spared the lethal needle.

Even if they decided tomorrow to execute someone, do you know how much training its going to take to get ready? Drummond said. They havent executed anyone since 2006 (triple-murderer Clarence Ray Allen), and nobody even knows how to do the protocols anymore.

Chronicle staff writer Bob Egelko contributed to this report.

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron
Ten men and women lie sedated in 10 dim, glass-enclosed rooms, most unable to breathe without help from a machine.

On the third floor of Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, these patients are among more than 2,500 people gravely ill with COVID-19 in Californias intensive-care beds. Its Thursday morning, and 46 patients are fighting the coronavirus, some battling hard to stay off the third floor.

In the era of vaccinations and antiviral treatments  and even the coronavirus famously less severe variant, omicron  people arent supposed to get so sick from COVID.

But they do. The heartbreaking evidence is that such patients are on the rise, with the average number of Californians in COVID intensive care more than doubling between December and January, from 940 to 2,084.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

This is completely preventable, said Dr. Thomas Dailey, a pulmonary and critical care specialist with Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara who sees it all up close. This is an epidemic among the unvaccinated.

One of them is Mario Hernandez Lopez in Room 327 at Salinas Valley Memorial. A field worker, Lopez, 59, was admitted on Jan. 21 after his COVID gave him a heart attack. He now needs a coronary bypass operation  but it will be weeks or even months before he can have one, depending on how much lung damage the coronavirus caused.

Lopez, a thin tube sending extra oxygen into his nose, feels too ill to speak by phone with a Chronicle reporter standing outside his room. But his nurse, Celia Grace, emerges from the glass cubicle with a message from him.

He said he was very scared. He thought he was going to die, Grace says after peeling off her gloves, spacesuit-like head covering and full-body protective apron she needed to tend him, as well as the air-purifying respirator required to breathe safely in his room. And he wishes he got vaccinated. He said he would tell all of his family members and everyone he meets that they really need to get vaccinated.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Scientists say their greatest pandemic achievement has been discovering how to keep people out of the hospital in the first place: vaccinating them, infusing them with monoclonal antibodies, employing antiviral weaponry in the form of tiny new pills, and learning to deploy an older drug, remdesivir, much sooner.

But for the mostly seriously ill COVID patients, doctors still have few tools beyond steroids and remdesivir.

The most significant development was last summers emergency authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for two arthritis drugs  tocilizumab and baricitinib  to tamp down inflammation.

I feel like a lot of patients who end up on high-flow oxygen  they avoid getting intubated because of the new options, says Raquel Ramos, a nurse in Salinas Valley Memorials fifth-floor COVID unit. Its just great to see patients actually turning around and recovering, compared to a year ago when so many were passing away.

At that time, more than twice as many Californians lay near death in the states COVID intensive care beds, averaging 4,556 last January, compared to this years 2,084.

Yet even omicron can burrow deep into the lungs of the unvaccinated, despite its reputation as a gentler predator that lingers in the upper airways.

Roughly 20% of COVID patients at Salinas Valley Memorial have virus-induced pneumonia now, compared with about 90% last January, said Dr. Allen Radner, an infectious disease expert and the hospitals chief executive. Omicron does go into the lungs, though not as easily as delta and other earlier coronavirus variants, he said.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Omicron can also trigger a stroke  and prompt a heart attack, as happened to Lopez in Room 327.

None of the 10 COVID ICU patients is protected by vaccination. Months ago, one of them got half of the two-shot Pfizer vaccine. Another had the single-dose Johnson & Johnson. But the vaccines effectiveness had long since worn off by the time they got COVID. We dont consider them vaccinated, Radner said.

The big-rig driver in Room 324 had reluctantly gotten his Johnson & Johnson shot to keep his job, then ignored public warnings that its protection would wane quickly without boosters. On Thursday, Albert Jaureguis nurses watch his oxygen levels seesaw wildly above and below the 90% level needed to keep him off of a breathing machine, unsure which direction fate  and imperfect drugs  will take him in.

Too ill to pick up the phone, Jauregui, 71, asks his nurse, Heather Barigian, to tell a reporter that people should get vaccinated. Its not good being in the hospital.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Doctors say that about 90% of critically ill COVID patients are unvaccinated. The rest are usually transplant patients or have other conditions  obesity and diabetes most commonly  that make them especially vulnerable.

On the third floor, ICU nurse Jean Marll shares the strong feelings of many health care providers who risked their lives to save others in the pandemics first year.

We worked so hard when we had no hope  no vaccine, says Marll, her hair tucked beneath a black headscarf dotted with whimsical dog skeletons. Now, patients make an active choice to skip the life-saving inoculation. And their families often push nurses to give patients phony cures like ivermectin.

They feel like were withholding a treatment! Marll said. Its just so frustrating because you dont trust us when we say get the vaccine, but then you come to us when you cant breathe, and youre desperate for us to save your life.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

It makes you question whether you should continue in the practice.

Two floors up, Rafael Davila is hoping the COVID ICU wont be his next stop, unaware that hell get his wish and be discharged in the coming days. Davila was admitted with chills, pain and fever. Now, a thick tube sends high-flow oxygen into his nose.

I have diabetes, Davila, 51, explains by phone from his glass-walled isolation room. A director of food safety, hes always been too busy to get vaccinated, he says. The father of three and grandfather of five now regrets his decision.

I encourage everyone to get the shot as soon as possible, Davila says, adding that he will, too. For now, he is just trying to catch up on my breath.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

New, game-changer medicines have recently made headlines: sotrovimab, Paxlovid, molnupiravir and Evusheld. But all are for preventing hospitalization, not treating people already there.

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.

Theres just been an explosion of research and medications in this area, said Dr. Luke Day, chief medical officer for San Francisco General Hospital. Weve pivoted to the outpatient setting  preventing people from even coming in to the hospital.

But such triumphs have played out mostly beyond the boundaries of hospital COVID-19 units and ICUs.

Once you are very, very sick, its challenging, said Dr. Sam Shen, an emergency medicine physician and vice chair of clinical operations at Stanfords School of Medicine. Unfortunately, there isnt a magic pill that would reverse the course. The goal is to prevent people from getting to that point.

Even the arthritis drugs now being used against severe COVID are not a cure, said Radner of Salinas Valley Memorial.

But they help.

In Room 324, Jaureguis lungs continued to hold up against the coronavirus on Monday, sparing him from having a breathing tube inserted through his windpipe.

A year ago, the oldest Californians, like Jauregui, filled the COVID ICU beds. But no more. Now those over 65 are the most vaccinated group, with more than 70% boostered  essential in helping protect against severe COVID  compared with 59% of those ages 50 to 64.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Outcomes for severely ill COVID patients continue to be better overall this year than they were last year.

In Room 330, a woman in her 50s lies sedated, a ventilator doing the breathing her own lungs cannot.

Largely unresponsive to nurses for nearly a week, she opened her eyes one day ago, on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, before a Chronicle reporters visit, Nurse Micaela Spooner and a respiratory therapist brought good news.

We got in her ear and said, Were going to take out the tube. Youre doing great, Spooner recounted.

The woman smiled. Take a deep breath, the respiratory therapist said, and pulled.

Outside the glass room, a chorus of nurses cheered.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
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In a move many parents are certain to applaud, Pfizer on Tuesday asked federal regulators to allow emergency use of its vaccine to protect children ages 6 months through 4 years against COVID-19.

If the request is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as expected, an estimated 350,000 Bay Area children would become eligible for vaccination.

Pfizer and its vaccine partner BioNTech announced they have initiated their application to the FDA asking that the agency amend its emergency use authorization of their vaccine for older children to include dosage for babies and young children.

The FDA granted emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine for children 5 to 11 in the fall, and booster shots for that group in January.

The agency itself urged the companies to submit their new application, and the FDAs vaccine advisory committee will discuss the issue at its virtual meeting on Feb. 15.

Having a safe and effective vaccine available for children in this age group is a priority for the agency and were committed to a timely review of the data, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDAs acting commissioner, said in a statement.

Although the companies application is for a two-dose vaccine, they plan to expand the request in the next few months to include a third dose to be given at least eight weeks after the second. Data related to the third dose is still being amassed for submission to the FDA, Pfizer said.

Ultimately, we believe that three doses of the vaccine will be needed for children 6 months through 4 years of age to achieve high levels of protection against current and potential future variants, said a statement from Albert Bourla, Pfizers chief executive.

The request comes as pediatric COVID cases have soared to more than 10.6 million across the country  1.6 million in children under 4, the statement said.

One of them is the toddler child of Dr. Lekshmi Santhosh, a pulmonologist and medical director at UCSFs post-COVID clinic for people experiencing long-term symptoms.

As a doctor and as a parent of two young toddlers, this news is very welcome, and we will be first in line to vaccinate them, said Santhosh, whose family all became infected after one of her children got sick at preschool.

The family recovered. But sadly, thousands of families have been horrifically impacted as we are still seeing record hospitalizations and deaths of children with this latest surge, Santhosh said. I urge parents of kids to trust the rigorous process and that once the vaccines are approved, to vaccinate your kids, as we will do.

For many parents, being able to vaccinate their youngest children cant come soon enough.

Im personally ecstatic that theyll be eligible for vaccination, said Kris Romasanta of San Francisco, who has two daughters, aged 4 and 17 months. We didnt feel as normal as everyone else. We couldnt do as many things  like traveling.

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.

By the time Ongocos older daughter was 2, she had been around the world  to Vietnam, Japan and Italy. But her younger daughter has only made it to Los Angeles.

On top of already just being a parent, you have that added (pandemic) anxiety, Ongoco said.

Yet many parents are not ready to vaccinate their littlest ones against the coronavirus. Just 31% of 162 parents with children under age 5 surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation in January said they would get them vaccinated right away, according to the survey results released Tuesday. Thats up from 23% in September and 20% in July.

And while the number of definites is growing, the definitely nots is shrinking: 26% last month, compared with 35% in September  although 30% were against the vaccinated for their young children and babies in July.

Those in the middle, unsure one way or another, are also shrinking: from 40% in July to 29% in January. The rest said they would vaccinate their small children only if required.

The phone surveys margin of error is fairly large, at plus or minus 10 percentage points.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
Anger and tensions flared during a special meeting of the Oakland school board Monday in which district officials presented a plan to close and merge more than a dozen schools, prompting some teachers to declare a hunger strike.

More than 1,800 people tuned in to hear Oakland Unified School District officials discuss plans to close at least eight schools and merge at least five other schools by the end of 2023  actions officials said were needed to respond to the districts mounting budget shortfalls from declining enrollment.

I want to acknowledge the emotional toll and stress on our students, said OUSD Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell. This is not easy for me to present this information, especially knowing that African American students and families will be the most affected by these recommendations.

The district released a list of the schools targeted for closure or merger on Saturday. Officials have said that keeping the district as is  with many schools under-enrolled  has drained the district of money.

In the presentation, district officials and a third-party group of accountants said the district is projected to reach deficits of $12.3 million in 2022-23 and $7.1 million by the 2023-24 fiscal year.

But school board members and a swarm of public commenters said the plan will unjustly affect and disrupt education for students of color, and that it is not the answer  or a sustainable one  to budget woes.

Board member Mike Hutchinson, who has openly rejected the proposal, was joined in his Zoom screen by a group of protesters with signs against the closure.

You could save a maximum of $15 million by cutting these schools, if I understand correctly, said Stefanie Parrott, a parent at Prescott Elementary School. With a $700 million budget, thats just 2.1%. All this... all this misery and heartache for 2.1% is really appalling.

Public commenters also announced a protest scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday outside Prescott Elementary, one of the schools on the list.

The schools listed for closure by the end of 2023 are Prescott Elementary, Carl Munck Elementary, Parker K-8, Brookfield Elementary and Grass Valley Elementary; The district recommended RISE Elementary merge with New Highland, Westlake Middle School merge with West Oakland Middle School, and Ralph Bunche merge with Dewey high schools.

Horace Mann Elementary and Korematsu Discovery Academy are among the schools slated for closure by 2024, plus a recommendation Manzanita Community School and Fruitvale Elementary.

We will not eat until you all end your attack on our schools, said Moses Omolade, a program manager for community schools in the district. You all dont want death on your hands... or maybe you do actually.

Maurice Andre San-Chez, a choir and dance teacher at Westlake Middle School, said they would join the hunger strike in solidarity. If I die, I want the board to know that my death was at your hands, San-Chez said.

The school board had until Monday to address the fiscal problems or face county or state intervention.

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.

Oakland has already been among 14 schools districts in California that the state Department of Education deemed at risk of becoming insolvent by the end of the 2023 fiscal year.

District officials have said the current fiscal disaster has resulted in more than $3.2 billion worth of repairs to the districts facilities left unmet.

The school board has approved $40 million in cuts next year outside of the proposed school closures, though its monetary future is still in the red.

But many community members largely blamed the districts investment in charter schools for its budget crisis  and said cuts should come from there.

More than 17,000 students  30% of the districts students  attend charter schools.

The board is scheduled to vote on the closure plan on Feb. 8.

Annie Vainshtein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com
Derreck Johnson, a gay Black man and former restaurant owner, announced Tuesday he will run for Oakland mayor in this years election with a focus on job creation.

Johnson ran for City Council in 2020 against Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan and lost. He was supported by Mayor Libby Schaaf. Johnson came under fire during the campaign after the Oaklandside website revealed he lost ownership of Home of Chicken and Waffles in 2017 due to bankruptcy  but continued to present himself as the Jack London Square restaurants owner.

Schaaf, who is terming out, has not yet announced who she plans to endorse for mayor. Her endorsement could shape the race. Council Member Loren Taylor, who has sided with Schaaf on boosting police resources and other policies, is also running for mayor. Johnson said he supports hiring more police.

Council Member Sheng Thao, a progressive, announced in November that she is running for mayor, and Council Member Treva Reid, an ally to Taylor, is also exploring a run. Allyssa Victory, an attorney for Communications Workers of America Local 9415, and Derrick Soo, an unhoused activist in East Oakland, have announced their intent to run. Greg Hodge, a former Oakland school board member, has also announced his candidacy.

Johnson said he wants to bring a fresh perspective to city leadership and plans to fix this broken government by attending community and neighborhood meetings to encourage residents to get more involved in city issues.

Now is the time that we need to look outside of tradition and people that are career politicians that overpromise and underdeliver, Johnson said. We need someone with a different perspective.

As Oakland grapples with violent crime and skyrocketing homelessness, Johnson said his main focus on addressing the citys crises is through job growth.

He wants to address the citys vacancy rate across departments, including the Police Department, by offering positions to city residents. He said he supports financial incentives to hire more police officers and wants to increase the number of police officers in the city. Thao has proposed offering $50,000 cash bonuses to experienced police officers, which is under discussion by the City Council.

For any staffing need, we should reach out to the residents in our city, Johnson said. We should look in our own backyard first.

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.

Johnson said he plans to create a resource center for small businesses to get help when they need it so they can remain in the city. He also wants to reach out to medium and large companies to urge them to come to Oakland.

Why dont we have Pixar in Oakland? Johnson said. Why dont we have Universal Studios in Oakland?

In addition, he wants to create a tech hub throughout Oakland that could rival Silicon Valley by reaching out to companies to convince them to move operations to the city. Johnson said he also wants Oakland to follow Amsterdam in becoming a leader in the cannabis industry by examining the taxes levied against cannabis businesses to ensure they will remain in the city.

People just dont have any hope or aspiration, and I hope to instill some of that back into our residents, Johnson said.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Like many other Bay Area chefs, Charles Phan of Slanted Door fame plotted a pivot perfect for the pandemic: a sandwich shop attached to his commercial kitchen in San Franciscos Mission District. It has taken two years to finally come to fruition, but now, its ready to debut.

Chucks Takeaway opens Monday, Feb. 7 at 3332 18th St. near Capp Street, formerly a storage room that Phan said looked like a morgue and now gleams with white tile and a whopping 20 dog portraits by artist Judy North. No, its not a dog-themed restaurant. (The art will rotate.) And no, its not specifically a banh mi spot as one might expect from a chef known for modern Vietnamese cuisine  though Phan will serve his version of a classic banh mi there.

Im not going to stay in my lane. Im going to make all kinds of sandwiches, Phan said.

Chucks will serve about six sandwiches per day, with roughly half falling under the banh mi category. Other sandwiches on the menu include American-style, mustardy egg salad on fluffy Japanese milk bread and a bollito, with rich braised beef belly and a zippy salsa verde. Theyll all cost $16 and be available for takeout only, alongside housemade sodas ($6), Vietnamese coffee ($5) and teas ($4).

Janelle Bitker / The Chronicle

This is far from the first time Phan has served sandwiches. His more casual Vietnamese restaurant Out the Door, which closed its Pacific Heights location last year, sold banh mi for years. But the pandemic gave him time to focus on the bread, which now gets baked every morning.

The CP #3 is his riff on the classic Vietnamese special, with pork pate, a thin smear of chicken liver mousse and cha lua, which Phan likes to call Vietnamese mortadella. All of the cold cuts are made in-house using sustainably-raised meat. Theres also a vegan version, starring yuba steamed in banana leaves.

Either way, Phan isnt a fan of the classic topping of pickled daikon and carrot, which he says overpowers the meat. Instead, sandwiches come with seasonal pickles on the side, such as as romanesco or purple cauliflower. Theyre finished with a bounty of herbs like rau ram, mint and cilantro, plus cucumber for crunch. The bread is similar to a French baguette but softer in the center and easier to eat, with a thin, crackly crust.

You get that crunch. At the same time, its a little chewy. It cant be tough, Phan said. If you dont do it right, in two hours, its crumbly.

The chefs quest to make proper banh mi bread led him to beg vendors in Vietnam to show him their methods. Hed offer hundreds of dollars and flash his passport to prove he wasnt a competitor. His efforts failed until 2015, when he met a baker who was happy share his knowledge. But Phan didnt write anything down from this lesson, and his phone containing pictures crashed.

In 2018, he went back to Vietnam and found the baker again. Phan returned to San Francisco excited to replicate the loaves, but didnt have much luck. The dough wasnt behaving the same way in the citys less humid air.

Two months ago, Phan got a call from the baker. He was in Oregon and willing to show Phan the bread again, in Phans kitchen. Phan watched as the baker felt the dough and tweaked his recipe on the fly, nearly using half as much water as he did in Vietnam.

From there, chef Dong Choi, the top chef at Phans restaurant group, said the main challenge was making bread that matched their obsession with high quality ingredients. He didnt want to use potassamium bromate, a food additive that strengthens dough. (Its commonly used on the East Coast for bagels but must come with a cancer warning in California.) And he wanted to use organic flour in place of the more common bleached, enriched flour. Hes still chasing perfection.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Were very, very close, he said.

Janelle Bitker / The Chronicle

Even though the Slanted Door in the Ferry Building has been temporarily closed since March 2020 and Out the Doors main location permanently closed, Phans team is staying busy. They hope to reopen renovated versions of the Slanted Door and Out the Door at the Ferry Building in the fall, as well as Embarcadero whiskey bar Hard Water in the spring. The Slanted Door location in San Ramon has been open for much of the pandemic, and the casual Vietnamese restaurant Rice and Bones on the UC Berkeley campus recently reopened. Napa is getting a Slanted Door, hopefully this year, and the team has been selling pho kits at Bi-Rite Market and via Goldbelly.

Chucks also marks the debut of a new line of condiments made by the Slanted Door team. The label Wo Hing General Store is an homage to Phans father, who ran a store in Vietnam under that name in the 1950s. Expect to see Wo Hing hoisin, chile oil and preserved lemons for sale alongside imported ingredients and local ceramics.

Chucks Takeaway. Opening Feb. 7. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday. 3332 18th St., San Francisco. chuckstakeaway.com

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker
Celebrity wines are a dime a dozen these days, but a new wine brand from the country band the Chicks, formerly the Dixie Chicks, shows real potential.

For Gaslighter Wines, which debuts with a rose this week, the Chicks have teamed up with Sonona Countys Bundschu Co., which owns Gundlach Bundschu Winery, one of Wine Countrys most famous destinations, and the newer Abbots Passage Winery.

A lot of celebrity brands just stick their name on it and its not a passion, said Martie Maguire, one of the three members of the band along with Natalie Maines and Emily Strayer. Maguire will serve as the wine brands main figurehead. The band hopes that partnering with a reputable, established family like the Bundschus will give Gaslighter greater credibility.

Celebrity-owned wine brands have often been criticized as unserious marketing ploys, and in many cases the celebrities behind them have revealed themselves to not understand basic information about their own wines. Actress and vintner Drew Barrymore once gave a major faux-pas interview in which she declared that rose is made by peeling the skins off of grapes (it isnt), and actress Cameron Diaz met an enormous backlash when she introduced Aveline, a wine brand that purports to be clean in ways that some wine experts, including this one, believe are misleading.

The Chicks are hoping to turn that reputation around. Later this year, Gaslighter  a reference to the Chicks 2020 album and song of the same name  will release a Sonoma Coast Sauvignon Blanc, Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines come in an unusual bottle, coated along a diagonal in matte, black paint, leaving the wine itself visible through clear glass only at the bottom.

Provided by Makers & Allies

The initial release, the Gaslighter 2020 rose of Pinot Noir ($25, 13.5%), is a nice wine, light and dry without sacrificing flavor or texture. The soft, floral aromas lead into juicy, ripe notes of strawberry and nectarine. The grapes for this wine come predominantly from Sonoma County, some from the Gundlach Bundschu estate specifically.

The Chicks had been tossing around the idea of making some sort of alcoholic beverage for a while, Maguire said. They were in talks with Sonoma vintner August Sebastiani about creating a ready-to-drink product and had discussed the prospect of making an agave spirit. Initially they wanted to take used oak barrels that had held red wine in Sonoma, ship them down to Jalisco, Mexico and make a pink Tequila.

But as they looked into sourcing the wine barrels, they got more interested in skipping the Tequila part and focusing on wine instead.

The three band members gravitate toward different styles. I tend to like Pinots, Emily is more of a Cab lover, and Natalie was always a rose and super-dry white wine fan, Maguire said. They like to have a celebratory glass before performing. Eventually Strayer and Maguire realized that red wine before going onstage wasnt such a good idea: We didnt want our teeth to be purple, she laughed. So we thought, ok, well all drink rose with Natalie before the show.

The ritual became so ingrained that the Chicks started putting Whispering Angel, a popular rose from Provence, in their rider, requiring a bottle of it in their green room before any concert. They started drinking other roses, too, and over time started to develop a sense of their preferences. We figured out we obviously like this really crisp, dry, not-too-sweet Provencal style, Maguire said.

Michael Short/Special to The Chronicle 2018

When it came time to find a winemaking partner, Maguire had help. Her husband, Clem Moore, has lived in Sonoma for many years, and has lots of vintner friends. Moore arranged a meeting between the group and the Bundschu family, who had just purchased a large new property in Sonoma that would allow them to expand winemaking operations.

Katie Bundschu, the chief marketing officer of the Bundschu Co., said she was initially wary of the idea of making a celebrity wine, but the Chicks won her over. She was impressed by the fact that the Chicks had a fully formed vision for the rose. Neither of us wanted our names associated with something that we didnt believe in.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

From there, Bundschu and her team blended a range of different options from their existing wine inventory. The Chicks were mostly aligned on what they liked and disliked  something theyve gotten used to doing over years of working together. Whether its stage design, or production decisions on a record, we try not to give three different directions, Maguire said.

Envisioning the wines packaging proved trickier. The three musicians walked around a Target one day to look at the roses, and they were struck by the sameness of their appearances  clear bottles, pastel-colored labels, a lot of kitschy sayings, Maguire said. In order to stand out in this sea of pink and white, they opted to go in the opposite direction: black. Maguire hopes people will gravitate toward it as a kind of art piece. We want people to want to put flowers in it after theyre finished drinking the wine, she said.

Along the way, Maguire and her bandmates learned a lot about wine like why high-elevation, mountainous areas are prized for winegrowing, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. After years of insisting she preferred lighter Pinot Noirs to heavier Cabs, Maguire started to come around, after seeing how elegant and refined Cabernet can be when made in a certain way. What I dont like about Cab, that sticky, sweet, syrupy, plummy flavor  we are not doing that, she said.

The Gaslighter Cabernet Sauvignon ($140) and Pinot Noir ($65) will be sold in the fall, and theyll be available only directly through Gaslighter, not in any stores. The 2020 rose of Pinot Noir ($25) is already available throughout California at BevMo! A 2021 rose ($25) and 2021 Sauvignon Blanc ($25) will be available within the coming months, distributed nationally by Pacific Highway Wines.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles senior wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley
Public health experts marked the second anniversary of the Bay Areas first detected COVID case by expressing growing optimism that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is in the rearview mirror.

They looked ahead to a day when they could ease restrictions and bring normalcy back to the region. But despite some promising trends in case counts and hospitalizations, that may not happen for some time.

Will we soon be able to schedule our lives around COVID season? Heres what experts say

The pandemic is not over, Dr. Sara Cody, public health director for Santa Clara County, said during a Monday briefing that commemorated Jan. 31, 2020, the day the Bay Areas first case was identified in a Santa Clara County resident who had traveled to Wuhan, China.

Since then, the pernicious virus has taken more than 7,200 lives in the Bay Area, and the region has recorded about 1.2 million positive cases in all  a likely undercount given the widespread use of home tests.

Cody said the region is on the downslope of its fifth virus wave, driven over the winter break by the highly contagious omicron variant.

I would say were halfway down  not coming down as fast as we went up, she said. Our road has been a little bit more meandering.

The countys test positive rate has dropped to 12% from a peak of 17%, and surpassing Californias current overall 14.5% rate of positive tests. The case rate in the county is following, with an average of about 156 per 100,000 residents infected as of Sunday, compared with a peak of 283 per 100,000 residents on Jan. 9.

The dip reflects overall metrics in California and the rest of the region  where the omicron surge appears to have crested at the beginning of January. Bay Area counties reported nearly 12,000 cases a day on average and 1,934 people hospitalized with COVID as of Sunday.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Dr. Bob Wachter, UCSFs chief of medicine, tweeted that with rates of COVID hospitalizations and cases down, San Francisco had turned the corner on the omicron variant but was not completely out of the woods. He added, Im not ditching the mask yet.

Last week, about one in 10 asymptomatic people were testing positive, he told former White House pandemic advisor Andy Slavitt on Sunday during the In the Bubble podcast. They are still carrying the virus. In an environment where there is a ton of COVID around, I am less confident thats a perfectly safe environment.

Wachter also expressed some concern over the new subvariant that has emerged from omicron  BA.2, or stealth omicron  which has been detected in several Bay Area people.

If its winning the race against omicron, version one, then it must be somewhat more transmissible, he said. So Id say thats a little bit worrisome. He added, Im more worried about what it means about the future, and will there be other variants that do their jobs better than omicron.

BA.2, may slow the descent or tail of the omicron wave but will probably not alter societys trajectory out of the pandemic toward endemic status, Dr. Warner Greene of the Gladstone Institutes said Monday during a COVID update.

Known as the stealth variant because it does not contain the same hallmark deletion on the S gene that the omicron variant has, BA.2 has been detected in 54 countries, including the U.S., where its been found at 24 states. It is about 1 times more infectious than omicron, according to Denmark studies, but there is no evidence its more likely to cause hospitalizations.

Cody predicted the region will continue to see peaks and valleys for months  and possibly years  posing continued challenges for the health care community as we face the waves that will come. Now, however, is the time for government entities to step back and transition back to a more traditional role of letting private health care providers manage testing and vaccination efforts, she said.

As we go forward, we have to remember how important balance is, particularly because we have all worked so hard for two years. We need to balance the harms of COVID with the many, many, many other things we need as people, she said.

Subtle adjustments to health policy  such as easing mask mandates and limits on gatherings  may come slowly over the coming weeks or months if downward trends in infection continue.

San Francisco is lifting its indoor mask requirements Tuesday for offices, gyms and other places where stable groups of vaccinated people gather  bringing the citys mask rules for these settings back to what they were in December.

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.

Californias statewide mask mandate is in place until at least Feb. 15, while Sonoma County, which put in place the strictest policies during the omicron surge, has banned large gatherings until at least Feb. 11.

In a first step toward offloading the responsibility of pandemic response from government entities, Santa Clara County will now require private health care providers to offer patients coronavirus tests within 24 hours, whether the request is made in-person, by phone, or online.

They cannot refer the patient to another health care provider or county-run testing facility, County Counsel James Williams said Monday.

The providers can administer both PCR and antigen tests. They must provide the results promptly or report the delays to the county.

Public health officials throughout the Bay Area have indicated that they will shift their focus away from slowing the spread of the virus to asking people to assess their own risk, with many already planning for life after the pandemic.

Santa Clara County public health officials will shift their focus to encouraging uptake of the available protections: masking, vaccination, boosters, testing, isolation, ventilation, and avoiding large gatherings.

The good news is we know so much more about COVID now than we did two years ago, Cody said.

Chronicle staff writer Catherine Ho contributed to this report.

Aidin Vaziri is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
On Wednesday, a San Francisco Board of Supervisors committee deep-sixed Mayor London Breeds proposed charter amendment to streamline permitting of certain affordable housing projects. The amendment would have exempted qualifying projects from the citys discretionary review process. DR, as its known colloquially, allows any objecting neighbor to force a public hearing on whether a project is really in the public interest even if the project complies with every applicable standard. Its a standing invitation for delay and it empowers city officials to arbitrarily redesign or kill housing projects on the basis of any mad-hatters objections.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who cast a pivotal vote against Breeds plan, said her proposal was the stuff of ordinances and didnt belong in the constitution that is our charter. This was utterly disingenuous: The proposal tackled a serious problem in the charter itself. Unique among California cities, San Franciscos charter subjects every permit issued by the city to discretionary review .

A day after the charter amendment defeat, San Franciscos planning commission held a public hearing on the citys draft housing element  a state-mandated, eight-year plan that must show how the city will accommodate its fair share of regionally needed housing. To meet its target of 82,000 new homes, San Francisco must more than double the annual rate of housing production.

The citys draft housing element aspires to distribute new housing more evenly across the city, in the name of racial equity, rather than concentrating it in east side neighborhoods like the Mission District and the Bayview, where some rezoning for greater density has already occurred.

Most of the citys west side neighborhoods are designated for upzoning in the plan. Four-unit apartment and condo buildings would be allowed on every residential lot, and major west side transit corridors would be rezoned for mid-rise development. A quarter to a half of the citys new affordable housing would go up in these high-resource neighborhoods.

These are the same neighborhoods that have beaten back virtually every proposal for new housing since the 1970s. Rezoning them will be a Herculean undertaking. And even if the city gets it done, the defenders of the housing status quo will remain very well-armed against new development. Their weapon of choice? A deadly composite of the city charter and the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.

The trigger for CEQA review under state law is a discretionary government decision. Because discretionary review is baked into San Franciscos charter, every proposal to build or expand homes must pass through the CEQA gauntlet, no matter how environmentally innocuous or even beneficial it may be.

Worse yet, state law anoints the Board of Supervisors as the citys arbiter of CEQA compliance. NIMBY neighbors of any west-side housing project have a ticket to the Board of Supervisors, which can then tie the project in knots by demanding ever more elaborate environmental studies, before weighing it down with costly mitigation conditions. Supervisors usually defer to one another on projects in their districts. So, in practice, west side homeowners who elect anti-housing supervisors wield a nearly unfettered veto over housing projects in their districts.

Fortunately, a solution is at hand. To comply with state law, housing elements must include an analysis of constraints to housing development and a program to mitigate or remove them. San Franciscos last housing element frankly acknowledged that the Discretionary Review process acts as a constraint to housing development and increases the overall cost of housing particularly in the citys lower density neighborhoods. But the city didnt do anything about it. The city asserted that it was working on a reform of the Discretionary Review process, but stayed mum on the substance of the plan and set no timeline for implementation.

This wont cut it any longer.

In the last planning cycle, housing plans like San Franciscos, with noncommittal-to-nonexistent programs to ameliorate deficiencies, were green-lighted by the state. But Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta have made it clear that this kind of fakery is no longer acceptable. The state agency that reviews housing elements has upped its game accordingly. In the past year, NIMBY cities such as Beverly Hills and Davis have had their housing elements rejected for want of an adequate analysis and schedule of concrete actions to remove constraints.

Any city without a compliant housing plan faces a potentially devastating builders remedy. A noncompliant city may not use its zoning code or general plan to deny or downsize any housing project in which at least 20% of the units are affordable to low-income households, or 100% are affordable to moderate-income households. Anywhere in the city.

San Francisco has an easy solution to prevent this. The Planning Department can write a decisive fix for discretionary review into the new housing element. It should commit the city to putting on the ballot, at the next regularly scheduled election, a measure that strips discretionary review from the charter.

Peskin and his allies will throw a fit. But what are they going to do about it? If they strike the discretionary review fix, the citys plan is likely to land on the junk-heap of housing elements the state has already rejected. San Francisco will then find itself out of compliance  and compelled by state law to approve multifamily housing across the city, no matter the zoning code.

San Francisco has spent 15 years wringing its hands about how to fix discretionary review. Times up. Strip it from the charter and be done with it.

Chris Elmendorf is a professor of law at UC Davis. Hes lived in San Francisco since 2005.
Gov. Gavin Newsom says hundreds of condemned men will be transferred over the next two years as as death row closes at San Quentin, the aging prison where California has been carrying out executions since 1893.

But while Newsom opposes capital punishment, the practice remains popular among voters  and he's not commuting sentences.

On this episode of the Fifth & Mission podcast, reporter Kevin Fagan digs into the news and the political calculations with host Demian Bulwa. He also recalls the times he's witnessed executions in the death chamber  which he says he's never seen provide "closure" for the families of victims.

Photo above: The death chamber of San Quentin's lethal injection facility is shown in 2010, shortly after it was built. The chamber has never been used. California last executed a prisoner in 2006, and Gov. Gavin Newsom put a moratorium on executions in 2019.
The San Francisco Police Department held a town hall Monday, sharing body camera footage showing the moment several officers fatally shot a man who had two airsoft guns at San Francisco International Airport last month. Police have characterized the incident as a "suicide by police."

The California Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation and independent review since the shooting is being probed as an officer-involved shooting of an unarmed person, as an airsoft gun is not considered a deadly weapon.

"We will be the filing authority for any criminal charges related to officer-involved shootings, which we are the lead investigators," California DOJ Chief John Marsh said. "This investigation has just started."

Nelson Szeto, 37, was shot and killed in a confrontation with police that unfolded on the morning of Jan. 20, just outside the BART station at the airport's International Terminal, officials said. When officers first made contact with Szeto, the department said he appeared to be armed with two handguns and a knife. An investigation by the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office later revealed that he had two airsoft guns; airsoft guns emit plastic pellets not bullets.

SFPD Cmdr. Paul Yep said at the town hall that police and a San Mateo County Sheriff's Office hostage negotiator pleaded with Szeto to put down his weapons. At one point, Szeto told the officers to shoot him, and he used shooting terms such as "center mass," and "make sure you aim," Yep said. Szeto allegedly said his gun was loaded.

Yep said Szeto apologized several times. "Thank you for your service," Szeto said according to Yep. "I respect you guys."

Szeto allegedly put one of the weapons down at some point. Despite officers' orders for him to put down the second weapon, Szeto approached officers with his arm raised, Yep said. Four officers then shot at Szeto, causing him to the fall to the ground. After officers moved the handgun away from Szeto's body, paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but Szeto was pronounced dead at the scene.

A male bystander suffered a wound to his leg and he was taken to the hospital for his non-life-threatening injury, police said. Police identified the involved SFPD officers as Erik Whitney, Oliver Lim, Steven Uang and David Wakayama.

SFO airport communications, officers' body-worn camera footage and surveillance footage from the incident were posted online by the police department. The recordings include the first calls made after 7 a.m. that reported a suspicious individual in the international terminal. San Francisco police are required to hold a town hall and release bodycam footage for fatal police shootings.

"On behalf of all us at the department, our sincerest condolences to Mr. Szeto, his family, his friends and his loved ones for the loss of life they've suffered," police Chief Bill Scott said at the town hall meeting.

The San Francisco Police Department's Internal Affairs Division, the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability and the San Mateo County Coroner's Office are all conducting their own investigations.

"It is too early to draw any conclusions. At this point, we just put the facts out," Scott said. "It is when the administrative and criminal investigations (are finished) when conclusions are drawn. And we can take whatever modifications, if anything, and move forward to make those modifications."

If you are in distress, call the National Suicide Prevention hotline 24 hours a day at 800-273-8255, or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org for more resources.

Bay City News contributed to this story.
One of the Bay Areas most iconic salads has gotten rather elusive these days. Burma Superstar and its family of restaurants is currently rationing its famous tea leaf salad due to supply chain issues with fermented tea leaves from Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).

We were beginning to experience a shortage a few months back, said Burma Inc. chief operating officer Nghia Tran. We knew that we were running out. We had tried to place an order for a shipment from Burma, but it kept getting delayed.

The exact reasons behind the shortage are unclear, but Tran says its most likely a combination of global supply chain issues and delays at the ports. Supply chain issues seem to be affecting just about everything these days, from glass jars and pizza boxes to boba and brisket.

Its also worth noting that the United States recently issued a business advisory for Myanmar warning of heightened risks associated with doing business in the country especially when the military is involved, nearly a year after the army took power in a coup, wrote Reuters.

While issues with fermented tea leaf supply have been ongoing for four or five months, Burma Superstar, Burma Love and B Star locations only began rationing the tea leaf salad recently. The company is limiting orders of its very popular dish  a crunchy, savory salad with thinly sliced romaine, tomatoes, fried garlic chips, fried yellow split peas, toasted peanuts, dried shrimp, sesame seeds and, of course, that signature tea leaf dressing  to dine-in only.

So if youve tried to order it for takeout or delivery lately, youve probably noticed it missing from the menu.

We've had a lot of people calling in and saying, Hey, I heard that you guys are short on tea leaf salad. Do you guys have any left? said Tran. People are always confirming with us, but thankfully, all the customers so far have been very gracious and very understanding.

Burma Inc. also supplies tea leaf dressing to other Burmese restaurants in the Bay Area (A packaged version can also be found for sale at certain retailers). Therefore, Tran said the decision to ration it at their own restaurants was made in part to ensure they still had enough left for their buyers.

Limiting the sale of your best-known dish to dine-in only in the midst of a COVID surge thats driven people away from restaurants sounds like a tough blow to business, but Tran said they wanted to prioritize the dine-in experience.

Our belief is that overall, dine-in is a better experience, said Tran. People come to our restaurants, they try [the tea leaf salad] tableside, and they get the overall experience of discovering something new and learning about our culture.

The rationing has certainly impacted business, but theres also been one silver lining: Customers have been pushed to try other salads for the first time, like the rainbow salad.

It's been interesting to see that customers are able to discover new dishes and new salads that have always been on the menu and have always been delicious. They just never had a chance to branch out and explore, said Tran. I think it's really been a positive thing for us to know that we are more than our tea leaf salads.

Not all Burmese restaurants in the Bay Area are experiencing the same issues with their supply of fermented tea leaves, however. Both Teni East Kitchen in Oakland and Burma! Burma! in Dublin reported that they are currently well-stocked, so these East Bay spots may be the move if youre urgently needing a tea leaf salad fix (or if youve sworn off Burma Superstar and its sister restaurants after they settled a class-action suit over wage theft allegations; as part of the settlement, Burma Superstar did not admit to any wrongdoing).

As far as Burma Inc. goes, an end is in sight for the shortage  a shipment of fermented tea leaves is scheduled to arrive in March. That said, the date has gotten pushed back a number of times already.

That would be my dream come true if I could say an exact date, but its constantly changing day by day and week by week, explained Tran.
Getty Images

Some families got nosebleeds and headaches. Others, vomiting and diarrhea. When they discovered that their tap water had a slick, oily sheen and strong chemical odor, they knew that a fuel leak was the culprit, Military.com reported in December.

Now, after 93,000 people have been sickened by contaminated water at Hawaiis Pearl Harbor, the Pentagon is fighting the states emergency order to drain the tanks, The Hill reported  a decision that has caused a firestorm among Democratic Hawaii lawmakers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added 12 more destinations to its list of places that Americans should avoid due to "very high" levels of covid-19, including a popular nearby getaway.

Mexico, which does not require visitors to show proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test, is now considered a "Level 4" country. States that include popular tourist destinations like Cabo San Lucas, Cancun and Mexico City have seen cases rise sharply amid the omicron surge.

Other countries and territories that moved to the CDC's highest level on Monday are Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, French Guiana, Anguilla, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Kosovo, Moldova, Singapore and the Philippines. The "Level 4" list includes more than 100 destinations, with several popular Caribbean islands added last week.

The CDC says people who must travel to these places should make sure they are up to date with their coronavirus vaccinations.

"Even if you are up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines, you may still be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19," the agency says.

In addition to soaring coronavirus cases, Mexico has been grappling with high-profile acts of violence in resort towns in recent months. Last week, the manager of beach club was shot to death in Playa del Carmen days after two Canadians were killed in a shooting at a nearby hotel. A beach shootout near Cancun in November forced tourists to run into hotels for safety.

The U.S. State Department changed its travel advisory for Monday to "Level 4" - which means "do not travel" - due to covid-19.
WASHINGTON - Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, says President Joe Biden's vow to nominate and confirm the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court is "offensive" and "an insult to Black women," becoming the latest Republican to question what is expected to be a history-making nomination to the high court.

On his podcast, "Verdict with Ted Cruz," the Texas senator argued on Monday that Biden's pledge to nominate a Black woman sent a message to other Americans that they are automatically "ineligible" because of race and gender.

"The fact that he's willing to make a promise at the outset, that it must be a Black woman, I got to say that's offensive. You know, Black women are what, 6% of the U.S. population? He's saying to 94% of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you, you are ineligible,'" Cruz said. Black women represent 7% of the population as of 2019, according to the Census Bureau.

Cruz also claimed, without evidence, that Biden's upcoming Supreme Court pick was "actually an insult to Black women," and suggested the president would not nominate the most qualified candidate.

"If he came and said, 'I'm gonna put the best jurist on the court and he looked at a number of people and he ended up nominating a Black woman, he could credibly say, 'OK, I'm nominating the person who's most qualified,'" the senator said. "He's not even pretending to say that, he's saying, 'If you're a White guy, tough luck. If you're a White woman, tough luck. You don't qualify.' "

The comments, which came a day before the start of Black History Month, were slammed by critics and liberals as what one called "unfettered systematic racism."

"This nation has been built on the strength and fortitude of Black women. We are everything from caregivers to CEOs and soon, a Supreme Court Justice," tweeted Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash. "The only thing insulting to this Black woman is Ted Cruz thinking he speaks for us."

A Cruz spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday. White House spokesman Andrew Bates, who has said that Biden's vow "is in line with the best traditions of both parties and our nation," pointed The Washington Post to his Monday tweet referencing how Cruz did not protest President Donald Trump "promising to pick a woman" for a Supreme Court opening in 2020.

The GOP senator's remarks come ahead of Biden's meeting Tuesday with Senate Judiciary Committee leaders as he proceeds with his search to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who last week announced he would retire at the end of this court term. Biden has said the nomination of a Black woman to the high court was "long overdue." The president said he hopes to announce his pick by the end of this month.

The White House has already confirmed that U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, 55, of South Carolina, is under consideration. Others believed to be potential candidates include Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Leondra Kruger, 45, a California Supreme Court justice.

Democrats and historians have pointed to the way Republican presidents such as Ronald Reagan and Trump announced their plans to nominate a woman to an open seat on the Supreme Court. Reagan selected Sandra Day O'Connor for a vacancy in 1981, while Trump picked Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020.

Despite the history, Biden's upcoming nomination has caused some Republicans to question the president's selection process, which Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, described as "clumsy at best." Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., recently told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the pledge to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court reflected a "hard woke left" outlook that has been "race-obsessed, gender-obsessed."

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., was rebuked by the White House after saying Biden's pick would be a "beneficiary" of an affirmative action "quota."

"The majority of the court may be saying writ large that it's unconstitutional. We'll see how that irony works out," Wicker said, adding that whoever Biden nominates "will probably not get a single Republican vote."

Similar conservative criticism was made by Fox News host Tucker Carlson when he recently called Biden's vow "casual racism of affirmative action." Incoming Georgetown Law administrator Ilya Shapiro was placed on placed on administrative leave Monday after he asserted that Biden's pick would be a "lesser Black woman" rather than the best jurist the president could find. Shapiro apologized for a series of now-deleted tweets mentioning how whoever Biden nominated would have "an asterisk attached" to her name as a result.

Black female judges and law students have celebrated Biden's upcoming Supreme Court nomination and confirmation. Judge Bernice Donald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit told The Post that Black women have long played a crucial role in "the struggle for equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity."

"We have championed the cause of justice; we have championed diversity, equity and inclusion; and we have fought for the rights of others," she said. "There are so many extraordinarily well-qualified African American women poised and ready to serve. I thank President Biden for recognizing that fact."

Cruz's remarks drew immediate blowback. Shuwaski Young, a Democratic candidate who is running for the U.S. House in Mississippi, emphasized that Cruz is just the latest GOP lawmaker who is "ignoring equity on SCOTUS and disrespecting Black Women."

"We are in times that call upon All of us to speak truth to power," he wrote on Twitter. "This is unfettered systematic racism."

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., noted that of the 115 people who were previously confirmed to serve as justices on the Supreme Court, 112 were White and 110 were men.

"Not one was a Black woman," Beyer tweeted. "Senate Republicans could celebrate this important milestone in American history; instead they're disgracing themselves."

On Tuesday morning, Alberto Gonzales, formerly President George W. Bush's attorney general, called Cruz's comments "nonsensical."

"These are extremely well-credentialed individuals and from my perspective, more than qualified to serve on the Supreme Court," Gonzales told CNN of the potential Black women linked to the nomination. "I just find Senator Cruz's comments as really kind of silly."

White House press secretary Jen Psaki addressed Cruz's comments Tuesday, reminding reporters that the senator "had no objection to Donald Trump promising he'd nominate a woman in 2020." Psaki pointed to Cruz telling Barrett during her confirmation hearing that she was "an amazing role model for little girls."

"There is no outcry around that," Psaki said. "The president's view is that after 230 years of the Supreme Court being in existence, the fact that not a single Black woman has served on the Supreme Court is a failure in the process."

After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday defended Biden's intention to nominate and confirm a Black woman to the Supreme Court, Cruz doubled down on his stance that the president's pledge is wrong and offensive to Black women.

"Democrats are so casually racist that they'll make that promise," said Cruz of the Supreme Court pick, "and not only that, it ends up being insulting to African American women."

- - -

The Washington Post's Amy B Wang and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
[February 01, 2022] OneReach.ai Named a Leader in Inaugural 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms OneReach.ai, a market leading software company democratizing conversational AI and machine learning through a flexible no code/low code development platform, today announced it has been named by Gartner as a Leader in its inaugural 2022 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms. The report evaluated 21 different vendors and recognized the Company as a Leader based on its Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute. Gartner defines leaders in this Magic Quadrant as those that have the ability to execute against that vision through capabilities of their organization, business model and platform. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005445/en/ OneReach.ai Communication Studio G2 (Photo: OneReach.ai) OneReach.ai began as a research project led by the vision of their founder, and UX (user experience) pioneer Robb Wilson, and created with his team of award winning UX practitioners. The Company's platform, Communication Studio G2, was designed to simplify building complex AI solutions, in its end-to-end voice capabilities and UX - the end user experience with conversations. The platform offers deep functionalities for creating conversational applications across all communication channels, including a complete set of end-to-end voice capabilities that allow customers to build their own independent contact center solutions or augment their existing legacy systems (e.g. Cisco, Avaya, Genesys, etc.) with low risk. Businesses across the globe, many from the Fortune 2000, have come to rely on the Company's award-winning platform for its voice capabilities and focus on user experience, both of which are critical to the multimodal experiences that leading brands demand. Customers now automate over a billion conversations per year on the platform. "We believe the recognition from Gartner of OneReach.ai as a Leader in this market underscores how conversational AI has proven to be a game-changer for early adopters, and is now a fundamental piece of the innovation puzzle in enterprise functionality," said Robb Wilson, principal designer, chief technologist and founder, OneReach.ai. "We are honored to be included as a Leader in Gartner inaugural Magic Quadran for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms. It validates the market and reinforces our commitment to be the right partner, providing the best tools and guidance to bring bold and innovative visions to life."

The platform was designed to be very modular and utilize the best combination of market technologies available. OneReach.ai was intentionally designed to create intelligent, multimodal experiences, keeping their customers out in front of the next evolution of Conversational AI. This requires complex capabilities, such as managing conversational state, decoupling logic from channels and using native data and identity tools to supplement existing systems of record. Users of the platform can share any session variables, entities and conversational context across channels and time. Combined with OneReach.ai's extensive considerations for UX and advanced functionality, omnichannel, multimodality and contextual awareness are no longer buzzwords, but feasible design capabilities. *Gartner "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms" by Magnus Revang, Anthony Mullen, Bern Elliot, Published 24 January 2022. Useful Links: OneReach.ai: www.onereach.ai

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onereach/

OneReach.ai Journal: https://onereach.ai/gartner-names-onereach-ai-a-leader-in-magic-quadrant/ About the Magic Quadrant Magic Quadrant reports are a culmination of rigorous, fact-based research in specific markets, providing a wide-angle view of the relative positions of the providers in markets where growth is high and provider differentiation is distinct. Providers are positioned into four quadrants: Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries and Niche Players. The research enables you to get the most from market analysis in alignment with your unique business and technology needs. Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of the Gartner research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About OneReach.ai Launched in 2013, OneReach.ai is a market leading software company created by award-winning UX pioneers to democratize digital communications and machine learning. The Company's award-winning Communication Studio G2 platform provides a powerful, flexible and trusted microservices-based conversational AI platform, targeted at enterprise implementations. The Global Fortune 2000 and other organizations across the world rely on OneReach.ai, spanning multiple verticals, including financial services, retail, telecom, technology and CPG, among others. The Company is headquartered in Denver, with offices in Berkeley, London and Eastern Europe. For more information, please visit www.onereach.ai. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005445/en/

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In the early 20th century, Lew Hing bucked the odds to become one of the wealthiest Chinese immigrants in America. His business acumen allowed him to amass wealth and political power that few other Chinese Americans had at the time.



"My great-grandfather, in spite all of the systemic racism, and they eventually took him down by the way, for him he said they didn't care who wasn't white as long as the color of money was green," explained Bruce Quan Jr., Lew's great-grandson. He authored a book about Lew and his family's history in America entitled "Bitter Roots: Five Generations of a Chinese Family in America."

But being a successful Chinese businessperson at the turn of the last century also put a target on his back. By the time Lew died in 1934, he was forced to liquidate the majority of his business holdings, leaving him stripped of the wealth he spent his whole life earning.

Born in China, Lew Hing was only 11 years old in 1869 when his family sent him by boat from Canton to San Francisco's growing Chinatown to help at his eldest brother's goods store. Lew was one of many Chinese migrants who came to the United States a year after both countries signed the Burlingame Treaty, which allowed free migration between the two nations. America was looking for labor to help build the transcontinental railroad, and China was looking for protection for its nationals in the United States.



Despite the systemic racism and discrimination, the young Lew was able to find a path to power and respect in the San Francisco Bay Area. After arriving in the U.S., Lew's business skills helped his eldest brother's shop in Chinatown. One thing Lew understood even at an early age was to become a truly successful businessman in America, he would have to sell goods that served not only the Chinese community but also the majority white population in America as well.



On top of working at his brother's shop, Lew learned how to speak fluent English at a missionary school (schools run by churches that taught both English and Christianity) to help the store with U.S. Customs when shipments arrived from China. Through this work, he became good friends with P.W. Bellingall, a white San Francisco businessman who had an import-export business.

In 1872, Lew's brother traveled back to China to visit his family, but tragically his ship caught fire and sank off the coast of Japan. At 14 years old, Lew Hing was now in charge of his brother's store without other family members supporting him in the United States.



Lew continued to run his brother's store while expanding his business opportunities. He focused on canning, a developing industry at the time, where food items could be preserved and shipped around the world. With Bellingall's help, Lew took a job at a canning company where he learned everything he could about the industry.



Eventually, he developed his own canning method and in 1888 opened the Pacific Fruit Packing Company with other Chinese investors. Lew gave his cannery a non-Chinese name to hide its origins, Quan wrote in "Bitter Roots."

Courtesy Lew Family Archive

The cannery quickly proved successful. It eventually grew to occupy four buildings on Stockton Street. However, its success attracted the attention of the Bay Area media, which spread unsubstantiated rumors that Lew abused and treated his white workers poorly.



After several years of negative press, Lew finally decided he had enough.



"He sold the cannery in 1902 because of all of the racial problems that he was encountering with the media in San Francisco," explained Quan. "He went off to China, ostensibly to retire, in 1902. He came back in 1903 and, with his longtime attorney W.A. Richardson, started to think about opening a cannery in Oakland."



For his second attempt at running a canning company, Lew had learned his lesson: He needed prominent and connected white businesspeople to help him succeed and appear as the face of the company. Richardson introduced Lew to brothers William and James Rolph. The Rolphs owned a shipping line and were prominent members of the San Francisco business community. Their political power grew substantially several years later when James became the mayor of San Francisco.



In 1904, Lew had Richardson incorporate his new company, the Pacific Coast Canning Company, in Oakland. Although most company shareholders were Chinese, the majority of Pacific Coast Canning Company's public officers were white and included his old friend Bellingall. "He did that deliberately so that he could disguise who the real owners were of the cannery," Quan explained.



The only non-white officer on the board was Lew Hing himself.

Courtesy Lew Family Archive

The cannery's location by the Southern Pacific railhead in West Oakland at the corner of 12th and Pine Street was the perfect location to can fruits and vegetables and have them ready to ship around the country or by boat around the world. Lew's company made a lot of money for him and his business partners. By 1907, Lew Hing was considered to be, if not the wealthiest, then one of the most affluent Chinese Americans.



By 1914, the Pacific Coast Canning Company was the largest single employer in Oakland, with more than 1,000 employees during the height of the canning season. The company profits grew even larger throughout World War I thanks to the political connections of Mayor Rolph. He helped secure Pacific Coast Canning Company a large contract supplying its canned goods, transported on Rolph's shipping line, to feed the starving civilian population of German-occupied Belgium. That program was run by Herbert Hoover, a logistics savant, who would later become the president of the United States. Few Europeans receiving the canned goods could imagine the food, labeled the Buckskin Brand adorned with a white cowboy, was from a company owned by a Chinese immigrant.

Courtesy Image

While Lew focused on his cannery, he was also active in several other businesses. He helped open the Canton Bank of San Francisco, which provided banking and financing to other Chinese companies and the Chinatown community. He was also a partner in the China Mail Steamship Company that transported goods and passengers between China and the United States. Lew even expanded his business interests into Mexico, opening a cotton plantation in Mexicali and providing supplies to U.S. General Frederick Funston's army in Mexico.

Courtesy Lew Family Archive

Besides taking care of his own family, Lew was instrumental in attempting to help grow the wealth of the Chinese American community.



"His impact was felt, but largely not documented," explained Oakland Chinatown historian Roland Hui, who is also working on a book about Lew Hing's legacy. According to Hui's research, Lew was a force behind the scenes in Chinatown but rarely accepted official titles with Chinese benevolent associations, the de-facto power brokers in the community.



"Lew Hing had a track record of charity work," Hui discovered in both Oakland and San Francisco.



After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the headquarters of the Chinese Six Companies, also known as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association that effectively ran Chinatown, were destroyed. They decided to build a new building on Stockton Street, and Lew was the biggest community donor. According to family lore, Lew housed and fed thousands of San Francisco's Chinatown residents who became homeless after the earthquake. He bought tents and let them live on the land of his Oakland cannery.



"Oakland's Chinatown was always smaller, but it always had a strong relationship with San Francisco's Chinatown," explained William Wong, an Oakland-born journalist. He authored "Oakland's Chinatown," a photo book documenting its history.



"What really grew Oakland's Chinatown was the 1906 earthquake," Wong added, as many refugees from San Francisco moved permanently to Oakland.

Lew's business successes also allowed him to gain powerful political friends. A few years after the earthquake, he moved his family to a large house along Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland. It was extraordinary considering segregation confined most Chinese communities to Chinatown's borders. By 1921, he was also able to build a house for his children too.

Courtesy William Wong / Oakland's Chinatown





Lew also received a sheriff's badge to help him move freely throughout California without the worry of being accosted by the police. He carried letters from prominent political officials vouching for his character, which were effectively "get out of jail" letters.



In 1922 when the Chinese Hospital decided to build on Jackson Street in San Francisco, Lew Hing's company donated $5,000 from him and his company to finance the construction. When the Chinatown YMCA on Stockton Street was built in 1924, Lew Hing's donated $4,250, the largest individual donor for the project, which led to the pool being named after him. For decades it was the only pool available in Chinatown for its residents. Lew also was focused on funding education opportunities, founding Chinese schools in San Francisco and Oakland.

Courtesy Lew Family Archive

Eventually, Lew Hing's businesses empire grew to over 30 companies where he was either a partner or owner. But as his political and economic power grew, Lew eventually found some poor business decisions by his white business partners eroded his political alliances  and once again left Lew with a target on his back.



Lew and his business partners at the China Mail enlisted Rolph's shipbuilding company to fix a fire-damaged ship to double their capacity. However, unbeknownst to China Mail, that company faced financial difficulties and underbid the contract to repair the boat. Cost overruns from the Rolph shipbuilding company ran into the millions of dollars. It eventually led to a tug-of-war for the shipbuilder's overstretched financial resources at Canton Bank, which financed China Mail's loans. Some of the more conservative financial investors at Canton Bank blamed Lew and other board members for their problems after he asked for additional financial funding to keep the bank alive.



Aggrieved business partners allegedly drew up a "death list" with Lew's name at the top. The danger to his life required Lew to always leave home with bodyguards in tow for the next several years.

No longer in a lucrative business relationship with the Rolphs, Lew increasingly found himself without the political cover of his white friends.



"My great-grandfather was really frustrated with people that had turned their backs on him from the larger society," said Quan. "They eventually took him down in the 1920s."



The first domino to fall was when China Mail Steamship Company went bankrupt in 1923. A few years prior, the Jones Act had been passed by the federal government. The act promoted American-owned ship lines over foreign or permanent resident-owned lines, including China Mail. Quan also noted that shipments from China into the United States often included illegal goods, such as illicit drugs like opium. If American customs officials discovered illicit goods on a ship, they could be levied hefty fines for the prohibited transport.



Most shipping companies could appeal the fines and reduce them to a mere pittance of the original amount. However, the China Mail Steamship Company received no lenience from the government. Piled-up penalties forced the company into bankruptcy.



"Laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the Alien Land Act of 1913 and the 1917 Asiatic Barred Zone slowed down the immigration of colored people  but what could be done to drive away those already in California?" Quan wrote in his book "Bitter Roots." "One way was to strangle their economic development opportunities."



"The other three [largest Lew companies] all collapsed around 1926, which makes me believe that there may be something working against him," noted Hui.



Canton Bank was liquidated in 1926 to cover its mounting debts despite a desperate move from Lew to save the bank by moving funds from the Pacific Coast Canning Company, according the Quan. However, this put him in legal jeopardy when stockholders reported him to the California Attorney General about the improper use of company funds. Running out of money and with few other options to avoid prosecution, Lew was forced to sell his major investment, the Pacific Coast Canning Company, to white competitors the same year and shutter his cotton plantation in Mexico.



"He probably lost everything besides his house and his shareholdings of two lottery businesses in Oakland," Hui said.



Distraught that his business empire was dismantled, Lew became increasingly bitter until his death in 1934 at his Oakland home. Despite losing most of his fortune by that point, his passing was well documented by the press.



Lew's hometown paper, the Oakland Tribune, featured his obituary. Their headline read, "Noted Chinese Romantic Life Comes to end." Meanwhile, the New York Times also had an obituary about Lew Hing with a matter-of-fact subhead: "Lew Hing-Chin Dead in California at 77: Chinese Immigrant Boy Became Noted Captain of Industry on the West Coast."



The final paragraph of the Times obit read: "In recent years, he had been retired from active business, dividing his holdings among his son Lew Gow, Thomas C. Lew, and Ralph Lew. His sons and wife were with him at his death."
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FAIRFIELD  Built in 1921, the five-bedroom home at 215 Greenfield Hill Road is being billed as the quintessential home in Fairfields leafy Greenfield Hill neighborhood.

Set on three acres, it offers a sense of privacy and breathtaking sunsets, said listing agent Peter Rosato, of Coldwell Banker.

The pristine residence offers over 7,700 square feet of well-designed spaces ideal for entertaining, blending modern ambiance and detailed architectural finishes throughout, he said.

The hub of the home is the gourmet kitchen that features a butlers pantry and opens to the great room with a cozy fireplace. Also on the main floor are gracious formal rooms with high ceilings and French doors leading to the outdoor, wrap-around bluestone patio and terrace area with pergolas overhead.

The heated outdoor pool area has two vintage cottages with a changing room with bathroom and a private cabana with a fireplace. Plans for a new pool house have been approved by the town, Rosato said.

Back in the main home, the primary bedroom suite offers a fireplace and exercise/dressing rooms and a private balcony. The lower level includes storage space and a workout area and the home comes with a heated three-car garage and a full-house backup generator.

This house is on the market for nearly $2.9 million.

For details contact Peter and Denise Rosato, of Coldwell Banker, at 203-536-0671 or denise.rosato@cbmoves.com or peter.rosato@cbmoves.com.
Mason County has been granted funds totaling $50,569 from the Emergency Food and Shelter Fund, a division of FEMA, according to a press release from United Way of Mason County.

The county has received a $38,207 ARPA-R allocation and a $12,262 allocation for Phase 39. Funds have been made available through the Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency and will be used to assist local organizations with providing services to consumers in the areas of food, lodging, rent/mortgage payments, utility payments or equipment necessary to feed or shelter residents.

Local organizations will be able to apply for funding to help meet these needs.

To receive funds, organizations must:

1.) Be a private, voluntary nonprofit or unit of government;

2.) Be eligible to receive federal funds;

3.) Have an accounting system;

4.) Practice non-discrimination;

5.) Have demonstrated the capability to deliver emergency food and/or shelter;

6.) If the organization is a private, voluntary organization, they must have a voluntary board.

Organizations that meet the qualifications are encouraged to apply for funding online by going to www.masoncountyuw.org/efspfunding.

The link will provide those organizations with a brief overview of the program and link to both applications. There are two requests for funding forms  one for Phase 39 and one for ARPA-R. Organizations are required by the national board to select if they are going to request funding for Phase 39, ARPA-R or both. Requests for funding are due by Thursday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m.

The local Emergency Food and Shelter Program board is made up of representatives from the American Red Cross West Michigan Region, Catholic Charities West Michigan, COVE, FiveCap, the Ludington Area Senior Center, Mason County Government, Staircase Youth Services, the Salvation Army, Lakeshore Food Club and United Way of Mason County.
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A long ordeal for customers of Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) is nearing an end. The vendor has restored its time-keeping and payroll services after a ransomware attack disrupted the lives of thousands of HR professionals and employees alike.

But experts say fallout from the attack will continue, given that some customer data was stolen, companies will have to transition manual records back into UKG systems and shaken clients are questioning their future with the vendor.

In a public update on Jan. 22, UKG said it had restored core time, scheduling and payroll capabilities to all customers impacted by the ransomware attack on its Kronos Private Cloud system. The statement said UKG is now focused on the "restoration of supplemental features and nonproduction environments" and is offering video-based recovery guides to help customers reconcile their data.

The outagewhich lasted more than a month for many UKG clientsforced thousands of organizations to scramble to create manual workarounds. It happened during a particularly challenging time of year; employers had to find ways to pay workers holiday pay and overtime as employees worked extra shifts to cover staff shortages caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus and ongoing resignations.

UKG and companies using its services may be facing legal action.

"Unfortunately, some customer data was stolen in the attacks and that creates a secondary concern for UKG and its clients," said Allie Mellen, a security and risk analyst with research and advisory firm Forrester. UKG confirmed in its latest public statement that the personal data of at least two of its customers had been "exfiltrated" or breached.

Cautionary Tale for HR Tech Vendors

HR technology analysts say vendors and their clients should brace themselves for similar attacks as more hackers train their sights on sensitive employee data rather than customer data.

"The reality is we're going to see more of these attacks," said Trevor White, a research manager specializing in HCM technologies with Nucleus Research in Boston. "The question for HR vendors is how they'll limit disruption to their customers as they go about solving problems related to ransomware and other cyberattacks. Unless you pay the ransom, these things can take weeks to solve."

Nabil Hannan, managing director for NetSPI, an enterprise security testing and vulnerability management firm in Minneapolis, said too many organizations still focus on protecting customer data at the expense of securing employee data.

"Hackers are getting more creative and focusing more of their efforts on finding ways to lock up systems that on their face may not seem as critical but that have far-reaching impacts, like HR data," Hannan said.

Among organizations affected by the UKG outage was Franciscan Health, a group of 14 hospitals in the Midwest. Ellen Page, director of talent acquisition for the organization, said an internal team led by information technology, payroll and HR shared services quickly stood up a manual system to ensure hospital employees got paid accurately and on time.

"Some organizations impacted by the attack opted to simply pay people what they were paid in cycles before the outage, but we wanted to make sure employees were paid exactly what they were owed," Page said. "Because of staffing shortages caused by COVID and high patient numbers, many of our nurses were receiving incentive pay for taking on extra shifts, for example, and we didn't want to deny them that pay."

Page said although Franciscan's UKG service was recently restored, there remains considerable work to do to recover from the outage, including loading manual pay records from the past month back into the UKG system.

Preparing for Future Attacks

Data security experts say that customers of third-party providers like UKG not only need to ensure that vendors' data security practices are modern, robust and regularly tested before signing contracts, but they also need to review their own business continuity plans to prepare for the likelihood of similar cyberattacks.

Mellen said the UKG attack holds lessons for other HR vendors in fortifying backup systems so they can get back online faster. "It's not enough to simply follow best practices, you also have to constantly test the security you've implemented to make sure it'll actually protect you in the event of an attack," she said.

White said there can be inherent security risks in using private versus public cloud services. Private clouds are dedicated to just one organization and run on that company's own infrastructure, while public clouds are shared among different organizations on the Internet. Security experts say public clouds often are more hardened because they're regular targets of hackers and they tend to attract the best security professionals in the field.

"The UKG attack was on a platform where you're just not going to get the updates and security you would on a more modern public solution," White said. "In general, security on public clouds is tested and updated more regularly and is more robust than private clouds, which often have more outdated technology."

White said the after-care support from UKG for customers affected by the outage will prove telling. "We've had inquiries from both UKG clients and nonclients about wanting to upgrade from their current system and move to more-modern cloud offerings that their vendors have," White said. "But will UKG have the support staff to handle those transitions? And for those customers who don't want to move or upgrade right away, what will UKG do to assure them they have fixed whatever gaps may have existed in their security layer?"

Sam Grinter, senior principal analyst in the HR practice for Gartner, said he expects many affected UKG clients to move to new platforms with the vendor. "I anticipate part of the strategy going forward, for both UKG and Kronos Private Cloud clients, would be to migrate sooner than initially planned to more-modern platforms, which should have stronger security," he said.

Legal Exposure for Vendor and Clients

Attorneys say given that customer data was compromised and some companies weren't able to pay employees accurately during the outage, both UKG and its clients could be subject to lawsuits.

Vendor contracts are typically written with an eye toward data security issues. "I'm sure many impacted companies are looking closely at the terms of their contracts to see if there are grounds for a lawsuit," said Michael Bahar, co-lead of the global cybersecurity and data privacy practice at Eversheds Sutherland law firm.

Although there's an assumption that legal responsibility for data security falls primarily to a software-as-a-service vendor, that's not always the case, Bahar said. Contracts can be structured to share responsibility with the client.

"You can allocate certain responsibility and liability via contract, but data ownersthe vendor's clientincreasingly are not able to fully contract around their data security obligations because there is an expectation from regulators that the client will conduct proper, documented due diligence on the data security practices of the vendor," Bahar said.

In the UKG case, it's also possible employees impacted by the attack could sue, he noted. "Individuals could form a class action suit to claim they were underpaid as a result of the service outage or that their personal data was leaked as a result of their employer not conducting proper due diligence on the security practices of the vendor it contracted with," he said.

Dave Zielinski is principal of Skiwood Communications, a business writing and editing company in Minneapolis.


Microsoft Azure Cloud has stopped the biggest-ever distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack at a massive 3.47 terabytes (Tbps) per second.

The DDoS attack with a throughput of 3.47 Tbps and a packet rate of 340 million packets per second (pps), targeting an Azure customer in Asia, originated from approximately 10,000 sources and from multiple countries across the globe, including the US, China, South Korea, Russia, Thailand, India, Vietnam, Iran, Indonesia and Taiwan.

The overall attack lasted approximately 15 minutes and was successfully mitigated.

"We believe this to be the largest attack ever reported in history," said Alethea Toh Product Manager, Azure Networking.

Last October, Microsoft reported on a 2.4 terabit per second (Tbps) DDoS attack in Azure that it successfully mitigated.

The two other large attacks that surpassed 2.5 Tbps in December were also short bursts targeting servers in Asia.

As with the first half of 2021, most attacks were short-lived, although, in the second half of 2021, the proportion of attacks that were 30 minutes or less dropped from 74 percent to 57 per cent," said Microsoft.

"We saw a rise in attacks that lasted longer than an hour, with the composition more than doubling from 13 per cent to 27 per cent. Multi-vector attacks continue to remain prevalent," it added.

For longer attacks, each attack is typically experienced by customers as a sequence of multiple short, repeated burst attacks.

The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) attacks rose to the top vector in the second half of 2021, comprising 55 percent of all attacks, a 16 per cent increase from the first half of 2021.

The gaming industry has been hit with multiple DDoS attacks this year.

"The gaming industry has always been rife with DDoS attacks because players often go to great lengths to win. Nevertheless, we see that a wider range of industries are just as susceptible, as we have observed an increase in attacks in other industries such as financial institutions, media, internet service providers (ISPs), retail, and supply chain," said Microsoft.

A DDoS attack is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources.
To facilitate 200 Indian startups to showcase their business ideas and innovations to global investors at Expo 2020 Dubai, Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) and India Innovation Hub announced a partnership with Indian online travel company EasyMyTrip and UK-headquartered investment banking company HSBC.

With this joint initiative, some of India's best Innovators and startups will get an opportunity to engage with their counterparts and key stakeholders at DSO and Expo 2020 Dubai, Aman Puri, Consul General of India in Dubai, said on the occasion.

Over 500 Indian startups will be showcased in India Innovation Hub which is a project of the India Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. By providing them exposure to the global investors community through B2B events, the project provides a platform to promote start-ups and innovators of India.

India Innovation Hub has made a significant contribution to the Startup ecosystem by showcasing over 240 Startups at the Expo 2020 Dubai, Puri said.

In line with the Expo 2020 Dubai theme, Connecting Minds, Creating the Future', the India Innovation Hub, as part of the India Pavilion, will act as a facilitator for these start-ups, providing them with a global stage to interact with investors and global counterparts for networking and partnerships, the Consulate General of India in Dubai said in a statement.

With over 40 Indian startups joining the unicorn club in 2021, India has emerged as an innovation hub with the worlds third-largest startup ecosystem. Hitendra Dave, General Manager and CEO of HSBC, India said, Tech & New Age Business segment commonly called Startups' is a key target segment for HSBC India.

Embodying the true spirit of a self-reliant India, and despite the extreme challenges posed by the global pandemic, over 40 new unicorns came into existence in India, taking the total number of unicorns to 85, the statement said.
We almost dont have a favorite triathlon bike company that doesnt also make gravel bikes. I lay claim to gravel as part of multisport. (Sue me.) When one of our companies comes out with a new gravel bike I consider that as newsworthy as when they launch a tri bike. American Bicycle Group has 3 brands: Quintana Roo (my old job); Litespeed; and Obed. That last one is devoted to offroad, and while they make full MTB what I care about most are their gravel bikes.



They launched one today, which is the Obed GVR. There are things I like about this bike, and things that dont work as well for me, selfishly. And to be clear my opinions are based on what I see in paper and on the computer screen; I have not seen one in the flesh which means I havent ridden a GVR.



The thesis driving the Obed GVR is speed, that is, a gravel bike optimized for speed, and quicker handling that would appeal to a driver with a leadfoot. To get that handling the bike was built with  among other things like a quicker steering geometry  short chainstays. And when I read that I kind of panicked because Im a 1x guy, for gravel, and one of the featured groupsets for this bike is Campagnolos Ekar group. Thats a 1x13 and I really dont like shorter chain stays on a 1x drivetrain, because of the friction you get in a heavily cross-chained gear. So, I went right to the geometry chart to find that the chain stay in an Obed GVR is 425mm, and was relieved. Thats still a lot of chain stay: plenty for a 1x. Shorter is relative, and the Obed Boundary has a chain stay of 435mm.

The bike has the same routing scheme as my Quintana Roo SRsix, with FSAs stem and headseat that captures all the routing internally. I also have FSAs K-Wing AGX handlebar on my aero road bike, and thats a gravel handlebar. In fact, the Ekar-built model has this very handlebar on it. But hey, I told you Im particular about my gravel bikes and might not choose internally routed hydraulics. But thats me. One of your very favorite gravel bikes is Cervelos Aspero-5 and that bikes hydraulics are internal as well. If you really do not want internal cable routing let the ABG folks know at the point of order, they'll swap in a different fork and you can route your hydraulics externally. In this case there is a hose port at the top of the (subbed-in) fork crown. On the frame's down tube is a motif I've begun to see: an opening with several port types, one of which is a solid door for complete internal routing. A hose port for external routing is subbed for this door for external routing.



The GVR has available bosses for rear racks for the bikepackers, and three bottle cage bosses. What Ive found in my bikepacking investigations is that bosses that get your down tube bottle low, and your seat tube bottle high, give you frame pack options you wouldnt otherwise have.

But lets talk about bikepacking, because my bike for that is also an Obed, just, its the Obed Boundary. That bike has 650B wheels on it, and 53mm tires, and the GVR is really built for more high-speed riding. It seems to me the GVR is optimized for 700c wheels and the max stated clearance is 47mm. For my own gravel riding Im not a fan of tire size (for reasons Ive explained), but this bike lets you have that large a tire if you want. Because of everything about this bike  attention to aerodynamics, fast handling  I suspect most folks wholl choose this bike engage in higher speed gravel grinding, as in, a lot of sustained 20mph segments. That owners bike will have tires between 35mm and 40mm (like the Panaracer Gravel King in 38mm, one of the options for this bike).



Ill fall back on my (fairly recent) old saying: you have to decide what gravel means to you. Where I live its sandy washes; rocky descents; very steep climbs with bad traction; or pavement. My gravel loops are best ridden with a bike change, from road to MTB and back again. Because of this, Ill stick with my Obed Boundary. But, Ive raced gravel in different parts of the country and were I to live in the Midwest, Plains states, Great Lakes, it would be this new GVR, because Id be on 700c wheels and 30-something-millimeter tires.

This company paints and assembles everything in its Chattanooga factory, so you get an experience kind of like Treks Project One, but its omni-sales-channel bends more toward B2C. Because of this, theres a freedom in what you want in color and spec, and the way you get your bike. Your doorbell will ring and its either a UPS driver handing you a box; or a Kitzuma driver handling you a built, ready-to-ride, bike. But can I give my friends at American Bicycle Group a little nudge? I wrote about Fit Ready some months back, and how I view this as a huge leap forward in our industry and a big head start that this company owns. This is industry leading. But its limited to the newly launched V-PR tri bike. I think this bike is a great candidate for Fit Ready, and I hope, once ABG gets its arms fully around the execution of Fit Ready that it becomes available for the GVR.



That said, you can choose your stem length in the configurator when ordering this bike. That's a big deal with internal hydraulics, because you don't have as much wiggle room with hose length. You want to order this bike with the stem you need, and I'll see if I can get our expert fitters in our Quintana Roo Fit Assistance thread to help you get the Obed GVR in the size, stem length, and stem spacer config that you want, if that's a pain point for you. (There's a process for this.)



Ive been awaiting my Campy Ekar group for many months now and hope its coming soon. You can get this bike with that groupset now, it looks like, for $4,945 if you dont choose any of the available upgrades. The bike starts in the $3000s for mechanical drivetrains, and goes up from there. Its available with Shimano electronic. But Im kind of partial to the Ekar build as you might glean. The bike is viewable here, play around in the configurator to see how you make it yours.
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Kerry Stokes has scored a $2.1 billion pay day after Boral, the building products group majority owned by his Seven Group Holdings, announced it was returning $3 billion to shareholders following a series of asset sales including its troubled US business.

The capital return includes a distribution of $2.72 per share to investors. The payment is made up of a $2.65 per share equal capital reduction payment and an unfranked dividend of 7 cents per share. The payment date is February 14.

Kerry Stokes Seven Group Holdings has chalked up a big pay day through Borals capital return. Credit:AAP

Shareholders have already voted to approve the capital return of up to $3 billion at Borals annual general meeting in October. Borals shares jumped 5.8 per cent to close at $6.21 following news the payment to investors would come in at the top end of its estimate.

Mr Stokes Seven Group Holdings, led by son Ryan Stokes, will pick up the vast majority of the capital return as it holds a 70 per cent stake in Boral after launching a partial takeover offer for shares in the group it didnt already own in May. Ryan Stokes was appointed Boral chairman in July 2021.
Loading Women at FIFO worksites spoke of eating alone in their rooms to avoid harassment in the dining hall and the gym; of avoiding being out after dark; of bad lighting and poor security; and of harassing and even threatening behaviour from male colleagues when they were walking to their accommodation after work. Women also spoke of the lack of consequences when they reported the incidents; and of having to carry the burden of managing the situation themselves, rather than receiving support from management or human resources. Many workers on Rios mine sites in Australia are contractors, not direct employees, but contractors participated in just four of 109 listening sessions conducted for the report. I find that a lot of Rio Tinto employees bully contractors, a contractor said.

The power imbalance is so extreme. A WA parliamentary inquiry into sexual harassment in the states fly-in, fly-out mining industry received harrowing testimony of how that power was used against a female contractor who wanted to work directly for the miner. The Rio Tinto supervisor with the authority to approve her move told her to get on her knees first and perform oral sex if she wanted his sign-off. Ms Brodericks report found the harassment was as common in city offices as on mine sites. The highest levels of sexual harassment  14 per cent of respondents  were reported in the WA iron ore business and the office-based strategy, sustainability and development teams. As well as sexual harassment, the report also addressed racism and bullying. Nearly 40 per cent of Rio Tintos Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees said they had experienced racism in the past five years. I have copped racism in every single corner of this company, one worker said.

Some non-white women had a particularly hard time at Rio Tinto, experiencing both sexism and racism. Rio is a Caucasian-oriented company, one employee commented. As well as being white, it helped to be male, and a particular sort of male as well. It is such a masculine environment, its actually hard not to take on some of that behaviour because its the only way you can get by and be included, one worker reported. Almost half of the workforce reported having been bullied, and spoke of resultant loss of confidence, declining performance, anxiety and depression. Bullies often appeared to progress at Rio Tinto, rather than experience consequences for their behaviour, the report said. These bullies are very good at managing up, a worker said.

Loading In response to the issues the report documented, Rio Tinto has sanctioned 142 supervisors and dismissed 38 supervisors for disrespectful behaviour. Mr Stausholm ordered the investigation in 2021 after internal reviews and parliamentary inquiries into issues including sexual harassment on mine sites and the treatment of Aboriginal cultural heritage uncovered failures in the companys culture, attitudes and processes. Mr Stausholm, who has led the miner for one year since a management clear-out in response to the destruction of Aboriginal heritage at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara, said stamping out harassment had to address deeper cultural issues. You have to keep on creating the environment where you make sure that  people are sharing things with you because if youre not aware, you cannot address it, he said.

Im absolutely determined to address these things that should not happen .... It has to be a safe and respectful environment in our company. Mr Stausholm said the key was to address harassment in the same way the industry tackled safety and make it a non-negotiable priority. All major resource companies are tackling similar workplace behaviour issues to Rio Tinto. However, none questioned plan to conduct an independent review of the past for public release as Rio Tinto has done. Fortescue chief executive Elizabeth Gaines said the company had launched a review in mid-2021 to gather workers experiences and suggestions. In line with our zero-tolerance approach to harassment, bullying and intimidation, we will continue to strongly encourage all our team to speak up, Ms Gaines said.

Chevron Australia human resources manager Chris Watts said the company was engaging an external consultant to advise on how best to tackle unacceptable behaviours. A BHP spokeswoman said having an inclusive and diverse workplace had been a priority for a number of years. A Woodside spokesperson said it had strengthened its harassment policies with clear definitions of unacceptable behaviours. WA mines and petroleum minister Bill Johnston said he was shocked by the findings of the report. This is completely unacceptable and condemnable in any workplace, he said. Im pleased that Rio Tinto has acknowledged this and is taking action.
Compiled from stories first published in The Sydney Morning Herald between 1924-1948



PSYCHO-ANALYSIS AND LITERATURE.

(Jan 12, 1924)

Dr. Joseph Collins is an American alienist who believes that, while psycho-analysis is very well in its way, its claims cannot invariably be substantiated. In The Doctor Looks at Literature, he points out that psychology simply means the science of the soul, and that for all our fine phrases we have no clearer conception of the soul to-day than Aristotle had when he wrote his treatise on it.

The prince of all the decadents of a decadent army... The writer James Joyce.

In these essays, Dr. Collins examines the work of a number of exponents of psychoanalysis in literature. Most of them are novelists; most of them are still living, and some of them have ridden their hobby-horse to death.

Some of the later novels of Mr. D.H. Lawrence are pathological, while where Mr. James Joyces Ulysses is not meaningless it is usually obscure. Dr. Collins denies that it is meaningless. To the initiated, he declares, everything is crystal clear. But it is difficult to believe that even the initiated could read sense into passages written according to the following method.

Mr. Joyce wrote thousands and thousands of words on small pieces of paper, then threw them into a basket and shuffled them thoroughly. With a blank sheet before him and a dripping mucilage brush in one hand, he proceeded to paste them one after another on the sheet.
Whoopi Goldberg expressed regret Tuesday for saying on The View a day earlier that race was not a factor in the Holocaust, saying she was deeply, deeply grateful for getting an education on the topic.

The View brought on Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League and author of It Could Happen Here, to discuss why her words had been hurtful.

The flare-up over Goldbergs remarks this week highlighted the enduring complexity of some race-related issues, including the widespread but strongly contested notion that only people of colour can be victims of racism.

Whoopi Goldberg at the CFDA Fashion Awards at the Brooklyn Museum in 2018. Credit:Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

That appeared to be at the root of original comments by Goldberg, who is black. On Mondays episode of The View, she said the Holocaust was not about race ... its about mans inhumanity to other man. Panellists on the show had been talking about a Tennessee school boards banning of Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Nazi death camps during World War II.
The established path to fashion success, unless youre an athlete, rapper, rock star or their offspring, involves flogging your wares at markets, online, student runway shows and small boutiques until being squeezed onto racks alongside bigger names. With her debut collection of refined tailoring and inventive knitwear, Melbourne designer Natasha Gordon has taken the express lane with her label Clea.

The official launch of Clea is weeks away but Gordons entire range has been ordered by David Jones for its upcoming autumn season, lock, stock and blazer. The closest Clea will come to a market stall is pride of place in the Gala Runway for the PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, at the Queen Victoria Market on March 3.

Designer Natasha Gordons (left) label Clea will make its runway debut at the Queen Victoria Market as part of the PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival after being snapped up by David Jones.. Model Benn Hebbard wears Clea. Credit:Simon Schluter

Its the first time Ive seen a debut collection of this standard, said Bridget Veals, general manager of womenswear at David Jones. When you see something brand new, generally just bits and pieces stand out. New designers are usually finding their feet. Its rare to find something so controlled.

For Veals the muted palette of neutral tones, soft greens and ivory showcased an elevated level of taste, explored through felted wool, soft suiting and pieces that slotted into the post-lockdown workwear landscape. It made me want to wear a suit again, she said.
Building an amphitheatre for outdoor performances, closing some streets to traffic after 6.30pm and opening a 24-hour market have been touted as ways to draw people back into Sydneys hard-hit central business district.

Skate parks in repurposed car parking areas and outdoor spaces for aspiring musicians would also help create teen areas to make the CBD more appealing to younger generations.

Sydneys CBD has been severely affected by the pandemic. Credit:Wolter Peeters

The report by the Committee for Sydney think tank and consultancy group Arup says underutilised rooftops, laneways and open spaces in the city centre should be mapped and converted into places for live performance, community gardening or recreation.

Enterprise, Investment and Trade Minister Stuart Ayres, who launched the Future of Sydney CBD report on Tuesday, said the central city needed to be as relevant for people from Penrith as those from Surry Hills or Pyrmont.
Fashion shoots in the 50s and 60s by todays standards were low-tech, with almost non-existent budgets. A successful photo shoot relied almost entirely on the talent of the photographer and the natural beauty and poise of the model. And yet, this pared-down minimalism of 50s fashion photography often captured some of the most iconic, evocative images of the last century. Like many great fashion photographers of the mid 20th century, Wakelys work  not unlike Helmut Newtons  testifies to the uncomplicated, yet highly effective and elegant approach to fashion marketing of the time. The Australian Womens Weekly rapturously reported that Wakelys Fragile but tough and oh, so carefully casual look had set her apart in England  from the thousands of young women from Commonwealth countries who invade Britain each year to see something of the world before they settle down to marriage and the building of a home and family. Wakely was different. More driven, harder-working, creative and self-reliant than most of her female contemporaries, after returning to Australia in 1958, she began her interest and work in the field of professional photography. Originally drawn to capturing the world that she knew, Wakely took photos of the many famed photographers of the day that she knew, including Helmut Newton, Athol Shmith and Henry Talbot  usually as they worked on location.

Janice Wakely broke with tradition to go behind the camera. Credit:Fairfax Wakelys successful modelling career continued to hum along into the early 60s, where she starred in the All Australian Fashion Parades  considered at the time to be the fashion event of the year. It was at this catwalk event that she was named Model of the Year and given the honour of wearing what was quaintly known as the Gown of the Year. By 1963, Wakely retired from the catwalk. With a sense of adventure and uncommon business acumen for a woman of that era, she and her friend and fellow model Helen Homewood established the all-women Penthouse Modelling Agency and a small photographic studio in Flinders Lane, Melbourne. In 1964, Wakely famously photographed a testy Rudolf Nureyev as he rehearsed for Le Corsair in Melbourne. She got one shot before he saw her in the wings; and as he shooed her away, undeterred, she got one more winning shot, with those two images being regarded as some of Nureyevs more naturalistic photos. After another overseas tour in 1965 Wakely returned to Melbourne, this time to set up a larger, professional photographic studio with the fashion photographer Bruno Benini.

In 1967, Wakely undertook what was deemed an extremely adventurous project  organising and photographing a fashion shoot in Papua New Guinea for the Womens Weekly. These historic photos were later published in Todays People and have since been bequeathed to Sydneys Powerhouse Museum, along with many of Wakelys appointment books, diaries and clippings from the 1950s and 1960s. In 1970, Wakely married Eric McIllree, the founder, chairman and managing director of Avis Rent-A-Car in Australia. It was not just a romantic match: the couple shared a sense of adventure, energy and business sense. Earlier, Eric established a car rental firm, a venture deemed at the time unworkable in Australia. World War II put a temporary hold on it, but by the end of the war, he had moved on to establish McIllree Motors (an air charter business). Janice McIllree with husband Eric and baby Justine in February 1973. Credit: The first airport car rental company internationally was established in the USA in 1946, and by 1953 there were franchises in Canada and across America. Astutely, Eric realised that neither Avis nor Hertz had registered their names in Australia, and claimed the names for himself, famously securing the rights for $10  allowing airport car rental franchises to become firmly established in Australia. With the support of Janice, Eric operated his growing empire between his harbourside family home, Shellbank in Cremorne, his Avis headquarters in St Leonards and his island, Dunk Island off the coast of Queensland, where Clifton Pugh famously painted him.

Hairdresser to the stars Vidal Sassoon with Janice Wakely at the opening of Charles of the Ritz in New York in 1965. Credit:AP The McIllrees entertained in legendary fashion, hosting many famous friends on the island, such as Harold Holt, Sean Connery, Ron and Valerie Taylor and Sam and June Hordern. One saucy story that circulated that typified that glamorous era of the early 70s and Janices sense of humour was connected to one of their more famous visitors, Sean Connery, who was holidaying on Dunk Island with his wife. Janice knocked on the door of Connerys room to announce that dinner was soon to be served, only to find Connery in his natural state. Her quip to friends implied that there was much more to the famous James Bond actors physique than 007. Shortly into their marriage, Eric was diagnosed with lung cancer. He outlived his predicted prognosis, but eventually succumbed in 1973, with Janice at his bedside.

She continued with her photography career, though the last years were mostly spent carefully and accurately cataloguing the thousands of photos taken both by and of her. In 2002 McIllrees photographic work was featured in the exhibition Rarely Everage at the National Portrait Gallery. Loading Five years later, she donated the famed photograph of herself by Helmut Newton to the National Portrait Gallery, along with a Clifton Pugh painting of Eric. The Powerhouse Collection also acquired many original photographs both by and of Janice. Often these photos were of her in the company of talented contemporaries, such as the fashion designer Hardy Amies and hairdresser to the stars of the day, Vidal Sassoon. McIllree is survived by her daughter Justine, her grandchildren Oscar and Daisy and her brother, Joel Wakely.
When aged care resident Jane Malysiak was called up to receive her COVID-19 booster vaccine in a photo opportunity with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in November, her 100 fellow residents were told they would have to wait until February for their shot.

The facilitys chief executive Alexandra Davis thought that was not good enough and organised boosters through a local GP instead, which she believes helped the facility avoid an outbreak despite staff testing positive.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison greets Jane Malysiak before receiving their COVID-19 booster vaccinations at Kildare Road Medical Centre in Blacktown in Sydney. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The story is one of many instances of Sydney aged care residents being asked to wait prolonged periods for a booster clinic as infections rose in early December. Many facilities were forced into lockdown due to outbreaks before their clinic was scheduled - despite being eligible for weeks.

Many of the largest outbreaks in aged care facilities in Sydney  totalling more than 100 cases each across residents and staff  had not received a booster clinic before their first infections were recorded in December.
Karen Webb made history in more ways than one when she was sworn in as the states first female police commissioner on Tuesday as she brought the ceremony, usually performed at Government House, to the local school in her home town of Boorowa.

Taking to the microphone in front of the red brick buildings of Boorowa Central School, she joked that the display of dignitaries, police horses, dogs and helicopters might make up for any lacklustre show-and-tell displays from her 13 years there as a student.

Karen Webb is sworn in as NSWs first female Commissioner of Police at the school she attended in Boorowa. Credit:Taryn Bruce

Growing up in the small town had bestowed her with a powerful sense of belonging, Commissioner Webb told her audience, who included dozens of schoolchildren sitting cross-legged on the grass.

Her decision to join the NSW Police Force was inspired by a local officer and true community leader she met when she received her drivers licence on Australia Day in 1982.
Press gallery journalist Tegan George has launched Federal Court action against her employer, Network 10, alleging it engaged in unlawful conduct that breached the Fair Work Act.

Political editor Peter van Onselen is named in the claim, as are several other senior employees of the network.

Network 10 reporter Tegan George has been on leave since midway through last year.

Court documents were filed on Monday and have been served on Network 10.

The case pits a political reporter against the combined power of the network and one of its star employees, van Onselen, who regularly appears on The Project and is contributing editor at The Australian.
I grew up with family who worked in retail. The ideals I learned relating to good customer service, such as listening to each customers needs, treating each person with respect and a sense of giving have stayed with me for nearly 50 years. These ideals are even more important when dealing with peoples lives, bodies, and aspects of any persons sense of self.

Every healthcare client deserves the best outcome; at the same time, every client is unique as a person. Therefore, healthcare for any procedure/s needs to be flexible to include all the people who potentially need the care.

Every healthcare client deserves the best outcome. Credit:Getty

In this light, having processes such as inclusive language that include trans and gender diverse (TGD) people helps further achieve this aim in addition to those, including women, already receiving good care  and no one is worse off.

Arguments that claim that including more people demean those already included remind me of one of the many irrational aspects of the No campaign during the same-sex marriage postal survey; namely, including more couples in civil marriage law would take away somehow from marriages between a male and a female.
Official Lunar New Year parades may have been cancelled due to the pandemic, but a lion dance team led an impromptu procession of shoppers at Queen Victoria Market on Tuesday.

The two lions, which are said to bring prosperity and good luck, were accompanied by drums and cymbals to scare away evil spirits and added colour to a humid and cloudy first day of the Year of the Tiger.

Charlotte, aged six, is tickled by a lion at Queen Victoria Market on Tuesday. Credit:Penny Stephens

Men, women and children followed the riot of sight and sound through the deli and meat halls, past fruit and vegetable vendors and through the general goods sheds.

Adults touched the lions fur for good luck, the lions gave out oranges and lettuces  representing spreading good fortune and luck  and stallholders took time out to clap and cheer.
Firefighters have been injured while battling an out of control blaze in the Perth Hills which is threatening lives and homes in the City of Gosnells.

A DFES spokesperson confirmed that two firefighters had been injured fighting the fire which has burnt through nearly 100 hectares.

We are aware that two firefighters had to leave the fireground for medical attention, the spokesperson said.

Our understanding is the injuries are minor.
Ms Bell spearheaded an agreement struck in December between a group of moderate Liberal MPs and Prime Minister Scott Morrison to fast-track the repeal of section 38(3) of the Sex Discrimination Act alongside a vote on the religious discrimination bill. The section gives church schools a legal exemption to discriminate against LGBTIQ students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, including by expelling them, if it is done in good faith in order to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of the religion.

The delicate nature of the balance of power in federal parliament means Liberal and National MPs prepared to abstain or cross the floor can significantly influence whether the government brings legislation on for a vote.

But Attorney General Michaelia Cash later cast doubt on the deal after the vote was deferred and the bill was instead referred to two parliamentary committees, which will report their findings on Friday. The federal government has already indicated its willingness to scrap the exemption but said it would only consider the issue after the proposed religious discrimination laws had been in place for 12 months.

The bill will make it unlawful to discriminate against somebody because of their religious belief or activity in certain areas of public life, including work, education and access to goods, services and accommodation. The bills controversial statement of belief provision will provide legal protection to written or spoken comments providing they are made in good faith, are in line with a religious doctrine of their religion and are not malicious, threatening, harassing or vilifying. The provision will override existing federal and state anti-discrimination laws.

While the move by the Brisbane college is likely permissible under current federal laws, it has drawn a warning from the Queensland Human Rights Commission that forcing existing students to comply with the controversial contract would probably amount to unlawful discrimination under state laws.
Blame Omicron, not me. That is the distilled version of the message from Scott Morrison on Tuesday that was crafted to perfection to ask voters to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The Prime Minister appealed to the natural instinct of many Australians to give a man a break when he is down. He admitted to some mistakes, said he took his share of responsibility but avoided an abject apology that would be replayed by his enemies when the election comes.

Scott Morrison tried to turn the governments mistakes, such as the slow arrival of vaccines last year, into an assurance to voters about his experience. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Most of all, he reshaped the terms of the election itself.

Its not a referendum on the government, he said. There is a simple reason Morrison does not want people to think of this as a yes or no verdict. He suspects he would lose. So, he turned the question into a broader choice about who was up to the job of leading a government.
This knock-on effect is pushing many locals and key workers to travel further in search of affordable housing. Mr Gilmour said the situation was dire for emergency service workers in town. One paramedic, who has two decades experience, lives in a two-bedroom studio in Brunswick Heads. Byron Bay has exploded in popularity in recent years thanks to Hollywood actors such as Chris Hemsworth putting it on the map. Credit:Elise Derwin He has his four boys half the time. He actually has to pitch a tent outside his two-bedroom studio when they come over. Another paramedic I work with lives in a caravan on a local ladys plot of land. Thats in stark contrast to the massive mansions on incredible acreage they are called out to on a job, which push up local property prices, he added.

Mr Gilmour said paramedics also witness the other end of the spectrum created by the property boom: We regularly get called to hundreds of people who are living in the area in their cars, in their vans, under bridges. It reminds me sometimes of San Franciscos level of homelessness. Loading There is a health consequence of having to live in a car or van for a long period of time without access to toilets and showers. Once he was called out to an 82-year-old woman living in her car because she could not find anywhere affordable to live on her pension. It takes a toll on essential workers, too, who have to travel long distances after 12-hour shifts and has become a problem for staff retention, as they eventually leave because of the housing crisis, Mr Gilmour said.

My question to our illustrious leaders is: how can we have a situation where paramedics serving their communities cannot afford to live in their communities and have to commute such long distances? The pandemic pales in comparison to the housing crisis in terms of the impact on our community. Byron Bay Shire Mayor Michael Lyon Byron Shire Mayor Michael Lyon is asking the same questions of the state government. Weve been crying out for reform for over a year now with planning proposals sitting on the desks of the government, Councillor Lyon said. With housing affordability steadily on the decline for several years, he said it was essential the government regulated the explosion of short-term letting that is taking long-term housing off the market, as well as building more affordable housing that is dedicated to low-income workers.

The intense demand to move to regional areas across Australia, but especially to Byron Bay, during the pandemic has made ownership for locals and key workers extremely difficult, Cr Lyon said. The market is failing a large section of the community and communities across NSW. Housing is a human right. Its not right that a large part of a community can be displaced by unprecedented market forces. The pandemic pales in comparison to the housing crisis in terms of the impact on our community. We cant retain staff on council, staff that is on $80,000 a year, because of the housing crisis. Its essential we create a mechanism to look after the working class.

Byron Shire Mayor Michael Lyon said the housing crisis is a hidden one, with people living in overcrowded situations. NSW Minister for Planning and Homes Anthony Roberts said the Department of Planning and Environment has been working with the Council on many fronts, in some cases funding reports to help Council resolve issues for which they are responsible. As well as funding independent advice, I am aware the department has responded to each proposal, granting time extensions and providing advice, Mr Roberts said. I encourage the Mayor to work with the Councils planners, review the independent expert advice and present the revised proposals in a form the department can support. In the Northern Rivers region, social housing developments in South Grafton (130 kilometres south-west of Bryon Bay) and Casino (60 kilometres west of Byron Bay) have been completed in recent months, adding just two extra dwellings in the area, with another project in Tweed Heads set to deliver 40 units to the region when completed mid-2022.

There are no plans for new development in the Byron Shire. The Centre For Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said the construction of homes was necessary in regional areas under intense pressure. Every neighbouring region to Byron Shire has seen double-digit price growth in the year ending December 2021, on Domain data. Credit:Elise Derwin The locals, not just in Byron Bay, in lots of regional towns, resist extra housing being put in, said Mr Tulip, who in his submission to the federal governments housing inquiry wrote that they should prioritise the housing needs of essential workers over NIMBY concerns and wealthier homeowners. Its understandable people like looking over green rolling hills and the rural lifestyle, but theyre pulling up the ladder after them. They are saying we got here first, and to newcomers, theyre saying screw you.

He said medium-density housing was essential to provide affordable homes within reasonable commuting distance for key workers, including nurses, teachers and paramedics. Byron Bays popularity soared in the past year, sending property prices higher once again. But there is no end in sight for selling agent Mark Lycos, of North Coast Lifestyle Properties, who said if there was a property downturn, Byron Shire and surrounds would be the last place to see prices drop. It has become frustrating even for Mr Lycos, who brokers sales, to see so many locals priced out of the market. The best way I can put it is there is a degree of frustration that my contemporaries children cant even buy their own home. Thats the saddest thing from my perspective, Mr Lycos said.
All Court functions have been cancelled, but arrangements for the funeral, and for the period of mourning, await the new Queen's return. THE NEW QUEEN IS IN EAST AFRICA News of her father's death was immediately flashed to the new Queen in Kenya. She and her husband were at Sagana Lodge, near Nyeri in the Kenya highlands, this morning. They spent last night in a remote hotel built in a treetop above a pool and salt-lick where big game feed and drink. The new Queen returns to London following the death of her father in February, 1952 Credit:Syndication International

They will fly home by way of Entebbee, Uganda, and El Adom, where the plane will refuel and pick

up a fresh crew, and fly non-stop to London. The Royal couple were scheduled to fly in a twin-engined Douglas aircraft tomorrow from Nanyuki airport to Mombasa to board the liner Gothic for the voyage to Ceylon, Australia and New

Zealand. The new Queen will be proclaimed Sovereign at a special meeting of the Privy Council summoned for this afternoon. The accession will be proclaimed from the roof of Saint James's Palace and will afterwards also be proclaimed throughout Britain from public buildings and civil headquarters. TENSE SCENES IN PARLIAMENT

Announcement Of The King's Death

CANBERRA, Wednesday. - The Prime Minister, Mr. Menzies, announced the news of the King's death to a packed, silent House of Representatives at 9.50 to-night. Proceedings were brief and tense. The House had adjourned 20 minutes earlier to await confirmation of the news which stunned Ministers. When the House reassembled, Mr. Menzies rose and said: "It is my very melancholy task to inform the House that news which ran in rumour a few minutes ago is now officially confirmed.

"His Majesty the King died this morning. I myself and I am sure every honourable member feels quite incapable at this moment of saying what should be said. "I therefore propose that this House should adjourn until to-morrow when we can express our feelings as those feelings should be expressed. "Meanwhile, all I need say is that the thoughts and prayers of all their subjects in this country are with the now Queen Mother and with the new Queen." Mr. Menzies's voice broke and he abruptly resumed his seat. The Leader of the Opposition, Dr. H. V. Evatt, said; "I would add nothing to what the Prime Minister has said.

Front page of Sydney Morning Herald on February 7, 1952 Credit:SMH Archives "It is quite impossible to transact business when hearing news of a loss which is very great and very poignant to all of us." The House then adjourned until 10.30 a.m. tomorrow. NEWS RACED THROUGH CITY At 10 o'clock last night few people wandering through the city streets were aware that the King was dead.

When people were toldof the news they at first refused to believe it and then appeared stunned when assured that it was true. Tram conductors and taxidrivers soon spread the news throughout the city and suburbs and by midnight therewere few people who did not know. Radio stations solemnly announced the news to thousands of listeners shortly before 9.30 p.m. In most cases the scheduled programmes were discontinued and sacred music was played. STAYED OPEN

Later cables and B.B.C. announcements and programmes were broadcast for the remainder of the evening. Most stations remained open long past their normal closing hour. Newspaper offices and radio stations were besieged with inquirers seeking confirmation of radio news flashes and street rumours. Most city picture theatres continued with their programmes throughout the evening and did not announce the King's death at the end of their sessions. The great majority of cinema-goers were thus unaware of the King's death.

As they poured out on to the footpaths they continued to joke and talk of the films or plays they had seen. Some suburban cinemas flashed the news across the screen and ended their programmes. Audiences were stunned and the immediate reaction was the fear that the Royal tour of Australia and New Zealand would probably be cancelled. At one city night club patrons stood in silence for one minute after the manager had announced the King's death. ELIZABETH II IS SIXTH WOMAN TO RULE GREAT BRITAIN
Washington: Federal workers in Belgium can no longer be required to answer work-related emails or phone calls after hours, after a right to disconnect law comes into effect Tuesday.

The measure will allow 65,000 civil servants to become unavailable at the end of the workday, but for the event of exceptional and unforeseen circumstances requiring action that cannot wait until the next working period, The Brussels Times reports.

Belgian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Civil Services and State-owned companies Petra De Sutter in 2020. Credit:AP

Workers wont be penalised for holding off on responding to emails or phone calls.

Belgiums minister for public administration, Petra De Sutter, said in a letter the measure was necessary to fight against a culture in which workers feel they always need to be available, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic as more people transitioned to remote work.
Washington: The United States and its European allies appear on the cusp of restoring the deal that limited Irans nuclear program, Biden administration officials said, but cautioned that it is now up to the new government in Tehran to decide whether, after months of negotiations, it is willing to dismantle much of its nuclear production facilities in return for sanctions relief.

A senior State Department official signalled that negotiators had reached a draft agreement last week in Vienna. It would essentially return to the 2015 deal that President Donald Trump discarded four years ago, over the objections of many of his key advisers. Ultimately, that freed Iran to resume its nuclear production, in some cases enriching nuclear fuel to levels far closer to what is needed to make nuclear weapons.

Administration officials cautioned that it was not clear whether a final agreement would be struck, and in Iran that decision is bound to go to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But the State Department official said that we can see a path to a deal if those decisions are made and if they are made quickly.

President Ebrahim Raisi appeared on Iranian state-run television last week to say a nuclear pact with the US was possible if sanction were lifted. Credit:Office of the Iranian Presidency

Now is the time for Iran to decide whether its prepared to make those decisions, the official said. A second senior administration official also said the talks had reached the decision-making stage. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Wellington: A pregnant New Zealand journalist who was stranded in Afghanistan by her home countrys COVID-19 border policy said Tuesday she will return home after her government offered her a pathway back.

The government offer amounted to a backdown by New Zealand after officials had earlier insisted that Charlotte Bellis needed to reapply for a spot in the countrys bottlenecked quarantine hotels. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said Bellis had been offered a voucher for a room.

I will be returning to my home country New Zealand at the beginning of March to give birth to our baby girl, Bellis said in a statement. We are so excited to return home and be surrounded by family and friends at such a special time.

New Zealand reporter Charlotte Bellis. Credit:Internet

Her case was quickly becoming an embarrassment to New Zealand, which has thousands of citizens waiting abroad for space to open in the military-run border quarantine hotels.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Today, January 31, the Honorable Prime Minister Silveria E. Jacobs participated in a four-country level consultation held by State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen together with the Prime Minister of Curacao, Hon. Gilmar Pisas and the Prime Minister of Aruba, Hon. Evelyn Wever-Croes. Prime Minister Jacobs was able to address several concerns St. Maarten had regarding the Note of Amendment. These concerns include the additional powers granted to the CFT in the Note of Amendment. Viable solutions based on technical meetings held last week formed the basis for a fruitful discussion on the way forward.

In todays meeting, Prime Minister Jacobs also emphasized the need to have a written agreement in which the concerns brought forth would be addressed in the implementation process. The Parliaments of the Kingdom countries will also still have the opportunity to raise any concerns when debating the COHO law. St. Maarten looks forward to welcoming State Secretary Van Huffelen during her work visit planned for February.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Today, January 31, the Honorable Prime Minister Silveria E. Jacobs participated in a bilateral meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, together with Prime Ministers Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, Gilmar Pisas of Curacao, and Evelyn Wever-Croes of Aruba.

During the meeting, cooperation on climate change and the environment, UN reforms for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), capacity building, technical assistance, access to concessional financing, sustainable development, transition to a low-carbon economy, and climate action-debt swaps initiatives were among the topics discussed.
Somerset, KY (42501)

Today

Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will become overcast in the afternoon. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High around 80F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Showers and thunderstorms likely. Low 63F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Albert Einstein is often cited as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century. His work continues to help astronomers study everything from gravitational waves to Mercury's orbit.

The scientist's equation that helped explain special relativity  E = mc^2  is famous even among those who don't understand its underlying physics. Einstein is also known for his theory of general relativity (an explanation of gravity), and the photoelectric effect (which explains the behavior of electrons under certain circumstances); his work on the latter earned him a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

Einstein also tried in vain to unify all the forces of the universe in a single theory, or a theory of everything, which he was still working on at the time of his death.

Early years

Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, a town that today has a population of just more than 120,000. There is a small commemorative plaque where his house used to stand (it was destroyed during World War II). The family moved to Munich shortly after his birth, according to the Nobel Prize website, and later to Italy when his father faced problems with running his own business. Einstein's father, Hermann, ran an electrochemical factory and his mother Pauline took care of Albert and his younger sister, Maria.

Einstein would write in his memoirs that two "wonders" deeply affected his early years, according to Hans-Josef Kupper, an Albert Einstein scholar. Young Einstein encountered his first wonder  a compass  at age 5: He was mystified that invisible forces could deflect the needle. This would lead to a lifelong fascination with unseen forces. The second wonder came at age 12 when he discovered a book of geometry, which he worshipped, calling it his "holy geometry book."

Contrary to popular belief, young Albert was a good student, according to an online archive. He excelled in physics and mathematics, but was a more "moderate" pupil in other subjects, Kupper wrote on his website. However, Einstein rebelled against the authoritarian attitude of some of his teachers and dropped out of school at 16. He later took an entrance exam for the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, and while his performances in physics and math were excellent, his marks in other areas were subpar, and he did not pass the exam. The aspiring physicist took additional courses to close the gap in his knowledge, and was admitted to Swiss Polytechnic in 1896, and in 1901 received his diploma to teach physics and mathematics.

Albert Einstein aged 14 (Image credit: Getty Images)

However, Einstein could not find a teaching position, and began work in a Bern patent office in 1901, according to his Nobel Prize biography. It was while there that, in between analyzing patent applications, he developed his work in special relativity and other areas of physics that later made him famous.

Einstein married Mileva Maric, a longtime love of his from Zurich, in 1903. Their children, Hans Albert and Eduard, were born in 1904 and 1910. (The fate of a child born to them in 1902 before their marriage, Lieserl, is unknown.) Einstein divorced Maric in 1919 and soon after married Elsa Lowenthal. Lowenthal died in 1933.

Career highlights

Einstein's career sent him to multiple countries. He earned his doctorate from the University of Zurich in 1905, and subsequently took on professor positions in Zurich (1909), Prague (1911) and Zurich again (1912). Next, he moved to Berlin to become director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and a professor at the University of Berlin (1914). He also became a German citizen.

A major validation of Einstein's work came in 1919, when Sir Arthur Eddington, secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, led an expedition to Africa that measured the position of stars during a total solar eclipse. The group found that the position of stars was shifted due to the bending of light around the sun. (In 2008, a BBC/HBO production dramatized the story in "Einstein and Eddington.")

Einstein remained in Germany until 1933, when dictator Adolf Hitler rose to power. The physicist then renounced his German citizenship and moved to the United States to become a professor of theoretical physics at Princeton. He became a U.S. citizen in 1940 and retired in 1945.

Einstein remained active in the physics community throughout his later years. In 1939, he famously penned a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning that uranium could be used for an atomic bomb.

Late in Einstein's life, he engaged in a series of private debates with physicist Niels Bohr about the validity of quantum theory . Bohr's theories held the day, and Einstein later incorporated quantum theory in his own calculations.

Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard reenact the signing of their letter to President Roosevelt. (Image credit: Time Life Pictures)

Einstein's brain

Einstein died of an aortic aneurysm on April 18, 1955. A blood vessel burst near his heart, according to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). When asked if he wanted to have surgery, Einstein refused. "I want to go when I want to go," he said. "It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly."

Einstein's body  most of it, anyway  was cremated; his ashes were spread in an undisclosed location, according to the AMNH. However, a doctor at Princeton Hospital, Thomas Harvey, had controversially performed an autopsy, and removed Einstein's brain and eyeballs, according to the BBC.

Harvey sliced hundreds of thin sections of brain tissue to place on microscope slides, and snapped 14 photos of the brain from several angles. He took the brain tissue, slides and images with him when he moved to Wichita, Kansas, where he was a medical supervisor in a biological testing lab.

Over the next 30 years, Harvey sent a few slides to other researchers who requested them, but kept the rest of the brain in two glass jars, sometimes in a cider box under a beer cooler. The story of Einstein's brain was largely forgotten until 1985, when Harvey and his colleagues published their study results in the journal Experimental Neurology .

Harvey failed a competency exam in 1988, and his medical license was revoked, Blitz wrote. Harvey eventually donated the brain to Princeton Hospital, where the brain's journey had begun. Harvey died in 2007. Pieces of Einstein's brain are now at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, Live Science reported.

Albert Einstein at the blackboard (Image credit: Getty Images)

What the studies found

Harvey's 1985 study authors reported that Einstein's brain had a higher number of glial cells (those that support and insulate the nervous system) per neurons (nerve cells) than other brains they examined. They concluded that it might indicate the neurons had a higher metabolic need  in other words, Einstein's brain cells needed and used more energy, which could have been why he had such advanced thinking abilities and conceptual skills.

However, other researchers have pointed out a few problems with that study, according to Eric H. Chudler , a neuroscientist at the University of Washington. First, for example, the other brains used in the study were all younger than Einstein's brain. Second, the "experimental group" had only one subject  Einstein. Additional studies are needed to see if these anatomical differences are found in other people. And third, only a small part of Einstein's brain was studied.

Another study, published in 1996 in the journal Neuroscience Letters , found that Einstein's brain weighed only 1,230 grams, which is less than the average adult male brain (about 1,400 g). Also, the scientist's cerebral cortex was thinner than that of five control brains, but the density of neurons was higher.

A study published in 2012 in the journal Brain revealed that Einstein's brain had extra folding in the gray matter , the site of conscious thinking. In particular, the frontal lobes, regions tied to abstract thought and planning, had unusually elaborate folding.

This autographed photo of Albert Einstein with his tongue out was sold at auction for $125,000. (Image credit: Getty Images)

Einstein's scientific legacy

Einstein's legacy in physics is significant. Here are some of the key scientific principles that he pioneered:

Theory of special relativity : Einstein showed that physical laws are identical for all observers, as long as they are not under acceleration. However, the speed of light in a vacuum is always the same, no matter at what speed the observer is travelling. This work led to his realization that space and time are linked into what we now call space-time. So, an event seen by one observer may also be seen at a different time by another observer.

Theory of general relativity: This was a reformulation of the law of gravity. In the 1600s, Newton formulated three laws of motion, among them outlining how gravity works between two bodies. The force between them depends on how massive each object is, and how far apart the objects are. Einstein determined that when thinking about space-time, a massive object causes a distortion in space-time (like putting a heavy ball on a trampoline). Gravity is exerted when other objects fall into the "well" created by the distortion in space-time, like a marble rolling towards the large ball. General relativity passed a major test in 2019 in an experiment involving a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Photoelectric effect: Einstein's work in 1905 proposed that light should be thought of as a stream of particles (photons) instead of just a single wave, as was commonly thought at the time. His work helped decipher curious results scientists were previously unable to explain.

Unified field theory : Einstein spent much of his later years trying to merge the fields of electromagnetism and gravity. He was unsuccessful, but may have been ahead of his time. Other physicists are still working on this problem.

Einstein's legacy for astronomy

There are many applications of Einstein's work, but here are some of the most notable ones in astronomy:

Gravitational waves: In 2016, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected space-time ripples  otherwise known as gravitational waves that occurred after black holes collided about 1.4 billion light-years from Earth. LIGO also made an initial detection of gravitational waves in 2015, a century after Einstein predicted these ripples existed. The waves are a facet of Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Mercury's orbit: Mercury is a small planet orbiting close to a very massive object relative to its size  the sun. Its orbit could not be understood until general relativity showed that the curvature of space-time is affecting Mercury's motions and changing its orbit. There is a small chance that over billions of years, Mercury could be ejected from our solar system due to these changes (with an even smaller chance that it could collide with Earth).

Gravitational lensing: This is a phenomenon by which a massive object (like a galaxy cluster or a black hole) bends light around it. Astronomers looking at that region through a telescope can then see objects directly behind the massive object, due to the light being bent. A famous example of this is Einstein's Cross, a quasar in the constellation Pegasus : A galaxy roughly 400 million light-years away bends the light of the quasar so that it appears four times around the galaxy.

Black holes : In April 2019, the Event Horizon telescope showed the first-ever images of a black hole . The photos again confirmed several facets of general relativity, including not only that black holes exist, but also that they have a circular event horizon  a point at which nothing can escape, not even light.

Additional resources

To find the answers to frequently asked questions about Albert Einstein, visit The Nobel Prize website. Additionally, you can learn about The Einstein Memorial at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C.

Bibliography

"Einstein: The Life and Times". American Journal of Physics (1973). https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1119/1

"On the brain of a scientist: Albert Einstein". Experimental Neurology (1985). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3979509/

"The fascinating life and theory of Albert Einstein". Mih, W. C. Nova Publishers (2000). https://books.google.co.uk/books

"Alterations in cortical thickness and neuronal density in the frontal cortex of Albert Einstein". Neuroscience Letters (1996). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8805120/

"The cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein: a description and preliminary analysis of unpublished photographs". Brain, Volume 136, Issue 4 (2012). https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/136/4/1304/356614?login=true
The space shuttle Challenger  during its 10th launch  on Jan. 28, 1986, exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crewmembers and changing NASA's space program forever.

Challenger was the second shuttle to reach space, in April 1983. It successfully completed nine milestone missions during nearly three years of service. In total, the spacecraft spent 62 days, 7 hours, 56 minutes and 22 seconds in space, according to CBS.

Challenger hosted the first spacewalk of the space shuttle program on April 7, 1983, and carried the first American female and first black astronauts.

More: Remembering Challenger: NASA's 1st Shuttle Tragedy in Photos

From test vehicle to space vehicle

NASA originally intended Challenger to be a test vehicle, according to the Kennedy Space Center. Rockwell International, an aerospace manufacturing company, began building the shuttle in November 1975 and then sent it to Lockheed Martin, another aerospace technology company, for structural testing starting on April 2, 1978, according to Reference for Business, an educational business site. According to a statement by NASA, computer models at the time were not sophisticated enough to calculate the stresses on the shuttle during different phases of flight.

Space Shuttle Challenger: Key facts First Flight: April 4-9, 1983 Last Flight: January 28, 1986 Number of Missions: 10 Time in Space: 1,496 Hours

The shuttle, then known as STA-099, went through 11 months of vibration testing in a specially formulated rig, NASA said. This custom-designed machine could bring the shuttle through a simulation of all phases of flight, from liftoff to landing. Three hydraulic cylinders, each with 1 million lbs. of force, were used as substitute space shuttle main engines.

In 1979, NASA awarded Rockwell International a supplemental contract to convert the test vehicle to a spacecraft. This would expand the shuttle fleet to two spacecraft, with Columbia being the first, though this would similarly end in disaster.

It took two more years for Rockwell to perform the conversion. Among other things, workers had to strengthen the wings, put in a real crew cabin instead of a simulated one and install heads-up displays for the astronauts working inside. Work was completed on Oct. 23, 1981, according to NASA.

Delays for the first flight

Challenger was expected to go into space on Jan. 20, 1983, to release the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), which later became part of a series of satellites that astronauts used to stay in touch with controllers back home. But several technical malfunctions pushed the launch back.

First, NASA discovered a hydrogen leak in the No. 1 main engine aft compartment during a flight readiness test in December, according to Science.ksc. In a second test on Jan. 25, 1983, NASA discovered cracks in the engine that were causing the leak.

The agency then took several months to remove the engines and test them. While engines No. 2 and No. 3 were deemed healthy, NASA replaced engine No. 1, according to The New York Times.

After another delay due to a problem with the TDRS, Challenger launched successfully on April 4, 1983, on mission STS-6. Crewmembers set the satellite free. Astronauts Story Musgrave and Donald Peterson executed the first spacewalk of the shuttle program.

Cultural and technical firsts

A photo of the Challenger in space taken by a satellite. (Image credit: Nasa)

In addition to milestones in space technology, Challenger was also host to several cultural firsts in the space shuttle program. The first American female astronaut, Sally Ride, rode up on Challenger on STS-7 in June 1983. The first black astronaut, Guion Bluford, reached space on STS-8.

On STS-41G in 1984, two women  Ride and Kathryn Sullivan  flew on one mission for the first time  as well as the first Canadian, Marc Garneau.

Challenger reached other milestones, too, including the first night launch and landing (STS-8) and the first operational Spacelab flight (STS-51B). Spacelab was a European space laboratory that fit into a shuttle's cargo bay and included several experiments designed for tests in microgravity. It flew on Columbia on STS-9 for the first time, but Challenger's mission is considered the first working one.

The flying repairman

George Nelson, who wore the Manned Maneuvering Unit. (Image credit: Nasa)

Some of Challenger's most memorable moments took place in April 1984, on STS-41C. That mission featured the very first astronaut repair of a satellite.

To get at the nonfunctional Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite, astronaut George Nelson strapped himself into the Manned Maneuvering Unit, which was a jet-powered backpack designed for astronauts to fly in space. It had been tested on only one mission before this one.

The crew maneuvered Challenger until it was only 200 feet from the satellite, according to the Life Sciences Data Archive. Then, Nelson carefully left the safety of the shuttle and flew over to the satellite. A fixture on the front of his backpack let Nelson dock with the satellite, which was slowly tumbling in space, according to an article by NASA.

Next, he fired the jets on his backpack to stop the satellite's spin. Crewmembers on Challenger then reached out with the shuttle's Canadarm robotic arm and plucked the satellite out of empty space and into the payload bay.

Nelson and crewmate James "Ox" Van Hoften repaired the satellite, then the crew lofted the satellite back into space, according to The New York Times. SMM continued functioning for several years, then burned up in the atmosphere in December 1989.

Challenger disaster

Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch. (Image credit: Nasa)

It was a cold morning on Jan. 28, 1986, when Challenger was scheduled to fly its 10th mission, according to Weather.com. Temperatures dipped below freezing and some of the shuttle's engineers were concerned about the integrity of the seals on the solid rocket boosters in such low temperatures.

Nonetheless, Challenger launched at 11:38 a.m. Eastern time in front of more media attention than usual, since it was carrying the first teacher to go into space, NASA said. Christa McAuliffe was planning to give lessons while in orbit.

But McAuliffe and the rest of the crew never made it. In full view of the television cameras, Challenger broke up 73 seconds after launch.

Space Shuttle Challenger final crew Mission Commander: Francis Scobee Pilot: Michael Smith Mission Specialist: Judith Resnik Mission Specialist: Ronald McNair Mission Specialist: Ellison Onizuka Payload Specialist: Gregory Jarvis Payload Specialist, Teacher: Christina McAuliffe

"Flight controllers here are looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction," the NASA launch commentator said, as pieces of the shuttle fell from the sky into the Atlantic.

Salvage crews spent several weeks recovering pieces of the shuttle and carefully bringing up the remains of the seven astronauts. Remains that could be identified were turned over to the families, while the rest were buried in a monument to the Challenger crew at Arlington National Cemetery on May 20, 1986, according to Arlington's official site.

Culture of work and technical problems at NASA

The crew of the Challenger who were killed tragically in the disaster. (Image credit: Nasa)

The commission report talked about the technical causes of the accident. The entire failure could be traced to an O-ring, a rubber seal on the solid rocket boosters (according to Nasa Technical Reports Server) that degraded in the cold weather of the launch.

Read more: The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: What Happened? (Infographic)

But the O-ring would not have been a problem had NASA not chosen to launch on so cold a day  the coldest launch yet, according to an NPR interview with one of the shuttle engineers. While the engineer blames himself for not convincing NASA and high-level managers of the danger the cold presented, a US House of Representatives report from the Committee on Science and Technology concluded that it was a long-standing failure in safety protocols, combined with an unsustainable launch rate that led to the disaster.

In the wake of what happened with Challenger, NASA made technical changes to the shuttle and also worked to change the safety and accountability culture of its workforce. The shuttle program resumed flights in 1988, according to a piece by NASA.

After the Challenger wreckage was examined, most of the pieces were buried and sealed in abandoned Minuteman missile silos at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where they remain today.

Challenger's explosion changed the space shuttle program in several ways. Plans to fly civilians in space (such as teachers or journalists) were shelved for the next 22 years, according to The Smithsonian Magazine. It would not be until 2007 that Barbara Morgan, who was McAuliffe's backup, flew aboard Endeavour. Satellite launches were shifted from the shuttle to reusable rockets. Additionally, astronauts were pulled off duties such as repairing satellites, and the Manned Maneuvering Unit was not flown again, to better preserve astronaut safety.

Every January, NASA pauses to remember the last crew of Challenger and the other crews lost in pursuing space, on a NASA Day of Remembrance.

Challenger has also left an educational legacy: Members of the crews' families founded the Challenger Center for Space Science Education program, which brings students on simulated space missions.

Visitors to the Kennedy Space Center can view debris from Challenger's last mission (as well as Columbia) at an exhibit called "Forever Remembered," which opened in 2015. The debris are on display at the visitor's center.

Additional Resources

To discover how the grief caused by the disaster helped inspire teachers and students, check out this Space.com article: 25 Years After Challenger: How Grief Inspired Teachers and Students. Or you can Listen to how 30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself, from NPR. If you are interested, you can read more about NASA's space shuttle program.

Bibliography

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
Galaxies are vast collections of stars that populate our universe. But how many galaxies are there? Counting them seems like an impossible task. Sheer numbers is one problem  once the count gets into the billions, it takes a while to do the addition. Another problem is the limitation of our instruments. To get the best view, a telescope needs to have a large aperture (the diameter of the main mirror or lens) and be located above the atmosphere to avoid distortion from Earth's air.

Perhaps the most resonant example of this fact is the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), an image made by combining 10 years of photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope watched a small patch of sky in repeat visits for a total of 50 days, according to NASA. If you held your thumb at arm's length to cover the moon, the XDF area would be about the size of the head of a pin. By collecting faint light over many hours of observation, the XDF revealed thousands of galaxies, both nearby and very distant, making it the deepest image of the universe ever taken at that time. So if that single small spot contains thousands, imagine how many more galaxies could be found in other spots.

While estimates among different experts vary, an acceptable range is between 100 billion and 200 billion galaxies, said Mario Livio, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The James Webb Space Telescope is expected to reveal even more information about early galaxies in the universe, according to The Astrophysical Journal.

Going deep

The Hubble Space Telescope has been use to study galaxies and their numbers. (Image credit: Getty Images)

According to Livio, the Hubble Space Telescope has been successful for galaxy counting and estimation. The telescope, launched in 1990, initially had a distortion on its main mirror that was corrected during a shuttle visit in 1993. Hubble also went underwent several upgrades and service visits until the final shuttle mission there in May 2009.

In 1995, astronomers pointed the telescope at what appeared to be an empty region of Ursa Major, and collected 10 days' worth of observations. The result was an estimated 3,000 faint galaxies in a single frame, going as dim as 30th magnitude, according to Weber State University. (For comparison, the North Star or Polaris is at about 2nd magnitude.) This image composite was called the Hubble Deep Field and was the farthest anyone had seen into the universe at the time.

As the Hubble telescope received upgrades to its instruments, astronomers repeated the experiment twice. In 2003 and 2004, scientists created the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, which in a million-second exposure revealed about 10,000 galaxies in a small spot in the constellation Fornax.

In 2012, again using upgraded instruments, scientists used the telescope to look at a portion of the Ultra Deep Field. Even in this narrower field of view, astronomers were able to detect about 5,500 galaxies. Researchers dubbed this the eXtreme Deep Field.

All in all, Hubble reveals an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe or so, but this number is likely to increase to about 200 billion as telescope technology in space improves, Livio told Space.com.

Counting stars

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the stars in the NGC 5023 galaxy. (Image credit: ESA/NASA)

Whatever instrument is used, the method of estimating the number of galaxies is the same. You take the portion of sky imaged by the telescope (in this case, Hubble). Then  using the ratio of the sliver of sky to the entire universe  you can determine the number of galaxies in the universe.

"This is assuming that there is no large cosmic variance, that the universe is homogenous," Livio said. "We have good reasons to suspect that is the case. That is the cosmological principle."

The principle dates back to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. Einstein said that gravity is a distortion of space and time. With that understanding in hand, several scientists (including Einstein) tried to understand how gravity affected the entire universe.

"The simplest assumption to make is that if you viewed the contents of the universe with sufficiently poor vision, it would appear roughly the same everywhere and in every direction," NASA stated. "That is, the matter in the universe is homogeneous and isotropic when averaged over very large scales. This is called the cosmological principle."

One example of the cosmological principle at work is the cosmic microwave background (CMB), radiation that is a remnant of the early stages of the universe after the Big Bang. Using instruments such as NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, astronomers have found the CMB is virtually identical wherever one looks.

Would the number of galaxies change?

As the universe expands, galaxies move away from Earth. (Image credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)

Measurements of the universe's expansion  through watching galaxies race away from us  show that it is about 13.82 billion years old. As the universe gets older and bigger, however, galaxies will recede farther and farther from Earth. This will make them more difficult to see in telescopes.

The universe is expanding faster than the speed of light (which does not violate Einstein's speed limit because the expansion is of the universe itself, rather than of objects traveling through the universe). Also, the universe is accelerating in its expansion.

This is where the concept of the "observable universe"  the universe that we can see  comes into play. In 1 trillion to 2 trillion years, Livio said, this means that there will be galaxies that are beyond what we can see from Earth.

"We can only see light from galaxies whose light had enough time to reach us," Livio said. "It doesn't mean that that's all there is in the universe. Hence, the definition of the observable universe."

Galaxies also change over time. The Milky Way is on a collision course with the nearby Andromeda Galaxy, and both will merge in about 4 billion years. Later on, other galaxies in our Local Group  the galaxies closest to us  will eventually combine. Residents of that future galaxy would have a much darker universe to observe, Livio said.

"Civilizations started then, they would have no evidence that there was a universe with 100 billion galaxies," he said. "They would not see the expansion. They would probably not be able to tell there was a Big Bang."

What about other universes?

Scientists speculate that our universe is not the only one. (Image credit: Getty Images)

As the early universe inflated, there are some theories that say that different "pockets" broke away and formed different universes. These different places could be expanding at different rates, include other types of matter, and have different physical laws than our own universe.

Livio pointed out there could be galaxies in these other universes  if they exist  but we have no way right now of knowing for sure. So the number of galaxies could even be greater than 200 billion, when considering other universes.

In our own cosmos, Livio said, astronomers will be better able to refine the number with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (for which his institute will manage the mission operations and science). Hubble is able to peer back at galaxies that formed about 450 million years after the Big Bang. Using the James Webb telescope, astronomers anticipate they can look as far back as 200 million years after the Big Bang.

"The numbers are not going to change much," Livio added, pointing out the first galaxies probably formed not too long before that. "So a number like 200 billion [galaxies] is probably it for our observable universe."

Webb's contributions

While it is interesting to count the number of galaxies in our universe, astronomers are more interested in how galaxies reveal how the universe was formed. According to NASA, galaxies are a representation of how matter in the universe was organized  at least, on the large scale. (Scientists are also interested in particle types and quantum mechanics, on the small side of the spectrum.) Because Webb can look back to the early days of the universe, its information will help scientists better understand the structures of the galaxies around us today.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25 December 2021. (Image credit: Getty Images)

"By studying some of the earliest galaxies and comparing them to today's galaxies, we may be able to understand their growth and evolution. Webb will also allow scientists to gather data on the types of stars that existed in these very early galaxies," NASA said of Webb's mission.

"Follow-up observations using spectroscopy of hundreds or thousands of galaxies will help researchers understand how elements heavier than hydrogen were formed and built up as galaxy formation proceeded through the ages. These studies will also reveal details about merging galaxies and shed light on the process of galaxy formation itself."

According to NASA, here are some of the key questions Webb will answer about galaxies:

How are galaxies formed?

What gives them their shapes?

How are the chemical elements distributed through the galaxies?

How do the central black holes in galaxies influence their host galaxies?

What happens when small and large galaxies collide or join together?

Scientists are also interested in the role that dark matter plays in the assembly of galaxies. While some of the universe is visible in forms such as galaxies or stars, dark matter is what makes up most of the universe  about 80 percent of it. While dark matter is invisible in wavelengths of light or through emissions of energy, studies of galaxies dating back to the 1950s indicated there was far more mass present in them than what was visible with the naked eye.

"Computer models that scientists have made to understand galaxy formation indicate that galaxies are created when dark matter merges and clumps together," NASA said.

"It [dark matter] can be thought of as the scaffolding of the universe. The visible matter we see collects inside this scaffolding in the form of stars and galaxies. The way dark matter 'clumps' together is that small objects form first, and are drawn together to form larger ones."

Webb's powerful mirrors will allow scientists to look at galaxy formation  including the role of dark matter  up close. While this investigation doesn't directly answer how many galaxies there are in the universe, it does help scientists better understand the processes behind the galaxies we see, which in turn better informs models about galactic populations.

Additional resources

You can see thousands of galaxies, taken in one photograph, in this image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. To read more about the different types of galaxies, head to NASA's Hubblesite.

Bibliography

"Oases in the dark: galaxies as probes of the Cosmos". Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons (2007). http://sciencejedi.com/professional/talks/ynp_galaxies.pdf

"Galaxy number counts  V. Ultradeep counts: the Herschel and Hubble Deep Fields". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 323, Issue 4 (2001). https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/323/4/795/1102609?login=true

"Finding High-redshift Galaxies with JWST". The Astrophysical Journal (2021). https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac2a2f/meta
We are finally at the end of the ice storm on 911: Lone Star, thanks to Season 3 Episode 4, Push. What started off with some of the best episodes of the series, weve now headed back into Owen territory, bringing with it disappointing storylines and yet another time jump.





Luckily, this time, we have Grace and Judd to keep us going.





Owen Strand Being Owen Strand





First, after Owen finds out about TK, and makes it all about himself, he and Tommy attempt to find Billy, which leads them to search for Grace.









How, you might ask? Well, Tommy and Owen apparently somehow tracked the GPS in Billys car to Grace and Judds house. Because thats a logical thing for paramedics and firefighters to have access to.





Owen, after finding out that his son's organs are beginning to shut down, explains to the crew that TK is dying because he lost faith in humanity, and now this is his karma because he gave up.





Somehow Owen has made his sons almost dying about himself. Everything Owen says, along with lots of the conversation between Carlos and his mother, is soured by the fact that we know TK is going to live.





I know Ive said it before, but it bears repeating: the stakes are nonexistent if you put a character whose actor signed a contract in mortal danger.





You Know What That Is? Not Growth.





Rafael Silva, Sierra McClain, Jim Parrack, and Gina Torres are saviors in this episode  both literally and figuratively.









Silvas Carlos reveals that TK is the one who broke up with him, and later, coma TK tells his not-really-there mother that it was because Carlos made a grand gesture in paying for a down payment on a loft all on his own.





The writers attempt to turn this into TK destroying what makes him happy in his life because thats what TK does, except is it?





Though weve only known them for two and a half seasons, TK and Carlos have gone through a pretty hefty amount of growth, especially when it comes to communication. The fact that TK, instead of offering an explanation as to why hes leaving Carlos, just leaves, isnt OK.





Especially when you consider how quickly Carlos took TK back. While, of course, again, its television and its done for the drama of it all, they were broken up for months and not one of them decided to, I dont know, talk a bit, before moving in together?





The writers stating that they wanted to break up Carlos and TK to explore what Carlos is like without TK, and then spending three episodes in a row centering Carlos entire storyline around TK is astonishingly obtuse.





Then, in what may be my smallest complaint about the episode, but still deserves to be said: an unnamed amount of time passes between when TKs organs were shutting down to when hes moving in with Carlos and he doesnt have so much as a cane to walk with?





Siiiiigh.





Baby, Baby, Baby









In other fantastic news, Judd and Tommy find Grace in time for her to have her baby. Its very emotional, and Im proud to say we can now call Judd and Grace DILF and MILF of the year, respectfully.





Number three in my impossibility to suspend disbelief for this episode: the time jump occurs and we dont know how long its been, but in that time Grace and Judd didnt name their baby? Does Texas not have parents fill out birth certificates at the hospital? (They do. I checked.)





Luckily, were given a happy ending when Marjans GoFundMe to save the firehouse racks up $5 Million, thanks to Lindseys dad. They halt construction, have yet another time jump, and open the 126 back up.





Overall, the ice storm definitely couldve been condensed into just the first three episodes, but its over now and Im pretty grateful.

And One More Thing:
Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media

STAMFORD - Police are searching for an individual who they say has slashed a Springdale residents car tires twice in about a month.

Stamford police Sgt. Sean Scanlan of the Property Crimes Unit said the victim had all four of their car tires slashed in the driveway of their home twice in January.
As a manslaughter charge moves forward against Connecticut investment banker Scott Hapgood, it remains uncertain whether hell be forced to return to the Caribbean island to stand trial for the 2019 killing of a hotel worker.

A preliminary inquiry has upheld the manslaughter charge in the death of Kenny Mitchel, an Anguillan hotel worker who was killed during an altercation with Hapgood who was on vacation with his family in April 2019.

The Anguillan criminal proceedings are continuing against the defendant, attorney Beck Fineman, representing Hapgood in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Mitchels family, wrote in court documents filed Monday.

Hapgood is considered a fugitive from justice after he refused to attend a November 2019 court hearing in Anguilla, claiming he feared for his life if he returned to the Caribbean island.

Anguillan Attorney General Dwight Horsford said last May that his office may consider extraditing Hapgood. However, Hapgoods attorneys said Monday they have not been contacted about a possible extradition since the inquiry has been completed.

Horsford has not responded to Hearst Connecticut Media Groups requests to discuss the case.

Hapgoods attorneys declined to comment about what the possible next steps will be for their client.

According to information supplied by the federal Department of Justice Office of International Affairs, the embassy of the country making the request for extradition is required to contact the U.S. State Department, which will review the request and forward it to the DOJ Criminal Divisions OIA.

As part of the process to comply with an extradition request from a foreign country, it must be verified that the United States has a treaty with the country seeking extradition, the OIA website said. The State Department and the OIA would work together to determine compliance with the treaty requirements and if the crime committed would be an extraditable offense according to the treaty, the website said.

If the Secretary of States office agrees to issue a surrender warrant, the OIA will notify the foreign country and make arrangements to turn over the wanted person.

The DOJ declined to comment about the process.

Hapgood could also voluntarily surrender to Anguillan authorities, but he would then likely be jailed on the island while his case is pending since he refused to appear for the 2019 hearing while he was released on bond.

The office of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who was among those who supported Hapgood when he skipped the 2019 court appearance, said the family has not reached out for help in recent months.

In a lawsuit filed against Auberge Resorts, which owns the Malliouhana Resort in Anguilla, the Hapgoods contend the Darien resident fought for his life when the 27-year-old Mitchel attacked him and tried to rob him at knifepoint in his hotel room.

Hapgood was able to restrain Mitchel, but hotel employees, who were summoned by his daughters, initially didnt call police or an ambulance for nearly 40 minutes, the Darien mans lawsuit said. A hotel security guard eventually took over restraining Mitchel until police arrived, the lawsuit said.

Anguilla authorities said Mitchel was unconscious when they arrived and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Attorney Steven Seligman, representing Mitchels estate, claimed in their lawsuit that Hapgood caused the younger mans death by positioning his arm on the hotel workers neck, cutting off his airway for an extended period of time.

The lawsuit filed by Hapgood stated Mitchel's cause of death was attributed to a cocaine overdose based on an Anguillan toxicology report.

Both lawsuits will likely rely heavily on information culled from the inquiry report, attorneys said. It is unclear when or how much of the evidence gathered during the inquiry will be released to attorneys representing both sides in the lawsuit.

Fineman and Seligman asked for a 60-day continuance in federal lawsuit. They said the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions travel guidance to Caribbean islands has limited their access to witnesses outside of Connecticut.

Lawyers on both sides of the Auberge lawsuit also agreed to a 60-day continuance in that case last week.

The two lawsuits and the criminal case have been stalled for months during the pandemic and while the inquiry was conducted. Hapgoods appeal to stop the inquiry was rejected last May.
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TORRINGTON  Local group Our Culture is Beautiful is celebrating Black History Month starting Feb. 6, with a series of forums with a focus on Black history facts.

In 1926, according to co-founder Effie and Angaza Mwando, the second week of February was known sas Negro History Week.

Members of Our Culture is Beautiful invite residents to acknowledge the importance of this month by celebrating each day, the Mwandos said.

The programs will be shown on Facebook Live. Each day will be dedicated to a topic: Black leaders in Connecticut, Black scientists, Black entrepreneurs, a Black billionaire, Black Wall Street and Black authors. The programs continue through Feb. 12, and all will be held at 6 p.m.

On Feb. 24, the group will have a storytelling program at KidsPlay Childrens Museum, with Effie Mwando portraying Ruby Bridges, the first African American student to integrate into an elementary school in the South in 1960, in New Orleans, according to womenshistory.org.

We know the story of Ruby Bridges, and at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, they had (an exhibit with information) about her, Angaza Mwando said. Effie will read the story and act as Ruby Bridges. Shell read and will be doing some improvisations.

OCIB will recall the names and organizations of those who paved the way, including Langston Hughes, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Ida B.Wells, Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Sidney Poitier, Ossie Davis, Zora Neale, Carter G. Woodson, Arthur Schomburg, Duke Ellington, Claude McKay, James Weldon Johnson, Aaron Douglas, Alain Locke, the NAACP, The Harmon Foundation and the Urban league.

Carter Woodson, for example, was a scholar whose dedication to celebrating the historic contributions of Black people, led to the establishment of Black History Month, marked every February since 1976, according to naacp.org. Woodson fervently believed that Black people should be proud of their heritage and all Americans should understand the largely overlooked achievements of Black Americans.

Woodson overcame early obstacles to become a prominent historian and author of several notable books on Black Americans. Born in 1875 to illiterate parents who were former slaves, his schooling was erratic, and he worked on the family farm and later in the coal mines in West Virginia, according to the NAACP.

Hungry for education, he was largely self-taught, according to the website. He entered high school at the age of 20 and earned his diploma in less that two years, then worked as a teacher and school principal before earning a bachelors degree in literature from Berea College in Kentucky. He also earned a masters degree from the University of Chicago before joining the faculty of Howard University and eventually serving as dean of the College of Arts and Scientists.

After being barred from attending American Historical Association conferences besides being a dues-paying member, Woodson believed the white-dominated historical profession had little interest in Black history, according to the NAACP. He saw African-American contributions overlooked, ignored and even supressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them .... he realized he would have to create a separate institutional structure.

Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 in Chicago, describing its mission as the (study) of the neglected aspects of Negro life and history, and started the Journal of Negro History, which is in print today under the name Journal of African American History, according to the NAACP.

It was here that the seeds of Black History Month were planted, Mwando said. But the work never ends, and the repercussions of racism and twisted facts relating to Black history continue to this day.

This week, a television correspondent and former Miss USA winner Chelsie Kryst, 30, committed suicide by jumping from a building, according to the New York Times. Mwando said Kryst is just one example of the struggle that continues for Black Americans today, and the toll it takes.

People dont realize how much oppression she probably went through, he said. Just when we think we can live comfortably, and think that things are really changing, something happens that shows were still not there.

I couldnt help but feel that the psychological effects of racial segregation and racism are profound, Mwando said. Some people manage to live in that environment, and survive, but its wreaked havoc on so many others. She was a lawyer; beautiful, intelligent and successful, but theres psychological ramifications of what a person goes through that you just dont see. You can make it, but you still hear so much negativity. Some have developed a thick skin, and others have just suffered.

Even with major changes taking place in America, including electing a Black president and now, a female Black vice-president, there is more work to be done, Mwando said.

Jesse Jackson said, Keep hope alive, and I have to keep doing that. We have to believe and trust that theres enough of us around who love humanity, and want to see humanity prosper, Mwando said. And well continue to fight that fight, and one day, well overcome, for sure.

The Black History celebration with Our Culture is Beautiful begins at 6 p.m. starting Feb. 6. For information or questions, email Ocisbeautiful@gmail.com, or call 860-491-0387 or 203-641-7449. Visit the groups Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Our-Culture-is-Beautiful-2399879000241046
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WEST HAVEN  City officials are warning residents not to believe everything they read on the internet.

Last weekend, prior to a snowstorm bringing more than a half-foot of snow to the city Saturday, a Facebook page called West Haven Public Works warned the public that staffing shortages would mean plows could not run until Monday.

It was a complete fiction, city officials said. The page did not belong to any city department and the content of the message was not true.

The West Haven Police Department said on Facebook Sunday  on a page legitimately affiliated with the department  that it was aware of the bogus page and was investigating, and would be pursuing criminal charges. A request for comment to a police spokesman as to the nature of the charges being pursued was not returned Monday.

This page is spreading false information and we urge the public not to fall victim to this hoax, police said in their message.

Mayor Nancy Rossi said she supports the investigation  even if it does not end in criminal charges, she said, it would be useful to know how it happened.

It could have been a problem if we had a major storm and anybody read it, she said.

However, she believes few people saw it besides Tom McCarthy, the Public Works commissioner, who was the one who brought it to her attention.

It didnt grow legs, she said.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
Report: A patient who came to LVH-Pocono with chest pains was sent back to the waiting room. Two hours later, the patient died.
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures one of three segments that comprise a 65-light-year wide star-forming region named the Chamaeleon Cloud Complex.

The segment in this Hubble composite image, called Chamaeleon Cloud I (Cha I), reveals dusty-dark clouds where stars are forming, dazzling reflection nebulae glowing by the light of bright-blue young stars, and radiant knots called Herbig-Haro objects.

Herbig-Haro objects are bright clumps and arcs of interstellar gas shocked and energized by jets expelled from infant "protostars" in the process of forming. The white-orange cloud at the bottom of the image hosts one of these protostars at its center. Its brilliant white jets of hot gas are ejected in narrow torrents from the protostar's poles, creating the Herbig-Haro object HH 909A.

The cross-like spikes around bright stars in the image occur when light waves from a very bright point source (like a star) bend around Hubble's cross-shaped struts that support the telescope's secondary mirror. As the light waves pass these struts, they coalesce on the other side, creating the bright, spikey starburst effect we see.

Hubble studied Cha I as part of a search for extremely dim, low-mass brown dwarfs. These "failed stars" lie somewhere in size between a large planet and a small star (10 to 90 times the mass of Jupiter), and do not have enough mass to ignite and sustain nuclear fusion in their cores. Hubble's search found six new low-mass brown dwarf candidates that are helping astronomers better understand these objects.

This 315-million-pixel composite image is comprised of 23 observations made by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Gaps between those observations were filled by 20 Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 images. Any remaining gaps were filled with ground-based data from ESO's VISTA VIRCAM. To download the full high-resolution version of this image, visit Hubble Captures Chamaeleon Cloud I.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, K. Luhman and T. Esplin (Pennsylvania State University), et al., and ESO; Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Larger image



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Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living. She is also chair of Cardinal Dolans pro-life commission in New York. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.
Branden Knight, 29, passed away May 1, 2022. Calling hours will be Friday from 6:00-8:00 with the funeral Saturday at 11:00 at Fleming-Billman Funeral Home, 49 W. Jefferson Street, Jefferson; burial will follow in Oakdale. www.fleming-billman.com
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As many as 17,071 vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson&Johnson were administered in the last 24 hours, including 2,816 which represents the first dose, 3,470 - the second dose and 10,785 - the third dose, Romania's National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV) informed on Tuesday.

From the total number of administered doses 293 were Pfizer Pediatric.

According to the CNCAV, since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, on December 27, 2020, there have been 16,467 vaccine doses administered for 8,074,859 persons, 7,984,697 receiving the full scheme and 2,399,530 being immunized with the third dose, Agerpres.ro informs.

In the last 24 hours there have been 6 adverse reactions registered, one local type and 5 general type. Among these, there was one general type reaction to the Pfizer Pediatric vaccine, CNCAV specifies.

In total, since the start of the vaccination campaign, there have been 19,898 adverse reactions recorded in anti-COVID vaccines, 2,180 local type and 17,718 general type.
A number of 40,018 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were registered in the last 24 hours in Romania, 19,887 more than the previous day, with over 122,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Strategic Communication Group (GCS) informed on Tuesday, Agerpres reports.

Of the new cases, 4,123 are in re-infected patients, who tested positive more than 180 days after the first infection.Most new cases of infection compared to the previous report are in Bucharest - 5,674 and in the counties of Timis - 1,867, Cluj - 1,638, Bihor - 1,320, Constanta - 1,287, Brasov - 1,200 and Iasi - 1,035.The capital has a SARS-CoV-2 infection rate of 21.65 cases per thousand inhabitants, up from the previous day (19.88).Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 2,256,543 cases of infection with the novel coronavirus have been registered in Romania, of which 55,854 were in re-infected patients, who tested positive more than 180 days after the first infection.- Hospitalisations -There are 9,981 people infected with SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals across the country, 200 more than the day before, of whom 823 are children.937 patients are hospitalised in ICUs, 34 more than the previous day, 21 of whom are children. Of the 937 patients admitted to the ICU, 790 are unvaccinated.According to the GCS, 1,919,254 patients were declared cured.- Deaths -According to GCS, 97 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours in patients infected with the novel coronavirus - 56 men and 41 women. Out of the 97 deaths, one was registered in the age category 20-29 years, one in the age category 40-49 years, eight in the age category 50-59 years, 24 in the age category 60-69 years, 29 in the age category 70- 79 years and 34 in the age group over 80 years. All deaths were in patients with comorbidities.Out of a total of 97 patients who died, 75 were unvaccinated and 22 were vaccinated. The vaccinated patients ranged in age from 20 to 29 and over 80. All vaccinated patients who died had comorbidities.Since the beginning of the pandemic, 60,122 people diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania.

The latest COVID-19 test positivity rate in Romania is 32.63%, the Ministry of Health informed on Tuesday.



On Monday, the rate was 38.36%.



"Within a period of 24 hours, 40,018 positive people with the SARS-CoV-2 virus were reported in Romania, out of a total of 122,640 RT-PCR and antigen tests performed. The positivity rate is 32.63 %," according to the ministry.



The ministry is asking people who have symptoms that may indicate the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (fever, cough, fatigue, headache, loss of taste and smell, etc.) to call their family physicians, DSP call centers, or the 112 emergency line to request testing.



People who show symptoms and are in Bucharest or Ilfov County can travel by their own means, not by public transport, to the centres specially created for the collection of samples for COVID-19 testing.



People who test positive can go to the COVID-19 assessment centres for consultation and treatment.



People with severe forms of the disease, with aggressive symptoms, are urged to call 112.



Public health experts say vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent severe forms of COVID-19 and death.



"Today, out of the 937 people admitted to the ICU, 790 are unvaccinated. Also, out of 97 reported deaths, 75 occurred in unvaccinated patients," according to the Ministry of Health.
The new desideratum of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - a more climate-friendly agriculture - is a goal that farmers, including Romanians, are not hesitant to achieve, although what they denounce is the path through which you can get there, says the president of the Romanian Farmers Association (AFR), Daniel Botanoiu.

"A more respectful agriculture with the planet is also a desideratum of the Romanian producers because their productions largely depend on the evolution of the weather. The hot or excessively rainy weather only leads to the decrease in the incomes and, finally, to the abandonment of their activities, with the encouragement of migration. Although the European Union and farmers share the same goal, they do not necessarily agree on how to achieve it. Take the example of meat. Animal husbandry is too polluting, according to European bureaucrats. The Union therefore wants to limit this type of activity. Instead of two cows per hectare, only one would be allowed in. There will be fewer markets for animal feed, so smaller contracts. If we reduce the meat production, from whom will we buy it? Obviously we will buy if we have money, from the producers on the other side of the planet, without necessarily knowing the quality of the product. And I am not sure that European aid will be enough to cover this deficit," Daniel Botanoiu underlined in a statement for AGERPRES regarding the challenges of the new Common Agricultural Policy for Romanian farmers.He says farmers who are already struggling to make money risk losing their incomes even more, given that they will have to invest in much more expensive equipment or plant protection products, and it is the citizen who risks paying indirectly the bill "if you want to keep quality food on your plate at a fair price."According to the quoted source, energy is responsible for 77.01% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, of which transport accounts for about a third. "Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture contribute 10.55%, industrial processes and product use by 9.10%, and waste management by 3.32%. EU emissions by pollutant are CO2 - 80% Methane - 11%, nitrous oxide - 6% and hydrofluorocarbons - 3%. Agriculture, due to plant photosynthesis, is the first CO2 receiver," said the AFR head.The Common Agricultural Policy supports almost seven million beneficiaries in all European Union countries. In the financial year 2021, there were approximately 6.4 million beneficiaries of income support, 3.3 million beneficiaries of rural development measures and 120,000 beneficiaries of support provided by market measures.Romania has allocated through the CAP the amount of 21.65 billion euros for the period 2021-2027: Pillar I - 13.6 billion euros, of which for market measures - 363 million euros, and Pillar II - 6.9 billion euros for rural development. To this amount is added the funding through the Next Generation EU mechanism, worth 700 million euros.Of the total allocation, the amount of 15.9 billion euros remains strictly for the National Strategic Plan in the period 2023-2027, Botanoiu said.
Digital and entrepreneurial education should be introduced in the educational system starting with the first grade, not as a distinct discipline, but as a red line going through all materials, said, on Tuesday, the President of the Iniative for Competitiveness, Andreea Paul, in a conference on the topic of education and entrepreneurship.

"Let's seriously ask the question if we are teaching our children not only from a functional perspective, but also from a social, digital, technological, entrepreneurial one, if you want, for a world in continuous exponential change. We are in the first hours of the quantum future or the brain-net (...) in which our work force is more and more often replaced by the power of brains, in which the fuel is data and intelligence, as we all well know, in which the power of biological knowledge will be exponentially boosted by the power of artificial intelligence. If we understand that the power of artificial intelligence will be everywhere, just as electricity has been for a century now, we will understand that school must significantly, structurally transform. The physics laboratory started after the invention of the lightbulb and electricity. Today I come and as you to seriously consider introducing in each school digital education-intelligence laboratories, areas for experimentation, for mistakes, for error, for not punishing these mistakes or errors, for innovation, for creativity that we request to children from early ages. And yes, in modern schools digital education, entrepreneurial education is done with specific programs since the first years of school, since first grade. This is the first recommendation that I make: introducing digital education starting with first grade. The Republic of Moldova has done it since 2018," said Andreea Paul.

Furthermore, the INACO president also requested the organization of digital instruction courses for teachers.

"The two requests that I am addressing to the Romanian public and private stakeholders: let's introduce by law the obligation for real digital and entrepreneurial training for teachers twice a year, and not only digital and entrepreneurial, but also everything that means modern and innovating pedagogy. And the second request is to build a smart lab, meaning a smart digital educational laboratory in each school, because the massive transformative purpose of education is free access for pupils in Romania to intelligent digital education," Andreea Paul mentioned, Agerpres.ro informs.

The INACO president added that in such digital laboratories pupils will be able to attend virtual classes together with pupils in other countries, depending on the common passions of pupils, emphasizing that access to technology will make them richer and richer, while lack of access to technology will make them poorer and poorer.
Deputy Violeta Alexandru announced, on Tuesday, in the plenum, the establishment of the parliamentary group of independent right-wing deputies, which will also contain former chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Ludovic Orban.

"On the basis of article 13 of the Rules of the Chamber of Deputies, together with my colleagues, (...) we established the parliamentary group of independent right-wing deputies," Violeta Alexandru announced.

She recalled that a decision of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) stipulates "clearly" that it is not contrary to the Constitution to establish a new parliamentary group during the course of the legislature, with the condition it does not represent in Parliament mandates obtained in elections.

"It's not our case. We resigned from the PNL. We are not members of any other political formation, namely we are not members under some banner that ran, that lost the elections. (...) We have no political affiliation at this time," Violeta Alexandru explained.

The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, informed that the agenda of the session of the Standing Bureaus had the request to establish a new group, which was directed to the Legal Committee.

The leader of PNL deputies, Gabriel Andronache, claimed that certain provisions of the rules and CCR decisions are falsely invoked. In his opinion, there are many judiciary arguments to oppose the establishment of such a group, Agerpres.ro informs.

In reply, Violeta Alexandru said that there is no procedure to request a point of view from the Legal Committee in the rules.

The former chairman of the PNL Ludovic Orban announced, on Monday, the establishment, in the Chamber of Deputies, of a parliamentary group of independent right-wing deputies, mentioning that it will have 13 MPs, with Violeta Alexandru as leader.
Romania will host for the first time, on February 5, the international academic competition in the "data science" domain - "Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon Workshop" - organized by Think Tank 360, under the banner of Stanford University USA.

The competition precedes the World Conference "Women in Data Science" (WiDS) of March 7 and will bring to focus teams which desire to perfect abilities in data science, at the world level this community reaching 100,000 persons passionate about data from 85 countries.

The competition is supported by Wolters Kluwer Romania, strategic partner, in collaboration with the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, academic partner, and the Nicolae Balcescu University of Land Forces in Sibiu, academic partner, the Center Region, as well as the United States Embassy in Romania.

The Bucharest competition will see the attendance of Romanian teams from the academic, private and governmental environments that will compete, at the international level, with teams of professionals with tradition in data science, Agerpres.ro informs.

The topic of the competition this year is represented by climate change and green energy, and the data made available to competitors were gathered with help from the experts at Climate Change AI (CCAI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and MIT Critical Data. The winners of the international competition, including the national standings will be announced at the WiDS Conference "Women in Data Science" Romania on March 7.

"We are grateful to Think Tank 360 and their partners for bringing WiDS Datathon to Romania. (...) WiDS Datathon enables participants to hone their skills in data science by responding to the challenges of mitigating the negative impact of climate change," said Judy Logan, Co-Director of the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Initiative at Stanford University.

In her turn, Mariana Ungureanu, founder of Think Tank 360, believes the organization of this international competition in Bucharest places Romania on the map of the world's avant-garde in data science.

"It is a true honor and privilege to organize this international competition in Bucharest. Thus, we are placing Romania on the map of the world's avangarde in data science and we are showing the potential our country has in this domain. The topic this year is of great actuality and importance, because global climate change and its impact on life have become some of the greatest challenges of our generation," said Mariana Ungureanu.

Climate change is a danger for the entire planet, and researching large volumes of data offers a huge opportunity in identifying solutions that would facilitate the scientific management of climate issues, the release mentions.

"New technologies and digitization are fundamental for progress and development of the energy sector. We believe that the road towards clean energy starts with the process of innovation and digitization, key factors in our strategy to develop for 2030," showed, in context, Alina Popa, CFO of OMV Petrom.

In his turn, Thomas Kolarik, deputy executive president for operations & IT with the Romanian Commercial Bank, stated that discussions on the influence of data science on the progress of society are a necessity and projects such as the WiDS Datathon, which bring together the needs of the community, the role of innovation and technology, and gender equality, help us establish a connection and action plan, with concrete measures, in order to effect change in society.

The event will be freely available for access on the platforms of Wolters Kluwer Romania, Think Tank 360 and the webpage of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE), being dedicated to all those interested in data science, especially in the domain of climate change.

Among the speakers at the event are: Ligia Deca, presidential adviser, Adrian Chesnoiu, Minister of Agriculture, Pamela Ward, representative of the Department of Commerce for Eastern Europe with the US Embassy, Prof. Dorel Paraschiv, Ph.D., prorector of ASE Bucharest, Brigadier General Prof. Ghita Barsan, Eng.D., rector of the Nicolae Balcescu University of Land Forces in Sibiu, Chang Sun, Ph.D., Data Science Institute of the University of Maastricht, Robert Szep, State Secretary with the Environment Ministry, Liviu Rogojinaru, minister-counsellor, Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Alina Popa, CFO of OMV PETROM, Thomas Kolarik, COO of the Romanian Commercial Bank, Razvan Nicolescu, member in the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, Marina Barlescu, Cognitive & Analytics leader IBM Romania, Lavinia Neagoe, Tech Site Lead, Senior Engineer Manager Google Romania, Remus Racolta, Data and Analytics, ING Tech Romania.

The media partners of the event are AGERPRES, Bursa, News, The Diplomat Bucharest, Economistul, Romania Durabila, Club Economic, Money.ro.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Ascendis, a training and consulting company, launched IncubatorX SME on Tuesday, a program through which companies in Romania and the region can get in touch with entrepreneurs and consultants, who will support them in transforming their ideas into innovative products and services.

According to a company's release issued for AGERPRES on Tuesday, the program is aimed at entrepreneurs in companies with revenues of less than 50 million euros in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia.Registrations are made on the XbyAscendis website, from 1 to 28 February 2022. More than 100 SMEs are expected to register in the SME IncubatorX. Up to 20 companies will be selected for the work and will work on their ideas with Ascendis innovation consultants.In order to participate in the program, SME entrepreneurs must design teams within the company to work for several months with Ascendis consultants and other contractors to develop an innovative solution that has a direct impact on their business."The program consists of 3 stages and will officially start on March 15, 2022. The language of the program is English," the release reads.Thus, at the end of the program will be viable products, ready for launch, and access to the incubation phase will be based on the selection of the jury.According to the quoted source, participation in the first two stages is free, and for the third stage a participation fee of 784 euros is required. The low cost of participating in the program is possible due to European Union funding under Horizon 2020.In 2019, the EBRD and the European Union launched a funding framework that supports investment in research and innovation by Romanian SMEs, including by facilitating access to advice.
Minister of Finance Adrian Caciu and World Bank's Country Manager for Romania Anna Akhalkatsi discussed on Tuesday the priority measures of the Ministry of Finance (MF) this year, which aim at fiscal consolidation, macroeconomic stability, the sustainability of the budgetary programming, the green economy and the allocation of resources for the development of the business environment, informs the ministry.

"I appreciate the World Bank's willingness to support the Government's efforts to achieve the objectives and targets set out in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework in order to ensure the premises for the absorption of European non-reimbursable funds," underlined Adrian Caciu, Minister of Finance, in a press release sent to AGERPRES.

In her turn, the World Bank's Country Manager expressed the WB's interest in further supporting the authorities in implementing priority projects and reforms for Romania, encouraging further dialogue to identify common areas of intervention and ways to work together, Agerpres.ro informs.

According to the MF statement, the wide range of instruments offered by the World Bank, as well as their specificity, allows access to operations that support the coverage of financial needs, while contributing to the implementation of measures assumed through sectoral reforms.
Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity Marius Budai said on Tuesday that he will in no way give up on raising pensions, because raising them is a necessity, Agerpres reports.

"Increasing pensions is a necessity, and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) has put it in the government agenda. (...) From my point of view, as labour minister, there is no way I will give up on increasing pensions and ironing out the inequities in the pension system," Budai is quoted a saying by the Labour Ministry.The minister referred to renegotiating a 9.4%-of-GDP cap on government's state pension outlays included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR)."There was a discussion at Cotroceni at the beginning of the year in which I endorsed exactly this [pension increases] including in relation to renegotiating that 9.4% of GDP arbitrarily set by Mr Ghinea of the Save Romania Union (USR). Mr. Iohannis inquired into that. We ought not to let the illogical actions of USR under PNRR affect millions of pensioners. We are under an obligation to defend the rights of pensioners," said Budai.
Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Tuesday reiterated Romania's support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as for the state's right to freely decide the course of its foreign and security policy.

In the context of the anniversary of three decades of diplomatic relations between Romania and Ukraine, there was an exchange of congratulatory letters between the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) in a press release sent to AGERPRES.

On this occasion, the head of the Romanian diplomacy expressed the confidence that the Ukrainian people's democratic choice is a driving force of the reform process in Ukraine.

In his letter, Bogdan Aurescu stressed the importance of the relationship with Ukraine and reiterated his commitment to the development of bilateral relations, in the spirit of European values and in accordance with Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic agenda, Agerpres.ro informs.

The Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed the hope that the open and consistent dialogue, that he has constantly promoted and supported, through numerous direct contacts in the last two years with his counterpart, will bring fast and lasting solutions to the identity problems of the Romanian minority in Ukraine. At the same time, he highlighted the commitment to boost cross-border cooperation and in sectoral areas of common interest.

Underlining the common aspirations of the Romanian and Ukrainian peoples for stability, prosperity and security as principles of bilateral co-operation, Minister Bogdan Aurescu expressed confidence that joint interaction on these bases could become an example in the region, shows the MAE release.

Ukraine proclaimed its independence on August 24, 1991, and Romania recognized the new state on January 8, 1992.

Romania and Ukraine formally established diplomatic relations on February 1, 1992.

Romania was the first member state of the European Union to ratify the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement on July 3, 2014.
Romania is celebrating, in 2022, 15 years since acceding to the European Union.

On this occasion, on Wednesday, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies will reunite in a solemn session, attended by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of France, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who will hold a speech.

France took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on January 1.

The Parliament solemn sitting will be also attended by the Senate President, Florin Citu, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, PM Nicolae Ciuca, as well as representatives of parliamentary groups.

Romania became a member state of the European Union on January 1, 2007, Agerpres.ro informs.

On February 1, 1993, Romania signed the Association Agreement with the European Union.
The Pitesti Nuclear Fuel Factory produces annually about 11,000 nuclear fuel beams, a quantity necessary for the operation of the two units from CNE Cernavoda, and since its qualification until now it has produced over 218,000 beams, Nuclearelectrica informs through a press release sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday.

"Currently, FCN Pitesti has a production capacity of 12,000 FC/year and manufactures annually about 11,000 nuclear fuel bundles, a quantity necessary for the operation of the two units from CNE Cernavoda. Since qualifying, FCN Pitesti has produced over 218,000 beams of CANDU 6 nuclear fuel, contributing to 20 pct of the country's total electricity production. In other words, 1 out of 5 bulbs receives nuclear energy, with the help of fuel produced by FCN Pitesti. During the lifetime of a nuclear fuel beam CANDU 6 in the reactor, about 1 year, a quantity of electricity of 1,115 MWh is generated," the document reads.

According to the source, the same amount of energy can be obtained by burning fossil fuel in conventional plants as follows: 470,000 kg of conventional fuel with a calorific value of 7,000 Kcal/kg; 1.110.000 kg superior coal with calorific value of 3.200 Kcal/Kg; 363,000 Nm3 of natural gas with calorific value of 8,050 Kcal/Nm3.

"FCN Pitesti has very good results in the production of fuel beams, and the experience gained and the lessons learned will help us to pass the next step, that of producing CANDU-6 nuclear fuel bundles for the 4 units from CNE Cernavoda. I thank my colleagues from FCN Pitesti for their performance and I congratulate them for their professionalism," said Cosmin Ghita, General Manager of Nuclearelectrica.

The Pitesti Nuclear Fuel Factory celebrates, on February 1, 2022, 30 years of uninterrupted activity. FCN Pitesti was established by the Decision of the Board of Directors of RENEL nr. 14/14.02.1992, starting with February 1, 1992, as a distinct entity within the Autonomous Administration for Electricity (RENEL), by separating from the structure of the Institute of Nuclear Research (former IRNE) of the Department of Fuel Elements Production (SPEC), Agerpres.ro informs.

The production of nuclear fuel based on CANDU natural uranium (CANadian Deuterium Uranium) began in Romania in 1980, by commissioning the Pitesti Institute of Nuclear Power Reactors (former IRNE) of the pilot station, as a nuclear fuel production department. The first nuclear fuel beam of CANDU 6 type, the same type as the one currently manufactured, was produced in 1983.

In 1994, the Nuclear Fuel Factory (FCN) was authorized by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited - AECL (the current CANDU Energy) and Zircatec Precision Industries Inc. (ZPI - now CFM), both from Canada, as a qualified producer and supplier of CANDU 6 nuclear fuel.

FCN Pitesti was the second nuclear fuel factory in the world, after the Resende-Brazil factory, which received the SEDO (Safety Evaluation During Operation) Verification Mission from IAEA experts in 2011, a follow-up mission successfully completed in 2015. Also, FCN Pitesti is the only nuclear fuel factory in South-Eastern Europe and the only CANDU nuclear fuel factory in Europe, Nuclearelectrica said.

FCN Pitesti has the Quality Management System authorized by CNCAN, is certified by SRAC (Romanian Society for Quality Assurance) for the Environmental Management System according to ISO 14001:2015 and for the Management System for Health and Safety at Work according to ISO 45001:2018. In 2020, FCN Pitesti obtained the EMAS Registration Certificate.

The National Company Nuclearelectrica SA is the Romanian national company producing electricity, heat and nuclear fuel operating under the authority of the Romanian Ministry of Energy, the state owning 82.49 pct of the shares and other shareholders, 17.50 pct, after the company's listing on the stock exchange in 2013.

CNE Nuclearelectrica owns the Cernavoda CNE Subsidiary, which operates two CANDU nuclear units, which are two of the most advanced units of the over 400 nuclear power plants in the world, and the FCN Pitesti Branch, the nuclear fuel factory, and is in the process of achieving an integrated fuel cycle by purchasing a uranium concentrate processing line, to support the company's long-term investment projects.

Nuclearelectrica contributes with 18-20 pct nuclear energy to the total energy production and with 33 pct to the total production of energy without CO2 in Romania.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca received on Tuesday Israeli ambassador in Bucharest David Saranga, who proposed on this occasion the organization of a joint Romania - Israel government meeting as soon as possible.

According to a government statement, the sides exchanged views on developments in international relations and security in eastern Ukraine and the Middle East, with Prime Minister Ciuca emphasizing his concern for the developments in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea region, and swapping ideas with ambassador David Saranga about his own assessments of the situation, Agerpres.ro informs.

The Israeli diplomat also presented the current security situation in the Middle East region, and suggested that the joint Romania - Israel government meeting be held as soon as possible, the release also states.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca and rectors of several universities from the Universitaria Consortium discussed on Tuesday the extension of the scope of the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) reform, and the creation of a complete professional route for upper technical education, with a budget of 338 million euros, based on which ten regional consortia will be developed and ten integrated professional campuses will be developed and equipped, Agerpres reports.

According to a press release of the Government, the consultations focused on the funding opportunities offered by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and other European sources designed to support upper technical education and the creation of digital hubs."Education needs adequate support and funding, solutions that are one step ahead of society's needs. We need to focus on correlating education with the labour market, improving the quality of the education process and professional training, promoting digital competencies are all elements that will contribute to the increase in the competitiveness of employees and economic performance. I am confident that through our constant dialogue we will be able to steer things in the right direction. You have a good knowledge of the field, the Government has the determination, and together we can find the right solutions," PM Nicolae Ciuca said in a press release.The consultations were aimed at expanding the scope of the PNRR reform - creating a comprehensive vocational pathway for upper technical education, with a budget of 338 million euros so that both funds and technical upper schools benefit from these funds."Specifically, the goal is for the 338 million euro budget to develop ten regional consortia, to develop and equip ten integrated professional campuses and to invest in ten mixed integrated professional campuses (high schools and technical universities)," the same press release reads.Another topic of discussion was the extension of the "support for the private sector, research, development and innovation" component of the PNRR to the major universities so that such major universities with computer science and cyber securities programmes to be able to apply for funds from the 500 million euro budget as well, instead of only the technical universities.The Universitaria Consortium is made up of universities that bring together more than a third of the teaching staff nationwide, 42pct of the students, and more than 50pct of the Romanian research.
Spokesman for the National Liberal Party (PNL) Ionut Stroe on Tuesday unveiled PNL's legislative priorities for the new parliamentary session, including state pension reform and public pay reform, discarding the special court section for judiciary crimes, and offshore drilling, Agerpres reports.

"In this session, it is very likely that the volume of discussions related to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) will increase and that is something that will be related to state pensions and the public pay system. There is a March 31 deadline, and the Ministry of Finance is aware of the issue. We have a very important commitment that we must meet - discarding the Section for the Investigation of Crimes in the Judiciary, the law for the elimination of SIIJ, which has to be completed by March. We can unblock these matters when we make changes in the infamous Dragnea Ordinance 114/2018, which, for example, blocked the offshore exploitation of Black Sea natural gas," Stroe said at the Parliament House after a meeting of the PNL Executive Bureau.He pointed out that another priority of PNL is the simplification of procedures for the purchase of agricultural land, in order to unblock the sales and purchases of such land."We may even have a consensus there, it's about amendments to Law 17/2014," Stroe added.He said that PNL wants to remove from the law, in this new parliamentary session, the articles regulating the ban for two years of the sale of stock in state-owned companies and national corporations and floating state-owned companies on the stock exchange.He said that the revision of justice legislation is also very important in this session."We should also continue our discussions and debates in Parliament with our coalition partners on this green certificate. It is, we must admit, an issue that is still being debated and blocked in Parliament and we have to clear it in this parliamentary session," Stroe added.He also pointed out that much of PNL's priority legislative initiatives for the ongoing parliamentary session is in the interests of the government."What we, liberals, define as reforms, investment, the implementation of the PNRR, must necessarily be doubled and supported by the things you will find in our parliamentary agenda," Stroe said.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Tuesday that talks in January between President Klaus Iohannis and members of the Government focused on several topics, including the renegotiation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), adding that reaching an agreement on this topic was not in view, Agerpres reports.

Ciuca was asked in Parliament if he had discussed with the head of state the renegotiation of the PNRR in early January, when meetings with ministers took place."In the discussion that I had with the President, with each minister, several topics were discussed. There was this one, too. And then we were quite clear about the possibility of renegotiation. It's true, Mr. minister presented and then discussed with me that this percentage of 9.4% [GDP expenditure on pensions] would not be enough, we all agree with him, but we have decided to start the process of pension reform in general...," said the head of the Government.Asked if the head of state had agreed to the PNRR's renegotiation at the time, the prime minister replied: "The issue of agreement or approval of this issue was not raised, it was just a matter of discussion."Nicolae Ciuca stated that he had not met with the head of state these days and that they had not even discussed the renegotiation of the PNRR."It was a topic that was discussed very intensely and it is a topic that really deserves our interest, everyone's interest, but at the moment there have been and still are elements that are provided in PNNR for the reform of the pension system and we had a discussion with Mr. minister in the Interinstitutional Committee as well on this topic and we are going to follow that program in accordance with the objectives and targets of the PNRR," the prime minister added.He was also asked if the Minister of Labor was free to start renegotiating the PNRR."In the discussions we had in Brussels on this topic, you saw that a deadline has been set so that, starting in 2023, certain elements of the PNRR can be re-discussed. Why 2023? Because, in the Commission, the discussion was as follows: let's see what happens and what you achieve by 2023, let the line you follow be very clear, so that you reach the objectives and targets of the PNRR, but after we have this stage review, we can discuss some of the milestones and targets in the PNRR. However, the Government is committed to making this reform so that Romanians can benefit from the revenue they deserve," Ciuca said.The Prime Minister said that there is currently no analysis on the increase in pensions in autumn.He also added that there was no discussion of zero VAT on basic food next year.
President Klaus Iohannis and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky had a phone call on Tuesday in the context of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Romania - Ukraine diplomatic relations and of the "concerning" security developments in the immediate vicinity of Ukraine, in the Black Sea region, the Presidential Administration informs.

President Iohannis expressed the readiness of the Romanian side to advance bilateral cooperation by broadening the legal framework and capitalizing on the existing economic potential, including trade, physical connectivity and cross-border cooperation, as well as in the field of culture.

The Romanian President also voiced his support for the continuation of negotiations on the finalization of the Joint Declaration on the European Perspective of Ukraine, a document that has been under bilateral discussion since last year, with the consideration of the elements of interest for Romania.

A considerable part of the phone conversation was devoted to the settlement of the problems related to the rights of the Romanian minority in Ukraine, especially regarding the protection of the linguistic identity of Romanian ethnics.

In this regard, President Iohannis reiterated the expectation that, starting from the recognition of the identity between the Romanian and the so-called "Moldovan" language, which was confirmed by the Ukrainian side in April 2021, Ukraine will officially recognize the non-existence of the "Moldovan language".

Welcoming the resumption in September 2021 of the rounds of negotiations at the level of secretaries of the Romanian-Ukrainian Joint Intergovernmental Commission on the protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, Klaus Iohannis emphasized the need for concrete and prompt results allowing a new protocol to be initialled, as well as the resumption of the commission's activity in its plenary.

"President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he understands the concerns of the Romanian side regarding the rights of persons belonging to the Romanian minority and expressed his readiness to identify proper solutions," the Presidential Administration states, Agerpres.ro informs.

The two heads of state also had an "in-depth" exchange of views on the security situation in the region, with the President of Romania reiterating our country's "firm" support for the sovereignty of Ukraine and its territorial integrity, as well as for its European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

Klaus Iohannis said that threats of use of force and attempts to undermine the current parameters of the European security architecture, as well to recreate "spheres of influence" are "unacceptable" and reaffirmed Romania's strong support for the right of Ukraine to choose its own foreign and security policy options.

He reiterated support for the policy of not recognizing the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and commended Ukraine's "responsible" behavior in order to avoid escalating tensions.

In his turn, the President of Ukraine thanked Romania for its "vocal" and "active" support in both the European Union and NATO, the Presidential Administration reports.
The leader of the Social Democrats, Marcel Ciolacu, stated on Tuesday that the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, Adrian Streinu Cercel, told him that the EU Digital Covid Certificate doesn't need to be implemented in Romania in the case of three mandatory vaccine doses.

Asked at the Palace of the Parliament if the three-dose Covid certificate should be implemented in Romania as well, internally, the PSD leader replied: "I am not a specialist, but I took the liberty of asking Mr. Streinu Cercel and he said he does not think such a measure is necessary", Agerpres.ro informs.

On Monday, the head of the Emergency Situations Department, Raed Arafat, said that Romania must adapt to the rules of the European Union regarding the EU Digital Covid Certificate, and the people who received the second dose of vaccine more than 9 months ago should get the booster jab.
The chairman of PSD, Marcel Ciolacu, (co-ruling Social Democratic Party) declared on Tuesday, in Parliament, that during Tuesday's Governing coalition meeting there will be a discussion about the possibility of capping basic food items' prices, but also about the cumulation of pension with salary in state institutions.

Ciolacu added that in Romania food items already have "a consistent VAT deduction", Agerpres.ro informs.

The PSD chairman also said that during the coalition's meeting on Tuesday there will be talks about banning the cumulation of pension with salary, but only after they will see what the impact of such a decision will be.

"Let us see the impact, not to give out laws and make decisions without knowing the full context," Ciolacu said.
Priest Habil Lipesa Omukuba from Kenya says Romania has become his second home.

In an interview for a local publication in Sibiu, Turnul Sfatului (Council Tower), the Kenyan priest confessed that he saw snow for the first time during his visit to Romania. He also learned to cook sarmale (cabbage rolls). He also talked about his conversion and referred to similarities and differences between Romanian and Kenyan Orthodoxy.

In January, Fr Omukuba visited several cities, churches and monasteries in Romania, where he served with Romanian priests. In Alba Iulia, he taught theology students about Orthodox ministry, according to basilica.ro.

The priest said that it is not easy to be an Orthodox priest in Africa, which is why he learns a lot when he comes to Romania.

In my country, we have about 47 million people and about 500,000 Orthodox. I dont know exactly. Otherwise, we have many confessions. We have many Protestants, then Catholics. So, we are very few Orthodox in Kenya. If you are an Orthodox priest, you are seen as someone who does not follow the Bible, so when I come here, I learn a lot because Romania is an Orthodox country, so I learn a lot in parishes and in monasteries. It really is a holy place, with loving, friendly and welcoming people.

Father Habil Lipesa Omukuba is a clergyman of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria. He is the founding director of the Tabitha orphanage and school in Kenya. If he took care of 50 children last year, he takes care of 130. Also, the priest has four biological children and a little girl recently adopted.

The Kenyan priest receives constant support in his philanthropic actions from Cisnadie III parish in Sibiu county. Father Habil Lipesa Omukuba will stay in Romania until February 24.
The first ordinary parliamentary session this year of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies takes place on Tuesday, Agerpres reports.

The chairs of the two chambers, Florin Citu and Marcel Ciolacu, decided to convene the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies at 3.00 pm and 4.00 pm, respectively.Following the pattern at the beginning of each session, in the first sitting, the Senators and Deputies will elect, by vote, the leaders of the two chambers: vice-presidents, secretaries and quaestors of the Standing Bureaus, while the chairmen are elected at the beginning of the legislature for the entire term of Parliament.The leadership of the two chambers is elected at the proposal of the parliamentary groups, depending on their share, according to the political configuration of the Chamber of Deputies and that of the Senate, respectively, and according to the negotiation of the leaders of the groups. The lists of candidates proposed for the Standing Bureaus shall be submitted in full to the vote of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, respectively, and shall be approved by an open vote of a majority of the Deputies and Senators in attendance.Among the priorities of the parliamentary session are the Government Emergency Ordinance on energy crisis measures, the offshore law, as well as the draft on the abolition of the Section for investigating justice crimes (SIIJ).The chair of the Senate, Florin Citu, announced that the adoption of the offshore law represents an urgency of the new parliamentary session.He added that another law under consideration is the draft on the abolition of the SIIJ.The emergency ordinance stipulating the new measures for capping prices and offsetting energy and gas bills was adopted by the Government on January 25 and is now being debated by the Senate, as the first notified chamber.The Minister of Justice, Catalin Predoiu, on January 21 announced the public debate on the draft abolition of the SIIJ, mentioning that Parliament must adopt the draft within the deadline set for March 31.PSD (Social Democratic Party) spokesman, Senator Radu Oprea, informed that the Social Democrat MPs have as priorities in the forthcoming legislative session certain provisions included in the governing programme, but also some aspects related to the conclusions of the commission of inquiry in the case of the rising energy prices and gas.He said the legislative framework could be changed in the case of hydropower plants without a permit to operate.
The National School for Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA) has requested on Tuesday a "firm" reaction on part of society towards extremist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic discourse.

"The academic community in SNSPA notes with worry an intensification in presence in the Romanian public and media landscape of a discourse that tries to relativize and caution condemnable political actors and events, which belong to a dark history of Romania and humanity. The political leaders and actors in question are known for attitudes, decisions and actions which were profoundly antidemocratic, extremist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic," shows a press release sent on Tuesday to AGERPRES.

According to the SNSPA, the proliferation of such a discourse is "toxic" for Romanian democracy and "contrary" to the European direction of the country.

"This does not have place in a civilized society, which manifests respect towards people, towards fundamental human rights and towards one of the greatest dramas in the history of humanity, the Holocaust. Any public person has the duty to respect the memory of millions of people who were mass murdered without blame and to have an adequate public discourse, one which would not belittle this drama of humanity. SNSPA firmly condemns anti-Semitism, racism in all its instances and manifestations," the release emphasizes.

SNSPA is appealing to all actors in Romanian public space to "show responsibility and deference" towards the past, Agerpres.ro informs.

"We believe it a matter of urgency for a reaction to come from civil society, academic community, professional organizations and, of course, media. Denial of historically attested facts is an act of complicity to the crimes that have happened in those years. Just as toxic is the indifference towards these manifestations," the quoted release also shows.

According to SNSPA, the cultivation of the memory of the Holocaust is a "fundamental" part of democratic education. "For this reason, we cannot ignore these statements, which we condemn with all firmness," the release also states.
Under a recommendation approved today by the National Audiovisual Council (CNA), TV broadcasters are required to inform the audience when airing Romanian cinematographic productions shot before 1989, Agerpres reports.

The proposal belongs to former CNA president Rasvan Popescu, and was discussed on Tuesday by the Council after the government's Secretariat General - the Department for Parliament liaison requested an opinion on a legislative proposal to amend and supplement the Audiovisual Law."We had on the table a draft authored by the Save Romania Union, which was intended to shed some light on films made before '89 by tagging them on-screen with a 'C' - standing for 'censorship'. We considered the formula to be slightly excessive and therefore issued an opinion with observations and next decided to come up with a solution ourselves, according to our powers, so to speak. We then worked out a recommendation to warn the audience about these productions and somehow try to put them in the context of that time," Popescu explained.He added that the recommendation is intended "especially for today's youth"."They do not know - they don't have where to get this info from - what it is like to live in a country without freedom of expression, where censorship and propaganda falsified reality, so that for example the peasants' land dispossession through collectivization was presented as a positive fact. The same goes for the nationalization of the factories, whereas the anti-communist mountain resistance was seen as an act of national betrayal. These are just a few examples that can be found in the cinematography of the time," said Rasvan Popescu.According to CNA's recommendation, if they air Romanian movies made before '89, the broadcasters have the choice to either precede the screening with debate shows where guests knowledgeable of the historical and cultural context of the said production discuss it, or to inform the public by displaying a static and legible mention: 'Film made during the communist period, when its public release was conditioned by a censorship visa', or 'Film made during the communist period, when censorship and state propaganda were standard practice".The analysis and specialized critique of these Romanian cinematographic productions can be scheduled before or after their broadcasting, and the choice of the appropriate formula remains at the discretion of the TV station, depending on each film, CNA's recommendation states.
Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Monday had a telephone conversation with Wendy Sherman, the US deputy secretary of state, with the US dignitary assuring Romania of US support for accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Agerpres reports.

According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE), the discussion provided an opportunity for an exchange of views and assessments on security developments in NATO's Eastern Neighbourhood and the Black Sea as part of close coordination between Romania and the US on strategic issues.Aurescu thanked the US for consultations so far, including the written responses to the Russian Federation on January 26 that also took into account Romania's comments, interests and expectations, based on common principles and fundamental values.He voiced satisfaction with the US decision to strengthen its military presence in Romania, a strong signal for discouraging aggressive Russian actions and proof to the strength of the US commitment to the security of NATO allies on the eastern flank.According to MAE, the American official expressed special appreciation for the constant commitment of Romania, as a strategic partner of the US and a responsible and reliable NATO ally, to stability and security in the Black Sea region, as well as elsewhere in Europe and the Euro-Atlantic area.The two officials assessed the recent bilateral and multilateral diplomatic efforts to deescalate the security situation on the Ukrainian border and discussed the next steps and short-term prospects. They emphasised the importance of maintaining NATO unity and solidarity and agreed to maintain close contact at all levels moving forward.Regarding bilateral co-operation, Aurescu and Sherman mentioned the 25th anniversary in 2022 of the strategic partnership between the two countries and agreed to continue efforts to prepare an agenda of appropriate diplomatic activities, including by boosting political contacts.Sherman is said to have congratulated Romania on the recent decision of the OECD Council to open membership negotiations with Romania and assured that the US will support Romania throughout the accession process. In his turn, Aurescu thanked for the constant US support for Romania's candidacy and for shaping a favorable decision at OECD level, giving assurances about the deep commitment of the Romanian government to a successful completion of the accession objective and taking up all the obligations as an OECD member state.
Energy Minister Virgil Popescu puts Romania's energy security at risk every day and must immediately step down from office, claims the simple motion submitted today to the Chamber of Deputies by the opposition Save Romania Union (USR).

Titled 'Incompetence and lying cut off the power in Romania. 'Next week' Minister Virgil Popescu - a danger for Romania's energy security', the document argues that in his capacity as Energy Minister, Popescu was given the "chance" to reform the energy system and contribute to strengthening Romania's energy security, but instead "continued the same disaster and the same scheming of the last 31 years".

USR terms the management of the energy bill crisis a "disaster", noting that Romanians have ended up paying "huge" bills. "A family that wants to heat a four-room home gets to pay RON 1,800 for gas per month," the motion states, noting that energy bills have been rising, and people and the economy are suffering due to the "bad" decisions made by Minister Virgil Popescu, Agerpres.ro informs.

The document also states that in order to "cover up his incompetence", Virgil Popescu "toured the televisions to say that energy and gas suppliers are thieves".

In USR's opinion, Virgil Popescu is "the Minister who shutters the energy industry", given that since he has taken office, the installed capacity of energy production facilities has slumped by almost 25 percent from 24,605 MW to 18,568 MW and "power plants are closing one by one".

The signatories of the motion consider that through his inaction, Virgil Popescu "supports dependence on Russian gas" and accuse him of "promoting incompetence and hypocrisy", while sinecures in state-owned energy companies have skyrocketed during his term, citing the example of appointments to power supplier and distributor Electrica, and to the National Energy Regulatory Authority.
Detainees from the Arad Penitentiary who worked during 2021 for various companies brought to the institution an income of RON 6,659,591, similar to the one before the pandemic, even if they worked directly from detention and not in exterior places.

The 2021 report of the Arad Penitentiary shows that the institution "ranked first in the entire Romanian penitentiary system, in terms of the use of detainees at work, and of the income obtained, respectively, with all the restrictions imposed by the pandemic".The spokesperson of the Arad Penitentiary, Ionel Iovescu, told AGERPRES, on Tuesday, that out of the average number of 1,337 inmates, 189 were used for "productive activities in the provision of services".Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the detainees did not leave the penitentiary to work on construction sites, in workshops or factories, their activity taking place in detention. They worked for various companies, especially automotive factories.Last year, the gross monthly income that could be obtained by a detainee was RON 2,632, 10 percent taxable, of which 40 percent actually went to the detainee, respectively a monthly allowance of RON 947. The difference of 60 percent went to the penitentiary administration."During the execution of the custodial sentence, the convicted person can use 90 percent of the income received for the work performed, and 10 percent is recorded in his name at the State Treasury, with the amount to be collected at the time of the person's release," Iovescu said.The money that goes to the penitentiary is used, among other things, for the partial payment of the expenses with the utilities, for the food or medicine of the detainees, but also for the investments, such as vehicles.In 2021, the total budget of the Arad Penitentiary was RON 58,489,870, of which RON 51,109,870 were subsidies from the state, and RON 7,380,000 were its own revenues (services and other revenues).The Arad Penitentiary is currently holding 1,307 persons in custody.
Laura Coates, CNN senior legal analyst and SiriusXM radio host, will discuss her book Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutors Fight for Fairness and U.S. legal unfairness when she delivers the keynote address during the opening celebration of the St. Louis County Library Black History Month celebration.
Calvin Wilson Calvin Wilson is theater critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Calvin Wilson 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

If youre interested in seeing a high-energy musical, The Prom is a prime destination. The story of Broadway performers on a mission to set things right in an Indiana town, the touring production is the kind of show that patrons of the Fox Theatre have come to expect. And its worth the price of a ticket even if youve already watched the 2020

Netflix adaptation starring Meryl Streep, James Corden and Nicole Kidman.

With a book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin, lyrics by Beguelin and music by Matthew Sklar, The Prom begins as Dee Dee Allen (Courtney Alan) and Barry Glickman (Patrick Wetzel) suffer a setback. Their performances in a musical about first lady Eleanor Roosevelt have been unmercifully panned, leaving their egos bruised and throwing them into a state of existential dread.

Desperate to redeem themselves, Dee Dee and Barry decamp to the heartland  along with fellow thespians Angie (Emily Borromeo) and Trey Oliver (Bud Weber)  to help teenager Emma (Kaden Kearney) in her battle to attend the school prom with her girlfriend, Alyssa (Kalyn West). It wont be easy: The homophobic PTA has canceled the event to avoid legal trouble.

Director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw  who was also at the helm of the 2018 Broadway production, where Jack Lane and Andrew Kuhlman of Stages St. Louis were producers  brings to The Prom the appropriate pizzazz. This is such a fast-moving show that its all but impossible not to get swept up in it.

And thats a stunning achievement, considering that most of the songs, while serviceable enough, arent particularly memorable. Notable exceptions are Zazz, The Ladys Improving and Love Thy Neighbor, which all happen to be in the second act.

But the cast is spot-on across the board, particularly Kearney in a performance that bodes well for their career.

The Prom is an old-fashioned and unapologetically conventional musical disguised as a satirical romp plugged into the pop-culture zeitgeist. And as such, its the kind of experience that audiences can enjoy without indulging in much serious thought.

Although the shows stance against homophobia is admirable, you get the sense that its creators  including Jack Viertel, who is credited with the original concept  were well aware that theyd mostly be preaching to the choir.

Its not as if musicals are incapable of incisive social criticism. Youve Got to Be Carefully Taught, an antiracist song in the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic South Pacific, still has much the same impact as it did in 1949. But clearly, The Prom isnt that kind of show  and its perhaps unfair even to make the comparison.

Rather, its Broadway glitz that brushes up against reality  but not so much that folks cant spontaneously burst into song or bust a move. And to be honest, wouldnt most of us really rather live in a musical  especially these days?

The Prom' When: Through Feb. 6; performance times vary Where: Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Boulevard How much: $29-$99; proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative test required More info: 314-534-1111; metrotix.com

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A composer with the reputation of John Adams might be able to begin a side career as a conductor based mostly on his fame and on his collaboration with such performing ensembles as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He returned to Powell Hall this weekend to lead concerts that included one of his own compositions.

Since 2009, Adams has served as creative chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Program notes cite his musics depth of expression, brilliance of sound, and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes, contributing to such pieces as Harmonielehre, Shaker Loops and Nixon in China. He is among the most performed of all contemporary classical composers.

Adams began the concert with Tumblebird Contrails (2014) by Gabriella Smith, a 30-year-old doctoral candidate in composition at Princeton University. Smith has an established reputation as a composer very concerned with ecology (hence this pieces title) and has been honored by groups including BMI and ASCAP. If her music is being performed by the SLSO, Princeton might go ahead and grant her the degree.

Some of the composers most closely associated with minimalism have rejected that term as too much of a pigeonhole description. Smiths piece might not fit as neatly into that category as Adams, although it shares the characteristic of sections of music being treated as objects rather than thematically derived expositions. But this piece, also a display of high energy, features such extended techniques as long notes over percussion ostinatos, creative bowings of string instruments, glissandi and blowing into brass instruments without creating conventional notes. For such modern music, the piece earned protracted audience applause.

From among Adams own compositions, these concerts included the piano concerto Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? (2019) featuring soloist Jeremy Denk. (The title is a quote supposedly from Martin Luther.) Tempo instructions include gritty, funky, twitchy, bot-like and swing, referring to Adams use of far-ranging influences, including rock.

In three sections played without pause, the outer sections especially provide high energy and high volume, the soloist hard at work almost continuously. One thinks of musical objects rather than melodies, transitions or harmonies, and the rocking, motoric music provides much bang for the buck, bringing on the first ovation of the concert.

Jean Sibelius Symphony No. 1 in E Minor, op. 39 concluded the performance. From the audience side of the podium, Adams beat appeared to be particularly clear, even in comparison with other famous conductors. His direction isnt particularly heroic, but in the Sibelius piece it elicited the same kind of powerful playing from the orchestra that had been featured in the modern music.

Sibelius romanticism is in vivid contrast with the Adams and Smith compositions, but Adams demonstrated great skill at the more conventional style. For a first symphony, Sibelius provided music of great substance, drama and beauty, demonstrating his preparedness to compete in the wider world than just that of Finnish music, hence the second standing ovation of the concert.

'Adams Conducts Adams' When  8 p.m. Jan. 29 Where  Powell Hall, 718 North Grand Boulevard How much  $15-$96; proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative test required More info  314-534-1700; slso.org
TUESDAY, Feb. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Telling people to isolate in a bedroom when COVID-19 strikes may not be enough to keep the virus from spreading to others in the household, a new study suggests.

Airborne coronavirus particles were found both inside and outside the rooms of people with COVID-19 who were supposed to be self-isolating at home, according to researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

"Our indoor air sampling data clearly demonstrated that measurable airborne SARS-CoV-2 RNA was present in the air in the homes of most infected people, not only in the isolation room, but, importantly, elsewhere in the home," said study lead author Howard Kipen, a professor in the Rutgers School of Public Health. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

Compounding the problem, many of the infected people didn't restrict themselves to their isolation room, spending varying amounts of time in an adjacent common room, the researchers noted.

"We discovered that many did not strictly adhere to self-isolation, with eight of the 11 infected study participants reporting spending from a few hours to 14 hours in the common room and five of 11 participants reporting spending time in other areas of the home," Kipen said in a Rutgers news release.

For the study, the researchers collected air samples from rooms in 11 homes where a newly infected person was isolating, as well as in the adjacent common room. The samples were analyzed for the presence of three SARS-CoV-2specific genes in airborne particles. Participants were also asked how much time they spent isolating in their room.

Air samples with at least one of the three virus genes were found in six of the 11 isolation rooms and in six of the nine common rooms.

Also, other residents in four of the homes were either positive for the coronavirus or had symptoms, according to the study. The results were published recently in the journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

The study sought to document coronavirus air contamination under typical daily living conditions in a household with an infected person. Airborne transmission in crowded living conditions may be one reason for higher rates of COVID infection among people with lower incomes, according to the researchers.

"Risk of infection from larger respiratory droplets that rapidly settle onto surfaces, typically within two meters of the source, can be reduced by hand-washing, social distancing and face masks, but the tiny respiratory particles that stay suspended in air for hours, require air filtration, ventilation or better masks for prevention," Kipen said.

More information

For more on COVID-19 isolation and quarantine, go to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCE: Rutgers University, news release, Jan. 27, 2022

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
MONDAY, Jan. 31, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- California lawmakers must vote by Monday on whether to keep a bill to create a universal health care system moving forward.

Monday, Jan. 31, is the last chance for California Democrats in the Assembly to keep the bill alive this year. That bill is separate from a second bill to fund the universal health care system, which has a different deadline and does not have to pass on Monday.

If both bills are passed, California would become the first state to offer universal health care, but it faces strong opposition from business groups and the insurance industry, the Associated Press reported. It would cost taxpayers at least $356.5 billion a year to cover the health costs of nearly 40 million residents, according to the latest estimate. California's total operating budget -- which pays for public schools, courts, roads, and bridges and other important services -- is roughly $262 billion this year, the AP said.

Earlier this month, Democrats proposed an amendment to the state constitution that would permit new taxes on businesses and individuals that would generate about $163 billion a year to help pay for the universal health care system and allow tax increases to cover costs as they rise, the AP reported.

"A vote for this bill is naturally a vote for the taxes that come along with it," Preston Young, a policy advocate with the California Chamber of Commerce who is leading a coalition of 130 companies against the bill, told the AP. "Health care costs continue to increase, so the tax obligations correlated with it will go up as well."

But for those who support the bill, the logic is simple: Californians and their employers are already paying far too much for health care through high deductibles, copays, and monthly insurance premiums, but if the bill becomes law, it would eliminate all of those and replace them with taxes.

"Sure, there is sticker shock. But there should be sticker shock for how much we are paying now," Stephanie Roberson, director of government relations for the California Nurses Association, told the AP. "What are we getting? People are still uninsured. People are still underinsured. People are going into medical debt. People have to reach tens of thousands of dollars of deductibles. We'll eliminate that under this program."

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
TUESDAY, Feb. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. drug epidemic continues its death march, with new research showing American teens and young adults have lost nearly 1.5 million years of life due to drug overdose deaths in recent years.

For the study, the researchers examined years of life lost  the difference between a person's expected lifespan and when they actually die  among nearly 3,300 adolescents aged 10 to 19 and nearly 21,700 young people aged 10 to 24 who died from unintentional drug overdoses between 2015 and 2019.

During this time, U.S. teens lost nearly 200,000 years of life due to drug overdoses, while young people lost more than 1.25 million years, according to the Ohio State University team.

"Adolescents and young adults dying of overdose are deprived of many years of work, community, and family life. Our study shows overdose mortality among adolescents and young people is unacceptably high," said study co-author Dr. O. Trent Hall, an addiction medicine physician in the university's department of psychiatry and behavioral health.

"Public health interventions to protect this vulnerable group are urgently needed," Hall added in a university news release.

Hall said more resources are needed to prevent unintentional drug overdose among teens and young people. "Existing public health interventions aimed at adults may be insufficient," he noted.

Most research on overdose deaths has focused on adults. The study team hopes this new report raises awareness of the increasingly dire consequences of unintentional drug overdose among a younger population.

Study co-author Dr. Julie Teater is a psychiatrist and addiction medicine physician. She said, "Our study provides important context to the overdose crisis by better representing what it means to society when we lose adolescents and young people to unintentional drug overdose."

The report was published online Jan. 31 in JAMA Pediatrics.

More information

There's more on drug overdose at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCE: Ohio State University, news release, Jan. 31, 2022

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
Dear Miss Manners  My wife and I had a couple over for dinner  longtime friends of ours. I prepared filet mignon and served one to each person. As always, we enjoyed their company and our shared meal.

The woman of the couple did not completely finish her filet mignon, which I understand. However, after she finished eating, she said "Oh, Fido is going to enjoy this"  Fido being their dog and "this" being the leftover filet mignon.

I am still irritated, for these reasons: 1. By inviting them to dinner, we implicitly agreed to feed them, not their dog. 2. A statement like, "This steak was very good, but I cannot eat it all; is it OK if I take it home for lunch tomorrow?" would have been acceptable. 3. My wife and I have our own dog, who would have enjoyed the leftover steak.

My wife does not condone my reasons for finding our guest's statement irritating. She believes that once the food is on a guest's plate, it is the guest's to do with as he or she wishes.

Who has dibs on leftover steak? If the leftovers are the guest's, is it appropriate for the guest to state that it will become dog food? Does the concept of a "doggy bag" exist outside of restaurants?

Gentle Reader  Yes, it exists as a euphemism. Apparently, you would feel better knowing that the lady planned to eat it herself, which may well have been the case. That is the understanding at restaurants, where the food has been bought by the customer.

But after the holiday season, where fighting over leftovers seems to have become a major social sport, Miss Manners refuses to continue with issues concerning food left on individual plates. Please consider that having specifically given this food to your guest, you have no further interest in its destination.

Dear Miss Manners  My husband and I are moving to a small, charming city very popular with tourists. In the past, we have hosted guests in our small condo there, and we expect to continuing welcoming visitors to our slightly larger home. As we will now be locals, I plan to get involved in organizations and activities.

When we have guests, is it permissible for me to encourage them to do some activities on their own? We would provide them with a car, and spend part of every day with them, but now that we will no longer be visitors ourselves, I'd rather encourage our guests to be more independent. Is there a way to do that without being rude?

Gentle Reader  It may not have occurred to you, but Miss Manners assures you that even the most grateful guests wonder how they can have some time on their own without seeming rude to their hosts.

It is up to you, as hosts, to set the schedule, explaining when you have time to be with them, and asking if they want suggestions about what to do in their free time.

Send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.
ST. LOUIS  Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardners disciplinary hearing on charges of ethics violations stemming from her offices 2018 investigation of former Gov. Eric Greitens has been postponed to April.

The Missouri Supreme Court Advisory Committee & Legal Ethics Counsel updated its calendar of public disciplinary hearings Monday, listing the cancellation of Gardners Feb. 28 hearing and showing it rescheduled for 9 a.m. April 11.

The location of the hearing hasnt been announced. No reason was given for the rescheduling.

Gardners lawyer Michael Downey, her spokeswoman Allison Hawk and Missouri Chief Disciplinary Counsel Alan Pratzel could not be reached Tuesday. A representative from the high courts advisory committee said she had no information on the change.

Last May, Missouris chief disciplinary counsel accused Gardner of professional misconduct including concealing details about the Greitens investigation from her own team regarding notes taken during interviews with witnesses, failing to disclose evidence to Greitens lawyers and misrepresenting evidence to the court, defense lawyers and ethics investigators.

The complaint alleged she failed to correct false and sworn statements by members of her team about the existence and disclosure of notes taken in interviews with Greitens accuser.

Gardner has denied all claims against her and said she complied with state law during the Greitens investigation, which ended in May 2018, with Gardner dropping an invasion of privacy case during jury selection. She took that action when faced with potentially having to testify about interviews that William Don Tisaby, the former FBI agent she hired to investigate Greitens, had with Greitens accuser.

Tisaby was later indicted on charges of perjury and evidence tampering, a case pending in St. Louis Circuit Court and set for trial March 28.

If the charges are sustained against Gardner, the Missouri Supreme Court could reprimand her, suspend or revoke her law license. Or the states highest court could take no action.

Greitens was indicted in February 2018 on a felony count of invasion of privacy that alleged that before his run for Missouri governor, he snapped a compromising photo of a woman and threatened to release it if she exposed their affair. Greitens denied that.

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JEFFERSON CITY  An execution date has been scheduled for this spring for a man who killed a couple in their De Soto home in 1996.

Carman L. Deck is to be executed May 3, the Missouri Supreme Court announced Monday. Deck was convicted of fatally shooting James and Zelma Long in July 1996 during a robbery and later confessed to the killing.

However, the execution has been in flux since then. Deck has been sentenced to death three times since his original conviction, and each time, that sentence was overturned.

Originally sentenced to death in February 1998, that sentence was reversed by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2002 due to errors by Decks lawyers.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned his second death penalty in May 2005 because he had been shackled in front of the sentencing jury.

He was sentenced to death again in September 2008. But in April 2017, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry called Decks third penalty-phase trial fundamentally unfair, saying he was unable to fully present evidence arguing for a sentence other than death due to the decade of delays.

An appeal court overturned that ruling in fall of 2020, and the state filed a motion in October to set Decks execution date.

Court records said Deck and his sister, Tonia Cummings, went to the Long home in July 1996 to rob them. Zelma Long answered the door, and Deck asked for directions. She invited them into the house, and as she gave directions and her husband wrote them down, Deck pulled a pistol from his waistband and ordered them to lie facedown on their bed. He shot each of them in the head.

In 1998, Cummings pleaded guilty to her part in the crimes and was sentenced to 70 years in prison.

The last person to be executed in the state was Ernest Lee Johnson. His execution came in October, after faith leaders and activists called for Gov. Mike Parson to halt the execution due to Johnson being intellectually disabled.

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ST. LOUIS  St. Louis saw a particularly violent weekend, with five men shot to death and two others critically injured over a 13-hour stretch Saturday and Sunday.

Police on Monday released the name of homicide victim Jeffery Cook, 60.

Cook was shot inside a home Saturday in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. Cook, who lived in the 2800 block of Chariton Street, was found on the floor of a home on Chariton about 2:15 p.m. Saturday.

He was shot while arguing with a 30-year-old man, police said. Cook was taken to a hospital, where he died the same day.

Even though Cooks death wasnt disclosed until Monday, he was the first to be fatally shot over the weekend.

Five men died in all, shot in three locations. The crime scenes spanned the city, from the Bevo Mill and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods in the south, to Kingsway East in the north part of St. Louis.

An hour after Cook was found, police were called to a quadruple shooting in the 4900 block of Cote Brilliante Avenue. The three men who died are Armaud Green, 18; Davion Rayford, 21; and Jeremiah Curry, 22. A fourth man, who ran to a nearby store, was critically injured. At 2 a.m. Sunday, Perry Pitford, 38, was slain in the Bevo Mill neighborhood. And about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, a man was found shot and critically injured in the Carr Square neighborhood.

Police said St. Louis had 13 homicides in January, compared to 18 last January.

Other victims who survived being shot in St. Louis over the weekend include a 37-year-old man shot about 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the 3900 block of Lee Avenue. The man told police he was taking out the trash and heard gunfire, possibly coming from a pickup truck. The victim was in critical condition at a hospital, police said.

About 7:30 p.m. Saturday, a 28-year-old woman was shot while fighting with an ex-boyfriend in the 3200 block of Delor Street, police said. The man first fired a shot at a 7-month-old girl but missed, police said. The woman struggled with the man to try to wrest the gun away, and thats when he shot her. Police arrested the 27-year-old man for assault.

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ST. LOUIS  Harris-Stowe State University officials closed campus and suspended classes after a bomb threat Tuesday morning, making it one of at least a dozen historically Black colleges and universities across the country to report similar threats.

Officials said roughly three hours later it was safe to return to campus, though classes remained online through Friday because of expected wintry weather, a Harris-Stowe spokeswoman said.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, FBI and campus police were investigating the incident, university officials said.

St. Louis police said they did not know whether the threat at Harris-Stowe was related to a bomb threat Monday morning at St. Louis City Hall.

On Tuesday, which marked the first day of Black History Month, at least 12 other HBCUs, including Howard University in Washington, D.C., Kentucky State University, Morgan State University in Maryland, Alcorn State University in Mississippi and Edward Waters University in Florida, reported threats.

At least six HBCUs had bomb threats the previous day, and eight reported threats two weeks earlier. No bombs were found on any of the campuses.

Harris-Stowe alumna, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, characterized the threats as the violent backlash of white supremacy in a written statement.

(I) want the entire Harris-Stowe community, especially Harris-Stowe students, to know their excellence is to be celebrated, she wrote. Their passion and intellect will change the world, and we will not let the forces of white supremacy slow them down.

The Congressional Bipartisan HBCU Caucus said in a statement it was deeply disturbed by the threats and called for law enforcement to place a top priority on the threats.

Learning is one of the most noble and most human pursuits, and schools are sacred places that should always be free from terror, it said.

Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis has an enrollment of about 1,600 students.

Updated at 4:25 p.m. with a statement from U.S. Rep. Cori Bush.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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JEFFERSON CITY  The latest attempt to alter Missouris gun laws would establish a presumption that individuals who use force against another person reasonably did so in order to defend themselves.

Prosecutors, law-enforcement representatives and civil rights and religious leaders slammed the proposal during a Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety hearing on Tuesday, while proponents, including U.S. Senate candidate Mark McCloskey of St. Louis, praised the measure.

Opponents said the bill, sponsored by Sen. Eric Burlison, R-Battlefield, would lead to chaos and would further stress the states already strained court system, while proponents said it provided a necessary edit to the states Castle Doctrine to guard against overzealous prosecutions.

Missouri law currently requires an individual to prove they reasonably believed physical or deadly force was needed for self-defense, according to a bill summary.

That means a defendant must inject the issue at trial and be subject to cross-examination by prosecutors, St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Timothy Lohmar told the Post-Dispatch after the hearing.

He said the legislation would create pretrial immunity hearings during which a defendant would be able to make a self-defense claim. The state would then have to prove by clear and convincing evidence the defendant isnt immune from prosecution.

Anybody who uses a weapon to murder another individual, or to kill another individual, if they claim self-defense, the law enforcement potentially is handcuffed from even arresting that person, said Lohmar, a Republican.

He said currently, if we believe somebody was unjustified in killing another individual, we charge them with murder, for example, Lohmar said. At the trial, its the defendants right, provided there is some degree of evidence of self-defense, to assert self-defense as an affirmative defense, and that matters left up to the jury to decide.

This bill takes that decision of self-defense essentially away from the jury and applies a different legal standard and it basically relies upon a court to make that decision in advance of the jury ever hearing all the evidence, Lohmar said.

I refer to it as the Make Murder Legal Act, said Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver, a Republican representing the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

What we are doing with this bill is ... basically saying the 6,500 assaults that are committed every single year in Missouri  that every single one of those are automatically presumed to be self-defense, Oliver said.

Right now, you have a right to defend yourself, Oliver said. Theres no one saying that you cant defend yourself. But you do have the burden of injecting the issue.

The bill shifts that burden into a presumption that you are automatically engaged in self-defense, he said. So long as the person is dead ... you automatically have immunity because theres not someone else to even say what had happened.

This bill is aptly named, Chapel said, referencing the bills number, 666, because it will be dragging Missouri right into hell. I cant tell you the levels of pain that Missouri families will experience. What you will see in rural communities will mirror the same pain and agony that we as minorities have experienced for decades, he said.

The bill before the Senate now turns the Castle Doctrine into a bar to prosecution, McCloskey said. We were shocked to find out when we were charged that the Castle Doctrine can only be raised as an affirmative defense.

You have to have the jury decide the issue of whether or not you committed a crime, and then whether or not the Castle Doctrine provides you with a defense, McCloskey said. Thats backwards.

Burlison, the bill sponsor, said Missouri already has a strong Castle Doctrine so that an individual may use force to defend themselves, family or property without having to flee or withdraw.

And yet still, there are those who would seek to prosecute law-abiding Missourians whose only quote-unquote crime is that they were trying to defend themselves and/or their family members, he said.

Burlison also was the sponsor of the Second Amendment Preservation Act, a law panned by Missouri police chiefs, prosecutors and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Among other provisions, SAPA declares invalid many federal gun regulations that dont have an equivalent in Missouri law. These include statutes covering weapons registration and tracking, and possession of firearms by some domestic violence offenders.

The legislation is Senate Bill 666.

Originally posted at 10:21 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1. Updated at 12:30 p.m.

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ST. LOUIS  St. Louis police Officer Colin Ledbetter has regained consciousness and continues to beat the odds in his recovery, his father, Steve Ledbetter, told the Post-Dispatch on Monday afternoon.

Ledbetter, in his fourth year as a St. Louis police officer, was shot at least twice in Ferguson on Wednesday afternoon. Another officer was also shot in the leg.

Weve talked to a few experts about the survival percentages, and hes doing amazingly well, Ledbetter said of his 25-year-old son, who has undergone days of surgeries since Wednesday.

The young officer is conscious and is now off a ventilator, but he remains heavily sedated, Ledbetter said. He was able to recognize his mother and his girlfriend and asked repeatedly if his fellow officer also shot Wednesday was OK.

The two officers were wounded while chasing a car connected to a homicide in St. Louis, police have said. The chase led the officers into Ferguson. At least one of three people in the fleeing car shot at officers, hitting Ledbetter in the groin and foot and the other officer in the leg.

Steve Ledbetter said the EMTs, hospital staff and St. Louis officers who rushed his son to the hospital deserved thanks for his survival.

That saved him, Ledbetter said. I spoke to another St. Louis officer who rode in the ambulance with Colin and put pressure on him to slow the bleeding. He said: Colin would have done the same thing for me.

Ledbetter said St. Louis officers sat with the family for hours at Barnes-Jewish Hospital after the shooting.

The officers were with us late into the evening and they have to go home and have that what if conversation with their families: What if it was me? Ledbetter said. Then they have to get up the next day and go back to work. Colin would want the recognition for them and the job that theyre still doing.

Ledbetter said his son still has a long road of recovery ahead, but so far, all signs are positive.

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EAST ST. LOUIS  A group of parents protested the return to in-person classes Monday in the East St. Louis School District, which had been holding school virtually since Jan. 4 because of a spike in COVID-19 cases.

About a dozen people from Parents and Guardians United of East St. Louis School District, the Metro East Organizing Coalition and other local groups held signs and gave speeches outside the districts offices Monday to demand a remote option for students, along with virtual tutoring.

We dont feel safe. We need options and answers, said lead organizer Larita Rice-Barnes, who has kept her daughter out of East St. Louis High School this year. This virus is serious. We demand a remote learning option for parents who desire it.

The groups concerns include crowded school buses and hallways and a lack of mask compliance and social distancing in classrooms. Remote learning in Illinois is available only to students who qualify for a waiver for health reasons.

We dont want to send kids to school in an environment where the district cant protect them, said Danielle McGill, who has two children in high school. Parents want the option of virtual learning. We dont feel safe with the high COVID numbers in our area.

One of the parents at the protest, Marshata Caradine, said her husband died of COVID-19 last fall. She believes she caught the virus while substitute teaching in St. Louis Public Schools.

The East St. Louis School District moved to remote learning after winter break but reopened school buildings Monday after cases started to decline.

The weekly COVID-19 positivity rate in St. Clair County dropped to 21% last week, down from a high of 29% the week ending Jan. 12. Residents ages 20 and younger accounted for more than one-third of the cases in the county last month.

The East St. Louis School District 189 continues extensive monitoring of COVID-19 data in our serving ZIP codes and consultation with East Side Health District as we prioritize the health and safety of our students and staff, the district said in a statement.

All classrooms have high-efficiency air filters and purifiers, and students can receive weekly testing for the virus at school, said district spokeswoman Sydney Stigge-Kaufman.

Student attendance was 76% on Monday, an improvement over the past month of virtual learning, Stigge-Kaufman said.

Meanwhile, a Sangamon County judge is considering a motion to block the statewide mask mandate in schools and end quarantines for students and staff who have close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow heard oral arguments last week in a class action lawsuit against 145 school districts including Edwardsville and Triad in Troy that was filed last year by Greenville attorney Thomas DeVore. He has unsuccessfully challenged the states COVID-19 mitigation measures with several other lawsuits.

In September, DeVore filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to permit students to continue in-person learning in school.

Attorney General Kwame Raouls office is defending the districts. The Illinois Education Association, along with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, has entered the case as intervenors on behalf of the teachers they represent.

The cases were originally filed individually in several Illinois counties but were later consolidated into Sangamon County Circuit Court.

At issue is whether school districts are violating state law by following orders from Gov. J.B. Pritzker and guidelines from the Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Board of Education to impose certain mitigation measures in order to hold in-person instruction.

Those measures include requirements that all students, staff and visitors wear face coverings in school buildings, that students and staff be excluded from buildings if they test positive for COVID-19 or have been in close contact with someone else who has, and that school personnel be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

In the suit, DeVore argues that exclusions amount to a kind of quarantine and that under the Department of Public Health Act, schools cannot exclude students for public health concerns without their parents consent or a quarantine order from a public health department.

He argues that schools have no legal authority to require vaccinations or the wearing of masks unless a public health department has issued a quarantine order.

Lee News Service contributed to this report.

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JEFFERSON CITY  Anti-vaccination activists are attempting to block the confirmation of Gov. Mike Parsons health chief, falsely alleging he wants to force all Missourians to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

In a rally Monday, the group urged the Senate to vote down the appointment of Donald Kauerauf as director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Despite evidence to the contrary, the opponents argued that Kauerauf would attempt to require all Missourians to get vaccinated against a respiratory disease that has killed more than 17,000 Missourians.

Since his hiring in July to replace Randall Williams, Kauerauf has said he strongly supports vaccinations as a way to control the pandemic, but he has not called for mandatory vaccinations in keeping with Parsons oft-stated opposition to the idea.

The opposition drew a rare statement of support from Parson, who said Kauerauf was hired because he was the best qualified candidate for the job.

During Dons six months leading DHSS, he has shown nothing but dignified public service to the people of Missouri, and during this same period, Missouri has always resisted COVID-19 mandates, prevented federal government overreach, and fought COVID-19 vaccine requirements, the governor wrote.

Dr. Mollie James, a former intensive care physician, was among those speaking to about 150 activists in the Capitol rotunda. She said the state health departments warning about using ivermectin  used to treat parasitic worms in horses  for COVID-19 was an absolute lie.

The depth of corruption goes to the highest of levels, said James, who also promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, which was developed to treat malaria caused by mosquito bites.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July 2020 said hydroxychloroquine showed no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery from the coronavirus.

Some lawmakers lent their names to the rally, including Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg.

Its important you stay diligent, Hoskins told the crowd.

Parson signaled he was disappointed in officials who have pushed back against his nominee.

Its concerning to see certain Missouri officials grandstanding for purely political reasons and fueling fears without any regard for the truth. I implore Missouri senators to assess the qualities of the person, not let themselves fall victim to misinformation repeated on social media, the governor wrote.

Following the rally, the unmasked protesters flooded the halls of the Senate, drawing the attention of Capitol police.

Senate President Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, who chairs the Senate Gubernatorial Appointments Committee, warned the group that he would not tolerate interruptions during the hearing process.

There will be no outbursts, Schatz said.

Despite the admonition, the hearing was interrupted a handful of times by the protesters. Kauerauf said he was not deterred.

Im sure when I leave here today they are going to be yelling everything at me. I dont really care, Kauerauf said.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that people who are unvaccinated face a significantly greater risk of death from COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated.

But amid an avalanche of misinformation about the shots, only about 54% of Missourians are fully vaccinated.

Under questioning by Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, Kauerauf said he is against mask mandates, which are designed to lower the transmission of the airborne germs.

They dont work, Kauerauf said.

He said he opposes the imposition of a statewide vaccination requirement but stood by his earlier statement that Missouris vaccination rate is atrocious.

We can get through this if people get vaccinated, Kauerauf said.

He told Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, that he believes vaccinations are more long-lasting than so-called natural immunity because of the presence of variants in the virus.

But Kauerauf appeared to soften the departments 2021 stance on ivermectin, which advises against its use.

Any type of treatment should be between an individual and their physician, Kauerauf said.

Before coming to Missouri, Kauerauf chaired the Illinois Terrorism Task Force and was assistant director of the Illinois Department of Public Health from 2016 until his retirement in 2018.

In December, he wanted to challenge a judges ruling against the agency that barred COVID-19 public health orders. But Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is running for U.S. Senate, disagreed because he opposes public health orders and has sued local governments and schools to block them.

Continuing threats

The effort to torpedo Kauerauf comes as other health officials have quit amid threats from those opposed to public health orders.

In December, Franklin Countys health director resigned, alleging threats of violence against her.

In July 2020, residents protested outside the Jefferson County health department as the county health board discussed a proposal to require masks in public places. The health director later said that some had threatened to protest in front of her home.

In November 2020, the director of the St. Francois County public health department resigned, citing threats and harassment.

In September, Kauerauf said the lack of respect and knowledge, darn right meanness toward each other in the public health field in Missouri and across the country is damaging health officials credibility.

The effort also comes against the backdrop of Republican lawmakers pushing more than a dozen bills that would ban public- or private-employer vaccine mandates.

Other bills would force employers to assume liability if workers who are required to be vaccinated have any adverse side effects.

The committee could vote as early as Tuesday on whether to advance Kauerauf to the full Senate for further debate.

Originally posted at 5:15 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31.

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JEFFERSON CITY  The Missouri Senate torpedoed Gov. Mike Parsons choice to run the state health department Tuesday amid unfounded concerns that he favors mask mandates and vaccine requirements.

With a snowstorm bearing down on the state and a constitutional deadline looming on Friday to approve Donald Kauerauf as director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, conservative senators balked at Parsons choice.

It was the latest example of the intersection of public health and politics at a time when COVID-19 has killed more than 17,000 Missourians.

The pending snowstorm triggered the cancellation of Wednesdays and Thursdays regularly scheduled sessions for the Senate and House, making it highly unlikely lawmakers would return to the Capitol by Friday.

Following the Senates inaction on his confirmation, Kauerauf resigned and Parson appointed DHSS general counsel Richard Moore to serve as acting director.

The governor will further evaluate the states options in the coming days, Parsons office said in a press release.

In a statement, Parson, a Republican, slammed members of the Republican-led Senate who worked to block the appointment.

The events that have transpired over the past few days surrounding Dons Senate confirmation hearing are nothing short of disgraceful, unquestionably wrong, and an embarrassment to this state and the people we serve, Parson said.

Parson said he wouldnt have nominated a director who didnt share his conservative values in opposing mask and vaccine mandates. He further scolded senators for tarnishing a mans character by feeding misinformation, repeating lies, and disgracing 35 years of public health experience.

Don is a devoted public servant who did not deserve this, and Missourians deserve better, Parson said.

Senate President Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, said Parsons pick was well-qualified after a 30-plus year public health career in Illinois. But, after hearing a litany of concerns and criticisms from the hard-line conservatives, he became convinced the nomination could not move forward in the politically fractured upper chamber.

Im not sure what ginned up all this excitement on this individual. Obviously there was a lot of hype going into this, said Schatz, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, called the outcome sad, but not surprising in the current political atmosphere, where masks have become controversial, despite studies showing they help stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect the wearers.

I think its unfortunately what politics has become today. You have a subsection of the Republican Party that is irrational and unreasonable and today they gained a victory by pushing back on science, Rizzo said.

Kauerauf was appointed to replace embattled DHSS Director Randall Williams in July. Kauerauf became the focal point of Republican-aligned anti-vaccination activists, who falsely claimed he wanted to force all Missourians to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Kauerauf has said he strongly supports vaccinations as a way to control the pandemic, but he has not called for mandatory vaccinations in keeping with Parsons oft-stated opposition to the idea.

In a desperate move to salvage the nomination, Parson on Monday issued a press release calling out unnamed officials for grandstanding on the confirmation process, saying senators should instead look at Kaueraufs credentials.

Under the Missouri Constitution, agency heads appointed when the Legislature is not in session must be confirmed within the first 30 days of the Senate session.

Parson could have pulled the nomination and refiled it in order to restart the clock, but a handful of conservatives in the GOP-controlled Senate made it clear they would continue working to block Kauerauf leading up to Fridays deadline.

The defeat means Kauerauf cannot be appointed to the director position again under a provision in the state Constitution.

Kauerauf, who was being paid about $133,000 annually as acting DHSS chief, had repeatedly said he is opposed to mandates, as is Parson.

Critics like Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican who is running for Congress, werent listening.

Moon, who is a religious conservative, argued in a lengthy filibuster Tuesday that Kauerauf was misleading on his knowledge of programs in Illinois designed to limit the spread of COVID-19.

And, Moon suggested Kauerauf was not sufficiently anti-abortion.

Moons lengthy diatribe included him questioning the safety of vaccines that have prevented hospitalization and death.

He also went on at length about the use of masks, saying they block the view of people smiling.

Its just kind of a sad state about where we are as a society today. When will it end? Maybe when Christ returns. I dont know, Moon said.

Posted at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1. Updated at 6:15 p.m. to include the governors comments.

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JEFFERSON CITY  With a severe winter snowstorm on the way, Gov. Mike Parson signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon.

In a release, the governors office warned Missourians of dangerous accumulations of snow, sleet and ice set to affect most of the state over the next two days.

By signing this order, we enable our emergency management professionals to have every tool and resource available to aid Missourians, protect lives, and respond to this winter storm, Parson said in the release. We encourage all Missourians to be vigilant and take precautions to avoid hazardous road conditions and keep themselves and their families safe.

The snow is predicted to begin for much of the state Tuesday evening, starting in the northern region of the state and moving southeastward. Over half the state is under a winter storm warning, including the St. Louis region.

The National Weather Service has estimated the region could see anywhere from 7 to 14 inches of snow, with precipitation lasting through Thursday. Officials have warned residents to prepare for significant disruptions.

The executive order will allow state agencies to assist local authorities in responding to the storm. The order also activates the National Guard, which will be working with the Missouri State Highway Patrol to address transportation disruption around the state and help any stranded drivers.

The MoDOT director stated in a release that with staffing issues it may take longer than normal to return roads to a mostly clear status after the storm.

State agencies have compiled a list of safety tips for winter weather, including tips for power outages and stranded drivers, and a regularly updated map of road conditions.

Grace Zokovitch gzokovitch@post-dispatch.com
Most actors get a chance to critique their own work when the project is released. This hasnt been the case for Reagan To, who dubbed two characters voices into English on Squid Game  the most-watched series ever on Netflix. Now a 10-year-old fourth grader, the Los Angeles resident said her parents wont allow her to watch the violent dystopian South Korean series. My older brother, Aiden, is 14, and even he was not allowed to watch, she said. But I was really excited to portray two roles for the show. When I was at the studio, I didnt know anything about the series, because the production team didnt tell us too much about it. The youngster  who made her acting debut in Jane the Virgin  dubbed the voices of Ga-Yeong (the daughter of the Squid Game protagonist, Gi-Hun) and the oversized creepy doll that features prominently in the debut episode.

Q: How did you approach voicing the Squid Game doll?

A: I wasnt told about the violent scenes with the doll, so all I was imagining was a friendly doll that was staying calm but was getting more excited to play! I was thinking back to when I was playing with my friends back in school, and that helped me to create a young and innocent voice. I think that made the character even more scary and creepy. I am still surprised by the shows success around the world. Hearing my doll voice on Saturday Night Live was so weird! I sometimes have to pinch myself to check if Im dreaming.

Q: Does your family go all out for Lunar New Year?

A: Its my favorite holiday and my family celebrates it every year! Its a time when we all meet and get together. In Chinese culture, the tradition for the holiday requires that the house is very clean and spotless for the new year. Two nights before the Lunar New Year, my family deep cleans the house together and scrubs everything we can see. But my favorite part is when my parents ask me and my brother to prepare the red envelopes. These are little shiny red pockets of money my parents give out during New Years celebration. The traditions last more than a week, but my favorite day is on New Years Day. My brother and I always get up super early to get ready and dress up in our new red Chinese outfits. We say gong hei fat choy and many other wishes in Cantonese. I really treasure our breakfast when we cook and eat together. My favorite dish is called nian gao in Cantonese. This delicious cake is made of turnips and other yummy ingredients. They represent good luck and are a symbol for good health too. After breakfast, my parents will drive us all around Los Angeles to bring luck to us for the whole year!

Q: Where would you like to visit one day?

A: England! I want to see so many things there! After spending many days at the museum, I would like to visit Buckingham Palace. I dreamed about being a princess when I was little, so it would be very special to see a real palace and castle one day.

Q: How do you feel about traveling?

A: Traveling is very relaxing and it really puts me in a good mood. I love exploring new places with my family. Besides Hong Kong, my family has taken me to many different places in Asia and America. The trip that was very special to me was my trip to Cambodia. It was so magical to visit a country that was very different but so amazing. I remember that I was so tired at the end of every day after climbing and walking around so many temples. I ate so much yummy food and I tried many things that I havent before! My parents were planning to take us to Europe two years ago. But because of the pandemic, I was so sad that we had to cancel the trip. We had to be safe so we had no choice. I cant wait for everything to get better so I can travel with my family again.

Q: Does your family go on any road trips or camping?

A: Road trips are so fun! Playing games and just hanging out with my family is relaxing for me. This is something we get to do on our camping trips. Last year, we went on a road trip to Nevada and Arizona. It was my first time in a RV, so I didnt like that I had to take quick showers with so little hot water. In the mornings, my brother and I went hiking and biking. The breeze felt cool and relaxing, and it was a great way to start the day. It got hotter during the day, so we rented a boat in Lake Mead. My parents were driving the boat, and I was looking at the map and taking us to places all over the lake. We had a lunch on the boat right above Hoover Dam. What a beautiful view!

Q: Can you tell me about some of your favorite trips?

A: One of my favorite memories is kayaking in a boat with my brother in Mexico. The shore was so pretty and it felt like a beautiful scene from a movie! (And) I learned so much and had too much fun on my trip to Hong Kong. I remember taking the busy train and bus in Hong Kong, which is so different from driving a car around in Los Angeles. Everything was moving so fast, and I learned so much about the different culture. It meant a lot to me because I could finally see and understand where all the Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow movies come from!

The food was just amazing! Tasting all the food from my culture was very exciting! My parents took me to visit many places, even their old homes. It was magical because it felt like I was in a movie of my familys life. I felt really proud of my family.

(Jae-Ha Kim is a New York Times bestselling author and travel writer. You can respond to this column by visiting her website at www.jaehakim.com. You may also follow Go Away With on Twitter at @GoAwayWithJae where Jae-Ha Kim welcomes your questions and comments.)
While locals celebrate their cuisine in every country, Italy is perhaps the most exuberant about their food culture. Heres an example of how going for a simple walk with a friend from Venice can become a lesson in expert eating.

At sunset I meet my Venetian hotelier friend, Piero, and we head for his friends restaurant. Such a long line just to enter St. Marks Basilica today, I tell him, Even the back alleys were clogged with people. Its a zoo.

Piero leans toward me. Yes! Zoo, zoo, zoo! Is a problem. In Venice the people come every day like a wave. There is no high season, no low season. Every morning we are invaded. But at six oclock, the tourists go away.

As if in command of the city, Piero waves a hand across the empty market square, grandly saying, And now Venice lives. Really, Venice is a fine place in the night. Sleep in Venice and you see the quiet Venice. When you see a menu turistico, go away. When you see old men speaking Italian in a restaurant, this is a good place. I take you now to Bepis.

Greeting old friends as we walk, Piero explains how in Venice, if you open a restaurant you must decide if you want to attract tourists or Venetians. To make a tourist restaurant is no problem, he says. You see the people only one time. Even talking to them is not necessary. Onetime visitors, it means bad food.

We arrive at Trattoria da Bepi and Piero kisses the cheeks of the waiter before he continues. For me, a good restaurant is like home. Mama is cooking.

Sitting down at an outdoor table, Piero points out Bepi. He stands as if carved into his cicchetti bar, surrounded by toothpick munchies on trays and wellfed neighbors. Cicchetti (pronounced chi-KET-tee) are the Venetian version of tapas--an array of finger foods and appetizers that combine to make a speedy, tasty meal, best washed down with little glasses of wine.

We are maniacs about fish in the North Adriatic, Piero says, before introducing me to Bepis son, Loris. Loris is a nightmare in the fish market. He knows what is no good ... what is OK ... always finds the best. His mama is a Venetian mama, Delfina. I ask her to tell me how she cooks the fish. She puts her hand on her heart and says, There is no recipe. It is from here.

Loris and Piero work up a dinner plan on a scratch pad as if putting together the guest list for a very special evening. They discuss each plate like its an old friend.

Soon plates start to arrive. Piero goes immediately for the polenta with cod saying, In the south they call the people of Venice polenta eaters.

Piero splashes a hunk of bread into the broth under a pile of empty mussel shells and says, You can feel the sea here.

The conversation stops as a girl in a short wispy skirt prances by on the arm of a local Romeo. Piero says, Is incredeeble. Look at this one! This is Venice. I am sorry. I am Italian. I watch the girls.

As another lovely Italian woman struts by, Piero observes, Giorgione, he is a good artist  yes  but this ... this is better. Oh, Dio. I have a beautiful girlfriend. She is a model. But I cannot be married. It is impossee  

I interrupt Piero by pretending to notice a woman over his shoulder. He stops mid-sentence to see what distracts me. Its nothing  but I make my point: The default switch in his mind is set on girl-watching.

Suddenly, its back to the fine dining. Loris brings a plate of six crawfish with tails peeled and ready to bite. As I peer skeptically at the strange-looking creatures, Piero says, More aliens.

As I pick one up and bite off the tail, I notice how cold and limp it feels. I ask, Is this raw?

Yes ... Italian sushi.

A bit later, Loris returns. Now we have the pasta with crab sauce. He serves Piero and puts the big bowl in front of me.

Ahhh, Piero says, For the peasant family, this was the biggest honor ... to get the original bowl.

The real treat for me is the luxury of being able to eat local with a local in a place like Venice.

(Rick Steves (www.ricksteves.com) writes European guidebooks, hosts travel shows on public TV and radio, and organizes European tours. This article was adapted from his new book, For the Love of Europe. You can email Rick at rick@ricksteves.com and follow his blog on Facebook.)
DGAP-Ad-hoc: GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE / Key word(s): Miscellaneous

GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE announces bookbuilding for up to EUR 190 million (EUR 200 million including greenshoe) private placement and listing on Euronext Amsterdam and targets a ...



01-Feb-2022 / 17:16 CET/CEST

Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





AD-HOC RELEASE

Public disclosure of inside information according to Article 17 para. 1 of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on market abuse (Market Abuse Regulation)

GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE announces bookbuilding for up to EUR 190 million (EUR 200 million including greenshoe) private placement and listing on Euronext Amsterdam and targets a business combination in the technology sector

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA OR JAPAN OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. OTHER RESTRICTIONS ARE APPLICABLE. PLEASE SEE THE IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE END OF THE RELEASE.

Luxembourg, February 1, 2022

GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE (the " Company "), a Luxembourg special purpose acquisition company aiming to acquire one company in the European technology sector, announces the start of its private placement of up to 19 million (20 million including greenshoe) units (the " Units "), each consisting of one share (a " Class A Share ") with the right to receive one-half of a warrant (a " Class A Warrant ") at the end of the stabilization period, at a placement price of EUR 10.00 per Unit for an aggregate of up to EUR 190 million (EUR 200 million including greenshoe). The Units will be offered to institutional investors and other investors. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft and Citigroup Global Markets Limited are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. will act as listing, paying and warrant agent. Citigroup Global Markets Limited will further act as stabilization manager. The private placement is expected to end on or before February 3, 2022.

GP Bullhound Holdings Ltd. acts as the sponsor of the Company. GP Bullhound I SCSp acts as the Founder of the Company. The Company is advised by the GP Bullhound's three co-founders and managing partners, Hugh Campbell, Manish Madhvani, and Per Roman.

The Company intends to focus on companies or businesses with principal operations in the European Economic Area as well as the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Israel in the technology sector with a focus on the software, digital media, digital commerce, fintech and digital services sub-sectors. The target is envisaged to have an equity value between EUR 800 million and EUR 2 billion. The Company will have 15 months to consummate a Business Combination (this period may be extended up to two times, in each case by three months, by resolution of the Company's general shareholders' meeting), otherwise it will be liquidated and distribute substantially all of its assets to its shareholders.

The Class A Shares (ISIN LU2434421173, Amsterdam Stock Exchange: BHND) will be admitted to trading on the regulated market of Euronext Amsterdam and will trade as Units for up to the first 35 days. Subsequently, the Class A Shares will trade without (ex) right to receive  Class A Warrant and the Class A Warrants (ISIN LU2434421330, Amsterdam Stock Exchange: BHNDW) will be distributed to the Class A shareholders. Trading in the Units is expected to commence on February (, 2022.

Contact

Iman Crisby

9, rue de Bitbourg

L-1273 Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Iman.crisby@gpbullhound.com

Important Notice

These materials may not be published, distributed or transmitted in the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan. These materials do not constitute an offer of securities for sale or a solicitation of an offer to purchase securities (the "Securities") of GP Bullhound Acquisition I SE (the "Company") in the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan or any other jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. The Securities of the Company may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). There will be no public offering of the Securities in the United States. The Securities of the Company have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act. The Securities referred to herein may not be offered or sold in Australia, Canada or Japan or to, or for the account or benefit of, any national, resident or citizen of Australia, Canada or Japan subject to certain exceptions.

This publication constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy Securities. The listing of the Securities will be made solely by the means of, and on the basis of, a Securities prospectus which is yet to be published. An investment decision regarding any Securities of the Company should only be made on the basis of the Securities prospectus. The Securities prospectus will be approved by the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier in its capacity as competent authority under the Prospectus Regulation and Luxembourg law of 16 July 2019 on prospectuses for securities (Loi du 16 juillet 2019 relative aux prospectus pour valeurs mobilieres) and to be passported to the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (the "AFM"). The Securities prospectus will be published and made available at no cost through the website of the AFM and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and through the website of the Company, subject to securities law restrictions in certain jurisdictions.

In member states of the European Economic Area the placement of Securities described in this announcement is directed exclusively at persons who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 (Prospectus Regulation).

The Units are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any Retail Investor in the EEA. For these purposes, a "Retail Investor" means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments, as amended ("MiFID II"); (ii) a customer within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2016/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 January 2016 on insurance distribution, as amended, where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II. Consequently, no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (the "PRIIPs Regulation") for offering or selling the Units or otherwise making them available to Retail Investors in the EEA has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the Units or otherwise making them available to any Retail Investor in the EEA may be unlawful under the PRIIPs Regulation.

Solely for the purpose of the product governance requirements contained within (i) MiFID II, (ii) Articles 9 and 10 of Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 of April 7, 2016 supplementing MiFID II and (iii) local implementing measures (together, the "MiFID II Requirements"), and disclaiming any and all liability, whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise, which any "manufacturer" (for the purposes of the MiFID II Requirements) may otherwise have with respect thereto, the Units, Class A Shares and Class A Warrants have been subject to a product approval process. As a result, it has been determined that (i) the Units are (a) compatible with an end target market of investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II, and (b) eligible for distribution through all distribution channels permitted by MiFID II, (ii) the Class A Shares are (a) compatible with an end target market of retail investors and investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II, and (b) eligible for distribution through all distribution channels permitted by MiFID II and (iii) the Class A Warrants are (a) compatible with an end target market of investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II, and (b) eligible for distribution to professional clients and eligible counterparties through all distribution channels permitted by MiFID II.

Any person subsequently offering, selling or recommending the Class A Shares and Class A Warrants (a "distributor") should take into consideration the manufacturer's target market assessment; however, a distributor subject to MiFID II is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the Class A Shares and Class A Warrants (by either adopting or refining the manufacturer's target market assessment) and determining appropriate distribution channels.

This publication may in the United Kingdom only be distributed to, and is only directed at, persons who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, and who are also (i) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the "Order"), (ii) persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.), or (iii) persons to whom it may it may otherwise lawfully be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "Relevant Persons"). This publication is directed only at Relevant Persons and must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not Relevant Persons. Any investment or investment activity in Units of the Company is available only to Relevant Persons and will be engaged in only with Relevant Persons.

The Units are not intended, to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any Retail Investor in the United Kingdom ("UK"). For these purposes the expression "Retail Investor" means a person who is one (or more) of the following: (i) a retail client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 2017/565 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("EUWA"); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of the provisions of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the "FSMA") and any rules or regulations made under the FSMA to implement Directive (EU) 2016/97, where that customer would not qualify as a professional client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA ("UK MiFIR"). Consequently, no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA (the "UK PRIIPs Regulation") for offering or selling the Units or otherwise making them available to Retail Investors in the UK has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the Units or otherwise making them available to any Retail Investor in the UK may be unlawful under the UK PRIIPs Regulation.

No action has been taken that would permit an offering or an acquisition of the Securities or a distribution of this announcement in any jurisdiction where such action would be unlawful. Persons into whose possession this announcement comes are required to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions.

This announcement does not constitute a recommendation concerning the placement. Investors should consult a professional advisor as to the suitability of the placement for the person concerned.

This release may contain forward looking statements, estimates, opinions and projections with respect to anticipated future performance of the Company ("forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believes," "estimates," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "may," "will" or "should" or, in each case, their negative, or other variations or comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on the current views, expectations and assumptions of the management of the Company and involve significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. Any forward-looking statements included herein only speak as at the date of this release. The Company undertakes no obligation, and does not expect to publicly update, or publicly revise, any of the information, forward-looking statements or the conclusions contained herein or to reflect new events or circumstances or to correct any inaccuracies which may become apparent subsequent to the date hereof, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The Company accepts no liability whatsoever in respect of the achievement of such forward-looking statements and assumptions.

No representation or warranty, express or implied, is or will be made as to, or in relation to, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by each underwriter or by any of their respective affiliates or agents as to, or in relation to, the accuracy or completeness of this announcement or any other written or oral information made available to or publicly available to any interested party or its advisers, and any liability therefore is expressly disclaimed.

In connection with the placement of the Units, an underwriter and any of its affiliates acting as an investor for their own account may take up as a proprietary position any Units and in that capacity may retain, purchase or sell for their own account such Unit. In addition, an underwriter or its affiliates may enter into financing arrangements and swaps with investors in connection with which that underwriters (or its affiliates) may from time to time acquire, hold or dispose of Units. Each underwriter does not intend to disclose the extent of any such investment or transactions otherwise than in accordance with any legal or regulatory obligation to do so.

The information contained in this announcement is for background purposes only and does not purport to be full or complete. No reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information contained in this announcement or its accuracy or completeness. This announcement does not purport to identify or suggest the risks (direct or indirect) which may be associated with an investment in the Units. Any investment decision in connection with the Units must be made solely on the basis of all publicly available information relating to the Units (which has not been independently verified by the underwriters).

Each underwriter is acting on behalf of their client and no one else in connection with any offering of the Units and will not be responsible to any other person for providing the protections afforded to clients of the underwriter nor for providing advice in relation to any offering of the Units.
LONDON MARKET CLOSE: Stocks slip ahead of US interest rate hike

Wednesday, May 4, 2022 - 17:16

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London closed down on Wednesday as trading tensions grew ahead of the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, despite the outcome of the meeting unlikely to be a surprise.

Since I've yet to find anyone who doesn't expect 50bp, clear indications of more to come at a similar or even faster pace, and the start of balance sheet reduction, this evening is either a non-event or a huge surprise, said Societe Generale's Kit Juckes.

The FTSE 100 index closed down 67.88 points, or 0.9%, at 7,493.45. The FTSE 250 ended down 301.28 points, or 1.5%, at 20,219.48, and the AIM All-Share closed down 14.96 points, or 1.5%, at 998.56.

The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.7% at 746.48, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 1.5% at 17,880.72, and the Cboe Small Companies ended down 0.4% at 15,068.03.

In European equities on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 1.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt fell a more modest 0.5%.

European markets slipped and Wall Street was trading on the back foot in anticipation of the Fed decision, due at 1900 BST. This will be followed by a press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell at 1930 BST.

The outcome of the meeting is unlikely to surprise, with markets pricing in a 99% chance of a 50 basis point hike.

Such a move was all but confirmed by Powell in remarks last month when he said a half-point hike would be on the table for May.

It is appropriate, in my view, to be moving a little more quickly. And I also think there's something in the idea of front-end loading whatever accommodation one thinks is appropriate, Powell said during a debate on the global economy hosted by the International Monetary Fund on the sidelines of its spring meetings.

Stocks in New York were lower at the London equities close, with the DJIA down 0.2%, the S&P 500 index down 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.4%.

The dollar pulled back ahead of the Fed. The euro stood at $1.0560 at the European equities close Wednesday, up against $1.0535 at the same time on Tuesday. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP129.93, down compared to JP129.97 late Tuesday.

Weighing on the greenback was data showing US private sector employment growth slowed in April. Ahead of Friday's key nonfarm payrolls figure, ADP data showed 247,000 jobs were added to the US private sector in April, down from March's upwardly revised 479,000 and below a market forecast of 395,000 jobs.

This was followed by surveys highlighting inflationary pressure amongst US service sector firms in April.

The Institute for Supply Management's services purchasing managers' index registered 57.1 in April, down from 58.3 in March. Any reading over 50.0 indicates expansion.

The S&P Global services PMI registered 55.6 in April, significantly above the flash estimate of 54.7. However, this remained below the 58.0 registered in March.

The pound slipped to be quoted at $1.2501 at the London equities close Wednesday from $1.2511 at the close on Tuesday.

Hot on the heels of the Fed comes the Bank of England, announcing its latest interest rate decision at midday on Thursday.

After slashing interest rates to a record low of 0.10% in March 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic began to engulf Europe, the BoE was among the first central banks to begin lifting interest rates with a 15 basis point hike in December 2021.

This was followed up by successive hikes in February and March, to bring Bank Rate to where it currently stands at 0.75%.

Markets overwhelmingly expect the BoE to hike rates for the fourth meeting in a row, which would bring Bank Rate to 1.00% - a level it has not stood at since 2009.

Even a vote or two in favour of a 50 basis point hike tomorrow would be bullish for the pound, whereas two or more votes in favour of no change would be perceived as dovish and could trigger another bout of sterling weakness, commented Matthew Ryan, senior market analyst at Ebury.

In London, shares in Flutter Entertainment rose 5.1% after saying it grew revenue in the first quarter, led by a strong performance in the US market which offset a decline in the UK & Ireland.

The Dublin-based sports betting and gaming company said in the first quarter, total revenue was 5% higher year-on-year at 1.57 billion from 1.49 billion. This was a 6% increase on a constant-currency basis.

With our enlarged recreational customer base, winning position in the US and ongoing focus on sustainable growth, our business remains well placed for the future, said Chief Executive Peter Jackson.

Retailers were bunched at the bottom of the FTSE 100, with DIY retailer Kingfisher falling 5.0% and athleisurewear firm JD Sports down 4.7%, after the latest British Retail Consortium-NielsenIQ tracker showed UK shop price growth accelerated in April.

Shop prices rose 2.7% annually in April. Growth quickened from 2.1% in March. April's climb was also above the six-month average rise of 1.5%, the BRC noted.

Sports Direct owner Frasers fell 5.3%.

Elsewhere in the FTSE 250, Aston Martin raced ahead by 6.7% after reporting a first-quarter performance in line with expectations, with growth in revenue on strong pricing but a widened loss through higher expenses.

In addition, the luxury carmaker confirmed the appointment of Amedeo Felisa as chief executive officer, with immediate effect. He will be replacing Tobias Moers, who is stepping down after two years in the role since 2020.

Felisa was CEO of Ferrari from 2008 and 2016. He joined the Aston Martin board as a non-executive director last summer.

Chair Lawrence Stroll said there is a need for the business to enter a new phase of growth with a new leadership team and structure.

Direct Line fell 6.3% after the insurer said total gross written premium & service fees fell 2.4% in the first quarter to 734.3 million from 752.3 million the year before.

On AIM, boohoo shares dropped 12% after the online retailer posted a sharp annual profit plunge driven by high item return rates, subdued consumer confidence and international woes.

Pretax profit in the year ended February 28 dropped 94% to 7.8 million from 124.7 million a year prior. Revenue increased 14% to 1.98 billion from 1.75 billion.

Boohoo blamed higher returns rates, subdued consumer demand and extended delivery times for the performance.

Joules tumbled 25% after it reported profit in the Easter trading period slumped, and said its chief executive officer is set to exit the company.

The Leicestershire, England-based country lifestyle retailer said in the 13 weeks to May 1, challenging market conditions have caused profit to fall below management expectations in some areas of its business, despite a 20% revenue increase.

CEO Nick Jones will step down from his role during the first half of the group's next financial year, with the current year ending in May. The search for his successor will begin shortly.

Joules anticipates the trading challenges will continue into the first half of financial 2023, and is cautious about its near-term outlook.

In commodities, Brent oil was quoted at $108.55 a barrel at the London equities close Wednesday, up from $106.12 late Tuesday.

Brent prices saw support after the European Commission proposed new sanctions on Russian oil exports over the invasion of Ukraine, officials from the EU executive branch confirmed to dpa on Tuesday.

The sixth sanctions package prohibits businesses in the EU from purchasing oil from Russia and aims to phase out imports from the bloc.

Gold was quoted at $1,866.98 an ounce at the London equities close, down against $1,873.30 at the close on Tuesday.

Thursday's economic calendar as a Chinese services PMI overnight, German factory orders at 0700 BST, and a UK services PMI at 0930 BST. US jobless claims are at 1300 BST.

Dominating the day is the UK interest rate decision from the Bank of England at midday. Focus will also lie on the latest OPEC meeting of major oil producing nations.

The UK corporate calendar on Thursday has updates from oil major Shell, industrial turnaround firm Melrose Industries, packaging firm Mondi, clothing retailer Next and defence firm BAE Systems.

By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
WESTCHESTER, Ill., Jan. 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE: INGR), a leading global provider of ingredient solutions to the food and beverage industry, today announced that it is one of 418 companies across 45 countries and regions to join the 2022 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI), a modified market capitalization-weighted index that aims to track the performance of public companies committed to transparency in gender-data reporting. This reference index measures gender equality across five pillars: female leadership & talent pipeline, equal pay & gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and pro-women brand.

The 2022 GEI expands globally to represent 45 countries and regions, including firms headquartered in Colombia and Uruguay for the first time. Member companies represent a variety of sectors, including financials, technology, and utilities, which collectively have the highest company representation in the index.

"We are committed to living our values and creating a culture where diversity is celebrated, and inclusion is embraced, said Jim Zallie, Ingredion's president and chief executive officer. We are proud to be included in the 2022 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the fifth consecutive year. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is at the heart of our purpose-driven culture and provides us the best opportunity to attract the best and brightest employees to drive an innovative culture focused on delivering sustainable growth for our shareholders.

We are proud to recognize Ingredion and the other 417 companies included in the 2022 GEI for their commitment to transparency and setting a new standard in gender-related data reporting, said Peter T. Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg and Founding Chairman of the U.S. 30% Club. Even though the threshold for inclusion in the GEI has risen, the member list continues to grow. This is a testament that more companies are working to improve upon their gender-related metrics, fostering more opportunity for diverse talent to succeed in their organizations.

Ingredion submitted a social survey created by Bloomberg, in collaboration with subject matter experts globally. Those included on this years index scored at or above a global threshold established by Bloomberg to reflect disclosure and the achievement or adoption of best-in-class statistics and policies.

Both the survey and the GEI are voluntary and have no associated costs. Bloomberg collected this data for reference purposes only. The index is not ranked. While all public companies are encouraged to disclose supplemental gender data for their companys investment profile on the Bloomberg Terminal, those that have a market capitalization of USD 1 billion are eligible for inclusion in the Index. For more information on the GEI and how to submit information for next years index visit: https://www.bloomberg.com/gei. Bloomberg clients can access the GEI at {BGEI Index DES }.For more information on Bloombergs sustainable finance solutions, including the GEI, please visit: https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/sustainable-finance/.Bloomberg Media Contact: [email protected]ABOUT INGREDIONIngredion Incorporated (NYSE: INGR) headquartered in the suburbs of Chicago, is a leading global ingredient solutions provider serving customers in more than 120 countries. With 2021 annual net sales of nearly $7 billion, the Company turns grains, fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based materials into value-added ingredient solutions for the food, beverage, animal nutrition, brewing and industrial markets. With Ingredion Idea Labs innovation centers around the world and approximately 12,000 employees, the Company co-creates with customers and fulfills its purpose of bringing the potential of people, nature, and technology together to make life better. Visit ingredion.com for more information and the latest Company news.

About Bloomberg:Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision- makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The companys strength  delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately  is the core of Bloomberg Professional Services. For more information, visit www.bloomberg.com or request a demo.

CONTACT:Investors: Jason Payant, 708-551-2584Media: Becca Hary, 708-551-2602

Source: Ingredion Incorporated
MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The two companies are coming together to meet market demand for a streamlined path for integrating both common and uncommon drug approval information into existing patent data systems.

"Today, companies want to extend their vision beyond patent data so as to encompass indicators of corresponding commercial activity," says Chris Holt, IPDataLab CEO and Co-Founder. The Founder of Lighthouse IP, Willem Geert Lagemaat, adds "Companies previously thought they were getting a look at the big picture through one dataset and now companies realize the better or clearer picture comes from expanding the data to underlying connections from other data sources. We are excited that through the Lighthouse IP Dynalinx program we are able to offer our existing customer base the ability to expand their products with the unique data created by IPDataLab."

In addition to more readily available data sets that include patent data for US-FDA approved chemical drugs (i.e., OrangeBook drugs), pharmaceutical data services provided as part of this new partnership will also include the harder to obtain linkages between patents and corresponding US-FDA approved biological drugs (i.e., PurpleBook drugs). Each drug-to-patent linkage has been enriched with a set of high value supporting data elements to truly unlock the value of data. For example, one especially valuable feature is calculated and verified expiration dates for each of the listed US-FDA approved biological patents.

At the center of the new partnership is Lighthouse IP's Data offering powered by:

145 Million Bibliographic Records

159 Authorities

120 Million Patent Images

80 Authorities of Full-Text Records

124 Million English Machine-Translated Documents

"Lighthouse IP provides access to the largest patent data collection sourced from around the world," says Chris Holt. "Combining Lighthouse IP's incredible patent data collection with IPDataLab's carefully curated quality metadata is creating a fast path to adding new insight capabilities that did not exist before. Our API services will dramatically shorten the time to production for all customers."

To learn more about this partnership and the data solutions available for your company, please contact:

IPDataLab; Chris Holt, CEO; [email protected]

About IPDataLab:

IPDataLab is led by individuals having decades of combined experience as patent attorneys and software product managers. The company offers convenient access to data sets that are often hard to compile, difficult to maintain, and were previously considered inaccessible at a reasonable price point. IPDataLab holds themselves to the highest standards of accuracy, documentation, consistency and timeliness. IPDataLab is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA and also has an office in Beijing, China, www.ipdatalab.com.

About Lighthouse IP:

Lighthouse IP is a leading commercial creator and provider of patent and trademark data of publishers and patent offices worldwide, with a focus on offering the broadest coverage of IP data in the highest quality. Lighthouse IP primarily serves publishers, information (service) providers and patent offices. Lighthouse IP is headquartered in The Netherlands and has offices in various countries around the world, where it has its data production facilities, www.lighthouseip.com.

Media Contact: IPDataLab; Chris Holt, CEO; [email protected]

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Source: Lighthouse IP
Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Antler Gold Inc. (TSXV: ANTL) ("Antler") is pleased to announce it has renegotiated terms of the agreement entered into in December 2019 (the "Original Agreement") to acquire a 75% interest in a private company, the sole asset of which is exclusive exploration license 5455 ("EPL 5455") in Namibia (the "Transaction"). EPL 5455 measures 32.7 square kilometers and is located west of the town Usakos in the Erongo region of central Namibia.

To date, in accordance with the terms of the Original Agreement, Antler made three cash payments in the total amount of C$100,000 and incurred the required exploration expenditures in the aggregate amount of C$200,000.

Under the terms of the Original Agreement, Antler was required to make a further cash payment of C$75,000 on December 18, 2021 (the "Final Cash Payment") and to issue C$25,000 worth of common shares of Antler ("Antler Shares") based on the 10-day volume weighted average price per common share immediately prior to December 18, 2021 in order to complete the acquisition. Under the new terms of the Transaction, instead of the Final Cash Payment and the issuance of Antler Shares, Antler must make a cash payment of C$40,000 on or before January 31, 2022 (which has been paid) and a second cash payment of C$42,000 on or before January 31, 2023 to acquire its 75% interest.

Once Antler has acquired the 75% interest in the private company, it has the right to purchase the remaining 25% minority interest at the fair market value determined by a professional business valuator selected by Antler. If Antler does not exercise its right to purchase the minority interest, all shareholders will contribute on a pro-rata basis to fund the company's activities, including exploration expenditures. Should the minority shareholders be diluted below 10%, then their interest will automatically convert to a free carried 5% interest in EPL 5455 which Antler can purchase at a price to be determined by a professional selected by Antler using international best practices for evaluating mining assets.

About Antler Gold Inc.

Antler Gold Inc. (TSXV: ANTL) is a Canadian company, focused on the acquisition and exploration of gold projects in Namibia. Antler's Erongo Gold Project covers areas of the Navachab-Damara Belt, which is highly prospective for gold, and shares geologically similarities to the areas containing the known Namibian Gold mines (QKR's Navachab and B2 Golds' Otjikoto) as well as Osino's recent Twin Hills discovery. Antler's total license position now comprises five licenses (EPL 5455, 6162, 7261, 6550 and 6408) under option and a further five (EPL 7854, 7930, 7960, 8010 and 8042) under application, for a total landholding of approximately 85,341ha (853.41km2). Antler is currently focusing its efforts on advancing its Erongo Gold Project, which is located approximately 130 km north-west of Namibia's capital city Windhoek. Namibia is recognized as one of Africa's most politically stable jurisdictions, with an extremely well-established national infrastructure. The Company continues to assess new in country opportunities and expand its Namibian portfolio.

Further details are available on the Company's website at www.antlergold.com.

Cautionary Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking information, such as statements regarding the completion of the work in Namibia by Antler and future plans and objectives of Antler. This information is based on current expectations and assumptions (including assumptions in connection with the continuance of the applicable company as a going concern and general economic and market conditions) that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, including risks relating to the ability to satisfy the conditions to completion of exploration programmes and work in Namibia. Actual results may differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking information. Antler assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information in this release, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information unless and until required by applicable securities laws. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in filings made by Antler with Canadian securities regulators, copies of which are available at www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information, please contact Daniel Whittaker, President and CEO of Antler Gold Inc., at (902) 488-4700 or Chris Drysdale, VP at +264 81 220 2439.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112326
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Forum Energy Metals Corp. (TSXV: FMC) (OTCQB: FDCFF) ("Forum" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has acquired by staking 40 claims totalling 53,402 hectares of ground formerly held by Cameco Corporation on trend with the 133 million pound Kiggavik uranium deposit (66.2% Orano, 16.9% Denison 16.9% UEX), one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits in the world (Figure 1). From 2008 to 2012, Cameco drilled 135 holes for over 36,000 metres of drilling to the west of Kiggavik and discovered two uranium deposits - Tatiggaq and Qavvik and identified the Ayra showing which are now owned 100% by Forum.

The Kiggavik deposit and the Cameco discoveries in the northeastern Thelon Basin, Nunavut share many common features as the prolific Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan. With Forum's legacy claims in the area, Forum holds 97,433 hectares of prime exploration ground approximately 100km west of the Hamlet of Baker Lake, Kivalliq region in Nunavut (Figure 2).

Rick Mazur, President & CEO stated, "There is no better place in the world to explore for high grade unconformity style uranium deposits outside the Athabasca than the Thelon in Nunavut. We have been keeping an eye on this uranium district since Forum actively explored in the region from 2006 to 2012. Cameco's work has given Forum a head start on building a significant resource on our 100% owned property."

Mr. Mazur further explained, "Forum's goal is to supplement the already established mineable reserve at Kiggavik and establish a production centre in Nunavut to fulfill the demand for the carbon-free energy future. Nunavut is a jurisdiction that has proven that mining is an important activity for the benefit of all Nunavummiut as shown by existing mining operations at Agnico's Meadowbank, Meliadine and Hope Bay gold mines and Baffinland's Mary River iron ore mine."

KIGGAVIK URANIUM MINE DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL

Orano (formerly Areva) submitted a development proposal in 2008 for the 133 million pound Kiggavik Uranium Project at an average head grade of 0.46% U to produce 7.8 million pounds of uranium per year over a 17 year mine life from three deposits - the Kiggavik and Andrew Lake open pit deposits and the End underground deposit (Source: *Areva Resources Canada Inc., The Kiggavik Project, Project Proposal, November 2008 and Kiggavik Popular Summary, April, 2012 submission to the Nunavut Impact Review Board).

Orano conducted six years of engineering, environmental and community engagement studies from 2008 to 2014 and submitted a Final Environmental Impact Study to the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) on October 2, 2014. Due to economic conditions in the uranium market at the time, Orano could not commit to a firm project start date and NIRB recommended on May 8, 2015 that the project not proceed "at this time". The project is currently on care and maintenance.

CAMECO DISCOVERIES*

Cameco first staked claims in the Thelon Basin in 2004 and conducted regional geological, geophysical and geochemical studies up until the first drill campaign in 2008. Cameco drilled 23 holes for just under 5,000 metres in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Cameco drilled 31 holes totalling just over 8,800 metres in 2010 and discovered the Tatigqaq showing (approximately 5km west of Orano's Andrew Lake deposit) and the Qavvik showing (15km to the west of Tatiggaq). A further 81 holes totalling just over 22,000 meters were drilled in 2011 and 2012 resulting in the discovery of the Ayra showing and tested three other targets identified by geophysical surveys, now requiring further follow-up (Figure 3).

The Tatiggaq discovery consists of two zones, the Main and West Zones that average 30 metres in thickness between 80 and 100 metres in depth with strike lengths of 80 and 60 metres respectively. The discovery hole TUR-014A in June, 2010 intersected 0.85% U3O8 over 13.7 metres and 4.03% over 0.5 metres. Grades of up to 24% U3O8 over 10 to 30 cm widths with average grades of approximately 1% U3O8 are reported over these two mineralized zones. The deposits remain open along strike and to depth within a large gravity anomaly (0.8 x 1.5 km) that is not fully tested. Some significant intercepts are:

DDH TUR-042 - 2.69% U3O8 over 7.9 metres from 200.2m to 208.1m, including 24.8% U3O8 over 0.4 metres from 202.9m to 203.3m

DDH TUR-052B - 0.43% U3O8 over 54.2 metres from 115.4m to 169.6m

DDH TUR-056 - 0.93% U3O8 over 9 metres from 126m to 135m

DDH TUR-058 - 1.17% U3O8 over 6.1 metres from 88.2m to 94.3m

The Qavvik discovery was found in 2009 and consists of four steeply dipping lenses with strike lengths of 250 metres and widths of 5 to 20 metres to a depth of 350 metres. DDH SAN-002 intersected four discreet mineralization intervals grading 0.92% U3O8 over 2.5 metres (253.9m to 256.4m), 1.18% U3O8 over 4.3 metres (259.0 to 263.3m), 0.57% U3O8 over 1.6 metres (273.7m to 275.3m), and 0.62% U3O8 over 2.2 metres (277.5m to 279.7m). The highest grade mineralization intersected to date is 5.69% U3O8 over 0.3 metres. Further work is needed to determine the extent of mineralization in the area.

The Ayra showing has all the hallmarks of a classic unconformity deposit with uranium enrichment (67 to 610ppm uranium) near the unconformity along steeply dipping faults that are clearly reactivated fault zones which offset the 10 to 60 metre thick overlying Thelon sandstone. The host rocks to the Ayra showing consists of lamprophyre, syenite, and gneiss unconformably overlain by strongly altered and uranium enriched (2 to 11ppm uranium) Thelon sandstone. Further drilling is required as only 15 widely spaced holes have tested this prospect.

*Source: Various Cameco reports filed with the Nunavut Mining Recorder, presentations by Cameco at the Nunavut Mining Symposium and Saskatchewan Mining Open House from 2009 to 2013 and Rebecca Corrine Hunter PhD Thesis, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada dated 2021.

Rick Mazur, P.Geo., Forum's President & CEO and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.





Figure 1: Forum's Claims, Orano/Denison/UEX's Kiggavik deposits and Cameco Discoveries now 100% owned by Forum.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/112241_a9816d32c479c9d4_003full.jpg





Figure 2: Location of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan and the Thelon Basin, Nunavut. These two geological areas of the Canadian Shield host the world's richest uranium deposits.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/112241_a9816d32c479c9d4_004full.jpg





Figure 3: Cameco drill program areas from 2008 to 2012 and discoveries at Tattigaq, Qavvik and Ayra over magnetic survey background.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/112241_a9816d32c479c9d4_005full.jpg

About Forum Energy Metals

Forum Energy Metals Corp. (TSXV: FMC) (OTCQB: FDCFF) is a diversified energy metal company with uranium, copper, nickel, and cobalt projects in Saskatchewan, Canada's Number One Rated mining province for exploration and development, a strategic uranium land position in Nunavut and a strategic cobalt land position in the Idaho Cobalt Belt. For further information: www.forumenergymetals.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.

Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Forum's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include but are not limited to: uncertainties related to the historical data, the work expenditure commitments; the ability to raise sufficient capital to fund future exploration or development programs; changes in economic conditions or financial markets; changes commodity prices, litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological or operational difficulties or an inability to obtain permits required in connection with maintaining or advancing its exploration projects.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Richard J. Mazur, P.Geo.

President & CEO

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.

For further information contact:

Rick Mazur, P.Geo., President & CEO

[email protected]

Tel: 604-630-1585

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112241
TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Talon Cyber Security, the leader in browser-based cybersecurity solutions, today announced a total funding of $43M, adding SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) investments of $17M prior to an upcoming A-Round of funding.

Sorenson Ventures and Evolution Equity Partners are joining Talon's earlier investors, venture capital firms Lightspeed and Team8, and cybersecurity leaders such as George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael, Co-founders of Armis, Michael Shaulov, Co-founder & CEO of Fireblocks, Avi Shua, Co-founder & CEO of Orca Security and Assaf Rappaport, Co-founder & CEO of Wiz.

In October, Talon launched the first secure browser for enterprises, TalonWork, which enables enterprise companies to effectively manage a hybrid workforce without having to compromise security, employee experience or privacy. In a few clicks, this secure bubble-like workspace can be created on any device, together with its built-in enterprise-grade security that provides advanced data leakage protection and high granularity of control into all web in-app activities.

"We are thrilled to be backing a tremendous team at Talon led by Ofer Ben Noon," said Richard Seewald, Founder and Managing Partner at Evolution. "Enterprises have shifted rapidly to distributed work models and, in the process, have complicated the security stack and altered the cost benefit analysis of legacy solutions. Talon delivers a solution that ameliorates this and enables enterprises to operate a hybrid workforce securely and effectively."

This additional funding is focused on bringing on board top cybersecurity investors that will support Talon's accelerated commercialization process, and further expand the development efforts to support high demand from the market. Talon's growth is rapid, adding 45 people to the team in less than a year as well as recently opening offices in the U.S.

Talon is mitigating two of the biggest cybersecurity concerns for security leaders operating a modern distributed workforce; ransomware and insider threat. TalonWork combines advanced data isolation techniques such as screenshot prevention and clipboard restrictions with workspace security including policy enforcements and protection against browser vulnerabilities. TalonWork for Mac was recently released, expanding the coverage of Talon's endpoint agnostic solution. It is already up and running in dozens of companies, including some of the largest employers in the U.S.

In today's modern workforce, enterprises are required to protect their resources across different locations, devices, SaaS services and employment models (ie. external workers accessing company assets). Trying to secure and control this dynamic environment has led companies to adapt existing security solutions, such as VDI/DaaS or VPN, resulting in a complex and costly security stack. Enabling secure distributed work is a business driver in industries such as retail, healthcare, tech, insurance and more.

"What excites me about Talon is that their technology simplifies enterprise-grade security, which we heard consistently from customers. Compared to other approaches, the time to value combined with the depth of the solution makes this a true game-changer," said Ken Elefant, Partner at Sorenson Ventures.

About TalonTalon Cyber Security is the pioneer in browser-based cybersecurity solutions for the hybrid workforce. Talon is redefining enterprise cybersecurity by making the browser the organization's first-line of defense. Deployed in less than one-hour, Talon provides security leaders with unparalleled control and visibility into all employee work-related activities across locations, devices and SaaS services. Talon's technology is built with employee-experience and privacy in mind providing a native user experience, on top of enterprise-grade security. Talon's founders include proven entrepreneurs and former leaders of Unit 8200, Israel's elite military technology and intelligence unit. For more information, please visit www.talon-sec.com.

About Sorenson Ventures Sorenson Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based, early-stage investor in security and enterprise software companies with more than $250 million of capital under management. Sorenson Ventures invests in product-oriented businesses at the seed or Series A stage and focuses on helping portfolio companies establish a strong foundation to accelerate revenue growth with Global 2000 customers. Find out more about Sorenson Ventures at https://www.sorensoncapital.com/ and on twitter at https://twitter.com/sorensoncap.

About Evolution Equity PartnersEvolution Equity Partners, based in New York City, Palo Alto, London and Zurich makes investments in rapidly growing cybersecurity and enterprise software companies that safeguard our digital world. The firm was founded by investor and technology entrepreneurs Richard Seewald and Dennis Smith, who manage and lead the firm and its partners have been involved as founders, investors and as senior operating executives in leading software companies around the world. Evolution currently has over $1 billion of assets under management in a growing portfolio of market leading companies. Learn more at www.evolutionequity.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/secure-corporate-browser-pioneer-talon-cyber-security-extends-funding-to-43m-to-boost-commercialization-of-security-controls-for-the-hybrid-workforce-301471963.html

SOURCE Talon Cyber Security
READING, England, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Isotropic Systems, the leading developer of transformational multi-link satellite technology, today announced the successful completion of advanced multi-orbit antenna trials which will enable a new age of resilience for worldwide government communications increasingly reliant on satellite connectivity on the ground, at sea and in the air.

The tests were conducted with SES Government Solutions, the leading provider of government satcom solutions, at the U.S. Army proving grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland, and successfully demonstrated a range of capabilities that will support military and government missions across the globe. During the milestone multi-orbit trials, separate satellites in different orbits were simultaneously linked with a single Isotropic Systems multi-link antenna, demonstrating the terminal's capabilities tailored to meet the rigorous conditions and challenging connectivity demands across the battlespace.

With this breakthrough from Isotropic Systems, U.S. and NATO forces will for the first time be able to access every bit of satellite capacity across military and commercial satellites from a single antenna, which offers greatly enhanced defense and security capabilities:

Unmanned Aircraft or UAVs will be able to connect to the optimal satellites for a variety of surveillance and armed missions

Military pilots can link to optimal satellites for ground communications, while aircraft crew can connect to entirely separate satellites at the same time to access superfast broadband for real-time communications with warfighters and central command

A broad range of ships and vessels at sea will be able to communicate and connect with troops in the air and on the ground for a seamless mission campaign

Should a satellite be disrupted or denied during a conflict, U.S. and NATO forces on the ground will benefit for complete mission assurance with multiple connections to multiple satellites running at the time

As part of the Isotropic Systems multi-link antenna trials, the U.S. Army demonstrated a simultaneous connection in operational conditions as part of the U.S. Air Force's innovative Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) program. The terminal established two live simultaneous, full-performance connections with SES satellites in GEO and MEO, and seamless satellite-to-satellite transitions, providing a game-changing leap in wartime communications.

"Our terminal is the first and only U.S. Army tested antenna capable of multiple simultaneous satellite links, which provides the US military and NATO with the communications capabilities they need for today's threat environment with disrupted satellites becoming more common," said John Finney, founder and CEO of Isotropic Systems. "We have proven our optical multi-link antenna technology is fully capable of providing mission-critical, resilient space-based connectivity for the military and across a broad range of vertical markets  from government and enterprise to aero and maritime  as we remain on track for our commercial launch in 2022."

"These back-to-back breakthrough antenna trials demonstrate how a new generation of terminals, led by Isotropic System's optical multi-link platform, will unleash the full potential of existing and next-gen satellites for mission-critical government and defense missions anywhere," said Pete Hoene, President and CEO of SES Government Solutions. "The timing of the commercial availability of this new antenna is ideal with the recent launch of our SES-17 GEO satellite and the launch of our new O3b mPOWER MEO system in 2022."

About Isotropic Systems

With offices in the UK and U.S., Isotropic Systems is developing the world's first multi-service, high-bandwidth, low power, fully integrated high throughput terminals designed to support the satellite industry to 'reach beyond' traditional markets and acquire new customers with a full suite of high throughput services. The company's team of industry experts and scientists has pioneered several firsts in satellite terminal design resulting in a line of terminals that are customizable to meet the performance, cost and power requirements of countless applications  from the most complex government defence systems and mobile backhaul solutions capable of extending 5G, to next-gen connected experiences aboard commercial airliners, cruise ships, offshore rigs, and even small fishing boats at sea.

Investors in Isotropic Systems include Boeing HorizonX Global Ventures, SES and Promus Ventures through its Luxembourg based space investment fund, Orbital Ventures, Seraphim Capital, Firmament Ventures, Space Angels and family office investors such as Waterlow Management Limited. Further information is available at www.isotropicsystems.com.

About SES Government Solutions

SES Government Solutions (SES GS) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of global satellite operator SES. SES GS operates under a proxy board allowing them to provide services through contracts with the U.S. Government, including classified work. SES GS is exclusively focused on meeting the satellite communications needs of the U.S. Government. Leveraging more than four decades of experience in the government SATCOM market, SES Government Solutions offers robust and secure end-to-end satellite communications solutions. Further information can be found at www.ses-gs.com

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View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-and-nato-forces-to-benefit-from-groundbreaking-satellite-technology-following-breakthrough-antenna-trials-with-isotropic-systems-301472002.html

SOURCE Isotropic Systems
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan  Hundreds of people donated over the weekend to help an Air Force couple fly their Great Dane, Henry, back to the United States from Japan after reading an article by Stars and Stripes on Friday.

Senior Airman Avaunte Frizzell, 22, and his spouse, Josie Hayward, 21, were so overwhelmed they had to turn away eager donors after the fundraising campaign exceeded its $10,000 goal by $4,131, Frizzell told Stars and Stripes at the couples home at Yokota.

The couple, natives of Lake George, Mich., started a GoFundMe campaign Jan. 15 to raise $10,000 toward the $15,000 they need to ship Henry to their next duty station  Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, N.M.  later this month.

Henry had rocketed to minor social media celebrity status when one conspicuous donor took his story to a higher plane.

Greta Van Susteren, a lawyer and journalist well known from her stints as program anchor on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, tweeted Henrys story to her 1.1 million followers. A dog lover herself, Van Susteren posted links to the article and the GoFundMe page on Sunday.

Hayward and Frizzell easily reached their $10,000 goal by Sunday.

Right after the article went public, we immediately started getting messages and donations, Frizzell said Monday.

Donations came in $10 and $20 increments, but some gave more substantial amounts. A woman coming to the air base on a permanent change of station gave three figures.

There is a lady coming to Yokota, she is PCSing with two dogs, and she actually donated $300, Hayward said. She said that she would hope someone would help her out if she was in this situation.

People worldwide donated to their cause, Frizzell said.

The Yokota community, the Air Force community, the military community in general, retirees and even people at our new base we are going to were donating, he said. We received messages from our future command asking Hey, how can we help get you guys here?

Van Susteren donated $100, and in an email to Stars and Stripes on Monday explained why she shared the article on Twitter.

A dog is a family member and a great companion, she said. When you come home, even if you are late, the dog is happy to see you and wagging a tail. A dog does not say, you are late but rather with that tail and excitement I am thrilled to see you. Dont we want our members of the military to have the opportunity to be loved by a pet and loved back? I also love crowd sharing  it gives us all an opportunity to help.

Even after the couple reached their goal, people still wanted to donate, Hayward said.

When I cut off the donations so we couldnt receive any more, people were messaging me saying, We still want to donate, can you give us the link? and I said, Sorry, we are currently not doing donations anymore, but we appreciate the support, Hayward said. I am still getting emails from people saying, God bless you; I hope your family makes it.

Henry, who weighs 145 pounds, with his 50-pound cage exceeds the Air Force weight limit for pets on the Patriot Express, the government-contracted air service between the U.S. and its overseas military bases. The Military Airlift Command does not waive the weight limit.

Hayward and Frizzell turned to GoFundMe as a last resort to raise the $15,000 to fly Henry home via a commercial pet-moving service. They plan on purchasing Henrys ticket by Saturday. He will stay with a neighbor in Japan until Feb. 22 when they head to the U.S. on Feb. 19.

The couple are still shocked by the response to their request.

It is great to not have to worry about Henry because we have a lot of other things going on right now that are very stressful, Hayward said. We are trying to process out and do all the inspections and turn everything in, and that was an added stressor for us.

Frizzell said they intend to pay forward their good fortune by helping others who find themselves in a similar situation.

I honestly thought it was going to stop and it just kept going, Frizzell said. So, we were like, How do you turn it off? because everyone was being so generous about it. We really appreciate it but were not going to take anything more than we need. We just wanted anything that could help, but, sure enough, it blew up. It was just insane.
(Tribune News Service)  Four men accused of causing a San Diego Zoo aerial ride to shut down, stranding more than 100 people in midair, are U.S. Marines, military officials said.

The four men, all in their 20s, face vandalism charges in the Saturday, Jan. 29, mishap on the Skyfari Aerial Tram, McClatchy News reported.

The men are stationed in Yuma, Ariz., but are in San Diego for training, a 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing spokesperson said in a statement to McClatchy News.

We are committed to being good neighbors to the San Diego community and will continue to work with local authorities as they continue their investigation, the statement read.

The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing has launched its own investigation into the incident, which it called contrary to our core values, the statement said.

The men are accused of rocking a gondola on the ride, causing an automatic shutdown about 2 p.m. Pacific time that left riders hanging in midair for up to two hours, McClatchy News reported.

We were just hoping that we were going to get down soon, rider Hussein Alhamadami told KSWB.

San Diego firefighters reported at 4:30 p.m. that all of the people trapped on the ride had reached the ground after it was restarted. No injuries were reported.

The ride, which has 28 gondolas holding up to four people each, gives riders an airborne shortcut over the treetops to the other end of the Zoo, and ... spectacular views of the Zoo and surrounding Balboa Park, according to the zoos website.

The men rocked the gondola so hard it came off the track, stopping the ride, police told KFMB. They are due in court Feb. 8.

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MOSES LAKE, Wash. (Tribune News Service)  When United States Marine Corps Cpl. Jianna Hernandez first saw the snow of Moses Lake, she thought of home.

"I'm from Boston, Massachusetts, and it's two years since I've been home," said the young Marine. "I was looking at the snow and went, 'Wow, it would be nice to be home.'"

Instead, Hernandez will spend the next few days at the Grant County International Airport, out in the cold, helping her unit of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing based in southern California, as it stages a series of long-range simulated air strikes against targets in southern California in the USMC's Winter Fury 22 exercise, the second such Marine Corps war game to be held in Moses Lake.

The exercise is scheduled to last through Thursday.

According to Lt. A.J. Anbarcioglu, the Marines are practicing setting up a small, temporary refueling and rearming facility in "a semi-permissive" environment to practice a long-range strike by F-35 Lightning II and F/A-18 Hornet fighters at least a thousand miles away.

It will simulate a military action between "a second island chain in Asia" like the Philippines and "another large Pacific nation in Asia" he did not name.

"We're doing a lot of novel, cool stuff here," Anbarcioglu, a native of Mercer Island and a combat engineer, said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

"It's good to be back in Moses Lake," he added.

A company of Marines with the 1st Battalion, 4th Regiment also arrived on a trio of MV-22 Ospreys to set up a perimeter and maintain basic security against whatever simulated threat or enemy the Marines in Moses Lake might face.

"Anywhere we go, we need to set up a defense and maintain security," said Capt. William Cheatham, commander of Charlie Company. "They're digging some fighting positions, and you'll see the sandbags and the machine guns come out."

Despite being stationed at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, Cheatham said the Marines are no strangers to snow, and regularly train at the Corps' Mountain Warfare Training Center, east of Sacramento, near Bridgeport.

"It's seasonal, and we go up whenever we can," he said. "This is the first time we're doing this in this training cycle, and it's not going to be the last."

Cheatham, a New Jersey native who has served in the USMC for eight years, said the best part of being a Marine is serving with other Marines.

"Throughout my time in the service, I see people that amaze me," he said. "Time and time again, they amaze me with their dedication and loyalty not only for the service, but for each other."

Hernandez, 20, said she will help set up the radio gear to allow the ground controllers to talk with aircraft pilots, guide them in, and then send them on their way.

While she originally planned to enlist in the U.S. Navy, Hernandez said she was more impressed by the Marines and she had something to show friends, family and the world.

"A lot of people told me I couldn't do it, so I had to prove them wrong," she said.

cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com

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Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription.

(Tribune News Service)  U.S. hospital admissions for COVID-19 are receding in 34 states and the nations capital, easing the health care staffing crises that were widespread at the start of the year.

In the past week, the number of new COVID-19 patients has dropped 31% in New Jersey and in Maryland, the biggest declines in the country, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In Washington, D.C., Connecticut and New York, the admissions declined 26% apiece.

The fast-spreading omicron variant swept across the U.S. through much of December and early January, sending cases to a weekly peak more than three times as bad as the previous worst period, last winter. The number of infections meant that hospitals became overwhelmed yet again, even with a variant less virulent for the average infected person.

Omicron moved so quickly that it began to burn out much quicker than previous variants, as it did in South Africa and parts of Europe.

Laggard states

Even among U.S. states hit later with omicron, conditions may soon improve. Oregon, Wyoming and Alaska are reporting the countrys largest increases in new hospital admissions, up 16%, 15% and 15%, respectively, from the previous seven-day period.

But cases, which tend to lead hospital admissions, are showing signs of peaking in those places. Emergency-department visits, another leading indicator of admissions, also appeared to have crested in those areas.

Staffing challenges

In the U.S., that has all meant a sharp recovery for health-care facilities, which were reporting widespread critical staffing shortages as recently as early January  a reflection not only of the number of new COVID-19 patients, but also of an exhausted workforce, many of whom caught omicron themselves.

Since Jan. 9, the number of U.S. health care facilities reporting critical staffing shortages has plummeted to the lowest since Aug. 14.

None of that means that the omicron story is over for Americas doctors and nurses. The situation still looks dire inside intensive care units. It can take days or even weeks for a COVID infection to lead to an ICU admission, so the trend typically lags other data that focus on infections.

ICU occupancy may now be cresting nationally, at a level nearly as bad as the winter of 2020-2021.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday that the federal government was deploying military medical teams to upstate hospitals, part of a trend as omicron works its way through rural parts of many states.

Now, the U.S. will wait to see what the next season brings. The nation has been through several hopeful lulls after surges, including after last winters. But serious surges have tended to occur at least every six months  with a few smaller regional outbreaks in between.

Vaccinations will help. The latest data from December show that unvaccinated seniors were about 52 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than their vaccinated and boosted peers, according to COVID-Net, a surveillance network comprising 99 counties in 14 states. In addition to the vaccinations, scientists expect new therapeutics will make future outbreaks or surges more manageable.

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U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa should start wargaming to counter Moscows influence in oil-rich Libya, where a foothold by a Russian paramilitary group is likely to grow, according to an Air Force-commissioned study.

The study, released this week, examined Russias efforts to raise its military and economic profile across Africa.

The primary insight that emerged from this analysis is the unique importance of Libya in the emerging U.S.-Russian relationship in Africa, the research institution Rand Corp. said in its report, Russias Growing Presence in Africa.

When compared with the U.S. and China, the two main outside powers operating in Africa, Russian influence remains small and limited in focus, the report said.

But Moscow is involved in some areas and chief among them is Libya, which has been in political disarray since NATOs 2011 intervention and the fall of the Gadhafi regime.

In 2020, U.S. Africa Command accused Russian operatives of planting roadside bombs and deploying more than a dozen fighter planes to Libya to prop up Khalifa Hifter, whose Libya National Army militia has waged a yearslong fight against the countrys Western-supported government.

In December 2021, the European Union slapped sanctions on the Wagner Group  a private Russian military contractor active in Africa  accusing it of human rights abuses in Libya and elsewhere.

The Wagner Group has been linked by the European Union to Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and shares a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin has denied funding the group.

Some security analysts warn that Russias long-term aim in Libya may be to set up air defense systems that could challenge U.S.-allied access in a crisis.

USAFE-AF should elevate the priority accorded to Libya to guard against the effects of greater Russian influence in that centrally important country, the Rand report stated.

Early steps the Air Force should take include wargaming and anticipatory planning so that the U.S. is seen as the primary partner of a post-war Libyan air force.

Access to Libyan airspace is important to U.S. interests in part because of its position between U.S. bases in Europe and operational areas in the interior of Africa.

Rand said USAFE-AF lacks an overall geostrategic picture of Russian activity in Africa and what it means for the commands objectives.

As Russia gains influence, the U.S. will need to ensure it has access to a broader array of airfields in Africa to avoid potential entanglements with Russia, Rand said.

The report didnt detail what locations should be considered.

The U.S. also should strive to improve military relations with Libyas neighbors, most notably Algeria and Egypt, two countries where Russia also has expanded ties, Rand said.

Although overall Russian trade in Africa pales in comparison to that of China and the U.S., the Kremlin is the leading external power in arms sales.

In recent years, Russian weapons sales and transfers to African countries have increased from $500 million to more than $2 billion annually, far outstripping U.S. and Chinese deals, Rand said.

The report noted that sales to Algeria and Egypt accounted for nearly 90% of those exports.
The Defense Department intends to appeal in federal and state courts an emergency order by Hawaii requiring the Navy drain all fuel from a huge underground storage facility responsible for contaminating groundwater in Honolulu.

The Defense Department expects to file an appeal of the Hawaii Department of Healths final order before the Wednesday deadline, Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of defense, said in a statement Monday.

Thousands of residents of military housing communities on and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam were forced to temporarily relocate to hotels in early December after their tap water became tainted with petroleum.

The Navy traced the contaminated water to the Red Hill well, one of the three the service uses to feed its water distribution system that supplies more than two dozen communities.

The well is near the Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility, a massive underground tank system built during World War II, which sits roughly 100 feet above Oahus primary aquifer.

The Navy has confirmed the well was contaminated from jet fuel from the facility, which currently holds about 150 million gallons of fuel.

The Hawaii Department of Health issued its final order earlier this month ordering the tanks be emptied.

Hicks in the statement said that the Navy will continue to take actions consistent with the near-term provisions of the emergency order.

This includes, but is not limited to, suspending operations of fuel transfers at Red Hill, implementing a thorough series of best-in-class testing and sampling protocols, and installing new equipment to treat and protect Oahu's water resources, Hicks said.

The Navy will also provide the Department of Health by Wednesday a work plan and implementation schedule for a qualified, independent third-party commercial firm to assess the facility operations and system integrity necessary to safely operate and/or defuel Red Hill, she said.

That assessment is expected to be finished by April 30, she said.

The Defense Department has also launched a thorough review of the facility's long-term future, to include the option of permanently defueling Red Hill, she said.

Appealing the order in federal and state courts is intended to afford us time to make evidence-based and transparent decisions, Hicks said.

Despite these legal process requirements, we hope to collaborate with the State of Hawaii in a way that would allow the parties the time and space needed to reach solutions together, she said.
TOKYO  The coronavirus showed no signs of weakening Tuesday in Japans capital city, where new infections rose above 14,000 again after a day in lower territory.

Tokyo confirmed 14,445 people tested positive for COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease, according to public broadcaster NHK. The city reported 11,751 on Monday

New cases of COVID-19 in the city went above 12,000 on Jan. 25 and with one exception have remained there. Meanwhile, 50% of the hospital beds reserved for routine COVID-19 patients in the city are filled, a benchmark that previously meant tougher public health restrictions.

However, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday ruled out a higher-level public health emergency for the city, according to Kyodo News. The city and three surrounding prefectures are already under a quasi-emergency until Feb. 13. Kishida told reporters he would wait and see how effective they are.

Also Monday, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki on Twitter said he wrote the commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force, Lt. Gen. James Bierman Jr., asking that U.S. troops on Okinawa remain on their installations, despite the end of a three-week COVID-19 confinement order that lapsed that day. U.S. service members, civilian employees and family members were restricted to their homes and military installations across Japan to help stem the virus spread.

Tamaki sent the same message to Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking that the U.S. military extend the period of off-base activity restrictions on all military members stationed in US bases in Okinawa until the surge is over.

A III MEF spokesman said the Marines were guided by their higher headquarters, consistent with the prefectures own messaging.

We remain in line with [Okinawa prefectural governments] request of its own citizens, per higher headquarters guidance, Capt. Gabe Adibe told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday. Our active cases have declined dramatically due to our aggressive and effective mitigation measures. We are committed to the health of our shared communities and readiness to meet any crisis or contingency alongside our Japanese ally.

Okinawa reported 715 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, continuing a general decline in case numbers from 1,256 on Jan. 26, according to the prefectural Department of Public Health and Medical Care. The department reported 49 new cases in the U.S. military community. Nearly 30,000 U.S. service members of all branches are stationed on Okinawa, according to the Marine Corps.

U.S. Forces Japan by 6 p.m. Tuesday had not updated its daily COVID-19 case numbers since Saturday when it reported 283 new infections across 17 installations in Japan and 26 individuals awaiting confirmation.

Yokota Air Base, the USFJ headquarters in western Tokyo, on Tuesday said 62 individuals tested positive there between Saturday and Monday, according to an update on its website. It last reported 74 between Jan. 25 and Friday.

Naval Air Facility Atsugi, about 25 miles southwest of Tokyo, in a Facebook post said it had 13 new cases Tuesday and 63 total active cases.

Sasebo Naval Base on Kyushu Island reported eight new cases Tuesday, according to a post on its Facebook page. Seven tested positive after falling ill and one was discovered during a medical screening. None of Sasebos 137 active cases are hospitalized.

Kadena Air Base on Okinawa reported 307 active cases on Tuesday, 10 fewer than its last update Friday, according to its website.

Stars and Stripes reporter Mari Higa contributed to this report.
Chinese dronemaker DJI, a leading supplier of drones to U.S. law enforcement, obscured its Chinese government funding while claiming that Beijing had not invested in the firm, according to a Washington Post review of company reports and articles posted on the sites of state-owned and -controlled investors, as well as analysis by IPVM, a video surveillance research group.

The documents show that four investment bodies owned or administered by Beijing have invested in the popular drone brand in recent years, including a state asset manager that has pledged to play a key role in promoting partnerships between private enterprises and the Chinese military.

Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, which authorizes DJIs equipment for use on U.S. communications networks, labeled reports of the links as deeply concerning in an interview. The FCC proposed changes last year that could severely limit access to U.S. markets for companies deemed a national security risk.

Scrutiny of DJI comes as the company is already facing action by U.S. regulators over its ties to Beijings security apparatus. DJI was among eight Chinese companies added to a U.S. investment blacklist by the Treasury Department in December over sales of its drone equipment to police in Xinjiang, where U.S. officials said it has been used to surveil ethnic Uyghurs. In 2020, the company was added to the Commerce Departments Entity List, restricting its access to U.S. components.

The Defense Department clarified last year that its 2017 ban on the purchase of DJI drones remains in place except under very limited circumstances. The Pentagon previously said the Chinese drones pose a national security threat due to an increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities.

DJI still accounts for the majority of consumer drones used in the United States. As of 2020, DJI held 77% of the American hobby drone market, while a Bard College study showed DJI drones accounted for around 90%t of the drones in its database used by public safety agencies in the United States, including state and local police, as well as fire and emergency services.

The company is not publicly traded and its Hong Kong ownership structure means its full list of investors is not public  highlighting the broader challenges that investors and governments face in uncovering links between private Chinese tech firms and Beijing, according to the Bethlehem, Pa.-based IPVM, which first surfaced some of the financing links between DJI and Chinese state investment funds.

DJI did not comment on questions about whether Chinese government controlled funders were investors in the company, but maintained it had not received direct investments from the Chinese government.

DJI is privately held. The company is solely managed by and majority-owned by the founder team. Shareholders other than the founders do not participate in the companys management and operation, said Adam Lisberg, a DJI spokesman.

The funds that list DJI as an investment include China Chengtong Holdings Group, which is directly administered by Beijings state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), a ministerial-level organization tasked by Chinas State Council to manage the countrys state-owned enterprises.

If SASAC isnt the PRC [Peoples Republic of China] government, I dont know what is. If SASAC has invested in you, that means the Chinese government has invested in you, said Charles Rollet, the IPVM analyst who uncovered the links between DJI and China Chengtong, which invested in DJI through an emerging technologies fund, according to company documents.

It directly contradicts what [DJI] have been touting to allay concerns around the Chinese government, Rollet said. DJI has been saying they have no Chinese government investments. This evidence directly contradicts that.

Other funds that list DJI as an investment include the Shanghai Venture Capital Guidance Fund, which is administered under the Shanghai Municipal Government. Guidance funds in China mix state assets with private funds to advance Beijings industrial development goals in emerging industries.

A Chinese language S&P global report released in March 2021 says that state-run Guangdong Hengjian Investment Holding invested in DJI alongside SenseTime, which was also added to a sanctions list in December by the Biden administration over alleged rights abuses in Xinjiang.

SDIC Unity Capital a fund administered by the State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC) a state-owned investment holding company approved by Chinas State Council, also lists DJI as an investment on its website.

The four state funds did not respond to requests for comment.

- - -

While Americans and most federal and local agencies are not restricted from purchasing DJI drones, further regulatory action could threaten the companys tight hold on the U.S. market.

One of the independent bases that we have for taking action at the FCC is the lack of candor, so separate and apart from any national security concern, if you lack candor that contributes to our assessment of whether you are qualified to get FCC authorizations or FCC licenses, said Carr, the FCC commissioner.

Carr has called for DJI to be added to the FCCs Covered List, which bans access to federal Universal Service Fund (USF) subsides that are available to companies for the upkeep of telecommunications infrastructure. Current firms on the list include the Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE.

DJI is not directly eligible for USF subsidies and funding, given it is not a telecommunications provider, said Carr, but the FCC proposed changes last year that would ban equipment authorizations for companies on the Covered List, a move that would mean DJI equipment could not operate legally on U.S. communications infrastructure if it were added to the list.

In November, President Joe Biden signed into law the Secure Equipment Act, which requires the FCC to adopt such bans for companies on the Covered List before the end of the year.

The FCC has signaled it will take a tougher stance on regulating national security threats, but a spokeswoman wouldnt comment directly on DJI.

The FCC has also just asked its national security and law enforcement partners to determine whether updates are needed to the agencys Covered List in light of new evidence of cyberthreats, FCC spokeswoman Paloma Perez said.

DJI, founded in 2006 by CEO Frank Wang when he was a student at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is one of just a few Chinese technology brands to claim global dominance in high-end consumer hardware over the past decade.

That success is also what has attracted state-owned and -administered investors, according to information posted on the websites of the funds.

China Chengtong invested in DJI through a government fund worth $55.3 billion, according to a 2018 company report. Its not clear how much the fund invested. The fund was authorized by Chinas State Council and SASAC in 2016 and is headed by China Chengtongs chief Zhu Bixin.

An October 2019 article posted on China Chengtongs website confirms the funding and shows images of the funds deputy party secretary visiting a DJI facility in Shenzhen with a team to conduct special research on the investment.

DJI adheres to the guidance of Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, the article said, referring to Chinas president.

The tour took place almost exactly a year before DJI posted a myth busting blog on its English-language website, saying it received no Chinese government funding amid rising pressure from U.S. regulators.

DJI did not receive any Chinese government investments, but American venture capital firms invested more than $100 million, the blog said.

China Chengtong did not respond to emailed requests for comment, but it says on its website that its goals are to to mainly serve the innovation and development of central enterprises . . . and increase capital support for major national strategies such as the Belt and Road project and military-civilian fusion.

Military civilian fusion is a Chinese policy that was elevated to a national-level strategy in 2015 and is designed to remove barriers between the countrys private high-tech enterprises and the Peoples Liberation Army.

- - -

While national security concerns landed DJI on the U.S. Commerce Departments Entity List in 2020, its the companys ties to Xinjiang security operations that have brought the firm under increased scrutiny in the past year.

Cooperation between DJI and Xinjiangs Public Security Department was previously disclosed in a 2017 agreement reported on by Bloomberg News. More recent contracts uncovered by IPVM, the research firm, show that Xinjiang police and other local authorities continue to purchase DJIs technology.

The Post reviewed documents collected by IPVM outlining seven procurement orders for DJI technology by separate Xinjiang police public security departments since 2019, with a combined value of almost $300,000.

They include a procurement document issued in December by police in Xinjiangs Aksu region that requests $132,000 worth of DJI drones, which can conduct advanced 3-D mapping, according to product specifications. In September, in the northern Xinjiang region of Karamay, the police ordered several advanced DJI drones worth $75,000.

The purchases highlight the ongoing use of DJIs technology in the Xinjiang region, where experts say over a million ethnic Uyghurs have been detained in recent years as part of a vast crackdown assisted by Chinas private surveillance industry.

Four other documents outline $47,000 worth of tenders issued by Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) units for DJI drones. Added to a sanctions list by the U.S. government in 2020 over human rights abuses, the XPCC is a state paramilitary organization that oversees the administration of several cities and regions in Xinjiang.

The Washington Posts Christian Shepherd and Pei Lin Wu in Taipei and Lyric Li in Seoul contributed to this report.
COVID-19 is surging across the island of Guam, but indications suggest military cases may have already peaked, a spokeswoman for the military command on the U.S. territory said Tuesday.

U.S. Naval Hospital Guam reported 824 positive cases that day, Joint Region Marianas spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Katie Koenig told Stars and Stripes by email. Of those, 364 are uniformed personnel and 97 are Defense Department civilians or contractors.

Cases are holding steady both on and off-base, Koenig said.

The islands Joint Information Center reported 777 new cases on Tuesday and 39 hospitalizations. The island community has 5,948 active cases, according to the information center.

The current surge could be attributed to the omicron variant. Guam sends its samples elsewhere for genome sequencing, which can determine a specific COVID-19 variant, Krystal Paco-San Agustin, a spokeswoman for Guams Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday. Only 17 cases have been identified as omicron; however, the samples were collected between Dec. 19 and Jan. 10

Omicron infects its patients more easily than the delta variant but causes less severe illness and fewer deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only three people have been admitted to intensive care and none are currently on a ventilator, Paco-San Agustin said.

The current wave is not as serious as our experience with the Delta variant, she said. This is a manageable figure, especially when compared to the 102 COVID admissions we saw in November 2020 before vaccinations were available.

Four deaths were confirmed Tuesday, bringing Guams total to 294 since the pandemic began, the information center said. Three were vaccinated and all had underlying health conditions.

The youngest was a 68-year-old woman who was unvaccinated, the information center reported.

Mitigation measures on Guam include mandatory masks in congregate settings, limits on gathering size and restricting indoor dining and bars to those with proof of vaccination, Koenig said. No changes are expected.

Air forces from Australia and Japan have joined their American counterparts at Andersen Air Force Base this week for exercise Cope North 2022, 36th Wing spokeswoman 1st Lt. Jade Abelon wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.

Quarantine requirements were updated Jan. 26 to seven days for incoming personnel to protect the local community.

Our mitigation efforts are working thus far, Abelon said. Restrictions may be updated depending on conditions.

Guams government has adjusted its testing policy, prioritizing those with symptoms and high-risk close contacts, to conserve tests, Paco-San Agustin said. She said Guam plans to stay the course as omicron appears to be retreating.
TOKYO  A Japanese F-15 Eagle fighter jet went missing Monday over waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, according to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.

It is believed that the aircraft had crashed, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters at a news conference Tuesday morning.

A rescue team found part of what seems to be an outer panel and life-saving equipment around 8 p.m. Monday near the area where the jet was lost, an Air Self-Defense Force spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. Japanese government officials typically speak to the media on condition of anonymity.

The jet disappeared from radar shortly after takeoff around 5.30 p.m. after traveling 3 miles from its home station at Komatsu Air Base in western Japan, the JASDF spokesman said.

The fighter and its two crewmembers were heading for a regular combat drill over the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, according to the spokesman.

The jet was not bound for this weeks Cope North exercise involving U.S., Japanese and Australian air forces in Guam, the spokesman added.

Japanese U-125A jets, UH-60J and SH-60K helicopters, five warships and five Japan Coast Guard patrol boats were searching for the missing crewmembers on Tuesday, the spokesman said.

The cause of the incident is under investigation, he said.
The Japan Coast Guard issued a maritime navigational alert for salvage operations in the South China Sea over the weekend, indicating the U.S. Navy may be starting its effort to recover a stealth fighter that sank in the ocean last week.

An F-35C Lightning II crashed on Jan. 24 while attempting to land on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. The U.S. 7th Fleet plans to salvage the aircraft, it said last week.

Saturdays navigational alert, issued by the coast guards Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department, specifies that salvage operations are taking place until further notice approximately 300 miles northeast of the Paracel Islands and 170 miles off the western coast of the Philippines.

However, 7th Fleet spokeswoman Cmdr. Hayley Sims would not comment on whether the navigational alert was related to the Navys salvage plans.

The U.S. Navy is making recovery operations arrangements for the F-35C aircraft involved in the crash aboard USS Carl Vinson in the South China Sea, she said Tuesday by phone.

The Navy will attempt to recover the aircraft while keeping safety and national security interests in mind, Pentagon press secretary John F. Kirby said Thursday.

We're certainly mindful of the value of an F-35 in every respect of what value means, he said at a media briefing.

The C variant of the fifth-generation fighter is configured for carrier landings and costs approximately $103 million per aircraft, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin, but its value also includes classified technology.

The aircraft crashed into the deck of the Carl Vinson during a landing attempt, then fell into the water, the Navy said last week. The pilot ejected and was picked up by a rescue helicopter, and six other sailors were injured in the crash.

Three were flown to a hospital in Manila, the Philippines; the remaining four were treated aboard the Carl Vinson.

Sims said the three sailors who were hospitalized have since been released. She said the incident is under investigation and no further details are available.

In March, the Navy broke its depth record for the recovery of a sunken aircraft when it fished an MH-60s Seahawk from 3.6 miles beneath the surface of the Philippine Sea after it crashed the previous year.
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine  As Russian troops coalesce around Ukraine like an iron crescent, Kateryna Ponomarenko keeps an emergency bag near her front door, worried the war will again follow her.

Ponomarenko, along with her two sons, fled intense fighting in 2015 after explosions and gunfire in her town outside Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists took up arms the year before. They started fresh in Chernihiv, more than 400 miles from the simmering conflict in the east.

Now she feels the threat closing in on her family once again.

Russian troops, tanks and artillery are massing along the border near eastern Ukraine and moving into neighboring Belarus for what Moscow says are joint military exercises scheduled to begin next week. The closest Russian troops have massed just beyond the border of Ukraine and Belarus, a fast, 25-mile drive from her home.

Russian officials say there are no plans to invade Ukraine even as the Kremlin steps up pressure intended to keep Ukraine from bolstering its Western ties. But Russias show of military force in ally Belarus has prompted fears of a deepening conflict that could open a new front in the north.

The road to Kyiv, about 150 miles down a paved highway, is not only the fastest run to the capital from the border, but the road is also the most practical, Ukrainian officials acknowledged. Thick forests and icy swamps act as natural barriers in the region.

The first major town on the way is Chernihiv.

I want to prepare for the worst scenario and escape somehow, if the war starts, Ponomarenko told The Washington Post in her apartment in the city of about 300,000 people, dotted with historical cathedrals and still bearing scars from its Nazi occupation during World War II.

As Ukrainian, U.S. and NATO officials debate the likelihood of a Russian invasion, Ukrainians along the highway are split on whether their homes will be in the path of potential tank convoys. An escalation is unlikely, some argued, while others waxed nostalgic about the Soviet Union, which included Ukraine as one of its republics. And as talk about destruction reaches a fever pitch, some Ukrainians have hit the dance floor in clubs to escape a sense of dread for a fleeting moment.

What concerns Ponomarenko is a sense of complacency. She said many people in the region around Chernihiv have been untouched by the conflict in the east, where Russian-backed separatists carved out two enclaves. If they havent been personally affected by the deaths of nearly 14,000 people since 2014, the conflict can be an afterthought.

Most people are not taking it seriously, she said.

There are about 5,000 Russian troops in Belarus mobilized for training exercises for 10 days in February, Ukrainian and U.S. officials have said, though officials have asserted that the number could balloon to 30,000. There are an estimated 100,000 Russian forces along the Ukrainian border farther to the east.

Speaking during a Washington Post Live event on Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russias upcoming military exercises in Belarus are grounds for additional concern. Russia has used military exercises before as a disguise, as a cover, he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that the number of mobilized Russian troops far and away exceeds what we would typically see them do for exercises.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary for Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, said there are no current signs of an invasion from Belarus, but the military has not ruled out the possibility it could be a springboard for attack. He said dense forests and swamps would make an assault difficult, forcing an invasion along existing roads. Chernobyl, site of the nuclear disaster in the 1986, occupies a swath of no mans land to the west that would also complicate an off-road assault.

Deployments to secure the Belarus border are accelerating, along with the delivery of ammunition, fuel and other supplies, he said.

Yet pockets of the northern border appeared lightly defended. At the Senkivka crossing on Friday, where the borders with Russia and Belarus converge, a handful of Ukrainian soldiers could be seen patrolling the area as commercial trucks rolled past dilapidated bunkers.

Drones and other observation points help keep the border under watch, Oleksandra Stupak, a border security officer, told a group of reporters. She pointed out a wooden barricade that could be used to block the road.

An obelisk dubbed the Three Sisters, a Soviet-era commemoration to recognize friendly relations, was installed at the tri-border point, Stupak said. She stopped reporters from approaching the area, warning it could be seen as a provocation from the other nations.

In a tiny village just outside the crossing, Nicholai Lebedev, a 68-year-old retiree, yearned for a return to the Soviet Union, where he said better jobs and utility prices made life easier. He rejected the notion he could be in danger in the event the Russian military uses the road a few feet from a sunken fence.

Nobody will attack us. They are my brothers. We are the same nation, he said, referring to Kyivan Rus, an ancient federation of Slavic people. Putins Russia has used similar notions of ancient bonds and one people in propaganda seeking to blur the concept of a separate Ukrainian identity and culture.

In Chernihiv, Roman Avramenko has taken a more somber approach.

Avramenko is the executive director of Truth Hounds, a Kyiv-based group that investigates war crimes and human right violations in Ukraine and elsewhere. The group has begun preparations to fall back in the event of a Russian invasion, stockpiling clean water and firewood to get through the unrelenting winter. Its work will continue, he said, with extra layers of vigilance to keep documents in cloud storage and free of confiscation.

I know what will be going on, he said, when Russia will come.

As some Ukrainians batten down for conflict, life goes on in Chernihiv.

Couples shuffled down icy sidewalks downtown on Saturday night, stopping to smoke and warm up with cappuccinos at coffee shop windows. Hip locals crammed into Zivot a Pivo, a German restaurant featuring a live band belting a mix of Russian language and Western hits, including one by rockers AC/DC.

Im on the highway to hell! a scrum of dancers shouted to the ceiling, including friends Sveta Prikhodko and Liydmila Rochina.

Both women said they have packed emergency bags in case the war comes to their city, though they are optimistic diplomacy will win out. We do worry, but I think there is a 75 percent chance that nothing is going to happen, and a 25 percent chance we have indecent neighbors, Prikhodko said.

A constant barrage of news and tension has left the community deeply uncertain, said the women, who work in real estate. Sales plummeted in January, sending them in search of a place to vent their frustration  and their anxiety.

What if its the last day? Rochina said.

The Washington Posts Oksana Parafeniuk contributed to this report.
KYIV, Ukraine  President Vladimir Putin hit back against the West on Tuesday, accusing the United States and NATO of using Ukraine to hem in Russia and ignoring Moscow's security concerns.

The Russian leader, speaking to reporters as a major military buildup around Ukraine stokes fears of an assault, said the Kremlin was reviewing U.S. and NATO replies to recent proposals that seek to check NATO's military presence in the region, one element in a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at averting further conflict.

"But it is already clear that Russia's fundamental concerns have been ignored," Putin said, questioning NATO's open-door policy that could allow for former Soviet states like Ukraine to join. "NATO refers to the right of countries to choose freely, but you cannot strengthen someone's security at the expense of others."

For weeks, East-West tensions have mounted over the deployment of more than 100,000 Russian troops close to Ukraine, which U.S. and NATO officials say may be a precursor to a Russian land grab like the one that allowed Moscow to annex Crimea in 2014.

Western leaders, threatening massive economic retaliation should Putin invade, say another assault would not only jeopardize Ukraine's future but erode the norms that have underpinned transatlantic security for 70 years.

Putin's appearance alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban marked the first time he has spoken publicly about the standoff since late December.

While he suggested diplomatic discussions would continue, Putin also accused the West of making Ukraine a pawn in a great-power showdown.

"It seems to me that the United States does not care that much about Ukrainian security  maybe they think about it somewhere in the background," he said. "But their main task is to restrict the development of Russia."

Putin spoke as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, hosting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for talks in Kyiv, warned of the potential for large-scale conflict.

"This is not going to be a war of Ukraine and Russia. This is going to be a European war, a full-fledged war," Zelensky said. "Because no one is going to give away territories and people any longer."

Johnson appealed to Russian citizens about the potential human cost of war.

"There are 200,000 men and women under arms in Ukraine," he said. "They will put up a very, very fierce and bloody resistance. And I think that parents, mothers in Russia, should reflect on that fact."

Johnson's discussions with the Ukrainian leader mark the most recent in a series of high-level visits to Kyiv, as Western officials confer with local leaders on how to assist. Western officials, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have also engaged with Putin. Johnson reportedly had to delay a Monday call with Putin as he deals with the fallout from a probe into Downing Street parties during the coronavirus pandemic. The call is now scheduled for Wednesday.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, continued its attempt to advance a diplomatic resolution. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied it is planning an assault, though Putin offered no such assurances Tuesday.

Hours before Putin's remarks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, spoke to discuss a recent exchange of security proposals.

The half-hour call came a day after Moscow sent the United States and European nations what U.S. officials described as a "follow-up" to Western countries' response to two proposed treaties that Moscow put forward in December. The Russian proposals sought to block Ukraine's entry into NATO and limit Western military activity in Eastern Europe.

While NATO nations have dismissed such measures out of hand, the United States has suggested a series of compromise steps on arms control and military exercises.

Speaking after the call, Lavrov complained that the U.S. written response focused on "secondary" issues and that the U.S. reaction on the "key issue" between the two countries was "extremely negative."

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Blinken "reiterated the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances."

State Department officials, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity to describe Tuesday's call, said Russia's Foreign Ministry was still working on a more formal response to Western compromise proposals and would relay them once Putin gives his approval.

They said that Lavrov signaled interest in further meetings with the United States, as well as NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Also on Tuesday, Zelensky signed a decree to expand the country's armed forces by 100,000 personnel over the next three years. Ukrainian forces currently number 250,000.

"This is the start of Ukraine's transition to a professional army," he said. "This decree is not because the war is coming soon  I say this to everyone  this decree is so that soon, and in the future, there will be peace in Ukraine."

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who hosted his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, in Kyiv on Tuesday, said that Britain, Poland and Ukraine are preparing a trilateral pact to strengthen regional security. Poland and Britain have offered security aid to Ukraine, but it's unclear what a new arrangement would entail.

Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov wrote Tuesday on Twitter that Ukraine has received a sixth planeload of U.S. military aid, including "84 tons of ammunition." U.S. shipments now add up to about 500 tons of defense equipment, "and this isn't the end," he wrote.

The U.S. military has issued "prepare to deploy" orders to 8,500 personnel who are likely to be headed to NATO partner nations in Eastern Europe  President Joe Biden has ruled out sending ground troops to Ukraine  although Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that no final decisions have been made. Britain also has offered to send jets, warships and military specialists to support NATO's eastern flank.

Kirby said there have been no signs of de-escalation by Russia even though some troops and weaponry were returning from Belarus, where they have been positioned for what Moscow has described as a regular exercise but which Western nations characterize as another potential front.

Putin, during his remarks alongside Hungary's Orban, in turn highlighted the presence of American missile defenses in Eastern Europe. Russia has characterized hardware like the Aegis Ashore system the United States has located in Romania  and which the Pentagon has said could become operational in Poland later this year  as offensive weapons.

"Let's imagine that Ukraine is a member of NATO, is stuffed with weapons  there are modern offensive systems, like in Poland and Romania  and begins an operation in the Crimea," he said. "Do we have to fight with the NATO bloc? Has anyone thought anything about it? It seems not."

Orban, considered Putin's closest ally within NATO and the European Union, called his visit to Moscow a "peace mission." He also said he is seeking to increase Hungary's gas imports from Russia, even as some accuse Moscow of stoking an energy crisis to gain leverage over European countries.

"As Hungarians and other people of the central Europe, middle Europe, we are interested in de-escalating tensions between the West and the East and to do everything we can to prevent a Cold War," he said during the news conference Tuesday.

Hungary's opposition parties had called on Orban to cancel his trip because "in this tense situation, it is simply treasonous to go to Moscow."

- - -

Pannett reported from Sydney, and Booth reported from London. The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung, John Hudson and Dan Lamothe in Washington and David Stern in Kyiv contributed to this report.
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany  U.S. service members at some European installations may wear their uniforms off base in certain instances, as the military relaxes a policy put in place for personnel across the Continent in 2014 for safety reasons.

Each component commander has the authority and latitude to determine what uniform posture is best to their particular mission and security situation, U.S. European Command said in a statement Tuesday.

The 86th Airlift Wing, headquartered at Ramstein Air Base, the Armys 21st Theater Sustainment Command and other commands in Europe announced relaxed rules for off-base uniform wear Tuesday, effective immediately.

The policies apply to airmen and soldiers in the Kaiserslautern area as well as to 21st TSC soldiers assigned to U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, U.S. Army Garrison Benelux, Kosovo, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria.

After many years and regular assessment of the threat environment, leaders agree it is time for a return to normal and allow airmen more flexibility in their daily routines, Lt. Col. Will Powell, a spokesman for the 86th Airlift Wing, said in a statement Tuesday.

Members of both services are permitted to stop at or visit off-base establishments in their commuting area while in uniform, when they are traveling between work and home, according to the policies.

Uniforms may be worn at restaurants, markets, shops, vehicle maintenance facilities, gas stations, drugstores, medical clinics, barber shops and similar locations, Powell said.

Service members may also wear their uniform when taking children to school and to off-base extracurricular activities.

Uniformed airmen at Ramstein may travel by private vehicles, taxis, motorcycles and bicycles. They may not use public transportation, airports or fly on commercial aircraft while in uniform, according to the new rules.

Airmen are also restricted from wearing uniforms off base in the city of Trier, according to a 3rd Air Force memorandum. The reason was not specified.

Uniforms remain off-limits at bars, nightclubs, dance clubs and hookah lounges. Service members are also prohibited from drinking alcohol off base while in uniform, Powell said.

The 21st TSC said activities in public while in uniform, such as dining and convenience stops, should be as expedient as possible.

The new rule also prohibits 21st TSC soldiers from using commercial airports while in uniform. In 2011, a gunman shot at a group of U.S airmen at the Frankfurt airport, killing two and seriously wounding two others.

The Army command said soldiers may wear their uniform while using local public transportation as long as they use the most direct route. Soldiers also may wear their uniforms to walk to their destination as long as they try to take the shortest route possible.

Both the Air Force and the Army said the off-base uniform policy could change based on threats and risks to personnel.

For 21st TSC soldiers, the Army fitness uniform can be worn only going between home and work, and the only stops permitted are for fuel or emergencies. Airmen may wear their official fitness gear while traveling between home and duty locations.

Last year, the Bavaria-based 7th Army Training Command was the first to announce changes when it allowed troops to wear uniforms off base in limited circumstances as a trial run.

It was hugely successful and well-received by our host communities around U.S. installations in Bavaria, said 7th ATC spokesman Lt. Col. Michael Weisman.

In 2014, EUCOM ordered all U.S. personnel in Europe to refrain from wearing uniforms off base except while they were commuting to work in their personal cars or riding on base buses.

EUCOM said at the time that the intent was to ensure safety, although it did not cite any specific threats.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Randall Reed, the 3rd Air Force commander, authorized wing commanders in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom to implement uniform policy changes at their discretion, officials said.

The 31st Fighter Wing in Aviano, Italy, said Tuesday that servicemembers may wear uniforms off base within a 25-kilometer radius of their homes for no more than 15 minutes. Reasons for doing so include official business, banking, picking up food, transporting children to school or day care, vehicle refueling and maintenance, and trips to the pharmacy, a wing statement said.

Spangdahlem Air Base authorized off-base uniform wear in the commuting area between service members homes and duty stations. The policy was drafted in close coordination with the 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein, base officials said in an email to Stars and Stripes.

The policy balances security and convenience for service members, while also serving as a reminder to the local population that we live amongst them as neighbors and friends, the statement said.

Air Force officials at RAF Lakenheath, England, did not immediately say Tuesday whether their off-base uniform rules were changing.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vicenza, Italy is allowing uniform wear off base tied to necessity and convenience, an emailed statement said. Paratroopers can make brief stops but shouldnt eat out at restaurants or go for long walks in town while in uniform, the statement said.

Stars and Stripes reporters John Vandiver and Norman Llamas contributed to this report.
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer testing the Bioprint FirstAid experiment by German Aerospace Center, DLR.

He posted this image to his social channels on 31 January 2022 with the caption: Could astronauts print plasters from their own skin cells? We're not quite there yet, but I recently supported German Aerospace Center, DLR Bioprint FirstAid experiment on the International Space Station. This "plaster gun" is a bio-3D printer that produces a plaster-like covering for skin wounds from bio-ink. At this stage the ink is made from fluorescent microparticles rather than skin cells, but the goal is to use this technology not only in space, but also to provide personalised wound care for patients on the ground.

ID: iss066e127288

Credit: ESA/NASA-M.Maurer

Larger image

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(Tribune News Service)  Russian President Vladimir Putins troop buildup designed to shift Ukrainian loyalties to east from west are having the opposite effect, according to two New Jersey representatives just back from a visit to that European nation.

Reps. Tom Malinowski and Mikie Sherrill, part of a congressional delegation that met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv as well as European Union officials in Brussels, said Russian threats of an invasion are solidifying Ukraines ties with western European democracies while strengthening the post-World War II alliance between the U.S. and Europe.

Putin could go down in history as the great unifier, said Malinowski, D-7th Dist., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Hes unified Ukrainians. Hes unified NATO and the European Union. Hes even unified Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2014 and annexed Crimea, now has more than 100,000 troops along the border between the two countries.

Sherrill, D-11th Dist., said the earlier invasion healed any splits in Ukrainian society and showed the difference between democracy of Western Europe and the authoritarianism of Russia.

Ukrainians have seen what happens when Russia takes over territory in their state, said Sherrill, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. People are very aware of what not living in a democratic society, not living with freedom looks like.

In the wake of 2014, the Ukrainian people really came together, she said. Thats now a key part of their national identity.

Whether or not Russia invades remains an open question, Malinowski said.

The one thing we know for certain is Putin wants us to believe he will invade, he said. Thats clearly the point of massing the forces he has. It may be because he wants to pressure us and the Ukrainians into making concessions.

The problem, Sherrill said, is that Putin continues to have a Cold War view of the world, in which anything that helps the U.S. is a loss for Russia, and vice versa.

It seems as if theyre still operating with that theory in mind, said Sherrill, who served as a Russian policy officer while in the U.S. Navy.

Ukraine gained its independence after the Soviet Union collapsed and Putin has demanded the NATO alliance of western democracies agree never to add Ukraine as a member as well as pull back military forces from former communist countries in Eastern Europe.

We would never support the idea that a country would have to back away from NATO to not be invaded, Sherrill said. And if Putin insists that the former Soviet bloc countries return to Russias sphere of influence, Sherrill said it would be hard to come up with a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

But Malinowski, a former assistant U.S. secretary of state, said there could be a diplomatic off-ramp for Putin.

We may be able to do enough to allow him to tell the Russian people that the Americans are at least willing to talk to him about these things, Malinowski said. We can make agreements: No deployment of missiles and weaponry close to the Russian border if those agreements are reciprocal. We can pursue arms control.

In the U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats are very close to writing a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia should it invade. Malinowski said the congressional delegation, which contained Republican and Democratic lawmakers, likewise spoke in one voice.

They discussed ways of helping Ukraine, including economic assistance and military equipment like Stinger missiles to strengthen the countrys air defense, Malinowski said.

We all delivered exactly the same message, that the United States is not going to stand for dictators changing borders with tanks and were going to work with our president to ensure that Putins regime pays a very significant cost if any of his troops move further into Ukraine.

jsalant@njadvancemedia.com

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ROYAL OAK, Mich. (Tribune News Service)  Federal agents have raided the house of a high-ranking Department of Homeland Security official as part of an unspecified investigation, The Detroit News has learned.

Neighbors and law enforcement officials confirmed the raid happened Friday at the home of Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Vance Callender, who oversees operations in Michigan and Ohio. The search involved approximately 15 agents and lasted about six hours at a pea-green, Colonial-style home, east of downtown Royal Oak.

News of the search has spread widely within the region's federal law enforcement community, raising questions about the conduct of a high-ranking federal official tasked with helping protect the nation's border with Canada. Callender heads a department that also investigates a wide range of crimes, including sex trafficking and child pornography, and enforces immigration and customs laws.

It is unclear what prompted the search, and Callender, 49, has not been charged with wrongdoing. He could not be reached for comment and a spokeswoman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not discuss Callender's job status.

"As public servants working for a law enforcement agency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) takes allegations of misconduct very seriously," the spokeswoman said.

"Any allegations of misconduct are appropriately investigated, and any employee, regardless of rank or seniority, who has committed provable misconduct, will be held accountable. Where necessary, ICE works with federal and/or state and local law enforcement who may investigate such allegations. Per agency protocol, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) will also review the allegations."

Callender has spent 26 years in law enforcement and worked in Texas, New York, Jamaica and Mexico, and overseen Homeland Security operations in Michigan and Ohio since January 2020. He previously served as the department's operations chief for Europe, Canada and Mexico. Most recently, Callender was tapped to coordinate Operation Allies Welcome, a department effort to resettle Afghan refugees. The operation is headquartered at Fort McCoy, a U.S. Army base in Wisconsin.

Investigators arrived at Callender's home around 9 a.m. Friday and spent the next six hours at the location, according to a witness. Callender and his wife bought the $566,000 home in July 2020.

Investigators with visible badges and firearms were seen entering the home with three or four rolling suitcases. About one dozen vehicles, mostly SUVs, lined Blair Avenue during the search.

Investigators left Callender's home with the same suitcases and did not appear to leave with other evidence in bags or boxes. The investigators were not wearing any jackets or clothes that would help pinpoint which department was conducting the search.

An FBI spokeswoman would not confirm or deny whether the bureau's investigators conducted the search. Homeland Security, meanwhile, has an Office of Inspector General that serves as a version of internal affairs staffed with investigators who probe wrongdoing by employees.

Keith Corbett, a criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor who was chief of the federal Organized Crime Strike Force in Detroit, said "this is a terrible look for him and the department."

"The search makes me think the investigation is fairly far along," Corbett said. "You don't just get a search warrant. You have to establish a crime was committed, that there is evidence of the crime and probable cause to believe evidence is at the location you are seeking to search."

Federal officials have occasionally become embroiled in investigations in recent years.

FBI Special Agent Richard Trask, one of the lead investigators credited with thwarting a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, was fired in September after being charged with beating his wife following a swingers party. He later pleaded no contest to aggravated assault charges.

And in October 2007, a federal prosecutor from Florida accused in a criminal case of flying to Metro Detroit to have sex with a 5-year-old girl killed himself in his cell. John David "Roy" Atchison was found unresponsive in his cell in a segregated unit for suicidal inmates and others at the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, two weeks after a failed attempt.

rsnell@detroitnews.com

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(Tribune News Service)  The last thing that Alex Seling did after finishing a coast-to-coast hike that started in Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware and ended in Dana Point, Calif., was to step into the Pacific Ocean.

On Monday, Jan. 31, Seling, who served as an Army medic in Iraq, was greeted by dozens of people at Doheny State Beach after walking the last part of his journey along the San Juan Creek trail.

Stepping into the Pacific, he finished a 4,000-plus mile trek dedicated to raising awareness of and addressing suicides among military veterans. As part of his efforts, he raised more than $6,500 for Warrior Expedition and Mission 22.

According to the 2020 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Report compiled by the Department of Veteran Affairs, suicide among veterans appears to be increasing in America at a pace similar to the broader civilian population. In 2018, 6,435 veterans killed themselves, compared with 6,056 in 2005.

It feels unbelievable, Seling said after reaching the ocean waters. It was absolutely the best moment of my life. Its a little overwhelming and Im not sure its really hit me yet, but Im really happy and proud of the journey.

It took Seling, originally from Georgia, 13 months to get to Dana Point. He began his hike along the American Discovery Trail on Dec. 21, 2020. He crossed the Appalachian Mountains and hiked through the Rocky Mountains. At Grand Junction, Colo., he headed to Moab National Park in Utah and then walked southwest toward Dana Point.

His favorite spots were in West Virginia, southern Ohio and Colorado, he said.

On Sunday, he walked along Ortega Highway, saying it was likely the most dangerous road he had traveled. It was very narrow along the shoulder and I had to dart in and out.

Seling said since getting out of the Army in 2010, he has continued to have a thirst for adventure. He joined the Army for just that reason.

Now, long-distance hiking fills that need.

To me, its very therapeutic and has helped me grow as a person, he said. It helps me be much more confident and gives me time to reflect and process things Ive dealt with.

Kiki Macdonald, of Dana Point, was among those there to greet Seling at Doheny. She first met him when he was previously hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and she was at a Mammoth campsite.

Once I found this out (about his cause), I decided we would be friends forever, Macdonald said. I followed his journey the rest of the way as he made it to Canada.

In 2019, when she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, Seling met up with her. And, she paid the favor back to him for this hike. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, she met him along his route, bringing leftovers and making camps where he could rest and recharge.

I was proud to help support him along the way, she said. I love that he went for it and followed through.

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WASHINGTON  Senators reached an agreement on a narrowly focused bill that aims to provide health care to veterans suffering the effects of exposure to toxic burn pits, lawmakers said Tuesday.

Two dozen bills were introduced to tackle the issue last year creating what leaders of the Senate and House veterans affairs committees labeled a historical opportunity to secure health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, many of whom have been diagnosed with cancers, respiratory issues and other conditions. While the House is working on one comprehensive bill to tackle the issue, the Senate is taking a phased approach, lawmakers announced.

Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the leaders of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, unveiled a bill Tuesday that they described as a first step in a three-phase process.

Over the past few months, Ive worked closely with Senator Moran on a strategy that will get us one step closer to doing right by toxic-exposed veterans, a solution that  can garner enough bipartisan support to get all the way to the presidents desk, Tester said. To accomplish that, weve broken our work into three critical steps. Phase one is to provide greater access to health care.

However, some advocates criticized the plan as not going far enough to help veterans. John Feal, who is known for his advocacy on behalf of 9/11 responders but has recently turned his attention toward helping veterans exposed to burn pits, blasted Moran and Tester for putting a Band-Aid on a[n] open, sucking chest wound.

The Senates bill, titled the Health Care for Burn Pit Veterans Act, would offer access to Department of Veterans Affairs health care to every combat veteran who served after November 1998 with a discharge date after Sept. 11, 2001.

Veterans now can receive health care for up to five years after their discharge for any condition related to service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Health Care for Burn Pit Veteran Act would extend that period to 10 years.

The goal of those changes is to close gaps in eligibility criteria that prevents about 1 million post-9/11 veterans from accessing VA care, Testers office said. In addition, the legislation would boost research into the effects of toxic exposure and increase training on the subject for VA employees.

The bill comes with a price tag of about $1 billion, Tester said.

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on the bill Wednesday afternoon. Tester and Moran plan to make more announcements in coming weeks about the second and third phases of the plan, Tester said.

Besides health care, they want to provide disability benefits to veterans exposed to burn pits and establish a new process for the VA to determine which conditions to place on its presumptive list. Conditions on the list require less evidence to be approved for benefits.

I made a commitment  that I would take this to the floor when we had an agreement, Tester said. We have an agreement on this phase. Were taking it to the floor, and were going to get it done and passed. We hope the House will follow our lead.

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs has been working on a major reform bill, the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, which would overhaul the VAs process of handling claims of toxic exposure and significantly increase payouts to veterans who served near burn pits.

The House bill would increase spending by more than $281 billion during the next decade because of the expanded eligibility for disability compensation, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. Under the bill, about 1.5 million additional veterans would become eligible for VA health care, and 2 million veterans would qualify for disability compensation.

House Republicans suggested during a roundtable discussion last month that the bill be split into parts. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., argued Congress should first focus on health care for veterans before expanding eligibility for benefits  a similar strategy to what the Senate announced Tuesday.

Bost faced pushback on the idea from House Democrats and veterans advocates. Comedian Jon Stewart, who recently became an advocate for veterans suffering from burn-pit exposure, said during the roundtable that splitting the bill was unacceptable.

Feal, who also participated in the House roundtable, criticized the Senates plan Tuesday.

These men and women need better, deserve better, earned better, and you failed them! he wrote on Twitter.

Moran defended a phased approach because he didnt want to pass legislation that would add conditions to the VAs presumptive list before the department had time to tackle a backlog of benefits claims.

The VA is experiencing a surge in backlogged claims because several conditions were added last year to the presumptive list. The VA considers claims as backlogged once theyve been in the system for more than 125 days without being processed. As of January, there were about 260,000 backlogged claims, up from about 200,000 in October.

The VA is working to hire more than 2,000 new processors to handle the claims. Despite the backlog, VA Secretary Denis McDonough has encouraged veterans to continue submitting their claims and promised the VA would provide timely access to benefits.

The issue that stands out to me is that  getting presumptions in place that add significant numbers of new veterans to the list before the VA gets its act together with regard to its capability of dealing with those cases disadvantages veterans who are already waiting in line, Moran said. The value of this legislation is that we harm no other veteran.

Tester said there could be a conference with House lawmakers to come to an agreement on one bill. Some House lawmakers are looking to introduce a companion to the Senates version, Moran said.

Tester emphasized his top priority as chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is to address toxic exposure in a comprehensive way.

Were going to have to work with the House, he said. Hopefully, they will understand that in order to get this done, were going to have to take this step by step.
John Singlaub, a two-star general with a record of wartime derring-do who resigned from the Army in 1978 after openly criticizing President Jimmy Carter's defense policy, and who later battled communism as a private citizen by funneling weapons and money to rightist insurgents around the world, died Jan. 29 at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 100.

His daughter Mary Ann Singlaub confirmed the death but did not cite a cause.

To his admirers, Singlaub was the consummate warrior  a brawny, ramrod-straight man of action with the wounds and decorations to prove the truth of the lore that surrounded him. He rose to the rank of major general, and in the course of three wars, he became known as a stealthy commander with a knack for leading death-defying missions in mountains and jungles.

During World War II, he distinguished himself in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the CIA, parachuting into German-occupied France and later into China to support anti-Japanese guerrilla forces. He also was the mastermind of a bluff that helped liberate nearly 400 Allied prisoners from a Japanese prison camp.

For the nascent CIA, he headed agency operations in postwar Manchuria, served as a high-level agency official in Korea during the Korean War and organized covert combat operations along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam and in neighboring Laos during the Vietnam War.

Although revered by many military colleagues, he was largely unknown to the public until May 1977, when he was catapulted to the front page of The Washington Post. Serving at the time as chief of staff of U.S. forces in South Korea  the third-ranking Army official on the Korean Peninsula  he did something unusual, even shocking, for a military officer to do. He publicly disagreed with the president.

Carter made a campaign pledge the year before to bring home 32,000 U.S. ground troops stationed in the region over five years. Many officials in the diplomatic and defense establishment had called for more troops to reinforce South Korea's border with North Korea. They said the border was a vital line of defense against aggressive communist regimes in North Korea and China.

Singlaub, however, aired his objections in a particularly visible fashion, alarming the White House. He told a Post reporter that Carter's proposed retrenchment "will lead to war" as a previous drawdown of Allied forces had done in 1950.

Singlaub, who later said the interview had been off the record, was ordered to Washington for a meeting with Carter, after which the president said at a news conference that the general had committed "a very serious breach of the propriety that ought to exist among military officers after a policy has been made."

Carter, Singlaub liked to note, eventually discarded his plans to remove the troops.

The incident was reminiscent of President Harry Truman's showdown with Douglas MacArthur over the conduct of the Korean War. MacArthur was relieved of command, and he retired to New York.

Singlaub was reassigned to Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Ga., as chief of staff, but he continued on a collision course with Carter. He aired further policy differences with the president during a speech at Georgia Tech that hastened his retirement from the Army after 35 years of service.

He was lauded as a hero by conservative politicians such as Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and became a speaker on the far-right lecture circuit, lambasting Carter's cancellation of the B-1A bomber program.

Singlaub started the U.S. Council for World Freedom, an affiliate of the World Anti-Communist League. Later, as president of the international organization, he made what the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith called "substantial progress" in purging the group of neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and Latin American death-squad leaders.

"We had a Mexican chapter that was really kooky," he told The Post in 1986. "Blamed everything on the Jews. Even accused Pope John Paul of being a Jew. They were thrown out."

In addition, Singlaub was involved with the Western Goals Foundation, a private domestic intelligence group bankrolled by the archconservative Texas oil tycoon Nelson Bunker Hunt to gather information on leftist groups and their leaders.

Singlaub's chief function in what the Los Angeles Times called the business of "private-enterprise insurgency" was raising millions of dollars to supply arms to anti-communist irregulars in places such as Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan and Laos.

In the early 1980s, as Congress began curtailing U.S. funding of efforts to overthrow leftist regimes in Nicaragua and elsewhere, Singlaub and his organizations remained an important conduit of materiel and financial assistance, reportedly with the help of deep-pocketed conservatives and foreign governments.

He was often compared to Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North and other major figures in the Reagan administration's Iran-contra scandal. North was among the national security officials who had authorized illegal arms sales to Iran to win the release of U.S. hostages in the Middle East and used some of the profits to support right-wing Nicaraguan rebels known as the contras.

In his memoir, "Hazardous Duty" (1991), written with Malcolm McConnell, Singlaub reserved special contempt for North (a "gullible dupe") and the shady arms dealers who he said had inflated prices of inferior weapons and pocketed the difference. Their motive, he wrote, "had been profit, not patriotism."

Singlaub was never the subject of a criminal investigation. He spent six years and hundreds of thousands of dollars battling a lawsuit  filed by a leftist nonprofit group, the Christic Institute  that promoted conspiracy theories about him and dozens of others with ties to the contras. The lawsuit was resolved in his favor in 1992.

Meanwhile, he opened an office in the Philippines, intending to hunt, he said, for a treasure of gold bullion. He told the Los Angeles Times that his hope was to use the gold to finance anti-communist insurgencies in Southeast Asia. He abandoned the effort after local newspaper reports described the effort as a cover for mercenary training.

John Kirk Singlaub was born on his grandfather's homestead in what is now Independence, Calif., on July 10, 1921. During the summer, young Jack hiked with friends in the eastern Sierra Nevadas, and they tested their fortitude by finding out how many days they could march on what they carried in their rucksacks.

His father worked for the city of Los Angeles, and the Singlaubs eventually settled in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood.

Jack Singlaub, who said his ambition had always been to join the military, enrolled in an ROTC program at the University of California at Los Angeles. With America at war, he set aside his studies in 1943, just shy of graduation, to receive an Army commission as a second lieutenant.

Volunteering for hazardous duty, he joined the OSS and was placed in a three-man group that dropped into the mountainous Massif Central area in south-central France in August 1944.

Their mission was to help French Resistance fighters prepare for the Allied invasion of the occupied country's Mediterranean coast, launched about two months after the D-Day invasion of Normandy. (William Casey, the future CIA director, was his case officer. When Casey offered him cyanide pills for use in the event of capture, Singlaub recalled replying, "No, sir, I don't intend to get captured.")

At one point, in a fight against a German garrison, he was wounded in the face by sniper fire. He grabbed a Bren light machine gun and emptied two full magazines on the enemy nest, silencing it. "We didn't hear from that gun again," he said.

"It was not all bad," he later told the Warfare History Network, describing the action he saw in France. He said there were families, still living in castles, who would celebrate with the advancing Americans by uncorking fine wine or 50-year-old cognac that they had managed to hide from the Germans. "There was stress, strain, and pain, but you could survive."

With the Allied march to Berlin underway, Singlaub volunteered for service in the Pacific to help end the war there. His most intrepid undertaking of the war came on Aug. 27, 1945, after the Americans leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs but before the official Japanese surrender on Sept. 2.

It was feared that Allied prisoners of war would be executed en masse in retribution for the bombings, and Singlaub headed an eight-man rescue team sent to free American, Australian and Dutch POWs on Hainan Island in the South China Sea. After parachuting in, they were met at the guardhouse by bayonet-wielding Japanese soldiers who attempted to take them prisoner.

Singlaub was a captain at the time, but he had been advised by an OSS specialist on the Japanese military to pose as a major, the rank above his. With swagger that astonished the Japanese guards, he recalled, he ordered them to watch over the medical and food supplies his team had brought with it.

"There was a Japanese captain there, and I told him he didn't have enough rank to talk with me," Singlaub told the Warfare History Network. "He got on the telephone line and screamed to get connected to his colonel. We listened outside his door, and ... could hear the captain saying, 'But sir, they jumped in broad daylight, the major insists that Japan is surrendering  and he will talk only with you!' "

The next day, after the OSS crew spent an unnerving night in a hospital building, the colonel arrived, and Singlaub negotiated an agreement to provide food and medical attention to the emaciated POWs and arranged for their eventual evacuation.

On brief home leave earlier that year, he married Mary Osborne, with whom he had three children before divorcing. In 1992, he married Joan Lafferty.

In addition to his daughter Mary Ann, of Vienna, Va., and his wife, of Franklin, survivors include his other children, Lis D'Antoni of Davie, Fla., and John Singlaub of Zephyr Cove, Nev.; three stepdaughters, Jody Ball of Columbia, Tenn., Sara Guest of Arlington, Tenn., and Debra Satterfield of Franklin; nine grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

After the war, Singlaub was based at Mukden before the Manchurian city fell to Chinese Communists forces in 1948 and Americans were expelled. He escaped with his cocker spaniel on the last possible flight  "under artillery attack, passing a reconnaissance plane with a red star insignia, knowing this battle of the cold war was lost," author Tim Weiner wrote in his CIA history "Legacy of Ashes."

During the Korean War, Singlaub served as deputy chief of the CIA mission on the peninsula and later as an Army battalion commander, for which he received the Silver Star for valor in combat. He then joined the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He completed his UCLA degree in 1958, majoring in political science.

His other military decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Soldier's Medal, the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.

Nicknamed "Jumping Jack" Singlaub, he chaired the board of a forerunner to the U.S. Parachute Association and led the Army parachute team in international competitions. He was chairman of the OSS Society, a group that seeks to preserve the spy agency's legacy.

Decades after leaving the Army, he started wearing his dog tags again  a decision he made when he "returned to war," this time allied with the contras, and faced possible ambush, he wrote in his memoir.

"That would be one way to at least identify my body," he added. "Then I understood that the gesture was also symbolic of my commitment. Once I put those worn old steel tags back around my neck, I decided to keep them on until the war was over. I am still wearing them today."
Lavenia Hutchinson, 84, died May 1, 2022. Services will begin at 2:00 p.m. Monday, May 9, 2022 at the Calvery Assembly of God. Interment will follow at Sunset Memorial Gardens under the direction of Strode Funeral Home.
Port Richey, FL (34668)

Today

A mainly sunny sky. High 86F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 71F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
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.
A campaign in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty has raised nearly $60,000 for Waipuna Hospice in the lead up to Christmas, enabling the continuation of specialist hospice palliative care.

Farmers at Bayfair and Tauranga Crossing, with the support of their customers, raised a total of $29,322 in-store with the Farmers Christmas Charity Campaign whilst Waipuna Hospices community-based remembrance Tree Appeal added a further $30,539 in donations to make the regional total $59,861.

This is the eighth year that Farmers has raised funds for hospice and to date around $6m has been donated nationally.

One of the unique elements of this fundraiser is that 100 per cent of funds raised in each community stay in that community to support the local hospice service.

The iconic annual bauble produced by Farmers exclusively for hospice was once again in high demand, with nearly 15,000 collectable baubles sold.

Farmers have recognised that their staff and customers really want to support people in their own communities living with a life limiting condition, says acting CEO of Hospice NZ Wayne Naylor.

Because of this focus, people know their donations stay local and will mean their community hospice is there free of charge for anyone who needs support.

The work of Farmers in raising the funds this year has been praised by Waipuna Hospice CEO Richard Thurlow.

This amazing donation will help Waipuna Hospice support terminally ill patients, and support their families and whanau at no cost, he says.

Richard explains the funds will not only go toward nursing and medical support but also counselling, bereavement support, massage, physiotherapy, biography services, spiritual support, medical loan equipment and more.

Id like to extend a huge thank you to Farmers, for not only raising funds for Waipuna Hospice, but for also working as ambassadors for our services, helping our community to better understand the work we do, he says.

The awareness raising that comes from being involved with Farmers is invaluable. The enthusiasm and commitment from all staff and the people of Farmers Bayfair and Tauranga Crossing has contributed to this amazing result.

Farmers chief financial officer Michael Power says the company are extremely proud of the amount raised.

Farmers has been at the heart of New Zealand communities for over 110 years, says Michael.

We are delighted to make a positive difference in our communities through our long[1]standing relationship with Hospice.

The total of total of $59,861 has left Richard and the team at Waipuna Hospice feeling overwhelmed, especially during a year when so many have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I want to thank Farmers, those who supported us by hosting a Remembrance Tree site, and of course all those in our community who remembered a loved one through this appeal, he says.

Every dollar raised from this appeal helps us help our community.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I would like to make a special mention to the volunteers who made this appeal possible. The time and effort that our dedicated volunteers give to Waipuna Hospice continues to blow me away. During this appeal, they contributed an incredible 864 volunteer hours.

This campaign, and the amazing result, would not be possible without our generous community."
The Government has secured an additional 36 million rapid antigen tests over the course of February and March as New Zealand prepares to step up its response to the Covid-19 Omicron outbreak.

They form part of the 123 million tests ordered through to June whilst Labour also state one supplier has confirmed no tests ordered by the private sector have been were used to fill Government orders.

This comes after reports of Government taking stock of RAT already ordered by businesses across New Zealand.

The Government has ordered 20 million RAT from Kudu Spectrum for the Orient Gene RAT and a further 16 million tests from CoShield for the Assure Tech Eco-Test to be delivered over February and March.

It means New Zealand will have access to over 55 million RATs over the next eight weeks.

RAT is underway at Auckland Airport. Supplied.

Last week and over the weekend the Government has been in contact with a variety of rapid antigen test manufacturers, says Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall.

Those efforts have resulted in securing an additional 36 million tests for delivery over the next two months which corresponds with a predicted rise in Omicron cases.

These additional 36 million tests are on top of the 16.9 million orders already confirmed for delivery in February. Along with the 5.1 million tests already in the country, New Zealanders will have access to over 55 million rapid antigen tests in the coming two months.

A total of 123 million rapid antigen tests have been ordered through to June, which will allow for regular and widespread testing to occur.

Verrall says modelling has shown peak usage could see nine million RATs used a week across the nation with many to be used as part of a test to return to work policy.

That scale of testing will go a long way to reducing the risk of an infected person going to work and infecting others, and will help with keeping critical services and supply chains open and moving, says Verrall.

Many of the RATs will be used to implement our test to return policy for asymptomatic critical workers so our hospitals, supermarkets and other services that keep the country running can continue operating.

Mainfreight have also been utilising RAT. Supplied photo.

Abbott, a supplier of RATs has informed the Ministry of Health that no tests ordered by the private sector prior to the Governments largest order in January have been used to fill Government orders, says Verrall.

However, she does admit the priority will remain with providing RATs to the vulnerable and critical workers amid a significant global supply constraint

The Government is actively working with suppliers to support the private sector get access to RATs in a competitive global market, says Verrall.

If businesses can find an approved supply of RATs and they can import them, there is nothing stopping businesses from using these tests.

The use and supply of RATs will continue to be prioritised to ensure we are protecting the vulnerable and to enable asymptomatic critical workers to return to work.

However, ACT Party leader David Seymour believes the Government reaction remains too slow.

The Government talks about going hard and fast, but the truth is it needed an outbreak to prepare for Omicron," he says. "It is Delta all over again.

The Government has made two massive U-turns. One, it is begging for Rapid Antigen Tests that it used to ban. Two, it is now letting businesses import Rapid Antigen Tests without them being confiscated.

The additional Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) is good news and a good start, but it never should have come down to a Minister begging, borrowing and stealing once Omicron was already in the community."
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Re: Toyota Urban Cruiser & Glanza clock 1 lakh cumulative sales Toyota and Suzuki have made easy money here. Im not saying that this is unfair or unethical, many manufacturers have attempted badge re-engineering, so nothing new here. The main grouse was should Toyota have done this, since Suzuki and Toyota have literally been at opposite spectrums all these days. And also, even when they decided to go down this route, probably the effort in differentiation could have been better.



Also, on the other hand, I feel that at times customers who lack awareness have been taken for a ride by the Toyota dealers. Personally I know 2-3 cases where people I know have ended up buying the urban cruiser and Glanza, but the dealer and sales executives have tried to tell them a story that these cars are being manufactured by Toyota! And someone even seemed to have mentioned that the engines are different! Im not sure how many of these lakh customers were unaware, but Im guessing it could be a lot in tier-2 and tier-3 towns where awareness is probably not the best.
In brief: Synaptics recently unveiled a new wireless docking system that uses WiFi 6E to reach higher levels of bandwidth than ever. Called Gemini, it seems to mainly target today's emerging hybrid work environment---people who need to quickly dock a laptop to multiple external monitors in a variety of settings.

First unveiled at CES 2022, Synaptics says Gemini can wirelessly dock a device with up to two 4K 60Hz monitors with a level of latency indistinguishable from wired connections. It uses WiFi 6E combined with Bluetooth, DisplayLink, USB, and IoT technologies.

As a laptop approaches the monitors, the Gemini's Wireless Dock Connection Manager securely connects them so that it's already docked as the user sits down. When moving away after a session, the device securely disconnects the user. The Wireless Dock Connection Manager seamlessly manages the Bluetooth and WiFi, the latter of which works over a BCM43752 WiFi 6/6E radio.

Gemini can also dynamically adjust video compression based on the available bandwidth using the DL-1950 video interface IC. Synaptics's own Media Agnostic USB (MA-USB) can also help any device connected to Gemini communicate wirelessly. A VS641 network processor SoC manages the MA-USB and the WiFi radio communications.

Something like this might be helpful for someone who has to bring the same work notebook to an office, home office, or hotel. It could also come in handy with tablets, VR headsets, and gaming.
In brief: Microsoft's decision to purchase video game publisher Activision Blizzard came as a big shock, but the deal won't be completed until 2023. In the meantime, regulators are looking into potential antitrust issues just as they're preparing an overhaul of merger guidelines in light of new market realities.

Unlike other tech giants like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon, Microsoft has managed to avoid a lot of regulatory scrutiny, especially when it comes to acquisitions. Last month, the Redmond giant announced it was buying video game publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion --- its largest acquisition to date, and something the FTC is now looking into for its potential to harm competition in the gaming industry.

If it goes through, the deal will transform Microsoft into the third-largest video game company after Tencent and Sony. Previously, the company also acquired Minecraft developer Mojang, Psychonauts 2 maker Double Fine Productions, and Bethesda Softworks. Seeing as Microsoft has been on a buying spree, it's no surprise this has attracted the attention of regulators, and it appears the Department of Justice is letting FTC do the investigation in this case.

It's also worth noting the FTC and the DOJ are planning to do a review of merger guidelines to see whether they are overly permissive. The move was announced earlier this month in light of an increasingly concentrated tech industry and a surge in merger filings in 2020 and 2021, with many signs pointing to a continuation of this trend in the coming years.

Microsoft isn't the only company making strategic acquisitions as of late, with Take-Two Interactive also looking to buy Zynga for $12.7 billion. This week, Sony agreed to purchase Bungie, the developer behind Halo: Combat Evolved and Destiny 2 for $3.6 billion. And while Sony PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan says the acquisition wasn't a response to other big acquisitions announced this year, it's hard not to look at this as a rapid consolidation of the video game industry.
In context: There's plenty of exciting new TV technology available today. MicroLED, for example, promises all the benefits of OLED without the drawbacks. Sadly, the biggest problem with the displays is their price; Samsung's cheapest model starts at $80,000.

It was back at CES 2018 when Samsung unveiled The Wall, a 146-inch modular MicroLED TV aimed at customers with homes as large as their bank balances. A 292-inch, 8K version was unveiled a year later.

Samsung had intended to create a smaller, non-modular MicroLED television in a 70-inch size, but it reportedly dropped those plans to create larger models measuring 89 inches, 101 inches, and 114 inches.

South Korean tech site The Elec now reports that Samsung has set the price for the cheapest, 89-inch model at $80,000. If that isn't enough screen real estate to cover your mansion's wall, the 114-inch TV will set you back $100,000. Pricing for the 101-inch model has yet to be decided.

While those prices put the TVs out of reach for most people, they're still cheaper than the 110-inch MicroLED TV Samsung launched last year, which cost around $141,000. The price drop is because that television uses printed circuit boards, while the 2022 versions use advanced low-temperature polycrystalline silicon [LTPS] thin-film transistors [TFT] that are cheaper to manufacture.

MicroLED technology, which uses micrometer-sized LED lights, is self-illuminating like OLED, producing light and color from its own pixel structures to offer perfect blacks and amazing contrast. As it's inorganic, it lasts longer than OLED TVs and there's little to no danger of burn-in.
What just happened? Douglas Wright, Jr., a 27-year-old former Amazon operations manager, recently pleaded guilty to mail fraud after sealing more than $273,000 worth of goods from the e-commerce giant. If you had "shady Amazon operations manager" on your hardware shortage bingo card, go ahead and mark your spot.

According to the Department of Justice, from June 2020 to September 2021, Wright used his position as an operations manager at Amazon's warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, to ship merchandise including processors, hard drives and video cards to his home. He then sold the stolen merchandise to an unnamed computer wholesale company in California for profit.

The FBI worked with the US Postal Inspection Service to build their case. One has to wonder how the scheme could have gone on for 15 months before authorities took action, but perhaps they wanted to let it play out long enough to ensure they had the right person.

Of all the things to steal, why go after merchandise that is in heavy demand and likely under increased scrutiny from inventory managers? Then again, I suppose if he was putting a lot of thought into the scheme, he wouldn't have shipped the goods directly to his home, either.

Wright's guilty plea carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Apple is expected to drop three new features that will come to the upcoming next-gen iOS versions.

After its revelation about the Universal Control for the iPadOS 15.4 and macOS 12.3 betas last week, the iPhone users have another news to look forward to this week.

Here are the possible features that might be launched in late 2022.

Ability to Add Driver's License in Wallet App

According to a recent report by Macrumors, Apple customers will be able to add their driver's license through their Apple Watch or iPhone via the Wallet app.

Since the technology is going digital, this is a good solution to post contactless proof of identity without the need of showing a physical paper.

The article wrote that US residents might use this iOS feature in 2022. In connection to this feature, the iPhone maker previously said that it would roll out this support to Georgia and Arizona soon.

Later, residents from Utah, Maryland, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kentucky, and Connecticut will likely be the next recipient of this digital feature.

The Wallet App integration with the digital ID became available first to residents living in Louisiana, Colorado, Delaware, and Florida.

With that, the Cupertino tech titan confirmed that people can present the ID cards in the Wallet app at some TSA security checkpoints. In the future, they could be presented to select retailers in the country, as well.

Related Article: Best iOS 15 Features That iPhone 13 Users Should Test Right Now

Payments Terminal in iPhone

It has been revealed by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg that Apple was potentially developing a new iPhone feature that involves using the device as a payments terminal. This would mean that people can now use a smartphone like a Square Reader.

Accepting payments from phone to phone is the main concept of this iOS feature. With regards to this, we might actually use our credit cards by tapping them in the back part of the device.

According to Gurman, Apple might unveil this feature in the next few months. The story suggested that we could see it in iOS 15, but we might hear more as WWDC 2022 draws closer.

Classical Music App in Apple

For music fans, Apple has good news for you. Since the company completed its acquisition of Primephonic, we might witness a sudden release of a classic musical app for this year.

To add, this would benefit Apple Music users who would enjoy features borrowed from Primephonic's application. As of press time, the report did not mention any news about its subscription cost.

Meanwhile, Tech Times reported that some Apple users were hesitant about the new Face ID functionality. It turned out that they were having some privacy issues even though a user is wearing a face mask.

In addition, the upper part of the face is still exposed so the scanning technology could still recognize the person. Those who are wearing sunglasses can be detected, as well.

Read Also: Apple Pro 2 Rumors Point to Blood Oxygen Monitors and More; Here's What You Need to Know

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
macOS Monterey 12.2 battery drain issue while sleeping has been affecting numerous users of the Apple operating system.

macOS Monterey 12.2 Battery Drain While Sleeping Issue

As per a news story by MacRumors, some Mac users started experiencing battery drain issues on their machines after updating to macOS 12.

These users have been complaining that their MacBooks' battery has been draining from 100% to 0% overnight after leaving them in sleep mode without using them at all.

One Twitter user that goes by the name FishJourner tweeted that macOS 12.2 is "behaving like Windows," noting that his battery dropped to 0% while it was asleep.

Although there have been numerous Mac users that have been reporting the battery drain issue, the extent of the current issue on macOS has yet to be determined.

Apple has yet to acknowledge or release any fix for the battery drain issue while Macs are under sleep mode.

MacRumors noted in the same news story that the issue involves both Intel-based MacBooks and the newer M1-powered Macs. So, the issue has nothing to do with the chipset that these machines are carrying inside them.

macOS Monterey 12.2

According to a report by MacWorld, Apple released the 12.2 macOS update last Jan. 26, following the release of the 12.1 version way back on Dec. 13, 2021.

The 12.2 update of macOS Monterey comes with a couple of bug fixes, specifically for its built-in web browser, Safari.

Apple released a fix for a Safari vulnerability in the latest update of macOS Monterey, which could potentially expose the private information of its users.

The vulnerability exists not just for Mac users. In fact, Safari users on iPhone and iPad are also facing the same issue, wherein the private data of their Google accounts are vulnerable to hackers.

It is worth noting that one of the most-awaited features of macOS Monterey, the Universal Control, was not included in the release of its 12.2 version.

On top of that, it turns out that the latest update of macOS Monterey carries a new bug that drains the batteries of MacBook even if it is in sleep mode, wherein it is supposed to hold power for a long time.

Read Also: Apple Universal Control for the Mac, iPad now Available in Betas iOS 15.4, macOS 12.3; But How Does it Work?

macOS 12.2 Battery Drain Issue: How to Fix

MacRumors highlighted in the same report that some users pointed out that the power drain issue is due to a mess with Bluetooth connectivity, which constantly wakes up the MacBook when it is supposedly asleep.

In turn, the numerous disturbances from the sleep mode of MacBooks are draining their batteries overnight to 0%.

So, in the meantime, macOS 12.2 users could turn off the Bluetooth of their MacBooks to stop the battery draining issue temporarily until Apple issues a concrete fix for it.

Related Article: Apple MacOS 12.3's Python 2.7 Now Unavailable! Here's What Developers Need To Do

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Teejay Boris

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Apple goes after "Apple Man" indie film director in a lawsuit that opposes that trademark registration application for the title of the action-comedy superhero movie.

As per a news story by Apple Insider, a Ukrainian film director Vasyl Moskalenko has launched a Kickstarter project for his indie movie entitled "Apple-Man," which follows the story of a superhero that could levitate apples.

On top of that, the main figure of the action motion picture is also half human and half apple, thus aptly calling himself as Apple-Man.

Apple Sues 'Apple Man' Indie Film Director

However, Apple, the tech giant behind the iPhones and MacBooks, disapproves of the title of the superhero firm.

The director of the "Apple-Man" has recently disclosed that the iPhone maker has filed a lawsuit against him.

Apple has reportedly sued the creator of the action-comedy movie as some consumers out there might conclude that the "Apple Man" film is "associated with, or approved, endorsed, or provided by Apple."

The lawsuit against the indie filmmaker spans up to 467 pages, which according to the Ukrainian director, is filled with legal talk or "lawyer terminology."

'Apple Man' Director's Response

The "Apple Man" director revealed the lawsuit filed against him by the tech giant in a YouTube video, according to MacRumors.

He went on to explain his side of the story on his YouTube video, ensuring the Cupertino tech giant that the film has nothing to do with the products of Apple, such as iPads, iPhones, and MacBooks. He stressed that the film did not mention these products, "not a single word."

The filmmaker further clarified that his upcoming action movie is actually about the fruit apple rather than the iPhone maker.

Read Also: Apple to Launch At Least Three New Features For iOS in Late 2022 | Driver's License, Payments Terminal, Classical Music App

Appeal to Apple

The "Apple Man" director has also issued an appeal to the Cupertino giant, addressing it as "Apple company."

He said that he acknowledges the need of the tech giant to protect the image of both its products and its business. However, Moskalenko said that his movie has no intention of being associated or leaving any negative connotations against Apple.

On top of that, the director also said that he is even willing to give Apple the final cut of the film for the tech giant to judge.

Moskalenko told iPhone in Canada in an interview that he might even have to use all of his Kickstarter money for the litigation, adding that "it actually looks like trademark bullying."

Related Article: Apple Pro 2 Rumors Point to Blood Oxygen Monitors and More; Here's What You Need to Know

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Written by Teejay Boris

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Ahead of Chinese New Year, China released a new video that shows Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter flying around the Martian lands.

The country's National Space Administration unveiled this selfie clip as part of the celebration for the Year of the Tiger.

Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter During Lunar New Year

According to a report by Ars Technica, the visual highlights of the video involved the space probe's fuel tanks, solar panels, and main engine. The fact that it was roaming on a foreign planet was not a new task for this machine.

China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 extended festival greetings to the Chinese people with stunning video footage captured by a camera on its orbiter to snap selfies above the red planet on Monday, the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year https://t.co/6lCYTk7zEf pic.twitter.com/GfSe3tBZEJ  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 31, 2022

China first sent it to space in July 2020. In February 2021, it successfully entered Mars orbit. The space program recognized the said spacecraft in a special feat. It was the first vehicle that reached the planet's orbit for the first time.

The accomplishment of China put it on the prestigious list of countries that managed to touch down on the red planet using a space robot. To add, Tianwen-1 was not an ordinary invention, to begin with. It came with a rover-lander bundle that touched the Martian soil last May 2021.

In the next five years, China will integrate space science, technology, and applications while pursuing the new development philosophy, building a new development model, and meeting the requirements for high-quality development," the white paper of the Chinese space program reads.

Related Article: China's Tianwen-1 Mars Rover Snaps First Photo of the Eerie Red Planet Amid Challenging Entry

China on Mars Spaceflight Explorations

The Verge reported in another story that China was known for being "fairly opaque" about its space missions. The country only publicized minor information about its flights in space.

The recent selfie video that showed Tianwen-1's activity was not the first clip to be released for the public. Last month, the team captured images of the Martian terrain through the vehicle.

Furthermore, the Mars Orbiter also snapped photos of itself in the same region through a camera attached to another vehicle. The said vehicle was protected by a shell-like feature.

In another report by Tech Times, the Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on Utopia Planitia of the Red planet. Upon unloading the Zhurong rover, it faced the dreaded "seven minutes of terror" which the NASA Perseverance managed to survive.

However, it turned out that the Chinese vehicle did not only endure the seven minutes of its battle. Instead, it was recorded to be nine minutes in duration.

The said term was used by NASA to describe a specific point in time wherein a space robot could have difficulties in receiving the radio signals.

Spacecraft Selfies

Interestingly, several pictures involve other Martian robots. Aside from China, NASA has been taking pictures of the Red Planet using the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.

The international space agency discovered the ever-changing landscape in Earth's neighboring planet. When NASA sent its Insight lander to survey the "iron" region, it also deployed two satellites. One of them was used to take a selfie of the huge Martian background.

Read Also: Hubble Space Telescope Discovers Three Unusual Galaxies Inspired by 'Star Trek'

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Written by Joseph Henry

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/David von Diemar) Tesla

Tesla reportedly recalled 54,000 cars and SUVs because the full self-driving software allows them to roll through stop signs, which increases the risk of accidents.

Tesla to Remove Full Self-Driving

The U.S safety regulators posted documents on Tuesday, Feb. 1, stating that the automaker will disable the full self-driving feature with an over-the-internet software update.

The full self-driving feature, also known as "rolling stop," allows cars to go through intersections with all-way stop signs at up to 5.6 miles per hour, according to ABC News.

The automaker, owned by Elon Musk, agreed to the recall after meeting with officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA. However, Tesla claimed that it knows of no crashes caused by the feature.

The recall will include X SUVs and Model S cars launched from 2016 to 2022. It will also include the Model 3 sedans released from 2017 to 2022 and Model Y SUVs released from 2020 to 2022.

Also Read: Tesla Full-Self Driving Accidental Purchase: Owner Claims Father-In-Law Unintentionally Clicks $14,000 Upgrade

A couple of chosen Tesla drivers are beta testing the full self-driving software on public roads. The car company says the vehicles can't drive themselves, and drivers must always be ready to take over at all times.

The update to disable the feature will be rolled out in early February. The NHTSA said in the documents that failing to stop for a sign can significantly increase the risk of a car crash, according to TechCrunch.

Safety advocates complain that Tesla should not be allowed to drive the car with untrained drivers and that the software can malfunction, exposing pedestrians and motorists to danger. Other automakers with the same software test them with trained drivers.

Tesla introduced the full self-driving feature in a software update that was sent out to testing owners on October 2021. NHTSA met with the car company on Jan. 10 and 19 to talk about how the full self-driving software works.

On Jan. 20, the automaker agreed to disable the full self-driving feature with the software update. The owners will receive notification letters on Mar. 28, according to The Verge.

The rolling stop feature lets vehicles go through all-way stop signs as long as the driver has enabled the function. The cars had to be running below 5.6 miles per hour while approaching the intersection.

Also, no moving cars, bicyclists, or pedestrians must be detected nearby. All roads leading to the intersection had to have speed limits of 30 miles per hour or less.

The Teslas would be allowed to go through the intersection at 0.1 miles per hour to 5.6 miles per hour without coming to a stop.

The faculty chair of autonomous vehicle engineering at Princeton University, Alain Kornhauser, said that the recall is an example of NHTSA doing its job as the road safety watchdog for the United States.

The recall shows that they can be effective even if the automaker should have been more responsible in the first place.

Complaints Received by NHTSA

In November, NHTSA said it was looking into a complaint from a Tesla driver that the full self-driving software caused an accident. The driver told the agency that the Tesla Model Y went into the wrong lane and was hit by another car.

The vehicle gave the driver an alert halfway through the turn, and the driver tried to turn the wheel to avoid other traffic. However, the car went in the wrong lane as it failed to allow the driver to take control.

Related Article: Tesla Full Self Driving Beta Back to 10.2 For Now Amid 10.3 Crash Warning Issues

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Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
SolarMarker malware is now concerning cybersecurity experts because of its severity. Researchers said this computer virus is shifting its tactics, leveraging stealthy tricks to create long-term persistence on breached systems.

The security firm Sophos is the one that first discovered the enhancing activity of the threat actors behind the dangerous malware. Now, the company detected that some of the remote access implants of SolarMarker are still active on the recently targeted networks.

They identified its malicious content on the compromised systems even though the malicious campaign was already inactive since November 2021.

SolarMarker Malware's Linkage To Other Attacks

According to The Hacker News' latest report, SolarMarker malware has been linked to three different security attacks. The first one was the breach back in April 2021.

Also Read: NCSC Wants Additional Cybersecurity Measures in UK: Multi-Factor Authentication and More

This security attack was able to fool some business professionals into clicking malicious Google sites, which have the SolarMarker malware installations.

On the other hand, another attack linked to the computer virus gathered sensitive user details from some healthcare and education sectors.

"These SEO efforts, which leveraged a combination of Google Groups discussions and deceptive web pages and PDF documents hosted on compromised (usually WordPress) websites, were so effective," said Gabor Szappanos, a Sophos researcher.

He added that this characteristic allows SolarMarker hackers to be on the top search results, enabling them to trick their victims.

Other Severe Malware

Malware and other malicious content are being deployed by various hacking groups and independent cybercriminals.

Aside from the SolarMarker malware, an Android virus also concerned security experts. Ars Technica reported that this malicious campaign can factory-reset its victims' smartphones after attacking their bank accounts.

This means it will take long before the victims know that their online bank accounts were actually breached.

In other news, an Apple executive shared the iPhone maker's data minimization plans to celebrate Data Privacy Day 2022. Meanwhile, a fake 2FA authenticator app was downloaded around 10,000 times.

For more news updates about the SolarMarker malware and other security threats, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: FBI Urges Athletes, Audiences to Use Temporary Phones For Upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics; Cites Potential Cyberattack

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Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The minister was asked about the President's announcement to reshuffle the Council of Ministers at a press conference on Monday after supervising the implementation of ICU beds at Lima-based Children's Hospital.

"It is within the powers of the President of the Republic to permanently assess his Cabinet and make the changes that he may deem necessary," the government official remarked.

"The situation is changing, as well as the necessities, and it is important that necessary decisions are made," he added.

In this regard, the high-ranking official explained that it is not about the moment, or whether the time in which it (the decision) is made is good or bad, but it depends on whether the changes that are made are for the good of the country.





"Any change will create a level of uncertainty, but this is a decision made by the President of the Republic, and we hope it will serve to move the country forward," he added.





Cevallos decided not to comment on whether he would take the Prime Minister's position, noting that he will always be available to the Head of State to continue working as head of the Ministry of Health.





"Mirtha Vasquez is a person with a great capacity and a good track record. So, the President must have evaluated different reasons," he stated.
Madisonville, KY (42431)

Today

Scattered showers and thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. High 78F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 64F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
"We do not intend to deprive the country of fuel supplies; we require the company to ensure as soon as possible adequate conditions to continue its operations without causing negative impacts on the environment," the institution said in a press release.

On Monday, OEFA ordered the company to suspend operations of loading and unloading of hydrocarbons or other products at Multibuoy Terminals No. 1, 2 and 3, as well as Monobuoy Terminal 4, located at La Pampilla Refinery.

Said measure was adopted in light of potential oil spills that may affect the sea and marine ecosystems and that may not be adequately controlled by the company.

The supervisory agency stated that the reasons behind such provision, among others, are as follows:

-The system for the early detection of hydrocarbon leaks (HEADS system) consisting of a radar, IR (infrared radiation) cameras and sensors, which the company has used since 2016 would not be working properly.

-Immediate response actions contained in the company's contingency plan would not have been carried out adequately to prevent the spread of spilled oil.

-The equipment and materials listed in the company's contingency plan would not have been sufficient to contain and mitigate oil spills of large volumes or dimensions, such as the one that occurred on January 15.

-The company would not rely on permanent personnel adequately equipped and trained to deal with oil spills such as those that occurred on January 15 and 24, 2022, at Multibuoy Terminal No. 2 of La Pampilla Refinery.

-It would have been evidenced that constituents of soil, sediment, sea, wild fauna and flora have been negatively affected, as a result of the spill that occurred on January 15.

-Multibuoy Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and Monobuoy Terminal 4 are hydrocarbon loading and unloading facilities of La Pampilla Refinery, and in view of a lack of immediate response to the occurrence of a spill, there is a risk that the events that occurred on January 15, 2022, will occur again at these terminals.




House Speaker Clay Schexnayder said Monday the Legislature has a responsibility "to seek the truth about Gov. John Bel Edwards participation in a possible coverup of how Black motorist Ronald Greene died, citing the findings of a recent Associated Press story.

The story, published Friday, revealed that Edwards learned within hours that Greene had died after a violent, lengthy struggle with State Police troopers, though the text the governor received did not say how Greene died.

State Police initially stuck to a story that Greene, who led police on a multi-parish chase, had died from injuries he sustained in a crash, and that was the explanation they gave Greenes family.

An initial coroners report also followed that version, but a later autopsy said troopers caused Greenes death by striking him, tasing him and restraining him, though it also cited his cocaine use as a factor.

Schexnayder called the storys revelations greatly disturbing."

"This would demonstrate gross misconduct and the highest level of deceit on behalf of the governor and others," the speaker said in a statement.

"What happened to Ronald Greene is inexcusable and should never happen to anyone," he said. "His family and the citizens of this state deserve to know the truth."

The speaker also said that, over the weekend, he spoke with Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, and that "it's our responsibility to the people of this state to seek the truth. It's time to find out who knew what and when and hold them accountable."

Schexnayder did not specify what form any inquiry should take.

"The Legislature is an equal and independent branch of government meant to serve as a check and balance to the other branches," according to the statement. "We are fully prepared to use the authority granted to us in the Constitution of this state to be that check and to be that balance."

A task force of the state Senate is looking into State Police practices in the wake of the Ronald Greene case and others.

+5 Louisiana State Police leaders ignored concerns about excessive force, investigator testifies The Louisiana State Police detective in charge of investigating whether troopers used excessive force in the killing of Black motorist Ronald 

Later in the day Christina Stephens, a spokesperson for Edwards, issued a statement that said the governor initially learned of the arrest and death of an "unnamed individual" in May 2019 and was not made aware of video of the arrest until October 2020. "From the moment the governor learned of the allegations and saw the videos, he has consistently said that the actions of the officers in the video were disturbing and unacceptable and that the matter should be fully investigated by federal and state authorities."

Stephens also said Edwards will meet with the Legislative Black Caucus on Tuesday, at the group's request, and then field questions from reporters.

The controversy is a rare case of Edwards, who is serving his seventh year as governor, being grilled by allies and critics alike over the highly sensitive topic of racial justice and whether he has been forthcoming about his role.

Rep. Vincent Pierre, D-Lafayette, the new chairman of the Black Caucus, said in a statement the group will meet with the governor "to discuss any possible new findings in the case and to form a consensus on how to move forward in our mission of obtaining justice for the family of Mr. Greene."

How Greene died is the subject of a federal civil rights investigation.

Asked about Schexnayder's statement, Katie Bernhardt, chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, issued a statement saying: "This is an incredibly serious matter that must be addressed promptly; however, we must hear from the governor before we can proceed."

Mona Hardin, Greene's mother, said in an interview that Edwards should resign his post.

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"He is comfortable with not saying anything," she said. "He is comfortable with everyone talking for him, staying silently in the background. There is no way he can say 'I didn't know.'"

The Louisiana NAACP issued a blistering statement in the wake of the latest revelations.

"The NAACP finds this severely demonstrates a need for our governor to be fully transparent with our great state," according to a statement from NAACP State Conference President Michael McClanahan and Baton Rouge NAACP branch president Eugene Collins.

"Governor Edwards, who and when was anyone within your administration made aware of Mr. Greene's actual cause of death?"

"When did you learn the truth governor? We call on Governor Edwards, as the elected leader of our great state, to be forthcoming and transparent regarding what he knew and when."

Cortez did not respond to a text asking for comment.

Edwards is a Democrat and the Legislature is controlled by Republicans.

The Advocate and The Times-Picayune submitted a public records request to State Police on May 21, 2021, seeking, among other things, emails, text messages and other communications sent or received by then-Superintendent Kevin Reeves between May 10 and Sept. 1, 2019, dealing with the May 10 traffic stop in Union Parish that ended with Greenes death.

State Police on June 7 rejected the request as overly broad.

Edwards received word of Greenes death, without his name, in a text message from Reeves on May 10, 2019, according to a copy released Monday by the governor's office.

"Good morning. An FYI," it says.

"Early this morning, troopers attempted to stop a vehicle in Ouachita Parish. The driver fled thru two parishes in excess of 110 mph, eventually crashing."

"Troopers attempted to place the driver under arrest. But, a violent, lengthy struggle took place."

"After some time struggling with the suspect, troopers were joined by a Union Parish deputy and were able to take the suspect into custody," the text says.

"EMS was summoned to assess the suspect's injuries. The suspect remained combative but became unresponsive shortly before EMS arrived. The suspect was later pronounced dead at the hospital."

On Sunday the state Republican Party said the issue of what the governor knew about Greene's death warrants an investigation.

"The officially released story was that Mr. Greene had died in a car wreck which ended a high-speed police chase across several parishes," the party said in a statement.

"Yet recently uncovered evidence has shown beyond any doubt that John Bel Edwards was notified within hours of the tragedy, that Mr. Greene had very much survived the wreck and later died in police custody," it says.

"Nevertheless, the governor continued to maintain the fiction that Mr. Greene died in a wreck for two more years, knowing full well that this was not true."

Staff writers Lea Skene and John Simerman contributed to this report.
As the Louisiana Legislature considers how to redraw the lines of election districts for the next decade, Black state lawmakers and civil rights groups are keeping tally: How many majority-Black districts does each potential map include?

That question could define the three-week redistricting effort  and any lawsuits filed over its results. It was already front and center Tuesday when lawmakers gaveled into the special session shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Republican legislative leaders and Senate Democrats offered competing plans for drawing Louisianas six congressional districts, with varying levels of Black representation.

House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, and Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, each filed maps that essentially maintain the status quo, keeping Black voters packed in the 2nd Congressional District stretching from New Orleans East to north Baton Rouge.

Lawmakers set to redraw their own political boundaries: racial makeup a huge issue In what almost seemed like a 12-step confessional, Baton Rouge lawyer Taryn C. Branson stood at a recent town hall and told the crowd that she

Meanwhile, Democrats in the state Senate banded together to co-author eight proposals that all include a second, majority-Black congressional district.

With 33% of Louisianas population identifying as Black, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who has the power to veto maps, has said its only fair that two of the state's six congressional districts include a majority of Black voters.

In January, the governor said hed be open to a map that included just one majority-Black district if it also contained a so-called influence district, where the proportion of Black voters is large enough to influence the outcome of the election but less than a majority. He said such a proposal would need significant buy-in from the Legislature.

If lawmakers fail to boost the number of districts where Black voters have the opportunity to elect their candidates of choice, a coalition of civil rights groups has said Louisiana could face costly and unnecessary litigation.

Last week, a federal court in Alabama blocked that states congressional map after lawmakers packed Black voters into one of seven congressional districts. The three-judge panel  which included two appointees of former President Donald Trump  unanimously determined the configuration likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the federal law that prohibits minority vote dilution. Similar challenges are unraveling in Texas and North Carolina.

But its not just congressional districts that are at stake. Over the next three weeks, Republican majorities will craft districts for 105 state representatives, 39 state senators, 11 state school board members, five state utility regulators, and, perhaps, seven state Supreme Court justices.

Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, introduced a bill Monday to redraw Louisianas state Senate districts, and already, its sparking concern among civil rights groups.

Acadiana battles to keep communities together as redistricting begins Tuesday When state lawmakers traveled to Lafayette for their redistricting roadshow, speaker after speaker had the same request: keep Senate District 

The proposal includes 11 districts where Black residents constitute a majority of voters, maintaining the same number of seats as were drawn a decade ago. But an analysis from the American Civil Liberties Union determined that Louisianas Senate maps could be configured to include additional majority-Black districts in Baton Rouge, Shreveport and Jefferson Parish. The fact that Cortez map doesnt could leave it open to legal challenge.

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If its possible to draw an additional district that gives Black voters the opportunity to elect a preferred candidate, and you dont do it, then that is likely considered discriminatory, said Chris Kaiser, advocacy director at the ACLU of Louisiana.

Reflecting shifting populations, Cortez proposal also moves Senate District 37, which currently spans Shreveport and Bossier, to south Louisiana. The seat would represent Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish and Albany in Livingston Parish.

But the marquee battle of the three-week session will be the congressional maps. With the balance of power in Congress on the line, its unlikely that Louisianas Republican-led Legislature will draw two majority-Black districts without some intervention from the courts.

State Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, introduced three maps that include two districts where Black voters constitute a slim majority. Similar proposals were filed by state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans; state Sen. Gary Smith, D-Norco; state Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette; state Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria; and state Sen. Joseph Bouie, Jr., D-New Orleans.

Most of the proposals group Black voters in north Baton Rouge and north Lafayette in with delta parishes along the Mississippi River to create a majority-Black District 5.

Such a configuration would jeopardize the chance that first-term Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Start, has at getting reelected, underscoring why GOP legislative leaders arent interested in advancing plans with two majority-Black districts.

It would be unconscionable for us to pass a plan with a single Black district, Fields said. It may not pass the Legislature. But it will pass the courts.

Under many of the Senate Democrats proposals, much of New Orleans would remain in the majority-Black District 2; south Baton Rouge would be lumped in with a north shore-based District 6; and Lakeview, Uptown and the East Bank of Jefferson Parish would be included alongside Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes in District 1.

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, the New Orleans Democrat who represents the 2nd Congressional District, said Tuesday hed prefer to keep north Baton Rouge, but he also wants a second minority-majority congressional district. I dont know what the maps would look like. Its important to have two, but its not until you get to the nitty-gritty of how the lines are drawn, what makes sense and what would pass muster with courts, Carter said.

The proposals put forth by Republican leaders make far fewer changes to the existing congressional seats  and maintain the status quo of one majority-Black district. Under both maps, District 5, based in northeast Louisiana, would expand to include all of Point Coupee, East Feliciana and West Feliciana parishes.

On Tuesday, the chambers swore in new members, then started reading at least 22 redistricting bills, almost all of which were filed Tuesday, that describe which precincts each bill proposed to include in the various districts for elected officials. It's the first step in the process.

Lawmakers on the Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee will take up Cortez' Senate map Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.
With less than 24 hours to go until state lawmakers return to Baton Rouge to begin redrawing Louisianas political maps for the next decade, the public got their first look at proposed maps.

Six bills, all from state senators, were posted on the Legislature's website Monday night.

Three senators submitted proposals for how to split Louisiana up into six congressional districts: Sharon Hewitt, a Slidell Republican; Karen Carter Peterson, a New Orleans Democrat; and Cleo Fields, a Baton Rouge Democrat.

Fields submitted two congressional maps, alongside a map for the Public Service Commission. Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, filed a state Senate map.

Each map will be debated  alongside dozens of others  during the three-week redistricting session gaveling in Tuesday, Feb. 1 at 5 p.m.

Republican majorities will control the agenda as district lines are crafted for six U.S. representatives, 105 state representatives, 39 state senators, 11 state school board members, five state utility regulators, and, perhaps, seven state Supreme Court justices.

All but a handful of legislative leaders are out of the loop on what to expect over the course of the three-week special session. Thanks to term-limits, few lawmakers were around the last time Louisiana took on the once-in-a-decade task of readjusting district lines to account for population fluctuations, adding yet another layer of uncertainty.

According to Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee, a Houma Republican and the second-ranking House lawmaker, a bill to redistrict the five-member Public Service Commission will likely be introduced in the House Tuesday.

But a new state House map is taking longer to finalize. With 105 seats, its the most complicated map to reconfigure  and there are plenty of opinions on how to do it.

We have the hardest puzzle to put together, Magee said. Its taking a little longer than we would like it to.

Part of the difficulty is figuring out which north Louisiana House district  or two  will be sent south to account for the shift in population over the last decade.

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State Rep. John Stefanski, a Crowley Republican who chairs the House committee tasked with redrawing the maps, spent Monday meeting with lawmakers to discuss changes to their districts.

Committee hearings in both the House and Senate will commence on Wednesday, though an exact time hasnt been advertised.

State Sen. Sharon Hewitt, a Slidell Republican who chairs the map-drawing committee in the upper chamber, said she intends to hear all the bills for a particular map during the same hearing.

Were trying to be organized about how we go about it. Were trying to be as transparent as we can. Were trying to be active and not let any days go to waste and make good use of taxpayer dollars, Hewitt said.

A tentative schedule circulated among House lawmakers last week noted that the lower chamber would hear bills on final passage on Saturday, sparking some confusion about whether lawmakers aimed to wrap up by the end of the week.

Magee said House leadership hopes to advance some bills to the Senate by weeks end but thats being extremely optimistic.

Nobodys trying to rush it, Magee said. But were going to be efficient.

Unlike past redistricting efforts, this years special session is expected to feature participation from a slew of civil rights groups, advocacy organizations and members of the public.

Peter Robins-Brown, executive director of Louisiana Progress, said proposed maps will be uploaded as soon as theyre available to a website  louisiana.redistrictingandyou.org  so the public can easily explore what's on the table.

The Public Affairs Research Council, a good-government group based in Baton Rouge, recommended that lawmakers let at least 24 hours pass between the introduction of a bill and vote among lawmakers so the public has time to weigh in.

You have a three-week block of time set aside so it doesnt seem like a 24-hour layover period for the public to sift through the information is too much to ask, said Melinda Deslatte, PARs research director.
After offloading from the truck, Andre Johnson, right, and Bobby Clark muscle the devices to the building as the voting machines are returned to the warehouse after the election Wednesday November 4, 2020, in Baton Rouge, La.
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Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics, Fink wrote in his latest letter to fellow CEOs, released on January 17. It is not a social or ideological agenda. Trouble hit, and fast. Within 48 hours, the lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, was accusing BlackRock of being hostile to the states oil and gas industry. Never mind that BlackRock has many billions invested in the fossil-fuel industry, including its huge stake in Irving, Texas-based Exxon. BlackRock is the oil giants second-biggest shareholder, after Vanguard Group. Blackrock manages over $US10 trillion in assets. Credit:Bloomberg Patrick called for BlackRock to be added to a blacklist that the state is compiling of companies that supposedly boycott the energy industry. Under a 2021 law, Texas can restrict state business with companies that end up on that list. The state comptrollers office, which is still drawing it up, stressed that it isnt targeting any companies in particular. It is perfectly reasonable for a state to defend a key industry, BlackRocks McCombe said in his statement. This is important to get right for all parties involved and we dont want to be portrayed as not being supportive of energy companies. We are working with them, not against them.

To mitigate any damage, McCombe and Dalia Blass, a former senior Securities and Exchange Commission official who heads external affairs at BlackRock, have met with Texas officials in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter. BlackRock executives have also met with local energy trade groups. Loading BlackRock has stressed that far from shunning oil and gas, the firm is one of the worlds biggest shareholders of energy companies and doesnt have a policy of divestment -- a position that might quiet some red-state critics only to enrage blue-state ones. More than one third of BlackRocks $US260 billion in global energy investments is in Texas, according to a company spokesman. For the first time in years, BlackRock has hired outside lobbyists in Texas. One of them is Michael Toomey, a former three-term Texas House member and the chief-of-staff to two governors. The firm plans to spend about $US200,000 on Lone Star State lobbying, said a person familiar with the matter. How events play out in Austin could determine how much money BlackRock manages for public pension funds throughout the state. Right now, it handles more than $US20 billion, according to the person, who asked not to be named because the details arent public.

Among those clients: the $US200 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas, one of the biggest public pension funds in the country. TRS owns $US45 million of BlackRock shares, and Finks firm oversees roughly $US2.5 billion of stocks and bonds for the fund, as well as private equity and infrastructure, according to the latest available public records. TRS of Texas is committed to following the law and upholding the highest fiduciary standards for our 1.7 million active and retired Texas educators, said Rob Maxwell, spokesman. Liberals say Fink is failing to back up words with action, while conservatives say hes pandering to the woke mob. Over in West Virginia, state Treasurer Riley Moore has said doing business with BlackRock is against the interests of the state economy, which is heavily reliant on the coal industry. This month, the states Board of Treasury Investments, which Moore chairs, stopped using a BlackRock fund to manage short-term investments. There was a balance of almost $US22 million in the fund when the state ended its use. They have this goal of net-zero emission standards, and what theyre doing is theyre leveraging their massive amount of capital to, in many times, change companies from the inside out, and then also at the same time impress their values and standards of the way they see the world, Moore said in a phone interview. What if we dont want the same shape of society that BlackRock does?

Im just very concerned in the direction that this ESG movement of which certainly BlackRock, with $US10 trillion in assets under management, has a tremendous amount of influence on, Moore said, using the acronym for environmental, social and governance investing. Their goals, I think, are detrimental to my states goals and a lot of different states. Loading And in Florida, DeSantis and members of the State Board of Administration want to limit pension money from being invested in China. BlackRock, which has been scaling up its business in the Asian nation, manages billions of dollars for Floridas pensions and investment funds. As of June 30, almost $US227 million was invested in a BlackRock fund focused on Chinas markets, according to the most recent disclosures. The state pension plan was also invested in separate private equity and investment funds with exposure to China in particular. The US as a whole should be disentangling from China, DeSantis said at a meeting of the state board in December. But certainly, our investments should be disentangling. DeSantis wants to pull back share-voting power from BlackRock and other outside investment managers and ensure theyre acting in the best interests of the state, according to Christina Pushaw, a spokeswoman for the governor.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent congratulatory messages to the President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping and the Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, Pashinyans Office said.

The congratulatory message addressed to the President of China reads as follows:

Your Excellency,

I convey warm congratulations and best wishes to you and the friendly people of China on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, Spring Festival. Spring Festival is a holiday that has historical roots and at the same time is the most popular family holiday in China. May it bring health, new achievements and joy to all families.

Armenia attaches great importance to the continuous strengthening and deepening of traditional friendly relations with China for the benefit of our peoples.

Please accept, Your Excellency, my best wishes for good health and success.

The message addressed to the Prime Minister of China states:

Your Excellency,

I wholeheartedly congratulate and convey best wishes to you and the Government of China on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, Spring Festival. May it bring further development, prosperity and happiness to the friendly people of China.

Armenia attaches great importance to the consistent strengthening and deepening of multifaceted cooperation with China based on traditional friendship, mutual trust and mutual benefit

I wish you good health and success, and peace and new achievements to friendly China.
After meeting at a conference, Wood and Snyder bonded over their mutual interest in crypto. Wood sits on the board of Amun and has personally invested in the company. Standing between them and the Bitcoin ETF they want to launch is the SEC, which is wary of making it easy to invest in crypto. Its reluctance isnt just because most coins have roller-coaster price changes. Its also because they are prone to frequent technology glitches, are vulnerable to manipulation and are often used in criminal activities, all of which make crypto-based funds potentially perilous to the retail investors the SEC is supposed to protect. The risks are elevated relative to traditional equity or fixed income products, so its easy to see how investors could lose money faster, said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA Research. Despite occasional selloffs like the one that drove crypto prices down last week  theyve since recovered somewhat  the cryptoverse exploded in 2021. The market value of some 12,000 tokens tracked by CoinGecko climbed by $US1.5 trillion to about $US2.3 trillion last year. The 21Shares website prominently states that, since the beginning of 2021, Bitcoin is up 27.78 per cent, Ethereum is up 232.78 per cent, and the S&P 500 index is up 18.32 per cent. Such numbers have upstart companies and traditional Wall Street firms scrambling to create new products that will lure even more investors into the Wild West of crypto.

21Shares tries to minimise some of the risks by purchasing the actual coins that underlie its funds and storing them in an offline wallet, known as cold storage. That increases the cost of managing a fund, leading to steep annual fees that eat into returns. At 21Shares, those range between 1.49 per cent and 2.5 per cent  or between $US14.90 and $US25 for every $US1000 invested  far higher than the 0.5 per cent average fee of passively managed stock ETFs. That such instruments can legally exist is due to the crypto-friendly regulatory environment in Switzerland, and especially the city of Zug, where 21Shares is based. The enclave, known as Crypto Valley, is home to hedge funds, commodity traders and now crypto companies, thanks to its low corporate taxes and favourable attitude toward blockchain technology. The city even allows citizens to pay taxes in Bitcoin and Ether. Loading After getting a degree from Stanford University in earth systems, Snyder started out working in science labs, then made marine biology documentaries for the Discovery Channel. She was more interested in finance, she said, because its at the heart of how we can change the world for better, whether thats climate change, womens rights or education. So she switched to venture capital and then to asset management, which led her into crypto. Snyder, an Italian-American, was raised between homes in New York and Rome. She spent much of her childhood surrounded by different cultures, thanks to her familys travels and her time at Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Connecticut filled with students from foreign countries.

Her mother is an artist and photographer, while her father worked in the family business, Biocraft Laboratories, a pioneering generic drug maker founded by her grandfather and sold to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in 1996 for $US296 million. Snyder started both Amun and 21Shares with Hany Rashwan, an Egyptian-American entrepreneur. The two met in San Francisco when she was an undergrad and he was starting companies that focused on e-commerce and digital payments. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had a monster 2021 but have been hit hard in the new year. Credit:Bloomberg/Moe Zoyari She and Rashwan realised their financially savvy mothers had trouble buying crypto, and wanted to make it easier for them. In 2018, the two formed Amun  named after an Egyptian god  that initially packaged Bitcoin, Ethereum and other popular coins into a single fund that investors could track, listing it on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich. Other baskets that tracked the performance of newer coins quickly followed.

They soon spun off a line of ETFs under the name 21Shares, a nod to the 21-million cap on the supply of Bitcoin. 21Shares now offers 23 crypto ETFs on 10 European exchanges. Snyder said she will launch a fund around a new coin if clients request it or if in-house analysts think it shows promise. Yet newer coins are prone to even sharper price swings than Bitcoin  which has lost almost half its value since hitting a record high in November. For instance, a coin called AVAX  the token of the Avalanche blockchain project  rose 70 per cent from the beginning of November to the middle of the month, before falling almost 50 per cent by mid-January. The 21Shares funds that aim to track the price of tokens on blockchains like Ripple and Cardano have lower liquidity and a smaller market cap than more established coins like Ethereum and Bitcoin, said Nate Geraci, president of the ETF Store, an investment adviser. That makes them harder to track, which compounds their risk. This is my life. This is the thing I think is going to change the entire world. Ophelia Snyder Snyder acknowledged that investors in her products could lose money, but said the firm tries very hard to make sure people understand these nuances and how early this market is. This is closer to venture capital than to equities markets.

While SEC Chair Gary Gensler remains sceptical of such funds, his agency has approved Bitcoin futures ETFs, which indirectly track the tokens spot price with contracts governed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Loading But to Snyder, futures ETFs are inefficient, requiring an active fund manager to roll contracts forward each month. The costs to do that are passed on to investors. The futures products are much more financially complex outside of the Bitcoin exposure, she said. My worst nightmare is people start buying these products not understanding these nuances. She and Wood initially aimed to launch a Bitcoin futures ETF but then pulled their application in December due to such concerns. While seasoned crypto investors can purchase tokens on exchanges like Binance without the steep fees that 21Shares charges, newcomers often find the process, which requires opening an account on what may be an unfamiliar platform, onerous.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Holidays are officially over and the year is off to a flying start. On the plus side, that means more books as publishers crank up their offerings. There are plenty of titles for readers of all tastes due in bookshops this month. Heres a preview of a selection of them (some of which are already on the shelves). The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday. Credit: Cold Enough for Snow, Jessica Au Giramondo, $24.95, February 1 This slim, expertly crafted and beguiling novella that flits between the past and present was the inaugural winner of the international Novel Prize and will be published simultaneously here, in Britain and the US. There is an absolute certainty to Jessica Aus prose, but the evanescent story she tells - of a young woman who takes her mother on a trip to Japan, their conversations and reflections on their lives - abounds with ambiguities.

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Credit: The Party, Stuart Macintyre Allen & Unwin, $49.99, February 1 This is the second volume of the late Stuart Macintyres history of the Communist Party in Australia. The Reds covered from 1920 to the end of World War II. In The Party, he examines the period during which the party had its greatest influence - fighting fascism and organising strikes that ultimately alienated both sides of mainstream politics. The revelation of Stalins crimes didnt help, nor did the attention of authorities and so began a decline in membership and influence. Credit: What I Wish People Knew About Dementia, Wendy Mitchell Bloomsbury, $26.99, February 1

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This is Mitchells second book after being diagnosed with young-onset dementia at 58. Its an insiders story and a boon to anyone who has dementia, cares for someone with it or who simply wants to know more. The book is divided into six chapters: Senses, Relationships, Communication, Environment, Emotions and Attitude. Its full of good advice, Mitchells own (often funny, often heart-rending) experiences and can help destigmatise the condition. Credit: The Betrayal of Anne Frank, Rosemary Sullivan HarperCollins, $32.99, February 2 Its the question that anyone who has read Anne Franks diary wants to know: who led the Nazis to the attic where she and her family were hiding? This cold case investigation run by Vince Pankoke, a former FBI agent, lasted for almost five years and reassessed documents, interviewed people who had not previously been consulted, and found new evidence. In the end, Pankoke says they achieved what they set out to do: figure out what happened and why at Prinsengracht 263 on August 4, 1944. Credit: Violeta, Isabel Allende

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Bloomsbury, $34.99, January 25 The Chilean writer best known for The House of the Spirits makes a habit of beginning her books on January 8. This one tells the story of a woman born during the Spanish flu pandemic and follows her life right into the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, Allende addresses some of the great developments of the 20th century through the experiences of a vivid central character who was partly inspired by her own mother. Credit: The Furies, Mandy Beaumont Hachette, $32.99, January 26 Beaumont made quite a mark with her stories in Wild Fearless Chests, which Carmel Bird said came blazing forward wielding its weapons of words to illuminate the monstrous truths of the dreadful veins of violence that snake through human lives. Beaumonts first novel is set in outback Queensland and has 16-year-old Cynthia struggling to survive after the disappearance of her parents. Beaumont reminds the reader at the start that the Furies were vengeful female divinities. Credit:

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The Islands, Emily Brugman Allen & Unwin, $29.99, February 1 Brugmans novel - her first - is about Finnish migrants settling in virtual isolation on a tiny island in the Abrolhos group in the 1950s. Omni Saari has inherited his brothers cray licence after the latter (who couldnt swim) drowned. Can he, his wife and their soon-to-be-born daughter make a go of it? Writer Jock Serong, who knows a fair bit about stories set on islands, says Brugmans storytelling is extraordinary. Credit: Harrow, Joy Williams Tuskar Rock, $29.99, February 1 Williams is best known for her short stories and its been more than 20 years since her last novel. Harrow is set after some sort of environmental catastrophe has laid waste to the landscape. The central character, the teenage Khristen, is alone - father dead, mother gone - and drifts into a settlement of elderly survivors who live by a lake named Big Girl. Not an easy read, but certainly a rewarding one.

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It is impossible to escape the melancholy conclusion that aged care services and the people who receive them have simply not been seen as a priority by successive Australian governments, began the conclusion to the interim report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in October 2019.

Australian society, it went on does not attach enough value to older people to bring pressure to bear on governments to ensure that older Australians are able to live the last years of life with dignity and respect.

COVID-19 has pushed through the cracks in the aged care system and widened them. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The final report validated many of these early findings, but The Age has chosen to quote from the commissions interim report because of its timing: it came before the coronavirus pandemic brought the inadequacies of the system into even sharper focus, and just five months after a federal election in which voters had rejected former Labor leader Bill Shortens promise to provide a probable15 per cent pay rise for workers and a registered nurse on every site. The government, which won that election, argued this would lead to $20,000 in fee increases for aged care residents because Labor had not specified how it would fund the cost.

Then came the pandemic. COVID-19 pushed through the cracks in the system and widened them. Hundreds of lives have been lost prematurely. Vulnerable residents have spent the closing chapter of their lives locked away from loved ones. Exhausted workers have risked their lives to deliver what care they can, while being paid a relative pittance.
Hundreds of anti-vaccine mandate protesters encircled the National Press Club on Tuesday while Prime Minister Scott Morrison made an address inside ahead of next weeks parliamentary sitting week, the first of 2022.

Waving Eureka, Trump, and Australian flags while singing John Farnhams Youre the Voice, the protesters congregated for a second day to demand the government stop COVID-19 vaccination mandates.

Protesters outside the National Press Club. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

One group carried Trump flags and chanted no more mandates, and Arrest ScoMo from 11am, yelling at journalists and politicians as they entered the National Press Club.

Although the noise of the protest did not interrupt Mr Morrison as he gave his address, protesters played the speech outside the building and heckled whenever the topic of COVID-19 or vaccination came up.
A man has been refused bail accused of murdering his partner after her body was discovered in a bathroom in Sydneys north-west, described by police as an absolutely awful scene.

Meraj Zafar, 20, is charged with the murder of his 19-year-old partner Arnima Hayat, who was found dead in a bathtub filled with acid in their North Parramatta apartment on Sunday afternoon.

Meraj Zafar presented to Bankstown police station on Monday after a police appeal to locate him. Credit:NSW Police

He made no application for bail in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday, and it was formally refused.

Outside court, Mr Zafars lawyer Mohamad Sakr said his client was distraught about being in custody. The solicitor said he would wait for the brief of evidence and obtain further instructions before making any additional comment.
As a result, The Australian Brewhouse co-owner Aaron Soos said his venue didnt stand for discrimination and he and his business partner Tanya Cobban had decided to shut indefinitely, only 18 months into the venture.

From Monday the state governments proof of vaccination requirements expanded to become the strictest in the country, with the unjabbed banned from hospitality venues, indoor entertainment venues, gyms, major events and bottleshops.

It comes after the venue was embroiled in a social media storm over an anti-mandate party planned at the sports bar on Monday, which was also the day the vaccination status mandate was to be enforced.

The post was shared widely and quickly gained hundreds of reactions, with many criticising the business as being anti-vaxx.

Mr Soos soon pulled down the post after he was made aware the mandate would be in effect.

When we posted that we thought the mandates werent coming in until [Tuesday] February 1  we had this idea that we were going to have to shut our doors due to these mandates being put in place and us being in the position we have been put in, he said.

We werent segregating people that are vaccinated or non vaccinated, we were just saying lets have bit of a party to empty our kegs because we have a bunch of kegs that we need to get rid of before we shut the doors.
Australia will pour more than $60 million into countering violent extremism amid an increase in conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns from MPs about their safety following last years murder of British MP Sir David Amess.

The nations security agencies have been raising the alarm about an upturn in single-issue violent extremism, citing anti-lockdown protests as an example.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews says some Australians are trying to use violence to achieve political, religious and ideological goals. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews will on Wednesday announce an additional $61.7 million for Australias counter-extremism programs, doubling the funding theyve received since 2013.

Ms Andrews said Australia was a peaceful, tolerant, and harmonious country, but we cannot be blind to the fact that there are those among us who seek to sow hate, fear, and discord.
It has been one long year since Australian academic and economist Sean Turnell was arrested by Myanmars military regime. Economics adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi and associate professor at Macquarie University, Turnell remains under detention in Myanmar.

The military coup has returned the country to the horrors of direct military rule, including war, targeted and random violence against both political opponents and ordinary citizens, arbitrary detention, torture and grave economic and social instability.

Sean Turnell, an associate professor in economics at Sydneys Macquarie University, has been detained in Myanmar. Credit:

On February 1, 2021, after learning of the coup, I messaged Turnell via Facebook to check if he was safe. He responded: I am in Myanmar, Melissa. Internet just came up. Keeping low. Many friends arrested. He was referring to the arrest of Suu Kyi and other senior members of the then civilian government, with whom he had worked closely.

I told him to contact me if I could do anything. I desperately called other Burmese friends that day. I told them to make sure their families were safe and if they were at risk to plan to get out of the country as quickly as possible. COVID-19 travel restrictions and lack of access to vaccination at that time meant that leaving the country quickly was difficult.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan signed a protocol on considering the powers of President Armen Sarkissian terminated. Thus, Alen Simonyan assumed the powers of the President of the Republic.

President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian announced his resignation on January 23.

Alen Simonyan will temporarily carry out the duties of the President of the Republic until the election of the new President.
Lynn Nottage rarely writes stories on grand or global scales. Her two Pulitzer Prize-winning works hardly venture past the confines of four walls  her 2009 play Ruined trapping the pressure of the civil war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo inside Mama Nadi's poolroom, and her 2017 drama Sweat turning up the temperature on a group of frustrated factory workers at the local watering hole in Reading, Pennsylvania. Intimate Apparel (which has become one of Nottage's most-produced plays since its 2003 world premiere at Baltimore's Center Stage and 2004 off-Broadway premiere at the Roundabout) shares this signature  for lack of a better word, intimacy. But also like Nottage's other works, this insular story of Black seamstress Esther Mills in turn-of-the-20th century New York City carries currents of emotion worthy of operatic expanse.

Of course, just because a story feels operatic does not mean it can instantly and effortlessly assume the form of an opera  making Intimate Apparel's transfiguration at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater all the more impressive. Directed by Bartlett Sher as more a chamber piece than anything Wagnerian (the performers are accompanied by only a pair of pianos, conducted by Steven Osgood), Intimate Apparel in its new musical form is allowed to keep its delicacy while also cutting enough seams to let its content soar to the rafters.

Kearstin Piper Brown and Naomi Louisa O'Connell share a scene as Esther and Mrs. Van Buren.

( T. Charles Erickson)

Fair warning to those who prefer finely detailed dialogue to the broad strokes of an opera's libretto: You may find yourself wistful for Nottage's original play. The text is pared down to its bare essentials to allow both literal and metaphorical space for composer Ricky Ian Gordon's score to do its work. And while some of Nottage's luscious verbiage is lost, Gordon's music successfully plumbs the depths of the original piece. Composed like a collection of art songs, the score is peppered with sounds of ragtime and klezmer (musical spaces I wish Gordon had let us sit in longer), and provides a fitting framework for the story that fans of Intimate Apparel enter the theater anticipating (Sher's design team, with lighting by Jennifer Tipton, sets by Michael Yeargan, and costumes by Catherine Zuber, infuse the sepia-toned environment with the lushness of a painting).

Justin Austin as George Armstrong

( T. Charles Erickson)

Kearstin Piper Brown, in a stunning soprano performance, stars as Esther, an illiterate daughter of slaves who moved north to New York City at 17 for opportunity. She lives in a boarding house run by Mrs. Dickson (a warm and inviting performance by Adrienne Danrish) and sews lingerie for a clientele that ranges from wealthy white women like Mrs. Van Buren (Naomi Louisa O'Connell) to Black sex workers like Mayme (Krysty Swann). For 18 years, Esther has pragmatically socked away money she plans to use to open her own beauty parlor  a place where Black women will receive the pampering usually reserved for white women. She is an entrepreneur in the age of sweatshops and factories. And yet, when one George Armstrong (Justin Austin) presents the opportunity for Esther to have a husband who could take her away from the boarding house  the typical trajectory for women who pass through Mrs. Dickson's  all of her business plans take a backseat to the promise of long-absent tenderness.

Esther meets Armstrong through a series of beautifully written letters he sends her while working on the Panama Canal. She can't write her own responses, so she enlists the help of Mrs. Van Buren, a neglected wife in desperate need of her own romantic make-believe, to help her write her suitor back (O'Connell's performance as Mrs. Van Buran is grounded and revealing, even as she shatters glass with her voice). Just as Esther crafts a fantastical version of herself in these ghost-written notes, George also turns out to be much different than promised when he arrives in New York to take Esther as his wife. In Act 1, George is a dream. In Act 2, he is a harsh reality. And as Austin's powerful baritone shifts from a sultry siren call to a threatening growl, many more of Esther's hopeful fantasies begin to tragically melt away.

Kearstin Piper Brown (Esther) and Arnold Livingston Geis Mr. Marks in a scene from Intimate Apparel.

( Julieta Cervantes)

In place of the melodramatic death scenes that button classics like La Boheme or La Traviata, Intimate Apparel gets its operatic heft from Esther's slow march toward obscurity. Ultimately, all the people meant to love Esther fall short in jarring ways (Yeargan furnishes each of the spaces occupied by these characters with a distinct bed or chaise like an ever-elusive promise of closeness). The only person with whom Esther shares truly intimate moments is the one she has no obligation to serve: a Jewish fabric salesman by the name of Mr. Marks (Arnold Livingston Geis, conveying gentle care through his tenor voice); he, like Esther, sees the beauty in his wares and the delicate garments Esther makes from them.

The struggle to be seen in a world tailor-made to render you invisible is Esther's battle, and Brown performs that fight with a dignity and grace befitting this new, infinitely more vocal version of Nottage's piece. No one will be struck down by tuberculosis or burned on a pyre or consumed by the flames of hell. But as you march through Esther's story of ambition, fortitude, and longing for love, only to see her etched in history as "unidentified Negro seamstress," you'll agree it's an ending worthy of operatic tragedy.
Featuring a unique hull design, quieter machinery, single point of loading system and a shuttle boom, the new ship will bring a long-term, safe, sustainable, efficient and reliable shipping solution to the Magdalen Islands region, where it will load deicing salt at Windsor Salt's Mines Seleine mine and deliver it to stockpiles throughout Eastern Canada to help keep roadways safe during the winter season.

Sailing from Jiangyin, China to Halifax, Canada, M/V Nukumi's voyage is expected to take six weeks. For more information visit mvnukumi.com.

About Windsor Salt

Windsor Salt Ltd. is headquartered in Pointe-Claire (Quebec) and employs approximately 775 people across Canada. The company's highly recognizable Windsor brand has been a part of Canadian life since 1893. Today, the Windsor portfolio includes a full range of premium products for consumers, business and industry, from culinary salts and water softening salts to deicing products and pool salts. For more information, please visit WindsorSalt.com.

Windsor Salt's Mines Seleine mine has been in operation since 1982.

About Canada Steamship Lines

Canada Steamship Lines is a division of The CSL Group, the largest owner and operator of self-unloading ships in the world. Headquartered in Montreal with regional operations in the Americas, Australia, Europe and Asia, CSL delivers millions of tons of cargo annually for customers in the construction, steel, energy and agri-food sectors.

SOURCE The CSL Group Inc.
ChargePoint Chief Marketing Officer Colleen Jansen Speaks at Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit

CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ChargePoint Holdings, Inc. , a leading electric vehicle (EV) charging network, participated in the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Summit in San Francisco on Monday, January 31, 2022.

ChargePoint Chief Marketing Officer Colleen Jansen spoke during the expert panel titled Delivering Charging Infrastructure for All.'' Moderated by BloombergNEFs Electrified Transport specialist Ryan Fisher, the panel discussed critical success factors in the expansion of electrification. Jansen was joined by other leading experts from General Motors and Energy Impact Partners.

During the panel, she shared ChargePoints leadership in all facets of charging fleets and passenger vehicles whether at home, at work and around town, as well as its technology investments in creating a driver experience that is smart, intuitive and integrated. Software is the magic that makes it all work, said Jansen, speaking on electrification during the hybrid event to more than 1,000 registered attendees.

Such discussions around infrastructure are prompted by recent EV momentum. In research conducted by BNEF, passenger EV sales in Europe & North America grew 48 percent year over year from between Q3 2020 and Q3 2021. BNEF has also predicted that passenger EV sales will hit 14 million in 2025, an increase from 3.1 million in 2020.

Since 2008, the BNEF Summit has convened leading minds across the transportation category to share insights, focusing this years summit on capitalizing on technological change and shaping a cleaner future. This is the second consecutive year ChargePoint has been invited to speak at this industry setting event.

About ChargePoint

ChargePoint is creating a new fueling network to move people and goods on electricity. Since 2007, ChargePoint has been committed to making it easy for businesses and drivers to go electric with one of the largest EV charging networks and a comprehensive portfolio of charging solutions available today. ChargePoints cloud subscription platform and software-defined charging hardware are designed to include options for every charging scenario from home and multifamily to workplace, parking, hospitality, retail and transport fleets of all types. Today, one ChargePoint account provides access to hundreds-of-thousands of places to charge in North America and Europe. To date, more than 105 million charging sessions have been delivered, with drivers plugging into the ChargePoint network approximately every two seconds. For more information, visit the ChargePoint pressroom, the ChargePoint Investor Relations site, or contact ChargePoints North American or European press offices or Investor Relations.
No Chip Shortage Here - Hyundai Motor America Reports Best January Sales EVER







 Total Sales Up 10%; Best January Ever

 Retail Sales Increased 18%; Most January Retail Sales of All Time

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022  Hyundai Motor America reported total January sales of 47,872 units, a 10% increase compared with January 2021 and the highest January sales total in company history. Venue (+70%), Tucson (+64%), Palisade (+12%) and the Ioniq (+51%) also established new January total sales records. Hyundai did not have any fleet sales during the month.

High levels of consumer interest across our product lineup resulted in record-breaking January sales even as we continue to navigate through the global pandemic and microchip shortages, said Randy Parker, senior vice president, national sales, Hyundai Motor America. We are off to a great start to the year and outperformed the industry thanks to a tremendous effort by the entire organization.

January Retail Highlights

Hyundai achieved its best January retail sales ever, increasing 18% year-over-year. Hyundai eco-friendly vehicle retail sales grew 312%, while SUV retail sales were up 35%, representing 79% of retail volume. Venue, Tucson, Palisade, Kona and Ioniq set new January retail records.

January Total Sales Summary

Jan-22 Jan-21 % Chg 2022 YTD 2022 YTD % Chg Hyundai 47,872 43,394 10% 47,872 43,394 10%

January Product and Corporate Activities

CES: At CES, Hyundai Motor shared how the companys robotics business will drive the paradigm shift towards future mobility, and introduced pioneering new concepts of ?Metamobility and ?Mobility of Things (MoT)

At CES, Hyundai Motor shared how the companys robotics business will drive the paradigm shift towards future mobility, and introduced pioneering new concepts of ?Metamobility and ?Mobility of Things (MoT) Robert Wickens Returns: In his first race back since a horrific 2018 accident, Robert Wickens finished third in the Bryan Herta Autosport #33 Elantra N TCR at the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge four-hour endurance race at Daytona International Speedway

In his first race back since a horrific 2018 accident, Robert Wickens finished third in the Bryan Herta Autosport #33 Elantra N TCR at the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge four-hour endurance race at Daytona International Speedway IONIQ 5 Marketing: Hyundai launched the national marketing campaign for the IONIQ 5 with a new commercial starring Jason Bateman

Hyundai launched the national marketing campaign for the IONIQ 5 with a new commercial starring Jason Bateman SoFi Stadium: Hyundai became a founding partner of SoFi Stadium and inked sponsorship deals with the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers

Hyundai became a founding partner of SoFi Stadium and inked sponsorship deals with the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers Awards: Santa Cruz was selected as the 2022 Best Performing Truck from The Fast Lane Truck, IONIQ 5 won a Good Design award, while Hyundai earned more U.S. News and World Report 2022 Best Cars for the Money Awards than any other brand

Model Total Sales

Vehicle Jan-22 Jan-21 % Chg 2022 YTD 2022 YTD % Chg Accent 507 1,036 -51% 507 1,036 -51% Elantra 5,081 7,242 -30% 5,081 7,242 -30% Ioniq 1,415 937 51% 1,415 937 51% Ioniq 5 989 0 --- 989 0 --- Kona 4,892 5,233 -7% 4,892 5,233 -7% Nexo 28 23 22% 28 23 22% Palisade 6,334 5,669 12% 6,334 5,669 12% Santa Cruz 2,820 0 --- 2,820 0 --- Santa Fe 7,354 8,714 -16% 7,354 8,714 -16% Sonata 2,991 5,020 -40% 2,991 5,020 -40% Tucson 13,085 7,980 64% 13,085 7,980 64% Veloster 86 193 -55% 86 193 -55% Venue 2,290 1,347 70% 2,290 1,347 70%

Hyundai Motor America

Hyundai Motor America focuses on ?Progress for Humanity and smart mobility solutions. Hyundai offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs and electrified vehicles. Our 820 dealers sold more than 738,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2021, and nearly half were built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. For more information, visit www.HyundaiNews.com.
Keep On Truckin: 40 Millionth Ford F-Series for U.S. Customers Rolls Off The Line

The forties have been good to Ford F-Series. Ford has 45 years as Americas best-selling truck and 40 years as best-selling vehicle, and now, Ford is celebrating production of its 40-millionth F-Series for U.S. customers.

The 2022 F-150 Tremor in Iconic Silver paint just rolled off the line at the Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan. Its headed to a customer in Texas to get to work, because thats what Ford trucks do.

Also pictured is a 1950 Ford F-1. Ford began production of first-generation F-Series Trucks 75 years ago, in 1947. The Ford F-1, F-2, F-3 and F-4 went on sale in 1948. First-generation F-Series production spanned from 1948 to 1950.
The Disappointed Idealist

Opinion columnist Zach Freeman discusses the merits of affirmative action and policies that Texas A&M has taken instead ahead of Supreme Court case.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. Vice Speaker of Parliament Hakob Arshakyan will temporarily fulfill the duties of the Speaker of Parliament, the Parliaments press service said.

Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan is now the Acting President of the Republic as President Armen Sarkissians resignation took effect on February 1.

President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian announced his resignation on January 23.

Alen Simonyan will temporarily carry out the duties of the President of the Republic until the election of the new President.
Conway, AR (72032)

Today

Variable clouds with thunderstorms - possibly severe in the afternoon. Damaging winds and large hail with some storms. High 69F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies overnight. A few storms may be severe. Low near 55F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Van Buren, AR (72956)

Today

Thunderstorms. High 69F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Thunderstorms in the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies overnight. Low 54F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis leaves after a news conference on the west steps of the State Capitol about legislative plans for the upcoming session Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, in Denver.
Associate Editor

Brent Addleman is an Associate Editor and a veteran journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He has served as editor of newspapers in Pennsylvania and Texas, and has also worked at newspapers in Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Kentucky.
Staff Reporter

Nyamekye Daniel has been a journalist for five years. She was the managing editor for the South Florida Media Network and a staff writer for The Miami Times. Daniel's work has also appeared in the Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald and The New York Times.
Canadian connections clicked in Mondays $14,200 Open Trot at Pompano Park thanks to an impressive-looking, come from behind tally by Four Wheelin.

Sent off at odds of 10-1, Four Wheelin got away sixth for driver Bob McClure while Wild And Crazy Guy (:27.2) and Timon AS (:56.4 and 1:26.1) took turns on the lead in the featured affair. Four Wheelin tipped to the outside in the backstretch and marched his way into contention in the late stages of the contest.

A final quarter clocked in :29 was enough to earn Four Wheelin the half-length triumph over Timon AS in 1:55.4. Sooo Handsome came on strong to grab the show dough in the seven-horse affair.



Owned and trained by Marcel Barrieau of Cambridge, Ont., the four-year-old son of Wheeling N Dealin-Under The Pines won for the first time in four starts this season. The 10-time winner pushed his lifetime earnings over $170,000 with the win.

McClure recently told Trot Insider hed be returning to work at Woodbine Mohawk Park in early to mid-February.

The $12,600 Open II Handicap Trot went to Star Track Hanover, driven by Wally Hennessey, in 1:55.1.

The six-year-old altered son of Chapter Seven led every stride of his mile, just holding off the favoured Keystone Apache (David Miller) by a nose. Just Maybe The One (Kevin Wallis) finished third after being prominent in the garden spot much of the way. For A Dreamer and Cash Hit picked up the final two awards in the field of eight.

Owned and trained by Susanne Lopez, Star Track Hanover earned his second win of the year -- 12th lifetime -- to send his bounty over the $100,000 plateau career-wise.

As the 5-1 third choice, Star Track Hanover paid $13.20 to win.

Florida Amateur Driving Club Action Continues

Don Cromer, Gary Barbere and Brian Calvert were the driving stars in their respective Florida Amateur Driving Club events on Sunday and Monday as each celebrated personal achievements in their respective careers in the sulky.

With the FADC only hosting three or four events weekly, Cromer won a Sunday trot with his newly acquired Muay Hanover in 1:59.4 giving him his 500th career driving victory. Cromer drove his first winner in the mid-1970s and has only sparingly appeared in the sulky since 1997. It was his first win since 2019 and only his second since 2010 with but a handful of drives.

Muay Hanover, by the way, is an eight year-old rare grey gelded son of Donato Hanover and now has earnings of $179,311. He paid $4.80 to win.

It took a couple of weeks to do it, but driver Gary Barbere got a driving triple with his own P L Jerico, trained by 86-year-old Odell Thompson.

This nine-year-old altered son of Manofmanymissions won on Sunday in 1:58.1, wiring his foes in the process. Not only was this his third straight win for Barbere, it was a 25th lifetime win for P L Jerico with his previous wins being on January 23 in 1:58.3 and January 16 in 1:57. P L Jerico paid $4.20 to his multitude of faithful.

On Monday night, Brian Calvert was back in the winner's circle with Ricky Be Sharp, trained by Donna Riedel for owner Johanna Calvert.

The six-year-old gelded son of American Native, who won for Calvert on January 23, made it two in a row as January closed the books with a 1:57.4 mark, rallying from fifth turning for home to score by a neck. It was the second win of the year for Ricky Be Sharp, who has won an amazing 35 times in his career measuring 79 starts.

Ricky Be Sharp paid $16.20 to win as fourth choice in the betting.

Of course, the real winners in these FADC events are the many charities that benefit from the drivers donating 100 per cent of their earnings while driving in these races, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, New Vocations, Bit By Bit and others benefiting horse adoption agencies and the welfare of the young.

Thus far, they have donated over $220,000 since their inception.

(With files from Pompano Park & FADC)
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. Various specialists from Armenia and abroad continue presenting new ideas with new solutions for the design of the statue of Jesus Christ to be built in Armenia.

The author of the initiative, leader of the Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan said in an interview to the Kentron TV that he is getting acquainted in all details with each work. During the shooting he got acquainted with the design by sculptor Armen Samvelyan.

The statue proposed by him has several components  there is a separate area for candle lighting inside, and a museum is planned to open at the top. The statues of 12 apostles will be erected in the territory of the complex. Tsarukyan said the statue must be 33-meter high.

Tsarukyan said he wants to discuss the interesting ideas with the public, stating that this is a competition of mind, idea.

I have said that it first of all must be acceptable by the majority of the people. There have been many suggestions, everyone will submit their works on February 20, and we will select the best one. After that we will discuss the place where the complex will be installed, he said.

A tender has been announced in Armenia for the construction of a statue of Jesus Christ. The tender is initiated by the family of Gagik Tsarukyan.
A man looks at the closed sign in front of Illinois Department of Employment Security in Chicago, Wednesday, April 15, 2020. With half-a-million people bounced out of jobs in the past month because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois' unemployment safety net has been stretched to the limit.
Six kilograms of fentanyl seized in Indiana on April 12, 2019, during a traffic stop reportedly were being smuggled to Ohio from California.
In this Thursday, May 28, 2020 photo, Beth Shiller of Dandelion Spring Farm stacks eggs at her farmer's market stand in Rockland, Maine.
Regional Editor

Derek Draplin is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as an opinion producer at Forbes, as an editor at The Daily Caller, and as a reporter at Michigan Capitol Confidential and The Detroit News.
Face masks, hand sanitizer and clean pens await job seekers in a New Hampshire employment job center on Monday, May 10, 2021, in Manchester, N.H.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian airline FlyOne Armenia is ready for the first Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flight scheduled on February 2, Aram Ananyan, Flyone Armenia Chairman of the Board of Directors, told Armenpress.

He said that all preparation works have been done, the coronavirus-related measures have been taken into account.

According to Ananyan, there is an interest to the Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flights. He says the current activeness level over the flights is in accordance with the preliminary predictions of the company.

We attach importance to the restoration of air communication in this direction on the basis of reciprocity. As we have already said, its a very good opportunity to strengthen the ties between the Armenian community of Istanbul and the Homeland, Aram Ananyan said.

The airline also pays special attention to the coronavirus-related measures. Wearing a face mask on the plane will be mandatory. The airplanes are equipped with HEPA filters which remove 99,97% of viruses and bacteria from the air. Aram Ananyan emphasized that the health and safety of passengers are a priority for them.

Initially, it is planned to carry out Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan flights twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. However, the airline is planning to increase the number of flights in the future, operating them on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The FlyOne Armenia airline has recently received a permit from the Turkish government to operate roundtrip flights from Yerevan to Istanbul. The airline received the permit from Armenian authorities earlier in late December 2021.
New Castle, IN (47362)

Today

Cloudy early with showers for the afternoon hours. High 63F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Rain. Low 57F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. On February 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan held a phone conversation with Chris Heaton-Harris, Minister for European Neighborhood and the Americas of the UK.

Ararat Mirzoyan congratulated Chris Heaton-Harris on his appointment as Minister and wished him success in his future endeavors in this position, the foreign ministry said in a readout.

The sides referred to the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Armenia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, highlighting that great work had been done over the past three decades to establish and strengthen bilateral relations. Ararat Mirzoyan and Chris Heaton-Harris exchanged views on further expanding the agenda of bilateral relations and promotion of dialogue.

The interlocutors discussed issues on regional stability and security.

The need for repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians held in Azerbaijan, and preserving the Armenian religious and cultural heritage in the territories under Azerbaijani control were emphasized among the humanitarian issues that need to be urgently addressed.

The interlocutors stressed the need for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. Chris Heaton-Harris emphasized that the United Kingdom supports the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.

Ararat Mirzoyan and Chris Heaton-Harris also touched upon the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey without preconditions. The British side expressed its support for the normalization process.
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Eleven people were killed when heavy rain flooded a road in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, the National Service for Risk and Emergency Management said, news.am informs, citing RIA Novosti.

February 1, 2022, 16:07 Floods kill 11 people in Ecuador

STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 1, ARTSAKHPRESS: "The death toll has risen to 11," the agency said on Twitter.

City officials also reported 32 casualties. The city registered record rainfall since 2003.
Melanie joined The Daily Times in the early 90s and has served as the Life section editor since 1993. A William Blount and UT alum, Melanie is generally the early arriver who turns on the lights in the newsroom.

Follow Melanie Tucker Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Antony Blinken will discuss Moscows reaction to the US solutions on Russias proposals in the security sphere in a phone conversation on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS, noting that following the conversation, a commentary by Lavrov for the media is expected.

February 1, 2022, 17:39 Lavrov, Blinken to discuss Russian reaction to US solutions on security. Russian Foreign Ministry

STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 1, ARTSAKHPRESS: "The main subject [of the upcoming phone conversation between Lavrov and Blinken] is the reaction of the Russian side to the American solutions on Russia's proposals in the sphere of security guarantees. It is expected that following the phone conversation, Sergey Lavrov will comment on the situation in media outlets," the statement said.

On January 26, the US and NATO handed over written responses to Russia on Moscows security guarantees that it was demanding from Washington and Brussels. The American side requested that the documents not be made public, yet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg enumerated their basic provisions. According to these statements, the West did not make concessions to Russia considered to be critical, but did indicate directions for further negotiations. The document that the American side received from Russia on Monday was Moscows response to these counter-offers.
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10-Year-Old Virginia Student Receives 4 Suspensions in a Week for Refusing to Wear Mask, Vows to Press On

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va.Despite receiving four suspensions in five school days, Bronagh McAllister, a 10-year-old in Virginias largest school district, has persisted in going maskless to her school.

The fourth graders principal, Katie Cachine, who heads Waynewood Elementary School in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), gave Bronagh three one-day suspensions from Jan. 26 to Jan. 28, and a two-day suspension on Monday for refusing to wear a mask in school.

Bronaghs mother, Neeley McAllister, said that starting from Jan. 26, the principal had walked up to them each morning as they were walking towards the schools main entrance, and tried to persuade Bronagh to wear a mask.

Good morning, Bronagh. Are you going to wear a mask today? We sure do miss you in school. We really want you there. Your friends miss you. Dont you want to be in school? Neeley recalled the principals efforts to convince Bronagh, describing Cachines approach as friendly bullying.

Bronaghs school, in line with other schools in the northern Virginia county, has continued its mask mandate, despite an executive order by newly-elected Gov. Glenn Youngkin that made mask wearing optional in public schools.

According to Neeley, Bronaghs teacher reached out on Jan. 31the first time since the suspension began on Jan. 26and emailed her that Schoology, FCPSs virtual learning platform, would be updated to facilitate her daughters learning during the time she was excluded from school.

However, up until then, Bronagh couldnt go to school and didnt have an alternative way to learn, contrary to the policy announced at an FCPS virtual community town hall on Jan. 24.

Michelle Boyd, Fairfax County Public Schools assistant superintendent of the special services department, announced the face mask support policies at the virtual community town hall on Jan. 24, 2022. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

In Bronaghs latest suspension letter dated Jan. 31, Assistant Principal Alicia Lawson writes that the fourth-graders presence at school without a proper face covering poses a continuing health and safety risk to other students and staff.

For this reason, Bronagh may return to school wearing a proper face covering, but otherwise will not be reinstated in school pending the appeal process, if an appeal is made, the letter continues.

Mask wearing is a part of FCPS students dress code.

The McAllister family is a Gold Star family; Neeleys husband died four years ago on Jan. 24 in line of duty while serving in the U.S. Army.

In a video Neeley shared with The Epoch Times, Bronagh explained her reason for not wearing a mask: Because its hard to make friends. I can hardly hear my teacher.

My daughter learns better without a mask. Shes confident, comfortable, and unafraid without a mask, said Neeley, adding that her daughter yearns for interactive and social learning and self-expression.

Its not one size fits all, she said. FCPS has overstepped their authority to dictate what is healthy both from a physical, psychological and emotional standpoint for my daughter.

Neeley added, Suspension is FCPSs poor solution for those who wont step in line like all the others.

In an email, Helen Lloyd, FCPS communications director, told The Epoch Times that 26 students out of a total population of 180,000 across 1,999 schools in the county went to their schools maskless last week.

Confrontation

Monday, Jan. 24, was an FCPS holiday as well as the day that Gov. Youngkins mask-optional executive order went into effect. Younkin had signed the order on his first day in office, aimed at reversing a state-wide mask mandate in public schools.

While the governors executive order cited a Virginia law that endorses parents making decisions for their children, FCPS had determined to keep its mask mandate in place by citing a different state law (Senate Bill 1303) that requires schools to keep in-person learning in schools and follow guidance from the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC).

On Jan. 25, Bronagh and Neeley went to school with three of Neeleys friends. Everyone was unmasked. One of the friends, Rose, is Bronaghs emergency contact and picks Bronagh up from school on Tuesdays in her mothers place. Rose is an alias used to protect the womans identity as the school has threatened her with legal action.

As Bronagh was walking to her classroom, Assistant Principal Alicia Lawson pulled her into the main office in the foyer, situated between the school doors and the main lobby. The next thing Neeley saw was that Bronagh exited the main office wearing a mask and entered the school lobby.

Bronagh told Neeley that she wouldnt be able to go to school if she didnt wear a mask, to which Neeley replied, If thats the consequence of your choice, I would support that. Neeley told The Epoch Times that she wanted Bronagh to know she wouldnt be upset if that was Bronaghs concern.

At this point, the administrators present, principal Cachine, assistant principal Lawson, and Grace Taylor, the interim assistant superintendent of the region, invited Neeley and Bronagh to talk in the main office, but refused to allow Neeleys friends to join the conversation.

So two out of the three friends, a man and a woman, stayed in the foyer the entire time, while Rose held the door of the school building open to overhear the conversation but didnt enter the foyer, according to Rose.

While the principal spoke to Bronagh and Neeley in the main office, trying to persuade Bronagh to continue schooling by wearing a mask, a security guard arrived and told the three friends that police had been called and they would be charged with trespassing.

Rose then explained to the school administrators that even though she didnt have children attending the school, she lived in the neighborhood, and her tax dollars supported the school.

I jog through that school twice a week, Rose, whos in her 50s and herself graduated from FCPS, along with her children, told The Epoch Times. I have been on that school property since I was in ninth grade.

After seeing no chance of entering the school, the McAllisters and the three friends left the school. Shortly after, two police cars arrived. By that time, the male friend had driven away, while the two female friends and Neeley and Bronagh were near their cars parked across from the school.

The school security guard told the police officers that Neeley was a students mother, but the two other women, including Rose, needed to be charged with trespassing. Rose explained to the officers that she and her friend didnt raise an arm or even voice at the school, she recounted.

Rose recalled that one of the police officers explained that if the school security guard issued a trespassing citation, he would have to enforce that. He asked for the three womens identification. They refused to provide it.

A father whose son attended Waynewood happened to witness the scene. He confirmed Neeley and Roses description of the incident to The Epoch Times and added, The little girl was crying, and they [officers] did nothing about it.

He added that the school security guard was barking orders to the police officer who dealt with Neeley and company.

After the father left the scene, a third police car arrived with another officer who spoke to the principal, assistant principal, and security guard. Eventually, with the police officers mediation, the school security guard issued a verbal warning. Rose said she and the other friend were told that if they were caught on school grounds again, they would be considered trespassers and would be arrested.

According to Rose, she went to the school at about 8:45 a.m. and arrived home at around 10:20 a.m. after the police allowed her to leave. She lives about a three-minute drive from the school.

I was completely and utterly outraged, quietly inside, Rose told The Epoch Times. I just could not believe that weve been reduced to parents not in charge of their childrens health and education anymore. I feel terrible that the bureaucrats claim to be on the childs side when theyre really not.

She added: There are other agendas. Its all about their power and control over what they are teaching the kids and how to keep the parents in line. Its just outrageous to me.

In response to an inquiry by The Epoch Times about Bronaghs suspensions and the threat to press trespass charges against Neeleys friends, FCPS media relations manager Julie Moult wrote in an email: FCPS requires everyone, regardless of vaccination status to wear masks inside our buildings and on our school buses, except when alone in a room. This includes staff, students and visitors.

Moult also referred to the Senate Bill 1303 that required maximum adherence to the CDC guidance, which recommends universal masking for K-12 education. We need to continue to protect and serve everyone in our FCPS community, she added.

During a virtual town hall on Jan. 24, FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand called for the community to stay the course regarding the mask mandate. The pandemic has required an amount of collective sacrifice for our community, for our country, for our world, he added.

Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand called for the community to stay the coursenamely, keep the mask mandate and other COVID-19 mitigation measuresduring the virtual community town hall on Jan. 24, 2022. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

In response to a question about potential protests against FCPSs mask mandate, Brabrand said, We continue to have strong relationships with our Fairfax County Police Department. As you know, we have an SRO [Student Resource Officer] in all of our middle and high schools. And we have relationships between our police department and our elementary schools should there be a serious incident.

The Epoch Times has also reached out to the Fairfax County Police Department for comment.

Childrens Development Stunted: Speech Therapist

Francesca J. Baker (alias), an FCPS speech-language pathologist and mother, said that she has been inundated with referrals since November. She spoke to The Epoch Times on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing her job.

Baker said it was very difficult to tease out whether students had learning disabilities or if their issues resulted from inadequate instruction due to not seeing teachers full faces.

All of my kids in second grade and below are confusing sounds. Their speech and language development and social-emotional development are being stunted; I see it in front of my eyes, she told The Epoch Times.

She explained that younger learners should develop phonological awareness skillsunderstanding sound and letter correspondencebefore they are ready to and while they are learning to read. For example, some sounds, such as th and f, were similar.

Because the students have not had access to faces, their phonological skills are significantly behind, Baker said.

I am 100 percent confident in saying that lack of visual access to faces prohibits speech, language, social, emotional, phonological awareness, and literacy skill development, she said, adding that she worked at an affluent school.

Still, money couldnt help parents solve their childrens development delay when two of Bakers major tools as a therapistthe ability to have students see her mouth movements and give prompts and cues to guide students jaws, lips, and tongueshave been taken away.

Baker had recently been home with COVID, even though she had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March and a booster in December. She had tested negative twice and was ready to return to work in person. First, however, FCPS human resources sent her a form to sign.

Per CDC guidelines, I attest that I will wear a well-fitting mask around others and maintain at least 6 feet distance from others during mealtimes and when I remove my face mask, until after at least day 10. I also attest that I will comply with FCPS guidelines regarding mask mandates, the form wrote.

A second checkbox above the signature line wrote, I acknowledge falsification of information on this form may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination from FCPS.

Though Baker had been fully vaccinated and had natural immunity from COVID, she would have to wear a mask and adhere to school policy, she said.

On Jan. 24, the Fairfax County school board, along with six other school boards in the state, filed a lawsuit against Gov. Youngkin in Arlington Circuit Court, seeking an immediate injunction barring enforcement of his mask-optional executive order.

I know the governor says that he will respect the legal process, and we will respect the legal process. And I hope that we will have this resolved very soon, said Superintendent Brabrand at the Jan. 24 evening community town hall.

And I am confident that we have the appropriate legal arguments, for why we will be found correct in the court of law.

Youngkin, in a statement on Jan. 21, defended his removal of mask mandates.

I have said all along that we are going to stand up for parents, he said. Executive Order 2 is not about pro-masks versus anti-mask, its about empowering parents. I am confident that the Virginia Supreme Court will rule in the favor of parents.
A supply plane departs from the base in Adelaide, Australia on January 31, 2022. The defence force will deliver food and supplies to the town of Coober Pedy in South Australia. (Photo by Sarah Reed/Getty Images)

Air Force Operation to Relieve Food Shortage in Outback Australia After Severe Flooding

The first flight of a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) food resupply operation landed in the South Australian outback town of Coober Pedy on Monday after flooding severed all road access to the town last week.

A series of flights are to bring 20 tonnes of essential food goods to the flood-stricken town, which is situated 846 kilometers (526 miles) northwest of Adelaide, has a population of around 2,500 and is famous for producing around 90 percent of the worlds opals.

This comes after severe weather and major flooding in the northern areas of the state resulted in major transport routes being cut off, including the Stuart Highway, which services Coober Pedy from the north and south, South Australias State Emergency Service (SASES) reported.

SA Police Commissioner and State Coordinator, Grant Stevens, said there has been substantial damage to rail and road infrastructure over the past few days, which is threatening food security in some areas of South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

A declaration of a Major Emergency will ensure a coordinated, state-approach to ensure food security and provide support if required by isolated communities.

At a press conference on Monday, Premier Steven Marshall said he was delighted that the RAAF planes were heading to Coober Pedy to deliver emergency supplies.

Its a real collective effort to support these people whove been cut off by these incredible floods, he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has warned its likely there will be more extreme rain events in South Australia over the next couple of days, with many parts of the northern pastoral areas expected to receive between 50 and 100mm of rain each day.

This is going to put extreme pressure on the tenuous situation we already have, Marshall said.

Chief Officer of the South Australian State Emergency Service, Chris Beattie, said that SASES volunteers have responded to more than 700 incidents over the past week, but are ready to respond if the weather escalates again.

SASES State Control Centre remains fully activated and we are working closely with police and local council officers through the Zone Emergency Support Teams, Beattie said.

With many outback roads closed including the Stuart Highway at Glendambo, we ask people to please avoid travel in these areas while roads are flooded.

He added that he was pleased to hear that road freight has recommenced to the Northern Territory using an alternate route that was approved by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.

As well as roads being cut off, rail routes have also been impacted, with 18 breaks in state rail corridors, resulting in no trains from South Australia to the Northern Territory or Western Australia.

Beattie said that the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is assessing and coordinating repairs to the track, and at this stage, restoration is expected to be complete by mid February.
A truck from Silicon Valley Moving & Storage, based in San Jose, Calif., is parked outside of a home in an undated photo. (Courtesy of Joey Childs)

An Absolute Mad Rush: Californians Reveal Why Theyre Fleeing the State

When former Bay Area resident Terry Gilliam, 62, started the Facebook group Leaving California in 2018, the group attracted 200 members within six months. Four years later, the group has over 50,000 members, and the number continues to climb every week.

In the last 30 days, weve added 11,000 members, which is darn close to a record, Gilliam told The Epoch Times. And it all started on January 1st  I think there is an absolute mad rush of people who are going to get out of California this year.

Although he formed the group a few years ago, Gilliam didnt take the plunge and move out of state to Florida until last year. Issues like homelessness, crime, politics, cost of housing, traffic, and exorbitant taxes pushed Gilliam awayand hes not the only one.

When the group first began, Gilliam said Idaho and Texas were the most popular destinations for California residents. Now, hes seeing more people moving to Tennessee and Florida as well.

Earlier this month, U-Haul reported that the top states for people moving within the United States in 2021 were Texas, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Arizona, while California was at the very bottom of the list.

Matt Merrill, U-Haul area district vice president of the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex and West Texas, said in a statement that many people are moving to Texas from California, New York, and other states due to the job growtha lot of opportunity here. The cost of living here is much lower than those areas. Texas is open for business.

Demand was so high, U-Haul even ran out of trucks leaving California last year, according to the company.

In this file photo, a worker moves a piece of furniture into a truck while moving a family in Tiburon, Calif., on Aug. 3, 2010. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Gilliams Facebook group has become a sort of haven for disaffected natives who are able to connect with local moving companies who are also in the group and eager for business. Though most of the users lean conservative, Gilliam said he didnt start it for that reason.

But I think conservatives in California are the most upset with whats happening, so theyre the first to leave, he said.

Mild weather, beautiful coastal beaches, and a vibrant, diverse culture bring tourists to California year-round. But for some residents, its not enough to keep them here anymore.

Alexander Ewing, 30, and his wife are moving from the Monterey Peninsula to Oklahoma in May.

The business I worked for was headquartered here, and now theyve moved their headquarters to the Midwest, and you know, thats just one less reason to stay here, Ewing told The Epoch Times. So, its like over the years all the reasons to stay have kind of gone away.

The state has the highest top income tax rate at 13.3 percent, with an 8.84 percent tax rate for businesses, in addition to permits and regulatory costs depending on the county and city. With a high cost of living and rent prices averaging $2,500 in competitive markets, mom-and-pop shops have to turn an incredible profit to stay afloat.

In the first six months of 2021, more than 70 company headquarters left California, according to a Hoover Institution of Stanford University report (pdf), which found the exodus was accelerating. Later that year, Elon Musks Tesla made headlines by relocating to Texas.

An aerial view of the Tesla Fremont Factory in Fremont, Calif., on May 13, 2020. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Our findings identify the California counties that lost headquarters facilities, the states to which migrations occur, and extensive discussion of the reasons, including high tax rates, punitive regulations, high labor costs, high utility and energy costs, and declining quality of life for many Californians which reflects the cost of living and housing affordability, the report said.

Californias own Legislative Analysts Office found that the states outmigration is increasingly concentrated among older, more affluent people in a report from last July. Data from the office also showed a persistent, long-term net outmigration.

A key driver of migration between California and other states is living costs, particularly the cost of housing, the report read.

The median cost for a house in the Golden State as of 2021 is more than $800,000, up 34.2 percent from the previous year, according to the California Association of Realtors. The U.S. national average is perched around $400,000.

U-Haul isnt the only moving company getting a piece of the massive demand. Joey Childs, 22, co-owner of San Jose-based Silicon Valley Moving & Storage told The Epoch Times the past two years have been like nothing Ive ever seen before.

December, January, February, was a little slow. But last year was it was ridiculouswe were booked four or five months out in advance, he said. Its getting very expensive to live here  with very high taxes. A lot of people that we move are also small business owners too, and its getting very hard for them to operate their business here. So, theyre just leaving, and its a no brainer.

A closed restaurant in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2020. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)

Childs said his family is also looking to relocate to Ohio soon and open a second location of their moving company there.

Nonpartisan policy research group California Policy Lab examined exits from the state amid the pandemic. The study revealed that fewer people are moving to California since the start of the pandemic in 2020, while the number of residents leaving has gone up significantly.

At the end of September 2021, entrances to California were 38% lower than at the end of March 2020, the study noted. Exits, following a dip early in the pandemic, have rebounded and are now 12% higher than pre-COVID levelson pace with pre-pandemic trends.

California native Kathy Kean, 62, moved from Yorba Linda to Spring Ranch, Texas last year with her husband. She said she had noticed an increase in crime in her region.

Its not what we remembered our area to be, Kean told The Epoch Times. Some of the crime, like the gangs, were getting worse in our area from L.A. and Riverside coming in.

The Public Policy Institute of California examined the states crime trends in 2021 and found an increase in property and violent crime numberswith homicides increasingin Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco.

An increase in property crime in 2021, driven by car break-ins and auto thefts, returned property crime numbers close to pre-pandemic numbers, the policy institute memo read. The need to continue monitoring crime trends, investigating underlying causes, and identifying effective solutions remains high.

Homelessness has also been an explosive issue for voters as the November election remains on the horizon. In total, California has the highest number of homeless people in the country, with 161,548 people. Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated an aggressive investment of $2 billion to address homelessness in his 2022 budget.

Homelessness in Venice Beach, Calif., on Jan 27, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

San Mateo resident and union pipe fitter Michael Bentley, 53, is moving to Colorado in June. He said he was never into politics until a few years ago and would always vote alongside his labor unions suggestions.

Then, he noticed an increase in homelessness in the Bay Area. He began avoiding downtown due to the crime and squalor he saw on the streets.

When I first came here, there was wasnt very much homelessness, Bentley told The Epoch Times. Now, I mean, it is freaking crazy. I mean, I avoid San Francisco at all costs. I dont go downtown, I mean, I feel sorry for these people.

Others who have left, like former Fontana resident Michael Welter, 63, packed up due to the pandemic restrictions the state imposed. He now resides in Arizona.

The freedoms that we experienced here, particularly around the pandemic, has been a breath of fresh air, literally, because we dont wear a mask anymore, Welter told The Epoch Times. And you know, we can make decisions for ourselves. I like that I can carry a gun without getting a permit. Its just freedomits just what America should be.

All of the subjects interviewed said they only miss the weather in California, while their quality of life has now improved, especially financially. Many had family already in other states they were moving to, or moved with their families. They also uniformly said taxes were one of the top reasons they chose to leave, with some mentioning recent policy disagreements.

I think the Democrats in legislature and the governor have been emboldened by the failed recall, Gilliam said. And theyre going to double down on everything. They think that everybody agrees with what they should be doing. Instead, theyre going to lose the middle class because of it.

After forming the Leaving California Facebook group, Gilliam also created a Life After California group, which focuses on former residents posting about their new lives after moving away. That group now has 79,000 members.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich speaks at a news conference in Phoenix, Ariz., on Jan. 7, 2020. (Bob Christie/AP Photo)

Arizona AG Asks US Government to Prohibit Racial Discrimination in COVID-19 Treatments

Arizonas attorney general has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make clear that health care providers cannot use race as a factor in determining who can receive COVID-19 treatments.

The Food and Drug Administration, an agency inside HHS, recently issued guidance advising health care providers to take race into account when allocating doses of Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody treatment.

Several states have also recently included race in points-based systems of allocation.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, said that such criteria are a breach of our Constitution and our belief that every patient deserves the highest quality of care.

Brnovich, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, on Jan. 31 petitioned HHS to issue a rule barring the issuing of therapeutics on the basis of race or ethnicity.

The petition notes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another HHS office, currently claims that being from certain racial and ethnic minority groups is a risk factor for contracting severe cases of COVID-19.

The guidance violates the U.S. Constitution, including the Fourteenth Amendments Equal Protection Clause, the petition states.

Ultimately, the Constitution demands that HHS save as many lives as possible, all else being equal, rather than allowing some to die to achieve a better racial mix in the death count, it says.

HHS didnt respond to a request for comment.

If the agency doesnt act on the request, Brnovich is planning to file a lawsuit, according to his office.

The attorney general also said that discrimination based on race in Arizona could violate the Arizona Civil Rights Act, and urged anyone who may have been a victim of such discrimination to file a civil rights complaint with the office.

The federal guidance has influenced some states to dole out medicines based, in part, on race, including New York, Utah, and Minnesota.

That sparked legal threats from America First Legal, a group started by former Trump administration officials.

Utah said in January it was re-evaluating its risk-score calculator, which includes race as a factor.

Minnesotas Department of Health updated its risk-score around the same time, removing BIPOC status as a factor. BIPOC stands for black, indigenous, people of color.

America First Legal sued New York in mid-January after the states health department refused to adjust its directive concerning COVID-19 treatments.

New York officials havent responded to requests for comment.
Members of the Arizona Senate Committee On Government voted to recommend passage of six more election related bills to the full state Senate at a hearing in Phoenix on Jan. 31, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Arizona Senate Committee Passes Election Integrity Bills

An Arizona Senate subcommittee passed six more pieces of legislation on Jan. 31 aimed at shoring up the states electoral process following a disputed 2020 election and ballot audit and recount in Maricopa County.

The bills were passed by the Senate Committee On Government along party lines, with the committees Republican majority edging out Democrats mostly on 4-3 votes. On Jan. 24, the committee voted in similar fashion to recommend eight other election integrity bills for a full Senate vote.

On Monday, the committee adopted SB1260, proposed by Sen. Javan Mesnard (R), which introduces and clarifies language regarding electors who register to vote in more than one county.

The bill reads: If the county recorder received credible information that a person has registered to vote in a different county, the county recorder shall confirm the persons voter registration with that other county and, on confirmation, shall cancel the persons registration in accordance with state law.

Other proposed safeguards in the bill include a requirement that voters report ballots received at the address of a former tenant, and that county recorders remove voters from the voting list once it has been confirmed that they have moved away.

Those who knowingly vote in more than one place will be guilty of a Class 5 felony fraud charge.

Sen. Sally Ann Gonzalez (D) voted against the bill and argued there is no evidence of undocumented people voting in Arizona or around the country.

SB1056 would render misplaced ballots invalid if they werent included in the initial tally at a polling place for early and provisional ballots. Any person who misplaces a ballot as prescribed in the legislation would be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor, according to the bills language.

If a ballot is misplaced and cannot be counted as stated in the provision the voter of that misplaced ballot may file an action for damages against the government organization administering the election  for the loss of the right to vote.

Arizona Sen. Theresa Hatathlie (D) listens to a speaker during a meeting of the Arizona Senate Committee On Government in Phoenix, Ariz., on Jan. 31, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Chain of Custody

Evidence shows votes were not handled with chain of custody, said Sen. Wendy Rogers (R), in reference to the 2020 election in Maricopa County. There are a lot of people who have a problem with that.

Committee vice-chairman Sen. Sonny Borrelli (R) said the legislation will ensure those who misplace ballots will be held accountable.

Technically, youre held responsible, Borrelli said. If someone along that line isnt doing that (chain-of-custody) process, they would be held responsible.

SB1055 would hold election contractors liable for damages if they fail to perform their duties under the terms of the contract and be considered guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.

SB1285 seeks to amend state laws regarding the Arizona secretary of states instructions and procedures manual to allow a maximum degree of correctness, impartiality, uniformity, and efficiency on the procedures for early voting, tabulating, and storing ballots.

In addition, the secretary of state would provide personnel who are experts in electronic voting systems and procedures and in electronic voting system security to field check and review electronic voting systems and recommend needed statutory and procedural changes.

I would argue it is a very important manual because it allows the chamber to weigh in on how elections are run, said Arizona Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R), the bills key sponsor.

This, to me, actually provides more balance, she told the committee.

Sen. Martin Quezada (D), opposed the legislation.

I think its dangerous for us to put this authority into a legislative body, Quezada said.

This process is not broken. All it will do is further politicize the issue, he said.

SCR1005 would establish and define procedures for voters when obtaining a federal election ballot.

The bill states that any elector who is registered to vote using a federal voter registration form and who has not provided proof of citizenship may not receive a ballot unless the elector provides identification to the county recorder.

Proof of citizenship would include the voters drivers license or its equivalent, birth certificate, U.S. passport, or certificate of naturalization.

Much of the proposed Senate legislation was filed in direct response to allegations of voter fraud in Arizona during the 2020 presidential election. An independent Senate-sponsored forensic audit found numerous ballot discrepancies and potential issues involving a combined total of 53,305 ballots.
Indonesias holiday island of Bali is reopening its doors to all vaccinated tourists from Friday.

That means Australians will be able to return to the popular holiday destination three months after being shut out  but there is a catch.

All travellers who arrive in Bali, even those who are fully vaccinated, must quarantine for five days.

All travellers who arrive in Bali, even those who are fully vaccinated, must quarantine for five days. Source: AAP

Anyone who has had one shot of the Covid vaccine must undergo a seven-day quarantine, Luhut Panjaitan, a senior minister who oversees the governments pandemic response, said on Monday following the announcement.

He said Bali provides two options for quarantining tourists, including five star hotels and onboard approved ships, local publications report.

Mr Panjaitan said welcoming tourists back to the holiday destination will provide a much-needed boost for the areas economy, which has been quite affected by this pandemic.

Bali provides two options for quarantining tourists, including five star hotels and onboard approved ships. Source: AAP

Known for its surfing, temples, waterfalls and nightlife, Bali drew 6.2 million foreign visitors in 2019, but tight pandemic border restrictions devastated tourism, which is usually worth 54 per cent of its economy.

In mid-October, Bali opened to selected countries including China, New Zealand and Japan, but there has since been no direct flights, Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno said on Monday.

Jetstar and Qantas to resume flights to Bali

Singapore Airlines said on Friday it would resume flights to Bali from Singapore starting on February 16.

Jetstar will resume flights between Melbourne and Denpasar from February 14, the Executive Traveller reports.

In March, the airline will resume its direct flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Qantas will resume its flights to Denpasar from Sydney and Melbourne later the same month. Source: Getty

Qantas will resume its flights to Denpasar from Sydney and Melbourne later the same month.

Indonesias decision comes despite a steady rise in the countrys Covid-19 cases. Health authorities have attributed the increase to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Story continues

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said last week that the next few months will be critical.

With Reuters

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
Dr. Jamal Rifi performs a routine health check at home with Hagge Amine prior to administering the Pfizer vaccine in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 03, 2021. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Australian Government Pledges Cash Handouts to Aged Care Workers

The Australian federal government is preparing to distribute bonus payments to aged care workers as the sector grapples with Omicron, a move that has renewed calls from the opposition and health care workers to increase the minimum wage in the sector.

The government is providing a further AU$209 million to support the aged care workforce to continue to care for older Australians through the pandemic, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will tell the National Press Club on Feb. 1, according to extracts of his speech seen by SBS News.

The prime minister will say the commitment will build on $393 million in support already provided to 234,000 aged care workers, which was spread out over three payments.

The latest scheme will give employees $400 payments each, with a second $400 payment in May.

Those eligible include staff providing care, food, and cleaning services in government-subsidised facilities, as well as those under the home care scheme.

The Australian Labor Partys (ALP) health spokesperson Mark Butler responded, saying aged care facilities were still struggling to get access to rapid antigen tests and personal protection equipment.

Yet again, Scott Morrison has failed in one of his most important jobsthat is to keep vulnerable older Australians in Commonwealth aged care facilities safe from this virus, he told reporters on Jan. 31.

ALP government services spokesperson Bill Shorten and a health union have responded by calling for a permanent increase to the minimum wage for the aged care sectordetails on the economic viability of such a move were not provided, however.

Increase the base rate, and the sugar hit wouldnt be necessary. The base rate is what has to go up otherwise, we are going to struggle to attract people to the industry, he told the Nine Network on Feb. 1.

If you have to look after some of the most vulnerable people, some of whom might have challenging conditions in residential care, is $22 an hour before tax enough? I think it isnt.

Gerard Hayes, president of the Health Services Union, criticized the payment likening the announcement to a joke.

People in aged care, their families, the community, are not so silly they foresee trinketswe need a lot more than that, he told Sky News Australia.

Hayes said that if the prime minister was serious about the change, he would support an application to increase wages in the sector by 25 percenta matter that is currently being considered by the Fair Work Commission.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks about his management of the pandemic at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 1, 2022. (Rohan Thomson/Getty Images)

Australian PM Touts COVID-19 Health Response, Economic Management in Election Pitch

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has used an address at the National Press Club in Canberra to outline the hits and misses of his government in what will be an election year.

In discussing the federal governments response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the prime minister conceded that he did not get everything right.

Ill take my fair share of the criticism and the blame. It goes with the job, he told attendees in Canberra on Feb. 1.

In these times weve experienced, theres been no guidebook, you have to make decisions in real-time. With hindsight, views do change, and lessons are learned. Lessons that will continue to be invaluable to me and so many of my team are here with me today.

He touted Australias response to the pandemic and the strength of the health system.

Our health response has ensured that our health and the aged care system has stood up to the global pandemic where, in so many other countries we know around the world, it collapsed, he said.

Morrison said more than 40,000 lives had been saved in Australia due to the COVID-19 response of the government.

The government is also delivering 10 million rapid antigen tests to support state and territory clinics, and in our own area of responsibility, around 8 million tests have already been provided to aged care facilities.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits the CSL AstraZeneca vaccine manufacturing facility in Melbourne, Australia, on Feb. 12, 2021. (David Caird-Pool/Getty Images)

When questioned on providing rapid antigen tests for free, Morrison responded by saying you cant pay for everything, because it all has to be paid for.

Theyre very hard choices and you make them every day in a pandemic, he said.

Not saying yes to everybody and telling them everything that they want to hear  saying one thing to them in one part of the country and another thing in another part of the country. You dont get that from me, he said in a veiled reference to federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.

Morrison also said voters would look towards the political party that could manage the economy and keep the cost of living low.

Theyll be saying, Who has the economic plan and economic experience to ensure that I can stay in my job and my business can succeed. That can get electricity prices under control and bring them down. That will best support me in saving for my retirement. That will ensure that my kids are getting those skills training like those record apprentices and trade training that weve been able to put in place.

As part of his speech, the prime minister unveiled an $800 (US$564) cash handout to aged care workers in order to help the industry keep workers. He also revealed an AU$1.6 billion (US$1.1 billion) economic accelerator program to help commercialise Australian research.
Australian Private School Under Attack for Upholding Christian Values

One of Queenslands largest independent schools has faced pressure for taking a stance on its Christian beliefs about gender and sexuality.

On Friday, Citipointe Christian College in Carindale sent a request out to parents to sign a new contract which states they must share the Colleges commitment to fostering its doctrinal precepts in order to enrol their children.

Failing to do so will constitute a serious departure from the religious precepts upon which the College is based, and will give the school the right to exclude a student who no longer adheres to the Colleges doctrinal precepts including those as to biological sex.

Whilst each student is individually valued and equally encouraged to pursue opportunities in both academic and co-curricular activities, I/we agree that, where distinctions are made between male and female (inclusive of, but not limited to, for example, uniforms, presentation, terminology, use of facilities and amenities, participation in sporting events and accommodation) such distinctions will be applied on the basis of the individuals biological sex, the contract says.

Additionally, the declaration of faith section attached to the contract says the school consider any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, bisexual acts, bestiality, incest, paedophilia and pornography, to be sinful and offensive to God and is destructive to human relationships and society.

We believe that the family as instituted and created by God is the fundamental building block of society a family begins with the covenantal institution and holy estate of marriage as ordained by God between a biological man (husband) and a biological woman (wife) mutually and exclusively entered into for life.

We believe that God created human beings as male or female These two distinct and complementary genders (biological sexes), together reflect the image and nature of God.

We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other.

The reaction to the move has been mixed with advocates for the LGBTQIA+ organising an online petition asking the College to scrap the contract.

As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, 93, 696 people have signed the petition, with organisers accusing the school of using their religious beliefs to openly discriminate against queer and trans students.

Sign the petition to show Citipointe that we will not stand for such blatant transphobia and homophobia, former student and petition creator Bethany Lau wrote.

Lau, in an update on the petitions site, said that the organisers were working closely with the media to make sure that this issue isnt forgotten!

We are in the process of reaching out to politicians to start collaborating with them, Lau said. All further updates will be posted on our official Facebook page, Educate Dont Discriminate.

Meanwhile, supporters, including parents and conservative groups, have backed the schools decision, with one person on Facebook calling it a great move for the protection of all children and another saying parents should send their children to a Christian school that stands for what the word of God says.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, Principal Brian Mulheran said the school does not judge students on their sexuality or gender identity. But instead, it seeks to maintain our Christian ethos, as well as give parents and students the right to make an informed choice about whether they can support and embrace our approach to Christian education.

We have always held these Christian beliefs and we have tried to be fair and transparent to everyone in our community by making them clear in the enrolment contract, Mulheran said.

We believe each individual is created in the image of God, with dignity and worth equal to every other person. We unequivocally love and respect all people regardless of their lifestyle and choices, even if those choices are different to our beliefs and practice.

The controversy emerges amid debate over the religious discrimination bill which, if passes, could allow faith-based school to hire teachers and select students based on the schools religious beliefs.
The use of antimicrobial agentsincluding antibioticsrose during COVID-19. Efforts to disinfect surfaces and treat patients have made many bacteria more dangerous. (sabyna75/Shutterstock)

Australian Scientists Put Superbugs On Notice

Superbugs, one of the top 10 threats to global public health according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), may soon be a thing of the past after Australian researchers developed a new way to eradicate antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Researchers from Monash University in Victoria have discovered a new method that could potentially destroy the superbugs, prevent antibiotic resistance and reduce antibiotic intake to limit any non-targeted bacteria from coming into contact with the medicine and developing resistance.

This is a stunning finding in how we deliver medicine and how the medicine we take impacts us in the future, said the projects lead researcher, Dr Hsin-Hui Shen of Monash Universitys Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

The researchers new treatment kills superbugs using antibiotics that superbugs have not yet developed a high resistance to in combination with nanoparticles.

The method developed by Shen and Prof. Jian Li of the universitys Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Microbiology uses a polytherapy based approach to combat antimicrobial resistance using cubosomes which disrupts the bugs outer membrane using water-resistant nanoparticles loaded with superbug antibiotics.

For a long time, nanoparticles have been used specifically as antimicrobial carriers, but the use of nanoparticles in polytherapy treatments with antibiotics in order to overcome antimicrobial resistance has been overlooked, said Shen.

The use of nanoparticles-antibiotics combination therapy could reduce the dose intake in the human body and overcome the multidrug resistance.

The new method involves a two-step process. The first step uses an antibiotic like Polymyxin to break up the outer membrane of the superbug. Superbugs unique outer membrane is the feature that gives them their resistance, the membrane has a slime coating, but its best defence is the unique molecules within it that stop most antibiotics from entering and killing the bug.

Polymyxin is one of the antibiotics that can get past the unique molecules and break the cell wall; however, if they are used continuously to treat the bacteria, the superbugs will develop a resistance to them.

That is why the second step uses nanoparticles, like cubosomes, to break up the outer membrane further and destroy the bug. The nanoparticles themselves have antibiotic properties and can therefore help to decrease the dose of antibiotics used, preventing the bug from developing resistance.

The development comes after the WHO in 2019 declared that antimicrobial resistance is one of the top 10 threats to global public health.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs from the overuse of antimicrobial medicine such as antibiotics and makes infections increasingly more difficult or sometimes impossible to treat, resulting in the deaths of many people.

The WHO said that most antibiotics introduced to the market in recent decades are derivatives of antibiotics found in the 1980s, not new types of antibiotics, and all 43 antibiotics currently on the market do not sufficiently address superbugs meaning that more and more people will die from basic infections like pneumonia and urinary tract infections because bacteria will develop resistance to our limited supply of antibiotics.

The persistent failure to develop, manufacture, and distribute effective new antibiotics is further fueling the impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and threatens our ability to successfully treat bacterial infections, Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Assistant Director-General on Anti-Microbial Resistance, said.

People undergoing surgery or chemotherapy will be at high risk, and the scramble to develop more and more antibiotics will harm the global economy.

This is where the new technology comes into its own.

When bacteria become resistant, the original antibiotics can no longer kill them. Instead of looking for new antibiotics to counteract superbugs, we can use the nanotechnology approach to reduce the dose of antibiotic intake, effectively killing multidrug-resistant organisms, Shen said.

The testing phase of Monash Universitys research project is now underway.
Craig James, former clerk of the British Columbia legislature, leaves B.C. Supreme Court during a break from his trial in Vancouver, on Jan. 26, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)

BCs Legislature Deputy Clerk Told to Trust Advice on Retirement Payment: Trial

VANCOUVERThe former deputy clerk of the British Columbia legislative assembly told a trial that before she returned a retirement allowance she had received assurances from government officials that it was a valid claim.

The $258,000 retirement allowance that her then-boss, former clerk Craig James, received in 2012 is the largest among several payments that are subject to criminal allegations of misspending that James denies.

The B.C. Supreme Court trial has heard outstanding claims to the 1984 benefit were paid out to protect the legislative assembly from liability and that the auditor generals office raised concerns about the substantial payments in 2013.

Kate Ryan-Lloyd, who was James junior at the time but now holds the top title of clerk, told the court that when she became concerned about her eligibility for a $118,000 payment, she approached both then-Speaker Bill Barisoff and George McMinn, Jamess predecessor.

Ryan-Lloyd testified under cross-examination that McMinn told her she should trust James if he had consulted both a lawyer and the Speaker, while Barisoff said her eligibility was based on sound legal advice.

She previously testified that she returned the funds in 2013 after James didnt give her a copy of a written legal opinion supporting the payouts even though shed asked several times for the information.

Ryan-Lloyd has said she felt uncomfortable with the large payment and that it was not right.

After speaking with Mr. McMinn, you spoke with Mr. Barisoff and he assured you he was supportive to terminate the retirement benefit and had legal advice you were eligible. The Speaker gave you the impression this was the correct step to take and he was a careful steward of public funds, is that fair, defence lawyer Gavin Cameron asked Ryan-Lloyd.

Yes, she responded.

She did not try to contact the lawyer consulted by James directly, she said.

James has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud over $5,000 and three counts of breach of trust by a public officer.

The allegations stem from his time serving as clerk, a role likened in court to the CEO of the legislature, from 2011 until he was placed on administrative leave in 2018.

The Crown is arguing the case against him rests on three main areas: his claim to the retirement benefit, the purchase with public funds of a trailer and wood splitter, and travel expense claims.

The court has heard the $3,200 wood splitter and $10,000 trailer were purchased in the name of emergency preparedness so they could be used in case of an earthquake or other disaster to build fires, shelters and remove debris.

Crown prosecutor David Butcher has argued that their storage at Jamess home would make them utterly useless in case of emergency at the legislature.

One of Jamess neighbours, James Cassels, testified Monday that he saw both a trailer and wood splitter on the property across from his home.

He said he never saw or heard the wood splitter being used by James.
Art exploration for the young and young at heart

Years ago, an artist friend showed me lovely photographs of the Maldives. As we reviewed the serene images of remote seascapes and sky, he lamented the tragedy of global warming. With the highest point on the Maldive islands cresting at six feet above sea level, scientists in the 1980s began prophesying that global warming would soon overcome the islands, causing them to become submerged. The timeline for destruction was set at 20 to 40 years. In response to sinking fears of a paradise lost, my friend had hastened to schedule a luxurious visit.

When I first looked on pictures of those beautiful islands, I was a young woman. Time has passed. My youth has ebbed. Ive never yet bathed in privilege along those tropical shores. The good news is, theres still time.

Its been many decades since scientists began predicting the demise of the Maldives, and yet, as low as they lie, the islands remain above the water. In 2004, the aftershock of an earthquake did cause a tsunami to submerge a vast portion of the island nation, but global warming has not. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors earthquakes around the world, the epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake that caused flooding in the Maldives was under the Indian Ocean, near the west coast of Sumatra. That Indian plate has been moving for millennia. For the Maldives, the result of this age-old agent of change was that some islands grew as sediment settled upon them. And many island shores shrunk, especially those that had man-made sand deposits. Vulnerable as the islands naturally are, for the most part, post-quake waters have receded. New beach was added again and rebuilding succeeded.

Successful recovery is good news. If youre the kind of tourist who can make it to such a magnificent place, the latest global crisis called COVID-19 is more likely to waylay you than rising sea levels. Worldwide crises ebb and flow. Fear-mongering finds new faces. In fact, global warming is rarely called global warming anymore. Climate change is the more current title for that long-predicted calamity.

Lest too much global crisis talk induce you to cry out, The sky is falling, I should probably mention that new volcanic islands are still forming around the Maldives and around the world. As long as the Earth has been developing, volcanoes have been erupting, seas have roiled, climates have changed, mountains and islands have grown and shrunk, and life has gone on.

Natural disasters have left their mark on life for time immemorial. In time memorial, they have even left their mark on art. The Pacific islands have been plagued by environmental catastrophes throughout history. The 1815 explosion of Mount Tambora was a cataclysmic-level eruption. The amount of gas and ash it spewed temporarily altered temperatures on Earth. The blast killed thousands on the Indonesian island and harmed many more far and wide. For those living in lands as distant as Europe and the Americas, 1816, the year following the eruption of Tambora, has been described as the year without summer. Crops failed across the world due to the ensuing darkness and cold. The global effects of the explosion are memorialized in English poetry and art. Some say the painted skies of the English artist J.M. William Turner altered in coloration as a result. Its certain that volcanic subjects occupied his consideration.

The 1883 eruption of another Indonesian island volcano, Krakatoa, is reported to have killed nearly 36,000 people, with the largest blast reaching 50 miles high. The explosion was audible in Australia. The extraordinary volcanic event affected rainfall in Los Angeles and dimmed or tinted the skies of Europe for nearly a decade. Love it or hate it, some say Edvard Munchs painting, The Scream, finished in 1893, may owe its unusual sky to the effects of Krakatoa.

Many a farmer, writer, artist, and human has survived natural disastersfor which he could claim no fault. Many a man and woman in the generations that preceded ours have humbly navigated their way through the wild nature of this world. May we find inspiration in their hardiness and learn from their observations. In this tumultuous world, faith and historical perspective can be great tools for peace and calm.

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633, by Rembrandt. Oil on canvas; 63 inches by 50 3/8 inches. (Public domain)

One powerful example of faith and perspective over fear in fine art comes from the truly magnificent hand of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Painted in 1633, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, is Rembrandts only seascape. Handled with a heightened freshness more characteristic of Rembrandts early work, the biblical scene depicts Jesus Christ and his disciples on a ship amid a raging storm. Trials of nature assail the weak and fearful boat passengers as they reach to Christ for salvation. The figure of Christ, glowing with light, both human and divine, looks back at his disciples. The scene is based upon a story from the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark. According to Mark, Christ had been sleeping peacefully through the storm before he was awakened by his terrified boatmates. Rembrandt chose to depict the moment before Jesus rebuked the wind and calmed the sea with a few short words. After Christ subdued the elements, he asked his followers, Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?

In Rembrandts powerful painting, the disciples reach for Christ with uncertain hope and desperation. Its a commentary on the frailty of man through the frights of life. The scene is directly biblical; its also a metaphorical reference to the human struggle with earthly tumult. The only figure who looks out upon the viewer from Rembrandts dramatic painting is Rembrandt himself. He includes his own portrait among those of Christs disciples.

Rembrandts self-portrait is turned outward to engage the eye of the viewer. Van Rijn arranges one of his own hands almost casually atop his hat, as if he would protect it from a light gale. The other hand grasps the ships rigging firmly. By his posture, and in his eyes, the painter seems to speak to us even now, exclaiming, I know who is in charge. Its not me, and Im not afraid.

You may find images on the internet of this extraordinary work about faith, nature, and the struggles of life. But you cant see it in person. Where Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee used to hang, theres only an empty frame now. At 2:45 a.m. on March 18, 1990, thieves departed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston with 13 famous works of art, committing one of the most outrageous art heists in history. Its a crazy story for another time.

For now, let us suffice to say we live in a wildly unpredictable world. Fearful men will always be susceptible to hysteria. Deceitful men will ever be poised to snatch peace and beauty from the most susceptible. Today as ever, in the face of trial and trick, a clear perspective remains imperative. May we keep the faith and be not afraid.
President Joe Biden leaves the Oval Office and walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Jan. 28, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Biden Calls on Taliban to Release American Hostage

WASHINGTONPresident Joe Biden on Sunday called on the Taliban terrorist group in Afghanistan to release a U.S. civil engineer who was abducted two years ago and is believed to be the last American hostage held by the Taliban.

Mark Frerichs, a 59-year-old U.S. Navy veteran from Lombard, Illinois, worked in Afghanistan for a decade on development projects. He was kidnapped a month before the February 2020 U.S. troop pullout deal was signed and was transferred to the Haqqani network, a brutal Taliban faction accused of some of the deadliest attacks of the war.

Monday marks his second year in captivity.

Threatening the safety of Americans or any innocent civilians is always unacceptable, and hostage-taking is an act of particular cruelty and cowardice, Biden said in a statement.

The Taliban must immediately release Mark before it can expect any consideration of its aspirations for legitimacy. This is not negotiable.

Biden pulled U.S. troops out of Afghanistan in August in a chaotic withdrawal that drew sharp criticism from Republicans and his own Democrats as well as foreign allies and punctured his approval ratings.

Frerichs family has criticized the U.S. government for not pressing harder to secure his release. Last week, his sister, Charlene Cakora, made a personal plea to Biden in a Washington Post opinion piece titled, President Biden, please bring home my brother, the last American held hostage in Afghanistan.

The United States has raised Frerichs case in every meeting with the Taliban, the State Department said in a statement. We call on the Taliban to release him. We will continue working to bring him home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken added in a Twitter post.

U.S. and Taliban officials met for the first time since the pullout in October in Doha, Qatar, which had hosted talks on Afghanistan that led to the troop withdrawal.
President Joe Biden speaks to the press about the situation in Ukraine, after arriving on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on Jan. 28, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Demands Taliban Release Captive Civil Engineer

President Joe Biden is calling for the release of Navy Veteran Mark Frerichs, a civil engineer who was taken hostage by the Taliban two years ago.

Threatening the safety of Americans or any innocent civilians is always unacceptable, and hostage-taking is an act of particular cruelty and cowardice, said the president in a statement released over the weekend. The Taliban must immediately release Mark before it can expect any consideration of its aspirations for legitimacy. This is not negotiable.

Frerichs, a former Navy diver from Illinois, worked in Afghanistan as a civil engineer for a decade. He was kidnapped in January 2020 in the capital of Kabul and is believed to be in the custody of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.

Biden, in his statement, vowed to work steadfastly until every American held hostage and wrongfully detained overseas comes home.

Charlene Cakora, Frerichs sister, issued a statement saying that her family is grateful for Bidens words.

But what we really want is to have Mark home, she said. We know the president has options in front of him to make that happen and hope Marks safe return will become a priority for him personally.

Biden also made mention of Frerichs during a speech in July.

Were going to continue to work for the release of detained Americans, including [Frerichs] so that he can return to his family safely.

President Donald Trump signed a U.S.-Taliban peace deal last year, setting the stage for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. The Biden administration delayed the troop exit, but eventually followed through in August.

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan immediately after the U.S. troop withdrawal, resulting in the death of 13 U.S. Marines who were killed by a suicide bomber at the Kabul Airport.

The countrys collapsing economy has since drawn concerns from the United Nations, which has warned of a growing humanitarian emergency.

An estimated 22.8 million people are projected to be in crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity until March 2022, said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a recent report. Almost 9 million of these will be at emergency levels of food insecuritythe highest number in the world. Half of all children under five are facing acute malnutrition.

The report also says there are credible allegations that more than 100 former members of the Afghan government have been killed since the Taliban takeover.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden, with retiring US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Jan. 27, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Bidens Pool of Potential SCOTUS Nominees Hurts Diversity Rather than Promotes It

Commentary

Its a measure of how thoroughly the left controls public discourse that diversity on the Supreme Court is being discussed entirely in racial and gender terms.

I prefer that justices be appointed solely on merit and judicial philosophy. If, however, President Joe Biden thinks the court should look more like America, then he needs to consider candidates from groups other than African-American womengroups largely or entirely excluded from the court, although more numerous than African-American women.

To make the court look like America, Bidens pool should include candidates from these categories:

Protestants

Protestantism is the largest religion in the country, claiming nearly 50 percent of all Americans. A court that looks like America should include four or five Protestants.

Yet for decades, Protestants have been almost entirely absent from the Supreme Court. Eight of the nine sitting justices are Catholic or Jewish. From 2010, when John Paul Stevens retired, until 2017, when Neil Gorsuch was appointed, the bench included no Protestants at all. Even Justice Gorsuch, although he presently identifies as Episcopalian, was raised as a Catholic.

Biden is limiting his pool to African-American women, who constitute about 6 percent of Americans, while disregarding an excluded group composing nearly half of Americans!

Hispanic Men

One reason the administration gives for appointing an African-American woman is that none has ever served on the court. No Hispanic man has ever served on the Supreme Court, eitherunless you count Benjamin Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew who died in 1938. Yet, Hispanic males make up 10 percent of the country. They are, therefore, a much larger cohort than African-American women (about 6 percent).

Currently, the bench includes one African-American (Clarence Thomas) and one Hispanic (Sonia Sotomayor). If Biden wants the court to look like America, then appointing a Hispanic should be the higher priority. A Cuban-American might be best, since none has ever been a Supreme Court justice.

Middle Americans

For decades, nearly all justices have been raised, or spent their prior professional lives, in California or on the East Coast. President Donald Trump broke the coastal monopoly by appointing Gorsuch, who hails from Coloradoalthough even he had spent a fair amount of time in Washington, D.C.

Trump also nominated Amy Coney Barrett, from Louisiana and Indiana. His other nomination, Brett Kavanaugh, is a product of the Beltway.

So, with seven coastal justices and only two middle-American justices, fly-over country remains woefully under-represented.

Bidens current crop of candidates does little for geographical diversity: Nearly all have spent their lives either in California or on the East Coast.

Lawyers Who Attended Any of the Other 201 Accredited Law Schools

Although there are 203 law schools accredited by the American Bar Association, the court has long been dominated by graduates from only two: Harvard and Yale. Today, every justice but one has a Harvard or Yale law degree. The exception is Amy Coney Barrett, who graduated first in her class at Notre Dame.

The need for diversity in this regard isnt widely understood. Although Harvard and Yale are nominal rivals, theyre both located in a tiny corner of the country, and they largely share a common culture, often called legal realism. Most of Bidens current candidates also received their law degrees from Harvard or Yale.

If Biden truly cares about judicial diversity, instead of ruling out males and non-blacks, hed rule out Harvard and Yale. The time is long overdue for justices with outstanding academic credentials from schools such as the University of Chicago, the University of Texas, and BYU. As a corollary, Biden should seek judges from state tribunals, who are under-represented on the Supreme Court, rather than more federal judges, who are already grossly over-represented.

Asian-Americans and Other Minorities

One reason for limiting the pool to African-American women is that none has ever sat on the court. But if you favor limiting candidates that way, you can make a better case for limiting it to Asian-Americans. No Asian-American has ever been a Supreme Court justice, and there are more of them than of African-American women. Indeed, Asian-Americans comprise a particularly fast-growing component of American society.

In fairness, there are other important minority classifications to consider. They include Native Americans, East Indian Americans, and some long-established American religious denominations, such as the Mormons. To my knowledge, none of these groups ever has been represented on the Supreme Court. If Biden wants to make the court look like America, then he shouldnt exclude them.

Originalists

Ignorant people sometimes suggest that originalism is something new. But originalism has been the principal Anglo-American way of interpreting legal documents for over 500 years. The Founding-era record tells us that the Constitution was designed to be interpreted using originalist methods.

About the only place non-originalists thrive is among progressives who adopt other methods of interpretation so they can get the political results they want. Despite this imbalance, the court has only one consistent originalistJustice Thomas. Given the real-world balance, a court that looks like [legal] America should have eight or nine originalists, not just one.

Non-lawyers

This, also, will be controversial: The Constitution doesnt require federal judges to be lawyers. That may have been because during the Founding-era, educated people were expected to be familiar with basic legal principles, whether they practiced law or not.

Even today, many non-attorneys are familiar with legal principles, and many could contribute outstanding knowledge in fields such as finance, technology, and medicine.

Well over 99 percent of Americans are non-lawyers. So the justices in a court that truly looks like America should have all, or almost all, non-lawyers.

Of course, I dont believe the Supreme Court should consist mostly of non-lawyers. But the scenario highlights the foolishness of choosing justices so the bench looks like America. On the other hand, one or two knowledgeable and stable non-lawyers might improve the quality of court decisions.

In sum: If Biden really wants the court to look more like America, he should broaden his pool. His current prospects are mostly privileged, mostly Harvard-Yale, mostly coastal lawyers from a racial minority already represented. They dont serve the purpose of genuine diversity at all.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Boris Johnsons Crisis

Commentary

The travails of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are difficult for outsiders to appreciate. In the Brexit crisis, Johnson ended the greatest failure of British parliamentary government since the American Revolution, if not the English Civil War.

For several years after narrowly voting (52 percent) to leave the European Union in 2016, Britain had a counterfeit government promising to follow the peoples instruction to leave while in fact attempting to remain and calling it departure. Faced with a parliamentary majority of remainers and a Conservative Party and national majority of leavers, the government of Theresa May waffled and ended up with almost no support, since she was neither a leaver nor a remainer, nor a magician.

Boris Johnson faced a parliamentary majority that withheld its confidence from him and, with the connivance of an especially egregious speaker of the House of Commons (John Bercow), declined to support his request for dissolution and a new election. He finally managed to negotiate that point, elevated the election to a virtual referendum on the most efficient enactment of the national will to depart Europe on the best possible terms, campaigned ably, and won a parliamentary majority worthy of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair at the top of their games.

Despite widespread skepticism that it could be done, he did negotiate a smooth exit from Europe and had scarcely been done with that when the coronavirus fell upon him as upon most of the world. He fell heavily into the trap, as most of the world did, of excessive lockdowns and absurd masking and social distancing regulations. But he was also, next to President Donald Trump, the most effective advocate and enabler of vaccines, and Britain was, with Israel and the United States, the most advanced country in the world in vaccinating. Johnson eventually saw the failure of authoritarian countermeasures well before Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau, Scott Morrison in Australia, and most of Western Europe did. Under this grace of medical conversion, Boris Johnson has led Britain to the front of the line in self-emancipation from the insane rigors of excessive COVID lockdowns. He overrode irresponsible and blackmailing unions, and ignored officious medical hysteria more effectively than all but a few leaders.

Johnson thus has a much better than passing record in the two greatest crises that he has had to face, and foreigners should remember that in choosing to depart an ever closer [European] Union, he not only preserved British political institutions that have evolved gradually over nearly a thousand years and were about to be replaced altogether by well-intentioned but relatively untested European substitutes, he also detached one of the worlds most-respected nationalities, and still one of its five or so most important countries, from a largely socialist and quasi-neutralist Europe to seek closer ties with the much more congenial and longer established free-market democracies of the senior Commonwealth, especially Canada and Australia, and the United States. The European commissioners are not really answerable to the European Parliament, and Europe is not, by British standards, an adequately democratic system. Britain was torn between the attractions of the European market and the very foreign authoritarianism of Brussels.

Europe never sought the adherence of Britain in order to confer upon it the control of the fulcrum of the balance of power within Europe, which it frequently exercised from the time of Cardinal Wolsey under Henry VIII and in respect of France and the Holy Roman Empire through to the late 19th century, when first Germany unified by Bismarck, and then Stalinist Russia, were too powerful to be contained other than by Britain allying itself to France and both countries attracting the support of the United States. The smaller European countries wanted Britain to help defend them against the overlordship of Germany and France; Johnson believed, as did a narrow majority of his countrymen, though it was never quite expressed this way, that Britain had a more exalted destiny.

Only Johnson could slice the Gordian Knot of British indecision, and in achieving its exit from the European Union, by shifting the correlation of economic strength between Western Europe and North America, and potentially restoring the integrality of the English-speaking world, he took the most important geopolitical step in the world since the dissolution of the Soviet Union 30 years ago. Johnson has, at his best, demonstrated the qualities of a talented, important, and durable prime minister.

The Complaints

The complaints against Johnson that appear to endanger his incumbency seem quite trivial. He has a great comedic ability, and his tendency to reduce controversy to farce, one of his most conspicuous and normally endearing trademarks (and I write as his former employer), served him well as a Member of Parliament and as mayor of London, and even for a time as foreign secretary, but they are widely thought to be unbecoming to a prime minister, and the nation has wearied of it. That is easily corrected, and if Boris Johnson is not too burdened by what Dr. Samuel Johnson called the disingenuousness of years, he can simply cease to be unserious other than in the parliamentary tradition of repartee so brilliantly exemplified by Disraeli and Churchill and, to a degree, Harold Macmillan.

Beyond this, Johnson faces problems of policy and of carelessness. He ran as a Thatcherite Tory and has been a high spender and is now reduced to the particularly odious form of taxation of raising the obligatory charge for the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS is rivaled only by the BBC as the greatest sacred cow in Britain, though it has been stripped bare and revealed as utterly inadequate in the COVID crisis. Presuming he survives the immediate crisis, the prime minister will have to do a sharp course correction, and emulate the early Thatcher years while taking advantage of the COVID disaster to impose radical reforms on the NHS. He has an excellent Chancellor in Rishi Sunak to assist him.

He has also, inexplicably, been gulled by the climate change zealots; the shaman being deceived by more relentless and fashionable tricksters. It is time for that most difficult and often disreputable but, occasionally (and this is such an occasion), absolutely necessary act of a barefaced 180-degree turn. Johnson is a most-talented communicator and can easily explain his way through this solely on the basis of the facts: He was sold a false prospectus and it has only now become clear that climate change alarmism and the proposed curative measures were seriously mistaken, and he has changed course accordingly, as the national (not to mention his own) interest requires.

Johnson has undoubtedly been careless in riding roughshod over the minority factions of his party. They have been vocally assisted in dissent by Boriss always maliciously envious former colleagues in the Fleet Street press to whom, when he entered public life 20 years ago and several reporters asked him why, he replied, They dont put up statues of journalists, do they? Boris is capable of great charm, and it is time to deploy that talent now. The British Conservatives are a treacherous party. Boris is the 14th Conservative Party leader since the entirely voluntary retirement of Stanley Baldwin in 1937. All of the intervening leaders were either ejected by their own parliamentary or cabinet colleagues (Chamberlain, Eden, Heath, Thatcher, Duncan-Smith, May), eased out more gently (Churchill, MacMillan, Home, Howard), or they departed immediately after a national popular rejection (Major, Hague, Cameron).

Boris Johnson, beneath his clownish exterior, is no amateur in the treachery and chicanery of the Westminster lobby, and he certainly hears the sound of knives being sharpened. But he has a legitimate mandate, and he certainly has the ability to break the Conservative Party into pieces if he is knifed in the back, and above all he has the ability as well as the incentive to raise his game. Hes a very talented man and has on balance been a good prime minister. He deserves a wholehearted chance to fulfill his mandate and probably possesses the political strength and cunning to do so. With that said, he never should have allowed the walls to close in on him as they have.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Ahead of World Radio Day on Feb. 13, the monthly 10 Most Urgent list from the One Free Press Coalition focuses on radio journalists around the globe who have faced retaliation for their reporting.

According to UNESCO, radio remains the most popular medium globally for people to consume news, and for a century has remained a vital source of information for communities. However, as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has found in its reporting, in certain authoritarian countries, like Venezuela, there has been a steady decline in the number of radio stations as a result of press crackdowns. Since 1992, CPJ has documented at least 275 cases of radio journalists killed in connection to their work, and 19 radio journalists were imprisoned in 2021.

1. Nguyen Van Hoa (Vietnam)

In this Vietnam News Agency photo taken on Nov. 27, 2017, Nguyen Van Hoa stands trial in the central province of Ha Tinh. (Vietnam News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)

Nguyen Van Hoa, a Vietnamese reporter and videographer with Radio Free Asia (RFA), is serving a seven-year prison sentence, to be followed by three years of house arrest, on anti-state charges. Prosecutors said the bloggers reporting, including on a 2016 industrial accident, was aimed at propagating against, distorting, and defaming the government. He has been placed in solitary confinement and has been physically abused in prison.

2. Wan Yiu-sing (China)

Wan Yiu-sing. (via YouTube)

Wan Yiu-sing, an internet radio host and commentator who covers political issues in mainland China and Hong Kong for the independent internet radio channel D100, was arrested by Hong Kong police in February 2021. Wans arrest came amid authorities crackdown on Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement. He is being held in detention while on trial for alleged sedition and money laundering, and has had to be hospitalized while in detention.

3. Thomas Awah Junior (Cameroon)

Thomas Awah Junior. (via Unity Foundation Cameroon)

Cameroonian journalist Thomas Awah Junior was arrested in January 2017 and is serving an 11-year sentence in Kondengui Central Prison in Yaounde on false news and anti-state charges. He is in poor health, and in 2019, he was sentenced to an additional three years in jail, to run concurrently with his original sentence, for his alleged role in a prison protest.

Story continues

4. John Wesley Amady and Wilguens Louis-Saint (Haiti)

John Wesley Amady, left, and Wilguens Louis-Saint. (Photos: John Wesley Amady via Instagram, Reuters via Facebook)

Suspected gang members ambushed and shot John Wesley Amady and Wilguens Louis-Saint while they were reporting on the lack of security in Laboule 12, a gang-controlled area in the Port-au-Prince commune of Petion-Ville. Amady was on assignment for the broadcaster Radio Ecoute FM and Louis-Saint worked for the online outlets Tele Patriote and Tambou Verite.

5. Htet Htet Khine (Myanmar)

Myanmar freelance journalist Htet Htet Khine, a producer for BBC Media Action, was arrested in 2021 under the Unlawful Associations Act, according to news reports. She is being held in pretrial detention at an undisclosed location. Authorities charged Htet Htet Khine under Section 17(1) of the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act for allegedly working for a banned radio station and harboring fellow journalist Sithu Aung Myint while he fled an arrest warrant.

6. Frenchie Mae Cumpio (Philippines)

Frenchie Mae Cumpio. (via Facebook)

Arrested in 2020, Frenchie Mae Cumpio, executive director of the Eastern Vista news website and a radio news anchor at Aksyon Radyo-Tacloban DYVL 819, frequently covered alleged police and military abuses. Cumpio had previously faced harassment and intimidation from people she believed to be security agents. She is currently being held in pretrial detention on charges of illegal firearms possession.

7. Svetlana Prokopyeva (Russia)

Russian journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva at a court hearing in Pskov on July 6, 2020. (Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images)

Svetlana Prokopyeva is a regional correspondent for Radio Svoboda, and a 2020 CPJ International Press Freedom awardee. In early 2019, armed law enforcement officers raided Prokopyevas apartment, seized her equipment, passport and personal belongings, and interrogated her at a police station. In 2020, Prokopyeva was convicted of justifying terrorism and ordered to pay 500,000 rubles ($6,980) in fines. The court also ordered the confiscation of Prokopyevas mobile phone and laptop computer, and she remains on Russias terrorist list in retaliation for her work.

8. April Ehrlich (USA)

April Ehrlich. (via Facebook)

In September 2020, police arrested local radio reporter April Ehrlich in Portland, Ore., while she was covering evictions of people living in a city park. Police charged her with criminal trespassing, interfering with a peace officer and resisting arrest. Some of these misdemeanors could come with prison terms up to 364 days and fines up to $6,250.

9. Gulchehra Hoja (China/USA)

Uyghur journalist Gulchehra Hoja speaks at the 10th Anniversary Women in the World Summit in 2019 in New York City. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)

After joining Radio Free Asia in the U.S., journalist and 2020 IWMF Courage in Journalism awardee Gulchehra Hoja was sent a red notice from China, banning her from returning home. Today, members of her family have been deliberately targeted with constant government surveillance and harassment and have endured numerous detentions in retaliation for her coverage of human rights and her work at Radio Free Asia, according to Gulchehra and IWMF.

10. Fernando Solijon (Philippines)

Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot Fernando Solijon in 2013. Solijon, a radio commentator with DxLS Love Radio of Iligan City, was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital. During his regular radio program, Solijon frequently criticized local politicians and had received threats for his reporting. Almost 10 years on, partial impunity remains in his case, as not all those responsible for his death have been held to account.
A registered nurse cares for COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., on Jan. 21, 2021. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

California Single-Payer Health Care Bill Dies in State Assembly

California State Assembly members were slated to vote on single-payer health care bill Assembly Bill 1400 on Jan. 31 after it passed a series of hurdles this month. However, the bill didnt have enough support to pass the legislative body, and lawmakers let the bill die without bringing it to a vote by the deadline.

We are all gutted, Amar Shergill, chairman of the Progressive Caucus and executive board member of the California Democratic Party, wrote on Twitter. Will need a moment to absorb and recover.

AB 1400which would have created the first state single-payer health care system in the nationwould have required an estimated $163 billion in new taxes per year and offered health care to all citizens and noncitizens living in the state.

Despite heavy opposition and substantial misinformation from those that stand to profit from our current healthcare system, we were able to ignite a realistic and achievable path toward single-payer and bring AB 1400 to the floor of the Assembly. However, it became clear that we did not have the votes necessary for passage and I decided the best course of action is to not put AB 1400 for a vote today, said bill co-author Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) in a statement on Jan. 31.

Several health care and business groups opposed the bill, including the California Chamber of Commerce, California Taxpayers Association, the California Hospital Association, and the California Medical Association.

AB 1400, named the Guaranteed Health Care for All Act, would have created CalCare for all California residents, including illegal immigrants. The bill, authored by Kalra and Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San Jose), would have been coupled with constitutional amendment ACA-11 to fund the coverage.

ACA-11 proposed several new taxes to propel AB 1400 forward. The amendment relied on a gross receipts tax, payroll tax, and a personal income tax on earnings above $149,509 to fund the single-payer health care system. Companies earning more than $2 million and businesses with more than 50 employees would be subject to the new tax.

Todays defeat of AB 1400 is a win for the 94 percent of Californians who didnt want to get kicked off their insurance and a win for 100 percent of Californians who did not want a billion-dollar yearly tax, Assemblywoman Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel) told The Epoch Times.

We know we have work to do to reform our health care system, and Im ready to pass meaningful bipartisan reforms.

Proponents of AB 1400 included the California Nurses Association (CNA), the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party, and other state labor unions.

CNA, which sponsored the bill, initially introduced the legislation in 2017 but lacked a funding source. At the time, the estimate for the single-payer health care system was around $400 billion.

Currently, California operates a multi-payer health care system paid for through private insurance companies, government programs such as Covered California and Medicare, and out-of-pocket patients. AB 1400 would have eliminated those to a single source run by the state.

Republicans in the health committee argued this month that the bill would cost too much and underpay health care workers, which could further contribute to the health care worker shortage.

The California Chamber of Commerce, a business advocacy association, called AB 1400 and ACA 11 job killer bills of 2022 in a statement on Jan. 11. The chamber sent a letter to the bills authors, stating that the top personal income tax rate on individuals and sole proprietors would increase by 2.5 percent.

The chamber estimated that roughly 94 percent of California residents have some form of health care coverage. Its unclear whether the authors of AB 1400 will reintroduce the legislation next year.
Capitol Report (Jan. 31): 56 Bills Introduced to Ban CRT

At the White House Monday, President Joe Biden met with state governors, encouraging them to make good use of the billions in federal aid received this past year. Hours later, he welcomed Qatars leader to discuss oil supply, Iran nuclear talks, and Afghanistan.

Critical race theory may have been the deciding factor in the race for governor in Virginia a few months ago. Will this Marxist ideology play a role in the 2022 midterm elections and beyond?

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has expressed support for one of Bidens picks for the Supreme Court.

Tensions over Ukraine are high. U.S. and Russian diplomats clash over the Ukraine crisis at a high-stakes U.N. meeting Monday.

NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom is calling the Beijing Olympics The Medal of Shame. He reminds those athletes about the Chinese Communist Partys human rights abuses and hopes they can all take a stand for what is right.

Tens of millions of Americans received free COVID tests kits in the mail due to a White House initiative. But some lawmakers were upset when they found out where the tests were made.

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Cardinal Joseph Zen, recipient of the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom during the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation's ceremony in his honor, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 28, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

CCP Threatens Hong Kongs Cardinal Zen and Christian Churches

Commentary

During the final week of January, an ominous series of articles in Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper owned by Chinas liaison office, accuse Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, and Christian churches there of inciting student riots against repressive measures in 2019.

Four vitriolic articles, all underscoring the need for greater control, resemble a denunciation campaign of the kind portending a new crackdown by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The first article also accuses the 90-year-old cardinal of associating with Hong Kong entrepreneur and founder of the pro-democracy media Apple Daily Jimmy Lai and former Hong Kong legislator Martin Lee, both Catholics arrested for their strong pro-democracy stance. Mr. Lai is currently serving a 14-month prison term, on a conviction of inciting riots, after he attended a peaceful candlelight vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

The report further appears to draw similarities between the clergyman and practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual meditation discipline that the CCP vows to eliminate and has established a special security agency, known as the 610 Office, to carry this out.

Provocatively headlined, Cardinal Zen uses his status as a clergyman to disrupt Hong Kong, the report states, It is difficult for the government to regulate or eliminate these religious groups or individuals, despite the fact that they have committed many crimes.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, former bishop of Hong Kong, prays in the chapel at his residence in Hong Kong on Sept. 11, 2020. Cardinal Zen fled the communist takeover of China as a teenager and found sanctuary in Hong Kong, a bastion of religious freedom that he now fears could disappear under Beijings tightening grip. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images)

The articles complaints against the cardinal also include assertions that many of those arrested in the pro-democracy movement had studied at Christian schools. Three subsequent articles reiterate the theme that churches incited riots among Hong Kong students and gave sanctuary to pro-democracy demonstrators. They advocate for them to come under government control.

The cardinal has drawn Beijings ire as one of the few prominent China clergymen in recent years who dare to speak critically against Chinese leader Xi Jinpings repressive Sinicization policy for mainland churches and against the 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement, openly warning that it would result in the consolidation of CCP control over the underground Catholic Church and kill the Chinese church.

The spate of articles also raises the question of whether the CCP is planning an imminent takeover of Hong Kongs Christian schools, along with directing reprisals against the cardinal. About half of the K through 12 schools in Hong Kong are reported by Beijing to be Christian-run, many of them located within Catholic and Protestant church compounds. Reverend L, a Hong Kong Christian cleric who asks to remain anonymous, expressed his fears in a recent interview with me (due to be posted at www.Hudson.org on Feb. 11) that the CCP may intend to rein in the Christian schools as a first step to imposing comprehensive regulations to tighten government control over Hong Kong churches.

Until now, Hong Kongs churches have been largely left alone by the government: There have been no government-registered Patriotic churches where clerical allegiance to the CCP is required, as on the mainland. Clergy have not been subjected to reeducation in communist thought, church crosses remain intact, sermons are not required to be based on Xis sayings, surveillance cameras are not trained on congregations, and young people are not banned from religious worship services or Bible studiesall hallmarks of the Sinicization program for Chinas mainland churches.

One of the articles quotes Rev. Peter Koon, an Anglican priest on the pro-Beijing legislature of Hong Kong, expressing support for greater government oversight of churches. It states that he proposes either creating a government religious affairs office or the extension of the Chinese Temple Ordinance to cover churches. Dating from 1928, the latter mandates an onerous regime of government registration, management, control, inspection, audit, and other controls over Buddhist and Taoist monasteries.

Another article cites Lawrence Ma, a barrister who chairs the executive council of the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation, urging both a new government bureau and the application of the ordinance to churches on the basis that Christianity teaches that violating civil law is not always a sin per se, and rejects ancestor worship, among other reasons.

The fourth article, in the context of denouncing church and church schools involvement in the protests, relates that the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is in fact currently reviewing the Chinese Temple Ordinance. In the interest of religious freedom, the ordinance should be scrapped, not expanded, but that outcome is unlikely.

After suppressing Hong Kongs democratic legislature, independent judiciary, and freedoms of speech, press, and assembly, Beijing now has its sights on religious freedom.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Center for COVID Control Faked COVID-19 Test Results: Lawsuit

A COVID-19 testing company faked test results and didnt have licenses to operate testing sites, according to a new lawsuit.

The Center for COVID Control claimed to provide free COVID-19 tests throughout Washington state and promised to provide results within 48 hours. But in reality, the company gathered patient insurance information and provided invalid COVID-19 test results or no results at all, according to the 14-page suit, filed in King County Superior Court by state Attorney General Robert Ferguson.

Former employees told prosecutors that the company, which lacked licenses to operate in much of the state, wasnt able to process all of the tests it received; the owners are accused of refusing to hire more workers.

Instead, the company allegedly stored tests in garbage bags for more than a week rather than refrigerating them, and backdated collection dates so the samples could still be processed.

As trash bags of tests piled up and my team was instructed to lie to patients on a daily basis, I had had enough, one former worker, who was based in Illinois, told prosecutors. I first requested a demotion from my shift lead position, and, shortly after that, I quit.

Trash bags containing COVID-19 tests at a Center for COVID Control laboratory, in an undated image. (Washington State Attorney Generals Office)

Center for COVID Control contributed to the spread of COVID-19 when it provided false negative results, Ferguson said in a statement. These sham testing centers threatened the health and safety of our communities. They must be held accountable.

The company didnt respond by press time to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

In January, the companys founder and CEO, Aleya Siyaj, announced that operations would be suspended between Jan. 14 and Jan. 22 due to unusually high patient demand that had caused staffing shortfalls.

In an update on Jan. 20, the company said it was extending its pause.

As previously announced, CCC is using this operational pause to train additional staff on sample collection and handling, customer service and communications best practices, as well as compliance with regulatory guidelines. CCC will provide an update on reopening plans when appropriate, the company said in a statement.

The Washington state lawsuit asks the court to order the firm to pay civil penalties and also block it from administering or processing COVID-19 tests in Washington.

The Center for COVID Control has about 300 test sites across the nation and 13 in the state.

The companys Illinois headquarters was raided by federal agents in January and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is investigating complaints of alleged misconduct by the companys labs, Dr. Lee Fleisher, chief medical officer of the CMS Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, told The Epoch Times in an email.

We know that people want to feel confident that the testing sites they visit are reputable and the results they receive are accurate. CMS is actively investigating numerous complaints about multiple laboratories and testing sites. CMS continues its investigations and will take compliance and enforcement actions as appropriate, he wrote.

Also in January, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued the firm for alleged false advertising.

That complaint, filed in a Minnesota district court, stated that numerous state residents have not received any test results from Defendants after submitting samples, let alone within the timeframes promised by Defendants.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
A crane loading and lifting containers at an automated cargo wharf in Qingdao in China's eastern Shandong Province, on Oct. 24, 2018. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

China Failed to Meet Phase 1 Trade Deal Commitments: US Trade Official

U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi has raised concerns at a Washington trade conference about the Chinese regimes failure to honor its commitments under the phase one trade deal signed in January 2020.

Under the agreement, which expired at the end of 2021, China promised to ramp up purchases of U.S. energy, agricultural, and manufactured products and services by $200 billion in excess of what China imported in 2017.

Speaking virtually at the 2022 Washington International Trade Conference, Bianchi said it was really clear that Beijing had fallen short of commitments made under the deal, according to a Reuters report. Figures from the Peterson Institute for International Economics show that through November 2021, China had imported only $221.9 billion out of a two-year target of $380.5 billion.

According to Reuters, Bianchi stopped short of advocating specific steps that the United States and allies could take to redress Beijings failure to meet its commitments, and said that high-level conversations between the two powers over this issue have been very difficult.

Its not our goal to escalate here. But certainly were looking at all the tools we have in our toolbox to make sure theyre held accountable, Bianchi said, without providing details, Reuters reported.

While some may be tempted to give Beijing a pass for its failure to meet its phase one commitments on the grounds of the pandemic and supply-chain disruptions, a number of observers believe that a supine U.S. leadership is at least partly responsible.

The main objective of Phase 1 is to punish the Chinese Governments unfair trade practice and push it to make meaningful structural changes. But now, the Biden administration has given up on pushing the Chinese Government to make changes. So, Phase 1 has lost its original goal under Biden, said Shaomin Li, a professor of international business at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

In the absence of a clearly articulated policy and a tough stance on the part of the Biden administration, Beijing simply may not feel the pressure over trade that is needed to encourage or compel effective change and the honoring of commitments.

I think it is likely that the Chinese leadership will revert to its old practice, playing Tai Chi: making promises, dragging on, and never delivering. And the Biden administration is likely to regress to the practices of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama eras of endless complaints to and meetings with the Chinese leadership with no real consequences or results, Li said.

Knowing this, the Chinese leadership may have concluded that they dont need to exit or fulfill the agreement, just drag on and blame the U.S. for cold-war mentality and protectionism, he added.

But change is still entirely possible with a firmer stance and a shift in attitude at both the diplomatic and commercial levels. Li envisions one possible future where the United States takes measures to lessen its reliance on China and where U.S. companies better grasp the riskswith regard to intellectual property, technology transfers, and import quotas and commitments, among other issuesof U.S.-China commerce.

This will further isolate China, and the increasing isolation may prompt the Chinese leadership to make some meaningful changes, Li said.

The Chinese regimes failure to meet its phase one commitments is part of a larger pattern of non-adherence to commitments and promises made to trading partners around the world. Since officially joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Dec. 11, 2001, Beijing has routinely flouted or ignored WTO rules and guidelines, notably by relying heavily on and maintaining tight oversight over state-owned and state-controlled enterprises, which currently number around 150,000 at the local and central levels throughout China and employ some 30 million workers, according to a recent report by Washington-based think tank Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

Moreover, Beijing is engaged in an expansive program of state-sanctioned intellectual property theft, has engaged in forced technology transfers, and has banned imports from such nations as Lithuania and Australia in a campaign described as economic coercion.
An Apple logo is seen at an Apple store as pre-Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday shopping accelerates at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 22, 2019. (Mark Makela/Reuters/Files)

Chinese National Sentenced to Jail for Conspiracy to Defraud Apple With Counterfeits

A Chinese national was sentenced to just over two years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $2 million on Feb. 1, after being found guilty of defrauding Apple out of more than $1 million.

A joint announcement by the U.S. Attorneys Office, Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said that Wu Haiteng was sentenced to 26 months for engaging in a conspiracy to defraud Apple over the course of three years.

The scheme involved importing counterfeit iPhones from Hong Kong with spoofed IMEI and serial numbers from legitimate, warranty-covered phones.

Wu and his co-conspirators would then return the counterfeits to Apple, and exchange them for real Apple products. These authentic products were then shipped back to other co-conspirators overseas, including in Hong Kong.

Wu recruited his wife and other associates to participate in the conspiracy, procured fake identification documents, used aliases, opened multiple commercial mailboxes, and arranged for members of the conspiracy to travel throughout the United States, according to the statement.

In total, Wu acknowledged defrauding Apple out of nearly $1 million and intending to defraud the company out of more.

He, his wife Cai Jiahong, and associate Liu Teang, were all arrested in 2019.

Cai pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 2020 and was sentenced to time served after five months. Liu pleaded guilty to mail fraud in February 2021, and will be sentenced in March of this year.

For his part, Wu pleaded guilty to mail fraud back in 2020, and was convicted today and sentenced to twenty-six months already served. He was also ordered to pay $987,000 in restitution and an identical amount in a forfeiture money judgment.

He was also forced by a judge to forfeit ownership of two condos in Virginia, which he had purchased with cash as part of the conspiracy.

Wu immigrated to the United States from mainland China in 2013 to study engineering, according to publicly filed court documents. He earned a masters degree in 2015 and secured employment, but then engaged in the conspiracy over the course of about three and a half years.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.On the chilly afternoon of Jan. 30, Shen Yun filled the Pikes Peak Center with the swelling music of a live orchestra, and colorful silken costumes of ancient China animated through the gravity-defying flips of classical Chinese dancers.

Shen Yun is a New York-based performing arts company whose mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese culture prior to the communist era through dance and music.

Ballet dancer Emma Helgesen attended with her parents Jeanna and Bryan Helgesen. If the world is still reeling from a pandemic, you wouldnt know it from the jubilation on the Helgesens faces.

Were not guaranteed tomorrow, so I have absolutely no fear of coming out.  Bryan Helgesen

I choose not to live in fear at all and I think all of us have to face sicknesses and dangers every day, so I just think its really important to keep living life and enjoy it because each day is special, Bryan said. Were not guaranteed tomorrow, so I have absolutely no fear of coming out. Im very glad to see a lot of people out. It made me very happy.

They came for Emmas and Jeannas birthdaysEmmas especially as she had just closed on the Nutcracker and is currently preparing to perform in the ballet Don Quixote. Emma had been dancing since she was 2 and a half years old.

The quality was superb! Emma said. All of the dancers were just so amazing and incredible. They appeared very confident. I could tell that they really enjoyed what they were doing and they love their culture.

For Bryan, every scene was beautiful.

Each country in society has its own cultures. Here in the United States, were kind of a melting pot of many cultures and each culture has its own beauty, so I think its very important to be able to express freely the values and traditions of your own culturein this case, the Chinese culture, he said.

Interestingly, though Shen Yun presents Chinese culture, it is not allowed to be performed in Chinapartly because it is the traditional, divinely inspired culture that the atheist Chinese regime has sought to destroy, and partly because Shen Yun makes a point to highlight religious persecution taking place in China today.

For Bryan, Shen Yun offered a different perspective on China.

In the news, we only hear about the communist perspective of the world and China, he said. It (the performance) made me feel very happy for the Chinese people. I think the Chinese people are beautiful and I like them. I like the messages that the performance sent as well.

Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Companys curtain call at Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts, on Jan. 30, 2022. (NTD)

Feel Good

Semi-retired jazz musician Adam Johnston came to see Shen Yun for the second time.

You feel good when you see this show, he said. He was impressed by the East-meets-West orchestra. Some of the key Chinese instruments that feature in the music are the two-stringed erhu, the pipa, and the bugle-like suona.

Its probably hard to combine. Thats the beautythat you are able to combine the Eastern instruments with the Western instruments and make a beautiful sound and do it for a whole show is very good, he said.

It brought to his mind a quote from Martin Luther, who once said that next to the Bible, music deserves the highest praise. So thats the value of music, whether its in the Chinese tradition there or wherever good music is good for the soul.

Reporting by Sally Sun.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
A stock image of the 2021-2022 Australian Budget is seen on the ground at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on May 12, 2021. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)

Conflicting Calls for Energy Focus As Federal Budget Looms

A peak oil and gas lobby group has asked the federal government for more tax incentives for the industry in the next federal budget amid calls from conservation groups to abolish fossil fuel subsidies.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), which represents the interests of the oil and gas industry, wants the Australian government to provide more support for controversial technologies that capture, store and use carbon by modifying the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act.

In a budget submission on Jan. 31, the organisation said that the support would help the oil and gas industry decarbonise and reduce emissions.

Australia and its government have a massive, once-in-a-generation opportunity to make policy decisions to provide foundations for the future growth of our economy, APPEA chief executive Andrew McConville said.

The APPEA has called for several changes, including but not limited to making salary and wages immediately deductible, increasing incentives for smaller oil and gas companies, and eliminating inefficiencies and duplication in the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

The Shell Oil refinery in Parramatta is seen in Sydney, Australia, on June 2, 2007. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

The call from the industry group comes after research (pdf) from the independent thinktank the Australia Institute in 2021 found that fossil fuel subsidies cost Australians $10.3 billion in FY 2020-21, with one commonwealth tax break alone providing the industry with $7.84 billion-which exceeds the federal governments funding of the Australian Army ($7.82 billion).

Additionally, the research showed that all but one Australian state government spent an estimated $1.2 billion subsidising the fossil fuel industry, including Queensland providing assistance measures worth $744 million, the Northern Territory providing $5 billion in subsidies for offshore gas and pipelines, Western Australia spending hundreds of millions on coal-fired power stations, and Victoria $100 million to turn brown coal into hydrogen.

According to the Institute, the Australian Capital Territory is the only jurisdiction in Australia with no subsidies for fossil fuels, along with the most ambitious climate targets in the country.

Meanwhile, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), a national environmental organisation, wants the federal government to cut down on fossil fuel subsidies and make significant investments in clean export and land restoration.

The investments proposed by the foundation include $10 billion (US$ 7.1 billion) in clean export industries, $5 billion (US$ 3.5 billion) in setting up a regional energy transition authority, and $2 billion (US$ 1.4 billion) in three-yearly spending on conservation and land management.

Australia can become a global clean energy superpower in the next decade by replacing our exports of coal, gas and uranium with renewable-powered products like green hydrogen, steel and aluminium, the ACFs Matt Rose said.

Our clean air and water, land and resources underpin Australias health and prosperity. We must do more to protect and restore our natural capital, especially following bushfires and droughts and decades of over-clearing.

As for the source of funding for those activities, the ACF said that the Australian government could slash subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, which include a tax credits scheme worth $7.8 billion (US$ 5.5 billion) in the 2020/21 financial year.
A sign of Switzerland's second largest bank Credit Suisse on a branch's building in downtown Geneva, on Nov. 4, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

Court Says Credit Suisse Faces $45.5 Million Claim in Money-Laundering Case

ZURICHSwiss prosecutors are pursuing around 42.4 million Swiss francs ($45.5 million) in compensation from Credit Suisse in a money-laundering trial due to begin on Feb. 7, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court (FCC) said on Monday.

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) indicted the bank in December 2020 after an investigation into the activities of a Bulgarian crime ring involving top-level wrestlers accused of laundering profits from cocaine trafficking.

The OAG has stated that it is seeking compensation of around 34.8 million Swiss francs as well as additional compensation of around 7.6 million francs from Credit Suisse AG, an FCC spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Credit Suisse said it unreservedly rejects as meritless all allegations in this legacy matter raised against it and is convinced that its former employee is innocent. The bank told Reuters that it would defend itself vigorously in court.

Switzerlands second-biggest bank, which is trying to rebuild its reputation after a series of scandals and the abrupt departure of its chairman, issued a profit warning last week due to legal costs and a slowdown in its trading and wealth management divisions.

A summary on the FCCs website shows Credit Suisse is accused of failing to take all necessary measures to prevent an employee from laundering money.

The employee, a former Credit Suisse manager who was also indicted, is charged with having processed transactions worth several million Swiss francs between 2004 and 2008 despite indications the money could be of criminal origin.

Credit Suisse denied any wrongdoing by the employee.

($1 = 0.9318 Swiss francs)

By Silke Koltrowitz and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi
Crypto Analyst Justin Bennett Says Bitcoin Will Break above $40,000 by Monday

Cryptocurrency analyst and trader Justin Bennett says Bitcoin BTC looks poised to rally above $40,000 before the month comes to a close on Monday.

If Bitcoin can break above these highs, right around $37,500, if we do get that breakout, I think we see $40,000, potentially up to $42,000 here over the next few days, basically before January closes out, Justin told his YouTube followers.

Should Bitcoin bulls manage to overcome resistance at $42,000, Bennett says a breakout could push BTC to as high as $50,000.

We would need to see Bitcoin actually break above $42,000, close above $42,000 to expose $45,000 to $46,000 and potentially $50,000. Until that time comes, $40,000 to $42,000 is going to be very strong resistance, Justin added.

U.S. lawmakers are pushing Bitcoin mining companies into revealing how much electricity they use for crypto mining. In letters sent to six companies that mine Bitcoin in the United States, Senator Elizabeth Warren and seven other legislators said they were concerned about the impacts on the global environment, local ecosystems, and consumer electricity costs.

Efforts in Washington, D.C. to regulate the digital currency industry may have a growing impact on the apex cryptocurrency as it attempts to regain losses suffered in the month of January.

By Bibhu Pattnaik

 2021 The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
U.S. Senate Majority Whip Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) speaks as other congressional members, including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) (L), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) (2nd L), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) (3rd L), and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) (R) listen during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Nov. 16, 2011. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Democratic Senators Unveil Legislation to Change Electoral Count Act

A group of Democratic and Democratic-aligned senators unveiled legislation on Feb. 1 that would make several changes to the 1887 Electoral Count Act (ECA), which Democrats hope will be more acceptable to some Republican moderates.

The draft of the measure was unveiled by Democrat-aligned Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) in conjunction with Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

As leaders on the Senate Rules Committee with jurisdiction over federal elections and members of Senate Democratic leadership, we have been working with legal experts and election law scholars to develop legislation that would modernize the framework of the Electoral Count Act of 1887, King, Klobuchar, and Durbin said in a statement on the proposal.

Amid ongoing contention over potential fraud in the 2020 election, President Donald Trump tried to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to use his role under the original ECA to challenge the results in several state elections that posed the highest risk of widespread fraud. Pence refused, allowing Joe Biden to be confirmed as the president-elect by the Senate.

The updated ECA would change federal law to significantly lessen the vice presidents role over elections. The legislation would also significantly raise the requirements for members of the House or Senate to object to certifying election results.

Under the 1887 law, only one member of the House and one member of the Senate need to object before the objection is moved to a floor vote in the chamber. Under the new draft of the measure, this would be raised to one-third of the Senate needing to object before an objection could be moved to a floor vote.

The legislation would also narrow the list of potential objections lawmakers can make to certifying a slate of electors.

During the 2020 election, disputes over election results in various states continued well into December 2020. Under the ECA revision, future state-level election disputes would need to be resolved by a set deadline.

Through these changes, the new proposal would [serve] as a foundational outline for key reforms that address the shortcomings of the 1887 law, according to the trio of lawmakers.

The proposal is considered by Democrats to be more palatable to Republicans, although its less wide-reaching than Democrats had hoped for. There have been some indications that an ECA reform would indeed be more acceptable to Republicans.

A separate group of lawmakers, including swing-voting Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have spent the past several weeks working on their own draft of an ECA revision. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has also suggested that he may be open to an ECA reform.

I think it needs fixing, and I wish them well in that effort, McConnell told reporters when asked about the effort to revise the ECA. Id be happy to take a look at whatever they [come up with].

I encourage the discussion because I think [the current ECA] is flawed.

He also said these flaws are directly related to what happened on Jan. 6.

The Stop the Steal protest at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been a focal point for many of the plans proponents, who have marketed the rally as a full-scale insurrection against the U.S. government.

Over the course of the 117th Congress, Democrats have made several efforts to radically revamp U.S. election law.

One of the most wide-reaching proposals the majority party has put forward was the For the People Act, which would have, among other things, forced states to allow convicted felons to voteincluding convicts actively serving on probation or parole. Critics of the legislation, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, also argued that through its significantly weakened election security rules, the For the People Act would have effectively given illegal aliens the right to vote.

The effort, which had little chance in any event of making it through the 5050 Senate, was killed after Manchin said he wouldnt vote for the measure.

Since then, Democrats have put forward several other proposals to reform federal election laws, but these have thus far all been killed by Republican filibuster.

Republicans have argued that the measures were designed to unfairly benefit Democrats over Republicans, and only one of the measures, a compromise measure spearheaded by Manchin, received any Republican support. Manchins legislation won over swing-voting Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), but the measure also failed to meet the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Enacted 10 years after the electoral crisis of the 1876 election, when states sent competing slates of electors to Congress, the original ECA laid out basic guidelines for electoral counting procedures moving forward. Effectively, the ECA told states that they would need to deal with electoral disputes on their own.

Congress would only get involved in electoral disputes under limited circumstances. For instance, if a governor certified and sent to Congress competing slates of electors, the ECA gave Congress the power to adjudicate the dispute.

If approved, either of the proposed revisions to the ECA would constitute one of the largest revisions to U.S. election law since the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Inside ocean photographer Renee Capozzolas mission to protect marine life one shutter click at a time

In the balmy waters of the South Pacific, marine conservationist, ocean photographer, and diver Renee Capozzola drifts gently through the blue. Shes waiting for something to cross her path, whether it be ambling sharks, sage sea turtles, or even a looming whale. Life in the ocean, after all, is always just around the corneror rather, just around the coral fringe.

In September, Capozzola was honored with the first ever Female Fifty Fathoms (FFF) Award, a distinction created by a recent partnership among Oceanographic Magazine, organizers of the Ocean Photography Awards, and Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Blancpain. Capozzola was chosen out of 100 nominees as the female photographer who best embodies hope and inspiration in marine conservation. The shutterbug wasnt always capturing our finned neighbors, but the ocean holds a treasured place in Capozzolas heart. A So-Cal native, Capozzola was plenty used to sand between her toes when her parents started taking her to Hawaii on work trips. Capozzola fell in love with the archipelagos luscious green ecosystems, but she didnt officially don scuba gear until a 2004 trip to Maui.

Despite her growing interest in diving, Capozzola still hadnt picked up a camera. That came later, when the diver wanted to share what she was experiencing with others. A longtime artist, she knew plenty about color and composition, but she needed hours of research, reading, and picking experts brains to teach herself the technical aspects of photography.

It was more of a casual hobby at first, to take pictures and share them with my family and friends, Capozzola said, recalling how she used to take images with the simplest of setups: a compact point-and-shoot, no fancy flashes or lenses. [I wanted] to show them what I was seeing underwater because everything was so amazing.

By 2016, Capozzola upgraded to professional-grade equipment and embraced her career trajectory change. Since then, shes been featured in Ocean Geographic, National Wildlife Magazine, and Scuba Diving Magazine. Earlier this year, Capozzola was the first American and first woman named Underwater Photographer of the Year 2021 by the UK-based Underwater Photographer of the Year competition, and she was dubbed the USA Photographer of the Year by the 2019 World Shootout.

A Love for Marine Life That Runs Ocean-Deep

Lounging with sharks and sea turtles is not what Capozzola pictured for herself a decade ago. But as a self-proclaimed animal lover and seeker of adventure, she feels quite at home bobbing in the waters off the French Polynesian shore, waiting for one of the underwater beasts to cross her path. The ocean is where Capozzola finds her peace. Maybe its the heavy underwater silence, or the in-no-hurry way that many sea creatures meander around, or how the waves and currents play with the sunlight. In any case, the ocean is where she goes to let her stresses dissolve away.

Capozzola is fond of sea turtles, even-tempered creatures used to the presence of divers. She and the turtles have been up-close and personal, even once capturing a rare image of turtles in mating after a long wait for the creatures to surface. The shot was taken half underwater and half above, a tough frame to secure because the turtles could move in a split second.

I think that was one of my favorite encounters because, number one, I wasnt expecting the behavior. Its very rare to actually witness. And then, I decided to go with the tougher shot, and was able to pull it off.

Sharks are also one of the photographers greatest muses. Theyre more complex than a toothy, flint-eyed movie trope, are far less likely to attack boats than certain Hollywood story lines suggest, and are just as deserving of protection as their more widely-beloved counterparts. Many would argue that cozying up to an animal whose reputation largely consists of maulings and murders is risky, especially for a vulnerable human laden with diving gear and photography equipment. While shes certainly not advocating for jumping into water infested with great whites, sharks are the least of Capozzolas worries. In her first encounter with a shark, Capozzola attempted to take a picture of it resting in the sand. Afraid, the shark swam away.

Sharks, I think, are often misunderstood by the public. I think this is mainly due to the media and movies like Jaws, where theyre portrayed as these really dangerous man-eaters. What I try to do with my pictures is to change that negative perception and show sharks to the public in a positive light.

Capozzola with her photography and scuba equipment. (Jennifer Schneider for American Essence)

(Jennifer Schneider for American Essence)

(Jennifer Schneider for American Essence)

In almost two decades of underwater photography, Capozzola has had more unpleasant experiences with human error than sharks; once, while diving in a remote area off the Indonesian coast, the dinghy scheduled to pick up Capazzolas group never arrived, forcing them to swim for hours across open sea to the nearest uncivilized island, where they waited until a fishing boat passed by.

Getting left by a boat is more dangerous than worrying about a shark. Thats actually been the scariest thing thats ever happened to me in all of the dives Ive done in my life.

Capozzolas image that captured the hearts of the FFF Award judges, Sharky Sunset, features a shark swimming just beneath the surface as an island sunset blazes in the background. Sharky Sunset was Capozzolas first image to gain international recognition, and it embodies the main goal in her imagery: to connect something that people are familiar withlike a sunsetwith something they may fear. The resulting photo is far less affronting than, say, the Jaws poster with its iconic open-mouthed, blood-thirsty killer. Sharky Sunset is in Capozzola-trademark split-shot style, where the camera is half-submerged to capture both the underwater action and the scene above the waves. This can be difficult as the shooter attempts to tread water, track the animal, catch the perfect timing of the waves, and maintain an interesting scene in the background.

[Split shots] capture two worlds simultaneously, Capozzola said. You can capture a beautiful island in the background with the palm trees, and then you can show the animal in that environment, underwater. Its a very unique perspective, because the human eye cannot naturally see above and below the waterline.

Her signature style captures both the underwater action and the scenery above. (Courtesy of Renee Capozzola)

By showing this perspective, Capozzola hopes her viewers see a sea creatures environment as more of an ecosystem than just water. With her artistic background and fierce love for marine life, she stitches two worlds together to offer humans insight into the personalities of animals that are much more impacted by our everyday actions than we may think.

Raja Reefscape, taken near the Raja Ampat islands in Indonesia in 2018. (Courtesy of Renee Capozzola)

At War With Pollution

Whether watching schools of fish dart through coral reefs or wander through a kelp forest, Capozzola is awed by oceanic scenes time and time again. The impact of human behavior and debris hurts. After traveling to waters in all corners of the world, she has personally witnessed the consequences of overfishing, pollution, coral bleaching, and dynamite fishing on marine ecosystems far and wide. While visiting Indonesia, Capozzola saw fishermen put toxic cyanide powder in the water, instantly killing all nearby fish. As the fish would float to the surface, the fishermen scooped up their harvest.

It was obviously a very destructive practice, she recalled. We did the dive with all of these fish that were dying or dead, which was really sad.

Capozzola remembers searching fruitlessly for days off the coast of Thailand for a zebra or leopard shark to photograph, only to dock next to a boat heaped with sharks that had been hunted. Being a marine biologist, Capozzola has read about and seen the human impact on underwater life firsthand. She hopes her images instill the same desire to protect oceanic wildlife that she has.

[I] try to use my images to connect with the public, because I think by showing people beautiful images of the ocean and its inhabitants that Ill inspire people to take better care of our oceans, be better stewards of our planet, Capozzola said. I hope that my images will raise awareness for the added protections that marine ecosystems need throughout the world, so our oceans remain healthy and fully functional for future generations.

After all, we need our oceans like we need air in our lungsin fact, we need oceans so we can have air in our lungs. Earths oceans provide at least half of the planets oxygen and are major managers of carbon dioxide. The ocean is also a major source of food.

Less than 10 percent of the planets ocean-covered surface is considered MPA, or Marine Protected Area, by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The group hopes to increase that amount from the current level of roughly 7 percent to 30 percent by 2030, but there are many obstacles in the way, including enforcement.

Going to the Deep South

In 2023, Capozzola will join an expedition going far south: Antarctica. The expeditionseeking to bring government and public awareness to the importance of the Antarctic region and its warming climateis led by legendary oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle of Ocean Geographics Mission Blue. Earle is a renowned marine biologist, author, and conservationist who was Time magazines first Hero for the Planet in 1998. She was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Earles expedition will include scientists, photographers, and other oceanic luminaries from across the globe.

It is rare to capture mating turtles in the wild. (Courtesy of Renee Capozzola)

Capozzola is now preparing for diving in near-freezing waters. She will be photographing anything from icebergs to leopard seals and penguins. The trip is harmonious with Capozzolas goal for the last nearly 20 years: awareness, hopefully that will inspire action.

I think that for all wildlife photographers, it is one of our jobs to raise awareness for the environments that the animals are found in, because as a photographer you fall in love with the animals that youre photographing and therefore you want to protect their environments, because otherwise the animals would be gone, she said.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
A mom from Canada who went into labor with twins at just shy of 22 weeks gestation was told by her doctor that they would die the day they were born. However, she refused to give up on her babies, and against the odds, her baby girls pulled through, heading home after 115 days in the NICU.

Now, mom Kayla Marie Ibarra advocates for life at 22 weeks gestation for other preemie babies and their parents.

Kayla and her husbandwho have been together since age 18 and were already parents to a toddler, Noahfound out they were expecting twins during Kaylas six-week ultrasound.

I was bawling my eyes out and my husband was laughing, Kayla told The Epoch Times. He and my mom had suspected twins, based on how sick I was and how quickly I was already showing. I couldnt even grasp it.

Kayla described her pregnancy with the twins as smooth sailing until the 20-week mark, at which point a gush of fluid convinced her that her water had broken.

The hospital said it hadnt, but because of that, I was pushed into the high-risk category with bi-weekly ultrasounds, she said. I didnt even make it to my first bi-weekly ultrasound at 22 weeks, because I went into labor at 21.5 weeks.

Kayla didnt receive the response she expected, or hoped for, from her primary physician.

When I went into labor, the doctor told me, The twins will be born today and they will die,' she said. I said, Excuse me? and she said, Babies this gestation simply do not survive. Its impossible.

I told her I absolutely refused to birth my living children and hold them while they died.

In a story she shared with Love What Matters, Kayla said, She told me she wouldnt let me see the twins, or hear their heartbeats, because it was a waste of time.' Too angry to pray, Kayla waited with her family in her hospital room.

Her labor lasted four painful days and she begged for medication, which she was denied. To add more trauma to the situation, Kayla was diagnosed with pneumonia. Yet when active labor began at 22.2 weeks on Sept. 27, 2018, hope came in the nick of time.

A new doctor entered the room and informed the couple that they could transfer to a London, Ontario, hospital to deliver the twins. For the first time in four days, I felt a small glimpse of hope and victory, Kayla told The Epoch Times.

Luna and Ema were born in London at 9:12 and 9:29 p.m., respectively. Luna weighed just over 14 ounces (approx. 0.39 kg) and measured 11 inches long; Ema weighed 1 pound (0.45 kg) and measured 12 inches long.

Kayla said she had never seen babies so small.

From being told the babies were a lost cause to the flurry of activity that followed their birth, Kayla and her family were in shock. The first 40 days in the NICU were the roughest, said Kayla, who called it very touch and go.

Luna was very sick, and we didnt think shed make it most of the time, she said. She was resuscitated four times and Ema was resuscitated once.

[But] the day they were born, I saw the fight written all over them. Every single time, they came back after being resuscitated.

The twins were in the NICU for a total of 115 days and were discharged even before their due date. Kayla called their homecoming a victory.

Since then, her girls have learned to crawl, walk, talk, and feed themselves, all things Kayla and her husband were told they wouldnt do.

However, the early days were not without their challenges, as Kayla suffered from PTSD watching her babies fight for their lives. But the family was bolstered by their faith.

We knew no matter how the twins came to us, they were fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of our savior, therefore perfect, said Kayla.

Today, the twins are thriving at 3 years old. Luna and Ema, who now goes by Rosie, are developmentally caught up to their full-term peers, and their parents no longer adjust their ages.

Theyve been approved to start school on time with their peers, based on their birthdays. Its truly remarkable, Kayla said.

Describing her girls as strong and brave, she said, they conquer things maybe children shy away from at their age and size, like the highest monkey bars.

Luna is full of spunk; she has my personality, which is both amazing and challenging. Rosie is so funny, and we tell her that shes truly Noahs twin, because those two are so much alike!

To advocate for other severely premature babies, Kayla started a nonprofit, TwentyTwoMatters. The organization provides medical articles and a world map of hospitals that intervene at 22 weeks. They have also conducted radio interviews and worked one-on-one with parents in labor to help them advocate for their kids.

Because of TwentyTwoMatters, that I run with my co-founder, Amy Hyde, we have seen over one hundred 22-weekers saved who were being denied care, Kayla said, adding that these babies are capable of so much if given the chance.

The decision to intervene on a baby born at 22 weeks should rest in the hands of the parents, not the hospital, she insisted. Twenty-two does matter, and these children, my children, matter.

Kayla also shares updates on the familys life on Instagram.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Bright newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
One of the 10 defendants belonging to Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood looks on during a courtroom session during their trial at the Tora courthouse complex in southeastern Cairo, on Jan. 30, 2022. (Khaled Kamel/AFP via Getty Images)

Egyptian Court Sentences 10 to Death for Planning Attacks: State News Agency

CAIROAn Egyptian court has sentenced to death 10 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group for planning attacks on the police, the state news agency MENA said on Sunday.

Egypts top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, has to ratify the sentences, it said.

The identities of the defendants were not disclosed and it was not possible to determine how they had pleaded to the charges.

Egypt has mounted one of the biggest crackdowns in its modern history on the Brotherhood following the armys overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, the countrys first freely-elected president, in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

The government considers the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation. The group has long said it is committed to peaceful change.

The 10 who were sentenced to death had formed a group called Helwan Brigades, MENA said, in reference to a city south of Cairo. They were part of a broader plot to attack police targets in the Cairo area with the aim to topple the regime, it added.

By Yasmin Hussein
England Halts Vaccine Mandates for Health and Care Home Workers

Englands CCP virus vaccine mandates for health care and care home workers are set to be scrapped, subject to consultation and parliamentary approval, the UKs Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday.

The latest government U-turn came just three days before the deadline by which National Health Service (NHS) and other health care workers would have to get their first doses to avoid redeployment or termination.

The deadline will no longer apply while the government carries out a two-week consultation on the proposed policy reversal before putting a motion to Parliament for approval.

However, the vote in Parliament could be a formality as the main opposition Labour Partywhich supported the mandatessaid it will also support the government on their reversal.

In the previous consultation on mandating the vaccines for older adult care homes, 57 percent of the respondents opposed the proposal, while 65 percent of those responding to the consultation on extending the mandate to the NHS and wider social care sector were against the mandate (pdf). In both proposals, the responses from the sectors were mixed, while the service userswho the mandates aimed to protectmostly opposed them.

The policy reversal means patient-facing NHS and other health and social care staff who choose not to take the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccines will not have to be redeployed or sacked from April 1.

However, Javid insisted that health care workers have a professional duty to take the vaccines, saying those who would not do the responsible thing and choose to remain unvaccinated were choosing to walk away from their jobs in health and care.

Javid told MPs that he had asked the NHS to review its policies on the hiring of new staff and the deployment of existing staff, taking into account their vaccination status, and ordered a consultation on updating the Code of Practice for Englands health care and social care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission.

He also asked health regulators to urgently review current guidance on vaccinations to emphasise their professional responsibilities in this area.

According to NHS weekly data, by Jan. 23, around 5 percent (77,591) of Englands NHS staff members and 18 percent (193,354) of social care workers had not received any CCP virus vaccines.

Javid said the government estimates 19,300 workers have already lost their jobs due to the care home vaccine mandate, which came into effect in November 2021. These workers are now free to reapply to their old jobs, but the health secretary declined to offer them continuity of service and pension contributions, saying it was their choice to leave their jobs rather than do the professional thing and get vaccinated.

A nurse administers a CCP virus vaccine to a health and care staff member at the NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, on Jan. 23, 2021. (Jane Barlow/PA)

Javid said the government makes no apology for proposing the mandates when the Delta variant of the CCP virus was dominant, arguing it was the right policy at the time as the weight of clinical evidence in favour of vaccination as a condition of deployment outweighed the risks to the workforce.

He said the policy reversal is due to two new factors: Englands population is now better protected against hospitalisation from COVID-19, because of both the widespread natural immunity from the highly infectious Omicron variant and the vaccination programme, and that the Omicron variant, which currently dominates in England, is intrinsically less severe.

But he refused to rule out mandating vaccination in the future, saying the government will always listen to the evidence, be guided by the evidence as it has been today.

Jeremy Hunt, former health secretary and current chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, said hes concerned the U-turn will bring uncertainty to potential future vaccine mandates such as with flu vaccines, while other MPs spoke to support the withdrawal of the mandates.

Several MPs criticised the language Javid used to describe health workers who choose not to be vaccinated, saying it was a disgrace and doesnt show respect to peoples bodily autonomy.

Compared to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, England has the fewest legal CCP virus restrictions on the general public, but is the only UK nation that has mandated the CCP virus vaccines in the health sector.
Protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street, taking aim at inequality and financial greed, demonstrate in New York on Sept. 17, 2013. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

ESG InvestingThe Great Wall Street Money Heist

Commentary

Wall Street is once again in the midst of a money heist from naive investors. This time in the form of woke activism called ESG.

ESG refers to the Environmental, Social, and Governance risk theoretically embedded in a business. However, while ESG investing is about taking these risks into account in investment decisions, these are all the things NOT on a companys balance sheet or earnings statements. Such is the inherent problem.

However, as is also the case, with the recent surge in liberal policies, woke activism, and demand for social justice, Wall Street is more than willing to sell products to fill a need. Not surprisingly, with plenty of media coverage, ESG investing has become an enormous business.

Following the financial crisis, ESG funds had roughly a ZERO market share of total assets under management. Today, ESG-labelled funds in the United States exceed $16 trillion.

The question is whether investors are getting what they are paying for?

What Are You Paying For

In the late 90s, there was a significant movement by Wall Street to limit investing in sin stocks such as gambling, tobacco, etc. Just as it was then, investors initially jumped on board, but when returns failed to match the S&P index, that fad died away.

The same occurs today as investors who want to be woke are demanding products that make them feel good to purchase. However, there are many problems with ESG outside the labeling.

There are currently no universal rules to analyze ESG risks. Nor are there any clear frameworks to police ESG-labelled investment products. As Eco-Business previously noted:

For example, deforestation is a major driver of climate change. You would think its being used as a filter to ensure companies in ESG-labelled funds are not turning a blind eye to deforestation, but you would be wrong. Carbon Tracker, an industry think tank, found that 78% of mutual fund providers offered ESG investments. However, none specifically excluded deforestation risk. Not a single one actively priced climate risk either.

Let me give you an example of the top 10-holdings of two ETFs. One is specifically labeled an ESG fund; the other is the S&P 500 Index.

Example of the top 10-holdings of two ETFs. One is specifically labeled an ESG fund; the other is the S&P 500 Index. (Table courtesy of RealInvesmentAdvice.com / Source Data: ETF.com)

So, precisely what are you paying for?

More Scam Than Benefit

The problem with ESG funds is that inconsistencies and abuse are rife.

BNP Paribas, the largest bank in the Eurozone, never wastes an opportunity to boast of its green credentials. Its also the worlds top banker of offshore oil and gas over the last five years and managed to increase fossil fuels lending since the Paris agreement. Heres the same BNP on sustainable investing: Why sustainable investing? Quite simply, it is worth it. BNP peddles ESG products to its clients with one hand, while its other hand fuels the climate crisis.  Eco-Business

Another example is the recent Exxon Mobil board seat challenge by Engine No. 1. With the backing of Blackrock and several pension funds with close ties to Blackrock, Engine No. 1 secured three board seats for the company.

And guess what? BlackRock backed this no-name cadre of woke activists, even as Exxon persuasively argued that Engine No. 1 wasnt qualified to help run an oil company. With BlackRock on the funds side, ExxonMobil eventually folded like a cheap tent.  Eco-Business

The NY Post made an interesting point.

Now with Engine No. 1 likely to occupy three seats on Exxons board, it isnt too much of a stretch to see the company passing Finks ESG screens for his ETFs with flying colors.

Good for Me

If you think investment managers are doing it for the good of the environment, think again.

Investment managers and banks are taking advantage of our collective willingness to help fight climate change because the ESG space is, to put it mildly, a zoo.

Epic greenwashing is everywhere: Out of 253 funds that switched to an ESG focus in 2020 in the US, 87 percent of them rebranded by adding words such as sustainable or ESG or green or climate to their names.

None changed their stock or bond holdings at that point.  Eco-Business

Why would they change their name and not their holdings? Good question.

Show Me the Money

Complete fraud, a joke, jargon, so ridiculous were among the choice words Social Capital founder and CEO Chamath Palihapitiya used to describe the growing ESG movement.

These are useful statements. Its great marketing. But again its a lot of sizzle, no steak.

With ESG now the rage, the demand drives product development. However, there is also an understanding of why large asset managers have embraced the strategy so readilyhigher fees.

Lets revisit the table of the two funds above, now fully disclosed.

Example of the top 10-holdings of two ETFs. One is specifically labeled an ESG fund; the other is the S&P 500 Index. (Table courtesy of RealInvesmentAdvice.com / Source Data: ETF.com)

Yes, you too can own an ESG fund that is almost three times as expensive as the S&P 500 index, all for the sake of feeling good about yourself.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

Citing ETF data from FactSet, it found the ESG funds average fee was 0.2% at the end of last year, while standard ETFs that invest in U.S. large-cap stocks had a 0.14% fee on average. A firm managing $1 billion in a typical ESG fund, for example, would garner $2 million in annual fees versus managing the standard ETFs $1.4 million.

Look again at the table above. Furthermore, there are virtually no significant differences in the ESG ETF except that Blackrock put their company stock in the lineup. But, of course, there is no self-serving purpose in doing that except that as billions pour into the ETF, it boosts Blackrocks stock price.

The kicker, of course, is that ESG strategies arent any more expensive to run than their more-traditional counterparts.  Wall Street Journal

Oh, and by the way, while you are complaining about how Wall Street has created a wealth gap in America, remember every time you buy their funds, you are increasing THEIR wealth more than yours.

Wall Street Wins Again

If governance is a hard quality to measure, rating a companys environmental and social impactthe other two-thirds of hot investment style ESGis even more challenging. But where the money flows, accusations of fraud follow and in 2020 there has been no shortage of examples of businesses claiming high ESG credentials with little merit.  Investors Chronicle

The problem with ESG, while the concept is undoubtedly well-intentioned, is that where money flows, greed always follows.

There probably arent that many companies in the ESG universe that actually make a positive contribution to society, I suspect the vast majority of the money [being invested in ESG] is going to be misallocated.  Carson Block, founder of short activist Muddy Waters

Here is something else for investors to consider.

ETFs are supposed to carry lower fees than regular funds because they mirror a typical basket of stocks like the S&P 500, as shown above. However, by claiming to have ESG screening methods, Wall Street found a way to inflate management fees of a simplistic investment.

In fact, studies show that management fees on ESG funds are more than 40 percent higher than other ETFs. BlackRock currently manages about $200 billion in ESG client money, which means that number is likely to grow and add to BlackRocks profits.  NY Post

Laughing to the Bank

Unfortunately, for investors, while these funds cost much more to own, their performance isnt any better than just holding the substantially cheaper index fund. As shown, the correlation between Blackrocks USA ESG fund and the S&P 500 Index is almost perfect.

10-day rolling returns correlation between SUSA and SPY. (Chart courtesy of Michael Lebowitz, CFA)

These funds lately havent beat indices that are simply created to make you money and only do so when they pack themselves with high-flying tech names. Sounds good on paper  until you drill down.

For starters, such investing methods are highly political and veer far to the left. Companies often get good grades for supporting lefty causes such as Black Lives Matter. Oil companies like Exxon will get higher marks for building wind farms that produce energy inefficiently.

But heres where Larry Fink and BlackRock still come out ahead: They have sensed that with all the media hype of ESG investing as the next frontier, they can also make a lot of money creating a new type of fund dedicated specifically to ESG  and then charge more for it.  NY Post

In short, while Wall Street pushes out products to make you feel like you are socially responsible, they laugh all the way to the bank.

Will the rest of the investors make money? Quibbles.  NY Post

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
An Ethiopias Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 plane to take off on a demonstration trip to resume flights from the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Feb. 1, 2022. (Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)

Ethiopian Airlines to Fly 737 MAX With Passengers for First Time Since Deadly Crash

ADDIS ABABAEthiopian Airlines is due to resume flying the Boeing 737 MAX plane on Tuesday, but opinions are divided on the airlines first flight using the model since a crash nearly three years ago forced regulators to ground the fleet globally.

In March 2019 a flight to Nairobi crashed in a field six minutes after take-off from Ethiopias capital Addis Ababa killing all 157 passengers and crew. The accident followed another incident five months earlier, when the same model crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 people.

The accidents exposed a problem with a system on the plane, and the model was grounded worldwide, costing Boeing some $20 billion and triggering court cases that exposed shortcomings with the certification process.

The airline will fly a demonstration flight around Mount Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain, and return to Addis Ababa with journalists, diplomats, and officials onboard, the airline said.

Some relatives of those killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash were angered by the decision to resume flying the 737 MAX.

I will never fly in a MAX and certainly if I find myself booked into a MAX, I will have to cancel that flight, said Tom Kabau, a Kenyan lawyer who lost his 29-year-old brother George in the crash.

Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement on Jan. 22 that the decision came after intense recertification by multiple regulatory bodies.

Ethiopia is among the last countries to return the 737 MAX to service; it is already flying in the United States, Europe, China, Australia, Japan, and Indonesia.

We have taken enough time to monitor the design modification work and the more than 20 months of rigorous rectification process  our pilots, engineers, aircraft technicians, cabin crew are confident of the safety of the fleet, the airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said in a December statement.

By Dawit Endeshaw
THE HAGUE, NetherlandsRescue helicopters evacuated all 18 crew members from a ship that was left drifting rudderless in a wind turbine park off the Dutch North Sea coast Monday after it collided with another ship and began taking on water during a powerful storm, emergency services said.

The collision happened as Storm Corrie lashed parts of northern Europe. It came after Storm Malik killed at least four people over the weekend, destroying houses, unleashing flooding, and leaving thousands of households without electricity.

A freighter called the Julietta D collided with another boat about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the port of Ijmuiden, said Edward Zwitser, a spokesman for the Royal Dutch Lifeboat Company. The other boat, the Pechora Star, also was damaged, but was able to continue its voyage.

The Dutch coast guard said that all crew members were rescued. It didnt immediately provide more details of the rescue on the high seas amid powerful winds. Dutch television showed the rescued crew arriving in a helicopter at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport.

Three helicopters, including one from Belgium, were involved in the rescue operation.

The Juliette D suffered damage that poses direct danger for the 18 crew on board, spokesman Edward Zwitser told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Both ships had been anchored off the coast, but the Julietta Ds anchor did not hold, the coast guard said.

Hours later, with winds easing in the Netherlands, the Julietta D was still drifting and the coast guard said efforts were underway to attach a line to a tugboat so that the vessel could be towed to safety.

Thousands of homes in the Nordic region remained without power Monday and there were reports of flooding in North Sea and Baltic Sea harbors in the region. The western Netherlands was hard hit Monday morning with powerful gusts uprooting trees and causing traffic problems.

Storm Corrie also hit Scotland late Sunday, hot on the heels of Storm Malik, which left thousands in Scotland and northern England without power as it blew down trees, damaged power lines, and ripped roofs off homes.

A nine-year-old boy in the English county of Staffordshire and a 60-year-old woman in the Scottish city of Aberdeen died after trees were torn down on Saturday.

Also over the weekend, Danish media reported that a 78-year-old woman died from severe injuries after falling in strong winds. In neighboring Germany, local media reported that a man was killed on Saturday after being hit by a billboard that was loosened by the storm.

By Mike Corder
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies at a Senate Health, Education, and Labor and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 23, 2020. (Graeme Jennings- Pool/Getty Images)

Fauci Knew About Virus Lab Origin From Secret Teleconference, Pushed Alternate Narrative: Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke

Dr. Anthony Fauci was told in a secret teleconference that the CCP virus had very likely leaked from a laboratory in China, yet still pushed the alternate narrative that it had originated naturally, new evidence allegedly shows.

Redacted emails that were recently made public suggest that Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), initiated efforts to cover up evidence pointing to a laboratory leak as the origin of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.

Evidence suggests that Fauci also actively shaped a highly influential academic paper first published on Feb. 16, 2020, before later being printed in the prominent science journal Nature which excluded such a possibility.

The article, titled The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2, was co-authored by five virologists, four of whom joined Fauci in a Feb. 1, 2020, teleconference.

During the phone call, at least three authors of the paper said they were 60 to 80 percent sure that the CCP virus had originated from a laboratory, something that they also reiterated in emails following the call.

At the time, public reports also emerged of a potential link between the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and the CCP virus outbreak, yet these reports were dismissed by Fauci and other medical professionals as conspiracy theories.

This includes Peter Daszak, founder of EcoHealth Alliance, the nonprofit that funneled United States grant money to scientists in Wuhan and the other authors, who published a statement that read, We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.

In an interview with EpochTVs Crossroads program, Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke, hosts of Truth Over News, said that the latest evidence suggests that Fauci was well aware that the CCP virus had likely leaked from a laboratory in China, but actively pushed an alternate narrative.

Proximal origin takes the firm side of the natural origin for the virus. And its been used by the media and by the government to debunk any talk of a lab leak. As a matter of fact, thats what was used to push back on anybody saying anything like that was the established science, Carlson said.

Well, the first version of proximal origin was finished on the very same day as the teleconference. So just sort of let that sink in, at the time that Fauci and Collins [National Institutes of Health head Francis Collins] and Farrar [Jeremy Farrar, the head of the UKs Wellcome Trust], the senior funding, the heads of our health institutions are being told privately that its anywhere in the range of 60 to 80 percent likely that this virus has a lab origin, they complete the first draft of proximal origin, which is later used to promote a narrative of a natural origin as opposed to a lab leak origin for the virus, Carlson said.

Carlson and Mahncke said that despite evidence pointing to the contrary, Fauci then adopted the public stance that he was unaware of the claims that were made by authors on the teleconference.

Whats new about these emails are the details that have come out through these unredacted emails. Before when there was that email dump, all the emails were basically redacted 95 percent or so or just gray, gray, gray so now we know whats behind those redactions, some of them, and what we found out is the level of detail that the scientists already knew at the time about the engineered features of the virus, Mahncke said.

So all the stuff that weve found out in the past two years, they knew all that on Feb. 1, 2020  and instead of alerting the world to the fact that theres an engineered virus thats hitting the world, Fauci does the exact opposite. He goes out there and says, No, this is all natural,' Mahncke said.

At a Feb. 3 meeting at the National Academy of Sciences, just two days after the teleconference with the authors of The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2, Fauci was asked to assist in drafting a response letter to an inquiry made by the Trump White House regarding the viruss origins.

Again, he doubled down on his stance that the CCP virus had originated naturally and not from a lab.

So right there from the start Fauci is pushing really hard and in various forums, all in the same direction, natural, natural, natural, but at the same time, not only was he told its very likely that it came out of the lab, he was told the details; that to me is very fascinating, Mahncke said.

When asked directly while testifying before Congress earlier this month, Fauci denied having communicated with the authors.

U.S. intelligence officials and multiple experts have since obtained evidence suggesting that the CCP virus originated in a lab, but other officials maintain that it has a natural origin.

In September, documents obtained by The Intercept in connection with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the publication against the National Institutes of Health showed that EcoHealth Alliance used federal money to fund research into bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The Epoch Times has contacted NIAID for comment.

Katabella Roberts Follow Katabella Roberts is a reporter currently based in Turkey. She covers news and business for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States.
The contents of a COVID-19 antigen rapid test kit are picture in Calgary, Alta., Jan. 4, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh)

Federal Government Introduces Bill to Spend up to $2.5B on Rapid Tests for Provinces

OTTAWAThe federal government introduced legislation on Monday to continue providing as many rapid tests as possible to the provinces and territories.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos introduced the bill in the House of Commons on MPs first day back after a six-week break.

The bill would give Health Canada the authority to purchase and distribute across the country up to $2.5 billion worth of COVID-19 rapid tests, according to a statement from the department.

As COVID-19 remains a global threat, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, the demand for rapid tests has increased worldwide, said Duclos in the statement, adding that rapid tests are an important part of the governments strategy for keeping Canadians safe.

Liberal House leader Mark Holland said at a news conference Monday that Bill C-10 would accelerate the funding and provision of rapid tests.

He said the rapid testing portion of Bill C-8, which was created to carry out aspects of the governments fall economic and fiscal update, was separated and is being submitted separately through Bill C-10 to ensure it can be passed more quickly.

This is to take from the fiscal and economic update the provisions to provide rapid tests and accelerate them because their need is great, and we need to make sure that theyre present, said Holland.

Holland called on opposition parties to help the government in getting the bill adopted as quickly as possible.

By Erika Ibrahim
Onondaga Community College is starting a program aimed at increasing volunteerism and community service with a $1 million gift from a family noted for supporting such endeavors.

The college on Tuesday announced the creation of the Meg OConnell Center for Social Justice and Community Impact which will provide support for students in volunteer and service-learning opportunities.

The initiative was launched with a gift of $1 million from Eric Allyn in honor of his wife, Meg OConnell, OCCs former interim president and chair of its board of trustees.

The program aims to build to a cohort of 20 students each year who will use their undergraduate experience to support local efforts, gain work experience, and use their expertise to improve the community.

Because 80% of OCCs students work 30 hours a week or more, the college said that the students will receive a stipend and additional programming to help fill the financial gap from lost wages while they volunteer or perform service-learning.

Margaret Meg OConnell has a lengthy career of community leadership. She served as OCC's interim president from 2012 to 2013 prior to the hiring of current President Dr. Casey Crabill. She was also Chair of OCCs Board of Trustees from 2010-2012 and from 2013-2015. She is executive director of the Allyn Family Foundation and leader of the Syracuse Urban Partnership which constructed and operates a Syracuse property where the Salt City Market is located along with a grocery store, offices, and mixed-income apartments.

According to a news release, O'Connell has also contributed her time and expertise to Blueprint 15, the Early Childhood Alliance, ABC Cayuga Play Space, Work Train, CenterState CEO, Syracuse 20/20, Friends of the Central Library, Skaneateles Library Association and other endeavors in the region.

With this generous gift from my husband of 35 wonderful years, OCC will be able to continue to provide opportunities for its students to become the future leaders of our community  and I couldnt be more honored and proud to be a part of it, OConnell said in a statement.

Meg OConnells commitment to improve lives through her service to the entire Central New York community is an inspiration to all of us. Her contributions here leading our Board of Trustees and as Interim President played a critical role in the Colleges success," OCC President Dr. Casey Crabill said. "The support of Eric Allyn with todays gift ensures future students will benefit in her name as they become the community leaders of tomorrow."

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The sun sets behind Holman Prison in Atmore, Ala., on Jan., 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)

Federal Prison System Placed on Lockdown Nationwide After Deadly Incident

The U.S. federal prison system was placed on lockdown nationwide following a deadly incident at a Texas prison, officials said Monday.

Multiple inmates were observed fighting at the United States Penitentiary Beaumont in Texas, said the Federal Bureau of Prisons in a news release.

Prison staff then immediately secured the area but found inmate Guillermo Riojas and inmate Andrew Pineda with life-threatening injuries, prison officials said. They were transported to a nearby hospital, where they were both pronounced dead, the bureau said.

Meanwhile, it added, Two additional inmates were transported to a local hospital for further medical assessment and treatment.

Due to the incident, which was not described in detail by the Bureau of Prisons, the entire federal prison system was placed on temporary lockdown.

The agency said in a statement that it was acting out of an abundance of caution and facilities would be locked down as a temporary measure to ensure the good order of our institutions. Officials added, We anticipate this security measure will be short-lived.

Federal prison officials will continue to monitor events carefully and will adjust its operations accordingly as the situation evolves, the statement continued. For safety and security reasons, the [Bureau of Prisons] does not elaborate on specific security procedures.

Unnamed sources with the bureau told The Associated Press that the incident involving the Beaumont inmates was linked to the MS-13 street gang.

Rojas was serving a 38-year prison term for carjacking and other charges, while Pineda was serving a six-year sentence for racketeering, the news release said.

During a nationwide lockdown of prisons, inmates are generally confined to their cells, and visitors arent allowed. A number of prisons already have restrictions in place due to the two-year-long COVID-19 pandemic.

There are 122 federal prisons within the United States, according to the bureaus website. USP Beaumont is considered a high-security facility with about 1,400 inmates, the website says.

Over the past several months, there have been reports of serious security issues within the federal prison system, including deaths and stabbings. In January, the Department of Justice, which oversees the Bureau of Prisons, confirmed to news outlets that the agencys director, Michael Carvajal, is resigning from his post.

Carvajal, who took over the prison system in early 2020, helped steer it during critical times, including during this historic pandemic, said the Department of Justice in a statement. He will remain in his current role until a new director is named, the agency said.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Bureau of Prisons for comment.
Benjamin Sunderlin preserves the art of bell-making through operating the only traditional bell foundry in America

A bell that tolls rings of timeless tradition. For centuries, peals demonstrated an immortal effort to give glory to God. Funerals, weddings, and church services employ bells, signalling to humanity an aural expression to contemplate all there is, seen and unseen.

However, in Ruther Glen, Virginia, tangible sounds of bells ringing late into the night or early in the morning may not necessarily be directly associated with a church. As the solitary ringer, Benjamin Sunderlin maintains an age-old craft of pitch-perfect carillon and chimes at his foundry.

But thats not all he does.

Sunderlin, along with his wife Kate, operates the only traditional bell foundry in the United States. Since September 2015, their mission has been to rebuild a dying craft of making traditional bells using time-honored European techniques.

At his Virginia foundry, Benjamin Sunderlin uses time-honored bellmaking techniques that were first developed in Europe. (Courtesy of NCSU)

Sunderlins obsession with campanology, or the study of bells, took shape when the fine arts major at the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis fell in love with sculpture. I really liked the labor and the very involved process of taking a pattern, making a mold, casting the mold, and finishing the project, Sunderlin said. A professor encouraged me to seek research opportunities to study at bell foundries. I was fortunate enough to receive funding to travel abroad and learn the craft where I started to understand the art and science of campanology.

Benjamin continued his study at the University of Notre Dame and continued to research in the United Kingdom and France, studying through apprenticeships with foundries that served long-standing clients from a century before. Because they were seeking people to continue the craft, they took pity on an American boy who wanted to learn how to do this properly.

Bells are prepared for North Carolina State Universitys memorial tower, which will feature 55 chiming bells. (Courtesy of NCSU)

Breaking up old bells weighing a ton or more with 20-pound sledge hammers and throwing them into the furnace, Sunderlin synthesized the skills needed to create new bells. The fact that these old bells were made in the 1700s didnt fall lightly on the young apprentice.

I was overcome with anxiety and shock to see a 17-year-old British boy destroy a bell made in 1728 by Thomas Lester, he admitted. It was Thomas Lester who, in 1752, cast Americas first liberty bell. You shouldnt worry about preserving an object to preserve the craft. You may need to destroy the object in order to maintain the craft and hand it down to the next generation. This knowledge helps carry on the craft.

Using centuries-old methods, Sunderlins foundry specializes in cast bronze bells using swept loam techniques, an engineered loam made up of sand, clay, horse dung, hair, and reclaimed loam. A mold is made but is destroyed during the casting process. And the process of swept loam, he says, is unique today but was quite common in yesteryears foundry industry. Today, its primarily the bell founders that preserve these original traditions.

Bells are prepared for North Carolina State Universitys memorial tower, which will feature 55 chiming bells. (Courtesy of NCSU)

Sunderlins affinity for craft resonates with customers from churches, government, and educational institutions. If not casting bronze bells, his company is taking on contracts to manufacture, restore, and tune carillons and chimes. These instruments are struck by clappers at the hand of one person, a carillonneur or chimer.

His most recent proud endeavor found him manufacturing a 55-bell traditional carillon for the memorial bell tower at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

We are most proud of the newest instrument in North America, the crown jewel of NCSU, he beamed. Sunderlin won the bid to create and install the carillon as part of the universitys $7 million restoration project on the original 1919 tower, a memorial dedicated to alumni who died in World War I.

And yet Sunderlins expertise also extends to change ringing, or peals. Such is this community-minded instrument, which, Sunderlin says, is a popular British tradition. Compared to 40 installations here in the United States, the British Isles have over 7,000 installations. In fact, almost every church has one. Unlike the chime or carillon which requires only one person, change ringing requires at least six or eight people to handle a diatonic set of bells on a scale and pitched to any major scale. Each person pulls down on a rope that is connected to a bell in the tower. A clapper will slap the bell hard, when rung in sequence, and then together emanates a cascade of sound. The ringing is not the classic melodious tune.

What you hear sounds somewhat unmusical. It is a challenge for change ringers who are not allowed breaks or visual aids or sheet music to look at. This is a memorized and intuitive and difficult thing to master, he added.

To ensure high quality, Sunderlin is involved in every aspect of the casting process. (Courtesy of NCSU)

When asked why bells crack, Sunderlin says on occasion it is actually the result of overzealous ringing. It is also true that bells are susceptible to cracking if produced with a high tin content. This is why an accurate configuration of bell metal, composed of 80% copper and 20% tin, produces the right tonal character and resonance. Bell bronze is not used for any other objectit is an industry-specific recipe.

Foundry work, or the actual mold and casting, takes a lot of people. But I am the only tuner, which is its own craft. I can count on two hands the number of people who know how to tune carillons. And, with just a few foundries left, it is true that not all of them know how to tune that well.

Sunderlin says that bells are made to a certain tonal standard that works for their cultural method of bell making and ringing. The work his foundry does includes casting the bells and then tuning the bells.

Bell tuning is part of the process of making bells. Not all bells need tuning, but chimes or carillons need to be tuned precisely.

To ensure high quality, Sunderlin is involved in every aspect of the casting process. (Courtesy of NCSU)

According to Sunderlin, the art of tuning carillon bells can be a long, laborious process. The normal practice is to cast a bell that is thicker and heavier than needed. Bells are then situated upside down in a vertical boring lathe. As the bell rotates on the machine, the tuner makes cuts along the interior of the bell. Depending on where the cut is made, it can affect one of five partial frequencies that make up the sound of the bell. Each bell needs to be tuned in relation to all the others. The challenge of carillon tuning is tuning to each other but locating the frequency in equal temperament in concert pitch.

The couple decided to start a pilot program to learn the craft of foundry and tuning this past summer. Five interns stayed with the Sunderlin family. The program appears to have a promising future as other students have made inquiries based on growing interest in campanology.

Admittedly, Sunderlin calls himself a workaholic. It is his identity and passion being a campanologist.

I am mindful and concerned about the future of the craft. So I came onto the scene at a time when a lot of people in the United States wondered about the future of campanology. It took a while to promote and convince people that what we are doing is genuine and special, he stated.

He credits his work ethic, passion, and commitment for the explosive success of Sunderlin Foundrys business over the last five years. But just as important is a thriving market where communities are embracing bell culture.

America is interesting primarily because it is a melting pot of many national identities. Our country does not have a native bell culture, so our interests are broad and admittedly underdeveloped or borrowed from Western Europe traditions, Sunderlin said.

In American churches, a single bell will call the community to worship or to pray the Angelus.

You can do a lot religiously with one bell. You can toll it for funerals, or ring it at celebrations, or during feast days or weddings. You can interact in bell culture with that one bell because it is more affordable. And, you can make a bell to fit in most towers. I would say that the single bell is an American phenomenon in that it seems that if they have the architecture like a tower, they will have at least one bell.

Bells are installed at North Carolina State Universitys bell tower. (Courtesy of NCSU)

The voice of the church, he feels, resonates through architectural principles and themes. Bells are the projection of the voice of the Almighty out into the external world. Bells compete with white noise and traffic, and they serve to call the community together. If the purpose of the church is to locate and bring people into that space, now, more than ever, he appreciates that bells serve a greater purpose in a fractured society.

We need real face-to-face community time, he added, and it is a challenge in its own right. Bells are that signal or instrument to locate us back to a space or time, helping us participate in our human communities through worship.

Bells are not essential to life, Sunderlin concedes, but we like them because they have those qualities that help locate us in a specific space. Whether sacred or secular, bells remind us of our time, our mortality.

The self-proclaimed professional bell geek recognizes the importance of what makes a great bellno matter for whom it tolls.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
The girl Maelys de Araujo is shown on a photo provided by Gendarmerie Nationale, France, on Aug. 28, 2017. (Gendarmerie Nationale via AP)

France: Man Tried Over Killing 8-Year-Old Girl, Other Crimes

GRENOBLE, FranceIt started with the disappearance of 8-year-old Maelys de Araujo at a wedding in the French Alps. After a massive search that drew nationwide attention, investigators identified a wedding guest as the main suspect. But that was just the beginning: The investigation led authorities to suspect the man in other crimes around France.

Dog trainer Nordahl Lelandais goes on trial Monday in Grenoble accused of kidnapping and killing Maelys. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

The search for Maelys, and the gruesome discovery of her body six months later after Lelandais admitted to killing her, gripped France, and tore the girls family apart.

The trial started on Monday morning in the presence of Maelys parents. The girls mother kept a large picture of her daughter in her hands.

The father of killed girl, Maelys, Joachim de Araujo (L) and his wife, Jennifer, hold a press conference in Lyon, central France, on Sept. 28 2017. (Laurent Cipriani/AP Photo)

Lelandais told the court he wanted to apologize. I indeed took the life of Maelys. I didnt want to, he said. I will explain the facts during the trial, he added.

Experts were expected to provide details from their assessment of Lelandais personality in the afternoon.

Lelandais had not originally been invited to the wedding on Aug. 26, 2017, in the town of Pont-de-Beauvoisin. But he had phoned the groom the day before, who said Lelandais could come to the reception.

Lelandais showed up around midnight for dessertand to provide cocaine to two guests who had asked him for it, according to witness accounts seen by The Associated Press.

He invited Maelys to see his dogs, so she got in his car to look at them, according to investigators. Around 3 a.m., the girls mother alerted wedding guests that she was missing, and they started searching for her in vain.

Investigation of the suspects phone found that he put it on airplane mode twice that night. His car, an Audi A3, was spotted by a video surveillance camera at 2:47 a.m. with a small passenger, according to the investigation documents.

Lelandais then returned to the wedding, seemingly unconcerned about Maelys while everyone else was looking for her, according to witness accounts. He left the wedding before the police arrived at 4:15 a.m.

He was identified as a suspect within days. For the next six months, he denied any involvement in the disappearance of Maelys despite evidence accumulating against him.

Then in February 2018, after a trace of blood was discovered in the trunk of his car thanks to extensive scientific analysis, Lelandais confessed to investigators: This poor little girl, I killed her involuntarily, he said, apologizing to the parents, according to investigators. He told police where to find her body, and they dug up the childs small bones in a forest.

Lelandais told investigators that Maelys started crying in an incomprehensible way and that he punched her several times violently in the face, without intending to kill her.

I dont know what happened in my head, he said.

In recalling the killing, he made a reference to another man, Arthur Noyer, a soldier who had disappeared earlier in 2017 from a gay nightclub in another region of the Alps. That prompted investigators to take a new look at Noyers disappearance. His skull was later found nearby.

Lelandais acknowledged accidentally killing Noyer after getting in a fight with violent blows. Last year, Lelandais was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for Noyers murder.

Lelandais told investigators of his sexual attraction for little girls. He described being ashamed of this, and acknowledged heavy use of alcohol, and drugs.

In the Grenoble trial, Lelandais will also be tried for sexual violence against two cousins, aged 5, and 6, committed the same summer of 2017 while he was on vacation in southern France.

He confessed to abusing them while they slept. A video of one of the scenes was found on his phone.

Lelandais was also indicted in the Ardennes in northern France for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old cousin. And police have studied whether Lelandais could have played a role in other unsolved crimes around France.

In Maelys, a book written by the girls mother, Jennifer De Araujo, with a journalist, she calls the accused the other and recounts her familys life since the disappearance.

She looks back on the six months of waiting, hoping, going crazy, receiving scattered leadsand then a feeling of dying when the examining magistrate announced a drop of blood found in the trunk. The parents separated, and sold their house.

The verdict in the trial over the girls murder is expected on Feb. 18.

By Nicolas Vaux-Montagny
A general view of the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., on April 23, 2020. (Tami Chappell/AFP via Getty Images)

Fresh Lawsuit Launched Against CDCs Federal Mask Mandate

A new lawsuit has been filed to challenge the Centers for Disease Control & Preventions (CDC) order mandating masks while taking many forms of transportation in the United States, including plane rides and subways.

Florida residents Michael Seklecki Sr. and his son, 4-year-old Michael Seklecki Jr., are asking a federal court to rule that the CDC did not have adequate authority to issue the order, which has been in place since early 2021.

The CDC inappropriately failed to include a public comment period and Congress never gave authority to the Executive Branch to promulgate such a mandate, according to the 124-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts.

Sekleckis son requires frequent medical treatment at Boston Childrens Hospital and the family must fly there or endure 20-hour car rides each way. His son, who has autism spectrum disorder, cannot tolerate and has no understanding of covering his face, Seklecki told The Epoch Times.

Despite presenting a doctors note stating the boy cannot wear a mask due to the autism, the familys initial attempts to fly following the mandate didnt go well.

The CDCs order contains an exception for people with disabilities but airlines frequently fail to approve exceptions in every case they should, the family says.

Southwest Airlines told the family that they could submit a doctors note and other forms but that there was no guarantee the request would be approved, a risk the family felt they could not take, according to the suit.

American Airlines, meanwhile, is accused of listing illegal requirements to obtain a mask mandate waiver.

Its scary. As parents, we cant get our son to medical appointments without wondering if were going to be denied boarding or not. That he cant sit in the seat as a normal passenger and a citizen to attend an appointment is mind-blowing, Seklecki said.

Southwest and Airlines are named defendants, along with the CDC and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services.

None responded to requests for comment.

Spirit Airlines, Delta Airlines, and Frontier Airlines are engaged in pre-litigation settlement discussions but may be added to the case later.

The family has been flying with Delta Airlines because its the only carrier that will accommodate the 4-year-olds need not to wear a mask, but using Delta over cheaper airlines has cost them more money, Seklecki said. However, the carrier is named in a separate suit that alleges it does not honor the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Seklecki is one of the plaintiffs whose request for an emergency stay on the governments mask mandate for planes was blocked by the Supreme Court in January.

This case is different because it targets different defendants and does not include any emergency motions.

Multiple other challenges have been lodged against the CDCs mandate, but none have so far succeeded.
According to this critical care doctor, every major society has failed to provide honest, useful scientific information. And thats led to unnecessary deaths and a pandemic that never had to happen.

Dr. Paul Marik, a critical care doctor at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in East Virginia, is renowned for his work in creating the Marik Cocktail, which significantly reduces death rates from sepsis using inexpensive, safe, generic medications. In the video above, he speaks with Dr. Mobeen Syed about trends in the management of COVID-19, including what he believes could have wiped out the virus early on.

According to Marik, the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the early stages of the disease was botched in the U.S. and worldwide, and the continued recommendation that people stay home and isolate while doing nothing until theyre cyanotic, or basically turning blue from a lack of oxygen, is a disgrace, because early treatment options are available.

There is a scientific vacuum and this starts back to March of last year, Marik said. Theres been a complete failure of the major medical institutions across the world. Every major society has failed to provide honest useful scientific information.

While the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health have stated theres no treatment for COVID-19, only supportive care to treat the fever or provide fluids, Marik describes this as an outrage:

While we may not have the best answers, we do have some answers and to tell people to stay at home and isolate so they go blue is an absurdity thats actually causing lots of damage because we are now waiting for the virus to, in some people, cause the cytokine storm. And when they arrive with that state it is very difficult to reverse it and stop it and bring them back.

FLCCs COVID-19 Treatment Protocol

Marik and four other critical care physicians formed the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Working Group (FLCCC) early on in the pandemic. Not content to offer COVID-19 patients supportive care, Marik recruited some of the most knowledgeable pulmonary critical care specialists to solve the COVID-19 treatment puzzle, honing in on stopping the hyper-immune responseincluding multi-organ inflammation and clottingwhich is what typically drives death in fatal COVID-19 cases.

Marik told Mountain Home magazine, As pulmonary critical care doctors we know how to treat inflammation and clotting, with corticosteroids and anticoagulants. Its first-grade science. Yet, when the pandemic began, press briefings neglected to include clinicians who were actually treating COVID-19 patients to state these are the symptoms and this is what you have to do.

FLCCC released their MATH+ protocol for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in March 2020. It gets its name from:

Intravenous Methylprednisolone

High-dose intravenous Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

Plus optional treatments Thiamine, zinc and vitamin D

Full dose low molecular weight Heparin

The MATH+ protocol led to high survival rates. Out of more than 100 hospitalized COVID-19 patients treated with the MATH+ protocol as of mid-April 2020, only two died. Both were in their 80s and had advanced chronic medical conditions. FLCCC also created I-MASK+, which is their mass distribution protocol for prevention and outpatient treatment of COVID-19.

Step-by-Step Guide to COVID Prevention and Early Treatment

FLCCCs I-MASK+ protocol can be downloaded in full, giving you step-by-step instructions on how to prevent and treat the early symptoms of COVID-19. The prevention protocol is for those who are at high risk of COVID-19 or know theyve been exposed, and includes:

Ivermectin

Vitamin D3

Vitamin C

Quercetin

Zinc

Melatonin

The early outpatient protocol, for those with early symptoms, includes all of the above, plus aspirin and nasopharyngeal sanitation, such as steamed essential oil inhalation three times a day along with chlorhexidine mouthwash gargles and betadine nasal spray. Fluvoxamine is also recommended in certain cases and monitoring of oxygen saturation levels with a pulse oximeter is recommended.

FLCCC also has protocols for at-home prevention and early treatment, called I-MASS, which involves ivermectin, vitamin D3, a multivitamin and a digital thermometer to watch your body temperature in the prevention phase and ivermectin, melatonin, aspirin and antiseptic mouthwash for early at-home treatment. Household or close contacts of COVID-19 patients may take ivermectin (18 milligrams, then repeat the dose in 48 hours) for post-exposure prevention.

Mariks original COVID Protocol, released in March 2020, recommended hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a zinc ionophore, to decrease the duration of viral shedding, particularly in elderly patients with comorbidities. However, their latest I-MASK+ protocol, updated June 30, 2021, recommends quercetin instead. Quercetin, also a zinc ionophore, is an over-the-counter alternative to HCQ and works much like HCQ does. According to Marik:

Experimental and early clinical data (published in high impact journals) suggests that this compound has broad antiviral properties (including against coronavirus) and acting at various steps in the viral life cycle. It also appears to be a potent inhibitor of heat shock proteins (HSP 40 and 70) which are required for viral assembly.

Censorship Is Keeping This Information Quiet

If youre surprised to hear that an established protocol for COVID-19 prevention and treatment exists, its likely because youve heard nothing about it on mainstream media. This is intentional and exemplifies the censorship that has been occurring throughout the pandemic. What were going through now is unprecedented in the history of science, Marik said.

I mean this goes back to witchcraft and really prehistoric behaviors. Science is based on exchange of information and that has been censored. So, I think history is going to look back very unfavorably on this period. I think this is a very dark period in the history of humanity, the history of science, the history of the press, you know the history of freedom of speech, just because of the complete lack of information, misinformation, disinformation and censorship. I mean its absurd  what were saying is being censored and labeled as scientific misinformation.

Ivermectin is a glaring example, which continues to be ignored even though it has shown remarkable success in preventing and treating COVID-19. It was December 2020 when FLCCC called for widespread adoption of ivermectin, both as a prophylactic and for the treatment of all phases of COVID-19.

In one trial, 58 volunteers took 12 milligrams of ivermectin once per month for four months. Only four (6.96%) came down with mild COVID-19 symptoms during the May through August 2020 trial period. In comparison, 44 of 60 health care workers (73.3%) who had declined the medication were diagnosed with COVID-19. Ivermectin is safe, inexpensive and widely available, with antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, leading Marik to describe it as the perfect drug to treat COVID-19.

While an increasing number of doctors and countries have adopted ivermectins use for COVID-19, many more refuse it, even going so far as to prohibit its use for patients. Legal fights have ensued, with family members enlisting lawyers to battle hospital boards in order to give their dying loved ones the lifesaving pillseven when all other treatment options have been exhausted. Urgent change is needed, Marik said, because profits are being put ahead of lives:

Making money and profiteering is what is driving this  not saving lives  and what theyre most interested in is preserving that single organ, which may be damaged the most, which is the back pocket. Theyre terrified of the back pocket being damaged. The heart, the brain, the lung, they dont care. Its the back pocket thats driving this.

The Most Dangerous Vaccines Weve Ever Used

Knowing that treatment options exist may change peoples decisions about COVID-19 vaccines, which Marik describes as categorically and without question  the most dangerous vaccines that weve ever used. In full disclosure, Marik himself is vaccinated, having received the Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, which he said he received since hes over 60, putting him in a higher risk category.

If he were 24 years old, however, Marik said he wouldnt get vaccinated, and he doesnt recommend it for younger children either, as he believes for people under 30 with no risk factors, the risks of the vaccine outweigh those of COVID-19:

I think that the risk of a bad outcome from COVID in a 12- to 17-year-old is very low and the risk of an adverse effect to the vaccine is probably much higher. So, its just not commonsense that you would force vaccination in such kids. I think its a risk-benefit ratio. If they were a Type 1 diabetic, if they were immunocompromised, if they were severely obese, you may want to reconsider, but a healthy 12- to 17-year-old, in my opinion and obviously its my opinion, I would be hesitant in vaccinating these kids.

While Marik believes the vaccines may be somewhat effective in decreasing cases of COVID-19 hospitalization and death, he stresses that they come with sizeable risks. The number of side effects and deaths from these vaccinesand this is based on reportable data from the WHO and the VAERS networkthe number of deaths and adverse events are an order of 10- to 100-fold magnitude than any other vaccine.

He refers to the mass COVID vaccination campaign as the biggest experiment done in the history of mankind, and points out that we dont know what the long-term effects will be. And to make it even worse, Marik says, the vaccine companies know a lot about these vaccines but they havent given us this information. Its hidden.

For example, when you get the mRNA vaccine, people assume it stays in the arm but thats not true. The spikes tend to spread throughout the body. Now the vaccine companies know about this but they dont want to tell us about it. We have to figure this out ourselves.  we need to respect [peoples] autonomy. We need to respect their informed consent. They should be able to decide for themselves. We should not be forcing this upon people and this mandate that colleges and some hospitals have, I think it goes against the foundation of freedom of choice, freedom to do to your own body as you respect and freedom of consent.

Symptoms of Long COVID Identical to Vaccination Syndrome

FLCCC also has a management protocolI-RECOVERfor long-haul COVID-19 syndrome, which includes a range of symptoms such as malaise, headaches, painful joints, chest pain and cognitive dysfunction.

The protocol is still evolving as more is learned about the condition, but of note is that its been successfully used to treat post-vaccine inflammatory syndromes as well. As noted by Marik, long COVID and post-vaccine inflammatory syndromes share many similarities, but the latter is taboo to talk about:

Post-vaccination adverse events are much more common in younger people. Thats our impression. Theres not a lot of data and if you talk to the experts about a post-vaccination syndrome they have no idea what youre talking about because  its politically not correct to talk about it. They dont want to hear about it. So as far as I know, there are not any peer-reviewed publications on post-vaccination syndrome but we know from patients that they develop symptoms almost identical to the long hauler. They develop severe symptoms very much similar to the post-COVID syndrome. So, you know people say, Oh its in their head. Theyre making this up. Its a psychiatric disease. Theyre trying to gain some something out of this. I think its a real disease  and these people truly have monocyte activation production of cytokines much like the post-COVID syndrome.

This Could End the Pandemic in One Month

Syed asked Marik what he would do if given the opportunity to end the pandemic next month. His response was remarkably simple: a mass distribution program of ivermectin together with melatonin, vitamin D and aspirin. By assuming everyone is infected and treating with this safe combination of inexpensive compounds, Marik says, Well eliminate SARS-CoV-2. It will be gone.

This isnt likely to happen, though, due to economic and political factors that benefit from the ongoing pandemic. Marik also weighed in on the lab leak theory that SARS-CoV-2 came from a laboratory in Wuhan, China:

I think the preponderance of evidence highly suggests this was a manipulated virus that whether it leaked on accident or by design leaked from the Wuhan laboratory  the molecular structure of the spike protein would suggest that this was a manipulated the protein was specifically manipulated and enhanced  The diversity of the symptoms, the systems it involves, the depth of damage it does and the durability of the damage  that first it causes the acute and then it becomes long COVID and then it just keeps sitting with us  I have not seen any other virus in my lifetime, which does this kind of destruction.

Moving forward, Marik states that health officials must learn from the enormous mistakes made during the pandemic, which highlighted a global lack of collaboration among health care providers along with a lack of honesty and openness.

This pandemic has been an example of what not to do. I think everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, he said. Once COVID is under control, Marik hopes to refocus his efforts on sepsis, which remains a leading cause of deaths overall and is also an important contributor to the death of COVID-19 patients.

References

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
George Soros Outlines Dangers Posed by CCP Authoritarian Rule in 2022

The year 2022 will be a turning point where much of the world will pivot sharply in the direction of either authoritarianism and repression or openness, and events in China will play a decisive role, said billionaire financier George Soros at a virtual event hosted by the Hoover Institution think tank on Jan. 31.

2022 will be a critical year in the history of the world. In a few days, China, the most powerful authoritarian state, will be hosting the Winter Olympics, and like Germany in 1936, it will attempt to use the spectacle to score a propaganda victory for its system of state controls, Soros, 91, said.

Along other political contests such as the French elections and the Hungarian elections in April, and the U.S. mid-term elections in November, the Chinese Communist Partys (CCPs) 20th Party Congressan all-important twice-a-decade Party meeting in October makes 2022 a year with few parallels in history, Soros said.

But he made a clear distinction between the CCP congress and elections in open societies with democratic legitimacy. Unlike the elections in France, Hungary, or the United States, the outcome of the CCP congress is seen as a fait accompli. Xi Jinping is widely expected to gain a third term as CCP leader through heavy-handed, coercive means.

The stakes could not be higher as tensions between the CCP and Taiwan veer ever more in the direction of a military showdown. The reason this geopolitical crisis is different from another one dominating the headlines at the momentVladimir Putins designs on Ukrainehas partly to do with President Joe Bidens reaction to these respective crises, Soros emphasized.

Biden has generally pursued the right policies. He has told Putin that Russia will pay a heavy price for invading Ukraine, but that the U.S. will not go to war, Soros said.

By contrast, Biden has sent a strong message to Xi that the use of military force against Taiwan will come up against an alliance of pro-Taiwan nations including the United States, the UK, Australia, India, and Japan, along potentially with a number of not-yet fully committed nations such as South Korea and the Philippines, Soros said. But the formidable array of defenders does not lessen the gravity of the crisis given Xis stated willingness to assert Chinas claims over Taiwan by force if necessary, Soros warned.

He is devoting enormous resources to armaments. He surprised the world by introducing a hypersonic missile. The U.S. has nothing comparable, Soros said.

Xis aggressiveness on the global stage would be quite enough by itself to make 2022 a year unlike any other. Complementing this foreign policy stance is a dictatorial approach at home that has progressively undone the tentative market reforms ushered in by earlier CCP leaders, Soros noted. Economic reforms initiated by then-leader Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s invited foreigners to invest in China and fostered economic growth that spilled over, for a brief time, into the reign of the current leader, he added.

In contrast to his predecessor, Xi Jinping has brought companies firmly under state control, come down heavily in favor of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) over private companies, and generally pursued what Soros called total control.

This has had disastrous consequences. In contrast to Deng, Xi Jinping is a true believer in communism. Marx and Lenin are his idols, Soros stated.

Chinese citizens have gotten the worst of both worlds under Xis rule, as authoritarianism has stifled many enterprises even while troubles in the real estate sector have swelled to dangerous levels based on what Soros called an unsustainable model. It is a system based excessively on credit, where people are now forced to start paying for apartments not yet even built, and subcontractors who have not been paid are simply ceasing to work.

Matt Pottinger, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and deputy national security advisor during the Trump administration, said he agreed with Soros that Xi wants total control and is unlikely to concede power peacefully. I think he will do everything he can to stay in power for life, Pottinger said.
Government Should Provide Best Info on Prevention and Treatment, Not Mandates: Former Senator

Former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint weighed in on pandemic-related government mandates, saying citizens should be allowed to make an informed decision as to whether they want to be vaccinated, instead of being subject to mandates from the federal government.

I think what we should do as a nation, (doctors, politicians, media) is give people the best information we have. Let doctors express different opinions, and let people make informed decisions about it, DeMint told Capitol Report host Steve Lance in a Jan. 29 interview.

DeMints comments come after the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced on Jan. 25 that it will formally withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees, which President Joe Biden initiated via executive order.

The agency issued an announcement in the Federal Register that it will withdraw its rule, known as an emergency temporary standard, after the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 issued a 63 opinion blocking it, saying that challengers to the order, including large trucking companies, were likely to prevail in court.

The rule would have required companies to make employees either get a COVID-19 vaccine or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing while wearing masks in the workplace.

DeMint said that while he is vaccinated, he does not believe the federal government has the authority under the U.S. Constitution to order people to take the vaccine. In addition, he said a mandate is not a law.

If Congress actually passes a law that requires something and the president signs it, then its in what we call statute, its something that carries a whole lot more weight. And the Supreme Court would have to strike that down as being unconstitutional, said DeMint. But it goes to the bigger point of whether or not theyre even justifiable at this point.

I dont think we have the evidence to suggest that we know enough to say that you have to take a vaccine, or that you have to wear a mask or businesses have to close down. I think countries like Israel, almost everyone was vaccinated there and they have one of the highest rates of infection.

Israel, with 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 the data, explaining that after comparing the numbers of each countrys seven-day running average, Israel is at the top, The Times of Israel reported.

Total active cases in the country rose to 393,786, of whom 533, or 0.14 percent, are currently hospitalized in critical condition, according to a Jan. 19 statement posted by the countrys health ministry.

Were seeing that theres no correlation with lockdowns and fewer infections, all the mandates. Vaccines, actually, if you look at evidence worldwide, some that suggest that it might make you more vulnerable to get a disease, but then it would make the symptoms less serious, said DeMint.

Jack Phillips and Lorenz Duchamps contributed to this report

Masooma Haq Follow Masooma Haq began reporting for The Epoch Times from Pakistan in 2008. She currently covers a variety of topics including U.S. government, culture, and entertainment.
Thirty years ago, Italians began discouraging their children from entering the design and craft industry. Ippolita Rostagno, whose dual citizenship offered her the good fortune of growing up in Florence and later studying in the United States, has been traveling back and forth between the two countries for many years. As time advanced, she noticed more and more empty design shops in Florence. As a jeweler and founder of the jewelry brand Ippolita, she was concerned.

Theres been a generational gap here where the kids have been discouraged to go into the family business, so crafts are dying, Ippolita Rostagno said during an interview for American Essence. This type of work is about experience and little to do with book learning. If theres a 30-year gap, its hard to fill that, so I went into a panic about it. I couldnt get Italians to be in the same panic as me, though. It was a perspective issue; they were too close to it.

(Courtesy of Artemest)

The artisans didnt see the urgency. The idea that everything was within reach prevented them from seeing what was happening. If they needed a window fixed, for example, they could go down the street and find a specialist to fix it. Their inability to see the wall the industry had hit convinced Rostagno that the tradition of craftsmanship in Italy was about to vanish.

As I tried to get attention to this problem, talking to those in cultural institutions and economic and political appointments in strategic areas, I couldnt garner consensus. Those who should care about this, in political positions, needed to be sensitized, Rostagno said. So she decided to go to business school and create a curriculum about why crafts matter.

Soon after this, she noticed the artisans declining numbers. It had become a real crisis. She switched gears and went the American way, which, to her, meant thinking about how to boost the Italian craftsmanship industry as a commercial enterprise first and ensure that it would be customer-oriented.

The industry will only survive if it evolves. I wasnt interested in doing a vanity project, or putting together an exhibition on why craft matters. I wanted to help keep these people in business, she said.

(Courtesy of Artemest)

Saving Italian Craftsmanship

In 2015, she co-founded the brand Artemest, an e-commerce platform promoting Italian crafts. She thought about what people wanted and how to give it to them. Being bi-cultural, shed long understood that Americans have an ingrained deep appreciation for anything Italian, for the quality of life there thats missing in the United States.

There is a ripe audience, I thought, and I live in the luxury world, commercially speaking. I understand the commercial dynamic of trying to make a product thats relevant to them instead of something thats just pretty or just expensive. The important key role has been helping these artisans evolve their product line.

Art and craft counter the speed of the internet in the dynamics of the economic system, Rostagno explained. She had to figure out how to bridge the gap between them. The artisans know how to do what they know how to do, period. She had to bring the rest to the table: product development, marketing, and storytelling.

(Courtesy of Artemest)

The internet happened and isnt going away, so we have to know how to utilize it. I didnt understand why an e-commerce company didnt already exist for luxury craftsmanship, Rostagno said. She had to do something about the crisis. She quit her day job and returned to Italy.

She wasnt sure there were enough Italian artisans still in the business for her idea to be viable. If the rest of Italy was like Florence, she thought, there wouldnt be enough critical mass to fully develop the project. Thankfully, there were. However, they couldnt understand what she was proposing at first.

They have this attitude that time and work are the same thing. If theyre talking to you, theyre not working, so they dont want to talk to you because youre wasting their time. I developed a script to build credibility in their eyes so theyd listen.

(Courtesy of Artemest)

Challenges

After she successfully explained her idea to the artisans, she had to tackle building the website, which was no simple feat. It took a year to make the website functional. One challenge was getting 45,000 categories of goods through Italian customs when there were 400 different codes for ceramics alone.

When you look into the logistics, you realize why it hadnt been done before. I knew we needed to remove all of these complications and show the results to the artisans and see what happens when they have access to the customers, Rostagno said.

She had to ensure precise detail and attention to assortment, selecting only the products that could be marketable. An artisan could show her a collection of 50 objects, but shed only find a few viable. Since artisans create objects for multiple purposes and reasons, they struggle to differentiate among them to find the marketable ones.

(Courtesy of Artemest)

When Rostagno visited the artisans, shed have conversations with them about how to modify their products to better suit the needs of the market. Frames, for example, might be entirely the wrong sizes, and shed have to guide them. People dont have photographs anymore. We have to do something thats relevant to how people want to consume today. Make it 6 feet tall, she said. Well put it against a wall in a loft and itll have a completely different life.

The positive side of commerce motivated the artisans to create more and create differently. They began developing new things. She started to see an evolution in their product line after joining Artemest. The stimulating dynamic of a commercial venture ignited their creativity in a way they wouldnt have discovered if Rostagno hadnt launched the company. In fact, craftsmanship and artists have always struggled with the notion of a price tag.

One of the things that upset me terribly in the beginning of my careerin that exchange where people say, How much is it? there has to be a real relationship between what the thing is and how much it costs. You cant just say, Well, I made it so it costs a million dollars, because thats not realistic, she said.

Rostagno developed a backbone against getting her feelings hurt whenever someone would ask about the cost of a piece of jewelry she made. She began to realize that the people asking recognized the heart and soul shed put into her work, or they wouldnt have asked about the price. To respond to the gasp coming from people once shed given the pricea rather high one, to be sureshe knew what to communicate so they could understand.

Let me tell you how its made.

By the end of the story, people would be more surprised that the price was so low. The story behind an object defines the value.

By early 2019, the website featured more than 500 artisans selling products from furniture to flatware. Today, the company presents a 50,000-strong product catalog of luxury craftsmanship. Her efforts have proven so successful that last year, in 2020, Artemest opened its NYC Designer Lounge in Manhattan, in collaboration with David Mann, founder of MR Architecture + Decor.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
Second Amendment supporters gathered across the street from the Colorado State Capital to voice their support for gun ownership in Denver, Colo. on Jan. 9, 2013. (Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution

Part VI: Crushing Civil Liberties

Commentary

The first, second, third, fourth, and fifth installments in this series traced how the Supreme Court responded to President Franklin D. Roosevelts efforts to break constitutional limits and create a powerful federal government. After trying to balance the demands of FDRs New Deal with the Constitution, the court successively abandoned the Constitutions limits on federal spending, federal land ownership, and federal economic regulation.

This installment and the next discuss how the court acquiesced in the suppression of civil liberties.

1937 to 1944: The Court Attacks Civil Liberties

Most of the Constitutions framers considered the documents principal protection for liberty to be its limits on the federal governments enumerated powers. However, the framers did add some specific protections. And after the Constitution was ratified, Congress and the states added the Bill of Rights to it.

Even so, the Constitutions protections for civil liberty arent complete. For example, most modern Americans would be surprised to learn that the First Amendments guarantee of the freedom of speech didnt protect against prosecutions for blasphemy. Still, the best way to guard constitutional rights is to enforce them according to their real meaningthat is, as they were understood when adopted. Judges who purport to widen constitutional rights will narrow them as well.

This actually happened during the years from 1938 to 1944. First, the court announced that it would favor some constitutional rights over others. Then, it suppressed rights that it supposedly favored.

1937 to 1938: Some Rights are More Equal than Others

The Constitution contains two guarantees of due process of law, one in the Fifth Amendment that protects against federal abuses and one in the Fourteenth Amendment that protects against state abuses. As originally understood, these due process clauses meant only this: When the government prosecutes you criminally or civilly, it must follow pre-established law. It may not change the rules as it goes along.

During the later 20th century, liberal activist judges stretched the due process clauses to protect invented rights, such as abortion. During the early 20th century, conservative activist justices did something comparable. In the name of freedom of contract, they struck down some minimum-wage and maximum-hours laws, claiming that those measures violated due process.

In early 1937, however, a five-justice majority effectively overruled the conservative due process precedents. The case was West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (pdf).

West Coast is famous because historians used to believe that FDRs court-packing plan had bullied Justice Owen Roberts into voting with the courts liberals in that case. This was the alleged switch in time that saved nine. We now know thats not true. Robertss vote had been determined before the court-packing plan was announced.

In 1938, United States v. Carolene Products (pdf) essentially confirmed the West Coast decision. Carolene Products is famous as well. When Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone wrote the opinion for the court, he added a celebrated footnote known to attorneys as Footnote 4.

Footnote 4 said it was unnecessary to consider now whether the court should start favoring some constitutional rights over others. This communicated to court-watchers that the justices would start doing just that.

Liberal commentators celebrate Footnote 4 because it offered super-protection for rights liberals like (such as the procedural guarantees enjoyed by accused criminals) and a downgrade of rights liberals dont favor (such as protection for contracts). But in the immediate aftermath of Footnote 4, the court downgraded both categories.

1939: The Court Guts the Second Amendment

The first right diminished was the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. United States v. Miller (pdf), an 80 decision, was issued on May 15, 1939. The author of the courts opinion was Justice James McReynolds. His opinion improperly narrowed the right to keep and bear armsjust as his prior opinions had improperly expanded the due process guarantee

Jack Miller and Frank Layton were convicted of possessing a sawed-off shotgun that wasnt registered under federal law. The Second Amendment was their defense: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The court recognized that, in this context, militia refers to all able-bodied males.

Construed correctly, the Second Amendment protects the use and ownership of portable (bear-able) weapons used for three purposes: (1) To prepare Americans to serve in a federalized militia for the common defense of the country, (2) to enable Americans, both individually and as part of the state militias, to defend themselves against a central government turned tyrannical, and (3) individual self-defense.

In Miller, the court recognized only the first purpose. This implicitly allowed the federal and state governments to ban weapons for the other two purposes. It wasnt until 2008 that the Supreme Court started to correct this mistake (pdf).

The Attack on Habeas Corpus and Trial by Jury

In 1942, the United States was at war with Nazi Germany. In June 1942, the Germans sent two submarines to American shores and dropped off eight would-be saboteurs. All eight were young men who had lived for long periods in the United States. Two were U.S. citizens.

At least two of the men (including one U.S. citizen) accepted their assignment only to escape from Germany and return to the United States. After landing, they surrendered themselves to the FBI. They told the bureau everything, and the agency soon picked up the other six.

Roosevelt was understandably furious that German submarines were able to discharge saboteurs onto U.S. shores. He ordered the FBI to transfer the men to military control. He arranged for them to be tried by a military commission. His goal was to receive immediate guilty verdicts and to execute them promptly.

Under the laws of war, the presidents course was entirely legitimate for the six non-citizens. However, because capture hadnt occurred in the immediate theater of war, his course wasnt legitimate for the two U.S. citizens. Constitutionally, they were entitled to a writ of habeas corpus and a court order transferring them back to civilian custody. They were also entitled to be indicted by a grand jury and, if indictedpresumably for treasongiven a public jury trial.

However, FDR, like some other presidents, didnt care much about limits on his constitutional authority. He flatly told his attorney general, I wont hand them over to any United States Marshal armed with a writ of habeas corpus (pdf).

And so the military trial proceeded. Counsel for the prisoners launched a spirited defense. Counsel showed the court that two defendants had turned states evidence. Counsel also pointed to mitigating circumstances involving some of the other defendants.

It didnt matter. The fix was in. All were condemned to death. The FBI had promised pardons to the two who had turned states evidence, but Roosevelt didnt honor that promise. He merely commuted their death sentences to long prison terms.

In Ex Parte Quirin (pdf), the Supreme Court quickly rubber-stamped the verdicts and sentences. The justices didnt wait to prepare an opinion explaining their reasons. They announced only that an opinion would be forthcoming. Just five days after the saboteurs were found guilty, six of the eight menincluding one U.S. citizenwere electrocuted.

Let me be clear: Its hard to be sorry for the saboteurs. They were operating outside the law of war, they were serving an evil cause, and they understood the risks. That said, it remains true that the justices conduct was unworthy of the highest court in the land. A key reason for written opinions is to force judges to consider and write out their rationale before announcing a decision. Sometimes the writing process induces judges to change their minds. Also, written opinions ensure that, in multiple-member courts, everyone in the majority is on the same page. Postponing the opinion to hasten the executions was, at the least, unprofessional.

As it turned out, after the executions, the justices learned that they werent all on the same page. It took nearly three months to craft a written opinion to which everyone on the court could agree.

This opinion was authored by Stone (pdf). It, too, was unworthy of the nations highest court.

The opinion never revealed that six of the defendants were already dead. It admitted that one defendant was a U.S. citizen, but never mentioned the other. It failed to account for the fact that Congress hadnt suspended the writ of habeas corpus. It didnt explain why a military tribunal was constitutional for U.S. citizens apprehended outside the theater of warwhich, of course, it wasnt. In other words, the opinion never explained why the two citizens could be denied indictment by a grand jury and civil trial by a petit jury.

Stone, you will recall, was the justice who introduced rights balancing in Carolene Products. In the Miller case, he and his colleagues balanced away the Second Amendment for the sake of a federal license. And in Quirin, they balanced away habeas corpus, grand jury indictment, trial by jury, and due process of law.

Judges who rewrite some parts of the Constitution will rewrite others.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Ideological Scientists Created the Science Credibility Gap

Commentary

Woe is the Science Establishment. Theyre wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth because a reputable poll from the University of Chicago found that only 48 percent of the public has a great deal of confidence in the scientific community.

Unsurprisingly, the distrust isnt evenly divided throughout society. According to the poll, 64 percent of Democrats expressed trust in the scientific community, contrasted with only 34 percent of Republicans.

To say the least, such a partisan divide isnt healthy for society. But it cant just be waived away or cured by calls from the scientists to trust us. No. To cure a problem, its cause must first be identified accurately so that remedies can be fashioned and applied. But the science establishment refuses to engage in such dispassionate introspection.

Instead, they moan, People believed in the polio vaccine. Why wont they trust us now?

Let me count the reasons. In the early 1950s, the science establishment did not wield science as a political cudgel to effectuate cultural change. Jonas Salk and Albert Bruce Sabin and their co-researchersthe creators of the polio vaccinesdidnt use their achievement to impose a stifling the scientific consensus upon society from which dissent wasnt allowed. Rather, they focused solely on preventing polio. Politics and cultural agendas were irrelevant to their lifesaving work, to the point that even an egregious and deadly mistake didnt erode the publics trust.

Contrast the purely scientific approach to eradicating polio with todays political activist approach to science. Yes, objective bench scientists should still be trusted. But many of the leaders of the scientific and medical sectors have increasingly corrupted the essential work of science by abusing their authority to push policy down distinctly ideological paths. Not only that, but those who dont follow the Party Line on issues such as COVID-19 and climate change face the potential ruination of their careers.

In 2020, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss wrote an important column in The Wall Street Journal decrying the pollution of the hard sciences by politics, writing: As ideological encroachment corrupts scientific institutions, one might wonder why more scientists arent defending the hard sciences from this intrusion. The answer is that many academics are afraid, and for good reason. They are hesitant to disagree with scientific leadership groups, and they see what has happened to scientists who do.

This kind of behavior also was engaged in during COVID-19. We all witnessed the stifling of heterodox scientific opinions about how to best combat the pandemicsuch as the denigration of reputable scientists as fringe who signed the Great Barrington Declaration. Moreover, the repeated authoritarian imposition of the supposed scientific consensus about controversial policies such as lockdowns, vaccines, and masks by the science establishment, liberal politicians, the mainstream media, and Big Tech have been so thoroughly digested by the conservative public that they need not be repeated here.

Less well known, but just as damning, is the recent revelation about how Dr. Francis Collins, then-head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Dr. Anthony Fauci stifled free discussion about the genesis of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a bombshell story supported by extensive email evidence reported by Fox News, reputable scientists worried at the beginning of the pandemic that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was both engineered byand emerged fromthe Wuhan Institute of Virology. Collins and Fauci seem to have quickly aborted free inquiry about this important question.

From the story: Fauci hastily organized a call with dozens of worldwide virologists, and notes from the meeting obtained by Special Report reveal that suspicions of the lab leak theory were suppressed over concerns of how the public would react to news of possible Chinese government involvement.

More: In the meeting, fears were raised by then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins that science and international harmony could be harmed and accusations of Chinas involvement could distract top researchers.

To say the least, thats not how science is supposed to work. Worse, deciding the answer to the causes of the pandemic before the investigation had commenced for the unscientific purposes of protecting the reputation of science and assuring international harmony comes across today like an intentional cover-up of a potentially embarrassing disclosure about the NIHs involvement in funding gain of function research at the Wuhan lab. No wonder Fauci has been so irritable under questioning of that matter by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

The partisan science credibility gap isnt only about COVID. Conservatives have noticed the attempted power grab by climate scientists that would deploy the same types of autocratic policies imposed during the pandemic to fight global warming. For example, one proposal published in the influential science journal Nature urged the imposition of personal carbon allowanceswhich would ration our purchases of gasoline and the eating of disfavored foods like meat. These limitations would be enforced through the deployment of advanced computer technologies capable of tracking individuals carbon emissions, akin to those used in Chinas tyrannical social credit system.

Meanwhile, the American Political Science Review, the worlds most prestigious political science journal, published an article calling for authoritarian climate governance to impose anti-global warming policiessuch as a carbon taxwhich advocates have been unable to enact through democratic means.

Added to this disturbing litany is the ubiquitous progressive political ideology promoted in the worlds most respected medical and bioethics journals. For example, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and The Lancet have published articles calling for the imposition of critical race theory-type policies in the practice of medicine. So have some state and local public health departments. Other articles in the NEJM and the Journal of Medical Ethics advocated forcing doctors to perform legal but controversial interventions such as abortion and transgender transitions.

Given these and many other examples of ideologically skewed science that could be listednone of which would have been engaged in by polio vaccine researchersis it any wonder that the scientific community isnt trusted by most conservatives?

This cant continue. Contemporary societies require trustworthy sources of expertise. But trusting the experts is no longer a given. We need a scientific community that bridges political divides. But rebuilding that trust infrastructure will require the scientific community to eschew ideology and pursue truth objectively, without regard to favored cultural priorities or desired partisan outcomes.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
As the redistricting process winds down, Cayuga County could retain a few of its state representatives while gaining a trio of new legislators.

State lawmakers introduced a bill late Monday that outlines how state Assembly and Senate district lines will be drawn for the next decade. Legislators submitted a separate measure on Sunday to redraw congressional district lines.

State Sens. Pam Helming and John Mannion, both of whom represent part of Auburn and towns in Cayuga County, will likely run for reelection in new districts that include portions of the county. Assemblyman John Lemondes will continue to have the city of Auburn and several Cayuga County towns in his district.

The state Legislature is expected to vote on the redistricting bills on Thursday. If approved, the maps will be in place for the next decade, barring any successful legal challenges.

STATE SENATE

Cayuga County would continue to have three state Senate districts, but the makeup of the districts would differ.

The proposed 52nd Senate District would encompass the city of Auburn and towns of Owasco and Sennett in Cayuga County, a portion of Syracuse and the Onondaga County towns of Camillus, Clay, DeWitt, Elbridge, Geddes, Manlius, Marcellus, Salina, Skaneateles and Van Buren.

The district would include areas represented by Mannion, a Democrat. Mannion lives in Geddes.

Nine Cayuga County towns  Brutus, Cato, Conquest, Ira, Mentz, Montezuma, Sterling, Throop and Victory  would be part of the newly drawn 54th Senate District. The district would stretch into western New York with portions of Genesee and Livingston counties. All of Ontario and Wayne counties would be in the district.

Helming, a Republican, lives in this district. She has represented parts of Cayuga County since 2017.

The remaining part of Cayuga County  the towns of Aurelius, Fleming, Genoa, Ledyard, Locke, Moravia, Niles, Scipio, Sempronius, Springport, Summerhill, Venice  would be in the new 59th Senate District. All of Chemung, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben and Yates counties would be in the district, along with parts of Livingston and Tioga counties.

The 59th would be state Sen. Tom O'Mara's new district. O'Mara, R-Big Flats, represents all of Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben and Yates counties, plus part of Tompkins.

STATE ASSEMBLY

The county will add a third Assembly district after having two for the last 10 years.

One of the notable changes to the Assembly map is the creation of a Cayuga-Onondaga district. The 126th district would consist of Auburn and the towns of Brutus, Cato, Conquest, Mentz, Owasco, Sennett and Throop in Cayuga County and the towns of Camillus, Elbridge, Fabius, LaFayette, Lysander, Marcellus, Otisco, Pompey, Skaneateles, Spafford and Tully in Onondaga County. Much of the area in this new district is represented by Lemondes, a Republican.

While Lemondes, R-LaFayette, would continue to represent a Cayuga County district, Assembyman Brian Manktelow, R-Lyons, would not. He would get a new district that includes all of Wayne County and Webster in Monroe County and no longer have any Cayuga County towns in his district.

That means Cayuga County will get two new Assemblymembers, potentially one of whom is the top Assembly Republican.

The new 120th Assembly District would be comprised of Oswego County, the towns of Ira, Sterling and Victory in Cayuga County, and the towns of Adams, Ellisburg, Lorraine and Worth in Jefferson County.

This would be Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay's new district. Barclay lives in Oswego County and has served in the state Assembly since 2003.

The Cayuga County towns of Aurelius, Fleming, Genoa, Ledyard, Locke, Montezuma, Moravia, Niles, Scipio, Sempronius, Springport, Summerhill and Venice would be in the new 131st Assembly District. Parts of Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Madison, Ontario and Seneca counties would also be in the district.

Assemblyman Jeff Gallahan, a Republican, would be the incumbent in this district. Gallahan lives in Ontario County.

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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Ignored: Putin Delivers First Speech in Weeks on RussiaUkraine Tensions

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday delivered his first remarks on his countrys standoff with the West over Ukraine by claiming the United States and NATO have ignored Moscows top security demands.

Russia is carefully analyzing the U.S. and NATO written responses, but it is already clear that Russias fundamental concerns have been ignored, Putin said in Moscow Tuesday alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. NATO refers to the right of countries to choose freely, but you can not strengthen someones security at the expense of others.

Putin was responding to letters that were sent to his government by NATO leadership and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in late January over the massive troop buildup of Russian soldiers along the Ukrainian border.

U.S. officials and legacy news outlets, for weeks now, have asserted that Moscow is plotting an invasionsomething Russia has denied. Talks between Russia and the West have so far failed to yield progress.

However, Putin and Kremlin officials have not seen adequate consideration of our three key requirements concerning the prevention of NATO expansion, the refusal to deploy strike weapons systems near the Russian borders, as well as the return of the military infrastructure of the bloc in Europe to the state of 1997, when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed, the Russian leader continued to say, adding that his proposals were ignored by Western powers.

Putin further said that the United States and NATO are using the Ukraine situation to contain Russia. Several U.S. senators suggested over the weekend they were planning to issue significant sanctions against top Russian officials should Moscow decide to invade Ukraine.

A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea on Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Photo)

I hope dialogue on Ukraine will continue, Putin also said.

In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and also began funding pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian region known as the Donbas. But in recent months, Moscow has been deploying significant numbers of soldiers, military hardware, and logistical support units near Ukraines border and also in Belarus, a former Soviet bloc country that retains close ties with the Kremlin.

On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price noted his agency and Blinken recently had a phone call with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that further reiterated the U.S. commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances.

And Blinken also urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraines borders, Price said, adding that a further Russian incursion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequence, without elaborating.

High-level diplomacy continued Tuesday, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arriving in Kyiv for scheduled talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visited Kyiv in a show of support, promising to deliver more weapons to Ukraine including portable air defense systems, drones, mortars, and ammunition.

Leaders from the Netherlands, Turkey, and Canada are in Ukraine or planning to visit in the coming days.

We continue to engage in nonstop diplomacy and to de-escalate tensions and attempt like the devil to improve security for our allies and partners and for all of Europe, for that matter, President Joe Biden said to reporters on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole speaks during a media availability in West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Jan. 27, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Its Time for a Reckoning: OToole Welcomes Tory Leadership Vote on Feb. 2

Conservative Leader Erin OToole says he welcomes a leadership review after learning some members within his party are requesting the caucus to trigger a vote on his leadership on Feb. 2.

Im not going anywhere and Im not turning back, said OToole in a series of posts on Twitter on Jan. 31. Its time for a reckoning. To settle this in caucus. Right here. Right now. Once and for all.

Calls for OTooles early leadership review have been coming for several months. Following a caucus meeting on Oct. 5, 2021, two weeks after the federal election, the Conservative caucus gave itself the power to trigger a vote on leadership review if 20 percent of its members signed a formal agreement.

On Jan. 31 evening, Ontario MP Scott Reid, chair of the partys caucus, informed MPs that he received written notice with signatures from at least 20 percent of members requesting a review of OTooles leadership.

OToole, who was criticized by caucus members for issues such as adopting a carbon tax policy and flip-flopping on firearms issues, defended his vision for the party by contrasting his version with that of Ontario MPP Randy Hillier and former Conservative MP Derek Sloan.

There are two roads open to the Conservative Party of Canada, he said. One is the road of Randy Hillier and Derek Sloan. It is angry, negative, and extreme. It is a dead-end; one that would see the party of Confederation become the NDP of the right.

The other road is to better reflect the Canada of 2022. To recognize that conservatism is organic not static and that a winning message is one of inclusion, optimism, ideas and hope, he said on Twitter.

The conservative leader said members now have to choose between the path of anger or optimism for the direction of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).

Responding to OTooles swipe at him, Sloan said OTooles leadership has been an abject failure

He has threatened, silenced, and bullied caucus into submission, and he is finally reaping the seeds he has sown, Sloan told The Epoch Times.

The Epoch Times also reached out to Hillier but did not receive a reply by publication time.

Trouble has been stirring for OToole since last years election loss. The calls from within caucus to put his leadership to the test follows last weeks two-day caucus retreat where MPs were presented with the findings of a review into what went wrong in the campaign.

Even before that, OToole had been facing pressure from some in his caucus to adopt a tougher stand against a controversial secularism law in Quebec. Some from the social conservative faction of the party also expressed concerns with last falls vote on banning conversion therapy.

In his tweet on Jan. 31, OToole said he is willing to accept the result of the vote, which will happen by secret ballot on Feb. 2 when caucus members meet.

But the leader is not prepared to go without a fight as he stressed that those who want him to go will also have to accept the result if it turns out otherwise.

The signers of this letter must accept it, too. They brought it. Theyll have to live with it, he said.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
Japan Ends Decades of Aid to China

JapanChina relations are a dead-end as long as the CCP exists with its lies: experts

News Analysis

Japans long-term aid to China will end in March this year. The official aid, covering finance, technology, and training, gave a much-needed boost to Chinas economic growth over 40 years, which, regrettably, the communist ruling regime concealed from the Chinese people and moved the country even further from democracy and freedom, experts said.

The Japanese governments Official Development Assistance (ODA) reported the complete end of the aid, according to a report by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (pdf), a government agency that delivers the bulk of ODA.

Earlier in October 2018, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Japan would end aid to China during his visit to the developing country.

Bokudo Mizoguchi, director of the Institute of Asian Culture, History and Politics, told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times that the Japanese government has been supporting Chinas economic development since the 1980s, while it is a great pity that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not tell the truth to the Chinese nation.

The CCP has been worsening the relations between Japan and China with its lies. As long as the regime exists, this [Japan-China relations] is a dead knot that can never be untied, he said.

The Japanese government and people have been helping the people [under the CCP regime] who see us as enemies. Since the CCP regime was established in 1949, all its propaganda and its regime were built on lies; Japan has religious beliefs and freedom, while the Chinese Communist Party violates it as an enemy, Bokudo Mizoguchi said.

The official stance is in line with public opinion, Like the United States and other Western countries, Japan had expected that China would become a richer, more democratic and internationally connected country through foreign aid, however, on the contrary, the Chinese side is moving further away from those things, Professor Yasuhiro Matsuda of the Institute of Oriental Culture at the University of Tokyo told VOA in October 2018.

This is an important reason why Japanese people were criticizing and calling for an end to aid [to China].

Japans Assistance to China

Japanese electronics at a shop on 14 April 2005 in Nanjing, China. (Liu Jin/AFP via Getty Images)

Japans Official Development Assistance (ODA) website cited then Prime Minister Ohira as saying We believe that a more prosperous China will contribute to making the world a better place. Japan strongly commits to providing assistance to China and its efforts to modernize, based upon such expectation from around the world.

According to the Chinese-language Epoch Times on Nov. 8, 2018, Japans ODA policy placed the country as Chinas largest aid donor, accounting for more than 60 percent of its global aid.

The ODA takes the form of capital, technology, and human resource development. As of 2015, Japan had provided 3.66 trillion yen ($32.2 billion) in cumulative assistance to China, including 3.3 trillion yen ($29.04 billion) in concessional loans, more than 157.5 billion yen ($1.35 billion) in non-reimbursable assistance, and more than 184 billion yen ($1.62 billion) in technical assistance, covering 367 large-scale projects.

It has brought China start-up capital for the modernization and supported Chinas infrastructure construction and economic development. Over the past 40 years, Japanese yen loans have successfully supported many large-scale projects in the fields of energy and resource development, transportation, transport, and communication infrastructure construction, as well as agriculture, forestry, urban construction, and environmental protection in China, Radio France International said on Oct. 23, 2018.

A nurse buys a newspaper from a street vendor in front of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, China, on April 29, 2003. (Getty Images)

Major projects supported by Japan ODA include Beijing International Airport, Shanghai Pudong Airport, Wuhan Tianhe Airport, Shanghai Baoshan Dynamic Power Plant, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, and Beijing Metro Line 2.

CCP Conceals Japans Aid to Chinese People

Bonnie S. Glaser, the senior advisor on Asian affairs and China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies based in Washington, told The New York Times on Oct. 29, 2018, that this aid had made a considerable contribution to Chinas economic transformation over the past 40 years, while Japan playing a role in Chinas economic development was rarely acknowledged.

Yang Zhongmei, a senior researcher at the U.S.-China-Japan Comparative Policy Institute, told VOA that Chinas Foreign Ministry had never conducted the right publicity about Japans economic aid, instead attributing the achievements of reform and opening up to the good leadership of the Chinese Communist regime.

Keiko Kawasoe, a well-known Japanese author, told The Epoch Times that Japan had provided a lot of aid to China, but the CCP had been taking it for granted. Because China is a victorious country [in World II], [the CCP would think] you Japan must apologize and compensate us [the CCP], we [the CCP] dont have to thank you [Japan] for aid, and we [the CCP] dont have to let the [Chinese] people know.

She also said that in fact, the CCP did not defeat Japan directly during World War II, and it was actually the Kuomintang army led by Chiang Kai-shek that resisted Japans invasion.

Workers at a department store take down signs of Japanese products after pulling goods off the shelf, 31 March 2005, in central Chinas Henan province, after nearly 30 chain stores in northeast Chinas Shenyang city also pulled Japanese products off their shelves following Chinese media reports saying some of the companies supported revisionist history textbooks. (AFP via Getty Images)

When finding the reasons for the CCPs concealment of Japanese aid, Professor Ding Shu-fan, a researcher at the Center for International Relations at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times that the CCP might want to use Japans history textbook inspections to exaggerate Japanese militarism in order to criticize Japan, to blackmail Japan into providing more aid, and to transfer the peoples discontent with Chinese society onto Japan.

On January 14, 2014, Japan announced guidelines for the content of junior and high school textbooks stating that the Diaoyu Islands (Uotsuri Jima) are Japans inherent territory, which sparked disputes between Japan and China.

Chinas Ex-leaders and Japans ODA

People watch a giant TV screen in the Sony showroom in Tokyo, showing a news programme on Feb. 20, 1997 reporting that then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping died on Feb. 19, aged 92. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP via Getty Images)

The ODA, started in December 1979, was considered an active response to Chinas request made the year before. In October 1978, when Chinese Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping visited Japans steel, automotive, and electrical factories, and rode the Shinkansen high-speed railway, he said I learned what modernization is, and invited Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Matsushita Electric in China to help the country realize industrial modernization.

Two months later, on December 18, 1978, Deng put out the reform and opening-up of China policy and sought foreign capital aid.

At that time, China still had the aftershocks of the Cultural Revolution, even the World Bank did not lend money to China, and Japan was the first country to aid China, Mitsuya Araki, who has been involved in and led Japans economic aid to China, told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times in 2018.

After World War II, the Republic of China, based on Chinese traditional morality of repaying grievances with virtue that was proposed by the leader Chiang Kai-shek, voluntarily give up its demand for compensation and signed the Peace Treaty between Japan and the Republic of China on April 28, 1952.

In 1972 the CCP regime started diplomatic relations with Japan, it abandoned its war-after compensation claims in the Sino-Japanese Joint Declaration signed on September 29, 1972, because the CCP had ill relations with the former Soviet Union, and so then-leader Mao Zedong turned to other countries to make friends.

But the Chinese authorities and Japan had reached a tacit agreement that Japan would provide assistance to China in the form of ODA instead of war reparations.

According to Mitsuya Araki, Japans assistance to China is divided into three phases with loans and assistance programs formulated every five years, including infrastructure, health and medical care, environmental protection, education, and human resources training that involves more than 200 universities in 22 provinces.

Joyce Liang contributed to this report.

Winnie Han Follow Winnie Han reports on China news for The Epoch Times.
Los Angeles City Councilman and mayoral candidate Joe Buscaino speaks during the opening of the Terminal 1 expansion at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles on June 4, 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

LA Councilman and Mayoral Candidate Endorses Gascon Recall

LOS ANGELESLos Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino, of Council District 15, endorsed the recall campaign against Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon via a video uploaded to Twitter on the morning of Jan. 31.

Buscaino is also running to replace Eric Garcetti for Los Angeles mayor this year.

I normally dont believe in recalls but what Im seeing shocks the conscious so much that I can no longer remain silent, Buscaino said. We cannot afford to wait another two years to get George Gascon out of office.

Buscaino joins other officials supporting Gascons recall, including Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and former District Attorney Steve Cooley.

I think youre seeing a lot of people get behind this effort, recall spokesman Tim Lineberger told The Epoch Times. Were grateful to have this support we hope more Los Angeles leaders, elected officials, and candidates will get behind us as well. Were certainly grateful for the support and hope everybody supports this effort and brings attention to this issue.

More than 30 cities in LA County, including Torrance, Santa Clarita, Lancaster, and Beverly Hills, support the recall, with more than a dozen passing votes of no confidence against Gascon.

Hes not doing the one job he was elected to do by the people of Los Angeles, Buscaino said. If we cannot guarantee the most important function of local government, public safety, then we cannot accomplish any substantive evolution as a city.

Gascon was elected in Dec. 2020 on a promise to reform the criminal justice system in the wake of protests and riots following the death of George Floyd.

Since then, residents and politicians alike blame Gascons progressive policies for the rise in crime, particularly homicides.

While Los Angeless data shows crime has dipped in some categories, like robbery and property theftpotentially due to underreporting, some saymurder is up 94 percent over the last two years, according to the sheriffs department.

One of Gascons early policies issued in 2020 directed prosecutors to no longer seek sentencing enhancements for suspects who use a gun during a crime or if they have a gang affiliation. His reasoning was the majority of those incarcerated belonged to long-disadvantaged groups.

He also supported the controversial zero-cash-bail policy put in place during the pandemic and made national news headlines last week when he, under his policies, chose not to prosecute a transgender woman in adult court who sexually assaulted a child when she was 17.

Buscaino, a Democrat, has been outspoken about issues plaguing the City of Los Angeles regarding homelessness, the economy, and crimeoften clashing with his colleagues and local activists.

In addition to supporting the recall campaign, Buscaino supports banning homeless encampments with the help of law enforcement, lowering officials salaries if homeless goals arent met, and supporting the reinstitution of cash bail in the county.

Other candidates running for mayor include U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, Councilman Kevin de Leon, and City Attorney Mike Feuer.

This is the second attempt to recall Gascon. A previous version failed to gather enough signatures by an end of October deadline, but was restarted after the group regrouped and reorganized. The group raised $2.5 million to catapult the campaign in December.

The Los Angeles County Registrar approved the recall campaigns petition on Jan. 27. Organizers now have until July 6 to gather about 566,857 signatures to get the recall on the November ballot.

Officials in support of Gascons reelection include Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), LA Councilman Mike Bonin, and LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell.

If the recall effort fails, Gascon will continue his term until 2024.

Gascon did not respond to a request for comment by press deadline. The Epoch Times also did not hear back from Bass, de Leon, and Feuer by press deadline.

Jill McLaughlin contributed to this report.
The body of Taylour Young was discovered in the trunk of his vehicle in Dallas on Jan. 19 after he disappeared in early December. (Courtesy of Houston Police Department)

Missing 25-Year-Old Texas Man Found Dead About 7 Weeks After Disappearing

A body found in Texas on Jan. 19 has been identified as Taylour Young, a 25-year-old man who went missing nearly two months ago, police said on Monday.

The Houston Police Department said in an updated missing persons report that the body was found inside the trunk of Youngs vehicle in an impound lot in Dallas, a city in North Texas.

Authorities confirmed that a homicide investigation remains ongoing and the Dallas County Medical Examiners Office is working on determining Youngs cause of death.

Young was last seen on a surveillance camera in early December while driving his silver Honda Civic on South Voss Road in Houston during his lunch break.

Following the news of police positively identifying the discovered remains as Young, his mother, Tiffany Robinson, said on social media that as she shared Taylours disappearance with the world, she also wants to share [her] worldly loss as well.

God has allowed me to celebrate life with my son, Robinson said. I am so thankful that God blessed me with Taylour. I am proud of the man he matured into.

During [our] family time of mourning, I ask that you continue to lift us up in prayer, his mother added, thanking everyone for their support.

Youngs longtime friend, Christian Gorgy, told ABC13 that his death makes absolutely no sense at all. He said they were so close that it felt more like they were family.

Its devastating just knowing Im never gonna be able to hear from him again. I dont even know what to do, Gorgy told the network.

He had no enemies. Everybody loved him. He didnt owe anybody money. He had no addictions. He didnt do drugs. It just makes absolutely no sense at all, he added.

Houston Police said that Youngs body was recovered in an advanced state of decomposition and are asking anyone who may have information to call the departments homicide division at 713-308-3600.

From NTD News
Leon Harris is seen at the Honoring Our Fallen Warriors Wreath-Laying ceremony at the National World War II Memorial, National Mall in Washington, on May 30, 2011. (Kris Connor/Getty Images)

NBC Washington Anchor Charged With DUI, Six Misdemeanors: Police

A longtime anchor for NBC Washington in the District of Columbia was charged with several misdemeanors following a car crash in Maryland over the past weekend, officials said.

Leon Harris was charged with a DUI and other counts following a crash on Jan. 29 in Montgomery County, Maryland, his station said in a report.

Harris will not appear on-air as the investigation continues, NBC Washington wrote in its article, adding that it reached out to Harris for comment.

Officials told the outlet that officers conducted a breathalyzer and found Harris result was twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content.

Authorities told FOX5 that Harris faces the following charges: driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, driving a vehicle while impaired by alcohol, driving a vehicle while so far impaired by drugs and alcohol cannot drive safely, an attempt by a driver to elude police in an official police vehicle by failing to stop, failure to return to and remain at the scene of an accident involving attended vehicle damage, failure to control vehicle speed on the highway to avoid a collision, and more.

Online court records show that its the second time Harris has been charged with a DUI in Montgomery County, which is located adjacent to Washington, WTOP reported. In 2013, he pleaded guilty after being pulled over on Interstate 270 near Route 28.

Harris, 60, joined the NBC affiliate station in 2017 from WJLA-TV. Prior to that, he worked at CNN in Atlanta for about 21 years.

Its not clear if Harris has an attorney. The Epoch Times has contacted Harris for comment.

Other details about the incident were not provided.
New Washington Post National Editor Recuses From Covering FBI, DOJ

The Washington Posts newly named national editor has recused herself from any coverage involving the FBI and its parent department, the Department of Justice.

Matea Gold was announced as the papers national editor on Jan. 26.

Gold is married to Jonathan Lenzner, who became the chief of staff to FBI Director Christopher Wray in December 2021 after serving as the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland.

Because of Lenzners position, Gold has recused herself from overseeing coverage of the agency or the Justice Department, a Post spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

Steven Ginsburg, the papers managing editor, will take on the responsibility that Gold has chosen not to handle.

Matea brought this to the managing editors attention back in December when it was clear her husband was going to accept the job, the spokesperson added. It is a tribute to her leadership and integrity that she proactively made this recommendation. We have every confidence in Mateas professionalism and high standards.

The recusal was first reported by RealClearInvestigations and was not mentioned in the papers announcement, nor was there any sign that it had alerted readers to the conflict of interest.

The managing editor who will oversee this coverage has been running it the last five years as national editor, so there is not a change here for readers, the Post spokeswoman said.

Gold spent four years as the Posts national political enterprise and investigations editor, running some of The Posts most sensitive stories, the announcement said. Those included stories dealing with the FBIs investigation into the alleged collusion between Donald Trumps campaign and Russia.

Special Counsel John Durham is probing the origins of the investigation, which was based on a flimsy dossier compiled by an ex-British spy hired by the campaign of Hillary Clinton, Trumps opponent in 2016.

The Post corrected several stories about the dossier in November 2021 after court documents undermined the assertions in the articles.

Gold also helped create an illustrated version of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report and an investigative series about the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.

Reporters and other editors gravitate to Matea for guidance and direction. She is relentless in pursuit of key facts and larger truths and compels reporters to do their best work, whether by spotting critical targets or providing unwavering support. She is as competitive as they come, never wanting to get beat, always supporting her staff, the Post said.

Gold didnt respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

The Gold recusal makes sense, Andrew Schotz, a former member of the Society of Professional Journalists ethics committee, told The Epoch Times.

We would not want a national editor to be covering the FBI when her husband has a prominent role in it, he said.

Similar conflicts have arisen in the past between media employees and their spouses. One of the highest-profile is the relationship between Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell. When they married in 1997, Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Mitchell was and continues to work for NBC, where she for years largely avoided covering news involving her husband.

In such cases, media outlets have to make tough decisions, including how often to address the matter, according to Schotz.

I dont know if theres a good answer, but at least be thinking about, how do you take the steps to address the actual conflict? he said.
Andrew Cuomo, then New York governor, speaks during a news conference in New York City on May 10, 2021. (Mary Altaffer-Pool/Getty Images)

New York District Attorney Declines to Pursue Sexual Harassment Allegation Against Andrew Cuomo

A district attorney in upstate New York on Monday said that he will not be pursuing a sexual harassment allegation against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo because there was not a sufficient legal basis to bring charges against the Democrat.

The decision by Oswego County District Attorney Gregory Oakes brings to an end the last of five criminal probes into the disgraced former governor regarding allegations of sexual misconduct.

Mondays decision pertained to a sexual harassment allegation from a woman named Virginia Limmiatis, 55, an employee of an energy company.

Limmiatis had accused Cuomo of touching her chest during a conservation event in Oswego County in May 2017.

According to the report from New York Attorney General Letitia Jamess (D) office, Limmiatis claimed that Cuomo ran two of his fingers across her chest while she stood in a rope line.

She said the governor leaned toward her, putting his face close to her cheek, and whispered, Im going to say I see a spider on your shoulder before brushing his hand in the area between her shoulder and breasts (and below her collarbone), leaving her shocked.

Limmiatis immediately informed a number of other people attending the event about what had happened but did not go public with her story until March 3, after she heard Cuomo say at a press conference that he had never touched anyone inappropriately, and felt compelled to come forward to tell the truth.

Cuomo denied the accusation, but he resigned last August after an investigation led by New York Attorney General Letitia Jamess office found that he had sexually harassed 11 women, one of whom was Limmiatis, from 2013 to 2020.

On Monday, Oakes said that while he had found Limmiatis to be reliable and reasonable ultimately, there is not a sufficient legal basis to criminally charge Cuomo based her allegations.

After a thorough review of the available evidence and applicable law, the Oswego County District Attorneys Office has concluded that there is not a sufficient legal basis to bring criminal charges against former Governor Andrew Cuomo based upon the allegations of unwanted physical contact made by Virginia Limmiatis, Oakes said in a statement on Monday.

To be clear, this decision is based solely upon an assessment of the law and whether the People can establish a legally sufficient case under controlling precedent. In no way should this decision be interpreted as casting doubt upon the character or credibility of Ms. Limmiatis, or how harmful the acts she experienced were, he added.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Aug. 10, 2021. (Office of then-governor Andrew M. Cuomo/Handout via Reuters)

New York Attorney General Letitia James calls on a journalist during a briefing in New York City on May 21, 2021. (Richard Drew/AP Photo)

Oakes went on to criticize the sex offense statutes in New York for failing to provide adequate protection to victims and called for the law to be revised.

This investigation makes clear what victims, their advocates, police, and prosecutors have said for years: The current sex offense statutes in New York fail to properly hold offenders accountable and fail to adequately protect victims, Oakes said.

If justice is to ever be obtained for the countless victims who are sexually abused and harassed in this state each day, the law must be revised and reformed to reflect the lived experiences of victims. I implore legislative leadership in both the NYS Senate and Assembly to please address this issue, or else victims will continue to be denied the justice that they deserve, Oakes wrote.

In a statement, Limmiatis lawyer, Mariann Wang, said that Not every violation of law results in a criminal prosecution but that Oakes decision does not mean Cuomo acted appropriately or lawfully towards Ms. Limmiatis or any of the other women who came forward, or that he didnt cause them significant harm.

Following Mondays decision in Oswego County, Rita Glavin, an attorney for Cuomo, said that photographs from the event show Cuomo did not act improperly, and that truth and the rule of law prevailed, not politics or mob mentality.

Meanwhile, Cuomo called New York Attorney General Letitia James a serial liar whose touted 11 cases have now been reviewed by Democratic & Republican DAs across the state & have resulted in 0 cases being brought while claiming that she had misused her office in an attempt to become governor of New York herself.

Mondays decision brings to a close the last of five criminal cases against Cuomo in Nassau, Westchester, Albany, and Manhattan. None have resulted in charges against the former governor.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The burnt house is shown on Jan. 31, 2022, in Vancouver killed three members of the same family, including a child, and injured two others. (The Canadian Press/Brenna Owen)

No Cause yet for Vancouver House Fire That Killed Three Family Members

VANCOUVERThe smell of smoke lingered Monday after a house fire in Vancouver killed three members of the same family, including a child, and injured two others.

Fire officials have yet to confirm what sparked the flames Sunday.

Assistant Chief Brian Bertuzzi confirmed a child under 10 years old, their mother and grandfather were killed, while the grandmother and father suffered smoke inhalation.

A handwritten sign placed near the front steps of the charred bungalow reads, We love you, Ivan and Our prayers to you, mom (and) grandpa.

Susana Mora lives in a neighbouring home and says she was in lying awake with her young son when she heard loud voices and screams.

Mora says she heard a loud noise, like a pop, and the yelling intensified, but she couldnt understand because the voices werent in English.

Fire Chief Karen Fry said Sunday the basement suite of the home was fully enveloped in flames when rescue personnel arrived around 7:30 a.m. Sunday to find two adults injured outside, while the other family members were still inside.

It wasnt yet known whether smoke alarms in the home were working, Fry said in a statement.

Preliminary findings from the investigation did not indicate anything suspicious, the statement said.

A land title search showed Kam Wing Chik, listed as a businessman, and Miriam Yuk Chun Bob, a nurse, bought the home in 1991.

Another handwritten sympathy note left outside the home was addressed to Mrs. Chik and three other people.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors listen to Orange County residents at a meeting in Santa Ana, Calif., on Aug. 10, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Officials Grant the Orange County Board of Education Voting Map Autonomy

SANTA ANA, Calif.After weeks of contentious debate among county education officials regarding voting maps, the Board of Supervisors granted the county Board of Education autonomy to adjust its district boundaries on Feb. 1.

The Board of Education was granted voting map autonomy instead of the 11 appointed members on the Orange County Committee on School District Organizationthe committee in charge of approving and submitting the final district maps.

We [need to] make sure that the registrar of voters knows  it remains our intent to keep the policymakers in charge, Vice Chair Don Wagner said. They should draw the maps and their maps should prevail, as long as it satisfied all the other requirements.

Wagner, along with supervisors Andrew Do and Lisa Bartlett, voted in favor of the elected education trustees. Meanwhile, Chairman Doug Chaffee and Supervisor Katrina Foley rejected the resolutionrefusing to get involved in the dispute.

I was surprised when I saw this resolution on our agenda since we really have no authority over the matter, Katrina Foley said. Its a slippery slope, one were starting to weigh in.

The unresolved brawl on the county Board of Education district boundaries led the board to sue the Orange County Committee on School District Organization on Jan. 21. However, the lawsuit failed to be granted an emergency order 10 days later as a judge ruled in favor of the committees authority to adjust district boundaries.

The legal matter will undergo a hearing in May, and if the ruling is overturned, the Board of Education will be able to create a different map for the 2024 or 2026 election cycle, county attorney Leon Page said during the meeting.

According to the lawsuit, the committees role was to merely review and verify the map approved by the Board of Education on Dec. 8. However, the committee submitted an entirely different map to the Orange County Registrars Office before the Feb. 2 deadline.

The committee redrew new district boundaries that would kick the board members out of their current districts and make them compete with one another during reelection periods, Board President Mari Barke told The Epoch Times in a previous interview.

According to Jeffery Riel, an advisor for the Orange County Committee on School District Organization, the committee is authorized to adjust trustee boundaries.

While the Board of Supervisors approved the resolution, there is no provision in the law that provides the board with the authority to direct the county Board of Education redistricting process, Riel said.

Over 30 public speakers urged the board to support the resolution that would grant elected Board of Education trustees redistricting rights.

The elected officials should be accountable to voters, a county resident said. I had never heard of this county committee before all of this happened.
Six new stallions will join the Standardbred ranks in Ontario in 2022, for a total of 55 registered Ontario Sires.

The new stallions show what a world class program the Ontario Sires Stakes is. Bar none we have the best program in North America, said Tammy McNiven, member of the Standardbred Improvement Program Committee. They will help our stallion population by bringing in some new blood to freshen everything up.

A ROYAL HIT: The son of million-dollar earner Royalty For Life and Kadabra mare Hit The Hay, A Royal Hit will stand for Peter Albrecht in Atwood, Ont.

BETTING LINE: Former OSS champion Betting Line returns to Ontario for his sixth season at stud. The son of top Ontario sire Bettors Delight and Heathers Western earned $2.2 million in a career that saw him triumph in the North America Cup and Little Brown Jug. He stands at Winbak Farm.

BP CHIMO: The son of Grinfromeartoear and Western Hanover mare Chimi Hanover earned $286,950 and was a three-time Gold elimination winner in his career. He stands at owner James Bartons farm in Branchton, Ont.

BULLDOG HANOVER: The 2020 Super Final champion as a two-year-old, Bulldog Hanover took his 1:48 record in the Circle City Stakes at Hoosier Park last fall. The son of Shadow Play and Artsplace mare BJs Squall will stand at Seelster Farms.

CATTLEWASH: A five-year-old son of the legendary Somebeachsomewhere, Cattlewash joins the Tara Hills farm for his second season standing stud. A winner of $1.3 million, Cattlewash paced to a world record 1:46.4 at The Red Mile as a three-year-old.

CENTURY FARROH: A winner of $1.5 million in his four-year racing career, Century Farroh is a son of Hall of Fame sire Mach Three out of Real Desire mare Beachy Girl. He will stand at Seelster Farms.

Click here for more information about Registered Standardbred Ontario Sires.

(With files from Ontario Racing)
An upstate New York district attorney said Monday he will not bring criminal charges against Andrew Cuomo, becoming the latest prosecutor declining to pursue a criminal case over sexual misconduct allegations against the former governor.

Oswego County District Attorney Gregory Oakes said in a prepared statement that there was "not a sufficient legal basis to bring charges against Cuomo based on the allegation made by Virginia Limmiatis, who said Cuomo ran his fingers across the chest of her shirt at a public event. Oakes said the decision was based solely on a legal assessment and that he found Limmiatis to be reliable and reasonable.

In no way should this decision be interpreted as casting doubt upon the character or credibility of Ms. Limmiatis, or how harmful the acts she experienced were, Oakes said.

The energy company worker said Cuomo ran his fingers on the lettering that ran across the chest of her shirt when they met in a rope line at a 2017 event in the central New York county. He then told her he was going to say there was a spider on her shoulder and proceeded to brush her chest with his hand, according to a report released in August by state Attorney General Letitia James that concluded Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women.

Limmiatis immediately told other attendees what had happened, investigators found, but she didnt come forward until seeing last year's press conference during which Cuomo denied hed touched anyone inappropriately.

Cuomo not only touched my chest inappropriately, but whispered in my ear afterwards to make up a patently ridiculous excuse to cover up his behavior," Limmiatis said in a statement released by her attorney Monday.

Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin, who has been highly critical of the attorney general's report, said that photographs from the event show Cuomo did not act improperly.

"Truth and the rule of law prevailed, not politics or mob mentality, Glavin said in a prepared statement.

Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said none of the allegations reviewed by prosecutors around the state have stood up to any level of real scrutiny and called the attorney general's report a political hit job.

Earlier this year, the only criminal charge filed against Cuomo was dismissed by a judge in Albany at the local prosecutors request. That case involved an allegation that he groped an aide in the executive mansion in 2020 and was seen as the most serious legal threat facing Cuomo.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares said although the aide was credible, and some evidence supported her account, he believed he couldnt win a conviction.

Two prosecutors in the New York City suburbs separately announced that Cuomo would not face charges for allegations involving other women who said they had been subjected to unwanted kisses or touches.

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The world's largest dump trucks shifting earth at Citic Pacific Mining's Sino Iron project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia on Mar. 5, 2010. (AMY COOPES/AFP via Getty Images)

Omicron Threatens Western Australias Mining Industry

Western Australias (WA) economic lifeblood is hanging in the balance with a growing number of mining workers forced to isolate amid the spread of Omicron in the state.

Around 80 workers at mining giant BHPs Yandi iron ore mine in the Pilbara are isolated and awaiting test results after being identified as close contacts to another worker whothough testing negative before departurereturned a positive result after feeling unwell on site.

A case was also recorded at 29Metals Golden Grove copper and zinc mine near Yalgoo. The states total active COVID-19 cases are currently at 155.

WA has been mainly left untouched economically since the beginning of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, with almost every other state in Australia being plunged into billion-dollar budget deficits, WA was the only exception, recording a $5.6 billion surplus on the back of skyrocketing iron ore prices.

BHP confirmed on Jan. 31 that a second case had been recorded linked to the first, with the worker testing positive, but not reporting any symptoms.

Contact tracing and deep cleaning at the site is continuing, and other close and casual contacts remain in isolation as a precaution, a BHP spokesperson said.

The health and wellbeing of our people is our top priority, and everyone impacted is being fully supported during their isolation period.

A coal train awaits loading at BHP Billitons Mt Arthur coal mine in Muswellbrook, Australia. Some experts say that political disputes are the root cause of current coal shortages, such as Chinas power shortages being tied to its decision to ban coal from Australia. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

BHP had earlier attempted to enforce a company-wide vaccination requirement, a decision that was deemed neither lawful nor reasonable by the Fair Work Commission and subsequently overturned in December.

However, the mining sector in WA is still covered by the state governments vaccination and booster mandate, which encompasses more than 75 percent of WAs workforceequivalent to more than a million workers.

Infected workers are currently required to spend 14 days of quarantine, but WAs Chamber of Minerals and Energy has called to immediately bring forward a high caseload plan to lower this figure down to seven days.

Under the WA governments high COVID caseload settings, which will begin if the state experiences a spike in cases, self-isolation will only be required for one week if no symptoms are present on the seventh day.

The new directive was unveiled after WA backflipped on its decision to reopen interstate borders, which was set for Feb. 5, with WA Premier Mark McGowan stating that two doses of vaccination were virtually unable to protect against the Omicron variant.

The science shows that people with only two doses of a COVID vaccine have only a 4 percent protection against being infected by the Omicron variant, with a third dose it can provide a 64 percent protection against infection, McGowan said on Jan. 20.

Read More Leading Executives Flee Western Australia Due to Strict Border Rules, Restrictions

McGowan said the aim was to get rates of third dose vaccination up above 80 to 90 percent. Currently, 97.6 percent of West Australians aged 12 and over have received only one dose, with 35.8 percent of those aged 16 and over receiving their third.

For WAs unvaccinated residents, the WA government has barred their entry to all hospitality and fitness venues, as well as events with over 500 people.

The decision to keep borders closed has also been criticised by business groups, which many also speculated was due to a strained health system that would have been unable to handle Omicron hospitalisations.

The state has had two years to prepare the health system to deal with the COVID outbreak, and this raises questions as to why they apparently remain so ill-prepared to deal with the far milder Omicron variant, Australian Industry Group WA Head Kristian Stratton said.
Tanner Grimshaw looks over his identity theft case in Irvine, Calif., on Jan. 31, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Orange County Launches SafeOC to Fight Cybercrimes

Orange County has rolled out a new campaign to fight against increasing cybercrimes and other criminal activitiesa localized version of the national If You See Something, Say Something anti-terrorism initiative.

The SafeOC initiative is based on the idea that an alert public can play a critical role in keeping Orange County safe, according to social media Twitter page.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said SafeOC will help law enforcement officials battle the new emerging threat of cybercrimes.

Cyber is by far the up and coming crime and risk domestically and oftentimes of foreign bad actors, but it also includes opportunities to bring other threats or risks to our attention, Barnes told ABC7.

The program will create community partnerships and teach county residents how to identify potential threats and report them to law enforcement.

Lance Larson, cyber investigator with the Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center, said the quicker law enforcement is aware of a threat, the earlier a cybercrime can be stopped in its tracks.

It gives us that ability to go on and be able to start the disruption process of stopping the cyberattack, potentially being able to freeze money as its moving through the financial system potentially trying to go overseas, Larson told ABC7. Theyre able to stop certain things that I could not do in a timely fashion.

Due to their virtual nature, cybercrimes can happen to anyone.

Last year, Irvine resident Tanner Grimshaw had his identity stolen, a common type of cybercrime. The incident wreaked havoc on his life for months while he worked to curb the continual opening of credit cards, bank accounts, apartment leases, small loans, and even a $100,000 plus commercial building lease, all under his name.

It all began when he was looking at his credit score in March 2021 and noticed a number of hard checks on his credit that should have required his approval.

Tanner Grimshaw looks over his identity theft case in Irvine, Calif., on Jan. 31, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The thing is, when they have your social [security number], your first and last name, your date of birth and all that, usually they can get by enough when they call people to  open up new accounts, Grimshaw told The Epoch Times.

After police were unable to intervene since no money had actually been stolen yet, Grimshaw was forced to go through a painstaking processcalling up credit bureaus, apartment offices the thief had tried to lease from, and a number of other agenciesall while keeping an extensive paper trail to be able to provide records if requested. He also had to frequently visit different offices in person to prove his identity.

Even after freezing his credit, the mayhem continued.

About a month later, he received an email notifying him that a $100,000 plus commercial propertylater discovered to be an underground casinohad been leased in his name.

The problem is, while youre spending time trying to stop it, they can open up more accounts, he added.

Grimshaw said this type of identity theft often involves a group of people working together, which makes it very challenging for victims to put an end to the fraud activities carried out in their names.

Youre just playing this cat and mouse game and playing catch up, and [you] are one person trying to have a lifea full-time job working, many times have family and kidsand then trying to stop an organized crime of often multiple people, Grimshaw added.

SafeOC aims to help victims like Grimshaw, even before they become victims if possible, by encouraging people to report suspicious behavior, with its website offering concrete examples of suspicious activities that should be reported immediately.

As a part of the SafeOC initiative, all Orange County Sheriff Department recruits will need to go through Cyber Liaison Officer training to learn more about cybercrimes starting Feb. 1.
An empty street is seen outside the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., on Jan. 17, 2021. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

Pennsylvanias Northwest GOP Caucus Refuses to Disclose Full Straw Poll Results

Its caucus season in Pennsylvania, when regional political party caucuses interview candidates, then hold straw polls ranking them by preference.

With five Republican caucus meetings down and a final one happening Wednesday, Feb. 2, party insiders are questioning the way Pennsylvanias Northwest Caucus handled its vote during its meeting Saturday in Knox, Pennsylvania.

During the states first four meetings, the Central, Southwest, Northeast, and Northeast Central caucuses provided results as normal, ranking the caucus votes for governor, lieutenant governor, and Senate. The rankings give candidates an indication of how well they are doing within the party.

But no one knows who won in the Northwest Caucus because the ranked results from that vote will not be made available. Instead of voting for one candidate, each Northwest Caucus member circled their top three preferences. The top three vote-getters were named in each race in no particular order, and the rest of the candidates were not listed at all. Of the top three, no one can tell who came in first, second, or third.

I know a lot of people are upset from the counties involved in the Northwest Caucus, and they told me so, Huntingdon County Republican Committee Chair Arnold McClure told The Epoch Times. No one knows who got how many votes, and that sure doesnt sound very good. I know theres a lot of upset people, state committee members, and county chairs in that region.

Northwest Caucus leader Sheila Sterrett said she decided to use top-three voting because this caucus has so few members, around 41, and each race has so many candidates. Voting for just one could have caused each candidate to get a handful of votes, and the results would not have been meaningful, she explained.

Im happy to release individual vote counts for that specific candidate directly to their campaign, Sterrett told The Epoch Times. They all have my cell phone. She added that candidates will be able to learn the number of votes they received, but she wont tell them the number of votes their opponents received.

Sterrett, who is employed as U.S. Senator Pat Toomeys Western Pennsylvania Director, says she decided to handle the vote this way days before the caucus meeting.

I talked to the caucus members, and candidates were aware of the way we were going to be voting, so I didnt keep it secret, Sterrett said. I mean, I didnt necessarily make a published statement or anything, but if the candidate called me before, I would explain how we were going to be voting. It wasnt done in any secretive way at all.

Some Republican campaigns have suggested that the lack of transparency in providing results may have been done to hide who got low, or no votes, but Sterrett says that is not the case.

Im very upset with how it went. I dont think it should have been done like that, Rick Rathfon, Clarion County GOP chairman and vice chair of the Northwest Caucus, told The Epoch Times.

Rathfon was out of town that day, but sent a proxy to vote. Had he been there, he would have objected to the top-three voting style.

I can tell you theres a number of our caucus members and our state committee members in the northwest who are very unhappy with the way things went. I mean extremely unhappy with the way things went, Rathfon said. A lot of our caucus people think that the whole thing was a complete waste of time.

He says the caucuses should not use different methods when conducting straw votes in the future, and he intends to address it at the states GOP winter meeting, Saturday in Lancaster.

We should be uniform in what were doing as a state party, Rathfon said. I really want to address this at the meeting this weekend. I think that moving forward, every caucus, should do a straw poll exactly the same way so theres no confusion about who won the straw poll or the way meetings are run.

Here are the results, provided by Sterrett, from the Northwest Caucus. These are the top vote-getters in no particular order:

For the U.S. Senate seat, replacing Toomey who is not running again, are: Kathy Barnette, Jeff Bartos, and David McCormick.

For governor, replacing Gov. Tom Wolf who cannot run again, are: Charlie Gerow, Lou Barletta, Bill McSwain, Jason Richey, Dave White, and Dr. Nche Zama. There was a four-way tie for third place.

For lieutenant governor, replacing Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, are: Rick Saccone, John Brown, Jeff Coleman, and Carrie Lewis Del Rosso. Two candidates tied for third place.
President of Peru Pedro Castillo speaks during the annual gathering in New York for the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 21, 2021, in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Perus President Suggests Offering Sea Access to Bolivia, Sparking Outrage

SANTA CRUZ, BoliviaPerus socialist President Pedro Castillo made cryptic remarks during a live interview on Jan. 25 about potentially granting a sea outlet to the landlocked nation of Bolivia.

Castillo indicated hed heard the cry for equal access from their southern neighbor, then added hed consult the people of Peru through a referendum without giving further details.

When asked about the reaction his proposal might provoke, Castillo said, I dont care about that. Ive come to do the will of the Peruvian people.

Predictably the presidents comments triggered an immediate outrage within the country.

It is the latest in a series of debacles and administrative missteps for the embattled head of state.

Castillo narrowly missed being impeached in December 2021 due to an embezzlement scandal involving members of his administration and is currently being investigated by the attorney generals office for alleged influence-peddling over government contracts.

Why put up a barrier [to Bolivia]? Castillo asked rhetorically.

Supporters of presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori take part in a protest under the slogan #respectmyvote in Lima, Peru, on June 26, 2021, amid claims of election fraud in favor of socialist Pedro Castillo in the June 6 runoff election. (JANINE COSTA/AFP via Getty Images)

At the top of the list of complaints about the leaders comments was the nations military.

The Peruvian armed forces released a formal statement on Jan. 27 that rebuked Castillos remarks.

The presidents statements, outlining the possibility of undermining the integrity of the republic, becomes an offense to good Peruvians, the declaration read and was signed by three commanders.

Further, the proclamation called Castillos proposed land grant to Bolivia an unacceptable betrayal of the homeland for the benefit of another nations interest and then compared it to treason.

Congresswoman Maria del Carmen Alva also fired back at the president with a sharp reminder that Article 54 of the nations constitution specifies the territory of the state is inalienable and inviolable, which includes the land, subsoil, maritime domain, and airspace.

She added, National sovereignty and the constitution [must be] respected.

Another congressional member Ernesto Bustamante said Castillos careless remarks have already put a strain on the relationship between Bolivia and Peru by creating unrealistic expectations through the presidents clear support for granting sovereign access to the sea from Peru.

Fanning the flames of indignation, congresswoman Rosselli Amuruz asked the president to resign from office.

Our country cannot continue aimlessly having a person whose position is too big for him and who admits that he is not prepared to govern  resign Mr. President.

Castillo attempted to smooth the ruffled feathers of his countrymen by clarifying his position on Jan. 31.

Yes, I expressed myself badly and I apologize to our people, he admitted.

The president went on to assure Peruvians that he would do nothing without their popular consent and suggested putting the disputed measure to a vote.

He also pointed out the concept of granting sovereign territory to Bolivia for maritime use was not a new concept and had been proposed under former dictator Alberto Fujimori and President Alan Garcia.

Castillo said he would only offer ocean access to Bolivia with the condition of mutual development of economic and tourist growth, and investments between the two nations.

The government of Luis Arce in Bolivia, a fellow socialist regime that has endured since 2006 under former President Evo Morales, has been an ardent supporter of Castillos administration.

He also mentioned the prospect of gaining, in exchange for granting an ocean outlet to Arces government, cheaper gasoline from Bolivia.

Rest assured our brothers that I will be the first to defend the integrity of our country and that our proposal for a maritime concession does not negate national sovereignty, Castillo said.
An Australian photographer in the right place at the right time has captured a shot of a magpie surfing on the outstretched wing of a wedge-tailed eagle in flight, worthy of a double-take.

Wayne Reinke, 65, was out scouting for photos in Gunalda, Queensland, early one morning when he saw the wedge-tailed eagle, one of his favorite birds, being harassed by a magpie.

I quickly got out to take some photos and, in that sequence, I got this shot where it appears the magpie is surfing on its wing, Reinke told The Epoch Times. That day, I was following one of my usual routes, the one where I find that particular eagle  this shot was handheld, as Id seen the magpie harass the eagle and rapid fired on the scene.

Reinke said its hard to know in the moment whether a shot will be any good.

You dont find out until youre back at home checking them on the computer, he explained. Honestly, thats the best part of getting home, seeing what Ive managed to capture that day.

The hobby photographer, who lives in a small country town in Queensland between Gympie and Maryborough, feels he nailed it with his shot of the surfing magpie. He posted the photo to the Australian Native Birds public social media group and amassed hundreds of shares and likes; many claimed they wished they could see the spectacle for themselves.

Reinke says he uses Adobe Lightroom for minor edits to the size and exposure of his photos. However, he clarified that he tries not to alter the color of the bird in order to present a true representation of its beauty.

Photography started for me when my son was gravely ill, Reinke explained. Hed previously been interested in photography, and so when he was in hospital, Id take him out each morning to take photos. I fell in love with the raptors and have continued taking photos for myself.

Im retired now, and pursuing bird photography as an enjoyable pastime. Most days I go to various locations around my area to capture the birds of the region. I have a relationship with many of these birds, as I go every day to their areas and see how theyre doing.

For Reinke, its not about the photo, but more about leaving the house to experience nature and the hustle-bustle of life. The greatest joy in his hobby is seeing the enjoyment it brings to others.

Ive found it difficult to schedule the magpie and eagle on the same day, he said, considering his now-viral photo. Every photo I take, I feel lucky to be there at that moment, but of course it was amazing to get the shot.

Reinkes dedication to his local bird community has paid off; he has other notable photos in his archive, including a magnificent shot of a willie wagtail hitchhiking on the back of an osprey.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Bright newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is seen during a press conference at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Brisbane, Australia, Aug. 11, 2021. (AAP Image/Darren England)

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk Denies Knowledge of Allegations Officials Falsified Report

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has denied having any prior knowledge of allegations that her government ordered former state archivist Mike Summerell to deliberately change one of his annual reports in a way that would tell a misleading story for political gain.

This comes after Summerell, who left the job in March 2021, said he was ordered to remove any information from his 201718 annual report relating to Transport Minister Mark Baileys private email scandal.

Further, he alleged that for the next three years the vast majority of his requests to obtain Crown law legal advice on the independence of his role was blocked by the Department of Housing and Public Works.

Speaking to reporters on Feb. 1, Palaszczuk said: I have not seen the full summary (of the allegations). Ive heard about it and, as I said, they are serious.

The premier questioned why the former state archivist did not refer the matter to Queenslands corruption watchdog, the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC), while he was still employed as a public servant.

I encourage our public servants to be frank and honest and say if they dont think somethings right, she said, adding that all public service employees have an obligation to raise issues with their supervisor or the director general.

Theyre serious matters and there are courses of action that any employee of the public service can take, she added.

If these were of such concern to him at the time, why were they not made at the time as well? However, Im more than happy for my director general to look into these matters that have been raised.

Report Allegedly Whitewashed

Having published annual reports for 201516 and 201617 with no interference, problems allegedly began when Summerell said he was pressured to remove any content from the 201718 report that could be perceived negatively.

Explicitly, removal of anything that referred to the Bailey investigations, its findings, its recommendations, its costs, potential improvements to the public records act, the standard of government record-keepingessentially all the things the Act suggests I report on. It became a completely misleading document  and intentionally so, he said, according to a statement published by Courier Mail.

Queensland minister Mark Bailey speaks during Question Time at Parliament House in Brisbane, Australia, on Oct. 27, 2021. (AAP Image/Jono Searle)

Summerells statement comes after Sunday Mail reported that it had uncovered a copy of the allegedly whitewashed annual report, in which Summerell considered whether Bailey could face criminal prosecution for multiple breaches of the act for using his private Yahoo email account.

The State Archivist considers that there are multiple grounds to argue that the actions of Minister Bailey are consistent with [a] breach of section 13 of the Public Records Act and are of such significance in terms of number and importance of the records to consider prosecution under the Public Records Act and any other relevant legislation, the report stated, according to Sunday Mail.

The Epoch Times could not independently verify the report.

Summerell could not reconcile the orders he allegedly received to remove references to Baileywhen he was summoned to state government head officeswith his perceived independence as a state archivist who had to deliver independent reports to the Queensland Parliament.

I was informed that the previous perceived independence of the state archivist which had been in place since the passing of the public records in 2002 was no longer valid, he said.

Summerell said the director-general had obtained legal advice that the state archivist had no independence other than in disposal decisions and was in fact subject to the direction and control of the director-general and the minister.

I responded to that with a lengthy paper outlining how this was completely inconsistent with previous legal advice, the purpose of the act, the intent of the act and practices across Australia and [New Zealand]. My response was ignored, Summerell said.

However, the premier repeatedly stated that the state archivist was not an independent statutory authority maker, saying that in her understanding, Summerell was a public sector employee who left his position.

Under the Code of Conduct, theres an obligation to raise things with your director general or your supervisor, Palaszczuk said. But also too, if there are serious allegations of misconduct, the right avenues for those matters to be investigated is the CCC.

Palaszczuk was unable to provide details about the rules surrounding annual reports despite being the premier for seven years and serving under a previous Labor government.

Allegedly Blocked From Crown Legal Advice

Meanwhile, Summerell said that he was unable to seek independent legal advice from Crown law offices to clarify the orders he was allegedly given to water down the annual report because those requests had to go through the Department of Housing and Public Works which chose not to progress them.

I as State archivist requested Crown Law legal advice on two key aspects of this as I felt the position was fundamentally incorrect.

I asked for clarification that I could be directed on the content of my annual report and in investigations I undertook in regard to potential breaches of the Act.

My view was that the Act gave me independence in investigationsindeed any interference in my investigations was in fact a breach of the Act, he said.

Meanwhile, Palaszczuk has said the director-general of public service will investigate the allegations.

In a statement on Feb. 1, Housing Minister Leanne Enoch said: The State Archivist is appointed under the Public Service Act 2008 and reports to the Deputy Director-General and ultimately to the Director-General of the department, not the Minister.

If the former State Archivist has evidence, he believes requires further investigation, he should provide it to the relevant authorities.

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has called for a royal commission on the matter.
A statue of the goddess of justice balancing the scales, at a courthouse in Rennes, France, on May 19, 2015. (DAMIEN MEYER/AFP via Getty Images)

Professor Sues After Being Canceled for Tweets About Reparations, Racial Bias Training

A mathematics professor at St. Josephs University is suing the school after it canceled him for an anonymous tweet mocking a controversial policy proposal that would have the government pay monetary reparations to the descendants of slaves.

Professor Gregory V. Manco, who was subsequently demoted, claims that he was accosted by an online mob for engaging in legally protected speech that expressed his personal opinions, and that the school made things worse.

Manco might be called a libertarian. According to Legal Insurrection, he has written op-eds on political topics expressing such views, including one stating that people should combat racism with individualism, capitalism [and] limited government and arguing against white fragility training.

Slavery itself was abolished in the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1865, months after the end of the Civil War, in which slavery was a major issue. The amendment states: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Limited to the political fringe for years, the reparations issue has become increasingly popular in left-wing circles and in Democratic Party politics.

The legal complaint (pdf) in the case, Manco v. St. Josephs University, was filed Jan. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The complaint names as defendants the private Jesuit university in Philadelphia, as well as several administrators.

Manco, a Caucasian man who identifies himself in the complaint as a former Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at St. Josephs, is seeking damages from the school because it is responsible for the actions of a small group of administrators [who]  [gave] credence to completely false, unsupported, undocumented, and implausible allegations of racial bias, and then used those allegations to justify an investigation, suspension and non-renewal of his contract  despite his dedication and excellent performance.

In doing so, the school violated its legal duty by discriminating against him, on the basis of his race, and breached its contractual and other legal obligations to him, the complaint reads.

What the defendants did constituted the social phenomenon of cancel culture, which is widespread, has ruined lives, damaged reputations, and jeopardized the futures of individuals.

Manco earned a doctorate in statistics from Rutgers University in 1997. He first joined St. Josephs in 2005 as an adjunct professor and was hired in 2007 as a visiting assistant professor of mathematics. He taught about eight courses and 230 students each year, and got favorable reviews from students and the school.

The legal complaint states that a low-performing former student of Manco saw his anonymous statements on Twitter opposing a recurring left-wing proposal to provide the descendants of slaves with reparations, and complained he was racist and transphobic, according to the complaint. A social media user connected the tweets to the professor and exposed him. Then, a graduate of St. Josephs urged people to flood the school with complaints.

One of the tweets stated: Suppose your great-great-grandfather murdered someone. The victims great-great-grandson knocks on your door, shows you the newspaper clipping from 1905, and demands compensation from you. Your response?

A space was left blank in the tweet, under which it concluded with the sentence: Now get this racist reparations [expletive] out of your head for good.

Another tweet said: So if these numbers are true about peoples perceptions of racism, what does it say about all of the race/bias training that has been going on for some years now?

Could it be that such training actually divides us and *worsens* race relations?

Soon after the tweets were publicized on social media, the school summoned Manco to an online meeting and informed him that he was being placed on administrative leave immediately, without any due process, and that the complaints against him would be investigated by an external reviewer.

Minutes later, the school emailed him to advise that his tweets had been declared to be of a biased or discriminatory nature. On Feb. 22, 2021, one school day after he was placed on leave, Mancos students were told by the school that he would not be returning for the remainder of the semester, the legal complaint states.

An investigation cleared Manco on May 12, 2021. An outside investigator hired by the school wrote a 10-page report finding that Dr. Mancos tweets were not in violation of [school] policy and that there [was] no evidence of racial bias in his classroom.

Despite that, St. Josephs decided to tell the public a different story, releasing a statement that stated, [i]n this case, a definitive determination could not be made due to insufficient evidence.

This public statement was malicious, defamatory, and false.

I was confident all along that a fair investigation would clear me, Manco told Legal Insurrection. Yet I find myself not happy, but rather upset that I was suspended and investigated in the first place. This never should have happened, and I hope that it doesnt happen to anyone else.

Leslie Miller Greenspan of the Philadelphia law firm Tucker Law Group was identified in the online docket as attorney for the school when she accepted service of the legal complaint on Jan. 27.

The Epoch Times reached out to Greenspan for comment by telephone and email, but had not received a response as of press time.

The court has ordered St. Josephs University to file a response to the complaint by March 25.
Public Will Hear If Johnson Fined Over CCP Virus Rule Breaches: Downing Street

The UKs public will be told if police issue fines to Prime Minister Boris Johnson for breaching CCP virus restrictions, Downing Street confirmed on Tuesday, hours after it said it was up to the police to decide whether to make the information public.

Johnson is under fresh calls for him to resign as the prime minister after an internal inquiry into a string of partying allegations, led by senior civil servant Sue Gray, found a serious failure to observe the high standards expected of those working at the heart of government, and criticised failures of leadership and judgment by parts of Number 10 and the Cabinet Office.

Downing Street is also under police investigation after Grays team passed to the Metropolitan Police hundreds of documents and photographs in relation to 12 events in 2020 and 2021 held while England was under CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus restrictions.

Earlier on Tuesday, Johnsons spokesman said it was up to the Met to set out what they see fit at the conclusion of their work, while the Met pointed to College of Policing guidance stating that the names of people dealt with by fixed penalty noticesthe likely punishment for a breach of the coronavirus regulationswould not normally be disclosed.

The spokesman later said No 10 is aware of the significant public interest with regard to the prime minister and would always look to provide what updates we can on him, specifically.

Asked if that meant No 10 would say if Johnson was given a fixed penalty notice, the spokesman said: Hypothetically, yes.

The shift came after Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said the public had the right to know if Johnson is fined over the Partygate affair.

Several Conservative MPs have previously called on Johnson to resign while others were waiting for Gray to publish her report. After Grays report was published in part on Monday, Conservative MP Peter Aldous said he has joined his colleagues in writing to the 1922 committeea committee of all backbench Conservative MPsto ask for a vote of no confidence in Johnson.

After a great deal of soul-searching, I have reached the conclusion that the prime minister should resign, the MP for Waveney wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

It is clear that he has no intention of doing so and I have therefore written to the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Backbench Conservative MPs, advising him that I have no confidence in the prime minister as leader of the Conservative Party.

I have never taken such action before and had hoped that I would not be put in such an invidious position. Whilst I am conscious that others will disagree with me, I believe that this is in the best interests of the country, the government, and the Conservative Party.

If 54 Conservative MPs write to the committee, a leadership contest will be triggered.

Asked if Johnson was worried by Aldous tweet, the spokesman referred reporters to the prime ministers comments in Parliament on Monday following the publishing of Grays report.

Johnson apologised to MPs on Monday and promised to make major changes to the way he runs the government, including by creating an Office of the Prime Minister with a permanent secretary to lead Number 10.

He also highlighted a greater role for Australian election guru Sir Lynton Crosby in an effort to bolster his support on the Tory benches.

Grays report was partly redacted because the Met requested Gray to make minimal reference to the events being investigated by police.

Asked on Tuesday if hes committed to publishing Grays inquiry in full, including the 300 images, Johnson said his office will publish everything that we can as soon as the process has been completed.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Reaching Nebraskas grassy Sandhills region in the 1880s, ranchers found themselves among haystacksuntil botanist Charles Bessey stepped in and planted some pines

The hills bear all manner of fantastic shapes, Charles Bessey observed, noting that they sometimes featured open pockets of bare sand in blowouts and were provokingly steep and high. Bessey was describing the Sandhills, the area of post-glacial dunes wrought by mighty winds in north-central and northwestern Nebraska. Aided by his botany students from the University of Nebraska (todays University of NebraskaLincoln), he cataloged a treasure of plant species in 1892. Yet besides spurges and gooseberries, herbaceous plants such as smooth beardtongue, and grasses such as Eatonia obtusata, he found the potential for forestation.

He was convinced that the moist soil of the Sandhills would support forest growth, the historian Thomas R. Walsh wrote. Nebraska had gained statehood in 1867 but still had enough untouched areas to be a virgin natural laboratory, as Walsh described it. And there were so few trees for wood, shelter, or shade. Bessey had been pushing the state legislature to reserve Sandhills tracts for tree planting. In 1891, urged by the top forestry official in Washington, D.C., he started a test plot at the eastern edge of the Sandhills, which encompassed an area about the size of New Jersey. Ponderosa pines were a big component of the experiments 13,500 conifers. With the initial indication that they would do fine, he started a campaign to convince people that forestation was practical. After all, as Walsh noted, the area was once covered by a pine forest that was destroyed by prairie fires.

Bessey had come to the University of Nebraska in 1884, lured from Iowa Agricultural College (today, Iowa State University) by an offer of $2,500 per year. He was already the author of Botany for High Schools and Colleges, the nations first textbook on the subject. His motto of Science with Practice indicated a teaching philosophy that mixed laboratory and field work with classroom instruction. He was one of a small group of professors at the prairie university, attended by just 373 students in the year he arrived, but he had an outsized and enduring influence through his popular botany seminar. A top student in the 1892 cataloging project was Roscoe Pound, who claimed the universitys first Ph.D. in botany, then distinguished himself as a legal scholar and served two decades as dean of Harvard Universitys law school.

Lab. (Courtesy of the Charles E. Bessey, Botany Papers, Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries)

Throughout the latter years of the Gilded Age, Bessey kept hammering away at the idea of national forests. To Gifford Pinchot, head of the national Division of Forestry, he wrote, In the Sandhills, we have a region which has been shown to be adapted to the growth of coniferous forest trees, and here we can now secure large tracts which are not yet owned by private parties. Pinchot had the ear of President Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1902 set aside 206,028 acres in two reserves in the Sandhills. This was the first and only instance in which the federal government removed non-forested public domain from settlement to create a man-made forest reserve, Walsh explained.

The two reserves are 75 miles apart. The northern Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest is on the Niobrara River near the city of Valentine. The southern one, first called Dismal River Forest Reserve, is now the Nebraska National Forest at Halsey and is managed by the Bessey Ranger District. (Nebraskans refer to it as Halsey Forest.) Within it are the Bessey Recreation Area and the crucially important Charles E. Bessey Tree Nursery, which yearly produces 1.5 million bare-root seedlings and up to 850,000 container seedlings for distribution in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states. Additionally, the nursery acts as the seed bank for Rocky Mountain Region 2, storing about 14,000 pounds of conifer seeds in case of wildfire or insect infestation.

Carson Vaughan, author of Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream, grew up in Broken Bow, about 50 miles from Halsey Forest. It was only after he started writing articles about Bessey and the forest that he comprehended the magnitude of the original undertaking: creating the largest man-made forest in the United States. Nothing like this has ever happened anywhere else on the planet, he said. And it all started because this pioneering botanist, Charles Bessey, had this wild idea and the patience, the dogged persistence, to stick with it over a couple decades and see it come to fruition.

Vaughan remembered climbing Scott Lookout Tower, near Halsey, and feeling the impact upon viewing a forest amid treeless grasslands. You get the rolling, billowing Sandhills right next to this very clear, dark, dense forest, he said. The experience reinforced the concept that it took human beings planting all of these trees to make this national forest grow out of this sandy, arid region.

After succeeding in the Sandhills, Bessey turned to other important challenges. In 1903, he was contacted about the effort to save the giant sequoias in certain groves in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. He tried to interest President Roosevelt in the cause, then introduced the matter into proceedings of scientific societies, sending their resolutions on the matter to congressional representatives. Although he helped to set the conservation process in motion, Bessey would pass away in 1915 without seeing his efforts bear fruit. 16 years later, the state of California acquired the Mammoth Tree Grove, which is a principal element of the eventual Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

Bessey at work. (Courtesy of the Charles E. Bessey, Botany Papers, Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries)

On the other side of the country, Bessey became involved in the effort to create a national forest reserve in the southern Appalachians. The cutting away and total destruction of the forests is a crime against the community as a whole, he wrote. In 1908, a bill to authorize the reserves came before the House of Representatives, but soon died. It particularly galled Bessey that one of his former students, Representative Ernest M. Pollard, was on the agricultural committee, which had deferred action. It does seem as though we had the most stupid and blinded lot of men in charge of our affairs that has ever cursed any country, Bessey wrote to House Speaker Joseph G. Cannon. Bessey and others kept working, and ultimately, the Weeks Act of 1911 was passed, providing for acquisition and preservation of forested lands nationwide.

Today, visitors to the University of NebraskaLincoln can see an image of Bessey in bas-relief on a bronze tablet atwhere else?Bessey Hall. Theres also a Bessey Hall at Iowa State. And at Michigan State University, Ernst Bessey Hall is named for Charless son, who became a professor of botany and dean at MSUs graduate school from 1930 to 1944. The apple didnt fall far from the tree.

Daily Nebraskan column. (Courtesy of the Charles E. Bessey, Botany Papers, Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries)

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
The catholic priest Franco Mella (R) talks to the media before delivering a letter addressed to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, calling on authorities to drop charges against media mogul Jimmy Lai and other political activists jailed or in custody under the national security law, outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong, on Jan. 31, 2022. (James Pomfret/Reuters)

Religious Groups Call for Amnesty for Hongkongers Charged Under National Security Law

HONG KONGA coalition of Christians and Catholics on Monday called on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to drop charges against media tycoon Jimmy Lai and other political activists jailed or in custody under a Chinese-regime-imposed national security law.

The petition by more than a dozen Christian and Catholic groups and leaders was handed to a government representative outside Hong Kongs government headquarters.

She could be active in asking Beijing [for an amnesty], said Catholic priest Franco Mella, referring to Hong Kongs leader Carrie Lam, who is a Catholic.

Lets hope she gives an answer to the voice of her conscience as a Catholic, Mella said, flanked by Reverend Chi Wood Fung, a Hong Kong Anglican priest and former lawmaker. I hope more voices can be heard about the possibility of an amnesty for them.

Lams office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Among the signatories was Reverend Alan Smith of St. Albans in the UK and the former Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland, Lord Eames. Mella said he hoped the Pope would join his voice in speaking out on rights issues in Hong Kong.

The Chinese communist regime imposed a sweeping national security law in June 2020 outlawing subversion, collusion with foreign forces, terrorism, and secession with possible life imprisonment. More than 160 people have been arrested under the legislation.

Some Western governments and rights groups say authorities are using the law to silence dissent and curb freedoms.

Among the most prominent national security law defendants are 47 pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers arrested in a mass raid in early 2021, as well as former media tycoon and Chinese regime critic Lai.

Media mogul Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, arrives at the Court of Final Appeal, for hearing an appeal by the Department of Justice against the bail decision of Lai, in Hong Kong, on Dec. 31, 2020. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Although some of Hong Kongs government and commercial elites are Catholic and pro-Beijing, including Lam, other Catholics have long been active in the pro-democracy movements including Lai and former law professor Benny Tai.

Some observers see Hong Kongs broad religious freedoms and traditions, like the rule of law, as one of the remaining strongholds of the one country, two systems model under which Britain handed its former colony back to Chinese rule in 1997.

The Basic Law, the mini-constitution that governs one country, two systems, explicitly provides for freedom of conscience and broad religious freedom.
With the electric and intelligent transformation happening in the auto industry, Chinas major automaker, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, rode the tide closely in 2021.

The automaker set up a premium EV brand, VOYAH, which has become more and more popular among consumers. In the meantime, Dongfeng Motor also partnered with several autonomous driving companies to expand its reach in the automotive intelligence field.

VOYAH FREE; photo credit: VOYAH



On the other hand, as one of the largest state-owned auto groups in China, Dongfeng Motors foreign joint venture brands have experienced several significant changes in 2021. For example, the company has officially withdrew from Dongfeng Yueda Kia.

Here is a list of big occasions of Dongfeng Motor Corporation in 2021.

Dongfeng Motor sells 3.3 million vehicles in 2021

Chinas major automaker, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, released its 2021 annual sales report on January 5th, and its wholly-owned passenger vehicle sector achieved outstanding results.

According to the automaker, in 2021, it sold 3.275 million vehicles in total, notching down 5.28% from a year ago.

VOYAHs 10,000th vehicle rolls off line, new sedan model coming in 2022

On January 21st, Dongfeng Motors high-end EV brand, VOYAH, celebrated its 10,000th vehicle rolling off the production line at the brands 4.0 digital factory.

It took VOYAH 205 days to hit the 10,000th mark, from June 30th, 2021, when its first VOYAH FREE vehicle rolled off the line, leading the industry in speed.

The 10,000th vehicle is VOYAHs only mass-production model currently, the VOYAH FREE. The FREE hit the market in June 2021 and started delivery two months later, on August 8th, with its sales volume growing month after month.

Dongfeng Motor, QCraft launch autonomous Sharing Bus in Wuhan

Dongfeng Motor Corporation's autonomous technology arm, Dongfeng Yuexiang, has co-developed and started trial operation of a driverless bus, the Sharing Bus, with autonomous driving developer QCraft.

The two companies also inked a cooperation agreement, building a long-term deep collaboration foundation. Per the agreement, the partners will cooperate in the mass production, customization, and iteration of the Sharing Bus, practicing the autonomous driving commercial operation 2.0, helping Wuhan become the first "autonomous driving city" in China.

Dongfeng Motor officially withdraws from Dongfeng Yueda Kia

Dongfeng Motor Corporations formerly reported transfer of its 25% stake in Dongfeng Yueda Kia, its joint venture with South Koreas Kia Motors and Chinas Yueda Group was completed, according to Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange (SUAEE).

SUAEEs releasement showed that the said 25% stake of Dongfeng Yueda Kia was sold by RMB297 million, representing Dongfeng Groups official withdrawal from the joint venture.

VOYAH unveils first electric MPV, showcasing at Guangzhou Auto Show

The premium EV brand of Dongfeng Motor, VOYAH, introduced the brands second vehicle model, also the worlds first luxury large-size battery-electric MPV model, at an event last night.

The VOYAH MPV has enriched the brands product lineup, given that the other existing model, the VOYAH FREE, is an SUV. The company plans to build its product lineup across SUVs, MPVs, and sedans in the next three years and introduce at least one new model every year.

Dongfengs light commercial vehicle sector cooperates with JD.com

Today, Dongfeng Automobile Co., Ltd. (DFAC), the light commercial vehicle arm of Dongfeng Group, announced its recently formed partnership with Chinas e-commerce giant, JD.com, for smart logistics development.

Per the announcement, the two parties will pivot strategically, providing a comprehensive product and service integrated logistic experience to users.

Dongfeng to export 100,000 NEVs to Europe in 2022

Chairman of Dongfeng Motor, Zhu Yanfeng, said that Dongfeng plans to export 100,000 new energy vehicles to Europe next year as the automaker also set a target of realizing 100% electrification among its new passenger vehicle brands in 2024.

The chairman said that to maintain a place in the diverse and competitive new energy automaking industry, Dongfeng Motor needs to replicate the advantages of the start-up auto manufacturers. The group will bring forward a brand-new customized new energy product, M, in 2022, under another new energy vehicle brand.

Dongfeng Motor aims to sell 1 million NEVs annually by 2025

Chairman of Dongfeng Motor, Zhu Yanfeng emphasized the importance of practical innovations in the industry during the 2021 WNEC (World New Energy Vehicle Congress). It will be an undoing to fall behind or to come in advance prematurely, said the chairman, as he urged all companies in the industry to be cautious when blindly pursuing untimely innovations.

Zhu Yanfeng believed that upon the arrival of the era of NEVs, all companies had to be down-to-earth and steady when trying to stand out. The influences of the creation need to be reflected in corporate performance and social responsibilities. Enterprises should keep a good grip on maintaining the balance of pushing new technology and actual market demands, not to be a flash mob enterprise.

Dongfeng Motors upscale EV brand VOYAH to tap into overseas market

VOYAH, the premium electric vehicle (EV) of Dongfeng Motor, announced on July 8 it will make inroads into overseas markets, the first NEV brand backed by Chinese state-owned automaker to go outside China.

While exploiting the domestic market, VOAYH is engaged in a vigorous effort to break into the massive global new energy vehicle (NEV) market, aiming to be one of leaders for the premium electric vehicle segment, said Lu Fang, CEO of VOYAH.

Dongfeng Motor partners with Aulton for battery swapping business

Dongfeng Motor Corporation Passenger Vehicle Company (DFPV) and Aulton, a leading Chinese battery swapping technology provider, recently formed a strategic partnership for battery swapping model.

Under the agreement, the duo will jointly develop the vehicle model equipped with swappable batteries, namely the Dongfeng Fengshen E70, expecting to complete the first volume production in June 2021.
The tanker Sun Arrows loads its cargo of liquefied natural gas from the Sakhalin-2 project in the port of Prigorodnoye, Russia, on Oct. 29, 2021. (AP Photo)

Russias Gas Production Sets Record High

Russias natural gas production is projected to reach a record high in 2022, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency.

The agencys most recent quarterly report forecasted that Russia would produce 763 billion cubic meters of gas in 2022, constituting the countrys highest annual gas production in thirty years.

However, exports of natural gas have been slow to catch up with total production. Gazprom, which controls pipeline-gas exports from Russia, reported natural gas sales of just 185 billion cubic meters overseas last year, making for only the fourth-highest annual exports in a year that broke a new record for total production.

With an estimated 1,688 trillion cubic feet, Russia holds the worlds largest natural gas reserves, and this abundance of gas has allowed the country to maintain a high degree of energy independence while supplying one third of Europes natural gas supply.

One of the latest Russian efforts to expand its natural gas exports to Europe has been the Nord Stream pipelines, which deliver natural gas directly from Russia to Germany through the Baltic sea, bypassing intermediaries such as Ukraine and Belarus. The project was initiated despite the protestations of the United States, which feared that increasing gas exports to Europe would increase Russian hard power in the region.

Nord Stream 1 has been in operation since 2011, but Nord Stream 2 (which would double the projects capacity) has been stuck in limbo since its completion in September of last year, as geopolitical factors have compelled Germany to hold off on inaugurating the pipeline. The inauguration of Nord Stream 2 has become a source of leverage in Russias recent tensions with NATO over Ukraine, with the inauguration of the pipeline being delayed by Germany as a result of pressure from the United States.

The timing is most unfortunate for Germany, which finds itself in the midst of a heating crisis in the middle of winter, as the countrys denuclearization has resulted in energy uncertainty for the Central European power. In the wake of the 2012 Fukushima nuclear power accident in Japan, German activists successfully lobbied the Merkel government to commit to a phasing out of nuclear power, which is on track to be completed this year.

However, the current gas scarcity has provoked remorse among some Germans, who now view the decision to denuclearize as shortsighted and counterproductive. Neighboring France has taken the opposite approach, with nuclear power providing over 70 percent of the nations energy supply. This emphasis has largely insulated France from the energy issues that now confront Germany.

With natural gas exports becoming the latest chess piece in the complex Russia-NATO tensions, projections for exports of the energy resource remain uncertain and contingent on geopolitical developments. Meanwhile, Russias natural gas extraction continues unabated at rates higher than any point in recent decades, with the nations massive reserves and a booming industry providing plenty for willing purchasers on international markets.
The Peace Tower rises above the West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Scrutinizing Government Increasingly Difficult, Say Watchdogs

Canadian governments are more talk than action when it comes to transparency and accountability, say some in watchdog organizations.

Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch says he is still waiting for the open by default government the Trudeau Liberals promised prior to their election in 2015.

The Trudeau government usually misleads in their initial response, and then when its pointed out that theyre lying to voters, they then come up with lame excuses for delaying action or solving whatever the problem is.

And then [they] just dont do anything again until the media highlights, again, that the problem still exists and hasnt been solved. And thats the pattern since they were elected in 2015, Conacher said in an interview.

On Dec. 22, 2021, the Treasury Board released the first interim report on the federal governments public consultations on its access to information legislation. Conacher says the governments own report clearly showed that Canadians want a wider body of information made availableand sooner.

The public, citizen groups, and experts have loudly and clearly called once again, as they have for decades, for key changes to close loopholes in the federal access to information law, and [to] strengthen enforcement, Conacher said in a statement.

The federal access to information law is so full of loopholes that it really is just a guide to keeping information secret that the public has a right to know.

The Treasury Board said in an email that the government has identified a number of key actions that it is undertaking to improve access to information (ATI). They include extending the retention of ATI summary requests on the Open Government Portal beyond 2 years, releasing guidance to federal institutions to streamline the review process prior to proactively publishing materials, and working towards declassification of records.

The government has committed to a full and complete review of access to information and will take the necessary time it needs to meet this commitment, the email said.

Politicians Write the Laws for Themselves

Bill C-58, which was introduced in 2017 and received royal asset in 2019, requires the prime minister to proactively disclose ministerial mandate letters and also requires certain information concerning ministers to be published, including briefing materials and travel and hospitality expenses.

However, the government reneged on an election promise to make the offices of the prime minister and cabinet subject to information requests. Worse, the bill created new barriers to accessing information, such as imposing new obligations on people making a request and adding new grounds for institutions to decline to act in response to requests.

Bill C-58 fails to deliver.  Rather than advancing access to information rights, Bill C-58 would instead result in a regression of existing rights, then-information commissioner Suzanne Legault said in a 2017 report.

Others complain that the government is too slow in its routine reporting. On Jan. 19, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux called for new legislation to require the governments public accounts to be published no later than Sept. 30 of any given year, instead of Dec. 31.

Conacher says he is more impressed with Giroux than others whose positions purportedly keep government accountable. Democracy Watch launched legal action following the 2017 federal appointments of the ethics commissioner and the commissioner of lobbying, saying the Liberal government had misled opposition parties and the public in the selection process. The Federal Court of Appeal agreed the Trudeau cabinet was biased, but said that was reasonable.

Politicians write the laws for themselves and choose their own watchdogs,  and they even choose the judges at the federal level who will judge them and judge every provincial government, most particularly liberal judges. So all you can do is hope that embarrassment, pressure from opposition parties and the media and the public, will get the laws changed, Conacher said.

But it is a difficult process because the ruling party doesnt really have much incentive to increase its own accountability. And the opposition parties often want to complain but not really push for systemic change, because theyre hoping to get into power and do the same thing.

By example, 15 years of Liberal rule ended in Ontario in 2018, but some who helped Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives gain power now lobby the government. The Ontario Integrity Commissioner made allowances in 14 such cases, which Democracy Watch has legally challenged.

Fees, Backlogs in BC and Ottawa

Transparency and accountability in governments vary across the provinces. In British Columbia, Christy Clarks Liberal government suffered a scandal in 2015 after B.C.s privacy commissioner reported that political government staff had been triple-deleting emails to ensure they would not be kept on servers and in backups, thus preventing them from being unearthed in information requests.

Recent amendments introduced by the NDP government dont satisfy Jason Woywada, executive director of the non-profit BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.

They put in place a duty to document and basically created a trust us, well get it done scenario, without any independent oversight or review process. [Nor did they] put in place a civil monetary penalty for someone failing to appropriately document, Woyada told The Epoch Times.

Theyve slipped in, created some rollbacks in that theyve introduced a user fee for FOIs now, he said of Freedom of Information requests.

If I request information from the government and they come back with a time estimate that it could take 40 or 50 hours to find, and I have to pay for every hour above 10, is that a reasonable amount of time?

B.C.s Ministry of Citizens Services said in an email that on top of the amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act made in the fall of 2021, more government information continues to be made available to the public through proactive disclosure directives, meaning people dont need to file an FOI request.

As for the user fee, it was intended to bring B.C. in line with other jurisdictions that charge a fee, the email said, but it doesnt apply to individuals requesting their personal information or to Indigenous Governing Entities.

Woywada says the pandemic has been used as an excuse for slow replies. He says it is also becoming more common for governments to refuse prompt, informal disclosure and instead funnel them through formal FOI requests. This creates more backlog.

The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy, he said.

Its getting to the point with some of these requests that you have to leave them as an inheritance for people to pick up because the request for information may indeed exceed your lifespan now.

In recent weeks, Ottawa researcher Michael Dagg filed a notice of application to the Federal Court after Library and Archives Canada said it would take 80 years to respond to an information request.

Thats a joke, Woywada says.

The trend line is a reduction in trust in public bodies, the trend line is a lack of information being released without a fight.
Senator Sam McMahon(L) in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on September 09, 2019. (Photo by Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

Senator Sam McMahon Quits Country Liberal Party Over Unresolved Complaints

Senator Sam McMahon resigned from the Northern Territorys Country Liberal Party (CLP) on Friday, saying that a number of formal complaints she made to management were ignored.

This comes after McMahon was overlooked as the CLPs top candidate for the Senate at the next federal election, with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price being preselected for the job in June last year.

However, in a statement issued on Monday, McMahon said that there were several unresolved issues beyond the preselection, including formal complaints lodged with the management committee that have not garnered a response, let alone an acknowledgement.

I feel I no longer have confidence in the CLP, McMahon said.

She didnt elaborate on the nature of the complaints, but CLP Party President Jamie Di Brenni told Mix 104.9 on Monday that while he hadnt heard McMahons statement, there are issues, and there was an acknowledgement that they were being dealt with.

The complaint is in regards to issues that Sam has had with people inside the party, individuals inside the party, and thats going to be dealt with, he said.

We have to get a response; thats an internal thing.

Di Brenni said he was not going to badmouth Sam because he has a lot of respect for her.

She represented our emblem that we gave her the privilege to do for three years, and Im going to respect her for that  as long as I know her, he said.

McMahon said the resignation hadnt been an easy decision and one which shed been wrestling with in recent times.

It brings to an end a 30-year association, she said.

My intention regarding the next election will become clearer as the date draws closer.

As for the newly independent senators political future, McMahon said she doesnt have any plans for her future politically or otherwise and intends to continue pursuing her private senators bill, which ensures Northern Territory rights when parliament returns.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce told Sky News on Sunday that he, the president of the Nationals, Di Brenni, and McMahon have discussed the issue, and McMahon will remain a member of the government in the Nationals room, most likely as an independent.

But what are we talking about? Were talking about something very close towards the end of parliament before we go to an election, so I dont think this is a dramatic issue, Joyce said.

McMahons resignation means that the CLP no longer has a representative in federal parliament, which may impact its ability to stay registered as a federal party.

ABC News reported that the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has confirmed that without a sitting member in parliament, the CLP might be required to prove that it has at least 1,500 members in order to stay registered.

Well review the circumstances of any party where we understand they used to be a parliamentary party and are no longer, AEC spokesman Evan Ekin-Smyth said.

So, what we do is we look at those circumstances and determine if they need to provide a membership list and meet the requirement of 1,500 members.

However, while Di Brenni didnt confirm how many members the CLP has, he said that having a certain number of members shouldnt come into it.

No, we are actually associated with the Nationals Australia, which is Australia-wide; its an association act, he said.

Thats my understanding. With that, were compliant.
In this recent photo provided by Charlotte Bellis, Bellis poses in a selfie with her partner Jim Huylebroek in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Charlotte Bellis via AP)

Taliban Grants Pregnant NZ Journalist Safe Haven After Ardern Government Denies Her Return Visa

A pregnant New Zealand (NZ) journalist said she had to turn to the Taliban for help after her country refused to grant her a travel exemption due to its strict COVID-19 border control.

In a column published in the New Zealand Herald on Saturday, Charlotte Bellis, a former journalist with Al Jazeera, said she discovered she was pregnant in Qatar, where sex outside marriage is illegal.

She then contacted the Taliban to ask if she would be welcome in Afghanistan as an unmarried pregnant woman as it was the only place she and her partner, Jim Huylebroek, had visas to live.

Were happy for you, you can come and you wont have a problem, Bellis quoted the Taliban officials as saying in response to her request. They also said, Dont worry. Everything will be fine. When the Taliban offers you a pregnant, unmarried womansafe haven, you know your situation is messed up. Bellis said she had sent 59 documents to New Zealand authorities in Afghanistan but they deactivated her application for an emergency return. The reasons were the couples travel dates were more than 14 days out and Bellis failed to prove she had a time-critical scheduled medical treatment in New Zealand and that she cannot get the same treatment where she was, which, in this case, was Afghanistan. I wasnt triggered by the disappointment and uncertainty, but by the breach of trust. That in my time of need, the New Zealand Government said youre not welcome here, Bellis wrote. I thought back to August, and how brutally ironic it was, that I had asked the Taliban what they would do to ensure the rights of women and girls. And now, I am asking the same question of my own government.

After going public with her situation and preparing a legal response, Bellis said she had received an unsolicited email from the NZ authority which said her rejected application was under review.

New Zealands COVID-19 response minister, Chris Hipkins has defended New Zealands strict border control, saying there are places in the countrys managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) for people with special circumstances like Bellis.

I understand she wanted to return on a specific date and that officials reached out to her for more information shortly after looking at her application, he told reporters on Monday. The emergency allocation criteria includes a requirement to travel to New Zealand within the next 14 days. Ms. Bellis indicated she did not intend to travel until the end of February and has been encouraged by MIQ to consider moving her plans forward. Hipkins noted officials have also invited the journalist to apply for another emergency category, but Bellis said it requires her to apply in a location or a situation where there was a serious risk to her safety. First it was we denied you because its more than 14 days.Then it was you dont meet a threshold for medical stuff, now its something else. Why so many excuses and clauses? You have all the information, she told the RNZ. Meanwhile, Head of MIQ Chris Bunny said the MIQ is also under pressure like never before and is experiencing very high volumes of emergency allocation requests due to widespread travel disruption around the world.

All applications for emergency allocations of a MIQ voucher are assessed case-by-case, there is no preferential treatmentit is a fair and consistent process, he said.

The controversy comes as New Zealands state-run quarantine system faces heightened criticism as Kiwis struggle to return to their country through the MIQ lottery or on emergency grounds.

New Zealands National Party has recently reiterated their call for the Government to immediately end its MIQ requirement for vaccinated Kiwis stranded offshore.

The reality is, the risk has changed. If you dont have a set of responses that change to the environment youre in The risk can go up or down, its about risk management, essentially, National leader Christopher Luxon said on Tuesday.
A group of illegal aliens is apprehended by law enforcement on a ranch in Kinney County, Texas, on Jan. 14, 2022. (Courtesy of Kinney County Sheriff's Office)

Texas Arrests Illegal Aliens for TrespassingDemocrats Urge DOJ to Shut It Down

KINNEY COUNTY, TexasA group of 50 Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives is urging the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to investigate Operation Lone Star, a border security initiative launched by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in March 2021.

Operation Lone Star uses state criminal law to target Black and Latino migrants for punishment, the Democrats Jan. 26 letter to the federal agencies alleges.

The politicians want the federal government to use all tools at your disposal to ensure the end of this policy.

In June 2021, as part of Operation Lone Star (OLS), Abbott authorized Texas Department of Public Safety troops to arrest and charge illegal immigrants with trespassing if they were found to be on state or private land without consent.

The OLS budget funded jail space for alleged illegal immigrant trespassers, defense counsel, and prosecution resources. The governor also sent more law enforcement officers to beleaguered border regions to assist in the arrest of trespassers and smugglers who were transporting illegal aliens.

Since July last year, 2,681 illegal alien trespassers have been arrested, and the number of participating counties has increased from two to six, with more preparing to join.

Kinney County, which is prosecuting the vast majority of cases, has made a total of 2,609 arrests as of Jan. 28, according to county attorney Brent Smith.

Of those, 1,257 have bonded out of jail, and 264 have made pleas of no contest or guilty and have been released with time served. About five have pleaded not guilty and want to go to trial, Smith said.

The illegal aliens arrested on ranches in Kinney County arent turning themselves over to Border Patrol and seeking asylum, Smith said.

Theyre being smuggled across. And then whenever law enforcement locates them, theyre running. Theyre on the run from the law. Theyre not trying to surrender at all, Smith told The Epoch Times on Jan. 31.

If they were trying to claim asylum, theyd be doing that at the port of entry, or the first law enforcement they come to. But instead, theyre evading law enforcementand theyre destroying property while they do it.

The number of illegal aliens evading Border Patrol in the Del Rio sector, in which Kinney County sits, was estimated to be around 10,000 per month last July, according to numbers obtained by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). Many of them pass through Kinney County, either on foot or being smuggled in vehicles, on their way to the large cities of San Antonio, Houston, and Austin.

The letter from Texas Democrats suggests that OLS likely violates protections afforded under the United States Constitution and state and federal law.

Smith said his small county has struggled to keep up with the volume of prosecutionshe went from about six cases a month to more than 30 per day.

But the law has safeguards in place to protect alleged criminals.

For instance, right now, my assistant prosecuting attorney is in a writ of habeas corpus hearing, which is triggered when more than 30 days elapses before theres a complaint filed. And when that occurs, theyre eligible to get a reduced bond or a PR bond, Smith said.

The Democrats letter also alleges, From its inception, Operation Lone Star has suffered from Constitutional deficiencies that upend our federal system of government.

The letter is addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Governor Abbott has unilaterally set this state immigration policy and created a system of state immigration enforcement to be carried out by various state agencies, it states.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defended the OLS initiative, saying its shocking that anyone would call it unconstitutional.

We have a right in this state to protect our citizens, Paxton said at a press conference on Jan. 28.

When the federal government stares us in the face, invites people across the border, and people have cartel members walking across their property, threatening their lives, exposing them to COVID, running drugs, running human trafficking ringsand then were told that its unconstitutional for the governor to put together a program with our great law enforcement officials to protect our citizens, to me its absolutely ludicrous and wrong.

Paxton said applying state charges to illegal immigrants is Texass way of dealing with the current crisis.

If theyre violating state laws, we are starting to have more forces down here that can arrest those people, he said.

In 2021, Border Patrol apprehended more than 1.3 million illegal aliens entering Texas from Mexico. Hundreds of thousands more are estimated to have evaded capture.

Smith said as far as the accusation that the OLS program targets black and Latino illegal aliens, the probable cause affidavits he reviews dont list ethnicity.

It doesnt come into play with the facts and what the law says. So that argument is not only incorrect, but very presumptuous and racist in and of itself that race has anything to do with it, Smith said. He said the first trespassing case he prosecuted last year involved two white male American citizens.

If those politicians actually cared about their constituents as much as they say they do, they would be writing a letter to DHS to say the border is open and their constituents are put in danger.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security didnt respond to requests for comment.
FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Jan. 31, 2022. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Threats From China More Brazen, More Damaging Than Ever Before: FBI Director

The United States is facing a new level of threat from the Chinese regime thats more brazen, more damaging than ever before, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Jan. 31.

When we tally up what we see in our investigations, over 2,000 of which are focused on the Chinese government trying to steal our information or technology, theres just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, innovation, and economic security than China, Wray said during a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.

In fact, these theft incidents have been happening literally every day, he said, noting that the bureau is opening new cases to counter Chinas intelligence operations about every 12 hours.

They identify key technologies to target, Wray said, pointing to Chinas industrial blueprint known as Made in China 2025. Then they throw every tool in their arsenal at stealing the technology to succeed in those areas.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) released the blueprint in 2015, a 10-year economic plan aimed at advancing 10 domestic tech manufacturing industries. These sectors include robotics, new energy vehicles, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, maritime vessels, and agricultural machinery and equipment.

To steal what it needs, the Chinese regime has unleashed a massive, sophisticated hacking program thats bigger than those of every other major country combined, Wray said, adding that Chinas own hackers often work with cybercriminals.

One such hacking incident was announced by the U.S. Department of Justice in July 2020 when it indicted two Chinese hackers who worked with CCPs Ministry of State Security (MSS)the regimes chief intelligence agency. The two allegedly targeted hundreds of victims, including companies, government and nongovernmental organizations, and U.S.-based human rights activists, in a decade-long campaign.

A China-backed hacking group, with purported ties to the Chinese regime, was behind the 2021 cyberattack against Microsoft, in which it exploited vulnerabilities in the companys Exchange Server software, compromising tens of thousands of systems globally.

Aside from hacking, Beijing also deploys its intelligence agents to co-opt individuals who can assist with operations such as by providing cover, spotting and assessing sources, and helping with the theft, Wray said.

He used the speech to highlight one particular criminal casea Chinese MSS agent named Xu Yanjun who recruited a GE Aviation engineerto say there are many similar Chinese operations.

Xu was convicted in November 2021 after his failed attempt to obtain GE Aviations trade secrets through the recruited engineer. According to Wray, Xu is just one Chinese intelligence officer working for an entire unit dedicated solely to stealing aviation secrets.

Wray also spoke about a case involving Chinese wind turbine maker Sinovel Wind Group, to show the devasting effect Chinas theft has had on U.S. businesses. According to Wray, U.S.-based firm AMSC, after seeing its proprietary codes on wind turbine stolen by Sinovel, became a smaller company with about 600 fewer employees.

Sinovel was convicted of federal charges in January 2018 for stealing from AMSC, which resulted in losses of over $800 million for the company.

The Chinese government also makes investments and partnerships to position their proxies to take valuable technology, Wray said.

The Chinese regime also is known for requiring foreign companies to enter joint ventures with Chinese companies, many of them backed by the communist regime, in order to obtain the foreign firms know-how, technology, and intellectual property.

Targeting Individuals and Companies

Wray said China is also getting more brazen in controlling certain speech inside the United States.

In November, just two months ago, the Chinese Embassy put out letters effectively warning U.S. businesses that if they want to do business in China, they need to fight against Chinese government-related bills in our Congress, he said, without identifying the businesses.

The FBI directors comments appear to confirm an exclusive report by Reuters last year. Citing multiple unnamed sources, Reuters reported that Chinas embassy in Washington was sending letters to U.S. executives, pushing them to urge lawmakers to drop specific bills that seek to enhance U.S. competitiveness.

The letter allegedly asked companies to oppose the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement (EAGLE) Act, according to Reuters. The Senate approved USICA in June last year, while the EAGLE Act, which stalled in the Senate, has been included in the recently unveiled House measure called the America COMPETES Act of 2022.

The Chinese regime has also set its sights on co-opting American politicians, Wray said, aiming to corrupt our leaders, to buy or intimidate acquiescence to their will.

The Chinese government understands that politicians in smaller roles today may rise to become more influential over time, so they look to cultivate talent early, often state and local officials, to ensure that politicians at all levels of government will be ready to take a call and advocate on behalf of Beijings agenda, he said.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) was the subject of controversy in late 2020 after it was reported that he had ties with a suspected Chinese spy, Christine Fang, when he was a local city council member prior to 2015.

From 2011 to 2015, Fang, a Chinese student at California State UniversityEast Bay, cultivated extensive ties with local politicians in the San Francisco Bay Area by volunteering in fundraising campaigns and attending political events. U.S. intelligence officials believe she was working under the direction of the MSS, according to an Axios investigation. Swalwell said he severed ties with Fang after the FBI alerted him of her suspicious activities in 2015.

Chinas Fox Hunt, an operation launched by Beijing in 2014 to repatriate Chinese fugitives, is also a concern, according to Wray.

Currently, there are hundreds of people on U.S. soil who are on the Chinese governments official Fox Hunt list and many more not on the official list, he said. Most of the targets are green card holders, naturalized citizens, folks with important rights and protections under U.S. law.

Chinas transnational repression has gone beyond Fox Hunt.

For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has targeted, threatened, and harassed U.S.-based Tibetans and Uyghurs, Falun Gong members, pro-democracy advocates, and any others who question their legitimacy or authority, Wray said.

Nine individuals acting as illegal agents for Beijing were indicted in July of 2021. They are accused of trying to force a former CCP official living in the United States to return to China.
Protesters perform with drums as they walk away from Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Jan. 29, 2022. (Noe Chartier/The Epoch Times)

Tories Say Trudeau Dividing Country With His Comments Against Trucker Convoy

Conservative and Liberal MPs battled over the Freedom Convoy protests of recent days in Ottawa as the House of Commons resumed sitting Monday, with some Tories backing the movement and the Liberals accusing it of hate and vandalism.

With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signalling earlier in the day he would not meet with the protesters due to their views, Conservative Party Leader Erin OToole asked him early during question period if he would make an effort to talk to them.

Will the prime minister move past the division and agree to meet with some of the truckers impacted by his federal regulations? OToole asked.

Mr. Speaker, the science is very clear. The best way through this pandemic is to get people vaccinated. Thats how we end the disruptions to our supply chains caused by this global pandemic, responded Trudeau.

OToole then attacked Trudeaus leadership and leveraged the prime ministers recent COVID-19 diagnosis to point out that vaccination is only one among other tools to deal with the pandemic, and that the governments policies are raising societal tensions.

Mr. Speaker, when you ignore and divide a country when it needs to be united, thats not leadership, he said.

Vaccines are critically important, but as the prime ministers own COVID diagnosis demonstrates after three vaccinations, we have to use all tools, Mr. Speaker, to get our life back to normal. When is life getting back to normal? OToole asked.

I know and all Canadians know how frustrating it is to have to deal with this pandemic for now two years, and ongoing, Trudeau replied. But Canadians also have never been so united in stepping up. Almost 90 percent of Canadians have been vaccinated.

Conservative Deputy Leader Candice Bergen also called on Trudeau to heal the rifts with those he disagrees with instead of resorting to name-calling and gaslighting (a form of manipulation involving feeding false information).

I think we all support free speech in this house, replied Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino.

But theres a big difference between free speech and inciting hatred, inciting violence, desecrating war memorials, Mr. Speaker, and I would hope my honourable colleague would denounce that in the clearest terms.

Mendicino was referring to protesters climbing onto the National War Memorial and possibly to the photo circulating on social media of someone holding a Nazi flag, although the photo appears not to have been taken among the crowds in the Parliament Hill area.

Of course we all condemn hateful and destructive acts by a few at any protest, said Bergen.

Whether its beheading the statue of Queen Victoria in Manitoba, tearing down the statue of Sir John in Montreal or putting flags on Terry Fox. Whether its burning churches, whether its wearing blackface, whether its Hezbollah flags, or Nazi flags, we all condemn it.

Conservative MP and finance critic Pierre Poilievre, who had recently said the views of a few in the protest movement should not taint the whole group, focused again on this angle when he rose to ask a question.

Just because the prime minister dressed up in racist costumes so many times he cant remember them all, doesnt mean every single Liberal is a racist, Poilievre said.

Why doesnt the prime minister opt instead for personal responsibility?

Government House Leader Mark Holland interjected and said its time to move on and bring down the tensions, but Poilievre continued.

What I would ask is instead of trying to inflame the situation, let us deescalate the situation, let us work together to find a way to stop the lockdown that is happening of this city, so that citizens can move forward with their lives and any legitimate grievances can be fairly heard, Poilievre said.

I just wish his government would respect the thousands of people who are fighting for their livelihoods right now, who are trying to do the best to get this country back on track.

He later added the government has shown no respect for the people, and the country is like a raw nerve and the prime minister is jumping up and down on it again and again with his inflammatory rhetoric.

Truckers and supporters from across the country gathered in Ottawa on Jan. 29 to call for an end to pandemic measures such as vaccine mandates and passports.

Thousands of people flooded the streets and the grounds of Parliament Hill on Jan. 29 and 30, and currently, although numbers have dwindled, trucks still occupy downtown arteries and organizers have said they could be there for the long haul.

A wide array of people with different views and from different backgrounds have been attending the event, from the conservative supporters of the Peoples Party of Canada to hippies, from First Nations to Jamaica-born.

The movement has also spurred similar events in other countries, such as in Australia and Holland, and has received support from influential personalities like Elon Musk.
President of the Treasury Board Mona Fortier rises during Question Period in Ottawa on Dec. 10, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand)

Treasury Board Officials Warned of Legal Action Over Vaccine Mandates

Advocacy group Feds For Freedom issues cease and desist letter on behalf of federal employees

An advocacy group representing federal and federally-regulated employees is warning senior officials at Canadas Treasury Board that Ottawas COVID-19 vaccine mandates unjustifiably violate their clients human rights and may trigger legal action.

On Jan. 26, lawyers for Feds For Freedom, a not-for-profit advocacy organization for public servants, issued a cease and desist letter to several senior officials at the official employer of federal public servants, the Treasury Board of Canada, warning that federal vaccine mandates are unjustifiable, unconstitutional, and criminal in nature.

Feds For Freedom are representing a group of employees who face unauthorized or unrequested Leave without Pay which is indistinguishable from termination for non-compliance as the result of the federal governments mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.

As federal public servants, we have had our livelihoods stripped from us; we have endured unprecedented amounts [of] stress and hardships. We have been harassed, ridiculed, mocked and had hatred and violence incited against us. This type of abusive behavior cannot and will not be tolerated, the advocacy group said in a Jan. 26 press release.

The treasury officials put on notice include President Mona Fortier, Secretary of the Treasury Board Peter Wallace, and Chief Human Resources Officer Christine Donoghue, plus all departmental ministers of Canadas Core Public Administration (CPA), including the RCMP.

On Oct. 6, 2021, the federal government announced the policy requiring federal public servants in the CPA to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 21, 2021.

Feds For Freedom noted that an individuals bodily autonomy, informed consent, and freedom from coercion, intimidation, or bullying are fundamental rights. They threatened to take legal action, file multiple human rights claims, and make applications seeking injunctive relief and punitive damages if the federal government moves to suspend or terminate the employees.

Federal employees that the group represents have raised concerns about coercion by the Government of Canada to submit to experimental drug therapies like the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 injections.

In May 2021, Health Canada authorized clinical trials for Pfizer-BioNTechs Comirnaty and Modernas Spikevax COVID-19 vaccines, with the studys estimated completion date set in April 2023.

Feds For Freedom also cite the Nuremberg Codea set of ethical principles that limit medical experimentation on humanssaying that unvaccinated Canadians have their civil and statutory rights of privacy violated on a daily basis by being forced to disclose their vaccine status.

Employers are legally obliged to respect the autonomy and dignity of their employees to respect the confidentiality of their medical information, even after the employee has died; and to not use medical knowledge to violate the human rights and civil liberties of their employees, even under threat from Government authority, the group said.

Forcing experimental drug injection therapies upon the Government of Canada employees under threat of loss of livelihood is a clear violation of the Criminal Code of Canada and the Government of Canadas own Constitution.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace speaks at a press conference at the Germany Defense Ministry in Berlin, on Jan. 26, 2022. (Christian Marquardt - Pool/Getty Images)

UK Launches Defence Space Strategy to Address Ever-Growing Threats

Britain has launched its first ever Defence Space Strategy, which outlines how the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will protect the UKs national interests in space in an era of ever-growing threats.

As part of the strategy (pdf) published on Feb. 1, the UK will invest 1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) to bolster the number of British satellites in space.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: Its crucial we continue to push the frontiers of our defence space ambitions, enhancing our military resilience and strengthening our nations security.

This significant investment will help to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of space innovation and one step ahead of our competitors.

According to the MoD, 968 million ($1.3 billion) will be committed over the next 10 years to deliver a multi-satellite systemknown as the ISTARI Programmeto support greater global surveillance and intelligence for military operations.

A further 61 million ($82 million) will explore cutting-edge laser communications technology to deliver data from space to Earth at a speed equivalent to superfast broadband.

The MoD said it is important to protect and defend the UKs equities in space and the services derived from space assets, as space capabilities and activities are continually subject to threats and hazards in a harsh and increasingly competitive domain.

A Long March 7Y4 rocket carrying the Tianzhou 3 cargo ship launches from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Chinas southern Hainan province, on a mission to deliver supplies to Chinas Tiangong space station on Sept. 20, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

In addition to natural hazards such as meteoroids and man-made hazards such as space debris, the MoD also highlighted threats from hostile actors and competitors who seek to maximise their relative advantage in the domain.

Recent years have seen increasing international rows over satellites, space weaponry, and collisions in orbit, with friction between the United States, China, and Russia.

In a foreword to the strategy, Wallace said space has brought unprecedented advantages and new threats.

Daily life is reliant on space and, for the Armed Forces, space underpins vital, battle-winning technologies, he said. Adversaries understand this reliance and are increasingly able to exploit vulnerabilities, threatening our strategic stability and security.

The space strategy will, according to the MoD, stimulate growth across the sector and support highly skilled jobs across the UK, while also allowing Britain to work more closely with its NATO allies, including the United States.

The newly-announced money is on top of the existing 5 billion ($6.8 billion) already being used to upgrade the UKs Skynet satellite communications capability, providing strategic communication services to the UK Armed Forces and allies.

The UK Space Command will lead the approach to space defence.

At the official opening of the Space Command in July 2021, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, the head of the Royal Air Force, said China and Russias activities in space were reckless.

He said the UK sees the two countries development of anti-satellite weapons as a real concern and wants the international community to call out such behaviour.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Members of the public queue outside the Supreme Court of Western Australia in Perth, Australia on Sep. 24, 2020. (Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)

Unvaccinated Lawyers Locked Out Of Courts, Unable to Fight Mandates in Western Australia

The Western Australia (WA) government has banned unvaccinated lawyers and all other staff from attending courtrooms, prompting anger from some law experts who believe the directions fundamentally inhibit justice.

Under the order of the WA chief health officer, from Feb. 5, all court and tribunal staffincluding lawyers and jurorswill need to have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Feb. 5 is the same day the state had planned to reopen its borders before it backflipped on its decision due to the inefficacy of double-dose vaccination against the Omicron variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. The state has currently recorded 155 active cases.

By Mar. 5, this will change to allow only the fully vaccinated, which includes requiring those eligible to receive a third booster dose.

Augusto Zimmermann, former law reform commissioner and head of law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education, expressed concern over the decision and its implication towards clients who use the services of unvaccinated lawyers.

Augusto Zimmermann is professor and head of law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education in Perth, Australia.

Im starting to feel really disheartened, and even distressed, by this whole development because one of the hallmarks of a tyrannical regime is to deny people access to justice, Zimmermann told The Epoch Times.

The vaccine is being used as an instrument to preclude members of the legal profession to represent the clients and therefore, what the government is doing is to create difficulties for people to have access to justice, ultimately speaking.

It comes as Senior Constable Ben Falconer and other members of WA Police battle the states vaccination mandates in a landmark case that has so far seen all 25 officers keep their jobs until the final hearing in March.

The WA government has required vaccination, including booster doses, for 75 percent of the states workforceequivalent to over a million workers.

The group, represented by Hotchkin Hanley lawyers, have become one of the only in Australia to have successfully fought against vaccination requirements, with the momentum carrying over to other industriesincluding health, education, construction, and miningwhich are currently in the process of launching their own legal challenges.

But the exclusion of unvaccinated Australians from the jury could work against court cases that challenge the vaccination mandates.

Protestors rally against vaccination mandates during the World Wide Rally for Freedom event in Perth, Australia, on Nov. 20, 2021. (The Epoch Times)

Zimmermann fears that some parties may now also be restricted in their access to basic legal services, particularly those who are fighting against the governments vaccination mandates.

Its clearly undermining the legal profession in the process because there are some good lawyers who are not entirely compliant with the system, and they are actually more concerned about the preservation of individual rights, Zimmermann said.

You already have clients with their own legal counsel, and these lawyers might now not be able to properly represent these clients.

So youre going to have lawyers now that are going to find it very difficult to be able to continue to exercise their role as legal practitioners.

The Epoch Times reached out to the WA Department of Health for comment but did not receive a reply in time for publication.

WA Premier Mark McGowan has previously been criticised for insulting unvaccinated West Australians, including by telling anti-vaccine mandate protesters to grow a brain and calling patrons refusing to demonstrate proof of vaccination at venues dropkicksAustralian slang for a stupid or worthless person.

The WA government has banned unvaccinated citizens from attending a range of venues from Jan. 31, including restaurants, fitness centres, and events with more than 500 people.
HOZON Auto, who owns the EV brand NETA, delivered 69,674 new vehicles in 2021, a remarkable year-on-year growth of 362%. By the end of Dec. 2021, the startup had delivered 95,977 vehicles in total.

The startup also vigorously pushed ahead with its roll-out of new products, financing progress as well as the external cooperation last year. Lets review the noteworthy stories for HOZON Auto's 2021.

HOZON Auto builds long-term strategic partnership with Thailand's energy titan PTT

HOZON Auto signed on Nov. 10 a framework agreement with PTT Public Company Limited (PTT), the biggest refiner and seller of petroleum products in Thailand, to build a long-term strategic partnership, the EV startup announced via its WeChat account.

Through the partnership, both parties will be dedicated to developing the smart car ecosystem that integrates value-added services and infrastructures with user experience, in a bid to provide consumers in Thailand and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with high-quality China-made intelligent vehicles.

CATL to participate in HOZON Auto's D2 round of financing

HOZON Auto on Nov. 8 inked an agreement with CATL to carry out a strategic cooperation on technology R&D and supply chain support, HOZON Auto announced via its WeChat account.

Under the agreement, the Ningde-based battery giant will take part in HOZON Auto's D2 round of financing.

HOZON Auto nets 4 billion yuan in D1 funding round, led by 360 Security

HOZON Auto nabbed 4 billion yuan ($625.322 million) in its D1 funding round, the Chinese EV startup announced on Oct. 27.

This financing round was led by Chinese Internet safety giant 360 Security, who plowed 2 billion yuan ($312.661 million), and involved the participation of CCB International, CITIC Securities, GF Venture Capital, as well as a new energy industrial fund under Shenwan Hongyuan Securities (H.K.) Limited.

360 to invest RMB2.9 billion to be second-largest shareholder of HOZON Auto

China's cybersecurity service provider, 360 Security Technology Inc. (360), released a notice stating the companys plan to invest RMB2.9 billion ($451 million) in HOZON Auto. If the investment goes through, 360 will own 16.594% of HOZON Autos stake as its second-largest shareholder after the latter's management team.

HOZON Auto partners with China's AI company SenseTime

HOZON Auto announced in mid-Oct. a strategic partnership with SenseTime, China's leading artificial intelligence technology developer for intelligent driving and smart cockpit.

Building on HOZON Auto's intelligent ecosystem business layout, the two companies will work together in in-vehicle visual perception technologies, intelligent driving data and platform construction, and more. Meanwhile, they will also cooperate in the AI field based on the automaker's self-developed vision algorithms.

HOZON Auto introduces first digitalized model: NETA S

HOZON Auto introduced its self-developed digitalized new model, the NETA S, during the World Internet Conference.

The NETA S is the automaker's first B-class digital electric sport-sedan powered by its self-developed architecture. The new model, equipped with HUAWEI's high computing power platform, features highway, urban road NOP function, and L4 autonomous driving application under various scenarios like vehicle parking and remote summon.

HOZON Auto to make inroads into ASEAN's NEV market

At the 18th China-ASEAN Expo kicking off on Sept. 10, HOZON Auto announced its foray into the new energy vehicle (NEV) market of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) with the right-hand drive NETA V launched at the same time, according to a post on the startup's WeChat account.

HOZON Auto also claimed the yet-to-be-launched NETA S, which embodies the company's efforts to explore future auto intelligence, will be exported to European markets after the model going on sale in China in 2022.

HOZON Auto partners with Horizon Robotics to build smart cars

HOZON Auto, the Chinese startup owning the NEV brand NETA, entered into a long-term strategic agreement with Horizon Robotics in early Sept.

According to the agreement, based on HOZON's needs for diverse intelligent products, Horizon Robotics will provide HOZON with relevant products and technical support for automotive grade computing chips with high computing power. NETA will launch its Journey-powered model in the next year.

HOZON Auto, Huawei join hands to develop smart driving tech, digital energy, cloud service

HOZON Auto and Huawei Technologies Co.,Ltd. inked an agreement on August 25 to develop a long-term win-win partnership, aiming to co-advance the ecosystem of intelligent vehicles into a higher level, according to HOZON Auto's press release.

Under the agreement, the two companies will carry out all-around cooperation on smart connectivity, in-car computing, intelligent driving, digital energy, and cloud-based service, on the foundation of such core technologies as IoT (Internet of Things), cloud computing, and big data.

360 Security to co-build cars with EV startup HOZON Auto

360 Security announced on May 10 its partnership with EV startup HOZON Auto on car building business. The information was afterwards confirmed by HOZON Auto via its Sina Weibo account.

360 Security leads Series D round of EV startup HOZON Auto

HOZON Auto announced on April 26 the beginning of its Series D financing, which is intended to raise roughly 3 billion yuan ($462.57 million) and is strategically led by Chinese Internet security firm 360 Security.

HOZON Auto secures 5 billion yuan credit line from China CITIC Bank

HOZON Auto was granted a credit line worth 5 billion yuan ($786 million) by China CITIC Bank on March 1, the company said via its WeChat account. The capital will be poured into the R&D of the technologies related to the likes of intelligent cockpit and smart driving.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Wash., on Jan. 26, 2022. (Brendan Smialowski/Reuters)

US, Britain, Canada Issue New Myanmar Sanctions 1 Year After Coup: US Treasury

WASHINGTONThe United States, Britain, and Canada on Monday imposed sanctions on seven individuals and two entities connected to Burma (also known as Myanmar), the U.S. Treasury Department announced, in the latest measures against people connected to the military that seized power in a coup one year ago.

The Treasury said the sanctions were timed to mark the anniversary of the Feb. 1 coup, in which Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party were detained after they won a November 2020 general election. The military complained of election fraud, but monitors said the vote reflected the will of the countrys people.

We are coordinating these actions with the United Kingdom and Canada to demonstrate the international communitys strong support for the people of Burma and to further promote accountability for the coup and the violence perpetrated by the regime, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, using Myanmars former name.

The Treasury said those added to Washingtons list of sanctioned individuals and entities on Monday included the juntas attorney general, Thida Oo, whose office it said had crafted politically motivated charges against Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi is on trial in more than a dozen cases and has so far been sentenced to a combined six years in detention. She denies all charges.

The Treasury also listed the Myanmar Supreme Courts chief justice and the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission, who it said were also involved in the prosecution of Suu Kyi, and NLD leaders.

The action freezes any U.S. assets of those blacklisted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.

It also added a Myanmar army directorate responsible for buying arms from overseas; an alleged arms dealer, Tay Za, and his two adult sons; and a company that operates a port in Yangon in a deal with a military company and its chief executive, the Treasury said.

Britain and Canada were each imposing sanctions on two Myanmar government officials, the department said.

By Simon Lewis and Chris Gallagher
Horses stand behind a fence at the BLM Palomino Valley holding facility in Palomino Valley, Nev., on June 5, 2013. (Scott Sonner/AP Photo)

US Judge Will Not Rein In Federal Wild Horse Roundup in Nevada

RENO, Nev.A federal judge decided Friday not to rein in the roundup and capture of wild horses in eastern Nevada, rejecting advocates claims the federal government was needlessly and recklessly killing free-roaming mustangs in violation of U.S. law.

With a little more than four weeks to go for federal land managers to complete what they call a drought-prompted gather near the Utah state line, U.S. District Judge Miranda Du said she wasnt convinced groups trying to stop the process would win their underlying lawsuit.

The court finds that plaintiffs have not shown they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims and that the balance of equities in this instance weighs against enjoining the 2022 gather, she said.

The Bureau of Land Management insists it must round up the mustangs before the end of Februaryone of several operations scheduled on an expedited basis due to historically dry conditions on the Western range.

Maggie Smith, a Justice Department lawyer, told the judge on Wednesday that a delay of even two or three days would prevent the agency from completing planned removals before the end of the year.

This is a very high priority [for the bureau]. Its an area that is suffering from extreme drought conditions, very limited forage, and a huge overpopulation of horses, Smith said.

The bureau plans to capture more horses this year than ever before, at least 19,000 across 10 western states. The 13,666 gathered last year was the previous high.

Agents are prohibited from using helicopters to drive herds into temporary corrals from March 1 to June 1, when mares typically are pregnant and give birth. After that, summer heat adds stress on the animals and contractor availability becomes a problem in the fall, Smith said.

A livestock helicopter pilot rounds up wild horses from the Fox & Lake Herd Management Area in Washoe County, Nev., on July 13, 2008. (Brad Horn/AP Photo)

Horse advocates led by Laura Leigh, Wild Horse Education, Animal Wellness Action, and the nonprofit CANA Foundation say the agency is squeezing the roundup of 2,030 horses in Nevada into a month under an illegal environmental assessment of a series of gathers over 10 years.

Of 1,048 horses rounded up as of Wednesday, the bureau said 11 died.

The horse groups say the low-flying helicopters combined with unsafe muddy conditions on the ground in mid-January create a purely artificial hazard that is deadly to these wild horses, a congressional protected, public natural resource.

The bureau said a 1 percent fatality rate was consistent with the 1.1 percent rate estimated as the average for all horse gathers from 2010-19.

In short, there is nothing to suggest the conditions of this gather are unusually dangerous to the horses, it said in response to the request for Dus emergency order.

It fact, Smith told Du, it is proceeding very smoothly. While we certainly regret the harm to any animal, what we are seeing here is exactly what we expected.

Du asked lawyers for the horse groups if they expected no horses to die in the roundup.

Jessica Blome, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said that while some deaths do typically occur, in this case, there have been more than necessary.

This particular herd is foaling now and pregnant now, Blome told Du on Wednesday. If they had followed the proper process and monitored the herd, they would know that.

By Scott Sonner
US Sanctions Would Include Action Against Moscow Elites If Russia Invades Ukraine: White House

The proposed U.S. response in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine includes sanctions on Russian elites and their family members, according to the White House.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday the United States is considering sanctions packages against Russian inner circle members who play a role in government decision making or are, at a minimum, complicit in the Kremlins destabilizing behavior.

Many of these individuals are particularly vulnerable targets, because of their deepened financial ties with the West, meaning they would be hurt by sanctions that are tying them to Western financial systems, Psaki said.

The United States and other countries used this strategy to sanction Russian elites in 2014 when the Kremlin annexed the Crimean Peninsula.

Psaki noted Monday that sanctions against individuals is only one part of what is currently being considered in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying sanctions packages would hit Russia from all angles and include major parts of the financial system.

Over the weekend, at least two U.S. senators said the Senate is close to reaching a deal on legislation that would preemptively sanction Russia over its actions on Ukraine, whether Moscow moves to invade or not.

We certainly are encouraged by the fact that theres bipartisan discussions on how to hold Russia accountable, how to have a deterrent impact, said Psaki adding that the White House is in these conversations with Congress and looks forward to continuing.

Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops along its border with Ukraine in recent weeks, as well as in Russia-annexed Crimea and Belarus. The Russian troop count, along with heavy artillery and anti-aircraft weaponry, in these locations has increased as recently as this past weekend, U.S. Department of Defense press secretary John Kirby said Monday.

At a news conference in Kyiv Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Western media and leaders to tone down rhetoric suggesting an imminent Russian invasion, saying, We dont need this panic.

Psaki responded Monday, saying the Biden administration feels its important to be open and candid about the threat from Russia.

I cant speak to the motivation or the reasoning for the comments of Ukrainian leadership, I can only speak to what our efforts are here, said Psaki.

U.S. officials have been saying for more than a week that Russia could invade at any time. Theyve also accused the Kremlin of spreading misinformation meant to destabilize Ukraine, including attempts to create a pretext for invasion through the use of false flags.

Russia has repeatedly denied it is planning an invasion. At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday, requested by Washington, Russias U.N. ambassador said the Wests assertion that it had amassed 100,000 troops near Ukraine had not been confirmed by the U.N. and there was no proof Russia was planning military action.

He said U.S. talk of war was provocative, that Russia frequently deployed troops in its own territory, and that Ukraines crisis was a domestic issue.

Russia also demanded that NATO promise to not allow Ukraine to join the alliance, to halt the deployment of NATO weapons near Russias borders, and to roll back its forces from Eastern Europe. NATO and the United States have rejected those demands.

Reuters contributed to this report.
U.S. President Joe Biden (C) hosts a Quad Leaders Summit along with Indian PM Narendra Modi, Australian PM Scott Morrison, and Japanese PM Suga Yoshihide in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Sept. 24, 2021. (Pool/Getty Images)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Visit Australia for Quad Meeting

Australia will host the next Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with America, India, and Japan in mid-February as it seeks to actively shape and influence the Indo-Pacific region and counter Chinas ambitions.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will join Indias Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and Japans Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in Melbourne, Australia for the next meeting of the Quad.

Australias Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement to The Epoch Times on Tuesday that the Quad was working together to stabilise and build resilience in the Indo-Pacific region.

We are a vital network of liberal democracies co-operating to give our region strategic choices, with a focus on practical steps to build the resilience and sovereignty of all states, Payne said.

This is a further demonstration of the Morrison governments efforts to actively shape and influence our region and world by deepening partnerships at a time of strategic competition, threats to liberal international order, and increasing uncertainty.

Discussions will focus on the growing threat from China in the Indo-Pacific and Russia in Europe, as well as issues of national and regional security.

President Joe Biden walks to the Quad summit with, from left, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, in the East Room of the White House, in Washington, on Sept. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Maritime, cyber security, vaccine distribution, space, and countering disinformation from countries like Russia and China will also feature in discussions.

It will be the first time a high-ranking member of the Biden administration will visit Australia and comes after Blinken, in a release on Jan. 26, signalled the importance of Australias alliance with the United States, calling it an anchor for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

Our century-long mateship is an anchor for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world, underpinned by shared democratic values, common interests, and cultural affinities, said Blinken. We are proud of our alliance and the strength of our economic, academic, and people-to-people ties.

The U.S. secretary of state went on to say that the friendship between the United States and Australia remained steadfast and resolute. He affirmed the Biden administrations belief in the value of the alliance via its commitment to AUKUSthe trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The Quad was first formed in 2007 by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Since 2020 the dialogue has met on a semi-regular basis to discuss regional economic issues and hold joint military drills to practice interoperability.

The security alliance, which Abe hoped would bring an arc of democracy around the Indo-Pacific, has been widely viewed as an alliance to counter the rise of China in the region.
A demonstrator holds flags of Taiwan and the United States in Burlingame, California, U.S. on Jan. 14, 2017. (Stephen Lam/Reuters)

US-Taiwan Senior Official Contacts Spark Chinese Ambassadors Threat of War

Beijing once again warned the United States to stop meeting Taiwan officials, marking a new escalation of tensions over the self-ruled island the Chinese regime regards as its breakaway province.

The regime complained after Taiwan Vice President William Lai held a brief informal talk with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris during a trip to Honduras, and a virtual meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a stopover in the United States.

China always opposed any form of official interaction between the United States and Taiwan, said Zhao Lijian, the regimes Foreign Ministry spokesperson, in a media briefing last Friday.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, nevertheless, pledged to stride out into the world in her Lunar New Year greeting on Sunday, striking a defiant tone in the face of unrelenting Chinese pressure.

Tsai thanked democratic nations for their assistance to the island over the past year in her greeting. Lai also expressed gratitude to U.S. lawmakers on his last day in the United States for providing Taiwan with much-needed COVID-19 vaccines last June.

The U.S.-Taiwan official contacts came soon after Beijing sent 52 military planes into Taiwans Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) last week.

Beijing dispatched 39 warplanes to Taiwans surrounding areas on Jan. 23, and the next day sent 13 more, including two J-16D electronic warfare fighters for the first time.

An H-6 bomber of the Chinese PLA Air Force flies near a Taiwan F-16 in this Feb. 10, 2020 handout photo provided by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense/Handout via Reuters)

Qin Gang, the Chinese regimes ambassador to Washington, D.C., told National Public Radio in an interview broadcast on Friday that the Taiwan issue is the biggest tinder-box between China and the United States.

If the Taiwanese authorities, emboldened by the United States, keep going down the road for independence, it will most likely result in a military conflict between China and the United States.

The regime has never ruled out using force to bring the island under its control. It claims the island as its own, despite Taiwan being a de facto independent country, with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution.

The United States is the islands significant supporter and arms supplier even though it does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Last June, Senator Tammy Duckworth visited Taipei with two other U.S. lawmakers, and announced that the United States would donate 750,000 vaccine doses to Taiwan.

Tsai had condemned Beijing less than two weeks prior for hindering the island nation from accessing vaccines internationally. Beijing angrily denied the claim. In the meantime, it pushed Chinese-made vaccine doses onto the island, which Taiwan rejected due to safety concerns.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen speaks at a rank conferral ceremony for military officials from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, at the defense ministry in Taipei, Taiwan, on Dec. 28, 2021. (Annabelle Chih/Reuters)

Taiwan has recently received backing not only from the United States, its traditional defender, but also from leaders and politicians in Japan, Europe, and the G7 group of industrialized nations, all of which have enraged Beijing.

When asked to comment on Qins remark, the U.S. Defense Department said it would stick to its one China policy, and its commitments under the U.S.-Taiwan Relations Act.

Under the long-standing policy, Washington officially recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei, while the Act requires the United States to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.

The State Department eased restrictions on official contacts with Taiwan last April as the United States tried to counter Chinas challenges to the islands sovereignty.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a ceremony marking the opening of the new court term in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 22, 2021. (Manaure Quintero/Reuters)

Venezuelan Ex-General Says CIA Knew of Plots Against Maduro

A former Venezuelan general accused of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy with the countrys president, Nicolas Maduro, says theres no way he participated in such a scheme.

After all, how could Cliver Antonio Alcala Cordones have conspired with Maduro when the CIA knows he was one of the rebels working to overthrow Maduros socialist government?

This was the argument put forth by attorneys for Cordones in a Jan. 29 motion to dismiss narco-terrorism, corruption, drug trafficking, and other criminal charges against him.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Cordones conspired with Maduro, other top Venezuelan regime officials, and members of Colombias Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia to ship cocaine to the United States. The defendants did so for roughly two decades to fund their operations, as well as to undermine the health and well-being of our nation, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said when announcing the charges in March 2020.

But, according to Cordones, the DOJ has offered little evidence to tie him to Maduros plot.

The allegations in this case are equal parts stunning and underwhelming, both in scope and in content, attorneys for Cordones said in their Jan. 29 motion to dismiss, adding that their client is protected by sovereign immunity from the specific allegations against him.

That should be enough to dismiss the charges against Cordones, his motion argued. But if not, the government must produce thousands of records about the case against Cordones, including information that purportedly shows his anti-Maduro activities over the past several years, the motion states.

We have reason to believe that reports of General Alcala Cordones activities were communicated at the highest levels of a number of U.S. government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Treasury Department, the National Security Council, DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency], and DOJ, the motion states.

Such evidence casts doubt on the governments theory of prosecution and, to the extent the government is able to prove such a conspiracy, would support a defense of withdrawal from any such conspiracy.

The details of Cordoness alleged anti-Maduro activities read like a spy novel.

According to the motion, Cordones joined the Venezuelan military at age 17, serving for 30 years before retiring when President Hugo Chavez died in 2013. Cordones doubted that Maduro would be an effective leader, and was suspicious of Maduros fidelity to the democratic ideals that General Alcala Cordones had supported in his long career.

As such, he declined Maduros offers of two separate embassy-based positions and retired from the army just four months after Maduro took office, which coincided with his achieving 30 years of military service, the motion states.

The motion described Cordones as a notorious foe of Maduro over the next few years.

General Alcala Cordoness opposition to Maduro soon escalated, and by 2017, with the knowledge of the United States government, General Alcala Cordones began actively planning his first attempt to remove Maduro and his cronies from office through military intervention, the motion states. These were not theoretical debates about democratic change, these were plans for armed insurrection against a regime and its leadership.

The first such attempt was planned for March 2018, but the Venezuelan government learned of the plan and crushed it. Cordones fled to Colombia, where he would continue to participate in anti-Maduro activities, according to his filing.

On the eve of a second coup attempt in 2020which also failedCordones said he was contacted in person by a U.S. law enforcement official, who informed him about the narco-terrorist indictment.

The agent informed General Alcala Cordones that he could either board a private jet bound for New York, or be held in a Colombian jail, where he would no doubt be targeted by the Venezuelan intelligence services for assassination, the motion states. Left with little choice, General Alcala Cordones agreed to accompany the agent back to the United States.

The motion states that Cordones has requested records since November 2021 regarding the U.S. governments knowledge that he participated in two coup attempts against Maduro. Cordones has received no such records, which is why he said hes seeking a court order for production.

The Court should order the government to produce all material related to General Alcala Cordoness planning and coup attempts against the Maduro, the motion states. We have demanded production of such material in that it is directly probative of the defense case, and we ask that the Court specifically order its production.

Prosecutors have yet to respond to the filing. The DOJ and DEA declined to comment. The CIA and Treasury Department didnt respond to requests for comment.

In a September 2018 article about the coup plot in Venezuela, The New York Times reported that U.S. officials met with Venezuelan rebels, but denied their appeals for support.

The main request of the military plotters was encrypted radios, which they planned to use to communicate among themselves in order to capture Mr. Maduro and his lieutenants, the NY Times reported, citing interviews with unnamed U.S. officials and a Venezuelan former military commander.

But the United States never granted the request, and after multiple meetings, the Venezuelans became frustrated.

After the second coup attempt against Maduro failed in 2020this one involving at least two former U.S. soldiers fighting as mercenariesthen-President Donald Trump denied any connections to the plot.

Whatever it is, well let you know, Trump told reporters at the time. But it has nothing to do with our government.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton at the daily press conference in Melbourne, Australia on October 22, 2021. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Vic Chief Health Officer Denies Involvement in Push to Mandate Boosters

Victorias Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has denied that he was involved in the state premiers push to mandate the third vaccine at the public hearing of the Pandemic Declaration Accountability and Oversight Committee on Jan. 31.

The committee, which was created as part of the controversial pandemic bill that passed parliament on Dec. 2, allows the state premier and health minister to declare a pandemic order under the advice of the chief health officer.

At the hearing, Sutton said he has not provided official advice to the government on the plan to mandate a third vaccine.

I havent been requested to provide advice on broader vaccine mandates at this stage, he said and asserted that his advice to not push for a one-size-fits all booster has not changed.

When and if I get a request from the Minister for advice on those potential measures, Ill be very happy to assess the epidemiological situation at that time and to provide my recommendations on how that might change if at all.

When asked if the state premier, Daniel Andrews, had been making decisions without his advice, Sutton said he did not think there has been any decisions made in regards to mandating boosters.

However, Andrews has more than once flagged that he wanted to change the definition for fully vaccinated from two shots to three.

Ahead of the national cabinet meeting on Jan. 27, Andrews said he was pushing for a redefinition of the term fully vaccinated.

The premier said, only three doses could help people be properly protected against serious illness and prepared for whatevers next to hit us, whether variants coming down the track.

Though his contention was not echoed by the national cabinet, Andrews reiterated his stance again on Jan. 30 at a press conference.

I think its only a matter of time before the relevant federal agencies confirmed that this is three doses, that its not two plus a bonus, Andrews said at the press conference on Jan. 30.

Boosters are really what should be referred to as third doses, the term booster kind of gives people the impression that this is optional, extra; its not. All the all the evidence supports that and its only a matter of time before the decision comes down to formalise that.

In his testimony, Sutton did note that vaccination is the best response to the virus.

It does also reduce getting the symptomatic effects of the virus, which is why its important to make it widely available, he told the hearing.

When asked if the state is expecting anymore peaks in hospitalisations and in the ICU, Sutton said he expects that the state was currently at a peak or maybe the peak has already passed.

I think its unlikely to go above 1500 hospitalisations, and I think its probably already peaked, he said.

Sutton said there may be bumps and plateaus in the numbers but it wont significantly increase from the position were in right now.

More hearings will take place over the course of this year.

The testimony by Sutton comes as the states Health Minister Martin Foley (pdf) also announced that vaccination hubs would be set up at museums, aquariums, and zoos for vulnerable Victorian children.

Victorias pop-ups for kids, also called K-pops will start at nine initial locations across Melbourne, each site will be able to administer up to 100 doses to children each week and is part of the state-run, enchanted forest-theme vaccination network across the state.

As of Feb. 1, there has been 11,311 new cases in Victoria and 851 Victorians hospitalised, the highest single-day hospitalisations is 1229 on Jan. 17.

AAP contributed to this report.
Virginia Rep. Bob Good: Critical Race Theory Violates Civil Rights

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) says his colleagues have a bill that would outlaw the teaching of the controversial critical race theory (CRT) in their state.

We have a bill, as you know, that weve introduced that says that the teaching of critical race theory, or the kind of teachings that would separate kids or discriminate kids based on race, is a violation of their civil rights, Good told Steve Lance on NTDs Capitol Report on Jan. 28. And certainly, to treat people differently based on race is a violation of civil rights.

Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin took office on Jan. 15 and issued an executive order to end the use of divisive curriculum like CRT.

Inherently divisive concepts, like Critical Race Theory and its progeny, instruct students to only view life through the lens of race and presumes that some students are consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist, or oppressive, and that other students are victims, states Youngkins executive order.

Since the summer of 2020, Virginia parents have been speaking out against the injection of critical race theory (CRT) into the public school system, an ongoing battle that has drawn national headlines. Parents from across the country have protested CRT, a quasi-Marxist analytical framework, on the grounds that it classifies children as oppressors or oppressed on the basis of their skin color.

And so, Im proud that hes standing up against critical race theory, Good said. As you know, that is a dangerous ideology that indoctrinates our kids with a leftist racist mindset, and it tries to frame dishonestly who we are as a country. Its dishonest about the progress that weve made and its dishonest about [its claim that] kids are limited or advantaged based on their race.

Meanwhile, Virginia Democrats say CRT promotes inclusion and equity, making each child feel seen and heard, and that parents do not have the right to tell school leaders what to teach.

Senate Democrats and Virginians trust our teachersplain and simple, Virginia Senate Democrat Majority Leader Dick Saslaw said in a Jan. 26 press statement. Parents are always a part of the conversation with their local and state elected officials.  and Virginia Republicans unconstitutional executive orders and draconian legislation would only hurt our students, not help them learn.

Virginias Democrat Caucus Chair Mamie Locke said, Forcing educators to submit to parental approval of every lesson, every assignment is backward and burdensome.

But Good says that parents should have the final say in what is taught to their children, adding that he and his fellow Republicans also support Youngkins decision to set up a hotline Virginians can call to report CRT being used in their school.

And of course, the left in the media going crazy over him doing this, but, parents and kids, obviously, are on the frontline, and parents supporting them are the ones who know whats happening in the schools. And theyre the ones who need to report, frankly, violations of the policies of the new administration.

Masooma Haq Follow Masooma Haq began reporting for The Epoch Times from Pakistan in 2008. She currently covers a variety of topics including U.S. government, culture, and entertainment.
The hearse containing the casket of fallen NYPD policeman Wilbert Mora approaches St. Patricks Cathedral for his wake on Feb. 1, 2022. (Dave Paone/The Epoch Times)

Wake Held in St Patricks for Second of Two Slain NYPD Officers

NEW YORKFor the second time in two weeks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan fell silent as pallbearers carried a flag-draped casket up the steps of St. Patricks Roman Catholic Cathedral on Feb. 1.

This time was for the wake of police officer Wilbert Mora, the second of two policemen shot and killed in the line of duty.

Moras brethren from the 32nd Precinct stood in the center of the avenue wearing their class-A, dress uniforms, saluting him in their white gloves, with black mourning bands across their shields.

Once again a musician played on a single bagpipe and a color guard stood nearby.

The security details on duty for the wake were a little different from last weeks funeral of Jason Rivera. Instead of a single helicopter, several circled above. The number of officers carrying AR rifles increased.

Firefighters and EMS personnel from the FDNY were present as well New York State troopers.

Firefighters from the FDNY salute as the motorcade of fallen policeman Wilbert Mora approaches St. Patricks Cathedral in NYC for his wake on Feb. 2, 2022. (Dave Paone/The Epoch Times)

The wake came two days after a noreaster socked the Northeast with heavy snow, yet Fifth Avenue was clear for vehicles and pedestrians. The temperature was slightly higher than last week with lower winds.

Mora and fellow officer Rivera were shot on Jan. 21 while responding to a domestic dispute involving a mother and her son in the Harlem section of Manhattan.

Rivera died on the night of the shooting.

Mora, 27, succumbed to his wounds on Jan. 25.

On Twitter, the NYPD posted, In his final act of service, Officer Wilbert Mora saved the lives of five people thanks to his organ donation.

In addition to the shooting deaths of Rivera and Mora, another NYPD officer was shot on Jan. 20.

Det. Dominick Libretti was wounded while conducting a narcotics search warrant on Staten Island.

A perpetrator opened fire on Libretti and other narcotics officers, striking Libretti in the leg. They returned fire.

Even with a serious leg wound, bleeding badly enough that fellow officers had to apply immediate pressure to slow the blood loss, he held a ballistic shield in front of his team to protect them from gunfire, said Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, in a press conference later that day.

Libretti was released from Staten Island Hospital on Jan. 31.

In the first 20 days of 2022, three NYPD officers were shot.

Riveras wake was held on Jan. 27 and his funeral on Jan. 28, both at St. Patricks Cathedral.

Moras funeral will be held there on Feb. 2.
WHO: No Indication New Omicron Variant More Severe Than Original

Officials with the World Health Organization (WHO) say theres no indication that the COVID-19 Omicron subvariant BA.2 is more severe than Omicrons original strain.

Theres no indication that theres a change in severity, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for the CCP virus, said during a news briefing on Feb. 1.

BA.2, which was discovered in January by UK researchers, has seen a slight increase in growth rate over the initial Omicron variant, she said.

Beyond that, the data is really quite limited, the official said. Most of the research that is available is on the subvariant BA.1. She said BA.2, like the original strain, is a variant of concern, referring to WHOs designation and its controversial naming of the CCP virus variant in November 2021.

We need people to be aware that this virus is continuing to circulate and its continuing to evolve, Van Kerkhove said, adding that vaccines prevent severe disease and hospitalization. Data from different countries show that fully vaccinated and boosted people appear to easily contract Omicron.

In late January, Denmarks health minister, Magnus Heunicke, told reporters that the BA.2 strain appeared to be more infectious than the original Omicron variant, known as BA.1.

There is no evidence that the BA.2 variant causes more disease, but it must be more contagious, Heunicke said.

In mid-January, the UK Health Security Agency designated BA.2 a variant under investigation and said it may have a growth advantage over BA.1. The subvariant has been reported by several U.S. state health agencies around the country.

BA.2 cases have also been registered in Britain, Sweden, and Norway, but to a much lesser extent than in Denmark. Denmark last week announced plans to scrap the last of its COVID-19 restrictions by Feb. 1, the latest country in Europe to do so despite record-high daily infection numbers.

Danish researchers with the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, and Statens Serum Institut also discovered that the subvariant is more infectious than the original strain, according to research published on Jan. 31.

We conclude that Omicron BA.2 is inherently substantially more transmissible than BA.1, and that it also possesses immune-evasive properties that further reduce the protective effect of vaccination against infection, but do not increase its transmissibility from vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections, states the preprint study, published on Medrxiv.org.

Reuters contributed to this report.
NEW YORKBBW performer, podcaster and entrepreneur Kari Platinum Puzzy Anthony shows off a pair of thigh-highs from her size-positive apparel store karisclosetx.com in a new TikTok video promoting the store's search for plus-size models.

One of my very first fans had a fetish for thigh-high stockings and bought me a pair to wear. I loved them except they kept rolling down my leg and were extremely uncomfortable. Even with the garter, it seemed I could never get them to fit properly or stay up, Anthony said. Years later, I would be introduced to a brand that had silicone bands and seemed to have solved the problem! I bought my first pair and was so excited to have found a brand that totally understood the assignment! I bought a few more pairs and started building my collection.

To further spread the thigh-high love, KarisClosetX is throwing a Valentines Day special offering 25 percent off all thigh-highs in its collection using promo code: VDAY.

My mission is to get these stockings on the thighs of EVERY thigh that yearns to be snuggled by a pair of sexy stockings!" Anthony asserted. "Now, there are more fashionable styles and sizes that go up to a D, which can fit up to 400lbs plus.

See Anthony's TikTok video here.

Follow KarisClosetx on Twitter @KARISCLOSETX and Instagram @karisclosetx.

Follow Kari Platinum Puzzy Anthony on Twitter @PlatinumPuzzy1 and Instagram @platinumpuzzy1.
Whoopi Goldberg Apologizes for Saying the Holocaust Was Not About Race

The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg has apologized for her widely criticized remark that the Holocaust was not about race.

Facing a social media outcry over her take on the mass genocide of six million Jews, Goldberg released a statement Monday evening, apologizing for the hurt she had caused.

On Todays show, I said the Holocaust is not about race, but about mans inhumanity to man. I should have said it is about both, Goldberg wrote. As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, The Holocaust was about the Nazis systematic annihilation of the Jewish peoplewho they deemed to be an inferior race. I stand corrected.

Goldberg first argued that the Holocaust went beyond race during a discussion on The View about a Tennessee school districts decision to pull from its 8th-grade curriculum the graphic memoir Maus, which depicts author Art Spiegelman learning his Polish Jew parents experiences in the Auschwitz death camp, and famously portrays the Jews as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs.

Although the removal has been widely reported as a permanent ban on the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, members of the McMinn County School Board explicitly said during the board meeting (pdf) that they wanted to find a better book to teach the Holocaust, and that they would reinstate Maus to the required reading list for 8th graders if they dont find a good alternative.

Despite the fact that neither Maus nor any other Holocaust book has been actually banned at McMinn County Schools, the discussion turned to an alleged conservative-led effort to prevent certain parts of history about race and racism from being taught in classrooms.

If youre going to do this, then lets be truthful about it because the Holocaust isnt about race, Goldberg asserted, to which co-host Ana Navarro disagreed, saying that the Holocaust was about white supremacy and going after Jews and Gypsies.

But these are two groups of white people, Goldberg told Navarro. Youre missing the point. The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. Lets talk about it for what it is. Its how people treat each other. Its a problem. It doesnt matter if youre black or white because black, white, Jews, Italians, everybody eats each other.

Goldbergs comments drew immediate backlash, including from Anti-Defamation League CEO Greenblatt, whom Goldberg addressed in her apology.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazi regime did define Jews as a race. Embracing a social Darwinist survival of the fittest view on human society, the Nazis attributed a wide variety of negative stereotypes about Jews to an unchanging, biologically determined heritage that supposedly drove the Jewish race to struggle to survive by expansion at the expense of other races.
Will Californias Prop. 209 Go National?

Commentary

If America is going to continue competing with China, it has to promote the best of the best in industry, science, and academia. This is why its a positive sign that the U.S. Supreme Court may adopt the standard of Californias Proposition 209, which banned affirmative action in all state and local programs, as a national policy.

According to ScotusBlog: The justices agreed to take up two cases asking them to overrule their landmark 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, holding that the University of Michigan could consider race as part of its efforts to assemble a diverse student body. The decision to grant review in the two new cases suggests that the courts conservative majority is poised to do just that.

The cases are Students for Fair Admissions v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. The court consolidated them for oral argument, and they likely will be argued early in the 2022-23 term, which begins in October.

Its crucial to note the Grutter case did not mandate affirmative action; rather, it only allowed affirmative action to be a policy of a state school system. Other states, such as California with Prop. 209, could do the opposite.

I was writing the California editorials for the Orange County Register when voters passed Prop. 209 in 1996. Although that was a presidential election year, it was obvious President Bill Clinton was going to win reelection, easily carrying California. So the top issue of contention that fall was Prop. 209.

The main proponent was Ward Connerly, a member of the University of California Board Regents, who later advanced similar initiatives to victory in other states. According to media reports, Connerly is half white and a quarter black, with some Irish, French, and Choctaw American Indian heritage. He considers himself to be mixed race and faced some discrimination growing up in his predominantly black school because of his light skin.

During the campaign, we met with him at the Registers offices. Basically, he didnt like himself and his family being labeled because of their race. He wanted merit to be the sole criterion. Its an obvious standard for racial peace essential in the even more diverse America of 26 years later in 2022.

Because the courts upheld Prop. 209, California governments have been forced to follow it, fighting all the way. Last May, the University of California, the countrys largest public university system, stopped using the SAT and ACT tests for admissions and scholarships.

But that wont help minority students. The problem remains that K12 public schools in California annually score among the worst of the 50 states. According to the 2019 Nations Report Card, produced by the U.S. Department of Education: The average score of eighth-grade students in California was 276. This was lower than the average score of 281 for students in the nation.

All banning the SAT and ACT does is cover up the massive failure of the states once-vaunted K12 system. And how convenient for the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers that there will be no academic standard to hold them accountable for failing the states students, as they continue to replace academics with woke ideology.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the countrys first mandated ethnic studies classes in high school, which are almost guaranteed to be based on critical race theory and become woke indoctrination. Even if that somehow is avoided, it still will be hours taken away from real studies.

It would have made more sense to require more foreign language instruction. Language is the introduction to any culture. And learning new languages obviously is a big help for doing business in other lands, even in these times of broad global English proficiency.

The legal experts are saying the Supreme Court, with President Donald Trumps three conservative appointments, likely will restore the colorblind standard of the 1960s civil rights legislation.

Here is the main part of the wording Prop. 209 placed into the California Constitution as Article 1, Section 31 (a): The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.

That standard, if adopted nationally by the court, is a crucial pathway to national harmony and producing the standards of excellence needed in a fiercely competitive global marketplace. And without a return to stressing excellence, America will be unable to meet increasingly dangerous military threats.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Winter Storm to Bring Snow, Ice Across Wide Swath of US

AUSTIN, TexasA huge swath of the U.S. braced Tuesday for a major winter storm that was expected to dump heavy snow in the Rockies, ice highways, disrupt travel across the Midwest and plunge temperatures below freezing in Texas.

The blast of winter weather comes nearly a year after a catastrophic freeze that devastated Texas power grid and knocked power out for days, causing hundreds of deaths in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history. The forecast this week, however, does not call for the same prolonged and frigid temperatures like the February 2021 storm.

No one can guarantee that there wont be any outages caused by demand on the grid, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a briefing in Austin, where state officials defended their readiness for the days ahead. But what we will work to achieve, and what were prepared to achieve is that power is going to stay on across the entire state.

In November, Abbott told Austin television station KTBC ahead of winter that I can guarantee the lights will stay on.

Abbott said thousands of miles of roads in Texas will become extraordinarily dangerous over the coming days. But he said the states power grid had enough capacity to handle the expected surge in demand this week once temperatures plummet.

The question has always been if we get a repeat of last year, would the power stay on? And this is nowhere near a repeat of last year, said Doug Lewin, an energy consultant in Austin who has criticized Texas response to the blackouts as insufficient.

Power lines after winter weather caused electricity blackouts in Houston on Feb. 17, 2021. (Go Nakamura/Reuters)

Winter storm watches and warnings covered a wide swath of the country from El Paso, Texas, through the Midwest and parts of the Northeast to Burlington, Vermont. The storm follows a vicious noreaster that brought blizzard conditions to many parts of the East Coast.

During the multiday storm this week, some areas may see a mix of rain and freezing rain before it changes to snow.

It will be a very messy system and will make travel very difficult, said Marty Rausch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

A person cross country skis through New Yorks Times Square during a snow storm on Jan. 29, 2022. (Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)

The National Weather Service said 6 to 12 inches of snow was expected by Thursday morning in parts of the Rockies and Midwest, while heavy ice is likely from Texas through the Ohio Valley.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the weather service said 8 to 14 inches of snow was possible in parts of Michigan, including Detroit. From Wednesday through Friday morning, 9 to 14 inches of snow was forecast in northwestern Ohio.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, where up to 7 inches of snow and sleet are forecast but little ice, emergency management director Joe Kralicek said the event is not expected to cause large-scale power outages based on an ice index used by the National Weather Service.

We could see some power outages, however, its also suggesting that they be limited in scope and nature and very short term in duration, Kralicek said.

Becky Gligo, director of the nonprofit Housing Solutions in Tulsa said teams are working to move homeless people into shelters ahead of overnight lows that are expected to drop into single digits by Friday night.
Roland Olah was executive chef at the renowned Cafe Erte in Budapest before winning entry to the U.S. in a green card lottery a little over a decade ago. Picking up and leaving his hometown wasnt easy. I was in the Top 25 Chefs Cookbook in Hungary, but I saw the green card was real, and I thought, I want to work with Daniel Boulud. I had to try. My family came over, we didnt have a place to live ... I didnt even know if he was hiring.

In a precursor of things to come, Olahs first job in the U.S. was at Chocopologie in South Norwalk, working with Fritz Knipschildt. It was during this short first stay in SoNo when he saw an ad  on Craigslist of all places  for an open position at Cafe Boulud in New York.

It was a lot of pressure because I had a family, I didnt speak English, but I worked hard, he tells us. Cooking for chef Boulud led him up the kitchens line, with additional training stops around New York and LEscale in Greenwich, before eventually landing at Martell in Fairfield as executive chef for the next 8 years. All along, he says, he was chasing the dream of opening a place of his own.

That place became Bruxelles Brasserie, a new experience in the former 20-year South Norwalk location of the first Barcelona Wine Bar, where Olah creates a modern European menu.

Perseverance and renewal  outlasting the previous year  were the consistent themes of 2021 as the people of Connecticut and the world re-emerged. Bruxelles Brasserie is one of the survivors of this time, simultaneously a new face in the ever-overturning facades of the SoNo dining scene, and a branch reaching outward from the classical tradition of French cuisine.

The space is utterly redesigned and much brighter than the former restaurants vibe. We wanted a European look, a big difference, really our own, says general manager Angela Grogan, a veteran of the restaurant startup industry who spent nine years in Las Vegas before arriving in Norwalk.

The front rooms long bar  now backed by palms  remains in place, and light streams from outside and from above through multi-paned factory windows. The overhead globe lights, the French wallpaper, the vintage furniture from Mongers Market in Bridgeport, all came via a partnership with local designer Jaqui Silvestri Komblau.

The featured drink on the cocktail list is the gin bowl: a punchy, gin-based mix served in a wine balloon glass. We needed to figure out how to tie in a drinks program with this menus feel, and we thought of the explosion of craft gin distilleries in Europe. The bowl lets the gin breathe and expand, Grogan explains. The customers have gotten into it, its been really fun each season, and weve been able to establish a niche.

Bruxelles Brasserie 63-71 N. Main St., Norwalk 203-857-1494, bruxellessono.com, @sonobruxelles on Instagram Open daily for dinner; brunch Sat. and Sun. Wheelchair accessible See More Collapse

I choose the Monty & Max, made with German Monkey 47 gin, Luxardo sangue morlacco cherry, citrus and Fever-Tree aromatic tonic. Lighter in feel than the ingredients suggest, and the color of pink grapefruit, its a refreshing, subtle cocktail with hits of lemon juice and orange zest. My companion opts for the Dutch Courage, made with bols Genevre, grapefruit soda, whole blueberries, and sprig of thyme. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday, and bowls with decidedly more local SoNo 1420 gins can be had for $10.

Olah is quick to credit his manager. What Angela did with the drink program and operations is unbelievable. Without her Im not talking to Connecticut Magazine right now.

Scanning the menu while sipping a drink shows the variety Olah offers, making for a difficult decision: everything looks good. It says Brasserie, but I really wanted to cook anything I like, not just French, he says. We have goulash from my heritage, if I want to cook Italian, anything, Ill do that. Its much more wide open.

Belgian croquettes with Serrano ham, salmon rillettes, acorn squash gnocchi, or charcuterie: everything jumps off the page. Our server specifically recommends the roasted cauliflower with pine nuts and a cumin-cilantro yogurt dressing, and the beef Bourguignon. Strongly tempted by all of the above, we elect to begin with a country pork and duck pate.

The pate comes bacon wrapped and studded with pistachios over a tiny reef of cornichons, with dipping sides of whole-grain mustard in a large dollop, and Dijon in small dots. The accompanying grilled baguette is chewy and a bit charred, adding a different flavor and textural component to the garlicky, smoky, aromatic funk of the pate. Mache greens of the on-plate salad  sometimes called corn salad for their preferred choice of terroir in the American South, but looking like the kind of verdant growth youd canoe through in a Cambodian river  are tasty, and a bit nutty in their own right. Were off to an excellent start.

The restaurant begins to fill as we wait for the main course. Dense with both workers and fans of the nightlife, SoNo is a great location for a restaurant, but the going wasnt easy for Bruxelles. We opened in December of 2019, and the first three months were fantastic, despite nobody knowing us, Olah says. The weekends, the brunch, were unbelievable. Then it was all just gone by March. We cut the menu in half, started preparing family meals for people to eat at home.

Olah and partner Jay Luther kept working at it, finishing the main dining room in addition to the bar/bistro area in time for Connecticuts tentative reopening. Since then, their popularity has only grown. We have so many regulars now who spread the word, tell their families and friends, and now theyre our friends. Its real here, Olah continues. For me the biggest consideration is for my food to be simple, well-made, with no shortcuts, and not so many ingredients. We work hard for it, and I think we do something special.

Bruxelles  the local spelling of the city we know as Brussels, Belgium  puts me in the mind of moule-frites, the original mussels from Brussels (sorry, Jean-Claude Van Damme), and Im delighted to see them on the menu, served two ways.

Nearly a pound of mussels cluster in the bowl under strips of leeks, basking in a fragrant broth made from Belgian ale, Dijon cream and parsley. Skin-on frites are served on the side with ketchup or a surprisingly bright and citrusy mayonnaise. There is a marvelous depth to the ale sauce pooling at the bottom to spoon over the shellfish as you go to town on this Belgian feast.

I pair the entree with a 2020 Gravel and Loam sauvignon blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. Sweet, smooth and tart, the wine proves a perfect counterpoint to the rich and herbal treatment of the mussels.

My companion orders a breast of roast chicken on a bed of carrot parsnip puree. A Frenched wing drumstick stands out from a pillowy, juicy breast showing in slices under a glossy, dark-roasted brown skin. The circular islet of puree, with cremini mushrooms, cipollini onions, and a fan of broccolini, is surrounded by a moat of brown jus. The chicken is moist and expertly cooked, with a rich variety of flavor and textures from the creamy layer underneath. Outstanding in its own right, the dish makes me deeply curious as to what the chef can do with the recommended Bourguignon.

Later, I ask the chef what he wants to accomplish now that he has a kitchen of his own. I think theres a trust you need to have with people who come to eat. Every ingredient, if I dont feel the dish, I wont make it. If its 50-50 I wont put it on the menu. The quality has to be there, no good days and bad days. It has to be the same, every time, is his stated mission.

We wanted to keep it under $30 for everyone. I like people to think, I want to eat well, but I want to give them something reasonable, and with good portions. I want them to remember and be able to come back. The goal is to do this, and be able to support the village of people who help me make it possible here. We try hard to make everybody happy.
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With the General Assemblys budget-adjustment session starting next week, the lobbying group representing Connecticuts towns and cities has issued a legislative agenda that includes more funding to upgrade air-quality systems in the states 1,200 public schools.

And as the COVID pandemic lingers, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities  which issued the request in a list of goals for the 12-week session that starts Feb. 9  has an ally in the Connecticut Education Association, which represents state teachers.

Their position seems strengthened by a new state survey on public schools that indicates that by 2025, at least $171 million is planned to upgrade important school building equipment, including heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

Nearly 80 percent of local school officials who responded to the survey said they routinely hire expert engineers or contractors to inspect their mechanical systems, while 21 percent admitted those inspections have not been done.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney on Monday said that deferred maintenance is to blame for some of the states school ventilation problems that have become more crucial to staff and student health during the airborne coronavirus pandemic.

Towns have gotten huge state grants for school construction that they are not willing to spend the money to maintain the equipment that the state has paid so much for, said Looney, D-New Haven. Our response is in part that the fault here is in the school systems that do not do regular maintenance on their HVAC systems.

Joe DeLong, executive director of the CCM, said Monday that the HVAC funding issue dates back to last September when a coalition, including public-sector unions, pointed out the need to add money because of the importance of school air quality in the pandemic.

The state has a grant program that recognizes there is an end of life for roofs and for windows and will help participate in those programs, DeLong said. We should treat HVAC the same way.

While conceding that some towns might not maintain their school HVAC systems properly, even those that are kept up-to-date have limited lifespans, DeLong said.

Kate Dias, president of the CEA, said the state facilities report issued last week indicates that only a third of Connecticuts 1,200 schools are fully air conditioned and many schools have only scattered use of window air conditioners, mostly for classrooms with students who have respiratory ailments, or administrative offices with employees who are there 12 months of the year.

Many are still relying on opening windows and crossing fingers on cool days, Dias said, citing the new report, which lacked data from Danbury, New Britain and other communities. The survey says that 78 percent of schools have some kind of air quality program. Seventy percent reported that their repair and replacement plan is sufficiently funded.

If we want to attract people to Connecticut, we need to invest in infrastructure, Dias said. We have to look at education as an asset that can contribute to our success story.

The CEA has also asked the states congressional delegation to assist in procuring federal funding to repair and rehabilitate old HVAC systems, as well as install new air-conditioning equipment.

Josh Geballe, commissioner of the state Department of Administrative Services, released the survey Friday, meeting a deadline for submission to the General Assembly.

Evaluating the safety and quality of our school facilities has always been critically important; however, the pandemic has made the issue even more pressing, Geballe wrote in the introduction to the survey, which was responded to by most local education professionals.

Collecting and analyzing the data captured by this survey is central to understanding the condition of our school facilities, including air quality standards, ability to socially distance, and cleaning protocols  all essential information as we work to keep Connecticuts children, teachers, and staff safely in school, in-person during the pandemic and beyond.

State Rep. Kathleen McCarty, of Waterford, a top Republican on the legislative Education Committee, said Monday that air quality in the states schools will be a major subject in the session that starts next week and finishes May 4.

I think were all concerned about it, McCarty said. Health has to be the No. 1 issue. We cant have our students in school not breathing good air.

She said that HVAC upgrades and maintenance should be included in school construction project estimates and allocations.

We need to alleviate some of the cost for the municipalities, McCarty said. I think we need to do a lot of research. There are schools where the air quality is an issue. I dont want to see any students in a classroom that doesnt have good air quality.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
NORWALK  The Norwalk Police Department is one step closer to acquiring its first hybrid patrol vehicles.

The Public Safety and General Government Committee of the Common Council unanimously voted last week to approve the purchase of 10 new hybrid SUVs for an amount not to exceed $367,976.

We feel its appropriate to start moving towards hybrid vehicles, Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik said at the committees Jan. 27 meeting.

The department plans to purchase 2022 models of Police Interceptor Utility vehicles from the Ford Motor Co. Based on the popular Ford Explorer, the hybrid vehicles have the ability to use an electric motor while idling, potentially saving the department thousands of dollars in fuel costs each year.

Kulhawik said the department became interested in acquiring hybrid cruisers about two years ago after community members and nearby law enforcement agencies, inclduing the New York Police Department, recommended they purchase the vehicles.

The new SUVs will join a fleet that currently includes more than 100 cars, motorcycles and specialty vehicles, including 65 traditionally marked police cruisers. The department generally purchases about 10 new vehicles a year, which allows older vehicles to be retired or put into secondary use.

The purchase is largely aimed at increasing the overall number of patrol vehicles available to officers at any given moment. Kulhwaik described the existing fleet as a 24/7 fleet, meaning police cruisers are constantly in use, which in turn contributes to greater wear and tear on the cars.

We dont have the luxury of having vehicles that are only used for one or two shifts a day, he said. The idea is that eventually we will not have a 24/7 fleet. Our patrol vehicles will be able to be used for eight hours and then rest for eight hours.

Kulhawik said hes unsure how long the new vehicles will remain in service, but noted the department is still operating several vehicles that are more than a decade old.

Provided that they havent had major damage or other major functional issues, we keep our cars as long as they run, he said. We have cars that are 10, 12, 14 years old.

Deputy Chief Susan Zecca said the vehicles will come with an extended warranty and any major repair work will be done by Ford. Public works will also be responsible for routine maintenance.

In addition to authorizing the vehicle purchases, the committee voted to enter into a contract with West Haven-based Fleet Auto Supply to upfit the vehicles each year for an amount not to exceed $200,000. Zecca said the annual upfits will provide the vehicles with emergency lights and other police equipment.

richard.chumney@hearstmediact.com
NORWALK  A Connecticut man accused of breaking into a South Norwalk grocery store was charged with burglary last week nearly a year after the alleged crime, according to police.

Jonathan Martorany, 27, was charged Thursday with third-degree burglary, sixth-degree larceny and third-degree criminal mischief in connection with a break-in at Coqui Grocery Store & Deli on Lexington Avenue, according to Norwalk police arrest records and Sgt. Sofia Gulino.

Police first became aware of the burglary, Gulino said, around midnight on March 16 after the owner of the store reported the break-in. The owner told police she had locked the store earlier in the evening before leaving, but later learned that the back door was found ajar.

Gulino said a detective responded to the scene and assumed the investigation, but no suspect was immediately identified or arrested.

Four days later, officers received an emergency call reporting that an individual was being chased by two vehicles. Officers were dispatched to the scene, Gulino said.

Responding officers were flagged down by the same store owner who advised that the same suspect had entered the store and, once observed, a chase ensued, Gulino said.

While fleeing, the suspect abandoned two bags, which the store owner discovered and turned over to police. Gulino said investigators were able to use the bags contents to identify the suspect as Martorany.

On Jan. 27, 10 months after the initial break-in, Martorany was served an arrest warrant while in custody at state Superior Court in Stamford, Gulino said. He was held on a $50,000 court-set bond.

richard.chumney@hearstmediact.com
Heads of international organizations and world leaders and officials sent their Chinese New Year greetings as China welcomes the Year of the Tiger.





The Year of the Tiger, according to the Chinese Zodiac, runs from February 1, 2022 to January 21, 2023.

In Chinese culture, the tiger symbolizes bravery, vigor and strength that can lift people from adversity and usher in final auspiciousness and peace.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent his Chinese New Year greetings, saying that the characters of the tiger are the qualities the world need today in the face of unprecedented challenges.

UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Audrey Azoulay extended Spring Festival greetings to the Chinese people.

"I hope that 2022 will be a year of renewal, one in which we can heal the scars left by the global pandemic," she stressed.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach extended New Year greetings to China, saying that he wishes all Chinese people a happy, successful and prosperous Year of the Tiger.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva congratulated the Chinese people celebrating the New Year. She said the tiger symbolizes strength, vigor also represents wisdom, courage, and these qualities are needed to march forward as the global COVID-19 pandemic is now in its third year.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Chairman of British 48 Group Club Stephen Perry also wished the Chinese people a happy New Year.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent his "best wishes to everyone celebrating the Chinese New Year."

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic wished China and the Chinese people a lot of success and good health in her greetings via CMG.

She said Serbia is also celebrating the Lunar New Year to show how much they appreciate their "iron friendship" with China.

"I stay firm that our friendship and partnership will be even stronger in the years to come."

She also voiced her confidence in Beijing presenting a "fantastic" Winter Olympics, which will officially kick off on Friday.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on Monday sent best wishes for the Chinese New Year, saying that the festival has gained popularity in the Southeast Asian nation.

In a recent message to Pung Kheav Se, president of the Federation of Khmer-Chinese in Cambodia, Hun Sen said Chinese and Cambodians of Chinese descent have always shared weal and woe with the Cambodian people since ancient times.

He said they have greatly contributed to the socio-economic development in Cambodia even during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I would like to wish all brothers and sisters happiness and brighter success in your businesses and endeavors," he said.

In a Lunar New Year message, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sent his best wishes to the Chinese community living and working in Japan as well as everyone celebrating the festival.

He wished the Year of the Tiger to be a marvelous year filled with great vitality and growth.

In a message addressed to Costa Rica Overseas Chinese Association, President Carlos Alvarado, on behalf of the Costa Rican government and in his own name, wished prosperity, health and peace to the Chinese community in the Central American country.

He also congratulated the Chinese people on their great achievements over the past year.

Comoran President Azali Assoumani also extended greetings to the Chinese people.

source: CGTN
Welcome to Cheap Shots, a column where we re-visit the inexpensive, so-called Bottom Shelf whiskies & spirits we lovingly drank in college and review them with a more refined  almost grown-up  lens. Ill pick a new bottom-shelf bottle to drink and review it with an open mind, positive attitude, and salivating mouth. Today: Wild Turkey

Wild Turkey Bourbon

Wild Turkey Bourbon Wild Turkey drizly.com $21.99 Shop Now

What is it? Its bourbon, dummy! Aged in American White Oak barrels, Wild Turkey is an 81-proof straight Kentucky-style bourbon whiskey found at most bars across the country. Nestled side-by-side with bottles like Jim Beam and Jack Daniels, Wild Turkeys approachable vanilla-caramel flavor makes it as easy to drink on ice as it is in a cocktail

Smells like: Whiskey  that is to say, Wild Turkey has that straight-forward sweet and spicy whiskey smell that lights up your nostrils like illegal fireworks on the Fourth of July (as well as the many days bordering the very loud holiday) and hits you with a signature sharp scent that I can only describe as "Wild Turkey."

Tastes like: There are some bottles of bourbon you bring out for special occasions  like meeting your partners parents or something  but dont let that fool you into thinking price always dictates flavor. Wild Turkey tastes like a cheap bourbon whiskey should; that citrus-forward caramel flavor can get a little overwhelming at times, but this stuff goes down so easy that its pretty easy to ignore.

Try it: On the rocks or with soda water for a quick post-work refresher or with a splash of ginger ale to bring out that sweetness. String from your tether unwinds! (string from your tether unwinds) WHOA-oh. Whoa-OH.
EDITORS NOTE: The Intelligencer requests briefs be submitted at least 10 days prior to the desired publication date. Due to the volume of community-submitted briefs, the content may be published within 10 days of submission. Holidays and weather forecasts may impact some events. The Intelligencer cannot guarantee that submission will be published.

Cribbage Club

6 p.m. at Camelot Bowling Alley, 801 Beltline Road, Collinsville. Beginners welcome, free to attend. Contact Phil (618) 288-7910 or Susan at (618) 978-1664 for more information.

Toddler Time

10 a.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Ages 0-2. Theyve got the books, bops and bubbles. Bring your babies and toddlers to share stories and songs with Miss Kristen and all the Story Time friends. Registration Required.

Pasta Dinner Every Tuesday

3-8 p.m. Dine-in or Carryout at the Edwardsville American Legion Post 199, 58 South State Rt. Edwardsville. Pasta of the week served with salad. 618-656-9774

Teen Game Night

6-7 p.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Grades 6-12. Game Night is back every week. Go on a quest with fellow players in Dungeons & Dragons or choose from a variety of board games to play with friends.

Wednesday, Feb. 2

Blood Drive at St. Johns

1-6 p.m. at St. Johns United Methodist Church, 7372 Marine Road, Edwardsville. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a decline in donor turnout, the cancellation of blood drives and staffing challenges, leading to the worst blood shortage in more than a decade. To schedule, go to redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED-CROS (1-800-733-2767)

Thursday, Feb. 3

PFLAG Edwardsville Meeting

7-8:30 p.m. online. Contact Amy for a link, 618-977-5078 or pflagedwardsville@outlook.com. PFLAG Edwardsville offers support, education, and advocacy for LGBTQ people and their allies. There will be a speaker from Alton Pride to discuss their new youth group.

Chicken Dinner Every Thursday

4-8 p.m. Dine-in or Carryout at the Edwardsville American Legion Post 199, 58 South State Rt. 157, Edwardsville. Two or four pieces of chicken and vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy and a biscuit. 618-656-9774

NAMI Meeting

7-8:30 p.m via Zoom. The National Alliance on Mental Illness Southwestern Illinois (NAMI SWI) family support meetings may also be in person. To receive the link for a Zoom meeting or address for an in-person meeting contact Pat Rudloff, silverlining6@charter.net.

Preschooler Story Time

10 a.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Ages 3-5. If youre ready for a story, clap your hands. Every week Ms. Megan will be sharing fun tales & tunes, and bubbles. Registration Required.

Friday, Feb. 4

Book Sale

9 a.m.-noon at the Tri Township Library, 209 South Main, Troy. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library. Book donations are accepted during the book sale and on Tues. from 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. If the Triad Unit 2 School District is closed on the day of the book sake then the book sale will be canceled.

Fish Fry Every Friday

11 a.m.-8 p.m. Dine-in or Carryout at the Edwardsville American Legion Post 199, 58 South State Rt. 157, Edwardsville. Two pieces of cod or one catfish filet and sides. 618-656-9774

Fish Fry

4:30-8 p.m. at the Edwardsville Moose, 7371 Marine Road, Edwardsville. Dine-in and carryout options. 618-656-5051

Saturday, Feb. 5

Read to a Dog

10-11 a.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Readers up to 11 years old. Max the golden retriever will be visiting and wants to listen to you read. Each reader will have 15 minutes to read a story of their choice to Max. Registration Required.

Sunday, Feb. 6

Discover Bees and Beekeeping

1-3 p.m. at Maryville Community Center, 500 East Division St. Available in-person and online as part of the Maryville Park & Rec Discovery Sunday Sessions. Dennis Hessel of the St. Clair Beekeepers Association will be presenting. Attendees are asked to social distance and wear masks. The Zoom session can be opened with Zoom ID: 850 8666 4733; Pass Code: 236771 or by mobile number: +131262667799. Check the Village of Maryville website for any changes.

Monday, Feb. 7

Love Stinks Teen Take-Home Kit

Ongoing through Feb. 12 at the Edwardsville Public Library. Kick Cupid to the curb this year at the Edwardsville Public library. Pick up a pack of projects and treats including: DIY anti-valentines, black heart origami and more. Teens who register can pick up their kits at the Youth Desk. Registration Required.

Tuesday, Feb. 8

Exploring Ancient New River Gorge National Park and Preserve



6-7:30 p.m. online via Zoom. Zoom registration is available on the Sierra Club Piasa Palisades Group Events tab at www.sierraclub.org/illinois/piasa-palisades. Join this presentation of the February Speaker Series to hear more about the interesting story from long-time Piasa Palisades Group member Dr. Rich Keating. For questions contact Chris Krusa 410-490-5024.

Cribbage Club

6 p.m. at Camelot Bowling Alley, 801 Beltline Road, Collinsville. Beginners welcome, free to attend. Contact Phil (618) 288-7910 or Susan at (618) 978-1664 for more information.

Toddler Time

10 a.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Ages 0-2. Theyve got the books, bops and bubbles. Bring your babies and toddlers to share stories and songs with Miss Kristen and all the Story Time friends. Registration Required.

Pasta Dinner Every Tuesday

3-8 p.m. Dine-in or Carryout at the Edwardsville American Legion Post 199, 58 South State Rt. Edwardsville. Pasta of the week served with salad. 618-656-9774

American Legion Post 199 meeting

6:30 p.m. at the American Legion Post 199 at 58 S. State Rt. 157. All legion members are encouraged to attend the meetings. Non-member visitors are welcome.

Teen Game Night

6-7 p.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Grades 6-12. Game Night is back every week. Go on a quest with fellow players in Dungeons & Dragons or choose from a variety of board games to play with friends.

Thursday, Feb. 10

NAMI Meeting

7-8:30 p.m via Zoom. The National Alliance on Mental Illness Southwestern Illinois (NAMI SWI) family support meetings may also be in person. To receive the link for a Zoom meeting or address for an in-person meeting contact Pat Rudloff, silverlining6@charter.net.

Preschooler Story Time

10 a.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Ages 3-5. If youre ready for a story, clap your hands. Every week Ms. Megan will be sharing fun tales & tunes, and bubbles. Registration Required.

Chicken Dinner Every Thursday

4-8 p.m. Dine-in or Carryout at the Edwardsville American Legion Post 199, 58 South State Rt. 157, Edwardsville. Two or four pieces of chicken and vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy and a biscuit. 618-656-9774

EPL Book Club for Adults

6:30 p.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. They will be discussing "Party of Two" by Jasmine Guillory. Good books. Good company. Good talk.

Friday, Feb. 11

Fish Fry Every Friday

11 a.m.-8 p.m. Dine-in or Carryout at the Edwardsville American Legion Post 199, 58 South State Rt. 157, Edwardsville. Two pieces of cod or one catfish filet and sides. 618-656-9774

Fish Fry

4:30-8 p.m. at the Edwardsville Moose, 7371 Marine Road, Edwardsville. Dine-in and carryout options. 618-656-5051

Glo-Bingo

6 p.m. at the Edwardsville Moose Lodge, 7371 Marine Road. Bring your own snacks.

Saturday, Feb. 12

Galentine's Party

11 a.m. - 4 p.m. at The Ink House, 117 North Second St., Edwardsville. Presented by Opal & Lace. Over 25 vendors, cash bar, photo mini shoots, music and makeup and eyebrow tint and waxing. Vendors interested in participating can email kemiller2014@gmail.com

Preschool Valentines Dance Party

10:30 a.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Ages 3-5. Its time for the Librarys Valentines Dance Party. Share sweet stories, sing along with fun songs and dance til you drop.

Monday, Feb. 14

Coventry Crafters

6-7:30 p.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Enjoy crafts, snacks and lively conversation. Adult crafters bring portable crafts including needlework, quilting, scrapbooking, knitting, etc. Newcomers always welcome.

Tuesday, Feb. 15

Cribbage Club

6 p.m. at Camelot Bowling Alley, 801 Beltline Road, Collinsville. Beginners welcome, free to attend. Contact Phil (618) 288-7910 or Susan at (618) 978-1664 for more information.

Toddler Time

10 a.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Ages 0-2. Theyve got the books, bops and bubbles. Bring your babies and toddlers to share stories and songs with Miss Kristen and all the Story Time friends. Registration Required.

Pasta Dinner Every Tuesday

3-8 p.m. Dine-in or Carryout at the Edwardsville American Legion Post 199, 58 South State Rt. Edwardsville. Pasta of the week served with salad. 618-656-9774

Teen Game Night

6-7 p.m. at the Edwardsville Public Library. Grades 6-12. Game Night is back every week. Go on a quest with fellow players in Dungeons & Dragons or choose from a variety of board games to play with friends.

Ongoing Events

Al-Anon

For information call 618-463-2429. For more information, visit SIAFG.org and District-18.org.

Youth Take Home Crafts

Pick up a take-home craft bag at the Edwardsville Public Library with all the materials to make the project. A new craft will be available each month at the Youth Desk.
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A laundromat in Beatrice changed hands this month after nearly three decades.

Soap Opera, at 1623 Court St. opened for business 27 years ago. The laundromat was started by Jay and Brenda Carnes as a side business.

We both held full time jobs, Brenda said. He worked at Agrium and I was teaching at St Paul Lutheran school here in town. Our thinking was that when my husband would retire that he would need something to tinker with. He was very mechanical and so we thought it would be a nice retirement income for us. He passed away and didnt have a chance to do that.

Jay passed away around three years ago, and Brenda recently sold Soap Opera to Stacy Leners.

I worked with Jay, and Brenda was a teacher for a couple of my kids, Leners said. This was an opportunity that presented itself. I travel a lot with my job now, so theres not a lot of community stuff that I get to do. I wanted to get back to Beatrice and connect a little bit. Then it will be my retirement plan also.

Leners works for Union Pacific Railroad, and said hes happy the business will continue operating in Beatrice.

In addition to laundry service, Soap Opera is a satellite location for drycleaning where people can drop items off that are then taken to Hangers in Lincoln where theyre cleaned and returned. The business also offers a dropoff laundry service and an after hours drop box for customers who need it.

Brenda said even though her husband isnt around to see the business change hands, shes confident he would be happy to see Leners taking over.

He would have felt very comfortable with Stacy taking over, Brenda said. We looked at many different kinds of businesses and Im glad we went into a service business rather than a retail or restaurant business because you either need a laundromat or you dont. Starting a business in southeast Nebraska is not the easiest thing to do, with acquiring your customer base and earning the trust of the people. We just always tried to be good people to work with, not only for customers, but also our employees.

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Abuja, January 31, 2022  Ghanaian authorities should swiftly identify and hold to account the people behind the recent attack on the Radio Ada FM broadcaster, and ensure that journalists can work safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

At about 11:30 a.m. on January 13, ten masked men forced open a studio door at the privately owned broadcasters office in the Ada district of the greater Accra region, and attacked and threatened its staff, according to multiple newsreports and Radio Ada presenter Korle Adjaotor Sorngortse, who spoke by phone with CPJ.

The attackers, one of whom carried a pistol, hit and kicked Sorngortse all over his body for more than 10 minutes, shoved receptionist Ruby Ate and held her in her chair, and forced producer and anchor Gideon Amanor Dzeagu to kneel while they ransacked the office, according to those sources and Dzeagu, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

After about 15 minutes, the men left the scene and threatened to return and shoot people if Radio Ada FM continued reporting on a mining contract recently granted to the Electrochem company, according to those sources.

Julius said his office reported the attack to police, who have opened an investigation.

Authorities in Ghana must swiftly identify those who planned and perpetrated the recent attack on Radio Ada FM, and hold them accountable, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, in New York. These physical attacks on members of the press and attempts at intimidation are far too common in Ghana, and should not be tolerated.

The attackers monitored the broadcaster from a nearby bar for over three hours before entering the office, according to those reports and Dzeagu, who said he saw the men at the bar.

Dzeagu and Odoi Julius, a producer and officer in charge of external communications at Radio Ada FM, told CPJ by phone that the outlets reporting showed that the Electrochem contract would require some people to be relocated, and that a protest had been planned against the deal.

That protest was scheduled for the same day the broadcaster was attacked, they said. Two protest organizers were at the station during the raid, and one of the attackers hit one of the organizers, Sorngortse and Dzeagu told CPJ. They added that the protest was later cancelled after organizers were unable to acquire police protection.

The attackers repeatedly asked to see Noah Dameh, who led the Manor Munyu news program that covered the Electrochem case, but left the studio after being told he was not there, according to Dzeagu and those news reports.

The attackers destroyed two computers used for recording, a sound mixer, and three sets of headphones, Dzeagu, Sorngortse, and Julius told CPJ.

Sorngortse told CPJ that he continues to experience severe pain in his head and neck from the beating, and his left eye remains swollen.

When CPJ called Ada district Police Commander Kojo Mifetu for comment, he said authorities had not yet identified the attackers.

CPJ called and texted Electrochem, and its parent company the McDan Group, for comment, but did not receive any replies.

CPJ has for years documented Ghanaian journalists concerns that those responsible for violence against reporters are not identified or held accountable.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Abuja inaugurated a N62 billion trust fund to give Nigeria's commitment to the treatment of deadly AIDS as public health threat and subjected more people living with HIV to treatment annually.

Delivering speech at the launch of the HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria (HTFN), the President promised that his administration would continue to major on health interventions to address killer and contagious diseases and public health emergencies.

He disclosed: At the last United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, I made a call for a renewed global action to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Ending AIDS as a public health threat in Nigeria will require increased domestic funding. We have continued to make good our commitment of placing more people living with HIV on treatment annually using national resources.

However, strong domestic resource mobilization with an enduring partnership and shared responsibility is required to sustain the response to HIV and other emerging public health emergencies.

President Buhari assured that Nigerias purposeful partnership with the private sector in the response to COVID 19 pandemic had provided a readily available financing solution to leverage to sustain the HIV response.

He applauded the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and the Nigeria Business Coalition Against AIDS for their concerted efforts in establishing the HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria to secure a generation of babies free of HIV.

He also expressed optimism with the attendance in person of notable global key players in HIV response and from the private sector at the event and the promises made.

Going forward, I hope The HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria will galvanize more of the private sector and other partners to surpass the target of Sixty-Two Billion Naira in the next five years, he stated.

In his speech, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha disclosed that since 2005 about 6.2 billion dollars has been spent on HIV response in Nigeria.

According to him, About 80 per cent of the funds were contributed by external donors, mainly the US Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Private Sector contributed 0.1 per cent to two per cent of total funds with the rest of funds provided by the Nigerian government.

Appraising NACAs efforts to promote resource mobilisation to complement existing external support, Mustapha said the Federal Government has sustained the treatment and financing of 50,000 PLHIV annually.

He said the launch of the HTFN will stabilise funding from the private sector-led resources for HIV interventions especially for the elimination of the Mother-to-Child transmission of the virus.

Since 2005, about 6.2 billion dollars has been spent on HIV response in Nigeria about 80 per cent of the funds were contributed by external donors mainly the US Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Private Sector contributed 0.1 per cent to two per cent of total funds with the rest of funds provided by the Nigerian government.

Chief Launcher and Chairman and CEO of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote said the mission of the private sector led fund proposed by NACA alongside the Nigeria Business Coalition Against AIDS (NiBUCAA) is to ensure mobilisation of resources towards eradication of AIDS in Nigeria, starting with the Prevention of Mother-to-Child transmission of the virus.

I am reminded that we have two million of our compatriots living with HIV/AIDS and it is our collective responsibility to bring this number down to zero, he said.

Dangote, who is Africas richest man, appealed to individuals and corporate organisations in the country to donate generously toward the Fund, currently chaired by Dr Herbert Wigwe, the Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc.

We would like the private sector to work in partnership with the Federal Government on a 50-50 basis which we believe will help us eliminate Mother-to-Child transmission of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, he said.

Also speaking, the Director-General of NACA. Dr Gambo Aliyu thanked the President for his commitment and support for the HIV response in the country, noting that as a direct result of his intervention, NACA now procures HIV commodities at manufacturers rate, as a result of which more Nigerians living with HIV have been placed on treatment from domestic resources.

Justifying the importance of the Fund, the Director-General said providing life-long treatment to all PLHIV even after successfully stopping new HIV infections would require a domestically sustainable financing mechanism.
The Association of Local Government of Nigeria, (ALGON) Ebonyi State chapter, has condemned the motion moved by the Peoples' Democratic Party, (PDP) federal lawmakers from Ebonyi State extraction, calling for the disbandment of the Ebubeagu Security outfit.

The Association made the condemnation on Tuesday, in a press statement made available to journalists in Abakaliki.

ALGON, expressed regret that such a motion was coming from elected members of the National Assembly who ordinarily should know and understand the importance of security in the place of good governance.

The House of Representatives Lawmakers from the state had moved a motion accusing the state government of arming Ebubeagu operatives and using them for various extra judicial and illegal operations in the state and therefore called for their disbandment.

The motion was moved by Idu Igariwey(Afikpo North/South) and supported by four other PDP Lawmakers from the state.

They are Livinus Makwe (Ohaozara, Ivo, Onicha), Sylvester Ogbaga(Abakaliki/Izzi), Chukwuma Nwazunku (Ebonyi/Ohaukwu) and Edwin Nwonu (Ezza North/Ishielu).

Reacting to the motion, The Chairman of ALGON Ebonyi State, Princess Nkechinyere Iyioku who spoke on behalf of otgersmaintained that Ebubeagu Security Network is a Local Vigilante Team established and duly backed up by Law, adding that the outfit was not just a creation of Ebonyi State but cuts across the entire States of the region.

She insisted that no amount of propaganda or motion would stop the good works being carried out by the out fit.

"EbubeAgu has come to stay. Our people cannot go back to the old days of incessant attacks by hoodlums, bandits and criminal elements. Anybody calling for the scrapping of EbubeAgu is an enemy of the state.
Phuket taxi driver gets B1k fine, politeness training for verballing tourists

PHUKET: The Phuket taxi driver involved in the fracas that saw him unload a tirade of verbal abuse on a Thai tourist couple in Kamala last Friday (Jan 28) has been fined B1,000 and sentenced to three hours of politeness training.

tourismtransport

By The Phuket News

Tuesday 1 February 2022, 06:09PM

Mr Jetsada arrived at the meeting yesterday with his wife and child. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Mr Jetsada was fined B1,000 and sentenced to three hours of politeness training. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Mr Jaturong holds up one of the posters that explains, in Thai, where tourists can download a list of the average set fares across the island, thaht may or may not be charged, depending on the level of service provided. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The penalty was announced at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (Jan 31), where taxi driver, Jetsada Kahapana, 48, was called to explain his actions to Phuket Vice Governor Anuphap Rodkwan Yodrabum and Phuket Land Transportation Office (PLTO) Chief Jaturong Kaewkasi.

Mr Jetsada brought his wife and daughter to the meeting, presumably for support.

The conversation between Mr Jetsada and Vice Governor Anuphap was closed.

After the meeting Mr Jetsada told reporters that he had met with the police yesterday.

"I have acknowledged the allegations, but I deny all of them. I had to first consult with someone who has knowledge about the law," he said.

I want this incident to end as soon as possible since I dont want my actions to tarnish my careers image, Jetsada stated.

Of note, Kamala Police were ordered to take action by Phuket Provincial Police Commander Pol Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikong after a formal complaint was filed by Kevin Phol.

Mr Phol, son of online celebrity SuperdocYo, and his girlfriend were accosted by Mr Jetsasda after they called him a cheat for attempting to charge them B600 to be taken from Kamala to Nanai Rd in Patong, a distance of about 12km.

Mr Jetsada reacted angrily after Mr Phol called him a cheat. He has maintained that he was charging a fair price for the couple to be transported in his 10-seater VIP van.

Not recognised by Jetsada is that Mr Phol and his girlfriend were not allowed to hire any other taxi at the rank in front of the club they had just exited to take them back to their hotel in Patong, and that drivers ordered through a Grab/Bolt app refused to pick up any passengers there out of fear of reprisal by the taxi drivers already operating from the taxi rank there.

Meanwhile, Mr Phol returned to Bangkok early yesterday morning (Jan 31), saying that he will not return to Phuket.

I have read the comments of Phuket people. I feel terrible. I dont want to talk about this anymore, just look at the video that I posted. Id like to ask everyone to be a mouthpiece [about the incident]. This incident makes me feel very bad. I wont come back to Phuket again, Samui is much better, he said.

PLTO Chief Jaturong yesterday admitted that the incident had an impact on Phukets tourism image.

Mr Jaturong held a meeting yesterday to discuss strategies to counter the problem  that is, Phuket taxi operators stranglehold on the islands so-called public transportation system.

The meeting was touted as focussing on issues including the fares charged by taxi drivers in Phuket, but Mr Jaturongs own report on the result of the meeting failed to include anything about renegotiating with the taxi cartels to reduce the fares they charge.

The last time Phuket officials asked the taxi cartels on the island to reduce their fares was in 2016. The taxi cartels flatly refused. No further action was taken.

FOUR ISSUES

Regardless, after the meeting yesterday Mr Jaturong said that four main issues were addressed.

The first issue addressed was the fares, Mr Jaturong said, and explained that the result of the meeting was to start a public relations campaign to inform tourists how much they should expect to pay for taxi journeys on the island.

The first issue is about the high prices, which are not made clear, he said.

It was recommended that the fares be published as soon as possible for tourists to be informed through all channels, including at Phuket Airport, Tha Chatchai checkpoint [leading on and off the island by road] and in various hotel areas, he said.

The fares are to be printed on posters and publicity brochures and available by phone app so that tourists can download the list of fares themselves to ensure fairness in the collection of fares and prevent further exploitation of passengers, Mr Jaturong added.

The second issue discussed was for the PLTO to a meeting to explain to public transportation operators and taxi drivers the guidelines for serving people and tourists (sic) to raise the level of being a good host, Mr Jaturong said.

The meeting was described as a positive move in light of the expected increase in the number of tourists to come to Phuket with the Test & Go entry scheme reopening for bookings today (Feb 1).

The third issue is to punish offenders in the matter of the use of verbal gestures that are not polite to passengers in an intimidating way, Mr Jaturong said.

It will be divided into two parts. First, it is the duty of the PLTO to investigate the driver that commits the wrongdoing. If found guilty of the allegation, the driver will be fined B1,000 and allowed to attend [sic] three hours of training with PTLO, he added.

The last issue is the liberty of taxi drivers to pick up passengers in each area according to the news that has been published, Mr Jaturong said vaguely. The incident on Friday was at one specific location, but Mr Jaturong spoke as if he was referring to other locations as well.

Phuket has given importance to the establishment of a working group to solve such problems together with the police and the administration in arranging parking spaces in each category and setting up service cars and meter taxis and other vehicles to provide an alternative form of transport so passengers can choose to use the service freely, he said.

Of note, Mr Jaturong relegated this point as minor one, but if actually put into practice would mark a watershed moment in Phukets long fight against the islands taxi mafia.

In the future it will be used to run more cars through an application for which Phuket [provincial officials] must prepare a plan in this regard and must solve the problem when tourists have booked the car, and the car cannot gain access to receive users, he said, again, vaguely.

Therefore, we ask the society to have trust and confidence that Phuket [provincial officials] has the intention of solving the aforementioned problem concretely so that Phuket can continue to welcome tourists in a sustainable way, Mr Jaturong said.

FARES VARY

Reverting back to fares charged by taxi drivers, Mr Jaturong said the fares charged by public transport operators on the island vary, depending on the level of service provided.

Now, there are over 4,000 green-license plate vehicles on Phuket, 1,000 tuk-tuks, which provide service on the beachfront, roughly 290 metered taxis, most of which at the airport, and the rest are motorbike taxis,  he said.

The fares charged vary, depending on the vehicle, the distance of the journey and the level of service provided, he said, not accounting for the driver.

Mr Jaturong also again referred to what he called government set fares that he said public transport drivers must adhere to, which again, historically in Phuket, has always been voluntary.

If the bus driver does not collect fares at the rates which are set by the government, there will be clear penalties, he said, avoiding giving the example of a taxi driver not charging the set fares.

ONLY ONE

A mobile phone app will be developed to help people know what fares they will be charged, Mr Jaturong continued.

Currently, there is only one app authorised by the PLTO, that is the Hello Phuket Service app, he said.

There are several applications for providing car service in Phuket, but only the Hello Phuket Service app has been certified by the PLTO, he said.

Other apps are in the process of requesting certification but are not yet approved, he added.

Of note, Grab Taxi launch their app to hire drivers in Phuket in 2015, at an event chaired by the-then Governor of Phuket, Nisit Chansomwong. (See story here.)

Mr Jaturong yesterday gave no explanation for the duality of a Phuket Governor launching an app-based driver-ordering service on the island seven years ago and why the app still remains unapproved by Phuket transport officials today.

Additional reporting by Eakkapop Thongtub
Sinovac for ages 3-17 gets ministry nod

BANGKOK: A Public Health Ministry sub-committee on immunity promotion has approved the use of Sinovacs COVID-19 vaccine on minors over the age of three, it was announced yesterday (Jan 31).

ChineseCoronavirusCOVID-19healthVaccine

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 1 February 2022, 08:58AM

A girl gives a victory sign yesterday (Jan 31) after receiving a Pfizer shot at the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health in Bangkok after the government started giving COVID-19 vaccines to children aged between 5 and 11. Photo: Varuth Hirunyatheb

The director-general of the Department of Disease Control, Opas Karnkawinpong, said the sub-committee made the decision to allow minors between the ages of three and 17 to receive the COVID-19 jab made by Chinas Sinovac on Friday, reports the Bangkok Post.

He said parental consent will be required for the children to receive a shot.

Dr Opas said the decision was taken as a number of studies have shown the Sinovac jab is effective and safe for children and adolescents.

While the sub-committee has approved the use of Sinovac jabs for minors, Dr Opas said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will still have to certify that the vaccine is safe to be used on the age group.

Once the FDA approves it, the vaccine can be provided to minors in this age group right away, he said.

In December last year, the FDA approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children between the age of five and 11.

Dr Opas went on to say that the sub-committee also approved a plan to offer an AstraZeneca booster to those who had received two AstraZeneca shots, after a study from the United Kingdom showed that three shots of the jab significantly improves immunity against the disease.

Separately, Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul praised the move, saying parents now have more vaccine choices for their children.

Anutin said now that the country has procured various types of COVID-19 vaccine for people from all walks of life, the public should get vaccinated as soon as possible.

He said that it would be safer to acquire immunity through vaccinations than surviving an infection.

Vaccination could reduce the severity of the illness if a person catches the virus, he said.

Meanwhile, vaccinations for children aged between five and 11 began yesterday at Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health.

They were given Pfizers mRNA-based vaccine for children, which requires a different preparation before administration.

Thailand has 5.8 million children between the ages of 5-11, including 900,000 who are considered as vulnerable to infections.
A 20-year-old man has been charged with multiple felonies stemming from a 2021 crash that killed a Billings teenager.

Christian James Harshbarger was charged with vehicular homicide while under the influence, negligent vehicular assault and two counts of criminal endangerment in Yellowstone County District Court this week. A combination of speed, marijuana use and distracted driving were alleged factors in the crash, according to an affidavit filed in court.

The charges come almost a year to the day after Harshbarger crashed his pickup truck into a sedan driven by 17-year-old Christine Croft in the intersection of Rimrock Road and Virginia Lane. Christine was driving Feb. 2, 2021 with her younger sister after school to pick up another sibling from daycare, The Gazette previously reported.

The two were traveling north in a Toyota Camry on Virginia Lane, court documents say, when they came to Rimrock Road. At the time, only a stop sign directed traffic at the partially obscured intersection. As the Croft sisters were turning left onto Rimrock Road, Harshbarger was coming east in a Dodge Ram. He was traveling approximately 52 mph, the investigation later determined, in a zone with a posted limit of 35 mph. The truck struck the Camry on the drivers side.

Rescue crews pronounced Christine dead at the scene, while her sister was taken to a Billings hospital for a series of surgeries. Harshbarger and two other passengers in the pickup were treated for minor injuries.

Harshbarger reportedly cooperated with investigators in providing a blood sample, offering his phone to search and speaking with police after the crash. Testing showed he had 11 ng/ml of THC in his blood. In Montana, it is a crime to drive a vehicle with 5 ng/ml or more THC, the psychoactive compound of marijuana, in your blood.

The City of Billings has since installed a traffic light at the intersection, previously known by officials as one of the most dangerous in the city. That was in part due to a stucco and brick wall built between 2007 and 2008 on the intersections southwest corner. Christines family filed a lawsuit in October 2021 against both the city and Harshbarger, claiming partly that officials knew the potential risk for deadly crashes at the intersection.

Harshbarger said in an interview with police that he smoked a dab pen, used to vaporize a wax concentration of cannabis, about six hours before the crash. While traveling down Rimrock Road, he said he saw a friend traveling in the opposite direction and pointed to him. He told police he stayed within his lane, but when he focused back on the road, the Camry driven by Christine was in front of him. Harshbarger said he hit the brakes, but they did not work. Evidence gathered from the scene, according to charging documents, showed no signs of braking on the part of Harshbarger.

If convicted of vehicular homicide while under the influence, Harshbarger could be imprisoned for up to 30 years and fined up to $50,000. A conviction for negligent vehicular homicide comes with up to 10 years in prison and a possible $10,000 fine.

Harshbarger is not currently in custody, and has yet to appear in court to answer the charges.

Later this week, Billings man Andrew David Sherod is scheduled to change his plea in Yellowstone County District Court. He has also been charged with vehicular homicide while under the influence. In August 2019, Sherod was allegedly under the influence of cannabis when the pickup truck he was driving collided with a motorcycle at Sixth Avenue North and North 31st Street. The driver of the motorcycle, a 43-year-old Billings man, died at the scene.

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Partly cloudy skies early will become overcast later during the night. Low 64F. Winds light and variable.
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RIDGEFIELD  Some of the towns Black history is finally being told.

In Uncle Neds Mountain, a new self-published book by resident Jack Sanders, readers can uncover the previously unknown stories of the towns Black citizens, some of whom were enslaved.

This is an area that no historian of the town has spent any time on, and I dont think maybe they were much driven to do so, Sanders said. The (towns) Black population for most of its history (comprised) 1 to 2 percent of the people. That percentage made significant contributions to the community, especially in the 18th century.

Sanders served as the editor of The Ridgefield Press for 45 years and has written countless articles and columns about the towns history.

His website, ridgefieldhistory.com, contains a large collection of his writings on Ridgefields place names, its notable residents, and offers a detailed timeline spanning three centuries. He also maintains the Old Ridgefield Facebook group, which has more than 7,000 followers.

Sanders first became interested in the towns Black history after discovering an unusual surname embossed on the Revolutionary War memorial on Main Street. Among the well-known, pioneering families of the town  the Bennetts and Keelers, the Hawleys and Olmsteads  were Lewis and Ebenezer Jacklin.

The Jacklins were two free Black men who lived and worked in Ridgefield during a time when most Black residents living in Connecticut were enslaved, Sanders said. During the 18th century, the family contributed to the community in many substantial ways, the books preface reads.

They were quite respected citizens of the community, Sanders said, noting that two of the Jacklin brothers owned sizable farms in town. Robert Jr. settled 70 acres in northern Ridgebury, which is now part of Danbury. Thats quite an undertaking. Its nothing but rocky woods, a terrible place to build a farm, but they did it.

They were among the Ridgefielders who came from Norwalk and Milford to settle in the town.

They were pioneers, Sanders said.

In delving deeper into the Jacklins history, Sanders subsequently found records of Ridegfields enslaved people. The number was shocking, he said.

So far I found 60 (but) theres gotta be even more, because there are some that were probably never recorded or I havent found yet, he added. Thats a lot of enslaved people in a small New England town. This is the kind of thing that people ought to know about.

The books title  Uncle Neds Mountain  is derived from the name of a spot on the Underground Railroad that operated in Ridgebury before the Civil War. Sanders first came across the story of Ned and Aunt Betsey Armstrong in 2020 while reading a 140-year-old newspaper article published in the New Haven Register.

The Armstrongs were an elderly Black couple that hid fugitive slaves in the caves on what became known as Neds Mountain, on the north end of town. Sanders research indicates that some people who found solace there volunteered to fight in the Union army during the Civil War.

This included two of the Armstrongs grandchildren  one of whom was among the last victims of the conflict  and a native Hawaiian who lived in Ridgefield during the 1850s.

This young man went off to serve in the Union Navy then left to join the Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment, Sanders said. He fought in Petersburg, Richmond, all these ugly battles, and after the war he joined the Buffalo Soldiers, a Black outfit that patrolled the American west for the U.S. Army.

He was a native of the kingdom of Hawaii, Sanders continued. What was he doing here (in Ridgefield)?

Among other factoids, Sanders book points out the astounding percentage of Black people from Connecticut who volunteered to fight against slavery during the Civil War. More than 75 percent of those eligible volunteered to serve, he said.

The contributions of the African-Americans in Ridgefield over the towns first two centuries is something thats just been totally ignored, Sanders added. Especially in times where people are concerned about race and equality, here are all these people  (who) felt strongly about the country and their race. They wanted to do something good.

Copies of Uncle Neds Mountain will be available at Sanders in-person talk at the Ridgefield Library at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13. Copies will soon be available at the Ridgefield Historical Society and Books on the Common.

alyssa.seidman@hearstmediact.com
Salem, MO (65560)

Today

Cloudy. Periods of rain early. High around 70F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. Low 53F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Two Billings men caught in a sting operation targeting pedophiles last year now face federal charges.

Indictments were filed in United States District Court for the District of Montana against Jason Robert Kroepelin and Thomas Clay Sebastian. Both men were arrested in October 2021 along with seven others after local and federal authorities conducted a covert operation to net online predators in the Billings area.

Kroepelin, 32, has been charged with attempting to coerce and entice a minor into sexual activity, and possession of child sex abuse material. The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, Billings Police Department, Yellowstone County Sheriffs Office and the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force all contributed to the investigation that led to Kroepelins arrest, according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice.

Sebastian, 24, faces a charge of attempting to coerce and entice a person who he thought was a minor into sex. The FBI was the lead investigating agency into the case.

Both men are currently in custody in Yellowstone County Detention Facility, and pleaded not guilty to the charges before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan on Jan. 27. If convicted, Sebastian and Kroepelin face 10 years to life in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years to life of supervised release. Both men have tentative trial dates scheduled for March 28.

Sebastian and Kroepelin were initially charged in Yellowstone County District Court with sexual abuse of children in October 2021. They and seven others allegedly responded to advertisements placed online by covert agents working the operation.

Danny Allen Haydal, 64, was charged with two counts of sexual abuse of children in Yellowstone County District Court. Haydal allegedly communicated online with a man he believed was offering his six-year-old and 10-year-old daughters for sex acts. His trial date is scheduled for April 4.

Abraham Francis Leroy Montez, 39, allegedly answered an ad posted by agents and chatted with a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl. Montez exchanged nude photos with the girl, documents say, and explicitly discussed sex acts with her. A search warrant issued by Judge Ashley Harada on his phone and premises led to an arrest. His trial is slated to begin March 7.

Jacob B. Ramirez, 40, is alleged to have corresponded with someone he thought was an adult offering her 12-year-old daughter for sexual conduct. While talking with the agent documents say Ramirez sent nude photos of himself. His trial is scheduled for April 4.

Dustin Lee Rudolph, 33, allegedly responded to an ad posted by an undercover FBI agent and started speaking with who he believed was a 13-year-old girl. The conversation turned from talks of doing drugs together to sex acts. Rudolph has a trial date for Feb. 14.

David Ray Schultz, 52, faces two counts of sexual abuse of a child. He allegedly spoke with an agent posing as a women about sex acts with her two daughters, aged 12 and 14. His trial will begin February 28.

Kyle Jason Swindler, 40, is alleged to have responded to an ad posted by an agent and had conversations with someone he thought was a 13-year-old. He discussed various sex acts during those conversations, documents say. His trial will be held March 7.

County prosecutors dropped the charge against Martin Leo Jimenez, 27, and the case was dismissed in court without prejudice.

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Following a life of sheer determination and hard work, longtime harness racing participant Vern Brown of Ridgetown, Ont. passed away peacefully at his home on January 23 at the age of 81.

He will be remembered with great fondness by his wife Cathy (Witfield) Brown, his children Debbie Pinsonneault, Brenda McNear (late Mike), Jim & Bobbi Brown, Shelley Brown (Chuck Howard) and Bobby Brown (Kelly Swanson), his grandchildren Sarah, Jason, Jodi & Calvin, Josh, Jacob, Jesse, Jim & Consuela, Ella, Bowynn and MacKenzie and by his great-grandchildren Gracie, Brody and Brayden.

A long-time resident of Ridgetown, Verns early influencers in life were his mother Helen (McCullough) and his poppy Clayt Smith. He is survived by his brother Jim but was predeceased by his sisters Marilyn and Layla as well as his brothers Tom, Bob and Bill.

As a young man, Vern developed a love of horses. He excelled in training and showing horses at many country fairs and earned the distinction of Best In Show at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. It was just recently because of his declining health that the horses he loved and cared for so much were rehomed.



For over 62 years, Vern served Ridgetown and surrounding areas with Great haircuts. His barbering skills were impeccable and his shop became more than a place to work; it became a Ridgetown landmark where friends would gather to debate the topics of the day and enjoy a few laughs. That comradery was a driving force in Verns determination to keep going. Even in the last few days, there was a note in the door with his phone number for folks to call if they were in need of a cut. One of the greatest things you can do in life is to leave an impression on a future generation and Vern did that. He has been mentoring his grandson to become a barber with the hope of taking over the family business.

Vern owned a handful of Standardbreds over the years and was a barber to many local horsemen in the industry. As a harness racing enthusiast, he passed his love of horses down to his son Jim.

Blenheim Community Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements and a memorial tribute. Vern's wishes for this stage of his life were uncomplicated. His family will remember him in their own way and when the weather permits, his urn will be buried in Morpeth Cemetery. Should you wish to honour him with a memorial donation, please consider a charity of your choice.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Vern Brown.
Posts on former Casper police officer Jesse Jones Facebook page show he emailed the director of Seton House the day before allegedly gouging a mans eye outside the facility after an altercation began while he was off-duty and protesting its vaccine mandate.

While the screenshot posted on Jones page shows only a few small snippets of a Sept. 30 exchange with director Carrie Reece, the first email in the post, apparently from Jones, begins: You all should be ashamed.

Please stop harassing us, an email from Reece included in the image says.

Jones, who was with the department for five years, was arrested last Tuesday on suspicion of reckless endangerment following a state investigation into the incident. The Star-Tribune attempted to contact him for this story with a phone number that he gave during his initial court appearance. He did not respond to a pair of messages.

Court documents in Jones case state that when Reece reported Jones protest to police, she also mentioned receiving threatening emails from him. The then-officers Facebook post containing emails also urged others to email Seton House leadership.

Another post on Jones Facebook account shows him standing outside Seton House on Oct. 1, the day of the fight, holding a sign that reads I will not comply.

The time for talk is over. If you interact with this post, share it, the caption reads. Join me again today at 1pm at 910 N Durbin, Casper the Seton House homeless shelter. They just announced get the vaxxx or hit the streets. No more sitting by.

Court documents filed this past week allege that Jones was protesting the mandate alone on Oct. 1 when the directors husband approached him. According to the affidavit of probable cause tied to Jones arrest, an investigation found that the other man began the fight, but that Jones gouged the mans right eye after he stopped posing a threat to Jones.

The former detective now faces a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment. He pleaded not guilty to the charge during an initial appearance Tuesday in Natrona County Circuit Court, and was released from jail after less than a day by posting a $500 cash bond.

On Sept. 30, the day before the fight, multiple posts on Jones Facebook page mentioned Seton Houses COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Seton House runs a self-sufficiency program and provides housing for single parents who are homeless.

The Facebook posts indicated that Jones had stopped by that day as well to picket.

Its fixin to go down people. The time of silence is over.. the post, which linked to a K2 Radio news article about the facilitys mandate, states. Its up to us all to let it be known we wont stand for this crap. All of this and because of a fraud election.

Another post from that day, linking to the same story states that battered women will lose housing if they dont comply with the mandate, and calls for protesters to respond immediately to the emergency.

Reece told K2 Radio at the time that 15 of the 22 families living at Seton Houses facilities were at least partially vaccinated a month before the mandate went into effect, and that the organization had not lost any clients due to the requirement. She declined to comment Friday.

Other posts and comments made from Jones account, which has since been deactivated, show him criticizing vaccine mandates at other organizations as well.

Time to unite people, an Oct. 13 post on his Facebook said. First our soldiers, second banner, third Seton house, now UWYO. Yours is next!! If you dont know how you can help, theres answers. Feel free to ask.

Banner is an apparent reference to the vaccine mandate required by Banner Health at its four Wyoming hospitals, including Caspers Wyoming Medical Center.

Jones was placed on administrative leave immediately following the fight, while the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation looked into the incident.

The Casper Police Department says it started Jones termination process on Dec. 14 after an internal investigation found his actions were not in line with the agencys code of conduct. Before that process was completed, Jones resigned his position on Jan. 7. Department spokesperson Rebekah Ladd declined to comment on the case further on Friday.

A Star-Tribune review of internal CPD emails to and from Jones account in the weeks surrounding the fight found no mention of vaccine mandates or protests.

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Heber Springs, AR (72543)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. High 67F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms before midnight. Low near 55F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
ALTON  The next American Red Cross blood drive at Alton Memorial Hospital will be from 12:30-4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the AMH cafe meeting rooms.

To register, go to www.redcrossblood.org and then type AltonMemorial at the top right under Find a Blood Drive, or contact Dave Whaley in AMH Public Relations at 618-433-7947 or david.whaley@bjc.org.
It is difficult to believe that President Donald Trumps supporters who attempted to disenfranchise over 80 million voters understood what it would have meant if they had been successful in keeping him in office.

Not only did they storm the Capital building in an insurrection against democracy, but they also attacked the Capital Police, killed one officer, injured a number of others, and destroyed government property. It was also reported that they were looking for legislators especially Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the intent of harming or assassinating them.

Vice President Pence was a target because he did not agree to disqualify the Electoral College votes from the states as President Trump asked him to do. Of course, he could not do this because he did not have the authority or power to do so.

They wanted to confront Speaker Pelosi because she has been a strong foe of President Trump. The overall objective was an attempt to halt the certification of the votes that took place in November and had been certified as legitimate or valid by the states.

The results were declared by President Trump numerous times that they were fraudulent. He also stated many times that he had won the election by millions of votes. He kept repeating that the election was stolen from him, and he would not allow this.

Since his supporters believed him and many still do. They stated that they also would not allow the election to be stolen from President Trump and themselves. This was the case despite the vote had been certified by all fifty states and declared valid by over 60 courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite this, President Trump would not accept the courts decisions and continued to insist at every opportunity and still does that the vote was illegal and fraudulent.

I wonder if those who stormed the Capital realized what would have happened if they had been successful and America had ultimately become a totalitarian form of government. It is important to understand what a dictatorship and totalitarian form of government would mean for our country and for the American people generally.

In a totalitarian government the dictator has absolute power and, the people have little or no influence in decision making on what happens in the Country. In fact, we have seen this in many countries around the world and more recently in North Korea with Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin in Russia. Dictators have no loyalty to anyone except to themselves and their own interest. They have no loyalty toward those who helped them become dictators.

Also, the legislatures and courts including the U.S. Supreme Court have no power to effectively influence or control the leaders behavior. In fact, they tend to punish those who disagree with them including imprisoning them and even putting some to death.

Thus, if former President Trumps supporters had been successful this could have not only destroyed our democracy that has existed for approximately 232 years. It could also have resulted in President Trump eventually becoming a dictator. Then, he would have absolute power to do whatever he wanted with impunity.

Of course, that is what he wanted, because he has admired dictators and expressed admiration for them throughout the world during his presidency. In addition, he has praised them and has accepted their word even over our intelligence agencies and has refused to act against them for their destructive behavior against the United States. He not only admired them but had attempted to be friends with them even though they attempted to take advantage of our country.

This was the case because they have all the power and will remain in office during their lifetimes, and this is what President Trump wanted also. He even attempted to do this by attempting to discredit the news media and creating his own alternative universe and reality by not telling the truth even when it was obvious that he was not being truthful.

Although he convinced millions of Americans by his continuous mistruths and the support of his followers of his universe and reality; however, most Americans did not accept his unrealistic world.

Once again, we have witnessed dictators around the world who have all the power and do whatever they want regardless of how it affects their people. This includes punishing opponents and those who disagree with them. Is this really what we want in America?
Gov. Greg Gianfortes office announced on Monday a partnership between Town Pump and the LifeGuard Group to further address the human trafficking crisis in Montana.

Town Pump will display the LifeGuard Groups human trafficking hotline in its locations across the state so victims can get support. The company is also giving a $30,000 grant to Lifeguard to support the organization's efforts to fight human trafficking, according to a Monday news release.

Lifeguard Group is a Missoula-based nonprofit with a mission of fighting human trafficking. They launched the hotline in 2020 and provide training, resources and classes on the issue.

Town Pump is pleased to be partnering with Governor Gianforte and state agencies to provide resources, including a grant of $30,000 to the LifeGuard Group, to raise public awareness of human trafficking in Montana, Mike Kenneally, spokesperson for Town Pump said in the news release. We are committed to helping educate people on this issue. The more we can educate, the more we can save.

In the last year, the states Division of Criminal Investigations department has seen a 65% uptick in human trafficking investigations  41 were investigated in 2020, with a jump to 68 in 2021. This does not include whats going on at local levels, Attorney General Austin Knudsen said at a roundtable event discussing trafficking in Montana earlier this month.

Also at the roundtable, hosted at the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula, Missoula Police Detective Guy Baker urged officials to get posters with the hotline up in rest areas, convenience stores and truck stop restrooms.

Gianforte has directed the Montana Department of Transportation to get LifeGuard's posters with the hotline number posted in the state's rest areas, the release said.

Millions of people travel our roads and highways each year, and we want them to be extra sets of eyes to end human trafficking in Montana, MDT Director Mack Long said in the release. Through the governors new partnership with Town Pump, we can make an even greater impact to promote awareness and help save lives.

Roundtable participants universally stressed that combating trafficking is a team effort.

Addressing this issue is going to take all of us, Gianforte said at the event.

Neither urban, rural nor tribal communities are immune to the human trafficking crisis, Gianforte said. Tribal communities are especially impacted by trafficking, since cases contributed to rates of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

If you or anyone you know is a victim of human trafficking, call the Montana Human Trafficking Hotline at 833-406-STOP or your local law enforcement agency.

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GODFREY  Early Bird Registration for high school seniors is back in person at Lewis and Clark Community College this spring.

For high school seniors, graduation is just around the corner, and Lewis and Clark wants to make your college transition as smooth as possible, said L&C Recruiter Amy Bowling. Early Bird registration puts you ahead of the game. In most cases, you can even register for classes before our current students do, and get the schedule you want.

Participants will receive a tour of L&Cs campus and take part in an orientation where they will hear from financial aid and academic advisors, learn tips and tricks for first-time college students, and register for summer and/or fall classes.

Free lunch and an L&C T-shirt will be provided.

Early Bird events will take place every Friday from Feb. 25 through April 22, except for when campus is closed.

All events, except the one at Edwardsville High School, will take place 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Trimpe 141 on the colleges Godfrey Campus, 5800 Godfrey Road, Godfrey. The Edwardsville event will take place 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the colleges N.O. Nelson Campus, 900 Troy Road, Edwardsville.

Students must register individually, but will attend Early Bird Registration by high school. This years schedule is as follows:

 Feb. 25  North Greene, Staunton and Jersey Community High Schools

 March 4  Edwardsville High School (N.O. Nelson Campus, Edwardsville)

 March 11  Southwestern and Calhoun High Schools

 March 18  Marquette, Carrollton and Bunker Hill High Schools

 March 25  Alton High School

 April 1  Gillespie and Carlinville High Schools

 April 8  Roxana, Brussels and Civic Memorial High Schools

 April 22  Greenfield and East Alton-Wood River High Schools

If a student is interested but cannot attend their schools date, they can call or text the L&C Enrollment Center at (618) 468-2222 or email enroll@lc.edu to make other arrangements.

Pre-registration is required. To register for an Early Bird Registration event and/or to schedule an on-campus tour, visit www.lc.edu/earlybird.

Call/text (618) 468-2222 or email rhodge@lc.edu or ambowling@lc.edu for more information.

All attendees will need to follow the colleges COVID-19 guidelines at the time of their event. For more information, visit www.lc.edu/coronavirus.
EDWARDSVILLE Seventeen-year-old Aria Burnside is able to able to list small business owner and entrepreneur on her resume and starting last week she can call herself Madison County Made.

When the Edwardsville teen started baking two years ago, the furthest thing from her mind was opening a bakery. At the time, Burnside was struggling in high school, which led her mother, Charmian Aaron, to enroll her in homeschool classes online.

Not only did Burnsides grades improve, but she discovered a new talent  baking.

After I started home-school, I was always at home, so I just started baking, Burnside said. When my mom got home from work, I would be like, Here, taste this. I started giving it to people at my church, and they encouraged me to start selling it.

Burnsides mother helped launch the business  Arias Cookies & Confections  which began selling goods online and delivering within a 25-mile radius of Edwardsville.

In October 2021, Burnside took part in Alton Main Streets Idea Bounce and took first place winning $500, plus six months of free rental space at Eastgate Plaza in East Alton.

On Jan. 27, during the Great Rivers and Routes annual Tourism Summit held at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, Burnside was honored for her entrepreneurship as the first Madison County Made honoree. Great Rivers and Routes President and CEO Cory Jobe, along with Madison County Chairman Kurt Prenzler, presented Burnside with a vase made by Mississippi Mud Pottery in Alton.

The Madison County Made program is similar to the Illinois Department of Commerces Office of Tourisms Illinois Made program, which first launched in 2016.

Like the states program, we have a lot of artisans, products and experiences unique to Madison County, Jobe said. There's no better way for a tourism office to highlight ta small business owners passion.

Prenzler said it was an honor to present the first award to Burnside.

Its good to see someone pursue their dream and become an entrepreneur at such a young age, Prenzler said.

During the summit, the states tourism office named two Madison County businesses that were added to the Illinois Made program  My Just Desserts in Alton and Water Sweets Soap Co. in Edwardsville.

Mississippi Mud Pottery is a 2016 honoree of the Illinois Made program and each year makes the award presented to all Illinois Made honorees. Other Madison County businesses that are Illinois Made include Kruta Bakery in Collinsville and Old Bakery Beer in Alton. Visit enjoyillinois.com to see a list of Illinois Made

Madison County and Great Rivers and Routes plan to name others into its Madison County Made program in the future.
Colleges should admit the most qualified applicant.

Thats the way many of us were taught life is supposed to work. But we know it often doesnt.

The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up the issue of university admissions in its upcoming term. It will look at the admission formulas used by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that give extra help to Black and Hispanic applicants who apply.

Some Asian and white applicants were turned away from these universities while Black and Hispanic candidates with lower test scores were admitted. And they say it isnt fair. But it also is unfair that many African American and Hispanic kids reside in neighborhoods with underperforming schools that fail to adequately prepare them.

There are strong arguments on both sides but something that is rarely discussed is a different set of preferences that are inherently wrong  but legal. Im talking about development admits, the children of wealthy donors.

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Golden won a Pulitzer Prize looking at this phenomenon and went on to write the 2006 book, The Price of Admission. Its one of my favorite works of investigative journalism.

I first became aware of the issue when I read a Wall Street Journal story in 2003 about a prominent family with roots deep in Illinois: the Bunns.

Here is the first few paragraphs of the story:

DURHAM, N.C. -- Despite her boarding-school education and a personal tutor, Maude Bunn's SAT scores weren't high enough for a typical student to earn admission to Duke University.

But Ms. Bunn had something else going for her -- coffeemakers. Her Bunn forebears built a fortune on them and, with Duke hoping to woo her wealthy parents as donors, she was admitted.

Afterward, her parents promptly became co-chairmen of a Duke fund-raising effort aimed at other Duke parents. My child was given a gift, she got in, and now I'm giving back, says Maude's mother, Cissy Bunn, who declines to say how much the (Lake Forrest) family has contributed to the university.

Later in the story, Cissy Bunn acknowledges her daughter didn't fit the academic profile of a Duke student saying, "She's bright, she had good grades, but she doesn't meet the superstar status."

She then added, "Did my normal child take the place of somebody who could really make a difference in the world? Sure, yes, to an extent. But there are so many things you can lose sleep over. I'm happy for me and my child."

When I first read that quote, I was outraged. It had never occurred to me that rich people received preferential treatment when applying to colleges.

The story made me think of Danny my roommate my junior year at Iowa State University. Danny was a bright, motivated student who dreamed of being an aerospace engineer. But he graduated from a failing high school in a poorer Chicago neighborhood.

My roommate, who happened to be African American, had many of the precursors associated with academic success: a loving, stable two-parent family that valued hard-work.

Perhaps the biggest drawback was the high school he attended. The institution didnt adequately prepare him for college. For example, it didnt offer the advanced math classes necessary for a budding engineering student to succeed.

While his college peers were taking calculus, he was enrolled in remedial math.

In many ways, the future academic performance of college students isnt determined just by effort or intellect but by their home zip code. Danny lasted a year on campus and never returned.

Thats why I have long favored giving parents vouchers that they can use at either public, charter or private schools. It would give academic choices to families otherwise trapped.

The fact that youngsters in predominantly Black or Hispanic neighborhoods often are forced to attend schools that perform far below the national average is a form of systemic racism.

Another form of racism is interpersonal. For example, in her book Becoming, Michelle Obama writes about the mother of one of her white roommates being so appalled that her daughter was assigned a Black roommate that she hectored university administrators until her daughter was moved to a different room.

Along those lines, I remember that my college roommate Danny and I were proud uncles. We both had pictures of our young nieces framed above our desks. My niece was about 3 and his was 1.

I cant count the number of times, a white person came into our room and saw the picture above his desk and said, Oh my God, hes got a kid. Never once did anyone look at my desk and say, Is that your daughter, Scott?

A recent New Yorker article noted that Harvard has more students from families in the top 1% of wealth than in the bottom 60%. And yet this is the university fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for greater diversity.

How about economic diversity? Why not admit more kids from the middle and working classes

and fewer from ultra-wealthy families? Strange, I havent heard any groundswell among college administrators to do that.

To be honest, I dont have a ready opinion on how the Supreme Court should finesse the issue of racial preferences this year. Its a terribly divisive issue.

But something most Americans can agree upon is that a group not needing extra help getting into college is the children of the wealthiest 1 percent. It makes little sense to cut a break to someone because of the size of their parents pocketbooks.
London, KY (40741)

Today

Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will become overcast in the afternoon. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High near 80F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 63F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
The state has settled with a Wyoming driver for more than a quarter million dollars after a Montana Highway Patrol trooper accidentally ran the driver off the road in 2017.

Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley approved the $270,000 settlement on Jan. 12.

Michael McLean, attorney for Mitchell Burgess and his wife Rene Burgess, said Monday the settlement came three days before the parties were set to go to trial in December.

"They were really happy to put the matter behind them and get on with their lives after four years of this," McLean said. "They have their own health issues that theyre continuing to deal with."

The highway patrol on Monday defended the settlement.

"Troopers drive more than 6 million miles each year patrolling our state's roadways," MHP Sgt. Jay Nelson said in an email late Monday. "In this case, attorneys for the State Risk Management & Tort Defense Division determined a settlement was in the best interest of Montana taxpayers."

The settlement, filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court and signed by Mitchell and Rene Burgess, states the settlement shall not "be considered as an admission of liability."

In August 2017 Trooper Michael Howell had just completed a separate traffic stop near Miles City when he pulled a U-turn in front of an oncoming vehicle that was moving at 70 mph.

Dash cam video of the "near-miss accident" captured Burgess' pickup swerving into the ditch and back onto the highway. Burgess then stopped at the next turnoff and Howell pulled in behind him. Burgess stepped out of his pickup, somewhat bewildered and walks around his vehicle. The two men talked at Burgess' tailgate and after a few minutes they shook hands and parted ways.

In 2019 Burgess filed a lawsuit against the state claiming he suffered a concussion and spinal injury. The case took a long detour when MHP said it had lost the video. First, MHP said it had removed the computer where the file was stored; later it said records staff appeared to have failed to tag the file properly for storage; and again when the physical copy of the video, a DVD, was lost in then-Major Steve Lavin's Office. Lavin was appointed chief of the Montana Highway Patrol in December 2020.

The video was eventually recovered in the desk drawer of the trooper's previous supervisor, although Seeley kept in place sanctions against MHP for bungling the evidence. By that time the matter of whether the trooper had caused Burgess' injuries had already been affirmed; the only matter a jury was going to decide in the December trial was what the state owed Burgess and his wife, who took time to drive her husband to medical appointments.

McLean said Monday his clients were "enthusiastic" about the settlement figure but added that Burgess is scheduled for another back surgery resulting from the accident.

"The fact that it took him four years to finally receive that amount of money  it was physically and mentally exhausting for him," McLean said.

This story has been updated to include a statement from Montana Highway Patrol and to change a reference of the incident from 'crash' to 'accident.'

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IVY GOODMAN, Stonington, Girls, Lacrosse, Senior; Goodman scored 12 goals and had 13 assists in three games. Her seven assists in the Bears win over Waterford established a school record. She surpassed the 50-goal mark for the season in Stoningtons victory over Ledyard.

DEAN PONS JR., Westerly, Baseball, Senior; Pons, a senior, struck out 14 batters in the Bulldogs five-inning win against Wheeler School/Rocky Hill. Pons had an assist on the remaining out, throwing out a runner on a groundout. Pons allowed just one hit and walked only two.

KATIE PIERCE, Wheeler, Girls, Lacrosse, Sophomore; Pierce scored five goals and the Lions beat Griswold to earn their first victory of the season. Wheeler avenged an earlier loss to the Wolverines this season with the 15-4 victory.

WEEKO THOMPSON, Chariho, Girls, Track Sophomore; Thompson, a sophomore, bettered her school record in the discus at the Classical Classic meet. She finished first in the event and also won the shot put.

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When I transferred my Isa from Scottish Friendly to Vanguard in September, I was told it would take up to 30 days (which I find mind-boggling).

Scottish Friendly says it processed the transfer of 19,007.38 and 1,168.64 on September 14 separately, as the money was in different funds. Vanguard says it only received 19,007.38 on September 30.

It has since asked me to submit another transfer request for the missing money, as Scottish Friendly insists both payments were made.

S. M., Romford, Essex.

Vanishing cash: A Scottish Friendly customer found his balance was 1,169short after an agonisingly long wait to move his money ISA

Tony Hazell replies: Investment transfers can, as you say, take a mind-boggling amount of time.

I have personal experience of this and there really is no explanation other than a lack of will by the investment industry to improve the situation for its clients.

In your case, there were actually three accounts involved.

Vanguard says the details on the transfer form only referenced one, so it was obliged to return payments associated with the other two  one for 1,168.64 and another for 154.72.

Scottish Friendly then failed to identify that the returned money related to your Isa, so it told you and Vanguard that the transfers had been successfully completed.

It has now sent an updated version of the Isa transfer history form and all the money has been received by Vanguard. Scottish Friendly says: 'We are extremely sorry this error occurred and apologise for the inconvenience this has caused Mr M.'

It is also paying you 250 compensation. Vanguard and Scottish Friendly will also look at whether you have suffered any financial detriment owing to the delayed transfer and the difference will be made good.

How can I be charged 45 for phone data if I didn't touch my phone?

I work as airline cabin crew. My Three Mobile package gives me 12GB of data per month.

I recently flew to the Bahamas and believed that I had turned off data roaming and put the phone in airplane mode. After being caught out several years ago, I am fastidious about it.

I have also previously asked for a cap on all charges. Upon arriving at the hotel and connecting to wifi, I received numerous texts saying I'd incurred data charges of 45.06.

How can my phone use all that data when I haven't even touched it?

F. W., Guildford.

Tony Hazell replies: You believed you had turned data roaming off, so what happened? Beware, because some phones will switch to local 4G or 5G if they decide the wifi is too weak.

It should not operate if data roaming is switched off but to be safe, I would also turn off 'wifi assist'.

Many Three packages feature Go Roam, which allows you to use your data from your package when in certain countries.

However, the Bahamas is not part of Go Roam. Any data used costs an eye-watering 6 per megabyte  Three blames local networks.

One megabyte is about a page of data or two minutes of music.

Three says it doesn't have a record of a spending cap on your account but limits do not apply if you are in a destination that is not covered by Go Roam.

It adds that its records show you used data for a short period on December 1.

Perhaps you turned off data roaming very shortly after arrival and your phone had already started downloading emails? However, I pointed out some of your personal circumstances to Three.

When you were furloughed, you worked long hours with the NHS vaccination programme.

Now you are back flying, you still help at the vaccination centre on your days off.

Three, which has applied credits to your accounts on three previous occasions, has agreed to do it again.

Perhaps you should check at a local shop to be absolutely sure you are shutting your phone down.

A Three spokesman says: 'When it comes to roaming charges, we aim to be as transparent. Details of all our costs are on our website.

'We do alert and advise customers in locations not covered by Go Roam to ensure data roaming is disabled.'

Frozen out over freezer insurance

I have had my freezer insured with Domestic & General for many years.

It stopped working on December 22 and was confirmed as irreparable on December 30 by the firm's engineer. I was offered a 'free' replacement  but for me to get this, the firm is asking that I pay a further year's premium of 149.88.

The policy was fully paid up to January 1, 2022, so I cannot see the reasoning behind this. I lodged a complaint but the promised call back did not come.

I have just spent more than two hours on the phone, waiting to be connected to the resolutions department. I am without a working freezer.

R. H., Horsham, W. Sussex.

Tony Hazell replies: Domestic & General confirms that you were given an online replacement link for the freezer, which incorrectly displayed a fee of 149.88.

When you called customer services to query this, a human error resulted in your being transferred to the wrong department (retentions), which resulted in further errors as you were then transferred to other departments which were also unable to resolve the issue.

Domestic & General apologises, adding: 'We have determined that this was unfortunately owing to a combination of system and human error at a very busy time of year.

'We have taken note of the details of the case so as to prevent this happening again.'

Your new freezer was installed without charge on January 18.
ESG - environmental, social and governance - has been a buzz term in the industry over the past few years and investors are increasingly putting their money into ethical funds.

For example, ESG accounted for three quarters of the 1.9billion invested in UK retail funds in November 2021, recent figures from the Investment Association show.

For James Sym, fund manager at River and Mercantile, sustainability is central to his investment philosophy.

He started his career at Cazenove Capital, eventually launching its European Income fund before joining R&M in June 2020. He launched the ES R&M European Fund a few months later.

Green investing: It has become a buzz term in recent years - but how much of it is hogwash?

The fund is contrarian and places sustainability at the heart of its approach, particularly by investing in companies helping with decarbonisation.

It launched in September 2020 and has 47 holdings as of November 2021.

The UK and Europe have been much further ahead than the US when it comes to investing sustainably, says Sym.

'We have not been very good at tech and we have significantly lagged. If the next cycle belongs to decarbonisation and climate change, Europe is very good at that and the US is behind'

He praises the 'world leading positions' European companies have when it comes to decarbonisation, highlighting the likes of wind farm operator Orsted, Siemens Gamesa and Vestas.

But there are still issues that persist with ESG, not least fatigue and concerns of greenwashing.

The focus on a company's impact has in the past typically come from faith group preferences, with exclusions of weapons, alcohol and tobacco.

James Sym: He focuses on carbon intensive industries that need to be decarbonised in line with the just transition to net zero

It has since morphed into being defined by ESG issues which mean older ethical funds and are largely out of sync with what investors want.

Because tech companies are not as carbon intensive they make up a huge proportion of the so-called ethical funds but this does not sit right with a number of investors.

'One issue is that [people] want to take sustainability seriously but they end up in these loved, overpriced parts of the market.

'Wind turbine manufacturers and electric vehicles like Tesla'

'How can we bring something to the party that is actually making a real difference to the world, is aligned with what we do, but serves a purpose in people's portfolio?'

Crucially he also thinks investment in the popular ESG picks is largely redundant when it comes to the transition to net zero.

'We've kind of become an industry of hypocrites, because we're perfectly prepared to sit in carbon intensive buildings made of steel and cement.

'We're happy to get on an aeroplane and fly around the world. We've decided that we don't want to invest in those activities because of sustainability.

'What we've basically said so far as an industry is we're going to exclude the worst The more fashionable approach these days is to invest in the companies with the lowest carbon emissions

'If you're an internet company of course you have low carbon emissions but that's not making the world a better place.'

ES R&M European Fund The portfolio is largely weighted to industrials (17.5 per cent) and consumer discretionary (17.3 per cent) but it also has stakes in healthcare and financials. Its ten largest positions include pharmaceutical companies Roche and Novo Nordisk and chemicals company Merck. It also invests in mining firm Boliden, glass manufacturer Verallia, Essilorluxottica, Accell Group, Elis, Sanofi and KPN. Sym has heavily invested in French companies, which make up 20.2 per cent of the portfolio, followed by Switzerland (13.6 per cent), the Netherlands (12.7 per cent) and Sweden (11.4 per cent). The ES R&M European Fund has outperformed the benchmark since its inception. It has returned 24.5 per cent since launching and 20 per cent over the past year.

Instead Sym and the ES R&M fund focuses on carbon intensive industries that need to be decarbonised in line with the just transition to net zero.

'Our philosophy becomes aligned with actually making a difference to the world.

'The atmosphere doesn't care what your ESG rating is, it doesn't care if a company has a big team that's ticked all the right boxes.

'What it cares about is how many molecules of CO2 are going into the atmosphere every year.

'To say we're not going to invest in those industries is not making the world a better place

'It's a bit like the old World War Two posters, what did you do in the war Daddy? Well what did you do in the climate crisis? Bought a few more shares in Nestle?'

Instead, Sym wants to support industries that need to decarbonise and has a real focus on steel and cement.

Sym points to largely industrial sectors, highlighting the need for copper cables to connect wind turbines and pulp and paper for packaging.

'One example might be air travel. The only way we're going to decarbonise air travel is if we continue to build more fuel and carbon efficient aeroplanes, ultimately battery powered or hydrogen powered planes.

'There's only one company in the world that is going to be able to do that: Airbus.'

Airbus is an unlikely holding in an ESG fund because of its emissions and it also makes weapons but Sym argues that unless everybody stops going on holiday, the industry needs to carbonise.

'It's everywhere We're looking for carbon intensive companies that are going to get a lot better.'

Another example is the investment in Danieli, an Italian family-run steel business that hasn't grown for a decade.

'Over the next 10 years it's going to grow like an absolute weed but it's priced.

'So what we're trying to do is buy tomorrow's ESG winners on the valuations of yesterday.'
Staff at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action regarding proposed reforms to pay and working conditions.

Trade union Unite said 87 per cent of its members at the financial services industry watchdog had approved action over the proposed changes, which are part of a transformation plan spearheaded by FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi.

The employees are concerned over multiple aspects of the proposals, particularly the cuts, which Unite believes will create a 'bargain basement regulator', harming companies, savers and borrowers.

Industrial action: Unite said 87 per cent of its members at the FCA had approved striking over the proposed changes to pay and conditions, which are part of a transformation plan

These include cuts to pension rights, the salaries of Scottish employees, and the abolition of bonuses that the union says could lead to pay reductions of 10 to 12 per cent, along with cutbacks hurting graduate trainees.

In addition, the organisation said that FCA staff had complained of an 'unfair appraisal system', which forces managers to 'arbitrarily downgrade employees who are performing well.'

Finally, Unite remarked that the FCA had 'unusually high' levels of pay inequality compared to other public watchdogs, with 40 executives paid more than Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and issues holding onto and recruiting new staff.

Britain's second-largest trade union - which launched a staff petition last year aimed at being officially recognised as the FCA's staff union - warned that it would hold a statutory ballot unless a settlement could be successfully negotiated.

Sharon Graham, the union's General Secretary, called on the FCA's senior leadership to commence negotiations through the ACAS arbitration service, which the union has approached in the hopes of settling the dispute.

The Unite boss, who took over from Len McCluskey last August, added that the cuts would be 'good news for fraudsters and rip-off merchants' and accused Mr Rathi of 'waging war' on his own staff rather than financial malpractice.

Threat: Britain's second-largest trade union Unite warned that it would hold a formal statutory ballot among FCA staff unless a settlement could be successfully negotiated

She added: 'The employees are telling FCA bosses that the proposed changes are damaging and destroying any remaining goodwill the staff had.'

An FCA spokesperson said: 'The proposals in the consultation would ensure the FCA continues to provide one of the best, if not the best, employment packages of any regulator or enforcement agency in the UK.

'Under the proposals, most colleagues will receive base salary rises of at least 5 per cent this year and 4 per cent next, with many receiving significantly higher amounts.

'In particular, around 800 of our lowest-paid colleagues would receive pay rises this year of, on average, 3,800.'

Meanwhile, Sky News reported today that Richard Lloyd, the former head of consumer group Which? and current chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), will become the FCA's interim chairman.

This comes amidst a rise in temporary leadership appointments amongst British public sector watchdogs, such as the Financial Reporting Council and the Competition and Markets Authority.

Lloyd has already served as a non-executive director of the FCA since April 2019 and will succeed Charles Randell, who declared his departure last October and will leave with another year left of his term.

Under Rendell's leadership, the public body was condemned by an inquiry over its failure to properly supervise mini-bond provider London Capital & Finance, whose collapse in 2019 put 237million in savings of over 11,600 investors at risk.
Local

editor's pick

Washington Central Unified Union School District

Washington Central superintendent search down to final two

EAST MONTPELIER  Both are finalists elsewhere, but the search for the next superintendent of the Washington Central Unified Union School District has been narrowed to a pair of veteran school administrators who are scheduled to participate in virtual forums Wednesday afternoon immediately followed by back-to-back interviews with the school board.

Before the night is over, it is conceivable the board could make a selection and entirely possible the choice could make itself.

Perhaps the most likely scenario  one that already has School Board Chair Flor Diaz-Smith penciling in special board meetings for Thursday or Friday  is somewhat less certain. It may hinge on how the finalists  Springfield Superintendent Zachary McLaughlin and Meagan Roy, director of student support services in the Champlain Valley School District  like their chances of landing the same job in the nearby Harwood Union Unified School District.

McLaughlin, who is Vermonts reigning superintendent of the year, and Roy, who is a few years removed from earning her own of the year award from her peers  are among three finalists to replace retiring Superintendent Brigid Nease in the six-town district anchored by Harwood Union High School.

By the time McLaughlin and Roy tour Washington Centrals six schools, participate in virtual forums and sit for interviews, they already will have gone through a similar process in Harwood earlier in the week.

Welcome to the superintendent sweepstakes  an unpredictable game where the candidate pool is shallow, the certifications and skill sets possessed by McLaughlin and Roy are coveted, and the timing is tricky.

Though the Harwood board will interview its finalists first, the earliest it is scheduled to discuss making a job offer is during a meeting set for 6 p.m. on Thursday. If either McLaughlin, Roy or both decide they want to see how that search  which includes a third out-of-state candidate  plays out, one or both of them might not be ready to accept the Washington Central job Wednesday night.

While Diaz-Smith wouldnt rule out a Wednesday night decision, she said she expects the decision might be made later in the week.

Diaz-Smith said she personally likes the boards choices following a consultant-led search that attracted six applicants, four of whom were interviewed remotely by a broad-based committee that unanimously voted last week to recommend McLaughlin and Roy to the board.

I think we would be well-served by either of them, Diaz-Smith, suggesting the Washington Central board was super lucky to be in a position to hire either McLaughlin or Roy.

For now, we have two super-qualified, student-centered candidates and were hoping we can make Washington Central their home, she said.

A former social studies teacher, McLaughlin has served as Springfields superintendent since 2013 and as an administrator in that district since 2010. In less than three years time he worked his way up from assistant principal to curriculum director to assistant superintendent to superintendent  a job for which he was honored as superintendent of the year last year.

Roys resume doesnt include service as superintendent, but she is a veteran administrator, who has served as director of student support services in the Champlain Valley School District, and its predecessor the Chittenden South Supervisory Union  since 2011. In 2015 she was honored by her peers as the special education director of the year.

Roy previously spent nine years working in administrative roles for the Milton Town School District.

Diaz-Smith said both finalists have impressive credentials and would be a good fit in a district that includes pre-K-6 schools in Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester, as well as U-32 Middle and High School.

Jennifer Miller-Arsenault has been serving as acting superintendent since before Bryan Olkowski resigned from that position last September.

Olkowski was one of two finalists recommended to the board during a similar search process two years ago. The other finalist withdrew before a scheduled interview with the board and Olkowski was hired. A little more than a year and a resounding no confidence vote from the districts unionized educators later, Olkowski was relieved of his duties and a short time later agreed to resign effective Sept. 1, 2021. Under the terms of that agreement, Olkowski was paid the money  roughly $136,000  he would have been due during the second year of a contract that would have expired June 30.

Miller-Arsenault, who has been serving as acting superintendent for the past six months, plans to return to her previous role as the districts director of curriculum, instruction and assessment when whoever is hired to take over as superintendent starts work on July 1.

Both finalists for the job will host 45-minute Zoom forums  one at 3:30 p.m. and another at 4:45 p.m.  on Wednesday. The link is posted on wcsu32.org  the districts web page, along with a brief letter outlining the search process from Diaz-Smith.

Following the forums the board plans to meet privately with each finalists during separate hour-long interviews that will be conducted, one after the other, at U-32. After the interviews, Diaz-Smith said board members would determine whether a separate special meeting was necessary before making any decisions.

david.delcore @timesargus.com
Barre, VT (05641)

Today

Sunshine along with some cloudy intervals. High 63F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Low 39F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Montana has now lost 3,000 residents to the COVID-19 pandemic. On average, 2.4 people are dying daily from COVID-related illness in the state.

More people have died in Yellowstone County than any other county with 486 deaths. Cascade, Flathead and Missoula counties follow with 291, 228 and 199 respectively.

In the last seven days, 15,086 cases were added to the state dashboard. Total active cases reached 18,607.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control published data reflecting the effectiveness of booster doses on health outcomes in those who are infected with COVID.

In October to November 2021, when the delta variant was surging in Montana, unvaccinated individuals had 13.9 times more risk for infection and 53 times the risk of COVID-associated death compared to fully vaccinated and boosted individuals. Compared to fully vaccinated individuals without a booster, risk for infection and death was four times and 12.7 times higher.

COVID cases were lowest in fully vaccinated and boosted individuals compared to fully vaccinated without a booster.

Booster doses made the most significant improvement in people over age 65, according to the CDC.

Vaccination rates remain low in many counties in Montana with Garfield reporting only 24% of the eligible population as fully vaccinated. For those ages five to 11, only 3% are partially vaccinated. There are no fully vaccinated individuals in this age group. Powder River and McCone counties follow, with 28% and 27% fully vaccinated, respectively.

The third week of January brought more COVID cases in children than any other point in the pandemic, accounting for an 87% increase from the previous week. The most recent state data reports 19 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children following a COVID infection.

Vaccination for the entire eligible population has stagnated with 54% fully vaccinated.

The weekend brought an uptick in COVID inpatients for both St. Vincent Healthcare and Billings Clinic. At this time, both hospitals are caring for more Yellowstone County residents and fewer out-of-county residents. During the delta surge, both hospitals cared for large numbers of out-of-county and out-of-state patients.

Billings hospitals are caring for 87 COVID patients with 18 in the intensive care unit and eight on ventilators. There is a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals hospitalized, more so than during the delta surge that stretched from late summer to the fall.

Of those currently hospitalized, 34 are fully vaccinated and 53 are unvaccinated. The increase of vaccinated patients in hospitals indicates the need for a booster shot in order to stave off the omicron surge. Those who are vaccinated in the hospital are less likely to need ICU-level care, according to Nancy Iversen, director of patient safety and infection control at Billings Clinic.

Were seeing everything other states went through, Iverson said.

Some co-infections of influenza and COVID have started appearing in the state, but so far have not resulted in hospitalization, according to Chief Medical Officer at St. Vincent Healthcare Dr. Chris Spoja.

The most dangerous co-infections so far have been in pediatric patients who are battling both COVID and respiratory syncytial virus. St. V's has cared for about 12 of these patients and had to send about half to larger hospitals in Denver or Salt Lake City, Spoja said.

Despite the continued risks, people are pushing back against masking and vaccinating, Spoja said. But were not through this yet.

So far, the pandemic is following a typical progression for viruses where variants become more contagious but less severe.

Were another step closer to endemic, Spoja said, but added that right now mitigation measures are still needed to protect the immunocompromised, those who cannot be vaccinated, and the elderly.

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Valene Littlebird, who also goes by the name Valene Addison, is described as Native American, brown hair and brown eyes, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds.

Littlebird last had contact with her family in June when she was in the Fort Yates and Bismarck areas, police say. She is homeless and had been staying with friends, but its unclear who she is with or where she might be staying now.
Kingsport, TN (37660)

Today

Partly cloudy. High 83F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early. Scattered thunderstorms developing later at night. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Streets in some of Myanmars main cities were nearly deserted on Tuesday as opponents of military rule called for a silent strike to mark the first anniversary of a coup that snuffed out tentative progress towards democracy.

The United States, Britain and Canada imposed new sanctions on Myanmars military after a year of chaos since a government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown.

Suu Kyi and other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) were rounded up in raids early on Feb. 1 last year as they prepared to take their seats in parliament, after winning a late 2020 election the generals accused them of rigging.

The overthrow of Suu Kyis government triggered huge street protests and the security forces killed hundreds in crackdowns that ensued. In response, protesters have formed peoples defence forces, some linking up with ethnic minority insurgents, to take on the well-equipped army.

Activists urged people to stay indoors and businesses to close in a silent show of defiance on the anniversary.

We might be arrested and spend our life in jail if were lucky. We might be tortured and killed if were unlucky, said youth activist Nan Lin.

A spokesman for the ruling military did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment.

State media reported military ruler Min Aung Hlaing on Monday extended a state of emergency imposed at the time of the coup for six months to facilitate promised elections amid threats from internal and external saboteurs and terrorist attacks and destruction.

The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the military government would strive to hold new a new poll once the situation was peaceful and stable. The army had initially pledged to hold a vote within two years but a junta spokesman last month said it was now slated for August 2023.

Military authorities sought to head off Tuesdays strike, arresting more than 70 people in the past three days for promoting the action on social media, the state-run Myanmar Alin newspaper reported.

Business owners were also warned that their properties could be seized if they heeded the activists calls. Protesters could also face lengthy jail terms.

Nevertheless, photographs on social media showed nearly deserted streets in various cities including Yangon, Mandalay, Magway and Myitkyina,

In Yangon, photographs on a social media page put up by strike organisers showed a small protest where people threw red paint on the ground.

Pro-military rallies also took place including in the central town of Tase, photographs published by the pro-military People Media news portal showed.

In the capital, Naypyitaw, thousands attended a rally, some dancing and holding aloft photographs of Min Aung Hlaing, with banners wishing him good health, images on a pro-military Telegram channel showed.

VERY LAMENTABLE

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in comments ahead of the coup anniversary, urged the junta to allow greater humanitarian access.

The junta has accused the United Nations of bias and interference and is refusing to bow to international pressure, despite a corporate retreat from Myanmar and sanctions, the latest on Monday, when the United States, Britain and Canada blacklisted more individuals linked to the junta.

The military held power for decades after a 1962 coup but had begun to withdraw from politics in 2010, freeing Suu Kyi after years of house arrest. Her party formed a government after a 2015 election though the military wielded power behind the scenes.

The military ended the experiment with reform a year ago, crushing hopes, particularly of the young.

Life has become a grind for many since then with the economy withering, regular power cuts and internet curbs and, for some, constant fear of being rounded up.

Security forces cracking down on dissent have killed at least 1,500 people and arrested 11,838 since the coup, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, an activist group cited by the United Nations. The junta disputes the death toll.

Suu Kyi, 76, is on trial in more than a dozen cases that carry a combined maximum sentence of more than 150 years in prison, charges that critics say are designed to ensure she can never return to politics.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of countries including Australia, Britain, South Korea, the United States, Canada, as well as the European Union, urged the international community to cease the flow of arms to the Myanmar military.

A diplomatic effort led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has faltered, with the juntas failure to honour its commitment to end hostilities and support dialogue under a five-point plan, increasingly frustrating some bloc members.

Its very lamentable, until this time there has not been significant progress, Indonesias foreign ministry said.

Singapore said conditions for the Myanmar people continued to deteriorate and it called for the release of Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.

SOURCE: REUTERS
ALBANY  U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko has written FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding to know any involvement federal agents may have had protecting a longtime informant who owned the outlaw stretch limousine that crashed in Schoharie in 2018, killing 20 people.

Tonko is asking the FBI to release any documents it has on the informant, Shahed Hussain, and his limo company, along with any potential communications related to the crash between the bureau and the state Department of Transportation and law enforcement agencies involved in investigating the tragedy - as well as Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery.

The crash, the worst highway transportation disaster in the United States in more than a decade, has been covered intensely by the Times Union, which has also written extensively about the limo's owner, Shahed Hussain, and his work for the FBI's anti-terrorism units in New York and elsewhere.

However, a recent article by New York magazine, which reported that Tonko declined to answer author Ben Ryder Howe's questions about the limo owner's FBI connection, has ignited a firestorm of interest in the case  and what role if any the FBI may have potentially played in protecting Hussain and his limo business, Prestige Limousine.

"Recent press coverage of this tragedy has alleged that the Federal Bureau of Investigation may have shielded Mr. Hussain and his family over the years from various legal consequences as a reward for Mr. Hussains prior service as a confidential informant," Tonko wrote in a letter to Wray dated Jan. 31.

"To be clear, I am not aware of any evidence of FBI involvement on behalf of Prestige Limousine, but the families and our community deserve to hear whether these allegations hold any truth or are baseless," wrote Tonko, who called Howe's reporting on Hussain "disturbing" in his letter to Wray.

The families of the victims, many of whom lived in Tonko's hometown of Amsterdam, have been furious with the silence of elected officials in the wake of the New York magazine article.

More troubling to the families of the victims is the fact that the only person charged with a crime in connection with the crash, Hussain's son Nauman, was offered a no-jail plea deal by the prosecutor in Schoharie County last fall.

Mallery, the district attorney, decided that although he had neglected to repair the limo after the state Department of Transportation had twice ordered it off the road for bad brakes, she could not prove the defendant's guilt.

Mallery has never publicly explained her reasons for refusing to take Nauman Hussain's case to trial and offering him only probation. Her silence and the recent New York magazine story have only fueled speculation about why the case was abandoned. There has never been any evidence that Mallery was influenced by outside forces. She would also not explain why she never brought any charges against Shahed Hussain, who was the legal owner of the limo on Department of Motor Vehicle records.

In a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, Tonko said he felt that his refusal to answer questions about the FBI in the magazine article was "misconstrued" because he was trying to be respectful of the legal proceedings against Nauman Hussain.

"I assumed that these allegations (about the FBI) would have been addressed by the trial," Tonko said. "I was careful with any public comments that could have an impact on the case."

In all of their pre-trial disclosures, neither Mallery nor Nauman Hussain's defense attorneys ever told the court that they planned to bring up his father's work as an FBI informant as part of the case.

Tonko said he was laser-focused on getting landmark federal limo safety legislation passed in Congress that the families of the crash victims had sought to prevent similar tragedies in the future. He says he met with some of the family members recently about their concerns raised by the New York article, and previous reporting in the Times Union, leading him to write the letter to the FBI.

Many do not expect the FBI to reveal much if anything about its dealings with Hussain, who was in his native Pakistan at the time of the crash and is believed to still be living overseas after having immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1990s and settled in the Capital Region with his wife and two young children.

Tonko said he isn't sure how the FBI will respond, noting that he has never made such a request of the agency, which carefully guards its dealings with informants.

"I don't know," Tonko said of what to expect. "We'll see."

The FBI confirmed it has received Tonko's letter but declined further comment.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who has also met frequently with the families of the Schoharie victims, is also putting his considerable political weight behind Tonko's request.

Sen. Schumer has conveyed to the Department of Justice and the FBI that he shares the concerns raised by Rep. Tonko on behalf of the families and is eager to see those questions answered promptly and fully. Schumer spokeswoman Allison Biasotti told the Times Union.

In fact, the FBI has repeatedly refused to comment on Hussain and his relationship with the FBI, even after investigative reporting by the Times Union revealed that Hussain had avoided responsibility for running the illegal limousine company for years out of a decrepit motel in Saratoga County that lacked state permits and was cited repeatedly for health and safety violations by local officials - all while failing to pay any of the school or property taxes on the motel for years.

The Hussains not only falsified their DMV registration documents for the Excursion, but they failed to obtain operating authority from the DOT to carry passengers in the massive limo, which weighed nearly seven tons. They also failed to get the limo inspected by the DOT as required every six months, and they failed to do drug testing on the drivers of the limo.

The Times Union reporting also found that Hussain would often use his status as an FBI informant to scare away code enforcement officers and business partners who claimed Hussain had ripped them off.

Another Times Union story revealed that in a meeting just after the crash between Nauman Hussain and state and federal officials, a top motor carrier investigator at the state Department of Transportation fumed that Nauman Hussain, who ran the limo company for his father, had been treated with "kid gloves" by the DOT leading up to the disaster.

State and federal investigators found that faulty brakes ultimately caused the crash, which occurred at the bottom of a steep road in the Schoharie County countryside that led down to a popular restaurant and gift shop where the disaster occurred, leading to the death of all 17 passengers, the driver of the limo and two bystanders in the parking lot.
Why was teacher Carey Lizzio placed on administrative leave? Was it because, as many in the Fulton County town of Mayfield believe, she opposed the state's mask mandate on Facebook?

The Mayfield Central School District has so far declined to answer those questions, despite a growing firestorm fueled, in part, by scathing words from U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has demanded that Lizzio be reinstated.

The controversy apparently began on Friday, when in the version of the story relayed to me by Mayfield Mayor Jamie Ward, the teacher was called to meet with district Superintendent Christopher Harper and told she would be suspended pending an investigation of posts she shared on her personal Facebook page.

Those posts involved Lizzio's opposition to mask mandates for students in New York schools, Ward said, who told me he spoke to Lizzio over the weekend. The stunned and baffled teacher, Ward added, was escorted from the school building.

Multiple attempts to reach Lizzio on Monday were unsuccessful; Ward said she was declining interviews.

The story of Lizzio's apparent plight spread quickly around Mayfield and, understandably, led to social media outrage, with an #IStandwithCarrie campaign focused on what seemed to be a clear violation of the teacher's First Amendment rights.

"What is this world coming to when somebody can't voice their opinion?" asked Ward, who says Lizzio, 37, is a much-respected teacher in the district. "People want answers, and they want their teacher back."

Enter Stefanik, the North Country Republican, who on Saturday weighed in with a statement calling for the release of more information and the resignation of administrators involved in the decision. (A headline on the statement wrongly claimed Lizzio had been fired.)

"Last night, numerous constituents brought to my attention information regarding a Pre-K teacher in Fulton County who was wrongfully put on administrative leave for sharing one of my Facebook posts on her private, personal Facebook page," Stefanik wrote adding that "this Soviet-style purging of hardworking teachers is Kathy Hochul's War on Students, Parents, and Teachers."

In other words, Stefanik dumped rhetorical gasoline on Mayfield's fire. The resulting blaze prompted a response from the district.

"While we typically do not comment on personnel matters, the information Ms. Stefanik posted is misleading and inaccurate," the district said in the statement sent to reporters, adding that "Ms. Stefaniks allegation that a teacher has been placed on administrative leave for sharing one of her Facebook posts regarding the mask mandate also is inaccurate."

I attempted to reach Harper, the superintendent, for more but instead heard from an outside media relations firm that subsequently sent a second statement that, alas, provided little new information. Mayfield Board of Education President Aaron Flynn could not be reached for comment.

Left unanswered by the district is whether Lizzio was suspended for generally expressing her opposition to school mask mandates, and not simply for sharing a post from Stefanik. That doesn't seem like a difficult question to answer.

Supporters of the teacher, who began working for the district in 2013, say she did not refuse to comply with or enforce the mask mandate. They say her posts were not threatening. They merely expressed her belief that masking costs are high and the policy should end.

That isn't an unusual opinion. The wisdom and effectiveness of school mask policies have been debated since the start of the pandemic, and pieces arguing against them have recently been published in The Atlantic, New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere.

Moreover, mask mandates are a policy issue and every American, teachers included, has the right to oppose government policy. Or has something changed and I missed the memo?

If Lizzio was suspended for some other reason, the district should just say its move had nothing to do with her opinion or her Facebook posts on masking. That the district has so far declined to do so only fuels doubts and suspicion.

Clearing up the confusion, if that's what this is, would save the district the massive headache coming its way, given that Lizzio's plight is primed to receive national attention. It would make clear that administrators respect and understand the First Amendment.

And it would help quell the anger in Mayfield.

"I would hope that this gets rectified and that somebody is held accountable," said Erica Hime, one of the many residents of Mayfield who is supporting Lizzio. "We have a very small town here, and we're very close."

Keep an eye on this one. It could get messy.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
New York Stewart International Airport will see its first international flights since 2019 take off from Newburgh when Play Airlines, a low-cost carrier based in Iceland, begins direct service between Reykjavik and Stewart on June 9.

Play Airlines, which began operating in July 2021, will offer direct flights between Stewart and Iceland, with connecting service to 22 European cities, including London, Paris, Dublin, Copenhagen, and others.

To celebrate the new service, Play is offering introductory fares starting at $109 starting today until Feb. 7. The deal is valid for flights to 11 destinations on select days of the week, between September and October 2022. This includes flights leaving Stewart on Mondays to Iceland, Dublin and Brussels; flights on Tuesdays to Berlin, Copenhagen and London; and Sunday flights to Paris and Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Reykjavik-based carrier will begin international service from two other U.S. cities this spring: Baltimore Washington International Airport on April 20, followed by Bostons Logan International Airport on May 11.

By expanding to New York Stewart International Airport as our third airport in the United States, Play will connect passengers in the Hudson Valley area in New York to 22 European destinations, said Play CEO Birgir Jonsson in an emailed statement.

Related: 5 things to know about Stewart International Airport

Downtime is the best time Make the most of your Hudson Valley weekend, every week with our newsletter.

According to a press release, Play has received all required permits from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to operate flights to the U.S.

Since launching, Play has operated more than 1,000 flights in Europe. The carrier was started in Iceland by two former executives of Wow Air, which suspended operations in March 2019 and declared bankruptcy.

Play is the second international airline that has announced plans to fly out of Stewart. Norse Atlantic Airways in October said via social media that it would begin service from three U.S. airports, including Stewart. The trans-Atlantic budget airline received tentative approval on Jan. 14 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to operate flights, but Norse has not yet announced flight dates or begun selling tickets.

Last fall, Frontier Airlines began offering nonstop flights between Stewart and Orlando, Miami and Tampa in Florida.
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ALBANY  They came to the coldest place on earth and left with red-hot hearts.

When Nicole McGrath and Cole Heinz independently made the decision to touch down at McMurdo Station in Antarctica for jobs, each hoped the stints would usher in a new beginning and a renewed sense of professional direction.

Instead, they found each other.

Both were seeking new paths in life and learned the U.S. research facility hired support staff to augment its team of scientific researchers: No scientific experience required, but rather an ability to withstand sub-zero temperatures.

Now they're married and live in Albany with their 2-year-old daughter, Samantha.

The path to get here was a decade in the making.

Amid the economic fallout of the Great Recession, Heinz initially sought to work at McMurdo for a single season before moving on to something else.

That one season ended up being four deployments, Heinz said.

Several seasons later, McGrath, now 33, landed in 2013 as a dining attendant. It was a trek that almost didnt happen amid a shutdown of the New Zealand government, which facilitated military transports to the station.

Before that, she spent six months backpacking around Australia. After majoring in book publishing, she was also searching for meaning and an escape from the low-paid jobs she was accustomed to.

The bracing cold was a formative experience for the Miami native.

The doors opened and it was blindingly white, McGrath said. Theres ice everywhere and the cold hits you like a punch in the face.

When she reported for her first day of work, Heinz was tasked with training her in the kitchen.

It was his birthday, so he was allowed to start his shift an hour later. He walked into the kitchen wearing a Dallas Cowboys cap.

Theres the guy whos training me, McGrath said, and hes kind of cute.

Heinz, a Dallas native, was also attracted and sized her up.

By this time, Heinz was in his third season at McMurdo, and the meeting wasnt exactly a chance encounter: Another couple working on the base said theyd rearrange kitchen tasks so the two would meet, assigning her to cleaning pots and pans.

I had no idea what their intentions were, Heinz said, who is now 37.

When they broke for lunch, one table was full so they sat at a new one.

But no one came to join us, McGrath said. It was just the two of us.

The couple first recounted their story to CNN Travel.

The connection was instant for both of them. Joking led to flirting. The pair bonded over their sense of humor and lack of familiarity with cold climates, which they quickly began exploring.

Their first date was a hike to Hut Point, an abandoned outpost used by British explorer Robert F. Scott over a century ago.

Pretty much from then on we became a couple on ice, McGrath said.

While Antarctica isn't exactly known for its human inhabitants, McMurdo Station is a major logistical hub teeming with personnel. An entire ecosystem has emerged to augment the work of researchers, all living in dorm-like settings spread across multiple buildings.

At times, the population reaches as high as 900 people. To accommodate them, theres a bar, cafe, gymnasiums, a theater room, live concerts  and perhaps the worlds largest collection of random 1980s VHS tapes, the couple joked.

If you want to be social, theres more than enough to do down there, Heinz said.

But with spotty Wi-Fi, there were few modern-day distractions and they found pleasure in the natural wonders.

Ross Island is ringed by mountains and snow and the pair explored the labyrinth of trails, finding quiet moments to get away.

Love blossomed amid the penguins.

Its desolate and beautiful in a way, McGrath said, recalling the ice crevasses and Royal Society Mountain Range breaking up the solitude of a landscape bereft of all signs of life.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Eventually, the summer season ended and McGrath was set to return to New Zealand in February. But Heinz was scheduled to stay on through the winter, a set of circumstances that led to tough decisions and existential searching.

For a while, their relationship seemed to be on ice.

Living on the base could be like a reality show and existential questions surfaced: How would their relationship work outside of that insular, closed system where life is easy and you can spend time together? Where there were no bills and life was relatively predictable?

Heinz ultimately decided against staying on for the winter season and followed her back to New Zealand.

He couldnt imagine life at McMurdo without her.

After forming that bond we did so quickly, she became my best friend from Day One, Heinz said.

McGrath felt the same way. I didn't want to spend a day not being able to talk with him, she said.

Once they left the base, the couple purchased a camper van from Dutch travelers and spent the next six months exploring New Zealand.

Several more assignments followed at McMurdo  including a stint together at the South Pole in 2016 where they were assigned to break down a field camp together under the haunting green glow of the aurora australis, the southern counterpart of the aurora borealis.

By then, they knew they wanted to be together.

Im pretty sure I shed a few tears out there, Heinz said.

They wed in Miami in 2017 with an Antarctic theme  replete with penguins topping the cake  and relocated to Austin, Texas, where McGrath went back to school to study planning.

When it came time to choose their next chapter, they opted to move to somewhere cold.

The city of Albany beckoned and they relocated in November. McGrath works at an office of the Federal Highway Administration and Heinz at Collins Aerospace while he pursues his bachelors degree.

And while it isn't Antarctica, a trip to the nearby Adirondacks in winter may scratch that Antarctic itch.

One unexpected Capital Region connection: The Air National Guard unit that supports air transportation to Antarctica is based in Schenectady, a link the couple relishes.

It kind of feels like weve come full circle, McGrath said.
Students from several area states and Canadian provinces will find themselves saving money on tuition at Bismarck State College in the future.

The state Board of Higher Education on Thursday approved reducing BSC tuition for students from Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the same rates as students from North Dakota. The price cut takes effect in the fall semester, according to BSC Executive Vice President Rebecca Collins.

BSC picked those states and provinces because they're in an area underserved by polytechnic programming, and reducing tuition will enable the college to recruit students more competitively across the region as part of a plan to expand its polytechnic mission, Collins said.

BSC in late 2018 was designated a polytechnic institution, meaning it has "hands-on, applied learning to develop workforce-ready knowledge." The model lets students create customized degrees, and the programs are created with industry professionals to help meet the needs of the workforce.

In the fall 2021 semester, 17% of BSC's 3,549 students were from out of state.

The college estimated it might lose about $414,000 in net tuition revenue due to the out-of-state tuition reduction, according to documents from the state board. But BSC said that revenue could be offset by an influx of students attracted by the lower cost of tuition. Collins said BSC is projecting a 5% increase in credit hour production.

"The increased tuition funding that is generated from the new tuition model will be leveraged to deliver polytechnic education at an affordable price and expand our program offerings, which benefits our North Dakota students," she said.

BSC officials in December announced a new facility as part of the school's polytechnic expansion. The board last week approved construction.

The $38 million building will be funded with federal coronavirus relief money. It will feature nontraditional learning spaces and space for students to collaborate with people from different industries.

Reach Sam Nelson at 701-250-8264 or sam.nelson@bismarcktribune.com.

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COHOES - In what could be a major step to resolving longstanding worries about dust and pollution there, Cohoes Mayor William Keeler says the city is poised to buy and demolish the Saratoga Sites public housing complex adjacent to the Norlite aggregate plant/incinerator.

Residents of the complex have long complained about potentially toxic dust from Norlite and there has long been talk of moving residents of the 70-unit structure somewhere else. Now the city says they'll bear the more than $600,000 estimated cost to buy and demolish the building, with hopes of turning the site into an industrial area.

Pending the approval of the Cohoes city council, it is the intent of the City of Cohoes to purchase the Saratoga Sites property in conjunction with the relocation of residents away from the shadows of the Norlite hazardous waste facility, Keeler wrote Tuesday in a letter to the citys housing authority.

The subsidized housing complex is operated by the Cohoes Housing Authority, and it would need permission from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to sell the building. It wasnt immediately clear where the families would go, although Cohoes does have other housing options within the city.

The Housing Authority appears poised to act. They recently developed a flyer offering to sell the structure as is with a Feb. 11 bidding deadline.

The Cohoes Housing Authority is requesting proposals for the purchase of the Saratoga Sites Public Housing Complex. The property will be sold As Is and subject to HUD consent. The site and all apartments will be completely vacant at the time the transaction is finalized. Future use will have restrictions by HUD & the City of Cohoes. Proposals are due by February 11th, reads the flyer.

Housing Authority officials could not be reached on Tuesday.

In his letter, Keeler noted that Housing Authority Executive Director Matthew Ethier could sell the building to the city for $35,000 and the cost to demolish it would run an estimated $600,000.

The city is ready to proceed with the purchase of Saratoga Sites, wrote Keeler.

While knocking down Saratoga Sites would end complaints from those neighbors, activists are still worried about the emissions and dust blowing off of the Norlite facility.

It doesnt solve the problem, said Dave Publow, a member of Lights Out Norlite, a group that has been battling the facility over dust and emissions. Residents who live near Norlite, but who don't live at Saratoga Sites, are still continuing with a federal lawsuit, alleging the facility has created a nuisance and health hazard, said Phillip Oswald, a lawyer with Rupp Baase Pfalzgraf Cunningham who is representing the plaintiffs.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Most recently, they complained about the baghouse dust, or material that is trapped in a pollution control mechanism but which is then stored in a pile to be used in the making of lightweight aggregate. Norlites aggregate is used in construction and road building.

While using such dust is generally banned, Norlite is allowed to do so thanks to a waiver for the ban, known as a Bevill exclusion, which is on their current permit with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The exclusion is named after the Alabama Democratic congressman who got the loophole through when he was in office decades ago.

That permit is technically expired and up for renewal.

Norlite last year applied for a new permit, but in February 2021 the DEC said the application was incomplete and had to be resubmitted. The most recent application deadline is Feb. 28.

Norlite mines shale rock on-site and turns it into aggregate using a high-temperature kiln that burns hazardous waste that is brought to the facility.
ROCHESTER  Voters in November easily passed a constitutional amendment saying that New Yorkers have the right to Clean air and water, and a healthful environment.

Last month, when the new amendment became law, a group of activists filed the first of what may be many lawsuits based on this new constitutional right.

Fresh Air for the East Side cited the new constitutional right in a suit against Waste Management and the state Department of Environmental Conservation over a 300-acre landfill in the Rochester suburbs that has been the subject of controversy for years.

The Fresh Air group has already sued in federal and state courts but their lawyer said she hopes the new constitutional amendment could help speed a resolution to the case, in which neighbors complain about the odor and methane gas leaks from the landfill, which continues to grow.

Hopefully it will make it go a little faster, Rochester attorney Linda Shaw, of Knauf Shaw, said, noting that a 2020 federal suit is still in the discovery stages and could drag on for a while.

When the proposed amendment was brought to voters by lawmakers, supporters said it could provide a potent new tool to hold companies and government agencies more accountable for the pollution they may be causing or allowing.

Environmentalists said the amendment helped clarify and even simplify the need for responsible operations of facilities like landfills, power plants or factories by cutting through the labyrinth of environmental regulations that the state operates under.

Waste Managements High Acres landfill, straddling the towns of Perinton and Macedon, in Monroe and Wayne counties, accepts waste from New York City. In fact the plaintiffs say that makes up 90 percent of the waste disposed of at the landfill.

New York City is also named in the suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Monroe County.

Shaw said they are also suing the DEC for permitting the landfill, despite what neighbors say are noxious odors and greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, that are emitted from the facility.

There is also, as Shaw described it, a loophole that has allowed High Acres to keep growing. State regulations require that the top of landfills like this be covered, but not the sides - which rise steeply to 155 feet.

The regulations have not kept up with the advent of these mega huge facilities, she said.

The company in a prepared statement said that Waste Management has received and is reviewing a copy of the most recent complaint filed by Fresh Air for the East Side."

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

They added that the company "is committed to addressing any open issues and to bring these cases to a satisfactory conclusion for all interested parties. During the time in which the federal case has been pending, Waste Management also resolved a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of residents within 2.5 miles of the landfill property. Most recently, both of our host communities, the Town of Perinton and the Town of Macedon, unanimously approved new 5-year operating permits and host community agreements.

Waste Management also operates a landfill in Gansevoort, Saratoga County, and the company provides residential garbage pickup as well.

Shaw said she didnt know of other Green Amendment lawsuits as of yet, but that could be a matter of time. There are, she noted, 27 landfills like High Acres in New York, including Albanys Rapp Road facility, which is scheduled to close in several years.

Launching a lawsuit like this is a costly endeavor, which could limit how many go forward. Its definitely not inexpensive, said Shaw.

And Shaw said her firm has also represented a Rochester firm that wanted to build a waste-to-energy site on a former Army depot in the Finger Lakes. She believes that could have handled waste that normally goes to landfills, but environmentalists pushed back against that plan, she said.

Whether its waste-to-energy plants or landfills, there is pretty much constant opposition to have them nearby. Nobody wants these, said Shaw.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
FORT EDWARD  A village police sergeant, already suspended for another matter, is now suspected of twice allegedly using a stun gun or a Taser to electrically shock a 36-year-old man who was handcuffed and in police custody over the summer.

Sgt. Dean Watkins, as seen on a video shared with WNYT-13, is shown possibly shocking Robert Murat-Hinton in a police department hallway, after Murat-Hinton screamed threats and racial slurs at police and kicked at the wall causing damage. Watkins, the video shows, entered the hallway saying Im going to f---ing tase you right now." In the July 9, 2021, video, Watkins can be seen advancing toward Murat-Hinton, sticking something in his chest, followed by Murat-Hinton screaming and falling to the floor.

There was no reason for it, his attorney Dustin Bruhns said. Dont get me wrong, (my client) wasnt right either for what he did. But that is not the response that is appropriate or even constitutional.

Bruhns, who is the Washington County supervising assistant public defender, said no medical treatment was provided to Murat-Hinton. He also said his client, a Native American, claimed he sustained burns on his chest and injured his shoulder. The electric shock, Bruhns alleges, also exacerbated old tendon injuries that Murat-Hinton previously suffered in his hand and wrist.

Village Mayor Matthew Traver said the investigation into the alleged incident will be part of the overall investigation into Watkins and police Chief Justin Derway, who were placed on paid administrative leave in an emergency village Board of Trustees meeting last week, apparently regarding an unrelated matter. While Traver wont say what it is, WNYT reported they are facing allegations of falsifying administrative documents, mainly time cards.

Thats an administrative issue, Traver said. Its an ongoing matter. Its personnel, so I cant discuss any of that.

Before his recent suspension, Watkins was working on July 8, 2021, when Murat-Hinton was arrested for getting into a fight at the McCrea Tavern.

After his arrest, Murat-Hinton, who was handcuffed at his wrists and tethered to a wall, started to kick the hallway opposite where he was sitting. When an unidentified police officer came out of an office to tell Murat-Hinton to stop, he did. The video shows Watkins, seconds later, advancing on Murat-Hinton and, seen in a mirror's reflection, pressing something into Murat-Hinton's chest. After that, Bruhns said, police also secured Murat-Hinton's feet to the wall. Video shows that three other police officers present did not intercede.

Bruhns said he reached out to the state Attorney General's Office about the incident. He also said that Murat-Hinton, now 37, is looking for a civil rights attorney.

Im not a civil rights expert, but I think my client has a good case, Bruhns said. Im not sure though that being Native American was the basis. I think the cop was being a bully. I think he would have done it to anybody.  Knowing the officers are out already on paid leave for something internal goes to show their character. This is a distinctive and separate act. Id like to see something happen with the tasing.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Washington County District Attorney Tony Jordan said that Murat-Hinton was sentenced to 1 to 3 years in prison on Friday. The sentence, he said, considered all the charges stemming from his July arrest which involved him wielding a knife. He also faced criminal mischief charges for damaging the wall. Murat-Hinton also had a prior felony conviction.

Bruhns said that Murat-Hinton also has to pay restitution of about $2,500 to replace the sheetrock on the wall. This week, he will leave Washington County jail for Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill.

"Unfortunately, when reported on (Channel) 13, some people commented, 'That's what you get' and 'You do stupid things, get stupid prizes,' " Bruhns said. "People don't realize, he's going to prison for up to three years for kicking the holes in the walls. He's not getting away scot-free."

While Murat-Hinton is in prison, the investigation into the Fort Edward police has widened, with Jordan referring the alleged use of the stun gun or Taser to the Schenectady County District Attorneys office. Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney did not respond to a Times Union request for comment.

Mayor Traver said the police department in the village has "always been great," but the alleged incident with the electric shock device was "concerning."

Our police department has always been trustworthy and takes care of the Fort Edward residents first, Traver said. This particular incident is isolated. We dont condone this action. We certainly need to investigate it further and see what we need to do after that. It's concerning.
ALBANY  A penthouse apartment. A job at a family-run construction company. A baby on the way.

At 22, Jeffrey Civitello Jr. appeared to be riding high, but his story took a downward turn on Oct. 21 when federal drug investigators raided his home on the top floor of a Schenectady building on Albany Street and seized 75 pounds of marijuana, loaded weapons and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now, the Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School graduate is facing federal drug and weapon charges in Albany  and is being investigated in a separate cocaine-trafficking case involving a reputed Bonanno crime family associate from New Jersey, according to court papers filed in U.S. District Court.

Attorneys for Civitello, who is being held in the Albany County jail, are hoping to convince U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Stewart to reconsider an earlier order to detain him without bail. They noted in a motion that Civitello has no criminal history and strong family ties in Schenectady, lessening his risk of flight. He has pleaded not guilty.

In court papers opposing Civitellos release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett suggested the defendant's family ties did not entirely help his case. The prosecutor described Civitello and his 50-year-old father, Jeffrey Civitello Sr., who owns a construction company located in the same building where the raid took place, as sophisticated drug dealers with numerous criminal associates.

On Oct. 21, when officers with a federal Drug Enforcement Administration task force raided what they called a penthouse, they found a gun in the first-floor office of Focus Construction, a company owned by the senior Civitello, who as a convicted felon is prohibited from possessing firearms. Civitello Sr. has prior federal convictions for cocaine trafficking and money laundering, the prosecutor stated.

Barnett said investigators also found two boxes for Glock handguns, including one purchased in Kentucky by a known gun trafficker.

And the prosecutor said the younger Civitello and his father are being investigated in connection with the DEAs seizure on April 2 of 9 kilograms of cocaine found in a hidden compartment of Civitellos blue 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Civitello was not in the Jeep at the time, but had been spotted by investigators two days earlier meeting with the three men charged in that case, including Richard Sinde, 56, a reputed Bonanno crime family associate from Fort Lee, N.J, the prosecutor said.

On March 31, Sinde, Robert Ingrao, 74, of Lodi, N.J., and a third man, Christopher Kelly, 54, of Brooklyn, met in Schenectady with both Civitello and his father to borrow the Jeep. On April 2, when the vehicle was stopped in Greene County, police found the 9 kilos of cocaine in a trap compartment in the trunk, Barnett told the judge at Civitellos detention hearing in October.

At the hearing, Barnett said Civitello had been using the Jeep every day and was well aware that it had been seized.

"This would have been a good time for the defendant to say, 'You know what? That was a close call. I'm a smart guy. Maybe I should go to college. Maybe I should try something other than drug dealing.' And that was more than six months ago," Barnett told the judge. "And we know now that the defendant did not choose that path."

In court papers, Barnett told the judge that Civitello had also exchanged messages over Snapchat that appeared to be related to the distribution of opioid pills.

Barnett said investigators seized more than $856,000, including $407,545 found in Civitello's apartment, another $319,387 found in the home of a relative alleged to be a co-conspirator and an additional $128,860 in Coinbase cryptocurrency. The prosecutor said the Coinbase figure was nearly all traced to a transfer of $101,440 from Civitello's father to him.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

"This transfer reinforces the governments argument that the defendant is involved in drug trafficking activities with his father," Barnett said. He said it took place at a time when both the father and son were receiving unemployment insurance benefits when each was "dubiously claiming" that they had lost their jobs at the father's construction company.

Barnett said the younger Civitello's 2020 tax return listed his business as "sales" and placed his total income at $66,273. He alleged that Civitello and his family are falsely claiming to work at the family business.

"Of the several dozen character reference letters submitted by the defendant, not a single one is from a co-worker, and no letter appears to reference his supposed construction job," the prosecutor stated.

Civitello is now on his third and fourth attorneys, Syracuse-based attorneys Robert G. Wells and Derek S. Andrews. They sent the judge 25 letters from Civitello's mother, sister, other family members, a former teacher, assistant principal and ex-tenants all attesting to Civitello's good character. That was in addition to a photo of the defendant with his girlfriend announcing that a baby is on the way.

Photos show Civitello working on construction sites and posing with family members. In one photo, a tattoo is visible on Civitello's arm which states: "La Famiglia e tutto." In Italian, it translates to "The Family is Everything."
Active cases of COVID-19 and test positivity rate continued on a downward trajectory Tuesday in North Dakota, but state health officials reported 14 more coronavirus-related deaths.

The newly confirmed deaths accounted for the highest reported daily total since 14 on Dec. 14, when the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus was causing a spike in deaths. There was no unusual reason such as an abnormal lag in reporting that led to Tuesday's high total, according to Health Department spokesman Paul Teeple.

Modeling by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does suggest a rise in virus-related deaths in North Dakota in coming weeks. Health officials say deaths and hospitalizations are the later consequences of disease, and declines in those categories typically lag behind sliding case numbers.

The state no longer publicly reports the county, sex and age range of newly confirmed deaths. The Health Department virus dashboard death total for Morton County rose by one Tuesday, to 138, while Burleigh County's total was unchanged, at 290. Cass County, home to Fargo, saw its total rise by four, to 311.

Omicron became the dominant variant in the state in January, leading to a spike in active cases that culminated with a pandemic high 11,991 reported Jan. 22. They have since trended downward and on Tuesday were at 5,317. North Dakota's reported 14-day rolling test positivity rate fell for a fifth straight day, to 18.67%, a full percentage point behind the pandemic record 19.69% reported Jan. 26. The state target is less than 5%.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 there have been 225,508 confirmed COVID-19 cases in North Dakota, including 1,786 new cases reported Tuesday. There have been 218,084 recoveries, 2,107 deaths and 7,530 hospitalizations, including 182 COVID-19 patients in North Dakota hospitals Tuesday. That was down two from Monday.

The most recent state data showed about 8% of staffed inpatient hospital beds available statewide and about 6.5% of intensive care unit beds open. In Bismarck, CHI St. Alexius Health had one open general care bed and one available staffed ICU bed; Sanford Health had no open beds listed in either category.

Records are based off the Health Department's daily reports. The agency often revises data on its dashboard later based on updated information.

Moderna approval

State health officials on Tuesday said they hope the decision by federal health regulators to grant full approval to Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for adults will prompt more North Dakotans to get the shot.

The state continues to have one of the worst COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country, according to the CDC. Agency data on Tuesday showed 64.8% of adults in North Dakota being fully vaccinated. The rate for all vaccine-eligible people in the state -- age 5 and older -- is 58.1%.

The Moderna vaccine was given emergency authorization more than a year ago. The action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday to grant full approval means the agency has completed the same rigorous, time-consuming review of Moderna's shot as dozens of other long-established vaccines, according to The Associated Press.

I hope North Dakotans who are not yet vaccinated will take this FDA approval into consideration and feel confident in the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine and choose to get vaccinated, said Jenny Galbraith, the Health Department's COVID immunization manager. By getting vaccinated, individuals are protecting not only themselves but their communities.

More information

The CDC also recommends COVID-19 booster shots for all adults; 46.8% of North Dakota adults have received a third dose of vaccine, according to state data. The federal agency this month also recommended that adolescents ages 12-17 receive boosters as well. North Dakota's vaccine dashboard shows 17.6% of state residents in that age group have received a third dose.

The coronavirus transmission risk is considered high in all of North Dakota's 53 counties, according to the CDC's COVID-19 data tracker website. The CDC recommends people in that risk category wear masks in public indoor settings.

People can go to https://www.ndvax.org or call 866-207-2880 to see where COVID-19 vaccine is available near them. A list of free COVID-19 testing offered by local public health units is at health.nd.gov/covidtesting. For more detailed information on coronavirus in North Dakota, go to www.health.nd.gov/coronavirus. For more information on coronavirus variants, go to https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html.

Reach Blake Nicholson at 701-250-8266 or blake.nicholson@bismarcktribune.com.

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ALBANY  Buried in 5,000 cubic feet of court records, the New York State Archives has uncovered the 1828 documents thought lost to history detailing how Sojourner Truth became the first Black woman to successfully sue white men to get her son released from slavery.

Archivist and author Jim Folts knowledge that Sojourner Truth had once been known as Isabella Van Wagenen when she lived in the Kingston area and sued in Albany Supreme Court made the eight pages of historic court records jump out.

The records provide an insight into New Yorks and the Hudson Valleys waning days of slavery when it had been outlawed, but yet still lingered on. The records also show that despite illiteracy Sojourner Truth was able to go to court to sue Solomon Gedney and make her mark to start the path to securing her son Peters freedom after he was sold south to slave owners in Alabama.

Library of Congress

Its a document that has been lost. The document is new to historians, said Folts about the deposition.

Folts made the discovery when he was revising his Duely & Constantly Kept: A History of the New York Supreme Court, 1691-1847 and An Inventory of Its Records (Albany, Utica and Geneva Offices), 1797-1847. It will be featured as a sidebar in the new edition.

The papers uncovered include Truths deposition given by her when she was still known as Isabella Van Wagenen, the writ of habeas corpus, Gedneys response and the court order freeing Peter.

Truths deposition describes her knowledge of Gedney becoming master of her son Peter and that has been during all that time in some of the Southern States with the knowledge of said Solomon Gedney.

Van Wagenen took the name Sojourner Truth when she converted to Methodism. She would become known as a Black abolitionist and a womens rights activist, eventually moving to Michigan. Folts noted that Truth was accomplished and overcame illiteracy to communicate her message.

Truth was part of the enslaved population in the Hudson Valley, which was the most numerous in the state outside of New York City. She had several owners growing up in the valley and escaped the last one  John I. Dumont of New Paltz  who sold her son Peter when he was 5 years old to Eleazar Gedney of Newburgh for $20. He then sold Peter to his brother Solomon Gedney.

Truth began the legal proceedings on March 1, 1828. She used the surname of the family that assisted her and was represented by two attorneys from Kingston. The suit was brought citing state law passed in 1818 that freed enslaved people born after July 4, 1799, after reaching their 20s. Until then they were bound to their owners before being set free. Peter was born in 1818.

Its nice to authenticate her court actions, Folts said.

Truth won the case and her son was set free.

Will Waldron/Times Union

These are important documents. It shows the use of the legal system, State Archivist Thomas Ruller said.

While the odds would have appeared stacked against Truth during an era when white men held supremacy in the eyes of the law, Truth was able to prevail.

Regarding the recovering of the documents, Ruller said, It is really exciting. The court records are so voluminous.
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WASHINGTON  Even as the COVID-19 omicron variant fades, many school districts around the country  as well as some states like Virginia  are relaxing mask rules for children in classrooms while others are doubling down on mandates requiring face coverings.

In September, one of the first of several lawsuits was filed against the state Department of Health on behalf of a group of children, through their parents as plaintiffs, that argued against a mask mandate for K-12 students; the civil complaint is challenging the constitutionality of the mandates and the efficacy of masks, and contends their usage is hurting childrens intellectual and social development.

Last week, a state Supreme Court justice in a similar case on Long Island struck down the masking directives as unconstitutional. The state is appealing that decision and an appellate court on Monday issued a stay  keeping the administration's mandates in place until the case is decided.

In the wake of the state Supreme Court justice's ruling, Gov. Kathy Hochul and officials with the state Department of Health have publicly asserted that the "guidance" issued to schools last September that requires students and teachers to wear masks would still remain in place if the "rule" directed at businesses and other public spaces in November is revoked by a court.

While courts weigh the legality of the mandates, experts have offered differing views on whether the masks are causing long-term damage to children.

Children learn from looking at faces around them, said Kang Lee, a professor of developmental neuroscience at the University of Toronto who studies how children process faces and acquire language. Children learn to recognize their friends, family and teachers  and how to read their emotions.

Masks obscure the face, but their impact on childrens development is complicated, said Lee.

Masks overall can make social communication more difficult, since we rely so much on using the emotional cues on a person's face, Sarah Gaither, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, said in an email. That said, there are other ways that we can teach children to recognize emotions.

Without cues from the lower half of the face, children learn to glean emotion in subtler ways, like focusing on a persons eyes. Gaither said that some research indicates children can recognize emotions with relative ease regardless of whether a mask is on.

And visual cues arent the only way people indicate emotion  communication also happens through tone of voice, body posture and the context in which emotion is being displayed, said Ashley Ruba, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madisons psychology department.

Rubas research suggests that children can identify emotions even when they and others are wearing masks that obscure the face and prevent exchanges like lip-reading.

If youre smiling but youre speaking in a tone thats more negative, a child is not necessarily going to assume that youre feeling happy because youre smiling, Ruba said. Theyre going to integrate all the sort of contextual information in order to make an inference about how that person is feeling.

In a 2020 study, Ruba found that children were as able to identify emotions when a face was masked similar to when someone is wearing sunglasses. Since children often interact with people wearing sunglasses with no demonstrable detriment, she said, this is a promising indicator of the effect masks may have on children long-term.

Lee said childrens development might even be heightened by mask-wearing.

Masks block some of the crucial channels of information for children, said Lee, but on the other hand, wearing a mask also creates a new opportunity.

Once children realize one information channel is blocked, theyll find another, Lee said. Kids are very, very good at this. They adapt to new situations very well.

Absent certain facial expressions, children may develop heightened sensitivity to vocal tone or body language  in the same way that children born blind may develop a heightened sense of hearing, Lee said.

Their teachers and peers may be masked, but children very quickly pay attention to hairstyle, body shape, posture and voice, Lee said. They can learn to focus on the totality of the person theyre identifying and interacting with.

Whats more, children dont have to deal with masks in all their social interactions  just at school. At home, they can practice maskless communication. In this sense, Lee said, children are actually learning a more dynamic set of language skills.



To me its a learning opportunity rather than kind of lost opportunity, Lee said.

Lets not forget that there are, there are countries where people wear masks all the time, said David Lewkowicz, a senior research scientist at Haskins Laboratories and the Yale University Child Study Center. In Japan, for example, it was common to wear masks as a health precaution even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Children in those countries still develop language skills that are relatively normal.

Its actually adults who may find getting emotional cues from those wearing masks more difficult, Lewcowicz said. Adults, with brains less adaptable, may feel that more is lost when communicating through masks.

Gaither wrote that parents, teachers and other adults can help children adapt to reading masked emotions by being more verbal in expressing or explicitly stating their emotions to children when wearing masks, and prompting children to do the same. Gaither, like Lee, is confident in childrens ability to adapt to a masked environment.

But other experts disagree. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Tufts Medical Center and Tufts Childrens Hospital, said theres not enough evidence to suggest that masks actually protect children from the virus, or to conclude that masks do not have detrimental effects on childrens development.

For children, inability to see a teacher who smiles, who expresses approval or whos disappointed in an answer that a student gives in the classroom  thats important. Thats how we all learn. We need to see facial expressions.

Theres a cost to wearing masks, added Meissner, and at this stage in the pandemic, its pretty clear that theres no benefit.

Many of the experts are concerned about other impacts that the pandemic may be having on childrens development.

Any drawback of mask wearing is totally miniscule compared to the mental and emotional impacts of staying home and studying virtually, Lee said.

Im more worried about the school disruption and social isolation that came from quarantine, Ruba said.

Shes also worried about children getting the virus as they head back to school.

COVID-19 is a novel virus that we understand very little about, Ruba said. Though statistics show children are less likely to suffer severe symptoms, she noted that the long-term effects are still unknown. Getting COVID is going to be much more harmful for a childs development than having to wear a mask, she added.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends universal indoor masking regardless of vaccination status at K-12 schools, and urges all eligible schoolteachers, staff and students to get vaccinated. All individuals over the age of 2 should practice consistent and correct mask use indoors  and those who are not fully vaccinated should also mask up in outdoor crowds. The CDC says the guidance applies regardless of transmission rates in the area.

The N95 and KN95 respirator masks now suggested for adults have yet to be tested for childrens use, so the CDC recommends that children wear masks with two or more layers that cover the nose and mouth, fitting against the face without gaps. The mask should be snug and comfortable so that the child doesnt wear it incorrectly or remove it frequently, and children under 2 years shouldnt wear masks.

Julia Mueller is a reporter for Medill News Service.
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ALBANY  State Senate district lines in the Capital Region could dramatically change to leave the area represented almost exclusively by Democrats, if proposals by the Democratic-led Legislature are approved this week and survive any potential court challenges.

The changes would include moving the town of Halfmoon in Saratoga County into a new district. That would mean state Sen. Daphne Jordan would no longer reside in her district  which would see the most significant changes and now include Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Springs; those municipalities had previously been in separate Senate districts.

The new district would lean Democratic, according to data from the City University of New York Graduate Center; currently, Schenectady and Saratoga Springs are in Republican-held districts. If Jordan chooses to not run in that new district, it would leave the seat completely open.

Albany politicians have now shamefully and repeatedly ignored the will of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who wanted an independent redistricting process," Katy Degaldo, spokeswoman for the Senate Minority Conference, said in a statement. "Regardless of what the district lines look like in November, Sen. Jordan will continue to represent the best interests of all New Yorkers as she has since taking office in 2019.

The Senate and Assembly political lines released by the Legislature Tuesday follow proposed congressional lines it released late Sunday night, which also give Democrats major advantages both locally and in Congress. Included in the changes is moving the city of Rensselaer into the 19th congressional district, represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, who faces a challenge from former Republican gubernatorial nominee and Dutchess County Executive, Marc Molinaro.

The political lines the state has operated under the last decade were drawn by the Republican-led Senate after the partisan-split Legislature could not agree on a set of maps in 2012. The congressional lines were drawn by a judge.

The maps were crafted privately by lawmakers after the state's Independent Redistricting Commission, a bipartisan group created by the Legislature in 2014, failed to deliver an agreed upon set of maps to lawmakers for their approval. The process that followed has not only been slammed by Republicans, who were left out of the conversation, but also good government and nonpartisan groups.

The League of Women Voters of New York State, which heavily participated in public hearings held by the commission, said that New Yorkers had been "completely shut out" by lawmakers who "disrespected the process."

"Partisan gerrymandering is banned under the state constitutional amendment passed in 2014, yet the maps released ... reflect a Legislature that appears to care more about favoring partisan interests than it does for fair maps," Laura Ladd Bierman, executive director of the league, said in a statement Tuesday.

The retooled Senate boundaries would keep 63 seats in that chamber, but add two New York City-based districts, where the state saw population growth at a time when the rest of New York was losing population at higher rates than most other states.

Republicans have made a central point this year to reverse population trends, especially for people relocating from areas of upstate and New York City's suburbs to Republican-led states like Florida and Texas.

Capital Region changes

The Albany-based 44th Senate district, represented by Sen. Neil D. Breslin, would remain mostly intact. It would lose the city of Troy but stretch further south. It would become slightly less Democratic.

The new 43rd district, currently represented by Jordan, who is a former Halfmoon Town Board member, would stretch from Hoosick Falls to Poughkeepsie. It would lean Democratic, based on presidential voting in 2020. It would have voted for President Joe Biden with 52 percent of its vote.

Halmoon, where Jordan resides, would be in the new 46th district that leans firmly Democratic.

Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, is the lone state Democratic lawmaker who resides within the new district. She told the Times Union she does not have an interest in running for that Senate seat.

A candidate could run for a district that does not include their municipal residence, but does include at least part of their county of residence. They would then need to move into the district within a year of the election.

The new 48th district would account for much of what Democratic Sen. Michelle Hinchey, of Saugerties, represents in the 46th district. It reaches from Altamont in Albany County to New Paltz and covers the Catskills on both sides of the Hudson River. It would be more firmly Democratic than the district Hinchey represents. Previously, Hinchey represented Amsterdam.

Scotia, Amsterdam and Schoharie would be drawn into a new 51st district that would be firmly Republican, with 59 percent of its vote going to former President Donald J. Trump. The district would reach into Herkimer County, span Cooperstown and stretch to Chenango County, stopping short of Cortland and Binghamton.

Sen. James Tedisco, R-Glenville, would live within the new, Republican-leaning 51st district. Previously, Tedisco represented Schenectady, Ballston Spa and Scotia.

A North County district including Lake George would extend into Stillwater and Galway in Saratoga County, while circling around the city centers. It would lean Republican, with 54 percent of its vote supporting Trump in 2020. The district would also include Lake Placid, Plattsburgh and Champlain.

Assembly changes

On the Assembly side, the immediate Capital Region boundaries will remain relatively intact.

The 109th district of Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, would now represent all of Albany. Previously the city, which has a substantial minority population, was divided in its representation. Downtown was represented in the 108th district, where Assemblyman John McDonald has the post.

McDonald's district now includes all of Troy and East Greenbush.

Parts of Schenectady are no longer within the 110th district. Previously, like Albany, the city was split between two representatives. The 110th district, represented by Assemblyman Phil Steck, D-Colonie, would now include the eastern side of Guilderland. It retains Niskayuna and the Schenectady Municipal Golf Course.

The 111th district, with all of the city of Schenectady, would now lean Democratic. It is currently represented by Rotterdam Democratic Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara.

Delmar would be folded into a far-reaching 107th district, which would include parts of Washington County, Hoosick Falls, Kinderhook and Chatham. It would represent most of rural Rensselaer County. The district is currently represented by Assemblyman Jake Ashby, R-Castleton. The district would become modestly more Democratic.

In rural Albany County, the 102nd district, represented by Assemblyman Chris Tague, R-Schoharie, would lose Saugerties but pick up Cooperstown.

In Saratoga County, the 112th district, represented by Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, R-Ballston, would lose Scotia but gain Broadalbin in Fulton County. It would lose Greenfield.

The 113th district, represented by Woerner, would shrink a bit. Saratoga Springs was one of the few areas upstate that gained substantial population. That district would lose Salem and parts of Greenwich, but gain Glens Falls.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the political party of Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara. He is a Democrat.
Provided photo

ALBANY  On Feb. 1, Belt Line 3 and its general manager, Emmanuel Treski, will launch a cocktail competition, to be held in conjunction with its Industry Night promotion for those in the restaurant business, starting at 8 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month.

Bartenders from Waterworks Pub and Savoy Taproom, both in Albany, will be given a basket with mystery ingredients that must be incorporated into a cocktail, to be made in 15 minutes. Judges for the inaugural event will be Joe Armstrong of the beverage distributor Winebow, Renee Gary Matthews of Pint Sized/Little Deb's Cafe and product designer Michael Lo Sauro. The winning bartender will receive a gift card to The Point Italian Kitchen and Cocktails in Albany.
Tonight a neighborhood ruckus turned serious as a gunman stalked the urban core and nearby residents pleaded for help.



A quick description of events . . .



"He was shot in the hand during a confrontation near east 29th street and Wayne Avenue. Officers responded to scene on reports of a man who was pointing a gun at neighbors. When they arrived, the man allegedly shot at officers. They then returned fire striking the man in the hand. No officers were injured in the incident."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .

KCPD: Officers shoot, wound man who opened fire on police Monday evening Authorities are investigating a shooting Monday evening involving Kansas City, Missouri police officers near Troost Lake at 29th Street and The Paseo.Police told KMBC 9 News that a man was wounded in the hand. No officers were hurt.Authorities said that at 5:41 p.m., police were called to the area on a disturbance involving an intoxicated man.Investigators said he was allegedly pointing a gun at people.

1 injured in officer-involved shooting in KCMO KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- An investigation is underway following an officer-involved shooting in Kansas City, Missouri. According to the Kansas City Police Department, the shooting happened near Troost Lake in the area of 29th and The Paseo. One person, a male, was shot. He was taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

Investigation underway after Kansas City police shoot man Monday evening KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A man suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being shot by Kansas City, Missouri, police on Monday evening. He was shot in the hand during a confrontation near east 29th street and Wayne Avenue. Officers responded to scene on reports of a man who was pointing a gun at neighbors.

Developing . . .
I offer you a series on Hollywood as seen by its artists, on the occasion of the impending Oscars. I dont mean the dominant liberal arrogance that has doomed cinema, but rather the efforts of artists who have spent their careers trying to advance a view of America that might bring us together, or at least help prevent us coming apart, the concern of all decent people who have influence.

I start with Wes Anderson, than whom no artist is taken less seriously when it comes to reflections on politics and society. He makes comedies, and we are prejudiced against comedy, as the people have always been. Worse still for him, Anderson crafts animations, the most despised genre when it comes to serious thought.

Anderson, however, has a rare prestige as an artist who beautifies the past and therefore his actors. The cast of the movie is said to have 11 Oscars among them, the crew another eight. His movies won them some of those awards, yet he has never won an Oscar himself, after seven nominations. Hollywood wants to be in his movies, yet Hollywood has never rewarded him, a paradox that shows how bad liberal elites are at bestowing honors.

Andersons latest, his 10th feature film, The French Dispatch, is accordingly one of the few movies likely to win important Oscars actually to deserve the honor. Its a three-part look at the midcentury American fascination with France, which after World War II became the image of sophistication, intellectually, artistically, and in a way even politically, especially for liberals. Anderson seems himself to be the kind of liberal who fell in love with that midcentury American longing for prestige, in this case the prestige magazines that tried to introduce France to Americans in the generation before his.

Nostalgia is very much on directors minds these days, as my series of essays will show, but in this case its remarkable as much for artistic reasons as for the thought it suggests. The comedic conceit of The French Dispatch is that an American heir to a business fortune (Bill Murray) fell in love with France after a youthful visit and decided to start a magazine that would employ American writers (Owen Wilson, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright) to cover France for an American audience. Thus, Francophilia helps Americans improve themselves, or at least lets out the inner Frenchman waiting in the bosoms of some Americans; saved from commercial imperatives, these writers can become artists. On the editors death, perhaps in our times, these writers gather to put together one last issue in his honor and, according to his instructions, reprint three essays, which in turn become the movie we see. As for the conceit itself, it adds every possible dignity to nostalgia by turning it into a remembrance of a dead man while raising the question, since his entire enterprise is now over, is there anything more to it than the passion that must expire with the man? After all, isnt he very ridiculousare not France and America as different and blind to each other as ever?

Still, the conceit allows Anderson to film as he wishes us to believe people imagined those Francophile stories. He aims to capture a past when people aimed for beauty and even elegance, not glamour, not vulgarity; or if not beauty, then at least authenticity of expressionstyle. Andersons style is called aestheticized by people who like it and twee by people who dont; its not realisticoften a series of living tableauxits not serious, and it doesnt seem therefore to live up to the political requirements of liberal art. Nor is it Progressive or woke, and, of course, it doesnt center the experiences of BIPOCs, in the vulgar language elites now embrace. The style seems almost reactionary in its embrace of a past when being cultured was prized perhaps as much as being an activist.

It were better to say that Andersons style insists on the combination of the prosaic and the idealistic in the middlebrow art par excellencecinema. He wishes to show us a kind of love of grandeur, not grandeur itself, which maybe escapes us. Love of grandeur or longing for it is not grandeurit is comparatively laughable, and really ridiculous, because it points out that we are trying to be much more than we are, that our love of beauty may be boasting. Nor is Anderson a satirist by trade, since he lacks the cruelty and the moral commitments; he laughs gently at our longing for a chic past, since he shares our weakness.

Still, he shows grave things in a whimsical light, and the view he offers of Francophile elitism is unflattering. The first story concerns a mad French murderer who is also an artist (Benicio del Toro). Justice is not so important to people looking for what is called an epiphany nowadaysan experience that confirms ones personal, private claim to human or cosmic greatness. So the entire story is about a silly purveyor of art (Adrien Brody and his uncles, Henry Winkler and Bob Balaban) who makes the murderer into an international celebrity in the liberal art world, because the madness (his paintings are abstractions that look nothing like their nude model, played by Lea Seydoux, one of the artists prison guards) looks very fascinating to people who feel too respectable to ever commit crimes themselves. Perhaps crime is even better than justice, more authentic, less conformist, less impersonal, and perhaps cosmically justified. I suppose in a sense they are right that the murderer is more human than they are: They act as though life, especially horror, is a spectacle for them. But it all ends with this absurd pretension being taught in an art school by a depleted survivor of that age of enthusiasm (Tilda Swinton), to an audience that cannot make head or tails of what theyre hearing and seeing. I guess you had to be there.

If this sounds moralistic, or even conservative, I should correct the mistakeAnderson is a liberal and temperamentally unable to express outrage. He lets the audience judge. Is it right to celebrate an artist and look for his redemption from crime? Does it matter that his art is sentimental, brutal, and mediocre? Or is that desire to turn crime into celebrity not such a humanitarian impulse but what our vulgar liberal elites would call fetishization? Or perhaps right does not even matterits not what elites want, but instead they want something better even than beautyauthentic sufferingsomething to disturb them from conventional lives they can neither escape nor believe in.

The second French dispatch again shows how crime might be preferred to justicea comic rendering of the May 1968 riots. This famous show of class contempt saw bored students behave like savages, expecting that they would get away with it. That was the moment liberalism officially collapsed, as the claims of Enlightenment were replaced by halfhearted attempts at tyrannic violence in the university, the very temple of enlightenment, lightly disguised as principled political transformation. Of course, such student protests happened in America, too, and were similarly politicized, whether to do with Vietnam or civil rights, but for the most part were merely the arrogant contempt of kids for adults who indeed proved fastidious cowards.

France, however, is different: Artists and intellectuals count there in a way they dont in America. Its ideal for such elite fantasies, therefore. Business counts much more in America, but also popular taste. And, too, America had a much sounder political basis, whereas in France the republic was younger than the protesters, and it was the fifth, so it seemed possible to make a sixth. The allure of power was part of the madness.

Anderson shows the students frivolity: Led by Zeffirelli (Timothee Chalamet) and Juliette (Lyna Khoudri), they rebel when moralistic authorities want to ban boys from the girls dormitories, as well as because the boys face the military draft. But Anderson does not condemn their ugliness, their ignorance, ingratitude, and threatened violence. He takes it as his rule to exclude the really ugly things in life and present even dangerous things like murder and revolution from the point of view of the aspiring elites who try to use them both as an oracle of democracy and a cause for activism, speechifying, and self-importance. Chalamet even becomes a Che Guevara T-shirt figure, which offends the left because he is obviously silly, and offends the right who remembers that Che was a brutal murderer. This cinematic point of view is abstract, apolitical, typical of our times. Our elites have long behaved as Anderson shows them, pretending that events are not political but their interpretation is, and whoever interprets them best should rulethemselves. Wars are fought with words, the better to let cowards escape real consequences.

Anderson wants to remember that midcentury liberalism for its aspirations, to see these elites as they saw themselves to the extent possible, but he is not a liar, so he mocks as gently as possible their cluelessness. What passed for sophistication was mostly confusion; what was worthwhile intellectually or artistically did not come from revolutionary impulses, but died by themit came from older intellectual traditions, which indeed had a home in France much more than in America. The third story, which I can only introduce here, deals with this problem by introducting an American intellectual patterned on James Baldwin, who parades on TV his erudition and eccentric knowledge of the French scene. Hes called Roebuck Wright, reminding us of Sears Roebuck and of Richard Wright, the author of Native Son, who fled America for France. His subject is a French policeman called Nescoffier (Stephen Park), a mix of Nescafe and the great French chef Escoffier. It seems the moral drama of America, the race problem, and the grandeur of French culture are both inevitably mixed with commerce. This is in a way debasement, but it makes it possible to go on with life.

If you allow comedy to lessen the importance of justice, the movie is enjoyable and, in looking frivolous, reveals the abstract lives people then led; many do likewise now. If the movie seems like it depicts a cartoon life, that doesnt mean it isnt true. The fantasies have changed, but people are no more grounded and serious now. In fact, our elites take themselves as seriously as do the silly people in the movie.
We notice that local news reports resistance from the public over a new public official but doesn't bother to ask critics why they object to a new appointment.



Remember that we noted local news reports of opposition that offered concern against student health test passport tech.



And whilst the new health honcho opposes mandates, his opinion on vaccines contradicts a great deal of social media chatter . .



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .
Let's take a peek at two classy local dudes and their upscale digs that might or might not be killing your grandmother when she checks out her property tax bill . . .



"Primarily white with graphic black accents, the rooms are enhanced with the sparkle of Baccarat crystal, while the dark-stained floors anchor the spaces. The clean lines of the living room upholstery are accented with the gleam of chrome. The company of the glossy black Philippe Starck Ghost chair with a Fornasetti pillow and the Eileen Gray table add classic modern elements. A Baccarat crystal candelabra provides additional sparkle."

Sadly, that elegant description is likely lost on the scumbags and author of this snarky local blog. However, in much the same way we admire the legacy of hottie Jordan, for just a moment we wanted to aspire to something sophisticated . . . Or at least harmlessly dream of befouling the cowtown good life by our mere presence.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Let's start this post with a noteworthy legal gambit that might inspire change from some of this town's most dangerous locations.



Check the warning and a reminder that commercial property law has always been an underrated driver of the local economy . . .



"Gas station owners, like all other commercial property owners, have a legal responsibility to offer a safe environment for patrons and staff on the property. It is crucial for the owners to implement adequate safety measures, such as strong lighting and security cameras throughout the premises. If a gas station owner fails to provide a sufficient level of safety measures at the time of a violent crime, such as a shooting, they could be liable based on negligence."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Attorney Commentary | One Killed in Fatal Shooting at Missouri Gas Station The Kansas City Star has reported that a shooting took place at the BP gas station located at 3027 Van Brunt Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64128. On Thursday, January 27, 2022, at around 6:15 p.m., police responded to a shooting at the East Side gas station.

Further reading includes a roundup of crime stories around the metro and, finally, a bit of hope at the conclusion . . .

KC man charged in September fatal shooting KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City man has been charged in the fatal shooting of Wyshaud Smith that occurred in September 2021. Corey Marrett, 24, faces second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action charges.

Suspect in custody in connection with Amtrak shooting in Jackson County LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -The Lee's Summit Police Department arrested a person they believe is connected to a homicide aboard an Amtrak train in January. Detectives contacted officers with the Kansas City Police Department to check an apartment in the 1600 block of Bushman Drive on Monday.

Raytown police investigating overnight QuikTrip robbery KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Raytown Police Department is investigating a robbery at the QuikTrip in the 8700 block of East 63rd Street. Police say a man wearing a black facemask, black hooded sweatshirt and green shorts entered the store with a handgun and demanded money at around 1:50 a.m.

Man who encouraged book ban for sexual content arrested for child molestation A man who spoke out against sexual content in literature in a Missouri school district has been arrested for multiple charges, including child molestation. Court records show that felony charges were filed December 14 against Ryan Utterback, 29, of Gladstone, in the Seventh Circuit Court in Clay County, Missouri.

Kansas City man charged with shooting woman, stealing purse in Belleville In a Facebook post, the Belleville Police Department said they worked with state, local and federal agencies in Missouri and Illinois to locate and arrest the man. BELLEVILLE, Ill. - A Kansas City, Missouri, man was charged with multiple felonies in connection with a West Belleville armed robbery and shooting that left a woman shot in the head earlier this month.

Independence apartment complex shooting turns fatal, victim identified as 38-year-old Police lights (file photo) SOURCE: KMBC The Independence, Missouri Police Department says a man died over the weekend several days after a shooting at an Independence apartment complex.Officers were originally called to the scene of a shooting around 10:30 a.m.

Iowa considering gun law that Missouri authorities say has made stopping violent crime more complicated A bill under consideration by the Iowa legislature that would penalize local police for enforcing federal gun laws has the backing of a Second Amendment absolutist who thinks the NRA is too soft on gun rights. Aaron Dorr, a lobbyist for Iowa Gun Owners, has visited with Iowa state Rep.

'Best visiting fans': KC police praise Bengals fans. CPD reports no issues Police in both Cincinnati and Kansas City reported few issues with Bengals fans following Sunday's historic win against the Chiefs. Cincinnati police Capt. Doug Weisman said his officers in and around the Banks mostly witnessed mass celebration paired with a cacophony of horn honking. "There were no major incidents requiring police intervention," Weisman said.

Developing . . .
Michael Fanone, the former Washington DC police officer who was attacked and injured by the Capitol rioters, perfectly described Donald Trump as "America's crazy ex."

In a conversation with Anderson Cooper, the CNN host asked Fanone what he thought about Trump's dangerous comments at a Texas rally on Saturday where he encouraged his followers to hold "the biggest protests we've ever had" in places the ex-reality show host is being investigated.

Fanone, who worked as a DC officer for 20 years, warned that Trump's mob has "already proven, like they did on January 6, that they are willing to commit violence on his behalf."

And then for the gallows humor punchline: "There is just no bottom to what it is he's willing to say. He's like America's crazy ex. And he's just decided that if he can't have us, no one can."

Followed by the stark red flag more people should be paying attention to: "He's going to tear apart democracy and our country if he can't get reelected." Of course, if he does get reelected, this statement still applies.
Terre Haute, IN (47803)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain in the afternoon. High 62F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain. Thunder possible. Low 58F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
National Campaign to Strengthen Marriages Starts February 7th

NEWS PROVIDED BYFeb. 1, 2022NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2022 / Standard Newswire / -- National Marriage Week USA, a national movement to boost marriage rates and invest in marriages, today announced the launch of their 2022 campaign, which will run February 7-14th. Confronting the continued pressure placed on relationships by the pandemic, National Marriage Week is calling upon organizations and individuals around the country to strengthen local marriages through grassroots efforts.Led by National Marriage Week's new executive director, Erin Stevens, this year's campaign combines a public education component, which promotes the beneficial impact of marriage in reducing poverty and improving outcomes for children, with grassroots marriage-strengthening events in local communities across the United States. Serving as a national clearinghouse for marriage events, National Marriage Week will direct couples to resources and opportunities to invest in and nourish their relationships.Recent statistics show this is a critical time for the marriage-building movement. The decline in marriage rates to an all-time low, coupled with a rise in cohabitation, means that Americans are missing out on many of the substantial benefits of marriage. We are making progress as reflected in the falling divorce rate and the reversal of the decades-long rise in nonmarital childbearing, so we need to keep the movement going. National Marriage Week exists to spread the word that marriage is worth it: for both the health of adults and the wellbeing of children.Research demonstrates that marriage is one of the best ways to increase happiness, decrease child poverty, and improve outcomes for children. Children raised in a two-parent home are 82% less likely to experience child poverty, addiction, trouble with the law, and teen pregnancy. Additionally, married adults are twice as likely to identify as "very happy" compared to divorced or never-married adults."Even though our society doesn't always recognize it, marriage is extremely beneficial," said NMW USA Executive Director Erin Stevens. "Creating and maintaining a strong marriage takes hard work, but it is worth the investment. We have loaded our website, marriageweek.org , with tools and opportunities from the best marriage-building organizations in the country."National Marriage Week USA released a toolkit with a list of trusted and proven resources for struggling marriages, a national calendar of marriage-bolstering events, and ideas for how to promote marriage in the local community."We invite marriage advocates to join us in spreading the word this February," said Stevens. "Together, we can transform families and continue making progress toward creating a culture that recognizes the necessity of healthy marriages for a healthy society."For a complete list of resources to strengthen marriages in your community, visit www.MarriageWeek.org SOURCE National Marriage WeekCONTACT: Erin Stevens, erin@marriageweek.org
Fifty years ago yesterday, British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in Northern Ireland, killing 14 of them. Six of the dead on Bloody Sunday were minors. The soldiers killed people trying to help the wounded. They beat the survivors.

Here's how the New York Times reported this in 1972:

Here's how the New York Times reports it in 2022:

Implying that the Catholic victims of the massacre were rioters was unfairthe soldiers shot peaceful marchersbut the Times of 1972 was basically forthright and clear about what happened in Derry: British soldiers killed civilians.

The Times' headline of 2022, though, doesn't use the word kill at all, instead referring obliquely to lives taken by gunfire. The retreat into vague language, metaphorical to the point of malaproprism (unfolding gunfire?), is another example of the "exonerative voice" used widely in U.S. media to describe official misconduct without clearly describing who did it. In reference to a 50-year-old street massacre in another country, the borderline gibberish forms out of absurd habita habit that shows one stark difference between the reportage of then and now.
TRUMBULL  One would think that after spending roughly 24 hours riding on a Peloton bike, Jim McCaffrey would be achy, exhausted and in need of massive recovery.

But on Monday, McCaffrey, 41, of Trumbull felt strong, even though he rode on his bike from Saturday morning to Sunday morning, nonstop save a few bathroom breaks and clothing changes.

Im going to go for a run today, McCaffrey, a Trumbull High School English teacher, said Monday afternoon.

After all, he had been riding for a good cause.

McCaffrey is vice president of Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer  a New Jersey-based charity that raises money for research into pediatric cancer. He got involved with the group not long after losing his 6-year-old daughter Mia to a rare form of cancer in 2017.

His grueling weekend Peloton ride was for Infinite Loves second-ever Pedal-Thon, a Peloton-themed fundraiser. The 24-hour event allows people to sign up to donate and ride their Peloton bikes for any portion of the fundraiser to help support the charity. People can also donate without riding.

The goal of this years ride was to raise $100,000 for childhood cancer research. As of Monday afternoon, McCaffrey said, at least $87,000 had been donated and donations continue to be accepted. He said more than 218 people registered for the event.

According to the Infinite Love website, childhood cancer only receives 4 percent of the National Cancer Institutes annual research budget and only three new drugs had been developed for any types of childhood cancer in the past 25 years.

Given how long he rode, McCaffrey said, some of the experience is a little blurry to him, but hes thrilled with the response.

It was an emotional experience, he said. For me, its always cathartic.

To donate to Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer and the Pedal-Thon, visit https://www.infiniteloveforkidsfightingcancer.org/pedal-thon.html
TRUMBULL  Two classes at Frenchtown Elementary School recently received thanks and gratitude for their efforts to send some love to area veterans by two well-known visitors, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes and former Trumbull First Selectman Raymond Baldwin.

On Friday, the two visited Michelle Cretellas third grade class and Matia Bertis fourth grade class. Both classes participated in the 11th Annual Valentines for Vets initiative, in which Himes and his staff collect hundreds of valentines from local students and distribute them to veterans.
Built mere steps from the site of a bridge that enabled many enslaved Blacks to escape the United States before the Civil War, the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center offers an up-close look at one of American history's most dramatic stories.

Photos: Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center The Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center tells the story of how Niagara Falls was a key and final stop on the Underground Railro

Each February, the center offers an extensive lineup of Black History Month programs, but as visitor experience specialist Kiara Santiago put it, "Here at the Heritage Center, we greatly believe that Black History Month is every month."

The interactive Heritage Center includes the permanent exhibition, "One More River to Cross," with stories of the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls  the name given to a loose network of citizens who smuggled escapees from the South to Canada  including the important roles played by its location, geography and residents.

Ways to celebrate Black History Month in Buffalo Here are some in-person and virtual events taking place locally in honor of Black History Month.

The attraction has drawn some 40,000 visitors since it opened in 2018, Director of Operations Evan Wright said. But some may find it hard to locate. There's no curbside signage identifying the Heritage Center, which shares a building with the Niagara Falls Amtrak station at Main Street and Depot Avenue.

The site is the renovated former U.S. Custom House, erected in 1863 at the American end of the Suspension Bridge, which carried a railroad over the Niagara River to Canada.

Today's Whirlpool Rapids Bridge is built on the same site, but the supports for the original bridge were incorporated into the structure of the adjoining International Railroad Bridge.

Before the bridge was built in 1848, fugitives had to find someone to row them across the river below the falls. The crossing took eight minutes  if all went well.

A covered footbridge, which ran beneath the railroad tracks on the Suspension Bridge, was the route that many escapees used to enter Canada, where slavery had been abolished and the law conferred freedom on any slave who could make it across the border.

The work became more dangerous after 1850, when President Millard Fillmore of Buffalo signed the Fugitive Slave Law that put federal power, led by U.S. marshals, behind the hunt for escapees.

The Heritage Center features a video on the 1853 capture of an escapee in Niagara Falls, narrated by Keith David, the voiceover master familiar from many Ken Burns PBS documentaries.

The capture occurred in the Cataract House, an elite Niagara Falls hotel with a largely Black staff, whose white owners didn't object to their employees' constant efforts to facilitate the escape of slaves brought along by vacationing Southerners.

"The waiters were secret superheroes," Santiago said.

She said the Cataract House display is one of the exhibits that seem to resonate most with visitors. The other is the Escape Gallery, which contains a full-sized model of the Suspension Bridge entrance and tollbooth.

"The floor is wooden just like the bridge originally was, so it's really an experience that feels what that felt like for freedom seekers," Santiago said.

The Heritage Center was a must for Careneisha and Deveione Ricard of Denham Springs, La., on their winter vacation to Niagara Falls and Ellicottville.

"I want to see something that has history, so when I saw Niagara Falls has the Underground Railroad Center, I was like, 'Let's go to that,' " Careneisha Ricard said.

"I'd love to see this in Buffalo, actually," said Diane Wray of Buffalo, another visitor last week.

The federally funded Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, part of the National Park Service, helps administer the nonprofit Heritage Center.

"We are tasked with telling the Underground Railroad story throughout Niagara County," said Sara Capen, the Heritage Area's executive director.

INFO

625 Depot Ave. W., Niagara Falls

Hours: Winter hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. From May to November, Tuesday and Wednesday openings are added. Visitors may peruse the exhibits on their own or take a guided tour, offered at the bottom of each hour.

Admission: $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, students and veterans, and $6 for children ages 6 to 12. Face masks are required.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENTS

The Heritage Center is hosting a variety of events both at the center and throughout the community. For the full list and to register, visit the Events page on its website or call 716-300-8477.

The Freedom Conversation Tours, usually held at 12:30 p.m. Thursdays, is expanded for Black History Month and will be held at 12:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday through February.

African Drumming and Dancing Community Event, held in conjunction with the Packard Court Community Center, is at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 3 and 17.

"Black Visions" and "Alma Thomas & Me," for ages 8 to 12, are a collaboration with Explore & More Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Children's Museum (130 Main St.). The educational events will be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at both locations.

"History in WNY's Backyard," is a virtual event held in collaboration with Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor, from 4 to 6:15 p.m. Feb. 26. The virtual experience includes the Nash House, Michigan Street Baptist Church, Colored Musicians Club and WUFO Mix 1080AM. Cost is $20.

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Another plane with U.S. military assistance has arrived in Kyiv, delivering 84 tonnes of small arms ammunition for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The day hasnt passed yet and were unloading the 6th bird from our friends from the United States! 84 tons of ammunition arrived in Kyiv! In total, for today weve received about 500 tons of defense equipment from the United States! And this isnt the end, Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov posted on Twitter.

The United States prefers the path of diplomacy but will continue to provide Ukraine the defensive assistance needed to defend against Russia.

We vastly prefer the path of dialogue and diplomacy, but we will continue to provide Ukraine the defensive assistance needed to defend against Russia's massive military force assembled on its borders. We #StandWithUkraine, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine posted on Twitter.

Since the end of October, Russia has been amassing troops near Ukraine's borders. Western media reported, citing sources, that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could take place in early 2022, involving about 175,000 Russian troops.

In this regard, the United States, Britain and other international partners provide Ukraine with defensive weapons. In particular, anti-tank weapons from Great Britain arrived in Ukraine on January 18.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to draw up a bill introducing a model of intensive military training system as a possible alternative form of fixed-term service and abolishing conscription of Ukrainian citizens from January 1, 2024.

According to Ukrinform, this is stated in Decree No. 36/2022 "On priority measures to strengthen the defense capabilities of the state, increase the attractiveness of military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the gradual transition to a professional army," published on the website of the head of state on February 1.

According to the decree, the government has been tasked with taking measures to unconditionally comply with the requirements of Article 35 of the Law of Ukraine "On National Security of Ukraine" during the formation of the Budget Declaration for 2023-2025.

The Cabinet of Ministers should ensure the preparation and submission to the Verkhovna Rada of bills on the introduction of amendments to the law of Ukraine "On Ukraine's state budget for 2022," providing funding for a gradual increase in the salaries of service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the level specified by a presidential decree of December 30, 2021, No. 688/2021, "On additional measures to ensure social guarantees for service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine"; a gradual increase in the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the period from 2022 to 2025 by 100,000 people to step up the defense capabilities of the state, as well as the introduction of a model of intensive military training system as a possible alternative form of conscription and the abolishment of conscription of Ukrainian citizens from January 1, 2024.

In addition, the Ministry of Defense has been instructed to develop a concept for a gradual transition to the formation of the Armed Forces on a professional basis.

The Ministry of Defense should accelerate the development and submission to the Cabinet of Ministers of a draft strategy for providing housing for service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their families by envisaging the introduction of a special savings program for service members to obtain their own housing.

The implementation of a transparent system of career growth of service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, based on a rating assessment, should also be ensured during the implementation of the military personnel policy.

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Ukraine and Poland have agreed on lifting restrictions on the transit of freight cars through Ukraine to Poland by rail as soon as possible.

The relevant decision was approved at a meeting of the delegations of Ukraine and Poland at the Ukrainian Presidents Office, Ukrinform reports, referring to the presidents press service.

On January 31, 2022, on the initiative of President Volodymyr Zelensky and President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda, the meeting between Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov and Minister of Infrastructure of Poland Andrzej Adamczyk was held in the presence of Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the President of Poland, Head of the Bureau for International Policy Jakub Kumoch, the report says.

Following the meeting, the text of the Joint Statement was approved. In particular, the parties agreed to lift restrictions on the transit of freight cars through Ukraine to Poland by rail as soon as possible.

By February 4, 2022, the Ukrainian side will inform the Polish side about the specific dates for the resumption of transit of freight cars through the territory of Ukraine, the document says.

In addition, the parties agreed to significantly increase the number of permits for international freight transportation, considering the needs of Ukrainian and Polish road carriers.

By February 5, 2022, the parties must agree on the date of the meeting of the Joint Commission on International Road Transport, which should agree on the timing of transfer and the number of additional permits for international freight transportation, the document says.

The parties also agreed to develop a joint action plan aimed at significantly improving the efficiency of international road checkpoints of the Republic of Poland and Ukraine. The relevant action plan must be agreed with the participation of representatives of customs, border and other services of Poland and Ukraine no later than the end of February 2022.

The parties also noted the interest of Polish oil and gas companies PGNiG and PKN Orlen in investing in the Ukrainian oil and gas sector and agreed to facilitate their cooperation with NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine in this direction. For its part, KGHM has expressed its readiness to start negotiations on the joint development of non-ferrous metal deposits, according to the presidents press service.

As Ukrinform reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was on an official visit to Poland on January 20-21.
A free trade agreement between Ukraine and Turkey is expected to be signed within days.

Thats according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, who spoke at the opening of the seventh session of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, February 1, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We provide guarantees of financial stability for our country. We are preparing to send a strong economic signal  to sign within these two days the Free Trade Agreement with Turkey. Our groups are working so I'm sure we will agree on everything," said the President.

Read also: PM Shmyhal looks forward to productive dialogue with Canada on expanding FTA

As Ukrinform reported, the prime ministers of Poland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom will arrive in Kyiv on February 1-2.

Also this week, the President of Turkey is expected to visit Ukraine.

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On Tuesday, February 1, Ukraine started physical imports of gas from Hungary for the first time, Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) CEO Sergiy Makogon wrote on Facebook.

"Today, Ukraine has begun physical import of gas from Hungary for the first time ever. Prior to his, the GTS system had operated only in the direction from Ukraine to Hungary. Due to the implemented technical measures, it became possible to transport gas in both directions," Makogon wrote.

He noted that the Hungarian route became the second guaranteed gas supply route to Ukraine after Slovakia, including in case of the absence of transit.

According to Makogon, the opening of this direction will also create new opportunities for traders to organize liquefied natural gas supplies to Ukraine from an LNG terminal in Croatia.

As previously reported, Gas TSO of Ukraine and the Hungarian operator FGSZ agreed to extend the guaranteed capacity for natural gas transportation from Hungary to Ukraine until September 30, 2022. The agreement between GTSOU and FGSZ allows Ukraine to physically import up to 8 million cubic meters of natural gas per day (2.9 billion cubic meters per year). Together with the available 27 million cubic meters of daily capacity from Slovakia, this will increase total guaranteed capacities for gas imports to Ukraine to 35 million cubic meters per day.

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The entire civilized world, including Germany, must make every effort to prevent the use of Nord Stream 2 as a hybrid energy weapon against Ukraine and the European Union.

"Amid increasing escalation, possible aggression, which we have been facing for eight years, we expect responsible attitude from our German partners, in particular.

Of course, we do not expect the exchange of security issues for economic issues We consider Nord Stream 2 to be a hybrid energy weapon of Russia and call on the entire civilized world, our German partners, to take all possible measures to prevent the use of this hybrid weapon against Ukraine, Poland, the European Union," Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal made a corresponding statement after announcing a joint press statement with Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He added that the risks of using such hybrid weapons were clear to everyone, including most countries. And "it is necessary that Germany has a responsible attitude."

Ukraine has been facing Russian aggression and almost daily hybrid attacks in the form of cyberattacks, internal destabilization, and economic destabilization, has its territories occupied for eight years now, the PM noted.

At the same time, the Ukrainian army is a reliable shield for Ukrainian society and for Europe, Ukraine's partners, the Head of Government stressed.

In addition, Shmyhal thanked Poland for its repeated support of Ukraine and stressed that during the conversation with Morawiecki, they discussed primarily diplomatic ways to resolve the escalation on the part of Russia.

In turn, Polands PM stated that it was impossible to express solidarity with Ukraine with one hand and sign the certification documents for Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with the other.

"Dear partners, it is impossible to express solidarity with Ukraine with one hand and to sign Nord Stream 2 certification documents with the other hand. That's not right," he said, calling the pipeline a geopolitical threat.

The heads of government of Poland and Ukraine also jointly appealed to Germany not to launch the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Otherwise, it would become an element of Russias blackmail against Europe.

As reported, Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki arrived in Kyiv on February 1. This is his first visit to Ukraine at the post of Prime Minister, which he has held since December 2017. Last autumn, the prime ministers of Ukraine and Poland met at the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland.

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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the priority areas of cooperation and the security situation around Ukraine with Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis.

The President thanked for the European Unions financial support for Ukraine, in particular for the new program of macro-financial assistance to the tune of EUR 1.2 billion. Zelensky noted that the decision to allocate this aid was a timely signal for financial markets and already helped to maintain the stability of the Ukrainian economy, the press service of the Head of State reported on January 31.

"Our strategy proved to be right: to talk about the economy, not war. Today is the first day when we have not spent a single dollar from our reserves to support the hryvnia exchange rate," Zelensky said.

The parties agreed that the first tranche of macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 600 million will be paid without additional conditions immediately after the completion of all necessary procedures.

In addition, Zelensky thanked for the funding provided within the Economic and Investment Plan for the Eastern Partnership, which, among other things, will be aimed at supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.

During the discussion of the EU-Ukraine trade relations, Zelensky raised the issue of launching official talks on granting Ukraine additional trade preferences which will update existing tariffs and quotas for Ukrainian exporters.

The importance of ensuring proper progress in concluding the ACAA agreement, which will open additional markets for domestic industrial producers, was pointed out.

Zelensky thanked the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for his personal active position in support of Ukraine in the current difficult conditions.

"In this difficult time for us, your visit is another sign of the EU's unwavering support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the President stressed.

As reported, Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis was on a visit to Kyiv on January 31.

Photo: Presidents Office

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A UN Security Council meeting on Russia's military build-up around Ukraine was intended to get a clear explanation from Russia about its destabilizing actions, but it did not provide any specific answers.

U.S. Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said this after the UN Security Council meeting in New York on Monday, January 31, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"We called for this meeting to allow the Russians to give us an explanation of what their actions are. We didn't hear much. They didn't give us the answers that any of us would have hoped that they would provide," she said.

At the same time, she said, the meeting was clear that "all of the voices, even those who abstained on the votes, spoke clearly about the importance of the UN Charter and the importance of countries having the ability to feel comfortable within their own borders."

"So I think we accomplished that today; Russia heard clearly a united position from the vast majority of the Council, and I hope that that will lead to a diplomatic solution," Thomas-Greenfield said.

She also expressed hope that Russia would "continue along the route of diplomacy and find a solution  a way forward so that Ukraine can feel comfortable and secure in its own borders."

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President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed off a decree on Ukraine's transition toward a professional Army, increasing the number of servicemen by 100,000 over the next three years.

The document was signed as the head of state addressed the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraines Parliament, at the opening of the seventh session, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The Decree of the President of Ukraine on strengthening the nations defense capabilities and the attractiveness of military service has been developed. The decree provides for an increase in the financial security for all military personnel to the level of no less than three minimum wages. Its about Ukraine's transition to the basics of a professional Army. A system of officers career development has been established, while the number of military servicemen with the Armed Forces will be raised by 100,000, the president said in his address.

In addition, it is a question of creating another 20 brigades. "The decree is the start of Ukraine's transition to a professional Army. The decree comes out not because there will be a war soon, but to make sure that peace comes soon and prevails in Ukraine," the head of state stressed.

Zelensky added that it is about developing the concept of housing for servicemen, veterans, and their families.

He also added that military and technical assistance to Ukraine has been the largest since 2014, and continues to arrive. The main philosophy of Ukraine remains the same and we continue to adhere to it. It is simple and clear  we appreciate everyone's support. We rely only on ourselves. We are a strong nation, we have excellent diplomats, and its only our military who are even better. We must protect those who protect us," Zelensky stressed.

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The Lithuanian government has set up a special mission that will assess Ukraines needs for additional assistance from Lithuania and will coordinate the provision of assistance amid Russian aggression.

Ukrinform reports this with a reference to the Lithuanian governments website.

The mission, led by a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Jonas Daniliauskas, started its work in Ukraine on January 31.

During its stay in Ukraine, the mission will meet with representatives of Ukraines institutions, assess Ukraines needs for assistance in various areas, and coordinate assistance provision mechanisms. It is planned that the mission will work in Ukraine for about a month, the report says.

As reported, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia decided to provide Ukraine with U.S.-made Stinger man-portable air defense system and Javelin anti-tank missiles.

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Here are some in-person and virtual events taking place locally in honor of Black History Month.

Buy Black Buffalo, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26 at the Broadway Market, 999 Broadway.

Vendors from 15 Black-owned businesses will converge on the Broadway Market each Saturday in February to sell jewelry, body scrubs, clothing and more, said Kathleen Peterson, the market's manager. The Broadway Market typically hosts a Black History Month event, but this is the first year that, with the help of Buy Black Buffalo, the event will be expanded. Live music will complement the mini market, with Foxy Brown and the Blue Boys handling the first Saturday.

"Its very important when Black-owned businesses gather together like this because it emphasizes unity in our community," said Shetice Jackson, owner of Cake Crazy Bakery, one of the participants.

Prospective vendors can apply here.

Niagara Arts and Cultural Center, multiple exhibits. 1201 Pine Ave., Niagara Falls. 282-7530. Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. daily. Free.

"Artists of Color," opens Feb. 6 through March 19 with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 11 in the Townsend Gallery. The exhibition, which has been running annually since 2008, spotlights the African American experience from modern and personal perspectives, with a focus on works by Black artists in Western New York. It is curated by Ray Robertson, the co-director of the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center.

Every month is Black History Month at Underground Railroad Heritage Center The interactive Heritage Center includes the permanent exhibition, "One More River to Cross," with stories of the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls.

Participating artists include Betty Pitts Foster, Kobie Barber, Rosetta Smith, Julia Lowery, Sharif Osby, Tracey Mitchell Miles, Legend Lewis, Iris M. Kirkwood and Ari Moore. A local documentary, featuring Robertson, is being produced to delve into greater detail on the exhibition.

The "Freedom Crossing," a long-term NACC exhibition on the Underground Railroad, tells the stories of a network of people at the Niagara Falls Cataract House that helped slaves escape to Canada for their freedom through photographs and artifacts.

NFTA and WNY Urban Arts Collective join for public art

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is partnering with the WNY Urban Arts Collective to showcase the work of a selected Black artist to appear on metro buses in February and beyond. John Baker, president of the local art collective, said more than 30 submissions have been received, with the winner to be unveiled soon.

Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor's Virtual Lecture Series

All virtual lectures start at 6 p.m. Feb. 2, "Jesse Clipper: The Real Story." Feb. 8, "Turning Tables: Radio History." Feb. 15, "African American Veterans and Segregation in the Military." Feb. 22: "The ABCs of Buffalo's Black History." Feb. 23, "Untold Stories of the Underground Railroad in Buffalo." Visit michiganstreetbuffalo.org.

Also, Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor Commission will introduce its strategic action plan and economic development strategy in a virtual community meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 10.

More events:

Candles in the Suns Say It Loud. 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 12. Edward Saunters CAO Community Center, 2777 Bailey Ave. Free community event dedicated to the unspoken value of Black history.

Princessa's Studio & Art Gallery. 1271 Hertel Ave. 222-2204. Black History Month exhibition, presented by WNY Urban Art Collective and hosted by Princessa Williams, through February. Paint and Sip with Buffalo Urban League Young Professionals, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at Princessa's.

Spotlight on Black Composers by Buffalo Opera Unlimited, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25 and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 27. Rockwell Hall Performing Arts Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave. at SUNY Buffalo State. Tickets are $35 general, $25 senior, $10 student (buffalostatepac.org, 878-3005).

Virtual tour of the International Civil Rights Center in Greensboro, N.C., 7 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 28, co-hosted by the Buffalo Jewish Community Relations Council. Register here.

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The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia will visit Ukraine next week.

Ukraines Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko announced this at an online briefing on Tuesday, February 1, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

Nikolenko reminded that the Prime Ministers of Great Britain, Poland and the Netherlands are on official visits to Ukraine on February 1. The President of Turkey will arrive in Ukraine within the next several days.

"On February 7-8, the foreign ministers of Germany and France will pay a joint visit to Ukraine, including to Donbas. Next week, Dmytro Kuleba will also hold talks in Kyiv with the foreign ministers of Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia," Nikolenko said.

He added that the Ukrainian government is constantly working with international partners to deter Russia from further Russian escalation.

"No one knows what is going on in the head of Russia's leadership, but we know for sure that with such an intensive presence of foreign top officials in Ukraine, the risks of further aggression are decreasing," the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said..

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At the Verkhovna Rada plenary session on Tuesday, February 1, MPs thanked the international partners for their assistance to Ukraine in overcoming the military aggression of the Russian Federation.

As an Ukrinform correspondent reports, several dozen MPs from various parliamentary factions and groups came to the rostrum. They expressed gratitude to international partners for assistance in countering the military aggression of the Russian Federation. In particular, the Ukrainian parliamentarians unfolded the flags of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Poland.

As reported, the prime ministers of Poland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom arrive in Kyiv on February 1-2.

The President of Turkey is also expected to visit Ukraine this week.

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Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has said that Ukraine and Poland will soon announce the depended cooperation in the military sector.

He said this at a joint press conference with Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"I am confident that we will be able to announce the deepening of such [military] cooperation in the near future. We also touched upon this issue with the Prime Minister [at the meeting], said Shmyhal.

He stressed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are actively cooperating with the Polish and Lithuanian military within the framework of LITPOLUKRBRIG in accordance with NATO standards.

As reported, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki arrived in Kyiv on February 1. This is his first visit to Ukraine as Prime Minister, the position he has held since December 2017. Last autumn, the Prime Ministers of Ukraine and Poland met during the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland.

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Our part of Europe is not experiencing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, but having such a neighbor as Russia, we feel as if were living near a volcano.

Thats according to Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, who spoke at a joint briefing with Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Morawiecki noted that Poland, like no other nation in Europe, understands the value of security, the value of alliances and cooperation in security issues, so his country wants to provide precisely such support to Ukraine.

"Our part of Europe is not experiencing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, but so what? Living close to a neighbor like Russia, we have the impression that were living near a volcano," he said.

The head of the Polish government also stated that Poland is ready to provide Ukraine with assistance in the field of gas and energy, as well as defense and humanitarian issues.

"Sovereign, democratic Ukraine is in the interests of all Europe as what could be the alternative? We can look at Belarus," said the Polish official.

As reported, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki arrived in Kyiv on February 1. This is his first visit to Ukraine in the capacity of Prime Minister, the post he has held since December 2017. Last autumn, the prime ministers of Ukraine and Poland met during the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland.

During todays meeting, Shmyhal and Morawiecki discussed further cooperation in the field of gas storage.

Earlier, the prime minister of Poland stated his country was ready to hand over military aid to Ukraine. In particular, this is about ammunition, MANPADS, and drones of various types.

Photo: Kancelaria Premiera

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The cooperation between Great Britain, Poland, and Ukraine is a struggle for security in the region because it is through security that economic life, trade, and culture can develop.

"The main value is, of course, security in the region. Thanks to security, economic life, trade, and culture can develop. So, we are all interested in this, and such cooperation is a struggle for security in the region," President of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki said at a joint press briefing with Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Morawiecki noted that Poland had witnessed destabilization on NATO's eastern flank, and Britain felt Russia's "long reach" when Russian intelligence agents poisoned the Skrypals in Salisbury.

"The United Kingdom is important because, on the one hand, it is a NATO member, now it is outside the European Union, and it is also our main trading partner. We are in very, very often contact with our British colleagues. Our ministers are also cooperating towards this format," said the Prime Minister of Poland.

As reported, Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki arrived in Kyiv on February 1. This is his first visit to Ukraine at the post of Prime Minister, which he has held since December 2017. Last autumn, the prime ministers of Ukraine and Poland met at the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland.

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At present, Spain has no plans to evacuate its embassy staff and their family members from Kyiv.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, Jose Manuel Albares Bueno, said this during a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrinform reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

The conversation took place in the context of consolidating international pressure on the Russian Federation to deter it from further aggression.

Kuleba briefed Spains minister on the security situation amid the Russian military build-up near the state border and in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia. He also focused on the non-military dimensions of Russian aggression, including Russia's attempts to shatter Ukraine's economic and financial stability.

Jose Manuel Albares Bueno assured of Spain's full support for Ukraine's efforts to restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity by political and diplomatic means.

In this context, the ministers coordinated steps to negotiate with Russia in the framework of network diplomacy, which aims to keep the Russian Federation in line with diplomatic negotiations and force it to de-escalate.

Read also: Sweden has no plans to evacuate its embassy staff from Kyiv

The Spanish foreign minister responded to Kuleba's call to pay a visit to Ukraine in the near future to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people against the background of Russias aggressive actions.

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More than 120 tonnes of humanitarian aid from the Government of Poland have arrived in Kyiv.

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, humanitarian aid was sent to Ukraine from the Dorohusk-Yahodyn border checkpoint on the morning of January 31.

This support was organized by the Polish government at the request of the Ukrainian side.

The cargo was delivered to Kyiv by a convoy of 29 trucks, accompanied by Ukrainian State Emergency Service rescuers. The cargo arrived in Kyiv on February 1.

In particular, Poland handed over medical supplies, camp beds, blankets and bed linen to Ukraine. Ukraine also received two million masks for protection against COVID-19.

In a letter to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, the Polish side expressed hope that this support would help Ukrainian citizens in the current crisis situation and in the fight against COVID-19.

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Miscarriage, which occurs in about a quarter of all pregnancies, is the most common form of loss of a pregnancy. And yet there are no national laws that protect people when they need time off from work to deal with the loss. (Dreamstime/TNS)
WASHINGTON  Watertown might be about to get a new congressman from Orchard Park, and Hamburg might be about to get a new congresswoman from the Utica area.

Those once-fanciful scenarios started to look possible  and maybe even likely  on Monday, as two upstate Republican members of Congress made their accommodations with a new district map drawn by Democrats to minimize the GOP's chances.

Erie County would be split among three congressional districts under remap While the Buffalo-based district in the proposed plan would be largely Democratic, the other two districts including parts of Erie County consist largely of smaller communities and rural territory and are most likely to be represented by Republicans.

Rep. Chris Jacobs, an Orchard Park Republican, said he plans to run for re-election in the newly drawn 24th district, a heavily Republican enclave that would meander from the northernmost shores of the Niagara River to the Thousand Islands region  a driving distance of 256 miles  while bypassing most of metro Rochester. Jacobs, who moved to Orchard Park two years ago to run in a district vacated by former Rep. Chris Collins, would have to move again to run in the 24th district because Orchard Park is in the district to the south.

That district, the 23rd, will be getting new representation, too  and it may well come from someone who has to make an even bigger move. Democratic mapmakers eliminated the Utica-based district served by Rep. Claudia Tenney, an Oneida County Republican, so she announced Monday that she will be running for re-election in the heavily Republican, Southern Tier-based 23rd district.

Here's a look at the two new districts and the incumbent lawmakers who want to represent them:

Chris Jacobs to run in district stretching from Lewiston to Watertown Two sources close to Jacobs said early Monday that Jacobs plans to run for re-election from the newly proposed 24th District, which would meander from the northernmost shores of the Niagara River to the Thousand Islands region  a driving distance of 256 miles  while bypassing most of metro Rochester.

The Lake Ontario District

This district, the 24th, is the one that most closely resembles Jacobs' current district  yet it's also a district unlike any that upstate New York has ever seen, running the length of Lake Ontario, save for a carve-out for a Democrat-dominated district in metro Rochester.

The new district includes some of the most populous communities in the current 27th congressional district, such as Lancaster and Clarence in Erie County, Lockport in Niagara County and Batavia in Genesee County.

"The renumbered NY-24 contains over 400,000 constituents I currently represent, and I am excited to get to better know a few new communities," Jacobs said in a statement.

In contrast, the redrawn 23rd District in the Southern Tier consists mostly of territory Jacobs has never represented, either in Congress or as a state senator.

The new 24th District, however, also includes plenty of new territory for Jacobs, given that it runs from Porter to the Thousand Islands region. It is one of four largely Republican districts in the Democrat-drawn map.

RRH Elections, a Republican elections blog, calculated that voters in the new 24th district favored Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Joe Biden by 31 points in the 2020 election.

Jacobs made sure to cater to those Republicans in announcing his election bid.

"The coming elections are a chance for conservatives to elect majorities in Congress who will check the Biden administrations disastrous policies, re-implement the successful policies of the Trump administration, and put our country on a solid foundation once again," he said in his statement. "I am committed to fighting for your constitutional rights, your economic prosperity, and our future  just as I have for the past two years.

Jacobs had $334,154 in cash on hand at the end of September, but will likely have to raise considerably more to run television ads in a district that now spans the Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse television markets.

Jacobs announced his plans to run in the 24th before other candidates could jump into the race, said a Republican political consultant who asked not to be identified by name.

"He was smart to get ahead of this thing," the consultant said.

Utica-area congresswoman to run for Southern Tier seat Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Utica-area Republican whose district was divided up in a redistricting plan released by Democrats on Sunday, said Monday that she plans to run for re-election in the newly redrawn district that stretches from southern Erie County nearly to Binghamton.

The Southern Tier district

Like Jacobs, Tenney said she fits in with the new district she has chosen, even though she's not from there.

"I have a strong conservative record of advocating for our upstate values, fighting for our small business community  including our local farmers  defending election integrity, fighting for our Second Amendment rights, supporting the natural gas industry, and holding the Biden Administration accountable," said Tenney, 60, of New Hartford, in Oneida County. "I look forward to meeting and earning the support of even more New Yorkers and getting to work for our region in Congress."

Tenney, an attorney and small business owner, won the congressional election in New York's current 22nd District in 2016, only to lose it two years later. But in 2020, she reclaimed the seat in a narrow victory over Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi.

The current district Tenney serves stretches from Oswego in the north through Binghamton and to the Pennsylvania line.

The new 23rd District, in contrast, is a horizontal Southern Tier district similar to, but larger than, the current 23rd District served by Rep. Tom Reed, a Corning Republican who is retiring from Congress. The new district includes Hamburg, Orchard Park and the rest of the Erie County Southtowns.

And while it might seem surprising for a Utica-area representative to want to serve the Southern Tier and the Buffalo suburbs, Tenney noted in a statement that she has ties to the eastern end of the new district.

"My family business has been owned and operated in Chenango County since 1946, creating jobs for hundreds of people in our community over the years and contributing to our Southern Tier economy," Tenney said.

Tenney is the co-owner of Mid-York Press, a commercial printing and manufacturing firm that employs about 80 people in Sherburne, in Chenango County. Sherburne is in the proposed 19th District, a heavily Democratic enclave that stretches from Binghamton eastward all the way to the state line.

Tenney enters the 23rd District race with one huge advantage: money. She has $1.15 million in her campaign account.

That may help ward off other potential candidates in the heavily Republican district.

"If this is the map, I'm not going to primary Claudia," said Joe Sempolinski, a former aide to Reed who announced his candidacy for the seat several months ago.

State Sen. George Borrello, an Irving Republican, said he was interested in running for Congress, but he added: "Now that Claudia Tenney has announced, all I would say is that we will have to see what the final district maps look like. Things may change."

Cattaraugus County Republican Chairman Robert Keis said he spoke to former State Sen. Cathy Young of Olean on Monday, and that she continues to weigh a candidacy. He expects her decision by the end of the week.

Keis said he backs Young, but acknowledged that Tenney's cash advantage could scare off Young.

Unfortunately, money counts almost as much as votes, Keis said.

News political reporter Robert J. McCarthy contributed to this report.

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The value of ACT and SAT tests has been called into question over the years, fueled by a growing awareness that test-takers from higher-income households have advantages, such as prep classes and tutors. (David Tonelson/Dreamstime/TNS)
Amherst police arrested three men in two separate incidents on criminal gun possession charges over the weekend, they announced Tuesday.

The department had increased patrols over the weekend to response to "the recent increase in overnight car larcenies and stolen vehicles," police said in a statement.

The first two arrests took place when town police attempted to stop a vehicle for unspecific vehicle and traffic violations at about 3:39 a.m. Friday in the 4000 block of Main Street, east of Eggert Road.

The vehicle took off but got stuck in a snowbank and the driver, Naim Tabb, 22, of Buffalo was taken into custody. A passenger fled on foot, police said. Amherst police, working with Buffalo police, conducted a search and found Raekwon Gordon, 23, of Buffalo hiding in snow behind a house.

Amherst police said they found an illegally possessed gun "equipped with a high-capacity feeding device."

Both men were charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a defaced weapon, obstructing governmental justice and vehicle and traffic violations.

Both remained in custody at the Erie County Holding Center Tuesday.

The second incident took place at about 3:31 a.m. Saturday when officers tried to stop a vehicle near Main Street and Bailey Avenue. The driver did not stop and continued into Buffalo. Buffalo police assisted Amherst police and Xaier Mitchell, 19, of Cheektowaga was arrested. Town police said he had a loaded handgun. He was charged with criminal possession of a loaded weapon, criminal possession of a defaced gun, resisting arrest, unlawfully fleeing an officer, reckless driving and vehicle and traffic laws.

Police said he was held to see a judge but jail records show he was not in custody Tuesday morning.

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Jennifer Ann Hancock was born Nov. 20, 1956, in Atlanta, to William Roy and Martha Jones Hancock. She went home to be with the Lord on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, in Gray. She was preceded in death by her father, William Roy Hancock, and her brother, Timothy Roy Hancock, as well as grandparents
September 22 2021

The jewel in the crown of Galashiels tourism has opened with the completion of The Great Tapestry of Scotland Gallery, the custom-built home for a tapestry that brings history to life in pictorial form.

Built around a special first-floor room to house the one-off piece, painstakingly assembled at the hands of a thousand stitchers, the Page\Park designed gallery rises on the town's High Street as the modern embodiment of its historic skyline.

Condensing 12,000 years of history onto 143m of cloth the tapestry represents the vision of Alexander McCall Smith and was designed by Andrew Crummy with an accompanying narration written by Alistair Moffat.

Conceived in the round the central chamber is formed from folding fabric walls that merge with the ceiling, with the radial artwork sweeping around the room in one continuous linear display. At each corner generous windows look out to the four hills surrounding the town, grounding the space in its environment.

In a statement, the practice wrote: "The dramatic geometric roof design is inspired by the unique roofscape of towers, dormers, gables and pitched roofs that defines the architectural character of Galashiels. As you approach Galashiels the roofs of the town unfold before you. The new gallery inserts into this roofscape as a contemporary and playful re-imagining of the traditional Victorian pitched roof.

"To break down the mass of the building to a scale more appropriate to its neighbours we folded the external walls creating subtle undulating bays."

Connected by a glazed link to the Old Post Office building the visitor centre responds to its ornate neighbour with vertical and horizontal bands of stonework, likened to the warp and weft of a textile.

Photography by Keith Hunter
October 26 2021

Plans for a new-build family home in Strathblane have been presented to Stirling Council planners, who are being asked to approve the build on land to the east of The Mill House, Milndavie Road.

Led by Alastair Forbes Architects the contemporary home seeks to follow the established building pattern of the village by remodelling access to open up fallow land for development. Adopting an L-plan footprint, delivering a four-bedroom home behind natural stone and timber walls under a slate roof. A detached garage is also proposed with a matching pitched roof.

In a design statement, the architect wrote: "A house type has been developed that references the traditional modest, quiet forms found in vernacular buildings in rural Scotland. Simple pitched forms are arranged to create sheltered outdoor spaces that open to the views and the sun.

"A restrained palette of robust, high-quality external material finishes has been selected to be in keeping with neighbouring developments whilst allowing longevity, richness and variation."

Sharing access with a neighbouring western plot, subject to a separate application by specialist oak-framed home provider Oakwrights, with each property given its own private driveway behind gated access. A number of objections have been made on the grounds that the site is prone to flooding, including from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.
WASHINGTON  Canada is going ahead with its plan to slap a 1% annual tax on underused foreign-owned real estate  and while the nation's government says it wants to exempt vacation homes from the levy, it looks as if Americans owning property in the Niagara region will have to pay up.

Although that is not a sure thing, that's the conclusion Fort Erie officials made last week upon reading language the Canadian Department of Finance issued to describe the exemption to the new underused housing tax.

That language  which, many sources said, is confusingly written  exempts rural vacation properties from the tax while appearing to leave the levy in place for vacation homes located in metropolitan areas.

Fort Erie, along with Port Colborne to the west, are both parts of the St. Catharines-Niagara census metropolitan area. And Fort Erie in particular is filled with seasonal cottages owned by Buffalo-area residents.

"I would think they wouldn't qualify" for the tax exemption, said Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop, a Canadian attorney who's reviewed the language.

Fort Erie Councillor Nick Dubanow agreed, saying that because Fort Erie is within a census metropolitan area with 450,000 people, the exemption "wouldn't apply to us."

If the two government officials are correct, Americans owning properties in the region would start paying hefty new taxes on them starting this year, with the first bill due in April 2023. For a one-bedroom cottage currently for sale for about $336,000 in U.S. currency in Port Colborne, the annual tax would be $3,360. And for a four-bedroom, $1.64 million waterfront property in Fort Erie, the annual tax would be $16,400.

Then again, it's not entirely certain that Canadian officials intended to tax those vacation homes while writing an exemption to the tax for vacation homes. Pressed for a further explanation of their "Tax Measures  Supplementary Information," which spelled out the exemption, a spokesman for the Canadian Department of Finance failed to do so despite repeated inquiries over four days last week.

Fort Erie real estate attorney Richard Halinda has been making inquiries with federal officials as well, and he said he is reluctant to comment on the exemption until he hears more details about what it means.

As it stands, the guidance the Canadian Department of Finance published says foreign homeowners will qualify for the exemption if their property "(1) is located in an area of Canada that is not an urban area within either a census metropolitan area or a census agglomeration having 30,000 or more residents; and (2) is personally used by the owner (or the owners spouse or common-law partner) for at least four weeks in the calendar year."

If that phraseology leaves you grasping for meaning, you are not alone.

"It's a clear as mud to me," said Anthony H. Gioia, a retired Buffalo businessman, former U.S. ambassador to Malta and the longtime owner of a beachfront home in Fort Erie.

"It's not particularly well-written," Redekop said.

What's particularly unclear, several sources said, is the intent behind the exemption. It's clear that the Canadian government imposed the tax to crack down on real estate speculation by foreigners in cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, where housing prices have increased exponentially. But what's unclear is whether Canadian officials wanted to tax Americans owning property in the Niagara region while giving a tax break to Americans who own vacation homes in just about every other part of the country.

Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, said, too, he has reached out to Canadian officials to try to get a fuller explanation of the tax and the exemption.

"Is it punitive against non-Canadian citizens who have owned properties that contributed to the economy of Ontario, Fort Erie and the Niagara region for many, many decades?" Higgins asked. "Or is this an unintended consequence of attempting to address a problem that's specific to the larger metropolitan area of Toronto? I don't know. I don't have answers to these questions."

If Canada really intends to impose the tax on vacation properties just across the Niagara River from Buffalo, the U.S. should consider a reciprocal tax on Canadian-owned property in the U.S., said Higgins, who noted that a number of Canadians own property in Ellicottville.

Others, meanwhile, think that the Canadian government can't possibly want to tax vacation home owners in one area of the country while writing an exemption for those elsewhere.

"I can't believe that they would want to tax those homes in Fort Erie or in Niagara-on-the-Lake that are owned by individuals who really don't want to rent them out; they want to use them themselves," said former Rep. John J. LaFalce, a Town of Tonawanda Democrat who has a summer place in Fort Erie.

Jamie Golombek, managing director of tax and estate planning at CIBC in Toronto, agreed.

"Its a sensitive topic for sure, as I dont think the intention is to discourage local cross-border cottagers!" he said via email.

But that's exactly what the Canadian government is doing, LaFalce said. Frustrated primarily by the long pandemic-inspired border shutdown and the existing PCR test requirement for entering Canada, Americans who have long owned summer places in Canada "are selling their homes in droves," he said.

Gioia said that with that huge new tax apparently looming, it might be time for him to do the same.

"Well, this just means maybe we'll get a condo in Florida and get rid of Canada," he said.

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The European Union will provide 3.7 million euros ($4.1million) in support to 297 former employees of the European corporation Airbus in France, who lost their jobs to the coronavirus pandemic, the EU Parliament said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) The European Union will provide 3.7 million Euros ($4.1million) in support to 297 former employees of the European corporation Airbus in France, who lost their jobs to the coronavirus pandemic, the EU Parliament said on Tuesday.

In 2020, Airbus worked out a restructuring plan in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis that entailed a layoff of thousands of employees in France. According to the European Commission, efforts by the French government helped to halve the number of job cuts to 2,246. The initiative to support dismissed workers was first proposed by the Commission in November 2021 and overseen by the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for Displaced Workers, an EU mechanism to help affected employees with careers.

"The total estimated cost of the support measures is 4.

4 million, of which the EGF will cover 85% (3.7 million). Airbus will provide the remaining amount (0.7 million)," a statement read.

The decision to approve the allocation at France's request was made by the Committee on Budgets and based on the recognition of damage of the COVID-19 crisis on commercial aviation, and forecasts by Airbus about the recovery of the sector expected to happen no earlier than 2025.

France's application concerned a total of 508 jobless people, with 297 of them expected to benefit from the funding. A total of 40 lawmakers in the committee voted in favor of the measure, one voted against it. The parliament is expected to approve the application during a plenary session in Strasbourg scheduled for February 14-17, according to the statement.
Rabat, Feb 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2022 ) :The Moroccan navy on Tuesday rescued 63 migrants including 15 women and three children after their vessel started to sink as they tried to reach the Canary Islands, activists said.

Alarm Phone, which provides an emergency hotline for migrants in trouble at sea, said on Twitter that "63 people in severe distress close to the Moroccan coast were found by the Moroccan navy and safely brought to shore." The Moroccan authorities did not immediately confirm the operation.

Helena Maleno Garzon of rights group Caminando Fronteras had earlier warned that dozens of people were sinking in an inflatable boat off Tarfaya, on Morocco's southern coast, and would "die if they are not rescued soon".

Migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, regularly use Morocco as a launchpad for attempts to reach European shores.

Last year more than 4,000 migrants died or went missing in such attempts, mostly as they tried to reach the Canary Islands, according to Caminando Fronteras.

Many choose to head for the Spanish territory in the Atlantic as shorter routes across calmer Mediterranean waters are more closely monitored, the group says.
Ouagadougou, Feb 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2022 ) :Burkina Faso's military junta said Monday it had restored the constitution a week after seizing power in the poor Sahel country, an announcement that came as it held talks with international negotiators who praised its "openness" to their proposals.

The discussions in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou were "very frank", according to West African delegation leader Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, the foreign minister of Ghana.

"They seemed very open to the suggestions and proposals that we made. For us it's a good sign," she told reporters after the meeting with coup leader Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba and other junta members.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) delegates were joined in the talks by the UN's special representative for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mahamat Saleh Annadif, who also described a "very frank exchange".

The talks came shortly after the African Union suspended Burkina for the January 24 takeover.

ECOWAS had suspended Burkina Faso from its ranks on Friday and warned of possible sanctions pending the outcome of the talks with the junta.

Earlier Monday, in a statement read on television, the junta announced it had approved a "fundamental act" that "lifts the suspension of the constitution".

The junta -- officially named the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (MPSR) -- said its move would "ensure the continuity of the state pending the establishment of transitional bodies".

The statement did not give a timeline for the transition period.

It formally identified Damiba as president of the MPSR and "supreme leader of the armed forces".

A separate decree said that the armed forces chief of staff, Gilbert Ouedraogo, was leaving the job.

Just hours earlier, the AU's 15-member Peace and Security Council said on Twitter it had voted "to suspend the participation of #BurkinaFaso in all AU activities until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the country".

Also Monday, some members of the ECOWAS delegation visited ousted president Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who is under house arrest, a delegate said.

His wellbeing and demands for his release have been major issues since the coup.

ECOWAS sent military chiefs to confer with Damiba on Saturday.

Leaders from the bloc will hold a summit in Accra on Thursday to assess its two missions to see whether they should impose sanctions.

They have previously suspended and enforced sanctions against two other members -- Mali and Guinea -- which have also seen military takeovers in the past 18 months.

The United States expressed support Monday evening for ECOWAS's actions and called for Kabore's release.

"We share the concerns African leaders articulated regarding the actions of military officials in Burkina Faso, chiefly the suspension of the constitution and the removal of the democratically elected president and national assembly," State Department spokesman Ned price said in a statement.

"While some elements of the constitution may have been restored, extraconstitutional seizures of power erode the legitimacy of governance." On January 24, mutineering soldiers detained Kabore amid rising public anger at his failure to stem jihadist violence ravaging the poor Sahel nation.

They later released a handwritten letter in which he announced his resignation -- a document that a member of his party said was authentic.

The junta also said it had dissolved the government and parliament and suspended the constitution, vowing to re-establish "constitutional order" within a "reasonable time".

The coup is the latest bout of turmoil to strike Burkina Faso, a landlocked state that has suffered chronic instability since gaining independence from France in 1960.

Kabore was elected in 2015 following a popular revolt that forced out strongman Blaise Compaore.

Compaore himself had seized power in 1987 during a coup in which the country's revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara, was gunned down.

He was re-elected in 2020, but the following year faced a wave of anger over his handling of a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali.

Since 2015, more than 2,000 people have died, according to an AFP toll, while the country's emergency agency says 1.5 million people, out of a population of 21 million, have fled their homes.
Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Sedat Onal Tuesday called on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi here and discussed bilateral relations as well as Kashmir and Afghanistan situation

ISLAMABAD, Feb 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2022 ) :Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Sedat Onal Tuesday called on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi here and discussed bilateral relations as well as Kashmir and Afghanistan situation.

Foreign Minister Qureshi reaffirmed the commitment to further deepen and broaden cooperation in all areas and conveyed cordial greetings for his Turkish counterpart Mevlt Cavusoglu.

He noted with satisfaction the "excellent" bilateral relationship between Pakistan and Turkey, and expressed the hope that the forthcoming 7th Session of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC), to be co-chaired by the two leaders, would further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries.

The foreign minister appreciated Turkey's steadfast support on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, which was deeply valued by the Kashmiri people.

He shared Pakistan's perspective on the situation in Afghanistan and highlighted the importance of close consultations between the two countries.

Qureshi underlined that Afghanistan was witnessing economic and humanitarian crises, which required sustained engagement and urgent steps by the international community.

The foreign minister hoped that the international community would continue to support the Afghan people to put them on the path to peace, progress and prosperity.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal is visiting Islamabad for the Bilateral Political Consultations.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

U.S. Consulate joins Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and Sindh Exploration and Adventure Society to celebrate preservation and renovation of Karachi`s historic Nusserwanjee Building. US Consul Generalark Stroh, IVS President Dr. Kaleemullah Lashari, SEAS Secretary General Dr. Asma Ibrahim were main figures at the ceremony, says US Consulate release here on Tuesday

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2022 ) :U.S. Consulate joins Indus Valley school of Art and Architecture and Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and Sindh Exploration and Adventure Society to celebrate preservation and renovation of Karachi`s historic Nusserwanjee Building. US Consul Generalark Stroh, IVS President Dr. Kaleemullah Lashari, SEAS Secretary General Dr. Asma Ibrahim were main figures at the ceremony, says US Consulate release here on Tuesday.

This landmark restoration was made possible through a $ 140,000 United States Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) grant to restore the building implemented by SEAS and facilitated by IVS.

The United States has awarded more than $6.4 million Dollars (approximately 1.1 billion rupees) for 30 such cultural heritage projects across Pakistan. Consul General Stroh explained that the U.S. Mission supported the preservation of heritage sites like the Nusserwanjee Building realizing that these sites mean so much more than bricks and mortar.

They strengthened communities, and they were an investment in building a stronger and more prosperous Pakistan, he said. " I am proud, together with IVS, SEAS, and the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, the U.S. Consulate has played a part in ensuring that this piece of Karachi's history is now preserved for future generations." In addition to the Nusserwanjee Building, other U.S. AFCP projects in Sindh included the restoration of the tombs of Sultan Ibrahim and Amir Sultan Muhammad at the Makli Hill necropolis, the conservation of Varun Dev Hindu Temple on Manora Island, and the recently inaugurated project to restore Frere Hall.

These projects exemplify the United States' commitment to work with Pakistan and Sindh governments to preserve its rich cultural heritage and diversity to preserve its rich cultural heritage and diversity.
(@FahadShabbir)

Humanitarian organizations working in Myanmar urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to pass a resolution to ensure the protection of civilians and a cessation of hostilities in the country, after a military takeover a year ago

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) Humanitarian organizations working in Myanmar urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to pass a resolution to ensure the protection of civilians and a cessation of hostilities in the country, after a military takeover a year ago.

The coalition, including ActionAid, CARE, Oxfam, the International Rescue Committee, Norwegian Refugee Council, and Save the Children, said that about 1,500 people, including at least 100 children, have been killed since the February 1 coup, and over 11,000 arrested.

Recent airstrikes and other large-scale military attacks in Kayah state have caused an exodus of about 120,000 people from their homes. In addition, violence has increased in states located in the west of the Myanmar. In total, the fighting has forced over 400,000 people out of their homes in the past year, according to the aid groups.

"We call on the international community to take the following actions: UN Security Council to pass a resolution to facilitate the protection of civilians, a cessation of hostilities and increased humanitarian access, and set out the measures they will take to hold perpetrators of grave violations to account," the groups said in a statement.

They urged Myanmar's military and other actors to allow unrestricted and sustained humanitarian access.

"Displaced people urgently need shelter, food, water, medical care and other essential aid, including services for survivors of conflict-based sexual violence and other forms of violence against women," the statement read.

The groups called for action to protect humanitarian workers, stressing that they should never be a target. They chided international governments and multilateral bodies for an allegedly insufficient response to the Myanmar crisis.

A year ago, the military seized control of Myanmar in a coup, which prompted nationwide protests. The top brass justified their action by alleged election fraud which they blamed on civilian government leaders. Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other top officials were placed under arrest.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Inmates in all of America's federal prisons have been confined to their cells since Monday evening as a precaution after a deadly fight broke out at a Texas penitentiary

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2022 ) :Inmates in all of America's federal prisons have been confined to their cells since Monday evening as a precaution after a deadly fight broke out at a Texas penitentiary.

On Monday, "multiple inmates" fought at a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, said a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson in an email to AFP.

"Four inmates were transported to a local hospital. Two of these inmates succumbed to their injuries and were pronounced deceased," it said.

According to a press release, no other staff or inmates were injured in the facility, which houses over 1,300 male prisoners.

"In an abundance of caution, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is securing our facilities as a temporary measure," noted the spokesperson, adding that the agency anticipates the enhanced security procedures "will be short-lived.

" Fights in America's prisons are not rare, but normally result in only localized responses, such as confining inmates to their cells or suspending visits to individual facilities where violence has broken out.

In this instance, according to American media reports, the fight involved members of rival gangs who are active in multiple prisons, leading authorities to believe that retaliations could take place more broadly.

The nearly 120 US federal prisons house only a small part of America's incarcerated population: about 150,000 inmates out of more than two million total. The rest are in prisons run by individual states.

In 2019, according to an official tally, there were 11 homicides within federal prisons and 143 at state-run sites.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) US President Joe Biden issued a letter to Congress notifying the legislature of his intention to designate Qatar as a major non-NATO ally.

"In accordance with section 517 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961... I am providing notice of my intent to designate Qatar as a Major Non-NATO Ally, " Biden said in his letter to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Biden acknowledged Qatar's long-time contribution to the US-led efforts in the Central Command area of responsibility.

The US president also noted deep bilateral defense and security cooperation with Qatar.

Earlier on Monday, Biden said in a meeting with Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani at the White House that this designation will reflect the importance of bilateral partnership.

Biden also welcomed a new deal that Qatar Airways signed earlier on Monday with Boeing for the supply of 34 777-8 wide-body cargo aircraft. This deal will support tens of thousands jobs in the United States, he added.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid issues concerning Iran and the Palestinians, State Department spokesperson Ned price said.

"Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid today," Price said in a press release on Monday. "The Secretary and Foreign Minister discussed... threats posed by Iran. Secretary Blinken reiterated the Administration's steadfast commitment to Israel's security. Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lapid also discussed Israeli-Palestinian issues.

"

Price did not provide further details about their discussions on Iran and the Palestinians.

Blinken also had a telephone call earlier in the day with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to reaffirm the United States commitment to a two-state solution, according to Price.

Price said Blinken and Abbas discussed the importance of strengthening the US relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, as well as the need to improve quality of life for Palestinians in tangible ways.
China poses the greatest threat to the United States in the field of economic security and innovation, stealing "terabytes" of data from "hundreds" of American companies, FBI Director Christopher Wray said

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) China poses the greatest threat to the United States in the field of economic security and innovation, stealing "terabytes" of data from "hundreds" of American companies, FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

"When we tally up what we see in our investigations, over 2,000 of which are focused on the Chinese government trying to steal our information or technology, there's just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, innovation, and economic security than China," Wray said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential library on Monday.

The FBI Director said that the Chinese government steals "staggering volumes of information and causes deep, job-destroying damage across a wide range of industries," adding that the bureau is "constantly opening new cases to counter their intelligence operations about every 12 hours."

Wray stressed that his speech concerned the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party posing the threat the FBI is addressing, and not the Chinese people.
Fumes from Metro buses idling at Eastern Hills Mall in Clarence were billowing into thick clouds of vapor Monday morning as temperatures dipped into single digits.

And aboard the No. 66 Express, passengers headed for downtown were fuming, too. The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority will eliminate their quick and reliable trip to downtown on Feb. 13, and none were happy about the plan. Those riding the No. 66 on Monday were frustrated and unsure of their commuting futures after the NFTA announced last week that its continuing inability to recruit drivers led to a "temporary" suspension of the service.

Metro Bus to cut service in face of labor shortage Authority officials said Thursday they will begin reducing some service on Feb. 13, temporarily eliminating eight express routes and increasing intervals between buses after 7 p.m. weekdays and all day on weekends.

"I think it's terrible ... and such an inconvenience," said Jacqueline Bald, who was en route to her job in the Rath County Office Building and has used the express service for 20 years. "Buffalo is trying to rebuild, and they want people to come into the city. This is not the way to do it."

Just a few seats behind her, Carolyn Kiener of Williamsville was headed to her job at a downtown law firm, depending Monday on the express service just as she has for the last 13 years. Replacement service will involve transferring to Metro Rail at the University Station, and she never feels safe on the subway.

Kiener said she has always avoided local service on No. 48 and Metro Rail because she could take the No. 66.

Metro Rail stations rebounding after years of wear and tear "No one wants to go into a dark and dingy station," said Kimberley A. Minkel, executive director of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. "They need to be warm and inviting, but they need to be functional as well."

"When I do drive, it costs $15 a day to park," Kiener said.

The many commuters depending on Metro's express bus service are reacting in a similar manner this week after news that not only No. 66, but seven other express routes will be eliminated, while intervals will increase between buses after 7 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends. Their alternatives, riders said, now lie in slower local buses and the subway.

Thomas George, the NFTA's director of surface transportation, said the driver contingent is down 61 people from normal levels, along with a shortage of 57 mechanics, 24 maintenance people and 18 staffers in administration and management.

"In December, we experienced some of the most challenging operations in the history of Metro," George said last week. "Our reliability, and our commitment made to the community that we will show up when we said we would be there, has been challenged."

NFTA officials note the cutbacks stem not from lack of ridership or government funding, but from a nationwide labor shortage afflicting many sectors of the economy. Authority spokeswoman Helen Tederous said Monday that even before ridership plummeted in the Covid-19 pandemic, the NFTA and transit agencies everywhere were stymied by the lack of applicants for a range of positions.

"This is not a new issue," she said. "It's just that the severity has increased, and Covid hasn't helped. We're hopeful it will be for just a few months and we can return as soon as possible."

Even without new infrastructure dollars, NFTA remains bullish on Metro Rail extension The wait continues for Western New York commuters anticipating the proposed extension of Metro Rail to Amherst, even as the nation's new $1.2 trillion infrastructure package finances New York City megaprojects.

Indeed, national experts on public transit say the problem affects just about every system in the country. Pamela Boswell, vice president of workforce development and education services for the American Public Transportation Association, labels the situation an "unprecedented challenge." Other agencies have laid off workers or cut regular service, she said, and transit jobs usually viewed as well paying with good benefits now go unfilled.

As a result, Boswell said transit agencies are shuffling work assignments, conducting job fairs, visiting high schools and technical colleges and offering incentives such as signing bonuses to attract workers. Her organization has also reached out to its membership by pointing out best practices in hiring and sharing experiences of its member agencies.

But she is also realistic about what lies ahead.

"I'd like to be optimistic and hope the agencies will address this workforce shortage, but it will be a challenge," Boswell said. "We're confident that, at some point, things will get better."

Locally, Buffalo Niagara Partnership President Dottie Gallagher said a strong public transportation network looms as an important selling point for any business organization. Transit cuts hit particularly hard, she said, for second and third shift workers who have no other means of transportation. But she also thinks the NFTA is handling the situation the best it can.

NFTA to study eliminating bus stops, enhancing others Metro Bus is about to ask its riders a critical question: Would you give up several little-used stops on your route if it made the ride shorter?

"The question is: could they have made more drastic cuts?" she said. "I hate to be critical. What else were they going to do?"

Union officials continue to insist that more competitive wages and benefits are needed, and express fears that the new cuts will inflict lasting damage on the system.

"We'll lose that ridership and never get it back," said Jeff Richardson, president of Local 1342, Amalgamated Transit Union.

Tederous said the NFTA remains optimistic it will eventually attract operators and other staffers through its proactive recruiting, noting officials have already fielded increased employment inquiries since last week's announcement. She has also pointed to more drastic service adjustments previously considered by the authority, such as ending Sunday or night service.

Officials looked at curtailing the express routes as the best option for the moment, she said.

"We want to increase public transportation and not suppress it," Tederous added, "especially with so many plans for the future that make this an exciting time for us."

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Chinese and French oil giants sealed a landmark $10-billion deal on Tuesday to develop Uganda's energy resources and build a vast regional oil pipeline, a megaproject that has incensed environmental groups

Kampala, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2022 ) :Chinese and French oil giants sealed a landmark $10-billion deal on Tuesday to develop Uganda's energy resources and build a vast regional oil pipeline, a megaproject that has incensed environmental groups.

The so-called Final Investment Decision was announced at a ceremony in Kampala by the heads of France's TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

"Today is the day we commit to invest $10 billion in the Tilenga and Kingfisher projects and the 1,443-km long pipeline," TotalEnergies chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in a statement.

The project aims to exploit the huge crude oil reserves at Lake Albert, a 160-kilometre (100-mile) natural border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The oil would be pumped from landlocked Uganda through a 1,443-kilometre (900-mile) heated pipeline -- said to become the longest of its type when completed -- through Tanzania to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga.

Pouyanne described the controversial pipeline as a "masterpiece" of a project, although critics charge that it threatens livelihoods and fragile ecosystems in the heart of Africa.

"From today with the FID, the project will fully enter into the construction phase," he said.

CNOOC Uganda president Chen Zhuobiao said: "Achieving FID is a first step towards achieving first oil and unlocking opportunities for investment and development of Uganda and the whole region."The ceremony was also attended by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Tanzania's Vice President Philip Mpango.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) expressed its concern on Tuesday over the shooting in Guinea-Bissau, decrying the situation there as a coup attempt

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) expressed its concern on Tuesday over the shooting in Guinea-Bissau, decrying the situation there as a coup attempt.

Earlier in the day, the media reported sounds of shooting near the government building in the country's capital of Bissau, where a snap cabinet meeting was taking place that included the president and the prime minister.

"ECOWAS condemns this attempted coup and holds the military responsible for the physical integrity of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the members of his government," ECOWAS said in a statement, urging the troops to return to their barracks.
NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) India and the European Union on Tuesday held a second maritime security dialogue in the Indo-Pacific region via videoconference, the Indian Foreign Ministry said.

"India and the European Union held their second maritime security dialogue in a virtual format on 1 February 2022. The consultations included developments in the maritime security environment, policy developments covering the EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and India's Indo-Pacific Oceans' Initiative, India-EU maritime cooperation, and regional initiatives to address international maritime security issues," the statement, published by the Indian Foreign Ministry, read.

The sides discussed further cooperation in the field of maritime domain awareness, capacity-building and joint naval activities, the statement went on. The two sides held a successful naval exercise in the Gulf of Aden in June 2021.

The parties reaffirmed their commitment "to a free, open, inclusive and rules-based maritime order in the Indo-Pacific region" with respect for sovereignty and international law, and expressed their determination to resolve disputes peacefully in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
(@FahadShabbir)

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) A visit to Ukraine by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday will be a demonstration of support for Kiev, Johnson's press service said in a statement.

The prime minister is "travelling to Kyiv in demonstration of support to Ukraine," according to the statement.

It said that Johnson will hold discussions with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on "Russian hostile activity," and that "in an important week for diplomacy," Johnson will "step up diplomatic efforts and hopes to speak President Putin and other leaders this week."

Russia has repeatedly rejected accusations by the West and Ukraine of "aggressive actions", stating that it does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone, and that claims about "Russian aggression" are used as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders.

Kiev and Western states have recently expressed concern about the alleged increase in "aggressive actions" by Russia near the borders of Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is moving troops within its territory and at its own discretion. According to him, this does not threaten anyone and should not worry anyone.
(@iemziishan)

Troops of the Russian Eastern Military District were deployed on Tuesday over a distance of up to 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) to take part in testing combat readiness of forces of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) Troops of the Russian Eastern Military District were deployed on Tuesday over a distance of up to 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) to take part in testing combat readiness of forces of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

"In accordance with the decision of the Russian and Belarusian presidents, the response forces of the Union State are being tested. The military command bodies and units of the Eastern Military District are involved from the Russian armed forces. Currently, the first stage of testing is underway. Troops were deployed over a distance of up to 10,000 kilometers, including relocated aviation units and military air defense units," Shoigu said at a virtual meeting.

The minister added that as part of the united regional system of air-defense of Russia and Belarus, the countries also ensured guard and defense of state and military facilities and air state borders.

The testing will be divided into two parts. The first one will last until February 9, and the second one until February 20. During the first stage, army groups will be relocated and created in Belarus, and at the second stage, the "Union Determination-2022" (Soyuznaya Reshimost) joint military drills will take part. The troops will master their skills in intercepting and repelling external threat, as well as counterterrorism and defending interests of the Union State, during the exercise.

Earlier in the day, Shoigu said that Russia informed foreign military attaches about the drills.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls for an immediate end to the fighting which is reportedly underway near the government palace in the capital of Guinea-Bissau, spokesman Farhan Haq said on Tuesday

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls for an immediate end to the fighting which is reportedly underway near the government palace in the capital of Guinea-Bissau, spokesman Farhan Haq said on Tuesday.

"The Secretary-General is deeply concerned with the news of heavy fighting in Bissau. He asks for an immediate end to the fighting and for full respect of the country's democratic institutions," Haq said.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) welcomed on Tuesday an announcement about Afghanistan opening its universities on Wednesday to male and female students, stressing the importance of equal opportunities for education

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) welcomed on Tuesday an announcement about Afghanistan opening its universities on Wednesday to male and female students, stressing the importance of equal opportunities for education.

The higher education minister, Abdull Baqi Haqqani, stated over the weekend that university classes would resume on Wednesday. Universities will be opened for the first time since the Taliban (under UN sanctions over terrorist activities) took over the country in August.

"Tomorrow can be the start of something truly important for Afghanistan. UN welcomes the announcement that public universities will begin re-opening 2 February to all female and male students.

So crucial that every young person has equal access to education," the mission tweeted.

A source at the Afghan Higher Education Ministry told Sputnik that male students would hold their classes starting 7 a.m. local time, while female students will begin studying from 11:30 a.m., adding that classes will be resumed only at universities located in the country's warmer areas, while in colder areas, classes will be reopened a month later.

In the middle of 2021, the Taliban led a major offensive in Afghanistan during the withdrawal of US troops from the country and took over in August. In September, the radical group established an interim government.
The United States recommends that US citizens avoid traveling to Belarus due to "concerning" Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine, the State Department said on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2022) The United States recommends that US citizens avoid traveling to Belarus due to "concerning" Russian military activity near the border with Ukraine, the State Department said on Tuesday.

"Do not Travel to Belarus due to the arbitrary enforcement of laws, the risk of detention, and unusual and concerning Russian military buildup along Belarus' border with Ukraine. Reconsider travel due to COVID-19 and related entry restrictions," the State Department said in a press release.

The US government warns its citizens who are considering travel Belarus to be aware that the situation is unpredictable and there is heightened tension in the region, the release said.

The advisory comes a day after the State Department ordered the departure of family members of US government employees from Belarus on Monday.

The US Embassy in Kiev published similar recommendations last week, citing unpredictability regarding Ukraine, and the State Department authorized the voluntary departure of US direct hire employees and ordered the departure of eligible family members from the embassy.

The situation around Ukraine has worsened over the past several months after the United States and its allies accused Russia of a troop buildup near the border with Ukraine in preparation for an invasion. Russia has said it does not plan to attack any country, saying it reserves the right to move troops inside its territory. Russia has also said it considers the plans by NATO to expand further eastward as a threat to its national security.
Study Shows How African American Pastors in Mississippi Led Their Congregations Toward Public Health Safety during COVID Pandemic

Mon, 01/31/2022 - 16:45pm | By: Van Arnold

A research team at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), led by assistant professor of public health, Dr. Tanya Funchess, has recently completed a phenomenological qualitative study designed to address how African American pastors in Mississippi handled the COVID-19 pandemic with their congregations.

The research study entitled, The Perceptions and Lived Experiences of African American Pastors at the Onslaught of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mississippi, focused on understanding the lived experiences of the pastors during the pandemic and how they aided their congregations to limit and reduce the viruss impact on their health and well-being. Approximately 40 pastors participated in the study.

The study is one of the first to investigate the role that African American pastors played in helping to mobilize their communities for public health safety, addressing the state mandates, and ensuring the members remained abreast of health guidelines, policies, and resources.

Funchess notes that pastors found themselves treading unfamiliar terrain as the COVID crisis became widespread. She and her colleagues sought to explore how African American pastors reacted to the virus restrictions and limitations.

Due to the guidelines at the onslaught of COVID-19, several services and programs that are embedded in the fabric of the Black communitys culture and relegated as core responsibilities of the church became restricted or stopped altogether, said Funchess. Services such as visiting the sick at hospitals, church leadership officiating congregants funerals or supporting them through the loss of a loved, hosting face-to-face worship services, and physically interacting with their congregants were either suspended, limited or stopped completely.

The study participants consisted of the head pastors, associate pastors and senior pastors of churches located in the northern, central, and southern regions of Mississippi. Each shared their approaches and strategies for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, including how they transitioned to online and web-based communication while adhering to the states COVID-19 mandates, maintained operations despite having no to limited physical presence in the sanctuary, and disseminated health education, information and supplies to their members and throughout their communities.

The research showed that at the onslaught of COVID-19 and following executive orders, 90 percent of the pastors stopped or restricted services in March 2020. While 10 percent of the pastors had established health ministries to help with information and resource dissemination, other pastors were actively involved in sifting through the abundant materials and communication to ensure culturally appropriate and plain language COVID-19 information was shared with the members via online technologies.

A few of the pastors were engaged with their local government which had formed COVID action teams as a way of securing information and resources for their members. Though pastors were being personally affected by the virus, some losing loved ones and facing insurmountable pressures, they maintained the spiritual diligence for counseling their members facing mental stressors, relationship woes, and trauma due to the virus.

The study reinforced the importance of the African American pastors role to the members and the community and revealed how effective they are as a resource for disseminating pertinent health information during times of crises, and their ability to affect behavior change for the better among their congregants.

Pastors in this study were relentless, Funchess emphasized. They tried numerous approaches to keep their congregants safe, while implementing COVID-19 guidelines. Pastors can adapt in times of crises in ways that satisfy the diverse needs of their congregants to include, spiritual, emotional, financial and social needs.

For more information about the study, contact Dr. Tanya Funchess at 601-266-5437 or tanya.funchessFREEMississippi
Canadas Catholic Bishops establish a new registered charity to support and advance healing and reconciliation initiatives. The charity is expected to manage the Indigenous Reconciliation Fund, which will accept contributions from 73 dioceses across Canada in order to fulfill the $30 million financial commitment made by Canadas Bishops in September.

By Lisa Zengarini

Following their $30 million financial pledge to support healing and reconciliation initiatives for residential school survivors, their families, and communities, the Canadian Bishops have announced the establishment of an Indigenous Reconciliation Fund which will accept contributions granted to this end by the 73 dioceses across the country.

Transparency and good governance

The fund will be managed by a new registered charity, which will include Indigenous members, to ensure transparency and good governance. It is expected to publish annual reports and will be subject to an audit by an independent accounting firm each year.

The Bishops of Canada are fully committed to addressing the historical and ongoing trauma caused by the residential school system, said Bishop Raymond Poisson, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB). In moving forward with our collective financial commitment, we will continue to be guided by the experience and wisdom of Indigenous peoples across the country.

Healing and reconciliation

According to a statement by the CCCB, funds collected are intended primarily for healing and reconciliation for communities and families; culture and language revitalization; education and community building; and dialogues for promoting indigenous spirituality and culture.

Regional and/or Diocesan Granting Committees will be established to identify projects that further the funds priorities, review applications, and request funds to support such projects. These committees will include Indigenous and Catholic membership and Bishops recommend that they be chaired by local Indigenous partners.

Read also 09/12/2021 Canada's Bishop Poisson: 'We don't want to leave Rome without a new date' This year, Canadas entire population will be engaged in the National Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, says the President of Canadas Conference of Bishops. In ...

The residential school system

Residential schools were compulsory boarding schools funded by the Canadian government and run by Church institutions during the 19th and 20th centuries with the aim of assimilating indigenous youth into Euro-Canadian culture.

However, the schools disrupted lives and communities and many children suffered neglect and abuse causing long-term problems among Indigenous peoples. Overall, some 150,000 First Nation, Inuit, and Metis children were forced to attend these schools between the 1870s and 1997.

Since the last school closed, former students have demanded recognition and compensation, resulting in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2007 and a formal public apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008.

A seven-year inquiry by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) concluded in 2015 that over 4,000 children died while attending these schools, many due to abuse, negligence, or disease.

The Bishops' formal apology

The discovery of hundreds of remains and unmarked graves on the grounds of three former Catholic-run residential schools during the summer of 2021 has drawn new public attention to this tragedy, and in September Bishops issued a formal statement of apology and pledged $30 million dollars (CDN) to support the healing and reconciliation process. Pope Francis, too, has joined the Bishops in expressing closeness to the victims. An indigenous delegation was expected to meet the Pope in the Vatican in December 2021, but the visit was postponed due to COVID-19.

In their statement last week, the Canadian Bishops recognized the shortcomings of the previous Catholic fundraising campaign tied to the 2007 Indian Residential School Settlement and pledged that the new Indigenous Reconciliation Fund will be well managed, with appropriate oversight.
Normal, IL (61790)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. High around 55F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain. Thunder possible. Low 53F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
WASHINGTON  New York's new congressional map includes a district that unites the Niagara region with the Thousand Islands region, one in Manhattan that resembles a snake run over by a car and yet another that somehow gives some people in Westchester County and Long Island the same member of Congress.

And to hear the experts tell it, it's not at all the kind of map voters expected when they passed a constitutional amendment in 2014 creating an independent redistricting commission that was supposed to take partisan politics out of the process.

Erie County would be split among three congressional districts under remap While the Buffalo-based district in the proposed plan would be largely Democratic, the other two districts including parts of Erie County consist largely of smaller communities and rural territory and are most likely to be represented by Republicans.

Instead, experts said, voters got a gerrymandered map drawn by the State Legislature's Democratic majority, one that heavily favors Democrats to the point that it could help them maintain control of the House in the 2022 election.

"The fact that New York could end up with such an egregious congressional map represents a failure for the states new redistricting process," wrote Nathaniel Rakich, a senior elections analyst at the FiveThirtyEight election blog.

Democrats and Republicans on the redistricting commission couldn't agree on a new congressional map, so they turned the map-making process over to the State Legislature.

Chris Jacobs, Claudia Tenney plan to move to represent new districts Watertown might be about to get a new congressman from Orchard Park, and Hamburg might be about to get a new congresswoman from the Utica area.

The result, Rakich wrote, is a map with 20 heavily Democratic seats, four heavily Republican seats and only two competitive seats, which are both in the Hudson Valley and which both modestly favor Democrats.

In effect, the map could cut the state's GOP congressional delegation in half  and give the Democrats a national edge in the redistricting process.

"One of the biggest takeaways from the congressional redistricting process thus far has been that neither party has made major gains," Rakich wrote. "But the congressional map that New York legislators just introduced is so skewed toward Democrats that it could single-handedly change that."

That's not at all what supporters of that 2014 referendum had in mind. Steve Romalewski, director of the City University of New York Mapping Service, said the idea was to put the redistricting process in the hands of the people, rather than allowing politicians to, in essence, draw their own districts.

But since the commission failed, "we're back at square one, where the elected officials are choosing now," said Romalewski, who shepherds a "Redistricting and You" website at CUNY.

That failure  and the partisan map Democrats in Albany produced  left the New York State Republican Committee threatening legal action.

These maps are the most brazen and outrageous attempt at rigging the election to keep Nancy Pelosi as speaker," said Nicholas A. Langworthy, the state Republican chairman.

Even some Democrats griped about the maps.

Cynthia Appleton, the Democratic chairwoman in Wyoming County, lamented that her county and Livingston County would be split between the 23rd and 24th districts.

"It is an absolute travesty," she said on Twitter.

Nate McMurray, a former Democratic congressional candidate, offered a more succinct description of new congressional map.

"It's nuts," he said on Twitter.

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Scotland has shown eagerness to support Vietnams offshore wind power development during a meeting between its First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the sidelines of the 2021 Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.

Vietnam has proposed collaboration in the form of foreign investment, technology transfer, and human resource training as the country aims to increase wind power capacity to 18 GW from its current 0.6 GW contribution by 2030.

This is also part of the governments draft power development plan eight (PDP 8) for 2021-2030 with a vision to 2045. PDP 8 looks to solidify Vietnams commitment to renewables more broadly, especially in expanding solar and wind power in the countrys electricity generation mix.

Scotland, meanwhile, has rapidly transitioned away from fossil fuel power. In 2020, the country saw the equivalent of 97.4 percent of gross electricity consumption was generated from renewable sources. The country aims to generate half of its total energy consumption from renewable resources by 2030 and reach its net-zero emissions target by 2045.

Vietnams burgeoning electricity needs

Vietnam has catapulted from one of the worlds poorest countries into a lower-middle-income nation in one generation and with it, demand for electricity has increased at an average of 10 percent per year over the last five years. This demand was catered through the imports of coal for coal-fired power plants; more than half of the countrys electricity generation came from coal in 2020.

The country needs US$150 billion in new capital investments for electricity generation and grid upgrades to meet increasing electricity demands by 2030, increasing Vietnams energy capacity to 138GW. Between 2021 and 2025, the countrys power demand is forecast to rise 8.6 percent per year and 7.2 percent per year between 2026 and 2030.

The government issued a new Resolution 21 in January 2020 which sets out a plan for power generation in the country. Under the resolution, wind power has been given priority over other energy sources. Among wind projects, priority is further given based on location.

Wind power opportunities in Vietnam

Vietnams climate and topography naturally lend themselves to wind power, with average annual wind speeds reaching as high as 10m/s in southeast provinces and a coastline stretching more than 3,000km.

As such, offshore wind power has significant room for growth as a scalable alternative to coal imports. The country also relies on hydroelectric power and is home to several large rivers including the Mekong. Hydroelectric power formed 26 percent of the total electricity generation in 2020, but this is set to reduce from 2030 onwards as hydros reliability is impacted by periods of drought and water shortages.

For offshore wind power, however, the World Bank forecasts that Vietnams potential could reach 500GW by 2030, and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie predicts Vietnam to account for 66 percent of total new wind capacity to be added to Southeast Asia by the same year. In comparison, Germany only has 8GW of offshore wind capacity and a countrywide total of 62GW installed.

There are several challenges in expanding this sector, namely related to high costs. Wind projects have a higher financial barrier to entry, with the average total installed costs for offshore wind power coming to US$3,200 per kilowatt, compared with US$900 for solar panels.

Further, wind projects can have a two-year construction period and few original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) produce the technology. PV-cell manufacturers, however, are widespread in Vietnam and so their construction costs are much lower.

Government incentives

The government is actively encouraging foreign investors to develop offshore wind projects in Vietnam.

Around 36GW is registered for development, situated in Bac Lieu, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ben Tre, Ba RiaVung Tau, and Binh Dinh provinces.

They are also entitled to state loans and tax and non-tax incentives which include:

A 10 percent applicable corporate income tax (CIT) rate for 15 years, which can be extended to 30 years in special cases;

A CIT exemption period of up to four years; Goods imported as materials, raw materials, and semi-finished products which Vietnam is unable to produce and used for the wind project are tax-free; and

A CIT reduction of 50 percent for up to nine years.

Further, the government is debating on whether to extend the current feed-in tariff (FIT) for onshore wind projects of US$0.85 per kWh and US$0.98 per kWh for offshore projects until March 31, 2022.
In a new report, Amnesty International accuses Israel of maintaining a policy of apartheid against Palestinians by seizing their land and property, carrying out unlawful killings and denying them citizenship.

The group is calling for an International Criminal Court investigation. Israel rejects the report as anti-Semitic and mistaken.

In a more than 200-page report, Amnesty International accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to a system of apartheid. It accused the Jewish state of maintaining policies that create what it describes as a system of oppression and domination over the Palestinians.

The report, which Amnesty said took more than four years to complete, called for the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel.

Amnesty thus joins several other human rights organizations in accusing Israel of apartheid and a policy of segregation, dispossession and exclusion. It does not make a distinction between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel has controlled since 1967 but has not annexed.

The report calls on the international community to stop supplying Israel with weapons and economic assistance. It also said that the International Criminal Court should investigate possible crimes against humanity that may have been committed by both Israel and Hamas during the conflicts between them.

Palestinian officials in both the West Bank and Gaza welcomed the report.

Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the report  in his view  reflects the reality of life for Palestinians.

He said that Hamas appreciates and respects the report, which he said shows Israels policy to expand settlements and confiscate land in the West Bank and to besiege Gaza.

Israeli officials sharply rejected the report, calling on Amnesty to withdraw it. Even before the report was issued, the Israeli government ruled it was anti-Semitic.

Anne Herzberg is a lawyer with NGO Monitor, a right-leaning research institute in Jerusalem.

Essentially, Amnestys report, and that is the essence of it, is aimed at relitigating the legitimacy of Israels founding," Herzberg said. "Apartheid is a legal term, stemming from policies and practices in southern Africa that ended in the 1990s and that has been instrumentalized in order to denigrate Zionism and attack Israels legitimacy.

Israeli officials said they were not consulted or offered a chance to rebut Amnesty's allegations. But Amnesty is a reputable human rights organization, and analysts said the report could damage Israel's international reputation.

Amnesty International rejected the Israeli criticism and said its findings were based on legal analysis and extensive research.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday the U.S. and its allies have ignored Russia's top security demands that they deny Ukraine membership in the NATO military alliance and pull back their weaponry near Russia, while the U.S. reiterated its "commitment" to Ukraine and its territorial integrity.

The dueling statements failed to ease tensions over Moscow's deployment of more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine's eastern flank, although Russia has denied it intends to invade the onetime Soviet republic.

Putin, in his first public comments on the standoff with the West over Ukraine in more than a month, said at a news conference that the Kremlin was still studying the U.S. and NATO response to Russian security demands received last week.

The West has refused to rule out Ukraine membership in NATO, saying no outside country has veto power over who belongs in the U.S.-led military alliance formed after World War II.

"It's already clear now ... that fundamental Russian concerns were ignored," Putin told reporters.

He also said, however, that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if the interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account, The Associated Press reported.

"I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that it's not going to be easy," Putin said, according to AP.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized U.S. "commitment" to Ukraine in a call Tuesday with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the State Department said.

Blinken urged "immediate Russian de-escalation" of the crisis along Ukraine's eastern flank by withdrawing its troops.

Blinken and Lavrov spoke a day after United Nations representatives from the two countries faced off at the U.N. Security Council over allegations that Russia is planning a large-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, which leans to Western allies for military and diplomatic support.

Blinken emphasized U.S. willingness, along with its allies, "to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

But Blinken "further reiterated the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances," Price said in a reference to Ukraine's stated desire to join NATO.

Blinken also reiterated the U.S. threat to impose "swift and severe" economic sanctions against Moscow if it invades Ukraine.

Putin held his news conference after meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Moscow.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Kyiv for discussions with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

"We urge Russia to step back and engage in dialogue to find a diplomatic resolution and avoid further bloodshed," Johnson said in a statement.

Britain, like the United States and other Western allies, has provided weapons to Ukraine, and Johnson is considering doubling British troops in the Baltic countries.

Blinken and Lavrov held face-to-face talks January 21 in Geneva, and since then, the two sides have exchanged written responses to try to make their positions clear.

The United States received a Russian response letter Monday, but State Department officials declined to discuss its contents, citing a desire to keep the negotiation process private.

Later this month, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is traveling to Europe to meet with NATO allies amid tensions with Russia.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, speaking in an interview with VOA on Tuesday, said that Austin would attend the in-person NATO defense ministerial hosted by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on February 16-17.

Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
Tonga will go into COVID-19 lockdown Wednesday after the coronavirus was detected in a fresh blow to the Pacific kingdom as it struggles to recover from last month's devastating volcanic eruption, officials said.

The remote island nation had been virus free, but Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said two men tested positive this week in Nuku'alofa.

He said the men had been working in the capital's port, where humanitarian aid has been pouring in from around the globe since the January 15 eruption.

In a national address late Tuesday, Sovaleni said Tonga would enter lockdown starting at 6 p.m. local time (0500 GMT) Wednesday, with the situation reviewed every 48 hours.

The volcanic blast, one of the biggest recorded in decades, generated massive tsunami waves and blanketed the island nation in toxic ash, claiming three lives.

Tonga closed its borders in early 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe.

Since then, the nation of 100,000 had recorded one case of COVID-19, a man who returned from New Zealand in October last year and has since fully recovered.

However, the devastating blast from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, which lies about 65 kilometers north of the capital Nuku'alofa, created what the Tongan government describes as an unprecedented disaster.

In response, navy ships from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, France and Britain have delivered aid including drinking water, medical supplies and engineering equipment.

All of the deliveries have been handled using strict "no-contact" protocols in a bid to keep the virus at bay.

Sovaleni did not reveal that ship the affected men had been working with.

He said they were asymptomatic and double vaccinated, along with about 85% of Tonga's population.

Australia's HMAS Adelaide docked in Nuku'alofa to unload supplies last week, despite a COVID-19 outbreak that infected more than 20 of its crew.

A United Nations update late last week said drinking water remained the main challenge facing Tonga and about 1,500 people were still displaced.

Communications remain patchy after the eruption damaged an undersea cable that connects Tonga to the rest of the world.

Officials said a specialist cable repair ship was expected to arrive this week and would take at least two weeks to fix the damage.


Ethiopian Airlines, one of the largest carriers in Africa, has said it will resume flying Boeing 737 MAX planes beginning Tuesday, nearly three years after a deadly crash of the same plane.

In a statement to the French news agency AFP, the airline said the decision came after a thorough certification process by regulators across the globe, including the United States, Europe and Asia, as well as Ethiopia.

All 737 MAX planes were grounded worldwide in March 2019, after the aircraft crashed near the Ethiopian town of Bishoftu, killing all 157 people on board.

The previous October, the crash of a 737 MAX in Indonesia killed 189.

Boeing has since made design changes to the aircraft, and the planes have returned to service in most countries. Indonesia recertified the plane in December.

Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewelde Gebremariam said the company will be among the last airlines to resume flying the MAX model.

Tewelde said the airline has taken more than 20 months to monitor and recertify the plane.

The airline said its pilots and technicians have been fully trained regarding the planes modifications.
For the last eight years, Ukraine has lived under a permanent state of alert, with the constant threat of Russian intervention in its territory. The fear and tension have led many civilians to seek military training to be prepared in the event of a conflict. Jonathan Spier narrates this report for VOA from Ricardo Marquina in Kyiv.
The capital of Guinea-Bissau appeared calm after an apparent coup attempt Tuesday.

President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, a former army general, addressed the nation Tuesday night. He appeared in a video posted to the presidency's Facebook page to describe the attack.

"It wasn't just a coup. It was an attempt to kill the president, the prime minister and all the Cabinet," he said. Earlier Tuesday, gunfire reportedly broke out in a compound in Bissau where the president was holding a Cabinet meeting.

Embalo said the attack "was well-prepared and organized and could also be related to people involved in drug trafficking," according to a Reuters report. He gave no further details in the video.



It was not clear whether there were any injuries or fatalities. Also unclear was who was behind the apparent attempted coup, which Reuters characterized as "stalled."

In a statement provided on Twitter, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional bloc of 15 West African states, called the attack a coup.

"ECOWAS condemns this coup attempt and holds the military responsible for the bodily integrity of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the members of his government," the statement said.

Embalo was declared the winner of the 2020 elections, but the results have been contested by his opponent, Domingos Simoes Pereira.

Embalo started to form a new government with the support of the military even while a supreme court challenge to the election was ongoing.

United Nations spokesperson said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is "deeply concerned with the news of heavy fighting in Bissau" and asked for "an immediate end to the fighting and for full respect of the country's democratic institutions."

The country of 1.5 million people gained independence from Portugal in 1974 and has experienced four coups and more than 12 coup attempts since, The Associated Press reported.

Since August 2020, military coups have occurred in the West African countries of Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.

Some information in this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.


Indias government has pledged to spend billions of dollars on public infrastructure to reboot an economy that is bouncing back from the massive contraction it suffered during the novel coronavirus pandemic. But concerns remain about an uneven pace of growth that has seen big businesses flourish but its vast unorganized sector struggle.

Asias third largest economy is projected to grow at 8% to 8.5% this year, according to government figures.

The strong economic recovery began last year despite a deadly second wave of COVID with growth estimated at 9.2% in the financial year that will end in March.

The economy has shown strong resilience to come out of the effects of the pandemic with high growth, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said as she presented the countrys annual budget Tuesday. However, we need to sustain that level to make up for the setback of 2020-21.

The budget increases spending to $533 billion in the coming year from $477 billion.

She announced that the government would spend $2.7 billion to build highways and $6.4 billion on housing for the poor. It will also expand rail networks, ports and airports, manufacture energy efficient trains and extend credit guarantees to small businesses.

Sitharaman said climate action is a priority and promised to focus on electric mobility and solar power in a bid to reduce the countrys carbon emissions.

I am conscious of the need to nurture growth through public investment to become stronger and more sustainable, Sitharaman said.

Economists have welcomed the governments decision to step up spending. The decision to increase public investment to 2.9% of gross domestic product, is rock solid and good news and should attract private investment into infrastructure, says Santosh Mehrotra, a human development economist and author of the book Reviving Jobs: An Agenda for Growth.

According to the finance minister, the new investments would help create six million jobs over the next five years.

Mehrotra however points out that this fails to address the scale of the challenge India faces. The unemployment crisis we face is huge. Five to six million people join the labor force every year. That is on top of the unemployed we already have. That number was 30 million in the year 2019 and it has only grown post the pandemic by another 10 million, says Mehrotra. And we also have millions who want to come out of agriculture into non-farming jobs.

The unemployment challenge was underlined last week by violent protests by job seekers that erupted in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Several economists point out that while Indias economy has rebounded, growth has not percolated down as its vast informal sector, which provides most livelihoods, continues to reel under the impact of long shutdowns imposed when infections spiraled during the last two years. Tens of thousands of small enterprises have shut down. That has widened income inequalities with an estimated 80% of households losing incomes during the pandemic.

But there is optimism as a third wave of the pandemic driven by the omicron variant begins to recede. Indias vaccination program has made significant progress since July last year  75% of adults are fully inoculated. That is creating confidence in opening most sectors of the economy.

The economy is in a good place to grow strongly into the next year or two, the finance ministrys principal economic advisor, Sanjeev Sanyal, said while presenting the countrys economic survey on Monday.

Indias economic growth two years into the pandemic is seen as the fastest among major economies in the world. The revival comes after its economy shrank in 2020 by 6.6%  the sharpest dip in 40 years that came after a long and stringent shutdown.

India also said the countrys central bank will introduce a digital rupee this year using blockchain technology, becoming one of the first major countries to do so and said it will levy a 30% tax on income from virtual digital assets.
Tensions between Mali and former colonial power France have hit a new low with the military government giving the French ambassador until Thursday to leave the country. Annie Risemberg speaks to analysts about where relations are headed in this report from Malis capital, Bamako.

The French ambassador to Mali, Joel Meyer, has been given 72 hours from Monday to leave the West African country.

Meyer was summoned to the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to remarks made by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

On Friday, Le Drian said Malis military junta, which seized power last May, was out of control and illegitimate.

Speaking on state television ORTM on Monday evening, Malis minister of foreign affairs, Abdoulaye Diop, acknowledged that the ambassador has been ordered to depart.

Diop said the ambassador is welcome to return if France changes its position on Mali but stated that France calling into question the legitimacy of the Malian government is a line that neither ECOWAS nor the U.N. has crossed.

He says this declaration is to call into question the legality and legitimacy of the authorities, with whom precisely the French ambassador is accredited. This creates a very difficult situation, because you cannot be accredited by an authority that you do not recognize yourself.

Anna Schmauder is a Sahel researcher at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael Institute, a think tank focused on international affairs. She spoke via a messaging application from The Hague.

Well, I would say after this escalation and the expulsion of the French ambassador, the retreat of the entirety of the French Barkhane mission from Mali is definitely on the table, she said.



Operation Barkhane is a French-led anti-insurgent operation in the Sahel launched in 2014.

Schmauder says any changes to the Barkhane mission in Mali will also likely affect the French-led European Takuba Task Force, and possibly even the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA.

But she adds that its too early to say what exactly could be the political fallout, because such a significant decline in Mali-France relations is without precedent.

Kalilou Sidibe, a professor of political science at the University of Legal and Political Sciences of Bamako and a political analyst, said the expulsion of the ambassador could push France to relocate the Barkhane base, which is currently in Gao, Mali, to another country in the Sahel.

He says despite the diplomatic setback, France plays an important role in the fight against Islamist groups.

Via a messaging application from Bamako, Sidibe also said that aside from the military implications, humanitarian projects could now be at risk.

"France invests and intervenes in several development and humanitarian programs in Mali," he says. "If they suspend the financing of these, this will have a negative impact in terms of livelihood for the community, in terms of access to basic resources, social services, sanitation, hygiene, education, and health."

Both Schmauder and Sidibe underscore that the expulsion of the ambassador does not signify a total rupture in diplomatic relations.
The streets of major cities across Myanmar are empty as residents heed a call to observe a silent strike Tuesday to mark the one-year anniversary of the militarys overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyis civilian government.

Activists are urging residents across the country to stay home and for their businesses to shut their doors to protest the coup. Junta leaders have threatened to seize businesses and arrest anyone who shares any information about the strike. The Associated Press says at least 58 people across Myanmar have been arrested since last week after posting on Facebook that their shops and businesses will be closed Tuesday, according to reports from the state-run Myanmar Alinn Daily newspaper.

The military seized power on February 1, 2021, detaining Suu Kyi, the de facto head of the civilian government, and other high-ranking officials, claiming widespread fraud in the general election the previous November, which Suu Kyis National League for Democracy Party won in a landslide over the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

On Monday, junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing extended the current state of emergency imposed after last year's coup for another six months.

An independent activist group, the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, said at least 1,500 people have been killed in violent protests against the military regime since the February 1, 2021 coup.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement Tuesday that we are seeing the regimes human rights abuses and violations escalate, as well as an increasingly severe humanitarian crisis.

She said the United States has pursued a variety of actions with the United Nations to address Myanmar, including pressuring the junta to reverse course and return to the path of democracy.

Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. also co-sponsored a U.N. resolution calling for the prevention of arms entering the country, and lobbied to keep Myanmar on the U.N. Security Councils agenda.

The U.N. Security Council must demonstrate through concrete action that the world demands a political solution to end their suffering, stop the flow of arms into Burma, release political prisoners and return to a political process, she said.

Thomas-Greenfield also accused the military government of blocking shipments of COVID-19 vaccine and other humanitarian aid and attacking aid workers during the pandemic.

Suu Kyi has been tried and convicted on numerous charges brought by the junta, including inciting public unrest, breaking COVID-19 restrictions and illegally importing and possessing portable two-way radios. She goes on trial February 14 on new charges of influencing the countrys election commission during the 2020 elections.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse.
Syndicated columnist Marc Thiessens Jan. 28 opinion piece in The Buffalo News was titled If Biden cant stand up to Germany, how can he stand up to Putin? Its laughably ironic that Thiessen is calling President Biden weak on Vladimir Putin, when Thiessen hasnt found even an ounce of courage to stand up to Donald Trump, Putins most outspoken enabler and cheerleader over the past six years. Where was Thiessens condemnation of President Trumps groveling appeasement of Putin at the Helsinki summit in 2018?

If Thiessen is so concerned about Putins imminent invasion of Ukraine, where was Thiessens outrage when Trump summoned his MAGA troops into Washington and incited them into violently invading the Capitol in an attempted overthrow of the government of the United States? Thiessen has no problem acting tough on the authoritarian in the Kremlin but melts into a spineless, sniveling slug when it comes to standing up to the authoritarian in Mar-a-Lago. Why hasnt Thiessen directed his ire against conspiratorial seditionists and autocratic acolytes such as Tucker Carlson of Fox News who openly sides with Putin and the Russians regarding the Ukraine crisis? Until the day comes when Thiessen finds the courage to condemn the authoritarian mouthpieces of Fox News and their golden idol, Donald Trump, then Marc Thiessen has no standing to criticize Biden as being unable to stand up to Putin.
Nigerian authorities have sent security reinforcements to areas in three states where armed groups killed scores of people over the weekend. Nigerian police say the gangs targeted civilians and security personnel in Nigeria's northwest and central states of Niger, Katsina and Kaduna. Security analysts say the attacks underscore authorities' failure to stem violence in the regions.

The attacks last weekend were some of the deadliest seen in northern Nigeria over the past year.

Authorities said the gangs, referred to locally as bandits, killed 12 people in Katsina, 11 in Niger, and 11 in Kaduna states. Some of the victims were burned alive as the attackers rained terror on communities, razing down houses.

Niger state authorities say fatalities included security personnel who were killed when gunmen overran a security base in the Shiroro local government area.

Commissioner of police Monday Bala-Kuryas says authorities are responding to the attacks.

"We have beefed up security in that place. And what we're doing also...areas that are closer (to the affected area) where we suspect bandits are there, we have also mobilized officers to those places and we're monitoring," said the Niger state police commissioner.

Authorities have also deployed heavily armed security reinforcements to the affected areas in Kaduna and Katsina states.

Authorities have not announced any arrests in connection with the attacks.

On Tuesday, Katsina State police spokesperson, Gambo Isah, said an undetermined number of people were also kidnapped in a separate attack in the state.

Security analyst Kabiru Adamu says security threats will persist unless government's forces dislodge forest hideouts known where the gangs usually take cover.

"They need to dominate it and by dominating it I mean, to take over those forests so that these bandits don't have space to operate in any longer. Any effort that is done and those forests are [still] left unoccupied, it means these bandits will still come through them especially in this instance where these gunmen are able to move across borders," Adamu expressed.

But the lingering security problems have been stretching Nigeria's internal security architecture.

Late last year Nigeria designated the groups as terrorist organizations. Experts say in theory, the designation gives security forces more fighting power and makes punishment against offenders more defined.

But security analyst Ebenezer Oyetakin says corruption is preventing authorities from making much progress.

"Our security forces, our security intelligence should get their acts together. We have compromised elements in our security system, in the financial system and in the society, he noted.

Last month, some 200 people were killed and about 10,000 displaced after armed gangs launched a reprisal in northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara following military air raids on their hideouts.
Pfizer on Tuesday asked the U.S. to authorize extra-low doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5, potentially opening the way for the very youngest Americans to start receiving shots as early as March.

In an extraordinary move, the Food and Drug Administration had urged Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to apply earlier than the companies had planned.

The nation's 19 million children under 5 are the only group not yet eligible for vaccination against the coronavirus. Many parents have been pushing for an expansion of shots to toddlers and preschoolers, especially as the omicron wave sent record numbers of youngsters to the hospital.

If the FDA agrees, Pfizer shots containing just one-tenth of the dose given to adults could be dispensed to children as young as 6 months.

An open question is how many shots those youngsters will need. Pfizer is testing three shots after two of the extra-low doses turned out to be strong enough for babies but not for preschoolers, and the final data from the study isn't expected until late March.

That means the FDA may consider whether to authorize two shots for now, with potentially a third shot being cleared later if the study supports it.

The agency's decision could come within weeks, but that isn't the only hurdle. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has to sign off.

The Biden administration has been trying to speed the authorization of COVID-19 shots for children, contending vaccinations are critical for opening schools and day care centers and keeping them open, and for freeing up parents from child care duties so they can go back to work.

Yet vaccination rates have been lower among children than in other age groups. As of last week, just 20% of kids ages 5 to 11 and just over half of 12- to 17-year-olds were fully vaccinated, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Nearly three-quarters of adults are fully vaccinated.

While young children are far less likely than adults to get severely ill from the coronavirus, it can happen, and pediatric COVID-19 infections are higher than at any other point in the pandemic.

"What we're seeing right now is still a lot of hospitalizations and unfortunately some deaths in this age group," said Dr. Sean O'Leary of the University of Colorado, who is on the AAP's infectious disease committee. If the FDA clears vaccinations for these youngsters, "that's going to be really important because all of those hospitalizations and deaths essentially are preventable."



For kids under 5, Pfizer's study is giving participants two shots three weeks apart, followed by a third dose at least two months later. The company is testing whether the youngsters produce antibody levels similar to those known to protect teens and young adults.

In December, Pfizer announced that children under 2 looked to be protected but that the antibody response was too low in 2- to 4-year-olds. It's not clear why, but one possibility is that the extra-low dose was a little too low for the preschoolers.

Since the preliminary results showed the shots were safe, Pfizer added a third dose to the testing in hopes of improving protection.

Given how well boosters are working for older age groups, "it makes some sense" that younger children could benefit from a third shot, O'Leary said. "I certainly can understand where both the company and the FDA are coming from in terms of wanting to move this along, anticipating that there's going to be a third dose down the line."


The U.N. Childrens Fund, UNICEF, warns three years of successive drought in Ethiopias lowland regions of Afar, Oromia, The Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples and Somali is threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of people.

Failed rains over the past three years have dried up water wells, killing livestock and crops, pushing hundreds of thousands of children and their families over the edge. UNICEF predicts 6.8 million people will need life-saving humanitarian aid by mid-March.

It warns conditions could get even worse if the hoped-for rainy season in April does not come. Speaking from the capital, Addis Ababa, UNICEF representative in Ethiopia Gianfranco Rotigliano said the impact of acute food and water shortages already is visible, especially in the two most affected regions, Somali and Oromia.

We have already some, more than 220,000 children and 100,000 pregnant and lactating women that need urgent nutrition supportIn the regions, the rate of acute malnutrition is already at 20 percent, which is well above the rate that we have as global emergencies, which is estimated at 15 percent, he said.

UNICEF estimates 850,000 children across the four regions will be severely malnourished this year due to conflict, drought, and a poor economy. Rotigliano said nutrition centers must be urgently improved so acutely malnourished children can be quickly admitted and treated correctly.

All of that is something that should be done within the next two to three weeks. So, it is extremely urgent that we move on swiftly and rapidly and not wait for the usual situation, which we see. You know, the devastating effect of famine and all of that, he said.

UNICEF says more than 155,000 children in Somali and Oromia regions have dropped out of school to help find and fetch water in the parched landscape for their families and cattle. It warns children who are out of school are at risk of exploitation.

The childrens agency is appealing for nearly $32 million to provide lifesaving support to more than two million people in the four lowland regions over the next six months.
Many in Taiwan are carefully watching the U.S. response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, seeing parallels to Taipeis embattled relationship with China, which tests Taiwan's air defenses almost daily.

Asked how Taiwan would react if the U.S. government does little or nothing to help Ukraine in response to a Russian attack, pro-Taiwan activist Ken Wu said he believes the Taiwanese would feel definitely disheartened, and also theyll be disappointed, and theyll feel that if China invades Taiwan, then thats exactly how the U.S. will treat Taiwan.

Wu is vice president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, which lobbies Congress for pro-Taiwan action.

Two threats, three superpowers

Russia has deployed hundreds of tanks, howitzers and self-propelled artillery along with tens of thousands of troops near its land border with Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. Russia annexed Crimea, once a part of Ukraine, in 2014.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC's Meet the Press show January 23 that the United States is preparing massive consequences for Russia if it invades Ukraine again."

The U.S. pullout from Afghanistan in August, ushering in Taliban rule, raised questions in Taiwan and elsewhere around Asia about Washingtons resolve.

If the U.S. were to do anything in Ukraine, it would be I guess viewed as an act of redemption, but still I think after Afghanistan, its very difficult for countries around the world to be fully dependent on the U.S., said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, although the two sides have been separately ruled since Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedongs Communists and retreated to the island.

Beijing has not renounced the use of force if needed to bring Taiwan under its flag. While the U.S. does not have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, Washington sells arms to Taiwan, maintains aircraft carriers in the region and has in place the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which says the United States maintains the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.

Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency recently described Taiwans independence efforts as doomed to fail. The report in January quoted Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for Chinas Taiwan Affairs Office, saying the Taiwanese leadership was creating an illusion of the reliability of the United States regarding the situation in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has discouraged the U.S. from encouraging Taiwans independence.

Views from Taipei

Leaders in Taiwan are already drawing parallels to Ukraine.

Taiwan has faced the long-term military threat of China and deeply recognizes that rising tensions could trigger war, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei said in a January 27 press statement. Our government urges all sides to respect Ukraines sovereign independence and territorial integrity and oppose one-sided changes to the status quo.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told her National Security Council a day later to form a task force that would follow developments in Ukraine.

Close to 60% of Taiwans rank and file anticipate help from the United States if attacked by China, Taipei-based CommonWealth Magazine found in a January 12 survey.

If the U.S. did not defend Ukraine in an attack from Russia this time, I think Taiwanese including me should reassess the U.S. determination on militarily helping Taiwan when it comes to the invasion of China, said Wang Wei-chieh, a university student and co-founder of the FBC2E International Affairs Facebook page.

In that scenario, Wang said, Taiwanese should understand that the recent U.S. administration and society are not willing to sacrifice their troops for foreign countries.

U.S. policymakers ultimately see Taiwan as more crucial to American interests than Ukraine or Afghanistan, says one scholar.

If Taiwan falls, then the whole of Asia will fall, Korea and Japan and everywhere, said Shane Lee, a retired political science professor from Chang Jung Christian University in Taiwan.

Washington sees Taiwan as a core Asia Pacific ally that can help contain the expansion of China, according to James Lee, a researcher with the UC San Diego Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

If Taiwan were to be taken over and its democracy extinguished, that would be a disaster for the global spread of democratic values, he said in an interview.

Fabrizio Bozzato, senior research fellow at the Tokyo-based Sasakawa Peace Foundations Ocean Policy Research Institute, said Taiwan would have nowhere else to look for superpower support if the United States showed weakness on Ukraine.

In case the U.S. hesitates or declines to take swift action, even military action to counter Russia in Ukraine, there will be a lot of concern in Taipei because it will be an omen of Washingtons indecision, unwillingness, hesitancy to protect Taiwan from an attack or an invasion from China, Bozzato said.
At least 10 people were killed and 15 were wounded when rival clan militias clashed in central Somalia, residents and community elders said Tuesday.

The battle broke out in the neighborhoods of the Balanbal district in the Galgaduud region. Both sides used rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft guns and assault rifles, witnesses and officials said.

What sparked the battle between the Ayr and Marehan clans remains unclear, but the two rival groups have had a history of repeated disputes about pasture rights, water wells and other clan disagreements.

We call for the cessation of hostility. It is unfortunate that two brotherly clans fight over trivial matters, while their families are suffering from a severe drought, said Moalim Sugaal Guuled, a respected religious scholar in the region.

The clashes come at a time when escalating drought in Somalia is creating a massive displacement crisis.

Somali authorities and international aid agencies say 245,000 people have already fled their homes, with numbers projected to reach up to 1.4 million if the drought continues.

Meanwhile, a military court in the central Somali town of Galkayo handed down death sentences Tuesday for five al-Shabab militants accused of killing several people.

Two other defendants were sentenced to life in prison.

The defendants, all between the ages of 18 and 21, appeared in the military court in prisoners uniforms. Some of them looked shocked and confused, according to witnesses at the court hearing.

At the court, before the sentence were announced, one of the defendants shouted, We are innocent, and we were framed up!

After court proceedings, including hearings and the presentation of evidence, the court sentences these men to death and jail terms, said the court verdict. The defendants were responsible for the killing of 10 people, among them two members of parliament and three senior military officers.

The defendants have 30 days to appeal the verdicts.

Al-Shabab's insurgency aims to drive out African Union peacekeepers, topple Somalia's Western-backed government, and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state.

Abdiwahid Mo'alim Isaq contributed to this report.
The United Arab Emirates intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Monday, the third attack on the Gulf state by the rebels in the past two weeks.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon that U.S. military personnel based in the country responded to the inbound missile threat with Patriot missile batteries, while Emirati forces fired surface-to-air missiles.

"The U.S. Patriots were fired, but it was the Emirati surface-to-air missiles that actually engaged the targets," Kirby said.

The intercepted missile caused no injuries or casualties, according to Kirby.



A Houthi military spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, which came as the UAE hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog for a state visit.

Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, called the attack a "useless" provocation.

"We do not see the threats and fantasies of terrorist organizations based on illusions as more than a passing matter that will be dealt with in a manner that guarantees our security and national sovereignty," Gargash said Monday via Twitter.

Last week, both Emirati and U.S. forces fired interceptor missiles to stop a similar Houthi attack.

The week before, Houthi rebels carried out a drone-and-missile attack on an Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. fuel depot in the capital's Mussafah neighborhood, killing three people and wounding at least six others.

The Houthis frequently carried out attacks on Saudi Arabian soil before expanding strikes on the UAE this month. Israel and Sunni Muslim Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE have shared concerns over Shi'ite Iran, including its support for Yemen's Houthis.


The Taliban have arrested two journalists working for a local news channel in Afghanistan, which has seen an increase in assaults on dissent since the Islamist group seized power last August.



The arrests come days after two women activists went missing in the capital, Kabul, amid accusations they are being held by the Taliban.



Local press freedom advocates alleged Ariana TV reporters Waris Hasrat and Aslam Hijab were picked up by Taliban forces on Monday afternoon while they were leaving office for lunch in the capital.

The reason for the arrest of these reporters is not yet clear, Free Speech Hub, an independent Afghan group working for press freedom, said in a statement.



The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) demanded Tuesday the Taliban address the journalists detention and make clear the whereabouts of the missing women activists.



Mounting concern about restrictions on media & free expression. UN urges Taliban to make public why they detained these @ArianaNews_ reporters & to respect Afghan's rights, UNAMA said on Twitter.





Taliban officials have not yet commented on the incident. Ariana TV officials said the Taliban have assured us of comprehensive investigation.



Amnesty International demanded Tuesday the Islamist rulers unconditionally and immediately release the two journalists.



The arbitrary arrest of two Ariana News journalists by the Taliban is unjustifiable. Such escalating attacks on media freedom are a grave threat to the right to freedom of expression, Amnesty wrote on Twitter. The Intl community must call on the Taliban to end human rights violations & hold them accountable, said the global rights defender.





The female activists went missing two weeks ago after taking part in a protest rally in Kabul calling for womens rights and denouncing the Talibans directive for women to wear hijabs.



Taliban authorities have denied knowledge of the womens whereabouts, saying an investigation is underway into the incident.



The Islamist group has cracked down on human rights activists, forcefully dispersed protests against their regime and subjected several journalists to torture for covering demonstrations not approved by authorities.



Last week, the Taliban blocked an Afghan media advocacy group from holding a press conference in Kabul, drawing international condemnation.



The United States and other countries have not yet recognized the Taliban as the de facto government of Afghanistan.



The international community has been pressing the Islamist group to deliver on pledges that it would respect human rights, especially those of women, and govern the country through a broad-based government.



But critics say the Taliban have reneged on their commitments and they are slowly reintroducing restrictions they had placed on women during the hardline groups previous regime in Kabul from 1996 to 2001.



The alleged human rights violations have discouraged foreign governments from directly engaging with the Taliban, restoring financial aid to Afghanistan, removing international sanctions and unblocking billions of dollars in Afghan national assets held at the U.S. Federal Reserve.



These financial restrictions have plunged the Afghan economy into an unprecedented turmoil, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country.

The United Nations said in a report last week that it had received credible allegations that more than 100 members of the former Afghan government have been killed since the Taliban took over the country.

The report quoted U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as saying that that more than two-thirds" of the victims were alleged to result from extrajudicial killings by the Taliban or its affiliates, despite the Taliban's announcement of general amnesties for those affiliated with the former government and U.S.-led coalition forces.

The Taliban rejected the report. After a general amnesty, no one is allowed to harm anyone, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed. If any of the alleged killings were a result of personal revenge, they will investigate and punish the perpetrators, Mujahid added.



Some information for this story came from the Agence France-Presse.
A former senior Afghan official says he has answered questions in a U.S. inquiry into allegations that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani took $150 million in cash with him when he abruptly left Kabul last year as the Taliban took control.

Hamdullah Mohib, who served as Ghanis national security adviser, says he voluntarily met with John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in December at his office in Arlington, Virginia, to answer questions about corruption in the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

I also gave [SIGAR] my bank accounts and details of all my assets, said Mohib, who left Afghanistan in the same plane with Ghani and stayed with him in Abu Dhabi for a while. He told VOA that he would continue to cooperate with SIGAR investigations.

The U.S. was the largest donor to the Afghan government until it collapsed, and SIGAR has been tasked by Congress to investigate allegations that Ghani took millions in cash as he fled Afghanistan last August.

The fact that we're looking at those allegations doesn't mean that they're true or not, Sopko said at an Atlantic Council event last week.

In addition to the cash flight allegations, which were first reported by the Russian Embassy in Kabul, Sopko said his investigators were looking into several related issues. Why did the government of Afghanistan fall so quickly? Why did the military collapse so quickly? What happened? All the weapons? What happened to all the money that we were sending right up to the end  money, fuel, things like that.

SIGAR is expected to find answers to these questions and present a classified report to Congress in March or April this year. There will also be a public report which will be released later, Sopko said.

Ghani not interviewed

Fazel Fazly, another close aide to Ghani who fled with him in the same convoy and now lives in Sweden, told VOA the former Afghan president has not yet been interviewed by SIGAR. Ive been in touch with the president, said Fazly, adding that he also had not yet received inquiries from SIGAR.

In a video message released three days after he left Afghanistan, Ghani strongly rejected the reports that he took cash with him, and later called on the United Nations to launch an independent investigation into the matter.

Like Mohib, Fazly said he is willing to cooperate with SIGAR to prove he was not involved in any corruption, while at the same time admitting corruption infested all layers of the former Afghan government.

Its insane to say there was no corruption, Fazly said. We expect SIGAR to do objective, comprehensive and meaningful investigations to uncover the truth about corruption in Afghanistan.

Mohib and Fazley, widely reported to be closer to Ghani than any other Afghan officials, both said allegations that Ghani fled with sacks of dollars were aimed at maligning the former Afghan president as a corrupt U.S. ally.

Moscows relations with President Ghani were terrible and even some Central Asian leaders called him a Western imperialist, Fazley said.

The Cash

Fazly and Mohib both said they were unaware ofthe existence of large volumes of cash in the Afghan Presidential Palace.

While Ghanis predecessor, Hamid Karzai, confirmed that his office received bags of cash from the CIA and from the Iran government, Ghani said on multiple occasions that his office never received cash from the CIA or any other intelligence agency.

Ghani claims he had transferred his executive authority over state funds to a government committee and had no power over U.S. and NATO contracting processes for Afghan military funding, according to Mohib.

Others say the president did not need to personally receive the assistance funds in order to make use of them.

There was money in the Afghanistan Bank, said Sayed Ikram Afzali, director of a local corruption watchdog Integrity Watch Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan Bank building  headquarters of the state-run central bank  is adjacent to the Presidential Palace compound in central Kabul where all funds, liquidities and highly valuable items were stored.

Moving cash from the central bank to the palace was not a hard thing to do, especially when the governor of the bank was a Ghani henchman, said Afzali, adding that Ghani had kept Ajmal Ahmady, a U.S. citizen, as governor of the central bank even after his nomination to the post was repeatedly rejected by parliament.

Ahmady, now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School who leads a study group entitled AfghanistanWhat Happened & How to Engage the Taliban, told VOA via email that "no monies were taken from DAB [the central bank] by anyone except through legal means."

Ahmady did not answer a question as to how much money was left in the central bank accounts when he fled Kabul.

Corruption in Afghanistan did not take place only for one day, and we must not be solely fixated on what happened on August 15. Large amounts of money were taken out of Afghanistan for so many years and those involved in high-level corruption were not waiting until the last day of the republic to move physical currency out of the country, Afzali said.

Accountability

From 2001 to the end of 2021, the U.S. spent more than $2 trillion on the Afghan war, including some $140 billion spent on development projects, according to the Costs of War project at Brown Universitys Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs.

At least $15.5 billion of the U.S. development funds went to waste, fraud and abuse, SIGARs investigations have found.

Systemic corruption perpetuated an implosion of the system in Afghanistan, conceded Hamdullah Mohib.

Like others, Mohib said he was concerned that truly corrupt individuals who enriched themselves through the U.S.-bankrolled funding and contracting systems in Afghanistan now roam free in different parts of the world.

Since the fall of the Afghan government, tens of thousands of Afghans, among them former government officials and contractors, have sought refuge outside Afghanistan.

There are now growing calls, even by officials of the former Afghan government, for some sort of accountability by their own former colleagues.

"[Former government officials] must be held accountable and tried, Naseer Ahmad Faiq, charge d'affaires of Afghanistan's mission at the United Nations, told a Security Council meeting last week. It is not fair that 38 million people [in Afghanistan] are starving and mothers sell their children to survive but these corrupt former government officials live in luxurious houses and villas in different countries in Europe and the U.S.

SIGARs investigations have led to criminal charges and trials of some individuals and companies, both U.S. and Afghan, in U.S. federal courts. Its unclear whether SIGAR would press criminal charges against former Afghan officials, who were previously commended as U.S. partners, if found guilty of fraud and corruption.

We're looking at more people than President Ghani about taking money out of the country at the end, John Sopko said in response to a VOA question.
A bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate has come together to produce what the chairman of the body's Foreign Relations Committee has dubbed "the mother of all sanctions" to be levied against Russia in the event of a new invasion of Ukraine.

According to committee chairman Robert Menendez, senators are on the cusp of agreeing to a package of measures meant to make the financial cost of aggression in Ukraine extremely high for high-ranking government officials and ordinary Russians.

The bill being considered, Menendez said in an interview Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" show, involves "massive sanctions against the most significant Russian banks, crippling to their economy, meaningful in terms of consequences to the average Russian in their accounts and pensions."

In addition, Menendez said he expects the Senate to approve additional "lethal assistance to Ukraine" in the form of weapons, as well as economic sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy, and a bar on Russia's ability to sell its sovereign debt in international markets.

The Senate is considering taking action against Russia, because Moscow currently has well over 100,000 troops positioned along Ukraine's northern, eastern and southern borders. In 2014, Russia invaded Crimea, a region of Ukraine, and took control of it. At the same time, it began providing support to a pro-Russian insurgency in Ukraine's Donbass region, which has perpetuated a long, low-intensity conflict in that region for the past several years.

Bipartisan resolve

Menendez was joined by Senator James Risch, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a show of bipartisan resolve. Risch said he is not convinced that Russia has decided it actually will invade Ukraine, and said that is why telegraphing the economic price Moscow will pay in advance is important.

"Well, I don't think that decision has been made yet," Risch said. "There's a lot of us that believe that if (Russian President Vladimir) Putin sees weakness, if he sees bumbling, ineptitude, if he sees indecision, he will take advantage of that. I don't think he's made a decision to do that yet.

"What (Senator Menendez) and I and our coalition of bipartisan senators are attempting to do is to project the resolve that we have as Americans to see that he doesn't do that. To provide the strength, project the strength and convince him that this would be a very, very bad idea and it's going to be extremely painful."

Russia well-positioned to resist

Not all experts agree that the sanctions the U.S. is contemplating will be as punishing to Russia and to the Putin regime as lawmakers think.

Kristine Berzina, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told VOA that Russia has been living with some degree of sanctions, as well as the threat of more sanctions, for most of the past decade and has taken steps to create an economic buffer.

"Russia has tremendous currency reserves set up so that it can make good on its sovereign debt, and it can suffer through some economic hardships," she said.

To the extent that new sanctions cause short-term pain while Moscow figures out how best to work around them, she said that it's during that early period under sanctions when Putin would benefit most from calls for patriotic sacrifice from the Russian people.

"The short term really is also the moment in which Putin will have the most support from his people, because then the likelihood is that an attack would be portrayed as some kind of defensive measure against the 'encirclement' by NATO and the refusal to meet what they would consider reasonable demands to turn back history," Berzina told VOA.

Battle at U.N.

The preparation of sanctions took place as representatives from the U.S. and Russia clashed harshly in a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday morning. The meeting was convened at the request of the U.S. in order to discuss what the U.S. and its NATO allies have described as threatening behavior by Russia toward Ukraine.



Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, in remarks to the Security Council, accused the United States of "whipping up hysteria" about Russia's intentions toward Ukraine. In the same remarks, he suggested that the U.S., with its increasingly strident warnings about Russia's intentions, is actually "provoking escalation."

Russia was not alone in suggesting that the U.S. has overstated the danger of a Russian invasion. Even senior officials in Ukraine have asked representatives of the U.S. to tone down their warnings.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western governments to avoid causing panic within Ukraine, saying that the potential "destabilization of the situation" inside Ukraine is currently the greatest threat facing his country.

In a statement released after the Security Council meeting ended, U.S. President Joe Biden said, "If Russia is sincere about addressing our respective security concerns through dialogue, the United States and our Allies and partners will continue to engage in good faith. If instead Russia chooses to walk away from diplomacy and attack Ukraine, Russia will bear the responsibility, and it will face swift and severe consequences."


Regional bloc ECOWAS has condemned what it calls an "attempted coup" in the West African state of Guinea-Bissau, where heavy gunfire was heard near the seat of government Tuesday.

President Umaro Cissoko Embalo, a former army general, was reportedly holding a cabinet meeting in the government palace when the shooting broke out.

Sources in the capital, Bissau, say heavily-armed men had surrounded the building.

Reuters reports an "unknown number" of people were injured and that two were killed.

If confirmed, this would be the second coup in West Africa in just over a week. Burkina Faso's president, Roch Kabore, was overthrown by the military on January 23.Army officers also seized power in Guinea and Mali last year.

Embalo was declared the winner of the 2020 elections, but the results have been contested by his opponent, Domingos Simoes Pereira.

Embalo started to form a new government with the support of the military even while a supreme court challenge to the election was ongoing.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world body does not know details of the events in Guinea-Bissau but added that "coups are totally unacceptable."

He said, "We are seeing a terrible multiplication of coups, and our strong appeal is for soldiers to go back to the barracks and for the constitutional order to be fully in place in the democratic context of today's Guinea-Bissau."

The country of 1.5 million gained independence from Portugal in 1974 and has experienced four coups and more than 12 coup attempts since.

Some information in this report comes from Reuters and The Associated Press.


By Trend

Passenger transportation on Azerbaijan's Absheron ring railway is carried out in accordance with the quarantine rules, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC told Trend.

The CJSC noted that regular disinfection is conducted on the Baku railway station area and at the stations. Passengers must wear medical masks on trains and at all railway stations. Employees of the Police Department under the Main Police Department on transport of the Ministry of Internal Affairs monitor compliance with the rules of the quarantine regime.

In addition, measures to combat coronavirus are being organized jointly with employees of the State Customs Committee (SCC) at all border checkpoints, including Astara and Yalama stations.
It was a true mid-air miracle on Sunday -- a healthy baby boy was delivered on board a transatlantic United Airlines flight.

The mother was traveling from Accra, Ghana, to Washington, D.C., when she started having contractions. She wasn't expecting to deliver until late February, but the flight was halfway across the Atlantic when she went into labor.

Dr. Stephen Ansah-Addo, a dermatology resident at the University of Michigan, heard the overhead call for a health care professional and jumped into action.

He was joined by a nurse from Dayton, Ohio, and another United flight attendant, who is also a nurse.

They turned the area behind business class into an operation room of sorts -- putting down blankets and towels. The mother's contractions were getting stronger and more frequent, and after just an hour, Ansah-Addo felt the baby's head.

"I couldn't believe it was happening," he told ABC News. "But I was trying to stay calm."

A few pushes later, a healthy baby boy was crying on board.

The makeshift medical team couldn't find a clamp at first to cut the umbilical cord, so they resorted to using string.

"This is the reason why you go into medicine, to help people," Ansah-Addo said. "This is someone that really needed help, because there was nobody else there. This is the kind of medicine where you can make a difference in people's lives."

MORE: Baby born on flight in Alaska is named Sky by his mother

Paramedics were ready to meet the plane when the almost 12-hour flight landed at Dulles International Airport in D.C.

"The delivery was uneventful other than being at 30,000 feet," United Airlines said in a statement to ABC News.

One United employee greeted the mother with a balloon and handwritten card that read: "On behalf of the United team at Washington Dulles, congratulations on your baby boy!"

PHOTO: The mother and newborn baby were were greeted with gifts from United on their arrival into Washington D.C. (United Airlines)

Sunday's delivery is not the first time a baby has been born in mid-air.

Story continues

In April, somewhere over the Pacific, a woman who didn't know she was pregnant gave birth to a baby boy on a Delta Air Lines flight.

MORE: Woman gives birth on flight to Hawaii with help of doctor, NICU nurses

Lavinia "Lavi" Mounga was flying from Salt Lake City to Honolulu for a vacation when she gave birth to her son, Raymond.

He arrived early at just 29 weeks gestation.

A doctor from Hawaii and three neonatal intensive care unit nurses from North Kansas City Hospital were also on board to help Mounga deliver her baby.

PHOTO: Dr. Dale Glenn poses for a photo with Lavi Mounga and Raymond at Kapi'olani Medical Center, May 1, 2021. (Hawai'i Pacific Health)

They described how challenging it was to care for both patients in the small confined space of an airplane. They also had to improvise on tools, using shoelaces to tie and cut the umbilical cord and an Apple Watch to monitor the baby's heart rate.

Many U.S. airlines do not allow women to fly domestically after they are 36 weeks pregnant. Some international flights will restrict travel after 28 weeks.

ABC News' Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.

Mother gives birth to baby mid-air on transatlantic United flight originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
An emerging version of the omicron variant of coronavirus does not seem more severe than the variants original version, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

Dr. Boris Pavlin of the WHO's COVID-19 Response Team addressed the new variant in an online briefing as omicrons more common BA.1 subvariant is replaced in Denmark and some other countries with the newer BA.2 subvariant.

"Looking at other countries where BA.2 is now overtaking, we're not seeing any higher bumps in hospitalization than expected," said Pavlin.

Pavlin said his remarks are based on data from Denmark, the first country where BA.2 surpassed BA.1. He added that vaccines continue to provide similar protection against the different forms of omicron.

The new iteration is more transmissible than the more common BA.1 variant, according to a Danish study that analyzed infections in more than 8,500 Danish households in December and January.

Denmark lifts most restrictions

But the spread of the new subvariant, which is also becoming dominant in India, Nepal, the Philippines and Qatar, did not stop Denmark Tuesday from lifting most pandemic restrictions.

Denmark, a country where more than 60% of its population over the age of 12 have received a third shot, said it no longer considers the COVID-19 outbreak a socially critical disease because the latest surge in infections is not placing a heavy burden on the countrys health system.

I dare not say that it is a final goodbye to restrictions," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday on Danish radio. "We do not know what will happen in the fall, whether there will be a new variant.

Elsewhere in Europe, Ireland has dropped most restrictions, while the Netherlands and other countries are relaxing containment measures.



Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
It's approaching six months since the Taliban took over the Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 15. And in the months since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, neighboring China has taken a keen interest in the fate of the Central Asian country.

The interest, in fact, predated the Taliban takeover. In late July, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a nine-member Taliban delegation met in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin. The meeting, some analysts said at the time, underscored Beijing's warming ties with the Islamist group and the Taliban's growing clout on the global stage.

In addition, last October, Foreign Minister Wang spoke about China's expectations for Afghanistan's future after he had met with the Taliban interim government representatives in Doha, Qatar, where the two parties "decided to establish a working-level mechanism."

China's expectations, Wang said, include the following: Build a more inclusive political structure in which all ethnic groups and factions play a part; implement more moderate foreign and domestic policies, including the protection of women's rights; "make a clear break with all terrorist forces, including the Islamic State and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement"; and pursue a peaceful foreign policy, especially with neighboring countries.

However, since the Taliban regained control of the country  two decades after the U.S. and its allies had toppled it in 2001  no country, including China, has officially recognized its legitimacy.

Beijing, though, according to experts, has participated in friendly bilateral interaction with Kabul to build a functioning relationship with Taliban authorities.

"What has been surprising has been China's willingness to be seen so publicly as doing this and being the most forward of Afghanistan's many neighbors to be doing this," said Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

The Taliban's appointment of a new ambassador to Beijing this month reflects pragmatism by the leaders of the Islamist group, who see China as an important partner, Pantucci told VOA.

After the Taliban had appointed its ambassador to Beijing, the former Afghan ambassador to China, Javid Ahmad Qaem, resigned from his job through a handover note posted on Twitter on January 9.

On January 17, Qaem told VOA Afghan Service that Beijing "agreed" with the new appointment.

"Now that they (the Taliban) introduced someone and China has agreed to it, it is clear that it was the Chinese government's decision," Qaem told VOA, adding that it could not be possible without China's approval.

Beijing has also been speaking up for the Taliban on international stages, Pantucci said.

"Additionally, we have seen Beijing quite actively lobby for the Taliban authorities in international formats like the U.N. as well as more widely in advance of desired Taliban goals."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Wednesday to unfreeze Afghan assets overseas, a move China's Ambassador Zhang Jun spoke out in support of in front of the Security Council. Imposing sanctions and freezing assets "are no less lethal than military intervention," Zhang said, according to The Associated Press.

Some $9.5 billion of Afghanistan's central bank assets have been sanctioned by the U.S. since the Taliban regained control of Kabul last August, overthrowing the internationally recognized former Afghan government.

"We once again call for the unfreezing of Afghanistan's overseas assets as soon as possible," Zhang said during last month's U.N. Security Council meeting. "These assets should be returned to their real owners and cannot be used as a bargaining chip for threats or coercion."

According to Michael Kugelman, the deputy director of the Asia Program and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center, this "cordiality" between China and the Taliban should not be viewed as a prelude to recognition.

"China is still a long way off from that, and it's unlikely to take that step unless several other countries do first, or at the same time," Kugelman told VOA.

"No matter how repressive the Taliban may be," Kugelman said, Beijing will be comfortable engaging with the Taliban if China concludes it is safe on the ground.

"This means that its interests in Afghanistan are shaped by security conditions and not by considerations about human rights and inclusivity," Kugelman told VOA. "This is especially the case for China, an authoritarian state that prizes stability above all else."

The U.S. and other Western countries, as well as rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, have called on the Taliban to respect the rights of women and minorities in Afghanistan and form an inclusive government.

According to Andrew Small, a senior transatlantic fellow with the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, China had hoped for a government in Afghanistan that, although Taliban-dominated, could "tick enough boxes with the international community" to achieve diplomatic recognition.

"It means that Beijing faces an operating context there that still seems to be politically provisional and remains constrained by economic sanctions," Small told VOA.

Although China is willing to give small volumes of humanitarian aid in the short term and provide a little bit more economic support, Beijing is still "uncertain how the Taliban's dealings with militant groups in the region" will develop, Small said.

China still has "questions about what they (the Taliban) are willing to do with Uyghur fighters."

The U.N. reported last year that a few hundred Uyghur Muslim militants were in Afghanistan. They call themselves the Turkestan Islamic Party, which is also known as the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, a group founded in the late 1990s in Afghanistan by exiled Uyghurs from China's Xinjiang region, which shares a border with Afghanistan.

China has asked the Taliban to curb the insurgency of the ETIM members in Afghanistan. In an interview with China state media Global Times in September, a Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said many Uyghur fighters had left his country on its request.

"I know after the Doha (Qatar) agreement, many have left Afghanistan, because we categorically said that there is no place for anyone to use Afghanistan against other countries, including neighboring countries," Shaheen told the Global Times.

By supporting and playing the long game with the Taliban, China is building a strong diplomatic foundation with the regime, said Hasan Karrar, who specializes in modern Chinese and Central Asian history at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan.

"But also [Beijing is] remaining mindful of why the Taliban remain isolated internationally." Karrar told VOA. "For example, I do not believe China can ignore the fact that girls can't go to school in the new Afghanistan."

Roshan Noorzai from VOA's Afghan Service contributed to this story.
Internet blackouts, arrests, random searches. Military rule has made journalism in Myanmar risky, with many media outlets going underground or into exile.

As veteran journalist Aye Chan Naing says, "It's zero-tolerance when it comes to independent media."

Without journalists as witnesses, it is harder to verify rumors of rights abuses and crimes said to be taking place, especially in more remote regions.

Increasingly, the country's media are relying on citizen journalists for information.

The risks are great, but people like Haru, who swapped medical studies for reporting, are determined to get the story out.

The Yangon-based citizen journalist, who asked to be identified by an assumed name, helps news outlets confirm details on clashes and fighting.

But with limited internet access, she told VOA that atrocities could be worse than reported.

"In some rural areas, there might be some unreported crimes because of the internet blackout. We couldn't also get photo evidence to verify the news. This is the main issue we're facing," she said.

For editors of established Myanmar media outlets who moved operations away from Yangon, or even outside the country, citizen journalists and freelance contributors like Haru are an important asset.

"I still believe journalists are a big force to take down the military junta. So the world can hear, the world can see and help us," said Aung Htun, from the informal multimedia network Burma VJ.

With a team of about a dozen, Burma VJ is one of several outlets to decentralize its operations in an effort to keep them safe.

Some of its journalists were briefly detained shortly after the coup. Since then, none have appeared on wanted lists  something Aung Htun puts down to Burma VJ's discreet nature.

"We all stay low and continue to work, avoiding unnecessary risks," Aung Htun said. He is still in Myanmar, but because of the security situation declined to say where.

In many ways, the past year is a return to how the longtime reporter worked a decade ago, when Myanmar was last under military rule.

"I have to stay low, discreet to remain and continue the work in the country," Aung Htun said.

Aung Htun was a youth member of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Ky's National League for Democracy party in the early 2000s, before becoming a reporter.

He was briefly detained covering protests known as the Saffron Revolution in 2007, and went into exile, returning only in 2014.

Aung San Suu Ky, who was detained during the coup, is now serving a six-year sentence on a raft of charges from the junta, with a trial on alleged election fraud scheduled for later this month.

While outlets like Burma VJ rely more on citizen journalists, it's a process that brings its own problems.

The threat of military informants means taking extra precautions to verify if a new source is trustworthy and to evade tracking techniques, Aung Htun said.

Often colleagues who live close to Myanmar's borders connect with new sources: in the event that military track the communications, they have an escape route ready.

News blackout

Just as big a challenge is getting around Myanmar's internet blocks.

In the first few hours of last February's coup, the country was plunged into a communications blackout.

Internet access was blocked for 72 consecutive nights and online access has been limited since, according to Top10VPN, a company that reviews and researches open internet.

At the time, the junta said the actions were needed to ensure stability.

But Tom Andrews, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Myanmar, said military rulers are trying to stop information getting out.

"The military junta of Myanmar are like mushrooms. They thrive in the darkness," Andrews told VOA.

As well as patchy internet access, journalists risk being stopped and searched, or detained.

"The military has been patrolling around major cities, they have much more sophisticated security systems," Aung Htun told VOA. "Their eyes are everywhere."

The spot checks make it risky to store data on phones and have changed how journalists operate.

Burma VJ reporters often use messaging services with end-to-end encryption to communicate safely.

"Don't keep any important data in your phone, don't go out to town without any specific reason or purpose, avoid the petrol [station], or places of the routine checks." Aung Htun listed off the measures.

"Most importantly," he said. "Don't get caught."

It's advice worth bearing in mind. Myanmar's jailing record shot up in 2021.

The country, which started the year with zero journalists in custody, ended up the second worst jailer of reporters globally.

Reporting ASEAN, a monitoring group in Southeast Asia, says 120 journalists were arrested in the past year and 46 are still detained.

Most are held under Section 505A of the penal code: causing fear, spreading fake news or crimes against the government.

Military spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun denied media are targeted for their coverage.

"There is no reason to arrest, charge or jail media personnel if they do their media job. However, if those media personnel encourage or instigate or involve in terrorist's activities, definitely action would be taken as criminals," he told VOA Burmese.

For Democratic Voice for Burma (DVB) chief editor Aye Chan Naing, the past year under military rule has meant a return to exile for the first time since 2012.

Under the last military rule, DVB used shortwave radio to deliver independent news into Myanmar.

When the country transitioned to civilian leadership, Aye Chan Naing helped establish DVB in Myanmar.

Now, a decade on, he is back in Norway and several staff are in hiding.

"There is no clear guideline, so you are taking lots of risk of being arrested and anything that you write, any truth, it's off-limits," he told VOA in January.

DVB is one of five media outlets to have licenses revoked by the junta.

Still, they report online, publishing text and video reports with the help of a vast network of citizen journalists. The media outlet has seen a 6.5 million increase in social media audience across YouTube and Facebook, Naing said.

But, Naing says, if the military imposes a total internet shutdown, it will be a major blow.

"What I worry is they will totally black out the internet. The use of the internet has become expensive," he said, adding that fewer people can afford it. "If they crack down on satellite dishes, they could put a whole blackout on the country."

Margaret Besheer; VOA Burmese contributed to this report.
Several NATO member states are sending troops and hardware to allies in Eastern Europe as tensions with Russia escalate. The United States has put several thousand troops on alert. Moscow has over 100,000 troops amassed on the Ukraine border, and the West fears an imminent Russian invasion
Mali said it is expelling the French ambassador because of "hostile and outrageous" comments by former colonial power France about Mali's transitional government.

A statement read on national television Monday said French Ambassador Joel Meyer has been given 72 hours to leave the country.

"This measure follows the hostile and outrageous comments made recently by the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the recurrence of such comments by the French authorities with regard to the Malian authorities, despite repeated protests," the statement said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said last week that Mali's junta was "illegitimate and takes irresponsible measures." He also described the junta as "out of control."



The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday that it would recall Meyer from Mali.

Relations between Mali and France deteriorated this month after the junta went back on an agreement to organize elections in February. Instead, the junta has proposed staying in power for up to another five years.

European nations have also expressed concern that Mali's interim government has accepted private Russian security contractors.

France has had troops in Mali since 2013 when it sent forces at the request of Malian leaders to stop Islamist militants who were advancing on the capital. The latest dispute raises questions about whether French troops will remain in the country.

Last week, Mali's junta demanded that Denmark withdraw its newly arrived contingent of soldiers to Mali. The junta accused Denmark of deploying without authorization, a charge Copenhagen denied.

Denmark's foreign minister said Friday that it supports France in the latest diplomatic dispute.

"Reports the French Ambassador has been declared Persona Non Grata by Mali transitional authorities are unacceptable. Denmark stands in full solidarity with France," Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said in a tweet on Friday.

Mali's interim leader Assimi Goita seized power in August 2020 citing widespread popular dissatisfaction toward elected leader Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. However, less than a year later in May 2021, Goita overthrew the transitional government that he helped set up, citing a Cabinet reshuffle that excluded two key military leaders.

Goita claimed the move violated the terms of the new government. French President Emmaneul Macron called the action "a coup within a coup."

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
The leader of the newly-formed Citizens Coalition for Change(CCC) is confident that the partys candidates contesting the forthcoming council and parliamentary by-elections will romp to victory ahead of the crucial 2023 harmonized polls.

In an exclusive interview, Nelson Chamisa, who dumped the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance name after clashing with the leader of the MDC-T formation, said CCC has widespread support as it is owned by the people of Zimbabwe.

Chamisa said, This is a citizens project. Citizens are the drivers of political change. Citizens are the owners and they are the sole proprietors of any struggle. We have citizens at the center so its not going to be difficult because they are the ones that are going to define their leadership. We are going back to the people and I know that they are going to take their representatives back to parliament and I know that they are going to take this country back onto the path of prosperity, transformation and opportunities for all. That is the focus, that is the conviction we have.

I have no doubt in my mind that the people of Zimbabwe know what is good and what is best for their country. Just look at the way the people have embraced the Citizens Coalition for Change, a new national consensus beyond sex, beyond gender or age group, beyond region and even beyond classes. Its not about the learned or those that have not gone to school. Its for everyone  rural and urban divide, not even (that). Its strong in the rural areas, around farms, everywhere.

Chamisa, who contested the 2018 presidential election and amassed over two million votes, took over the leadership of the MDC following the death of founding president Morgan Tsvangirai.

However, Khupe wrestled the MDC formation from Chamisa when the Supreme Court ruled that the party should conduct an extraordinary congress under her leadership. Khupe lost the presidential post to Douglas Mwonzora in what some party supporters alleging that it was rigged.

The CCC was launched two weeks ago by mostly former members of the MDC Alliance.
Rescue efforts continued across southeastern Africa Monday for thousands of people cut off by flooding from last week's Tropical Storm Ana. The storm killed at least 90 people across Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi. Experts say a fresh cyclone forming near the island nation of Mauritius could hamper rescue efforts and worsen damage in the region.

The storm damaged public infrastructures, including health care facilities and roads, and interrupted medical services to people affected by the storm.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the storm killed 20 people in Mozambique and displaced 121,000 others. In Madagascar, according to the Africa CDC, 48 people were killed and 148,000 others left homeless.

In Malawi, the Department of Disaster Management Affairs says Tropical Storm Ana killed 32 people and displaced 188,000 from their homes across 17 districts.

For Chikwawa alone, [a] total of 44 camps have been set to accommodate the displaced. But the figures might rise, as the council is still conducting some assessment, and the general public will be updated on any development, said Chipiliro Khamula, the departments spokesperson.

On Thursday, Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera declared a national disaster in areas hard-hit by Tropical Storm Ana and called for urgent assistance for the flood victims.

In a statement Sunday, the Department of Disaster Management said relief assistance is reaching some areas, although efforts to access others are hampered by impassable roads.

The countries affected by Tropical Storm Ana are concerned by reports of a fresh tropical cyclone, known as Batsirai, is forming near the island nation of Mauritius.

However, weather experts in the region have downplayed those fears.

Yobu Kachiwanda, the spokesperson for Malawis' Department of Meteorological Services, said Tropical Cyclone Batsirai is currently still in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar.

And at this stage, the track is not very certain. So, more of its possible track will be observed in the next three days, but otherwise for now, there is no threat to Malawi weather. But if there [will] be any cause of threat to Malawi weather, Malawians will be informed accordingly, Kachiwanda said.

If it does approach Malawi, he advised people in flood-prone areas to take heed of any warnings from weather experts and officials.

If they are saying move to higher ground, they should act immediately, because these threats are there, and climate change is with us, Kachiwanda said.

President Chakwera offered similar advice Monday when he visited flood victims in the Chikwawa and Nsanje districts in southern Malawi.
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Kenyan police arrested a suspect after an improvised explosive device killed and injured passengers in a bus traveling near the Somali border. The African Union has suspended Burkina Faso in response to last week's military coup; Protester was killed as security forces confronted thousands of people
The United States and Russia faced off Monday at the United Nations Security Council over Washington's accusations that Moscow is planning a large-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, which the Kremlin has denied.

"The situation we're facing in Europe is urgent and dangerous, and the stakes for Ukraine  and for every U.N. member state  could not be higher," U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told council members.

She said the more than 100,000 troops Russia has amassed along Ukraine's border include combat forces and special forces prepared to conduct offensive actions into the former Soviet republic.

"This is the largest  this is the largest  hear me clearly  mobilization of troops in Europe in decades," Thomas-Greenfield said. "And as we speak, Russia is sending even more forces and arms to join them."

She said that included the nearly 5,000 Russian troops "with short-range ballistic missiles, special forces and anti-aircraft batteries" that Moscow had moved into its close ally and neighbor Belarus. There is evidence Moscow plans to increase their number to 30,000 troops by early February, she added.

The U.S. ambassador said Russia's aggression threatens Ukraine, Europe and the international order.

"An order that, if it stands for anything, stands for the principle that one country cannot simply redraw another country's borders by force or make another country's people live under a government they did not choose," she said.

As Thomas-Greenfield spoke, President Joe Biden issued a statement from the White House.

"If Russia is sincere about addressing our respective security concerns through dialogue, the United States and our allies and partners will continue to engage in good faith," Biden said. "If instead, Russia chooses to walk away from diplomacy and attack Ukraine, Russia will bear the responsibility, and it will face swift and severe consequences."

He later told reporters in the Oval Office while meeting with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, that the United States is ready for any scenario in Russia, but, he added, "We continue to urge diplomacy as the best way forward."

The United States has threatened to impose sharp economic sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine. In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and it says it has no plans to invade Ukraine again.

Russian response

At the Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia tried to use a procedural vote to block Monday's public meeting but narrowly failed to get the requisite support.

He said Russia is not "scared" of discussing the issue, but it just did not understand why a discussion was necessary.

"The deployment of Russian troops within our own territory has frequently occurred on varying scales before and has not caused any hysterics whatsoever," Nebenzia said.

He said that the U.S. and Western colleagues were acting as though an invasion had already taken place, and that they presented no evidence that one was planned.

"Our Western colleagues are talking about the need for de-escalation, but first and foremost, they are whipping up tensions, rhetoric and provoking escalation," he said, calling the discussions about a threat of war "provocative."

All Russian officials have "categorically rejected" plans for an invasion, he said, and anyone who claims the opposite is "misleading you."

Sovereign rights

Based on its past experiences with Moscow, Ukraine simply cannot accept Russia's declaration, and Moscow should withdraw its troops from near its borders, Ukraine's envoy said.

One of Moscow's main demands fueling the crisis is a guarantee that Ukraine will not join the NATO alliance.

"Ukraine strongly rejects any attempt to use the threat of force as an instrument of pressure to make Ukraine and our partners accept illegitimate demands. There is no room for compromise on principle issues," Ukrainian envoy Sergiy Kyslytsya told the council. "The most principled position for Ukraine is that we have (an) inherent sovereign right to choose our own security arrangements, including treaties of alliance which cannot be questioned by Russia."

He emphasized that Kyiv is prepared to defend itself but supports keeping diplomatic channels with Moscow open. He noted that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he is willing to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"If Russia has any questions to Ukraine, it is better to meet and talk, not to bring troops to Ukraine's borders and intimidate Ukrainian people," the envoy said.

After the meeting, in response to reporters' questions, Kyslytsya said he believes a Russian invasion is "imminent." Asked what he meant by "imminent," he referenced an English-Russian dictionary of diplomacy, reading in Russian.

"Imminent, the first meaning, published in Moscow: approaching, hanging over and only then unavoidable," he said, translating for reporters. "So, we have to work very hard so that the first two stay as it is  the threat is hanging over. It's our duty."

Intensifying crisis

U.S. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday that "we continue to see, even over the course of the weekend  additional Russian ground forces move in Belarus and around the border with Ukraine," as well as "increasing naval activity in the Mediterranean and Atlantic by Russian fleet vessels." He called the Russian movements "concerning."

NATO has ramped up its military presence in member countries bordering Russia, but NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday that NATO has no intention of sending troops to Ukraine if Russia invades the former Soviet republic.

"We have no plans to deploy NATO combat troops to Ukraine.  We are focusing on providing support," Stoltenberg told the BBC. "There is a difference between being a NATO member and being a strong and highly valued partner as Ukraine."

In the United States, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told the "Fox News Sunday show that a Russian invasion "could happen, really, at any time."

Several countries, including the U.S., have shipped weapons to the Kyiv government to help it defend itself. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. has given Ukraine more than $5 billion in assistance since 2014 to help it defend itself against Russian aggression.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to visit the region this week and plans to speak to Putin by phone.

Johnson is considering doubling British troops in the Baltic countries and sending defensive weapons to Estonia, his office said.

VOA's Carla Babb contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from Reuters.


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Speaking on 26 January 2022 before the UN Security Council, Chinas Permanent Representative, Ambassador Zhang Jun, urged for the adoption of an overall approach to the Syrian problem in consonance with the position of the Syrian government

First, he pointed out that, while the modification of the Constitution and the holding of new elections could constitute proof of the resolution to the conflict, they would be insufficient to achieve this goal.

Second, he further added that the presence of foreign armies without authorization from the Syrian government, including the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, constituted violations of Syrias sovereignty.

Third, he hailed Syrias fight against jihadist groups and called on every state to support it.
The Russian proposal to the United States for a bilateral treaty establishing security guarantees, made public by the Kremlin on December 17, 2021, received a double response from the United States and Nato on January 26, 2022, a month and a half later.

The Russian proposal stipulates that both countries respect the UN Charter and, in addition, that Washington respects the word it has given orally on the non-extension of Nato beyond the Oder-Neisse line that separates Germany from Poland.

The United States is keeping its response secret. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assured that his country rejects any limitation on NATO expansion. British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace went further, assuring the House of Commons that: "Many countries have joined the Alliance not because Nato has forced them to, but because of the freely expressed will of the governments and peoples of those countries.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalled that the United States, the United Kingdom and all OSCE member states are signatories to the 1999 Istanbul and 2010 Astana Declarations. These two documents, signed by 57 heads of state and government, lay down two principles:

 1. Each country is free to join a military alliance of its choice;

 2. Each country has the obligation not to strengthen its security at the expense of others.

However, there is no doubt that the accession of the former members of the Warsaw Pact to Nato, involving the deployment of US weapons on their territory, threatens Russias security.

Ben Wallaces remark about the will of the people to join NATO is factually wrong. For example, in the September 30, 2018 referendum on the membership of the Northern Macedonians in Nato, although 91.46% of voters said "Yes", they represented only 33.75% of the voters. Moreover, no NATO membership is valid until it is accepted by every NATO member state.

NATOs response, also secret, was explained by its Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg [1]. It includes three proposals and one demand:

 Reopen the respective diplomatic missions of NATO and Russia;

 To initiate new discussions on arms control and the rules applicable to intermediate and short-range missiles;

 Propose new rules of transparency on military exercises and nuclear doctrines.

 Evacuate Transnistria, Crimea, Abkhazia and South Ossetia that the Russian military occupies in Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia.

These three proposals aim to reduce the risk of nuclear war. They differ from the known US response in that they are subject to real negotiations. They show that NATO members are aware of the risks of nuclear war.

The demand for the evacuation of Transnistria, Crimea, Abkhazia and South Ossetia shows once again that the Western bloc refuses the right of peoples to self-determination as stated in the UN Charter. The history of these four territories attests that they are inhabited by peoples distinct from Moldovans, Ukrainians and Georgians. There was no ethnic cleansing. Each people chose their independence by referendum. Moreover, the independent Crimea has applied for membership in the Russian Federation, which has accepted it.

It is as if the United States and NATO were deaf to Russia.

In recent weeks, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom have sent arms to Ukraine or deployed troops to defend it [2]. Not only did the US and British press swarm with rumors of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, but the press in Central, Eastern and Baltic Europe followed suit. Yet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and his defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, have repeatedly said that there is no such risk, that their country is not threatened in the short term [3].

This dissonance within the Western bloc is shocking. It confirms that the United States is thinking outside the box. Certainly, Russia was expecting a US refusal of its treaty proposal, but not to belch out arguments that do not include any of its own. President Biden seems to have adopted the strategy chosen by his predecessor Richard Nixon against the USSR, that of the Madman theory: to use a threatening tone of voice to intimidate the opponent and make him back down. Or, in the words of Professor Thomas Schelling, to make "a threat that leaves room for chance". This strategy failed in the Vietnam War. It is unlikely to succeed the second time around, especially since President Vladimir Putins team is much more capable than that of First Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. It is the poker players bluff against the chess players calculation.

The tension around Ukraine could easily find a diplomatic solution. First, because if Washington and Brussels (NATO headquarters) keep repeating that Ukraine has the right to join the Alliance, there is no question of it today, nor even in the medium term. Secondly, because it would be enough for the Alliance to reiterate its 1996 declaration that it has "no intention, no plan, and no reason to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of its new members" - the three "Nos" - for everything to return to normal, in the short term, on the military level [4]. The fact remains that the question posed by Russia is not the presence of U.S. weapons in Ukraine, but in a much more general way, that of respect for the Treaties.

While the two great powers are playing this strange game, some of the United States allies are making their differences known.

First, the United Kingdom, which has revived the Stay-Behind networks of the Cold War. It is often forgotten that the Atlantic Alliance is historically a joint creation of the United States and the United Kingdom. It is true that, in the words of President Charles de Gaulle, NATO is only a screen for US domination of Europe, because the Supreme Commander of the Alliance is always a US officer, but the political decisions are taken jointly by Washington and London, the other Allies being only vassals. This is not what the North Atlantic Treaty says, but it has been verified again in the war against Libya. The Atlantic Council did not meet to decide on the attack on Tripoli because some members were opposed to it. The decision was taken in a secret meeting in Naples by the United States and the United Kingdom alone, in the presence of a few allies they had chosen.

This suzerain role of Washington and London had led them throughout the Cold War to maintain stay-behind networks to intervene in the domestic politics of member states with their agreement in principle, but without their knowledge [5]. These interventions included the assassination of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, the overthrow of the Greek republican regime and the installation of the military regime of the colonels. In France, NATO supported the OAS (Organization of the Secret Army) to carry out some 40 assassination attempts on President De Gaulle. The Pentagon has publicly revealed that these networks -never dissolved, despite multiple announcements- had been extended to Ukraine. Russia has concluded that Ukraine is a de facto member of the Alliance, but cannot count on Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty to ensure its security.

London has also announced that it is strengthening its military solidarity with Poland as part of a trilateral alliance with Ukraine [6]. In a few weeks, Warsaw has become the hub through which all the aid to Kiev flows. However, the Poles do not want to expose themselves excessively. That is why they have offered to let Russia inspect the US bases on its territory on the condition that they can inspect the Russian bases in the Kaliningrad enclave [7].

The United States and the United Kingdom are worried about the lack of enthusiasm of the new German government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

 Berlin has refused to allow British aircraft to fly over its territory to arm Ukraine. According to the treaties, the Germans could not have objected if the request had come from the Pentagon.

 Berlin is asking to decouple the Ukrainian issue from the commissioning of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is essential to its economy.

 Finally, it is not respecting its commitment to devote 2% of its GDP to its defence, using only 1.5%.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken came in person to lecture the Scholtz government, but instead of negotiating with Russia, Germany is entangled in the internal negotiations of its government coalition.

That leaves the French case. President Emmanuel Macron has reopened negotiations in the Normandy format to implement the Minsk Agreements and pacify Ukraine. He has held extensive talks with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin. But the problem lies elsewhere: it is the Ukrainians who refuse to implement the agreement they signed. They are the ones who are keeping the civil war in Donbass going.

Back to Washington. The political class is unanimous against Russia, but divided on the means to make it bend. For three weeks, it has been debating terrible sanctions. However, if it adopts them now, Moscow will be sanctioned before it invades Ukraine and will therefore be able to do so without fear of retaliation. On a more serious note, the Republicans support the proposals of the Heritage Foundation [8], while the Democrats cling to those of the Center for American Progress [9]. All of them are well aware that implementing the commitments made at the OSCE by signing the Istanbul Declaration of 1999 and the Astana Declaration of 2010 would be the beginning of the end. The "American Empire" is threatened, not by Russia, but by international law, which so far remains unenforced.

The question is: what means is Russia prepared to use to force Washington to respect international law (in the sense of the UN and not in the sense of the United States)? The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Serge Riabkov, had left some doubt about a possible transfer of missiles to Cuba or Venezuela. But the vice-president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, declared that this was "out of the question" because it would run counter to the interests of these two countries [10]; a way of underlining that the presence of US weapons in Central and Eastern Europe runs counter to the interests of the countries that host them.

So we must look elsewhere. To Syria, for example. Thus the Syrian and Russian air forces have begun joint maneuvers over the Golan Heights, legally Syrian according to the UN, but which Israel illegally annexed in 1981. The Tsahal did not dare to fire on these planes. Compliance with the Treaties is not only a matter for the United States, but also for Israel.

Washingtons slowness to respond to the Russian proposal for the end of 2021 and the visible hysteria in Congress have awakened China. The latter has registered the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), enacted on December 27, 2021. It provides for a gigantic defense budget (excluding the atomic bomb) of 768 billion dollars! No one has read the entire text (2,186 pages), but its philosophy is clearly to isolate Beijing. So Wang Yi, the Chinese Foreign Minister, did not fail to warn his US counterpart, Antony Blinken... to respond to Moscows "justified" demands. Step by step, the Sino-Russian entente is being confirmed; an axis that is far too powerful for the United States and its allies.

A final remark. When Washington informed Moscow that it was finalizing its written reply on January 23, it made it clear that it wanted to keep it secret [11]. Russia agreed to this. The only possible explanation for this move is that the White House was preparing to hold different talks with its interlocutors. The West is now leaving Democracy to enter into secret diplomacy.
The phone call between President Biden and Ukrainian President Zelensky "did not go well", CNN headlines: while "Biden warned that a Russian invasion is practically certain in February, when the frozen ground makes it possible for tanks to pass through", Zelensky "asked Biden to lower his tone, arguing that the Russian threat is still ambiguous". As the Ukrainian president himself takes a more cautious stance, Ukrainian armed forces are massing in the Donbass near the area of Donetsk and Lugansk inhabited by Russian populations.

According to reports from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, obscured by our mainstream which only talks about the Russian deployment, Ukrainian Army and National Guard units, amounting to about 150 thousand men, are positioned here. They are armed and trained, and thus effectively commanded, by US-NATO military advisers and instructors.

From 1991 to 2014, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service, the U.S. provided Ukraine with $4 billion in military assistance, which was added to by over $2.5 billion after 2014, plus over a billion provided by the NATO Trust Fund in which Italy also participates. This is only part of the military investments made by the major NATO powers in Ukraine. Great Britain, for example, concluded various military agreements with Kiev, investing among other things 1.7 billion pounds in the strengthening of Ukraines naval capabilities: this program provides for the arming of Ukrainian ships with British missiles, the joint production of 8 fast missile launchers, the construction of naval bases on the Black Sea and also on the Sea of Azov between Ukraine, Crimea and Russia. In this framework, Ukrainian military spending, which in 2014 was equivalent to 3% of GDP, increased to 6% in 2022, corresponding to more than $ 11 billion.

In addition to the US-NATO military investments in Ukraine, there is the $10 billion plan being implemented by Erik Prince, founder of the private US military company Blackwater, now renamed Academy, which has been supplying mercenaries to the CIA, Pentagon and State Department for covert operations (including torture and assassinations), earning billions of dollars. Erik Princes plan, revealed by a Time magazine investigation [1], is to create a private army in Ukraine through a partnership between the Lancaster 6 company, with which Prince has supplied mercenaries in the Middle East and Africa, and the main Ukrainian intelligence office controlled by the CIA. It is not known, of course, what would be the tasks of the private army created in Ukraine by the founder of Blackwater, certainly with funding from the CIA. However, it can be expected that it would conduct covert operations in Europe, Russia and other regions from its base in Ukraine.

Against this background, it is particularly alarming that the Russian Defense Minister Shoigu denounced that in the Donetsk region there are "private US military companies that are preparing a provocation with the use of unknown chemicals". It could be the spark that causes the detonation of a war in the heart of Europe: a chemical attack against Ukrainian civilians in Donbass, immediately attributed to the Russians of Donetsk and Lugansk, which would be attacked by the preponderant Ukrainian forces already deployed in the region, to force Russia to intervene militarily in their defense.

In the front line, ready to slaughter the Russians in the Donbass, is the Azov battalion, promoted to a special forces regiment, trained and armed by the US and NATO, distinguished for its ferocity in attacks on the Russian populations of Ukraine. The Azov, which recruits neo-Nazis from all over Europe under its flag traced from that of SS Das Reich, is commanded by its founder Andrey Biletsky, promoted to colonel [2]. It is not only a military unit, but an ideological and political movement, of which Biletsky is the charismatic leader, especially for the youth organization that is educated to hate the Russians with his book "The Words of the White Fuhrer".
Wabash, IN (46992)

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Light rain early with thunderstorms developing late. Low 56F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Passengers from New Delhi wait in long lines for transportation to their quarantine hotels at Pearson International Airport in Toronto in the spring of 2021. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press - image credit)

Many Indo-Canadians are celebrating news that Canada has eased COVID-19 restrictions on travellers from India that allows for easier access to PCR tests.

Until Jan. 28, people travelling from India to Canada were only able to obtain negative a PCR test result from a single lab located in the New Delhi airport.

Canada now accepts results from any lab recognized by the Indian Council of Medical Research, which is welcome news for members of the Kanata Carleton Indo-Canadians Association.

Submitted by Nagmani Sharma

The group's president and founder, Nagmani Sharma, says they lobbied the federal government to make these changes, creating a petition that featured thousands of signatures.

The previous restrictions on a country as populous as India were very difficult on families, he said.

"It was lots of pressure, mental pressure ... financial pressure for people," said Sharma.

"Millions of Indo-Canadians are here are visiting India almost every year."

These restrictions created a bottleneck for people flying to Canada because they would all have to travel to Delhi. For people in Bangalore, Mumbai or Hyderabad, this meant they had to travel thousands of kilometres by train and spend more than 24 hours in transit to get a test.

'A welcome step'

Sharma said it felt unfair Canada had restricted India lab results to a single location while the U.S. and U.K. allowed travellers from India to provide tests from multiple approved labs.

In a tweet last week, High Commissioner of India Ajay Bisaria called this a "welcome step for better mobility between India and Canada."

Before boarding a flight to Canada, all travellers have to provide a negative pre-departure COVID-19 molecular test taken within the last 72 hours. Travellers from India were initially required to show negative results that were no more than 18 hours old, but that requirement has since been removed.

Canada initially banned direct flights from India and Morocco in April and August 2021, respectively, due to high case counts. The testing requirements remained after direct flights resumed in the fall.
Italy News: Rome gets ready to host Jubilee Year 2025.

Rome's centre-left mayor Roberto Gualtieri has been named 'extraordinary commissioner' for the Vatican's Jubilee Year 2025 in the Italian capital.

The mayor was appointed "to ensure the functional interventions for the celebration of the Jubilee of the Catholic Church 2025 in the city of Rome", reports Italian news agency ANSA.

The widely-expected appointment was announced following a meeting of the Italian cabinet and premier Mario Draghi on Monday.

In a post on Twitter, Gualtieri wrote that he will do all he can "so that Rome arrives at this great spiritual event as a more modern and liveable capital ready to welcome millions of pilgrims and tourists."

Ahead of his election last October, the mayor identified jubilee preparations as an important priority for Rome, along with the city's candicacy for Expo 2030.

Traditionally a jubilee year results in a major influx of visitors to Rome resulting in the need for the city, the Catholic Church and the Lazio region to pool resources, with priorities including health, transport, security, civil protection, tourism and hospitality.

Commentators have suggested that the infrastructure and services being put in place ahead of Jubilee Year 2025 could prove pivotal in helping Rome win its bid to host Expo 2030.

What is the Jubilee Year?

Vatican jubilees take place every 25 years and are designed as a "special year of grace, in which the Church offers the faithful the possibility of obtaining a plenary indulgence", according to Vatican News.

There was an "extraordinary" Holy Year of Mercy in 2015, at the surprise behest of Pope Francis, while the last ordinary jubilee was in the millennium year of 2000 when around 25 million pilgrims and tourists thronged the capital.

The pope marks the event by opening the Holy Doors at St Peter's as well as the other papal basilicas of S. Giovanni in Laterano, S. Paolo fuori le Mura and S. Maria Maggiore.

Traditionally, the Jubilee begins just before Christmas and ends on the Epiphany of the following year, according to Vatican News, with the doors remaining open until the end of the holy year.

Ringrazio il Presidente Draghi e il CdM per la nomina a Commissario straordinario per #Giubileo2025. Mettero tutto il mio impegno affinche #Roma arrivi a questo grande evento spirituale come una capitale piu moderna e vivibile pronta ad accogliere milioni di pellegrini e turisti. Roberto Gualtieri (@gualtierieurope) January 31, 2022

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After weeks of waiting, there was no damning Sue Gray report. Instead, U.K. senior civil servant Gray released a short update on her investigation into the Downing Street parties that have dominated British news since the start of the year. But the lack of chapter and verse hardly means Boris Johnson is off the hook.

The non-report was no real surprise. Grays hands were tied when the police decided to conduct an investigation of their own and barred her from prejudicing their findings by publishing a detailed report. Despite interviewing more than 70 witnesses and gathering hundreds of WhatsApp messages and images, she could only issue some broad conclusions. Eventually, however, the report will come out in full and Tory MPs will have to decide on a threshold for probity in public office. The fate of the prime minister ultimately rests in their hands.

Gray examined 16 different gatherings on dates between May 2020 and April 2021, a time when Britain was under various lockdown restrictions that meant people had to refrain from seeing loved ones. What she found seems to have left her unimpressed. They represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of government, but also of [sic] the standards expected of the entire British population at the time, she writes.

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The reports biggest revelation is that the police are looking into all but four of the gatherings Gray investigated. Thats no small matter given that the Metropolitan Police have a high threshold for investigating past violations of lockdown restrictions. One test says that those involved in the alleged breach either knew or should have known it was an offense; another test is that not to investigate would significantly undermine the legitimacy of the law. That so many of the events met such a bar suggests there is a lot more to come out.

The police say they have more than 300 images and 500 pages of information handed over by the Gray inquiry. There is bound to be constant speculation, and potentially leaks, about the state of the investigation and whom the police will question. A single instagrammable photo could change the mood among Tory MPs.

The prime minister tried hard during his statement to the House of Commons Monday to apologize again and move past the scandal. He announced an overhaul of the chaotic Downing Street operation and said a chastened government would be more focused than ever on delivering its program. He urged those with doubts to wait for the results of the police investigation before making their judgment.

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The central choice before his party remains: accept their leader as he is or look for a replacement.

Acceptance these days is becoming harder. In one of several dramatic moments in parliament Monday, Tory MP Aaron Bell recalled traveling hundreds of miles to attend his grandmothers funeral in May 2020, where there were just 10 people because of lockdown restrictions. I didnt hug my siblings. I didnt hug my parents. I gave the eulogy and then afterwards I didnt even go to her house for a cup of tea. I drove back three hours from Kent to Staffordshire. Does the prime minister think Im a fool? Former Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a withering question, asking her successor if he didnt read the rules, didnt understand them or simply didnt think the rules applied. Which was it? she asked.

Still, the mood seems to have softened considerably from a few weeks ago. Johnson reportedly put off a call with Vladimir Putin to put out the fire closer to home  a sign of how consuming his self-made crises have become. He met with a group of Tory MPs Monday evening and urged them to stay loyal, even announcing hed rehired election guru Lynton Crosby to advise him. As anyone who has seen Johnson address his annual party conference will attest, his effect can be mesmerizing.

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Nor is Johnson forgetting that he must turn public opinion back in his favor. I know what the issue is, Johnson told parliament. Its whether this government can be trusted to deliver. And I say yes we can be trusted to deliver. In other words, dont mind the rule-breaking or lies; focus on the promises we carry out.

There is a full-scale operation to change the subject away from lockdown boozing. On Monday, the government released a 108-page report on the Benefits of Brexit, which promises a best-in-class regulatory environment. There are expectations that the long-awaited paper on leveling up  Johnsons central policy to rebalance the U.K. economy  will be published this week too.

In his response, Labour leader Keir Starmer said he refuses to accept that this prime ministers lack of integrity is somehow priced in. Honesty and decency should matter, whatever your politics, Starmer said.

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Will the public agree? Often there is a built-in assumption that politicians are casual with the truth. And yet, as Bell suggested, its different if people feel theyve been taken for fools. Honesty doesnt really matter until it does, says YouGov polling expert Anthony Wells. Im doubtful he can survive it in the longer term. Its dragged on so much and hes become such a figure of mockery, it feels like a government in decay. Plus, once lost, such trust is very hard to regain.

Ultimately, neither the full Gray report when it comes (which Johnson pledged to publish in full only after much pressure from his party) nor the police findings can force Johnson out of office. That is the prerogative of his own MPs, who will have to decide whether they are happy to have a prime minister who lives in the ethical gray zone. It was the point Starmer addressed to Tory MPs: as night follows day, continuing his leadership will mean further misconduct, cover-up and deceit.

After all that waiting for Sue Gray, there is yet more waiting. The public, however, may have made up their mind already.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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Research

Survey of College Students Shows High Interest in Peer Mental Health Counseling Services, Especially in Marginalized Groups

A recent survey of more than 2,000 U.S. college students reveals widespread interest in peer mental health counseling services, with one in five respondents having already used such programs, and more than 60% of those who haven't saying they are interested in using them.

The survey, funded by Born This Way Foundation and the Mary Christie Institute, is the first to focus on students' attitudes toward mental health peer counseling, defined as "receiving support for your mental health from a trained peer, not a friend."

The results showed that usage of peer counseling programs is higher among Black, transgender and first-generation college students, and respondents reported greater interest in peer support programs since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Other key findings of the survey include:

Two-thirds of students surveyed say they have faced a mental health challenge in the past year.

Usage of peer counseling programs is higher among Black students (39%), transgender students (39%) and first-generation students (29%), who are particularly likely to say it is "very important" to find a peer counselor with similar identities.

Nearly half (45%) of students who provide peer counseling report "helping others" as their main motivation.

Those who provide peer counseling are more likely to score higher on a well-being scale than those who do not provide peer counseling.

36% reported that if faced with a serious mental health issue, they would turn to a friend or romantic partner first.

Interest in peer counseling has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly half (48%) of respondents saying the disruption caused by the pandemic made them more likely to seek out peer counseling, including 20% who say it has made them "much more likely."

The most commonly reported reasons for seeking peer counseling were stress, anxiety, depression, social life issues and loneliness.

Survey respondents who said they have used peer counseling reported high satisfaction, with nearly 80% calling it "easily available," "confidential" and "free," and 82% of respondents saying it is "able to serve students of various backgrounds and identities."

But while the findings reveal promising possibilities of peer counseling programs, they also identified potential shortfalls within the training practices for peer counselors, the survey report said. Peer counseling training is common for such programs, but it is not universal, and the survey results showed that 16% of peer counselors are "unaware of an emergency protocol if they become worried for a student's safety."

The survey was conducted in partnership between Born This Way Foundation, founded by Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta to "support youth mental health and work with young people to build a kinder and braver world," and the Mary Christie Institute, a research and education organization dedicated to teen and young adult mental wellness.

"We know this generation of students prioritizes their mental health and wants to help create solutions for themselves and their peers," said Maya Smith, executive director of Born This Way Foundation. "It's imperative  as nonprofits, academic institutions and youth advocates  that we offer actionable resources to further support students and their mental wellness."

"Counseling center directors have long recognized how vital peer to peer support is, and that peer counseling could be part of our treatment options if offered safely," said Dr. Zoe Ragouzeos, executive director of Counseling and Wellness Services at New York University and the president of the Mary Christie Institute. "These findings tell us that students are engaged in and interested in these programs, which encourages us to work together to create and support this work."

Find more information and view the full survey results on the Born This Way Foundation website.
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When Exxon announced in 1989 it was leaving midtown Manhattan for new headquarters in the Dallas suburbs, Stanley Grayson, New Yorks then deputy mayor for finance and economic development, offered this bon voyage: Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Its part of an industry which I think is generally perceived as a Southwest, Texas-based industry. Its part of an industry thats half the size it was 10 years ago. Its outlook is not necessarily bright and its not perceived as a tremendous growth industry right now.(1)

What else would you expect a New Yorker to say? Three decades on, Exxon Mobil Corp. is on the move again, shifting its home south to Houston. And while some of what Grayson said was flat-out wrong, Big Oil was indeed under a cloud in the late 80s  and is again today.

Not that its immediately obvious: On Tuesday, Exxon announced its best financial results in many years. Last years free cash flow was the highest since 2008, when oil hit its all-time peak and Exxon was the biggest listed company in the world. Having borrowed to fund its dividend in recent years, corroding its reputation for discipline, free cash easily funded payouts in 2021, teeing up an imminent resumption of share buybacks. Elsewhere in Big Oil, rival Chevron Corp. reported similarly huge cash flow numbers on Friday.

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That looks like a lot of blue sky and, compared with much of recent history, it is. With both Exxon and Chevron now trading at or close to all-time highs, though, some context is required.

Even with blockbuster numbers, Big Oil is more defensive these days. For all the symbolism, Exxons shift to an existing campus in Houston, coming alongside combining its downstream oil and chemicals divisions, looks like straightforward physical consolidation after job cuts. Only about 250 people actually work at the Irving campus, even fewer than the 300 Exxon employed in New York before its last move. Cost-cutting and debt reduction featured up top of Tuesdays earnings announcement. And whereas free cash flow for both Exxon and Chevron recalls the heady days of the mid-aughts, the big difference is that, back then, they were also big spenders. Today, their cash flow is freer because theyve cut capex to preserve dividends.

Thats not a bad thing! High spending trashed return on capital, and investors demanded a reset. True, it took a pandemic and a proxy battle to get Exxon to take that on board, but still. In addition, climate change puts a huge, existential cloud over the future of oil investment. Back in 1989, that sour New York official was right about oil not being a growth business in the short term, but he was wrong in the long term; global demand is now about 50% higher. Today, its the opposite: He would be wrong in the short term, given the rebound in supply and demand from Covid-19. Exxon in particular is poised to bring on more barrels in Texas and Guyana. But he would be right in the long term as decarbonization takes hold. Slide decks from Exxon and Chevron now feature extended discussions of lower carbon businesses, not the charts of yesteryear forecasting ever-increasing oil demand.

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This is a bid to boost relevance with investors in a world where the two oil majors combined market cap is dwarfed by that of one electric vehicle maker whose own free cash flow is less than 1/10th theirs. (Fun fact: Exxons new HQ will be only a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Tesla Inc.s new digs in Austin.) Despite sharp rallies  including a big jump for Exxon on Tuesday morning  the energy sectors weight in the S&P 500 is a fraction of what it was in 2008.

It was telling last Friday when, despite solid numbers overall, Chevrons stock tumbled because it missed earnings expectations on a mixture of one-off factors. Both oil majors have restored some faith in their financial chops and have benefited enormously from strong oil and gas prices. Yet, at about 12 to 13 times forward earnings, both stocks already trade at multiples that are higher than they enjoyed for much of the past two decades. Their discount to the S&P 500 of roughly 40% is also about where it was for much of the same period.(2)

For investors, its no bad thing that, in an uncertain world, the oil majors are rebalancing toward payouts over growth. It remains to be seen whether they will award an even higher multiple for that.

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More from other writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 Exxons Partial Net-Zero Target Is Actually Useful: Liam Denning

 Oil Producers Can Expect More Turbulent Years Ahead: Julian Lee

 Shells Rejigger May Help It Shrink More Than Grow: Chris Hughes

(1) Quoted in Exxon Will Move Its Headquarters To Texas, by James Barron, The New York Times, Oct.27, 1989.

(2) Exxons average forward price/earnings multiple from 2000 through 2019 was 10 times, while Chevrons was nine times. Exxons average discount to the S&P 500 was 37%, while Chevrons was 43%. I exclude 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic crash, rendering earnings multiples meaningless that year.

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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Apocalyptic scenes open The Ministry for the Future, the latest novel by science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson. India is hit with a calamitous heatwave  one so sweltering, with humidity so high, that bodies struggle to sweat, and therefore to survive. Thousands die in the sun-heated waters of a lake where they had sought refuge. In the end, 20 million perish.

Grappling with the upheaval and fury that follow, India breaks an international agreement governing climate engineering and injects vast quantities of sulfur particles into the atmosphere in a desperate attempt to cool the subcontinent. Everyone knows, but no one acts, an official says. So we are taking matters into our own hands.

Robinsons tale is fictional. But it is set only a few years into the future, and the climate disaster he describes, along with the technology and diplomatic conundrum, are not made up. Those are all too real. Insufficient understanding and the underdeveloped governance of such options means the world is no better prepared in reality than in fiction when it comes to radical interventions, in particular when it comes to the contentious question of solar geoengineering.

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But does that mean, as a group of scientists have argued in an article published last month, that we should effectively ban the nascent technique now?

Solar geoengineering covers a range of proposals to cool the earth by reflecting some sunlight back into space, including with stratospheric aerosol injection as in Robinsons novel. Its fast-acting, in climate terms, but does not tackle the underlying cause of the global warming problem and is high-risk if it goes awry. Its an option no one wishes to see in action.

Still, the idea of a non-use agreement that effectively halts support for research and development, as advocated by this coalition of academics, should give us pause. Given the gravity of our climate predicament, and the likelihood the world will overshoot its global warming limit or hit tipping points, this option is simply not yet one we can discard  at least not before understanding it further. For now, its terrifying and terrible in the way that chemotherapy is: We dont want it, but can we deny ourselves the possibility? Its no substitute for dramatic carbon reduction, but do we know enough today to refuse it?

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We need to see the world as it is, not as it should be. As Jesse Reynolds, senior policy officer at the Global Commission on Governing Risks from Climate Overshoot at the Paris Peace Forum, put it to me, solar geoengineering is a risk-risk trade off, and must be understood in that context: There is no low-risk path forward.

The arguments against solar geoengineering are to some extent familiar. The most common posits that this sort of technology is at best wishful thinking and at worst a distraction, when the world should be concentrating on dramatic reductions of carbon emissions to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the ambition laid out in the Paris Agreement. Certainly that climate goal is clear, and governments like Australias, hiding carbon inaction behind future technological miracles, should be called out.

The second, related, argument is that discussing and researching solar radiation management risks normalizing it, creating a technological slippery slope that locks humanity in. Its not clear this would happen with a technology that is not in private hands, and it worryingly implies knowledge alone is toxic. Dismissing what we do not understand is an even bigger wager than a bet on limited and controlled research. What happens if, as in the novel, it is deployed unilaterally? Not to mention that, as Daniel Bodansky and Susan Biniaz point out in a 2020 article, research into climate intervention can actually help bring governments magical thinking on technology down to earth.

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Then theres the idea, raised by the scientists arguing for a ban, that the technology is impossible to govern in an inclusive and just manner. That, they argue, would require effective and enforceable political control by the Global South. The governance challenge is enormous, but does that make it impossible? Even research? Or is the standard here simply impossibly high?

To be clear, solar radiation management in most of its forms  bar, perhaps, painting roofs white  does come with peril. Uneven application could cool one region but alter vital rain patterns elsewhere. Understanding the already changing planet could become harder. A sudden stop to it for reasons of human error, financing, even politics or war would be devastating, an idea known as termination shock. If we ever get that far, the question of who deploys it, where and to what degree, is even more fraught. Because the engineering costs are relatively modest and the technology powerful, overkill is a possibility.

But the debate is not yet at whether we should pull that lever. Indeed, the world can credibly put in place a moratorium on the deployment of solar geoengineering. But research, responsibly managed, is vital and not impossible to imagine.

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First, support research with public funds. Guide and regulate. Provide an agreed code of conduct that could be based on the existing Oxford Principles that includes local permitting, transparency requirements and a stakeholder process which puts in place public consultation. Full disclosure and information sharing in particular will be crucial.

Then, begin to tackle the governance gap. Climate intervention is not without rules  a plethora of treaties already exist, covering air pollution, biological diversity, marine waste. The duty to do no harm is a widely recognized principle of customary international law. Yet troubling empty spaces still abound.

Who would eventually authorize the technology or oversee it, should it ever be used? How would any cross-border disputes be regulated? Who decides what side effects are permissible, or not? How can all parties, even those must vulnerable, be included? The scientists are right to raise these issues, but a ban does not solve representation. As Janos Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative, put it to me, it isnt viable to shut down the conversation yet, or to allow a small group to do so. Indeed, a ban requires a truly inclusive discussion.

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Governance would be imperfect  so much of our governance is  but the United Nations provides structures that can and must be adapted to consider more complex climate decisions, giving a louder voice to the most vulnerable. That is already long overdue. We manage the global macroeconomy without an overarching body; this, too, can be done if interests are aligned.

The worlds nations may yet decide to permanently ban solar geoengineering. In Robinsons novel, naysayers will be glad to hear, a raft of other techniques come into play. But its too soon to veto what we barely understand  and may yet need.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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Inside NATO headquarters in Brussels, senior officials gathered last week to think the unthinkable: What would happen to Europe if Russia  by far its largest supplier  cuts off the flow of natural gas westward? Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Every day, Europe buys almost 40% of the gas it consumes from Gazprom, the Russian-state owned giant. In 1968, Austria became the first Western European country to sign a contract to buy Russian gas. Since then, the trade has withstood political and economic upheavals, including the depths of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

At least, until now. The threat of military conflict in Ukraine has turned natural gas into a weapon of mass disruption.

Already, Russian gas flows into Europe are sharply lower than in the past, at times about 30% below the five-year average. Gazprom insists its fulfilling long-term contracts with European utilities. Indeed, last year Gazprom made 1.8 trillion rubles ($23.2 billion) from its sales to Europe  that is about 10% of all Russias exports, according to the International Monetary Fund. But the company is sidestepping another truth. This is less about money  Moscow makes more money from petroleum  than about geopolitical squeeze plays. In a departure from tradition, Gazprom hasnt filled up its European storage sites. Neither is it selling extra gas on the spot market. Europe is running on fumes: Gas inventories have dropped to less than 40% of capacity, the lowest ever for this time of the year. Europe has only avoided a gas crunch thanks to unusually mild weather so far this winter.

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There are two main scenarios: the first is contained; the second, catastrophic.

If Russia invades Ukraine, gas will be snarled by military action one way or another  perhaps even by accident as pipelines and other pieces of infrastructure are hit. But if the campaign is swift and Moscows objectives met quickly, Europe may be able to withstand even physical damage to pipelines in Ukraine. One need only look at a map to see why: The Russian flows have changed over the last two decades.

Well into the 1990s, Ukraine was the chokepoint of nearly all Russian gas into Europe via the Soyuz, Brotherhood and Progress pipelines. Since then, Russia has diversified transit with the Yamal-Europe, Nord Stream 1, Blue Stream and TurkStream. And thats before the addition  pending regulatory approval  of Nord Stream 2. The new routes have reduced the significance of Ukraine  something many politicians have failed to understand. Memories in Western Europe of the 2006 and 2009 Ukraine-Europe gas crises, when supplies were disrupted, still shape the understanding of the market. But in gas, 2022 isnt 2009 by a long margin.Two decades ago, Ukraine was the transit point for about 125 billion cubic meters of Russian gas into the rest of Europe. Last year, the flow had plunged 65% to less than 42 bcm. Thats still a significant amount, but not nearly as much as in the past. Perhaps as importantly, Ukraine is no longer a key transit point for Russian gas into Germany and another half-dozen countries. Today, its important for just Slovakia, Austria and Italy. Nikos Tsafos, a gas expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, puts it succinctly: Ukraine used to be the main corridor for delivering Russian gas to Europe; it is no longer that.

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Europe is in a far better shape today to respond to a crisis if only gas passing through Ukraine is involved. For a limited period, Europe could cope with a shutdown of Ukraine-transit gas through a combination of higher LNG imports, and further withdrawals of the commodity from storage. If the weather remains mild, demand would be even lower.

Of the three countries at biggest risk, Italy can import LNG directly, and its gas inventories are high, in part because Rome has a strategic gas storage that the rest of the continent largely lacks. As of Monday, Italian storage was at 50.8% of capacity, significantly higher than the European average of 38.9%. Austria and Slovakia are however in far worse shape (their inventories stand at 22.7% and 32.5%, respectively), and would require significant help from their neighbors.

All this assumes Moscow would re-direct supplies away from Ukraine using other pipelines  and continue to send gas to Europe. A continent-wide total shutdown is a completely different matter.

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When European regulators war-gamed potential gas disruptions in November, they analyzed 19 scenarios, with several permutations for each. But they didnt contemplate what would happen if all Russian flows ceased. Why? Because it isnt pretty, and, effectively, there arent workarounds. If that happens, theres simply no way the continent would be able to avoid unimaginable economic pain and blackouts.

As much as U.S. and European diplomats say theyre scouting the world for extra gas supplies, there isnt enough available elsewhere to replace Russia. On the margins, Qatar and a couple of other LNG exporters may be able to help. LNG prices would rise so much that some Asian developing countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh would be priced out of the market, freeing extra cargoes to Europe (at the cost of blackouts in Asia). At best, Europe can hope to replace two-thirds of Russian supplies. That estimate may be generous.Europe would also face an additional challenge. Its one thing is to attract LNG cargos to its shores; another, and far more difficult, is to actually funnel that gas into the continent-wide distribution system. Nearly a third of European LNG regasification capacity is located in Spain, which has only a tiny pipeline connecting it with the rest of the continent. Add France and the U.K. to Spain, and thats 70% of all European regasification capacity. Germany doesnt have a single regasification plant.

The only recourse would be rationing  first with basic services like hospitals and residential heating, then electricity production, which would try to rely on coal and oil. After that, all the gas would run out and, eventually, all industries would have to shut down.

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The economic pain would be tremendous, and would test European solidarity. There is a risk that countries with better supply situations might be unwilling to share scarce gas resources with countries that are in an even worse situation, argues Simone Tagliapietra at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. Hes right: As the Covid-19 crisis showed, countries may put national interest before regional one.

In the full-shut down, gas prices will skyrocket, making the record-high seen in December look piddling. Indeed, the surges may be fivefold, perhaps even tenfold. Europe doesnt want that but will Vladimir Putin do it?

I have my doubts. The Russian President would prefer Europe remain tied economically to Russian gas forever. For Moscow, control of the spigots equals geopolitical influence in Europe; the ability to halt it serves the Kremlin better as threat than as reality. In many ways, it plays the same role as nuclear weapons in conventional warfare: mutual assured destruction or MAD. If Russia chose to use gas as a weapon, Europe would move heaven and earth in the next few years to never again rely on Gazprom for a single gas molecule. Thats why Putin is only slightly weaponizing gas  restricting supplies, rather than cutting them off.

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Thats his leverage. If he goes apocalyptic, Russias own future would be at risk. Its a weapon that works only by never using it.

More From This Writer and Others at Bloomberg Opinion:



Gas Will Stay High Even After the Spat With Russia: Javier Blas



Dont Panic, Europe. Thats Not Inflation. Its Just Gas: Marcus Ashworth



$3-a-Gallon Gasoline Isnt as Painful as It Used to Be: Liam Denning

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Javier Blas is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. He previously was commodities editor at the Financial Times and is the coauthor of The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earths Resources.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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In sharply partisan times, a line attributed to Otto von Bismarck comes to mind: Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable  the art of the next best. With Democrats frustrated over their inability to advance either a comprehensive voting-rights bill or filibuster reform through a 50-50 Senate, they should now turn their attention to more pragmatic concerns.

A good place to start would be overhauling the 135-year-old law that helped inflame the riot that took place at the U.S. Capitol last year.

The Electoral Count Act of 1887 was a belated response to the fiercely disputed presidential election of 1876, which was marred by violence and widespread fraud allegations. Several states submitted competing Electoral College slates, but no system was in place to assess which were legitimate. Congress hastily put together a commission to try to determine a victor (that would eventually be Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, despite Democrat Samuel Tilden winning more popular votes).

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Remember that the U.S. effectively holds two presidential elections. States administer their own votes (and write their own rules) to select members of the Electoral College. Then these electors meet and cast their ballots for a given candidate. Congresss role is to certify the results of that vote for each state. The question is what should happen when a dispute arises.

The ECA tried to obviate the need for subsequent emergency commissions by specifying rules to follow in tabulating and ratifying Electoral College votes. Unfortunately, vague language in the law opened the door to partisan mischief: Most significantly, its wording allowed a single member of Congress per chamber to interrupt the process if they objected to a states certified electoral slate.

Furthermore, the role of the vice president in presiding over the congressional count was left unclear. President Donald Trump attempted to exploit that ambiguity last year when he pressured Vice President Mike Pence to reject the electoral slates of six swing states won by Joe Biden. (To his credit, Pence refused.) When Trump supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol, they tried to intimidate the vice president further. Chants of Hang Mike Pence echoed through the halls.

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Addressing the many failures that led to that days turmoil will take time. For now, two reforms to the ECA are essential to protect the certification process and avoid further chaos.

First, Congress needs to place further restraints on its own partisanship. A single member in each chamber shouldnt be enough to gum up the certification process. Raising the threshold needed to register an objection to (say) one-fifth of both the House and Senate would prevent fringe members from derailing the proceedings while still ensuring legitimate complaints can be heard. Congress should also specify exactly what qualifies as a valid objection.

Second, the law should clarify that the vice presidents task is entirely ceremonial and does not confer any power to influence the proceedings. (Trump made the stakes of the current ambiguity all too explicit on Sunday, when he published a statement saying that Pence could have overturned the election.)

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Lawmakers of both parties have already expressed support for reforming the ECA. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King have been leading bipartisan efforts on the matter for several weeks. Notably, these talks have the approval of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose support should bring enough Republican votes to overcome a filibuster.

Understandably, Democrats are frustrated that their broader electoral reforms arent going anywhere. Some have also voiced legitimate concerns over state-level attempts by Republicans to undermine the certification process. But given the reality of a split Senate and the nations broader divisions, a bipartisan reform of the Electoral Count Act would count as significant progress in its own right  the art of the next best, you might say.

More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:



Dont Ever Get Used to Trumps Contempt for the Law: Jonathan Bernstein



Do Americans Even Know What Free Speech Is?: Stephen L. Carter



FTC Chair Lina Khan Gears Up to Take on Big Tech: Parmy Olson

Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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Inspection found no need to close bridge Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The bridge that collapsed in Pittsburgh last week showed deterioration during a September inspection that was not bad enough to require its closure, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said Monday. The agency will not release the full inspection report, PennDOT spokesperson Alexis Campbell said, citing state and federal laws and the ongoing investigation into the Friday morning failure of the Forbes Avenue bridge over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park.

Campbell provided some details about the inspection four months ago, including that there has been a 26-ton posted weight limit on the bridge since 2014.

As with previous inspections, the Sept. 29 examination rated the steel K-frame bridge a 4 on a scale from 0 to 9, which is deemed a poor rating.

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The structure, built five decades ago, is one of six bridges with similar designs in the state. Campbell said the reasons it failed and collapsed remain unclear and are the subject of investigations.

There were no fatalities in the collapse, but a few people required hospital treatment, and as of Monday, one adult was still getting care inside a UPMC facility, a hospital system spokesperson said.

The collapse occurred hours before President Biden arrived in Pittsburgh to promote a federal infrastructure law that has earmarked about $1.6 billion for Pennsylvania bridge work.

Campbell said $25.3 million in National Highway Performance Program funds will be spent to rebuild the bridge.

 Associated Press

N.Y. district attorney declines to pursue case against Cuomo: An Upstate New York district attorney said Monday that he will not bring criminal charges against Andrew M. Cuomo, becoming the latest prosecutor to decline to pursue a criminal case over sexual misconduct allegations against the former governor. Oswego County District Attorney Gregory Oakes said there was "not a sufficient legal basis" to bring charges against Cuomo based on the allegation made by Virginia Limmiatis, who said Cuomo ran his fingers across the chest of her shirt at a public event. Oakes said the decision was based solely on a legal assessment and that he found Limmiatis to be reliable and reasonable.

 Associated Press

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Houthi attack foiled during Israeli's visit Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The United Arab Emirates said Monday that it intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemens Iran-aligned Houthi movement as the UAE hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog on his first visit to the Persian Gulf business and tourism hub. In the third such attack on the U.S.-allied UAE in two weeks, the Houthis military spokesman said the Yemeni rebels launched Iranian-made Zulfiqar missiles at Abu Dhabi and drones at Dubai. He reiterated a warning to residents and firms to stay away from vital headquarters and facilities in the UAE.

The United States condemned the assault, which followed a Jan. 17 strike on a fuel depot in Abu Dhabi that killed three people, in an escalation of the Yemen war between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition, which includes the UAE.

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The assaults have led to rare security jitters among some residents in a country where expatriates are a majority, but have had no visible impact on daily life, with restaurants and beaches packed during the peak mild winter season.

The UAE said that the missile was intercepted at 20 minutes past midnight and that its debris fell on an uninhabited area.

The attack came as Israels Herzog was visiting the capital, where he discussed security and bilateral relations with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

 Reuters

Junta issues warning for coup anniversary

Myanmars military rulers have threatened to jail people who take part in a silent strike on Tuesday, as activists urged residents to stay indoors and businesses to close as a protest to mark the anniversary of the armys seizing power.

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Myanmar has been in chaos since Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other figures from her National League for Democracy party were rounded up in raids, accused by the junta of rigging a 2020 election that the NLD won.

The overthrow of Suu Kyis government triggered huge street protests last year, but the bloody crackdown that ensued left hundreds of civilians dead and led to the forming of peoples defense forces to take on the well-equipped army.

In recent days, activists have urged people to go on strike, staging flash mobs, distributing pamphlets and using social media to get the message out.

A group that said it was coordinating the strikes urged the international community to recognize a shadow Myanmar government and to impose a no-fly zone in conflict areas and a global arms embargo.

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A spokesman for the military rulers did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

In the northern city of Myitkyina, signs put up by the military warned residents not to join the protest and listed prison terms of three to 20 years under laws on counterterrorism, high treason, public mischief and telecommunications.

Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the junta to allow greater humanitarian access.

 Reuters

Amnesty called out on apartheid report

Israel on Monday called on Amnesty International not to publish an upcoming report accusing it of apartheid, saying the conclusions of the London-based human rights group are false, biased and antisemitic.

Amnesty is expected to join New York-based Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group BTselem in accusing Israel of the international crime of apartheid based on its nearly 55-year military occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state and its treatment of its own Arab minority.

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Israel dismissed the other reports as biased, but is adopting a much more adversarial stance this time. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has said Israel expects intensified efforts this year to brand it as an apartheid state in international bodies and hopes to head them off.

In a statement Monday, he said that Amnesty is just another radical organization which echoes propaganda, without seriously checking the facts, and that it echoes the same lies shared by terrorist organizations.

Israel isnt perfect, but we are a democracy committed to international law, open to criticism, with a free press and a strong and independent judicial system, Lapid said.

Amnesty did not immediately answer a request for comment.

 Associated Press

Libyan lawmakers seek new government: Libyan lawmakers pushed ahead with plans to appoint a new transitional government, more than a month after the country failed to hold its first presidential election. Parliament will convene next week to deliberate and appoint a prime minister, a spokesman said. The move to replace Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah and his government is likely to fuel tensions between factions in the chaos-stricken country.

 From news services

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Danny Hong shows where the water reached up to him during flooding in his basement apartment in the Queens borough of New York last September. (AP)

Researchers say individuals should respond to the hazard most pressing at the time and be prepared to move locations if necessary.
MYRA School of Business PGDM and PGPX program admission 2022 https://career.webindia123.com/career/dates_and_events/myra-school-of-business-pgdm-and-pgpx-program-admission.htm Details of MYRA School of Business PGDM and PGPX program admission 2022 2022-12-13 2022-4-9 https://career.webindia123.com/career/images/exams.png India India MYRA School of Business PGDM and PGPX program admission 2022 Management

Admission Notice - MYRA School of Business PGDM and PGPX program admission

MYRA School of Business PGDM and PGPX program admission 2022 Category : Management Admissions 2022 Published : On December 13, 2022 By Webindia123 Editor

Important Dates

Last date for submission of completed Application Form 9th April 2022

MYRA School of Business, Mysore invites applications for admission to Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) and Program in Management for Executives (PGPX) offered in various specializations for the commencing session 2022-24.

The MYRA School of Business is an innovatively designed business school established in 2012 at Mysore under the aegis of the Mysore Royal Academy(MYRA).The schools avant-garde and architecturally acclaimed campus was inaugurated on November 4th, 2012 by Padma Bhushan Deepak Parekh, Chairman of HDFC. MYRA was founded by an educationally enlightened group of thinkers led by Prof. Shalini Urs, Executive Director, International School of Information Management and Prof. D. Shrijay Devaraj Urs, Institute of Development Studies, both from the University of Mysore, who have distinguished themselves across the academic life cycle of teaching, research, administration, and accreditation.

Eligibility Criteria

Graduation

Bachelor's degree in any discipline with 50% and above, from a recognized institution. Your subject background, extra-curricular activities, awards, and recognitions are also considered.

Selection Criteria

Applicants should have valid CAT, XAT, NMAT, GMAT, GRE or MET (MYRA Entrance Test) scores. We regard entrance exam scores as helpful indicators of academic ability and achievement when considered thoughtfully amongst other factors.

MYRA's PGDM program is AICTE approved and hence accepts CMAT scores.

Work Experience

PGDM: We prefer our PGDM students to have at least two years of experience. We believe that students bring their professional experience to the class and contribute to the cohort interactions and are able to take away more. However, we also welcome exceptionally bright fresh graduates who possess drive and confidence.

PGPX: We require our PGPX students to have five or more years of experience. This advanced program assumes foundational knowledge in general management theory as well as experience at the managerial level.

Written Essay

The statement of purpose essay forms an important basis for selection to our program. The essay should showcase evidence of leadership, professional promise, your career goals, your personality, and reasons for pursuing higher education. (Word limit: 2000)

MYRA look forward to receiving your application. Please note the dates below when preparing to apply. After we receive your application, our Admissions Office would review it based on the above mentioned criteria and subsequently schedule a Personal Interview for a date and time that is mutually convenient.

How to Apply

Candidates can apply to the MYRA School of Business either through our online portal, or by downloading a PDF application form.

Filled application forms along with your supporting documents should be mailed to admissions@myra.ac.in or to the following address: Office of Admissions, MYRA School of Business, Near Infosys, Opp. Power Grid, Mysore, Karnataka-571130.

An application fee of INR 1000/ USD 20 can be paid through our Online Gateway, a Demand Draft in favour of the MYRA School of Business, or an Electronic Wire Transfer to the account: Mysore Royal Academy, State Bank of India, Commercial Branch, Mysore, Karnataka; A/C No: 31409573150 | IFSC code: SBIN 0004161

Should you have any questions about the eligibility criteria or the admissions process, do not hesitate to contact us at admissions@myra.ac.in Classes commence from July 2022.

More Details can be available from the institute website www.myra.ac.in

Contact Details Address : MYRA School of Business,

Near Infosys, Opp. Power Grid,

Yelwala, Mysuru - 571130,

Karnataka, India. Phone : 0821-2404511 - 15 Fax : Mobile : 9901853333 E-mail : Contact I Website : www.myra.ac.in

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Washington, IN (47501)

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U.S. Rep. Ron Kind announced that the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport is set to receive $3,165,815 in federal funding. This grant will help reconstruct the existing aircraft rescue and firefighting building.

Wisconsinites depend on our outstanding regional airports to connect with communities across the state, the country, and the world, said Kind. This funding will help the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport make necessary infrastructure upgrades and continue to provide all visitors with a safe and successful travel experience.

The Chippewa Valley Re-

gional Airport is grateful to our Wisconsin Congressional delegation, including Congressman Kind, for helping to ensure airports receive the necessary financial support to replace our aging infrastructure. Appropriate facilities to house emergency equipment and responders is critical to ensuring CVRA continues to meet federal requirements for hosting airline operations, said Charity Zich, airport director.

This grant is being funded as part of the supplemental funding provided under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 and through the CARES Act, both of which Rep. Kind voted to pass.

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The deep blue covers 70 per cent of the earth and has been a source of intrigue for centuries, swallowing ships and submarines and setting the stage for tales of mythical sea monsters or hidden cities.

But a new research centre, launched by billionaire and Minderoo Foundation chair Andrew Forrest and the University of Western Australia, is the latest endeavour to help unlock the secrets of the sea.

The Minderoo Foundation and the University of Western Australia have launched a new research centre that will explore parts of the Indian Ocean that have never been seen before. Credit:Minderoo-UWA

The Deep-Sea Research Centre, established through a $4.2 million five-year grant from the Minderoo Foundations Flourishing Oceans initiative, aims to explore the Indian Ocean and its marine ecosystems.

The foundation conducted its first exploration of the Wallaby Zenith Fracture Zone off the midwest coast of Western Australia last year. For a month, researchers mapped deep-sea biodiversity and significant deposits of valuable minerals  known as manganese nodule fields  more than 6000 metres below the oceans surface.
Loading Of children aged between 5 and 11, 40.3 per cent have received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose since becoming eligible in January. Dr McAnulty said 83.3 per cent of 12- to 15-year-olds have had one dose, and 78.5 per cent two doses. Of NSW residents aged 18 and over, 40.6 per cent have received a booster. On Tuesday, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said state health authorities were working with their federal counterparts to figure out why a relatively small number of NSW aged care facilities had not received a booster clinic. Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Paul Sadler estimates at least one in 10 aged care residents are yet to receive their shot.

An Operation COVID Shield spokesperson said as of Monday more than 99 per cent of aged care facilities had received a booster clinic or were scheduled to receive one. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, speaking in NSWs Hawkesbury region on Wednesday, said about 566 people had died in aged care facilities nationally in the most recent COVID-19 variant wave. In his address to the National Press Club on Tuesday, Mr Morrison said he understood Australians were frustrated and disappointed with how the global pandemic has played out over this past very difficult summer, adding he hadnt got everything right and would take his fair share of criticism and blame. He stopped short of a personal apology when asked whether he would apologise for past mistakes, including travelling to Hawaii during the 2019-20 bushfires and regarding rapid antigen test supply. Were all terribly sorry for what this pandemic has done to the world and to this country, Mr Morrison said.

Loading He said the government was perhaps too optimistic about the challenges this summer would present and had raised hopes, noting Omicron had triggered significant changes. Mr Morrison said if he had his time again, he would have placed the vaccine rollout under military control earlier, and also conceded aspects of aged care  including moving patients between facilities into hospitals  could have been done better at a state and federal level. He was asked on Sevens Sunrise on Wednesday morning whether his real mistake had been to claim in early 2021 the vaccination rollout was not a race - a remark he has since said he regrets making. As I said very clearly yesterday, we had two big challenges - one was of course the blocking of the supplies that we had ordered, Mr Morrison told the breakfast TV program, and there was also, later on, the big challenges of the AstraZeneca vaccine being limited in ... whom it could be provided for because we had invested in ensuring we could manufacture that vaccine in Australia.

The challenges we had early on around distribution [were] overwhelming, how things were being managed in Health, so thats why I brought in [COVID-19 task force commander Lieutenant-] General [John] Frewen, and it turned around. Meanwhile, the NSW government has announced it will fund 5000 Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) courses to help ease staffing pressure on the hospitality industry. NSW Treasurer Matt Kean, in a statement on Wednesday, said the free courses would be available from February 7 to allow more people to gain the necessary qualifications to enter the workforce at a critical time. NSW Hospitality Minister Kevin Anderson added: Staff shortages are adversely impacting the hospitality sector, which is why we are supporting more people to obtain skills and work to drive our economic recovery. NSW Skills Minister Alister Henskens said RSA refresher courses would also be free from next Monday until the end of June, for anyone whose RSA competency card has expired in the past two years, with former hospitality workers encouraged to return to the sector.
These are disturbing allegations about police culture and practice, said Hugh de Kretser, executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre. The original alleged misconduct is bad. The fact that at least one police integrity investigator may have actively undermined the misconduct investigation is even worse. This highlights yet again why our system of police accountability is failing Victorians. Police simply should not be investigating police. Gisborne police station in the Macedon Ranges. In a formal statement released to The Age, Victoria Police said Mr McCanns alleged criminality spanned from June 2018 to August 2021. Sources close to him but not authorised to speak publicly said most of the charges focused on a period of a few months in which Mr McCann spearheaded an aggressive investigation throughout Melbournes Macedon Ranges that targeted criminal suspects tied to alleged drug activity and stolen property.

According to court documents, Mr McCann is accused of directing less senior investigators to insert allegedly false information in affidavits that were presented to senior police or a magistrate to empower officers to raid suspects homes. Even though the investigation raised serious questions about culture and oversight within pockets of the force  sensitive topics for Victoria Police after various public inquiries including the Lawyer X royal commission  Victoria Police had previously released few public details about the investigation. Police issued a detailed statement confirming the charges and suspensions, as well as moves to notify the 15 Victorians named in the allegedly tainted search warrant affidavits, after queries from The Age. The Andrews government must establish a system where we have an independent expert watchdog ... to investigate all allegations of serious police misconduct. Human Rights Law Centre chief Hugh de Kretser Victoria Police takes this issue extremely seriously and has taken swift action against the alleged offenders, the statement said. Proactive steps have been taken to identify the cases linked to these affidavits. Fifteen affected people have been identified and Victoria Police has commenced disclosure to those affected persons. When the issue was identified, two people were still before the courts and one was subject to an outstanding warrant. In these instances, the charges and warrant were immediately withdrawn. The remaining 12 affected people have already had their cases heard before the court and finalised.

The force said these 12 people had or would soon be contacted. A high-profile career Mr McCanns friends say he is gruff, opinionated and a relentless investigator, but his career has attracted controversy in the past. As a suburban detective, he helped identify Carl Williams as an emerging drug kingpin and, in the 2000s, he joined the elite homicide squad as part of a team led by now retired senior-sergeant and high-profile murder investigator Charlie Bezzina. In a 2011 Age article, Mr Bezzina was quoted saying of Mr McCann: I cannot speak highly enough of him in terms of his honesty or work ethic as a copper. The article also described how Mr McCann had won a bravery award for entering a siege zone in Sunshine in 2010 to locate civilians threatened by a gunman. Mr McCann and his partner were repeatedly fired at and the gunman was later charged with attempting to murder them.

However, the same article also dealt with allegations  which were denied and which never led to formal action  that Mr McCann was tied to a network of old-school police who prioritised friendship over ethics. A year later, in 2012, Victoria Police tried to sack Mr McCann over a scandal involving the production of a racist stubby holder. His career survived, he climbed in rank to sergeant and was subsequently elected to the board of the police union, which is a centre of networking in policing circles and wields considerable political influence over the state government. While stationed at Gisborne police station as a sergeant in 2018  a middle-management position that involves overseeing more junior police  Mr McCann led a group of investigators that he sought to mentor. A retired senior detective, Bill Patten, a friend of Mr McCanns, said the younger mans bull at a gate style had led to a falling-out with another group of investigators, but Ive never known Calum to cross any lines. The Calum I know can be very aggressive, but its all about catching crooks. Hes one of the most operationally competent and dynamic police members I know, Mr Patten said.

Anti-corruption investigation In 2020, Professional Standards Command received a complaint about Mr McCann. Veteran anti-corruption detective Peter Fogarty, who is among the longest-serving anti-corruption officers on the force, took charge of the investigation. Mr Fogartys team examined a number of affidavits used to obtain search warrants and took statements from junior police who had helped to compile them. Data released by Victoria Police to The Age shows that, after several months of investigations, Mr Fogartys team identified seven affidavits relating to 12 addresses alleged to contain some false information. Mr McCann had used the search warrant affidavits to raid suspected drug dealers and thieves between June 2018 and August 2020. One supporter of Mr McCann, who spoke to The Age on condition of anonymity, insisted the false information was the result of an inadvertent error caused by using pro-forma affidavits. But the case against Mr McCann (which is yet to be tested in court) involves the allegation that he deliberately and repeatedly falsified affidavits to increase his teams arrest rate. Victoria Police said the alleged misconduct was an isolated issue involving a very small number of officers.

Mr McCanns charging follows two major public inquiries by Victorias police watchdog, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, both of which sought to highlight alleged police behaviour that prioritised arresting suspects over following proper process. The Lawyer X scandal has already led to several major criminal figures being released from jail. Mr McCanns arrest targets were much smaller fry in the criminal world (and only one suspect was jailed), yet the fact his alleged misconduct took place during and after the Lawyer X royal commission raises fresh questions about police culture and practices. In its formal statement, Victoria Police also details how Mr McCann and an unnamed internal affairs detective known to Mr McCann are facing criminal charges for allegedly seeking to compromise Mr Fogartys investigation. A second professional standards investigator is on stress leave and may also face suspension, sources said. Mr McCann declined to comment when contacted. Police culture and accountability expert Dr Colleen Lewis said the allegations suggested the force may not have learnt the lessons of the Lawyer X royal commission.

The commission should have been enough to make even old-school police recognise that that type of behaviour is not acceptable, she said. Loading Dr Lewis also called for independent and public scrutiny of the scandal. The Human Rights Law Centres Mr de Kretser said: The Andrews government must establish a system where we have an independent expert watchdog with the power and resources to investigate all allegations of serious police misconduct. Victoria Police said it had advised the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission about the allegations. IBAC recently called on the Andrews government to give it more resources so it could investigate more cases of misconduct.
Western Australia will suffer a significant disadvantage to the eastern states over its limited acceptance of foreign students in the wake of its continued border measures, StudyPerth has warned.

The McGowan government recently told education institutes that the delay in the border reopening will mean that most foreign students will be prevented from returning to WA campuses in semester 1.

Chinese students at a graduation ceremony in Shanghai. Australia and US universities got fewer students from China since the start of the pandemic. Credit:AP

The only international students who may still make it across from interstate under WAs expanded exemptions need to already be in Australia ahead of the February 5 changes.

Under the new G2G Pass conditions that come into effect on Saturday, those wishing to attend primary school, secondary school, university or TAFE in WA may travel from interstate  but not overseas.
We had upwards of 14,000 people a day flying into Tasmania and within one or two days we started getting cases and that was it, its been an exponential rise since then, she said. Because we have no flexibility at all with our hospital staff capacity, as staff have isolated because theyve been either infected become a close contact, its meant a devastating lack of staff available to provide other health services. We have stopped being able to provide elective surgery in anything like a timely fashion, and the availability of access to emergency and other basic services has really declined. Baseline restrictions including mask-wearing indoors, a two-square-metre rule and venue capacity caps of 250 for indoors and 500 for outdoors have been in place since Tasmania reopened; along with limits of 100 people in the home and restrictions on unvaccinated people entering the state. It took about three weeks from the border lifting for cases to start being admitted to hospital. Around that time, businesses started to temporarily close or reduce hours due to employees being required to isolate.

Lessons from Tasmanias reopening Baseline restrictions, such as the two-square-metre rule, masks, and capacity limits have been in place since the states reopening to help slow the spread of COVID-19

Many people are working from home, where possible, and choosing to minimise their movements which is having a negative impact on hospitality

To prevent large numbers of people being in isolation at the same time, the state changed its close contacts definition two weeks into the reopening to be household contacts only, with a 7-day quarantine requirement, and exemptions for essential workers who could be tested daily

PCR and rapid antigen tests have been in short supply, leading to forced isolation and workplace shortages

Authorities suspect the state experienced its peak in cases around a month after the border reopened, with around 5.5 per cent of the population so far testing positive The impacts on the workforce led Tasmania to change its isolation rules in early January. Previously anyone who had spent 15 minutes with a positive case was required to quarantine for 14 days. The new policy cut the isolation requirement to seven days and narrowed the definition of a close contact to household contacts or people who spent four or more hours with a positive case. Essential workers, such as medical staff and food suppliers, were also granted special exemptions to continue working if they were a close contact but had no symptoms, so long as they returned a negative rapid antigen test each day. The Tasmanian health authority also stopped listing exposure sites, telling the public to assume COVID was everywhere.

Deakin University chair in epidemiology Catherine Bennett said Tasmanias decision to move to a more targeted contact tracing model shortly after its reopening allowed the state to slow the spread. They thought Well its better to go straight into that and get that working well while weve got a few cases rather than trying to do the old way, which doesnt work, she said. It didnt work with Delta because Delta moves too fast and Omicron is more infectious and constantly has a shorter incubation period again. Its better to step back and do something thats much more strategic  using resources to a better effect. However, Dr Woodruff said people were imposing isolation on themselves, despite it not being a requirement, due to all the uncertainty.

A lot of events and places are tracking terribly low numbers  the Taste of Tasmania, the stall owners didnt cover costs, there was a big gin festival and no one turned up  people arent going out and about, she said. People [who could work from home] did that, but if youre working in construction or hospitals, hospitality or retail, you cant. So, its been a disadvantage for those sorts of industries. She said RATs sold out by 9.30am, making them almost unattainable. South Australia South Australia reopened its border on November 23 once it reached a vaccination target of 80 per cent double-dosed.

Since then, it has recorded 119,311 locally acquired cases  representing around 6.5 per cent of the population  and 116 deaths. While no data is available about the ages of those who died, the national average is 82 years. Testing lines in Adelaide in November. Credit:Getty South Australias rolling average for daily new cases is 2200, which authorities believe is just past the states peak. On Tuesday, 273 people were in hospital with the virus and 22 were in intensive care. Its population is around two thirds that of WA.

The state experienced a sharp increase in Omicron cases after reopening which prompted South Australian Premier Steven Marshall to tighten restrictions on December 27 to include the four-square-metre rule, seated service only, home gatherings of up to 10, and working-from-home directions. Previously, lesser gathering restrictions were in place, such as a 50 per cent density limit at unseated events and home gathering limits of up to 30 people. University of South Australia professor of biostatistics Adrian Esterman said the restrictions  in place before being eased on January 29  helped slow the spread to a manageable level. Cases skyrocketed [when we opened] ... but because we have retained a lot of our public health measures in place we flattened the curve so our health system could manage, and now we are coming out the other side and will be fine for this particular variant, he said.

But while the health system has fared relatively well, Professor Esterman said the citys retail and hospitality venues continue to struggle. Its a very strange situation, if you go into the city its pretty much empty, retail is really hurting  most people are working from home, theyve not bothering to go into town, he said. But if you go to Glenelg, our seaside place, its restaurants are packed, but its mainly youngsters there. I think most older people are being very careful. Lessons from South Australias reopening Existing baseline restrictions had to be tightened a month into living with COVID to include the four-square-metre rule, household limits of 10 and mask mandates. The rules were eased and QR check-ins at shops abandoned a month later.

Those who could were asked to work from home for a month, and have gradually been returning

To prevent large numbers of people being in isolation at the same time, the state changed its close contacts definition to household and intimate partners, and those who interacted with a case indoors without a mask on, and reduced the isolation requirement to 7 days

PCR and rapid antigen tests were initially difficult to get, leading to forced isolation and workplace shortages

Experts believe the state reached its peak in cases around two months after reopening with around 7.5 per cent of the population returning a positive COVID-19 test since reopening Mr Marshall said he was hopefully restrictions would continue to gradually be eased in the coming months if vaccine booster levels, currently at 40.7 per cent, continued to rise.

We know this is our best chance to reduce that risk and then start to gradually further reduce the restrictions in South Australia and get back to a fairly normal March, April, May in the foreseeable future, he said. There is an opportunity to look forward now with optimism. I think every South Australian can feel very proud of how they have been supported by our hard-working doctors, nurses, paramedics and other support staff, theres been enormous pressure on them. Googles community mobility report, which tracks human movement, showed public transport in the City of Adelaide was down 55 per cent compared to baseline levels. Work place attendance had also dropped by 20 per cent, and retail and recreation was down by 45 per cent. WA has yet to set a date to reopen its borders, however Mr McGowan said it was likely to be once third-dose booster shot levels reached about 80 per cent  which was forecast to occur in March.
Its been a torrid week for Mark McGowan, who has seen friends in high places turn in a way that has been alien to him and his WA Labor government  not just for the two years of the pandemic but since his election in 2017.

Someone who has worked intimately with the Premier remarked this week that Mark likes to be liked, and he especially likes to be liked by the top end of town.

Happier times? Billionaire Kerry Stokes and WA Premier Mark McGowan at a business breakfast last year. Credit:ABC

The prediction was that the public flaying he has copped from the likes of Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott, AFL/Woodside/Qantas chair Richard Goyder, and  via daily scathing editorials in his newspaper  magnate Kerry Stokes would leave the Premier feeling wounded.

A government that has been lavished with eye-popping electoral success has gotten out of the habit of receiving sustained criticism  and there has been plenty of that to go around since McGowans dramatic late-night press conference on January 20.
London: It may not have been a smoking gun but, in finding failures of leadership and judgment, Sue Grays report has laid bare the chaos and confusion at the heart of government.

The problem for the Prime Minister is not that the Investigation into alleged gatherings on government premises during COVID restrictions contains new details about previously unknown parties.

It is that its central finding, that the leadership structures are fragmented and complicated and this has sometimes led to the blurring of lines of accountability, comes as no surprise at all.

Under fire: Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Credit:AP

This update was just a polite way of confirming what everyone already suspected: that Downing Street is a basket case.
New York: The US judge overseeing the lawsuit alleging Prince Andrew sexually assaulted a teenager decades ago asked British and Australian authorities for assistance questioning potential witnesses in those countries.

US District Court Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan on Tuesday AEDT asked legal authorities in Australia for help with material concerning the Andrews accuser Virginia Giuffres residency there.

Prince Andrew appears at the Royal Chapel at Windsor, following the announcement of the death of his father Prince Philip last April.. Credit:PA

Andrews lawyers have cited that to argue that US courts dont have jurisdiction over her claims.

The judge said Andrew and his lawyers would bear all costs of the Australia request, highlighting the financial burden the litigation is placing on Queen Elizabeth IIs second son.
Citing her desire to pass the torch to the next generation of Democratic lawmakers, Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley announced Tuesday that she will not seek reelection.

With her announcement, Bewley, D-Mason, became the third state Senator to announce her retirement from public office in the last two months, along with longtime Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-West Point, and Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls.

After 4 years in the Assembly and almost 8 years in the Senate, it is time for me to make way for a new generation of progressive and pragmatic leaders from a part of the state that has produced so many, Bewley said in a statement.

Bewley became the Democratic Senate leader shortly after then-leader Jennifer Shilling announced in April 2020 that she would not seek another term after serving two decades in the Legislature. Bewley had been the Senate assistant minority leader since 2017.

Bewleys announcement comes after Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, announced in December that he is stepping down from assembly minority leader as he mulls whether he will run again.

After her term ends early next year, she will spend more time with her recently retired husband as well as her children and grandchildren, she said.

Janet has given a lot to the people of her district and our state over the course of her career, and her impact will be felt for years to come, said Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, who took over from Hintz. I am so thankful to have been able to work alongside her in serving the people of Wisconsin.

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, also announced that he would not be running again, joining Republican Reps. Amy Loudenbeck, of Clinton, who is running for secretary of state this fall; Gary Tauchen, of Bonduel; and Jeremy Thiesfeldt, of Fond du Lac.

Reps. David Bowen, D-Milwaukee; Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton; Beth Meyers, D-Bayfield; and Sara Rodriguez, D-Brookfield, also are not running this fall. Bowen and Rodriguez are running for lieutenant governor.

Janets steadfast leadership, her integrity, and compassion are integral to our caucus, said Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison. It is clear that her love of the 25th Senate District and the state of Wisconsin shines bright in everything she does.

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An aerial view of the damage left behind in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, after tornadoes ripped through western Kentucky overnight on Dec. 10, 2021. (WDRB photo)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 31)  If elected to the country's top post, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said he would not hand over President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Crime Court (ICC) should he be found guilty of crimes he is accused of.

"Hand him over? No," said the Manila mayor and presidential aspirant on Monday.

While Moreno says the ICC is welcome to enter the country and investigate, he also noted that the country has its own courts and its justice system is "intact."

"The way I understand, [for the] ICC to function, to interfere, merong panga-abuso sa karapatang pantao ng isang bansa sa kanyang mamamayan na walang makamit na hustisya at di tumatakbo ang justice system nila," he said, adding this isn't the case for the Philippines.

[Translation: The way I understand, [for the] ICC to function, to interfere, citizens should be experiencing human rights violations in their country and justice cannot be achieved because their justice system isn't working.]

Moreno likewise assured that anyone facing criminal complaints will have a day in Philippine courts.

Duterte has consistently refused to face the ICC, which had earlier ordered a probe into his administration's bloody war on drugs. The international body, however, had temporarily suspended the investigation last November. https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2021/11/19/ICC-temporarily-suspends-probe-on-Duterte-drug-war.html

RELATED: PH won't cooperate as ICC opens drug war probe, Duterte's counsel says

Still, Moreno said he is open to holding a similar probe on the issue.

"Yes, why not? Bakit hindi? Kung talagang mapapanatag ko lang ang damdamin ng bawat isa, why not?" he said.

[Translation: If it would really put everyone's feelings at ease, why not?]

Duterte has yet to anoint his presidential bet for the 2022 polls.
Local

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Local curling judge anxiously awaits the Olympics

daily times / Contributed MaryPat Shandor at the 2006 Olympic games in Torino.

One woman who is anxiously looking forward to the Olympics in Beijing is MaryPat Shandor.

The Watertown woman has been a judge at many curling competitions, including past Olympics. She is anticipating one of the more interesting sports at this years Olympics, which open Friday. However, some curling events are scheduled to start Wednesday.

Curling is one of the most popular viewed games of the Olympics, because it is so unusual, Shandor said. Some people dont get to see curling but every four years.

Curling is a team sport, played on ice, where two teams of four players take turns to slide stones made of special granite towards a bullseye  known as a house. It is mades up of three concentric circles. Points are scored by sliding stones into the house.

Two teams of four face against one another to see who can score the most points.

The stones weigh between 38 to 44 pounds and are guided down a 150-foot-long by 15-foot-wide stretch of rough ice called the sheet. The stones are guided with special brooms that warm the ice through friction along the course. The stones usually curl to either the left or right after they are delivered, which is why the sport is called curling.

Each player slides two stones for a total of 16 stones being thrown. Throws alternate between teams so one player throws their two stones then a player on the other team throws their two. Once the 16 stones have been thrown, the round, known as an end, is over and the points are tallied.

Only one team will score points. A point is scored for each stone in or touching the house, that is closer to the center than any of the opposing teams stones. Each stone can only be worth one point. If a team has two stones closer to the center of the button than its opponent, it gets two points and so on. A team can score a maximum of eight points in an end.

Matches are 10 ends and the team with the most points after the 10th end wins.

Shandor was raised with curling. Back in 1964, when Shandor was 10, her father took her and three of her five siblings to the newly opened Kettle Moraine Curling Club in Hartland. My parents had six children and it was a way for my mother to get rid of four children every Thursday night. Dad took four of the oldest to the Kettle Moraine Curling Club after dinner. The family lived in Wauwatosa at the time.

I curled all the way through high school and went to nursing school and curled through nursing school, Shandor said. Following nursing school, Shandor said she joined the Air Force and, when she was on leave and it was curling season, she would substitute for her mother.

She got married, had two children, and lived in Louisville before moving back to the Hartland area. The first year back, I started curling again. She curled about one to two times a week, and at one point was curling three times a week. When her husband, who was a pilot with Delta retired, she returned to the work force for insurance purposes. At that point, which was about eight to 10 years ago, she discontinued curling.

She became an official in 1998, when her home club hosted a national junior championship. They needed help during the day to help officiate at the games, Shandor said.

Shandor said she had to take a class in order to officiate at levels one and two. After that experience, she started to volunteer as a judge. Most judging is on a volunteer basis.

To advance into higher levels of judging, she had to check off various squares to meet different requirements to advance.

There are four levels of judging, Shantor said. She was elevated to level four by invitation after apprentice work in level three. She has served as the chief umpire at many events.

The opportunity came up to volunteer at the Salt Lake Olympics, Shandor said. She volunteered as a low level official and had to travel to Utah twice in 2002, for the national championships and the Olympics. I was ecstatic. She paid her own way to the venue, but did get some reimbursement for housing and food that year.

In 2004, her mentor from Green Bay invited her to go to Sweden with her as the mentor had never traveled overseas. It was her first international event, in Gavle Sweden. While there, she worked with seniors at the world event and met people in the World Curling Federation who were responsible for getting umpires for other events. That worked out very well for me, she said.

She then traveled to China, Turkey, Finland, Russia twice, Italy twice, and Canada, along with Las Vegas and throughout Wisconsin to judge events. She also was at the Torino Olympics as a volunteer.

I have been very lucky, Shandor said. Curling has been very good to me.

There are several curling clubs throughout the state, including six clubs in Columbia County, Shandor pointed out. There are also clubs in Madison, Wausau, Duluth, Superior, Green Bay, Milwaukee and Janesville.

The last I heard, Wisconsin has more curling clubs than any other place in the area, Shandor said. Because of the upcoming Olympics, many of the clubs will be holding open houses to gain interest in the sport.

When I got back into Wisconsin, I played actively for 30 years. Local tournaments are called bonspiels where players pay a small fee to participate. The prize is a pin. Those pins are traded at other events, including international competitions.

Shandor said she has a container full of pins. There are no medals or trophies, she explained.

Over the years there have been some changes, including additions to the rule book that increased from 30 to 70 pages.

It was way different when I started in 1965, how we deliver the stone and did the sweeping, the curler said. We did sweeping but with a different apparatus than they do now. In 1965, we had a corn broom. It was a fancy kitchen straw broom. Then they changed to bristle broom and they dont allow those anymore. Now they use one that has fabric coating on it so it doesnt damage or leave a residue on the ice.

Shandor, who has not thrown a stone in about two years, was involved in the sport for 50 years.

She has fond memories of curling and judging the events. She recalled one woman who did curling at the age of 92. She would throw a stone and not know where it would go. But that didnt matter. She knew how and when to sweep. She was the sweetest woman, she said.
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan increased its non-oil exports by $870 million, or 47.2 percent, in 2021, the Center for Economic Reforms Analysis and Communication of Azerbaijan reported in its January export review.

Azerbaijan's exports totaled $22.2 billion last year, including $2.7 billion in the non-oil sector. Fruit and vegetable production increased by $22.9 million to $630.4 million in 2020 compared to 2020.

The cotton yarn came in first with $208 million in non-oil exports, followed by gold with $202.5 million and tomatoes with $160.2 million.

Non-oil goods worth $877.8 million were exported to Russia, $675.9 million to Turkey, $224.1 million to Switzerland, $157.5 million to Georgia, and $74.9 million to the United States during the reported period.

Azerbaijan's total exports in December 2021 amounted to $2.4 billion. During the reported month, non-oil exports increased by 73.9 percent to $353.6 million. Food exports increased by 387.7 percent to $101.5 million, while non-food exports increased by 93.7 percent to $252.1 million.

Russia ranked first with $114 million in non-oil product exports in December, followed by Turkey with $89.8 million and Switzerland with $19.5 million. Persimmons ($34.4 million) are first on the list of non-oil exports in December 2021, followed by other primary forms of polymerization ($26.9 million) and carbamide ($25.1 million).

The export review also included data on export orders received by the Azexport.az portal. As a result, the portal received orders totaling $60.8 million in December 2021. Furthermore, Azexport.az received $496.1 million in export orders from January to December 2021. It should be noted that the portal received $2.7 billion in export orders from 145 countries between January 2017 and December 31, 2021.

Furthermore, the value of non-oil exports through the Single Window Export Support Centre in January of this year was $9 million.

The purpose of the export review is to familiarize entrepreneurs with export issues, expand opportunities for exporting local goods to traditional and new markets, and accelerate the process of integration into international markets.




Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 31)  Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion believes the Philippines is ready to fully remove the alert level system and granular lockdowns by March or April this year.

The official said the government can scrap restrictive rules on business capacity and only needs to enforce the basic health protocols against COVID-19, such as the wearing of face masks.

Concepcion said this should be the government's direction in the next coming months, urging decision makers to begin crafting a "pandemic exit plan" considering that the Omicron coronavirus is leading to fewer hospitalizations compared to other variants that hit the country.

"We have to realize that we have to move on. Down the road nakikita namin that granular lockdowns are not needed. Dito sa Omicron, kung nahawa ka ng Omicron, what you do is just stay home, self-quarantine, and get well, then you go back to work, parang normal flu," he said in a government-led briefing. "I think by March, sometime that period, palagay ko April, we will be ready to move out from alert levels."

[Translation: Down the road we see that granular lockdowns are no longer necessary. If you catch Omicron, you only have to self-quarantine and get well, like the normal flu. I think by March or April, we will be ready to move out from alert levels.]

Alert levels are raised depending on the COVID-19 situation in a specific area, restricting movement and business operations if it is suffering a case surge. Granular lockdowns, meanwhile, are put in place to restrict the movement in a specific home or street with a high concentration of cases.

NEDA chief Karl Chua said Concepcion's suggestion needs to be studied as the country eventually moves to a more endemic mindset. For now, he sees the need for the alert level system to remain in place due to the ongoing Omicron-driven surge.

"I think the proposal would merit actually some serious thinking. For the time being, since we are not yet fully out of the pandemic, this is something that I think we should presently retain," he said.

Health reform advocate Tony Leachon also told CNN Philippines' The Source on Tuesday that before scrapping the alert level scheme, the government must first improve the health system and provide free access to COVID-19 tests to successfully measure and monitor the country's progress.

"We cannot manage what we don't measure," Leachon said. "I think its about time that we take a serious look at the indicators so we will be successful in terms of our pandemic exit plan."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  The Quezon City government will conduct COVID-19 antigen testing for Bar examinees, personnel and volunteers to prevent the two-day examination from becoming a superspreader event.

In a statement on Tuesday, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said the antigen testing will cover 756 examinees and 350 personnel who will be in the University of the Philippines-Diliman, one of the testing centers for the Bar examination.

Local officials have coordinated with the Supreme Court and UP administrators regarding the antigen testing, she added.

The SC will provide the test kits while the health personnel of the Quezon City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit will conduct the testing.

Anyone who tests positive will be assessed and referred either for home quarantine or for immediate transfer to any of the citys HOPE Community Care facilities, Belmonte said.

The QC Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and Quezon City Fire District will set up tents in the UP Diliman campus for any emergency, while the QC Task Force for Transport and Traffic Management will ensure smooth flow of traffic in the vicinity of the university.

Rest assured that we will provide all the support needed and that issues concerning health or safety will be the least of your worries, Belmonte said.

The Bar Exams will be held on Feb. 4 and 6.
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  The countrys outstanding debts slid to 11.72 trillion as of end-December as authorities paid out local securities, latest figures of the Bureau of the Treasury showed.

The figure is 203.28 billion lower than end-November, the bureau said on Tuesday. On an annual basis, the national debt stock grew by 19.7%.

The latest tally yielded a debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio  or percentage of loans to the total economy  of 60.5%, the highest since the 65.7% reported in 2005 under the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Still, the Treasury assured this is within the accepted sustainable threshold as the economy continues to recover from the effects of the pandemic.

RELATED: PH economy grows 5.6% in 2021, above target after Q4 performance beats forecasts

Domestic loans comprised 8.17 trillion of the total debt stock by the end of last year, outpacing end-Novembers 8.44 trillion.

The agency said this came as the repayment of the 540 billion provisional advance from the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) outpaced the net issuance of government securities.

External debts, meanwhile, stood at 3.55 trillion  slightly up from 3.49 trillion the month prior.

For December, the increment in external debt was attributed to the impact of peso depreciation against the USD amounting to 40.87 billion and the net availment of external obligations amounting to 33.83 billion, explained the Treasury, adding it more than offset the effects of foreign currency adjustments worth 6.89 billion.

The governments guaranteed payments reached 423.91 billion as of end-December, up 6.07 billion from November.

The higher level of guaranteed debt was due to the net availment of domestic guarantees amounting to 5.99 billion and the effect of Peso depreciation against the USD amounting to 2.68 billion, said the Treasury.

RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort said the countrys debt-to-GDP ratio could still be sustained around the international 60% threshold with faster economic growth expected this year, along with its overall fiscal performance.

This could be the case given the conservative/prudent stance on any additional stimulus measure that need to be supported by new government revenue sources, thereby could help curb the budget deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio, going forward, he said.

Economic managers, through Senate Finance Committee chairman Sonny Angara, assured during Novembers budget plenary debates that the countrys debt-to-GDP ratio will be kept within the 60% range even with more debts incurred as growth rises.
(CNN)  Spotify wants to be the everything-for-everyone audio company. But it's 2022, and that's proving impossible.

Neil Young and Joni Mitchell asked Spotify last week to pull their music from the platform because of Joe Rogan, who has made frequent false and inaccurate claims about Covid-19 and vaccines on his very popular Spotify podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience."

Spotify finds itself in between a rock and a hard place  it built a streaming music empire of 172 million subscribers in 180 countries on music from artists like Young and Mitchell, and it's focused on becoming a hub for exclusive podcasts like Rogan's.

They're serving very different audiences, and Spotify is learning it may not be able to have everything it wants.

"They can have Rogan or Young. Not both," Young said last week.

How Spotify got here

After Young pulled his music, Mitchell did the same and it snowballed. Harry and Meghan then expressed '"concerns" to Spotify over misinformation and the hash-tag "#DeleteSpotify" went viral.

Spotify's situation mirrors Netflix's controversy from late last year.

The streaming video company found itself in a similar firestorm in October when it had to walk a thin line between editorial freedom and editorial supervision regarding the controversial Dave Chappelle comedy special, "The Closer."

For Netflix, the solution was a lot of apologizing. For Spotify, it's adding a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes discussion about Covid-19.

"These are rules of the road to guide all of our creators  from those we work with exclusively to those whose work is shared across multiple platforms," CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek said in a statement.

Spotify had no further comment than Ek's statement.

Now, Spotify has to hope this solution is enough to keep everyone happy as it continues to balance both sides of its business.

"A very real financial impact by Young and Mitchell"

Like Netflix, Spotify is the market leader and doesn't need to fear a mass exodus of talent: Last year, recorded music revenues in the United States came in at $12.2 billion  of that $7 billion came from paid subscriptions. So pulling your music from the top streaming music service to make a point makes a dent in the checkbook for these artists.

In fact, according to estimates from Billboard, Young and Mitchell are both giving up more than 10% of their annual revenue by making this move.

Another reason Spotify doesn't need to worry too much: Most artists lack control of their streaming rights. They have no say where their music appears.

"If the recordings are controlled by a record label then it's not just up to an artist to pull their music if they want," Serona Elton, professor of music industry at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, told CNN Business. "However, there are some contracts that allow artists more decision-making and power, but those very rare."

Still, when big-named artists leave, that's not good for Spotify's business.

"Since Young and Mitchell haven't been in the news much lately, this story might drive streams of their tracks on other services," Elton said.

If fans of those artists can't hear their music on that service, they may go to one of the company's rivals like Apple Music. In fact, Apple took advantage of the situation on Friday and trolled Spotify by calling itself "the home of Neil Young."

"I've never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people"

So why not just pull Rogan from the platform? Spotify has plenty of podcasts to choose from, not to mention more than 70 million tracks to listen to.

Like Chappelle on Netflix, Rogan is incredibly popular on Spotify. And pulling the show may do more harm than good to the company's bottom line.

Rogan signed a multi-year exclusive licensing deal with Spotify in May. A deal worth more than $100 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In October, Spotify also said that "The Joe Rogan Experience" is the No. 1 show in its English-speaking markets and it "outperformed our audience expectations," after the podcast was added to Spotify on September 1.

Ek said in October that the podcast has been an "overall great success so far."

Also, if Spotify pulls a show like Rogan's that could lead to a tough precedent for other creators it works with in the podcasts space. It could also make it more difficult to recruit exclusive hosts that may help drive new subscriptions in the future. And, in this polarized culture, Spotify doesn't want to alienate half of America.

On Monday, Rogan responded to the backlash saying "he's not trying to promote misinformation."

"I've never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations," Rogan said in a 9-minute video posted to Instagram on Sunday.

Rogan also thanked Spotify for supporting him.

"I'm very sorry that this is happening to them, and that they're taking so much heat from it," he said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Spotify wants Joe Rogan and every musician. That's proving impossible."
(CNN)  Joe Rogan has responded to the backlash he's received from Spotify artists surrounding COVID-19 misinformation on his popular podcast.

"I'm not trying to promote misinformation, I'm not trying to be controversial. I've never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations," Rogan said in a 9-minute video posted to Instagram on Sunday.

On Sunday, Spotify said it will add a content advisory to any podcast episode about Covid-19  and Rogan said he agrees with that move. The advisory will direct listeners to a Covid-19 information hub that will include links to trusted sources, the company said.

"I want to thank Spotify for being so supportive during this time. And I'm very sorry that this is happening to them, and that they're taking so much heat from it," Rogan said.

Spotify will also for the first time publicly post its long-standing Platform Rules. A growing list of musicians and personalities are pressuring Spotify to take action on misinformation after Neil Young and then Joni Mitchell requested that their music be removed from the platform.

In his video, Rogan said he would try to balance controversial guests by having the mainstream perspective on right after them. He also said he will research contentious topics and "have all the pertinent facts at hand."

"I want to show all kinds of opinions so that we can all figure out what's going on and not just about Covid, about everything about health, about fitness, wellness, the state of the world," Rogan said.

Rogan portrayed himself as a figure who is just having interesting conversations, but at the same time he disputed the basic concept of misinformation. He claimed that changes in scientific opinion  for example about the effectiveness of cloth masks or the origins of the virus  have previously been viewed as misinformation and could have been banned on social media.

"Many of the things that we thought of as misinformation just a short while ago are now accepted as fact," Rogan claimed.

"The Joe Rogan Experience" is currently the top podcast in the United States and the United Kingdom on Spotify, according to the platform.

Rogan defended two of his most controversial guests  cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, who claimed Covid-19 vaccines are "experimental," and virologist Dr. Robert Malone, who has been banned from Twitter for Covid-19 misinformation.

"Both these people are very highly credentialed, very intelligent, very accomplished people. And they have an opinion that's different from the mainstream narrative," Rogan said, adding that he has also hosted CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. "I wanted to hear what their opinion is."

Rogan also said he is "not mad" at Neil Young and that he is a "huge" fan of the musician.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  Ninety-five former Cabinet officials, former Armed Forces chiefs of staff, and retired ambassadors  mostly from the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III  expressed their support for presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo.

The list also includes other senior government officials and career civil servants.

Some of the signatories include Robredos 2016 running mate former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Defense chief Voltaire Gazmin, and AFP chief Eduardo Oban, Jr.

In the statement released on Tuesday, they said Robredo possesses the characteristics of a leader who is competent, experienced, and committed to principles of integrity, democracy, and genuine public service.

"We believe that the best candidate who embodies these aspirations is a true leader who brings with her a solid track record of serving the public; one who possesses all the qualities of an ideal Chief Executive and Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces," the statement read.

"We commit ourselves fully to Vice President Leni Robredos bid for the presidency to lead the Philippines on an upward path of recovery and greatness," they added.

The group enjoined Filipinos to elect Robredo "to give our country the leader that we all deserve."

In a tweet, the Vice President thanked the officials for their trust and support, adding that she knew about their "culture of competence and collaboration" from her late husband, former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

Robredo, who is running as an independent candidate, denied the "dilawan," or officials previously affiliated with the Liberal Party, will receive favors if she wins in the May 9 race. When asked if officials with ties to the Aquino family will be appointed to government posts, she said many officials have already left the political party.

"Kakaunti na lang yung mga natirang pulitiko sa Liberal Party, such that nag-desisyon nga yung partido na i-bukas na sa ordinaryong mamamayan, i-bukas na sa society, i-bukas sa mga advocacy groups, i-bukas sa mga interest groups yung membership ng partido," she said in the DZBB radio interview.

[Translation: Only a few politicians remain in the Liberal Party, which is why the party agreed to open its membership to ordinary citizens, advocacy groups, and interest groups.]

Twenty-three former government officials who served during the administration of former President Fidel V. Ramos also pledged back in January to help Robredo win the presidency.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1) Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon is considering filing an impeachment complaint against fellow official Aimee Ferolino for the delayed release of the resolution on the disqualification cases against Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos.

"I will wait for the next election. Because you know, since she is for Bongbong Marcos, if he wins what's the use of me filing an impeachment complaint?" Guanzon told a forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines on Tuesday.

Guanzon did not explain further, but in a later interview with CNN Philippines, she said Ferolino's action violates Section 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

"This is betrayal of public trust," she said.

The Constitution states that Comelec commissioners are impeachable officers. Ferolino, who was appointed in November 2020, will serve in the poll body until 2027.

'Defeating our votes'

Guanzon, the presiding commissioner of the First Division handling the consolidated petitions against Marcos, also threw fresh allegations against Ferolino during the forum.

She said the delayed release of the ruling would mean "defeating" her and Commissioner Marlon Casquejo's votes.

Guanzon, who had voted to disqualify the son of the late dictator from the May polls, is set to retire this week. Casquejo, meanwhile, is expected to transfer to the poll body's Second Division.

"So it's not just my vote that's being defeated by our junior member - both senior commissioners' votes are being defeated because this way, we cannot cast our vote. Why? Because Commissioner Casquejo is moving to the Second Division as presiding commissioner and therefore cannot vote starting Feb. 3," Guanzon explained.

"Maybe they suspect also that Commissioner Casquejo's vote is a DQ (disqualification)," she added, but stressed that she still does not know the latter's decision.

Guanzon also said Ferolino was able to work on other cases assigned to the First Division even though the petitions against Marcos were raffled first.

"We took note that there were cases that were raffled after Marcos and yet she was able to release them and have me and Commissioner Casquejo sign it. So, her delay is really unacceptable, and under our rules, it's only 15 days," she said.

Guanzon likewise reiterated her claim that there may be a "powerful" personality meddling in the case. "If she was not paid or bought off, she should already release her resolution," she argued.

Ferolino has yet to issue a reply to Guanzon's new comments, but the commissioner earlier refuted claims she's intentionally delaying the release of the resolution, saying she was working "well within the timeline."

'Re-raffle the case'

After Guanzon's retirement, Commissioner Socorro Inting is set to take her post as presiding commissioner of the First Division.

And with movements expected, Guanzon called on the poll body to re-raffle the case  and let another commissioner pen the much-awaited decision.

"Because there is this reshuffling of commissioners, this case should be re-raffled. It should no longer be in Commissioner Ferolino's hands," Guanzon said.

"She already lost the privilege of writing a draft resolution, while the two of us are in office. It should be re-raffled so that another commissioner of the First Division will be handling, writing the draft resolution."

In the CNN Philippines interview, Guanzon also questioned Ferolino's competence, saying the junior commissioner "doesn't have legal practice experience in the court" after passing the Bar exams.

"That's the trouble, eh. That's why the reform I want is for constitutional commissioners to go through, pass the Judicial and Bar Council for interview and testingThese problems can be avoided by vetting by the Judicial and Bar Council," she added.

Guanzon earlier released her separate opinion on the Marcos case, where she cited the former senator's non-filing of income tax returns, among others, as ground for disqualification.

READ: Guanzon on Marcos' DQ cases: Non-filing of ITR constitutes moral turpitude, 'serious defect' in moral fiber
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1, 2022)  Presidential aspirant Senator Panfilo Lacson slammed what he described as the problematic implementation of some laws and programs under the Duterte administration.

These include the Department of Labor and Employment's (DOLE) Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) and the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) under the Bayanihan: We Heal As One 1 and 2 (Bayanihan 1 and 2) Laws, and the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.

In the case of TUPAD, the Partido Reporma standard bearer claimed it is being used by politicians for their campaign.

"Di ba dapat DOLE ang nagdi-distribute noon, government agency. E bakit binibigay sa congressmen? Yung mga kasama ko sa Senate, merong iba namimigay ng TUPAD. So ito ang dapat i-correct, sa implementasyon talaga e," Lacson said in an interview over DWIZ.

[Translation: Shouldn't DOLE be the distributor as a government agency? Why do they give it to congressmen? Some of my colleagues in the Senate are providing TUPAD. So the implementation should really be corrected.]

CNN Philippines is still trying to reach DOLE for comment.

Lacson also criticized the supposed problem with the distribution of SAP - or the government's dole-out program during the pandemic.

He said the list used in its distribution was based on 2016 data.

"Yung mga walang hanapbuhay, yung mahihirap noong 2016, baka hindi na mahirap ngayon. Pero ang ginamit na datos nila, 5 years e. So what do you expect kung ganon? At yung may mga hanapbuhay noon, ngayon naman nawalan ng hanapbuhay, hindi kasama sa ayuda. So pagdating sa ground, yung mga barangay chairman, mga mayor na nakakausap namin, sila ang gumagawa ng remedyo," the senator said.

[Translation: Those who were unemployed, poor in 2016, may no longer be poor now. But the data they used was from five years ago. So what do you expect? And those who had jobs then, but have lost their jobs now, are not included in the assistance program. So when it comes to the ground, barangay chairmen, the mayors we talked to, they make the remedy.]

As for the Universal Health Care Law, Lacson said the Duterte administration failed to implement it properly by not giving enough budget for its programs.

Based on the supposed timeline since the law was passed in 2019, Lacson said the government budget for its implementation should now be at 257 billion, and the hospital bed to population ratio must be at one is to 800.

According to the Health department, its proposed budget for UHC-related programs was only 59.15 billion.

"Na-stuck tayo ngayon sa low-cost kasi ayaw pondohan. May batas na nga, bakit ayaw pondohan kaya naman pondohan. Hindi namin maintindihan kung bakit," Lacson said.

[Translation: We are now stuck in low-cost because we refuse to fund [these programs]. There's already a law, why don't you fund it when you have the means? We do not understand why.]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  Buhay party-list Representative Lito Atienza on Tuesday said he would rather work as Senator Manny Pacquiao's "super alalay (super aide) than hold a Cabinet position should they both win in the May 9 elections.

In an interview on DZBB radio, Atienza said he already told Pacquiao he's not interested in a Cabinet post.

"Hindi na ako hahawak ng portfolio. Ako'y tutulong na lang sa iyo on a day-to-day basis para ikaw ay laging may alalay," the lawmaker said, recalling his conversation with Pacquiao.

[Translation: I don't want to hold a Cabinet portfolio. I just want to help you on a day-to-day basis so you would always have an aide.]

"Ako po'y magiging effective super alalay ng presidente," he added.

[Translation: I will be an effective 'super aide' of the president.]

Atienza, a former mayor of Manila for three consecutive terms, said he also wants to hold office in Malacanang so he could be near Pacquiao.

"So anytime you want to talk to me, nandoon lang ako sa labas ng opisina mo [I'll just be outside your office]. Anytime we need to meet on something and decide on something for the nation, nandoon lang ako [I'm just near]," he said.

Atienza, however, candidly said he only sees himself working well with Pacquiao and not any other presidential aspirant. He described his running mate as the "best available" among all candidates because of his desire to help the poor and disdain for corruption.

"I'll be more specific. (If) Bongbong Marcos (becomes president), I don't want to be vice president. Kung ang presidente ay si [If the next president will be] Leni Robredo, I would rather not be vice president. I would rather just retire and be on my own," Atienza said.
An Indigenous delegation is to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican in early spring to discuss reconciliation and healing after a visit was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pope Francis says vespers in the Roman Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls on the solemnity of the conversion of St. Paul, in Rome on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. An Indigenous delegation is to meet with the Pope at the Vatican in early spring to discuss reconciliation and healing after a visit was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Andrew Medichini

An Indigenous delegation is to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican in early spring to discuss reconciliation and healing after a visit was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A joint statement from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and national organizations representing First Nations, Inuit and Metis people says the delegation is to meet with the Pope in Rome the week of March 28. A final audience with him is to take place April 1.

"For those individuals who are chosen, they expressed a great desire to represent their people," said Bishop William McGrattan, vice-president of the bishops in Calgary.

"They saw this as something beyond their personal pilgrimage, or their personal going to meet the Holy Father. They were representing their communities. I think thats the significance, the importance."

The health and safety of delegates remains the first priority, said the joint statement released Tuesday. The groups involved will monitor conditions and public health guidance leading up to the revised dates, travelling only if they feel it is safe to do so, it said.

The delegation was put on hold a week before the trip was to take place in December.

Indigenous groups and Canadian bishops said at the time that the decision was heartbreaking, but prudent, given how quickly the Omicron variant was spreading and the uncertainty that posed.

The risks were too great, they said, particularly for elders who would have travelled, and for those who could potentially bring back the virus to their remote communities, where COVID-19 can pose a higher risk due to crowded housing and a lack of health care.

The plan is to have 25 to 30 Indigenous people, including elders, residential school survivors and youth, meet with Pope Francis. First Nations, Metis and Inuit are to have separate meetings with him before a sitting with all three together.

The delegation's theme is how Indigenous Peoples and the Catholic Church can move forward together toward healing and reconciliation. It's expected Indigenous participants will also be able to share their expectations for a papal visit to Canada.

Cassidy Caron, president of the Metis National Council, said the goals of delegates and her group remain the same.

"I look forward to continuing to work with Metis Nation citizens to ensure our stories, especially those of Metis survivors, are shared with Pope Francis," Caron said in a statement.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed said he is hopeful there will be no more schedule changes caused by the pandemic so that the groups will finally be able to sit down for an "action-oriented discussion with Pope Francis."

"This visit, and a direct personal encounter between Pope Francis and Inuit delegates, is a necessary part of our shared healing," Obed said in a statement.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops is to cover travel costs.

McGrattan said the groups wanted an in-person meeting rather than a virtual one because it was important that Pope Francis hear about residential schools directly from survivors and their descendants.

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"This was an opportunity not only for him to hear what they have been experiencing but also, I think, to help prepare him for his eventual visit," McGrattan said.

Last year, the Vatican announced that the Pope was willing to make that pilgrimage. Indigenous leaders have said it must come with an apology.

Calls for the Pope to apologize for the church's role in residential schools have intensified since the discovery last year of unmarked graves at former school sites.

Over a century, an estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools. More than 60 per cent of the schools were run by the Catholic Church.

The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2022.
HALIFAX - During the past two years, most ships travelling through a key migratory route for endangered North Atlantic right whales have not adhered to voluntary speed restrictions imposed by Transport Canada, data from an ocean conservation group shows.

A North Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass., March 28, 2018. The federal government needs to do more to protect the North Atlantic right whale population from ship strikes, according to a new report, which found only about a third of vessels travelling through the Cabot Strait adhered to a trial voluntary speed restriction of 10 knots. AP PHOTO/Michael Dwyer, File

HALIFAX - During the past two years, most ships travelling through a key migratory route for endangered North Atlantic right whales have not adhered to voluntary speed restrictions imposed by Transport Canada, data from an ocean conservation group shows.

In its latest report released Tuesday, Oceana Canada says the federal government must make speed limits in the waters of the Cabot Strait, located between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, mandatory and season long.

Transport Canada implemented voluntary speed limits in the Cabot Strait, asking ships to slow down to 10 knots during four time periods between April 2020 and November 2021.

Oceana Canada tracked 3,031 ship transits through the strait during those periods using satellite data. Some ships may have made multiple transits during that time. The group says 68 per cent of the transits involved ships travelling at speeds above 10 knots and 43 per cent at speeds exceeding 12 knots.

"The rate of non-compliance over the past two years was way too high for this trial voluntary measure to be considered a success in terms of protecting right whales," Oceana's report said.

The group says the government should impose mandatory speed limits at the beginning of April, before the whales travel to that part of the Atlantic.

There are 330 North Atlantic right whales left in existence, according to Oceana. Climate change is pushing the zooplankton on which the whales feed into cooler waters off Canada's eastern coasts and attracting the whales north. Ship strikes in the North Atlantic are threatening the whales' population, Oceana says, adding that since 2017, 21 whales have died in Canadian waters and at least eight of those deaths are a result of collisions with ships.

Kim Elmslie, Oceanas campaign director, said in an interview Monday that slower speeds increase the chances of whales surviving impacts with ships. In parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence where speed limits are mandatory, the lethality of ship strikes is reduced by 86 per cent, she added.

What we're seeing is that the compliance is not compatible with what they have in their mandatory areas, Elmslie said.

The whales have difficulty avoiding quickly moving ships, she said, adding that the animals are not easy to spot in the water.

Theyre dark; they don't have a dorsal fin like killer whales, so theyre very hard to see," Elmslie said. "So, it makes them susceptible to ship strikes. They don't have this instinct to get out of the way of a big vessel.

Transport Canada says voluntary compliance of speed limits in the Cabot Strait increased to 52.4 per cent in 2021 from 37.9 per cent in 2020.

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In an emailed statement Monday, Transport Canada senior communications advisor Sau Sau Liu said the Cabot Strait is a "challenging navigational corridor," adding that multiple factors, like harsh weather conditions, can make it difficult for vessels to slow down to 10 knots or less.

"Participating in these measures during these circumstances may pose a safety hazard to both the vessels and the crews," Liu said. "Additional pressures to maintain vessel transit schedules during the pandemic to ensure the flow of goods and services have also been noted as impacting participation rates."

Liu said the federal agency would try to increase the level of compliance with voluntary speed reductions in the region, including by working with industry to better understand why some vessels did not participate in the slowdown periods.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2022.

---

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
OTTAWA - Last years federal election cost an estimated $630 million  more than the estimated $502-million bill for the 2019 poll  partly because of extra costs associated with the pandemic, according to Elections Canada.

A voter casts a ballot in the 2011 federal election in Toronto on May 2, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

OTTAWA - Last years federal election cost an estimated $630 million  more than the estimated $502-million bill for the 2019 poll  partly because of extra costs associated with the pandemic, according to Elections Canada.

The official report on last September's election outlined multiple obstacles those running the election had to overcome because of COVID-19, including finding people to staff polling stations.

The report revealed that many First Nations communities had no polling station at all on election day.

Of around 635 First Nations communities in Canada, only 57 per cent were assigned a polling station on their reserve. In some remote communities, the nearest polling station was a great distance away and inaccessible.

Elections Canada says it has apologized to voters in three fly-in Indigenous communities near Kenora, Ont., after they turned up to vote and found there was no polling station.

Susan Torosian, executive director at Elections Canada, said she was "deeply sorry" that some Indigenous electors could not vote. She said at a briefing on Monday that Elections Canada would carry out a review to make sure Indigenous voters, regardless of their location, have the chance to vote next time.

The Elections Canada report says it had trouble finding staff for polling stations. In Toronto, 15 electoral districts had 448 fewer polling stations than last time in total.

To help recruitment, it gave a pay raise to election-day staff, who were responsible for enforcing social distancing rules and sanitizing surfaces.

The report says that some were subject to abuse at polling stations, including voters who objected to wearing masks, and in some cases the police were called

COVID-19 meant that many schools and community centres were not available as polling stations on election day, forcing Elections Canada to find alternative voting venues, including smaller sites, which led to queues of voters outside.

The difficulty finding polling sites also led to delays sending out voter information cards. Usually voter cards would have been posted at the end of August, but most were posted a week later.

Around 26.4 million cards were mailed just before advance polls, and an additional 1 million were mailed by Sept. 15.

"Delays in mailing resulted primarily from the short election period and difficulties in finding suitable polling places," the report said.

In Brampton East, in Ontario, 70 per cent of cards, with information on when and where to vote, were not mailed until after advance polling opened. Elections Canada let voters in Brampton East vote at advance polls without presenting their card, because of the error.

In its preparations for a pandemic election, Elections Canada overestimated the number of people who would vote by mail-in ballot, predicting at first that up to 5 million Canadians might do so.

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Of the 17.2 million people who did vote, 16 million voted in person. Over 5.8 million people  a record number  voted at advance polls before election day.

A record number of people also voted by mail in their own riding on polling day. But fewer than last time mailed in their vote from abroad and from outside their ridings.

There were a number of administrative problems involving mail-in ballots, including from prisoners voting from jails, and ballots that were put in the wrong place and not counted.

There were also problems with election materials in a few ridings, including misprints with incorrect lists of candidates.

Despite these issues, Elections Canada made efforts to ensure voters in Nunavut could access information. Elections agents translated materials, including the list of candidates, into Inuktitut, the Inuit language spoken by 70 per cent of residents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2022.
MONTREAL - Three weeks after threatening to tax unvaccinated Quebecers, Premier Francois Legault abandoned the idea on Tuesday, worried about how much it had divided the province.

An ambulance is shown outside a hospital in Montreal, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

MONTREAL - Three weeks after threatening to tax unvaccinated Quebecers, Premier Francois Legault abandoned the idea on Tuesday, worried about how much it had divided the province.

"When we see what's happening in our society and on social media, I have a certain worry about seeing Quebecers divided," Legault told reporters in Quebec City.

On Jan. 11, Legault said his government would break new ground by making the unvaccinated  about 10 per cent of eligible Quebecers  pay a significant financial penalty because they were overrepresented in the health-care system. It was the first proposed tax of its kind in the country.

On Tuesday, the premier said Finance Minister Eric Girard had prepared a bill to tax Quebecers who refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 without a medical reason, but Legault said the legislation would not be tabled.

Striking a more conciliatory tone, Legault said his role is to ensure a climate of "social peace and a certain social cohesion" in the province.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault, centre, speaks during a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic, Tuesday, February 1, 2022 at the legislature in Quebec City. Legault is flanked by Luc Boileau, Quebec interim director of National Public Health, left, and Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube. Francois Legault says he is abandoning his threat to tax the unvaccinated. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

The premier denied he had lacked judgment by making a threat he wasn't willing to go through with, and he defended the proposed measure as another attempt to incentivize people to get vaccinated. But he acknowledged discontent has grown in recent weeks among Quebecers, adding that his focus would be to build bridges.

"We'll continue to try to reach those who refuse to receive their first dose," Legault said. "But I'm also worried about the division we see in Quebec  my role is to try to bring Quebecers together, to stay united as a people."

Quebec's official Opposition said when the idea was first proposed it was nothing more than an empty threat. The Liberals predicted the government would adandon the tax the same way it had dropped a plan to force health-care workers to get the jab or be suspended without pay.

The Opposition had also called the government's proposal on Jan. 11 a distraction, aimed at drawing attention away from the resignation the night prior of Dr. Horacio Arruda as public health director.

Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade on Tuesday said the decision to abandon the proposal was more improvisation by the Legault government.

"He's managing by polls," Anglade said. "He must have a poll that's saying, 'you know, this is not popular anymore.'"

Quebec solidaire's Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said the move shows the vaccination tax was essentially a trial balloon.

"This vaccine tax was nothing more than an idea of the moment," Nadeau-Dubois said. "It was never a serious plan, it was never something that was thought and prepared."

Also Tuesday, Legault announced that gyms and spas would be allowed to reopen in the province on Feb. 14, but he stopped short of easing further restrictions, such as the forced closure of bars. Though the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals dropped by 426 in one week, he said the hospital network is still under tremendous pressure.

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On Monday, restaurant dinning rooms were permitted to reopen at 50 per cent capacity. The second phase of Quebec's reopening plan is set for next week, with places of worship and entertainment and sports venues allowed to reopen Feb. 7 with capacity restrictions.

Dr. Luc Boileau, the province's interim public health director, said decisions are being taken based on the Omicron variant's increased transmissibility compared to the Delta variant.

"Right now, we're looking at phases of (loosening) the measures  to make sure that it will not induce automatically a high rate of high-risk contact," Bolieau said. "In bars, we have a lot of experience with those places and unfortunately  those are places where risk of transmission of the virus is very high."

Boileau said he expects bars will be permitted to reopen in the near future as the situation improves and urged people to get a booster shot. About 61 per cent of Quebec adults have obtained a third dose so far, he added.

The Health Department said Tuesday COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropped by 36 from the day before, to 2,852, after 207 people were admitted to the province's hospitals and 243 were discharged. The number of people in intensive care dropped by five, to 218. Officials reported 63 more deaths linked to the pandemic.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2022.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  Denmark on Tuesday became one of the first European Union countries to scrap most pandemic restrictions as the Scandinavian country no longer considers the COVID-19 outbreak a socially critical disease.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, takes part in a coronavirus press conference, with Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke, left, and director of the National Board of Health Soeren Brostroem, right, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday Jan. 26, 2022. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  Denmark on Tuesday became one of the first European Union countries to scrap most pandemic restrictions as the Scandinavian country no longer considers the COVID-19 outbreak a socially critical disease.

The reason for that is that while the omicron variant is surging in Denmark, it's not placing a heavy burden on the health system and the country has a high vaccination rate, officials have said.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish radio it's too early to know if measures may have to make a comeback.

I dare not say that it is a final goodbye to restrictions," she said. "We do not know what will happen in the fall. Whether there will be a new variant.

Denmark, a nation of 5.8 million, has in recent weeks seen more than 50,000 daily cases on average while the number of people in hospital intensive care units has dropped.

Other EU countries also are relaxing measures. Ireland dropped most of its restrictions and the Netherlands also has been easing its lockdown, though Dutch bars and restaurants still have to close their doors at 10 p.m.

The head of the Danish Health Authority, Sren Brostrm, told Danish broadcaster TV2 that his attention was on the number of people in ICUs, rather than on the number of infections. He said that number had fallen and fallen and is incredibly low. He said 32 coronavirus patients are in ICUs. Several weeks ago, it was up at 80.

The most visible restriction disappearing is the wearing of face masks, which are no longer mandatory on public transportation, shops and for standing clients in restaurant indoor areas. Authorities only recommend mask use in hospitals, health care facilities and nursing homes.

Another restriction that no longer is required is the digital pass used to enter nightclubs, cafes, party buses and to be seated indoors in restaurants.

Health authorities urged Danes to get tested regularly so the country can "react quickly if necessary, as Health Minister Minister Magnus Heunicke said last week.

Danes have been very successful in our national vaccine program throughout 2021, a lot of people have received two vaccination shots, and a lot have received three doses as well, and many of those doses were provided in the fourth quarter of 2021, Jens Lundgren, a professor of viral diseases at the Copenhagen University Hospital told The Associated Press.

More than 60% of Denmarks population over the age of 12 have gotten the third shot, according to official figures.

The Danish government has warned that the country could see a rise in infections in the coming weeks and said that a fourth vaccination shot might be necessary.

The restrictions were originally introduced in July but were removed about 10 weeks later after a successful vaccination drive. They were reintroduced when infections soared.

In 2020, Denmark became one of the first European countries to close schools because of the pandemic and sent home all non-critical public employees. In neighboring Finland, COVID-19 restrictions will end this month with Prime Minister Sanna Marin saying her Social Democratic-led government would negotiate with the other parties in parliament the timetable for the removal of the measures.

On Monday, border controls at the internal borders between Finland and the other Schengen countries that form Europes ID check-free travel area, ended. That restriction was introduced at the end of December to slow down the spread of the omicron variant. Travelers coming from outside the EU will continue to meet border controls at least until Feb. 14. February.

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On Tuesday, Norwegian daily Dagbladet reported the first case of COVID-19 ever on the island of Utsira in the North Sea.

We have avoided it for two years, mayor Marte Eide Klovning told Dagbladet, adding that the islands 188 inhabitants had been vaccinated. It was unclear how the virus had reached the island, sitting about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Bergen, Norways second-largest city.

Not everyone was going in the same direction as Denmark.

Italy has been gradually tightening its health pass requirements during the omicron surge. As of Monday, Italy requires at least a negative test within the previous 48 hours to enter banks and post offices, and anyone over 50 who has not been vaccinated risks a one-time 100-euro ($112) fine.

___

Follow APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
TORONTO - Koho Financial Inc. says it has raised $210 million in a series D funding round as it looks to expand its head count and accelerate growth.

TORONTO - Koho Financial Inc. says it has raised $210 million in a series D funding round as it looks to expand its head count and accelerate growth.

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The Toronto-based fintech company offers an app-focused no-fee savings account and pre-paid Visa card, as well as options for customers to receive some work pay ahead of schedule and a feature to build their credit score.

The company's Instant Pay feature, framed as an alternative to payday loans, allows employees to receive up to 50 per cent of their daily earned wages at the end of the day if the employer has also signed up to the program. It says companies like Tim Hortons and Walmart are on board.

Koho, which says it has over 500,000 users, says it plans to use the money to expand growth, add new product categories, and increase head count to 400 from 250.

The company says the latest investment round was led by Eldridge, a Connecticut-based holding company, along with renewed commitments from existing investors Drive Capital and TTV Capital. It says Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, The Business Development Bank of Canada, and Round13 also made investments.

Eldridge chief executive Todd Boehly said in a statement that he has seen similar business models work well around the world and that Koho is a leader in the space in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2022.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP)  Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a lawsuit against an Illinois-based COVID-19 testing company, accusing it of improperly handling tests and providing fake results.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP)  Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a lawsuit against an Illinois-based COVID-19 testing company, accusing it of improperly handling tests and providing fake results.

The lawsuit announced Monday and filed in King County Superior Court said the Center for COVID Control failed to deliver prompt, valid and accurate results, made deceptive promises of results within 48 hours, and reportedly instructed its employees to lie to patients on a daily basis, The Seattle Times reported.

It describes how the company expanded to about 300 locations throughout the United States and collected tens of thousands of tests a day.

Center for COVID Control contributed to the spread of COVID-19 when it provided false negative results, Ferguson said in a statement. These sham testing centers threatened the health and safety of our communities. They must be held accountable.

The lawsuit also said the Center for COVID Control stored tests in garbage bags  rather than properly refrigerating them  backdated sample-collection dates so stale samples would still be processed and instructed its employees to lie when Washington residents asked about delayed results.

The Center for COVID Control did not respond to a request for comment Monday from the newspaper or from The Associated Press. All of its locations are closed until further notice, according to its website.

The company said in a news release on the website that it was using this operational pause to train additional staff."

The Center for COVID Control sites had been operating in Washington state since October and was increasingly popular particularly after the rapid spread of the omicron variant prompted a rise in demand for tests.

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Locations in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Lakewood, University Place, Auburn, Lynnwood, Everett, Port Orchard and Yakima in Washington promised free test results within 15 minutes for a rapid test and within 48 hours for a more sensitive PCR test.

But recently, customers throughout the country have been complaining about the centers delayed or lack of results, leading health authorities in several states, including California and Illinois, to launch investigations.

City officials in In Lakewood, Washington, issued a stop-work order at their local site in mid-January after receiving complaints about the company and finding it was operating without a business license, among other concerns, the city said.

The company didnt have a license to operate a business in any Washington cities except Yakima, according to the attorney generals office.

Fergusons office plans to file a motion for preliminary injunction soon to immediately stop the Center for COVID Controls unlawful conduct, his statement said.

The lawsuit asks the court to order the Center for COVID Control to pay civil penalties of up to $12,500 per violation of the Consumer Protection Act and relinquish any profits the company made from its unlawful conduct, in addition to permanently closing all locations, the statement said.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and members of New Mexico's congressional delegation already have voiced strong opposition to building a multibillion-dollar facility along the state's border with Texas that would store tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants around the U.S.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and members of New Mexico's congressional delegation already have voiced strong opposition to building a multibillion-dollar facility along the state's border with Texas that would store tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants around the U.S.

Now, the New Mexico Legislature is considering a bill that supporters say would keep the state from becoming the nations de facto permanent dumping ground for nuclear waste.

Top New Mexico officials contend the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hasnt done enough to vet plans by Holtec International to build a facility to store thousands of tons of spent uranium in the state. They argue that without a plan by the federal government to deal with spent fuel, the material would remain in New Mexico indefinitely.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has also expressed his opposition to a similar storage facility in his state. Both states have sued the federal government over the issue.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Steinborn of Las Cruces, who is sponsoring the New Mexico legislation, said the federal government needs to address the problem and establish a policy for dealing with the spent fuel piling up at the nations nuclear power plants.

New Mexico, with less than one half of 1% of the nations population, should not continue to be the sacrifice zone because we can be exploited, he told fellow lawmakers, noting that many communities have passed resolutions opposed to bringing high-level nuclear waste to the state.

Some southeastern New Mexico residents testified during a legislative committee meeting Tuesday that Holtec Internationals proposal would be safe and create jobs.

In New Mexico, the planned facility initially would store up to 8,680 metric tons of used uranium fuel. Future expansion could make room for as many as 10,000 canisters of spent fuel over six decades.

Federal regulators in September granted a license for an interim storage facility across the border in Andrews County, Texas. That facility is licensed to take up to 5,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants and more than 231 tons of other radioactive waste. Possible expansion could increase the total capacity to 40,000 metric tons of fuel, but additional regulatory approval would be needed.

After regulators approved that site, Abbott, the Republican Texas governor, tweeted: "Texas will not become Americas nuclear waste dumping ground.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, nuclear reactors across the country produce more than 2,000 metric tons of radioactive waste a year, with most of it remaining on-site because theres nowhere else to put it.

The federal government is paying to house the fuel, and the cost is expected to stretch into the tens of billions over the next decade, according to a review by independent government auditors.

The fuel is sitting at temporary storage sites in nearly three dozen states, either enclosed in steel-lined concrete pools of water or in steel and concrete containers known as casks.

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U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has talked about revisiting recommendations made a decade ago by a blue ribbon commission on America's nuclear future. In November, her agency issued a request seeking input on a consent-based siting process to identify locations to store commercial spent nuclear fuel.

Despite opposition from environmentalists, the Biden administration has pointed to nuclear power as essential to achieving its goals to create a carbon-free electricity sector by 2035.

Opponents of the New Mexico legislation testified Tuesday that banning interim storage would take the state out of the national conversation and that could result in missed opportunities to address climate change.

State Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, a retired law professor from Albuquerque, said federal law requires consent and that New Mexico has numerous concerns beyond the safety of an interim storage facility. She pointed to potential impacts on oil and gas development in the Permian Basin, which is one of the most productive regions in the world, and to environmental justice concerns for minority populations.

Sedillo Lopez said the legislation still will need to stand up to any legal challenges.

This is a very, very serious issue, she said. It's something that the state should take a long hard look at and exercise its authority in the areas where we have authority to do so.
NEW YORK (AP)  The New York Times said on Monday that it has bought Wordle, the free online word game that has exploded in popularity and, for some, become a daily obsession.

FILE - A sign for The New York Times hangs above the entrance to its building, Thursday, May 6, 2021 in New York. On Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, the Times announced it has bought Wordle, the free online word game that has exploded in popularity in a matter of months. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

NEW YORK (AP)  The New York Times said on Monday that it has bought Wordle, the free online word game that has exploded in popularity and, for some, become a daily obsession.

It listed the purchase price as being in the low-seven figures, but did not disclose specifics.

The Times, which has popular word games like Spelling Bee and its crossword puzzle, said at the time it moves to The New York Times, Wordle will be free to play for new and existing players, and no changes will be made to its gameplay.

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Wordle was created by Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn software engineer. He originally made it for his partner, but released it to the public in October. On Nov. 1, only 90 people had played it. Within two months, that number had grown to 300,000 after people began sharing their scores on social media.

Now, the simple puzzle that lets players guess a five-letter word in six tries with no hints, has millions of daily players, The Times said. It's also become a viral online phenomenon, spurring copycats like Airportle, where you guess airport abbreviations, and Queertle, with words for the queer community.

To play Wordle now, you have to visit its website. Simply type in a five-letter word. If any letters turn green, you got the right letter in the right place. Yellow letters mean right letter wrong place and gray letters mean they are not in the word of the day.

Wordle's appeal has been in part due to its simplicity, no bells and whistles or ads or asking for your email address to play  just a website with 30 blank squares and a keyboard. Some apps have tried to piggyback on its success, confusing people who downloaded  or even paid for  apps on their phone thinking it's the original Wordle.

___

This story has been updated to read that the deal was announced on Monday, not Thursday.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russias top security demands but said Moscow is willing to talk more to ease tensions over Ukraine.

A Ukrainian serviceman speaks, backdropped by a bullet riddled effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a media interview at a frontline position in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. Russia accused the West of "whipping up tensions" over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought "pure Nazis" to power in Kyiv as the U.N. Security Council held a stormy and bellicose debate on Moscow's troop buildup near its southern neighbor. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russias top security demands but said Moscow is willing to talk more to ease tensions over Ukraine.

The comments were his first on the standoff in more than a month and suggested a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine may not be imminent and that at least one more round of diplomacy is likely.

Yet the two sides remain unyielding in their main positions, and there was little apparent hope for concessions. Russia is expected to respond soon to a U.S. proposal for negotiations on lesser Russian demands after which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak.

Lavrov and Blinken spoke Tuesday and reiterated positions put forward by Putin and President Joe Biden. The White House said Biden and Putin could also speak once the U.S. receives Russias response.

In remarks to reporters at a Moscow news conference with the visiting leader of NATO ally Hungary, Putin said the Kremlin is still studying the U.S. and NATOs response to the Russian security demands received last week. But he said it was clear that the West has ignored Russian demands that NATO not expand to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, refrain from deploying offensive weapons near Russia and roll back its deployments to Eastern Europe.

Putin argued that it's possible to negotiate an end to the standoff if the interests of all parties, including Russia's security concerns, are taken into account. I hope that we will eventually find a solution, although we realize that it's not going to be easy, Putin said.

Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops along the border of Ukraine, fueling fears of an invasion. It has denied any intention to attack.

Washington and its allies have rejected Moscow's key demands. They emphasize that Ukraine, like any other nation, has the right to choose alliances, although it is not a NATO member now and is unlikely to join any time soon.

Putin said the Western allies refusal to meet Russia's demands violates their obligations on the integrity of security for all nations. He warned that a Ukrainian accession to NATO could lead to a situation where Ukraine launches military action to reclaim control over Russian-annexed Crimea or areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in the country's east.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes part in a joint press conference with Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. Johnson arrived in Kyiv for scheduled talks with Zelenskyy amid rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia. (Peter Nicholls/Pool Photo via AP)

Imagine that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and launches those military operations, Putin said. Should we fight NATO then? Has anyone thought about it?

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the country's Moscow-friendly president and later threw its weight behind rebels in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, triggering a conflict that has killed over 14,000 people.

Putin charged that while the U.S. airs concerns about Ukraines security, it is using the ex-Soviet country as an instrument in its efforts to contain Russia.

He alleged that Washington may try to draw us into a military conflict and force its allies in Europe to impose the tough sanctions the U.S. is talking about now. Another possible option would be to draw Ukraine into NATO, deploy offensive weapons there" and encourage Ukrainian nationalists to use force to reclaim the rebel-held east or Crimea, drawing us into a military conflict, Putin claimed.

Speaking after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who has forged closer ties with Moscow than almost any other NATO member, Putin noted that it's still possible to negotiate a settlement that would take every party's concerns into account.

We need to find a way to ensure interests and security of all parties, including Ukraine, European nations and Russia," Putin said, emphasizing that the West needs to treat Russian proposals seriously to make progress.

He said French President Emmanuel Macron may soon visit Moscow as part of renewed diplomatic efforts following their call on Monday.

In a bid to exert pressure on the West, Lavrov sent letters to the U.S. and other Western counterparts pointing out their past obligations signed by all members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a top trans-Atlantic security grouping.

Russia has argued that NATO's expansion eastward has hurt Russia's security, violating the principle of indivisibility of security endorsed by the OSCE in 1999 and 2010. It says the U.S. and its allies have ignored the principle that the security of one nation should not be strengthened at the expense of others, while insisting on every nation's right to choose alliances.

In his letter, which was released by the foreign ministry, Lavrov said there must be security for all or there will be no security for anyone." And in his call with Blinken, Lavrov warned that Moscow will not allow Washington to hush up the issue.

Blinken, meanwhile, emphasized the U.S. willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns. However, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken was resolute in "the U.S. commitment to Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances.

Blinken "urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraines borders, Price said. He reaffirmed that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path.

Senior State Department officials described the call as professional and fairly candid, noting that if Russia wanted to prove it isn't going to invade Ukraine, it should withdraw its troops from the border and neighboring Belarus.

Shortly after speaking to Lavrov, Blinken convened a conference call with the secretary general of NATO, the EU foreign policy chief and the chairman-in-office of the OSCE as part of efforts to ensure that the allies are engaged in any further contacts with Russia.

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the U.S. statement about its readiness for dialogue doesn't correlate with Washington sending planeloads of military equipment to Ukraine.

I dont know why the U.S. is escalating tensions and at the same time accusing Russia," he said.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv for scheduled talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Johnson said the U.K. has a package of measures including sanctions ready to go the moment the first Russian toecap crosses further into Ukrainian territory.

It is vital that Russia steps back and chooses a path of diplomacy, and I believe that is still possible, Johnson said. "We are keen to engage in dialogue, of course we are. But we have the sanctions ready.

He said he would have a call with Putin on Wednesday, noting that the Russian leader was trying to impose a new Yalta, new zones of influence" in a reference to the 1945 deal between the allied powers. "And it would not just be Ukraine that was drawn back into the Russian sphere of influence, Johnson added.

In other developments, Biden was expected to nominate career foreign service officer Bridget Brink to assume the long-vacant diplomatic post of American ambassador to Ukraine, according to a U.S. official familiar with the decision. Brink currently serves as the ambassador to Slovakia.

___

Lee reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jill Lawless in London, Dasha Litvinova in Moscow, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will hold a dialogue with the Department of Education (DepEd) regarding the resumption of limited face-to-face classes as Metro Manila reverted to Alert Level 2.

Bago nangyari ang lahat ng ito, ay meron tayong pilot [face-to-face classes] at napakaganda na ng pilot natin nung araw. Titingnan po namin, makikipag-dayalogo po kami agad kay Sec. Liling Briones at sa kanyang mga kasama kung pwede na natin ituloy itong pilot na po ito, said MMDA chairperson Benhur Abalos in a press briefing.

[Translation: Before these things happened, we have started the pilot face-to-face classes and we had a successful start. Well see, we will have a dialogue with Sec. Leonor Briones and her people if we can resume the pilot implementation.]

DepEd has suspended the pilot run of face-to-face classes in Metro Manila last Jan. 3 after the region was placed under a stricter Alert Level 3 due to the rising COVID-19 cases then. It added then that the suspension will stand until Metro Manila shifts back to Alert Level 2.

Face-to-face classes, contact sports, amusement parks, live concerts, and casinos are prohibited in Alert Level 3 areas. Under such alert level status, the Inter-Agency Task Force only allows 30% maximum capacity for fully vaccinated individuals only and 50% outdoor venue capacity.

Metro Manila and seven other provinces are under Alert Level 2 from Feb. 1 to 15.

Under Alert Level 2, limited in-person classes for basic education are allowed subject to prior approval of the Office of the President.

The national government started the COVID-19 vaccination of adolescents aged 12 to 17 late last year.

Meanwhile, the vaccination of children 5 to 11 years old will kick off on Feb. 4.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  A Republican New Mexico legislator wants movie actors and other film-set professionals to undergo state-sponsored gun-safety training after a cinematographer was fatally shot last year by Alec Baldwin with a weapon he says he thought was not loaded with live ammunition.

FILE - Alec Baldwin performs emcee duties at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala at New York Hilton Midtown on Dec. 9, 2021, in New York. Baldwin said Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022, any suggestion that he's not cooperating with a probe into last fall's shooting on his movie set that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins is a lie. He responded via Instagram to stories that discussed why authorities who served him with a search warrant for his phone haven't gotten it yet. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  A Republican New Mexico legislator wants movie actors and other film-set professionals to undergo state-sponsored gun-safety training after a cinematographer was fatally shot last year by Alec Baldwin with a weapon he says he thought was not loaded with live ammunition.

State Sen. Cliff Pirtle of Roswell on Monday introduced a bill that would require all acting and film production personnel where firearms are present to complete a safety course offered by the New Mexico Game and Fish Department that is designed primarily for hunters.

Production companies that don't comply would risk their eligibility for state film tax rebates. New Mexico offers a rebate of between 25% and 35% of in-state spending for video production that helps filmmakers large and small underwrite their work.

FILE - A photo of cinematographer Helyna Hutchins is displayed before a news conference by attorney Gary Dordick and his client Serge Svetnoy, chief of lighting on the "Rust" film set, to announce a lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and others in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Nov. 10, 2021. A Republican New Mexico legislator wants movie actors and other film-set professionals to undergo state-sponsored gun-safety training after the death last year of a cinematographer from a gun fired by actor Alec Baldwin. State Sen. Cliff Pirtle of Roswell on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, announced he introduced a bill that would require all film set personnel who handle firearms to complete a safety class offered by the New Mexico Game and Fish Department. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

It was unclear whether the Democrat-led Legislature will bring the bill up for debate and a possible vote during a 30-day legislative session that ends Feb. 17. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had not yet read the bill Monday and declined to say whether she supports the initiative, according to an email from spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett.

Pirtle is a partner in a farming business and an ardent supporter of gun rights. He has handled firearms on film sets while acting in minor roles for Western movies, such as Deadman Standing in 2018 and Death Alley in 2021.

The senator said in a statement that he was heartbroken to learn of the death of Halyna Hutchins in October 2021 on the set of Rust."

Unfortunately, to the Hollywood elite, the talk around guns is all too abstract, Pirtle said. This is a simple bill to bring some gravity back to the use of firearms on film sets.

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Baldwin has said he didnt know the gun he was holding contained a live round when it went off while pointed at Hutchins.

The Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office that is leading an investigation into the cause of the death has said it is too soon to determine whether charges will be filed.

Investigators have described some complacency in how weapons were handled on set at a movie-set ranch near Santa Fe, as they trace the source of ammunition from the set including live and dummy rounds.

Pirtle says his 10-year-old son has undergone standard firearms training by the state Game and Fish Department to instill an understanding that guns are not only household tools but also can be deadly.

Sackett said workplace safety regulators at the Environment Department have been investigating the death on the Rust set and are researching film-industry standards for the safe handling of firearms.

New Mexico enforces general workplace safety requirements on film sets and defers in some instances to gun-safety standards that are developed by the film industry.
Itll be a job-hunters world for at least the next five months, according to a new poll by Robert Half.

Itll be a job-hunters world for at least the next five months, according to a new poll by Robert Half.

"I think were going to continue to see more and more momentum because the economy is continuing to come back," said Evangeline Berube, the business consulting firms vice-president of strategic accounts.

Nearly half of the surveys respondents  over 800 senior managers  said they planned to add new permanent positions within the first half of 2022. Another 45 per cent expected to fill vacant roles.

Fifty-two per cent said theyd bring more contract talent.

"Weve seen these high hiring numbers even with our economy not at pre-pandemic levels," Berube said. "As it comes back to pre-pandemic or even beyond that theres going to be even more hiring."

Its great for those switching careers or looking for a change within their field, Berube said. But, employers must adapt to stay competitive.

"Employees have more of the power in the equation, and its leaving organizations scrambling to find the talent they need," Berube said.

Offering remote work is one of the best ways to attract and retain good staff, she said. The Robert Half poll, released Monday, surveyed those in white collar industries including finance, technology and marketing.

"Organizations that arent offering that remote option are struggling right now," Berube said. "People want that flexibility."

Good benefits  for physical and mental health  are also big draws, Berube said.

Paul Provost doesnt see a future where working from home, at least to an extent, isnt an option.

The 6P Marketing president has extended his job advertisements beyond Manitobas borders in a bid to find the right people. Local hires are still the preference, he said.

"Whether its in the office or from home, the location of a persons work  so long as their performance is there  that shouldnt be the key variable at play," Provost said.

He has employees working in Ontario and Quebec, though they began in Manitoba. Some staff are full-time in the office, while others prefer a hybrid model.

"What weve said to people is we need consistency and stability," Provost said.

The war for talent began before COVID-19, he said, adding that making a company look inviting online can attract people. Its hard to raise entry-level salaries because it might affect the wages of long-time workers, he said.

"We have to balance the entire formula so that its not unfair," he said. "Theres a degree of authenticity and transparency required. Maybe you can get away with that for a short while, but eventually that kind of stuff gets out."

Boosting starting salary wages was a top hiring strategy for 46 per cent of Robert Halfs respondents, second only to the 47 per cent who are offering remote options.

"The salary expectations have increased beyond what (they) used to be," said Lana Adeleye-Olusae, a human resources consultant and the Manitoba Museums director of HR.

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"The big question is, then, are you willing to pay more in a pandemic, or would you rather go and hire somebody with less experience and hope that they will learn faster?"

Thirty-one per cent of Robert Halfs respondents said they would loosen education and skills requirements to get job applicants.

Ultimately, Adeleye-Olusae has noticed people want flexibility  the option to work from home and in office, to log in when they want as opposed to the typical daily shift, and to have a good work-life balance.

The biggest obstacles to hiring remote workers include assessing applicants skills through virtual interviews, making compensation packages for folks out of province, and scheduling cross-country interview times, according to Robert Halfs polls findings.

The poll took place from Nov. 11 through Dec. 30. The margin of error was +/- 3.5 percentage points.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca
TOKYO (AP)  Toyota has settled a lawsuit that blamed overwork and harassment for the suicide of one of its employees.

FILE - In this Sunday, March 21, 2021 file photo, The company logo adorns a sign outside a Toyota dealership in Lakewood, Colo. Toyota announced Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, that it has settled a lawsuit that blamed overwork and harassment for the suicide of one of its employees. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

TOKYO (AP)  Toyota has settled a lawsuit that blamed overwork and harassment for the suicide of one of its employees.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda has apologized to the family, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday. Monetary details of the settlement were not disclosed. The lawsuit filed by the workers family had sought 123 million yen ($1.1 million) in damages, Japanese media reports said.

The wife told reporters she felt her husband, then 40, would have understood and she believes Toyota has the opportunity to change for the better.

Toyota promised an investigation into the case to prevent a recurrence and apologized for the family's suffering.

We are now trying to create a more transparent workplace environment that makes it easier for people to speak up, as well as a management thats free of power harassment, so that each and every employee can work without fear, it said in a statement.

Deaths from overwork and on-the-job stress, including suicides, are a common problem in workaholic Japan. Troubles with abusive bosses also have been gaining attention.

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The Nagoya High Court ruled in September the employees death was work-related, noting he suffered severe stress at work before his suicide in 2010. Toyota, based in Toyota city, near Nagoya, had initially contested the allegations.

In 2019, Toyota acknowledged a 2017 suicide of a 28-year-old engineer was caused by constant ridicule from his boss.

Japanese people are reputed to be extremely loyal to their companies, often sacrificing their personal well-being and putting in enormous amounts of overtime, while taking pride in being part of a company.

The government received 2,835 complaints of deaths from overwork, or karoshi, in 2020. Compensation was paid in more than 800 cases, including suicides.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
OTTAWA - The federal NDP hopes to push the government to take stronger action on the opioid crisis with a new private member's bill decriminalizing the possession of drugs for personal use.

New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh responds to a question during a news conference, Dec. 7, 2021 in Ottawa. Singh is preparing to give his backing to a bill decriminalizing the possession of drugs for personal use this week, in a bid to prevent overdoses and toxic drug deaths. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - The federal NDP hopes to push the government to take stronger action on the opioid crisis with a new private member's bill decriminalizing the possession of drugs for personal use.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is putting his weight behind the bill, tabled by his NDP colleague Gord Johns, decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs including cocaine and heroin.

Singh wants to change the law to make it easier to helpdrug users,treating them as people with a health problem, rather than criminals. He said 20,000 Canadians have died of an overdose over the last five years, accusing the government of not treating the issue with sufficient urgency.

The NDP leader is to front a panel of MPs and stakeholders on Thursday calling on the government to back the bill.

A private member's bill, especially when put forward by an opposition MP, has a far lower chance of surviving the legislative steps to become law, than a government bill. NDP MP Don Davies introduced a similar bill last year that fizzled out.

But the party believes this bill will be debated and put to a vote because it has been introduced early in the life of the new Parliament. Johns came in fourth in a random draw of MPs to determine the order of precedence for private member's bills.

Johns, the NDP addictions spokesman, said he was hopeful that MPs from all parties, and not just his party, would back the bill.

"This shouldnt be a partisan issue," Johns said. We need to decriminalize immediately and save lives by providing access to a regulated safer supply of drugs for users."

The bill would also allow Canadians to have criminal convictions for possession of drugs expunged, which Johns said would help them get jobs and housing.

Singh accused the government of ignoring calls from public health experts to decriminalize personal drug use, saying the delay was costing lives.

From big cities to smaller communities, countless families across the country have suffered the devastating impact of the overdose crisis firsthand, said Singh in a statement.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created his new cabinet last fall, he established a new mental health and addictions minister, Carolyn Bennett, and tasked her with forming policies to tackle opioid addiction.

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Maja Staka, a spokeswoman for Bennett, said she had a mandate to "advance a comprehensive strategy to address problematic substance use."

"The core of that strategy will be combating the opioid overdose epidemic, a public health crisis that continues to take a tragic toll on families, friends, and communities across Canada," she said.

She said the government had channelled hundreds of millions of dollars into tackling the problem.

"We are committed to improving safe supply, reducing harms, and using resources to divert people who use drugs away from the criminal justice system and towards supportive and trusted relationships," she added.

The government is currently reviewing applications by British Columbia, and the cities of Vancouver and Toronto, to remove criminal penalties for people who possess small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2022.
Divisions within Manitobas Progressive Conservative caucus stoked by weekend freedom convoy protests against public-health restrictions were amplified Monday before Premier Heather Stefanson spoke up late in the day and demoted a member of caucus.

Divisions within Manitobas Progressive Conservative caucus stoked by weekend "freedom convoy" protests against public-health restrictions were amplified Monday before Premier Heather Stefanson spoke up late in the day and demoted a member of caucus.

Borderland Tory MLA Josh Guenter posted his support on social media for the demonstrations, but some of his colleagues denounced the participants waving Nazi and Confederate flags and people who desecrated the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

On Saturday, Guenter said he visited some of the "freedom-loving Canadians" at the rally on Highway 75 in Manitoba.

Borderland Tory MLA Josh Guenter.

"Thank you to Canadian and Manitoban truckers for inspiring a movement focused on returning to civil liberties," he said on Facebook.

Guenter, who publicly spoke out against his own governments public health restrictions last year, was recently appointed legislative assistant to Health Minister Audrey Gordon. On Monday, he was removed from the role.

Stefanson issued a statement late in the day saying shes instructed the clerk of the executive council to remove Guenter from the role that came with $4,750 pay bump.

"As I have stated before, I expect all representatives of the government, whether ministers or their legislative assistants, to support efforts to get all Manitobans vaccinated," the premiers statement said. The statement did not indicate that he was removed from the PC caucus. Guenter was not made available by caucus for an interview Monday.

"The recent events involving protests from Canadian truckers raised significant concerns," Stefansons statement said.

Thank you to Canadian and Manitoban truckers for inspiring a movement focused on returning to civil liberties.  Tory MLA Josh Guenter's Facbook post

"Our government believes in democracy and the right to peacefully protest; however, we do not condone the use of anti-Semitic, racist imagery, and desecration of war memorials or statues."

Before Guenters demotion, the health minister  a self-proclaimed "vaccine ambassador"  said Monday that she hadnt seen his Facebook post supporting the protesters.

"I think each MLA is responsible for their comments and opinions and should be held accountable for those comments and opinions," Gordon said Monday after having her photo taken with the Black History Month proclamation that starts Tuesday. When asked why someone who appeared to be undermining public-health orders had been named legislative assistant to the health minister, Gordon indicated she didnt choose Guenter to be her assistant.

"I dont have control over individuals opinions and how they express them," she said before his removal from the post was announced.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson.

On social media, PC MLAs Shannon Martin (McPhillips) and Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach) called out symbols of hatred on display at weekend protests and alluded to the desecration of the National War Memorial that was danced and urinated upon and used as a parking pad.

Goertzens Twitter post said hes passed the war memorial in Ottawa dozens of times and always stops to bow his head at the tomb of the unknown soldier. "Thats it. Thats what its for."

Martin was more explicit, calling out the symbols of hatred and urging all party leaders to denounce them.

"From flying Nazi and Confederate flags to desecration of the Terry Fox statue and National War Memorial, what we witnessed in Ottawa was not a rally for freedom," Martin wrote. "Leaders of all political parties must align and condemn these inexcusable images and actions of hate."

"I expect all representatives of the government, whether ministers or their legislative assistants, to support efforts to get all Manitobans vaccinated."  Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson

When asked if his party is split on the subject, Martin said divergent views can exist in any caucus.

"Our MLAs represent a variety of perspectives on the wide-ranging policy issues affecting Manitobans," Martin told the Free Press. "As an elected conservative, I think its important to personally condemn the racist and hateful images and activities we witnessed this past weekend. This evil symbolism and rhetoric has no place in this country and the communities we serve."

The premiers statement said she supports truckers concerned about the border mandate requiring them to be vaccinated and repeated her contention that rapid testing should be considered as an option for truckers who arent vaccinated.

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"As a result of the federal mandate, we are already experiencing supply chain issues and every single sector of our domestic economy is expected to be impacted," the statement said. "Manitoba has had success implementing testing as an alternative to vaccination mandates, and using this method, we can mitigate further supply chain disruptions."

This week the province will update Manitobans on plans for public health orders and give details about extending support to business, arts and culture sectors that have been impacted by the pandemic, her statement said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
A recent spate of inner-city house fires, including a blaze that killed a five-year-old last week, has sparked a new safety effort from long-time community activist Sel Burrows.

A recent spate of inner-city house fires, including a blaze that killed a five-year-old last week, has sparked a new safety effort from long-time community activist Sel Burrows.

When a house burns, people can die, Burrows told the Free Press.

In the past seven days, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service has responded to at least 10 significant fires in the North End and West End.

On Jan. 27, a fire at 323 Simcoe St. killed a child and put four adults and four more children in hospital.

On Monday, a WFPS spokeswoman noted the number of fires in January are consistent with last year: from Jan. 1 to Jan. 26, 2022, the department responded to 108 total fires; it responded to 144 in January 2021.

Burrows wants to see more action on fire prevention and education from the City of Winnipeg, WFPS and landlords, focused on low-income neighbourhoods.

No. 1 is get flyers out into every house in the inner-city written in about a Grade 3, Grade 4 level  14 point print  talking about fire safety. Warning people about smoking, telling people if their heats off who to call to get their furnace fixed right away, he said Monday, noting residents can call Manitoba Hydro when their furnace isnt working.

Hydro spokesman Bruce Owen said the utilitys response to no-heat calls consist of a safety inspection of the equipment and ventilation.

The problem is diagnosed, and any repairs related to the gas supply and safe combustion are completed. Minor adjustments may be also be completed, Owen said in an email.

Repairs related to gas supply and combustion are completed at no charge, except for replacement parts. These costs are applied to the customers monthly gas bill.

Burrows also wants the WFPS and Hydro to partner on an exchange program: old space heaters swapped for modern, safer models.

Part of the education campaign hes calling for would also include advocacy for tenants rights.

(Landlords are) the first call to fix the furnace if its not working or if your wirings sparking If theyre not (fixing it), there has to be a way to force that landlord to act fast. There has to be consequences to not being a good landlord, Burrows said.

Tenants can call the Residential Tenancies Branch if landlords arent assisting with repairs.

After last weeks fires, Burrows said he spent time driving around his longtime neighbourhood of North Point Douglas and other lower-income areas.

It really made me realize how many houses we are losing, Burrows said. For every one of those housing units, theres a human being, a family that are having real problems finding another place to go.

WFPS spokeswoman Erin Madden said the departments fire prevention branch works with residents, business owners, landlords and community group to provide safety information, as well as inspections, among other tips.

She also noted the department has consulted with Burrows in the past and spoke with him recently.

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We have committed to working with him to reach residents in his community, as well as looking at additional outreach which can be done to further engage city residents.

Another concern for Burrows is improper security of vacant and derelict buildings; on Saturday, he spotted four in a half-hour.

Somebody could come along with a long screwdriver or a piece of rebar, pry that door off and go in... What do you do when youre squatting and youre cold? Maybe you start a little fire.

Boarding regulations are set by the City of Winnipeg.

We need the whole city, the whole community to know: if theres a board pried off, call it in right away. And we need bylaw enforcement to go out and double check, when they issue an order, that its done properly, Burrows said.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
A multi-storey condominium complex under construction in East Kildonan burned to the ground in a massive blaze Monday afternoon.

A multi-storey condominium complex under construction in East Kildonan burned to the ground in a massive blaze Monday afternoon.

The fire began in the area of Kimberly Avenue and London Street around 3:30 p.m., and resulted in neighbourhood residents being evacuated from their homes.

SHERI KENNEDY / SUPPLIED Eyewitness photos show the construction project as the fire spread to two nearby condo buildings and a car garage.

The construction project was a total loss, and the fire spread to two nearby condo buildings and a car garage, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service assistant chief Scott Wilkinson said.

"We have no report of any injuries at this time. There will certainly be some cars damaged. We did lose the car garage and cars in the parking lot will have sustained some damage," Wilkinson said.

"When our crews departed the station they could see extensive fire and smoke. When they arrived, they immediately set up defensive operations That building, unfortunately, spread rapidly."

According to multiple area residents who spoke to the Free Press at the scene, construction crews had begun working on the roof of the building in recent days.

"Buildings under construction are almost like lumber yards. They go up very, very quickly. There is no extinguishment options. Theyre open-air," Wilkinson said.

Joe Barriault, who lives in the area, told the Free Press he was working in his yard when he heard construction crews shouting.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg firefighters were called to an apartment block under construction on Kimberley to fight a fire Monday.

"I heard, Fire! So I ran out to see what was going on. There was a little bit of smoke coming out of the basement. And within 30 or 40 seconds, it was everywhere," Barriault said.

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"The smoke was billowing out from the basement Then when the flames came up, they spread in both directions and in like 90 seconds the whole thing was (ablaze)."

Fire crews remained at the scene extinguishing hotspots until about 4:45 a.m. and will check on it throughout the day. Police are still at the scene.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg firefighters fight the the apartment block fire Monday.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation. No damage estimate was available. The parking garage belonging to a neighbouring condo complex is considered a total loss, and the two condo buildings sustained extensive fire, water and smoke damage. The City of Winnipeg said it doesnt know when residents from the two buildings will be able to access their suites.

Kimberly Avenue reopened to traffic this morning. Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians were advised to be careful because water used to fight the fire froze, creating slippery conditions that might still exist.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Spectators watch Winnipeg firefighters battle the blaze at an apartment block under construction on Kimberley, Monday.
LEGAL experts have raised concerns about shortcomings in Canadas laws, after a family of four froze to death trying to walk across the U.S. border near Emerson.

LEGAL experts have raised concerns about shortcomings in Canadas laws, after a family of four froze to death trying to walk across the U.S. border near Emerson.

RCMP officers found the bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishaliben, 37, their daughter, Vihangi 11, and three-year-old son, Dharmik, in a Manitoba field Jan. 19.

The family had travelled some 11,000 kilometres from their home in Dingucha, India, to southern Manitoba as part of what police suspect was a human smuggling operation.

Seven undocumented Indian nationals were detained by U.S. border patrol agents just over the boundary near St. Vincent, Minn., after walking hours at night in a -35 C blizzard.

David Matas, a Winnipeg-based human rights, refugee and immigration lawyer, said the tragedy has exposed a gap in Canadas Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

It is illegal to smuggle people into Canada but there is no law against smuggling people out of the country, he said.

"The (act) needs to be amended to address that," said Matas. "Its a tragic case. It shows some of the problems in our smuggling laws."

Matas suggested Canada isnt meeting its obligations as a state party to the United Nations protocol against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air.

The protocol requires parties to make it a criminal offence to smuggle humans across borders for financial gain. This includes the smuggling of people from one state party to another, such as Canada to the United States.

"There needs to be legislation to encompass the situation exemplified by the current tragedy, criminalizing the smuggling from Canada to the United States or to any other state party to the protocol," said Matas.

While U.S. authorities have charged a Florida man allegedly tasked with picking up the 11 Indian nationals in a rented van, no one has been charged in Canada amid an ongoing investigation by Manitoba RCMP.

Police are trying to track the movements of the Patel family, who arrived in Toronto on Jan. 12, and made their way to the Emerson area on or about Jan. 18.

Officers are trying to find out who transported the Indian nationals. No vehicle was left behind at a drop-off spot close to the border on the Manitoba side.

At a news conference Jan. 27, Manitoba RCMP Supt. Rob Lasson said officers would consider Criminal Code offences if there is enough evidence to lay charges in Canada.

He declined to reveal which specific charges could be considered in connection with the deaths.

Matas and Winnipeg defence lawyer Martin Glazer said police could consider the offence of criminal negligence causing death.

Offences under the federal immigration act could also apply, depending on what the police investigation finds.

"(The case) is unprecedented," said Glazer. "It is a horrible tragedy, and the law may need to be changed to cover this kind of incident. If the law doesnt cover it, the law is inadequate."

U.S. authorities charged Deltona, Fla., resident Steve Shand, 47, with transporting or attempting to transport illegal aliens, after he was arrested in Minnesota a few hours before the Patels bodies were found.

There was no evidence Shand crossed into Canada, according to a court document.

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Glazer and Winnipeg immigration lawyer Ken Zaifman said it is unlikely Shand will be charged in Canada.

However, that could change if there is evidence alleging Shand conspired with someone in this country to smuggle people into the U.S., said Glazer.

If one or more people are charged in Canada, said the legal experts, one of the challenges will be trying to prove what a suspect or suspects knew about the alleged smuggling operation and the risks of the illegal crossing.

"Laying the charge is one thing, proving it is another," said Glazer.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching
A Manitoba mans $16 million lawsuit over his wrongful murder conviction has been dealt a legal setback after a judge ruled he took too long to pursue legal action against nearly all of the people he is suing.

A Manitoba mans $16 million lawsuit over his wrongful murder conviction has been dealt a legal setback after a judge ruled he took too long to pursue legal action against nearly all of the people he is suing.

"We havent given up," Frank Ostrowski said Monday. "We are appealing the judges decision."

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS In June 2020, Frank Ostrowski filed a lawsuit against 12 defendants, alleging they "wilfully disregarded" his constitutional right to make full answer and defence to the charges against him.

Ostrowski, 72, was convicted in 1987 of orchestrating the drug-related shooting death of 22-year-old Robert Nieman and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

In November 2018, nine years after he was released on bail pending a federal review of his case, the Manitoba Court of Appeal stayed Ostrowskis conviction  ruling an undisclosed prosecution deal with police informant Matthew Lovelace in return for his testimony resulted in a miscarriage of justice.

Also not disclosed to the defence were notes and a report from Winnipeg Police Service Sgt. Neils Jacobson, who had a phone conversation with the informant a few hours before the slaying, during which Lovelace identified another man, not Nieman, as the target of a shooting.

In June 2020, Ostrowski filed a lawsuit against 12 defendants, including the Attorney General of Canada, retired Manitoba judge Judith Webster, now-retired defence lawyer Hymie Weinstein and former Winnipeg police chief Herb Stephen, alleging they "wilfully disregarded" Ostrowskis constitutional right to make full answer and defence to the charges against him.

"We havent given up. We are appealing the judges decision."  Frank Ostrowski

Last year, the defendants, minus Weinstein and his law firm Myers LLP, argued a motion the claim against them was not filed within the applicable two-year limitation period. In a decision dated Jan. 12, Manitoba Queens Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg agreed.

At issue was when the limitation period started to run. Ostrowski argued it started Nov. 27, 2018, when the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction. He filed his lawsuit 19 months later.

The defendants argued under the provinces Public Officers Act, Ostrowski had to have filed his claim within two years of his May 1987 conviction or, at the latest, by May 2006, two years after the Crown forwarded its case files to Ostrowskis legal team at the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted (now Innocence Canada).

The defendants said Ostrowski could have sought leave to file his claim under the Limitations of Actions Act no later than November 2019, 12 months after the Manitoba Court of Appeal quashed his conviction, but he missed that deadline, as well.

"While the basis for the claim did not crystalize until November 2018, the possibility of a claim for damages would have been on the horizon long before then," Greenberg said. "It would not be unfair to expect that (an application) could have been made in the year following the Court of Appeal decision."

As Weinstein is not a public official, neither of the acts at the centre of the defendants motion applied to him.

In 1986, Weinstein was representing Lovelace on drug-trafficking charges when he made a deal with federal prosecutors to stay the charges if Lovelace testified against Ostrowski. At Ostrowskis 2009 bail hearing, Weinstein testified he asked that no one tell Lovelace of the deal at the time, as it would "taint his evidence."

At a hearing before the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 2017, Webster  a federal prosecutor in 1986  testified she had "no memory" of the Ostrowski file, and said she did not know specific details of the deal with Lovelace.

"The federal Crowns, Weinstein and (Jake) Haasbeek (a city police officer and defendant involved in Lovelaces initial arrest) ignored that the Lovelace deal was subject to confirmation with the provincial Crown," Ostrowski alleges in his lawsuit. "The federal Crowns, Weinstein, and Haasbeek never advised or sought permission from the provincial Crowns about the Lovelace deal. They treated the Lovelace deal as if it was an unconditional three-party agreement."

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA  Manitobas most prominent federal Tory has hitched her wagon to the trucking convoy camped outside Parliament Hill, likening a fringe minority who toted swastikas to the Indigenous protesters who downed the Queen Victoria statue in Winnipeg last summer.

OTTAWA  Manitobas most prominent federal Tory has hitched her wagon to the trucking convoy camped outside Parliament Hill, likening a fringe minority who toted swastikas to the Indigenous protesters who downed the Queen Victoria statue in Winnipeg last summer.

"Contrary to some, there are thousands of passionate, patriotic, and peaceful Canadians on the Hill right now, who just want to be heard," PortageLisgar MP Candice Bergen said Monday in the Commons, causing an uproar.

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/SEAN KILPATRICK Conservative Party Deputy Leader Candice Bergen.

This past weekend, thousands of Canadians arrived in the capital as part of a rally with a stated goal of protesting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers, though the organizers have been linked to far-right groups who want to overthrow the government.

In any case, Manitobans who made the 2,100-kilometre drive to Ottawa have shared a range of opinions with the Free Press, from those calling for a rebalancing in how to prevent novel coronavirus spread, to others spouting violent conspiracy theories.

The most media attention has focused on protesters who held signs with Nazi symbols, danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, demanded meals from a soup kitchen, and affixed protest signs to the Terry Fox statue downtown.

Contrary to some, there are thousands of passionate, patriotic, and peaceful Canadians on the Hill right now, who just want to be heard.  PortageLisgar MP Candice Bergen in the House of Commons, Monday

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau argued those elements represent the views of those whose trucks have been parked in the precinct since Jan. 28.

"Freedom of expression, assembly and association are cornerstones of democracy. But Nazi symbolism, racist imagery, and desecration of war memorials are not," Trudeau told reporters Monday morning, saying hed refuse to meet with the group.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/JUSTIN TANG The door of a pickup truck with an expletive towards Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participates in a cross-country convoy in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Friday.

Bergen, who is deputy head of the Conservatives, called on Trudeau to "extend an olive branch," arguing a true leader would rise above the division.

"All Canadians want to see a leader who will work to heal rifts not dismiss, name-call and gaslight," said Bergen, who at one point had to apologize for accusing a fellow MP of lying, which is forbidden in the chamber.

On the first sitting day in six weeks, Bergen had MPs on both sides of the House fuming when she drew a parallel between those bearing swastikas and people who set churches ablaze last year, amid revelations of unmarked graves at former residential school sites.

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/SEAN KILPATRICK Conservative member of Parliament Candice Bergen: "We all condemn hateful and destructive acts by a few, at any protest."

"We all condemn hateful and destructive acts by a few, at any protest," she said.

"Whether its beheading the statue of Queen Victoria in Manitoba whether its burning churches, whether its wearing blackface, whether its Hezbollah flags or Nazi flags, we all condemn this. But Im not talking about that."

Trucker convoy in Ottawa People and vehicles fill Wellington Street near Parliament Hill during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, in Ottawa, on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS) A person holds a copy of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions on Parliament Hill. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) A person pumps their fists as they stand on top of a transport truck after arriving on Wellington Street in front of on Parliament Hill. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) Supporters wave flags on an overpass in Kanata, Ont., as a trucker convoy making its way to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to participate in a cross-country truck convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19 and vaccine mandates passes by on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (FRANK GUNN / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP Protesters hold signs thanking truckers and promoting freedom of choice on Parliament Hill. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press) - People surround the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions in Ottawa, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang - A statue of Terry Fox is defaced with an upside down Canadian flag and a protest sign as demonstrators participating in a cross-country truck convoy protest measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19 by gathering on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. A British Columbia mayor says the defacing of a statue has ignited disbelief among residents in the national heros hometown, and hes calling on them to channel their frustration into doing something positive. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld - Protesters participating in a cross-country truck convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19 and vaccine mandates walk near Parliament Hill. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press) - In this photo taken using a drone, vehicles of the protest convoy are seen parked on the Sir John A. Macdonald parkway leading in to downtown Ottawa, Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. Residents of the national capital are again being told to avoid travelling downtown as a convoy of trucks and cars snarl traffic protesting government-imposed vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions. (ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP A helicopter emblazoned with an expletive against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flies low over East Block and Parliament Hill. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) - Protesters stand in front of Centre Block at Parliament Hill protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press) - A person wearing a Monopoly Man mask holds a sign during a rally against COVID-19 restriction. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) - Protesters participating in a cross-country truck convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19 and vaccine mandates gather near Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld - Trucks reached Parliament Hill as part of a convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press) - A counter protester holds a sign promoting vaccines as others wave flags during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions on Parliament Hill. (Justin Tag / The Canadian Press) - Supporters wave signs and flags on an overpass in Kanata, Ont., just as they wait for a trucker convoy making its way to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (Frank Gunn / The Canadian Press) - A person holds a sign for the "Freedom Convoy." (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press) - Canadian and Quebec flags are flown upside down as protesters participating in a cross-country truck convoy protesting measures taken by authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19 and vaccine mandates gather near Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP A helicopter with its underbody emblazoned with an expletive against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flies low over Parliament Hill during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, in Ottawa, on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP Trucks are parked on Metcalfe Street as a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, continues in Ottawa, on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang - Nathan (Jacko) Jack, an Australian living in Toronto, waves flags in front of trucks that are parked in front of Parliament Hill as a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, continues in Ottawa, on Monday, January 31, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle - Trucks are parked on Metcalfe Street as a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, continues in Ottawa, on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. Police havent reported any violence at the ongoing Ottawa rally against vaccine mandates and other government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions, but critics warn that conflating the absence of bloodshed with "peaceful" protest downplays the dangers of this weekends demonstration. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang - A man who removed the tires from his pickup truck stands in front of West Block on Parliament Hill as a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, continues in Ottawa, on Monday, January 31, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle - People stand and cheer on top of a logging truck parked on Wellington Street near Parliament Hill during a rally against COVID-19 restrictions, which began as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers, in Ottawa, on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. (JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS) - CP

Liberal minister Dan Vandal was visibly aghast in the chamber.

"You cannot compare this to the frustration and the anger felt by the people who are recovering Indigenous bodies, and being angry about it," Vandal told the Free Press afterwards.

"The three main leaders would like to overthrow our democratically elected government, and here is Candice Bergen and the Conservative party asking us to sit down with them. Its just embarrassing on their behalf."

Freedom of expression, assembly and association are cornerstones of democracy. But Nazi symbolism, racist imagery, and desecration of war memorials are not.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Another Manitoba Tory took a different approach, saying little about the convoy but expressing outrage Saturday at flags with swastikas on the Hill.

"These symbols evoke the darkest evils in history. They should not be taken lightly, and should never be normalized," tweeted Marty Morantz, a Conservative who represents CharleswoodSt. JamesAssiniboiaHeadingley.

Justin Trudeau says hes feeling well after testing positive for COVID-19 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted Monday that hes tested postive for COVID-19. Posted: 9:06 AM Jan. 31, 2022 Trudeau posted on Twitter that he got the positive test result Monday morning. He has been in isolation since last Wednesday. Read Full Story

"Voices like these must always be condemned  never defended or explained away," he said. "They must be condemned when they wear yellow Stars of David, which suggest a moral equivalency between safe vaccines and the slaughter of six million Jews."

Meanwhile, before trucks reached the Hill, Tory MP Ted Falk (Provencher) was the sole elected official to show up at a Jan. 17 truckers protest that temporarily slowed traffic at the Emerson border crossing. Manitoba RCMP said the demonstration was repeated Monday morning at the U.S. border post.

Falk, the only MP among the 338 to not disclose his COVID-19 vaccination status, argued Monday the media is focusing too much on extremists on the Hill.

"It is always unacceptable when someone desecrates a national monument," he wrote on Facebook. "They are a handful of individuals who do not represent the thousands of truckers who are lawfully and peacefully protesting."

Voices like these must always be condemned  never defended or explained away. They must be condemned when they wear yellow Stars of David, which suggest a moral equivalency between safe vaccines and the slaughter of six million Jews.  Conservative MP Marty Morantz

Vandal said the real unifying message would be for all MPs to side with the estimated 90 per cent of truckers who have been fully vaccinated, and tell the rest to hit the road.

"Theyve made their point, its time to go home; theyre causing more harm now," he said. "As this continues to drag on, the more harm theyre going to cause to the fine people of Ottawa."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

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By Trend

Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping CJSC (ASCO) and ADY Container LLC (a subsidiary of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC) have signed a new agreement on cooperation in the field of feeder transportation, ASCO told Trend.

According to the document, "Poet Sabir" dry cargo vessel will transport cargo on the Alat-Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan)-Alat route.

The implementation of the project to intensify sea cargo shipments between the ports of Baku and Turkmenbashi became possible with the support of ASCO, Baku International Sea Trade Port CJSC and Turkmenbashi International Sea Port.

"Poet Sabir" vessel is capable of transporting simultaneously 225 units of 20-foot containers.

Cargo transportation along the Alat-Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan)-Alat route in 2021 increased by 101 percent compared to 2020.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1) The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has recommended the filing of criminal charges against Health Secretary Francisco Duque and several others linked to the government's allegedly anomalous purchase of COVID-19 pandemic supplies.

In the partial committee report released on Tuesday, senators tagged Duque for violations of the anti-graft and corruption law, as well as plunder over the supposed misuse of the crisis response funds.

The lawmakers particularly noted how the Health chief moved over 40 billion from his agency to the Department of Budget and Management's Procurement Service (PS-DBM) to supposedly hasten the purchase of medical supplies.

"Even after the multi-billion peso inter-agency transfer, DOH was purchasing supplies at considerably lower prices than that of PS-DBM," read the 113-page committee report.

Duque, for his part, said if ever the report will adopted, his camp will fully cooperate with the court's processes as they have "nothing to hide."

Charge Lao, deport Yang

The Blue Ribbon committee also recommended charges against former DBM Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, former presidential economic adviser and Chinese businessman Michael Yang, and several other officials of the embattled Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation.

Lao was the head of the PS-DBM when it awarded the supply contracts to Pharmally in 2020. Yang, on the other hand, was tagged as the firm's financier.

The Senate's draft report also recommended the deportation of Yang, whom the committee called out for being evasive during hearings.

"Financing the Pharmally contracts was a sure way of washing his cash. He, for all intents and purposes, is the co-conductor of this horrible mess," it said.

Yang's camp maintained that the report findings "have no legal basis." Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, who represents Pharmally executives, also expressed confidence that his clients would be exonerated.

Overpriced, unqualified

The panel lamented how public funds were "plundered" as the country continued to struggle due to the health crisis.

It also highlighted how the government purchased overpriced materials from what it labeled as an "unqualified and undercapitalized" firm.

"Instead of ensuring that crucial supplies were made available, the public servants who were supposed to be responsible for the people's welfare lined their pockets," the report further noted. "There is always an opportunity in crisis, indeed."

Duterte not off the hook?

Senators also noted that charges must be considered against President Rodrigo Duterte when he steps down from office.

"After all, he was the one who appointed all the people who approved these transactions and aggressively protected and defended them when they were caught in this horrible crime against our people," they said.

The chief executive also "betrayed public trust" for defending and not holding his appointees accountable amid the Pharmally controversy, the lawmakers added.

On Monday, the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability also recommended charges against a number of Pharmally officials over the government deal. However, the panel said it found no overpricing in the purchase of the supplies.

Both the Senate and House are expected to endorse their respective reports to the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman.

"On the part of the DOJ, it will make a preliminary evaluation to determine if there is a need to refer the reports to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) for validation of the evidence. If in the affirmative, the NBI will be directed to conduct its investigation and build, if necessary, on the evidence already gathered by the Congress," Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said.

CNN Philippines' Eimor Santos and Alyssa Rola contributed to this report.
Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman will provide $20,000 to support a legal challenge against Quebecs Bill 21.

Widely deemed discriminatory across Canada, the law bans a wide variety of religious symbols (including turbans, hijabs and crosses), preventing public school teachers, police officers, judges and other provincial employees from wearing them at work.

The mayor announced Tuesday that his office will provide financial support for a legal challenge being led by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, World Sikh Organization of Canada, and Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

"Bill 21 is fundamentally against the values we, as Canadians, hold dear," Bowman said in the release, adding he hopes Winnipeggers and other city council members will also help fund the challenge.

In December, the mayor raised a motion that would have had council devote $100,000 to support the legal challenges. However, council instead voted to leave options to do so up to individual members.
CONCERN about symbols of bigotry and hate displayed at the so-called freedom convoy and other anti-vaccine mandate rallies across the country has prompted Mennonite Church Canada to condemn their use.

CONCERN about symbols of bigotry and hate displayed at the so-called freedom convoy and other anti-vaccine mandate rallies across the country has prompted Mennonite Church Canada to condemn their use.

As leaders within Mennonite Church Canada, we unequivocally denounce the symbols, words and actions of white nationalism being expressed in Ottawa and across the country, the denomination, headquartered in Winnipeg, said in a statement Sunday.

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While we support the right of people to gather peacefully in protest we cannot support any action that promotes antisemitism, Islamophobia or racism. Jesus calls us to love our neighbours as ourselves as an expression of our love for God across categories of race, ethnicity, religion and gender.

Leaders in the church decided to issue the statement after seeing Nazi flags and symbols and the use of yellow stars at some of the events, including in Winnipeg, said Michael Pahl, executive minister of Mennonite Church Manitoba, who signed the statement, along colleagues across the country.

We were also moved to action when we saw members of the Jewish and Muslim communities calling on Christians to respond, he said.

Also prompting the statement was a desire to separate the church from the involvement of clergy and others at the rallies who are being identified as Mennonite.

This includes Henry Hildebrandt, a Church of God (Restoration) pastor from Ontario who spoke at the Freedom Convoy rally on Sunday in Ottawa. In media reports, Hildebrandt has been identified as being a Mennonite clergyperson.

faith@freepress.mb.ca
Misinformation that stokes anger and politicians who rile people up over public health restrictions can be a volatile mix, says a Winnipeg MLA whose office was recently targeted.

Misinformation that stokes anger and politicians who rile people up over public health restrictions can be a volatile mix, says a Winnipeg MLA whose office was recently targeted.

Police were called Friday, after an angry, maskless man yelling obscenities about COVID-19 vaccination requirements barged into the St. James constituency office of NDP MLA Adrien Sala.

Video shows the man approaching Salas constituency assistant, who was alone in the office at the time. She can be seen holding up her hand in a defensive gesture as the man moves closer to her. The man said he was angry over vaccines and hed be back to "serve" her.

She was able to de-escalate the situation. The man left, promising to return.

The woman locked the door and called police and Sala, who went to his office right away. The man was waiting in his pickup truck with "freedom convoy" sign in the rear window.

"I expected to have maybe a tense but respectful conversation with him, but it became clear pretty quickly he was not interested in having a respectful conversation," Sala said in an interview Monday.

Video shot from inside Salas office shows the man getting in the face of Sala, who was wearing a mask. The MLA can be seen holding up his hand to keep the man from getting too close.

We had a visit from a supporter of the so-called Freedom Convoy this afternoon who was threatening to myself and staff.



The language and behaviour on display was wrong on every level.



Our team is shaken but ok, grateful to onlookers and the WPS for helping to deescalate. pic.twitter.com/psJ1YXOQN2  Adrien Sala (@AdrienLouisSala) January 29, 2022

"He continued to be physically intimidating and threatening towards me outside," said Sala, who was reassured by the presence of onlookers, including one who approached asking if there was a problem.

As soon as police sirens could be heard, the man seemed to calm down and took a step back, Sala said.

The police asked Sala to go inside his office and spoke to the man for about five minutes, the MLA said. The man then left, and so did police.

"The situation just highlights the dangers of the misinformation thats being spread about the safety of vaccines  but its also speaking to the risks that are being created by a lot of our political leaders who are supporting the convoy and emboldening people to take these types of aggressive actions," Sala said.

"Theres a pretty clear through line, I think, between what happened here and whats been happening in Ottawa," he said, referring to the actions of so-called "freedom convoy" protesters that forced businesses to close and some elected politicians to denounce the symbols of hatred on display.

Sala is not alone in dealing with such issues on a personal level. Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said he was threatened over the weekend.

"People who wave swastikas and Confederate flags and threaten violence are not freedom fighters: they are attacking the very core of our democracy," said Lamont.

"I had messages saying, because I am a Liberal, they are coming for me," Lamont told reporters in a scrum Monday. He blames misinformation and those who are exploiting it for political gain.

"Part of the reason for the reaction is theyve been lied to by radicals and self-styled experts who set out to manipulate people who are fearful, and have been lied to about vaccines and who is responsible for all these measures," the St. Boniface MLA said.

Some are trying to shift the anger and blame for public health measures that have been imposed by Tory premiers Heather Stefanson in Manitoba and Doug Ford in Ontario, and counterparts in Alberta and Saskatchewan, onto the federal government. However, its front-line constituency assistants, health-care workers and others upholding the provinces rules who end up being the targets of the angry and misled, Lamont said.

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"It is irresponsible, but given the nature of the threats were seeing, it is also cowardly and dangerous," he said.

NDP house leader Nahanni Fontaine said discussions are under way to improve security for MLA offices and expects there will be an announcement soon.

"Since the start of the pandemic and, certainly in the last year, weve seen an increase in really volatile behaviours in a variety of forms  in emails, messages and even in public," St. Johns MLA said. "Thats (a) daily occurrence."

Meantime, Winnipeg city council issued a public statement on behalf of all councillors Monday condemning the symbols of racism and hate on public display in Winnipeg, Ottawa and other Canadian cities over the weekend.

"Members are united in condemning such images being displayed in our community. We urge all Winnipeggers to keep working to build a safe and inclusive community that protects and promotes human rights," the statement said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Management of Manitobas northern railway has been turning a blind eye to workplace incidents of racism, former and current workers charge.

Management of Manitobas northern railway has been turning a blind eye to workplace incidents of racism, former and current workers charge.

"We shouldnt have to come to work worrying about whats going to happen today," said one of the employees of the Hudson Bay Railway in The Pas, who is Cree.

The railway insists it has ironed out the problems, but more than five current and former employees say that isnt the case.

The railway, which connects Churchill and remote communities to southern rail lines, was transferred to Arctic Gateway Group in August 2018 by the Trudeau government. The consortium is owned by Indigenous communities and towns that rely on the rail line. Ottawa has pledged $157 million for the railway, in part to hire Indigenous people.

But those workers arent always welcome at the companys roundhouse and maintenance-of-way garage, where roughly 15 mechanics maintain the fleet just down the tracks from its corporate office.

One staff member saw a white colleague berate a Cree colleague in 2020 over a minor mistake, "calling him a lazy f-ing Indian and good for nothing; Id say thats pretty extreme."

"We shouldnt have to come to work worrying about whats going to happen today."  Employee

An Indigenous staff member said local Cree dont get adequate training during their probation periods, in which they earn 20 per cent less than the full union rate, setting them up to fail the tests needed for promotion.

"We get paid less than everybody and we do more than the rest of these guys," the staff member said.

The Free Press is withholding the names of current and previous staff who fear retribution for speaking out.

Arctic Gateway Group CEO Sheldon Affleck said that makes it hard to test the claims, which he found alarming.

"We do not have a problem in our shops," said Affleck, who started leading the group last March.

"We will not tolerate racism or bullying, or false accusation for that matter  which in my opinion is equal to that," said Affleck, adding that a longtime Indigenous employee promoted to shop manager has improved output and employee morale.

Months before Affleck took over, in spring 2020, four white staff members were heard chanting The White Man Marches On, a white-supremacist song that praises the slaughter of Black people and Jews, which was featured in the 1998 violent crime drama American History X.

ANDRE BRANDT / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS In the spring of 2020, four white staff members were heard chanting The White Man Marches On, a white-supremacist song that praises the slaughter of Black people and Jews.

In July 2021, an employee filed a formal complaint to the railway and Unifor local 100, which represents most of workers, alleging harassment, insufficient training and attempts to get Cree staff fired. The complaint mentioned the 2020 singing incident.

Affleck visited The Pas shortly after, and held what he said was a heartfelt meeting in which staff agreed to start fresh and stop bringing up past incidents.

"I saw some of the accusers, to the accused and vice-versa, with a nice hand on the shoulder, some bear hugs between. It was just an awesome signal to me," he said, adding the workplace has had "zero issues since."

Former Opaskwayak Cree Nation Chief Christian Sinclair, who held that post and was co-chair of the company board at the time, called that meeting, saying he was alarmed to hear his band members raise those concerns.

He said the company tried to start fresh because it had difficulty establishing what had happened and who was at fault.

Sinclair was disturbed to hear Monday that allegations of racism persist.

"In a First Nations-majority owned company, thats the last thing we want. So Im hoping the new board thats there makes that loud and clear to the management team, and that they cut that cancer out immediately," he told the Free Press.

"We will not tolerate racism or bullying, or false accusation for that matter  which in my opinion is equal to that."  Arctic Gateway Group CEO Sheldon Affleck

Last summer, two supervisors from Winnipeg who were on short-term contracts with the railway raised the Cree employees concerns to management and union officials. The railway terminated the pair shortly afterwards, citing performance issues, and Affleck accused both of causing workplace conflicts and now being "informants" to the Free Press.

Since the Free Press sent the Hudson Bay Railway and Unifor a detailed list of allegations on Jan. 19, the manager of the headquarters has started interviewing each employee about workplace issues, which some felt was an attempt to identify workers who spoke to the newspaper.

Union staff reached out to the company and found some signs of progress.

"Unifor understands that addressing systemic racism and creating a sustained culture of respect and inclusion takes time to embed," wrote spokesman Ian Boyko.

"The Unifor representative did commend the parties for engaging in serious efforts to address concerns of racism in the workplace. That does not mean that this work is done."

However, current staff say they face a hostile work culture.

Hudson Bay Railway recently promoted two of the four men accused of singing the racist song, and staff say a "cool-off period" to ease tensions in the workplace was never followed by any actual investigation.

"These guys think theyre lawless; they just do whatever they feel like," said one employee.

ANDRE BRANDT / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A recent dispute over work sections and parking spaces escalated.

Last fall, an Indigenous staff member in the garage reported that a white colleague from the roundhouse walked by and shouted "grow a set of balls" and used a gay slur, which another co-worker said did not lead to any disciplinary action.

Others describe "a constant tattle-tale session" where staff get written up for smoking, but racist slurs are not dealt with.

"This is normal life for us," said one Cree employee.

"Its basically like we all have our own groups now," said another.

A recent dispute over work sections and parking spaces escalated and one employee discovered his trucks side mirror smashed.

"What will it take (them) to stop?" a colleague asked. "Like, somebodys going to get killed here."

Current and former staff said they have pleaded the union to intervene, and that they have little faith in the companys internal complaint process.

"These guys think theyre lawless; they just do whatever they feel like."  Employee

At least one of the complainants now works in another role represented by a different union.

Employees in The Pas also questioned the railways commitment to training Indigenous staff ; there are few in higher-paying mechanical and administration jobs.

Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal said hes disturbed by the workers claims.

"These are serious allegations that are absolutely unacceptable and must not be tolerated," Vandal wrote in a statement. "I urge AGG management to take this seriously and take appropriate measures as required."

The workplace issues in The Pas do not seem to extend to the maintenance along the line, where numerous employees and Affleck say staff get along.

"My priority is always that I want to inspire the employees," said Affleck, who disputed the claims from unnamed employees.

"A false allegation is as bad as racism."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
The leader of Manitobas most northern First Nation is pleading for outside support in stopping the flow of illicit drugs into his community via the postal system.

The leader of Manitobas most northern First Nation is pleading for outside support in stopping the flow of illicit drugs into his community via the postal system.

The issue is highlighted by the Jan. 28 death of a local man who shot himself during a stand-off with RCMP, says Sayisi Dene Chief Evan Yassie.

A 21-year-old reportedly assaulted several adults on Jan. 27 before fleeing the scene on Sayisi Dene First Nation. Thompson RCMP were called and located the armed suspect in Tadoule Lake the next day. Confronted by police, the man suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was later pronounced dead at the local nursing station, police said.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba has opened a file on the incident.

The situation revolved around alcohol and drugs, which are smuggled into the remote community through the airport and Canada Post, Yassie said. He is reviving calls to all levels of government to intervene in the flow of illicit substances to northern communities.

"Drugs were involved, drugs are involved, and its coming in steady through the mail," he said Monday.

"It gets in, and it gets distributed, and situations become dangerous and volatile. And this here is another example of that, and how it ended in tragedy by a young man taking his life."

Northern chiefs for years have said they need to have the right to search for drugs at airports and mail centres. In 2019, chiefs of remote First Nations called on Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak to reach out to Canada Post, after the province asked band safety officers to stop screening incoming passengers for contraband, citing safety and legal issues.

Not much came out of those conversations and the concerns remain the same, MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee said.

"We have not seen any changes, we havent gone anywhere with this, and its something that weve been working on. Our team has been working on this, trying to get meetings, and also trying to get a response," he said.

The federal Crown corporation is taking MKOs concerns seriously, a spokesman for Canada Post said.

"Its important to note that Canada Post does not have enforcement authority in these communities," he told the Free Press. "We will continue to work with First Nation communities to address their concerns and the enforcement of local band laws, as we want to do everything possible to contribute to safe communities."

Changes are being tested and implemented in Indigenous communities, the spokesman said, noting Canada Post wont divulge any details about security measures since it can reduce their effectiveness.

Settee said he sent a letter to Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson outlining the issue Monday.

Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen, who met with Settee on the issue last year when he was interim premier, said hed bring the concern to the federal government in a scheduled meeting next week.

"I appreciate the efforts of Grand Chief Settee in continuing to highlight the real problem of drug dealing in northern First Nations and the concern that these drugs may be finding their way to the community through the postal system," Goertzen told the Free Press in an email.

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"This is an issue nationally, that police have raised in an effort to obtain federal authority to better prevent deadly drugs, like opioids, moving through the mail system and a concern that I share as well."

Federal Public Services Minister Filomena Tassi, who oversees Canada Post, did not respond to requests for comment.

The drugs  often cocaine, methamphetamine and opioids  seeping into Sayisi Dene, 700 kilometres north of Winnipeg, are exacerbating long-standing issues of lack of mental health supports, Yassie said.

There isnt the necessary infrastructure in place to safely house, support and serve its community of more than 300 people, he added.

"I need to find a way to bring in the resources to help the community deal with these ongoing tragedies due to ongoing drug abuse, and alcohol abuse, and just the lack of resources available to us here internally."

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA  As many as one-quarter of Canada Post letter carriers in Winnipeg are isolating due to COVID-19, as city residents complain about delayed mail.

OTTAWA  As many as one-quarter of Canada Post letter carriers in Winnipeg are isolating due to COVID-19, as city residents complain about delayed mail.

Matthew Aitken, president of the local chapter of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, says the highly contagious Omicron variant has sent large numbers of full-time letter carriers into 10-day isolation.

"If we had to ballpark it, Id say its been about 20 to 25 per cent," he said, referring to absences for both illness and exposures.

Aitken said the Crown corporation calls in temporary workers to help when absenteeism spikes, while other staff work overtime.

"Theyll do their best to call in relief letter carriers. But theyre all people, so some of them are going to have COVID, as well."

Canada Post did not respond to a list of questions last week asking about mail-delivery issues, but Aitken was happy to help explain why people across Winnipeg are getting delayed mail.

He said COVID-19 leave is the main culprit, but not vaccination mandates. According to internal data, only 243 postal workers have refused COVID-19 vaccination across Canada, representing just 0.4 per cent of the workforce.

Meanwhile, the repeated extreme-cold warnings in Winnipeg have had some workers cut their routes short. The company and union urge letter carriers to not exert themselves if theyre feeling unwell due to the weather.

That could be compounded by people getting more mail than normal along a route that hasnt been served in a few days.

"Generally speaking, management in Winnipeg is reasonable with the weather. If its 25 below and you cant keep going, its inhumane to make you (do so)," said Aitken.

He noted the volume of parcel mail was already increasing before COVID-19, putting strain on a system primarily designed to handle letters. The pandemic-fuelled online shopping explosion has left scant space in warehouses.

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"The corporations business model is not designed to keep stuff; we want to move it, and we want to move it today," he said, adding many Canada Post employees work extra hours at Christmas and take vacation time in January.

"There could be fewer people signing up to do overtime on a regular basis," he said. "This is more of a recovery time for the workers."

Aitken could not speak to issues in Manitobas northern region, but noted his union has long called for increased investment and services in the north.

In early January, the Free Press reported some remote communities, such as Pikwitonei, going three weeks without mail even after Via Rail resumed service after weather disruptions along the Hudson Bay Railway.

Residents of Leaf Rapids are dealing with a hospital closure while also not receiving prescriptions through the postal service.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Premier Heather Stefanson appears to suffer from difficulty in accepting the rules that apply to everyone else. While her recently revealed missteps are not in the same realm as those of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who partied repeatedly with his entourage during pandemic lockdowns while ordering Britons to stay home alone, Ms. Stefanson might be well served by casting an eye across to pond to see where such difficulties can lead.

Premier Heather Stefanson appears to suffer from difficulty in accepting the rules that apply to everyone else. While her recently revealed missteps are not in the same realm as those of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who partied repeatedly with his entourage during pandemic lockdowns while ordering Britons to stay home alone, Ms. Stefanson might be well served by casting an eye across to pond to see where such difficulties can lead.

Leading Manitoba Conservatives should tell Ms. Stefanson that her repeated failures to disclose large transactions by her real-estate trading firm were not merely an oversight, as she called them last week in a written reply to this newspaper. They were an insult to Manitobans who conduct their affairs with care and follow the rules.

When you hold high office, the eyes of the community are upon you. You cannot lead merely by issuing commands.

When you hold high office, the eyes of the community are upon you. You cannot lead merely by issuing commands. You must earn the respect of the public every day so that they will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you have their interests at heart, even when you are asking for sacrifice or choosing a difficult path for them to follow.

Why does this need to be said? Why is this not self-evident?

Ms. Stefanson, with others, owns the McDonald Grain Company. In 2016, the company sold a storage facility on Saulteaux Crescent for $1.78 million. In 2019 it sold The Ritz apartment block on Grosvenor Avenue for $7 million and Drury Manor on Pembina Highway for $22.5 million.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Premier Heather Stefanson, a member of the legislature since 2000, had complied with the disclosure requirements until it came to these large transactions which, through the aforementioned oversight, she forgot to mention in her disclosures.

Manitobas Conflict of Interest Act requires members of the legislature to disclose their assets to a public official at the start of each session of the legislature and promptly disclose subsequent purchases and sales of assets. Ms. Stefanson made no such disclosure of these large dispositions until the Opposition New Democrats complained.

Such transactions should be disclosed because governmental power could be used to enhance the value of an asset and because a sale could be used to provide a hidden benefit to a powerful person. Disclosure helps protect powerful people from suspicion of monkey business.

Once the Opposition party had revealed the 2016 and 2019 transactions on her behalf, Ms. Stefanson disclosed them and apologized for her oversight. She gave no sign that she recognized in herself a symptom of the Boris Johnson syndrome  the belief that the rules are meant for other people.

Once the Opposition party had revealed the 2016 and 2019 transactions on her behalf, Ms. Stefanson disclosed them and apologized for her oversight.

Ms. Stefanson, a member of the legislature since 2000, had complied with the disclosure requirements until it came to these large transactions which, through the aforementioned oversight, she forgot to mention in her disclosures. The case casts fresh light on Ms. Stefansons difficulties in 1999 as a registered representative for the investment brokerage firm Wellington West Capital. She was suspended by the industry regulatory body after a series of inappropriate trades. The two cases suggest an inclination toward carelessness.

Manitobas political structure has survived far worse shocks than this. The tender, newly sprouted relationship between Ms. Stefanson as premier and the Manitoba public, however, is not such a hardy plant that it can easily recover from such a disappointment.

The public is still getting to know her in her capacity as leader and is still looking for reasons to believe she is one of us and one with us. And now, suddenly, this pebble drops on the other side of the scale. Its only a pebble, but when the balance is so obviously precarious, the tipping point is an abiding danger.
A Winnipeg family has been reduced to tears and left in distress, after their elderly loved one was transferred to a hospital hundreds of kilometres away from home to make space for COVID-19 patients.

A Winnipeg family has been reduced to tears and left in distress, after their elderly loved one was transferred to a hospital hundreds of kilometres away from home to make space for COVID-19 patients.

"Im so heartbroken," a tearful Florinda Apalit told reporters at the Manitoba Legislative Building on Monday afternoon. "They just separated us."

Florindas husband of 50 years, Elias Apalit, was transferred Jan. 26 to Minnedosa Health Centre, after a month spent recovering at Concordia Hospital from a head injury and broken leg he suffered while admitted for dehydration.

Elias, who has advanced dementia, lost his ability to speak in English while in hospital and can only communicate in Tagalog, his first language. Fortunately, many health-care aides at Concordia were able to interpret for him, daughter Melissa Carter said.

Carter said the transfer to the rural health centre has left her father unable to speak with most of his care providers, disoriented, scared and pleading with his family for help.

"As my dad was being loaded into the ambulance for transfer, he was confused, and was crying and his departing words to my mom were, What did I do wrong? I want to go home, please help me. Why am I being punished?" Carter said, speaking through tears.

"Whats happening in our hospitals and in our medical system right now is wrong."

The Apalit family reached out to local MLA Nello Altomare to try to postpone the transfer while they arranged supports for an early discharge, but were unable to get home care in place before Elias was shipped west.

On Monday, the family joined Altomare and NDP Leader Wab Kinew to share their story on behalf of hundreds of patients who have been impacted by the transfer protocol.

"Even in a pandemic, we should never have to put one persons care over another," Carter said. "We need a health-care system that is strong enough to care for everyone."

Since October, more than 250 patients have been transferred to health centres outside of their home region to make space in higher acuity hospitals during COVID-19 surges.

The pandemic-era transfer protocol has been widely criticized by families who have received little or no notice loved ones would be transferred. For months, families travelling to visit their loved ones have done so on their own dime.

Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon said Jan. 28 the province would begin to reimburse some expenses families have incurred to visit transferred patients. The new program is retroactive and co-ordinated through the regional health authorities.

However, Carter said her mother cannot make the roughly 220-km drive to Minnedosa to see her husband alone. The family is now looking at all available options to reunite the couple.

"My dad is not well, and my mom is worried that if his health were to decline further while in Minnedosa that she would not be able to get there in time to see him," Carter said. "My mom is desperate to see him and be close to him."

Carter said her father also missed his brothers virtual funeral service Monday, as no one could make it to Minnedosa to be at his bedside.

"This has been a nightmare," she said.

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Kinew called on the provincial government to cease sending patients out of their home region and to find a bed for Elias in Winnipeg.

"For him to be recovering far away from family, far away from the supports socially, culturally, emotionally that can help him heal is just not right," Kinew said. "This issue needs to be top of mind for people everywhere in our province because this is certainly not the dignity that we should be affording seniors."

According to the province, inter-regional patient transfers are required to meet COVID-19 demand. A record-setting 735 people were in hospital with the disease Monday.

During a briefing Jan. 28, health system co-lead for the provinces incident command Dr. David Matear said the transfers will continue for the foreseeable future.

In a Monday statement to the Free Press, a spokesperson for Manitoba Health said patient transfers are based on decisions made by clinicians and the government cannot discuss details about patients or their care.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
There is a particularly perverse form of irony surrounding the so-called freedom convoy that has taken up residency in the nations capital.

There is a particularly perverse form of irony surrounding the so-called "freedom convoy" that has taken up residency in the nations capital.

Started by long-haul truckers in Western Canada to protest vaccine requirements for cross-border travel, the convoy that finally arrived in Ottawa last week has mutated  not unlike the novel coronavirus at the root of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its no longer about supply chains, empty grocery store shelves or civil rights. The convoy has become a lightning rod for a broad collection of grievances, not all of them just.

Hundreds of trucks drove around the Perimeter on Saturday. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files)

As is the case with the "yellow vest" protests of 2018-19, and the anti-vaccine movement in general, the Venn diagram of this convoy has drawn in racists, homophobes and authors of irrational conspiracies.

What unites them, however, is the feeling they are somehow out of step with the majority of society, and the desire to seek catharsis through angry, occasionally violent protest.

In short, they are angry as hell, about a wide variety of reasons, and theyre not going to take it  whatever it is  anymore.

However, break down what they really want and the irony begins to bubble to the surface.

Foremost, its pretty hilarious to hear a group of people involved in an act of pointed civil disobedience that has paralyzed the centre of the nations capital complain about a lack of constitutional freedom.

Convoy supporters have slowly transformed downtown Ottawa into something like the aftermath of a rowdy outdoor music festival. Through it all  destruction of property, defacement of monuments, blocking of streets and sidewalks, various scatological incidents in public spaces  local and national officials have been utterly respectful and deferential.

Convoy supporters have slowly transformed downtown Ottawa into something like the aftermath of a rowdy outdoor music festival.

Police elected not to tow vehicles off of the streets they are blocking to avoid conflicts. Businesses closed rather than risk confrontations with aggressive protesters. And  despite the fact laws are being broken  there was yet to be a single arrest over the weekend.

No matter what happens from this point on, its pretty clear the protesters constitutional freedom of assembly has been protected.

However, the larger, more pressing and more significant irony is connected to the freedoms we all lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, and why were continuing to suffer social and economic restrictions.

The pandemic is one of the greatest infringements on individual rights in the countrys history. All are legally and morally justifiable, but they are infringements nonetheless.

Many of them persist largely because of the threat posed to, and by, the unvaccinated.

Even though fully vaccinated people can do more than the unvaccinated, we all still living with capacity limits, activity restrictions and mask mandates. (Patrick T. Fallon /AFP via Getty Images files)

Opinion polls show support for social and economic restrictions is waning, but not necessarily because people doubt their need or effectiveness. Rather, most are frustrated we must endure restrictions largely in place because just enough Canadians refuse to be vaccinated.

Think about that for a moment: if every Canadian were vaccinated, we could theoretically eliminate most of the current restrictions.

Although vaccines were never designed to prevent contracting the virus that causes COVID-19, they ensure you suffer much milder symptoms if you do.

However, when tens of thousands of people refuse to get vaccinated, the COVID-19 threat is both amplified and sustained.

However, when tens of thousands of people refuse to get vaccinated, the COVID19 threat is both amplified and sustained.

Although convoy participants and their supporters are desperately trying to muddy the waters with extraneous debates about mythical civil liberties and phantom threats to democracy, there is only one truth: the pandemic continues to require restrictions because it continues to pose a significant threat to public health.

Fully vaccinated Canadians fully expected, by now, they would be able to go where they want and do what they want, with no more restrictions than those that existed pre-pandemic. Instead, even though fully vaccinated people can do more than the unvaccinated, we are all still living with capacity limits, activity restrictions and mask mandates.

These freedoms to avoid restrictions were supposed to be the dividend for getting the jab (now times three). Instead, the freedom of a few to refuse the vaccine is eroding the freedom of the gross majority to resume a normal life.

Underlying all of the arguments made by anti-vaxxers  or the vaccine-hesitant, if you prefer  is the idea they cannot legally or morally be compelled to do something they think is unnecessary or that could pose a risk to their health.

No matter what happens from this point on, its pretty clear the protesters constitutional freedom of assembly has been protected. (David Lipnowski / The Canadian Press files)

No one in this country, or in any democracy, has ever been allowed the unfettered right to do whatever they wanted, wherever and whenever they wanted, if it poses a risk to someone else. Responsible limits on individual rights and freedoms are just as important as the rights and freedoms themselves.

There is no great, silent majority at work here.

The convoy participants and their supporters claim they are fighting for freedom. In reality, they are but a tiny sliver of society desperately clinging to a freedom that does not exist.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Russia accused the West on Monday of whipping up tensions over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought pure Nazis to power in Kyiv as the U.N. Security Council held a stormy and bellicose debate on Moscow's troop buildup near its southern neighbor.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, addresses the United Nations Security Council, before a vote, Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Russia accused the West on Monday of whipping up tensions over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought pure Nazis to power in Kyiv as the U.N. Security Council held a stormy and bellicose debate on Moscow's troop buildup near its southern neighbor.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield shot back that Russia's growing military force of more than 100,000 troops along Ukraines borders was the largest mobilization" in Europe in decades, adding that there has been a spike in cyberattacks and Russian disinformation.

And they are attempting, without any factual basis, to paint Ukraine and Western countries as the aggressors to fabricate a pretext for attack, she said.

The harsh exchanges in the Security Council came as Moscow lost an attempt to block the meeting and reflected the gulf between the two nuclear powers. It was the first open session where all protagonists in the Ukraine crisis spoke publicly, even though the U.N.'s most powerful body took no action.

Hours later, the Russian government sent a written response to a U.S. proposal aimed at deescalating the crisis, according to three Biden administration officials. The officials all spoke on the condition of anonymity. A State Department official declined to offer details of the response, saying it would be unproductive to negotiate in public and that they would leave it up to Russia to discuss the counterproposal.

Although more high-level diplomacy is expected this week, talks between the U.S. and Russia have so far failed to ease tensions in the crisis, with the West saying Moscow is preparing for an invasion. Russia denies it is planning to attack. It demands pledges that Ukraine will never join NATO, a halt to the deployment of NATO weapons near Russian borders and a rollback of the alliance's forces from Eastern Europe. NATO and the U.S. call those nonstarters.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the U.S. of interfering in his countrys internal affairs and seeking a classic example of megaphone diplomacy.

Thomas-Greenfield countered that the U.S. has held over 100 private meetings in the past few weeks with Russian officials and European and Ukrainian colleagues and its now time for a discussion in public.

To Russias assertion that the U.S. called the meeting to make all council members feel uncomfortable, she retorted, Imagine how uncomfortable you would be if you had 100,000 troops sitting on your border.

Ukraine's United Nations Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya addresses the U.N. Security Council at the U.N. headquarters on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

After the council gave a green light for the meeting, Nebenzia accused the Biden administration of whipping up tensions and rhetoric and provoking escalation.

You are almost pulling for this, he said in his speech to the council, looking at Thomas-Greenfield. You want it to happen. Youre waiting for it to happen, as if you want to make your words become a reality.

He blamed the U.S. for the 2014 ouster of a Kremlin-friendly president in Kyiv, saying it brought to power nationalists, radicals, Russophobes and pure Nazis and created the antagonism that exists between Ukraine and Russia.

Nebenzia pointedly left the council chamber as the Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya started to speak. How long Russia will pressure, will pursue a clear attempt to push Ukraine and its partners into a Kafka trap? Kyslytsva asked.

The vote on holding an open meeting passed 10-2, with Russia and China opposed, and India, Gabon and Kenya abstaining. Nine yes" votes were needed for the meeting to go ahead.

The U.S. and its allies had pressed to hold the meeting Monday, the last day of Norway's rotating presidency of the council, before Russia takes over Tuesday for the month of February.

Any statement or resolution by the Security Council is extremely unlikely, given Russias veto power and its ties with others on the council, including China.

After all 15 council members spoke, the U.S. and Russia sparred again, with Thomas-Greenfield saying she was disappointed in Nebenzias comments, stressing that Russian threats of aggression are provocative.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the meeting was a critical step in rallying the world to speak out in one voice to reject the use of force and seek military de-escalation.

At the start of a White House meeting with the ruling emir of Qatar, Biden said the U.S. continues to engage in nonstop diplomacy, but "we are ready no matter what happens.

The State Department on Monday ordered the departure of families of American diplomats in Belarus, where Russia is deploying troops, tanks and other materiel in what Moscow says is a military exercise.

Western officials fear Russia's troop buildup could use Belarus as a jumping-off point to invade neighboring Ukraine, especially its capital, Kyiv, from the north. Tens of thousands of other Russian troops already are staged elsewhere along Ukraine's borders.

Belarus officials already have pushed most U.S. Embassy staff out of the country, leaving fewer family members to be affected by Monday's order. The U.S. has also drawn down its diplomatic presence in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken are expected to speak by phone Tuesday, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. A senior State Department official confirmed the Russian account.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Ukraine on Tuesday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and will also speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge him to step back, Johnsons office said. Johnson says he is considering sending hundreds of British troops to NATO countries in the Baltic region as a show of strength.

Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress said Monday they were still divided over some of the timing in draft sanctions legislation against Russia. A Republican push to impose sanctions on a Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany, Nord Stream 2, even before any new Russian push into Ukraine was a main sticking point, lawmakers said. The Biden administration argues for waiting after any invasion, saying sanctioning Nord Stream now could alienate an ally, Germany, and remove the deterrence power of that sanctions threat.

On Sunday, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, said that in the event of an attack, lawmakers want Russia to face the mother of all sanctions. That includes actions against Russian banks that could severely undermine the Russian economy and increased lethal aid to Ukraines military.

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday the administration was encouraged by the bipartisan effort in Congress "to hold Russia accountable. The administration has previously expressed concern that preemptive sanctions could diminish their leverage on Russia, but the White House sounded warmer to the prospect as the Foreign Relations Committee moves to act.

Our view is that sanctions can be an effective tool of deterrence, and the deepening sell-off in Russian markets reflects our message to Russia, Psaki said

___

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Aamer Madhani, Matthew Lee and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP stories on the crisis in Ukraine at: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  Some areas in the Visayas and Mindanao are still showing a significant spike in COVID-19 transmissions, as most parts of the country gradually recover from surges, OCTA said Tuesday.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Source on Tuesday, OCTA fellow Guido David said areas with a high growth rate indicating "considerable transmission" include Bukidnon, Camiguin, Cotabato, Davao de Oro, Davao del Norte, Davao Occidental, Davao Oriental, Maguindanao, Negros Oriental, Sarangani, South Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat.

"Only Negros Oriental is from the Visayas region, most of the provinces are from Mindanao, and none are from Luzon," David said. "I noted that Luzon is probably on a downward trend."

David recently said that the "worst is over" in most parts of the country which have either peaked or either peaking already.

He added that the "stealth" Omicron BA.2 subvariant, which has caused the rapid transmission in Metro Manila and other regions, is no longer a major concern due to the downtrend in cases and the country's attained population protection.

Data from the COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard shows that 59 million Filipinos have already completed their doses as of Jan. 31, while 7.5 million have received their booster shots.

The government said it achieved its target of inoculating 54 million Filipinos, or 70% of the target population, in January. It added that around 77 million have completed their doses by end of 2021.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. previously said the 77 million target will likely be achieved by the end of the first quarter, while 90 million Filipinos will have completed their doses by the second quarter.
MAYVILLE  Freds Beds in downtown Mayville will be getting a facelift courtesy of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporations annual Main Street Makeover Contest.

As winners of the contest, owners Janine and Jeff Andes will receive personalized technical assistance and up to $10,000 to implement changes identified in the makeover process, which could include both interior improvements as well as exterior enhancements. The goal of the makeover is to update the space and reflect the quality products and services offered by the shop. Janine said she and her husband opened their furniture store at 110 N. Main St., Mayville, in 2015.

We started this business part time, by appointment only, she said. I left my other job in November to be here full time, so winning the contest now is perfect timing because Im here regularly and can invest more time in making changes.

The business is housed in a historic building previously owned by Jeffs father, Fred Andes, for whom the business was named. Prior to the Andes, the building was home to Guse Inc., a furniture and appliance store founded by Elsmer Guse in 1940 and eventually run by brothers Richard and Gerald Guse.

The Andes recently removed the Guse Inc. sign from the front of the building to give back to members of the Guse family.

Jeff is doing some repair work on it first. We kept it on the building for a long time for historical purposes because the Guse family was so good to the community for generations, said Janine.

The Andes had a rendering done a couple years ago through the Main Street program that gave them some ideas on what to improve upon. They purchased a new awning and are planning to put in different windows.

We need to have a new facade to make it more attractive. Were looking to fix the colors and add signage to make the store more noticeable, because now if youre driving by you may not see it, she said.

The dramatic increase in home renovations during the pandemic has helped make Freds Beds expansion possible, but it has also created challenges in display and merchandising as the range of products and amount of inventory have increased.

The business originally offered only mattresses made in Watertown, and Janine said she seeks out products made in Wisconsin. It has expanded to include recliners, lamps, artwork, custom memo boards and more. The couple hope to reconfigure their shop to be more accessible to customers and better showcase their products.

A team of WEDC staff and professionals from Retailworks Inc., a Milwaukee-based interior commercial design firm, will work closely with the Andes family and stakeholders from Main Street Mayville over the next few months to develop the shops new look. The improvements will be made during a 48-hour makeover event later this spring.

A vibrant downtown is critical to the overall economic health of a community, said WEDC secretary and CEO Missy Hughes. The Main Street Makeover program is one of the ways we support thriving communities throughout Wisconsin.

The Main Street Makeover Contest is an initiative of the Wisconsin Main Street Program, a comprehensive revitalization program overseen by WEDC and designed to promote the historic and economic redevelopment of traditional business districts in Wisconsin.

Multiple nominations from a wide variety of businesses within Wisconsins 34 designated Main Street districts were received as part of the makeover contest this year. All eligible applicants will receive outreach and technical assistance from WEDC community development staff and their local Main Street program to help them achieve their business goals.

Were thrilled to hear that one of our core downtown businesses is this years Main Street Makeover winner, said Dawn Gindt, executive director of Main Street Mayville. Their dedication to restoring one of Mayvilles oldest buildings is a benefit for the entire community and we are proud to have them in this district.

For more information on the Wisconsin Main Street Program, visit wedc.org/MainStreet.

Follow Kelly Simon on Twitter @KSchmidSimon or contact her at 920-356-6757.

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JUNEAU  A 37-year-old Randolph man made his initial appearance in court on Monday with charges of his fifth offense of driving while intoxicated.

Joe Singleterry could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the charge. Singleterry appeared before Dodge County Court Commissioner Steven Seim who placed him on a $1,000 signature bond with conditions that he maintain absolute sobriety and shall not go upon the premises of any establishment whose primary business activity involves the sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages. He shall say off the premises of bowling alleys and shall not operate a motor vehicle without the permission of the court.

According to the criminal complaint, a Randolph Police Officer clocked a vehicle traveling 54 mph in a 25 mph zone on East Cambria Street in Randolph on Saturday around midnight. The officer pulled the vehicle over On Highway P and Pleasant Road in the town of Fox Lake.

According to the complaint, Singleterry was operating the vehicle, and the officer believed he had been drinking. Singleterry said he believed he had been driving in a 55 mph zone before being told he had been driving 54 mph in a 25 mph zone. Singleterry said he had been bowling at Tower Lanes in Beaver Dam and had three to four beers while at the Beaver Dam bowling alley.

Singleterry refused a preliminary breathalyzer test.

Singleterry had four prior OWI convictions in Texas: 2003, twice in 2005 and 2006.

A preliminary hearing will be held on Feb. 10.

Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760.

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The Salvation Armys Red Kettle Campaign raised over $40,000 throughout Columbia County in December.

The Salvation Army, with the help of the red kettle funds, is able to help over 600 families annually. Services provided to those families includes emergency lodging, food, coats, back to school needs and help with rent and utility bills.

Angela Swinehart of the Columbia County Salvation Army said it was another success campaign for the Red Kettle Campaign. The bell ringers are a common sight in December throughout the area. The Columbia County Salvation Army is part of the Salvation Army of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan with

Swinehart said four volunteers were honored at the Salvation Army Appreciation Dinner last week. Bill Nelms, Penny Kiefer, Karren Alden and Nancy Schaper were honored for their hard work all year round for the Salvation Army.

Alden of the Portage Kiwanis Club helped organize volunteer bell ringers to make sure each store had people at every position throughout the campaign.

Alden said this amount is in line with previous years.

We raised just over $40,000 in 2019, Alden said. In 2020, we were able to raise $46,521.

Nelms said it was one of the best years ever. He said 97% of that money stays in Western Columbia County, approximately $38,800 in 2021 and over $45,000 in 2020.

We saw that people just really wanted to give back in 2020 during the start of the pandemic, Alden said.

Bell ringers were at a number of stores in Lodi, Pardeeville, Portage and Poynette including Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Piggly Wiggly and Festival Foods. Bell Ringers were at stores on Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

People looking for assistance from the Salvation Army can go to https://centralusa.salvationarmy.org/wum/contact-us-2/ to fill out an online form or call 414-302-4300

Anyone interested in donating time or resources to the Salvation Army can go to https://centralusa.salvationarmy.org/wum/volunteer/ for more information.

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JUNEAU  A 43-year-old Columbus man was being monitored by GPS when he allegedly robbed two banks last week including the Horicon State Bank in Neosho.

Alan Schade made his initial appearance in Dodge County Circuit Court on Monday with charges connected to robbing the Neosho bank. Charges have not been filed in Jefferson County for the alleged robbery at the second bank.

Alan Schade is charged with a felony count of robbery of a financial institution along with three counts of bail jumping. He could face up to 68 years in prison and a $130,000 in fined if convicted of all the charges.

Schade appeared before Dodge County Circuit Court Commissioner Steven Seim. Schade was placed on a $250,000 cash bond. He shall not have any direct or indirect contact or communication with victim business and its employees. He shall not leave Wisconsin while the case is pending.

According to the criminal complaint, a Dodge County Sheriffs Office Criminal Investigation Division detective responded to the bank on Wednesday following the bank alarm going off at 3:19 p.m. Two bank tellers said a man, who was later identified as Schade, gave a note to one of them that told them to put everything in a bag and that no one would get hurt while passing a plastic grocery bag to one of the tellers. The bag was filled with U.S. currency including marked money, which had known and documented serial numbers. Schade then left in a truck that he had parked in the parking lot. Schades clothing and description including height was recorded.

The tellers believed that Schade had entered the bank around noon the same day and asked for deposit slips but did not complete any bank transaction before leaving. At that time, Schade was in different clothing, but he left in the same vehicle. Although the license plate wasnt visible in the video from the bank that police viewed at the time of the robbery, they were able to make out the video in the earlier incident. The license was registered to Schade.

In addition, Jefferson County Sheriffs Office sent a Wisconsin Crime Alert regarding a bank robbery in Jefferson County on Jan. 24. Schade was believed to be the suspect in that bank robbery as well and involved in other criminal activity in Jefferson County.

Schade was located in Waterloo on Thursday and had the money that had been marked by the bank in his possession, according to the criminal complaint. The owner of the home that Schade was in consented to a search and clothing that matched what was being worn during the bank robberies was located.

Schade was brought to the Dodge County Sheriffs Office where it was noticed that he was wearing a GPS ankle monitor due to a Waukesha County Circuit Court case. The detective was able to get the GPS data that showed that Schade was at a bank in Ixonia on Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. when it was robbed and at the bank in Neosho on Jan. 26 at both noon and 3:17 p.m.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 10 in Dodge County.

Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760.

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As other states lighten or completely do away with cash bail, Wisconsin judges would have to factor in defendants charges, criminal record and public safety risk in setting cash bail amounts under a Republican-proposed constitutional amendment coming before a public hearing Wednesday.

Under the state Constitution, judges cant currently impose cash bail to prevent future crimes, only to ensure defendants appear in court. Judges may, however, add conditions to a persons bail that seek to address public safety concerns.

The proposed constitutional amendment comes after a man, released on $1,000 bail and charged with running over the mother of his child, drove through the Waukesha Christmas parade in November, killing six and injuring more than 60.

The constitutional amendment was first proposed in 2017 by Rep. Cindi Duchow, R-Delafield, and Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine. Wanggaards companion Senate joint resolution was reintroduced in December, and Duchows in January.

For the proposed amendment to be implemented, it would have to be passed during two consecutive legislative sessions followed by a statewide referendum. It cant be vetoed by the governor.

Wanggaard in a statement said the amendment isnt a response to any specific incident, including the Waukesha Christmas parade tragedy.

The fact is Wisconsins bail system has been in need of change for a long time, he said.

We want to be safe in our homes and as we walk down the street, and we want to ensure the government does not have unchecked power against an individual, Duchow said in a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.

The state public defenders office issued a statement for the January hearing saying the amendment would lead to the increased detention of people presumed to be innocent and create the likelihood that judges would set excessive bail amounts.

The office in a statement also recommended comprehensive discussion by all criminal justice system partners before amending the Constitution.

Months before the lawmakers reintroduced the constitutional amendment to more rigorously assess cash bail amounts, Illinois became the first state in the country to completely eliminate it, with the ban to take full effect in 2023.

This legislation marks a substantial step toward dismantling the systemic racism that plagues our communities, our state and our nation, and brings us closer to true safety, true fairness and true justice, Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said when he signed the bill into law.

California, too, did away with cash bail for people who couldnt afford it in March 2021, with the California Supreme Court stating, conditioning freedom solely on whether an arrestee can afford bail is unconstitutional.

UW-Madison Law School associate professor John Gross said Wisconsins proposed constitutional amendment sets it apart from states reducing or entirely eliminating cash bails use.

Theyre not seeing spikes in recidivism, their costs are down and public safety is at the same level, but more people are out on the street, he said. And so I feel like Wisconsin is bucking the trend here.

Gross added that Eighth Amendment protections against excessive bail and 14th Amendment due process and equal protection issues are raised any time judges set bail beyond a defendants financial capacity, which he said may occur more often if the amendment is enacted.

And while the state Constitution currently prohibits using a defendants charges or criminal history as a factor for setting bail, many judges do it anyway  consciously or unconsciously, Gross said.

All of the science here says cash bail isnt good, Gross said. It could be potentially unconstitutional in some ways, it discriminates against the poor. And at the end of the day, nobodys safer for its use.

New Jersey overhauled its bail system in 2017, allowing more people to remain free while awaiting trial by doing away with cash bail in most instances.

Marginally fewer people attended their court dates after the reforms, but a New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts report stated that was a matter of compiling data differently.

Concerns about a possible spike in crime and failures to appear did not materialize, the report concluded.

New York cited

Addressing the study stating that doing away with cash bail did not elevate crime numbers, Duchow said, We have a cash bail system in the state of Wisconsin, and I dont see us getting away from that anytime soon.

Duchow also pointed to New York, a state that had implemented a law heavily decreasing cash bail use in January 2020 before reversing many of the changes in April 2020 after the New York Police Department presented statistics showing that crime rose after the January changes.

Attorneys, including public defenders, pushed back, saying the New York City police officers were bail reform opponents who were arresting more people to create a false narrative.

Advocates have for years pushed for the elimination of cash bail as a policy particularly affecting people of color.

Racial divide

In a 2019 report, left-leaning Prison Policy Initiative research director Wendy Sawyer found that defendants who are people of color are 10-25% more likely than white defendants to be detained pretrial or have to pay cash bail.

Black and brown defendants receive bail amounts that are twice as high as bail set for white defendants  and they are less likely to be able to afford it, she said.

In response, Duchow said, Im looking at the crimes statistics in Milwaukee. I think 80% of all the murders were committed by African Americans. So there are going to be more African Americans arrested if theyre creating more crimes.

Duchow did not directly address the disparity in bail amounts between white defendants and people of color, saying she would have to look at the study first, but she added that judges take into account a persons financial situation.

Wanggaard did not respond to a request for comment.
Weather Alert

...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers in Indiana... Wabash River from Lafayette to Montezuma. White River at Elliston and Edwardsport. .Multiple rounds of rain over the last few days is bringing minor flooding along lower portions of the White River and upper portions of the Wabash River. Additional rainfall Thursday evening through Friday evening should keep portions of the White and Wabash above flood stage through the weekend. 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 NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE... * WHAT...Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Wabash River at Lafayette. * WHEN...Until further notice. * IMPACTS...At 14.0 feet, Lowland flooding is in progress. High water affects river cabins near North 9th Street. Low county roads are nearly impassable. Tapawingo Park in West Lafayette begins to flood. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 9:30 PM EDT Wednesday the stage was 11.3 feet. - Recent Activity...The maximum river stage in the 24 hours ending at 9:30 PM EDT Wednesday was 11.3 feet. - Forecast...The river will rise to 13.2 feet early Friday morning. It will then fall to 12.4 feet and begin rising again early Saturday morning. It will rise to 13.7 feet Sunday morning. It will then fall again but remain above flood stage. - Flood stage is 11.0 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood &&
(CNN)  Amnesty International has become the latest human rights organization to accuse Israel of apartheid for its treatment of Palestinians, prompting an angry response from Israel, which has denounced the report as anti-Semitic.

Amnesty's nearly 300-page report, released Tuesday, details "inhuman or inhumane acts of forcible transfer, administrative detention, torture, unlawful killings and serious injuries, and the denial of basic rights and freedoms or persecution committed against the Palestinian population," creating "an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination over Palestinians."

"Amnesty International concludes that the State of Israel considers and treats Palestinians as an inferior non-Jewish racial group," it said.

Like two recent reports focusing on the same issue  from Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, and from New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW)  Amnesty's report examines Israeli policy in both the Palestinian territories, land occupied by Israel since 1967 but never formally annexed, and in Israel.

"Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued an explicit policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony and maximizing its control over land to benefit Jewish Israelis," it said.

Even before the report was formally released, Israel denounced it as "false and biased."

In an online briefing with journalists held in advance of the report's publication, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said that Amnesty was "using double standards and demonization in order to delegitimize the existence of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people."

"These are the exact components from which modern antisemitism is made," the foreign ministry said in a separate statement.

That response was echoed in a joint statement by several Jewish groups in the United States on Sunday, including the American Israel Israeli Public Affairs Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, which said Amnesty's document "fuels those anti-Semites around the world who seek to undermine the only Jewish country on earth, while simultaneously cheapening and downplaying the horrific suffering that was a result of apartheid in South Africa."

The term apartheid originated in South Africa, where a system of racial segregation and "separate development" was official policy between 1948 and 1994. The system was designed to confine non-Whites to "self-governing Bantustans," stripping them of their citizenship, with a system of passes and identity papers controlling where non-Whites could travel and work.

Israel has always rejected comparisons with apartheid-era South Africa. Even some staunch Israeli critics of the occupation have argued that discrimination against Palestinians does not amount to intentional or institutional racism and is the result of genuine security fears.

Clash over words

This clash over words  and the efforts to make them stick  have increasingly come to characterize perceptions of the conflict from within the region and abroad.

While the Israeli government response to the previous B'Tselem and HRW reports was critical, Haiat acknowledged concerns that the apartheid narrative is building, prompting a more combative approach this time.

"Of course, there is a concern that people will believe those false accusations," Haiat said.

He pointed to Israel's current government, which for the first time includes Arab lawmakers in its ranks as proof of what he termed Israel's inclusive democracy.

But many Palestinian activists believe those arguments are no longer cutting through, and the see the tide of public opinion turning in their favor.

They point to demonstrations in the United States and around the world last year in support of Palestinian families facing the threat of forced eviction from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

"The world is coming to the conclusion that for human beings that live in the land between the river and the sea, the levels of freedoms and rights are defined by ethnonational identity," Salem Barahmeh, Executive Director of the Ramallah-based Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy told CNN.

The charge of anti-Semitism by Israel's defenders has also become a highly contested issue. While research clearly points to rising anti-Semitism around the world, many feel the word is being mis-used and devalued.

Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, was ridiculed recently after accusing actress Emma Watson of anti-Semitism after she posted online a picture of a pro-Palestinian rally alongside the words, "Solidarity is a verb."

"No joke, we are at the point where merely posting a vague picture referencing solidarity with Palestinians on Instagram gets you labeled as an antisemite," MSNBC host and former CNN journalist Ayman Mohyeldin tweeted.

At the level of international diplomacy, though, there is little sign so far that the battle over the apartheid label is having much of an impact.

On Monday, the US pushed back at the Amnesty report's characterization of Israel.

Prior to reading the report, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a State Department briefing that describing Israel as an apartheid state was "not language that we have used, nor would we ever use." Price added that the administration would not comment more fully until it had had a chance to read the full report.

The report also coincided with the first ever trip by an Israeli head of state to the United Arab Emirates  underscoring Israel's recent diplomatic achievements.

Read-outs from President Isaac Herzog's two-day trip to the UAE made no reference to any discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Amnesty accuses Israel of apartheid, is labeled anti-Semitic in return."
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a villager's home in Fengnanyuan Village, Shizhuang Township of Huozhou City, north China's Shanxi Province, Jan. 26, 2022. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua)  The snow blanketing mountains in north China's Shanxi Province has added even more festive spirit to a small village called Fengnanyuan. Red lanterns have been hung in front of villager Shi Hongbing's new house, decorated with door couplets and other auspicious ornaments.

These were what greeted a special guest of Shi  President Xi Jinping  just days ago.

No matter how busy Xi is, he always finds time to be with people in the countryside, especially before the Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year. Falling on Feb. 1 this year, the festival is the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar and it is a time that is traditionally spent in the company of family.

Xi is a leader with roots in the countryside and has worked his way from a village official to the country's top post. He is thus widely considered a people's leader who always puts the interests of the people above all else.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves as he attends a Chinese Lunar New Year reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 30, 2022. [Xinhua/Li Tao]

On Sunday, addressing a reception in Beijing to ring in the Year of the Tiger, Xi once again stressed "holding people close to the heart."

"The greatest happiness is to strive for the happiness of the people," he said.

Decade-Long Tradition

For 10 consecutive years, Xi, as general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has made it a tradition to spend time with ordinary people during this festive season.

These trips have taken him throughout the vast country, from a border town in the north to a poverty-stricken ethnic minority village in the southwest.

He often brings festival gifts to locals, observes festive traditions such as food preparation, and chats with people about their daily lives.

"As we greet the new year, there is one thing that remains most dear to my heart. That is my fellow citizens who still live in hardship," Xi once said. "I'm seriously concerned about them and wonder how their food supplies and accommodations are being maintained, and how they are celebrating the Spring Festival."

During this year's trip to Shanxi, Xi braved the snow to visit people affected by autumn floods and learned about post-disaster reconstruction, crop replanting, and measures to keep villagers warm in the winter.

When he sat down with Shi's family, whose old dwelling collapsed in the floods, Xi asked them how they felt about living in their rebuilt house and whether they were able to get enough goods for the Lunar New Year.

"He cares deeply about our daily lives," Shi said.

Every time Xi visits people in their homes, he asks about what difficulties they still have. He even goes into details in rural life such as the access to clean toilets and the shower. He also offers advice on household waste sorting, and shows concern for students with poor eyesight.

"I remember everything they have to share with me," Xi said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a villager's home in Duancun Village, Sengnian Township of Fenxi County, north China's Shanxi Province, Jan. 26, 2022. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

People-Centered Philosophy

Xi's Spring Festival visits reflect his people-centered philosophy for development.

He once said, "To put it simply, my governance philosophy is to serve the people and shoulder my due responsibilities."

This can be traced back to a time when Xi spent seven years as an adolescent and young adult living and working in a remote village on the Loess Plateau. Xi has said that he understands the hardships of the people because he once lived in an impoverished corner of the country.

This people-first philosophy has been put into action throughout Xi's political career. Back in 2012, when Xi was elected to the Party's top post, there were nearly 100 million Chinese people living under the poverty line. Helping these people live better lives became a priority for him.

A monumental anti-poverty campaign has since been launched on a scale unseen elsewhere in the world. Over the following eight years, China's remaining impoverished residents were all lifted out of poverty.

This marked the country's successful elimination of absolute poverty, a scourge that had plagued the Chinese people for millennia.

Bearing the people in mind, Xi led them in realizing the first centenary goal of "building a moderately prosperous society in all respects," honoring the Party's promise to the people.

Xi's people-centered philosophy also explains why he ordered unwavering efforts to save lives at all costs during China's fight against COVID-19, said Liu Jingbei, a professor at the China Executive Leadership Academy in Pudong, Shanghai.

The all-out efforts enabled China to lead the world in containing the spread of the virus, restarting work and production, and resuming economic and social development.

The people-centered philosophy is a fine Party tradition. Since its founding in 1921, the CPC has pursued happiness for the people as its mission and considered its close ties with the people as its greatest political strength.

"Putting the people first" was listed as one of the 10 "secrets" behind the Party's success when the CPC reviewed its century-long history last year.

"The Party has in the people its roots, its lifeblood, and its source of strength," Xi said while addressing a ceremony marking the Party's centenary in July 2021.

Modernization for 1.4 Billion People

Upon winning its national fight against poverty and realizing its first centenary goal, China has now embarked on a new journey of building a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful.

It is the largest modernization drive in the history of humanity.

In contrast to the polarization of rich and poor in some capitalist countries, China's path to modernization features common prosperity that ensures the outcomes of development are shared by all and allows no one to be left behind.

The pursuit of common prosperity is one of the issues that Xi has given much thought to over the past year.

"To achieve common prosperity, we must first make the 'cake' bigger and better through the joint efforts of the people, and then divide it in a fair way through reasonable institutional arrangements," Xi said at a conference that set the tone for China's economic development in 2022.

The CPC has delivered on its promise to leave no one behind in the fight against poverty, and it will also honor its word on the path to modernization.

"As long as the 1.4 billion Chinese people stay united, and the 95 million CPC members stay close to the people in pursuit of a shared future, we will surely be able to continue creating miracles on our new journey ahead," Xi said.

(Source: Xinhua)
, 100 year old Gage, passed Sunday, May 1, 2022 . Funeral services are 10:00 a.m. Thursday, May 5, 2022 at the First Baptist Church of Gage. Burial will follow in the Fargo Cemetery. Read obituary at www.billingsfuneralhomewooward.com
Federal prosecutors have reached plea agreements with Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, on hate crime charges they faced in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
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(CNN)  Russian President Vladimir Putin said his government was studying the responses from the United States and NATO to Russia's security concerns, but said his country's main complaints "had been ignored."

For weeks Putin had remained tight-lipped about a possible invasion of Ukraine, making scant public remarks about the crisis and the buildup of tens of thousands of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border.

But speaking at a Tuesday news conference following a five-hour meeting in Moscow with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Russian President said: "It is already clear -- I informed the Prime Minister about this -- that the fundamental Russian concerns were ignored. We did not see an adequate consideration of our three key requirements."

Putin added that Russia had not seen "adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding NATO expansion, the renunciation of the deployment of strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and the return of the [NATO] bloc's military infrastructure in Europe to the state of 1997, when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed."

Diplomats from the US, Russia, Ukraine, NATO and the European Union have been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent weeks.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a phone call Tuesday. Following that call, a senior State Department official said Lavrov did not give an indication that Moscow will de-escalate from the border with Ukraine.

US State Department officials confirmed Monday they had "received a written followup from Russia" to a document of proposals the US sent to the Kremlin last week on how to defuse tensions and pave the way for further security talks in response to Russia's demands on security.

On Tuesday, however, the Kremlin said that Russia had not yet sent its "main reply" to the US. "There was a mix-up," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call. "It [the Russian correspondence] regarded a different matter. The main reply on this issue hasn't been handed over, it's still being prepared."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "The West 'has ignored' Russia's key security concerns, says Vladimir Putin."
Senate introduces bill to allow farmers to fix their own equipment
How bridge safety is evaluated, and what ones need work in Eau Claire
Major effort needed to support young people ahead of exams this year, says Childrens Commissioner for Wales

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 1st, 2022

A major effort is now needed to make sure that young people have all the information, advice and support they need ahead of exams, the Childrens Commissioner for Wales has said.

It comes after Education Minister Jeremy Miles confirmed that GCSE and AS/A Level exams would take place this year unless the public health situation makes it impossible to physically run them

It will be the first time that formal end of year examinations for students have taken place since before the pandemic.

For the last two years GCSE and AS/A Level grades have been decided via teacher-managed assessments.

This included assessments that were externally set and marked but delivered within a classroom environment under teacher supervision.

Speaking last week Mr Miles said schools exams will be shorter and will cover less material to reflect the reduced teaching time many students have experienced.

He said: All countries across the UK are continuing with exams and to do otherwise in Wales would risk putting our learners at a disadvantage against learners in other parts of the UK.

We are clear that exams and assessments remain the fairest way of assessing learners, even in these difficult circumstances.

We know that alternative options such as centre determining grades in fact means less opportunity for teaching and learning in the classroom and can introduce their own inequities as well.

Adaptations to exam content have been put in place to account for the disruption faced over the last two years so that assessments are as fair as possible.

Mr Miles added: I know that learners have been anxious around sitting exams perhaps for the first time, but what I would say to to learners and to schools and to parents, is that these arent going to be exams such as they were in the summer of 2019.

What I want to see is that anyone sitting for example GCSEs this summer is able to progress to the next stage of their education journey or whatever they choose.

For those doing A Levels this summer I want them to have a level playing field with those sitting exams in other parts of the UK, I dont want them to be disadvantaged.

However Childrens Commissioner Professor Sally Holland has called for a major effort to make sure that young people have all the information, advice and support they need over the next few months.

She said: Schools and colleges have worked relentlessly to try to provide a full educational experience for exam candidates, but this is a huge challenge, despite the adjustments that have been made to exams this year.

I warmly welcome the support package thats been funded by Government.

But this support will be of most benefit if young people, and the adults supporting them, have immediate information about the full range of available options for their next steps.

Young people need to know that flexible approaches are an option for those who do not feel ready to take a full set of exams this summer.

Conversations about the best options for individuals need to happen now.

The Childrens Commissioner said: Advice should reassure young people that no matter how well they do this summer they will be supported with opportunities to progress into the next stage of their education, employment and training.

There are lots of courses that young people can take without achieving their core GCSEs, and colleges and Careers Wales can help young people find their best options for next year.

Young people regularly approach me with anxieties about their qualifications and we must all, as a nation, ensure this cohort of young people feel confident that we are ready to support them through the next few months.
Nitrous oxide emission drop by 45% in 50mph limit zone  with over 3600 people sent advisory letters

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 1st, 2022

Average speed cameras along the A483 on the bypass, installed to tackle pollution, have clocked over 3,500 drivers breaking the 50mph limit in just four months.

The Welsh Government introduced 50mph speed reductions on five 70mph stretches of road in Wales  including the A483 by Wrexham and the A494 in Deeside  in June 2018 where nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions were found to be above the legal limit as set out by an EU directive.

Average speed cameras, pictured above, were installed both on the north and southbound carriageways to monitor and enforce the 50mph area.

They use automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to continuously record cars passing from one camera to the other, with the average speed calculated over the known baseline distance.

Slowing down while passing directly under the cameras may not be enough to bring down the average speed between the two posts.

The system is said to encourage a smoother, safer style of driving, requiring drivers to pay constant, close attention to their speed over a given distance.

The cameras went live in September 2019 but it emerged that no action was to be taken against speeding drivers during an initial grace period.

That ended in October of last year when the Welsh Government announced a first of its kind advisory letter programme was being introduced.

The letters make drivers aware they have broken the speed limit, while the most dangerous drivers would still face prosecution.

In a Freedom of Information response published last week, the Welsh Government has revealed that 3,631 advisory letters were sent to alleged speeding A483 drivers between October 4 and January 26th. That compares to a much larger 13,774 on the A494 50mph zone.

Since November, a further 244 drivers have been sent a notice of intended prosecution for the A483 infringements, again smaller compared to the A494s 852.

A notice of intended prosecution (NIP) informs a motorist they may be prosecuted for a driving offence they have committed, soon after the offence has been recorded.

A NIP does not necessarily mean that a driver will face any sort of prosecution or fine but may act as a warning they may face prosecution.

The Freedom of Information response has also revealed that since the implementation of the 50mph zone along the A483 zone, Nitrogen Dioxide (NO 2 ) emissions have dropped by 45.2%.

However a large part of the fall will likely be due to reduced traffic levels during the pandemic.

A Welsh Government spokesperson told Wrexham.com, : Reduced traffic levels over the course of the pandemic will have had an impact on roadside air quality and we cant ignore this.

However, statistics show that the action weve taken to improve air quality levels at all five 50mph locations across Wales is working, helping to protect people from serious illness.

The fixed speed limit helps create a smoother traffic flow, reducing delays, particularly at peak periods.

Data on injuries was also released:

Welsh Government added, We will continue to monitor the situation and encourage drivers to obey the law by driving within the speed limit.
A bipartisan group of governors told President Joe Biden Monday that the country needs to "move away from the pandemic." Shoppers, in this image, wear masks in an indoor mall on December 13, 2021 in New York City.
Wait staff walk through a dining room as diners eat outside in front of beach views at a restaurant in Los Angeles in March 2021.
The Biden administration is offering funding for states to clean up methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells. Pictured is an orphan oil well outside of Bakersfield, California, in 2020.
When Lakeview High School students had a chance to gain a hands-on learning experience by testing water at the Shell Creek Watershed, educator Emilye Yowell jumped at the chance.

Over the summer, eight students helped test water to look for nitrate levels for the Lower Platte North Natural Resource District (NRD). This test is performed because high levels of nitrate can affect how blood carries oxygen.

They got a lot of hands-on knowledge by testing different water, nutrients and things like that, Yowell said. They also worked with our drones a little bit and did scientific testing. So it was a really good opportunity.

The findings by the students  which also included those from Newman Grove and Schuyler  will be discussed on Tuesday. The Lower Platte North NRD is hosting a nitrate workshop starting at 10 a.m. at the Oak Ballroom, 175 Higgins Drive in Schuyler.

Producers and residents can attend the workshop to learn more about the nitrate issues in the state. Locals can also bring a sample from their domestic well water to be tested for nitrate during the event.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the legal limit for nitrate in drinking water is 10 parts per million. Anything over 10 parts per million can cause severe health issues.

We want people to know what nitrates are, Lower Platte North NRD lead water resources specialist Russell Oaklund said about the workshop. Its certainly in the groundwater but also in the soil.

He added the NRD also wants to inform attendees about the long-term effects of nitrate.

The event will also have professionals from the University of Nebraska Medical discuss how health can be linked to environmental issues like high nitrate levels in drinking water. Nebraska Water Center will talk about how a study was done to determine the amount of nitrate in the vadose zone from the Schuyler-Richland and Bellow areas. A vadose zone is an area below the land surface and above the groundwater table.

Oaklund said those two areas are the only ones in the Lower Platte North NRD that have been found to contain high levels of nitrate.

The event's final point of discussion will be about soil health and cover crop, a non-cash crop grown along with the primary cash crop.

Yowell said this was the first year in which Lakeview helped test water after NRD reached out to the school to see if students wanted to assist in the project. She added the students liked the experience.

We got together a couple of times a month to go out to our testing site and collect samples, Yowell said. We would typically come back to the classroom and run some of the different tests.  I think they really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it.

Andrew Kiser is a reporter for The Columbus Telegram. Reach him via email at andrew.kiser@lee.net.

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Today Id like to share some of the highlights from a great example of the value of peer learning in the Nebraska Community Foundation network. On Friday our friends in Boone County hosted people from Ogallala, North Platte, Pender, Ainsworth, Schuyler, Columbus, Norfolk and Lincoln for an open discussion of three important topics.

Each group brought both expertise and curiosity to discussions on housing, fundraising for capital projects and early childhood education. For example, Boone County has extraordinary success and expertise to share in fundraising and a stellar example of early childhood education in Boone Beginnings. On the other hand, they would like to learn from others in the housing arena.

One big takeaway in all these areas, but especially in housing, is the need for all resources to be used in combination to create success. Unfortunately, private enterprise isnt going to solve this housing crunch alone  there are too many market forces creating headwinds.

Brian Bywater is the housing specialist for Schuyler Community Development, where they have done about as well on housing as any community in recent years. He shared the value of communities making connections with housing developers, contractors and other resources; the various housing programs they have leveraged; investment of the local business community; and the commitment made by local government to move ahead in housing. Using all of those tools, Schuyler has built single-family houses, apartments, senior living and have more in development.

Given the complexity of the issue, Id say one major takeaway from Fridays discussion is the need for communities to have someone in a position similar to Brians. NCF has been working with a community to develop a template for such a position using charitable resources, and there was certainly interest in the room in that approach.

Shannon Harner, Executive Director of Nebraska Investment Finance Authority (NIFA) said Friday there is a growing gap between the cost of construction and the capacity of Nebraska families to pay the mortgage or rent that comes with that cost. NIFA helps in a variety of ways, but they have been working with NCF in two specific experiments.

First, NIFA has offered matching grants to three community colleges to develop the pipeline of future workforce in residential building. Current contractor shortages add expense (not to mention frustration) to home construction, so this is an important long-term approach.

Second, NIFA has partnered with NCF and a private developer to experiment with an approach that could bring private, public and charitable resources together. This effort has been developed within NCFs People Attraction Committee over the past year and is just now reaching the point of contact with a community to see if it works on the ground. More to come!

One other key takeaway from that discussion is that senior housing is a potential sweet spot in the housing realm. Shannon brought that idea first to the meeting Friday, and weve seen it confirmed in other places. Moving retirees (or near retirees) into new housing opens up housing units that are likely going to be typical homes for first-time home buyers. This addresses that gap I referenced earlier, which means generally we today cant build entry-level housing thats affordable as new construction. And, traditionally, thats how the housing market has worked: as we age and move out of older housing, that opens it up for those who follow. Current housing markets are so tight that the flexibility doesnt exist, so that model has broken down to some degree. One other benefit, senior housing is also a place where charitable or public dollars are likely to be used, so that can lower the overall cost to the end users.

As you can tell, there was plenty of fruitful discussion among these Nebraskans who were willing to give up a day, travel and share. This spirit of being a good neighbor is part of the reason that Nebraska works so well, and that was on full display in Albion last Friday.

K.C. Belitz is the chief operating officer of the Nebraska Community Foundation.

K.C. Belitz is the chief operating officer of the Nebraska Community Foundation.

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In the first month of 2022, working people in Australia have been brought face-to-face with the deadly consequences of the let it rip pandemic policies adopted by the countrys governments and the ruling elite they represent.

The scale of infection, illness and death in January dwarfs not only every previous month of the pandemic, but the toll suffered over the course of entire years in 2020 and 2021.

Some 2.15 million confirmed infections were reported in January. That means 8.6 percent of the national population contracted the virus last month.

People queuing at a COVID-19 vaccination center at La Trobe University in Melbournes north [Credit: WSWS media]

The breakdown of the testing system when the Omicron surge began in mid-December means that the real infection figure is likely three to four times higher. In other words, it is possible that more than a quarter of the population caught the virus in the space of four-and-a-half weeks.

Many states do not report age-related infection breakdowns. But the limited figures do show that young people have been hit especially hard. At least 104,829 children aged 09 have caught the virus, as well as 155,882 aged 1019. This was before the governments, with the crucial assistance of the teacher unions, reopened the schools, which is starting this week.

The largest share of infections was among 2029-year-olds, with at least 330,414. While this undoubtedly reflects the greater general mobility of young adults, it is also bound up with large-scale workplace transmission.

Prior to the pandemic, young people accounted for 46.0 percent of short-term casual employees but just 17.4 percent of all employees. They are on the frontlines of potential infection, including in retail, hospitality and in sectors such as warehousing.

Until last July, successful measures to suppress transmission, adopted by governments under intense pressure from the working class, limited total infections to just 33,000. That is, in the first 18 months of the pandemic, 0.13 percent of the population caught the virus, compared with a minimum of 8.4 percent in the past month.

Contrary to all the official claims that Omicron is mild and that infections are of no significance, record deaths have followed. There were 1,519 COVID fatalities reported in January, compared with 1,330 in all of 2021 and 909 in 2020.

By allowing the unchecked spread of the virus for two years, capitalist governments around the world have knowingly created fertile ground for new and potentially more dangerous variants. Such is the case with Omicron, which has substantially reduced the efficacy of two doses of vaccine. It has rendered the inoculated more vulnerable than previous strains, while continuing to target the unvaccinated.

All this exposes the fraudulent character of government claims that vaccines, as critical as they are, could alone end the illness and death, separated from essential public health policies such as the shutdown of non-essential businesses and schools amid mass transmissions.

In New South Wales (NSW), the largest state, health authorities have revealed the vaccination status of 680 people whose deaths were reported in January. Of those, 54 (7.5 percent) had received three doses of COVID-19 vaccine, 440 (61.3 percent) had received two doses, 20 (2.8 percent) had received one dose and 166 (23.1 percent) were unvaccinated.

Young people, despite the lies, are dying, including three aged 09 in January. James Kondilios, a healthy, double-vaccinated 24-year-old, perished in Sydney early last month after contracting the virus. Lachlan Moore, a 28-year-old disabled man, died in Brisbane, after being sent home from a hospital despite being seriously unwell.

The virus has again torn through the countrys largely privatised aged-care facilities, resulting in hundreds of deaths.

As is the case internationally, eugenicist positions have been adopted by governments and the corporate media. Virtually nothing is said about the victims. But if they were elderly, their age is heavily emphasised. If they had health conditions, this is dwelt upon. The thinly-veiled and fascistic subtext is that their deaths are not tragicthey were on their way out anyway.

The state health departments have adopted an extraordinarily broad range of comorbidities, such that few people do not have them. In NSW, comorbidities include common and eminently manageable conditions such as asthma and diabetes.

The states chief health officer, Kerry Chant, has begun bizarrely referring to mental health problems as a comorbidity of some who have died, despite such conditions having no conceivable impact on the severity of a respiratory virus.

Every day, the national death tolls are exceeding some of the worst mass casualty events in Australian history. On Friday, 134 deaths were reported, Saturday 95, Sunday 85.

In the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, a deranged gunman killed 35 people. That was viewed as a national tragedy, prompting the urgent overhaul of gun-control laws. In the horrific 2002 Bali bombing, 88 Australians died, together with 114 others. That attack is commemorated to this day, and was used by Australian governments to intensify their involvement in the militarist and anti-democratic war on terror.

But those who die of COVID are not even commemorated on the day their passing is reported. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet contemptuously declared, amid more than 50 deaths in his state on Monday: This is the new world. We expect those numbers to stay pretty consistent.

More information has emerged demonstrating that the explosion of infections and deaths was nothing short of a calculated state campaign of mass murder.

In JulyAugust, all Australias governments, Labor and Liberal, agreed to lift lockdowns and safety measures, based on arbitrary vaccination targets and in line with the demands of the corporate elite. When Omicron was discovered in late November, these plans were well advanced. The governments responded by allowing the virus into the country and proclaiming that its spread could be a positive, were it more transmissible but less virulent than Delta.

Perrottet proceeded with a freedom day on December 15, involving an end to restrictions on the unvaccinated, caps on attendance at mass venues and an indoor mask-mandate. His Victorian Labor counterpart Daniel Andrews lifted many restrictions as well, orchestrated super-spreading events and reiterated that it was necessary to live with the virus.

At this point, Delta transmission was stable, or decreasing, in part because of the safety restrictions the governments were dismantling. Just 1,440 infections were recorded across the country on December 1, overwhelmingly in Victoria and NSW. Those states could have eliminated transmission, as they had previously, with public health measures. Other states and territories could have remained free of COVID. But NSW and Victoria lifted all restrictions, and the other COVID-free jurisdictions opened their borders.

On December 10, five days before freedom day, Perrottet was secretly warned by health officials that Omicron had a substantial growth advantage over Delta, and was likely to be at least partially vaccine-resistant. The clear message was that cases would explode if the reopening proceeded. This advice would have been known to Prime Minister Morrison, Premier Andrews and other state and territory leaders.

They knew that Australias booster roll-out, essential to providing protection against Omicron, was close to last among 70 countries reporting the progress. They also were aware that the PCR testing regime, outsourced to private pathology companies, was based on the practice of batch testing. Individual samples are pooled, sometimes in the dozen. If there is no trace of the virus, all samples are recorded as negative. The system only works when there is hardly any transmission.

In other words, the governments orchestrated mass infection over the holiday season, knowing the population was largely unprotected and testing would collapse. The plan was to allow massive case numbers and death over the quieter DecemberJanuary period, so that it would be normalised once many businesses returned and the schools were reopened.

The record demonstrates that the working class must reject government and employer attempts to force them to live with the virus, and take up a fight for the scientific measures that can eliminate transmission. This is a political struggle against all the governments, the trade unions, who function as their industrial police force, and the capitalist system they all defend.
The most recent volume of The Best American Short Stories series (BASS) presents the reader with many engaging stories and some fine writing. Also, more than previous installments of the anthology, BASS 2021 demonstrates an awareness, if not a full understanding, of a number of the crises that beset American society. The threat of fascism that Donald Trump represents, for instance, and the crushing damages of poverty. Yet, with the exception of a few gems, the book suffers socially and aesthetically from the moods and viewpoints that dominate the affluent middle class.

The Best American Short Stories 2021

The twenty stories in BASS 2021 were published in 2020, so most would have been written before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Therefore, that catastrophe, with its exacerbation of all other social crises, does not figure in the plots of the stories collected here. But the selection of the stories, by series editor Heidi Pitlor and this years guest editor Jesmyn Ward, reflect certain grim realities of 2020 and 2021. As a result, most of the stories feature characters who are up against overwhelming, usually baffling forces that take a toll on their humanity.

Stories

Moving alphabetically by authors last name, the anthology opens inauspiciously with Gabriel Bumps To Buffalo Eastward. The story begins intriguingly enough, describing a Great Lakes journey and, in crisp paragraphs about his parents, a past that has crumbled as far as the narrators heels. The journey and story then become a bit of an exercise in cleverness (characters naming themselves after Sancho Panza of Don Quixote and Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby and saying almost witty things),which a critic from an earlier generation would have called precious.

Miracle Girl, by Rita-Chang-Eppig, is set in a Chinese school and household under the domination of European missionaries. A young girl has been blessed and afflicted with stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Christs crucifixion, resulting in her sisters jealousy of the attention she receives.

Vanessa Cutis Our Children is a story of a middle-class woman who fantasizes leaving her children.

Jenzo Duques The Rest of Us is a well written slice of street life in Chicago in which the narrator and his friends find temporary success making and selling crack cocaine in the 1990s. Partly written in Spanish, the story establishes a compelling narrative voice and a convincing, if predictable, story.

In Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Jamil Jan Kochai imagines a computer game in which his narrator is able to save his mujahideen father from the Soviet military. Cast in the second person, the story achieves a complexity and pathos to match any story in the anthology. The narrators You is eager to play a new game that is set in 1980s Afghanistan 

especially since youve been shooting at Afghans in your games (Call of Duty and Battlefield and Splinter Cell) for so long that youve become oddly immune to the self-loathing you felt when you were first massacring wave after wave of militant fighters who looked just like your father.

Switzerland, by Nicole Krauss, tells a coming-of-age story, with the requisite dark edge, in an almost innocently staid prose. David Means Clementine, Carmelita, Dog takes the perspective of a dachshund in telling a story of instinct and compassion that many readers will find touching. In its turn to the unhuman, though, it joins a trend of recent years (for example, in Sigrid Nunezs 2018 novel The Friend ) that too often amounts to a disheartened escape from human vicissitudes.

In Paradise, Yxta Maya Murray sets a Native-Mexican woman, her young child and her Trump-supporting father-in-law in front of an encroaching California forest fire, telling the story of their attempted escape. This story is not particularly well-written. For instance, as the trio finally embark, with scorching winds sweeping through the neighborhood, a moment that one might assume would call for some urgency, we are told I tossed Jessie into the beige leather backseat Soon afterward, I started the Yukon and jammed it down the driveway and almost crashed into a Camry

Set in Lagos, Nigeria, Good Boy by Eloghosa Osunde presents the reader with the idiosyncratic and elliptical first-person narrative voice of a self-described hustler. Osunde achieves a surprising degree of sympathy for this character given the sociopathic means he employs toward his wealthy end. Good Boy is followed by Jane Peks charming romance, Portrait of Two Young Ladies in White and Green Robes (Unidentified Artist, Circa Sixteenth Century).

Tracey Rose Peyton, in The Last Days of Rodney, imagines the last days and death of Rodney King, who died in 2012, in a story that effectively evokes melancholy and hints adroitly at tragedy.

Special mention must be made of the standout stories in the collection. Christa Romanoskys In This Sort of World, the Asshole Wins depicts with clear-eyed frankness and compassion the utter destruction capitalism has wrought in West Virginia, ingeniously setting a meth lab in an abandoned mine. Here the ravages of drug addiction and the brutal underworld of the drug economy are not only displayed, as they are in The Rest of Us, their real human toll and horror are reckoned with, as they are not in Duques story.

In part, the first-person narrator of The Rest of Us, with his adolescent bravado, accounts for this difference, but Duques story does not seem to provide another vantage point, a more aware or ironizing voice or perspective from which to comprehend the social implications of its violence, save the neighborhood elders whose concern is for the narrator and his friends and remains rather distant from events. Rather, The Rest of Us opts for an easy nostalgia at its end. Romanoskys story grapples more fully with the costs of poverty, and her narrator concludes on a beautiful and thought-provoking image and sentence.

Love Letter by George Saunders, set in the year 202_, is a dystopia that could happen tomorrow. Written even before the events of January 6, 2021, Love Letter places us squarely in our predicament, with a recognition of the implications of Trumps fascistic rhetoric that one rarely encounters in the corporate media. A grandfather writes to a beloved grandson to warn him off taking up a defense of his girlfriend, who has been detained by the authorities. (But as your grandfather, I beg you not to underestimate the power/danger of this moment.) The grandfather also confesses having failed history in some undefined way:

Seen in retrospect, yes: I have regrets. There was a certain critical period. I see that now. During that period your grandmother and I were doing, every night, a jigsaw puzzle each

In his autobiographical blurb in the back of the book, Saunders defines that which a short story is designed to do (show the reader how hard it is to live correctly in a fallen world by putting her on the horns of a true dilemma) The dilemma as Saunders envisions it, however, is circumscribed by the middle-class imagination, an imagination peopled only with individuals and their subjective motivations. Trump is an individual rather than the representative of a class:

It did not seem (and please destroy this letter after you have read it) that someone so clownish could disrupt something so noble and time-tested and seemingly strong

And the solution to the problem of Trump is again an individual one. The grandfather writes three letters to the editor of the local rag (because of which a police officer warns him to stay off the computer) and reports that in the critical period he and his wife often said, Someone should arrange a march.

Although neither Saunders nor the grandfather reveals any deep social understanding, the writer is to be commended for identifying Trump as a fascist and depicting with clarity the way seemingly strong democratic institutions could fall before such a force.

Haguillory, by Stephanie Soileau, follows an elderly couple near the Louisiana gulf who go crabbing in the aftermath of a hurricane. Although the title character strains credulity somewhat with his final gesture, the skill with which Soileau constructs tableaux and dramatic images is reminiscent of Flannery OConnor and manages to place Haguillory successfully within the tradition of the Southern Gothic.

Finally, Madhuri Vijays You Are My Dear Friend is a wonderfully tense story of an Indian au pair to British expatriates who marries and, in her loneliness, adopts an 8-year-old girl from an impoverished village. The child brings an alien world, and eventually terror, to the womans life, and You Are My Dear Friend grapples with human connections and emotions in ways that far surpass the attempt in Cutis Our Children.

The state of the art

Most of the writers in BASS 2021 hold MFA degrees. Most of them teach and advance their careers through publication. Which is to say that to a large degree short fiction writing is a professionalized industry. This is not a particularly new state of affairs, nor is it necessarily deleterious to the art. After all, writers do enjoy freedom within their market. But it does mean that writers, like all professionals, are subject to certain pressures, certain institutional predilections and proscriptions.

The authoritative voices in anthologies are those of the editors, the gatekeepers of taste. Pitlor in her foreword to BASS 2021 and Ward in her introduction represent those official sentiments to which todays writing students and instructorsand editorsare encouraged to adapt themselves. As might be expected, these sentiments are refracted through the lens of the pandemic, or, more precisely, the pandemic as seen by certain social layers.

Writing in April 2021, Pitlor reveals a great deal about the gatekeepers class position in her comments on the pandemic as she understands it: As the planet did battle with the enemy, we as humanity became more of a we. She is writing of 2020, in which, according to the World Health Organization, 3 million people died of COVID-19. By April 27, 2021, again according to the WHO, global new deaths from the disease had increased for the sixth consecutive week. The fact was, for those with eyes not blurred by the corporate media, almost no battle was being waged at all. In May 2020, the corporations and the unions had forced workers back into factories, stores and warehouses where they contracted the disease in alarming numbers. Public health measures to contain the disease were being abandoned.

The we she writes of does strike Pitlor as a misnomer, and she corrects herself, again revealing her perspective:

In 2020 it became even clearer how unequal this we always was and continued to be. A disproportionate number of people of color grew sick and died. Workers lost their jobs and got evicted at a frightening rate. Women left their jobs in droves to stay home and tend children, who were mostly forced to attend school online. The vulnerable remained who they always were and were punished, and it was infuriating.

Infuriating indeed. In this pseudo-left litany of indignation, heartfelt no doubt, Pitlor maintains the ethos of identity politics regardless of the millions of corpses, of all races and nationalities, piling up around the world. She does not consider that the effects of COVID-19 have in fact taken their toll disproportionately on the working class. Or that many workers lost their jobs due not only to the economic ravages of the pandemic on small businesses, but because corporations (buoyed by trillions in free money) took the opportunity of the crisis to restructure mercilessly. Nor, most importantly, does she note the millions of workers who left their jobs to avoid catching and spreading a deadly disease. And the children forced to attend school online were also avoiding this deadly disease. The only vulnerable people in Pitlors narrative are women and people of color, not workers of every sex and color.

Jesmyn Ward (Photo creditJesmimi)

Ward, a two-time National Book Award winner ( Salvage the Bones (2011) and Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017)), shares Pitlors profession, class and outlook. Her introduction to BASS 2021 opens with an extended weather metaphorthe pandemic is a stormappropriate to a perspective in which the only political considerations are those of identity:

Hundreds of thousands of Americans died in the COVID pandemic, so many of them brown and black and poor. We who were left were unmoored by this storm: our world shaken, seared by wind and rain, tossed by grief in a sea of loss. This year set the ships of our lives adrift

The pandemic, it seems, struck like a natural disaster, and humanity was as helpless and passive before it as if it were weather. The reality is that the novel coronavirus did arise naturally, but there the metaphor ends. The pandemic has long since primarily become, not a natural, but a political disaster. Ward acknowledges as much in a vague way:

The institutions we believed would protect us faltered, one after another. Casual cruelty, callousness, and gross ignorance became barely remarkable.

Yet the response to this faltering (itself a verb that lacks intention) is disorientation and helplessness. We are adrift, upended, capsized, unable to chart the new world that is. Its all so confusing! And so it is for the liberal milieu of the petty bourgeoisie, those whose hopes are tied to the capitalist class that is now, quite literally, leaving them for dead.

Ward cannot leave us to drown, of course.

That which sustained us, the rafts we depended on to keep us from sinking into the watery depths of our loss, was narrative. At the beginning of the pandemic some of us watched Tiger King, half horrified, half gleeful, and wholly entertained by captive cats and terrible men. We read Brit Bennetts The Vanishing Half and marveled at women bent on the impossible task of escaping race and gender in America.

This is nonsense. Granted, Ward is working her way around to introducing a book of short stories, but the perfumed sigh with which she utters narrative is as much self-promotion as it is historical observation. Americans watched television and read books before the pandemic, and the escapism she describesagain with the exception of identity politicsis no valuable response to a political crisis in which, at the Economist s latest report of excess deaths, between 12 and 23 million people have died.

Art has its place in all human situations, and the pandemic is no exception. Short stories, moreover, need not take the large social crises of the moment as their explicit subject matter. But the best art carries an awareness of the larger forces of its time and, in one way or another, grapples with the dilemmas those forces impose on humans and their relationships. Given the dominant culture of identity politics, though, and its obfuscation of the class struggle, an obfuscation promoted by the Democratic Party and particularly enforced on the college campuses where MFAs (usually underpaid) teach, an honest grappling with social and political dilemmas is not encouraged. This has a damaging effect on the art.

Many of the stories in BASS 2021 feature first-person narrators who are less full and flawed characters than they are wholly sympathetic characters to be believed. In some cases, such as Murrays Paradise they are actually heroes to whom one is expected to ally oneself. Imagine Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Flannery OConnor tied to such an aesthetic. There is a childishness to it. For such writing, identity and self are relatively simple matters, stable essences rather than psychologically complex and historically determined, moving composites.

Writer James Morrison (The Lost Girl (2007) and Said and Done (2009)) has commented on the current state of fiction:

What is dispiriting to me about contemporary fictionand cultureis certainly the model of transparency, as if art were a series of truth-claims. And then there is the resurgence of an aesthetic of identification. Modernism was already supposed to have taught us that this identification has the liability of potential narcissism with the side effect that differences get abrogated.

Self-involvement and self-centeredness, anchored by obsessions with race and gender, get to the heart of the matter. Contemporary short fiction is overwhelmingly petty and self-centered. And in times of great upheaval, such qualities can only disorient. Hence Jesmyn Wards helpless we being adrift.

The best story in BASS 2021 is Romanoskys In This Sort of World, the Asshole Wins. Despite its demoralized title, the story faces the realities of its time, and in all of the anthology it provides the only instance of the appropriate response. Outrage.
The World Socialist Web Site urges railroad workers to contact us with your comments. All submissions will be kept anonymous.

The issuing of an injunction against strike action last week in federal court has been taken as a green light for an intimidation campaign against workers at BNSF railway. Many have reported to the WSWS that both management and the unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation WorkersTransportation Division (SMART-TD) are actively seeking to prevent workers from speaking to the press, in violation of their First Amendment right to free speech.

BNSF workers inspecting a rail track.(Photo: Flickr/Loco Steve)

Last Tuesday, Judge Mark Pittman issued a temporary restraining order against 17,000 workers at BNSF who had voted nearly unanimously to authorize strike action against a new points-based attendance policy which management is unilaterally imposing. The new High Viz policy, scheduled to take effect today, will significantly worsen the already long and unpredictable working schedule which make it difficult for workers to spend time with their families or even visit the doctor, while also laying the groundwork for experienced workers to be fired for missing only a few days of work.

The ruling was based on the reactionary Railway Labor Act (RLA), first enacted in 1926, whose purpose and function has been to all but eliminate strikes in the railroad industry, the scene of many of the largest and most militant strikes in the United States in the decades after the Civil War. Workers are only allowed to strike under the law after exhausting a maze of federal mediation and other legal requirements, and even then only on major issues. Pittmans temporary order is based on the likelihood that the final ruling, expected early in February, will rule that the new policy subordinating workers personal lives to the companys scheduling is a minor issue.

In the ruling, Pittman instructed the unions to order workers to refrain from self help, and immediately cease and desist all exhortations and communications encouraging same upon pain of fine, suspension or other sanction by SMART-TD. In other words, the ruling made the unions legally responsible for ensuring not only that workers do not strike, but that they do not even speak about striking.

However, in written instructions largely following the language of the ruling, the BLET and SMART-TD gave to this order the broadest possible interpretation to include all public statements of any kind about the company. In a letter to BLET local chairmen asking that the restraining order be distributed to members, BLET National President Dennis R. Pierce wrote, In addition, as this is an ongoing legal matter, all BLET officers and members should refrain from participating in media interviews until advised otherwise [emphasis added]. Since then, workers have reported to the WSWS that local union officials have also instructed them not to speak with the press.

The unions, no doubt, are well aware of the galvanizing impact statements have had that workers have made in recent weeks to the press on the deplorable conditions at the company. In particular, a WSWS interview with a BNSF engineer, which was published before the ruling, has been viewed tens of thousands of times and elicited a wide response from workers. Workers from other Class I railroads such as CSX and Union Pacific also wrote in to the WSWS after reading the interview to explain how conditions on their railroads were essentially the same.

After the ruling, management has also gone on the offensive. Workers have reported that management has sent threatening communications to them and their coworkers instructing them not to speak to the press, citing both the injunction as well as company policy which bars employees from speaking on behalf of the company without prior approval.

Last weeks court ruling was not the result of a legal technicality over the definition of the word major, but a political decision aimed at blocking resistance by the working class to deteriorating working conditions. Significantly, Pittman said in his ruling that an injunction would be in the public interest because a strike would exacerbate our current supply-chain crisis. Here, public interest is defined as the financial interests of American corporations who have made record profits over the course of the pandemic, not the interests of workers who are pushing for strike action themselves and would welcome a strike by this strategically vital section of the working class.

Effectively, the ruling gives state sanction not only to BNSFs decision to unilaterally impose the new attendance policy but, in accordance with the purpose of the RLA itself in depriving workers of the strike weapon, to a regime of management dictatorship.

The day before the ruling, a group of railroad unions which includes the BLET and SMART-TD declared a dead end in two years of negotiations on a national contract with the major railroads, declaring talks had completely stalled after industry negotiators continuously have demanded insulting concessions which members would not even remotely entertain. In keeping with the RLA, however, the unions have applied for a federal mediator to intervene in talks. However, the same federal law which subjects workers to endless rounds of mediation before being allowed to strike does not place any restrictions on management unilaterally imposing new policies such as the High Viz policy at BNSF without even the pretense of the negotiations.

But the unions have been totally integrated as a transmission belt within this system of corporate state control, taking legal responsibility for the policing of its own members. In exchange, these institutions are allowed to keep the massive amounts of money which they have gleaned from workers dues money. SMART-TD alone reported more than $760 million in assets last year to the Department of Labor. The result is that conditions have deteriorated over decades to their present level, where workers are constantly monitored and live in fear of being disciplined, and continuous job cuts have reduced crews to only two people per train, with one worker per train the stated goal of the industry.

Any militant union was quickly smashed in this industry long ago, one BNSF retiree told the WSWS. When the BLET brags about its long history, how it was founded in 1863, thats really a self-indictment. Its been allowed to exist because it poses no threat to management and does not fight for workers.

But the corporatist relationship between the unions, the company and the government in the railroad industry is only a more explicit version of the same basic relationship which exists elsewhere. In the auto industry, the United Auto Workers received billions of dollars in corporate stock in 2009 in exchange for its support for the restructuring of the industry under the Obama administration, which saw the slashing in half of wages for new hires. In public schools, the American Federation of Teachers and its president, Randi Weingarten, are spearheading the campaign to reopen schools during the pandemic and have worked to smother opposition from teachers and students.

To organize a real struggle, railroad workers need new organizations, rank-and-file committees, which are already being built by autoworkers, teachers and other workers. These committees, completely independent and in opposition to the pro-corporate union bureaucracy, do not begin and end with state-controlled mediation nor do they accept any limitations on workers rights to free speech. Instead, they fight to build workers own independent initiative, educate their coworkers and unite workers across different companies and industries in a common struggle for wages, working conditions and pandemic safety.
A groundswell of popular hostility is mounting over the effective axing of remote learning options for faculty and students at the City University of New York (CUNY) public university system. Early last fall, the administration announced its 70/30 plan for the spring, which stipulates that 70 percent of all classes are to be held in-person citywide. Previously, remote learning had largely been maintained since the initial shutdowns of 2020, and was widely available for students who preferred it.

Queens College in 2018 (Wikimedia Commons)

Since the beginning of the fall 2021 term, the CUNY university administration has justified its push toward face-to-face classes by touting rigorous adherence to vaccine mandates. Despite the fact that the explosion of the Omicron variant has ripped to shreds all pretenses that vaccination alone can protect the population from illness, the university administration has doubled down in its drive to force students back into unsafe classrooms for the current semester, abandoning the threadbare pretenses of doing anything significant to mitigate infection, illness and death.

The CUNY system consists of 18 senior colleges and seven community colleges which are scattered throughout the citys five boroughs. In total, the 25 campuses have an enrollment of approximately 270,000 students. According to last weeks data from the CUNY coronavirus dashboard, the average positivity rate of the 7,290 COVID tests (just 2.7 percent of students) conducted across all universities and colleges is 5 percent, with 448 positive cases being reported. The real numbers are most likely much higher since positive cases from non-CUNY testing sites are only reported voluntarily.

The Craig Newmark School of Journalism, located in midtown Manhattan, had the highest level of infection of any campus, with a positivity rate of 15.7 percent.

New York City has been an epicenter in the explosion of Omicron. From the beginning of December, 2021 to mid-January, the weekly average of new coronavirus infections saw a nearly 20-fold increase, while related hospitalizations and deaths increased by approximately a factor of 10. While the city government has endlessly hailed the decline of COVID cases in the current wave as good news, stories from workers and youth emerge daily, painting an entirely different picture.

A chilling memorial page dedicated to CUNYs victims of COVID-19, last updated in late December, lists 48 individuals from CUNY communities who have succumbed to the virus. The list of the deceased includes students, administrators, professors, adjuncts, alumni and staff.

Early this month, a viral Change.org petition entitled SAVE ONLINE CLASSES AT CUNY!! circulated, which quickly garnered thousands of signatures by students and workers. As of Monday evening, the petition had nearly 26,000 signatures, primarily from students. It continues to grow in numbers by the hundreds each week. In the websites nationwide category of Support Remote Learning and Flexible Grading Policies campaigns, the CUNY petition was the most popular. With roughly 9,000 more signatures, it will rank among the sites most popular initiatives.

Hundreds of petition signers submitted public comments which overwhelmingly expressed two main considerations: first, the danger of returning to in-person learning; and second, the flexibility and convenience that virtual learning has provided for many hard working students and families.

Its too hard readjusting to almost all physical [classes]. Plus, I lost someone to COVID so it terrifies me, an individual who supported the petition wrote.

Online gives me the opportunity to take care of my family, work and further my education. Ive lost several family members to COVID, even ones that were vaccinated. So in-person is not a route Id like to take, wrote another user.

One commenter voiced their unequivocal support for protecting safety above all other concerns. We need to push for online classes again - with the recent Omicron spike(s) here in New York City, we cant guarantee our chances of NOT getting COVID for the first time or again. We need to ensure were all safe, staff and students alike.

I am both a CUNY graduate and First Responder and think its wildly irresponsible for students to be forced to take in-person classes in the midst of a pandemic, another signer said.

A further indicator of the tremendous opposition to CUNYs reopening policies by students has been the fact that enrollment has decreased dramatically for in-person classes across the city. One CUNY adjunct professor reported that the English department at LaGuardia Community College in Queens had only 4 percent of its in-person classes filled, while online classes had been fully booked.

In response to the drop in enrollment, the university system has canceled classes which fail to meet a minimum number of participants, sparking widespread opposition from faculty and staff. Two protests were organized on Friday by the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the union nominally representing approximately 30,000 CUNY employees across the city. The demonstrations took place at Bronx Community College and Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and channeled broad opposition into the vague demand to protect jobs at CUNY, as well as for perfunctory safety measures which will do little to stem the onslaught of Omicron. Brooklyn Democratic City Councilwoman Crystal Hudson spoke at the Medgar Evers event.

An active Twitter account called COVIDatCUNY, which anonymously shares CUNY faculty submissions on their reopening experiences and workplace safety concerns, made the following comment recently: Per an email sent to the Chancellor, Provost, and college presidents this morning and shared with union delegates, the [PSC] union has entirely given up on fighting for online classes or online work for staff and is instead just urging for more flexibility with accommodations.

The email shared this morning, via hyper-conciliatory language about how we agree that maintaining a mostly in-person semester is vitally important, makes it sound like all of the other demands have been abandoned and that these are the new ones.

Since 2020, the university administration has used the pandemic as a pretext to mount a draconian assault on its faculty, staff and students, as the PSC has limply stood by. In the summer of 2020, the university system laid off 2,800 adjunct faculty and staff. Last year, it breached a contract with 2,500 assistant staff and lecturers and withheld annual raises of between $1,000 and $1,500 for these workers, who were already earning less than $48,000 per year. Additionally, tuition was raised by nearly $400.

Furthermore, the CUNY system has been the scene of a decades-long effort to gut public education spending in the service of private interests, going all the way back to the Giuliani administration. The current chancellor of CUNY, Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, makes an annual salary of $670,000 plus a $7,000 stipend for housing. His estimated net worth is $10.8 million.

On Friday, a CUNY faculty member pointed to the sheer irrationality and hypocrisy of the administrations policies in a tweet. Regarding his concerns over his ability to teach in-person due to a region-wide snowstorm on Saturday, the employee complained, get this, theyre telling us classes arent actually canceled but we should hold them remotely!!! The nerve of these MFs!

Another faculty member at Bronx Community College bemoaned the dilapidated physical conditions of the building. An entire building at Bronx Community College has no [heating, venting, and air conditioning] lots of leaks, lots of mold, and one person has a hole in his office ceiling. Trash from upstairs sometimes falls through this hole. Responding to this comment, another academic worker wrote, Very similar problems at [Hunter College]. Its a CUNY-wide occurrence.

The PSC, a branch of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union, is thoroughly hostile to the shutting down of unsafe face-to-face classes and the switch to remote instruction. This organization has done next to nothing in the face of the longstanding series of attacks by the administration and city government. Like the organizations multimillionaire leader Randi Weingarten, PSC president James Davisalbeit perhaps in a more duplicitous and concealed manneris no less opposed to the will of students, faculty and staff to protect the lives, safety and financial wellbeing of thousands.

In an op-ed published in the New York Daily News last Friday, Davis merely called for the delaying of in-person learning by two weeks. We know that in-person learning and student support tend to yield better outcomes than online education, despite the real advances in pedagogy and curriculum development we have made of necessity in the past two years. Our question has been whether it is safe to call large numbers of students, faculty and staff back to campuses on Jan. 28. The [PSC] has urged CUNY to delay the start of in-person instruction by two weeks. We support a largely in-person Spring term but think it is achievable through a remote transition window, as many other colleges and universities have done.

Students, workers and academic faculty who are serious about taking up a struggle against the murderous policies of the CUNY administration should put no faith in the bankrupt, pro-business trade unions, the Democratic party, or any other political organization which seeks to reform the capitalist system from within. Instead, they must turn toward the growing independent movement of rank-and-file workers across the globe, which is aligned with the International Workers Alliance of Rank and File Committees.
The Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee is holding its next public meeting at 7pm Eastern this Wednesday, February 2. Register today and invite your coworkers, family and friends to participate.

In-person classes in Detroit public schools resumed on Monday for 50,000 despite dangerously high infection rates across the city. The states largest school district has held virtual-only classes for the past month, resulting in a 16 percent fall in test positivity rates since January 6, but rates are still over 20 percent in the city and 32 percent in surrounding Wayne County.

The school reopening in Detroit, where only 38 percent of city residents are fully vaccinated, will have deadly consequences. ICU occupancy at Henry Ford, Detroit Receiving and Harper hospitals in Detroit already ranges between 86 and 96 percent. Schools are a major vector for the transmission of the deadly disease, with 126 K-12 public schools in Michigan reporting COVID outbreaks, according to the states Department of Health and Human Services.

On Monday, a WSWS reporting team spoke with students and parents outside of Cass Technical High School in Detroit after the first day back in class. They spoke about the dangers of face-to-face classes and what is behind this policy.

Lots of teachers were out sick today and about of third of the students were absent, a Detroit middle school teacher told the WSWS. A lot of parents are not sending their kids because its too dangerous. They wont even tell us if a student tests positive anymore. Under the districts ridiculous guidelines, classrooms are considered low-risk setting; those exposed wont have to quarantine anymore, she said.

Despite the claims by Governor Whitmer that schools are being opened to address students academic and emotional needs, the reckless policy is being driven entirely by profit interests. The auto industry, which is barely able to keep production going due to thousands of sick workers, needs children back in school so that their parents can be sent back into equally dangerous factories.

For more information about the Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Committee and the fight in the US and internationally to keep schools and nonessential businesses closed as part of a strategy to eliminate COVID-19, contact the WSWS.
This year marks the beginning of the twenty-fifth year of the publication of the World Socialist Web Site. The launching of the WSWS on February 14, 1998 was preceded by an entire year of intensive discussion and preparation.

This discussion was initiated by a report delivered by David North on February 1, 1997 to the National Committee of the Socialist Equality Party (US). North proposed that the SEP and the sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) end the publication of their printed newspapers and establish a new, web-based publication that would serve as the voice of the ICFI.

David North addressing an international summer school in Sydney, Australia, January 1998, the month before the WSWS was launched (WSWS Media)

North motivated his proposal with an extensive review of the political lessons of the ICFIs struggle against Stalinism and Pabloite opportunism, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and breakdown of all the old reformist labor parties and trade union organizations, the rapid development of economic globalization, and the implications and potential of the Internet for the global class struggle and the building of the Fourth International as the World Party of Socialist Revolution.

Held over the weekend of February 1-2, 1997, the meeting of the National Committee was attended by the entire membership of the SEP. Norths report was accepted unanimously. But this meeting marked only the beginning of political discussion, technical work and organizational preparations that extended over an entire year.

At the time of the meeting, David North was the national secretary of the SEP. He is presently the national chairman of the SEP and chairman of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS.

This report and Norths summary remarks at the conclusion of the discussion retain their importance not only as the historical record of the political foundations of the World Socialist Web Site. They are also a demonstration of the relationship between Marxist theory and genuinely revolutionary practice.

***

The basis of the political work of the party is the perspective developed by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) in the aftermath of the split with the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP). In the development of this perspective, the fourth plenum of the ICFI, held in July 1987, represented a milestone. It marked the renewal of theoretical work on international perspectives that had been disrupted for many years by the WRP. In the decade before the split in late 1985, the WRP had subordinated the work of the International Committee to the nationalist orientation and opportunism of the British section. The systematic disorientation of the International Committee found its most destructive expression in the perspectives resolution adopted at the 10th Congress of the International Committee in January 1985, the last held under the aegis of Gerry Healy, Michael Banda and Cliff Slaughter.

Let us recall the positions advanced by Slaughter in the document he presented to the 10th Congress. He wrote, for example, The objective laws of capitalist decline now operate without hindrance. This was an absurdity. In the real world, objective laws can never operate without hindrance. The operation of such laws is always refracted through an immensely dense and complex superstructure. The contradictory movement of this superstructure, which, in the final analysis, derives its essential impulse from economic forces, is reflected in politics. But according to Slaughter, by January 1985, the world had arrived at an unprecedented situation, that is, one in which so-called objective laws of capitalist economics no longer encountered any resistance. All the elements of social and political reality which impinged upon these objective laws, or through which these objective laws must be refracted, were written out of existence.

This absurdity constituted the main theme of Slaughters document. In another passage Slaughter wrote, The capitalist class finds itselfand this is historically unprecedentedconfronted by a working class which despite growing mass unemployment is making mass revolutionary experiences as an undefeated class. This sentence was, on its face, self-contradictory. If the working class was undefeated, how then did Slaughter account for growing mass unemployment? When Slaughter wrote those lines the nearly year-old British miners strike was on the verge of collapse.

The document included a series of demagogic proclamations, such as 1) The reality is the decisive revolutionary battles are already engaged. Every single day is a movement of the revolutionary flux of development. It is not a question of something building up for the future. 2) The political struggles are struggles in which the question of state power is already directly posed and has to be answered. 3) The proletariat of the United States, undefeated, enters struggles of a revolutionary nature simultaneously with those of the rest of the world. And 4) The revolutionary class confrontation, the struggle for power, the development of a whole series of interconnected, unevenly developed but unified struggles for state power is now joined, not anticipated merely.

Slaughters document represented a complete misreading of the objective situation. At the very moment when he was trumpeting the undefeated nature of the working class, the world-wide degeneration of the old mass labor parties and trade unions had reached a very advanced state. The outcome of this degeneration was soon to be seen in a series of political disasters and defeats without precedent since the 1930s.

All the formulations employed in that document served to justify the adaptation of the WRP to the labor and trade union bureaucracies and the subordination of the sections of the International Committee to the immediate practical needs of the British organization. This subordination proceeded from the premise that the growth of the International Committee would arise as the byproduct of the practical successes and achievements of the WRP in Britain. As Healy once said to me, As our star rises, so does yours.

Now this was a simplistic conception which ignored the problem of the unified development of the International Committee as the World Party of Socialist Revolution. It conceived of the development of the International Committee in predominantly nationalistic terms. The development of the World Party was seen as the outcome of the essentially unrelated successes of ICFI sections in their home countries.

We fought against these conceptions to reestablish the political authority of the International Committee. It was on this question that the WRP broke from us. In the autumn of 1985 we asked Slaughter and Banda, Did the Workers Revolutionary Party accept the political authority of the International Committee? Was there a world party that was superior to the national sections? In posing this question, we were asking the WRP to reaffirm its commitment to the basic programmatic traditions of the Trotskyist movement, dating back to the founding of the Left Opposition in 1923.

The WRP leadership opposed this. In December 1985, at a meeting of the International Committee, Slaughter, Simon Pirani, and the late Tom Kemp voted against a resolution that called upon the Workers Revolutionary Party to reaffirm its defense of the political program and traditions of the International Committee. That vote meant that the WRP had decided to break politically with Trotskyism. The formal separation came less than two months later.

In the aftermath of the split, the theoretical work of the ICFI was concentrated on analyzing the political and historical issues that were raised by the degeneration of the WRP and its break with the International Committee. After this had been accomplished, the ICFI turned its attention to analyzing the development of its international perspective. In July 1987, at the Fourth Plenum of the ICFI, we initiated a discussion on the changes in the essential structures of world capitalism and their impact upon the international class struggle. I recall raising the following questions: How do we foresee the development of the world socialist revolution? What processes and contradictions will provide the basis for a fresh upsurge of the working class and a renewal of revolutionary class struggle?

Comrades may recall the Workers League Summer School in September 1987. My report was based on the discussion we had held at the Fourth Plenum. I would like to cite a number of passages from that report. For the first time, we drew attention to the emergence of two interrelated and highly important phenomena: the globalization of production and the transnational corporation.

The most serious weakness of the document introduced by Slaughter to the 10th Congress of the International Committee, I said, was its failure to take the slightest notice of the new economic forms assumed by the growth of the productive forces within the imperialist epoch: that is, the internationalization of production on a scale unequaled in history, and the emergence of truly global production, in which the manufacture of a single commodity is the outcome of integrated transnational production. The transnational or multinational corporation is an economic reality which has profound implications for the development of the class struggle in every country and for the development of revolution. [Fourth International, January-March 1988, p. 69]

Two essential conclusions were drawn from our analysis of these new phenomena: First, we stressed the inability of trade unions to respond effectively to globalized production and the objective need of the working class to organize its political struggle against capitalism on an international basis. Trade unions, I stated, are not equipped to confront this new situation. They cannot defend the working class insofar as they conduct the class struggle exclusively on the national soil. In fact, the development of transnational organizations requires the international organization of the working class. American, Japanese, Korean or German workers find it increasingly impossible to conduct nationally isolated struggles. And just as the bourgeoisie seeks to organize production on a world scale, the working class will be compelled to organize its own struggles on a world scale, and therefore create new and more advanced forms of organization. [Ibid., p. 73]

The existing trade unions could not fulfill this role:

Workers will have to develop their own international strategy, their own international forms of organization. But these forms cannot be created spontaneously. And they cannot be created by the existing leaderships. There is an organic, historically-created drive for the creation of an international proletarian party. The working class must step into the twenty-first century. It cant base itself on forms of organization developed in the nineteenth. The international party is not a phrase. It is a reality based on these developments. That must be the center of our perspectives. [Ibid., p. 82]

These concepts were elaborated in the 1988 perspectives resolution of the International Committee. We wrote, It has long been an elementary proposition of Marxism that the class struggle is national only as to form, but that it is, in essence, an international struggle. However, given the new features of capitalist development, even the form of the class struggle must assume an international character. Even the most elemental struggles of the working class pose the necessity of coordinating its actions on an international scale ... the unprecedented international mobility of capital has rendered all nationalist programs for the labor movement of different countries obsolete and reactionary. Such national programs are invariably based on the voluntary collaboration of the labor bureaucracies with their ruling classes in the systematic lowering of workers living standards to strengthen the position of their capitalist country in the world market. [Fourth International, July-December 1988, p. 4]

The ICFI insisted that a revolutionary program could only be developed on the basis of an international perspective, and that this conception separated our movement from all varieties of opportunism. We wrote:

In one form or another, opportunism expresses a definite adaptation to the so-called realities of political life within a given national environment. Opportunism, forever in search of shortcuts, elevates one or another national tactic above the fundamental program of the world socialist revolution. Considering the program of world socialist revolution too abstract, the opportunist hankers after supposedly more concrete tactical initiatives. Not only does the opportunist choose to forget the international character of the working class. He also overlooks the fact that the crisis in each country, having its essential origin in global contradictions, can only be resolved on the basis of an internationalist program. No national tactic, however significant its role in the political arsenal of the party ... can preserve its revolutionary content if it is either elevated above, or, what amounts to the same thing, detached from, the world strategy of the International Committee. Thus the central historic contribution which the sections of the International Committee make to the workers movement in the countries in which they operate is the collective and unified struggle for the perspective of world socialist revolution. [Ibid., pp. 30-31]

Our position was attacked by Ray Athow of the Workers Revolutionary Party. As you can see, every crucial strategic initiative of the International Committee has immediately been denounced by the Torrance group. We can say on the basis of more than a decade of experience that such attacks are to be welcomed as a sign of the correctness of the International Committee.

Athow wrote that the almost religious nature of this program is revealed by such statements as the Workers League brings to the labor movement of the United States the strategy of world socialist revolution.

I answered this in the report to the 13th Congress of the Workers League, in August 1988:

Our scientific analysis of the epoch and the nature of the present world crisis convinces us not only that this [international] unification of the proletariat is possible; but also that only a party whose daily work is based upon this strategical orientation can become rooted in the working class. We anticipate that the next stage of proletarian struggles will develop inexorably, beneath the combined pressure of objective economic tendencies and the subjective influence of Marxists, along an international trajectory. The proletariat will tend more and more to define itself in practice as an international class; and the Marxian internationalists, whose policies are an expression of this organic tendency, will cultivate this process and give it conscious form. [Ibid., p. 39]

All the work of the International Committee has sought to accomplish precisely what was stated in that passage, to cultivate through its program and practice the conscious internationalist self-definition and international struggles of the working class.

As comrades know, this required a series of political struggles within our party, especially over the change in our attitude toward the call for the establishment of a labor party based on the trade unions. Later, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, we recognized the completion of the objective transformation of the labor bureaucracies into the open and direct instruments of imperialism, and we insisted that the independent political mobilization of the working class would proceed not through the protracted radicalization of the old bureaucratic organizations, facilitated through the placing of demands upon their leaders, but partly through the rebellion of the working class against these old organizations, and partly through the bypassing of these reactionary organizations by the vast majority of unorganized and politically unaffiliated workers.

At the June 1995 national aggregate, at which we introduced the proposal to transform the Workers League into the Socialist Equality Party, we summed up the lessons of the experiences of the previous decade:

If there is to be leadership given to the working class, it must be provided by our party. If a new road is to be opened for the masses of the working people, it must be opened by our organization. The problem of leadership cannot be resolved on the basis of a clever tactic. We cannot resolve the crisis of working class leadership by demanding that others provide that leadership. If there is to be a new party, then we must build it. [The Workers League and the Founding of the Socialist Equality Party, (Oak Park, MI: Labor Publications, 1996), p. 30]

This was the basis on which we and the other sections of the International Committee initiated the transformation of leagues into parties.

Our unswerving internationalism and unyielding opposition to the reactionary labor bureaucracies have demarcated the Socialist Equality Party from every variety of petty-bourgeois radicalism. All of the petty-bourgeois groups have at least this much in common: they insist that it is illegitimate to question, let alone challenge, the authority of the bureaucratized trade unions over the working class.

The document written by Slaughter attempts to provide a theoretical basis for this subordination of the working class to the trade union bureaucracy. Rejecting the basic theoretical tenets of What Is To Be Done?, Slaughter defines the bureaucracy as the working classs own vanguard and denounces all efforts to oppose Marxist politics to this vanguard. In one form or another one can find in the radical press dozens of citations which echo Slaughters arguments.

The programmatic clarification on the labor party and the role of the trade unions was of decisive importance, but it must be understood in relation to our essential strategical orientation, the building of the International Committee of the Fourth International as the World Party of Socialist Revolution. I wish to stress again the basic point that we made in 1987, that historic parties of the working class only arise as the political expression of international social processes and changes introduced by objectively revolutionary developments in the capitalist mode of production.

The Second International was the product of a colossal growth of the productive forces, powered by electricity, that gave rise to a new mass industrial proletariat. The Third International emerged as the product of the breakdown of those parties, under the pressure of imperialism, and the transformation of the world economy along imperialist lines. The Fourth International was founded in response to the betrayals of the Third, but its growth as a world party was delayed in the final analysis by the postwar boom, which continued to provide economic support for the old opportunist organizations. But that economic foundation began to disintegrate during the 1970s and especially during the 1980s. In studying the changes in world economy, the ICFI continually stressed that the globalization of production, accelerated by immense technological advances, would provide the essential objective impulse for the genuine internationalization of the class struggle and the growth of the Fourth International. That analysis, I believe, has been clearly substantiated.

Predictably, therefore, it is attacked by the Spartacist League, which denounces the emphasis placed by the International Committee on the globalization of production, and our insistence that the degeneration of the trade unions is an objective and inevitable expression of this process. The Spartacists have come out, in the latest issue of Workers Vanguard, with a long article entitled, The Global Economy and Labor Reformism: How David North Embraces Karl Kautsky.

Today, it is intellectually fashionable, they argue, to explain the sharp deterioration in the living standards of American working people in the last generation as the result of globalization, especially the transfer of production by major US corporations (multinationals or transnationals), to low-wage countries in East Asia and Latin America. Setting up their own version of the Flat Earth Society, the Spartacists proudly declare that they will not acknowledge facts that are irrefutable.

As an example of my complete disorientation, Workers Vanguard cites a passage from a report that I gave in 1992: The collapse of the old organizations of the working class is, fundamentally, the product of specific historic and economic conditions. Understanding these conditions does not mean we absolve the leaders of these organizations of responsibility for what has happened. Rather, it enables us to recognize that the rottenness of the leaders is itself only a subjective manifestation of an objective process. ... The global integration of capitalist production under the aegis of massive transnational corporations and the terminal crisis of the nation-state system have shattered the basic geo-economic foundation upon which the activities of the old organizations of the working class have been based. Nationally-based labor organizations are simply incapable of seriously challenging internationally-organized corporations.

Spartacist replies by declaring that it is wrong to relate the policies of the trade union bureaucracy and the defeats of the working class to objective causes. They give three reasons. First, they reject our emphasis on the globalization of production and deny that there has been any significant change in the nature of the world capitalist economy and the production process over the last 80 years, that is, since Lenin wrote his pamphlet, Imperialism. Second, they claim that to attribute the decline of trade unions to objective causes will discourage the working class by shaking their confidence in the effectiveness of trade unionism. Third, they insist that militant trade unionism can persuade the capitalist class to change its policies and make major concessions to the working class.

In support of their claim that globalization has had nothing to do with the decline of the trade unions, Workers Vanguard declares: In none of the major strikes which marked the decline and defeat of the American labor movement in the 1980sthe PATCO air traffic controllers, Greyhound bus drivers, Phelps-Dodge copper miners, Eastern Airlines machinists, Hormel meatpackersdid foreign competition or the operation of multinationals abroad play any significant role.

What a display of ignorance and intellectual bankruptcy! First of all, it does not seem to have occurred to Workers Vanguard that the destruction of PATCO in 1981 was carried out directly by the United States government, which represents the political leadership of world capitalism. But let us ignore this minor detail. One can safely say that the followers of the political guru of the Spartacist League, James Robertson, have no conception of the nature of modern capitalism. They seek to deny the relation of the process of globalization to the crisis of trade unionism by claiming that a number of strikes were broken by purely American businesses.

The Spartacist League seems to believe that the policies pursued by corporations are determined entirely on the basis of national factors. One can safely say that the CEOs of the strike-breaking companies cited by Workers Vanguard have a far better understanding of the dynamics and the imperatives of the world market than the Robertsonites. Every major corporation is inextricably linked to the world market, regardless of the particular percentage of their revenues which is derived from domestic sales. Efficiency, the productivity of labor, the rate of profit are measured by global, not merely national, standards. Capital circles the globe as investors seek the best return on their capital.

Spartacist continues: The decline of the American labor movement is not fundamentally caused by the objective effects of globalization, but by the defeatist and treacherous policies of the AFL-CIO misleaders.

Here we have a completely subjective explanation of the crisis of the trade unions. All the defeats of the working class, we are told, can be easily explained by the personal rottenness of the top officials of the AFL-CIO. This explanation, however, raises the following question: If all the defeats experienced since 1980 were merely products of the things done by bad people in the AFL-CIO, then must we not concede that the earlier successes of the trade unions, during the hey-day of the AFL-CIO, were achieved because it was led by good people, among whom we would then be obliged to include that pillar of Cold War red-baiting, George Meany. After all, is it not the case that the defeats of the AFL-CIO began only after his retirement and death in 1980?

There are many questions that Spartacist fails to address. Why did bad people take over from good people? Or why did people who had once been good suddenly become bad? Everything is reduced to the intentions of this or that individual bureaucrat. Such an approach represents the polar opposite of the Marxist method. Spartacist claims that Lenins Imperialism represents the last word in the analysis of capitalism, but it seems that they have not studied either that pamphlet or his other works on the subject of imperialism all too carefully. Among the central points made by Lenin was that the growth of opportunism in the Second International was based objectively on the development of imperialism.

In his pioneering work Imperialism and the Split in Socialism, Lenin posed the following question: Is there any connection between imperialism and the monstrous and disgusting victory opportunism (in the form of social-chauvinism) has gained over the labour movement in Europe? ... This is the fundamental question of modern socialism. [Collected Works, Volume 23 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1977) p. 105] Lenin pithily defined the opportunists as a section of the petty bourgeoisie and of certain strata of the working class who have been bribed out of imperialist superprofits and converted into watchdogs of capitalism and corrupters of the labour movement. [Ibid., p. 110]

It was on this objective basis that Lenin called for the founding of the Third International. Lenins approach, the Marxist approach, is diametrically opposed to the subjective method. Indeed, revolutionary policies cannot be elaborated on the basis of a subjective interpretation of the crisis confronting the working class. After all, if the problems facing the working class are merely the product of the intentions of bad individuals, there is a relatively simple remedy. The AFL-CIO can be easily changed merely by replacing the bad people with good people. And why stop there? If replacing the bad with the good can transform the AFL-CIO into an organization that serves the working class, why should it be impossible to work similar wonders in other institutions, such as the Democratic Party or even the US government?

This is, of course, childish nonsense. Marxists do not politically indict the AFL-CIO because its led by bad people but rather because it is, objectively, an instrument of capitalist domination over the working class. Moreover, the AFL-CIO is staffed by, directly represents and serves the interests of a definite upper-middle-class social stratum that is implacably hostile to the working class. The policies pursued by this reactionary stratum are fundamentally determined by objective conditions created by globally-integrated capitalist production. In the final analysis, the latter point is decisive. The very nature of trade unions renders them incapable of fashioning an effective response to the globalization of capitalist production and, therefore, of the labor market.

Rejecting this analysis, Spartacist attempts to demonstrate what could be achieved if only there was a change in the subjective orientation of the present trade union leaders. They offer the example of a building strike in New York City where 15,000 scabs were used to replace workers. The office buildings operated more or less as usual. Workers Vanguard tells us that this struggle could have had a happy ending if only the trade union leaders had decided to do the right thing.

Apparently inspired by the late John Lennons famous song, Workers Vanguard writes:

But let us imagine what would have happened if organized labor had sought to organize New York Citys working people and appealed to the dispossessed population of New Yorks ghettos and barrios to actively support the heavily minority and immigrant building workers.

Then they really start fantasizing. Dozens and hundreds of strikers and other workers, union and nonunionalong with black and Hispanic youthcould have surrounded every major office building in New York City and prevented anyone from entering.

Capital would have been brought to its knees! David North to the contrary, the CEOs of American multinationals would not have responded by closing their New York headquarters and running their operations out of New Delhi or Mexico City. Rather the cops would have attacked and tried to break the picket lines, arresting militant workers and their supporters. The outcome would then have been determined by the ability of the New York City labor movement to organize effective actions backed by popular support especially in the black and Hispanic communities.

Then they come to the climax: A one-day transit strike, for example, might have convinced the powers that be in the worlds financial capital to impose a deal on the real estate barons favorable to the building workers. [Emphasis added]

Here we have the sniveling opportunism and petty-minded reformism that arises out of their subjective politics. What a pathetic scenario: First, the union bureaucrats change their minds and call a one-day strike. This leads the bankers to break down in tears and change their minds, and they, in turn, change the minds of the hard-nosed building owners. The circle of subjective decision-making is completed. Everyone has changed his mind and all the problems are solved. The building workers win, and labor and capital are reconciled. All this and heaven too have been achieved without the nasty intervention of the world market.

Let us turn from dreams to reality. Spartacist seems to think that the International Committee has gone off the deep end by emphasizing the link between the globalization of capitalist production and the decline of the trade unions. As a matter of fact, even at a far earlier stage of world capitalist development, Marxists recognized the far-reaching consequences of the global expansion of capital on nationally-organized trade unions. Particularly in response to the reformist followers of Eduard Bernstein at the turn of the 20th century, who saw in the world-wide expansion of capital the possibility of ever-improving living standards for the working class, the orthodox Marxists stressed the negative consequences of this process.

In her very timely work Reform or Revolution, written 98 years ago, Rosa Luxemburg foresaw both globalization and its consequences for the national trade unions:

Even within the effective boundaries of its activity the trade union movement cannot spread in the unlimited way claimed for it by the theory of adaptation. On the contrary, if we examine the large factors of social development, we see that we are not moving toward an epoch marked by a victorious development of trade unions, but rather toward a time when the hardships of labour unions will increase. Once industrial development has attained its highest possible point and capitalism has entered its descending phase on the world market, the trade union struggle will become doubly difficult. In the first place, the objective conjuncture of the market will be less favourable to the sellers of labour power, because the demand for labour power will increase at a slower rate and the labour supply more rapidly than at present. In the second place, the capitalists themselves, in order to make up for losses suffered on the world market, will make even greater efforts than at present to reduce the part of the total product going to the workers (in the form of wages). [London: Bookmarks, 1989, p. 40.]

The arguments of Luxemburg long ago entered into the theoretical arsenal of Marxism. But today, echoes of her arguments can be found in countless studies which analyze the impact of the globalization of production upon the working class. Id like to bring to your attention material from one of those books, which has just come out, by the journalist William Greider, One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism.

This book appeals for a change in the direction of capitalist policies. Greider is an opponent of socialism and a staunch ally of the AFL-CIO, of which he writes with rapture. Still, he is a capable journalist, and provides information that illustrates the impact of globalization upon the working class. One chapter is entitled, with intentional irony, Gleiche Arbeit, gleicher Lohn, [Same Work, Same Pay]. The irony, according to Greider, consists in the fact that this old slogan, once a battle cry of organized labor, is now being realized in a quite unexpected manner through the actions of transnational corporations who are exploiting the opportunities offered by the international labor market.

The chapter begins with a discussion of a form of economic speculation called arbitrage. An arbitrageur is a speculator who exploits the small variance in price between the markets in which a particular commodity is bought and sold. Greider writes:

In the globalizing economy, arbitrage is applied to a vastly different purpose: the commodity is human labor, the price is wages. Wage arbitrage (though companies do not call it that) functions more or less in reverse: It moves the production and jobs from a high-wage labor market to another where labor is much cheaper. The producers thus reduce their costs and enhance profits by arbitraging these wage differences, usually selling their finished products back into the high-wage markets. The cost of transporting things between distant markets has always been the practical obstacle to successful arbitrage, but modern technologies have greatly reduced these costs, even for moving entire factories. Transportation is a trivial factor alongside the potential gains of exploiting the vast disparities that exist among wage levels in different parts of the world. [New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 57]

In what amounts to a quite devastating reply to the arguments of Robertson & Company, Greider states: Auto workers in Illinois earned in a day or two what the electronics workers of Malaysia earned in a month, not to mention those in China or Vietnam who worked for far less. The Anglo-French investor James Goldsmith has calculated that the cost of one Frenchman was equivalent to forty-seven Vietnamese. If humanity was to be measured on that rude scale, one American machinist was worth about sixty Chinese machinists. [Ibid., p. 64]

Greider documents the impact of global economic processes on the comparative living standards of American workers: In 1975, hourly wages for production workers in US manufacturing were double Japans, and exceeded everyone elses except Norway, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands. By 1980, American factory wages were below those in eight other countries, including West Germany. By 1992, the US was behind thirteen countries, including Japan. [Ibid., p. 66]

The primary explanation [for falling living standards] was the global wage arbitrage, Greider insists. The general presumption that low-wage workers in backward countries were crudely unproductive was simply not true. In fact, dollar for dollar, the cheaper workers often represented a better buy for employers than the more skillful workers who were replaced. Their productivity was lower but it also improved rapidlymuch faster than their wages. In order to attract foreign capital, governments often made certain that this was the case.

In Mexico, for instance, the new auto workers for Ford or GM or VW might perform at 50 to 70 percent of the efficiency of workers in the companies home plants. But their wages were one sixth or one eighth as much... Similar divergences were commonplace around the world, even in the Asian labor markets where wages were rising smartly. The classic case was shirts: American garment workers could make a shirt with 14 minutes of human labor, while it took 25 minutes in Bangladesh. But the average U.S. wage was $7.53 an hour, while in Bangladesh it was 25 cents, an edge that would not be erased even if the Bangladeshi wages were doubled or quadrupled. Or steel: U.S. industry required 3.4 hours of human labor to produce a ton of steel, while Brazil took 5.8 hours. But the wage difference was 10 to 1: $13 an hour versus $1.28. [Ibid., pp. 74-75]

Greider bemoans this situation and wishes that the trade unions were able to fashion an effective response. This chapter actually begins with an account of an international gathering of trade union officials in Switzerland. Though he attempts to portray the participants sympathetically, Greider is obliged to point out that this international gathering highlighted the national antagonisms between trade unions in different parts of the world. The dominant theme of the gathering was not international labor solidarity but mutual resentment. The different national trade unions hold each other at least partly responsible for the problems confronting the labor movement in their own countries.

Alarmed by the deterioration of the trade union movement, Greider issues the following warning: If unions disappeared, might something else arise to replace them, some new form of collective voice that could counter the unfettered force of the marketplace? As an economic imperative driving global commerce, wage arbitrage was an opportunity. As a social imperative, it sowed deepening disarray and anger. While business and finance pursued the economics, it was the deteriorating social conditions that in the long run might become more threatening to free capital than unions. [Ibid., p. 79]

Greider, mirroring the concerns of the petty-bourgeois radicals, fears that the breakdown of the existing unions will result in the growth of the political influence of revolutionary socialists among militant and angry workers.

Greiders work substantiates the analysis made by the International Committee. Events have confirmed the prescience of the perspective that the ICFI began to elaborate in 1987. This analysis has served as the basis of all our work. The last decade has been a decade of theoretical and political preparation, which has culminated in the transformation of leagues into parties. We have laid the foundations for the emergence of the International Committee of the Fourth International as the internationally recognized political center for the renewal of socialist politics and socialist culture within the working class. On the theoretical front we have made undoubtedly a great deal of progress, and the transformation of our leagues into parties is certainly, in an organizational sense, the beginning of a great step forward. But we are now posed, having begun this transformation, with the task of overcoming the two major problems that confront the International Committee.

The first is the contradiction between the strength and correctness of our political line, and the size and extent of our political influence. The second is the gap between our international perspective and orientation, and the real practical limitation that existed in the forms of international collaboration and international leadership. We have sought continuously to overcome these problems, but it must be recognized that a ready-made solution was not at hand.

However, the conditions for dramatically expanding the influence of the International Committee and developing a far more unified international practice are now in fact emerging, politically and practically. To exploit these opportunities for which we have worked over the past decade requires, I believe, a very radical change in our practice.

For this reason I want to speak about The International Workers Bulletin. All of us know that the IWB, and before it the Bulletin, have played a central role in the political life of the party. Indeed, the role it has played in our party is bound up with the powerful tradition of the newspaper in the workers movement. The newspaper was not invented by the workers movement. But the revolutionary socialists utilized and mastered this popular form of mass communication, which emerged in the last third of the 19th century.

In the 20th century there developed other forms of mass communication, first the radio and then the television, which were extraordinarily effective in their impact on mass consciousness. But the revolutionary socialist movement did not have the resources to access and exploit these technologies. Our work, and the work of all the sections of the ICFI, was concentrated on the growth of the circulation of the newspaper; the political development, production and circulation of the newspaper dominated the sections of the International Committee.

In the old SLL and the WRP, the concentration on the newspaper ultimately assumed manic dimensions. The building of the party was defined exclusively in terms of the frequency of publication and the size of its circulation, at least on paper. Everything was subordinated to the production of the daily newspaper. Millions of pounds were raised to buy vast amounts of press equipment that was devoted exclusively to the production of the daily. The entire cadre was compelled to devote all of its time and energy to the nationwide distribution of the News Line. Every morning trucks departed from the factory in Runcorn to distribute the News Line throughout England and Scotland. Scores of motorbikes were purchased to facilitate the distribution of the newspaper. In fact, only a very small percentage of the thousands of newspapers delivered to branches throughout the country actually made their way into the hands of real workers and readers. Most bundles simply piled up in members houses, gathered dust and turned yellow, and were, after several weeks or months, thrown away. This experience, so depressing in its cumulative impact, played no small role in the exhaustion, impoverishment and demoralization of a large percentage of the membership of the Workers Revolutionary Party.

Pressure was placed by the WRP on the younger sections of the International Committee to emulate this practice. The achievement of the daily was touted as the great goal of all sections. The practical effect of this perspective was to encourage a nonpolitical climate dominated by frantic activity, fundraisers or disorienting Wohlforth-style subscription drives.

In the Workers League, however, while maintaining high activity in the working class, we retained emphasis on the development of political perspectives, and this led to the conflict which arose in 1982. We pursued as well the energetic expansion of our circulation, and we sought to create the conditions for the emergence of a daily newspaper. But we did not allow this work to overwhelm the party. We struggled to maintain a political environment in which it was possible to continue serious work on perspectives and educate the cadre. Following the split, we proposed the reduction of publication frequency from twice weekly to weekly, which we carried out in 1987.

We sustained weekly publication for several years. At the same time, in accordance with the basic line of our perspective, we sought to develop the means for the integration of the work of the International Committee. It would be valuable for comrades to recall the political conceptions which led to the establishment of The International Workers Bulletin in April 1993. In the last issue of the old Bulletin, comrade Barry Grey explained the establishment of the IWB largely in terms of the impact it would have on the development of the work of the ICFI.

The International Workers Bulletin is the culmination of the last eight years of political struggle by the Workers League and our cothinkers in the International Committee of the Fourth International. This has involved intense theoretical work in analyzing the world crisis of capitalism, and its implications for the American and international working class. A vital gain of the 1985-86 split of the Workers League and the ICFI from the national opportunist renegades of the WRP was the clarification and strengthening of the internationalist foundations of the Trotskyist movement. Since then the movement has placed particular emphasis on the analysis of the class struggle as an international phenomenon. We have striven to assess political developments within the US and the experiences of American workers from the standpoint of the world crisis of capitalism, and the political tasks confronting the international working class. We believe that our new newspaper, as renamed and redesigned, will enable the party to intensify and broaden its defense of socialist internationalism, both at home and abroad. We see The International Workers Bulletin as a source of political and historical analysis, and a political weapon of the international working class. It will speak above all to those workers who increasingly see their struggle as part of an international struggle. It will play a vital role in combating the reactionary chauvinism and nationalism promoted by the bourgeoisie and the trade union bureaucracy, and educating the working class in an internationalist approach to all social and political problems.

In response to the question, how will The International Workers Bulletin encourage such an internationalist approach, Barry answered, An important factor will be a heightening of the international collaboration between our editorial board and those of our sections of the IC in Europe, Asia and North America, as well as more systematic collaboration with supporters of the Fourth International in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. We hope to receive regular reports, not only from Britain, Germany, France, Australia, Sri Lanka, India and Canada, but also from South Africa, Japan, Ukraine, Russia and many other countries.

The IWB represented an attempt to work toward an ever closer integration of the work of our sections. One important aspect of that work involved the recognition of the possibilities which had been opened up by the emerging computerized communications technology and their more effective use as a means of integrating and coordinating the work of the editorial boards of the different ICFI sections.

In fact, shortly after the founding of the IWB we began to discuss the possibility of establishing an international newspaper. But the launching of the IWB did not really overcome our most serious problems. The practical problems of maintaining weekly publication increased. The change in political climate, the impact of factory shutdowns in Detroit and throughout the Midwest, the decreasing effect of street sales, and the entirely predictable change in the personal situation and abilities of many older comrades to organize sales, all of this took their toll. The contradiction between the mental, physical and financial resources devoted to weekly publication, and the circulation of our press, could not be overcome by exhortation, which in general is a very limited method for overcoming problems. And so, in the spring of 1994, we proposed to go from weekly to biweekly publication. This change was agreed upon and our example was followed by all of the sections of the International Committee.

However, it soon became apparent that the change of frequency, while certainly easing certain practical pressures, did not really address the underlying problem. The circulation of the paper continued to decline, and only limited progress was made in effectuating the development of an international newspaper. Even had we, through the most strenuous organizational methods, doubled the circulation of the IWB, it would not have signified anything approaching a qualitative expansion of our political influence.

As I previously stated, there are times when there exists no practical solution to a given objective problem. In such situations, patience is among the cardinal virtues of a revolutionary. But just as reason becomes madness and a blessing plague, patience can degenerate into passivity and fatalism. It is one thing to struggle for a long period of time with limitations imposed upon ones political development by objective conditions. It is quite another thing to become resigned to them, to adapt step by step all aspects of ones life to the assumption, often unstated, that these limitations can never be overcome. Nothing is more corrosive to the internal strength of a revolutionary party than quiet resignation that consoles itself with the self-deceptive illusion that mere soldiering on, based on the uninspired observance of increasingly empty routines, will somehow miraculously lead to the growth of the party.

In revolutionary politics, patience becomes plague at the point when a movement fails to recognize and act upon the opportunities that would permit it to overcome longstanding limitations and problems. Such opportunities have now emerged in the form of the extraordinary communications technologies associated with the development of the Internet. We have been discussing this for about two years. It was first raised at an aggregate meeting that was held in late 1994. Since that time, however, the use of the Internet has undergone an explosive development. The Internet is now used by more than 40 million people worldwide, the number of Web sites has grown from just 19,000 in 1995 to a quarter of a million today. More than 55 percent of large US companies have a Web site, and by the year 2000 it is estimated that $80 billion in business will be transacted over the Web. Internet traffic, according to the Financial Times, is growing at 300 percent a year, and the number of servers connected to the World Wide Web doubled to more than 300,000 in the last five months of 1996.

This mode of communication is profoundly revolutionary. First, it is easily accessible, relatively inexpensive, and immediately and directly international. There has been a great deal of debate about the actual use of the Internet for business. Their great question is how and when it will make money. Of course, there is not an identical answer for every industry. For certain retail industries the effect is obvious. Amazon.com, which advertises itself as the worlds largest bookseller, has gone in the space of a few months from seven to 200 employees, and reports that its business is growing 30 percent every month.

It would be foolish to ignore the wide-ranging potential impact of this technology on our work. The Internet is rapidly emerging as an immensely popular and accessible form of mass communications. It addresses the two decisive questions that have bedeviled the International Committee and its sections: One, the expansion of our influence, and two, the international integration of our activity.

The newspaper is a medium of communication; it is not a principle in and of itself. As a means of communication for the ideas of the International Committee, it has become less and less effective, and from the standpoint of the demands it makes upon the resources of our movement and the effectiveness with which we are using those resources, more and more destructive. Our proposal is to concentrate our energies upon the construction, development and maintenance of an international Web site that will serve as the principal public identity and address of the International Committee and its sections. All the necessary functions assigned by Lenin to the all-Russian newspaper at the turn of this century, as collective theorist, propagandist and organizer of the revolutionary party, can be realized through the use of the Web.

I would suggest that comrades read very carefully those sections in What is to be Done? in which Lenin elaborated his proposal for an all-Russian newspaper. Particular attention should be paid to his analysis of the practical problems of the Russian movement. When he wrote What is to be Done?, Lenin was arguing against another tradition, that of the local newspapers which had been very successfully used in Germany by Social Democracy, with its immense resources. It was generally believed that local newspapers were necessary to keep local branches close to the working class. He argued at that time for an all-Russian newspaper which would coordinate the disparate activities of different branches of Russian Social Democracy, provide them with a unified political line, and make their collective activity far more effective.

We believe that a Web site can carry a vast amount of information, and address a wide area of political, historical, cultural and practical problems. It will attract an ever-wider audience of workers, students and intellectuals. It will attract readers and comments from all over the world and enable us to develop an extensive electronic correspondence that will lay the foundations for a tremendous advance in our work. The answering of our email will come to play an important role in the development of our political contacts, and the building not only of new branches in countries where we presently have sections, but new sections where we presently have no supporters at all.

Our influence in Russia was built up almost exclusively on the basis of a political correspondence that we carried out with various people between 1989 and 1992. In a political environment, our very small magazine found a response. A large section of people in Russia politically active on the left know about the International Committee. I would say that we are better known in Russia than we are in the US.

We propose, therefore, to end the publication of The International Workers Bulletin. Im not in favor of making some half hearted compromise between the Web and the IWB. The construction of a Web site is an enormous and complicated enterprise. We must use our resources effectively. The time has come, now that an alternative is available, to stop the depressing and unsustainable drain on cadre energies and resources demanded by the publication of a newspaper that is presently read by only a thousand people.

That does not mean that we propose to abandon printed media. We must take advantage not only of the technological advances associated with the Web, but with the tremendous developments in output technology associated with desktop publishing. I believe that leaflets and brochures produced either on the Risograph or, when necessary, on large presses will play a much greater and effective role in our work in the future.

As a matter of fact, the single-minded devotion to the newspaper often has prevented us from the effective use of smaller and more economical media. Often an important intervention at a factory, at a demonstration or some other gathering could have been served far more effectively by a leaflet or brochure than a newspaper. Often there is no leaflet because it is seen as a lower form of political literature, less exalted than the IWB, and even perhaps in competition with it. Or it may be that we simply didnt have enough time to produce it.

But some of our most effective interventions have been with those less exalted, and, I should point out, far less costly, forms of political literature. In the future, leaflets and brochures can be used to advertise and build the audience for our Web site. For example, we can prepare a special brochure for a mass demonstration, containing a statement that addresses the issues of the day, along with an advertisement for our Web site, and we can track the response it produces through the number of hits on our Web page.

We also propose to initiate a new political and theoretical printed journal, either on a monthly or a bimonthly basis, in conjunction with our comrades in the International Committee. This would feature longer articles on politics, history, culture, the very sort of material which appears in the IWB, but which then disappears very quickly, forgotten about, unfortunately, before it has even begun to play a role in the education of the working class. The circulation of this journal would be built up through bookstores, the Internet, libraries and also public sales.

Finally, another crucial aspect of our work must be the development of Labor Publications and its publishing program. Books are a crucial means for expanding the influence of the party and altering the political culture within which the development of the working class takes place. In this regard, I wish to make reference again to the political situation.

There are definite signs of a change in the political climate. This is indicated by a sudden increase in the number of articles and books highly critical of the unfettered operation of the capitalist market, a sort of neo-Keynesian, neo-New Deal critique of market capitalism. Much of it is devoted to scary scenarios of the revolutionary consequences of existing trends of development. We must be in a position to intervene in such discussions from the standpoint of developing a Marxist interpretation of the crisis and fighting against the influence of the bourgeois liberals, in collaboration with the trade union bureaucracy and the radicals, over the working class.

Our views must be widely known. They must be read. They must be followed. Tradition is a good thing, but there is a point at which it becomes a handicap on development. The tradition of all the dead generations, wrote Marx, weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. There is no question that the Web is going to be used by countless political organizations. On the right, to be sure, but also on the left. There will be all sorts of groups, even individuals, who lack the resources we presently have as an international movement, who cannot think of publishing a newspaper, and therefore are not bogged down by all the traditions associated with it. They will purchase a computer, set up a Web site, work very aggressively, and begin winning international contacts.

Comrades will begin to notice, all of a sudden, that groups of which weve never heard are suddenly operating internationally. And then the question will arise, why did we not exploit the opportunity that existed?

We have comrades who are devoted exclusively to writing the newspaper. That work is often disassociated from every other form of activity. Those who are not involved in the writing of the newspaper are largely confined to episodic sales of the paper, sales which by their very nature are extremely limited. It is one thing to defend and maintain a practice as long as there does not exist an alternative. It is not that we were not aware at an earlier stage of the tremendous difficulties associated with the maintenance of a newspaper, but there was no alternative. Now there is an alternative.

We are not suggesting that this is some easy escape from practical problems. But a new stage is opening up in the history of the International Committee. There is no predetermined path of development. We made this point as forcefully as we could in June 1995 when we proposed that we initiate the transformation of the League into the Socialist Equality Party. We said at the time:

Marxism is a science. But there exists no set of formal instructions which can explain, in advance, the precise steps which must be followed in the building of a revolutionary party. Moreover, it is in the nature of the historical process that the past provides no exact guide to the future. One can draw lessons and inspiration from the traditions of the past. But the future will not take shape as a pale imitation of the past. The development of the International Committee requires of its cadre a creative response to the specific problems of the present epoch. We yield to no one in our defense of the historic program upon which the Fourth International is grounded. But that program was itself continually enriched in an unrelenting struggle to create the organization through which the working class would finally establish socialism. [The Workers League and the Founding of the Socialist Equality Party, p. 15]

We are not suggesting that the Internet is a panacea that will solve all of our problems overnight. Its effective use requires the mastering of complex and rapidly evolving technology. The state of the Web is unsettled, even chaotic. Of course, all sorts of new costs and charges may be imposed, not to mention the imposition of political controls aimed at regulating or limiting its use. But I doubt that these limitations compare to the daily problems we encounter in selling or attempting to sell the IWB. So far, at least, no one can be arrested for dialing up the Web and posting the IWB. At any rate, none of the possible obstacles and pitfalls should prevent us from making the most aggressive use of this technology, and the idea that theyre simply going to pull the plug on us overlooks the political influence which might prompt such behavior and the political response to such actions.

We have to conceive of the Web Site not simply as a home page, as a calling card, but as a massive and growing political structure which will cover current events, cultural issues, political questions and historical issues. It is possible to mount an exhibit on the life of Leon Trotsky, utilizing the extraordinary video technology that already exists. For example, it would be possible to hear Trotsky denounce Stalin by placing a video clip on the Web.

We have to master the forms and aesthetic of the Web. To write for it requires consciousness of this technologyarticles that can be downloaded in perhaps a page-and-a-half on a laser printer. It is also possible to prepare an entire journal that is formatted for eventual downloading. Leaflets can be written in such a way that they can be downloaded as formatted documents, for mass circulation in any part of the country or the world. The possibilities are endless. The Web site will, over time, attract growing attention, from regular supporters, sympathizers, and even opponents who feel obliged to follow what we are saying. We never before had this opportunity.

I feel this is a necessary and vital proposal for our movement. We want to have the broadest discussion on this question, and I hope that we can come to an agreement that will enable us to move vigorously on this new technology, this new medium, and exploit it most effectively for the development of our international movement and the Socialist Equality Party.

***

Reply by David North to the discussion on the proposal to transition to an Internet-based publication

The proposal to transition to an Internet-based publication was followed by extensive discussion. We post below David Norths remarks at the end of the first day of the National Committee meeting.

Comrades, the strong support for this proposal shows that you agree that it is time for a fundamental change in the Partys practice. This cadre does not want the movement merely to survive, but rather to develop and grow. Those who have spoken recognize that the extraordinary developments in technology provide us with an opportunity to expand the audience for the political line of our movement.

The perspective upon which this proposal is based is infused with historical optimism. This is in sharp contrast to the outlook of the petty-bourgeois groups who are, as Comrade Fred Mazelis has pointed out, deeply demoralized. It is one thing to recognize the political limitations which arise in different periods out of objective circumstances. Its another thing entirely to abandon a historically developed perspective based on a scientific understanding of the laws of social development. The petty-bourgeois groups adapt themselves to the endless declarations that Marxism is dead. These declarations are to be found in countless contemporary journals and books, including those which are critical of the excesses of the market economy.

The authors of these works generally take great care to reassure their readers that Marxism has failed. But then they proceed to plagiarize one or another element of Marxs critique of capitalism. This striking contradiction is neither acknowledged nor explained.

Our movement is groundedhistorically, theoretically and politicallyin the understanding of the irreconcilable antagonism between Stalinism and Marxism. The Fourth International has insisted throughout its history that the survival of the USSR depended, in the final analysis, upon the overthrow of the Soviet bureaucracy by the working class. Therefore, the collapse of the USSR did not come as a surprise to our movement.

Moreover, we did not take the post-1991 triumphalism of the international bourgeoisie all too seriously because the International Committee understood that the crisis which brought about the collapse of the USSR was an aspect of a systemic crisis of the world economy.

It must be added that the International Committee drew strength from its ability to see the political and intellectual crisis of the international working class in a rich and textured historical context. Notwithstanding the setbacks suffered by the working class, the period through which we are passing is not without certain revolutionary characteristics.

David North and Avner Zis in Moscow, June 1994

During my last visit to Russia, I met with Avner Zis, a close friend of Vadim Rogovin, who has written many works on philosophy and culture, of which he possesses an encyclopedic knowledge. Now in his late eighties, Zis is very pessimistic. He sees in this period only the disintegration of culture, the disintegration of past intellectual achievements.

It is understandable that a man of Zis age and culture would become deeply discouraged by the present course of events in the former USSR. I would not compare him to the radicals. His pessimism is not the product of cynicism, but of a genuine and humane distress over the consequences of the collapse of the USSR. It is not the demise of Stalinism that he laments, but the ensuing destruction of all the positive social and cultural achievements of Soviet Union. Moreover, he is distressed by the international character of the apparent degeneration of thought and culture. He stated that he could not see anything encouraging in the present situation. In reply I said the following to him:

Everything you say about the decline of culture is true. It seems to be the case that mankind has taken a step backward, from the conquests that it made intellectually in a previous period.

You are, however, a great student of Hegel. Didnt Hegel teach us that we must examine human thought in all its aspects and dimensions? The level and capacity of human thought finds expression not only in the spoken word and printed page, but also in the whole opus of human activity, which includes his science and technology.

From that standpoint one has to acknowledge that notwithstanding the evident decline in many areas of cultureliterature, the fine arts, music, cinema, and, of course, politicsthe last few decades have witnessed an extraordinary explosion of human creativity.

What does this development mean for the working class? When we consider the power and liberating potential of the microchipthis extraordinary product and catalyst of human intelligencewe find fresh grounds for historical optimism. It would be myopic to see the past period simply as one of universal reaction. To be sure we are passing through a period of political confusion whose historical source can be traced back to the unresolved problems of the Russian Revolution, the colossal defeats inflicted on the working class in the 30s and 40s, and the tremendous difficulty in reviving the culture which was so grievously injured by the combination of Fascist Holocaust and Stalinist terror, directed against the advanced elements within the working class.

Human culture is fragile, and the wounds that are inflicted upon it during one decade of counter-revolutionary reaction may require many more decades to heal. But during the last half-century the creative energy of human intelligence did not stagnate. It found other means of expression, perhaps more prosaic and practical, but nonetheless revolutionary in their long-term implications.

The advances in technology have opened up new possibilities. The globalization of capitalist production, notwithstanding the misery that it has brought in its wake, carries within itself the seeds of revolutionary progress. It is rendering national boundaries obsolete and depriving the national state of any rational justification for further existence. Furthermore, the globalization of production, all but completing the unrestrained penetration of capital into every portion of the globe, has resulted in a vast increase in the size, socio-economic significance and potential political power of the working class. Only a few decades ago, the great struggles to which the revisionists pointed were taking place in countries in which the dominant social force was still the peasantry. That was the basis of a pandemic of revisionist, petty-bourgeois, and anti-Marxist politics that repudiated the heritage of scientific revolutionary thoughtabove all, the theoretical legacy of Leon Trotsky. Led by Mandel and Hansen, the Pabloite opportunists discarded the theory of permanent revolution, which had established the decisive historical role of the working class in the struggles of the backward countries, as a dead dog.

But now, as a result of globalized and integrated capitalist production, there exist powerful contingents of the proletariat in countries and regions where, only 15 or 20 years ago, modern industry hardly existed, if at all. Twenty years ago, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan could hardly be considered significant factors in world economy. Now all these countries are vital components of capitalist industry and finance, and it is only a matter of time before a rapidly growing and maturing working class challenges the political power of the bourgeoisie.

And the significance of the developments in these countries is overshadowed by the implications of the economic and social transformations that are underway in India and China.

At the same time the tremendous advances in communications technology provide our movement with the ability to reach and address an international audience.

Twelve years ago, modems were operating at 300 baud. Now relatively inexpensive devices operate at 28,800 baud. The advances have been at an extraordinarily rapid pace. It would hardly be outlandish to predict that, within a decade, conventional modems will be superseded by international networking systems that will make the transfer of information a virtually instantaneous process. This interaction of technology with the vast expansion of the working class is creating extraordinary possibilities for the development of Marxism and the revival of the international socialist movement.

Above all, these developments impart to the internationalism of our movement a degree of concreteness that was previously unattainable, if not unimaginable. The international character of capitalist production, which our movement has insisted upon as the theoretical foundation of the socialist movement, is now the inescapable and increasingly obvious practical reality confronting the entire working class. A new international practice and movement of the working class must emerge from this objective situation. The international program of our movement will find ever more numerous points of support in the struggles of the working class.

Thus, our perspective, based on a realistic appraisal of the world situation, is imbued with optimism. We have never approached history subjectively, as the radicals invariably do. History does not owe us anything, and, therefore, cannot disappoint us. We seek to understand the objective forces which find expression through its movement, and, through such an understanding, transform our party into one of the most powerful of those motivating forces. The proposal which we are making is based, in the final analysis, on a recognition of objective historical processes that provide us with the opportunity to expand the influence and authority of the Fourth International.

We revere and treasure the heritage of the past. As we approach the end of this century, we remain convinced that Leon Trotsky towers over the political history of the 20th century. The study and assimilation of his writings remain the essential prerequisite for the rebirth of international socialism.

But it would be wrong, and even against the spirit of the Marxist method, to expect to find in the writings of Trotsky an answer to every practical problem which we confront. We must be bold and innovative in our practice. We must be prepared to take risks.

The response to this proposal is encouraging. It provides fresh proof that that the comrades of the SEP and the ICFIdespite all the difficulties we have passed throughare still determined to turn outward and find a fresh approach to the working class.

I believe that this proposal will open up enormous possibilities for the intelligent, creative utilization of what is our greatest strength, the cadre of this movement. Whatever the difficulties, solutions will be found. Comrades will find new outlets for their political experience and creativity, and therein lies the guarantee for the success of this initiative.
Today marks one year since the military seized power in Myanmar, imposed a state of emergency and arrested top leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD), including Aung San Suu Kyi. The military coup provoked widespread protests and opposition, which the military brutally suppressedwith almost 1,500 killed, either shot on the streets, tortured and murdered in custody, or simply disappeared. Thousands more were injured and at least 11,800 have been arrested.

Protesters shout slogans during a protest against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. (AP Photo)

In justifying its takeover, the military took a leaf out of Donald Trumps playbook. Coming less than a month after Trumps failed January 6 coup at the Capitol in Washington, the Myanmar military claimed the NLD had stolen the countrys national election in November 2020. Its claims were if anything more farcical than those of Trumpthe NLD won 396 of the 476 seats in the combined lower and upper houses while the militarys Union Solidarity and Development party gained just 33 seats. The new parliament was due to convene on the day of the coup.

In reality, the facade of democracy established under the 2008 constitution drawn up by the military was always paper-thin. A quarter of the seats in the parliament were reserved for military appointees, ensuring they could block any constitutional amendment. Moreover, the military retained control over key ministries, including defence and home affairs.

The democratic shift by the military was bound up with a deepening economic crisis. The military, which had been closely tied to Beijing, turned to Washington as a means of ending a crippling international sanctions regime. The Obama administration, which had launched its pivot to Asia to isolate and encircle China, embraced the military with open arms, ignoring the cosmetic character of the constitutional changes.

Suu Kyi and the NLD went along with the charade. Indeed, Suu Kyi formed a de facto partnership with the military that only became closer after the NLD won the 2016 elections and formed a government. The democracy icon toured the world touting investment in Myanmar and notoriously became the apologist for the militarys murderous operations against the countrys Muslim Rohingya minority that drove hundreds of thousands to flee for their lives.

However, the ending of sanctions failed to result in a flood of foreign investment and any significant economic boost. As it did internationally, the COVID-19 pandemic only intensified the economic and social crisis in Myanmar, leading to sharpening political tensions in ruling circles. The first wave of infections peaked at the time of the November elections in 2020, which revealed the lack of any significant popular support for the military.

Feeling the political ground moving from under their feet, the generals decided to dispense with the trappings of democracy and openly take power into their own hands. The coup, however, has resolved nothing. On every front, the junta confronts a worsening impasse, which cannot be overcome through its methods of brute force.

A second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hit Myanmar, peaking at over 5,000 daily infections in July 2021far higher than the 2020 wave. The countrys limited health system virtually collapsed under the impact, exacerbated by protests by doctors and medical staff, who treated patients in the community rather than state-run hospitals.

The overall number of infections since the start of the pandemic is more than half a million and the death toll is over 19,000. These official figures, however, are grossly understated due to the inadequacy of testing and treatment. While figures are currently substantially lower, the first cases of the highly infectious Omicron variant have emerged, and this is likely to lead to another huge surge in infections.

The pandemic and the nation-wide opposition to the coup have had a profound impact on the economy. According to the World Bank, it shrank by 18 percent in the financial year to September 2021 and is expected to grow by just 1 percent this financial year. The International Labour Organisation estimated that the country lost about 1.6 million jobs in 2021 and hours worked dropped by 18 percent compared to 2020. Hardest hit were agriculture, construction, garment, tourism and hospitality.

By a UN estimate, almost half the population now lives in poverty. The World Food Program estimates that by October 2021, the cost of a basic food basket was almost a third higher than in the month prior to the coup. Fuel prices have jumped by more than 70 percent. UNICEF estimated recently that 25 percent of the population needed humanitarian aid, including five million children.

The juntas vindictive treatment of its erstwhile political ally and apologist, Suu Kyi, is just a small indication of the far more brutal methods meted out more broadly. She has been convicted on trumped-up charges of incitement, breaking COVID-19 rules and illegally importing walkie-talkies, and sentenced to six years jail. She faces further charges of corruption, electoral fraud and violating the state secrets act, which carry far higher jail terms.

The juntas chief target has been the civil disobedience movement, which initially encompassed significant layers of doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers and other public servants who refused to work under military rule. This movement also began to draw in layers of the working class, including garment workers, dockworkers and others.

The political orientation of the NLD, however, was not to this incipient movement of the working class. The National Unity Government (NUG)in effect a government-in-exileformed by NLD ministers and parliamentarians who evaded arrest, along with leaders of various ethnic separatist organisations, turned to the major powers to pressure the junta to make concessions.

At the same time, the NUG encouraged young protesters to flee the cities and take up an armed struggle with training provided by ethnic militias that have been engaged in a war with the military for decades. It announced the formation of a Peoples Defence Force last May and its armed militia have engaged in various attacks on the military.

Significantly, the major powers, including the US, the EU and Australia, have been somewhat equivocal in their support for the NUG. Its offices have been established in some countries, including the US, UK, Australia and France, and high-level discussions have been held with its representatives, such as by Bidens National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan last October. However, the US and its allies have not reimposed blanket sanctions on Myanmar but rather on individual junta representativesan indication that Washington is seeking to pressure the military into a new accommodation.

China similarly has not thrown its full support behind the junta, but rather held out its hand to the NUG, holding talks with its representatives. In September, Beijing chose not to support the juntas appointee to the UN, but did a deal with the US to maintain the seat for Kyaw Moe Tun, the ambassador pointed by the NLD government in 2018. In part, Beijings manoeuvring is aimed at neutralising the anti-Chinese chauvinism that has been whipped up by elements of the opposition in Myanmar, resulting in attacks on Chinese businesses.

A comment published last February on the World Socialist Web Site, titled How to fight for democracy in Myanmar, warned that the working class should place no faith in Suu Kyi and the NLD to defend democratic rights.

They represent a faction of the bourgeoisie in Myanmar whose political ambitions and economic interests have been trampled on by the military, which controls substantial sections of the economy. While the NLD wants to end or at least limit the militarys power, it is just as fearful as the generals of a mass movement of the working class that threatens the very basis of capitalist rule.

It is to the working class that those who want to fight for democracy have to turn to in the political struggle, not just for democratic rights but basic social rights as well. Such a fight cannot succeed within the framework of capitalism which, as the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, places profits ahead of all else, including health and lives, but requires the turn to a socialist perspective.
At least four people are dead and thousands are without power in the northeast United States more than 24 hours after Winter Storm Kenan unleashed record snowfall, heavy winds and blizzard conditions.

Over the weekend, some 55 million people along the US East Coast were under a winter storm watch. On Saturday, the National Weather Service (NWS) identified that the storm had undergone a meteorological process called bombogenesis, more commonly referred to as a bomb cyclone.

Near-whiteout conditions during the peak of the storm in Seekonk, Massachusetts on January 29, 2022 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The NWS further warned: The combination of heavy snow rates and strong winds will produce dangerous blizzard conditions across portions of the Mid-Atlantic and New England coasts, from Virginias Eastern Shore to eastern Maine, where Blizzard Warnings are in effect. Travel in these areas will be nearly impossible today due to whiteout conditions.

The noreaster was boosted by warmer-than-average ocean temperatures off the eastern coast fueled by climate change, which aided in intensifying the storm, producing stronger winds and more precipitation than previous storms. Record snowfall was recorded in several states, including reports of over 30 inches of snow in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In Boston, nearly two feet of snow fell in less than 36 hours while below-freezing temperatures were recorded throughout south-central Florida, threatening fruit and vegetable crops.

In Nantucket, Massachusetts, the cyclone produced coastal flooding and wind gusts as high as 83 mph, compounding difficulties in restoring power. At least 115,000 people throughout New York and Massachusetts lost power on Saturday according to PowerOutage.us. As lows dropped to the teens and single digits, with winds gusting over 35 miles per hour, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reported that as of Sunday evening, at least 16,000 people were still without power.

As of this writing, at least four people have died because of the storm, all of them from Long Island, New York. Robert Doroski, 77, died Saturday morning after slipping and falling into a swimming pool while he was trying to shovel snow, which deposited as much as two feet in the area according to local reports.

Two other men died in Syosset, Nassau County, in separate incidents on Saturday. Syosset Fire Department first responders were unable to revive a 75-year-old man who collapsed outside as he was shoveling. Later that day, a 53-year-old man was found outside his home unresponsive, with a shovel lying beside him.

A 2011 study observing injuries and medical emergencies associated with shoveling snow found that the activity was responsible for about 11,500 injuries a year, roughly100 of which are fatal. Research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows an increase in the chances of injury and death with an increase in snowfall and duration.

Reporting on the findings, the Washington Post noted that after snowfalls of more than eight inches, hospital admissions were 16 percent greater than on snow-free days, and 34 percent more deaths were recorded from heart attacks.

The fourth reported death was an elderly woman who was found in a hotel parking lot in Uniondale, New York, by a snowplow driver. Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman told NBC New York that while an official cause of death has yet to be determined, it appears the woman suffered a medical emergency and due to the blizzard conditions, was unable to get to a hospital.

Even prior to this weekends storm, frigid winter temperatures apparently claimed the life of Tyler Lopresiti-Castro, a 20-year-old student at the State University of New York (SUNY) Oneonta.

Lopresti-Castro was found lying outside a City of Oneonta bus garage on the pavement by employees shortly before 7 a.m. in what Oneonta Police are saying is a cold weather-related incident. According to the NWS, it was 14 degrees Fahrenheit when Lopresti-Castro was found lying on the pavement in jeans and a sweatshirt.

Wednesday was the first day of classes for students returning to SUNY Oneonta from their winter break. A member of the 20192020 track team, Lopresti-Castro was a junior who was working toward a degree in accounting.

While the capitalist press presents the question of deaths from weather or exposure as natural events or tragic accidents, nothing could be further from the truth. These deaths are the result of the capitalist systems subordination of all aspects of society to the further enrichment of a tiny few.

Just as it is more profitable for the ruling class to let the coronavirus rip through the population, killing more than 900,000 in the US so far, money and resources that should be spent on safeguarding infrastructure from the effects of climate change and protecting the population from predictable weather events are instead funneled into, and wasted on, the financial oligarchy.

While 10 individuals increased their net worth by $500 billion in 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released data last month showing that at least 688 people died in major weather and climate disasters in the continental US. This figure is a drastic undercount, as the NOAAs figure only includes events that caused more than $1 billion in damages.

As a report from BuzzFeed News makes clear, though, even the 688 figure is not accurate. While the NOAA claimed only 688 people died from all major 2021 climate-related disasters, BuzzFeeds analysis showed that last years winter storm in Texas, which knocked out power for millions of Texans, alone resulted in 755 excess deaths. Presented with the figures from BuzzFeed, the NOAA acknowledged that there may be hundreds of additional deaths.
Canadas Conservative official opposition and much of big business and the corporate media have seized on the Freedom Convoya far-right protest ostensibly demanding the scrapping of the federal governments vaccine mandate for cross-border truckersas a battering ram to shatter all remaining public health measures against COVID-19. This, as Omicron infects, hospitalizes and is now killing Canadians in numbers never before seen in any of the pandemics previous four waves.

The scene as the trucker convoy arrives in Ottawa. (Source: Twitter/@bennyjohnson)

As the Freedom Convoy made its way from Western Canada to Ottawa last week, the hard-right premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan rushed to endorse it and pledged to quickly eliminate all remaining anti-COVID-19 measures. Business groups, such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, amplified their demands for the immediate reopening of the economy. The media, meanwhile, accorded the Convoy blanket coverage, depicting it as a genuine grassroots protest. No matter that almost 90 percent of all truckers are vaccinated, and the Convoys initiators and organisers are far-right activists who espouse viciously anti-democratic and racist views that are anathema to the vast majority of the population.

Emboldened by this ruling class support, the most rabid and determined of the far-right elements who ran amuck in downtown Ottawa last weekenddefying public health restrictions, threatening journalists and invading a homeless shelterhave encamped themselves in Parliaments environs and are vowing not to disperse until their demands are met.

The threat of political violence now looms over Canadas capital.

With unruly far-right activists and Convoy vehicles clogging the streets around Parliament Hill, police are urging people to stay away from the citys downtown core.

Canada Unity, the far-right group that initiated the convoy of independent owner-operator truckers, has publicly called for the unelected Governor-General and Canadas appointed Senate to join with it to usurp the powers of the elected government and abolish all anti-COVID-19 measures.

On Sunday, Canada Unity spokesperson Patrick King told the National Post that Freedom Convoy organizers have contingency plans in place should police try to shut the protest down. You pushed the wrong group of people, he declared. A former leader of the now defunct far-right Yellow Vests and Western separatist Wexit Party, King is a proponent of the white nationalist population replacement canard. In a rant against COVID-19 public health measures last month, he declared, The only way this is going to be solved is with bullets, reports PressProgress.

Convoy supporters have openly compared their actions to the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol, which was a key element in Trumps attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and establish a presidential dictatorship with himself as Americas Fuhrer.

Trump has hailed the Freedom Convoy as an example for all Americans, as has his acolyte Jim Jordan, the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who in July 2020 was the target of a far-right would-be assassin, was moved by his security detail from his Ottawa residence to an undisclosed secure location.

Thus far, police have bent over backwards to be accommodating to the far-right protesters. No doubt one reason for this is that sections of the police are themselves sympathetic to their virulently anti-working class aims. But demands for an end to the protest, including from inconvenienced businesses, whether by police action or gestures of goodwill, i.e., capitulation, will undoubtedly soon grow. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has already declared that the protesters have overstayed their welcome.

On Monday, Trudeau, who has been forced into self-isolation after himself testing positive for COVID-19, rejected suggestions he meet with Convoy representatives, saying he would not go anywhere near protests that have expressed hateful rhetoric and violence towards their fellow citizens.

Should there be a violent clash between police and the far-right protesters, it can be anticipated that many of the ruling class elements who promoted the Convoy will seek to blame the government and use the furor to shift politics still further right. This could take several forms, including changing the governments personnel, whether by replacing Trudeau with his deputy, the anti-Russia war hawk, Chrystia Freeland, or engineering the minority governments fall in Parliament.

Whatever the immediate outcome of the crisis sparked by the far-right Convoys effective occupation of downtown Ottawa and besieging of parliament, it speaks to an unprecedented social and political crisis of Canadian capitalism.

For the past two years, the Trudeau Liberal government has overseen the implementation of the ruling classs profit before lives back-to-work/back-to-school pandemic policy. At the same time, it has funnelled hundreds of billions into the financial markets and the coffers of big business to protect profits and investor wealth. Since winning re-election as a minority government last September, Trudeau and his Liberals have all but eliminated pandemic relief for working people and integrated Canada still more fully into the incendiary US military-strategic offensives against Russia and China.

Yet powerful sections of the ruling class are dissatisfied. They are demanding an even more aggressive policy against the working class, beginning with the immediate abandonment of all measures to impede the spread of the virus, and a more aggressive assertion of Canadian imperialist interests overseas.

Sensing their own isolation and fearing the incipient growth of social opposition, these ruling class elements have brought forward the far right and incited an extra-parliamentary movement in an attempt to intimidate working people.

Saturdays protest brought together a wide range of right-wing extremist political forces, including a far-right faction of the Conservative Party sympathetic to Trump, Maxime Bernier and his ultra-right Peoples Party of Canada, and outright neo-Nazi and fascist groups. Far-right and fascist symbols, including Nazi swastikas and Confederate flags, were prominent at the demonstration. Participants defaced monuments, threw rocks at paramedics, and flouted public health regulations as they invaded the Rideau Centre, a nearby shopping mall.

Threats of violence were issued against an event commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting, when a right-wing extremist and self-professed admirer of Trump and Frances Marine Le Pen massacred six people on January 27, 2017. Fearing for their safety, organizers of the commemoration called it off.

Almost as extraordinary as the aggressive and arrogant behaviour of the far-right crowd was the timid kid-glove treatment they received from the police. A police spokesperson declared late Saturday that not a single arrest had been made. Although reports claim that criminal investigations are ongoing into who urinated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, only one arrest related to last weekends ruckus has been made to date.

The authorities decision to let these far-right dregs run rampant through downtown Ottawa stands in stark contrast with their response to left-wing and working class protests. In 2010, when tens of thousands demonstrated peacefully in Toronto against the G20 summit, they were brutally beaten, kettled and abused by 7,000 heavily armed police officers in full battle gear. Police deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray as they arrested over 600 people. Many were detained in small makeshift holding pens akin to cages.

With Saturdays protest still in full swing, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe positively referenced the Freedom Convoy as he announced the dismantling of all remaining public health measures in his province. The Conservatives doubled down on their support for the far-right protesters Monday, with deputy leader Candice Bergen telling the House of Commons that they were patriots and that she had met with protest leaders Sunday night.

The media has played a no less pernicious role. The hard-right National Post and Toronto Sun carried glowing reports of the convoys progress across the country. Even state-funded broadcaster CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) gave a political platform to Tamara Lich, a far-right activist and member of the Western separatist Maverick Party who heads the protests GoFundMe campaign, to assert that no extremists would be tolerated.

If, following last weekends events, some media outlets are now toning down their support, it is only because they recognize that the violent far-right movement they have conjured up will prove increasingly difficult to control.

The ability of a few thousand far-right protesters to bring downtown Ottawa to a standstill for days cannot simply be explained by the support they have received from the most right-wing sections of the ruling elite. The ostensibly left New Democrats and the trade unions have played a pivotal role in helping create this state of affairs, through their systematic sabotage of all working class opposition to the Trudeau governments criminal profits-before-lives pandemic policy.

The New Democrats have propped up Trudeaus minority Liberal government since the 2019 election, including by helping to pass the multibillion-dollar bailouts for the banks and big business in early 2020. The trade unions have strangled efforts by educators, food processing workers, autoworkers and others to oppose life-threatening conditions in their workplaces and collaborated with governments at all levels in enforcing reopening policies. Recent months have witnessed an upsurge of workers struggles and often in open rebellion against the union bureaucracy. But the pro-capitalist unions stranglehold over the working class has yet to be politically broken. It is this that has left the way open for a vocal minority of far-right thugs with backing from sections of the ruling elite to play an increasingly oversized and menacing role in official political life.

Workers across Canada must take the events of recent days as a serious warning. The fascistic far right does not have a mass base of support, and its pandemic policy of mass infection and death is widely opposed. However, unless the working class takes up an independent political struggle to break the power of the financial oligarchy over all aspects of social and political life, the ruling elite will press forward with its fascistic program of herd immunity, which will mean mass infection and death in perpetuity. Opposition to this can only come from a mass movement led by the working class and guided by a socialist and internationalist program.
After more than 30 years of service in Nebraska's 5th District Court, Judge Robert Steinke is retiring.

He was appointed to the bench in September of 1991 and has served the 5th Judicial District -- primarily Platte County -- since then. His last day is Wednesday, Feb. 2.

"I'm now dealing with lawyers who are the sons and daughters of lawyers who appeared in court when I first started my career. I thought maybe it was time to consider retirement before I reached the third generation," Steinke said, chuckling. "And, when another friend of mine...retired this last year...he called me and said, 'You know, if you work until Dec. 1, you will be the longest-serving district court judge in Nebraska.' That also made me think a little bit about whether or not it was time to move on in life."

Steinke grew up in Merrick County, which -- along with Platte, Boone, Butler, Colfax, Hamilton, Nance, Polk, Saunders, Seward and York counties -- is a part of Nebraska's 5th District. The path that led him into law started around the time he was getting his undergraduate degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).

"I probably started my legal career basically because two of my better friends in college, as undergraduates, told me they wanted to go to law school and they encouraged me to do the same," Steinke said.

Before that, Steinke was considering a master's in business administration, but the decision to pursue law has clearly worked out for Steinke. After earning his law degree at UNL and practicing general law for 12 years in Columbus, Steinke decided to apply for a vacant judge position.

"I have always enjoyed the challenge of trying to unravel and solve the many legal puzzles that are brought before the court," Steinke said. "...I have been incredibly blessed throughout my career with wonderful support staff...and the support of my family."

Steinke remarked that he has had just two court reporters throughout his tenure as a judge -- first Kathy Habben and then Kelli Scheffler.

"They have been the greatest two court reporters you could ever ask for," Steinke said. "By the same token, throughout my 30 years on the bench I have worked with only one clerk of the Platte County District Court."

That would be Marlene Vetick, who Steinke said is an outstanding clerk and has made his job easier.

"It has been my honor and privilege to work with Judge Steinke," Vetick said in a Monday email to the Telegram. "He is truly the definition of 'honorable.' His demeanor both inside and outside the courtroom, towards litigants, attorneys and court staff have always been one of respect and courtesy. He is diligent and thoughtful in his work. I have been very fortunate to have had the pleasure of his mentorship for all these years. He will be greatly missed not only by our office, but throughout the judicial system as well."

Deputy Platte County Attorney Jose Rodriguez, who has worked alongside Steinke since 2016, also spoke highly of him.

"In my experience, Judge Steinke is one of the best district court judges in Nebraska. His rulings have always been fair to both parties in any case before his court, and he has a statewide reputation for being one of the most scholarly judges in Nebraska," Rodriguez said in a Jan. 27 email to the Telegram.

A Jan. 6 Nebraska Judicial Branch press release on Steinke's retirement noted that he leaves the bench having received the highest honor given to judges by the Nebraska Chief Justice; in 2002, he was awarded the Distinguished Judge for Service to the Community for his leadership in the Nebraska High School Mock Trial program.

"It's a great honor to have served the citizens of Nebraska, in particular those of the 5th Judicial District, throughout my career," Steinke said.

Molly Hunter is a reporter for The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at molly.hunter@lee.net.

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The rising toll of COVID-19 infections, hospitalisations and deaths being caused by the profit-driven let it rip program inflicted by Australias federal, state and territory governments is deepening the political disgust toward the entire parliamentary establishment.

Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison [Credit: AP/Kiyoshi Ota]

This week, the Australians Newspoll became the latest media survey to indicate collapsing public support for Prime Minister Scott Morrisons disintegrating Liberal-National Coalition government. But such polls provide only a distorted view of the underlying political crisis.

Since December, the pandemic has become far worse than ever in Australia and many other parts of the world. Nearly 2.2 million peoplealmost 10 percent of Australias populationhave been infected in 2022 so far and almost 1,600 have died.

This disaster is not the result of mistakes by governments as Morrison claimed today. The pandemic is raging into its third year because of the opposition of the corporate ruling elite and its governments to the measures needed to protect the population and eliminate the virus.

The bipartisan National Cabinets insistence on letting Omicron loose is bringing to a new level the breakdown of the countrys two-party system, on which capitalist rule has rested throughout most of the past century.

The reopening of schools and universities, despite every government, both Coalition and Labor, admitting the certainty of new infection outbreaks, is intensifying the anger and opposition among educators, parents, students and other working people to the deliberate live with the virus program.

One measure of the underlying historic crisis is that if the Morrison government survives until the looming federal election, which must be held by Mayand that is not certainit will be the first government to last for a full parliamentary term since the 2007 landslide defeat of the long-hated Howard Coalition government.

With little popular support for a Labor Party-led government, except in the negative sense of wanting to oust the Coalition, there are mounting fears in the ruling class that any election will result in an unstable, minority government, unable to overcome working-class discontent and opposition.

In its editorial yesterday, the Murdoch medias Australian raised the spectre of a chaotic hung parliament, with [Labor Party leader] Anthony Albanese as prime minister. The newspaper declared: The last thing Australians need as the nation claws its way back to full recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic is political instability.

The editorial referred to evident support for pro-climate independents. But the real concern is that the recoverywhich means the removal of all health safety measures in order to further boost profits and billionaire wealthcould see the disaffection and turn toward a socialist perspective, which is fought for only by the Socialist Equality Party.

The Newspoll confirms that the Morrison governments ratings have fallen dramatically since Omicron was allowed to spread in December. Support for the Coalition has dropped to 34 percent, its lowest level since 2018, when Morrison ousted his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull. According to the Australian, no government has ever recovered from such a low result so close to an election.

Labors primary vote lifted three points to 41 percent, equalling its highest result since 2018. Yet that was primarily because Newspoll forces uncommitted voters to opt for one party or another. A previous Resolve poll, published by the Guardian, estimated the uncommitted vote at 27 percent, pointing to the wider political alienation.

According to Newspoll, the Greens, who want to join a Labor coalition government, barely moved, rising one point to 11 percent, the anti-immigrant Pauline Hansons One Nation Party stagnated on 3 percent, and independents and minor parties fell two points to 11 percent.

By the polls calculations, this produced a two-party-preferred lead for Labor of 5644 over the Coalition. This is the largest margin for the official opposition since September 2018, and a six-point blowout on the 5347 recorded in the final poll of 2021, published on December 6.

That would suggest Labor could win an election with a sizeable majority, assuming a uniform swing to Labor from the 2019 election. But Labor lost that seemingly unlosable election. Its vote fell to an historic low of 33 percent, despite gaining ground in affluent electorates, because working-class people did not believe its phony rhetoric about providing a fair go against big business.

Morrisons net satisfaction ratings plummeted 11 points to minus 19, his worst ranking since February 2020 following that summers bushfire disaster. But there is no enthusiasm for Labor. Albanese, who has had negative approval ratings since becoming Labor leader in 2019, could only record a net satisfaction level of zero.

Parliament is scheduled to resume next Tuesday with Morrisons government in even greater disarray than when it shut down parliament in the first week of December. Already then the government was on its knees, beset by internal rifts and unable to pass key bills through parliament unless it had Labors backing.

Another senator, Sam McMahon from the Northern Territory, deserted the government last Friday, vowing to sit as an independent. That brings to 10 the number of Coalition or ex-Coalition MPs who could vote against the government on various measures, mostly on a far-right basis, and to 13 the number departing at the election, including six ministers.

Infighting is also wracking the Liberal Party in Morrisons home state of New South Wales (NSW), where the party has not yet nominated candidates for six key seats. Factional chiefs this week rejected a plan by Morrison to parachute in hand-picked nominees.

Parliament itself has become almost unworkable. The government is virtually shutting it down, only scheduling seven sitting days this month, then a three-day budget session starting on March 29. The government had hoped to call an early election in March, but the outrage over Omicron has shattered those plans, resulting in a lame duck parliament that can barely function.

Fuelling the popular disgust is the fact that in most states and territories, including Queensland and Western Australia, governments won re-election by posturing as protectors of the population from the pandemic, only to then join the National Cabinet roadmap to live with the virus.

Adding to the crisis is the prospect of even holding an election amid the ongoing pandemic. During the past week, the Australian Electoral Commission has warned of lengthy queues at polling stations and the likelihood of heavy postal voting, which could delay the declaration of election results.

For the working class, the burning problem is that Labor provides no alternative. In fact, Labor and its trade union partners have enforced the Morrison governments policies throughout the pandemic, from backing the handouts of more than $400 billion to the corporate elite to the brutal economic reopening drive.

That unity is epitomised by the daily close collaboration between the Coalitions NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, a detested right-wing figurehead, and his Victorian counterpart, Daniel Andrews. Together, they are dismantling COVID-19 safety measures and forcing teachers and students back into classrooms in order to get their parents back into workplaces, for the sake of corporate profit.

Labor is only criticising the Morrison government from the right, for not going far enough to subsidise businesses and meet their demands for rapid antigen tests as a means of pushing workers back into production. At the National Press Club last week, Albanese again pleaded for the support of big business, vowing to use the pandemic crisis to implement another wave of pro-market economic restructuring, deepening that inflicted by the Hawke and Keating Labor governments and the unions from 1983 to 1996.

Labor also has lined up completely behind the Coalitions frontline role in backing the Biden administrations provocative confrontations with China and Russia, raising the danger of a nuclear World War III. Yesterday, on Melbourne radio 3AW Albanese reiterated Labors complete agreement with the government on all the US allegations against China and declared that he stood with Taiwan against Beijings supposed increasing military threats.

Amid the pandemic disaster, soaring enrichment of the wealthy at the expense of the working class, and war drum-beating, Labor and the Coalition joined hands last August to pass anti-democratic electoral laws designed to deregister parties with no members in parliament. The escalating political crisis underscores the necessity for the campaign being waged by the SEP against these laws as a naked attempt to prop up the existing parliamentary parties and stifle popular rising discontent, which has been intensified by the disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic has dramatically worsened the poverty of millions of Germans. This is the message of this years report of the German Paritatische Wohlfahrtsverband (Paritatische Welfare Association), which highlights the rise in poverty. According to the report, the poverty rate in the country had trended continuously upward since 2006, reaching a new highpoint with the appearance of the pandemic. This unprecedented situation is exacerbating the plight of billions worldwide who already live below the subsistence level.

According to the Wohlfahrtsverband, the poverty rate reached a new high in 2020 of 16.1 percent. In absolute figures, this means that 13.4 million Germans lived in poverty in the first year of the pandemic, 200,000 more than a year before. Never before has a higher poverty rate been measured in the surveys of the German Paritatischer Wohlfahrtsverband.

Bottle deposit collector, a common sight in Germany (Bild: Sascha Kohlmann / CC BY-SA 2.0)

A clear picture emerges when one considers the poverty rates of the individual German states. The prosperity gap between the wealthy states of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg and the rest of Germany has consolidated and even widened. While the two southern states show the lowest poverty rates, Bremen shows the highest, followed by Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. In relative terms, this means that in Bavaria more than one in nine people are officially afflicted by poverty, in Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt one in five and in Bremen more than one in four.

Provisional measures and reduced-hours working allowancesloudly proclaimed by the governmentneither prevented massive income losses nor the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. As a result, the unemployment rate increased from 5 to almost 6 percent in 2020. One in five people was affected by income losses, mainly among the gainfully employed. The self-employed, whose poverty rate increased massively during the pandemic, stand out particularly in the report.

Households with three or more children and single parents are most severely affected by poverty: 40.5 percent of all single-parent households and 30.9 percent of households with multiple children are poor. Also disproportionately affected by poverty are the unemployed (52 percent), those with low educational qualifications (30.9 percent), those with an immigrant background (27.9 percent) and those without German citizenship (35.8 percent). Women have a higher poverty rate (16.9 percent) than men (15.3 percent). The difference between the sexes increases with age.

Living disproportionately in poverty are children and adolescents (20.2 percent) and young adults up to the age of 25 (26 percent). The reason for the high level of poverty among young adults is the low wages of trainees and students. The poverty figures for pensioners are also strikingly high at 20.7 percent.

The unemployed rate rose from 8 percent in 2019 to 8.7 percent in 2020. There was likewise a sharp increase in unemployment among the self-employed, up fully 4 percent in the first pandemic year, with an overall rate of 13 percent. According to a survey of the working population conducted by the Hans Bockler Foundation referred to in the poverty report, 37 percent of self-employed and 44 percent of the solo self-employed workers surveyed reported a loss of income during the pandemic.

The number of self-employed people receiving a monthly income below 1,500 increased immensely. Meanwhile, the total number of self-employed fell by hundreds of thousands, far more than in previous years. Reduced hours allowances and other various aid programs only partially counteracted mass insolvencies and unemployment and did not prevent income losses from exacerbating poverty.

Among the labor forceboth employed and unemployedthe Hans Bockler Foundation found pandemic-related financial losses for nearly every second person. This affected people with lower incomes more than those with higher incomes.

A grave development is evident in the number of unemployment payment recipients. In 2020, more than 1 million Germans received short-term unemployment benefits, hundreds of thousands more than the year before. The rate of those receiving social welfare for jobseekers (long-term unemployment) was 8.3 percent in 2020.

Statistically, the long-term unemployment rate and the poverty rate are strongly interrelated. The income of people receiving social welfare benefits is determined and limited by standard rates, which, however, do not protect against poverty and fall below subsistence levels. A large segment of the poor lies at or just above the welfare limit.

The pandemic disproportionately burdened the already difficult lives of the poor in several ways. First, access to social assistance was reduced. Support from job centers, food banks and free school meals was commonly cut. Access to emergency facilities was likewise restricted. In addition, Germans must pay for masks and hygiene products themselves, an additional financial burden for those on low incomes.

The homeless have been hit particularly hard by the governments profit-before-life policies. According to estimates by homeless assistance services, 256,000 people did not have an apartment lease in 2020. About one-fifth of them were living on the streetsa situation worsened by the life-threatening pandemic. Institutions that offered assistance had to reduce their shelter and counseling services. Homeless and low-income people lost access to public spaces that provide shelter, sanitation and water.

The Wohlfahrtsverband accuses the outgoing government of massive poverty policy failures. It had done virtually nothing in 2020 to alleviate the misery of those living in poverty, especially those receiving Hartz IV social security or basic old-age benefits. Renaming the Hartz IV system citizens income (Burgergeld)as envisaged by the incoming coalition governmentwill not help those affected by poverty, the report states. What is needed is an increase in the standard assistance rates.

However, the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP) are pursuing a deliberate policy of class warfare. During the pandemic, they put profits before lives and well-being and transferred hundreds of billions to the banks and super-rich. This money is now to be squeezed back out of the working class. Just days ago, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (Free Democratic Party, FDP) announced in the Bundestag that the government was working to return to the rule of the debt brake (balanced budget) of the Basic Law. The goal is to reduce the German debt ratio, he said.

While the living conditions of hundreds of thousands are constantly deteriorating, poverty and unemployment are increasing, and the number of riots against pandemic restrictions is rising, a small financial aristocracy is amassing astronomical fortunes. According to the latest Oxfam report, the 10 richest individuals in Germany have increased their cumulative wealth from about $144 billion to about $256 billion since the beginning of the pandemic. This increase alone is close to the total wealth of the poorest 40 percent, or 33 million Germans.

The incoming coalition government is determined to continue the disastrous policies of the outgoing Grand Coalition because they serve the same class interests. A fight against unemployment, poverty and mass death in the pandemic must eliminate its cause, capitalism, and base itself on a socialist movement of the international working class.
The Southern Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees are holding our next meeting on February 6 at 2 pm CST. We urge all educators, students and parents throughout the South to register today and invite your coworkers, family and friends.

Last Sunday, the Southern Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees (SERFSC) held a regional meeting to discuss the wave of student and teacher walkouts across the US and Europe, the impact of the disastrous spread of COVID-19 in schools, and the need for an immediate switch to remote learning. We reviewed the increasingly desperate and authoritarian attempts by the government and school districts to hide the spread of COVID-19 and keep schools open as daily new cases continue to break records and deaths from Omicron are set to exceed those from Delta.

CPS students protest outside of CPS headquarters [Credit: WSWS Media]

Our joint committee believes that an international, unified mass movement is necessary to carry out a struggle against the herd immunity policies of the ruling elites in the US and globally. To this end, we affirmed the need to widely expand the network of rank-and-file committees into all districts and schools throughout the South.

The SERFSC give our full support to and stand in solidarity with the teacher and student walkouts and strikes in the United States and Europe and call for them to be expanded into every city, country and continent.

In the US, the primary reason that a nationwide walkout has not been organized to stop the dangerous school reopenings is because the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) have systematically isolated local strikes and sickouts, while playing the key role in pressuring teachers to accept the most minimal mitigation measures as justification for going back into unsafe schools.

Our own region illustrates the fact that the unions work to divide us. In East Baton Rouge, the local NEA chapter (the EBRPAE) called a one-day sickout under pressure from rank-and-file teachers. But the local AFT chapter (the EBRPFT), condemned the sickout. In Birmingham, it was the local AFT chapter (the BFT) that called a sickout, while the Alabama NEA chapter refused to mobilize its members in support. In neither case did the national organizations give support to, let alone announce, the local sickouts on their websites or social media pages.

We affirm that the unions are not the means to carry forward our struggle to save lives. We must take matters into our own hands, independently of the unions, and build our own organizations, the rank-and-file committees.

From Tennessee, to Alabama, to Texas to Virginia, our experiences in the classroom refute the politicians hollow concerns and lies that learning loss and students mental health are the reasons for keeping schools open in person. With record numbers of our coworkers out sick, our schools are scrambling to put any warm body, as one teacher put it, in front of the class, whether or not they have experience. In other cases, our students are being herded in auditoriums with multiple other classes, where no instruction is provided.

Additionally, multiple states in our region have either banned or severely curtailed remote learning options, so when students have to isolate or quarantine, or the entire school shuts down because of an outbreak, the students are not able to receive any instruction at all.

Our students are also suffering from the ongoing anxiety and fear about contracting COVID-19 and spreading it to their families. They see their classmates fall ill one by one and worry whether they are next. Countless of them have been infected with a virus that can cause debilitating long-term symptoms.

We also discussed the scandalous development that amidst record infections, hospitalizations and a rising death toll, the federal government is trying to reduce COVID-19 data reporting. We condemn the decision by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop requiring hospitals to report daily in-hospital COVID-19 deaths, which goes into effect on February 2. This sets a dangerous precedent for states and municipalities to further erode the publics awareness of the spread and impact of the disease.

This comes at a time when child cases and hospitalizations are soaring. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, over 1.15 million children were infected during the week ending January 20, including nearly 380,000 in the South alone. Last week, another 808,013 children were officially infected, including almost 240,000 in the South. At least 45 children died from COVID-19 over the past two weeks, which is known to be an undercount because multiple states do not report deaths by age group.

The move by the HHS to stop counting the daily hospital deaths is intended to conceal the mortal threat that COVID-19 poses to us. Multiple states in the South have already drastically curtailed COVID-19 reporting. At the beginning of January, Tennessee reduced reports from daily to weekly, while Florida did the same last summer. Obscuring the data in this way emboldens the efforts to minimize the danger of COVID-19, propagated by the media, the far-right and the entire political establishment, providing cover for the ruling class to force workers back to work.

We also want to sound the alarm about the increasing use of police state measures to keep schools open. Oklahoma recently approved unmasked and armed police officers to substitute in classrooms. Arizona has enlisted the National Guard to fill in for sick teachers. In Broward County, security was called in to block exits in the schools to prevent a student walkout against unsafe conditions due to COVID-19, while the district threatened the student protesters. Just as there is no limit to the number of deaths the capitalist class is willing to accept to protect its profits, it is prepared to use any means necessary to keep schools and workplaces open.

In response to these developments, we raise the following demands, in addition to our previously specified demands:

The reversal of policies that allow police and national guardsmen to be substitute teachers. Police and military have no place in our classrooms!

That HHS immediately reverse its decision to end mandatory daily death reports from hospitals.

That the federal government, through HHS and CDC, require all states, municipalities and hospitals to submit daily death and case reports, and that the public have access to this information in an easily accessible and comprehensible manner. We have a right to know exactly how many people, including children, are contracting and dying of COVID-19 each day.

In addition to our demands, we also call on students who have entered into a struggle for their lives to turn to the working class for support. Pleas to the politicians and school boards will fall on deaf ears. But calls for support among workers in the auto, health care, logistics, food service and other industries will be eagerly taken up. The entire working class is suffering under the compulsion to risk our lives or lose our livelihoods.

We also encourage students to become involved with the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, which is fighting to unite students and workers in a common struggle internationally.

We urge educators and parents throughout the South to reach out to our committee, to attend our next meeting on February 6 at 2 pm CST, and to take up the call to build a committee in your district.
The UK is preparing to double its existing troop presence in Eastern Europe to reinforce US-NATO military provocations against Russia.

Britain has indicated it will deploy 1,200 troops to Estonia and Poland this week, including paratroopers and Royal Marine mountain and arctic warfare specialists. They will be equipped with Apache helicopter gunships and Deep Fire missile systems, as well as electronic warfare and cyber units from the Royal Signals and the Royal Marines' specialist Y Squadron.

There are already more than 100 troops providing training in Ukraine, in the most frontline role in the escalating war danger on Russias border. But Britains main concentration is in Estonia, where it already has 900 troops in a battle group established in 2017 following the installation of a pro-US regime in Ukraine. The Enhanced Forward Presence also includes multinational battle groups in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces James Heappey are updated on the situation in Ukraine at the Ministry of Defence by the Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin and Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Charles Stickland, CB, OBE (left). 26/01/2022 (Picture by Andrew Parsons /No 10 Downing Stree/FlickR)

A Type 45 destroyer and an offshore patrol vessel will be stationed in the Black Sea and an additional RAF squadron will be deployed to Cyprus to patrol Bulgarian and Romanian airspace. The Prince of Wales aircraft carrier has been placed on standby. A Light Cavalry Squadron of around 150 people is already deployed to Poland.

The plans were the focus of repeated bellicose statements by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his key ministers over the weekend. Johnson told reporters he was sending a clear message to the Kremlin that Russia must not choose a path of bloodshed and destruction by invading Ukraine. The UK was demonstrating that it was able to support our NATO allies on land, at sea and in the air and would stand with our NATO allies in the face of Russian hostility.

Earlier last week he threatened that an invasion of Ukraine would be painful, bloody and violent and many Russian soldiers wont come home.

Johnson was to speak by phone to President Vladimir Putin Monday night, with his spokeswoman boasting, The prime minister has been deeply engaged on this issue throughout and was one of the first world leaders to raise concerns about Russian hostilities in a speech at Mansion House in November, along with Nord Stream 2. He had, moreover, a close personal relationship with Ukrainian President Zelensky and had spoken to US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and others about this issue on numerous occasions.

The call with Putin fell through because Johnson was required in Parliament following the arrival of the inquiry report into partygate.

Johnsons relentless self-promotion is part of his effort to counter the crisis over partygate by placing himself at the forefront of the US campaign of provocations and a raft of right-wing domestic measuresabove all the ending of pandemic restrictions. He is to visit Ukraine today.

His appeal is to a Tory Party united in support of warmongering over Ukraine, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace set to go to Moscow for talks after Truss wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, Moscow's campaign against Ukraine and fellow democracies is undermining the very foundation of European security. And so, it is vital we face down the clear and present threat posed by Russia.

Also in the Telegraph, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey warned that Putin could be days away from giving the order to invade.

Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Commons defence select committee, described Russia-Ukraine tensions as our Cuban missile crisis moment, and we must not blink.

The UK is also threatening sanctions targeting those close to Putin, with Truss identifying any company of interest to the Kremlin and the regime in Russia' as Putins oligarchs. This pledge, made amid similar threats from the US, follows weeks of complaints by Washington that no economic measures against Russia would be effective while London remains a global centre for its investors.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov promised retaliatory measures if Russian companies are targeted, saying the statement from London was very worrying and demonstrates a fair amount of unpredictability on the part of London and is a cause for serious concern for international financial structures.

Washington was seemingly less convinced of the UKs intentions than Moscow, with a US State Department source telling The Times, The fear is that Russian money is so entrenched in London now that the opportunity to use it as leverage against Putin could be lost.

The UKs other service to Washington is the waging of a campaign pillorying Germany for a lack of resolve in dealing firmly with Russia. Treasury minister Simon Clarke encapsulated the Johnson governments message of how much more reliable an ally London was for the US, telling Sky News, Brexit Britain is one of the foremost opponents of the actions of the Putin regime If you look at the EU, it is countries like Germany that are dragging their feet in the response to this crisis. We are the ones tightening this sanctions regime, making sure we support our Nato allies and standing up to Putin in a way that is, frankly, leading the continent rather than following it.

This mixture of anti-German and anti-Russian rhetoric finds expression across the media political spectrum, with the Guardian/Observer writing Sunday regarding the German Chancellors Social Democrats, No party in the Bundestag has used Germanys historic crimes as a cover for expanding ties with Russia as much as Scholzs and the Spectator declaring that If Germany has come out of its dugout at all, its playing the wrong game Berlin needs to step up to the mark. At the moment it is letting the side down.

Nowhere does the Tory drumbeat for war find a more enthusiastic echo than in the Labour Party. Even as its MPs proclaim their outrage over drinks parties at Number 10, they jostle for position as warmongers in chief. Many of their attacks on Johnson over partygate have centred on its impact on his leadership in the campaign against Russia. We need to see leadership from this prime minister and frankly at the moment his prioritys saving his own skin, complained Stephen Morgan MP.

In an interview last month with Politico, following his visit to Kyiv, Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey said it was an embarrassment that with Europe facing the most serious security crisis since the Cold War, Britain has a non-functioning prime minister. Johnson was ducking and diving to try to deal with the mess that hes created around Downing Street parties and was incapable of playing the statesman role and offering the British leadership thats required.

Last week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer grandstanded over his insistence that Johnson make the tough decisions on sanctions, cutting Russian access to the international financial system and stopping the illicit money laundromat in the City of London. This was only days after he took to the pages of the Telegraph January 21, to demand that the UK stand firm against Russian aggression.

He wrote, I must commend the work of the Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace, on this matter. He has worked hard to bring people together, written with moral clarity on the nature of Russian aggression and ensured that the UK continues to support Ukraines ability to defend itself through military aid.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States of whipping up tensions and seeking to provoke a Russian invasion of Ukraine, in a debate at the United Nations Security Council over the mounting crisis in Eastern Europe.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, left, addresses the United Nations Security Council, before a vote, as United Staes Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield listens, at right, Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The discussion about a threat of war is provocative in and of itself, he said. Turning to US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, he continued, You are almost pulling for this. You want it to happen. Youre waiting for it to happen, as if you want to make your words become a reality.

Nebenzia was referring to the obvious desire of the Biden administration to use a manufactured war scare to divert social tensions at home, but he said nothing about the domestic political considerations driving the foreign policy of US imperialism.

More than 900,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic erupted two years ago, and there is mounting popular anger over the continued drive by corporate America and its two political parties to force through a reopening of schools and workplaces to maximize the extraction of profit from the working class.

He continued, criticizing the statements from US officials about imminent war, which have destabilized the economy of Ukraine. This despite the fact that no threat of a planned invasion into Ukraine from the lips of any Russian politician or public figure over all of this period has been made. No threat has been made. All along weve been categorically rejecting such plans, and we are going to do this right now. Everybody who claims the opposite is misleading you.

He went on to argue that the Western powers had instigated the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, when they provoked and supported the 2014 bloody anti-constitutional coup bringing to power nationalists, Russophobes, fascists, Nazis.  They are making heroes out of people who fought on the side of Hitler, who destroyed Jews, Poles, Ukrainians and Russians.

He challenged the US delegation, Since our American colleagues convened us today let them show us any evidence apart from this narrative that Russia is intending to attack Ukraine. We do recall this since the Secretary of State Colin Powell in this very room waved around a vial with an unidentified substance as so-called evidence of the presence of WMDs in Iraq. They didnt find any weapons but what happened in that country is well known to one and all.

Ambassador Nebenzia went on to indict the hypocrisy of the United States and its allies, who criticized Russias movement of troops on its own soil, while remaining silent about American military operations all over the world. The Americans hold the record for having troop presence outside their territory, he said sarcastically. American troops, advisers and weapons including nuclear weapons are frequently deployed thousands of kilometers, and were not even talking about the fact that the military centers of the US have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in places where they were supposed to be bringing peace.

He cited the routine US use of force against other countries without the authorization of the Security Council and widespread deployment of American military forces around the world: There is incontrovertible evidence on the internet that there are 750 US bases in more than 80 countries of the world. The overall number deployed of US troops, this is 175,000 troops deployed abroad.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was clearly on the defensive when she addressed the Security Council, arguing that the Russian ambassador was engaged in false equivalency. She claimed, there are no plans to weaken Russia, although such plans are openly discussed in the American media and in the U.S. Congress.

She claimed that it was the movement of Russian troops and Russias demands for security guarantees, such as an assurance that Ukraine would not join NATO and would not host foreign troops, that were provocative, not the US campaign of war hysteria.

Thomas-Greenfield made no effort to rebut Nebenzias sallies about US lies before the invasion of Iraq or its massive international military deployment, since the facts are unassailable and make nonsense of US declarations that no country has the right to overthrow the government of another or redraw international borders.

Chinas ambassador restated his governments opposition to a Security Council session on Ukraine and rejected the US claim that Russian troop movements posed a threat to international peace. Given Russian assurances that there are no plans for military actions and Ukraines assertions along similar lines, What we urgently need now is quiet diplomacy but not microphone diplomacy.

While all 15 members of the Security Council spoke in the course of the two-hour debate, only a handful echoed US charges of imminent Russian aggression against Ukraine. Most of those who spoke called for continued negotiations and backed the so-called Normandy process, in which leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine have ongoing discussions about the conflict which began with the 2014 right-wing coup in Kyiv.

The US and Britain pushed for the Security Council debate on Ukraine to be held on January 31 because Russia takes the rotating presidency of the council for the month of February and has already scheduled a review of ongoing negotiations through the Minsk process, an effort to bring about a ceasefire in the civil war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces, which has gone on for nearly eight years.

The Council voted to schedule the debate, a procedural motion which is not subject to the veto of the five permanent members. The vote was 10-2 with three members abstaining. China and Russia opposed holding the debate, while Kenya, India and Gabon abstained. Nine votes were required for passage.

The continuing tensions were manifested when four countries which had been invited to attend the Security Council session were invited to speak: Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Lithuania. Three made rabid anti-Russian speeches, while Belarus is aligned with Moscow. Nebenzia left the council chamber as the Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya started to speak.

Despite the blistering indictment of US hypocrisy and lies delivered by its UN ambassador, the Russian government of President Vladimir Putin has no other policy than seeking some sort of accommodation with the imperialist powers, seeking to play off France and Germany against the United States. Representing the interests of the thoroughly corrupt Russian billionaire oligarchs who built their personal fortunes out of the collapse of the Soviet Union, through massive theft of state resources, Putin can make no popular appeal to antiwar sentiment either in the US, Europe, or for that matter, within Ukraine and Russia.

US-Russia talks will continue Tuesday with a scheduled telephone discussion between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. There are also ongoing discussions in the Normandy framework and back-channel discussions between Ukraine and Russia.

NATO military maneuvers directed against Russia continue at an accelerated pace, including US Air Force refueling practice conducted over northern Finland, as well as Russian naval maneuvers in the Black Sea.

There are also press reports in Russia and elsewhere saying that, in the wake of Ukrainian President Zelenskys statements criticizing the campaign of war hysteria on the grounds that it was causing panic and damaging the economy of his country, there were moves to oust him. These were attributed variously to the US government or to fascist elements within the police and military forces, such as the Azov Battalion.
On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that erupted a month earlier in Wuhan, China, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Confirmed COVID-19 cases had reached 10,000, and all 220 deaths were still contained in China. Less than 100 infections were reported outside of China.

People wait in line to test for COVID-19 on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

The decision was taken after members and advisors of the WHOs COVID-19 IHR Emergency Committee (International Health Regulations) concluded that the virus posed a significant threat to the world. The PHEIC is the highest threat level that the WHO can issue based on agreed international health regulations.

In a statement issued by the WHO, after acknowledging Chinas tremendous effort in containing the epidemic, they warned that there had been cases reported in five WHO regions in one month (January 2020) and that human-to-human transmission had occurred outside Wuhan and outside of China.

Still, the WHO took an optimistic tone, writing, The committee believes that it is still possible to interrupt virus spread, provided countries put in place strong measures to detect disease early, isolate and treat cases, trace contacts, and promote social distancing measures commensurate with the risk. They then added, It is important to note that as the situation continues to evolve, so will the strategic distancing measures commensurate with the risk.

Two years later, Director-General Tedros said during a press conference last month that the situation remained alarming, and the PHEIC remained in effect. The emergency committee meets every three months to reassess the global crisis.

Aside from warning governments that the pandemic continues to pose a significant risk, the continued PHEIC declaration charges member states with reporting obligations. Therefore, the attempts by many countries, including the US, to end all contact tracing, tracking and isolation, the basics of any public health measures to stem community outbreaks of infectious disease, are illegal by regulations agreed to by all member states.

Additionally, there have been calls to discontinue PCR testing and rely on the less accurate and never-reported rapid antigen tests. In short, nothing will be done to bring the pandemic to an end. Attempts to declare it endemic are not based on any scientific assessment but driven by economic considerations.

Director-General Tedros, speaking at the 150th Executive Board meeting last week, said, There are different scenarios for how the pandemic could play out and how the acute phase could endbut it is dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last variant, or that we are in the endgame.

Indeed, the world is far from achieving victory against the pandemic. Death and misery continue unabated despite more than 10 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Every effort is underway to force the population to accept the continual spread of the coronavirus in their communities as an inevitable foregone conclusion.

However, the properties and characteristics of how the virus spreads and what spurs its mutation are known. Every conceivable scientific tool exists within humanitys grasp to stop the transmission of the virus and bring the pandemic to an end. The pandemic in perpetuity is a political construct and not informed by any scientific conception.

Globally, more than 377 million confirmed infections had been reported since the declaration of the PHEIC. There have been nearly 5.7 million deaths confirmed, and excess deaths exceed 20 million. Since the week ending March 30, 2020, deaths have remained essentially above 35,000 each week. Since the global surge in Omicron, the weekly death toll has climbed for five consecutive weeks, topping 59,000 (or around 8,500 each day).

In the US, the permanent epicenter of the pandemic, there are close to 910,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths so far. Despite the repeated celebrations in the media and by government officials that Omicron cases are rapidly turning down, hospitalizations remain at pandemic highs, and the daily average in deaths continues to climb, now at 2,572 per day.

Explaining the apparent dichotomy between a less virulent Omicron and a deadly Delta variant, University of Virginia critical care physician Dr. Taison Bell, speaking with NPR, explained that Omicron is milder in the same way that a hurricane can be milder than a tornado. The tornado may cut a more destructive path with high wind speeds, but the hurricane has a much bigger footprint.

Data compiled by the American Association of Pediatrics reveals that children have taken the brunt of the current infection surge, with more than 3.5 million infected just in January. Total confirmed infections for children now stand at 11.4 million, placing into context the significant impact Omicron has had on this age group in such a short time as they have been forced back into schools, which serve as superspreader sites for the disease.

COVID-19 hospitalizations for children and teens remain at an all-time high in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With an additional 18 more child deaths reported this week by the AAP, the total for 2022 has risen to 72. All told, more than 1,100 children have perished from COVID-19.

There has also been an unprecedented surge in the rise of croup and tracheitis among children. The Omicron infection of childrens narrow upper airways can cause their breathing to get obstructed and cause a characteristic barking cough. As pediatrician Dr. Jake Kane recently tweeted, Anyone who thinks this is nothing has never had to intubate an edematous pediatric airway with the diameter of a pencil!

On the other end of the age spectrum, residents of long-term care facilities have been culled by political decisions which have always placed profit above the well-being of the population, especially the most feeble and vulnerable. By the end of 2021, over 195,000 long-term care residents had died from the disease, accounting for 23 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the US. Over 1,000 residents have been killed this month despite high vaccination rates. According to a recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Cases and deaths in nursing homes are rising, generally mirroring current trends in the overall US, though rates have recently started to rise faster in nursing homes.

Aside from death, the health impact of the pandemic on the population has been considerable. As has recently been reported, children are at higher risk of diabetes after a COVID-19 infection. Long COVID affects upwards of 10 percent as the virus and the accompanying inflammation it causes directly injures the nervous system.

While heart disease and cancer have remained the two leading causes of fatalities, COVID-19 has consistently taken third place. The age-adjusted death rate for Americans has risen almost 17 percent during the pandemic, the most significant rise in more than 75 years.

Still, as Kim Tingley noted in her recent New York Times opinion piece, COVID deaths were not the only factor that contributed to that rise.  The death rates from cardiovascular disease that is, strokes and heart diseaseincreased by nine percentage points and from Alzheimers by 8.7 percentage points. Deaths from diabetes increased nearly 15 percentage points. The CDC estimates that 64,000 more people than expected have died from Alzheimers since the onset of the pandemic.

These are a byproduct of the repeated waves of infection that overwhelm hospital systems and prevent the elderly and those with multiple medical problems from accessing health care. A November study conducted by the COVID-19 taskforce at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a department of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, found that when ICU bed capacity across the country reached 75 percent, 12,000 additional deaths from all causes could be expected over the intervening two weeks. When that figure hit 100 percent capacity, the death toll skyrocketed to 80,000.

These statistics are not unique to the US. Everywhere the pandemic has been allowed to surge, the populations health has deteriorated. Life expectancy in the US has plummeted by two years in 2020. A similar fall was seen in Russia. A drop of more than half a year in Canada was the most significant decline observed since 1921.

The trajectory of the pandemic under the herd immunity approach pursued by the capitalist ruling elite is not towards endemicity but a pandemic in permanence. The SARS-CoV-2 variants have been evolving to evade immunity, including that offered by the vaccines. As Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam recently wrote on his social media account, Merchants of herd death oversold immunity. People are being reinfected immediately again after Omicron infections. We have the data: Both laboratory experiments and actual cases!

The World Socialist Web Site and International Committee of the Fourth International have consistently adhered to sound scientific principles in our call for eliminating COVID-19. The working class must take action to stop further mass infection and death and put an end to a pandemic which has already claimed more lives and produced more casualties than the First World War.
A large majority of young people in the United States feel pessimistic about the future, and furthermore, that the US state and its political institutions do not represent their vital interests, according to a new poll.

New York students during the walkout (Credit: @ShawnGarcia_NYC)

The survey, conducted online between January 2 and January 6 by the Alliance for Youth Organizing in collaboration with Civiqs, polled 1,936 registered voters ages 17-39 on questions pertaining to their feelings about the direction of the United States, as well as their thoughts about national political figures and parties. The results were weighted by race, sex, age, education and party identification.

The poll found a growing mood of discontent with the current trajectory of the US, with 66 percent describing themselves as pessimistic about the future of the country. This mood was especially pronounced among the younger Gen Zers (those aged 17-25) with 69 percent reporting a pessimistic attitude about the future.

Over half, 56 percent, of those polled reported feeling frustrated with politicians in Washington, while 37 percent described themselves as angry.

Both of the capitalist parties are viewed negatively, with 55 percent reporting a negative view of Democrats in Congress and an even higher number, 69 percent, viewing the Republicans negatively. Just 36 percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of President Joe Biden. Just over 30 percent of respondents said they viewed Donald Trump positivelyon the flip side, 61 percent of young people had a very unfavorable opinion of the ex-president.

The overwhelming majority, 75 percent, of respondents said that they felt politicians in Washington prioritized the interests of the wealthy, and this included 52 percent of those who identified themselves as Republicans.

The results of the poll are an indication of the enormous anger and opposition that is brewing against the US capitalist state and its institutions. It is a damning indictment of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party, which was brought to power largely because of popular anger over the policies of the fascistic Trump.

Significantly, 53 percent of those polled believe that Congress should more vigorously investigate the attempted fascist coup of January 6, 2021. Among young African Americans, this number was even higher, at 69 percent.

Workers and youth who voted for Biden, with expectations that he would repudiate the policies of Trump, have been given a hard lesson in what democracy truly entails in modern capitalist society. The Biden administration has in many respects continued and escalated Trumps assault on the working class.

The homicidal herd immunity policies of Trumpallowing for the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 among the population in order to safeguard corporate profitshave reached a new level under Biden. Confronted by the collapse of its mitigation strategy due to the exponential spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the Biden administration has shifted to a policy of living with COVID-19.

In practice this means that the US state has surrendered the population to the pandemic, which is now as a matter of policy set to continue indefinitely. The results have been an unmitigated catastrophe: over half a million new infections per day on average, with the seven-day average of deaths standing at over 2,500 per day. Faced with this mass death, the response of the US government has been to move towards the ending of daily case and death counting.

When asked about which COVID-19 impacts most worried them, the majority of respondents, 55 percent, said they were most concerned about the ongoing threats to their health and the health of their loved ones. This would indicate that the claims made by the corporate press, that the population and especially the youth are eager to throw caution to the wind and live with the deadly virus, are patent nonsense.

A sense of the true feelings of the youth can be seen by observing the remarkable wave of protests and walkouts conducted by high school students nationwide.

The growing outrage of the youth is rooted deeply in the experiences through which the population has passed over the past decades. Young people are responding to the enormous objective crisis of American capitalism, which has been brought to a fever pitch by the destabilizing effect of the pandemic. The youth are coming of age in a society of staggering social inequality, many of them saddled with debt, many others with no prospects for improving their economic position.

They have grown up under conditions marked by wanton despair expressed in the epidemic of drug overdoses and suicide and inundated in violence and brutality meted out by the police. Even the schools have become potential killing fields; the phenomenon of school shootings, which the ruling class has always met with indifference, has been a staple of American life for decades.

And how could it be otherwise, in a nation that has been involved in a permanent series of criminal wars for the past 20 years, that so many young people are growing hostile to the political order? The pandemic has accelerated and intensified each of these degenerate tendencies. Beset by an intractable social and political crisis and threatened by growing domestic unrest, the US ruling class is now seeking a way out of its predicament by intensifying its war drive against Russia, with potentially incalculable consequences for all of humanity.

One year of the Biden administration has made it abundantly clear that not a single step forward can be taken under the wing of the Democratic Party, the party of the imperialist bourgeoisie. It will be necessary to dispel illusions in the two-party system among young people and to reject the lies of charlatans such as Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, whose purpose is to channel the progressive aspirations of young people and redirect it behind the Democratic Party.

Young people who want to fight against social inequality, war and the threat of fascism must make a clean break with all of the existing institutions of bourgeois society and turn towards the only social force that has in its vital interests the addressing of the ills facing humanity: the international working class and its revolutionary vanguard.
Weather Alert

...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers in Indiana... Wabash River from Lafayette to Montezuma. White River at Elliston and Edwardsport. .Multiple rounds of rain over the last few days is bringing minor flooding along lower portions of the White River and upper portions of the Wabash River. Additional rainfall Thursday evening through Friday evening should keep portions of the White and Wabash above flood stage through the weekend. 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 NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL TUESDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Wabash River at Montezuma. * WHEN...Until Tuesday afternoon. * IMPACTS...At 18.0 feet, Montezuma agricultural levee is overtopped. Fourteen hundred acres of low bottomlands flood. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 9:45 PM EDT Wednesday the stage was 13.1 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to rise above flood stage late tomorrow evening to a crest of 18.0 feet Saturday evening. It will then fall below flood stage early Tuesday morning. - Flood stage is 14.0 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood &&
Digital Artist Pak to Release the 'Censored' NFT Collection with WikiLeaks Founder

Julian Assange. Source: video screenshot, BBC News / YouTube

Famed digital artist Pak, also known as Murat Pak, aims to collaborate with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to release a new non-fungible token (NFT) collection dubbed 'Censored'.

'Censored' is "about you," Pak said on Twitter, adding that the collection would consist of "two parts, a dynamic 1/1 and a dynamic open edition."

The collection is slated to go live on February 7, which is also Assange's court date.

Jan 24 - Julian Assange won the right to ask the Supreme Court to block his extradition to the US, allowing his lawyers 14 days to make their case.



Jan 24 + 14 days



Feb 7



A *dynamic* @muratpak collection / an unknown outcome for one mans future.



The mind wonders.  thankyou collard   (@thankyoucollard) January 30, 2022

The name "Censored" aligns with Assange's reputation as a publisher of large datasets of censored or restricted official materials involving war, corruption, and spying. With this objective, he founded WikiLeaks in 2006 as an international non-profit organization publishing news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources.

While details of the collaboration and its objective are largely undisclosed, it can be considered as a renewed push to benefit the WikiLeaks founder in his effort to be set free.

In January last year, a judge ruled that Assange should not be sent to the US to face espionage and hacking charges. However, she also refused him bail, stating that he "still has an incentive to abscond from these, as yet unresolved, proceedings," as The Guardian reported.

Assange had been held at Belmarsh prison in south-east London for 18 months leading to that ruling after he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he sought asylum for seven years.

Furthermore, he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for "his fight for human rights, democracy and press freedom," the Morning Star reported yesterday.

Meanwhile, in early December 2021, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) was formed in a bid to raise money to free the creator of the dark web marketplace Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht. The DAO, called FreeRossDAO, managed to raise over USD 4m worth of ethereum (ETH) during its first week.

Likewise, FreeAssangeDAO has been formed to assist the WikiLeaks founder with his legal efforts. Notably, the DAO and the NFT collection seem to not be connected.

____

Learn more:

- NFTs in 2022: From Word of the Year to Mainstream Adoption & New Use Cases

- NFT Performance Art: Corporations Could Capitalize On Protest



- Coinbase Gives Preview Of Its NFT Platform, Reddit Tests NFT Profile Pic Feature

- Vitalik Buterin Discusses 'Large & Underexplored Design Space' of Non-Transferable NFTs



- Removing LooksRare's USD 8.3B in Wash-Trades, OpenSea is Still the Dominant NFT Marketplace

- IRS Says It Is Fighting Mountains of Crypto & NFT Fraud and Celebrity Shills
Services Trade

Average of exports and imports.

Source: WTO-UNCTAD-ITC estimates.

The third quarter services trade growth has kept pace with growth in trade in goods (24%) in the same period.

World transport services, in particular, rose 45% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2021, and by 12% compared with the same period of 2019. Recovery was boosted by soaring consumers' demand for goods due to lockdowns, the shift from services requiring physical proximity, and fiscal stimulus measures in advanced economies. The surge in demand coupled with pandemic-related restrictions resulted in port bottlenecks, misallocation of containers worldwide, and delays, which led to a strong increase in shipping rates. In the third quarter of 2021, Asia's transport exports rose by 71% year-on-year, and by 46% compared with the third quarter of 2019.

By contrast, the recovery of air passenger transport continued to lag, due to restrictions, remaining well below pre-crisis levels. Global international travellers' expenditure in the third quarter of 2021 grew 54% year-on-year from a very low base in 2020. However, it remained 52% below the value in the third quarter of 2019, before the pandemic. European countries saw the lowest declines (-32%) compared to pre-crisis levels as travel restrictions were eased in the continent in the summer and cross-border movement was facilitated by COVID-19 vaccination passes. Asia travel exports, in comparison, were 81% below pre-pandemic values as several countries remained closed. Cambodia, the largest exporter among least-developed countries (LDCs), saw travellers' expenditure fall 97%. LDCs' travel exports in the first half of 2021 were 67% below their value in the same period of 2019 according to preliminary estimates.

Transport, Travel and Other Services trade

Average of exports and imports.

Source: WTO-UNCTAD-ITC estimates.

Other services  such as construction, recreational, legal and financial services  increased on average by 15% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2021. As a group, these services were less affected by the pandemic, with exports contracting by only 1% in 2020 on an annual basis.

Other services by main sub-sector

Cumulative exports January-September 2021

(% change over same period in 2019)

Source: WTO estimates based on WTO-UNCTAD-ITC data.

Computer services continued its impressive rise in January-September 2021, with cumulative exports up 34% compared with the same period of 2019. Rapid growth was recorded both in developed and developing economies: computer services exports increased 29% in the United States, 42% in Mauritius, 51% in Ireland, 63% in Ukraine, and 68% in Bangladesh.

Internet traffic peaked during the pandemic due to remote working, learning, entertaining as well as e-commerce. International Internet bandwidth expanded by an estimated 30% in the world in 2021 according to the International Telecommunication Union. Nevertheless, the value of telecommunications services fell by 4% in the first nine months of 2021 compared with 2019, reflecting steady declines in global prices, especially for bundled communication services.

By contrast, construction remains one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic. In 2020, world exports contracted by 18%. In the period January-September 2021, global construction exports were still down 12% compared with the same period of 2019. In the European Union and China, the largest builders, exports were down respectively by 19% and 4% compared with 2019. Rising prices of essential inputs which cannot be easily substituted  such as steel (which faced supply chain bottlenecks) and labour (which saw shortages)  resulted in delays or cancellations of building projects.

According to the latest figures, the cumulative value of services exports in the period January-November 2021 remained below 2019 levels in many economies, with the sharpest decline recorded in Australia (-35%). In Africa, Morocco's and Uganda's services exports were 20% lower than in 2019. By contrast, services exports from China increased by 37% and from the Republic of Korea by 12% supported by transport services. Other Asian economies such as Pakistan and India exported more than before the pandemic owing to computer services. European countries showed differing trends. Luxembourg's services exports were up 21% due to financial services while large tourism exporters in the region continued to see a contraction.

Cumulative services exports of selected economies

January-November 2021

(% change over same period in 2019)

Source: National data and Eurostat.

The latest trade statistics are presented here. More short-term trade statistics are available in the WTO Stats Portal. As the data are subject to frequent revisions, the statistics cited above are estimates as of time of publication.
JACKSON, Miss. (WTVA) - Historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in Mississippi are among those across the country that have received bomb threats.

"Bomb detection canines were called in to sweep the entire campus and to ensure the Bearcat Community was not in any imminent danger," Rust College in Holly Springs announced Tuesday morning.

Other schools also issued statements.

(1 of 3) JSU Alert: Jackson State University received a bomb threat this morning at 4:15 a.m. The Jackson Police Department and JSU Department of Public Safety have swept the campus and found the threat unsubstantiated. An all-clear has been issued.  Jackson State U. (@JacksonStateU) February 1, 2022

At least six HBCUs across the country received bomb threats Monday morning, The Associated Press reported.
Nearly three years after first considering a location in Carlisle, Kristin Messner-Baker opened the second location of her popular Harrisburg restaurant in Carlisle in 2021.

The Vegetable Hunter, located at 46 W. High St., was worth the wait.

Messner-Baker started looking for a second location in 2018, but delayed plans due to the uncertainty of the pandemic. Carlisle was high on the list for potential locations since it was close to home for the South Middleton Township resident and its 100% vegan menu would likely be popular in a college town.

The restaurant features both indoor and outdoor seating, and its bright, clean interior is accented with a wall-length mural. Seating near the front windows offers a view of the comings and goings on High Street.

Orders are taken at the counter where the cafe also keeps a helpful list of potential allergens to assist those with food sensitivities in making choices.

The menu kicks off with offerings from the Vegetable Hunters boutique brewery. The beers listed on a screen on the wall behind the counter are available in cans and crowlers, and draft beer and samplers are available to enjoy with a meal or with the cafes nachos, featuring tortilla chips topped with chipotle black beans, sour cream, house-made nacho cheese and creamy sriracha drizzle.

If beer isnt your style, there are four vodka or rum-based cocktails available.

The starter menu isnt extensive, but it doesnt need to be given the quantity and quality of the main menu. In addition to the nachos, you can choose from roasted Peruvian potatoes or a curried dal dip made from whipped lentils and pickled vegetables.

The eats menu, though, is absolutely the highlight of the Vegetable Hunter as it features original creations like the Super Food Protein Bowl alongside vegan takes on classic comfort food like the pulled pork sandwich made from lentils, carrots, onions and savory spices simmered in barbecue sauce. The cafes nacho hot dog, a Seitan hot dog with chipotle beans, nacho cheese, ketchup and mustard, was named among the top 10 vegan hot dogs in the United States by PETA last year.

One of the more popular menu items is a vegan take on the classic reuben made with eggplant, and there are a number of items that use tofu chicken as the main ingredient.

I settled on the Bahn Mi sandwich made with tofu, spinach, cilantro, pickled carrots, jalapenos and chili lime peanuts topped with sriracha mayonnaise. Despite the sriracha and the jalapenos, the sandwich isnt overwhelmingly hot; rather, the bits of jalapeno scattered throughout the sandwich give an extra kick every couple of bites without numbing your taste for the savory bits of tofu.

The sandwich was served with a choice of kale or chickpea salad. Even though my memory of chickpeas mainly consists of bland beans added to salads when I was a kid, I went with the chickpea salad. The salad is simple, but delicious with the chickpeas and spices covered with a generous portion of dressing.

For dessert, the cafe offers cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies that rank among the best Ive had, vegan or not.

To top off my lunchor maybe to stave off the inevitable afternoon drowsinessI tried the rose cardamom latte. The drink features two shots of espresso made from local roaster Denim Coffee, with steamed non-dairy milk. Rose syrup gives the drink its light sweetness while the cardamom adds a hint of spice.

Vegans visiting the Vegetable Hunter will find a cafe that centers their preferences in the menu items. At the same time, non-vegans wont even miss the meat if they decide to broaden their food horizons with one of their robustly-flavored sandwiches.

Either way, the arrival of the Vegetable Hunter is a win for local foodies and for downtown Carlisle.

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Information is from police reports and may be incomplete depending on the status of an investigation. Phone numbers are nonemergency.
Sen. Ted Cruz's comments come as other Republicans have criticized Biden's decision.
By Trend

Some 109 vehicles passed through Azerbaijans Gubadli customs post in January 2022 due to adverse weather conditions, the State Customs Committee (SCC) said, Trend reports.

The recent statement of the committees chairman Safar Mehdiyev on the amount of customs duties collected from vehicles that passed through the mentioned customs post last month (two million manat or $1.18 million) is being discussed on social media. The mentioned amount amount doesnt much differ from the one that was disclosed in December 2021.

The committee said that such slight difference is due to the small number of vehicles that passed through the Gubadli customs post last month.

The post was set up in Gubadli district after its liberation from Armenian occupation in the 2020 second Karabakh war.
Cumberland County last week issued its Magisterial District Reestablishment Report for 2022 to 2031, and while no district courts will close, some criminal and traffic cases on major highways will be covered by different courts.

In the report, which was made public Jan. 28 and will be available for public comment for a period of 30 days, the county would move all criminal and traffic cases generated by Pennsylvania State Police on Interstate 81, Route 581 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Carlisle, Middlesex Township, North Middleton Township and Lower Frankford Township to be filed with Magisterial District Judge Vivian Cohicks office in Newville.

The county would also move all criminal and traffic cases from State Police on the same highways in Hampden and Silver Spring townships to be filed with Magisterial District Judge Michael Sanderson in East Pennsboro Township.

The county said the changes were based on workload calculations from 2019 and should bring the districts within the 15% threshold for cases.

Cumberland County is required to participate in the reestablishment of magisterial districts every 10 years and is directly related to the federal Census. The county receives guidelines and statistics from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts to submit recommendations to that office for its district courts.

The report is available on the county website at www.ccpa.net, and comments regarding the report may be sent to District Court Administrator Melissa Calvanelli, 1 Courthouse Square, Room 301 in Carlisle, or emailed to mcalvanelli@ccpa.net with the subject line 2022 MDJ Reestablishment.

Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason

Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Michigan's Oakland University mistakenly told 5,500 students they won a $48,000 scholarship. Pictured is the Meadow Brook Hall on the campus of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan in 2007.
Just How Immersive Is Red Dead Redemption 2? We Put It To The Test!
Alabama commit Walter Bob Jr. will not sign with the Crimson Tide during the February signing period, his coach Matt McCullough told The Daily Advertiser.

Bob, a four-star defensive lineman, is attending Hutchinson Community College in Kansas instead and has been enrolled there since Jan. 7, McCullough said. He will be at the school for the next "two years to a year-and-a-half," before joining Alabama, according to McCullough.

He is at the school for academic reasons, according to McCullough. He added that Alabama had always known Bob would need to attend a junior college before joining the Crimson Tide.

At 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, Bob is the No. 38 defensive lineman in the nation and the No. 15 recruit in Louisiana at Acadiana high school, according to 247Sports Composite. He has been committed to the Crimson Tide since Feb 1. of last year.

More: Alabama football adds first class of 2023 commitment ahead of 2022 National Signing Day

More: Wilkin Formby's recruitment picking up as Alabama football, 9 more offer Northridge OL this month

More: Wilkin Formby and TJ Banks, hometown Northridge recruits, pick up Alabama football offers

When Bob committed to Alabama, he did not have any scholarship offers from Power 5 schools and had no ranking on 247Sports at that point.

After Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Pete Golding called to give him an offer, Bob committed to Alabama two hours later. He has since received offers from Florida and Penn State.

"We all broke down," Bob said at the time. "It was hard for us to get through it. Its just a blessing. Im speechless."

At Acadiana, Bob won back-to-back Class 5A state championships in his sophomore and junior seasons. The Rams lost in the semifinals of the tournament this season.

Bob was also teammates with four-star LSU signee Latterance Welch at Acadiana.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football recruiting Walter Bob to attend junior college
Mr. Goodbar can't catch a break. The Mexican gray wolf, who first garnered attention pacing along the border wall in November, was shot in New Mexico earlier this month.

Field biologists captured the injured wolf Jan. 26 and transported him by helicopter for treatment to the ABQ BioPark Zoo. Veterinarians amputated his right hind leg Friday, Jan. 28. Mr. Goodbar will continue his recovery in Albuquerque before being re-released into the wild.

The Mexican gray wolf is protected under the Endangered Species Act, but people shooting and trapping wolves have hindered efforts to recover the population. According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) data, 105 of the 185 Mexican gray wolf deaths in the wild between 1998 and 2019 were illegal mortalities, meaning the wolves were either shot or trapped.

Federal law enforcement will investigate the shooting. The maximum penalty for violating the Endangered Species Act is one year in jail and a $50,000 fine.

"It frustrates a lot of us to think that a wolf has been purposely injured by a person," said ABQ BioPark Zoo head veterinarian Dr. Carol Bradford, who operated on Mr. Goodbar.

Mr. Goodbars painful experiences illustrate the inhospitable world weve created for Mexican gray wolves and other vulnerable animals," Michael Robinson at the Center for Biological Diversity said.

More on Mr. Goodbar: Border wall thwarts Mr. Goodbar, a Mexican Gray Wolf, from Crossing into Mexico

Mr. Goodbar, a Mexican gray wolf, resting at ABQ BioPark Zoo on Jan. 31, 2022.

Mexican gray wolf survived one to two weeks on injured leg

Mr. Goodbar might be the most famous wolf in America. He paced along the U.S./Mexico border wall in Southern New Mexico for five days in late November before turning around. The section of border wall was constructed under former President Donald Trump, despite the opposition of environmental and human rights groups.

During December, Mr. Goodbar traveled north to New Mexico's Gila Wilderness.

Mr. Goodbar, a Mexican gray wolf, paced along the border wall in New Mexico from Nov. 23 to Nov. 27.

Mr. Goodbar was captured by field biologists Jan. 26 and arrived at the ABQ BioPark Zoo the next day. Veterinarians estimated the wolf was shot "one to two weeks" before his capture. FWS has not disclosed where in New Mexico Mr. Goodbar was shot or the circumstance of his capture.

Story continues

"He was captured as part of the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team's annual helicopter capture/count," said FWS Public Affairs Specialist Aislinn Maestas. "We cannot provide any location information as the incident is under investigation."

A Mexican gray wolf. The species was reintroduced to the United States in 1998 and Mexico in 2011.

"The muscle along his right leg was already starting to atrophy," said Dr. Bradford. "So unfortunately, he was probably out there between one and two weeks with that injury."

She said her team took X-rays of the leg and confirmed it was broken.

"Due to the severity of the injury, the best course of action would be to amputate that leg," she said.

Mr. Goodbar is now in isolation in Albuquerque and recovering from surgery. He will be re-released in 10 days to two weeks, once the incision has fully healed.

Dr. Bradford said her team assists FWS biologists when wolves need medical treatment. She said trap injuries are the most common ailments she sees in wild wolves at the Albuquerque facility.

"I encourage people to reach out to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program if a wolf seems to be a problem in their area," she said. "If they're worried about predation to their animals or their livestock, reach out for help with that instead of shooting them."

More: El Paso Zoo staff mourn Mexican gray wolf, Zephyr, which was euthanized due to age issues

Polly, a 14-year-old Mexican wolf, walks about her exhibit at the El Paso Zoo's new Chihuahuan Desert exhibit Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2014, in El Paso.

Mr. Goodbar the Mexican gray wolf on slow road to recovery

Both ranchers and federal agencies targeted Mexican gray wolves, nearly wiping the species out in the 20th century. In 1973, the U.S. government began protecting the wolves under the Endangered Species Act. The Mexican gray wolf was reintroduced to the United States in 1998 and to Mexico in 2011.

As of last year, there were 186 Mexican wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona. There are several dozen wild Mexican gray wolves in Mexico.

Low genetic diversity in the Mexican gray wolf population concerns biologists. The Center for Biological Diversity opposed border wall construction in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas because it cuts off wildlife connectivity for Mexican wolves and other species. Mr. Goodbar was the first Mexican gray wolf the organization observed that turned back at the border wall.

More: 'That is how you cause extinction': Border wall threatens desert ecology, conservationists say

Mr. Goodbar was born at a Kansas zoo and released into the wild in Arizona in 2020.

Robinson and Bradford said there are cases of wolves surviving for years after amputation. However, Dr. Bradford noted that because Mr. Goodbar's amputation was to a rear leg, his ability to breed could be affected.

When Mr. Goodbar is re-released into the wild, biologists and advocates will continue to follow the story of America's most famous wolf.

"Wolves can survive out there with three legs," Robinson said. "We hope he will do well."

More: It's time to return the wolf to Texas: Rick LoBello

Staff writer Martha Pskowski may be reached at mpskowski@elpasotimes.com and @psskow on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Mr. Goodbar, wolf known for pacing the Border Wall, shot in the leg
Shantell Fields, Lauren Smith-Fields' mother, speaks during a protest rally in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on Jan. 23. (Photo: via Associated Press)

Two Connecticut detectives have been suspended during an investigation into the handling of the cases of Lauren Smith-Fields and Brenda Lee Rawls  two Black women found dead last month.

Detectives Kevin Cronin and Angel Llanos were placed on administrative leave, according to a statement from Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim released Sunday. They are the subjects of internal affairs investigations for lack of sensitivity to the public and failure to follow police policy in the handling of the deaths. Their supervising officer retired from the department on Friday, per the citys statement.

I am extremely disappointed with the leadership of the Bridgeport Police Department and find actions taken up to this point unacceptable, the mayor said, expressing condolences to the families of the two women and saying it was an unacceptable failure that policies were not followed in regard to officer sensitivity for the death of a family member.

Smith-Fields, a 23-year-old Black woman, was found dead at her Bridgeport apartment on Dec. 12, 2021, after a date with a white man whom shed met on the dating app Bumble. Her family was not contacted by police about her death but found out from her landlord, reported NBC News.

Last week, her death was ruled an accidental overdose, but an investigation is ongoing. Relatives have called the probe racially insensitive, saying that police werent taking the investigation seriously and alleging that they failed to collect evidence from her place for weeks after she died.

Rawls, 53, was found dead in another Bridgeport residence on the same day. Her family said police never notified them about her death and have not taken her case seriously, reported Yahoo News.

To the families, friends and all who care about the human decency that should be shown in these situations  by members of the Bridgeport Police Department, I am very sorry, the mayor said.

Both deaths are under active investigation and were reassigned to other members of the Bridgeport Police Department, the mayors office said.

Story continues

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Indiana reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Sunday, Jan. 30, adding 79,545 new cases. That's down 19.4% from the previous week's tally of 98,650 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Indiana ranked 20th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 30.3% from the week before, with 3,451,287 cases reported. With 2.02% of the country's population, Indiana had 2.3% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 10 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Delaware County reported 1,185 cases and 11 deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 1,328 cases and seven deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 23,062 cases and 381 deaths.

Randolph County reported 366 cases and five deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 331 cases and two deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 5,537 cases and 134 deaths.

Henry County reported 554 cases and five deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 645 cases and one death. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 12,325 cases and 206 deaths.

Blackford County reported 167 cases and four deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 152 cases and one death. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 2,926 cases and 59 deaths.

Jay County reported 308 cases and two deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 253 cases and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 4,507 cases and 66 deaths.

Across Indiana, cases fell in 69 counties, with the best declines in Marion County, with 8,178 cases from 12,850 a week earlier; in Allen County, with 4,559 cases from 6,784; and in Lake County, with 2,033 cases from 3,462.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

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Indiana ranked 46th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 59.9% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 75.3%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.

In the week ending Sunday, Indiana reported administering another 79,827 vaccine doses, including 21,701 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 144,732 vaccine doses, including 47,216 first doses. In all, Indiana reported it has administered 9,013,636 total doses.

Within Indiana, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Gibson County with 2,941 cases per 100,000 per week; Scott County with 2,501; and Warrick County with 2,311. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Marion County, with 8,178 cases; Allen County, with 4,559 cases; and Vanderburgh County, with 4,085. Weekly case counts rose in 23 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Clark, Howard and Dearborn counties.

In Indiana, 550 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 525 people were reported dead.

A total of 1,604,072 people in Indiana have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 21,301 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 74,333,001 people have tested positive and 884,260 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

Indiana's COVID-19 hospital admissions falling

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, Jan. 30.

Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Last week: 3,534

The week before that: 3,994

Four weeks ago: 3,766

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Last week: 170,411

The week before that: 183,931

Four weeks ago: 147,900

Hospitals in 13 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 15 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 18 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Delaware County COVID cases increased by 1,185 last week
BOSTON  The last of three co-conspirators to plead guilty in the government corruption case against former Fall River mayor Jasiel Correia II is asking a federal court judge to further delay his sentencing date.

David Hebert, a Westport resident and owner of the real estate company Hanover Properties, pleaded guilty for his role in Correias plot to extort more than $600,000 from cannabis companies looking to do business in the city.

In the September 2019 plea agreement, Hebert pleaded guilty to one count each of extortion, extortion conspiracy and lying to investigators.

A political supporter of the former mayor and his landlord at one point, Hebert was most recently scheduled for sentencing on Feb. 16.

Fall River businessman David Hebert, who pleaded guilty to several counts of bribery and extortion, asks for another sentencing delay.

A joint motion filed by his defense attorney, R. Bradford Bailey, and U.S. Assistant Attorneys, Dustin Chao and David Tobin, requested an extension to sometime in May because Hebert is set to be a witness for the government in the upcoming trial of Correias former chief of staff, Gen Andrade. According to an online federal court docket, that trial is set for March 7.

Gen Andrade: Here's why the judge continued the trial of Jasiel Correia's chief of staff

Co-defendant David Hebert expected to take the witness stand during former chief of staff Gen Andrade's trial set for March.

Gen Andrade trial set for March 7

Last June, in an unexpected turn of events, federal court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock rejected a plea agreement between Andrade and federal prosecutors for her alleged role in extorting money from marijuana vendors, bribing Correia by giving him half her salary and lying to investigators.

Jury selection for her trial started Dec. 6, but was continued to March 7 after a witness for the federal prosecutors came down with COVID.

Heberts co-defendants in the extortion scheme, Tony Costa and Hildegar Camara, who also took plea deals with the government, are currently serving their house arrest sentences.

Delayed again: Jasiel Correia, headed to prison in New Hampshire, asks judge to stay free until March

Hildegar Camara enters the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston on Wednesday, July 21, 2021. .

Unlike Costa and Camara, who were witnesses for the prosecution in Correia's trial, Hebert was not called to the stand, although he was at one point on a witness list.

Story continues

Costa was ordered and has since paid more than $100,000 in restitution for pocketing bribe money from marijuana business owners.

As part of Heberts sentencing, he could be subject to surrendering $61,000 in forfeiture money to the court related to the marijuana extortion scheme.

During Correias month-long trial last May, business owner Matthew Pichette testified that he entered into a bribery agreement, brokered by Hebert, a longtime acquaintance.

Pichette testified he met with Hebert at the Old Firehouse Smoke Shop on Rock Street and was asked to give $25,000 to Correia's legal defense fund. Pichette said he eventually agreed to this $25,000 because, "I expected there was no other way to get the letters."

Correia II's prison report date

While Andrade awaits her trial, Correia was granted another delay by Woodlock to turn himself into the Federal Correctional Institution, Berlin in New Hampshire.

The third most recent delay was last Thursday, one day before Correia was to report to the Bureau of Prisons facility.

Woodlock ordered that Correia, who out on bail and outfitted with a GPS device, be free until and including Feb. 13.

The judge still has an outstanding decision to make whether Correia can stay out of prison pending his appeal of his criminal case.

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: Jasiel Correia co-conspirator seeks delay in sentencing
Cast has been set for Hot Milk, the feature directing debut of Rebecca Lenkiewicz, whose credits as a screenwriter include Ida, Disobedience, and Colette.

Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter), Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve) and Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) will lead the movie, which is an adaptation of Deborah Levys novel. The Spain-set story chronicles the complexities of a relationship between a singular mother and daughter.

More from Deadline

Rose (Shaw) and her daughter Sofia (Buckley) travel to the Spanish seaside town of Almeria to consult with the shamanic Dr Gomez, a physician who could possibly hold the cure to Roses mystery illness, which has left her bound to a wheelchair. But in the sultry atmosphere of this sun-bleached town Sofia, who has been trapped by her mothers illness all her life, finally starts to shed her inhibitions, enticed by the persuasive charms of enigmatic traveller Ingrid

Hot Milk was developed by Bonnie Productions together with Film4 and is produced by Christine Langan (The Lost King). Executive producers are Farhana Bhula, Ollie Madden and Daniel Battsek for Film4. The film is in pre-production and will start shooting in September 2022, in Almeria.

HanWay Films has picked-up worldwide sales rights and will launch the title at the European Film Market.

Best of Deadline

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sarah-jessica-parker_6 - Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max

HBO Max has revealed the trailer for And Just Like ThatThe Documentary, set to air Feb. 3. The documentary feature, which coincides with the shows finale episode, will take a behind-the-scenes look at the Sex and the City reboot, which has received a mixed response from fans.

This season may be ending, but were not done yet, HBO Max teased alongside the trailer, suggesting audiences may be blessed (or cursed) with a second season of the show, which follows Sarah Jessica Parkers Carrie Bradshaw navigating life in her 50s.

More from Rolling Stone

The documentary, directed by Fabien Constant, will include interviews with Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, Sara Ramirez, Mario Cantone, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Nicole Ari Parker, Karen Pittman, Sarita Choudhury, and Michael Patrick King. Costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago  who are responsible for Carries many insane millinery choices  will also be featured.

The first season of And Just Like That has been marred by controversy involving star Chris Noth, whose character Mr. Big was killed off by a Peloton in the premiere episode. The actor was cut from the final episode following several sexual assault allegations, which have surfaced in recent weeks.

In December, two women accused Noth of sexual assault in separate incidents that occurred over a decade apart. One woman alleged the actor sexually assaulted her in Los Angeles in 2004. The second woman alleged Noth sexually assaulted her at his New York apartment in 2015. A third woman, Ava, separately alleged Noth sexually assaulted her in 2010 when she was 18 years old and Noth was 55.

Actress Zoe Lister-Jones additionally accused Noth of sexually inappropriate behavior in an Instagram post, noting that he was consistently sexually inappropriate with a fellow female promoter. Noth has denied all of the allegations.

Story continues

The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false, Noth said in a statement to Rolling Stone. These stories couldve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago  no always means no  that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. Its difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I dont know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seTPvqvchs0?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]

Best of Rolling Stone
HARRISBURG  Pennsylvania is setting up four regional support sites with as many as 120 beds to help hospitals and nursing homes under strain from COVID-19, state officials said Monday.

The temporary sites will be located in existing skilled nursing facilities in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as in Blair and Clarion counties, and will allow hospitals to more rapidly discharge patients in need of long-term care.

Pennsylvania nursing homes have been reporting staffing shortages that forced many of them to stop accepting new residents, which in turn has prevented hospitals jammed with COVID-19 patients from discharging patients who require skilled nursing care.

Though pandemic-related hospitalizations are dropping in Pennsylvania, the state still has thousands of people in the hospital with COVID-19. Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter on Monday called it an acute situation."

COVID-19 hospitalizations remain at historically high levels and health care workers need some support to get through this current surge, she said.

General Healthcare Resources will supply clinical staff to the long-term-care support facilities under contract with the state, with workers to be recruited from outside Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania National Guard will provide nonclinical staffing. The support sites will be open about 90 days based on demand, officials said.

Separately, state-directed pandemic strike teams of health care workers have been deployed at two Philadelphia-area hospitals, while federal strike teams are working at hospitals in Scranton and York.
Intel will pique other businesses' interest in Columbus

A letter to the editor in the Jan. 28 Dispatch questioned the cost to taxpayers of tax abatements given to Intel as well as the costs to facilitate the infrastructure to accommodate the Intel facility.

A close-up photo shows Loihi, Intels neuromorphic research chip. Intels latest neuromorphic system, Pohoiki Beach, will be comprised of 64 of these Loihi chips. Pohoiki Beach was introduced in July 2019. (Credit: Tim Herman/Intel Corporation)

The letter also addressed the secrecy behind the negotiations to bring Intel to Ohio.

More: Letters: Intel deal leaves unanswered questions. The filibuster used to obstruct people's will

The Dispatch did an excellent job with several articles regarding the months that led to a successful outcome that will employ 3,000 as well as 7,000 in construction of the facility as well as many thousands in supplier-related businesses. More jobs will be added as retail expands in the area.

More: Here's how Ohio won a bid by Intel to build the world's largest chip factory

The fact is Ohio was a longshot to have Intel locate here. Many states were in competition with each other to attract Intel. With the announcement of the semi-conductor giant will certainly have other corporations ooking at Ohio in the future.

More: Vice president explains why Intel is ready to invest up to $100 billion in new Ohio sites

The costs of the infrastructure could also be financially helped if the House of Representatives passes the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act that the Senate passed in June of last year.

More: Ohio incentives for Intel's Licking County chip plant will top $2 billion

Ohio has vast resources all over the state that should attract more manufacturing with careers that pay well with the benefits to secure a stable workforce. The most important consideration now is to motivate students to seek degrees that they will use to attract more investment in the state.

Good job, Gov. Mike DeWine, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, and all those who worked so diligently to attract Intel!

George Morris, Circleville

Letters to the Editor

More: How to submit a letter to the editor for The Columbus Dispatch

President Biden to tap Supreme Court nominee who'll get him the most votes

Story continues

In the Jan. 27 Dispatch front-page story, "Supreme Court Justice Breyer ready to retire," we read much about Joe Biden's intentions for his nomination to replace him. And I am sure that in the days to come we will hear much more on this subject, particularly the reasons why Biden has nominated this particular person for this important position.

President Joe Biden

More: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to step down, giving Biden a chance to make his mark

Really, what we will hear and read will be the rationalization behind Biden's selection. Now, my dictionary defines "rationalization" as: "to attribute one's actions to rational and creditable motives without analysis of true and especially unconscious motives ..."

To rephrase this into more realistic terms, many people prefer a more recent definition: rationalization is the stating of impressive reasons for doing something one has already decided to do for unimpressive reasons."

More: Biden promises Black woman nominee to SCOTUS as Justice Breyer announces retirement: recap

Biden's reason for his nomination for the Supreme Court Justice is simple: It will get him and the Democrats the most votes in the upcoming elections.

Jack E. Willer, Columbus

No surprise Dems spent more money presenting fair maps to court

Absolutely infuriating.

Republican and Democratic politicians have spent twice as much litigating proposed voting maps as creating them.

More: Ohioans' bill for congressional, statehouse redistricting: $1.1 million and growing

Not surprising, Democrats have spent more on software and consultants to draw and analyze fairer maps which abide by our Supreme Court's recent decision that they should fall more in line with citizens' historic voting patterns, while Republican politicians have spent more tax dollars defending unlawful maps of their own.

Syd Lifshin, Columbus

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Letters: Will Intel's opening attract other corporations to Columbus?
An elderly Colorado man has been formally charged with the 1978 murder of a 15-year-old girl who was killed on a family trip to San Francisco.

Mark Stanley Personette, 76, was arraigned in a San Francisco court Thursday on a murder charge for the death of Marissa Rolf Harvey some 43 years ago, the Associated Press reports. His lawyer, Adam Gasner, told Oxygen.com that he pleaded not guilty.

The arraignment came more than a month after he was arrested in Conifer, Colorado  southwest of Denver  a few days before Christmas, according to a December press release from the San Francisco Police Department.

Harvey was found strangled and raped in Sutro Heights Park one day after vanishing in March of 1978 during a family trip to San Francisco from New York. San Francisco police detectives re-opened their investigation into Harveys decades-old unsolved murder in 2020 and, they said, eventually used genetic genealogy to allegedly connect Personette to DNA found at the crime scene.

A San Francisco superior judge signed a warrant for Personettes arrest on Dec. 9, according to court documents previously obtained by Oxygen.com.

For more than four decades, Marissa Harveys family members have been relentless advocates to bring her killer to justice, and we hope this development in the case begins to bring a measure of healing and closure theyve been too long denied, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott stated in Decembers press release.

His office has encouraged other law enforcement agencies across the country to examine this case to look for any familiarities to their own unsolved cases.

"In the wake of this homicide suspects arrest, the San Francisco Police Department is requesting that law enforcement agencies within the United States thoroughly review their sexual-assault-related cold-case homicides involving young women to identify any other incidents in which Personette may be a suspect," they noted in their press release.

Story continues

Personette was previously indicted in 1980 on aggravated sexual assault charges related to the rape of a 16-year-old girl, according to the Courier-News.

Personettes attorney Adam Gasner told Oxygen.com in a statement that they expect to put on a robust defense.

"Mr. Personette has entered a not guilty plea to the charges," he wrote. "This is an extremely old case which is going to require a detailed and in depth defense investigation."

"As of right now its unclear what evidence from 1978 still exists and what cannot be located any longer," he added. "The defense is asking anyone with information about this matter to contact my office at adam (at) gasnerlaw.com."
With the Indiana Pacers down Domantas Sabonis, Isaiah Jackson knew he needed to have a strong performance on Monday, and the rookie did just that to lead his team to a win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Jackson produced a career-high 26 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots in the 122-116 victory. He went 12-of-19 from the field in 29 minutes of work in place of Sabonis, who was placed in the NBAs health and safety protocol on Monday.

In addition to Sabonis, the Pacers were also without Myles Turner and Malcolm Brogdon, which also opened the door for Terry Taylor (15 points, eight rebounds) and Duane Washington Jr. (16 points). They were commended afterward by head coach Rick Carlisle.

The contributions of Isaiah Jackson, Terry Taylor and Duane Washington were just tremendous tonight. It is so great to see, so heart-warming. Fouls have been an issue for Isaiah, he has been fouling out of games in 12-14 minutes. He had zero fouls tonight and had just an unbelievable effort with 26 and 10.

With the performance, Jackson became just the second Pacers rookie to record at least 25 points and 10 rebounds since Turner in 2010. He is the fourth rookie to reach those numbers in a game this season, joining Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham and Bones Hyland.

a night to remember for @IJackson22 first career start + first career double-double 26 PTS | 10 REB | 2 BLK pic.twitter.com/Mbg9vKk01E  Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) February 1, 2022

The start for Jackson on Monday was his first of the season. He had played sparingly this season prior to January but has seen a larger role as of late with injuries and players in the protocol. He was initially a bit nervous to start but eventually locked in.

There were a little nerves in the beginning but after you start hooping, everything just goes out the door. I know my guys needed me so I knew I was going to be there to step up and I contributed a lot today so Im just going to keep growing on that.

Story continues

With Sabonis out at least a few games, Jackson figures to continue to see a larger role with the Pacers. Despite not having minutes for him, the Pacers knew what Jackson was capable of providing and the 22nd pick showcased that on Monday.

This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

Related

Pacers: Duane Washington Jr. set franchise rookie 3-point record Rumor: Chris Duarte, Isaiah Jackson viewed as untouchable in trade talks 'He is a fearless guy': Chris Duarte brings dynamic scoring to Pacers

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Who doesn't love jumping on a plane to Florida to escape the misery of winter? There's the sun, the warmth, the beautiful Atlantic Ocean on one side and the warm Gulf of Mexico waters on the other side.

Before you dip a toe in that water, just know that Florida, once again, ranked No. 1 in unprovoked shark bites in 2021, according to Ed Killer, outdoors writer for the TC Palm.

In a Jan. 24 story, Killer highlighted data released by the International Shark Attack File (ISAF).

Chicks dig scars: Florida man gets bit by shark while surfing; Can't wait to get back in the water

A surfer paddles over several dozen small sharks near New Smyrna Beach, Fla.

Sharks being sharks

Shark bites are one of those one in a million occurrences. However, data released by the Gainesville-based organization revealed suggests that the rate may be a bit higher:

73: Unprovoked shark bites worldwide

47: Unprovoked shark bites in U.S. waters (ranked 1st)

28: Unprovoked shark bites in Florida (ranked 1st)

17: Unprovoked shark bites in Volusia County (ranked 1st)

51%: Surfing, activity when bit by a shark (ranked 1st)

11: Fatalities worldwide, 9 unprovoked

Researchers with ISAF, which is a division of the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History, scour media reports for news of shark bites, include reports from field researchers and verify with medical personnel the veracity of the information. The ISAF team investigated 137 alleged shark-human interactions in 2021 to confirm the 73 unprovoked bites and an additional 39 provoked bites.

"Unprovoked attacks" are defined as incidents in which a live human is bitten in the sharks natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark, according to the report. "Provoked attacks" occur when a human initiates interaction with a shark in some way, including spearfishers, divers that harassed or tried to touch sharks, people that tried to feed, unhook or remove sharks from a fishing net.

Planning a trip to Florida this winter?: Be careful when you're outside

Story continues

Shark Bites 2021

Shark fatalities higher

Eleven fatalities are alarming, up from 10 in 2020, which was the highest since 2013. It's about twice the annual average of five, but there were two in 2019 and one in 2018.

The majority of the fatalities once again occurred in Australia, where three people lost their lives. New Caledonia (2) and New Zealand (1) meant six of the fatalities took place in the Southern Pacific Ocean, where great white sharks, the largest carnivorous shark, prey on seals. One fatality occurred in the U.S. in California on Dec. 24 when an unresponsive male surfer was pulled from the surf at Morro Bay. It was the 29th unprovoked shark bite and second shark bite fatality in the state in the past 10 years.

Kitesurfer Stephen Shafer, 38, of Stuart, was the most recent victim of an unprovoked and fatal shark bite in Florida. He was kite surfing Feb. 3, 2010, when he was accidentally bitten on the thigh by a suspected bull shark and died of severe blood loss.

The ISAF reports the odds of being killed by a shark are lower than 1 in 3.7 million.

"This years increase in fatalities does not necessarily constitute a shift in the long-term trends. Fatality rates have been declining for decades, reflecting advances in beach safety, medical treatment and public awareness. While the incidence of fatal bites in 2021 was higher than is typical, we do not consider this cause for alarm. At this time, there is no evidence that the recent spike in fatalities is linked to any natural phenomena. Rather it is likely the consequence of chance, a conclusion underscored by the fact that the number of unprovoked bites is in line with recent five-year trends."

Tourists and transplants beware

The shark bite news follows in wake of a recent column on the perils that await the unwary who set foot in the Sunshine State.

There's the tree of death," manchineel tree, whose bark, wood, small limbs, sap and leaves are all deadly poisons.

 Falling iguanas possible this weekend  especially Saturday night! pic.twitter.com/s2SGQDS8vW  Brian Shields, WFTV (@BrianWFTV) January 26, 2022

Then there's the alligators. Authorities in Florida released footage of a missing woman swimming and wading in an alligator-infested river before she vanished in early January.

According to Jan. 7 article by the New York Post, hikers say they spotted the missing woman in Wekiva Springs State Park on Dec. 18  a day after her family last saw her.

Possibly even more dangerous are the wild hogs of Florida and their nasty tusks.

Then there are three kinds of poisonous snakes, poisonous Cane toads, large green iguanas that can fall out of trees, and green anacondas.

Stay or go?

The prospect of all those scary things lying in wait for you in Florida is almost enough to make you want to cancel any trips to Florida.

I mean, what do we have to worry about in winter, other than blizzards, black ice, lake effect storms, hypothermia, bad roads, falling through ...

Outdoors writers Ed Killer and Len Lisenbee contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Traveling to Florida? The Sunshine State will try to kill you
Students from T.C. Berrien Elementary School once walked the halls of this building on North Street. The Cumberland County Board of Education decided to close the building, but now must decide whether or not to close the school.

Cumberland County school board members are worried that residents think a decision has been made on student reassignment plans as the superintendent clarified the difference between closing a school and closing a school building.

The Board of Educations auxiliary services committee discussed the reassignment plans at its meeting Tuesday. School officials held three meetings to get public input on the plans and continue to take feedback on the school systems website.

The school board is looking at numerous plans that would move students who are now assigned to T.C. Berrien and Lillian Black elementary schools and several other schools.

School officials had to move students from T.C. Berrien in November 2019 when air quality and foundation issues were discovered in the school building. The students have been attending W.T. Brown Elementary School in Spring Lake.

The school board later decided to permanently close the T.C. Berrien school building, which was on North Street near downtown Fayetteville.

Previous: Cumberland County school board hears student reassignment plans

The board is considering four plans related to moving students assigned to T.C. Berrien. The plans would move those students to Lucille Souders and Ferguson-Easley elementary schools; to Ferguson-Easley and Glendale-Ashley elementary schools; to Ferguson-Easley and Easom-VanStory elementary schools; or to W.T. Brown.

Three proposals related to Lillian Black Elementary School would move students from that school to W.T. Brown. One plan also would move students from the southern part of the Manchester Elementary School district to W.T. Brown. Another would include reassigning the students from Lillian Black and Manchester, but also move students from T.C. Berrien to W.T. Brown.

A separate plan would combine Ireland Drive Middle School with Douglas Byrd Middle School. The schools are located next to each other.

School board member Susan Williams said that at one of the public meetings she attended regarding the reassignment plans, one resident asked why school officials were presenting information about various plans and indicated a belief that the issue was a done deal.

Story continues

Support local journalism with a subscription to The Fayetteville Observer. Click the "subscribe'' link at the top of this article.

I think for the publics sake, we need to say no decision has been made, Williams said.

Board member Donna Vann said the board goes to the nth degree to get public input. She said it bothers her to know that some think the board has already reached a decision.

Its just not true, she said.

Board member Charles McKellar said that at a meeting he attended, parents at T.C. Berrien were told that the school was closing and the students were being moved to W.T. Brown. He said a lot of parents were upset because they felt that the school was being closed.

Connelly said that meeting was to notify parents that the students had to be moved because of the issues with the building.

We had no option to temporarily close the building that housed the school, T.C. Berrien, he said.

Related reporting: Cumberland County Schools' website give parents chances to comment on school reassignments

The board later decided that it was cost prohibitive to continue using the building for instructional purposes, Connelly said. Parents were involved in later discussions about whether the students from T.C. Berrien would continue to stay at W.T. Brown.

The board has made no decision on closing the school, he said. The only decision the board made  is closing the building, the T.C. Berrien building, as an instructional space for students.

The board is using the current process to decide whether to find another building for T.C. Berrien and keep it open or to close the school, Connelly said.

Joe Desormeaux, the school system's associate superintendent of auxiliary services, said school officials will continue to take input about the plans for a few weeks. Staff members will bring multiple options to the committee at a future meeting, he said.

In other action, the committee got an update on plans for a new E.E. Smith High School, and the boards legislative committee talked about the process that will be used to determine new districts from which board members will be elected.

The school board's policy committee voted 2-1 to continue requiring masks to be worn in school facilities. Board member Nathan Warfel voted against it, while McKellar and board member Donna Vann voted in favor. The full board will consider the matter at its meeting Feb. 8.

Local news editor Steve DeVane can be reached at sdevane@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3572.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Cumberland County school board discusses student reassignment plans
Cult-favorite brand Suicoke transports us to an Italian resort for its Spring/Summer 2022 collection, looking to 20th century architecture as its muse. Venturing to Lake Como for a highly romantic backdrop to the melange of 90s-inspired garments, the functionality of the historic buildings emphasizes the latest drops crisp silhouettes and elegant lines.

Conceived by stylist and fashion designer Elena Mottola, the Japanese fashion labels SS22 collection is an exciting array of playful textures and highly saturated colors set to delight the senses and propel your wardrobe to the carefree days of summer. Cobalt blue crochet slips sit alongside 70s-esque paisley prints, while body-hugging fuschia and orange striped midi dresses are paired with chunky platform sandals. Elsewhere, midriff-baring white tops and matching sets, complete with long gloves scream main character energy.

The newest line also features a more wearable and softer iteration of Suicokes experimental FiveFingers shoe, remodeling the avant-garde footwear in a sock-like version.

Scroll through the lookbook above for a virtual visit to Lake Como. Suicokes SS22 collection will be available soon, in the meantime peruse the brands other collections on its website.
Virgin Atlantic wants you to find your soulmate across the pond.

The airline is teaming up with Bachelor in Paradise star Jared Haibon to host the Tickets to Love contest this Valentines Day. Eight single Americans will fly to London for a chance at finding love while staying at the luxurious The Standard hotel.

According to Virgin Atlantic, 64% of Americans say they prefer dating a British person, while 72% say their dating pools would improve if they had access to prospects in other cities and countries.

Winners will fly from New York City in Virgin Atlantics Upper-Class cabin on Mar. 11, 2022. Theyll also have access to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at JFK Airport, where theyll get a love reading from a psychic along with a premium dining experience.

Its no secret I had a little help meeting my wife, so when Virgin Atlantic asked me to help them do the same for others, I knew I couldnt say no, Haibon said in a statement.

He added, Dating is hard  harder today than its ever been. But travel has a way of opening minds and opening hearts, so hopefully, were able to help change the lives of a few singles ready to finally meet their match.

To participate, applicants must pitch their stories to Virgin Atlantic explaining why they deserve the chance to find a significant other in London. Submissions will be taken from Jan. 27 to Feb. 13, 2022.

The post Virgin Atlantic wants to help single Americans find love in London appeared first on In The Know.

More from In The Know:

Bella Hadid, Emma Chamberlain and Tinx have all been spotted wearing this affordable jewelry brand

10 great kitchen items that are on sale this weekend (so get them ASAP)

Score deals on Le Creuset, The Pioneer Woman, Barefoot Dreams and more this weekend

Dial antibacterial hand soaps and refills are on sale on Amazon for as low as $8
Drew Angerer

At least half a dozen historically Black colleges were hit by a new wave of bomb threats on Monday morning, forcing lockdowns and the cancellation of classes across the country.

The targeted schools included Albany State University in Georgia, Floridas Bethune-Cookman University, Bowie State University in Maryland, Delaware State University, Southern University and A&M in Louisiana, and Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Due to a bomb threat on campus, BSU will be closed temporarily today January 31, 2022, Bowie State University posted on its Twitter page. Emergency personnel are evaluating the situation. All persons on campus are advised to shelter in place until further information is available. Employees will work virtually. Classes will be virtual. Please observe the BSU website for continual updates.

According to Fox 5, Bowie University officials said that the threat warned of explosives that had been placed in a building on campus. Along with university authorities, county and Maryland state police have launched an investigation into the threat.

Howard University Strikes Deal After Weeks of Student Sit-Ins Over Unlivable Dorms

Staff at Albany State University released a statement early Monday saying that the school had also received a bomb threat and police were investigating.

At this time, all campuses, classes, and university operations are canceled until further notice, the statement read. Employees and commuter students should not report to campus at this time. Rest assured that we are working with the proper authorities to thoroughly investigate this threat.

Southern University and A&M College received a bomb threat this morning, Monday, January 31, 2022. The BR Land Mass has been placed in lockdown status. Classes have been canceled and students are to remain in their dorm rooms until an all-clear is issued.  Southern University (@SouthernU_BR) January 31, 2022

Bethune-Cookmans lockdown was lifted by 9 a.m., but the school canceled classes for the remainder of the day Monday. Daytona Beach police said any signs of a bomb threat had been cleared, but they were still asking people to stay away from campus.

Story continues

We will have a heavy police presence on campus for the remainder of the day, police said on Twitter. We will also be restricting any movement on the Bethune-Cookman campus. Officers will be staged at entry/exit points on the campus.

Racist Penn Law Prof Makes Disturbing Claim U.S. Is Better Off With Fewer Asians

This is the second time in less than a month that historically Black colleges or universities (HBCUs) have been the focus of bomb threats. At least eight schoolsincluding Howard Universityreceived threats on Jan. 5, which also prompted lockdowns and evacuations, according to The Washington Post. By the next day, all threats had been cleared, but the Black cultural center at the University of Utah received a bomb threat the following week, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

To those heading home from work and school, travel safe Bison! Howard University police posted to Twitter Monday. #staysafe #bisonsafe #howardforward #howarduniversity #hbcu.

Another rash of Bomb Threats to our beloved HBCU, Howard alumna Alta Cannaday wrote on Facebook. Education is power! We shall not be moved!

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the threats disturbing during a press briefing Monday.

The White House is in touch with inter-agency partners, including federal law enforcement leadership on this, she said. Were relieved to hear that Howard and Bethune-Cookman Universities have been given the all-clear, and well continue to monitor these reports [of bomb threats]. ...The president is aware. ...Law enforcement would be running point.

As of early Monday afternoon, no injuries had been reported at any of the colleges or universities.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
Photo credit: April McDonald/USAF

A B-52H bomber, nicknamed "Damage Inc. II," made a 1,400-mile cross-country trip on the back of a truck.

The fighter jet won't rejoin the active fleet, but will serve as an "integration model" to test out new technologies for active duty B-52s.

A Vietnam-era B-52H bomber that sat for years in the Arizona sun has been called out of retirement. Following an epic 1,400-mile, 19-day trip from Arizona to Oklahoma, the strategic heavy bombernicknamed "Damage Inc. II"arrived at its final destination: a Boeing facility near Tinker Air Force Base.

The U.S. Air Force partially disassembled Damage Inc. II before it undertook its cross-country roadtrip. Boeing engineers will use the bomber as they map out the future of the B-52H Stratofortress, now in its 60th year of service.

 Don't miss our best-in-class military and defense coverage. Join our squadron.

While the bomber won't be rejoining the active fleet, it's primed and in place for its new, two-prong mission: "serving as an integration model to test how well new technologies and current and future modifications will integrate with B-52 aircraft," and "supporting structural integrity research for the B-52H Aircraft Structural Integrity Program, or ASIP," according to a January 22 press release from the 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs office at Tinker Air Force Base.

The Air Force maintains a fleet of 76 B-52H heavy strategic bombers. The big, lumbering, eight-engine bombersbuilt between 1961 and 1964are still in service as both conventional and nuclear bombers, and have served in most major U.S. military conflicts since the end of the Cold War.

This particular bomber, tail code 61-0009 , was built in 1961. During its active duty career, it served with the 96th Bomb Squadron, Barksdale Air Force Base. The bomber still has a map of Louisiana painted behind the cockpit.

Photo credit: April McDonald/USAF

The Air Force retired 61-0009 sometime in the 2000s, sending it to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Generation Group (AMARG) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. Commonly known as "The Boneyard," AMARG is a near-final resting place for U.S. military aircraft, where the planes sit out the rest of their lives before being broken up or, if they are lucky, returned to service.

Story continues

Damage Inc II B-52H 61-009 crosses the final bridge into Oklahoma City on its way to the @Boeing facility after a 1407 mile, 19 day journey. The historic move culminates in an Air Force led modernization, innovation project that will keep the BUFF flying into the 2050s. #af75 pic.twitter.com/0HcdYfDbHd  Tinker AFB (@Team_Tinker) January 24, 2022

61-0009 is getting a little of both. The big plane was towed to the Pima Air & Space Museum, where the wings and horizontal stabilizer were removed from the fuselage. The fuselage was then trucked across the Southwest and Midwest over a course of 19 days to the new Boeing Hi Bay facility located at the Boeing Campus in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. There, the fuselage and left wing will be reunited. According to Scramble , the right wing and stabilizer will go to McFarland Research and Development in Wichita, Kansas, to support structural integrity research for the B-52H Aircraft Structural Integrity Programme."

The B-52 is a Boeing jet, and in September 2021, the Air Force picked Rolls-Royce to upgrade the old plane with new engines, meaning the airframes could fly on for another 20 to 30 years if necessary. There is a realistic chance that at least some B-52s will fly for 100 yearsthe first planes ever to do so. Boeing required a fuselage and reassembled wing to study as it supports the big bomber into the 2030s...and beyond.

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An execution date has been set for a man convicted of killing a De Soto couple in 1996.

On Monday, the Missouri Supreme Court announced Carman Decks execution date has been set for May 3. It will be carried out at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre.

Deck robbed and killed James and Zelma Long in their home in July 1996. He later confessed to the killings.

Deck has been sentenced to death three times since his original conviction, and each time that sentence was overturned.

He was originally sentenced to death in February 1998, but that sentence was reversed by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2002 due to errors by Deck's lawyers.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned his second death penalty in May 2005 because he was shackled in front of the sentencing jury.

He was sentenced to death again in September 2008. But in April 2017, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry called Deck's third penalty-phase trial fundamentally unfair," saying he was unable to fully present evidence arguing for a sentence other than death due to the decade of delays.

She wrote that witnesses for Deck couldn't be found, had died or had developed hostile attitudes toward Deck. She called Decks lawyers "ineffective" for not claiming the delay was a constitutional violation during the trial, or during state court appeals.

The appeals court said that the law was not settled at the time about whether a long delay between conviction and sentencing raises constitutional violations, and therefore his lawyers were not ineffective for failing to raise the issue.

In 2020, a federal appeals court overturned a lower court judge and reinstated the death penalty. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Deck's appeal should fail because he didn't raise his concerns in state court first.

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EGLIN AFB  Military installations across Northwest Florida are, for the most part, instituting stricter COVID-19 mitigation protocols amid a local surge in the omicron variant of the virus.

According to information from the New York Times, obtained from a variety of sources, counties across the area are recording a sharp uptick in COVID-19 cases.

Escambia County, home of Naval Air Station Pensacola, is averaging 308 cases per day, Okaloosa County, which hosts Eglin Air Force Base, is averaging 123 new cases each day and Bay County, home of Tyndall Air Force Base, is averaging 100 new cases daily, according to data reported by the Times.

From 2020: First one infected at Hurlburt Field rolls up sleeve for COVID-19 fight

1 year ago: Eglin AFB medical personnel deploying to assist with COVID responses

Subscribers: Okaloosas military payroll is largest in Florida

Elsewhere in the area, Santa Rosa County, home to Naval Air Station Whiting Field, is averaging 129 cases per day. Walton County, which has a limited military presence but hosts a large number of military personnel, is averaging 36 cases daily, the Times data notes.

The strictest change among local military installations became effective at 7 a.m. Wednesday, when Tyndall boosted its "Health Protection Condition" from "Bravo" to "Charlie."

HPCON Charlie is the fourth most stringent health protection level on the five-level Department of Defense protocol for handling disease outbreaks. The HPCON system is based on the severity of a spreading disease and the level of local transmission.

Tyndall Air Force Base requires masks indoors and more

With the move to HPCON Charlie, Tyndall requires that masks be worn indoors by anyone on or visiting the base, regardless of their COVID-19 vaccination status.

And while essential missions will continue with required staffing at Tyndall, personnel are being instructed to use teleworking "to the max extent possible," according to a directive from the base.

Story continues

Beyond that, access to the installation will be limited to airmen and others conducting official business, and to residents of base housing.

A May 2020 photo from Eglin Air Force Base shows a 96th Medical Group laboratory technician handling a patient sample to test for COVID-19. An uptick in COVID-19 cases in the area has prompted Eglin AFB and other area military installations to institute stricter COVID-19 mitigation protocols.

Restrictions now in place at Tyndall under HPCON Charlie reflect earlier days of the COVID-19 pandemic when community spread was an issue. The current restrictions include social distancing of at least 6 feet and limiting social gatherings to 10 people.

Other gatherings, when ranging from more than 10 to 30 people, will require approval of the appropriate unit commander and the establishment of a risk mitigation plan. Gatherings of 30 to 50 people will require approval of the commander of the host unit at Tyndall, the 325th Fighter Wing.

Additionally at Tyndall, physical fitness assessments for airmen have been suspended until further notice, and personnel have been cautioned that some base services may have to adjust their hours or their capacities in connection with HPCON Charlie.

What about Eglin Air Force Base?

At Eglin, commander Brig. Gen. Scott Cain directed on Tuesday the implementation of the somewhat less restrictive HPCON Bravo-Plus "to combat an increased spread of COVID-19 in local communities."

As at Tyndall, HPCON Bravo-Plus at Eglin mandates the indoor wearing of masks by anyone on the base.

Cain's declaration keeps the base on an "official business only" posture that covers both mission-essential and non-mission-essential activities for people with base access, such as seeking medical care, accessing child care services and using recreational facilities.

Cain's directive notes that "(m)aximum use of telework to reduce the footprint here is highly encouraged" and says that meetings "and other events should be conducted virtually to the maximum extent possible."

HPCON Bravo-Plus calls for limiting gatherings to 50 people, with indoor gatherings limited to the maximum capacity of a given space while maintaining social distancing.

Additionally, the move to HPCON Bravo-Plus provides Cain an opportunity to remind Eglin personnel to stay home if they are ill or experiencing COVID-19 systems, notify their supervisor and contact primary care personnel.

"Continued vigilance in combatting the rapid spread of this virus and its variants is essential," Cain said in announcing the new HPCON at Eglin. "Please continue to do your best to keep Eglin a place where the virus doesnt spread.

Mask mandate at Hurlburt Field

Elsewhere in the area, HPCON Bravo, the third level of the five-level Department of Defense health protection protocol, was in effect Wednesday at Hurlburt Field, headquarters of Air Force Special Operations Command, according to the installation's Facebook page.

But Col. Jocelyn Schermerhorn, commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing, the host unit at Hurlburt, established a mask mandate Monday.

"In an effort to mitigate mission impact and in compliance with DoD policy ... face coverings are mandatory for everyone on base, regardless of vaccination status," Schermerhorn told Hurlburt personnel.

What about Naval Air Station Pensacola?

At Naval Air Station Pensacola, which is at HPCON Bravo, the increase of COVID-19 cases in the area has prompted the installation to additionally require, as of Dec. 29, that masks be worn indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

"As of right now, that's the only additional requirement," NAS Pensacola spokesman Jason Bortz said Wednesday. Bortz noted that NAS Pensacola routinely encourages personnel to stay home if they are sick and to let their chain of command know if they contract COVID-19 or come into contact with someone who has the virus.

"Communication is key," Bortz said.

Like NAS Pensacola, Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton is under HPCON Bravo, with no change yet in that standing, according to installation spokeswoman Julie Ziegenhorn.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Northwest Florida military bases see COVID surge, tighten restrictions
Over the last year, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, Gucci and more announced they would start selling their own vintage. How will they compete with the third-party retailers that have dominated the resale business?

For Oscar de la Renta, the decision to tap into the secondhand space started with the customers themselves, sharing stories of discovering their mom's little black dresses from the '80s and the like.

"Our designs are very classic  quite timeless  so having heard these stories for many years and wondering how this might be a business opportunity, we started to explore what was going in the world of resale," says Alex Bolen, CEO of Oscar de la Renta, who explains that the brand keeps an in-house archive of designs from every collection. "We started to speak to vintage dealers around the country and looked at places like TheRealReal, Vestiaire Collective and other resale sites to source pieces for our archive, and we found that our customers were shopping there as well."

However, Bolen remembers how upsetting it was for the Oscar de la Renta team to see how poorly the brand was presented by third parties: Items were misidentified, there was a question of authenticity  all in all, it wasn't of the same caliber as the brick-and-mortar shopping experience that the brand prides itself on delivering. "We were very unhappy with it," he says.

That led to Encore, a resale platform launched last November that gives consumers the option to purchase vintage Oscar de la Renta runway designs, from Oscar de la Renta. It has allowed the luxury label to not only exercise full brand control online, but also to take back ownership of Oscar de la Renta items long after they were initially purchased. Plus, through a rigorous authentication and refurbishment process, the brand would be able to ensure a garment sees a second, third or fourth life.

"We think that seal of approval from the brand in terms of resale is hugely important," Bolen says. (To secure vintage items for Encore, Oscar de la Renta's sales teams reached out to top customers to see if they were interested in consigning previously purchased designs; to their surprise, per the executive, many refused until being offered the option of having the brand make a charitable donation.)

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Shop past Oscar de la Renta runway looks from the house itself on Encore. Photo: Courtesy of Oscar de la Renta

Encore was made possible by a partnership between Oscar de la Renta and Archive, a full-service resale company founded by Emily Gittins and Ryan Rowe at the end of 2020 that allows brands to either easily resell their own products or establish a marketplace in which customers can sell or buy pre-owned clothing. According to Gittins, Archive  which recently secured $8 million in funding  was born out of a desire to help brands that want to "take back ownership" of the secondhand market in light of the exponential growth third-party sites were seeing, but don't know exactly how.

"We really aim to support brands in a way that they still have ownership  they own the customer data, they own the program. We're just giving them the technology and the tools to facilitate that so they don't have to build everything from scratch themselves," she says. Clients include M.M.LaFleur, The North Face in Canada and Filippa K in Sweden, with about a hundred more interested brands currently in talks with the company.

"This industry is changing faster than I would expect. It's gone from brands saying, 'Secondhand is interesting; we feel like we should do something one day,' to brands coming to us with, 'Resale is one of our top three priorities for the year  we're just figuring out the exact strategy we want to take,'" she says. "It's really exciting.

In the last year alone, a slew of other luxury brands have touched resale in one way or another  and in rapid succession. Last February, Alexander McQueen linked up with Vestiaire Collective to launch a buy-back program called "Brand Approved," allowing consumers to consign their pre-worn McQueen pieces for store credit. Several months later, Gucci introduced the Gucci Vault, a virtual concept store, now on its sixth drop, that houses a curated selection of designs from emerging designers with restored vintage Gucci pieces handpicked by Alessandro Michele.

Through Gucci Vault, the brand sells vintage wares alongside pieces from emerging brands. Photo: Courtesy of Gucci

In October, Jean Paul Gaultier opened up its archives of 30,000-plus designs for consumers to either purchase or rent. That same month, Valentino announced four physical Valentino Vintage locations  in Milan, New York City, Los Angeles and Tokyo  in which consumers can bring in pre-worn Valentino clothing to be appraised for store credit; there are plans for the brick-and-mortar stores to sell a selection of Valentino Vintage in the near future.

Most recently, Burberry partnered with luxury rental and resale platform My Wardrobe HQ, to donate 30 items (several of which were sourced from consumers) to the platform and give 40% of each purchase to Smart Works, a U.K. charity that provides interview clothes and support for unemployed women in need. As of now, there are no plans for the brand to continue this partnership  this was, quite simply, a way to test the resale waters, gauge interest and ultimately figure out what resale might look like for it in the future, as well as a continuation of the heritage British brand's sustainability efforts.

Sustainability  and consumer demand for companies to make it a priority, more crucially  is an obvious driver of luxury brands' sudden and immense interest in resale. One way to achieve circularity is by extending the lifespan of garments and keeping them in use for longer. A luxury product, which tends to be higher in quality and constructed with the intention to be repaired and worn over and over again, naturally lends itself to resale. And there's value in it, too, whether it's sentimental (like, say, stories inextricably woven into a Burberry trench coat that was passed down from generation to generation) or qualitative (a rare and sought-after '60s Oscar de la Renta design, for example). That's one thing Bolen hopes to reinforce with Encore: the changing of consumer's perception of luxury fashion from a disposable product to an investment good.

"If customers suddenly learn that the old Oscar de la Renta dress they have in their closet is worth something, it can change the way people approach the new seasonal fashion they're buying," he says. The reception of the Encore's two drops so far has "exceeded beyond our wildest dreams": Eight pieces out of 30 in the first one sold out on the first day. "And [resale] is a way to talk to customers who, for whatever reason, might not be ready to shop our current merchandise. It's another way for her to experience Oscar de la Renta. We look at this as a way for us to attract both new customers and also, very importantly, retain existing customers."

Accessibility (71% of buyers purchase secondhand from brands that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford) and brand loyalty (cash and store credit are used as incentives for existing customers to sell pre-owned items) are two big reasons why entering the resale space is good for business, Gittins says. Oscar de la Renta confirms the latter: When given the choice, 75% of Encore sellers opt for store credit, further illustrating how resale can lead to customer retention.

Gowns from Oscar de la Renta Encore. Photo: Courtesy of Oscar de la Renta

Another reason behind the timing of this seismic shift toward resale  now, in the last 12 months, as opposed to five years ago  is the pandemic.

"Covid was an accelerator of trends that were already happening: You had more focus on e-commerce from brands and more desire to use e-commerce from customers. Offering resale digitally is a much more scalable option than trying to embed it into physical stores," Gittins says. "And on the consumer side, there were buyers with less disposable income and more sellers who were spending more time at home  it feels like a natural thing to go into your closet and pull out the things you loved in the past and put them back into the world." (There were 36.2 million first-time sellers and 33 million first-time thrifters in 2020, according to ThredUp's 2021 Resale Report.)

But we're just at the beginning. Gittins predicts that luxury brands adopting resale will not only normalize buying secondhand, but also expedite the growth of it even further.

"Our hope is that it becomes the industry standard for every brand to have its own resale channel, and from a consumer perspective, it becomes a normal part of shopping in much the same way as e-commerce, she says. I think it will shift business models, because theres now this opportunity to generate revenue from the second, third, fourth purchase of a garment, which means that brands can invest in high-quality products that stand the test of time  thats worth it for them because they see those dividends down the line.

That's not to say she believes third-party resale sites will cease to exist. Rather, brand-specific resale platforms (which offer authenticity, original photography, a more elevated shopping experience and so on) and multi-brand players (a diverse selection for consumers who aren't necessarily loyal to one specific label) will evolve and thrive together.

For Oscar de la Renta, the future of Encore is still up in the air. Right now, only runway creations are considered, but opening that service up to pieces from commercial collections (so someone could sell a navy blue skirt, for example, versus just a feathered cocktail dress) is something Bolen hopes to achieve. Or auctioning off a celebrity-worn dress for charity. Or building a 1stDibs-type marketplace featuring non-Oscar de la Renta jewelry or antiques. The options are endless.

"It's a big experiment, and we're excited about it," Bolen says. "If this was only a way to attract new customers and give us the opportunity to have a dialogue with existing customers, that would be enough for us  because when we're in conversation with our customers, we know what she needs. If she's talking to us, she's not talking to our competition. And resale is very much a way for us to be more involved in her life."

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NEWPORT  A New York Jewish congregation on Tuesday moved to evict the congregation that has called Touro Synagogue their home for more than a century.

Congregation Shearith Israel filed a motion in state Superior Court on Monday to take repossession of Touro Synagogue, the nations oldest synagogue, by ejecting its current tenants, Congregation Jeshuat Israel.

The action is the latest in a bitter dispute that has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to wade into the issue.

In doing so, the court let stand a 2019 appeals court decision placing control of storied Touro Synagogue and its ceremonial bells, valued at more than $7 million, in the hands of Shearith Israel. The court based the ruling on an agreement dating to 1903.

Touro Synagogue on Touro Street in Newport

2016: New York congregation set to appeal Touro Synagogue decision

2019: Supreme Court ends long fight: Newport's Touro now in NY hands

'A very special weekend': Locals recall Ruth Bader Ginsburgs visit to Newport in 2004

According to court documents, Shearith Israel of New York City, the nation's oldest Jewish congregation, sent a notice in October demanding that Jeshuat Israel quit the premises as of Monday.

CJI, and any others still in possession of the premises, must vacate the premises as of midnight on the termination date, Shearith Israel wrote. Instead, the congregation remains, prompting the New York congregation to take legal action to repossess the site through eviction.

Louis M. Solomon, president of the board of trustees of Congregation Shearith Israel and lawyer for the group, said eviction is a "misnomer."

"We don't want anyone to leave. ... I want it to remain a vibrant and living congregation. I can't do this with people who aren't going to be straight with me," Solomon said.

CSI calls it 'a matter of leadership'

It's a matter, he said, of leadership and the need to have "trust and transparency" with those in charge.

Story continues

"In seeking to change the board overseeing day-to-day activities at Touro Synagogue, no congregants are being evicted. None will be, ever. Shearith Israel also hopes the current Rabbi of Touro will consider staying, as he is very welcome ...," Solomon said in a statement Tuesday. "Ritual services will remain the same. Congregation Shearith Israel is exercising the rights clearly granted it by the final court decision against CJI. Our disagreement is solely with a few members of the CJI board, and we wish to restructure the group overseeing day-to-day activities of Touro Synagogue to restore trust and confidence that has historically existed, for close to 200 years, between Shearith Israel and Touro Synagogue."

The action proved distressing to Louise Ellen Teitz, co-president of Congregation Jeshuat Israel, of Newport:

We are shocked that Shearith Israel seeks to expel Rhode Islands Congregation Jeshuat Israel from the historic Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the country and the nations cradle of religious liberty. The members of the Jeshuat Israel Congregation have been the faithful stewards of and peaceable worshippers at Touro Synagogue for more than 140 years," Teitz said in an email.

"At a time of unprecedented attacks on American Jewry, we are devastated that our congregation has become the target of a shameful power grab by another Jewish congregation that over the years has not provided us or Touro any meaningful support at all. We condemn this destructive attack on our congregation and displacement of our community, and call upon Shearith Israel to let Jeshuat Israel live and pray in peace, Teitz continued.

CJI is 'a proud congregation with a proud history'

Congregation Jeshuat Israel last week warned its congregants in an email obtained by The Journal that the lease could be terminated Feb. 1 if the congregation did not meet Shearith Israels demands that included having two voting seats on Jeshuat Israels 15-member board.

"CSI may own the building in trust  but we are a proud congregation with a proud history  and our independence is vital to our future. In other words, no landlord participates in its tenants' activities on a day-to-day basis like what CSI is asking of CJI," the email said.

It says the demands came after contractors for Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr., who spent $12 million to create the visitors center at the synagogue, placed a gravestone for Loeb in the historic Touro cemetery under an agreement with the Newport congregation.

Congregation Jeshuat Israel learned of the installation of the grave marker after a photo of it appeared in Newport This Week. The congregation apologized to Shearith Israel about the headstone and worked with Loeb to have it removed until his passing.

Many good faith efforts were made, too, to restore a working relationship with Shearith Israel, but offers to have monthly meetings with Solomon were refused and mediation efforts also ended without success, the email said.

"If there's going to be nothing but arguing [with the board], there's not going to be a lease," Solomon said.

Ceremonial bells belonging to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., are displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

$7.4 million finial bells at heart of dispute

The acrimony erupted in 2012 over Congregation Jeshuat Israels plans to sell the finial bells, or rimonim, for $7.4 million to create an endowment to support the synagogue. The bells, designed in the 1700s by Jewish silversmith Myer Myers, adorn the handles of the Torah scroll when not in use. Their ringing, when the Torah is raised, serves as a call for reverence.

Congregation Shearith Israel objected after learning of the sale. It argued the sale would violate the religious rites and customs of the Orthodox Spanish and Portuguese Jews.

Shearith Israel later sued, asking to be declared owner of Touro Synagogue, its property and its artifacts, including the bells. Congregation Jeshuat, in turn, asked the court to remove Shearith Israel as trustee of the synagogue. It, too, sought to be found presumptive owners of the same, arguing Shearith Israel had long neglected its duties as trustees.

Judges with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled in favor of Shearith Israel, and that Newport's Congregation Jeshuat Israel were merely tenants.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Newport's Touro Synagogue worshipers evicted by New York City owners
People gather to support truck drivers on their way to Ottawa in protest of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, January 27, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio (Carlos Osorio / reuters)

Police in Canada said "several criminal investigations are underway" into "threatening" and "illegal" behavior that occurred over the weekend during huge protests in the capital, Ottawa, where truckers and thousands of supporters gathered to denounce coronavirus vaccine mandates and other public health measures.

While many protested peacefully, Ottawa police said they would investigate after monuments were defaced and some demonstrators displayed "threatening/illegal/intimidating behaviour to police/city workers and other individuals."

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

"Illegal behaviour will not be tolerated and will be fully investigated," police said.

There were reports of urination on the National War Memorial and desecration of other monuments, including the statue of Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete and cancer research activist, who died in 1981 after dedicating his life to raising funds to cure the disease.

Brad West, mayor of Port Coquitlam, the city in British Columbia where Fox was raised, tweeted that "you don't touch his statue. Ever."

Video: Protests of vaccine mandates, restrictions pop up around the world

Some demonstrators held signs featuring swastikas. Others angrily called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to quit, chanting in unison on Parliament Hill.

Canada's minister of defense, Anita Anand, called some of the scenes from Parliament Hill and the National War Memorial "beyond reprehensible," as footage emerged of protesters dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and screaming "freedom."

Canada's chief of the defense staff, Wayne Eyre, said he was "sickened" by scenes of people disrespecting key monuments. "Generations of Canadians have fought and died for our rights, including free speech, but not this," Eyre tweeted Saturday. "Those involved should hang their heads in shame."

Story continues

A self-described "Freedom Convoy" of trucks and their supporters began arriving in Ottawa last week to protest a federal vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers, after Canada and the United States announced that truck drivers entering their respective countries must be fully vaccinated.

Footage shared to social media alongside the hashtags #TruckerConvoy2022 and #TruckersForFreedom2022 showed semis honking long into the night and crowds dancing in the street below signs that read "segregation is not Canadian" and "mandate freedom."

Ottawa's mayor, Jim Watson, said Sunday that convoy members had acted unacceptably and called on protest organizers to denounce their "outrageous actions," which he said included the harassment of city workers.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance said in a statement over the weekend that it condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the desecration of what it called "sacred sites." The organization said it had made a donation to the Terry Fox Foundation and the Soldier On program, which is run by the Canadian Armed Forces to support the recovery of members and veterans dealing with physical or mental injuries from their service.

On Sunday, Ottawa police urged people to work from home Monday and "avoid travel" downtown while officials work to "facilitate the safe departure of individuals and vehicles" from the demonstration site.

Police said they had towed vehicles blocking key roadways - while the soup kitchen Shepherds of Good Hope said staff members had been "harassed for meals" and others had been verbally assaulted during what they called an "incredibly difficult weekend."

The organization said that trucks had parked in ambulance drop-off areas for about 12 hours and that the commotion and noise caused by the protest had caused "significant anxiety and stress" among staff members and service users.

At least 33,722 people have died of covid-19 in Canada since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

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Before we take up our pitchforks and torches and head to the Arizona Capitol in support of banning critical race theory in Arizonas schools, lets pause.

Lets all take a deep breath and use our critical thinking skills to calmly and factually examine the subject.

Teaching facts is simply teaching history

Critical race theory, or CRT, is an academic concept that is at least 40 years old. In essence, it asserts that racism is about more than personal prejudice. Racism can exist in the constructs of our societal systems, such as legal or housing policies.

One example comes from government maps from the 1930s. Government officials literally drew red lines around mostly Black neighborhoods. The term came to be known as redlining.

Neighborhoods were ranked in terms of lending risk. Many Black neighborhoods were identified as highest risk, meaning Blacks in those areas were unable to obtain home loans backed by government insurance programs.

This is not opinion. And teachers who share this information in classrooms are not indoctrinating our children. They are teaching history.

Most teachers now fear teaching some topics

Are K-12 teachers teaching CRT?

The nonpartisan Association of American Teachers put this question to more than 1,100 teachers across the nation, including teachers in Arizona.

The overwhelming majority  96%, to be exact  said no such requirement exists at their school or district.

Whats even more chilling? More than half of the teachers surveyed stated they are now afraid of addressing subjects involving race, fearing they will find themselves in trouble with their administration or parents.

Critical race theory is now the new villain

Critical race theory has been made the villain, but teachers who share factual information are not indoctrinating our children.

In September 2020, a man named Christopher Rufo appeared on Fox News, bringing the phrase critical race theory to the masses.

In an interview published by The New Yorker magazine, Rufo shared his belief that America needed a new term to fight against the progressive racial ideology from the Obama years. Critical race theory was the perfect villain, he shared with the reporter.

Story continues

Following his initial appearance on Fox News, that media outlet mentioned critical race theory at least 1,900 times in a 3.5-month period in the summer of 2021. It ignited concerns over what children are being taught in public schools.

Its a fear that has overtaken school board meetings throughout Arizona, provoking threats of recalls and even resignations, including those from board members targeted by alleged white supremacists.

This is yet another part of history unfolding before our very eyes.

HB 2112 misses the point of education

House Bill 2112 manages to avoid the phrase critical race theory by stating that a teacher, administrator or other employee of a school district, charter school or state agency may not engage in instruction that presents any form of blame or judgment on the basis of race, ethnicity or sex.

Ive spent nearly 20 years in classrooms throughout the United States, including hundreds in Arizona. Not once have I ever heard a teacher ask students to take responsibility for the actions of those whose deeds are outlined in our history books. No teacher Ive ever known has asked students to feel badly about their ethnicity or gender.

In good classrooms, what I have witnessed is teachers presenting a wide array of literature from diverse voices, chronicling their experiences at various points in our history. Anne Frank. Frederick Douglass. Ida B. Wells.

In their stories, and so many other accounts of historical information, students learn that our history is often painful. Students sometimes feel discomfort, guilt or anguish, despite HB 2112 saying they shouldnt. No teacher, no matter how skilled they are, can prevent this.

Nor should they.

Thats the purpose of education. To help the next generation avoid the mistakes of our past. Our students deserve nothing less.

Rhonda Cagle is founder of Leverage Consulting Agency, serving educational and non-profit agencies. She is a member of the Board of Contributors for The Arizona Republic. Follow her on Twitter: @RhondaCagle1

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Critical race theory is indoctrinating our children? Think again
Take it from Kaja Kallas: Western allies need strategic patience if they want to beat Vladimir Putin.

The Estonian prime ministers mantra, born out of four generations of family resistance against Moscow power grabs: Keep Putin at the table, without giving anything away.

I can see clearly what Putin does, Kallas told POLITICO in an interview Tuesday, warning against giveaways to the Kremlin as pressure mounts to defuse a military buildup of more than 100,000 Russian troops at the Russia-Ukraine border.

Kallas great-grandfather campaigned to create the first Estonian Republic in 1918 and was its first secret police chief. Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were sent to Siberia as Soviet prisoners, and her father, Siim Kallas, served as one of newly independent Estonias first prime ministers from 2002 to 2003. Now, Kaja Kallas is leading a new generation of resistance against Moscow.

They use this old Soviet type of negotiation tactics, said Kallas, who became Estonia's first female prime minister last year. First, demand the maximum, demand something that has never belonged to you. Then second, present ultimatums. And third: [They] do not give one inch in the negotiations, because there will always be people in the West who will negotiate and give you something that you didn't have before.

They have asked that NATO goes back to its 1997 borders. Well, this is outrageous. It means that half of the members in NATO shouldn't be in NATO, Kallas said.

Once written off in Brussels as Russophobes, Western allies now take Baltic governments such as the one Kallas leads with a new level of seriousness. As Moscow has expanded its territorial ambitions, we are being listened to, which is great, Kallas said.

Her newest warning is on Moscows ambitions in Belarus: I think their goal is to expand physically, she said.



Estonia comes to the debate around handling President Putin as perhaps the greatest success story of the countries that escaped rule from Moscow: four times as rich as Ukraine on a per capita basis  after starting in similar positions at the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991  and now secure as a member of the European Union and NATO. Today, we like to compare ourselves to Finland and Sweden, rather than Ukraine and others on Russias border, she said.

Story continues

'Theres a difference between dialogue and negotiation'

Kallas sees danger in Western leaders seeming to trip over themselves to speak with  and even visit  Putin these days.

We have to be careful of the messages, you know, different leaders give out when they talk to Putin, Kallas said. For now, the unity of NATO has been kept, and it has been a negative surprise to Russia, she said.

Some leaders, notably Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who visited Moscow on Tuesday, represent countries with historically unfriendly relations with Ukraine, while in democracies every leader wants to be the hero that prevented a war.

There's a difference between dialogue and negotiation, Kallas said. And, you know, having this dialogue means that Russia doesn't leave the table, which is already a good thing, because if they leave the table, they could also escalate the situation even further.

But that doesnt mean inviting Putin over for lunch with the EUs 27 heads of state and government. I don't mind having a dialogue, she said. What I was really against in the spring was having a high-level summit, because as we agreed, as [the] European Union, that unless Russia gives back Crimea, we will not hold high-level summits with Russia.

The goal of Russia is to get the agreements, whereas they have no intention of keeping the agreement, if you look at the agreements that they have made, Kallas said.

Kallas said that though she is very cautious about Russian demands around military exercises, greater transparency from the West is one concession to Moscow that Estonia could live with.

In the meantime, she urges the development of a water-tight sanctions package.

For Kallas the key to sanctions success is two-fold: eliminating loopholes, which she said were a major problem acrossfive rounds of Belarus sanctions packages, and having strategic patience around the likelihood that even well-targeted sanctions bring costs to both sides and may take years to bear fruit. No country in the world wants to be isolated, she said.

Berlin keeps Tallinn on hold

Kallas confirmed that Estonia had asked Germany for clearance to transfer to Ukraine some artillery, old Howitzers, over which Germany retains authority. We haven't received any official reply, from Berlin, Kallas said.

Senior Ukrainian officials have complained bitterly about the new German government's unwillingness to provide more help with weapons, but German officials have held firm, saying it is a longstanding policy not to send arms into a crisis, and they support Ukraine in humanitarian terms instead.

Estonia wants an all-of-government approach to supporting Ukraine: It's very important for us to support Ukraine in all the possible ways that we can. We have decided that we do it politically, we do it in communication, but we also do it with arms.

The support also extends to vocally backing Ukraine joining the EU  eventually.

Kallas has been involved in Ukraines slow road to EU membership for a decade, including previously serving as vice-chair of the European Parliaments EUUkraine Cooperation Committee.

She says Estonia continues to support Ukrainian EU membership, but was unwilling to offer President Volodymyr Zelenskyy any substantial shortcuts.

While acknowledging that Kyiv is fighting a long war with Moscow, Kallas insisted that reforms to meet the EUs governance standards are mostly a matter of political will on the part of Ukraines leaders, not a question of whether Ukraine is at peace with Russia.

For Kallas, Estonias security position today is hard-won: the result of three decades of reforms that successive Ukrainian governments have largely avoided making.

If we would be attacked, then it would mean that Russia is attacking the U.S. directly, she said, referring to NATOs Article 5 collective defense clause.
A former Hendersonville resident was recently charged in a 2005 sexual assault cold case.

On Jan. 25, detectives from the Henderson County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Unit, with the assistance of the United States Marshals Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, arrested and charged Jerry Dean Franks, 54 in connection with a 2005 sexual assault case, according to a news release from the sheriffs office.

DNA evidence allegedly linked Franks to the offense by using CODIS -- Combined DNA Index System, the release said. Franks DNA was reportedly in CODIS because of a previous criminal charge of a sexual related offense in South Carolina.

Franks has been charged with one count of indecent liberties with a child. . He was in custody in Pickens County, South Carolina. He waived extradition and was transported to the Henderson County Detention Facility where he is being held on a $65,000 secured bond, the sheriffs office said.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Former Hendersonville NC resident charged in sexual assault cold case
A former Hull firefighter was found dead in Hudson, New Hampshire, last week after he was reported missing in mid-December.

Hudson police Capt. David Cayot said in a news release that a person walking along power lines found Terrance "Terry" Adams' body Jan. 25.

Adams, 53, had been reported missing to the Hudson Police Department on Dec. 16, Cayot said.

Terrance Adams

"At this time the investigation is ongoing. However, it does not appear to be suspicious and there is no threat or concern for the public," he said.

An autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death.

Adams, a Hull High School graduate, lived in Hudson. He was a retired Boston firefighter who graduated from Hull High School and previously worked for the Hull Fire Department.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@patriotledger.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Former Hull firefighter found dead in New Hampshire along power lines
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

It happened every time a school board member spoke up about changes to the Central York School Districts COVID-19 plan. Meow! a group of four people would taunt from the back of the room. Cat!

Amelia McMillan, a parent in the Pennsylvania district, recognized the four people. Theyd supported Central Yorks recent (and now overturned) ban on certain school books, many of them about race. After the mid-January meeting ended, McMillan said she saw the group corner a local father in a hallway.

They were yelling at him about his kid being a furry, McMillan told The Daily Beast. The group cited an email someone sent to the board about furries. I heard him say, Leave my kid out of this. Two administrators from the school broke up this interaction and shuffled the four aggressors out of the building, and then asked the father if he was alright. He told everyone standing there (myself included) that they were calling his child a furry and he asked them to stop.

School District Pulls Acclaimed Book on Racial Injustice Over One Parents Gripes

Furries are a subculture of people who craft alter-egos as anthropomorphized animals. A furry might draw himself as a cartoon tiger, or dress up as a dragon at a convention for fellow enthusiasts. Its a decades-old genre and, relative to other available subcultures, fairly wholesome.

So why are school boards attendees in a panic about supposed furries in the classroom?

Want more right-wing news? Subscribe to Fever Dreams on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music or Acast to keep up with the conspiracy-mongers, MAGA acolytes and straight-up grifters. Hosted by Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer.

In Pennsylvania, Maine, Michigan, and Iowa in recent months, school board meetings have been disrupted by allegations that educators are giving special treatment to furry students. While false, the widespread hoaxes play into a broader right-wing effort to discredit and demand further control over public education.

Story continues

Its culture war, its control, and its not about protecting kids, Patch OFurr, proprietor of the furry news site Dogpatch Press, told The Daily Beast. If you actually look at whos doing this, at some of the political groups getting involved, theyre all far right.

The rumors simmered for months in districts like Central York last year, where a concerned parents Facebook group promoted fears that furries could be in your childs classroom hissing at your child and licking themselves.

But it was in Michigans Midland school district, not Central York, that the claims finally caught fire.

Yesterday I heard that at least one of our schools in our town, has in one of the unisex bathrooms a litter box for the kids that identify as cats, a speaker at a school board meeting said, in a video that went viral in January. And I am really disturbed by that.

Michigan GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock soon amplified the cat scat claims. Kids who identify as furries get a litter box in the school bathroom, Maddock wrote on Facebook. Parent heroes will TAKE BACK our schools.

Midland Public Schools do not provide litter boxesunisex or otherwise. The districts superintendent debunked the rumor in a scathing email. (It is unconscionable that this afternoon I am sending this communication, his email to parents began.)

Nevertheless, the allegations soon spread to Texas, where a GOP candidate (and activist with the right-wing parents group Moms For Liberty) added her own baseless claims about special privileges for furry students. Cafeteria tables are being lowered in certain @RoundRockISD middle and high schools to allow furries to more easily eat without utensils or their hands (ie, like a dog eats from a bowl), she tweeted.

That allegation wasnt true, either. In fact, chatter about litter boxes and doggie bowls display a misunderstanding about the furry community, which eats and poops like everyone else, says Sharon Roberts, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo and member of the academic research team Furscience.

Its limited fantasy, Roberts told The Daily Beast of furrydom. Its not escapism, its not a departure from reality. People who are furries are not like, I am my anthropomorphized character. Thats not what happens.

Furries do not literally believe they are non-human animals, Roberts said. Instead, a furry might play-act the role of a cartoon animal, but when nature calls, shell step out of character and remove her costume to use a normal toilet. (Furscience set the bathroom record straight in 2016, when they made a tongue-in-cheek video about the impossibility of using a toilet in a fursuit.)

OFurr, who has traced the origins of the litter box urban legend, dates the hoax to at least 2008. Thats when a local news story about a Pittsburgh furry convention led to unfounded speculation that hotel staff would have to clean up convention-goers poop.

Enraged Furries Make Internet Hell for Rabid Pro-Cop Group

Those rumors appear to have resurfaced with the start of the 2021-2022 school year. In August, for instance, an anonymous grandparent told Kentuckys WLKY that her grandchildren were being bullied in class by students who made hissing noises. The districts superintendent told the station that a small number of students had violated the dress code by wearing cat ears or tails, and that the situation was under control.

But the rumor metastasized in other states, especially when picked up by conservative voices. Blogs in Iowa and Idaho promoted the stories this fall, claiming that furry students were either being granted special litter boxes, or were being exempted from homework (cant grip pencil with paws). The blogs noted that schools had denied the allegations, but the authors went on to say theyd heard more rumors from locals and people at the Clay County GOP booth at the county fair.

Such rumors, if true, threatened to weaken the U.S. military, an Iowa commentator wrote. As China threatens to invade neighbors, were cringing when someone tells us hes an antelope and we better acknowledge hes got hooves whether or not visible, he opined. How could we possibly win a war with an army filled with dogs and cats?

Not all of these queries have been warmly received in the furry community. In early November, an aspiring educator took to Reddits r/teachers board to relay rumors about students in her hometown demanding litter boxes in school. I went to r/furry to ask for advice and their opinion on how to handle this situation but got permanently banned, wrote the Redditor, who is in school to become a teacher.

By October, furry fears were making their way into school board meetings. In Skowhegan, Maine, where Redditors were already sharing litter box rumors, a speaker at a school board meeting spoke requesting information regarding the districts stance on allowing students who identify as animals (furry), to be an exception to dress code (hats, etc), according to the meetings publicly available minutes.

A parent raised a similar concern at an Iowa school board meeting that month, and the query took on a more political tone at a board meeting in Minnesota. Another topic many parents would like addressed are furries, a speaker said. Why are kids being allowed to dress up like animals in our schools? Theyre being allowed to growl and bark at their teachers. Theyre allowed to wear leashes and collars and tails and they just bark but God forbid a kid wears a Trump hat to school; theyre told to take that off immediately. (Most schools dont allow hats.)

The politicization of furry school rumors comes amid a sweeping conservative assault on public schools and how they approach issues like race and gender. School board meetings, sometimes attended by members of far-right paramilitary groups, have become theaters for culture wars, with GOP figures like Maddock calling on parents to TAKE BACK our schools from the specter of liberal educators.

Sometimes, as in the case of Central York, the same people who supported book bans are the same people now promoting furry rumors.

Furries make a convenient target for people looking to lash out at marginalized identities, particularly the LGBT community, which has a higher-than-average representation among furries, OFurr noted. Multiple litter box hoaxes make explicit reference to gender-neutral litter boxes (a parallel to battles over gender-affirming bathroom choices in schools) or claim that students identify as furries (a phrasing uncommon in furry media, but with parallels to how conservative media often describes transgender youth).

Theyre demonizing minorities by proxy, with a target behind the target, OFurr wrote in a recent blog post. Its a cousin to transphobic memes like I sexually identify as an attack helicopter using weirdos to make it easier to swallow.

The director of the Public Schools Branch in Prince Edward Island, Canada, took a similar stance when furry hoaxes flooded his districts social media in October.

It seemed to me like it was a backlash against some of the progressive things that our schools are doing, director Norbert Carpenter told the CBC, and we would have many that would say this is rooted in hate and transphobia and homophobia and that message needs to be clear, its not acceptable.

Thats not to say furries arent in schools. A recent Rolling Stone article showcased a thriving, TikTok-based furry youth scene. Its a space for creativity and play, young furries and their parents explainedand like any youth subculture (see: goths and MySpace queens of decades past) some of the allure is in furrydoms inscrutability to adults.

But efforts to cast anthropomorphized animals as a niche issue are misguided, anyway. Last week, a Tennessee school board banned the Holocaust graphic novel Maus, ostensibly on the grounds that its illustrations of unclothed mice were inappropriate. Meanwhile, conservative commentators accused the left of attempting to destroy the fabrics of our democracy for drawing Minnie Mouse in a pantsuit instead of her usual short dress. These dueling debates over mouse attire dont illustrate some deep American angst over rodent dress codes; anthropomorphized animals, imbued with our own anxieties, have long acted as our proxies in culture wars, regardless of whether we own fursuits.

Roberts, the furry expert, said the furry community can act as a safe home for young people who might be jeopardized by efforts to ban school books about autism and LGBT issues (like Central York schools did earlier this year).

The furry movement is disproportionately LGBT and neurodiverse, yet we see that furries are thriving in this community, Roberts said. Its because they have a strong bond and connection thats rooted in creativity.

But with a fixation on nonexistent litter boxes and lunch tables, the furry panic turns a thriving subculture into a cudgel against public schools and their students. Ironically, OFurr said, its the rightnot furrieswho wont stop talking about cat shit.

It shows a complete failure to understand how kids think, what they care about, what they want, he said. Theyre targeting the places kids have a little bit of privacy in schools, like their lunch or their bathroom breaks. Its about control.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Authorities are investigating a shooting incident that reportedly occurred on Saturday in Iron County.

A press release from the Iron County Sheriff's Office states that Iron County deputies responded to a gunshot victim in the area of Highway 32 and Route DD in Bixby on Saturday.

When deputies arrived on the scene, they reportedly located a 28-year-old male victim who had been shot with a small-caliber handgun in the lower portion of the stomach. The injured man was transported to a St. Louis area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the sheriff's office.

The release states that a 28-year-old woman was also located on the scene. The woman was also injured, reportedly suffering facial injuries during a physical altercation that took place at the location of the shooting.

The Iron County Sheriff's Office noted that the investigation is still ongoing, and any updated information would be released once available.

Bobby Radford is a reporter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at bradford@dailyjournalonline.com

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The House State Affairs committee passed a bill Monday that would limit use of public school restrooms, changing rooms, showers and overnight sleeping accommodations to students' sex assigned at birth.

This bill would effectively bar transgender students from using the accommodations that match their gender.

Rep. Fred Deutsch, a Republican from Florence, introduced the bill and said it's a response to the Vermillion School District's incorporation of what is essentially the opposite of the bill.

Vermillion's new policy allows students to use the restroom they prefer which corresponds with their "consistently asserted gender." The policy also applies to names and pronouns. Earlier readings of the policy had included language on locker rooms, showers and overnight accommodations, but those were scrapped.

Deutsch, who has proposed similar bills in years past, argued this bill is about the issue of privacy in the most private areas of schools, and that it's to protect students "from having to expose themselves, or being exposed to others, in a state of undress."

Four similar bills have been filed and failed in years past, including HB 1008 in 2016, which was vetoed by then-Gov. Dennis Daugaard. The other bills were SB 115 in 2017, HB 1296 and SB 202 in 2018. Current Gov. Kristi Noem has signaled her interest to sign bills that would limit sports participation by sex assigned at birth in the past.

Further proponents included representatives from the Alliance Defending Freedom and U.S. Chapter of Women's Declaration International as well as a retired teacher, several parents from Vermillion, four Vermillion students and a grandfather whose grandchild attends Vermillion schools.

More: Vermillion schools now have a clear gender equity policy for transgender students

Proponents argued for their children's safety, while opponents of the bill argued that outing trans students and forcing them to hold their urine instead of using facilities that match their gender is also unsafe.

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Opponents included a Vermillion parent; a teacher from Pierre; Roger Tellinghuisen, a lobbyist for the Human Rights Campaign; Jett Jonelis with the ACLU of South Dakota; a Pierre attorney; Susan Williams with the Transformation Project; a Sioux Falls student; a pediatric counselor in Rapid City; Vermillion school board member Shane Nordyke; Stephanie Marty; Dianna Miller, lobbyist for the large schools group; Rob Monson with School Administrators of South Dakota.

Jett Jonelis, advocacy manager for the ACLU of South Dakota, speaks at Van Eps Park as part of a "Protect Trans Kids rally" in Sioux Falls on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 16, 2022 in support of transgender rights, and in opposition to three bills filed in the South Dakota Legislature that they say are anti-transgender: HB 1005, HB 1006 and SB 46.

Nordyke explained that Vermillion's policy doesn't just "create a free-for-all for anyone to use the bathroom they want to use," she said, rather that it's based on students' consistently-asserted gender.

"This is discrimination, pure and simple," Tellinghuisen said. Transgender students deserve to be protected."

Jonelis called the bill an unconstitutional attack on rights and liberties and that proponents were citing "hypothetical future problems that haven't arisen."

In a statement, Jonelis and the ACLU also said that the bill is similar to previous efforts to expel people of color, people with disabilities and others from communal spaces.

More:

Marty said as a transgender woman, she's had firsthand experience with the pain of being forced to use the men's room. It's been "deeply stigmatizing" for her and forces her to out herself as trans, she said, adding that she wouldn't wish that experience on any students in South Dakota.

Miller also called the bill an "unfunded mandate" because it requires schools to renovate and change facilities, and asked lawmakers if they would hire a building facilitator to make sure all 149 school districts were complying with the new law. She also questioned if the lawmakers had consulted with their local districts on the issue.

In his rebuttal, Deutsch said he had spoken to 12 superintendents in the state which has 149 school districts represented by 149 superintendents.

Local high school students pose with transgender pride flags, posters and the nonbinary pride flag at Van Eps Park after the "Protect Trans Kids rally" in Sioux Falls on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 16, 2022 in support of transgender rights.

Rep. Jamie Smith, a Sioux Falls Democrat, had moved the bill to the 41st day but was met with a substitute motion from Rep. Jon Hansen, a Republican from Dell Rapids, to pass the bill.

Smith said the committee and Legislature have been down this road before with bathroom bills, and that "we hear all the time about local control" but this would override the local control in Vermillion.

'We are your neighbors': How does it feel to be transgender or nonbinary in South Dakota?

Hansen stated with his motion, "boys should use boys' bathrooms, and girls should use girls' bathrooms."

His motion to pass the bill passed on a 7-5 vote with one excused. Reps. Arch Beal, Kirk Chaffee, Spencer Gosch, Jon Hansen, Phil Jensen, Marli Wiese and Chris Johnson all voted in favor while Reps. David Anderson, Tim Goodwin, Oren Lesmeister, Jamie Smith and Kent Peterson all dissented. Rep. Rebecca Reimer was excused.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota House committee OK's anti-transgender bathroom bill
A Lebanon County man will serve time in prison after pleading guilty to 16 counts of animal cruelty, officials said.

The Pennsylvania SPCA said Steven Alston, of Lebanon, will serve a minimum of six months and a maximum of 23 months after he pleaded guilty to the charges, which include 14 felony counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.

Alston will be on probation for two years after he is released from prison and he is not allowed to own or care for any animals during this time. Restitution and fines were also ordered by Judge John C. Tylwalk, and Alston will be subject to random inspections of his property by humane law enforcement officers.

Local production: Film shot in Lebanon County explores the aftermath of drug overdose death on family, friends

Fatal crash: Lititz motorist killed in collision with a Mack Truck in Heidelberg Township, police say

Officials removed 34 dogs from Alston's property on Oct. 1, 2020, while executing a search warrant. More than a dozen were puppies aged two to nine months.

PSPCA humane law enforcement team members found evidence that Alston illegally cropped the ears of seven Presa Canario-type puppies without anesthesia and other acts of cruelty, including animals suffering from untreated medical conditions and sanitation issues.

Sway was in critical condition when he was rescued from the property of Steven Alston on Oct. 1, 2020. Sway made a full recovery and was adopted by a new family.

Three deceased dogs and one puppy were found on the property, alongside a German shepherd named Sway, in extremely critical condition. Sway had necrotic wounds that had been left untreated.

"The suffering on location was apparent," director of humane law enforcement Nicole Wilson said. "Puppies with bloodied and infected cropped ears were expected, but the severely injured German shepherd curled up next to his deceased friend was heart breaking."

All living animals rescued from Alston's property, including Sway, made full recoveries and were placed in new homes.

"The suffering of these animals was apparent from their bloodied and infected ears, to Sway who was clinging to life," Wilson said. "We are proud to not only bring justice to these innocent souls, but to put them on the path to a bright future where they will never again be victims of such horrific acts."

Story continues

The dogs who found new homes were Presa Canario, German shepherd, rottweiler, doberman pinscher, akita, mastiff and pitbull types, the PSPCA said.

Shelly Stallsmith is a trends reporter for the York Daily Record. She can be reached at mstallsmith@ydr.com or followed on Twitter at @ShelStallsmith.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Animal cruelty: Pennsylvania man pleads guilty to 14 felonies
A New Jersey man has been charged with vehicular homicide in connection with a fatal one-car rollover wreck in Pueblo on Sept. 11, 2021.

Brandon Andersen-Parrado, 23, was charged with knowingly, intentionally, and recklessly driving an unsafe motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, causing the death of one of his passengers, Jillian Abrian, and serious bodily injury to another after both were ejected from Andersen-Parrado's vehicle.

Andersen-Parrado also has been charged by the 10th Judicial District Attorney's Office with vehicular assault, DUI, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, reckless driving, speeding, and driving an unsafe motor vehicle.

On Sept. 11, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Pueblo Chieftain, Andersen-Parrado, Abrian and a third party  all of whom were Colorado State University-Pueblo students at the time  agreed to split a pizza.

Andersen-Parrado drove his vehicle to pick up the pizza to avoid delivery costs, the affidavit said.

More in public safety news: Man killed after being ejected from vehicle in Interstate 25 crash Saturday morning

After the three left the CSU Pueblo campus, the passenger who was seriously injured in the crash, texted her friends to say she was worried about Anderson-Parrado's driving. She later stated that, when she told him his driving was scaring her, he laughed and said they were having fun.

At the time, Andersen-Parrado had multiple arrest warrants out of El Paso County for driving 25-39 mph over the speed limit and two from New Mexico State Police for the same offense, according to the affidavit.

"Several of the CSU-Pueblo students that are friends with the victims also reported having bad experiences riding in (Andersen-Parrado's) vehicle, due to his intentional and reckless driving to include speeding," Pueblo County Sheriff's Office Deputy Trae Borror wrote in the affidavit.

One person allegedly told Borror that, about five weeks prior to the wreck, he had received a ride from Andersen-Parrado and was scared of his driving to the point that he got out and walked home after another passenger was dropped off, according to the affidavit.

Story continues

At around 11:30 p.m. on the night of the deadly wreck, multiple deputies and medical personnel were sent to the area of Baxter and Daniel Roads after receiving a report of a traffic crash with injuries and a fatality.

Abrian was found with no signs of life at the scene. A coroner's report later determined her cause of death was multiple blunt force impact trauma.

Deputies allegedly found numerous alcoholic seltzer beverages at the scene and in the vehicle, according to the affidavit.

Andersen-Parrado and the other victim, who was 19, were transported to a local hospital. The 19-year-old's injuries included a broken jaw, broken bones around the eyes, and multiple skull fractures requiring facial reconstruction surgery.

Deputy Mike Martinez said Andersen-Parrado had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath when deputies spoke to him in the emergency room. His eyes were also allegedly bloodshot and watery, according to the affidavit.

No field sobriety test was taken at the time, due to Anderson-Parrado's injuries.

More crime news: Pueblo man sentenced to six years in Youthful Offender System for killing 15-year-old

Andersen-Parrado told deputies that he was traveling back to CSU-Pueblo from a pizza restaurant off Santa Fe Drive when he left the roadway and rolled his Mustang, going about 65 mph.

Deputies later determined that he had gone off the right side of Baxter Road approaching Daniel Road. He traveled approximately 165 feet before striking a raised culvert and going airborne for 92 feet before hitting the ground and rolling, at which point both passengers were ejected.

Three samples of blood were drawn from Andersen-Parrado at the hospital.

Another student at CSU-Pueblo, who was not involved in the deadly accident, said that Anderson-Parrado had been drinking at a party earlier in the night, and was already intoxicated when he arrived.

The student said Anderson-Parrado had previously "bragged" about having a record number of tickets for speeding.

Law enforcement officials said he was arrested earlier this month in New Jersey and brought to Colorado to face trial, according to the affidavit. He is set to make his first court appearance in Pueblo on Feb. 7.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in court. Arrests and charges are merely accusations by law enforcement until and unless a suspect is convicted of a crime.

Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at Jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @jayreutter1.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Man charged in connection to fatal wreck with CSU Pueblo students
Alluvion has resumed service to its drive-thru COVID-19 testing site after temporarily closing Monday due to a reported threat of gun violence to staff. The threat was deemed not credible by the Great Falls Police Department but they closed in an "abundance of caution."

As reported on Monday, Montana reached a grim milestone of 3,000 deaths from COVID-19. The omicron variant of the virus is surging through the community and marks the biggest spike in cases in the state during the pandemic.

Need a test?: Free in-home COVID tests arrive in Montana, if you can find one

The loss of even a single life to COVID-19 is a tragic event that has a devastating impact. Our condolences continue to go out to those who have been adversely affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Acting City-County Health Officer Bowen Trystianson said Monday in an emailed statement. We urge everyone to be considerate of their neighbors, friends, and loved ones by taking action to prevent further spread of this illness.

GFPS issues reminder of coronavirus policies

Great Falls Public Schools on its website reminded students, staff, parents, and community members of a few site practices and district policies for COVID-19:

Handwashing frequently: GEL In and GEL Out of schools, classrooms, offices and restrooms.

Monitor your personal health and well-being: School nurses will monitor students who are feeling poorly at school, check their temperature and may administer a COVID-19 rapid test, with parent permission.

If you are feeling ill and exhibiting symptoms, stay home, get a rapid test and consult with health officials if symptoms persist.

Allschool personnel are reminded to clean work surfaces regularly. Custodial teams will handle deep cleaning and sanitation/disinfecting as per COVID-19 cleaning protocols.

Physical distancing of 3-6 feet is recommended where and whenever possible in the school/work setting.

Wearing face masks and or shields is highly recommended in all GFPS buildings, classrooms and offices.

The Centers for Disease Control and Cascade City-County Health Department are now requiring that COVID-19-positive individuals remain isolated at home for a minimum of five days. If the infected individual is feeling better by the sixth day, they may return to work or school, if they wear a mask/face covering for the remaining five days of their infection. If you choose not to wear a mask, you must remain out of school/work for the remaining five days of your illness. Great Falls Public Schools is now requiring that practice as well.

Story continues

Latest COVID-19 cases in Montana

Montana reported 978 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, putting the total active confirmed cases at 17,327.

According to the state website, the total number of reported total deaths is currently at 3,019, with 329 active hospitalizations; there have been 222,790 total recoveries.

Cascade County had 137 new COVID cases and 2,025 active cases, and CCHD reported no deaths.

Of the states eligible population, 54 percent are fully vaccinated. Of the countys eligible population, 49 percent are fully immunized against the virus.

Yellowstone County: 3,589 active cases, 192 new cases and 38,935 total cases;

Missoula County: 2,835 active cases, 157 new cases and 24,338 total cases;

Flathead County: 1,447 active cases, 101 new cases and 24,678 total cases;

Gallatin County: 1,864 active cases, 90 new cases and 31,894 total cases;

Hill County: 157 active cases, 56 new cases and 4,124 total cases.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Alluvion COVID testing resumes day after threat closes drive-thru site
Beta Film has acquired world sales rights to Estonia, an ambitious Finnish series telling the true story of Europes deadliest maritime disaster of the 20th century. The eight-part event drama will reteam Bordertown creator Miikko Oikkonen (Bordertown, Helsinki Syndrome) and helmer Juuso Syrja (Bordertown), who will split directing duties with Mans Mansson (Snabba Cash).

Finlands biggest drama project to date, Estonia is produced by Beta Nordic Studios Finnish banner Fisher King, and co-produced by Swedish Karnfilm AB, Panache Production Belgium and the Estonian Amrion Ou. Also co-producing are streaming service C More Finland and Sweden, along with the broadcaster TV4 and MTV Finland, in collaboration with Beta Film.

More from Variety

The character-driven series, whose shoot is due to start in the spring, will captures the true event of the sinking of the MS Estonia, the countrys largest ship, in September 1994. The cruise ferry was hit by a major storm, which led to uncontrolled tilting. Within one hour, the MS Estonia sank in Finnish waters in the Baltic Sea, claiming more than 850 lives.

The show will chronicle the subsequent investigation launched jointly by Estonia, Finland and Sweden. Since the confidentiality agreement signed by all investigators and authorities ended in 2019, Estonia will deliver insights into conflicts, lies and conspiracy theories which have recently emerged.

The character-driven story will be told through the eyes of survivors, rescuers, family members, politicians, investigators and journalists.

Producers are Matti Halonen and Johannes Lassila at Fisher King, Martina Stohr and Petra Jonsson at Karnfilm AB and Riina Sildos at Amrion Ou and Andre Logie at Panache Production. Executive producers are Piodor Gustafsson (C More) and Jani Hartikainen (MTV Finland).

Story continues

Filming will take place in Finland, Sweden and Estonia, while the water scenes will be shot in the water tank sets in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, which boasts one of the most advanced water stages in Europe.

Im very humbled and proud to be a part of the upcoming series Estonia. The scripts about the investigation and the reasons behind the accident are truly intriguing and captivating, said Mansson.

Fisher King CEO Matti Halonen said, The sinking of Estonia was a tragic event. It is very important for us to respect all the victims and their relatives.

Almost 30 years have passed since the accident and with the help of fiction we can tell new perspectives on what happened. The work of the investigation committee was very difficult and highly political. The final report, released three years later, met with controversy, explained the executive.

Halonen said the character-driven approach of the creative team will deliver a gripping but also highly emotional story.

I was very taken by the strong script and emotionally compelling characters. The story is highly character-driven and complemented by engaging visual storytelling. I believe the series will give deeper insight into the tragic event and that makes the series worth doing.

Besides Fisher King, Beta Nordic Studio also owns Icelandic banner Sagafilm (The Minister, Stella Blomkvist), Swedens Unlimited Stories (Missing People) and Dramacorp (Cryptid), as well as Norways Cinenord (Atlantic Crossing).

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Welcome to NFL Draft season fellow Cleveland Browns fans and we have focused a lot on various first round mock drafts and our reactions to those and that makes sense considering that the first round is the most important and a bit of a make it or break it for the entire draft class, but if you are like me, you love digging deeper and talking about some underrated prospects from the C-USA or FCS subdivision.

Today I am reviewing a seven round mock draft that I have simulated over at our good friends The Draft Networks Mock Draft Machine. I did not make any selections and just let the computer do its thing and I wanted to highlight who was chosen and my reaction or alternate choice below:

TDN: 1st Round #13: David Ojabo, OLB, Michigan

David Ojabo, DE, Michigan

Syndication Usa Today

David Ojabo has elite athleticism and great size as Michigan lists the dynamo edge rusher at 65 and 250 pounds. Ojabo is going to likely test out of the gym with explosiveness that will make every GMs mouth water as evidenced by high school track times, but this is a selection based largely on potential as Ojabo only has one year of starting experience at Michigan. There are many options on the board that offer the same kind of star upside and should be able to contribute in a more meaningful manner.

David Ojabo likes to attack that football man. pic.twitter.com/i8R913FoPJ  Joey Richards (@JRDrafts) January 19, 2022

My Preference: 1st Round #13: Garrett Wilson, WR, Ohio State

13. Cleveland Browns  Garrett Wilson, WR, Ohio State

Syndication Usa Today

Perhaps I am a little bias considering I also cover Ohio State, but Garrett Wilson is a stud and in this mock he is still on the board. Wilson has elite acceleration and change of direction skills to go along with outstanding ability to track the ball and contort his body to fight for position. After a productive career destroying defensive backs in the Big Ten it is hard to imagine Wilson not playing a role immediately for the Browns.

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TDN: 2nd Round #44: David Bell, WR, Purdue

I could not agree more with the simulations wise decision to select David Bell. The wide-out from Purdue has arguably the best hands in the country and snagging a high-quality stud like him in the second round is a steal. Bell has the skills to play from day one in Cleveland.

Purdue WR David Bell makes some insane catches on film. Not the flashiest player, but his body control and concentration are super impressive. Love to see him with some competent QB play in the NFL. Purdue handcuffed him. pic.twitter.com/z7LpcEtIhw  Dante Collinelli (@DanteCollinelli) January 15, 2022

My Preference: 2nd Round #44: David Bell, WR, Purdue

As I said above, David Bell is the perfect selection here and even with me taking Garrett Wilson in the first round, I would still snag Bell in the second. Lets give Baker all the support he can handle while still taking the best stud on the board. Bell is already advanced enough in his route-running to make an impact in the NFL in year one.

David Bell ripping out the ball on what should've been an underthrown INT late in the 4th (down a FG) is probably one of my favorite plays on his film. Dude is as dependable as they come. pic.twitter.com/LAt4f1Q4KN  Nicholas Martin (@themicknartin) January 13, 2022

TDN: 3nd Round #78: Zachary Carter, DE, Florida

[Doug Engle/Ocala Star-Banner]2021

Zachary Carter is an interesting selection in the third round as the former Gator is versatile enough to contribute on the edge or move down to the inside at 64 and 285 pounds. Carter has two productive seasons under his belt and likely would have been an early-round selection had he declared after last season. Carter primarily played end in the Florida 3-4, but would not be out of place at all anywhere across a four-man front.

Carter is a very good pass rusher with the ability to bend around the corner. The problem I have with this pick is Carter didnt dominate in college as he should have and there are more intriguing prospects still on the board with larger upside and just as impressive production.

The strength behind Zachary Carter's long arm.. sheesh pic.twitter.com/RfYsUG97d3  Tyler Browning (@DiabeticTyler) September 26, 2021

My Preference: 3nd Round #78: Boye Mafe, DE, Minnesota

Rob Schumacher-Arizona Republic

Boye Mafe is an absolute athletic freak with the upside to be a monster in the NFL. He still has a way to go as far as his technique, but Mafe was still dominant for Minnesota the last two seasons. Mafe was listed as on Bruce Feldmans freak list due to his 4.57 40-yard dash time, 1.58 ten-yard split and 4-.5 inch vertical at 64 and 265 pounds. Mafe also has the frame to gain even more weight and maintain that elite athleticism. Mafe seems like the better fit in my eyes due to his insane potential and still very solid production.

Just got word that @GopherFootball EDGE Boye Mafe vertical jumped 40 inches at 265 lbs in pre-draft training. High upside rusher still flying under too many radars. One to watch in @seniorbowl OL/DL 1-on-1 pass rush drills.#TheDraftStartsInMOBILE#BestoftheBest pic.twitter.com/5Ek2wCEMSh  Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) January 15, 2022

TDN: 4th Round #103: Andrew Stueber, OT, Michigan

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Andrew Stueber was a vital part of the success of the Michigan run game and those road grading skills should translate to the next level. Stueber has the size at 67 and 338 pounds and the versatility to play either tackle or guard in the NFL. Stueber has Big Ten starting experience at both positions and that certainly adds some value to his stock, but I still see a few athletic pieces that may be able to play immediate roles now while possibly turning into stars.

#CFBPlayoff/@seniorbowl Preview: One of most beautiful runs in CFB this year. @UMichFootball RB Hassan Haskins & @JoeMooreAward winning OL surge vs. Northwestern. @H2_3125 is more than just a power back & RT Andrew Stueber will be longtime #NFL starter.#TheDraftStartsInMOBILE pic.twitter.com/c6l2Y0dSJe  Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) December 28, 2021

My Preference: 4th Round #103: Brandon Smith, OLB, Penn State

Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports

Linebacker U is at it again and Brandon Smith is the next Nittany Lion that could possibly dominate in the NFL. There was a point where most expected Smith to go in the early rounds and snagging a guy who can contribute snaps in the second level in the fourth round is a win for me. Smith was a former five-star recruit due to his freakish athletic traits as evidenced by his 36-inch vert and is potential is out of this world.

If anyone was questioning the speed of Brandon Smith. We will start this mid play chasing Jaxon Smith-Njigba. pic.twitter.com/a2dHf7C8sg  Matt Alkire (@mattalkire) January 17, 2022

TDN: 4th Round #114: Leo Chenal, ILB, Wisconsin

Leo Chenal, LB, Wisconsin

Syndication Journal Courier

Leo Chenal is arguably the best impactful defensive player in the country as he was the heart and soul of the outstanding Wisconsin defense. Chenal has the second highest PFF grade of any in the box defender with an insane 91.3, but with all of that said, I am not sure if he has the athletic traits to warrant this selection. Chenal is worthy of a fourth round pick, but there are a few more interesting defenders on the board.

Alright. This is enough. Leo Chenal sacks people. A lot. And apparently, there's just nothing they can do to stop it. Noted. pic.twitter.com/N22nsIhH0Y  Matt Alkire (@mattalkire) January 19, 2022

My Preference: 4th Round #114: Amare Barno, OLB, Virginia Tech

Nov 21, 2020; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies defensive lineman Amare Barno (38) looks on against the Pittsburgh Panthers during the third quarter at Heinz Field. Pittsburgh won 47-14. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Amare Barno played both defensive end and outside linebacker for Virginia Tech and stands at 66 and 245 pounds. Barno has the athleticism to play on the second level or the frame to add more weight and play defensive end at the next level. Before the season started, I had Barno as a possible early round target considering his versatility, upside and production. Barno is a more intriguing option considering his pass rushing skills and upside.

The @seniorbowl is looking live at @HokiesFB vs @UNCFootball. We anticipate Va. Tech EDGE Amare Barno (@Ayye_Barno) to be one of highest risers in 2022 draft class this fall. Made tons of length plays (6042v, 34 1/4 arms) on junior .#TheDraftStartsInMOBILE #BestoftheBest pic.twitter.com/8G40tAb8Cl  Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) September 3, 2021

TDN: 5th Round #153: Thayer Munford, OT, Ohio State

Thayer Munford is an elite pass blocker who was projected as an early-round target going into the season. Ohio State is arguably Offensive Line U and Munford is the next in line. Getting a potential starter in round five is an outstanding value. Munford started at both tackle and guard at Ohio State and has the potential and size at 66 and 320 pounds to play either at the next level. Munford is a natural knee bender who is also very solid in the run game as well.

Heres a look at an offensive line of LT Nichols Petit-Frere, LG Thayer Munford, C Harry Miller, RG Paris Johnson and RT Dawand Jones pic.twitter.com/KgEzExoGhp  Bill Landis (@BillLandis25) August 10, 2021

My Preference: 5th Round #153: Thayer Munford, OT, Ohio State

In my eyes taking Thayer Munford in the fifth round is a major win and I see no better fit on the board. Adding a versatile depth piece on the offensive line with the potential to turn into a starter is a great value. Munford has multiple years of starting experience at both tackle and guard and has played at an All-American level for the majority of his career.

Thayer Munford with a nice job here on the J.T. Barrett TD run. pic.twitter.com/pYRG57qar9  The Ozone (@theozonedotnet) November 25, 2017

TDN: 6th Round #192: Cole Turner, TE, Nevada

Cole Turner is a phenomenal selection at this point as he has the unique mixture of size 66 and athleticism to be a thorn in the side of every defender in the NFL. He followed up his breakthrough 2020 campaign which featured nine touchdowns in just nine games with ten touchdowns in 2021 despite seeing the focus of many defenses. With two extremely productive seasons under his belt and unlimited potential, Turner is a great candidate in the sixth round. A very underrated diamond in the rough level prospect who would be perfect for the Browns.

Nevada has a 66 Tight End and his name is Cole Turner, King of the Endzone Fades. pic.twitter.com/FYq6JmUp35  Talkin Giants (@TalkinGiants) January 17, 2022

My Preference: 6th Round #192: Cole Turner, TE, Nevada

This is the second pick in a row where I see no better option. Snagging a player with the electric upside of Cole Turner in the sixth round is a slam dunk. The tight end room may be a little crowded, but Turner is too good to pass up.

Nevada TE Cole Turner 6'6 240lbs. 3rd-4th Rd pic.twitter.com/4wchJ4KEp8  Greg Boucher  (@TheSportsBully1) January 19, 2022

TDN: 7th Round #219: D'Jordan Strong, CB, Coastal Carolina

David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports

DJordan Strong was one of the best cover corners in college football, but he doesnt get the recognition he deserves due to playing in the Sun Belt. Coastal Carolina runs a fairly diverse coverage scheme and Strong was quality on the outside whether he was playing press, off or even in zone. Strong also has the quick feet and acceleration to hang with pro receivers.

D'Jordan Strong with the Pick Six and the Chanticleers will defeat Appalachian State. pic.twitter.com/c7SThpIsAp  NCAAF Nation (@NCAAFNation247) November 21, 2020

My Preference: 7th Round #219: D'Vonte Price, RB, Florida International

I have no issue with taking DJordan Strong, but DVonte Price was such a great player to watch and is arguably the best player to ever come out of Florida International. Price is a strong runner sat 62 and 215 pounds and is going to be a name to know as I am sure he will dominate at the Senior Bowl. Adding price to an already loaded backfield in Cleveland would be flat-out dangerous.

D'vonte Price power game. No problem. Listed 6'2"/215lbs. Could easily carry 225, I'd think. pic.twitter.com/foJKHpDjKe  Jared Stanger (@JaredStanger) January 16, 2022

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WASHINGTON  A U.S. woman charged with plotting bomb attacks in the U.S. and training an all-female battalion to fight for the Islamic State was ordered detained Monday at her initial federal court appearance in Virginia.

Allison Elizabeth Fluke-Ekren, 42, a former teacher and resident of Kansas, was charged May 15, 2019, with providing support to a known terrorist organization, according to court records. The case remained sealed until she was caught and transferred to federal authorities in Virginia.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis ordered her held, pending a detention hearing Thursday. She was also assigned a defense lawyer, Joseph King, who declined comment.

Fluke-Ekren is a rarity to experts: a woman alleged to have a senior role in ISIS

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh had argued in a court filing that Fluke-Ekren should be detained pending trial because she is a firm believer in radical ideology. A witness who interacted with her in Syria said she was radicalized "off the charts," rating an "11 or 12" on a scale of one to 10, Parekh said.

Jan. 6: Is there a link between Jan. 6 suspects and Trump's inner circle? FBI's questions show hunt is still on

Counterterrorism experts said it is extremely unusual for a woman  especially an American citizen  to participate in an international Islamic terrorist organization, which traditionally subjugate females to little more than sex workers whose job it is to raise children and tend to domestic duties.

The charges against Allison Fluke-Ekren are a disturbing reminder of how ISIS was able to inspire and radicalize thousands of foreign extremists to travel to its strongholds in Iraq and Syria and engage in a variety of activities, Javed Ali, a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official at the FBI, White House and National Security Council in the Trump administration, told USA TODAY. Fluke-Ekren and other women were able to assume roles in combat units and provide ideas for attacks abroad, which made them different since women in al-Qaida and its associated groups had more traditional family responsibilities.

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Fluke-Ekren left the U.S. in 2008 for Egypt, where she lived until 2011, before spending a year in Libya, according to court records. By 2012, a witness said she was smuggled into Syria because she allegedly wanted to engage in violent holy war, according to court records.

Fluke-Ekren was allegedly engaged in terrorism-related activities from 2014 to 2017, based on interviews with six witnesses who interacted with her there, according to FBI Special Agent David Robins.

She allegedly recruited others for a potential terror attack on a U.S. college campus, Robins said in the criminal complaint. Rather than a suicide attack, her alleged plan was to drop off a backpack filled with explosives, in revenge for an airstrike on a market area near al-Bab, Syria, according to Robins. A witness said Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in 2019, approved funding for the attack, according to the FBI.

This undated photo provided by the Alexandria, Virginia, Sheriff's Office in January 2022 shows Allison Fluke-Ekren. Fluke-Ekren, 42, who once lived in Kansas, has been arrested after federal prosecutors charged her with joining the Islamic State group and leading an all-female battalion of AK-47 wielding militants. The U.S. Attorney in Alexandria announced Saturday that she has been charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization.

Fluke-Ekren also allegedly explained to one witness that she could go to a shopping mall, park a vehicle packed with explosives and detonate it with a cellphone, and that she would consider the attack a waste of resources if it didnt kill a large number of people, according to Robins. But she didn't pursue the attack because her husband objected, Robins said.

Russia: Homeland Security warns that Russia could launch cyberattack against US

She crossed the border from Turkey into Syria in 2014, one witness told the FBI. Her former husband was a leader of snipers for the Islamic State, Robins said. Fluke-Ekren and her former husband allegedly brought $15,000 to Syria to buy AK-47 rifles, grenades and other military-style items, Robins said. A witness saw rifles at her home often and one of her sons was seen holding a machine gun at age 5 or 6, Robins said.

Fluke-Ekren also allegedly organized a military battalion in 2016 called Khatiba Nusaybah, which trained women and children how to use AK-47 rifles, grenades and suicide belts, according to prosecutors. Fluke-Ekren, who speaks English, Arabic, Turkish and Spanish, allegedly provided lodging and translated speeches made by Islamic State leaders, according to prosecutors.

The female fighters were wives of male Islamic State fighters, according to prosecutors. A witness told investigators Fluke-Ekren wanted to train women how to protect themselves, such as when Raqqa, Syria, was under siege in 2017. The location of Islamic States headquarters was under siege from June to October 2017 by Syrian Democratic Forces, which reclaimed control of the city, according to prosecutors.

'Havana Syndrome': CIA rules out hostile foreign power behind medical symptoms known as 'Havana Syndrome'

One of Fluke-Ekren's former husbands was killed in an airstrike in Tell Abyad, Syria, in 2016, according to Robins. Another former husband, who specialized in drones, died in late 2016 or 2017, according to Robins. A third husband was a prominent Islamic State military leader who was responsible for defending Raqqa, according to Robins.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fluke-Ekren, charged with training Islamic State, appears in court
JEFFERSON CITY  Anti-vaccination activists are attempting to block the confirmation of Gov. Mike Parsons health chief, falsely alleging he wants to force all Missourians to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

In a rally Monday, the group urged the Senate to vote down the appointment of Donald Kauerauf as director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Despite evidence to the contrary, the opponents argued that Kauerauf would attempt to require all Missourians to get vaccinated against a respiratory disease that has killed more than 17,000 Missourians.

Since his hiring in July to replace Randall Williams, Kauerauf has said he strongly supports vaccinations as a way to control the pandemic, but he has not called for mandatory vaccinations in keeping with Parsons oft-stated opposition to the idea.

The opposition drew a rare statement of support from Parson, who said Kauerauf was hired because he was the best qualified candidate for the job.

During Dons six months leading DHSS, he has shown nothing but dignified public service to the people of Missouri, and during this same period, Missouri has always resisted COVID-19 mandates, prevented federal government overreach, and fought COVID-19 vaccine requirements, the governor wrote.

Dr. Mollie James, a former intensive care physician, was among those speaking to about 150 activists in the Capitol rotunda. She said the state health departments warning about using ivermectin  used to treat parasitic worms in horses  for COVID-19 was an absolute lie.

The depth of corruption goes to the highest of levels, said James, who also promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, which was developed to treat malaria caused by mosquito bites.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July 2020 said hydroxychloroquine showed no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery from the coronavirus.

Some lawmakers lent their names to the rally, including Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg.

Its important you stay diligent, Hoskins told the crowd.

Parson signaled he was disappointed in officials who have pushed back against his nominee.

Its concerning to see certain Missouri officials grandstanding for purely political reasons and fueling fears without any regard for the truth. I implore Missouri senators to assess the qualities of the person, not let themselves fall victim to misinformation repeated on social media, the governor wrote.

Following the rally, the unmasked protesters flooded the halls of the Senate, drawing the attention of Capitol police.

Senate President Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, who chairs the Senate Gubernatorial Appointments Committee, warned the group that he would not tolerate interruptions during the hearing process.

There will be no outbursts, Schatz said.

Despite the admonition, the hearing was interrupted a handful of times by the protesters. Kauerauf said he was not deterred.

Im sure when I leave here today they are going to be yelling everything at me. I dont really care, Kauerauf said.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that people who are unvaccinated face a significantly greater risk of death from COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated.

But amid an avalanche of misinformation about the shots, only about 54% of Missourians are fully vaccinated.

Under questioning by Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, Kauerauf said he is against mask mandates, which are designed to lower the transmission of the airborne germs.

They dont work, Kauerauf said.

He said he opposes the imposition of a statewide vaccination requirement but stood by his earlier statement that Missouris vaccination rate is atrocious.

We can get through this if people get vaccinated, Kauerauf said.

He told Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, that he believes vaccinations are more long-lasting than so-called natural immunity because of the presence of variants in the virus.

But Kauerauf appeared to soften the departments 2021 stance on ivermectin, which advises against its use.

Any type of treatment should be between an individual and their physician, Kauerauf said.

Before coming to Missouri, Kauerauf chaired the Illinois Terrorism Task Force and was assistant director of the Illinois Department of Public Health from 2016 until his retirement in 2018.

In December, he wanted to challenge a judges ruling against the agency that barred COVID-19 public health orders. But Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is running for U.S. Senate, disagreed because he opposes public health orders and has sued local governments and schools to block them.

Continuing threats

The effort to torpedo Kauerauf comes as other health officials have quit amid threats from those opposed to public health orders.

In December, Franklin Countys health director resigned, alleging threats of violence against her.

In July 2020, residents protested outside the Jefferson County health department as the county health board discussed a proposal to require masks in public places. The health director later said that some had threatened to protest in front of her home.

In November 2020, the director of the St. Francois County public health department resigned, citing threats and harassment.

In September, Kauerauf said the lack of respect and knowledge, darn right meanness toward each other in the public health field in Missouri and across the country is damaging health officials credibility.

The effort also comes against the backdrop of Republican lawmakers pushing more than a dozen bills that would ban public- or private-employer vaccine mandates.

Other bills would force employers to assume liability if workers who are required to be vaccinated have any adverse side effects.

The committee could vote as early as Tuesday on whether to advance Kauerauf to the full Senate for further debate.

Originally posted at 5:15 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31.

Kurt Erickson  573-556-6181 @KurtEricksonPD on Twitter kerickson@post-dispatch.com

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MGE commits to at least 80% carbon reduction by 2030 as part of path to net-zero carbon by 2050.

MADISON, Wis., January 31, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Consistent with its commitment to sustainable energy and to global climate science, Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) is committing to reducing carbon at least 80% by 2030 as it works toward achieving net-zero carbon electricity by 2050. Under its Energy 2030 framework, announced in 2015, the company set a goal of 40% carbon reduction by 2030, one of the first such goals set by a utility and in alignment with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Since then, the company has said it fully expects to achieve carbon reductions of at least 65% by 2030. In 2019, MGE established its goal of net-zero carbon electricity by mid-century, consistent with climate science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and analysis of the company's goal by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

"In 2019, MGE was one of the first utilities in the nation to commit to net-zero carbon by 2050. Since announcing our carbon reduction goals, we have said that if we can move further faster by working with our customers, we will," said MGE Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Keebler. "Today's announcement of our goal to reduce carbon at least 80% by 2030 reflects our commitment to working together to move further faster. We're committed to doing everything we can do today to advance our deep decarbonization strategies as quickly and as cost-effectively as we can while maintaining our top-ranked electric reliability and our responsibility to those we serve."

Ongoing transition away from coal-fired generation

In the last year, we have announced the planned early retirement of the Columbia Energy Center by 2025, about 15 years ahead of schedule. MGE is a minority owner of Columbia, which currently provides MGE with about 200 megawatts (MW) of capacity. Columbia provides MGE customers with about one-third of their energy use.

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While we are replacing much of the coal-fired generation to be retired from Columbia with investments in renewable generation, MGE also plans to purchase 25 MW from the West Riverside Energy Center, with an option to purchase an additional 25 MW. A 50-MW share of this new, state-of-the-art and highly efficient gas plant is expected to produce about 10% of the emissions of MGE's share of the Columbia plant.

The West Riverside facility has much lower emission rates compared to coal-fired generation and other older natural gas plants. Investment in West Riverside helps MGE meet the energy needs of our customers with the retirement of Columbia and to dramatically increase the amount of clean energy in our generating mix.

Natural gas is a bridge fuel on our path toward a net-zero carbon future. Natural gas plants are an especially efficient backup to renewable energy because they can be dispatched quickly and at times when it's more challenging for wind or solar generation.

Additionally, by working with our partners to transition to natural gas as the primary fuel source at the coal-fired Elm Road Generating Station, MGE expects to substantially reduce our use of coal by 2030 and to have no ownership of coal-fired generation by 2035.

Growing our use of cost-effective, clean energy

Investment in renewable generation will replace much of the capacity needed due to the early retirement of the Columbia plant. We continue to grow our use of renewable energy with the anticipated addition of nearly 400 MW of wind, solar and battery storage between 2015 and 2024. We expect to invest in additional renewable generation beyond what is currently planned.

MGE also purchases a portion of the energy it uses to serve our customers from the market. With the retirement of a significant amount of coal generation and the growth of utility-scale renewable projects in the Midwest, we expect market emissions to continue to decrease, which also will help to decrease MGE's overall carbon footprint.

Strategies to achieve netzero carbon electricity

MGE's netzero carbon goal is consistent with climate science from the IPCC October 2018 Special Report on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve deep decarbonization, MGE is growing its use of renewable energy, engaging customers around energy efficiency and working to electrify transportation, all of which are key strategies identified by the IPCC.

About MGE

MGE generates and distributes electricity to 157,000 customers in Dane County, Wis., and purchases and distributes natural gas to 166,000 customers in seven southcentral and western Wisconsin counties. MGE's parent company is MGE Energy, Inc. The company's roots in the Madison area date back more than 150 years.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220131005957/en/

Contacts

Kaya Freiman - Corporate Communications Manager

Madison Gas and Electric

608-252-7276 | kfreiman@mge.com
Former President Donald Trump arrives during the "Save America" rally at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022 in Conroe, Texas. Trump's visit was his first Texas MAGA rally since 2019.

Happy Monday, OnPolitics readers!

In case you missed it this weekend: Former President Donald Trump dangled the prospect of pardons for supporters who participated in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, if he returns to the White House.

"If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6th fairly," Trump said Saturday night during a rally. "And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly."

His promise didn't go unnoticed: Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis is asking the FBI to assess the security of the local government complex as authorities prepare to empanel a special grand jury to investigate the former president's intervention in Georgia's 2020 election.

Willis said her request was prompted by Trump's Saturday appearance in Conroe, Texas, where he referred to "radical, vicious, racist prosecutors."

It's Amy and Chelsey with today's top stories out of Washington.

FBI still on the hunt for link between Jan. 6 suspects and Trump's inner circle

Federal investigators asked suspects in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack, including members of the far-right extremist group Oath Keepers, about possible links between Donald Trump, his inner circle and the rioters.

Federal prosecutors questioned defendants facing the most serious offenses and those who played cursory roles in the attack about possible connections to the former president and those close to him as the Justice Department continues a wide-ranging prosecution that's netted more than 725 arrests.

Though investigators tried to find a possible connection between Trump and efforts to halt Congress' counting of Electoral College votes, according to court records and interviews with defense lawyers, defendants told investigators they had no links to Trump.

Why focus the Oath Keepers in this case? The Oath Keepers have been at the heart of conspiracy charges from the attack for allegedly coordinating their travel, participating in paramilitary training and communicating during the attack through encrypted apps.

Story continues

At least 56 people, including 23 members of the Oath Keepers, have been charged with conspiracy, and four have pleaded guilty.

No charges yet: Trump and allies such as his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who spoke at his rally, haven't been charged criminally in the conspiracy. Trump's and Giuliani's lawyers argued in civil lawsuits stemming from the attack that they can't be held liable for the violent actions of people who listened to their speeches.

Real quick: stories you'll want to read

Russia and U.S. tussle over Ukraine during UN Security Council meeting

A United Nations Security Council meeting Monday transformed into a war of words when Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the Biden administration of "whipping up tensions and rhetoric and provoking escalation" over Ukraine.

Nebenzia also suggested to U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield that the country invited "nationalists, radicals, Russophobes and pure Nazis," into Ukraines capital Kyiv by ousting a Kremlin-friendly president in 2014.

Thomas-Greenfield also said Russia is attempting, without any factual basis, to paint Ukraine and Western countries as the aggressors to fabricate a pretext for attack," and referred to the over 100,000 Russian troops stationed at the Ukrainian border poised to invade.

The Security Council meeting was the first open session in which countries involved in the Ukraine crisis spoke publicly. The meeting took place despite Moscows attempt to block it, but Russias veto power and relationship to key allies, such as China, make any formal action by the Council extremely unlikely.

Ukrainian Americans fear a "massacre": Americans with friends, family in Ukraine trust their resiliency, but know the costs will be dire if Russia invades.

Kremlin says "no plans to invade": Ukrainians brace for the worst despite Russia's stated intent. The Kremlin has not confirmed whether its security demands amid NATO's eastward expansion will be met.

Looking for more to read? Six historically black colleges and universities throughout the country received bomb threats for the second time within a month.  Amy and Chelsey

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FBI still searching for link between Trump allies and Jan. 6 suspects
Former President Donald Trumps super PAC raked in more than $4.3 million from donors in the last three months of 2021, according to a new campaign finance report filed Monday.

Fueled mostly by donations of more than $25,000, Trumps Make America Great Again, Again! group now boasts a balance of about $9.5 million heading into the 2022 elections, when the group could spend millions on campaigns of interest to the former president.

The super PACs top donors were Tranquil Path Investments, LTD, of Texas, and ML Organization, LLC, of Florida, which both donated $500,000. Neither group has made a federal political donation before, according to the Federal Election Commission.

After the two holding companies, 10 donors gave donations of $250,000, including Texas state Rep. David Mayes Middleton II, who is also president of Middleton Oil and Gas Company. Other quarter-million dollar givers to the group were major Republican donors Jose Fanjul of Florida, Saul Fox of California, Don Ahern of Nevada, Elaine Beck of Arizona, Holloway Frost of Texas, Diane Hendricks of Wisconsin, Leslie Liautaud of Tennessee, Anthony Lomangino of Florida and Kenny Troutt of Texas.

Trump has endorsed 52 candidates for the U.S. House and Senate this year, in addition to many more down-ballot office candidates across the country, who could get support from the super PAC this year.

The super PACs spending has not started in earnest: The largest expenses last year came for event planning and consulting, legal fees and polling, in addition to several smaller billings from Trumps own businesses.

MAGA, Again! was created when control of the Trump super PAC shifted to former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi from Corey Lewandowski, after Lewandowski was accused by a Trump donor of unwanted sexual advances. Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trumps national finance chair, is also involved with the group. The former super PAC controlled by Lewandowski, Make America Great Again Action, transferred its remaining balance of about $5.7 million to the new group last October.
An Uncasville business owner was sentenced on Monday to just more than a year in prison on a federal tax evasion charge.

In addition to the 12-months-and-one-day sentence, Kathryn Pocock, 59, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Meyer to serve a year of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Connecticut.

Pocock, the owner of Sunshine Cleaners, LLC, pleaded guilty in September to withdrawing approximately $855,000 from her home cleaning business between 2015-19 and failing to report the money on tax forms and returns, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

An investigation found Pocock cashed numerous client checks, depositing some into her personal bank account while paying her employees under the table. Authorities said Pocock wrote checks payable to herself from her personal and business accounts and paid workers in cash without collecting or paying employment taxes to the IRS or the sales and use taxes due to the state of Connecticut.

In court: Norwich narcotics dealer sentenced to 43 months

Prosecutors said Pocock provided her tax preparer with false spreadsheets and supporting documentation that significantly understated her income and employee-related expenses.

Authorities estimate Pococks conduct resulted in a total tax loss of $213,900, including $180,450 worth of unreported taxes to the IRS and $33,514 due to the state. She was ordered to pay full restitution on the owed money.

This investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Services criminal investigation division.

John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Uncasville cleaning company owner to serve a year for tax evasion
Underlining Beauty, the parent company of Nailboo, has raised a $6 million seed round that it plans to use to scale up the business.

The round was led by Peter Warne and Christian Tarp at Nordic Eye Venture Capital, a fund in Denmark. With the capital, Underlining intends to expand its direct-to-consumer business, create more product lines and launch in retail.

More from WWD

Right now Underlining operates three brands: TatBrow, Nailboo and Hide, a skin care line. The company is based in Miami, and was founded by Raz Romanescu. Amanda Johnson, the cofounder of Mented, joined Underlining as chief marketing officer in 2021.

We want to become a global consumer distribution company with a portfolio of iconic brands, said Romanescu in an interview. To do that, Romanescu said Underlining will expand the product offerings for existing brands, and launch a brand in the hair space in the third quarter.

On the Nailboo front, were releasing an entire nail line for customers  press-on nails, gel polishes, hand and feet masks, cuticle oils, remover, etc., Romanescu said, noting that the line is launching with Sally Beauty. Tatbrow and Hide will also increase their product offerings in brow and skin, respectively, he said.

Primarily the funds are used for product expansion, hiring some more key personnel who will help sustain the growth of the business and set our infrastructure for starting to move into retail and international expansion, Romanescu said.

Industry sources said Underlining will do around $60 million in sales for 2022, and with major growth plans, could expand to around $500 million in sales for 2025.

Underlinings three brands are sold on their own individual websites, he said, but Underlining plans to launch one website that sells all of its brands in the future. The business also plans to launch into several English-speaking international markets this year, Romanescu said, ticking off the U.K., Australia and Canada.

Story continues

Were really good at building our own brands, launching them and building that customer demand and listening to our customers through data tell us what they want to see next, Romanescu said. The business interacts with customers through Facebook groups and SMS messaging.

We actually surveyed our existing customers and asked them which products they would like to see next, and thats what we based our product development road map on, Romanescu said.

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COVID-19 cases jump by 131 Thursday

As of Thursday evening, Yakima County reported 4,234 confirmed COVID-19 cases since mid-March. Thats an increase of 131 from Wednesday.

Coronavirus-related deaths remained at 92 Thursday.

A total of 1,523 people have recovered, meaning it's been at least 28 days since they were diagnosed with COVID-19 and they're not hospitalized.
Mothers are special. They give us life. They nurture us. And, they shape the way we think an
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A left-wing commentator accuses the government of ignoring the legitimate demands of teachers and trying to limit their right to strike.

A pro-government pundit, on the other hand, accuses the unions who called the strike of being the puppets of opposition parties.



On Monday, many teachers took part in a 2-hour strike called by two teachers trade unions. The Ministry of Human Resources said that the strike was illegal because no strikes can be held before the minimum service the employees have to provide is determined, and the first instance court verdict on those services is under appeal.



The unions said that they will call an indefinite strike from 16 March unless the government significantly raises teachers wages, reduces their workload, and reinstates teachers laid off because they are unvaccinated.



Nepszavas Daniel Juhasz finds it sad that the government does not want to offer fair remuneration and working conditions to teachers. The left-wing commentator recalls that before 2010, Fidesz vehemently criticized the left-liberal government for questioning the legality of strikes called by railroad workers.



In Pesti Sracok, Istvan Stefka sees the strike initiative of the two unions as a remnant from the Communist past, and dismisses the unions as servants of the opposition parties.



The pro-government pundit writes that unions were the tentacles of the Hungarian Workers Party and never dared to launch a strike under Communism. Stefka believes that the two unions organizing the Monday strike are also instructed from above by the opposition parties, who use teachers for their own political purposes in the electoral campaign.



He also accuses teachers joining the 2-hour strike of ignoring their duties and harming childrens interests.



This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher.

Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online.

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MTI Photo: Lajos Soos
More than two years after the first cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed, people are exhausted by the coronavirus pandemic, ready for all this to end. When  if ever  is it realistic to expect SARS-CoV-2 will recede from the headlines and daily life?

Thats the unspoken question beneath the surface of many of The Conversations articles about COVID-19. None of our authors can see the future, but many do have expertise that offers insights about whats reasonable to expect. Here are four such stories from our archive. Written by historians and scientists, they each suggest a way to think about whats at the end of the pandemic tunnel  and paths to get there.

1. Past pandemics are not a perfect prediction

Almost as soon as it hit, people were trying to figure out how the COVID-19 pandemic would proceed. It was tempting to look for clues in the course of the 1918 flu pandemic that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide. Could the waves of disease seen in the 1900s provide a road map for what could be expected a century later?

Daily deaths from COVID-19 were declining in the U.S. when historian Mari Webel and virologist Megan Culler Freeman from University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences cautioned against reading too much into how things had gone for people generations ago.

It was so tempting to superimpose a timeline of flu surges on the modern calendar to get even a blurry forecast of what the coronavirus might have in store for us. Scanning the historical record is one way to draw our own lives into focus and perspective, wrote Webel and Culler Freeman. Unfortunately, the end of influenza in summer 1919 does not portend the end of COVID-19 in the summer of 2020.

And for reasons ranging from biology to demographics to politics, that is one prediction that most certainly came true.

2. Calling it over before its really over

While the 1918 flu pandemic wasnt an exact template for how the coronavirus would sweep the world, the earlier pandemic provided plenty of parallels when it came to human behavior.

University of Michigan historian J. Alexander Navarro described how in the early 20th century Americans essentially quit on effective social distancing precautions when they got fed up with living constrained lives. Sound familiar?

As case numbers declined, People clamored to return to their normal lives. Businesses pressed officials to be allowed to reopen, Navarro wrote. Believing the pandemic was over, state and local authorities began rescinding public health edicts.

With the burden of public health resting on individual choices, additional waves of flu crashed over the population. Some amount of wishful thinking, along with a premature return to normal, was likely to blame. Peoples choices can affect whether an infectious disease outbreak ends or drags on.

3. Once a virus comes, it never really leaves

Infectious diseases are as old as humanity. Pointing to examples such as malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy and measles, Rutgers University  Newark historian Nukhet Varlik wrote, Once added to the repertoire of pathogens that affect human societies, most infectious diseases are here to stay. Only smallpox has been completely eradicated, thanks to an intense global vaccination campaign.

Varliks own research has focused on plague, a bacterial disease thats caused at least three pandemics in the past 5,000 years  including the 14th centurys Black Death  along with many more localized outbreaks over the years. Outbreaks wound down based on factors like changes in temperature, humidity and the availability of hosts, vectors and a sufficient number of susceptible individuals, Varlik wrote. Some societies recovered relatively quickly from their losses caused by the Black Death. Others never did.

The responsible bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is still with us today.

4. The endemic endgame

A post-pandemic world may still have COVID-19 in it. Many researchers suspect that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus will become endemic, meaning its always around, with some level of constant ongoing transmission. The viruses that cause the flu and the common cold, for instance, are endemic.

Sara Sawyer, Arturo Barbachano-Guerrero and Cody Warren, a team of virologists and immunologists from the University of Colorado Boulder, wrote that SARS-CoV-2 might hit the sweet spot for a virus to become endemic by being just the right degree of transmissible: Generally speaking, viruses that are highly contagious, meaning that they spread really well from one person to the next, may never die out on their own because they are so good at finding new people to infect.

[More than 140,000 readers get one of The Conversations informative newsletters. Join the list today.]

SARS-CoV-2 spreads easily through the air. Even people who arent experiencing any symptoms can pass the coronavirus to others. These factors, along with todays heavily interconnected global society, make it unlikely COVID-19 is going away completely anytime soon.

For now, these scholars write, the best we can likely hope for is stabilized rates of SARS-CoV-2 that settle down into predictable patterns, like flu season. If you want to help hurry things along toward this end stage, do what you can to make yourself an inhospitable host for the coronavirus  most notably, keep up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccinations.

Editors note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversations archives.

___
16 new airports to be built in all five states of central India, said Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia while addressing the PM-Gati Shakti Conference virtually on January 31. These five states include Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.

The Minister stressed the need for better integration among all stakeholders, particularly States and UTs for the success of PM-Gati Shakti. "An airport will be built at Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. Airports will also be built in Ambikapur, Bilaspur and Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh. Nine airports will be built in Uttar Pradesh, one in Rajasthan, and two in Maharashtra. National Highways of one lakh km will be widened under the PM-Gati Shakti," he said.

Scindia also said that only 74 airports were built in the last 70 years, now 66 more airports have become functional in the last seven years and India has a total of 140 Airports as of date. Addressing the PM-Gati Shakti Conference, Scindia said, "The success of PM Gati Shakti will catalyze the multimodal connectivity in the country, leading to realizing the vision of USD 5 trillion economies. The Gati Shakti initiative will not only help in bringing more investment into the country but also help create great employment.

Read also: Govt hikes aviation fuel price by 8.5 percent, airfare may increase soon

"The Union Minister said that many countries of the world including South Asian countries have focused on investment in the infrastructure sector in the last 70 years and all of them have become developed countries now. Under the leadership of PM Modi, PM-Gati Shakti is a great initiative to make India a superpower of the world, with the prowess of the best infrastructure.

In the earlier governments, there was no determination about the formulation and implementation of developmental schemes, but now the picture has changed, he added. The Minister said that during the previous governments, whereas only one AIIMS was built in 10 years, now in the regime of the current government, 15 AIIMS have been built in the last seven years.

He further added the cargo capacity in the ports has increased from 1280 million metric tons to 1760 million metric tons during the period. Further, he stressed that PM-Gati Shakti, which will cost Rs 100 Lakh Crore, is indeed a campaign to transform India into a global superpower.

With inputs from ANI

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Despite the pandemic restrictions, Indian airports catered to a total of 25.12 million passengers in December 2021, where Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has retained its position as the third busiest airport in the country.

CIAL said as per the latest statistics released by Airports Authority of India (AAI), it stands at third position in the country in terms of international traffic in December, a feat it has been enjoying since the beginning of the previous year.

"As per the AAI data on international traffic for the month of December 2021, Delhi Airport topped the list with 8,42,582 passengers and Mumbai airport retained its second spot with 4,51,212. CIAL registered 301,338 international passengers during December 2021 whereas Chennai Airport which is at the fourth position handled 2,46,387 international passengers," CIAL said in a release.

Read also: Nepal to commence flying ops from second international airport starting May 26: Minister

CIAL handled a total of 43,06,661 passengers during the whole year of 2021. Of that, 18,69,690 were international passengers. CIAL's passenger volume has almost increased by a million in 2021 when compared to that of 2020, it said.

CIAL Managing Director S Suhas attributed the traffic growth to the proactive measures taken by the management to attract more airlines. "Despite the spike in Covid-19 cases, CIAL has successfully managed to facilitate smooth traffic. A slew of measures was implemented to instill confidence in both passengers and other stakeholders. The year 2021 witnessed the resumption of direct services to the UK by Air India," Suhas said. Singapore Airlines started operations in December 2021 and we hope that we can host services in Kochi-Bangkok sector soon, he added.

"The Indian airports overall catered to a total of 25.12 million passengers in December 2021, compared to 23.23 million passengers in November. There were 19.64 million passengers in October, compared to 15.44 million in September and 14.26 million in August 2021," the release said.

However, the growth in air passenger traffic has seen a slowdown since December-end because of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the rapid spread of Omicron variant of coronavirus, it said. The country recorded 22.13 million domestic passengers in December, up from 20.72 million in November, while international passengers rose from 2.51 million to 2.99 million in the same period.

With inputs from PTI

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New Delhi: Ahead of presenting their highly-anticipated project 'KGF: Chapter 2' to the audience, actor Yash and director Prashanth Neel sought divine blessings at a temple in Mangaluru.

A picture featuring Yash with Neel inside the temple is doing rounds on the internet where the two could be seen posing for a picture with the priests.

Starring South star Yash in the lead, the movie is set to release in theatres on April 14.

The movie that also features Srinidhi Shetty, Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon in the lead roles, is a sequel to the 2018 hit film 'KGF: Chapter 1'. The first instalment of the film was also directed by Neel.

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New Delhi: Tata Steel Long Products Ltd (TSLP), a Tata Group firm has announced that it has won the bid for acquiring 93.71 percent stake in Odisha-based Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) for Rs 12,100 crore.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, have approved the highest bid of M/s Tata Steel Long Products Limited for 93.71% of shares of Joint Venture partners of 4 CPSEs and 2 Odisha Govt State PSEs at the Bid Enterprise Value of Rs. 12,100 crore. (Also read: Want to experience Tata's Maharaja experience on Air India? Board these flights)

Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd. (NINL) is a joint venture of 4 CPSEs, namely MMTC, NMDC, BHEL, MECON and 2 Odisha Govt. PSUs, namely OMC and IPICOL. NINL has an integrated steel plant with a capacity of 1.1 MT, at Kalinganagar, Odisha. The company has been running in huge losses and plant is closed since 30.3.2020. The company has huge debt and liabilities exceeding Rs. 6,600 crores as on 31.3.2021, including huge overdues of promoters (Rs 4,116 crore), Banks (Rs 1,741 crore), other creditors and employees. The company has negative networth of Rs. 3,487 crore and accumulated losses of Rs. 4,228 crore as of 31.3.2021. (Also read: 69-year-old 'wrong step' corrected: Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tata acquiring Air India)

"Govt. of India does not hold any equity in the company. However, on the request of the Boards of selling shareholder PSEs and on concurrence by the Govt of Odisha, CCEA in-principle approved strategic disinvestment of NINL on 8.1.2020, and authorised Department of Disinvestment & Public Asset Management (DIPAM) to undertake the transaction," said a Ministry of Finance release.

The transaction was made through an open-market, competitive bidding process towards the enterprise value of the company, comprising the liabilities of the company as on 31.3.2021 and the 93.71% equity of the company held by the 6 selling PSE shareholders. The transaction was executed through the extant consultative multi-layered decision mechanism-based procedure involving Inter Ministerial Group (IMG), Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment (CGD) and the empowered Alternative Mechanism. Govt. of Odisha with their companies, OMC & IPICOL having stake of 32.47% was also part of the decision-making at every stage.

The Expressions of Interest (EoI) were invited on 25.01.2021. Multiple EoIs were received by the due date of 29.03.2021. The interested parties were given opportunity to undertake due diligence procedure by providing them access to virtual data room of the company. These interested parties also made site visits and were provided with the proposed terms and conditions of the sale in the form of the draft SPA. Considering their feedback, the SPA was finalised on approval by AM, and was shared with the bidders along with the RFP issued on 03.12.2021 for inviting financial bids.

In response, 3 bids were received by the due date, i.e 23.12.2021 in sealed cover which were kept in safe custody. As per the extant procedure, the Reserve Price was subsequently recommended by the IMG after detailed examination of the valuation reports prepared by the TA and the AV, and was approved by the CGD at Rs. 5616.97 crore.

"M/s Tata Steel Long Products Limited (TSLP) emerged as H-1 bidder, whose bid has been accepted by the AM. Letter of Intent (LoI) is being issued to TSLP inviting them to sign the SPA. At this stage, 10% of the bid amount shall be paid by the successful bidder into the Escrow account," said the release.

On the closure date, shares will be transferred to the strategic buyer and the balance amount will be received to be utilized in the manner prescribed in the Waterfall agreement 27.10.2021 signed amongst the selling shareholders. Part-sale proceeds would be infused in the company to the extent of the liabilities which will be set-off and the balance amount in the escrow account will selling shareholders proportional to their shareholding.

This is the first instance of privatization of a public sector steel manufacturing enterprise in India. The success of the transaction is a win-win situation for all. The biggest advantage of privatization will be to the local economy of the region as the strategic buyer will be able to revive a closed plant, bring in modern technology, best managerial practices and make infusion of fresh capital, which will help in augmenting the capacity of the plant.

The privatization will help in creating new jobs in the region by creation of ancillary industries and suppliers network. Keeping in view the best interest of the serving employees, it was decided to keep the employees dues as the top most ranking liability in the Waterfall Agreement to be satisfied first before any other liability.

The transaction is on going concern basis and the employees of NINL will continue to be the employees of the company in terms of the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA), which binds the buyer to have a lock-in period of one year. The strategic buyer will also be bound to follow the terms of VRS applicable to CPSEs whenever such a decision is taken.

Post-sale consideration will go towards settling of the liabilities of the company, in the order provided in Waterfall Agreement.

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (February 1) announced a slew of measures to bolster the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) of the country. From the extension of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) till March 2021 to infrastructural announcements such as 25,000 km of new highways and Gati Shakti Masterplan, MSMEs are expected to benefit from the moves.

Dr Rashmi Saluja, Executive Chairperson, Religare Enterprises Ltd, said that the provisions for MSMEs will give a big boost to the sector that has borne the maximum brunt of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Setting up of the long-awaited bad bank will ease the bad loan burden by taking over the assets. This will help the banks focus on credit growth, which was hit because of the Covid pandemic. Asset Reconstruction Company and Asset Management Company to house stressed assets will also help move the bad assets currently lying in the books of Indian banks, Saluja said.

Saluja added that the Rs 20,000 crore capital infusion into public sector banks announced will allow more room for provisioning of bad assets and boost credit growth, provided demand makes a comeback.

Ramesh Nair, CEO, India & Managing Director, Market Development, Asia at Colliers, said, The Budget made several announcements to spur growth of the logistics sector in the country. The Budget announced that about 25,000 km of new highways will be built this year. Moreover, Gati Shakti Masterplan for expressways,100 new cargo terminals for multi-nodal logistics, and development of urban metro systems will give a big boost to new warehousing and logistics facilities across the country.

Pointing out that the government also extended the ECLGS up to March 2023, Nair said that this will go a long way in supporting the MSME sector and reviving industrial activity.

This has immense scope to drive demand for warehousing and logistic sectors. The government repealed about 1,490 union laws, paving the way to enhance ease of doing business. The government also plans to launch Ease of Doing Business 2.0. This should include more dynamic aspects and make India a more investment friendly destination, he said. Also Read: Union Budget 2022: Experts laud FM for raising the capital expenditure to Rs 7.50 lakh crore in 2022-23

Kapil Bardeja, CEO & Co Founder- Vehant Technologies says, "Government's decision to provide an extension under CGMSE till march 2023 to the MSMEs was much-needed support & boast to the MSME sector and this financial support will strengthen the confidence of small & medium scale industries who were struggling during the pandemic. The percentage growth of Capex 2022-23 and the overall rise in infrastructure, will eventually boost the security industry as the need for security & screening equipment will increase. The Government promotes Make in India, Vocal for Local, and Atmanirbhar Bharat visions, by laying out more money for local contractors under the defense sector, now the defense will have to invest 68% of its budget procuring equipment from domestic players. Given the current times, the budget is focused on India's growth and we anticipate this should act as a multiplier effect to the Indian MSME ecosystem. Overall, the budget is well designed to give a boost to local manufacturing and improve the infrastructure of the country." Also Read: Budget 2022: Kisan drones, services in PPP mode, chemical-free natural farming to open new doors for agriculture

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New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Tuesday (February 1), met President Ram Nath Kovind ahead of the Budget 2022-23 presentation President at the Rashtrapati Bhawan before heading to Parliament.

Besides Sitharaman, Ministers of State for Finance, Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Shri Pankaj Chaudhary, and senior officials of the Ministry of Finance also called on President Kovind.

For the unversed, its an established union budget tradition wherein the Finance Minister of India meets the President at the Rashtrapati Bhawan before heading to Parliament.

According to the customs, the finance minister will have to attend the cabinet headed by Indias Prime Minister after meeting the President. The finance minister informs the cabinet about the budget during the meeting.

Before the actual presentation of the Union Budget, the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also have to approve the Budget for the financial year 2022-23. According to a report by ANI, the meeting will be held at 10:10 am with the purpose to approve the Union Budget.

Sitharaman will start the Union Budget 2022-23 presentation at 11 am on February 1 in Lok Sabha. Sitharaman would present a paperless budget for the second time in the history of the country.

Union Budget is going to be Sitharamans fourth budget presentation. The finance minister is expected to will focus more on how the government balances out populist measures alongside walking the tightrope of fiscal consolidation.

Meanwhile, the Budget Session 2022 started on Monday, January 31, with the President addressing the Members of both the Houses after which the copies of his address were laid on the table. Also Read: Union Budget 2022 Live updates

Following the Presidents address, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman had tabled the Economic Survey 2021-22 on Monday. Also Read: 5 interesting things about Nirmala Sitharamans Budget ever since she took charge as FM

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New Delhi: Ahead of the Union Budget, Union Minister of State in Ministry of Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary on Tuesday said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present an inclusive budget, in line with the needs of each and every sectors.

Union Ministers of State in the Ministry of Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary and Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad arrived at the Ministry of Finance.

Addressing a media, Chaudhary said, "Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present an inclusive budget, in line with each and every sectors needs. It will be benefiting everyone. All sectors (including farmers) should have expectations from todays budget.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present Union Budget for the year 2022-23 in parliament today at 11 am. Also Read: 5 interesting things about Nirmala Sitharamans Budget ever since she took charge as FM

The budget session of Parliament began on Monday with the address by President Ram Nath Kovind to both Houses in the Central Hall. Later, the Finance Minister tabled this year`s Economic Survey, which was centred around the theme of the "Agile approach. Also Read: Budget 2022: Equity indices open in green, Sensex up by 662 points

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New Delhi: The hospitality industry, on Tuesday (February 1), termed the Union Budget 2022-23 as 'gravely disappointing', saying the measures announced by Finance Minister Sitharaman were not enough to support the sector that has been crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her Budget 2022-23 speech, Sitharaman had acknowledged that hospitality and related services, especially those by micro and small enterprises, are yet to regain their pre-pandemic level of business.

"Considering these aspects, the ECLGS will be extended up to March 2023 and its guarantee cover will be expanded by Rs 50,000 crore to the total cover of Rs 5 lakh crore, with the additional amount being earmarked exclusively for the hospitality and related enterprises," she said.

Reacting to her announcement, Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) Vice President Gurbaxish Singh Kohli said, "However, this is just a drop in the ocean for a sector that has been severely battered. Given the massive damages that decimated the entire sector's ecosystem, these measures are not adequate to bridge the losses and offer impetus to the hospitality and tourism industry".

He further said, "Though the Budget has been gravely disappointing, the extension of ECLGS with additional allocation to the crawling hospitality sector and provisioning an outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore through CGTMSE are the only relief measures provided as part of the Union Budget 2022-23".

National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) President Kabir Suri, however, said the extension of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) till March 2023 may ease current liquidity issues only for some businesses, which have existing credit lines or outstanding sanction available loans.

"It was very disappointing to see that no specific announcements were made for the restaurant industry and we are yet again left to fend for ourselves," he added.

Suri said the restaurant industry was eagerly looking at some immediate liquidity support like restoration of input tax credit (ITC) on GST, ease of doing business from over-regulation and excessive licensing, a fair and equitable e-commerce policy for the survival and revival of the restaurant sector in the Budget.

Confederation of Tourism Professionals President Subhash Goyal said, "Nothing concrete has been announced and this industry is bleeding for the last three years. The tourism industry was expecting some relief to be announced in this Budget but we are really disappointed".

"Since this Budget and the Finance Ministry has not seriously considered the economic contribution of tourism, therefore, we have no other option but to appeal to the tourism, health and home ministry for their help to restart e-tourist visas, scheduled international flights and remove the restriction of quarantine for those passengers who have received both the vaccinations," he said.

Otherwise, Goyal said, "It will be impossible for inbound tour operators, tourist guides, tourist transporters, tourist drivers, artisans, handicraft manufacturers, artists, musicians etc. Who are all dependent on inbound tourism to survive".

Contrary to the sentiments of the industry bodies, OYO Founder & Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal termed the Budget as progressive and growth-oriented and said the extension of the incorporation period for eligible startups will certainly give a boost to the segment.

"Hospitality services by the small and medium sector are yet to bounce back, and the finance minister's decision to extend the ECGL service for this sector up to March 2023, expanding the cover by Rs 50,000 crore is a welcome move," he said. Also Read: Disappointment on Income tax, 30% tax on virtual currency -- Understanding Union Budget 2022 in 10 quick points

Similarly, EaseMyTrip Co-founder Rikant Pittie said, "International travel has been severely impacted by the pandemic, which is why we are pleased with the introduction of e-passports with embedded chips. This will provide a big boost to travel and add a level of convenience for international travellers". Also Read: Budget 2022: Telecom sector to get benefitted with the roll out of 5G services, say experts

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New Delhi: During the Budget 2022 presentation on Tuesday (February 2), Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman said that PM Gati Shakti Master Plan for expressways will be formulated in 2022-23.

Sitharaman said that the plan will facilitate the faster movement of people and goods. She added that the National Highway network will be expanded by 25,000 km in 2022-23.

Rs 20,000 crore will be mobilised to complement public resources, the Finance Minister had announced. Moreover, 100 PM Gati Shakti Cargo terminals will be developed over the next 3 years.

Anuj Puri, Chairman  ANAROCK Group, said that the FM clearly emphasised the top priorities of the government - PM Gati Shakti for sustainable growth, inclusive development, productivity enhancement, and financing of investments.

PM Gati Shakti will encompass the seven engines for multi-modal connectivity for the states with speedier implementation of development projects through technology to facilitate faster movement of people and goods through Rs 20,000 crore financed by the govt to speed up this project. Further, the 100 PM Gati Shakti Cargo terminals to be developed over the next 3 years will provide much impetus to the logistics sector, he added.

Manish Dabkara, CMD & CEO, EKI Energy Services Ltd, said that the PM Gati Sakti Plan will encourage a strong pathway towards environmental-friendly transportation development.

Shyam Arumugam, Managing Director, Industrial and Logistics Services, Colliers India, said that the Gati Shakti Masterplan for expressways, 100 new cargo terminals for multi-nodal logistics, and development of urban metro systems will give a big boost to new warehousing and logistics facilities across the country.

The government also plans to launch Ease of Doing Business 2.0. This should include more dynamic aspects and make India a more investment friendly destination, Arumugam said. Also Read: Budget 2022: ECLGS extension, Ease of Doing Business 2.0 to help MSMEs recover from pandemic blues

Farshid Cooper, MD, Spenta Corporation, said, Budget 2022-23 is being looked at quite the booster for the infrastructure industry with focus on PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for Multi-Modal Connectivity aimed at coordinated planning and execution of infrastructure projects mainly by bringing down the logistics costs. This will surely help the PPP model to emerge and provide employment and real estate development in smaller areas. Also Read: Budget 2022: Tax benefits extended for 1 year to give big boost for startups, say experts

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave the Union Budget 2022-23 her shortest budget address to date on Tuesday. Sitharaman's address lasted one hour and 30 minutes, making it the shortest of the budget speeches, which often last two hours or more.

Sitharaman used the word 'tax' 46 times in her Budget address, the most of any politician. 'Digital/online' was used 28 times during her speech, whereas 'infrastructure' was cited 27 times. The terms 'finance,"states,' and 'economy' appeared 24 times, 20 times, and 19 times, respectively.

Budget 2022: A look at the most used words in Sitharamans speech

Tax  46 times

Digital/Online  28 times

Infrastructure  27 times

Finance  24 times

States  20 times

Economy  19 times

Education  20 times

Growth  19 times

Investment  18 times

Health  16 times

Farmers -16 times
New Delhi: Delhi has replaced Bengaluru as the startup capital of India as the national capital added over 5,000 startups between April 2019 and December 2021, according to the Economic Survey 2021-22.

The survey, which was tabled in Parliament Monday, said 4,514 startups were added in Bengaluru during the period.

With a total of 11,308 startups, Maharashtra has the highest number of recognised startups in the country.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to congratulate the national capital. "Congrats Delhi for yet another achievement. Delhi with 5,000 start-ups replaces Bengaluru as start-up capital.

India had a record number of start-ups (44) reach the unicorn status in 2021. It overtook the UK to emerge as the third highest country in number of unicorns after the US and China which added 487 and 301 unicorns respectively in 2021.

As of January 14, 2022, India has 83 unicorns with a total valuation of USD 277.77 billion.

Most of India's startups are in the IT or knowledge-based sector. Intellectual property, specifically patents are key to this knowledge-based economy. There has been gradual increase in the filing and granting of patents in India," the survey noted.

"The number of patents filed in India has gone up from 39,400 in 2010-11 to 45,444 in 2016-17 to 58,502 in 2020-21 and the patents granted in India has gone up from 7,509 to 9,847 to 28,391 during the same time period," it added.

The survey stated that number of patents application are increasingly coming from Indian residents rather than MNCs. The share of Indian residents in total applications has increased from 20 per cent in 2010-11 to around 30 per cent in 2016-17 and 40 per cent in 2020-21.

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New Delhi: The government has removed restrictions on exports of syringes with immediate effect, according to a notification.

Restrictions were imposed last year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The export policy of all kinds of syringes.....Has been made free with immediate effect," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said in a notification.

In 2020-21, the export of syringes stood at USD 45.68 million. It was USD 17.37 million during April-July this fiscal.

In a separate notification, DGFT said the last date for exporters to submit online applications to claim their pending dues under different export promotion schemes has been extended till February 28 this year.

On September 9, 2021, the government had announced releasing Rs 56,027 crore against pending tax refunds of exporters under various export incentive schemes.

The last date for claiming pending refunds under the schemes -- Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), Services Export from India Scheme (SEIS) and RoSCTL (Rebate of State and Central Levies and Taxes) -- was earlier fixed as January 31.

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New Delhi: The telecom minister Ashwani Vaishnaw on Tuesday said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendation on 5G spectrum is expected to come by March, after which spectrum action will be held expeditiously for the roll out of the next generation service.

The minister said the the Department of Telecom is parallelly working on other auction-related processes to start the spectrum auction at the earliest.

Commenting on the Union Budget 2022-23, the minister said "recommendations on 5G are expected by March".

He said that the budget focuses on enhancing research and development of indigenous technology.

The minister said that the government will make efforts for 5G services to be rolled out in India in 2022.

Trai has floated a consultation paper of 5G spectrum auction to discuss the view of interested companies and other stakeholders to fix price and conditions for allotment of the radiowaves.

The regulator will give its recommendation to the Department of Telecom which will then seek approval of higher authorities before conducting the auction.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget speech for 2022-23, said the telecommunication sector in general, and 5G technology in particular, can enable growth and offer job opportunities.

She said that the spectrum auctions will be conducted in 2022, to facilitate the roll out of 5G mobile services within 2022-23, by private telecom providers and a scheme for design-led manufacturing will be launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G as part of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

"To enable affordable broadband and mobile service proliferation in rural and remote areas, five per cent of annual collections under the Universal Service Obligation Fund will be allocated. This will promote R&D and commercialization of technologies and solutions," Sitharaman said.

She said that the contracts for laying optical fibre in all villages, including remote areas, will be awarded under the Bharatnet project through PPP in 2022-23, which is expected to be completed in 2025, to provide all villages and their residents the same access to e-services, communication facilities, and digital resources at par with urban areas.

The budget also announced infusion of Rs 44,720 crore into loss-making state-owned telecom firm BSNL in the next financial year, according to Budget documents.

The telecom minister said BSNL has started making operational profit and the long-term vision of the government is to strategically grow the company and the Rs 69,000 crore revival package for telecom PSUs were a step in that direction.

"BSNL is now making operating profit after a long time," the minister said.

The capital infusion in BSNL is mainly for 4G spectrum and 4G service roll out across the country.

"4G and 5G are organically linked. One who has not installed 4G cannot install 5G. We have to see that a lot of youth, friends, brothers connect with BSNL and it should provide last-mile connectivity," Vaishnaw said.

He said that the production of indigenously developed 4G has started, which has gone through large-scale deployment, large-scale testing and it should be upgraded to 5G after stabilisation.

Besides, the capital infusion, the government will provide additional financial support of Rs 7,443.57 crore to the telecom firm for a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and Rs 3,550 crore as grant-in-aid for payment of GST.

The financial support for VRS includes the implementation of the scheme at both BSNL and MTNL. The support for goods and services tax (GST) will be provided to BSNL fo

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In a big jolt to Congress in Punjab, senior leader Amarjeet Singh Tikka today resigned from all posts in the party. Amarjeet Singh Tikka holds the office of Punjab Medium Industry Development Board Chairman.

The development comes a day after the Congress announced the candidature of Ishwarjot Singh Cheema from Ludhiana South, a seat Tikka wanted to contest. The Congress leader wrote a letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, communicating his decision to quit.

Punjab Congress leader and Punjab Medium Industry Development Board Chairman, Amarjeet Singh Tikka tenders his resignation from the party & all party posts. pic.twitter.com/zNYdnyJp6Z  ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2022

In a similar development, Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) chairperson Krishan Kumar Bawa announced contesting polls from Ludhiana West, which is Cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashus constituency.

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A policeman was today shot at by terrorists in Kashmir's Shopian district. A police official said that the gunmen fired upon the policeman identified as Shabir Ahmad, leaving him critically injured.

"Two bike borne terrorists fired up on him near his residence at Amshipora shopian, the cop has been shifted to Srinagar in critical condition," the official added.

"The cop, who received 2 bullets, was posted at Wachi police post," he said further.

The policeman was shifted to District hospital Shopian where from he was shifted to SMHS hospital Srinagar for advanced treatment.

Meanwhile, police and army condoned off the entire area to nab the attackers.
New Delhi: India on Monday called for "diplomatic dialogue" during a fiery meeting on the Ukraine crisis at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Indian envoy to United Nations T S Tirumurti in the statement at the high table said, "I reiterate our call for the peaceful resolution of the situation by sincere and sustained diplomatic efforts to ensure that concerns of all sides are resolved through constructive dialogue".

Ahead of the meeting, Russia called for a procedural vote on holding the US initiated meet. India, along with Gabon and Kenya abstained in the vote that called for holding of the meet. Russia and China voted against holding the meeting. But the US bid to hold the meet was successful it was able to get 10 votes in all--US, France, UK, Brazil, Albania, Ghana, Norway, Mexico, UAE and Ireland. 9 votes were needed to hold the meeting. The Russian representative to the UN thanked countries who abstained and voted against holding the meet at the UNSC during his statement.

The meet comes even as Russia and the west, led by the United States have been on the brink over Ukraine. Russia has amassed troops at the border with Ukraine, with West worried over a possible invasion, something Moscow has dismissed. The Indian envoy said, "Indias interest is in finding a solution that can provide for immediate de-escalation of tensions taking into account the legitimate security interests of all countries" and "aimed towards securing long term peace and stability in the region and beyond."

Russia wants security guarantees from the West, including promises that Ukraine not joining the NATO alliance. A number of rounds of talks have happened between Russia and US over the crisis, including one between US Secretary of state Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Indian envoy called for "Quiet and constructive diplomacy" and to avoid "any steps that increase tension" while welcoming efforts like under the Minsk agreement and Normandy format. Minsk pact came into being in 2014 between Russia, Ukraine and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and calls for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine while giving autonomy to the Russian speaking areas. Normandy format, which has Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France as the key components, played a key role in drafting the Minsk agreement.

At the meeting, the envoy Tirumurti highlighted that "well-being of Indian nationals is of priority to us". More than twenty thousand Indian students and nationals live and study in different parts of Ukraine, including in its border areas. Indian mission in Kyiv has started to collect data on the number of Indian nationals in the country.

The envoy also confirmed that New Delhi has been in "touch with all concerned parties". January saw US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman calling Indian foreign secretary Harsh Shringla to brief on the issue.

Meanwhile, 3 Indo-Russia conversations have taken place in the same month. These talks are, Russia's Deputy FM Sergei Ryabkov meeting Indian envoy to Russia Pavan Kapoor, Russia's Deputy FM Sergey Vershinin calling Indian envoy Kapoor and Vershinin's Delhi visit to hold talks with Secretary West Reenat Sandhu. Russia becomes the president of the UNSC in February.

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The incredible battle between Congress Navjot Singh Sidhu and Akali Dal heavyweight Bikram Singh Majithia is going to be the most high-profile poll battle in this election season. The development comes after Majithia decided to withdraw nomination papers from his well nurtured Majitha constituency, and contest elections from Amritsar East assembly constituency to take on Sidhu.

Bikram Singh Majithias wife, Ganieve Kaur, will contest in place of her husband from Majitha assembly constituency. Ganieve Kaur had on Monday filed her nomination papers as 'covering candidate' for her husband from Majitha assembly constituency, and not from Amritsar East, which had given sufficient indication at Akalis poll strategy to take on Sidhu.

In past, Navjot Singh Sidhu had challenged Majithia to contest only from Amritsar East constituency.

However, Majithia says that he has filed papers for the sake of development of Amritsar constituency, and not over the challenge from Sidhu.

He claimed that it was not easy for him to decide between Majitha and Amritsar East constituency. "But I have left the responsibility of Majitha on a person who is upbringing my children, till now, my wife had not even thought about it, but for me it is a call of duty," Majitha said, adding that he didnt take the decision to see his own comfort level or any convenience to win the seat.

I never calculated like a politician before taking the decision it was a call from my heart which I listened and discussed with the people who have always been with me, he said.

Given the new twist in Amritsar politics, all eyes are set only on Amritsar East which holds the key to the political future of Navjot Singh Sidhu as well as Bikram Singh Majithia.

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Legislation that would require every public school in Virginia to have a full-time police officer on duty is expected to come before House and Senate committees this week.

Sen. Bill DeSteph and Del. Karen Greenhalgh, both Republicans from Virginia Beach, filed matching bills in the Senate and House of Delegates that would require each school district to set up contracts with their local law enforcement agency to staff every school with at least one school resource officer.

Both Greenhalgh and DeSteph said they expect their bills to be taken up in committee this week.

An SRO is a certified law-enforcement officer hired by the local law-enforcement agency to provide law enforcement and security services to Virginia public elementary and secondary schools, according to state code.

The bills state that any division that does not fully comply with the staffing requirement is ineligible for any grant or waiver from the state.

Its just for parents to know that their children are safe, Greenhalgh said on Thursday.

The bills are similar to legislation passed in Florida after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. If passed, the legislation would significantly increase the number of schools with a full-time law enforcement officer on duty, particularly in elementary schools, which in many localities have one officer who monitors several schools.

Advocates for the legislation say it is a safety measure, while opponents say its legislative overreach and runs the risk of criminalizing typical schoolhouse misbehavior.

We should have safety and security across all of our schools, DeSteph said.

The bills mark a departure from some of the police reform efforts that came after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin.

SRO programs frequently find themselves on the pendulum of public opinion. School shootings typically fuel calls for greater police presence on campus, but when officers end up arresting students or are caught on camera using excessive force, the demands for their ouster grow.

A handful of school boards in Virginia eliminated school resource officers over the past two years.

Charlottesville City Schools and Albemarle Countys school boards both eliminated their SRO programs in 2020, along with the Arlington County School Board in 2021.

In May of 2021, the City of Alexandria voted to remove SROs, but reversed course in October after several incidents raised safety concerns.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin has made the legislation a priority, urging lawmakers to take action during his address to the Joint Assembly on Jan. 17.

The classroom environment must be safe, so children can learn, Youngkin said. Im asking members of this General Assembly to prioritize school safety by putting a school resource officer on every campus.

Youngkin included $50 million for school districts to hire SROs in proposed amendments that he made to the $158 billion two-year budget that he received from former Governor Ralph Northam.

According to DeSteph, the cost for putting an officer in every school is about $40.3 million. Half of that would be paid by the state and half by local school districts.

DeSteph said his staffs research shows 705 public schools in Virginia do not have an officer, about 36 percent of the states schools.

Opposition to the bill tends to run along two lines: concerns about legislative overreach and concerns about turning typical misbehavior into something that involves law enforcement.

Sen. Chap Peterson, D- Fairfax City, often a swing vote in the Senate, said he opposes the bills because they overstep localities control of their own school districts.

There are extraordinary situations, like last year with reopening schools where we have to step in because the school boards arent moving on it, Peterson said. There may be a need for an SRO (in every school), but I dont know.

Del. Jeffrey M. Bourne, D- Richmond, said the proposals raise concerns about children having negative encounters with police officers at a young age.

A study conducted by Virginia Tech and cited in the 2019 Commission on Youth study on SROs reported 2.3 out of 1,000 students were required to appear before a court intake officer after in-school encounters.

Virginia Techs analysis also found that minorities and students with disabilities were disproportionately referred to law enforcement.

The ACLU of Virginia has come out in strong opposition to the bills.

Policing in school disproportionately targets students of color and students with disabilities, and the reality is that the presence of an SRO undermines the academic environment and allows for the escalation of routine administrative discipline, said ACLU of Virginia Policy Director Ashna Khanna.

Virginia should be talking about how we divest funding from SROs and reinvest in school nurses, counselors and other supportive services, Khanna said.

Bourne said lawmakers should view school safety as a holistic issue with structurally safe buildings and adequate funding for mental health and school counselors.

We all have a collective responsibility to make sure our children are safe, Bourne said. For me, that does not necessarily mean putting more guns and law enforcement in the classroom and schools.

Greenhalgh said local school boards could create policies to ensure SROs are achieving their intended purpose.

I certainly hope parents dont feel fearful, and I am hoping that having law enforcement officers in the elementary school will serve more of a community interest, she said. Have the children comfortable and know that the police are there to protect them, and maybe take down some of the fears that children have.

This article was published originally in The Virginia Mercury, an independent, nonprofit online news organization covering state government and policy.
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (February 1) said that NPAs in banks are reducing and banks getting the money back from those who have fled the country.

While addressing the press, Finance Minister also informed that the govt is in continuous contact with foreign countries including Switzerland and the information is being shared on the black money after 2018. She asserted that on the basis of received information, the government is working account by account to bring back the black money.

Talking about the Union Budget 2022 Finance Minister said, our Atmanirbhar Bharat Package saved the jobs of a lot of people that were snatched by the pandemic.

We are trying to help those who lost their jobs, through various schemes. I am denying but it is not fair to say that we didn't do anything, added the Finance Minister.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday tabled Union Budget 2022 in the Lok Sabha and later in Rajya Sabha.

While presenting the Budget in the Lower House, the Finance Minister said that India`s economic growth in the current year is estimated to be 9.2 per cent, the highest among all large economies.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (February 1) spoke with his Bahraini counterpart Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and reviewed bilateral ties while noting that the relationship has seen continued progress in diverse sectors.

During their telephonic conversation, Modi thanked the Bahraini leadership for taking excellent care of the Indian community in Bahrain during the Covid pandemic, as also for looking after their social and cultural needs, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

The Crown Prince conveyed greetings on the Republic Day of India.

Both leaders reviewed the bilateral relations between India and Bahrain and expressed satisfaction that the relationship has seen continued progress in diverse sectors including political, trade and investment, energy, health, security and people-to-people contacts, the PMO said.

"Had a warm conversation with HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince & Prime Minister of Bahrain. Thanked him for the Kingdom's attention to the needs of the Indian community, including recent decision on land allotment for the Swaminarayan temple," Modi tweeted.

Had a warm conversation with HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince & Prime Minister of Bahrain. Thanked him for the Kingdom's attention to the needs of the Indian community, including recent decision on land allotment for the Swaminarayan temple. @BahrainCPnews  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 1, 2022

India and Bahrain are celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic relations between two countries in 2021-22.

Modi conveyed his greetings to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and reiterated his invitation to Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa for a visit to India at an early date.

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New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister and Congress candidate Charanjit Singh Channi filed his nomination papers from the Bhadaur (SC) seat in Barnala district on Monday (January 31, 2022).

Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi files nomination from Sri Chamkaur Sahib constituency for the upcoming #PunjabElections2022. He filed nomination from Bhadaur Assembly Constituency yesterday. pic.twitter.com/kWaXbdjTum  ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2022

I have come with a mission in Malwa (region), Channi said after filing his nomination papers, adding that this area is backward in terms of development.

Though Capt (Amarinder Singh) and Badal sahib (Parkash Singh Badal) were there, the area lacked development, he said while promising to uplift the area.

CM Channi said he has come like 'Sudama' and hoped that people of the Malwa region will take care of him like 'Lord Krishna'.

We will register a big win in Malwa, said Channi who was flanked by senior Congress leader and former Union minister Pawan Bansal, whose son Manish Bansal is the party contestant from Barnala.

Punjab CM also revealed that the Congress party has directed him to contest from Bhadaur seat.

By fielding Channi from Bhadaur seat, the party was eying electoral gains in the politically significant Malwa region, which also has a good presence of Dalits in addition to their concentration in the Doaba area.

The Congress' move of fielding Channi from Bhadaur is also being seen as an attempt to check the AAP's influence in the Sangrur and Barnala districts.

Barnala district comprises three assembly segments- Barnala, Mehal Kalan and Bhadaur which fall under the Sangrur Parliamentary constituency, which is represented by AAP MP and party's CM face Bhagwant Mann.

Channi, who replaced Amarinder Singh last year, is the first chief minister of Punjab from the Scheduled Caste community.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday (February 1) released the list of its star campaigners for the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections which are scheduled to be held on February 14.

INC's enlisted 30 star campaigners for the second phase of the UP polls including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sachin Pilot.

Congress released the list of star campaigners for the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections to be held on February 14. List of 30 leaders of Congress campaigners included the names of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sachin Pilot. pic.twitter.com/PrjnG6E3Dg  ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) February 1, 2022

Polling across Uttar Pradeshs 403 constituencies will take place in seven phases starting from February 10 to March 7. The counting of votes in all states will take place on March 10.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP won a landslide victory winning 312 Assembly seats. The party secured a 39.67 per cent vote share in the elections for 403-member Assembly.

Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, BSP won 19 while Congress could manage to win only seven seats.

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New Delhi: The much-awaited BIMSTEC or Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation will be hosted by Sri Lanka on March 30. Sri Lanka is keen to host an in-person summit, but it could also happen in a hybrid format. Most of the member states have given a formal intimation over participation at the summit. It is not yet known if Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate virtually or travel to Sri Lanka for the summit.

PM Modi's visit to the UAE on January 6 was postponed due to the Omicron crisis. The summit will see approval of the BIMSTEC Charter, BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity and BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. The group will also work towards the finalization of the BIMSTEC Coastal Shipping Agreement and the Motor Vehicles Agreement.

BIMSTEC is a seven-member grouping that includes India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. The grouping is more than 20 years old and was formed in 1997. The last summit took place in Kathmandu in 2018, with PM Modi and other member-leaders attending the meet. Sri Lanka is the current chair of the grouping. The group has become more important for New Delhi since SAARC remains hostage to Pakistan. In 2019, India had invited all BIMSTEC heads of government and states to PM Modi's oath-taking ceremony for the second term.

Sri Lanka was keen to hold the summit last year several times but it could not happen due to the Covid crisis. April 2021 saw the BIMSTEC foreign minister meeting virtually, a meeting in which External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also participated.

The summit in March this year will naturally be in focus because of Myanmar's presence. The country saw a coup last year on February 1 and since then, not many have been keen to host the current military leadership of the country. It must be noted that the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), during its 2021 annual summit, did not invite Gen Min Aung Hlaing who seized power in Myanmar

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New Delhi: Invoking a verse from the epic Mahabharata, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (February 1) announced steps to further simplify the tax system and promote voluntary compliance. Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge also invoked the Mahabharata to hit out at Sitharaman and claimed that the budget was not meant for 'Eklavya', the prince of Nishadha, a confederation of jungle tribes.

"The king must make arrangements for Yogakshema (welfare) of the populace by way of abandoning any laxity and by governing the state in line with Dharma, along with collecting taxes which are in consonance with the Dharma," Sitharaman said quoting from Shanti Parva in Mahabharata. The Finance Minister said that drawing wisdom from the ancient texts, the government has continued on the path to progress.

"The proposals in this budget, while continuing with our declared policy of stable and predictable tax regime, intend to bring more reforms that will take ahead our vision to establish a trustworthy tax regime," the minister said. Kharge claimed that the budget only catered to the rich. "As I understand, this budget is for Arjun and Dronacharya and not for Ekalavya. There is nothing for the poor in this budget," Kharge said.

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Lucknow: The Congress party has decided that it will not field any candidate from Karhal, Uttar Pradesh. This means the Congress is fielding no candidates against the Samajwadi Party president and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav on Karhal and Jaswant Nagar assembly seats where the deadline for filing nominations ended Tuesday (February 1, 2022). "So we didn't file nomination today. The seat was on hold," said Manish Shah, AICC-Coordinator of Mainpuri.

A Congress party spokesperson said the party pitted no candidates against the two in a reciprocal gesture of the SP which too had fielded no one on Rae Bareilly and Amethi Lok Sabha seats against INC leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 general elections.

Congress' Etawah district unit president Malkhan Singh said the local unit had sent a list of six names for the Jaswant Nagar seat but the party high command did not approve of any name for the constituency. UP Congress general secretary Prakash Pradhan said the top leadership of the party had directed that since SP patriarch Mulayam Singh did not field any candidate against our leaders, the party too would field no one against Akhilesh Yadav in Karhal.

The Congress party had earlier declared Gyanwati Yadav as its candidate for the Karhal assembly seat but after Akhilesh Yadav filed his nomination there, the party decided to withdraw her candidature, Pradhan said.

Akhilesh Yadav is contesting the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls for the first time from Karhal, falling within the Lok Sabha constituency Mainpuri held by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. Shivpal Singh Yadav is in the fray on the Jaswant Nagar seat for the sixth time. Both the seats will go to the polls on February 20 in the third phase of the seven-phase UP assembly elections.

Meanwhile, Congress released the list of star campaigners for the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections to be held on February 14. The list of 30 leaders of Congress campaigners included the names of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sachin Pilot, among others.

Polling across Uttar Pradeshs 403 constituencies will take place in seven phases starting from February 10 to March 7. The counting of votes in all states will take place on March 10.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP won a landslide victory winning 312 Assembly seats. The party secured a 39.67 per cent vote share in the elections for 403-member Assembly. Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, BSP won 19 while Congress could manage to win only seven seats.

(With Agency inputs)

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Lakhimpur Kheri: Farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, who are yet to come to terms with the infamous October incident, are considering using the 'NOTA' option in the upcoming Assembly polls.

They alleged that while the two main political parties in the state the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have cheated them, the other parties are ineffective.

Farmers, that constitute the bulk of the population in Lakhimpur Kheri district located in the Terai belt, said while they have decided not to vote for the BJP owing to the contentious farm laws, they do not wish to support the SP either as the previous Akhilesh Yadav-led government had waived off Rs 2,000 crore interest amount payable by sugarcane mill owners to the cultivators.

Several farmers said they will choose 'NOTA' (none of the above) on February 23, if necessary, as all parties pay them lip service during elections but do not take any concrete steps to address their grievances.

Jagpal Dhillon, a farmer in Maraucha village located in Palia tehsil here told PTI that all political parties the BJP, SP, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress give them false assurances and use them as commodities during the elections.

We have no hope from any political party, he said, adding, the BJP will have to bear the brunt of the October 3 Tikoniya incident.

On October 3, eight people, including four farmers, were killed in violence during the farmers' protest at Tikoniya village in Lakhimpur Kheri. Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni's son Ashish Mishra is named as the prime accused and is in jail.

Kewal Singh, who along with his two brothers owns 45 acres of land in Palia, says the farmers will not forget how the previous Akhilesh Yadav government waived off the interest amount of Rs 2,000 crore which the sugarcane farmers were entitled to receive from mill owners.

The condition of the farmers turned worse under the BJP regime, which ironically had promised to double our income, he said.

According to the Cane Control Order 1966, in case of non-payment of the outstanding cane price within 14 days, sugar mill owners will have to pay an interest of 15 per cent to the farmers. However, the SP government waived off this interest amount, which swelled up to about Rs 2,000 crore citing that the industry was going through a lean phase.

On asked whom he would support in the upcoming elections, Singh said, We have no hopes from the BJP or the SP. The rest of the parties have no meaning. A large number of farmers are in favour of refraining from voting. But if necessary, we will press the NOTA button.

VM Singh, head of the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, alleged that the SP and the BJP cheated the farmers.

The SP-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance and the BJP are fooling the farmers. Why should we support either of them, he sought to know.

About 75 per cent of the farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri district cultivate sugarcane. Nine sugar mills, run by co-operative organisations and the private sector, crush about 15 lakh quintals of sugarcane here.

Farmer leader Anjani Dixit, who supplies sugarcane to a mill at Gola here, said the sugar mills in the district have paid the farmers only until February 6 last year.

"So far, the sugar mills have not paid us. Earlier, the SP government did not pay attention to the farmers. Today, Akhilesh Yadav (during Anna Sankalp campaign) says that he is with the farmers.

Then Narendra Modi made promises. He said his party would ensure that we got our dues paid. Five years on, our concerns remain unaddressed, he said.

Dixit said due to non-payment of outstanding sugarcane dues, the farmers are stuck in the quagmire of debt.

Our children are unable to study and get married. Judiciary is the only recourse left. I don't know who to vote for, he said. Sukhdev Singh, former president of Cooperative Sugarcane Development Society Limited, Palia Kalan, said sugarcane is cultivated in 44 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

There are 44 sugar mills in the state of which 22 are privately held. These sugar mills owe the farmers as much as Rs 12,000 crore in two years, he said.

Live TV
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday she has "blocked" Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Twitter, accusing the Raj Bhawan occupant of treating "everybody as a bonded labourer" but the former Supreme Court lawyer dexterously navigated the hurdle, approaching the tempestuous Trinamool Congress (TMC) boss on WhatsApp to stress on the importance of "dialogue and harmony" in democracy.

The seemingly unending tug of war between the TMC government and Raj Bhawan reached a new low when Banerjee told a press conference she had blocked Dhankhar's official Twitter handle because of his posts repeatedly targeting her government.

The row over the Pegasus spyware came in handy for the chief minister to attack Dhankhar.

"Pegasus is being used from Raj Bhawan," she alleged.

Banerjee, who accused Dhankhar of threatening senior state government officials like the chief secretary and state police chief, claimed the governor endorses "BJP goons who are involved in killing people in Bengal every day".

"I have blocked the governor from my Twitter account. I had no option. I am sorry about this. (I blocked him) Because I used to get irritated seeing his (governor's) tweet every day. In his tweets, he used to speak in a way that is not humane. He will tweet every day, abuse officials and sometimes abuse and accuse me. He does these things by speaking in an abusive, unethical and unconstitutional way," she said.

Dhankhar hit right back, referring to Article 167 of the Constitution to remind the chief minister of her "constitutional duty" to furnish information related to the administration of the affairs of the State and proposals for legislation.

Dhankhar's response was quick, as he insisted on Twitter that Article 159 of the Constitution mandates nobody in the state "blocks Constitutional Norms and Rules of Law" and those in authority "bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India".

"Under Article 167 it is Constitution(al) duty of the Chief Minister to furnish such information relating to the administration of the affairs of the State and proposals for legislation as the Governor may call for. Why 'block' information to Guv now for two years," he wrote.

WB Guv : Under Article 167 it is Constitution duty of the Chief Minister to furnish such information relating to the administration of the affairs of the State and proposals for legislation as the Governor may call for. Why block information to Guv now for two years ? pic.twitter.com/aOlEN5YZGb  Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) January 31, 2022

Banerjee declared she will not countenance any attempt at forcing an elected government to act at a bonded labourer.

Accusing Dhankhar of acting like a "super pehredar (watchman)", she said the governor was not clearing files and bills forwarded to him, including those related to the Howrah Municipal Corporation and Bally municipality.

"Even though it (the governor's) is a nominated post, he is sitting at the top like a super pehredar," she alleged, and reminded Dhankhar of the Sarkaria Commission report on Centre-State relations.

She claimed the governor does not consult her on important issues related to the administration of the state which the Commission mandated.

Dhankhar, always game for a fight with the state government, wrote on Twitter he had emphasised the importance of "dialogue and harmony" in a WhatsApp message to Banerjee which he had "read".

"WB Guv Message to Hon'ble CM on her WHATSAPP today and read by her at 10.25 am today- Dialogue and harmony amongst constitutional functionaries is essence and spirit of democracy and mandate of the constitution. This can blossom with mutual regard and respect.

"There has been all through highest personal regard for you from my side. Am sure this will receive your thoughtful consideration. Regards," he wrote in a series of tweets.

There has been all through highest personal regard for you from my side.

Am sure this will receive your thoughtful consideration.

Regards. 2/2  Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) January 31, 2022

It was not immediately known when Banerjee blocked Dhankhar on Twitter and whether the latter's advice about harmony between the constitutional functionaries on WhatsApp came after she had decided to choke his tweets to prevent them from reaching her.

An angry Banerjee said she has written four letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the recall of Dhankhar but in vain.

"The governor endorses the BJP goons who are killing people in Bengal every day and is encouraging them. I will still ask the prime minister why he has not been withdrawn even after I wrote four letters to him," she said, adding a similar demand for the recall of then-governor Dharam Vira was made by the Communists in the late 1960s. Dharam Vira had dismissed the Left government led by Ajay Mukherjee.

Banerjee alleged the governor was summoning officials and threatening them.

Minutes after Banerjee declared she has blocked Dhankhar on Twitter, several TMC leaders followed suit. TMC leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien and senior party leader Sougata Roy said they too are blocking "the Tweet-a-Minute governor of Bengal" on Twitter and WhatsApp.

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NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamans sartorial choices have made headlines on many occasions  be it her love for handloom sarees or silk, her impeccable choices have always grabbed attention.

Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman leaves from the Ministry of Finance. She will present and read out the #Budget2022 at the Parliament through a tab, instead of the traditional 'bahi khata'. pic.twitter.com/pMlPpIHy4G  ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2022

So in order to present the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament, FM opted for a crisp orange handloom saree with a golden border.

In order to take all the precautionary measures due to COVID-19, Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting a paperless budget. This is happening for the second time in which union budget has been presented through a tablet which is usually wrapped in a red coloured cover.

This time the Finance Minister has ditched her favourite colour red for the occasion as she is often seen opting for red during these important times.

Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrives at the Parliament. She will present the #UnionBudget2022 today. pic.twitter.com/2clpUnZMlw  ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2022

The FM has already arrived at the Parliament and will be presenting the Union Budget shortly.
Normal as possiblethats how Hanover School Superintendent Michael Gill characterized Mondays school day, when the countys optional mask policy took effect.

Hanovers School Board voted unanimously on Jan. 24 to follow Gov. Glenn Youngkins executive order making masks optional for all Virginia students. At that time, Hanover was the largest Richmond-area school division to follow the order. Chesterfield County joined a few days later when its school board also voted to follow the governors order.

Henrico County and Richmond City schools still require students to wear masks.

We are grateful for everyones cooperation today that allowed our educators and staff to maintain the integrity of the instructional day without any significant disruptions, making it as normal as possible, Gill said by email Monday.

We will continue to maintain our focus on teaching, learning, and supporting every childs wellbeing, while also emphasizing the expectation for all to treat one another with respect, care, and kindness.

Hanover school officials had no estimates Monday how many students countywide were or were not wearing masks.

Teachers, faculty and staff, as well as visitors to the schools, must still wear masks, however, as the executive order only applies to students, Hanover school officials have said. Additionally, all students are still required to wear masks on school buses, per a federal order.

Hanover Schools Spokesman Chris Whitley said by email Monday that we stressed with our staff that they may not treat or interact with students differently based on their masking choice, which included segregating students, changing classroom assignments or seating arrangements.

Hanover school officials also announced last week that the school division would follow the recent actions of the Virginia Department of Health and stop contact tracing, as these efforts are no longer sustainable because Omicron spreads too quickly, said a note to parents. No contact tracing also means no quarantine requirements for close contacts, the note said, so any student who was scheduled to be in quarantine this week because they were identified as a close contact was allowed back in school Monday.

As of Jan. 28, the school divisions COVID-19 dashboard reported 875 students in remote learning while on quarantine, or roughly 5.3% of the total student population. Thats down from 1,002  or 6% of students  on Jan. 21. Two weeks prior, on Jan. 14, 7.7% of students were out. The dashboard is updated every Friday and will continue to include the number of positive COVID-19 cases.

As of Jan. 28, there have been 1,917 positive cases since the first day of school on Sept. 7.

When asked about expectations in Hanover schools now that masks are optional, Thomas Franck, director of Chickahominy Health District, which includes Hanover, said by email Monday that there are too many unknown factors at play right now.

He said the area may have reached a peak in cases and while the numbers could be declining, its still unclear whether there will be another surge or a secondary peak. He also said with lots of people vaccinated, plus those whove recovered from COVID, immunity could be increasing in schools.

He cautioned, however, about comparing schools that have mask mandates with those that dont because there are too many uncontrolled factors: school sizes and class sizes, vaccination rates in schools, ventilation system infrastructure for indoor spaces, schools isolation and quarantine policies and varying rates of a communitys overall transmission.

What we do know, and still want to emphasize, is that community members should get vaccinated to protect themselves from COVID, he said, and that includes boosters if possible. This is the single best strategy to protect students and staff from severe disease, hospitalization, and deathand to maintain in-person learning.
NEW DELHI: Dancer and Moroccan beauty Nora Fatehi has once again set the internet on fire with her sensational photo. The actress is known for setting tongues wagging with her super hot dance moves and is popular in Bollywood for the same. She has featured as an item girl in several A-list films and is a favourite of many.

Nora is currently holidaying in Dubai with her friends and she has been giving regular updates from her vacation to her fan followers. On Tuesday, she dropped a couple of photos from her pool time, that left the viewers awestruck. Take a look:

It is no hidden secret that Nora is the ultimate Bollywood dancing sensation and has won millions of fans with her killer moves. After giving a hit item number 'Kusu Kusu' in 'Satyamev Jayate 2', Nora is basking in the success of 'Dance Meri Rani'. The actress' stunning avatar in the song was an ode to the African culture.

Nora Fatehi set fire on the internet by channelling 'Shakira' in Dance Meri Rani, sung by Guru Randhawa. She flaunted her perfect dance moves in gorgeous outfits. She also turned into a mermaid for the song. The song has so far been viewed over 37 million times.

Last year, Nora hit headlines when she was summoned by the probe agency Enforcement Diretorate in connection with Rs 200 crore moey laundering involving conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar.
NEW DELHI: Bigg Boss 15 fame Shamita Shetty will be turning a year older on February 2 and to celebrate the occasion, her sister Shilpa Shetty is throwing a bash at Mumbai's plush restaurant 'Bastian'. According to Pinkvilla, the 'Dhadkan' actress has invited everyone to the party, except for the BB15 winner Tejasswi and her boyfriend and contestant Karan Kundrra.

Tejasswi Prakash emerged as the winner of Bigg Boss 15 and walked away with Rs 40 lakh price money. During her stint in the show, she and Shamita got into numerous arguments and debated. However, it was Tejasswi's 'aunty' remark on Shamita that left the entire Shetty family furious. The issued was also raised at the finale when both Shilpa and her mom Sunanda said that they were totally taken aback with Tejasswi's remark on Shamita. In fact, Shilpa condemned it and called it 'a sign of weakness'. She also blasted Teja for pulling Shamita down from a table when she had turned masseuse for Karan Kundrra for a task.

Shilpa said that without any bias, she did not like Tejasswis comment at all. Aur jis tareeke se uss cheez ko bola gaya, main uske sakht khilaaf hoon (The way it was said, I am completely against it). I just think it boils down to manners. Hum aisi cheezein karenge hi nahi (Shamita and I will never say such a thing). My parents were very, very strict with us, she said.

Speaking about Tejasswi, she time and again objected to Karan speaking to Shamita and disapproved of his friendship with her. Karan and Tejasswi got close to each other inside the house and expressed their love for each other.

On the other hand, Shamita is currently in a relationship with actor Raqesh Bapat, whom she met on 'Bigg Boss OTT'.

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman all set to present the Union Budget 2022 shortly.

The most pressing demand from individual taxpayers is to bring changes in the income-tax slabs and increase the rebates under section 80C, 80EE, 80EEA and 24(b) of the Income Tax Act so as to give them more breathing space for running the household.

We shall only know what is in FM Sitharaman's kitty after she rises to present the Budget in Parliament. Meanwhile, here's is looking at the current slab for Individual (resident or non-resident) less than 60 years of age.

Existing Tax Regime New Tax Regime u/s 115BAC Income Tax Slab Income Tax Rate Income Tax Slab Income Tax Rate Up to Rs 2,50,000 Nil Up to Rs 2,50,000 Nil Rs 2,50,001 - Rs 5,00,000 5% above Rs 2,50,000 Rs 2,50,001 - Rs 5,00,000 5% above Rs 2,50,000 Rs 5,00,001 - Rs 10,00,000 Rs 12,500 + 20% above Rs 5,00,000 Rs 5,00,001 - Rs 7,50,000 Rs 12,500 + 10% above Rs 5,00,000 Above Rs 10,00,000 Rs 1,12,500 + 30% above Rs 10,00,000 Rs 7,50,001 - Rs 10,00,000 Rs 37,500 + 15% above Rs 7,50,000 Rs 10,00,001 - Rs 12,50,000 Rs 75,000 + 20% above Rs 10,00,000 Rs 12,50,001 - Rs 15,00,000 Rs 1,25,000 + 25% above Rs 12,50,000 Above Rs 15,00,000 Rs 1,87,500 + 30% above Rs 15,00,000

It is to be noted that individuals and HUFs can opt for the Existing Tax Regime or the New Tax Regime with lower rate of taxation (u/s 115 BAC of the Income Tax Act). The taxpayer opting for concessional rates in the New Tax Regime will not be allowed certain Exemptions and Deductions (like 80C, 80D,80TTB, HRA) available in the Existing Tax Regime.

Live TV

#mute
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday hiked Tax deduction limit on employers contribution to the NPS account of State government employees from 10 percent to 14 percent.

Announcing Parity between employees of State and Central government, FM Sitharaman said, at present, the Central Government contributes 14 percent of the salary of its employee to the National Pension System (NPS) Tier-I. This is allowed as a deduction in computing the income of the employee. However, such deduction is allowed only to the extent of 10 percent of the salary in case of employees of the State government. (Also read: No change in Income Tax slabs, revised ITR filing window now open for 2 years from AY)

"To provide equal treatment to both Central and State government employees, I propose to increase the tax deduction limit from 10 per cent to 14 per cent on employers contribution to the NPS account of State Government employees as well. This would help in enhancing the social security benefits of the state government employees and bring them at par with central government employees." (Also read: Digital rupee to be issued by RBI using blockchain and other technologies, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman)

The FM has also announced tax relief to persons with disability. FM said that the parent or guardian of a differently abled person can take an insurance scheme for such person.

"There could be situations where differently abled dependants may need payment of annuity or lump sum amount even during the lifetime of their parents/guardians. I propose to thus allow the payment of annuity and lump sum amount to the differently abled dependent during the lifetime of parents/guardians, i.e., on parents/ guardians attaining the age of sixty years," she said.

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#mute
A section of the 111-km under-construction Banihal-Katra railway link, the longest tunnel of Indian Railways in Jammu and Kashmir was completed on January 29, an official said.

The tunnel T-49B is 12.6 km long and is a part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line (USBRL) project. The portion was completed on January 29 and it lies between Kundan Adit and Arpinchala in Khari Tehsil, the company undertaking the project construction said. "Being constructed with New Austrian Tunneling Method in Ramban district, the tunnel on completion would have double tracks," the official said. He further said that the tunneling was done with utmost care considering geological challenges.

On December 5, 2021, another tunnel in the Bankot area near Banihal was connected after a breakthrough, while the work on the pylon of India's first cable-stayed railway bridge at Anji Khad in Reasi district was completed on January 4 brightening the chances of a train connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country within the next couple of years.

Read also: Budget 2022: KAWACH technology to cover 2000 km of rail network

Of the 272-km USBRL project, the work on 161 km was commissioned in phases. The first phase of the 118-km Qazigund-Baramulla section was commissioned in October 2009, followed by the 18-km Banihal-Qazigund in June 2013 and the 25-km Udhampur-Katra in July 2014. The under-construction 111-km Katra-Banihal section has a total of 37 bridges -- 26 major ones and 11 minor ones -- and 35 tunnels.

With inputs from PTI

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#mute
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that 30% tax will be levied on cryptocurrency income.

Crypto currencies will be taxed at 30%. Any income from transfer of any virtual digital asset shall be taxed at 30%. No deductions and exemptions allowed. Loss from transfer of such assets cannot be set off against any other income, she said.

In India, there is currently no legislation that governs, regulates, or restricts dealing in cryptocurrencies. As a result, it is legal to sell, buy, trade, or mine cryptocurrencies, as well as to open a cryptocurrency exchange.

However, given the hazards associated with cryptocurrency investment, it is expected that a measure would be filed in Parliament's Winter Session to either ban or regulate cryptocurrencies.

Live TV

#mute
New Delhi: Private telecom carriers will auction 5G airwaves this year and put out 5G services by next year, according to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "Telecommunications in general, and 5G technology in particular, can promote growth and create jobs," she said during her presentation of the Union Budget.

The requisite spectrum auctions will be held this year, according to the Finance Minister, to permit the launch of 5G mobile services by 2022-23. "As part of the production linked incentive plan, a scheme for design-led manufacturing will be introduced to build a robust ecosystem for 5G," Sitharaman stated.

The universal service obligation fund will be allocated 5% of annual collections to enable affordable broadband and mobile service proliferation in rural and isolated locations. "This will encourage research and development as well as commercialization of innovations and solutions," Sitharaman remarked.

Archana Elapavuluri, Founder of Pickright Technologies, said, Adding 75 digital banking units in 75 districts by scheduled commercial banks & opening full banking activities in 1.5 million Indian Postal Offices and permitting interoperability across banks for digital transfers will provide a big boost to fintech companies trying to grow into rural areas and are currently limited by digital awareness. Fintech businesses can now start offering premium services that are now exclusively available to the urban populace due to the simplicity with which these are now open to all regions of the country. The focus on using IT in agriculture, as well as the startup concentration on the topic, will help to enhance the agricultural sector and provide a bridge between fintech and agritech.

All these will impact financial inclusion in the loans, new age banking services like neo banking, wealth management. These services will be reachable to around 60 crores Indians in rural areas.on Fintech Industry.

Sandeep Lodha, Co-founder at Netweb Technologies said, "With this rational allocation the government intends to increase capital investment significantly. The government has announced a number of targeted spending initiatives that will boost the IT industry both directly and indirectly. Project Gati Shakti, on which the government is concentrating its efforts, will usher in a major shift in the country's supply chain management. For projects like these, the use of technology, as well as the expanded use of technology, will be critical. This will boost Cloud usage even more, with various AI use cases and benefits for technologies like blockchain. The government's commitment to education and Edutech will have a greater impact on education quality, resulting in more highly skilled individuals accessible in the country. Giving a licence to a renowned international university will strengthen this skill much more. The introduction of 100 television channels will benefit the media and broadcast industries, which will necessitate a large amount of IT-related equipment, as well as a large number of portals for learning management systems. This will be a significant benefit to the IT business, and essential technologies such as cloud, servers, and other forms of technology distribution will benefit greatly, with that the government's investment in digital banking and fintech will help to improve financing and overall encourage the entrepreneurial spirit, as well as boost the IT sector by providing the necessary infrastructure. The government's announcement of a digital rupee and the adoption of blockchain technology will boost the IT sector. The government's announcement of a 5G spectrum auction between 2022 and 2023 was on track. It's encouraging to see the PLI plan for design-led manufacturing announced; this will aid in the development of Make in India goods and solutions. We applaud the government's commitment to R&D, which has been formalized by allocating 5% of the Universal Service obligation to it, but we'll have to wait and see how effective it is on the ground; R&D has a cycle, and the sooner we get in, the sooner we can start rolling out products when the actual implementation begins.."
MUMBAI: With the end of 'Bigg Boss 15', actor Shamita Shetty is back to the outside world and social media as well. Post Bigg Boss, one can see her actively using Twitter snd Instagram to thank her fans for supporting her and showering her with love.

She also reacted to a tweet that claims Tejasswi Prakash won the show as she's the face of Colors' upcoming show. "Why do I get the feeling that Shamita Shetty was not chosen a winner in Bigg Boss because she is Shilpa Shetty`s sister. Tejasswi won the title because she is ColorsTV`s new serial`s new #Naagin. In my opinion actors of the channel should be disqualified," the tweet read.

Reacting to the particular opinion of a Twitter user, Shamita wrote, "What can I say... except... Thank you for your love and your honest opinion. Love you."

Shamita was one of the strongest contestants of Bigg Boss 15. However, she was the fourth contestant to be eliminated from the finale race.

Live TV
OTTAWA: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said Canadians were disgusted by the behavior of some people protesting against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa and said he would not be intimidated.

Dozens of trucks and other vehicles have jammed up the city center since Friday. Thousands descended upon Parliament Hill to complain about Trudeau, COVID-19 vaccine mandates and masking requirements but by mid-Monday afternoon, many had left.

Police said most demonstrators have been peaceful but local residents complained about blaring truck horns and some demonstrators using the streets as a toilet. Some also harassed a homeless shelter and demanded staff give them food - the shelter said on Twitter - while others flew Nazi flags.

"We are not intimated by those who hurl abuse at small business workers and steal food from the homeless," Trudeau told a news conference.

"We won`t cave to those who engage in vandalism ... There is no place in our country for threats, violence, or hatred."

Senior members of the official opposition Conservative Party, which last year lost its third consecutive election to Trudeau`s Liberals, praised the demonstrators.

Trudeau said Conservative leader Erin O`Toole should "reflect very carefully on how he`s walking a path that supports these people who do not represent truckers."

But the Conservatives say Trudeau is ignoring the pain of thousands fighting for their livelihoods.

"(Canada) is a raw nerve and the prime minister is jumping up and down on it again and again with his inflammatory rhetoric," finance spokesman Pierre Poilievre told the House of Commons.

Trudeau earlier announced he had contracted COVID-19 but felt fine and would work remotely. For security reasons, he was moved to an unspecified location on Saturday.

`AS LONG AS IT TAKES`

Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly told reporters the number of protestors had fallen significantly from Sunday and said negotiations with organizers were continuing to ensure the rest left as soon as possible.

"All options are on the table, (from) negotiation through to enforcement ... we are making real progress," he said.

One of the groups involved said it wanted people to go into a mall and shop without masks. The Rideau Centre, a large nearby mall, said it would be shut for a second day on Monday.

The demonstration started as a protest against a vaccine requirement for cross-border drivers, but then developed into a demonstration against Trudeau and COVID-19 policies in general.

Trucking executives say around 90% of drivers have been inoculated. The Conservatives argue the vaccine mandate is causing shortages of food imported from the United States.

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told reporters that "this mandate has not had a measurable impact on the volume of traffic crossing our borders."

Truck driver Marian Tudor said he could no longer haul goods across the border because he is unvaccinated.

Tudor, 61, said he was willing to stay "as long as it takes until we get these mandates removed for everybody." He accused the government of using "fake science."

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SEOUL: North Korea`s unusually active month of missile testing appears aimed in part at securing global acceptance of its sanctioned weapons programmes, analysts said, whether through concessions or simply winning tired acquiescence from a distracted world.

North Korea appears to be taking advantage of a period when the world is preoccupied with the pandemic and other crises to test an increasingly wide range of weapons, analysts and officials said.

"The worlds distraction on other issues actually seems to be working to North Koreas benefit right now," Markus Garlauskas, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council think tank and former U.S. national intelligence officer for North Korea.

On Sunday North Korea tested an intermediate-range ballistic missile for the first time since 2017, its seventh test in the past month. U.S. and South Korean officials say they fear the launch could be a step toward fully resuming tests of its longest-range missiles or nuclear weapons.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden says it is open to talks with North Korea without preconditions, but those overtures have been rebuffed and the White House has not made the standoff a major talking point.

After North Korea tested several "hypersonic missiles" in early January, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they were "profoundly destabilising" and that "some of this is North Korea trying to get attention."

Analysts say that although North Korea clearly has messages for Washington and other countries, it is unlikely that seeking attention is a major goal.

The idea that Kim Jong Un orders tests of missiles just to get attention is one of the most frustrating and stubbornly held misconceptions about North Korea today, Garlauskas said.

The North Koreans are not spoiled children acting out  nor are these missiles just for show as propaganda ploys," he said. "These weapons programmes are very real, they are making meaningful strides much quicker than many give them credit for.

North Korea is heavily sanctioned, including by U.N. Security Council resolutions, over its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes. Talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to give up or limit its arsenal in return for sanctions relief have been stalled since 2019.

`NORMALISING` WEAPONS TESTS

Raising U.S. awareness of North Korea is one reason behind the tests, but may not be the main goal, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a former open source analyst for the CIA who is now with the Washington-based Stimson Center.

Kim Jong Un only officially attended one of the seven tests - his first in more than a year - and state media coverage has focused more on technical achievements and less on political messages than in 2017, for example. Sunday`s Hwasong-12 test was not covered on the front page of the ruling party`s Rodong Sinmun newspaper, as it was in 2017.

Lee said North Korea appears to want to keep the emphasis on the economy while proceeding with its defence development plan, normalise weapons tests and not make too big a deal out of them, and modulate the tone of the media coverage.

North Korea has emphasized time and again that it has a right to develop and test weapons like any other sovereign country, she said. And Pyongyang seems to have realized that in order for its weapons tests to not be perceived as being different from what other countries are doing, it itself needs to start treating its weapons tests like a normal part of state affairs, just like most other countries in the world.

Analysts say North Korea has made its missiles more capable of evading missile defences, developed new systems that can be hidden or attack from a range of locations, and ensured that existing models are reliable and effective - improvements that all must be tested.

The tests also help project government power at a time when the country is grappling with economic troubles and are likely seen as a tool for encouraging national pride ahead of major holidays marking the 80th birthday of Kim Jong Un`s late father Kim Jong Il, on Feb. 16 and the 110th birthday of his late grandfather Kim Il Sung on April 15.

Even if Washington was not preoccupied with crises such as Russia and had the bandwidth to pay more attention to the North Korean nuclear issue, Pyongyang would likely continue to refuse direct talks because of the pandemic, keep perfecting its weapons technology, and maintain its high price tag for talks, said Duyeon Kim, with the U.S.-based Center for a New American Security.

An automatic benefit (of the tests) is simultaneously building leverage ahead of any future diplomatic talks, she said. But theyve made it pretty clear that theyre squarely inward focused right now I dont think its a cry for attention at all.

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By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Nowadays technology goes through periods of rapid growth, which opens a wide range of opportunities to use it in various spheres, particularly art. Many artists now use digital technology to extend the reach of creative possibilities.

An artificial intelligence (AI)-driven immersive experience and nonfungible token (NFT) exhibition by Azerbaijani artist Orkhan Mammadov has impressed art lovers in New York.

Curated by Lara Binnet, the exhibition "Revival of Aesthetics" was held by digital art company Blackdove at Lume Studios NYC, Daily Sabah reported.

Through the latest technologies, Mammadov brilliantly shows the unity of the Azerbaijan's rich cultural legacy and the modernity.

The exhibition displays nine art pieces that show Azerbaijan's carpet weaving art in all its beauty.

The art pieces for the exhibition were created by AI with the use of 150,000 Azerbaijani carpets.

Next, the exhibition is expected to open in London and Moscow.

With its unique design and high artistic value, Azerbaijani carpets art is known worldwide.

In 2010, UNESCO included Azerbaijan's carpet weaving art in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

According to their technical aspects, they are classified as flat-woven (pileless) and knotted (pile).

The flat-woven carpets are linked to the earlier period of carpet weaving. There are several kinds of pileless carpets such as Shadda, Verni, Jejim, Zilli, Sumakh, Kilim and Palas.

Shadda is a flat weave carpet, made primarily in Nakhchivan, Agdam, Gubadly, Agjabadi. The artistic composition of shadda made by complicated whipping, as well as its constituents have a complex form.

One of the most widely spread types of the flat-weave carpet is "verni". The key pattern of "verni" is the S-element. Its shape varies, it may resemble both figure 5 and letter S.

This element means "dragon" among the nomads and water among the village people. According to ancient beliefs, a dragon featuring carpet would protect the family from foul weather. Agjabadi, Barda, Aghdam, Nakhchivan are the centers of this type of pileless carpets.

Jejims are woven on simple horizontal looms by narrow stripes 3035 cm wide and 1510 cm long. The resulting product is a cloth to be used as a wall carpet, a bedding coverlet, or curtains.

The major jejim production centers are Barda, Nakhchivan, Zangilan, Shusha, Shamakha.

Zilli carpet is characterized by stylized forms of animals and vegetal elements. In terms of their composition and pattern the Azerbaijani zillis are very diverse.

They feature images of large elements in the shape of big lozenges, paired horns, and various stylized elements.

The Sumakh carpets have become widely spread and recognized over the last few centuries. Since the 18th century, they have been made in the country's Guba and Gusar regions.

The Sumakh carpets feature the diverse stylized vegetal motifs, various geometrical elements such as large hexahedral, square, rhomboid medallions.

Kilim is the most widespread type of flat-woven carpets. They are made by passing the weft through the warp using the technique of compound interweaving.

Kilim is characterized by a slot-like gap (opening) around the geometrical patterns.

The technique of kilim weaving predetermines the pattern shapes in the form of a lozenge, triangle, and trapezium. Images of animals, birds and humans are geometrized in kilims.

Kilims of different regions are distinguished by their composition, pattern, and colors. In terms of their technical peculiarities, kilims can be classified into five major groups based on the area of production: Kazakh, Karabakh, Absheron, Shirvan and Tabriz kilims.

Palas is one of the widely spread flat-weave carpets. The palas weaving process consists in passing the weft through the warp by a simple technique.

The weavers decorate the palas by traditional patterns in the form of horizontal stripes commonly used throughout Azerbaijan. As a rule, the palas is not framed by a border.
Emergency officials spent Monday night going door-to-door, sounding sirens, urging people to evacuate using loudspeakers and taking to social media, all in an effort to convince some 6,000 residents within a mile of a burning fertilizer plant to get out and stay out until the danger has passed.

Police have blocked all the roads leading into the evacuation area until further notice, and firefighters are using drones to keep an eye on a fire that still poses the threat of an explosion.

Firefighters pulled back from a massive fire that on Monday night destroyed the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant on N. Cherry Street near Indiana Avenue. No injuries had been reported, Winston-Salem Police said, but officials warned of health hazards from fire fumes.

Battalion Chief Patrick Grubbs, speaking to reporters at a news conference called at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in a parking lot near the fire command center on Perimeter Point Boulevard, said that the decision to abandon the firefight was made when the fire reached a rail car containing potentially explosive ammonium nitrate.

"The fire extended into a rail car behind the structure," Grubbs said. "Once the rail car became involved, we were unable to get water to the location, and it has a large explosive hazard."

The fertilizer plant died in a conflagration of bright orange flames that lit the night sky and illuminated billows of black smoke rising from the site. But it was the danger of a catastrophic explosion and the need to evacuate nearby residents that became the prime goal of emergency workers.

After fighting the fire for about two hours, after pouring water down on the burning fertilizer plant from the top of elevated fire ladders, firefighters got the word around 8:30 p.m. to move all their equipment a mile away from the fire, and efforts began to evacuate homes within that radius as well.

Fire Chief William Trey Mayo said Monday night that the plant may have had almost three times the amount of ammonium nitrate that was in a Texas plant that burned and exploded in 2013, killing 15 people.

Officials said evacuees need to be prepared to stay out of their homes for 48 hours.

"We do not know the full extent of the time we will be here," Grubbs said. "It will not be anytime soon that we are leaving.

The one-mile evacuation zone included a minimum-security prison and parts of the campus of Wake Forest University, which announced the cancellation of classes on Tuesday and the opening of several buildings on campus for faculty, staff or students with nowhere else to go during the evacuation.

The city opened an evacuation center in the Education Building at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds. Only a couple people came to the center when it first opened, but the numbers had grown by the time firefighters had their early-morning update.

The fire started shortly before 7 p.m. on a loading dock at the plant, which was not in operation when the fire began. Mayo said the fire quickly spread and fully engulfed the plant.

When the evacuation was announced over fire radios, a long procession of fire trucks could be seen pulling away from the burning fertilizer plant from an entry drive near the corner of Cherry Street and Indiana Avenue. At the same time, efforts to mobilize a more general evacuation of residents kicked into gear.

Just before the fire trucks left, it appeared that the intense blaze might be finally starting to grow smaller. But with no more water coming down on the blaze, it only seemed to regather strength  even though it also appeared that little was left of the plant building.

A Winston-Salem Police officer said he couldnt provide any details but that he was told to pack up and leave.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire, but Tuesday morning, Grubbs said the fire was still active, the threat of an explosion remained, and that with daylight people would see lots of smoke hanging in the air and could be dealing with poor air quality.

Officials urged residents not to call 911 unnecessarily and to avoid strenuous activity outdoors because of the smoke and haze.

Drone teams from the Lewisville and Greensboro fire departments were on hand and using drones every 15 minutes or so to keep tabs on the fire. Officials said about 90 firefighters fought the blaze, and that around 150 public safety employees overall were involved in the response.

As firefighters evacuated, they left one unmanned truck at the back side of the building that continued to pump water onto fire, and which was being provided water by another truck connected to a fire hydrant.

The Weaver plant is at 4440 N. Cherry Street, between North Point Boulevard and Indiana Avenue. During the early stages of the fire, before the area was closed off, police and fire officials repeatedly told onlookers gathered on parking lots along North Point Boulevard to get away because of the danger from the fire.

No one had to tell Jeff Lumen to get away. An employee of WestRock, a company beside the burning fertilizer plant, Lumen said he first knew something was amiss when he smelled smoke coming from the plant next door.

Lumen said he left quickly after realizing the plant was burning. I saw an orange glow, and that is all I needed, he said. Other WestRock employees stood in their company drive to block onlookers from approaching to get a better view, warning them about the dangers of fire in a fertilizer plant.

At one point Monday night, the fire was visible for miles and sent huge black clouds of smoke into the sky. Popping noises could be heard coming from the burning plant  evidence, it seemed, of items igniting in the blaze.

Michelle Shepherd, who lives less than two blocks from the plant, said her house shook from the force of explosions inside the plant. Shepherd said she listened to the fire department on a scanner, and when she heard them say that they had located a rail car full of ammonium nitrate, the evacuation started right afterwards.

Shepherd was one of only two people at the evacuation center when it first opened. Officials said they did not know how many people might eventually decide to come. Mayor Allen Joines said it is possible the evacuation could last more than 24 hours because of toxic fumes.

A Winston-Salem police officer said people living within a mile of the burning plant would be evacuated using a reverse-911 procedure. A reverse 911 call occurs when the system makes outgoing calls in order to pass on emergency communications.

There was a sense of urgency as officers told people to leave the area around the plant. The officers could be seen putting up yellow police tape around the block where the factory was located.

Firefighters were called to the blaze around 7 p.m. The building where they worked to extinguish the flames was gutted. Police blocked off the intersections around the burning plant, and sent drivers away from the scene.

Ammonium nitrate is one of the worlds most common fertilizers.

It is also a main component in many types of explosives used in mining. To create such blasts, ammonium nitrate is mixed with fuel oil and detonated by an explosive charge.

Officials said that the inmates at the Forsyth Correctional Center would be transferred to other prisons.

Wake Forest officials said the evacuation area on campus did not include any on-campus housing except for Deacon Place, which is within the one-mile perimeter of the plant.

The university opened Wellbeing Center, Benson Center and the library for students needing a place to stay.

Winston Weaver Co. was founded in 1929 in Norfolk, Va., according to the companys website.

The Winston-Salem plant was built in 1939 and opened for business in January of 1940.

The company specializes in all-purpose plant food and specialty fertilizer.

Its products are sold at Lowes stores throughout the Southeast.

336-727-7369 @wyoungWSJ Journal reporter John Deem contributed to this story.
Two Henrico County fathers appeared Friday night on the popular Shark Tank television program seeking an investment in their Blowzee device that allows people to blow out candles without spewing germs and spit all over a birthday cake.

But entrepreneurs Mark Lareau and Mark Apelt didnt get the $100,000 for 20% of their business that they were seeking. In fact, they didnt even get any offers.

What Lareau and Apelt got instead was national recognition. One Shark gave the two entrepreneurs accolades for creating a really smart product while another gave them a ton of credit for taking an idea and inventing a solution.

Their Blowzee product also sold out within 2 hours after the program aired on the ABC television network Friday night.

Being on Shark Tank gave their product validation, Lareau said Monday.

This was huge. It essentially was the equivalent of a multi-million dollar ad campaign, he said. It opens up a whole new set of options. This thing started as a little adventure hobby by two friends and we are astounded and humbled that it went this far. Were just excited to see where it goes next.

The entrepreneurs wouldnt say how many Blowzee products were sold online on Amazon Friday night, but Lareau said it was more than the 1,200 units sold in the first five months after the business was created last March. Those 1,200 units generated about $12,000 in sales, Lareau told the Sharks.

When you sell through Amazon, our phone buzzes every time you get a sale. So were watching the show [Friday night] and our phone starts buzzing and buzzing and buzzing and buzzing. We think we sold out before the West Coast showing finished. It was just a crazy crazy, crazy crazy response, Lareau said Monday.

An order for more product has been placed, but Lareau said it will take about 90 days before the shipment arrives in the U.S.

The Blowzee is available for purchase for $11.99 on the companys website, on Amazon and at Ukrops Market Hall at Horsepen Road and Patterson Avenue in Henrico and at Libbie Market on Libbie Avenue in Richmond.

The two fathers also have received more than 700 emails, and growing. They range from people who Lareau said took the time to write about how they love the product, to those who made suggestions such as changing the color. Some emails were from people who may want to invest or from some stores that want to carry the product.

It remains to be seen but weve spent the last three days going through and trying to sort through all these emails and theres a lot of them. Im sure theres some gold in there, he said.

Lareau and Apelt came up with the idea for the Blowzee after attending a childs birthday party in January 2020, where they saw the birthday boy spit all over the cake when trying to blow out the candles.

Instead of blowing directly on the candles, a birthday boy or girl blows into the Blowzee device, which activates a switch connected to a lithium battery-operated fan that blows clean air to extinguish the candles. The air blown into the Blowzee is directed back toward the user instead of toward the cake.

Apelt told the Sharks that a study in the Journal of Food Research found blowing candles out on a birthday cake increases the amount of bacteria on a cake by an average of 1,400%.

Daymond John, one of the Shark Tank stars, told Lareau and Apelt that he wished Blowzee had been around when he was growing up. I had a kid who lived next door to me. His name was Crusty Craig because he had this white build up around his mouth. I refused to go to Crusty Craigs birthday parties, he said.

Businessman Robert Herjavec applauded Lareau and Apelt. I think you have done an amazing job, Herjavec told them on the show.

What a great lesson for everyone at home. All joking aside, this is a pretty complex product to design and build everything for $2,000. They used people all around the world. I actually like it. I actually think you are on to something. but you have to develop other things to really create a business.

But Herjavec later questioned whether consumers would buy the Blowzee more than once. I would buy it once. I dont know if I would buy it again. I wish you all the best. You didnt blow it today.

Investor Mark Cuban gave Lareau and Apelt a ton of credit for creating the product. You are what Shark Tank is all about. You have an idea, you sort it out with all of your friendsdo they like the idea and will it work? Then you go through the whole hassle of getting it done. Thats the American dream, Cuban said.

The challenge, though, is youre still not a company but a product. Thats just not enough for me to make an investment right now, he said.

Lori Greiner, considered the queen of QVC, suggested that the Blowzee packaging needed adjusting so that the words blow out candles without germs are in big bold lettering at the top.

This is a product that is really smart, but it is not something you use every single day but for special occasions, she said. It is a great business for you guys. It just is not really an investment where I can sink my teeth into it.

Kevin OLeary, often called Mr. Wonderful, was brutally honest to Lareau and Apelt. I hate this very very much, and Im out, OLeary said.

The other Sharks booed him.
In November 2021, a jury ordered Richard Spencer, Jason Kessler, Christopher Cantwell and other white nationalists to pay more than $26 million in damages for violence they fomented at the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Now, the maddening wait is on to see how muchor ifthey will actually pay.

The trauma of the racist, anti-Semitic saga that horrified this community remains four-and-a-half years after it took place. It is an open sore that wont heal. The ability of Charlottesville to gain closure from the death and injury caused by a neo-Nazi driving his car into a crowd of peaceful counter-protestors, killing Heather Heyer and injuring many others, depends on making the civil justice system work.

Too often, it doesnt. The perpetrators of Unite the Right violence came to Charlottesville to fight a battle they hoped would kick off a national race war. The men and women who carried lit torches through the Grounds of the University of Virginia chanting the Jews will not replace us displayed a visceral hatred that most of us thought was behind us. That it took more than four years to get this abomination before a jury is itself awful. Now, two months after the verdict, the defendants post-trial motions threaten to delay their days of reckoning by months, if not years.

Finally facing serious financial consequences for their frenzy of fear, several of them seek new trials or smaller dollar judgments. Among the most absurd requests is Cantwells. The jury ordered him to pay $700,000 for his role in the United the Right violence. He thinks he deserves a re-hearing of his case because the Charlottesville trial took place while he was in prison on unrelated charges. This, he complained, put him at a disadvantage.

Think about that for a minute.

The guy wants his other criminal behavior to get him a do-over in Charlottesville. According to one of the plaintiffs attorneys, Roberta Kaplan, Cantwell turned down an offer to try him separately from other defendants and at a later date. Cantwell represented himself at trial. Maybe he should blame his lawyer for the outcome. Or maybe he should do what anyone who was actually remorseful would do.

Own up to the fact that he is responsible for his own brutality.

The only convicted neo-Nazi to renounce fascism seems to be Jeff Schoep. A group of his new friends have appealed for a reduction in his half-million-dollar judgment.

Otherwise, Cantwells seeming unwillingness to accept that he did anything wrong infects several other defendants. Besides new trials, some Unite the Right conspirators want their judgments reduced because the jury reached no verdict on a charge that they violated a federal law that makes racially motivated violence a crime. They want to limit their collective damages to $350,000 because of the way Virginia law is written.

Think about that for a minute.

What happened in Charlottesville should never have happened. It should never happen again. The verdict from November recognized the need not only to punish past offenses but also to dissuade the commission of future racially motivated violence. That includes the Charlottesville defendants as well as their brothers and sisters in hate.

The longer the civil justice system drags on, the longer it takes the plaintiffs and society to have faith in the courts and begin to heal. After the judge decides on the post-trial motions, the defendants can appeal to the federal court of appeals and, if it will grant a hearing, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This road feels like it winds endlessly. At this point, self-styled revolutionaries out to rescue white people from the dark races and the Jews apparently still think they get to determine their guilt or at least the severity of their punishment.

Tell that to the members of Heather Heyers family. Their suffering transcends any amount of money.
A local man who allegedly attempted to use his car as a weapon against police officers was arraigned in Linn County Circuit Court on Monday, Jan. 31, and a few more details of the incident were released.

Kagen Ray Sandoval, 31, was booked into Linn County Jail after an alleged confrontation with Albany police in the parking lot of Bobs Family Market on Jan. 26.

A news release from Albany Police Department said Sandoval was of Corvallis, but Oregons online court database lists his address as Lebanon.

Sandoval was arraigned in court Monday afternoon on one count of fleeing or attempting to elude police officer, two counts of recklessly endangering another person, four counts of second-degree criminal mischief and one count of being a felon in possession of firearm.

According to the charging document, Sandoval allegedly hit an Oregon State Police and a Linn County Sheriff's Office vehicle. Both incurred damages exceeding $500. He also allegedly damaged two other vehicles in the parking lot.

Jan. 26

Members of the Linn Interagency Narcotics Enforcement task force tried to make contact with and arrest Sandoval and another suspect, Jaedyn Suzanna Peck, 26, according to the news release. The two had multiple warrants for their arrest.

Sandoval allegedly rammed into multiple vehicles using his car, according to police. An APD detective fired one shot at Sandoval in the vehicle but did not hit him. Sandoval was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries and released into police custody.

LINE detectives and patrol officers with APD, Linn County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police were on the scene.

The LINE detective involved in the shooting was placed on leave, per department policy and national best practices, according to APD.

Lebanon Police Department is investigating the case with assistance from the Linn Benton Major Crimes Team.

Requested enhancements

In a notice to the court filed Monday, prosecutor Ryan Lucke asked for the court to impose an enhanced sentence if Sandoval is found guilty. The request comes because Sandoval has been persistently involved in similar offenses, he alleged, and has other pending charges in different cases.

According to Oregons online court database, the court appointed Dillon Duxbury as Sandovals defense attorney for the case.

Sandoval has two other open cases in Linn County. He is facing charges of being a felon in possession of a restricted weapon, failure to appear on a criminal citation, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer and reckless driving.

His next hearing in all court matters is scheduled for Feb. 7.
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
By Trend

Work is being conducted over a number of events to be held within 30th anniversary of partnership between Azerbaijan and the UN, the organizations resident coordinator in the country Vladanka Andreyeva told Trend.

According to Andreyeva, work is being carried out jointly with Azerbaijani Presidents Administration and Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan.

The first event will be held on March 2, the day of Azerbaijan's accession to the UN, and the second - on the UN Day, marked on October 24.

The resident coordinator noted that a number of exhibitions and round table discussions dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the partnership of the parties will also be held.

She added that the schedule of other events will be announced soon.
Your morning rundown of the latest news from overnight and the stories to follow throughout the day.

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A man was taken into custody on Tuesday in Boulder after allegedly sending a threatening email to the University of California, Los Angeles that included an 800-page manifesto with "thousands of references to violence" on Monday night.

Matthew Christopher Harris, 31, was arrested around 11 a.m. after a nearly three-hour standoff, said Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold. Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty said Harris is being held on state charges, but it was too early in the investigation to determine specific charges and indicated federal charges could be forthcoming.

Harris allegedly sent a "concerning email and posting" to UCLA's police department and officials on Monday night. An 800-page manifesto was attached to the threatening email and an initial investigation into the threats tracked Harris to Boulder, Herold said during an afternoon news conference.

"Upon reviewing parts of the manifesto, we identified thousands of references of violence, stating things such as killing, death, murder, shootings, bombs, school yard massacre in Boulder and phrases like 'burn and attack Boulder outside of the university,'" Herold said.

UCLA canceled in-person classes late Monday night because of the threats.

An investigation with local, state and federal authorities began and officials tracked Harris to an apartment complex in the 900 block of Broadway in Boulder. The county's regional SWAT team was activated and surrounded the apartment complex just before 8 a.m., said Herold.

Authorities evacuated University Hill Elementary School and several sorority and fraternity houses at the University of Colorado Boulder during the standoff.

Reverse 911s were sent to 65 homes in the area to inform residents of a mandatory shelter in place, police said.

The order was lifted around 12:45 p.m.

"The importance of having collaboration at the federal, state and local levels was critical to the swift resolution to this incident this morning," Herold said.

Police did not disclose Harris' connection to Boulder or UCLA. The Los Angeles Times reported that it obtained emails that were sent to students and faculty showing Harris, a former UCLA lecturer, made threats to individuals at the university's philosophy department.

Reviews of Harris as a professor were low on bruinwalk.com, a website where UCLA students can post anonymous reviews of professors and other staff members. He had a 1.0 overall rating as of Tuesday afternoon.

One review written in winter 2021 wrote that Harris was "extremely unprofessional" while another person wrote, "I have no idea how this guy is still teaching."

Harris completed his dissertation, "Continents in Cognition," at Duke University in 2019, according to The Associate Press.

Authorities said Harris unsuccessfully tried to buy a handgun in Jefferson County in November. Dougherty said it could have been denied because of a California-based protection order.

Last year, a University of California, Irvine philosophy professor was granted a restraining order after Harris sent emails to his mother threatening to "hunt" and "put bullets in her skull," according to the AP. Harris' mother warned the professor, who then contacted authorities.

After Harris was taken into custody, UCLA released a statement announcing in-person classes would resume Tuesday.

"The threats made yesterday were frightening for many of us and caused our community to feel vulnerable at an already challenging time," said a statement signed by assistant vice chancellors Suzanne L. Seplow and Michael Deluca.
The results of the Series 1 Offer for the sale of MTN Nigeria ordinary shares have come in  and by all accounts they seem to be very positive.

The offer, for the sale of 575 million MTN Nigeria shares to Nigerian investors, was implemented by way of a bookbuild to qualified institutional investors and a fixed price offer to retail investors.

In the event, it was 1.2 times oversubscribed with a total of 802.0 million shares subscribed for by more than 126,000 investors. These included Nigerian retail and institutional investors, where participating Nigerian pension funds represent approximately 6.5 million Nigerian contributors.

The offer, cleared last year by Nigerias Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), also marks the first time that a digital application platform, PrimaryOffer, was used for a Nigerian public offer. PrimaryOffer describes itself as an online platform that provides you with an easy way to buy into offers in the Nigerian Capital Market.

More than 74 percent of retail offer subscribers applied via the PrimaryOffer platform. Many of these investors were new market participants. Gross proceeds from the offer amount to approximately R4.3 billion (about $281.4 million).

Ralph Mupita, MTN Group president and CEO, was clearly happy with the outcome of the sale. He said, With over 6.6 million Nigerians directly or indirectly becoming shareholders in MTN Nigeria, the objective of broadening the shareholder base and creating shared value has been achieved.

According to the ITWeb site, the news comes after MTN Nigeria this week delivered growth across all its revenue lines in the country, for the financial year ended December 2021, which, the company says, demonstrated the underlying strength and momentum of the business.

The share bonanza may not be over yet. MTN Group says it will continue its work to deliver on its stated intention of broadening the local shareholder base in MTN Nigeria.

Its goal is to hold approximately 65 percent of the business in the medium term. Following the Series 1 Offer, MTN Groups shareholding in MTN Nigeria reduced from 78.8 percent to 75.6 percent.
After news that Peru and Ecuador have indicated that they support the proposal of the Andean Committee of High Telecommunications Authorities (CAATEL) to extend the elimination of international roaming costs in the Andean region to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, who  or where  will be next?

Already, as we have reported, roaming charges for mobile communications have become a thing of the past for the countries of the Andean Community  the CAN countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. This happened on 1 January this year.

Now, however, the CAN countries are considering extending free roaming. If a consensus is reached among the CAN countries, the proposal will be presented in February at the meeting of the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL).

This isnt a completely unexpected development. At local level, a number of agreements are already in force, notably bilateral agreements to eliminate roaming charges between Brazil and Chile, agreed last week. Chile hopes to extend this sort of deal to Argentina and Peru, while Peru is reportedly working on similar agreements with Brazil.

In addition the Mercosur member countries, 19 nations from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean, are said to be working towards eliminating roaming fees in the region in the longer term.

There are also a number of initiatives in place from mobile operators in Latin America that include international roaming at no additional charge.
Moscow, ID (83843)

Today

Mostly clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 51F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 51F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan has created a new reality that promotes peace, stability, and development in the South Caucasus, Trend has reported.

Elchin Amirbayov, the assistant to Azerbaijan's first vice-president, made the remark at a conference on the "role of women in post-conflict reconstruction" organized by the Azerbaijani Center for Analysis of International Relations and the UN Office in Azerbaijan.

"Having liberated its territories from Armenia's occupation, Azerbaijan not only restored justice but also created the new reality that promotes peace, stability, and development in the South Caucasus," he said.

Noting that Azerbaijan and Armenia have no alternative to peaceful coexistence, he underlined that Azerbaijan demonstrates readiness for peace.

"Azerbaijan excludes the possibility of new wars and destruction in the future," he said.

Amirbayov stressed that the development of the region depends on the implementation of the issues outlined in the trilateral statements.

"Azerbaijan expects Armenia to adapt its policy to the new geopolitical reality," he said.

National action plan

Stressing that women were involved in the effective solution of problems after the war, Amirbayov emphasized that Azerbaijan is ready to create all conditions in this direction.

He added that Azerbaijan is successfully implementing infrastructure projects.

"We have faced serious problems in the field of mine clearance. This work continues with the support of the UN and other donors," he said.

The official stated that the Azerbaijani Mine Action Agency must clear 10,000 square kilometers of land from mines with the help of other relevant structures.

Noting that in every way, conflict is different from each other, he added that it is difficult to talk about a unified approach to all issues.

"Taking into account the new situation for women at the national level, a national action plan is being prepared," he said.

At the same time, speaking about the national action plan, State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs Bahar Muradova stated that the work is conducted on a number of important documents and legal acts.

"In the post-Karabakh conflict period, it is necessary to ensure the effective role of women in solving problems," she said.

UN support

Moreover, the UN's Resident Coordination in the country Vladanka Andreyeva stated that the UN is always ready to help Azerbaijan in supporting women.

"It's extremely gratifying that women in Azerbaijan strive to contribute to the development of the liberated lands," she said.

She stressed the importance that women have the right of voting and take their place in society.

Noting that this year Azerbaijan and the UN mark the 30th anniversary of their partnership, the resident coordinator expressed hope for the further successful development of this cooperation.

Recalling that the Azerbaijani government stated after the end of the conflict that it's necessary to ensure the safe return of citizens to the liberated territories, Andreyeva noted the necessity to work on demining these territories and providing employment opportunities for the population.

"The UN has been a partner of the Azerbaijani government for many years. We'll continue to support the efforts of the Azerbaijani government," she said.

The official emphasized that the UN has agreed with the Azerbaijani government on five issues, one of which is related to gender equality.

Additionally, noting the importance of dialogue on gender equality, she added that women should participate not only in the discussions but also in the restoration work.

The purpose of the event is to create a platform for interaction, the exchange of ideas and experience in this area, as well as the discussion of best practices and the formation of new ways to promote the women, peace and security agenda in Azerbaijan more widely.

UK support

At the same time, UK Ambassador James Sharp stated that the UK will always provide the necessary support to Azerbaijan.

He noted that the UK is contributing to clearing the Azerbaijani liberated territories of mines, which is an extremely necessary process.

The ambassador also emphasized that Azerbaijan's proposal to normalize relations with Armenia and sign a peace agreement is an important step for Baku. He added that the Azerbaijani government is making big efforts to restore the country's territories liberated from Armenias occupation.

The internally displaced people must return to their lands, he said.
MONTGOMERY  Former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, testifying in a defamation case brought by a woman who said he sexually touched her decades ago when she was 14, maintained Monday that he never met his accuser.

I dont know her, Moore testified under questioning from his attorney.

He disputed Leigh Corfmans account that he molested her at his home after meeting her with her mother at the courthouse. I never saw Ms. Corfman in Etowah County or any other place, Moore said. adding at another point, I never knew her. I never took her to my home.

Corfman came forward during Moores 2017 Senate campaign and said Moore sexually touched her in 1979 when she was 14 and he was in his 30s and working as an assistant district attorney in Etowah County. Her story was first reported by The Washington Post. She was one of several women who said Moore pursued relationships with them when they were teens.

The allegations roiled Moores campaign and he ended up losing to Doug Jones, who became the first Alabama Democrat elected to the Senate in 25 years. Jones lost the next election to Republican Tommy Tuberville, who now holds the Senate seat.

Corfman filed suit alleging Moore defamed her by branding her as a liar when he denied the accusations. Moore countersued, claiming Corfman injured his reputation with false allegations meant to hurt him politically. Jurors in the trial are tasked with deciding both claims.

Trying to make a case for compensation, Moore attorney Julian McPhillips read crassly worded emails and social media messages to the Moore campaign in which people called the former state court judge a pedophile and a pervert.

Moore, reiterating a phrase he used during the 2017 Senate race, maintained the accusation was false and malicious.

There was never any mention of any impropriety in my entire career until the end of the 2017 election, 32 days before the election, Moore testified.

It is anticipated that jurors will begin deliberating sometime Tuesday after attorneys make closing arguments.

Attorneys for Corfman indicated they have two final witnesses. One is an attorney who they said will testify that he saw Moore with Corfman at the courthouse in 1979 outside a child custody hearing involving her parents. Moores attorneys objected to the inclusion of what they described as a surprise witness.

During cross-examination Monday, Corfmans attorneys attempted to cast doubt on the truthfulness of Moores statements. Corfman attorney Melody Eagan asked Moore about statements he made on the campaign trail after the Washington Post article, and a campaign ad about it, saying, I do not know any of these women. Moore at other times acknowledged he knew two of the women. Both testified at trial that they dated Moore when they were around 17 or 18.

Moore had testified that Corfman was the only person who accused him of misconduct. Over the objections of Moores attorneys, Eagan asked Moore about another woman, who arose in media reports, and accused Moore of misconduct. She did not testify during the trial. Moore responded that was a false allegation.

Moores attorneys also presented several character witnesses, including his sister, a former bodyguard, a former police officer and several women who said they were around Moore as teens but never witnessed any misconduct. All testified that Moore has a reputation for honesty and they never heard any accusations of misconduct with young women.

Corfmans attorney, Neil Roman, questioned some of the witnesses on cross-examination, and they acknowledged they did not have any personal knowledge of Corfmans allegation.

While Corfman is seeking only a court ruling that Moore defamed her, Moores lawyers want money from her.

Corfman testified on Tuesday that Moore has done everything possible to damage my veracity, the truth of my words, the statements I have made about his sexual molestation of me at 14. He knows just as well as I do that he was there.
About four of every five Alabama lawmakers want to return for another four-year term, and more than half of those running will have no opponent in either party.

All 140 seats in the Legislature are on the ballot this year. Friday was the deadline to qualify in the Democratic and Republican parties to run in the May 24 primary.

Incumbents are running without opposition for 64 of the 140 seats.

Republicans have held majorities in the Alabama House and Senate since 2010. In the 105-seat House, Republicans hold 75 seats and Democrats have 28. There are two vacancies. In the Senate, Republicans hold 27 seats and Democrats have eight.

About 80% of the Republicans are running for re-election. Almost 90% of the Democrats are seeking another term.

The numbers that follow are from the qualifying lists maintained on the state Democratic and Republican Party websites.

House Republicans

59 of 75 Republican House members are running for re-election.

41 of the 59 Republican incumbents have no opponents in the Republican primary.

33 of the 59 have no opposition in either party.

House Democrats

26 of 28 Democratic House members are running for re-election. (The other two, Reps. Louise Alexander of Birmingham and Merika Coleman of Pleasant Grove, are running for an open seat in the Senate.)

18 of the 26 Democratic incumbents have no opponents in the Democratic primary.

14 of the 26 have no opponent in either party.

Senate Republicans

24 of 27 Senate Republicans are running for re-election.

15 of the 24 Republican incumbents no opposition in the Republican primary.

13 of the 24 have no opposition in either party.

Senate Democrats

6 of the 8 Senate Democrats are running for re-election.

5 of the 6 Democratic incumbents have no opponents in the Democratic primary.

4 of the 5 have no opponents in either party.

There will be some turnover among the leadership.

House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, is not seeking another term. House Speaker Pro Tem Victor Gaston, R-Mobile, is also retiring. House Rules Chairman Mike Jones, R-Andalusia is running for the Senate seat that Sen. Jimmy Holley, R-Elba, is leaving when he retires after this term.

Rep. Steve McMillan, a Republican from Baldwin County, who has been in the House since 1980, longer than any other House member, is also retiring and is battling illness.
Alabamians of a certain age will remember a time when Democrats held virtually every elected office in the state. The tide began to change in the early 1960s. In the Goldwater era, Alabamians elected Republicans to four of the states U.S. House seats, but most other state and local offices were held by Democrats.

It would take another 25 years before a Republican occupied the governors office. In 1987, Alabama voters elected Guy Hunt, the first Republican governor since Reconstruction, and shortly thereafter, Democratic politicians began joining the GOP. I didnt leave the Democratic Party, one official said at the time. The party left me.

Today, Republicans hold every constitutional office and elected judicial seat. Republicans have served as governor since 2003, and have held the majority in both houses of the state legislature since 2011.

And with 2022 primaries weeks away, Democrats are missing in action.

In a deep red state like Alabama, thats of little consequence to most voters, who would darken the oval next to the Republican candidate regardless of challengers.

However, the political scene in Alabama suffers from the absence of two viable political parties. If competition in business improves the quality of businesses for consumers, then surely vigorous debate from competing political philosophies would result in more robust political platforms and more capable candidates.

In a report this week by al.com, state Democratic leaders said theyre in the process of a long-term rebuild  which sounds a lot like Theres nowhere to go from here but up.
Earlier in January, the Department of State publicly designated former Bosnia and Herzegovina High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council President Milan Tegeltija and the President of the Movement for Democratic Action (PDA) and Parliamentary Assembly Representative Mirsad Kukic for their involvement in significant corruption.

These designations render Tegeltija and Kukic ineligible for entry into the United States. Their actions undermined the rule of law, the publics faith in their governments democratic institutions and public processes, and peace and prosperity for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The designations of Kukic and Tegeltija were made under the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2021.

There is reason to believe that in his official capacity as High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council President, Tegeltija used his political influence and power to solicit a benefit in return for interfering in a judicial process. In addition, he manipulated judicial appointments and other public positions.

In his official capacity as a manager of the publicly owned Banovici mine Kukic misappropriated public funds for personal benefit and as a Parliamentary Assembly Representative he interfered in hiring and appointment decisions to benefit himself politically.

In addition to Tegeltija and Kukic, the Department of State designated Tegeltijas spouse, Tijana Tegeltija.

The U.S. government also took action against Milorad Dodik, a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in response to his corrupt activity and destabilizing actions. The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, imposed economic sanctions pursuant to Executive Order 14033 on Dodik, as well as a media outlet under his control. Alternativna Televizija d.o.o. Banja Luka is based in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, and is privately owned by a company closely linked to Dodiks family. However, Dodik himself exerts personal control over ATV behind the scenes, such as by requiring personal approval on media stories related to politically sensitive topics.

Together, these designations reaffirm the U.S. commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the rule of law and democratic institutions, and a better future for its citizens. The U.S. government will continue to use all appropriate tools to address corruption and instability in the Balkans. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, that the U.S. will continue to use appropriate authorities to promote accountability for actors across the region and globally.
On August 24, 1991, Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union and began to forge its own future. Russia, however, refused to accept Ukraine as a sovereign state and has been chipping away at its territory, undermining its institutions, sabotaging or coopting its leaders, and attempting to dictate its foreign policy to block Ukraines sincere aspirations for greater integration with Europe and the West. In short, Russia has for years worked to cripple Ukraines ability to function as a sovereign democratic state.

In 2014, the people of Ukraine ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, who chose to scrap Ukraines planned signing of an Association Agreement with the European Union and instead turned toward Russia. Subsequently, Russia invaded and occupied Ukraines Crimean Peninsula. It also then attempted a takeover of Ukraines Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts under the guise of a separatist uprising.

Nowhere in Ukraine are people free from Russias malign activities, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Moscow has sought to undermine Ukraines democratic institutions, interfered in Ukraines politics and elections, blocked energy and commerce to intimidate Ukraines leaders and pressure its citizens, used propaganda and disinformation to sow mistrust, and launched cyberattacks on the countrys critical infrastructure. The campaign to destabilize Ukraine has been relentless.

With one hundred thousand Russian soldiers amassed on Ukraines borders with Russia and with Russias close ally Belarus, Russia is poised to go even further, said Secretary Blinken.

Russia justifies its actions by claiming that Ukraine somehow poses a threat to its security. This turns reality on its head. Whose troops are surrounding whom? Which country has claimed anothers territory through force? Which military is many times the size of the other? Which country has nuclear weapons? Ukraine isnt the aggressor here; Ukraine is just trying to survive.

The governing principles of international peace and security  established in the wake of two world wars and a cold war, reject the right of one country to change the borders of another by force; to dictate to another the policies it pursues or the choices it makes, including with whom to associate; or to exert a sphere of influence that would subjugate sovereign neighbors to its will, said Secretary of State Blinken.

This is not only about a possible invasion and war. Its about whether Ukraine has a right to exist as a sovereign nation. Its about whether Ukraine has a right to be a democracy.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

The Azerbaijani army's various troops, Army Corps, formations, and military units have begun a new training period under the action plan for 2022, the Defence Ministry has reported.

The armys training process will be conducted in line with the requirements set by the high command, as well as orders and decrees of the Defence Minister to ensure the high level of combat readiness of the personnel, the ministry added.

The Azerbaijani army pays special attention to the organization of the Commando military units combat activities, the ministry reported.

In a statement published on January 31, the ministry said: All facilities in the Commando military units have been built in accordance with modern requirements and provided with the necessary equipment and inventory. Appropriate conditions have been created for the quality organization of service combat activities and the effective conduct of leisure time.

It was added that the created conditions make it possible to carry out high-level exercises with the commandos under the training plan.

Moreover, the combat readiness and professional skills of the commandos are being improved thanks to the experience gained during the 44-day war with Armenia and with the involvement of professional Turkish commanders, the ministry said.

As a part of the drills, commandos are deployed to the areas by military helicopters and other means and perform combat activities under conditions that are close to real warfare.

During the exercises, the commandos successfully accomplish the tasks of crossing the obstacle course in direct contact, fighting in mountainous areas, infiltrating into the depths of defense, as well as besieging and neutralizing the sabotage group resisting in temporary shelters and settlements, the ministry underlined.

It should be noted that the commando units have been recently established as part of the reforms carried out in the Azerbaijan Army.

On December 24, 2021, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, and their son Heydar Aliyev visited the liberated Khojavand region's Hadrut village to open a military unit of commando forces. Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan will create many commando brigades across the country. President Aliyev described the creation of the commando brigade unit in Hadrut as a significant event of strategic importance.

Experts described the creation of commando brigades in Azerbaijan as a new stage in the national army building. It was also assessed as a clear message for supporters of revanchist ideas in Armenia.




ELKO  An Elko man accused of a drive-by shooting at a northside Elko home in October 2019 was sentenced to up to 40 months in prison following a plea bargain in which the firearms charge was dropped.

Leonard A. Fernandez was 21 when he was originally charged with discharging a gun at or into an occupied structure.

Police were called to the neighborhood off North Fifth Street at about 5:15 a.m. on the morning of Oct. 19. When they arrived they found that multiple gunshots had struck a home and vehicle, while some shots also hit other residences and a second vehicle.

Residents were home at the time but no one was injured.

Fernandez pleaded no contest to one count of injuring or tampering with a motor vehicle and one count of attempted eluding a police officer in a manner posing danger to persons or property, and was sentenced Sept. 13 by District Judge Al Kacin to 16 to 40 months in prison and ordered to pay $500 restitution to the victim.

According to the plea agreement, the shooting occurred several hours after Fernandez was recorded on video holding a 9 mm handgun and making threats against the home occupants boyfriend. Various people came forward with alibis for the defendant that they later acknowledged were false, the document says.

Also charged in the case was the driver, Dominique Orrantia, who was given a suspended sentence by Kacin in June 2021 after pleading guilty to one count of injuring or tampering with a motor vehicle and one count of conspiracy to discharge a firearm from a motor vehicle in a populated area.

Seven months after the shooting, Fernandez was arrested again on charges of disobeying a peace officer and endangering others, driving without a motorcycle drivers license, and 12 counts of failing to yield at a stop sign or control.

Fernandez led police through Elko on a medium speed chase that resulted in no injuries or damage.

According to the Nevada Department of Corrections, Fernandezs first parole board hearing on the latest charges is scheduled Monday.

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ELKO  While some people wonder why they have nothing to do, many Elkoans got rolling this weekend with a number of Western shows, presentations and receptions sponsored by local cultural facilities.

It may not be like old times during the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering but its a darn good start and a positive look at things to come.

Northeastern Nevada Museum held a reception for Don Weller and Cindy Long Wednesday evening. Both artists are highlighted in this years Art of the West in the Halleck Gallery. The exhibition featuring two top notch practitioners in their field will remain on view through April 24.

Weller grew up around horses and cowboys in Washington. He also spent years in the saddle exploring the countryside. He began drawing the lifestyle at an early age, and pencil and paintbrush became his tools of the trade.

Weller graduated with a degree in fine art at Washington State University. He left his lifestyle to pursue work in Los Angeles in graphic design and illustration.

Weller now lives in Utah creating works of art with a paintbrush that will instill joy in anyone who loves the outdoors and the cowboy way.

Long works in graphite, charcoal and pastel. Her portraits are so strikingly realistic that the viewer feels instantly connected to the people within the frames.

Many of her works include images of Native Americans, cowgirls and animals. She is represented in many museums and galleries.

The artwork of Jacinto Jo Mora is still on display in the Wiegland Gallery at the Western Folklife Center through May.

Mora was a diverse artist who worked in drawing, painting, illustration, cartooning, sculpture, photography, map-making and writing. The show at the WFC focuses mostly on his western imagery, including a series of Hopi watercolors.

The Wild Ride

The Wild Ride includes both live and virtual experiences. The weekend jubilee was created by staff at WFC as a fun alternative to a full-fledged Gathering.

At 9 a.m. Friday morning Agee Smith presented Tales from Cottonwood Ranch.

Smith talked about his family and the evolution of their ranch in the ONeil Basin, a remote region of Elko County. Smith showed slides and told stories about how he and his children are successful with new business methods while still taking care of the land they use.

An unveiling of Jeremy Watts saddle took place mid-day Friday. A pre-recorded interview with Watts and Waddie Mitchell enlightened the audience. Watt talked about his creation in full detail, from horn to the elaborate gold and silver detailing.

We want to address the Great Basin-type saddle and who in the heck could we get to do it? asked interviewer Mitchell. There was only five or six of us talking about it and it was unanimous, the first name that came up was Jeremiah Watt.

The commission was requested a number of years ago and delivered in 2021.

I hope I can get through this without drooling all over it, Mitchell said.

Watt talked about his work at length and how he makes most of his tools in his own shop.

The masterpiece is made for museum presentation and it glows with loving craftsmanship and style.

This will probably be my last fancy saddle, said Watt with a slight sadness in his voice.

Watt retired several years ago, but still works on saddles, silverwork and other various tack items for family.

The Real Deal

The Real Deal in the G-Three Theatre was a big hit. Waddie Mitchell, Pipp Gillette, Yvonne Hollenbeck and Dave Stamey took center stage from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday 28 in the G Three Bar Theater.

The theater resonated with lively music and poetry. Both performers and audience members seemed extremely happy to be in the real world again.

Smith will hold a stewardship panel discussion from 1 to 1:45 p.m. Saturday.

Saturdays live events conclude at 6:30 p.m. with The New Wave.

The performance includes a collection of Western musicians, including Brenn Hill, Brigid and Johnny Reedy, Matt Robertson and Trinity Seely.

The Elko Rawhide Gathering returned to the Stockmens Hotel for its second year. They set up their tools, work tables and brought in assorted projects to share and help each other with.

This group of Doug Groves students were sadden by the cancelation of the Gathering last year, so they created their own self-paced workshop in the upstairs of the Stockmens. Members came from Nevada and neighboring states. Many of them are working cowboys who make their own gear and sell to others.

The bit contest

Cowboy Arts and Gear Museum is exhibiting items entered in its fourth annual Bit Contest. Other gear was for sale in the online auction. A reception took place from 6-8 p.m. Friday at the museum.

A brief look at the website Friday showed the top bit going for $2,700. That is a fine chunk of change.

Jan Petersen, executive director of the museum, said a portion of the sales goes back to the museum. A few bit makers even donated their take back to the organization.

One day we will all be able to return to the happy times that usually envelop our small town during this time of year when we celebrate all things Western. For now, kudos to those who have developed and presented this safe and delightful slice of heaven during these difficult times.

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If two proposed ballot measures gather enough signatures, Nevadans may get the chance to mandate that voters show identification at the polls, and to repeal portions of a law that requires mail ballots be sent to all active registered voters unless they opt out.

David Gibbs, a former president of the Nevada Republican Club and chairman of the Clark County Republican Central Committee who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican to represent Nevadas 4th Congressional District in 2018, is spearheading the Repair the Vote PAC that is behind the ballot measures. Both were submitted to the secretary of states office on Friday.

Thats the whole purpose behind this  improve that faith and confidence that people have that the votes that were cast were all legitimate, all legal, cast by the people who said they were the voter, he said in an interview on Monday.

In order for either to make it on the ballot, backers need to collect signatures of 10 percent of voters who cast a ballot in the 2020 election. Thats 140,777 valid signatures, with at least 35,200 from each of the states four congressional districts, by a June 29 deadline.

Gibbs said his PAC has a little money in the bank for projects such as launching a website, but plans to do more fundraising. His goal is to spread the word among county-level Republican Party organizations.

The initiative petition seeking voter ID would require voters to show a photo identification card  such as a drivers license, passport or student ID  before receiving a ballot when voting in person. People 70 and over could show an expired ID as long as it is otherwise valid; others would have to show an ID that is current or not more than four years expired.

It would also require that those voting with mail-in ballots provide the last four digits of their drivers license number or Social Security number. If the voter has neither, they could provide a number assigned to them by a clerk when registering to vote. As it stands, voters who receive a mail ballot only have to sign it with a signature that matches the one on file, and are not required to provide other documentation.

Voter ID proposals are regularly floated at the Legislature, but have failed to pass even in Republican-led sessions such as 2015. Democrats who control both houses declined to hear voter ID bills in the 2021 session, saying they throw up too many barriers for marginalized groups.

Voter ID laws are, quite frankly, in every way in which you can look at this issue ... a way to disenfranchise poor, minority, and elderly populations, who have less ability to obtain state-issued licenses, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) told The Nevada Independent last year. Were not going to do that now. Were not going to disenfranchise voters under the guise of election security.

But Gibbs argues that public opinion is more favorable to the concept than the Legislatures actions suggest. As a proposed constitutional amendment, the measure would not only need to garner enough signatures to make it to the ballot, but would need to clear a statewide vote in two consecutive election cycles to become law.

The other proposed measure asks voters if they would like to repeal portions of AB321, a bill passed in 2021 that makes permanent a system of widespread mail balloting first enacted in Nevada during the early stages of the pandemic. The referendum filed by Gibbs focuses only on the portions that direct clerks to send mail ballots to all active registered voters unless they opt out, and that allow other people to turn in a ballot on behalf of a voter if the voter allows  a practice known as ballot collection or ballot harvesting.

Referendums only need to pass a statewide vote once to take effect. But if a referendum qualifies for the ballot and fails, the challenged language can no longer be modified by state lawmakers and can only be further modified through a direct vote of the people.

Gibbs, who served in the military and cast an absentee ballot during that time, said the process was easy and pushed back against arguments that his measures will make it harder for people to participate in elections.

Theres nothing here at all that makes it more difficult to vote. Theres nothing in here that suppresses the vote. This is only a case of just saying look, we want to make sure that everybody who does vote is the person who is casting the ballot, he said.

For more on how different kinds of Nevada ballot questions work, watch The Nevada Independents explainer video.

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White House responds to Spotify and Joe Rogan controversy

Q Sure. Last week, the Surgeon General also was asked on MSNBC about Joe Rogans vaccine comments on Spotify. And he said that tech companies have an important role to play in stopping misinformation because he  they are the predominant places where misinformation spreads.

Spotify is putting out advisory warnings on episodes that have to do with COVID-19. Does the White House and the administration think this is a satisfactory step? Or do you  do you think that companies like Spotify should go further than just, you know, putting a label on there to say, Hey, go do your own  you know, check this out. You know, theres more research you can look at  you know, scientific research regarding COVID?

MS. PSAKI: Sure. Well, last July, I  you probably know, but the Surgeon General also took the unprecedented step to issue an advisory on the risk of misinformation and public health, which is a very significant step. And amid that, he talked about the role social media platforms have.

So our hope is that all major tech platforms  and all major news sources, for that matter  be responsible and be vigilant to ensure the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as COVID-19. And that certainly includes Spotifly [sic].

So, this disclaimer  its a positive step. But we want every platform to continue doing more to call out misinform-  mis- and disinformation while also uplifting accurate information.

I mean, look at the facts, right? You are 16 times more likely to be hospitalized if youre unvaccinated and 68 times more likely to die than someone who is boosted if youre unvaccinated. Thats pretty significant. And we think that is something that unquestionably should be the basis of how people are communicating about it.

But, ultimately, you know, our view is its a  its a  its a good step, its a positive step, but theres more that can be done.
The official start of spring is 20 March, but the weather doesnt always follow the celestial calendar. For centuries, communities across North America have continued a tradition brought over from Europe to predict when the wintery weather will end.

For those who were unaware of Groundhog Day, the 1993 movie by the same name starring Bill Murray made people far and wide familiar with the annual tradition. Punxsutawney Phil, the other star of the movie, is the most famous groundhog forecaster, but how does he, and his peers, foresee the weather to come?

Also see:

The Groundhog Day prediction depends on seeing a shadow

Groundhogs fatten themselves up in the fall before they lay down for a long winters sleep. In February, the males come out of their burrows to look for a mate prior to going back again to slumber some more. In the case of Groundhog Day, they're given a little nudge to wake up.

A groundhogs ability to divine the weather to come is based on whether or not he sees his shadow upon emerging from his dwelling. Clear skies bode ill for the weeks ahead as the groundhog will see his shadow and scurry back into his hovel meaning that there will be six more weeks of winter cold in store. Should the skies be cloudy, the opposite will occur, and spring will come early, at least according to superstition.

The earliest recorded mention of this come from the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper from 1886, which read: "up to the time of going to press, the beast has not seen its shadow." However, the first official Groundhog Day celebration was the following year. In most cities it is the mystical groundhog whispers into the mayor's ear, Phil has a whole entourage called the "Inner Circle" who decipher his prediction.

Punxsutawney Phil has issued his verdict this #GroundhogDay.



More on Phil and his forecasting predictions: https://t.co/fWEWX7XjOZ#StatsForStories pic.twitter.com/j1EugKwYFf  U.S. Census Bureau (@uscensusbureau) February 2, 2021

How accurate are Punxsutawney Phils predictions?

The statistical probability of getting a coin toss right is 50 percent. But over his 135 years in the weather forecasting business, Punxsutawney Phil has been subpar in his predictions according to NOAA. Last year he got it half right when he predicted six more weeks of winter, even though the it was quite cloudy with a fair amount of snow falling.

But then again, he's held to a high standard as the most well-known groundhog, tasked with predicting the weather for the entire nation when he only sees his shadow, or not, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

EARLIER: Punxsutawney Phil predicted there will be 6 more weeks of winter, as he emerged from his burrow to perform his #GroundhogDay duties pic.twitter.com/3dJ40paarV  Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) February 3, 2021

Other illustrious groundhogs

Phil isnt the only Groundhog that makes an annual prediction of whether spring is just around the corner, or well have to wait another six weeks for a reprieve from wintery weather. Across the US there are several other oracle Groundhogs, and although not as tenured Staten Island Chuck has had a better record getting the past ten out of eleven years right.

Chuck has had a couple of moments in the national spotlight, like the time he bit Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2009. Or when he got tossed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014, dying the following day, but his handlers said that it appeared unlikely it was the mayors fault.

After notorius nibble, Sun Prairie's Groundhog Day plans uncertain https://t.co/ncgAzWb2b3 pic.twitter.com/mBEaaliNTN  Wisconsin State Journal (@WiStateJournal) January 15, 2016

There have been other memorable mishaps that have made national headlines such as Jimmy in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in 2015. When he was held up to Mayor Jonathon Freud's ear, he was apparently not happy to have been disturbed from his slumber and promptly took a bite.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, on behalf of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council, extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese Sunday at a reception in Beijing.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered a speech at the gathering at the Great Hall of the People, greeting Chinese people of all ethnic groups, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese.

This year's Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on Feb. 1.

Xi said all the achievements made by the Party and the people in the past 100 years are attributed to unity and hard work, which is the most remarkable spiritual symbol of the CPC and the Chinese people.

"As long as the 1.4 billion Chinese people always stay united and the 95 million CPC members always stay close to the people for a shared future, we will surely be able to continue creating impressive miracles on the new journey ahead," Xi noted.

Party and state leaders Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan were present at the reception. Li Keqiang presided over the event.
Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie (Photo: baodautu.vn)

According to Ms Robyn Mudie, over the years, the relationship between the two countries has grown more and more deeply in many fields, including economy, strategy and security, development, knowledge and innovation, defence and education.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia has stood with Vietnam and supported the implementation of Vietnam's National Immunization Program, focusing on economic recovery. It is amazing to see vaccine coverage growing so quickly in Vietnam and I am proud of Australia's contribution to these efforts, she said, adding that Australia has committed to share 7.8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine with Vietnam and to date, 5.2 million doses have been delivered.

Along with that, through a AUD13.5 million partnership with UNICEF, Australia is supporting the purchase of equipment, cold chains and refrigerated trucks, training medical staff, and implementing surveillance of vaccine deployment in locatities nationwide.

In 2021, 1,910 refrigerators purchased by UNICEF with Australia's support arrived in Vietnam. These refrigerators were distributed to remote and mountainous communes to enable cold storage of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as other routine immunizations for children.

Considering the economic needs of the two countries and focusing on post-pandemic recovery, there is great potential for Australia and Vietnam to further develop their trade and investment relationship, according to the Australian Ambassador.

More than two years ago, the Prime Ministers of the two countries agreed on two goals for the two countries to promote their bilateral economic relationship, which is to double investment and each become one of the others top 10 trading partners.

The Australia-Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy (EEES) was completed and announced by the two countries in late 2021, being a means for the two countries to achieve these two goals, and the strongest reflection of their belief in a shared economic future. This is a very practical document that sets out a series of win-win initiatives to strengthen trade and investment links in key sectors, such as agriculture, education, energy, services and digital economy, said Ambassador Robyn Mudie.

The Australian and Vietnamese economies have great potential to complement each other. Australia is a trusted supplier of the services and raw materials required by Vietnamese exporters, while Australian consumers can enjoy high quality Vietnamese products.

Another important shared priority in the bilateral relationship is climate change and energy transition. Australia and Vietnam share a focus on developing practical solutions to bring emissions to zero, while working with other countries to reduce carbon emissions and support economic growth.

The story of Vietnam's growth and development is an inspiration, she said. It shows how a country can achieve remarkable results when it combines vision, resilience, determination and creativity. These are the qualities that I most admire about the country and the people of Vietnam.

As Ambassador of Australia, I am very proud to play my part in strengthening and expanding the bilateral relationship, she went on to say. This unique and extraordinary country will always have a special place in my heart and I look forward to seeing the relationship between Australia and Vietnam continue to grow in the future.
Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam Grete Lochen (Photo: MOFA)

Reporter: In the context of the entire world being badly affected by COVID-19, how did it affect the Norway-Vietnam cooperation in 2021, particularly in light of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries (1971- 2021)?



Ambassador Grete Lochen: 2021 was the second year weve had to live with COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, which has been affecting Vietnam more negatively than in 2020, many of our plans have been changed, but thanks to it weve learned how to be flexible, creative and adaptive. In this context, several activities of ours, including a big International Conference on Sustainable Ocean Economy and Climate Change Adaptation, were postponed and visits cancelled.

However, we still managed to hold numerous hybrid events to commemorate the 50 years of cooperation between our two countries. Among them, we want to highlight the signing of Letter of Intent between the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and Vietnams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on strengthening and developing cooperation in marine aquaculture industry on the sideline of a Webinar on developing Vietnams marine aquaculture on industrial scale organized by the Norwegian Embassy, Innovation Norway, MARD and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI). Norway and Vietnam have enjoyed four decades of bilateral cooperation in the fisheries sector, and this Letter of Intent serves as a good foundation for the two countries to explore the potential of marine aquaculture industry in Vietnam with considerations for sustainability and protection of oceans resources.

I would also like to highlight hybrid events related to waste management, marine littering and circular economy as well as renewable energy, especially offshore wind. With our long expertise and world class offshore technology, Norway is very well positioned to share its experiences with Vietnam. Norways leading companies in renewable energy, both solar and offshore wind, are very interested in contributing to Vietnams greener and cleaner energy transition, as well as developing the local supply chain. The combination of Vietnams long coastline, abundant wind resources and your strong marine and offshore industries makes for a great potential for offshore wind. Im very pleased to learn that Norways largest and leading energy company, Equinor, is ready to establish a representative office and cooperate with key Vietnamese partners such as PetroVietnam. Vietnams announcement of its 2050 net zero target at COP26 in Glasgow last year sends an important signal of its commitment to a low-carbon future, and Norway is ready to cooperate with Vietnam in investing and developing renewable energy.

We were also able to organize two hybrid cultural exchange events in the context of our 50th anniversary through the Grand Opening of the new Munch Museum in Norways Oslo city and an exhibition of art works by Vietnamese and Norwegian artists in the Norwegian residence in Hanoi. I was very happy to connect, although virtually, Vietnamese and Norwegian museums and artists as well as professionals and experts in the cultural field, and hope that they can build closer cooperation from there. Its all about connecting people with each other!

Frankly speaking, with all the challenges related to the pandemic, we had a great 2021.

Reporter: In 2021, the pandemic has, of course, affected the trade and investment activities between Norway and Vietnam. How do you assess the trade volumes between the two countries over the past year and what, in your opinion, should be done to further promote bilateral trade to untap the potential?



Ambassador Grete Lochen: Despite the pandemic, it is encouraging to see that two-way trade between the two countries have been increasing steadily from year to year. Vietnamese export to Norway is higher than Norwegian export to Vietnam. Vietnams export is strong on electronics, textiles and footwear, while Norway is strong on fish export, especially our famous fresh salmon, but export of mackerel and live king crab is steadily increasing.

In addition to investment and cooperation activities of Norwegian private companies, in 2021 the total investments by National Government Pension Fund of Norway, one of the worlds largest investment funds, in Vietnamese companies valued at USD 586,006,566, increased from USD 478 million in 2020.

Despite these positive developments, many have agreed that there is a great potential to further boost trade and investment between our two countries. I believe that the early conclusion of a comprehensive and modern free trade agreement between Vietnam and Norway through the European Free Trade Association, EFTA (which includes Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) will be an important tool in realizing the significant potential for further trade and investment between Vietnam and the bloc including Norway.

Norwegian Ambassador was presented Award of Honor for her contributions to gender equality and improvement of female cadres capacity by Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Photo: MOFA)

Reporter: In 2021, Vietnam and Norway, for the first time in history, both worked on the UN Security Council as non-permanent members. How do you assess the importance of this fact in helping Vietnam and Norway to show the consistency in their roles and voices in finding solutions to the international/global issues? How did you see Vietnams performance during its UNSC membership term 2020-2021?

Ambassador Grete Lochen: First of all, congratulations on Vietnams excellent fulfillment of your two-year membership on the Council. Although Norway worked with Vietnam on the UNSC for only one year (2021), we have been closely following Vietnams actions in the Council since January 2020. Your excellent performance in the Council as a proactive, professional and responsible member has definitely elevated the countrys reputation in the regional setting, as well as among the broader international community.

We have observed Vietnams proactive role in addressing various important issues of your priorities including women, peace and security; mine action; and protection of civilians, as well as enhancing the role of regional organizations such as ASEAN in regional peace and security efforts. We have also seen your active collaboration with other members of the Council in the search for constructive and balanced solutions as well as in reaching broad consensus on resolutions and statements from the UNSC.

Norway and Vietnam shared many of the same priorities in the Council, including women, peace and security, protection of civilians, as well as climate change and security. We have appreciated the close dialogue with Vietnam on these issues, which we will continue after Vietnam has left the Council both bilaterally and in multilateral forums such as the UN and ASEAN.

Reporter: In January 2022, Norway holds the presidency of UNSC, what would be Norways priority areas in order to promote cooperation and enhance the roles as well as voices of the Council members with regard to the issues on the UNSC agenda?



Ambassador Grete Lochen: In addition to leading the Councils work to promote international peace and security, Norway will organise a number of thematic meetings focusing on its identified priority areas. Norways Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs are planning to visit New York in January and will chair some of the meetings. In its work in the Security Council, Norway attaches great importance to transparency and inclusion. In recent years, fewer representatives of civil society organisations have been invited to address the Council. We will invite civil society representatives, in particular women, to brief the Security Council. It is important that Norway does its part to give a voice to those who are most severely affected by violence and conflict.

We will also hold signature events during our Presidency. One of them will be a ministerial-level open debate on 18 January under the theme Protecting participation: addressing violence targeting women in peace and security processes. It is chaired by Norways Minister for Foreign Affairs, Anniken Huitfeldt. Women peacebuilders and human rights defenders play a crucial role in conflict prevention and sustaining peace and that role should be recognised. We will therefore make sure that these voices are heard in the Council.

The high-level open debate on 25 January on protection of civilians under the theme Wars in cities: protection of civilians in urban settings will be chaired by our Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre, and will hear briefings from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer and a civil society representative.

As part of its presidency, Norway will also organize an informal gathering for the UN Ambassadors of the Security Council and the UN Secretary-General to discuss preventive diplomacy and peace mediation efforts. The entry point for the discussions will be peace diplomacy as a Norwegian priority area and Norways experience with peace and reconciliation efforts.

Reporter: As Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam, what is your plan for 2022 to intensify the bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries? Do you have any message to readers of the Communist Party of Vietnam Online Newspaper?

Ambassador Grete Lochen: 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between our two countries. What a journey! What we have both achieved in the past 5 decades has certainly laid a strong foundation for us to continue.

As partners, both bilaterally and multilaterally at the UN and ASEAN, Norway and Vietnam will continue working together in the areas of multilateralism, sustainable ocean economy, including marine littering, and climate change with a special focus on renewable energy. I do hope we will see a conclusion of the free trade negotiations between Vietnam and the EFTA countries in 2022, which will benefit both our countries in further enhancing trade and investment.

Once again, we commend the bold announcement by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at COP26 regarding zero emissions and phasing out coal power plants in Vietnam. Norway and our businesses stand ready to support Vietnams efforts in implementing the countrys commitments and ensuring sustainable and greener economic growth, leaving no one behind.

On the occasion of Lunar New Year 2022 of the Tiger, I wish readers of the CPV Online Newspaper and the people of Vietnam a happy, peaceful and safe Tet. Lets hope for a brighter 2022 for everyone and lets work together to achieve it.

Reporter: Thank you very much./.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Defence Minister Col-Gen Zakir Hasanov is paying a working visit to Turkey on February 1, the ministry has reported.

In a statement published on its website the ministry said: In the course of the meeting with Turkish National Defence Minister [Hulusi Akar], issues of regional security, development of relations between the armies of the two fraternal countries, cooperation in military-technical, military education and military medicine as well as other issues of mutual interest will be discussed.

Hasanov visited Anitkabir - the mausoleum of the founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and paid tribute to his memory. The minister signed the Book of Remembrance.

The visit is taking place at Akar's invitation and will last until February 2, the report added.

Azerbaijan and Turkey cooperate in various fields and have jointly completed giant military and economic projects.

The two nations periodically hold joint drills to improve interaction and communication between their army units.

Military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey first emerged in 1992, with an agreement signed between the Azerbaijani and Turkish governments on military education and weapon equipment and deals to help strengthen the bond between the two nations.

On June 15, the two countries signed a memorandum of alliance that cemented the existing military, political and economic cooperation.

The Shusha Declaration on Allied Relations that President Ilham Aliyev and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed during the first official visit to Shusha eight months after Azerbaijans victory in the war with Armenia, also focuses on defence cooperation.

It affirms joint efforts by the two armies in the face of foreign threats. The declaration also pledges joint efforts for the restructuring and modernization of the armed forces. Moreover, the two nations affirm to encourage the execution of joint projects with the aim of developing capabilities in the field of sea, air, and space.

In an interview with Turkey's Anadolu Agency on September 27, President Ilham Aliyev said that the signing of the Shusha Declaration raised bilateral relations to an even higher level.
Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2022 shows a view of the Potala Palace square decorated with Spring Festival elements in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Xinhua/Chogo)

Children pose for a photo with festive decorations in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Jan. 31, 2022. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)

Citizens purchase red lanterns at a festive fair in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Jan. 29, 2022. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Photo by Liu Yufei/Xinhua)

Citizens take photos with festive decorations in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, Jan. 31, 2022. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Xinhua/Wan Xiang)

Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2022 shows a red lantern at the Potala Palace square in Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Spring Festival falls on Feb. 1 this year. (Xinhua/Chogo)

Editor: Zhang Zhou
Ukraine has started importing physical gas from Hungary for the first time in its history, head of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) Serhiy Makogon said.

"The Hungarian option has become the second after Slovakia guaranteed a route for gas shipments to Ukraine even when there is no transit. The opening of this route has created the opportunity for traders to organize deliveries of liquefied gas LNG to Ukraine from a terminal in Croatia," Makogon wrote on Facebook.

GTSOU said the nomination for natural gas imports by Ukraine from Hungary on February 1 was 4.7 million cubic meters, of which 3 mcm physical gas.

Previously, GTSOU could only operate toward Hungary, but certain technological measures have made it possible to transport gas in both directions.

The agreement signed between GTSOU and FGSZ in late December 2021 allows for transporting up to 8 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas daily, or 2.9 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually, to Ukraine from Hungary. The booking of guaranteed capacity for gas transportation in this direction is valid until September 30, 2022. Coupled with 27 mcm daily capacity of gas transportation from Slovakia, this will increase the total guaranteed capacity for Ukraine's imports of gas to 35 mcm per day.

As many as 124.8 mcm (about 4.46 mcm per day) of gas to be supplied from Hungary to Ukraine were booked at a monthly capacity distribution auction for February 2022.

Ukraine's gas imports from the EU contracted 6.2-fold, or by 13.34 bcm, year-on-year to 2.56 bcm in 2021. The imports were mostly effectuated via backhaul, with its proportion reaching 89% of total annual imports in 2021.

The bulk of Ukraine's gas imports in 2021 were from Hungary, at 2.198 bcm. Ukraine also imported 285 mcm of gas from Slovakia and 79 mcm from Poland last year.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking at a solemn meeting of the seventh session in the Verkhovna Rada, announced the stabilization of the Ukrainian economy and overfulfillment of budget revenues in January by UAH 7 billion.

The head of state thanked citizens and business representatives who were united against the background of the information field about a possible war with the Russian Federation and were not exposed to the panic virus.

"Our economy is stabilizing, everything is under control in the financial system, budget revenues in January were overfulfilled by UAH 7 billion, the hryvnia feels better, it strengthened by 30 kopecks yesterday, we are gradually returning to a stable and planned rate," Zelensky said.

According to him, for almost a week there has been a positive trend in the international financial markets regarding our bonds.

"Their quotes are returning to their previous levels, so the financial world is optimistic about the future," he said.

In addition, gold and foreign exchange reserves remain at a record level, Zelensky noted.

"This protects against sharp fluctuations and strengthens economic immunity. As well as the signals about the readiness of financial support for Ukraine that we hear from our partners and for which I thank the European Union, the United States, Canada and everyone who will soon be ready to announce such decisions," he said.

Also, according to Zelensky, Ukraine has enough gas and coal reserves.

"For the first time in history, Ukraine uses the full potential of nuclear energy - for the first time in 30 years, all units of our nuclear power plants are working," the head of state concluded.
Poland's PGNiG has purchased a shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States for delivery to the Ukrainian border for ERU Europe, ERU Trading said in a press release on Tuesday.

"The ship with American LNG will arrive at the President Lech Kaczynski LNG Terminal in Swinoujscie at the end of February this year. After re-gasification, the fuel will be fed into the Polish transmission system. ERU Europe will be receiving the purchased fuel at the interconnection between Poland and Ukraine until the end of March 2022," the document says.

According to ERU Trading, this is the second gas delivery to Ukraine made by PGNiG and ERU based on the purchase of American LNG. The first one took place over two years ago. The tanker with the purchased cargo arrived at the Swinoujscie terminal in November 2019. ERU received the fuel through the interconnection in Hermanowice.

"This is yet another delivery of American LNG to Ukraine made by PGNiG in cooperation with ERU, which is our strategic trading partner on the Ukrainian market. Good relations built over the years are particularly important now, at a time of great turbulence on the gas market in Europe," Pawe Majewski, President of the Management Board of PGNiG SA, said.

According to him, Poland's investments in gas infrastructure in recent years have made it possible to strengthen the energy security of the region and provide customers with access to diversified sources of natural gas.

In turn, according to ERU Managing Partner Dale Perry, at present the task of diversifying fuel supplies, especially LNG, is "not only a responsibility for the state but also a responsibility for private companies," the press release says.

"It is an honour for ERU to have concluded a new transaction with its long-term partner PGNiG to import US LNG to Ukraine," he said.

Energy Resources of Ukraine (ERU) is a group of companies with foreign investments, which specializes in the implementation of projects in the Ukrainian energy sector. ERU Group belongs to Yaroslav Mudry and Dale Perry.

ERU Management Services LLC is an American parent company, which is a part of the Group and carries out trading transactions.
Sanctions are the most effective way to keep Russia from further aggression, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has said.

"We seek peace, not war... Painful sanctions are the most effective tool that can cease further Russian aggression, and today we also coordinated actions on this issue," he said at a joint briefing with Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis in Kyiv on January 31.

Shmyhal said that Ukraine expects sanctions to be specified, as well as a clear position regarding the non-use of Nord Stream 2 as an energy hybrid weapon.

In turn, Dombrovskis said that Russia continues to buildup military forces on the border with Ukraine and in Crimea, and, in his opinion, this applies not only to Ukraine, but also to the EU.

He said the EU, NATO and the United States will continue to make efforts to force Russia to de-escalate the situation, and want to give a clear message to them that if there is further aggression, then the EU will impose major political and economic sanctions.

Dombrovskis also said that sanctions packages are being developed, they will be large-scale and will be introduced in relation to both individual personalities and economic, trade and financial issues.
The sixth aircraft delivered another 84 tonnes of ammunition to Ukraine from the United States, in general, Ukraine received 500 tonnes of defense ammunition from the United States on Tuesday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said.

"The day has not passed yet, and we are unloading the sixth bird from our friends from the United States! Some 84 tonnes of ammunition arrived in Kyiv! In total, for today we have received about 500 tonnes of defense ammunition from the United States! And this is not the end," Reznikov wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

In turn, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said the United States would continue to provide defense assistance to Ukraine.

"We vastly prefer the path of dialogue and diplomacy, but we will continue to provide Ukraine with the defense assistance needed to defend against Russia's massive military force assembled on its borders. We stand with Ukraine," the embassy said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Poland is ready to provide defense, gas and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said.

"We are seeking such assistance to Ukraine in the EU, in NATO countries. But Poland is also ready to provide Ukraine with assistance to the best of its ability in matters of the gas sector, defense capability, economic stabilization, as well as in humanitarian issues, which we are already doing," Morawiecki said at the briefing with Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal on Tuesday.

According to him, Poland is ready to transfer to Ukraine several thousand artillery pieces, cartridges, anti-aircraft shells of the Thunder type, as well as light mortars and drones.

As Morawiecki said, Poland is already helping Ukraine with gas.

"We talked with the Prime Minister of Ukraine about increasing the capacity of gas transmission from west to east. For this, it is necessary to invest some investments that we intend to implement," he said.

Speaking about Nord Stream 2, the Prime Minister of Poland said that Germany, by launching the gas pipeline, "provides shells and weapons to [Vladimir] Putin, with which he can then blackmail Europe."

"The geopolitical threat is Nord Stream 2. In this regard, we jointly appeal to Germany so that it does not launch this gas pipeline, as it will become an element of Russia's blackmailing Europe. On the one hand, one cannot express solidarity with Ukraine, and with the other hand, sign the certification documents for Nord Stream 2. This is not appropriate," Morawiecki said.

Morawiecki also said Poland is open to economic cooperation and assistance to Ukraine.

According to him, during the meeting with Shmyhal, issues of assistance to Ukraine in protection against threats from Belarus were also discussed.

Morawiecki stressed Poland's commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, support for its course towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration.
Ukrainian authorities do not reject Minsk agreements, but intend to find steps to implement them - adviser to head of President's Office

Ukrainian authorities consider the Minsk agreements framework and intend to find steps to implement them that guarantee long-term peace, adviser to President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podoliak said on Tuesday to Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on a statement by NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov.

"Throughout the years of the Minsk Agreements, the discussion on the parameters of how they can be implemented, continues. It is expected that Ukrainian officials, in particular Mr. Danilov, are involved in this discussion, but they are doing it in journalistic style," he said.

What is the significance of "Minsk"? This is the only agreement on ending the war in Donbas, which is recognized by Russia and which outlines a possible way to return the temporarily occupied territories of ORDLO to Ukrainian control. But this is a framework agreement. That is why there is a negotiating format of the Trilateral Contact Group to agree on concrete practical steps towards the possible implementation of this agreement," Podoliak said.

He reminded that "Minsk" was created during the last president's term, and the current political team accepted this agreement as a diplomatic legacy of previous years."

Recognizing the importance of this agreement, both President Zelensky, the Office of the President and the entire government team are working to identify such steps to implement Minsk, that guarantee Ukraine a fair and lasting peace. The government does not reject the Minsk agreements, but does everything in its power to fully preserve the sovereignty and democratic character of Ukraine throughout our territory," the adviser to the head of the President's Office said.
Law enforcement officials are taking urgent investigative actions at the Metinvest group's mining and processing enterprises in Kryvy Rih regarding alleged tax violations, the existence of which has not been established or confirmed, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Metinvest claimed unprecedented unreasonable pressure on the business group from law enforcement agencies: the actions of law enforcement agencies (representatives of the SBU, the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) and the Prosecutor General's Office) are accompanied by numerous violations, searches are carried out illegally, computer equipment is seized without any legal grounds, pressure is exerted on employees of the enterprise, economic activity is partially paralyzed.

"In their actions, the law enforcement agencies actually appropriated the function of the tax service, trying to bypass the tax legislation to establish additional tax liabilities for businesses," the group said in the statement.

At the same time, the Metinvest group is a conscientious Ukrainian taxpayer and a key one for the budgets of all levels. In 2021, the company transferred almost UAH 53 billion in taxes and fees to the budgets of all levels in Ukraine, which is 2.4 times more than in 2020. The company conducts business activities within legal framework, and in its relations with public authorities it is guided by the principles of openness, integrity and business practice.

Metinvest officially declared that all enterprises of the group openly and transparently interact with any regulatory authorities, including to refute false information about non-fulfillment of tax obligations. All documents requested by law enforcement agencies were provided voluntarily and continue to be provided as soon as possible.

Metinvest Group promptly and fully responds to all requests, provides documents and information, which is direct evidence of a transparent business. Metinvest maintains its public position and calls on law enforcement agencies to refrain from illegal actions and stop pressure on the group's enterprises due to allegedly "incorrectly calculated tax liabilities," which harms the business partnership between the company and Ukraine as a whole, the group said in the statement.
The Verkhovna Rada has set up a temporary commission of inquiry (TIC) of the parliament to investigate the facts that contributed to the Russian Federation's temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Some 206 MPs voted for the corresponding draft resolution No. 4657 at the plenary session on Tuesday.

According to the explanatory note to the document, the TIC is responsible for verifying the facts and persons who led to the temporary occupation of Crimea, the investigation of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and criminal proceedings against persons who contributed to the annexation of the peninsula. Among the tasks of the TIC is also to initiate the issue of bringing the perpetrators of the temporary occupation to justice under Ukrainian law.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, the factions European Solidarity, Holos and Opposition Platform - For Life did not give a single vote for the creation of the TIC.

According to the rules of procedure of the parliament, a resolution is considered adopted if at least 150 MPs voted for it, and the bill - 226 votes in favor.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

The Azerbaijani parliament has approved the Shusha Declaration signed with Turkey on June 15 2021, Trend has reported.

Following the discussions, the parliament passed the bill "On approval of the Shusha declaration on allied relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Turkey" on February 2.

On June 15, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed the Shusha Declaration on Allied Relations, during Erdogans first official visit to Shusha, eight months after Azerbaijans victory in the war with Armenia in 2020. The document focuses on defense cooperation, promoting regional stability and prosperity, and establishing new transportation routes.

It affirms joint efforts by the two armies in the face of foreign threats. The declaration also pledges joint efforts for the restructuring and modernization of the armed forces. Moreover, the two nations affirm to encourage the execution of joint projects with the aim of developing capabilities in the field of sea, air, and space.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that the Shusha Declaration on allied relations signed with Turkey on June 15, carries strategic importance for Eurasia and fosters peace and security in the South Caucasus region.

Describing the Shusha Declaration as the triumph of the new geopolitical realities, Aliyev said that this historic document ratified the allied status of the friendship, fraternity and partnership ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Blinken in phone call with Lavrov calls on Russia to de-escalate, warns about serious consequences if Russia attacks Ukraine - State Dept

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reiterated in a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Russia needs to take steps to de-escalate the situation on the border with Ukraine immediately and withdraw its troops, the U.S. Department of State said in a statement.

"The Secretary urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraine's borders," the statement said.

"He emphasized that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path," it said.

He further reiterated the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki discussed the possibility of increasing the volume of gas supplies to Ukraine through Poland via Polish LNG terminals and agreed to explore the possibilities of completing the construction of the relevant infrastructure.

As reported on the website of the head of the Ukrainian state on Tuesday, during the meeting in Kyiv, the parties discussed the possibility of implementing specific economic projects and ways to increase Polish investments in the economy of Ukraine, and also paid considerable attention to deepening cooperation to ensure the energy security of Ukraine and the region.

"Volodymyr Zelensky and Mateusz Morawiecki stated the commonality of Ukraine and Poland's approaches to the security threats posed by the Nord Stream 2 project. The parties agreed on the need to further oppose the launch of this gas pipeline, which undermines the energy security of Europe and Ukraine," the press service of the Ukrainian president said.

Also during the meeting, the parties agreed to step up work on the development of infrastructure at checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border, including with the involvement of loans.

Morawiecki is on a working visit to Ukraine for the first time.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on awarding Zarifa Salahova with the Sharaf order for many years of fruitful activity in the social and cultural life of Azerbaijan on February 1.




The Ministry of Health and Population on Wednesday said a hearing survey has been conducted for 2,971,000 children as part of a presidential initiative for early detection and treatment of hearing loss and impairment for newborns nationwide.
Mali's junta said France no longer has a "legal basis" for carrying out military operations in the country after Bamako quit key defence accords, in the latest round of a spat between the two former allies.
Amnesty International on Wednesday accused a powerful Libyan armed group of abuses against migrants and Tripoli residents.
By Trend

In the nearest future, FAO plans to sign another Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture (FTPP II) project in Turkmenistan, the FAO official told Trend.

The official noted that in 2020, Turkmenistan officially endorsed three regional projects implemented under the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture (FTPP II)  a program funded by the Government of Turkey and implemented by FAO to ensure food security, improve rural livelihoods and support the sustainable management of natural resources in the countries of Central Asia, the Caucasus and beyond.

The fisheries project (FISHCap) aims to increase countries capacities for the sustainable exploitation, management and protection of natural resources through the sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture. The second project targets reduction of food loss and waste at both national and regional levels through the implementation of policy, strategy and investment programs, sharing knowledge on ways to mitigate losses in production and retail, and raising awareness among consumers.

Finally, the third project, CAC-Rust, aims to strengthen regional collaboration in Central Asia and the Caucasus and enhance national capacities for the management of wheat rust diseases through improving productivity and the resilience of wheat production  a staple in Central Asian countries  against emerging wheat rust epidemics.

Finally, also in 2020, Turkmenistan signed a new regional project designed to support national and regional efforts to boost locust management operations in the countries of Central Asia, as well as Afghanistan, funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In the nearest future, the official said, FAO plans to sign another FTPP II project: Improving efficiency of small ruminants production for reduction of the GHG emission intensity. In addition, FAO is finalizing a five year Country Programming Framework (CPF) for 2021-2025.

"FAO hopes to further strengthen its cooperation with the Government of Turkmenistan, and share its technical knowledge on sustainable resources management in the field of agriculture," the official added.
The Biden administration has begun expelling Cubans and Nicaraguans to Mexico under pandemic-related powers to deny migrants a chance to seek asylum, expanding use of the rule even as it publicly says it has been trying to unwind it, officials said Wednesday.
The United States and Russia squared off Monday in the UN Security Council, where Moscow lost an attempt to block a public meeting on Moscow's troop buildup near Ukraine's borders and Western fears of an invasion

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield dismissed a charge by Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia that Washington was trying ``to whip up hysterics'' and use ``megaphone diplomacy'' by calling the first Security Council meeting on the crisis.

``Imagine how uncomfortable you would be if you had 100,000 troops on your border,'' Thomas-Greenfield said.

The vote on holding an open meeting passed 10-2, with Russia and China opposed, and three abstentions. The vote needed nine votes to be approved.

UN Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo then went ahead with an open briefing, to be followed by speeches from the 15 council members.

US President Joe Biden said in a statement that the meeting was ``a critical step in rallying the world to speak out in one voice'' to reject the use of force, seek military de-escalation, support diplomacy, and demand accountability from every member ``to refrain from military aggression against its neighbors.''

The session kicked off more high-level diplomacy this week, although talks between the US and Russia have so far failed to ease tensions in the crisis. Russia has massed the estimated 100,000 troops near the borders of its southern neighbor, stoking fears in the West of an invasion.

Russia denies it intends to launch an attack but demanded that NATO promise never to allow Ukraine to join the alliance, halt the deployment of NATO weapons near Russian borders, and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe. NATO and the US call those demands impossible.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken didn't make any visible progress in easing the tensions at their meeting in Geneva earlier this month. They are expected to speak by phone Tuesday, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Biden warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call Thursday that there is a ``distinct possibility'' Russia could begin an incursion in February, but the Ukrainian leader sought to play down the war fears, saying Western alarm over an imminent invasion has prompted many investors in the country's financial markets to cash out.

Zelenskyy said Friday that ``we aren't seeing any escalation bigger than before,'' and charged that the Russian buildup could be an attempt by Moscow to exert ``psychological pressure'' and sow panic.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Ukraine on Tuesday for talks with Zelenskyy, and will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin later Monday, to urge him to ``step back,'' Johnson's office said. Johnson says he is considering sending hundreds of British troops to NATO countries in the Baltic region as a show of strength.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that ``hysteria promoted by Washington triggers hysteria in Ukraine, where people are almost starting to pack their bags for the front line.''

While Russia could try to block the Security Council meeting if it gets the support of nine of the 15 members, the US was confident it had ``more than sufficient support'' to hold it, according to a senior official in the Biden administration who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly.

Any formal action by the Security Council is extremely unlikely, given Russia's veto power and its ties with others on the council, including China.

Speaking Sunday on ABC's ``This Week,'' Thomas-Greenfield said of Russia: ''We're going into the room prepared to listen to them, but we're not going to be distracted by their propaganda.''

She said last week that council members ``must squarely examine the facts and consider what is at stake for Ukraine, for Russia, for Europe, and for the core obligations and principles of the international order should Russia further invade Ukraine.''

On Friday, China's UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said both sides have shown a willingness to continue negotiations and should be allowed to continue.

``Russia has said clearly they have no intention to have a war'' and the Security Council should ``help to deescalate the situation instead of adding fuel to the fire,'' Zhang said.

On Sunday, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, said that in the event of an attack, lawmakers want Russia to face ``the mother of all sanctions.'' That includes actions against Russian banks that could severely undermine the Russian economy and increased lethal aid to Ukraine's military.

The sanctions under consideration would apparently be significantly stronger than those imposed after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Those penalties have been seen as ineffective.

Menendez also raised the prospect of imposing some punishments preemptively, before any invasion.

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Libyan lawmakers pushed ahead Monday with plans to appoint a new transitional government, more than a month after the country failed to hold its first presidential election.

Candidates may submit their bids for the post of prime minister, said Abdullah Bliheg, a spokesman for the legislature. He said parliament will convene next week for deliberations on the candidates and the appointment of a new prime minister to lead the transitional government.

The parliament's move to replace Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and his government is likely to fuel tensions between rival factions in the chaos-stricken country.

The effort to replace Dbeibah stems from Libya's failure to hold its first presidential election on his watch. Originally scheduled for Dec. 24, the vote was postponed in a major blow to international efforts to end a decade of chaos in the oil-rich Mediterranean nation.

Bliheg spoke following a parliamentary session Monday in the eastern city of Tobruk. He said a new prime minister will be appointed after consultations with the High State Council, an advisory body based in the capital, Tripoli.

There was no immediate comment from the current government but Dbeibah has repeatedly said he and his government would remain in power until ``real elections'' are held. He has also called for the vote to be held based on a newly drafted constitution.

The parliament's push to appoint a new prime minister challenges an appeal from the UN and Western governments for lawmakers to focus their efforts on resolving obstacles that led to the vote's postponement, rather than appointing a new administration.

``What Libyans have clearly said is that they want to go to the ballot box and choose their government, a democratically government representing the entire Libya,'' Stephanie Williams, the UN adviser on Libya, said earlier this month.

Dbeibah was named prime minister in February last year and his government's main task was to steer the deeply divided country toward national reconciliation and lead it through elections.

The vote has faced many deep-rooted challenges, which remain unsolved, hindering renewed UN-led efforts to reschedule the election for June.

Those challenges include controversial candidates and disputed laws governing elections as well as the deep mistrust between rival factions.

Holding the election is still the lynchpin of international efforts to bring peace to the oil-rich North African nation.

Libya has been wracked by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled then killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

The country had for years split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each is supported by militias and foreign governments.

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The Netherlands has received its first ever liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipment from Egypt since the beginning of operations at its sole LNG terminal in 2011, Al-Ahram reported on Monday.

The 174,000-cubic-metre shipment of LNG, shipped from Egypts Damietta LNG Plant days ago through LNG tanker Gaslog Glasgow, arrived at the Netherlands Gate Terminal in Rotterdam.

The Dutch terminal has an annual capacity of 12 billion cubic metres of gas per year, covering approximately a third of the national gas consumption in the country.

The shipment comes as Europe seeks to fill its needs for gas amid fears of a gas supply crisis due to rising tensions on the Russia-Ukraine border.

The cargo is one of several recent shipments made by the Damietta plant, one of the countrys two liquefaction plants, since its resumption of operations in February 2021 after a near nine-year closure over legal disputes.

Egypt has made a series of oil and gas discoveries in recent years, most notably the giant Zohr gas field off the Mediterranean. The gas field, which holds an estimated reservoir of 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, has drawn the interest of investors to the countrys energy sector.

It has also helped Egypt reach self-sufficiency in natural gas and pursue becoming a regional hub for gas exports by hosting the East Mediterranean Gas Forum, which seeks to promote gas exports from the region.

In December, Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla told Reuters that natural gas exports are at full capacity of about 1.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) from its two terminals.

The minister said that natural gas production is stable, currently ranging between 6.5 and 7 bcf/d, yet said that exports are expected to drop to 1 bcf/d over the spring due to regular seasonal fluctuations.

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The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a British-drafted resolution extending its political mission in Libya for just three months, after several days of a standoff between the United States and Russia.

The extremely short text, which was adopted unanimously, provides for a continuation of the mission until April 30. An earlier version had taken the mission until September 15.

The text contains no mention of the Council's hopes that presidential and legislative elections will be held soon in Libya. Initially scheduled for December 24, the presidential election was supposed to have put an end to more than 10 years of chaos and conflict, but it has been postponed indefinitely.

Moscow, which favored a short renewal of the UNSMIL mission, threatened to use its veto and even went as far as proposing a counter-draft to the British text last week in order to stress the need for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint "without further delay" a new envoy for Libya.

Since the abrupt resignation in November of Jan Kubis of Slovakia, the post of UN envoy has been de facto occupied by the American Stephanie Williams, an Arabic-speaking diplomat with the title of "special adviser".

That allowed the UN head to skirt around the need for a Security Council agreement on the choice of appointee, which has for years been a contentious issue.

According to diplomats, Russia is seeking to get rid of Williams as quickly as possible while the United States wants her to stay in her post.

That opposition, which effectively weakens Williams' position vis-a-vis the Libyans, was the main sticking point during the Security Council negotiations to renew the mandate of UN mission.

Speaking after the vote, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, Anna Evstignyeva, said she hoped the appointment of a new emissary to head the UN Libya mission "will make it possible to fully relaunch" the project.

By contrast, her US counterpart Jeffrey DeLaurentis said the United States called on all Council members and the Libyans themselves to engage "constructively" with Williams and to support her efforts.

France's deputy ambassador, Nathalie Broadhurst, regretted the lack of unity in the Council but said it "should encourage the Libyans to resolve their differences in order to allow the organization of presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible".

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The World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that their annual autumn joint meetings will be held in Washington DC in October instead of Marrakesh, Morocco due to COVID-19 concerns.

The decision was made due to the continued uncertainty over the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement by the WBG and IMF, adding that Marrakesh will host the October 2023 annual meetings.

The North African country has been hit by a surge in COVID cases in recent weeks, forcing the government to declare a state of health emergency and restrict flights and travel to curb the spread of the virus.

Since the onset of the pandemic in 2019, the WBG and IMF have held their meetings virtually.

Accordingly, the anticipated spring meetings will also be held virtually in April.

The annual meetings are usually held for two consecutive years at the WBG and IMFs headquarters in Washington DC and every third year in one of the member countries.

The meetings bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, private sector executives, civil society, media, and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, global financial stability, poverty eradication, inclusive economic growth and job creation, climate change, and others.

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The challenges and threats facing the countries of the Arab world today are many, great and dangerous, said Egypts former foreign affairs minister Amr Moussa, commenting on the consultative meeting of the Arab foreign ministers in Kuwait.

During a phone-in with Saudi 24 channel on Monday, Moussa said that such extraordinary meeting was needed so that Arab officials could sit down to talk together, and if there were different points of view, they could work to reconcile them, such as the issue of defining common Arab priorities in the face of the dangers that surround the Arabs.

Moussa stated that there is a great dispersion in the Arab world, and there is a difference of priorities, adding that some Arab countries see danger from a regional country, and others see danger from another country. Consequently, the Arab national security itself, which the Arabs have long talked about, has become controversial.

This requires returning to agreeing on priorities and risks, not just the traditional risks that the region has faced and is still facing, Egypts former top diplomat said.

Moussa gave the example of the Palestinian cause, whose importance and priority cannot be denied, regardless of other priorities that have their own logic, and that it remains a central issue for the Arab peoples.

He emphasised that the traditional problems differed in priorities. This requires many meetings, not one. It is not required to be public or comprehensive, but what is required is a set of meetings and committees to discuss Arab concerns and issues of cooperation and to formulate a common vision and approach to Arab national security.

Moussa also explained that there are major problems that follow, which go beyond the traditional political and security problems to existential problems, referring to the problems of climate change and epidemics that impose regional and Arab cooperation.

Moreover, he stressed during the phone call that there are foundations from which we can re-start and coordinate among ourselves in the face of epidemics and climate change and its real and dangerous effects, which are beginning to become clear even to the ordinary citizen.

Moussa stressed the importance of the Arab League as a real necessity for Arab countries, and that it is not right for us to give up on it as Arabs, and if we want to build a new building, we must start building it before we think about replacing the Arab League.

He believes that we should follow the example of international researchers who study the fate of the United Nations, which is under great attack because of its failure in more than one field.

However, research centers and political centers operating at the international level are unanimously agreed that the United Nations needs to renew and reconsider its performance, not its existence. And that this is what the Arab nation needs as it looks to the fate of its Arab League, he said.

Arab Leagues challenges

During the phone call, Moussa noted that the umbrella of the Arab League must be supported, at a time when its Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that more than half of the contributions of member states do not come, and there is a kind of lack of interest in the League and the prevention of important funding for it to be active, move and work.

The former foreign minister expressed hope that these behind-the-scenes meetings and consultations will push the members' contributions and states' obligations towards the League so that it can work for the sake of renewing its youth and serving Arab issues as an independent figure based on the establishment of Arab solidarity and Arab integration, as well as the maintenance of Arab security.

He continued by saying that Arab security itself has become a question mark today. What is meant by it? And who is threatening us? Is it one, two or more? Who threatens our security in the traditional sense? Who threatens our security in the evolving sense? Where is the Arabic subtraction? Where is the Arab participation in drawing the new picture of the world with the presence of new active regions and new areas of tension, and there are many countries in the world that contribute to the discussion about the future of the world and its political system, and we must contribute to that.

Moussa further stressed the need for regimes and Arab countries to understand that good governance is the key.

He defined good governance, saying that it means the rule of law and the constitution, it means giving people hope for a better future by fighting poverty and backwardness, achieving progress and spreading comfort among people, and that there is a difference between the atmosphere of the 20th and 21st centuries. The governance that addresses the concerns of the citizen with real projects, not just speeches and slogans, is the beginning of calm and stability for the Arab peoples.

Moussa directed his words to the new generations, calling on them not to disbelieve in Arab nationalism, which has proven its existence among peoples who saw what was happening in a village in southern Tunisia in the Maghreb as diseases that afflicted them as well.

Moussa concluded his statements by saying that the Iranian regional policy, as we see its impact on a number of Arab countries, is a policy that does not please anyone, and it is not correct to accept what is happening in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, as well as the recent attacks against a number of Arab countries.

There are mistakes that must be talked about with the Iranians, and the Arabs should speak directly without the presence of a mediator, he noted.

With regard to the Iranian nuclear program, Moussa said the Arab countries must renew their demand for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in the entire Middle East, and to not accept any nuclear weapons in the region, and in order to speak logically, this must include the Israeli nuclear force as well.

Therefore, the title should change to freeing the Middle East from nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, whether Iranian or Israeli, he said.

We should not accept the Iranian nuclear program, and we are not afraid to say that there is another nuclear program, the Israeli one, and we are not talking here about Israel in the sense of the opponent or the enemy of Palestine, but we are talking about a state in the region that has a nuclear program that is not consistent with the foundations of the security of the region and what is happening to everyone in this regard, he said.

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Burkina Faso's new military junta held talks Tuesday with the Sahel country's political party chiefs, many of whom said they were keen to join a planned transition back to democracy.

Coup leader Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba led the more than half-hour meeting at the presidential palace in the capital Ouagadougou.

"Statements from the head of state go in the direction of restoring peace. We welcome it," said Eddie Komboigo, who headed the opposition before last week's upheaval.

"He wants to move quickly and correctly," he said of Damiba, calling on the international community to offer support "so he can succeed in his mission".

The junta held "very frank" discussions on Monday with negotiators from the UN and the Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS), which has suspended Burkina for the January 24 takeover.

Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Ghana's foreign minister, added: "They seemed very open to the suggestions and proposals that we made. For us, it's a good sign."

Alassane Bala Sakande, head of the former ruling party, the People's Movement for Progress (MPP), and who led the parliament before the coup, was also at Tuesday's palace talks.

He did not want to comment afterward, saying he had been given permission to visit the overthrown president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who has been under house arrest.

Some members of the ECOWAS delegation had also visited the ousted president on Monday.

Other opposition figures said they too were prepared to listen to proposals from the junta.

"Our duty is to ensure he succeeds, and as politicians, we need him to trust us," said Alain Zoubga, a former close aide to ex-president Blaise Compaore, who was overthrown in a popular uprising in 2014.

"They talked of their openness towards all those who can make a contribution, according to experience and expertise, not according to political party affiliation," said Achille Tapsoba of the Congress for Democracy (CDP), Compaore's old party.

ECOWAS leaders will hold a summit in Accra on Thursday to assess whether to impose sanctions on the junta.

The coup is the latest bout of turmoil to strike Burkina Faso, a landlocked state that has suffered chronic instability since independence from France in 1960.

A jihadist insurgency has swept in from neighboring Mali, and since 2015 more than 2,000 people have died, according to AFP's tally. An estimated 1.5 million of the 21 million population have fled their homes.

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The first Egyptian aviator set out to fly from Berlin to Cairo on 25 January 1930 and arrived one day later on 26 January, now celebrated as Egypts National Civil Aviation Day.

One of the most intriguing chapters in Egyptian history records early attempts by the countrys aviators to fly solo from Europe to Egypt, with 26 January, Egypts National Civil Aviation Day, marking the first successful flight of Egyptian pilot Mohamed Sedki from Berlin to Cairo in 1930.

Sedkis success and earlier attempts earned the support of former king Fouad, always interested in supporting exploration and discoveries whether in the air or on land. But how much do we know today about these attempts and of the Egyptian pioneers who courageously flew these planes, sometimes risking their lives?

The successful attempt by Sedki in January 1930 to fly from Europe to Egypt was preceded by other unforgettable attempts.

There were those by Ahmed Hassanein Pasha, a legendary figure in the history of aviation. Better known for his exploration of the Western Desert, he was one of the most powerful men in various governments under king Fouad and king Farouk and an adventurer at heart, attempting to fly from Europe to Egypt several times before 1930.

His wish was to fly from Egypt to London in a small plane across the Mediterranean. On his first attempt, he succeeded in flying over the Mediterranean, but a few hours later his plane crashed in southern France and was destroyed. However, Hassanein survived to continue to pursue his obsession, and he bought another small plane to fly again.

This time, the plane fell in Switzerland, but Hassanein once again escaped death and decided to buy a third plane and try again. On his third attempt, the plane fell in Italy, and Hassanein was so seriously injured that the Italian doctors that rescued him considered he had died. But according to the story told in celebrated journalist Mustafa Amins book Unforgotten Figures, Hassanein recalled the words of Egyptian poet laureate Ahmed Shawki and described himself as a layth or lion.

He started repeating the words courage lion to himself at the hospital in an attempt to defeat death. The words seemed to work magic, and he surprised his doctors with a speedy recovery despite his condition.

Whether true or not, the story speaks of Hassaneins unrelenting spirit. Rather than give up on further attempts at flying after his near death, Hassanein made a fourth endeavour to fly to Europe. A few days after leaving the hospital, he bought a fourth plane. But half an hour before flying, one of the technicians boarded the plane to do a final check, and five minutes later the plane turned into a ball of fire, with Hassanein watching in disbelief.

This was the fourth and last attempt that sealed Hassaneins flying adventures and put an end to his aspirations.

THE EGYPTIAN EAGLE

Hassaneins plane was named Faiza after one of king Fouads daughters, also the name of the first plane that successfully crossed the Mediterranean to land in Egypt in 1930 piloted by Egyptian Eagle Mohamed Sedki.

The plane Sedki flew was a small one-seater that weighed 250 kg and had a 40 horsepower engine. Sedki used it to fly from Berlin to Alexandria, where he landed at the Abu Kir airport on 25 January. He had started his epic flight across Europe on 12 January, passing through the former Czechoslovakia, the former Yugoslavia, and Italy all the way to Egypt in unfavourable weather. Governor of Alexandria Hassan Sabry Pasha welcomed him at the Airport, before he flew again to Heliopolis Airport in Cairo, arriving on 26 January.

Sedkis successful flight caused a sensation at the time, as thousands of people cheered him on at Heliopolis Airport, where a model plane made of flowers awaited him. Captain Goldsmith, in charge of the Abu Kir Airport at the time, exclaimed that Sedkis was the smallest airplane he had ever set his eyes on. In Cairo, Sedkis feat was celebrated at a formal ceremony that included representatives of king Fouad, such as Yehia Pasha, as well as prince Abbas Halim, prime minister Mustafa Al-Nahhas Pasha, minister of transport Mahmoud Al-Nokrashi, and the delegated German minister.

Kamal Elwi, another Egyptian pilot who had learned to fly before Sedki and whose private plane was the first registered plane in Egypt, was also present during the ceremony. It was graced by the presence of poet laureate Ahmed Shawki, the same poet who had earlier called Hassanein the lion. Sedki, Shawki said, was like a young Egyptian leader coming back from battle crowned with victory, adding that he saw in Sedkis face the lines of a true ancient Egyptian, with this being the secret behind his courage.

His words chimed with the rising sense of Egyptian nationalism and pride in Egypts roots at a time of British colonisation, a pride that manifested itself in the literary sphere with works dedicated to Egypts past like Shawkis own magnificent play The Death of Cleopatra.

The royal reception Sedki received was complemented by king Fouads awarding him the Gold Medal of Excellence and a gift of LE1,000 for his services to the nation. His successful flight also resulted in the establishment of the first club for Egyptian aviation in Cairo, which held another celebration for Sedki as Egypts first international pilot on 29 January 1930. Sedki was awarded a share in the club to the value of LE50.

Together with Kamal Elwy, and Talaat Harb, founder of the first Egyptian bank, Sedki called for the establishment of EgyptAir, Egypts first airline company. His success was considered a national feat at a time when the British were reluctant to allow Egypt to enter the field of aviation, since Britain had its own airline company operating in Egypt and did not want the competition.

One obstacle that Sedki encountered when trying to realise his dream was obtaining the approval of the British to fly to Egypt from abroad, an approval that he only obtained after long weeks of anticipation. Harb said during the celebration that before Sedkis success, Egypt had been deprived of having its own pilots and its own national airports, but now that Sedki had debunked British claims that the Egyptians were unable to act as pilots, there was hope that they could be equal to other nations in the field of aviation.

A series of domestic flights followed Sedkis international flight as he flew to Upper Egypt, first to Luxor and then to Aswan before flying back to Luxor. From there, he flew to Minya and Assiut on 27 March. Yet, for all this, Sedki did not stay in the limelight for long, and on 27 June that same year he flew back to Germany, claiming that the government in Egypt had not given him the proper appreciation, offering him a minor post with a meagre salary and barely enough to look after his plane.

He rejected the job offer and left Egypt from Heliopolis Airport, the same one where he had received a hearty welcome on his successful arrival earlier the same year.

GRADUATE NUMBER 34

Between Sedkis solo flight in 1930 and 1933, 33 male pilots graduated from Egypts School of Aviation. But graduate number 34 was certainly different, as this time the graduate was Lotfia Al-Nadi, the first Egyptian and African woman aviator to earn a pilots licence after US pilot Amelia Earhart with whom she exchanged letters.

In a later interview explaining her decision to train as a pilot, Al-Nady said that I was young, eager to learn things and to accomplish something, but there were few directions that I could pursue. I read about a programme for flying that was being established, and this was invitation enough for her to join. She was 26 when she flew her first plane from Alexandria to Cairo after training for just 67 days.

However, Al-Nadis career as a pilot was not an easy one. She had a reluctant mother and an initially unsupportive father, and she had to find a way to afford her flying lessons and to take them secretly. Kamal Elwy, the then director of EgyptAir, offered her a job as a telephone operator and secretary with the company, and Al-Nadi used her salary to pay for flying classes. Her secret was later revealed when her father saw a picture of her in the international press.

She was finally able to appease her father and earn his support when she took him as her first passenger on a ride above Cairo and around the Pyramids. I took my father for a flight, she later said. At first, he sat stiffly, but then I noticed that his head was swiveling to the right and left. I asked him about it after we landed, and he told me he had been frightened, but then he had decided that he was in the hands of his daughter. He knew that if we crashed, we would crash together, so he relaxed and began to enjoy the flight.

Al-Nadis singular career was undertaken at a moment that overlapped with the fight for womens rights in Egypt and for womens rights to education. Not surprisingly, Hoda Shaarawi, the famous Egyptian feminist leader of the time, honoured Al-Nadi and held a fundraising drive for her so that she could buy a plane of her own.

Among her adventures, Al-Nadi recalls how on one occasion her engine failed and she had to land in the desert where she was helped by Bedouin and given a bony mule to ride on her way back to Cairo. I often laughed that the mule was more dependable than my Moth airplane, she said.

Sadly, Al-Nadis remarkable aviation career ended abruptly in the early 1950s when she had a tragic accident while landing that left her with a broken spine. She left Egypt for Switzerland for a long period of treatment, remaining in the country for many years. Eventually, she was awarded Swiss nationality.

In 1989, Al-Nady was given the Order of Merit, the highest distinction of the Egyptian Aerospace Education Organisation. She returned to Egypt permanently, dying in the country in 2002 at the age of 95. Today, she is considered to have opened the way for other women pilots, among them Linda Masoud, the first female pilot coach, and Aziza Moharram, the first female director of the Aviation Academy, not to mention other pilots like Dina Al-Sawy, Hasnaa Taymour, and Heba Darwish.

Less well known than Al-Nadi, yet equally important to the history of Egyptian aviation is Esmat Ahmed Fouad, another woman who learnt to fly but did not obtain a pilots license.

Esmats story remains inspiring because she joined the School of Aviation and was flying at the age of just 14. Her two sisters, Kadreya and Aisha, followed suit and also learnt to fly. But the three sisters could not obtain pilots licenses as they were under the age of 17. They did not pursue flying careers, which is why in his book Civil Aviation in Egypt author Abdel-Latif Al-Sabbagh considers Al-Nadi to be the real pioneer of Egypts women aviators.

EGYPTAIR

The stories of individual endeavours to fly solo internationally interweave with the story of commercial flights in Egypt and the attempt to establish the national airline Egypt Air.

In 1924, the Ministry of Transportation formed a committee to launch commercial flights in Egypt, and this suggested the establishment of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA), whose mission would be to oversee air navigation and the countrys newly established airports. The project was highly acclaimed at the time, as it was needed to organise the arrival and departure of international planes. It was planned to establish the ECAA within five years.

In the same year, a group of Egyptian businessmen headed by Hassan Anis Pasha started to establish a company for commercial flights in Egypt. After much searching for the right types of plane, they recommended one made entirely of metal with three engines and the capacity to carry 12 passengers and two tons of merchandise. This project signalled the establishment of EgyptAir, Egypts national airline. In 1927, the government established the ECAA, and between 1927 and 1929 it sent three missions to train abroad.

EgyptAir was not formally established until 1931, when, thanks to the Egyptian young people who had received their training abroad, the idea of civil aviation eventually saw a revival after years of stagnation. Almaza Airport, the countrys first, was established in the same year  the earlier Heliopolis Airport mainly served the British air force, and other flights were not allowed to use it.

The history of civil aviation in Egypt is an inspiring one, a story of persistence, hope, and freedom for a whole country to have the right to fly. Stories of Egypts early aviators cannot fail to make future flights with EgyptAir more meaningful, and they deserve to be commemorated in a national museum dedicated to civil aviation, something which at present does not exist.

It is perhaps high time we thought of establishing such a museum in order to remind ourselves of the meaning of National Civil Aviation Day and to keep the day alive.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Negotiations to defuse the escalating situation over Ukraine are the best hope to avoid a new Checkpoint Charlie crisis in which US and Russian troops wait for the order to fire.

The idea that history repeats itself is not simply an old saying but a fact that unfolds as time goes by.

The prospect of reliving the same historical conflicts once again is a recurring phenomenon, as can be seen through the potential war situation between the US and its NATO allies on one side and Russia on the other over Ukraine. Despite diplomatic efforts to avoid a potential war over Ukraine, the signs have never been so threatening in recent decades.

The current situation is reminiscent of an event that occurred in Berlin during the height of the Cold War in 1961. This event, at Checkpoint Charlie, could have caused a nuclear war between the former allies of World War II who became adversaries after it, namely the US and the former Soviet Union.

Checkpoint Charlie was designated as a crossing point between East and West Berlin and for members of the Allied armed forces. Then premier of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev issued an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of all armed forces from West Berlin, including those of the US, Britain, and France.

As a result of the ultimatum, US and Soviet tanks rushed to control the famous checkpoint on 27 October 1961, and for almost an entire day each countrys tanks faced the other, waiting for a signal from their commanders. Had one of the tanks started to fire on the other side, there would have been a good possibility that the world we live in now might not exist, or at least not in the way we know it.

The US deployed a tactical nuclear device known as the Davy Crockett to the field in preparation for what could have been a nuclear war that could have been ignited from Berlin to sweep the rest of the world. However, luckily the Americans and the Soviets agreed to deescalate the situation through backdoor diplomatic channels, and the order was given to the Soviet tanks to move five metres back, with the US tanks doing the same until the situation was defused.

Over 60 years later, the world finds itself in a new Checkpoint Charlie situation, but this time the potential battlefield has moved eastwards from the German capital towards Ukraine.

The danger of a full-blown confrontation cannot be understated. According to US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, the fact that Russian troops are amassing near the Ukrainian border is a threat larger in scale and scope than we have seen in recent memory. This opinion is shared by US chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who believes that the current level of Russian troops and military equipment on the border with Ukraine would be enough to invade the country with little notice.

The escalating situation has not been defused, and US President Joe Biden has ordered the deployment of a small number of troops, estimated to be around 8,500, to Eastern Europe in preparation for a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. The move remains a symbolic one and serves as a warning to Russia that all sides are starting to place their chips on the negotiation table. The number of the US troops remains negligible compared to the estimated 100,000 Russian troops amassed near the Ukrainian border.

The Russian leadership complains that NATO actions have provoked this response from its side. After a long silence, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that his countrys security concerns had not been met in the negotiations between NATO and Russia.

Russia has demanded before that Ukraine should not be accepted as a member of NATO, saying that this represents a red line that would jeopardise the countrys security given the fact that Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, borders Russia and hosted its Black Sea fleet for decades. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, which was part of Ukraine, and declared it to be part of Russia amidst much international condemnation.

The problem remains that Russia still views Ukraine as a satellite state and one that must not be allowed to forge its own independent policies away from Russian influence. This sentiment is approved neither by Ukrainians nor by the West. Nevertheless, the Russian demands for Ukraine not to join NATO stem from the lack of trust that has been building up over the past two decades. The Russians do not wish to see Ukraine filled with NATO troops jeopardising its security.

The current amassing of Russian troops, countered by NATO ones moving to the region, is becoming another Checkpoint Charlie situation that could trigger a war. If US or NATO troops are targeted, whether during a border skirmish or as part of a full-scale Russian invasion, that would spell a crisis that has moved out of control.

Despite the animosity that reigned between the US and Russia during the days of the former Soviet Union, neither country engaged in a direct war or battle with the other. In fact, they were allies from 1941 to 1945 against the Axis countries led by Nazi Germany in World War II. However, the current moves risk the occurrence of such a direct war after decades of non-direct confrontations and proxy wars.

While Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that his country does not desire to go to war with Ukraine or the US, he has reiterated that Russia cannot ignore its own security even if his country is not receiving any positive reaction from the Western camp.

His pessimism about the situation cannot be overlooked because it represents the Russian states sentiment towards the situation. A war in Ukraine would spell disaster for the rest of the world including Russia even if only traditional weapons were used. Russia could also certainly do without the international sanctions that would result and the need to occupy a sovereign country.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980 looked like a walk in the park to the then Soviet leadership, but it turned into a disaster for the whole country and was a catalyst for its later disintegration. Russia, as the successor state of the USSR, must not fall into a trap of this sort again, especially with NATO and all Europe drawing lines on how far the Russians can interfere in Ukraine.

Negotiations to defuse the escalating situation are the best hope to avoid a new Checkpoint Charlie crisis in which US and Russian troops face off against each other waiting for the order to fire. A world already battered by the Covid-19 pandemic could certainly do without a World War II.

* The writer is a political analyst and author of Egypts Arab Spring: The Long and Winding Road to Democracy.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The National Forum "Kyrgyzstan's Transition to Sustainable Energy: Barriers and Solutions" will be held on Feb. 10, 2022 under the auspices of the Cabinet of Ministers together with the Investments and Development Agency and the Ministry of Energy of the Kyrgyz Republic, Trend reports citing Kabar.

The purpose of this event is to establish a close dialogue between the state and the business environment operating in the field of renewable energy sources, according to the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers.

The event will discuss the current state of the renewable energy industry, including the vision and prospects for the development of renewable energy in Kyrgyzstan, taking into account the need to ensure access to reliable energy sources and reduce the energy sector's environmental impact.

This forum opens up opportunities to promote the development of the renewable energy market by bringing together Kyrgyz and foreign market participants, representatives of relevant ministries and departments, international organizations and companies developing projects in the field of renewable energy.
Egypt immediately expressed solidarity with the United Arab Emirates following the terrorist attacks, using ballistic missiles and unmanned drones, by the illegitimate Houthi militia in control of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. Right after the first attack on 17 January, arbitrarily targeting civilians  including the thousands of people from all over the world who daily use Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports  President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi spoke on the phone with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri was also in constant contact with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, confirming Cairos readiness to provide any support needed to help maintain the UAEs security and stability, and strongly condemning the attacks.

Last week, on 27 January, Al-Sisi reaffirmed the same message during talks with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed on a brief visit to Abu Dhabi. He stressed Egypts support for the UAE and the measures the UAE will adopt to defend its territories and citizens. The urgency of the situation in Yemen, and the Houthis resort to terrorist tactics that threaten regional and international peace and security, continued this week. On Monday, the UAE announced it had intercepted two ballistic missiles launched by the militia with no casualties reported. The event marked the third time the Iran-backed Houthis dispatched an aerial assault against the UAE since 17 January.

The Houthis have launched thousands of missiles against Saudi Arabia over the past seven years, since a Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE intervened in the Yemeni Civil War to fight the Houthis and support the internationally recognised government led by Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Egypt had announced its support for the Saudi-led alliance and the Yemeni president.

During his recent meeting with Sheikh Mohamed, Al-Sisi stated that the security of the Gulf countries is part of Egypts national security, stressing that Gulf security should not be compromised. He also confirmed Egypts rejection of any practices that could destabilise the Gulf. Meanwhile, Bin Zayed hailed Egypts strategic and pivotal role to protect Arab national security and its efforts to consolidate stability and development in the region.

The sudden escalation against the UAE had taken place after Yemeni government forces pushed back against the Houthis in recent weeks, achieving gains in the contested province of Marib, which the Houthis have been trying to take for over a year. The absurd, unacceptable claim that Abu Dhabis support for the advancing Yemeni army justified the terrorist attacks against civilian targets in the Emirati capital and one of the worlds busiest business hubs, Dubai, must be strongly condemned.

Indeed the ongoing war in Yemen has resulted in tremendous civilian losses and human suffering since it started in 2014. However the Arab Alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have repeatedly affirmed their commitment not to target civilians, blaming the Houthi militia for using civilian establishments, including hospitals, schools and prisons, to launch their blind missiles targeting Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemeni government forces. Mistakes have certainly been made, but that should not distract the world from the original party responsible for the ongoing suffering of the Yemeni people: the Houthis and the regional parties that provide them with military support, particularly the ballistic missiles and drones aimed at targets in the UAE, more than 1400 km away.

Yemens legitimate government, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not been the only parties to reiterate the charge that the Houthis have been using civilians as human shields. Evidence of such practices has been documented by the United Nations, local and regional NGOs and various world humanitarian agencies.

Early this week, a report submitted to the UN Security Council by a panel of UN experts said that nearly 2,000 children recruited by the Houthi rebels died on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021, and that the militia continued to hold military training camps for the youngsters. They were aged between 10 and 17 years old, the UN report said, and a significant number of them were killed in Amran, Dhamar, Hajjah, Hodeida, Ibb, Saada and Sanaa.

The 303-page report said the Houthis and paramilitary forces loyal to them continue to violate a UN arms embargo. The United States and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of supplying weapons to the Houthis in violation of the arms embargo. The UN experts reported the seizure of some Iranian-made weapons, but Iran denies any involvement in providing weapons to the Houthis.

The official Iranian denial is not accepted by any of the parties involved in the war, and the Houthis are clearly being used as a proxy by Tehran to exert pressure on the United States to reach agreement on its nuclear programme and conditions to lift the heavy US sanctions. The same applies to Lebanons Hizbullah and parties in Iraq loyal to Tehran. However, the danger posed by the Houthis right now has exceeded all boundaries, and they should not be allowed to pose a threat to the lives of UAE citizens, or the millions who have flocked to this inspiring part of the Gulf region from all over the world to build a success story. In this respect, the UAE is sure that Cairo will provide unwavering support.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The interim phase in Libya appears to have unlatched itself from the UN-sponsored roadmap that was to culminate in parliamentary and presidential elections on 24 December 2021.

On Monday 31 Jan, the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR) announced that it would be accepting candidates for a new prime minister on 8 February in accordance with the newly adopted nomination mechanism. If it goes ahead, the process will further confuse an already complicated political process.

Libyan government officials who spoke with Al-Ahram Weekly from Tripoli said the incumbent prime minister, Abdul-Hamid Al-Dabeiba, will only hand over the government to another elected authority. Observers fear an east-west standoff over this question could drive the country back to the intense polarisation that had prevailed before the current government was formed.

To compound tensions, militia factions from Misrata and Zawiya have amassed forces around the capital, Tripoli. For the moment at least, sources in Libya feel confident that the situation will not deteriorate back into war, primarily because the problem this time is not related to the clash between rival chiefs of staff in Tripoli and Benghazi.

Nevertheless, a security breakdown is always a possibility given the east-west institutional bifurcation. The situation could become particularly volatile if the HoR elects a prime minister from the west, as observers predict will happen. That could usher in an unprecedented problem. On top of rival governments in the east and west, there would be rival premierships within the west.

Anticipating this, HoR Speaker Aguila Saleh has proposed turning Sirte into the new administrative capital, thereby keeping the new government aloof from the tugs-of-war in Tripoli.

It is still not clear whether political forces will support the new government and, accordingly, what bases of legitimacy it would have, apart from the HoR. As of writing, not even the east based general command of the Libyan National Army (LNA) has expressed a view on the matter, though it is likely to support the HoRs actions.

Early January brought about an unexpected rapprochement between the LNA Commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar who is based in Benghazi, former interior minister Fathi Bashagha and former vice-chairman of the Presidency Council Ahmed Maiteeq who hail from Misrata. The three are believed to be the most likely candidates to head the new government.

At the same time, there is no love lost between Haftar and Dabeiba. That said, the army general command still has to go through Tripoli for crucial administrative and financial matters. In this context, it is noteworthy that shortly before the HoR announced the opening of nominations for a new prime minister, Dabeiba met with the Governor of the Libyan Central Bank (LCB) Saddek Omar Elkaber and with the Chairman of the Presidency Council Mohamed Al-Manfi to discuss the reunification of the bank.

This suggests that, under any new arrangements, the unified LCB will continue to work with the current caretaker government and will have no official relationship with the new government formed by a prime minister elected by the HoR.

It is doubtful that the new government will garner support from abroad. The UN has already expressed concerns regarding the creation of a new government. The UN Special Adviser on Libya Stephanie Williams believes that moves towards that end work against Libyan priorities which are an end to endless interim phases and a stable and accountable government.

She has stated that it is still possible to hold general elections in June 2022 in line with the UN-brokered roadmap and that forming a new government would hamper this. Williams believes that some Libyan officials are manoeuvring to remain in power and therefore working together to obstruct the political process by orchestrating a musical chairs game.

In addition to opposing the direction taken by the HoR she is clearly uncomfortable with the new political alliance that has brought former officials in the west (Bashagha and Maiteeq) into alignment with Haftar and Saleh. But nor does she support Dabeiba whom she accused of violating a moral pledge when he nominated himself as a candidate for the presidency in contravention of the roadmap and the commitment he made when he became prime minister.

More generally, she believes that such existing government institutions as the HoR and its counterpart in Tripoli, the High Council of State (HCS), have lasted long beyond their sell-by date and need to be changed. Elections by no later than June are the only way forward for the Libyan people who thirst for elections, she said.

Creating a new government would raise another question, namely what to do about the Presidency Council which was formed at the same as the government. Although the Presidency Council did not require a parliamentary vote of confidence, it is still a governing body associated with the current roadmap.

Forthcoming political developments in Libya will undoubtedly be shaped by reactions to the creation of a new government to replace Dabeibas, if indeed that occurs. Some sources predict that the HoR will not even be able to summon the quorum needed to hold a vote on a new government.

The HoR is deeply divided and many MPs are expected to boycott next weeks session because they support Dabeiba or favour the continuity of the current government and roadmap. It is conceivable that the boycotters will return to convening separate sessions in Tripoli, as occurred during the battle over the capital in 2020. On the other hand, in the HoR session on 31 January, Saleh warned that he would dismiss boycotting MPs and those who work in embassies and other positions.

As Al-Ahram Weekly goes to press, other international stakeholders in the Berlin process have yet to declare an official stance on the HoRs decision to form a new government. That silence speaks of considerable confusion even if statements from Washington and European capitals continue to stress the need to sustain momentum leading to elections as soon as possible for fear that they will be put off indefinitely.

In Cairo, observers are concerned by the situation in Libya. Last week, the Egyptian and Algerian presidents stressed the need for Libyans to hold parliamentary and presidential elections simultaneously, signalling that Cairo and Algiers are in line with the position of the UN. However, the above-mentioned developments, which have occurred since Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebbounes visit to Cairo on 24 January, show that the main Libyan stakeholders are not interested in holding elections in the foreseeable future.

Cairo, for its part, is keen to preserve the progress that has been made in Libya since the ceasefire reached in October 2020. Egypt was instrumental in preparing the ground for the ceasefire and has since been a key actor in helping Libyans build on the understandings reached and realise the aim of durable stability. In this regard, Bashagha and Saleh visited Cairo simultaneously shortly after a visit by Stephanie Williams in mid-January, but no clear or convincing plan has emerged to contain the crisis that set in following the cancellation of elections in December.

The road ahead for Libya is very foggy indeed. Not only is the HoR in the process of launching a new political process, but the roadmap committee that was formed after 24 December 2021 also favours amending the constitution and holding a referendum on it before holding elections.

This process followed by new arrangements for the elections based on the new constitutional provisions would extend the current interim phase to around two years. It also means that the roadmap committee would effectively take over from the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum which had formulated the current roadmap. That would give rise to even more uncertainties, tensions and issues. In short, there is nothing to inspire confidence that Libya will find a safe road to stability.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Ahmed Mustafa reports on the first visit by an Israeli president to an Arab country

Israeli President Isaac Herzog made a historic visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week and celebrated Israels National Day at the countrys pavilion at the Expo Dubai 2020.

Though the presidency in Israel has no significant weight in running the country, the visit was seen as a reinforcement of Israels normalisation of relations with the Gulf countries.

The visit was overshadowed by a missile attack launched from Yemen on Abu Dhabi on Sunday. The Emirati military announced that it had intercepted the missile bombardment and destroyed the Houthi militia launch site in Yemen.

While not the first, this weeks attacks on the UAE have led observers to suggest that they are designed as a message to the UAE from Iran and its proxy militia in Yemen.

Herzogs trip comes weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited the UAE in December. Both visits are firsts of their kind to the Gulf country. On both visits, Israeli journalists accompanied the delegations to the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, meaning that all coverage came from official statements.

Though the visits might have been planned beforehand, observers have not ignored the fact that they come at a time when the UAE is being targeted by attacks from Yemen. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched a number of drone and missile attacks on Abu Dhabi, one of them killing three people and injuring others last month.

A statement from Herzogs office expressed Israels support for the UAEs security.

We are here together to find ways and means to bring full security to people who seek peace in our region, the statement said. It cited the so-called Abraham Accords signed between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain in 2020 to normalise relations as the type of agreement Tel Aviv seeks to establish with other countries in the region.

In addition to reinforcing the normalisation of relations between Israel and the Gulf countries, the economy and business were central to Israels high-level visits to Abu Dhabi. According to Emirati officials, non-oil trade between the UAE and Israel accounted for $1.3 billion during the period between August 2020 and January 2022.

The heads of the Manufacturers Association of Israel and of the Israel Export Institute accompanied Herzog on his visit. The business groups discussed a $10 billion fund set up under the Abraham Accords and how the UAE might help Israel find new Middle Eastern and Asian markets, according to Reuters.

According to the official Emirati news agency WAM, the two countries have signed over 60 agreements and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) since the establishment of diplomatic relations.

The agreements cover areas including the promotion and protection of investments, healthcare, cooperation, Covid-19-related research and development collaboration, agriculture, food security, water, the environment, and climate change.

A $100 million joint technology and research fund has been launched in addition to a student exchange programme between Emirati and Israeli universities.

In addition to advances on the business front, the Israeli visits carry a political significance in the region. It is no coincidence that they come at a time when Irans negotiations with the world powers in Vienna to revive a 2015 nuclear deal are about to bear fruit.

Israel opposes the US plan to rejoin the deal, after former US president Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018. The Gulf countries are also concerned about Irans support for its proxy militias in the region, like the Houthis in Yemen and Hizbullah in Lebanon.

The UAE has been keen to portray the visits in the light of an established policy of peace and prosperity, not conflict and confrontation. According to an informed Emirati source, the country is following a course enshrined in the union laid out by the late founder of the state, sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, for tolerance, security, and stability.

The UAE is not sparing any effort to bring peace and prosperity to its people and the whole region. If you are not threatening stability, you are welcome to the cooperation of the UAE for mutual benefit. The Abraham Accords are here to stay and to build on. It is not a political manoeuvre but a principled approach, the source told Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity.

Western analysts have focused on a shared concern between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv over Iranian meddling in the region. But the Emiratis insist that their role is to ease tensions and push for a peaceful political settlement rather than aggression.

If you are focusing on the welfare of your people and sustainable development in your country and the region, you cannot be seeking conflict. You need a peaceful environment to achieve your goals, the Emirati source said.

Talking to ordinary Emiratis shows that normalisation with Israel is generally supported. We are not abandoning our Palestinian brothers, some Emiratis say. They [the Palestinians] already have relations with Israel, and our relations with it can help bolster the Palestinian side in any coming negotiations for a political settlement.

The UAE plays host to almost 200 nationalities of expatriates working and living in the country. It wont make a big difference to have Israelis as well, one Emirati citizen said.

Some compare the cold peace between Israel and other countries in the region like Jordan and Egypt with the warm peace between Israel and Bahrain and the UAE.

Veteran UAE diplomat Anwar Gergash wrote on Twitter of the Israeli presidents visit that it was within the context of the Emirati approach seeking to build and reinforce bridges with all countries in the region to develop regional stability and prosperity.

He said in another tweet that the main factor in our bilateral relations with different countries around the world is based on our economic, scientific and technological priorities seeking a better future for the region through cooperation not confrontation that has only led to the deterioration of regional development.

There is no doubt that regional issues were discussed between the Israeli president and the Emirati leaders on the recent visit, as earlier happened during Bennetts visit, as well as hotspots such as Ethiopia and Ukraine.

Only time will tell if the two sides have identical stances on these issues.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Career diplomat and prominent, even if low-profile, intellectual Shoukri Fouad passed away this week, fewer than two weeks after having celebrated his 90th birthday.

The news of his passing prompted a wave of sympathy among family and friends who shared their profound sadness at the loss of a man known for being an impressive diplomat, a hands-on and inspiring boss, a diligent reader, and a proud Egyptian.

Born in Assiut to a well-off Upper Egyptian family, Fouads choice to join the foreign service was consistent with the norms of the times, although he studied philosophy and not law as would have been more usual for his generation.

Prior to joining the foreign service in 1958, six years after he graduated from Cairo University, Fouad pursued an academic career and then decided to change direction.

During the heyday of Egypts association with the cause and ambitions of liberation movements across the world and Third World issues, Fouad served in Portugal, Ghana, Cambodia and at the UN Mission in the Geneva. On the eve of the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Fouad was Egypts ambassador to Yugoslavia in its last years from 1985 to 1989.

Throughout his career, Fouad subscribed to those who wished to serve Egypts interest rather than just to represent Egypt. Diplomats who worked with him in the Cairo offices of the Foreign Ministry or during overseas postings shared almost identical reflections of working for a man who was always unpresumptuous but also demanding and inspiring.

This was especially the impression of those who crossed paths with him as colleagues or assistants during his years as the head of the Political Planning department at the Foreign Ministry in Cairo.

Fouads intention, they said, was never to impress his seniors, but rather to do whatever he thought was in the best interests of the country. His decision-making process, they also said, was thorough and poised even at the hardest of times and most challenging of moments.

Fouad inspired generations of foreign-service colleagues, both those who joined when he was still in office and those who were to join after he retired. They said that he had always found the time to discuss and inspire.

When he retired from his post, Fouad did not retire from his keen consumption of politics. He continued to follow international affairs and to share views on them, not just with fellow diplomats, but also with professors of political science, intellectuals, and anyone who wished to talk to him as he would never put any one off.

Fouad was never a strict opposition figure, though he did openly lean to the left in a way that was hard to disown. However, as becoming his status as an intellectual, he also took issue with some government choices on foreign and home policies.

His support for the 25 January Revolution in 2011 was spontaneous. His support for the demonstrations of June 2013 was unmasked.

Beyond these, Fouad chose to distance himself from day-to-day politics, though he did share comments in public talks or articles that were published in the press every once in a while. Despite a brief association with the left in the mid-1990s and with the Al-Dostour Party after the 25 January Revolution, he did not care to carry himself as a politician. His wish was to pursue the countrys interests as he saw them.

Otherwise, he was also always content to just observe or peacefully read a book or join a group discussion on issues of interest.

Fouad was married to Nabila, with whom he had their only daughter Manal.

Over the course of his 90 years, Fouad made many friends from all walks of life, all age groups, and all socio-economic backgrounds. He never felt inhibited about being anything other than the true Saidi (man from Upper Egypt) that he was. For him, to part from his roots was simply unthinkable.

Family, friends, and colleagues who paid their last respects to him at the Heliopolis Mar Morcos Church will always think of him fondly as a man who displayed all shades of grace throughout his life.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Egypt reported 2,223 COVID-19 infections on Monday, a slight increase in cases over Sunday's figures, setting another record high for the seventh day in a row, as the country continues to battle the pandemic.

This brings the total number of reported coronavirus cases in the country up to 425,911 since the outbreak of the pandemic in February 2020, according to the Ministry of Health and Populations daily update.

The ministry also reported 31 new deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total deaths nationwide to 22,635. It added that 1,891 patients have been discharged from hospitals following recovery, bringing the total number of recoveries to 358,165.

On Sunday, the ministry reported 2,210 COVID cases as the country continues to battle a surge in infections.

On Friday, Egypt surpassed the 2,000 new coronavirus cases per day threshold for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The spike in infections came as Egypt continues to push with efforts to expand its vaccination campaign.

Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, the health ministry's spokesperson, said on Monday that around 42 percent of the targeted groups have been vaccinated, adding that the ministry hopes to vaccinate 70 percent of the population by the second half of 2022.

Egypt has administered a total of 37.2 million first vaccine doses and 26 million second doses since the start of the mass vaccination campaign in January of 2021, according to the health ministrys daily statistics.

As many as 620,000 booster shots have been administered in recent weeks, as per the health ministrys figures, bringing the total number of doses administered since the start of the mass vaccination campaign to 64 million.

In late January, the first batch of AstraZenecas Evusheld  a monoclonal antibody drug that resists the coronavirus  comprising 15,000 doses arrived in Egypt, according to the company on Monday.

The company stated that further deliveries are expected in the coming weeks as part of a total supply of 50,000 doses in 2022.

Egypt is the first African country and the fourth globally to receive Evusheld, AstraZeneca said.

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Egypt and South Korea signed on Tuesday armament contracts and memorandums of understanding for military cooperation during a ceremony attended by Egypt's Minister of Defence and Military Production Mohamed Zaki, a statement by the military spokesman said.

The event witnessed the signing of a contract with South Koreas Hanwha Corporation for the joint- manufacturing of howitzer (EGY k9A1), a statement by the Egyptian military spokesman said.

Ahmed Khaled, the deputy minister of defence, commander of the strategic command and supervisor of military industrialization, signed two MoUs for cooperation in the field of defensive industries and logistics support.

He also inked an MoU on the principles governing cooperation in defence research and development fields between the two sides to coordinate and exchange military expertise, the statement added.

Head of the Armed Forces Armament Authority Osama Ezzat signed a contract with Hanwha Corporation to locally manufacture the howitzer system (EGY k9A1) via the companies and factories of the Egyptian National Authority for Military Production.

The ceremony was held in the presence of Chief of the South Korean governments Defence Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) Kang Eun-ho, South Korean Ambassador to Egypt Hong Jin-wook and others.

Tuesday's deals came two weeks after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in in Cairo, which marked the first visit by a South Korean president to Egypt in 16 years.

In a separate statement, the office the Korean president said Tuesday that the deal of providing Hanwha's K9 self-propelled howitzers to Egypt is the Asian countrys biggest export contract for the weapon, adding the deal is worth $1.6 billion.

Last week, the US Department of State announced two massive military equipment sales to Egypt comprising transport aircraft and radar systems worth over $2.5 billion.

The sale included 12 Super Hercules C-130 transport aircraft and related equipment worth $2.2 billion, in addition to air defense radar systems worth an estimated $355 million.

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Former local development minister and governor of Alexandria Mohamed Abdel-Salam Mahgoub passed away at the age of 86 on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, state officials and mourners attended Mahgoubs funeral prayers in Nasr Citys Aal Rashdan Mosque after the noon prayers.

Mahgoub was born in Daqahliya in 1935. He earned a Bachelor of Military Science from the Military College in 1955.

During his career, he served as a military attache, and vice president of the General Intelligence Service.

He also served as governor of Ismailia from 1994 to 1997.

Mahgoub then served as the governor of Alexandria from 1997 to 2006. During his nine-year tenure in the Mediterranean governorate, he oversaw the implementation of several infrastructure projects  such as the broadening of Alexandria's historic Corniche Road and the construction of Stanley Bridge  which forever transformed the face of Egypts second capital.

In 2006, Mahgoub was appointed as minister of local development.

He was one of those governors who played a major role in developing his governorates and providing services to citizens and investors, Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy remembered Mahgoub in a statement.

He presided over the local development ministry at a very critical time, working to support different governorates and support the handling of all relevant bodies, added Shaarawy.

Speaker of the Senate Abdel-Wahab Razek also eulogised Mahgoub saying: We lost a great national figure who gave a lot to his country.

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Egypt targets to list more state-run companies on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX), including a number of the country's Armed Forces affiliated companies during 2022, a cabinet statement said on Tuesday, as part of the country's goal to launch more initial public offerings (IPOs) of public companies.

In a cabinet meeting earlier Tuesday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that Egypt seeks to put forward "as many public companies as possible" on the Egyptian bourse during the current year.

Madboly said he himself will follow up on the plan as the government looks to lure more foreign investments, and also enhance the trust of foreign investors in the Egyptian investment climate, according to a cabinet statement released following the meeting.

The step aims to enhance the role of the stock market, and revive the capital flow and trading in the EGX, in addition to raise the value of market capitalization so as to be more attractive to investors, he asserted.

During the meeting, Ayman Soliman, CEO of Egypts Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), said that a number of companies affiliated with the Egyptian Armed Forces' National Service Projects Organization (NSPO) will be offered to local and foreign investors in accordance with conditions and regulations that ensure achieving the highest returns for Egypt, according to the cabinet statement.

In October 2019, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said the companies owned and operated by the Armed Forces should be listed on the stock exchange.

The SWF, established in 2018, aims to attract private investments to Egypt and promote co-investment in state-owned assets to maximise their value and efficiency.

In March 2019, Egypt offered the first state-owned company to be listed on the EGX under the IPO programme.

The offering included a 4.5 percent of shares of tobacco monopoly Eastern Company on the EGX, with a total value of EGP 1.7 billion pounds ($99 million). But the programme paused due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said said on 8 September 2021 that the government was expected to resume the stalled IPO programme before the end of 2021.

In October 2021, Egyptian state-owned payments firm e-finance for Digital and Financial Investments made its debut on the stock market under the IPO programme.

In late December 2021, the Egyptian cabinet said the country was planning to list shares of the three power plants it has built in partnership with Germany's Siemens on the stock exchange.

Tuesday's meeting tackled the offerings procedures and expected shares of companies planned to be listed by mid-2022, with Madbouly stressing that the companies that will be offered in the bourse are "promising."

The offerings are expected to attract a broad segment of investors as was the case in e-finance, Madbouly noted.

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Novelist Alaa Khaled spoke to Ahram Online about the completion of his testimony of his city, Alexandria, in his latest novel: Matahet Al-Iskandariyah (Mazes of Alexandria).

This voluminous novel is the third by Khaled about his city. It came out in the summer of last year, almost 12 years after the publication of his first volume on Alexandria in 2009, Alam Khafif Karishat Taeir (Pain as Light as a Birds Feather) and less than 10 years after his non-fiction title Wogouh Skandariyah (Faces from Alexandria).

In his most recent literary work, which was published like the two previous titles by Dar El-Shorouk, Khaled is giving his testimony on the city he lived, loved and now fears to be losing.

The Alexandria of the first volume is, in a way, a concise history of a middle-class family faced with unexpected challenges caused by a sudden socio-economic and intellectual upheaval, bringing about a decay of life as had been for almost five generations. The second volume revealed a wider sense of decay that was forcing into oblivion some of the main features of the city as it had been for over half a century. Then, with this third volume, Khaled is looking at the decay of the soul of the city in which he was born in 1960.

However, speaking to Ahram Online on the eve of the Cairo International Book Fair, six months after the novel was released, Khaled avoids calling his recent work an epitaph of the Alexandria he knew.

he close to 500-page volume is a walk through the roads, and for that matter history, of Alexandria. It is a walk of a group of young men and women who are all students of the arts. They come from different parts of the city and together, or independently, they walk through the city. They walk the known, and not-so-trodden, paths of Alexandria.

With every walk there are flashes of memories  some of the protagonists and many of the city. They go through tough moments exactly as the city is going through consequential transformations that would end up changing what the city has been about forever, or almost.

Still, Khaled would argue that he was not planning to lament the city or to sob over the failure of his generation to stand for the city as they knew it or for the dreams they had.

I am not thinking of the novel in this way; I am rather thinking of it as re-introducing Alexandria from the lens of a group university students who loved art and loved the city  not strictly as the celebrated cosmopolitan entity it is taken for, because Alexandria was never just that in the first place, Khaled said.

In fact, he added that in the narrative he is offering in Matahet Al-Iskandaria, he is aiming to revisit the widely debated concept of the Alexandria cosmopolitanism.

Well, let us say that I am putting it in context  at least in terms of what it has come down to; this is why it is essentially there now in the cemeteries, he said.

Khaled argued that it is absurd to attempt to negate the Alexandria of Laurance Durrell or to overlook the Alexandria of Edourd Kharrat. Alexandria is a city of so many faces and it inspired so many texts; this is partially why I was thinking of it at times as a maze. Ultimately it is really and literally a city of many layers, he said.

And, he said, even if the city that he lived and knew is falling into decay, this would not at all mean that that the symbolism of what Alexandria has been all about is going to be all erased. I think the multiple faces of Alexandria that had inspired multiple narratives of the city will make it eternal  as it was and has been, he argued.

In Matahet Al-Iskandariyah the protagonists are obsessed with questions of identity  theirs and that of their city. They are in pursuit of a dream that would make their bond continue to bypass, or even cross, all boundaries, just like the parallel quarters of Alexandria have been able to co-exist, both in unity and in separation at the same time, Khaled explained.

There is this dream of a certain type of homogeneity that is inspired by the association with the city and with art rather than with any other association; this dream saw its last day in the 1970s, and then came the 1980s with the shocking transformations that put an end to the dream and started the end of the story of the city as it was for our generation, Khaled said.

Like other writers of his generation, Khaled takes exception at the economic changes that were introduced towards the end of the 1970s and blames the open-door policy that was coupled by an ultra-reactionary narrative of Islam for an unfortunate shift in the social and cultural fabric of the country. For Khaled, Alexandria in particular has suffered a lot due to these changes.

Then one is almost lost in the Alexandria that he knew; lost in what it has become as opposed to what it was and has been, he said.

This transformation is not just about what has become of the city, in the material sense of the word, I mean; it is actually more about the end of the ability of the city to be able to inspire and fulfill the dreams of togetherness, he argued. For Alexandria and for Alexandrians of my generation, this is certainly a moment of defeat and of decline.

For the younger generation, Khaled said, the city is certainly a maze where they would often get lost between a history celebrated and a present that is only unclear.

This is why we now live in the peak of the moment of separation and isolation; each of us is confined in a city that he has in his mind  whether he likes it or not, he added.

For Khaled, Alexandria today is not the same city for everyone and not the city that was shared even with some clear demarcation lines.

As Khaled embarked on writing this novel, a little over a decade ago, he was obsessed with a question: would Alexandria succumb to the inevitable decline or would it, as it has done so often before, conquer death in being a city immortal?

The novel is not offering a clear answer  not even when it shows moments of unexpected reunions and rejuvenated love that occur at the heart of the cemeteries. This is not a question that the novel answers; it tries to though because when I think of Alexandria, I am always thinking of the beginnings that come after the ends, Khaled said.

However, he said that without a new dream of co-existence of sorts, the city he knew does not stand a chance to live on. Today, I find no trace of this idea of co-existence; I just cannot trace it, he said.

Whatever the future of the city, Khaled argued, its images of the 20th century cannot be erased. Alexandria, he said, is a city with a strong visual identity. It was perhaps this thinking that got him to make sure that a key protagonist of Matahet Al-Iskandariyah is a photographer who moves around with her camera and takes endless shots of the city and its people one after the other. Even those blind protagonists in the novel are not without a visual emotion.

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Heavy gunfire erupted Tuesday near the Government Palace in Guinea-Bissau's capital, witnesses said, raising fears of a coup attempt in this West African country with a long history of military takeovers.

The state broadcaster reports that the shooting has damaged the Government Palace and that ``invaders'' are holding government officials.

President Umaro Cissoko Embalo, a former army general, was believed to be inside the building at the time of the attack. He was declared the winner of the 2020 election, though the results were contested by Domingos Simoes Pereira.

Embalo then started forming a new government with support from the military while a Supreme Court election challenge was still pending.

Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has experienced four coup d'etats and more than a dozen attempted coups.

The small nation of around 1.5 million people, has long been beset by corruption and drug trafficking. In the 2000s, it became known as a transit point for cocaine between Latin America and Europe as traffickers profited from corruption and weak law enforcement.

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By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

On February 1, 2022, a new radio station called Radio TMB began broadcasting in Azerbaijan.

This radio will contribute to the development of the interstate information space.

The social significance of the Radio TMB project lies in the dissemination of the national idea and tolerance, as well as the orientation of young people to national values and traditions.

It will also draw attention to the Turkic countries' and nations' modern musical art. Special projects help to promote cultural and historical heritage, as well as international cooperation in preserving and maintaining national identity and traditions in Turkic musical culture.

Broadcasting takes place on 100.5 FM and will be available in all regions of Azerbaijan, as well as on www.100.5fm.az website and the Azerspace1 satellite platform.

The TMB media group (Turk Mill?tl?r Birliyi  Union of Turkic Countries) presented the new radio project. The group promotes the development of media and information projects aimed at strengthening the Turkic countries' and peoples' solidarity.

The international organization TURKSOY also backed the initiative of supporting the mission of uniting Turkic-speaking countries on a cultural platform.

Since 2011, TMB media group has been presenting TMB TV channel via satellite platforms Turksat, Intelsat, KazSat, and Azerspace1, as well as cable channels in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and many OTT IPTV platforms.

Since 2013, the TMB TV channel has been the organizer of the TurkVizyon music festival for Turkic-speaking countries.

Azerbaijan works closely with Turkic-speaking countries and organizes numerous international events to popularize cultures and strengthen Turkic unity.

Azerbaijans chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS, earlier called the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States - Turkic Council), which began on October 15, 2019, has successfully continued in 2021. During this time, the activity of the organization has been further strengthened and its reputation has grown.

Various important events related to sectoral cooperation were held during Azerbaijan's presidency.

On November 12, the 8th summit of the OTS was held in Istanbul. At the summit, the decisions were made to change the name of the organization, to grant Turkmenistan the observer status. In addition, the document vision of the Turkic World-2040 and the declaration of the 8th summit were adopted. Azerbaijan transferred its chairmanship to Turkey.

In the declaration, member states congratulated Azerbaijan on the victory in the 44-day Patriotic War, expressed support for the territories' liberation, welcomed the end of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. They also supported the normalization of relations based on mutual recognition and respect for the territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders and expressed readiness to support Azerbaijan's post-conflict rehabilitation, reconstruction and reintegration efforts.

Additionally, the head of state was awarded the Supreme Order of Turkic World.
Bulldozers digging for an Egyptian-funded housing project in the Gaza Strip unearthed the ruins of a tomb dating back to the Roman era, Hamas authorities said Monday.

The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Archaeology said its crews seized objects uncovered in the tomb and asked for construction work to be stopped. An independent archaeologist said, however, that photos he saw suggest the site was a cemetery rather than a tomb.

Local media reports said people, some of them using donkey-drawn carts, have looted many artifacts from the site in northwest Gaza City. Residents in the area said archaeological objects including casket covers and inscribed bricks were found a week before the ministry's announcement.

Gaza, a coastal enclave home to more than 2 million people, is known for its rich history stemming from its location on ancient trade routes between Egypt and the Levant. But Israeli occupation, a blockade, conflicts and rapid urban growth in the crowded, narrow territory are among the reasons most of Gaza's archeological treasures have not been protected.

An independent archaeologist briefed on the issue said photos suggest the site was a cemetery dating back to the late Roman era to early Byzantine period 1,600 years ago.

``They indicate that a Roman temple or a Byzantine church are nearby,'' said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.

Last week, authorities from Hamas, the militant group that seized control of Gaza by force from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, sponsored the inauguration of a 5th-century Byzantine church that was restored by local and international non-governmental organizations as a museum.

But the same authorities in 2017 destroyed large parts of a Canaanite settlement dating back 4,500 years to open way for housing projects for their own employees.

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Amnesty International on Tuesday labelled Israel an apartheid state that treats Palestinians as an inferior racial group, joining the assessment of other rights groups which Israel vehemently rejects.

"Israel's cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid," said Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard.

"Whether they live in Gaza, east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights."

Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid strongly rejected the report as "divorced from reality" and charged that "Amnesty quotes lies spread by terrorist organisations".

A year ago, the Israeli-based human rights group B'Tselem drew fire when it asserted that Israeli policies had been designed to enforce "Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea" and met the definition of "apartheid".

New York-based Human Rights Watch in April last year became the first major international rights group to publicly level the controversial allegation.

The report by London-based Amnesty builds on those previous calls in asserting that Israeli-enforced apartheid exists in occupied Palestinians territories and within Israel itself, where Palestinian-Arab citizens make up more than 20 percent of the population.

Amnesty stressed it was not comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to conditions in apartheid-era South Africa but said Israeli conduct and policies met the criteria for the crime of apartheid as defined under international law.

Callamard told AFP that Israel's Arab citizens "will not experience the apartheid in the same way" as a Palestinian in Gaza but that "the regime of apartheid" exists in both places.

Israel's foreign ministry, in a statement released Monday, called on Amnesty to "withdraw" the report.

"Amnesty was once an esteemed organisation that we all respected," said Lapid. "Today, it is the exact opposite."

'Open to scrutiny'

"Israel is not perfect, but it is a democracy committed to international law and open to scrutiny," said Lapid, who is also Israel's alternate prime minister.

He also charged that Amnesty had an anti-Semitic agenda.

"I hate to use the argument that if Israel were not a Jewish state, nobody in Amnesty would dare argue against it, but in this case, there is no other possibility," he said.

The president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, said Amnesty's report "does absolutely nothing to offer a constructive way forward and has no real interest in promoting the human rights of Palestinians or advancing peace and a lasting two-state solution.

"It will only serve, like previous similar prejudiced reports, to fuel the fires of anti-Semites under the guise of political correctness."

Callamard countered that "a critique of the practice of the State of Israel is absolutely not a form of anti-Semitism.

"Amnesty International stands very strongly against anti-Semitism, against any form of racism," she said.

"We have repeatedly denounced anti-Semitic acts and anti-Semitism by various leaders around the world."

'Avenues to justice'

Israel has occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem since 1967. Some 700,000 Jewish settlers now live in both areas in settlements regarded as illegal under international law.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but has enforced a blockade of the Hamas Islamist-controlled territory since 2007.

The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict expected to focus in part on possible war crimes committed during the 2014 conflict in Gaza.

Amnesty called on the ICC "to consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation".

It also urged the United Nations Security Council to "impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid".

It said the international community needed to "face up to the reality of Israeli apartheid and pursue the many avenues to justice which remain shamefully unexplored".

Callamard told AFP that international "fatigue" to address the plight of Palestinians was "not an option".

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As Amnesty International joins Human Rights Watch in formally accusing Israel of committing the crime of "apartheid" against Palestinians, we look at the legal definitions of the hotly disputed term.

South Africa

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enshrined in law in South Africa and what is now Namibia from 1948 onwards to institutionalise white supremacy.

With laws covering almost every aspect of life from work and marriage to education, housing and travel, it ensured the complete domination of the minority white populations over everyone else.

Its racial laws created a complex system of social classification based on skin colour, with whites at the top enjoying the highest status and privileges and blacks at the bottom.

One of the most hated aspects of the laws -- which were not repealed until 1991 -- were the "pass laws", which placed severe restrictions on the movement of black people.

Opposed to South Africa's strict rules of apartheid, a biracial group of black and white students run from police in Johannesburg, as authorities disperse the crowd which was marching in the downtown area, June 17, 1976. AFP

UN creates the crime

The UN began labelling apartheid as a crime against humanity in 1966.

But it was not until 1973 that it formally declared it to be criminal with the Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

The convention, which came into operation three years later, was intended not just to deal with South Africa but with similar discrimination elsewhere.

However, it has never had its own court -- though one was discussed in 1980 -- and leaves it to states to prosecute on the basis of universal law.

No country -- not even South Africa -- has ever been charged with the crime of apartheid under it.

International Criminal Court

In 2002 the International Criminal Court defined the crime of apartheid in its Rome Statue, which has since been furiously contested by Israel.

It says it is a crime against humanity "committed in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other... committed with the intention of maintaining that regime".

It has yet to charge any individual or state with the crime.

A Palestinian father stands with his children in front of the ruins of their home in Silwan, East Jerusalem, after it was demolished by Israeli authorities, November 8, 2019.

File Photo: Palestinian men walk by Israels security barrier separating Abu Dis and East Jerusalem, taken on February 16, 2021. AFP

Myanmar accused

Amnesty International accused Myanmar of apartheid in its treatment of its Rohingya minority in 2017.

It said the Rohingyas were kept "segregated and cowed in a dehumanising system of apartheid... trapped in a vicious system of state-sponsored, institutionalised discrimination".

The following year the UN called for Myanmar's top generals to be prosecuted for genocide over massacres of the Muslim minority in 2017.

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The Israeli army is to strip two officers of their commands and reprimand a third following the death of an elderly Palestinian-American detained during a security operation in the occupied West Bank, it said on Tuesday.

The Palestinian Authority welcomed the investigation into last month's death in Israeli custody of Omar Assad, 78, but called on Israel to probe all Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli troops, not just those involving US passport holders.

Assad's death had sparked calls for an investigation from the US State Department and from members of Congress from Wisconsin, where he had lived for decades, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The Israeli occupation army said his death during a late-night security operation in the village of Jiljilya, north of Ramallah, on January 12 was a result of "moral failure and poor decision-making".

It said Assad had no identification and "refused to cooperate" when he was stopped by troops. Soldiers tied his hands and gagged him and took him to a nearby building with three other detainees.

When troops released the detainees, they thought Assad was "asleep" and left him where he was, the army said.

A post-mortem found he died of a "stress-induced heart attack caused by the circumstances of his detention by Israeli soldiers," the Palestinians' official news agency Wafa reported.

"The investigation concluded that the incident was a grave and unfortunate event, resulting from a moral failure and poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers," the army said in a statement.

Armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi said: "Leaving Mr. Assad alone and without checking his condition was a careless act that runs contrary to the values of the Israel Defence Force, at the centre of which is the requirement to protect the sanctity of any human life."

The troops were part of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion of religious Jews.

'Faintest of rebukes'

The investigation was carried out by the head of Central Command, which oversees operations in the West Bank.

As a result of the probe, the battalion commander will be reprimanded, while the platoon and company commanders will be stripped of their commands, but not their ranks, and will "not serve in commanding roles for two years."

The army said the military police are conducting a separate investigation into the case that could lead to criminal charges.

Palestinian Authority spokesman Ibrahim Melhem told AFP he welcomed the investigation but wanted to see broader accountability for Israeli actions.

"Israel makes this investigation because the martyr holds a US passport," Melhem charged.

"There are many more martyrs like Omar killed by the Israeli army but, because they hold only Palestinian identities, no one cares about them."

Israeli human rights group Btselem said Assad was 78 at the time of his detention and accused the army of issuing "the faintest of rebukes" to its officers over his death.

"The fundamental moral failure is that of Israel's senior echelons, leading a regime of Jewish supremacy, one in which the human life of Palestinians has no value," the group said in a statement.

It said it had recorded 77 Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli security forces in the West Bank last year. More than half of those killed were not implicated in any attacks, it added.

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Russia's embassy in Washington said Tuesday that Moscow will not back down in the face of US sanctions threats over Ukraine, ahead of a phone call between the top US and Russian diplomats.

"We are not going to back away and stand at attention, listening to the threats of US sanctions," the embassy said on Facebook, adding that it is "Washington, not Moscow, that generates tensions."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold fresh telephone talks on Ukraine Tuesday.

Tensions between the two countries have skyrocketed in recent weeks as the US accuses Moscow of planning an imminent invasion of Ukraine.

The White House said Monday that it is ready to impose sanctions on President Vladimir Putin's "inner circle" if an attack on Ukraine goes ahead.

US President Joe Biden has repeatedly warned Putin of a massive coordinated Western sanctions response should he invade Ukraine.

Russia has massed more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's borders, with Western countries fearing they could launch an offensive.

The embassy said the troops do "not threaten anyone" and that it is Russia's "sovereign right" to move its armed forces on its territory.

Ahead of the Blinken-Lavrov talk, Moscow sent a letter to Washington on its stance on Ukraine.

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The top Russian and US diplomats were to speak again Tuesday amid intense efforts by NATO allies to prevent an invasion of Ukraine and to show support for Kyiv.

With tens of thousands of Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, the British and Polish prime ministers were to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital.

Both countries have been strong supporters of Ukraine and before he left Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed to "uphold Ukraine's sovereignty in the face of those who seek to destroy it".

Zelensky said Tuesday that Ukraine was enjoying the most diplomatic and military backing since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

"Support for Ukraine is the biggest since 2014, unconditional and continues," he told Ukraine's parliament.

Tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine have been building for weeks, with Washington accusing Moscow of preparing an imminent invasion of its pro-Western neighbour.

Russia denies any plans to invade but is demanding that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO and a series of other security guarantees against the US-led military alliance's expansion in the ex-Soviet bloc.

The crisis has sparked a flurry of diplomacy -- both in person and through the exchange of documents -- with US Secretary Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov set for another phone call on Tuesday.

'Toughest sanctions ever'

The State Department said Monday it had received a letter from Moscow with its stance on Ukraine, but Russian officials said it was not an official response to previous US proposals.

Tuesday's phone call comes a day after fiery exchanges at the UN Security Council, where Washington's envoy said Russia was now also planning to send more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border.

The US said it was telling families of its government employees in Belarus to leave the country.

Russia's envoy to the UN said Washington was "in hysterics".

"The discussions about a threat of war is provocative in and of itself. You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen," Vassily Nebenzia said.

Western leaders have repeatedly warned of "severe consequences" if Russia does invade, including wide-ranging and damaging economic sanctions.

Britain and the United States said Monday they were looking at targeting people in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, including powerful business allies.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told parliament that the government was putting through "the toughest sanctions regime against Russia we've ever had".

"Those in and around the Kremlin will have nowhere to hide," she said.

Hungary's Orban in Moscow

The Russian embassy in Washington said Moscow had every right to move troops on its own territory.

"We are not going to back away and stand at attention, listening to the threats of US sanctions," the embassy said on Facebook, adding that it is "Washington, not Moscow, that generates tensions."

The United States and Britain have been at the forefront in warning of an invasion and have sent new shipments of weapons to shore up the Ukrainian military.

Johnson and Zelensky will on Tuesday discuss the "ongoing Russian hostile activity", a British statement said, covering "the full range of strategic UK support to Ukraine".

Putin was meanwhile to host one of his few allies in the European Union and NATO, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The Kremlin said the leaders will discuss trade and energy as well as "the current problems of ensuring European security," as Orban looks for an agreement to increase Hungary's gas imports from Russia.

He was travelling to Moscow in defiance of calls to cancel the trip from opposition parties, who said in a joint statement that it is "contrary to our national interests".

French leader Emmanuel Macron spoke to Putin on Monday for the second time in four days, with the Kremlin saying the two exchanged views on "issues related to providing Russia with long-term and legally binding security guarantees".

Ukraine has been battling Moscow-backed insurgencies in two separatist regions since 2014, with more than 13,000 people killed in the conflict.

Kyiv has welcomed recent Western support, but Zelensky has warned against creating "panic" with talk of an invasion at any moment.

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The UN expert on rights in Myanmar announced Tuesday he is preparing to release a report exposing where the country's "criminal" ruling junta have been getting their weapons from.

Exactly one year on from the February 1, 2021 military coup, Tom Andrews said the junta was inflicting a widespread campaign of terror on the country's people -- and seemed to be getting away with it.

The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar urged the international community to step up and cut off the junta's access to weapons, funds and legitimacy.

"The fact that one year has elapsed with no Security Council resolution imposing a comprehensive arms embargo -- as arms continue to flow to the junta and kill innocent people -- is unacceptable," he said in a statement.

The former US congressman said he would soon release a report detailing the weapons that continue to flow into the hands of the junta -- and identify where they come from.

"The military junta is functioning as a criminal enterprise, committing murder, torture, abductions, forced displacement, all the while stealing the revenue and seizing the assets that rightfully belong to the people of Myanmar," Andrews said.

"What is worse, they appear to be getting away with it. Their attacks continue unabated. The suffering of the Myanmar people is steadily increasing.

"Recent months have seen an even further escalation of violence, and a campaign of terror now widespread across the country. I have received more reports of mass killings, attacks on hospitals and humanitarian targets, and the bombing and burning of villages."

Andrews does not speak for the UN but is mandated to report his findings to the global body.

He said that despite the risks and hardships, the people of Myanmar had responded to the last 12 months with courage and tenacity, saying he was "amazed" by their resilience in the face of aerial assaults, and mass arrest and torture.

"On this first anniversary of the illegal coup by the military junta, the best and worst of humanity is unfolding in Myanmar," Andrews said.

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Complicated and costly procedures for registering and disposing of property may soon be a thing of the past, reports Nahla Abul-Ezz

The Planning and Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower house of Egypts parliament, is set to discuss a bill proposing a reduction in the real-estate disposal tax.

The bill is an amendment to Article 42 of Income Tax Law 91/2005 that levies a 2.5 per cent tax on the sale of a property. The new bill proposes that a lump-sum tax be levied only once instead, which means that no taxes would be collected if the property is resold.

Yasser Omar, a member of the Planning and Budget Committee, said the bill would put the real-estate disposal tax at less than one per cent of the value of the property. With the new amendments, it will range between LE1,500 and LE4,000.

However, the amendments state that the reduced lump-sum tax shall also be levied on real-estate transactions taking place before 19 May 2013, while transactions carried out after that date will be taxed at 2.5 per cent of the value of the property.

The bill is meant to encourage taxpayers to meet their obligations, explained Erfan Fawzi, secretary-general of the Association for Scientific Tax Legislation. It is also meant to help end disputes between the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) and property owners, after the ETA had been fining people for delaying payment of the tax, he noted.

The proposed tax reduction is part of other measures intended to encourage people to register their property in public notary offices. While it was previously a requirement for anyone wishing to register their property to have paid the tax first, this is no longer the case. They can now also pay it later.

The current amendments come in tandem with the approval of the Legislative Committee of the House of Representatives on amendments to Real Estate Registry Law 114/1946 regulating work in notary offices on the registration of real estate by the public.

According to Fawzi, the government wants to encourage the public to register their properties so that it can better evaluate the countrys real-estate wealth. A registered property has a higher investment value, Omar said.

The amendments to the registry law aim at facilitating procedures, decreasing the number of documents required, setting a time frame for the approval of requests and objections to submitted documents, simplifying the regulations for checking papers, and opening the door to online transactions as part of the states digital transformation.

A memo on Law 114/1946 said it had not been substantially amended for many years, leading some people to turn their backs on registering their properties.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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What is needed to restart tripartite negotiations and reach an agreement on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The importance of kick-starting stalled tripartite negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was highlighted during the recent visits to Cairo of Senegal President Macky Sall and US Special Envoy for Horn of Africa David Satterfield. The subject is also expected to be raised on the fringes of the two-day African Union (AU) Summit, scheduled for 5-6 February.

During Salls visit, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi emphasised to his Senegalese counterpart the importance of reaching a legal, fair, balanced and binding agreement that governs the filling and operation of the dam, within an appropriate timeframe, without any unilateral measures.

At the joint press conference held after the meeting, Al-Sisi reiterated that Egypts position is based on the Nile River being a source of cooperation and development and an artery of life bringing the peoples of the Nile Basin countries together.

President Al-Sisi and President Sall also agreed to enhance coordination and consultations over the GERD file in light of Senegals chairmanship of the AU, which begins this month, said a diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. But Unless Addis Ababa has the political will to engage in constructive negotiations that aim to reach a deal, I cannot see any difference between AU-sponsored negotiations under Senegals chairmanship and those held in the last two years when South Africa and Congo were in the chair, he said.

Mohamed Hegazi, former assistant to Egypts foreign minister, described Salls visit as strategically important. He pointed out that Senegal will host the World Water Forum in March, and that Dakkar is a partner in two of the most important international organisations for water cooperation in Africa - the Senegal River Basin Development Organisation and the Gambia River Basin Development Organisation. Both groupings offer a successful example of regional cooperation in managing rivers.

We hope that during his chairmanship of the AU, President Salls long experience in common water management can help promote cooperation between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, Hegazi told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Salls visit came a few days after that of David Satterfield, the newly appointed US special envoy for the Horn of Africa.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said that during his meeting with Satterfield he had underlined the urgent need to resume talks over the filling and operation of GERD in line with the UN Security Councils presidential statement issued in September last year.

Satterfields tour in the region began on 24 January and ends on Friday, by which time it will have included Kenya, Egypt, the UAE, Turkey, and Israel. Last month he visited Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Ethiopia.

The veteran diplomat, and one time US ambassador to Turkey, was appointed as the US special envoy early in January, replacing Jeffery Feltman.

Although Sudan has been the focus of Satterfields first tours of the region, they may pave the way for a more active US role in GERD issue, said the anonymous diplomat.

The need to restart of negotiations became more pressing after Ethiopia disclosed plans last month to fell 17,000 hectares of forest around the dam ahead of the third filling of the reservoir. Ahead of the second filling in July last year 4,854 hectares of land were cleared.

The Ethiopian press has also carried reports that the dam is ready to start testing its power generation capacity.

Cairo and Khartoum have repeatedly rejected Ethiopias unilateral filling of the dam before a binding agreement on GERDs operation is reached.

Tripartite negotiations on GERD stopped in April last year after Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia failed to reach an agreement, ahead of the second filling of the dam which Ethiopia implemented in July. The first filling was in July 2020.

Egypt fears that continued filling of the dam in the absence of any stipulations enshrined in an agreement will reduce the flow of Nile water on which Egypt depends. Sudan is worried Ethiopias unilateral actions will endanger its own dams.

With the AU Summit imminent, hopes are rising that it will herald a revival of AU sponsored tripartite talks under the chairmanship of Senegal.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The rights group released a report detailing Israels institutionalised apartheid system, called for an arms embargo and the Right of Return.

Israeli authorities must be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, Amnesty International said Tuesday in a landmark new report.

The years-long investigation details how Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people. This includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees in other countries.

The 280-page report, Israels Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity, sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law.

This system is maintained by violations, which Amnesty found to constitute apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention.

The rights group urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation in the OPT and called on all states to exercise universal jurisdiction to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Amnesty Internationals findings build on a growing body of work by Palestinian, Israeli and international NGOs, who have increasingly applied the apartheid framework to the situation in Israel and/or the OPT.

The term apartheid was originally used to refer to a political system in South Africa that explicitly enforced racial segregation, and the domination and oppression of one racial group by another. It has since been adopted by the international community to condemn and criminalise any such system or practise wherever they occur in the world.

The report documents how the Israeli authorities enact multiple measures to deliberately deny Palestinians their basic rights and freedoms as well as perpetrate forcible transfer, administrative detention, torture, and unlawful killings, in both Israel and the OPT. It cites the unlawful killing of Palestinian protesters to illustrate how Israeli authorities use proscribed acts to maintain the status quo.

In 2018, Palestinians in Gaza began to hold weekly protests along the border with Israel, calling for the right of return of refugees and an end to the 15-year-old blockade of the enclave. Before protests even began, senior Israeli officials warned that Palestinians approaching the wall would be shot. By the end of 2019, Israeli forces had killed 214 civilians, including 46 children.

In light of the systematic, unlawful killings of Palestinians documented in its report, Amnesty called on the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, as well as impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid.

The report highlights how successive Israeli governments have considered Palestinians a demographic threat, imposing measures to control and decrease their presence and access to land in Israel and the OPT. These demographic aims are well illustrated by official plans to Judaise areas of Israel and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which continue to put thousands of Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer.

In addition to separating Palestinian communities and segregating them from Jewish Israelis, the report documents how the Israeli authorities treat Palestinians as an inferior racial group defined by their non-Jewish, Arab status.

For example, Palestinian citizens of Israel are denied nationality, establishing legal differentiation from Jewish Israelis. In the West Bank and Gaza, where Israel has controlled the population registry since 1967, Palestinians have no citizenship and most are considered stateless, requiring ID cards from the Israeli military to live and work in the territories.

Palestinian refugees and their descendants, who were displaced in the 1947-49 and 1967 wars, continue to be denied the right to return to their former places of residence. While Amnestys report takes no stand on the Palestinian Right of Return of six million refugees, its language supports it in clear terms.

Israels exclusion of refugees is a flagrant violation of international law which has left millions in a perpetual limbo of forced displacement, it says.

Amnestys documentation of the Palestinian dispossession is aligned with the Palestinian narrative. The report states that in 1948 Palestinians comprised around 70 per cent of the population of Palestine (then a British mandate territory) and owned about 90 per cent of privately owned land. Jews, many of whom had emigrated from Europe, comprised around 30 per cent of the population and they and Jewish institutions owned about 6.5 per cent of the land.

Israeli authorities, it stated, have acted to turn that situation on its head.

Today, Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise about 19 per cent of the population, face many forms of institutionalised discrimination. In 2018, discrimination against Palestinians was crystallised in a constitutional law which, for the first time, enshrined Israel exclusively as the nation state of the Jewish people. The law also promotes the building of Jewish settlements and downgrades Arabics status as an official language.

The report documents how Palestinians are effectively blocked from leasing on 80 per cent of Israels state land, as a result of racist land seizures and a web of discriminatory laws on land allocation, planning and zoning.

Since 1948 Israeli authorities have adopted various policies to Judaise the Naqab region of southern Israel, including designating large areas as nature reserves or military firing zones, and setting targets for increasing the Jewish population. This has had devastating consequences for the tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins who live in the region.

Thirty-five Bedouin villages, home to about 68,000 people, are currently unrecognised by Israel, which means they are cut off from the national electricity and water supply and targeted for repeated demolitions. As the villages have no official status, their residents also face restrictions on political participation and are excluded from the healthcare and education systems.

These conditions have coerced many into leaving their homes and villages, in what amounts to forcible transfer, the report said.

Decades of deliberately unequal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel have left them at a consistent economic disadvantage in comparison to Jewish Israelis. This is exacerbated by discriminatory allocation of state resources: a recent example is the governments Covid-19 recovery package, of which just 1.7 per cent was given to Palestinian local authorities.

Since its establishment, the Israeli state has enforced massive and cruel land seizures against Palestinians, and continues to implement myriad laws and policies to force Palestinians into small enclaves. Since 1948, Israel has demolished hundreds of thousands of Palestinian homes and other properties across all areas under its jurisdiction and effective control.

The dispossession and displacement of Palestinians from their homes is a crucial pillar of Israels apartheid system, Amnesty said.

As in the Negev/Naqab, Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Area C of the OPT live under full Israeli control. The authorities deny Palestinians in these areas building permits, forcing them to build illegal structures which are demolished again and again.

In the OPT, the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements has been a government policy since 1967. Today settlements occupy 10 per cent of the land in the West Bank, and 38 per cent of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem was expropriated between 1967 and 2017.

Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem are frequently targeted by settler organisations which, with the full backing of the Israeli government, work to displace Palestinian families and hand their homes to settlers.

Since the mid-1990s Israeli authorities have imposed increasingly stringent movement restrictions on Palestinians in the OPT.

A 700 km fence, which Israel is still extending, has isolated Palestinian communities inside military zones, and they must obtain multiple special permits whenever they enter or leave their homes.

The permit system in the OPT is emblematic of Israels brazen discrimination against Palestinians, said the report. While Palestinians are locked in a blockade, stuck for hours at checkpoints, or waiting for yet another permit to come through, Israeli citizens and settlers can move around as they please.

Amnesty said it examined each of the security justifications which Israel cites as the basis for its treatment of Palestinians. The report shows that, while some of Israels policies may have been designed to fulfil legitimate security objectives, they have been implemented in a grossly disproportionate and discriminatory way which fails to comply with international law.

Other policies have absolutely no reasonable basis in security, and are clearly shaped by the intent to oppress and dominate.

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By Trend

The procedure of material and technical support of the Armed Forces may be changed in Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

This is envisaged by the bill on changes to the law "On the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan", which was discussed in the first reading at the plenary session of the Azerbaijani parliament on February 1.

According to the changes, proceeding from Article 9.6 of the new version of the law, the procedure and norms for providing the Azerbaijani army and other armed units with material and technical resources in peacetime and wartime (armed conflict) will be determined by the corresponding structures of executive power.

The bill was developed proceeding from the experience gained during the military operations to protect Azerbaijans territorial integrity during the 44-day second Karabakh war.

The bill was put to a vote and adopted in the first reading following the discussions.
The UN Security Council met on Monday at US request to discuss the Ukraine crisis as Western leaders vowed to impose a barrage of sanctions against Russia should it invade the country.

The inconclusive but heated session was an occasion for both the United States and Russia to trade accusations.

Vasily Nebenzya, Russias permanent representative to the UN, began the meeting by questioning Western claims of Moscows plans to attack Ukraine. He said that Washington wanted to create a state of hysteria over Ukraine and was deliberately misleading the international community with unverified information.

There is no evidence to support the Wests allegations that Russia has amassed over 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, he said. Nebenzya recalled the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, justified by allegations of Baghdads possession of weapons of mass destruction that were never found.

Accusing Russia of threatening behaviour against Ukraine, Washingtons UN envoy, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that more than 100,000 Russian troops had been deployed on the Ukrainian border as Russia engages in other destabilising acts aimed at Ukraine, posing a clear threat to international peace and security and the UN Charter.

The US and its allies have repeatedly warned of an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine and demanded that Moscow withdraw its forces from the border.

Although Russia has staged military exercises near its border with Ukraine, it stated on Monday that 6,000 troops that had taken part in separate drills in Rostov and Volgograd had returned to their barracks, most of them located in the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

The previous day, Kiev called on Russia to pull back the forces it had amassed on the border and continue dialogue with the West if it genuinely wanted to halt the escalating tensions.

Moscow has repeatedly denied any intention of invading Ukraine and has called on Washington to treat it as a peer and show some regard for Russias security concerns.

In recent months, Russia has reiterated its opposition to the inclusion of another former Soviet republic into NATO and called on the largest military alliance in the world to withdraw its forces from Eastern Europe and return its military potential and infrastructure to their positions in 1997.

The US this week rejected Russias security demands in a written response. The Kremlin has said that it is thinking of returning the letter.

The US and NATO responses did not take account of key Russian concerns, it said, adding that they had ignored a central issue, namely the indivisibility of security or the fact that no state should enhance its security at the expense of others.

Washington and other Western nations have proposed an alternative to the Russian demands in restrictions on the deployment of short-and intermediate-range missiles in Europe and a ban on military exercises in areas near the opposing camps borders.

Although NATO has incorporated many Eastern European nations since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact 30 years ago, Ukraine has not been able to join them because of recurrent bouts of upheaval since 1991 and due to the influence of Moscow and the large ethnic Russian minority in the country.

Russia supports separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in the war that began in 2014.

Last week, the US announced that it had put 8,500 troops on the ready to support NATO. France is planning on sending hundreds of its soldiers to Romania, which borders Ukraine from the south.

Kiev plans to receive French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki this week, although dates for these visits have not been announced.

Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand, whose country provides military assistance to Ukraine, visited Kiev on Sunday for a two-day visit. Moscow accused Canada of pursuing an anti-Russian agenda after Ottawa extended its military training missions in Ukraine for three years and announced plans to send over more troops.

While senators in the US have indicated that they are close to reaching an agreement on a bill to sanction Russia over its actions in Ukraine, the Russian Duma Council is considering a proposal to unilaterally recognise the breakaway regions in Donbas. Such a move would considerably raise the stakes in the crisis.

Sanctions that London and Washington are considering against Russia would target the NordStream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany and cut Russia off from international financial transactions in dollars.

Washington has long opposed the NordStream pipeline out of fears that its allies in Europe could fall prey to a Russian monopoly over their energy supplies.

Europe currently relies on Russia for more than a third of its natural gas needs. Should Russia decide to turn off the tap, Europes energy bills would climb further, especially given the lack of an immediate alternative. Qatar, one of the worlds largest producers of liquid gas, has made offers to meet European needs, a step that the Western media have described as opportunistic.

Western sanctions aim to hit Russia where it hurts the most, which is to say financially, and this is why they have set their crosshairs on the Russian energy industry, one of the countrys main sources of income.

Some in the West have suggested freezing the bank accounts of senior Russian officials, but Moscow has shrugged off the threat, pointing to a law prohibiting Russian officials from possessing bank accounts abroad. However, being banned from the SWIFT system, the main means for moving money from bank to bank around the world, would be painful, as Iran can testify as a result of its also being under Western sanctions.

Russia has introduced an alternative, which may assuage the pain, however. The Mir payment system, which serves a number of former Soviet republics, was initiated in 2015 as a means to offset the wave of sanctions that followed Russias annexation of Crimea the previous year.

It is based on the Russian Sovereign Wealth Fund, which stood at $182 billion at the beginning of this year, or about 12 per cent of the countrys GDP. Russia also has a relatively low national debt compared to other industrialised nations and large cash reserves in the Russian Central Bank.

Moscow has asked international partners such as China and India to make payments to Russia in currencies other than dollars. It has also introduced an import-substitution strategy which Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed as an opportunity to stimulate domestic industry by replacing imported products with locally manufactured equivalents.

US President Joe Biden has pledged that Russia will not be able to open NordStream 2 if it invades Ukraine, but no one in Washington has explained how he would deliver on this.

As the Western countries consider other sanctions, such as withholding resources and technology crucial to Russian industry, the Russian economy is already in trouble. The ruble is declining in value, costs of living are rising, and Russians now have to pay more for imported product such as smart phones and computers.

Travel and tourism are also becoming more expensive.

The Kremlin remains firm in its stance on Ukraine, however. Moreover, according to Russian opinion polls, Putins popularity rating at home continues to be strong.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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The major players in the confrontation over Ukraine may be looking for a climbdown while at the same time claiming victory.

Last Wednesday, the US and NATO handed the Russian government their written replies in separate official notes to the document Moscow conveyed to them last December. In this document, the Russian government outlined its security concerns concerning the eastward expansion of NATO to near the Russian border as well as the possibility of accepting Ukraine as a new member of NATO.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on 26 January that the US administration and NATO had provided the Russians with their answers as he had promised his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva the previous week, adding that they opened a way forward for diplomacy if the Russian side took them seriously. The US and NATO notes were not made public in order to give Moscow the time to study their contents.

Blinken explained that the note submitted by Washington dealt with US concerns in addition to those of its allies and partners relating to Russian actions that compromise, according to the wording of the note, European security. It included a pragmatic assessment of Russian concerns and preoccupations as to the general security situation in Europe and outlined some of the fundamental principles that underpinned the US and NATO replies.

The most important of these is respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and the right of every country to decide on its external alliances and to reach the security agreements it deems convenient.

After emphasising the fact that there has not been any difference in opinion between the US and the NATO member countries as to the content of the two aforementioned notes, Blinken made it clear that other ideas in the US document talked about the US interest in elaborating a follow-up agreement to the New START Treaty between the US and Russia in the form of a treaty that covers all nuclear weapons. Also included in the document was the question of arms control as far as missiles are concerned.

At the same press briefing, he said that Washington had sent three shipments of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine that week. He talked about an additional anti-tank missile, the Javelin, in addition to anti-armour weapons and 288 tons of ammunition in order to enhance the forward-based defencive capabilities of the Ukrainian army.

It is interesting to note that US President Joe Biden, talking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on 28 January, said that he would order the deployment of US forces in the near term but stressing not too many. This announcement came on the heels of the US decision last week to order 8,500 soldiers to be ready for deployment depending on developments in the Ukrainian crisis.

Biden also talked about this measure after talking over the telephone the previous day with President of Ukraine Volodymr Zelensky, reassuring him that the US and its European allies would respond decisively in the event of Moscow deciding to order its forces to cross the Ukrainian border.

The official Russian reaction to the two notes was measured. While saying that there was not much cause for optimism that the West would satisfy Russias demands in the showdown over Ukraine, Moscow still kept the door open for a studied analysis of the two documents and is in no hurry to give a definitive official reaction immediately.

Spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin Dmitri Peskov commented that there will be some time needed to analyse them  we wont rush to any conclusions. The next Russian steps would be decided by Putin after thoroughly studying them, he said.

In other words, neither side in the crisis is dealing with the proposals and counter-proposals on a take it or leave it basis. Neither wants to be blamed for thwarting the diplomatic path, but neither wants to de-escalate at the present moment either, maybe biding their time to reach accords that answer most of their respective demands and not all of them.

In fact, the path of diplomacy would only go so far under present circumstances. Strangely enough, there is no definite US position as to whether Russia has the intention of invading Ukraine. While US press reports keep quoting unnamed senior American officials saying that what they call Russian aggression is imminent, some of these officials talk about the middle of next month, and Pentagon and military sources rule out any Russian advance into Ukrainian territory.

Following official US statements and the official assessments leaked to the press, one gets the feeling that the US administration is walking on a tightrope and understandably so. After fulfilling the promise of bringing an end to the forever wars in the Middle East, Biden will think a thousand times before committing US forces to fighting a far-away war in Ukraine. However, while taking into account the criticism of some Republicans that the Biden administration is not doing enough to stop Russian aggression, the US administration is leading NATO and the EU on the diplomatic path while beefing up NATO forces on the eastern flank of NATO as well as the Ukrainian army.

On the diplomatic front, the US administration has called for a UN Security Council meeting on 31 January to discuss the situation on the Ukrainian border. A senior US official explained that this boils down to the question of whether there should be a path of war, or whether there should be a path for diplomacy. He added that the expectation is that members of the Security Council will be weighing this question and supportive of a diplomatic approach.

On the other hand, fewer than 24 hours after calling for a UN Security Council meeting, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said that he does not believe that Putin has made a final decision to use [his] forces against Ukraine, while admitting that Russia already has such a capability.

It seems that the major players in the Ukrainian confrontation want to climb down, but each aspires to do this also while claiming victory. If this is the price to be paid for preventing the outbreak of a war that no one wants, including the Ukrainians themselves, so be it.

* The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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In November, I had the honour of taking part in the Arab Strategic Conference hosted by the Emirates Policy Centre in Abu Dhabi. In my presentation, I urged the Arabs to pool their strengths, reiterating my conviction that their real power resided in themselves. When I made that appeal, Tarek bin Ziyad was not far from my mind. The conqueror of Andalusia famously told his troops: Behind you lies the sea, before you, the enemy. Your only course now is to persevere and to fight. Centuries have passed since the Arabs stood at that crossroads. The times were different; it was another world. But Bin Ziyads words still resonate at critical moments when we are faced with great choices that yield historic results.

Not long ago, a missile struck Abu Dhabi International Airport. The attack was repeated twice. Baghdad airport experienced a similar strike. Also not long ago, the Emirati port of Al-Fujaira and Emirati ships were targeted in the Gulf. Before and after this, Aramco facilities sustained missile strikes, as did Abha Airport and other locations in Saudi Arabia periodically. Behind these acts resides an unbridled Iranian interventionism in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. It builds and uses Iranian proxies who, like many before them, kill, destroy and undermine the security of Arab countries in the name of resistance. The problem is huge and multifaceted. It has been discussed before, from many angles. At one point it took on urgency in connection with the American withdrawal from the region. There followed confusion in Europe, internal anarchy in Washington, British blunders, and a resurgence of the Ukrainian question. Such developments abroad combined with fiery messages to various parts of the Arab region, including scandalous declarations about controlling the sources of the Nile, have presented the Arabs with weighty choices that demand decisions. This is no longer the age of Egyptian regional leadership. But nor is it the Saudi era or the Gulf moment. This is the era in which non-Arab regional powers are taking aim against Arab lives, water and stability.

We know where it all began: the strategic disruption ushered in by the so-called Arab Spring. That was when the non-Arab regional powers, Iran and Turkey, seized the chance to encroach on the Arab region. We are now familiar with the details of the means they used towards this end. Fortunately, since 2015 it became clear that the pivotal Arab powers could and would no longer move backwards. They initiated comprehensive reform processes aimed at building their main components of strength on the broadest and sturdiest bases. These processes took the form of strategic visions that set 2030 as their target date. The results so far speak of relatively high growth rates, diversification of sources of income and major strides towards joining the ranks of global leaders. Moreover, this progress has occurred while the war in Yemen rage on, the war in Syria refuses to abate, the Libyan question sits on a powder keg, and Tunisia and Sudan are mired in the dual fight against anarchy and Islamist fascism.

The region is thus standing on the knifes edge between reform and the restoration of regional calm on the one hand, and the residual instability borne of an Arab Spring that brought neither fresh breezes or blossoms on the other. Just at this delicate juncture came the barrages of fire we have experienced recently. The main author is Tehran which feels that it is on the verge of an agreement with Washington on the Iranian nuclear question, after which sanctions will be lifted and all other matters dropped. Tehran insisted, and the US agreed, that the relevant Arab states had to be excluded from negotiations because the two sides want to reach a limited agreement. Then Tehran intends to advance its self-claimed right to this hegemony, to which testify the recent missile strikes. Washington, which is more concerned with what is happening in Europe, does not want to return to the Middle East. Moreover, at the moment, it has probably put most thinking about this region on hold because of the impending midterm Congressional elections in November. Turkey has no qualms about extending its palm to Arab governments while continuing to lend its land and airspace to the Muslim Brotherhood and other opponents of these governments, perpetuating its occupation of Syria, undermining negotiations in Libya and bombarding Iraq from time to time.

Anyone familiar with my writings knows that I oppose military engagement and strongly support what I call strategic latency, which is based on the ongoing development of the sources of strength. This applies in particular to Egypt which has had to contend with various Turkish conspiracies and flagrant encroachment on Egyptian water rights. In all events, discussions of major strategic matters not only entail the military dimension. They must also cover the political dimensions from diplomacy to the development and deployment of economic tools and other instruments of smart and soft power. At the same time, strategic and tactical decisions are taken, not by analysts, observers and experts, but by country leaders and sovereign institutions. With this in mind, an expert overview of the past decade of history indicates that what this region needs is an Arab Concert of Power to steer the region to strategic equilibrium, political stability and economic development. At one point, the Arab Quartet (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain) embodied this idea, at least in form. However, that momentum subsided with the AlUla declaration which prioritised improving the inter-Arab climate and opening diplomatic channels to restore regional calm.

But today, in the light of recent events, it is clear that the Quartet needs to be revived and charged, not for reconciliation but rather for the strategic management of a hostile reality. I stress that this is not a call to war or any form of military confrontation. It is a call to marshal the various instruments of strength to influence the behaviour of the adversary, safeguard the current reform processes and reshape the theatre of strategic operations. The point is to use these diverse means to deliver a series of messages to the effect that the Arab world is not as weak as some make it out to be and that others are not as strong and immune as they like to imagine themselves. Ultimately, the Arabs have the economic might, human resources and markets to enable them to persevere and win. But to achieve this, they need strategies and tactics, patience or boldness when the time is right, and clear priorities to be established by the governing institutions of the states in question.

The function of intellectuals and strategic experts is to lend support by studying the adversary, and evaluating resources, potentials and priorities. In this regard, we can envision another coalition adding its strengths to the Quartet. This one would consist of a select group of political and strategic studies centres engaged in the serious work needed to inform leaders and Arab public opinion of the nature of the dangers and challenges that threaten not only the pillars of the Quartet but all Arabs. It is crucial that the security of Arab airports should remain inviolable, that no one should feel free to steal water resources that have belonged to the Arabs for thousands of years, and that the Arab nation state should remain strong in order to sustain the pursuit of progress and end the reign of anarchy. But no Arab state has the wherewithal on its own to handle all these weighty tasks ahead. At this critical juncture, they must acknowledge the historical importance of the current crossroads and the inevitability of summoning the courage and resolve to choose the right path.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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For the 53rd Cairo International Book Fair to be held on its usual date  last year Covid pushed it forward by six months  is a breakthrough for local publishers. But the harsh effects of the pandemic continue to cast a shadow over the book market, one way or another. Not all of the effects are negative, though, since the strategies with which publishers were forced to come up to cope have proven promising for the future.

According to Hani Ibrahim, the marketing manager at Battana Publishing House, the market has been declining steadily since 2020, though there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Up to 60 percent increases in the cost of paper and ink have made it necessary to generate income, and raising the cover price is unlikely to achieve that aim. Instead, the publishing house has sought reader engagement through a Facebook book club that offers members discounts of up to 50 percent. Like nearly all other publishers, it has also sought it through online ordering and direct home delivery. In addition it has focused on bestsellers like Mohmoud Abdel-Razzaq Gomaas two books on the craft of writing, Dear Editor: Your Guide to Professional Writing and Linguistic Mistakes Common in Cultural Circles, biographies of acting and singing legends like Soad Hosni, Shadia, Mohamed Fawzy, Abdel-Halim Hafez and Naguib Al-Rihani, or of steller poets and authors like Abdel-Rahman Al-Abnoudi, Amal Dunqul, Youssef Edriss, Taha Hussein or Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz.

Sameh Al-Moghazi, assistant sales director at the American University in Cairo (AUC) Press  which caters to English speakers interested in Egypt and the Middle East  says the press has had to come up with a new strategy following the decline in the number of foreigners visiting and staying in Egypt after the pandemic. Like others, we were affected by the price hikes in paper and inks, especially since publishing in English is more expensive, whether in terms of intellectual property rights, authors wages or the cost of printing. With a renewed, broader focus on the global market outside Egypt, AUC Press also organised book fairs to promote its publications, offering discounts and special offers, as well as mobilising its loyal network of social media followers. Al-Moghazi says the most successful books have been the latest to appear, since readers have been waiting for new things following the relative slump of the pandemic. The press can expect a boom in sales following the return of foreign visitors in the usual pre-Covid numbers, Al-Moghazi says.

According to Islam Hosny, the director of the Hindawi Publishing and Distribution Company  which prints ebooks made digitally available for free by the nonprofit Hindawi Cultural Foundation  Egyptian and Arab readers are still attached to paper. That is why the publishing company exists. He says the Very Short Introduction series, for example, though available for free online, sells very well. Like other publishers, Hindawi was affected by the Covid price hikes and especially the cancellation or postponement of some Arab book fairs such as those of Bahrain and Kuwait and low turnouts for others. Hindawi did not raise cover prices but capitalised on its strong online presence. Hindawis reading trend studies-based publishing plan ensured that it could weather the Corona tide more or less unaffected. In 2021 the foundation produced 80 new titles, securing the ebook and audiobook rights to the works of Mahfouz as well as the renowned Egyptian philosopher Zaki Naguib Mahmoud. Hosny stresses that an increase in sales depends on product diversity, and so the existence of electronic and audio books increases Hindawys market share. In the last two years at the book fair Hindawis best sellers have been psychology titles in addition to Very Short Introductions, novels and popular science books, the latter being one of Hindawis strong points.

For her part Raja Ali, marketing and sales officer Al-Arabi for Publishing and Distribution  a publishing house that has achieved considerable popularity for its translations and academic books  says Covid has greatly affected the book market since 2020, and the impact continues to this moment. We are back, she says, but it is not as strong as it was before the Corona pandemic. Like other publishing houses, Al-Arabi relied on home delivery, but its distribution plan was not limited to Egypt. It has worked with a network of distributors across the Arab world. Cooperation among Arab publishers and awareness of the consumer have been greatly enhanced by the pandemic, with publishers now aware of which social media platform to focus on in each country  Facebook in Egypt, Twitter and Instagram in the Gulf, for example  as well as the interests of young people not only through direct sales but through the work of BookTubers and influencers, who have enabled the success of at least one novel. The most popular titles are crime fiction in translation and prize winning Arabic fiction. As well as keeping up with the rising popularity of the Kindle here in Egypt, Al-Arabi has recently pursued its interest in audiobooks through cooperation with audiobook platforms that have recently emerged in the Middle East, including Google Play and Amazons Audible. Audiobooks make reading an easier and maybe effortless experience.

Storytel, the Stockholm-based Swedish audiobook streaming subscription service founded in 2006 and now available in 25 countries, converts best-selling Arabic books into audiobooks that are more affordable than print and now also produces its own Storytel Original content, some of which has been turned into print books by local publishers. Ali Abdel Moneim, Director of Contracts for Storytel Middle East, believes that the relationship between the printed book, the audio book and the ebook is more of a complementary than a competitive one, and the Covid crisis may have prompted publishers to find new ways to reach readers. Since aiming to spread audiobook culture in the Middle East, starting in 2015, Storytel has reached steady annual growth. We are working to meet the needs of readers by studying user experience. For example, people in the Arab region spend a long time in transportation, which enhances the popularity of audiobooks. We are still in the early stages, but in general, the culture of listening to written content has existed for many years here, as people used to listen to poetry on cassette tapes. The demand for e-books and audiobooks increased during the Corona pandemic, which drew the attention of publishers, offering various subscription models to encourage listeners. Storytels most listened-to Arabic books are international and Arabic classics as well as self help books and genre fiction.

Ahmed Al-Bohi, director of Dawen  a relatively new publishing house that has developed a wide readership base, especially among teenagers and young adults  says Dawen has recently entered the field of electronic publishing in cooperation with global e-book platforms such as Amazon, Google Play, and some Arabic platforms. Ebook culture is spreading, but it is too early to say whether it can ever surpass print. Im talking about ebooks on subscription platforms, not pirated ebooks. The culture of ebooks is to pay for a subscription to access the content. Al-Bouhi adds that Dawens decision to enter the electronic publishing market began as a response to platforms that decided to focus on Arabic content. Most of Dawens titles are on online platforms. But this has not in any way affected our sales of print books. I dont think an ebook or audiobook will drive the printed book out whether in the region or in the world. However, I do see that there is a generation coming that will consider ebooks and audiobooks a priority compared to older generations. But until then, the ebook does not bring about significant profits so much but it is an additional source of presence in the market. El-Bouhy notes that ebook and audiobook platforms should do more to study the book market, targeting the right publications to satisfy different tastes and interests. So far it doesnt seem to me that they are doing enough.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Al-Ahram Weekly investigates the reasons behind the high divorce rate in Egypt and how they might be overcome.

We are all faced with challenges in life that we need to overcome if we are to enjoy more stability in our lives and relationships. Perhaps one of the main relationships we find certain challenges in is marriage  and unfortunately sometimes those challenges can lead to untying the knot and going for divorce as a last option.

In Egypt, there has been a rise in the divorce rate, with 2020 in particular seeing a growth in the number of divorce and domestic abuse cases in the courts.

It is okay to face various obstacles either before or after marriage, but steps need to be taken from the beginning in order for a couple to stand on solid ground and avoid a divorce, said Samah Samir, a member of Mawada, a project established under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Solidarity to raise awareness about marriages challenges among young couples who are planning to tie the knot.

When we choose our potential partner, we must bear in mind that no one is perfect. We should know ahead of time of the defects of our potential partner and make sure that we can cope with them, Samir said.

One of the core challenges is that many couples may get married for the wrong reasons or think that they can change their partner after marriage. However, no one can change at someone elses request, and every young man or woman should take the time to examine the character of his or her potential partner and make sure he or she can accept their personal traits, both good and less good, she added.

Every couple must have common ground to facilitate communication following marriage, whether this is mental, social, or cultural. Criticism is one of the core elements that can negatively affect communication between a husband and a wife, and it can create deep and damaging feelings. An inability to apologise is another factor that can damage communication, Samir said.

However, we cannot deny that the economic factor is another critical element behind the stress that many couples suffer from, and unfortunately many married couples end their marriage as a result of this stressor, she added.

But for sociologist Said Sadek, the divorce rate in Egypt is actually a good indicator.

Having a high divorce rate is not a good indicator, but having a normal divorce rate could be one as it indicates that many people are refusing to stay in unsuccessful marriages. We need to analyse why we have so many unsuccessful marriages in Egypt in the first place, Sadek said.

Many young couples might think about or actually get married for the wrong reasons. Some get married to escape family pressures or because they have hit their 30s and still have not got married. The way we approach marriage may also be quite outdated, as for some arranged marriages and getting married to relatives are the sole means of getting a lifetime partner.

Sadek believes that there should be a way for men and women to get to know each other well before getting married. Meeting someone with friends on social outings might not be enough, and getting the chance to establish good mental and emotional communication is essential.

I believe there should be more mixed schools, with teachers who can establish discipline and respect between girls and boys from a young age. Families must also play a more proactive role with their sons and daughters. They shouldnt pressure them to get married, because the result is usually a failed marriage, he said.

Regarding recent marriage-awareness campaigns that target young men and women, I think the age group needs to be extended to 25 years old at least. People can get married at any age. The public figures who speak to young men and women in these campaigns must be carefully chosen, and they must have a great deal of flexibility.

Advice to men and women who are planning to get married must be given through various channels, as if we want to target youth, we must reach them out. We should integrate special educational programmes in the media  and today the media may actually play a negative role in promoting bad examples through soap operas, for example. Many series may show husbands mistreating their wives, and this can have a negative impact on viewers.

But, of course, the larger problem is when such situations happen in real life, and not only in soap operas. Some people will still advise an abused wife to continue in her marriage for the sake of not being divorced, for example. The media is always ready to air the separations of celebrities, but they are not role models, and the media could be promoting unreal and negatives image about marriage to the public through them.

Marriage, Sadek said, faces various challenges, including the economic factor, whether before marriage when the couple is looking for an apartment, or following marriage with everyday expenses. Then there is the social factor with all the taboos and norms that can lead to major problems like domestic violence that are often not talked about openly. Thirdly, there may be problems that happen as a result of sexual ignorance. These must also be properly solved and not looked upon as a taboo, he said.

Marriage is about partnership, and the social norms, customs, and even laws on marriage in Egypt shouldnt all favour the man. Women should be assured of their rights in marriage as elsewhere, Sadek said.

In order to face the problem of the high divorce rate in Egypt, we need to revisit the factors that affect the marriage system in the first place, like social norms, the personal status laws, education, the media, and any laws or social taboos or religious views that are in favour of men, he added. It is very important to carefully examine masculinist attitudes. The social stigma that may still stick to divorced women must also be eradicated.

Men and women should bear in mind that they both have rights and duties in marriage, and no one should take over the right of the other or overburden him or her with extra duties. A marriage that enjoys equality is a healthy marriage, Sadek concluded.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Art Talks

8 El-Kamel Mohamed St, Zamalek, Tel 02 2736 3948, 0100 3970141

Upside-Down: Freedom, Art, Life, a retrospective exhibition by veteran artist Georges Bahgory (25 January-10 February).

Cairo Opera Complex

Gezira Exhibition Grounds, Zamalek

Salah Taher gallery

Tel 02 2739 0132/0144

A Woman from Egypt, oil paintings depict women from Ancient Egyptian Egypt by Nahed Ahmed (1-7 February).

Music Library (Ziad Bakir) gallery

Brush of an Artist, a miscellaneous group exhibition curated by Ahmed Ghweiba. It showcases artworks in different art media created by 60 artists (1-7 February).

Palace of Arts

Dream is the Land of Creativity is the title of the 32rd Youth Salon showcasing around 190 art works by 210 artists covering the fields of ceramic, sculpture, painting, mixed media, installation, digital arts

(closing 16 February).

French Cultural Institute

Madrasset Al-Huquq Al Frinseya St, Mounira, Tel 02 2791 5800

Media Library

Aida and Mariette exhibition showcases thirty sketches and drawings of costumes and sets for the first performance of Aida opera on 24 December, 1871 in Cairo. They are produced by the hand of Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, or targeted by him, and show the precision of the artist and his quest to make this pharaonic opera real

(closing 19 February).

Italian/Egyptian Centre for Restoration and Antiquities (CIERA)

31 Al Suyuffeya St, Al Helmeya, Cairo, visitors are welcomed by appointments so contact the manager Mr. Salah Ramadan 0100 8716067

Architectural complex of the Mevlevi Dervish Samaa Khana, Restorations and Restorers permanent exhibition of the activities of the working/formation sites for the restoration and recovery of the monuments. Visitors are welcomed during the opening hours determined by the Ministry of Antiquities.

Karim Francis

1 Al-Sherifein St, 3rd St right off Kasr Al-Nile St, Downtown, Tel 0100 667 4823

Paintings by Ahmed Nosseir (5 February-3 March).

Liwan

23 Hassan Assem St, Zamalek, 02 2735 3538/ 012 00999448

The Absurd exhibition of paintings by Yasser Nabaiel, inspired by Albert Camuss The Myth of Sisyphus (closing 3 February).

Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art

15 Mahmoud Bassiouny St, Qasr Al-Nile, Downtown, First Floor, Tel 02 25750353 / 0100 1704554

All about Relationships, through her artwork, artist Marwa Saad tries to create a miniature of a world that lies inside of her

(2-28 February).

Museum of Modern Egyptian Art

Cairo Opera House Grounds, Gezira, Zamalek, Tel 02 2736 6667/65

Al-Bab Selim Hall

Exhibition of paintings by Mustafa Batt (25 January- 8 February).

Picasso

30 Hassan Assem off Brazil St, Zamalek, Tel 02 2736 7544

Hall I

Paintings by Nazeer Tanbouly (6-21 February).

Hall II

Paintings by Asmaa Samy (6-21 February).

Samah

13 Brazil St, 1st Floor, Zamalek, Tel 0111294 7336

Body Talk, sculptures by Mustafa Bakr (30 January- 13 February).

Tahrir Cultural Centre (TCC)

AUC Tahrir Square

Future Gallery

Van Leos Legacy is celebrating Egypts premiere 20th-century studio photographer Van-Leos 100th birthday, with a season-long extended exhibition displaying a rare selection from AUCs Rare Books and Special Collections Library. The exhibit exclusively features more than 150 photographs that include some of his iconic portraits that are showcased for the first time as well as some of his personal studio furniture, including his art deco desk and the plateau on which he displayed his portraits for four decades, in an attempt to recreate his studio. Open daily from 10am to 9pm

(20 November- 20 February).

TAM

District 5, New Cairo

The opening of a new edition of Cairo Art Fair inside TAM gallery's new venue in New Cairo on 4 February, from 12noon to 7pm. With more than 150 artists participating in the 7th edition of Cairo Art Fair, the gallery will be adorned with new and stunning contemporary artworks by some of Egypts best-loved artists; catering to everyones tastes with an incredible range of prices, styles, techniques and concepts.

Like always, Cairo Art Fair introduces many new artists alongside TAM's roster of artists! Both prominent and emerging artists will be showcasing their work in a synergised setting; breaking the boundaries of format, participation, and presenting an honest reflection of todays Egyptian art scene (4-28 February).

ALEXANDRIA

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Chatby, Alexandria 21526, Tel (03) 4839999

Archeological Museum

A permanent exhibition on the results of the Archaeological Mission of the University of Turin in Nelson Island.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 3 February, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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By Noriyuki Suzuki, KYODO NEWS - Feb 1, 2022 - 14:17 | All, World

The year of violence in Myanmar since the military seized power in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021, is presenting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with a formidable challenge as he identifies human rights as a key diplomatic pillar while being unable to work out effective ways to bring about change in the Southeast Asian country.

Japan has adopted a cautious diplomatic approach with Myanmar, where over 1,500 people have been killed by the military. The United Nations estimates the political and economic turmoil likely drove almost half of the population into poverty heading into this year.

As the crisis drags on, some companies have announced plans to exit Myanmar while others, including many Japanese ones, are maintaining a wait-and-see stance amid persisting uncertainty over the outlook for the country that investors used to call "the final frontier."

Experts on foreign policy and the Myanmar situation argue the time is ripe for Japan to prepare to take a tougher stance by enacting a law similar to the Magnitsky Act in the United States that imposes sanctions on foreign government officials and others accused of human rights violations.

At the same time, efforts should continue to pursue dialogue, not only with the military but also with the National Unity Government, a parallel government formed by pro-democracy forces following the 2021 coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to the experts.

"When sanctions are imposed by other major economies, Japan, to ensure the measures are effective, should not create a loophole. In that sense, Japan needs its own Magnitsky law," said Maiko Ichihara, an associate professor at Hitotsubashi University.

"We can boost the effectiveness of a carrot when we also have a stick at hand. The government should use it as leverage to push for real democratization in Myanmar," the international relations expert said.

Major powers such as the United States and Britain have imposed targeted sanctions on junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and other military officials as well as companies linked to the regime, while Tokyo's efforts to engage with the military to stop the violence and restore democracy are yet to bear fruit.

Japan has built close ties with Myanmar and stepped up its provision of official development assistance following the 2011 launch of a quasi-civilian government, while maintaining communication channels with the military. In the aftermath of the coup, Japan suspended new ODA projects.

Myanmar is strategically important as Japan, along with the United States and other like-minded nations, is seeking to realize a "free and open" Indo-Pacific, while Beijing is pushing its "Belt and Road" infrastructure initiative to expand influence.

Related coverage:

Military-ruled Myanmar marks 1 year since coup, remains in chaos

U.S. sanctions Myanmar officials to mark 1 year since military coup

Myanmar's deposed leader Suu Kyi faces additional corruption charges

China tops the list when Japanese politicians debate the need to address human rights abuses in other countries through new legislation, with the situation in the far western region of Xinjiang and the tightening of Beijing's grip on Hong Kong under the spotlight.

But Kishida remains evasive about enacting a law that would enable Japan to sanction officials of foreign countries such as China and Myanmar for human rights abuses, saying he will follow the debate among lawmakers and continue to "consider" the matter.

"Japan has to move to change the situation when the diplomatic efforts it has made as a mediator are not working," said Kei Nemoto, a professor who specializes in the modern history of Burma at Sophia University.

Nemoto said Japan has various options to break the impasse, such as suspending, rather than scrapping, ongoing ODA projects until progress is made, or allowing the NUG to set up a diplomatic office in Japan, as some countries have done. "This will put pressure on the junta."

While the Japanese government has not taken any decisive measures on Myanmar, over 400 Japanese companies are operating in the country, touted as having high growth potential. Some foreign companies like energy giants TotalEnergies SE of France and Chevron Corp. of the United States have decided to withdraw from Myanmar.

Among major Japanese firms, Kirin Holdings Co. is seeking to resolve a dispute with a military-linked entity over ending their beer partnership but does not plan to exit Myanmar.

"Companies are still trying to determine which is bigger -- the potential benefits of continuing operations or the reputational damage that may result over human rights issues," Nemoto added.

In a recent survey conducted by the Japan External Trade Organization, 52.3 percent of Japanese firms operating in Myanmar said they do not plan to change their operations in the next year or two, 27.5 percent said they would scale down, and 6.7 percent said they will either relocate some operations to a different country or exit Myanmar.

"Making products in Myanmar is not in itself a reputational risk. It is doing business with the military or engaging in a scheme that allows money to go to the military," said Kazufumi Tanaka, managing director of JETRO's Yangon office.

"Still, there may be more companies downsizing and suspending their businesses for now, or pulling out if they cannot project profits or make business plans for a longer period," he said.

For Kishida, the Myanmar crisis is expected to require delicate diplomatic maneuvering despite his wish to step up summit diplomacy this year. Japan has not recognized the junta or the NUG as the legitimate government of Myanmar.

"Human rights diplomacy is easy on the ear but difficult to carry out in reality," Ichihara said.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 1, 2022 - 11:31 | All, Japan

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Tuesday condemned the violence in Myanmar that has left many people dead since a military coup on Feb. 1 last year.

"We strongly condemn the violent situation that is causing many deaths despite repeated calls from the international community," Hayashi said in a statement, calling on the military to act with restraint and seek a peaceful resolution to bring about stability.

Hayashi urged the military "to take concrete actions" to immediately stop the violence, release detained officials and restore the democratic political system at an early date, expressing concern that no progress has been seen in improving the situation.

Related coverage:

FOCUS: Japan sticks to quiet Myanmar diplomacy while companies in limbo

Military-ruled Myanmar marks 1 year since coup, remains in chaos

U.S. sanctions Myanmar officials to mark 1 year since military coup

Describing the provision of humanitarian assistance to people in Myanmar "an urgent issue," Hayashi said Japan will continue helping those facing difficulties in the country.

The foreign minister also vowed to work with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations so that ASEAN's "five-point consensus," which includes a call for the dispatch of the group's special envoy to meet with all stakeholders in Myanmar, would be implemented steadily.

ASEAN adopted the consensus at its special summit in April last year in the hope of resolving the political turmoil in Myanmar that has continued since the military ousted the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 1, 2022 - 21:05 | All, World, Japan

The new U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Tuesday affirmed the two nations' alliance in coping with the challenges posed by China's growing clout and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.

"The United States is fully committed to working with Japan as a full ally to counter the challenges and to realizing our shared vision for a truly free and open Indo-Pacific," Emanuel told Hayashi in his first official face-to-face meeting with a minister of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet.

"In order to further strengthen the alliance, let us forge our relationship in which we can have candid discussions," Hayashi said.

Emanuel, who came to Japan late last month, said the system Washington and Tokyo have built together "based on values and ideals" is "under unprecedented pressure today," specifically citing China's "coercion, intimidation and disinformation," as well as Russia's recent massive military buildup on the Ukrainian border and North Korea's repeated missile firings.

"Together the U.S. and Japan will aspire, will act, and we will accomplish many things as allies," said the 62-year-old new envoy known for his close ties with President Joe Biden.

Earlier that day, Emanuel also met Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori and presented him with a copy of his credentials as ambassador.

Also known as a former top aide to former President Barack Obama, Emanuel filled the key post that has been vacant for more than two years since William Hagerty stepped down in July 2019 to run for the Senate.

Emanuel served as Chicago's mayor for two terms from 2011 to 2019 and was a member of the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2009.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 1, 2022 - 20:50 | All, World

The first meeting of parties to a U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons in Vienna will be postponed from its March schedule to possibly summer due to travel restrictions amid the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, an Austrian government official said Tuesday.

It will be the second such delay for the meeting of the signatory states to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The gathering was initially slated for January but was pushed back to spring.

Alexander Kmentt, director of the department for disarmament issues at the Austrian Foreign Ministry, also told Kyodo News that an international conference focusing on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons will also be postponed.

Austria was planning for the conference to take place prior to the meeting of the parties to the treaty, scheduled between March 22 and 24.

Kmentt tweeted that the decision to postpone the meeting was made due to the impact on global travel, underscoring the importance of "broad" and "inclusive participation."

The treaty is the first international pact outlawing the development, testing, possession and use of nuclear weapons. It came into effect in January last year with the support of many non-nuclear states.

But nuclear-weapon states, such as the United States, are not part of it, while Japan has not signed the pact due to its security alliance with the United States, which offers the shelter of its nuclear umbrella.

Related coverage:

10 countries to observe U.N. nuke ban treaty meeting in March

Spring talks in Europe eyed for U.N. nuclear non-proliferation pact
By Trend

Azerbaijans Ministry of Health, the State Agency for Compulsory Health Insurance (CHI) and the Association for the Management of Medical Territorial Unions (TABIB) issued a joint statement, Trend reports.

In recent days, there have been reports that some private laboratories are offering two tests to people applying for COVID-19 testing. Employees of private laboratories inform that the first test is necessary in order to establish whether a citizen is infected with coronavirus, and the second is important for determining the presence of the Omicron strain. As a result, the applicant has to pay for the second test as well," the statement stated.

The statement notes that the treatments for COVID-19 are the same and do not depend on the COVID-19 strain. The second proposed test has no diagnostic or clinical value for treatment.

According to the statement, the symptoms of the new Omicron strain of COVID-19 are often similar to the symptoms of SARS-CoV-2. When they appear, a person should first contact the clinic at the place of residence, or the family doctor.

Studies have shown that vaccination is the most effective way to protect against new and rapidly spreading dangerous strains of coronavirus.

Therefore, health authorities are calling the population to vaccinate with a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or inject a booster (third) dose of the vaccine five months after the full vaccination, the statement said.

According to Decree No. 419 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan Republic the COVID-19 vaccine certificate expiring after six months of receiving the second dose of the vaccine will not be valid from February 15.
Red lanterns set for the Lunar New Year are seen in a public area in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)

People from various cultural backgrounds in Indonesia's capital city Jakarta are celebrating the Chinese New Year festival, locally known as Imlek.

by Dames Alexander Sinaga

JAKARTA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of people from various cultural backgrounds on Monday crowded a market at Glodok, the largest Chinatown in Indonesia's capital city Jakarta, to buy cakes, clothes, decorations for the celebration of the Chinese New Year festival, locally known as Imlek.

Visitors strolling through Glodok in West Jakarta were greeted by a series of traditional red lantern installations overhead.

Due to the rising daily number of COVID-19 cases, however, festive shows, such as the performance of the traditional lion dance (locally known as barongsai) and fireworks displays, were not held in the area which is also known as Pecinan.

Rachmawati, an ethnic Java, used to take her two kids to Glodok from her home in the southern part of Jakarta ahead of the Chinese New Year to see the barongsai performance.

"My kids have long become fans of barongsai attractions. Today, we came to this place to only get some sweet cakes and accessories. Despite no barongsai attractions, we are still delighted," she told Xinhua.

Red lanterns set for the Lunar New Year are seen on a public area in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)

Meanwhile, Aileen Tan with her colleagues visited the market after office hours to show her workmates, who are not of Chinese ethnicity, how the Chinese-Indonesian community in Jakarta usually prepares to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and there, they also bought some clothes, cakes as well as decorative accessories.

"At the office, they asked me to take them strolling around Pecinan. They were so excited when I said yes," said Tan, a Chinese Indonesian who originates from Medan city, North Sumatra province, and has been living in Jakarta for more than five years.

The lunar Chinese New Year this year falls on Tuesday, marking the start of the Year of the Tiger, according to the Chinese zodiac.

In the past two weeks, the number of visitors and business operations in Glodok have been increasing despite the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

Arina, the owner of a local cake shop, said that her shop has been visited by many customers in the past two weeks.

Red lanterns set for the Lunar New Year are seen on a public area in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)

"Last weekend, my shop was full of people," the 67-year-old woman said, adding that some of her customers came from outside the island of Java.

She said that her business was badly impacted by the pandemic last year. "Thankfully, more and more customers are now coming. Hopefully, the Omicron won't make the situation difficult," said Arina.

Indonesia's Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas on Monday extended his greetings to the Chinese-Indonesian community on the Chinese New Year of the Tiger.

"Hopefully, throughout The Year of the Water Tiger, all problems can be resolved, and we all always live in harmony, peace and prosperity," the minister said.

He called on the public to celebrate the festive day in a moderate way as the Omicron is spreading across the country rapidly.

"We have to be more cautious. Let's celebrate Chinese New Year this year with simplicity without reducing its meaning and continue to apply health protocols," the minister said. 
Lawmakers leave after the House of Representatives is dissolved in Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 14, 2021. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Tuesday refuted the adoption of China-related resolution by Japan's House of Representatives, stressing that Japan has no authority whatsoever to make wanton remarks about other countries' human rights conditions.

Earlier in the day, Japan's House of Representatives adopted a resolution related to China's human rights conditions, which expressed concerns about so-called human rights issues in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong.

The so-called resolution about human rights adopted by the Japan's House of Representatives is extremely vile in nature, Zhao said in a statement, noting it disregards facts and truth, maliciously denigrates China's human rights conditions, gravely violates international law and basic norms governing international relations, and grossly interferes in China's internal affairs.

The so-called human rights issues claimed by the Japanese side are purely China's internal affairs, bear on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and allow no irresponsible comment by any external forces, he stressed.

With a deplorable track record in human rights, Japan has no authority whatsoever to make wanton remarks about other countries' human rights conditions, Zhao said, noting that Japan committed innumerous crimes during the war of aggression it waged in the past.

Some Japanese politicians, in utter disregard of overall China-Japan relations and norms of state-to-state interaction, went to great lengths to piece together the so-called resolution, Zhao said, stressing "this is a severe political provocation against the Chinese people."

The Chinese government and people are firmly resolved to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests, he stressed, adding that the competent official in China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lodged solemn representations with the Japanese side.

"The Chinese side reserves the right to take further measures, " said the spokesperson. 
JERUSALEM, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- All buses purchased in Israel since 2026 should be electric types, Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection announced on Tuesday.

By 2024 at least 30 percent of the buses purchased will be zero-emission ones, and by 2025 half of the procured buses should be emission-free, the ministry said in a statement.

As part of the efforts to electrify public transportation, all municipal public transportation in Israel will be with zero emissions by 2036, the statement said.

Today, diesel-powered buses account for less than 1 percent of all vehicles in Israel but emit about 16 percent of all nitrogen oxides and about seven percent of all soot particles emitted, it added.

In contrast, electric buses cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80 percent and reduce noise by threefold, it concluded. 
Fabiana Fonseca presents a toy featuring Five-Animal Exercises in Chinese martial arts. (Xinhua/Wang Chunyan)

Brazilian broadcasting staff Fabiana Fonseca gets to know about Chinese culture and enjoys celebrating the Chinese New Year during her Olympic trip to Beijing.

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- For Brazilian Fabiana Fonseca, the first day in February, a Tuesday, should be no different from other workdays in her hometown, but as a broadcasting staff at Beijing 2022, she spent the day in an unprecedented way.

Tuesday marks the first day of the Year of the Tiger in China's lunar calendar, and Fonseca started the day by keeping her rubbish within the room.

"My friend and I are not putting our trash out today, because I read on the Internet that throwing out the garbage is related to dumping our good luck and fortune of the year," she told Xinhua with laughter.

On the Chinese New Year's Eve, the Brazilian and her compatriots stayed in their own rooms but turned on TV to watch the new year's gala.

"It was a nice experience. I got to know more about China. We were so surprised to find that it's similar to something that we have in Brazil," said Fonseca, adding that Brazilians usually watch a concert show with their family members while having dinner on new year's eve, which falls on December 31.

A volunteer hangs a red lantern at the Olympic Village for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in Yanqing District of Beijing, Jan. 31, 2022. (Photo by Xiao Shaowen/Xinhua)

As the Olympics coincide with the Chinese New Year, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games arranged a number of cultural events for celebration.

Fonseca tried Chinese calligraphy for the first time, writing "Fu" (good fortune in Chinese) on a red paper in a square shape.

"They told me it means good blessings for the next year. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it with me to Brazil, so I can put it in a panel and hang it on my wall," said the Brazilian cheerfully.

To celebrate the special moment, Fonseca had a day off with her friend. "We just came to the Main Media Center to know more about the International Broadcast Center, to get to know some people, and buy things for my family."

Delegation members of Serbia and volunteers pose for selfies at the Olympic Village for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in Yanqing District of Beijing, Jan. 31, 2022. (Photo by Xiao Shaowen/Xinhua)

She filled her shopping bag with key chains, magnets, mugs and two snowballs within which stands "Bing Dwen Dwen," the Beijing 2022 mascot, as well as a new book named "Great Wall."

"I got the book for free. It's very nice because it's about the history of the Great Wall. I am not able to go there this time, but at least I can try to read more about it," said Fonseca.

Being a broadcaster with Olympics since Rio 2016, Fonseca said the best part of the Olympic experience is to know more about people from the host country. "Even though we cannot go out of the closed loop, we have a lot of Chinese people here, who are willing to spend time with us and share about the culture. And it's really good."

The Brazilian girl was also happy to learn a local phrase from her Chinese friends that goes "Ru Hu Tian Yi", meaning in English "a tiger with wings," which blesses the strong to be stronger in the Year of the Tiger.

"I'll repeat and remember this, and try to write it though it's really difficult," she said. 
Folk artists perform lion dance in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Jan. 31, 2022. (Photo by Sovannara/Xinhua)

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Lunar New Year arrives, with the celebratory atmosphere permeating in many parts of the world. In Cambodia's Phnom Penh, folk artists on Monday performed lion dance in front of the Royal Palace, entertaining people and celebrating the festival.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen in an event held on Monday sent best wishes for the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, saying that the festival has gained its popularity in the Southeast Asian nation.

Folk artists perform lion dance at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Jan. 31, 2022 to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. (Photo by Van Pov/Xinhua)

Folk artists perform lion dance in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Jan. 31, 2022 to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. (Photo by Sovannara/Xinhua)

Folk artists perform lion dance in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Jan. 31, 2022 to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. (Photo by Sovannara/Xinhua)
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Monday approved another "technical rollover" for the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) as council members could not find consensus on a substantive mandate renewal.

Resolution 2619, which was unanimously approved by the 15-member council, decides to extend the mandate of UNSMIL for three months, till April 30, 2022.

The resolution says UNSMIL should be led by a special envoy and recognizes the UN secretary-general's responsibility to appoint a special envoy for Libya.

The previous special envoy, Jan Kubis, resigned in November 2021, one month before national elections were to be held. Although Kubis indicated his readiness to stay on as special envoy for a transitional period to ensure continuity, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres allowed him to stay as of Dec. 10, right before the planned national elections.

On Dec. 6, 2021, Guterres appointed Stephanie Williams of the United States as his special adviser on Libya, a position that does not need the approval of the Security Council. Although technically not a successor to Kubis, Williams was made to lead the work of the United Nations in Libya.

Libyan parliamentary and presidential elections, which had been scheduled for Dec. 24, 2021, did not materialize.

Resolution 2619 is the third technical renewal of UNSMIL's mandate since September 2021.

The Security Council, on Sept. 15, had to approve a technical rollover till Sept. 30 to allow more time for negotiations after the original draft resolution for a one-year extension would certainly fail. Again, on Sept. 30, the council approved a technical renewal till Jan. 31, 2022. 
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have a meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, May 19, 2021. (Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs/Sigurjon Ragnar/Handout via Xinhua)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed his Russian counterpart of the U.S. "willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns, which we intend to do in full coordination with our partners and Allies," according to a statement.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday that the United States is willing to "continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns."

During a telephone conversation between the two countries' top diplomats, Blinken informed his Russian counterpart of the U.S. "willingness, bilaterally and together with Allies and partners, to continue a substantive exchange with Russia on mutual security concerns, which we intend to do in full coordination with our partners and Allies," according to a statement issued by Ned Price, the State Department's spokesman.

The secretary "reiterated the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances," the statement said.

Blinken also urged Russia to immediately de-escalate the tensions on Ukraine's borders by withdrawing its troops and equipment, emphasizing that a "further" Russian "invasion of Ukraine" will be met with "swift and severe consequences." He urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path toward resolving the ongoing crisis.

Tuesday's phone call was meant to follow up on a written response last week from Washington addressing Moscow's security concerns.

The document, according to Blinken, "includes concerns of the United States and our allies and partners about Russia's actions that undermine security, a principled and pragmatic evaluation of the concerns that Russia has raised, and our own proposals for areas where we may be able to find common ground."

Speaking of the U.S. document, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday that "fundamental Russian concerns were ignored" by the U.S. side.

Russia, Putin said as he concluded a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, had not seen in the U.S. response "adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's) expansion, the renunciation of the deployment of strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and the return of the (NATO) bloc's military infrastructure in Europe to the state of 1997, when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed." 
LAGOS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian police said on Monday that 32 people kidnapped by bandits have been freed in different parts of the northwestern state of Zamfara.

Mohammed Shehu, the spokesperson for Zamfara police, told reporters in a press briefing in Gusau, the state's capital city, that the police, in collaboration with other security agencies, rescued the victims who were abducted in Niger, Katsina, and Zamfara State respectively.

According to him, the victims were rescued between last Wednesday and Sunday.

He said the released victims will be medically checked and debriefed before being reunited with their respective families.

There have been a series of gunmen attacks in northern Nigeria in recent months, leading to deaths and kidnappings. 
TRIPOLI, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 900 illegal immigrants were rescued off the Libyan coast and returned to Libya in the past week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced Monday.

From Jan. 23 to 29, 872 migrants were rescued or intercepted at sea and returned to Libya, the IOM said in a statement, adding a total of 1,476 illegal immigrants were rescued and returned to Libya this year.

According to the IOM, 27 illegal immigrants have died and 55 gone missing off the Libyan coast on the Central Mediterranean route since the beginning of the year.

In 2021, a total of 32,425 illegal immigrants were rescued and returned to Libya, while 662 died and 891 others went missing off the Libyan coast on the Central Mediterranean route, IOM revealed.

Libya has been suffering insecurity and chaos since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The North African country has turned into a preferred point of departure for illegal immigrants who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores. 
Novartis, a leading global medicines company, has signed an agreement with Aster DM Healthcare, a top healthcare provider in the Middle East, which will enable Aster to access Novartis advanced therapy platforms and data science.



The collaboration focused on digital transformation and clinical research will aim to identify current gaps in patient care and introduce extensive medical programmes using innovative data platforms and data syndicated designs.



This is in alignment with Asters long-term plan to integrate clinical research and digital transformation into its operations in UAE and beyond which will have a significant impact on the clinical outcome delivery for patients.



As a part of the collaboration, Novartis will enable data generation, ideation, and impactful decision making for Aster DM Healthcares clinical research program. The organizations have plans to initiate a series of workshops, trainings, and educational activities, which will assist Aster to commence its activities on clinical research.



The digital transformation initiatives will also separately work on boosting the digital healthcare strategy of Aster DM Healthcare for its market in UAE and beyond, whereas Novartis will provide its expertise and share best practices.



Data Analytics with focus on clinical research is one of the cornerstones of healthcare in future. Aster tries to stay ahead of the curve in offering the best medical solutions to our patients and equip our doctors with the most advanced systems to be able to do so. We have associated with Novartis in the past and are glad to enter into a multi-faceted partnership to enhance Digital Transformation and Research, said Dr Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman and Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare.



Novartis a leading global medicines company, utilizes innovation science and digital technologies to develop transformative treatments in areas of urgent medical need and will continue to reimagine medicine to improve and extend peoples lives.



At Novartis, we are committed to building new partnerships as part of our efforts to improve access to quality healthcare. Aster DM Healthcare is a valuable partner for us in this journey. We truly believe that we share a common vision, and we are confident that this partnership has the potential to add value and have an impact on patients in UAE. We are happy to collaborate with Aster to realize their vision towards data transformation and clinical research, both of which are tantalizing growth areas for the healthcare sector, said Mohamed Ezz Eldin, President and Head of Gulf Cluster, Novartis Pharmaceuticals.  TradeArabia News Service
President Umaro Sissoco Embalo speaks during a press conference in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, Feb. 1, 2022.

Umaro Sissoco Embalo held a press conference on Tuesday evening after the failed coup attempt in the afternoon at the Government Palace.

In front of national and international press, he announced that several civilians and soldiers "have already been arrested after this attempted putsch." (Photo by Aliu Balde/Xinhua)

BISSAU, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Bissau-Guinean President Umaro Sissoco Embalo held a press conference on Tuesday evening after the failed coup attempt in the afternoon at the Government Palace.

In front of national and international press, he announced that several civilians and soldiers "have already been arrested after this attempted putsch."

During the press conference, he was accompanied by Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam and members of the government.

According to the president, "the actors in these acts are known by the security services, because they are being prosecuted for drug trafficking in Guinea-Bissau."

"This is an isolated act carried out by a group of traffickers in the country," he said.

He reiterated his commitment to continue fighting drug traffickers in Guinea-Bissau.

Deputy Chief of Staff Mamadu Nkrumam was present at the press conference alongside the president, in the absence of his superior Biague Nan Tam who is outside the country for medical treatment. 
Military personnel wearing face masks take part in a rehearsal for the Independence Day parade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 31, 2022. Sri Lanka will celebrate its Independence Day on Feb. 4. (Photo by Ajith Perera/Xinhua)

Military personnel wearing face masks take part in a rehearsal for the Independence Day parade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 31, 2022. Sri Lanka will celebrate its Independence Day on Feb. 4. (Photo by Ajith Perera/Xinhua)

Military personnel wearing face masks take part in a rehearsal for the Independence Day parade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 31, 2022. Sri Lanka will celebrate its Independence Day on Feb. 4. (Photo by Ajith Perera/Xinhua)

Military personnel wearing face masks take part in a rehearsal for the Independence Day parade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 31, 2022. Sri Lanka will celebrate its Independence Day on Feb. 4. (Photo by Ajith Perera/Xinhua)

Military personnel wearing face masks take part in a rehearsal for the Independence Day parade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 31, 2022. Sri Lanka will celebrate its Independence Day on Feb. 4. (Photo by Ajith Perera/Xinhua)

Military personnel wearing face masks take part in a rehearsal for the Independence Day parade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 31, 2022. Sri Lanka will celebrate its Independence Day on Feb. 4. (Photo by Ajith Perera/Xinhua)
ATHENS, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Greek marble industry's collaboration with China has flourished in recent years and prospects for the future are bright, Julie Chaidas, President of the Association of Marble Enterprises of Macedonia-Thrace (SEMMTH), has said.

"I could say that Greece and China are connected by a marble bridge," Chaidas told Xinhua here in a recent interview.

About 50 percent of Greece's exportable marble goes to China. The percentage reaches 80 percent when it comes to raw unprocessed marble, she noted.

The two countries enjoy historically excellent relations and in recent years bilateral cooperation has a strong momentum of further development, Chaidas added.

The marble sector reflects this trend. In the first eleven months of 2021, exports to China rose by 35 percent compared to the same period in 2020, she told Xinhua, adding that there is room for closer cooperation.

"Greece is in fact ranked fourth in the world in marble export. We export 76 percent of our production to more than 120 countries worldwide," she said.

In the first eleven months of 2021, the Greek marble industry registered an increase of 25 percent in exports compared to same period in 2020, reaching 332 million euros (373 million U.S. dollars), according to Chaidas.

From Chaidas' view, Greece's marble industry has shown remarkable resilience, weathering many crises over the past decade by implementing a strategy that has helped multiply exports and turnover.

SEMMTH, which represents companies accounting for 80-90 percent of the country's primary production and exports in marble quantity and value, is moving forward with a strategic plan supported by the Greek state, aiming to strengthen the Greek marble brand name, she introduced.

"Greek marble has been well-known over time for its very good quality characteristics and for its wide variety of colors ... Parthenon is the ambassador of (Greek) marble," Chaidas said.

The Greek marble has been identified with the masterpieces of ancient Greek architecture and sculpture, such as the 2,500-year-old temples on the Acropolis hill, the Aphrodite of Milos or Hermes of Praxiteles.

Greek companies build on this legacy and Greek marble has been used also at the Shanghai Opera in China, according to Enterprise Greece, the country's official trade and investment promotion agency.

During the acute Greek debt crisis which brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy, the marble industry relied on foreign markets and thrived.

"For Greek marble companies, extroversion is the only way for their sustainable development ... In the decade 2008-2018, we managed as an industry not only to have no losses, but to increase our exports," Chaidas said.

In 2008, the total value of exports stood at 130 million euros and in 2018 it had reached 437 million euros, she explained.

Currently, there are 670 companies operating in this sector in Greece, Chaidas said. The sector employs directly 6,500 workers and indirectly 18,000 workers. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars) 
Lucknow:

Uttar Pradesh Police will drop women travelling alone late at night to their destination to ensure their safety from Tuesday. If any woman is alone on the streets from 10 pm to 6 pm, she can dial 112. The Police Response Vehicle (PRV) with women police personnel will drop her to her destination, Director General of Police O P Singh on Monday told PTI.

The PRV will also escort women driving scooters, if need arises, he said. A similar initiative has been implemented in Sikkim and Punjab.

The move comes days after a veterinarian in Hyderabad was raped and murdered and a rape victim burnt alive by five men, including the two who had allegedly raped her, in Unnao.

Meanwhile, Yogi government also took measures to ensure timely justice by clearing a proposal to set up 218 fast-track courts for hearing cases pertaining to crimes against children and rapes.

State law minister Brajesh Pathak told reporters that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed concern over crimes against women. "The UP Cabinet has decided that for hearing of cases of rapes and crimes committed on children, 218 fast-track courts will be set up. Of these, 144 courts will hear cases of rape, while 74 courts will hear cases in which POCSO Act has been slapped," he said.
New Delhi:

A sub-inspector and two constables of Delhi Police have been suspended for allegedly abducting an MCD official, a senior police officer said on Wednesday. The suspended policemen were posted with the special staff of northwest district, he said. We have suspended the sub-inspector and the two constables. A legal action will be taken after the vigilance enquiry is completed, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Vijayanta Arya.

The inspector of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi was abducted from outside his office in Shakurpur at around 3.30 pm on Tuesday, his brother said.

The MCD inspector was taken to a nightclub in Netaji Subhash Place in a car and the club owner had demanded Rs 2 lakh for his release, he said.

The victims brother alleged that the MCD inspector was abducted as he had issued a challan to the club owner for violating norms. The official was rescued on tuesday night after police were informed regarding the abduction, the DCP said.
New Delhi:

Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday termed the passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha as the fulfilment of crores of deprived and victimised people. Amit Shah took to Twitter and wrote, As the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 passes in the Parliament, the dreams of crores of deprived & victimised people has come true today.

As the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 passes in the Parliament, the dreams of crores of deprived & victimised people has come true today.



Grateful to PM @narendramodi ji for his resolve to ensure dignity and safety for these affected people.



I thank everyone for their support.  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) December 11, 2019

Shah also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his resolve to ensure dignity and safety for these affected people.

Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, completing the legislative procedure for giving Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Replying to a six-and-a-half-hour debate on the bill, Home Minister Amit Shah said the legislation seeks to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities in the three countries and not take away citizenship of anyone.

He rejected the Opposition charge that the bill was against Muslims and said they have nothing to fear.

The Bill was passed with 125 votes in favour and 105 against it. Besides BJP, its allies such as JD-U and SAD, the legislation was supported by AIADMK, BJD, TDP and YSR-Congress.

Earlier the House rejected motions to send the bill to a select committee of the House with 124 members voting against it as compared to 99 in its favour.

The House also rejected several amendments moved by opposition members to the bill, most by voice vote.

The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday. It will now go to the President for his assent.

On why persecuted minorities from countries such as Sri Lanka were not part of the legislation, Shah said Tamils from the island country had been given Indian citizenship in past and the present law is to tackle a specific problem

To repeated questions from opposition of Muslims being left out, he said Muslims from other countries have the right to apply for Indian citizenship as per existing rules. As many as 566 Muslims have been given citizenship, he said.

He attacked opposition the Congress saying statements by the partys leaders match those of Pakistani leaders on not just the citizenship bill but also on scrapping of Article 370.

Asserting that neither the citizenship bill, nor the previously passed legislation making practice of triple talaq punishable and the scrapping Article 370 are anti-Muslim, he said the present legislation is to give citizenship and does not to take away citizenship of anyone.

Indian Muslims are citizens of the country and will remain so, he said. Citizenship of Indian Muslims is not being taken away.

Citizenship bill is not to snatch anyones Indian citizenship. Muslims have no need to fear or worry, he said.

Shah said the bill seeks to correct the wrong done by the partition of the country on religious lines. He went on to attack the Congress for alleged double speak on the issue, saying the party had during its rule given Indian citizenship to 13,000 Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan without raising a word about the same for other communities.

He also said the bill does not violate Article 14 of the Constitution as it does not prohibit laws based on reasonable classification.

Muslims have not been included for giving citizenship because the proposed law is for persecuted minorities in the three countries, he said.

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New Delhi:

The United States on Wednesday warned North Korea of 'consequences' over threats of prospective weapons test in the coming year. Washington offered to maintain flexibility if North Korea exercises restraint over weapon testing and stays in talks with the US. North Korea had earlier vowed an ominous Christmas gift if the US does not come up with concessions by the end of the year.

This comes in the wake of Pyongyang not getting any relief from US sanctions, even after three summits with President Donald Trump. US Ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft said at the Security Council that North Korea is likely to test intercontinental ballistic missiles aimed to hit the United States with nuclear weapons. She added, Missile and nuclear testing will not bring the DPRK greater security.

Referring to North Koreas persistent shorter-range tests as deeply counterproductive, Craft added that it Korea had violated UN Security Council resolutions. Ruling out North Koreas demands for an offer in the years final weeks, she said, Let me be clear: The United States and the Security Council have a goalnot a deadline.

On the other hand, Chinese ambassador, Zhang Jun, voiced support for North Korea as he said, The Security Council must revisit sanctions to alleviate the suffering of the North Korean people and create a fruitful environment for dialogue.

Taking a dig at US diplomacy, Russias UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said, You cant reach an agreement if you dont propose anything in exchange. Other veto members, France and Britain called on North Korea to seize the rare opportunity offered by Trump for diplomacy.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Earth is all set to have a close encounter with a huge asteroid dubbed as 2019 XO1 on Friday. Yes, you read it right. According to NASA, asteroid 2019 XO1 is flying towards Earth at a speed of almost 18,000 miles per hour. The US space agency further estimated that the asteroid 2019 XO1 is about 243 feet wide. As wide as the wingspan of a Boeing 747 plane, the space rock is classified as an Aten asteroid.

Asteroid 2019 XO1 will approach Earth on December 13 at 8:25 AM (EST). During its closest approach, the space rock will be only 0.03033 astronomical units or around 1.9 million miles away. Fortunately, the massive space rock will zip past the Earth. Relax, we are safe.

Importantly, asteroid 2019 XO1 was first observed on December 3. After its visit, the space rock is not expected to return to Earths neighborhood until December 22, 2022, where it will approach Earth from a distance of 0.09534 astronomical units or roughly 8.9 million miles away. The last time this space rock approached Earth was on November 17, 2013. At that time, the asteroid flew past Earth from a distance of 0.09488 astronomical units or about 8.8 million miles away.

It is worth mentioning here that on December 20, asteroid 216258 (2006 WH1) will come dangerously close to Earth at a staggering speed of 26,843 miles per hour. The 540-metre space rock is the same size as the World Trade Centre and would cause a significant amount of damage and mass extinction if hits Earth.

On December 26, asteroid CH59 will come astronomically close to Earth. Measuring somewhere around 2,000 feet, asteroid CH59 is hurtling towards Earth at the speed of 27,450mph. The space rock will come dangerously close to Earth at around 7.54 AM (GMT) of December 26, 2019. During its closest approach, asteroid CH59 will approach the planet from a distance of about 0.04874 astronomical units (au). Asteroid CH59 is comparable in size to Chinas Canton Tower and The Sears Tower in Chicago, US.

Also Read: ISRO Successfully Launches Border Surveillance Satellite RISAT-2BR1 From Sriharikota

Asteroids, if hit Earth, can bring tsunamis, shock waves and flattening winds that could be catastrophic. The space rocks approach towards the Earth due to the gravitational forces that affect them. It is said that one day all life on the Earth will be extinct. Not only life, but the Earth will also extinct someday and an asteroid could be the possible reason. Shocked to hear that? However, a car-sized asteroid slams into the Earth's atmosphere about once in a year. On the other hand, an asteroid large enough to threaten the existence of life on Earth arrives once every few million.

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Gauhati and Dibrugarh Universities have postponed the semester exams due to the ongoing protest in Assam against the Citizenship Amendment Bill. As the massive protest against the CAB continues, Universities of Assam have decided to postpone the exams for Undergraduate and Postgraduate semester exams. In the meantime, Dibrugarh and Gauhati Universities' exam that were scheduled until December 16, 2019 have been postponed, and the revised university exam dates are yet to be announced by both these universities. According to the Controller of examinations, the universities are yet to announce the revised dates of semester exams.

According to senior officials, the examinations are postponed in Universities of Assam within a short notice due to the widespread and heavy protest in the districts against the Citizenship Amendment Bill. After the bill was approved by the Upper House, Students of Assam have gathered in large numbers to protest against the CAB. Further, several faculty members of Universities of Assam are taking part in the protest as well.
New Delhi:

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in a video appeal to the people of the state Thursday said that they need not worry about the Citizenship Amendment Bill as their traditional culture, language, political and land rights will be protected by implementing Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.

Sonowal said that some people are trying to spread misinformation to mislead people and aggravate the situation. He said a committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd) Biplab Sarmah, who has been given the task to prepare recommendations for ensuring the constitutional safeguards of the people of Assam.

The Centre has categorically stated that the recommendations of Clause 6 Committee will be fully implemented within a timeframe, the chief minister said. The Committe will complete its work and submit its recommendations to the centre soon and it will be implemented soon after it is submitted. I believe that the people of Assam will get full protection, he said.

I firmly believe that the sensible people of Assam will never believe in the misinformations as they are generally peace-loving people ... We condemn those who are spreading misinformation and disturbing the peace of the state, he said.

He also appealed to all sections of the society to come forward and create an atmosphere of situation of peace and tranquility in which the students can study and excel in their academic fields.

Assam continued to be rocked by violence and large scale protests against the contentious Bill, which has been passed by Parliament, despite the indefinite curfew in the city and Dibrugarh and the Army deployment in the two places besides in two other districts to contain the situation.

Earlier today, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen has cancelled his three-day visit to India beginning Thursday over the situation arising out of the passage of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament, diplomatic sources said.

According to an earlier advisory issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, Momen was scheduled to arrive here at 5:20 pm on Thursday.

The Bangladesh Foreign Minister has cancelled his trip to India over prevailing situation following passage of the Bill, sources said.

There have been massive protests in Assam and several northeastern states against the proposed legislation which seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslim persecuted religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The value of Bahrains exports of national origin increased by 67% to BD3.994 billion ($10.5 billion) during year 2021, compared to BD2.387 billion for the same previous year, said the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA).



The top 10 countries in terms of the value of exports of national origin purchased from Bahrain accounted for 70% of the total value, with the remaining countries accounting for 30%, according to iGAs foreign trade report of year 2021, encompassing data on the balance of trade, imports, exports (national origin), and re-exports.



Saudi Arabia ranked first among countries receiving Bahraini exports of national origin, importing BD749 million from Bahrain. Meanwhile, the US was second with BD477 million and the UAE third with BD411 million.



Unwrought aluminium alloyed emerged as the top products exported during year 2021 with BD1.010 billion, agglomerated iron ores and concentrates was second with a value of BD863 million, and unwrought aluminium (not alloyed) third with BD203 million.



The total value of re-exports increased by 1% to reach BD679 million during year 2021, compared to BD676 million for the same previous year. The top 10 countries accounted for 85% of the re-exported value, while the remaining countries accounted for the 15%. The UAE ranked first with BD200 million, Saudi Arabia second with BD176 million, and Singapore third with BD50 million.



Four-wheel drive cars emerged as the top product re-exported from Bahrain with BD75 million, gold ingots came in second place with BD65 million, and parts for aircraft engines came third with BD54 million.



The trade balance, the difference between exports and imports, recorded a deficit totalling BD643 million during year 2021 compared to BD1.735 billion for the same previous year, an improvement of the trade balance by 63%, That is reflected positively in the values of the trade balance.



The value of imports increased by 11%, reaching BD 5.316 billion during year 2021 compared to BD 4.798 billion for the same previous year. The top 10 countries accounted for 70% of the value of imports, with the remaining countries accounting for 30%.



According to the report, Brazil ranked first when it came to imports to Bahrain, with a total of BD751 million, China was second with BD692 million, and the UAE was third with BD394 million.



Non- agglomerated iron ores and concentrates emerged as the top product imported into Bahrain with a total value of BD841 million, while aluminium oxide was second with BD378 million, and four-wheel drive cars third with BD152 million.  TradeArabia News Service
New Delhi:

The Shiv Sena is likely to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. News Nation has learnt that the Shiv Sena may walkout during the voting on the Bill. It should be noted that the Shiv Sena had voted in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha. There were reports that the Congress leadership was not happy with its Maharashtra ally. Sources have told News Nation that NCP chief Sharad Pawar had spoken to the Shiv Sena president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray after the party voted in favour of the CAB and conveyed the displeasure.

On Tuesday, Thackeray had said he won't back the Bill in Rajya Sabha till there is clarity on questions raised by his party in Lok Sabha. Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari told reporters that if the Shiv Sena, who have three Rajya Sabha MPs, changes its position on the bill in Rajya Sabha realising that it was against the basic tenets of the Indian Constitution, then the party 'welcomes' it.

The change in Shiv Sena's stand came just hours after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said those supporting the Bill are attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation. Gandhi wrote on Twitter, "The CAB is an attack on the Indian constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation."

"We are cognisant of the fact that ideologically we are different and we respect that diversity. Therefore, the alliance in Maharashtra is premised on a specific situation. I don't think that the Shiv Sena has asked us to give up our ideological position and we do not expect them to do so, and these are the realities of real politics," Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said.

"To tell them not to stay true to their ideology is not correct. If the Shiv Sena is thinking of changing its stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Rajya Sabha based on the fact that it is against the Constitution and is hurting its basic tenets, then we welcome it."

He also said that not only the Congress, but all the nationalistic forces in the country will support the Shiv Sena. The Modi government needs to worry about the economy, job crisis and rising cost of living, especially onion price rise, more than the implementation of the Bill, he said. He clarified that while the Congress had no problems with giving shelter to those being discriminated against in the neighbouring countries, but said that the party demands a comprehensive and inclusive refugee law. He also asked the government to come clean on its border policy.

"In a country where the apex court has maintained that secularism forms the basis of our Constitution, in such a country to offer citizenship on the basis of religion is a fraud on the Constitution. This is our basic opposition to the Bill," he said.

The Sena had last month parted ways with its ally BJP to form a coalition government in Maharashtra, which is headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The Bill, which seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they faced religious persecution there, was passed in the Lok Sabha with 311-80 votes on Monday night, after more than seven hours of debate and discussions.

The government is likely to introduce the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Unlike the 2016 scenario, the ruling government is confident of smooth passage of the Bill in the Upper House. According to official sources, the effective strength of the Rajya Sabha is 238. This makes 120 the majority mark.

Even without Shiv Sena's votes, the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 is expected to have the support of 127 members in the House.

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New Delhi:

Defending the citizenship bill, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said that India is duty-bound to give citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries. Referring to the persecuted minorities as victims, he added that the problem has aroused due to the historical decision of dividing the country on religious lines.

The bill to be introduced tomorrow by Home Minister Amit Shah seeks to give Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution. Attacking opposition over criticism of the bill, Madhav said that a similar legislation Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act was enacted in 1950 by the then Congress government led by Jawaharlal Nehru.

Asserting Indias exclusivity, Madhav added, The persecuted minorities of the neighbouring countries, which are proposed to be given citizenship in the bill, are victims of the historical decision to divide this country on religious lines. And India is duty-bound to give citizenship rights to these minorities.

BJPs go-to man for Northeastern states, Ram Madhav, said that government and Home Minister Shah held extensive consultations with various stakeholders from the region to address their apprehensions.

Madhav reiterated that the government will address all apprehensions of the states about the changes in their demography, language and culture due to this bill.

According to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which was distributed among the MPs, the new law will not be applicable in the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime areas and those tribal regions which are governed under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

(With PTI inputs)

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New Delhi:

Citizenship Amendment Bill In Rajya Sabha Today- Here's How The Numbers Stand

After a smooth sailing in the Lok Sabha, the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is expected to face a sterner test on Wednesday when it will be taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha. While the numbers game seem to favour the Modi government, a boost in opposition numbers has made things more interesting in the Upper House. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill passed in the Lok Sabha with 311-80 votes on Monday night, after more than seven hours of debate and discussions. Read here

6 Arrested In Tabrez Ansari Lynching Case Granted Bail By Jharkhand High Court

The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday granted bail to six people arrested in connection with the lynching of Tabrez Ansari in June. Justice R Mukhopadhyay granted bail to the six after their advocate A K Sahani informed the court that neither their names were mentioned in the FIR registered in connection with the death of Ansari nor the main accused Papu Mandal had implicated them during interrogation by the police. Read here

Bengal Turf War Intensifies, Trinamool Govt Curtails Bengal Governor-Varsity Communications

The West Bengal government on Tuesday tabled in the Assembly a new rule to check direct communications between the chancellor and the state universities, which will henceforth be routed through the higher education department. The governor is the chancellor of all the state-run universities. The rule came in the wake of continued acrimonious relation between Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and the Trinamool Congress government on various issues including his recent visits to the Calcutta University and Jadavpur University to attend their Syndicate and Court meetings respectively. Read here

'Why Death Penalty? Delhi Already A Gas Chamber, Water Quality Toxic': Convict In Nirbhaya Case

One of the four convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking review of its 2017 judgment handing down death penalty to all of them in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. The apex court, on July 9, 2018, had dismissed the review pleas filed by three other convicts in the case. Akshya, 31, who had not filed the review plea earlier with other three convicts, has now moved the apex court with the petition, his lawyer AP Singh said. Read here

Police Officer, Suspects Among 6 Killed In New Jersey Gunbattle

Six people, including a police officer and three bystanders, were killed in a furious gunbattle Tuesday that filled the streets of Jersey City with the sound of heavy gunfire for hours, authorities said. The dead included two suspects, Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly said. The shooting took place at two scenes, starting at a cemetery, where the officer was gunned down, and continuing at a kosher supermarket, where five more bodies were found, Kelly said. Read here

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Lahore:

Hafiz Saeed, the Mumbai terror attack mastermind and chief of the banned JuD, was indicted on Wednesday by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court on terror financing charges. Anti Terrorism Court-I judge Malik Arshad Bhutta charged Saeed along with his accomplices with "terror financing" in different cities of Punjab province. On Saturday, the court had delayed the indictment owing to unavailability of one of the suspects in a case registered by the Counter-terrorism Department (CTD) on charges of terror financing.

The CTD of the Punjab Police on July 17 registered 23 FIRs against Saeed and his accomplices on the charges of "terror financing" in different cities of Punjab province and arrested the Jammat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief. He is detained at the Kot Lakhpat jail.

The cases have been registered in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan cities for collection of funds for terror financing through assets/properties made and held in the names of Trusts/Non Profit Organisations (NPO) including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust and Muaz Bin Jabal Trust.

Under pressure from the international community, the Pakistani authorities have launched investigations into matters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, JuD and its charity wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) for their holding and use of trusts to raise funds for terrorism financing.

Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people.

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New Delhi:

India and Japan on Saturday deliberated on the threat posed to regional peace by terror networks operating from Pakistan and asked it to take "resolute and irreversible" against them. In their inaugural foreign and defence ministerial dialogue, the two countries specifically called upon Islamabad to "fully comply" with its international commitments to deal with terrorism including the steps prescribed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global anti-terror watchdog.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar led the Indian delegation while the Japanese side was headed by Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Minister of Defence Taro Kono, officials said.

The talks under the new two-plus-two framework took place following a decision taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe during the 13th India-Japan annual summit last year.

"The ministers underlined the need for all countries to ensure that all territory under their control is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries in any manner," an Indo-Japan joint statement said.

"They noted in this context the threat posed to regional security by terrorist networks operating out of Pakistan and called upon it to take resolute and irreversible action against them and fully comply with international commitments including to FATF," it said.

India and Japan also called upon all countries to take resolute action in rooting out terrorist safe havens and infrastructure, disrupt terrorist networks, eliminate financing channels and halt cross-border movement of terrorists.

"The ministers condemned in the strongest terms the growing threat of terrorism and acknowledged that it constituted a major threat to peace and security in the region," the joint statement said.

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New Delhi:

Asserting that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is against the basic structure of the Constitution, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind on Wednesday said it will challenge the legislation in the Supreme Court. Its reaction came minutes after the Rajya Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday. Terming the passing of the Bill in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha a "tragedy", Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani said the Bill is against the basic structure of the Indian Constitution and the Jamiat will challenge it in the apex court. Madani said the Jamiat will challenge it in the court because the legislature has not done its job honestly.

"Now the judiciary can make a better decision on it. Advocates have been consulted in this regard and a petition is being drafted," he said in a statement. Madani also said that after the Lok Sabha passed the Bill, Jamiat tried its level-best that the legislation does not pass in Rajya Sabha by contacting the members of various parties to convince them about the harmful impact of this Bill.

"Sadly some of the so-called secular parties showed their irresponsible behaviour, and the Bill has been passed in Rajya Sabha," he said. Madani also said that the Bill violates Article 14 and 15 of the Constitution, which explicitly states that no citizen in the country will be discriminated on the basis of religion, and every citizen will be treated equally.

The bill could also pose a serious threat to the safety and security of the country, he said. Madani said that the effects of this Bill may not be visible now, but when the NRC is conducted all over the country, the legislation will hurt millions of Muslims badly.

"This is not a Hindu-Muslim matter at all, it is a matter of fundamental rights of human being and citizens," he asserted.

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New Delhi:

Amid the violent protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in northeastern states, the Narendra Modi government has started moving paramilitary forces from Jammu and Kashmir to Assam. According to news agency ANI, as many as 10 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have been moved from Jammu and Kashmir to Assam. Ten more companies of the CRPF will be released to the government of Assam.

"THe MHA has cancelled the order of induction of seven CRPF companies to Manipur on the operational ground and these comapnies should be released to the government of Assam for low and order duty on the arrival of the special train at Dimapur," the agency quoted an official communication as saying.

The paramilitry troops were deployed in the Valley in anticipation of violent protests following the Centre's decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status guaranteed under the Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5. With situation under control in the Kashmir and worsening in the northeast, the troops are being moved to the region.

The northeast region is witnessing massive protests over the controversial bill that was cleared by the Lok Sabha on Monday and is up for debate and passage in the Rajya Sabha today. In Tripura, normal life was hit following statewide indefinite bandh called by tribal parties and organisations against the bill. The Tripura administration shut down internet service for 48 hours in wake of protests against the against the bill.

#WATCH Assam: Protests continue against #CitizenshipAmmendmentBill2019, in Guwahati. Police also use tear gas shells to disperse the protesters. pic.twitter.com/5lul19ToTO  ANI (@ANI) December 11, 2019

Also Read | Army Deployed In Assam, Tripura As Protests Against Citizenship Amendment Bill Turn Violent

Earlier in the day, thousands took to streets in Guwahati, Assam against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, that seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The protests turned violent and police resorted to lathicharge and fired tear gas shells on protesters. Several students were reportedly injured in the brutal police lathcharge. "This is a barbaric government led by Sarbananda Sonowal. We will not succumb to any pressure till the CAB is repealed," the students said.

As the protests took a violent turn, Army has also been deployed in the states of Assam and Tripura. While two columns have been sent to Kanchanpur and Manu areas of Tripura, a third has been dispatched to Bongaingon in Assam. The move to deploy the Army has come after violent clashes erupted in these areas between the protesters and police.

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New Delhi:

Amid growing tensions in Assam against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill, Assamese actor Jatin Bora on Thursday resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Jatin Bora, who is also the chairperson of the state-run Assam State Film Finance Development Corporation, had extended support to those protesting the bill.

Assam singing sensation Zubeen Garg had also appealed actor and Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) member Jatin Bora to resign from the Bharatiya Janata Party as a mark of protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Replying to Zubeens comment, Bora said "My language (Assamese) and my culture (Assamese) is everything for me. Whatever I am today is all because of the people of Assam. I respect each and every stand of the Assamese people taken in a bid to safeguard the community, its land, language, and culture."

On being asked about the alleged silence of Bora when the artists society is dissenting their voices against the Bill, Zubeen said to The Sentinel, Jatin took a job by joining BJP. I dont know about him (Jatin) but had I been in his position, I would have resigned right away for the love of my community even if I had been a minister.
New Delhi:

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that the Narendra Modi government was not just there to govern but also to solve the issues of the country. Defending the timing of the introduction of the Citizinship Amendment Bill, the Union Home Minister said, there would have been no need for this bill had Partition of India not taken place in 1947. Shah said if this bill was brought 50 years ago, then the situation would not be so severe today.

"There is no appreciation of the fact people from 6 religions have been included. But, the focus is only on why Muslims are not included," he said.

"Can followers of Islam in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan be called minority? No. When the religion of the State is Islam, then, chances of persecution of Muslims is lesser," he added.

"This Bill will not harm the minority communities including Muslims," said Shah.

"The spirit of LiaquatNehru Pact, was not followed by the neighbouring country. It is the duty of every government to follow it in letter and spirit," he said.

"During UPA govt, the then Rajasthan govt wrote to then HM P Chidambaram stating outstanding issue of large no. of Pak refugees from Hindu and Sikh communities. 13000 people from two religions only were benefited. Whereas, we have included refugees from 6 religions," he said. "But, no one will say anything because whatever the Congress does is secularism. Till when will you fool people?" he went on.

Amit Shah said that the Bill did not hurt the Article 14 of the Constitution. Attacking Congress again, Shah asked, "The entire country knows that the reason behind partition was Jinnah and it was done due to his demand. But all I am asking is why did Congress agree to it? Why was it done on the basis of religion?"

"It was asked that why were Rohingyas not included in the Bill? Rohingyas don't come to India directly, they go to Bangladesh and then infiltrate into India from there."

Replying to Kapil Sibal's comment that "Muslims don't fear you", Shah said, "They should not be afraid. You also don't be afraid. Nobody is taking the citizenship of Indian Muslims. This is a bill to give citizenship, not to take it."

Amit Shah said "Don't teach me the idea of India. Hum toh isi desh mein janme hain isi desh mein marenge (We are born in this country and will die here)."

"Neither CAB is anti-Muslim, nor abrogation of Article 370 is anti-Muslim, Triple Talaq Bill is not anti-Muslim either. Triple Talaq is the Bill to give rights to crores of Muslim women in the country."

"Do only Muslims live in Jammu & Kashmir? No Hindus? No Buddhists? Why is it viewed like that? Article 370 has been abrogated for everyone & not only Muslims. How can CAB be anti-Muslim? In this Bill, there is no proposal to touch the citizenship of any Muslim."

"Abrogation of Article 370, Triple Talaq Bill are not anti-Muslim. Do women not have rights? Kashmir is peaceful even after abrogation of 370. Likewise, I don't believe Citizenship Amendment Bill is anti-muslim," Shah said.

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New Delhi:

And..the rivalry between vegans and meat-eaters continue! An anonymous man was captured feasting on KFC chicken to spite vegan protestors who were demonstrating outside Sydneys Town Hall in Australia. Clearly trolling the vegans, the clip that was shared on TikTok by KenJake Lamar shows the man munching on a cardboard container of KFCs signature 11 herbs and spices recipe.

Watch the video here:

Racking up more than 2 million views, his act garnered some mixed response with some meat-lovers commenting not all heroes wear capes some eat KFC, some were however not amused with his act, writing, Im not a vegetarian or anything but like youre just being childish, says one critic. Am I the only one who doesnt find this funny? adds another.

The event was held by vegans to demonstrate the grisly scenes of animal slaughter. The Facebook event for the group, hosted by Animal Rights Activism Sydney reads: "The Cube of Truth is a peaceful static demonstration aimed at revealing the realities of Australian animal agriculture and facilitating engagement with the public through vegan outreach."

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UAEs leading economic zone Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (Rakez) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Polands Katowice Special Economic Zone (Katowice SEZ) with an aim to stimulate trade and investment opportunities between the UAE and Poland, creating synergies for cooperation and development for both economic zones, Rakez said in a statement.

The MoU was signed by Ramy Jallad, Rakez Group CEO, Janusz Michaek, President of Katowice SEZ, and Monika Bryl, Deputy President of Katowice SEZ, in the presence of representatives from both organisations. The signing ceremony took place at the recently opened Rakez Compass Coworking Centre.

The signing extends an invitation to Polish businesses to expand to the UAE market and explore the opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, as well as encourages the UAE business community to explore investment opportunities available in the Polish market.

"The UAE-Polish economic relations span for decades across numerous fields. With this agreement, we look forward to reinforce the bilateral trade exchange and boost investment tie-ups between both countries, said Jallad.

Ras Al Khaimah offers a unique ecosystem for businesses across various sectors, enabling them to flourish and expand their activities in to the lucrative UAE, regional and global markets. With this valuable partnership, Rakez looks forward to welcoming Polish investors and is committed to providing all the support they require to join Ras Al Khaimahs flourishing business community of over 40,000 companies.

Commenting on the event, Dr Michaek said: We are exceptionally pleased to sign the MoU with Rakez. The fact that the UAE and Polands two leading economic zones join forces makes us deeply convinced that this will create new business opportunities and will stimulate trade, contributing to the economic development of both of our countries. We are looking forward to mutual cooperation, exchange of knowledge and best practices which will surely strengthen the investment offer of both zones and will also lay the ground for new, exciting projects in the future.

During the delegations visit, the members also met with officials Ultimate Armour Works, as well as toured Caresoft Global and MetalFab ME based in Al Hamra Industrial Zone of Rakez.

A number of Polish companies have set up base in Ras Al Khaimah. These companies enjoy the strategic location of the emirate, ease and cost-effectiveness of doing business, and access to bigger and newer markets. There are many synergies between the two locations, both enjoying strong manufacturing backgrounds, particularly in the automotive and growing BPO sectors. TradeArabia News Service
New Delhi:

The US State Department on Thursday said it does not disclose the details of bilateral agreements which involve defence technologies and communications. This comes after a media report suggested that former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, Andrea Thompson in a letter had reprimanded Pakistan Air chief Marshal Mujahid for misusing F-16 fighter aircraft.

"We do not publicly comment on the contents of bilateral agreements involving the United States technologies nor the communications we have about them," news agency ANI quotes a State Department spokesperson as saying.

The conversation between two officials had surfaced after India, in February this year, claimed that it shot down one F-16 jet during a dog fight with the Pakistan Air Force.

The letter, however, has no mentioning of the Februarys incident but United States apprehension towards misuse is apparent for sure. On February 26, India launched airstrikes on terror camps in Pakistan.

One day later, on February 27, Islamabad responded with the violation of Indian airspace in the Rajouri sector of Jammu and Kashmir and dropped bombs when they were exiting, officials had said.

As per reports, an F-16 fighter of the Pakistan Air Force was shot down by the Indian Air Force and was seen falling in Lam area, about three kilometers inside Pakistan, officials said.

A parachute was also seen dropping along with the crashing fighter but the fate of its pilot was not known, reports ANI.

Thompson in his letter went on to warn Pakistan that its usage of F-16 jets risked their shared security and its action would have allowed these weapons to fall into the hands of malign actors and "could undermine our shared security platforms and infrastructures."

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New Delhi:

Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen on Wednesday said there are only few countries in the world where communal harmony is as good as in his country. He rejected allegations that minorities face religious persecution in the country. There are a very few countries where communal harmony is as good as in Bangladesh.

Referring to Home Minister Amit Shah, he added, If he stayed in Bangladesh for few months, he would see exemplary communal harmony in our country (sic), ANI quotes Momen as saying to Bangladesh media.

He added, India have many problems within their country. Let them fight among themselves. That does not bother us. As a friendly country, we hope that India will not do somethinWeg that affects our friendly relationship.

However, the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi made it clear that the Bill provides expedited consideration for Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities already in India from certain contiguous countries. The MEA statement added that every nation has the right to enumerate and validate its citizenry, and to exercise the prerogative through various policies.

According to the legislation, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014 facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Lok Sabha cleared the Bill on Monday.

Moreover, the United Nations on Wednesday refused to comment on the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha. When asked about the UN's response to the passage of the bill, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, "As far as I am aware, this legislation will go through a legislative process. We do not have a comment while the domestic legislative process is being carried out."

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New Delhi:

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday got stranded at Guwahatis Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport and was unable to enter the city due to massive protest against the Modi governments contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill.

The Indian Army earlier said that the civil administration has requested its assistance in maintaining the law and order situation in Assam and Tripura in the wake of the protests over the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

"Three Army columns requisitioned by civil administration so far in Tripura and Assam. Two (Tripura) are deployed and third (Assam) is standby," the Army statement said.

Amid violent protests against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, Army has been deployed in North Eastern states of Assam and Tripura. While two columns have been sent to Kanchanpur and Manu areas of Tripura, a third has been dispatched to Bongaingon in Assam. The move to deploy the Army has come after violent clashes erupted in these areas between the protesters and police.

Thousands in Guwahati took to streets against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, that seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The protesters clashed with police and blocked the key GS road in the capital city of Assam, largest state in the North East. The police lathi-charged and fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters demanding rollback of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

Several students were reportedly injured in the brutal police lathcharge. "This is a barbaric government led by Sarbananda Sonowal. We will not succumb to any pressure till the CAB is repealed," the students said.

Students in large numbers were seen proceeding towards the Secretariat from all directions. Another group has reached Ganeshguri area, around 500 metres from the centre of power. They broke a barricade on GS Road following which the police resorted to lathi charge. Teargas shells were also lobbed at the students who also threw the shells back at the policemen.

Apart from Guwahati, clashes between police and protestors also erupted in Dibrugarh district. The police fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets at demonstrators. Though no organisation has called for a bandh on Wednesday, people have come out in large numbers in Jorhat, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Bongaigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur and several other districts since morning.
New Delhi:

Parliament on Thursday passed a Constitution amendment bill to extend quota to SCs and STs in Lok Sabha and state assemblies by another 10 years with Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asserting that the Modi government will never stop the reservation system. The government also assured the opposition members in Rajya Sabha that the issue of extension of reservation for Anglo-Indians will be considered at a later stage.

The Constitution (126th) Amendment Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha with 163 members voting in favour and none against it. Since it was a Constitution amendment bill, the voting took place through division. Lok Sabha had passed the bill on December 10. Reservation for members of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), given for the past 70 years in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, is due to end on January 25, 2020.

The reservation for Anglo-Indians in the form of "nomination" is set to expire on January 25 as the bill does not extend the facility to the community. With approval of both the Houses, the bill would now be sent to states for ratification by 50 per cent of the assemblies before it comes into force.

Replying to the debate, Prasad assured the House that the Modi government will not end reservation or do anything which is against the spirit of the Constitution.

"It's been time and again said that the Modi government will scrap reservation system. We want to say it clearly that the Modi government will never scrap reservation system. It is also been said that the Modi government is distorting Constitution. This is absolutely wrong," he said.

He said SC/STs are backward and there is no need to further divide this class into "creamy layer". Recently, the government had urged the Supreme Court to reconsider its stand that socially, educationally and economically advanced cream of Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) communities should be excluded from the benefits of reservation in government services.

"I acknowledge the contribution of Anglo-Indians in education and armed forces. They have done a good job. When you acknowledge 20 crore SCs and 10 crore STs population as per the census, then why you are not believing the figures of Anglo-Indians," Prasad asked. "We have told it that we will consider it later. But as mentioned by member Swapan Das Gupta, it is time for us to think about new categories of people," he said.

The minister said the contribution of "Anglo-Indians will neither be minimised nor be recognised only by representation. What is important is their contribution is recognisable. We are considering it". On concerns raised over atrocities against SC/STs, he said the such action faced by SC/ST is still a challenge that needs to be accepted and addressed.

"The good news is there are Dalit priest these days," he added.

The debate witnessed heated exchange between Prasad and Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, after which Congress members staged a walkout.

Congress members later returned to the House for the voting process after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Leader of the House Thawar Chand Gehlot appealed that members should come back and vote on an important Constitution amendment bill. Naidu also assured that if there is any unparliamentary word, it will be removed from the records.

When Congress and other opposition members returned to the House, Azad said there was no question of disrespecting the Chair. However, he said: "We also expect some respect from the Chair. Sometimes, we don't want to be treated as students." Azad said the government should not compete and score points against Opposition parties members, who only have the right to speak and not legislate.

Earlier, moving the bill in the Upper House for consideration and passage, Prasad said that "all those who don't come from the SC/ST communities have also extended help for their welfare". "We have a large number of SC/ST members," he said.

Lauding the efforts made for the welfare of deprived classes, Prasad took the name of BSP chief Mayawati and said she is working towards the welfare of these communities in her own way. He also remembered tribal freedom fighter and folk hero Birsa Munda. On the Anglo-Indians issue, he told the House that there are 296 members of the community in India.

Prasad said as per the 2011 Census, the SC population was 20.13 crore and ST population 10.45 crore which was 5.13 crore and 1.91 crore at the time of India's independence. There are 84 members from the Scheduled Caste and 47 from the Scheduled Tribe communities in Parliament.

In state assemblies across India, there are 614 SC members and 554 ST members. During the debate, the Samajwadi Party, BSP, Biju Janata Dal, Janata Dal(U), AIADMK, DMK, AAP, JD(S), YSRCP, RJD and Left parties demanded that the government consider extending reservation to Anglo-Indians under the bill.

TMC MP Derek O'Brien supported the bill but as a member of the Anglo-India community expressed dismay over its benefit not being extended to his community. O'Brien asked the government how is it nominating an Anglo-Indian to Lok Sabha when there are only 296 members of the community in the country.

SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav said, "I support the bill but not the exclusion of Anglo-Indians. If 2-3 Anglo-Indians come to power how will it affect the government. Please have a large heart."

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New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha and termed it as a 'landmark day for India'. PM Modi took to twitter after the upper house passsed the contentious bill with 125 Ayes and 105 Noes and wrote, "A landmark day for India and our nations ethos of compassion and brotherhood! Glad that the CAB 2019 has been passed in the Rajya Sabha. Gratitude to all the MPs who voted in favour of the Bill. This Bill will alleviate the suffering of many who faced persecution for years."

A landmark day for India and our nations ethos of compassion and brotherhood!



Glad that the #CAB2019 has been passed in the #RajyaSabha. Gratitude to all the MPs who voted in favour of the Bill.



This Bill will alleviate the suffering of many who faced persecution for years.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 11, 2019

Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, completing the legislative procedure for giving Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Replying to a six-and-a-half-hour debate on the bill, Home Minister Amit Shah said the legislation seeks to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities in the three countries and not take away citizenship of anyone. He rejected the Opposition charge that the bill was against Muslims and said they have nothing to fear.

The Bill was passed with 125 votes in favour and 105 against it. Besides BJP, its allies such as JD-U and SAD, the legislation was supported by AIADMK, BJD, TDP and YSR-Congress. Earlier the House rejected motions to send the bill to a select committee of the House with 124 members voting against it as compared to 99 in its favour.

The House also rejected several amendments moved by opposition members to the bill, most by voice vote. The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday. It will now go to the President for his assent. On why persecuted minorities from countries such as Sri Lanka were not part of the legislation, Shah said Tamils from the island country had been given Indian citizenship in past and the present law is to tackle a specific problem

To repeated questions from opposition of Muslims being left out, he said Muslims from other countries have the right to apply for Indian citizenship as per existing rules. As many as 566 Muslims have been given citizenship, he said.

He attacked opposition the Congress saying statements by the partys leaders match those of Pakistani leaders on not just the citizenship bill but also on scrapping of Article 370.

Asserting that neither the citizenship bill, nor the previously passed legislation making practice of triple talaq punishable and the scrapping Article 370 are anti-Muslim, he said the present legislation is to give citizenship and does not to take away citizenship of anyone.

Indian Muslims are citizens of the country and will remain so, he said. Citizenship of Indian Muslims is not being taken away.

Citizenship bill is not to snatch anyones Indian citizenship. Muslims have no need to fear or worry, he said.

Shah said the bill seeks to correct the wrong done by the partition of the country on religious lines. He went on to attack the Congress for alleged double speak on the issue, saying the party had during its rule given Indian citizenship to 13,000 Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan without raising a word about the same for other communities.

He also said the bill does not violate Article 14 of the Constitution as it does not prohibit laws based on reasonable classification.

Muslims have not been included for giving citizenship because the proposed law is for persecuted minorities in the three countries, he said.

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New Delhi:

WBPSC IDO 2019 admit card has been released by West Bengal Public Service Commission. All candidates who are going to appear for the Industrial Development Officer (IDO) exam need to visit the official website, i.e. pscwbapplication.in to download the admit card. According to the official notification, the WBPSC IDO 2019 Prelims exam is going to be held on December 22, 2019 and the Clinical Instructor Exam 2019 will be held on December 29, 2019.

It is to note that the WBPSC IDO 2019 Prelims will comprise 75 questions on General Studies, Humanities, Science, and Industrial Scene & Industrial Potential and 25 questions will be asked on Mental Ability and Arithmetic. A total of 100 marks will be asked in each of the paper and the time duration of the exam will be 1 hour and 30 minutes. There will be negative marking for the wrong answers as well.
New Delhi:

Amid intense anti-Citizenship Amendment Bill protests in the North-East region of India, the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday extended the inner line permit regime to Manipur with President Ram Nath Kovind signing the order in this effect. The crucial order comes two days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in the Lok Sabha that the ILP would be extended to the northeastern state. A notification in this regard was issued by the Home Ministry.

Manipur is the fourth state after Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram where the ILP regime is applicable. To visit the ILP-regime states, outsiders, including people from other states of the country, needs to take permission.

Meanwhile, thousands in Guwahati took to streets against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, that seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The protesters clashed with police and blocked the key GS road in the capital city of Assam, largest state in the North East. The police lathi-charged and fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters demanding rollback of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

Several students were reportedly injured in the brutal police lathcharge. "This is a barbaric government led by Sarbananda Sonowal. We will not succumb to any pressure till the CAB is repealed," the students said.

Students in large numbers were seen proceeding towards the Secretariat from all directions. Another group has reached Ganeshguri area, around 500 metres from the centre of power. They broke a barricade on GS Road following which the police resorted to lathi charge. Teargas shells were also lobbed at the students who also threw the shells back at the policemen.

Apart from Guwahati, clashes between police and protestors also erupted in Dibrugarh district. The police fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets at demonstrators. Though no organisation has called for a bandh on Wednesday, people have come out in large numbers in Jorhat, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Bongaigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur and several other districts since morning.

The Citizenship (Amendment) seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians fleeing persecution in Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. THe citizenship will be granted only to those non-Muslims who came to India till December 31 2014.

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New Delhi:

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram slammed the Narendra Modi government over the Citizenship Amendment Bill saying that the draft legislation will not stand the legal scrutiny. This government is asking this parliament to support the government in passing what is patently unconstitutional, Chidambaram said during the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha. The ex-minister, who is out on bail, took down the government on the controversial bill saying that, this government is ramming through this Bill in order to advance its Hindutva agenda. This is a sad day. Talking about the future of the draft legislation and foreseeable legal litmus test, Chidambaram said that, You think this will stop here? This will go to the judges. But judges and lawyers are not elected, but they will finally take the decision.

Chidambaram also raised the concerns over the entire concept of classification of refugees in the Bill. How do you group 3 countries and leave out the other neighbours, asked the senior Congress leader. What we are doing today is wrecking the constitution from within... by this insidious Bill, Chidambaram added.

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New Delhi:

The ED on Thursday arrested former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Singh in a money laundering case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), officials said. They said an Enforcement Directorate (ED) team reached the Tihar jail here and placed Shivinder Singh under arrest as per provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Shivinder Singh was in judicial custody after the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing had arrested him and others recently. A Delhi Court had on Thursday rejected his bail plea in this police case.

The ED had earlier arrested Shivinder Singh's brother Malvinder Mohan Singh in this case. RFL is a group firm of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL), which was earlier promoted by the Singh brothers.

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Ranchi:

An estimated 45.14 per cent of over 56 lakh eligible voters exercised their franchise till 1 pm on Thursday in the third of the five-phase Jharkhand assembly elections in 17 constituencies, officials said. The police said voting is going on peacefully in all the constituencies. Governor Droupadi Murmu cast her vote in Ranchi while senior Congress leader and former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay was among the early voters at a booth in Khijri assembly constituency.

After casting his vote, Sahay alleged that voting began one-and-a-half hours late in the booth following a glitch in an EVM. Former union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Jayant Sinha also exercised their franchise.

The voting began at 7 am in all the constituencies, amidst a tight security arrangement. While polling at Ranchi, Hatia, Kanke, Barkatha and Ramgarh seats will end at 5 pm, voters in rest of the constituencies can exercise their franchise till 3 pm.

A total of 56,18,267 voters are eligible to cast votes in the 17 constituencies across eight districts. The voters include a total of 26,80,205 women and 86 third gender voters, Vinay Kumar Choubey, the Chief Electoral Officer of Jharkhand, said.

The fate of 309 candidates, including 32 women nominees, will be decided in the third leg of the elections. Notable candidates in the fray are former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi, Urban Development Minister C P Singh and Education Minister Neera Yadav. While Marandi, the president of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik), is contesting from the Dhanwar seat, Singh and Yadav are fighting from Ranchi and Kodarma constituencies respectively.

Former deputy chief minister and AJSU party president Sudesh Mahto is trying his luck to regain Silli seat after he lost the 2014 assembly polls and the subsequent bypoll to JMM candidates Amit Mahato and his wife Seema Mahato.

The assembly elections to the 81-member House began on November 30 and will end on December 20. The CEO said that about 40,000 polling personnel have been deputed to conduct smooth and peaceful voting. Of the total 7,016 polling stations set up for the third-phase, 1,008 are marked as critical and 543 sensitive in Naxal-affected areas.

A total of 2,014 polling stations have webcasting facilities, while elections in 329 model polling stations and 44 polling stations will be conducted by women. The 17 constituencies, including two reserved for SC candidates and one ST candidate, are spread over eight districts.

The seats where polling is being held are Kodarma, Barkatha, Barhi, Barkagaon, Ramgarh, Mandu, Hazaribag, Simaria (SC), Dhanwar, Gomia, Bermo, Ichagarh, Silli, Khijri (ST), Ranchi, Hatia and Kanke (SC), the Election Commission said in a release.

The fourth and the fifth phases polling for 15 and 16 seats will be held on December 16 and 20 respectively Votes will be counted on December 23.
Breakbulk Middle East (BBME), the GCCs leading breakbulk and project cargo event, opened with insightful sessions and participation from regional and global industry leaders, shedding light on themes that included recovery strategies to tackle current challenges and the market outlook of the sector.

Day one witnessed a 35 per cent increase in visitors. The event, taking place at the World Trade Centre, concludes tomorrow.

The large participation from the industry reflects its keenness to be part of a well-knit network that has fuelled the growth of the sector in the past few years. With BBME returning as a physical event in 2022 after the digital special last year, it features a topical agenda to reinforce the events ability to foster consistent growth and unite key players to bolster the economy.

Kicking off the opening day with his virtual opening remarks, Suhail Al Mazrouei, UAEs Minister of Energy and Infrastructure said: "The supply chain and maritime segment has been deeply impacted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the UAE we directed our efforts towards overcoming any challenges that came our way and catered to the market needs. We had our ports open during the pandemic to ensure seamless movement of essential items. We were also one of the first IMO Member States to designate seafarers as key workers and supported them by facilitating crew change, administering vaccinations, and providing them access to medical care."

Al Mazrouei said: "Our commitment has been demonstrated through our global competitiveness ranking in several aspects. The country was ranked 3rd in transport services trade and Bunker Supply Index. The countrys ports rank among the top 10 internationally in the volume of container handling. Our association with BBME comes as part of our vision to make the UAE a global hub for logistics and shipping. BBME will facilitate strategies that will help enhance the sector and take it to greater heights."

With freight rates at a high for more than a year now, and mixed speculations on future prices, the logistics industry has had to reassess ways of working to keep cargo moving, he added.

The opening session on Managing Rates and Capacity: Outlook, Key Drivers and Remaining Competitive brought some pressing concerns to light.

Top experts gathered to discuss the outlook and impact of the current freight rates on business and the supply chain. They further addressed issues related to the market landscape, opportunities in the sector, Breakbulk industrys role in easing the situation, navigating through the current scenario, and learning from success stories.

Panelists included Amadou Diallo, CEO Middle East & Africa, DHL Global Forwarding; Kristian Lund Knudsen, Global Head of Special Cargo Solutions, Maersk; Kyriacos Panayides, Managing Director, AAL Shipping; and Martin Harren, CEO and Managing Director, Harren & Partner and SAL Heavy Lift. The session was moderated by Cyril Varghese, Global Logistics Director at Fluor.

Abdulla Bin Damithan, CEO & Managing Director, DP World UAE & Jafza, said: "Breakbulk Middle East has been a great platform underpinning the collective efforts of the sector to overcome the challenges and find solutions to environmental concerns. The insights gained from the peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing at the event will encourage innovative ideas, helping the revival of the industry."

"The recent shortage of container capacity on international trade lanes and increase in freight rates have prompted cargo owners to transport goods as breakbulk, creating new opportunities for the sector. The supply chain disruptions will stay for some time. With that said, the industry is gradually bouncing back. To tackle the roadblocks, we have increased the capacity and enhanced the capabilities at Jebel Ali Port to enable trade across all modes using our assets globally. DP World has contributed greatly to the progress of the UAEs and Middle Easts breakbulk sector and will continue to help the country maintain its status as a leader in trade and logistics," he added.

With the rapidly changing industry landscape, and the world moving to digital solutions in almost every business, the global logistics and maritime segment is looking to enhance its digital portfolio to cater to the evolving needs of the sector.

The past couple of years have clearly demonstrated the value of more automated and digital processes and there is greater understanding of the efficiency gains that can be made with more integration of technology.

The opening day events included a session on Digital Transformation with participation of Khalid Al Shehhi, Marine Projects Manager, ADNOC Logistics and Services and Marten Berg Thomsen, Head of Special Cargo Solutions, West and Central Asia, Maersk, who highlighted how companies were digitally transforming business models e.g. port community systems and freight platforms, and working towards increasing efficiency through technology.

Saif Al Mazrouei, Head of the Ports Cluster at AD Ports Group, said: "Despite the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years, AD Ports Group and its partners in Abu Dhabi, have worked diligently to support efforts aimed at cultivating economic stability and recovery, while maintaining the steady flow of goods"

"The past few years have seen the continued expansion of our port assets that include ongoing developments at our flagship, Khalifa Port, as well as other notable expansions at our ports in Al Dhafra Region including Mugharraq Port that will serve as a vital link between the mainland and the offshore Oil & Gas sector. During that time we also forged numerous strategic partnerships that have boosted our ability to support the evolving needs of the regions fast-developing breakbulk industry," observed Al Mazrouei.

"We are pleased to make a return to the 6th edition of Breakbulk Middle East, which brings together the industrys leading elite to engage, exchange insights, as well as drive the future growth of the global breakbulk and project cargo industry," he added.

Ben Blamire, Event Director, Breakbulk Middle East said: "At BBME we have always aimed at the growth of the industry by bringing together experts, aspiring professionals and students to have a dialogue and collaborate over new projects. The sessions throughout day one were very informative, and we received some excellent feedback from attendees. We aim to carry this success forward to next years event."

"Our event would have not been possible without the endless support from both government and private sector entities that believed in us and supported us in different ways. We are now looking forward to day two that will tackle other important concerns such as womens role and the next generation of the industry, that are of crucial importance," he observed.
Islamabad:

Pakistan's ailing former president Asif Ali Zardari was on Wednesday granted bail on medical grounds by a court here in two corruption cases, making him the second jailed senior politician in over a month to secure similar relief. Zardari (64), who was arrested in June, approached the court on December 3 seeking bail on medical grounds in two corruption cases pertaining to fake accounts. His bail plea was filed over a month after former premier Nawaz Sharif was given a similar relief.

A two-judge bench of the Islamabad High Court also directed Zardari, leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), to submit surety bonds worth Rs 10 million each in the two cases, The Express Tribune reported.

The court had on December 4 constituted a medical board to examine Zardari's health condition and directed it to submit its report.

According to Geo TV, Zardari, in his bail plea, had claimed that he was suffering from a heart condition and diabetes.

Last month, Zardari was transferred from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad after his health deteriorated, the report said.

The petition also states that Zardari suffers from arthritis with a low platelet count, and all these illnesses cannot be treated within the premises of the jail, The Express Tribune reported.

"The petitioner's condition makes it evident that his continued incarceration would prove detrimental to his life," it said.

Addressing the media outside the court, Zardari's son and PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto hailed the verdict and thanked the judiciary for the relief. He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government and the anti-graft watchdog were mistaken if they think they could pressurise the PPP.

"I want them to know that the poor people of the country prayed for Zardari's release," Bilawal said.

On November 19, Sharif, 69, left for London for medical treatment for multiple diseases after the Lahore High Court allowed him to travel abroad for four weeks.

Sharif, who was granted bail on October 25, is serving a seven-year imprisonment in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail in Al-Azizia case.

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The Hague:

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday denied "genocidal intent" as she defended Myanmar's military operation against Rohingya Muslims in the UN's top court. Addressing judges in The Hague, Myanmar's civilian leader admitted that the army may have used "disproportionate force" but said that did not prove it was trying to wipe out the minority group.

The African state of The Gambia has taken Myanmar to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over a bloody 2017 military crackdown in which thousands of people were killed and around 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh. Once hailed internationally for her defiance of Myanmar's junta, Suu Kyi was this time on the side of the southeast Asian nation's military when she took the stand.

"Regrettably The Gambia has placed before the court a misleading and incomplete picture of the situation in Rakhine state," Suu Kyi, wearing traditional Burmese dress and flowers in her hair, told the court.

She argued that the army was responding to an attack by hundreds of Rohingya militants in 2017. "It cannot be ruled out that disproportionate force was used by members of the defence services in some cases in disregard of international humanitarian law, or that they did not distinguish clearly enough between fighters and civilians," she said.

But she said that Myanmar was undertaking its own investigations, adding: "Surely under the circumstances genocidal intent cannot be the only hypothesis."

The Gambia, which is mostly Muslim, accuses Myanmar of breaching the 1948 genocide convention and has asked the court to take emergency measures to stop further violence. UN investigators last year concluded that Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya amounted to genocide while rights groups have detailed a catalogue of alleged abuses.

Also Read | UN Chief Urges Myanmar To Ensure 'Safe' Return Of Rohingya

Suu Kyi however said that the court, set up in 1946 to rule on disputes between member states, had not confirmed genocide in cases of mass expulsions of civilians in the 1990s Balkans war. Around 250 pro-Myanmar protesters gathered in front of the International Court of Justice, carrying placards with Aung San Suu Kyi's face reading "We stand with you" and carrying pictures of the leader.

"These allegations against Myanmar and Suu Kyi are rubbish," said Chomar Oosterhof, 53, a Burmese living in the Netherlands. "We just want our country to prosper and Suu Kyi is the person to do it."

Meanwhile, a small group of pro-Rohingya supporters were also gathered at the court, shouting: "Aung San Suu Kyi, shame on you!" Another lone protester was holding up a poster of one of Myanmar's generals, saying "Wanted for Mass Murder."

The 74-year-old Suu Kyi sat impassively through graphic accounts of mass murder and rape on Tuesday as Gambia set out its case against Myanmar. Gambian Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou, who opened his country's case, said it would be "extremely disappointing" if Suu Kyi repeated her previous denials of wrongdoing by Myanmar.

He urged the court to tell her to "stop the genocide". ICJ judges have only once before ruled that genocide was committed, in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia. Suu Kyi's decision to personally lead her country's case at the court has proved popular at home, where the Rohingya are widely regarded as illegal immigrants.

Flag-waving supporters joined rallies in support of Suu Kyi in several Myanmar cities on Tuesday and rally organisers in Yangon told AFP they had permission from authorities to live stream Wednesday's ICJ hearing on a big screen outside the City Hall. Huge billboards of Suu Kyi and three smiling generals have also appeared around the country.

Aung San Suu Kyi was once mentioned in the same breath as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, having won the Nobel in 1991 for her resistance to Myanmar's brutal junta. After 15 years under house arrest, she was freed in 2010 and led her party to victory in elections in 2015. But her defence of the same military that once kept her locked up has since caused international condemnation.

Myanmar meanwhile faces a number of legal challenges over the fate of the Rohingya, including a probe by the International Criminal Court -- a separate war crimes tribunal in The Hague -- and a lawsuit in Argentina personally mentioning Suu Kyi.

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New Delhi:

Is former supermodel mum Cindy Crawford worried about daughter Kaia Gerbers new love-interest, Pete Davidson. Reports say yes. Addressing the romance rumours which Kaia and Pete have been going on for over eight weeks now, an insider said, "I think theyre just hoping this could all fizzle out. [Kaias] travelling and working constantly  how serious can [she and Davidson] get?"

The source further added, Kaia can be slightly naive. But shes a smart girl with a good head on her shoulders and a family who watches out for her. [Her family are] very hands on."

While neither Kaia or Pete have spoken publicly about their romance, the duo were seen sharing a very pda moment on various occasions. Photographers captured the duo sharing a passionate kiss while laying poolside in Miami just days after Davidson and Gerber celebrated Petes 26th birthday together.

Contradictory to mum Cindys latest gossip, she earlier said that she is fully supportive of Kaias decision. "Cindys supportive of Kaia and wants her to be happy. Right now shes happy with Pete Davidson, so Cindys trying not to to get involved a source told Us Weekly.

"Kaias young, so Cindys encouraging her to stay focused on her future. Kaia trusts her mum completely and looks to her as a role model the source further added.
London:

A UK court on Wednesday reserved its judgement on a plea by a consortium of Indian public sector banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) seeking a bankruptcy order against embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya as part of efforts to recoup around 1.145 billion pounds in unpaid loans. Judge Michael Briggs reserved his judgment after hearing arguments from both sides in the insolvency division of the High Court on the petition filed by the banks last year, in relation to lending involving Mallya's now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The verdict in the case is now expected only in the New Year, when the judge could either dismiss the petition and find in favour of the 63-year-old businessman or adjourn the case until the UB Group chief's latest settlement offer is decided upon by the Indian courts.

Judge Briggs indicated that he may also consider seeking expert evidence on the applicability of Indian law vis-?-vis English law in the case.

"And, I thought I was going to understand the case by now," the judge said, in a light-hearted vein in reference to the complex worldwide litigation process involved in Mallya's case.

While the banks argued for a bankruptcy order to ensure they receive what is owed to them amid a multiplicity of creditors, Mallya's lawyers stressed that the Indian banks were identified as secured creditors by the Indian courts, which makes the bankruptcy petition in the UK court unfair.

"Why should we take less than everything we are owed, said Marcia Shekerdemian, the barrister for the Indian banks, in reference to settlement offers.

The court also heard that the banks do not accept the former Kingfisher Airlines boss' assertion that most of his assets are in India and to a lesser extent worldwide. A villa in France and assets spread across the British Virgin Islands, a trust registered in the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts & Nevis and the Indian Empress superyacht in Malta were some of Mallya's worldwide assets referred to during the course of Wednesday's hearing.

"We can't take Dr Mallya's assertions at face value,? added Shekerdemian.

Mallya's legal team, led by barrister Philip Marshall, argued for the bankruptcy petition to be dismissed because their client was being unfairly pursued by the banks in India and the UK on opposing grounds.

"Payment has been inhibited by virtue of the intervention by the Enforcement Directorate of India? the banks are seeking a bankruptcy order against Dr Mallya for non-payment but have created a situation where he can't make a payment," Marshall told the court.

A previous UK High Court ruling had refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya's assets and upheld an Indian court's ruling that the consortium of 13 Indian banks were entitled to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds. The banks then launched efforts to recover dues as part of the freezing order, with the bankruptcy petition aimed at seizing UK-based Mallya's assets to recover the dues.

Meanwhile, Mallya remains on bail pending the UK High Court appeal hearing in the extradition proceedings brought by India in relation to fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crores. He had been arrested on an extradition warrant back in April 2017 and has been fighting his extradition in the UK courts since then.

He was granted permission to appeal against his extradition order, which is scheduled in the Royal Courts of Justice in London for February next year.

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Lahore:

Hafiz Saeed, the Mumbai terror attack mastermind and chief of the banned JuD, was indicted on Wednesday by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court here on terror financing charges, amidst intense international pressure on Islamabad to bring him to justice. The anti-terrorism court (ATC) Lahore indicted Saeed and three of his top aides Hafiz Abdul Salam bin Muhammad, Muhammad Ashraf and Zafar Iqbal on terror financing charges. ATC Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta directed the prosecution to produce the witnesses and adjourned the hearing till Thursday.

Saeed, 69, along with the other accused, were presented before the court today under tight security.

"Saeed and his aides' lawyers made their arguments requesting the court not to indict their clients," a court official told PTI after the hearing.

"Deputy Prosecutor General Punjab Abdur Rauf, pleading for framing the charges against the accused said Saeed and others are involved in terror financing case and the Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab police has presented evidence for it," the official said.

The official said the accused were also provided the copies of the charge sheet.

Like the previous hearings, journalists were not allowed to enter the court premises to cover the proceedings. Saeed is detained at the high-security Kot Lakhpat jail here.

On December 7, the ATC could not indict Saeed, and others as one of the co-accused, Zafar Iqbal, was not produced before the court by the authorities.

Saeed's indictment comes amidst growing international pressure on Pakistan to rein-in terror groups operating from its soil and bring to justice terror group leaders like Saeed.

In October, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) warned Pakistan that it will be blacklisted if it does not control terror funding by February next, voicing serious concern over the country's failure to deliver on most of its 27 targets.

The Paris-based international terror financing watchdog issued the warning to Pakistan while deciding to again place the country on the 'Grey List'. While asking Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020, the FATF warned that it would take action against the country.

The threat to Pakistan's economy virtually put the country's entire machinery into an aggressive mode to show tangible progress within two months of the warning, Dawn newspaper noted.

On the 11th anniversary of the 26/11 terror attack, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it is an affront to the 166 innocent victims and their families that the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack have still not been convicted.

India has said that Pakistan has allowed Saeed to roam freely and was not interested in bringing him to justice.

Asked about Mumbai terror attacks trial in Pakistan at a briefing on December 6, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "We all know who the perpetrators of the attack were. We all know who the mastermind is. We are also aware that the mastermind of this attack is roaming freely, he is enjoying Pakistan's hospitality."

"We are also aware about the link this attack had to the elements within the Pakistani establishment. There is a certain responsibility they have, they have an International obligation to take action. You are also aware that we have shared all the evidence with them. Now it is the responsibility of Pakistan to take action," he said.

Pakistan has shied away in the past from taking action citing different excuses which of course is not working internationally and among the global community there is a feeling that Pakistan is not serious in taking action against those who are involved in the Mumbai terror attacks, he said.

The Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab Police on July 17 registered 23 FIRs against Saeed and his accomplices on the charges of "terror financing" in different cities of Punjab province and arrested Saeed.

The cases have been registered in Lahore, Gujranwala & Multan for collection of funds for terrorism financing through assets/properties made and held in the names of Trusts/ Non Profit Organisations (NPO) including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust.

According to the CTD, investigation launched into financing matters of proscribed organisations -- Jammat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) -- in connection with implementation of UN Sanctions against these Designated Entities & Persons as directed by the National Security Committee in its meeting on January 1, 2019 for implementing the National Action Plan.

"These suspects made assets from funds of terrorism financing. They held & used these assets to raise more funds for further terrorism financing. Hence, they committed multiple offences of terrorism financing and money laundering under the Anti Terrorism Act, 1997. They will be prosecuted in ATCs for commission of these offences," the CTD said.

But the JuD leaders deny the charges against them as baseless and a result of international pressure on the Pakistan government.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.

Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

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New Delhi:

Centre on Tuesday announced 7th Central Pay Commission allowances worth around Rs 4800 crores for government employees of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh. The government has approved Rs 48,000 crore for the same, Union minister G Kishan Reddy, said in the Lok Sabha. The minister also announced two AIIMS like institutions in Jammu and Srinagar.

Reddy announced approval of eight medical colleges for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

On August 5, the central government had announced the abrogation of the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and its bifurcation into UTs.

After Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on August 8 where he announced that all the financial facilities being given to the employees of other Union territories as per the recommendations of 7th CPC, would soon be extended to the employees of UT of Jammu and Kashmir, and UT of Ladakh.

The annual financial implication of 7th CPC allowances like children education allowance, hostel allowance, transport allowance, LTC, fixed medical allowance, etc. in respect of 4.5 lakh government employees of existing state of Jammu and Kashmir will be around Rs 4,800 crore.

Of the total Rs 4,800 crore, a modest Rs 607 crore will be for children education allowance, Rs 1,823 crore for hostel allowance, Rs 1,200 crore for transport allowance, Rs 1,000 crore for leave travel concession (LTC), Rs 108 crore for fixed medical Allowance and Rs 62 crore for other allowances.

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New Delhi:

UP Board Compartmental Exam for Class 12 Students is going to be held from 2020. The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad is introducing the Compartment Exam for class 12 students from the year 2020. According to the Board Additional Secretary, the compartmental exam proposal is under consideration and will become active for the class 12 board exam 2020. According to the class 12 compartmental examination, students who are unable to pass in 1 or more than 1 subject shall be provided a second chance to clear the exam.

The compartmental exam system for class 12 students aims to bring down the number of absentees from UP Board Class 12 exams. The introduction of the compartmental exam will surely impact the lakhs of students who are going to appear for the class 12 UP board exam for a better cause. Meanwhile, UP Board is going to monitor all exam centers at the time of examination through live webcasting. This step is taken as an anti-cheating measure and ensure complete security regarding board exams.
New Delhi:

Amid nation-wide outrage over the murder of Unnao rape victim, a 17-year-old gang-rape victim in Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling of her cousins house. According to the police, the girl was allegedly abducted and gang-raped by two men - Sunny Balmiki (19) and his uncle Lala Balmiki (26)  last month.

The girl had hanged herself on Friday night when her family members had gone outside, Superintendent of Police (Kanpur Dehat) Anurag Vats said. No suicide note has been found from the spot. The incident has come a day after the death of Unnao rape victim, who was set on fire by the men accused of raping her a year ago.

She was on her way to attend a hearing in the rape case when the accused doused her with kerosene and set aflame. The woman sustained 90 per cent burn injuries and died during treatment at Delhis Safdarjung Hospital. Following her death, massive protests were held across the state and a candle march was carried out in national capital Delhi over the incident. Congress workers stormed the streets in Lucknow demanding justice for rape victim.

Protests were also held at the village of Unnao rape victim as two ministers from Yogi Adityanaths Cabinet arrived there to visit the family members of the woman, who died Friday night after being set ablaze by the men accused of raping her. Angry locals shouted "why now" slogans as soon as the convoy of two ministers  Kamal Rani Varun and Swami Prasad Maurya  entered the village. The police had to remove protesters in order to facilitate their visit.

Also Read | After Death Of Unnao Rape Survivor, Father Demands Hyderabad-Like 'Swift Justice'

Workers of the Congress party launched massive protests in Lucknow against the rape case. The Uttar Pradesh police lathi charged on the Congress workers, who staged a protest against the Yogi Adityanath government in Hazratganj over the rising cases of crime against women in the state. UPCC Ajay Kumar Lallu was dragged by the police and detained with other party leaders and workers.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who visited the family member of the deceased Unnao rape victim, said that the accused had tortured her father and had been threatening her uncle for over a year.

"The family told me about the ordeal that they are going through since last year. The culprits have threatened and harassed them. They even threatened a 10-year-old in their family, and burned their farm," she said and asked authorities why no action was taken against the accused for harassing the family.

The Congress leader also claimed a connection between the ruling BJP and the accused. "Victim's whole family has been constantly harassed since last year. I have heard that the culprits have some BJP connection. That is why they were being shielded. There is no fear among criminals in the state," she alleged.

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New Delhi:

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday termed Modi government's contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill 'unconstitutional'. "Kerala will not accept Citizenship Amendment Bill. Bill is unconstitutional. Centre is trying to divide India on religious lines. This is a move to sabotage equality and secularism, Pinarayi Vijayan said.

Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, completing the legislative procedure for giving Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Replying to a six-and-a-half-hour debate on the bill, Home Minister Amit Shah said the legislation seeks to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities in the three countries and not take away citizenship of anyone.

He rejected the Opposition charge that the bill was against Muslims and said they have nothing to fear.

The Bill was passed with 125 votes in favour and 105 against it. Besides BJP, its allies such as JD-U and SAD, the legislation was supported by AIADMK, BJD, TDP and YSR-Congress.

Earlier the House rejected motions to send the bill to a select committee of the House with 124 members voting against it as compared to 99 in its favour.

The House also rejected several amendments moved by opposition members to the bill, most by voice vote.

The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday. It will now go to the President for his assent.

On why persecuted minorities from countries such as Sri Lanka were not part of the legislation, Shah said Tamils from the island country had been given Indian citizenship in past and the present law is to tackle a specific problem

To repeated questions from opposition of Muslims being left out, he said Muslims from other countries have the right to apply for Indian citizenship as per existing rules. As many as 566 Muslims have been given citizenship, he said.

He attacked opposition the Congress saying statements by the partys leaders match those of Pakistani leaders on not just the citizenship bill but also on scrapping of Article 370.

Asserting that neither the citizenship bill, nor the previously passed legislation making practice of triple talaq punishable and the scrapping Article 370 are anti-Muslim, he said the present legislation is to give citizenship and does not to take away citizenship of anyone.

Indian Muslims are citizens of the country and will remain so, he said. Citizenship of Indian Muslims is not being taken away. Citizenship bill is not to snatch anyones Indian citizenship. Muslims have no need to fear or worry, he said.

Shah said the bill seeks to correct the wrong done by the partition of the country on religious lines. He went on to attack the Congress for alleged double speak on the issue, saying the party had during its rule given Indian citizenship to 13,000 Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan without raising a word about the same for other communities.

He also said the bill does not violate Article 14 of the Constitution as it does not prohibit laws based on reasonable classification. Muslims have not been included for giving citizenship because the proposed law is for persecuted minorities in the three countries, he said.
New Delhi:

Anti-Citizenship Bill protests engulfed the northeastern states of Assam and Tripura on Thursday. Tens of thousands of protesters demanding revocation of the Citizenship Amendment Bill or CAB, cleared by Parliament on Wednesday, clashed with police and set several vehicles on fire. The protesters attacked the houses of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Union Minister Rameswar Teli. A railway station in Dibrugarhs Chabua, the hometown of the chief minister, was set on fire by protestors late in the night. The Panitola railway station in Tinsukia district was also torched, a Northeast Frontier Railway spokesperson said.

Below are the live updates:

9.50 pm: Meghalaya CM Conrad K Sangma postpones scheduled meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah as his cabinet colleagues couldn't reach Guwahati airport to board a plane to Delhi, amid curfew and violent protests in Assam.

8.30 pm: Bus terminus set on fire in Assam's Dibrugarh in protests over Citizenship Amendment Bill.

8.00 pm: Curfew clamped in Shillong, internet suspended.

7.44 pm: Two persons, protesting against Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, died of bullet injuries at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.

7.13 pm: 3 more Goan Panchayat offices burnt in Tinsukia district.

7.12 pm: Tinsukia district administration clamps 12-hour curfew from 5 pm on Thursday till 5 am on Friday.

7.11 pm: Superintendent of Dibrugarh police Gautam Bora transferred. He will be replaced by IPS officer Sreejith T, presently posted as SP Dima Hasao.

5.50 pm: Deepak Kumar, who was substantively posted as ADGP (Special Branch) & allowed to function as Police Commissioner,Guwahati is transferred & posted as Additional Director General of Police (Training & Armed Police), Assam. He's also posted as ADGP (STF), as additional charge.

#4.48 pm: Amid growing tensions, Airlines cancel flights to Assam

#4.19 pm: Curfew to be imposed in Tinsukia from 5 pm today.

#04.05 pm: Actor and Assam BJP leader Jatin Bora resigned from the party.

#03:10 pm: Police shoots protesters in Guwahati's Lalungaonn area. Several injured, reports news agency PTI.

#03:05 pm: Union Home Minister Amit Shah to visit North-Eastern Police Academy in Shillong (Meghalaya) on December 15.

#03:00 pm: Assam CM Sarbananada Sonowal: I assure that PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have very categorically stated the centre is committed to implement the Clause 6 of Assam Accord in letter and spirit to ensure the constitutional safeguard to the people of Assam politically, culturally.

#02:45 pm: Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen cancels his visit to India. He was scheduled to visit India from December 12-14, reports news agency ANI.

#01:50 pm: Guwahati Police Commissioner Removed: Guwahati Police Commissioner Deepak Kumar has been removed amid violent protests over Citizenship Amendment Bill. According to news agency PTI, Munna Prasad Gupta has been appointed as the new police chief of Guwahati.

#01:30 pm: Internet Service Suspended in Assam: Internet services in Assam suspended for another 48 hours, beginning from 12 noon today.

#01:15 pm: Tension being fueled in northeast, says PM Modi: "There are attempts to fuel tensions in the Northeast region. Most of the region is out of the ambit of this bill but politics of Congress and its allies depends on illegal immigrants... Congress in the past had promised relief to persecuted minority refugees but never did anything for them. The condition in which they were living in Pakistan, similar treatment was given by Congress governments to them," PM Modi said.

#12:50 pm: Government Accuses Congress For Assam Protests: The government accused the Congress on Thursday of instigating violence in the northeast after the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Jodhi alleged that the Congress was instigating violence in the region and the government condemns it.

#12:30 pm: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad: Unrest is across the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. But worst situation is in northeastern states, as a result of the passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill in both Houses. People of northeast, irrespective of religion, are against bill.

#12:05 pm: Assam CM appeals or peace: Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal: I appeal to the people to maintain peace and not get misled.

#11:55 am: Congress Takes Dig On Modi's Reassurance Tweet: "Our brothers & sisters in Assam cannot read your 'reassuring' message Modiji, in case you've forgotten, their internet has been cut off," tweets Congress.

#11:40 am: Left Announces Nation-Wide Protests Against CAB, NRC On December 19: Left parties to organise protest against Citizenship Amendment Bill and National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country, on December 19.

#11:35 am: Happy That Parliament Cleared CAB, Says BJP's Ram Madhav: We are happy that the Citizenship Amendment Bill has been passed in both the Houses of the Parliament & it will soon become an Act. It'll give great relief to millions of refugees who came to India decades ago&are living here as stateless people.

#11:30 am: RPSF troops deployed to Assam: 12 companies of the Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF) have been dispatched to Assam after railway stations were torched by anti-CAB protesters.

#11:25 am: All Train Services To Tripura, Assam Suspended: Railways has suspended all passenger train services in Tripura and Assam and short-terminated long distance trains to the region to Guwahati following protests in the two states over the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament.

#11:20 am: Union Minister Rameshwar Teli, Whose House Was Attacked By Protesters, Appeal For Peace: "My uncle's shop was set on fire and the boundary wall of my house was also damaged by protestors, last night around 11 pm. I appeal to the people of Assam to maintain peace," Teli said.

#11:15 am: Union Minister Jitendra Singh Accuses Congress of instigating people: "Situation in northeast will improve soon. the Congress party is trying to instigate people," he said.

#10:55 am: Adjournment Motion Notice In Lok Sabha Over Northeast turmoil: Congress MPs Manicka Tagore and Abdul Khaleque have given Adjournment Motion Notice in Lok Sabha, over 'highly volatile situation' in northeast India after Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019'

#10:50 am: Indian Union Muslim League To Challenge CAB In Supreme Court: Amid the massive protests in the Northeast India, the Indian Union Muslim League on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019.

#10:30 am: Ranji Trophy games in Guwahati, Agartala suspended: Day four proceedings of the Ranji Trophy games in Guwahati and Agartala were on Thursday suspended due to the curfew imposed in the region following protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

#10:25 am: Adjournment Motion Notice In Lok Sabha over unrest in north east: Congress MPs Adhir Ranjan Chaudhry, K Suresh and Gaurav Gogoi have given Adjournment Motion Notice in Lok Sabha, over 'unrest in north eastern states & law & order situation'

#10:20 am: Indigo flights to/from Dibrugarh cancelled: "Due to prevailing situation in Assam, flights to/from Dibrugarh are cancelled for today (12th Dec, 2019); flyers can choose an alternate flight or get a refund," IndiGo said in a statement.

#10:15 am: Kolkata Airport Official: All flights have been cancelled from Kolkata (West Bengal) to Dibrugarh sector (Assam).

#10:10 am: Congress MP Ripun Bora has given 'Suspension of Business Notice' in Rajya Sabha under rule 267, over 'current situation of Assam and northeast region'

#10:05 am: People defy curfew to hit streets against CAB: The people defied curfew in Guwahati on Thursday morning to protest against the Citizen (Amendment) Bill as the situation remained tense throughout Assam, with the Army conducting flag march in the city. Guwahati, the epicentre of anti-CAB protests, was placed under indefinite curfew last night.

#10:00 am: PM Modi issues statement assuring people of Assam: I want to assure my brothers and sisters of Assam that they have nothing to worry after the passing of CAB. I want to assure them- no one can take away your rights, unique identity and beautiful culture. It will continue to flourish and grow. The Central Government and I are totally committed to constitutionally safeguard the political, linguistic, cultural and land rights of the Assamese people as per the spirit of Clause 6. The Central Government and I are totally committed to constitutionally safeguard the political, linguistic, cultural and land rights of the Assamese people as per the spirit of Clause 6.

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Established in 2013, Aligarh Muslim Universitys Kishanganj (AMU-K) centre in Bihar is without proper funds for many years now.

Sami Ahmad | TwoCircles.net

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BIHAR  As finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget 2022 on Tuesday, a Twitter campaign for the release of funds for Aligarh Muslim Universitys Kishanganj (AMU-K) centre in Bihar took social media by storm.

On January 27, there were more than two and a half lakhs tweets with hashtag #FundForAMUKishanganj. The hashtag was among Twitters top trends. Parliamentarians Asaduddin Owaisi, Shashi Tharoor and BJP MLC Dilip Jaiswal tweeted in favour of the demand for funds for this centre apart from educational bodies such as SIO of India, Rashtriya Ulema Council and Education Bihar.

Story behind the trend

AMU-K was established in 2013 on the recommendation of the Sachar Committee along with two other centres in Malappuram (Kerala) and Murshidabad (West Bengal). The centre was deemed to play a pivotal role in the educational upliftment of this only Muslim majority district of Bihar. It is estimated that around 25,000 students will benefit from the centre once its fully functional.

However, lack of funds has impeded the working of this centre. In 2014, the UPA government approved Rs. 136 crores for the centre. Out of this, Rs 10 crore were released by the NDA government in 2015.

People associated with the institute are now demanding the release of the pending funds.

On January 24, a tweet on AMU-Ks Twitter said a Twitter storm will take place with hashtag #FundForAMUKishanganj to appeal to the Union government to release funds for the institute.

On January 27, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted that the delay in releasing funds for AMU-K was a deliberate neglect and asked why is Seemanchal being ignored. Owaisi said that in 2017, he wrote a letter to the then HRD minister for the release of funds and in March last year he demanded a sanction of Rs. 500 crores for the institute.

Have repeatedly raised the demand for #FundForAMUKishanganj. But theres been no action. Why is Seemanchal being ignored? @PMOIndia @naqvimukhtar have done nothing for educational empowerment of Muslims. Deliberate neglecthttps://t.co/rRawyDVcdi  Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) January 27, 2022

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor wrote, I support for fund, and that the overall budget approved in 2014 has still not come through.

Apart from releasing a video message, BJPs MLC Dilip Jaiswal tweeted Govt. should consider for AMU fund.

Local M.P. Dr Mohmmad Jawaid has been vocal about the issue and appealed to netizens to join this Twitter storm.

National President of Tipu Sultan Party, Prof. Shaikh Sadeque tweeted, The branch of AMU Kishanganj is the future of the entire Seemanchal, the government should release fund.

The branch of AMU Kishanganj is the educational future of the entire Seemanchal, government should release funds#FundForAMUKishanganj  Prof Shaikh Sadeque   (@TSP_President) January 27, 2022

Social activists from the region believe that once the centre starts functioning, it will be a big boost for Kishanganj, considered the most backward district of Bihar. They believe that in addition to catering to aspiring students in Seemanchal region and Bihar, youth from Jharkhand and neighbouring West Bengal districts will also benefit from the centre.

NMCG hurdle to start work

At present, the proposed centre of AMU-K is restricted to a few buildings at Millat chowk of Kishanganj. Although the Bihar government has provided 24 acres of land, the construction was first stopped by the National Green Tribunal and now the case is pending with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).

Following a complaint by one local Manjhi Pragnas Abhen Baise, the environment clearance for the proposed centre at Chakla, eight kilometres from Kishanganj town, is stuck with the NCGM.

Need for sanction of posts

Dr Hasan Imam, director of AMU-K told TwoCircles.net that there were two important requirements to run this centre. One is the proper sanction of posts both for teaching and non-teaching staff and clearance from NMCG, he said.

Dr Imam said that at present only one course is taught at the centre by a guest faculty (seven teachers in total) who are being paid from AMU resources and fee collection.

For us, an ideal situation is one where the posts for permanent teachers are sanctioned and we are able to have enough funds to pay them, he said.

Initially, this centre had two residential courses viz B.Ed. and M.B.A. The B.Ed course was discontinued after two batches because the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) did not recognise the course.

The case is pending in Patna High Court.

What next?

Local journalist Hasan Jawed, who was active during the Twitter campaign, was happy to see the online buzz about the institute. It was great to see this trending for around four hours.

Shah Faisal, a social activist in Kishanganj was content to see the issue getting highlighted. He expressed his satisfaction that the issue had attracted such huge support on Twitter. Now, it is up to the government to pay attention to this demand for the fund as it would help the entire region, Faisal said.

He said that the government should see NITI Aayogs report on the backwardness of Kishanganj. We dont have proper government educational institutions after class 10, which affects the girl students the most, he said. If we dont get the funds released in the coming budget, we will hit the streets and protest.

Sami Ahmad is a journalist based in Patna, Bihar. He tweets at @samipkb.
Local officials in Tripoli revealed that a group of 165 illegal migrants were voluntarily deported from Libya to their home nation of Niger.

"A flight took off from Misurata City to Niger for the voluntary return of 165 illegal migrants, including women and children, after the head of the Illegal Migration Control Department approved it," Hussain al-Turki, head of the Misurata International Airport's Illegal Migrants' Deportation Department, told the media.

According to al-Turki, the deportation was conducted in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The International Organization for Migration's Voluntary Humanitarian Repatriation programme organizes the return of illegal immigrants stuck in Libya to their home countries.

Illegal immigrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach European shores have frequently used Libya as a point of departure. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 32,425 illegal migrants were rescued and returned to Libya in 2021, while 662 perished and 891 others went missing off the Libyan coast on the Central Mediterranean route.

United States: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announces retirement

Bangaluru: Bangladeshi Woman Who Stayed As Hindu For 15 Yrs Arrested

Sweden approves a plan for a final nuclear waste repository.
Ahmedabad: In Gujarat, adjoining the Arabian Sea, fishermen from neighbouring Pakistan continue to be arrested when they cross the Indian border. One such recent case has come to light from the Sir Creek area. The Border Security Force (BSF) has arrested a Pakistani fisherman and seized three Pakistani fishing boats.

According to the public relations office of the BSF Gujarat Frontier, the Pakistani fishermen managed to escape to the Pak territory by taking advantage of the mud and marshy terrain in the Sir Creek area. In fact, there is no clear demarcation of the maritime boundary in the Arabian Sea. In such a situation, the fishermen inference enter the border of another country. Similarly, in the latest case, some Pakistani fishermen had entered the Indian border.

Recently, Pakistani maritime security agency personnel had opened fire on a fishing boat in the Arabian Sea in the offshore area of Gujarat, killing one crew member and injuring another one.

Freefire game addiction crossed limits, minors stole gold-cash from their own house

Fact Check of Nasir Sheikh's video, 'RSS and VHP people are getting Muslims to flee'

'Call rape an accident, will get a lot of money..,' gang-rape victim accuses Rajasthan police
On the back of Mohammed Salah, Egypt made a comeback after falling behind, defeating Morocco 2-1 in extra time to advance to their place in the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations. Seven-time champions Egypt will face Cameroon on Thursday. Salah has scored one goal as well as assisted in the other. The Egyptian team was trailing 1-0 by the time. Sofiane Boufl scored on a penalty in the 7th minute to give Morocco the lead, which has managed till the interval.

After the interval, Egypt took an aggressive stance which has benefited from it. Salah scored with a header in the 53rd minute to give Egypt a one-on-one draw. After all this, no team could score a goal till the scheduled time and the match was stretched to extra time.

In the 100th minute, On Salah's pass, Trezeguet scored a goal to give Egypt a 2-1 victory. According to media reports, since his debut in 2017, Salah has been involved in 64 percent of Egypt's Africa Cup goals. During this time, the team scored 14 goals, out of which 9 were scored by Salah.

Will the Modi government be able to give relief to the sports budget this time?

Federer, the first in 21 years, fell out of the top 20 for the first time.

ITTF: Manika Batra reaches top 50 in world rankings for singles event
Islamabad: A priest has been shot dead by fundamentalists in Pakistan's Peshawar city. The name of the slain pastor is said to be William Siraj. At the same time, the second pastor was injured in the attack. The name of the injured pastor is Patrick Nayeem. They were both coming back from the church. Police are on the lookout for the accused. The incident took place on January 30 (Sunday).

According to media reports, both the deceased and the injured were priests of the Peshawar church. It is a group of Protestant churches, including Methodists and Anglicans. Both the pastors were in the car during the incident. During this time, they opened fire on them on the Ring Road in Peshawar. William Siraj died on the spot. Police are on the lookout for the accused on the basis of CCTV footage in the area. The cause of the murder is not yet known. So far, no organization has claimed responsibility for the attack. The deceased belonged to the Christian community. Following the attack, Azad Marshall, the senior-most bishop of the Protestant Church in Pakistan, has demanded that the safety of Christians in Pakistan be ensured. He has also sought justice from the Imran Khan government.

Let us tell you that there is a long history of persecution and government persecution of the Christian community in Pakistan. On March 15, 2015, terrorists attacked the Roman Catholic Church in Lahore. In September 2020, a Lahore court had sentenced Asif Parvez of the Christian community to death after holding him guilty of blasphemy. With this, in May 2021, a 13-year-old minor Christian girl was molested in Gujranwala.

5-year-old innocent raped by 12-year-old minor, humanity shamed in UP

Punjab's IAS officer arrested for taking bribe of 2 lakhs

Two drug smugglers from Pakistan were apprehended in Kupwara
Kupwara: Jammu and Kashmir - On Monday, Kupwara police announced the arrest of two smugglers and the recovery of 500 grammes of heroin imported from Pakistan.

The two attempted to flee from a police naka, according to an official statement (checkpoint). Police team apprehended the duo after noticing suspicious movement and a deliberate intention to jump the naka. During a personal search, they discovered 230 gms of Heroin-like substance in Ishtiyaq Ahmad Qureshi, a resident of Taad, and 270 gms of the banned drug in Basharat Hussain Shah, a resident of Padna Taad Karnah.

According to prelimianry investigations, the drugs were brought to this side of the Line of Control by the couple in collusion with Pakistani nationals," the official notice states.

In Police Station Karnah, a FIR has been registered under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.In addition, the situation is still being investigated.

PMLA court reserves order on Eknath Khadse's son-in-law's bail plea till Feb 9

Darrang police seized two trucks loaded with cattle heads

Police found half-burnt dead body of husband and wife from forest
Russian delegation abruptly departs UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine 31 January, 22:04 Vasily Nebenzya, Russias Permanent Representative to the United Nations (Photo:president.tatarstan.ru)

In the middle of a UN Security Council meeting called by the United States on Jan. 31 to discuss the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, just as the Ukrainian delegate was about to speak, Vasily Nebenzya, Russias Permanent Representative to the United Nations, abruptly got up and left the meeting.

When Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraines Permanent Representative to the United Nations, took his place to speak, the Russian delegation suddenly stood up and exited the chamber, claiming that they had a previously unannounced prior appointment.

Before that, the meeting had included tense exchanges between the Russian and U.S. sides, with the U.S. side pointing out the disinformation being spread by the Russian side, and the Russians once again pushing forward the discredited narrative that the U.S. assisted in allowing nationalists, radicals, Russophobes and pure Nazis to take power in Ukraine.

 

Nebenzya once again denied knowledge of any Russian plans to invade Ukraine, claiming that the United States was responsible for the military escalation thats seen over 100,000 Russian troops mass on the Ukrainian border.

"You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen. You're waiting for it to happen as if you want to make your words become a reality, Nebenzya said, accusing the United States of being behind the tensions  despite Russia rebuffing all diplomatic efforts by Ukraine and its partner countries to attempt a diplomatic resolution to the crisis.

The U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Russia was attempting, without any factual basis, to paint Ukraine and Western countries as the aggressors to fabricate a pretext for attack.

In comments to press following the meeting, Kyslytsya said that Russia was setting a Kafka(esque) trap for Ukraine, attempting to ensure that any Ukrainian action could be misconstrued as a provocation for war.

Since the end of October 2021, Russia has been massing troops close to the Ukrainian border.

Russia has since deployed more than 130,000 troops and offensive weapons near the Ukrainian border and in the temporarily occupied parts of the country, according to the latest intelligence estimate by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

International media have speculated that Russia may invade Ukraine in early 2022, in an operation that could involve up to 200,000 Russian soldiers.

The situation on Ukraine's eastern border is a matter of deep concern for both U.S. and European officials. According to U.S. President Joe Biden, the White House is looking at a range of options to dissuade Russia from attacking Ukraine.

Biden has defined these measures as the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to go ahead and do what people believe he may do.

While Russia has denied plans to invade, it has also refused to provide assurances that it would not do so, instead issuing its demand for so-called security guarantees to the United States and NATO.

Prompted by the looming threat of a new Russian offensive against Ukraine, the United States and Ukraines other partner countries have begun to supply Kyiv with weapons.

The United States sees indications that Russia is preparing for a major offensive against Ukraine by mid-February, according to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

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UK foreign secretary skips Ukraine trip after positive COVID test 1 February, 12:02 UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss. (Photo:Handout via REUTERS)

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will not now visit Ukraine on Feb. 1 after testing positive for COVID-19 the previous evening and going into self-isolation.

Truss was due to travel to Ukraine with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a show of support for the country amid the looming threat of further Russian invasion.

Thankfully Ive had my three jabs and will be working from home while I isolate, Truss tweeted on Jan. 31.

PM Johnson is still expected to visit without the foreign secretary, and his agenda will include a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the on-going Russian military buildup on the Ukrainian border.

 

Russia has deployed more than 130,000 troops and offensive weapons near the Ukrainian border and in the temporarily occupied territories, according to the latest intelligence estimate from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

International media have speculated that Russia may invade Ukraine in early 2022, in an operation that could involve up to 200,000 Russian soldiers.

Russian troops have also been deployed to Belarus, as part of previously unscheduled military exercises. However, Russian equipment has been spotted along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, far from the declared zone of the exercise area.

According to UK military intelligence data, Russia has drafted a plan for a lightning attack on Ukraine. At the same time, Head of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said that a full-fledged Russian invasion of Ukraine would require over one million Russian troops.

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In countries that follow the Westminster model, the upper house of the parliament holds a lot of importance. It is a place that gives space to people with experience. In countries like the United Kingdom and India, the upper house members are experts in various fields. These people are more than just politicians; they are prominent people who have given a lot to the country during their lifetime. But in Nepal, the case is different with the National Assembly, the upper house of the bicameral parliament failing to do that role.

Mohamad Khalid Siddiqui was elected a member of the National Assembly on January 26. He did not get elected due to his work in the field of politics but because he had a good relationship with Janata Samajbadi Party chair Upendra Yadav.

He has been active in politics for quite some time and has been part of almost all the protests taking place in Madhes. During this time, he got close to Yadav and since 2003 has not left his side. To reward him, Yadav, time and again has been recommending his name for proportional representation seats of the House of Representatives, but Siddiqui was yet to win. Nonetheless, this year, as the coalition had a stronghold in provincial parliaments and local units that would elect National Assembly members, Siqqudis luck turned around as he got a seat.

This is a recurring issue in Nepals politics where people, based on their connections, land positions in the National Assembly. The record is so poor that there have been people who are questioning the existence of the upper house.

Get close to leaders to get a seat

In the past three years, National Assembly members were elected without adhering to the constitution. The people elected to the National Assembly are those who are close to powerful politicians of the country and those who have time and again lost direct elections.

According to the constitution, the upper house should have 59 members. To ensure equal representation, each province has to elect eight members each with three being appointed by the president. The vision was to have people from different fields and skills there. But, the vision has not been followed as these appointments are mostly political.

File: A National Assembly meeting

Cases like Siddiqui are plenty in Nepal. Udaya Bahadur Bohara recently became a part of the National Assembly from Karnali. But, Bohara has never been a successful politician ever in his life. He has lost the parliamentary elections twice and his former party (CPN-UML)s general convention once. Despite this, he keeps getting chance after chance due to his close connection with Madhav Kumar Nepal, the chairman of CPN-Unified Socialist.

That is how Krishna Prasad Paudel also got into the National Assembly. He used his connections with prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to get into the upper house.

Gopal Kumar Basnet is also a close aide of Deuba and got into the National Assembly are winning his seat via a lottery after votes were tied in Province 1.

Kamala Panta got into the upper house after losing the post of deputy general secretary in the Nepali Congress central committee. To ensure this would not affect the party negatively, Nepali Congress made sure that she got into the National Assembly.

These people have the expertise to be elected in the house. But sadly, none of them is elected because of their work. The reason they were nominated and subsequently got elected was the connection with powerful people. This, experts claim, sets bad precedence which in the future will discourage people.

The losers house

Narayan Kaji Shrestha after being declared a winner of the National Assembly elections on Thursday, January 23, 2020.

The past four years of the National Assembly paint a bad picture. The people who were elected have been found ditching the constitution, law and morality.

After losing in the general elections in 2017, Narayan Kaji Shrestha still got elected into the National Assembly in 2020. After he was elected, many people criticised him, and it resulted in him announcing that he would not take any salary from the position. But after a year, he has availed all the services that are given to him.

Another senior leader who lost the general elections but got himself into the upper house is Bamdev Gautam who was appointed by the president.

Soon after Gautams appointment, writ petitions were registered at the Supreme Court against Gautam claiming that someone who had lost the general elections should be allowed to be in the upper house in the same term as it would send a bad message to the people. The court is yet to give its verdict.

It is not just the general elections; people who have lost the local elections are also getting into the upper house. Singh Bahadur Biswakarma, who had lost the local elections in April 2017, managed to get into the upper house thanks to the stronghold erstwhile Nepal Communist Party had in Sindhupalchok.

Bimala Ghimire and Bhagawati Neupane who both lost mayoral elections in Banganga and Bhanu municipalities respectively are also members of the upper house.

Senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi says that nominating people who had previously lost in the general elections shows how much control politicians have over the upper house. He says there should be a rule that makes these people ineligible from being part of the upper house.

Nepals politics is centred around politicians not the constitution and that creates a divide, says Tripathi. These politicians have a selfish motive and that is why people who shouldnt be eligible are being elected. I dont see why Nepal even has a national assembly.

Bad precedents from the past

As per the 1990 constitution, 10 National Assembly members were appointed by the king upon the governments recommendation. During the time, Nepali Congress was in power. When suggesting names, the top leaders of the Nepali CongressKrishna Prasad Bhattarai, Ganesh Man Singh and Girija Prasad Koiralawere not on the same page. All three wanted their people in the house, but the number of seats was not enough.

After this, Koirala, disregarding Bhattarai and Singh, gave the king the names of the people he wanted. Those names were endorsed by the king and that is how the upper house began in Nepal.

That started the trend of appointing people upper house members from the pocket. After Koirala, the king then himself appointed people from his pocket.

Despite the king being overthrown and republicanism being established in the country, this trend did not stop as people are being nominated for the National Assembly seats from the politicians pockets.

Former general secretary of the Parliament Secretariat, Surya Kiran Gurung, says this is one of the main reasons why experienced and capable people have not been members of the upper house.

When senior leaders do this, these people will be indebted to them. And, that is not good. It hurts the integrity of the upper house, says Gurung.

He accuses the upper house members of working on behalf of the parties and not for the country as they spend most time bickering about the opposition parties rather than doing what they should be doing.

I dont understand why we need the upper house. These people arent experts and do nothing but defend party members. Apart from a few, everyone is in the pocket of someone. If we want it to work effectively, we need to stop this trend, says Gurung.

Recently, the upper house is inactive due to problems in the lower house. But, experts say when that is happening, it is the upper house that should take lead and put things right. Instead, all the upper house talks about recently is the House of Representatives.

The weak constitution

Then-President Ram Baran Yadav greets the constitution as he announces its commencement on September 20, 2015.

The constitution has also not given the upper house much power. The decision taken by the upper house can easily be disregarded by the lower house. But on the contrary, the decision made by the lower house, in some way, has to be accepted by the upper house.

According to article 110 of the constitution, a bill may be introduced in any house of the parliament. But, the finance bill can only be introduced in the House of Representatives. After discussions at the lower house, the bill is taken to the upper house. Even if the upper house recommends suggestions, the lower house does not have to make changes to the bill.

Other bills can be introduced in both the upper and the lower houses. They have to be ratified by both the houses. While the lower can take time on its ratification, the upper only has two months to approve it. If the upper house does not approve or send suggestions, the lower house can send the bill directly to the president for approval.

There is a provision for a joint meeting of both houses if they cannot come to an agreement. But, in such a meeting too, the National Assembly is likely to lose as its strength is low.

There are so many examples in the constitution that shows how weak the upper house is.

Former general secretary Gurung says it was about time that the National Assembly became relevant and show why it is important.

For that to happen, the majority of people in it should be experts in different fields. This practice should start as soon as possible, says Gurung. If we dont do this, the upper house will lose its relevance.
NoOps with automation, intelligence and self-healing capabilities enables an enterprise to be efficient AND agile and contribute on their path to growth AND profitability

NoOps literally means 'no operations'. This refers to an approach that involves the complete automation of IT operational tasks to such an extent that internal, dedicated operations teams focused on managing the under-lying environment are eliminated. One way to think of this would be the 2016 science fiction film, Passengers. From my perspective, this film provides an ideal look at NoOps. It tells the story about the spaceship Avalon, which is on a 120-year space journey to colonize a new planet. It navigates by itself, monitors itself, heals itself, monitors human activity & inactivity, and it keeps the hibernating humans safe, all without any human supervision. The ultimate of intelligent automation and the ideal NoOps scenario. There entire film is shot without any ship crew shown throughout! Well almost.Now coming back to earth. Essentially, what NoOps means is that the environment and the associated automation for managing the runtime of applications would be such that an enterprise and its application developers would not need to worry about standing-up infrastructure components and managing them. The developers just focus on core business capability required in applications to meet user needs.It does not mean that no one will perform operations of the underlying environment needed to support the application. There will surely be compute, storage and other components that need to be managed, but all that is automated and invisible from the point of view of the enterprise and its application developers.Now, what if something were to go wrong? If the environment and the applications could heal themselves, then you have NoOps. In other words, NoOps is a journey where the goal is to automate the operations function to such an extent that no human intervention is needed to run the operations, from the enterprise point of view.In my view, NoOps is a means to an end, but not an end in itself. What we are really interested in is building systems that can be fully automated, intelligent, and self-healing. This means putting in place two important mechanisms into the environment of applications. One is 'automation' to deploy applications and manage the underlying infrastructure, and the other is the 'intelligence' to detect need for changes and apply them.As of now, NoOps is only at the beginning of a long journey in terms of having solutions in place for self-healing. We need to put in place software and soft-ware defined hardware that can provide 'intelligent' data about itself. Through machine learning techniques, we have already begun to build systems that pull together operational data in solutions such as Splunk, run analytics and take some level of corrective action.NoOps involves plenty of automation both at development time and runtime. If you observe the automation going on in the development side through Devops, a fully automated, end-to-end automation is beginning to take shape in several enterprises. On the runtime as well, cloud providers, for example, have taken most of the operations out for cloud-based solutions from the point of view of the enterprise. There is still a lot of journey to cover for enterprises to automate end-to-end for all solutions and build intelligence & self-healing capability to reach the goal of NoOps. So, while enterprises go for the goal of NoOps, many of them will have to take a practical view on how far they should go with it. Ultimately, it should make business sense!At the highest level, I believe enterprises are interested in both growth and profitability. NoOps with automation, intelligence and self-healing capabilities enables an enterprise to be efficient & agile and contribute on their path to growth & profitability. It therefore makes sense for enterprises to look at NoOps closely.NoOps is outsourcing of operations from the point of view of business of an enterprise. From the point of view of IT of an enterprise, adopting NoOps means that IT only needs to focus on development side automation and management to support the business. The runtime environment of a NoOps enterprise is such that it is auto-mated and self-managed and typically outsourced. This is easier said than done.But then, No-Ops is a journey towards an ideal goal. It means a lot of change in the enterprise. Like removing bottle necks in traffic, it is an on-going journey. When you clear a bottleneck, the traffic jam moves to some other point, which you must fix. The same is true with NoOps in an enterprise. It needs consistent management attention otherwise the returns will not justify the investment.I think an enterprise should focus on three areas:Clear Strategy towards NoOps and investment is required to build and standardize on the necessary tools for building automation on development side and outsourcing the runtime environment.NoOps is not a big-bang event, but rather a journey, and the enterprise management must commit to a journey for at least a period of at least three to five years.As part of a NoOps initiative, an enterprise can look at starting a NoOps Enabling Center that helps to create the core NoOps champions, who can guide and advise the rest of the enterprise, to be aligned with the NoOps strategy.


Dr Kafeel Khan was in Hyderabad on January 27 to release his book The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy: A Doctors Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis. TwoCircles.net correspondent Nikhat Fatima caught up with Dr Kafeel for a brief chat about his book, and much more.

Below are the edited excerpts:

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We have been reading about your trials and tribulations in the media for some time. What is new in your book that we dont know of?

In the book, I have written about all the people who are part of my story. This includes my family, colleagues, the politicians, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the patients whom I treated, their mothers and so on. I have mentioned the timeline from 2017 till 2020. The book contains all those details and images which are evidence of my innocence and the corruption in the medical system. It has the stories of all those mothers who lost their children and are still waiting for justice. People dont know about their sufferings. I have written the story of each child and how I turned from a hero to a villain in just 48 hours.

I have documented the tsunami of deaths, lack of oxygen during Covid-19, and deaths in BRD (Baba Raghav Das Medical College) due to lack of oxygen. People dont know all the details. My story is known in bits and pieces. This book tells everything in minute detail.

Do you think you were targeted for being a Muslim doctor?

People ask me if I have been targeted for being a Muslim. Well, the truth is that the government wanted to absolve itself of its responsibility and the consequences of its negligence. They were looking for a scapegoat. Another conspiracy was brewing within the party to dislodge the chief minister. Had it been Dr Kafeel Mishra or Dr Kafeel John, he too would have met the same fate. However, I must say it is easy to sell a story when the name is Khan.

You have not been reinstated in service even after being acquitted. What are you doing about it?

There were eight of us who were jailed for that unfortunate tragedy. The seven have been released and exempted except me. Earlier, the government cited the reason that I had given an inflammatory speech during the anti-CAA movement. Now they have a new reason for terminating me after the clean chit from the Allahabad High Court. They have stated in the termination letter that I was doing private practice in 2014. I was appointed at BRD in 2016 so what I did in 2014 is immaterial.

I am fighting it out in court. It is no longer about the job but about fighting for truth and justice.

How do you see the support you have received?

While in jail I felt alone and often cried in despair praying to Allah asking What was my fault, why was I jailed when all I did was try to save the lives of little children. My aged mother and my wife also suffered because of me. After my release, as I stepped out there were thousands of people holding Welcome Back Dr Kafeel placards and among them were parents who had lost their children. It was overwhelming. People who believe in justice have raised my voice and supported me throughout.

Earlier, I didnt have much awareness about human rights, Dalit rights violations, CAA, NRC, but after being in jail for 500 days, I learnt about all these atrocities and I learned to speak for others.

Do you have plans to contest the upcoming elections?

I have a program in Bangalore tomorrow and in other places the next day. If I was contesting the elections what would I be doing here? Wouldnt I be in Gorakhpur preparing for political rallies? On a serious note, I am ready to contest elections from Gorakhpur if any party gives me the ticket.

If you did contest elections, would it not lead to a division amongst voters?

No, I dont think so. If I contest elections I will meet Akhilesh ji, Chandrashekhar ji and others and ensure there will be no division amongst the voters. It will be just me and Yogi ji (the current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh).

Tell us about your Health for All campaign?

We launched the Health for All campaign in 2019. The campaign focuses on access to health care for everyone irrespective of their financial status, age, caste, religion, region, gender. We believe that affordable, quality health care should be provided for all citizens. Very little is allotted to healthcare by our government and I want that this amount should be increased so that we have all the vacancies filled up, and hospitals especially primary health centres in rural places are better equipped. We, health activists, have been meeting political parties to push this campaign and emphasize the need for prioritizing health care.

Nikhat Fatima is a correspondent with TwoCircles.net. She tweets at @snikhatf
Human rights organization calls for "drastic change in the international communitys approach"

Ottawa ON, London UK, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Israeli authorities must be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, Amnesty International said today in a damning new report. The investigation details how Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever it has control over their rights. This includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees in other countries.



The comprehensive report, Israels Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity, sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law. This system is maintained by violations which Amnesty International found to constitute apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention.



Amnesty International is calling on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider the crime of apartheid in its current investigation in the OPT and calls on all states to exercise universal jurisdiction to bring perpetrators of apartheid crimes to justice.

Our report reveals the true extent of Israels apartheid regime. Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights. We found that Israels cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid. The international community has an obligation to act, said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty Internationals Secretary General.

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There is no possible justification for a system built around the institutionalized and prolonged racist oppression of millions of people. Apartheid has no place in our world, and states which choose to make allowances for Israel will find themselves on the wrong side of history. Governments who continue to supply Israel with arms and shield it from accountability at the UN are supporting a system of apartheid, undermining the international legal order, and exacerbating the suffering of the Palestinian people. The international community must face up to the reality of Israels apartheid, and pursue the many avenues to justice which remain shamefully unexplored.

Amnesty Internationals findings build on a growing body of work by Palestinian, Israeli and international NGOs, who have increasingly applied the apartheid framework to the situation in Israel and/or the OPT.



Identifying apartheid

A system of apartheid is an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination by one racial group over another. It is a serious human rights violation which is prohibited in public international law. Amnesty Internationals extensive research and legal analysis, carried out in consultation with external experts, demonstrates that Israel enforces such a system against Palestinians through laws, policies and practices which ensure their prolonged and cruel discriminatory treatment.

In international criminal law, specific unlawful acts which are committed within a system of oppression and domination, with the intention of maintaining it, constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid. These acts are set out in the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute, and include unlawful killing, torture, forcible transfer, and the denial of basic rights and freedoms.

Amnesty International documented acts proscribed in the Apartheid Convention and Rome Statute in all the areas Israel controls, although they occur more frequently and violently in the OPT than in Israel. Israeli authorities enact multiple measures to deliberately deny Palestinians their basic rights and freedoms, including draconian movement restrictions in the OPT, chronic discriminatory underinvestment in Palestinian communities in Israel, and the denial of refugees right to return. The report also documents forcible transfer, administrative detention, torture, and unlawful killings, in both Israel and the OPT.

Amnesty International found that these acts form part of a systematic and widespread attack directed against the Palestinian population, and are committed with the intent to maintain the system of oppression and domination. They therefore constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid.

The unlawful killing of Palestinian protesters is perhaps the clearest illustration of how Israeli authorities use proscribed acts to maintain the status quo. In 2018, Palestinians in Gaza began to hold weekly protests along the border with Israel, calling for the right of return for refugees and an end to the blockade. Before protests even began, senior Israeli officials warned that Palestinians approaching the wall would be shot. By the end of 2019, Israeli forces had killed 214 civilians, including 46 children.

In light of the systematic unlawful killings of Palestinians documented in its report, Amnesty International is also calling for the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel. This should cover all weapons and munitions as well as law enforcement equipment, given the thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been unlawfully killed by Israeli forces. The Security Council should also impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials most implicated in the crime of apartheid.

Palestinians treated as a demographic threat

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued a policy of establishing and then maintaining a Jewish demographic majority, and maximizing control over land and resources to benefit Jewish Israelis. In 1967, Israel extended this policy to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Today, all territories controlled by Israel continue to be administered with the purpose of benefiting Jewish Israelis to the detriment of Palestinians, while Palestinian refugees continue to be excluded.

Amnesty International recognizes that Jews, like Palestinians, claim a right to self-determination, and does not challenge Israels desire to be a home for Jews. Similarly, it does not consider that Israel labelling itself a Jewish state in itself indicates an intention to oppress and dominate.

However, Amnesty Internationals report shows that successive Israeli governments have considered Palestinians a demographic threat, and imposed measures to control and decrease their presence and access to land in Israel and the OPT. These demographic aims are well illustrated by official plans to Judaize areas of Israel and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which continue to put thousands of Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer.

Oppression without borders

The 1947-49 and 1967 wars, Israels ongoing military rule of the OPT, and the creation of separate legal and administrative regimes within the territory, have separated Palestinian communities and segregated them from Jewish Israelis. Palestinians have been fragmented geographically and politically, and experience different levels of discrimination depending on their status and where they live.

Palestinian citizens in Israel currently enjoy greater rights and freedoms than their counterparts in the OPT, while the experience of Palestinians in Gaza is very different to that of those living in the West Bank. Nonetheless, Amnesty Internationals research shows that all Palestinians are subject to the same overarching system. Israels treatment of Palestinians across all areas is pursuant to the same objective: to privilege Jewish Israelis in distribution of land and resources, and to minimize the Palestinian presence and access to land.

Amnesty International demonstrates that Israeli authorities treat Palestinians as an inferior racial group who are defined by their non-Jewish, Arab status. This racial discrimination is cemented in laws which affect Palestinians across Israel and the OPT.

For example, Palestinian citizens of Israel are denied a nationality, establishing a legal differentiation from Jewish Israelis. In the West Bank and Gaza, where Israel has controlled the population registry since 1967, Palestinians have no citizenship and most are considered stateless, requiring ID cards from the Israeli military to live and work in the territories. Palestinian refugees and their descendants, who were displaced in the 1947-49 and 1967 conflicts, continue to be denied the right to return to their former places of residence. Israels exclusion of refugees is a flagrant violation of international law which has left millions in a perpetual limbo of forced displacement.

Palestinians in annexed East Jerusalem are granted permanent residence instead of citizenship  though this status is permanent in name only. Since 1967, more than 14,000 Palestinians have had their residency revoked at the discretion of the Ministry of the Interior, resulting in their forcible transfer outside the city.

Lesser citizens

Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise about 19% of the population, face many forms of institutionalized discrimination. In 2018, discrimination against Palestinians was crystallized in a constitutional law which, for the first time, enshrined Israel exclusively as the nation state of the Jewish people. The law also promotes the building of Jewish settlements and downgrades Arabics status as an official language.

The report documents how Palestinians are effectively blocked from leasing on 80% of Israels state land, as a result of racist land seizures and a web of discriminatory laws on land allocation, planning and zoning.

The situation in the Negev/Naqab region of southern Israel is a prime example of how Israels planning and building policies intentionally exclude Palestinians. Since 1948 Israeli authorities have adopted various policies to Judaize the Negev/Naqab, including designating large areas as nature reserves or military firing zones, and setting targets for increasing the Jewish population. This has had devastating consequences for the tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins who live in the region.

Thirty-five Bedouin villages, home to about 68,000 people, are currently unrecognizedby Israel, which means they are cut off from the national electricity and water supply and targeted for repeated demolitions. As the villages have no official status, their residents also face restrictions on political participation and are excluded from the healthcare and education systems. These conditions have coerced many into leaving their homes and villages, in what amounts to forcible transfer. Decades of deliberately unequal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel have left them consistently economically disadvantaged in comparison to Jewish Israelis. This is exacerbated by blatantly discriminatory allocation of state resources: a recent example is the governments Covid-19 recovery package, of which just 1.7% was given to Palestinian local authorities.

Dispossession

The dispossession and displacement of Palestinians from their homes is a crucial pillar of Israels apartheid system. Since its establishment the Israeli state has enforced massive and cruel land seizures against Palestinians, and continues to implement myriad laws and policies to force Palestinians into small enclaves. Since 1948, Israel has demolished hundreds of thousands of Palestinian homes and other properties across all areas under its jurisdiction and effective control.

As in the Negev/Naqab, Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Area C of the OPT live under full Israeli control. The authorities deny building permits to Palestinians in these areas, forcing them to build illegal structures which are demolished again and again.

In the OPT, the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements exacerbates the situation. The construction of these settlements in the OPT has been a government policy since 1967. Settlements today cover 10% of the land in the West Bank, and some 38% of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem was expropriated between 1967 and 2017.

Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem are frequently targeted by settler organizations which, with the full backing of the Israeli government, work to displace Palestinian families and hand their homes to settlers. One such neighbourhood, Sheikh Jarrah, has been the site of frequent protests since May 2021 as families battle to keep their homes under the threat of a settler lawsuit.

Draconian movement restrictions

Since the mid-1990s Israeli authorities have imposed increasingly stringent movement restrictions on Palestinians in the OPT. A web of military checkpoints, roadblocks, fences and other structures controls the movement of Palestinians within the OPT, and restricts their travel into Israel or abroad.

A 700km fence, which Israel is still extending, has isolated Palestinian communities inside military zones, and they must obtain multiple special permits any time they enter or leave their homes. In Gaza, more than 2 million Palestinians live under an Israeli blockade which has created a humanitarian crisis. It is near-impossible for Gazans to travel abroad or into the rest of the OPT, and they are effectively segregated from the rest of the world.

For Palestinians, the difficulty of travelling within and in and out of the OPT is a constant reminder of their powerlessness. Their every move is subject to the Israeli militarys approval, and the simplest daily task means navigating a web of violent control, said Agnes Callamard.

The permit system in the OPT is emblematic of Israels brazen discrimination against Palestinians. While Palestinians are locked in a blockade, stuck for hours at checkpoints, or waiting for yet another permit to come through, Israeli citizens and settlers can move around as they please.

Amnesty International examined each of the security justifications which Israel cites as the basis for its treatment of Palestinians. The report shows that, while some of Israels policies may have been designed to fulfil legitimate security objectives, they have been implemented in a grossly disproportionate and discriminatory way which fails to comply with international law. Other policies have absolutely no reasonable basis in security, and are clearly shaped by the intent to oppress and dominate.

The way forward

Amnesty International provides numerous specific recommendations for how the Israeli authorities can dismantle the apartheid system and the discrimination, segregation and oppression which sustain it.

The organization is calling for an end to the brutal practice of home demolitions and forced evictions as a first step. Israel must grant equal rights to all Palestinians in Israel and the OPT, in line with principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must recognize the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived, and provide victims of human rights violations and crimes against humanity with full reparations.

The scale and seriousness of the violations documented in Amnesty Internationals report call for a drastic change in the international communitys approach to the human rights crisis in Israel and the OPT. All states may exercise universal jurisdiction over persons reasonably suspected of committing the crime of apartheid under international law, and states that are party to the Apartheid Convention have an obligation to do so.

The international response to apartheid must no longer be limited to bland condemnations and equivocating. Unless we tackle the root causes, Palestinians and Israelis will remain locked in the cycle of violence which has destroyed so many lives, said Agnes Callamard.

Israel must dismantle the apartheid system and start treating Palestinians as human beings with equal rights and dignity. Until it does, peace and security will remain a distant prospect for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Please see the full report for detailed definition of apartheid in international law.

Attachments

CONTACT: Aalya Ahmad Amnesty International Canada English 613-744-7667 ext. 220 media@amnesty.ca Camille Ducroquet Amnistie Internationale Canada Francophone 514-766-9766 poste 5236 cducroquet@amnistie.ca Press Team Amnesty International Secretariat press@amnesty.org




Biggest Affordable Housing Development in Boston for Individuals Moving Out of Homelessness

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Barings, one of the world's leading investment managers, announced today that it has provided $53.5M in loan commitments to finance the development of 3368 Washington, an affordable multifamily housing development in Boston, MA. Upon completion, the nearly 1 acre development will cater to tenants with incomes ranging from 30% to 80% of Area Median Income (AMI). With 140 of its 220 units being set aside for those moving out of homelessness, the project represents the largest of its kind in Boston.

The 5-story building will have a mix of studios, 1 and 2 bedroom apartments and a ground floor community space. Amenities will include 24/7 front desk security, on-site management, on-site supportive services staff, two outdoor plaza areas, multi-purpose room, fitness rooms, laundry rooms on residential floors, parking garage with electric vehicle charging stations, and bicycle repair and storage.

The Community Builders (TCB) and Pine Street Inn (PSI) are co-sponsors of the $110M development that has a multi-tiered capital structure, with Barings providing more than $53M in loan commitments.

The 3368 Washington Street project received a diverse combination of public and private philanthropic support to finance the building construction, property operations, and resident services. Major project funders include the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development ($7 million of funding); Bank of America (more than $50 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) equity and over $60 million in construction financing); Barings/Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (more than $20 million in permanent financing, as well as over $33 million in tax-exempt bridge financing); the City of Boston Mayor's Office of Housing (more than $16 million of funding); the Community Preservation Act ($1.5 million); the HYM Investment Group ($5 million of linkage funding); MassDevelopment (more than $50 million in 4% LIHTC bond financing); the Commonwealth ($1.5 million of State Low Income Housing Tax Credits which generate $9.8 million in equity); the Community and Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) ( $4 million of Housing Innovation Funding), and $1 million from its Accelerating Investments in Healthy Communities Fund, courtesy of Boston Medical Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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The project was funded in part through the Boston's Way Home Fund, started by the City of Boston to create permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals. The Fund reached its $10 million goal two years ahead of schedule with lead donations from Bank of America, which helped launch the Fund, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Mass General Brigham, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), and Suffolk Cares, each of which committed $1 million. In addition to these funds, Pine Street Inn's overall housing expansion is being supported by a major grant from the Yawkey Foundation.

"Our long term commitment to finance affordable housing developments and help combat homelessness in communities across the nation is pivotal to our real estate lending and investment strategy," said Daron Tubian, Managing Director and Head of Affordable Housing Investments at Barings. "Our partnership with TCB and PSI, among all the other capital partners of this important housing project in Boston, is something that we will continue to expand on and leverage for other similar developments that do so much good for the City and its residents."

"We are providing rental housing that working families can afford and supportive housing many individuals need, steps away from public transit in the heart of Jamaica Plain," said Bart Mitchell, president, and CEO of The Community Builders. "We look forward to working with the community and our project partners to make this development a vibrant platform for educational and economic opportunity, where every resident can thrive. We are proud to make this development a model for creating permanent supportive housing at scale, with long-term services and sustainable design. This new approach to affordable housing addresses Boston's most pressing needs."

"Housing with support services that will help people rebuild their lives is how we will end homelessness," said Pine Street President and Executive Director Lyndia Downie. "Breaking ground, on what will be the largest housing development of its kind in Boston to date brings us one step closer to reaching the goal of ending homelessness. This could not come at a more critical time, as we grapple with a pandemic and housing crisis in the city. We look forward to housing 140 of Boston's most vulnerable individuals and providing them with the wraparound services they need to thrive. We are so grateful to the Jamaica Plain community who voiced such strong support for those who will be moving into this building."

"Bank of America Community Development Banking is pleased to provide more than $110 million to help finance the construction of much-needed affordable housing in Boston," said Mary Thompson, Senior Vice President for Community Development Banking at Bank of America. "The 3368 Washington Street development and the Pine Street Inn and The Community Builders partnership is a great example of the impact we can make to help the most vulnerable in our communities and demonstrates our continued commitment to support the communities where we work and live. We were happy to work with Barings on this important project."

Consistent with Barings' commitment to social impact, the property will be managed by TCB, with programs and services for residents provided by TCB's Community Life team, trained to connect families to healthcare, education, and employment. Additional supportive services for the 140 units for those moving out of homelessness will be provided by PSI.

About Barings

Barings is a $391+ billion* global investment manager sourcing differentiated opportunities and building long-term portfolios across public and private fixed income, real estate, and specialist equity markets. With investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, the firm, a subsidiary of MassMutual, aims to serve its clients, communities and employees, and is committed to sustainable practices and responsible investment. Learn more at www.barings.com.

*Assets under management as of December 31, 2021

Contact

Cheryl Krauss, Barings, 980-417-5858, Cheryl.Krauss@barings.com

22-2013552

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/barings-announces-53-5m-financing-for-3368-washington-301473014.html

SOURCE Barings
Cheslie Kryst; Rachel Slawson

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images; Robin Marchant/Getty Images Cheslie Kryst and Rachel Slawson

During her Miss USA reign, Cheslie Kryst went out of her way to support her fellow pageant queens, including former Miss Utah Rachel Slawson.

"Cheslie changed my life," Slawson, 26, tells PEOPLE of her mentor, who died of an apparent suicide on Sunday at the age of 30.

"Our whole class is completely devastated," she says. "I think everyone's in shock."

Their friendship began with an Instagram Live chat in June of 2020, when Slawson  the pageant's first openly bisexual contestant  was Miss Utah and Kryst was Miss USA.

Looking back on that conversation, Slawson recalls being moved by how much Kryst wanted "to help amplify" the importance of tending to one's mental health, which hasn't traditionally been "talked about in pageantry."

RELATED: Miss USA 2019 Cheslie Kryst Dies at 30: 'She Laughed and She Shined,' Says Family

It's a topic that hits home for Slawson, who says she survived two suicide attempts when she was a teenager. As an adult, she wanted to use her pageant platform to speak out and advocate for LGBTQ youth facing similar challenges. Kryst was there to cheer her on.

"I was so anxious in the months leading up to Miss USA. I was struggling with really bad depression at the time, and I was really in my head," Slawson says. "I just kept thinking, 'The Miss USA organization is never going to want someone like me who struggles with mental illness.' "

But Kryst  an attorney with an MBA and a social justice advocate  provided perspective.

"She told me, 'Rachel, I've struggled too,'" Slawson says.

Kryst explained to her that by being open and sharing her story, she was "making an impact" on the world, Slawson says.

Cheslie Kryst; Rachel Slawson

Miss USA Instagram Cheslie Kryst and Rachel Slawson doing Instagram live

At another point in their friendship, Kryst encouraged Slawson to be the first woman to wear pants at the Miss USA pageant, Slawson says: "She just reminded me that I had nothing to be afraid of."

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She also appreciated how Kryst respected her efforts to publicly discuss her queer identity.

"She took me aside to have a little conversation about that before the final crowning night," says Slawson. "I didn't end up winning, but it was still really comforting to know that she was there."

After the competition, the pair kept in contact via phone and text. They last exchanged messages about three months ago, when Slawson was in New York and the duo wanted to get together.

Cheslie Kryst attends the world premiere of "Like A Boss" at SVA Theater on January 07, 2020 in New York City.

Dia Dipasupil/WireImage Cheslie Kryst

RELATED: Warning Signs to Look for If You Are Concerned Someone Is Suicidal

Kryst's family is also remembering her for her legacy of compassion and kindness.

"In devastation and great sorrow, we share the passing of our beloved Cheslie," they said in a statement on Sunday. "Her great light was one that inspired others around the world with her beauty and strength. She cared, she loved, she laughed and she shined."

"Cheslie embodied love and served others, whether through her work as an attorney fighting for social justice, as Miss USA and as a host on Extra," Kryst's family added. "But most importantly, as a daughter, sister, friend, mentor and colleague  we know her impact will live on."

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
KIRIBATI-TARAWA-CHINA-COVID-19-VACCINE

A medical staff member prepares a dose of the Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine in Tarawa, Kiribati on Sept. 3, 2021. Credit - Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images

Throughout 2021, hotel workers and others in the tourism industry in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati had rigorous training on how to guard against COVID-19. The two-day course included lessons on proper hand-washing and how to put on and take off personal protective equipment (PPE). It ended with a testto ensure everyone was proficient.

It was almost like how you train surgeons when they do operations, says Petero Manufolau, the CEO of the Tourism Authority of Kiribati.

On Jan. 14, the first passenger plane for 10 months landed in the country, which is located about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. It may also be the last for the foreseeable future. The plane brought the first cases of COVID-19 to the country; more than two-thirds of the passengers tested positive. The flight subsequently set off a wave of COVID-19 cases in the archipelagos, where 120,000 people live across 33 islands with land area smaller than Rhode Island.

At the start of the pandemic, Kiribati slammed its borders closed. The government cracked borders open starting Jan. 10 to allow long-stranded citizens to return home, as well as workers providing technical assistance on the island. Manufolau says that although the government hadnt announced an official reopening date for tourism, the partial reopening had been seen as a trial run for allowing tourists back in.

For us it was the beginning of better things to come, he says. But instead, the priority for the government is to manage the current situation, so they havent gone as far as determining a resumption date for the flights.

Kiribatis outbreak after just one flight is emblematic of the struggle for many Pacific nations, which closed off to the world in an effort to protect their minuscule, or even nonexistent, health care resources from COVID-19. As the pandemic enters its third year, they are now weighing howor even whetherthey can restart tourism, which is vital for many Pacific economies.

Story continues

The tiny island nations in the Pacific Ocean have mostly kept COVID-19 out for two years. Lon TweetenTIME

COVID-19 cases go kaboom

Thirty-six out of 54 passengers on the flight to Kiribati tested positive on arrival. Six others tested positive in quarantine. Thats despite the travelers spending two weeks in pre-departure quarantine, and only being allowed on the flight after testing negative for COVID-19. The plane was reportedly chartered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to bring home missionaries originally from Kiribati who had been stuck overseas.

Even with the best preparation, its not a guarantee that the virus wont slip through, says Collin Tukuitonga, the associate dean at the University of Auckland medical school and the former chief executive of New Zealands Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs.

More from TIME

The government declared a state of disaster on Jan. 22, ordering a lockdown and curfew. Its unclear how the virus spread from those on the plane into the community, but on Monday, the government confirmed 96 new positive cases that had been cases transmitted in the community, bringing the total number of cases to 460.

Rimon Rimon, a freelance journalist based in Kiribatis capital Tarawa, tells TIME that people in the country are concerned knowing what the virus is capable of, especially for elderly family members and children who are not yet eligible for vaccines.

He says that many are angry at the government for opening the borders when Fiji, a gateway to the country, is experiencing an outbreakand before vaccination rates reached higher levels. I think its gotten way out of hand, he says. We had two years to prepare for this. People are saying the government is not doing a good job, what has it been doing for the past few years?

Kiribati has only a couple of intensive care beds in the entire country, Dr. Api Talemaitoga, the head of a network of Indigenous Pacific Island physicians, told the Associated Press.

Border controls across the Pacific islands have been effective so far. A handful of these nations have been some of the only places on Earth that went almost untouched by the coronavirus. Tuvalu and Nauru still havent recorded a single case of COVID-19, and Micronesia and Tonga have confirmed just one case each, according to the WHO.

The border closures also bought Kiribati and others time to roll out vaccinations. Over 93% of Kiribatis eligible population has received one COVID-19 vaccine shot, but just over 50% are fully vaccinated.

Elsewhere, Palau has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with 99% of the adult population vaccinated. Nauru, Niue, the Cook Islands and Tuvalu have close to 100% of their adult populations fully vaccinated.

Tukuitonga says that in at least some Pacific countries, he expects high vaccination rates to cushion the blow to health systems, but he adds that boosters should be rolled out as soon as possible to contend with the omicron variant.

READ MORE: This Tiny Nation Has Zero Coronavirus Cases. After a Devastating Cyclone, Its Refusing Foreign Aid Workers to Keep It That Way

Despite vaccination rates, several Pacific countries are facing their biggest surges yet as the Omicron variant reaches their isolated shores. Two or two and a half years later when they try to start joining the world againkaboom, says Mia Rimon, of the international development organization Pacific Community.

Samoawhich sits about 800 miles south of Kiribati and which has remained relatively COVID-free over the past two yearsreported in January that several returning residents had tested positive for the virus upon touching down. Twenty-two passengers on the flight from Brisbane, Australia tested positive, as have five nurses who looked after them in quarantine. Although the government confirmed that no community transmission occurred, it also suspended repatriation flights.

At least five people died in January in the Solomon Islandsthe first COVID-19 deaths in the nation of 687,000. The government blamed the outbreak, the largest of the pandemic, on people who illegally entered the country from Papua New Guinea. It is clear that if the numbers continue to rise at the current rate that hospitals and health workers will be completely overwhelmed, says Tess Newton Cain, the project leader for the Pacific Hub at the Griffith Asia Institute, a research center.

Re-openings delayed

While Kiribati relies on tourism for less than 10% of its GDP, others in the region are much more dependent. Tourism contributes almost 40% to honeymoon dream spot Fijis GDP, and more than 40% of the economy in Vanuatua renowned destination for divers. That means that many isolated Pacific nations are facing the tough decision of staying shut and protecting their populations, or risk opening up.

Some Pacific nations are keeping borders tightly sealed for now. Tonga turned back a flight from Australia carrying disaster aid following a volcanic eruption due to positive COVID-19 cases on board. Despite the precautions, Tonga detected two cases of COVID-19 this week in port workers where humanitarian aid has been arriving, and local media reported that three more cases had been detected in a family.

A senior official in Vanuatu, which has recorded just 7 cases since the start of the pandemic, said in December that the countrys border could be closed for another year, according to local media.

Fiji reopened to tourism on Dec. 1, 2021, after an outbreak earlier in the year that stretched the health system and a drive to blanket the population with vaccines. Ninety percent of its eligible population is vaccinated. Even then, it hasnt all gone swimmingly. Some tourists have reported being locked in their hotel rooms without enough support after they tested positive (a claim rejected by Fijis tourism authorities).

But the outbreaks gripping places like Kiribati now may mean that some in the Pacific keep their borders sealed for even longer. Says Newton Cain: All of this will add to already high levels of caution about opening borders in other countries such as Vanuatu and Tonga.

Manufolau says that Kiribatis industry is taking the time to get even better prepared for reopening. On Friday, some staff will set sail for remote areas of Kiribatis Line Islands to deliver the training to operators there. Instead, of sulking we are taking this as an opportunity to really restart better.
A group of some two dozen House Democrats running for reelection in competitive districts is pushing President Biden to focus efforts to revive the stalled Build Back Better Act on the $555 billion in climate investments that have already passed the House.

We urge you in the strongest possible terms to move swiftly to finalize the most comprehensive legislation that can pass the Senate and get this historic progress to your desk for your signature in the coming weeks, lawmakers led by Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) wrote in a letter to Biden Monday.

The letter has been blessed by the League of Conservation Voters, The Washington Post reports.

As the House and Senate return from recess this week and some Democrats push for quick action on whatever portions of the Build Back Better package can get the needed 50 votes in the Senate, the Biden domestic spending and climate plan remains clouded in uncertainty.

House progressives led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) have pressed Democrats to set March 1, the date of Bidens first State of the Union address, as a deadline for Senate action.

But Democrats still dont know exactly what holdout Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona will support, though both Biden and Manchin have indicated that the climate provisions should be the easiest to pass. The climate thing is one that we probably could come to an agreement much easier than anything else, Manchin said this month.

Still, the White House and congressional leaders have pushed back on the idea of a March 1 deadline. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday declined to set a firm date. We dont have a timetable, she said. We will pass the bill when we have the votes to pass the bill.

The timing of any bill could be complicated by Justice Stephen Breyers decision to retire from the Supreme Court given that Biden and Democrats will want to confirm a replacement as quickly as they can. At some point, that nomination process is going to consume all of the oxygen on Capitol Hill in the Senate, Jim Manley, a former aide to the late Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (NV) told The Hill. It doesnt mean Build Back Better is done, but its just another problem that has to be dealt with.

Story continues

Also high on the list of priorities, lawmakers still need to pass another government funding bill by February 18.

Asked if she favors setting a new deadline, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), one of the signatories on Mondays letter to Biden, responded with this zinger, Politico reports: I think if Congress had a slogan kind of institutionally, it would be something like: 'Solving yesterday's problems tomorrow, maybe.'

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JEFFERSON CITY  A federal judge ruled last week that Missouri's two-year ban on lawmakers becoming lobbyists after their time in office would not be overturned, rejecting an argument by a former legislator that the law violated his freedom of speech.

Rep. Rocky Miller, a Lake Ozark Republican, sued the Missouri Ethics Commission last month in an attempt to block the law, alleging that his inability to register and serve a prospective client was denying him income and "bans (him) from saying certain things."

In a Thursday order, U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool denied Miller's request, saying he "conflates his right to speak and petition with his desire to receive compensation for doing so" and that Miller's "speech is not directly burdened" by the law.

The Missouri Ethics Commission, which oversees campaign finance and lobbyist registration in the state, "has a substantial interest in regulation of quid pro quo corruption," Harpool wrote, justifying the two-year ban as defending a "sufficiently important governmental interest."

More: Springfield's new Missouri House districts are finalized. Which one do you live in?

With term limits currently in place for Missouri lawmakers, many of them pivot to lobbying to use the connections and reputation they built in Jefferson City. A 2018 ballot initiative imposed a mandatory two-year gap between the end of a lawmaker's time in office and their registration as a paid lobbyist.

"The public interest in preventing quid pro quo corruption or the appearance thereof outweighs (Miller)'s purported harm in not being permitted to be paid for speech and petitioning," Harpool wrote.

Miller left the Missouri House in 2021 after eight years due to term limits. He is a licensed engineer and was seeking to lobby on behalf of a client who he said in his lawsuit he was "uniquely qualified" to serve. Paid lobbying on behalf of a client without registering with the Missouri Ethics Commission violates state law.

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Ex-lawmaker's request to overturn Missouri lobbying ban rejected
CHICAGO, February 01, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GATX Corporation (NYSE:GATX) announced that Paul F. Titterton will be the next president of Rail North America, effective April 22, 2022. Mr. Titterton will succeed Robert C. Lyons, who as previously announced will assume the role of chief executive officer of GATX Corporation, effective the same date. Mr. Titterton, currently senior vice president and chief operating officer of Rail North America, will also be appointed an executive vice president of GATX Corporation on the transition date.

"Paul has been an integral part of our North American rail business for 25 years," said Mr. Lyons. "His breadth of experience, including senior roles in our commercial and operation functions, makes him the ideal candidate to assume leadership of Rail North America. Paul has a deep understanding of our industry and the customers we serve, complemented by an unparalleled passion for our business."

Mr. Titterton stated, "I am honored to lead this outstanding organization. GATX Rail North America is the strongest full-service railcar leasing platform in the market with unmatched fleet diversity, commercial capabilities and maintenance offerings. I look forward to working with our dedicated employees to continue growing our business."

Mr. Titterton has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Rail North America since August 2018. Previously, Mr. Titterton served as Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Rail North America from 2015 to August 2018; Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer from 2013 to 2015; Vice President and Group Executive, Fleet Management, Marketing and Government Affairs from 2011 to 2013; Vice President and Executive Director, Fleet Management from 2008 to 2011; and in a variety of positions of increasing responsibility since joining the company in 1997.

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

GATX Corporation (NYSE:GATX) strives to be recognized as the finest railcar leasing company in the world by our customers, our shareholders, our employees and the communities where we operate. As the leading global railcar lessor, GATX has been providing quality railcars and services to its customers for over 120 years. GATX has been headquartered in Chicago, Illinois since its founding in 1898.

Story continues

AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION ON GATX'S WEBSITE

Investors and others should note that GATX routinely announces material information to investors and the marketplace using SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts and the GATX Investor Relations website. While not all of the information that the Company posts to the GATX Investor Relations website is of a material nature, some information could be deemed to be material. Accordingly, the Company encourages investors, the media and others interested in GATX to review the information that it shares on www.gatx.com under the "Investor Relations" tab.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements in this Earnings Release not based on historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and, accordingly, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and could cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those discussed. Forward-looking statements include statements as to our future expectations, beliefs, plans, strategies, objectives, events, conditions, financial performance, prospects, or future events. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "outlook," "continue," "likely," "will," "would", and similar words and phrases. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by us and our management, are inherently uncertain. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made, and are not guarantees of future performance. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements.

The outcome of the events described in forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, in addition discussed in our other filings with the SEC, including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and subsequent reports on Form 10-Q. The following is a summary of the principal risks we face that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations expressed in forward-looking statements:

the duration and effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic and any mandated pandemic mitigation requirements, including adverse impacts on our business, personnel, operations, commercial activity, supply chain, the demand for our transportation assets, the value of our assets, our liquidity, and macroeconomic conditions exposure to damages, fines, criminal and civil penalties, and reputational harm arising from a negative outcome in litigation, including claims arising from an accident involving transportation assets inability to maintain our transportation assets on lease at satisfactory rates due to oversupply of assets in the market or other changes in supply and demand a significant decline in customer demand for our transportation assets or services, including as a result of: weak macroeconomic conditions weak market conditions in our customers' businesses adverse changes in the price of, or demand for, commodities changes in railroad operations, efficiency, pricing and service offerings, including those related to "precision scheduled railroading" changes in, or disruptions to, supply chains availability of pipelines, trucks, and other alternative modes of transportation changes in conditions affecting the aviation industry, including reduced demand for air travel, geographic exposure and customer concentrations other operational or commercial needs or decisions of our customers customers' desire to buy, rather than lease, our transportation assets higher costs associated with increased assignments of our transportation assets following non-renewal of leases, customer defaults, and compliance maintenance programs or other maintenance initiatives events having an adverse impact on assets, customers, or regions where we have a concentrated investment exposure financial and operational risks associated with long-term purchase commitments for transportation assets reduced opportunities to generate asset remarketing income inability to successfully consummate and manage ongoing acquisition and divestiture activities reliance on Rolls-Royce in connection with our aircraft spare engine leasing businesses, and the risks that certain factors that adversely affect Rolls-Royce could have an adverse effect on our businesses fluctuations in foreign exchange rates inflation or deflation failure to successfully negotiate collective bargaining agreements with the unions representing a substantial portion of our employees asset impairment charges we may be required to recognize deterioration of conditions in the capital markets, reductions in our credit ratings, or increases in our financing costs changes in banks' inter-lending rate reporting practices and the phasing out of LIBOR competitive factors in our primary markets, including competitors with significantly lower costs of capital risks related to our international operations and expansion into new geographic markets, including laws, regulations, tariffs, taxes, treaties, sanctions, or trade barriers affecting our activities in the countries where we do business changes in, or failure to comply with, laws, rules, and regulations U.S. and global political conditions inability to obtain cost-effective insurance environmental liabilities and remediation costs potential obsolescence of our assets inadequate allowances to cover credit losses in our portfolio operational, functional and regulatory risks associated with severe weather events, climate change and natural disasters inability to maintain and secure our information technology infrastructure from cybersecurity threats and related disruption of our business changes in assumptions, increases in funding requirements or investment losses in our pension and post-retirement plans inability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005278/en/

Contacts

GATX Corporation

Shari Hellerman

Director, Investor Relations

312-621-4285

shari.hellerman@gatx.com
- Total Sales Up 10%; Best January Ever

- Retail Sales Increased 18%; Most January Retail Sales of All Time

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Motor America reported total January sales of 47,872 units, a 10% increase compared with January 2021 and the highest January sales total in company history. Venue (+70%), Tucson (+64%), Palisade (+12%) and the Ioniq (+51%) also established new January total sales records. Hyundai did not have any fleet sales during the month.

Hyundai Motor America. (PRNewsFoto/Hyundai Motor America) (PRNewsfoto/Hyundai Motor America)

"High levels of consumer interest across our product lineup resulted in record-breaking January sales even as we continue to navigate through the global pandemic and microchip shortages," said Randy Parker, senior vice president, national sales, Hyundai Motor America. "We are off to a great start to the year and outperformed the industry thanks to a tremendous effort by the entire organization."

January Retail Highlights

Hyundai achieved its best January retail sales ever, increasing 18% year-over-year. Hyundai eco-friendly vehicle retail sales grew 312%, while SUV retail sales were up 35%, representing 79% of retail volume. Venue, Tucson, Palisade, Kona and Ioniq set new January retail records.

January Total Sales Summary

Jan-22 Jan-21 % Chg 2022 YTD 2022 YTD % Chg Hyundai 47,872 43,394 10% 47,872 43,394 10%

January Product and Corporate Activities

CES: At CES, Hyundai Motor shared how the company's robotics business will drive the paradigm shift towards future mobility, and introduced pioneering new concepts of 'Metamobility' and 'Mobility of Things' (MoT)

Robert Wickens Returns: In his first race back since a horrific 2018 accident, Robert Wickens finished third in the Bryan Herta Autosport #33 Elantra N TCR at the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge four-hour endurance race at Daytona International Speedway

IONIQ 5 Marketing: Hyundai launched the national marketing campaign for the IONIQ 5 with a new commercial starring Jason Bateman

SoFi Stadium: Hyundai became a founding partner of SoFi Stadium and inked sponsorship deals with the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers

Awards: Santa Cruz was selected as the 2022 Best Performing Truck from The Fast Lane Truck, IONIQ 5 won a Good Design award, while Hyundai earned more U.S. News and World Report 2022 Best Cars for the Money Awards than any other brand

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Model Total Sales Vehicle Jan-22 Jan-21 % Chg 2022 YTD 2022 YTD % Chg Accent 507 1,036 -51% 507 1,036 -51% Elantra 5,081 7,242 -30% 5,081 7,242 -30% Ioniq 1,415 937 51% 1,415 937 51% Ioniq 5 989 0 --- 989 0 --- Kona 4,892 5,233 -7% 4,892 5,233 -7% Nexo 28 23 22% 28 23 22% Palisade 6,334 5,669 12% 6,334 5,669 12% Santa Cruz 2,820 0 --- 2,820 0 --- Santa Fe 7,354 8,714 -16% 7,354 8,714 -16% Sonata 2,991 5,020 -40% 2,991 5,020 -40% Tucson 13,085 7,980 64% 13,085 7,980 64% Veloster 86 193 -55% 86 193 -55% Venue 2,290 1,347 70% 2,290 1,347 70%

Hyundai Motor America

Hyundai Motor America focuses on 'Progress for Humanity' and smart mobility solutions. Hyundai offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs and electrified vehicles. Our 820 dealers sold more than 738,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2021, and nearly half were built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. For more information, visit www.HyundaiNews.com.

Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hyundai-motor-america-reports-record-breaking-january-2022-sales-301472484.html

SOURCE Hyundai Motor America
VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 1, 2022 /CNW/ - Megawatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp. (CSE: MEGA) (FSE: WR20) (OTC PINK: WALRF) (the "Company" or "Megawatt") is planning an expansive exploration campaign, targeting rare earth elements (REE) & uranium zones, at its two properties  Artic Fox and Isbjorn  in Central Northern Territory. The work coincides with an increasing level of interest across the region on the back of improving fundamentals for REE and uranium.

Improving fundamentals on two fronts

With China controlling potentially between 80-90% of the global rare earth elements (REE) market, there has been a growing awareness among key stakeholders for the need for supply chain diversity. European automakers focused on developing the next generation of electric vehicles will require key REEs. They require neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) which are key REEs for electric motor magnets1.

According to ASX-listed Arafura Resources (ASX: ARU), it has engaged with European electric vehicle manufacturers that are interested in sourcing key REEs from it directly once production commences at its Nolans Bore Project later in the year. A key factor to secure contracts with European EV manufacturers is to ensure toxic waste is handled in line with strict environmental regulations, which requires ARU committing to processing recovered ore on site1.

The Nolans Bore Project, which has a JORC compliant REE resource (56Mt @ 2.6% total rare-earth oxides), can potentially supply 10% of the global REEs required for use in electric motors1.

In the uranium sector, the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust's move to acquire a substantial position, propelling the spot price to multi-year highs2, has resulted in further interest in emerging potential suppliers in the Central Northern Territory.

While the ultimate demand driver for uranium will be a resurgence in nuclear power generation, as the world transitions to lower carbon emissions, the recent energy shortfall in the United Kingdom highlights the over-reliance on fossil fuels that can potentially deliver a negative multiplier effects across an economy.

Story continues

Focus on uranium

While the case for REEs, with ARU's improving profile, is well established  it is worth re-emphasising the key uranium arguments. These highlight the potential within Megawatt's properties and across the region, especially amid a significant uranium upcycle.

As part of ongoing due diligence ahead of upcoming site visits to the Artic Fox & Isbjorn properties, Megawatt's technical team has reviewed historical reports, including UK-based Power Metal Group's (AIM: POW) Selta Project (Figure 1).

Aside finding a 1973 study3 which outlined the potential for uranium mineralization within the tenure, there were numerous reports of surface occurrences including a standout 2,450ppm U from a 1994 report4. These findings highlight the exploration potential across the region for uranium mineralisation and requirement for further field exploration in order to identify potential drill targets.

FIGURE 1: ARTIC FOX / ISBJORN PROPERTIES RELATIVE TO REGIONAL PEERS (CNW Group/MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp.)

These findings within Power Metal Group's ground, make a compelling case for uranium and build on the arguments presented earlier (refer to Uranium Potential to be Developed at Arctic Fox and Isbjorn Properties in Australia; September 15, 2021)5, which are repeated below:

ARU has modelled up a JORC compliant resource for uranium oxide (U308) at the Nolons Bore Project (56Mt @ 162ppm U3O8) 6 , which is contiguous to the Artic Fox property.

Assayed samples of scree material from gneiss source rock, within the middle of Artic Fox, returned the following high-grade results: Sample ID N1-4A: 1,000ppm U equating to 1,179ppm U3O8; and Sample ID N1-4B: 690ppm U equating to 814ppm U3O8 7 .

Within the Isbjorn property, there are assayed alluvial and stream sediment samples at five locations which are all significant and require further on-site follow up8. These clearly highlight the exploration potential for U3O8 mineralization, including:

(The data disclosed in this news release related to sampling results is historical in nature. Megawatt has not undertaken any independent investigation of the sampling nor has it independently analysed the results of the historical exploration work in order to verify the results. Megawatt considers these historical sample results relevant as the Company will use this data as a guide to plan future exploration programs. The Company's future exploration work will include verification of the data through further analysis.)

David Thornley-Hall Chief Executive Officer commented: "The fundamentals for rare earth elements and uranium have continued to strengthen into 2022, which makes the exploration potential for the Artic Fox and Isbjorn properties in Central Northern Territory even more compelling. The Board is now intent on building a more expansive forward exploration program so that we can rapidly garner a greater understanding of our properties' potential to host REE and uranium mineralisation at this exciting point in the cycle."

Qualified Person

Mr. Geoffrey Reed (MAusMM (CP)) (MAIG), Consultant for the Company, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure or Mineral Projects and has reviewed the scientific and technical information in this press release.

References

Automakers Look to Hedge Against China Rare Earth Dominance; Elisabeth Behrmann; 23 September 2021. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-22/automakers-look-to-hedge-against-china-s-rare-earth-dominance and Arafura Resources Limited 2021 Annual Report. Available at: https://www.arultd.com/images/Reports/Arafura_Resources_Annual_Report_2021.pdf



Uranium Rally Is a High-Stakes Bet on Future of Nuclear Power; Yvonne Yue Li, Will Wade and Stephen Stapczynski; September 22, 2021. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-22/red-hot-uranium-rally-renews-debate-over-nuclear-s-future-in-zero-carbon-world



The Australian Mineral Development Laboratories (CR 74/19) Sixth Progress Report MP4976/73 Geochemical Survey, Arunta Area Amdel (December 1973)



PNC Exploration (Australia) Pty Ltd (CR 95/266) Napperby Annual Report 1994 Field Season. Available at: https://geoscience.nt.gov.au/gemis/ntgsjspui/simple-search?query=%22CR1995-0266%22&location=1/3



Megawatt CSE Release - Uranium Potential to be Developed at Arctic Fox and Isbjorn Properties in Australia (September 15, 2021). Available at: https://webfiles.thecse.com/megawatt_0915.pdf?pzmeoPmSl8bWAsXeBTvUJ62u5.w6jAVU



Arafura Resources Limited 2015 Annual Report. Available at:https://www.arultd.com/investor/asx-announcements-2021/asx-archive.html



Megawatt CSE Release - Megawatt Provides Further Investigative Data for Uranium and REE Prospectivity Australian Projects" (May 31, 2021) Available at:https://webfiles.thecse.com/megawatt_0531.pdf?MVGF3amnVjpZKzUgBlHctkQrryQKmk9_



Crossland Nickel Pty Ltd  Report Number CR2016-0105. Available at: https://geoscience.nt.gov.au/gemis/ntgsjspui/simple-search?location=1%2F3&query=%22CR2016-0105%22&rpp=10&sort_by=score&order=desc

Technical Information

All scientific and technical information in this news release has been prepared by, or approved by Geoffrey Reed, (MAusMM (CP)) (MAIG), Consultant for the Company. Mr. Reed is a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Mr. Reed has not verified any of the information regarding any of the properties or projects referred to herein other than the Arctic Fox and Isbjorn Properties. Mineralization on any other properties referred to herein is not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Arctic Fox and Isbjorn Properties.

The data disclosed in this news release related to sampling results is historical in nature. Megawatt has not undertaken any independent investigation of the sampling nor has it independently analyzed the results of the historical exploration work in order to verify the results. Megawatt considers these historical sample results relevant as the Company will use this data as a guide to plan future exploration programs. The Company's future exploration work will include verification of the data through further sampling.

Marketing Agreement

The Company has retained Sideways Frequency ("Sideways") for US$100,000 for a term of 60 days. Sideways has been engaged for native advertising and digital marketing services to increase brand awareness for the Company. Certain services to be provided by Sideways are anticipated to include investor relations activities under the policies of the CSE and applicable securities laws. The Company will continue to look at strategic consultants to expand awareness of the Company and its activities.

About MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp.

MegaWatt is a British Columbia based company involved in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in Canada. The Company holds a 100% undivided interest, subject to a 1.5% NSR on all base, rare earth elements and precious metals, in the Cobalt Hill Property, consisting of eight mineral claims covering an area of approximately 1,727.43 hectares located in the Trail Creek Mining Division in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. Additionally, the Company has acquired a 60% interest in a company that indirectly holds a 100% interest (subject to a 2% NSR) in two prospective silver-zinc projects in Australia, being the Tyr Silver Project and the Century South Silver-Zinc Project (see press release dated August 13, 2020), an indirect 100% interest (subject to a 1% NSR) in and to certain mining tenements in Northern Territory and New South Wales, Australia prospective for nickel-cobalt-scandium and rare earth elements. The Company holds a 100% interest (subject to a 2% NSR) in and to the Route 381 Lithium Property, comprised of 40 mineral claims located in James Bay Territory, north of Matagami in the Province of Quebec, covering 2,126 hectares (see press release dated February 3, 2021) and a 100% interest in 229 additional mineral exploration claims prospective for lithium, also in the James Bay area of Quebec covering an area of 12,116 hectares or 121 square kms.

Investors can learn more about the Company and team at https://megawattmetals.com.

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release includes "forward-looking information" that is subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements may include but are not limited to, statements relating to the trading of the Company's common shares on the Exchange and the Company's use of proceeds and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties normally incident to such events. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future events and that actual events or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward- looking statements. Such forward-looking statements represent management's best judgment based on information currently available. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release.

SOURCE MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp.

Related Links

https://megawattmetals.com

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SOURCE MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp.

Cision

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You no longer have to be reminded of your latest true crime binge or alert houseguests to the fact that you watch Emily in Paris. Netflix just added the option for users to delete titles from their Continue Watching list, reported The Verge. While technically theres been a way for savvy viewers to do this for a while now, this is the first time the option to do so has been displayed front and center.

Netflix

Note: The ability to delete from the Continue Watching list isnt available to all of Netflixs users just yet; if your screen looks the same, youll have to sit tight. In order to remove a show, simply select the title you want to axe. Youll see the Remove from Continue Watching icon under the menu of user preferences below the title. Netflix will allow viewers to use this option across its web, mobile and TV versions.

Prior to this, half-finished shows or movies would disappear from the interface eventually (when they'd been replaced by other, half-finished shows or movies.) The new feature is a welcome way Netflix is giving viewers more options to tailor their screens, though the services UI hasnt changed much in the last few years.
Oregon reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Sunday, adding 49,760 new cases. That's down 13.5% from the previous week's tally of 57,501 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Oregon ranked 21st among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

In the latest week, coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 30.3% from the week before, with 3,451,287 cases reported. With 1.27% of the country's population, Oregon had 1.44% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 10 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Many counties did not report during data during the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, disrupting the current and previous weeks' statistics. Week-to-week comparisons are skewed and these numbers will be unreliable even as they're accurate to what states reported.

Outdoor rescues: Number of outdoor rescues in Oregon skyrockets amid COVID, hiking boom, population growth

Some Oregon communities have begun reporting backlogged death records. This will make week-to-week comparisons inaccurate.

Marion County reported 5,473 cases and 11 deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 6,048 cases and seven deaths. Throughout the pandemic, it has reported 60,908 cases and 581 deaths.

Polk County reported 1,210 cases and one death in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 1,315 cases and three deaths. Throughout the pandemic, it has reported 13,176 cases and 116 deaths.

Across Oregon, cases fell in 23 counties, with the best declines in Multnomah County, with 6,649 cases from 9,032 a week earlier; in Washington County, with 6,213 cases from 7,731; and in Clackamas County, with 3,695 cases from 4,914.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

Oregon ranked 20th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 76.1% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 75.3%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows.

Story continues

In the week ending Sunday, Oregon reported administering another 84,110 vaccine doses, including 15,786 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 125,306 vaccine doses, including 30,545 first doses. In all, Oregon reported it has administered 7,264,234 total doses.

Within Oregon, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Sherman County with 3,202 cases per 100,000 per week; Wheeler County with 2,628; and Wasco County with 2,241. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Multnomah County, with 6,649 cases; Washington County, with 6,213 cases; and Marion County. Weekly case counts rose in 13 counties from the previous week. The largest increases from the prior week's pace were in Wasco, Malheur and Union counties.

In Oregon, 150 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 53 people were reported dead.

A total of 620,652 people in Oregon have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 6,086 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States, 74,333,001 people have tested positive and 884,260 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

COVID-19 hospital admissions rising

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, Jan. 30.

Likely COVID-19 patients admitted in the state:

Last week: 1,684

The week before that: 1,482

Four weeks ago: 922

Likely COVID-19 patients admitted in the nation:

Last week: 170,411

The week before that: 183,931

Four weeks ago: 147,900

Hospitals in 13 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 15 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 18 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: COVID-19 cases fall in Oregon, but hospitalizations continue to rise
PARIS  The house of Pierre Cardin paid tribute to its founder on the one-year anniversary of his death with an outdoor show staged in front of a 177-foot-high replica of an Ariane 5 rocket.

The brands design team, led by Cardins great-nephew Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, presented some 200 creations on a runway set up on the tarmac of the National Air and Space Museum next to Le Bourget airport on the outskirts of Paris.

More from WWD

The show on Friday night, held in front of 800 guests seated in open plastic tents, was broadcast live to audiences in movie theaters in Moscow; Tirana, Albania; Dallas, and Mexico City.

The collection, titled Pierre Cardin 3022, began with several dozen outfits designed by Cardin, who continued to sketch until a few months before his death in December 2020 at the age of 98. They included a Little Black Dress with a double-hoop hem, A-line dresses with graphic cutouts, and draped satin evening gowns.

Many of the outfits, inspired by his original Cosmocorps collection from 1967, were fit for an episode of Star Trek. Think jackets and coats with triangular raised collars; two-tone knit all-in-ones, and geometric dresses accessorized with cosmonauts helmets, in a nod to a photograph of Cardin wearing Buzz Aldrins space suit at NASA in 1971.

The finale of the Pierre Cardin 3022 show. - Credit: Giovanni Giannoni/WWD

Giovanni Giannoni/WWD

The theme this year is space. It was the theme dearest to my uncle, Basilicati-Cardin said in an interview at Cardins headquarters across the street from the Elysee presidential palace in Paris.

The last time he saw the veteran couturier, they watched a television broadcast of the departure of four tourists on a spacecraft operated by Elon Musks Space X. It was the only thing that put a sparkle in his eye, he said. He was the original Space Age designer.

The display marked the kickoff of a busy year for the brand, which is on a drive to energize its license business as it aims to double revenues in the next five years. It plans to relaunch the pierrecardin.com website in February as a multipurpose online platform that will eventually include e-commerce.

Story continues

Meanwhile, Cardins historic headquarters and boutique are closing for renovations, with plans to reopen at the end of the year with a new 6,450-square-foot museum on the first floor. In the meantime, the house is opening a temporary womens store on nearby Rue de Duras, while mens wear will be transferred to the Cardin store on Rue Royale next to its Maxims restaurant.

Following its renovation last year, the eatery is back on the fashion industrys radar, hosting events including a Chanel high jewelry dinner during Paris Fashion Week, and the December wedding of influencer Camille Charriere and film producer Francois Larpin.

Basilicati-Cardin declined to disclose the groups revenues for 2021, beyond saying they were up from the previous year. Hes spent the last 12 months reviewing the houses 600 licenses, renewing roughly a quarter of the contracts in a bid to tighten control over product quality.

Cardin famously refused to delegate responsibilities, meaning that some aspects of his business were left unsupervised toward the end of his life.

In the last five years, there was a little less attention paid to our licenses and production decreased. Now we are in full recovery, despite COVID-19, so Im happy, his heir said, noting that the company had shouldered the impact of the pandemic alongside its partners, some of whom have been in business with Cardin for three decades.

The finale of the Pierre Cardin 3022 show. - Credit: Giovanni Giannoni/WWD

Giovanni Giannoni/WWD

Basilicati-Cardin hopes the fashion show will provide inspiration for the brands roughly 200 licensees, and bring on new partners worldwide.

I would like to have more Russian licensees, he said, noting that Cardin at one point had 32 factories in the country during the Cold War. They have the capacity, the talent and the power to do it, why not in a more Russian style? Whats interesting is to see how [licensees] interpret our brand. The Chinese do a very good job, for example.

The European Commission said on Monday it has launched a formal antitrust probe to assess whether Cardin and Germany-based Ahlers Group, its largest European licensee, may have breached European Union competition rules by restricting the ability of licensees to sell Pierre Cardin-licensed products cross-border, including offline and online, as well as to specific customer groups. The house had no comment on the investigation.

Basilicati-Cardin works with a team of in-house designers, some of whom have been at the house for 35 years. We produce between 15,000 and 18,000 designs per year, he estimated, referring to sketches provided to license holders.

They are really amazing. I knew them before, but they dealt exclusively with my uncle. Now its with me and we talk every day, he added. We feel united. Were all roughly the same age, 50 to 55.

An engineer by training, Basilicati-Cardin is encouraging the team to switch to more sustainable fabrics, noting that Cardin was inspired by space travel to experiment with new and technologically advanced materials.

At the time, he was focused on synthetic, plastic materials. Now, Im trying to get the whole team to work with synthetic materials that are upcycled or recycled, he explained. He was less concerned with environmental issues. He saw modernity.

The finale of the Pierre Cardin 3022 show. - Credit: Giovanni Giannoni/WWD

Giovanni Giannoni/WWD

Basilicati-Cardin is also making sure the designers legacy is passed on to new generations, via partnerships with Istituto Marangoni and other fashion schools. Roughly half the guests at Fridays show were fashion students. However, plans for a cultural center in Houdan, 40 miles west of Paris, have been put on standby for the time being.

Instead, Basilicati-Cardin is working on another tribute to Cardin to take place on July 2, the centenary of his birth. The executive said it would have been important to his great-uncle to see that his design studio remains active.

He wouldnt want us to toast him with Champagne. Hed want to know that young people had fun working for him. Thats the greatest satisfaction, he said.

SEE ALSO:

Paris Toasts 70 Years of Pierre Cardin Label

Cardin on Cardin

French First Lady Brigitte Macron Leads Mourners at Pierre Cardin Funeral Mass

Launch Gallery: Pierre Cardin 2022  Cosmocorps 3022

Best of WWD

Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Candidates for local and statewide office have started filing to run, see who has filed to represent Cascade County so far.

Candidate filing for local and statewide office closed Monday with the primary election scheduled for June 7 and over 300 Montana residents have filed for public office, the Montana Secretary of States reported earlier this week.

A total of 287 candidates filed for legislative office, including 21 candidates running for the Legislature unopposed. Sixty-four incumbents face challengers, with 15 facing a primary in June.

City Commissioner Joe McKenney, who previously served in four legislative sessions, commented on the unusual primary season ahead for legislative candidates from around the county, with but said it was a good thing.

It's hard to get folks to step up to the plate and run for public office in the first place. So usually when one individual of a party, Democrat or Republican, raises their hand, I mean, that's kind of the end of it for that party, Mckenney told the Tribune. It's really going to be a robust season and I'm happy to see it.

McKenney also commented on the political change in the county, with a swing to more Republican representation now than when he was in the legislature in the late 90s and early 00s when the majority of his colleagues serving from the region were Democrats.

Contested primaries for the legislature from Cascade County :

Republican Party Primaries

SD-12: Wendy McKamey vs. Desma Meissner

HD-20: Fred Anderson vs. Trent Short

HD-26: Marci Marceau vs. George Nikolakakos

Democratic Party Primaries:

HD-23: Melissa Smith vs. Brad Hamlet

Primary election is set for June 7.

Heres who is running for statewide office in and around Cascade County:

Russel Miner is running as a Republican for House District 19 and is, as of Friday, running unopposed. Miner is running on his experience working in agriculture to fight harmful regulations and red-tape that are unnecessarily holding us back and create opportunities in agriculture processing, mining, timber and tourism, according to his website. Miner served on several agriculture boards including Western Triangle Ag Research Center, Montana Fertilizer Research Committee and Cascade County Farm Bureau and is a foster parent and Special Advocate/ Guardian Ad Litem (CASA/GAL).

Story continues

Wendy McKamey represented HD-19 since winning against the-incumbent Randy Pinocci in 2016, but is now running to serve in the State Senate to represent SD-12.

McKamey served as the Vice Chair on both the State Administration and Veterans Affairs Committee and of House Ethics. She touts a record of tax cuts and bans on potential federal regulation of firearms on her website.

McKamey has served in Helena since 2015, first representing HD-23 which is also in Great Falls.

Desma Meissner is running as a Republican against McKamey in the primary race for SD-12 and filed on Feb. 16.

McKamey is running against Democrat Jacob Bachmeier, who represented HD-28 for two consecutive sessions and left in 2021. He was Vice Chair of the State Administration Committee and sponsored a number of bills with only a few becoming law, including repealing the Montana-certified natural beef cattle marketing program.

Bachmeier said he is fighting for affordable housing by way of lowering property taxes and medical care, as well as cutting red tape for local businesses.

Bachmeier has been endorsed by current Senator for SD-12 Carlie Boland and former Senator for SD-12 and former City Commissioner Mary Moe, per a press release.

If elected, Ill fight for a thriving downtown full of strong mom-and-pop businesses. Small business is the heart of this community, and we must work together to help small business thrive, Bachmeier said in the release.

Republican Scot Kerns is running to reclaim his seat in HD-23. Kerns won in the 2020 race against Democrat Brad Hamlett, who is also running for the seat again. Kerns sponsored legislation regarding military leaves of absence and allocating state funds for counties to cover funeral costs for indigent persons.

Hamlett served in the legislature from 2009-2019 and served as Vice Chair to the House Ethics Committee in the 2019 session. Hamlett is a rancher out of Cascade.

Melissa Smith is also running as a Democrat in HD-23. She previously ran in 2020 in HD-20 but lost to Republican Fred Anderson. Smith served as the Great Falls Coordinator for the Elizabeth Warren presidential election campaign, per her website, and is active with several other organizations including as Board President at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art and as Secretary of the Cascade County Democratic Central Committee.

Her campaign is focused on public land conservation and preservation, quality public education including pre-school education for all Montana students, as well reimagining public safety with an emphasis on public health, food security, inclusion, and diversity.

Anderson is running as an incumbent in HD-20 and has served in the legislature since the 2017 legislative session. In the 2021 session, Anderson sponsored legislation prohibiting vaping on public school property and surrounding the licensing of farm applicators of pesticide.

Primarying Anderson in HD-20 is Trent Short, who filed on March 9. Short is a Principal at Copper Creek Construction and opted to decline a position on the Cascade County Zoning Board in 2018 after county officials discovered he had spoken publicly about the Madison Food Park slaughterhouse before he was initially appointed.

Candidate filing shows Samantha Rispens running as a Democrat for HD-20, with records showing she withdrew her candidacy on March 11 but her filing date was processed on March 13.

Incumbent Republican Ed Buttrey is running against Democrat Lela Graham in House District 21.

Buttrey represented SD-11 from 2011 to 2019 before winning in HD-23 and serving two terms. Buttrey chaired several committees during his time in Helena and has sponsored bills across a variety of topics from alcohol licensing and gambling to expanding Medicaid.

I can solve problems, but know that by listening more than talking, we can come up with great solutions, Buttrey said on his campaign site. This is how we run our businesses, and how we can succeed in Government.

Graham served in the Military Intelligence Corps before going into political consulting for 14 years, per her website biography. Graham works with the Recovery Advocacy Project which supports people with addiction and their families. Graham supports increasing Medicaid caps for substance abuse treatment and infrastructure projects made possible with federal dollars.

Barbara Bessette is running to represent HD-24 as a Democrat, the same district she represented in the 2019 legislative session. She lost her re-election campaign in 2020 to Republican Steven Galloway. Bessette told the Tribune in December she is most passionate about substance abuse issues and spoke about her experience as a Native woman in the legislature. She is a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe and grew up in Belt. While in office she sponsored a bill that became law on requirements for background checks for assisted living facility employees.

Incumbent candidate Galloway is running to keep his seat in HD-24. During the 2021 legislative session Galloway sponsored legislation that became law surrounding tenant-landlord agreements and property valuation statements. Galloway, along with his wife Lola Sheldon-Galloway who is also running for re-election, are landlords of 23 apartments, six rental houses and six commercial properties, per Sheldon-Galloways website. Galloways website biography detailed that they were awarded NeighborWorks Great Falls' most improved rental award for 2009-2010.

Galloway touts business experience, running Do it Best Hardware, Great Falls Lumber and Dairy Queen franchises for over three decades, among other entrepreneurial ventures. Galloway served in the legislature for the past two sessions and says he will apply a common sense approach to our government, on his campaign site.

IncumbentSheldon-Galloway is running to serve in HD-22. She has served in the legislature since the 2017 session and is currently the Vice Chair of the Montana GOP. She was Vice Chair of the House Human Services Committee and was also on the Taxation and Rules Committees during the 2021 session.

Nick D. Henry, running as a Democrat, and Tony Rosales, running as a Libertarian, are running against Sheldon-Galloway in HD-22. Henry emailed the Tribune to say he worked as a Child Protection Specialist for four years and now works to monitor parking in downtown Great Falls. Rosales works as a medical consultant for a New York based health marketing agency.

Democrat Jasmine Krotkov is running to represent HD-25 again after losing against Steve Gist in 2020. Krotkov served in Helena during the 2019 legislative session and sponsored two bills that became laws regarding district bonds during her tenure there. Shes advocating for affordable healthcare and education along with sustainable energy and emphasizes corporate responsibility.

Gist is running as an incumbent Republican candidate for HD-25. Gist sponsored legislation that became law including permitting auxiliary officers in search and rescue operations to carry weapons if approved by the local sheriff. Gist is advocating for the expansion of rural access to medical care through solutions like tele-medicine, responsible mining and access to quality education, per his campaign website.

George Nikolakakos is running as a Republican in HD-26 and his first time running to serve in the legislature. The Tribune spoke with Nikolakakos in 2018 after cyberbullying and threats were made on a forum he co-founded called Great Falls Concerned Citizens when opposition against the proposed slaughterhouse was boiling over in the community.

He said the group actively discouraged threats, but a lead consultant with Madison Food Park said the group was made of extremists who only wanted to destroy the project.

Nikolakakos served in the U.S. Air Force and Montana National Guard for 20 years and is running to pursue housing attainability that preserves existing affordable housing, promotes new development, and takes advantage of incentives and creative solutions, along with advocating for resources for public safety and other issues outlined on his website. https://www.georgeforus.com/issues.html

Marci Marceau is primarying Nikolakakos in HD-26 as a Republican. Marceau runs Luzs Mexican Restaurant, named after her father and whose recipes inspired the menu.

Running as a Democrat for HD-26 is Kari Rosenleaf, who filed on Feb. 9. She is a special education teacher for Great Falls Public Schools according to her LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kari-rosenleaf-68046760

Incumbent Josh Kassmier is as of now running unopposed as a Republican in HD-27. Several of the bills he sponsored in the 2021 legislative session became law, including expanding the regulation and definition of hemp, as well as a bill that requires approval of the legislature before the federal designation of a National Heritage Area. NHAs have been the source of local controversy and conspiracy; the Big Sky National Heritage Area feasibility study will likely be sent to National Park Service in 2022, according to a December BSNHA Inc. Facebook post.

Incumbent Tom Jacobson out of Black Eagle is running as a Democrat to represent SD-11. Jacobson has served in the legislature since the 2013 legislative session. In the 2021 session, Jacobson was the primary sponsor for a bill surrounding equal access in receiving organ transplants.

Jacobson is up against Republican Daniel Emrich who currently serves on Neighborhood Council 8.

Republican Jeremy Trebas is running for SD-13. Trebas served in the House in the 2017 and 2021 legislative sessions. During the 2021 session Trebas was the primary sponsor of two bills which became law surrounding Child Protective Services, like having the Department of Public Health and Human Services report some information upon request to select people involved in a case and amending what reasonable efforts means in terms of the good faith effort from DPHHS to make plans with families to help them remain together.

Running against Trebas in SD-13 is Democrat Casey Schreiner who previously served in four sessions in the House. During the 2017 session, Schreiner sponsored legislation on providing tax credits for businesses who employ apprentices with an extra incentive for veteran apprentices. In the 2019 session he served as Minority Leader in the House. Schreiner ran as former Lt. Gov Mike Cooneys running mate for Governor in 2020. He is currently the Chief Strategic Officer for Alluvion Health.

Serving in Helena should be about putting our community first, leading with solutions, and understanding that constituents matter more than your title. I am proud of my track record of getting stuff done for the people of Great Falls, Schreiner said in a release.

Incumbent Republican Russel Tempel is running in SD-14. Tempel has served in the legislature since the 2017 legislative session. One of three laws Tempel sponsored that became law in 2021 involved waiving certain costs associated with opencut mining operations. Tempel was Vice Chair of the Education and Cultural Resources Committee in 2021.

LOCAL OFFICE

County Commission

Commissioner Joe Briggs is running as an incumbent in Commission District 1. Briggs has served three terms, each six years long, on the commission and said in a press release if elected this would be his final term serving.

Briggs serves on the National Association of Counties (NACo) Executive Committee and lobbies congress to better serve the interests of counties across the country. He cites lobbying efforts through NACo for why funds distributed through the American Rescue Plan Act were sent not just to cities and states, but to counties as well.

He cited involvement with the Great Falls Development Authority, the Chamber of Commerce and Sweetgrass Development in helping to attract companies to the area like ADF and Centene. I have assisted homegrown businesses such as Montana Specialty Mills, Montana Milling and Loenbro to grow and prosper, Briggs said in the release.

Commissioner Don Ryan was appointed in 2021 to serve out the rest of former Commissioner Jane Webers term and now seeks election to the District 3 position as a Democrat. Ryan served four terms on the Board of Trustees for Great Falls Public Schools and served in the legislature for two sessions in the Montana Senate where Ryan was the Chair of the Education Committee.

Running against Ryan as a Republican is Rae Grulkowski, who has been outspoken in her advocacy against the proposed federal designation of a National Heritage Area in Cascade and Chouteau counties.

Sheriff Jesse Slaughter is running for re-election as a Republican. Slaughter ran in 2020 as a Democrat but announced in 2021 that he was switching parties.

"This will change nothing that I do on a day-to-day basis, it's just standing up for professional law enforcement and saying I'm not going to align myself with radical party leadership that doesn't respect the ideals that the people of Cascade County respect," Slaughter said at the time of his party switch announcement.

Cascade County Deputy Jay Groskreutz is running against Slaughter also as a Republican.

Diane Heikkila is running for re-election as a Republican for Treasurer and Superintendent of Schools. She has served in the position since 2019.

County Attorney Josh Racki is running for re-election as a Democrat. He has served in the position since 2017. According to his bio on the Cascade County website, he is an award-winning prosecutor with experience serving on the veterans and adult treatment court and is a trained Internet Crimes against Children prosecutor, currently serving on the board of the Montana County Attorneys Association.

David Phillips is running as a non-partisan Justice of the Peace. He was appointed by the county commission to replace Mary Jolley on the bench after her retirement last year. The Electric reported in February that a complaint had been filed with the Montana Human Rights Bureau that alleged the county commission made the appointment "despite the fact that Phillips had multiple DUI arrests and state and federal tax liens filed against him while we was a Cascade County sheriffs deputy." The complaint was filed by Antoinette Wells, another applicant for the position.

Rina Fontana Moore is running as a Democrat for Clerk and Recorder/Auditor/Surveyor. Moore was first elected to the position in 2006. Moore is a Professionally Registered Land Surveyor and a Licensed Real Estate Appraiser, per her county bio. Moore was one of several elections administrators in the state to request the delay of the implementation of new election software as there were glitches that still needed to be ironed out before statewide elections. Running against Moore is Sandra Lee Merchant.

The Federal, State and County primary elections will be held June 7.

School Board elections will be held May 3 with four seats opening up. Three seats are for three-year terms and one seat is for a one-year term for someone who will serve out the rest of the late Jan Cahills term. Candidates must file by March 24.

Forms to register to vote or request an absentee ballot are available on the Cascade County Elections website.

One notable race at the state Supreme Court level became more crowded, according to reporting from the Daily Montanan.

Last week, Lewis and Clark District Court Judge Michael McMahon announced that he was going to run against current sitting Supreme Court Justice Ingrid Gustafson. On Monday, James Brown of Dillon filed in the race as well. Brown is the current chairman of the Montana Public Service Commission. The PSC is a five-member panel and is partisan. All five members, including Brown, are Republican.

Races for Montana Supreme Court are nonpartisan, as are judicial elections at the district court level.

Gustafson is not the only Supreme Court seat that will be challenged. Justice Jim Rice will be challenged by Bill DAlton of Billings.

While most judicial races are unopposed, one race in Cascade County will pit former Judge Michele R. Levine against sitting Judge David Grubich. Levine was appointed to the bench by former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat. Levine, who is also a former legislator, was not confirmed by the Montana Senate in 2021, being criticized by the Republican-majority as being too liberal.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte appointed Grubich to the bench, but not without Levine still making a short-list of Gianfortes possible candidates.

House District 1

The western part of the state will become House District 1 and will include Missoula, Kalispell and Bozeman. Montanas population grew enough to warrant the addition of another seat in the United States House of Representatives.

Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who served in the U.S. House, is running for election as a Republican, as is Al Doc Olszewki, a longtime state lawmaker from the Flathead area. Other Republicans running for the seat include Mitch Heuer of Whitefish, Matt Jette of Missoula, Mary Todd of Kalispell.

Zinke resigned from the House to serve in President Donald J. Trumps cabinet, the first Montana confirmed to a cabinet-level position.

On the Democrats side, Cora Neumann of Bozeman, Monica Tranel of Missoula and Tom Winter of Missoula are running for the top slot.

John Lamb of Bozeman is running as a Libertarian.

House District 2

Congressman Matt Rosendale, a Republican who has held the seat since winning in 2020, will face competition from Kyle Austin of Billings, Charles Walkingchild of Helena, and James Boyette on the Republican ballot. Rosendale, of Glendive, represents a new district that spans across the central and eastern half of the state and includes Billings, Helena and Great Falls.

Former state commerce director Gary Buchanan of Billings has filed to run against Rosendale as an independent.

Current Montana lawmaker Mark Sweeney of Philipsburg has filed on the Democrats side as has Skylar Williams of Billings and former Billings City Councilwoman Penny Ronning.

Three people have filed as Libertarians including Sam Rankin of Billings, Roger Roots of Livingston and Samuel Thomas.

Public Service Commission

Two Republicans have filed in District 1 to challenge current Public Service Commissioner Randy Pinocci of Sun River. Pinocci is a former state lawmaker.

Arlo Christianson of Great Falls and K. Webb Galbreath of Browning will face off against Pinocci in a race that has just been finalized because of a lawsuit that challenged the PSC districts. A panel of three federal judges ruled that the PSC districts, which hadnt been modified for decades, violated the constitutional principle of one-person, one-vote and adjusted the boundaries until the Legislature could address the issue.

That changed the statewide map as PSC District 1 and 5 were up for grabs in 2022.

As anticipated, Derek Skees, a Kalispell Republican state lawmaker who is termed out of the Legislature, is running for District 5, and will be challenged by Republicans Ann Bukacek of Kalispell, Dean Crabb of Marion, and Joe Dooling of Helena.

On the Democrats side, John Repke of Whitefish will square off against Kevin Hamm of East Helena.

Daily Montanan Editor-in-Chief Darrell Ehrlick contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Heres who is running for state and local office in Cascade County (so far)
My life officially began in Leningrad, Russia, and you have guessed correctly that there was no Black History Month there. I spent four years of my life in Russia before my parents moved us back to Nigeria. I do not remember much of my life in Russia, but my parents have told me the story several times of how I was once called a monkey because I was black. I do not recall this, so it does not affect me in anyway. I still dream of going back to visit Russia someday.

After Russia, I spent some time in Nigeria before moving to America where I have now lived for most of my life. And America, is where this great story matters. In Nigeria, I was an Igbo girl (from the Eastern part of Nigeria) who lived in Jos, Plateau State (the Northern part of Nigeria). If you wanted to get specific, then I was Igbo, from Anambra, and from Anaocha local government area. When people described my complexion in Nigeria, they called me light-skinned and fair in complexion, and sometimes, they just called me yellow. That yellow Igbo girl was a regular description, and I never fought it. I still do not fight it.

Then I moved to America where I became just black. It did not matter that I was from Anambra State. It did not matter that I was Igbo. It did not matter that I was Nigerian. It did not even matter much that I was African. It was only when I spoke and people heard my accent that there was a sudden interest in my origin. But generally, as far as America was concerned, I was just black. It was with reluctance  and sometimes even resentment  that I would tick the Black or African-American box on forms. I wanted to be recognized as Igbo, or at least, as Nigerian. I wanted America to know that my black was different from their black because I had been conditioned to believe that my black was not just different, but better.

And America did a premium mind fuckery on me. On one hand, I was complimented by white people for being a different kind of black. I was told that I was not at all like their black people, the American ones. No, I was proper, spoke articulately, and was always well-mannered. I basked in those compliments. In Nigerian lingo, my shoulders were rising, and I was prouding. But America was like the uncommitted boyfriend, sending me mixed messages, being here today and gone tomorrow, on today and off tomorrow, lukewarm and impossible to place or understand. America told me that I was the better black, but America also reminded me that while I was the better black, I was still just black. Did America like me or not? Did America want me or not? It felt like a boyfriend professing eternal, undying love and then ghosting me the next day. I was profoundly confused.

As a teenager, my tender and inexperienced mind just did not comprehend racism or the impact of slavery. Sure, I learned about them in the two years of high school I completed in America, but I still did not really understand them. To me, they were unlucky incidents that happened a long time ago but they were no longer happening or relevant. Why did black people keep bringing up these old things that were no longer issues? It was unfortunate, I concluded, that white people once enslaved black people, but black people were now liberated, so what were they complaining about? I, for example, could come from Nigeria into America and start a new life, and I would succeed and even surpass the black people that were here before me, so obviously, the system worked, and it was these black people who were refusing to work hard. They needed to be more like us, the better black people.

As a Nigerian, it was normal to see my fellow Nigerians come into America and work three to four jobs while going to school fulltime and taking care of their family in America and in Nigeria. Again, why were black people complaining? Maybe if they would stop selling drugs, giving birth to bastard babies, and committing crimes, all would be well with them. America was a land filled with opportunities. If I, an outsider, could make it in America, then the citizens of America, regardless of their color, had no excuse.

Then I got older. And I made a conscious effort to understand. And I made a conscious effort to put myself in the shoes of these black people that I thought I was better than. And I began to understand that being enslaved with chains and shackles around your feet was the slightest slavery, and that the real slavery was in the mind. The most hard-hitting discovery, however, was realizing  or remembering, maybe  that these black people were African people who were now in America because their fellow African friends and relatives sold them for shiny piece of mirror. It was me realizing that I was them and they were me, and the only difference was that I came here by choice. It was an inconvenient discovery that birthed an anger in me because things were different now. I could not unknow what I knew.

Nigeria did not teach me about slavery. Nigeria did not even teach me about its own civil war, so how could I expect to learn about Americas war on racism and slavery? I learned that not having an ancestor who was a slave did not mean that such ancestors did not exist; it just meant that I knew nothing of them because Nigeria failed to tell me about them. America, conversely, convinced me that I was not one of them, that I was different because I knew where I came from.

I remember when Obama became president of the United States. I was so happy to have a black man and his wife in the White House because I knew that it had never happened before. However, when he was declared as the winner, the emotions I felt were different from the emotions I witnessed from other black people. While I was happy, elated, and relieved, other black people were crying and in awe that they had lived to see this day. I, as a Nigerian, however, had known only black presidents. Nigeria is the most populous black nation on earth, so my reality was different. I only saw black presidents, and no one jumped up and down because our president was black. Of course, he was. What else was he going to be? It was a teachable moment for me.

I remember someone saying how proud she was of herself because she was the first doctor in her family. I was stunned because I was a child being raised by two medical doctors. My parents both had friends and relatives who were also medical doctors, and even in my own circle, one of my closest friends was in school to be a medical doctor. I was used to having people who were medical doctors, lawyers, architects, and everything in between. I was used to seeing black people who were on television and thriving, and I was never told that any of my ancestors were enslaved or raped or lynched. It was not my reality. It was not my perspective.

The unfortunate irony for a lot of us, Africans, is that when we make it to America, the promised land flowing with milk and honey, we experience all kinds of culture shock, but the most shocking among them is when black people call us vile names, ask us how we got into America, if we lived on trees, and if we rode on elephants. White people, on the other hand, are usually softer on us. Sometimes it comes with ulterior motives, but at that time, in our vulnerability, we welcome them. It is like when a starving person meets a person who offers them mold-infested bread. It might ultimately make them sick, but first, it will put something in their belly.

I had no preconceived notions about black people when I came to America. My only preconceived notion was that things were easy in America, that I would excel and be very rich. But it was black people, through their words and actions toward me, that made me feel small and unwelcome. Those actions, by themselves and cumulatively, did not speak for the black community. I did not know it then, but I know it now.

In conversations with my African-American brothers and sisters, I am told that they are sometimes hostile toward Africans because Africans look down on them and think they are better than them. Africans, understandably, feel the same way, so we are left with the case of the chicken or the egg: which one came first? My people say that when two elephants fight, it is the ground that suffers. While Africans and African-Americans fight and argue over who started what and when, it is our children and our families that suffer, and this war, at the end of the day, is just a war between the black people that were enslaved and the black people that were colonized  by the white people.

Today, as Black History Month officially commences, I am like a proud peacock, showing off all the colors and shades that make me beautiful. I do not take for granted the Igboness, the Nigerianess, the Africaness, and the blackness that have uniquely come together to forge me. I am proud that I get to be Igbo, Nigerian, American, and black.

I cannot help but be grateful for my ancestors who walked this path before me and made today possible for me. I wonder what went through their minds when they were forcefully separated from all that they knew and loved. And I wonder how far their dreams went when they were being flogged and starved on this land that was foreign to them, this land where their blood was spilled. Did they dream that one day, their descendants would come to America on their own, not bound or shackled? Did they know that one day, their descendants would give just about anything to live on this land that enslaved them  body, soul, spirit, and mind? Did they imagine that one day, an entire month would be dedicated to celebrating their blackness and story  and the month would be called Black History Month?

I closed my eyes while writing this, and I tried to picture it, what life was like for them. I tried to feel what they felt  the fear, the anger, the pain, the anguish, the hopelessness. The thought made my body shiver and my knees buckle. I cannot picture what they saw, and I cannot feel what they felt. All I can feel is a dimension and sphere of bleakness, the kind that kills.

Today, I say thank you. To my Chi (my living fate), to my akalaka (my destiny), to this very moment, and to God who was and who is. I am also eternally grateful to my ancestors, the sacrifices they made, and the price they paid. Because of them, I can and I am.

Happy Black History Month  this month and beyond.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2022) - Silver Sands Resources Corp. (CSE: SAND) (OTCQB: SSRSF) ("Silver Sands" or the "Company") is pleased to release further results from its 2021 Phase III drill program at the Virginia Project in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina.

Drilling at Margarita discovered a new zone of high-grade silver mineralization, confirming the potential of the vein to host silver ounces. In addition, drilling at Martina NW vein confirmed the down dip extension of the silver mineralization. Highlights include:

MR-DDH-003 - 1,456 g/t silver over 2.65 metres

MNW-DDH-005A - 242 g/t silver over 4.75 metres including 404 g/t silver over 2.45 metres



"The Margarita silver intersection is very exciting as surface sampling and trenching has traced the vein over 100m to the NW and potentially 50m to the SE, following the same north-northwest trend as the bulk of the veins hosting the mineral resource," commented Silver Sands CEO Keith Anderson. "Margarita will be one of the key veins targeted in the Phase IV drill program, along with the Martina NW, which also has the same north-northwest trend, as we continue to focus on expanding the current resource at Virginia," he continued.





Figure 1. Virginia Vein Field Phase III Drilling

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6972/112280_7d12f743143f29b4_001full.jpg.

The Phase III drilling program comprised 20 core holes (2,932m) with 14 holes for 2,437m at Virginia and 6 holes for 495m at Santa Rita, located in the north of the property package. Results reported today are for 7 holes from the Margarita, Martina, Roxanne and Maos veins at Virginia.

Table 1. Virginia Phase III Drill Results

Hole ID From To Interval (m)1 Ag g/t2 Cut-off3 MNW-DDH-005-A 96.10 100.85 4.75 242 63 including 97.10 99.55 2.45 404 150 MR-DDH-003 43.65 46.30 2.65 1,456 63 including 43.65 46.00 2.35 1,624 150 RO-DDH-002 41.15 41.50 0.35 77 63 MAOS-DDH-001 No interval above cut-off MC-DDH-001-A No interval above cut-off MSE-DDH-005 No interval above cut-off MSW-DDH-004 No interval above cut-off





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(1) Reported interval lengths are downhole widths and not true widths.

(2) Reported intervals are at the stated cut-off grades of 63 g/t Ag and 150 g/t Ag. Reported intervals may include up to a maximum of two m individual section below cut-off grade and Silver grades are uncapped.

(3) The intervals were selected using the 63 g/t cut-off grade used in the National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate.

Significant New Results (see Table 1)

A new mineralized section of vein was discovered at the Margarita target. Hole MR-DDH-003 intersected 2.65m at 1,456 g/t Ag at a shallow depth of 43.65m downhole, within a 3m wide banded epithermal vein and a peripheral hydrothermal breccia halo. This silver mineralization is also associated with values above maximum detection limit (10,000pm) for lead over the entire 2.65m section and for zinc in two 0.3m samples. These samples have all been re-submitted to the laboratory for ICP-Ore analysis to obtain accurate results and results are pending. This high-grade Margarita intersection confirms the prospectivity of this target and opens a new mineralized trend to be aggressively explored along strike and at depth from MR-DDH-003. To the northwest, rock chips and trench samples completed to date have delineated the Margarita vein trend for more than 100m, while hole MR-DDH-001 (reported January 21, 2021) drilled 50m to the southeast, may have only intercepted the peripheral silicified halo of the main silver bearing structure, which may have been displaced to the west based on the current structural interpretation. The mineralized vein at Margarita exhibits classic epithermal textures that are very similar to the veins drilled at the Julia trend, which hosts the majority of the mineral resource at Virginia[1]. In addition, the structural orientation (north-northwest) is comparable for both the Margarita and the Julia trends, and is interpreted to be most attractive orientation for developing economic silver mineralization within the Virginia vein field.

[1] The mineral resource estimate was reported by the vendor, Mirasol Resources Ltd., in a report titled "Project, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina -- Initial Silver Mineral Resource Estimate" with an effective date of Oct. 24, 2014, and a report date of Feb. 29, 2016, by D. Earnest and M. Lechner.

At the Martina NW target, holes MNW-DDH-005A and MNW-DDH-005 were collared to test the depth extent of the mineralized polymictic hydrothermal breccia structure that was previously drilled in MNW-DDH-001 (reported May 17, 2021 - 5.9m at 190 g/t Ag). Hole MNW-DDH-005 was targeting the Martina NW structure at 107m below surface and intercepted the same breccia structure. Unfortunately, core recovery in this drill hole was poor (<50%) within the mineralized zone. Hole MNW-DDH-005A, was drilled at a shallower dip and intersected 4.75m at 242 g/t Ag, including 2.45m at 404 g/t Ag, 68m vertically below surface. A deeper hole will be required to verify the extent of the mineralization further at depth. The results from Martina NW are considered very encouraging as the current Martina deposit holds the smallest resource on the property to date, and these new intersections support the potential to increase the mineral resource along this trend. Martina NW also exhibits the preferred structural orientation (north-northwest) as seen at Julia and Margarita which is considered very encouraging. Further work is planned to continue extending the mineralization along the Martina NW structure both to the northwest and southeast.

The IP surveying in the northeast area in preparation for a Phase IV drill program continues.

About Virginia

Virginia is a low to intermediate sulphidation epithermal silver deposit located in the mineral-rich Deseado massif, lying within the mining-friendly province of Santa Cruz in the Patagonia region of Argentina. Through initial discovery in 2009 to four drill programs between 2010 and 2012, Mirasol Resources was able to define an initial indicated mineral resource of 11.9 million ounces of silver at 310 g/t Silver and a further inferred 3.1 million ounces of silver at 207 g/t Silver within seven outcropping bodies. This resource is documented in a Mirasol Resources technical report entitled: "Amended Technical Report, Virginia Project, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina -- Initial Silver Mineral Resource Estimate" with an effective date of Oct. 24, 2014, and a report date of Feb. 29, 2016.

Several additional vein structures within the property package remain highly prospective, as Mirasol concentrated the bulk of its exploration effort on the resource area at the expense of continuing exploration on the underexplored additional veins. Several of these structures have highlight values in excess of 1,000 g/t silver and have a high probability of hosting additional silver resources. These veins structures continue to be the primary focus of the Silver Sands 2021/2022 exploration efforts.

Silver Sands is earning a 100-per-cent interest in Virginia by issuing sufficient shares for Mirasol to end up with 19.9 per cent of the issued and outstanding of Silver Sands and completing $6-million (U.S.) in exploration over three years. Mirasol will retain a 3-per-cent net smelter return royalty with Silver Sands having the option of purchasing one-third of the royalty for $2-million (U.S.).

About Silver Sands Resources Corp.

Silver Sands is a well-financed, Canada-based company engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets in mining-friendly jurisdictions. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious and base metal properties of merit. Its key asset is the Virginia silver project, located in the mining-friendly Santa Cruz state of Argentina.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Keith Anderson

Chief Executive Officer, Director

For further information, please contact:

Keith Anderson

Chief Executive Officer, Director (604) 786-7774

Qualified Person Statement: Silver Sand's disclosure of technical and scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by R. Tim Henneberry, P.Eng., a director of the Company, who serves as a Qualified Person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.

QAQC: Silver Sands applies industry standard exploration sampling methodologies and techniques. All geochemical rock and drill samples are collected under the supervision of the company's geologists in accordance with industry practice. Geochemical assays are obtained and reported under a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program. Samples are dispatched to an ISO 9001:2008 accredited laboratory in Argentina for analysis. Assay results from channel, trench, and drill core samples may be higher, lower or similar to results obtained from surface samples due to surficial oxidation and enrichment processes or due to natural geological grade variations in the primary mineralization.

Forward-Looking Statements: The information in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry and to policies linked to pandemics, social and environmental related matters. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, mineral tenure issues and mineral recovery processes. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Silver Sands disclaims any obligations to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

[1] Refer to Amended NI 43-101 Technical Report filed February 29, 2016: "Amended Technical Report, Virginia Project, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina - Initial Silver Mineral Resource Estimate" prepared by D. Earnest and M. Lechner

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/112280
Bryant joined the Stewart family of companies in March 2021 through the acquisition of A.S.K. Services, Inc.

HOUSTON, February 01, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stewart Title announced today that Iain Bryant has been promoted to Agency Services North Central District Manager. Bryant previously held the role of Principal at A.S.K. Services, Inc., a title production company acquired by Stewart in March 2021. The promotion reflects Stewarts commitment to becoming the Premier Title Services Company by leveraging the talent and expertise behind the brands it acquires.

"Im excited to welcome Iain to the Stewart Agency team," said Tara Smith, Agency Services Group President. "He is a proven leader with deep industry knowledge, and Im confident that his strong customer focus will be instrumental in deploying Stewarts improved tools and resources to support our North Central agents."

Bryant will provide support for title agents in the states of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Eastern Wyoming. He will be responsible for managing the existing agency team in these states and identifying and onboarding new agents, while fostering existing agent relationships. In his previous role at A.S.K. Services, Bryant led business development efforts, successfully doubling the companys earnings, and expanding into four additional states. He also grew the company to more than 220 employees. Prior to A.S.K. Services, Bryant provided consulting services to senior IT leaders and their organizations within the Department of Defense.

"For the better part of ten years, Ive had the privilege of interacting with title agency owners and operators across the country on topics such as their workflows, technology and title production," said Bryant. "I look forward to leveraging that experience and all of Stewart's capabilities for the growth and flourishing of our Stewart Trusted Provider Network."

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Bryant is a board member of the Michigan Land Title Association. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cedarville University and has completed executive education courses at the University of Michigan and Harvard University.

About Stewart

Stewart (NYSE:STC) is a global real estate services company, offering products and services through our direct operations, network of Stewart Trusted Providers and family of companies. From residential and commercial title insurance and closing and settlement services to specialized offerings for the mortgage industry, we offer the comprehensive service, deep expertise and solutions our customers need for any real estate transaction. At Stewart, we are dedicated to becoming the premier title services company and we are committed to doing so by partnering with our customers to create mutual success. Learn more at stewart.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005043/en/

Contacts

John Chattaway, Stewart Media Relations

(713) 625-8180; mediarelations@stewart.com
A Watershed Academy student searches for macroinvertebrates in Stover Creek. These small animals, such as caddisfly larvae and hellgrammites, can indicate stream health by their presence or absence.

Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council is a membership-based organization. That means that, like a lot of nonprofits, we depend on donations to fund some of our programs and staff. We are the fortunate recipient of grants from generous supporters like community foundations and state and federal agencies. However, without people like you, our organization wouldnt be able to protect Northern Michigans waters. So, where does the money go? How do we spend the funds that come in from our members?

There are so many ways that donations make our vital work possible. Take, for example, the work of our interns. Every summer, interns monitor area streams, kayak for miles while performing shoreline surveys, help students collect data during our educational programs, assist during monitor training events, prevent the spread of invasive species during our mobile boat washing events, create maps and other outreach pieces based on the data they collect, and so much more. Were currently running a fundraiser to provide more financial support to our interns, who can struggle with living expenses in the summer months. Generous members who have donated to the fund are helping us monitor the health of our freshwater resources.

Future watershed stewards come through our high and middle school education programs every year. Water Resources Education Coordinator Eli Baker travels as far as Mackinaw City and Beaver Island to work with students in our service area. Students dont just learn about water chemistry and aquatic wildlife when theyre out in streams with Baker  like interns, they also collect valuable data for our monitoring programs. Weve been very fortunate for recent educational grants from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, the Great Lakes Energy Electric Cooperative, and Petoskey Rotary Club Charities, Inc. However, getting those students out with nets and waders is still partially funded by our donors. Its just another way members contribute to watershed health in Northern Michigan.

Have you ever met our policy team? Policy Director Jennifer McKay and Policy Specialist and Staff Attorney Kacey Cook work ceaselessly to promote legislation that protects our freshwater resources. They conduct site visits, comment on permits that have the potential to affect our waters, attend countless meetings to advocate for conservation laws and ordinances, and provide an immense amount of citizen support. Whether its advocating to control stormwater runoff or working to prevent an oil or natural gas liquids disaster from the Line 5 pipeline, a large part of our policy teams work is donor funded. Your support makes it possible for our policy team to act as a voice for our waters.

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What about the really tangible products, like educational materials? Our newsletter is written, edited, and printed with donation money. While some of our printed products are grant funded, others have been produced because we see a need to communicate about an important issue. A significant portion of our outreach on important topics, such as harmful algal blooms and stormwater pollution, is funded by donations. Staff time to inform the public about our initiatives through magazine and newspaper articles, videos, social media, webinars, and some of our communications for lake associations is member funded.

Lastly, you keep the lights on. Our office on Bay Street is a hub of activity, especially in the summer months. Staff and interns come and go with our Boston Whaler or mobile boat washing station in tow.

Volunteer monitors pick up equipment and drop off water samples. Citizens arrive with questions and leave with handfuls of brochures to share with their neighbors. Without you, our organization would have a tough time maintaining the successful programs youve come to depend on. So, thanks so much for supporting us. With your help, well always be here to protect our regions most precious resource.

For more information about our programs, visit watershedcouncil.org. Have a question? Call 231-347-1181.

 Jennifer DeMoss is communications director for the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Tip of the Mitt: Where does the money go? How your donations help protect our freshwater future
The appointment marks an important shift in the companys product and technical strategy

SINGAPORE & SAN FRANCISCO, February 01, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Trax, a leading global provider of computer vision solutions and analytics for retail, today announced the appointment of Barak Turovsky as its Chief Product Officer (CPO). Under Turovskys leadership, Trax combines its product and engineering teams to support the companys growth and enable development of new solutions to meet market needs. Turovsky is a former Google AI leader where his focus was bringing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Google Search, Ads & Commerce, Google Translate, Cloud and other products.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005161/en/

Trax adds former Google AI leader, Barak Turovsky, as Chief Product Officer (Photo: Business Wire)

"Barak brings an invaluable set of skills and experiences to Trax," said CEO, Justin Behar. "His deep understanding of AI and first-hand knowledge of how to scale products from ideation to the hands of billions of users will be instrumental to our growth as he takes his place at the helm of what is so intrinsic to Traxs future: our robust product and technological assets."

Before joining Trax, Turovsky spent a cumulative 10 years at Google, most recently as director of product for Google AI, overseeing product and design organizations with a focus on applying AI across Natural Language Understanding and Computer Vision, to deliver cutting edge digital experiences to billions of Google users. Prior to that, Barak served as head of product for Googles mobile commerce team where he spearheaded, developed, and launched Google Pay (formerly Google Wallet).

"I am eager to kick off my tenure with Trax, especially at such a pivotal moment for the retail industry," said Turovsky. "AI is revolutionizing many areas of our lives, and retail is going through enormous disruption as physical, online and mobile experiences are blending at an incredible pace. Leveraging AI to help retailers and brands create a seamless real-time experience for shoppers is a very exciting challenge. I am looking forward to working on similar, massive scale problems to benefit billions of people, as I did at Google."

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Prior to joining Google in 2011, Turovsky was director of product for Microsofts Mobile Advertising, head of mobile commerce at PayPal and chief technical officer of an Israeli start-up. Barak is fluent in three languages having lived in three countries, Russia, Israel, and the U.S.

About Trax:

Traxs mission is to enable brands and retailers to harness the power of digital technologies to produce the best shopping experiences imaginable. Traxs retail platform allows customers to understand what is happening on shelf, in every store, all the time so they can focus on what they do best  delighting shoppers. Many of the worlds top CPG companies and retailers use Traxs dynamic merchandising, in-store execution, shopper engagement, market measurement, analytics, and shelf monitoring solutions at scale to drive positive shopper experiences and unlock revenue opportunities at all points of sale. As pioneers in computer vision, Trax continues to lead the industry in innovation and excellence through development of advanced technologies and autonomous data collection methods. Trax is a global company with hubs in the United States, Singapore and Israel, serving customers in more than 90 countries worldwide. To learn more, visit www.traxretail.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005161/en/

Contacts

Trax Press:

Rachel Johnson

Director of Corporate Communications, Global

rachel.johnson@traxretail.com

Heather Gries

Brownstein, on behalf of Trax

Hgries@brownsteingroup.com
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vectrus, Inc. (NYSE: VEC) is excited to announce the expansion of its Converged Environment service offering, which designs and implements integrated technology solutions to address installation management challenges faced by the Department of Defense (DoD). The Converged Environment incorporates and expands Vectrus' existing Converged Infrastructure offering, creating operational efficiencies by integrating all aspects of physical and digital infrastructure. In doing so, the Converged Environment improves performance and reduces costs across communications, assets, logistics, supply chains, acquisition, cyber and physical security, facilities, and operational processes.

Vectrus Logo.

Much of the military's base operations today relies on aging infrastructure and manual inputs, while leaving gaps in the information leaders need. The result is an operational model that falls short of the DoD's modernization goals, which demand connected, resilient, and cost-effective solutions. The Vectrus Converged Environment approach is designed to meet and advance these needs.

"Unlike traditional solutions, the Vectrus approach exists at the intersection of technology, security, and assets, making us uniquely positioned to unlock the benefits that come with integration. Vectrus is also a service company, bringing highly expert leaders and users to these challenges, so we can shrink the cost and time between understanding an opportunity and implementing a converged solution," said Corinne Minton-Package, Senior Vice President of Systems and Technology at Vectrus. "Our Converged Environment offering meets the demands of the military while promoting cost savings, increased security, and more strategic use of resources  and rapidly enabling critical data-driven decision-making for our customers."

The Converged Environment approach is already in practice at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego. As prime contractor, Vectrus is integrating technology solutions and applications for a smart warehouse. This "warehouse of the future," which involves transshipment between shore facilities and Naval units, will improve efficiency, accuracy, security, and safety of material across supply handling, management, storage, and distribution.

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"Vectrus is a trusted partner of the U.S. military  our networked solutions enhance readiness, improve security, streamline logistics, and increase operational advantage. In short, we are the convergence point," explained Minton-Package. "We are proud of this investment and are committed to developing tailored solutions to meet the DoD's modernization objectives through the deployment of Vectrus Converged Environments."

About Vectrus

Vectrus, a defense technology company, has provided mission critical support for the toughest operational challenges our customers have faced for more than 70 years. We leverage emerging technologies, unmatched technical expertise, exceptional talent, and deep domain knowledge to deliver innovative solutions for military and government customers worldwide. Whether it's base operations support , converged environment solutions , supply chain and logistics , IT mission support , engineering and digital integration , security , or maintenance, repair, and overhaul , our customers count on us for on-target solutions that increase efficiency, reduce costs, improve readiness, and strengthen national security.

Vectrus is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., and includes about 9,200 employees spanning 206 locations in 27 countries. In 2020, Vectrus generated sales of $1.4 billion. For more information, visit the company's website at www.vectrus.com or connect with Vectrus on Facebook , Twitter , and LinkedIn .

Media Contact:

Mike Smith, CFA

719-637-5773

michael.smith@vectrus.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vectrus-launches-expanded-converged-environment-service-offering-to-support-dod-readiness-and-modernization-initiatives-301472638.html

SOURCE Vectrus, Inc.
The Fredericksburg City Council has directed city staff to research a different form of voting that could take effect in 2023 local elections.

Councilman Jason Graham proposed that Fredericksburg explore a ranked-choice voting system that has been implemented in some states and cities in the U.S.

Its a way to vote thats a little different, but not too different from how we vote today, Graham said.

A ranked-choice voting system ranks candidates by preference. If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, theyre declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated.

First-preference votes for the failed candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots. A new tally is then conducted to determine whether any candidate has won a majority with the adjusted votes added.

The process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority.

Rene Rodriguez, chairman of the citys Electoral Board, reminded City Council members that the board sent a letter in December 2020 informing them that ranked-choice voting isnt feasible in Fredericksburg.

When this issue first came up, we actually provided input and information as to how it would not be implementable in the city of Fredericksburg [because of] the current equipment and a couple of other things, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez noted that Republicans used ranked-choice voting for their primaries last year and ballots were counted by hand.

I was asked to help administer that election and I saw that and I can provide input later on if youd like, Rodriguez told City Council. But it was not an easy process and I would tell you that we do not have in the city of Fredericksburg the capacity, the capability to do that currently.

Graham said thats why hes giving nearly two years of notice for the potential change. He said he supports ranked-choice voting because it would lessen circumstances when voters believe theyre only selecting the lesser of two evils.

You can imagine if there are five people on a ballot, there could be a situation where someone wins but theyre simply disliked by a majority of voters, Graham said. But they just got the most votes because there were so many people on that ballot.

Graham added that without ranked-choice voting, people would more likely engage in strategic voting, where voters think about not just who they prefer but whether other people support their choice in order to make the tally truly matter.

Graham posted a video to his Facebook page that explains ranked-choice voting to viewers.

The process is not anything brand new, Graham said. Its been successfully implemented in cities and states across America and it has made demonstrable improvement. It can make campaigns more civil because candidates are forced to appeal to as many voters as possible instead of just trying to turn out their core group of supporters.

Graham said that voters appear to be fed up with every single aspect of politics, whether its elections or governing itself. He said ranked-choice voting could help address those concerns.

He noted that while City Council members cant impact state and federal elections, they do have the ability to change local races.

Virginia code allows local governing bodies to create ordinances to determine how elections are handled. Former Gov. Ralph Northam signed a bill in 2020 allowing ranked-choice voting if local governments choose to do so. Further guidance on implementing it is expected to come from the General Assembly this year.

If its moving around in the state, its worth a discussion at least, Vice Mayor Chuck Frye Jr. said.

City Council proposed that staff consult with the registrar and the board of elections and return with more information this summer. Councilman Matt Kelly suggested that staff not create an ordinance right away, but instead returns with pros and cons as well as Electoral Board recommendations.

I think we all know that our democracy, it needs some shaking up. It needs some rejuvenation, Graham said. I think ranked-choice voting is a way for Fredericksburg to be a leader in that charge, not just for Virginia but across the rest of America.

Taft Coghill Jr: 540/374-5526 tcoghill@freelancestar.com

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Argument Presented by Commissioner Stan Deatherage for Ratification of the Resolution Here Below on February 7, 2022

Beaufort County Commissioners are Resolved and Sworn to Demand, Without Fail, Voter Integrity in North Carolina, and All of its Counties

Do you consider Election Integrity an issue of some real importance, or just another conspiracy theory interfering with Democratic Socialist political hegemony? No, complete access to everyone voting, even in a willy nilly manner, is more important than getting it right by limiting access to those that would commit Voter Fraud. Yes, the most inalienable right of real citizens of this Democratic Republic is the Right to Vote, and that right shall remain sacrosanct for perpetuity. Again, I don't vote and I don't care. 248 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



poll#138

Is it fair or even patriotic to threaten states that do not conform to the Democratic Socialists' mandate to control the outcome of Free and Fair elections enacted by constitutionally guaranteed states' legislatures? Yes, all elections must be federalized so that the whim of the majority political party can set the standard for all elections. No, Our Founders purposefully decentralized elections by guaranteeing only states' legislatures the independent right to enact Free and Fair elections. I don't vote and I don't care. 343 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



poll#145

After one full year of the Biden /Harris Administration: Does Joe Biden have the intellectual capacity, and, or the energy to lead the United States of America through the mess that he predominately created ... in just one year? Yes No Unsure 340 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



poll#135

Should the current Congress, under the care of the Democratic Socialists, have the right to pass new legislation - H.R. 1 - attempting to strip these 50 states united from managing their own elections? Yes, elections have consequences and the Democratic Socialists are now fully in charge. No, the partisan passing of H.R. 1, by only the Democratic Socialists, to create an illegitimate rich environment to corrupt elections and control the ballot box is fully unconstitutional. I just don't care. 475 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



Beaufort County citizens have a voice in this self-governing conundrum of these States United, and it must not be cancelled, or held politically hostage by the false problems promoted by the Democratic Socialists, whose purpose is to destroy this Representative Republic, if necessary to accomplish their nefarious goals. On February 7, 2022, your Beaufort County Commissioners meet to do the People's business, and we shall all witness just where your Beaufort County Commissioners stand on this monumental issue., Beaufort County is a Body Politic of the State of North Carolina, whereby the Beaufort County Commissioners are sworn to govern, and therefore are legislated by the North Carolina General Assembly to enforce and provide the People: space and equipment to democratically poll the self-governed electorate of Beaufort County in each election; count their votes; and submit those correct tallies to the North Carolina State Board of Elections, and;, North Carolina is constitutionally charged by the People of North Carolina, and the federal government of the United States of America to democratically, and legitimately elect our governing officials, our representatives, by the laws passed by the North Carolina General Assembly, which is the process prescribed by our Founders fully within the dictates of the United States Constitution, as specified by: Article I, section 4; Article II, Section 1, the 12th Amendment; the 17th Amendment, and;, there is currently a spurious political movement by the Democratic Socialist Left, of which the Biden /Harris Administration is acting as lead spokespeople, to confuse the unsophisticated within our electorate by conflating a disingenuous and dishonest understanding of Voting Rights in conjunction with Voting Integrity, and;, there are no real Voting Rights issues ofin states as claimed by this aforementioned radical Democratic Socialist Left, where any future nationallegislation could become any remedy to what is their promotion of false defects to OUR national democratic process, and,, Beaufort County's commissioners are dedicated, with great resolve and commitment, to hold free and fair elections here in Beaufort County, to which they must publicly fund all necessary components of that process as is their purposeful part of the electoral process; thereby, in return, expect and demand complete and unbiased Voter Integrity in all 100 counties of North Carolina, therefore;, here today and forever, Beaufort County's commissioners understand that all elections must be fully democratic in purpose, while foundationally constitutional in that process, respecting both hallowed documents, one by our sovereign North Carolina, and the other by OUR United States, where and how our democratic elections are conducted, whereby the most fundamental right of all American citizens is guaranteed by the utmost integrity in that process.On February 6, 2022, Diane Rufino published this like minded resolution on the same subject . For my fellow less experienced county commissioners, who don't write ... anything ... and then complain that my string of resolutions are far too complicated, there is a whole other world out there, where there are people who are knowledgeable, and caring to compete and communicate, one needs to read for comprehension, and, on occassion, write something that projects purpose. So far, I do not know of another county commissioner, save the vernerable Hood Richardson, that has done so.
Alice L. Kibbe Life Science Research Station

Alice Kibbe had a dream of starting a field station at the site to promote teaching and research in field biology and ecology. Her ideals of promoting teaching, research and conservation are the cornerstones on which the Alice L. Kibbe Life Science Station has been built.

Dr. Kibbe was a well-known botanist. She was Department Chair and Professor of Botany in the Biology Department at Carthage College from 1920 to 1956. Carthage College was located in Carthage Illinois, which is 18.5 miles east of the Station on US Highway 136. Dr. Kibbe purchased 115 acres in Hancock County, where she often took her students. Dr. Kibbe donated this land to Western Illinois University in 1964. Western Illinois University later purchased some adjacent land for a total of about 222 acres, which is the Kibbe Station.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources owns 1458 acres adjacent to the Station that comprises Cedar Glen Natural Area and Sand Hills Nature Preserve. The total 1680 acres comprise the Kibbe Macro (KM) site. Macro sites are large areas recognized by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as containing large tracts of ecologically significant native terrestrial and/or aquatic resources.

The Kibbe Macro Site contains uplands oak-dominated woodlands, sand hills with xeric sand prairie, limestone outcroppings/bluffs, hill prairies, mature floodplain forest and three miles of shoreline along the Mississippi River. Rocky intermittent streams are found in the valleys and glens.

The site represents the largest piece of continuous landscape in the area. The area is a major wintering site for one of the largest concentrations of bald eagles in North America. Many of these eagles utilize a terrace forest in Cedar Glen Natural Area as a night roost. The adjacent section of the Mississippi River is a major flyway for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. Pileated woodpeckers and a variety of other bird species nest and feed in the woodlands and prairies along the bluffs.

The Department of Biological Sciences at Western Illinois University began conducting summer classes in 1966, and has held summer sessions at the site ever since. Housing for undergraduate students and graduate students is provided in our multi-use/dormitory facility at the station, which includes full kitchen and shower facilities. Staying at the Station allows students to immerse themselves in field activities and research.

This nature preserve, which is home to a diversity of plant and animal species, provides students with hands-on experience in field research, as well as offering the general public an opportunity to commune with nature.

Contacts:

Dr. Sean Jenkins, Station Director or Neil Gillespie, Program Coordinator

Phone: (309) 298-2045 or (815) 677-0336

Email: se-jenkins@wiu.edu nd-gillespie@wiu.edu
IN A TELEGRAM sent to a 2016 symposium organized by AsiaNews on the theme Mother Teresa, Mercy for Asia and for the World, on the eve on Mother Teresas canonization (Sept. 5, 2016), Pope Francis invokes Mother Teresa as an example of apostolic zeal, explaining that by following Mother Teresas example, her followers can implement the Revolution of Tenderness that was started by Jesus Christ with his special love to the little ones. Francis has made the Revolution of Tenderness a central theme of his pontificate. What exactly is the Revolution of Tenderness, and why does the pontiff connect it to Mother Teresa?

In a TED conference in Vancouver, Pope Francis explains the Revolution of Tenderness and why humankind is in dire need of this kind of revolution:

Tenderness means to use our eyes to see the other, our ears to hear the other, to listen to the children, the poor, those who are afraid of the future. To listen also to the silent cry of our common home, of our sick and polluted earth. Tenderness means to use our hands and our heart to comfort the other, to take care of those in need.

Tenderness is learned by imitation. For Mother Teresa, tenderness started at a young age. Young Gonxheher Albanian name before she became Mother Teresawas surrounded by much affection from her family members, especially from her mother.

Mothers family was not the perfect family; it was an ordinary family with its flaws and imperfections. But the ordinary faith, tenderness, and affection Mother received from her family turned out to be transformative and extraordinary in the impact it would have on the future saint and the tenderness she would offer gratuitously to all whom she would help.

Tenderness is practiced by identification with the others suffering and action to alleviate it, and humility is the virtue that makes one go down to the same level of the person one is helpingto have a listening heart, ears which ought to hear (Matthew 11:15) and hands ready to help. During all her life and mission, Mother Teresa identified with all categories of peripherals and peripheries, with those society wanted to discard. She lived and was one with them. She was radical in her love of those she was helping, sharing in their darkness.

Theologically, through her intimate experience of darkness and suffering, she was participating in Christs redemptive mission on earth. Greater identification with Jesus, the poor, and the people she served: this was the outcome of Mother Teresas unusually long dark night of the soul. Her tender service makes sense when understood in the context of darknessgoing to the level of darkness and poverty of the people she served; she lightened peoples burdens by making them her own.

But what kept Mother smiling or enabled her to tenderly hold an orphan, attend to a leper, or care for an abandoned elderly person? The greater the pain and darker the darkness, the sweeter will be my smile at God. Pray for me that I may love Jesus, she wrote in a letter to Father Neuner, her spiritual director. So was the smile of Mother Teresa, which impacted whoever was in her company, but especially the poor. It was a smile that never faded away. Her dark night of the soul transformed mystically into a radiant smile because of her joy in serving, and this transformative power of a smile is indeed the theology or the mysticism of smiling in Christian tradition.

Mother Teresas tender identification with those she served was so profound that it continues in eternity. She is recorded as having said, If I ever become a saintI will surely be one of darkness. I will continually be absent from Heavento light the light of those in darkness on earth. Mother Teresa is a canonized saint, and is probably, as she desired, a saint of darkness, tenderly identifying with all the suffering she tried to elevate.

Mothers Revolution of Tenderness was radical, active, and transformative. She was indeed a revolutionary.

Seton Hall University professor Ines Murzaku will discuss Mother Teresa as part of the 19th season of the William B. Crawley Great Lives lecture series at the University of Mary Washington. The lecture will be live-streamed at 7: 30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 3, and can be accessed through the program webpage at umw.edu/greatlives.
Local McDonalds restaurants in Nebraska are showing their support for the American Red Cross and the Nebraska Community Blood Bank following an announcement about a national blood crisis.

Nebraska McDonalds restaurants are offering customers who show proof of blood donation a free small fry or cookie to encourage individuals to donate. The offer will be available through Feb. 5.

Customers who donate blood Jan. 30-Feb. 5 can visit their local McDonalds restaurant to receive a free small fry or chocolate chip cookie with proof of their donation via their arm band or donor care guide from the Nebraska Community Blood Bank.

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PLATTSMOUTH  Want to learn more about timber rattlesnakes?

In what county was Nebraskas first winery located?

These are just some of the topics to be discussed at the upcoming Spring Brown Bag series of speeches at the Cass County Historical Society Museum, 646 Main St. in Plattsmouth, beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 8.

I think it will be very interesting, said Margo Prentiss, museum curator. Theres quite a variety (of topics).

This lunchtime series is an annual event featuring local folks with knowledge on a wide variety of topics usually related to the history of Cass County.

They are held on selected Tuesdays that begin at noon and lasting about 60 minutes. Its free and open to the public. Refreshments and snacks will not be served, but the public is invited to bring their lunches.

The first speech in this series, Feb. 8, will feature Prentiss talking about hair wreaths, popular during the Victorian Era.

According to Prentiss, womens hair would be cut, then weaved, like knitting, to make wreaths that many times would be framed and hung on a wall.

Women would exchange these wreaths with each other as a symbol of friendship, or a bride giving it as a wedding gift to her husband.

They werent worn, Prentiss said.

Hair would even be saved from a recently deceased person and then made into a wreath as a memorial to that person, according to Prentiss.

Hair would also be weaved into jewelry that could be worn, she said.

The museum currently has an exhibit on these hair wreaths and jewelry, she said.

The second speech in this series will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 22, with local artists Doug and Leslee Wilkerson discussing their downtown Plattsmouth art gallery, Wilkerson Art Works, and the many local artists who had or will have exhibits at the gallery.

On March 22, John Lokke will discuss the history of timber rattlesnakes, expanding on a speech he made in October about these snakes, according to Prentiss.

Its very interesting, she said. It will feature people in Cass County he interviewed about timber rattlesnakes.

On April 12, several women historians will host the topic, Ghosts of a Pioneer Cemetery. They will discuss some of the people buried at Young Cemetery, south of Plattsmouth, Prentiss said.

On April 26, Cindy Drake will discuss the first winery in Nebraska, which happened to be in Cass County, Prentiss said.

Other speeches this spring may still be arranged, she said.

Well probably go into May, Prentiss said.

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On March 11, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, into law.

As well as providing direct payment checks to the public, the package included $350 billion in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) to provide to local states, counties and cities impacted by the pandemic.

"To every American watching: Help is here, and we will not stop working for you," Biden said the day after signing the bill. "Together, with you, we are showing it's possible to get big, important things done."

With the bill now passed, the city of Fremont has received $4.4 million in ARPA funds, while Dodge County has received $7.2 million.

History and outline of ARPA

Biden initially outlined his proposal for the $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Jan. 14 with the aim to provide economic recovery to those affected by the pandemic.

The package also included providing $160 billion to supplies and testing and $130 billion to schools, increasing the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 per child to 3,000 and extending current employment insurance benefits and eligibility.

On Feb. 27, 2021, the bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 219-212, three days after its introduction by Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky.

After the bill passed the Senate with amendments by a vote of 50-49 on March 6, 2021, the House approved the finalized bill by a vote of 220-211 four days later.

According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the SLFRF program aims to provide governments with the resources to:

Fight the pandemic and support families and businesses struggling with its public health and economic impacts;

Maintain vital public services, even amid declines in revenue resulting from the crisis; and

Build a strong, resilient and equitable recovery by making investments that support long-term growth and opportunity.

The funds may be used to replace lost public sector revenue; respond to the far-reaching public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic; provide premium pay for essential workers; and invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.

A final rule, released on Jan. 6, will go into affect on April 1. The changes include a broader set of uses and greater flexibility to infrastructure investments.

The ARPA funds must be allocated by 2024 and spent by 2026.

Fremont's plan

Last fall, Fremont received the first half, or $2.2 million, of its ARPA funding, with the rest expected to come in May or June.

"We are focused in on making sure we can handle all of that the right way, and the discussions that we had before kind of led us to the point where we are right now," Mayor Joey Spellerberg said.

When the Fremont City Council was discussing utilizing the funds during the budgeting process last year, Spellerberg said the consensus was to use them on stormwater drainage.

"Where Fremont is flat, we have drainage issues," he said. "There's things that we can do in regard to some projects, utilizing those funds. I think that would really help our community out."

Spellerberg said the focus was chosen after the U.S. Treasury identified that funds could be used for projects to improve water or sewer infrastructure.

"I know that the final rule just came out last week for those funds and there's other uses that you can use and we're still looking through those, but our focus has been drainage and stormwater," he said.

The area of drainage was also chosen due to the wide number of uses and the wishes of the city council, Spellerberg said.

"When you invest into infrastructure and drainage and those types of things, those are long-term uses, and I like to think long term," he said. "And I think working on our drainage and infrastructure is the best long-term use of the funds."

To prepare for spending the funds on drainage, Spellerberg said the city's goal is to identify projects that would improve drainage in Fremont by commissioning a study to look at the matter.

"That could be anywhere from detention cells, cleaning out ditches, cleaning out storm sewers and helping the water just flow through Fremont a lot easier," Spellerberg said.

The project-identifying process will also receive help from the Joint Water Management Advisory Board, Spellerberg said.

"Our plan is to move as quickly as we can," he said. "I like studies, but I'm a doer. I want to get things done, so as soon as projects can be identified, we want to start working on them."

With specific projects, Spellerberg said he's heard from many constituents who want to see the city's ditches worked on.

"Over the years, there's been a lot of sediment collecting in some of those, and I know folks live along a lot of our ditches in Fremont," he said. "And I think that to get more water to move in and out of here is better."

Part of that project would include cleaning the ditches and out and ensure that they're taken care of moving forward.

"I think that's one of the things that I would like to see and I think would be a big benefit to a lot of folks, to use the funds for that," Spellerberg said.

With ARPA, Spellerberg said the city is in a good place and won't take the funds for granted.

"Overall, it'll be beneficial for our community if we get those dollars out there," he said. "It's an exciting opportunity, kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Dodge County's plan

Compared to Fremont, Dodge County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bob Missel said the county is taking a more varied approach to spending its ARPA funds.

"As we became aware of these dollars coming into the community, we formed a committee of individuals within the community, including some elected officials, some county employees and then citizens at large," he said.

The 16-member oversight committee, which includes Missel and Supervisors Lon Strand and Bob Bendig, will review applications from entities requesting funds.

"We've actually already met two times, and Tom Smith, the county's emergency manager, has helped facilitate those meetings and has done a great job."

For the first round of funding, the county took applications on its website, which the committee will sift through and reference with the federal requirements.

"Assuming that those qualify, the committee will make a recommendation to the county board," Missel said. "Because ultimately, the county board has the final say in how the monies are spent."

The application has applicants outline their proposed project, which includes selecting one of the four categories outlined by the U.S. Treasury and how it will help its community recover from and respond to the pandemic.

"At the end of the day, it's my hope that through the committee process we use those dollars wisely and can fund some projects that support the community and certainly help people as they have dealt with COVID in some form or another," Missel said.

For Missel, he said he would like to see the funding help entities that have been severely impacted by COVID.

"Obviously, our healthcare system has been under great stress throughout this process, and I have Terra Uhing on that committee from Three Rivers Public Health Department," he said.

Missel said another area important to him is relief from property taxes, which the funding could be used for.

"The majority of our dollars come from property taxes, so we could steer that to some county projects where we could have used tax dollars and now could use ARPA funding," he said.

Throughout the process, Missel said he's been in conversation with Spellerberg to make sure that their funding doesn't end up crossing paths.

"We have to have seen them spent by 2026, so they allowed a pretty generous timeline for this to take place," he said. "And that's probably good, because it allows us to be more thoughtful in the process and do a good job."

Missel called the ARPA funds a "wonderful opportunity" for those within the county.

"It's a unique moment in time to see this amount of money coming into our communities," he said. "So I take it personally upon my shoulders that I want to do a good job seeing that those dollars get used wisely."

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Two local journalists from popular Afghan private television network Ariana have been detained by Taliban forces in Kabul for unknown reasons, according to their colleagues and family members.

Sharif Hassan Yar, the head of Ariana Television, tweeted on February 1 that Waris Hasrat and Aslam Ejab had been detained without reason and their families were concerned.

The two were detained by armed Taliban guards at Ariana's front gate on January 31, one of their colleagues who wished not to be named told German news agency dpa.

A spokesman for the Taliban's General Directorate of Intelligence, Mawlawi Hamraz, said the two were not in his agency's custody.

"Our surveillance cameras show that they were taken away by armed men in uniform who were riding government vehicles," the colleague added.

Hasrat was an anchor and producer for the political desk and Ejab had worked for the economic desk of the news channel for many years.

The families of the two journalists have asked media watchdogs to help secure the two journalists' release.

The arrests came a day after a guest criticized the Taliban regime during a live debate broadcast by Ariana. A segment of the debate was widely shared on social media.

The Taliban has been arresting protesters, womens rights activists, and journalists since they retook power in August.

Some of the released journalists have reported that their equipment had been confiscated and they were subjected to abuse and torture.

With reporting by dpa
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis speaks at the Boulder County Sheriffs Office this month in Boulder. Polis, who is up for reelection this year, said saving Colorado residents money has been one of his top priorities during his first three years in office.
The 104-year-old is one of several from the greatest generation who are planning to be at The National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs at noon Saturday.
After months of judicial non-disclosure, color photos, text messages and maps from last year's four-day preliminary hearing in Barry Morphew's ongoing high-profile murder case were released to the public by 11th Judicial District Judge Ramsey Lama Friday. Following the August 2020 evidentiary hearing, Morphew was released on bond in a September decision by former 11th Judicial District Judge Patrick Murphy. At that time, Murphy also bound the case over for trial.
David is a Senior Investigative Reporter at The Gazette and has worked in Colorado for more than two decades. His work has been recognized by, among others, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Society of Business Editors and Writers, the National Association of Real Estate Editors, at the National Headliner Awards. He has worked at publications in New York City, St. Louis, Detroit and Denver over a journalism career that began in 1982.
Colorado Springs police are investigating two more robberies over the weekend that were reported several miles from each other but about an hour apart.

The robberies took place after police said they believe the same suspects are responsible for at least two smash-and-grabs that occurred late Saturday night and early Sunday during a 90-minute period that saw thieves hit four stores overall across a wide swath of the city.

The first of Sunday's robberies was reported just before 10 p.m. at a store on the 1400 block of North Academy Boulevard on the city's north side. Police said a robber entered the store and stole items after threatening the clerk with a handgun before leaving.

About an hour later, another robbery was reported at a business on the 200 block of West Rockrimmon Boulevard  about nine miles from the first reported robbery that day. Police said a robber went inside and threatened an employee before leaving with an unknown amount of merchandise.

Both robberies are under investigation.
Carroll County Public Schools currently offers five world languages to high school students  American Sign Language, French, German, Latin and Spanish  but no county students actually have the option of choosing from all five.

Francis Scott Key High School only offers Spanish, while Century and Manchester Valley high schools each offer French and Spanish. Westminster High at one time offered all five, and currently offers the most: American Sign Language, German, Latin and Spanish.

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It shouldnt depend on their ZIP code what [language classes students] can sign up for, Amy Pritchett, assistant supervisor of world languages, told Carroll County school board members at a Jan. 12 meeting. This has led to the development of the idea of doing the virtual option.

Spanish words and maps including, those of Spain and Central and South America, are seen in the classroom of teacher John Lowe at Winters Mill High School. Lowe recently completed a semester teaching Spanish for Native Speakers. (Brian Krista/Carroll County Times)

During a recent Carroll County school board meeting, Pritchett proposed adding a virtual learning option in which high school students could take world language courses online, on school grounds.

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Some of the schools only have one language and other schools where there are more than one language  its not a full position and the teacher often teaches two languages, Pritchett told school board members on Jan. 12.

This presents a challenge for our students because not every student, depending on what school they attend, has the opportunity to select more than one language, Pritchett said.

The school system requires students to earn two credits in world languages to graduate, unless they are in the career and technology completer program.

Under the virtual option, Pritchett said, classes would be done online during the school day and no travel would be required for students or teachers.

Carroll County teachers would teach the online classes following the countys curriculum.

This would allow a teacher to teach in their content area where they are an expert, Pritchett said.

Pritchett said she hopes to expand the virtual model for high schools next school year and middle schools in the future.

This would go a long way in supporting the goal of creating global citizens, Pritchett said.

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School board member Donna Sivigny called the virtual option great, from an access perspective.

I think this would really help beef up the access to additional options for our students and it wouldnt be an issue with the number of kids in a particular high school.  This is a fantastic and creative way in giving much more access to our students in a varied program, Sivigny said.

School board member Tara Battaglia agreed that expanding the language offerings was a good idea.

Weve learned how to do virtual [learning] in multiple ways and this is a phenomenal way, Battaglia said.

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School board member Patricia Dorsey called expansion of the languages program very exciting.

The need is there and we would really be preparing our students with pathways to future jobs, Dorsey said.

Superintendent Steve Lockard advised school board members that expansion of the world languages program should be further discussed during the fiscal 2023 operating budget planning process.
Dallas Schroeder, the Republican Clerk and Recorder for Elbert County, made copies of two hard drives of the county's Dominion Voting Systems equipment, received instructions from two non-election staffers on how to do so, and admitted giving a copy to two private attorneys, who included his personal counsel.

Schroeder's admission came in response to a Jan. 19 order from Secretary of State Jena Griswold, whose office asked about a potential breach of security protocols tied to the county's Dominion Voting System equipment.

In his response, Schroeder said he made the copies out of his belief that he has a "statutory duty" to preserve election records, that by doing so he was complying with instructions from the secretary of state to back up election data and that he feared a "trusted build" might "erase or alter electronic records of the November 2020 election."

Schroeder said "both hard drives were removed from the election server, one hard drive was removed from each ICC (image cast central) computer, and one hard drive was removed from the adjudication computer. Each hard drive was copied separately, then returned to its case."

Schroeder said he was accompanied by Rhonda Braun, the Elbert Elections Manager, and Amanda Moore, an employee of the Elbert County Clerk and Recorder's office.

He also disclosed that two other individuals who are not employees of the Elbert County Clerks office provided him instructions as he made copies. Schroeder identified them as Sean Smith and Mark Cook, although Smith's first name was misspelled. It's Shawn Smith of Colorado Springs, who is with the U.S. Election Integrity Project (USEIP). A new order from Griswold on Jan. 27 corrects the typo.

Smith appeared at an August cyber-symposium hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, which also featured an appearance from Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters. Griswold recently filed another lawsuit against Tina Peters, this time in an effort to keep her from overseeing the 2022 elections.

Smith is the president of a related election integrity group, Cause of America, which he said in a podcast is funded by Lindell.

Cook, an IT security consultant, appears to be associated with another election integrity group, Great American Rebirth, and, from emails, also appears to have been involved in an attempt to do a post-2020-election third-party audit in Sacramento.

Two attorneys, including Schroeder's private attorney, John Case, have copies, according to Schroeder's response.

In a statement, Griswold said in light of disclosures in Schroeder's answers, she issued the Jan. 27 order requiring him to produce records and answer additional questions regarding the copying and distribution of copies of voting system hard drives. The information Schroeder provided suggested there is a "likelihood that the voting equipment was copied by using a prohibited removable storage device" and that copies are in the custody of "unauthorized people in violation of Election Rules," the statement said.

The order also requires Schroeder to retake possession of all the copies and provide the devices used in the copying for inspection.

"My office is reviewing the information received about the copying of Elbert Countys voting equipment hard drives," Griswold said. "We are continuing to investigate, and will determine any additional steps required."

Additionally, the Secretary of States Office is consulting with counsel at the Attorney Generals Office on the "potential ramifications" Schroeders actions.

The breach occurred prior to the 2021 trusted build of Elbert Countys 2021 voting equipment, which updates systems against vulnerabilities. The Secretary of States Office does not believe, for now, that the unauthorized imaging "created an imminent or direct security risk to Colorados elections."

The Secretary of State's Office said it became aware of the potential security protocol breach from an affidavit Schroeder filed, tied to a November lawsuit he and five other plaintiffs filed in a Denver District Court against the Secretary of State's office over "multiple unfounded election conspiracy theories." The plaintiffs for that lawsuit also include state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Canon City; Rio Blanco County Commissioners Jeff Rector and Gary Moyer; Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz; and Park County Commissioner Amy Mitchell.

In that affidavit, first reported by The Colorado Sun, Schroeder said he was informed of evidence that the 'trusted build' process performed in May 2021 on Mesa County's Dominion system had erased electronic files that were part of the 2020 election records.

Given that he did not believe that the company that did testing on the Dominion systems, Pro V&V, was no longer federally certified, Schroeder said he made a forensic image of everything on the election servers. He said he saved those images to a secure external hard drive kept under lock and key in the Elbert County elections office.

Schroeder also said he wanted to hire an independent cybersecurity expert to make a forensic image of the county election server after the "trusted build" and compare it to the image Schroeder made before the trusted build update in order to determine if election records from 2020 had been destroyed. He was unable to do so because of new Secretary of State rules from Oct. 15 that prohibited him from hiring an independent expert. Schroeder seeks a court order to nullify the rules so he can do so.

Schroeder did not return a request for comment.
Ensuring that everyone has a pathway to dignity is something we can and must do," says Mike Rosenbaum, executive chairman of Arena Analytics and former candidate for governor of Maryland. (Katrina Hajagos/Katrina Hajagos)

Mike Rosenbaum dropped out of the campaign for governor before most of us knew he was running. He announced his candidacy last May and quietly withdrew in November, seeing no path to victory in a crowded field of candidates seeking the Democratic nomination in Marylands June primary.

His campaign is finished, but Rosenbaum is not. His big ideas remain. They are potentially transformative for a generation of Marylanders, and it would be a shame if the next governor did not consider them.

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Rosenbaum, a successful tech entrepreneur with a vigorous social conscience, sees a way to redirect some of the states vast resources to make Marylands workforce the most skilled in the nation and raise the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of people. While other candidates usually speak of being pro-business, Rosenbaum is pro-worker  that is, hes focused on creating careers with better-paying jobs so that more of its citizens share in the wealth of Marylands economy.

As one of the richest states in the richest country in the world, Rosenbaum says, the fact that anyone is stuck in a job that does not provide enough to raise a family and live a good life  that anyone is in poverty, period  is a systemic failure in Maryland, and it doesnt have to be this way.

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Before I get into his plan, heres what you need to know about the man: Rosenbaum is 50 years old, a graduate of Harvard and the London School of Economics, with degrees in law and economics. In the 1990s, he worked as an adviser in the Clinton White House, but disagreed with the administrations approach to building job opportunities in neglected, low-income communities. Rosenbaum believed too many Americans were being left out of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy. He had the audacious idea that people who lacked the right pedigree in social class and education should not have to settle for low-income jobs. And, along with that, he believed that companies were missing the most skilled and dependable workers because employers relied too heavily on resumes and instinct to guide their hiring.

So, two decades ago, Rosenbaum and partners set out to develop a way to use big data to find the most talented people to become software engineers. They believed the right skills set could be found in far more places than companies looked. Some of the men and women pushing brooms or making Big Macs probably had the aptitudes necessary to design and develop software; they just needed an opportunity to prove it.

So Rosenbaums Baltimore-based company, Catalyte, finds talent in unexpected places, using algorithms to predict an individuals ability to grasp and implement software principles and excel at development. The company claims the engineers it finds take less time to train and are more productive than those hired via resume.

Rosenbaums system also boasts significant reductions in employee turnover  as much as 38% in hospitals and nursing homes that have used Arena Analytics, a second company he established to identify the best workers to hire and promote in health care.

Employers have fewer hiring failures while employees move into fields they might never have considered, with higher salaries and better benefits that move them up the socioeconomic ladder.

Thats the part Rosenbaum wanted to take into the public sphere.

As governor of Maryland, he said, his central goal would be to ramp up skills training for thousands of people in four fields  technology, health care, skilled trades and manufacturing  that have the most openings and offer the kind of salaries (at least $60,000 a year) needed to keep pace with the cost of living.

In terms of household income, Maryland for years has ranked at or near the very top of states. Yet it underperforms in job growth and, more importantly, says Rosenbaum, in jobs that pay enough to move more Marylanders into the middle class. (A recent analysis of metropolitan areas by the Indeed jobs site ranked the Baltimore-Towson-Columbia region as one of the slowest for jobs growth over the last two years.)

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Rosenbaums plan calls for the state to fund (at $15 per hour) the apprentice training of 20,000 people in the first year, with thousands more over the next eight, paid with increased revenue from income taxes generated by greater numbers of Marylanders  hundreds of thousands, Rosenbaum says  earning higher salaries from private employers.

We need to fundamentally reorient our public spending around the causes of issues rather than the symptoms of those issues, he says. Ensuring that everyone has a pathway to dignity  meaning a job that pays at least $60,000 a year, since the average income required to rent a two-bedroom apartment in this state is $28.60 per hour  is something we can and must do.

The benefit to the state would be a larger and better trained workforce attractive to companies, an expanded tax base and fewer families needing government support. We end up netting $2 billion to $3 billion a year structurally  not one-time cash from the sky  in the state budget, Rosenbaum says.

If all this sounds too good to be true, its because we think about economic development in conventional ways  incentivizing companies to relocate to Maryland rather than building a workforce to meet present and future demands. And conventional thinking never leads to the kind of transformation Mike Rosenbaum believes possible.

Anyone who wants to be governor should be listening to this guy.
Colorados Commission on Judicial Discipline has subpoenaed the states Judicial Department  and by extension its Supreme Court  to force it to cooperate in its inquiry into the alleged coverup of misconduct by judges following concerns the third branch of government has not been forthcoming with information, The Gazette has learned.

Legal experts say the unprecedented move sets up a critical constitutional showdown between the states highest legal authority and the body charged with investigating the judges who occupy it.

The production of records has not otherwise occurred voluntarily, and within its authority under the Rules of Judicial Discipline, the Commission has had to take steps to compel the production of information and records, the commission told The Gazette in a statement responding to the newspaper's questions.

The commission would not directly say it issued a subpoena, but its rules limit its powers to compel the production of evidence, documents or testimony to subpoenas. Also unclear is when the subpoena was issued.

The Judicial Department on Monday declined to comment.

The subpoena is the result of repeated requests from the commission since last summer seeking information about allegations contained in a two-page memo that implied years of judicial misconduct were intentionally covered up. It's unclear whether the department has ignored the commission's requests or provided only pieces of what it seeks.

The memo is at the center of a year-long scandal in which a former high-ranking Judicial Department official was allegedly given a $2.5 million contract to silence a threatened sex discrimination lawsuit that would expose the departments misdeeds.

Additionally, discipline commission members appeared irked last week when they learned the Supreme Court said it had given unfettered access to sensitive documents and information tied to the scandal to a pair of investigative law firms the Judicial Department hired to look into the matters  but not to the commission.

This most certainly is an epic clash that sets up a critical showdown of Constitutional authority, University of Colorado law professor Richard Collins told The Gazette. The difficulty of the whole thing is the Supreme Court would have to decide the scope of its own powers and its rules. There is no way around that.

The Colorado Constitution directly establishes the judiciary as its third branch of government, but also separately creates the commission to investigate and discipline judges. But the Supreme Court, which sits atop the department, writes the rules that govern the commissions work and controls its purse strings.

Chief Justice Brian Boatright told a joint meeting of the Colorado Senate and House judiciary committees on Wednesday the Supreme Court was committed to transparency in its investigations surrounding the memo and were giving them unfettered access, he said of the two companies the department hired to conduct those inquiries.

But Commission chairwoman Elizabeth Espinosa Krupa, an attorney, later told legislators the commission wasn't as fortunate. The commission reiterated the sentiment in its statement to The Gazette.

As stated at the SMART hearing, the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline has not been provided unfettered access to the judicial departments records, the commission told The Gazette.

In a surprise move at the legislative hearing, the commission asked legislators to move it out from under the financial oversight of the Supreme Court and create a new Office of Judicial Discipline.

The reason, according to documents the commission filed with the judiciary committees, is to stop the court from attempting to influence what the commission investigates and how  including the memo and its allegations.

Specifically, the commission said its been unable to pay a Denver law firm it hired last year to look into the coverup scandal, a move it has said it did because information the commission sought from the Judicial Department wasnt easily gotten.

Its unclear whether the commission has ever subpoenaed the Supreme Court in the past, but experts say its highly unlikely. More troubling, however, is how such a subpoena would be enforced, the equivalent of a contempt citation.

The commissions own rules  much of which are drafted and approved by the Supreme Court  require the high court to appoint a special master to oversee such a contempt proceeding. The special master would render a decision that must go before the Supreme Court to uphold or dismiss.

The ambiguity of enforcing a subpoena against the Judicial Department, which includes the court, leaves much to interpretation, experts say.

The Constitution in any state or country doesnt speak to everything and is not impulsive and is why we have so many ambiguities, according to Tom Cronin, a politics professor at Colorado College.

Collins said the Constitution carries great authority.

I would stress the fact that the commission itself is a constitutional undertaking, its not as if its some appointed body that can be disregarded, he said. Does the commission have independent authority and is that a valid provision since the Constitution says there are only three branches of government?

The Supreme Court is composed of seven justices, each of them named by the governor and later retained by voters to renewable 10-year terms. Judges must retire at age 72.

The discipline commission has 10 members: two district and two county court judges named by the Supreme Court's chief justice; two attorneys named by the governor; and four citizens who are neither attorney nor judge, also appointed by the governor.

The scope of the commission's disciplinary reach is limited to one year after a judge retires from the bench. However, its authority renews if a judge returns to the state's senior judge program, where retired jurists remain on the bench in a limited capacity to assist with workloads.

The commission signed an agreement with the Judicial Department in 2010 that said the department would turn over any records of allegations of misconduct by judges no matter the result of their own internal inquiries.

Judges, however, follow their own rules of professional conduct which require them to turn over any records of allegations of misconduct directly to the commission when they have first-hand knowledge of them.

When the contents of the memo were divulged in February 2021, the commission wrote Boatright to say its records in the past five years didnt reflect any of the allegations it contained about judges and wanted to know why not, according to copies of the correspondence obtained by The Gazette.

Additionally, the commission has said it was never told about the memo itself until newspaper reports uncovered it.

The Gazette in December revealed how six of the sitting Supreme Court justices were generally aware of the memo in 2019  two years before it was exposed. Until then, the justices had only said they had seen the memo for the first time in February 2021 following newspaper reports but did not address whether they knew of it.

At least six investigations have been launched into the memo and the circumstances surrounding it: two by the Judicial Department, one by the judicial discipline commission, one by the state Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel which disciplines lawyers, one by the FBI, and one by the state auditor. All are pending.

The companies hired by the Judicial Department  Investigations Law Group and a company run by former U.S. Attorney Robert Troyer  were the result of a public-bid process overseen by a panel of state officials assembled by the governor, attorney general and both houses of the Legislature.

The memo was allegedly written by then-Human Resources director Eric Brown in early 2019 and laid out a number of examples of judicial misconduct that former Judicial Department chief of staff Mindy Masias was prepared to expose in a sex discrimination lawsuit.

Masias was being fired at the time over financial irregularities and was prepared to sue because she was being treated differently than a number of other department officials, mostly men, whose conduct was allegedly worse.

To prevent the tell-all lawsuit, former State Court Administrator Christopher Ryan has said the department gave Masias a $2.5 million judicial training contract for a company she had formed. Ryan has alleged the decision was backed by then-Supreme Court Justice Nathan Ben Coats.

The department has said the other justices also approved the contract award, but denied it was part of a quid-pro-quo deal.

Ryan and Brown resigned shortly after the contract was exposed, but the memo and its contents did not surface until February 2021.

Faced with being fired in October 2018, Masias took family medical leave before she could be dismissed. She resigned just before signing the contract and received thousands of dollars in back pay. Following news reports, the department canceled the contract in July 2019, technically because Masias had not submitted to a background investigation as the contract required.

She has never spoken publicly about the contract or the memo.
A construction crew worked on this single-family home in December in the Cordera area on Colorado Springs' far northeast side. Permits issued in January for the construction of single-family homes in El Paso County fell nearly 20% on a year-over-year basis, though some homebuilders say they remain busy. RICH LADEN, THE GAZETTE
As the two-year anniversary of the infiltration of COVID-19 nears, some public spaces in Colorado Springs remain closed or are only partially opened, with operators citing concerns over continuing ill effects of the pandemic.

Certain houses of worship, seating areas in some cafes and restaurants, medical-type businesses and concert venues have ongoing restrictions.

Kingdom Halls, buildings where Jehovahs Witnesses hold religious worship and education, have been shuttered nationwide since March 2020, according to officials. Also, its 13,000 congregations suspended public door-to-door ministry and informational carts.

Our love of neighbor and respect for life continue to underscore our decision making, Juan Lobato, a local spokesman, said in an email. So, we still do not feel it is safe enough to reopen our Kingdom Halls for our congregants or the public.

Virtual meetings with interactive and educational components continue to be offered. The denomination considers the online format of worship successful; Lobato said the number of Jehovahs Witnesses grew by 3% in the United States in 2021.

Leaders plan to reopen the Kingdom Halls but it is unknown when. In-person pilot programs recently were conducted in Puerto Rico and Connecticut to help make an informed decision, Lobato said.

While the recent surge of omicron has paused the expansion of these programs, we hope to restart them soon, with the objective of returning to in-person meetings when it is safe to do so, he said.

The BodhiMind Center in Colorado Springs also has not restarted in-person meetings for Buddhists, said co-founder David Gardiner.

The community had been leasing space from the Unity Spiritual Center, and although that building reopened in January, BodhiMind also is sticking to remote gatherings.

We decided were going to wait a little bit until COVID calms down, and then well rent the space again, Gardiner said.

Attendance online has dropped to about two-thirds of in-person, pre-pandemic numbers, but Gardiner, who teaches religion at Colorado College, considers that to be a win for the nonsectarian Buddhist center that formed in 2009.

Were still seeing good numbers  45 people attending regularly before the pandemic to about 25 now, on average, Gardiner said. Donations are coming in steadily, too, so were doing pretty well and look forward to opening again probably in March. Itll depend on the COVID numbers in El Paso County.

Performing artists started canceling scheduled gigs in December at Lulus Downstairs, a popular bar and music venue in Manitou Springs, said owner Marc Benning. With the highly infectious omicron variant, the trend hasnt let up.

Benning has been forced to postpone 70% of scheduled shows since December through this week.

The artists didnt want to come due to having COVID or fear for their own health right now, Benning said.

Benning had instituted a requirement for patrons to show vaccination cards or proof of a negative COVID test last August, but he changed that in January to artists preference.

Performers in about half of the few shows that have gone on this year have requested vaccination proof among concertgoers, Benning said.

Initially, most people were really on board and grateful for the requirement, he said, but the small percentage of people that didnt like it were definitely the louder.

They were angered in a political way, which was never my motivation at all, Benning said. My motivation was to run a business and do the best we can.

Its been difficult for all members of a band and its touring party to stay healthy since omicron appeared, he said.

Its still tough to get 400 people together in a closed space, Benning said. Theres a percentage of the population thats not comfortable with that yet, and were definitely impacted by that still.

Also, Manitou Springs indoor mask mandate that the city reinstituted in August remains in place and does not appear as an item on Tuesdays City Council agenda. Denver, Adams, Arapahoe and Pueblo counties decided this week to lift some mask mandates, such as inside stores and businesses.

COVID infections have been declining in El Paso County since Jan. 20 but are still high, with a communitywide 24% positivity rate, according to public health data.

Thats led some cafes, including Einstein Bros. Bagels on North Tejon Street, to keep its ban on indoor seating, with no official word on a reboot.

Colorado Springs resident Margarita Littleton was enjoying a coffee and scrolling on her phone Monday afternoon outside Einstein's, when temperatures were mild.

She said she doesnt mind that indoor seating is still prohibited at the shop but seems its a little bit like a stretch now.

Its been almost two years, which is crazy, Littleton said. Its still financially hurting businesses, especially small business owners.

Many businesses also are dealing with ongoing workforce shortages. A Starbucks coffee shop on West Colorado Avenue recently reopened inside seating, but an employee said if the store doesnt have enough workers, indoor service is closed.

We cant run the drive-through and the inside counter at the same time, she said, because we sometimes dont have enough staff to do both.
An upcoming snowstorm could potentially dump more snow in Colorado Springs over a couple days than what the city received in the first month of the new year.

The city received 4.3 inches of snow in January, just 0.6 inches under the monthly average, according to the National Weather Service in Pueblo.

A slow-moving storm arriving by Tuesday afternoon could dump between 4 and 8 inches in the Colorado Springs area, the weather service predicted.

Meteorologist Sydney Jackson, of Gazette news partner KKTV, said the storm will likely be "a heavy snowmaker" and warned about freezing temperatures that could impact travel across the Pikes Peak region.

Monument, Woodland Park and Pueblo could get between 4 and 8 inches of snow during this time, Jackson added.

The potential numbers would be a joy for those missing snow. The year kicked off with 2.3 inches of snow on Jan. 1, a day after Colorado Springs saw its first measurable snow in 233 days. It was the fourth longest stretch of snowless days on record, the weather service reported.

Only one other day last month did the city received more than 1 inch of snow, the weather service reported. That was on Jan. 27, when Colorado Springs received 1.2 inches. The city had between 0.1 and 0.2 inches of snow on four different days, while it saw eight days of traceable snow.

Otherwise, it was a warm January in Colorado Springs. It hit 68 degrees on Jan. 7, beating the heat record for that day set in 2006. And before another dry, sunny Monday, Colorado Springs had 15 days of temperatures above 50 degrees.

Pueblo received 4.6 inches of snow in January, which is 0.3 inches below the average, the weather service reported.

Tuesday calls for a high of just 32 degrees in Colorado Springs with up to an 80% chance of snow in the evening, the weather service predicts. That chance could increase by 10% by Wednesday morning with temps in the teens that day.

"It's going to be cold, too," said Jackson, the KKTV meteorologist. "That's something I want everyone to be aware of as well."

The weather service says snow is forecast to develop over the mountains Tuesday morning and spread east across the plains by Tuesday night and Wednesday. Highest snow amounts are expected over the mountains, though potential numbers were unavailable.
Schneckloth is barred from holding an Iowa driver's license, and it wanted on warrants for driving while barred in Council Bluffs, Woodbury County and Plymouth County, according to the release. As the sheriff's deputy attempted to pull over Schneckloth, he fled from the scene, leading police on a chase along Quail Avenue at speeds of over 110 miles per hour. The pursuit ended in Rockwell when the deputy lost sight of Schneckloth, and later located the abandoned car on the south end of the town. A search for the suspect was unsuccessful, according to the release.
Despite concerns from critics on the states handling of publicly available COVID-19 reports throughout the pandemic, the State Auditors Office did not identify any significant concerns regarding the integrity of the data from the Iowa Department of Public Health.

State Auditor Rob Sand reviewed COVID-19 data collected and reported by the state from March 1, 2020, through May 17, 2021, as part of a COVID-19 Audit Task Force, an effort with other state auditors offices to review states coronavirus data reporting.

In the new audit published Monday, the Democratic state auditor said there were opportunities for the state to improve its public coronavirus website to increase transparency and accountability.

Overall, the integrity of COVID-19 data reported on the states website, coronavirus.iowa.gov, was supported by lab results sent to the state public health department. Any delays or late-recorded test results appear to be attributable entirely to private labs submitting results late, rather than to Iowa State government issues.

The state entered into a contract with Utah-based Nomi Health in April 2020 to create the Test Iowa initiative, a program that established free coronavirus test sites throughout the states. All test results from the program were sent to the State Hygienic Lab at the University of Iowa in Coralville to determine whether they were positive or negative for the novel coronavirus.

Data from Test Iowa, as well as from other labs, are published on the state-run COVID-19 dashboard, coronavirus.iowa.gov, and recorded in the Iowa Disease Surveillance System.

However, the auditors office was unable to verify whether certain data points were accurate, including hospitalizations and other related data submitted to the state.

In his report, Sand encouraged the state to add public school district and long-term care outbreak data dashboards back into the website.

With the emergence of new COVID-19 variants, it is important comprehensive data be readily available to the public and officials of entities such as school districts and long-term care facilities for purposes of analysis and decision-making, the report stated.

The state auditor also said the Iowa Department of Public Health should consider granting authorized officials access to de-identified underlying data for their agency to help them make informed decisions. For example, a superintendent of a school district should have access to de-identified data for their district, he said.

Sand also pointed to a previous audit, in July 2020, that asserted the process of reporting coronavirus test results under the $26 million Test Iowa Initiative was illegal and unnecessarily time-consuming.

The past audit found the State Hygienic Lab  instead of reporting test results directly to IDPH as required by law  reported them to a private entity that is part of the Test Iowa program.

In Mondays report, state officials cited the processing capabilities of the Iowa Disease Surveillance System, software the public health department uses to create reports of acute infectious diseases in the state. This system, as well as others in other states, failed as a result of being outdated.

In August 2020, state officials said a glitch in the Iowa Disease Surveillance System was incorrectly backdating positive and negative test results on its website. State public health officials, who had been aware of the issue for weeks, placed blame on the antiquated software that was unable to handle the massive influx of coronavirus data.

According to the audit, the system is more than 15 years old and was not designed to manage the volume and needs associated with a modern pandemic.

The glitch was fixed by Aug. 19, according to the Iowa Falls Times-Citizen, which first reported the issue.

Sand encouraged IDPH and other state officials to work with the Legislature to replace the Iowa Disease Surveillance System and other legacy software systems used by the public health agency to collect and manage data.

Michaela Ramm is a reporter with The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette.

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jerrywu wrote:

The first trenches that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but independently of the more celebrated city-states of southern Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Iraq.





(A) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but



(B) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously with but also



(C) having been cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously but



(D) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence of centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arising simultaneously but also



(E) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arose simultaneously with but





Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Tenses + Parallelism + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

A:

B:

C:

D:

E:

Correct.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

Dear Friends,Here is a detailed explanation to this question- Any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this sentence) must be parallel. The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past. The present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb has/have) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present. The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature. The simple past continuous tense is used to refer to actions that were ongoing over a period of time in the past. Present participles ("verb+ing"  having and arising in this sentence) are used to modify nouns, refer to ongoing events in any time period, and (when preceded by a comma) express cause-effect relationships. In modifying a noun, the past participle implies that the noun took an action that concluded in the past. "evidence of + noun" and "evidence that + clause" are the correct, idiomatic constructions.Trap. This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple past continuous tense verb "were arising" to refer to an action that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, and the simple past continuous tense is used to refer to actions that were ongoing over a period of time in the past. Further, Option A incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "evidence for"; please remember, "evidence of + noun" and "evidence that + clause" are the correct, idiomatic constructions. Additionally, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase "that were cut", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "trenches" with the singular noun "yields". Further, Option B incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "yields" to refer to an action that concluded in the past but continues to affect the present; please remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb has/have) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature. Additionally, Option B incorrectly uses the simple past continuous tense verb "were arising" to refer to an action that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, and the simple past continuous tense is used to refer to actions that were ongoing over a period of time in the past.This answer choice incorrectly uses the present participle phrase ("verb+ing" - "having" in this sentence) "having been cut" to refer to an action that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, and present participles ("verb+ing"  having in this sentence) are used to modify nouns, refer to ongoing events in any time period, and (when preceded by a comma) express cause-effect relationships. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the simple past continuous tense verb "were arising" to refer to an action that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, and the simple past continuous tense is used to refer to actions that were ongoing over a period of time in the past. Additionally, Option C fails to maintain parallelism between "arising simultaneously" and "independently of"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this sentence) must be parallel.This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "trenches" with the singular noun "yields". Further, Option D incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "yields" to refer to an action that concluded in the past but continues to affect the present; please remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb has/have) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature. Moreover, Option D incorrectly uses the present participle ("verb+ing" - "arising" in this sentence) to refer to an action that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, and present participles ("verb+ing"  arising in this sentence) are used to modify nouns, refer to ongoing events in any time period, and (when preceded by a comma) express cause-effect relationships. Additionally, Option D fails to maintain parallelism between "arising simultaneously" and "independently of"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but also" in this sentence) must be parallel. Besides, Option D uses the needlessly wordy phrase "but also", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun "trenches" with the plural verb "have yielded". Further, Option E correctly uses the past participle "cut" to refer to an action that concluded in the past; please remember, in modifying a noun, the past participle implies that the noun took an action that concluded in the past. Moreover, Option E correctly uses the simple past tense verb "arose" to refer to an event that concluded in the past and uses the present perfect tense verb "have yielded" to refer to an action that concluded in the past but continues to affect the present. Additionally, Option D maintains parallelism between "arose...with" and "independently of". Plus, Option E correctly uses the idiomatic construction "evidence that + clause". Besides, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):To understand the concept of "Simple Continuous Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):To understand the concept of "Present Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):All the best!Team_________________
The Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History has received designation as a site on the historic U.S. Civil Rights Trail, officials announced Tuesday morning.

The trail debuted in 2018 and includes more than 120 sites  churches, schools, courthouses, museums  across 15 states, mostly in the South, according to a new release. The sites are places where activists challenged segregation and inequality in the 1950s and 1960s to advance social justice.

Danville played a critical role in the civil rights movement, so we are extremely proud to be added to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, Elsabe Dixon, the museums executive director said. Inclusion and diversity are cornerstones of the Danville museums experience. We invite everyone to visit the museum and discover the many remarkable stories.

Danville is one of three locations in Virginia with sites on the trail. The other sites are in Farmville and Richmond.

The museum applied last summer for inclusion as a site on the trail.

Located at 975 Main St. in downtown Danville, the main part of the museum is in what was the Sutherlin Mansion and then the Danville Public Library.

In August 2019, the museum installed the first long-term civil rights timeline available to the public. The Movement: Danvilles Civil Rights is an exhibition that details the events that took place in Danville during the 1960s, the work done by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1958 to establish support, and Martin Luther King Jr.s visits to Danville. It also outlines the role the Sutherlin Mansion played in 1960 as a then, Whites Only library.

Also, the museum features the Camilla Williams exhibition, which highlights the relationship this New York City Opera diva had with her hometown, Danville, and explores the difficult path to fame in a racially divided South during the civil rights protests.

This story will be updated.
RALEIGH  Gov. Roy Cooper and state health leaders are not endorsing a proposal being considered by a health board this week to require some North Carolina high school students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The N.C. Commission For Public Health will take up a petition Wednesday to add the coronavirus vaccine to state immunization requirements for children who are 17 years old or who are entering 12th grade as of July 1. If the rule is adopted, North Carolina would join a handful of states that are mandating the vaccine for students.

Cooper and the state Department of Health and Human Services say its critical for people, including children, to get the COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots. But theyre saying it shouldnt be added yet to the list of required school vaccinations.

Health officials have been looking at the mandatory nature of it," Cooper said Tuesday. We have a number of vaccines that are mandatory but have undergone a lot more history and scrutiny and I think that Im going to agree with my health officials that at this point, its not time to do that.

Some are hoping the new mandate will be adopted.

I think thats the big piece for us to break the cycle of what were going through, said Kira Kroboth, the founder of a Wake County Facebook group that supports protections against COVID-19. I know there will be a lot of pushback, but we have to remember that mandated vaccines for schools are not new.

But two conservative groups  Citizen Advocates For Accountable Government and Moms for Liberty  plan to protest Wednesday what they call an attempt to usurp the authority of representative democracy and personal medical freedom in our state.

We think its improper to force it on our kids and were going to show our disdain, said Dale Lands, founder of Citizen Advocates For Accountable Government.

Under state law, the N.C Commission For Public Health is empowered to adopt rules to protect the public health, including whether to add immunization requirements for children. The commission is made up of 13 members, nine elected by the North Carolina Medical Society and four appointed by the governor.

Currently, North Carolinas immunization requirements for children include shots for things such as chicken pox, measles, mumps and polio.

State health officials have said they wouldnt consider making the COVID-19 vaccine a requirement for students as long as it only had emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. However, the FDA has given full approval for the vaccine for 16- and 17-year-olds.

With information about vaccine doses and booster scheduling still evolving, we believe it is premature for the commission to codify the immunization schedule through rulemaking, according to a DHHS memo submitted for this weeks meeting.

According to state records, 47% of children ages 12 to 17 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Only five states and the District of Columbia have a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. The group says 17 states have a ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students.

State lawmakers could intervene if the commission mandates the coronavirus shot.

Still, if the commission mandates the vaccine, state law allows children to get medical and religious exemptions. But that wouldnt be enough for opponents of a vaccine mandate.

Lands called the COVID-19 shot an unproven vaccine, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many doctors say its safe for children.

So does Kroboth.

We have to listen to the science and guidance," she said, "and not from those who are yelling and screaming in opposition."
Head of Syria's Future Party in Deir Ezzor Thamer Shimeri told ANHA that the Damascus government cannot be trusted at all likening 'settlements' adopted by the government to death saying that are only to create disorder and sedition in society in North eastern Syria and misrepresenting the region as its people are discontent and complaining and they only want the return of the Damascus government. It wants the country return to the 2011 status, but this is impossible.

Shimeri said the ''settlements are just as if to resuscitate a dead body and that the regime wants to present itself as a legitimate one and to receive popularity but we are free today''.

Shimeri said even if thwere are some parts that want to go to the Damascus areas they are very few ones and they should take lessons from what had happened in Daraa and other areas which witnessed settlements where they were arrested in the following day and paid dearly in the detention centewrs of the Damascus government as if they went to death''.

Shimeri said on the economic arena and in spite of all what happened the NES is the best of all.

L..A

ANHA
Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has tested positive for Covid-19, he announced Monday, as his nation continues to face a surge in cases due to the Omicron variant, as well as rowdy protests in the capital over pandemic health restrictions.

"This morning, I tested positive for COVID-19," tweeted Trudeau, who is fully vaccinated and boosted. "I'm feeling fine -- and I'll continue to work remotely this week while following public health guidelines. Everyone, please get vaccinated and get boosted."

Two of Trudeau's three school-age children also have tested positive, the Prime Minister said Monday during an outdoor news conference. He and his family have been isolating for days after announcing a Covid-19 exposure, of which he hasn't given details. Trudeau met in person Wednesday with several members of his Cabinet.

The Trudeau family has been relocated to an undisclosed location as a precaution as protests continue in Ottawa by those opposing Covid-19 health restrictions. The events began as a protest by truckers opposed to vaccine requirements and gained followers calling for an end to other Covid-19 mandates.

Canada has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with about 4 in every 5 Canadians fully vaccinated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Trudeau warned Canadians this month to "hunker down" for winter.

"The strain on the health care system is tremendous, and as much as we can do, all of us, individually, collectively, to decrease the pressure on the hospital system, our exhausted health care workers on the front line, I think that's really what we need to be focusing on," Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada's deputy chief public health officer, said.

The Prime Minister had not previously reported contracting Covid-19, though his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, tested positive for the virus in March 2020.

The-CNN-Wire

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More candidates have entered the race for legislative seats in several Helena-area races, according to filings posted Monday on the Montana secretary of states website.

Filing began Jan. 13 and ends March 14, with a June 7 primary election and general election on Nov. 8.

In the race for Senate District 41, Republican Dave Galt, a self-employed consultant from Helena, has filed. Democratic incumbent Janet Ellis, retired from Montana Audubon, filed earlier.

In Senate District 42, Republican Matt Olson of Helena, retired Dairy Queen owner, has filed. Democrat Mary Ann Dunwell, a retired public information officer with the state, filed earlier for the seat.

In House District 75, Republican Marta Bertoglio of Clancy, a real estate broker, has filed for reelection.

Republican Dennison Rivera of Helena, communications director for the state Office of Public Instruction, has filed for House District 79. Helena Democrat Laura Smith, former deputy director of the state Department of Public Health and Human Services, filed for the seat earlier.

No one new has filed to run for the House District 81 seat since Jan. 13, which was the first day candidates could officially enter the race. Democrats Ben Kuiper, corporate tax auditor with the Department of Revenue, Jake Troyer, owner of a strategic consulting company, and Jacob B. Torgerson, a community organizer, entered the race.

In the House District 82 race, Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro, a community organizer who had represented HD 81, has filed. Republican Alden Tonkay, communications director with the Montana Republican Party, filed earlier.

Democrat Kim Abbott of Helena, a nonprofit director, filed for another two-year term for House District 83.

The House District 84 race is getting crowded. Republican Kurt J. Aughney of East Helena, a quality assurance director for a state agency, has filed, as have Democrats Jill Cohenour, a chemist, and Noah J. Horan, a political scientist. Republican Kaitlyn Ruch, student and office manager for the Montana Republican Party at their Helena headquarters, filed earlier to be a candidate.

To view the legislative filings, go to: https://bit.ly/3HldLTi.

Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021.

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Gov. Greg Gianfortes office announced on Monday a partnership between Town Pump and the LifeGuard Group to further address the human trafficking crisis in Montana.

Town Pump will display the LifeGuard Groups human trafficking hotline in its locations across the state so victims can get support. The company is also giving a $30,000 grant to Lifeguard to support the organization's efforts to fight human trafficking, according to a Monday news release.

Lifeguard Group is a Missoula-based nonprofit with a mission of fighting human trafficking. They launched the hotline in 2020 and provide training, resources and classes on the issue.

Town Pump is pleased to be partnering with Governor Gianforte and state agencies to provide resources, including a grant of $30,000 to the LifeGuard Group, to raise public awareness of human trafficking in Montana, Mike Kenneally, spokesperson for Town Pump said in the news release. We are committed to helping educate people on this issue. The more we can educate, the more we can save.

In the last year, the states Division of Criminal Investigations department has seen a 65% uptick in human trafficking investigations  41 were investigated in 2020, with a jump to 68 in 2021. This does not include whats going on at local levels, Attorney General Austin Knudsen said at a roundtable event discussing trafficking in Montana earlier this month.

Also at the roundtable, hosted at the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula, Missoula Police Detective Guy Baker urged officials to get posters with the hotline up in rest areas, convenience stores and truck stop restrooms.

Gianforte has directed the Montana Department of Transportation to get LifeGuard's posters with the hotline number posted in the state's rest areas, the release said.

Millions of people travel our roads and highways each year, and we want them to be extra sets of eyes to end human trafficking in Montana, MDT Director Mack Long said in the release. Through the governors new partnership with Town Pump, we can make an even greater impact to promote awareness and help save lives.

Roundtable participants universally stressed that combating trafficking is a team effort.

Addressing this issue is going to take all of us, Gianforte said at the event.

Neither urban, rural nor tribal communities are immune to the human trafficking crisis, Gianforte said. Tribal communities are especially impacted by trafficking, since cases contributed to rates of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

If you or anyone you know is a victim of human trafficking, call the Montana Human Trafficking Hotline at 833-406-STOP or your local law enforcement agency.

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The state has settled with a Wyoming driver for more than a quarter million dollars after a Montana Highway Patrol trooper accidentally ran the driver off the road in 2017.

Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley approved the $270,000 settlement on Jan. 12.

Michael McLean, attorney for Mitchell Burgess and his wife Rene Burgess, said Monday the settlement came three days before the parties were set to go to trial in December.

"They were really happy to put the matter behind them and get on with their lives after four years of this," McLean said. "They have their own health issues that theyre continuing to deal with."

The highway patrol on Monday defended the settlement.

"Troopers drive more than 6 million miles each year patrolling our state's roadways," MHP Sgt. Jay Nelson said in an email late Monday. "In this case, attorneys for the State Risk Management & Tort Defense Division determined a settlement was in the best interest of Montana taxpayers."

The settlement, filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court and signed by Mitchell and Rene Burgess, states the settlement shall not "be considered as an admission of liability."

In August 2017 Trooper Michael Howell had just completed a separate traffic stop near Miles City when he pulled a U-turn in front of an oncoming vehicle that was moving at 70 mph.

Dash cam video of the "near-miss accident" captured Burgess' pickup swerving into the ditch and back onto the highway. Burgess then stopped at the next turnoff and Howell pulled in behind him. Burgess stepped out of his pickup, somewhat bewildered and walks around his vehicle. The two men talked at Burgess' tailgate and after a few minutes they shook hands and parted ways.

In 2019 Burgess filed a lawsuit against the state claiming he suffered a concussion and spinal injury. The case took a long detour when MHP said it had lost the video. First, MHP said it had removed the computer where the file was stored; later it said records staff appeared to have failed to tag the file properly for storage; and again when the physical copy of the video, a DVD, was lost in then-Major Steve Lavin's Office. Lavin was appointed chief of the Montana Highway Patrol in December 2020.

The video was eventually recovered in the desk drawer of the trooper's previous supervisor, although Seeley kept in place sanctions against MHP for bungling the evidence. By that time the matter of whether the trooper had caused Burgess' injuries had already been affirmed; the only matter a jury was going to decide in the December trial was what the state owed Burgess and his wife, who took time to drive her husband to medical appointments.

McLean said Monday his clients were "enthusiastic" about the settlement figure but added that Burgess is scheduled for another back surgery resulting from the accident.

"The fact that it took him four years to finally receive that amount of money  it was physically and mentally exhausting for him," McLean said.

This story has been updated to include a statement from Montana Highway Patrol and to change a reference of the incident from 'crash' to 'accident.'

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Wildlife officials will recommend several changes to draft elk hunting regulations when the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission meets Friday, including not moving forward with a statewide cow elk license.

The commission put forward hunting season proposals to the public during its December meeting. Following a 30-day public comment period, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks released the recommendations its staff will make to commissioners Friday when the panel is expected to adopt regulations for the next two years.

The agency is recommending the commission table a proposal for an over-the-counter antlerless elk license for use in any hunting district more than 200% above desired population objectives.

When looking at the proposal, FWP identified some hunting districts such as Hunting District 260, an archery-only area covering parts of the Bitterroot and Clark Fork river valleys, where an unlimited number of cow hunters could create issues. Game Management Bureau Chief Brian Wakeling said the agency is endorsing unlimited regional cow licenses for Regions 4 and 5  areas where elk populations have surged with often limited access for hunters.

Its the same approach but were asking the commission to consider these on a more regional basis, he said.

The hunting season setting process, which takes place every two years, has drawn significant public interest that officials have called a firestorm. Commissioners and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks leadership have advanced major changes to hunting regulations including consolidating some districts and reducing the types of licenses and permits with a goal of simplification.

The atmosphere around the December meeting was highly charged after FWP Director Hank Worsech released proposals for multiple central and eastern hunting districts that would have allowed hunting of bull elk on private land with a general license while public land hunters would remain in a limited draw. That sparked an onslaught of criticism from much of Montanas hunting community.

During a work session the day before the meeting, the commission and FWP officials scrapped the proposals, instead moving forward with increases to overall permit numbers for bull elk. Those recommendations remain.

The recommendations also call for unbundling multiple central and eastern hunting districts currently under a 900 archery license. The licenses were put in place with the goal of limiting crowding primarily on private lands, but numbers of elk have grown significantly. Drawing the license allowed an archer to hunt any of more than a dozen districts.

Under the proposal, the districts will move to either a general license or an unlimited archery permit, available first or second choice on the application. What that allows is for a hunter to apply for a lottery rifle permit and if unsuccessful, be guaranteed to draw the archery permit.

Wakeling noted that the districts are still well above objectives and said that a separate recommendation may limit hunter participation. That new provision would restrict a hunter that draws a special permit including an unlimited one from hunting a bull elk in any other hunting district.

Even with some of the more controversial proposals absent, FWP continued to see public comment flood in. The agency also held meetings across the state in recent weeks where hunters and others heard proposals and asked questions.

A review of the comments shows many who weighed in continue to express concerns at both specific proposals as well as criticism of the overall process or direction they see regulations leading. A number of commenters said they believed the proposed regulations favored outfitters or landowners over opportunities for the general public  a prevalent theme during the December meeting.

The proposals have seen some support as well, with some supporters saying the status quo is not working and the proposals offer landowners more incentive to work with FWP rather than taking a perceived adversarial approach.

The commission will also take up final hunting regulations for other species, including upland bird, deer, antelope, turkey and mountain lion.

The full proposals are available at www.fwp.mt.gov.

Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting The commission meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m. Friday in person at the State Capitol in room 317 and virtually via Zoom. To sign up to comment on Zoom go to www.fwp.mt.gov. Registration is due by noon on Feb. 3.

Tom Kuglin is the deputy editor for the Lee Newspapers State Bureau. His coverage focuses on outdoors, recreation and natural resources.

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DECATUR  The Decatur school board will likely name a new superintendent at a Feb. 8 meeting, but the community won't know the name of the candidate  who is already employed by the district in another role  until that date.

When everything is done, then we'll announce the name, school board President Dan Oakes said. It seems cleaner that way.

The board interviewed the candidate during a closed executive session on Monday. Oakes said the board tentatively plans an online meet-and-greet forum after the new superintendent's name is announced, to allow the community to ask questions of him or her.

Until the board has decided to hire the candidate and a contract is signed, no name will be released.

The latest revelation comes after two previously identified candidates, who took part in online forums on Jan. 5, are no longer being considered for the position.

Michael Gaal dropped out of contention when he discovered he could not obtain a superintendent's certificate in Illinois. The other finalist, Malika Savoy-Brooks, was removed from the running because the board could not come to a consensus on selection.

The reason for holding the forum with the previous two finalists and revealing who they were ahead of time was that the two were neck and neck for the position and the board wanted to see how the community reacted to them before coming to a decision, Oakes said.

When Gaal was unable to continue and the board couldn't come to an agreement on Savoy-Brooks, the search had to continue.

The internal candidate was not among the original candidates found by the search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates and the board did not ask this candidate to apply, Oakes added. The search firm found 17 candidates for the job, whittled the list down to five, then three, by the board members through the interview process.

(The search firm) were in the process of doing their due diligence when we found out (he couldn't obtain credentials), Oakes said of Gaal. They don't get into that until they get strong interest from the board due to the time and money it costs.

Hazard, Young, Attea declined to speak to the Herald & Review when contacted for comment and directed all questions to the school district. The firm was hired to conduct the search at a flat rate of $24,950, which covers the entire search process until a candidate is hired. The firm has held meetings with the board and conducted surveys of the district stakeholders to seek input.

Illinois law requires that a superintendent must hold at least a master's degree; complete a state-approved program for the preparation of a school superintendent or the equivalent out-of-state or foreign program, and complete 30 hours of graduate-level coursework beyond the master's level in a program for superintendents, with 16 hours in professional education. Additionally, a superintendent must have at least two years of administrative/supervisory experience in schools while holding an Illinois administrative certificate or the equivalent out-of-state certificate.

Gaal holds master's degrees in national security policy studies and engineering in space operations and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. His work experience includes leadership positions in the Washington, D.C. And Oakland, Calif. School districts.

Oakes has served on the school board since the 1990s and has been through several superintendent searches, he said, and it's difficult to know how long a search will take or how many candidates will apply. At present, with the stresses on all school personnel due to COVID-19, some potential candidates who might otherwise be interested have chosen to stay at their current positions.

It's not an easy job, he said. It's very stressful right now.

The board is seeking to replace Paul Fregeau, who left on July 1 to take a position as superintendent of the Fox C-6 district near St. Louis. Interim Superintendent Bobbi Williams was named to serve during the search. Williams is retired after serving as assistant superintendent in Decatur schools.

Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter

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CHARLESTON  A former Charleston police officer and wanted sex offender, who had been on the run in Mexico, is now back in Coles County after an eight-year international manhunt, police report.

David N. Iwaniw, 42, described as both a former police officer and U.S. Army intelligence officer, had been captured Jan. 11 at the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry with Mexico in Nogales, Arizona. He was brought back to Coles County on Friday.

Iwaniw had been on the Coles County Sheriff Departments Most Wanted List on charges of child pornography and two counts of criminal sexual assault. He had been on the run since July of 2014.

A news release said the U.S. Marshals Service Arizona Wanted Violent Offender Task Force had received information by August of 2021 that Iwaniw was living in Mexico. The information was passed to the marshals service International Investigations Branch which liaised with Mexican law enforcement to track and apprehend Iwaniw.

The U.S. Marshals Service in Arizona involvement followed earlier investigative work by the U.S. Marshals Service Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, which includes members of the Decatur Police Department and the Macon County Sheriffs Office.

The charges against Iwaniw accuse him of forcing a 17-year-old girl into having intercourse and recording the encounter while in a "position of authority," that of a police officer, at his residence at time.

The girl also claimed he threatened to harm her if she reported the incident and made her claim on the recording that she was 18 years old and that the sex was consensual, according to records in his case.

According to Charleston Police Department officials, Iwaniw resigned as a police officer after his arrest.

Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid

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BELLEVILLE, Ill.  A former Southern Illinois preschool employee accused of punishing children by making them stand naked in a closet has pleaded guilty to four felony charges.

Shavonda L. Willis, 44, of Fairview Heights, pleaded guilty on Friday to three counts of unlawful restraint, one count of aggravated battery and a misdemeanor charge, said Chris Allen, spokesman for the St. Clair County state's attorney's office. Five other charges she had faced were dismissed.

Willis pleaded guilty 10 days before her jury trial was set to begin, the Belleville News-Democrat reported. She is scheduled to be sentenced on April 19.

Willis and Mary M. Agbehia, 29, of the Chicago-area community of South Holland, both had worked for a federally funded Head Start program operated by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis.

Authorities said in 2019 that four or five children ages 5 years and under were subjected to the punishment of being forced to stand naked in a closet at the preschool for five or 10 minutes with the door open before they could put their clothes back on and rejoin class.

Agbehia pleaded guilty to five felonies in July, three days before her trial was set to begin. She was sentenced in September to one year in prison and 24 months of probation.

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The former Chicago Police Officer who fatally shot Laquan McDonald in 2014 is set to be released from prison on Thursday. Ahead of his release, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday defended the Chicago Police Departments reform efforts.

Her comments came after the Tribune published a front-page story Monday reflecting on changes the police department has made since the release of the dash-camera video that showed Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting McDonald 16 times. Criminal justice experts said the Chicago Police Department has been slow moving in its reforms and attempts at cultural change.

Lightfoot said the city isnt where we want to be but has made remarkable progress in a difficult time.

Change is hard. Were all experiencing that over these last two years of this pandemic entering year three. Its hard for us to give up our old ways, our status quo, even when we know it is failing us, Lightfoot said. Its still hard for us to pivot and embrace that new mindset. We are on the right path. We are moving forward in the right way. Weve got the right leader in the Chicago Police Department to keep pushing these initiatives forward but we cant just wallow in the critics and the criticism because we are doing great things in our city.

Lightfoot also reflected on the departments progress since Van Dyke killed McDonald, saying she was very concerned about how the city would react after viewing the video of Van Dyke shooting the teenager.

That was a very difficult and fraught time in our city and I think that many people carry the trauma of that moment and others like it with them to this very day, Lightfoot said. What I will also say is, looking back on that time right before Thanksgiving of 2015 when the video was first released, there were some things that I think helped our city move forward that came out  not the least of which I think is the level of activism across our city, many young people, many people of different generations, let their voices be heard and demanded change and there has been some change. Not enough. Not enough by any stretch of the imagination but I think some significant things have happened and continue to happen that we need to take stock of in light of this moment.

Lightfoot noted the work she did leading Police Accountability Task Force after the shooting, as well as a Department of Justice investigation of the departments practices and the City Councils passage last summer of a new civilian oversight body for police.

Asked about Van Dykes imminent release from prison, Lightfoot said she wasnt happy with the sentence he received but said that while many were not happy with Van Dykes sentencing length, Jason Van Dyke was the first police officer in 50 years who was convicted of committing a crime while on duty so lets not lose sight of that fact.

I think frankly Pastor Marvin Hunter, whos been the spokesperson and really I think the conscience for not only the family but for the city on this issue, has spoken eloquently about it, and talks and continues to talk about healing, about redemption, about accountability, Lightfoot said. I think those are the words we need to take with us in our heart when we think about this moment that we are in.

Robert Boik, CPDs executive director of constitutional policing and reform, said in a phone interview with the Tribune that he wanted to push back on what Chad Williams, the former civilian commanding officer of the departments audit division, said in his resignation letter to Lightfoot in August.

Williams wrote in his letter that department leaders were unable to even feign interest in pursuing reform in a meaningful manner has made it impossible for me to remain involved.

Despite my efforts, both the office of the superintendent and the office of constitutional policing & reform continue to insist upon employing a check the boxes strategy that focuses on getting credit for preliminary compliance based primarily on policy edits that lack operational considerations, Williams said. Over time, the optimism I brought to this role withered in an incessant stream of discussions with the singular intent of identifying ways to move the needle by getting the percentages up to improve portrayals in local media coverage.

Boik said that is how the consent decree is set up. It contains almost 800 paragraphs, and the independent monitor assesses progress on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis. So the department has to look at and count the paragraphs as it moves forward.

The police departments compliance over the last year has jumped significantly from 48 paragraphs with some level of compliance in the second monitors report to 266 in the most recent report, Boik said. He said they are expecting the next report which is set to come out within the next month to show the same trajectory.

But compliance is not just numbers, theres a ton of work behind all of that compliance and all of those paragraphs, Boik said.

The amount of service training hours for officers increased from zero to 40 hours as of last year, which will continue to be an annual occurrence, Boik said. The additional training will serve to change the departments cultural as its an opportunity to reinstruct officers on an annual basis about use-of-force, community policing and impartial policing.

I would put our policies now up against any department in the country, Boik said. I believe we have the best practice policy, and officers have been trained on that policy, and theyre operating under that policy out in the field.

Boik said that the Chicago Police Department is a dramatically different department since the release of the McDonald shooting video, but it isnt the end game for the department. This is because, he said, the department has made changes to how it approaches community policing and has better training on crisis intervention.

Boik added that if anyone in the department in 2015 had said that a consent decree would be a good a thing for the department, then they would have been ostracized. Now it is considered a standard practice for the department and is talked about often.

When you compare the department today to where we were back in 2015, it is night and day different, he said.

The department also now has a unit that looks over every use of force incident for tactical and training issues, Boik said. If any misconduct is observed, that misconduct has to be investigated. The department has also made it as transparent as possible to show the public how they can file a complaint against an officer.

We do not sweep those issues under the rug. In fact, we now have an internal mechanism to bring those issues to the forefront, to ensure that theyre being addressed as promptly as possible, he said.

If it had not been for the shooting of McDonald and the reforms that came after, Boik said that he is not sure if the department would be at the forefront of best practice on use of force policy now.

Or maybe wed still be going through it, just at a slower rate, and maybe it would have caught up with us eventually, he said. I dont know. But I can tell you, were happy with the path that were on. Were going to stay on the path to reform until we achieve full and effective compliance.

When asked what the release of Van Dyke means to the department, Boik said hes focused on the Independent Monitoring Report five coming out and the work ahead of him for Independent Monitoring Report six.

I think the officers on the street are focused on whatever is on their plate today, he said.

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DECATUR  With severe winter weather predicted to the area, city of Decatur municipal services crews spent Monday getting their equipment ready.

Weve got crews on the lots, getting plows mounted, checking out all the equipment, getting it ready, said Rick Baker, a municipal services operations supervisor. So were ready to go.

The National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Watch that will take effect Tuesday evening.

The major storm will impact Central and Southeast Illinois. Heavy rain is expected in the Southeastern areas of Illinois before the ice arrives. After the storm exits, another round of cold weather will follow. Travel is expected to be difficult to impossible.

According to meteorologists, heavy snow is possible with a brief period of sleet and freezing rain beginning Tuesday night.

Meteorologist Matt Holiner has been studying the track of the storm for nearly a week. Its looking pretty significant for Central and Southern Illinois, but it does vary, he said.

According to Holiner, Tuesday evening will start out as rain, particularly in Southern Illinois, before the conditions change to snow. Thats the trickiest part to this forecast, he said. When does it change to snow for various locations across the state?

The Northern area, including Bloomington, should see snow first. The entire lower half of Illinois is expected to see all types of precipitations, including rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow. Bloomingtons conditions are expected to change rapidly. It looks like it will be a pretty quick transition from rain to snow, Holiner said. Then theres going to be a whole lot of snow.

The transition to snow for Decatur and Mattoon should arrive later.

Once it starts Tuesday evening, the end of the storm isnt expected until Thursday evening.

Storm to include ice

The concern for meteorologists is the potential for ice.

Bloomington is expected to receive more snow than ice. Nearly a foot is predicted.

The layers of snow and ice will affect Mattoon and Decatur as well, but in different amounts. The ice is going to be more of an issue on sidewalks and driveways, Holiner said. The bigger story for the area is going to be the snow that falls after the period of ice.

Although measurable ice is not a concern for Bloomington, Mattoon and Decatur will experience the slick conditions.

Holiner said the weather models predictions range from five to 16 inches of snow in Central Illinois. Along with the amount of snow, the other concern includes the high winds expected at nearly 30 mph. Blizzard conditions start at 35 mph.

Its safe to say, from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening, theres going to be travel problems across Central Illinois, Holiner said. Travel should be avoided.

Stay home, stay safe

Bruce Bird, Macon County engineer, made the same suggestion. The best way to prepare is to stay home until we get through it, he said.

Working in 12-hour shifts, Birds crews will be removing the snow and ice from Macon County roads. The trucks, plows and motor graders will be used in various areas of the county. We anticipate well probably use those some time within this week in order to get the roads open, Bird said Monday morning. When we have to get up and go sometime tomorrow, well be ready to do so.

The city is also prepared with nearly 2,000 tons of salt ready to spread across Decatur streets. The crews have dipped into the road salt a little this year. This is kind of late in the year for the first major snow, Baker said. But weve put salt down a few times. We get an inch of snow and weve got to salt the roads.

Although the street crews are doing their best to prepare for the ice and snow, they require assistance from the community.

If they could just give us room, Baker said. Well be out there doing it until were done.

Emergency rooms typically tend to injuries due to extreme winter weather, said Daniel Ferguson, interim emergency department manager for HSHS St. Mary's Hospital.

We see everything from frostbite and hypothermia to broken bones and other injuries from falls, he said. "However, some of the most concerning patients we see are individuals who overexert themselves while shoveling snow or removing ice from their car. We suggest taking things slow in the snow.

The street crews suggest people stay inside and off the streets if possible. Also park vehicles in driveways. It just makes it easier on us, Baker said. The less traffic that we have to deal with, the quicker we can get it done.

School plans

Decatur Public Schools will utilize e-learning in the event of an emergency day, according to Denise Swarthout, spokeswoman for DPS. So we would shift to virtual learning for the entire district in lieu of an emergency snow day, she said.

Students in the Warrensburg-Latham district utilize e-learning options when safety is a concern. The parents were notified of this policy: If school needs to transition to an e-Learning Day (remote instruction) due to weather, we try to let you know as soon as we can.

Although many students have become accustomed to online classroom settings, some administrations will be cashing in their snow days.

We firmly believe in snow days, said LSA Principal Allison Nolen.

Other schools utilizing the traditional format include Mount Zion, Argenta-Oreana and Meridian school districts.

We are taking the position that any snow day will be the traditional snow day and made up at the end of the year if needed, said Travis Roundcount, Mount Zion Superintendent. We will give the kids a day to play in the snow without completing any additional assignments or virtual instruction.

The Decatur Christian School students have plenty of school days on their calendar, according to Pastor Steve Hohm. So we can afford to call Snow Days without hurting our educational hours, he said. We would go ahead and have a snow day.

Valerie Wells contributed to this report.

Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR

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Local Weather Get the daily forecast and severe weather alerts in your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. High 84F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
BRISTOL, Tenn.  Two grants designed to spark business expansion and improvements to the exterior of commercial buildings are available on a first-come, first-served basis to qualified applicants.

Offered by the Bristol Tennessee Industrial Development Board, the grants are available as forgivable loans and will include awards up to $10,000 for business growth or $5,000 for facade improvements, the city of Bristol, Tennessee announced in a news release Monday.

The application deadline is March 11 and awards will be announced in April.

Matt Garland, economic development specialist for the city, said the grants will provide some money via the Bristol Industrial Development Board to local businesses in the city of Bristol to enhance their business, improve facades and hopefully increase some traffic to their business.

The Existing Business Expansion Grant offers up to $10,000 for new equipment, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant projects or projects to expand interior spaces or parking lots. The funds cant be used for exterior enhancements or repairs such as exterior signs, mechanical or security systems that are not directed toward job creation or new revenue.

The Facade Improvement Grant offers up to $5,000 for businesses looking to repair or revitalize their buildings, from facade painting to signs, handicap accessibility and exterior lighting.

All applications will be evaluated for their economic impact, appropriateness and contribution to neighboring properties, the release states.

For more information, follow the link at www.bristoltn.org/IDBgrants or contact Matt Garland at mgarland@bristoltn.org or (423) 989-5516.
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn.  Four deputies with the Sullivan County Sheriffs Office were honored Monday for their life-saving actions in two separate incidents  the recent shooting of a deputy and a fire in Bristol.

The Life Saving Awards were presented by Sheriff Jeff Cassidy to Deputy Shane Amyx, Deputy Tyler McCready, Deputy Cody Ball and Deputy Cory Hall during a ceremony at the Sheriffs Office in Blountville.

The first award went to Amyx for his actions during a Jan. 20 fire on Cedar Road in Bristol, Tennessee.

Deputy Amyx responded to a house fire and observed it still occupied and the structure engulfed in smoke and flames. Without hesitation, Deputy Amyx entered the side door, where he observed a male on the floor. Deputy Amyx then entered the home, even though the house was full of smoke and fire, pulled the resident out into safety, Cassidy said. He demonstrated bravery, courage, self-sacrifice and exceptional heroism that day.

Awards were also handed to McCready and Ball for their heroic efforts in assisting Hall during the Jan. 21 shooting that sent his partner, Deputy Evan Wade, to the hospital. Sheriff Cassidy highlighted their quick reactions during a hectic situation.

They [McCready and Ball] held firm during the chaos, provided cover while Deputy Wade was being extracted from a dangerous event. Their bravery and quick reaction saved the life of one of our beloved deputies, Cassidy said.

Hall, whose family was present at the ceremony, was presented with the Life Saving Award and the Medal of Valor for his actions in the shooting. The sheriff emphasized his self-sacrifice and courage while moving Wade to safety.

You demonstrated bravery, courage, self-sacrifice and exceptional heroism in that day, you faced grave danger, but you faced it with firmness and strength of courage in the protection of life, Cassidy said.

Hall has been a volunteer deputy for three years and works full-time as a nurse. He said both professions help him respond to help his partner.

I didnt think one bit, my training took place, and I just acted on that, Hall said. I actually didnt have a single thought process until I figured a way out of the building. I just diverted to my training, the training took over and I was the robot at that time, he said.

Wade, who continues to recuperate at home, was presented with the Life Saving Award and Medal of Valor last week.

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ABINGDON, Va.  Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin visited the least vaccinated region of the commonwealth Monday to seek relief from a federal vaccination mandate for health care workers and gather input on promoting more widespread vaccination for COVID-19.

Youngkin and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Monday wrote to federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure asking for a waiver or other temporary relief from its mandate that health care workers be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Locally, that mandate could force Ballad Health System to terminate about 1,000 unvaccinated workers, or about 8% of its total workforce. Concurrently, just 47.4% of all Southwest Virginia residents are fully vaccinated, a rate that is 20 percentage points below the rest of the state and comparable to the rate in neighboring East Tennessee.

Were having a crisis right now with staffing. We had it before the pandemic, and here we are with a real challenge, Youngkin said during a stop in Abingdon. Were asking her [Brooks-LaSure] to give us an extension or just a break in forcing our rural hospitals to terminate healthy workers when they havent gotten the vaccine. Weve got a staffing crisis, and the last thing we need to do is make it even worse.

The letter reads, in part, Rural and state health care facilities in our states are facing an urgent staffing crisis that we believe necessitates relief from the rule. As you undoubtedly know, our healthcare facilities are strained. After two years of the pandemic and the temporary surge in cases related to the omicron variant, some are even at a breaking point. Unfortunately, the CMS interim rule compounds this problem, potentially forcing thousands of healthcare professionals to be fired for failing to comply with the rules requirement to be vaccinated.

We write today to respectfully request a limited waiver from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services interim rule on COVID-19 health care staff vaccinations, the letter concludes.

Last week, Ballad Health initiated crisis staffing, meaning employees who were positive for the virus but asymptomatic, or who no longer tested positive, should return to work immediately, as more than 800 workers were out with a COVID diagnosis or awaiting test results.

Under the mandate issued last November, CMS is requiring all health care workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 if they work at a facility that receives funds from either federal health insurance program. Levine said last week said the potential impacts would be catastrophic.

I appreciate the governor taking the same position we have, which is lets be logical and reasonable with the regulatory structure here, Levine said. Why do you want to create a worse staffing problem than we have? One has been inflicted by COVID; the other is potentially going to be self-inflicted. I think it would be a big mistake.

Additionally, Attorney General Jason Miyares intends to join a lawsuit filed in Louisiana by about 20 states challenging the mandate, Youngkin said.

The governor also visited Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon to hear firsthand about staffing issues and participated in a 40-minute town hall-style conversation with regional health care, elected and business leaders about promoting vaccinations.

Both events excluded members of the news media.

We want to encourage people to get the vaccine, but we also want to understand why folks are hesitant to get it, Youngkin said. I think there is an opportunity to more clearly explain the benefits of the vaccine. We just saw that 85% of the folks in the hospital are unvaccinated, and 90% of folks in the ICU are unvaccinated, and 95% of those on ventilators are unvaccinated.

Youngkin said he and members of his family are fully vaccinated, but he has no plans to mandate it.

Asked about suggestions from the town hall, Youngkin mentioned four.

One is to acknowledge there have been changes in views along the way. Sometimes, people lose faith in government spokespeople, the governor said. Second is to recognize telling people they must do things sometimes is the worst way to get someone to do something. And finally, local folks who people know and trust sometimes are the best spokespeople. I am hoping Virginians are learning to trust me. When I said Im going to do things, I go do them. I hope that folks, when I encourage them to go get the vaccine, will listen to me.

Another theme, Youngkin said, is to encourage more dialogue between people and their doctor or pharmacist.

Its really exciting to have a commitment to this from Richmond, and a new perspective never hurts anything, said Breanne Forbes Hubbard, population health specialist with Mount Rogers Health District. I really appreciate the governor and his team coming down here and showing that this is a priority and really taking to heart some of the successes weve had and lessons from the challenges weve had. He and his team really seem committed to helping Southwest Virginia.

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Emergency officials spent Monday night going door-to-door, sounding sirens, urging people to evacuate using loudspeakers and taking to social media, all in an effort to convince some 6,000 Winston-Salem residents within a mile of a burning fertilizer plant to get out and stay out until the danger has passed.

Police blocked all the roads leading into the evacuation area until further notice, and firefighters are using drones to keep an eye on a fire that still poses the threat of an explosion.

Firefighters pulled back from a massive fire that on Monday night destroyed the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant on North Cherry Street near Indiana Avenue. No injuries had been reported, Winston-Salem Police said, but officials warned of health hazards from fire fumes.

Battalion Chief Patrick Grubbs, speaking to reporters at a news conference called at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in a parking lot near the fire command center on Perimeter Point Boulevard, said that the decision to abandon the firefight was made when the fire reached a rail car containing potentially explosive ammonium nitrate.

"The fire extended into a rail car behind the structure," Grubbs said. "Once the rail car became involved, we were unable to get water to the location, and it has a large explosive hazard."

The fertilizer plant died in a conflagration of bright orange flames that lit the night sky and illuminated billows of black smoke rising from the site. But it was the danger of a catastrophic explosion and the need to evacuate nearby homes that became the prime goal of emergency workers.

After fighting the fire for about two hours, pouring water down on the burning fertilizer plant from the top of elevated fire ladders, firefighters got the word around 8:30 p.m. to move all their equipment a mile away from the fire, and efforts began to evacuate homes within that radius as well.

Fire Chief William Trey Mayo said Monday night that the plant may have had almost three times the amount of ammonium nitrate that was in a Texas plant that burned and exploded in 2013, killing 15 people.

Officials said evacuees need to be prepared to stay out of their homes for 48 hours.

"We do not know the full extent of the time we will be here," Grubbs said. "It will not be anytime soon that we are leaving.

The one-mile evacuation zone included a minimum-security prison and parts of the campus of Wake Forest University, which announced the cancellation of classes on Tuesday and the opening of several buildings on campus for faculty, staff or students with nowhere else to go during the evacuation.

The city opened an evacuation center in the Education Building at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds. Only a couple people came to the center when it first opened, but the numbers had grown by the time firefighters had their early-morning update.

The fire started shortly before 7 p.m. on a loading dock at the plant, which was not in operation when the fire began. Mayo said the fire quickly spread and fully engulfed the plant.

When the evacuation was announced over fire radios, a long procession of fire trucks could be seen pulling away from the burning fertilizer plant from an entry drive near the corner of Cherry Street and Indiana Avenue. At the same time, efforts to mobilize a more general evacuation of residents kicked into gear.

Just before the fire trucks left, it appeared that the intense blaze might be finally starting to grow smaller. But with no more water coming down on the blaze, it only seemed to regather strength  even though it also appeared that little was left of the plant building.

A Winston-Salem Police officer said he couldnt provide any details but that he was told to pack up and leave.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire, but Tuesday morning, Grubbs said the fire was still active, the threat of an explosion remained, and that with daylight people would see lots of smoke hanging in the air and could be dealing with poor air quality.

Officials urged residents not to call 911 unnecessarily and to avoid strenuous activity outdoors because of the smoke and haze.

Drone teams from the Lewisville and Greensboro fire departments were on hand and using drones every 15 minutes or so to keep tabs on the fire. Officials said about 90 firefighters fought the blaze, and that around 150 public safety employees overall were involved in the response.

As firefighters evacuated, they left one unmanned truck at the back side of the building that continued to pump water onto fire, and which was being provided water by another truck connected to a fire hydrant.

During the early stages of the fire, before the area was closed off, police and fire officials repeatedly told onlookers gathered on parking lots along North Point Boulevard to get away because of the danger from the fire.

No one had to tell Jeff Lumen to get away. An employee of WestRock, a company beside the burning fertilizer plant, Lumen said he first knew something was amiss when he smelled smoke coming from the plant next door.

Lumen said he left quickly after realizing the plant was burning. I saw an orange glow, and that is all I needed, he said. Other WestRock employees stood in their company drive to block onlookers from approaching to get a better view, warning them about the dangers of fire in a fertilizer plant.

At one point Monday night, the fire was visible for miles and sent huge black clouds of smoke into the sky. Popping noises could be heard coming from the burning plant  evidence, it seemed, of items igniting in the blaze.

Michelle Shepherd, who lives less than two blocks from the plant, said her house shook from the force of explosions inside the plant. Shepherd said she listened to the fire department on a scanner, and when she heard them say that they had located a rail car full of ammonium nitrate, the evacuation started right afterwards.

Shepherd was one of only two people at the evacuation center when it first opened. Officials said they did not know how many people might eventually decide to come. Mayor Allen Joines said it is possible the evacuation could last more than 24 hours because of toxic fumes.

A Winston-Salem police officer said people living within a mile of the burning plant would be evacuated using a reverse-911 procedure. A reverse 911 call occurs when the system makes outgoing calls in order to pass on emergency communications.

There was a sense of urgency as officers told people to leave the area around the plant. The officers could be seen putting up yellow police tape around the block where the factory was located.

Firefighters were called to the blaze around 7 p.m. The building where they worked to extinguish the flames was gutted. Police blocked off the intersections around the burning plant, and sent drivers away from the scene.

Ammonium nitrate is one of the worlds most common fertilizers.

It is also a main component in many types of explosives used in mining. To create such blasts, ammonium nitrate is mixed with fuel oil and detonated by an explosive charge.

Officials said that the inmates at the Forsyth Correctional Center would be transferred to other prisons.

Wake Forest officials said the evacuation area on campus did not include any on-campus housing except for Deacon Place, which is within the one-mile perimeter of the plant.

The university opened Wellbeing Center, Benson Center and the library for students needing a place to stay.

Winston Weaver Co. was founded in 1929 in Norfolk, Va., according to the companys website.

The Winston-Salem plant was built in 1939 and opened for business in January of 1940.

The company specializes in all-purpose plant food and specialty fertilizer.

Its products are sold at Lowes stores throughout the Southeast.

FROM THE SCENE: Flames erupt from Winston-Salem fertilizer plant WATCH NOW: Cherry Street fire | Winston-Salem Fire Department WATCH NOW: Smoke, flames visible in Winston-Salem from fertilizer plant fire WATCH NOW: Fertilizer plant fire in Winston -Salem WATCH NOW: Massive plant fire in Winston-Salem Jan. 31, 2022 Cherry Street Fire Weaver Fertlizer Co. burns at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire A structure fire burns at Weaver Fertilizer Co. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire An angel statue faces in the direction of billowing smoke from the fire at Weaver Fertilizer Co. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire A structure fire burns at Weaver Fertilizer Co. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire A lone Winston-Salem police car is seen near a structure fire at Weaver Fertilizer Co. at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Wins Cherry Street Fire Clouds of smoke billow around Weaver Fertilizer Co. as the fire continues to burn at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-S Cherry Street Fire Greensboro firefighters pick up oxygen tanks from a hazardous materials truck at a command site as a fire burns nearby at Weaver Fertilizer Co Cherry Street Fire A bystander watches as Winston-Salem firefighters battle a structure fire at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire An angel statue faces in the direction of billowing smoke from the fire at Weaver Fertilizer Co. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire Winston-Salem firefighters battle a fertilizer plant fire at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire Winston-Salem firefighters battle a fertilizer plant fire at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire Winston-Salem firefighters fight a fertilizer plant fire at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire Winston-Salem firefighters battle a fertilizer plant fire at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire Winston-Salem police officers create barriers around a structure fire at Weaver Fertilizer Co. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire Winston-Salem firefighters battle a fire at fertilizer plant on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire A driver stops to look at the blaze consuming the fertilizer plant at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Cherry Street Fire Winston-Salem firefighters battle a fertilizer plant fire at 4440 N. Cherry St. on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Most dairy farmers know that the United States Dairy Export Council (USDEC) has played an important role in expanding trade from nearly negligible levels at its creation in 1995 to 2021s 17%-plus of milk production level. This incredible work has been done in cooperation with a number of other organizations from importing/exporting customers, USDAs Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and businesses across the country.

During the January 19 Hoards Dairyman DairyLivestream, panelists explored the scope of the work of USDEC and its partners that have brought trade to this point.

USDEC does more than promote U.S. products oversees like the trade mission we went on, explained Texas dairy farmer Larry Hancock. They also do a lot of work with market access and regulatory affairs, which is part of their business. They put together great assets to help members be able to understand what a country needs to import or what we need to export into a country. They help with licensing, labeling, and certifications.

Perhaps the greatest example of trade work happens in U.S. Consulates around the world that help facilitate trading opportunities to specific countries and areas.

I want to make a quick shoutout to USDA. The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is the employer of the agricultural attaches that sit in these U.S. Consulates, said Cornell Universitys Andy Novakovic. FAS is not a distribution agency. They dont make sales, but they are a conduit and a facilitator that help organize meetings. They sit in the U.S. Consulates in partnership with the state department. I think thats a wonderful part of USDA that a lot of people are kind of oblivious to.

During a recent trade mission, the DairyLivestream panelists had the opportunity to meet with two of these FAS staff, Valerie Brown and Lucas Blaustein. They serve as agricultural counselor and agricultural attache, respectively, in the United Arab Emirates.

They gave a really good talk about agriculture exports into the area, Hancock shared. I thought that was really important that they knew we cared to take the time and effort to travel all the way over there and show them that we really cared about exporting into the area.

To watch the recording of the January 19 DairyLivestream, go to the link above. The program recording is now also available as an audio-only podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and downloadable from the Hoards Dairyman website.

Register to continue receiving updates

The next broadcast of DairyLivestream will be on Wednesday, February 23 at 11 a.m. CDT. In the new year, we moved to a new system, and if you have not yet, you will need to re-register to continue receiving email updates and links to the webcasts. You can sign up here now. Registering once will sign you up you for all future events.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2022

January 27, 2022
UB welcomes new center to explore Black history and racial literacy

History is not about patriotism. History is about helping us understand our humanity. Thats the good, the bad and the indifferent. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  The University at Buffalo will work to improve how Black history and race are taught and learned in schools around the world through the new UB Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education.

The center, founded and directed by renowned scholar of Black history education LaGarrett King, will use research, teacher professional development, networking, and advocacy to answer the enduring question: What is Black history education?

King, PhD, joined the UB Graduate School of Education in January as an associate professor of social studies education. He was previously the Isabella Wade Lyda and Paul Lyda Professor of Education at the University of Missouri. Prior to Kings move to UB, he launched a similar center at the University of Missouri, the Carter Center for K-12 Black History Education.

The UB center will also create a Teaching Black History Certificate program for teachers and educators to use as endorsements for instructing history classes in their school districts.

History is not about patriotism. History is about helping us understand our humanity. Thats the good, the bad and the indifferent, said King. The problem is our U.S. history curriculum dehumanizes those who are people of color. If we understand notions of Black history, then maybe our society will understand Black people.

I envision the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education as a very prominent space where K-12 educators, policymakers, teachers and other university personnel come to help us understand the effectiveness of how we should approach notions of Black history education, as well as try to understand the nuances of race and racial literacy, he says.

Programming that redefines Black history education

Throughout the spring semester, the UB Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education will hold a range of programs to advance the understanding of Black history and race, including history clubs, teacher professional development and community learning labs.

During February, the center will host Black History Nerds Saturday School, a virtual, weekly professional development series for pre-K-12 teachers that welcomes speakers from across the nation to discuss Black history and race. The series is also open to the public. Discussion topics include:

The Art of Black Teaching by Jarvis Givens, Harvard University; Feb. 5, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Historical Literacy as Racial Literacy by Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz, Columbia University; Feb. 12, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Teaching Black History to White People by Leonard Moore, University of Texas at Austin; Feb. 19, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The Hill Project, a Black Studies Curriculum by Gholdy Muhammad, University of Illinois Chicago; Feb. 26, 11-11:45 a.m.

The centers signature event is the Teaching Black History Conference, which brings together hundreds of educators from around the globe to learn the curricular and instructional practices surrounding Black history education. The theme for the upcoming fifth conference is Mother Africa. The event is scheduled from July 22-24.

You can't teach Black history without teaching about Africa, says King. The first time that schoolchildren learn about Black people is through enslavement. We miss out on thousands of years of history. Black people throughout history have never just been simply oppressed. If we look at understanding them as different ethnic groups and cultures in Africa, then you get to understand their humanity.

More information, as well as additional events, can be found on the UB Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education website. Several of the events are free and open to the public.

An award-winning scholar of Black history education

Kings research examines the teaching and learning of Black history in schools and society, and the critical theories of race, teacher education and curriculum history. He has published four books and more than 60 academic articles and book chapters on Black history and race.

Kings upcoming book, Teaching Enslavement in American History, is scheduled for publication in February. He co-authored the book with Chara Bohan, PhD, and Robert Baker, PhD, both faculty at Georgia State University.

He has received numerous awards, including the Emerging Scholar Award from the Comparative and International Education Societys African Diaspora Special Interest Group.

King received a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Texas at Austin, and a bachelors degree in secondary social studies education from Louisiana State University.
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Months ago, the News & Observer wrote about how North Carolinas neighbors in Virginia and South Carolina are banning and challenging important works, and why we should take it as an omen that book banning would come to North Carolina.

Its safe to say the bans are here.

A superintendent in western North Carolina made news this week for removing Dear Martin from a 10th-grade English class. The book tells the story of a Black student attending an Ivy League university who becomes the victim of racial profiling that includes a letter from the protagonist to Martin Luther King Jr.

The book removal occurred in Haywood County, a small, rural county in the Asheville metropolitan area that is more than 92% non-Hispanic white. The books removal occurred days before MLK Day, after one parent objected to the profanity in the book.

Superintendent Bill Nolte, who has previously been under fire for sharing anti-Black Facebook posts, didnt read the book before pulling it. In the span of a few hours, he says he spoke to people who had read sections of it, read parts of it online, and decided there was too much swearing for a class of 15-year-olds, according to his interview with the Popular Information newsletter. Nolte didnt discuss the decision with the teacher before making the decision, nor was the initial complaint in line with the schools policies on making a complaint.

The speed and lack of contemplation about such a decision is alarming. Its worth repeating what we said months ago: books are the best opportunity for young people to experience worlds outside of their own, especially in the states rural, predominantly white communities. Students could have their first understanding of police brutality and racial profiling in these instances; instead, they are being denied these stories by a single parent who wants to speak for a whole community, and a superintendent that will happily oblige.

Its not the only instance of book banning weve seen in the state recently. Wake County Public Library removed its copies of Gender Queer from rotation in a potentially unconstitutional move after receiving some complaints. Eventually, it was reinstated. The Orange County School Board voted unanimously Monday to keep copies of Gender Queer and two other LGBTQ-focused novels in their high schools. The vote had to occur after some parents complained.

Its part of a dangerous wave. A recent NBC News story found that of 100 randomly-selected school districts in Texas, there were 75 formal requests to remove books from libraries within the first four months of the school year. By comparison, there was only one formal request in the same schools and timeframe a year earlier.

In recent weeks, a Tennessee school board banned the graphic novel Maus, in which the author tells his fathers story of surviving the Holocaust through animals. The book was allegedly banned for swearing and nudity.

It shows people hanging, it shows them killing kids, why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff? It is not wise or healthy, school board member Tony Allman said of the book, seeming to dismiss the fact that children were Holocaust victims and survivors.

He is trying to portray that the best he can with the language that he chooses that would relate to that time, maybe to help people who havent been in that aspect in time to actually relate to the horrors of it, an instructional supervisor responded.

That aspect in time, that aspect of identity, or that aspect of our current reality. Books serve a powerful purpose. Banning them sends a powerful message.
GREENSBORO  Two concert tours coming to Guilford County this week will take Boomer audiences down a musical memory lane.

Rock band The Beach Boys will sing Thursday at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts.

Their 1960s songs of summer, surfing, cars and romance remind audiences that warmer days, beaches and vacations are just a few months away.

Then on Saturday in High Point, John Ford Coley and Jim Stafford will play their 1970s hits and more at the High Point Theatre.

Coley came to fame as one half of the soft rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley. They gained stardom with 1976s, Id Really Love to See You Tonight. It led to six Top 20 hits. Stafford is known for 70s songs such as Spiders & Snakes and My Girl Bill.

They will give audiences what they want: their top songs of yesteryear, perhaps with a newer song or two.

If people come to see me, theyre going to go down memory lane, Coley said last week from his home in Franklin, Tenn. They want to hear a lot of the songs that they remembered back during that time period.

During two hours of music that displays their harmonies and arrangements, the Beach Boys draw on some 300 to 400 songs in their catalog.

They plan to perform hits including California Girls, I Get Around, Fun, Fun, Fun, Surfin U.S.A., Good Vibrations and Kokomo.

They love to hear our hits, Beach Boys co-founder Mike Love said in a phone interview last week from his Lake Tahoe home. And we always try to deliver what they hope for and expect.

Im not one of these performers who doesnt want to do anything except our new album, Love said. Ive heard of people doing that, but that disappoints a heck of a lot of people. Maybe their favorite song was something you did years ago, and why not do it?

Perhaps the Beach Boys shows most popular song is Kokomo, which hit No. 1 on the charts in 1988. Crowds join to sing the chorus, Love said.

His son, Christian Love, sings God Only Knows, a song that Paul McCartney and others consider their favorite. Carl Wilson had sung it on their Pet Sounds album.

About to turn 81 in March, Love co-founded the Beach Boys nearly 61 years ago with his cousins Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine.

Dennis and Carl are now deceased. Brian Wilson and Mike Love dont get along, and Brian Wilson and Jardine dont tour with the band. Love and Brian Wilson havent toured together since the Beach Boys 2012 reunion tour.

Following Carl Wilsons death in 1998, the band members and their corporation granted Love an exclusive license to tour under the Beach Boys name.

He performs with Bruce Johnston, who has played with the band since 1965 (except for a six-year break); son Christian; John Cowsill, who performed with his siblings 1960s band The Cowsills; musical director Scott Totten, Brian Eichenberger, Tim Bonhomme, Keith Hubacher and Randy Leago.

Thursdays concert is expected to feature another famous face: John Stamos.

The stage and screen actor and musician starred in the ABC sitcom Full House and TV medical dramas.

Stamos frequently performs on drums and guitar in Beach Boys concerts.

He tells me that he used to bicycle by my parents house in Cypress, California, and look in the window and see the gold albums on the wall, Love said.

They met years later. When Stamos came to Beach Boys shows, Love said, I noticed how the girls screamed for him and I said, Whoa, get him up on stage. As it turns out, before he was an actor on TV, he was a drummer in a little three-piece band.

Love says that he still enjoys touring and performing.

The people who started with us in the 60s are now in their 60s, 70s or even 80s, Love said. Its really fascinating that multiple generations can turn out to see your shows. We have fans who are young kids, who are just getting aware of music, and then we have their parents and grandparents.

The Beach Boys will play several venues this month. They are in Virginia this week before the Tanger Center concert, and the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Sunday.

From March 25 to 27, they will perform on a cruise between Miami and the Bahamas with acts such as The Temptations, Micky Dolenz of The Monkees and Yacht Rock Revue.

Traveling to perform has become easier since the Beach Boys began touring in 1962.

When we first started out, we had a station wagon and a U-Haul and we would set up and break down our own equipment and do four sets a night, Love said.

Nowadays, the production is so much better  the lights, the sound, even the transportation, he said. They and the crew arrive on tour buses, the crew sets up equipment, and the group does a quick rehearsal.

Aside from Beach Boys hits, they perform a few of Loves songs from his solo albums  including Beatle George Harrisons Here Comes the Sun and Pisces Brothers that Love wrote.

A concert ticket includes a download of his solo album, 12 Sides of Summer, released in 2019.

Here Comes the Sun reminds Love of spending time with The Beatles in India in 1968.

He became a student of transcendental meditation that year under Maharishi Manesh Yogi, then later a teacher. He meditates daily.

It hasnt been all smooth sailing.

Love is often criticized because of his history of conflicts with the band.

Many of Loves contributions to the groups hits werent recognized until the 1990s, when he sued Brian Wilson for writing credits on 35 songs.

In 2016, he wrote the memoir Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, where he said he addressed inaccuracies that had been said about him.

Thats been more than 20 years ago, he said about the lawsuit. I dealt with it in the book. Its pretty much rectified.

When people ask Love how does everything that he does, he cites transcendental meditation.

That trip to India and learning transcendental meditation has been a huge help in giving me the energy and clarity and the ability to eliminate fatigue and tension and accentuate the positive, Love said.

He focuses his stage energy on the music.

Its a pretty wonderful thing that something we started 60 years ago, we still get the chance to do what we love to do, which is music, he said.

For audiences, that sounds like fun, fun, fun.

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 336-373-5204 and follow @dawndkaneNR on Twitter.
When the elephants are playing, the mice dont sleep.

Probably no one ever said that, but should have, because it is certainly true today. The world seems to be in disarray in many facets because of economic and military conflicts involving Russia, China, and the United States. And there is agriculture involved in about everything.

The world is waiting for President Putin to make his next move, and while he basks in that attention, the countries that import grain from the Ukraine are wondering if farmers there will even get to plant their crops this year. Yes, Ukrainian farmers have a 102 million-acre agricultural powerhouse, about 75 million acres of which are row crops.

The Ukraine is sixth in global corn production and ninth in global soybean and wheat production. Many Mideastern nations get grain from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea. The share of agriculture in export revenues for Ukraine increased from 26% in 2012 to 45% in 2020 amounting to $22.2 billion.

It is first in global sunflower production and sunflower seed oil is shipped most year-round though there is a little seasonal downturn in late summer as stocks of oilseeds are depleted awaiting the new harvest, says former USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber. So, any disruptions in trade would likely be more felt for corn and sunflower seed oil than wheat. There would be major concerns if spring plantings were disrupted.

One of the major corn customers of Ukraine is China, which bought most of its corn from there late last year. But China may be on the downslide when it comes to importing corn. Editor Arvin Donley of World Grain magazine reported in the current issue that China is well-stocked with corn, thank you.

Donley reports that free stocks of corn, such as that held by U.S. farmers and commercial grain exporters is diminishing, which is the reason corn prices have remained at unusually high levels. The reason is that China over the past 5 years has increased imports of those commodities by twofold to twelvefold, giving it a comfortable surplus to feed its 1.4 billion people. A look at (Chinas) total supply and ending stocks for (corn, wheat, and rice) has more than doubled over the past 10 years, with total supply more than doubling for corn and nearly doubling for soybeans, rice and wheat.

While the Chinese leadership intends to ensure its 1.4 billion are well fed, others around the globe remain hungry. Donley says, In December, the United Nations warned that an estimated 274 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2022, up from 235 million in 2021 and 168 million in 2020. There may be a link between the Chinese elephant and the mice in Africa and the Middle East.

The United States is not only trying to dissuade Putin from Russias attack on Ukrainian farmers, but also prevent a shutdown of natural gas lines going to Europe, where it is used to heat homes, but also make ammonia, used for nitrogen to bolster the U.S. corn crop this spring.

Mice seen everywhere in elephant footprints.

Stu Ellis is an observer of the Central Illinois agriculture scene. In addition to his weekly column, you can view his From The Farm and Harvest Heritage reports on WCIA 3 News.

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100 years ago,

Feb. 1, 1922

MATTOON  Botulism, or a disease of a kindred nature, continues to exact its daily toll Coles County livestock, particularly horses, according to reports coming from all over the county. It has been estimated that at least 100 Coles County horses have died in the past few months as a result of the disease. A local veterinarian stated that veterinarians and stock specialists of the state, wherever the disease made an appearance, had not as yet been able to determine definitely whether it was botulism. It is reported that the present epidemic of the disease was prevalent in the winter of 1914-15 and resulted in a greater number of fatalities to livestock SHELBYVILLE  The M.O. Finks garage in Shelbyville was damaged by fire yesterday afternoon and at least 14 vehicles were burned, entailing a loss of approximately $45,000. There were more than 60 automobiles in the garage when the fire was discovered. Many of the cars were saved from destruction by people who risked their lives in entering the building. The fire started in the paint shop in the rear of the garage. In a few minutes the entire building was a cauldron of seething flames. This garage was built in 1918 following the destruction by fire of an earlier garage on Jan. 3 of that year. At that time 64 automobiles burned.

50 years ago, 1972

MATTOON  The Lake Land College tree-planting project recently was rejuvenated with a donation of more than 65 trees from Robert Kovack and Sam Owen. Both Kovack and Owen are employees of Illinois Consolidated Telephone Co. The selection of trees included 11 varieties. Roy Culp, chairman of the Lake Land life science department, supervised digging and replanting of the trees by the college custodial staff. Culp said the trees, valued at about $600, were good specimens and would be an important addition to the extensive plantings on Lake Lands campus. He estimated there are now more than 2,500 trees and shrubs planted on the campus CHARLESTON  The American Civil Liberties Union plans to challenge a policy by the Board of Governors of State Colleges and Universities affecting Eastern Illinois University that requires all students under the age of 21 to live in university-approved housing. An ACLU official said the organization contends it is unconstitutional for the Board of Governors to abridge students freedom of choice in housing without compelling reasons. The ACLU maintains the BOG has no compelling reason MATTOON  George M. Moritz of Mattoon, representative and field underwriter for Mutual of New York insurance company, has earned the firms Man of the Year award. The honor is bestowed annually on the agent who in all-around activity and achievement has contributed to the companys growth and success. A longtime member of Mutual of New Yorks Presidents Council, Moritz was elected to the companys Hall of Game last September.

25 years ago, 1997

CHRISMAN  State Sen. Harry Babe Woodyard, a voice for Illinois farmers in the Illinois Legislature for almost two decades, died yesterday. He was 66. The Republican from Chrisman in Edgar County represented the Coles County area as state senator and served as state representative earlier. Woodyard had been suffering from an aortic aneurysm  a weak spot in the bodys main artery. He underwent five hours of emergency surgery in Chicago on Jan. 7. Gov. Jim Edgar of Charleston said he and Woodyard had been friends for more than 20 years. Woodyard succeeded Edgar as state representative in 1979 MATTOON  Lake Land College continues to be the first college choice among district high school graduates who are college bound. Fifty-three percent of in-district high school graduates go to college, said Larry Larvick, vice president for student services at Lake Land. Of that group, 67 percent go to Lake Land. Newton had the highest percentage of graduates who enrolled, at 65.2 percent. Effingham High School had the largest number enroll at Lake Land with 84 of 202 graduates, with Mattoon second, at 71 of 236, and Charleston third, with 49 of 194 graduates.

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CHARLESTON  Eastern Illinois University invites community members to join students, staff and faculty in celebrating African-American Heritage Month throughout February.

EIU will offer a variety of cultural and educational events intended to celebrate black lives by honoring the men, women, families and communities that support and sustain black excellence. Events will center around a principal theme of For the Culture: Protect, Preserve & Persist! and include an assortment of programs and activities that highlight black contributions and applaud the most fundamental elements of blackness in American and global culture.

Events throughout the month will include:

 Wednesday, Feb. 2

The Black Student Union and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. will present Time Period Train through Black history in the Andrews Hall Basement at 6 p.m.

 Thursday, Feb. 3

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. will present Everyone Wants to Be Black Until its Time to Be Black in the Coleman Hall Auditorium at 6:20 p.m.

 Friday, Feb. 4

EIUs PRIDE RSO will present a Movie Night featuring the documentary "The Same Difference" in the Coleman Hall Auditorium at 7 p.m.

 Monday, Feb. 7

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. will present Black Card Revoked at the Phipps Lecture Hall in the Physical Science Building at 6:13 p.m.

 Tuesday, Feb. 8

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. will present Food for the Soul in the Cultural Center at 5:22 p.m.

 Tuesday, Feb. 15

Strong S.H.E. will present Black Women and Reality TVIs It for the Culture in the University Ballroom in the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union at 6 p.m.3

 Wednesday, Feb. 16

NPHC will present Black History Trivia Night in the Martinsville Room in the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union at 7 p.m.

 Thursday, Feb. 17

-The Department of Public Health and Nutrition will present Soul Food: Nourishment for the Culture in Klehm Hall Room 2309 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

-LASO will present What is Afro-Latinidad? in the Charleston/Mattoon Rooms in the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union at 6 p.m.

 Friday, Feb. 18

The NAACP will present the NAACP Image Awards in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union at 7 p.m.

 Monday, Feb. 21

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. will present a Movie Night featuring "Selma at the Phipps Lecture Hall in the Physical Science Building at 6:20 p.m.

 Tuesday, Feb. 22

NACWC will present the African American Leadership Awards at the University Ballroom in the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union at 6:30 p.m.

 Wednesday, Feb. 23

Alpha Psi Lambda Fraternity, Inc. will present Afro-Latinos Trivia Night in the Martinsville Room in the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union at 7 p.m.

 Thursday, Feb. 24

Voices in Progress: Untold TruthThe ABCs of Black History in the Coleman Hall Auditorium at 7 p.m.

 Saturday, Feb. 26

50th annual Ms. Black EIU Pageant at the Grand Ballroom in the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union at 7 p.m.

 Monday, Feb. 28

The Minority Teacher Education Association will present the MTEA Panel Series: Hearing from Our Past to Motivate Our Future! at 6 p.m. on Zoom (eiu.zoom.us/j/96225252130)

For more information and links to EIUs African-American Heritage Month virtual events, visit EIUs Office of Inclusion and Academic Engagement at eiu.edu/oiae.

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BLOOMINGTON  Bloomington-Normal school districts have been able to avoid elevated natural gas prices so far due to existing contracts and an overall milder winter so far.

As regulated energy delivery companies, Ameren Illinois and Nicor Gas do not profit off of the natural gas. Customers price per therm is the same as what the company pays for the fuel. During the winter bills will also be higher due to increased energy use.

Gas prices in Ameren's service area hit a 13-year high, said company spokesman Tucker Kennedy. Customers will see that passed on in their bills.

Some Illinois school districts, including Rock Island-Milan, have reported utility increases.

Both Bloomington District 87 and McLean County Unit 5 have contracts in place for natural gas that sets the unit price, which means they have not seen increased prices per unit.

So far this winter the lack of long bouts of extreme cold have meant District 87 has not had to purchase additional gas beyond the contracted volumes, Chief Financial and Facilities Officer Michael Cornale said.

Unit 5 has a flat rate locked in through July 2025, spokeswoman Dayna Brown said.

Around 60% of the natural gas Ameren is delivering the winter comes from reserves bought last summer and stored by the company, Kennedy said.

Nicor's storage provides about a third of the gas it delivers during winters, spokeswoman Jennifer Golz said.

Nicor is reducing its per-unit price to 55 cents, starting Tuesday, it announced last week. This is down from December and January but still well above 29 cents a therm in January 2021.

Both companies said that the prices this winter were still elevated due to the increased demand and reduced supply during the extreme cold across the country last February.

Both utility companies recommend customers look into ways to reduce their natural gas usage to lower bills. Those struggling to make payments should contact their provider about assistance programs.

Contact Connor Wood at (309)820-3240. Follow Connor on Twitter: @connorkwood

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NASHVILLE, Tenn.  Attorneys for a man who killed four people in a shooting at a Nashville Waffle House said Monday that Travis Reinking believed the restaurant patrons and employees were government agents whom he had been commanded by God to kill.

Reinking, 32, of Morton, Illinois, was naked save for a green jacket when he opened fire inside the restaurant on April 22, 2018. He fled, triggering a two-day manhunt, after a restaurant patron wrestled his assault-style rifle away from him.

In opening arguments, defense attorney Luke Evans said Reinking was suffering from sever schizophrenia that had grown worse over a period of years.

Mr. Reinking was driven by delusions, paranoid thinking and auditory illusions, he said. That included the belief that he was Taylor Swift's boyfriend and the star was stalking him, had broken into his house and sexually assaulted him.

He had moved from his home in Illinois to try to leave the persecution behind, Evans said. By the time he moved to Nashville a couple of months before the shooting, he was completely untethered from reality.

Reinking is charged with first degree murder in the shooting deaths of Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29; Joe R. Perez, 20; Akilah Dasilva, 23; and DeEbony Groves, 21. He also faces several counts of attempted first degree murder.

On Monday, Reinking pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. That means he must prove not only that he was suffering from a severe mental illness but also that the mental illness made him unable to appreciate the wrongness of his actions.

In opening arguments, Assistant District Attorney General Jan Norman tried to demonstrate that Reinking made conscious choices. Norman pointed out that Reinking purchased extra magazines in the days before the shooting and chose to take his most powerful weapon. He also went to the Waffle House about 3:20 a.m. on a Saturday, when it was especially busy.

Norman said that when Reinking was captured in a wooded area, he was able to understand and comply with police commands.

The proof in this case is that Travis Reinking made a choice, Norman said. He made several choices that led to the shooting.

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More and more of us are becoming political junkies looking for our next dopamine hit.

Dopamine, that pleasure reward in our brain, is offered as encouragement for most people when we do good things and is the reason our addictions are so hard to give up. For me, its the chips and cookies I reach for when Im stressed. For others its gaining political power, opioids, alcohol, tobacco, video games, pornography, winning an argument, being right and more.

Every time we watch media that confirms our beliefs, we get a little bit of dopamine. Thats why it feels like torture when we expose ourselves to news that doesnt conform with our beliefs. There is no pleasure hit with dopamine to support widening our views. This is why facts dont matter to people who have different beliefs. Most people dont have a good enough reason to build the stamina to withstand the feeling of torture. No, its not really torture. Its healthy civic behavior without an obvious reward.

As a nation, we are looking for our next dopamine fix. This has led us to the doorways of at least two different realities. One leads to corruption and greed everywhere. And the other  wait. The other reality offers corruption and greed, too. Where we diverge is over the cause of corruption and greed. Theres plenty of blame to go around; the opposing party, those people, giant corporations, and Wall Street among too many to name. And guess what? When we assign blame over there, we get a dopamine hit. Because its not me. Righteous or self-righteous feelings arise.

As a nation, we have short-circuited our collective chemistry. And like all addictive behavior, ruin will follow unless we stop looking for our next fix and start addressing the pain, the trauma, the reality that we are all responsible. The United States will not be healthy until we reset our national chemistry  including normal amounts of dopamine for healthy behavior.

Why have we succumbed to an addiction-fueled culture where we would sacrifice our country?

Social media algorithms have made our fixes easier to get. Count the reactions on our own posts. Over 50? Dopamine hit. Like or angry face anothers post? Dopamine. Share a post to find your people? Dopamine and more dopamine. Video games likely deliver dopamine even faster. (Im not a gamer, but have read some articles about it.)

How might we start breaking our addiction to political junkie dopamine? We might start with a personal inventory of which behaviors lead to a healthy or unhealthy nation.

Unhealthy civic behavior:

-- Watching or listening to conflict entrepreneurs who hook us to enrich themselves.

-- Stirring the pot like a conflict entrepreneur just to get a reaction.

-- Yelling at anyone because you are frustrated. This includes ranting on social media.

-- Retweeting some outrageous misbehavior.

-- Sharing disinformation.

Healthy civic behavior:

-- Adopt a do no harm attitude.

-- Engage only when you can contribute in a healthy way.

-- When you are triggered, take a break and walk away. Manage yourself.

-- Amplify the positive on social media 10x more than negative or angry content. Or resolve to not air or engage in grievances on social media.

-- If pointing out injustice, ask for accountability and avoid blaming others.

-- Shun the conflict entrepreneurs and do not honor them with your time.

-- Attending local meetings with elected officials and honoring the dignity of others, regardless of your agreement or disagreement with their views.

-- Be willing to change your mind when new information warrants it.

Healthy dopamine comes from deep connection, exercising our (civic) muscles and knowing we make a positive impact on those around us.

Lets get healthy together. One day at a time.

Debilyn Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

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CHARLESTON  Coles County is in an "area of uncertainty" for winter weather this week, according to the National Weather Service.

It's certain it's coming, but when and how much is still up in the air.

"We are in that part of the forecast where they just don't know," said Coles County Emergency Management Agency Director Jim Hilgenberg. "If we get more rain, we're going to have two inches of snow. If we get less rain, we may have eight inches of snow."

Hilgenberg said this uncertainty has area governments, hospitals and first responders planning for all different kinds of scenarios.

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch that will take effect Tuesday evening.

The major storm will impact Central and Southeast Illinois. Heavy rain is expected in the Southeastern areas of Illinois before the ice arrives. After the storm exits, another round of cold weather will follow. Travel is expected to be difficult to impossible.

Mattoon public works director Dean Barber said that "city crews will be working around the clock to keep streets open."

"Residents are reminded to park their vehicles in their driveways to the extent possible to allow room for snow removal operations," Barber said. "This not only helps city crews, but it also makes it much easier to get your vehicles out when the storm is over than parking on the street."

In Charleston, snow routes will be enforced on Grant Avenue between University Drive and Fourth Street; Harrison, Jackson and Monroe avenues between Division Street and 18th Street; Sixth and Seventh streets between Railroad Avenue and Lincoln Avenue; and 10th and 11th streets between Monroe Avenue and Lincoln Avenue. This means no street parking along those streets once two inches of snow has fallen.

Meteorologist Matt Holiner has been studying the track of the storm for nearly a week. Its looking pretty significant for Central and Southern Illinois, but it does vary, he said. What Carbondales going to see is going to be different than Bloomington.

According to Holiner, Tuesday evening will start out as rain, particularly in Southern Illinois, before the conditions change to snow. Thats the trickiest part to this forecast, he said. When does it change to snow for various locations across the state?

The northern area, including Bloomington, should see snow first. The entire lower half of Illinois is expected to see all types of precipitation, including rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow.

Bloomingtons conditions are expected to change rapidly. It looks like it will be a pretty quick transition from rain to snow, Holiner said. Then theres going to be a whole lot of snow.

The transition to snow for Decatur and Mattoon should arrive later.

He added that residents should stay off the roads both for their safety but also to keep them open for snow plows and emergency services.

Once it starts Tuesday evening, the end of the storm isnt expected until Thursday evening.

The concern for meteorologists is the potential for ice in the Southern areas of the state.

The conditions can affect roads, bridges and overpasses, as well as trees and power lines. Theres probably going to be power outages, Holiner said.

The layers of snow and ice will affect Mattoon and Decatur as well, but in different amounts. The ice is going to be more of an issue on sidewalks and driveways, Holiner said. The bigger story for the area is going to be the snow that falls after the period of ice.

Although measurable ice is not a concern for Bloomington, Mattoon and Decatur will experience the slick conditions.

Hilgenberg urged residents to salt their front steps and driveways ahead of time in anticipation of icy conditions.

"It doesn't take too many people falling off their steps or their porch to overwhelm our medical system," Hilgenberg said.

Charleston school district Superintendent Todd Vilardo said he was "watching multiple weather forecasts and will make an announcement according to our usual notification systems" about the status of classes.

"I may utilize emergency days, e-Learning days, or a combination thereof," he wrote in an email.

A request for comment from the Mattoon school district was not returned.

Holiner said the weather models predictions range from five to 16 inches of snow in Central Illinois. Along with the amount of snow, the other concern includes the high winds expected at nearly 30 mph. Blizzard conditions start at 35 mph.

Its safe to say, from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening, theres going to be travel problems across Central Illinois, Holiner said. Travel should be avoided.

Hilgenberg concurred, but said they were going to be prepared to help people who need it, including those who may end up stranded on Interstate 57 or county roads. Though he encouraged people to stay off the roads altogether.

"Be safe and don't take any risks," Hilgenberg said. "Use common sense. If you wouldn't want your loved ones being out in something, don't go out in it yourself."

Brenden Moore contributed to this report.

Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR

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Existing home prices in North Carolinas five metro areas remain at growth rates not seen in 45 years, but shows signs of plateauing, according to the December report from national real-estate research firm CoreLogic.

The group reported Tuesday that the Winston-Salem areas home prices rose by a 19.5% year-over-year clip for December, compared with up 19.4% in November and 19% for October. CoreLogic does not disclose an average home-sale price.

The metro consists of Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Stokes and Yadkin counties.

When excluding distressed and foreclosed houses, Winston-Salem area prices were up year over year by 19.3% in December, 19.2% in November and 18.7% in October.

By comparison, home prices in the Greensboro-High Point MSA increased 17.2% year-over-year in December, as well as 16.9% in November and 18.3% in October.

When excluding distressed and foreclosed houses, prices rose 17.1% in December, 16.3% in November and 17.8% in October.

Although the Winston-Salem metro had the highest growth rate among the states five metro areas during the summer, it was fourth for October through December.

Prices in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia MSA increased 22.5% year-over-year in December after being up 21.9% in November and 21.8% in October.

Prices in the Durham-Chapel Hill MSA increased 25.4% year-over-year in December, compared with up 24.6% in November after being up 22.4% in October.

Prices in the Raleigh-Cary MSA increased 28% year-over-year in December, after being up 27.2% for November after being up 26% in October.

Home sale prices have been on a pronounced upward trend during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly during 2021.

Much of what weve seen in the run-up of home prices over the last year has been the result of a perfect storm of supply and demand pressures, said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic.

As we move further into 2022, economic factors  such as new home building and a rise in mortgage rates  are in motion to help relieve some of this pressure and steadily temper the rapid home price acceleration seen in 2021.

Meanwhile, national real estate research firm Attom Data Solutions reported Thursday that home prices in the Winston-Salem area reached a recent peak with a median sale price at $200,000 for 2021.

The median is the number in the middle, with the same amount of numbers below and above.

There was a 17.6% jump in the median home price of $170,000 for 2020, as well as a 56.3% increase from $128,000 in 2016.

The lowest median home price in recent years was $112,750 in 2012.

Attom said the median Winston-Salem area seller had a $60,000 gain on the transaction, compared with $31,000 in 2020 and a loss of $4,000 in 2016.

Meanwhile, the Winston-Salem Association of Realtors reported Dec. 2 that home prices in the Winston-Salem area rose by 12.2% in November.

The average home closing price was $278,091 in November, along with $263,737 in October.

By comparison, it was $247,893 in November 2020 and $245,219 in October 2020.

The association reported 994 closed sales during November, compared with 808 a year ago. There were 960 closed sales in October, compared with 961 a year earlier.

The association has said for most of 2021 that the local housing market remains very much a sellers market with the sales price at its highest level since 2003.

Home equity status

In a separate housing report this week, there was a slight drop in Winston-Salem-area homeowners considered as seriously behind on their mortgage payments during the fourth quarter, according to a report by national real-estate research firm Attom Data Solutions.

A mortgage is underwater when a homeowner owes more on the loan than the home is worth. Attom defines seriously underwater as owing at least 25% more on a mortgage than the propertys value.

There were 3,265 Winston-Salem-area homeowners listed as seriously underwater, or 2.7%, during the fourth quarter.

Thats down from 3,877, or 3%, in the third quarter, and down from 9.577, or 6.8%, in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The biggest factor in the sharp decline has been by mortgage lenders suspending payment requirements that helped keep the seriously underwater percentage down during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, 37.4% of Winston-Salem-area households, or 45,536, were in the equity-rich category during the fourth quarter. That category includes households that own at least 50% of their residence.

By comparison, the equity-rich count was 33.2%, or 42,858, in the third quarter, as well as 20.3%, or 28,647, in the third quarter of 2020.

Part of the differences in the equity-rich counts is homeowners completing the paying off their mortgage in recent quarters.

Attom reported the Greensboro-High Point MSA having 2.8%, or 3,918, residences considered as seriously underwater for the fourth quarter. Thats down from 4,538, or 3.2%, in the third quarter, and down from 9,347, or 6.2%, in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The region also had 38%, or 53,795, in the equity-rich category for the fourth quarter.

Thats up from 32.1%, or 45,444, in the third quarter, as well as 19.8%, or 29.959, a year ago.

Another quarter, another boost to the balance sheets of homeowners in most of the United States  that was the story from the fourth quarter, said Todd Teta, chief product officer with Attom.

As home prices kept rising, so did the equity built up in residential properties, to the point where close to half of all mortgage payers around the country found themselves in equity-rich territory.

Teta cautioned that no doubt, there are market metrics that pose warnings about how long the boom can last and equity can keep improving. We keep watching those closely.

But, for now, homeowners are sitting pretty as the wealth they have tucked away in their homes keeps growing.

Officials with the Winston-Salem Regional Association of Realtors have cautioned that information on underwater loans can affect the real-estate market by undermining consumer confidence, causing some hesitation in buying or trying to sell a house now, and prompting an overreaction.

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Emergency officials spent Monday night going door-to-door, sounding sirens, urging people to evacuate using loudspeakers and taking to social media, all in an effort to convince some 6,000 residents within a mile of a burning fertilizer plant to get out and stay out until the danger has passed.

Police have blocked all the roads leading into the evacuation area until further notice, and firefighters are using drones to keep an eye on a fire that still poses the threat of an explosion.

Firefighters pulled back from a massive fire that on Monday night destroyed the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant on N. Cherry Street near Indiana Avenue. No injuries had been reported, Winston-Salem Police said, but officials warned of health hazards from fire fumes.

Battalion Chief Patrick Grubbs, speaking to reporters at a news conference called at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in a parking lot near the fire command center on Perimeter Point Boulevard, said that the decision to abandon the firefight was made when the fire reached a rail car containing potentially explosive ammonium nitrate.

"The fire extended into a rail car behind the structure," Grubbs said. "Once the rail car became involved, we were unable to get water to the location, and it has a large explosive hazard."

The fertilizer plant died in a conflagration of bright orange flames that lit the night sky and illuminated billows of black smoke rising from the site. But it was the danger of a catastrophic explosion and the need to evacuate nearby residents that became the prime goal of emergency workers.

After fighting the fire for about two hours, after pouring water down on the burning fertilizer plant from the top of elevated fire ladders, firefighters got the word around 8:30 p.m. to move all their equipment a mile away from the fire, and efforts began to evacuate homes within that radius as well.

Fire Chief William Trey Mayo said Monday night that the plant may have had almost three times the amount of ammonium nitrate that was in a Texas plant that burned and exploded in 2013, killing 15 people.

Officials said evacuees need to be prepared to stay out of their homes for 48 hours.

"We do not know the full extent of the time we will be here," Grubbs said. "It will not be anytime soon that we are leaving.

The one-mile evacuation zone included a minimum-security prison and parts of the campus of Wake Forest University, which announced the cancellation of classes on Tuesday and the opening of several buildings on campus for faculty, staff or students with nowhere else to go during the evacuation.

The city opened an evacuation center in the Education Building at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds. Only a couple people came to the center when it first opened, but the numbers had grown by the time firefighters had their early-morning update.

The fire started shortly before 7 p.m. on a loading dock at the plant, which was not in operation when the fire began. Mayo said the fire quickly spread and fully engulfed the plant.

When the evacuation was announced over fire radios, a long procession of fire trucks could be seen pulling away from the burning fertilizer plant from an entry drive near the corner of Cherry Street and Indiana Avenue. At the same time, efforts to mobilize a more general evacuation of residents kicked into gear.

Just before the fire trucks left, it appeared that the intense blaze might be finally starting to grow smaller. But with no more water coming down on the blaze, it only seemed to regather strength  even though it also appeared that little was left of the plant building.

A Winston-Salem Police officer said he couldnt provide any details but that he was told to pack up and leave.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire, but Tuesday morning, Grubbs said the fire was still active, the threat of an explosion remained, and that with daylight people would see lots of smoke hanging in the air and could be dealing with poor air quality.

Officials urged residents not to call 911 unnecessarily and to avoid strenuous activity outdoors because of the smoke and haze.

Drone teams from the Lewisville and Greensboro fire departments were on hand and using drones every 15 minutes or so to keep tabs on the fire. Officials said about 90 firefighters fought the blaze, and that around 150 public safety employees overall were involved in the response.

As firefighters evacuated, they left one unmanned truck at the back side of the building that continued to pump water onto fire, and which was being provided water by another truck connected to a fire hydrant.

The Weaver plant is at 4440 N. Cherry Street, between North Point Boulevard and Indiana Avenue. During the early stages of the fire, before the area was closed off, police and fire officials repeatedly told onlookers gathered on parking lots along North Point Boulevard to get away because of the danger from the fire.

No one had to tell Jeff Lumen to get away. An employee of WestRock, a company beside the burning fertilizer plant, Lumen said he first knew something was amiss when he smelled smoke coming from the plant next door.

Lumen said he left quickly after realizing the plant was burning. I saw an orange glow, and that is all I needed, he said. Other WestRock employees stood in their company drive to block onlookers from approaching to get a better view, warning them about the dangers of fire in a fertilizer plant.

At one point Monday night, the fire was visible for miles and sent huge black clouds of smoke into the sky. Popping noises could be heard coming from the burning plant  evidence, it seemed, of items igniting in the blaze.

Michelle Shepherd, who lives less than two blocks from the plant, said her house shook from the force of explosions inside the plant. Shepherd said she listened to the fire department on a scanner, and when she heard them say that they had located a rail car full of ammonium nitrate, the evacuation started right afterwards.

Shepherd was one of only two people at the evacuation center when it first opened. Officials said they did not know how many people might eventually decide to come. Mayor Allen Joines said it is possible the evacuation could last more than 24 hours because of toxic fumes.

A Winston-Salem police officer said people living within a mile of the burning plant would be evacuated using a reverse-911 procedure. A reverse 911 call occurs when the system makes outgoing calls in order to pass on emergency communications.

There was a sense of urgency as officers told people to leave the area around the plant. The officers could be seen putting up yellow police tape around the block where the factory was located.

Firefighters were called to the blaze around 7 p.m. The building where they worked to extinguish the flames was gutted. Police blocked off the intersections around the burning plant, and sent drivers away from the scene.

Ammonium nitrate is one of the worlds most common fertilizers.

It is also a main component in many types of explosives used in mining. To create such blasts, ammonium nitrate is mixed with fuel oil and detonated by an explosive charge.

Officials said that the inmates at the Forsyth Correctional Center would be transferred to other prisons.

Wake Forest officials said the evacuation area on campus did not include any on-campus housing except for Deacon Place, which is within the one-mile perimeter of the plant.

The university opened Wellbeing Center, Benson Center and the library for students needing a place to stay.

Winston Weaver Co. was founded in 1929 in Norfolk, Va., according to the companys website.

The Winston-Salem plant was built in 1939 and opened for business in January of 1940.

The company specializes in all-purpose plant food and specialty fertilizer.

Its products are sold at Lowes stores throughout the Southeast.

336-727-7369 @wyoungWSJ Journal reporter John Deem contributed to this story.

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When his phone started to buzz, Clinton Baker muted the ringer and let the call roll to his voicemail.

He wasnt really screening his call, though.

His move to the mute button was in deference to his surroundings.

Im in my tent next to a church, Baker whispered when he returned the call. I can still hear the music inside. When the service is over, Ill call you back.

I dont want to bother anybody.

True to his word, the weary 48-year-old rang back an hour or so later. Baker had a story to tell, not for himself, but for others who may be considering following the same dark path that had nearly led him to take his own life by the side of a lonely mountaintop.

I had a dry hose stuck inside my Jeep next to the Appalachian Trail, he said. A hiker saved my life. God had his hand on me.

Hard not to notice

David Merritt was seated in the choir loft at Hope Moravian Church when he saw Baker and his Great Dane wander into a recent Sunday service and quietly take a seat in the back.

Its hard not to notice a man and his dog coming into a church, Merritt said.

He didnt get a chance to speak to Baker. I was busy doing something for the worship leader, Merritt said. But I saw his backpack. Im not into the whole hashtagging thing, but I did see #suicidesux.

Baker slipped away before he could ask, but the slogan stuck in Merritts head. How could it not?

Through the modern miracle that is a Google search, Merritt gleaned enough to learn that Baker had been walking across the country since before the Pandemic to try and raise awareness about suicide prevention.

What he didnt know  and couldnt not without spending time talking to Baker  was that this solitary trek was as much self-healing as warning others about suicide and offering hope.

Hes a good guy, said Rob Harris, a volunteer with the Homeless Coalition in Statesville. He stayed with us last week. Hes got a story for sure. Hes been through a lot.

Most of that resulted from personal loss, much more than most can begin to imagine. Almost one after the other, Baker buried three brothers, his father, a nephew and finally, his mother.

Obituaries and death records confirm the details. Some of the deaths resulted from accidents, others from illnesses, both sudden and gradual. And watching helplessly as the family tree withered just got to be too much for one man to handle.

It kept adding up, Baker said. But Im fighting to be here, trying to do something positive, help others and maybe help myself live my life.

The loss of his father and a younger brother led Baker to the side of the Appalachian Trail in his native New Hampshire in 2010, Baker said. He parked his Jeep, ran a hose from the tailpipe to the cars interior and waited for carbon monoxide to relieve his pain.

A random through-hiker trying to cover some miles as darkness gathered found him and called for help.

I took my own life, said Baker, deliberately choosing the present tense so as to indicate that an old path had run its course and a new one was about to open up.

As he travels, Baker sometimes can be seen wearing a yellow sign on his back with the words Dont kill yourself and the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255). He wrote the slogans #suicidesux and #stopbullying on his pack.

All of that in the event that he happens to encounter someone in crisis who may be looking for a sign, divine intervention or any reason not to attempt suicide.

I really believe its helped some people, he said. Whether I know it or not.

Church families

Not unlike the fictional Forrest Gump, Baker walked out of his house one day and just kept going.

It was before the lockdowns, Baker said.

He didnt have any set goal other than crossing the country and, if possible, let a few people know that help is out there if need be. Hes not sure exactly how many miles hes walked; he only knows that its a lot.

To keep family and friends up to date, Baker set up a Facebook page that he updates with video and a location as he walks from town to town lugging his gear in a pull cart.

He started out with another canine companion, but that one died in Oklahoma. So he picked up another, the Great Dane he named Watonga after the town where he came across the stray.

He settled into something of a routine after making it cross country and heading more or less back to a home base.

For showers and re-charging his phone, Baker sometimes stays in KOA campgrounds or seeks out truck stops. To eat, he relies on the kindness of people he meets along the way. We can go two or three days on $20, Baker said.

Unlike others whove undertaken similar journeys to raise awareness for various causes, Baker neither seeks sponsors nor solicits money. Hes open about discussing suicide and its costs, but not to the point of proselytizing. I dont want people to think Im there for money, he said. So I usually just take off after the service.

He mostly speaks when spoken to, answering questions with direct answers and offering parts of his story when listeners are truly engaged.

Many times, Baker said he finds himself heading to churches.

Part of the reason is practical. No No trespassing signs, he said.

Some of it was to help him cope with yet another crushing loss, the death of his mother Shirley in 2021.

That helped, he said. Plus the people are usually pretty nice.

Thats what Baker found in Statesville a week or so ago as he passed through on his way toward Winston-Salem. He met Harris, who invited him to rest for a couple days in the emergency shelter at the Cochran Street Baptist Church.

It was interesting timing, Harris said, because when I met him, it was the one-year anniversary of my niece committing suicide.

That experience led the men to longer conversations. Harris learned, for example, that Baker has hiked the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail twice, so theres no worry about whether Baker can handle either distance or solitude.

Harris learned, too, what Merritt observed a few days later at Hope Moravian  that Baker truly enjoys the feeling of family and community often found in small congregations.

I think he likes connecting with a spiritual message and socializing with other Godly people, Harris said.

Baker confirmed that during a phone conversation from inside his tent.

I like the fellowship really, he said. God has me on this journey. And it can be lonely out here so I like to check in.

As for where and when his mission ends, Baker knows only that its coming.

I believe in God, he said. Hell tell me. Right now Im just not sure.

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After a one-week plummet, the number of COVID-19 cases among students and staff at Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools jumped by nearly 160 cases for the week ending Jan. 28.

The reported number of students who got infected with the virus last week increased from 399 for the week ending Jan. 21, to 583 last week. For staff members, the number of infected staff members increased to 175, up 15 cases from the previous week, for a total of 758 cases.

School was closed from Jan. 17-21. The latest case count, reported Monday on the school districts website, is still far below the week ending Jan. 14, when there were 1,205 cases, including 1,016 among students.

The case count reflects numbers gathered from the school districts contact-tracing team and families who self-report.

Some of the highest case counts among students were in the elementary schools. Vienna Elementary reported 32 cases and Meadowlark Elementary 20 cases. Among high schools, Reagan High School reported 23 cases, and East Forsyth High Schools reported 21. East Forsyth and Vienna each had nine staff members get infected.

The school district has had an indoor mask mandate since the start of the school year. The school board will vote again on its masking policy on Feb. 8. The state requires school boards to vote each month on their masking policies.

At his weekly briefing last week, Dr. Christopher Ohl, an infectious disease doctor at Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health, said its still too early for schools to rescind mask mandates.

My personal opinion is that schools should continue to mask until were significantly over the omicron surge just to protect students and staff from absenteeism, Ohl said. But I would hope that by spring time, maybe we could go mask-optional.

The school system has begun a testing program at 19 schools, with more expected to come on board soon.

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The massive fire at the Winston Weaver Co. Inc. plant in Winston-Salem appears to affect about 36 employees.

The privately-held companys website has limited historical information other than to say the company was founded in 1929 in Norfolk, Va., and the Winston-Salem plant opened in January 1940. It was incorporated in 1993.

The fire began Monday night at the 65,423-square-foot plant at 4440 N. Cherry St., causing Winston-Salem Fire Department officials to order an evacuation of a one-mile radius around the 8.46-acre site.

Winston Weaver officials could not be reached for comment about the fire, whether the plant was insured and if/how they plan to resume business. The voice mail at the companys office was not accepting messages.

Company representative Andrew Carroll released a statement Tuesday through the city of Winston-Salem that read that there have been no injuries or loss of life to any employees, fire responders or citizens at this time.

We will continue working with first responders and relevant officials to ensure safety of the community, and we will participate fully in the investigation into the cause of the fire.

Winston Weaver is not a member of Greater Winston-Salem Inc.

The latest Dun & Bradstreet report on the company, updated in December, listed it with 35 employees overall and annual sales in the $19 million to $20 million range.

According to the latest corporation filing with the N.C. Secretary of States office, Michael Carroll is listed as company president, G. Dallas Barnes Jr. as vice president and Joshua Abrahams as chief financial officer.

Carroll is listed as executive with Meherrin Fertilizer Inc. of Severn, according to Meherrins website.

A Lexus-Nexus search for Barnes lists him as an executive or official with three companies in eastern North Carolina: president of Halifax Fertilizer Co. Inc. of Enfield; vice president of Meherrin; and a member-manager with Rogersrun Farm LLC of Margarettsville.

Carroll and Barnes have not returned messages left at their Meherrin offices. Severn and Margarettsville are in Northhampton County.

Winston Weaver specializes in all-purpose plant food and specialty fertilizer. Its products are sold at Lowes home-improvement stores throughout the Southeast.

The fire, however, will not disrupt the fertilizer supply chain for Lowes, the company said.

We source this product from other locations and suppliers, and dont anticipate any supply interruptions, Lowes spokesman Steve Salazar said.

Commissioners thoughts

Mike Causey, the states insurance commissioner, appeared at a Tuesday afternoon press conference at the bequest of Winston-Salem Fire Department chief Trey Mayo.

Causey said the department has two investigators from the state Office of Fire Marshals, along with a drone, at the plant site.

There are just a lot of unanswered questions, Causey said.

Causey said the department is gathering information on whether Winston Weaver had insurance on the plant.

Thats going to be a key to the business getting back on its feet, Causey said.

It depends on what type of insurance coverage it had, if they had a business interruption policy.

Causey drew a comparison to the Dec. 18 QVC distribution center fire in Rocky Mount in expressing theres no guarantee the company will choose to rebuild the plant.

QVC announced it was closing the facility, affecting 1,953 employees, citing the cost of rebuilding. In a WARN Act notice filed with the N.C. Commerce Department, QVC said it would be laying off employees starting Tuesday.

Its too early to tell if it is a total loss, but what I have heard from the fire chief is that there has been tremendous structural damage, most of the structure consumed by the fire, Causey said.

Causey said a major factor in Winston Weavers decision on whether to rebuild is the cost of a brand-new structure compared with a building that predated most, if not all, business codes, in particular requiring sprinklers in commercial buildings.

Many times, when a business is destroyed like this, it tends to disappear, Causey said.

The fact that Winston Weavers parent company has other fertilizer facilities in eastern N.C., and whether they can absorb the local production volume in the long term, could determine whether it makes sense to rebuild, Causey said.

Ive been told theres already a fertilizer shortage in the country, and the destruction of this plant just further adds to that shortage, Causey said.

The Winston Weaver plant fire may be the largest fire in or near downtown Winston-Salem since August 1998.

What was described at that time as a raging inferno of wind, flames and smoke destroyed a vacant R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Building No. 256, and severely damaged several old tobacco factories.

That includes Albert Hall, which was singed but still left standing, that was rebuilt to become an early anchor of Piedmont Triad Research Park, which is now branded as Innovation Quarter.

In all, 500,000 square feet of prime downtown factory space was leveled by the fire.

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Forsyth County ended January with five additional COVID-19 related deaths, increasing the pandemics record monthly death toll to 73.

The county has had 692 COVID-19 related deaths since mid-March 2020, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

However, local public-health officials expressed more confidence Tuesday that the current omicron wave is waning, and the county and state could be nearing the endemic stage of COVID-19.

A virus is typically considered endemic when it hits a predictable and manageable level  essentially reaching the learn-to-live-with-it stage in society.

DHHS report Tuesday said Forsyth had 250 new cases, compared with 312 on Monday. It is the lowest daily case count in Forsyth since the omicron variant began spreading in late December.

By comparison, the record daily case count for Forsyth is 1,318 on Jan. 18. Since the pandemic began, Forsyth has had 86,463 cases.

DHHS lists COVID-19 cases and deaths on the day they are confirmed by medical providers and public health officials, so individuals may have been infected or may have died days or weeks before their cases were counted.

Local and state health officials caution that an elevated number of COVID-19-related deaths could persist through early February, even as health experts say case numbers appear to be dropping.

Forsyths positive test rate over the past 14 days was at 36.6% as of noon Tuesday, down slightly from a record 38.4% on Thursday. The statewide rate was 29.8%.

With Tuesdays report, Forsyth is averaging 182 cases per 100,000 individuals over the most recent two-week period.

Thats up from the 67.6 cases per 100,000 reported as recently as Dec. 31, but down from a pandemic high of 259 cases per 100,000 reported on Jan. 21.

Both Forsyth health director Joshua Swift and Dr. David Priest, an infectious diseases expert with Novant Health Inc., have said the number of COVID-19 cases likely is underreported.

Signs of improvement

Were starting to see the first signs of improvement with the omicron wave, Priest said Tuesday.

Testing sites are starting to slow down due to less demand ... some are down two-thirds from their testing peak of two weeks ago.

That includes Novants testing site at Hanes Mall. As a result, Novant has discontinued Saturday testing. The Hanes Mall hours remain 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays.

Things are still very fluid, and we encourage anyone who is looking for testing to go online to confirm testing site hours or to find an alternative location, Priest said.

Priest said the Novant markets of the Triad, Charlotte and Wilmington have dropped from a seven-day positive test rate of nearly 50% to the high 30% range in that same two-week period.

He expressed confidence that the declining community spread, coupled with more outpatient therapies for COVID-19, will lead to an improving outlook over the next few weeks.

States with higher vaccination rates are moving down more quickly than those with lower vaccination rates, Priest said.

Dr. Christopher Ohl, an infectious diseases expert with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, said Thursday he is confident that community spread of the omicron variant has peaked.

I would think they would decrease fairly rapidly for a while before reaching a (plateau) on the curve like we saw with delta, Ohl said.

Priest said Novant has not had a confirmed case of the ba.2 omicron subvariant, but added that its likely coming.

Priest said the subvariant could be a little more contagious than omicron, but it doesnt appear any different from omicron in how it behaves. There is no reason to change our approach.

Yet, Priest said hes not ready to encourage decreasing or eliminating mask mandates and social distancing requirements.

The tricky part for most communities is what now, when do you stand down those precautions, Priest said. A lot of people have stood those down on their own already.

Youre not going to satisfy everybody  youre going to stop it too soon for some people and too late for others.

I believe in the next few weeks well see some standing down, Priest said.

Federal assistance

In a separate development, DHHS said Forsyth and Guilford counties will each receive four of 25 federally supported ambulances and support staff being supplied to the state to assist with handling the COVID-19 hospitalization and transportation crunch.

It is the fourth time that Federal Emergency Management Agency ambulances have put into service in Forsyth since October.

Forsyth Emergency Medical Services received three FEMA ambulance on Oct. 11, with an additional ambulance put into service Nov. 1.

Our Emergency Medical Service is a very busy system, and these additional units have been a welcome resource, said Damon Sanders-Pratt, a county deputy manager.

Sanders-Pratt said those four ambulances alone ran 1,524 calls from Oct. 11 through Nov. 29.

On Jan. 5, three more FEMA ambulances were placed into service. On Monday, Forsyth was told it would get one more ambulance within a week.

Sanders-Pratt said those ambulances are anticipated to remain through at least Feb. 17, 2021.

The state will reassess the allocation at that time and consider any extension, he said.

The 25 ambulances announced Tuesday are in addition to the first round of support. Randolph County, with three, is the only other Triad and Northwest N.C. county to gain federal ambulance support.

DHHS also confirmed Atrium Healths Pineville hospital is receiving a 16-member federal staffing unit from FEMA that will be in place through at least Feb. 13.

The unit consists of five oversight and support personnel and 11 clinicians  one physician, two advanced practice providers, four registered nurses and four paramedics.

Statewide update

North Carolina reported 8,757 new cases Tuesday, up from 7,327 on Monday, which was the lowest daily total since the onset of the omicron surge. There were 17,213 new cases reported Sunday and 22,383 Saturday.

The record-high statewide case count stands at 35,759, reported Jan. 14.

North Carolina has recorded 2.43 million cases and 20,817 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began. The number of deaths statewide was up 60 from Monday.

There were 4,786 COVID-19 hospital patients statewide as of noon Tuesday, down 96 from Monday. The pandemic record is 5,158 on Thursday.

The statewide hospitalization count has dropped over five consecutive days.

Hospitals in the 17-county Triad region reported a combined 1,074 COVID-19 patients as of noon Tuesday, down 13 from the previous report.

Our hospital census is slowly decreasing, though were still caring for roughly 700 COVID-19 patients, Priest said, referring to Novant hospitals.

Statewide, 479 patients are on ventilators, including 107 in the Triad region. There were 95 children hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, including 21 in the Triad region.

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Firefighters pulled back from a massive fire that destroyed the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant Monday night, as fears of an explosion led to an evacuation of an area within a one-mile perimeter of the plant on North Cherry Street near Indiana Avenue.

After fighting the fire for more than an hour and a half, after pouring water down on the burning fertilizer plant from the top of elevated fire ladders, firefighters got the word around 8:30 p.m. to move all their equipment a mile away from the fire, and efforts began to evacuate homes within that radius as well.

Mayor Allen Joines said firefighters had to stop fighting the fire and pull back because of the large amount of ammonium nitrate at the plant.

We pulled the firefighters back because of the danger of an explosion, Joines said.

Fire Chief William Trey Mayo said that the plant may have had almost three times the amount of ammonium nitrate that was in a Texas plant that burned and exploded in 2013, killing 15 people.

Mayo said evacuees need to be prepared to stay out of their homes for 48 hours.

The one-mile evacuation zone included a minimum-security prison and parts of the campus of Wake Forest University, which announced the cancellation of classes on Tuesday and the opening of several buildings on campus for faculty, staff or students with nowhere else to go during the evacuation.

The city opened an evacuation center in the Education Building at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds.

The intense fire appeared to fully engulf the fertilizer plant, sending a wall of flames into the sky and huge billows of black smoke over that section of the city.

For a while, firefighters worked on getting water onto the fire from an elevated position on a ladder. When the evacuation was announced over fire radios, a long procession of fire trucks could be seen pulling away from the burning fertilizer plant from an entry drive near the corner of Cherry Street and Indiana Avenue.

Just before the fire trucks left, it appeared that the intense blaze might be finally starting to grow smaller. But with no more water coming down on the blaze, it only seemed to regather strength  even though it also appeared that little was left of the plant building.

A Winston-Salem Police officer said he couldnt provide any details but that he was told to pack up and leave.

No injuries had been reported, police said.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire. The plant is at 4440 N. Cherry Street, between North Point Boulevard and Indiana Avenue. Repeatedly, police and fire officials told onlookers gathered on parking lots along North Point Boulevard to get away from the area because of the danger from the fire.

No one had to tell Jeff Lumen to get away. An employee of WestRock, a company beside the burning fertilizer plant, Lumen said he first knew something was amiss when he smelled smoke coming from the plant next door.

Lumen said he left quickly after realizing the plant was burning. I saw an orange glow, and that is all I needed, he said. Other WestRock employees stood in their company drive to block onlookers from approaching to get a better view, warning them about the dangers of fire in a fertilizer plant.

At one point Monday night, the fire was visible for miles and sent huge black clouds of smoke into the sky. Popping noises could be heard coming from the burning plant  evidence, it seemed, of items igniting in the blaze.

Michelle Shepherd, who lives less than two blocks from the plant, said her house shook from the force of explosions inside the plant. Shepherd said she listened to the fire department on a scanner, and when she heard them say that they had located a rail car full of ammonium nitrate, the evacuation started right afterwards.

Shepherd was one of only two people at the evacuation center when it first opened. Officials said they did not know how many people might eventually decide to come. Joines said it is possible the evacuation could last more than 24 hours because of toxic fumes.

A Winston-Salem police officer said people living within a mile of the burning plant would be evacuated using a reverse-911 procedure. A reverse 911 call occurs when the system makes outgoing calls in order to pass on emergency communications.

There was a sense of urgency as officers told people to leave the area around the plant. The officers could be seen putting up yellow police tape around the block where the factory was located.

Firefighters were called to the blaze around 7 p.m. The building where they worked to extinguish the flames was gutted. Police blocked off the intersections around the burning plant, and sent drivers away from the scene.

Ammonium nitrate is one of the worlds most common fertilizers.

It is also a main component in many types of explosives used in mining. To create such blasts, ammonium nitrate is mixed with fuel oil and detonated by an explosive charge.

Officials said that the inmates at the Forsyth Correctional Center would be transferred to other prisons.

Wake Forest officials said the evacuation area on campus did not include any on-campus housing except for Deacon Place, which is within the one-mile perimeter of the plant.

The university opened Wellbeing Center, Benson Center and the library for students needing a place to stay.

Winston Weaver Co. was founded in 1929 in Norfolk, Va., according to the companys website.

The Winston-Salem plant was built in 1939 and opened for business in January of 1940.

The company specializes in all-purpose plant food and specialty fertilizer.

Its products are sold at Lowes stores throughout the Southeast.

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Winston-Salem fire officials are taking extensive safety measures in the wake of a massive fire at the Winston Weaver Co.s fertilizer plant that prompted an effort to evacuate thousands of residents, Chief Trey Mayo said Tuesday.

Mayo described the fire as potentially the most dangerous one in the citys history.

Three companies of firefighters are monitoring the scene, Mayo said at a news conference Tuesday.

The fertilizer plant at 4400 N. Cherry St. in the citys northern section contained nearly 600 tons of ammonium nitrate, which is commonly used in fertilizer but is potentially explosive when stored in large quantities.

The fire department is allowing the fire to burn off the remaining ammonium nitrate at the plant. The scope of the fire was smaller Tuesday than the massive fire that started Monday night, Mayo said.

We do not know what the rate of consumption is, Mayo said. We just need it to burn out of fuel.

The danger of explosion at the plant remains until 7 a.m. Wednesday morning, Mayo said.

Ive been in this business for 33 years, Mayo said. When I learned how much ammonium nitrate was on the site last night, I felt as uneasy at a fire site that I have ever felt.

The fire at Winston Weaver was reported just before 7 p.m. Monday and quickly spread. No injuries were reported.

The companys 36 employees are safe and have been accounted for, said Ed McNeal, a city spokesman.

The cause of the fire remains unknown.

Ammonium nitrate is one of the worlds most common fertilizers and is a key component in many types of explosives used in mining. To create blasts, ammonium nitrate is mixed with fuel oil and detonated by an explosive charge.

A group of 60 city firefighters initially responded to the fire Monday night, Mayo said. That number was reduced to 21 firefighters Tuesday.

At some point, we will be able to get in there and completely extinguish the fire, Mayo said.

The fire department will maintain its one-mile evacuation radius as a precaution, Mayo said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will monitor the air quality from the fire.

A crew with Piedmont Natural Gas Co. shut off the valves of two gas lines that run into the fertilizer plant to prevent an explosion, Mayo said.

Aerial surveillance showed that the fire didnt pose a heat threat Tuesday to an adjacent railcar containing about 100 tons of ammonium nitrate, Mayo said.

The fire department last inspected the plant Dec. 21, and no violations were found.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted a quarterly inspection of the facility Jan. 3 and reported no violations. A three-year compliance report from the agency listed no violations from the first quarter of 2019 through the most recent inspection.

The EPA monitors air emissions, impacts on water quality and any releases of toxic chemicals. The agency does not regulate plant safety, however.

The wind was expected to blow from the northwest Tuesday night, and residents who live in the areas northwest of the plant will smell the smoke in what Mayo described as spent fireworks.

The smoke contains compounds of sulfur and ammonia, which are irritants, but are not particularly toxic, Mayo said.

We recommend folks who have sensitive respiratory systems to avoid being outside (and) remain indoors and keep doors and windows shut, Mayo said. We dont encourage folks exercising, running and walking if they can see smoke and smell the products of combustion.

At an earlier news conference Tuesday, Matthew Smith of the N.C. Regional Hazardous Materials team, also said that fire didnt pose an immediate danger to peoples lives and health.

There is a 36-hour window that will run through (Wednesday) morning, Smith said. We cant go anywhere near it for at least 36 hours.

City and state officials have asked residents who live in the one-mile radius of the fire to voluntarily evacuate from their homes, Mayo said.

Mayo stressed that the evacuation is not mandatory.

We live in a free country, Mayo said. Our capacity to force people to leave their homes is limited.

Gov. Roy Cooper released a statement Tuesday, saying that he and other state officials are in contact with local leaders, such as Mayor Allen Joines, and first responders.

State officials are offering the support necessary to protect people and help put out the fire, said Cooper, who will be in Winston-Salem on Wednesday.

This dangerous fire is extremely concerning, Cooper said

A spokesman for Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant issued a statement Tuesday afternoon through city officials.

Andrew Carroll, a company representative, said that the fire started at the plant at approximately 6:30 p.m. Monday, and fire officials were immediately contacted.

There have been no injuries or loss of life to any employees, fire responders or citizens at this time. We are grateful for the outstanding, rapid work last night and ongoing support from fire officials, as well as the volunteer services who have supported our employees and plant neighbors, Carroll said in the statement.

We will continue working with first responders and relevant officials to ensure safety of the community, and we will participate fully in the investigation into the cause of the fire.

North Hills Elementary School, which is in the one-mile evacuation zone, moved to remote learning on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, the school district opened the Education Building on Bethania Station Road for students who want an in-person option.

North Hills staff will lead lessons for those students and help students learning remotely.

Mike Causey, the N.C. commissioner of insurance and the state fire marshal, described the fire as a tragedy.

Its a dangerous situation and still very volatile, Causey said.

The state fire marshals office deployed a drone and two investigators at the scene, Causey said. There is an investigation to determine how the fire started, said August Vernon, the director of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Emergency Management.

The fire will result in the loss of fertilizer, worsening a current statewide shortage of that product, Causey said.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the residents who had to evacuate for safety reasons, Causey said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mayo said that local firefighters want to prevent the scenario that happened in a 2013 explosion at the West Fertilizer storage and distribution plant in West, Texas, that killed 15, injured more than 150 and destroyed more than 150 buildings.

There were 240 tons of ammonium nitrate on site (in Texas), Mayo said. There are 600 tons on site here. If that doesnt communicate the gravity of the situation, I dont know how to verbalize that.

A few mini-explosions were heard (and felt) Monday night, Mayo said, but nothing significant since. The danger of a larger explosion is what caused officials to pull firefighters away from the plant.

City officials used a reverse 911 system Monday asking residents living within a 1-mile radius to evacuate. A half-dozen or so people went to an emergency shelter opened at the Carolina Classic Fairgrounds.

State officials ordered the evacuation of a nearby Forsyth Correctional Center and Wake Forest University voluntarily evacuated some students and staff before canceling classes for the day Tuesday.

Fire investigators havent determined an estimate of the damage at the plant, Mayo said. The plant has a property tax value of $1.3 million, according to Forsyth County tax records.

Company officials will assess the plants damage, but that will take several days, Mayo said.

Michael Hewlett and John Deem contributed to this story. 336-727-7481 @scottsextonwsj

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Winston-Salem State University has received a $384,000 grant from the PNC Foundation, one of five Historically Black Colleges and Universities in North Carolina to receiving funding from a new initiative.

The foundation, affiliated with PNC Financial Services Group Inc., is providing more than $2 million in an effort "that aims to enrich the future of entrepreneurship and create workforce opportunities in the state."

The WSSU grant will assist in funding the development of the PNC Entrepreneurial Fellows program.

The program's goal is assisting selected student fellows to "learn critical aspects of new venture creation by participating in nationally certified programs, workshops, research and one-on-one mentoring with successful North Carolina entrepreneurs."

Since establishing the Center of Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation 14 years ago, Winston-Salem State University has actively collaborated with more than 750 aspiring entrepreneurial ventures and more than 1,800 students," Elwood Robinson, WSSU's chancellor, said in a statement.

"The PNC Entrepreneurial Fellows Program will help us build on this impact to reach even more students and community entrepreneurs.

"We are grateful to the PNC Foundation for helping us scale up resources and capacity-building opportunities for our regions future business leaders.

Weston Andress, PNC"s western Carolinas' regional president, said WSSU was chosen for the grant primarily because of the Center of Entrepreneurship and Social Innovations "meaningful work to address the needs of urban, minority and economically disadvantaged populations ... and educate and empower their students for future success in business and life.

The grants will be distributed over a three-year period.

The other HBCU institutions receiving grant funding are Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, Johnson C. Smith and North Carolina Central.

Students from all five schools will have the opportunity to participate in the PNC Pitch Competition, an annual forum where student-entrepreneurs can showcase innovative ideas and demonstrate their marketing skills.

PNC said the grants align with its support for HBCUs throughout the country and complement the on-going development of the Howard University and PNC National Center for Entrepreneurship.

The funding also is part of PNCs nationwide $88 billion Community Benefits Plan, which is inclusive of a previously announced commitment of more than $1 billion to support the economic empowerment of Black and low- and moderate-income communities.

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Please dont be surprised in the coming weeks when the state Supreme Court votes to throw out the Republican-drawn election maps for North Carolinas congressional and General Assembly districts. It will likely be a 4-3 vote, with critics blasting the Democratic majority on the court for being biased.

But heres the truth: A bipartisan panel of judges, with a Republican majority, has already unanimously ruled that Republican legislators intentionally drew the district maps to undermine the power of Democratic voters.

The judges said the legislators plan is an extreme outlier that subordinates the Adopted Criteria and traditional redistricting criteria for partisan advantage.

Translation: Instead of following its own rules, the legislature chose an extreme set of maps that divided (cracked and packed) you and your neighbors into districts to guarantee that more Republican candidates would win. Voters get valued differently; Black voters, who mostly register as Democrats, will be especially harmed.

Despite expressing their disdain, the judges didnt take the big step of ruling the maps unconstitutional. The high court will soon take that step.

Given the evidence of systematic and extreme gerrymandering, I expect the Supreme Court will rule the maps violate our state constitutions protection against measures that subvert free elections, treat voters unequally and entrench one party in power.

To prevent my prediction from coming true, Republican legislators recently filed a motion calling for Democratic Justice Anita Earls to remove (recuse) herself from the case. They claim she has an insurmountable conflict because her election was heavily financed by a national political committee with a partisan interest in redistricting.

Ironically, Republican Justice Paul Newby faced  and rejected  a nearly identical charge in a previous redistricting case. A motion filed by Democrats and others called for his recusal because his election was heavily financed by a national political committee with a partisan interest in the case. Rather than step aside, Newby wrote a decision upholding the challenged maps.

Republican Justice Phil Berger Jr. also refused to recuse himself recently in a dispute, like this one, where a chief defendant is his father, state Senate leader Phil Berger Sr. Phil Jr. dismissed the obvious conflict of a son judging a case involving his daddy. Thats strange enough, but theres a major campaign financing conflict for Justice Berger, too.

Phil Berger Sr. is often a featured guest at his sons campaign fundraisers. In fact, the vast majority of money Phil Jr. has raised for his judicial elections has come from the Republican Party and donors tied to political appointees and lobbyists who seek favorable treatment from Phil Sr., the Senate boss and most powerful Republican in North Carolina.

In response to a complaint I filed with the board of elections, Phil Jr. had to amend his campaign reports to reveal fundraising events paid for by political appointees and a fundraiser with Phil Sr. at a lobbyists home. How can the son impartially rule in a redistricting case involving the political fate of his major benefactor?

It seems hypocritical for Phil Sr. and others to tell Justice Anita Earls to recuse herself when Justices Newby and Phil Jr. have not. As a distinguished Black woman attorney with extensive expertise in racial and partisan gerrymandering, Justice Earls will likely play a key role in how the court rules in this case. Thats the real reason GOP legislators want her removed.

Partisan strife will continue, but please remember that Republican and Democratic judges agree that the district maps are extreme and unfair. They diminish your vote and disrespect your voice. Our state constitutions protection of equal rights and fair elections means they must be declared illegal.

Bob Hall is the former executive director of Democracy North Carolina.
A proposition came before the U.S. House last month that shouldnt be lost in the cacophony of daily concerns and contentious issues  no matter how much some members of Congress might like to forget it. A House member is pushing House leadership to create and pass legislation that would ban members of Congress from owning or trading stocks.

Its a good idea.

Its a response, not only to a problem that has taken down more than one member of Congress  trading on privileged information  but one that lends itself to a public perception of corruption that undermines the authority of a legislative body that already has an image problem.

This glaring problem will not go away until it is fixed and Congress should not delay when we have the power to fix it, Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine wrote in a letter addressed to both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Perhaps this means some of our colleagues will miss out on lucrative investment opportunities. We dont care. We came to Congress to serve our country, not turn a quick buck.

As of last week, 27 House members had signed onto the letter  most of them Democrats, but two Republicans, also. We suspect the number will grow.

The proposal was initially met with reluctance from Pelosi, though she has since said that shell bring a bill to the floor if members want to do that.

She should also be concerned with what the American people want.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that Democrats would consider a stock trading ban, but that he was not sure that its necessary because blatant insider trading is already illegal.

But an investigation conducted by Insider found that at least 54 current members of Congress and almost 200 senior congressional staffers have violated the law by failing to disclose their transactions on time. And the laws enforcement is uneven and inconsistent.

Insider also identified numerous examples of federal lawmakers trading stocks in industries they oversee as part of their congressional committee assignments, including within the defense, health care and energy industries. If that doesnt present a potential conflict of interest, nothing does.

Goldens letter says that while insider trading is already explicitly illegal, it can be nearly impossible to determine what knowledge counts as nonpublic or how personally involved members are in their stock trades.

The letter follows pandemic-related stock-trading scandals in 2020 involving several senators  including North Carolinas Richard Burr. His uncharacteristic sale of $1.7 million in stocks following congressional briefings on COVID-19 led to an investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

No charges have been filed against Burr, but the perception that he may have possibly used his insider knowledge for monetary gain has left many with a sour taste.

Though Goldens letter doesnt call for specifics, legislation would likely allow for blind trust mechanisms  though Golden would like to see family members and staffers prevented from investing, also.

Similar to my time in the military, we always said the whole family serves, and that should be true of members of Congress, he said.

We should know by now that members of Congress are subject to more temptation than most of their constituents, though theyre not likely to be more resistant.

One of the most formative periods of my life was my four years of active duty service in the United States Marine Corps, Golden said, explaining that while the institution places a lot of trust in each Marine, certain rules and norms remained in place to keep everyone honest. Even good people sometimes find themselves in making bad decisions, or being sloppy, he said.

Thats why its best to remove temptation.

Congress polls very poorly these days  its approval rate is around 21%, according to Gallup, and 14%, according to Ballotpedia  for a variety of reasons, including the idea that members might take advantage of their positions to fatten their wallets.

The guiding principle, to which most of us would agree, is that congressional service should not be a pathway to riches. Running for office is already limited to people of a certain monetary standard, leaving out many who would serve well. Making a profit from such service  beyond the standard salary  is almost innately immoral.

Golden and allies should keep up the pressure.
Born: Dec. 1, 1890, Winston, N.C.

Died: March 19, 1931, California

Known as: A journalist, activist for First Nations rights, author and film star of triracial heritage who, for a time, successfully presented himself as a full-blooded Native American in order to escape restrictions imposed by Jim Crow laws

In a time when opportunities were limited for Blacks in America, Sylvester Long took an unconventional path to success and international fame in multiple fields.

Born to formerly enslaved parents in Jim Crow-era Winston, he embellished his personal history to emphasize his Native American heritage (his mother was Croatan, now attached to the Lumbees) gaining access to education unavailable to Blacks at the time.

The middle of Joe and Sallie (Lindsey) Longs five children, he grew up on Brookstown Avenue in Winstons West End, where his father was janitor at the grade school.

At 14 he ran away to join a Wild West show where his slick jet-black hair, high cheekbones, and copper-toned complexion landed him a part as a Cherokee. Actual Cherokee elders in the cast taught him some of the language and many of the tribal stories.

At 19, he lied about his age and applied to the Carlisle, Pa., Indian Residential School as a Cherokee since the Lumbee were not a federally recognized tribe. He excelled on the track and debate teams. Fellow classmate and future Olympian Jim Thorpe would be a lifelong friend. While in Carlisle, he changed his last name to Long Lance.

He won an appointment to West Point but intentionally failed the entrance exam, worried the scrutiny of being the first Native appointee would uncover his African heritage. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in 1916 to fight in World War I, where he was wounded in action.

Settling in Alberta after the war, he wrote for newspapers covering legal and moral challenges faced by the First Nations in western Canada.

A local Blackfoot tribe adopted him and gave him the name Buffalo Child which he used the rest of his life.

He wrote an autobiography of his life as a member of the Blood tribe in Montana. Nearly entirely fabricated, it was captivating and became an international best-seller in 1928 which set him up as a darling of the New York socialite scene and put him in high demand as a lecturer on Native American issues.

In 1930 he was cast as the lead in Paramount Pictures film The Silent Enemy which increased his cache in societyand landed him a sports-shoe endorsement deal. It also caused his Black ancestry to be discovered, which ended nearly all professional and social opportunities.

By defying the confines and limitations of racial categories, Long Lance carved his own ethnic space to assert control over his environment and circumstances, wrote Melinda Micco, PhD and professor emerita of ethnic studies at Mills College.

As his carefully crafted persona began to unravel, Long Lance met a tragic end, killed by a gunshot to the head. His death was ruled a suicide.

When my time comes, he had written long before, I shall meet it, as I have met things in my life  like an adventure.
Nebraska lawmakers will have the chance to debate workplace vaccine mandates and exemptions, after LB906 advanced out of committee Monday.

Members of the Health and Human Services Committee voted 6-0, with one abstention, to send an amended version of the bill to the full Legislature.

The vote came after Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair said he would fight any attempted change that could "blow up" the carefully crafted compromise amendment. Hansen introduced LB906 and has named it his priority bill for the year.

"The way it's in the bill is the way I want it to be," he told colleagues. "It took a lot of work to get everyone here."

LB906, as introduced, would allow employees to be exempted from a workplace vaccine mandate by filling out a state-produced form and declaring that they were refusing the vaccine because of their strong moral, ethical or philosophical belief or conviction.

The amended version would cover virtually all employers, not just those with 20 or more employees. It would apply only to the COVID-19 vaccine, not all vaccine mandates. It would provide for medical exemptions, with a written statement from a doctor or other health care provider.

And it would require that employers provide exemptions to people who declare on a state form that the vaccine conflicts with their sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance.

Under both versions, employers could require unvaccinated workers to be tested regularly and to wear masks or other protective equipment, a provision that Hansen said was important to protect unvaccinated workers.

With the amendment, most potential opponents, including the Nebraska Hospital Association; the Nebraska Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes and assisted-living facilities; and the Nebraska, Omaha and Lincoln Chambers of Commerce took neutral positions on the bill.

Nebraska's chief medical officer supported the amended version of the bill, but the Nebraska Medical Association remained opposed.
Lincoln police responded to an apartment building near 18th and Knox streets after witnesses reported a Ford F-150 had launched into the air and struck a pole before the driver fled into the complex.

Authorities later found that Carter Cole, 21, had struck at least three vehicles before crashing into the pole near 20th Street and Cornhusker Highway, Sgt. Chris Vigil said.

Cole is alleged to have stolen the pickup, left running and unlocked, from a parking lot near 20th and Knox, Vigil said. Witnesses said the truck struck two other pickups and an enclosed trailer before making it out of the parking lot.

Vigil said Cole showed signs of intoxication when police contacted him at the nearby apartment complex. He was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries and was eventually arrested on suspicion of theft by unlawful taking, felony criminal mischief, DUI, driving on a revoked license, willful reckless driving and leaving the scene of a crash.

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A 41-year-old Lincoln man has been sentenced to three years in prison for buying alcohol shooters for a 13-year-old girl and groping her in his car.

Jason Schoonover pleaded no contest to third-degree sexual assault of a child.

In court records, police say the girl told her middle school counselor what happened last April, which led to a forensic interview, where she said Schoonover drove her around town, buying them both shooters. Then, she said, he groped her over her clothes.

She said she pulled away and he drove her home.

In a police interview, Schoonover admitted it.

Lancaster County District Judge Lori Maret sentenced him Friday to the prison time, plus 18 months of post-release supervision.

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A 55-year-old Walton woman is in jail after she allegedly used her car to ram into a vehicle occupied by a 70-year-old man Monday afternoon, according to the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Terry Wagner said the man called authorities at about 3:25 p.m., after Susan Charbonneau threw lawn ornaments toward him at their shared home in Walton.

Wagner said the man entered his vehicle to protect himself from Charbonneau, who then got in her car before ramming it into the driver's side of the man's vehicle. The collision caused $5,200 in damage, the sheriff said.

Charbonneau was arrested on second-degree domestic assault, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony and felony criminal mischief.

She was taken to the Lancaster County Jail.

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Vietjet flights brings first tourists in new lunar year to Da Nang, Van Don

More than 200 tourists on a Vietjet flight from Ho Chi Minh City landed in Da Nang on February 1, the first day of the Year of the Tiger, becoming the first guests of the central coastal citys tourism sector in the new lunar year.













First visitors welcomed in Da Nang (Photo: VNA)

A welcoming ceremony was held for the 230 tourists who included 26 foreigners.



Nguyen Xuan Binh, Vice Director of the Da Nang Department of Tourism said that after a tough year in 2021 due to COVID-19, Da Nang expects a better year in 2022.



After reopening its tourism sector, Da Nang has seen the operation of eight air routes connecting the city with Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Buon Me Thuot and Can Tho, with 218 flights per week. In the nine-day Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday from January 29 to February 6, the city expects to receive 404 flights with 44,055 visitors.



Various activities are being organised to entertain tourists, while local travel firms and destinations are offering attractive promotion progammes to visitors.



Also on February 1, another Vietjet Air flight became the first to land in Van Don International Airport in northern Quang Ninh province in the new lunar year, carrying 126 visitors, including Korean and Taiwanese tourists, from Ho Chi Minh City to the northern coastal province.



The visitors were welcomed at the airport by Vice Chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee Cao Tuong Huy.



Quang Ninh is offering free entry tickets to Ha Long Bay and Yen Tu landscape complex to visitors arriving in the province via Van Don Airport.



Since its re-opening, Van Don International Airport has served two airlines - Vietjet Air and Bamboo Airways - that are operating seven and three flights a week, respectively, on the Ho Chi Minh City-Van Don route, with occupancy rates of around 70 percent.



A representative from Vietjet said that the airline plans to open more air routes linking domestic localities and Van Don in the time to come.



Van Don International Airport has also handled flights bringing Vietnamese citizens and foreign experts to Vietnam.
Residents of a subdivision in northeast Lincoln who oppose a large apartment complex in their neighborhood may be heading to court.

The City Council voted 5-0 Monday to deny an appeal by residents and approve a special permit sought by the developer to replace 77 proposed single-family and townhomes with a 462-unit apartment complex at the Dominion at Stevens Creek development near 105th and O streets.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission approved the special permit in November and the council heard from neighbors last week, then postponed a vote to try to clarify what land was covered by covenants signed by developers and residents.

The subdivision, which has been developed in phases, is generally bordered by O, Vine, 104th and 112th streets.

Kathy Doornbos, among the residents who oppose the apartment complex, said if the council didn't postpone a vote to give residents time to hire an attorney and work through the covenant issues, or deny the special permit, neighbors would head to court to seek an injunction to stop construction of the housing development.

Several neighbors reiterated their concerns Monday: That an apartment complex would increase traffic congestion in the neighborhood and along O Street; that it would lower the value of their homes; that it would create an eyesore at the highest point in the development; and that it ignores promises made and expectations of homeowners that they wouldnt have apartments in their neighborhood.

Gregory Frayser, an attorney representing the developer, told the council that the covenants represent a contractual agreement between two private parties  the developer and homeowners  and any dispute should be decided in court, not by the council.

Frayser said the covenants in question dont apply to the land in question, but that doesnt matter.

That matter, to the extent its viable, is for the district court of Lancaster County, he said.

The councils job, he said, is to decide if the planning commission followed existing rules and regulations in approving the permit.

The special permit doesnt require any waivers or zoning changes, and even with the apartment complex, the subdivision would still fall below the zoning density restrictions, he said.

The council approved an amendment developers added to the special permit intended to address concerns by residents in Dominion and the adjacent Waterford Estates: to include a 100-foot setback on the north and west sides to help create a barrier between existing homes, to route traffic toward O Street and to file a covenant stipulating any development on the final undeveloped outlot must be single-family homes.

The five council members present  Richard Meginnis excused himself because of a potential conflict and Jane Raybould was absent  said despite their vote, they understood neighbors concerns.

This is a very sticky wicket, said Councilwoman Sandra Washington. I have spent a lot of time reading and rereading letters from residents of Dominion and Waterford Estates and I appreciate your passion in bringing this forward.

But she said the council also must follow zoning and platting rules so that developers know what to expect.

Councilman Tom Beckius said he knew the councils vote wouldnt bring any comfort to residents, but successful development includes diversity of housing in neighborhoods. An apartment complex in the area might give people a chance to live in a neighborhood they might otherwise not be able to, and could provide a pathway to someday owning a home in the area.

Councilman James Michael Bowers said the council has to act for residents to move forward in court if thats what they want to do, and there will be sufficient time to do that before any construction begins. Councilwoman Tammy Ward and Bennie Shobe provided the fourth and fifth votes.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSreist

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The Nebraska Department of Transportation on Monday supported a proposal from Sen. Lynn Walz of Fremont to authorize the department to enter into public-private partnerships in an effort to speed up highway construction.

Walz said her bill (LB1016) is designed to try to achieve "accelerated completion of the expressway system."

But the department expressed opposition to another bill, introduced by Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, that would require the state to accelerate long-delayed expressway construction in northeast Nebraska.

Flood's proposal, contained in LB1274, would direct the Department of Transportation to plan, design and purchase right-of-way for four lanes of U.S. 81 north between Norfolk and the South Dakota border and south between Columbus and York, along with a four-lane connection of U.S. 20 between U.S. 81 and the Iowa border.

Flood described the long-delayed projects as critical for agriculture, business, truck traffic, highway safety, economic development and tourism, providing access to Lewis and Clark Lake and Niobrara State Park.

"It's a chance to be super-visionary," he suggested.

"It's a huge opportunity for growth and a chance to bring young people home," he said.

"I was in eighth grade when Gov. Kay Orr and the Legislature approved development of a divided, four-lane expressway system," Flood told the Legislature's Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, arguing that it's far past time to finish the task.

The bill attracted supporting testimony from a host of officials and residents from northeast Nebraska.

"It's a real growth opportunity," Eric Gerrard said, speaking for the City of Norfolk and Mayor Josh Moenning, and "it's been postponed too long."

John Selmer, director of the Department of Transportation, told the committee he believes it is "unwise to begin directing DOT away" from its current planning for completion of the four-lane expressway system envisioned in 1988.

That system is designed to connect communities with a population of 15,000 or more with Interstate 80, he said, and it is now more than 70% complete, with 160 miles to go.

The legislative proposal would "allow projects to leapfrog projects already programmed," he said, and "place specific projects at the head of the line."

Selmer, however, supported the Walz proposal, suggesting that the private sector "could give us some ideas" and that, in turn, perhaps could lead to "some time savings."

Walz said the bill would provide "more tools in the tool box."

Several people who testified at the public hearing alluded to the collaboration with the private sector that has led to accelerated construction of the South Beltway in Lincoln as a potential model.

Construction of the beltway, a freeway linking U.S. 77 southwest of Lincoln to Nebraska 2 southeast of Lincoln, began in 2020 and is scheduled to be completed next year.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon

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Family members and friends of 22-year-old Chance Van Dyne remember him as a hardworking young man and a beloved brother, son and grandson whose life was cut short.

An Omaha native and a fire control seaman in the U.S. Navy, Van Dyne was killed in a car crash amid snowy road conditions in Indiana on Dec. 28. He was on his way back to his base.

Van Dyne, affectionately called Chancie by his family, graduated from Bellevue East High School, was great with computers and loved anime, ramen and animals, according to Sharon Stolp, his grandmother.

I was blessed that I was one of the first people to hold him when he was born and the last to get a hug and an I love you from him, Stolp said.

He called me about an hour before his accident from a visitors center and told me he was about five minutes away from the Indiana border, she said. He was just such a unique young man. He should still be here.

In messages posted after Van Dynes death, his fellow service members described him as dedicated, hardworking and eager to challenge himself with his position in the Navy. He dreamed of being stationed in Japan.

I knew you only for a year, but you were my brother, one of his comrades wrote. I held out hope that someday youd be stationed on my ship or maybe Id see you again in the fleet. If I ever go to Japan, I will leave something for you there.

Services with military honors were held earlier this month at Omaha National Cemetery.

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Two people were arrested after separate high-speed pursuits Friday night and into early Saturday morning, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

The first instance involved a vehicle traveling 115 mph on Interstate 80 near Grand Island at about 11:25 p.m. After a trooper attempted to initiate a traffic stop, the vehicle fled.

The driver, 36-year-old Andrew Willard of Bristol, Wisconsin, exited and reentered I-80 several times before deputies with the Buffalo County Sheriffs Office successfully brought the vehicle to a stop near Kearney using stop sticks.

Willard was arrested on suspicion of felony flight to avoid arrest, willful reckless driving, obstructing a peace officer and multiple traffic violations. He was booked in the Hall County Jail.

Another driver was observed speeding on Interstate 480 near Omaha at about 1:45 a.m. Saturday. After the driver refused to stop troopers initiated a pursuit.

Benjamin Crismon, 37, of Bellevue, merged on I-80 while driving more than 100 mph before exiting on 60th Street and losing control of his vehicle.

Crismon was arrested on suspicion of felony flight to avoid arrest, willful reckless driving, resisting arrest and several traffic violations. He was booked in the Douglas County Jail.

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Two people were critically injured in a head-on crash on Interstate 80 in central Nebraska.

The drivers of a Toyota Corolla and a Lincoln Navigator sustained life-threatening injuries in the Sunday morning crash. They were taken to CHI St. Francis in Grand Island, a Nebraska State Patrol spokesman said. The driver of the Navigator later was flown to CHI Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy in Omaha for further treatment.

Patrol investigators said a police officer from Aurora was eastbound on I-80 about 6 a.m. and was trying to stop the Corolla. The Corolla, driven by an 18-year-old man, turned around and began driving west in the eastbound lanes.

The police officer crossed into the westbound lanes and came upon a head-on crash involving the eastbound Corolla and the westbound Navigator near the Giltner exit.

The Corolla driver had been ejected from the car.

All four passengers in the Navigator were treated for minor injuries, the spokesman said.

The crash remains under investigation.

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State lawmakers gave craft breweries the ability to operate up to five tasting rooms under a single liquor license in a sweeping change to Nebraska's liquor laws in 2016.

A bill (LB900) before the Legislature this year aims to provide the same opportunities to the makers of whiskey, bourbon, vodka and other hard alcohols.

Sen. John Lowe's bill to allow microdistilleries to operate five retail locations under a single license would replicate the earlier expansion of craft breweries.

"I believe it is time for the same opportunities for microdistilleries because we have seen how this expansion has benefited numerous small businesses," the Kearney senator said.

Cody Schmick, a managing partner at Kinkaider Brewing, which also operates Sideshow Spirits, Lincoln's "first legal distillery," said such a change would elevate Nebraska's distilling business out of its infancy.

There are 68 licensed craft breweries in Nebraska, with two more seeking approval from the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, according to executive director Hobie Rupe.

Currently, there are 13 microdistilleries operating in the Cornhusker state.

"We're taking a big bet on it," Schmick told the Legislature's General Affairs Committee, where the bill was heard Monday.

Schmick said expanding the number of distilleries that could operate under a single license would eliminate unnecessary red tape for Sideshow Spirits.

Under existing statute, Sideshow is required to sell the alcohol made at its downtown Lincoln production facility to a distributor, who can then sell it to parent company Kinkaider.

If Lowe's bill passes the Legislature and is signed into law, Schmick said Sideshow could put its Kinkaider locations under its liquor license, allowing it to use its own distribution system, rather than having to use a third party.

"It's a full-time delivery job moving beer between locations," he said. "Even though we are paying for a truck, upkeep and maintenance, we cannot utilize it for spirits and canned cocktails."

The proposal has the backing of the Platte Institute, which said it would provide opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Vanessa Silke, an attorney representing the Nebraska Craft Brewers Guild, said the change would not remove any regulations distilleries must follow.

The law allowing craft brewers to open multiple taprooms was "a massive step forward" for small, independent beer companies, Silke said.

"We're looking for the same opportunities for the distilling industry in Nebraska," she added.

The committee did not take action on the bill Monday.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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The Nebraska Farm Bureau on Tuesday endorsed Jim Pillen in the hotly contested Republican gubernatorial primary election, handing the Columbus hog producer a rich prize in his contest with agribusinessman Charles Herbster of Falls City and a field of other GOP candidates.

The Farm Bureau counts 55,000 member families and is a major voice in Republican politics, with its endorsement playing an outsized role in statewide GOP primary races that often are dominated by rural voters.

Results from polling all its members "resoundingly said Jim Pillen's the guy," Nebraska Farm Bureau President Mark McHargue of Central City said during a news conference in the Capitol Rotunda.

"Wow!" Pillen responded. "This is a big deal for our campaign."

Herbster will be able to counter with his earlier endorsement from former President Donald Trump, with whom he worked as an agricultural adviser, relying on the popularity of Trump in rural Nebraska to help deliver votes in the May 10 primary.

Following the news conference, Pillen and McHargue embarked on a statewide tour that took them to South Sioux City, North Platte, Scottsbluff and Kearney later in the day.

On Wednesday, they will move on to stops in Columbus, Broken Bow, Lexington, Grand Island, Beatrice and Fremont.

"We don't take jumping into the primary lightly," McHargue said, and the Farm Bureau only did so after polling its members.

McHargue said he also sat down with Pillen for "a couple of hours over supper" prior to the decision and engaged in "quite a conversation about rural communities."

McHargue said Pillen "understands we have a broken tax system and that there is overreliance on property taxes (and) he understands that if agriculture does well, our state does well."

Pillen, who already has campaigned in all 93 counties, said it's important "not just that we survive, but that we thrive."

"It's important that the next governor defend agriculture," McHargue responded.

"The Nebraska Farm Bureau is all-in," he said. "We'll be part of the campaign."

Pillen and Herbster are generally regarded as the Republican front-runners, with both candidates already generating well-funded campaigns with a strong TV ad presence.

Also in the GOP hunt are state Sen. Brett Lindstrom, former state Sen. Theresa Thibodeau and Breland Ridenour, all of Omaha, along with Michael Connely of York, Donna Nicole Carpenter of Lincoln and Lela McNinch of Lincoln.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon

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For more than 80 years, Nebraskas legislature has been officially nonpartisan. It needs to stay that way.

In mid January, Sen. Julie Slama introduced a resolution that would send Nebraska back to electing its state senators on a partisan ballot. If the Legislature were to approve the measure, the proposal, which would require a change to the state constitution, would go to the voters for an up or down vote.

Matters should not even get that far. The Legislature should stop this ill-advised idea in its tracks.

A little history: Nebraska voters approved the switch to a nonpartisan and one-house legislature in 1934 by a two-to-one margin and on the advice of U.S. Sen. George Norris.

When candidates ran for the new one-house body in 1936, there were no party labels after their names on the ballot. When they assembled the next January in the state Capitol, they did not organize by party.

Norris idea  that a one-house legislature with members elected on a nonpartisan basis would lead to a more open, accessible and efficient institution  has served Nebraska well. The business of a state legislature, Norris said, is in no sense partisan.

Its true that neither the 1934 amendment nor Slamas proposal says anything about how the legislature would organize after an election. But if senators were elected by party, you can bet they would form majority and minority blocs in the legislature with party leaders to guide their voting and party caucuses to keep everyone in line.

That kind of structure would put the parties in power instead of the people of the state, who would have far less access to and influence on the policy-making process.

Under the current, officially nonpartisan structure, without party bosses calling the shots, senators can and do make alliances based not just on party loyalty but on shared interests and shared concerns for the good of the state.

While all 49 state senators are members of the Republican or Democratic parties and often vote along the lines of the parties philosophies, no party hierarchy is telling them how to vote and holding out carrots or sticks to command compliance.

Nebraskas state senators are free to listen to their constituents and to consider the good of the state, not just the advancement of their own party, as they debate and shape policy. As a result, lawmaking in Nebraska is relatively free from the partisan gridlock so prevalent in the U.S. Congress and many other state legislatures. Why in the world would we want to abandon something that works and works well?

The fact that Nebraskas legislature is unique among the states is not, in itself, reason to preserve it. But the fact that it is open and responsive to the people sure is.

That openness and responsiveness, as George Norris said some 80 years ago, is the ultimate goal in a democracy.

Charlyne Berens, UNL professor emeritus of journalism, is the author of two books about the Nebraska Unicameral: One House: the Unicamerals Progressive Vision for Nebraska and Power to the People: Social Choice and the Populist-Progressive Ideal.

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CALEDONIA  A Sheboygan man has been accused of stabbing a man with a knife and threatening to kill him in Caledonia.

Emilio A. Delgado, 26, was charged with felony counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety and substantial battery and a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.

According to a criminal complaint:

A man called 911 on Dec. 15, saying there was someone covered in blood in his backyard on the 4400 block of Kennedy Drive, three-fourths of a mile west of Douglas Avenue and about 2,000 feet north of Three Mile Road.

Upon arrival, the officer spoke to the man who had a large, visible laceration on his left hand that was heavily bleeding. His shirt, pants and hands were covered in blood.

The man was transported to Ascension All Saints Hospital, 3803 Spring St., and required five stitches to his left hand.

While at the hospital, the man told a detective that he had been at an apartment on the 4300 block of Kennedy Drive, visiting someone who lived with Delgados brother, Joseph Delgado.

At one point in the night, the man said the two Delgado brothers became enraged and attacked him.

Emilio Delgado allegedly told the man he was going to kill him, and then Joseph Delgado grabbed him and threw him onto the floor. Emilio Delgado then pulled out a knife and began to swing it at the man, cutting him in the hand before the man was able to flee.

Emilio Delgado was given a $5,000 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Monday. A preliminary hearing is set for Feb. 9 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave., online court records show.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Joseph Delgado.
The Kenosha County Sheriffs Department on Tuesday morning released the identity of the man killed in a two-vehicle crash late Sunday night.

Tyler R. Scofield, 23, of Kenosha, was killed when his gray 2013 Toyota Scion crashed head on into a United Parcel Service semitractor-trailer in the 8000 block of Interstate 94.

The investigation into the crash is continuing, Sheriffs Sgt. David Wright said Tuesday morning.

According to a news release, Sheriffs Department deputies, along with fire and rescue personnel from Bristol, Pleasant Prairie and Newport (Ill.) responded to the crash at 11:33 p.m.

Initial reports indicated that Scofield was traveling northbound in the southbound lanes of the interstate at a high rate of speed when it struck a United Parcel Service semitrailer head-on.

Scofield, the lone occupant of the Scion, was pronounced dead at the scene by Kenosha County Medical Examiners Office staff.

A 45-year-old Greendale man, the operator of the semi, was transported to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries, sheriffs officials said. Both the Toyota and semi sustained extensive damage and were towed from the scene.

The public is encouraged to call the Sheriffs Department at 262-605-5100 with any information about the crash.

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Illinois has collected more than $424 million in tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales in 2021, and Michigan collected about $246.6 million.

Wisconsin still bans the drug in most forms, but the legislature continues to flirt with legalizing medical marijuana.

In the two years since launching its recreational marijuana program, Illinois has received more than half a billion dollars in tax revenue, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Over $100 million of that will finance programs aimed at investing in communities hardest hit by the drug war, with a large chunk going to fund grants for minority communities disproportionately impacted by gun injuries, child poverty, unemployment and incarceration, the state says. About $100 million was deposited into Illinois general fund.

Funds from cannabis revenue will also go to local governments, a marijuana regulation fund, facilitating the process of expunging criminal marijuana charges, administrative costs, a public health campaign and research on the effects of legalization.

Recreational marijuana tax revenue is a found money resource, where one previously didnt exist, by Douglas Berman, a law professor who is the director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center at Ohio State University.

If the money is used well, it can do a lot of good, Berman said. Its not going to fill every pothole or solve every pension crisis, however it can be wonderful for additional resources.

Of the more than $200 million gathered in Michigan, $20 million will be given annually to clinical trials researching the efficacy of marijuana in treating veterans medical conditions and preventing veteran suicide, according to state documents. Funds will also go to a K-12 school aid fund, repair and maintenance of roads and bridges, and municipalities and counties where marijuana businesses are located.

Under Wisconsin law, marijuana possession is a felony, though the state has legalized products from non-intoxicating cannabidiol, commonly known as CBD, and the growing of hemp.

Marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug both federally and in Wisconsin, meaning the governments officially consider it to have a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and that it lacks accepted safety for use in treatment under medical supervision.

Other Schedule 1 drugs at the state level include heroin, MDMA and PCP.

Theres this widespread sense that the harms expressed at the outset (of legalizing recreational marijuana) may exist a little bit, but they havent been as big a deal as you might think, Berman said.

Marijuana legalization has little effect on the crime rate in either direction, according to an ongoing study by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington D.C., though it notes the data is still limited. A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found little to no change in traffic crashes in places where cannabis had been legalized.

Wisconsin state Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison, has introduced a bill to legalize recreational marijuana in each of the last five legislative sessions. When she first proposed the bill in 2014, it received only five co-sponsors, she said. Her 2021 effort lists 40 co-authors and co-sponsors of the bill, all Democrats. Republicans, who have controlled the legislature since 2011, have ignored the bill in committee, where it must pass before going to a full vote in the state Senate.

The state Senate recently took up a bill that increases penalties for a person who uses a butane torch to extract resin from a cannabis plant. Agard introduced an amendment to the bill that would have legalized marijuana in any form. Republicans killed Agards amendment and passed the initial bill on a 21-12 party-line vote.

Agards proposals have now failed to pass in each of her five efforts, she noted.

The fact that Wisconsin is an island of prohibition in the Midwest continues to harm folks in our state, Agard said. At a time when economic recovery is at the tip of everyones mind, its really short-sighted that we are not moving policy forward to welcome a billion-dollar industry thats knocking on the door.

Minnesota legalized medicinal marijuana in 2014, but does not allow its sale for recreational use.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers included a provision in his last budget proposal that would have legalized recreational marijuana, but Republicans cut the proposal before passing the budget.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, has said the state should wait for the federal government to legalize medical marijuana before doing so. During a WisPolitics.com luncheon last April, LeMahieu, said if the Food and Drug Administration approves medical use, marijuana should be treated like any other prescription drug.

If theres advantages to (using marijuana), if it helps out people, I have no problem with it as long as a doctor prescribes it, he said.

When asked for comment, LeMahieu said through a spokesman that his position on the topic has not changed since April.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has said he is open to medical marijuana, though he wants it legalized in a limited way that doesnt involve a marijuana shop on every corner.

It shouldnt be smoked. It should be taken in pill form. It shouldnt even be edible so a child could get at it, he told News 3 Now in 2019. Vos did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Some Republicans support medical marijuana legalization.

Last week, state Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma, and state Rep. Patrick Snyder, R-Schofield, introduced a bill that would create a new state commission to regulate medical marijuana. Physicians who earn certification from the commission would be allowed to prescribe marijuana.

Felzkowski told reporters at a news conference that LeMahieu is more than willing to allow a hearing after a similar bill proposed by her failed to gain any traction in 2021.

We have a trend in this state to look for more natural types of healthcare, Felzkowski said in the news conference. Empower those who look to natural immunity, natural healthcare, and beefing up our bodies holistically instead of just using a prescription type of medication.

Medical marijuana is very popular in Wisconsin. A 2019 Marquette University Law School poll found 83% of registered voters in Wisconsin backed the idea. A smaller majority  59%  supported legalizing marijuana recreationally.

Theres always going to be a sort of rural/urban divide when it comes to marijuana because of the politics, but that divide isnt clear in the policy, Berman said. Rural communities generally support the idea. You can grow and make profit in those rural communities  or they might be using weed too and people dont realize it.

Pot shops in Illinois have sold nearly $2 billion in cannabis products in the two years since marijuana became legal there, with sales doubling from 2020 to 2021. Illinois dispensaries generated more than $430 million in sales by out-of-state customers, according to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

There are many dispensaries within a short drive of the Wisconsin border, including in South Beloit, Galena and Rockford.

When you look around the parking lot of the dispensary in South Beloit, I see 90% or more Wisconsin license plates, Sen. Agard said. Those are Wisconsin dollars leaving our state and entering the state of Illinois.

Phil Hands: Legal weed, local issues and lots of drama with Iran MY VIEW | PHIL HANDS MY VIEW | PHIL HANDS MY VIEW | PHIL HANDS MY VIEW | PHIL HANDS Royal drama You Toon New Year's Resolution

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin. This article first appeared on TheBadgerProject.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Never underestimate the power of a single person to inspire us.

When Betty White died on Dec. 31, less than three weeks away from her 100th birthday, her love of animals inspired animal lovers across the nation to dig into their pockets, purses and backpacks. They donated historic sums of money to organizations that rescue, protect and defend animals, as well as spreading the message of pet adoption.

Betty White had an extremely long show business career and was showered with awards from her peers and public alike. A winner of eight Emmy Awards (Primetime, Daytime and Regional), three Screen Actors Guild Awards, four TV Land Awards, she was recognized in 1995 with her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. If she had never publicly expressed her desire to protect animals and to become a champion for pet adoption, she would have had still been loved by her fans.

Being a vocal and proudly prominent advocate for pets, forever earned her a special kind of status.

It was supposedly a single Facebook post that said everyone should pick a local rescue or animal shelter in your area and donate just $5 in Betty Whites name. The end result, an outpouring of money to these groups, is not the least bit surprising. For many of us, our pets are beloved family members. They never start an argument at Thanksgiving dinner, they never ask to borrow money, and almost without fail they are overjoyed to see us come home. We love our furry friends.

The world often seems divided into two groups: those who love animals and those who have no use for them, or abuse them. Even in the Bible, the latter people are called wicked and cruel. (Genesis 24:19).

There will always be people who howl over requests to donate to animal welfare groups when so many human needs in the community go unaddressed. To argue with that line of thought is, of course, futile. Thankfully, there are enough of us who think you can see the need to be kind and helpful to animals, as well ease the suffering of people.

The Betty White Challenge showed how many of us there truly are who want to help animals.

We were absolutely blown away by the support for the Betty White Challenge, said Angela Speed, vice president of communications for the Wisconsin Humane Society, which has a shelter and adoption facility in Mount Pleasant.

More than 1,600 donors contributed $60,000 to the Wisconsin Humane Society in honor of Betty Whites birthday, Speed said. There are so many awesome animal welfare organizations that received donations in honor of Bettys amazing philanthropy for animals, and we couldnt be more grateful to be among them.

Many of the 1,600 donors were people making a gift for the first time to WHS, and others signed up to become automatic monthly donors, which means that it isnt a one-day, single impact  itll help animals for years to come. Its possible that this could become an annual grassroots campaign, too, which would be amazing.

Donations to nonprofits often lag in January, and a boost like this can be incredibly helpful in the dead of winter. Huge thanks to everyone who made a contribution or simply shared the challenge on social media  it will make a huge impact for homeless and injured animals in the communities we serve.

In Kenosha, community members took up that challenge, to the tune of about $14,000 donated to the Safe Harbor Humane Society animal shelter.

We have been slowly receiving donations since her passing, but the big push for donations was on (Jan. 17), with a total of over $14,000 donated, Safe Harbor officials said. We had so many people show up for her, it was so heartwarming!

Safe Harbor reported that Whites fans even sent in some 100th Birthday cards, with some incredibly touching messages. Talk about a legacy left behind, right?

White  a huge supporter of the Los Angeles Zoo, American Humane Society, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Endangered Wolf Center and other animal protection groups  would no doubt be thrilled by this outpouring of support.

To donate to the Wisconsin Humane Society, go online to: bit.ly/WisconsinAnimalDonate or call 414-264-6257.

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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.

Vote

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Happy (Chinese) New Year! The Year of the Tiger begins on Tuesday, Feb. 1. At last years Cemetery Walk we featured the stories of several Chinese-American laundrymen who worked in Viroqua in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Yep Fook Loy. Research for the Walk revealed that most or all of these Viroqua laundrymen were related to each other, at least distantly. The laundry business was begun by Yep Sing Kee around 1895, and continued over the years by Yep Cum Poy, Yep Young, Yep Lee, Loo Him, Yep Sheun, and others.

Yep Fook Loy began working in the Viroqua laundry in 1908. Ten years later, during World War I, he was drafted into the army, but returned to Viroqua after the war to briefly run the laundry again, before selling it to Yep T. Jack. Jack ran the laundry for some months and then sold it to a Norwegian immigrant, Peter Mehlum, in July 1920, and the era of Chinese laundrymen in Viroqua was over.

Genealogy classes are starting up again for 2022. The first class of the year will be held on Thursday, Feb. 10, at 10 a.m., in the museums conference room. Students will watch a webinar about Non-Population Schedules: Your Next Step in Census Research, covering issues such as mortality, acreage, etc.

Classes are free for members of the Vernon County Historical Society, and $5 each for non-members. Students are asked to wear masks; also note that our large conference room has space for people to spread out. Many thanks to genealogy class teacher Karen Sherry for keeping the classes going throughout the pandemic.

Applications will soon be due for the 2022 Century and Sesquicentennial Farm and Home Awards. The Wisconsin State Fair annually honors families who have dedicated their lives to Wisconsin farming for 100 or 150 years. The Century Farm and Home Program began in 1948 in conjunction with Wisconsins centennial celebration. There are currently 9,817 century farms and homes in the state. The Sesquicentennial Farm and Home Program began in 1998 as part of Wisconsins sesquicentennial celebration, and has since honored 982 families.

Families need to provide proof of continuous family ownership of their Wisconsin farm property for either the last 100 or 150 years. All property owners will then be honored at a special program at the 2022 Wisconsin State Fair, to be held in August. Applications are available at the Vernon County Museum and at the Vernon County UW-Extension office. They must be sent to the State Fair offices and postmarked by Tuesday, March 1.

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William Bill James Bohn, 80, of Sparta, WI, passed away on January 28, 2022, in his home surrounded by family.

A celebration of Bills life will be held at 12:30 PM, Monday, February 7, 2022, at St. Patricks Catholic Church, with Father Eric Berns officiating, Burial, with full military honors provided by VFW Post 2112 and American Legion Post 100 of Sparta, will be held at St. Patricks Catholic Cemetery.

Visitation will be held from 11:00 AM until 12:30 PM Monday, February 7, 2022, at St. Patricks Catholic Church.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be made to the Freedom Honor Flight. Bill will be remembered as a devoted family man, tremendous storyteller, a proud patriot and US Navy veteran. Online condolences may be offered at www.schanhoferfh.com

The Lanham-Schanhofer Funeral Home and Cremation, Sparta, is assisting the family with arrangements.
Two students were shot, one fatally, outside a suburban Minneapolis school on Tuesday, police said.
Comment Policy Calaveras Enterprise does not actively monitor comments. However, staff does read through to assess reader interest. When abusive or foul language is used or directed toward other commenters, those comments will be deleted. If a commenter continues to use such language, that person will be blocked from commenting. We wish to foster a community of communication and a sharing of ideas, and we truly value readers' input.
Editors note: This is the second part of a two-part series introducing the eight candidates for the La Crosse Board of Education. The first part was published in Mondays Tribune. To view all the candidate Q&As, go to lacrossetribune.com.

There are eight candidates vying for three seats on the La Crosse Board of Education, and voters will narrow them down in the Feb. 15 primary.

Two incumbents, Juan Jimenez and Dawn Comeau, are running for another term, while the remaining six candidates are newcomers that come from a variety of backgrounds including parents and one college student.

Six of the candidates will move on to the April 5 spring election.

The Tribune asked each of the candidates a series of questions about the race and their platforms. Their responses are below:

Merideth Garcia

Age: 48

Education: Ph.D., English & Education, University of Michigan; M.A., English Literature, Middlebury College; M.Ed., Curriculum & Instruction, University of Texas at Austin; B.A., English, University of Texas at Austin

Occupation: Assistant professor of English at UW-La Crosse

Political experience: None

Why have you decided to run for La Crosse Board of Education, and what experience sets you apart?

I prepare young people to become teachers in our community, and I care deeply about the experience of students, staff and teachers. Serving on the La Crosse School Board would be my way of advocating for meaningful learning environments supported by the necessary resources.

I specialize in trauma-informed pedagogy, which I implemented as a high school English teacher in Austin, Texas, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Given the scale of the pandemic, my early training has become more relevant than I ever imagined possible. More recently, my work has turned to the research and practice of sustainable teaching, which is built on the belief that students receive the best education from instructors who are supported enough to thrive in their personal and professional lives.

In 2020, the board voted to phase out the districts school resource officer program. Do you support continuing with that plan or would you like to bring SROs back?

Ive worked in public high schools with SROs and have seen some build genuine rapport with students. Ive also read research about the negative impact that SRO programs have on marginalized communities, and I would like to see data collected on our local SRO program before changing any policies that the current board has put in place. My sense is that budgeting for mental health resources would ease the burden on police who are currently operating as first responders in situations that would be more properly addressed by people in social services with mental health or restorative justice training.

What would you change about the school districts pandemic policies?

Teachers, parents and students overwhelmingly prefer in-person learning, and I have been impressed by how the school district has managed to keep students in school in spite of community spread and overwhelmed hospitals. Common sense precautions like masking and staying home when sick protect our ability to keep students in school. Id be interested in exploring ways to address the substitute crisis and to provide respite for teachers who are currently teaching their own classes and covering for colleagues who are out quarantining, often while trying to balance their commitment to teaching with their commitments to family members who may be at risk of serious complications if exposed to COVID (for example, very young, elderly or immunocompromised individuals).

Jake Williams

Age: 19

Education: Current UW-La Crosse undergraduate

Occupation: UW-L committee chairperson and full-time student

Political experience: None

Why have you decided to run for La Crosse Board of Education, and what experience sets you apart?

My age uniquely qualifies me to serve on the La Crosse Board of Education. I have a deep understanding of issues that current K-12 students face, and I have firsthand experience as a lifelong public school student (including during COVID). Older candidates will bring their own attributes to the table, but theyre likely to be further removed from the classroom environment/student life than I am. Ill translate this into effective policy, because my No. 1 priority is to provide students with a high quality education! In addition to my youth, my time as a UW-L committee chairperson has given me experience in overseeing a public budget, using parliamentary procedure, and bridging gaps between students and educational administrators.

In 2020, the board voted to phase out the districts school resource officer program. Do you support continuing with that plan or would you like to bring SROs back?

Student safety should be one of our districts most important concerns in 2022, and I think every member of our community can agree that violence has should not be anywhere near a place of learning. In certain instances, that might mean that SROs and local police are needed to respond to a threat or situation in one of our schools. In general; however, we need to ensure that we arent treating K-12 like criminals. An SRO presence in our schools could have serious unintended (and potentially negative) consequences instead of ensuring a safer learning environment. At the end of the day, all members of the La Crosse Board of Education will have to be willing to approach the conversation about SROs in a frank, good faith manner, and I promise to do exactly that.

What would you change about the school districts pandemic policies?

A motivating factor of why I am in this race is because the La Crosse Board of Education needs leadership that is committed to keeping students in the classroom (with safety measures in place, of course). Ensuring a safe, in-person learning environment for our students and teachers is critical. I have a lot of experience with virtual education throughout the course of COVID-19, and I think that it typically falls short of what our community members deserve from their school district. At the most basic level, we cant expect elementary and middle schoolers to be able to teach themselves! Similarly, we cant expect parents to stay home from work every day to make sure their child is attending class. As a member of the School Board, I will work hard to make sure we take COVID seriously while keeping students healthy.

Kimberly Krejchik

Age: Not given

Education: Physician assistant, certified

Occupation: I worked as a physician assistant for almost 12 years in the areas of Urgent Care, Family Medicine and Internal Medicine. I am a mother of two daughters, 11 and 17.

Political experience: I served as president of the PTO for two years

Why have you decided to run for La Crosse Board of Education, and what experience sets you apart?

I decided to run because I dont like what I am seeing being taught to our children and want to affect change. The school district is focused too much on trying to divide our children rather than showing them what they have in common. Teachers are being forced to create equity lessons rather than being allowed to focus on the basics which is needed. Our local math and reading comprehension scores are below the state average, therefore, that should be teachers focus. Parents send their children to school to learn sharing, cooperation, and the skills of math, history and reading. There is no accountability for our students, they need deadlines and consequences for not turning in homework or misbehaving in class. We should be holding all our students to a high standard and encourage them to succeed.

I think that the fact that I am a parent and community member who wants to see our children succeed is all that is needed.

In 2020, the board voted to phase out the districts school resource officer program. Do you support continuing with that plan or would you like to bring SROs back?

I support the school resource officer program. They form positive connections with the students. Students are more likely to talk to their SRO if they run into a problem because of the established relationship. I think they play a vital role in our schools for safety and the education they provide.

What would you change about the school districts pandemic policies?

I dont think it should be the unilateral decision of the superintendent. There has been no accountability for his dictates. I think the school boards should have been more involved making sure we were truly doing the right measures for the children. I have been to two school board meetings where the children have come in to talk about mental health. The students are not okay with what is being put upon them, but no one wants to look at how the COVID policies could be contributing to them.

Kent Stein

Age: 40

Education: M.S. in EHS Management from the Rochester Institute of Technology; B.S. in Marine Science from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy; A.A.S. Paramedic Tech from Western Technical College

Occupation: Medical communications

Political experience: None

Why have you decided to run for La Crosse Board of Education, and what experience sets you apart?

As a father of young children, I view education as one of the most important opportunities you can give a child. To give each child the best chance to take advantage of this opportunity, we have a responsibility to ensure an environment that is safe, teaches objective truth, and works directly with parents who are entrusting schools with their most valuable possession. The trends I have seen on a local and national level have been moving counter to those principles and I want to help bring education back to these foundational principles.

In 2020, the board voted to phase out the districts school resource officer program. Do you support continuing with that plan or would you like to bring SROs back?

I do not support that plan and am strongly in favor of bringing SROs back into our schools. Having worked in EMS alongside law enforcement with direct experience of the demands currently placed on our public safety systems, the minutes of response time added by not having an officer present at the school canmake a very real difference to life and safety. In addition, the SROs working for La Crosse PD are exemplary people of integrity that are servants of their community. Having them in the schools provides excellent role models for our kids and builds a positive relationship with law enforcement early on dramatically decreasing chances of negative interactions later in life.

What would you change about the school districts pandemic policies?

Policy should reflect solid research based on underlying data that is objective unbiased. Families and teachers should have the choice to wear a mask if they so desire, but the current data from the WHO and the CDC indicate that children are the lowest risk group for all variants of COVID. With vaccines widely available, those that are eligible have the choice to receive them, both student and teacher alike. Kids learn best in person. Parents and teachers should be able to freely choose the measures they take against COVID.

Editors note: Federal, state and local health agencies recommend masks as an effective and science-backed way to limit the spread of COVID-19.

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After being referred a month, the request to construct additional apartment units at the Farnam Flats complex in La Crosse is back on track.

For the second time, the La Crosse City Plan Commission approved the rezoning for the project on Monday, allowing developers to convert the buildings first floor from commercial units to four apartments after there was no success in finding businesses to occupy the space.

The proposal was referred just before the La Crosse Common Council meeting last month after concerns were raised about possibly complicating a grant that helped fund it.

City planner Andrea Trane said a $100,000 grant between La Crosse County and the Joint Development Corporation  a partnership between Gundersen Health System and the city  required that part of the building be commercial.

We wanted to make sure that we were not out of compliance with the grant agreement before moving forward with rezoning, Trane said.

The county held a special meeting last week, which Trane attended, where an amendment to the grant agreement allowing for the building to be entirely residential was approved.

We supported it last month, we support it again, Trane said of the plan.

All thats left is for the Judiciary & Administration Committee to approve the rezoning on Tuesday night and finally the La Crosse Common Council next Thursday.

Commissioner James Cherf, who voiced concerns about the change to the apartment building last month, was the only one to vote against the rezoning at Mondays meeting.

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Living in a representative democracy, a republic, requires civic responsibility and engagement. When we as qualified citizens vote, each one of us casting a ballot, we take an important action to sustain our government, local, state, and federal. We participate in forming our government with our votes, what candidates on the ballot we vote for, what funding or policy referenda we choose to vote up or down. Voting is our voice in government. We hope that we make sound choices that will improve lives broadly, protect core freedoms, and make a more perfect union by continually advancing our countrys founding vision. By voting, we serve our country. It requires modest effort and time for each one of us who is eligible to vote to first review and gain knowledge of what is on the ballot and then exercise that hard-fought right. The men and women in the armed forces now and in the past have made great sacrifices for our democracy. Many of us have relatives or ancestors who have served since the founding of our country. When I vote I often think about family who fought in WWII against authoritarian forces, especially two uncles, one in the Navy who was killed in the Pacific near New Guinea and another uncle in the Army who almost lost his life liberating Europe. We honor these supreme sacrifices of so many, too, when we vote.
Several Lancaster County health care facilities will receive more than $6 million in funding to retain and recruit hospital nurses.

The money is part of $225 million in statewide relief funded through the American Rescue Plan, with $210 million earmarked to recruit and retain staff at acute-care and general hospitals as well as behavioral health facilities.

Another $15 million will quadruple the funds available for the Pennsylvania High Education Assistance Agencys nurse loan forgiveness program.

Pennsylvania House Rep. John Lawrences office confirmed a list obtained by LNP | LancasterOnline showing the funding breakdown. Lawrences 13th Legislative District is mostly in Chester County, but includes Sadsbury Township and Christiana in Lancaster County.

Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health will receive the most funds, with $5 million to be split among three of its hospitals.

We greatly appreciate the collaborative work by the Legislature and Gov. Wolf to provide critical assistance to hospitals and front-line healthcare workers, John Lines, an LG Health spokesperson, said in an email. We await word from the state as to the amount of relief designated for Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.

Two WellSpan Health facilities will receive more than $500,000, and UPMC Lititz will receive more than $400,000.

Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler called the funding an important step in supporting the pandemics front-line workers.

There has never been a remote work option for our healthcare and EMS heroes, they continue to make sacrifices to help our communities recover and heal, the southern Lancaster County Republican said in a statement after the bill was signed into law Jan. 26.

The funding will also provide debt relief to nursing students, considered a critical step in a health-care staffing crisis.

As we await further information from the Department of Human Services about specifics, we applaud the Pennsylvania House and Senate leaders and members of the General Assembly who have committed themselves to addressing the need to recruit and retain our front-line caregivers, Holly Lorenz, UPMC chief nurse executive said in an email to LNP | LancasterOnline.

In December, UPMC announced its own in-house traveling nurse program to cut costs and retain workers.

UPMC Lititz will receive $421,352.

Dr. Michael Seim, WellSpan Health senior vice president and chief quality officer, agreed.

Having just experienced our highest surge of hospitalizations related to the COVID-19 pandemic thus far, we are greatly appreciative of the support offered by the General Assembly and Governor at this unprecedented time, Seim said in a statement to LNP | LancasterOnline.

As we approach the two-year anniversary of the pandemic here in South Central Pennsylvania, our health care teams continue their tireless efforts to provide compassionate and life-saving service to the patients who come to us for care  and this assistance supports their efforts."

WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital will receive $480,277, while WellSpan Healths Philhaven Diversion will get $30,665.

Gov. Tom Wolf signed the bipartisan bill into law last week to help hospitals in the worsening staffing crisis.

The bill is just the latest in the Wolf administrations effort to address the hospital staffing crisis. In December, Wolf requested FEMA to provide staffing support in the form of strike teams, one of which was deployed to WellSpan York at the beginning of the new year.

A hospital survey conducted in December by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania found vacancy rates for nurses providing direct patient care have increased nearly 30% since 2019. The need is even greater for nursing support professionals, which include certified nursing assistants, and has seen a 40% vacancy increase.

Wolf called the legislation he signed into law last week critical for supporting our health care workforce and ensure Pennsylvanians can continue to receive quality care for emergency health issues and life-saving procedures.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services will administer the funding.

The allocation formula considered a facilitys proportion of licensed beds at the end of 2021.
Pennsylvania has the second-most bridges rated poor in the nation  behind only Iowa according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Last weeks collapse of a Pittsburgh bridge rated poor came on the same day President Joe Biden was in the western Pennsylvania city to promote a $1 trillion infrastructure law.

Lancaster County is home to 135 bridges with a poor rating, according to data from the state Department of Transportation. Thats 13% of the countys 1,023 bridges.

A poor rating does not necessarily mean a bridge is unsafe to use, according to PennDOTs website. Federal law mandates that each bridge must be inspected at least once every two years. If an inspection reveals enough structural damage, transportation officials can implement weight limits on a bridge or shut it down entirely.

Since 2016, PennDOT has replaced more than 550 bridges in poor condition across the state, including 30 in Lancaster County, through the $899 million Rapid Bridge Replacement Project, made possible by a 2012 law authorizing public-private partnerships for transportation-related projects in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania will receive $1.6 billion in funding over five years as part of a federal bridge improvement plan that comes from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law. The state will receive more than $325 million as part of the plan this year, it was announced Jan. 14.

Here are eight Lancaster County bridges rated poor that have some of the highest average daily traffic volume, according to data from PennDOT.

McGovernville Road bridge

Owner: PennDOT

Municipality: Manheim Township

Goes over: Amtrak and Norfolk Southern Railroad

Year built: 1969

Use status: Open, no restrictions

Average Daily Traffic: 19,141

Scheduled for repair: None

Lincoln Highway East bridge (1 mile west of Soudersburg)

Owner: PennDOT

Municipality: East Lampeter Township

Goes over: Tributary to Pequea Creek

Year built: 1930

Use status: Open, no restrictions

Average Daily Traffic: 16,889

Scheduled for repair: November 2022

Estimated cost: $1,348,681

Estimated completion: November 2024

Lincoln Highway East bridge (1 mile east of Kinzer)

Owner: PennDOT

Municipality: Salisbury Township

Goes over: Houston Run

Year built: 1930

Use status: Open, no restrictions

Average Daily Traffic: 15,870

Scheduled for repair: November 2022

Estimated cost: $1,543,745

Estimated completion: November 2024

Market Street bridge

Owner: PennDOT

Municipality: Mount Joy Township

Goes over: Tributary to Conoy Creek

Year built: 1920

Use status: Open, no restrictions

Average Daily Traffic: 12,364

Scheduled for repair: September 2022

Estimated cost: $500,000

Estimated completion: November 2024

Old Philadelphia Pike bridge (Less than 1 mile east of Smoketown)

Owner: PennDOT

Municipality: East Lampeter Township

Goes over: Mill Creek

Year built: 1951

Use status: Open, no restrictions

Average Daily Traffic: 11,478

Scheduled for repair: March 2034

Estimated cost: $481,500

Estimated completion: Not provided.

Lancaster Road bridge

Owner: PennDOT

Municipality: Manheim and Penn Township

Goes over: Chickies Creek

Year built: 1955

Use status: Open, no restrictions

Average Daily Traffic: 11,143

Scheduled for repair: September 2025

Estimated cost: $650,000

Estimated completion: Not provided.

Rife Run Bridge

Owner: PennDOT

Municipality: Manheim

Goes over: Rife Run

Year built: 1948

Use status: Open with weight limits

Average Daily Traffic: 9,960

Scheduled for repair: November 2022

Estimated cost: $2,174,218

Estimated completion: July 2023

Reading Road bridge

Owner: PennDOT

Municipality: Adamstown

Goes over: Little Muddy Creek

Year built: 1941

Use status: Open, no restrictions

Average Daily Traffic: 9,643

Scheduled for repair: March 2034

Estimated cost: Not provided.

Estimated completion: Not provided.
A Chester County man who was wanted on several warrants was shot by law enforcement in East Earl Township early Tuesday morning, according to a warrant clerk at the Berks County Sheriffs Office.

Zachary R. Gilbaugh, 38, was wanted for stalking, violating a protection from abuse order, criminal trespass, burglary, motor vehicle theft and other offenses, according to East Earl Township police.

While the warrant clerk with the Berks County Sheriff's Office has identified the man as Gilbaugh, the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office has not yet named him publicly.

The incident began around 6 a.m., according to Lancaster County-Wide Communications. EMS and fire police were called to the scene around 6:51 a.m.

According to the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office, officers were dispatched to a residence in the 1400 block of Union Grove Road. Members of the United States Marshals Eastern District Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force were at the scene serving the warrants.

The unit's mission, according to its website, is to locate and apprehend fugitives throughout Philadelphia and its surrounding counties and "prides itself in arresting the most violent offenders while ensuring the safety of the citizens and the community."

As officers tried to take the suspect into custody, he started throwing cement bricks at officers, according to the DA's office. Officers then used a Taser and "other less lethal measures" to subdue the suspect, but a statement from the DA's office didn't give specifics.

The man then threatened officers with a blow torch  as officers retreated, he got into a vehicle and drove toward officers as he left the scene.

Multiple officers shot at the vehicle, according to the DA's statement.

The man remained in critical condition Tuesday night and was being held under guard at a hospital, said Sean McBryan, a spokesperson for the DA's office. McBryan did not specify how many times the man was shot, saying only that he was struck "multiple times."

"District Attorney (Heather) Adams will make final determination on police use of force once the investigation is complete," McBryan said.

Officers with the Berks County Sheriffs Department were also at the scene.

Police taped off an area near Union Grove and Reading roads early Tuesday morning.

A nearby Mennonite school  Terre Hill Mennonite High School  started on a delay, according to WGAL.

Warrants for Gilbaugh's arrest

Gilbaugh, whose last known address was in Honey Brook, had warrants that stretch back to several incidents police say happened in December and into January.

He sent near-daily texts to a woman threatening to kill her, showing up at her East Earl Township workplace on Dec. 17 and Jan. 4 with the intention of confronting and terrorizing her, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

The woman, who had a protection from abuse order placed against Gilbaugh in November, told police she lives in constant fear him. Gilbaugh also threatened the woman inside her Berks County home Dec. 25, police said.

On one occasion, Gilbaugh plowed his truck into the passenger-side door of the womans vehicle in a parking lot in the 1200 block of East Earl Road in East Earl Township around 4:40 a.m. on Dec. 17, police said. Gilbaugh then waved at the woman as he drove away.

Police spotted Gilbaugh in East Earl Township again around 9:15 p.m. on Jan. 4, this time speeding in the 4600 block of Division Highway. Gilbaugh abruptly slammed on the brakes as he turned onto East Earl Road, according to the affidavit.

Officers began following Gilbaugh, who at this point had numerous warrants for his arrest, but lost track of him in a business parking lot. His van was later found crashed in the 700 block of Wallace Road just after 10:30 p.m.

Now on foot, Gilbaugh broke into a home, again near the 1200 block of East Earl Road. A man and woman were watching television inside when Gilbaugh burst through the unlocked front door, appearing wide-eyed and out of breath. The couple twice ordered Gilbaugh out of their home before he ran away toward the womans workplace.

Gilbaugh stole at least two different vehicles as police continued searching for him, first taking a Yamaha four-wheeler before abandoning it for a Mercedes Benz. Police believe the Yamaha became caught in a nearby electric fence, heavily damaging it and causing one of the fences electric lines to be stretched across the road before it was abandoned.

The Mercedes Benz was found abandoned in the 2400 block of Long View Drive in Caernarvon Township around 10:50 p.m., having struck two mailboxes and a large rock in what appeared to be a low-speed crash, according to the affidavit. Police searched the area but were unable to find Gilbaugh.

Gilbaugh was charged Jan. 10 with criminal trespass, stalking, flight to avoid apprehension, burglary, two counts of theft by unlawful taking, loitering and prowling at nighttime, agricultural vandalism and a summary traffic violation. He was also charged with violating the protection from abuse order, stalking and simple assault for the Dec. 17 offenses.

Reading city police had also charged Gilbaugh for 16 different offenses including burglary, retaliation against a witness and terroristic threats they say were committed between Nov. 16 and Dec. 25.

An attorney was not listed for Gilbaugh in court documents.

Preliminary hearing dates have not been set for any of the offenses, court records show.

Gilbaugh has pleaded guilty to numerous misdemeanors since 2009, most recently being sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty to fleeing or attempting to elude an officer in Berks County in 2020.
The chairman of the Lancaster Township Republican Committee resigned Friday, less than one week after publishing an opinion piece that criticized plans by the county GOP to provide election training to members of a local conservative activist group known for spreading disinformation.

Joe Mohler, 24, stepped down from his position as members of the township committee prepared a resolution to remove him from his leadership role.

The target of his Jan. 23 column in the pages of LNP | LancasterOnline was FreePA, a conservative group with three active chapters in Lancaster County that emerged in 2020 in reaction to pandemic lockdowns and former President Donald Trumps election loss.

Having voters who are educated and involved is a keystone to Pennsylvania and American democracy, Mohler wrote. However, who a political party aligns itself with matters. FreePA is not an organization the county GOP has any business associating itself with. Its website has been a hub for spreading inflammatory and verifiably false information.

For a news story on the FreePA training event, Mohler told LNP, FreePA has said inflammatory things that are completely false, and fear mongers about the vaccine I dont think theyre an organization that demonstrates integrity.

Three days after Mohlers piece was published, Kurt Dock, a member of the townships area committee, put forward a resolution declaring Mohler could no longer fulfill the responsibility to foster an environment in which Republicans with different priorities and perspectives can work together.

Mohler removal resolution by Kurt Dock by Gillian on Scribd

Dock could not immediately be reached for comment Monday. Mohler was not available for comment Monday.

Mohler joined the committee last year and soon was selected as chair of the Lancaster Township local Republican committee after its former chairman, Terry Christopher, moved out of the township. Leaders of the Republican Partys area committees hold important positions, as they and their committees play major roles in making endorsements, gathering signatures to get candidates on the ballot, and getting Republican voters to the polls.

Mohler, in a profile story about his leadership published in LNP | LancasterOnline in September, said he wanted to join the committee in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol in hopes of redirecting the party back to its traditional conservative values and recruiting a more diverse membership.

According to the resolution drafted last week by Dock, Mohler was warned about speaking with LNP after the September article and was told he would benefit from consulting with the Lancaster Township Republican Committee prior to any additional articles being submitted to or published in the paper.

By publishing the op-ed critical of FreePA without consulting with the committee first, Mohler compromised his ability to serve in a position that must encourage an environment in which Republicans with different priorities and perspectives can work to resolve disagreements in a respectful and effective manner, Dock wrote.

Mohler rebuffed Docks claims in the letter of resignation he submitted Friday, saying he sought to diversify the committee to accurately represent Lancaster Township, and have demonstrated my ability to work with Republicans across the political spectrum.

Mohler was replaced by Rich Myers, another Lancaster Township committeeman. Myers declined to comment. Kirk Radanovic, the chairman of the Republican Committee of Lancaster County, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Joe Mohler resignation letter by Gillian on Scribd

Mohler also complained that he and Christopher were held to different standards. When Christopher was still chairman of the Lancaster Township committee, he often criticized county Republican leaders when contacted by LNP | LancasterOnline reporters.

I stand by what I wrote and by my right to say it as a way of exercising free speech, Mohler wrote.
Pennsylvania churches and other organizations can apply for grants from the state to pay for security enhancements to protect their members, Gov. Tom Wolf announced last week.

A total of $4.5 million is being made available to religious institutions of all faiths and denominations, as well as nonprofit organizations, that face bias and are targets of hate crimes.

Hate has no place here in Pennsylvania, Wolf said via press release. But unfortunately, weve seen an alarming uptick in hate crimes across the commonwealth. These bias incidents tear communities apart.

The grants offered by Pennsylvanias program range from $5,000 to $150,000.

Wolfs actions were a response to a rise in hate crimes in Pennsylvania in the past several years. In 2021 there were 224 hate crimes in Pennsylvania, according to a database maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police. That is an increase of over 100% from 2020s 111 incidents, and nearly 270% over 2019.

The leader of Lancasters Shaarai Shomayim synagogue said rising threats to religious and other groups shows the need for better security measures.

In my branch of the Jewish religion we were opposed to this in the past, government money in religion, said Rabbi Jack Paskoff of Lancaster-based Congregation Shaarai Shomayim. As the world has evolved and become more dangerous, we have no choice. As a Jewish institution we have no choice.

Paskoff said he wouldnt oppose it if his synagogue decided to pursue a grant under the program.

Last month, members of a Texas synagogue were held hostage by an attacker for over 11 hours before they were freed. And in 2018, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was the site of the worst mass killing of Jews in U.S. history.

But religious institutions in Pennsylvania are the targets of relatively few hate crimes, state police data shows.

Between January 2019 and January 2022 only 3% of hate crimes occurred at places of worship or community centers and just 13% were motivated by a bias against a religious group, according to the state police data. Anti-Black bias was a motivating factor in nearly 40% of crimes, and 50% of incidents occurred on public streets or in the home.

A spokesperson for the governors office did not immediately return a request for comment.

The grants are being funded through the states allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, are available through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
When: Elizabethtown Borough Council meeting, Jan. 20.

What happened: Borough officials announced the state Department of Transportation will be installing gates, payment kiosks and security apparatus at the parking lots serving the Elizabethtown Amtrak railroad station. Parking will cost riders $2 a day.

Background: Elizabethtown station at 50 S. Wilson Ave. is a busy station on the Keystone Corridor connecting the state capital at Harrisburg, only 20 minutes away, and Philadelphia. Last year, ridership was 22,232, down from over 100,000 prior to the pandemic, according to Amtrak statistics. Ticket revenue was $697,544 last year.

Boroughs role: The borough will maintain ownership of and maintain the parking lots. Council member Jeff McCloud said the rail station parking project was not a borough decision. Said council President J. Marc Hershey: There really is no plus side for the borough, but this is not something we really have the ability to say no to.

Other business: Borough Council approved an agreement with Columbia Borough for municipal yard waste removal for the coming year; approved a memorandum of understanding with Millersville University to cooperate with student interns on a GIS Data Mapping project to be reimbursed through a $5,000 grant; and decided to take no action on a request by the Elizabethtown Development Authority to transfer ownership of the historic borough-owned property at 56 N. Market St.

EMS regional committee: The cooperative group is currently exploring the possibility of creating a regional emergency medical services authority, Hershey said. All municipalities currently served by Northwest EMS are part of the committee. There continues to be a growing strain on finances, and it is getting difficult to find people who want to work in the field, he explained. The committee hopes to develop a plan this year and have an authority in place by January 2023. Hershey added that the cooperation on a medical services authority could also help lead to similar regional partnerships for fire service as well.

Appointments: Council appointed Neil Ketchum, former council vice president, to the borough vacancy board; new council member Jay Hynicker was appointed to the Greater Elizabethtown Area Recreation & Community Services board for the remainder of the year, filling the seat that had held by current council Vice President Phillip Clark since 2008.

Whats next: Council meets next Feb. 3.
February is Black History Month and Marylanders can mark it in a number of ways.

Nonprofits, schools and civic leaders, among others, are holding movie nights, provocative conversations and expos focused on finally starting your own business.

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Feb. 1: The State of Black Annapolis

Annapolis put up 76 flags downtown for Black History Month, that represent African diaspora, in 2021. This year the city will host a series of discussions on Annapolis' past, present and future. (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette)

Annapolis will host a three-part The State of Black Annapolis series focused on the citys past, present and future that will be streamed live on the citys Facebook and YouTube channels, Facebook.com/CityofAnnapolis and Youtube.com/CityofAnnapolis. The first event will start at 6 p.m. Feb. 1., the second will take place Feb. 8 and the third Feb. 15. Further information can be found at eyeonannapolis.net.

Feb. 5: Black Wallstreet Market

Around the Way Gyrlz Events, a company that produces pop-up shops and events  will host Black Wallstreet Market on the Avenue, which showcases Black-owned businesses starting at noon on Feb. 5 at 2601 Pennsylvania Avenue. Expect vendors selling clothes, art, West Indian food, jewelry and accessories. Reach out to Lakisha Overton at atwgyrlzevents@gmail.com, for more information. Overton runs Around the Gyrlz Events and is the owner of LaCentric Jewelry & Accessories, which sells handmade ethnic jewelry and accessories. More information at: nationalblackguide.com/black-events/black-wallstreet-market-on-the-avenue.html

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Feb. 5: The Lost History of Frederick (Bailey) Douglass in Baltimore

John Muller, the author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia, will host a walking tour centered on the lost history of Frederick Douglass (pictured in an undated photo) in Baltimore. (AP)

John Muller, author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia, will host a walking tour centered on the lost history of Frederick Douglass in Baltimore. Douglass was an enslaved man who achieved renown as an activist and newspaper publisher, among other things. The tour starts at 9 a.m. on Feb. 5 and Feb. 18 and goes from Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park on Thames Street to Greedy Reads on Aliceanna Street in Fells Point. For more information, and to purchase tickets, go to: eventbrite.com/e/walking-tour-lost-history-of-frederick-bailey-douglass-in-baltimore-tickets-63891216348

Feb. 5: Collaborative Paper Quilt

The Havre de Grace Arts Collective Youth Arts program in Harford County will host the Black History Month: Collaborative Paper Quilt. The virtual event, where people will make their own paper quilt designs, will start at 10 a.m. Feb. 5. Register at hdgoperahouse.org.

Feb. 8: Lawrence Brown

Lawrence Brown, director of the Black Butterfly Academy, will speak at the University of Maryland, Baltimores Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History Month 2022 event. (SHAN Wallace)

Lawrence Brown will deliver the keynote at the University of Maryland, Baltimores Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History Month 2022 celebration starting at noon Feb. 8. Brown is the author of The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America. Register for the event here: web.cvent.com/event/3ec38606-bfcf-4f7e-8255-6b9faec1ee7b/regProcessStep1

Feb. 11: Fanny Jackson Coppin statue unveiling

Coppin State University in Baltimore will unveil its statue of Fanny Jackson Coppin, a pioneer in the field of education. (Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun)

Coppin State University in Baltimore will unveil its Fanny Jackson Coppin statue at 1 p.m. Feb 11. on the main campus behind the J. Millard Tawes Center and live stream the event at coppin.edu/watch. Fanny Jackson Coppin was a pioneer in the field of education.

The exterior of the Sebrof Forbes Cultural Arts Center in Kensington, Md. (Sebrof Forbes Cultural Arts Center)

Feb. 12: Black Business Expo

Sebrof-Forbes Cultural Arts Center in Montgomery County will host a Black Business Expo starting at noon Feb. 12 at 3535 University Boulevard West in Kensington. The event is free. Register at: eventbrite.com/e/2022-black-history-month-black-business-expo-tickets-248775152177

Feb. 13: Advancing Health Equity Locally and Globally

Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. >

Health professional Yolanda Ogbolu will lead a virtual lecture named Advancing Health Equity Locally and Globally starting at 3 p.m. Feb. 13. The event is hosted by Coppin State University in Baltimore. More information at: coppin.edu/black-history-month

Mary Ann Ashcraft spent more than two decades researching Sebastian Hammond and Caleb McPeak, two African American gravestone carvers.

Feb. 15: Box Lunch Talk: Creating Memorials

Learn about two African American gravestone carvers, Sebastian Hammond and Caleb McPeak, during a virtual event with Mary Ann Ashcraft hosted by the Historical Society of Carroll County starting at noon Feb 15. Ashcraft spent more than two decades researching the gravestone carvers, according to the Historical Society. More information at hsccmd.org.

State Sen. Brian Feldman, a Democrat representing parts of Montgomery County, will discuss equity in the cannabis industry as it moves to adult legalization.

Feb. 24: Equity in the cannabis industry

Tea Pad, an organization that promotes the cannabis industry, will highlight topics on equity in the business and will feature State Sen. Brian Feldman, a Democrat representing parts of Montgomery County, starting at 6 p.m. Feb. 24. The event will be held at Busboys and Poets at 3324 Saint Paul St. in Baltimore. Tickets can be purchased at eventbrite.com/e/strategies-for-success-legalization-in-maryland-with-senator-brian-feldman-tickets-212607383407

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Feb. 23: On the Civil Rights Movement and hope

Carroll Community College will host a lecture by Dr. Rev. Marty Kuchma, the senior pastor at St. Pauls United Church of Christ in Westminster, on the the importance of hope in the Civil Rights movement. Register at signupgenius.com/go/10c044da8a92ca5fc1-escaping.

Ongoing

Join the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University for many exhibitions featuring artist Mercy Moyo and photographer Ken Royster. Moyo won the National Arts Merit Awards in 2006. Royster is the former chairperson and coordinator of Morgan State Universitys visual arts program. For more information go to: jelmamuseum.org/events

The B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore will show three movies focused on three different eras of Black history. One of them is "Amistad" (pictured). (Dreamworks Pictures)

The B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore will show three movies focused on three different eras of Black history. Amistad, which is about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, will be shown at 3 p.m. Feb. 12 at the museum at 901 W. Pratt St. Harriet, about Underground Railroad conductor and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman, and Selma, which is about the fight for voting rights, will be shown at 3 p.m. Feb. 20 and Feb 27, respectively. Admission is free. More information at: borail.org

The Benjamin Banneker Historical Park & Museum is in the historic mill town of Oella. (Barbara Haddock Taylor, Baltimore Sun)

The Benjamin Banneker Historical Park & Museum in Baltimore County celebrates the life of the scientist and author Banneker every day at 300 Oella Ave. in Catonsville. More information at: friendsofbenjaminbanneker.com
THE ISSUE

Art Spiegelman is slated to be part of Millersville Universitys Spring 2022 Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide. As LNP | LancasterOnlines Mike Andrelczyk reported, Spiegelman will deliver the keynote lecture April 28 at the Winter Visual & Performing Arts Center in Millersville. The American cartoonist is best known for his postmodern graphic novel Maus, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. In this harrowing story of the imprisonment at Auschwitz of his Polish Jewish parents, Spiegelman drew the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice. A school board in Tennessee voted in early January to ban Maus, because of its inappropriate language and an illustration of a nude woman (drawn as a mouse), The Associated Press reported last week. The ban has sent sales of Maus skyrocketing.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum tweeted last week that Maus has played a vital role in educating about the Holocaust through sharing detailed and personal experiences of victims and survivors.

Unfortunately, such education seems to be precisely what some people fear.

They fear books that unflinchingly explore complex subjects, such as the Holocaust, slavery in America, racism and LGBTQ lives. They want historys rough edges to be softened so they wont upset anyone. They want lifes sharp edges to be softened, too, so no one is challenged to think differently or act differently.

They may think theyre protecting children, but what theyre really doing is failing to equip children with the knowledge, compassion, empathy and reasoning they need to get by in a challenging and diverse world. We should not soft-pedal the Holocaust or slavery or Jim Crow.

Some of the books being banned explore more personal issues.

A young adult novel titled Me and Earl and the Dying Girl  the story of three teens, one of whom has terminal cancer  was temporarily pulled from the library shelves of Elizabethtown Area School Districts middle school, for instance.

The Eastern Lancaster County School District banned a graphic novel titled Lighter Than My Shadow  appallingly, one school board member suggested that it be burned  because it explores a young womans journey to overcome an eating disorder.

The lives of many adolescents arent as glossy as they may appear on Instagram. Books that explore more difficult realities can help children to understand their own realities.

Unfortunately, efforts to ban books from school libraries are taking place in our region, as well as across the United States. It takes courage to swim against any rising tide. So today we write in praise of two Manheim Central School District residents who, at a district school board last week, took a stand against book-banning.

As Rochelle A. Shenk reported for LNP | LancasterOnline, resident Terrie Eshleman pointed out that school board members are elected public officials and need to represent the views of their community, not their personal ideologies.

Eshleman pointed out that in 1982, in the Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico ruling, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. wrote that local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.

When a school official removes books from a school library based on narrowly partisan or political grounds, that is an official suppression of ideas, Brennan wrote. And the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas.

As Eshleman told the Manheim Central school board: The courts have told public officials at all levels that they may take community standards into account, but they cannot censor publications by generally accepted authors to placate a small segment of the community.

She asked the school board to rebuff any calls to remove books from our school libraries.

Resident Genevieve Zercher said the school board should refrain from considering the validity of school library materials without a transparent formal process as outlined by the American Library Association.

Zercher said, Librarians are trained to curate a collection of materials for all the people in the community, not just those who are the loudest, not just those who may be in a majority group. A perspective that one family finds objectionable may be just the perspective that another learner needs to see.

If I must trust anyone with the best interests of my child, it would be the trained librarians and learning facilitators who interact with my child on a daily basis; the professionals who know my child and her needs and abilities. That is why we have hired them. We need to allow them to do their jobs without political interference.

Indeed. We could not have said this better ourselves.

According to the American Library Associations Office of Intellectual Freedom, it saw 60% more book challenges in September 2021 compared with September 2020.

As weve written before, banning books is anti-democratic and an obstacle to an excellent education.

We urge parents in Lancaster County to ensure that their kids have access to a wide variety of challenging school library books. Please use your voices to take a stand against book bans.
Tuesday, February 1, 2022

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the dismissal of a legal malpractice case on the grounds that no attorney-client relationship existed

The defendants, Dwyer & Duddy, P.C., and attorney Christina C. Duddy (collectively, union counsel), are legal counsel to the Boston Teachers Union (union). The plaintiff (grievant) was a tenured teacher and a member of the bargaining unit. Union counsel and the union followed a discrete protocol governing the filing of arbitration demands when the union agreed to take a case of a teacher termination2 to either contractual or statutory arbitration. See the Education Reform Act (ERA or act), G. L. c. 71,  42. Union counsel was authorized to demand arbitration only when directed to do so by the union leadership, in writing.

Grievant was terminated after an untimely demand was made.

As to the merits of the prohibited practice charge, the hearing officer ruled that the grievant would have been successful in reversing her dismissal and would have been reinstated, but for the untimely filed arbitration demand. The hearing officer imputed to the union the conduct of union counsel as agents of the union. The hearing officer found that "no attorney-client relationship exists between the [union counsel] handling an arbitration and the grievant." The department ordered the union to make the grievant whole, but restricted the remedy to wages and contractual benefits lost between her September 25, 2014 termination and March 16, 2015. This restriction was based on the factual finding that the grievant would not have returned to work. No appeal was filed from the hearing officer's decision.

The grievant filed suit in the Superior Court alleging legal malpractice against union counsel due to the untimely filing of the arbitration demand. Union counsel moved for summary judgment, contending that they never had an attorney-client relationship with the grievant, and, alternatively, that the grievant was unable to establish recoverable damages due to the award issued by the department. After a hearing, a Superior Court judge allowed the motion, concluding that no attorney-client relationship existed; judgment entered in favor of union counsel. This appeal followed.

To no avail

Because the grievant's claims against union counsel are for actions they took as agents of the union, summary judgment was properly granted to union counsel. The grievant's exclusive remedy for a breach of the duty of fair representation by the union or its agents was the filing of prohibited practice charges with the department.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2022/02/the-massachusetts-supreme-judicial-court-affirmed-the-dismissal-of-a-legal-malpractice-case-the-defendants-dwyer-duddy-p.html


People across Asia prepared Monday to celebrate another Lunar New Year under restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lunar New Year falls on Tuesday, February 1. It is the most important holiday in China. Each year it is named after one of twelve signs of the countrys traditional zodiac system. This year, 2022, is the Year of the Tiger.

The holiday historically marks the worlds largest yearly movement of people. Before the pandemic, hundreds of millions of Chinese traveled home for Lunar New Year break. Many of them are workers in cities who go back to their home villages.

But it will be the third straight year that people celebrate the holiday during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Chinese officials ordered a lockdown in Wuhan, China, just two days before Lunar New Year. Wuhan is the central city where the first cases of the new coronavirus were discovered.

Currently, about 85 percent of Chinese are fully vaccinated, the online research website Our World in Data reports. This has led to more people traveling within China this year, even though the government has issued warnings against it. This year, many Chinese were buying traditional supplies to celebrate at home.

About 260 million people traveled in China during the first 10 days of the Lunar New Year holiday season that started January 17. That is fewer than before the pandemic, but up 46 percent over last year. Overall, the government estimates 1.2 billion trips will be made during the holiday period, up 36 percent from 2021.

A 63-year-old retiree from Beijing, Huang Ping, spoke to The Associated Press while shopping at a flower market. He said he thinks the New Years atmosphere has faded with the closure of religious centers and festivals because of COVID-19 restrictions.

But Huang said he hoped for better times in the new year. I wish for the (pandemic) to pass as early as possible and for the economy to recover as well, he said.

Another Chinese retiree, 62-year-old Han Guiha, told the AP he was planning on making the best of the situation. I'll stay at home enjoying good food and wine, Han said. I will make my house clean and beautiful. Right now, the virus is spreading and we need to be careful.

Chen Lianshan is a Beijing University expert on Chinese folklore. He said that with the Year of the Tiger, many people are hoping the traditional powers linked to the animal will help put the country on a path out of the pandemic. The tiger represents a protection against evil spirits and it can defeat demons and ghosts of all kinds Chen said.

Elsewhere in Asia, there were signs that some celebrations might not be as restricted as last year. In many nations, most people are now vaccinated with at least two shots against COVID-19.

In the old quarter of Vietnams capital, Hanoi, people shopped over the weekend for traditional supplies for the New Year festival, known locally as Tet. Officials canceled Tet fireworks and other large events in an effort to reduce virus spread.

In Thailand, officials in Bangkok decided not to hold traditional Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatown for the second straight year. But another event, the citys traditional lighting of lanterns, will take place. About 69 percent of Thais are fully vaccinated.

In Singapore, officials ordered restrictions on the number of visitors that people can welcome each day.

In Taiwan, business was strong at a flower market in Taipei on Monday as people made last-minute shopping trips. An estimated 73 percent of Taiwanese are fully vaccinated.

A shopkeeper in Taipei named Lee told the AP the pandemic is surely affecting Lunar New Year celebrations. But, he added, people still like flowers, so they come out and buy flowers.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________

Words in This Story

fade  v. to slowly disappear, lose importance or become weaker

wine  n. an alcoholic drink made from the juice of grapes

folklore  n. the traditional stories and culture of a group of people

demon  n. an evil spirit

ghost  n. the spirit of a dead person

lantern  n. a light inside a container that has a handle for carrying it or hanging it up


When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the island nation of Kiribati closed its borders. That meant the disease did not reach the remote country in the Pacific for nearly two years.

Kiribati finally began reopening this month, letting a plane carrying 54 of its citizens to return. Many of those on the plane were religious workers from the Mormon Church. They had left Kiribati before the border closure to spread the churchs teachings in other countries.

Officials tested each returning passenger three times in nearby Fiji. They were required to be vaccinated and stay in quarantine with additional testing when they arrived home.

The measures were not enough.

More than half the passengers tested positive for the virus, which has now spread into the community. The government has declared a state of disaster. And what began as 36 positive cases from the flight increased to 181 cases by Friday.

Kiribati and several other small Pacific nations were among the last places on the planet to have avoided any virus outbreaks. They have little contact because of their remote locations and strict border controls. But their defenses appear to be ineffective against the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Before this month's outbreak, Kiribati had reported just two virus cases. They were crew members on a ship that officials did not permit to dock.

Helen Petousis-Harris is a vaccine expert at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She said the spread of the virus could not be avoided. It's a matter of buying enough time to prepare and getting as many people vaccinated as possible, she added.

Only 33 percent of Kiribati's 113,000 people are fully vaccinated. A scientific publication, Our World in Data, reports that 59 percent have had at least one shot of the vaccine. And like many other Pacific nations, Kiribati offers only basic health services.

Dr. Api Talemaitoga leads a network of Indigenous Pacific Island doctors in New Zealand. He said Kiribati had only two intensive care beds in the entire nation. In the past, the nation would send its sickest patients to Fiji or New Zealand for treatment. He said he is concerned about how Kiribati's health system will handle the outbreak.

Kiribati has now opened several quarantine areas, declared a curfew, and restricted movement. President Taneti Maamau said on social media that the government is using all its resources to deal with the situation and urged people to get vaccinated.

Other island nations

In October, another religious worker also brought the first and only case, so far, of COVID-19 to Tonga, an island nation over 2,000 kilometers southwest of Kiribati. He was vaccinated and quarantined following his return from Africa and New Zealand.



As Tonga is trying to prevent an outbreak, a strong volcanic explosion and tsunami destroyed the country earlier this month.

The nation of 105,000 people has since received aid from around the world. Crews from incoming military ships and planes must drop their supplies and leave without having any contact with those on the ground.

Petousis-Harris, the vaccine expert, said, "Anything they can do to keep it out is going to be important. COVID would just make that disaster worse, she added.

In the long term, however, it is going to be impossible to stop the virus from entering Tonga or any other community, Petousis-Harris said.

Nearby Samoa, with a population of 205,000, is also trying to prevent its first outbreak. It restricted movement after 15 passengers on a plane from Australia last week tested positive. By Thursday, that number had grown to 27, including five front-line nurses who had treated the passengers.

Fishing will be permitted

While the appearance of the virus has caused restrictions, there were signs that not all traditional qualities of island life would be lost for long.

Kiribati declared on Thursday people could return to fishing. But only four people will be permitted to be on a boat or part of a group fishing near shore."

Im Jill Robbins.

Nick Perry and Sam Metz reported on this story for the Associated Press. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

For more of the words related to COVID, see The Language of an International Health Crisis

remote  adj. far away, distant

church  n. a particular Christian group

quarantine - n. the period of time during which a person or animal that has a disease or that might have a disease is kept away from others to prevent the disease from spreading

positive  adj. showing the presence of a particular germ, condition, or substance

location  n. a place or position

contagious  adj. capable of being easily spread to others

dock  n. an area of water in a port where ships are loaded, unloaded, or repaired

shore  n. the land along the edge of an area of water (such as an ocean, lake, or the like)

What do you think of the spread of COVID to distant islands? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.


A new study provides evidence that the cannabis compound CBD can block infections of COVID-19 in human cells and mice.

The study was led by American researchers from the University of Chicago. Marsha Rosner led the team. She is a professor in the universitys Ben May Department of Cancer Research.

Rosner told Reuters the research showed that CBD was able to block the virus that causes COVID-19 from replicating, or making copies of itself, in human lung cells.

CBD stands for cannabidiol. It is the second most active substance found in cannabis, also known as marijuana, Harvard Medical School reports. The main chemical substance in cannabis is THC. THC is what gives marijuana users the mental state known as a high. CBD contains almost no THC.

In the experiment, researchers treated human lung cells with CBD for two hours before introducing the virus to the cells, the University of Chicago said in a report. The team found that CBD, when given in the right amounts, reduced the virus ability to replicate in the cells.

The researchers reported the same results when the experiment was performed on two other kinds of cells. They said CBD was able to reduce virus replication in several different versions, or variants, of COVID-19.

The team noted that CBD was not able to stop the virus from entering cells. But it was found to be effective at blocking replication of the virus during early infection and six hours after the virus had already infected the cells. Similar results were reported in experiments involving mice.

The study was recently published in Science Advances. The research offers some hope for CBD as a possible treatment for COVID-19. But Rosner said more studies are needed to measure the true effectiveness of CBD. "Our findings do not say this will work in patients. Our findings make a strong case for a clinical trial," she said.

The researchers also looked at a group of adults with severe epilepsy who were taking an approved CBD drug. They found that individuals in the group had lower rates of COVID-19. But Rosner said that area of research also needs actual clinical trials before any conclusions can be made.

The team also included THC in the experiments. But Rosner said the substance did not keep the virus out of cells or prevent it from replicating. "Not only did THC not work, but combining it with CBD prevented CBD from working," she said.

Several other studies have been carried out and some small CBD trials with COVID-19 are currently going on, Reuters reports. Rosner's team plans to explore the possibility of a clinical trial involving people with mild cases of COVID-19.

Rosner says she is concerned that media reports overstating that possible use of cannabinoids may lead people to self-medicate with CBD and avoid getting vaccinated or wear a face covering.

"We would love to be able to say specifically" that a set amount of cannabinoids is helpful, she said. But, she added, at this point, "vaccine-induced antibodies and antibody drugs are much more effective at blocking infection."

Im Bryan Lynn.

Reuters and the University of Chicago reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for VOA Learning English.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

Quiz: Study Says Cannabis Compound CBD May Help Prevent, Treat COVID Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

___________________________________________________

Words in This Story

clinical trial  n. a scientific test of the effectiveness and safety of something such as a drug or medical treatment

conclusion  n. the final part of something

overstate  v. to describe or explain something in a way that makes it seem more important or serious than it really is

specific  adj. relating to one, particular thing

induce  v. to cause something to happen


Japanese automaker Toyota says it will team up with the countrys space agency to develop a vehicle to explore the moon.

The vehicle is called the Lunar Cruiser. The name comes from a popular Toyota vehicle called the Land Cruiser.

The company said it plans to launch the vehicle in the late 2020s. After that, Toyota said the vehicle could assist people living on the moon by 2040 and could possibly be sent to Mars as well.

Takao Sato heads the companys Lunar Cruiser project. He told The Associated Press the vehicle is based on the idea that people eat, work, sleep and communicate with others safely in cars. He hopes the Lunar Cruiser can serve the same purpose in space.

We see space as an area for our once-in-a-century transformation, Sato said. By going to space, we may be able to develop telecommunications and other technology that will prove valuable to human life.

Another company, Gitai Japan Inc., is partnering with Toyota to develop a robotic arm for the Lunar Cruiser. It will be designed to perform jobs such as carrying out inspections and maintaining the vehicle. The company said the arm will be built to work with different tools. These tools could be used to study the moons surface more closely.

Interest in space has been growing in Japan in recent years.

Japanese space exploration company iSpace announced last April that it would transport an explorer belonging to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the moon in 2022. Japans iSpace will provide the lander to carry the UAEs rover. The company plans to launch the lander on a Falcon 9 rocket built by American company SpaceX.

Japanese citizens followed the trip to space last year of billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. He spent 12 days aboard the International Space Station. Maezawa also plans in the future to orbit around the moon on a SpaceXs Starship spacecraft.

Toyota engineer Shinichiro Noda said he thinks the lunar project can extend the companys tradition of serving customers to a place beyond Earth.

He said Toyota currently has vehicles almost everywhere. But this is about taking our cars to somewhere we have never been, Noda said.

Im Ashley Thompson.

The Associated Press reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________

Words in This Story

transformation  n. a complete change

maintain  v. keep a thing in good condition

customer  n. someone who buys goods and services from a business
Morgan State University and Coppin State University in Baltimore were among the latest historically Black colleges to be targeted with bomb threats Tuesday morning.

Both campuses canceled in-person classes and kept students sheltered in place throughout the morning, but no explosives were found.

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Over the past month, similar threats have prompted lockdowns and extensive searches at HBCU campuses across the country, although no bombs have been recovered.

About a dozen HBCUs received threats Tuesday  the first day of Black History Month. Among them was Howard University in Washington, D.C., which has been threatened several times since the wave of incidents began in early January. On Monday, Bowie State University in Prince Georges County was forced to close while it conducted a campus-wide search after a threat.

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When Coppin State senior Justin Evans woke up to the news Tuesday morning, his mind began to race. He thought of his younger sister, who also lives in a dorm on campus. He wondered if hed have to evacuate his dormitory  or worse, leave campus altogether.

You dont know how real something is until it happens to you, unfortunately, said Evans, a business management major who serves as president of the universitys Student Government Association.

Given the string of threats to other HBCUs, the news wasnt exactly unexpected, but it hit home for the small campus in West Baltimore, where preparations for a homecoming celebration next week are underway, Evans said.

You hear these kinds of things on TV, he said. To wake up and know that you can possibly be targeted for a bomb is ridiculous.

Morgan State senior Jamera Forbes, president of the universitys Student Government Association, said she worried that the news could further erode students mental health, which already has been negatively affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

As students, weve already been put through so much with COVID over the last two years, said Forbes, who studies sociology. Were just trying to get back to our norm and with now these bomb threats, it causes students to have a whole step back down.

In a statement Tuesday morning, Morgan State President David Wilson called for the threats to Morgan and other campuses to be aggressively investigated by the FBI.

Morgan is one of the most historical and consequential universities in the nation. Our history has been one where we have endured all kinds of challenges and disruptions, but we have always emerged stronger, Wilson wrote in a statement.

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Morgan State received its threat at about 4:50 a.m. Tuesday, and decided to close campus, hold classes virtually for the day and instruct all employees to telework, school spokesman Larry Jones said in a statement.

Morgan State Police worked with other law enforcement agencies to conduct a campus-wide, building-by-building search, Jones wrote.

Residence halls were cleared first, followed by the dining hall and student center, so that meals could be prepared for students, according to Wilsons statement. Academic and office buildings came next.

At 1:30 p.m., officials announced that Morgans campus had been cleared, but classes would remain virtual for the rest of the day and access to campus buildings would be limited, minus the universitys dining hall. Normal campus operations were set to resume Wednesday.

Coppin State received its threat shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday, said school spokeswoman Angela Galeano. Officials closed campus for the day and announced that classes would be held virtually while Baltimore Police, campus police and the FBI investigated the threat, she said.

As of about 10:30 a.m., Coppins campus had been cleared, Galeano said. The school announced that classes and university services would resume as normal starting at 5 p.m.

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In recent weeks, several historically Black colleges and universities, nationwide, have been subjected to anonymous bomb threats, wrote Coppin President Anthony L. Jenkins in a message to campus Tuesday morning. Thankfully, such threats have not yielded any credible danger, but they have been an unfortunate disruption to our community and others.

Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. >

In a tweet, Gov. Larry Hogan called the threats disturbing.

Maryland State Police is supporting the federal investigation, and we stand ready to assist in any way we can, he wrote.

Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones said via Twitter that the incidents are a reminder that historical episodes of violence against Black institutions, such as the bombings of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, arent relics of the past, but a persistent threat.

The resurgence in extremism requires more, not less, honesty in our education, media, & everyday conversations, she wrote.

Desire Jones, a senior English major who serves as Miss Coppin State, said her Tuesday morning classes were canceled, and professors sent out online assignments instead. She sheltered in place in her dormitory throughout the morning, eating snacks she keeps in her room while awaiting word from the university about meals.

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All the while, she couldnt help but think about the strength of her campus and other historically Black institutions.

HBCUs were created for us, by us as African Americans, she said. We have the resilience of so many people who have come before us. So this is not something that we cannot overcome.


Russia and the United States clashed sharply as the United Nations Security Council met Monday to discuss troop buildup along the Ukraine border.

Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia accused the U.S. and Western nations of whipping up tensions over Ukraine. He said the U.S. has falsely accused Russia of planning military action, saying, You want it to happen. Youre waiting for it to happen, as if you want to make your words become a reality.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield answered that Russias military force of more than 100,000 troops along Ukraines borders was the largest mobilization in Europe for years.

And they are attempting, without any factual basis, to paint Ukraine and Western countries as the aggressors to fabricate a pretext for attack, she said.

The exchanges in the Security Council came as Russia lost an attempt to block the meeting. And talks between the U.S. and Russia have so far failed to ease tensions in the crisis.

The U.S. requested Monday's public discussion in the council and needed at least nine votes to open the meeting after Russia tried to block the vote. Ten council members voted in favor, Russia and China voted no, while India, Gabon and Kenya abstained.

The discussion centered on whether the build-up of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine is a threat to international peace and security - which the Security Council is charged with maintaining.

The Russian ambassador blamed the U.S. for the 2014 popular protest that led a Russian-friendly president to flee Kyiv. He claimed that it brought to power pure Nazis, and created the conflicts that exist between Ukraine and Russia. But Nebenzia left the meeting as the Ukrainian Ambassador started to speak.

American President Joe Biden has warned Russia that the U.S. will start "strong economic and other measures" as punishment should Moscow start a military conflict against Ukraine. He said in a statement that the Security Council meeting was a chance for the world to speak out in one voice calling for nations to stop military aggression against its neighbors.

The Security Council has met several times over the crisis in Ukraine since Russia took over Crimea in 2014. The council has not been able to take any action as Russia is one of the council's five veto powers, along with the United States, China, France and Britain.

On Tuesday, Russia takes over the council's rotating presidency for February. Some diplomats warn that Russia could delay any attempts by council members to request another discussion on actions by Russia.

The U.N. General Assembly is also set to hold its yearly discussion on "the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine" on Feb. 23.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

The Associated Press and the Reuters News Agency reported this story. Hai Do adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

____________________________________________________________

Words in this Story

fabricate  v. to create or make up something

pretext  n. a reason that you give to hide your real reason for doing something

rotate  v. to regularly change the place or position
With its scrawny, bright-red, feather-free neck, the Transylvania Naked Neck chicken isnt going to win any beauty contests. But what this bizarre-looking bird lacks in looks it more than makes up for in the noble work its doing. Or at least thats the case at Arkansas-based Cooks Venture, a chicken farm, hatchery and processing plant with a mission to offer pasture-raised, slow-growth heirloom chickens that not only taste good but do good by the planet, the people wholl eat them and, yes, the birds themselves.

Its a big ask, but Cooks Venture CEO and Founder Matthew Wadiak is more than up for the task. As the co-founder and former COO of Blue Apron, he knows a thing or two about shaking up food production and delivery systems.

And as a professionally trained chef whos worked with culinary innovators in the United States and Italy, Wadiak has a deep appreciation and respect for thoughtfully sourced, great-tasting products.

An early interest in quality

It was that easy access to high-quality ingredients he had while working as a young chef that got Wadiak to question how he could do the same for those not in the hospitality industry. That sort of thinking of how to provide similar quality food for millions of people went into all our procurement at Blue Apron, he says. There isnt that kind of supply chain of high-quality ingredients in the U.S. that you find in Europe.

At Blue Apron, that meant working with legendary grass-fed beef farmer Bill Niman of BN Ranch to improve meat sourcing for their meal kits, which included the purchasing of whole cows  and eventually, the company itself. During his time at the meal kit company, a supply chain network of more than 250 farms was also established.

But while their meat sourcing saw great improvement, chicken remained a conundrum. I went to pretty much every company in terms of poultry in the U.S., says Wadiak of his search for a better-quality bird. He quickly came to realize that his lack of success was because more than 90 percent of all chickens in America are basically the same because there are only two breeding businesses  Aviagen Group and Cobb-Vantress, a unit of U.S. giant Tyson Foods Inc.  that had been aggregated over the course of the last 50-odd years.

Everything has become about cheap meat and poor quality, says Wadiak, citing the rise in demand for low-fat chicken breasts as one of the influencing factors in the proliferation of genetically manipulated chickens. We decided the only way to have access to better chickens was to do it ourselves.

Small and slow

And thats how Wadiak first crossed paths with Blake Evans, the grandson of the late poultry farmer and independent breeder Lloyd Peterson, originator of the internationally known Peterson male breed. Evans had been working for more than a decade with geneticist Richard Udale to create a better, more natural chicken that could thrive on pasture. In 2018, Wadiaks passion for improving the food system led him to start Cooks Venture with both Evans and Udale onboard as partners.

This leads us back to our friend, the Transylvania Naked Neck. Currently the only vertically integrated chicken producer in the country with an independent breeding business, Cooks Venture eschews the long-standing industry trend of large, fast-growing birds in favor of a smaller, slower growing one. After a decade of breeding, Cooks Ventures new breed, dubbed the Pioneer, is a three-way cross between a Heritage Transylvanian Naked Neck, a Heritage Delaware and a proprietary Peterson family breed from the 1930s. It has a naturally strong body and robust immune system (both necessary for the birds to thrive outdoors), which makes for better health  for both you and the chicken.

A taste generations in the making

Each of those three chickens were chosen for the specific traits they bring to the table  literally and figuratively  a process that can take years due to the breeding of multiple generations. Top of Wadiak and his Cook Venture partners list of must-haves for their birds was resilient immune systems and digestive health to ensure a strong frame and legs so they could thrive on pasture, snacking on insects, seeds and foliage, when theyre not inside their spacious, light-filled homes eating a non-GMO blend of feed.

And then, of course, theres taste. We want birds that are healthier and taste good, says Wadiak. Bill [Niman] told me this 20 years ago: You can have all the bells and whistles, heritage, antibiotic-free and pastured-raised and whatever. But if it doesnt taste good theres no value to it.

In the spring of 2019, Cooks Ventures first customer was Fresh Direct. In September of that year, they began selling online, directly to the consumer. Initially, we thought we were going to be in more restaurants, says Wadiak. But when Covid hit, we ended up in more retailers. Now you can buy our stuff on the Internet and all over the place and we are expanding every week into more foodservice.

Healthy animal, healthy earth

But Cooks Ventures special chickens and the humane ways in which they are raised are only part of the story. The 800 acres of forested farmland and the 70 or so buildings on it in the beautiful foothills of the Ozarks in Northwest Arkansas (where the company engages with regional crop farmers to grow feed using regenerative farming practices) is another major part of this complicated puzzle.

We are working to build diversity into the grains grown by our crop farmers, such as cover crops, lupine, hemp and peas, in order to develop soil fertility and regenerative systems on the crop land, says Wadiak. Our breed's healthy gut is able to digest a wider variety of feed, which allows us to move away from the soy- and corn-heavy feed found on most industrial chicken farms."

Additionally, Cooks Venture partnered with Restoration Agriculture Development (RAD) to plant more than 20,000 hazelnut trees across 18 farms (including their own) in the spring of 2020. Agroforestry practices like this not only help improve soil quality, but hazelnut trees, which actually look more like bushes, both feed the chickens (they love the nuts), and provide shade and protection from predators.

And Cooks Venture is just getting started. Partnerships with like-minded ranchers and farmers mean the companys been able to add grass-fed lamb and beef to their offerings, with pork coming in 2022. In the future, the company will rotate cattle, pigs and chickens on the land as well as feed crops and vegetables with the aim of measurably improving soil health  a report card that will be scannable on every meat label for concerned consumers, says Wadiak.
Lapwai, ID (83501)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 52F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 52F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
In the wake of two shooting incidents this month at an off-campus student apartment building and with students returning for the spring semester Monday, Towson University is taking steps to help bolster security downtown near the campus.

The university plans to send grant money to the Baltimore County Police Department to fund two additional overnight patrol shifts in the downtown area, the university announced last week.

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The full scale of the grant is still being determined, university spokesman Matt Palmer said Friday, but the school has committed to sending money through the end of the semester.

A Baltimore County police spokeswoman said the funding would go toward overtime for existing patrol officers, rather than new police hires.

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Earlier this month, a Towson student and aspiring musician was found shot and killed off campus around 2 a.m. in the unit block of W. Susquehanna Ave., the same block as the new Altus apartment building in the Towson Row development. Another college student, who went to Morgan State University, was shot to death in Towson in October in a parking lot at The Shops at Kenilworth.

Then, around 10:30 p.m. Jan. 22, Baltimore County Police responded to the Altus for a reported shooting. No victim was located, though police said the investigation is ongoing.

The two recent incidents occurring at the Altus apartment building are absolutely unacceptable, Chief Melissa Hyatt said in a statement provided to The Baltimore Sun, referencing the Jan. 11 homicide of Ikemefuna Eguh, a 23-year-old senior, and the Jan. 22 shooting with no identified victim.

While each is believed to be a targeted act of violence, the actions of the individuals involved were reckless and endangered the lives of the entire community, said Hyatt, adding that investigations into both January shootings are ongoing and police would continue to work tirelessly to hold people accountable for their actions.

Eric Bronstein, an executive vice president with The Scion Group, which manages the Altus, said the buildings security has been expanded in response to the two incidents to include more of the property and more hours. It also now requires guests of residents to check-in with security at the front desk and be escorted in during non-business hours.

Bronstein said the Jan. 11 homicide victim, who was fatally shot down the street from the apartments, was a resident of the complex. The Jan. 22 incident, meanwhile, took place inside the apartment building and involved multiple people, some of whom were not residents of the building. Bronstein said it appears shots were fired from inside and outside one apartment unit.

The company has begun eviction proceedings on a handful of people, including against at least one resident who police said had firearms on the property, which is barred by the apartment lease.

Bronstein emphasized the company is working collaboratively with county police.

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Nancy Hafford, executive director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce, who praised Towson University for the grant funding, said the two shootings this month brought things to a head, but noted that Towson isnt in a position where crime has gotten out of control.

When you have almost 100 restaurants and bars within a one-mile radius, theres a lot to draw people here, Hafford said. But people feel safe here. They do feel safe here. And were going to keep it that way.

The chamber has applied for a community safety grant from the state of Maryland that could go toward a community ambassador  another pair of eyes on the street  and additional security cameras for property and business owners, Hafford said. She said she hopes to hear back about the grant application in the next month or so.

The great thing about this community is we have such a good relationship with our police department and our local government and our business community and the residential community and the university, Hafford said. We all sit down at the table to say, What can we do collaboratively, to make this a great place for all?

Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. >

Baltimore County Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican who represents the Towson area, also said the additional public safety funding would be a positive, noting that in any other county, downtown Towson likely would be its own city with its own police force.

Anything we can do to increase police presence in the county seat is going to be welcome, Marks said. I will say, I generally regard downtown Towson as safe, compared to many urban areas of its size. Every few years, we seem to get incidents like this. All we want to do is ease the peace of mind of residents.

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Towson University did not share the total dollar figure for the grant.

The universitys president, Kim Schatzel, said in a news release that public safety is a priority for the university and its partners, calling public-private cooperation critical to the success and vibrancy of our Towson community.

The university has its own police force that works very closely with the Baltimore County Police every day, said Joe Herring, the schools police chief and director of public safety, in the news release.

The Fraternal Order of Police lodge that represents Baltimore County Police, noted in a tweet on Friday that with over 100 vacancies in the police agency, the grant would not result in any actual new police positions.

Still, the police union thanked Towson for the grant: We appreciate the support of the community and [Towson] as we continue to combat the rise in crime.
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Governments Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
Letters to the Editor: Parking at veterans building needs more thought; Skin color should not be part of the equation
The details are fuzzy, but Tommy Thompsons idea to turn a prison into a university is starting to take shape.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. late last year awarded the University of Wisconsin System and the Department of Corrections a $5.7 million grant to expand college pathways for inmates. The grant provides a much-needed boost for the project, which Republicans declined to fund in the state budget passed last summer.

Thompson, the former four-term Republican governor, oversaw the largest expansion of the prison system in the states history. But he said hes had a change of heart in his approach to criminal justice. A lot of people who end up behind bars dont need to be there, he said.

I built too many prisons, the current UW System interim president told several of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers cabinet secretaries Monday during a roundtable discussion about the project, a regret he has previously expressed. I think we need to be much more interested in rehabilitation.

About 40% of Wisconsin inmates released in 2016 were reincarcerated within three years, according to DOC data.

What a waste, Thompson said. Society can do better than that.

Thompson leaves his UW position March 18 and said Monday he is still mulling his next move, but ruled out retirement. Though he suggested his next move would be in the private sector, he continued to keep open the possibility that at 80 he might run for governor again. He deferred questions about the upcoming gubernatorial election  in which former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch faces a Republican primary challenge from former Marine Kevin Nicholson  to the end of April.

Pilot program

Research has shown that letting incarcerated people pursue education while in prison decreases recidivism.

DOC already offers some two-year associate degree programs with technical colleges, as well as individual courses through a partnership with UW-Madisons Odyssey Beyond Bars, which this semester expanded from being offered at one correctional facility to four. But the agency generally lacks bachelors degree completion programs, said Peter Moreno, who is leading the System project and also spearheads the Odyssey program.

The Systems pilot program will target five UW campuses: Madison, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Parkside and Oshkosh.

Staff will spend much of the next year continuing the planning process, Moreno said. Theres a lot to be ironed out, such as deciding what courses and programs to offer, developing an adequate technology infrastructure, building up advising services and finding physical space within prisons for classes. The hope is to have a degree program up and running by fall 2023. The grant expires at the end of 2024.

In the more immediate future, Moreno envisions stackable microcredentials and badges that inmates can earn as they progress through a program. Hes also hoping to add more certificates or course options to the Odyssey program.

These jump-start programs were teaching, he said, its partially about teaching employable skills but its also about mindset change and getting people to recognize that theyre capable of a range of things in life and if they want to pursue a certain job when they get out, if they want to have a certain life, its up to them. They have the capacity to get there. Its about providing that sense of belief in themselves and the opportunity to start on that path.

Some 70% of the 20,000 people in Wisconsins prisons have already completed high school or have an equivalency diploma.

More aid enabled

Educational opportunities for the prison population are expected to grow even more because of a federal law change that opens up financial aid to inmates who previously were unable to get federal Pell Grants under a sweeping 1994 crime bill. Congress lifted the ban in late 2020.

A former Odyssey participant who spoke at Mondays event, Robert, recently got out of prison after nearly 40 years behind bars. Because of the connections he made through the program, he said he already has a well-paying job as a curriculum writer for a foundation.

Within two weeks (of release), I became a productive citizen, he said. Im paying taxes, Im paying rent and bills, buying food and adding to the economy.

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Citing her desire to pass the torch to the next generation of Democratic lawmakers, Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley announced Tuesday that she will not seek reelection.

With her announcement, Bewley, D-Mason, became the third state Senator to announce her retirement from public office in the last two months, along with longtime Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-West Point, and Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls.

After 4 years in the Assembly and almost 8 years in the Senate, it is time for me to make way for a new generation of progressive and pragmatic leaders from a part of the state that has produced so many, Bewley said in a statement.

Bewley became the Democratic Senate leader shortly after then-leader Jennifer Shilling announced in April 2020 that she would not seek another term after serving two decades in the Legislature. Bewley had been the Senate assistant minority leader since 2017.

Bewleys announcement comes after Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, announced in December that he is stepping down from assembly minority leader as he mulls whether he will run again.

After her term ends early next year, she will spend more time with her recently retired husband as well as her children and grandchildren, she said.

Janet has given a lot to the people of her district and our state over the course of her career, and her impact will be felt for years to come, said Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, who took over from Hintz. I am so thankful to have been able to work alongside her in serving the people of Wisconsin.

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, also announced that he would not be running again, joining Republican Reps. Amy Loudenbeck, of Clinton, who is running for secretary of state this fall; Gary Tauchen, of Bonduel; and Jeremy Thiesfeldt, of Fond du Lac.

Reps. David Bowen, D-Milwaukee; Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton; Beth Meyers, D-Bayfield; and Sara Rodriguez, D-Brookfield, also are not running this fall. Bowen and Rodriguez are running for lieutenant governor.

Janets steadfast leadership, her integrity, and compassion are integral to our caucus, said Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison. It is clear that her love of the 25th Senate District and the state of Wisconsin shines bright in everything she does.

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Two members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation asked the Biden administration Monday to investigate how a Palestinian-American who lived in Milwaukee before moving back to his home village died at a West Bank checkpoint.

Omar Assad, 78, died after Israeli troops stopped him at a checkpoint in his native village of Jiljilya during the early morning hours of Jan. 12, according to family members and media reports.

Assad's nephew, Assad Assad, said others who were detained at the checkpoint told family members that the soldiers dragged Assad out of his car, threw him to the ground and shackled his hands and feet with zip ties, then fled after he died on the spot.

The Israeli military has said Omar was detained after resisting an inspection and later released, implying he was alive. Its unclear exactly when he died. An autopsy performed by Palestinian doctors that became public on Thursday determined the cause of death was a heart attack brought on by external violence.

Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, an Israeli military spokesman, said Assad's death remains under investigation and that actions will be taken if wrongdoing is found.

Assad was born in Jiljilya but spent about 40 years in the United States. He became a U.S. citizen before he returned to his home village in 2009 to retire with his wife, Nazmia, his nephew told The Associated Press.

U.S. State Department officials have said they're seeking clarification about the events leading up to Assad's death.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Gwen Moore sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to launch an investigation into Assad's death and whether the soldiers involved used equipment procured with American aid.

We strongly support human rights and the rule of law as the foundation of United States foreign policy, Baldwin and Moore wrote. As a Palestinian American, Mr. Assad deserves the full protections afforded U.S. citizens living abroad and his family deserves answers.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that he hadn't seen the request from Baldwin and Moore and the agency hasn't seen a final report from Israeli officials.

We continue to support an investigation that is thorough and comprehensive into the circumstances of the incident and we welcome receiving additional information as soon as possible, Price said.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six Day War in 1967. Assad Assad said his uncle and aunt left Jiljilya for Chicago in 1969 in hopes of finding jobs. They moved to Milwaukee in 1974 and prospered, opening convenience stores and a restaurant, he said.

They were among dozens of Jiljilya residents who have returned to the village over the years to build retirement homes, Assad Assad said.

They built mini-castles to retire in, he said. Very quiet, all you see is olive trees. At night, because were high in the mountains, you smell the orchards of oranges.

Omar Assad's nephew and his son, Hane Assad, both described Omar as a philanthropist who was the life of the party. Hane Assad told the AP his father would often hand out money to the poor.

He just loved everybody, no matter what race you were, what culture you came from, he said. He just saw you as a human being.

His favorite pastimes were eating  his favorite dish was maqluba, a mix of rice and meat  and playing cards, Assad Assad said. He was coming home from playing cards with a cousin when the soldiers stopped him, he said.

Hane Assad said his mother and father were set to visit him at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia, before his father died. The family is frustrated by a lack of clear answers from the Israeli military, although they don't expect any. Assad said his father was too old and weak to fight anyone, let alone a group of soldiers.

He was very weak, Hane Assad said. He walked with a cane. It takes him five minutes to get to the car, the way he walks. He doesnt have the power of 30 soldiers . . . The military said we left and he was fine. It doesnt make sense."

Assad said he's always afraid when he returns to Jiljilya because the Israelis who operate the checkpoints are rude and disrespectful. He said he was once detained for four hours on the way to his grandmother's funeral. The troops laugh at his American citizenship, he said.

Every time we got stopped Dad would say whatever they ask for give it to them. Just be calm. Plenty of times we got pulled over and I never saw him fight," Hane Assad said. I cant believe they did that to my dad. Almost an 80-year-old man. All the soldiers there couldnt handle him? This is uncalled for. You don't treat no elderly person like that.

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
John L. Davis Sr., who worked in commercial and residential real estate for decades and who had been active in civic affairs, died of complications of Parkinsons disease Jan. 23 at Brightview Towson Senior Assisted Living. The former longtime Lutherville resident was 91.

John Lathrop Davis Sr., son of Hamilton C. Davis, president of F.A. Davis & Sons, a tobacco and sundries distribution company, and his wife, Georgia Lathrop Dove Davis, a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on 40th Street in the Hampden-Roland Park area.

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After graduating in 1949 from Friends School, he began his college studies at the University of Virginia, and in 1951, enlisted in the Army and served with the infantry in Korea where he was wounded with shrapnel and awarded the Purple Heart.

After leaving the Army with the rank of private, Mr. Davis launched into a commercial and residential real estate career. From 1965 until leaving in 1979, he worked in land acquisition for Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management, then took a position with his brothers firm in Brooklandville, Herbert Davis Associates Inc. in the restored Rockland Mill on Falls Road.

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He subsequently worked for W.C. Pinkard Inc. before joining the Johns Hopkins Universitys real estate division in 1991. He retired in 2003.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 24 Lois H. Feinblatt was a pioneering sex therapist who practiced with the Johns Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic for more than three decades and was a also a philanthropist. (handout)

In the late 1970s, the cast iron-fronted Robins Paper Co. building in the 300 block of W. Pratt St., a historic structure that was built in 1871 as an office and warehouse for the William H. Wilkens Brush Co., and was acquired by the paper company in 1940, was threatened by the expansion of the nearby Holiday Inn.

Mr. Davis played a role in the preservation of the building, which underwent a $10 million restoration and was renamed the Marsh and McLennan Building, and was eventually placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Baltimore was in the 19th century the center of cast iron manufacturing, said Johns Hopkins, executive director of Baltimore Heritage, as well as construction. The city had at one time 200 such structures, and today they number around 20.

Saving the Wilkens-Robins Building was a tremendous contribution and showed that old buildings could have new uses and played a historic role in downtown preservation, Mr. Hopkins said. And John was part of a group that saw that reuse was possible.

He understood the importance of preservation, said a daughter, Jenny Hope, of Cedarcroft, who is the executive director of Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition. He was very civic-minded.

Mr. Davis was an early supporter of the City Fair, which was held in the pre-Harbor Place Inner Harbor. He and his wife, the former Elizabeth Mitchell Watson, who did marketing for the Rouse Co. and was a floral designer, were involved with Operation Sail, which began bringing the tall ships to the city in the 1970s.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 61 Ron Galella, the celebrity photographer whose pursuit of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis resulted in a restraining order against him after he stalked her for years, died at age 91 on April 30, 2022, at his home in Montville, N.J., of congestive heart failure. (Carlo Allegri/AP)

He was a member of the Operation Sail group from 1976 to 1990. His duties often involved working with naval attaches and persuading them to send their tall ships to Baltimore.

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Once they were here and could see that we were serious and that they could be guaranteed a good time here, it was pretty easy to get them to come, he told The Sun in a 2000 interview.

For a decade, he served as treasurer of the Friends of Olmsted Parks, and in the early 2000s, became involved in the construction of the Our Playground at Stadium Place, which rose on the old Memorial Stadium site in 2005.

Debra Evans, president of The Friends of Our Playground at Stadium Place, was involved with the program and playground from its inception and later was its director.

Leathers & Co. from Ithaca, New York, went to several nearby schools and talked to the kids and got their ideas [about] what they wanted, like sliding boards, swings and even a boat, Ms. Evans said. We had 4,000 volunteers from all walks of life and color who worked together building the playground in nine days.

According to the companys website, Leathers and Associates custom-design outdoor play spaces that are a reflection of childrens imaginations, that are custom-designed by site-built volunteers.

[ Raeford E. Ray Gaskins Jr., a saxophonist, keyboardist and songwriter, dies ]

Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. >

John was a volunteer who signed up for a shift and he volunteered every day of the nine days of the build, Ms. Evans said. He took one place and claimed it as his own. One thing he took on was hanging metal pipes so when they were hit they made beautiful sounds, like a wind chime. He came every day, signed in and then went to his spot. You always knew where to find him.

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Ms. Evans added: He also came to the rescue of rebuilding the picnic tables that were in bad shape from unskilled but happy-to-help volunteers, and also volunteered to be one of our captains.

Mr. Davis work ethic earned him the title Iron Man.

He loved the playground and he gave and gave and gave, Ms. Evans added.

Mr. Davis enjoyed sailing aboard the original Pride of Baltimore through the Panama Canal and hosting pig roasts in the front yard of his home, family members said. He was also an inveterate Orioles and Ravens fan.

He was also an active member and longtime trustee at University Baptist Church at 3601 N. Charles St., where funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. March 19.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Davis is survived by three sons, John L. Davis Jr. of Parkville, Tucker A. Davis of Lutherville and Guy A. Davis of Richmond, Virginia; another daughter, Elizabeth Libby Fraker of Stoneleigh; a sister, Susanne Emory of Towson; 13 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
Last August, Dane County Supervisor Anthony Gray, 14th District, asked the County Board to support state and federal efforts to end protections that make it difficult to sue law enforcement officers in civil court.

The resolution was tied to a bill introduced last year in the Legislature that would eliminate state civil court protections, a doctrine known as qualified immunity. Pointing to a similar resolution passed by the Milwaukee County Board, Gray said changing the law would make police more accountable.

Any job like law enforcement officers that have the power of life and death under the color of law, meaning representing the state, have to be held accountable for their actions, said Gray, who represents the Southwest Side of Madison.

But like the proposed change to state law, Grays resolution ultimately went nowhere.

A far more bullish position on police reform than what the board has previously supported, supervisors delayed taking it up. It took more than two months from the time the measure was introduced until a committee took it up, in part because the board was also taking up the budget and its once-in-a-decade redistricting process, said Board President Analiese Eicher, 3rd District.

Once it was taken up by the boards Executive Committee, the measure was indefinitely postponed on a 5-2 vote, a procedural practice some supervisors complain effectively denies a chance for rewrites or further consideration by other supervisors.

In allegedly progressive Dane County, they used parliamentary sleight of hand to ensure no one ever gets to vote on it, Gray said. They know if it comes to the floor it would pass overwhelmingly.

Othering of police

Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine established by federal courts that makes it harder to win civil lawsuits against all government officials, not just law enforcement, over personal liability for their actions except in certain circumstances already outlined by previous court rulings. Government officials, however, can be charged in criminal court.

Colorado has banned qualified immunity for police officers, while other states, such as Iowa, have fortified civil protections for police.

In Wisconsin, police can be sued in civil court, though civil lawsuits against police are typically filed at the federal level.

Its a function of whether or not families of the deceased or the individuals whove been harmed by the officers have civil recourse to sue, Gray said.

The County Board has supported criminal justice reform efforts in the past. Supervisors approved a compromise proposal last year to call on the Dane County Sheriffs Office to study its rare use of no-knock warrants. An original resolution called for an outright ban of the practice.

And in the aftermath of the demonstrations after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, the board passed a 21-plank criminal justice reform package that urges the publication of law enforcement data by race, a long-term reduction of the jails population and funding for a center to provide court services separate from the courthouse.

Grays resolution on qualified immunity was eventually taken up on Nov. 4 by the boards Executive Committee, which handles measures that call on the board to support something at the state and federal levels.

But at that meeting, Sup. Carousel Bayrd, 8th District, a civil rights attorney who represents the areas around Elver Park on the Southwest Side, moved to kill the resolution. Bayrd insisted she didnt oppose qualified immunity reform.

Its pretty egregious, the level of immunity all government workers are given, Bayrd said. I do support a change to qualified immunity. Its desperately needed.

But the resolution, she said, was flawed because it didnt cover the immunity given all government officials, amounting to an othering of law enforcement.

Gray called that a red herring.

The argument that you havent fixed the whole world therefore we cant fix this piece of it is specious at best, Gray said.

Other opposition

Grays resolution was also opposed by the Dane County Sheriffs Office and the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, a lobbying and legal assistance group for state law enforcement.

Sheriff Kalvin Barrett has argued that ending qualified immunity would allow police to be judged in court based on information that officers might not have been able to know when they made a particular split-second decision.

For example, the fact that a gun was a replica gun, or the gun was empty, or there was a second camera across the street at the gas station that saw something from behind that the officer didnt see, Barrett said in a recent interview. If qualified immunity is taken away, then our actions would be judged with additional information that we didnt have at that time.

In her move to postpone the resolution, Bayrd was joined by Eicher and Sups. Ann Degarmo, Chuck Erickson and Steven Peters. Two progressives who co-sponsored the resolution, Sups. Yogesh Chawla and Elena Haasl, voted against postponement.

Off the table

Though still a part of the County Boards parliamentary toolbox, indefinitely postponing legislation has been the target of criticism in recent months.

A challenge to the countys mask mandate by a conservative supervisor was indefinitely postponed in December. As a workaround, the supervisor requested the resolution be pulled out of committee and taken to the floor of the County Board, a rare procedural move.

Chawla, 6th District, said that indefinite postponement is overused and prevents board members from finding common ground and consensus.

I was hoping that some of the criticisms of the resolution could have been rectified by having amendments to the resolution so we could have arrived at a consensus, Chawla said. I think rather than postponing something indefinitely its appropriate take it up as a board, then from there figure out where were going.

Gray called it an abuse of the legislative process and hasnt ruled out seeking to take the resolution to the full board.

Despite the resolutions defeat, other criminal justice items are working their way through county committees. A measure that would make fentanyl testing strips legal in Dane County, also sponsored by Gray, has passed a public safety committee and is awaiting board approval.

Dueling proposals for a new county jail have also been considered by supervisors in recent weeks. Officials are trying to close a budget gap since the long-sought project is far over the $148 million currently allocated for it. Any new funding for the jail project would have to get the support of two-thirds of supervisors. The county could also put the funding to voters via referendum.

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Seven Wisconsin nursing homes have announced closures since last year and staffing shortages have led others to shutter some beds, a state group says, for a total loss of more than 2,000 beds  the equivalent of 29 nursing homes  since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

LeadingAge Wisconsin, which represents nursing homes and assisted living facilities, is asking the state for financial help to improve staffing. A $356.6 million increase for long-term care in the 2021-23 budget provided a welcome boost, but the pandemic has caused costs to keep rising, the group says.

Were in a precarious position right now, said John Sauer, CEO of LeadingAge Wisconsin. The budget increase didnt have the significant financial relief that people thought it would because our cost increases escalated beyond what people were projecting when the budget was being developed and passed, he said.

The group is asking the state Department of Health Services for assistance similar to a $50 million staffing shortage fund in Minnesota. The health department didnt respond to a request for comment.

Recent projections call for a $3.8 billion surplus in the state budget, including $184.9 million in Medicaid, the main source of nursing home funding.

Four of the seven nursing home closures announced since last year are in rural southwest Wisconsin.

The Iowa County Board said last month it was closing Bloomfield Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center west of Dodgeville, citing staffing challenges and the need for costly repairs. The county said it paid $850,000 last year to hire contract staff to work at the facility, which opened in 1962.

Zimmerman Nursing Home in Reedsburg and Woods Crossing at Woods Point in Brodhead closed last year, according to LeadingAge Wisconsin. Neillsville Care and Rehab, and Bornemann Senior Communities in Green Bay also closed last year, and Ladysmith Care and Rehab is closing this year, for a total of seven closures since last year, LeadingAge Wisconsin said.

Five facilities closed in 2020 and many others have delicensed some beds because of staffing challenges, for a statewide total of 26,678 nursing home beds today, 2,041 fewer than in March 2020 when the pandemic began, Sauer said. Thats equivalent to losing 29 typically sized nursing homes of about 70 beds, he said.

Assisted living

The state had 352 nursing homes as of last month, down from 397 in 2016, according to the health department. Part of the reason for the decrease in nursing homes and beds is an increase in demand for assisted living, for which the state had 63,723 beds in 2020, up from 59,224 in 2016, according a state report last year.

Nursing homes, staffed with licensed nurses and equipped to provide physical therapy and other medical services, are regulated by the federal government and inspected routinely by states.

Assisted living facilities, which provide meals, housekeeping and assistance with personal care, have no federal oversight and varying degrees of state supervision. Staffing requirements arent as strict, and staff typically have less training.

The state last month said it was sending Wisconsin National Guard members, trained at Madison Area Technical College to become certified nursing assistants, to nursing homes to help them care for residents and free up beds at hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.

Sauer said the National Guard effort has helped, but it is designed to open additional nursing home beds to accept patients who no longer need to be in hospitals, not to help staff previously available nursing home beds.

Vaccine mandate

Meanwhile, he said some nursing homes are struggling to meet a federal requirement that all staff be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Feb. 28. As of Jan. 23, 80.6% of staff at facilities that reported the information had met that mark, compared to 88.9% of residents, according to federal data.

AARP Wisconsin last week called on nursing homes to require COVID-19 booster shots for residents and staff, citing the surge in cases from the highly transmissible omicron variant.

To make it a requirement on top of everything else that is going on right now, I dont think we can do that, Sauer said.

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Gov. Tony Evers proposes spending some of the states projected surplus on $150 checks to residents. Assuming this is not an election-year ploy, it still lacks vision.

Each tornado leaves in its wake residents physically injured and/or emotionally traumatized. Homes and small businesses are often destroyed, and infrastructure is weakened.

After many of these tornadoes, we hear urgent pleas from the governor to the federal government, begging for relief aid. The Federal Emergency Management Agency arrives, provides temporary relief to some but not all. Then the agency leaves before homes, businesses, schools, churches and infrastructure are rebuilt.

Months later, we find the tornado shattered communities still desperately needing help. That's because sufficient resources never were available to address the challenge.

Exact timing of each tornado cannot be predicted with pinpoint accuracy. But we know Wisconsin communities are likely to experience devastating tornadoes this spring or early summer.

Any surplus funds should be earmarked to rebuild communities devastated by weather events such as tornadoes.

Anne Sulton, Milwaukee
Most companies have setup fees

Most credit repair companies charge an initial fee (also called setup or first work fee) that can range anywhere between $15 to $200. This fee is used to set up your account, which may involve gathering your personal and financial information and creating a strategy plan for your particular credit situation.

Credit repair companies cant charge you in advance for their services

Once you pay the setup fee (if required), companies cant make any additional charges unless they prove that the services offered to you in contract are being fulfilled.

Legitimate credit repair companies should include a copy of the Consumer Credit File Rights

Under the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA), credit repair companies must give you a written contract outlining their services before receiving any payment from you. The agencies must also give you a copy of the Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law, a document that is meant to inform you of your right to order credit reports and dispute inaccurate information yourself.

You have the right to cancel any services without incurring any penalties within 3 business days

The CROA also states that you have the right to back out of a contract within three business days without any charges or cancellation fees. This is also stipulated by the Federal Trade Commissions (FTC)s Cooling-Off Rule.

Differences between debt settlement, credit repair and credit counseling

As we said above, there are different ways to repair your credit.

Debt settlement, credit repair and credit counseling are all in the personal finance sphere, but its important to note the key differences between the three methods.

Debt settlement service Credit repair service Credit counseling service For-profit service For-profit service Non-profit, but may charge a service fee Resolves your debt and makes a deal to pay it off at a reduced amount Identifies and repairs mistakes on your credit report Provides debt and money management advice, but doesnt renegotiate overall debt Involves stopping debt payments until a settlement is reached. Communicates with creditors and reporting bureaus to get mistakes corrected and removed from your credit report Negotiates payment plans with creditors to protect you from debt collectors or late fees Will impact credit negatively for up to 7 years Improves credit by removing reporting mistakes Improves credit with debt management plans Hurts chances of getting loans or credit cards Increases the possibility of being approved for loans and credit cards Increases the possibility of being approved for loans and credit cards Best as a last resort Best for people who dont have the time to repair their credit themselves Best if youre having trouble making payments and need some help

If youre interested in using a credit counselor, The National Foundation for Credit Counseling offers low-cost debt counseling, debt consolidation, and debt management plans.

Covid-19 and credit repair

Free credit reports

Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax are offering access to a free credit report weekly for the rest of 2022. Take advantage of this offer and check your reports for errors  if there are any, dispute them or consider hiring a credit repair company to do it for you.

Credit reporting errors during COVID-19

Its important to watch out for erroneous late payments on your credit report  especially if you enrolled in a deferral program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Loan, mortgage or credit card payments shouldnt be marked as late if your lender agreed to temporarily suspend them.

Contact your lender right away if you notice deferred payments are being incorrectly labeled as late on your report. If your lender doesnt resolve the issue, contact the credit reporting agencies to begin a dispute process.

CARES Act protections

If you obtained a forbearance on a federally backed loan during the pandemic, these are some things to remember:

Forbearance, payment deferrals or pauses will not show up on your credit report and will not bring down your credit score.

Student loans are eligible for suspensions on loan payments, collections, defaults, and interest rates are set to zero until at least May 1, 2022.

How do credit repair companies work?

Each credit repair company has its own way of doing things, but most of them follow a four-step process:

Free Consultation

The credit repair company will walk you through the process, pull your credit reports from all three bureaus and determine if youd be a good candidate for credit repair.

Limited power of attorney and written consent

The companys representatives will inform you if they find mistakes in your file. Theyll then send you a written contract giving them limited power of attorney, that is, the legal right to act on your behalf.

Challenge items

With your legal consent, the company goes on to dispute inaccuracies with your creditors and the major credit bureaus. Inaccurate items on your credit report can include tax liens or foreclosures that dont belong to you, duplicate accounts, bankruptcies or outdated information.

Once theyre notified, credit reporting agencies must then investigate within 30 days of receiving the dispute. Once they confirm them as errors, theyll remove them from your credit profile.

Progress reports

The best credit repair companies will track your disputes progress and update you frequently on the status of each disputed item. They will usually send progress reports along with an updated copy of your credit report so you can review the changes.

How to choose the right credit repair company

When evaluating credit repair companies, you should compare the services they offer and their upfront and monthly fees. Consider how many items they dispute per month and if they offer any additional perks such as free consultations or personal finance tools. You can also gauge a companys reputation by reading online consumer reviews and checking whether it has any lawsuits against it.

Check for Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) compliance

CROA establishes clear directives that legitimate credit repair agencies should follow, and its important to ensure the company you choose is compliant in every step of the process.

Companies must provide a written contract explaining in detail the services they will provide, how long it will take for them to get results, any guarantees they offer and the total credit repair cost for their services.

You have the right to walk away without penalty within three days of signing the contract if it doesnt meet your requirements.

Read customer reviews

Sources like Google Reviews, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Yelp are useful starting points in gauging customer experience. They each have their own way of evaluating and ranking companies  for example, the BBB uses an A to F grading system and Yelp offers its well-known star ratings.

These websites are helpful, but we recommend complementing what you read with further research  after all, most people post reviews when theyre unhappy with a service, not when theyre satisfied.

However, if you read multiple reviews alleging similar types of issues, you should certainly consider it a red flag.

In our search for the best credit restoration services, we focused on those that received mostly positive consumer feedback across multiple review websites.

Check the regulatory agencies

The credit repair industry is tightly regulated and must abide by the provisions of multiple federal laws aimed at the protection of consumers.

One of the agencies overseeing the industry is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal organization that protects consumers from fraudulent or predatory practices by banks, lenders or any type of financial institution  including credit repair companies.

When searching for the right credit repair company for you, its a good idea to check the CFPB complaint database and check how many complaints  if any  have been filed against it.

Compare fees and turnaround times

Reputable credit repair companies will list their prices and services clearly, so consumers can select the right package for their needs. Turnaround time should be reasonable, and the company must keep you updated about the progress.

Look for personal finance tools

Besides their standard credit repair services, some credit repair agencies offer personal finance tools like bill reminders, budgeting software and credit monitoring. Additionally, they may offer free credit consultations, satisfaction guarantees and identity theft protection services.

7 Warning Signs of a Credit Repair Scam

The credit repair industry has had its share of controversies and scams. Its important to recognize the red flags indicating a company or agent youre dealing with might be engaging in some questionable practices.



DIY Credit Repair

Credit repair companies are helpful if you can afford the service and dont have the time to dispute the items. However, its important to note that you can fix credit issues yourself, and at no cost. There are also ways to improve your credit score without the help of a credit repair agency.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), you have the right to dispute any information you believe is inaccurate. Credit bureaus are required to investigate and delete it from your report if found to be erroneous.

To start checking for errors, you can request free credit reports from the three main credit bureaus  Equifax, Experian and TransUnion  at AnnualCreditReport.com. Once you examine your reports for any discrepancies, you can go to each bureaus website and file an online dispute. They will investigate within 30 days and, if they confirm its a mistake, will delete the negative item from your report.

They might also delete items from your report if your debtor cannot validate the debt and is unable to provide evidence that it belongs to you.

If youre up to the task, the first step is to learn its important to know how to read a credit report. Once you do, check out our guide on how to remove items from your credit report.

Latest News on Credit Repair

Experians new Go program can help consumers without a credit history  or a limited one  bolster their credit scores. Heres how the tool works: No Credit, No Problem: Experian Now Lets You Build Your Own Credit Report

Setting up auto-pay, using less of your available credit and signing up for credit-building programs are some steps that could help you raise your credit score. Heres why: 3 Easy Ways to Increase Your Credit Score in 2022

Fixing a bad credit history or building one from scratch can take time, but a few key steps can speed up the process. Check out our guide, How to Build Credit Fast, to help you build a solid credit history faster.

Whether youre shopping around for a mortgage, personal loan or a new credit card, having a solid credit score can get you lower interest rates. Here are some tips to help you increase your score and improve your financial health: 7 Steps to Improve Your Credit Score Right Now

Credit Repair FAQ

How to fix your credit

How much does credit repair cost?

How long does it take to repair credit?

What do credit repair companies do?

How does credit repair work?

How We Chose the Best Credit Repair Companies of 2022

You can fix your credit on your own, but it will take time, effort and patience. Review each of your credit reports from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax for errors. If you find any, file a dispute with the credit bureau and contact your creditor. They are legally obligated to investigate and eliminate inaccurate information from your report, at no charge to you.Prices vary across credit repair agencies. However, companies typically charge around $20 to $150 per month, depending on the service package you choose. They may also charge a setup fee (also called initial or first work fee) that can cost up to $200.The amount of time it takes to repair bad credit depends on how much inaccurate information your report contains. Some companies estimate that it can take up to six months to see an improvement in your score. However, if your report has few errors, the process might be faster as there will be fewer disputes to process.These companies analyze your credit reports from the three main credit bureaus, pinpointing inaccurate information that may be keeping you from a good credit score. If their analysts find errors, they'll contact creditors and credit bureaus to dispute the negative items and have them removed. Some companies also offer personal finance tools and access to credit counselors.A credit repair company reviews your credit reports from the major credit bureaus for inaccuracies that may be impacting your credit score. It identifies accounts that don't belong to you or payments incorrectly marked as late, for example, and disputes the errors by contacting the credit bureaus or creditors. If the information is incorrect or can't be verified, the bureau is required to delete it.

Trustworthiness

The companies in our list are reputable credit repair services that have been around for over ten years and garner mostly positive customer reviews across different platforms. We looked for any history of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) violations and searched the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Database to verify any history of customer complaints or enforcement actions.

Product offering

A credit repair service assumes responsibility for writing dispute letters, communicating with lenders and credit bureaus and ensuring removal of each item. It helps if the standard service is complemented with other features. Multiple pricing options, additional financial tools, expert advice, and service guarantees helped companies stand out from the competition.

Pricing options and service guarantees

As we researched companies, we made sure that their pricing options were as varied as possible, and that their service guarantees were transparent with little to no fine print exceptions.

Summary of Moneys Best Credit Repair Companies of February 2022
TWIN FALLS  Idaho Sen. Jim Patrick announced his intention to run for Idahos new District 24 Senate seat in the 2022 election, but first, hell face a primary challenge from the right.

Glenneda Zuiderveld has announced she will challeng Patrick in the May 17 Republican primary. Zuiderveld will give Patrick his first primary contest since he won his first political race, for the Idaho House of Representatives in 2006.

Every two years we apply for the job again, Patrick said. And thats OK, we should.

Patrick has been in the state Legislature since 2006 when he was elected to the House. In 2012, he was elected to the state Senate.

The Republican from rural Twin Falls county is chairman of the Senate Commerce and Human Resources committee, and sits on the committees for Agriculture and Natural Resources. He said those areas of experience would suit the needs of the constituents in Gooding, Camas and Twin Falls.

Last week, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld new legislative district maps that changed the boundaries of the district Patrick represents. Idaho District 24 is now made up of rural Twin Falls, Gooding and Camas counties. Patrick has served as senator for the old District 25, which was rural Twin Falls and Jerome counties, since 2012.

I like working with people in Jerome county, Patrick said. But Gooding county and Camas county are similar, It would be good to meet more people and fit whats needed.

Most of Patricks private career had been in farming, as well as serving as a director of a local bank. Patrick served on Twin Falls County Planning and Zoning board, as well as on Idaho Bean Commission and the Salmon Falls Creek Canal Board.

One thing Ill talk about in my campaign about is how great the state of Idaho is doing, but theres more to come, Patrick said, highlighting the states strong budget and opportunities to improve infrastructure.

Zuiderveld said she is seeking the Senate seat to resist federal overreach.

I just feel there is a need for somebody who will get in there and really do all they can to protect peoples God-given unalienable rights and our state sovereignty, Zuiderveld said. Were beginning to lose our state sovereignty, and thats a huge concern for me because our state sovereignty is going to protect us from federal overreach.

Zuiderveld spent most of her life in Jerome after her family located there in 1970 when she was four years old. She now lives in Twin Falls County. According to her website, she and her husband have been self-employed for 27 years, and her Linked-In profile lists administrative assistant and payroll for a 500-person dairy business as part of her business history.

Zuiderveld is part of Magic Valley Liberty Alliance, a political advocacy organization that contends that Magic Valley Republican legislators voting records are too frequently in line with their Democratic counterparts. In October 2021, Zuiderveld said she helped coordinate the Magic Valley Liberty Fest, which hosted legislators such as Priscilla Giddings, Dorothy Moon and Christy Zito.

Zuiderveld said her legislative priorities would include protecting medical freedom, supporting parental choice in education and water issues.

One of my best qualifications for senator is going to be my loyalty and my ability and courage to stand on principles and stand on our constitution, Zuiderveld said.

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A group of parents of students with disabilities filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against Gov. Glenn Youngkin, alleging his executive order allowing masks to be optional for schoolchildren violates the Americans With Disabilities Act and other federal law.

This is the third lawsuit filed against Youngkin and state officials since he issued the executive order on Jan. 15, the day he was sworn in.

The children of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit have illnesses like cancer, cystic fibrosis, asthma, Down syndrome, lung conditions, and weakened immune systems. Because of that, the parents allege that Youngkin, Attorney General Jason Miyares and other officials are excluding their children from access to a public education.

The Executive Order shows a reckless disregard for students with disabilities across Virginia, said Kaitlin Banner, the deputy legal director of the Washington Lawyers Committee said in a news release. The Order prevents schools from taking reasonable steps to make sure their students can go to school and enjoy the same educational experiences as their friends.

The first lawsuit against Youngkin's mask order was filed in the Supreme Court of Virginia three days after he was sworn in. A group of Chesapeake parents allege Youngkin doesn't have the power to suspend a 2021 state law that requires schools to adhere to federal COVID-19 mitigation guidance as closely as possible; that guidance currently recommends masking.

And then a week ago, seven school boards, including Richmond, filed a lawsuit against Youngkin in Arlington County Circuit Court. Oral arguments in that case are scheduled for Wednesday, also arguing that the state Constitution gives local school boards - not the governor - the power to determine school safety rules.

Youngkin and Miyares assert that a different state law gives parents rights to make decisions about their children's education and health.

The order divided school divisions across the state. Some opted to make masks for children optional, as the governor's order directs. Others opted to keep their rules requiring masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Chesterfield County's school board, for example, voted last week to make masks optional, prompting some parents to keep their children home and some teachers to call in sick. In the capital region, masks are also now optional in Hanover County schools, but required in Richmond and Henrico schools.

This is a developing story and will be updated.
Democrats on a Senate committee on Tuesday removed lightning-rod Cabinet nominee Andrew Wheeler from a list of appointments working its way through the legislature, pushing new GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin closer to being the first Virginia executive in 16 years to have such a choice rejected by the legislature.

Youngkin's choice of Wheeler to be Virginia secretary of natural resources was immediately met with a backlash earlier this month by Democrats and environmental groups because of Wheeler's record of trying to roll back environmental protections as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump.

A governor's Cabinet choices are subject to General Assembly approval. The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted 9-6, on a party line vote, to remove Wheeler's name from a resolution that now goes to the full Senate.

Governor Youngkin has said time and time again he would like to bridge the partisan divide and work together for Virginias next generation," Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke of Hampton said in a statement. "However, his choice of Trump alum Andrew Wheeler for the position of Secretary of Natural Resources proves his unwillingness to bring properly qualified officials into our government.

"Mr. Wheeler will not protect - but instead will destroy - our efforts to move away from fossil fuels, maintain air and water quality, and prevent further global warming. His nomination is dangerous for Virginias future."

Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter said: "Andrew Wheeler is a highly qualified individual with an extensive background on natural resources and issues critically important to Virginians. The governor is disappointed that the committee put partisan politics over the selection of an experienced public servant who would prioritize cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and James River."

In 2006, Republicans defeated Daniel LeBlanc, then-Gov. Tim Kaine's nominee for secretary of the commonwealth.

Wheeler, of Alexandria, did not apply for the job, but served on Youngkin's transition committee handling energy issues and Youngkin offered it to him.

The Union of Concerned Scientists in 2019 created a list of 80 Trump administration attacks on science and called Wheeler a driving force behind many.

Three former EPA administrators who served under Republican presidents expressed concerns in 2019 about Wheeler.

And a group of former EPA employees wrote a letter to Virginia senators expressing concerns about Wheeler.

Wheeler got support in a letter sent to Virginia senators on Sunday from other EPA employees who worked with him and support his nomination. The letter was coordinated by Mandy Gunasekara, a former Trump EPA official who in 2019 started an anonymously-funded group to promote Trump's energy agenda and then rejoined the agency in 2020 as chief of staff under Wheeler.

The letter defended Wheeler's commitment to clean air and water:

"All told, over the course of Mr. Wheelers career, he has improved the lives of millions of Americans through his steadfast commitments to a better, healthier environment."

This is a developing story and will be updated.
The Highlands School, an independent school for students with language-based learning differences in Bel Air, announced Monday that Seth Linfield has been hired as its head of school. Linfield becomes the third head of school in the schools 25-year history.

In his role, Linfield will be responsible for overall management of The Highlands School and will provide academic leadership and strategic vision.

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Linfield previously served as the head of school at The Long Trail School, Vermonts first International Baccalaureate school. He has 19 years of independent school leadership experience.

I could not be more honored and excited to serve The Highlands School community, said Linfield.

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Seth Linfield has been named head of school at The Highlands School in Bel Air. (The Highlands School)

Linfield is a member of the third cohort of the Day School Leadership Training Institute in New York. He has been a speaker at national education forums on topics such as academic honesty, plagiarism, independent school affordability and sustainability.

Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. >

I look forward to partnering with the incredible faculty to steward an outstanding academic environment and grow our reach, Linfield said. I am confident that we can build on the foundation and help more students reach academic and social success at The Highlands School.

Linfield was appointed unanimously by the schools board of directors.

As board president and grandparent of a graduate, I am thrilled we will partner with such a dynamic educator and seasoned executive, said board President Scott Evensen. Seth will be a forceful advocate for our students.

Linfields appointment follows a comprehensive international search led by the board of directors, faculty, staff and parents. Bob McClelland, the board of directors vice president, chaired the search committee; Jennifer Palinkas, The Highlands School director of business and development, chaired the Advisory Committee. Search consultants from Educators Collaborative advised the committees.

Everyone who met Seth was inspired by his preparation and enthusiasm, McClelland said. Seth brings to The Highlands a rare combination of experience, qualifications and vision. He has an enviable record of building high-quality programs that put students at the center, and nurturing an engaging culture for faculty, staff and families.

Linfield is also an ordained rabbi and serves students at Dartmouth College as rabbi and campus minister. He received a law degree from Stanford Law School and a bachelors in mathematics from New York University. He is currently a doctoral candidate at the Rossier Graduate School of Education at the University of Southern California.

The Highlands School specializes in educating students in grades K-12 with dyslexia, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, and language-based learning differences. Founded in 1996, The Highlands School was originally located in Street; in 2007, the school moved to an 18-acre campus in Bel Air that was once home to the Preakness-winning racehorse Deputed Testamony.
Saudi Minister of Finance, Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan, held a meeting Monday in Riyadh, with visiting Moroccan Minister of Economy and Finance, Nadia Fattah Alaoui.

During this meeting, the two officials discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in the financial and economic fields, and examined several topics of interest to the two countries finance departments, reports the Saudi Press Agency, SPA.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from the two departments.
US President Joe Biden Monday announced he plans to grant the status of major non-NATO ally in the Middle East to Qatar, as he met with the ruler of the gas-rich country, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The Qatari rulers visit aims at building relations with Washington that have strengthened since Doha hosted talks that led to the 2020 deal for the U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan.

It is the first meeting between the two leaders after the US pullout in August.

Qatar has helped fly out hundreds of the US citizens or Afghans working for the U.S in the country. The Gulf country has become the U.S. diplomatic representative in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

During his sojourn in the U.S, Sheikh Tamim will reportedly discuss with Biden efforts by global powers to salvage the 2015 nuclear pact with Iran, with which Doha has ties, and efforts to end Yemens civil war.

He is also expected to discuss regional security with Biden as well as push for equal rights for the Palestinian people.
Egypt is set to resume the privatization program of state-owned companies in March, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told Bloomberg Asharq, Arab Finance reports.

We can expect more state-owned companies to offer shares on the EGX in the coming weeks, Maait said.

Maaits announcement comes a few days after Planning Minister Hala al-Said told Reuters that Egypt is planning to private a company every month, or every two months.

Were trying to select the right companies that can attract good institutional and good private sector (investors), and at the same time help in deepening the capital market in Egypt, she said, declining to name any firms.

The Arab republic in 2018, Reuters notes, named 23 state companies slated for privatization but almost all the sales have been delayed, partly due to market turbulence linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister also revealed that Egypt, as part of a three-year structural reform, would begin classifying different sectors of the economy and their potential for private investment.

A document for that purpose will be produced and identify sectors for total private investment, areas for state investment and sectors for partnership between the state and the private sector, Said also told the agency.
Gunmen killed dozens of people, including 11 security personnel, in two attacks over the week-end in central and northern Nigeria, local authorities said.

Central and northwestern Nigeria has been the scene of criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, who have been attacking villages, stealing livestock, looting and killing residents for years. In recent months, the violence has increased.

The two attacks come shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari called for a tougher military crackdown on the gangs, recently designated as terrorists by the government.

In the first attack on Saturday, more than 100 gunmen on motorcycles attacked Galadiman Kogo locality in Shiroro district, Niger state (central) Governor Sani Bello said in a statement.

The terrorists, numbering more than 100, reportedly invaded the locality in broad daylight, killing 11 members of the security forces operational unit and several villagers, and wounding many others, Bello said.

In a second separate attack on Sunday, gunmen attacked the village of Kurmin Masara in the Christian-majority Zangon Kataf district, killing 11 civilians and burning more than 30 houses, said Samuel Aruwan, commissioner for internal security in the northern state of Kaduna.

According to the statement, several villagers were shot and injured. The attackers tried to attack the Special Forces deployed to stop the violence, but the ambush was foiled, Aruwan said.

President Buhari, whose second and final term ends next year, has come under fire for his failure to stop the bandit attacks.
Six people were killed and seven injured Monday when an explosive device detonated as a minibus passed in northeastern Kenya near the Somali border, a Kenyan police spokesman said.

We had an incident this morning in which six people were killed in an attack on a vehicle, said Bruno Shioso, a national police spokesman, saying the attack occurred at 7:30 a.m. (0430 GMT)

Seven other people were injured with varying degrees of injury, he added

The 14-seater vehicle ran over an explosive device and came under fire from automatic weapons and grenade launchers, a police report said, noting that the attack took place about eight kilometers from Mandera town.

A General Service Unit patrol that was  close to the area intervened and engaged the attackers, who fled toward the Somali border, the report added.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Kenyas Mandera region is the scene of raids along the porous border with Somalia, where the Somali Islamist group Shebab controls large rural areas.

Kenyan officials regularly blame the shebab for these attacks on its soil, which also occur in other border areas.

Last week, several foreign embassies (France, Germany, United States) had warned of a possible terrorist attack against foreigners in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
South Africas former president Jacob Zuma went on trial Monday after filing a new appeal in his corruption trial, which began last May with numerous postponements and delays.

The 79-year-old former head of state is accused of taking bribes from the French defense group Thales in a case that dates back more than 20 years. He is charged with 16 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering. Thales is also charged with bribery and money laundering.

The trial is scheduled to resume on April 11.

In October, the court rejected the former head of states request that the attorney general, Billy Downer, be dismissed. Mr. Zuma accused him of being biased and of leaking elements of the case to the press.

In the court of Pietermaritzburg (south-east), Jacob Zuma asked Monday to be able to appeal this rejection. According to defense lawyer Dali Mpofu, the former president is convinced that his case is treated differently from others.

If it is a question of law, let the law speak, and let us not have a Zuma law that would be reserved only for him, said Mpofu at the hearing.

The former president was also sentenced to 15 months in prison for stubbornly refusing to appear before a commission investigating state corruption under his presidency (2009-2018).

His imprisonment in July triggered an unprecedented wave of violence and looting in South Africa. He was released on health grounds two months into his sentence.
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Health and social systems around the world are failing to give appropriate, compassionate care to people who are dying and their families. According to a new Lancet Commission, today's current overemphasis on aggressive treatments to prolong life, vast global inequities in palliative care access, and high end-of-life medical costs have lead millions of people to suffer unnecessarily at the end of life.

The Commission calls for public attitudes to death and dying to be rebalanced, away from a narrow, medicalised approach towards a compassionate community model, where communities and families work with health and social care services to care for people dying.

Bringing together experts in health and social care, social science, economics, philosophy, political science, theology, community work, as well as patient and community activists, the Commission has analysed how societies around the world perceive death and care for people dying, providing recommendations to policy makers, governments, civil society, and health and social care systems.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has seen many people die the ultimate medicalised death, often alone but for masked staff in hospitals and intensive care units, unable to communicate with their families, except digitally", says Dr. Libby Sallnow, palliative medicine consultant and honorary senior clinical lecturer at St Christopher's Hospice and UCL (UK) and co-Chair of the Commission, "How people die has changed dramatically over the past 60 years, from a family event with occasional medical support, to a medical event with limited family support. A fundamental rethink is needed in how we care for the dying, our expectations around death, and the changes required in society to rebalance our relationship with death."

The Commission focuses primarily on the time from when a person is diagnosed with a life-limiting illness or injury, to their death and the bereavement affecting the lives of those left behindit does not cover sudden or violent deaths, deaths of children, or deaths due to injustice.

Death and dying have become over-medicalised, hidden away and feared

Over the past 60 years, dying has moved from the family and community setting to become primarily the concern of health systems. In the UK for example, only one in five people who require end of life care are at home, while about half are in hospital (table 2).

Global life expectancy has risen steadily from 66.8 years in 2000 to 73.4 years in 2019. But, as people are living longer, they are living more of these additional years in poor health, with years lived with disability increasing from 8.6 years in 2000 to 10 years in 2019.

Prior to the 1950s, deaths were predominantly a result of acute disease or injury, with low involvement from doctors or technology. Today, the majority of deaths are from chronic disease, with a high level of involvement from doctors and technology. The idea that death can be defeated is further fuelled by advances in science and technology, which has also accelerated the over-reliance on medical interventions at the end of life.

And, as healthcare has moved centre stage, families and communities have been increasingly alienated. The language, knowledge, and confidence to support and manage dying have been slowly lost, further fuelling a dependence on health systems. Despite this, rather than being viewed as a professional responsibility for the doctor, and a right for all people and families who wish it, conversations about death and dying can be difficult and uncomfortable and too often happen in times of crisis. Often they don't happen at all.

"We will all die. Death is not only or, even, always a medical event. Death is always a social, physical, psychological and spiritual event and when we understand it as such we more rightly value each participant in the drama," adds Commission co-author, Mpho Tutu van Furth, priest, Amstelveen, Netherlands.

Worldwide, too many people are dying a bad death

While palliative care has gained attention as a specialty, over half of all deaths happen without palliative care or pain relief, and health and social inequalities persist in death.

Interventions often continue to the last days with minimal attention to suffering. Medical culture, fear of litigation, and financial incentives also contribute to overtreatment at the end of life, further fuelling institutional deaths and the sense that professionals must manage death.

Dr Libby Sallnow and Dr M.R. Rajagopal call for radical rethink of how society cares for dying people. Todays current overemphasis on aggressive treatments to prolong life, vast global inequities in palliative care access, and high end-of-life medical costs have lead millions of people to suffer unnecessarily at the end of life. The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death provides recommendations to policy makers, governments, civil society, and health and social care systems. Credit: The Lancet

Untreated suffering, vast inequalities, and aggressive medical treatments have come at a high cost. A disproportionate share of the total annual expenditure in high income countries goes towards treatment for those who die, suggesting that treatments at the end of life are being provided at a much higher threshold than for other treatments.

In high income countries, between 8% and 11.2% of annual health expenditure for the entire population is on the less than 1% who die that year (table 6). Care in the last month of life is costly and, in countries without universal health coverage, can be a cause of families falling into poverty.

"Dying is part of life, but has become invisible, and anxiety about death and dying appears to have increased. Our current systems have increased both undertreatment and overtreatment at the end of life, reduced dignity, increased suffering and enabled a poor use of resources. Healthcare services have become the custodians of death, and a fundamental rebalance in society is needed to re-imagine our relationship with death," says Dr. Richard Smith, co-Chair of the Commission.

A fundamental change to society's care for the dying is needed

The Commission sets out five principles of a new vision for death and dying:

1. The social determinants of death, dying and grieving must be tackled, to enable people to lead healthier lives and die more equitable deaths.

2. Dying must be understood to be a relational and spiritual process rather than simply a physiological event, meaning that relationships based on connection and compassion are prioritised and made central to the care and support of people dying or grieving.

3. Networks of care for people dying, caring, and grieving must include families, wider community members alongside professionals.

4. Conversations and stories about everyday death, dying, and grief must be encouraged to facilitate wider public conversations, debate, and actions.

5. Death must be recognised as having value. "Without death, every birth would be a tragedy."

The Commission recognises that small changes are underwayfrom models of community action to discuss death, national policy changes to support bereavement, or hospitals working in partnership with families. While wholescale change will take time, the Commission points to the example of Kerala, India, where over the past three decades, death and dying have been reclaimed as a social concern and responsibility through a broad social movement comprised of tens of thousands of volunteers complemented by changes to political, legal, and health systems.

"Caring for the dying really involves infusing meaning into the time left. It is a time for achieving physical comfort; for coming to acceptance and making peace with oneself; for many hugs; for repairing broken bridges of relationships and for building new ones. It is a time for giving love and receiving love, with dignity. Respectful palliative care facilitates this. But it can be achieved only with broad-based community awareness and action to change the status quo," says co-author Dr. M.R. Rajagopal, Pallium India, India.

To achieve the widespread changes needed, the Commission sets out key recommendations for policy makers, health and social care systems, civil society, and communities, which include:

Education on death, dying, and end of life care should be essential for people at the end of life, their families and health and social care professionals.

Increasing access to pain relief at the end of life must be a global priority, and the management of suffering should sit alongside the extension of life as a research and health care priority.

Conversations and stories about everyday death, dying, and grief must be encouraged.

Networks of care must lead support for people dying, caring, and grieving.

Patients and their families should be provided with clear information about the uncertainties as well as the potential benefits, risks, and harms of interventions in potentially life-limiting illness to enable more informed decisions.

Governments should create and promote policies to support informal carers and paid compassionate or bereavement leave in all countries.

More information: Report of the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death: bringing death back into life, The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-67362102314-X Report of the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death: bringing death back into life, www.thelancet.com/commissions/value-of-death Journal information: The Lancet
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Researchers from the University of Bristol and Imperial College London have found that a high Body Mass Index (BMI) of a mother before and during pregnancy is not a major cause of high BMI in their offspringindicating that childhood and teen obesity is more likely to be a result of lifestyle factors.

The study was published today in BMC Medicine used data from two longitudinal studiesChildren of the 90s (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) based at the University of Bristol, and Born in Bradford based in Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

It is known that greater maternal BMI before or during pregnancy is associated with a higher BMI in children, however the extent to which the mother's weight causes obesity in childhood, or whether this is caused by environmental and lifestyle factors post conception and birth is unclear.

The research team from the University of Bristol used a method called Mendelian randomisation, which measures variation in genes to determine the effect of an exposure on an outcome. They looked at birthweight and BMI at age 1 and 4 years in both Children of the 90s and Born in Bradford participants, and then also BMI at age 10 and 15 years in just the Children of the 90s participants. They found that there was a moderate causal effect between maternal BMI and the birth weight of children, however in most older age groups they did not find a strong causal effect.

Lead author Dr. Tom Bond, Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol explained: "We found that if women are heavier at the start of pregnancy this isn't a strong cause of their children being heavier as teenagers. This is important to know. Supporting women and men at all ages to keep a healthy weight will be needed to prevent obesity. It isn't enough to just focus on women entering pregnancy. Despite this, there is good evidence that maternal obesity causes other health problems for mothers and babies (aside from offspring obesity). So prospective mothers should still be encouraged and supported to maintain a healthy weight. It will be important to broaden this work to investigate other characteristics of mothers and fathers during pregnancy and a child's early life that might affect children's weight, and also to look at the offspring when they are in adulthood and are old enough to begin showing early signs of heart disease risk."

More information: Exploring the causal effect of maternal pregnancy adiposity on offspring adiposity: Mendelian randomization using polygenic risk scores, BMC Medicine (2022). Journal information: BMC Medicine Exploring the causal effect of maternal pregnancy adiposity on offspring adiposity: Mendelian randomization using polygenic risk scores,(2022). DOI: 10.1186/s12916-021-02216-w
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Asymptomatic viral infections in the first days and weeks of a baby's life are associated with an increased risk of respiratory infections later in life, research suggests.

Viruses were found to interact with newborns' immune systems and microbiomesthe community of microbes that live in our bodyin a way that affected both a child's risk and number of subsequent infections.

Prevention of such early viral infections, or strengthening immune systems with specially designed probiotics, may avert this risk, experts say.

The microbiome of a newborn baby can be influenced by many things, including delivery methodvaginal or cesarean sectionbreastfeeding, antibiotics and the hospital environment.

Respiratory infections are a major health concern. They are responsible for 15 percent of deaths for children under the age of five globally and are one of the three main causes of doctors' visits and hospital admittance in the first years of life.

Microbe interactions

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and University Medical Center Utrecht examined mucosatissue that lines the nasal cavitysamples taken from inside the noses of 114 babies at various stages of life as part of the Microbiome Utrecht Infant Study, which has been running for six years.

The team analyzed the gene activity of the babies' nasal mucosa , the microbes present in the lining of the nose and any viruses that infected the children.

When a viral infection was detected in the first days after birth, which largely occurred asymptomatically, the team found that specific mucosal genes were activated, coinciding with a change in the composition of the microbiome, promoting the growth of potentially harmful microbes.

Immune changes

The investigators found in particular changes in immune system genes in response to early viruses in affected babies, with especially in genes involved with interferonsproteins released by immune cells to defend against virusesover the first year of life.

The interferon-related gene activity caused by an early first viral infection is thought to create a pro-inflammatory environment that makes babies susceptible to future infections, experts say.

The research has been published in Nature Microbiology. The cohort study was carried out in close collaboration with the Spaarne Hospital, The Netherlands. The work was funded by Scotland's Chief Scientist Office and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.

"We were surprised to see viral infections occur so early in life, and go mostly unnoticed, probably because the infants immune system is in what as known as a state of tolerance after birth. Despite this, these infections seem to affect a normal immune development, which is important to know. Only from birth onwards will an infant start to develop its microbiome. Limiting the number of viral encounters in those first days to weeks of life might be essential for a healthy immune and microbiome development, and consequently long term respiratory health," says Professor Debby Bogaert, chair of pediatric medicine at the University of Edinburgh

"Although further work will be needed to confirm the causality of our findings, the data from this study indicate that early-life encounters with respiratory virusesespecially during the first days of lifemay set the tone for subsequent non-beneficial host-microbe interactions, which are related to an infection risk and possibly long term respiratory health," says Dr. Wouter de Steenhuijsen, post-doctoral investigator at University Medical Center Utrecht

Explore further Nose cells could be key target in fight against severe COVID-19

More information: Wouter A. A. de Steenhuijsen Piters et al, Early-life viral infections are associated with disadvantageous immune and microbiota profiles and recurrent respiratory infections, Nature Microbiology (2022). Journal information: Nature Microbiology Wouter A. A. de Steenhuijsen Piters et al, Early-life viral infections are associated with disadvantageous immune and microbiota profiles and recurrent respiratory infections,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-021-01043-2
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A team co-led by scientists at Scripps Research has found evidence that a compound contained in the medicinal and culinary herb rosemary could be a two-pronged weapon against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The scientists, in experiments described in a paper published January 6, 2022 in the journal Antioxidants, found that the compound, carnosic acid, can block the interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 outer "spike" protein and the receptor protein, ACE2, which the virus uses to gain entry to cells.

The team also presented evidence, and reviewed evidence from prior studies, that carnosic acid has a separate effect in inhibiting a powerful inflammatory pathwaya pathway that is active in severe COVID-19 as well as in other diseases including Alzheimer's.

"We think that carnosic acid, or some optimized derivative, is worth investigating as a potentially cheap, safe, and effective treatment for COVID-19 and some other inflammation-related disorders," says study senior author Stuart Lipton, MD, Ph.D., Professor and Step Family Foundation Endowed Chair in the Department of Molecular Medicine and founding co-director of the Neurodegeneration New Medicines Center at Scripps Research.

In a 2016 study, Lipton and colleagues showed that carnosic acid activates an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant signaling cascade called the Nrf2 pathway, and found evidence that it reduces Alzheimer's-like signs in mouse models of that disease, which is known to feature brain inflammation.

For the new study, Lipton, along with Chang-ki Oh, Ph.D., and Dorit Trudler, Ph.D., respectively a staff scientist and postdoctoral fellow in the Lipton lab, and first author Takumi Satoh, Ph.D., of the Tokyo University of Technology, described their further studies of this anti-inflammatory effect on the immune cells that drive inflammation in COVID-19 and Alzheimer's. The researchers also reviewed evidence from other investigators' studies indicating that carnosic acid inhibits inflammation in other disease models. They proposed that this effect could be beneficial against the inflammation observed in COVID-19 and in some cases of the post-COVID syndrome known as long COVID, whose reported symptoms include cognitive difficulties often described as "brain fog."

Additionally, the scientists described a COVID-19 infection-blocking experiment conducted by Oh. Using a standard infectivity assay, he showed that carnosic acid can directly block SARS-CoV-2's ability to infect cells, with progressively greater infection-blocking activity at higher doses.

While the research is preliminary, the researchers propose that carnosic acid has this antiviral effect, despite being a safe and relatively unreactive compound, because it is converted to its active form by the inflammation and oxidation found at sites of infection. In that active form, they suggest, the compound modifies the ACE2 receptor for SARS-CoV-2making the receptor impregnable to the virus and thereby blocking infection.

"Carnosic acid represents a 'pathologically activated therapeutic' in preclinical models of disease inactive and innocuous in its normal state, but converted to an active form where it needs to be active," Lipton says.

Lipton and his colleagues are now working with Scripps Research chemists, including Phil Baran and Ben Cravatt, professors in the Department of Chemistry, to synthesize and test more potent derivatives of carnosic acid with improved drug characteristics for potential use in inflammation-related disorders.

Lipton and Satoh hold patents for the use of carnosic acid derivatives for degenerative diseases.

Explore further Rosemary compound may help postpartum dairy cows

More information: Takumi Satoh et al, Potential Therapeutic Use of the Rosemary Diterpene Carnosic Acid for Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and Long-COVID through NRF2 Activation to Counteract the NLRP3 Inflammasome, Antioxidants (2022). Takumi Satoh et al, Potential Therapeutic Use of the Rosemary Diterpene Carnosic Acid for Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and Long-COVID through NRF2 Activation to Counteract the NLRP3 Inflammasome,(2022). DOI: 10.3390/antiox11010124
A pair of dogs in Millersville who are accused of killing a neighbors cat were saved from a grim fate Monday after a judge granted an appeal from the dogs owners, temporarily taking euthanization off the table.

The dogs, named Lucy and Odin, have been detained at Anne Arundel County Animal Care and Control since Jan. 30, 2021, when the alleged attack occurred. The only eyewitness, the cats owner Daniel Stinchcomb, left town briefly after the incident and has not appeared in any court proceedings related to the case.

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Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Pamela Alban said she found the evidence lacking in the case. In Stinchcombs initial statement about the attack to the responding animal control officer, he said he heard growling and came outside to find the three animals entangled. He alleged the attack was unprovoked against his cat Big Boy, but Alban said that could not be proved without eyewitness testimony of the start of the attack. Without that kind of evidence, the dogs should not be deemed vicious, she said.

What [the countys legal team] had was that Mr. Stinchcomb heard growling, heard some sort of commotion, went out and already saw the dogs engaged in an attack on this cat. It did not have evidence of what led up to that attack. It did not have any evidence of how it got started, and it is this courts opinion that you need to flesh out that evidence, Alban said.

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Alban remanded the case back to the Board of Appeals to give the county a chance to provide more conclusive evidence against the dogs, who will remain impounded at animal control as the case continues.

Nola Lowman, who owns the dogs with her son William Dillon, said she was disappointed she couldnt take the dogs home yet but was happy with the judges ruling.

It wasnt the result we wanted. We hoped we could bring them home today. I had everything set up for them to come home today. But its a step forward, Lowman said Monday evening. Its just so hard. Theyre such good pets; theyre like my children.

A nearly full courtroom of animal lovers and interested spectators came to watch the proceedings Monday afternoon. Viewers included neighbors of Lowman and Dillon, animal rights advocates and organizers from local animal rescues.

Attorney Ed Middlebrooks, who is a former Maryland senator and Anne Arundel County Council member, and his co-counsel Stephanie Kimbrell represented Dillon and argued there was too little evidence to sentence the dogs to death. Attorney Elana Robison, who represented Anne Arundel County, argued that one eyewitness testimony was enough, as his statement lined up with the evidence. As an example, she cited bite marks found on Big Boys neck and torso after Stinchcomb stated he saw Odins mouth around the cats torso and Lucys mouth around his neck and head.

Neighbors and animal rights advocates present at the hearing said they were relieved but still fearful of what this means for the future of the way animals are treated in the county.

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I think that the judge was fair in what she was saying, Judylynn Scott, a neighbor of Lowman and Dillon, said after the decision, adding that she believes Lowman and Dillon are far more trustworthy than Stinchcomb. Scott said she has been feeding the other cats Stinchcomb abandoned when he left town last year.

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They took his word over a woman who still works and pays rent and has a house full of animals. How can you take his word? Scott said. He lied, and they bought it.

The Capitals efforts to reach Stinchcomb and Dillon were not successful Monday.

Ann Katcef, who previously served on the county Animal Matters Commission and worked for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was similarly disgusted the case had gone this far.

I am surprised these animals have survived this and havent gone nuts. This is animal abuse from animal control, Katcef said. There is something radically wrong with the way these dogs are being treated.

The case has gained national notoriety in recent weeks, with Clueless star Alicia Silverstone tweeting and posting on Facebook about it, and Netflix producer Glen Zipper telling the Daily Beast he is contemplating creating a documentary on it.

I hope more and more people will fight for the animals, Scott said.
(HealthDay)For patients with noncholecystitis (NC) gallbladder disease who are poor surgical candidates, endoscopic ultrasoundguided transluminal gallbladder drainage (EUS-GBD) appears to be safe and effective for managing gallstone disease, according to a study recently published in Endoscopic Ultrasound.

Duncan J. Flynn, M.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined outcomes for EUS-GBD using data from a quaternary academic hospital for endoscopic procedures from 2015 to 2020. Data were included for 56 patients who underwent EUS-GBD for acute cholecystitis and NC indications, including biliary colic, gallstone pancreatitis, and secondary prevention of gallstone disease.

The researchers found that 41 interventions were performed for acute cholecystitis, and 15 were performed for NC indications, including primary treatment of symptomatic biliary colic and secondary prevention of gallstone pancreatitis and choledocholithiasis. No statistically significant differences in complications, mortality, or reintervention requirements were seen between the groups. The rate of immediate complications was 13.3 percent in the NC group, which were all managed medically; the rate in the cholecystitis group was 14.6 percent, all of which were managed medically or endoscopically, without need for surgical intervention.

"EUSGBD remains an emerging treatment for gallbladder disease in nonoperative candidates," the authors write. "Our study is the first to demonstrate safety and technical success in NC cases."

Explore further Liraglutide ups risk for gallbladder, biliary tract events

Copyright  2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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As new coronavirus variants emerge and quickly spread around the globe, both the public and policymakers are faced with a quandary: Maintaining a semblance of normality, while also minimizing infections. While digital contact tracing apps offered promise, the adoption rate has been low, due in part to privacy concerns.

At USC, researchers are advocating for a new approach to predict the chance of infection from COVID-19: Combining anonymized cellphone location data with mobility patternsbroad patterns of how people move from place to place.

To produce "risk scores" for specific locations and times, the team used a large dataset of anonymous, real-world location signals from cell phones across the US in 2019 and 2020. The system shows a 50% improvement in accuracy compared to current systems, said the researchers.

"Our results show that it is possible to predict and target specific areas that are high-risk, as opposed to putting all businesses under one umbrella. Such risk-targeted policies can be significantly more effective, both for controlling COVID-19 and economically," said lead author Sepanta Zeighami, a computer science Ph.D. student advised by Professor Cyrus Shahabi.

"It's also unlikely that COVID-19 will be the last pandemic in human history, so if we want to avoid the chaos of 2020 and the tragic losses while keeping daily life as unaffected as possible when the next pandemic happens, we need such data-driven approaches."

To address privacy concerns, the mobility data comes in an aggregated format, allowing the researchers to see patterns without identifying individual users. The data is not being used for contact tracing, identifying infected individuals, or where they are going, said the researchers.

"Our approach relies on anonymized aggregate data," said Shahabi, study co-author and Helen N. and Emmett H. Jones Professor in Engineering and Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Spatial Sciences. "It is the same as traffic data, where an individual's information is not revealed, but the aggregate data will help you to make a decision on whether to use a certain freeway at a certain time."

The paper will appear in ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems and is available for early access.

Data-driven approaches

According to the researchers, existing risk score tools do not provide enough detailed information about infection rates at specific places, or they make unrealistic assumptions about how populations mix.

"The risk of infection varies a lot based on the location, and having a single policy, for instance, at a county level, ignores how some areas are riskier than others," said Zeighami.

So, using real-world mobility data and existing knowledge about the spread of COVID-19, the team created a simulator to generate realistic infection patterns. In the simulation, some "agents" are initially infected and spread the disease as they move around.

Then, the researchers created a Hawkes process-based model, which assigns risk scores based on location density and mobility patterns at a given time and place. Using the simulator, the researchers tested the model to determine if it could accurately predict the number of infections at different locations. It turned out, the risk scores were indeed a reliable metric for tracking infections in cities across the US, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The researchers found, predictably, that popular destinations in a city are riskier. But they also found that incorporating the infection mobilityhow people moveas opposed to just relying on the popularity of an area helped to improve infection prediction. This, said the researchers, underscores the importance of bringing together mobility patterns and infection spread prediction models to generate risk scores.

There are two key ways the system could be used in the real world, said the researchers. The more straightforward case is to make neighborhood-level policy decisions: For instance, bars in Santa Monica, CA, should close today due to high risk in that neighborhood.

"Instead of making these decisions at the county level, public health experts can make those decisions at city, neighborhood or zip code levels." Cyrus Shahabi.

For more targeted locations, such as a specific concert stadium event, the system would crunch the mobility data from similar concerts in the past to learn how the infection risk changes in the area following this type of event. Then, using the researchers' model and current mobility data across LA, the system could make predictions and assign risk scores.

Going forward, the team plans to develop user-specific, yet still privacy-preserving risk scores, and to include long-term forecasting capabilities for several weeks into the future.

"The very high resolution of this mobility data, as well as our scalable approach, will enable us to estimate risk scores at a very fine-grain spatial and temporal resolution, for example, a specific restaurant at dinner time, or a shopping mall at lunchtime," said Shahabi.

"As an individual, you may want to avoid areas deemed high-risk, and policymakers could warn the public to avoid an area known to be a potential hotspot of infection. The scores can also be used for closure or reduced capacity decisions. Instead of making these decisions at the county level, public health experts can make those decisions at city, neighborhood or zip code levels."

Explore further Researchers use mobile device data to predict COVID-19 outbreaks

More information: Sirisha Rambhatla et al, Toward Accurate Spatiotemporal COVID-19 Risk Scores Using High-Resolution Real-World Mobility Data, ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems (2022). Sirisha Rambhatla et al, Toward Accurate Spatiotemporal COVID-19 Risk Scores Using High-Resolution Real-World Mobility Data,(2022). DOI: 10.1145/3481044
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new study at Tel Aviv University revealed a pathological brain activity that precedes the onset of Alzheimer's first symptoms by many years: increased activity in the hippocampus during anesthesia and sleep, resulting from failure in the mechanism that stabilizes the neural network. The researchers believe that the discovery of this abnormal activity during specific brain states may enable early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, eventually leading to a more effective treatment of a disease that still lacks effective therapies.

The study was led by Prof. Inna Slutsky and doctoral students Daniel Zarhin and Refaela Atsmon from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. Additional participants in the study include: Dr. Antonella Ruggiero, Halit Baeloha, Shiri Shoob, Oded Scharf, Leore Heim, Nadav Buchbinder, Ortal Shinikamin, Dr. Ilana Shapira, Dr. Boaz Styr, and Dr. Gabriella Braun, all from Prof. Slutsky's laboratory. Collaborations with the laboratory teams of Prof. Yaniv Ziv of the Weizmann Institute, and Prof. Yuval Nir of TAU were essential for the project. Prof. Tamar Geiger, Dr. Michal Harel, and Dr. Anton Sheinin of Tel Aviv University, as well as researchers from Japan, also contributed to the study. The article was published in Cell Reports.

Prof. Slutsky says that "According to the recent study published this month in the Lancet Public Health journal, the number of people with dementia worldwide will increase from 50m in 2019 to more than 150m in 2050, growing by ~370% in North Africa and the Middle East. In Israel, a 145% increase is predicted, compared to ~74% in Western Europe. This huge increase in the prevalence of Alzheimer's due to the expected rise in population growth and in life expectancy will continue unless we develop effective treatments. This is clearly an alert for investing in dementia research and its most frequent formAlzheimer's disease."

"Innovative imaging technologies developed in recent years have revealed that amyloid deposits, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease pathology, are formed in patients' brains as early as 10-20 years before the onset of typical symptoms such as memory impairment and cognitive decline. Unfortunately, most efforts to treat Alzheimer's disease by reducing the amount of amyloid-beta proteins and their aggregation have failed. If we could detect the disease at the pre-symptomatic stage, and keep it in a dormant phase for many years, this would be a tremendous achievement in the field. We believe that identifying a signature of aberrant brain activity in the pre-symptomatic stage of Alzheimer's and understanding the mechanisms underlying its development is a key to effective treatment."

The researchers used animal models for Alzheimer's, focusing on the hippocampal region of the brain, which plays a key role in memory processes, and is known to be impaired in Alzheimer's patients. At first, they measured cell activity in the hippocampus when the model animal was awake, active, and exploring its surroundings. For this they used advanced methods that measure brain activity at a resolution of single neurons.

Daniel Zarhin says that "previous studies have examined cell activity in the brains of anesthetized animals in a model for Alzheimer's and found overactivity in the hippocampus and cortex. To my surprise, when I examined the model animals, I found no difference between the activity of neurons and synapses in their hippocampus and corresponding activity in the control group of healthy animals."

In light of these findings, the researchers decided to examine activity in the hippocampus in other states of consciousnessunder anesthesia and during natural sleep. Refaela Atsmon says that "it is known that neuronal activity of the hippocampus decreases during sleep in healthy animals. But when I examined model animals in early stages of Alzheimer's, I found that their hippocampal activity remained high even during sleep. This is due to a failure in the physiological regulation, never before observed in the context of Alzheimer's disease." Daniel Zarhin found similar dysregulation in model animals under anesthesia: neuronal activity does not decline, the neurons operate in a manner that is too synchronized, and a pathological electrical pattern is formed, similar to 'quiet' seizures in epileptic patients. Halit Baeloha, who is researching sleep problems related to Alzheimer's disease, emphasizes that the discovered disruption begins before the onset of the typical sleep disturbances observed in Alzheimer's patients.

Prof. Slutsky explainst that they "found that brain states that block responses to the environmentsuch as sleep and anesthesiaexpose abnormal activity which remains hidden when the animal is awake, and this happens before the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are observed. Even though this abnormal activity can be detected during sleep, it is much more frequent under anesthesia. Therefore, it would be important to test whether short anesthesia can be used for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's."

At the next stage of the study, the researchers asked what causes the abnormality. To this end, they relied on findings from previous studies from Prof. Slutsky's laboratory and other researchers on homeostasis of neural networks: each neural circuit has a set point of activity, maintained by numerous stabilizing mechanisms. These mechanisms are activated when the balance is disturbed, restoring neuronal activity to its original set point.

Is a disruption of these homeostatic mechanisms the main cause of aberrant brain activity during sleep and anesthesia in Alzheimer's disease animal models? To test this, Dr. Antonella Ruggiero examined the effect of various anesthetics on neurons grown on a chip and found that they lower the set point of neuronal activity. In healthy neural networks, activity remained low over time, but in neural networks expressing familial Alzheimer's mutations, the lowered set point recovers quickly, despite the presence of anesthetics. In another experiment, Dr. Ruggiero increased neuronal activity, and once again she found a failure in the mechanisms responsible for restoring activity to its normal set point in neurons expressing Alzheimer's mutations.

The researchers now sought to examine a potential drug for the impaired regulatory mechanism. Prof. Slutsky says that "the instability in neuronal activity which we found in this study is known from epilepsy. In a previous study we discovered that an existing drug for multiple sclerosis may help epilepsy patients by activating a homeostatic mechanism that lowers the set point of neural activity. Doctoral student Shiri Shoob examined the effect of the drug on hippocampal activity in the animal model for Alzheimer's and found that in this case also the drug stabilizes activity and reduces pathological activity observed during anesthesia."

Prof. Slutsky concludes that "the results of our study may help early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, and even provide a solution for instability of neuronal activity in Alzheimer's disease. Firstly, we discovered that anesthesia and sleep states expose pathological brain activity in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, before the onset of cognitive decline. We also proposed the cause of the pathological activityfailure of a very basic homeostatic mechanism that stabilizes electrical activity in brain circuits. Lastly, we showed that a known medication for multiple sclerosis suppresses this type of anesthesia-induced aberrant brain activity."

The researchers now plan to collaborate with medical centers in Israel and worldwide to test whether the mechanisms discovered in animal models can also be identified in patients with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. For this purpose, they propose to incorporate EEG monitoring into surgical procedures, to measure brain activity of patients under anesthesia. They hope that their findings will promote early diagnosis and drug development for the most common form of late-onset dementia.

Explore further Heart disease causes early brain dysfunction and can triple key Alzheimer's protein

More information: Daniel Zarhin et al, Disrupted neural correlates of anesthesia and sleep reveal early circuit dysfunctions in Alzheimer models, Cell Reports (2022). Journal information: The Lancet Public Health , Cell Reports Daniel Zarhin et al, Disrupted neural correlates of anesthesia and sleep reveal early circuit dysfunctions in Alzheimer models,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110268
Hepcidin (red) expression in the aged brain. Nuclei of brain cells shown in blue. Credit: Northwestern University

Breakdowns in regulatory mechanisms cause iron to build up in the brain as organisms grow older, increasing oxidative stress and causing cellular damage, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in the journal eLife.

This mechanism may explain some age-related cognitive decline and contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, according to Hossein Ardehali, MD, Ph.D., the Thomas D. Spies Professor of Cardiac Metabolism and senior author of the study.

"There is tight regulation of iron homeostasis in the brain, but it appears that this regulation is disrupted as we age," said Ardehali, who is also director of the Center for Molecular Cardiology at the Feinberg Cardiovascular and Renal Research Institute. "There are studies planning to use iron chelators in coronary artery disease and exploring these in the brain and aging is the next step."

As organisms age, oxidative stress increases in cells across the body. For one reason or another, cells lose the ability to detoxify reactive oxygen species, byproducts of normal cellular respiration.

The source of oxidative stress varies from environment to environment within the body, but previous studies point to one possible source in the brain: an accumulation of iron, according to Ardehali, who is also a professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and of Pharmacology, and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

In the current study, Ardehali, along with first author Tatsuya Sato, MD, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine and a former postdoctoral fellow in the Ardehali laboratory, examined young and aged mice, measuring both cytoplasmic and mitochondrial iron throughout the body. The investigators found the brain was the only organ which showed an increase in both cytoplasmic and mitochondrial iron as the animals aged.

Next, Sato examined expression of genes associated with iron homeostasis, finding that the gene coding for a peptide hormonehepcidinwas dramatically upregulated in the brain cortex of older animals. Hepcidin is a hormone produced by the liver that controls systemic iron homeostasis, but in the context of this study, brain-derived hepcidin's most important function is inhibition of ferroportin, a protein that exports iron from the neuronal cells, leading to marked iron accumulation in the aged brain.

"This is likely a key player in iron accumulation in the aged brain," Sato said.

The detailed mechanism of increased brain-derived hepcidin expression in the aged brain requires further study, but age-related inflammation and increased expression of iron-sensing protein transferrin receptor 2 may be possible regulators, Ardehali said. Increased hepcidin also may lead to increased iron in the mitochondriamore than the organelles can utilizeleading to buildup of iron and eventual cell damage. This finding spotlights a possible therapeutic strategy, according to Sato.

"If we can restore intracellular iron levels via suppressing this brain-derived hepcidin, we might be able to improve age-related cognitive decline," Sato said.

There are ongoing studies using iron chelatorssubstances that bind to iron and make it biologically unavailableto treat coronary artery disease, and Ardehali said a similar strategy could be used in the brain, as well.

The wrinkle is in the specific compound: to reduce iron concentration in the brain would require a chelator that can pass the blood-brain barrier. However, there is an ongoing clinical trial assessing the effects of a specific iron chelator in Parkinson's disease.

"Not all chelators get though the barrier but one does. Exploring this possible therapy is our next step," Ardehali said.

Explore further Physical exercise modulates iron in Alzheimer's disease

More information: Tatsuya Sato et al, Aging is associated with increased brain iron through cortex-derived hepcidin expression. eLife (2022). Journal information: eLife Tatsuya Sato et al, Aging is associated with increased brain iron through cortex-derived hepcidin expression.(2022). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.73456
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A sub-variant of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus strain, which some studies indicate could be even more infectious than the original version, has been detected in 57 countries, the WHO said Tuesday.

The fast-spreading and heavily mutated Omicron variant has rapidly become the dominant variant worldwide since it was first detected in southern Africa 10 weeks ago.

In its weekly epidemiological update, the World Health Organization said that the variant, which accounts for over 93 percent of all coronavirus specimens collected in the past month, counts several sub-lineages: BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3.

The BA.1 and BA.1.1the first versions identifiedstill account for over 96 percent of all the Omicron sequences uploaded to the GISAID global science initiative, it said.

But there has been a clear rise in cases involving BA.2, which counts several different mutations from the originalincluding on the spike protein that dots the virus's surface and is key to entering human cells.

"BA.2- designated sequences have been submitted to GISAID from 57 countries to date," WHO said, adding that in some countries, the sub-variant now accounted for over half of all Omicron sequences gathered.

The UN health agency said little was known yet about the differences between the sub-variants, and called for studies into its characteristics, including its transmissibility, how good it is at dodging immune protections and its virulence.

Several recent studies have hinted that BA.2 is more infectious than the original Omicron.

Maria Van Kerkhove, one of the WHO's top experts on COVID, told reporters Tuesday that information about the sub-variant was very limited, but that some inital data indicated BA.2 had "a slight increase in growth rate over BA.1"

Omicron in general is known to cause less severe disease than previous coronavirus variants that have wreaked havoc, like Delta, and Van Kerkhove said there so far was "no indication that there is a change in severity" in the BA.2 sub-variant.

She stressed though that regardless of the strain, COVID remained a dangerous disease and people should strive to avoid catching it.

"We need people to be aware that this virus is continuing to circulate and its continuing to evolve," she said.

"It's really important that we take measures to reduce our exposure to this virus, whichever variant is circulating."

 2022 AFP
College-aged young woman looking at her cell phone. Credit: Charlotte May

During the pandemic, colleges and universities across the nation have wrestled with a common dilemma. They wish to open back up for in-person learning but doing so risks increased spread of COVID-19, potentially forcing them to shut back down or return to remote learning. Contact tracing could be the answer, but only if students, faculty and staff are promptly informed of potential exposures so that they can seek testing and quarantine while still within the window of infectiousness. Shortages in contact tracing staff can slow the process. The inability of those testing positive to remember all potential contacts also limits effectiveness.

A new article by researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Clemson University in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Research Protocols provides a roadmap for implementing an exposure notification mobile app among students, faculty and staff at Clemson, a large public university in South Carolina. The roadmap also provides a theory-based framework for evaluating the success of the rollout and the impact that app-based notifications had on decisions by users to be tested and to quarantine. Although the implementation plan in this case is focused on rolling out an app at a university, it could be used for any COVID-19 mitigation strategy in a wide variety of settings.

"It took us a lot of time to put this together because we were starting from ground zero, but the roadmap outlined in our article could help people hit the ground running for their institution," said Cathy Melvin, Ph.D., lead author of the article. Melvin is a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at MUSC and associate director of the Dissemination and Implementation Science Collaborative (DISC) at the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research (SCTR) Institute

The SC Safer Together app was developed for use in South Carolina with the Google/Apple Exposure Notification System open-source software and its application programming interfaces for iPhone and Android operating systems. The app aimed to provide quick, largely automated notification of a potential COVID-19 exposure to users, who could then pursue testing and quarantine if necessary.

The app and supporting software were readied for rollout at Clemson University by technical teams at the MUSC Biomedical Informatics Center (BMIC) and Clemson Computing and Information Technology (CCIT). The teams were led by Leslie Lenert, M.D., BMIC director and associate principal investigator for the SCTR Institute.

App users who test positive for COVID-19 receive a secure text message from the testing facility. The text includes a deep link, a mobile link that directs users to a specific screen within a mobile app. Clicking on that link activates automated exposure notifications to other app users. Using the location feature on smart phones, the app notifies other users who have been within six feet of the COVID-positive person for at least 15 minutes. The app also provides information on users' cumulative lower-level exposures by assessing the strength of the Bluetooth signal between their phones and the phones of users testing positive within the past 14 days. Finally, the app provides a "Get Care" link to point users desiring testing to appropriate facilities or websites.

"We developed this app to be an effective tool to study exposure notification technology," said Lenert. "By basing the infrastructure for notification, consent for sharing and reporting at Clemson, within our own custom-built apps, we were able to conduct a more detailed evaluation of the technology than if we used the national platform."

The app is also designed to ensure privacy and choice. The identities of those downloading the app or uploading test results are never revealed to other app users or to the researchers. Users can choose whether to upload test results and activate exposure notifications. Although the location feature is used by the app to identify potential contacts, individual users cannot be tracked using the device.

Ronald W. Gimbel, Ph.D., professor and former chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University, director of Clemson Rural Health and DISC associate director, headed up the dissemination and implementation research team, which included Melvin, MUSC's Katherine Sterba, Ph.D., and Clemson's Kathleen Cartmell, Ph.D. He also oversaw the operational aspects of the rollout at Clemson. Dissemination and implementation researchers design studies to learn the best way to launch and evaluate evidence-based strategies in real-world settings.

A phased approach was adopted for the app's rollout. It was made available first to students in just two dormitories, then to all employees and then to the entire student body. This phased rollout ensured that health and testing facilities were not overwhelmed. With the help of University Relations at Clemson University, targeted messaging was created for each group of users. These messages highlighted the usefulness of the app, allayed any privacy concerns, provided instructions for downloading and using the app and later provided FAQs. The offices of Student Affairs and Housing, as well as Human Resources, were engaged to ensure proper dissemination of communications about the app. Simple metrics were used to gauge the success of the rollout. These included the number of app downloads, consents to share COVID-19 status and notification activations. Researchers also kept track of those who followed through with getting tested after being notified of an exposure.

The rollout had many moving parts, according to Gimbel, and would not have been possible without the close collaboration and teamwork of all of those involved.

"We had communications professionals working with academic faculty and Information Technology leaders, all collaborating with Housing and other Student Affairs administrators as well as Human Resources leads," said Gimbel. This interprofessional team with diverse expertise and a passion for the project became the SC Safer Together support team, he said.

The research team expects to report findings on the rollout later this year.

More information: Cathy Lee Melvin et al, Dissemination and Implementation of a Google Apple Exposure Notification System for COVID-19 Risk Mitigation at a National Public University: Protocol for a Pilot Evaluation Study in a Real-World Setting, JMIR Research Protocols (2021). Cathy Lee Melvin et al, Dissemination and Implementation of a Google Apple Exposure Notification System for COVID-19 Risk Mitigation at a National Public University: Protocol for a Pilot Evaluation Study in a Real-World Setting,(2021). DOI: 10.2196/32567
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

It's summer in a pandemic. So as Australia opens its borders and COVID case numbers rise, we'll likely see the interplay of COVID and bushfires.

Our bodies react to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, and bushfires in similar ways.

Both affect the lungs. Both can have serious health consequences in vulnerable populations, such as elderly people. Both can have long-term health consequences.

What we know so far

From a simple health perspective, if you have been seriously ill with COVID your response to bushfire smoke is likely to be more serious, and vice versa.

However, because COVID is still a new disease, the evidence for these effects is still sparse.

So far, the best evidence for the impact of COVID on people affected by smoke is from studies in communities that burn biomass (such as plant material or animal dung) as an energy source. In this scenario, a person is exposed to smoke constantly rather than the intermittent smoke that occurs during bushfire seasons.

How about for someone who is exposed to a one-off bushfire? Or who has COVID for the first time? Here are three ways one affects the other.

1. Bushfires and risk

Bushfire smoke causes respiratory symptoms. In people with existing respiratory or heart disease this increase in symptoms can be life-threatening. The same is true for COVID.

However, if a person was to be infected with the virus that causes COVID and exposed to bushfire smoke at the same time it would be quite difficult to work out if the symptoms were the result of one or the other or both.

What studies have looked at so far is if bushfire smoke increases the likelihood of catching COVID.

A study based on the 2020 bushfire season in New South Wales found an association between living in a bushfire-burned area and the incidence of COVID. In other words, it was more likely for bushfire-burned areas to have more COVID cases than unburnt areas. But there was no link between exposure to particulate matter from all forms of pollution and COVID.

Studies in the United States have also found associations between short-term exposure to smoke from bushfires and COVID cases and deaths.

Firefighter Darin Sullivan is concerned people exposed to bushfire smoke throughout summer could experience the worst of COVID-19 symptoms. He himself suffered smoke inhalation fighting fires on the South Coastnow he's urging people to heed advice and stay home. #WINNews6pm pic.twitter.com/zUcAr4bIUw  Emily Barton (@emilybarton1211) April 1, 2020

The reasons for these patterns might be as simple as bushfire smoke causing what would have been asymptomatic COVID to become symptomatic.

Alternatively, the link could be related to the virus "hitching a ride" on pollution particles. Or air pollution may increase the numbers of ACE2 receptors (or special enzymes) in the body, which SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect cells.

2. COVID spread

During a bushfire, if people stay inside at home to avoid smoke exposure, it can decrease the spread of the virus.

However, if people move from house to house to check on other people, it could increase transmission.

In catastrophic bushfires, evacuation often occurs. Again, this could increase transmission by bringing big groups together.

We know outdoor transmission of COVID is very rare. So taking people who normally would be outdoors and placing them indoors (with an infected person) could increase transmission rates.

Can air pollution exacerbate COVID-19? Scientists are positing that ambient air pollution might affect our response to the virus. Read more about the link between air pollution and respiratory infections: https://t.co/b6sDkiziRo#COVID19 #AirPollution #AirQuality #prevention pic.twitter.com/PHmeRZSRiO  Delos (@DelosLiving) April 23, 2020

Another consideration is vaccination rates, which are lower outside cities in Australia. So in areas with bushfires, the population is more vulnerable to COVID. In these areas, people are more likely to have underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID, such as heart or lung disease.

3. Testing rates rise

If we accept people are getting tested for COVID because they have symptoms, then we also have to accept people are more likely to have tests during a bushfire. That's because smoke makes people cough and irritates their nose (both are COVID symptoms) and people with heart problems are often breathless, another COVID symptom.

It would also be reasonable to expect volunteers from different regions and first responders from different regions would have surveillance COVID testing. If you do more testing, you find more COVID. Once again, COVID numbers would increase.

In a nutshell

The link between COVID and bushfires is complex. Symptoms may overlap and our behavior in response to one emergency affects the other. Then there's the complex biology of how our body reacts to particulate air pollution released during bushfires.

The best advice to avoid the adverse health effects of COVID and bushfires is to avoid exposure to both. Wearing a N95/P2 mask is a good way to safeguard yourself from bushfire smoke and COVID.

Explore further Many undocumented health problems discovered among those exposed to bushfire smoke

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The long-standing enigma of why so many patients suffering with high blood pressure (known as hypertension) also have diabetes (high blood sugar) has finally been cracked by an international team led by the universities of Bristol, UK, and Auckland, New Zealand.

The important new discovery has shown that a small protein cell glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) couples the body's control of blood sugar and blood pressure.

Professor Julian Paton, a senior author, and Director of Manaaki ManawaThe Center for Heart Research at the University of Auckland, said: "We've known for a long time that hypertension and diabetes are inextricably linked and have finally discovered the reason, which will now inform new treatment strategies."

The research, published online ahead of print in Circulation Research today, involved contributions from collaborating scientists in Brazil, Germany, Lithuania, and Serbia, as well as the UK and New Zealand.

GLP-1 is released from the wall of the gut after eating and acts to stimulate insulin from the pancreas to control blood sugar levels. This was known but what has now been unearthed is that GLP-1 also stimulates a small sensory organ called the carotid body located in the neck.

The University of Bristol group used an unbiased, high-throughput genomics technique called RNA sequencing to read all the messages of the expressed genes in the carotid body in rats with and without high blood pressure. This led to the finding that the receptor that senses GLP-1 is located in the carotid body, but less so in hypertensive rats.

David Murphy, Professor of Experimental Medicine from Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences (THS) and senior author, explained: "Locating the link required genetic profiling and multiple steps of validation. We never expected to see GLP-1 come up on the radar, so this is very exciting and opens many new opportunities."

Professor Paton added: "The carotid body is the convergent point where GLP-1 acts to control both blood sugar and blood pressure simultaneously; this is coordinated by the nervous system which is instructed by the carotid body."

People with hypertension and/or diabetes are at high risk of life-threatening cardiovascular disease. Even when receiving medication, a large number of patients will remain at high risk. This is because most medications only treat symptoms and not causes of high blood pressure and high sugar.

Professor Rod Jackson, world-renowned epidemiologist from the University of Auckland, said "We've known that blood pressure is notoriously difficult to control in patients with high blood sugar, so these findings are really important because by giving GLP-1 we might be able to reduce both sugar and pressure together, and these two factors are major contributors to cardiovascular risk."

Mr Audrys Pauza, a British Heart Foundation-funded Ph.D. student in Professor David Murphy's lab in the Bristol Medical School and lead author on the study, added: "The prevalence of diabetes and hypertension is increasing throughout the world, and there is an urgent need to address this.

"Drugs targeting the GLP-1 receptor are already approved for use in humans and widely used to treat diabetes. Besides helping to lower blood sugar these drugs also reduce blood pressure, however, the mechanism of this effect wasn't well understood.

"This research revealed that these drugs may actually work on the carotid bodies to enact their anti-hypertensive effect. Leading from this work, we are already planning translational studies in humans to bring this discover into practice so that patients most at risk can receive the best treatment available."

But GLP-1 is just the start. The research has revealed many novel targets for ongoing functional studies that the team anticipate will lead to future translational projects in human hypertensive and diabetic patients.

Explore further Size is everything when it comes to high blood pressure

More information: GLP1R attenuates sympathetic response to high glucose via carotid body inhibition, Circulation Research (2022). Journal information: Circulation Research GLP1R attenuates sympathetic response to high glucose via carotid body inhibition,(2022). DOI: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.121.319874
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

As a two-time breast cancer survivor, Allison Anbari knows that the combination of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgeries that she endured during cancer treatment puts her at greater risk for developing lymphedema, a chronic condition of swelling caused by disruptions to the body's lymphatic system. This usually occurs after the surgical removal of lymph nodes or radiation to the lymph nodescommon treatments for breast cancer.

With her own experience in mind, Anbari, an assistant professor in the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing, conducted a study to better understand how rural Missourians are managing their lymphedema after surviving breast cancer. While rural and small-town survivors emphasized feelings of resiliency and self-reliance, they also reported a willingness to meet with therapists and implement personalized self-management strategies to help reduce swelling, while also going about their daily activities. When implemented, Anbari found that these strategies helped improve these survivors' quality of life.

"If left untreated, excessive swelling from lymphedema can lead to mobility issues, pain and possible infections," Anbari said. "Various treatment techniques include massaging affected areas of the body or wearing compression bandages. The goal of these self-management strategies is to move fluid from areas of the body with lymphatic damage to higher-functioning lymphatic areas, which can help reduce swelling."

While interviewing study participants about their experiences managing this chronic condition, Anbari said many of the women with lymphedema became aware of particular daily activities that might trigger swelling or discomfort, such as lifting boxes at work or performing various chores and leisurely activities around the house. In response, the women would either delegate those tasks to colleagues or significant others to avoid discomfort, or wear their compression garments and massage affected areas before completing these tasks to reduce swelling.

"The more we hear from patients about their various experiences, the more we can learn about best approaches for self-management strategies," Anbari said. "This research can increase awareness and education that provides breast cancer survivors with the tools they need to make lymphedema the least of their worries."

Anbari added that as cancer treatments continue to improve, there will be a growing number of cancer survivors who are at an increased risk of developing lymphedema going forward.

"As this population of at-risk breast cancer survivors continues to increase, we can learn from survivors' experiences to better tailor personalized care," Anbari said. "One of my favorite responses I heard from a study participant was, "Breast cancer didn't own me, and neither will my lymphedema.'"

"The impact of breast cancer-related lymphedema on rural and small-town survivors' return-to-work and quality of life: A multiple-case study" was published in Cancer Treatment and Research Communications.

Explore further Black women have triple the odds for lymphedema after breast cancer surgery

More information: Allison B. Anbari et al, The impact of breast cancer-related lymphedema on rural and small-town Survivors' return-to-work and quality of life: A multiple-case study, Cancer Treatment and Research Communications (2021). Allison B. Anbari et al, The impact of breast cancer-related lymphedema on rural and small-town Survivors' return-to-work and quality of life: A multiple-case study,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ctarc.2021.100459
Empowering young people to make contributions to research results in deeper, richer, more usable research evidence. Credit: Shutterstock

The issues and experiences that matter most to young Canadians right now might surprise you. They are ready to lead a new conversation.

My research interests have long focused on how the health and social issues of the day, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are being experienced by young Canadians. Young people have a right to be engaged, and a right to be heard in research.

Curious about how this incredibly dynamic, vulnerable population could contribute to research, I discovered that among the most important lessons young people would have us learn is how best to engage them. This revelation led to the recently-established INGAUGE research program headquartered at the University of Manitoba.

Engaging young people

INGAUGE aims to improve the lives of children and youth by taking an innovative approach to research called integrated knowledge translation. This approach assumes that complex health and social problems are best explored, explained and solved in partnership with those who have the lived experience, and the power to influence change.

INGAUGE invites young people ages eight to 24 to join or form a research team and submit research topic ideas. But more importantly, the INGAUGE research program creatively engages young people in a research process of their own design.

Video expressing the words, metaphors and visuals used by young people to describe their experiences with anxiety. From the study Youth voices: Their lives and experiences living with an anxiety disorder.

When young people are engaged in the research process, results are deeper, richer and have more relevance. For example, using flexible, arts-based methods to gather research data from young people facilitates self-expression. It helps young people articulate, contextualize and make meaning of their lived experiences for a non-youth audience that may include educators, policy-makers or health-care and social service providers.

In a recent youth-led research study designed to relate the daily experience of living with anxiety, participants chose photovoicea process that involves individuals taking photos to document their experiencesand performance art to share their stories.

The resulting research evidence showed that young people conceal certain aspects of their mental illness and avoid seeking help. This points to a gap in our understanding of their daily mental health experience and our approach to care.

Overthinking, from the study Youth voices: Their lives and experiences living with an anxiety disorder.

Fluid engagement

Young people in the INGAUGE research program are given the freedom to identify the research topics that matter most to them, and then to design and engage in research studies exploring those topics. Although issues related to capitalism, climate change, COVID-19, mental health, sex and gender were top-of-mind, these young Canadians were also interested in the way health and social research is being done.

To avoid ethical, feasibility and other barriers to conducting research with young people, researchers will often explore sensitive health and social issues without them. This leaves a significant gap in what we know about the experience of being young or coming of age in today's world.

Young people participating in INGAUGE say this is a trap researchers need to avoid because meaningful engagement with young people in research gives rise to richer, more culturally inclusive and more usable research evidence.

Trying to stay on the path, from the study Youth voices: Their lives and experiences living with an anxiety disorder.

To help amplify the voices of young people in research, INGAUGE program participants have co-developed an important new tool that they are asking health and social researchers to start using as their guide: The Youth Engagement in Research Framework.

The Youth Engagement in Research Framework illustrates how youth say researchers can create a culturally inclusive research environment, how to meaningfully engage them in research, which conditions should be met throughout the research process and what they hope to get out of their experience.

INGAUGE research evidence shows that at least seven fluid, adaptive engagement concepts are critical to the meaningful engagement of children and youth in research:

understanding their motivations to engage,

discussing goals for the research process and implementation intentions,

supporting diverse expressions of youth identity,

addressing facilitators and barriers to engagement,

reinforcing the choice to engage in research,

building trusting relationships, and

respecting different forms of knowledge.

Youth Engagement in Research Framework was designed help amplify the voices of young people in research. Credit: IN-GAUGE, Author provided

Understanding young people and their take on current events has the potential to make the future more predictable, or at least more relatable. As we learn about youth culture and their social norms, we can better understand their shifting social values, make reasonable forecasts about the wants and needs of the population, and start adapting our health and social systems.

The Youth Engagement in Research Framework is a useful starting point for research projects involving young people. In the spirit of equity, diversity and inclusivity, INGAUGE understands research frameworks such as this are necessarily adaptive and responsive in nature, and welcomes feedback on researchers' experiences using the framework.

Explore further Young children find politics engaging, but by 15 this has changed

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
As the nation celebrates Black History Month, we are reminded of the importance of making sure that history is inclusive. I am a believer that when history is told, it must include the good, the bad, and, yes, the ugly.

Right now, there are conservative groups around the country saying that history that makes white children uncomfortable should be removed from the curriculum.

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This is not a new phenomenon. I remember in 1998 when a group of white parents demanded that Maya Angelous book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings be removed from the Anne Arundel County Public Schools ninth-grade curriculum, and it was. It took demonstrations and protests to have it reinstated.

History is a mirror. It reflects what it sees. There are times people should feel uncomfortable. The Holocaust, genocide, and slavery should make people feel uncomfortable.

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In Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, we are finally acknowledging our history. We know that lynchings occurred in the county. We recognize that African Americans were denied housing, jobs, and educational opportunities.

Black History isnt just about the atrocities, however; it is also an opportunity to celebrate the successes.

In 1873, the city of Annapolis became the first jurisdiction in Maryland to elect a Black official. Note that this was only eight years after the Civil War had ended.

I believe it is important that all children learn history. The truth is that what many call Black history is really American history.

Here are a couple of examples: The ninth vice president of the United States was a man named Richard Mentor Johnson. He served as vice president under President Martin Van Buren.

When I tell people that Vice President Johnson was married to a Black woman, Julia Chinn, in the 1800s and they had two Black daughters, people cant believe it. It is true, but, you will not find that fact in any textbook in Maryland.

The same is so when I say that Madison Washington, a Black man, reed more Black people in 1841 than President Abraham Lincoln did in 1863, with his so-called Emancipation Proclamation.

People find that hard to believe, but it is true. Remember President Lincoln freed slaves in the Confederacy, which did not recognize him as their president. It would be equivalent to a president freeing people in a sovereign nation that he had no authority over.

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Here is another interesting set of facts: Did you know that Annapolis had a riot in 1919 that only involved Black people? The riot was about women. No joke; look it up. Also, did you know that it took more than 300 years for a Black woman to serve on the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, and that only one Black woman has served on the Anne Arundel County Council?

The current debate about appointing a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court is directly related to our history.

This month, I have speaking engagements all over the Maryland. Some I will do in person and others virtually.

I know it is important that our history is told and that we tell it from our perspective. Years ago, I met Rosa Parks at the First Baptist Church in Annapolis. We were hosting a Black history program and she was the keynote speaker.

Parks, who was introduced as the woman arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955, said something that I have never forgotten.

A reporter asked her, Why were you arrested? Her response was, Because I refused to give up my dignity. History is about people refusing to give up their dignity and refusing to be marginalized.

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My mother, who died at the age of 104, used to tell me that everybody has a story. Make sure that they hear your story.

Until America hears the story of all Americans, it will be necessary to have a Womens History Month, Hispanic Month, Asian Month, Indigenous Peoples Month because Black History is American history.

We may have arrived in America on different ships, but we are in the same boat now. Kunta Kinte came to Annapolis in 1767 and George Washington resigned from the Continental Army in 1783 in Annapolis.

Neither man ever met, but, they both walked the streets of Annapolis  one in a uniform talking about freedom and the other in chains looking for freedom. Until both stories are told, our childrens history will not be complete.

Carl Snowden is a longtime civil rights activist from Annapolis. Contact him at carl_snowden@hotmail.com.
We honor the story of the Holy Family's flight to Egypt immediately after Jesus' birth, desperately seeking refuge from Herods threat of death. It's a foundation stone in the birth story of Christianity. It teaches us about courage, resiliency, patience amid the all-too-human need for refuge.

But today, when that human need for refuge has reached astonishing proportions, when hundreds of thousands have suffered death, rape, starvation and/or other forms of human cruelty, so many of us seem inured to this grotesque spectacle. Comparatively few of us are moved to action to aid those, who just like the Holy Family, are fleeing for their lives and desperately seeking shelter.

In partnering with the Rio Grande Borderland Ministries of the Episcopal Church, Holy Spirit Parish is saying, "Yes, these lives deserve our Christian pledge to Love Thy Neighbor."

Rio Grande Borderland Ministries is an established program of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande serving the borderlands of New Mexico and far west Texas. RGBM has been engaging with long-term systemic needs on the border for decades by providing humanitarian support to vulnerable people in our border communities. The compassionate response of RGBM is simple  to feed, shelter, and care for their neighbors on both sides of the border. The ministry supports shelters for vulnerable communities on both sides of the US-Mexico border serving asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors, and Indigenous persons in the border communities of Ojinaga, Juarez, and Palomas, Mexico.

Why should Montanans get involved with a ministry on the southern border of the U.S.? Most of us have seen media reports about migrants at the southern border, and may have heard what politicians and others have to say. We have varied opinions about why that happens and what policy solutions are appropriate. Media reports lead us to believe that our border with Mexico is the site of periodic crises precipitated by people migrating to the U.S. And yet human migration is an ongoing phenomenon that is, as they say, as old as the hills. It is always born of desperation, and it often causes conflict. As Christians we have clear direction to help the desperate, to treat all people with respect, and to welcome those who seek shelter, food and refuge with dignity.

Our covenant with RGBM includes a pledge of financial support, a commitment to include RGBM in our prayer cycle, and a plan to engage with RGBM online, in pilgrimages, and through outreach trips. We are sponsoring two pilgrimages this spring to the Diocese of the Rio Grande. Our objectives are to learn about the collaborative ministries of the Episcopal Church in New Mexico and far west Texas, to understand the experience of migration from the perspective of migrants themselves, to deepen our understanding of what it means to welcome people who are different from ourselves, and thus to discern ways in which we in Montana can support RGBM in its mission to aid those, who like the Holy Family, desperately sought refuge in a foreign land.

Clem Work is Senior Warden at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church and can be reached at Clem.work@gmail.com

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TUESDAY, Feb. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Telling people to isolate in a bedroom when COVID-19 strikes may not be enough to keep the virus from spreading to others in the household, a new study suggests.

Airborne coronavirus particles were found both inside and outside the rooms of people with COVID-19 who were supposed to be self-isolating at home, according to researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

"Our indoor air sampling data clearly demonstrated that measurable airborne SARS-CoV-2 RNA was present in the air in the homes of most infected people, not only in the isolation room, but, importantly, elsewhere in the home," said study lead author Howard Kipen, a professor in the Rutgers School of Public Health. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

Compounding the problem, many of the infected people didn't restrict themselves to their isolation room, spending varying amounts of time in an adjacent common room, the researchers noted.

"We discovered that many did not strictly adhere to self-isolation, with eight of the 11 infected study participants reporting spending from a few hours to 14 hours in the common room and five of 11 participants reporting spending time in other areas of the home," Kipen said in a Rutgers news release.

For the study, the researchers collected air samples from rooms in 11 homes where a newly infected person was isolating, as well as in the adjacent common room. The samples were analyzed for the presence of three SARS-CoV-2specific genes in airborne particles. Participants were also asked how much time they spent isolating in their room.

Air samples with at least one of the three virus genes were found in six of the 11 isolation rooms and in six of the nine common rooms.

Also, other residents in four of the homes were either positive for the coronavirus or had symptoms, according to the study. The results were published recently in the journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

The study sought to document coronavirus air contamination under typical daily living conditions in a household with an infected person. Airborne transmission in crowded living conditions may be one reason for higher rates of COVID infection among people with lower incomes, according to the researchers.

"Risk of infection from larger respiratory droplets that rapidly settle onto surfaces, typically within two meters of the source, can be reduced by hand-washing, social distancing and face masks, but the tiny respiratory particles that stay suspended in air for hours, require air filtration, ventilation or better masks for prevention," Kipen said.

More information

For more on COVID-19 isolation and quarantine, go to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCE: Rutgers University, news release, Jan. 27, 2022

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Calling "smoking gun" evidence rare in cases of discrimination, a Great Falls judge blocked a motion filed by the University of Montana asking the court to dismiss one of the plaintiffs claims filed in a Title IX suit accusing the university of sex-based discrimination.

The lawsuit, filed in early August in federal court in Missoula by three former and one current UM employees, accuses the university and Montana University System of sex-based discrimination and Title IX violations.

Saying UM fostered a toxic environment where women were discriminated and retaliated against, the four plaintiffs  Catherine Cole, Barbara Koostra, Mary-Ann Sontag Bowman and Rhondie Voorhees  describe treatment from the university they say is part of the good ol boys club. They also specifically point to President Seth Bodnar creating a campus environment adverse to women.

Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.

UM and the MUS have since said the claims lack legal merit and are not based on facts.

On Oct. 18, UM filed a response refuting the allegations and asking for Sontag Bowman's claims to be thrown out of the suit, saying they are false and fail to establish a viable claim under Title IX.

On Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Morris rejected the universitys motion to dismiss, saying Sontag Bowman makes sufficient allegations to make a plausible Title IX claim as part of the suit.

Sontag Bowmans claims stemmed from her time working in the School of Social Work, saying an environment that discouraged female leadership was fostered. Specifically, Sontag Bowman says she felt discouraged to apply for a chairperson leadership position.

Since Sontag Bowman did not apply, UMs argument is that Title IX does not apply in this situation. In order for a Title IX complaint to have merit, there needs to be an adverse action on the part of the defendant, and Sontag Bowman fails to identify such adverse action on the universitys part, UM spokesman Dave Kuntz said at the time.

Defendant's argument fails to recognize that an adverse action need not be a formal rejection or dismissal, but can be the constructive equivalent, Judge Morris writes in his order.

Victims of discrimination seldom can prove their claim of discrimination by direct evidence, as perpetrators of discrimination rarely leave smoking gun evidence attesting to discriminatory intent, the judge continues.

Sontag Bowman will still have to prove her claims in court. If she is not able to, UM has the option to raise the issue on summary judgement.

The order does not reflect an indication that the claims have merit, but simply allows the plaintiffs an opportunity to conduct fact finding and present evidence in support of their proposed claims. The University is eager for the facts to rise to the surface and we stand by our position that these particular claims lack merit," Kuntz said in a statement to the Missoulian on Tuesday.

The plaintiffs are represented by Hillary Carls and Sherine Blackford of Blackford Carls P.C. in Bozeman.

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One of Missoulas mainstay eateries has a big new space and a fresh look.

The Mustard Seed restaurant held a grand opening for their new facility at Southgate Mall on Tuesday. The new location is located behind the AMC theater on Mary Avenue, just a few hundred yards from their old location but with much better visibility.

The space has three outdoor patios, including a bar patio and a second-floor patio with a wide vista of the mountains.

We were inspired to build a new Mustard Seed for Missoula because we were maxed out for space and needed bigger kitchens, explained Chris Siemens, vice president of the company. This restaurant offers us the ability to expand our takeout and delivery service and have an upstairs dining area."

He pointed out that they'll still have TVs and secluded spaces in the dining area.

"This new seating area will be the perfect place to host parties, meetings, and most importantly, watch the Griz games," he said.

With food orders surging after the AMC movie theater was built next door, the old space simply didn't have enough room in the kitchen to keep up with demand. But they also needed room for more customers inside as well.

General manager Kevin Eggleston also noted the large, European-style communal tables.

Weve got some seating options that I havent seen in Missoula, he said. You can put groups side-by-side. Obviously, with whats going on with COVID right now, were not putting them side-by-side right now but its very European or German-type seating where you just kind of end up next to other families. Thats kind of cool.

The architect was Uptic Studios in Spokane and the general contractor was Dick Anderson Construction. Together, they created a space with lots of natural wood, sunlight and interesting design elements.

Its the outdoor seating that's really the kicker though, Eggleston said.

It think its a growing trend, he said. We havent really looked through the specs, but I think you could comfortably fit 75 people (on the second-floor patio). And then downstairs its probably closer to 30 to 40 and the one outside the bar will fit 15 to 20. So just being able to add over 100 seats of outdoor dining is unique for Missoula.

The restaurant is far enough away from Brooks Street to mitigate traffic noise, and theres sheltered spots on every patio in case of rain, he said.

Theyve added a casino next door, and they have a separate space for to-go meals. The Mustard Seed has long had its own fleet of delivery cars. They didnt change the menu from their popular Asian-fusion fare at the old spot, and Eggleston said the chicken Osaka is the most popular dish.

People really love that, and everythings made in house, he said. They now have around 80 employees, and they might need more staff in the warmer months when people can dine outdoors.

Mustard Seed was founded in 1978 in Missoula on Orange Street, and later moved to the Riverfront Triangle next to the Fox Theater before both were demolished. There's also a Spokane location.

Missoula is where Mustard Seed originated, Siemens said. We were founded by two sisters who lived in Okinawa, Bangkok and Hawaii before settling in Montana."

The menu is as eclectic as their background, he explained.

"As they re-created their favorite dishes from their childhood, the Mustard Seed menu slowly started to evolve," he continued. "This is why our menu is called Asian fusion. We have dishes like Osaka from Japan right next to dishes from Hawaii, China and Thailand.

The new space took almost three years of planning and work, because the pandemic delayed the project. However, Siemens is ecstatic about how everything turned out and he hopes customers will be as well.

Now, with this new state-of-the-art facility, we will be able to propel Mustard Seed into the next 50 years, he said.

Hours will be from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. Happy hour in the bar features drink and appetizer specials and goes from 3-6 p.m. and 8-9 p.m., and they will offer all their dishes as carry-out and delivery options. The actual address is 2901 Brooks St., Suite OUT1.

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Following a daylong coroner's inquest Monday, a Yellowstone County jury found Billings police were justified in shooting Cole Stump to death in 2020.

Stump was killed by police Oct. 12 after a confrontation in an apartment parking lot near the 2200 block of Avenue C in central Billings.

The jury of seven heard testimony from detectives, a use-of-force expert, the medical examiner, an eyewitness and the four officers involved. Testimony centered on the violent encounter that began at 10:20 p.m. as a routine low-priority call but ended 11 minutes later with 29-year-old Stumps death.

A witness told the jury she returned home from dinner with her husband and kids a little after 10 p.m. and went into her apartment. A few minutes later she and her husband went back outside and found a gas can near her car and saw people acting suspiciously. She called 911 and told them she thought a man and woman in a red and black car were trying to siphon gas from her car.

Four officers arrived and found three suspects in the parking lot. Stump, who initially gave officers the name John Collins, appeared to be working on the engine of one of the cars. Billings Police Officer Ryland Nelson tried to verify the identify, but the name returned no results from dispatch. At the same time, other officers on scene were piecing together evidence suggesting the car Stump was working on was stolen.

Some of the evidence included the fact the car, originally a white Chevy Impala, had been partially spray painted black, the license plate belonged to a Dodge Ram, and the vehicle identification number on the door and under the windshield had been partially obscured or rubbed off.

With the fictitious name and the probability the car was stolen in mind, Nelson and back-up Officer Jacob Grommes decided to handcuff Stump while they investigated further.

Stump began to pull away from Grommes' grip and he and Nelson wrestled Stump to the ground, the officers testified. Stump landed mostly on his belly with his hands underneath his torso. All four officers responded and tried to wrestle Stumps arms free, according to their testimonies.

Nelson, fearing Stump had a gun, shouted for someone to use a Taser. Grommes drew his Taser, backed up a few feet and fired it at Stump, but it had no effect on the man, the officers said.

The other two officers, Taylor Vladic and Justin Bickford, were also wrestling with Stump. Vladic had backed up when the Taser was fired, but Bickford was positioned near Stumps head. He told jurors he issued commands for Stump to show him his hands. Stump replied by telling Bickford he was going to shoot him, the officer testified.

Seconds later Nelson called out gun, gun, hes got a gun, according to Bickford. Bickford saw Stump draw a gun and begin to point it at him when he and Nelson opened fire.

Bickford shot Stump four times. Nelson fired a total of seven times. All of the rounds were potentially fatal, but three rounds to the head and one to the aorta were likely the main causes of death, according to Dr. Robert Kurtzman with the state medical examiners office. The officers called dispatch for medical aid and a supervisor. Stump was declared dead at the Billings Clinic emergency room.

Kurtzman testified Stump had probably been under the influence of meth when he died. Kurtzman refused to testify as to the effect the meth would have had on Stump's behavior, clarifying that information would depend on how much of a tolerance Stump had to the drug.

None of the encounter was captured on video or audio recording devices. None of the officers wore body cameras at the time and the dashboard cameras on each of the patrol vehicles were not pointed at Stump when he encountered police. Since the call had not been a priority, none of the officers turned on their lights and sirens, which would have activated their microphones.

Nonetheless, the jury was shown all four dashcam videos, which mainly showed the order the officers arrived on the scene and then recorded the audio of their responses once they turned on their microphones after the shooting was over.

No evidence was presented contradicting the four officers accounts of the events that night. Billings Police Detective David Raschkow led the investigation into the officers actions and determined they had followed the departments policies and adhered to Montana law when they shot Stump. His investigation was reviewed by the Montana Division of Criminal Investigations and the Montana Law Enforcement Academys expert on defensive tactics and use of force, each determining the shooting was justified. The law enforcement academy specialist, Jeffrey Wilson, testified the officers were more than justified in shooting Stump and they would have been justified in shooting Stump even before he drew the gun and pointed it at officers.

The jury deliberated for just under 30 minutes. When the findings were read by the presiding coroner, Stumps mother burst into tears and buried her face in her hands. The family has advocated for Stump, calling the shooting unjustified and urging reforms to police use of force. On Sunday, the family hosted a memorial family fun day in Billings in memory of Stump. The family told supporters they wanted to honor who he was as a person and in life  a family man and a loving father.

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A District Court Judge has denied the request of two wildlife advocacy groups to suspend parts of Montanas wolf hunting regulations while litigation plays out.

In setting a Feb. 10 hearing, Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Michael McMahon denied a temporary restraining order requested by Trap Free Montana Public Lands and Wolves of the Rockies. The groups in December sued Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission over discrepancies in the states wolf hunting and trapping regulations.

The groups allege that the agency and commission failed to abide by the legally required process when it adopted the regulations in August. Specifically, the lawsuit states that in the commissions allowance of hunting wolves at night on private land, the agency unilaterally added tools including artificial light, and thermal or infrared scopes when it published regulations. The lawsuit also notes that absent from this years regulations is mention of the prohibition against using aircraft to hunt wolves.

The groups are asking the court to prohibit allowance of artificial light or other technologies for night hunting wolves and to prevent FWP from permitting aerial hunting for wolves. As part of the litigation, the groups filed for a temporary restraining order which would have halted those regulations immediately until the court could consider a preliminary injunction.

In denying the request the judge pointed to exceptions under the Montana Administrative Procedures Act which the lawsuit alleges was violated. The exceptions include seasonal rules adopted annually or biennially related to hunting, fishing, and trapping when there is a statutory requirement for the publication of the rules.

McMahon further pointed to the section of code specific to fish and wildlife issues, which states that regulations must be published in a pamphlet format that is made available to the public.

The judge also wrote that while the wolf regulations appeared to be excluded from MAPA, it also appears the processes followed by the Commission in adopting these wolf hunting regulations complied with MAPAs principles in providing notice and holding public comment and a hearing.

Tom Kuglin is the deputy editor for the Lee Newspapers State Bureau. His coverage focuses on outdoors, recreation and natural resources.

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